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The Audiopax Model Eighty Eight's two Timbre controls make possible a large number of combinations. I decided, therefore, to simplify matters by looking at the drop-dead-gorgeous amplifier's measured performance with both controls set to their fully clockwise positions, which I assumed was maximum bias current, and set as Bob Deutsch preferred: the left control to "11," the right to "3."

The input impedance at 1kHz was a usefully high 229k ohms, and the amplifier inverted absolute polarity. The voltage gain into 8 ohms varied somewhat according to the…

Editor: Finally! Six long years after Eduardo de Lima's first published papers in 1997, John Atkinson and Robert Deutsch have wonderfully proved the point that Eduardo's been making.

Let's face it, there's no real art or science involved in building an amp that'll drive a test-bench resistive load. It's easy to build an amp with "low distortion." The Crown DC-300 broke that ground over 30 years ago. But the test bench doesn't know what to do with the second-order distortion of single-ended amplifiers. Certainly, if it existed as audible…

The second power amp I had around for comparison with the $2795 PS Audio GCC-100 was the Audiopax Model Eighty Eight SE, a tubed single-ended pentode monoblock ($10,000/pair) that simulates the sound of single-ended triodes but with more power (see my review in the May 2003 Stereophile, Vol.26 No.5). The relationship between the sounds of the Audiopax and the Avantgarde Uno speakers is a particularly synergistic one—in fact, the Audiopax was originally imported by Avantgarde USA because of that…

Music & anti-music
Editor: I was very pleased to read John Atkinson's comments on hi-fi and anti-hi-fi recordings in December's "As We See It." But many people with better hi-fi systems, or even so-called "audiophiles," are not always able to distinguish between musical and anti-musical recordings.

For example, a friend of mine with a decent system recently recommended Sting's new Brand New Day CD as a rather good recording. Listen to it, however, and after a few minutes you notice that the recording is…

I can still remember the "level wars" of the late '60s and early '70s, when every producer wanted his record mastered louder than the other guy. But now...every pop CD is "slammed" 'til the little LEDs don't move, from the downbeat to the fade. When you run the D/A outputs through a +4dBm system, you have to…

It was a revelation. Each time I popped in a familiar disc, I hoped to catch the UDP-1 out in some characteristic that would negatively distinguish it from what I've heard in the past. No such luck. The McCormack sounded as clean, balanced, and dynamic as all get-out. Violinist Andrew Manze's disc of Vivaldi…

Description: Universal multichannel disc player. Formats played: CD, CD-R, CD-RW, SACD, DVD-Audio, DVD-Video, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, VCD, SVCD, MP3, MPEG. Decoders: Dolby Digital, DTS, MP3. S/PDIF digital outputs: TosLink, RCA. Analog audio outputs: 5.1- & 2-channel RCA jacks. Video outputs: Progressive or interlaced component (RCA), S-video, composite (RCA). Audio output: 2.0V RMS, all outputs. THD: 0.05%. Signal/noise ratio: 100dB, A-weighted. Frequency range: 4Hz–44kHz (DVD, Fs = 96kHz), 3Hz–88kHz (DVD Fs = 192kHz).
Dimensions: 19" (487mm) W by 3.5" (…

Two-Channel System).
Digital sources: Sony SCD-XA9000ES SACD/CD player, Theta Gen.VIII DAC.
Preamplifier: Sonic Frontiers Line-3.
Power amplifiers: Sonic Frontiers Power-3, Classé Omicron monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Revel Ultima Studio.
Cables: Digital: Stereovox HDVX. Interconnect (balanced): AudioQuest Cheetah DBS, JPS Super-Conductor 2. Speaker: AudioQuest Mont Blanc DBS biwire. AC: JPS Aluminata.

Multichannel System).
Digital sources: Sony SCD-XA777ES SACD/CD player, Denon DV-5900 universal player.
Preamplifier: McCormack MAP-…