For the adventurous music lover who craves new, unusual sounds—stuff that might challenge, that might delight, and that will certainly expand your mind—and for the audiophile who primarily uses a computer as a source, Diogenes is an online heaven.
And don’t let the name scare you away. Diogenes isn’t all noise, though there is a lot of that. You…
The rather bulky, but surprisingly lightweight (for its size and power) M-508 is a true dual-mono design, consisting essentially of two completely separate amplifiers on a single chassis. That it is not designed for outstandingly high current capability is…
Description: Dual-mono, single-chassis, class-AB power amplifier. Rated power: 200W into 8 ohms. Power bandwidth: 20Hz-20kHz. THD at rated output: 0.003%.
Dimensions: 18.25" (with wood end panels) by 7.25" H by 17" D. Weight: 55 lbs.
Price: $1150 (1987); no longer available (2012).
Manufacturer: Onkyo USA Corporation, 18 Park Way, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. Tel: (800) 229-1687. Fax: 201-785-2650. Web: www.onkyousa.com.
The DTIPro, released 18 months later, bore little similarity to the rather simple DTI. The Pro added a more sophisticated dual Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) input receiver for much lower jitter, and also performed a new type of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) that Audio Alchemy called "Resolution…
To change the output word length, press and hold the "Phase" button until the three power-indicating LEDs switch from power indication to operational status indication…
Most of my experience with the DTIPro 32 was in my usual system, consisting of a Sonic Frontiers SFL-2 preamplifier driving a pair of Audio Research VT150 monoblock power amplifiers. Loudspeakers were Genesis II.5s, whose woofers were driven by an integral servo power amplifier. Interconnects in the Sonic Frontiers/ARC/Genesis system were AudioQuest Lapis, Diamond X3, and Wire World Gold Eclipse, and loudspeaker cables were short runs of AudioQuest Dragon II.
Digital front-ends with which I tried the DTIPro 32 include the Mark Levinson No.31 and Sonic…
I started by looking at the DTIPro 32's effect on low-level signals alternately in bypass mode, and then with the Resolution Enhancement processing engaged. I performed wideband third-octave spectral analysis, waveform capture, and FFT-derived spectral analysis on a variety of signals, but saw no difference in the noise level, noise-floor spectrum, or even the presence of dither. I also tried to measure the DTIPro 32's effect by looking at the output of the DDE v3 processor with and without the DTIPro 32 in the signal path. Again, the DDE v3's low-level…
Description: Jitter filter and resolution-enhancement device. Inputs: S/PDIF coaxial on BNC, S/PDIF TosLink optical, I2S bus (ST-type optical optional). Outputs: S/PDIF coaxial on BNC, I2S, AES/EBU, ST-Type optical. Output word length: 16, 18, 20, 22, 24 bits (user-selectable).
Dimensions: 8.5" W by 2" H by 7" D. Weight: 7 lbs (shipping).
Serial number of unit tested: 83317.
Price: $1595. Approximate number of dealers: 180.
Manufacturer: Audio Alchemy Inc., Westlake Village, CA 91362 (1996). Company no longer in existence (2012).
Subsequent to my initial tests of the 8-04/B, I moved the speakers into my video room and tried them for reproducing film soundtracks. I wasn't too surprised to find them superb for this application. Dialog intelligibility was better than it has ever been before, their tremendous dynamic range gave unprecedented impact to blockbuster soundtracks, and their outstanding imaging capability revealed something I had never noticed before, nor even thought about before: The sounds of moving objects often don't track their visual…