Analog Source: Linn Sondek LP12 turntable with Lingo power supply, Linn Ekos tonearm, Linn Arkiv B cartridge.
Digital Sources: Roon Nucleus+ file server; Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP universal player; PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream D/A converter; Ayre Acoustics QA-9 USB A/D converter.
Preamplification: Channel D Seta L phono preamplifier.
Power Amplifiers: Audio Research Reference 160M, Lamm Industries M1.2 Reference (both monoblocks), Constellation Centaur II 500, Mytek Brooklyn Amp, Tidal Impulse LPX.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Vodka (…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Tidal Akira's frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 for the nearfield and spatially averaged room responses. I was neither able to move a speaker as large and heavy as this—each Akira's polished stainless-steel base alone weighs 70 lb—out of the listening room, nor raise it off the floor to measure it. I aimed the speaker across the room's diagonal to push back in time the reflections from the sidewalls, but the reflections of the speaker's output from the…
Once upon a time—October, 2011, to be exact—there was a show called TAVES (Toronto Audio Video Entertainment Show). Reading my report on the show, and looking at the photo accompanying the first installment of the report fills me with a certain sadness. The photo shows Suave Kajko, Simon Au, Sarah Tremblay (left above), and Michel Plante (right above), whom I described as "a winning team," and, indeed, that show could not be described as anything but a complete success. For several years, the annual TAVES events were on an upward trajectory.
And then something happened. It's hard to…
Perhaps the most unusual speaker at Toronto Audiofest 2018 was Bryston's whimsically-named T-Rex Model T. It's a stacked pair of Model Ts, the top speaker upside down. I was reminded of the Double Advent system popular in the 1970s, but the T-Rex goes well beyond the Double Advent, with substantial bracing joining the speakers, a layer of rubber between them, and Bryston's DAX-1 digital crossover included. The total price is $18,000/pair (unless otherwise noted, all prices in this report are CN$), which represents something of a bargain for all this hardware.
The T-Rex Model T, shown in…
Jon Iverson audtioned the BorderPatrol DAC in November 2018 (Vol.41 No.11)
Editor's Note: BorderPatrol's tube-rectified flagship D/A processor ($1850 as reviewed) is built around a 16-bit Philips TDA1543 ladder-DAC from the 1980s: a chip you'd sooner find in a budget CD player from 25 years ago than a 21st Century high-end source component. In our review, the DAC SE impressed Herb Reichert for delivering "refined, human-sounding musical pleasures," but didn't do well on the test bench. (In particular, I criticized BorderPatrol's use of what I felt was an "underperforming" chip.) Given…
Sidebar: Measurements (from November 2018)
When Art Dudley wrote about Luxman's MQ-88uSE power amplifier in his September 2018 "Listening" column, he was impressed by what he heard from this classic, well-made tube design driving DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/93 loudspeakers. He concluded his review by saying, "As for the brilliantly musical and unmistakably high-value Luxman MQ-88uSE, you might want to grab one while you can" (footnote 1). While visiting Art's place in upstate New York last June to pick up the Kalista CD player featured on the September issue's cover, I picked up the…
I had all but resolved to move on from reviewing recordings honoring the 2018 centenaries of Claude Debussy's death and Leonard Bernstein's birth when word arrived of Warner Classic's 10-CD bargain box, Debussy: Ses Premiers Interprètes / His First Performers. This set's contents are so important that I want to give Debussy lovers a heads-up so that they can either make room for it in their holiday self-gift basket, give friends ample notice for what they'd like to be playing when 2019 rolls around, or start streaming immediately.
Some of the performers in this set not only knew Debussy…
Vince Scalzitti's Tri-Cell Enterprises had five rooms on Level 4 of the Westin, with lots of product introductions. One that caught my eye was a piece of equipment that looked like it was from an airplane used in WW II. Labeled a "Puristic Audio Apparatus," this was the Thöress F2A11 integrated amp ($11,500, all prices in Canadian dollars unless marked otherwise) and is cradled like a baby by Vince in the photo above. Completely hand-build and hand-wired in Germany, the F2A11 uses new-old-stock Siemens F211 power beam tetrodes operating in single-ended triode mode.
I have long…
Borrowing a page from the Montreal show—and, before that, from the shows sponsored by Stereophile—Toronto Audiofest presented some live performances of music. One of the performers was the gifted cellist, Vincent Bélanger—see photo above—familiar to audiophiles from his recordings and appearances at audio shows. I was at one of these performances at the Toronto show, which served to demonstrate music played by a great performer. I was so enthralled that I failed to get a list of the equipment used in this live-plus-recorded (not live vs recorded) presentation. Suffice it to say that the…
The original PS Audio Sprout, which I reviewed in the May 2015 issue, showed newcomers an easier, smaller way to amplify music recordings in the home. At $599, the Sprout100 costs $100 more. It fixes a few of the old Sprout's weirdnesses: no power-on indicator light, no remote control, five-way binding posts that weren't really five-way. It also doubles the Sprout's class-D power output into 4 ohms, from 50 to 100Wpc (or 50Wpc into 8 ohms), and adds a few sonic and mechanical enhancements. The main sonic improvement is a newer DAC chip: An ESS Sabre 9016 replaces the Sprout's Wolfson 8524.…