search
Editor's Introduction: In 2013, lossy compression is everywhere—without lossy codecs like MP3, Dolby Digital, DTS, A2DP, AAC, apt-X, and Ogg Vorbis, there would be no Web audio services like Spotify or Pandora, no multichannel soundtracks on DVD, no Bluetooth audio, no DAB and HDradio, no Sirius/XM, and no iTunes, to quote the commercial successes and no Napster, MiniDisc, or DCC, to quote the failures. Despite their potential for damage to the music, the convenience and sometimes drastic reduction in audio file size have made lossy codecs ubiquitous in the 21st century. Stereophile covered…
The audience laughed uproariously at this joke and his many other derisive attacks on those who listen to judge audio equipment quality. After these comments, he attempted to disparage the integrity of audio magazines with this remark: "You can only say that ['bits is bits'] once, which is a problem if you have to publish a hi-fi magazine every month. It leaves an intellectual vacuum."
His repeated demeaning references to audiophiles revealed a bitterness that went far beyond holding an opposing point of view. An example: "When the term 'audiophile' replaced 'hi-fi freak,' I immediately…
The final technical presentation was by Karlheinz Brandenburg, the man behind ASPEC, a competing low–bit-rate encoder. His presentation discussed an unusual phenomenon of these systems: the limited time resolution of a frequency-domain encoder results in "pre-echoes" in which quantization error (distortion) appears before the signal. This is a significant issue because large amounts of quantization error are generated by encoding with so few bits. The correctly coded signal reportedly masks this large quantization error. The ASPEC system reportedly minimizes this effect (footnote 2).
Dr…
Nick L. visits the Stereophile New York City office to pick up his brand new Audiofly AF78 in-ear monitors ($200) he won in the Audiofly headphone sweepstakes this summer. His comments throughout the years as Volvic here at Stereophile.com have detailed his love for Simaudio and YBA gear, analog playback, and taking care of his family. Now Stereophile is showing him some love back. Nick was just one of four winners for this sweeps.
Ben C. of Portland, Oregon achieves a Fonzi level of cool with his new Audiofly AF56 in-ear monitors ($100).
Asa E. of Needham, MA…
"We put music in the souls of our amplifiers. Every amplifier, every tube, every transformer has music in its soul."
Not to be cynical, but I've heard, over the years, countless variations on that sentiment. Not to be naïve, but it rang with somewhat-greater-than-usual sincerity when given voice by 45-year-old Richard Wugang—founder, with his late father, of Virginia-based Sophia Electric, Inc.
Wugang speaks with similar import of his audio upbringing: of the days he spent helping his engineer father disassemble and study some of the classic audio transformers that came their way…
The 91-01 didn't do much to resuscitate the very compressed drums and electric bass on King Crimson's otherwise good-sounding Lizard (LP reissue, Discipline Global KCLP3), a trick I've heard managed by only a small number of amplifiers; yet the Sophias presented the music with enough drama and spatial aplomb that reed instruments, electric piano, and flute popped out of the mix of "Happy Family." (What a great record! I endure in kicking myself for not looking into this band's music the first time around.) The same observations could also be applied to Traffic's enjoyable rag-tag album…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Single-ended, tubed, monophonic power amplifier with 4 and 8 ohm output transformer taps. Tube complement: one 6SN7, one 300B, one 5Z3PA rectifier. Maximum output power: 9W into 8 ohms at 1kHz (9.5dBW). Input impedance: 200k ohms. Input sensitivity for maximum output: 500mV. Output impedance: not specified. Distortion: 0.18% at 1kHz (level not specified). Frequency response: 12Hz–35kHz, ±3dB.
Dimensions: 12.75" (325mm) W by 7.25" (185mm) H by 9.5" (245mm) D. Weight: 35 lbs (15.9kg).
Serial numbers of units reviewed: 002224, 002225, 002248,…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Garrard 301, EMT 997, Thorens TP 14 tonearms; EMT OFD 25 & TSD 15 70th Anniversary pickup heads; Ortofon Cadenza Red, Miyajima Premium BE II mono cartridges.
Digital Sources: Meridian Explorer, Wavelength Proton USB D/A converters; Apple iMac G5 computer running Apple iTunes v.11.0, Decibel v.1.2.11 playback softwares; Sony SCD-777ES SACD/CD player.
Preamplification: Hommage T2 step-up transformer; Shindo Vosne-Romanee & Masseto preamplifiers.
Power Amplifiers: Shindo Corton-Charlemagne monoblocks, Fi 421A.
…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Sophia Electric 91-01 300B using 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). I started off measuring serial no.002225 using the tubes designated for that amplifier. Something appeared to be very wrong. Fig.1 plots this sample's THD+noise percentage against output power into 8 ohms, taken from the 8 ohm output-transformer tap. While its THD+N is reasonably low at a level of a few tens of milliwatts, the Sophia clips (defined as when the THD+N reaches 1%) at just…
Lindell Audio, a Swedish professional-audio company, was founded in 2010 by recording engineer Tobias Lindell, and claims to offer equipment "by engineers, for engineers." Tobias Lindell specifies the features and functions that he wants each product to incorporate; the actual circuit designs are by others. Although Lindell's corporate headquarters are in Sweden, the products are manufactured in China, and are competitively priced.
Lindell makes rack-mount and "lunchbox" compressors, limiters, and microphone preamplifiers. They also make a 32-bit/192kHz digital-to-analog converter, as…