The CD8 is a fully balanced design and features the same power supply regulation used in the Reference 3 and a new 24-bit 192-kHz chipset. On the back are both balanced and single-ended outputs as well as coax AES/EBU.
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Audio Research is showing their new replacement for the CD7, the Reference CD8 CD player shipping now at $9,995. They've taken a Philips Pro-2 transport and attached it with isolation pads to a machined aluminum I-beam which in turn is bolted to a machined aluminum bottom plate.
Simaudio's 100Wpc Moon i3.3 ($3300) is a very flexible component. In its stock version, it's an integrated amplifier with five single-ended line-level inputs, an RS 232 communication port, and a headphone jack. However, users can add a phono section module ($300), a balanced input module ($200), and a DAC module ($400) that accepts USB2, S/PDIF, and Toslink. In fact, buy all three modules when you buy the i3.3 and you get the whole package for $4000.
I photographed the innards rather than the faceplate because the i3.3 is just so gorgeously constructed. The phono board is to the…
Immedia's Allen Perkins was showing his 60Wpc class-A Spiral Groove E60A stereo power amplifier ("around" $15,000). "That's 'e' for Equinox, which is what I call Sonic Groove's spiral logo, "said Perkins. "Sixty, of course, is its output, and A is for class-A." It's a slick unit, hewn from a solid block of aluminum and employing an extremely low-noise fan to keep operating temperatures low. "For a class-A design, it's pretty energy efficient," Perkins added.
Driving a pair of Sonics Animas, it sounded agile and authoritative. The Animas are admittedly not a difficult load, but…
Possibly the most visually striking product I've seen at the show so far is the 20Wpc dual-mono integrated the LARS ($100,000). Designed by Lars Engstrom and hand-built in Sweden, the LARS has two separate chassis, one for each channel—with inputs also on each channel. An umbilical transmits control commands from the right channel to the left.
Each channel employs two 300Bs in push/pull configuration, a 6N9P, a pair of 6V6GTs, and two GZ32 rectifiers. The chimney effect at the top of the acrylic cages is quite impressive.
As was the sound of the LARS driving a pair of…
Credit where credit is due: Here's the man himself, Lars Engstrom, standing with theLARS.
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…
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…
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…
Here's a view of the by now familiar grid of albums on the Elo touchpanel connected to The Black Box.
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…