Analog Sources: AMG Giro G9 turntable & 9W Turbo tonearm; Linn Sondek LP12 Hercules turntable, SME M2-9 tonearm; AMG Teatro, EMT TSD 75, Hana SL, Koetsu Rosewood Standard & Signature Platinum, My Sonic Lab Ultra Eminent Ex MC cartridges; MoFi Master Tracker MM cartridge.
Digital Sources: Mac mini computer running Audirvana Plus 3.2; HoloAudio Spring "Kitsuné Tuned Edition" Level 3, Mytek Brooklyn, Schiit Audio Yggdrasil Analog 2 DACs; JVC X-Z1010 CD player (used as transport).
Preamplification: Auditorium 23, Bob's Devices CineMag 1131,…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Rogue Stereo 100 amplifier using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"). Before doing so, I installed the KT120 output tubes and, following the instructions in the manual, checked each tube's bias current. These were all around 50mA rather than the recommended 40mA, so, using the supplied tool, I adjusted the four trim pots. I checked the bias currents several times while performing the measurements, but none of the tubes had drifted from the recommended 40mA. The Stereo 100 has both balanced and single-ended inputs…
Saturday October 20, 1–6pm, Jared Sacks, Channel Classics Records' founder, producer, and engineer as well as NativeDSD Music's co-founder & CEO, will give a DSD Listening Demo in collaboration with Mytek at Innovative Audio Video Showroom (150 E 58th Street, New York, NY 10155).
Sacks will walk listeners through some of his multi–award-winning Channel Classics DSD recordings as well as some of the most popular and noteworthy DSD tracks from other labels. From Analog Tape Transfers Direct-to-DSD by the team at 2xHD-Mastering, to the unedited/unprocessed one-take DSD256 recordings from…
Bernstein: Arias and Barcarolles
Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano; Ryan McKinny, bass-baritone; San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas
SFS Media SFS-0073 (24/96 download). 2018. Jack Vad, broadcast & mastering eng., postprod.; Jason O'Connell, post-prod. DDD. TT: 32:54
Performance ****½
Sonics ****
Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano; Ryan McKinny, bass-baritone; San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas
SFS Media SFS-0073 (24/96 download). 2018. Jack Vad, broadcast & mastering eng., postprod.; Jason O'Connell, post-prod. DDD. TT: 32:54
Performance ****½
Sonics ****
Why name this short digital download or streaming–only release of a live San Francisco Symphony performance from 2017—its native 24/96 PCM broadcast sound is a notch lower than the best-recorded titles in SFS Media's series of Davies Symphony Hall broadcasts— as our "…
Register to win a 1M pair of Coppertone RCA interconnects, a 1M Coppertone USB digital cable, and a 2.5M pair of Coppertone speaker cables (Total value $649.84) we are giving away.
According to the company:
Coppertone by Black Cat Cable distills a tremendous amount of high performance attributes into an affordable series of cables that punch far above their weight!
High-velocity, low-capacitance interconnects ensure the preservation of the low-voltage analog signal by suspending the conductor in air with our NAMI™ process Low-inductance, low-skin-effect, low-…
Doug White, of Philadelphia-area retailer The Voice That Is, has been a fixture at US audio shows the past few years, where he always gets great sound using loudspeakers from Tidal Audio. (There is no connection between the German audio manufacturer and the music-streaming service owned by Jay Z and Sprint.) In early 2017, Herb Reichert, Jana Dagdagan, and I visited White and spent a delightful afternoon listening to Tidal's then-new Akira loudspeakers. I promised myself to review the Akira, which costs a wallet-straining $215,000/pair, when my schedule opened up. As things turned out, it…
The Akira's bass didn't bloom to quite the extent it had with the Wilson Alexia 2s, but was still weighty enough to satisfy. In the October issue, Sasha Matson raved about Ry Cooder's new album, The Prodigal Son (CD, Fantasy FAN00236). After reading that review, I asked Amazon Prime to overnight the CD to me. Robert Francis's bass in Albert Reed's "You Must Unload" provided a firm underpinning with the Tidals. More significant, the Akiras laid bare the atmospheric looped accompaniment in "Nobody's Fault But Mine," contrasting it with the upfront-but-never-too-much balance of Cooder's…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-and-a-half-way, five-driver, reflex-loaded, floorstanding loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1.2" (30mm) diamond-diaphragm tweeter, 5" (127mm) diamond-diaphragm midrange unit, three 7.5" (190mm) aluminum-honeycomb-diaphragm woofers, five 7.5" (190mm) aluminum-honeycomb-diaphragm passive radiators. Crossover frequencies: 250Hz, 2.2kHz. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms. Nominal power handling: 400VA. Recommended amplifier power: >30W. No other specifications published.
Dimensions: 58" (1480mm) H with bases by 11.5" (290mm) W by 22" (550mm) D. Weight: 348…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
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 (…
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…