Digital sources: Roon Nucleus+ music server; MBL N31 CD player/DAC; Ayre Acoustics QB-9 Twenty D/A processor.
Power amplifiers: Parasound Halo JC 1+ monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: GoldenEar BRX, PSB Synchrony T600.
Headphones: Audeze LCD-X, Sennheiser HD-650, AudioQuest NightHawk.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Vodka (Ethernet), AudioQuest OptiLink 5 (TosLink). Interconnect: AudioQuest Wild Blue (balanced) & Fire (single-ended). Speaker: AudioQuest Robin Hood. Headphone: Nordost Heimdall with Audeze LCD-X. AC: AudioQuest Dragon Source &…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the HiFi Rose RS250 with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 As We See It), repeating some tests with the magazine's more recent Audio Precision APx500 analyzer.
I first looked at the RS250's performance as a D/A processor. Apple's USB Prober utility identified the HiFi Rose as "RS250-DAC" from "HiFi ROSE." The USB port operated in the optimal isochronous asynchronous mode, and Apple's AudioMIDI utility revealed that the RS250 accepted 16-, 24-, and 32-bit integer data via USB sampled at all rates from 44.1kHz to 768kHz. The…
John Atkinson wrote about the Ayre EX-8 2.0 in December 2021 (Vol.44 No.12):
When I examined the Ayre Acoustics EX-8 2.0's performance on the test bench, to accompany Ken Micallef's review in the November 2021 issue, the two channels behaved somewhat differently. The right channel's output impedance was higher than that of the left—0.525 ohm vs 0.35 ohm, which resulted in a level imbalance of 0.2dB into 8 ohms—and while the distortion was predominantly third-harmonic in the left channel, it was predominantly second-harmonic in the right channel.
Ayre Vice President & CTO Ariel…
Jason Victor Serinus returned to the Accuphase DG-68 in December 2021 (Vol.44 No.12):
There was nothing equivocal in my August 2021 review of the Accuphase DG-68 Digital Voicing Equalizer ($24,000). Calling it "among the most enlightening and consequential" audio products I've spent time with, I affirmed that it "enriched my experience of reproduced music far more than I could have imagined." I found it a transformational product that performed "flawlessly, to oft-astounding effect."
For better or worse, forces cosmic and otherwise left insufficient time to explore all the DG-68's…
Stereophile often subjects products that have been reviewed to further coverage: sometimes because there was an aspect of performance that needed further investigation; other times because there was a controversial finding. Three recent followups concerned the Ayre Acoustics EX-8 2.0 Integrated Hub amplifier that Ken Micallef reviewed in the November 2021 issue; the Accuphase DG-68 Digital Voicing Equalizer that Jason Victor Serinus reviewed in August 2021; and the Zesto Leto Ultra II line preamplifier that Ken Micallef reviewed in February 2021.
When I measured the sample of the Ayre EX-…
So glad to be back in business with superclean electricity! Especially having spent the last few weeks listening to the remarkably pure-sounding Analog Relax EX1000 cartridge ($16,000).
The brochure asks, "Have you heard of YAKUSUGI Cedar?" No. I had never heard of Analog Relax, either. If you have heard of it, you're at least one step ahead of me.
Analog Relax, the brochure says, is produced by ZOOT Communication (footnote 1). On the company's website I learned that in Japanese "zoot" means "always." ZOOT Communication President Yasushi Yurugi is also a big Zoot Sims fan. He…
As I prepared to run the Audio Relax EX1000 into the Arion Mk.II, I was thinking that it might be too much of a good thing—that the velvety-sounding EX1000 and the sweet-sounding, electronic texture–free Arion might produce an additive muddle. It didn't.
The Audio Relax EX1000 (on the Schröder arm, with the OMA K3 arm/turntable) feeding the Arion Mk.II—even loaded at 100 ohms (the cartridge's 15 ohm internal impedance would suggest at least a 150 ohm load)—produced a dazzling presentation that enhanced and intensified the best qualities of both to produce among the most enticing vinyl-…
"Get your picture with the Wolf"—Larry Birnbaum (left) and Debbie Nathan (right).
In the early 1970s, my hometown—Chicago—was a hotbed of blues. I discovered the blues in high school via the Rolling Stones, and I began to frequent the city's blues clubs as a college student, at first while still underage. From Theresa's, the South Side tavern where Junior Wells performed, I progressed to the West Side, where on weekends I would head down Madison Street to see Howlin' Wolf at Big Duke's Blue Flame Lounge.
Crudely drawn erotic silhouettes adorned the walls of the Blue Flame,…
Since the plague arrived, several of my closest audio friends have been chattering and bugging me constantly, not about masks, vaccines, Trump, or Biden but about Bruno Putzeys's digital-to-analog converter, the Mola Mola Tambaqui. They've been sending emails and texts like pesky kids:
"Herbie! Have you tried the Mola Mola? Come on man, what's taking you so long? Is Putzeys's DAC better than my MSB? Or the dCS Bartók? Or the HoloAudio May?"
I don't mind—I like it when people pester me about products they're excited about. That type of revved-up, need-to-know anticipation is what…
I've been waiting impatiently since 1983 for digital to sound this raw and unprocessed. With the Tambaqui, these doggedly artful Segovia performances were presented with a potent, affecting, analog-like physicality.
Curious to experience an even bigger, more direct and forceful presentation and a little more Mola Mola bass, I replaced the Falcons with Harbeth's M30.2 monitors and played my favorite fun soundtrack, Alexander Desplat's Isle of Dogs (16/44.1 FLAC, ABKCO/Qobuz). That led quickly to a moment where I kicked myself for not playing the Harbeth speakers more than I do. Driven by…