Photo: Carl Thomas Hriczak
It's 9:45 on a mid-September weeknight in Greater Toronto. Having spent the evening reveling in the glory of her 9th birthday—candles blown out, presents open, pleasantly full of Wegmans' Ultimate Chocolate Cake—Our Birthday Girl has one additional request:
"Can we please play 'Happy Birthday Polka'?!"
Emily's referring to a 10" 78rpm recording by Tex Williams, on a red-label Capitol I brought home for $1, mainly for the near-mint outer sleeve it came in. The first time I played it, she was sitting on her bean bag chair, counting the change from…
During my first attempt at college, I lived in a dormitory where my next- door neighbors had an informal trade in pharmaceuticals; their most ardent customers were my neighbors across the hall. One of the latter was a fellow named Pete, a good-natured guy (if a bit sanctimonious in his disdain for music he considered insufficiently bluesy) whose heavy rotation list was, at the time, topped by John Fahey's The Voice of the Turtle. I merely disliked the record the first time I heard it, but in the days ahead I came to loathe it. I found it repetitive, masturbatory, technically inept, and dead…
The Naim components in question were their NAC 32-5 preamplifier and NAP 250 power amplifier, supplemented with their Hi-Cap outboard power supply; that last item was devised as an upgrade to a more basic system in which DC from the Naim amp's own power supply is used to power the preamp. In 1988, the 32-5/250/Hi-Cap combination was Naim's second-best amplification system, bettered only by the use of two NAP 135 monoblocks in place of the stereo amp. (In 1988, my own Naim setup was humbler: I started out with the less expensive NAC 62 preamp and NAP 140 amp, later upgrading to a Naim-…
We usually save the question of value for the end of a review, but this time it's worth mentioning up front, if only because PS Audio has been in the news lately. Late last August, the company announced they were switching from a traditional dealer network to a factory-direct sales model. So, to some readers, it might seem fair to judge the brand-new, full-featured Stellar Phono Preamplifier ($2500) against ones selling in stores for $5000.
Then again, to speak with the Stellar Phono's talented designer, 30-something engineer and vinyl enthusiast Darren Myers, is to know that this is a…
What I heard at home more or less confirmed what I heard at RMAF (though the home experience was considerably better than the already fine performance I heard under typically lousy show conditions)—that is, once the "whining, beeping, buzzing" issues had been solved. That's not a product indictment! It's more about Myers's "no compromise" design philosophy, which is well documented in the instruction manual: As I immediately discovered, and as Myers and Leebens also heard, the Stellar is extremely sensitive to grounding, ultralow-capacitance cables, RF, and other kinds of interference.
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Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Solid-state phono preamplifier with unbalanced inputs and both balanced and unbalanced outputs. Overall voltage gain: MM: 44dB, 50dB, 56dB. MC: 60dB, 66dB, 72dB. Input loading: MM: 47k ohms (100pf). MC: 60, 100, 200, 47k ohms, Custom, 1 ohm–1k ohms. Output impedance: unbalanced <200 ohms, balanced <200 ohms per leg. (All measurements are with both channels operating, gain set to low, and balanced outputs. Input frequency is 1kHz.) Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz ±0.25dB. THD @0.5V, 1kHz: <0.01%. Maximum output: @1%THD: 24VRMS. Overload…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog sources: Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn, & Castellon turntable & stand; VPI HW-40 Air Force One Premium turntables; SAT CF1-09, Graham Elite, and VPI Fatboy tonearms; Lyra Atlas, Atlas SL, Atlas SL mono, Etna, and Etna SL, Ortofon MC Century, Anna Diamond, A95, Miyajima Labs Infinity (mono) and Destiny (stereo) Grado Epoch (mono).
Digital sources: dCS Vivaldi One SACD player DAC; Lynx Hilo A/D-D/A converter, Roon Nucleus; Pure Vinyl and Vinyl Studio software.
Preamplification: darTZeel NHB-18S, Ypsilon MC-10L, MC-16L, Consolidated…
Sidebar 1: Measurements
I measured the PS Audio Stellar Phono phono preamplifier using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"). For logistical reasons, I tested a different sample (serial number SPH-B-9J0100) from that auditioned by Michael Fremer. To get the lowest measured noise, I floated the signal generator's unbalanced output from ground and ran a separate connection from the analyzer's ground to the grounding post on the preamplifier's rear panel.
PS Audio specifies the voltage gain for the moving-magnet input as Low (44dB), Medium (50dB),…
When I performed the measurements of the Q Acoustics Concept 500 loudspeaker to accompany Thomas J. Norton's review in March 2019, I was impressed by what I found. The floorstanding Concept 500 offers a high level of audio engineering excellence for its price of $5999.99/pair. When I attended a Q Acoustics press briefing a few months back, where the English company announced the US availability of their stand-mounted Concept 300, I didn't hesitate to ask for a pair to review.
Design
The Concept 300 costs $4499.99/pair, including a pair of unique stands: skeletal, 26"-tall Tensegrity…
Low-level detail in the sound of the piano was well-preserved by the Concept 300s, even when Jarrett was comping at high levels with his left hand. I followed "Kyoto" with The Carnegie Concert (16/44.1k ALAC files, ripped from CD, ECM 07362), for which I had been in the audience back in 2005. Whereas the Sun Bear improvisations are unbroken stretches, sometimes lasting more than 40 minutes, Carnegie comprises shorter pieces, more akin, dare I say it, to songs. The image of the piano is wider and closer than it is on "Kyoto," and the instrument has more low-frequency power. Again, the Concept…
