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As I listened to portions of Aaron Copland's Symphony 3, ripped from the CD collection Leonard Bernstein: A Total Embrace—The Conductor (New York Philharmonic, 1966; Sony Classical/Legacy S3K 90578), the Chordette Gem distinguished itself as a musically competent DAC, albeit with less sonic refinement than the best. Clarity and detail resolution were just acceptable, although melodies were unraveled with very good musical flow and momentum. The big orchestral bass drum had fine weight, and the whole band came across with a good sense of scale. On the minus side, when listening to the same…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Single-box digital-to-analog converter. Digital inputs: Bluetooth wireless, USB, switch-selectable. APT-X-compatible. Sampling rates: 44kHz–96kHz (sample rate determined by connection). Analog output jacks: RCA. Maximum output voltage: 2V. Output impedance: 75 ohms. Channel separation: 100dB at 1kHz. Dynamic range: 112dB. Harmonic distortion: below 100dB, 1kHz at 24-bits/44.1kHz.
Dimensions: 6.25" (160mm) W by 2.75" (70mm) H by 1.6" (40mm) D. Weight: 0.9 lbs (0.4kg).
Finish: Silver, black, purple, blue.
Serial Number Of Unit Reviewed:…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Thorens TD-124 Mk.II turntable; EMT 997, Thomas Schick tonearms; Shindo SPU, EMT OFD 25 & OFD 65, Ortofon 90th Anniversary SPU cartridges.
Digital Sources: Ayre Acoustics QB-9, Wavelength Cosecant, HRT Music Streamer II & II+, Peachtree iDecco (digital input to line output only) USB D/A converters; Stello U2 USB transceiver; iMac G5 (with Apple iTunes) computer; Sony SCD-777 SACD/CD player; Creative Music BT-D5 APT-X Bluetooth dongle.
Preamplification: Auditorium 23 Hommage T1 step-up transformer; Shindo Masseto, Shindo…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I carried out the testing of Chord's Chordette Gem mostly with Stereophile's loan sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It" and www.ap.com); for some tests, I also used my vintage Audio Precision System One Dual Domain and the Miller Audio Research Jitter Analyzer. To test the Gem in USB mode, I used my MacBook running Snow Leopard (OS 10.6) and Bias Peak Pro 6 to play WAV and AIFF test-signal files.
The testing of the Gem in Bluetooth mode was tricky, because of the mode's use of a lossy codec (COder-…
Manufacturer's Comments
Editor: Wow, did you guys ever miss the point of the Chordette Gem!
No one said Bluetooth is the "perfect" medium for "the audio perfectionist." While that slant perhaps makes your article more interesting to read, unfortunately it has caused you to completely miss the point of this product.
There are millions of people out there enjoying MP3 and other lo- and hi-rez music formats. Who said you have to be a "perfectionist" to enjoy music? We believe our job is to help people enjoy their music more, however they wish to take it—not to tell them how…
The tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger is just 24, but already he has a distinctive sound: a confident, husky tone, combined with fleet, sometimes fragmentary phrasings: something like Sonny Rollins channeling Leo Konitz.
It's an unlikely mix of homages, but with an equally surefooted and agile band, it works. And on Preminger's latest album, Before the Rain (on the Palmetto label), his band—pianist Frank Kimbrough, bassist John Herbst, and drummer Matt Wilson—is all that.
The disc consists mainly of slow ballads, some originals, some standards, simmered in polyrhythms, cool in…
At the start of my teaching career, I discovered that it was more difficult to maintain order in a sixth-grade classroom early in the day than at any other time. First thing in the morning the kids were noisy and aimless, and banging my open palm on the chalkboard for their attention worked only once. So I gave my students that which most children crave, consciously or un-: a simple, clear explanation of what I expected of them.
What I expected of them—in the short term, at least—was this: They were required to answer three new questions, written for their benefit on that still-vibrating…
And I wouldn't have noticed, except that, in their earlier days, those companies fairly crowed about the technologies they would come to abandon!
Seriously now, the question(s): In order to do great things, is it important for a manufacturing company to have a distinct point of view, in the same manner as an individual artist or artisan? And if so, does the abandonment of that point of view necessarily correlate with a decline in quality—of ideas, if not of consumer goods themselves? Compare, contrast.
The number of the color
In the earliest days of the CD, during a time…
Ten thousand hours. According to Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers: The Story of Success, it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become truly exceptional in your field. For any endeavor, Gladwell contends, what will get you to Carnegie Hall isn't inborn talent but practice, practice, practice.
I can relate. I've worked hard to put in my 10,000 hours as a critical listener, both as an audiophile and as a full-time, professional musician. In one area, however, I feel I'm still working up to that 10,000 hours: writing reviews for Stereophile. Few people can say they've spent 22 hours a…
After giving the INT-150 a long break-in, the first music I wanted to hear through it was something containing large dynamic swings. I put on my own recording of Babatunde Olatunji's "Betelehemu," from Cantus's Comfort and Joy: Volume Two (CD, Cantus CTS-1205). The performance of this Nigerian Christmas song features full-throated, jubilant singing and a bevy of percussion instruments, including two djembes, an African drum with a ported opening that acts much like a bass-reflex speaker enclosure. The INT-150 reproduced this track at concert levels with ease. Each sound had adequate body,…