Analog source: Linn LP12 turntable (fully updated), Ittok tonearm, AudioQuest AQ-7000nsx cartridge.
Digital source: PS Audio Lambda II CD transport, Perpetual Technologies P-1A/ModWright P-3A digital processors.
Preamplifier: Convergent Audio Technology SL-1 Ultimate.
Power amplifiers: 47 Laboratory 4706 Gaincard with 4700 Power Humpty power supply, Quicksilver Horn Monos.
Loudspeakers: Avantgarde Acoustic Uno 2.0.
Cables: Digital: Mystic Reference I2S, Illuminati Orchid AES/EBU. Interconnect: Nordost Quattro Fil, Nirvana S-L. Speaker:…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
The subject of audiophile-grade AC outlets, which I have been discussing in previous Fine Tunes" columns is more contentious than I'd ever imagined. In August's episode of "Fine Tunes," I forwarded you an e-mail from audio worthy Glen Bartholomew, who waxed poetic about the inexpensive and therefore (he felt) oft-overlooked hospital-grade devices from Leviton. He found the Levitons to be the equals of, if not better than, the Hubbell, Bryant, and Eagle units I'd previously recommended.
But computer-facilities engineer Chris Leck (chrisl@teleport.com) "demurs," as JA is fond of noting in "…
A "CD processor," is how I distinctly heard Cary Audio's Dennis Had describe it. The venue was Stereophile's High End Hi-Fi Show in New York last April. Nothing really unusual in today's digital marketplace, I thought to myself, though a bit out of character for a company dedicated to vacuum-tube technology. But wait a minute. Dennis had described it as an analog CD processor. Analog!? Well, yes, the unit processes the analog signal from a CD player.
Why would anybody want to operate on the analog signal? I do not for a moment doubt that digital processors are essential high-end tools.…
J. S. Bach's "Komm, Jesu, Komm" (track 12 of the Fine Arts CD, MD&GL 3322, available from Audio Advancements in New Jersey) features a panoramic soundstage with plenty of fine soprano voices. If there's anything amiss in the upper mids and lower treble of your system, the soprano upper registers will turn shrill and bright. Without the Cary, this range failed to sound entirely natural. Mind you, I'm pretty fussy—even a hint of brightness or edginess in this range is disturbing to me. The Theta DS Pro with either the Threshold FET-10/e line-level preamp or the Classée DR-6 preamp failed…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Analog CD processor and line-level preamp. Input impedance: 12.7k ohms. Output impedance: 11.15k ohms. Gain: 12dB. S/N ratio: 88dB (no output level specified).
Dimensions: 16.5" W by 4" H by 11.5" D. Weight: 10 lbs with external power supply.
Serial number of sample tested: 902208.
Price: $1295, $1550 as tested with optional Penny & Giles volume control, $1995 with optional phono stage (all 1990); no longer available (2005). Approximate number of dealers: 38.
Manufacturer: Cary Audio Design, 1020 Goodworth Drive, Apex, NC 27539. Tel…
Sidebar 2: Measurements
Following Dick's auditioning, I carried out a few measurements to examine whether there were any correlations between them and the CAD-5500's sonic performance. Looking at the output waveform with a unidirectional pulse revealed the CAD-5500 to be non-inverting. Channel separation was somewhat disappointing, measuring around 50dB in both directions across most of the audio band with the input of the measured channel shorted to ground (fig.1). Though this is significantly worse than the intrinsic separation offered by even inexpensive CD players, it is still low…
The sound, of course, but here's a checklist of 16 specifics to consider when evaluating your own or somebody else's live-recording efforts.
One major difference between the sophisticated audiophile and a critical but inexperienced listener is the former's ability to analyze reproduced sound—to take it apart, as it were—and listen to each of a number of specifics aspects of it, rather than just to the entire fabric of sound. It is that ability to single out for aural attention certain details in the sound that gives some people what has come to be called (usually by those who don't have…
4. Perspective.
If the musicians were placed onstage in rows, one behind another, rear rows should sound farther away than closer rows. The effect should not however be exaggerated: The front rows should not sound "right in the room" while the rear ones sound 20' away (unless for some reason that was the intent of the performance).
If the musicians were placed onstage in rows, one behind another, rear rows should sound farther away than closer rows. The effect should not however be exaggerated: The front rows should not sound "right in the room" while the rear ones sound 20' away (unless for some reason that was the intent of the performance).
5. Ambience.
(Sometimes affectedly, or ignorantly, spelled "ambiance," which is French. The English word is just as good.) This is the sound of the acoustics of the performing environment, which gives a recording the aural flavor of a live…
8. Accuracy of Midrange Timbre.
One of the more recondite aspects of recorded sound, this has no relevance whatsoever to the person unfamiliar with the sound of live acoustical instruments. To one who is familiar therewith, inaccuracies of timbre will be heard as changes in the apparent size of the instruments, which may make an English horn sound like an upper register bassoon or a brass instrument sound as though its bell is too large or too small—turning a trombone into a bass trombone or vice versa. The effect has also been compared with that of running a disc slightly off-speed but…
One of the more recondite aspects of recorded sound, this has no relevance whatsoever to the person unfamiliar with the sound of live acoustical instruments. To one who is familiar therewith, inaccuracies of timbre will be heard as changes in the apparent size of the instruments, which may make an English horn sound like an upper register bassoon or a brass instrument sound as though its bell is too large or too small—turning a trombone into a bass trombone or vice versa. The effect has also been compared with that of running a disc slightly off-speed but…
12. Ease.
Another rather abtruse aspect of recorded sound, this pertains to the recording's freedom of strain or irritation. Steve Weiman of Pro Musica (an Urbana, IL dealer) has found that most listeners can detect the difference, not so much on the basis of conscious aural cues as by what the sound does to their muscle set. Irritating sounds tend to cause involuntary muscle tension; easy sound allows relaxation while listening.
Another rather abtruse aspect of recorded sound, this pertains to the recording's freedom of strain or irritation. Steve Weiman of Pro Musica (an Urbana, IL dealer) has found that most listeners can detect the difference, not so much on the basis of conscious aural cues as by what the sound does to their muscle set. Irritating sounds tend to cause involuntary muscle tension; easy sound allows relaxation while listening.
13. Quietness.
This means freedom from distracting extramusical noises, which can range from the rumblings of air conditioners or nearby traffic to…