Dodd - GR - dB - Mach2 | Stereophile.com

RMAF 2010

Dodd - GR - dB - Mach2

By John Atkinson • Posted: Oct 21, 2010

Patricia Barber is a secret guilty passion of mine, so when I heard the sound of her singing "The Quality of Mercy" from Café Blue coming from room 2024 in the Marriott Tower, I had to go in. The system featured GR Super V open-baffle speakers ($2495/pair as a kit), which were designed by Danny Richie, who had done some of the crossover design on the well-regarded Usher Be718 speaker. Amplifiers were Dodd Audio tube monoblocks, preamp Dodd's battery-powered tube-buffered passive design. the D/A processor was the Tranquility from dB Audio Labs. This $2395 processor was being fed data via USB from a Mac mini modded by Mach2 Music. For $1495, Mach2 supplies a turnkey Mac mini fitted with a 40GB solid-state drive and 4GB of RAM, as well as a 320GB external drive for data storage and the playback software of your choice. The mini's Snow Leopard operating system has been slimmed-down by removing anything that would otherwise interfere with the task of streaming music data from the USB port.

The Mach2 Mac mini in the photo (left) has been clamped and set on cones to minimize vibration; the bottom box is a balanced AC power unit from Dodd Audio.

Comments

Submitted by Buzz on October 21, 2010 - 2:37pm.

This was my favorite room, although I did not get to hear nearly all. In additon to merely selecting and connecting relatively resonably priced equipment, having the designers of the speakers (Danny), amps (Gary Dodd), power conditioning (Dave Elledge) and others on hand enables them to optimise the sound in a hotel room much better than any other I heard. In other words, a system synergy was achieved. The Tranquility Labs DAC lists for $1,495 (not including cables) by the way.

Submitted by Rich on October 21, 2010 - 3:04pm.

The DAC in the room playing was the Tranquility Signature DAC. The price for the new unit was $2395 from what I was told.

Submitted by John Atkinson on October 21, 2010 - 3:36pm.

$2395 was the price I was given in the room.

Submitted by Dave Elledge on October 21, 2010 - 4:17pm.

PI audio group, LLC supplied the power for the room and to the Dodd Balance Power Supply with an UberBUSS EMI/RFI/PFC unit (a quad version that sells for $1145.00. In addition, the MacSandwich isolation EMI/RFI suppression base was debuted and sells for $149.00 for the 2010 MacMini. Power cable to the MacMini was a PI MPC/Mini ($299.00) and the Tranquility DAC was powered through a PI Source1/TD ($349.00) The diffusers are PI audio group ABB1 units - $150.00 per matched 24" x 48" pair. The purpleheart isolation cones were by An Audible Difference ($129.95/set of 4). I wanted to make sure that everyone that was represented in the room was acknowledged as well as giving my company - PI audio group, LLC - the mention we deserved as an exhibitor in suite 2024. It was a GREAT show!Dave

Submitted by Nick on October 22, 2010 - 8:34am.

This was a great sounding room and compared to the mega buck systems on display in other rooms I personally thought an incredible value in the ultra high end. Amazing toys real poeple can afford. You gotta love RMAF!

Submitted by Darrell McCombs - Mach2 Music on October 23, 2010 - 2:15pm.

John, I hope you enjoyed the time you spent in the Dodd - GR - dB - Pi Audio room. I know we at Mach2 Music enjoyed being their guest.I thought all the equipment was excellent. The speakers, amps, DAC, power conditioning, diffusors, isolation cones, cables, all helped the music shine through to its fullest.We were lucky enough to provide the front end to this terrific system. We worked hard to provided the cleanest signal possible and the rest of the system did amazing things with it. We loved whae we heard, but admittedly we are a tiny bit biased.Thanks for giving the room a listen.Darrell And Kevin at Mach2 Music