Digital Sources: Marantz UD7006, Oppo BDP-105D universal players.
Preamplification: Jeff Rowland Design Group Consummate line preamplifier, Integra DTC-9.8 preamplifier-processor.
Power Amplifier: Parasound Halo A 51.
Loudspeakers: KEF R900, Monitor Audio Silver 10, Paradigm Monitor 11, Revel Performa3 F208; Hsu Research VTF-15H subwoofer.
Cables: Digital: Kimber AGDL coaxial (sources to pre-pro), AudioQuest Carbon HDMI (to pre-pro for SACD), TARA Labs Rectangular Solid Core (sources to preamp), Cardas Hexlink (preamps to power amp).…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the KEF R700's frequency response in the farfield with DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone. I used an Earthworks QTC-40 for the nearfield response. All measurements were performed with the grille removed and with the twin ports' supplied foam plugs removed.
My estimate of the KEF R700's B-weighted voltage sensitivity was 87dB(B)/2.83V/m, which is 2dB lower than the specified 89dB/2.83V/m. KEF specifies the R700's impedance as 8 ohms with a minimum magnitude of 3.2 ohms. My own measurement (fig.1) shows that the minimum…
“There are no time signatures: the tempos and rhythms are always governed by either the heart rates or the breathing rates of the individual players…to enable the players to hear and play in sync with their own heartbeats, they wear stethoscopes.”
Uh huh
[This] “results in a delicate musical `pointillism.’
Oh yeah
“The idea is less about `performance’ in the traditional musical sense and more about attempting to translate directly into music the quiet internal rhythms of the body.”
Of course
There are records where one look at the cover art and…
A highlight for Stereophile editor John Atkinson at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show last January was auditioning GoldenEar’s new Triton One tower loudspeaker, which costs $4999.98/pair. On September 4, from 6–9pm, GoldenEar founder Sandy Gross will be presenting the Triton Ones at Gramophone, 8880 McGaw Road, Columbia MD 21045. RSVP to (410) 381-2100. Click here for more details on the Tritons—Robert Deutsch is working on a review of the Triton One, to be published in the New Year.
Toronto is turning into a happening place for audiophiles. The Toronto Audio Visual Entertainment Show being held October31–November 2, 2014, promises to be bigger and better in their new venue at the Sheraton Centre Hotel downtown. The Update TV & Stereo Elevated store, with a strong high-performance audio orientation, opened last spring in the Toronto suburb of Unionville. And now, Angie's Audio Corner, devoted to high end celebrated its second anniversary with the opening of the Annex Clearance Center in the coach house next to the main building, acting as a clearing house for used…
Debussy: Three Nocturnes; Jeux
Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, Bernard Haitink conducting.
Philips ACD 400-023-2 (CD).
Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, Bernard Haitink conducting.
Philips ACD 400-023-2 (CD).
This is the first classical CD I have heard that was originally mastered on analog tape, and the sound is quite different from what I'm accustomed to hearing from the silver discs.
I had read so many critics' complaints about excessive background (tape) hiss from analog-mastered CDs that I was fully prepared to be appalled. I wasn't. Perhaps my speakers (Watkins WE-1s as of now) are smoother than what some other critics listen to, perhaps I prefer a…
He was a victim of his own success. From 1925 to 1929, when he was in his mid-20s, Louis Armstrong changed the world of jazz music forever with his Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings, and his solos in tunes like "Cornet Chop Suey," "Potato Head Blues," and "West End Blues." Almost immediately, however, he was faced with a question: Now what?
Like all great artists, Armstrong was immediately and forever asked to outdo his own masterpieces, to top himself creatively. No artist in any medium, including the Beatles, can stay on the cutting edge forever. For Pops, who moved the needle early,…
In large measure, that's where the fun in this set is to be found: in comparing different versions of the same song. As his critics at the time never let him forget, Armstrong worked from a fairly predictable set list during the All Stars years. As quoted in Riccardi's notes, some of the criticism was offensive and downright racist, observing that the All Stars sets seldom rose "above the plane of a coon carnival" and that Pops was "lowering himself as a human being." These recordings will never be mistaken for the Hot Five and Hot Seven sessions, but the fabulously vital and energetic…
Rotel RMB-1585 five-channel power amplifier
Power amplifiers are unglamorous but essential. In theory, they have only one task. But, according to audio sage Yogi Berra, "in theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not." Amplifiers must take a voltage input signal and provide an output of somewhat higher voltage but of substantially higher current, the product of which is power. The task is complex in that this output must be applied to electrical interfaces whose characteristics vary widely from speaker to speaker—across the audioband and, for some, even at…
Power amplifiers are unglamorous but essential. In theory, they have only one task. But, according to audio sage Yogi Berra, "in theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not." Amplifiers must take a voltage input signal and provide an output of somewhat higher voltage but of substantially higher current, the product of which is power. The task is complex in that this output must be applied to electrical interfaces whose characteristics vary widely from speaker to speaker—across the audioband and, for some, even at…
To get past this, I began climbing the steep learning curve necessary to assemble, configure, and use a more comprehensive solution. It consists of four parts: 1) remote networked storage to keep large, noisy drives far away; 2) updatable software with wide format support and a flexible GUI; 3) a silent networked computer with suitable digital outputs to run the software; and 4) multichannel or multiple DACs. I found this kind of DIY effort somewhat intimidating—it required real work and an education before I could assume the responsibility for getting all the disparate pieces to work…