What has Goodfield learned after all these years in the business (he sold their gear in the '90s and then joined Sim in 1997)? "Keep it simple and listen to the music not the gear." Good advice.
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Here's Simaudio's Lionel Goodfield hanging out in the company's '80s room with period correct speakers, amp, turntable and Aiwa 990 cassette deck (hidden behind his left arm). Behind him on the poster is the company's first product from 1980, the PW2000 and on the table, his hand rests on the Sima PW3000 which retailed for $825 back in the day.
I've always enjoyed Wadia's industrial design and the di122 is no exception with their new Series 1 compact casework. Meant to stack with other components in the line, the di122 is a straightforward DAC design with two SPDIF and two optical plus USB inputs on the back along with both balanced and unbalanced audio outputs.
The USB input accepts up to 32/192 PCM as well as DSD 64/128 and DXD 352.8/384 and there is a high powered headphone jack on the front. The top is made of glass and the final price comes in at $1,500 and is shipping now.
Astell&Kern calls their new server an "MQS Network Audio Player", where MQS stands for "Master Quality Sound". WIth all the talk at the show about Meridian's new MQA technology, at first I confused it for "Master Quality Authenticated" and did a double take. Nonetheless, A&K's new product is quite a stunner as presented both on a stand with amplifier and as shown here, on a table top by itself.
There is a CD slot on the front, for ripping discs and grabbing meta data à la Sooloos, and a slick touchscreen on top for controlling the various processes (in addition to an app that runs…
It's close to 55 years since David Wilson built his first loudspeaker, and 34 years since he developed a method to measure time-domain differences. It was also in 1981, the same year that he received a patent for time-domain driver adjustability, that Wilson Audio released the game-changing Wilson Audio Modular Monitor loudspeaker or the WAMM.
In two small, private presentations in the Mirage, Dave Wilson joined several other indispensible members of his team—his son Daryl and wife Sheryl Lee, as well as Peter McGrath and John Giolas—to present a jaw-dropping mock up of the proposed,…
Incorporating noise-cancelling geometries, DH Labs' forthcoming flagship Corona power cord (approx. $850/1.5m) is triple-shielded. The company's Greg Hovsepian notes that the cord, which makes "proprietary use of 1386 individual strands of silver-coated copper, is manufactured in the US.
Hovsepian is equally proud of his new headphone cables ($150–$350). Boasting DH Labs custom connectors, available in five different terminations for "all" brands, the headphone cables contain silver-coated OFCC copper. The buzz on these otherwise silent cables is quite positive.
MyCamera was positioned too close to Micromega's MyWorld cabling to take a focused picture. So let's let the cable do the talking:
"I'm speaker cable, and I cost $199 for a three meter pair. I'm silver-plated copper with gold-plated terminations—either spades or bananas—and I work really well. My sister USB cable costs $49, and also has gold-plated terminations. Brother RCA cables comes in 0.3 and 1.25 meter lengths, cousin coax digital costs $59 for 1.25 meters, and bulk rolls of cabling from the compulsive eating side of the family are on the way. Together, we deliver a far more focused…
Yup, they grow 'em big in Pasadena. Stage III's Leviathan power cord ($14,500/1.5m) has much larger silver-palladium conductors than the previous flagship model. Each leg has its own dedicated cabling, wrapped in a custom-made housing. The Leviathan can pass up to 80 amps of current for the biggest and most power hungry amps.
Two components in one, Isotek's Mosaic Genesis ($11,995) is, first of all, a power regenerator. Converting power to DC, and claimed to produce a perfectly clean, time-correct sinewave without sending noise back into the wall, it sends power to outlets isolated via a bus bar.
"The name Genesis signifies that it completely severs from the AC in the wall," distributor Kevin Wolff of Vana, Ltd. told Stereophile.
Strictly for source components, it includes three outlets for CD, phono, preamps, etc. The unit also contains dedicated outlets for amplifiers. Dropping the operating…
Thanks to Brian Ackerman of Aaudio Imports, Finite Elemente's equipment supports and racks have returned to the US. market. All of the company six different Cera equipment supports models ($230–$820/set of 3, depending upon model) uses ceramic bearings, and, save for the aluminum shell of the entry-level Ceraball, stainless steel housings to isolate equipment from vibrations. Far more than isolators, all products are claimed to act as mechanical diodes, drawing energy out of components.
Lower level models have a single bearing; the more costly supports have three. The size of the models…
I hope not, because it's (presumably indigestible) vibration-damping material from Scotland. Distributed by TWN Audio/Video's Santy Oropel, the Black Ravioli line includes the Big Riser ($190/each), which goes under heavy components such as amplifiers; the Big Pad ($90/each) for preamps, DACs and the like; the Small Pad (4 for $300), which either adheres to a light component's chassis or serves as a footer; and the iMac Vibration Controller ($250—not shown), a base complete with feet that goes under a tablet.