Description: Five-box streaming digital music system—two Mono DACs, Varèse Master Clock, Core, User Interface/display—with remote control, proprietary ACTUS (Audio, Control & Timing Unified System) connectors, Mosaic ACTUS control app, optional CD/SACD transport, and I/O interface. Roon Ready. Enables PCM rates up to 24/384 and DSD up to DSD512. MQA coming.
Dimensions: Core—9.7" (244mm) H × 17.5" (444mm) W × 17.3" (437mm) D. Weight: 73lb (33.1kg); User Interface—5.2" (131mm) H × 17.5" (444mm) W × 17.8" (450mm) D. Weight: 32.2lb (14.6kg); each Mono DAC—5.2…
search
Sidebar 3: Specifications
Sidebar 4: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: dCS Vivaldi APEX DAC, Vivaldi Upsampler Plus, Vivaldi Master Clock; Innuos Statement Next-Gen Music Server and PhoenixNET network switch; Small Green Computer Sonore opticalModule Deluxe (2); Broadcom/Avago AFBR-5718PZ 1GB SX-SFP, Gen 5 Fiber Optic modules; Nordost QSource linear power supply (2); Sonore Audiophile Linear Power Supply; Synology 5-bay 1019+ NAS with Ferrum Hypsos linear/switching hybrid power supply; Linksys MR9000 mesh router and Arris modem; Apple 2023 iPad Pro and 2017 MacBook Pro laptop with 2.8GHz Intel i7, SSD, 16GB…
Sidebar 5: Measurements
With the separation of the Varèse's core components—not least the evolution of the Ring DAC into two mono, differential arrays—we would expect to witness some uplift in technical performance. And indeed, comparisons with the Vivaldi APEX DAC show incremental gains in S/N ratio, distortion, and low-level linearity. Specifically, while the 5.88V maximum output (in the Varèse's top 6V mode) has not changed, and the sub–1 ohm…
I heard people at the show, including Stereophile writers, were talking about the Ø Audio room—though when I say they were talking about it, I don’t mean that they were saying the company’s name, since no one knew how to do that. I looked it up. Ø is a letter in Norwegian and Danish that comes after the end of our alphabet, after Æ and before Å. If you want to know how to pronounce it, I'll provide a link to a pronunciation guide. You'll notice that the pronunciation in Danish and Norwegian is quite different—though the pronunciation I heard from Norwegian Jonathan Cook to me sounded more…
Last month's column looked at the hi-fi industry's struggles with recruiting and retaining qualified staff. For that article, Specialty Sound and Vision's Anthony Chiarella, also director of sales and marketing for Gryphon Audio and Brinkmann Audio, made a comment that bears repeating here: "If we're going to have a future in hi-fi, we have to make it worthwhile to make a career in hi-fi." How might that be achieved?
Achieving that key objective requires achieving another one: How do we make more people aware that our industry exists?
Long ago there was a saying. People (read:…
Steve Mishoe of True Source Audio Distribution originally introduced me to Shindo Laboratory and DeVore Fidelity—brands that shaped my listening sensibility and critical framework. His colleague Steve Cohen often assists with system setup and calibration. In fact, he helps with every review I write for Stereophile, fine-tuning gear and speaker placement and acting as a sounding board.
Their latest import from Japan, G.I.P. Laboratory’s 506 and 4165 horn-loaded, field-coil loudspeakers ($82,000/pair), commanded attention for reasons well beyond personal ties. Along with the…
Justin Weber of Ampsandsound greeted AXPONA with the world premieres of two products hand-built in his Aliso Viejo, California, factory: the Black Pearl XL SE 300B amplifier and the horn-loaded Sasquatch three-way speakers.
The Black Pearl XL SE ($19,000) “introduces our proprietary output transformers, expanding frequency response and enhancing transient detail, built on a robust chassis, Gen 6 power supply, and an ultra-low noise floor,” according to the Ampsandsound press release. The amp produces 8Wpc into 8 ohms and offers a bandwidth of 10Hz–24kHz (–2dB at 1W).
…
Staying up on what's new in music ain't easy these days, in a world short on new record stores and long on websites, social media blather, and celebrity. Asked what he listens to when he's not writing music, fast-talking septuagenarian Ray Mason exudes a teenager's eager urgency.
"I keep my ears open. I've been listening to new stuff by people I have been following for years like Nick Lowe and The Straitjackets, Rodney Crowell, Kathleen Edwards, and Lucinda Williams. And then Craig Finn. I don't own any Hold Steady albums, but I love his last two solo albums. He has a new one coming out…
Some years ago, I visited the home of a well-known American author who happened to be an audiophile. His cramped, dimly lit listening room contained a tube amp, a DAC, and a pair of inexpensive floorstanding speakers surrounded by what looked like a museum of audio tweaks. I recall a scarecrow-like contraption with swiveling wood-and-metal arms that rearranged magnetic fields, assorted boxes and panels that promoted "quantum proton alignment," mysterious dots covering the walls like a rash, and nearly a dozen things dangling from the speakers' binding posts that were supposed to do something…
AudioQuest Thunderbird ZERO + BASS Speaker Cable
For years, I've also used the Auditorium 23 speaker cable in its green cloth jacket. After AudioQuest's Stephen Mejias sent me the company's William Tell Silver speaker cable, I spent several weeks comparing. The William Tell clearly sounded fuller and more detailed and extended than the Auditorium 23, but the skinny German cable was better still at drawing my attention to the performance rather than the sound, so it remained in my system.
But when I heard AudioQuest's thicker, more expensive ThunderBird ZERO cable, I had to…