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Recording of October 2007: <I>This Is Somewhere</I>

Recording of October 2007: This Is Somewhere
Hollywood D00038502 (CD). 2007. Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, prods.; Mike Daly, prod., asst. eng.; Joe Chiccarelli, eng.; Kennie Takahashi, Travis Huff, Tim Bright, Wayne Warnecke, Otto D'Angelo, asst. engs. AAD? TT: 48:34
Performance ****½
Sonics ****

To paraphrase a gem from back when The Simpsons was funny: "Rock chicks—is there anything they can't do?"

Grace Potter, the most piquant rock frontwoman to come along in some time, and her adroit blues-rock quartet, the Nocturnals, have spent the past four years pounding…

Watching the Detectives

I made myself comfortable. The system—Linn Unidisk universal player, Meridian digital active speakers—was obviously working well: "For unto us a Child is born..." pum pum pum pum...

I didn't know the listening room, but I've loved Handel's Messiah since I made my debut as a boy soprano in a 1959 school performance; the DVD-Audio recording that engineer Philip Hobbs had burned from one of his SACD masters (footnote 1) was living up to my expectations.

The second refrain began. I shifted in my seat. The sound now wasn't quite as spacious as in the first refrain , not quite as silky…

Muse Polyhymnia universal player

"I have something I think might interest you," said Elite AudioVideo Distribution's Scot Markwell. "Kevin Halverson has some, shall we say, different ideas about universal players."

We walked into Elite's dark demo room at last year's Consumer Electronics Show and Markwell stepped aside with a flourish, gesturing toward a quasi–industrial-looking, powder-coated box: the Polyhymnia universal disc player, from Halverson's Muse Electronics.

"Ta-daa!" Yes, he said it.

I must not have looked impressed. "Oh, I forgot," he said. "It's only fancy on the inside." And—as…

Muse Polyhymnia universal player Page 2

As a CD player, the Polyhymnia impressed me from the get-go. Chickasaw County Child: The Artistry of Bobbie Gentry (CD, Shout! DK-32278) was a revelation. Joan Osborn said that Gentry's voice is to women's voices as Sophia Loren's curves were to women's bodies: the epitome. The Polyhymnia captured that hyper-femaleness, setting it within baroque soundscapes that had width, height, and, most of all, depth. The bottom end was impressive, as was the top-end sparkle.

John Coltrane's Settin' the Pace (CD, JVCXR-020202) put a big tenor sax in the center of my room, spitting overtones at the…

Muse Polyhymnia universal player Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Universal disc player with remote control. Formats supported: CD and MP3 discs, DVD-V, DVD-A, and SACD discs in two- and multichannel formats. Analog outputs: RCA (1 pair), balanced XLR (1 pair); optional analog output module includes 4 pairs of RCA jacks for surround-sound and subwoofer outputs. Digital outputs: S/PDIF (BNC). Video outputs: composite (BNC), component (3 BNC), S-VHS. Conversion type: 24-bit. Reconstruction filter: passive, third-order. Maximum output level: 2V RMS. Frequency range: not specified. Power consumption: 23W typical, 50W…

Muse Polyhymnia universal player Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Digital Source: Ayre C-5xe universal player.
Preamplifiers: Ayre K-1xe, Conrad-Johnson ACT2, Krell Evolution 202.
Power Amplifiers: Krell Evolution 600, Portal Paladin.
Loudspeakers: Dynaudio Confidence C-1, Wilson Audio Specialties WATT/Puppy 8.
Cables: Interconnect: Shunyata Research Aries & Antares, Krell CAST. Speaker: Shunyata Research Lyra.
Accessories: Ayre L-5xe line filter; Furutech eTP-609 distribution box; APC APCS15 AC line conditioner; Furutech RDP panels, RealTraps Mini & Mondo Traps.—Wes Phillips

Muse Polyhymnia universal player Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

After connecting the Muse Polyhymnia to a TV monitor, to make sure it was set up optimally and that such features as Dynamic Range Compression (DRC) were set to "Off," I tested it from its balanced and unbalanced output jacks. At 1.99V, the maximum output at 1kHz from DVD-Audio and CD was very close to the CD standard's 2V, although, unusually, it was identical from the balanced and unbalanced outputs. The maximum level for SACD was significantly lower, at 1.68V. This 1.5dB difference will invalidate any non–level-compensated comparisons among the three media.…

Esoteric SA-60 universal player

In the ongoing debacle that has been the introduction and promotion of high-resolution digital audio and the record industry's struggles to engage the public's interest in it, two recent events stand out.

One was Sony's decision, in 2006, to limit to one day a week the production of hybrid SACD/CDs at its Terre Haute, Indiana pressing plant, which had opened with much fanfare in May 2003. That forced ABKCO Records to replace its catalog of Rolling Stones hybrids, perhaps the best-selling SACD/CDs ever released, with "Red Book" CD editions. According to ABKCO, the company had…

Esoteric SA-60 universal player Page 2

Ditto the explanation for the DSD settings of "Normal (factory default)" and "Direct." The manual says that the "Normal (factory default)" setting outputs DSD "after processing," while "Direct" outputs the audio signal "without running it through the processor." You're given no idea what selecting either option means in terms of sound—an unacceptable "explanation," in my opinion. Buyers, especially those less technically adept and/or experienced, deserve better documentation.

Pressing the FIR button on the front panel automatically upconverts the "Red Book" bitword resolution of all…

Esoteric SA-60 universal player Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Multichannel, audio-only SACD/CD/DVD-Audio/DVD-Video player with choice of 8x oversampling FIR and upsampling RDOT low-pass digital filters, PCM-to-DSD (1-bit, 64x) upsampling. Digital audio outputs: coaxial, optical/TosLink. Analog audio output: dedicated 2-channel outputs (balanced, XLR, and unbalanced, RCA), plus multichannel RCA outputs. Maximum output level at 1kHz: 2.2V RMS, unbalanced and unbalanced. Output impedance: not specified. Frequency range: 5Hz–88kHz (DVD-A). Signal/noise ratio: 130dB. Dynamic range: 107dB. THD: 0.002%.
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