Analog Sources: Garrard 301, Thorens TD 124 turntables; EMT 997, Thomas Schick tonearms; EMT OFD 25 & TSD 15 70th Anniversary pickup heads.
Digital Sources: Wavelength Proton, Halide Designs DAC HD USB D/A converters; Apple iMac G5 computer running OS10.7.4, Decibel v.1.2.11 music software; Sony SCD-777ES SACD/CD player.
Preamplification: Hommage T2, Bob's Devices Sky 30 CineMag step-up transformers; Shindo Masseto preamplifier.
Power Amplifiers: Shindo Corton-Charlemagne & Cortese, Fi 421A.
Loudspeakers: Altec Valencia.
Cables…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used 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") to measure the Parasound Halo P 5. Not only is the P 5 a full-function preamplifier with a phono stage, tone controls, and the ability to provide the necessary high- and low-pass crossover functions to enable the use of a subwoofer; it has digital inputs, including USB. Unless stated otherwise, all of my measurements were taken from the unbalanced main outputs.
Looking first at the P 5's behavior as a conventional line…
Shostakovich: Symphony 15
USSR Ministry of Culture State Symphony Orchestra, Gennady Rozhdestvensky conducting.
JVC/Melodiya CD VDC-528 (CD). Igor Veprintsev, eng. AAD.
USSR Ministry of Culture State Symphony Orchestra, Gennady Rozhdestvensky conducting.
JVC/Melodiya CD VDC-528 (CD). Igor Veprintsev, eng. AAD.
I have been wondering recently if we aren't seeing the beginning of the end of rotten recordings. I'm now not too surprised when yet another superlative-sounding Telarc or Reference Recordings disc arrives for review, but when a Soviet-made Melodiya blows me away with its sound, not to say a stupendous performance, I must conclude that something earthshaking is going on.
Melodiya recordings have never been…
Those of our readers who are still anti-CD are going to be offended by what I am about to say. Partly because they do not want it to be true, but mainly because it is. I shall utter the heresy anyway: the Compact Disc is, right now, doing more for the cause of high-end audio than anything that has ever come along before!
There, I've said it. Now I shall explain it.
Prior to CD, the world's major audio equipment manufacturers—and face it, that means the big Japanese manufacturers—generally scorned high end audio as impractical, fanatical tweakery. They loaded their products with…
Sidebar 1: Other Contenders
Since this report was written, I have auditioned two other contenders for "Best CD Player."
The Meridian MCD Pro and the NEC CD-705 both provide slightly better (wider, deeper) soundstage presentation than does the Kyocera. Both are a little more laid-back (less forward) than the Kyocera, the difference being great enough that personal preference is likely to be a strong factor in determining which to buy. (If you feel that CDs generally sound steely, you will prefer the NEC or the Meridian; if you prefer a more forward sound, as I frequently do, the…
Sidebar 2: Specifications
Description: CD player with remote control.
Dimensions: 17" W by 13" D by 5.5" H. Weight: 22 lbs.
Price: $1600 (1985); no longer available (2014).
Manufacturer: Kyocera International, Inc. (1985). Company no longer involved in audio equipment manufacture (2014).
Very few products exude opulence as do the Rowland amplifiers: the massive chassis, the gold finish, those sculpted handles on the front plate. For some strange reason the amp reminds me of Brutus Beefcake, the golden boy of professional wrestling, upon whom I stumbled one night while flipping through the myriad channels of our cable TV. The visual impact is the same: beefy. And then there's the price: also beefy.
A careful examination of the chassis, however, goes a long way toward explaining the stratospheric asking price. A huge 2kVA toroidal transformer occupies a big chunk of the…
Sidebar 1: the Threshold SA-1 vs the Rowland 7
Both the Roland Model 7 and the Threshold SA-1 amplifiers are representative of a relatively new breed of amplifier—those designed for moderate (by perfectionist standards) power output into normal loads, but with tremendous current capability into very low-impedance loads. Rowland claims significantly higher power and current capability for theirs, but in direct comparisons the Rowland units did not sound as though they had more of either.
Both amps verge on perfection in every performance area (footnote 1) both featuring the…
Sidebar 2: Specifications
Description: Solid-state monoblock power amplifier. Output power:350W into 8 ohms, 700W into 4 ohms, 1100W into 2 ohms. Power Bandwidth: 0.15Hz–175kHz, –3dB. Slew Rate: 50V/µs. THD and Noise: <0.015% (1kHz, 8 ohms, 20W); <0.045% (1kHz, 8 ohms, 100W); <0.06% (1kHz, 8 ohms, 200W). Damping Factor: >300, 20Hz–20kHz, 8 ohms; >90, 100kHz, 8 ohms. Output current: 50A peak, continuous, 150A peak, 0.1 ohm, 20ms, 1kHz. Voltage gain: 26.4 dB. Sensitivity: 136mV for 1W into 8 ohms. Input Impedance: selectable: 100k, 20k, 600 ohms.
Dimensions: 19" (480mm) W…
Were it my place to hand out awards for "The Most Forthright People in Audio," Michael Grace of Grace Design would be at the top of the list. Years ago, after I'd given stellar recommendations of Grace's 901 and m902 headphone-amplifier-DAC-line-stage models, I asked Grace if I could audition his full-rack–size, more fully featured m904 Stereo Monitor Controller. He told me that he didn't think that was necessary, because the m904's sound was extremely similar to the sound of the smaller m902—it just had a different feature set, and he believed that the additional features were not things…