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UpTone Audio USB Regen Manufacturers' Comment

Manufacturers' Comment, UpTone Audio USB Regen

Editor: While we wish to thank Michael Lavorgna, Kalman Rubinson, and John Atkinson for their terrific team coverage of our USB Regen, I would be remiss not to take this opportunity to express our tremendous gratitude to the audiophiles and music lovers around the world who have made the Regen a runaway success—well beyond what we had initially imagined—in just a few short months.

As I pen this reply in late August, over 2000 units have been sold since its launch in May-and with zero advertising! That's crazy, especially for a small…

Audio Streams #8

Unless something is broken, the bits from your computer will be delivered to your DAC intact; the claim behind three new products I recently listened through is that each can reduce noise within the DAC—noise that could otherwise corrupt the analog signal and thus make our music less musical. This notion is not based on audiophool woo-woo, but on the basic electronics of mixed-signal systems (footnote 1): Although its input is digital data, a DAC's output is subject to all the noise problems of analog circuits.

We also need to keep in mind that a USB cable is responsible for transmitting…

Audio Streams #8 Page 2

I then added just one JitterBug between my MacBook Pro and Auralic Vega DAC, and noted improvements: Bass definition was better, and the sound now had more weight overall, and was more relaxed and natural. These changes were also easy to hear. I found that I got the most benefit when I added a second 'Bug to the MacBook's unused USB port, which simply improved on the improvements already mentioned—not as dramatically as going from no 'Bugs to just one, but even these smaller-scale changes were easy to hear. Adding a third and a fourth 'Bug to my NAS and router offered very subtle sonic…

Music in the Round #75

Outside of the listening I do for this column, I always audition, assess, and review components without using any equalization or room correction—primarily because I assume that most Stereophile readers listen in two-channel stereo, and that most aren't all that interested in EQ. Besides, two-channel is the tradition I come from, and my first instinct is to try to get at the essence of the individual component itself, without applying extraneous tools or accessories. John Atkinson's bench tests are based on the same philosophy.

Consequently, when I reviewed Monitor Audio's Silver 8…

Audio Streams #8 Contacts

Sidebar Contacts

AudioQuest, 2621 White Road, Irvine, CA 92614. Tel: (949) 585-0111. Web: www.audioquest.com

Schiit Audio, 24900 Anza Drive, Suite A, Valencia, CA 913255. Tel: (323) 230-0079. Web: www.schiit.com

UpTone Audio LLC, Mariposa, CA 95338. Tel: (209) 966-4377. Web: www.uptoneaudio.com

Music in the Round #75 Page 2

Auro Technologies sent me a small stack of Blu-ray discs, while Dolby sent along only a single demo disc—so Atmos was at a disadvantage: The only music track on the Atmos sampler was "Bailando," a music video by Enrique Iglesias. The video cut repeatedly among multiple venues, indoors and outdoors, but the ambience presented never changed. Discounting the audio/video disassociation and my admitted lack of interest in the music, the sound was clean, direct, and of generous if inappropriate ambience. It didn't make much of a case for Atmos.

The Auro-3D music was more wide ranging, from…

The New York Audio Show: Day One

There are shows that raise our expectations and there are shows from which greatness is not expected. And after October 26, when the organizers of the New York Audio Show, taking place at the Rye Hilton in Westchester County this weekend, announced that they were capping the number of exhibitors at 30—imagine Mike Huckabee or Hillary Clinton announcing a limit on corporate donations—this event slipped into the latter. No amount of positive, industry-healthy attitude on the part of myself or anyone else can shiny that up.

Nor was the situation aided by promotional e-mails lecturing us on…

The New York Audio Show: Saturday Part One

We make our beginnings in the manner of our endings; so it was on Saturday morning, when I headed back to the Rye Brook Hilton's Maple Room, where Friday evening Michael Lavorgna, Steve Guttenberg, and I had spun ripping yarns of shipping labels and galley proofs on the high seas of audio reviewing. (Yarr.) I was there to hear a presentation called Great Sound: Beyond the Gear: Life and Technology: A Compromise—a title with more colons than a lower-GI specialist sees in a week!—by an audio engineer/designer/producer/acoustical consultant named Stuart Allyn. I was running a minute or two late…

Wisconsin Dealer Event Tomorrow

Tuesday, November 10, 6–9pm: To celebrate the US dealer premiere of AudioQuest's Niagara 7000 Low-Z Power Noise-Dissipation System, Ultra Fidelis (7125 West North Avenue, Wauwatosa) will host an evening of music, hi-fi, and technology. Special guest Garth Powell, AudioQuest's Director of Power Products, will be on hand to provide a detailed discussion on AC power technology and demonstrate the Niagara 7000 (above).

Other featured gear will include Vandersteen 5A Carbon loudspeakers, amplification and electronics from Audio Research and Moon by Simaudio, stands and isolation devices from…

Ghosts in the Machine

It’s all about the power of the mix, in this case a mix of two voices. There have been times when the pairing of Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings has been a bit too funereal for my tastes. As the one time managing editor of Stereophile’s Guide to Home Theater Michael Metzger once blurted out during a quiet moment at a Welch show, “Who died? I didn’t know I was going to a funeral!” A number of murderous glances warmed his cheeks. Yet later in the show, when the pair upped the tempo to something approaching a spirited ballad, there was a collective exhale even among the Welch cultists followed…