Analog Sources: Linn Sondek LP12 turntable with Lingo power supply, Linn Ekos tonearm, Linn Arkiv B cartridge.
Digital Sources: Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP universal player; Apple 2.7GHz i7 Mac mini running OS10.10.1, iTunes 11, Pure Music 2.0, Audirvana Plus 1.5.10; PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream, Ayre Acoustics QB-9 D/A processors; dCS Vivaldi upsampling D/A system; Ayre Acoustics QA-9 USB A/D converter.
Preamplification: Channel D Seta L phono preamplifier; Pass Labs XP-30, Ayre Acoustics KX-R Twenty line preamplifiers.
Power Amplifiers: Pass…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the DALI Rubicon 8's frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 for the nearfield and spatially averaged room responses. My estimate of the Rubicon 8's voltage sensitivity was 89.8dB(B)/2.83V/m, which is both within experimental error of the specified 90.5dB and significantly higher than average. Though this is 2dB lower than the Triangle Delta Signature's sensitivity, the Rubicon 8 will still play loudly with low-powered amplifiers. Those amplifiers, however, should be…
Given his catalog of original tunes, Steve Earle never has to prove that he’s a genius songwriter. Or that he can single-handedly create a new genre; or be a fresh, creative gale blowing through someplace as hidebound as 1980s Nashville. To say nothing of his inestimable talents in raising hell, marrying women or today, being the latest, ummm, folk singing sage to haunt Greenwich Village.
In fact, like all successful songwriters—and make no mistake, before anything else, artistic or personal, good or bad, the man can write songs—Earle is now fighting age (not so hungry), ideas (running…
Within a 24-hour time span this past weekend, two important audiophile establishments in CA suffered major burglaries. On the morning of February 28, headphone manufacturer Audeze in Costa Mesa lost perhaps $250,000 in headphones, plus an undetermined amount of raw material from its operating and manufacture headquarters. At around 4am on February 27, and approximately 425 miles north, retailer AudioVision San Francisco experienced $100,000 worth of damage to their new headquarters plus the loss of much expensive gear when a truck rammed through their storefront (above).
Audeze
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Nearly 500 audiophiles descended upon Definitive Audio's Seattle location on Thursday, February 26 for the 10th Music Matters event in the Pacific Northwest. The "mother" of all Music Matters, and inspiration for all the other similarly named events that happen around the country, Definitive Audio's definitive four-hour gathering was so large in scope that it qualified as a mini-audio show. With major industry presenters including Stereophile's Michael Fremer (above) and John Atkinson, the evening also offered sufficient food and drink to satiate the most ravenous, and enough interesting…
I'm old enough to remember Fizzies: tablets that were promised to transform mere water into an effervescent soft drink. They showed up on my radar when I was five, at a time when impatience stood between me and the full Fizzies experience: I couldn't wait for the Bromo-Seltzer–like tablet to dissolve completely, so I was rewarded with little flavor and lots of undissolved sugar shards. At my present age, I would be likelier to drop a Fizzie into a glass of water, walk away, and forget I had ever done so.
Fizzies came to mind the first time I used the Audiodesksysteme Gläss Vinyl Cleaner…
My nice mono copy of Back to Back: Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges Play the Blues (Verve 6055), like other albums purchased from Xavwax, apparently once belonged to a library; there are even Dymo adhesive labels in its run-out grooves. (You can bet I'm always on hand to lift up the tonearm at the end of the last song.) When I bought it, the sleeve looked rough, and the record looked and sounded rough. Now, after one trip through the Audiodesksysteme Gläss Vinyl Cleaner, Duke Ellington, Johnny Hodges, and their band—especially drummer Jo Jones—sounded like their old selves. My record went…
Hi-fi is serious business—at least, for the people whose business is hi-fi. For listeners, among whom I count myself at least some of the time, I'd say that the serious-business aspect of hi-fi is less so. Our sole job, after all, is to enjoy music. The deeper our enjoyment, the richer our experience—and the richer the experience, the deeper our enjoyment. Therein lies the quest: to deepen our enjoyment of music.
Enjoying the reproduction of music is easy. Kids do it. When we play music for children, we typically look for one of a few responses: singing, dancing, or sleep. As we get…
Hi-fi is not about sound. Hi-fi is about music. That may seem painfully obvious, but I would suggest that those who argue about what they perceive to be objective values in hi-fi have lost sight of this simple statement. Sure, we can abstract the listening experience, measuring and comparing how different components reproduce recorded sounds. We have no emotional connection to sounds. Many reviewers—I'm as guilty as the next—tend to dissect the listening experience to the point that they mistake the parts (the sounds) for the whole (the music).
Midrange magic. Deep, tuneful bass. Sweet…
"Smash and grab thieves," as Bay Area media are wont to call them, have hit Music Lovers Audio in San Francisco for the second time in a month. This time, at 4am on Wednesday, March 4, three thieves wearing bandanas or ski masks over their faces and either long hoodies or overcoats drove up in a red truck, smashed one of the store's windows, and tried to make off with as much they could.
Whether they're the same robbers who stole $20,000 in merchandise the first time around, let alone the same burglars who have pillaged AudioVision and Harmony Audio Video in San Francisco, and Audio High…