"We're still adding people!" Steve Davis, Director of Sales and Industry Relations exclaimed by phone…
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The biggest audio show in the United States, AXPONA (Audio Expo North America), takes place April 21–23 at the Westin O'Hare in Rosemont, close to Chicago O'Hare International airport. Since planting its roots in America's heartland just a few years back, the show has grown to offer, in 2017, at least 142 active exhibit rooms, 453 unique brands and exhibitors, an Ear Gear Expo so large that it has spilled over into surrounding hallways, and a full schedule of seminars and entertainment.
Audiophilia is dead.
Actually, it retired to an exclusive country club in the sky—but as far as the enduring, salt-of-the-earth audio hobbyist is concerned, it may as well be dead. The reason is simple: The old audiophile paradigm used to be mostly about when we were going to get that top-shelf component we had our eye on; it was rarely an if proposition. That's because, if you were an average, determined audiophile, it wasn't prohibitively expensive to buy top-shelf equipment. That's what made our hobby so exciting back then: the idea that you could actually own the best sound around.…
As I mentioned in my review eight years ago of Meridian Audio's 808.2 Signature Reference CD player, I have long been impressed by the British company's components—in fact, ever since the early 1980s, when I purchased a Meridian 101 preamplifier, followed by my very positive experiences with Meridian's MCD Pro and 208 CD players, 518 digital audio processor, D600 and DSP8000 digital active loudspeakers, and, most recently, the Prime and Explorer D/A headphone amplifiers.
All of the Meridian products we have reviewed until now have been the work of a design team led by Meridian cofounder…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: D/A processor with volume control. Digital inputs: 2 AES/EBU (XLR), 2 coaxial S/PDIF (75 ohm BNC), 2 coaxial S/PDIF (RCA), 2 S/PDIF TosLink, 1 USB 2.0 (Type B), 1 Ethernet (for connection to Meridian Sooloos system), 1 Meridian Speakerlink input. Analog outputs: 1 pair balanced (XLR), 1 pair single-ended (RCA). Digital formats supported: 24-bit/44.1–192kHz data, AES/EBU & S/PDIF; 24/44.1–384k PCM, DXD, MQA, DSD64/128, USB. Power consumption: 40W maximum. No other specifications listed.
Dimensions: 18.9" (480mm) W by 6.9" (175mm) H by 16.2" (…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Aurender N10 music server; Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP universal player; PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream D/A converter with Bridge II network adapter; AudioQuest JitterBug, UpTone Audio ReGen USB cleaner-uppers; Mac mini running Pure Music 3, Audirvana 1.5, Tidal apps; Ayre Acoustics QA-9 USB A/D converter.
Power Amplifiers: MBL Corona C15, Pass Labs XA60.5 (both monoblocks).
Loudspeakers: Aerial Acoustics 5T, Bowers & Wilkins 805 D3, Dynaudio Contour 20, Magico S5 Mk.II.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Coffee. USB: Canare AES/EBU…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Meridian Ultra DAC with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 As We See It"). As well as the Audio Precision's optical and electrical digital outputs, I used Pure Music 3.0 to play WAV and AIFF test-tone files sourced via USB from my MacBook Pro running on battery power. Apple's USB Prober utility identified the Ultra DAC as "Meridian USB input" from "Meridian" and confirmed that its USB port operated in the optimal isochronous asynchronous mode. Apple's AudioMIDI utility revealed that, via USB, the Meridian accepted 16- and 24-bit…
For this 1 Minute Audiophile Escape, we visited longstanding New York hi-fi shop Innovative Audio. This video features three (out of their many) systems readily available at the time of our visit.
Because this 1 Minute Audiophile Escape features a bit more gear than our other videos, here is a list of gear in order of appearance:
Wilson Audio Alexx loudspeakers: $109,000/pair VTL S-400 Reference Series II stereo amplifier: $33,500 Engström & Engström LARS balanced monoblock power amplifier: $55,000/pair Transparent Opus , Generation 5 loudspeaker cable: $39,000/8ft…
The Flying Burrito Brothers: The Gilded Palace of Sin
A&M/Intervention SP 4175 (LP). 1969/2017. Larry Marks, prod.; Henry Lewy, prod., eng.; Kevin Gray, remastering. AAA. TT: 35:24
Performance *****
Sonics ****½
A&M/Intervention SP 4175 (LP). 1969/2017. Larry Marks, prod.; Henry Lewy, prod., eng.; Kevin Gray, remastering. AAA. TT: 35:24
Performance *****
Sonics ****½
The International Submarine Band, the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and finally, just Gram Parsons. He was a Snively on his mother's side, scion of a vast citrus-growing fortune. A trust-fund baby who, unlike most of the struggling musicians he hung out with, could go to a bank and withdraw large amounts of cash. When he was 12, two days before Christmas, his…
The Mark Levinson No.526 is the first preamplifier designed by a new 12-person team led by Todd Eichenbaum, director of engineering at the Harman Luxury Audio Group's Engineering Center of Excellence (ECOE), in Shelton, Connecticut. Designed to fit the price niche between the company's least and most expensive preamps—the No.326S ($10,000) and No.52 ($30,000)—the No.526 costs $20,000.
The new preamp is fully balanced from input to output, direct-coupled, and in key areas employs military-spec thin-film or tantalum-nitride resistors. While the top-of-the-line No.52's power supply is in a…
The No.526 is a modern preamplifier, and setting it up requires more than plugging in interconnects. Eichenbaum ran through its thorough Setup routine, leaving most settings at their factory defaults, including: Auto Off, which puts the preamp in Standby after 20 minutes of inactivity; Green Standby, which conserves more power by shutting down most of the circuits, the No.526 then reactivated by pressing Standby on the remote or front panel; Mute (–40dB); headphone impedance (High); output gain (Variable); 80Hz high-pass output filter (Off); phono infrasonic (rumble) filter (Off); Volume…