Description: Remote-controlled, network-connected, class-D D/A integrated amplifier with Dirac Live LE Room Correction, tone controls, and front-panel meters. Analog inputs: 3 pair RCA (line, MM phono, power amplifier direct). Digital inputs: 1 TosLink, 1 coaxial S/PDIF, 1 HDMI, USB Type A, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Two-way Qualcomm aptX HD Bluetooth. Supported formats: MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG, WMA-L, ALAC, OPUS, MQA, DSD, FLAC, WAV, AIFF. Supported sample rates: up to 192kHz, bit depths 16–24. Supported cloud services: Amazon Music, Deezer, IDAGIO, Napster, Neil Young…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: Roon Nucleus+ file server with HDPlex linear power supply; iPad mini 2 running BluOS app; Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP disc player, Z-Systems RDP-1; MBL N31 CD player-DAC; NetGear Nighthawk router.
Integrated amplifier: NAD M10.
Power amplifiers: Parasound Halo JC 1+ monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: KEF LS50.
Headphones: Audeze LCD-X, Sennheiser HD-650.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Vodka (Ethernet), DH Labs (AES3), generic plastic TosLink optical (15'). Interconnect: Canare (3m unbalanced). Speaker: AudioQuest 10' Robin Hood. AC:…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the C 3050 LE using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system. As the NAD is a class-D design, I didn't precondition the amplifier by driving a 1kHz tone at one-third power into 8 ohms. Nevertheless, before doing any testing, I ran it for an hour at a moderate power level to ensure that it was fully warmed up. At the end of that time, the temperature of the black grille on the top panel was 92.1°F/33.4°C. Because class-D amplifiers emit relatively high levels of ultrasonic noise that would drive my analyzer's input into slew-rate limiting, all the measurements…
Manufacturer's Comment (from May 2023)
In the highly polarizedworld of high-end audio, there are nearly as many approaches as there are manufacturers. Despite what some may want you to believe, there isn't one approach that is inherently correct; the best approach, rather, depends on what specifically the designer aims to achieve.
At Mojo Audio, we seek to provide the most transparent window possible to the music on the recording as opposed to a measurably more accurate or universally pleasing interpretation. Every circuit, component, and module we use is painstakingly chosen from…
At the beginning of this century, when the vinyl resurgence was at best nascent and few believed it would be as strong as it is today, Boulder Amplifiers manufactured a phono preamplifier that cost $29,000. I reviewed that model, the 2008 (now discontinued), in the July 2002 issue. With a power supply that would probably be more than adequate for a high-wattage power amp, it was built to a standard approached by few other makers of phono preamps.
More than a decade later, today's audio market is well populated with luxury phono preamps costing $30,000 and up. That this fact drives the…
When I reviewed D'Agostino's Momentum line preamplifier in the August 2014 issue, I said that it had "delicacy, transparency, three-dimensionality, and especially liquidity and freedom from grain without softening transients—all floating above the blackest backdrops." All of this was also true of the Momentum Phonostage, which served all musical genres. The latest vinyl from the Electric Recording Company is Leonid Kogan's recording of the Brahms Violin Concerto, with Kiril Kondrashin conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra (ERC027), first released in 1960 on EMI/Columbia. Following its usual…
John Atkinson wrote about the Mojo Mystique X SE in May 2023 (Vol.46 No.5):
Herb Reichert reviewed the Mojo Mystique X SE very favorably in Stereophile's April 2023 issue (footnote 1). While he found that the dCS Bartók DAC made piano recordings sound crisper and more dramatic, "sounding bigger, tighter, and more forceful through the piano's left-hand octaves" than they did through the Mystique X SE, "Mojo's Mystique X SE ... disappeared from my listening awareness more than any DAC I'd previously encountered." He concluded that this nonoversampling (NOS) D/A processor "produced a unique…
This month's music feature, by Mike Mettler, is an interview with John Doe, best known as cofounder, in 1977, of the legendary punk band X. During X's long recording career, Doe's urgent voice has offset the starkly contrasting voice of co–lead vocalist (and songwriting partner) Exene Cervenka, who was Doe's girlfriend before she joined the band; it's one of the most recognizable sounds in punk. Over 45 years, X has continued to record (sparingly) and to evolve, from the literate punk of Los Angeles—to me one of the great albums ever, in any genre—through Wild Gift, which leans toward country…
Tyshawn Sorey Trio + 1: The Off-Off Broadway Guide to Synergism
Sorey, drums; Aaron Diehl, piano; Russell Hall, bass; Greg Osby, alto saxophone
Pi P196 (3 CDs, available as download). 2022. Sorey, prod.; Kengchakaj Kengkarnka, recording/mixing eng.
Performance *****
Sonics ***½
Sorey, drums; Aaron Diehl, piano; Russell Hall, bass; Greg Osby, alto saxophone
Pi P196 (3 CDs, available as download). 2022. Sorey, prod.; Kengchakaj Kengkarnka, recording/mixing eng.
Performance *****
Sonics ***½
There is no one like Tyshawn Sorey. As a jazz drummer, he is at home in the far reaches of the avant-garde. As a composer of contemporary classical music, he gets commissions from major orchestras for his concertos, oratorios, and operas. His extreme eclecticism makes him an enigma (he cites Asian…
It began with a bad outlet. Perhaps two weeks after my husband and visiting friend created several delightful holiday light displays in the living room, one of the living room outlets died. Every time I tried to plug in part of the light show, it, along with the living room sound system and reading lights, lost power. If the Grinch didn't exactly steal Christmas, he sure tried to guarantee it would arrive silently under the cover of darkness.
Evil Grinch proved no match for the visiting electrician. While our savior was here, I tapped his knowledge of the eccentricities of Port Townsend's…