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Aurender N10 music server JVS April 2019

Jason Victor Serinus wrote about the Aurender N10 in April 2019 (Vol.42 No.4):

John Atkinson reviewed Aurender's N10 music server ($8000, 4TB; add $500 for 8TB capacity) in the April 2016 issue. When he offered me his review sample to use in my review, in the March 2019 issue, of EMM Labs' DV2 DAC, I replied with an enthusiastic "Yes!" As I marveled about the beauty of the Aurender-EMM combo's smooth, warm, nonfatiguing sound, John proposed I write this Follow-Up.

Previously, the only Aurender product that had visited my reference system had been the A10 caching network music…

PS Audio DirectStream Power Plant 12

In the November 2018 issue of Stereophile, Jim Austin reviewed PS Audio's DirectStream Power Plant P20 AC regenerator ($9999). PS Audio had sent me the less expensive DirectStream Power Plant 12 ($4999), hence this review.

Why use an AC regenerator rather than plugging components straight into the wall?

Consider these two ways of powering an audio system:

1) AC power is available at a precise standard voltage and frequency (in North America, these standards are 120V and 60Hz) that do not vary with time of day or load, with no distortion of the 60Hz waveform, a complete…

An Integrated Amplifier Shootout: Ayre Acoustics EX-8 <I>vs</I> Cambridge Audio

In our February 2019 issue, when I reviewed a new integrated amplifier from Colorado-based Ayre Acoustics, I concluded that "the EX-8 Integrated Hub is a high-end contender at a competitive price" (footnote 1). In that review I promised a Follow-Up in which I would compare the EX-8 with Cambridge Audio's Edge A integrated amplifier, which Ken Micallef had positively reviewed in our January 2019 issue (footnote 2). While I'd enjoyed my time with the EX-8, I'd found its balance rather on the light side, and that it projected voices somewhat forward on the soundstage. KM had commented that the…

Gramophone Dreams #27: EleKit TU-8600R amplifier kit

I will never forget.

In 1988 I had my first experience with Western Electric 300B tubes. It took place on a quiet, streetlights-and-snow night at my friend Ryoichi's apartment on Riverside Drive, in Manhattan.

I had never heard of the late Japanese amplifier designer Ken Shindo, of Shindo Laboratory. But that evening, Ryo's audio system was all Shindo: a hammertone gray Shindo-restored, grease-bearing Garrard 301 turntable sitting on a Shindo plinth of glossy wood, with a Shindo-modified Ortofon tonearm and SPU cartridge, a Shindo moving-coil step-up transformer, and a Shindo…

Gramophone Dreams #27: EleKit TU-8600R amplifier kit Page 2

The TU-8600R is obviously not your father's—or Hiroyasu Kondo's, or Ken Shindo's—300B amplifier. When I realized this, I took a slow breath and remembered what all wise philosophers say—"condemnation without examination is prejudice"—and proceeded with my examination.

At least the TU-8600R's case and chassis are old-school. It measures 15.2" wide by 8.5" high by 12.8" deep and weighs 28.2 lb. Its black, crinkle-paint transformer cover and tube cage are definitely old-school. On the brushed-aluminum faceplate is a on/off toggle switch with a little blue On light, a ¼" jack that connects…

Gramophone Dreams #27: EleKit TU-8600R amplifier kit Contacts

Sidebar: Contacts

EleKit, EK Japan Co., Ltd.. Tofuro-minami 2-19-30, Dazaifu-city, Fukuoka, 818-0105, Japan. Tel: (81) 92-923-8235 Web: www.elekit.co.jp. North American importer: VK Music, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Tel: (604) 931-8844: Web: www.vkmusic.ca

Deutsche Elektronenröhren Manufaktur GmbH, Robert-Bosch-Strasse 26a, D-88131 Lindau, Germany. Tel: (49) (0)173-3773747. Web: www.elrog.com

Jean-Michel Jarre: Organic meets Electronic

"I have an organic approach toward music but I've always been interested in electronics," says Jean-Michel Jarre, whose luxurious electronic pop conquered the world in 1976 with his hit album Oxygène. Even today, Oxygène's bubbling tones and saturated textures provide a blissful sonic experience. "I love jazz because of its organic approach to sound, and I've been influenced by that. I always thought that jazz and electronic music have much more in common than we think."

After planting his electronic-music flag, Jarre has enjoyed a level of success shared by few, having sold 80 million…

Jean-Michel Jarre: Organic meets Electronic Page 2

Micallef: What are some of those vintage pieces on the album?

Jarre: I used the Memory Moog, and I just received the new Moog One, the polyphonic synthesizer. This is going to be one of the Stradivariuses of electronic music. It has that very deep analog sound, it has real polyphony, and it's three synths in one. And I'm using lots of plugins also. I used the very classic machines, like the modular Moog and modular ARP, the EMS VCS 3, and a granular-synthesis synthesizer from a young guy [Tasty Chips Electronics] in the Netherlands, the GR-1 Granular Synthesizer. You can do granular…

Philip Glass Premiere from Third Coast Percussion

Philip Glass (b. 1937) may not quite be a household name in America, but he's surely as well-known as any living classical composer, and the repetitive minimalism that is the hallmark of his music has influenced everything from rock music to TV commercials. Still, after 5 decades of composing, it took a commission from Chicago-based Third Coast Percussion for Glass to write his first concerto for percussion ensemble, Perpetulum—"What took them so long to ask me?" Glass has said about the commission. TCP has just released the premiere recording of the 21:23 minute concerto on their new 2-CD…

Lighting Strikes: a Bolt From the Blue

One evening late last summer I took the most expensive workout of my life. In my hurry to meet a friend at the gym, I left the house, leaving my computer and hi-fi on despite the ominous look of the sky. In the South, experience teaches you to dash about disconnecting everything at the first sign of a thunderstorm. Usually I do, but this time my mind was elsewhere.

I headed across town toward my favorite gym. Stopped at a hilltop intersection, I saw one of the new office towers take the biggest lightning strike I have ever seen. The building, 40-some stories of Gothic Modern topped by a…