Description: Network-connected D/A processor with volume control. Digital inputs: 2 AES/EBU (XLR), 3 75-ohm coaxial (BNC), 3 TosLink, 2 USB (Type B), 1 Ethernet. Analog outputs: 1 pair balanced (XLR), 1 pair unbalanced (RCA), 3 headphone (¼" and 3.5mm, unbalanced; 2x3.5mm, balanced). AyreLink communication system. Digital formats supported: 16/20/24 bits/44.1–384kHz PCM; DSD64/128 (DoP). Frequency response and THD+N: not specified. Maximum output level: 4.5V RMS (balanced), 2.25V (unbalanced), line outputs; 9V (balanced), 4.5V (unbalanced), headphone outputs.…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Aurender N10 music server; Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP universal player; Chord DAVE DAC; PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream D/A converter with Bridge II network adapter; Ayre Acoustics QB-9DSD USB DAC; AudioQuest JitterBug, UpTone Audio ReGen USB cleaner-uppers; Mac mini running Pure Music 3, Audirvana, Tidal HiFi, Vinyl Studio, Roon 1.3 apps; Ayre Acoustics QA-9 USB ADC; NetGear router.
Preamplifier: Ayre Acoustics KX-5 Twenty.
Power Amplifiers: MBL Corona C15 monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Bowers & Wilkins 805 D3, Dynaudio Contour…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Ayre Acoustics QX-5 Twenty with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"), using both the Audio Precision's optical and electrical digital outputs, USB data sourced from my MacBook Pro running on battery power with Pure Music 3.0 playing WAV and AIFF test-tone files, and via Ethernet with Roon 1.3 playing the same files. Apple's USB Prober utility identified the Ayre as "Ayre USB Interface" from "Ayre Acoustics," and the serial number as "Streamlength(tm)." The QX-5's USB port operated in the optimal isochronous…
Saturday August 26, from 1–5pm, Sandy Gross, President of GoldenEar Technology, will be presenting GoldenEar's new flagship Triton Reference loudspeaker at New Jersey retailer Electronics Expo (491 US 46 West, Wayne NJ). The Triton Reference sits above Stereophile's "Joint Loudspeaker of 2015", the Triton One, which is still very much current and available. Stereophile reviewer Robert Deutsch wrote after hearing the Triton Reference at their debut at last January's CES, "The Triton Reference presents a serious challenge to speakers in the multi-$10k range. . ." Saturday's event will be a good…
Jim Austin wrote about the Orangutan O/96 in September 2017 (Vol.40 No.9):
In my May 2009 Follow-Up review of DeVore Fidelity's Gibbon Nine loudspeaker (footnote 1), I said it was quite wonderful. I bought a pair. Though I heard a slight "woody" coloration, I didn't consider that a flaw. In my subsequent conversations with the speaker's designer, John DeVore, he disagreed with my characterization, arguing that what I was hearing was authentic, natural sound—the sound captured on the recordings of acoustic music that I was listening to.
What DeVore said was plausible; maybe other…
Herb Reichert reviewed the Bel Canto e.One REF600M in September 2017 (Vol.40 No.9):
During the listening for my review of Dynaudio's Contour 20 loudspeaker in the April 2017 issue, it became embarrassingly obvious to me that I needed a reasonably priced high-power amplifier that could look down the barrel of a 4-ohm loudspeaker impedance and not flinch or buckle. I needed said amp to be light and small enough that I could lift it and move it about with ease—something, perhaps, based on Bruno Putzeys's well-regarded NCore class-D module, and with a well-regarded audio pedigree. I needed an…
In January of 2014, some of us wondered if the sudden death of designer Ken Shindo would spell the end of the company he founded in 1977: It was hard to imagine Shindo Laboratory being led by anyone but its founder, a former Matsushita engineer who made it his life's work to study not only the designs of audio's golden age, but to learn the sound of every vacuum tube, every passive part, every circuit variation that he might reasonably press into service. Ken Shindo wasn't just a builder—he was one part engineer, one part curator, and one part master chef, and his work stood, so far as I…
As with the Masseto, the power supply of the new Monbrison is built around a sturdy Denki mains transformer and a 6X4 rectifier tube—just one 6X4 instead of the Masseto's two—supplemented with solid-state, full-wave rectifiers for tube heaters. The new power supply appears to have more current-smoothing chokes than its predecessor, and Takashi revisits the earlier Shindo practice of using aluminum-can electrolytic capacitors alongside newer types.
All of the above is built into a steel enclosure somewhat bigger than the Masseto's—approximately 715 vs 560 cubic inches—but that breaks…
As a salt-and-pepper–haired bachelor living in present-day Manhattan, I admit to participating in mating rituals that have included electronic divining tools and computer-aided pleasure machines. In a phrase: online dating.
From various sites whose names begin with O or M, and which can lead to S or M with a stranger who may or may not be who or what she claims to be, I've had private zones tickled silly, and as often have found the process to be confusing, depressing, or both. I've been happily hijacked by a flexible Broadway singer, met a she who was really a he, and even found…
Once the sound of a reference audio system is known, any new kid on that block must meet the mature listener between his or her ears. Some listeners want their imaginations fired and set free by a sound system, some seek thrills, some ruthlessly pursue auditory and musical information, and others listen only for the facts. And everyone's audio heart beats at a different rate.
When a new product enters my reference rig, I listen for tone, dynamics, texture—and, to lesser degrees, resolution, soundstaging, and leading-edge definition. For me, replicating music is ultimately about color…