search
After a few minutes in the VTL/Wilson/Nordost room on the 29th floor of the Venetian Hotel, the challenge I faced in covering CES 2019 was staring me in the face. The good news for me, and the bad news for exhibitors, was that visitor traffic was extremely light. To only two rooms did I need to backtrack because exhibitors were totally occupied with other visitors when I paid an initial visit. But, on the other hand, the sound in some rooms was so good, the musical selections so compelling, and the exhibitors so hungry for attention from someone that I had an extremely difficult time tearing…
As a longtime user of Nordost's cable and AC-power products, my ears opened wide when they released their three QKore Ground Units and QKore Wire at High End 2017, in Munich. While I've never questioned the importance of proper electrical grounding, to prevent problems with safety and noise—the latter including measurable noise generated by transformers, appliances, LED lighting, power supplies, and Bluetooth, WiFi, and cellular devices—I couldn't fathom what difference a passive grounding device might make in a high-end system that, in my case, is fed by an 8-gauge dedicated line with its…
Setup decisions were simplified when Taylor explained that, since the component LVAPs in the QKore3 and 6 are identical, and the power-product LVAPs in the QKore1 and 6 are also identical, if I were to use the QKore6 to connect only three components plus a power product, the sound would be equivalent to connecting a separate QKore1 and QKore3. It got even easier when I discovered that the only open digital connectors on my components were single-ended BNC and RCA. This meant that I wouldn't be able to compare the sounds of the QKores' grounding via single-ended vs balanced connectors.
…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
QKore1, QKore3, QKore6 Ground Units: Passive grounding devices, connected to power conditioners and audio components with QKore Wires.
Dimensions (all three): 10.6" (270mm) W by 3.2" (80mm) H by 7.9" (200mm) D, or 8.9" (225mm) D with binding posts. Weights: QKore1, 13.25 lb (6kg); QKore3, 13.55 lb (6.1kg); QKore6, 17.2 lb (7.8kg).
Serial numbers of units reviewed: QKore1, 4157251; QKore3, 4158509; QKore6, 4158572.
Prices: QKore1, $2499.99; QKore3, $3499.99; QKore6, $4999.99.
QKore Wire Conductors: 1x16 AWG, solid-core, 99.9999%-pure…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: dCS Rossini DAC & Scarlatti clock; Apple MacBook Pro computer with Intel i7, SSD, 8GB RAM; Intel NUC7i7BNH with 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD running Roon; Linksys routers with two sets TP-Link Gigabit Ethernet media converters, multimode duplex fiber-optic cables, Small Green Computer linear power supply; external hard drives, USB sticks, iPad Pro.
Integrated Amplifier: CH Precision I1.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties Alexia 2.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Diamond (Ethernet), Nordost Odin 1 & Odin 2 & Valhalla 2 (USB),…
Although I no longer attend the audio pageant that was once the annual Consumer Electronics Show, I now seem to be traveling more, in hopes of recapturing the excitement CES had once provided. Last May I attended High End, in Munich, and found that while it was entirely as advertised, there was, alas, not enough emphasis on the playback of high-resolution files, and hardly any attention paid to multichannel music.
So when Andy Quint of The Abso!ute Sound invited me to join him and Brian Moura, technical advisor to NativeDSD and Channel Classics, for a seminar, "Multichannel Music: The…
Before receiving the Alpha 3, I looked on PassMark Software's Cpubenchmark.com site to find test results for the Alpha 3's six-core i7-8700 processor, and for the four-core i7-7700K processor in my Baetis ProdigyX server, and found them to be respectively 15,156 and 12,045—a more than 25% increase in overall speed in favor of the Alpha 3. Later, I ran the JMark tests built into JRiver Media Center and was surprised to discover that the four-core i7-7700K was marginally faster in its overall JMark score, and in the subcategories of image and database processing, but that the six-core i7-8700…
Sidebar 1: Contacts
Wolf Audio Systems, Tel: (234) 770-0660. Web: wolfaudiosystems.com
NAD Electronics International, 633 Granite Court, Pickering, Ontario L1W 3K1, Canada. Tel: (905) 831-6555. Web: www.nadelectronics.com
Sidebar 2: Recordings in the Round
Jung-A Lee: A Private Organ Recital in Walt Disney Concert Hall
Works by J.S. Bach, Bovet, Buck, Buxtehude, Couperin, Gilbert, Lee, Messiaen, Sweelinck, Vierne, Wammes, Weaver
Jung-A Lee, pipe organ
Yarlung YAR77215DSD (5.0-channel DSD256 download from www.NativeDSD.com)
This recital offers privileges: It's gratifying that music recording and playback technology (five channels of DSD256!) has reached a point where, even if only rarely, one can be fleetingly fooled into believing that one has been transported to an actual musical…
One of several small, wireless speakers unveiled at the Venetian Hotel, Audioengine's A2+ ($269/pair), with built-in DAC and aptX Bluetooth, is manufactured in China, and scheduled to ship at the end of January. I didn't get a chance to hear the A2+, but our niece, who has the wired version, raves about its sound with her Mac laptop.
Right across the hallway from the A2+ sat some of its competition, Kanto Audio's Tuk 65Wpc, class-D powered bookshelf speaker ($799/pair). Due in April, Tuk, whose frequency response is 50Hz-20kHz ±3dB, offers onboard DSP, a 24/96 USB DAC, and a 28 x…