Step 3: Before installing the new cable or interconnect, play a few selections on your music system as is, paying attention both to the way the system sounds and to the success with which it does or does not…
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Accept only one product because you can judge with accuracy only one system variable at a time, and because you are not a publicist but a journalist, and because a reviewer should not allow her or his home to be used as a storage facility for expensive, high-markup accessories that will, within a year or two, be replaced by second-generation versions of same (footnote 2).
For decades, I read all the British and American audio magazines, and I pretty much believed everything written therein—with one exception. The equipment reviews published in Stereo Review had an off-puttingly disingenuous quality. I learned a lot from the magazine's reviews of recordings and loudspeakers, but every time senior editor Julian Hirsch wrote that any amp with sufficiently high power, low measured distortion, and high damping factor would sound the same as any other with similar qualifications, I felt estranged from my favorite hobby. Stereo Review's arrogance came off as…
Because I've been reviewing mostly class-D amplifiers and the Hegel is a more traditional class-A/B bipolar type, I was curious about any potential audible differences. All of those digital amps have driven low-impedance speakers with gratifying authority, but I've harbored suspicions about their capabilities into speakers of higher impedance—such as my 15-ohm Falcon and Rogers LS3/5As and 10-ohm DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/93s. Sometimes, the class-D amps have sounded somewhat flat or slightly gray into these high-impedance loads. But now, after several weeks of listening with the Hegel, I…
For me, the highlights of any audio show are finding a room with great sound and visiting it often throughout the show, to relax and absorb a wide range of great music. At the NY Audio Show in April 2012 in New York City, it was the room occupied by the Valve Amplification Company. There, I fell in love with the sound coming through the Signature Mk IIa line-stage preamplifier, and remembered that while I'd heard many VAC products at audio shows over the past two decades, and had enjoyed the sound every time, I'd never had a VAC product in my house. I requested a review sample.
A saga…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Integrated amplifier. Analog inputs: one pair balanced (XLR), one pair unbalanced (RCA), one pair home theater (RCA). Digital inputs: 1 coaxial, 3 optical, 1 USB, 1 Ethernet (RJ45). Analog outputs (line level): fixed (RCA), variable (RCA). Headphone output: 6.3mm jack (front). Maximum output power: 150Wpc into 8 ohms (21.75dBW), 250Wpc into 4 ohms (21dBW). Maximum headphone output power, 270mWpc into 64 ohms. Frequency range: 5Hz–100kHz. S/N ratio: >100dB (no reference level given). Channel separation: >100dB. THD: <0.005%, 1kHz at 50W into…
3) Detailed, revealing, extended, uncolored reproduction of high frequencies with no loss of delicacy.
The Signature SE was the holy grail of high-frequency reproduction. Every region of the highs was detailed, undistorted, uncolored, and delicate. Normally, when I play a recording through a component with good HF reproduction, at some point, the music hits a frequency where the highs lose some of their delicacy or airiness, or take on a subtle brittleness. Not with the VAC. From the lower highs through the top of the audioband, the highs were detailed, extended, and "right," every bit…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Acoustic Signature Wow XL, Pioneer PLX-1000, VPI Traveler turntables; Grado M+ Mono, Ortofon 2M Black, Soundsmith Carmen, Zu Audio DL-103 cartridges.
Digital Sources: Puresound A-8000 CD player; Halide HD, Line Magnetic LM 502CA DACs.
Preamplification: Blue Horizon BN:09-11-009, LFD, Schiit Mani, Soundsmith MMP3 phono stages.
Integrated Amplifiers: Line Magnetic LM518 1A, Rogue Audio Sphinx, Simaudio Moon Neo 340i.
Headphone Amplifier: Schiit Asgard.
Loudspeakers: DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/93, Falcon and Rogers LS3/5As…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Signature Mk IIa Tubed line-stage preamplifier. Tube complement: two 12AU7, two 8416, one each 7308, 6922, E88CC, ECC88, 6DJ8 (or 12DJ8 twin triodes). Inputs: 3 pairs RCA line input; 2 pairs balanced/RCA, selectable; 1 pair tape monitor (RCA); 1 pair cinema bypass (RCA); optional, 1 MM, 1 MC (or additional line input if optional phono stage not fitted). Outputs: 2 pairs single-ended (RCA), 2 pairs balanced (XLR, EIA studio standard, pin 2 hot), 1 pair tape (RCA). Gain: 12dB. Absolute phase: correct from all inputs to all outputs. Frequency response: flat over…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Hegel H160 using my recently recalibrated Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com, and the January 2008 "As We See It"). Before performing any measurements on an amplifier, I run it for an hour at one-third its specified maximum power, which, thermally, is the worst case for an amplifier with a class-B or -AB output stage. I cut short this preconditioning of the H160 after 20 minutes, however, as the THD+noise, which had been just 0.00315% with the amplifier cold, had risen to 0.83%. The chassis was mildly warm, at 92.2°F (33.4°C), but the…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Rega Research Planar 3, VPI TNT IV turntables; Immedia, Syrinx PU-3 tonearms; Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood, Koetsu Urushi phono cartridges.
Digital Sources: Creek Destiny, Lector CDP-7T CD players.
Preamplification: Vendetta Research SCP-2D phono stage, Audio Valve Eklipse line stage, Audio Research SP20 preamplifier.
Power Amplifiers: Audio Research Reference 75.
Loudspeakers: Epos M16i, Monitor Audio Silver RS6, Nola Viper Reference III.
Cables: Interconnect (all MIT): Magnum M3, MI-350 CVTwin Terminator, MI-330SG…