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Thomas Alva Edison may have had a fully equipped laboratory, with a team of assistants slaving every day over ideas to be adopted when ripe as those of the great inventor, but the image of American ingenuity which rings true to me is of the lone tinkerer, working alone and mixing a generous dose of good ol' Yankee know-how with the sweat of his brow—a lot of it. These days, with the faithful PC and a hardworking CAD program at his side to do the math, the lone tinkerer seems to be thicker on the ground than ever, to judge by the humongous numbers of small companies selling high-end hi-fi…
Following the electricity from the wall in its transformation from industrial muscle to music, the captive mains lead feeds a small toroidal transformer from the UK manufacturer Cotswold Electronics, the output of which is rectified and smoothed before being fed to a pair of LM317T/LM337T regulator chips. These drop the supply voltage from ±37.5V to ±26.5V, and, as they carry the entire current required by all the active circuitry, run pretty hot. They therefore use the bottom panel of the chassis as a heatsink, which has the advantage of heating the enclosure to a steady temperature. The…
Sidebar 1: JA's System Details
The fundamental listening tests involving The Mod Squad Phono Drive were carried out in a system consisting of the The Mod Squad Line Drive Deluxe VTL 100W Compact monoblock amplifiers driving Celestion SL700 loudspeakers, though I also used the combination for all the loudspeakers that I tested for this and the next issue of Stereophile. In addition, the pair of Thiel CS1.2s reviewed by Larry Archibald in this issue spent a considerable amount of time in my system.
Line-level source components included my stock Revox A77 for master tape replay, CD…
Sidebar 2: Measurements
The Phono Drive had a measured output impedance of 60 ohms from its direct-out sockets, and an even lower 50 ohms from its line stage. Neither outputs should have any difficulty driving long or highly capacitive interconnects. The input impedance of the line section I measured to be 11k ohms; again, no problem except with some antique tube components or the Mk.I version of the CAL Tempest CD player, which had a 5.6k-ohm output impedance.
The gain structure of the Phono Drive appeared to be around 20dB from the MC headamp, followed by 44dB at 1kHz from the…
Sidebar 3: Specifications
Description: Dedicated MC/MM phono preamplifier, with separate line-level amplifier with volume and balance controls. Measured specifications: Frequency response (phono): 5Hz–110kHz, –3dB. Frequency response (line): DC–85kHz, –3dB. Output impedance: 60 ohms at 1kHz (phono direct); 50 ohms (line out). Input impedance: 45k ohms (MM); either 10, 20, 40, 100, 200, 1000, 47k ohms, or user selectable (MC); 11k ohms (line). Phono Sensitivity: 5mV RMS for 775mV output (MM); 0.5mV RMS for 775mV output (MC); 125mV RMS for 775mV output (line). S/N ratio ref. 775mV out (…
A psychological theory (footnote 1) that I've always been fond of is the one that proposes the perceptual/personality dimension of Sharpening vs Leveling. As defined by the early Gestalt psychologists, Sharpening is an exaggeration of differences, Leveling a minimization of differences. In visual-perception research on this topic, when test subjects were presented with an asymmetrical figure, some later recalled it in ways that exaggerated the figure's asymmetry (Sharpeners), while others minimized or eliminated it (Levelers).
It seems fair to say that—like those who have a strong…
RYAN ADAMS: Cardinology
Lost Highway B0012195-02 (CD, LP, 7" EP). 2008. Tom Schick, prod., eng.; Noah Goldstein, asst. eng. AAD?, AAA. TT: 40:29
Performance ****
Sonics ****
Lost Highway B0012195-02 (CD, LP, 7" EP). 2008. Tom Schick, prod., eng.; Noah Goldstein, asst. eng. AAD?, AAA. TT: 40:29
Performance ****
Sonics ****
For many years, music fan, singer-songwriter, and cantankerous artiste Ryan Adams paid homage to what felt right. With his first band of note, the Raleigh, North Carolina–based Whiskeytown, he played a twangy fiddle-and-pedal-steel country-rock birthed on the altar of punk rock and liberally raised with respect for the songwriting and soul of performers like Gram Parsons and Jagger-Richards. Slowly but…
Bryston's first CD player, the $2695 BCD-1, is a drawer-loading player with a front panel of polished aluminum. The slim disc drawer, engraved with the Bryston logo, sits in the panel's center. To the drawer's left are an infrared sensor and Open/Close button, then a two-line, 16-character alphanumeric display. To the drawer's right are the usual transport controls and a power On/Off button. All of these functions are also accessible via the BCD-1's remote control, as well as two more: Back and Forward. Hold down either and the player moves through the selected track at several times normal…
The DAC's analog signal is fed to an output stage running in class-A and assembled from discrete components, which makes possible higher power outputs than are obtainable from integrated circuits. Bryston's extensive sorting and grading of the components comprising the analog output amplifiers are claimed to result in superior test-bench performance.
Listening
The BCD-1's shape and compactness allowed me to place it on one of my narrow equipment shelves, where it neatly replaced the Krell KPS-28c that had been returned to the manufacturer. Having reviewed and loved the sound of…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: CD/CD-R player with remote control. Digital outputs: transformer-coupled AES/EBU (XLR), S/PDIF (RCA), TosLink (optical). Analog outputs: 1 pair balanced (XLR), 1 pair unbalanced (RCA). Control inputs: RS-232 port via 9-pin subminiature connector. Digital inputs: none. Remote 12V power-on/off trigger included. Maximum output level: 2.3V RMS unbalanced, 4.6V balanced. Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz, ±0.2dB. Channel separation: 109dB at 1kHz. THD+noise: 0.002%. Output impedance: not specified. Noise: <100dB, 20Hz–20kHz, ref. 1V. Signal/noise ratio:…