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The jazz world, not to mention the record business as a whole, lost one of its true gentlemen and most positive role models when Bruce Lundvall died on Tuesday, May 19 at the age of 79 from complications associated with Parkinson’s disease. Famed as the man who “discovered” Norah Jones, Lundvall revived and ran Blue Note Records as its President for 26 years. Prior to that he’d been President of Columbia Records and its parent, CBS Records. In the early 1980s he also spent two years at Elektra Records, launching the now defunct Elektra Musician label.
Many European audiophiles must have decided to take advantage of the three-day holiday weekend and avoid Saturday's crowds, because Saturday's show attendance, while still huge, was actually lower than Friday's. Then again, the decision to avoid Saturday may have been because so much of Munich saves Saturday for indulging in Bavaria's favorite gut-expanding passion, drinking beer. From audiophile nirvana to drunken oblivion in the span of 24 hours, to the tune of Ella and Satchmo singing, "Isn't it a Lovely Day."
While Saturday was packed by American show standards, getting an early…
Okay. I'm not a poet, and I know it. So let's quickly move on to the towering presence of Duelund's Frederik Carøe. Every time I look above the crowd and see Frederik's countenance, I know that Duelund has a new capacitor on the market.
This time, it's two. One is the Duelund Precision Audio Capacitor (approx. $80-$90), a new bypass capacitor for speakers and electronics. Made from pure silver foil, paper, oil, and wax, it costs ¼ to 1/5 the price of its predecessor, thanks to a devastating fire which forced Duelund to build a new, far more efficient factory.
Also newly available…
Just two weeks before PS Audio premieres the BHK Signature 300 mono amps at Newport Beach, the company showcased its BHK Signature 250 stereo amplifier ($7499) in Munich. This was my first opportunity to hear this Bascom H. King specialty in the context of an all-PS Audio system, and despite the sub-optimal room acoustics, it did not disappoint. In the context of PS Audio's DirectStream DAC ($6000), PerfectWave transport, P10 Power Plant, and power cables, the BHK Signature 250 joined Magneplanar 20.7 loudspeakers, a REL subwoofer, and Analysis Plus interconnects and speaker cable to project…
In addition to jazz chanteuse Lyn Stanley, who was sponsored by Purist Audio Design, the High End Society presented three quasi pop-up ensembles that, unless you followed the schedule, appeared without notice in hallways and at the top of stairways. Thus, while moving between Aurender and AudioQuest, did I encounter the Karinettensextett Karlischnättra. The six or eight bars of blessedly unamplified music I heard at the very end of their presentation sounded lovely.
According to "Press-Release No.11, High End 2015–Final Report," "the world's largest trade fair for the audio industry" saw…
Editor: DEQX Speaker calibration requires anechoic (no reflection) measurements often made in listening rooms for convenience. But room effects must be removed to allow the speaker's own phase and frequency response to be calculated and adjusted.
The DEQX speaker and measurement microphone is positioned to maximize the time before the microphone picks up the first reflected sound occurring after the speaker's direct sound. DEQX-Cal software then removes the reflected sounds at the operator's discretion.
Since every installation is unique, the process is usually performed by our…
This coming Tuesday, May 26, The Audio Salon will host a special Multichannel Music Event.
Peter McGrath of Wilson Audio Specialties will play a selection of his multichannel recordings on a system that features both the Alexia and Duette Series 2 loudspeakers. He will discuss the philosophy behind this style of recording and demonstrate why he believes it is an evolutionary step in the recreation of live events.
Dominique Brulhart, visiting from Switzerland, will discuss the development of the Merging Technologies stereo and multichannel NADAC, its range of features and…
The countdown to the start of THE Show Newport in Orange Country, California has begun. The largest three-day consumer audio show in America kicks off for the public on Friday, May 29 in the newly remodeled Hotel Irvine, with an optional trade day for press and invited guests the afternoon/eve before. With every exhibit space sold out, THE Show Newport promises to keep audiophiles busy with 406 exhibitors holding forth in 150 hotel rooms (including 10 larger suites), up to 25 larger rooms, 80 booths in a 6000 sq. ft. Headphonium Pavilion, and a packed Marketplace.
Richard Beers, President…
So, audiophiles, riddle me this: What does a DAC actually look like? I don't mean the box it hides in—I mean the little doodad that does the actual converting from digital to analog. Is it bigger than a phono cartridge? Is it made of rain-forest wood, gemstone, or porcelain? Do people show it to their friends, who gawk in awe and envy? Does it have an exotic, geisha-sounding name like Jasmine Tiger, Koetsu Onyx, or Miyajima Takumi? When it breaks, does a watchmaker type rebuild it for a not-insubstantial fee? Do people hoard them in vaults, like NOS tubes? Can you trade a DAC for a rose-gold…
The Carmen is an ebony-bodied replacement for Soundsmith's esteemed SMMC3 MI model (now discontinued, footnote 3). It is of medium mass (6.8gm), medium compliance (22µm/mN), and high output (2.2mV RMS), and features a nude elliptical stylus (6 by 17µm) and an aluminum-alloy cantilever. It should work well with most MM phono stages and tonearms of low to medium mass. I used the Carmen with a vertical tracking force (VTF) of 1.5gm into a 47k ohms/100pF load (though I recommend experimenting with capacitive loads of up to 450pF). I played it every day for almost six months, with four tonearms…