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Highway 61 Revisited

Photos: Jim Austin

I'm sitting in a rented Nissan just off Highway 61—yes, that Highway 61—looking out at a Shell station through the bug-stained windshield and across a litter-strewn, not-yet-planted cotton field. It's late March, and I've just left Clarksdale, Mississippi, on my way to Memphis. Leaving Clarksdale made me thoughtful, so I've pulled over to jot down a few notes.

Clarksdale—specifically, the intersection of highways 61 and 49, at the town's southern edge—is the crossroads where, according to legend, Robert Johnson encountered the Devil and exchanged his soul for his…

Listening #187: Shindo Mr. T

In the rural home in Cherry Valley, NY that my family and I inhabited from 2003 to 2017, we had dirty water but clean electricity. Evidence of the latter was seen in the results of tests performed by a technician from the local utility, National Grid—I told him I intended to do commercial sound recording on site, which was close enough to the truth that I considered my sin venal rather than mortal—and heard in the sound of my playback system, which rejected as superfluous or worse all of the AC-conditioning products I tried there. As for that, keep in mind that the purification of power,…

Listening #187: Shindo Mr. T Page 2

Anxious to prolong my mono-maniacal buzz, I reached for an early LP version of soprano Bidú Sayão's 1945 recording of Villa-Lobos's Bachianas Brasileiras 5, with the composer conducting an ensemble of eight cellos and one double bass (LP, Columbia Masterworks ML 5231). With the Mr. T, her voice was more human and compelling than without. Again, tempos seemed steadier, and the plucked notes of the cellos had greater apparent force. It was here that the word Wow made the first of many appearances in my notes.

My Shindo Monbrison preamplifier and Shindo Haut-Brion power amp were beginning to…

Listening #187: Shindo Mr. T Contacts

Sidebar: Contacts

Shindo Laboratory, 20-9, Hongo 2 Chome, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan. Web: www.shindo-laboratory.co.jp. US distributor: Tone Imports. Web: www.toneimports.com

AudioSilente, via Felice Grossi Gondi 29, 00162 Rome, Italy. Tel: (39) 3289610968, 0686323102. Fax: (39) 0686323102. Web: www.audiosilente.com

Adams Takes the Violin Up, Down, Around, and Through

Twenty-five years after the premiere of John Adams' Violin Concerto, the music remains as vital, exhilarating, and strangely moving as the day it was birthed. An extremely demanding work, its three contrasting movements present a triathlon challenge of sorts to anyone who dares try to play them.

Here, she who rises to the challenge is violinist Leila Josefowicz. Provocatively pictured on the CD cover as a curious cross between an athlete in repose and Rodin's reflective thinker, and shown inside the booklet in very hip, thoroughly artistic renegade drag, Josefowicz lives up to her…

Bricasti Design M15 power amplifier

On the second morning of a recent audio show, I walked into the exhibit room of Bricasti Design.

"How about some Mahler?" asked cofounder and designer Brian Zolner.

"Oh God. Not at 10am!"

Listening to Mahler had become de rigueur for my visits to the exhibits of this Massachusetts-based company. From the very first time that Zolner had played part of Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra's recording of Mahler's Symphony 2 (SACD/CD, Channel Classics 23506) through a system that combined Bricasti's M28 monoblock power amplifiers, M1 DAC, and M12 Source Controller…

Bricasti Design M15 power amplifier Page 2

Listening
Having wasted too many hours critically listening to allegedly fully-broken-in gear that was clearly still unready for prime time, I no longer take manufacturer assurances of factory break-in at face value. I cued up a Nordost break-in CD and ran both its break-in and demagnetizing tones through the system continuously at a decent volume for a good three–four days, and began each listening session with an additional 30-minute round of break-in and demagnetization. The M15's sound remained consistent throughout the listening period; it's fair to conclude that it was sufficiently…

Bricasti Design M15 power amplifier Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Solid-state stereo power amplifier. Inputs: 1 unbalanced (RCA), 1 balanced (XLR). Outputs: 1 pair speaker binding posts. Power output: 125Wpc into 8 ohms, 250Wpc into 4 ohms, 500Wpc into 2 ohms (all 21dBW). Frequency response: 10Hz–150kHz, ±0.5dB. Gain: 27dB. Signal/noise: >85dB at full rated power. Input impedance: 100k ohms unbalanced, 200k ohms balanced. Output impedance: N/S. Power consumption: 60W standby, 2W idle.
Dimensions: 17" (430mm) W by 10.5" (265mm) H by 18" (455mm) D. Weight: 90 lb (40.8kg) net, 110 lb (49.9kg) shipping.
…

Bricasti Design M15 power amplifier Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Digital Sources: dCS Paganini SACD/CD transport & Scarlatti clock & Rossini DAC; Intel NUC7i7BNH computer with 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, running Roon; Linksys router with two TP-Link GB Ethernet media converters & multimode duplex fiber-optic cable; iPad Pro, external hard drives, USB sticks.
Preamplifier: Lamm Industries L2.1.
Power Amplifiers: Dan D'Agostino Master Systems Progression monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties Alexia 2.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Diamond (Ethernet), Nordost Odin 1 & Odin 2 & Valhalla…

Bricasti Design M15 power amplifier Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

I measured the Bricasti Design M15 using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"). Before I test an amplifier, I precondition it with both channels driving a 1kHz tone at one-third power into 8 ohms for an hour. At the end of that time, the Bricasti's top panel was warm, at 101°F (38.3°C), and its heatsinks were hotter, at 103.1°F (39.5°C). The M15 has sufficient heatsinking for its power rating.

The voltage gain at 1kHz from the speaker terminals into 8 ohms measured 26.9dB for both balanced and unbalanced signals, and both…