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"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…

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…

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…

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

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…

Some conjunctions are just too momentous to be a coincidence, and the powerful loss of saxophonist Ornette Coleman and actor Sir Christopher Lee, on the same day, Thursday, June 11, 2015, seems connected. Both lived long lives and became masters of their craft. Both made their reputations dabbling in what amounts to a kind of science fiction, Lee by playing supernatural characters and Coleman by playing music often charitably described in the beginning as being alien…

Emotiva's new XMC-1 preamplifier/processor, which incorporates the Dirac room-correction software is featured in "Music in the Round," while on the analog playback side, two…

This is another winner. Michael Murray's superior performances are or should be well known to all by this time. This recording of Encores in the French style covers a wide gamut of registration and mood, ranging from the large and full-blown sonorities of Franck's Pièce Héroique, the Toccata…

Ye Editor can recall from the days of WWII hearing and reading about the depredations of some mischievous sprites called Gremlins, who would cause aircraft hatchcovers to jam and control cables to get hung up at the worst possible moment, but I don't think I ever really did believe in Gremlins. I think I sensed somehow that the mishaps attributed to their malevolent machinations were too capricious to be the work of…