The 2014 duet record with Tony Bennett Cheek to Cheek clearly signaled that Lady Gaga is in the midst of a career transition from oddball pop star to something more serious and adult that I heartily applaud. The Bowie tribute, with Nile Rodgers on guitar, was fast paced, visually…
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While a very slow night for landings at LaGuardia Airport thanks to the icy weather in New York kept me from seeing most of the 2016 Grammy Awards, I did manage to catch the last three big numbers: the tributes to David Bowie and B.B. King and the performance by the Hollywood Vampires, a salute to Lemmy.
The $800 JVC XL-Z1050TN 1050 is the Bitstream successor to JVC's popular 18-bit XL-Z1010, which got an enthusiastic thumbs-up from Robert Harley in April 1990 (Vol.13 No.4). Its styling is, in my opinion, much improved over the older player's, with the distinctive brushed-bronze finish of the rest of JVC's XL-Z line. The rear panel sports fixed and variable outputs (footnote 1), as well as Toslink optical and coaxial digital outputs. As with the 1010, the JVC features their proprietary K2 Interface, a circuit that reduces jitter by resampling the pulses with a short-duration gate just ahead…
Sidebar 1: Aunt Silly Airy Gear
Just about the only change I've made to my system has been replacing VTL's Compact 160 monoblocks with their larger KT90-version Deluxe 225s; I need more juice than the 160s were able to swing, and the triode-wired Deluxe 225s are just the ticket. The new 225s extend the virtues of the Compact 160s (triode mode only for these amps) further in nearly every direction, with even clearer midrange textures and Amazing Space. And as the new VTLs are too big to fit on the books I had the 160s sitting on, I've got the 225s up on sky-blue plastic milk crates…
When the Record Industry Association of America adopted its standard disc playback equalization curve in 1954, hi-fi enthusiasts heaved a sigh of relief and bade fond farewell to years of confusion, doubt and virtual pandemonium. Before the RIAA curve there were six "standard" curves in use, and since nobody seemed to know who was using what, getting flat response from a disc was often more a matter of luck than anything else. The adoption of the RIAA standard playback curve heralded an end to all this.
If record manufacturers had endeavored to install the best available playback…
Sidebar 2: Measurements
Fig.1 indicates a virtually ruler-flat frequency response, while in fig.2 the de-emphasis response indicates that no response-caused aberrations will be experienced with pre-emphasized discs. The fine squarewave response (fig.3) again is typical of a player with a linear-phase digital filter, but with a slight overshoot on the leading edge. And in fig.4, only the measured crosstalk from left to right is shown; the right-to-left curve practically overlays it.
Fig.1 JVC XL-Z1050TN, frequency response at 0dBFS (right channel dashed, 0.5dB/…
Sidebar 2: Specifications
Description: Bitstream 8x-oversampling CD player. Frequency range: 2Hz–20kHz. S/N ratio: 114dB. Channel separation: 110dB at 1kHz. Maximum output level: 2V RMS.
Dimensions: 17.8" (452mm) W by 4.5" (113mm) H by 13.4" (341mm) D. Weight: 17 lbs (7.75kg).
Price: $800 (1992); no longer available (2016). Approximate number of dealers: 100.
Manufacturer: JVC, Elmwood Park, NJ 07407. Web: www.jvc.com.
The musical and technical excellence of the 2016 Grammy Award winners makes this a great year for audiophiles. Not only are 28 of the albums / compositions that won awards in multiple categories available for download from HDTracks, virtually all in hi-rez (from 44.1/24 to 192/24), but just as many if not more are available for streaming and download in hi-rez and/or full CD quality from both ClassicsOnlineHD and Tidal.
Accepting the award for the Reference Fresh! Paulus CD were (from right–left): producer Peter Rutenberg, Dorothy Dyer Vanek, who commissioned the work and…
"Wow!" Jerome Harris—jazz guitarist, bassist, and composer—stopped talking and listened intently to the rough-mixdown dub of his latest album, Hidden in Plain View: The Music of Eric Dolphy (New World 80472-2 CD) (footnote 1). He'd brought it by my house in order to hear it on another system before pronouncing judgment. "That sounds like us! And I ought to know because I was there..."
It wasn't the first time the Metaphor 2s had totally transfixed a visitor with their accurate portrayal of a musical event. This time, however, they'd done it to one of the participants of that specific…
Sidebar 1: Ancillary Components
Analog sources were my Linn/Ittok/Sumiko SHO (or the ELAC ESG 896 H) and the Well Tempered Reference Turntable and Arm, with the same cartridges. Digital sources included McCormack's Digital Drive SST/DAC-1, the Assemblage DAC-1, Audio Alchemy DDE v1.1, and Audio Research CD-1.
Preamplifiers employed included Conrad-Johnson's EV20SE, Audio Research's SP-9 Mk.III, Audio Alchemy's DLC, and McCormack's Micro Line Drive, with Creek's OBH-8 or McCormack's Micro Phono Drive phono preamps where needed. Conrad-Johnson Premier Eleven A, VAC PA-80/80, Audio…
WP returned to the Metaphor 2 in April 1996 (Vol.19 No.4):
Around September, I began to hear rumblings out of Chantilly, VA that changes were in the cards for the Metaphor 2 loudspeakers I reviewed last July. Accordingly, I had a new pair shipped to Santa Fe so we could find out what Metaphor had wrought. They'd been busy—totally revamping the design. Bill Peugh regaled me with a list of over ten changes/refinements, encompassing everything from the cabinet to the shipping cartons. Only the price, it seems, is unchanged at $5950/pair.
First off, while the enclosure is still…