Analog Sources: Linn Sondek LP12 & Lingo turntable & power supply, Linn Ittok tonearm, Spectral cartridge; Day-Sequerra 25th Anniversary FM Reference tuner.
Digital Sources: Bryston BCD-1 CD player, Bryston BDP-2 media player with IAD soundboard; Bryston BDA-3 DAC; Oppo BPD-103 universal Blu-ray player; Sony SCD-C555ES SACD/CD player; Lenovo P50 laptop computer running Windows 10 Pro (64-bit), Bryston USB driver, JRiver Media Center 22.
Preamplifiers: Bryston BP-26, Mark Levinson No.526.
Power Amplifiers: Mark Levinson No.334 (stereo)…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Saturday March 4, 1–5pm, Suncoast Audio in Sarasota, Florida (7353 International Place, Unit 309, Sarasota) will be hosting its grand opening. Suncoast Audio will be showcasing the latest products from Magico, Focal, Vandersteen, Raidho, Avantgarde, VPI, Soulution, Ayre, Berkeley, Aurender, Esoteric, Chord, Lampizator, AudioQuest, Aavik, Ansuz, Siltech, and many more.
Saturday, March 4, from 5–9pm, Musical Artisans (8335 Keeler Avenue, Skokie, IL 60076) will host their winter open-house event, introducing Nagra Audio and the Helix 1 turntable by Mark Döhmann to the Chicago area…
New England Audio Resource's NEAR-50M is a cyborg: metal innards in a wooden body. It represents NEAR's top statement in the firm's Metal Diaphragm Technology speaker line, which features the "NEAR-Perfect" driver cone. Metal—in this case an anodized aluminum alloy—is much more rigid than paper or plastic. Hence, a driver with a metal cone acts more nearly as a true piston. When it comes to loudspeaker cones, breaking up is not hard to do. When that happens, the cone flexes in a complex pattern, generating harmonic distortion. A typical plastic or paper 8" woofer may experience its first…
Sidebar 1: Measurements
Looking first at the NEAR-50M's electrical impedance and phase (fig.1), the valley at 30Hz reveals the port tuning. Overall, the impedance is more like that of a 5 ohm than an 8 ohm speaker, with a precipitous drop almost to 2 ohms centered at 8kHz. (I assume the specified impedance minimum of 5 ohms is a typographical mistake.) The '50M will be a hard speaker to drive; I find it surprising that DO and other reviewers have used tube amplifiers with it, which will tend to reduce energy around this mid-treble minimum due to the interaction between the amplifier's…
Sidebar 2: Specifications
Description: Three-way reflex-loaded, floor-standing loudspeaker. Frequency response: 30Hz–23kHz, ±2dB. Sensitivity: 91dB/W/m. Impedance: 8 ohms nominal, 5 ohms minimum.
Dimensions: 48" H by 10.5" W by 12" D (base). Weight: 55 lbs each net.
Serial numbers of review samples: 14021/14022 & E015263/015264.
Price: $1550/pair in "black oak" laminate, $1850/pair in walnut, oak, or black oak veneer; upgrade to 50-ML crossover, $200 (1992); no longer available (2017). Approximate number of dealers: 103. Warranty: 10 years against defects in workmanship…
The power-amp saga continues. For months, I've been plowing through the market, searching for something to drive my three front speakers. (I use a two-channel amp for the surrounds.) It can be a three-channel amp or three monoblocks—it just has to sound great with my speakers, and be light enough that I can lift it by myself when I need to rearrange my system. I'd finally settled on Classé's Sigma Monos for their transparency, and because I can manage their weight, one at a time. At the CEDIA Expo in September 2016, I saw two more candidates worthy of consideration. Review samples of both…
In direct comparisons with Parasound's Halo A 31 three-channel amp, the AT543nc seemed to offer more lower midrange, less treble, marginally more richness, and a slight tilt in balance. The ATI seemed to present a bit less air and space, but I can't say whether the Parasound is any more accurate in this regard. However, all that was noted only briefly upon switching from one amp to the other. The ATI and Parasound both had smoother, more enjoyable sound with Focal's Sopra No3 speakers than did the Classé Sigma Monos, which unsympathetically revealed some upper-midrange glare in some…
The path of an audiophile is one of arduous sonic pursuit. Such a worthy cause is often accompanied by an unquenchable aesthetic thirst.
With this video we introduce the "1 Minute Audiophile Escape": the first of many in our series of experiential segments purely dedicated to audiophile eye candy.
This video features a system that John Atkinson and I listened to last month in Chicago at the Vivid Audio Giya G1 Spirit loudspeaker debut.
The system features:
TechDAS Airforce 3 turntable ($29,750)
Graham Elite 9" tonearm ($12,000)
Koetsu Jade Platinum…
Call me perverse, or perhaps I've just been around too many musicians for too long, but the part of Exhibitionism, The Rolling Stones traveling show that I liked best was the very opening display in which you walk into a facsimile of the apartment that the five band members once shared in London when they were starting out.
Disheveled would be a compliment. "Dump" or "hovel" would be a significant step up from this rat trap. It was so realistic that I was watching for mice and bugs running between the rubbish piles in the kitchen. You could almost smell the rotting garbage and unwashed…
You may never before have heard of Flemish composer Giaches de Wert (b. 1535 somewhere in the region of Antwerp or Ghent), nor listened to his sacred motets, which I auditioned as a native DSD64 download from NativeDSD. Regardless, his music's supreme beauty, captured in convincingly natural spaciousness on Harmonia Mundi's latest DSD-native hybrid SACD from the 13-member, English vocal ensemble, Stile Antico, will likely sweep you away.
De Wert spent most his life in Mantua, Italy, where he served as maestro di cappella in Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga's chapel of Santa Barbara. Known mainly as…