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),…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
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…
Of all the systems I auditioned at this year's CES, Nagra's was the unquestionable standout. Its sound was full-range and transparent, with brilliant and glistening highs, a totally realistic midrange, astounding low bass reach, and an ability to flesh out complex overtones and undertones without distortion. Had this thoroughly musical system been placed in a much larger room at AXPONA or the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, perhaps even with one of Wilson's larger speakers in place of the excellent new Wilson Audio Sasha DAW seen here ($37,900/pair), it could easily have topped many of the other…
A few surprises and delights still awaited on Wednesday afternoon, January 9. That was when I began to realize: save for Harman International's off-site exhibit at Hard Rock Café and two products I encountered on January 10, I would have plenty of time to write blogs and pack on my final day in Vegas.
One of the most eagerly greeted high-end unveilings at CES was Elac's new Carina Series BS243.4 Jet bookshelf loudspeaker ($1199/pair), part of a line including the CC241.4 Jet Center Channel ($849) and FS249.4 Jet floorstander ($1199/each). The BS243.4 has a new aluminum bass driver whose…
Besides the appearance there of many new components capable of MQA decoding and rendering, CES provided an opportunity to unveil two important MQA developments.
The first is that Tidal Masters (MQA playback) is now available on Android phones and tablets. While Tidal's potential rival, the French company Qobuz, is currently beta-testing its own hi-rez streaming platform for Android, iOS, Apple, and Windows devices, prior to its official launch in the US, Qobuz is limited to 24/192 resolution. MQA's folding and unfolding technology, as seen on the Android phone held by MQA's Ken Forsythe,…
By Day Three of four-day CES 2019, reality had set in for most of the few high-end audio exhibitors who set up shop in the Venetian: the curtain has closed on CES as "the place" for high-end audio product introductions and business transactions. Several of the smaller companies I spoke with were already done with waxing nostalgic on the glory days of CES—an era when there were so many distributors, dealers, and journalists clogging the hallways and rooms that some exhibitors had to either close up shop at the factory or recruit extra help to cater to everyone. After wiping tears from their…