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Listening #126 PTP Follow-Up

Follow-Up from December 2015 (Vol.38 No.12):

The 1960s were my formative years—an accident of birth, I assure you—and to this day I spend a lot of my time listening to records made during that decade. I do so by playing them on a turntable made in the '60s. Through electronics containing vacuum tubes made in the '60s. Driving a pair of speakers made in the '60s.

Yet although I began buying records in the '60s, the vast majority of my favorites from that era weren't even on my radar at the time of their release—and wouldn't be for decades to come. And because no one in my extended…

AudioStreams #9

I eat bits for breakfast. Lunch is a simple bit-sized snack. And dinner is the analog to real food. This has been my routine these past four years as editor of AudioStream.com, where we digest all things computer audio.

In that time I've reviewed over 100 digital-to-analog converters, ranging in price from $60 to over $12,000. This adds up to roughly 150,000 words spilled on DACs. You'd think my pen would be running dry—especially if you feel, as some do, that all DACs sound pretty much the same. If that were the case, I could have written just one review, for that very first DAC, then…

Audio Note CDT One/II CD transport & DAC 2.1x Signature D/A processor

I don't know much about horses, but I've been given to understand that dead ones don't respond to even the severest beating. In light of that, I'll make only this brief statement—Even with the best playback gear of my experience, I don't derive as much pleasure from CDs as I do from LPs.—and move on to a simpler truth: Regardless of what I think, CD players are still a necessity for most music-loving audiophiles.

The received wisdom of 20 or 25 years ago has been turned on its head: There are now many CDs whose contents will never be released on vinyl. Some are historical recordings,…

AudioStreams #9 Page 2

In my experience, most DACs fall somewhere between sounding like digital and really good digital. Sounding like digital manifests itself as a sheet of glass inserted between me and the music. I can see through it, I can mostly ignore it, but it's always there to one degree or another, depending on the DAC.

Listening to music through the Totaldac d1-tube-mk2, there was no glass. I could listen into my music as deeply as I cared to go. Performer, time, space, silence—all were there for the taking. The biggest barrier to entry was the need to quiet my mind.

The systems I used were…

Audio Note CDT One/II CD transport & DAC 2.1x Signature D/A processor Page 2

It's easy to imagine how that admittedly ephemeral characteristic might be affected by the ways two loudspeakers interact with the listening room, or even with how an amplifier interacts with those speakers. But a CD player? The connection isn't quite as obvious. And yet, after I did most of my listening for this review, I went back and looked at what I'd written about the Audio Note CD-4.1x and noted the following: "When I listened to CDs on the Audio Note player, recorded voices and instruments came closer than usual to loading my room in the manner of live voices and instruments." At the…

Audio Note CDT One/II CD transport & DAC 2.1x Signature D/A processor Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Audio Note CDT One/II: Two-channel CD transport. Output 1 single-ended S/PDIF (RCA), 1 AES/EBU (XLR). Optical pickup: 3-beam laser. Weight: 11lbs (5kg).
Serial number of unit reviewed: CDT1-033.
Price: $4100.

Audio Note DAC 2.1x Signature: Two-channel digital-to-analog converter. Tube complement: one 6X5, two 6H23N. Inputs 1 AES/EBU (XLR), 1 S/PDIF (RCA). Maximum resolution/sample rate: 18 bits/96kHz. Channel balance: 0.25dB. Analog output impedance: 2k ohms. Reference output: 3.0V RMS (approximate). Weight: 17.6lbs (8kg).
Serial number of…

Audio Note CDT One/II CD transport & DAC 2.1x Signature D/A processor Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Analog Sources: Garrard 301, Thorens TD 124 turntables; Abis SA-1.2, EMT 997 tonearms; EMT OFD 25 & OFD 15 & TSD 15 pickup heads; Denon DL-103, Miyajima Premium BE Mono II cartridges.
Digital Sources: Halide Designs DAC HD USB D/A converter; Apple iMac G5 computer running Audirvana Plus 1.5.12; Sony SCD-777 SACD/CD player.
Preamplification: Hommage T2 step-up transformer, Shindo Laboratory Aurieges Equalizer Amplifier phono preamplifier, Shindo Masseto preamplifier.
Power Amplifiers: Shindo Laboratory Corton-Charlemagne monoblocks.
…

Audio Note CDT One/II CD transport & DAC 2.1x Signature D/A processor Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

I measured the Audio Note CDT One/II and DAC 2.1x Signature with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and the January 2008 "As We See It"), the two components connected via Audio Note's supplied S/PDIF link. I also tested the D/A processor via its AES/EBU input. (This input locked to data with sample rates up to 96kHz, but not higher.) The transport began muting once per revolution of track 34 of the Pierre Verany label's Digital Test CD, which has 2mm gaps in its data spiral; the CDT One/II muted completely on track 35, which has 2.4mm gaps. The…

Music in the Round #76

In my last column, in the November 2015 issue, I talked about Marantz's AV8802A preamplifier-processor and two accessories: UpTone Audio's USB Regen, and a DIY battery supply for my DAC. This month's column is all about accessories, and for me that's unusual. Some items, like interconnects and speaker cables, are usually considered accessories because they're not fundamental components (eg, source, amplifier, speaker), even though they're essential to getting any sound at all.

As far as I'm concerned, an accessory is something without which your system would still work just fine. By…

Music in the Round #76 Page 2

I tried inserting a second JitterBug, as AQ recommends, in a different USB jack on the same server, but heard no difference. I also tried the JitterBug in my other system, in Manhattan, with the exaSound e28 DAC. The effect was similar: subtle but sweet.

The $49 AudioQuest JitterBug is the archetypal accessory whose audible benefits are unsupported by measurements—and, for that very reason, some consumers will reject it out of hand: two imponderables, both of which bother me. At the end of the day, I can only recommend you try it and decide for yourself.

SOtM Audio tX-USBhubIn…