Description: Combination CD player/digital and analog preamplifier. CD Section: DAC: 24-bit delta-sigma, 8x oversampling (CD or DVD-Audio conversion only). Frequency response: 20Hz-20kHz, ±0.02dB. Channel balance: <0.02dB. Stereo separation, 20Hz-20kHz: >98dB. THD 1kHz: 0dB digital level 0.002%, -10dB digital level 0.004%, -70dB digital level 0.050%. S/N Ratio: 110dB unweighted (20Hz-20kHz), 114dB A-weighted. Audio output at digital 0dB level, 1kHz: 2.14V RMS nominal, sourced from 47 ohms impedance. Jitter: 189ps. Preamplifier Section: Direct Analog…
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Sidebar 1: Specifications
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog sources: Simon Yorke, Rega P9 turntables; Graham 2.2, Immedia RPM2 tonearms; Lyra Helikon SL, Helikon mono, Transfiguration Temper Supreme, prototype Lyra Titan cartridges.
Digital source: Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 3D CD player; Alesis Masterlink hard-disk digital recorder.
Preamplification: Hovland HP-100 preamplifier; Manley Steelhead, The Groove, Lamm LP2, Hageman Trumpet phono preamplifiers.
Power amplifiers: Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 300, Music Reference RM-200.
Loudspeakers: Audio Physic Avanti III, Kharma Midi-Grand.
Cables:…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
Looking first at the Musical Fidelity CD-Pre24 as a conventional analog preamplifier, the input impedance at 1kHz was a usefully high 126k ohms, this not changing with the volume-control setting, and the maximum voltage gain was 11.9dB. (The unity-gain setting of the volume control was approximately 1:00.) The CD-Pre24 preserved absolute signal polarity, and the output impedance was a low 49 ohms other than at very low frequencies, where it rose slightly to 85 ohms.
The A-weighted signal/noise ratio with the volume control wide open and the input shorted…
Playback of damaged discs was excellent. The Pierre Verany Test CD revealed that the Musical Fidelity produced no glitches in its output until the gap in the data spiral was more than 1.5mm long.
I looked at the CD-Pre24's DAC linearity error using a dithered 16-bit, 500Hz tone that faded from -60dBFS into the noise floor. The left-channel performance from CD was good (fig.9), and was identical for external data and to both channels of the second sample. The good linearity for CD playback and the low noise floor mean that reproduction of an undithered 1kHz sinewave at -90.31dBFS is…
The hidden theme of Elgar's Enigma Variations has been sufficiently investigated over the past 90 years to deter all but the most intrepid researcher from tackling the problem yet again. I would not venture to do so unless I were convinced that a well-argued attempt to solve the mystery once and for all had not been unfairly brushed aside, even ignored, a dozen or so years ago.
Recent books on Elgar and CDs of his Enigma Variations still say only that various themes have been put forward but none of them fit. This assumes that you start at the beginning of each melody. A comparable…
Fantasy review time. I first heard about the C.E.C. TL 0 in the May '94 Stereophile (Vol.17 No.5), in Audio Mogul Richard Schram's Manufacturer's Comment to my review of the C.E.C. TL 1. I wasn't sure if he was kidding when he threatened the world with a cost-no-object $17,500 CD transport. Just what we all need!
I nudged The Schram in my 1994 WCES Show report (Vol.17 No.4) when I mentioned that I was disappointed that he comped me a lens-cleaning disc rather than what I'd considered a Phigment of his Phertile Imagination, the TL 0. Imagine my surprise when I learned it was indeed a real…
Now for a quick analogy: When not tooling about Paris in one of his Volvos, my Parisian brother-in-law drives an '84 Aston Martin Vantage—five-speed, of course, with that dogleg one/two I find so disconcerting. It's quite the pièce de resistance, old boy, a real gentleman's club inside: yummy soft English leather, Wilton carpets, silver salvers, and three in help (well, almost). It's also a delicious, sexy, demanding, and blindingly quick truck—but it's still a camion. I mean, it's big. It makes demands on the driver, and a long trip can be tiring. (Amusingly, in what I consider to be…
In an odd way, the TL 0 almost seemed to have less air than the less-expensive TL 1, the Jadis, or the Forsell, yet this impression wasn't really correct. Rather, the TL 0 was transparent and detailed in the fashion of an electron microscopic—way down to the molecular level, so to say—so that the air of the soundstage appeared "thinner." (Like listening in Santa Fe?) [insert bold grin here] This apparent dryness was similar in character, once again, to the Krell DT-10. But where the DT-10 can be said to be slightly grainy, no such grain existed with the TL 0.
In a (digital) sense, the TL…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: Belt-drive CD transport. Power consumption: 20W.
Dimensions: 11.8" (300mm) W by 5.9" (150mm) H by 12.2" (310mm) D, transport; 4.9" (125mm) W by 3.9" (100mm) H by 10" (255mm) D, power supply. Weight 35 lbs., transport; 8.8 lbs., power supply.
Serial number of unit reviewed: E4900030.
Price: $17,500. Approximate number of dealers: 18.
Manufacturer: Chuo Denki Co., Ltd., 1919 Nagayatsu, Yoshimi-machi, Saitama 355 01, Japan. Tel: (81) 0493-54-6112. Fax: (81) 0493-54-6127. US distributor: Parasound, 950 Battery St., San Francisco, CA 94111. Tel…
I'll spare you my thoughts on the matter—they're guessable anyway—and simply say that the war with Iraq has given me and my family the jitters, just as it seems to have done with millions of other people. But rather than giving 10 more dollars to Henkel Consumer Adhesives, my wife and I have taken a different tack: We made up a Road Box. A Road Box is a cardboard box full of things for us to take from our home if we have to leave in a hurry. We keep it near the door that leads to the garage.
Our Road Box contains bottled water and certain foodstuffs with very long shelf lives—canned…