Although Citizen's Band radio may hold little interest for perfectionist audiophiles, there is a good chance that it may intrude upon our activities in some disastrous ways if we, and the audio industry in general, sit back and ignore what has been going on behind the scenes in Washington, DC…
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Editor's Note: We are reprinting this 38 year-old "As We See It" essay because if you substitute the words "WiFi" and "cellphone" for "Citizen's Band" and "CB Radio," you will realize that not much has changed in the decades since, with our audio systems still awash in a bath of RFI.—John Atkinson
Herbie Hancock's 1965 quintet album Maiden Voyage holds a firm place as one of the great jazz records of that transformative decade, and a new vinyl edition on Music Matters Jazz—the LA-based house renowned for its audiophile LP reissues of Blue Note titles, and only Blue Note titles—sounds finer than it has on any pressing in 50 years.
Hancock, bassist Ron Carter, tenor saxophonist George Coleman, and drummer Tony Williams had been playing in Miles Davis' band for a couple years (they were joined here by Freddie Hubbard on trumpet), and Miles' influence is clear, especially his modal…
The Model 34 preamplifier is the component from English manufacturer Quad that will disenchant perfectionists, partly because of its obvious pandering to connoisseurs of old and sometimes lousy-sounding records, and partly because of its sound.
This solid-state design is supplied with a built-in moving-magnet cartridge preamplifier, and a moving-coil preamp is included with it for (easy) installation by the user if desired. (Remove two screws, pull out the old module, plug in the new one and replace the screws. The job takes about 3 minutes.) The MC preamp supplied is for 20 microvolt-…
Aurender was a name new to me when I encountered the company at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show, where they displayed a range of music servers designed in California and manufactured in South Korea. But what caught my attention in Aurender's suite was their Flow portable D/A headphone amplifier ($1295). This handsome, battery-powered device, housed in a machined aluminum case about twice the size of a pack of playing cards, offers optical S/PDIF and USB 2.0/3.0 input ports and a single ¼" stereo headphone jack. Two features distinguish the Flow from the pack: Its USB input can be used with…
Sam Tellig wrote about the Quad 34 in August 1985 (Vol.8 No.4):
"You bought Quads again!"
Now my son really thought the old man was nuts. In my last installment, I told you how I sold my Quad ESL-63 speakers. A little later, I sold my Quad 34 preamp and 405-2 power amp. Unlike the speakers, however, the 34 preamp and 405-2 power amp were two pieces of equipment I wished I hadn't sold...there are the tonal balance controls on the Quad 34 preamp. Prevailing orthodoxy says tone controls degrade the sound; avoid tone controls. If you like a poorly recorded performance, suffer; if…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Portable D/A headphone amplifier with LCD screen. Inputs: USB 3.0/2.0 (Audio Class 2.0), S/PDIF optical. Output: ¼" (6.35mm) stereo headphone jack. Compatible sample rates: up to 96kHz via S/PDIF, up to 384kHz and DSD128 via USB. Compatible bit depths: 16–24 (S/PDIF), 16–32 (USB). Internal storage: up to 1TB total via mSATA bus. Output impedance: 0.06 ohm. Output power (0.1% THD): 43mW/600 ohms, 87mW/300 ohms, 384mW/56 ohms, 570mW/32 ohms. THD+N: –114dB. IMD (SMPTE): –112dB. THD (1kHz, 5.1V RMS output): 0.0002%. Dynamic range: 122dB. Damping factor…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: Stereo solid-state preamplifier. Inputs: Phono (MM or optional MC preamp supplied), Tuner, Auxiliary, and Tape Loop. Choice of 3 HF filter curves. Tilt control. Bass boost and cut. Mono/stereo switch. One switched AC outlet. Maximum output leve;L 500mV.
Dimensions: 12.5" (318mm) W by 10.5" (267mm) D by 2.75" (70mm) H, including knobs and rear plugs.
Price: $595 (1983–1985); no longer available (2015).
Manufacturer: Quad ElectroAcoustics, IAG House, Sovereign Court, Ermine Business Park, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, England PE29 6XU, UK. Tel…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Apple MacBook Pro running OS10.7.6, iTunes 11, Pure Music 2.0, Audirvana Plus 1.5.12; AudioQuest JitterBug; iPad 2 with camera connection kit; PonoPlayer.
Headphone Amplifier: Meridian Prime.
Headphones: Audeze LCD-X, Sennheiser HD650, Ultimate Ears 18 Pro in-ear monitors.—John Atkinson
Sidebar 3: Measurements
With the Aurender Flow's battery fully charged, I measured it with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and the January 2008 "As We See It"). Sources were TosLink from the SYS2722, USB from my 2012 MacBook Pro (running on battery power), or USB from my iPad 2 via the camera connection kit. Macintosh's USB Prober utility reported the Flow's product string as "Aurender-FLOW-6027 Output" and the manufacturer string as "XMOS." USB Prober also confirmed that the Flow's USB port operated in the optimal isochronous asynchronous mode. The TosLink input locked…
Ornette Coleman, the great alto saxophonist and composer, died yesterday at the age of 85. His great jazz quartet of the late 1950s and early '60s—with Don Cherry on pocket trumpet, Charlie Haden on bass, and Billy Higgins (sometimes alternating with Ed Blackwell) on drums—revolutionized jazz, shifting it away from chord changes to structures built more around melody, rhythm, and harmonic suggestions not confined by set chord changes. And while some of his followers may have descended into noisy chaos, Ornette himself rarely went that route and, in fact, in the '90s, stepped up to a new level…