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The Spaces Between the Notes

"Check it out." Music editor Robert Baird handed me a CD. "He's 70 years old, it's his 13th album, he got Don Was to produce it, and it's his best yet."

RB was talking about Delbert McClinton's new CD, Acquired Taste (New West NWA3044).

"Is it good enough for this month's 'Recording of the Month?'"

"Musically, yes indeed, but the sound is a bit funky, especially the first track. Give it a listen."

So I did.

The sound was indeed . . . funky. The overall sound was in-your-face, with rather a buzzy quality that was emphasized on that first track, "Mama's…

Recording of November 2009: <I>The Visitor</I>

Jim O'Rourke: The Visitor
Drag City DC375CD (CD). 2009. Jim O'Rourke, prod., eng. AAD? TT: 38:03
Performance ****
Sonics ****

Musicians all say they detest labels. "I'm not a singer-songwriter! My blonde cornrows look nothing like Axl Rose's! My guitar playing does not sound like a man strangling a pony!"

But in the strange case of Jim O'Rourke, the many labels he's acquired have made him quite the man of mystery. Early in his career, this musical jack-of-all-trades (as an instrumentalist, he gravitates toward guitar and keyboards) made a cottage industry out of being…

HRT Music Streamer+ USB D/A Converter

Every now and then an affordable product comes along that's so good, even wealthy shoppers want it. Past examples in domestic audio include the Rega RB300 tonearm, the original Quicksilver Mono amplifier, the Grace F9E phono cartridge—even Sony's unwitting CD player, the original PlayStation. Based on word of mouth alone, one might add the HRT Music Streamer+ to that lauded list.

Designed by Kevin Halverson and manufactured in the US by High Resolution Technologies, the Music Streamer+ is a $299 outboard device that enables the use of a personal computer as a digital music…

HRT Music Streamer+ USB D/A Converter Page 2

The MS+ combined solid musical basics—very good timing, momentum, and drama—with a sound that softened rather than spotlit the flaws in weaker recordings. It also had less openness and air than either the Wavelength Cosecant or my Sony SCD-777ES disc player, and its sense of spatial depth was modest rather than abundant.

That said, the Music Streamer+ was consistently satisfying in its own right. On "Queen Jane Approximately," from Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited (CD, Columbia CH 90324), the HRT converter played the song with good musical flow—the rhythm section retained a sense of…

HRT Music Streamer+ USB D/A Converter Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Single-box digital-to-analog converter. Formats supported: all PCM-output audio codecs (AIFF, WAV, MP3, etc.). Digital input jack: USB only (type B plug). Analog output jacks: RCA. Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz, +0/–1.7dB. Maximum output voltage: 2.25V. Signal/noise ratio: 107dB, A-weighted, ref. full output. Power requirement (via USB bus): 250mA.
Dimensions: 5.1" (130mm) L by 2.1" (55mm) W by 1.2" (30mm) H. Weight: not much at all.
Serial Number Of Unit Reviewed: None found.
Price: $299. Approximate number of dealers: 9.
…

HRT Music Streamer+ USB D/A Converter Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Analog Sources: Thorens TD-124 Mk.II turntable; EMT 997 tonearm; Shindo SPU, Ortofon SPU 90th Anniversary, EMT OFD 25 & OFD 65 cartridges.
Digital Sources: Sony SCD-777ES SACD/CD player; Sony PlayStation 1; Wavelength Cosecant v3 USB DAC (with Apple iMac).
Preamplification: Auditorium 23 Hommage T1 step-up transformer, Shindo Masseto preamplifier.
Power Amplifier: Shindo Haut-Brion.
Loudspeakers: Audio Note AN-E/SPe HE.
Cables: USB: Belkin Pro Series, Kimber B Bus. Interconnect: Audio Note AN-vx, Shindo Silver. Speaker: Auditorium 23. AC…

HRT Music Streamer+ USB D/A Converter Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

I examined the measured behavior of the Music Streamer+ 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 and the Miller Audio Research Jitter Analyzer. I drove the Music Streamers 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 and operating off battery power. As the Streamer is bus-powered, I wondered if it was possible that it might perform slightly differently with…

Aerial Acoustics 20T V2 loudspeaker

It was an audacious demonstration. For the launch of Aerial's 20T loudspeaker at the end of 2002, Aerial's head honcho and designer, Michael Kelly, had arranged to compare the speakers reproducing the recorded sound of virtuoso violinist Arturo Delmoni with the real thing. The setting was the ornate dining room of one of Newport, Rhode Island's many mansions, and, given the inevitable differences—due to the facts that a violin has a very different radiation pattern from a loudspeaker and thus excites the room differently, and that the recording inevitably gives the listener a double dose of…

Aerial Acoustics 20T V2 loudspeaker Page 2

When Kelly returned, this time with David Marshall, the final speaker positions ended up somewhat different from before. Whereas the 20Ts' original positions had been what you might think intuitive for a full-range speaker—well away from room boundaries—the speakers were now very close to the sidewalls and aggressively toed-in to the listening seat. There was also a slight asymmetry to the setup, which Michael explained was to cope with a stronger reflection of treble energy from one sidewall. (One sidewall is lined with bookcases, the other with LP racks and bookshelves; the wide lateral…

Aerial Acoustics 20T V2 loudspeaker Page 3

Changing to the Parasound Halo JC 1 monoblocks, however, required the tweeter to be set to its minimum sensitivity, perhaps because these amplifiers' increased low-frequency control threw the Aerial's top octaves into greater contrast. Even then, the marriage between the Aerials and the Parasounds was still too bright with early digital recordings, such as the SACD reissue of Peter Gabriel's Security (Geffen Chronicles 069 493623-2), an album I love for its music but deplore for its coarse-grained midrange and treble textures. The treble balance became more acceptable when the amplifiers…