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Merging Technologies' original NADAC Multichannel-8 ($11,500) is an impressive device. (NADAC is an acronym for network-attached digital-to-analog converter.) It has eight channels of high-resolution D/A conversion, and two more for its front-panel headphone jack; a cutting-edge Ravenna Ethernet input (based on the AES67 Audio over Internet Protocol, or AoIP); and, to my delight, a real volume-control knob on the front. It handles all resolutions up to 384kHz PCM, DXD, and DSD256, and, in addition to the Ethernet input, it will accept AES/EBU and S/PDIF digital inputs up to 24 bits and 192kHz…
Still, I'm not deaf to the siren songs of cable companies, or the many audiophiles whose praises pepper their ads. Yeah, I want more, but I'm skeptical that there's any to be had, and I sense that very-high-priced cables amount to audio jewelry. Nonetheless, recently I succumbed to temptation and took a flyer on some wire.
Revelation Audio Labs Prophecy CryoSilver Reference DualConduit USB 2.0 Digital Link ($649/1.25m): Revelation Audio Labs' Prophecy DC cables came with my Baetis Prodigy-X. server, and I was impressed with their construction. I then discovered that RAL had a USB cable…
Sidebar 1: Contacts
Merging Technologies, Le Verney 1070, Puidoux, Switzerland. Tel: (41) 21-946-04-44. Fax: (41) 21-946-04-45. Web: www.merging.com. US distributor: Independent Audio Inc., 82 Gilman Street, Portland, ME 04102-3034. Tel. 207 773 2424. Web: www.independentaudio.com
Revelation Audio Labs, Inc., 2 Pine Cone Drive #354061, Palm Coast, FL 32137. Tel: (386) 627-8630. Web: www.revelationaudiolabs.com
Signal HiFi Inc., PO Box 38, Roslyn Heights, NY 11577-0038. Tel: (917) 957-8508. Web: www.signalcable.com
Aqvox Audio Devices, Steilshooper Strasse 118,…
Sidebar 2: Recordings in the Round
Del Tredici: Child Alice
Courtenay Budd, soprano; Gil Rose, Boston Modern Orchestra Project>BR>
BMOP/sound 1056 (2 SACD/CDs). 2017. DDD. TT: 133:44.
I'm thrilled to tell you about this release. Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has been a lifelong fascination for composer David Del Tredici, who in 1980 won a Pulitzer Prize for Part 1 of Child Alice. Since then he's written a stream of similarly inspired works, though they seem linked less by any continuous narrative than by a rich and continuous stream of creativity.…
Stereophile writers have reviewed three versions of Sonus Faber's stand-mounted, two-way loudspeaker, the Guarneri: Martin Colloms on the original Guarneri Homage, in 1994; Michael Fremer on the Memento edition, in 2007; and Art Dudley on the Evolution, in 2012. The Guarneri has always been an expensive speaker—$9400/pair with matching stands in 1995, $15,000 with stands in 2007, $20,000/pair plus $2000 for the stands in 2012—but its prices have been related to its build quality and appearance, both of which have always been superb. Now we have the Guarneri Tradition, for $15,900/pair,…
The speakers were toed in to my listening chair. On their conical feet, the stands are almost 29" tall, which places the tweeters 39" from the floor—I had to sit more upright than usual to raise my ears to the tweeter axes. With the dual-mono pink-noise track on my Editor's Choice (CD, Stereophile STPH016-2), the sound developed a slightly hollow coloration if I sat high enough to see the tops of the cabinets. Sitting with my ears on the tweeter axes, I could hear a slight emphasis in the low treble, though the balance was otherwise relatively even. The central image of the noise was…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-way, reflex-loaded, stand-mounted loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1.1" (28mm) damped-apex silk-dome tweeter, 5.9" (150mm) sandwich-cone mid/bass driver. Crossover frequency: 2.5kHz. Frequency range: 40Hz–35kHz. Sensitivity: 87dB/2.83V/m. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms. Recommended amplification: 30–250Wpc. Long-term maximum input voltage (IEC 268-5): 20V RMS.
Dimensions: 14.85" (377mm) H by 9.4" W (239mm) W by 14.75" (375mm) D. Weight: 35.2 lbs (16kg). Dedicated stand: 29.85" (758mm) H by 12.25" (300mm) W by 15.35" (390mm) D. Weight: 35.2 lbs (16kg).…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Source: Linn Sondek LP12 turntable with Lingo power supply, Linn Ekos tonearm, Linn Arkiv B cartridge.
Digital Sources: Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP universal player;MBL Noble Line N31 CD player–DAC; NAD Masters Series M50.2 digital music player; PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream D/A converter with Bridge II (v.0.2.15) & RedCloud firmware; Mac mini running Roon 1.3, Vinyl Studio; Ayre Acoustics QA-9 USB A/D converter.
Preamplification: NHT Balanced Passive Volume Control; Channel D Seta L phono preamplifier.
Integrated Amplifier: NAD M32.…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Sonus Faber Guarneri Tradition's frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 for the nearfield responses. The Guarneri's sensitivity is specified as 87dB/2.83V/m; my estimate was close to this, at 86.1dB(B)/2.83V/m. How the Sonus Faber's impedance magnitude varies with frequency is shown by the solid trace in fig.1. Although it drops below 4 ohms between 160 and 340Hz, with a minimum value of 3.6 ohms at 125Hz, and there is a combination of 4.5 ohms and –38°…
Devastating in power and impact, Laurie Anderson's sonically all-encompassing, three-dimensional Landfall takes, as its ostensible start, the ravaging impact of Superstorm Sandy. But, given that this evening-long melding of string quartet, text, and electronically-manipulated soundscape, created for and with the Kronos Quartet, is by one of America's most prescient, larger-visioned multi-media performance artists, Landfall ultimately addresses the cataclysmic nature of life in modern times in ways that drive the sense of loss deep into one's being.
It took Kronos founder, violinist David…