The X-32 was introduced into my reference system consisting of VTL 225W Deluxe monoblocks driving Hales System Two Signature loudspeakers through bi-wired AudioQuest Green Hyperlitz. Preamps included a Classé Audio DR-5 and the EVS Stepped Attenuator reviewed last month. Other digital processors on hand for comparison included a Wadia 2000, Stax X1t, Theta DSPro Basic, Aragon D2A, Proceed PDP, and the D/A section of a Marantz CD-94. The X-32 was driven by an Esoteric P2 transport, the digital output from the CD-94, and a 48kHz signal from a JVC DAT machine…
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Sidebar 3: Measurements
Fig.1 shows the X-32's frequency response. Like the Wadia 2000, the X-32 features a rapidly rolled-off treble above 10kHz, its response being down more than 3dB at 20kHz. Wadia claims that their DigiMaster decoding software optimizes the performance in the time domain rather than in the frequency domain (footnote 1). Wadia feels that the tradeoff involving depressed top-octave response offered by the DigiMaster/Frenchcurve low-pass filter is more than made up for in the transient response. The exact nature of this digital filter is revealed in the X-32's impulse…
DAVID BYRNE,: Rei Momo
Luaka Bop/Sire/Warner Bros. 25990-1 (LP), -2 (CD). Steve Lillywhite, D. Byrne, prods.; Jon Fausty, eng. ADD. TT: 63:43
VARIOUS/DAVID BYRNE: O Samba (Brazil Classics 2)
Luaka Bop/Sire/Warner Bros. 26019-1 (LP), -2 (CD). Todo Mundo, prods. ADD. TT: 50:25
Luaka Bop/Sire/Warner Bros. 25990-1 (LP), -2 (CD). Steve Lillywhite, D. Byrne, prods.; Jon Fausty, eng. ADD. TT: 63:43
VARIOUS/DAVID BYRNE: O Samba (Brazil Classics 2)
Luaka Bop/Sire/Warner Bros. 26019-1 (LP), -2 (CD). Todo Mundo, prods. ADD. TT: 50:25
Kind of like "MacGyver," someday there's going to be a TV show called "David Byrne: Musicologist." Or he'll pop up hosting one of those earnest kids' shows on PBS—"Can you say 'gamelan'?" Modern-day Raiders of the Lost Chord like Byrne, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, and Paul Simon are hell-bent on global…
As an equipment reviewer, I find it helpful to talk to audiophiles and music lovers about their systems and upgrade plans. Fortunately, Stereophile's computer supplier and troubleshooter, Michael Mandel, also happens to be an avid audiophile. I say "fortunately" because I rarely get a chance to talk to people who put down their hard-earned money for hi-fi components. Instead, I usually converse with equipment designers, technicians, and marketing types, hardly people who reflect the buying public. It is thus a valuable education to get feedback from real-world consumers to find out what kind…
The DSPro Basic's heart is the computing section consisting of two Motorola 56001 DSP chips and two ROMs that contain the decoding algorithm for the 56001s. The DSPs perform 8x-oversampling which, according to Mike Moffat, is optimum for this amount of computing power and DACs. He contends that DACs start to sound worse as they are driven at faster and faster speeds by high oversampling rates. An additional benefit is that some computing power is reserved for other functions that are done in software, rather than hardware. For example, the Basic performs de-emphasis in the digital domain…
The DSPro Basic's soundstage depth seemed to combine synergistically with its remarkable transparency. There was no sense of veiling, congestion, or fog. Instead, the Basic provided a transparent window on the music that was luscious and inviting. Music had an openness and clarity seldom heard from digital playback at any price. This transparency, coupled with the ability to reveal spatial nuance, allowed me to see into the music as though it were clear crystal. Instrumental outlines were resolved in three dimensions, with air and space around them. Images floated between, above, and behind…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: 8x-oversampling, dual 18-bit digital signal processor. Inputs: two digital coaxial on RCA jacks. Output: 1 digital (S/PDIF) on RCA. Analog outputs: unbalanced RCA jacks. Sample rates handled: 44.1kHz, 48kHz. Frequency response: 20–20.5kHz +0, –0.1dB. S/N ratio: 104dB. THD at full output: Less than 0.001%. Output level: 3.4V RMS minimum.
Dimensions: 19" W by 2¼" H by 14" D. Weight: 17 lbs (shipping).
Price: $1995 (1990); no longer available (2009). Approximate number of dealers: 66.
Manufacturer: Theta Digital, Agoura Hills, CA 91301 (1990…
Sidebar 2: Review System
The Theta DSPro Basic was auditioned (after an epic struggle prying it away from Dick Olsher) in my reference system, which consists of VTL 225W Deluxe monoblocks driving Hales System Two Signature loudspeakers, with level control provided by an Electronic Visionary Systems Stepped Attenuator passive control unit (reviewed last month, along with the Hales signatures). The preamp, used briefly, was a Classé Audio DR-5 (footnote 1).
Speaker cable was AudioQuest Green Hyperlitz and interconnect the Expressive Technologies IC-1, Music Metre, and van den Hul D…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
Not surprisingly, the DSPro had flat frequency response (fig.1) and virtually no de-emphasis error (fig.2), due to the fact that de-emphasis is performed in the digital domain. The Basic's channel separation (fig.3) was fairly typical, but with greater separation at mid and high frequencies. Unusually, the DSPro Basic did not exhibit flat phase response. Instead, interchannel phase increased with frequency, reaching a maximum difference of 42°, as can be seen in the plot of fig.4. (This is equivalent to a time delay of 6µs between the two channel outputs, which is…
"The victor belongs to the spoils."—F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and the Damned, 1922
The New York Times reported that more than 3000 foreigners had abandoned their cars at Dubai airport (footnote 1). Deep in debt and out of work, had they stayed they could have been thrown into debtor's prison, just as in the London of 200 and 300 years ago. (Charles Dickens's father languished in debtor's prison. So did Samuel Johnson, until a friend sprang him. The Debtor's Act of 1869 abolished this.)
Mercedes, BMWs, even Maseratis . . . abandoned in the dust.
I'll bet…