Analog Sources: Linn Sondek LP12 turntable with Lingo power supply and Ittok tonearm; Spectral moving-coil cartridge; Day-Sequerra Reference Signature FM tuner.
Digital Sources: Bryston BDP-1 digital file player, Bryston BCD-1 CD player; Bryston BDA-1 D/A converter.
Preamplifier: Bryston BP-26.
Power Amplifiers: Mark Levinson No.334, No.27.5, ML-2.
Loudspeakers: Snell A7 Illusion & Phantom B7, Quad ESL-989.
Cables: Digital: Bryston, Hosa Technology AES/EBU; Wireworld Starlight coaxial S/PDIF. Interconnect: Mark Levinson Silver, Red…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 3: Measurements
To perform the measurements on the Mark Levinson No.532H, I used 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). Before testing the No.532H, I ran it at one-third power into 8 ohms for an hour, which maximally stresses a class-A/B amplifier's ability to shed waste heat. At the end of this preconditioning period the No.532H's top panel was warm, at 108°F (42.2°C), though the exposed tops of the internal heatsinks measured 168°F (75.5°C). This amplifier needs plenty of…
It wasn't so much a vow as a prediction: After selling my last pair of Ticonal-magnet drivers and the homemade horns I'd carted around to three different houses, I supposed I would never again have a Lowther loudspeaker in my humble house.
That remains literally true: The 7" full-range drivers to which I'm listening today are from a German company called Voxativ; the horn-loaded cabinets from which they play were also designed by Voxativ, and are made in Germany by the Wilhelm Schimmel piano company. And, with all due respect to Lowther, the 75-year-old English loudspeaker firm that…
While developing the Ampeggio, Adler decided to approach some piano companies for help in transforming into reality the now-complex cabinet design. "I was disappointed at first," she says, "because all of the [European] companies I asked say their stuff is made in China." But Adler eventually discovered Schimmel, a 125-year-old, family-owned company in Braunschweig that also happens to make the best-selling German piano in America. Schimmel's engineers were intrigued by the project and made some contributions of their own—including the advice that, because any music-making device oscillates…
Some general observations: The Voxativ Ampeggios showed the same considerable transient speed, spatial presence, dramatic ease, and physical impact as the best Lowther applications I've heard—and lacked the English speakers' most egregious flaws. Low-frequency tones, from just below 40Hz and up, had real power, color, and physicality via the Voxativs, with response irregularities at only a couple of mid-to-upper-bass frequencies in my smaller room. (Some notes in the piano's left-hand register sounded a little weaker than the rest, though not nearly enough to intrude on my listening…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
The Voxativ Ampeggio costs $29,750/pair. Manufacturer: Voxativ GmbH, Nollendorfstrasse 11a, 10777 Berlin, Germany. Tel: (49) (0)30-2100-5662. Web: www.voxativ.com. US distributor: Audio Arts, Inc., 1 Astor Place, Suite 11(h), New York, NY 10003. Tel: (212) 260-2939. Web: www.audioarts.co.
I think any newish company launching yet another expensive (ie, anything over $2000) digital-to-analog converter on the roiling waters of the audiophile marketplace needs at least two things: a truly great product, and a good story to tell. I think Bricasti Design Ltd., of Medford, Massachusetts, has both.
Although Bricasti came into corporate existence only in 2004, it is not a pure startup. The principals of Bricasti were longtime Lexicon employees who had to seek other options when Harman International closed down Harman's New England operations. Bricasti cofounder (with DSP-software…
Repeatedly pressing Status scrolls through displays showing: the Input selected and that input's sampling rate; a resettable log of digital "overs" for the Left and Right channels; and the M1's current operating temperature, in degrees Celsius or Fahrenheit. Pressing Filter shows the number of the filter selected and enables selecting a different one. The Aux button selects between the Aux jack's accepting a digital-audio input or an external word-clock input. The Display button controls the brightness of the display, and Enter executes whatever selection is displayed.
The M1's exterior…
I also briefly used Ayre's CX-7eMP CD player ($3500) for its AES/EBU output, but I did not have an AES/EBU cable anywhere near as good as the Silver Shadow S/PDIF cable. (Nordost does make an AES/EBU version of the Silver Shadow, but I didn't request it.) That said, the Ayre CD player, used as a transport with a $30 Canare 110-ohm AES/EBU cable, was truly excellent. The Silver Shadow shone brightest—a Miltonian oxymoron, that—with the Sooloos, which has only an S/PDIF output. That the Silver Shadow shone less brightly with the $1500 Musical Fidelity CD player might say more about the…
Sidebar: Contacts
Bricasti Design Ltd., 123 Fells Avenue, Medford, MA 01255. Tel: (781) 306-0420. Web: www.bricasti.com.
Nordost Corporation, 200 Homer Avenue, Ashland, MA 01721. Tel: (800) 836-2750, (508) 881-1116. Fax: (508) 881-6444. Web: www.nordost.com.