I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Elac Adante AF-61's frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 for the nearfield responses. (I didn't use the grilles.) My estimate of the Adante AF-61's voltage sensitivity was 86.1dB/2.83V/m, slightly below the specified 87dB/2.83V/m. The specified nominal impedance is 6 ohms. Fig.1 shows that the impedance magnitude remains above 6 ohms for much of the audioband, with minimum values of 4.75 ohms at 92Hz, 5.25 ohms at 240Hz, and 5.1 ohms at 9.1k ohms. However,…
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Friday, November 30, 4–7pm, Music Lovers San Francisco (2295 Bush Street, San Francisco, CA 9411) and Saturday, December 1, 2–6pm, Music Lovers Berkeley (2116 Blake Street, Berkeley, CA 94704) will hold events to celebrate the debut of Wilson Audio Specialties' Sasha DAW loudspeaker. Featured guests will include Peter McGrath of Wilson Audio, Bob McConnell of Transparent Audio, and Jeff Sigmund of Luxman. Attendees will have two listening opportunities to choose from: one each at Music Lovers' San Francisco and Berkeley locations.
The demonstrations will showcase Wilson Audio's Sasha DAW…
The stars lined up.
According to biographer Charles Reid, the British conductor Sir John Barbirolli "burned with Elgarian zeal," attributable in part to Barbirolli's participation, as a young cellist in the London Symphony Orchestra of 1919, in the premiere performance of Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto. That performance, conducted by the composer and with Felix Salmond as soloist, was a disaster—Elgar's rehearsal time had been cut short by a lack of cooperation from another conductor on the bill, a slight the composer never forgave—yet from then on, the 19-year-old Barbirolli regarded…
The digital ground seems to shift weekly. While firmware and software updates over the Internet somewhat slow the constant upheaval, when you do buy something, you just know that as soon as you plunk down your cash, something new will come along.
So, especially with preamplifiers, why not produce a design based on modules that the user can swap in and out, to custom-configure the preamp to that user's current needs while leaving room for later expansion? Why pay for six inputs' worth of stuff when at present you need only two? Upgrades? New features? No problem—swap out a module. Or, if…
For the first half of my listening I ran balanced TARA Labs Zero cables from the 8.2's Solid-State Output card into my darTZeel NHB-458 monoblock power amps. For the second half, I used the Tube Output card.
Within an hour or so I had the Meridian Sooloos music server connected to one of the AVM's S/PDIF inputs, and my MacBook Air computer using Roon connected to its USB input. I had three tonearms running into three of the six Phono cards, each configured for a specific cartridge's output and loading requirements. The balanced output of my content/dcs-rossini-player-rossini-clock">…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Modular solid-state and/or tubed preamplifier with slots for 9 input modules slots, 3 output modules, class-A headphone output. Available modules: MM/MC phono preamplifier, asynchronous DAC with inputs (1 USB Type B, 2 coaxial S/PDIF RCA, 1 optical TosLink), supporting PCM up to 32-bit/384kHz, DSD64/128 (2.8MHz, 5.6MHz); FM, Line in (with or without tone & contour configurability), Line out, Bluetooth. Tube complement: 2 AVM 803 T dual triodes. Frequency ranges: 20Hz–100kHz (solid-state), 20Hz–30kHz (tubed). Input impedance, line: 3.4k ohms (RCA…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn turntable & Castellon stand; VPI Avenger Reference turntable & Fatboy tonearms (dual-pivot & gimbaled); Klaudio KD-ARM-MP12, Kuzma 4Point, Swedish Analog Technologies CF1-09 tonearms. Cartridges: Grado Labs Epoch (mono); Ikeda 9Gss; Lyra Atlas, Atlas SL, Atlas SL (mono), Etna, Etna SL; Miyajima Labs Infinity (mono); Ortofon MC Century Anna A95; Tedeska DST-01.
Digital Sources: dCS Rossini CD player–DAC, Lynx Hilo A/D–D/A converter, Meridian Sooloos music server, Pure Vinyl & Vinyl Studio…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the AVM Ovation PA 8.2 using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"). Looking first at the line-level analog inputs on the Tone input module: With the AVM's volume control set to its maximum of "99,5," the maximum voltage gain at 1kHz measured 18.24dB from the solid-state balanced and unbalanced outputs, 18.2dB from the tubed balanced and unbalanced outputs, and 21.85dB from the headphone terminals. The line inputs preserved absolute polarity from all five outputs (ie, were non-inverting), and the unbalanced input…
There I was, driving through the streets of Port Townsend, dodging the dashing deer, when out of the blue, strains of Palestrina came floating by. Giving thanks to CBC Radio, which we can receive in the Pacific Northwest, I noticed immediately how my internal space had become far more peaceful after just a few bars of Palestrina's polyphonic writing for multiple voices. It was at that minute that I realized that I missed listening to sacred vocal music of the Renaissance, and that it was high time that more of it made its way on to the Stereophile.com.
French composer Antoine de Févin (ca…
If there's one thing audiophiles agree on, it's that snake oil is bad—even if they can't agree about what snake oil actually is.
In audio, snake oil means fake science or fake technology—anything that's claimed to improve the sound of a system but that looks like an obvious rip-off. For some people, expensive speaker cables and interconnects are snake oil. A few objectivists consider AC power treatments snake oil: most modern audio components, after all, can correct for AC line-voltage flaws and reject "ripple" in a power supply's output. A handful of hard-core objectivists maintain that…