Digital Sources: Apple 2.7GHz i7 Mac mini running OS 10.10.3, iTunes 12, Pure Music 2.0, Audirvana Plus 1.5.10; Antipodes DX Reference music server; iPad mini running Aurender Conductor app for N10, iPeng 8 for Antipodes DX; PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream D/A processor; AudioQuest JitterBug USB noise filter; UpTone Audio USB Regen.
Preamplifier: Ayre KX-R Twenty.
Power Amplifiers: Vandersteen M7-HPA monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Vandersteen Model 7 Mk.II.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Coffee (USB) & Vodka (Ethernet), Kimber Kable Orchid (…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 3: Measurements
With a media server like the Aurender N10, there's not much that can be assessed on the test bench. However, I did look at the properties of the N10's AES/EBU output, using a 45'-long cable to connect the N10 in the listening room to my Audio Precision SYS2722 in the test lab. Even so, with the N10 playing 24-bit J-Test data sampled at 44.1kHz, the jitter in the AES/EBU datastream was very low, at 293.3 picoseconds (average value over a 700Hz–100kHz bandwidth). The eye pattern (fig.1) was wide open, as it should be.
Fig.1 Aurender N10, AES/EBU…
"Hail, Neophyte!"
That's what members of the Smoky Basement Secret Audio Society would exclaim in unison at the end of each ceremony admitting a new devotee. It was called the Smoky Basement Society not because everyone smoked (though they did), but because its members believed that whenever an audio designer finally got a design dialed in just right, he or she had metaphorically "let the smoke out." They exclaimed, "Hail, Neophyte!" because they believed that the most important aspect of being an audio engineer was to have a fully open "beginner's mind." In Zen practice, this is called…
To me, the original Technics SL-1200 tonearm was the "stretchy elastic" that sabotaged the stylus's efforts at "measuring" the groove. At its price—as part of a reasonably priced player—the stock Technics arm is very good, but not even close to the upmarket Technics EPA-100 arm it was modeled on. It does liveliness well, but mostly when partnered with DJ cartridges that overstate dynamics; with non-DJ, audiophile-approved Shure cartridges such as the V-15 Type III or V-15 Type V, it sounds kind of sleepy and lifeless. I attribute the stock arm's dullness to wiring, material construction,…
Sidebar: Contacts
Abis/Sibatech Inc., Room 1301, 8-25-22 Higashi-Suna, Koto-ku, Tokyo 136-0074, Japan. Tel: (81) 3-3645-1646. Fax: (81) 3-3645-1948. Web: www.sibatech.co.jp. US distributor: Mockingbird Distribution, LLC, Van Alstyne, TX. Tel: (214) 668-2509. Web: www.mockingbirddistribution.com.
Jasmine Audio, West Wing of 2nd Floor, Block G, Baoshan Industrial Park, Longhua District, Shenzhen, China 518131. US distributor: Mockingbird Distribution, LLC (see above).
KAB Electro Acoustics, PO Box 2922, Plainfield, NJ 07062. Tel: (908) 754-1479. Fax: (908) 222-3442. Web:…
No second acts in American lives? That might have been true in the dowdy old 20th Century. But today, thanks to Yankee ingenuity and the plasticity of the English language, we have something called the reboot, which has made possible a great many interesting things—not the least of which being the reintroduction and reimagining of Peachtree Audio.
Ten years ago, Atlanta, Georgia-based Peachtree hit the scene with a small selection of distinctly affordable DACs and integrated amps, their existence motivated by the then-nascent computer-audio market. Peachtree did well, and sold a…
The first I heard about Elac's new Debut line of speakers was from two 12-year-olds at T.H.E. Show Newport Beach 2015. "Elac's room is making the best sound at the show," they said.
Elac? I thought. I have an Elac Miracord 40A turntable. Hmmmm...
So I walked to Elac's room and listened to the Debut B5 bookshelf speakers ($229.99/pair). I was impressed—but maybe not as impressed as everyone else in the room seemed to be. In the halls, people were raving: "Did you hear Andrew Jones's new speaker?" Show bloggers went crazy. People kept asking me, "Herb—what'd you think of the Elacs…
In November of 1990, my wife and I traveled to the UK for our honeymoon, much of which was spent in Scotland. But we also spent a few days in London, and it was during that time that I discovered, in the Bloomsbury district, one of the finest classical-music record stores in the world: a two-story shop on New Oxford Street called Caruso & Company. It didn't have quite as large a selection as Music Masters, on 43rd Street in New York, but it had something that that long-lamented store couldn't boast: clerks who were friendly, knowledgeable, and gregariously helpful.
It was during my…
The first recording I took notes on was Enrique Granados's The Composer as Pianist: His Recordings for M. Welte & Soehne, Paris, 1913 (CD, Pierian 0002). This artfully produced recording of piano rolls, played by a 1923 player piano recorded in stereo, shows Granados to be a very Spanish composer capable of the most luminous and imaginative harmonies. His palette of pianistic colors saturated the air between the Elacs like an arabesque in the Alhambra, in Granada. Granados's music doesn't unfold logically or thematically. Instead, it spins and turns, building up into a shimmering wall…
And there was a total lack of knowledge: I knew nothing about what was collectible. All I'd got was the love of the sound of vinyl, and the love of classical music. So it was a learning curve of about two years. And I still remember, with gratitude, the immense amount of information people shared with me.
I used to get record companies' catalogs all the time and study them, to try to learn as much as I could. And otherwise, it was customers: Over the years, so many wonderful customers have shared information with me—things that I could then pass on to other people. I'm a great believer…