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The sign could have easily read: Welcome to Paradise. The Sunset Lounge was home to Berdan Records, and it was kind of like heaven: It’s all glowing and lovely, there’s a swanky bar with cushy, faux-leather seats, an ornate chandelier hangs from the ceiling, a view of the open highway soothes your weary mind and reminds you of endless possibilities, LPs racks and stacks of box sets are all around, there’s a DJ booth in one corner and a bandstand in the other…Hallelujah, hallelujah!
I’m not talking any music; you can get that from my ‘94 Toyota Corolla’s car radio, which is somewhat bearable at low volume. I’m talking about a system where the pace of the Fairfield Four singing something like “These Bones” in classic doo-wop fashion—a Best Buy special, Walter Liederman told me—or the beautiful tonality and sense of space on a recording of the Brahms Clarinet Trio made me first sit up and take notice, then sit back and wish that the music would just go on and on.
I was handed five sheets of literature, yet assured that the cost of everything I heard in this Emerald…
This Wyred 4 Sound system pleasantly surprised me. It was solid on rock, yet capable of conveying the delicacy and detail of Antonio Lysy’s wonderful recording of Ginastera’s Triste (Yarlung Records).
Doing the honors were Wyred 4 Sound’s new W4S MS-2 music server ($1999) sending music via I2S over HDMI to the W4S DAC-2 DAC/preamp ($1499), then balanced to the W4S SX-1000 monoblock amplifiers ($2398/pair). Speakers were Clearwave Symphonia 72R ($7200/pair). Cables also from W4S: 0.5m HDMI (I2S) from music server to DAC ($199), 1m C2 XLR from DAC to amps ($225), and P1 power cables (price…
AnalogPlanet’s Mikey Fremer has already mentioned that vinyl was HUGE at T.H.E. Show Newport. And, for once, he’s not exaggerating: There was by far more vinyl at T.H.E. Show Newport than at any other hi-fi show I’ve attended.
In addition to the usual suspects (Acoustic Sounds, Music Direct, Reference Recordings, Elusive Disc, etc.), there were several independent shops on hand, including Beta Records, Copas Records, Rockaway Records, Sola Records, John Tefteller’s World’s Greatest Records, and the mighty Amoeba.
Every hi-fi show should attract this many records dealers. It…
Parasound’s compact, high-value Z Series includes the 45Wpc Zamp power amplifier, four-input Zpre2 two-channel preamp, Ztuner AM/FM tuner, Zphono-USB phono preamp ($350; reviewed in our March issue), and the impressive Zcd CD player ($399; review to come later this year).
I’m a big fan of these products. They’re smart, attractive, solidly built, and, from what I’ve heard so far, they sacrifice little in performance. The Zphono-USB, in fact, remains my reference phono preamplifier, eliciting the sort of drama, impact, and scale from my records that I didn’t realize was possible.
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Here’s a look inside Human Audio’s Muto battery-powered DAC ($1299), handmade in Hungary. The Muto is compatible with resolutions up to 24-bit/192kHz, has selectable S/PDIF inputs (RCA and BNC), has a fully discrete analog output stage with bipolar and JFET transistors, and employs two Lithium-Iron-Phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries capable of at least 12 hours of “green” operation. When the Muto is switched off, the batteries automatically recharge.
The idea behind the design is to create an extremely clean and stable power supply to provide a similarly clean and stable sound, one which…
An editor’s job isn’t always light and easy, but not every moment during Saturday’s hour-long panel (repeated on Sunday) was. Yours truly, who could only stay long enough to snap a few photos, listened closely as John Atkinson spoke about what he wants and does not want from his equipment reviewers. Pictured, left to right: Dave Clark and David Robinson, Positive Feedback Online; JA and Michael Fremer, Stereophile; Robert Harley, Paul Seydor, and Neil Gader, The Absolute Sound.
Robert E. Greene of The Absolute Sound (front row left) was also present at the Saturday’s session,…
In a handsomely equipped room that showcased the dual-mono lithium battery-powered Veloce LS-1 linestage ($18,000), Veloce V6 400Wpc monoblock amplifiers ($15,000/pair) with their tube input and class-D output stage, YG Acoustics Carmel loudspeakers ($18,000/pair), none-too-shabby Audio Aero “La Source” CD/SACD player (approx. $40,000), and Kubala-Sosna’s Emotion and Elation cabling (no price supplied), I initially thought the sound a tad dry. But then I warmed to the remarkably clear and unencumbered presentation of jazz, which was also distinguished by engaging three-dimensionality. On…
The Hegel room on the Irvine Hilton’s 5th floor was so packed that I was initially forced to sit outside the soundstage. While I feared that would leave me in no position to critically evaluate the system’s overall gestalt, eventually moving to the center enabled me to hear how solid the sound was.
At one point, the Hegel folks compared the sound of their H70 integrated amplifier’s built-in DAC, which offers no reclocking, to their new HD11 32-bit DAC with reclocking. There was no contest between them. The HD11’s reclocking rendered the sound far more three-dimensional and alive. “…
This gentleman found bliss while listening to an all-Mac system: McIntosh MA6600 integrated amplifier, MCD301 SACD/CD player, and MR50 loudspeakers.