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Are you still into that sound stuff?

A decade ago, my mother, on noticing a copy of Stereophile on my kitchen counter, asked me, "Are you still into that sound stuff?" Her tone had a touch of exasperation.

"Geez, Mom. I've been an audiophile for 15 years. This isn't a phase I'm going to outgrow."

Instead of motherly empathy, I got a slight smirk and a retort: "But it's always the same thing."

Until recently, I'd begun to think that Mom may have had a point: The audiophile pursuit—mine, at least—was beginning to feel a bit samey: Get tired of component A, buy a possibly better-sounding, likely more expensive…

Fujitsu Ten Eclipse TD712z loudspeaker July 2015

Robert Deutsch reviewed the TD712zMK2 in July 2015 (Vol.38 No.7):

Of the speakers I've reviewed over the years, one stands out as being the most unusual, and I remember it with particular fondness: Fujitsu Ten's Eclipse TD712z. Looking like something that would be at home aboard the Starship Enterprise, this egg-shaped, single-driver speaker distinguished itself by its transparency, resolution, soundstaging, and lack of coloration. While no match for any number of comparably priced (or less expensive) multidriver speakers in bass extension and maximum attainable loudness, the strengths of…

Pear Audio Blue Kid Howard turntable & Cornet 2 tonearm

There's nothing new under the sun, or so we are told. Nevertheless, in the early 1990s, a British designer named Tom Fletcher upset the audio status quo with a turntable that combined otherwise-familiar elements in a manner that was, at the very least, new with a lower-case n. Fletcher's product, the Space Deck, was perhaps the first original design in British phonography since the Roksan Xerxes of 1985; and his company, Nottingham Analogue, went from nothing to something in no time at all.

Key to the Space Deck's performance was the pairing of two seemingly incompatible components: a…

Pear Audio Blue Kid Howard turntable & Cornet 2 tonearm Page 2

That said: Beginning just a few days into the test period, there were three times when I started the platter spinning in the prescribed manner, dropped needle into groove, and noted at once that the speed was distinctly too slow. On each of those occasions I then lifted the tonearm, placed the 7" test record gently atop the 331/3rpm record I was attempting to hear, and measured a rotational speed of about 26rpm—which, in musical terms, produces notes that sound a full fourth below the intended pitch. The effect was to make Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending sound like a romance for…

Bel Canto Design Black amplification system

Stereophile normally doesn't review audio systems. We review individual components. We've made an exception for the Bel Canto Black system because it deserves to be evaluated as such. It consists of three dense, almost identically sized cases of black-anodized aluminum. One, the ASC1 Asynchronous Stream Controller, is what in a conventional system would be called a "preamplifier." The other two, a pair of MPS1 Mono PowerStreams, would in a conventional system be called "monoblock power amplifiers."

However, the Black does not comprise conventional components. The ASC1 accepts AES, two S/…

Bel Canto Design Black amplification system Page 2

While I found it mostly smooth sailing, at one point the Ethernet connection between the ASC1 and the JRiver player on my computer broke, making inaccessible hundreds of great files I'd wanted to play from an external drive—all I got was sound from the computer speakers. Nothing I could think of doing solved the problem. I ended up shutting down and restarting the ASC1, but only after half an hour of hair-pulling frustration.

Computer audio is still in a messy state of glitches, unreliability, and nonstandardization. It's something everyone involved in it faces, and everyone wishing to…

Pear Audio Blue Kid Howard turntable & Cornet 2 tonearm Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Two-speed, belt-drive turntable with unipivot tonearm. Motor: AC synchronous. Speeds: 331/3 & 45rpm. Tonearm: length, 10"; spindle to pivot, 222mm; effective length, 239mm; effective mass, 12.50gm.
Dimensions: 19.75" (505mm) W by 6" (155mm) H by 14" (360mm) D. Weight: Not noted.
Serial number of unit reviewed: 10003 US.
Price: $4995, turntable and tonearm when purchased together; Kid Howard turntable alone costs $2995, Cornet 2 tonearm alone costs $2295. Approximate number of dealers: 7.
Manufacturer: Pear Audio Analogue,…

Bel Canto Design Black amplification system Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

ASC1: Remote-controlled digital Asynchronous Stream Controller. Analog inputs: 1 RCA. Digital inputs: 2 S/PDIF, 2 ST fiber-optic, 1 TosLink, 1 AES/EBU, 1 Ethernet, 1 USB. Digital outputs: 2 ST fiber-optic, 2 AES/EBU balanced XLR. Maximum data input rates: 24-bit/192kHz (AES, XLR, S/PDIF 1 & 2, ST Fiber, TosLink), 24-bit/192kHz and DSD64 (UPnP/DLNA Ethernet). ULN master clock phase noise: <40 femtoseconds RMS, 100Hz–1MHz. Analog input: 2.5V RMS RCA. Input impedance: 12k ohms RCA. THD+N: 0.003%, 2.5V RMS in, 1kHz. Dynamic range: 106dB, A-weighted, 20Hz–20kHz…

Pear Audio Blue Kid Howard turntable & Cornet 2 tonearm Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Analog Sources: Garrard 301 turntable; EMT 997 tonearm; EMT OFD 15 & TSD 15 pickup heads; Denon DL-103, Miyabi 47, Miyajima Premium BE Mono II cartridges.
Digital Sources: Halide Designs DAC HD USB D/A converter; Apple iMac G5 computer running Audirvana Plus 1.5.12; Sony SCD-777ES SACD/CD player.
Preamplification: Hommage T2 step-up transformer, Shindo Masseto preamplifier.
Power Amplifiers: Shindo Corton-Charlemagne (monoblocks), Shindo Haut-Brion.
Loudspeakers: Altec Valencia, DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/96.
Cables: USB:…

Bel Canto Design Black amplification system Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Analog Sources: Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn, Cobra, Castellon turntable, tonearm, stand; Kuzma 4Point, SAT tonearms; DS Audio DS-W1 optical, Lyra Atlas & Etna, Miyajima Labs Zero (mono) & Madake, Ortofon Anna cartridges.
Digital Sources: Simaudio Moon Evolution 650D transport-DAC, Lynx Hilo ADC-DAC, Meridian Digital Media System, Pure Vinyl & Vinyl Studio software.
Preamplification: Ypsilon MC-10L & MC-16L step-up transformers; darTZeel NHB-18NS, Luminous Audio Techology Arion, Ypsilon VPS-100 preamplifiers.
Power Amplifiers:…