Jenny Hval did not disappoint. My only criticism of the performance was the lack of people in attendance. Jenny Hval should be seen and heard by many. Then again, to see her so close, so intimately, was a distinct…
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Last night, AudioStream.com's Michael Lavorgna and I attended Jenny Hval's performance at the Mercury Lounge on Houston Street in Manhattan's Lower East Side. Because we first made stops to: browse LPs and chat with Daniel at Other Music, enjoy cask-conditioned ales at d.b.a., and devour some incredibly delicious pies at Rizzo's, we were primed for a memorable evening of music.
It ain’t easy being 59 and living with the fact that what are arguably your best records are now 30 years old. Okay, King of American from `86 is another career highlight. Yet to his credit, Elvis Costello has, unlike many of his contemporaries, thankfully followed the Neil Young model of still giving a damn about being artistically relevant, no matter how much lucre he has stashed or how young his children are. He continues to explore ways to cover new artistic ground and find new modes of musical expression. He remains open to almost any idea, any new way to showcase his voice. This…
In what may be a record period for audio show acquisitions. Connecticut-based trade show company JD Events has acquired AXPONA (Audio Expo North America). The announcement follows on the heels of UK-based The Chester Group's announcement that it has bought Montreal's Salon Son et Image, and gotten out of the way of AXPONA Chicago by moving its New York Show to a fall date in Brooklyn.
In its own words, JD Events "is dedicated to the creation of targeted and innovative industry-leading events that deliver results. The company brings together highly qualified buying audiences, education-…
Everyone's favorite audio show is about to get underway. The Rocky Mountain Audio Fest returns to the Denver Marriott Tech Center on October 11–13.
RMAF may not be the biggest consumer audio show in North America—that honor recently passed to T.H.E. Show Newport Beach—but even without a cigar show, car show, wine show, and airport right across the street, RMAF's 440 brands spread over 138 hotel rooms, 25 big rooms (and three more at the Hyatt across the street), a CANJAM headphone ballroom hosting a record 37 exhibitors, 14 software vendors (CDs, LPs, etc.), and 26 lobby exhibits is…
David Thornberry of Pearland, Texas is the very lucky winner of our VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine from Soundstage Direct Sweepstakes, but he almost didn't get his prize. Once the package hit Mesquite, Texas, it went missing.
At Stereophile, we're no strangers to UPS troubles, but this was something we'd never seen before. The package vanished mid-shipment! Thornberry sent me an email, "I’m going to just guess that it has been damaged or lost." While I was shocked, I assured him to not lose hope. We filed a missing package report.
The next day, the record cleaner showed up…
Tubes?
In a CD player?
Century-old technology embedded in a modern digital design?
I realize that Aesthetix's Saturn Romulus is not the first disc player or D/A processor with tubes, nor will it be the last—but does combining these technologies even make sense? Are audiophiles working at cross purposes to themselves, looking for modern perfection but preferring a little old-school sweetening here and there?
To date, I've stuck with purely solid-state DACs and disc players, but I was curious enough to jump at a chance to audition the Aesthetix Romulus DAC/CD…
But details are what DAC reviews are all about, and that was certainly the case here. Using the Meridian Sooloos music server via the Romulus's S/PDIF input and my Macbook Pro via USB, I cued up several tracks of classical, jazz, and world music that I also had on CD, to assess the input and transport options. I heard little difference; I prefer hard-drive–based media to CDs, but these differences, if any, were too close to reliably call.
Back to the Sooloos and some recent releases from HDtracks.com. First the classics: the entire Rush catalog has been issued in 24/96. The sound ranges…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Tubed CD player with S/PDIF (coaxial and TosLink), AES/EBU and USB digital inputs. Tube complement: two 12AX7, two 6DJ8 or 6922. Audio data accepted: 16, 20, 24-bit word length with sample rates of 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192kHz. Maximum output level without optional volume control installed, RMS: 4.8V balanced, 2.4V single-ended. With volume control installed: the volume setting for standard 2V (SE)/4V (balanced) output is 80. Setting for the same output level as a non–volume-control unit is 82 (2.5V SE, 5V balanced). Output impedance: 300 ohms…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Apple MacBook Pro computer (2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD) running OS 10.6.7, iTunes 10.6, Sonic Studios Amarra 2.5, Songbird 1.9.3, XLD; Western Digital 2TB NAS Device; Oppo BDP-103 universal Blu-ray player; Sooloos/Meridian Digital Media System (Control 15, TwinStore x3); Apple iPad 2, 3 (or "New iPad" or latest or HD or Retina or whatever); Apple iPod Touch 1G; Apple iPhone 4S.
Digital Processors: Benchmark DAC1 USB, M2Tech Young & Palmer DAC & power supply, AudioQuest DragonFly USB DAC, Wadia 121decoding…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I examined the Aesthetix Saturn Romulus's electrical performance with Stereophile's loan sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and the January 2008 "As We See It"); for some tests, I also used my vintage Audio Precision System One Dual Domain. For USB tests, I used my MacBook Pro running on battery power and the Romulus set to USB2.0. I played back test-signal files with Bias Peak Pro, using Apple's AudioMIDI utility to make sure that the sample rate and bit depth were correctly set for each file.
The Romulus's error…