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SSI 2014a Suitable Beginning

I suppose I’m glad I’m on this train. . .
— John Cale, “Half-Past France”

Here’s the trick to show reporting: accomplish as much as possible ahead-of-time.

Thus my decision, while riding the Amtrak train from Albany, NY to Montreal for this year’s Salon Son et Image, to write about the journey itself, and to illustrate my post with a photo of something I’d seen along the way.

But that turned out to be easier said than done. Photographing beaver lodges, ice-fisherman, or even the bald eagles one sees on this route is tricky, especially when the train is moving, which it…

The Bad Plus: The Rite of Spring

It should be no surprise that The Bad Plus, the bad-boy trio of polymorphous po-mo jazz, should take a stab at Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. The stunner is that they've pulled it off so masterfully. This disc (on the Sony Masterworks label) is no "jazzing up the classics" gimmick; it's the real thing, as legitimate a rendering—and, on its own terms, as walloping—as any out there.

Stravinsky himself might have approved. While putting the final touches on the symphony, he wrote a four-hand piano arrangement of Rite and played it with Debussy (now that would be a long-lost recording worth…

MSB Universal Media Transport plus

My primary focus this month was MSB's Analog DAC, but since it needed some software updates, MSB suggested that the easiest way to install them was with their Universal Media Transport plus ($5995). Turned out the updates were easier via my regular Meridian Sooloos system, but since they'd sent me a sample of the UMT+, I hooked it up.

The UMT+ is built around Oppo's BDP-103 Universal Network 3D Blu-ray player—a great place to start, and a player I'd already had in my video system for a year. All of the Oppo's playback abilities are retained (including the ability to apply Oppo update…

MSB Universal Media Transport plus Specifications

Sidebar: Specifications

Description: Multiformat disc player. Disc formats supported: Blu-ray, SACD, HRx, DVD-Audio, DVD-Video, CD, more. Audio formats supported: WAV, FLAC, DSD 64x, MP3, Dolby Digital HD, DTS HD, more. External media connections: USB ports (3), computer network streaming. UPnP/DLNA compatible: Yes. DLNA DMR compatible: No. Outputs (audio): coaxial, TosLink, balanced AES/EBU, MSB PRO I2S (32-bit). Multichannel outputs: coaxial, TosLink, HDMI for connection to surround-sound processor. Analog audio outputs: none. Video outputs: 2 HDMI 1.4a up to 1080p; coaxial, composite…

MSB Technology Analog DAC D/A converter and Analog Power Base power supply

Back in high-end audio's golden days—for the purposes of this story, the mid- to late 1980s—my audio store, Audio Ecstasy, had a service tech named Tom Hewitt. Were he still with us (and I wish he were), Tom would appreciate the radical case design of the MSB Analog DAC. Tom loved not only to fix things, but to see what happened when things were violently stressed. He tested the limits of component construction.

Tiring of dropping receivers off our building's roof or ramming TVs (tied to the back of a pickup truck) into the shop's brick wall, Tom soon discovered that one of our customers…

MSB Technology Analog DAC D/A converter and Analog Power Base power supply Page 2

In his e-mail, Galbo had said this about the updates: "Because the MSB DAC modules are not format specific and can convert any format, now and in the future, such firmware updates make our DACs 'all new' in any way we choose. As an example, late last year we enabled DSD 64x and 128x in all MSB DACs, even though the DAC was never specifically designed for DSD." Cool.

Serious Listening
First things first: I wanted to establish the proper volume setting for listening and all of my comparisons. John Atkinson had recently sent me Benchmark's new, highly regarded DAC2 HGC, which has a…

MSB Technology Analog DAC D/A converter and Analog Power Base power supply Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Solid-state D/A processor with outboard power supply. Inputs (three slots): choice of coaxial, TosLink, balanced AES/EBU, MSB network PROi2S, or USB; one pair of analog inputs on RCA jacks. Analog outputs: one pair single-ended RCAs, one pair balanced on XLRs. Volume control (optional): 1dB stepped attenuator (78 steps). Sampling frequency: 32–384kHz. Bit depth: 32. DSD: 64x, 128x. Maximum output level: 2.62V RMS, single-ended and balanced. Output impedance: 53 ohms, single-ended, 106 ohms, balanced, without volume control; 38 ohms, single-ended, 76…

MSB Technology Analog DAC D/A converter and Analog Power Base power supply Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Digital Sources: Apple MacBook Pro computer (2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD) running OS 10.6.7, iTunes 11.1.3, Sonic Studios Amarra 2.5, Songbird 1.9.3, XLD; Western Digital 2TB NAS device; Oppo BDP-103 universal Blu-ray player; Meridian (formerly Sooloos) Digital Media System Control 15, TwinStore (3); Universal Media Transport plus; Apple iPad Air, mini; Apple iPod Touch 1G; Apple iPhone 4S. Digital processors: Benchmark DAC1 USB & DAC2 HGC, AudioQuest DragonFly USB DAC.
Preamplifier: Marantz AV7005 in Pure Direct mode.
Power…

MSB Technology Analog DAC D/A converter and Analog Power Base power supply Measurements

Sidebar 2: Measurements

I examined the MSB Analog DAC's measured behavior with Stereophile's loan sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and the January 2008 "As We See It"). All measurements were taken with the Analog DAC powered by the Analog Power Base and with the DAC's volume control, which operates in accurate 1dB steps, set to "0"—its maximum setting is "9," equivalent to 9dB higher than the nominal output level of 2.65V, this measured from both balanced and single-ended outputs. Both sets of outputs preserved absolute polarity (ie, were non-…

Vivid Audio Giya G3 loudspeaker

In February 2013, I was taking part in a "Music Matters" evening at Seattle retailer Definitive Audio, playing some of my recordings and talking about my audio philosophy. I love taking part in these events—in addition to Definitive's, in recent years I've participated in evenings organized by North Carolina's Audio Advice, Colorado's Listen-Up, and Atlanta's Audio Alternatives—but, as might be obvious, at each one I use a system provided by the retailer. The February 2013 system comprised Classé electronics and, to my surprise, Bowers & Wilkins Nautilus loudspeakers.

I flashed back…