USB is by far the most versatile connection; it's capable of PCM up to 32/384 (I corroborated up to 24/354.2, the highest-resolution PCM files I…
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That list shows what the MP 3100 HV can do: The built-in transport plays CDs and SACDs. There's a Bluetooth receiver, which works well. You can directly connect USB storage media, from either the front panel connection mentioned above or the one on the back. All the usual digital inputs are included. There's over-the-air radio. And there are no fewer than seven options for data delivered over the network to the MP 3100 HV's streaming client.
Sol & Pat
Sol Gabetta, cello and Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin
Alpha757 (24/96 FLAC download). 2021. Peter Laenger, prod. and eng.
Performance ****½
Sonics ****½
Sol Gabetta, cello and Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin
Alpha757 (24/96 FLAC download). 2021. Peter Laenger, prod. and eng.
Performance ****½
Sonics ****½
For fans of these two highly idiosyncratic artists, the only surprise this album may hold is the music. Others may reel as much at the spontaneous improvisatory nature of the playing as the wildness of the repertoire and the uniqueness of its sequencing.
If there's anything that Leclair's short Tambourin in C major and C.P.E. Bach's Presto, Helm 66 VI have in common with two movements from Jörg…
Saturday–Sunday, April 14–15, 10am–5pm: Lyric HiFi (1221 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY) invites audiophiles to listen to an assortment of systems, interact with representatives from brands such as McIntosh, Focal, and Audio Research, and qualify to purchase demo units at 20% off, all part of The Show at Lyric HiFi.
Lyric co-owners Lenny Bellezza’s and Dan Mondoro’s fine-tuned listening rooms will host at least seven different systems. In renovations which cost nearly $500,000 (and that’s in 1982 dollars), architects and acoustical engineers sought to stifle the rumbles of the…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
Because the CH Precision M1.1 is so heavy (165lb), I drove the 45 miles to Michael Fremer's home with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"), cables, noninductive power resistors, and analog and digital oscilloscopes, and I set up everything on a table in his garage. Because I knew from experience that the AC outlets in the garage are on a circuit with a 15A breaker, I ran two long extension cables—one for the test gear, one for the amplifier, which has two AC cords—to an outlet in the house that has a 20A circuit.
I…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Aqua Formula xHD DAC with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 As We See It"), using both the Audio Precision's coaxial and AES/EBU digital outputs, and USB data sourced from my MacBook Pro running on battery power with Pure Music 3.0 playing WAV and AIFF test-tone files. Apple's USB Prober utility identified the Formula xHD as "aqua XHD" from "aqua," its serial number as "0 (none)," and confirmed that its USB port operated in the optimal isochronous asynchronous mode. Apple's AudioMIDI utility revealed that, via USB, the Formula…
Thomas Conrad
Stefano Battaglia: Pelagos
Stefano Battaglia, piano, prepared piano
ECM 2570/71 (2 CDs). 2017. Manfred Eicher, prod.; Stefano Amerio, eng. DDD. TT: 2:11:59
With regard to R2D4 eligibility, my rule has been that albums are like wine: They must be allowed to age before they can achieve distinction. Stefano Battaglia's new solo recording is a necessary exception. It is a single imaginative arc, motivated by the plight of the refugees who have been flooding into Europe from Africa and the Middle East, fleeing war, oppression, and famine. Many…
Imagine my surprise while I was preparing my review of the EMM Labs DV2 D/A processor in this issue, EMM Labs' manager of production and social media, Amadeus Meitner, informed me that what I'd thought would be a one-on-one chat with his father, EMM Labs founder and CEO Ed Meitner, would also involve himself and EMM's managing engineer of the past 15 years, Mariusz Pawlicki. Once all three had come to the phone, however, information flowed more or less smoothly. My first question was what makes the DV2 special?
Ed Meitner: It sounds good. At the end of the day, that's what matters. Rarely…
Stereophile's enduringly healthy circulation suggests widespread support for the multiplicity of voices in our pages, and virtually every month that notion is confirmed by letters from our readers. Most of our reviewers have their fans and their detractors, and although it's been a long time since I've seen a letter demanding the head of this or that reviewer, we still occasionally hear from readers who want us to know they trust Herb or John or me or Mikey or Kal or someone else above all others.
Because the quest for wisdom is not a zero-sum game, it's possible for Stereophile to print…
A conversation with Magico founder Alon Wolf can feel like stepping onto a moving walkway; it's best to find your balance early. Over the course of a spirited five-hour conversation at the company's impressive production facility in Hayward, California (footnote 1), Wolf questioned my choice of gear. Twice. "You should pick what you like of course," he said of a pair of speakers I'd been using as references. "But why?" I laughed, entertained by his cheek.
Hours later, as he piloted his Porsche across the San Mateo Bridge toward a sushi restaurant in downtown San Francisco, I mentioned a…
John Atkinson wrote about the Audio Research Reference 6SE in August 2021 (Vol.44 No.8):
Jason Victor Serinus's first impressions of this $17,000 tubed preamplifier (footnote 1) in Stereophile's November 2020 issue were very positive: "Am I really getting paid to do this?," he wrote, calling it "some of the most polished, transparent, and arresting sound I'd heard from my system." But as his auditioning resumed after a break of a few days, he discovered that the REF 6SE sounded very different than it had a few days earlier. "Much of the tonal beauty that had momentarily caused me to hold…