Audio Research Reference 3 line preamplifier

Audio Research Reference 3 line preamplifier

In any category of product or service, there is a gold standard—one company that epitomizes the best in its field of endeavor. Consider the Rolex watch, the Ferrari sports car, the Steinway piano, the Dunhill pipe. All of these artisanal manufacturers have spent decades, even centuries, earning their names' cachet with their histories of consistent excellence. While high-end audio boasts no names with a 60-year pedigree, such as Ferrari's—much less Steinway & Sons' +150 years—there is one firm whose storied past stretches back to the very emergence of the concept of high-end audio itself: Audio Research Corporation.

Modern Sounds

Modern Sounds

<I>"You listen to these modern records, they're atrocious, they have sound all over them. There's no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like&mdash;static."</I>&mdash;Bob Dylan, interviewed by Jonathan Lethem. <I>Rolling Stone</I>, September 7, 2006

NAD 325BEE

Forums

I was in a shop the other day browsing for a new amp. There was a guy auditioning some JM Lab speakers in one of the rooms - it sounded pretty darn good. When I turned around I was surprised to see that they were being driven by a NAD 325BEE integrated amp and CD player. I had my sights set on much more expensive offerings from Arcam, Rotel, Naim, Rega, etc. I don't know if it's the so-so look or the "too good to be true price tag" but I had completely overlooked the humble NAD. Before I pull the trigger on a new amp I will definitely give the 325BEE a second listen.

Test CD level

I have a CD player with adjustable balanced outputs and wanted to set them at the proper level. For the rest of my equipment I feed a 0.775V (0dB) tone from an audio oscillator into the board and adjust, if necessary.

I can't use that approach with a turntable or a CD player which is why I bought the test CD 3 to be able to generate a test tone from within the player.

Test tones on the CD have levels given, for example -20dBFS. I don't know what the FS means but i assumed that the recording level was at -20dB, but that seems to be wrong.

background noise!

I just fired up a clean 20 amp circuit with 10 GA wiring, an audiophile grade recepticle (PS audio Power Port, a PS Audio 10 Ga power cable to my Plinius 9100 integrated. The improvement in sound for my system is absolutely great. My Totem Hawks have far more weight, clarity and impact. However, when not spinning a record, there seems to be a low level "hash" that is accentuated when I turn up the volume on the amp.

Question about bit-rate..

hey guys, quick ? about bit rates. Before I knew any better, I ripped my entire CD collection onto my hard drive at 128 kbps. I recently bought a pair of shure e5c earphones and the difference in sound quality between higher and lower bitrate recordings is huge. I bought an audio converter for my computer, and there is the option to convert to up to 320 kbps. My question is, by converterting it to 320, can I actually enhance an existing 128 kbps recording? If so, how?

Zanden 5000 review damages S-Phile's credibility in my book.

November's review of the Zanden Model 5000/2000 D/A converter and transport four-box system makes my head hurt.

I'm seeing what amounts to a positive subjective review by
Mikey Fremer for thie 45,000 dollar DOG of a system, with
him glossing over flaws that would have had him or other
reviewers ranting and raving about how BAD they would be if
it were many other products.

JA's technical review listed so many flaws and examples of
simply BAD design and engineering that I literally got bored
when I set out to count up the many flaws mentioned.

Atlantic Icon

Atlantic Icon

I was very sad to learn of the death of Ahmet Ertegun, one of the three visionaries behind Atlantic Records. Having met him several times, it makes perverse sense that he would have met his end due to complications from a fall at a Rolling Stones concert. He was a man of music to the end.

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