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Kalista DreamPlay One CD player Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

Like Rega Research's Apollo CD player, which Art Dudley reviewed in June 2018, the Kalista DreamPlay One has no digital inputs of any kind, which limited my measurement of its technical behavior to using 16-bit test files burned to a CD-R. I tested the Kalista with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"), using two of the six reconstruction filters the Kalista offers: AD's preferred filter, the Super Slow Rolloff, and the default filter, Sharp Rolloff.

The Kalista's error correction was good—no interruptions were apparent in…

A Big Surprise Among Three American Symphonies

How many of us, when asked to name great American symphonists, typically start and stop with Copland, Ives, Bernstein, Barber and, among living composers, Glass and Adams? In doing so, we often ignore a host of others from the mid-to-late 20th century, including Schumann, Piston, Diamond, Cowell, Hanson, Harris, and Hovhaness (to name but a few), most of whom were championed by Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony in their celebrated American series of recordings on Delos (reissued on Naxos).

Perception could very well change with the release of Lance Friedel and the London Symphony…

Van the Man

The dingy green-and-ochre poster on the subway-station wall, advertising events at Queens's Forest Hills Stadium, didn't draw attention to itself. But what else is there to do on a subway platform but look at posters? I looked at it. There, near the bottom of the left column, I read: "SEPT 12: VAN MORRISON AND WILLIE NELSON & FAMILY."

Van Morrison. In concert. In Queens.

I was torn. Van Morrison has released four of the best live albums evah! He also headlined what was perhaps the worst concert I have ever experienced. And Queens? Since 2000, when we left Santa Fe, I have…

Ortofon Xpression pickup head

I listen to music in all formats, but my most ecstatic home listening experiences have always involved vinyl. It's probably something to do with the fact that, like most people my age and older, I grew up listening to LPs—in my case, played on a Technics SL-210 turntable, and through an Aiwa receiver with beautiful green tuner lights and a pair of early Polk Audio studio monitors. I'm drawn, surely, to an improved version of the sound I heard back then. It's a powerful sentimental connection.

I've never maintained, though, that analog sources—specifically, vinyl LPs—provide superior…

Ortofon Xpression pickup head Specifications

Sidebar: Specifications

Description: Moving-coil pickup head. Cartridge body material, SLM Stainless Steel and Special proprietary TPE-compound. Stylus type, Special polished Nude Ortofon Replicant 100 on boron cantilever. Stylus tip radius r/R, 5/100µm. Internal impedance, DC resistance, 4 ohms. Recommended load impedance, >10 ohms. Output voltage at 1kHz, 5cm/s, 0.3mV. Channel balance at 1kHz, <0.2dB. Channel separation at 1kHz, >28dB. Channel separation at 15kHz, >22dB. Frequency response, 20Hz–20kHz +0.5/–1.5dB. Tracking ability at 315Hz at recommended tracking force,…

BorderPatrol Digital to Analogue Converter SE

The trouble with a classicist he looks at the sky
He doesn't ask why, he just paints a sky—John Cale and Lou Reed, "Trouble with Classicists," from Songs for Drella

Left brain/right brain, yin/yang, male/female, Apollonian/Dionysian, classical/romantic, painterly/linear, dark/light, hard/soft, warm/cool...I use these contrasting adjectives in my reviews because I feel some confidence in their ability to convey the nature of what I experience while listening to recordings with whatever new audio box sits before me in the listening studio.

I also use: accurate (I hate that word…

BorderPatrol Digital to Analogue Converter SE Page 2

Next came a big surprise. You all know how much I like music in my home to be vivid and spacious. So once again I'm playing Buddy Holly's "Apartment Tapes," from Down the Line: Rarities (2 mono CDs, Decca B0011675-02), and it's sounding very see-into-the-Hollys'-living-room revealing. The speaking voice of Holly's wife, Maria Elena, is more delicate and intelligible than it was an hour ago through the Mytek HiFi Brooklyn DAC. The BP DAC made her words easier to decipher, but seemed to do so by reducing the room tone. My curiosity aroused, I stopped the CD and played the same album at the…

BorderPatrol Digital to Analogue Converter SE Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: 16-bit, R-2R, non-oversampling digital-to-analog converter. Inputs: asynchronous USB, coax S/PDIF (RCA). Outputs: single-ended (RCA). Plays files of resolutions up to 24-bit/96kHz. Hybrid (tubed and solid-state) power supply with choke input filter, two transformers, high-inductance smoothing choke, tube rectifier. Tube complement: one EZ80.
Dimensions: 8.9" (226mm) W by 3.1" (78mm) H by 6.8" (173mm) D. Weight: 6.6 lb (3kg).
Finish: Black copper, aluminum faceplate.
Serial number of unit reviewed: 0218101.
Price: $1850 as reviewed;…

BorderPatrol Digital to Analogue Converter SE Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Digital Sources: Benchmark DAC3 HGC, HoloAudio Spring "Kitsuné Tuned Edition" Level 3, Mytek Brooklyn, Schiit Audio Yggdrasil (with Analog 2 & Gen 5 USB upgrades) DACs; Integra DPS-7.2 DVD-A player (as transport); iFi iGalvanic3 USB insulator; Mac mini computer running Audirvana + 3.2.
Preamplifier: Pass Laboratories HPA-1.
Power Amplifier: Pass Laboratories XA25.
Loudspeakers: Harbeth Monitor 30.2 & P3ESR.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Cinnamon (USB), iFi Mercury (USB), Kimber Kable D 60 Data Flex Studio (coaxial). Interconnect:…

BorderPatrol Digital to Analogue Converter SE Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

I measured the BorderPatrol DAC SE with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It", using both the Audio Precision's S/PDIF outputs and USB data sourced from my MacBook Pro running on battery power with Pure Music 3.0 playing WAV and AIFF test-tone files. Apple's USB Prober utility identified the DAC SE as "USB2.0 High-Speed True HD Audio\000" from "C-MEDIA Inc.\000," its serial number as "0 (none)," and confirmed that its USB port operated in the optimal isochronous asynchronous mode.

BorderPatrol specifies the DAC SE as…