DigiBit, Madrid, Spain. Tel: (34) 915334250. Web: www.ariamusicserver.com. North American distributor: Goerner Audio, 91, 18th Avenue, Deux-Montagnes, Quebec J7R 4A6. Canada. Tel: (514) 833-1977. Web: www.goerneraudio.com
HDPLEX Ltd., 3972 Barranca Parkway, Suite J337, Irvine, CA 92606, Web: www.hdplex.com
Oppo Digital, Inc., 162 Constitution Drive, Menlo Park, CA 94025. Tel: (650) 961-1118. Web: www.oppodigital.com
Schubert: Piano Trio 2, Notturno for Piano & Strings
Trio Alba
Audiomax 9032013 (SACD/CD).
I discovered the second movement of Schubert's Piano Trio 2 in E-flat, D.929, in 1975, when it was used as a stately and insistent motif throughout the film Barry Lyndon. Director Stanley Kubrick said that the piece had "just the right restrained balance between the tragic and the romantic without getting into the headier stuff of later Romanticism." Deeply affected by it, I ran from the theater and purchased a recording, though I no…
It's the "more" that interests me—specifically, the access to equalization that can compensate, at least to some degree, for the inevitable problems created by any listening room of domestic size, particularly in…
Description: Solid-state, class-AB integrated amplifier with Anthem Room Correction (ARC). Analog audio inputs: 4 unbalanced (RCA), 1 balanced (XLR), 2 phono (MC, MM). Digital audio inputs: 2 S/PDIF (RCA), 2 S/PDIF (TosLink), 1 USB, 1 AES/EBU (XLR). Preamplifier outputs: variable, fixed, subwoofer (all RCA). Communication (updates & control): USB, mini USB, Ethernet RJ-45, RS-232, IR in, 12V trigger out. Digital input sample rates: USB: PCM 32/384, DSD at 2.8MHz & 5.6MHz. HDMI & S/PDIF: PCM 24/192. Internal digital processing: 32/192. Power output (…
Digital Source: Marantz UD7007 universal BD player.
Preamplification: Marantz AV8802A surround processor.
Loudspeakers: Energy Veritas V2.8, Monitor Audio Silver 10.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Coffee (USB), Kimber Kable AGDL (coaxial). Speaker: AudioQuest Rocket 88. AC: manufacturers' own.—Thomas J. Norton
While ARC's own computer-screen results show the performance of the system before and after running the room EQ, I also measured the results with an independent system: the Parts Express OmniMic. While this system isn't as sophisticated as the gear John Atkinson uses to measure loudspeakers for Stereophile, it does use a calibrated microphone, and can reveal what ARC is doing to the response.
While the actual equalized responses were performed by ARC using an average of eight or nine microphone positions, the OmniMic plots shown here (all were 1/6-…
I measured the Anthem STR 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. This thermally stresses an amplifier with a conventional class-AB output stage. At the end of the hour, the top panel was a warm 95.4°F (35.3°C), but the exposed tops of the internal heatsinks were too hot to touch, at 150.6°F (65.9°C). Even so, the STR has sufficient heatsinking for its rated power.
The analog inputs can be…
From the early 1950s to his death, Rudy Van Gelder recorded 1000s of sessions for such iconic jazz labels as Savoy, Impulse!, CTI, Prestige and Blue Note at his Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey studio. Notoriously tight-lipped regarding the details of his…
If these Nocturnes are never played better than this, we couldn't care less. These are exquisite performances!
The recording, via RCA Victor's Dynagroove process is a far cry from the earlier excesses that gave Dynagroove its horrid reputation among perfectionists. One is simply not aware of the recording at all, as long as it is…