AcroLink 7N-DA2090 Speciale: $2375/1.5m pair
The less-than-snappily named 7N-DA2090 Speciale is technically laudable; commendably, AcroLink publishes the specs for this product's resistance (18milliohm/meter) and electrostatic capacitance (56pF/meter). It's made of 99.99999% pure multistrand copper, arranged in what AcroLink calls a "balanced twin core structure." According to MF, substituting the AcroLink interconnect for his TARA Zero Evolution "produced sharper but not unnaturally defined transients, shorter sustain and decay, and an overall well-detailed and more…
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Named for founding guitarist Simon Nicol's house in the north London suburb of Muswell Hill, Fairport Convention was for a brief period in the late 1960s/early '70s a band bristling with potential. They rapidly became the leading players in the British folk rock movement which drew much of its material and inspiration from the folk music of the British Isles.
They were also expert at covering their contemporaries in the larger folk and rock worlds. From Bob Dylan's "Dear Landlord" to Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne," and even Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Rock and Roller," this was a band that…
The most eagerly anticipated opera release of 2017, Warner's set of 20 remastered complete live opera performances and five filmed recitals by soprano Maria Callas (1923–1977), hit the real and virtual stands on September 15. Commemorating the 40th anniversary of the soprano's death, which occurred on September 16, the physical edition of Maria Callas LIVE: Remastered Live Recordings 1949–1964 includes a 200-page, multi-language booklet that frames introductions to each opera with numerous photographs of Callas both rare and frequently reproduced. Each of the 20 opera sets within the box also…
Art Dudley reviewed the Diamond 225 loudspeaker in October 2017 (Vol.40 No.10):
Just as the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice, the arc of commercial audio seems to bend toward conformity. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the loudspeaker industry, where many once-great manufacturers—great inasmuch as they designed breathtakingly original products, built them to the highest levels of quality, and thus created not only community jobs but also a justification, other than hollow jingoism, for community pride—now exist only as oft-traded names affixed to reflex-loaded…
In this video, we visit Michael Fremer, Senior Contributing Editor to Stereophile, Editor of AnalogPlanet.com, and an unparalleled guru of all things analog.
Eriks Eenvalds: The Doors of Heaven
The First Tears, Rivers of Light, A Drop in the Ocean, Passion and Resurrection
Dr. Ethan Sperry, Portland State Chamber Choir; various instrumentalists
Naxos 8.579008 (CD). 2017. Erick Lichte, prod.; John Atkinson, Doug Tourtelot, engs. DDD. TT: 58:52
Performance ****
Sonics *****
The First Tears, Rivers of Light, A Drop in the Ocean, Passion and Resurrection
Dr. Ethan Sperry, Portland State Chamber Choir; various instrumentalists
Naxos 8.579008 (CD). 2017. Erick Lichte, prod.; John Atkinson, Doug Tourtelot, engs. DDD. TT: 58:52
Performance ****
Sonics *****
Latvian composer Eriks Eenvalds has been making quite a name for himself in choral music. He teeters gingerly between consonance and dissonance, and varies intimate whisperings, the strength of forces—sometimes a solo soprano over the chorus; sometimes…
We got our wish. Phonograph ownership is once again depicted as commonplace, even hip, in popular films, TV shows, and ads for other products. Turntables and LP jackets show up in photos in Elle Decor and Vanity Fair. New LPs are sold in stores in nice neighborhoods, and in malls with Cinnabon franchises and J.Crew stores. A shockingly high percentage of new record releases in which normal people are interested, and a few in which they are not, are now available on vinyl. For the first time in decades, I receive occasional gifts of new LPs—presumably because they're once again easy for…
Previous experience with the brand tells me that VPI sees their record clamp more as a means of flattening warped records than of enhancing playback quality. If so, that's fine by me: The few times I tried it, the clamp was indeed a decent flattener. But in every case, I disliked the clamp's effect on the sound, which I heard as a fairly drastic decrease in spatial scale and an increase in that most difficult to describe of all sonic shortcomings: fussiness. (Someone else may hear those things as an increase in soundstaging accuracy. Each to his own.) Consequently, all of the listening I've…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-speed, belt-drive turntable with unipivot tonearm. Speeds: 331/3 & 45rpm. Wow & flutter: <0.02%. Rumble: <–78dB. Speed accuracy: within 1%. Platter runout: ±0.001". Tonearm pivot–spindle distance: 223mm. Effective tonearm length: 240.7mm. Effective tonearm mass: 10.2gm. Headshell offset angle: 22.85°. Overhang: 17.7mm.
Dimensions: 15" (380mm) W by 8.5" (215mm) H by 19" (480mm) D. Weight: 32 lbs (14.5kg) net, 54 lbs (24.5kg) shipping.
Serial number of unit reviewed: 5690.
Price: $2199. Approximate number of dealers: 90.…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Garrard 301 turntable; EMT 997 tonearm; EMT OFD 15 & TSD 15, Ortofon SPU #1S, Shindo Laboratory SPU pickup heads; Denon DL-103 cartridge, with & without MusiKraft body.
Digital Sources: AudioQuest DragonFly Red, Halide Design DAC HD USB D/A processors; Apple iMac computer (late 2015) running OS 10.12.1 & Roon v.1.2, Build 165; Sony SCD-777 SACD/CD player.
Preamplification: Auditorium 23 Hommage T1 & T2, EMIA Phono (copper) step-up transformers; Sentec EQ11 phono preamplifier; Shindo Laboratory Masseto & Monbrison…