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One snag brought on by the LP boom is that vinyl pressing plants, of which there are too few, are backed up. While that’s good news for someone like RTI, it’s less thrilling to consumers who typically wait for months after the CD/MP3 release of a new album to hear the vinyl. So it was with great pleasure that I slapped on my recently arrived LP copy of Dave and Phil Alvin’s Lost Time, which was released on September 18. Not surprisingly, given the brothers’ roots rock leanings, the sound here also has a healthy respect for the past. Dave Alvin’s guitar is drenched in reverb throughout, the…
I first saw Benchmark's AHB2 stereo power amplifier at the 2013 Convention of the Audio Engineering Society, in New York City. On silent display in Benchmark's booth on the convention floor, its compact size and comprehensive features made the amp immediately attractive, and the design was described as a departure from traditional analog and digital amplifiers (footnote 1, more on that later). It was also explained to me that the AHB2 was based on designs by Benchmark's founder, Allen H. Burdick (whose initials it bears). By the time of Burdick's retirement, in 2006, Benchmark didn't yet…
These surprising and delicious details were evident from the bass up through the midrange and extreme treble, which nonetheless remained silky and diaphanous. One example was Hans Theessink's voice at the end of the phrase "as I lay sleeping," in "Late Last Night," from his album Call Me (CD, Blue Groove BG-4020): I could now distinctly hear how his gravelly tone faded off well before the fade of its ambient resonance. Yes, this was now audible through my other amps as well, when I returned to them—but until the AHB2, I hadn't heard it—or, at least, hadn't noticed it.
Similarly, the…
Like baking bread or watering my garden, playing records in my monk's cell is an expression of my devotion to living mindfully. It is part of my search for identity and comfort. It shows me how my thoughts, feelings, and poetic imagination fit in with yours, Keith Jarrett's, and everyone else's. The only problem: Often, the stereo components that most enhance my experiences of devotion and identity are not those that I can sincerely declare to be the most accurate or neutral.
Actually, there's another problem: I am an audiophile who only minimally comprehends what accurate and neutral…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-channel, solid-state power amplifier. Inputs: 1 pair balanced, line-level (XLR). Outputs: 1 pair multiway binding posts, 1 pair Neutrik NL4 speaker outputs (channels 1 & 2), 1 Neutrik NL4 speaker output (for bridged-mono operation). Rear-panel controls: two 12V trigger inputs/outputs, three-position Input Sensitivity Switch, two-position Bridge Mode Switch. Front-panel controls: Power Switch, Power Indicator, Clip, Temperature, and Mute Indicators for each channel. Output power, 1kHz <0.0001% THD+N, both channels driven: 100W into 8 ohms…
Over and over, this recording, engineered by Marc J. Aubort, parlayed the unexpected into the marvelous. It riveted my awareness on the deep volume of the recording venue. With my mind's eye, I watched as bottle rockets of harmonic energy shot from the piano strings to the hall's walls and back, on the way combining with the sounds of the lingering decays of orchestral bursts. My focus ricocheted from inside the piano, near the strings, to the ceiling of Buffalo's Kleinhans Music Hall, where this was recorded in March 1968. Energy swelled and vanished in fascinating ways.
With either MM…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Manhattan System
Digital Sources: Sony XA-5400ES SACD/CD player, Oppo Digital BDP-105 universal BD player, Baetis XR2 PC-based music server, Benchmark DAC2 HGC and exaSound e28 D/A processors. QNAP TS569L NAS.
Preamplifier: Audio Research MP1 (multichannel).
Power Amplifiers: McIntosh MC303, NAD M22, Parasound Halo A 31.
Loudspeakers: Bowers & Wilkins 800 Diamond.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Vodka (HDMI) & Carbon (USB), Black Cat Veloce, van den Hul Flat 180 (HDMI). Analog: AudioQuest Earth/DBS balanced. Speaker: AudioQuest Oak/…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: 2.1-channel, solid-state integrated amplifier. Analog inputs: RCA (5), XLR (1), minijack (3.5mm). Theater/Sub: RCA (2), XLR (1). Digital inputs: optical, coaxial, USB. Headphone output: 3.5mm.Power output (0.9% THD+N): 180Wpc into 8 ohms (22.55dBW), 270Wpc into 4 ohms (21.2dBW). Frequency response: 10Hz–100kHz, +0/–3dB. Total harmonic distortion (THD): <0.01%, average listening levels; <0.05%, 160Wpc into 8 ohms. Channel separation: >50dB at 20kHz, >70dB at 1kHz. Signal/noise ratio, A-weighted: line in, 103dB (input shorted); digital in…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I performed a full set of measurements on two samples of the Benchmark AHB2 (serial nos. 14440108-0 and 14440111-0), using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"), and the amplifier's binding posts rather than its Neutrik terminals. As the AHB2 is specified as having a maximum power output of 100Wpc into 8 ohms, I preconditioned it before measuring it by running it at one-third that power into 8 ohms for an hour. Following that period, the top panel was warm, at 106.7°F (41.5°C), though the heatsinks were hotter, of course, at 117.…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Acoustic Signature Wow XL turntable & TA-1000 tonearm; Thorens TD 124 turntable with Abis SA-1.2 tonearm; Technics SL1200MK2 turntable with SME M2-9 tonearm; Jasmine Audio Turtle, Ortofon 2M Black & CG 25 DI II, Shure SC35C, Soundsmith Carmen, Zu Audio DL-103 cartridges.
Digital Sources: Halide Design DAC HD DAC,Onkyo Integra DPS-7.2 disc player.
Preamplification: Blue Horizon Ideas Profono, Schiit Audio Mani phono stages; Intact Audio step-up transformer.
Integrated Amplifiers: Hegel Music Systems H160, Line Magnetic LM…