Whether it's a thicker chassis, more powerful motor, more precise bearing, more effective isolation system, or something else, the emphasis is always on stepping things up a notch or two, rather than reinventing the wheel. This obsession can result in some…
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I have found that turntable designers typically fall into one of two camps. First are what I call the obsessive machinists. These are the people with impressive manufacturing chops and a sharp eye for fine detail and precision. For them, making a better turntable usually involves taking what we already know and simply doing it better.
Performance: Measurements made with the Shaknspin2 speed-measuring device showed that the DG-1S was running about 0.4% fast—not terrible but a little disappointing at the price, and not adjustable (footnote 4). More importantly, the peak wow and flutter was around 0.18%, an excellent result.
After several days of casual use to get everything bedded in, I started a round of more intent listening with "Round Midnight" from Chick Corea's 1982 album Trio Music (ECM 1232/33). Right out of the gate, I heard the hallmarks of a Touraj Moghaddam design, the kind of forward momentum and…
Can an audio brand maintain a "house sound" if the original creator of that sound is no longer among the living? If the brand in question is Ayre Acoustics, the answer is a resounding Yes.
When Ayre founder Charley Hansen passed in late 2017, Ariel Brown, who is now Ayre's vice president and chief technology officer, was ready, waiting in the wings. Brown has worked for Ayre since he was a sophomore in college. As John Atkinson wrote in his February 2019 review of Ayre's EX-8 Integrated Hub, "Brown says that for better or worse, he was indoctrinated in Hansen's way of thinking and design…
Silence of the Equilock
A test of whether you've purchased an ordinary hi-fi component or a special one is how many of your favorite recordings it makes sound new—how many favorite albums seem freshly imagined when experienced through the component. No component is entirely transparent; each reproduces recordings in its own image. The VX-8 made familiar records new again. It wasn't so much casting recordings in a new light as digging deeper to reveal more of a recording's sonic architecture; a different kind of light induces a different reflection. What's more, the VX-8 made all the vinyl…
A test of whether you've purchased an ordinary hi-fi component or a special one is how many of your favorite recordings it makes sound new—how many favorite albums seem freshly imagined when experienced through the component. No component is entirely transparent; each reproduces recordings in its own image. The VX-8 made familiar records new again. It wasn't so much casting recordings in a new light as digging deeper to reveal more of a recording's sonic architecture; a different kind of light induces a different reflection. What's more, the VX-8 made all the vinyl…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Solid state balanced stereo power amplifier. Inputs: 1 balanced pair (XLR), 1 single-ended pair (RCA). Output power: 100Wpc into 8 ohms (20dBW), 170Wpc into 4 ohms (19.3dBW). Frequency response: DC–250kHz (–3dB). Voltage gain: 26dB. Input impedance: 1M ohm unbalanced, 2M ohm balanced. Max line/subwoofer output: 4.0V RMS balanced, 2.0V RMS single-ended.
Dimensions: 17.25" (438.15mm) W × 4.5" (114.3mm) H × 13.00" (330.2mm) D. Weight: 24lb (11kg).
Serial number of unit reviewed: 30A0001. Designed and manufactured in Colorado.
Finishes:…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog sources: VPI Avenger Direct turntable with VPI 12" Fatboy Gimbal tonearm and Hana Umami Blue MC cartridge.
Digital sources: HoloAudio May DAC, Sonore opticalRendu, Roon Nucleus+, Small Green Computer power supply, TRENDnet switch, Apple iPad mini.
Preamplifiers: Sugden LA-4, Ayre K-5xeMP line preamplifiers; Manley Labs Chinook, Goldnote PH-5 phono stages.
Power amplifier: Pass Labs XA-25.
Loudspeakers: Volti Audio Razz SE.
Cables: Interconnects: AudioQuest Pegasus Zero-Tech, Triode Wire Labs Spirit II (RCA). Speaker: Analysis Plus…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Ayre Acoustics VX-8 with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system. Before performing the measurements, I preconditioned the VX-8 following the CEA's recommendation, operating it at one-eighth the specified power into 8 ohms for 30 minutes. At the end of that time, the top panel was hot, with a temperature of 113.4°F (45.3°C). Unusually, the bottom panel was even hotter, at 144.5°F (63.1°C). To reduce the possibility of overheating, I continued the testing with the amplifier raised off the test bench with inverted ceramic cones.
The Ayre VX-8…
Brahms first scored what was to become his Quintet in F minor, Op.34, for piano, two violins, viola, and cello for two violins, one viola, and two cellos—no piano. The scoring and perhaps the music was inspired by Schubert's similarly piano-less, two-cello Quintet in C major. The original Brahms score has been lost.
Cellist Terry King, a protégé of the great Gregor Piatigorsky and the first American-born teacher to teach a Tchaikovsky Competition Gold Medal winner, long wondered what the original quintet sounded like. He sent me this quote, from Clara Schumann, from just after she read…
Writing a regular column can be a funny thing; the repetition it requires brings up questions that grow increasingly urgent. Chief among them: What are we doing here, and what is this for? For all the handwringing about story-telling and prose style, what we're up to in the equipment-review section of this magazine is writing about metal boxes filled with wire, capacitors, circuit boards, and other bits of hardware. Life is difficult and goes by in a flash, love and satisfaction are fleeting at best—so why should we care? Well, because some of these boxes manage to connect us to beauty and…
The Manley Mahi
No matter what manufacturers may claim about the neutrality, transparency, and vanishingly low distortion of their products, every audio component has a flavor, something you might justly call a personality. (If they didn't, what would we write about in these pages?) This is particularly true of tube amplifiers, the patchouli-and–rose-quartz–wearing art students of hi-fi. At this moment, I have a good half-dozen tube amps living in my loft, and each has a vividly expressed character that I can describe in a few sentences.
Except one. Well, two. Over a good…