Analog Source: Linn Sondek LP12 turntable with Lingo power supply, Linn Ekos tonearm, Linn Arkiv B cartridge.
Digital Sources: Aurender N10 music server; Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP universal player; dCS Rossini CD player & Rossini Clock; PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream D/A converter; AudioQuest JitterBug, UpTone Audio ReGen USB cleaner-uppers; Mac mini running Vinyl Studio, Pure Music 3; Ayre Acoustics QA-9 USB and Benchmark ADC1 A/D converters.
Phono Preamplifiers: Linn Linto, Liberty Audio B2B-1, Channel D Seta L.
Power Amplifiers: MBL…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Magico S5 Mk.II's frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 for the nearfield and in-room responses. A complication was that the 220-lb loudspeaker was too bulky for me to move it outside for the testing, or to lift it onto my computer-controlled turntable. I therefore had to do the quasi-anechoic measurements in my listening room, where the proximity of room boundaries led to more than usually aggressive windowing of the time-domain data, which in turn reduced the…
Register to win a pair of AudioQuest NightOwl Carbon Headphones ($699.00 Retail Value) we are giving away.
According to the company:
A direct descendant of AudioQuest's award-winning NightHawk headphone, the closed-back NightOwl Carbon replaces its predecessor's biomimetic sound-diffusing grille with an intelligently designed aperiodic damping system for excellent isolation of external noise, ensuring privacy for the listener and those nearby.
NightOwl ships with two sets of earpads—Protein Leather Boost Pads for slightly enhanced treble clarity and Ultrasuede pads for…
The Swiss Radio Days series of CD releases on the TCB Records label has been around since the mid-1990s and while they always looked on paper to have the goods—potentially important and revelatory live performances recorded by Radio Television Suisse in the 50’s and 60s—the music therein never quite grabbed me as I hoped it might. While they had early success with a pair of Art Blakey Jazz Messenger shows from 1960, there were too many mediocre big bands past-their-prime releases along the way. And too many Oscar Peterson records which if you’ve heard one, you pretty much heard them all.…
On January 23, 2017, telecoms company Sprint acquired 33% of the Tidal music streaming service. According to the press release jointly issued by the two companies, the deal guarantees that Tidal, which now claims a catalog of over 42.5 million songs and 140,000 "high quality videos," will become available to Sprint's 45,000,000 retail customers, who will gain "unlimited access to exclusive artist content not available anywhere else."
Jay Z and Tidal's "artist-owners" will continue to run the service, while Sprint CEO, Marcelo Claure will join Tidal's Board of Directors. According to…
My first attempt at writing this piece began with a list of the Top Ten Audio Products I Wish Were Still in Production. Unfortunately, that proved unworkable. Although some of my selections—the Audio Research SP-6C preamplifier, the Stax ELS-F81 loudspeaker—were straightforward, it turned out that most of the others were burdened with complications. Examples: It's no longer feasible to mass-produce Bakelite headshells for a revival of the original Ortofon SPU or similar phono pickup. It's no longer possible to obtain the precisely correct vacuum tubes and other components required to return…
Tonearm installed and turntable adjusted, I set about adjusting the UniArm's overhang, lateral tracking angle, arm height, antiskating, downforce, and azimuth. That last one is notable: For whatever reason, the UniArm's sliding-weight adjustment had a much greater effect on azimuth than the outwardly similar adjustment on the Naim Aro. The laminated-paper protractor supplied with the UniArm—the Rega version of which has an effective length of 239.3mm and a headshell offset of 23°—offers separate alignment grids for the Löfgren and Baerwald geometries; results achieved with the latter…
Sidebar: Contacts
Audio Origami, Scotland, UK. Web: www.audioorigami.co.uk. US distributor: Fidelis Music Systems, 460 Amherst Street (Route 101A), Nashua, NH 03063. Tel: (603) 880-4434. Web: www.fidelisav.com
Little Fwend, Jens Bjelkes Gate 47B, 0578 Oslo, Norway. Web: www.littlefwend.com. US distributor: Music Direct, 1811 W. Bryn Mawr Avenue, Chicago, IL 60660. Tel: (800) 449-8333, (312) 433-0200. Fax: (312) 433-0011. Web: www.musicdirect.com
"I'm a recording engineer, so I value accuracy," said a panelist in a discussion—titled "How to Read Between the Lines of Audio Advertising"—at last October's Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. I, too, was on the panel, which was moderated by Brent Butterworth, a writer for the SoundStage! Network of online audio magazines.
"Accuracy is overrated," I interjected from the other end of the dais. "Accurate to what? To your sonic tastes? To what you hear on your preferred loudspeakers? Other than one's personal preferences, I'm not sure the term accuracy has much meaning."
I then qualified…
Like the 2110, the 2150s produced stable images and clearly defined soundstages with familiar recordings. Inevitably, this meant I heard surprises from some of those recordings—some sounded better, more intense than I'm used to; others sounded more shrill, and/or less enticing in other ways. For instance, Markus Schwartz and Lakou Brooklyn's Equinox, a remarkable digital recording (24-bit/96kHz WAV files, Soundkeeper SR1002) that I wrote about in my review of the Boulder 2110, was intensified by greater transparency, and better edge definition and background "blackness"; other recordings—…