The associated equipment was primarily Luxman's C-600f solid-state preamplifier, MQ-88 tubed power amplifier, and D-05 SACD/CD player, with Bricasti Design's M1 DAC D/A converter. The Bricasti was fed a digital signal either from my Apple iMac running Amarra's music-server software via a Musical Fidelity V-Link, or a Denon DN-961-FA CD player (retired from a radio station) as an AES/EBU transport, later replaced by a Musical Fidelity CDT transport. I also used Parasound's Halo JC 2 preamplifier and Halo JC 1 solid-state, 400W monoblocks. Connecting it all were…
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Sidebar 3: Measurements
A mid-March visit John Marks and I made to Derry, New Hampshire, retailer Fidelis provided an opportunity for me to give the Wilson Audio Duettes a listen in John's Rhode Island room on my way back to New York. As I'd taken along my portable speaker-measuring gear—Earthworks QTC-40 microphone, Metric Halo ULN-2 FireWire audio interface, and MacBook laptop running SMUG Software's FuzzMeasure program—I also examined the Duettes' in-room response. The speakers were driven by the Parasound Halo JC 1 monoblocks, as they had been for some of JM's auditioning.
I…
Oswalds Mill Audio, the Pennsylvania-based company that designs, manufactures, imports, and sells a range of vintage-inspired and mostly bespoke domestic playback gear, has opened a showroom in New York City. OMA Dumbo, named for its historic neighborhood (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), now occupies the entire top floor of an industrial building at 110 Bridge Street in Brooklyn, walkable from either the Brooklyn or Manhattan Bridge.
Jonathan Weiss, the founder of Oswalds Mill Audio and pictured above, first used this industrial loft space as a film studio, most…
Teen is Teeny Lieberson (guitars, keys, vox), Lizzie Lieberson (key and vox), Jane Herships (bass and vox), and Katherine Lieberson (drums and vox). The band's debut full-length, In Limbo, will be released on August 28th by Carpark Records.
The video for "Better" uses footage from that 1986 classic Quicksilver, featuring Kevin Bacon, of course. I'd almost completely forgotten about that weird bicycle/ballet scene. Children all over the US tried, unsuccessfully, to recreate this scene in their parents' living rooms. (Or maybe that was just me.)
Can anyone identify the big…
Arthel "Doc" Watson, one of America's greatest musical treasures, has died in Winston-Salem, North Carolina at the age of 89. A seven-time Grammy Award winner, Watson was known for his rich, unaffected singing voice, his apparently limitless repertoire of Appalachian folk songs, and a flatpicking guitar style that influenced a great many of his peers and inspired countless others to take up the instrument.
Born to a farming family in Wilkes County, North Carolina, Watson was blinded by an eye infection during his infancy, and later attended the Morehead School for the Blind in Raleigh,…
Bob's Devices CineMag 1131 phono transformer, May 2012 (Vol.35 No.5):
Two years ago, in an e-mail with the subject line "Stop the Nonsense Please," a reader from Altadena, California, decreed that Stereophile's writers should immediately cease writing about phono transformers. Perversely, we have carried on nevertheless.
"You are doing a horrible disservice to your readers," this gentleman wrote in his concluding paragraph, "and creating confusion with reviews touting the use of separate devices like 'step-up transformers' not readily available from any reputable dealer I know in…
Keith Pray, Publisher of the Source Interlink Home Tech Network, is delighted to announce the launch of the newest Home Tech Group website AnalogPlanet.com, edited by the world’s foremost proponent of analog technology, Michael Fremer.
Michael Fremer’s AnalogPlanet will be the premier source for information and reviews of new analog products including turntables, cartridges and phono preamps as well as accessories and set-up tips. Michael’s more than 200 "Analog Corner" Stereophile columns will eventually be posted to AnalogPlanet, as will select analog product reviews originally…
Integrated amplifiers are hot. I don't mean in the literal sense—although having a preamplifier and stereo power amplifier in the same chassis usually results in higher running temperatures—but in the metaphorical one. Once viewed as the type of component that no serious audiophile would consider buying, integrated amps have made a comeback in popularity and prestige. Consider: the October 2006 "Recommended Components" issue of Stereophile listed 29 integrated amps, whereas the October 2011 issue lists 40. Stereophile's 2010 Amplification Component of the Year award went to an integrated amp…
First, with the GoldenEar Triton Twos in the system, I turned on the ProLogue Premium, waited five minutes, and played track 3 of the Chesky Records Jazz Sampler & Audiophile Test Compact Disc, Vol.1 (Chesky JD37). I listened carefully, noting all the little sonic details, stopped the CD, and left the room for an hour. I then went back to the listening room—where the system had been on all this time, but without playing music—and listened to the same track again. (The volume control was not touched.) My conclusion—which those who want double-blind controls are free to ignore—was that…
When I compared the ProLogue Premium with the CD-player interconnects plugged directly into its CD inputs vs into one of the CAT's line-level inputs, the output of the CAT driving the ProLogue's amp section directly, the differences were not great but were significant. The tonal balance remained much the same, but with the CAT doing the preamplification there was a definite improvement in what I might call finesse—the percussion instruments in track 3 of the Chesky test CD were clearer and more distinct, but also more delicate, and with no added edge or harshness. Double-bass notes were…