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Music in the Round #35 Recordings In The Round

Sidebar 2 Recordings In The Round

All vocal, all baroque, all-around wonderful

J.S. BACH: Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248
Bernhard Landauer, countertenor; Charles Daniels, tenor; Klaus Mertens, bass; Swiss Radio Chorus, I Barocchisti; Diego Fasolis, conductor
Arts Music 47744-8 (2 SACD/CDs)
HANDEL: Ode for St. Cecilia's Day, Organ Concerto 13, Coronation Anthem 1
Julia Gooding, soprano; Jeremy Ovenden,†tenor; Duilio Galfetti, violin; Francesco Cera, organ; Swiss Radio Chorus, I Barocchisti; Diego Fasolis, conductor
Arts Music 47738-8 (SACD/CD)

A double…

Recordings of February 1991: <I>Surf's Up</I>, etc.

THE BEACH BOYS: Sunflower
Caribou/Brother/Epic ZK 46950. Stephen W. Desper, eng. TT: 36:48
THE BEACH BOYS: Surf's Up
Caribou/Brother/Epic ZK 46951. Stephen W. Desper, eng. TT: 33:36
THE BEACH BOYS: Holland
Caribou/Brother/Epic ZK 46952. Stephen Moffitt, Rob Fraboni, engs. TT: 48:13
All three: CD only. The Beach Boys, prods. Digitally remastered by Joe Gastwirt. AAD.

Late August, 1965, Westminster Lake, New York—those of you who grew up Presbyterian in New York in the '60s might recognize the name of the Northern Synod Church Camp where I'd just finished my yearly…

Recordings of February 1991: <I>Surf's Up</I>, etc. Page 2

It's hardly surprising that the first batch of Baby Boomers was able to sense the immense wave of denial on which surfed their immediate predecessors, the Beach Boys, and which was to nearly drown this crippled family when the tensions of the lie became too much to bear. Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, eternally trying to please their abusive, unpleasable father Murry Wilson, used their relentlessly upbeat, really-nothing's-wrong vision of light not to illuminate their own dark side, but to blind themselves to its existence. And this was their tragedy: to be so blessed with so much musical…

Parts Connection Assemblage DAC-1 D/A converter kit

"Dinner's fried chicken, honey."

"And I hay-ulped!"

Gap-toothed and demented-looking, the Shake'n'Bake urchin comes to mind every time I regard the Assemblage DAC-1—which I built. Like that insanely happy child-actor, my true participation was rather limited: the DAC-1 comes with a fully assembled circuit board, requiring only that the AC filter, three LEDs, three RCA jacks, and the feet be attached. Oh yeah, you also have to screw the top down and plug it in. Which brings us to a couple of key questions: Why a kit? and Why so basic a kit?

Kits may seem exotic to…

Parts Connection Assemblage DAC-1 D/A converter kit Page 2

While I definitely consider the DAC-1 to be a fine D/A, it's not going to siphon off a lot of sales from its $1000-and-up competitors. Truthfully, it emphasizes midband warmth and has a few tonal irregularities: it "whitens" high-amplitude pitches, causing the coloration to wander. I wasn't particularly bothered by this, since so much of the information that I value passed through comprehensibly and coherently. In its strengths, it offers competition to all comers; but I must also say that such units as the McCormack, MicroMega, and Arcam DACs all added unwavering focus, more uniform tonal…

Parts Connection Assemblage DAC-1 D/A converter kit Hearing Aids

Sidebar 1: Hearing Aids

Metaphor 5 loudspeakers, the Valve Amplification Company's PA 80/80 power amp, and the McCormack Micro Line Drive or Audio Alchemy's DLC preamps were used for all evaluations. I compared the DAC-1 to Krell's Reference 64, McCormack's DAC, Micromega's DAC, Arcam's Black Box 50, and Audio Alchemy's DAC in the Box (DITB) and DDE v1.1 D/A converters, as well as to the internal DACs in the Audio Research CD-1, Arcam Alpha One, NAD 504, and MicroMega Stage 2—using the transport sections of those units to make the comparisons.

A McCormack Digital Drive supported…

Parts Connection Assemblage DAC-1 D/A converter kit Measurements

Sidebar 2: Measurements

The Assemblage DAC-1's maximum output level was 1.96V—just under the CD standard of 2V. Output impedance was a low 77 ohms at any audio frequency, and I wasn't able to measure any DC offset at the analog output jacks. The DAC-1 doesn't invert absolute polarity, and had no trouble locking to 32kHz and 48kHz datastreams.

Fig.1 shows the DAC-1's frequency response and de-emphasis error. The response is down 0.35dB at 20kHz—a slightly greater rolloff than the 0.25dB specified in the data sheet. The de-emphasis error was negligible, and about as good as you can…

Parts Connection Assemblage DAC-1 D/A converter kit Specifications

Sidebar 3: Specifications

Description: Digital/analog converter kit. Digital inputs: coaxial on RCA jack, optical on TosLink jack. Analog output: one stereo unbalanced output on RCA jacks. Maximum output voltage: 1.969V. Frequency response: DC–20kHz, +0dB, –0.25dB. S/N ratio: 105dB unweighted. Crosstalk: <100dB, 20Hz–20kHz. THD+noise: <0.01%.
Dimensions: 9.5" W by 2" H by 7" D. Weight: 4.5 lbs.
Serial numbers of units reviewed: 9437L0011, 94390064.
Price: $449 (1995); no longer available (2009). Approximate number of dealers: factory-direct only. Warranty: 2 years parts and…

Cut and Thrust: RIAA LP Equalization

Until the Recording Industry Association of America hit the headlines in recent years with its antipiracy campaign, the initials RIAA meant one thing to seasoned audiophiles: the vinyl-disc equalization characteristic introduced in the 1950s to standardize what had previously been an anarchy of different EQs. Three decades later, as CD gained ascendance, a large proportion of audiophiles still knew what RIAA equalization was, and a good number of them had some idea or better of what the RIAA EQ curve looked like, and why it was applied.

But that was a generation ago. In the interim…

Cut and Thrust: RIAA LP Equalization Page 2

In the summer 1978 issue of Stereo, technical editor Edward J. Foster wrote of the IEC revision: "What point is there in paying literally thousands of dollars for a stereo system capable of response to below 40Hz and then blowing it all on a sloppy subsonic filter?...The record-warp problem will not be solved by changes in equalization. It will be solved by changes in manufacturing technique and in improved quality control. Flat records can be made; it just takes a bit longer and costs a bit more." While in the "News and Views" section of High Fidelity, under the title "Phono Equalization:…