Audiophilia is not congenital. Most audiophiles can trace their obsessions back to a particular event, a stirring experience hearing music they love on a high-quality hi-fi system. A vibrant community helps all of us while providing rich…
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Audiophilia often leads the afflicted on a long journey, but no one need take that journey alone: Many audiophiles seek the company of like-minded people, on-line or in person, to exchange tips and advice, buy and sell gear, and share skills, fun, and musical experiences. And those who don't seek audiophile companionship? Perhaps they should.
Most US shows experience a big drop in attendance on Sunday. Not at Audio Video 2022. Over 90% of Poland's residents may identify as Catholic, but that didn't stop thousands of them from visiting the Warsaw Show's three sites on the last day of the show. I still had to play musical chairs in many rooms before finally landing in or close to the sweet spot, and there were a few rooms that felt too crowded for comfort.
Accustomed to US shows that close down at 4pm on Sunday, I paced myself to visit the well-over 30 rooms not yet seen in the Sobieski hotel, and then head diagonally across…
Maybe you've seen the widely circulated New Yorker cartoon: Two guys stand in front of a nicely drawn, tubed audio system, under which are shelves full of LPs. One guy says, "The two things that really drew me to vinyl were the expense and the inconvenience."
If you can't laugh at that, you've lost your sense of humor—even acknowledging that, oddly, convenience is the raison d'être of some recent phono preamplifiers—including Dan D'Agostino Audio's Momentum and the CH Precision P1, both of which offer multiple, switchable, configurable inputs saved in memory. Today's well-heeled vinyl…
I'd played test pressings of Bloodlines, a boxed set comprising the first four albums by Blood, Sweat & Tears (8 45rpm LPs, Columbia/Legacy/Analogue Productions APP BSTBOX-45), through both the Ypsilon VPS-100/MC-16L and CH Precision P1/X1 that I wrote about in the April and June issues, and had gotten a good handle on the sound of Ryan K. Smith's remastering, at Sterling Sound, from the original tapes: ultra-transparent, superdetailed, forceful, fully extended on bottom, and a bit forward in the presence region (as are most Smith remasterings).
Despite the cackling and…
With its indelible Francis Wolff cover image of a pensive John Coltrane bathed in blue, freshly fired by Miles Davis but four months free of heroin, and its confident, accessible music that hints at the genius to come, Coltrane's Blue Train is a timeless jazz masterpiece. The saxophonist's only album as a leader for Blue Note, recorded before his triumphs at Atlantic Records—My Favorite Things and Coltrane Jazz—the boppy Blue Train, which, including the original mono and stereo pressings, had been issued 272 times, remains important for many reasons.
First, there's the wonderful playing…
Back in 1999, while reviewing the Wazoo integrated amplifier from Bow Technologies, I learned that its designer and company founder, Bo Christensen, had previously founded another audio company. That's how I discovered Primare. Over the years, various products from Primare have appeared at audio shows but never grabbed my attention. In a recent EISA press presentation, however, Primare showcased an eight-channel amplifier that did, given my interest in multichannel audio. I was glad to be able to attend.
Expectations were high for the new A35.8 power amplifier. Its stablemate, the A35.2…
Moving from this somewhat lightweight fodder to meatier stuff, I next played the new Beethoven: Symphony No.6; Steven Stucky: Silent Spring with Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony (DSF rip from Reference Recording FR-747). Honeck, true to form, drove his orchestra with pace and power, and the A35.8 drove the music commensurably and with remarkable detail—especially noticeable in multichannel.
When played in stereo, it seemed paler in every way, and I missed the subtle weight of the lower strings. I tried turning up the volume to compensate for having only two speakers…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Eight-channel power amplifier based on Ncore NC500 class-D technology. Inputs (per channel): 1 RCA (unbalanced), 1 XLR (balanced). Input impedance: 15k ohms (RCA), 36k ohms (XLR). Input sensitivity: 1.7V (RCA, 150W 8 ohms); 3.4V (XLR, 150W 8 ohms). Gain: 26dB (RCA), 20dB (XLR), +6dB in bridge mode. Output impedance: <0.02 ohms. Power output: 1kHz (per channel): 150W into 8 ohms (21.8dBW), 300W into 4 ohms (21.8dBW), 400W into 2 ohms (20.0dBW). Power output: 1kHz (per bridged pair): 740W into 8 ohms (28.7dBW), 750W into 4 ohms (25.8dBW), 450W into…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: Oppo Digital UDP-105 universal disc player, Custom Intel/Win11 music server running JRiver Media Center v29, Roon 1.8, and DiracLive. exaSound s88 streaming DAC, Okto dac8 PRO, and Topping DM7 D/A processors. QNAP TVS-873 NAS.
Preamplifiers: Coleman Audio 7.1SW for balanced source switching. 3 × Topping Pre90 preamps for buffer/line-drivers.
Power Amplifiers: Benchmark AHB2, NAD C 298, NAD M28.
Loudspeakers: Revel Ultima2 Studio with IsoAcoustics Gaia I isolation feet. Revel Performa3 f206 for surrounds. Two SVS SB-3000 &…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I tested the Primare A35.8 with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system. As the A35.8 has class-D output stages, all measurements other than frequency response were taken with Audio Precision's auxiliary AUX-0025 passive low-pass filter, which mitigates noise above 80kHz and eliminates noise above 200kHz. (The relatively high levels of ultrasonic noise emitted by class-D amplifiers would otherwise drive the analyzer's input into slew-rate limiting.) Without the filter, 325mV of ultrasonic noise was present at each pair of loudspeaker terminals, with a center frequency…