Digital Sources: Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP SACD/CD player; Marantz NA-11S1 media server; Apple 2.7GHz i7 Mac mini running OS10.7.5, iTunes 10, Pure Music 1.89; Auralic Vega, NAD M51, Electrocompaniet ECD-2 D/A converters; Ayre QA-9 A/D converter.
Preamplification: Pass Labs XP-30 line preamplifier.
Power Amplifiers: MBL Corona C15, Pass Labs XA60.5 (both monoblocks).
Loudspeakers: Joseph Audio Perspective, Vivid Giya G3, Wilson Audio Specialties Alexia.
Cables: Digital: Apogee 110 ohm (AES/EBU), AudioQuest Coffee, Belkin Gold (USB).…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 3: Measurements
As the NAD M50 has only digital outputs, the most important thing to measure is the quality of those outputs. Using my top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It" and www.ap.com), I connected the M50's AES/EBU output, which I'd used for all of my listening, to one of its AES/EBU inputs using a 45' length of Apogee 110 ohm balanced cable.
The SYS2722's input impedance was set to 110 ohms; the NAD's AES/EBU output impedance was close to this at 125 ohms. Playing 24-bit files, all 24 bits were active in the M50's…
Although they were released twenty years ago, they are four albums possessed of a timeless beauty, an inexplicable magic, a sound and an energy that changed indie rock forever yet one so of itself, so wonderfully strange, that it’s nearly impossible to describe and as it turns out, even harder to recapture.
Surfer Rosa, Doolittle, Bossanova and Trompe le Monde (1988-1991) masterpieces all, as well as the mini–LP Come On Pilgrim, were always unfollowable. Any attempt was pre–programmed to fail, sure to disappoint, bound to be picked apart, which begs the question: why try now?
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It's no secret that brick-and-mortar stores have had a rough time lately, with closures at an alarming rate. It's rare to encounter a new store that is devoted to high-performance audio and video. A store that fits this description opened recently in the picturesque village of Unionville, just outside Toronto. Unionville is one of the most affluent areas in the Greater Toronto Area, with an average household income of $127,900. Distinguished from the other two Toronto suburban Update TV & Stereo stores by the "Elevated" moniker, the Unionville store is in a converted church, right on Main…
It's no secret that brick-and-mortar stores have had a rough time lately, with closures at an alarming rate. It's rare to encounter a new store that is devoted to high-performance audio and video. A store that fits this description opened recently in the picturesque village of Unionville, just outside Toronto. Unionville is one of the most affluent areas in the Greater Toronto Area, with an average household income of $127,900. Distinguished from the other two Toronto suburban Update TV & Stereo stores by the "Elevated" moniker, the Unionville store is in a converted church, right on Main…
Making a recording is always a personal journey—everyone has a story to tell. Jazz violinist Regina Carter's latest, Southern Comfort, is an eloquent musical expression of Carter tracing the roots of her paternal lineage back five generations. For the project's sound engineer, Joe Ferla, it's the final project of a engineering career, and the beginning point of his new life as a practicing musician. The entwining of these journeys gives the album's music and sound a rare honesty.
Released by Sony Masterworks, Southern Comfort began as a Web addiction. "I got hooked on this Ancestry.com…
I'm sure that the larger manufacturers were displaying new audio/video receivers and preamplifier-processors at the Las Vegas Convention Center last January, during the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show—but except for dinner, I didn't get out of the Mirage, where I slept, or the Venetian Tower Suites, where the high-end audio displays were concentrated. Still, there were new developments to report; see Stereophile's almost live on-line coverage.
Most interesting was the demonstration of a new approach to room equalization, presented by the canny folks from Dirac Research. Using a 7.2-channel…
Krell Foundation preamplifier-processor
I've been waiting for the Foundation, Krell Industries' lowest-priced preamplifier-processor, ever since its first appearance, at the 2013 CES. Krell announced at the New York Audio Show in April 2013 that they had started shipping Foundations, but apparently sales were so brisk that no review sample could be shaken loose—I was left to envy happy users posting their joys on the Internet.
I've been waiting for the Foundation, Krell Industries' lowest-priced preamplifier-processor, ever since its first appearance, at the 2013 CES. Krell announced at the New York Audio Show in April 2013 that they had started shipping Foundations, but apparently sales were so brisk that no review sample could be shaken loose—I was left to envy happy users posting their joys on the Internet.
At $6500, the Foundation is priced significantly above the range occupied by pre-pros from Integra, Marantz, Onkyo, and Yamaha. In common with $10,000+…