Analog Sources: Acoustic Signature WOW XL turntable & TA-1000 tonearm, Thorens TD-124 turntable; Abis SA 1.2 tonearm; Ortofon CG 25 DI II, Shure SC35C, Soundsmith Carmen, Zu Audio DL-103 cartridges.
Digital Sources: Onkyo Integra DPS-7.2 DVD-A player; Line Magnetics LM502 CA, Halide HD DACs; Mac mini computer.
Preamplification: Intact Audio step-up transformer; April Sound GB-1, LFD LE, Sentec EQ-11 phono stages.
Integrated Amplifiers: Hegel Music Systems H160, Line Magnetics LM518 IA, Simaudio Moon Neo 340i, Vinnie Rossi LIO.
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Falcon LS3/5a's frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 for the nearfield response. The Falcon's voltage sensitivity was 0.7dB higher than that of my 1978 pair of Rogers LS3/5a's, at 83.2dB/2.83V/m. Its plot of impedance magnitude and phase (fig.1) was very similar to that of the original (footnote 1) with the magnitude remaining above 8 ohms from 10Hz to 7kHz. However, it was, on average, about 2 ohms lower in the region covered by the tweeter.
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The most refreshing music I encountered at the huge 2015 Munich High End Show was an excerpt from David Chesky's children's ballet, The Zephyrtine, which Paul McGowan played in the PS Audio room. Hence it comes as no surprise that another of Chesky's recordings, his Rap Symphony, has just won the Independent Music Award (IMA) for Best Contemporary Classical Album.
While Chesky's Rap Symphony CD contains five pieces—Rap Symphony, Street Beats, and Central Park Dances Nos.1, 2, and 3— it is the 20-minute Rap Symphony that undoubtedly attracted the most attention from the judges. You can…
Jerome Sabbagh, 41, born and bred in Paris, a low-key staple of the New York jazz scene for the last decade or so, plays tenor sax with a plaintive tone and moody lyricism reminiscent of Stan Getz. And he's a composer, too, wading more in the vibe of early Sonny Rollins or the sinuous modalism of Paul Motian.
His new album, The Turn (Sunnyside), is a fine display of Sabbagh as player, composer, and bandleader. Seven of the eight tracks are originals; the one cover, tellingly, is of Motian's "Once Around the Park," from Misterioso, one of the late drummer's early recordings with Joe Lovano…
Saturday, August 1, 11am–4pm, David Michael Audio (4341 Delemere Court, Royal Oak, MI 48073) will host an event showcasing and demonstrating MSB Technology's DACs and sources, including the new ground-breaking Select DAC (above). Confirmed guests include MSB Technology's Director of sales Vince Galbo and the company's CEO and Managing Director Larry Gullman. Larry has long experience in industrial engineering and digital electronics and has many innovations and patents to his name. Larry and Vince will be demonstrating the MSB Select DAC, explaining its innovative new technologies.
Also…
Chris Huston is as soft-spoken and unassuming a chap as you would ever hope to meet, a real gentleman of the old school. He also has an amazing backstory. He and John Lennon were close friends at Liverpool's College of Art, and later had "dueling bands" that played at Liverpool's Cavern Club. Huston's band was the Undertakers, with lead singer Jackie Lomax. Like the Beatles, the Undertakers spent time playing gigs in scrappy clubs near the Hamburg docks. However, Huston is not just an asterisk in the music encyclopedias. He co-engineered Led Zeppelin's II, earned a Grammy for producing War's…
The Nautilus ($2250), whose nameplate is made from natural shell, is among Soundsmith's new series of medium-output moving-iron cartridges; a low-output version, the Paua, is also available.
During our second trip to the UK, my wife and I drove from Heathrow Airport to Swindon, to visit an older couple we'd met on our first trip. We arrived around noon, and Vera and Ross made us a nice lunch, which we enjoyed while looking at scrapbooks filled with family photos and well-worn newspaper clippings. Vera asked where we intended to spend the night, and I said that our next stop was York.…
I checked the bass-extension claim by listening to the "Full Glide Tone" from Ayre Acoustics' Irrational, But Efficacious! System Enhancement Disc, Version 1.2. At the moment in the tone's sweep upward—it starts at 4Hz—when I believed that the Square One's woofer was actually producing "tone" and not just fecklessly flopping, I hit Pause on the Parasound Halo CD 1's remote control, noted the elapsed time on the CD 1's display, and, using the Amadeus Pro II app, opened the "Full Glide Tone" digital-audio .wav file, and captured a small sample that included about one second to either side of…
Lower still is the cost of maintaining Ledermann's top cartridge model, the Soundsmith Strain Gauge ($8600, including the most basic version of its requisite preamp, footnote 3): Replacement styli can be swapped out in the field, and range in price from only $350 to $950.
User-replaceable styli with three-figure price tags are made possible because the transduction principle for which the cartridge is named—at least two other strain-gauge pickups have appeared on the market in years past—is so different from that of most other phono cartridges. MI, MC, and MM cartridges all respond to…
I've spent the last month recording songs for a pal's upcoming album. His act consists of powerful female and male singers, acoustic and electric bass, and acoustic guitars and mandolin. Jay-Z is funding the project, which is destined to transform the entire hip-hop/rap beat-driven pop landscape into an acoustic-music wonderland.
Okay, I jest about that last part.
Anyway, a couple weeks before recording started, Rega Research's new DAC-R ($1195) arrived for review, presenting me with a chance to compare what I was hearing live in the studio with our recorded results played back in…