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Bel Canto FM-1 Tuner's Identity Crises

We all have different digital needs, and companies like Bel Canto are trying different combinations of features to find customers.

For example, their new FM-1 tuner not only has the requisite analog outputs (balanced and unbalanced), it also has four digital inputs as well as a 24/96 digital out. And since this tuner can control volume, what we really have here is a tuner/preamp/DAC in one box.

Add a power amp and this may be the perfect desktop system. Price is estimated to be under $2,000 when the FM-1 ships in mid-2009.

Bel Canto Ultra-Dock In The Works

Robert Baird got the scoop on this one in the February issue of Stereophile. Check his Aural Robert column for details about the Sonic Focus technology included in this iPod dock and its surprising heritage.

But here are the simple facts. The Ultra-Dock is planned as an upsampling 24/96 iPod dock that can upconvert lowly MP3s (via Sonic Focus processing) and draws the signal from the iPod's digital out like the Wadia iTransport.

The Ultra-Dock is planning for a Q3 2009 ship date at approximately $2,500.

SE2 Labs ITC One Topless

Once you choose which components you want, they bolt the circuit boards inside the chassis and link them together.

SE2 Labs ITC One

Not an audiophile product per se, SE2 Labs ITC One "Integrated Theater Console" takes all the components typical in a high-end audio/video rack, and strips away everything but the circuit boards and transports and puts them all in a single climate-controlled chassis.

What may appeal to audiophiles is that on the list of components that SE2 can put in their rack is the Wadia 170I transport, an iPod dock and a Bryston multi-channel preamp.

Pricing varies depending on what you put in the console which is built like a tank with cable routing and power supply needs in mind. If…

AMR CD-777 Player/Processor

Abbingdon Music Research out of London revealed their new CD-777 at the show with US distributor Darren Censullo from Avatar Acoustics on hand to explain the details.

Based on the same "OptiSample" and "OptiClickLock" technologies as the flagship CD-77 ($9,995), the CD-777 is built around the Philips CD Pro2 transport and features an Eastern Bloc 6NP1 "supertube."

The AMR CD-777 will retail for $3,500 and comes in silver and black when it hits our shores in the next couple months. This player also has a very nice metal touchscreen remote and S/PDIF and USB inputs on the…

Vitus SL-010

"You have got to check out Vitus," Jon Iverson enthused. When I did, I took his point. Vitus Audio is the love child of Hans-Ole Vitus, who takes a holistic approach to audio design. Vitus products are, he explains, the result of relationships—not just parts and circuits, but how they interact with one another. I suspect, from looking at the gear, Vitus is also concerned about beauty, too.

Vitus uses "super precision resistors, matched transistors, and direct-coupled input stages. Its locally shunted power supply provides "absolute silence," Vitus claims.

The SL-010 line…

Affordable Cable Excellence

All the wire used in DH Labs's products is manufactured in the USA; cables are manufactured in the same facility that manufactures for NASA. At least 11 major recording studios use the company's cables, and others will soon join the list. This, along with the nice sound albeit not ultimately detailed sound they were getting from their modest display system certainly suggests that they're doing something right.

DH Labs began in 1992 when designer Darren Housepian (hence the DH) began designing mike cables while still a student at the University of Michigan. The other major players,…

The Silent Snakes

Shunyata, which first made its mark with a novel line of US-made power cables named after various snakes and using a ferrite-based powder filling to absorb RF, has come out with five new serpentine products. According to sales manager Richard Colburn, the company has learned how to put more metal inside its cables, thereby increasing their gauge. The copper used is CDA-101, the only copper certified for its purity. Proprietary connectors are unplated brass, which company founder/designer Caelin Gabriel considers to sound the best.

New in the CX Series helix power cable line are the…

In The Groove

Allen Perkins' Spiral Groove has expanded beyond its excellent turntable, which has won major awards in Japan, to issue a new amp, DAC, and cabling. The patented cable line, close to final production, includes speaker cable, interconnect, and digital interconnect. Price has yet to be determined. Proof of its quality is that it used Spiral Groove's two tonearms and the entire line of Sonics speakers designed by Joachim Gerhard (formerly of Audio Physic) and now manufactured in Berkeley, CA. Having heard pre-production samples several of these products at Casa Bellecci-Serinus, I know…

I'll Take a Pass

The Pass SCPI phono section ("under $4000") was an awfully slick looking piece of kit. "Basically, we took everything we learned in the Aleph Ono and improved upon it," said Pass engineer Wayne Colburn. The SCPI accommodates multiple inputs and has improved circuit traces, capacitors, and toroidal power supply.

"A lot of listening went into this one," Colburn remarked. Loading and capacitance are easily adjusted on the read panelby way of swith banks mounted between the inputs. The SCPI also allows easy gain adjustments: 46dB, 56dB, 66dB, and 76dB—which ought to be enough for any…