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Recording of June 2017: Silent Light

Dominic Miller: Silent Light
Dominic Miller, guitar; Miles Bould, percussion
ECM 2518 (CD). 2017. Manfred Eicher, prod.; Jan Erik Kongshaug, eng. DDD? TT: 41:06
Performance *****
Sonics *****

It was a pairing that seemed right from the very start: ECM's founder, Manfred Eicher, a man renowned for having an unmatched ear for talent and exacting sound-engineering skills; and guitarist Dominic Miller, an internationalist who was born in Argentina, raised in Racine, Wisconsin, and now lives in Provence, France, and who's spent more than 20 years playing and writing with Sting…

Balance

Balance is certainly a lovely concept, as well as a lofty ideal. But achieving an optimal sonic balance in a high-end audio system—whose final sound is determined, in part, by interactions among any number of components and that great bugaboo, the listening room—while maintaining some semblance of psychic equilibrium can be the hardest goal of all.

One dictionary defines the noun balance as "a condition in which different elements are equal or in the correct proportions," as well as "mental and emotional steadiness." In the largest sense, balance describes the place where two or more…

Bill Frisell and Thomas Morgan's Small Town on ECM

At this point in his hugely varied and successful career it's tempting to pull out the old cliché and rhetorically ask, "Is there anything Bill Frisell can't do?"

Initially tagged as a jazz cat, guitarist Frisell has moved far beyond that and shown remarkable ability in musical genres as widely diverse as surf guitar and Americana. On Small Town, his latest album, a program of duets with bassist Thomas Morgan recorded live at the Village Vanguard in NYC and produced by the founder, owner, and visionary behind ECM Records, Manfred Eicher, Frisell again shows his affinity for American roots…

Chord Electronics DAVE D/A processor

Fifteen years? Has it really been 15 years since I reviewed what was then the flagship D/A processor from English company Chord Electronics? In the July 2002 issue, here's how I summed up my review of the Chord DAC64: "While the Chord Electronics DAC64 is undoubtedly expensive, it is eye-poppingly gorgeous. . . . many listeners should find its silky-smooth highs seductive, as well as its slightly larger-than-life lows." How times and prices change—the "undoubtedly expensive" DAC64 cost only $3040! I did make a couple of criticisms of the DAC64 in my review, but according to Wes Phillips, in…

Chord Electronics DAVE D/A processor Page 2

Watts again: "Bob Cordell proposed nested feedback loops in the 1980s as a way of improving amplifier performance. . . . [W]hat he was proposing was equivalent to a second-order analog noise shaper [that] eliminates distortion. There is a huge amount of negative feedback available with a nested feedback stage, even at 20kHz. The benefit is that when you plug in a 33 ohm load, there is no increase in distortion at all. In all my DACs I've got a very simple analog structure. From Mojo right up to DAVE, it comes down to two resistors and two capacitors and a single amplification stage . . .…

Chord Electronics DAVE D/A processor Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: D/A processor with volume control. Digital inputs: 1 AES/EBU (XLR), 4 75 ohm coaxial (BNC), 2 TosLink, 1 USB (Type B). Analog outputs: 1 pair balanced (XLR), 1 pair unbalanced (RCA), 1 headphone. Digital formats supported: 32–768kHz PCM in 32-bit; DSD64/128/256/512. Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz, ±0.1dB. THD+N: –127.5dB ref. 0dBFS. Dynamic range: 127.5dB. Output impedance: 0.0055 ohm (short-circuit–protected).
Dimensions: 13.2" (334mm) W by 2.8" (71mm) H by 6.1" (154mm) D. Weight: 15.4 lbs (7kg).
Finishes: Silver, Black.
Serial number…

Chord Electronics DAVE D/A processor Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Digital Sources: Aurender N10 music server; Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP universal player; Meridian Ultra DAC; 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, Tidal HiFi, Vinyl Studio 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, Rockport Technologies Avior II.
…

Chord Electronics DAVE D/A processor Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

I measured the Chord DAVE with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"), using both the Audio Precision's optical and electrical digital outputs and USB data sourced from my MacBook Pro running on battery power with Pure Music 3.0 playing WAV and AIFF test-tone files. Apple's USB Prober utility identified the Chord as "Dave" from "Chord Electronics Ltd," with the serial number "413-001." The DAVE's USB port operated in the optimal isochronous asynchronous mode. Apple's AudioMIDI utility revealed that, via USB, the DAVE accepted 32-…

Chris Cornell & the Singles Soundtrack

Was just listening to the deluxe edition of Singles: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, which is to be released tomorrow, May 19, when the news of Chris Cornell's unexpected death was announced. Very sad news and our sympathies go out to his family and all who loved his music in Soundgarden and Audioslave, and on the solo records.

Sappy as it is, Singles, Cameron Crowe's big, sloppy valentine to the Seattle music scene, is redeemed primarily by the soundtrack in which Cornell plays a prominent part, and Matt Dillon's hilarious portrayal of the almost famous dunderhead Cliff Poncier, lead…

Volti Audio Rival loudspeaker

If, like me, you're a dues-paying audiophile who's circumnavigated the upgrade block a few times, you've seen a lot of gear and set up many systems. I've carried 80-lb line conditioners up the six knee-crunching flights to my bachelor's penthouse, managed 50-lb loudspeakers downstairs to a waiting van, and made more trips to FedEx than I can count. I've owned dozens of audio products and reviewed dozens more.

In hopes that with perseverance comes wisdom, I of course practice what I consider to be the skills of precisely executed system setup, even—or especially—in the case of…