More than 18 months later, the new Focus line debuted at Munich High End 2022. I recall my excitement as I…
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Almost five years after I submitted my review of Dynaudio's Focus 200 XD class-D active bookshelf loudspeaker—my first product review for Stereophile—word of its imminent successor, the digital Focus 10 class-D active bookshelf loudspeaker ($5500/pair), and its two larger siblings arrived via Mike Manousselis, Dynaudio North America's president, Americas. Then came the near-ubiquitous parts shortages and COVID-related slowdowns that have plagued high-end manufacturers worldwide.
The Focus 10's class-D modules are manufactured by Pascal, whose "robust and bullet-proof" devices are used in many PA applications; Entwistle calls the company "the biggest manufacturer you've never heard of." When Dynaudio first tried Pascal modules in their flagship Pro range, they didn't like the sound. When the company told Pascal's engineers that their modules sounded like they put a compressor on the amplifier, their engineers fessed up that they included a compressor to prevent blow-ups in PA systems. Blow-ups, however, are not an issue in studio and home situations. It took Pascal's…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-way standmount active wireless streaming loudspeaker with class-D amplification, DAC, and Bluetooth remote control. Drive units: 1.1" (28mm) Cerotar soft-dome tweeter, 5.5" (140mm) Esotec+ mid/bass driver. Inputs, Primary speaker: 2 RCA analog, 1 Ethernet, 1 TosLink. 1 RCA digital (client, for interspeaker link). Outputs, Primary speaker: 1 RCA (for interspeaker S/PDIF link), 1 Sub RCA analog, 1 12V Trigger. Wireless interspeaker connection: WiSA (up to 24/96). Network: Wi-Fi, Ethernet. D/A conversion: 24/48 or 24/96 wireless; 24/192 when wired…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Active loudspeakers: Dynaudio Focus 200 XD.
Front end: Linksys Mesh router as wireless child node; Roon Nucleus+ music server; HDPlex 300 linear power supply. Cables Digital: Nordost Odin 1 and 2 (BNC), Wireworld Platinum Starlight Cat8 (Ethernet). AC: Nordost Odin 1 and 2, Valhalla 1; AudioQuest Dragon HC. Umbilical cord (HDPlex): Ghent Audio Canare.
Accessories: AudioQuest Niagara 1200 power conditioner; Nordost QK1 and QV2 AC enhancers; Stein Super Naturals and Q1 Quantum Organizer; iPhone 12 Pro.—Jason Victor Serinus
Sidebar 3: Measurements
Due to some logistical issues, I couldn't measure the Focus 10s auditioned by Jason Victor Serinus. Instead, I tested samples that had been shipped to me from Denmark by Dynaudio. The serial numbers were 10033212 (Primary, left) and 10033213 (Client, right).
I followed the manual's instructions to set up the Dynaudio Focus 10s, first installing the Dynaudio Connect and Control app on my iPhone 11 then connecting the Primary speaker to my Wi-Fi network. Once the speaker was connected to the network, it automatically updated its firmware to version 1.2.77.…
"Whip dem, whip dem," sings Junior Byles on "Beat Down Babylon," to the accompaniment of whip cracks that recall the ones on Frankie Laine's "Mule Train." Produced by Mitch Miller some 20 years before Lee "Scratch" Perry produced Byles's reggae hit, "Mule Train" helped establish "the primacy of the producer—even more than the artist, the accompaniment, or the material," according to author Will Friedwald, who adds that "Miller also conceived of the idea of the pop record 'sound' per se: not so much an arrangement or a tune, but an aural texture (usually replete with extramusical gimmicks)…
Photo by Chip Duden
Dave Alvin is a fighter. In the 1980s, when Dave and his older brother, Phil Alvin, shared studio and stage as co-founders of Los Angeles punkabilly band The Blasters, they frequently fought each other. They also fought musically, tussling over every note as the four-man band wrangled many great tunes. In that respect, their working relationship may have been similar to the sibling push-pull output of Ray and Dave Davies in the Kinks and Liam and Noel Gallagher in Oasis. Consider "American Music," "Marie Marie," and "Border Radio," all from the band's 1981 sophomore…
Alvin: Well, yeah—and there were different levels of record stores, right? There were the ones where you knew the guys knew their stuff, so they knew if you put the record you wanted over in Easy Listening. You knew they'd figure it out within an hour. [laughs]
But there were a couple record stores—Licorice Pizza [in Long Beach, California] being one of them—where you knew the people working there had no idea, so you could take the blues or jazz or country record you wanted and put it over behind Mantovani or whatever. You knew they were never gonna look for it over there.
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John Atkinson wrote about the Benchmark DAC3 B D/A processor in March 2023 (Vol.46 No.3):
After I read John Marks's review of Benchmark Media Systems' DAC1 D/A processor/headphone amplifier in the July 2003 issue of Stereophile, I bought a rack-mounted version to use for my on-location recording projects. I subsequently wrote, in a follow-up review, that the diminutive Benchmark "punched way above its weight. Its grain-free presentation was accompanied by stable, well-defined soundstaging, and low frequencies that, if not as weighty as [that of my reference, the 18×-the-price Mark…
Measurements, from March 2023 (Vol.46 No.3)
Herb Reichert reviewed the Rotel Diamond Series DT-6000 DAC Transport—fundamentally a CD player with digital inputs—in his February 2023 Gramophone Dreams column, where he described it as a "well-built, great-sounding, reasonably priced CD player." He had so much fun using the Rotel—"rediscovering the Joy of CDs: one-box simple, stress-free, plug'n'play, and something physical to touch, scrutinize, and collect"—that he suggested I examine its measured performance.
I tested Herb's sample of the Rotel DT-6000, serial number 272-2221004,…