That doesn't mean the future is bleak—not necessarily. Many in the industry have hope for hi-fi's future. For that potential future to be realized, however, audio dealers must adapt. Interest in better sound seems to be rising. Consider vinyl's resurgence; regardless of your views on vinyl's ultimate fidelity, it's a big step up from the earlier fashion for MP3s and cheap earbuds. (There's good news on that front, too: Those earbuds morphed into Beats…
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To borrow Lyric Hi-Fi owner Leonard Bellezza's words from last month's Re-Tales, the traditional audiophile customer base "is graying."
Power amplifiers should be boring. They have a single, well-defined function: Make the input signal large enough to run a loudspeaker so that it makes sound at levels suitable for listening to music. Generally, controls and features are few or none. Peter Walker of Quad famously defined the ideal amplifier as a "straight wire with gain." That's just one feature: gain.
That ideal is not easy to achieve, for many reasons. Even a straight wire of any practical length and structure has properties (resistance, capacitance, inductance) that can affect how the signal is transferred to it on one…
Beginning with the single C 298 driving the Revel Studio2 speakers, listening to several familiar selections, I found nothing remarkable, and I mean that in a good way. There should not be big, striking differences among high-quality amplifiers of sufficient bandwidth and power. Big differences make me suspicious that something's wrong or that something's not fair. It was reassuring to find that the NAD was fully up to the task, but this does make characterizing an amplifier's sound challenging.
By unexplained providence, there have been two new releases of French chamber/parlor…
Sidebar 1: NAD M28 seven channel power amplifier
After the release of the M33 Streaming Integrated Amplifier, the next release in the Masters Series seemed obvious: It would be a stereo power amplifier, a successor to the nCore-based M22 v2, featuring the same Purifi-based output technology found in the M33.
Instead, NAD announced the seven-channel M28 amplifier ($4999), successor to the nCore-based M27. I welcomed it because the beloved, durable Bryston 9B-ST THX in my Connecticut system had recently blown an internal fuse. Its 20-year warranty was expiring soon, so I decided to…
Sidebar 2: Specifications
Description: Stereo power amplifier based on Purifi Eigentakt Amplifier Technology. Inputs: 1 pair RCA (unbalanced), 1 pair XLR (balanced). Input impedance: 56k ohms + 280pF. Outputs: 1 pair RCA (unbalanced), 2 pair multiway loudspeaker binding posts. 12V trigger input and output. Input sensitivity: 1.43V for 185W (fixed-gain stereo mode, into 8 ohms), 3.78V for 340W (fixed-gain bridge mode). Rated output power, stereo: 185Wpc into 8 ohms (22.7dBW), 340Wpc into 4 ohms (22.3dBW); Bridged: 620Wpc into 8 ohms (27.9dBW). IHF dynamic power: 260W into 8 ohms, 490W…
Sidebar 3: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: Oppo Digital UDP-105 universal disc player; custom Baetis Prodigy-X4i music server running JRiver Media Center v27 and Roon 1.8; exaSound Delta Server running Roon 1.8; exaSound e38 Mark II and Okto DAC8 Pro D/A processors. QNAP TVS-873 NAS.
Preamplifiers: None. Source switching with Coleman Audio 7.1SW.
Power amplifiers: Benchmark AHB2, PS Audio M1200.
Loudspeakers: Revel Ultima2 Studio, Dynaudio Confidence 30.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Coffee (USB). Interconnects: AudioQuest Earth/DBS balanced, Kubala-Sosna Anticipation…
Sidebar 4: Measurements
The NAD C 298 can be operated as a conventional stereo amplifier or as a bridged-mono amplifier. (In mono mode, the signal is fed to the left input and the output taken from the left channel's positive binding post and the right channel's negative binding post.) As Kal Rubinson auditioned the NAD both in stereo mode and as a pair of monoblocks, I performed a complete set of measurements in both modes. The C 298 has an output stage operating in class-D, so I inserted an Audio Precision auxiliary AUX-0025 passive low-pass filter between the test load and my Audio…
Herb Reichert auditioned the dCS Bartók in June 2021 (Vol.44 No.6):
I finally get what those unboxing videos are all about.
As I deciphered my way through the dCS Bartók's triple boxes (footnote 1), my sense of audiophile entitlement rose as I opened each successive box. Inside the last box, the Bartók was wrapped in a black velvet drawstring pouch. That made me smile until I realized that the Bartók was so big that I had nowhere to put it. It requires a shelf at least 19" deep that can support 36.8lb. My desktop system shelf is only 16" from its front edge to the wall; previously…
Ken Micallef returned to the Schiit Sol in June 2021 (Vol.44 No.6):
Before the ink had dried on my review of the Schiit Audio Sol turntable (footnote 1), Stereophile la Jefa Jim Austin asked me to write a follow-up review on that feature-packed, $799 analog machine. This wasn't going to be the typical, try-it-with-similar-components assessment; I did that last time, evaluating the Sol with the included cartridges, the Schiit Ragnarok 2 integrated, and the Klipsch RP-600M loudspeakers.
But with all its adjustability, it's clear that the Sol isn't your average entry-level 'table.…
The June 2021 issue of Stereophile included followup reviews of two recommended components, both which deserved further investigation of what they had to offer: the dCS Bartók D/A processor and the Schiit Audio Sol turntable.
Jim Austin reviewed the dCS Bartók in October 2019. The Bartók costs $14,500 plus $2750 for the headphone-amplifier option and is the most recent D/A processor to come from the UK company to feature its groundbreaking Ring DAC. "The Ring DAC is based on technically solid ideas, with clear, definite advantages over other DAC technologies." Jim concluded "There is…