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Yet another Bay Area audio retailer has defied industry trends by moving from home-based business to a storefront and simultaneously revamping its product line. Audio Video Integration (aka AVI Marin) celebrated the Grand Opening of its new San Rafael 6000ft2 retail store and 3000ft2 warehouse on April 2, 2015 via a ribbon-cutting ceremony officiated by San Rafael Vice Mayor Andrew McCullough. Even before the ceremony got underway, and for several hours thereafter, a host of loyal customers, friends, and well-wishers began to ogle the store's capacious layout and multiple audio and AV…
As reported by Michael Fremer on AnalogPlanet.com, legendary mastering engineer and co-founder of Sheffield Lab, Doug Sax, passed away on April 2. Doug had been suffering from cancer and would have been 79 on April 26.
Coincidentally, we had just posted J. Gordon Holt's October 1982 review of the Sheffield Track Record, which Doug had cut direct-to-disc. This reminded me that Robert Harley had interviewed Doug in the October 1989 issue of Stereophile; rereading that interview reminded me that in September 1984, I had published an interview with Doug in the magazine Hi-Fi News, which I…
Saturday and Sunday, April 11 and 12: Fillion Électronique will host seminars on the fundamentals of computer audio, with specific focuses on digital-audio file formats and networking strategies. Saturday's seminar will begin at 10am and will be held at Fillion's Laval location (2323 Laurentides Highway), while Sunday's seminar will begin at noon and will be held at Fillion's Montréal location (5690 Sherbrooke East).
AudioQuest's Frédéric Pinsonneault will be on hand to answer questions and provide information on the software and components needed to transform a computer into a high-…
Many years ago, the now-defunct Life magazine ran a feature article about science and its sacred cows, in which a cartoon showed a huge inverted pyramid-shaped structure of great complexity, tapering downward to a single support at its base: a toothpick. The toothpick was labeled "basic premise," the inverted pyramid was the entire body of scientific knowledge.
Everything we do or think or know is based upon assumptions, some of which are rather more justified than others. When we set the alarm clock, we assume there will be a tomorrow. When we reach for the car's brake pedal without…
He is easily among the most accomplished and influential slide-guitar players ever to put a ring of glass or metal around his finger. In 1977, on the golden record carried by the space probe Voyager, alongside the first movement of Beethoven's Symphony 5 and recordings of "footsteps, heartbeat, and laughter," his greatest song, "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" went off to represent humanity to the stars.
His terrestrial legacy remains hidden in plain sight: Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, and Bob Dylan have all done versions of his songs, which themselves are versions of even older…
In the mornings, just before I leave for work, I power up the system, turn the volume down low, and set the CD player to Repeat. I like to think that if I play calm, soothing music while Ms. Little and I are away, the cats will feel less alone and more relaxed. It's also nice, on returning home from work, to walk into a room filled with music. One evening a few weeks ago, I stepped into the apartment, dropped my bags to the floor, settled down into the couch with my iPhone, and began scrolling through text messages. I'd been seated for only a moment before I had to turn my attention entirely…
I almost forgot to mention the outer box, a very attractive slipcase. Right out of it, the D 3020 sounded clean, clear, and resolving, if a bit small and bass shy. After only a day or so of use, however, the D 3020 sounded far bigger and more powerful than its size and weight would suggest.
For the most part, I partnered the D 3020 with small, affordable loudspeakers—PSB Alpha B1 ($299/pair), Pioneer SP-BS22-LR ($129/pair), Wharfedale Diamond 10.1 ($349/pair)—but toward the end of the listening period I hooked it up to a pair of glorious KEF LS50s ($1499/pair) and turned the volume up…
Sam Tellig wrote about the D 3020 in December 2013 (Vol.36 No.12):
Years ago, Corey Greenberg wrote a memorable headline: "GO NAD."
NAD, which then stood for New Acoustic Dimension, was founded in 1973 but really got going in 1978, with the 3020 integrated amplifier. Audio stores loved the line because Crazy Eddie didn't sell it and because they no longer had to turn away customers who wouldn't buy expensive stuff.
I well remember the original 3020—so many of my friends owned one. It was one of the first solid-state amplifiers, integrated or otherwise, to lack the…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Integrated amplifier. Inputs: one RCA coaxial S/PDIF connector, two optical S/PDIF connectors, one asynchronous USB input, one RCA analog input. Maximum power: 30Wpc (???dBW).
Dimensions: 7 3/8" (186mm) high by 2 5/16" (58mm) wide by 8 5/8" (219mm) deep. Weight: 3 lbs (1.4kg).
Serial number of review sample: Not noted.
Price: $499.
Manufacturer: NAD Electronics International, 633 Granite Court, Pickering, Ontario L1W 3K1, Canada. Tel: (905) 831-6555. Web: www.nadelectronics.com.
Sidebar 2: Measurements
The D 3020 was voted Stereophile's "Budget Component of 2014." Getting the review sample onto my test bench had been on my to-do list for way too long, but I was reminded of the unfinished task when I picked up the PS Audio Sprout for measurement from Herb Reichert, whose review of the latter appears elsewhere in this issue. I first checked the performance of the D 3020's digital inputs, looking at the signal from the headphone output jack with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com, and the January 2008 "As We See It").
The headphone output…