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In his August 2008 Follow-Up to Jon Iverson's and Kalman Rubinson's coverage of Sooloos's Source:One (which was the component in the Sooloos system of the time that output an analog audio signal), John Atkinson wrote: "Looking at the [inside of the] Source:One, at the front center you have the network interface card; on the left you have a switching power supply; at the rear center is an industrial PC with its familiar but unused I/O jacks at the front and its vertically mounted RAM board at the back; and at the right is the RME Hammerfall soundcard plugged into the PC's PCI slot. . . . The…
Sam Tellig reviewed the Halo CD 1 in July 2013 (Vol.36 No.7):
John Marks wrote about Parasound's Halo CD 1 player last month. The CD 1 is far less retrograde than it first appears. Yes, it looks to the past, and 30 years of perfect sound forever. Billions of CDs sold worldwide. The most successful audio format in history.
For $4500, the CD 1 plays CDs. Period. This includes recordable discs, CD-R and CD-RW. It also includes the CD layer of SACDs. It does not play MP3 files burned to CD-R. (It did play MP3s that I converted to AAC and burned to CD-R on my Mac mini.)
The…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Single-box CD player with remote control.
Dimensions: 17.25" (437mm) W by 4.125" (105mm) H by 13.75" (350mm) D. Weight: 18 lbs (8.2kg).
Serial number of review sample: 01049.
Price: $4500.
Manufacturer: Parasound Products Inc., 2250 McKinnon Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94124. Tel: (415) 397-7100. Tel: (415) 397-0144. Web: www.parasound.com.
Sidebar 2: Measurements
At a time when CD players have morphed into all-purpose digital source/preamplifiers, it seemed anachronistic for San Francisco–based Parasound to introduce a CD player in 2013 that was nothing but a CD player (footnote 3) However, the Halo CD 1 ($4500) is more than it seems. Its CD-ROM drive spins CDs at four times the usual speed, controlled by software from Holm Acoustics, so that every bit is read at least twice before being sent to a large RAM buffer. Playback is thus from memory, not directly from the spinning disc.
John Marks reviewed the Halo CD 1…
Memory mitigates adversity.—Lucius Lactantius (ca 240–ca 320 AD)
Pity the aging perfectionist, the happy diversions of whose younger days—washing records, oiling turntables, leveling equipment racks, cleaning tube pins—have now become hated chores. And this from a man who used to redo his Roksan Xerxes setup every few months, just for "fun."
Sad irony, then, that an interest in mono LPs and shellacs came upon me so late in life, for it is a field in which the experts, among whose number I count God, would have me use different stylus profiles, different tonearm setups, different…
Charming the air to produce a sound
Even before I ventured beyond the RIAA settings, with a Miyajima Premium BE II mono cartridge in my tonearm, I was impressed with the Monophonic. Its sound was stunningly clear, yet very colorful and well textured. The string tone in the recording by Eduard van Beinum and the Concertgebouw of Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (London LL-917) was superb, as were the woodwinds and percussion. And throughout Artur Rubinstein's 1955 collection of Chopin's 14 Waltzes (RCA 30,018), the piano purred, richly and convincingly.
Even before I ventured beyond the RIAA settings, with a Miyajima Premium BE II mono cartridge in my tonearm, I was impressed with the Monophonic. Its sound was stunningly clear, yet very colorful and well textured. The string tone in the recording by Eduard van Beinum and the Concertgebouw of Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (London LL-917) was superb, as were the woodwinds and percussion. And throughout Artur Rubinstein's 1955 collection of Chopin's 14 Waltzes (RCA 30,018), the piano purred, richly and convincingly.
…
When I reviewed Simaudio's Moon Evolution 880M monoblock amplifier for the June 2013 issue, I communicated via phone and e-mail with the company's VP of marketing, Lionel Goodfield. When the topic of hearing the 880Ms at their best came up, I could almost imagine him shrugging as he said, "Just use it with the most transparent, revealing preamp you can find." Not surprisingly, he then went on to say that Simaudio's own Moon Evolution 850P would serve nicely in that role. My cynical side might normally have discounted any such suggestion from a marketing man, but I'd been hearing the same…
I hadn't heard Acoustic through the 850P-880M combo before, and certainly the 880Ms were major contributors to the dramatic difference I was hearing. So, too, were the changes I'd made to my listening room. By swapping components in and out, however, I was able to conclude that the 850P was also an important piece of the puzzle. Listening to several other preamps showed me that the 850P was, in comparison, essentially transparent, and was simply letting through more of the recorded information. By removing the smoothness I'd always heard from Acoustic, the 850P showed that it had been due…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-chassis, dual-mono, line-stage preamplifier. Inputs: 4 unbalanced (RCA), 3 balanced (XLR), 1 unbalanced monitor/processor loop (RCA). Outputs: 1 variable-output unbalanced (RCA), 1 fixed-output unbalanced (RCA), 2 balanced (XLR), 1 unbalanced monitor/processor loop (RCA). Other connections: Simaudio SimLink I/O, IR port, 2 configurable 12V trigger signals, RS232 I/O. Input impedance: 11k ohms. Input sensitivity: 200mV for 4.0V RMS. Maximum voltage gain: 9dB. Output impedance: 50 ohms unbalanced, 100 ohms balanced. Maximum output voltage: 7.5V…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Spiral Groove SG-2 turntable & Centroid tonearm, Lyra Titan i cartridge; VPI TNT HR-X turntable & tonearm, Grado Statement Reference cartridge.
Digital Source: Primare CD31 CD player.
Preamplification: Sutherland Engineering Phono Blocks & Duo phono stages; Sutherland Engineering Line Blocks, Placette Active line stages.
Power Amplifiers: Simaudio Moon Evolution 880M, VTL Ichiban, Mark Levinson No.20.6 (all monoblocks).
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties Sophia 2.
Cables: Interconnect & Speaker:…