Another difference: Bley recorded this in 2008, when he was 75, and he sounds just as energetic as when he was 20, back in 1953, on his debut LP, Introducing Paul Bley, with Charles Mingus and Max Roach as sidemen. (He also recorded in the '50s with Charlie Parker,…
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Paul Bley's Play Blue: Oslo Concert (on the ECM label) is a bracing solo piano album. Think Keith Jarrett, with less Rachmaninoff and more Monk, but the distinctions sway on the margins. Bley too is a romantic improviser, immersed in jazz idiom but classically trained (and he lets it show, though less showily than Jarrett).
Audiophiles spend a lot of time thinking about the law of diminishing returns. We'd all agree that spending $1000 to replace an iPhone and generic earbuds with one of Stephen Mejias's "Entry Level" systems is in the early, steep part of the curve: a huge jump in performance for relatively small investment. We'd also agree, or at least suspect, that after you've spent that $1000, the curve gets a lot flatter. What we don't agree on is the shape of the curve between these points. The ideal situation is to find the knee: the point at which the curve's slope changes dramatically. At the knee, we…
The CD32 still added a bit of extra body and warmth, but much less than the CD31. This, too, seemed less a frequency-response variation than a slight difference in the level of focus and clarity. When I listened very carefully, the CD32 was a little more detailed and transparent through the midrange than above or below it. In the Brahms, for example, the violins were right there. They had a stunning amount of inner detail, and their images were sharply bounded in three dimensions. The cellos, in contrast, were gorgeously warm and rich but not quite as detailed.
Again, when I listened…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Single-box CD player. Analog outputs: 1 pair unbalanced (RCA), 1 pair balanced (XLR). Digital outputs: 75 ohm S/PDIF (RCA), 110 ohm AES/EBU (XLR), optical (TosLink). Inputs: USB, RS-232, IR input (3.5mm), trigger in/out (3.5mm). Maximum output level (fixed): 2.1V unbalanced, 4.1V balanced. THD+noise: <0.01%, 20Hz–20kHz. Output impedance: 390 ohms unbalanced, 47 ohms balanced. Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz, +0/–0.5dB. Signal/noise ratio (20Hz–20kHz): 100dB, unweighted. Power consumption: 0.5W standby, 25V operation.
Dimensions: 17" (430mm) W…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Spiral Groove SG-2, VPI HR-X turntable-tonearm combinations; Lyra Titan i, Grado Signature Reference phono cartridges.
Digital Sources: Primare CD31 CD player.
Preamplification: Sutherland Engineering Phono Blocks & Duo phono preamplifiers; Sutherland Engineering Line Blocks, Simaudio Moon Evolution 850P, Placette Active, Primare Pre32 line stages.
Power Amplifiers: Simaudio Moon Evolution 880M monoblocks, Primare A34.2, VTL Ichiban (MB750 Signature) monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties Sophia 2.
…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I looked at the Primare CD32's measured performance using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and the January 2008 "As We See It"). For some tests, I also used my vintage Audio Precision System One Dual Domain. Unless otherwise mentioned, the measured results refer to the player used with its upsampling turned off and were taken from the balanced outputs. I tested the Primare's behavior only with test signals on CD; the CD32 didn't recognize uncompressed files stored on a flash drive plugged into its rear-panel USB port, only MP3s.
Error…
When I began my journey into audiophilia, I was in awe of the Audio Research Corporation's flagship SP preamplifiers. As I sat there in the early 1980s with my modest Apt Holman preamp, all of my friends had ARC SP6Bs. By today's standards, the SP6B was colored, did not portray a realistic soundstage, and lacked sufficient gain to amplify the low-output moving-coil cartridges of the day. But it had an intimacy in the midrange that was intoxicating. (Still considered a classic design by many, the SP6B's price on the used market has remained virtually unchanged for 30 years.) Then, still in…
With really good orchestral recordings, such as Analogue Productions' new reissues of recordings by Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony—Mussorgsky-Ravel's Pictures at an Exhibition (LP, RCA Living Stereo/Analogue Productions LSC-2201) and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade (LSC-2246)—the CSO was reproduced with forceful dynamics, no compression, and a vibrant, airy facsimile of the recording venue's acoustic. In both of these recordings, all instruments were perfectly delineated across a wide, deep stage. And with Penderecki's Cello Concerto 1, with soloist Siegfried Palm and the composer…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Fully balanced hybrid preamplifier. Tube complement: four 6H30 dual triodes. Frequency response: Line: 2Hz–80kHz, ±3dB. Phono: 10Hz–20kHz, ±0.1dB of RIAA; 5Hz–80kHz, ±0.4dB. Headphone: 20Hz–20kHz, ±0.05dB. THD+noise: Line: <0.003% at 2V RMS, balanced output. Phono: <0.005% at 3V RMS output to Record Out. Headphone: <0.009% at 1V RMS output. Gain: Line: 13.8dB. Processor: 0dB. Phono: 58dB at 1kHz to Record Out. Headphone: 11.3dB. Noise: Line: <–101dBV volume at max. Phono: <–77dBV to Record Out. Headphone: <–88dBV volume at max.…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: VPI TNT IV, Rega Planar 3 turntables; Immedia, Syrinx PU-3 tonearms; Koetsu Urushi, Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood cartridges.
Digital Sources: Lector CDP-7T, Creek Destiny CD players.
Preamplification: Vendetta Research SCP-2D phono stage; Audio Valve Eklipse, Zesto Leto line stages.
Power Amplifier: Audio Research Reference 75.
Loudspeakers: Epos M16i, Monitor Audio Silver RS6, Nola Viper Reference III.
Headphones: Grado SR125, Grado SR60, Sennheiser HD600, Shure 535, Beats Solo, and Beats Powerbeats.
Cables:…