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Bill Charlap: Life, Love, Songs, and Pianos Sidebar: A Jazz Rorschach Test

Sidebar: A Jazz Rorschach Test

We adjourned to a restaurant for lunch—I'd forewarned Bill Charlap that I would be conducting a Jazz Rorschach Test I'd created for him. Between bites, he gave me quick responses to a list of great songwriters, composers, pianists, and singers I ran by him in no particular order:

Johnny Mercer—Swing. The American Poet. Genius of language. Every word drips off the notes that he writes.

Irving Berlin—America. The center of what it is to be an American songwriter.

Cole Porter—Sexy. The risk-taker, and the great developmental composer.…

Chord Electronics Qutest D/A processor

Back in the mid-1990s, I believed that the design of D/A processors was fundamentally a solved problem. The resistor-ladder, multi-bit DAC chips of the 1980s, with their linearity errors, had been replaced by sigma-delta types that had minimal linearity error down to the lowest signal levels. All that remained for the designers of PCM D/A chips was to increase resolution and dynamic range to the theoretical limits, and to improve the mathematical precision of oversampling digital filters to match the performance of the 20- and 24-bit recordings that had just begun to be released.

Twenty…

Chord Electronics Qutest D/A processor Page 2

However, Ms. Podger's violin sounded a bit reedier than I was used to, as did Giuliano Carmignola's instrument in his performance of Bach's Violin Concerto in E with Concerto Köln (16/44.1 ALAC file, from Archiv 0289 479 2695 5), which sounded too thin. And when I played the Queen Live at Wembley '86 CD (Hollywood Records HR-61104-2)—triggered by publicity for the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, which was being heavily promoted when I was preparing this review—Freddie Mercury's voice in "Bohemian Rhapsody" was, through the Chord's Incisive Neutral filter and for want of a better word, incisive. I…

Chord Electronics Qutest D/A processor Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: D/A processor with 10-element Pulse Array Design DAC and separate 5V power supply. Digital filter length: 49,152 taps operating at 16Fs. Digital inputs: USB Type B, 2 coaxial S/PDIF (BNC jacks), 1 TosLink S/PDIF. Analog outputs: 1 pair unbalanced (RCA). Maximum output: 3V, 2V, 1V, switchable. Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz, ±0.2dB. Channel separation: 138dB at 1kHz. Dynamic range: 124dB (A-weighted). THD: 0.0001%, 1kHz at 2.5V into 300 ohms. Noise modulation: "none measurable."
Dimensions: 6.3" (160mm) W by 1.6" (41mm) H by 2.85" (72mm) D.…

Chord Electronics Qutest D/A processor Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Digital Sources: Roon Nucleus+ media server, iPad mini running Roon 1.5; Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP disc player; iFi Audio Pro iDSD, Mytek Brooklyn, PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream D/A processors; Z-Systems RDP-1 digital preamplifier (used as digital format converter).
Integrated Amplifiers: Ayre Acoustics EX-8, Cambridge Audio Edge A.
Power Amplifiers: Lamm M1.2 Reference monoblocks with external passive volume control.
Loudspeakers: KEF LS50, Rogers LS3/5a, Wharfedale Diamond 11.2.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Coffee (USB) & Vodka (…

Chord Electronics Qutest D/A processor Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

I measured the Chord Electronics Qutest using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"), using both the Audio Precision's optical and electrical digital outputs and USB data sourced from my MacBook Pro running on battery power with Pure Music 3.0 playing WAV and AIFF test-tone files.

Apple's USB Prober utility identified the Chord as "Qutest" from "Chord Electronics Ltd," with the serial number "413-001." The Qutest's USB port operated in the optimal isochronous asynchronous mode. Apple's AudioMIDI utility revealed that, via…

Björn Erik Edvardsen RIP

It's been reported on the Strata-gee consumer electronics news website that Björn Erik Edvardsen (known as BEE), who was the creator of the historic NAD 3020 integrated amplifier, passed away on December 16 from Myeloma/bone cancer. BEE had worked continuously with the company from 1976 until just a few months ago, when he left his position as NAD's Director of Advanced Research to focus on his battle with cancer.

Edvardsen joined NAD in 1976 as its first engineer and second full-time employee after founder Marty Borish (who died in 2017), working out of NAD's London, UK headquarters,…

Chesky Raps It Home for the New Year

Many of us enter the New Year with a mixture of sorrow for our losses and hope for what lies ahead. While there's no right way to celebrate 2019's symbolic new start, one approach to creating space for the new is to pause long enough to acknowledge our lives and environment for exactly what they are at the present moment.

Cue David Chesky's Rap Symphony 2.0, a reworking of Chesky's original release currently available in download and video form. Back in ancient times—2014 to be exact—Chesky penned the first iteration of his Rap Symphony with the thought of creating a new type of hybrid…

Recording of March 1963: Mahler: Symphony No.1

Mahler: Symphony No.1 in D ("The Titan")
Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Bruno Walter, conductor
Columbia MS-6394 (LP). John McClure, prod. TT: 52:15

This is one of those rare combinations of a superb recording and a stunning performance. As far as I'm concerned, it is the best Mahler First that Bruno Walter committed to discs during his lifetime, including the last one that he made with the New York Philharmonic. And the fact that this recording is far superior to that accorded Walter when he conducted the New York Philharmonic does not detract one bit from my feeling about this…

Recording of December 1962: Britten: <I>Noye's Fludde</I>

Britten: Noye's Fludde
Owen Brannigan, Sheila Rex, Trevor Anthony, Children's Chorus, and East Suffolk Children's Orchestra, Members of the English Chamber Orchestra, Norman Del Mar, conductor
London OS-25331 (LP). Colin Graham, prod. Recording date, 1961-07-03. Recording venue, Orford Church, Suffolk. TT: 48:00

This musical setting of the Chester miracle play about Noah, his ark, and the problems attendant thereof, if one of the most movingly beautiful recorded works I have ever heard. Its simplicity and sincerity are a stinging rebuke to those contemporary composers who have…