BTW, the plastic panel on the front is not a display, but hides the antenna.
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Another interesting small package from Pro-Ject is the new Bluetooth BOX S which includes aptX for streaming from your pad or smartphone. Pro-Ject says the BOX S can memorize up to eight different Bluetooth sources and works up to about 30 feet away. There are both 3.5mm stereo analog and optical digital outputs.
Another music server that caught my eye was the latest offering from SOtM, which will hit retailers in February for around $3k. Though the front of the box is plain, this is a full-featured machine, as evidenced by the back panel. USB inputs and outputs support up to 32/384 PCM and native DSD, and networking support for DLNA is included.
There is also an auto-ripping CD slot, as well as balanced and unbalanced analog outputs. Several choices for digital out are listed in the brochure, though the photo I took at the show doesn't reveal these on the prototype. There is an HDMI and VGA jack…
With the demise of the iPod, the number of high quality portable players has jumped. Case in point are these two new players from Questyle. Both play DSD and Double DSD files along with about a dozen PCM formats up to 24/192. The players also feature the company's unique "current mode" headphone amplification.
Inside each is the same Cirrus Logic chip found in the Astell&Kern's AK240 and 8GB of stock internal memory. Two microSD slots allow you to seriously goose that meager storage to 256GB. Questyle also noted that these devices are made at the Foxconn plant where Apple makes their…
The big news at Ayre is that the standing range of "5"-series components is being upgraded to "The Twenty Editions," which incorporate the circuit and performance facilities of the well-received flagship KX-R Twenty, MX-R Twenty and VX-R Twenty. All that is on the inside but all Ayre has done on the outside is add a little plaque saying "Twenty" which, IMHO, is not an aesthetic triumph. The sound, however, was a triumph with the new KX-5 Twenty preamplifier ($8950, above) driving a pair of VX-5 Twenty amps ($8950 each) with all the clarity and dynamics reminiscent of the Reference series.
T+A's entire HV range was the epitome of sleek and sexy. I was particularly impressed with physical architecture, even beneath the skin, as there is a casework frame of solid aluminum plates, screwed together. The plates form sealed chambers to de-couple and shield all sub-assemblies from each other. External case parts are up to 40mm thick!
The 84 lb, dual-mono PA 3000 HV power amp ($18,500) can be used as a stereo or mono amp with output rated at 300Wpc (8 ohms) and 500Wpc (4 ohms) with mono operation bumping those numbers by more than 20%. More interesting is the power bandwidth of 1Hz…
Dynaudio North America's Michael Manousselis was proudly demonstrating the Danish parent company's Contour S 3.4 LE speakers with the new Octave V 110 integrated amplifier ($8000), a fixed-bias pentode design that has been optimized specifically for the KT120 tube. Features include wideband output transformers while utilizing soft-start circuitry, extensive monitoring and protection circuitry, as well as an energy-saving EcoMode feature.
Tube biasing is done manually straight from the front panel via four trim pots with corresponding LED indicators. A Power Selector switch on the rear…
I visited the Burson room because I retain a strange interest in this Australian company’s innovative discrete op-amp modules even though I am long past my DIY years. (JA has a pair of Burson's op-amp modules in for evaluation.)
What I found were some compact and well-thought-out audio components that, judging from a casual audition, deserve more attention. There was the preamplifier that, literally, glowed from within because of LEDs that let us appreciate its precise construction. New, however, was the Timekeeper Virtuoso power amplifier (est. $3450). The class-AB amp with a tailor-made…
Kevin Deal was so proud of his new DiaLogue Premium HP power amplifier ($3899 stereo or monoblock) that he insisted on showing off its underside so that we can all appreciate the quality of the components and the fastidious wiring. Output power ranges from 42Wpc (triode stereo with EL34s) to 175Wpc (ultralinear mono with KT120s). He was also proud to emphasize that the adaptive autobias circuitry can handle any suitable tube (EL-34, KT88, KT120 or, even, KT150) optimally and, to prove its capability, he was happily playing one in which every tube pair was mismatched!
Manley Labs' Evanna Manley was deeply involved in discussion so I asked around about what new amps/preamps are showing. The answer was that, since there were no new products being introduced, they decided to present their current offerings to emphasize their aesthetics by having them framed and hung. Point taken. Picture taken.
While his multipurpose integrated amp lurked in the background, I took immediate notice of Dan D'Agostino's hulky 6U form-factor multichannel amplifier, the Cinema Standard. Available with two ($12,000) and three ($15,000) channels, it offers 250Wpc into 8ohms and doubles down to 500 into 4 and 1000 into 2, at 0.1% total harmonic distortion! Now that's dynamic headroom.
Any input can be bused to any/all channels and there are switchable HP and LP filters (18dB/octave, 80Hz) which, while somewhat inflexible, will implement useful bass management when using a stereo system for home theater…