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UHA Ultima Apollo wins a Product Of The Year from The Absolute Sound Magazine

Look for the new review of the UHA Ultima Apollo Tape Deck in the January 2025 edition of The Absolute Sound Magazine. By Jonathan Valin

As for that magical gestalt effect, whereby the audible is turned into the near-visible, a great tape player like this one simply owns such legerdemain. So…if you’ve looking for the most lifelike, most “absolute sound-like,” most “faithful-to-source” analog component, you needn’t look much further than United Home Audio’s Ultima Apollo. It’s the cat’s pajamas. Most highly recommended.(FYI, Definition of LEGERDEMAIN – Skillful use of one’s hands when performing conjuring tricks. HA!)

The result is a marked increase in bass-range extension, definition, and density of tone color, in overall listenability, in three-dimensional solidity top to bottom, and in the lifelike continuousness that makes an ensemble of instruments sound as if they are playing together in the same space, without any loss of their individual contributions. On something like Sinatra’s great 1966 live recording (his first live session) Sinatra at the Sands on a three-reel 15ips production master, the effect is magical.

Now, this is a recording that sounds wonderful on LP (particularly on MoFi’s out-of-print reissue). As I’ve noted before, Sinatra’s use of his Shure SM-545 microphone—which he compared to the way a geisha uses her fan—is crystal clear on every cut, allowing that incomparable whiskey baritone of his to swell, coast, or fall to a whisper as the lyrics require, without any sibilant sizzle or mic-preamp overload. This guy was a gifted actor as well as the last century’s greatest pop singer, and he always delivers lyrics as if he is a character telling a story—from the indelible ache of “Angel Eyes” to the depression-era-Hollywood hopefulness of “Street of Dreams” to the alcohol-soaked soliloquizing of “One for My Baby.”