John once worked at a hi-fi retailer in lower Manhattan. Now, as president and chief designer of DeVore Fidelity, he manufactures loudspeakers across the bridge, in the former Brooklyn Navy Yard. I talked with John the other day about his new speaker, the Orangutan O/93.
John makes two Orangutans, both floorstanders: the O/96, with a sensitivity specified as 96dB, over which Art Dudley went ape, in the December 2012 issue. Artie has made the O/96 his…
When I review audio gear, I've found that it's always wise to finish by returning to where I started.
I put the GoldenEar Triton Fives and Simaudio Moon Neo 340i integrated amplifier aside, and returned to my reference Line Magnetic LM-518IA and trusty DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/93s ($8400/pair). Playing Cou$ins Presents . . . A Tribute 2 Studio One & Treasure Isle Records (LP, Cou$ins COUDLP037), I felt I was listening via Studio One's paper-coned monitor speakers. I was…
Description: D/A processor & headphone amplifier. Digital inputs: 1 coaxial S/PDIF (RCA), 1 TosLink, 1 USB Class 2 (Type B). Analog outputs: 1 pair balanced (XLR), 1 pair unbalanced (RCA), 1 headphone on &Q#188;" stereo jack. Digital formats supported: 16–32-bit/44.1–384kHz PCM; DSD128 (DoP); 352kHz, 384kHz & DSD128 are via a precision digital decimation filter. Frequency response (line): –0.05dB at 6Hz, –3dB at 1.5Hz; –0.05dB at 21.4kHz, –3dB at 22.0kHz (44.1kHz data); –0.05dB at 23.2kHz, –3dB at 23.9kHz (48kHz data): –0.05dB at 32.0kHz, –3dB at 47.…
Digital Sources: Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP disc player; NAD Masters Series M50.2 music server; Mytek HiFi Brooklyn, PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream DACs; Meridian 518 format converter; Mac mini running Roon 1.3, MacBook Pro running Pure Music 3.0.
Power Amplifiers: Lamm M1.2 Reference monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Sonus Faber Guarneri Tradition, TAD ME1.
Headphones: Audeze LCD-X.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Coffee (USB), Esperanto (S/PDIF), DH Labs (AES/EBU). Interconnect (balanced): AudioQuest Wild Blue, Canare. Speaker: AudioQuest K2. AC:…
I measured the Prism Sound Callia 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 and USB data sourced from my MacBook Pro running on battery power with Pure Music 3.0 playing WAV and AIFF test-tone files. Apple's USB Prober utility identified the DAC as "Callia" from "Prism Media Products, Ltd.," its serial number as "000001," and confirmed that its USB port operated in the optimal isochronous asynchronous mode. Apple's AudioMIDI utility revealed that, via USB, the…
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In the year since I sampled Brooklyn's music scene—in my November 2016 review of Mytek HiFi's Brooklyn DAC—there's been a lot of local music news. Jay-Z (whose name is or ought to be derived from the subway lines that pass through Williamsburg and Bushwick on the way to Jamaica, Queens) was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the first rap lyricist to be so honored. He released a new album, 4:44, to critical acclaim. (I listened. It's good.) He also had twins—a boy and a girl—with his wife, Beyoncé.…
"Not MQA again!" I'm sure some of you will say, regardless of where you stand on it. The loud debate is often less about how MQA actually sounds and works than about opinions and, to an alarming degree, charges of dishonesty and bias. While Stereophile's John Atkinson and Jim Austin continue to strive to rise above all that, all I want to know is what value MQA might have for my own enjoyment of music.
This is not my first stab at this: In the May 2017 Stereophile I both recounted my long-ago first exposure to MQA, which…