The measurements presented here for the American Hybrid Technology phono preamplifier were performed with a 47k ohm load in both the moving-coil and moving-magnet configurations. Additional measurements were made with a 100 ohm load resistor in the moving-coil configuration but are not presented here. They were not substantively different, except in one or two areas where our Audio Precision test set's 25 ohm source impedance into the 100 ohm load resistor was suspected of causing loading errors. (The source impedance of typical moving-coil cartridges is far lower…
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STEVE EARLE & the Dukes: The Hard Way
MCA MCA-6430 (LP), MCAD-6430 (CD). Steve Earle, Joe Hardy, prods.; Joe Hardy, eng. DDA/DDD. TT: 55:53
MCA MCA-6430 (LP), MCAD-6430 (CD). Steve Earle, Joe Hardy, prods.; Joe Hardy, eng. DDA/DDD. TT: 55:53
JOHN HIATT: Stolen Moments
A&M 75021 5310 1 (LP), 2 (CD). Glyn Johns, prod.; Glyn Johns, Jack Joseph Puig, engs. AAA/AAD. TT: 52:57
Steve Earle and John Hiatt are both all rock, all country. I listened to Earle's Guitar Town and Hiatt's Bring the Family many times a day for weeks after their releases, and I almost never do that.
Both men sing like they're fighting an almost-losing battle against quicksand. The…
"Two years ago I discovered my latest guilty pleasure: Internet radio. As long as it's 192k or higher. My whole buying/download cycle had been reduced. The pleasure and savings have increased. If they succeed in killing Net radio, I'm done with the hobby."—Reader Peter DeBoer, in response to a recent Stereophile online poll.
Music lovers now have an ever-churning sea of compelling digital audio sources lapping at their feet. Into this vast ocean dive the equipment manufacturers and computer leviathans and their attendant tinkerers, trying to channel the steady flow of new…
The analog outputs can be set as either fixed or variable (controlled from the remote), allowing the MP to be connected directly to a power amp or active powered speakers. Because it has built-in digital source switching, the MP and a power amp may be all some folks will need for a modern, all-digital source system, though a volume control on the faceplate would have made such a configuration even better.
Setup
Right out of the box, the MP operates like most CD players: Connect the analog or digital output, pop in a disc, and hit Play. Setting up the Internet-radio or media-server…
Tapping your way forward and back along these limbs, testing stations along the way, and hitting plenty of dead ends—it can all be a slow and tedious process. But if you've got some time on your hands, it can also be a lot of fun. Somehow, I ended up on a great sunny-side-up station broadcasting from Guyana with a fast-talking DJ playing local music. Another branch yielded a station that broadcasts real birdsong 24 hours a day. Drove the cats wild.
vTuner: 100% Generation Disco Funk
But more often than not, I was frustrated with most stations' low streaming rates and the pain of…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Upsampling CD and streaming file player with FM tuner, wireless IR remote control, WLAN antenna, iPod cable, 24-bit, 352.8kHz sigma-delta, 8x-oversampling DACs (switchable analog filters: third-order base-linear Bessel filter, set at 60kHz or 100kHz). Plays CD/DA, CD-R/RW, CD Text; streams MP3, WMA, WMA Pro, WMA Lossless, AAC, FLAC, OGG-Vorbis, LPCM, WAV; supports PLS, M3U, ASX playlists. Supported servers include: UPnP 1.1, UPnP AV, Microsoft Windows Media Connect Server (MS DRM10), Real Rhapsody Internet Music Service, vTuner Internet Radio…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Logitech Slim Devices Transporter, Sooloos Control 10/Source/Twinstore music servers; Apple Intel Mac mini running OS10.5.6 as file server; Apple Powerbook 17" G4 running OS10.5.6 & iTunes 8.1.1; Denon DVD-2910, Oppo DV-980H universal players.
Preamplifiers: Lexicon MC-12, Integra DTC-9.8.
Power Amplifiers: Classé CAM 350 monoblocks, T+A Power Plant integrated amplifier.
Loudspeakers: MartinLogan Prodigy with Descent subwoofers (2).
Cables: Digital: XLO. Interconnect: Kimber Kable (line level). Speaker: Kimber Kable.
…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I examined the T+A Music Player's performance primarily using the Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and "As We See It" in the January 2008 issue), as well as, for some tests, our vintage Audio Precision System One. I used my regular CD-R of 16-bit test tones, and also fed data to the Music Player's optical digital input. I also used some test WAV files stored on a USB flash drive, and fed the MP files over my WiFi network using Windows Media Player 11 as the uPnP client, running on a PC with Windows XP SP3. (For some arcane networking reason, neither…
Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse: Dark Night of the Soul
With: Frank Black, Julian Casablancas, Vic Chesnutt, Wayne Coyne, Flaming Lips, David Lynch, Jason Lytle, James Mercer, Iggy Pop, Gruff Rhys, Suzanne Vega.
CD/download. 2009. Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse, prods., engs. AAD? TT: 43:16
Performance ****
Sonics ****
With: Frank Black, Julian Casablancas, Vic Chesnutt, Wayne Coyne, Flaming Lips, David Lynch, Jason Lytle, James Mercer, Iggy Pop, Gruff Rhys, Suzanne Vega.
CD/download. 2009. Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse, prods., engs. AAD? TT: 43:16
Performance ****
Sonics ****
It's an old story. Long before its current downturn, the music business was always the land of the grand unrealized project sabotaged at the last minute by unseen forces. The path from idea to finished product has always been a perilous one. Many are the…
One of my favorite Charles Rodrigues cartoons, originally published in Stereo Review and reprinted in the book Total Harmonic Distortion (Perfectbound Press, 1988), shows a customer in the soundroom of an audio dealer, auditioning a pair of speakers. This is no ordinary soundroom: the floor, walls, and ceiling are completely covered with irregularly shaped boxes, apparently an extreme form of acoustical treatment. The salesman is saying, "Of course, you realize that it won't sound exactly the same in your living room, sir..."
I've heard speakers in rooms that had suffered acoustical…