Description: Solid-state, MOSFET monoblock power amplifier. Inputs: 1 balanced (XLR), 1 unbalanced (RCA). Outputs: 2 pairs binding posts. Power outputs: 400W into 8 ohms (26dBW), 700W into 4 ohms (25.4dBW), 1100W into 2 ohms (24.4dBW). Frequency response: 0Hz–500kHz, –3dB. Input impedance: 3k ohms, 100pF (balanced); 37k ohms, 100pF (unbalanced). Damping factor: >1800 at 10kHz, >10,000 at 100Hz. Intermodulation distortion (SMPTE 100Hz and 20kHz, 4:1): <–110dB at 50W into 4 ohms. THD+N: <–106dB, 1kHz at 25–700W into 4 ohms. Signal/noise: >125dB.…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: dCS Paganini SACD/CD transport & Rossini DAC (6V output) & Scarlatti clock; Oppo Digital BDP-93 NuForce Edition universal BD player; Apple MacBook Pro computer with Intel i7, SSD, 8GB RAM; external hard drives, USB sticks.
Power Amplifiers: Pass Labs XA200.8 (monoblocks).
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties Alexia.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Diamond (FireWire, Ethernet), Kubala-Sosna Elation!, Nordost Odin 1 & Odin 2 & Valhalla 2 (USB). Interconnect, Speaker, AC: Kubala-Sosna Elation! (all), Nordost Odin 2 (…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured one of the Audionet Max monoblocks (serial no. 9.16.20) with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"). Before doing any testing of a power amplifier, I precondition it by running it at one-third its specified power into 8 ohms for 60 minutes with a 1kHz tone: This power level results in the highest thermal stress on the output devices of an amplifier having a class-B or -AB output stage. The Max turned itself off after 42 minutes, its front panel displaying the message "SEVERE ERROR OVERHEATING." The Audionet's top panel…
Maybe you've seen the widely circulated New Yorker cartoon: Two guys stand in front of a nicely drawn, tubed audio system, under which are shelves full of LPs. One guy says, "The two things that really drew me to vinyl were the expense and the inconvenience."
If you can't laugh at that, you've lost your sense of humor—even acknowledging that, oddly, convenience is the raison d'etre of some recent phono preamplifiers—including Dan D'Agostino Audio's Momentum and the CH Precision P1, both of which offer multiple, switchable, configurable inputs saved in memory. Today's well-heeled vinyl…
While the usual way to start listening to a new audio component is to play familiar recordings, I thought it might be more interesting to start with an unfamiliar record. Les liaisons dangereuses 1960, Thelonious Monk's previously unreleased music for Roger Vadim's film Les liaisons dangereuses (2 180gm LPs, Sam 5 051083 116923), had just arrived, and I was anxious to hear this newly discovered Monk!
Would I be judging the record's sound or the Téssera's? No way of knowing until I played the same album through a reference phono preamp. But Tom Nola had recorded the session on July 27,…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: Tubed phono preamplifier: Tube complement: four 12AX7/ECC83, two 12AU7. Gain settings: 40, 45, and 50dB, MM mode; 60, 65, and 70dB, MC mode. ) Loading options: 47k ohms, 68k ohms, MM mode; 1000, 800, 700, 500, 400, 350, 300, 250, 200, 150, 100, or 50 ohms, MC mode. MM capacitance: 220pF. RIAA accuracy: within ±0.5dB. Noise: –90dBu ref. maximum output. Output impedance: 150 ohms.
Dimensions: 17" (432mm) W by 5.5" (140mm) H by 15" (381mm) D. Weight: 25 lbs (11.35kg).
Price: $12,000.
Manufacturer: Zesto Audio, 3138 Calle Estepa, Thousand…
That old adage about apples falling close to trees has never been more true than it is with the duo of Cody and Luther Dickinson, whose new North Mississippi Allstars record, Prayer for Peace, shows again what good use they have made of the solid foundation their father, the producer Jim Dickinson, left them.
In their solo projects and in the North Mississippi Allstars, they are dedicated traditionalists and modern proponents of the kind of music that was celebrated in the new T Bone Burnett, Robert Redford, and Jack White film and music project, American Epic.
While Cody…
In 2014, Chad Kassem, proprietor of Acoustic Sounds and Analogue Productions, released a 200-gram QRP vinyl pressing of Masterpieces by Ellington, one of the Duke's least-known but possibly finest and finest-sounding albums, to wild acclaim and (by audiophile standards) brisk sales. Now he's put it out at 45rpm, and while the 33 was a startler, the new version—spread out on two LPs, to accommodate the wider grooves—will leave you breathless.
Here's the shocker: this album was recorded in 1950. That is not a typo. It was recorded 67 years ago. It was Ellington's first "long-playing" album…
Want to go from yang to ying by the simple switch of a silver disc? Try seguing from the two supremely energetic, densely populated chamber symphonies of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Adams (b. 1947), which we explored last week, to the far milder and less complicated choral work, Canticles of the Holy Wind (Cantaloupe) from the other Pulitzer Prize in Music-winning Adams, John Luther Adams (b. 1953). Although just six years separate the men, their choices of where to set down roots—John Adams in Berkeley, with frequent sojourns to orchestral residencies and music festivals in major…
At the Los Angeles Audio Show, held June 2–4, John Atkinson spoke with Elac's Andrew Jones about speaker design, building affordable loudspeakers, and Elac's Adante AF-61 speaker, which made its debut at the show, driven by Audio Alchemy amplification.
Back in 2015, one of Andrew's first designs for Elac was the affordable Debut B6 ($279/pair), which Herb Reichert favorably reviewed in April 2016. But at an estimated price of $5000/pair, the new Adante tower occupies a very different price category. JA asks why.