Last March, I had a rare experience akin to hearing the same recording through two different systems. I heard Andris Nelsons conduct the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in the same program—Haydn's Symphony 90, and Brahms's Variations on a Theme by Haydn, followed by his Symphony 3—in two very different venues: UC Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall and, 50 miles north, Sonoma State University's Weill Hall.
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I've always considered the high end to be industrial art. People who favor a certain brand are saying, in a way, "I like that designer's interpretation. I like his or her art."—David Wilson
It's like hearing the name of an old friend and then seeing him, in your mind's eye, as he was when you were both much younger: Whenever talk turns to Boulder, Colorado–based PS Audio, I can't help picturing that company's Model IV preamplifier, of the early 1980s—most likely because that was the preamp I longed to own at the time. (Tragically, I couldn't afford to buy it, so I struggled on with my NAD 1020.)
An awful lot has changed since then, including, in recent years, a shift of PS Audio's emphasis from audio amplification to AC-power regeneration. Even more recently, under the…
As it turned out, the silence wasn't the result of a hardware or firmware flaw. Rather, it pointed to the need for greater care in optimizing my computer settings—greater, that is, than the level of care required by most PCM-only USB processors, the relative simplicity of which had lulled me into a false sense of expertise. During a conversation with Paul McGowan I learned that I needed to: open my iMac's AudioMIDI Setup window; highlight the left-column choice for the PS Audio DAC; change the source default sampling rate from 44.1 to 192kHz; and remove from the master-channel "Mute" box a…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Single-box digital-to-analog converter. Formats supported: all PCM and DSD codecs (AIFF, WAV, DSF, etc.). Sample rates accepted: TosLink, 16–24-bit/44.1–96kHz; all other inputs, 16–24-bit/44.1–358.2kHz, plus DSD 64 and 128. Digital inputs: 6 including AES/EBU, TosLink, USB. Analog outputs: 2. Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz, ±0.25dB. Output levels: high range, 2.81V RMS; low range, 1.41V RMS. Output impedance: 100 ohms balanced, 200 ohms single-ended.
Dimensions: 17" (430mm) W by 4" (100mm) H by 14" (360mm) D. Weight: 29.7 lbs (13.5kg).
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Garrard 301 turntable; EMT 997 tonearm; EMT OFD 25 & TSD 15 70th Anniversary pickup heads.
Digital Sources: Halide Designs DAC HD USB and Luxman DA-06 D/A converters; Apple iMac G5 computer running Decibel v.1.2.11, Audirvana Plus v.1.5.12 playback software; Sony SCD-777ES SACD/CD player.
Preamplification: Hommage T2 step-up transformer, Sutherland Engineering Insight phono preamplifier, Shindo Masseto preamplifier.
Power Amplifiers: Shindo Corton-Charlemagne & Cortese (both monoblocks), Fi 421a.
Loudspeakers: Altec…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I examined the PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream's electrical performance with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and the January 2008 "As We See It"). To test its USB input, I used my 2012 MacBook Pro running on battery power. Unless stated otherwise, all measurements were performed from the processor's balanced outputs. I don't yet have files of DSD-encoded test signals, so I assessed the DirectStream's measured performance with PCM-encoded files, with sample rates extending from 44.1 up to 352.8kHz. All testing was done with the DirectStream…
The French do things differently. I first heard Triangle loudspeakers at the 1981 Festival du Son, in Paris. That was, of course, after I had obtained admission to the show, in a nonintuitive process in which members of the press obtained their credentials at a booth inside the show. But my experience of the Triangle speaker, a small, three-way floorstander, was positive: It sounded clean and uncolored, and nothing like the BBC-inspired speakers I preferred at that time. The Triangle wasn't as neutral as the English norm, but there was something appealing about its sound—something that, I…
I have mentioned before how much I appreciate Bruce Hornsby's practice of making his live concerts available for download. As I write these words, I'm listening to Bruce Hornsby & the Noisemakers' live 2009 recording of "Road Not Taken," from Dagle's Choice Vol.4 (16/44.1 ALAC transcoded from FLAC download). The Noisemakers, a superbly tight band, feature Captain Beefheart alum J.T. Thomas on keyboards, as well as bassist J.V. Collier, whose phat lines on five-string bass guitar in this track sounded propulsive through the Triangles. But the weight of the lows didn't obscure or…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way, four-driver, floorstanding loudspeaker with vented enclosure. Drive-units: 1" (25.4mm) horn-loaded, titanium-dome tweeter; 7.3" (185mm) paper-cone midrange unit; two 7.3" (185mm) fiberglass-cone woofers. Crossover frequencies: 280Hz, 2.7kHz. Frequency response: 35Hz–20kHz, ±3dB. Sensitivity: 92dB/2.83V/m. Impedance: 8 ohms nominal, 3.2 ohms minimum. Power handling: 120W continuous, 240W repetitive peak power.
Dimensions: 48.4" (1230mm) H (with plinth) by 9.2" (233mm) W (with plinth, 14.6" (370mm)) by 14.7" (372mm) D. Weight: 72.6 lbs…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Linn Sondek LP12 turntable with Lingo power supply, Linn Ekos tonearm, Linn Arkiv B cartridge.
Digital Sources: Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP universal player; Apple 2.7GHz i7 Mac mini running OS10.9.3, iTunes 11, Pure Music 1.89 & 2.0, Audirvana Plus 1.5.10; Logitech Transporter media server; Auralic Vega, Luxman DA-06, PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream D/A processors; dCS Vivaldi upsampling D/A system; Ayre Acoustics QA-9 USB A/D converter.
Preamplification: Channel D Seta L phono preamplifier; Pass Labs XP-30, Ayre Acoustics KX-R20…