High Fidelity

Wadia iTransport iPod dock

2008-01-06T09:55:00.000+01:00

Stereophile reports about most interesting iPod related third party hifi-equipment (below just some extracts, see full text here).

Wadia Digital, Inc. announced that it will debut the $349 iTransport iPod dock in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) January 7, 2008. Certified by Apple as "Made for iPod®," the iTransport bypasses the iPod's internal D/A conversion to output an S/PDIF signal, "providing CD-quality resolution from full-resolution from file formats such as .WAV and [Apple Lossless]."

It also outputs component video signals for "up to DVD-quality" video.

I thought it was impossible to bypass the iPod's DAC. "So did we," said Wadia president John W. Schaffer. "Then we discovered the little-known fact that Apple had a process called 'authentication' that allowed mobile electronics companies to bypass the iPod's internal DAC."

"Authentication" refers to Apple's authentication chip, which essentially tells the iPod that it's okay to output raw digital audio or video data to the chip-enhanced component. The authentication chips are only available in Apple products or from products made by Apple-licensed third-party developers. After Wadia first began developing what became the iTransport, Apple opened up the authentication program to more third-party vendors. The iTransport may be the first audio product of its kind, but it probably won't be the last. But however you slice it, being firstest is a great coup.

"I think Apple approved our working on the iTransport because of our reputation as a high-end component manufacturer. Apple thinks of the iPod as a high-end source, so it made sense to them," said Schaffer.

In addition to its RCA S/PDIF and component video, the iTransport also sports a pair of RCA analog outputs, although that signal is apparently derived from the iPod's internal DAC.

"When you hear the digital output of the iTransport using full-resolution files like .WAV and Apple Lossless, you realize that it is a hi-rez source—and now that the iPod Classic has a 160GB capacity, there's no excuse for lossy compression," observed Schaffer.

The iTransport is compatible with "all current models," which means that models produced before the authentication program was implemented won't output digital or video—as I understand it, models that early don't output video anyway. I've posted a list at the end of this report.

2008-01-06T09:28:00.000+01:00

Positive Feedback has discovered very interesting new minimonitor, the U.S. designed, but Chinese built, little wonder called the Evidence. The manufacturer and designer is MHI, Musical Heart Instruments, a division of Micro Home Installation, Inc., Corona, CA. They are available from Brooks Berdan LTD, in Monrovia, CA.

According to review, "The 4.5 inch robust Mogami paper midrange/woofer, sourced from Pioneer of Japan, is ran full-range. The driver is surrounded in a high tech cloth that will last vastly longer than foam. It has a response from about 60Hz to 10,000Hz. A crossover controls only an exotic two inch long ribbon super tweeter, also from Pioneer. This is crossed over at about 10,000Hz and extends up to 100,000+ Hz!".

Marten Form series

2008-01-06T09:23:00.000+01:00

Marten launces its latest loudspeaker design FormSeries at the 2008 CES. The lineup includes the FormSub, FormFloor and FormCentre (3100€, 4500€, and 2100€ respectively). The FormFloor and FormCentre models are two way loudspeakers that employ a pure ceramic bass/mid driver and ribbon tweeter. The triangular configuration of the FormFloor and FormCentre models is acoustically optimized to allow the speakers to totally disappear within the soundstage. The finishes are piano lacquer in five different colors/woods. The powerful FormSub model contains a 10-inch extremely long throw driver that is powered with a 400 watt Class D amplifier.

High-end gear for sale

2007-11-28T13:11:00.000+01:00

I'll sell the following items.

1) JMLab Micro Be speakers:

Purchased in 12/2005 as new
Colour Avant-garde, ie. same as in picture
See any international hifi-magazine review list, and Micro Be is still listed as the best compact / bookshelf speaker (OK, maybe Wilson Duette is a tad better nowadays)
Original packaging, manual
Condition 9/10
Price 2.800 euros

2) Various top cables

Siltech Signature G5 / G6 XLR interconnects
Kimber Kable 3035 speaker cables (1.8 meter) with top-of-the line WBT 0680Ag (silver) spades
Kimber Kable Palladian PK10 power cords (2 units)
etc, etc.
Prices to be negotiated

Contact info@jaripuhakka.com or call at +358 40 7000 482

* * *

Turntable manufacturers links

2007-07-31T10:19:00.000+02:00

Quick note: Stereomojo has compiled a list of turntable manufacturers, see here.

Red Wine Audio iMod revised

2007-06-22T20:05:00.000+02:00

Red Wine Audio now offers audiophile hardware modification for the newer 5/5.5 Generation iPods. According to RWA's web site, iMod is required because iPod experiences sonic degradation from the cumulative effects of non-audiphile grade stock components that are directly in the line-out signal path. In effect, preventing iPod's Wolfson DAC reaching its full potential.

With the 4G iPod modifications, RWA takes the analog output (line out) signal from the iPod's Wolfson DAC chip and sends it directly to the unit's 1/8" headphone jack via high-end Black Gate Non-Polarized NX-Hi-Q coupling capacitors. However, the 4G iMod is intended only for use with a high-quality headphone amp or a hi-fi system as it converts the headphone jack into a dedicated line-out jack, and therefore, the iPod can no longer be connected directly to headphones.

The 5G/5.5G iMod is a little different as it leaves the headphone jack unaltered. RWA could not Black Gate caps into the newer and slimmer 5G/5.5G iPods, so the analog output signal from the Wolfson DAC chip is sent directly to the unit's dock connector pins. Drawback is that you need ALO Audio iMod Dock Cable, as ALO has found a way to install the Black Gate caps in the dock plug of the cable itself. See ALO Audio's website for more info.

Dynaudio MC15s speakers

2007-06-22T11:31:00.000+02:00

From Dynaudio's comes new small desktop computer speakers, model MC15s (approx. €1200/pair). These active minis feature two integrated 50W amplifiers, the matching subwoofer is Sub 250 MC. Various CES 2007 and Stereophile HE 2007 show reports highlighted sound quality.

You can see them at video here.

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Chord RED Reference CD player

2007-06-22T11:10:00.000+02:00

General public talks about MP3 and yet the audiophile companies keep pushing the Red Book CD boundaries. The latest high-end and stunning CD player comes from British Chord.

The single-box RED is based on Chord's Blu and DAC64. It employs a Philips CD Pro 2 transport mechanism (installed at 45 degrees), which is re-clocked using a highly accurate crystal oscillator. Upsampling rates are 44.1kHz, 88.2kHz, or 176.4kHz. As for the signal conversion to analog, I quote Chord's web-site: "Based on the DAC64 the digital signal is converted from 176.4KHz to analogue audio using 1024 tap filtering and 64 bit digital signal processing core. This is followed by 64 bit 7th order noise shaping, 2048 times oversampling rates and improved pulse width modulated elements. This gives much better measured performance, better detail resolution with a smoother more focused sound quality. The DAC also features RAM buffer technology that sequentially takes in all the data, re-times, it then sends it out giving jitter free operation. Digital data from other sources can also be fed into the RED via the optical or AES balanced XLR connections."

Musical Fidelity 550K Supercharger

2007-06-01T16:45:00.001+02:00

Now we know the reason for MF's (once again) excellent marketing campaign, i.e. 1st June 10:10 am announcement. MF 550K Supercharger are monoblocks amplifiers that use the kW550 power amp circuit in a low gain configuration. The 550K Supercharger is connected to the system just before the loudspeakers. All you have to do is disconnect the existing loudspeaker cable from the loudspeaker. Connect that cable to the Supercharger’s input. Connect the Supercharger’s output to the loudspeaker and connect the Supercharger to the mains.

The 550K Supercharger is a natural product extension to enforce MF's current mantra: if a hi-fi system is to be realistic, it should be able to achieve realistic peak levels at a normal listening position, i.e. a top quality hi-fi system should be able to deliver a 110dB peak. MF maintains that during the last 10-15 years we have lost dynamics in music reproduction as current loudspeakers are less efficient as speakers of 80's and 70's.

Nordost Odin cables

2007-05-31T16:28:00.000+02:00

German hifi magazine Stereoplay missed the boat ;) In June 2007 issue they gave Nordost Valhalla interconnects and speaker cables co-reference status (along Kimber Kable KS1036), yet Nordost had already raised the bar by announcing new Odin Reference cable range. Extract from Nordost material:

"1.Dual Mono-Filament Construction

The World-renowned performance of Nordost's Valhalla is based on the combination of Mono-Filament spiral spacing and extruded Teflon insulation, a unique construction that creates a virtual air dielectric. For Odin, Nordost's engineers have taken this process a stage further, first twisting two FEP Mono-Filaments together, before winding them in an open spiral around each solid-core conductor. It sounds simple, but demands dramatically higher production tolerances if such complex, multiple cable constructions are to be successfully manufactured. However, the results are a significant reduction in conductor contact area and far greater geometrical consistency, especially when cables are bent. First used in the Valhalla power cord and Tyr interconnect, Odin employs Dual Mono-Filaments in conductor's in optimized arrays throughout the range.

2.Total Signal Control (TSC) Shielding

Odin interconnects also employ a revolutionary new shielding technique, developed to match the theoretical performance of solid copper pipes without the resultant problems of inflexibility that such rigid structures impose. Each of the eight conductors in an Odin interconnect is individually shielded using this Nordost developed technology which minimizes both signal leakage and external interference in today's increasingly electronically polluted environment. Conductor materials remain silver plated copper, with silver plated WBT NextGen RCA or Furutech XLR terminations on the interconnects, rhodium plated low mass Z-plugs or spades on the speaker cables."

Odin doesn't come cheap, with prices starting at $14,000/pr for interconnects, $20,000/pr for speaker cables.

High-end gear for sale

2007-05-30T19:14:00.001+02:00

I've various high-end gear for sale.

To start with, Mark Levinson 334 power amplifier. Requires no introduction, the last line of ML amplifiers which is built like a tank - and drives any speaker. The amp in question was purchased in 2001, has one little scratch on top, price very competitive 2.900 euros. A steal.

The second gear needs some explanation. It's a combo, comprising of Perpetual Technologies P-1A digital prosessor and P-3A 24/96 DAC. The P-3A has ModWright Signature II mods, as has external Monothlic power supply. Icing the cake are silver, cryo treated Revelation Audio power cables between Monolithic power supply and PT boxes, and Revelation Audio silver, cryo-treated I2S cable to connect PT units.

Idea is that you set P-1A set to output 44.1kHz, which will leave it to the P-3A's circuitry to upsample the data to 96kHz. However, you have to set P-1A's Output Bit Density to 24 bits. Connection between the units is the best digital connection in terms of eliminating jitter, i.e. I2S.

Cracking digital re-production, 550 euros. I've Mark Levinson 390S cd-player, so I do know something about good digital sound. See Stereophile review, and then check ModWright and Revelation Audio.

The third item is a pair of Kimber Kable's top KS 9038 jumpers for loudspeakers. I used them when I owned Revel Studios, don't need them now with my pair of JMLab Micro Bes. Trust me on this, if you have jumpers in your high-end speakers, you have not heard what your tweeters can achieve before you use these jumpers. Price 400 euros.

SMS / call at +358 40 7000 482, or leave a note to this blog entry.

Musical Fidelity 1st June 10:10 announcement

2007-05-30T09:11:00.000+02:00

During the last couple of months MF has generated buzz about important announcement at 1st June, exact 10:10 AM GMT. See their Web-site tomorrow what the buzz is all about...

Meanwhile, MF has announced new "super integrated amplifier", model A1008. The accompanied CD-player is model A1000.

The A1008 is descendant of the kW550 and has the same physical layout and circuit block componentry. The kW550, however, has an extra 3dB of dynamic range and higher power ratings.

The A1008 has 250 watts per channel, external power supply and like Naim SUPERNAIT integrated amplifier, on-board DAC. According to MF, internal 24/192 DAC is exactly the same as the X-DACV8. Digital inputs include USB.

Inner World Audio hifi publication

2007-05-30T09:00:00.000+02:00

In May a new hifi magazine was launced primarily for Finnish market. Most articles are written in Finnish, although selected articles are written in English for a broader audience. I contribute as a reviewer, in the first issue my review subject was McIntosh MC275 amplifier.

About the magazine. The innerWORLD/AUDIO is a broad, modern, professional web/paper magazine of sound, music and visual effect. The issues are available as a free download (PDF-files), the readers can also subscribe actual paper copy. Sample the first issue, we hope you like it. We feel it is an indispensable addition to Finnish hifi magazine landscape.

Krell KID

2007-05-30T08:45:00.000+02:00

High-end audio giant Krell Industries is acknowledging the popularity of Apple iPod as it announced Krell IPOD Dock (KID) at the Home Entertainment Show 2007. KID's retails $1200, and offers balanced outputs (+ 2 RCA and S Video outputs) and bass and treble adjustments.

Some months ago I wrote about MSB's audiophile docking solution, which requires modification to iPod. The KID has no just limitation, hence a welcome addition to iPod space.

YouTube must-view video about compression

2007-05-03T11:21:00.000+02:00

As an audiophile you must view this YouTube video about what compression does for recording. Even with small computer speakers you can easily here the consequences of dynamic range compression.

The TAS blog - Red Book CD history

2007-05-03T10:48:00.000+02:00

The Absolute Sound's editor Robert Harley has his own blog. I copy hereby pretty fascinating blog entry about history of Red Book CD-format.

"April 17 - The World’s Most Expensive Book—the CD “Red Book”

Audiophiles correctly use the term “Red Book” to describe the CD format, but incorrectly to refer to any 44.1kHz/16-bit digital audio, or even to pulse-code modulation (PCM, the CD’s encoding format) in general.

So, what exactly is the “Red Book,” and why would we describe an audio format with such a name?

When Sony and Philips jointly developed the CD format in the late 1970s and early 1980s (Philips contributed the optical system, Sony the electronics and error correction, broadly speaking), they needed a specification that described the format in detail for CD factories. When a CD replicator bought a license to manufacturer CDs (for $5000), it received a copy of this 8.5″ by 11″ document, which happened to have a red cover. (Each CD format has its own book and colored cover. The book that described the CD-ROM format, for example, has a yellow cover and is called the “Yellow Book.”)

I had a copy of the “Red Book” on my desk when I worked in CD mastering. It describes the disc’s physical parameters, encoding and decoding scheme, optical system, and types of data errors and maximum allowable error rates, among other things. The reference to 44.1kHz/16-bit linear PCM encoding occupies a miniscule fraction of the book’s contents, yet the term “Red Book” is now firmly entrenched as meaning 44.1kHz/ 16-bit digital audio.

The Red Book contains some interesting provisions that aren’t widely known. For example, the CD was designed to carry 4-channel audio as an option, but at a slower sampling frequency and shorter word length. This option was, obviously, never used. Another unused option is the provision for graphics, text, or other data in the disc’s “subcode.” The CD has eight subcode channels, designated P–W, with each having a data rate of a relatively slow 7.35 kilobits per second. The “P” channel simply “goes high” (binary 1) for two seconds before the start of each track to allow cheap CD players to find track starts; the Q channel contains all the timing and track information that you see on your player’s display; the R–W channels are reserved for other use, such as graphics or text. No CD players that I know of have ever been able to access the R–W subcode. I’ve seen R–W subcode graphics displayed experimentally and can tell you why they never caught on—it takes an agonizingly long time (because of the slow data rate) to “paint” a single still graphic on a video display.

It was widely reported that the CD’s specifications were influenced by conductor Herbert von Karajan, who told Sony’s president that this new format would need to hold Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in its entirety. I don’t know if this is true, but I do know that the Red Book doesn’t specify the CD’s maximum playing time. Rather, it specifies the disc’s rotational speed (linear velocity), track pitch (the space between tracks) inner starting radius, and outer ending radius. (CD’s are read from the inside out, with the disc speed varying from about 500 rpm on the inner radius to about 200 rpm at the outer radius, which maintains a constant linear velocity as seen by the playback laser.) From these parameters one can infer the maximum playing time. For many years after CD’s introduction, 74 minutes was considered the upper limit of the CD format’s capacity. But by mastering a CD at the edges of the allowable parameters (slowest possible linear velocity, soonest starting radius, latest ending radius, narrowest track pitch), one can make a CD with more than 80 minutes of playing time that still conforms to the Red Book specification."

McIntosh 275 Mk V and NOS tubes

2007-05-02T17:31:00.000+02:00

Evidently McIntosh has introduced a new version of its renowed Mc275 model, the Mk V variant. The mark V is the EU RoHS directive compliant product, i.e. lead and other "hazardous substances" free. In addition, Mk V finally eliminates strip speaker connections and has proper speaker connections, so you don't have to re-terminate your speaker cables. Also gone is adjustable sensitivity on unbalanced input.

I started saying that "evidently" because I have not yet seen any mention about mark V on McIntosh Web-site. However, I do know it exists as I've been happy owner more than 2 months. I reviewed Mc275 for one hifi-publication and was so impressed that I replaced my previous power amp Mark Levinson 334 by review sample.

Mc275 is everything than other reviewers have said and then some. I found Mc275 in my gear to be more transparent and more silent than ML334, ideally suited for kind of music I listen predominantly, i.e. acoustic jazz. The Mc275 is the quietest tube power amp I've heard, bar one. What Mc275 left me wanting vis-a-vis ML334 was that feeling of absolute authority and control. Guess I have to upgrade next to Audio Research Reference 110 in order to get Mc275's life-like performance and ML334's majesty.

I my review I stated that Mc275 did not responded much to NOS tube rolling, ie. my experimentation with NOS 12AX7A tubes did not demonstrate that much difference. I tested Philips Holland Pope 12AX7 1959 (Upscale Audio Platinium Grade, exactly same tube as Amperex Bugle Boy Holland 12AX7) and Sylvania 1961 Vintage 12AX7 1961 (Upscale Audio Platinium Grade).

Now I have to re-state my findings, reason is that I replaced stock KT88 tubes by original Svetlana, cryo treated KTR88s, purchased from Watford Valves. To cut the long story short, if you want to know what your Mc275 is capable for, try cryo treated Svetlana winged-C KT88s. Combined with Sylvania 12AX7s they produce truly breath-taking music. Moreover, I installed Herbie's Audio Lab's nickel alloy tube dampers for all small12xxx tubes and KT88 power tubes, which further tightened low registers and took care of tiny amount of microphonic haze and fuzziness. Additonal upgrade I found beneficial was Kimber Kable's top-of-the-line power cable Palladian PK10 (in my tests much better choice than Nordost Shiva or Siltech SPX20/30) and a proper platform (my Mc275 floats on Aurios Pro bearings, which reside on top of Symposium Svelte platform.

I ordered from Wafford Valves cryo treated NOS Mullard 12AT7 to replace stock tubes, but even without them I can honestly say that Mc275 with upgarded tubes causes long, long listening sessions. Phenomenal "breath-of-life", holographic imaging and transparency.

Conrad-Johnson ART3 and ACT2

2007-04-20T20:40:00.000+02:00

Conrad-Johnson. Two legandary audio designers' (they are economist by education) name combined - and as a brand one of the Tier 1 American high-end audio companies. It just sound right, their slogan goes. And one product which put CJ into high-end radar screen was ART (for Anniversary Reference Triode) preamp. ART was first introduced in June 1996 (20th anniversary of CJ) and second incarnation ART2 came in 2001. The initial concept of ART was that CJ would only make 250 units, period. However, somehow only 225 series 1 and 2 models were made, leaving CJ with 25 chassis left over.

Fast forward to 2004 and introduction of another great CJ pre-amp, model ACT2. One of the key factor for ACT2's success in reviews and evidently on the market was extensive use of CJ specific Teflon capacitors. So in 2006 CJ decided that they can use those left-over 25 ART two-chassis, and employ the same advanced materials and Teflon caps to bring to the market ART3. At the time of writing this, all ART3 are gone, but if you own ART1 or ART2, rejoice as you can upgrade from ART1 and ART2 to ART3 for USD 13.000 and USD12.000, respectively. I love audio companies who take their "reference" products seriously, i.e. provide upgrade paths for the loyal owners of reference products. The other great example here is Mark Levinson. Audio Research, take note (no upgrade path from REF2 pre-amp to REF3!).

However, the owners of original USD 13.500 CJ ACT2 (earlier blog entry here) might not feel as exuberated. After only 2 years since its introduction, CJ announced updated Series 2 model with a complete internal makeover. In essence, Series 2 ACT2 only shares casework with previous model, circuit and power supply are entirely different. British hi-fi+ reviewed favourable ACT2 Series 2 in issue 49 - although they gave equally positive review for Series 1. Personnally I would feel a bit embarrassed as a reviewer that the product raved highly recently has much better successor only 2 years after. Remember that original ACT2 was referred as a product which raised the bar for tube preamplifiers.

Initially CJ said that there is no upgrade from Series 1 to 2, however, the word on the street is that there is an upgrade available.

Sonus Faber Guarneri Memento

2007-04-20T14:10:00.000+02:00

Ken Kessler reviewed in Hi-fi News March 2007 issue Sonus Faber Guarneri Memento speakers. No news here, Kessler is a long-time fan of original Guarneris, and he gave a very favorable review of the speakers - "I've always loved the Guarneri. Now I positively adore it".

What struck me was the measurements. There is a broad dip in output between 2.5 kHz and 11 kHz, about 7.5 db down at 7.5 kHz! That dip indicates poor integration between bass-mid driver and tweeter. The measured sensitivity was also 3db lower than specified, at 85 db.

hi-fi+ and Audio Reseach LS26 linestage

2007-04-20T13:04:00.000+02:00

Although the UK-based print audiophile publication hi-fi+ was acquired by Absolute Multimedia, owners of longstanding United States magazine The Abso!ute Sound, it seems to remain review-wise unchanged. Which is good as the 50th issue exemplifies. The "analogue special" issue has for example reviews of SME 20/12 and Clearaudio Performance turntables, various phono-stages and cartridges, Burmester 061 CD-player, and finally, very first review of Audio Research LS26 linestage.

According to review, the LS26 well deserves its nickname "REF 3 Junior". Compared with REF3, reviewer found LS26 to be a tad quieter than REF3. This is propably due to design differences as the LS26 has hyprid tube/JFET audio circuit vs. REF3's pure tube design, and REF3 has tube regulated power supply. The tube vs. hyprid was evident in listening notes, where reviewer found LS26 to give away to REF3 in authority, dynamics, presence, and less expansive soundstage, on the other hand LS26's leaner bottom-end made sound quicker and more direct with greater musical drive and pace.

EMM Labs CDSA SE CD/SACD player

2007-04-19T18:24:00.000+02:00

Enjoy the Music has a review of Ed Meitner's single chassis CD/SACD player, which upsamples the Red Book 44.1kHz signal to 5.6448MHz DSD.

According to Phil Gold: "The CDSA SE has to be in very front rank of CD Players regardless of cost. It will do wonders for detail retrieval, imaging and accuracy complete with a fully realized bottom end and open top on the best Redbook recordings. Its failings are those of the medium itself. As to SACD, this is as good as digital gets, and far better than any Redbook CD you will ever hear".

The Positive Feedback seems to concur: "Put the CDSA SE up against any Redbook player extant, smile with confidence, and just take SACD as a lagniappe. At this point in time, on planet Earth, digital music reproduction just doesn't get any better than the CDSA SE".

Nagra CDP

2007-04-19T17:37:00.000+02:00

In April 2007 issue of Revue de Son both oldtime reviewers, Jean-Pierre Landragin and Jean Hiraga, gave an extremely positive review of Nagra's latest CD-player, model CDP. To refresh your memory, Nagra introduced in early 2007 three new digital, Red Book products: the CDC equipped with a built-in DAC, remote control and pre-amplifier stage; the "conventional" CDP with a built-in DAC and fixed level analogue output; and a CD transport CDT designed to be used with an external DAC (like Nagra's 192 kHz/24 bit DAC). The chassis of CDx-family identical is in dimension to the Nagra's PL-P pre-amp and PL-L line-stage and thanks to the front-loading mechanism allows the units to be stacked neatly together.

Monsieur Landragin positioned CDP against other high-end CD-players as "Between the CDP and its competitors, there is the same difference as sound re-produced through hifi-chain and a real instrument". Jean Hiraga echoed: "... quality of re-production of sound and musicality on level never heard before. This realism astonishing ...". Une reference absolue".

There were some interesting points in the review, though. Nagra's own Web-site is very thin as for technical data of CDx-family, but evidently CDP has a 352.8 kHz/24 bit DAC (i.e. higher oversampling than company's standalone DAC). RdS found than due to extra Burr Brown stage balanced outputs sounded significantly inferior to asymmetric outputs - contrary to most top CD-players. Should make then the CDP a good match with single-end only pre-amps akin Conrad -Johnson.

BTW, German Stereo magazine gave to model CDC (in picture) in 2/07 issue a full 100% for sound quality, see review here.

Sonos Digital Music System

2007-04-06T20:54:00.000+02:00

I reviewed some weeks ago Sonos Sonos Digital Music System for a Finnish hifi-magazine. Two Sonos "systems" were subject to review: ZonePlayer 80 Bundle, consisting of two ZonePlayer ZP80s and one Controller 100 remote controller; and one ZonePlayer 100. See details of aforementioned products at Sonos Web-site.

Some background. I've some 500 GB worth of WAV-files, i.e. almost my entire CD-collection on hard-disk. The necessary back-up methods naturally are implemented in terms of external hard-disks and daily/weekly BU procedures. Why WAV and not MP3? Look into the falling prices of hard-disk as €/GB, and tell me one reason why one should compromise sound quality using any kind of compressed or non-compressed audio formats other than WAV. There is none - except WAV's limited metadata capabilities.

For a music library software I use both Apple iTunes 7.x and MS Media Player 11, ripping is done by same software and occasionally by EAC. Which brings us to one of the Sonos shortfalls, i.e. insofar as your music library is in MP3, FLAC or Apple Lossless formats, Sonos library software works fine. The Sonos Desktop Controller organizes your music library nicely by artist, album etc. with associated album artwork, but if you use WAVs you view into music library are pretty limited. With iTunes and WAV, Sonos software provides you with very crude folder view, organised by artist. You fare a tad better with MS Media Player and WAV, but evidently Sonos has been designed for MP3 users, not for audiophiles. This is not only Sonos related problem, but applies to all music library software and how they metadata WAV files. Annoying, nevertheless.

In assessing the sonic capabilities of Sonos, I connected one Sonos ZP80 player to my HE-rig, consisting of McIntosh 275 amplifier, Great Northern Sound modified Audio Research LS25 Mk2 pre-amp and Mark Levinson 390S CD-prosessor. Speakers are JM Lab Micro Bes, the cabling consist of Siltech XLR G5/G6 interconnects and Kimber Kable Select KS-3035 speaker cables.

For testing I connected Sonos ZP80 player's digital out via Siltech G6 Golden Ridge digital cable (the best digital cable I have tested by very large margin) into my Mark Levinson 390S CD-processor's digital in. This was to assess Sonos system's performance as a transport, using the same ML 390s 24bit/352.8kHz DAC as I normally use when listening CDs.

Result was startling, i.e. I could barely hear any difference. And yet mentally I already had decided that this insignificant small box + dedicated WiFi-network could no way be on the same level as my ML 390S transport. Talking about reality check! I had to dig into my best recorded acoustic recordings to actually hear differences. Please note here that I was able to switch by remote control between original CD played through ML 390S and the same WAV-file played through Sonos system into 390S DAC.

In essence, ML 390S as a standalone CD-player had more organic sound, "black-is-blacker" background, more dynamics and less digital artifacts than Sonos - but observable only with the best acoustic recordings like Blue Coast Collection The E.S.E Sessions. My system is ruthlessly transparent, with mid hifi speakers I could propably here no difference. Please note that in fact I only compared the performance of Sonos ZP80 and dedicated network against ML 390S transport. Otherwise the reproduction chain was the same. I do recall that when I tested my CEC TL-51 belt-driven transport connected to ML390S DAC there were more significant changes, notably almost magical liquidity and smoothness in sound.

As for using Sonos ZP80's internal DAC and analog out results were less succesful, that was more like using 200-300 € CD-player. In making that assessment I used my Samsung HD-850 DVD-player as a reference. As for the ZP100, I tested it as a standalone replacement for my whole HE-rig, i.e. as 50 wpc D-class amplifier/DAC/pre-amp, and whereas ZP80 sounded somewhat compressed vis-a-vis ML 390S, then ZP100 sounded even more so against my whole HE-rig. But put into the context, super buy for your third bed room or for your kid, just add decent speakers.

To sum up, if you are an audiophile and computer audio Luddite, you should broaden your horizon. We cant't beat this inexorable movement, and we should not even try. The products like Sonos' are the proof than there is much to gain by embracing and integrating computer audio with HE-gear. I bought the ZP80 combo, and I've never listened to that much of music before. All those tracks, artists, albums which took so long time to locate before are now available by a simple search and click. Drawback naturally is all that playing with computer, especially ripping.

I can only mirror what John Atkinson concluded in his review of Sonos in Stereophile: "But the real beauty of the Sonos system is the way in which it marries excellent audio engineering to a system design that allows foolproof and efficient setup of a distributed-audio system. It's just a shame, I guess, that these groundbreaking audio products didn't come from an established high-end audio company."

Clearaudio Performance package

2007-03-26T20:06:00.000+02:00

German hifi-magazine Audio gave in 3/07 issue 100 points for Clearaudio's Performance turntable with Satisfy arm and Maestro MM cartridge, referring combo as one of the best buys in euro 2000 price point. And the French hifi magazine Prestige Audio Video in March/April issue gave the same trio equally good recommendation - "...not even very expensive considering its performance".

What is behind this performance? First, the very latest and patented technology from Clearaudio, the Ceramic Magnetic Bearing, which negates the need for a ball bearing at point of contact as there is no contact! BTW, the same invention is available for existing Clearaudio turntables as an upgrade.

The chassis is precision manufactured from High Density Fibreboard within an aluminium frame, which is then sandwiched between two layers of STARON™ artificial stone. The separate motor is entirely isolated from the chassis, driving the precision-machined 40mm thick acrylic platter via a joint-less silicon based drive belt.

As for the Satisfy Carbon tone arm, it features an unbroken run of Clearaudio’s own Direct Wire from the cartridge to phono plugs. The Maestro is the top of the line cartridge in Clearaudio's range of Moving Magnet cartridges, outputting 3.6 mV.

Cool looking deck, prices for the package appears to vary between 1.990 - 2.495 euros, depending which part of the Single Market you purchase it.

Current state-of-the-art digital gear

2007-03-25T19:12:00.000+02:00

It is paradoxical that at the same time as music servers and computer audio are gaining popularity and turning the CD-players into "legacy" sources, CD/SACD-players are reaching the new pinnacle. Witness Naim's CD 555 or Accuphase's DP-78. It seems that current pecking order of state-of-the-art digital re-production is decided between two combos: Accuphase's SACD transport DP-800 / DC-801 digital processor and Esoteric P-03 universal transport / D-03 DAC. Accuphase 25.000 euros combo received from German Audio hifi-magazine all-time-highest 140 points for both CD and SACD re-production, Esoteric combo in the same magazine got "just" 135 for CD sound. Soundstage has a positive review of Esoteric on-line as well. In the Absolute Sound April/May 2007 issue Robert Harley evaluated the same Esoteric combo in TAS cover story, and named it as one of the best sounding digital source he has heard. However, there appears be two hot new rivals.

Spectral Audio has been developing some 5 years SDR-4000 Reference Processor, and rumour is that this 17.500 USD player sounds fabulous. BTW, it has an Esoteric drive modified exclusively for the SDR-4000.

The other rival dCS uses equally Esoteric drive in its new Scarlatti flagship combo which replaces Elgar/Verdi Encore/Verona pack. Scarlatti is a three component affair (transport, DAC, clock), where DAC is the latest version of renowed dCs' Ring DAC.

Quad II-eighty

2007-03-25T18:49:00.000+02:00

Arguably one of the most memorable products in the history of hi-fi was the Quad II power amplifier. Quad has nowadays the Quad II-forty and the Quad II classic power amplifier in its product portfolio, and has announced model Quad II-eighty. As its moniker indicates, the II-eighty will deliver 80 watts/channel into 8 ohms, and will be available around mid-year 2007. This all-tube, monoblock design is expected to cost about $10,000 per pair. Quad enlisted legendary designer and founder of EAR-Yoshino, Tim de Paravicini, to boost output and to refine the original circuit.

BAT new preamps

2007-03-25T17:24:00.000+02:00

Balanced Audio Technology has announced new family of line stages to complement the solid stage model VK-42SE. On top of the line sits an eighteen-tube, two-chassis REX replacing model VK-51SE. BAT claims quite revolutionary approach for overall power supply of REX, and power module comes with 10 tubes.

According to BAT's marketing material, "REX incorporates a unique feature that allows the user to optimize its sound, tailoring it to one’s individual taste or system requirements. The vacuum tube current sources incorporated in REX, being part of the signal gain stage, have a direct impact on the unit’s sound. Changing the tube type used in that circuit, allows the user an extra degree of control over the final sound achieved. In its standard configuration, the REX current sources use the Russian 6C19 tubes. This tube is basically a miniature version of the famous 6C33 tube, and provides, in our view, the best combination of sonic characteristics and electrical performance. However, the unique design of REX allows you to also use other tube types as current sources. Currently (no pun intended), the user has the following three choices for vacuum tube current sources:

The standard 6C19 tube current source (installed at the factory).
The 6H30 SuperTube current source (which requires the purchase of the X-PAK accessory).
The 5881 tube current source.

In order to change the tube type, the user needs to remove the installed current source board, replace it with either another board (designed for a particular tube type), or install the 5881 tubes as a direct plug-in."

The other new line-stages are VK-52SE (no details yet), the VK-32SE (see picture), a successor to its highly regarded VK-31SE, and non-se version VK-32. All these line-stages use new capacitors about which BAT is excited. The VK-32SE has the same tube rolling feature than REX (the standard 32’s module utilizes a 6C19) and the VK-32 in its part trades a smaller power supply and fewer of new caps against a lower price.

Interesting point is that after pretty much everybody in audio business has started to use Victor Khomenko "discovered" 6H30 tubes (e.g. Conrad-Johnson + Chinese manufacturers), BAT feels compelled to move on towards 6C19 tube.

Shanling MC-30 Music Center

2007-03-25T17:03:00.000+02:00

In Shanling MC-30 Music Center cuts thru generations as it combines high quality CD player, tuner, dedicated iPod input and classic tube amplification in stylish, all aluminum retro chassis.

The specs include Philips VAM-12 pick-up mechanism, Burr-Brown PCM1738 DAC chip, 2x6P1 single-ended tube output stage, flea-power 3 Wpc, remote control, and iPod integration thru docking. The input selector and volume controls are concealed and mounted atop those front cylindrical supports. Some sources state that it comes with a pair of matched speakers, all that USD 995. A true conversation piece.

Simon Yorke Designs

2007-03-24T18:10:00.000+01:00

Continuing in analogue stories, check out the latest Simon Yorke "Zenish" turntable designs, model S9. This compact, euro 8.000 design brings SY for masses, so to speak. I once saw and listened to model S7 with Jan Allaerts cartridge in HE-shop in Munich, Germany, and after that memorable experience I've drooled over owning this industrial design par excellence turntable.

Upgrade for SME Series V tonearm

2007-03-24T17:56:00.000+01:00

Although SME Series V was introduced some 20 years ago, the arm has been constantly upgraded since - proof why audiophiles should always invest in products from companies with solid engineering and constant improvements aka SME. The latest edition, and available as an upgrade, has new low tolerance bearings and more significant, new internal wiring of silver. According to SME upgrade is pretty much a complete rebuild of this venerable arm.

Continuum's Copperhead tonearm

2007-03-24T17:24:00.000+01:00

It's not an exaggeration to say that Stereophile's analogue guru Michael Fremer set on fire Australian HE-outfit Continuum Audio Lab in his review of Caliburn turntable & Cobra tonearm, and later actually purchasing the review equipment. The equipment equally picked up Stereophile's "Analog Source Product of 2006" and overall "Product of the year" for 2006. BTW, MF dryly noted afterwards that since going public with his purchase he experienced a new height of hate email. Ah, how this hobby unites melomanes.

Company has introduced a new Copperhead tonearm, which is Rega-mount compatible, i.e. you can install this USD 6.000 tonearm pretty much on everything. See details on Continuum's Web-site, be warned that this is one of those sites where 20-years old web designers went over-the-board with Flash ... Nevertheless, as a passionate advocate of outside-the-box thinking and great engineering I personally regard highly Continuum's approach.

Vacuum State cables

2007-03-20T21:35:00.000+01:00

There is no shortage of small audio outfits providing modifications to audio equipments. Personally I'm in favour in mods as I've very good (sonic) experience with Perpetual Technologies P-3A Signature mod from ModWright and GNSC modified ARC LS25 Mk2 pre-amp. Some years ago a big thing was Sony SACD players mods, and Vacuum State's mods received very good reviews in DAGOGO and Positive Feedback.

Vacuum State is a HE company founded in Australia in 1982 by Allen Wright, and VS is currently located in Switzerland. Company is receiving growing recognition for its HE tube amps, see e.g. review of RTP-3D preamplifier. What I personally found intriguing in their Web-site was a reference to the comprehensive speaker cable and interconnect shoot-out by Italian VideoHifi.com internet magazine. See report in their web-site. Take the test with a pinch of salt as any other cable comparison, but according to test VS' silver interconnect performed admirably against interconnects from Crystal Cable, DACT Dual Connect, Legenburg etc.

If you are in DIY you can order 1 meter Vacuum State silver interconnect for 195 euros from VS' on-line shop. I'm giving VS a try as I need 1.5 meters long XLR interconnects, and I'll report back my observations when I've received my kit.

Sonus Faber Elipsa

2007-03-15T11:58:00.000+01:00

At 37.000 € / pair Sonus Faber's Stradivari homage is out of reach for most audiophiles. However, now SF has introduced a slim-down version of Stradivari called Elipsa, which sets you back "modest" 17.000 € / pair. The 3-way Elipsa shares Stradivari's gorgeous elliptically curved cabinet profile, but is smaller and has one woofer less. Elisa shares drivers with other SF speakers, woofer is same as in Stradivari , tweeter comes from the Cremona, but a new midrange driver is designed specifically for Elisa.

Best high-definition CES 2007 photos

2007-03-15T11:52:00.000+01:00

Please check Highend Palace's glorious high-definition photos from CES 2007. When visiting the site, sample also their selection of second-hand high-end gear. Mouth watering pictures, if you are in HE fetishism.

Lansche Audio 4.1 speaker

2007-03-07T07:38:00.000+01:00

Lansche Audio, a German speaker manufacturer, might be in a position to change pecking order of high-end speakers - at least based on specs. Like other German speaker company Acapella, LA utilizes ion tweeter in its 4.1 speaker (PDF in English here). CORONA Ion tweeter, according to LA, has frequency response 1.5kHz - 150 kHz. The other noticeable features of 4.1 are LA in-house developed 20cm paper cone midrange driver, which only weights 8 grams and two active side positioned bass units per speaker. Cross-over is minimalist, one component for tweeter and two for mid-range driver. Furthermore, user adjustable control are provided for bass with cut-off frequencies and +/- 9.5db level control. Ion tweeter has control level as well. Interior wiring is all silver, efficiency is a whopping 99 dB / W / m and each speaker weights 76 kg. Company has also developed GOA horn speaker and cinema speaker line to complement both 4.1 and GOA.

Mark my words, we'll hear more from this company.

Audio Research HD 220 hybrid amplifier

2007-03-06T09:02:00.000+01:00

ARC continues to roll out aggressively new products. The company has so far renewed its entire Reference family (widely lauded by reviewers) and introduced a number of new line stages. In CES 2007 ARC announced a ground-breaking product for them, a hybrid HD220 amplifier.

As in the REF110, a JFET input - for low noise - feeds a 6922 dual triode gain stage, which in turn feeds a 6H30 dual triode cathode follower which drives the output circuit thru ARC's proprietary coupling capacitors (as used in the REF3 preamplifier). The output stage is comprised of twelve "Thermal Trak" bipolar output devices per channel, delivering 220 wpc into 8 ohm and 410 wpc into 4 ohm. Price estimated as $8,995.

ARC has also announced that digital amplifier 150.2 is discontinued.

Legend upgraded - Linn Sondek LP12

2007-03-04T08:08:00.000+01:00

It's hard to believe but Linn introduced Sondek over 33 years ago. The new LP12 SE series comprises three new upgrades, the EKOS SE tonearm, KEEL one-piece sub-chassis, armboard and collar, and new metal TRAMPOLIN base board. According to the press relase:

• EKOS SE tonearm
Its successful predecessor, EKOS, has been completely re-engineered, taking advantage of the latest manufacturing techniques and advanced materials, resulting in a much more rigid design for an even greater musical performance.

• KEEL sub-chassis & armboard
A combined sub-chassis, armboard & collar machined from one solid piece of aluminium, to provide rigid support to the tonearm & platter, for even more accurate reproduction of your vinyl collection.

• TRAMPOLIN base board
A new base board which uses aluminium in place of melamine (as used in the original TRAMPOLIN) for increased rigidity, to provide even better audio performance.

Naim Audio high-end SUPERNAIT integrated amplifier

2007-02-23T11:38:00.003+01:00

Naim has enhanced its integrated amplifier offering beyond NAIT 5i by announcing SUPERNAIT. It is part of Naim's reference series and features 85 Watts per channel into 8 Ohms, on-board DAC accepting sampling rates up to 96kHz and subwoofer output. Some reports have stated that it also has front panel 1/8 input (for e.g. iPod) and front panel headphone output. SUPERNAIT is (super)naturally upgradeable with FlatCap2x/HiCap2 or SuperCap power supply.

Available in April at Euro 4.500 (estimation).

Hint: why you need on-board DAC with various digital inputs? Think Sonos ZonePlayer 80 ...

Shunyata Research Hydra V-RAY

2007-02-19T13:08:00.000+01:00

For quite many audiophiles SR's Hydra family of power distributors / conditioners has been the reference. In 2003 SR annouced their top dog Hydra Model-8 power condioner, and now Hydra V-RAY introduces further advancements. The V-Ray uses the same chassis and has the same number of outlet (8) than Model-8, but employs internally larger and more Venom filters (36 instead of Model-8's 12). Also new internally is the power-distribution buss system, which is made from pure CDA-101 copper.

Result, according to SR, is "Unprecedented levels of sonic resolution and a stunning black velvet background await the owner of the new Hydra V-Ray." Price USD 3.995, one review already on-line at Soundstage.

Shure E500 headphones

2007-02-18T20:03:00.000+01:00

Soundstage has a review of Shure's top-of-the-line "in-ear-monitors", model E500PTH. Reviewer John Crossett concluded "... If your situation runs to needing a way to cut yourself off from the outside world while listening to your favorite music and you want to spend that time listening in the highest possible sonic fidelity, then the Shure E500s become a must-hear product -- and very possibly a no-brainer purchase. They met all my expectations and then exceeded them."

I read the review with some interest as I purchased Shure E500 for my 80GB iPod, replacing my previous earphones, Etymotic ER4P. Around the same time I sold my HE-rig headphones, 5 years old Stax SRM-T1S & Lambda Nova Signature earphone system. How do all these earphones rate in my subjective listening using iPod as a source?

In Stax case I connected iPod with Stax amp by a cheap cable consisting of 1/8" plug on one end and RCA jacks on the other. Using WAV-files I would rate without doubt Stax the best sounding in all audiophile terms, so lets give it the comparison rating of 100. Shure E500 comes at 85 and Etymotic ER4P 78. Comparison is of course not fair as I compare here iPod as a standalone product vs. Stax with its dedicated headphones amp. Stax's superiority would even be more evident were it connected with proper cabling, i.e. using AudioLineOut's special cable which takes benefit of iPod's dedicated audio line-out. See attached picture of AudioLineOut's iPod line-out - RCA cable.

Which brings me to the only thing which really annoys me with iPod, i.e. background noise, default which is highlighted with the high quality gear such as Shure E500. Only way to get better sonics is to capitalise on iPod's dedicated audio line-out situated in the bottom of the unit, like when it is placed in Apple docking station, thereby by-passing the player's low-grade headphone jack output. But then you need of course a dedicated headphone amplifier like HeadRoom Micro Amp.

New Plinius products

2007-02-17T23:53:00.000+01:00

I just spotted that Plinius audio from New Zealand has announced two significant new products. The first is KORU Phono Preamplifier, which has a curved chassis, divided in two sections allowing physical separation of the power supply from the amplification circuitry. Both single ended and balanced output signals are catered for, and Plinius highlights that "the power supply has received very detailed attention and boasts a virtual battery approach with over 100,000 micro Farads of capacitance and very sophisticated 2 stage regulation. This ensures the lowest impedance and consequently extreme accuracy of power delivery to the amplification stages."

The M8 pre-amplifier, which actually first used the same chassis as aforementioned KORU, has also single ended and balanced connections, allowing connection of up to 5 source components, including Processor Loop for full integration with AV system.

Pathos audio - new products

2007-02-17T23:44:00.000+01:00

Pathos Audio continues to introduce, should I say, extravagant designs. Witness CES 2007 announcements. First is the Adrenalin, 150W in pure class A with zero feedback monoblocs. Estimated price 35.000 USD, available in June 2007. The second announcement was Digit, an integrated CD-player, which is shaped and sized to match Pathos' the Classic One integrated amplifier. The Digit "takes full advantage from the awarded reference CD player Endorphin, with which it shares most of the technology".

Download "Master Tapes"

2007-02-01T15:47:00.001+01:00

Stereophile's News Desk reports as following: "January 27, 2007 — Out of all the audiophile phrases, none stirs the hearts of music lovers like "true to the master tape"—not even "the absolute sound" of the original instruments, which even audio idealists realize is simply too much to demand. But true to the sound of the recorded master tape, now surely that's a goal within reach. "

And furthermore "Linn Records is taking a slightly different approach by offering select titles from its catalog as "Studio Master" 24-bit WMA lossless downloads. The label says the recordings "are what we used to produce the production version of our CD releases." No DRM is attached (yay!). The cost per track is $2.75; whole discs cost $24, no matter how many tracks are involved, which makes the 138 minute Messiah (Dublin version, 1742) by the Dunedin Consort a stone bargain."

I checked Linn Records site, and although cataloque is quite limited, access to "master tapes" is intriguing and shows that audiophiles should not see downloaded music and computer audio categorically evil.

The explanation of Linn Records' download formats is available here, but remember that most streaming media players akin Sonos ZP80 do have compability issues with 24/94 WAV-files.

Gain calculations, two different amps

2007-01-31T11:35:00.000+01:00

I noticed an interesting topic in Audio Asylum concerning bi-amping and input sensitivity. I copy here part of the answer, full text here. Topic issue is bi-amping with Art Audio Carissa and Cary Audio SLM200, input sensitivity 0.6V and 0.7V, respectively.

"You want the gains of the two amps to be the same into the same load. To convert sensitivity to gain, you have to calculate the output voltage into the load at the rated power of the amp.

P=I*E and I=E/R so P=E^2/R.

Solving for E gives you E=Sqrt(P*R). Gain equals 20*log(Eout/Ein). For the Carissa rated at 16 watts (I assume into 8 ohms) with a sensitivity of 0.6 the gain can be calculated as follows.

E= sqrt(16*8)=11.3v and the gain is 20*log(11.3/0.6)=25.5.

Similarly for the Cary rated a 130 watts into 8 ohms

V=sqrt(130*8)=32.2 so the gain is 20*log(32.2/0.7)=33.2. Thus your amps have a 8db difference in gain which is not so good. "

V-Caps and Ancient Audio's Lektor Prime

2007-01-30T06:46:00.000+01:00

I've both the V-Cap OIMP & Tef caps installed in my Great N orthern Sound modified Audio Research LS25 Mk2 pre-amplifier, see pictures of original unit vs. modified (sorry, over 2MB).

Whatever positive is said about V-Caps (see their Web-site or e.g. Audio Asulym for reviews), I concur. They have taken ARC LS25 to new sonic heights, way exceeding what I anticipated. These caps let through phenomenal amount of information and nuances. But burn-in period is as painful as documented in Six Moon's review of Ancient Audio Lektor Prime CD-player. Let me quote from Six Moon's review:

"Bill Baker of Response Audio who was on the beta-testing panel for the V-Caps and uses these parts extensively in his modifications, had this to say: "The first 50 hours can be unbearable at times. During the initial 150 hours, these capacitors have a unique routine of one step forward, two steps back. After you get through the initial 150 hours, the capacitors will start to improve on a consistent basis without the back-stepping. I would say that you are at about 60% at this point. They really do not start to open up until you reach the 400-hour mark. At 400 hours, you are at about 90-95%. Teflon is known to continue changing even up to 1200 hours. Obviously these changes become much more subtle but this is the characteristic of Teflon-based capacitors. I used several hundreds of these throughout 2006 and can honestly say that if there is not at least 300-400 hours on the unit, the evaluation is premature and you are not experiencing its full potential."

BTW, read whole review of that Polish CD-player, it's interesting stuff. Ancient Audio evidently has attitude, look into Lector Grand 3-chassis design: transport with two separate mono DACs.

EMM Labs CDSA SE CD/SACD Player

2007-01-30T06:04:00.000+01:00

For audiophiles EMM Labs is well-known for its CDSD Signature Edition transport and DCC2 SE DSD converter, the combo Harry Pearson commented in February/March 2005 TAS as "You simply don't get this kind of improvement in part of the component chain of anything in audio more than once in a decade or so and now that day has come."

EMM Labs has since introduced a single-box solution, the CDSA SE CD/SACD Player. This dual format player "... doesn’t merely upsample CD audio to SACD, it upsamples to double the SACD standard sampling rate. Pop a CD into the CDSA SE, in other words, and the player takes the 44.1kHz signal and upsamples it to 5.6448MHz. Making CDs, not surprisingly, sound remarkably like SACDs."

European prices seems to be 9.900 euros, available in early 2007.

Hificritic - new British hifi magazine

2007-01-25T18:00:00.000+01:00

Some renowned British hifi journalists (Martin Colloms, Paul Messenger) have turned their back to commercialism and founded ad-free, bimonthly hifi magazine Hificritic. Magazine is purely subscription-only.

Somebody might conclude that Hificritic fills the hole in the UK market left by HiFi+. I personally felt that in the beginning HiFi+ was very well editored grass-root hifi magazine, but unfortunately it closed the gap with mainstream magazines within 2 years of existence. It was acquired in 2006 by Absolute Multimedia, owners of longstanding United States hifi magazine The Absolute Sound.

The Absolute Sound is also a partnered magazine with Enjoy the Music.com, one of the Web's leading sites with a immense variety of both audiophile equipment and music reviews.

Interesting audio related links

2007-01-25T10:26:00.000+01:00

If you have missed these four links, you have missed a great deal of audio reviews.

Stereomojo has for vinyl lovers good snapshot of CES2007 analog gear.

Toneaudio has published TONE Audio as fabulous PDFs.

Dagogo offers "A Unique Audiophile Experience", read for example their review of $79.350 Audio Note Ongaku SET amplifier.

And last, see Audiophile Audition, and their component reviews.

Search this site

2007-01-25T08:31:00.000+01:00

TIP: to search all occurrences of "stax" in this blog, use search function located in the left hand upper corner, or alternatively use Google with the following search string:

stax site:http://he-japu.blogspot.com/

New Mark Levinson & Revel products

2007-01-23T13:10:00.000+01:00

Harman International has announced updates to its Mark Levinson family of amplifiers and Revel speakers.

In Stereophile's CES2007 blog you can see replacement for Marki Levinson top-of-the-line 33H mono amps, new model No.53.

Revel has announced replacement for its Ultima series speakers, entitled Ultima2. As their Web-site puts it: "...new Ultima Salon2, Studio2, Gem2 and Voice2 are the much anticipated successors to the world-renowned Ultima Series loudspeakers, offering dramatically improved sound quality and aesthetics." I heartily remember a pair of first-generation Studios I owned for 4 years, and replaced by a pair of JM Lab Micro Be a year ago. Personally I found previous futuristic design much better looking than "normal" looking Studio2. Judge yourself.

Ray Samuels Audio Hornet

2007-01-23T13:00:00.000+01:00

Ray Samuels' miniature headphone amplifier Hornet has created buzz of excitement. Stereophile's gang Wes Phillips & Sam Tellig gave all positive reviews and editor, uber-measurement guy John Atkinson found Hornet to be particularly well executed in terms of measurements.

See also Positive Feedback's review of Hornet. When you visit Ray Samuals' Web-site, don't miss super presentation of their Emmeline II, “B-52” fully balanced Headphone amplifier and full functioning preamplifier.

Aqvox Phono 2Ci Mk II phonostage

2007-01-23T12:45:00.001+01:00

If you need an affordable phostage with balanced connections, your choices are pretty limited. Ayre P-5x comes first in mind. German hifi-magazines have some time touted Aqvox Phono 2Ci Mk II phonostage, the latest positive review was published by Positive Feedback. See also TNT-audio's review, which in Part2 has some measurements.

ModWright LS-36.5 line stage

2007-01-21T15:48:00.000+01:00

I've appreciated Dan Wright since I purchased Perpetual Technologies P-3A external DAC, modified by ModWright up to their Signature level. Still today a killer DAC.

In CES 2007 ModWright announced an extension to their pre-amp family. The LS 36.5 employs 6H30 tubes (2) with a 5AR4 tube rectifier, has balanced inputs and outputs and phase inversion switch. In addition, line stage utilizes MdWright's own, custom-made oil-impregnated poly and teflon film-foil capacitors.

iPod for audiophiles - MSB

2007-01-21T15:23:00.000+01:00

iPod has reached its 5th generation and still it has no digital-out. As MSB puts in their Web-site "The digital format of its audio files are converted within the iPod, which negates any attempt to create true-to-CD audio." Companies like Sonos apply different approach, i.e. they let you access your iTunes music collections wirelessly and control unit connect via true digital-out to your main rig.

As for iPod's digital out, MSB has announced iLink, a modified 80GB iPod and external iLink base station, which has full set of digi-outs: Toslink, Optical RCA and AES/EBU. What makes this system ingenious is usage of RF. According to MSB "The iLink is supplied with an RF transmitter. It looks like a small connector and plugs into the base of the iPod. It is powered by the iPod and transmits the digital audio to the base station while the iPod is played." All you have to do is match the iLink with an external DAC.

Blog is active once again

2007-01-21T14:48:00.000+01:00

Over a year between posts, scaring to think how I've immersed myself into work. Anyway, 2007 should be a tad easier and less busy year and I'll contribute quite frequently to this blog.

In the last post I mentioned that my new system consists of JMLab Micro Be speakers and Velodyne DD12 sub. Amplifiers are still the same, Audio Research LS25mk2 and Mark Levinson 334 power amp. Source remains same, i.e. Mark Levinson 390S.

Some developments, though. I contribute on the freelance basis to Finnish on-line hifi publication and in that context have reviewed various gear. Some time ago I reviewed Musical Fidelity kW250S, MF's high-end, all-in-one solution. Although I found 250S' sound quite involving but somewhat less resolving that my own gear, I started to wonder whether my mainly 5 years old (design-wise) set-up represents high-end in today's standard. Cutting a long story short, I received 5 weeks ago my trusted ARC LS25mk2 pre-amp back from upgrade. The mod was performed by Great Northern Sound, and entails a re-built power section and replacing all coupling caps by V-Cap Teflon® Film Tin Foil caps. The indicated 400 hours burn-in is not yet completed, so I'll post listening report later on. But let me give you a teaser - I seriously doubt whether a brand-new ARC LS26, direct replacement for LS25, could even remotely be as transparent and resolving as my mod unit.

New room and new system

2005-12-11T20:59:00.000+01:00

You might have noticed that I haven't posted as frequently as I used to do. Well, the reason is the new job, new house and new system. The move is completed next week and I can go back to my normal routine. So stay tuned.

Since I'm moving in into modern penthouse with asymmetrical listening room (and I thought that I cannot move into more modern design that I already had), I reckoned that the best strategy is to match speakers with the room. Hence, I decided to replace my trusted Revel Studios with a pair of JMLab Micro Be and Velodyne DD12 subwoofer. Should be much better fit with new room - although honestly I don't expect miracles. It's tough to part with Revels after 5 years, those speakers have brought such a pleasure into my life. More annoying is once again to subject myself to some 200 hours of burn-in before I can start to fine tune the system and fully enjoy the music.

Computer-driven audio

2005-11-26T18:49:00.000+01:00

If you have missed it, pls. read an informative article in Positive Feedback about computer-driven audio, written by Steve Nugent from Empirical Audio.

Interesting new HE products

2005-11-13T23:19:00.000+01:00

In recent HE-related shows some interesting blue-sky products have been announced. In Paris Salon Haute Fidelite 2005 Halcro exhibited the DM88 DM88 monoblocks. Details are sparse, so I've to re-visit on this issue later on.

London Hi-Fi & Home Entertainment Show had evidently very strong focus on 2-ch audio, and Mark Levinson chose venue to launch its No.51 Media Player. The No. 51 seems to be Red Book / DVD-V player, i.e. without SACD or DVD-A support. "It is designed to elevate the enjoyment of DVD-Videos and CDs to a remarkably high level.", according to ML Web-site. Curious segmentation choice, if I might say so.

Conrad-Johnson has further extended its pre-amp offerings, the latest is the CT6 pre-amp to complement the ACT2 and CT5 (see previous blog entry).

MAXX2 shell-shock continues

2005-11-06T22:42:00.000+01:00

Since I listened to Wilson MAXX 2s some two weeks ago I've been under audio shell-shock. In other words, MAXXs redefined quite many aspects of the listening experience and seriously caused me to re-evaluate what hifi and reproduction of music represent.

The biggest revelation and key learning from listening MAXXs was redefinition of resolution. I've previously associated terms "transparency" and "resolution"mainly with higher and mid frequencies, yet MAXXs demonstrated that both terms are equally applicable to lower frequencies - and by doing so, they push re-production of music in domestic environment to utterly different direction. Same redefinition applies to soundstage, or in MAXX's case, lack of that artificial space. Actually last week-end I changed my listening position way backwards from speakers, and managed to achieve some of MAXX's "wholeness" magic with my Revel Studios.

Furthermore, I realized that regardless what tweaks, cables or other secondary components one insert into system, these investments pale beside purchasing top loudspeakers like MAXXs. I guess that puts me in "speakers first" corner in system hierarchy battle.

As Robert Harley in the Absolute Sound review of MAXX 2s said: "Once you hear the new-found resolution of bass detail, the stunning transient fidelity, and the unique combination of finesse and power ... there is simple no going back".

Listening to Wilson Audio MAXX Series 2

2005-10-24T19:56:00.000+02:00

I visited with my audiophile friend TL-Audio, a high-end dealer some 100 kilometers from Helsinki, capital of Finland. You can see some pictures of TL-Audio's quest for hifi here. The main attraction was to listen to Wilson Audio MAXX 2s in order to substantiate whether various reviews of which I reported earlier were correct.

The source was Audio Aero's Prestige SACD player, driving directly Audio Physic's Mono digital monoblocks. Audio Aero's output stage has sub-miniature tubes and a built-in IC ladder attenuator. The cabling throughout was Transparent's Reference MM, with PowerIsolator surge protection / noise filtration unit. Icing the cake was Velodyne's flagship sub, the Digital Drive 1812 Signature Edition. All this is a spacious, acoustically well-treated room, which absorption provided a perfect tradeoff between detail and liveliness.

I'm not going to bother you to death by running through a checklist of sonic characteristics, instead of that I'm simply stating that the sonic performance of this system was impressive. However, I would like to highlight some themes that I found beguiling during over 4 hours of listening.

First, my experience has been that regardless how good a subwoofer is, its integration with main speakers is never seamless. In this system, however, MAXX and Velodyne combo delivered consistent, tight bottom-end with huge dynamic expression. More impressively, the combo never overloaded the room and only with some tracks I was able to position the sub.

Second, MAXX and Audio Physics Mono amplifiers presented a huge headroom, extremely wide bandwidth and dynamic range, way outperforming my Revel Studios & Mark Levinson 334 combo.

However, the most enthralling was the wholeness of the sonic performance or should I say as my accompanying pal said - "The Live Sound". I have never listened to a system, which was as close to live performance as this one. The musicians were in the same room with us, playing in the same space, not in the artificial space called "soundstage". Slam was extremely convincing. The MAXX 2s disappeared as sources of the sound, leaving only the illusion of live concert behind.

I personally found some room for improvements. Occasionally extreme top end called attention to itself, which I suspect would be fixed with a super tube pre-amp like Audio Research Reference 3. Although I'm a resolution freak, MAXX's bogglingly transparent and state-of-the-art resolving capabilities were sometimes a tad too much for my pal, a Dunlavy IVA owner: "I've information overload".

One final note. We both felt that while the MAXX2 looks much better with its grilles on (in this case in Diamond Black with Gray grille cloths), it sounded more spacious with its grilles off.

Utterly rewarding experience.

HP's secret revealed - it's ASR Emitter

2005-10-17T22:03:00.000+02:00

One of my reader was correct, HP's secret (see post1 and post2) is the ASR Emitter II Exclusive. And what an essay the latest "HP's Workshop" in October/November 2005 issue of The Absolute Sound is. "This amp is so far beyond the usual that I call it "revolutionary" ... essential elements of its performance defy the usual descriptives ...".

BTW, the Emitter II Exclusive is a $27.000, 280Wpc into 8ohms "integrated" amplifier with a separate battery-powered supply for the input stage.

You have to read yourself this saga where HP with some respective names of high-end audio use the Emitter as "...the focal point, the "enabler", if you will, that allow us ... to fine-tune the jizzy-wits out of the primary reference". The Alon Exotica Grand Reference speakers were driven by the ASR and Antique Sound Lab Hurricane monos (woofers), the digital sources varied from two-piece Lector CDP-7T to the four-piece Lector set-up, followed by Bluenote's Stibber and Jadis JD-1. Analoque sources were no slouch either, Dynavector XV-1S, Benz Ebony LP cartridges and VPI and Kuzma decks. And the manufacturers were on site hacking their products: Nola speakers' designer upgraded cross-overs, VPI's designer created a Super Scoutmaster Plus etc. Nordost cables played a crucial role both in system wiring and in aforementioned upgrades.

Stuff of legend and a journey into high-end audio singularity. And it's not over yet. HP is already reviewing improved Emitter II Exclusive Version 2005...

Latest from Naim Audio

2005-10-11T19:55:00.000+02:00

I just noticed that Naim is aiming even higher. Company has introduced at London Hi-fi and Home Entertainment Show the new reference level CD-player, model CD555, along with the 555PS power supply. According to Naim, it "represents Naim's finest reference quality CD player to date". I didn't see any information whether the existing top-of-the-line model CDS3 continues in production. The CD555 will be available in December 2005.

The CD555 is evidently aimed to accompany Naim's NAC 552, which "is by some distance the most advanced Naim pre-amplifier ever and has some claim, therefore, to being the best pre-amplifier, period". The related external power supply is the 552PS. Stereophile's Michael Fremer review is available on-line, to sum up he concluded that "... the NAC 552 provided an exceptionally coherent and cohesive sonic, and especially musical, picture. Add to that its high build quality, convenience, flexibility, and, for the most part, glitch-free performance, and you have an expensive product that, when you look at, touch, and hear it, quickly lets you know you're in the presence of audiophile greatness". Remember that this review took place before Mickey's entry into Musical Fidelity's and Wilson Audio's ne plus ultra wonderland. ;)

In French Haute Fidelite's October 2005 issue Naim NAC 252 pre-amp + Supercap 2 and NAP 500 power amp were reviewed. No news here, the extreme musicality & grace & beauty & ease, PRAT (pace, rhythm, and timing) and huge dynamics resulted in Haute Fidelite Reference honour.

Final call for Black Gate caps

2005-10-07T00:11:00.000+02:00

For months there have been rumours that production of legendary Black Gate capacitors shall cease but now seems to be the final hour. For more information look at Partsconnections Web-site.

Bearing in mind in how many HE-mods and DIY projects Black Gates were instrumental, this seems to be a devastating news indeed. However people, I give you the alternative, i.e. V-Caps.

Mark Levinson 390S owners, pls. note

2005-10-06T21:30:00.000+02:00

OK, I confess, I have to take back what I said in previous post concerning ML390S. After I got it back from service it went back to my primary system due to reason that the player was in essence some 50% revised.

As 200hrs burn-in is now completed I can give initial assessment. The story is that transport gave in and I had to sent ML 390S to service. Typical Levinson stuff, service took 2 months and costed me €780 - yes, forget Levinson's international guarantee, evidently if you seek service outside the country of origin, you pay. Love to be ex-pat.

The interesting point, though, is that since my 390S was one of the first to be upgraded from model 39, during this particular service the DAC was changed for no charge for the current status. I personally always suspected that early upgrades were more or less hacks (my unit went back 3 times to upgrade service due to various problems). The good news is that this new DAC raises the 390S onto a new level in terms of resolution and soundstage projection. The sound is more upfront instead of tightly focused as before, there is more presence, midrange is more palpable, soundstage is as deep as before but noticeable more wider. I already mentioned improved resolution and transparency, proof is that I keep throwing in various CDs just to hear what I've been missing before.

Two possibilities. First, my original upgrade was somewhat defective, and yet even that unit had fabulous transparency. Or second, ML has indeed made some improvements for the original upgrade and the latest upgrade illustrates what an upgrade 390S is fully capable of. Actually I don't mind, I keep smiling when I listen to music. But if you own one of the early upgraded units, check with ML local service whether you are eligible for DAC revision.

Two interesting high-end CD-players

2005-10-06T20:25:00.000+02:00

Source: Hi-Fi News November 2005

Musical Fidelity only just recently announced the kW SACD player (see previous post), and yet they keep up the restless pace of new products. According to Hi-Fi News MF has announced (yet MF's Web-site has no information about this) the kW25 CD-player. This is two chassis design, comprising of kW25DM transport and kW25DM DAC. The transport mechanism features enhanced rigidity and vibration-resistant design, adjustable levelling and sophisticated multiple power supplies. Transport upsamples to 96 kHz and outputs via dual cable S/PDIF to kw25DM DAC, which in its turn upsamples audio stream up to 24bit/192kHz.

Such like the kW SACD, kw25 offers two output stages. MF says in their Web-site concerning kw SACD as follows: "The output stage(s) is really interesting. There are two output stages in the kW SACD, operating at the same time. One is a super-quality tube stage, using our amazing mu-Vista tube, and the other is a Class A transistor circuit. Each is an incredible performer and both have truly excellent sound, but they are slightly, ever so subtly, different. Who is to say which one is correct? The idea is that you can connect both output stages to your amplifier and switch between them to select the perfect balance to suit your tastes and recording. Price £1.999 each.

In the same issue another Grand Design was reviewed, Ancient Audio's Grand Lektor CD-player from Poland. I've never noticed this company on my hi-fi radar screen, but I'll in future. Evidently founder Jaromir Waszczyszyn (hope I got that right!) has been hand-crafting HE-components since 1995. The Grand Lector is a gothic, almost insane three-box (!) design, transport + two mono DACs. En plus, each has its own power supply with required power cord, so do the euro/dollar math to apply Nordost Valhalla power cords throughout your system. Data transfer between transport and DACs is by I2S connections (see my post about Revelation Audio I2S cable). However, in this case there are five (5) I2S cables between each DAC and transport, i.e. ten (10) all together, all serving a different purpose, e.g. a master clock, a sample clock etc.

The transport itself is renowed Philips CD-Pro 2M, built in granite chassis. As with other top-loading designs, a magnetic puck is used to secure the disk while playing, but in Lector's case there is no lid (I'm running out of exclamation marks). The DACs use Ancient Audio's own converter, all connections are made in silver and output buffering utilizes 6H30 valve (another my favourite). You have to buy this issue of Hi-Fi News just to be able to admire crafmanship of this beauty.

Reviewer Andrew Harrison's reference system consist of full dCS stack, i.e. state-of-the-art digital playback system par excellence. Yet he remarks that "Where the dCS would give a neutral, nearly dispassionate rendering, the Ancient Audio player had a more engaging personality ... thanks to its sweet, liquid and organic presentation there are few machines that will take you closer to the heart of the music".

The first audiophile hardware mod for the Apple iPod!

2005-09-26T09:06:00.000+02:00

Red Wine Audio has announced the first (?) audiophile grade mod for the omnipresent Apple iPod, aiming to turn it into "a superb sounding, battery-powered, miniature sized digital playback source" for high-end audio system.

According to the Red Wine Web-site, "the goal of the Red Wine iMod is to significantly minimize the analog signal path that follows the output of the internal Wolfson WM8975 dac chip." The mod, available for the 60Gb iPod Photo, includes Black Gate caps and silver wiring, and "... converts the 1/8" headphone jack to a line out jack, so the headphone output is disabled. The Red Wine modded iPod is intended o be connected to either a high quality headphone amp or home stereo system."

Audio Research & Conrad-Johnson - new products

2005-09-24T10:57:00.000+02:00

According to ARC Database, Audio Research continues to revamp its product line. Following the introduction of Reference 3 pre-amp and 610T mono-blocks, company will shortly announce two new products. The Reference 210 is a 210W mono power amplifier, utilizing three matched pairs of 6550C output tubes, two 6550C driver tubes, and a 6N1P vacuum tube in amplifying stage. The biasing system is with only two bias adjustments, like with the REF610T. ARC claims extrely wide frequency range of 0.5Hz to 240kHz. The 210 has the same, new industrial design, i.e. it possesses huge vacuum-fluorescent display screen like the one on the REF3 and REF610T.

I've no doubt that ARC's new products are great sounding, but I have to agree with Ken Kessler from Hi-Fi News (in October 2005 issue) that the new display is "so truly, hideously, sphincter-clinchingly grotesque ..." ... "ARC should supply with the REF3 a brown paper bag." Plus, the new industrial design has omitted those ARC distinctive, ergonomically perfect knobs and switches in favour of software controlled functions. BTW, Kessler pronounced that the REF3 is "... the finest-sounding pre-amplifier I have ever tried in my own system."

The other new ARC product is the new Reference CD7 CD player, see pictures here. My original post had some some errors, which Marc Mickelson from Soundstage! Network pointed out. Although CD7 has the analog section from the Reference 3 preamp, it doesn't have pre-amp section as I reported. But I rest my case, this is one product I look forward to.

The other esteemed American high-end manufacturer Condard-Johnson has also adopted new industrial design. Following the success of ACT2 pre-amp, company has annouced LP140M mono block 140-watt amplifier and the LP70S stereo amplifier (70 watts/channel). Although CJ has not updated its Web-site (why most audio manufacturers are soooo bad in marketing?), the company has closed the gap in its revised product line by announcing the CT5 line-stage. This baby-ACT2 features extensive use of Teflon CJD capacitors, same zero-feed-back circuit and the 6H30 tubes (2) as the ACT2. Good-bye for the Premier 17LS2 pre-amp.

Helsinki Audio & Vision Expo 2005

2005-09-19T16:45:00.000+02:00

Yours truly attended last week-end Hifi Magazine's Audio & Vision Expo in Helsinki, Finland. You can read show report at Highendnews' Web-site, under Industry News.

Overall expression was that this year there were several decent sounding rooms. I personally feel that to provide detailed listening reports from hi-fi exhibitions is waste of time for various reasons. First, like in this case, exhibition was organized in the hotel and like we all know, hotel rooms are not designed to be optimal acoustic environments. Second, very few dealers can spend enough time to optimise the system. Ask yourself how much time you personally have spent to obtain maximum sound from your system. And third, any attempt to critically listen to microdynamics of a system is futile in an environment where other organizers' systems and attendees' voices overload your ears (and eyes, those showgirls...).

Having said that, if a system sounds good in an hi-fi show, then it has potential to sound great in a good environment. In this context some systems were promising. I and two other fellows from Highendnews (audio editor Ari-Martti Pohtola and publisher Mikko Mattila) were privileged to play (LOUD!) JM Lab Grande Utopia Bes after show hours, the "audiophile recording" in this case was Rammstein's Los track from Reise, Reise album. I've listened to Grande Utopias as well as smaller (everything is relative) Nova Utopia Bes before, but this time I was impressed. The Be tweeter revealed astonishing amount of detail that put my highly-revealing Revel Studios in shame: extremely extended and transparent, yet never harsh. The transient response and physical appearance of low frequencies were highly convincing. We also played earlier all-acoustic recordings, which showed the depth and totality of the Utopias' neutrality. Kudos to a local dealer who had courage to bring Utopias in a public display.

The other potentially great sound was found in Kruunuradio's (the oldest hifistore in Helsinki) room - and could not be more in contrast to €70.000 JM Labs. Evidently Kruunuradio has cooperated with Gradient Loudspeaker's renowned designer Mr. Jorma Salmi to bring onto market an inexpensive two-way mini-monitor. In order to provide attractive price/performance ratio the speakers are to be manufactured in low-cost country and to be sold under dealer's own brand. We were literally blew out of the water. These little suckers sounded way, way better than their suggested price point indicates - actually after our positive feed-back price evidently went up ;). At €500 a pair (new price point) the dealer in a question better be careful, these speakers carry a significant opportunity cost factor and might actually substitute sales of higher price point speakers. We had to go back twice in order to substantiate our assessment.

Running out of space, so just few other positive remarks. The debut of PenAudio's latest "auditional wellbeing", €2.590 a pair Alba presented highly resolving capabilities, and Crevasse's production-ready horn loaded ribbon loudspeakers (around €9.500) showed much improved integration of woofer. I'll be attending Brussels Hi-Fi show in early October, so stay tuned for additional coverage.

Corrections and more about HP

2005-09-13T17:10:00.000+02:00

I have received some comments from readers concerning my posts. First, according to some German Web-sites the correct price for a pair of Onkyo D-302E seems to be around €1.600, not €2.400 as indicated by French Revue du Son. Thanks for Leonid, although you said that they actually cost around 750-800 Euro, that seems to be per speaker price.

Second, some time ago I wrote that TAS' Harry Pearson was "in the Critical Intersection", i.e. HP elaborated in "HP's Workshop" that while auditioning some new components over the past few months, he firmly believes that we have reached a turning point in recreating an absolute sound.

HP, being a teaser, continued in the TAS August 2005 issue as follows: "I have been able, thanks to a crucial technical advance in the reference system, to eliminate a linestage from the electronic chain and plug either the ASR batterydriven phonostage or any one of a hot new generation of conventional CD players directly into the reference amplifier. What reference amplifier? What kind of input stage (t’ain’t passive)?"

A reader sent me email saying that HP is actually referring to ASR Emitter line of products, but putting that in the context what HP said above that makes little sense. But as said, HP "The Teaser" will undoubtedly enlighten us in the following issues of TAS.

Japanese high-end speakers?

2005-09-07T18:52:00.000+02:00

Pioneer has announced some interesting new speaker designs, which incorporate drivers from Pioneer's reputable TAD division: bookshelf S-2EX, floorstanding S-1EX and central unit S-7EX (see picture below). Like JMLab Be series speakers, these new Pioneer offerings use ultra-light, ultra-stiff , ultra-hard-to-work beryllium in tweeters. According to Stereophile, "Beryllium is 2.5 times less dense than titanium and 1.5 times less dense than aluminum, but is three and five times stiffer, respectively. For domes of identical mass, beryllium is seven times more rigid than one made of titanium or aluminum, and the velocity of soundwaves traveling through it is three and 2.5 times faster than through, respectively, titanium or aluminum. While there's a huge upside to a beryllium dome, many complications are involved in the manufacturing. The metal is scarce and horribly expensive in its pure form, which is produced in only three countries: the US, Russia, and France. It can also release highly toxic and dangerous fumes when worked or machined."

The French Revue du Son in its September 2005 issue reviewed other interesting Japanese speaker, a bookshelf Onkyo D-302E (€2400 a pair). A solid recommendation. The review was published simultaneously in French music review magazine, Diapason, in where D-302E received Diapason d'or award 2005. Specs are intriguing: ring-dome tweeter with frequency extension up to 100kHz, innovative cross-over and 16cm woofer with 14cm high-strength ferrite magnet and super overall finish.

"These Onkyo D302E have a fantastic set of qualities like we have never seen before for any other speaker of that category. The qualities which clearly stand out are an unusual sound articulation, a feeling of acceleration, of sound material and an incredible speed which gives guitar, piano or any other instrumental sounds that form an orchestra such an impressive relief along with a feeling of clarity which we are clearly not accustomed to."

In addition of being astounded by awesome transient attack and resolution, the RDS reviewers were equally astonished how big this just 15.2 litres volume bookshelf sounded.

Viewpoint: Increased usage of esoteric, expensive materials (beryllium, diamond) in mid-priced speaker designs (like latest models from JMLab, B&W and now Pioneer) is just the proof that high-end audio market functions just like any other high-end segments in other industries. New innovations are commercialised on high-price points for early adopters, and then gradually over the years innovations run downstream into mid- and low-price products. Think SACD hardware roll-out here, for another example.

My guess is that even if these little Onkyos are such wonders, they'll find home in very few audiophile homes - just are our prejudices.

Audio Research Reference 610T mono amps

2005-09-07T17:29:00.000+02:00

Source: Prestige Audio Video (French) September 2005

Seems to me that quite many hi-fi magazines nowadays try too much to provide "Industry First", "World Premier" etc. reviews - you know, to review the latest gear before anybody else. Why I'm not providing any synopsis of listening notes of this particular review (OK, they were impressed) is because personally I find this kind of reviews utterly useless.

Why? Primo, listening venue was in Sofitel hotel room and as such, reviewers had no previous familiarity with the acoustic properties of a room. Secundo, the associated gear was equally unfamiliar for them: Audio Research's latest Reference 3 pre-amp, CD3 mk2 from the same vendor and la cerise sur le gâteau, Wilson Audio Alexandria S2 speakers. Do the math, that's close to €200.000 system. Tertio, the reviewers jubilantly confessed that the 610Ts were brand new, with less than one hour of burn-in.

This review gets my J'accuse 2005 Award (the World Premier of its kind!). How in Earth anybody can make any conclusions how an audio gear sounds when listened in an unfamiliar environment with associated equipments of which personality is equally unknown? And yet we all audiophiles eagerly read hi-fi show reports where reviewers make equally farfetched conclusions how certain components sound. Furthermore, think how often we hear/read assertions by an audiophile how he/she was able to distinguish and assess the sound of a particular component in a equally unknown system. I can certainly hear the difference (not always an improvement, just a difference - if there is any) when testing primary or secondary (like cables) components in my own system, yet I always exercise caution when presenting a generalisation. My system sounds OK, your system sounds OK, and that's OK. We all appreciate different virtues, but lets not make the authoritative conclusions when there are way too many unknown data points.

Closing remarks. Nevertheless how corny the review was, but looking at the pictures of these €55.500 a pair, 77.2 kg per unit mono amps made me drooling. And BTW, there are 23 tubes per unit, but don't worry. According to ARC Web-site "This means fewer tubes to replace, and a much simpler biasing system: two bias adjustments instead of the 16 required in the REF600 series."

Acrojapan cables

2005-09-05T18:56:00.000+02:00

"If the name "Acrolink" starts appearing in your favorite magazines, remember that you read about it here first", said Ken Kessler in Stereophile August eNewsletter. These are high-end cables previously reserved for Japanese market only, and according to KK exclusive for TEAC Esoteric brand. Company aims now to extend its global reach, and you can admire built quality at their US distributor's site.

German Stereoplay was the first to test Nordost's latest, "affordable" interconnects. Evidently so new that Nordost's own Web-site has no mention of them! At least you can see pictures here. Result: the most expensive (€1.600) "Tyr" RCA interconnect received 19 points, and the entry model (€550) "Heimdall" 15. For the comparison, the same magazine gave 18 points for Kimber Kable Select KS 1030 - and my personal experience is that the 1030 is a fabulous interconnect (I own KK Select 3035 speaker cables).

NAD's high-end ambitions

2005-08-25T20:39:00.000+02:00

Source: NAD Web-site, not-yet-published (?) marketing material

According to various industry sources, "budget king", high-value-for-money NAD is going up-market - and in a big way. Company will announce in this month "Masters Series Reference Audio and Video Components." What is fascinating is that beyond the AV components there are M3 Dual Mono Integrated Amplifier ($2799.00) and the M55 Universal DVD Player ($1799.00), see picture below. Other members of the Masters family are the M15 Surround Sound Processor ($2999.00) and the M25 Seven-Channel Power Amplifier ($2999.00). Build quality seems to justify the price, but actual sound remains to be seen - although I suspect that we might have here some new category winners. Musical Fidelity, beware!

I could not help smiling when I read the marketing material of the M55 Universal player. Hear this out: "Since the high-density data recorded on DVD must be read with absolute accuracy, vibrations from outside or from internal sources, such as the power supply, will adversely affect sound and picture quality. A variety of special measures have been incorporated in the NAD M55 to suppress these unwanted vibrations, from the carefully engineered heavy gauge steel chassis, to the vibration isolating silicon rubber foot design." Although above is related to video performance, quite often it is the NAD owners who trash audiophiles in regard to isolation devices, excessive focus on power supply etc., and now NAD is using the same jargon. But heck, if you want to sell to audiophiles, then use jargon of the target segment ;)

I suspect that M55 is yet another player based on Pioneer's reference design akin Bel Canto PL-1A, McCormack UDP-1, Simaudio Moon Orbiter, just to name a few. Yet if the M55 sounds as good as other Pioneer based players, then its indicated price of $1.799 is competitive.

Simaudio Moon Andromeda and dCS P8i

2005-08-25T19:00:00.000+02:00

Source: Haute Fidelite September 2005

Actually this was not an head-to-head shoot-out of two players. The HF tested both players using different reviewers, but the same rig consisting of ATC SCA-2 pre-amp, FM Acoustics F-30 B amp and Pierre-Etienne Leon Kyoro speakers. BTW, especially in France FM Acoustics brand still enjoys quite a mystical reputation.

Moon Andromeda Redbook CD player is part of brand's new Evolution series, other components in the series are P-8 pre-amp and W-8 power amplifier. The HF review confirmed what can be observed from the pictures in manufacturer's Web-site - this cost-no-object, two-chassis player is built like a tank and looks and feels worth of its retail price of €13.950 (no typo). Other interesting design note is upsampling up to 24-bit/705.6kHz. Reviewer Monsieur C.H. Lucy was exhilarated: "When listening Corsican polyphonies I was transported on the precipitous coastal roads of Isle Of Beauty. The intoxicating and captivating timbers were reproduced with sensation of spaciousness, air, subtleties of harmonic tonality and deep soudstage uncommon for any other competitive player." His listening notes describe extensively the subjective charasteristics of Andromeda: the ease and liquidity of sound and a remarkable subtlety in reproducing the variety of shadings from each instruments. He wrapped up poetically. "The result of listening can be summarized as appearance of three dimensional universe, intimate, sensuous, tactile, futuristic, zen, baroque." Ah, the way Les Francais can describe sound of audio equipment ;)

As for dCS P8i, the review left me at a loss. Although review had some 2 pages of technical information about P8i, the actual listening notes didn't make any refernce to its SACD performance, nor was in-built digital volume control evaluated. Strange. What I could establish was that P-8i is highly capable (CD?) player, but as said, not the best review. Stereophile has on-line Art Dudley's January 2005 review of dCS Verdi La Scala CD/SACD transport and Delius D/A converter, which hint that single chassis P-8i should sound pretty phenomenal.

Viewpoint: Even if you have financial means to buy a CD/SACD player costing over €10.000, value should be a basic factor in evaluating it. Truthfully, most audiophiles expect (and hope?) not to hear an appreciable difference between their existing Redbook CD only players and the latest generation of high-end multi-format players. Or if they hear a difference, it would be so incremental that a new player could not justify the high price. Personally, I assign a higher priority to CD-playback than for new formats per se, for a simple reason that I have no intention to re-purchase yet another copy (whether it is in DVD-A or SACD) of disks I already own. Having said that, some DVD-A demos have left me convinced about that format, and similarly all SACD demos have left me wondering what the fuss is all about. And yet trend seems to be that future high-end playback system shall be either traditional two-channel hifi components utilizing DSD (think dCS or EMM Labs) or computer based with external DAC. As for the latter, in the September 2005 Stereophile Art Dudley did a good job in evaluating Wavelenght Audio's Brick DAC with a portable computer and uncompressed music.

As an IT professional I'm OK with computer based approach, but what I would like to see are i) audiophile grade downloads, ii) capability to rip and store DSD data on a computer's hard-disk and output it to external DAC, and iii) Digital Rights Management and copy protection methods that work. The latter is annoying, e.g. copy protection used in Blue Note Records Rudy Van Gelder (RVG) Series CDs results in audiple cracks when ripped into iTunes, and also create occasional read errors in my Levinson CD-player and CEC transport. You see the logic here, i.e. re-mastered jazz classics are typically bought by the audiophiles exactly for the reason that they sound great, and yet the copy protection system prevents them to be used in high-end playback systems. Overall, whole DVD-A/SACD roll-out and marketing mess and aforementioned example of record companies annoying their best customers (read audiophiles) really makes me wonder from where they find their "management talent".

Wilson Audio MAXX Series 2 loudspeakers

2005-08-19T20:13:00.000+02:00

Source: The Absolute Sound August/September, Stereophile August 2005, Soundstage August 2004

Robert Harley / TAS, Michael Fremer / Stereophile and Marc Mickelson / Soundstage, all respective reviewers of high-end components - and all salivating over latest MAXXs. Harley: "... produced the best sound I've had in my listening room over the past 16 ears as a fulltime reviewer." Fremer: "In my space, the Wilson MAXX2 was easily the best overall loudspeaker I have ever heard, though others may have bested it in specific performance parameters." Mickelson: "Would I buy MAXX 2s? Absolutely. They are the most significant product I've written about in my eight years as an audio reviewer."

I think you got the picture, no need to quote listening notes regarding resolution or imaging. There are some issues, however, which attracted my attention. To start with, Harley and Fremer have almost identical size listening rooms: 4.5m (w) x 6.4m (l) x 2.5m (h), i.e. relatively smaller than most environments in which the MAXX is likely to be used. One expects that such a large, full-range speaker would definitely overload these smallish rooms, and yet both reviewers highlighted and focused on sub 200Hz performance of MAXX. Harley stated that there are very few components which have caused him to reevaluate what's possible in music reproduction: "To that select list I can now add ... MAXX Series 2 loudspeaker. The aspect of music reproduction that the MAXX redefines, in my experience, is the bottom end, where it combines huge bass power and dynamics with ultra-precise control, coherence, and resolution. More than any other loudspeaker I've heard, the MAXX integrates the bass into the musical fabric, both dynamically and tonally, in a way that makes me forget I'm listening to a mechanical reproduction of music rather than to music itself."

Fremer: "... delivered the deepest, tighest, most pitch-precise bass I've ever heard in my room."

Mickelson: "... bass is deeper and more powerful than that of any speaker I've used. The lowest and most powerful sounds -- electric bass, bass drum -- simply appear, and just as you get ready for at least a little slop or overhang, they disappear with realistic speed."

All three gents wowed the immense dynamic capabilities of MAXXs, combined with accurate and properly proportioned imaging. Although the MAXXs are large speakers by any account, reviews noted that one of their most striking quality is their ability to disappear and to sound believable with large-scale orchestral music and with the most intimate recordings. Lastly, both Fremer and Mickelson noted that the MAXX 2 is a speaker for late-night listening, i.e. they are able to sound open, balanced and articulated even with low volume levels. For me all this can be best described as dynamic consistency, in other words, MAXXs seem to be speakers that perform over a wide volume range, and at any given volume can play consistently music that covers a wide dynamic range.

Viewpoint: I've stated earlier the following:

i) One of the more frustrating uncertainties facing high performance audio is determining the ultimate capabilities of a component. Being able to identify a component as excellent is easy enough. Knowing exactly just how excellent is rather more ambiguous. Since any component will only be audible when placed in a system, judging its ultimate limits requires that one knows the ultimate prowess of each component in the system, each of which in turn faces the same dilemma. Upgrading an individual component becomes a shot in the dark: will the upgrade bring a genuine improvement in system sound and will the rest of the system be capable of resolving the difference?

ii) The purpose of audio reviews is not to make choice for a reader. It is rather to help potential buyer to know what products merit a visit to a dealer showroom - or more preferably, leads into home trial within listener's own system.

But consider the MAXX2s. At $45.000 they represent for most audiophiles the ultimate purchase in terms of price, or should I say, a choice between a new car or new speakers. But before committing to the purchase, can an audiophile have a home trial? Nope (shipping weight is 500kg plus they require a time-consuming set-up by a dealer). How about listening in a dealer's showroom with your choice of components? Hmm, I suspect you are happy if you can locate a dealer within some hundreds of kilometers, and be equally lucky to have in a dealer's showroom anything resembling equipments you have at home. In real life (and at least in Europe), these are the speakers you'll buy with limited first-hand knowledge or experience, and in order to achieve the best results you might have to upgrade substantial part of your HE-gear to reveal the magic and hear their full potential.

Would I buy? If money were no issue, most probably. Have once spent a good hour listening in Wilson Audio WATT/Puppy 7s driven by full Nagra gear (source was nothing less than Nagra SNST-R tape recorder) and I was sold. There are audiophiles who have strong opinion about Wilson house sound, but at least for me the latest Wilson offerings are something special.

Stereophile and controversial cable review

2005-08-13T17:34:00.000+02:00

Source: Stereophile August 2005

It's almost legendary. When either Stereophile reviewers Michael Fremer or Art Dudley find a particular and usually esoteric tube based component seductive sounding, John Atkinson, editor and in-house measurement guru points out the measurable problems, perverse distortions or audible idiosyncrasies that strongly contradicts subjective listening experiences of aforementioned gents.

The same phenomenon occurred when Michael Fremer reviewed in August issue the Harmonic Technology Cyberlight Wave interconnects. As he stated himself he risked and jump into hyperpole hell by saying "... Harmonic Technology's Light Analog Module Transducer is the most significant single technological breakthrough I have experienced in my career as an audio reviewer. It is immediately superior in every way." And naturally Harmonic Technology uses this very quote in their Web-site.

What Harmonic Technology "forgets" to mention is that Atkinson went on record by saying the following: "If this review were of a conventional product, I would dismiss it as being broken. Ultimately, no matter what someone might think of its sound - and Michael Fremer is one the most skilled listeners I know of - I really don´t see how the CyberLight P2A and Wave cables can be recommended. I am puzzled that Harmonic Technology, which makes good sounding, reasonably priced conventional cables, would risk their reputation with something as technically flawed as the Cyberlight."

In Manufacturers´comments Jim Wang from HT thanked MF for "his stunning subjective description of the CyperLight cables in his system", yet confessed that "JA´s measurements have put our engineers under stress; they cant´t understand how they differ so much from their own." In the same section MF stated that he knew before publication about JA's reservations, but chose not to lobby for "withdrawal in order to avoid embarrassment and possible damage to my reputation." Moreover, JA explained his usual and alternative test set-up for these cables.

Viewpoint: Kudos for Stereophile for publishing the whole story! For me this illustrates solid and unbiased editorial policy and MF should not feel embarrassed at all. Positive Feedback's Robert H. Levi equally wowed CyperLights in his review. However, this whole episode provides food for thought - and fundamentally so. Do we audiophiles experience more "natural sound" from components which basically colour the sound through distortions? As a tube advocat I'm first to confess.

All audiophiles know that how different harmonics are "presented" by an amplifier tends to affect how a listener perveices the sound. Below I have inserted an extract of unknown source which apparently concerns Parasound's JC1 monoblocks. Whether the conclusions are correct or not, they nevertheless provide some insights for harmonics and how we perceive them.

"The second harmonic adds clearness and brilliance but nothing else, it being a general principle that the addition of the octave can introduce no difference of timbre or characteristic musical quality. When the second harmonic is of equal strength with the first, it produces much of the same effect as adding the octave-coupler on an organ or harmonium or playing in octaves, instead of single notes on the piano.

The third harmonic again adds a certain amount of brilliance because of its high pitch, but it also introduces a difference of timbre, thickening the tone, and adding to it a certain hollow, throaty or nasal quality, which we may recognize as one of the main ingredients of clarinet tone.

The fourth harmonic, being two octaves above the fundamental, adds yet more brilliance, and perhaps even shrillness, but nothing more, for the reason already explained. The fifth harmonic, apart from adding yet more brilliance, adds a rich, somewhat horn-like quality to the tone, while the sixth adds a delicate shrillness of nasal quality.

As the table on p. 73 shows, all these six harmonics form parts of the common chord of the fundamental note, and so are concordant with this note and with one another. The seventh harmonic, however, introduces and element of discord; if the fundamental note is c, its pitch is approximately b , which forms a dissonance with c. The same is true of the ninth, eleventh, thirteenth, and all higher odd-numbered harmonics; these add dissonance as well as shrillness to the fundamental tone, and so introduce a roughness or harshness into the composite sound. The resultant quality of tone is often described as "metallic", since a piece of metal, when struck, emits a sound which is rich in discordant high tones.

What John Curl reads in his solitary nocturnal reflections, or private research about music, though dated, is still illuminating: it demonstrates how the acoustics of musical instruments can be exaggerated by electronic circuits unless proper steps are taken to avoid undesirable "roughness," "harshness," and "shrillness," apparently due to odd-numbered harmonics in the signal path. Apparently, Curl has taken special pains to minimize these devils. The result is that the JC-1 is "voiced" toward emphasis on even-numbered harmonics, which is characteristic of the best tubed amplifiers. Or, we might say, Curl has designed this amplifier with a design goal of approaching the sound of good tubed amplifiers, along with the authority of the best solid state amplifiers. I’d say that in large measure he has succeeded! And that’s why in certain circles, the guy is a legend."

Musical Fidelity kW SACD player

2005-08-12T18:10:00.000+02:00

Source: Hi-Fi News September 2005

Evidently Hi-Fi News is trying to distinguish itself from other audio magazines by trying to review first the latest gear under "Hi-Fi News Exclusive" label. In this issue David Berriman reviewed Musical Fidelity's latest kW series offering, new flagship CD/SACD player. Other "Exclusive" in the same issue were 3D Acoustic Omega Drive CD player (re-branded Shanling CDT-300, "A stunning piece of audio engineering, this player earns an unequivocal recommendation..."), Martin Logan Summit speakers (Ken Kessler wowed about their "unbelievable dynamics, speed, transient attack..." - but observed that they are not that easy to drive), Stirling Broadcast LS3/5a V2 speakers (another BBC LS3/5A wannabees, though Kessler was impressed), Marantz SA-15S1 SACD player and matching PM-15S1 amplifier (Kessler continued to be impressed...), Clearaudio Emotion turntable and finally DNM 3D-Six pre-amp. Moreover, they even had "Hi-Fi News Definitive TEST", subject was Tower of Power, i.e. ATC Anniversary SCM 50 active loudspeakers. Huh and hmm - if you get my point.

Back to MF kW SACD player. Some interesting design choices. It's stereo-only, as most high-end SACD-players nowadays, but with two output stages. The tube stage utilizes 6112 "mu-Vista" tube, and the other is a Class A transistor circuit. Both operate simultaneously and can be connected to different amp inputs, making sonic comparisons easy. Verdict? "I thought the A5 CD sounded astonishing, but the kW SACD has taken CD replay a step further ... revealed an even greater sense of delicacy and transparency." As for those two output stages, "...there is no argument; to my ears, the valve option is so obviously better as to make the choice a no-brainer." Only gripe was that there is no facility to access PCM layer on dual-layer discs, i.e. you end up listening always SACD layer. Well, as Microsoft says, "it's not an omission but a feature". Go figure. And yes, kW SACD is a limited edition of 500 pieces.

BTW, MF maintains in their Web-site all reviews as PDF files, including this one, so entertain yourself.

Viewpoint: The kW SACD has a completely separate DAC and filter stage for CD and SACD and hence seems to maintain pure DSD signal path. I was startled when I read in Hi-Fi World August 2005 issue review of Esoteric X-01. This is as high-end player as they can get: super build quality, latest TEAC VRDS transport etc. - and yet DSD signals are converted into 88.2 Khz/24bit PCM before analogue translation! Although said magazine gave it enthusiastic review like "Nothing compares" and "... surely the best sounding silver disc spinner money can buy" I have my reservations.

Apple Ipod volume control restriction

2005-08-12T15:00:00.000+02:00

Evidently Apple had to introduce volume control limit to its iPod players within the EU in order to comply with health (and sanity?) regulation. I typically exercise pretty strict control how loud I listen to my iPod using Etymotic ER4P earphones, but there are times I would prefer just a tad more volume. There is an answer, i.e. software hack, which removes this limitation. If you feel that you want to take control over your listening volumes, see GoPod. Click "GO" and choose a proper ZIP file for downloading. I had no problems unlocking my 6GB iPod Mini.

BTW, if you own Etymotic ER4 earphones and are unsure which model you have, I got this answer from Etymotic customer support (which is SUPER, don't hesitate to contact them): The 4P has a green pod at the "Y" connector and the 4S has a gray pod at the "Y" connector.

Four high-end tube and hybrid pre-amplifiers

2005-08-03T22:11:00.000+02:00

Source: Revue du Son July/August 2005

RDS reviewed a dream team of pre-amps: Audio Research Reference 3, Conrad-Johnson ACT2, EAR/Yoshino 912 and Musical Fidelity kW. All are either tube based designs or hybrids employing tubes. There was undeniably something about these pre-amps that seduced even jaded audio reviewers like Jean Hiraga into using superlatives.

Audio Research Reference 3 was noted for its phenomenal transparency and resolution and one reviewer perceived that the addition of Reference 3 into RDS's usual listening system brought substantial gains in system transparency, dynamics and resolution.

Conrad-Johnson ACT2 has been discussed before in this blog. I also pointed out some questionable rise time of 14,5µs. In RDS measurements rise time was 9,8µs, still on the high side. Measurements aside, RDS reviewers wowed this masterpiece of mechanical engineering and industrial design: incredible charming, so seductive that one tends to listen the most favourite disks one after another. However, its price of €18.900 was considered punitive, resulting in 3/5 in quality/price ratio - whereas all other ones were 5/5. See also SoundStage's ACT2 review.

As for EAR/Yoshino 912 this was propably the first review ever. This is hybrid design, using five PCC 88 tubes and the only one which includes phonostage (and hence, strictly speaking the only pre-amp here, other ones are linestages). Both reviewers noted the sensational dynamic range of which the EAR/Yoshino 912 is capable to reproduce, easily the most dynamic of quattro tested. Considering the company quite a remark.

Musical Fidelity kW preamp was undeniable winner with respect to quality/price ratio - at €4.145 it's one quarter of the price of the ACT2! The RDS listening notes were pretty much idenytical what I reported earlier, i.e. exceptional pre-amp for the money. Only criticism is lack of balanced input and outputs, which limits its use with all symmetric components.

Viewpoint: A preamp in my book has to justify its inclusion by adding dynamics, body, tone and spatial dimensionality. For me, that means tubes. Based on this review one might conclude that as for pre-amps we're almost there - wherever "there" is.

I also point readers to the Absolute Sound issue April/May 2005 where in HP’s Workshop four other interesting line-stages are reviewed and positioned against Conrad-Johnson ART II (now discontinued): Tom Evans Audio Design Vibe, Burmester 808 Mk V, the Keith Herron VTSP-2 and the Lector Zoe. The Lector Zoe especially looks interesting at €2.000. Although somewhat dark sounding, HP mentioned exceptional dynamics - a test against EAR 912 might be interesting in this domain.

The one sure thing these reviews illustrate is that all linestages impose themselves on the music, and in a sense, limit and interpret its truth. As HP said in April/May 2005 TAS: "If cost alone were the determining factor, then one linestage would be the hands-down winner, and that linestage is, indeed, the very best buy in the business. But, otherwise, we have to juggle between the sonic aspects, like the handling of dynamics, the tonal character of a unit (e.g., whether dark or light, yin or yang), or its handling of the ambient and dimensional qualities of the reproduced soundfield. Taken together, these things will be at the root of your perception of the linestage’s musical worth."

Pathos Cinema-X

2005-07-08T13:31:00.000+02:00

Source: Hi-Choice Summer 2005

Cinema-X? Maybe Pathos' marketing department has been watching too much Pay-TV? In earnest, this is a 5 x 110 watts into 8 Ohm multichannel integrated amplifier. The valve preamp stage operates in class A and uses 6 ECC88 tubes, one for each solid-state MOSFET amplifier channel and one for the sub-woofer output. Each channel can be individually adjusted via the remote control. Design is pretty purist and audiophile grade: no internal decoder, limited video switching, XLR in, and most interestingly, power amps can be grouped together for 2 x 450w into 8 Ohm. Pathos even claims that X delivers 2 x 700w into 4 Ohm! Styling is typical Pathos - you either love it or hate it, personally I find all their designs striking.

As for sonic characteristics, the review found X's sound BIG and rich: "... perhaps too huge: a solo voice can sometimes seem as if it's about five metres tall and four metres wide!" Sound was found to lean on warm, slightly romantic and creamy side, the drawbacks being some lack of dynamics and transparency. The main criticism was timing: "... if your last amplifier was a Naim, your next one will not be a Pathos." Combining power amps into 2 x 450w "... comes across as more grip and headroom..." Received "Editor's Choice" recommendation.

Viewpoint: Only one. This blog leaves for vacation and we'll meet again in the end of July. Happy summer listening.

Stax SRS-4040 Signature System 2

2005-07-06T18:45:00.000+02:00

Source: Hi-Fi World August 2005

David Price reviewed a Stax "earspeakers" system comprising of the SR-404 classic electrostatic earspeakers and the SRM-006t valve energiser. If you are a newbie for earphones business, seeing the "latest" Stax offerings will most propably send you away from a dealer's showroom screaming. First, the looks. Price really nailed it by saying: ".. it feel like it is 1974 ... the colour is a dead ringer for the 'Nutmeg brown' vinyl interior of my 1977 Rover 3500." One cannot regard Stax's design as retro, it's just plain 1970 hifi appearance. Second, Stax's marketing communication. Instead of headphones and headphone amplifier they refer to Earspeakers and Energiser. Well, in all fairness Stax earspeakers actually are miniature electrostatic speakers with thin diaphragm of only 1.35 micron in thickness. Third, and most importantly, looks are deceiving. Although Stax's product lifecycles seems to be measured in decades, the fact is that over the years numerous revisions to both earspeakers and energisers have been implemented.

Price's review was interesting because he compared SRS-4040 system to his Sennheiser HD-650 with Stefan AudioArt's Equinox cable and Musical Fidelity's latest X-CAN v3 headphone amp. The verdict? Compared with Sennheiser/Equinox /MF combo "... don't come within a country mile." Furthermore, "... these are the cleanest sounding headphones I've ever heard ... so comprehensively better than anything else of its type I've heard ..." Price duly noted what all Stax owners know: the valve based Stax energisers require at least 2 hours of warming up before they really deliver; the affordable (everything is relative) Stax earspeakers are a bit shy in low bass; and while those 'Nutmeg brown' vinyl earspeakers are supremely confortable, they tend to get sweaty during the longish listening session.

Viewpoint: As a satisfied owner of Stax SRM-T1S / Lambda Nova combo I read with interest Price's review, but also felt that he should listen to Stax top-of-the-line SR-007 Omega earspeakers driven by SRM-007t
tube driver unit (see Stereophile review). I had some years ago a change to listen some 2 hours with my own reference disks that system, and have since tried to find all kind of excuses not to purchase them. In addition, Omega has more contemporary looks, if that matters to you.

BTW, a great site to learn about headphones is Headroom.

CD-playback: CEC + Perpetual Tech vs. Mark Levinson 390S

2005-07-05T19:04:00.000+02:00

Some two weeks ago I had to send my Mark Levinson 390S CD-player to service (once again, should I say?). Since an idea without music for several weeks was no option, I installed CEC TL51 transport and Perpetual Technologies P-1A/P-3A combo from my Stax earphones system into my primary system - and was very surprised by results.

Some background. PT's P-1A digital-to-digital processor and P-3A DAC have been well covered by audiophile magazines, see for example Stereophile's review. My P-3A and external Monolithic Sound power supply are modified by ModWright to the highest Signature II level (see Stereophile's follow-up review of ModWright units). My experience with modded units in my Stax system has only been positive, yet I have never used PT combo in my primary system.

When I purchased CEC TL51 transport some 2 years ago, the decision was based on its impressive soundstage capabilities against other transports I listened in a dealer's facilities. I suspect that CEC's trademark design aspect, i.e. its belt-driven CD-drive (like in analogue turntables), is material for this point.

First I connected only PT P-3A DAC with Monolithic Sound power supply into my pre-amp, using Alpha Core's Sapphire Silver RCA interconnects. As I've had some 4 years with my Levinson 390S CD-player, my long-term memory footprint is pretty solid, i.e. I can definitely spot difference against other CD-playback system. Well, CEC + PT DAC did sound OK, but not on the same league as ML390S (see also Stereophile's review). What idiomatic language of audio reviews you want to use, it was just not happening on the same level as with ML390S. As I said earlier, Levinson service tends to take time, so I figured that I can do a little of damage control. Time for system building and tweaking.

I added PT P-1A D/D processor to feed P-3A DAC. Definitely an improvement, same thing when I installed PT combo on Townshend 3D platform. Resolution wise it was behind ML, but I got some impressive soundstaging, the gain in depth was in particular noticeable.

In order to make things even, I replaced Alpha Core's Sapphire interconnects by the same Siltech interconnects than with ML in a system. As I usually run my system full balanced, in order to use Siltech G6 XLR interconnects I had to install Cardas' RCA/XLR converters on the P-3A's side. The digital cable from transport to P-1A was Siltech G5 Golden Ridge, between PT units standard i2s cable. The result was unexpected, actually I was flabbergasted. This combo gave in practically nothing in comparison with ML 390S, on the contrary. Where ML's soundstage is a triangle shaped, deep between the speakers, CEC/PT combo's breadth and depth of soundstaging was huge in comparison, and very well layered. If you are familiar with the expression of soundstage's corners illuminated, that's what I got.

I still experienced some lack of ultimate resolution, but where ML is a tad warm sounding due to rather generous midbass, CEC/PT combo's bass goes deeper and presents bass lines better. While some tracks demonstrated that ML has a better rhythmic grip, attack and timing, CEC/PT combo's biggest allure is its musicality, with capital M. Reproduction of ambience and elusive impression of liveliness and vitality are another strengths, despite combo having less ultimate resolution than ML.

As said, I was stupefied and yet I wanted to see how far this combo can go. I remember reading about Revelation Audio's PT specific cables. To cut a long story short, some days later I received by courier service Revelation Audio's Parable Cryo-Silver Reference Power cords and the Prophecy Cryo-Silver Reference i2s Digital Link cable to replace rather wimpish standard cables. If you want more information about the construction of these cables and another reviewer's comments, see this review on-line. I have nothing to add and nothing to subtract, the reviewer expressed exactly my findings of these cables: more of everything, and then some. Simple, fabulous cables and must to have upgrade for PT owners. I am in awe what this combo can do, palpability and presence of the music has kept me clued on my listening chair for two days.

Good lesson here. What on paper looks like an underdog, produces more enjoyment than a component costing twice as much. But yet, lets remember that combo in a question is a modded one - and it was never a budget combo to start with. For me this is yet another proof that the system building through synergies is the ultimate art. And like art itself, results can sometimes be unpredictable. When ML 390S comes back from service, it'll assume a new role in my secondary system, driving Stax earphones. What I miss in attack, timing and resolution, the slightly "larger than life" presentation compensates. Or maybe my preferences shall change one day, and ML returns - who knows.

Martin Logan Summit revisited

2005-06-30T22:28:00.000+02:00

I got so curious by ML Summit I wrote last week that I had to organize some face time with them.

Luckily, Noir et Blanc, a ML dealer in Brussels, had them on demo and agreed to set me for a listening session. BTW, the other nice high-end dealership in Brussels is New Music. Same goes for both of them: if you approach them with a typical "tyre kicking" mentality, you get what you deserve. But if you present yourself as a knowledgeable audiophile, clearly presenting your agenda and budget, they respond positively.

Gentleman in Noir et Blanc had set-up the Summits nicely. Sources were CEC TL 51 transport + North Star Design Model 24/192 DAC for CD playback and Esoteric DV-50S universal player for SACD and DVD-A playback, amplifier was a T&A V10 integrated hybrid (with tubes) amplifier. BTW, T+A stands for "Theory and Application", not for "Tits and Ass" as some wiseguys have guessed... Noir et Blanc's reference speakers Dunlavy IVAs, by the way, were in this occasion serving the role of diffusors some 80cm behind the Summits ;)

Sound? An enigma, honestly. The Summits were not fully burned-in (some 50 hours) and I expected to hear excessively bright presentation. Instead of that, I heard more resolution than in my Revel Studios, yet at the same time less transparency. My Studios sound brighter, more analytical, more lay-back, and if I dare to say, more high-end. And yet, the Summits were more natural, soundstaging was bigger than life, imaging was more real. With the qualification that you get Summit's low bass controls properly set-up. Initially there were too much low bass for my taste and I fiddled between 0dB and -2dB settings at 20Hz and 50Hz, and almost adjusted overall bass level to minimum. Yes, the Summit offer three level of bass adjustments and I was a tad puzzled how much the overall tonal balance changed by different level of bass adjustments. With just a little of reduced energy in low bass the sound got bright, but never as aggressive and listening fatigue producing as with ML Prodigy. BTW, I'm not a new-born not to recognize how a good sub-woofer can change the tonal palette of HE-speakers, so give me a break here...

The bass controls are a great asset of Summit: you can individually set-up left/right speaker to produce the optimal room/speaker interaction in your listening room. Personally, possessing an asymmetrical listening room, this is one feature I would be ready to pay top money.

Might be my imagination but I felt that T&A V10 integrated hybrid was never in full control of Summits, my vote for an amplifier would be something producing more current/authority/control. I suspect that the challenging impedance magnitude of Summits (drops below 4ohms at 4kHz, and after that continues to decrease in almost linear fashion to 2ohm at 10kHz, and approximately 0.5ohm around 17kHz) would be better served by amps like Krell, Mark Levinson (not the latest offerings) and a like.

The ultimate question: am I going to "upgrade" from Revel Studios to Summit? Well, I'm not entirely virgin for Martin Logan designs, having owned both ML Aeon i and Ascent i speakers. With the Summit I heard the same pros and cons. State-of-the-art resolving capabilities and bogglingly transparent are only half the story, you might find that there is a bit of restricted dynamic drive. In particular for somebody like myself who predominatly listens to acoustic jazz, the choice is difficult. The Summits were uncannily accurate at expressing Partica Barber's Barber Companion, but yet that residual, Martin Logan house sound (sorry, I just cannot put it better) left me wondering. Better than Revel Studios? I would say qualified yes, but I'm not yet entirely convinced. Taking into account the current retail prices, I have to confess that the Summit at €12.000 is an outstanding value. In this light it's no wonder that Revel is is announcing revised Salon/Studio speakers in coming next 3 months.

Mårten Design Duke speakers and Ellington subwoofers

2005-06-27T14:36:00.000+02:00

Source: HiFi+ issue 39, Positive Feedback issue 19

In Sixmoons.com December 2003 review of Swedish Mårten Design's Mingus III speakers the conclusion was "Mark my words, this is one important company to keep under close scrutiny..."

Right on target. November 2004 Hifi+ review of company's Coltrane speakers resulted in HiFi+ Product of the year 2004 award. Same speakers were reviewed in February 2005 in Stereophile by Michael Fremer, and result was Class A rating.

Two reviews of Mårten Design's Duke speakers appeared almost at the same time in summer 2005. The Duke is a bookshelf-sized, two-way loudspeaker featuring the Accuton ceramic drivers from German Thiel Partners (not to be mixed up with the US Thiel Audio).

HiFi+'s editor Roy Gregory tested Dukes without and with the Ellington subwoofers. He noted that the Dukes sounded far more immediate, focussed and dynamic than their specified 87dB sensitivity: "There's crispness and liveliness to the music that you'd normally associate with far more efficient desings...". Furthermore, Gregory observed that the Dukes delivered "... a fantastic performance on smaller scale recordings ... combination of micro-dynamic discremination, energy and spatial definition ... makes the sound so convincing." The review mentioned Duke's lack of weight and substance at low-frequencies, but bringing the Ellington subs into play fixed this. "... you are left in no doubt that this is an extremely capable, full range speaker system." Conclusion: "This is one speaker system that anybody spending up to five-figures should definitely hear."

Positive Feedback's Danny Kaey echoed in his review. "... the first speakers to achieve headphone resolution in my room, and let me tell you, this is quite an experience. Never before have I heard such resolution of the details buried on CDs, LPs, or tapes." He quibbled over bass re-production, and like Roy Gregory found the Dukes nicely be complemented with a sub. Instead of a pair of Ellingtons, he used a single Velodyne DD-15. "Based on that experience, I concluded that the Marten Design Dukes could be upgraded from hyper-realistic performance to true world-class status by the addition of a modern subwoofer."

Viewpoint: It's tempting to conclude that the Accuton drivers are the ticket to high-end speaker design. The other renowned speaker manufacturers employing them are Kharma and Talon Audio. What is equally common for all these great sounding speakers is that the manufacturers use non-traditional materials and designs in cabinets and high-quality internal cabling.

For more information about Mårten Design's approach to speaker design and manufacturing see their US distributors site.

Naim CD5x CD-player with Flatcap2x power supply

2005-06-23T18:55:00.000+02:00

Source: HiFi+ issue 39

As a British reviewer, Jason Hector surprised in his review. He was actually quite critical towards Naim's latest offering. "In my opinion, and being blunt about it, the CD5x is not a stellar sonic performer", he stated in the middle of review. Although he recognized what the Flatcap2x brought into party - "After connecting the power supply the sound changes markedly and definitely for the better." - he went on describing whether the CD5x + Flatcap2x represent a good value. "The answer depends on your priorities ... could best be summed-up as well balanced and safe. Certainly, there are more colourful, dramatic and better sounding CD players available for this sort of money."

Later on he emphasized Naim's high residual value in second hand market etc., but the message was simple: "... the CD5x is not bad at anything but it is not spectacularly good at anything either. It is unquestionably an enjoyable player but it does not stand out in terms of absolute sound quality."

Viewpoint: Good for you, Jason. Recently I've noticed that French Haute Fidelite and British HiFi+ have both increased the number of critical reviews. What I've always stressed that one has to be educated how to read particular reviewer's articles in the context of editorial policy of a hifi magazine. What some people read as positive, can be interpreted quite negative in the context of reviewer's way of writing negative feedback.

As for Jason's feedback of "no-taste", let me repeat myself here. For me the greatest sin of a hifi component is mediocrity trap: that it does nothing glaringly bad, nothing particularly memorable. Such designs basically have nothing to say, and having nothing to say is not dependent on price. This is the case with most mainstream, high-end manufacturers today. I'm personally fine if a product commits a few minor, acts of omission if it somehow leaves an indelible impression on me - and connects me with the music emotionally.

Cambridge Audio 640H Music Server

2005-06-23T12:03:00.000+02:00

CA has finally announced its 640H Music Server. CA claims 640H to be an audiophile quality hard-disk player, based on their "mid-hifi" CD player Azur 640C. Specs are interesting: 160GB hard-disk, Wolfson WM8740 24/192kHz DAC, Internet radio, and in-built CD-R/CD-RW burner. Included WiFi and Ethernet connections enable the 640H to access music stored on any PC or Mac in home network. The Music Server is controlled with its embedded Audiophile (?) software, either via a small front LCD screen or external TV. Indicated retail price is €1200.

Viewpoint: The music server business is poised to be owned by Apple, building on their iTunes / iPod franchise. I'm baffled that they haven't announce CA 640H kind of product yet. Having said that, Apple actually already has a direct competitor to CA 640H in terms of Mac Mini, AirPort Express WiFi access point and iTunes software. And Apple solution enables a seamless use of iPod. However, Apple's iTunes has one key weakness what I've already reported. The iTunes software should be enhanced in a way that audio files could be stored in iTunes in WAV / AIFF format, but then during the transfer to iPod files would be converted on the fly to either Apple Lossless or MP3. This would enable users to use iTunes as their high quality media library, and at the same time maximize drive space in iPod.

I'm a proponent of music server type of products, but I'm even bigger fan of iTunes. I'm personally puzzled that according to studies only some 15% of iTunes users use its track/album rating system (1-5 stars). I use rating system to copy selected 4/5 stars songs to my iPod Mini, and have really been delighted how I've re-discovered some terrific tracks on unnoticed albums.

Martin Logan Summit reviewed

2005-06-22T19:18:00.000+02:00

Source: Stereoplay 07/05 (German)

This actually might be the first official Summit review. Stereoplay tested it with pretty respectable company of three other speakers: Audio Physic Caldera, B&W N 801D, and JBL Project K2S 9800. Both the B&W and JBL have been raved earlier by British and French hifi magazines. The review noted that the new XStat transducer with its smaller holes provides 50% more playable area than ML's Odyssey, and seems to work as promised - Summit sounded extremely dynamic, open, precise and natural. The magazine concluded that the Summit is the best electrostatic loudspeaker reviewed so far. At €12.000, excellent price/performance ratio, 62 points and Stereoplay Highlight award.

The other reviewed speakers all scored high: Caldera 63, 801D 63, and K2S 9800 62 points.

Viewpoint: A month ago I listened to ML Prodigy in a dealer's showroom. The Prodigys were driven by Bow Technology's components. Although that particular show room is acoustically treated, both myself and my HE buddy (owner of Dunlavy IVAs) detected quite aggressive highs (speakers were not fully burned-in), and larger than life soundstaging. Imaging was painted with large brush and generous strokes, if you get the meaning. To some extent a disappointment, especially in the light that I personally got hooked by high-end audio in listening to Prodigys. BTW, the Prodigy got 60 points in Stereoplay's review in year 2000.

Back to the Summit. The measurements illustrated that Summit is not the most neutral speaker in terms of frequency response, nor did they meet manufacturer's specified 92dB sensitivity (more like 88db). But what really got my attention was the plot of impedance magnitude, which drops below 4ohms at 4kHz, and after that continues to decrease in almost linear fashion (2ohm at 10kHz, and approximately 0.5ohm around 17kHz). Although active bass module should in principle make Summit easy to drive, I suspect that any amplifier not capable of providing enough current will make these speakers sound rolled-off in highs. For the comparison, check Stereophiles's measurements of Prodigy. BTW, Martin Logan owners' site has on-going discussion about the Summit.

Harry Pearson in the Critical Intersection

2005-06-20T23:03:00.000+02:00

Source: The Absolute Sound June/July 2005

In short, HP elaborated in "HP's Workshop" that while auditioning some new components over the past few months, he firmly believes that we have reached a turning point in recreating an absolute sound. Furthermore, he stated that improvements we are going to witness in coming months in sound re-production are such that "... we had reached the limits of the descriptive vocabulary that has served audio writers so well for a generation." Then he really got cryptic: "... we shall face an experience that would be a "hyper" reality, like no experience heretofore. Thus we are at an intersection that could take us to "the outside edge" of what we know." And evidently he is talking about two-channel sound.

Now if that was cryptic, then how about this: "There definitely is a revolutionary product on the horizon." He went on describing that on his watch as a reviewer, there has been only one "revolution", "... and that came with the QRS-1D, a hybrid enclosureless speaker system of planar and true ribbon and planar-like ribbon units." So evidently HP has recently been introduced to some kind of product, which has left him puzzled. Quote: "... recently came into my hands what I consider to be the second revolutionary audio product during my days at play. And both its sound and one of the ways it goes about achieving its result have prompted me to rethink some fundamentals and will, no doubt, rattle the audio reptiles, perhaps into a state of denial. I have been so shaken that I deferred writing about it too soon."

I know, the text above describing the mystery component sounds like coming from UFO related magazine, and here am I putting more gasoline into fire. HP confessed that this component has presented itself in the context of the latest state-of-the-art analog and digital gear in his listening room(s), and later on he presented some of these equipments in his revised Super Components List. Some components are already known, like Antique Sound Labs Hurricane monoblocks, some are new additions like Spectral DM-360 monoblocks, Lector Zoe pre-amp (review in same issue), and Zingali M-215 hybrid horn/cone system (review in the previous issue).

Viewpoint: I've read TAS some 8 years, and have to confess that I've never seen HP writing in a way he did in this issue's "HP's Workshop".

But the mystery remains, there is a new component in HP's radar screen he believes will "rattle the audio reptiles" - and will be revealed in the months to come. You Read It Here First - after TAS, of course ;)

I just wonder what comes next?

Aesthetix Saturn Calypso pre-amplifier

2005-06-19T16:55:00.000+02:00

Source: Stereophile July 2005

Michael Fremer's listening notes in Stereophile were very positive - and informative as he compared Calypso with VTL TL-7.5 and Musical Fidelity kW pre-amps. The speakers were no slouch either. Instead his new reference Wilson Audio's Puppy 7s he used this time Wilson's MAXX2s.

Actually the Calypso was "Fremered" by Mikey. "Not since the VTL TL 7.5 was in my system have I experienced such mesmerizing midband richness unmarred by thickness and congestion." Furthermore, "... midband presentation was everything I expect from an all-tube circuit: rich, colorful, harmonically involving ... without sounding ... overly "golden" or romanticized." He also observed that while Calypso's midrange over-performed his current reference, MF kWP, the kWP bettered Calypso in transient attack. In furher comparison with two other pre-amps, he noted that the Calypso's bottom-end performance had more extension and control than VTL, and kWP "was still somewhat more "punchy"."

Fremer found spatial presentation and dynamics equally convincing. The only matter worth of criticism was "... it might have missed the last bit of expansive air and resolution you can find in some pre-amps costing far more - but not in all of them." Conclusion: "One of the most enjoyable, musically satisfying preamplifiers I have has the pelasure of reviewing."

Viewpoint: I wrote about Calypso in April. Sum-up: Although Robert Harley in The Absolute Sound (TAS 146) praised this pre-amp, some users evidently have experienced tube problems and excessive noise. As for the latter issue, Mikey experienced none of that. In fact he found that the Calypso performed flawlessly during his two months review period, and was quiet: "Tube rush? Never heard any."

Fremer also observed quite interesting point during his review. With MAXX2s, he noted that the Calypso with the same manufacturer's phono pre-amp Saturn Rhea wasn't producing the ultimate magic, nor was Musical Fidelity's kWP pre-amp with MF's own phono pre-amp. Using MF's kW power amps, he found the most musically enjoyable system building occured when the Calypso was combined with MF phono pre-amp, and MF pre-amp with Manley Steelhead phono pre-amp. Personally I suspect any seasoned audiophile has learnt that while a manufacturer's components are voiced to support and complement each other, sometimes synergies between components from different manufacturers enforce more particular virtues a melomane is seeking.

Dire Straits' new call to arms for SACD ...

2005-06-18T19:38:00.000+02:00

stated Hi-Fi News in July 2005 issue presenting a new re-mix of this classic (?) and audiophiles' favored (?) album. Although I don't possess or plan to purchase SACD player, I was intrigued enough to order this hybrid CD/SACD (stereo/5.1) disk. As I don't have the original CD, the listening notes concern the Sultans of Swing, The Very Best of Dire Straits CD I have. Since this Best Of has Brothers in Arms and So far Away tracks, I compared them with the same tracks in re-mastered hybrid disk.

In short, better. Increased resolution, better defined bass, Mark Knopfler's voice has more texture, sound is definitely more open and airy. I also discovered that new hybrid's CD layer is HDCD coded, although I couldn't find HDCD logo anywhere in packaging. The Best Of album is also HDCD coded, and clearly indicated so. The CD layer of SACD disk has also substantially more presence, but unfortunately sounded a tad more louder than the other disk (read: more compression?).

Funny thing, though. As a teen, I was a big fan of Dire Straits and had all their albums in vinyl. Loved that sound played through my humble hifi gear, yet nowadays even this re-mastered disk leaves me dead cold emotionally speaking. Sure, my music taste is utterly different nowadays (90% 50/60's jazz, rest 10% consists of French non-contemporary like Manu Chao and bands like Pink Martini), but still I have to confess that after the test was concluded this Brothers of Arms ended right there with my other secondary stuff. Furthermore, this re-mastered version left me question what virtues other audiophiles appreciate in order to use this album as their reference disk?

With the same delivery from Amazon.com I also got classic War of the Worlds album, remastered to CD/SACD hybrid. If the latest version of Brothers of Arms sounded superior to precedent version(s), the re-mastered War of the Worlds sounds way superior to the double CD I possess. Richard Burton's voice, in particular, is wonderfully presented - rich, full of warm and shades. The packaging is super as well.

Musical Fidelity kW 750 power amp

2005-06-14T09:35:00.000+02:00

Source: Revue de Son June 2005 (kW750), Hi-Fi News July 2005 (with kW750 pre-amp)

As always, Musical Fidelity's marketing message is not shy in describing these products like the following extracts from their Web site illustrate: "The kW preamp is technically far in advance of anything available from any other manufacturer at any price." As for power amp, "The kW750 is not like any amplifier from any other manufacturer. It is so powerful that it virtually never clips or limits." And surprisingly, these new MF amps are not a limited edition products.

So how do these amps "not available from any other manufacturer" rated in reviews?

Jean Hiraga and Romain Buthigieg reviewed power amp with its standard outboard power supply. They both noted that often hold notion of big equals bad - i.e. that massively powerful amps sacrifice delicacy for power - doesn't apply with kW750.

JM: "... competes with McIntosh MC 1201 monoblocks ... both combine very high power with dynamic acceleration, finesse and subtlety." They equally wowed kW750's capability to maintain its character with low and high listening volumes - once again, not always the forte of high-power amps. Reading their listening notes, kW750 was bogglingly transparent, had state-of-the-art resolving capabilities, and imaged extremely convincing. Huge power available presented very authoritative and physical presence. Sum-up: Revue de Son Recommended.

As kW750 power amp, the matching kW750 hybrid pre-amp is designed not to be overdriven by load. According to Hi-Fi News' measurements, it can sustain a continuous output in excess of 15w into 8ohm load! The pre-amp employs mu-vista miniature 6112 valve in its drive stage. "While £2999 is a lot of money, for once it represents almost unbeliable value", noted Kessler in Hi-Fi News' review.

Kessler observed that the combination had a distinctive sound. The pairing produced "rich, fat, luscious, romantic bass." He add, however, that the bass is not undamped or overpowering, more like a tilt toward the lower register. Personally I suspect quite many people find that as a likeable quality, providing music with foundation and subjective impression of weight. Kessler highlighted dynamics, speed, huge available power, and detailed and neutral (above that mentioned low bass) sound. Furthermore, he described combination's imaging capabilities as "...MF calls up a vast amphitheatre in which ... music will play ... resolves all three dimensions with aplomb, working miracles with recordings where scale matters." Summing up: "... there are few designs to rival this combo for sheer value."

Viewpoint: Quite many people imply in Internet forums that the sheer number of MF product reviews in hifi magazines, and constantly noted super quality/performance/price ratio in these reviews only proof that MF's marketing campaigns are superior to competitors' efforts. Well, I don't think so. MF is evidently one of the few high-end manufacturers who constantly revise their offerings in order to make them appalling for reviews, and new products seem to provide solid value for money. I know, you are as troubled as am I that there are no balanced connections, but...

BTW, Michael Fremer in January 2004 Stereophile reviewed Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista kWP preamplifier & Tri-Vista kW Monobloc power amplifier.
Consequently, Mr. Analog Guru adopted Musical Fidelity amps as his personal reference review tools with Wilson Audio Puppy 7 speakers.

Live vs. recorded - the acid test of audio reproduction

2005-06-12T17:38:00.000+02:00

Quite many audiophiles have advocated that the ultimate and the most honest test for high fidelity would be to record a live, acoustic performance and then play it back on the spot, for the same audience through two or multi-channel audio system.

The ultimate test? Think again. Although level matching between live and recording could probably be achieved, the issue is audience seating during the live concert and during listening the recording. Taking into account the limitations of speaker designs, listening from the on-axis/off-axis and under/above the tweeter axis would significantly affect how the recording would sound and image vis-a-vis the live performance. In essence, only a few listeners in a speakers' sweet spot could provide plausible audition.

More importantly, when recording a performance in a room and then playing that recording back in the same room, you're overlaying the room's acoustic with its own image. Hence, in order to make live vs. recording meaningful, only the listeners who enjoyed live performance in its sweet spot should compare the recording in the acoustically treated room through a particular audio system, and only then deliver the judgment.

Pass Lab X1 pre-amp and XA100 monoblocks

2005-06-12T17:21:00.000+02:00

Source: Haute Fidelite June 2005

Audio veteran Nelson Pass has been titled Mr. Class-A as he has designed behemoths Class-A amplifiers under numerous brands for years. It's under Pass Labs, however, where he has been able to summate and implement his overall design philosophy.

Haute Fidelite tested X1 pre-amp with XA100 monoblocks. Like many high-end pre-amps, the X1 is a two chassis construction, and has three features I consider essential for a pre-amp: state-of-the-art volume control, variable gain settings and full balanced circuit. The volume control is an intriguing implementation as it's essentially a fixed resistor attenuator under digital control. With regard to the XA monoblocks, the very first thing everybody notices is their most dramatic-looking exterior design (see pic. below).

Compared with Pass Labs' X-series, the more upmarket XA-series "accentuate performance over power", according to manufacturer's Web site. As with all Pass Labs amps, XA-series employs low global feedback and "Supersymmetry" circuit, which according to company, reduce overall distortion by as much as 99%.

Back to review. Laurent Thorin observed:"...low end was tuneful, incredulous energic and precise ... mids were astonishingly rich and fluid ... voices were unsettlingly real ... highs materialized with subtlety and delicacy ...". Moreover, he noted that in subjective terms the XA100s sounded 2 or 3 times more powerful than their actual 100 watts. Thorin bestowed "Haute Fidelite Reference" designation for the combination.

Although Pass Labs product reviews are quite rare, all I've seen characterized the sound in pretty similar fashion. The extreme dynamic range and definitive bass control, warm midrange and sweet top end, and a subtle, velvety character that floates images in superbly three-dimesional soundstage. Anthony H. Cordesman in the Absolute Sound August/September 2004 issue said about XA160 monoblocks: "It is the most tube-like transistor amplifier I have heard in the positive sense of "tube-like". This is an amplifier with soul." And while reviews highlight the realistic warmth and lifelike nature of XA-series, equally reviewers have noticed that XA amps don't possess the ultimate resolution.

The XA160 review in Stereophile by Michael Fremer was curious as evidently the early production run of the amplifier suffered from an internal wiring error, resulting in distorted sound and low maximum power. The measurements also illustrated quite low input impedance, at 19.5k ohms balanced and 12.7k ohms unbalanced.

If you are interested, there is a fascinating review of XA160s by Dr. Poltum, the Director of Archives for the prestigious Vienna State Opera/Philharmonic Orchestra. Look at their reference system: Pass Lab's amplification, Wilson Puppy 7 speakers, SME 30/2 turntable w/ SME V arm and top cartridges like Koetsu Platinum Jade, Accuphase DP-85 SACD/CD-player and Mark Levinson Reference CD transport, and Transparent Reference XL cabling. Worthwhile article to read, especially how musicians themselves decribe the reproduction of sound of their own recordings.

Viewpoint: The diversity of high-end amplifiers is staggering. On the one hand there are occasional hobbyist-professionals handcrafting esoteric amps and on the other there are potent manufacturers with staying power like Accuphase or Mark Levinson that produce extremely high-quality, great sounding amps aiming to the most neutral reproduction of sound.

Personally I find the most compelling the high-end amplifier manufacturers like Ayre, Audio Research, Burmester, Edge, Halcro, LAMM, Pass Labs, and to some extent, Krell. Why? Because the amps from these companies tend to embody one bold thinker's vision, imagination and creativity what an amplifier should be and do. Although aforementioned companies produce sometimes utterly different designs than the others' ones, their amplifiers are designed with an attitude and personality and exhibit a difference in their designers' points of view. Some excel in resolution (like Halcro), some leave the reviewers searching words to describe the "rightness" of the sound they are experiencing (like with LAMM), and some take price-point-no-issue approach (like Burmester). But at least they express something distinctive, some even have soul.

Nordost Thor

2005-06-10T11:48:00.000+02:00

In June/July 2005 issue of The Absolute Sound Harry Pearson listed his updated "Super Components List". Although review is pending, HP already announced that Nordost's Thor AC mains power distribution unit is "A masterpiece, pure and simple." I wrote earlier in this blog about enthusiastic Nordost product reviews in audio magazines. Some time ago HP became converted, and has since been an evangelist for Nordost Valhalla cables, pronouncing "allows what might truly be described as a window on the, er, world of sound."

Viewpoint: If you already have top notch system, Valhalla cable system might be icing the cake. However, personally I just can't get over the price issue - are you really better of investing over €20.000 to cables instead of putting the same money into updated source and/or pre-amp? But then I also use expensive Siltech G5/G6 interconnects and Kimber Kable's 3035 speaker cables, so I should be the last person quetching. Envious?

Nikic Audio Team (NAT)

2005-06-10T11:11:00.000+02:00

I've never heard about NAT before, but by looking into information in their Web site you get an impression that this is a boutique high-end company that might deserve wider international exposure. The fabrication and the choice of components seems to be first rate, like Vishay and Holco resistors and MultiCap coupling capacitors. NAT power amplifiers features output transformers wound by hand, which according to company, result in extremely wide frequency response (5 Hz to 120 kHz). While some aspects in designs appear to be excessive - like Plasma line stage's usage of 18 tubes in total - specs are impeccable.

Check out this worthy review in Dutch magazine (English traslation).

Only a Frenchman ...

2005-06-09T20:54:00.000+02:00

can conclude an audio component review by saying "Avec les Manley, c'est fromage ET dessert."

You have to know a bit of cuisine française to appreciate this "you can have both cheese and dessert" joke. Anyway, the closing was made in review of Manley Snapper monoblocks. You propably guessed already, Antoine Gresland in Haute Fidelite June 2005 issue rated Snappers highly.

Monsieur Gresland asserted: "Neutral and well-balanced, it's evident that the tubes are not used here to produce false warmness in frequency band, but to liberate it from any hardness and provide a listener as precise listening experience as possible." He furthermore noted easiness of reproduction of music and musicality of these monoblocks. His closing remark about cheese and dessert referred to fact that with Snappers you don't need to choose between objective and subjective qualities of music reproduction - you can have them both.

Viewpoint: While some high-end companies have house sound, Manley has house naming policy and industrial design. Coming to consumer hifi from pro-segment the Manley Labs, under the leadership of characteristic Madame EveAnna Manley, evidently produces super products. Their Steelhead phono pre-amp has received outstanding reviews, and as for the Snapper Positive Feedback gave it equally glowing remarks.

My only concern with the Snapper is its low input impedance: with the switch in rear a user can choose input impedance either 600Ohm or 15kOhm. The higher value is still on the low side for some (tube) pre-amps.

Audio Research VM220 monoblocks

2005-06-09T18:51:00.000+02:00

Source: Hi-Fi News July 2005 issue

To my knowledge this is the first VM220 review in mainstream hi-fi magazines. More interestingly, reviewer David Berriman also reviewed VM220's little brother, VS110, some time ago in the same magazine and was able to put VM220's sound into that context.

The VM220 is an odd-man-out in Audio Research product family. It differs from visually similar VS-serie (VS50 & VS110) by having both SE and balanced connections and being monoblock against VS-serie's stereo design. The output stage has six 6550 tubes and is fed by a power supply with 438 joules of energy storage. The design uses high quality components (e.g. Nichicon caps, extra-wide-bandwidth transformer) and bandwidth extension is higher (up to 100kHz) than in VS-serie products. Stereophile's measurements of VS110, on the contary, illustrated frequency roll-off -4db at 50kHz.

Hi-fi News tested VM220 with Musical Fidelity A306 CR and Audio Research Reference 2 pre-amps. David Berriman noted: "From memory, the VM220 certainly has better bass grip and treble clarity than stereo Audio Research VS110...Whereas the VS110 had more of a typical warm, cuddly, rounded valve sound, the VM220 was having none of this." He confessed that he searched words to describe the enigmatic sound of VM220, i.e. "it's both delicate and assertive, ... brilliant and soft." And finally, "Just don't expect to hear it and not alter your audio perceptions."

In other words, he liked VM220 - a lot. The amp for melomane, according to him.

Viewpoint: There is a huge price difference between VS110 and VM220. In my view, ARC has a gap in its product line and they should introduce balanced version of VS110 with some price premium over standard VS110. Currently to enjoy ARC power amp sound in balanced mode sets you back at least €8000 (VT100 mkIII).

BTW, if you are interested in ARC products, Manfred Persson maintains excellent Web site, "Audio Research Database", listing discontinued and current ARC products, including revisions per product.

Simaudio Supernova CD-player

2005-06-08T23:32:00.000+02:00

Simaudio has announced the SuperNova CD-player. This is a fully-balanced differential design housed in a single chassis, with 24-bit/352.8kHz digital audio processing. Available in August 2005, retail price $4500. The SuperNova appears to be a simplified implementation of company's ambitious two separate chassis Andromeda CD-player, although Andromeda has higher specs: 24-bit/705.6kHz upsampling and superior clock implementation.

More glory for EAT KT-88 tubes

2005-06-08T21:42:00.000+02:00

Source: Hi-Fi News July 2005

As I wrote earlier in this blog, EAT's KT-88 tubes have received very favourable reviews in British hi-fi press. Now Ken Kessler found that they turbocharged his current budget reference amplifier PrimaLuna Prologue 2. "...the KT-88s astonish, offering gains in weight, midband and speed." He noticed that already excellent amp (for a budget component) gave an impression of increased wattage, bottom end was more convincing, and overall resolution went up "A big notch." According to review, there were much improved attack/decay capabilities, i.e. PrimaLuna gained speed. Sum-up: "...£600's worth of EATs can turn the £999 PrimaLuna into a reasonable facsilile of a £3000 amp...".

There is on-line review about EAT's 300B tubes in Positive Feedback.

See also post presenting some interesting European KT-88 based amps.

"Secret " of B&W new D-series speakers ...

2005-06-07T21:31:00.000+02:00

Personally I'm sick to see B&W's marketing machine working, i.e. every hifi-magazine is full of their latest diamond tweeter speakers reviews - which without exception have been positive. Quite many, though, have highlighted that some models in D-series are not the most neutral, but nevertheless enjoyable. Like Hifi+ issue 38 reviewing 803D: "...the midband, 500Hz - 1kHz, is rather forward, and output falls significantly thereafter to very restrained presence octave 2 -4 kHz, before the tweeter stages some recovery."

UPDATE: German Stereoplay in June 2005 issue reviewed B&W model 802D and French Prestige Audio Video in its part model 803D. Both magazines' measurements confirmed previous findings: D-series is not the most neutral. The measurements show that there is accentuated mid bass between 50-80Hz and mids in presence region. Though the 802D's highs were not entirely smooth, the 803D showed in PAV's measurements more lifted high frequencies between 8-15kHz. In addition, the 802D measurements showed that this is not the easiest load to drive: minimum impedance is 2.8ohm. But both magazines nevertheless gave their recommendations for both speakers.

Viewpoint: The success might be to some extent explained by B&W's decision to use the first-order crossover instead of previous models' third-order filter, i.e. speakers are phase coherent - like Dunlavy and Thiel speakers. The inherent simplicity of 1st order cross-over means low components count, and on top of this B&W has sourced the special oil-filled capacitors from German specialist Mundorf. That 1st order cross-over necessites that B&W's minimum recommended listening distance should be adhered in order drivers to integrate.