Analog Sources: Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn, Cobra, Castellon turntable, tonearm, stand; Graham Phantom II tonearm; Ortofon A90, ZYX R1000 Sigma 2 cartridges.
Digital Sources: Playback Designs MPS-5 SACD/CD player, Camelot Roundtable Anagram Technologies DAC, BPT-modified Alesis Masterlink hard-disk recorder, Sooloos music server, Macintosh G5 computer with Lynx L22 soundcard.
Preamplification: Abbingdon Music Research PH-77, Boulder Amplifiers 1008 & 2008, Vitus Audio MP-P201 phono preamplifiers; darTZeel NHB-18ns preamplifier.
Power…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Seta Nano phono preamplifier with Stereophile's loan sample of the Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It" and www.ap.com). I experimented with the grounding between the preamp and the analyzers to get the lowest level of noise.
Housed in an enclosure the size and proportions of an Apple Mac mini computer, the Nano crowds together pairs of balanced and unbalanced inputs and outputs on its rear panel, as well as rotary switches for adjusting the resistive loading of each channel, a ground terminal, and a trimmer to…
As long as you're spinning an LP for your listening pleasure, and if digitizing it at a resolution of 24-bit/192kHz is transparent to the analog source, why not record and store the LP on your computer at that high sampling rate for future convenient playback via iTunes or for iPod use, or for burning to CD-R? And, while you're at it, why not record the LP unequalized and apply the RIAA curve in the digital domain, where you're not dependent on capacitors and resistors that are imprecise to begin with, and can drift over time? With no drift of phase or value, the virtual filter's results…
Before you do anything, go into Pure Vinyl's Preferences, where you'll be presented with the first set of maddening choices, some of them incomprehensible to all but the most technically informed. Most important is "Apply vinyl correction curve." The recording itself will be "flat." In other words, the input is to be recorded unaltered, whether with or without EQ. You are selecting the output for both monitoring and playback. Here you can choose from among 66 different curves, for both 78rpm and LP playback.
If you record an equalized signal from your standard phono preamp, be…
Normal playback with Pure Vinyl was always stable. It was only when I was changing configurations, or during rendering operations, that I ran into potentially speaker-damaging problems. According to Robinson, most audiophiles using the software have a dedicated audio computer, which he recommends as the safest way to use his software.
For serious listening, do you really want to digitize analog?
Everything you're about to read needs to be considered in the context of the $675 Lynx L22 soundcard, thought by many to be among the best of its type. However, it's usable in the Intel…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Macintosh program (requires OS10.5 or later) to rip LPs and edit the resultant files. Offers RIAA and other deemphasis curves.
Price: $299. Pure Music alone: $129. Approximate number of dealers: Sold direct.
Manufacturer: Channel D, Trenton, NJ. Tel: (609) 393-3600. Web: www.channld.com.
Bo Christensen, who was the guiding light behind, first, Primare, then Bow Technologies, graduated as an architect—not surprising, considering his products' drop-dead-gorgeous looks. I talked with Bo while preparing my review of his Bow Technologies ZZ-Eight CD player (see Stereophile, August 1998, Vol.21 No.8), and started by asking him if his knowledge of electronics was self-taught.
Bo Christensen: I don't have much knowledge of electronics. I have a design team, we have a listening panel, so it's teamwork where I contribute ideas...it's a team effort where the circuitry is designed by…
It's conventional wisdom among audiophiles: Small, high-end audio companies build high-quality products in small numbers. Products which are often expensive. But not always. Big mass-market companies build cookie-cutter products in big numbers. They're usually cheap. But not always.
The real world is never that simple. Big companies have the expertise, production facilities, and economies of scale to produce exceptional products if they put their minds to it. And sometimes they do put their minds to it. Sony has been making solid, well-engineered, genuinely high-end CD players…
It did. My first reaction, coming from living with a more expensive player—the Theta Data III transport driving the Mark Levinson No.36 processor—was no letdown. Initially, listening first to Rickie Lee Jones's version of "Under the Boardwalk," from Girl At Her Volcano (Warner Bros. WPCP-3710, Japan), I thought the overall sound excellent, though with a hint of graininess (more powder than grain) at the extreme top end. But that virtually disappeared on further listening. Whether the improvement was due to acclimatization on my part or breaking-in on the part of the Sony I won't speculate,…
On material heavily dependent on ambience, fullness, and overall musical perspective, I have to give the nod to the Sony. On Saint-Sa;dens's Oratorio de Noel, the Sony remained the richer and more full-bodied, with distinctly deeper bass. The ARC's bass was perfectly adequate (particularly if you don't have big speakers), but the Sony suggested the word "awesome" on some of the deeper pedal notes (and this on the quieter, more subtle passages), while the ARC did not. The CD1 had a little more air and inner detailing, but the Sony was better at allowing me to forget that what I was hearing…