Dan D’Agostino Momentum Phonostage Review
May 14, 2023 §
The Momentum did this LP full justice, presenting a transparent window onto the recording. Hartman’s voice was three-dimensional, and possessed all the warmth in his lower register, even as his precise articulation was fully delineated, and the slight bit of added reverb was put in proper context.
In the second chorus, as Billy Taylor’s piano subtly floats down in the mix, behind and off to Hartman’s side, to create a relaxing bed, and as Wilder’s three-dimensional flugelhorn emerges from pitch “black,” I heard the Momentum’s reproduction of air and honest texture (not too soft, not too etched) and harmonic rightness—not quite as ripe as through ARC’s Reference Phono 3, but sufficiently developed to make the case. But in terms of dynamics and transparency, the Momentum won.
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