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1994 brought the new 10" × 7" format. Reader reactions ran from "my life is over" to "I love you guys." Change is hard, I know. Wes Phillips and Russ Novak joined, and the magazine released Robert Silverman's recorded-live 2-CD concert set including works by Schumann, Bach, Schubert, and Chopin. Stereophile Guide to Home Theater launched in December. To enable JA's recording jones, the magazine purchased a Nagra D, and he began recording selections from the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival's Summer Concerts for the Stereophile label. Los Angeles HI-FI '95 climaxed with a rip-roaring, roof-…
In October 1962, the first issue of what was then called The Stereophile was published and edited by J. Gordon Holt out of Wallingford, Pennsylvania. The issue you hold in your hands, published by AVTech Media out of New York, New York, and edited by Jim Austin, is #500. Jim is the magazine's third editor, having occupied that seat since the July 2019 issue. Gordon Holt put together the first 82 issues, through the June 1986 issue; I was the editor from issue #83, cover-dated August 1986, through issue #473, June 2019 (footnote 1).
Many, many audio magazines have come and gone since 1962…
Held every November in normal times, the annual Warsaw Audio Video Show is among the world's largest. I first attended a decade ago, in 2011, and was amazed by both the number of attendees—more than 10,000 people—and demographics that skewed young and included many families. That show was bigger and better-attended than any I've been to in America.
The show organizers had arranged for my travel and hotel accommodations in exchange for a series of turntable setup seminars, which seemed like a fair deal.
Upon my arrival at Frederic Chopin airport, I was picked up not by someone…
Remember that if your tonearm has an offset headshell, VTA/SRA and azimuth adjustment will be interrelated so that adjusting one affects the other. I believe that often, when people claim to hear a big sonic difference when they make minute VTA/SRA changes, they're instead hearing the effects of an azimuth change. The relationship is well spelled out in the WallyReference manual. WallyTools supplies the tools necessary for adjusting various arm configurations, whether azimuth adjustment is carried out at the headshell or on the armtube.
Set SRA using a USB microscope
Setting SRA to…
I was aware that Canadian company Verity Audio, founded in 1995, made loudspeakers, like the Sarastro II that Fred Kaplan reviewed in May 2009. But when Jason Victor Serinus and I attended the 2018 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, we were both impressed by the sound of an all-Verity system that featured Verity's Monsalvat AMP-60 power amplifier. Jason Victor Serinus favorably reviewed the AMP-60 in May 2019; I didn't have to be asked twice, therefore, if I wanted to review Verity's Montsalvat DAC/PRE (see later).
The DAC/PRE
The DAC/PRE, priced at $25,000, is an example of an increasingly…
I was going to use the Verity in DAC mode and connect it to the Pass Labs XP-32 preamplifier that I reviewed in March. However, as its postrepair measured performance in DAC mode was not as good as it had been prerepair (see the Measurements sidebar), I couldn't put that knowledge to one side while listening. I decided, therefore, to audition the DAC/PRE in Preamp mode, connecting it directly to a pair of Parasound Halo JC 1+ monoblocks and adjusting volume with the Apple remote control. (Depending on the music and loudspeakers, the volume control was set between –23.0dB and –13.0dB.)
I…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-channel D/A processor with volume control and 32-bit processing architecture (up to 72 bits internal calculations at 98MHz). Digital inputs: USB 2.0 (supports PCM up to 32/384 and DSD up to 256Fs), 1 AES/EBU (XLR) and 1 S/PDIF (RCA); both support PCM up to 24/192. Analog outputs: 1 pair balanced (XLR), 1 pair single-ended (RCA). Frequency response: 5Hz–90kHz –3dB. THD+N: <0.0005%. S/N ratio: >120dB. Channel separation: >130dB. Output impedance: not specified. Measured maximum output level: 3.43V, balanced, 2.1V, unbalanced, Pure DAC…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: Roon Nucleus+ music server; Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP universal player; MBL N31 CD player/DAC.
Power amplifiers: Parasound Halo JC 1+ monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Canton Reference 7K (in for review), KEF LS50, Marten Diamond Edition Parker Trio.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Vodka (Ethernet), AudioQuest Diamond (USB), DH Labs (1m, AES/EBU). Interconnect: AudioQuest Wild Blue (balanced). Speaker: AudioQuest K2. AC: AudioQuest Dragon Source & High Current, manufacturers' own.
Accessories: Target TT-5 equipment racks; Ayre…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Verity Audio Montsalvat DAC/PRE with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"), repeating some tests with the magazine's Audio Precision APx555 system. Apple's USB Prober utility identified the Verity as "Combo384 Amanero" from "Amanero Technologies" with the serial number string "413-001." The Verity's USB port operated in the optimal isochronous asynchronous mode, and Apple's AudioMIDI utility revealed that the DAC/PRE accepted 32-bit integer data sampled at all rates from 44.1kHz to 384kHz. The AES/EBU and coaxial S/…
Francesco Cafiso: Irene of Boston
Cafiso, alto saxophone; London Symphony Orchestra; four others
EFLAT EF0003 (CD, available as download, LP). 2020. EFLAT, prod.; Riccardo Piparo, Mat Bartram, Francesco Lupi, Roberto Romano, engs.
Performance *****
Sonics ****
Cafiso, alto saxophone; London Symphony Orchestra; four others
EFLAT EF0003 (CD, available as download, LP). 2020. EFLAT, prod.; Riccardo Piparo, Mat Bartram, Francesco Lupi, Roberto Romano, engs.
Performance *****
Sonics ****
The first time I heard Francesco Cafiso, I thought I was hallucinating. It was 2005. I had flown to Australia from Seattle to cover the Melbourne Jazz Festival. Cafiso appeared the first night. He was 15. He played the most outrageous bebop I had ever heard outside of Charlie Parker records. I thought I was…