Digital Sources: Ayre C-5xeMP universal player; Apple 1.33GHz iBook (2GB RAM) with 250GB LaCie & 320GB Western Digital Passport external hard drives; Bel Canto USB Link 24/96 USB-to-S/PDIF converter; Bel Canto e.One DAC3 D/A processor.
Preamplifier: Aesthetix Calypso.
Power Amplifiers: Moscode 401HR and 402Au, Parasound Halo JC 1 monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Klipsch Palladium P-39F, Vienna Acoustics Klimt The Kiss.
Cables: Interconnect: Shunyata Research, Stealth Metacarbon. Speaker: Shunyata Research, Stealth Dream. AC: Shunyata Research…

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John Atkinson's "Music Served: Extracting Music from Your PC" is a must-read; start there. While you don't need the latest or most powerful computer to use as a server, you do, as JA observed, want a quiet one. My iBook did yeoman duty in this regard—from my listening position, I was never aware of its fan even turning on.
In future, however, I believe I'll take JA's suggestion to use a Mac mini; I discovered how much better my iBook sounds when I maxed out its RAM at 2GB. I can jam 6GB into the…
I examined the measured behavior of the Ayre Acoustics QB-9 (footnote 1) 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, my Audio Precision System One Dual Domain. I drove the QB-9 with the USB 2.0 output of my Intel MacBook running OS10.4.11 for the testing, playing back WAV files using Bias Peak 6.2. Unlike iTunes, Peak interacts with the OSX CoreAudio engine to ensure that audio at the correct sample rate is sent out through the USB and FireWire ports; nevertheless, I double-…
The genre has, so far, failed to attract the lions of the loudspeaker industry. Yes, the Klipsch and Tannoy lines still include some high-efficiency models—living fossils, mostly, from an era when all amps were low-power amps—and, among smaller…
Digital Sources: Theta Digital Miles CD player (S/PDIF output); Benchmark DAC1 & DAC1 HDR D/A converters; Sony Vaio laptop running Sony Soundforge 9; M Audio Fast Track Ultra USB interface.
Power Amplifiers: Pass Labs Aleph 3 & XA 30.5, Rogue Audio M180.
Integrated Amplifiers: Simaudio Moon i3.3, Manley Labs Stingray iTube.
Loudspeakers: Revel Performa F30 & Ultima Gem, Totem Acoustic Forest.
Cables: Digital: Stereovox HDVX coaxial. Interconnect: Sain Line Systems Pure Balanced & Pure. Speaker: Kimber Kable BiFocal XL. AC: Sain…
My estimate of the Palladium P-17B's voltage sensitivity was a little lower than the specified 94dB/2.83V/m, at 90.7dB(B). However, this is still significantly higher than average; the P-17B will work well with relatively low-powered amplifiers. Its impedance (fig.1) varies widely: averaging 14 ohms above 1kHz, it drops below 3 ohms between 128 and 265Hz, with a minimum value of 2.6 ohms at 170Hz. There is also an amplifier-frightening combination of 4.5 ohms and –50° electrical phase at 104Hz, a frequency where music has high energy levels. So while the Klipsch…
Lost Highways/American Recordings B0013954-02 (CD). 2010. Rick Rubin, prod.; David Ferguson, eng.; Greg Fidelman, Jimmy Tittle, Paul Fig, Dan Leffler, asst. engs. AAD.? TT: 32:23
Performance ****½
Sonics ***½
A second career is a luxury that few artists ever consider, let alone attempt—yet that is essentially what Johnny Cash had via the six records he made at the end of his life with producer Rick Rubin.
Following at least one previous "final" volume, American VI: Ain't No Grave may truly be the last word to come from this…
1) Music
2) Quality audio reproduction
3) Ease of access to music
Well, SM took me…
But while the kWP's fit and finish were jewel-like, its appearance was…