Blessings and Miracles Vinyl LP:
Music legend and guitar master Carlos Santana's latest star-studded masterpiece Blessings and Miracles is out on vinyl March 18, 2022 via BMG. On it, Santana delivers one of the most ambitious, inspired, and magical records of his storied career. There are genre-bending, hook-filled celebrations…
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Register to win one of three Carlos Santana Blessings and Miracles Vinyl Editions (value $34.98 each), or a limited edition Carlos Santana hand signed Blessings & Miracles PRS SE Doublecut Electric Guitar (value: $2,995/priceless) we are giving away.
Look closely at the audio system in the photo. It belongs to my friend, and fellow audio seeker, Devon Turnbull (aka Ojas). Notice every object in the room, particularly the arrangement of amplifiers, and turntables, and that awesome herd of cartridges on the table in front of the listening chair. May I suggest you regard these diverse objects as ceremonial utensils arranged in an aesthetically pleasing manner, for the pleasure of the main listener. For the sake of this short story, I will honor myself with the title of Shokyaku (Japanese for main guest) and my friend Devon as my esteemed…
The Marlow is just slightly larger than my BBC-licensed Falcon LS3/5a (13" × 8" × 7" vs 12" × 7.5" × 6.5")and weighs 6.6lb. Sensitivity is rated at 86dB/2.83V/m. Nominal impedance for the Eikona drive-unit is specified as 8 ohms. Recommended amplifier power is 10–70W.
The standard Marlow I am reviewing is sold direct and costs £1960 ($2626)/pair including free shipping to the US. EJ Jordan offers a deluxe-parts version, the Marlow CE, for £2280 ($3055)/pair. Both are finished in walnut veneer; rosewood veneer is a £160/pair option. Warranty is two years. Disappointed buyers have 30 days…
I start this review with a confession. I have consistently found that when I play CDs on a transport and feed the digital data via AES3 (AES/EBU) to a D/A processor, the music has more drive, particularly at low frequencies, than it does when I send the same 16/44.1 data to the same D/A processor via my network. However, these days I almost always stream my music rather than playing physical discs. Not only is it much more convenient; the wealth of metadata available with Roon 1.8 is addictive. I also have convenient access to much more music: my growing library of hi-rez files and hi-rez…
The Lumin L1 is expensive for a NAS. However, when it is the only NAS on your network, it links automatically and seamlessly to the Lumin app: Fit-and-forget ease of use, which is especially welcome for those, like me, who have bad network karma.
Listening with Roon
I started my auditioning in "Roon Ready" mode, using Roon to stream audio data from the internal drive in my Nucleus+ server. In this mode, the P1 utilizes Roon's "RAAT" protocol, which stands for Roon Advanced Audio Transport. Still on a prolonged Rachmaninoff kick, I played Vladimir Ashkenazy performing the second Piano…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: P1: Roon Ready streaming D/A processor/ preamplifier with optical and wired Ethernet ports (support for PCM up to 384kHz, 16–32 bits, with Full MQA Decoding and DSD up to DSD512); USB (USB Audio Class 2 compatible, PCM 44.1–384kHz, 16–32 bits, DoP128); AES3, TosLink Optical, RCA S/PDIF (all, PCM 44.1–192kHz, 16–24 bits, DoP); 3 HDMI (PCM 2.0 audio support, 4K video passthrough). Extensive upsampling options. Supported audio file formats: DSF (DSD), DIFF (DSD), DoP (DSD), PCM FLAC, Apple Lossless (ALAC), WAV, AIFF, MP3, AAC (in M4A container), MQA.…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: Roon Nucleus+ file server; Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP universal player; MBL N31 CD player/DAC; PS Audio DirectStream DAC.
Power amplifiers: Parasound Halo JC 1+ monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Bowers & Wilkins 804D, GoldenEar BRX, KEF LS50.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Vodka (Ethernet), AudioQuest Coffee (USB), DH Labs (1m, AES3). Interconnect: AudioQuest Wild Blue (balanced). Speaker: AudioQuest Robin Hood. AC: AudioQuest Dragon Source & High Current, manufacturers' own.
Accessories: Target TT-5 equipment racks, Ayre Acoustics…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Lumin P1 with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system. Looking first at the digital inputs, the AES3 and coaxial and TosLink S/PDIF inputs accepted data sampled at all rates up to 192kHz. Apple's AudioMIDI utility revealed that the P1 accepted 16- and 32-bit integer data via USB sampled at all rates from 44.1kHz to 768kHz (footnote 1). Apple's USB Prober app identified the Lumin as "LUMIN" from "PMS" (Pixel Magic Systems, presumably), and the USB port operated in the optimal isochronous asynchronous mode.
The Lumin's analog outputs with the Invert…
Cécile Mclorin Salvant: Ghost Song
McLorin Salvant, vocals; Sullivan Fortner, piano, Fender Rhodes; Aaron Diehl, piano, pipe organ; Paul Sikivie, Burniss Travis, bass; Alexa Tarantino, flute; Marvin Sewell, guitar; James Chirillo, banjo; Keita Ogawa, percussion; Kyle Poole, drums; Daniel Swenberg, lute, theorbo; Brooklyn Youth Chorus.
Nonesuch (LP, CD). McLorin Salvant, prod.; Todd Whitelock, Patrick Dillet, Chris Muth, engs.
Performance *****
Sonics *****
McLorin Salvant, vocals; Sullivan Fortner, piano, Fender Rhodes; Aaron Diehl, piano, pipe organ; Paul Sikivie, Burniss Travis, bass; Alexa Tarantino, flute; Marvin Sewell, guitar; James Chirillo, banjo; Keita Ogawa, percussion; Kyle Poole, drums; Daniel Swenberg, lute, theorbo; Brooklyn Youth Chorus.
Nonesuch (LP, CD). McLorin Salvant, prod.; Todd Whitelock, Patrick Dillet, Chris Muth, engs.
Performance *****
Sonics *****
Starting with her out-of-nowhere triumph at the 2010 Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition and continuing with the release…
What am I doing with a vacuum tube preamplifier? I haven't owned a tubed preamp since I bought a Sonic Frontiers Line 3 preamplifier at the turn of the century. I set that aside within a few years as I moved into multichannel because multichannel tube-based electronics were, and still are, rare. My last home experience with a vacuum tube was with a PS Audio Stellar M1200 monoblock power amp, which is a hybrid with a 12AX7-based input stage.
But why not? As I wrote in reviewing a tube preamp back in 1997, "if the results are worthwhile, why should I care if the designer builds an amp…