Of course, there's more.
Are you interested in portable hi-fi, computer audio, and desktop products? These days, many of us are. For you, we have reviews of the Channel Islands Audio Transient Mk.II USB D/A processor, the Astell&Kern AK100 portable…
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Here's a little something to warm your hearts: The March 2014 issue of Stereophile is now on newsstands, and it's a very special issue, indeed. Inside, you'll find that our editor, John Atkinson, has fallen in love with a new pair of headphones. Has the sexy Audeze LCD-X seduced him away from his old, beloved Sennheiser HD650?
Am I the only one who values content and convenience over sound quality?
There. I've said it. I am not an audiophile; ie, someone who's in love with recorded sound for its own sake. The search for ideal sound can leave a person burned out and broke.
That might be why I love Internet radio via Bluetooth. So much content. So convenient, via smartphone or laptop. As for computer-audio downloads, they're too complicated, chaotic, and costly.
I might pay for streaming high-resolution audio, if the content and convenience are there. More than one computer guru has said that…
JA Visits Arcam in England
I got comfortable in the center chair. I was visiting British manufacturer Arcam in their new facility, a few miles north of Cambridge, and product manager Andy Moore had set up a modestly priced but potentially good-sounding system in the company's dedicated listening room: KEF R300 speakers driven by the Arcam FMJ A19 integrated amplifier, which had impressed Stephen Mejias in the January issue. The source appeared to be Arcam's FMJ D33 D/A processor, which I reviewed in February 2013, connected by USB to a laptop running JRiver Media Center.
I…
Sidebar 1: JA on Sound Quality
Sam Tellig loved the rBlink when he listened to it: "If you're looking for a gift idea, and Mom and Dad have Bluetooth devices, put an Arcam rBlink under the tree. While you're at it, get another for yourself," he wrote. "Highly recommended," he concluded.
I streamed Bluetooth data to the rBlink from my iPad 2 and MacBook Pro. I did some listening to the rBlink's analog outputs. The sound was good rather than great, so for my primary auditioning sessions, the Arcam's coaxial digital output was connected to the ASUS Xonar Essence One Muses Edition (…
Sidebar 3: Specifications
Description: Bluetooth D/A converter. Inputs: Bluetooth only. Outputs: one pair analog, one coaxial S/PDIF. Supported codecs: SBC, AAC, aptX. Frequency response: 10Hz–20kHz, &$177;0.1dB. THD+noise: 0.002%. S/N ratio (A-Weighted): 106dB (24-bit). Line output level: 2.15V. Power requirements: 0.7W max. Supplied accessories: wallwart power supply, antenna.
Dimensions: 2.9" (75mm) W by 1" (26mm) H by 3.9" (100mm) D. Weight: 12oz (350gm).
Serial number of review samples: Not noted (ST); EBL 04114 (JA).
Price: $249.95.
Manufacturer: Arcam, The…
Sidebar 2: Measurements
The rBlink is a small, surprisingly heavy, black-finished box made, like all of Arcam's current products, in China. On one end is the jack for the supplied wall-wart power supply, the Bluetooth antenna, and a pushbutton to pair the rBlink with a source; on the other end are two RCA jacks for analog output and a single jack for the S/PDIF digital output.
I tested the rBlink (serial no. EBL 04114) mostly with Stereophile's loan sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It" and www.ap.com); for some tests, I…
Save the Stereo, a Web-based project dedicated to developing and promoting the best ideas for leading the next generation of music lovers to component-based high-fidelity, launched at the start of the year. Although we have seen a number of prior organizations dedicated to the cause of spreading the gospel of high performance audio wither and die—see John Atkinson's 2005 essay on the subject—this one is different. Because its founder, Gordon White, is soliciting feedback from the audiophile community and developing a grounded action plan before proceeding, perusing the project's website and…
Sanford Ponder: Etosha—Private Music in the Land of Dry Water
Private Music 1101 (CD/LP)
Private Music 1101 (CD/LP)
Patrick O'Hearn: Ancient Dreams
Private Music 1201 (CD/LP)
Jerry Goodman: On the Future of Aviation
Private Music 1301 (CD/LP)
Ryuchi Sakamoto, Eric Watson, Joachim Kuhn, Eddie Jobson: Piano One
Private Music 1401 (CD/LP)
The four works in Private Music's initial release represent such a consistently high level of creation that it is remarkable to see them released all at once. The label's owner, Peter Bauman, was one of the founders of Tangerine Dream, the…
Some months back, SACD and DSD champion Jared Sacks, founder of Channel Classics, stopped by Casa Bellecci-Serinus in Oakland for an extended chat about the history of his label, recording in DSD, and his new NativeDSD.com download site. I started our conversation by asking Jared to share his history with music and the industry with Stereophile:
Jared Sacks: I'm an American who has been in Holland for over 37 years. At Channel Classics, I do most everything alone, and my wife does the booklet designing. With 2 1/2 people in the company, we keep it small.
I work differently than…
Serinus: Do you find Andreas Koch of Playback Design's explanation of the superiority of DSD over PCM satisfactory?
Sacks: He goes more into the technical side. To me, DSD's superiority has to do with emotion, depth, and how the sound leaves the speaker. It's not a block anymore in the way it dissipates. When you listen to PCM, you can literally hear it as a block of sound coming out of the speaker. That doesn't happen with DSD. There's air around the sound. At the end of the day, we are talking about the air around the sound.
To me, recording like wine tasting. If you take a…