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The Vitus Dance

Is the CD dying? Judging by the flurry of new CD player and transport news at the Venetian it's hard to tell. Or maybe this show is living proof that CD has joined vinyl as a legacy format that will forever inspire technical development.

In any event, the new Vitus SCD-010 looks like a serious attempt to push the format to extremes. The player is built around a highly modified Philips CDPro-2LF drive mechanism that is surrounded in damped aluminum.

The digital conversion is handled by a DSP module from Anagram Technologies acheiving a claimed sample rate of 384KHz. The…

VTL: The Next Generation

Luke Manley was muttering about the problems he was having naming the latest iteration of the VTL TL-5.5 line preamplifier ($6000). "I've already done a signature version and I don't want to confuse people—it really does represent major improvements in sound."

"What about next generation?"

"NG? No good."

"What about TNG—the next generation?"

"Maybe . . . ."

So what's new and improved, you ask? The volume control software and chip, the all-tube gain stage topology, the relays, there's, an improved precision power supply, and space for an internal…

Nova Does Not Mean "Won't Go"

Peachtree Audio has declared that "Computer Audio is here to stay—so let's make it sound right." The 80Wpc Nova ($1199) includes an ESS 9006 Sabre DAc, which has a jitter reduction circuit and a 24-bit/96kHz upsampler. It employs a 6922 tube tas the driver for its class-A/B output stage. It decodes MP3, MP4, FLAC, AIFF, ALC, "plus all others. It even has a slot in the back to accommodate a Sonos ZP80/90. And did I mention that it has an HT pass-through? Or 11 regulated power supplies? That last is to isolate separate sections from digitally generated noise.

And it's pretty with its…

The Black Box's Touching Display

Here's a view of the by now familiar grid of albums on the Elo touchpanel connected to The Black Box.

Blue Smoke's "The Black Box" Music Server Revealed

The touchscreen music server market has picked up a new face with the official release of Blue Smoke's "The Black Box". Demonstrated in prototype form at last year's CES, the final version is a sleek, um, black box with a single disc slot on the front and an array of connectors on the back. Retail is $6995 and should be hitting dealer shelves Q1 2009.

Inside the DC powered box is a custom tailored PC running Vista, which according to designer Peter Sills, is the best operating system for processing digital audio. Due to an array of heat sinks on either side of the box, there are no…

Bel Canto's USB Link 24/96

As more audiophiles start to view their computer systems as another audio source component, finding good sounding ways to bridge from the computer to the preamp becomes paramount.

Bel Canto's $495 USB Link 24/96 was developed to take the first step by grabbing the stream present at the computer's USB port and converting it to SPDIF for connection to the DAC of your choice. It handles up to 24 bits and 96kHz and outputs the data to a 75 ohm BNC connector (the box contains a Stereovox SV2 BNC/BNC cable with RCA adaptor so you can connect it to the DAC).

The company's John…

Esoteric D01-VU DAC

One channel of DAC nirvana.

Esoteric Transport and DAC Upgrades

Esoteric has upgraded the wiring and parts inside the flagship P-01 and D-01 SACD/CD transport and DAC and has renamed them the P01-VU and D01-VU respectively. Each DAC is a single channel and retails for $16k and the transport will run you $32k. These are superbly built and incredible sounding digital products. Even if you can't afford them, just be glad they exist in our world.

The above photo is the P01-VU transport.

Rabbit Ears Are Back!

Esoteric USB upgrade back panel.

Esoteric Wireless Wonder

Innovation comes from surprising places. Esoteric has always focused on pushing the state of the art with their flagship and pricey digital players (the financially squeemish can skip to another post now), but they've also begun to accommodate digital media wherever it may be found.

Though the digital disc is far from dead, streaming media is the new reality. With this in mind the company has created an upgrade for the D-05 DAC which enables wireless streams in addition to the usual wired suspects.

The USB upgrade kit allows wired or wireless transmission of data from…