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The Tannoy Mercury V1 loudspeakers ($320/pair; see last month's column) were already carefully packed in their box, pushed into a corner of my messy kitchen, ready to go to John Atkinson for a Follow-Up—but I couldn't stop thinking about them. Their delicate, graceful highs and tight, properly balanced bass had entranced me, and, now, as I listened over and over to a recent reissue of Bill Dixon's amazing Intents and Purposes (CD, International Phonograph LSP-3844), I felt a strange urge to unpack the Tannoys and return them to my listening room. I had to know how Intents and Purposes would…
Like the ZphonoUSB, the Zcd packs a lot of versatility into its compact chassis. The rear panel is fairly busy but neatly organized: Variable and Fixed analog outputs; a video output; a 3.5mm stereo line input; coaxial and optical digital outputs; an RS-232 control jack; IR Control In and Loop output jacks for custom-install applications; a USB input for MP3 playback; a three-way turn-on switch with positions for Manual, AC, and 12V; 12V input and output jacks; and, finally, a standard IEC AC receptacle for the included power cord.
The Variable output jacks carry the audio signal at a…
Sidebar Contacts
Parasound Products, Inc., 2250 McKinnon Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94124. Tel: (415) 397-7100. Fax: (415) 397-0144 Web: www.parasound.com
So where were we? Ah yes, I had just nailed loudspeaker positioning in my tiny bedroom by switching the left and right speakers placing the tweeters on the outside of my array. This change widened the soundstage and stabilized the central image but sacrificed some pinpoint high-end articulation I had with the tweeters inside the widths of the speakers. Yet, excessive bass resonances remained as evidenced through Paul McCartney’s bass runs on “Something” from my Abbey Road LP. Though a touch vaudeville, Paul is still a reserved and classy English gent, and there’s no way his bass guitar would…
Photo: ravicoltrane.com/
Ravi Coltrane's quartet is at the Village Vanguard this week, and that in itself is a marker of how confident—ballsy wouldn't be a stretch—this musician has become in recent years. It's bold enough for John Coltrane's son to take up the tenor saxophone as a trade. It takes the next level of audacity to lead a band at the club where Dad laid down maybe the greatest live jazz recording ever. But the ultimate display of self-assurance from Coltrane fils came during his improv on an original tune, "Thirteenth Floor," when he casually quoted a few lines from "A Love…
The audiophile does not pursue music reproduction because it is useful; he pursues it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful. If music were not beautiful it would not be worth knowing, and if music were not worth knowing life would not be worth living.
My apologies for corrupting the well-known statement by French mathematician Jules Henri Poincaré (1854–1912), in which he described his relationship with science and nature. But substituting audiophile for scientist and music for nature, I feel the sentiment expresses what drives many audiophiles to the…
Once a CD had been loaded and its table of contents read, the Platinum Data IV proved to be the fastest transport I've ever experienced. When I skipped to the next track, it seemed to get there before I'd fully pressed the button—it was that fast. I often like to skip to a track while listening, and this thing was too fast. If you want track 8, you're going to end up hearing a split second of each of tracks 1–7 as you furiously tap the button.
I noticed one anomaly: When I played an MA Recordings sampler on DVD-R, the CD IV correctly displayed "24/96," but the DAC IV said "16/96," and…
MSB Technology Platinum Data CD IV transport & Diamond DAC IV & D/A converter Specifications
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Platinum Data CD IV disc transport: Compatible with CD, WAV files (16–32 bits, sample rates up to 384kHz) on DVD-R. Outputs: Coaxial, TosLink, AES/EBU, MSB Network (384kHz). Output jitter: 2ps. Power-supply requirement: 12V DC.
Dimensions: 17.7" (450mm) W by 2.75" (70mm) H by 15.4" (390mm) D, DAC IV and Power Base each. Weights: 9.5 lbs (4.3kg), Data CD IV; 18 lbs (8.2kg), Power Base.
Serial number of unit reviewed: CD198321.
Price: $3995; Signature Transport Power Base adds $3495. Price as reviewed: $7490.
Diamond DAC IV: Solid-state,…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Apple MacBook Pro computer (2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD) running OS 10.6.7, iTunes 10.6, Sonic Studio Amarra 2.3, Songbird 1.9.3, XLD; Western Digital NAS Device (2TB); Oppo BDP-83 universal Blu-ray player; Meridian (formerly Sooloos) Digital Media System (Control 15, 3 TwinStores); Apple iPad 2, 3; Apple iPod Touch 1G; Ayre Acoustics QB9, Benchmark DAC1 USB, dCS Debussy digital processors.
Preamplifier: Marantz AV7005 (Pure Direct mode).
Power Amplifier: Classé CAM 350 monoblocks (2).
Loudspeakers: MartinLogan…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used Stereophile's loan sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and the January 2008 "As We See It") to measure the MSB Diamond DAC IV; for some tests, I also used my vintage Audio Precision System One Dual Domain.
The MSB combination offers a bewildering number of playback options, with three different flavors of digital data input (USB, AES/EBU and S/PDIF, and MSB Network), four reconstruction filters, two choices of upsampling, and both balanced and unbalanced outputs. I started my testing, therefore, with the more…