Uncharted waters
Editor: As a small New York dealer, I must say Jonathan Scull in the January Stereophile was right on the money with respect to e-commerce. The market here is tough when it comes to quality audio gear. Although we are not fond of Internet sales of audio gear, we are going to have to take that plunge if we want to stay in business.
If more people, especially newcomers, realized how important it is to personally audition any audio component that he/she was interested in…
Editor: The issue of dealers vs the Internet is one of profound importance. In principle, I support Sam Tellig's position: that dealers are essential to high-end audio's survival. But the survival of dealers themselves should not be predicated on the industry notion that high-end consumers should feel a sense of moral obligation to buy from their local dealers.
This notion is partially founded on a valid principle—ethics. The ethics argument involves the practice of customers using dealer knowledge, advice, and products to learn about and audition products…
The climb has been slow and steady, with most newer digital products outperforming older ones. New input receivers, better DACs, and an increasing body of accumulated knowledge have pushed the edge of the digital envelope. This gradual progress has been marked by…
Compared with the No.30, the SFD-2 seemed to have more lower-treble energy, but a slightly softer—and…
I've made some changes in my playback system since my last review—all of them for the better. Audio Research sent me their new LS5 line-stage preamplifier, a fully balanced, all-tube unit. As great as I thought the Audio Research LS2B was, the LS5 is clearly a notch higher in musical performance. I'll have a full report soon. Next, a Krell KSA-300S power amplifier was put to service driving the Thiel CS3.6 speakers. The big Krell has absolutely awesome bass control, seemingly unlimited dynamics, and a sense of slam that must be heard to be believed. The KSA-…
I was eager to measure the SFD-2's bench performance, both from curiosity about how the processor would perform technically, and to attempt to measure the jitter-rejection capabilities of the UltraAnalog AES20 input receiver.
The SFD-2's maximum output level when decoding a full-scale, 1kHz sinewave was a high 6.65V from the balanced outputs and 3.32V from the single-ended jacks. This is essentially the D20400A DACs' output levels, since no gain is provided in the tubed output stage. The output-level matching between channels was the best I've…
When I first reviewed the Sonic Frontiers SFD-2 in the December 1993 Stereophile (Vol.16 No.12), I was taken aback by this tubed processor's sound quality. What was remarkable was not so much the fact that the SFD-2 was a contender for the state of the art in digital playback (footnote 1), but that it cost $4695. Yes, this is still expensive, but the SFD-2 was a bargain compared to processors costing well into five figures.
Sonic Frontiers has now revised and updated the SFD-2, giving it the "Mk.II"…
I put the SFD-2 Mk.II into my reference system, driven by a Mark Levinson No.31 transport. The SFD-2 Mk.II's output fed an Audio Research LS5 Mk.II preamp, which drove a pair of Audio Research VT150 tubed monoblocks. This chain was all-balanced (from before the DACs inside the SFD-2 Mk.II to the loudspeakers), and all-tubed. The VT150s drove a pair of Genesis II.5 loudspeakers (see my review last month), augmented by the 800W Genesis servo woofer amplifier. Interconnects were AudioQuest Diamond x3 and Lapis, loudspeaker cables were AudioQuest Dragon, and…
Given RH's enthusiastic report on the sound of the Sonic Frontiers, I felt that I should also give it a listen. My system consisted of B&W Silver Signature speakers driven by a pair of Mark Levinson No.20.6 monoblock power amplifiers; the preamplifier was first the Sonic Frontiers SFL-2, then the remote-controlled Mark Levinson No.38S. The digital source was a Mark Levinson No.31 transport connected to the processor via either Madrigal AES/EBU cable or ASM Labs' Mamba ST-optical cable. For reference purposes, I too had the original SFD-2 and the…