Analog Sources: VPI HR-X turntable & tonearm; Spiral Groove SG-2 turntable & tonearm; Triplanar Precision Mk.VII tonearm; Lyra Titan i, Grado Signature Reference cartridges.
Digital Sources: Audio Research CD8, Primare CD 31 CD players.
Phono Preamplifier: Sutherland Engineering Phono Blocks.
Power Amplifiers: VTL MB750 SE, Mark Levinson No.20.6 (both monoblocks).
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties Sophia 2.
Cables: Interconnect: Nirvana SL, Nordost Valhalla. Interconnect: Stereovox. Speaker: Audience Au-24e. AC: Audience…
search
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Audio Research Reference 5 SE with Stereophile's loan sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and the January 2008 "As We See It," ). There was one problem: During shipping, one of the four large, 10µF Teflon output-coupling caps at the right rear of the printed circuit board had broken off. ARC sent me a replacement, along with the appropriate solder. However, although my soldering iron is temperature-controlled, it dates from a time when solder was lead-based and melted at a lower temperature. That, coupled…
Nelson Pass in full flight
It was no accident that residential architect Mark Cronander, aka Variac, scheduled the Sixth Burning Amp DIY Fest for October 28, on the same weekend that the AES Convention (Audio Engineering Society) took place in San Francisco. Not only did Cronander attract a fair number of new folks who came into town for the convention, but he also scored, as a speaker, class-D amplification expert Bruno Putzeys of Belgium's Hypex Electronics.
Burning Amp drew close to 200…
Rather than debut its new $13,000 DSX1000 Network Music Player in the UK, where the company is based, Chord founder and chief scientist, John Franks (above), traveled to Mountain View, CA on November 8 for the unveiling. The site was the spacious, extremely attractive Northern California showroom of Audio High, one of the high-end dealers in the US that display Chord's top-end Reference products.
Perhaps due to post-election recovery, intermittent rain showers, or the drop from record high temperatures to seasonal norms that required a coat—New Yorkers are undoubtedly weeping at thought…
Bill Graham: holocaust survivor, legendary concert promoter, and all-around badass.
Photo by Mark Sarfati
Photo by Mark Sarfati
Please. One more hit. Just one. That’s all I need. Another song, another act. It won’t hurt. It can’t hurt. I promise this will be the last place we go. Four hours later, we wake up on a subway train in Brownsville, Brooklyn.
Live music can be a dangerous thing. The thrills of a live show, the blending lightshow, the stomach-shaking bass, the spit and the sweat, are irreplaceable, but the life of the live music junkie can drain one’s energy and bank account. Fortunately,…
CMJ in New York City is a clusterfuck. Too many bands billed at each venue for them to handle with ease in one night. Too many shows to choose from all within a 2-block radius with about fifty bands you have never heard of and only nine you have. And too many people who are there for the “CMJ” experience rather than to witness the bands. Nevertheless, this CMJ was a good one.
My first year of CMJ, I avoided it completely. The second year, I managed to catch one show: Prince Rama live the Cake Shop. At the show, I met Sara, a pixie-nosed blonde. Afterwards, we shared a drink at Arlene's…
WAGNER: Der Ring des Nibelungen (digitally re-remastered)
Birgit Nilsson, Hans Hotter, Wolfgang Windgassen, George London, Gustav Neidlinger, Gerhard Stolze, Gottlob Frick, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Kirsten Flagstadt, Set Svanholm, James King, Régine Crespin, Christa Ludwig, Clair Watson, many others; Vienna State Opera Chorus, Vienna Philharmonic, Georg Solti
London 455 555-2 (14 CDs). 1966, 1997. John Culshaw, prod.; Gordon Parry, eng.; James Lock, re-remastering eng. ADD. TT: 14:36:56
Performance *****
Sonics ****½
Birgit Nilsson, Hans Hotter, Wolfgang Windgassen, George London, Gustav Neidlinger, Gerhard Stolze, Gottlob Frick, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Kirsten Flagstadt, Set Svanholm, James King, Régine Crespin, Christa Ludwig, Clair Watson, many others; Vienna State Opera Chorus, Vienna Philharmonic, Georg Solti
London 455 555-2 (14 CDs). 1966, 1997. John Culshaw, prod.; Gordon Parry, eng.; James Lock, re-remastering eng. ADD. TT: 14:36:56
Performance *****
Sonics ****½
Also available separately:
Das Rheingold, London…
Humble, unprepossessing, modest are not words normally associated with lead guitarists, or lead singers, or lead anything. But Albert Lee, the Fender Telecaster devotee, has, by all accounts, always been refreshingly down to earth. The other unusual quality about Lee is that he's an English guitarist who, in country music, can hold his own against any American player.
Lee was the only major English guitarist of the 1970s who decided to follow his first love, country music, and not even attempt to match the blues-rock players who then dominated the UK and US rock charts. "In the '70s,…
Apart from a 2004 column in which I made cruel fun of the angriest (footnote 1) complaints I'd received to that point—an entertaining if lazy template I hope to re-use before long—I've done little to acknowledge the mail I receive every week, most of it thoughtful and positive. I'm especially grateful for the nice letters I get every time I write about vintage audio, as I did in Stereophile's August issue ("Five vintage loudspeakers you should hear before you die"): The art of music is best served by an open-minded approach to playback gear, and I'm encouraged to think that some Stereophile…
The product we tried next was the DeVore Fidelity O/96 Orangutan: a vintage-vibe two-way loudspeaker that impressed us all that day. (A full review is scheduled for the December 2012 issue.) The O/96 is a wide-baffle speaker, designed to be used atop similarly wide wooden stands (included in the $12,000/pair price). On one of the more clearheaded days that followed, I noticed that the DeVore stands, if rotated 90°, could fit nicely between the integral feet of the Line Magnetic enclosures. Once I'd determined how to maneuver the very heavy 755 I's onto the stands (hint: it involved child…