Known simply as "the CAT," Convergent Audio Technology's SL1 tubed preamplifier first appeared in 1985, and ever since has been the subject of almost continuous improvement (footnote 1). According to Ken Stevens, founder and chief designer of Convergent Audio Technology, some of those improvements—use of a specific wire, tweaking the value of a certain resistor, a minor change in wiring layout, etc.—used to be incorporated into production with no change in model name, and with…
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Convergent Audio Technology SL1 Renaissance Black Path Edition preamplifier, from December 2015 (Vol.38 No.12)
Sidebar: CAT's Capacitor Shoot-outs
A capacitor shoot-out is a method for selecting capacitors that have the potential to produce the best sound. It does not involve measurements—Convergent Audio Technology's Ken Stevens has found that measurements of capacitors taken with even the most advanced laboratory instruments reveal very low correlation with sound quality. On the other hand, such factors as termination technique, film tension, core construction, and wrap style—all of which have virtually no effect on traditional capacitor measurements—may profoundly affect the sound. The only way…
Jon Iverson wrote about the JitterBug in January 2016 (Vol.39 No.10):
I've been a bit (or two) hard on the DragonFly compared to the Groove, but this JitterBug thing is something else entirely. It noticeably tightened up the details and the top end, and pushed the Apogee Groove into the Aurender Flow's orbit. A couple times at the beginning of Shawn Colvin's version of Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street," from her new album, Uncovered (CD, Fantasy 7237415), the acoustic guitarist snaps the strings à la Michael Hedges; with the JitterBug, the effect was more focused, and jumped dynamically out…
Follow-Up from January 2016 (Vol.39 No.1):
In his "Music in the Round" column in this issue, Kal Rubinson nails it: "An accessory is something without which your system would still work just fine." Thus, unless you're one of those Neanderthals who assign to audio cables (footnote 1) that rather dubious distinction, there isn't a single audio accessory on the planet that anyone actually needs (footnote 2).
But because most of my listening is to LPs, I find that a reliably good record-cleaning machine comes closer than any other accessory to being essential to my full enjoyment of…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…