Digital Sources: Sony SCD-XA777ES SACD player; Cambridge Audio DAC Magic.
Preamplifier: George Hi-Fi Lightspeed passive attenuator.
Integrated amplifier: LFD Mk.IV.
Power amplifiers: Sun Audio SV-2A3, Musical Fidelity M1 HPA headphone amplifier.
Loudspeakers: Triangle 30th Anniversaire Comète.—Sam Tellig
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Sidebar 2: Review System
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used Stereophile's loan sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system to perform the measurements on the Musical Fidelity M1DAC (see www.ap.com and the January 2008 "As We See It"); for some tests, I also used my vintage Audio Precision System One Dual Domain and the Miller Audio Research Jitter Analyzer. Except where noted, all tests were performed on the M1DAC's balanced analog outputs using its AES/EBU data input.
Probing the M1DAC's USB input identified the processor as "USB Audio DAC," manufactured by "Burr-Brown from Texas Instruments…
Universal Classics, owners of the great Deutsche Grammophon, London/Decca, and Philips catalogues, has made its entire treasure trove of Mahler recordings available for free, full-track, online streaming. Whether you are a babe in the Vienna woods or a seasoned Mahlerite, this is a rare opportunity to audition and compare a good 180 Mahler symphony recordings, including over 60 out-of-print Mahler titles.
The tracks, first posted to Mahler150.com last year in honor of the 150th anniversary of Gustav Mahler's birth, remain available in 2011, the 100th anniversary of Mahler's death. While…
Every young audiophile could use a mentor. In my position here at the magazine, I am fortunate to have about two dozen of them. They give me inspiration, criticism, advice, the heebie-jeebies, and sometimes even gifts. Most recently, Uncle Art sent me a couple of really neat gifts: A lovingly used Dynavector DV10x5 high-output moving-coil cartridge and a tough-looking Rega torque wrench.
The latter was reviewed by another mentor, Mikey Fremer, in our November 1996 issue (Volume 19 Number 11). At the time, this precision-made, round-knurled tool sold for $125, and Mikey deemed it…
Madlib finds himself surrounded by vinyl. Photo: Stones Throw Records.
David Gilbert from Italy sends this link to images of famous people (and beasts), from Bill Clinton to Chewbacca, spending quality time with their LPs. And Wes Phillips shares a wonderful Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, in which Calvin’s dad teaches his son a lesson about RPMs.
I say this all the time, but I’ll say it again: I cannot keep up with all of the great new music that’s being released. It’s coming from all over the world, it’s beautifully packaged, and it’s lovingly presented by people who care deeply about their relationships with the artists and the listeners. This is a wonderful time for music, and, therefore, a wonderful time for hi-fi.
Today, I’m listening to Jannick Schou’s Act of Shimmering, a new vinyl-only release limited to 300 copies and made available by Experimedia, a home for sounds that reliably fascinate, enthrall, enrich.
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If Fleet Foxes were to trade their acoustic guitars for synthesizers and drum machines, move from the grassy fields to the dance clubs, and lighten up a bit, they might sound something like When Saints Go Machine. The Danish four-piece’s debut album, Konkylie, is an alluring mix of pure pop, misshapen chamber, and electronic music. It is odd, lovely, infectious, and confounding—and I keep coming back to it.
While the music bobs and sways, it’s Nikolaj Manuel Vonsild’s strange, nearly androgynous vocals—recalling the trembling falsetto of Antony Hegarty and the raw…
Minnesota pride is a funny thing. As Garrison Keillor points out weekly on A Prairie Home Companion, to be a Minnesotan, the first and crucial step to be taken is that of self-effacement. It is unclear to me whether this is the cause or symptom of Minnesotans ability to endure brutal winters, excel at the creation and consumption of hot dish (which the rest of the God-fearing world knows as casseroles), or their miraculous lineage from generations of Norwegian bachelor farmers. Whatever it is, Minnesotans tend to quietly get their jobs done with little more fanfare than a cup of coffee and a…
The DAC3.5VB has one universal button/ volume control on its faceplate; however, the DAC is more easily and completely operate with the remote control. The remote, though functional, is not in the same league of elegance or cachet as the DAC itself—a piece of plastic with too many buttons, it occasionally frustrated me. An eight-character programmable display on the front of the DAC lets you keep track of which input you've selected. You can also temporarily disable inputs you're not using, so you can cycle through them faster with the remote. The DAC3.5VB's display is defeatable—you can…
The DAC3.5VB truly excelled in two areas: soundstaging and quietness. It produced broad, deep soundstages on which there was great separation between instruments, and the proper perspective of texture between instruments miked closely and those farther off. This was very evident with Roy Halee's beautiful engineering of the title track of Simon and Garfunkel's Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, collected in The Columbia Studio Recordings 1964–1970 (CD, Columbia/Legacy C5K 63815). Through the DAC3.5VB, the track's distant, duple-timed glockenspiel was both a point source of unreflected…