His latest band, Krakauer's Ancestral Groove, a jazz…
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David Krakauer is not only king of klezmer but one of the great clarinetists, period, a musician equally at home in jazz, rock, classical, and various fusions thereof. He joined the Klezmatics in 1988, started his own band Klezmer Madness! in the mid-'90s, joined with the rapper Socalled to create Abraham Inc. in the mid-'00s, and, all along, soloed with chamber and symphony orchestras worldwide, most prominently, and wondrously, with the Kronos Quartet on their recording of Osvaldo Golijov's The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind
Billy Drummond is a world-class jazz musician who listens to music on what he describes as "high-performance playback equipment." Drummond has not one, but three, working systems in his cozy New Jersey home, each one lovingly tweaked, carefully positioned and closely maintained to reach optimal playback efficiency.
Billy is Professor of Jazz Drums at Juilliard and NYU, and he also accepts students at home. After lessons he often invites students to hear vinyl on his Basis Audio turntable, Audio Research amplification, and Magnepan speakers setup. The visiting 20-year-olds are often as…
I'm sitting on a dark leather sofa, legs crossed, lips pursed, brow furrowed.
Glenn Gould playing Bach's Goldberg Variations can be faintly heard through a tape recorder in another room. To be more specific, a Realistic CTR-68 Model 14-808B.
"Jana, you're such a strong woman. I don't understand why you so desperately rely on Elton John for emotional support and inspiration. Honestly, it's quite troubling that you just impulsively purchased 11 Elton John records off of eBay. You're becoming like one of my other patients, Robert Baird, he's a severe addict. There's no hope for him…
Stereophile hasn't reviewed a PS Audio power regenerator since February 2009, when Robert Deutsch tried the company's then-flagship, the Power Plant Premier ($2195). But earlier this year, as I prepared to write my review of PS Audio's NuWave DSD DAC (published in the May 2016 issue), a perfect opportunity to revisit the line came about: I read, in the owner's manual for the PSA DAC, that "power conditioners and the quality of the AC power can make a significant difference in sound quality." Eager to help the NuWave DSD put its best foot forward, I asked PS Audio to assist me in dealing with…
Listening
When the PerfectWave P10 Power Plant was feeding my entire system, based on DeVore Fidelity The Nine loudspeakers and including a Leben CS-600 amplifier and analog and digital sources, I experienced exceptional musical moments more often, finding myself sitting up and taking notice of some musical detail. Streaming the Tidal playlist "Wildwood Flower: Best New Folk and Americana" at CD resolution, I was startled by the creaminess of Dori Freeman's voice in "Where I Stood," from her eponymous first album (CD, Free Dirt DIRTCD 0074). The percussiveness of Kristin Fossheim's…
When the PerfectWave P10 Power Plant was feeding my entire system, based on DeVore Fidelity The Nine loudspeakers and including a Leben CS-600 amplifier and analog and digital sources, I experienced exceptional musical moments more often, finding myself sitting up and taking notice of some musical detail. Streaming the Tidal playlist "Wildwood Flower: Best New Folk and Americana" at CD resolution, I was startled by the creaminess of Dori Freeman's voice in "Where I Stood," from her eponymous first album (CD, Free Dirt DIRTCD 0074). The percussiveness of Kristin Fossheim's…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: Regulated AC regenerator with 10 outputs and multiple output waveforms. Load capability: 1500VA peak, 1200VA continuous. Output impedance: <0.015 ohms. Distortion on output wave: <0.5% into resistive and reactive loads.
Dimensions: 17" (430mm) W by 14" (360mm) D by 8.5" (215mm) H. Weight: 73 lbs (33kg). Shipping weight: 82 lbs (38kg).
Finish: Black or silver.
Price: $4999.
Manufacturer: PS Audio, 4826 Sterling Drive, Boulder, CO 80301. Tel: (720) 406-8946. Fax: (720) 406-8967. Web: www.psaudio.com.
Life is too short to put up with poor-sounding headphones, I mused the other morning, during my 60-minute commute on the NYC subway. All around me, straphangers gripped smartphones and listened to multicolored Beats, noise-canceling Boses, white Apple earbuds, and, only rarely, Sennheisers and Grados.
Most of my personal listening these days is through Audeze's large, open-back, circumaural LCD-X headphones, which I bought following my review of them in the March 2014 issue. (On the subway I use the Ultimate Ear 18 Pro in-ear monitors, which provide much better isolation and are not as…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Open-back, circumaural (over-ear) headphones with planar-magnetic drive-units using neodymium magnets, and earpads of premium lambskin or leather-free, microfiber supersuede. Transducer: 106mm. Maximum power handling: 15W (for 200ms). Maximum sound-pressure level: >130dB at 15W. Frequency range: 5Hz–20kHz ("extended out to 50kHz").Total harmonic distortion: <1% through entire frequency range. Nominal impedance: 200 ohms. Sensitivity: 97dB/1mW. Optimal power requirement: 1–4W. Supplied accessories: single-ended ¼" TRS to 2x4-pin mini XLR cable…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Antipodes DX Reference music server; Logitech Transporter, PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream D/A processors.
Headphone Amplifiers: Ayre Acoustics Codex, Pass Labs HPA-1, Audeze The King.
Headphones: Audeze LCD-X, AudioQuest NightHawk, Master & Dynamic MH40.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Coffee, USB. Interconnect (unbalanced): AudioQuest Fire. Headphone: Cardas Clear, Nordost Heimdall, manufacturers' own. AC: manufacturers' own.—John Atkinson
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I don't measure headphones' acoustic responses, as this requires a system of dummy head and microphone. (See Keith Howard's article on this subject in the August 2008 issue, footnote 1) In addition, deciding what, precisely, is the optimal frequency response for a pair of headphones is neither obvious nor trivial (footnote 2).
I did use my Audio Precision System One to measure the Audeze LCD-4s' impedance and electrical phase. The solid trace in fig.1 shows the impedance magnitude with the headphones mounted on my head and facing my ears. The impedance is…