Digital sources: CH Precision D1.5 transport/player (used as transport), X1 power supply, and T1 clock. Roon Nucleus+; Synology DS918+ 4-bay Network Attached Storage device with 16TB; Melco S100 Ethernet Dataswitch.
Preamplification: Pass Labs XP-25 phono preamplifier, Pass Labs XP-32 line preamplifier.
Power amplifiers: Pass Labs XA60.8 monoblocks, Burmester 218 stereo amplifiers bridged for mono.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties Alexx V, Estelon XB Diamond Mk.2.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Carbon & Cinnamon & Coffee (all USB…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the CH Precision C1.2 with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system, repeating some measurements with the higher-performance APx500. The external power supply and clock weren't available for the testing. The C1.2's coaxial and optical S/PDIF inputs and AES3 input accepted data sampled at all rates up to 192kHz. Apple's AudioMIDI utility revealed that the C1.2 accepted 16- and 24-bit integer data via USB sampled at all rates from 44.1kHz to 384kHz. Apple's USB Prober app identified the C1.2 as "CH Precision USB Audio 2.0" from "CH Precision" and indicated that…
I never collected baseball cards, played Cops & Robbers, or was a Boy Scout. From the moment I heard the opening guitar riff of Blondie's "One Way or Another," at age 6, it was clear that music would be central to everything I was going to do. It was my first important big thing, and my last.
Soon I was exposed to heavy metal, during its golden era. I devoured it with the voraciousness of one of the demons on those album covers. Money I made from chores went right into the cash registers of my town's record stores. But unlike my friends, I wasn't satisfied with the big, obvious bands…
In last month's Re-Tales column, I discussed the impact the current economy is having on the hi-fi industry. Some hi-fi companies said sales have "normalized" after widespread, dramatic increases during the COVID years—which is to say, sales are down relative to their peak but still strong. Others have noticed customers biding time before making expensive purchases or opting to buy less-expensive equipment than originally planned. Yet, even in this risky economic climate, a few people are taking the risk and opening new brick-and-mortar retail stores.
All the dealers I spoke to sell some…
To be a poet is to be tormented. And singer/songwriter Townes Van Zandt's demons were relentless: mental illness, addiction, willful recklessness. He constantly complicated his life and the lives of those around him. Even fans who felt lucky just to have him play their town were unwittingly drawn in, often exhilarated but occasionally aghast. Yet judged by his recordings, he was indisputably a songwriting genius—often sad and confused but gifted nonetheless. The scion of a storied and wealthy Texas clan, he was that rare artist who was compelled to create art.
As John Prine put it, "…
Before this month, I'd never experienced Rotel amplification in one of my own systems, but I have memories of how their amplifiers sounded back in the early 1990s. In those days, at audio shows, I would audition every Rotel amp I could find; I was especially interested in their $369, 60Wpc RB-960BX. I was curious about that model because it was the number-one competitor to the 60Wpc darling of the audiophile proletariat: Adcom's GFA 535 II. My friend Corey Greenberg compared these two popular amps in Stereophile and concluded, "The Rotel is for the budget-minded music lover who wants a good…
The 4-CD set of Ligeti's complete Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, and Philips recordings entitled Clear or Cloudy (Deutsche Grammophon 00289 447 6443) held my attention for two long nights. The sound from the Rotel DT-6000 sourcing the RA-6000 was moderately shy on reverb and atmosphere but fully alive and dramatic. Like most avant-garde music, Ligeti's art directs listeners' attention to dramatic contrasts of volume, force, and tone—and, more dominantly, the passage of time. The Rotel excelled at the volume, force, and time-passage parts but fell a breath short on recovering a full harmonic…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Solid state stereo integrated amplifier with DAC. Analog inputs: 1 pair balanced (XLR), 4 pair unbalanced (RCA). Digital inputs: 1 aptX/AAC wireless Bluetooth; 3 RCA, 3 coaxial, 3 TosLink S/PDIF; 1 Ethernet, 1 asynchronous PC-USB up to 32/384; 2 trigger ports. Outputs: 4 pairs of 3-way speaker binding posts: 2 for Speaker A and 2 for Speaker B; mono subwoofer and preamplifier out; 12V trigger; USB Power Port; RS232 connector for custom integration; 1/8" (3mm) unbalanced headphone output on the front panel. Output power: 200Wpc (RMS) into 8 ohms (…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog source: Music Hall Stealth turntable with Ortofon 2M Black and Goldring Eroica HX phono cartridges.
Digital sources: Roon Nucleus+ music server; HoloAudio Spring3 DAC, Rotel DT-6000 DAC Transport; dCS Bartók DAC/Streamer.
Preamplification: HoloAudio Serene, SunValley SV-EQ1616D phono equalizer.
Integrated amplifiers: Pass Labs INT-25, Rogue Sphinx V3.
Loudspeakers: Falcon Acoustics LS3/5a Gold Badge, GoldenEar BRX, Klipsch RP600M II.
Headphones: Sony MDR-Z1R.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Cinnamon USB. Interconnect: Siltech…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I performed the measurements of the Rotel RA-6000 with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system. I preconditioned the amplifier by operating it at 1/8 power into 8 ohms for 30 minutes. At the end of that time, the temperature of the top-panel grilles over the heatsinks was almost too hot to touch, at 130.4°F/54.2°C. The RA-6000 needs to be well-ventilated.
Looking first at the line-level analog inputs, the Rotel RA-6000's maximum voltage gain from the loudspeaker output at 1kHz into 8 ohms was 22.14dB for the balanced input and 27.8dB for the unbalanced inputs.…