AcroLink 7N-DA2090 Speciale: $2375/1.5m pair
The less-than-snappily named 7N-DA2090 Speciale is technically laudable; commendably, AcroLink publishes the specs for this product's resistance (18milliohm/meter) and electrostatic capacitance (56pF/meter). It's made of 99.99999% pure multistrand copper, arranged in what AcroLink calls a "balanced twin core structure." According to MF, substituting the AcroLink interconnect for his TARA Zero Evolution "produced sharper but not unnaturally defined transients, shorter sustain and decay, and an overall well-detailed and more…
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Interconnects
Thursday March 24 from 7:00pm–9:00pm, Encore Home Entertainment Systems (2115 Siesta Drive, Sarasota, FL 34239) is holding a special Technics Open House.
The featured guest will be Bill Voss, US Business Development Manager for Technics who Bwill be demonstrating and discussing Technics' latest introductions for 2016 including the return of the iconic SL-1200GAE turntable, the new SU-G30 integrated amplifier/DAC/phono/network player, the SB-C700 linear-phase point-sound-source loudspeakers, the new EAH-T700 headphones, and the Ottava all-in-one Music System.
In the early 1970s, I lived in a village 40 miles north of London, England, and regularly drove through an only slightly larger village called Houghton Regis. And every time I did so, this budding audiophile was thrilled to see a factory in the High Street with a nameplate proudly announcing that it was the site of Teledyne Acoustic Research's European operations. I was aware of the American brand because of a chance encounter with a pair of Acoustic Research LST speakers, and the geographical connection led to an increased interest in their speakers (footnote 1). A sort of local-boy-, er,…
However, I had some problems with Apple Lossless files. The 24/96 ALAC files of Beck's Morning Phase (Capitol/HDtracks) played okay, as did the 24/88.2 ALAC files of Random Access Memories. But some ALAC files at 88.2 and 96kHz were incorrectly identified as "44.1kHz" and played at half speed. This was true with my own recordings and with some commercial recordings, such as Richard Egarr and the Academy of Ancient Music's of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos (Harmonia Mundi), and Sara K.'s Play on Words (Chesky). With some 192kHz ALAC files, the sample rate was again identified as "44.1kHz…
Described by manufacturer April Music as an "all-in-one music center," the Aura Note Version 2 ($2500) is a 125Wpc integrated amplifier with a built-in CD player, USB DAC, and FM tuner. The Aura Note is further enhanced by a Bluetooth receiver, a pair of line-level output jacks, and a headphone jack.
The hackneyed but not inappropriate comparison to a Swiss Army knife comes to mind—but where that well-loved tool does a great many things with less than perfection, I've now heard the Aura Note V2 do at least two different things well enough that no excuses need be made on its behalf. (By…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Portable music player with WiFi, Tidal and Spotify apps, 64GB internal memory, and one microSD slot capable of storing up to 128GB. Compatible file formats: FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF, DXD. Compatible sample rates: up to 192kHz and DSD128. Compatible bit depths: 16–24. Outputs: headphone (3.5mm jack), line (3.5mm jack). Maximum output power: 319mWpc into 16 ohms, 248mWpc into 32 ohms, 43mWpc into 300 ohms. THD+N: <0.001% at maximum output. Measured output impedance: 10 ohms (headphone jack), 100 ohms (line jack). Power supply: 4200mAH rechargeable…
Using the front panel's source-selector switch, I toggled through the inputs until I came to PC. I went back to my iMac's Sound/Output window, and there it was: "Aura note V2." From that moment forward, all was well. The only curious thing about the V2's computer-audio performance was the fact that it did not display the sampling rates of the files I played.
Incidentally, setting up Bluetooth—which I actually attempted before computer-audio setup, also without benefit of instructions—was a breeze: In the Settings/Bluetooth window of my iPhone 6 Plus, the paired device came up as "Aura…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Astell&Kern AK100 & AK240, Pono Music PonoPlayer portable players.
Headphones: Audeze LCD-X, AudioQuest NightHawk, Ultimate Ears 18 Pro.—John Atkinson
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Solid-state integrated amplifier with built-in CD player, DAC, FM tuner, and Bluetooth receiver. Digital inputs: TosLink (up to 24-bit/192kHz), USB Type A (MP3, WMA, FLAC up to 24/96k, WAV up to 16/44.1k), USB Type B (up to 24/192k). Digital filter: proprietary, third-order. Analog line output: 1 RCA. Output power: 125Wpc at 8 ohms (21dBW). Frequency response: 20Hz–25kHz, ±0.5dB. No other specifications given.
Dimensions: 10.8" (278mm) W by 3.9" (100mm) H by 10.8" (278mm) D. Weight: 16.5 lbs (7.5kg).
Serial number of unit reviewed:…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Acoustic Research AR-M2 with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"). Source materials were WAV and AIFF test-tone files, as well as DSD64 and DSD128 files of test tones prepared for me by Malcolm Hawksford. The AR-M2's battery was fully charged at the start of the testing.
The maximum output level was 1.89V from the line output jack and 3.71V from the headphone jack, both with the volume set to its maximum. The output impedance was 100 ohms from the line-out jack and 10 ohms from the headphone jack, both…