I vividly recall walking back to Times Square with John Atkinson while talking about amplifiers…
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On the cold and sunny morning of February 19, 2020, a dozen or so audio critics and writers gathered at Gilmore's Sound Advice on New York's far West Side to see some new NAD and DALI products that had been unveiled the prior month at CES. It was a friendly group, and we kibitzed over coffee before clustering in the arranged seats for presentations and auditions. I doubt any of us realized that it would be the last time for the foreseeable future that we would experience this familiar rite.
NAD includes five Dirac memory slots in the M33—that's five distinct sets of room-adjustment settings—in addition to bypass, a nice feature for experimentation and to optimize listening for different positions, music, or moods. The included "LE" (Limited Edition) version of Dirac is effective only up to 500Hz, but that covers the range of frequencies where room correction matters most in most domestic rooms. The M33 with LE did a great job with the main speakers running full-range by clarifying everything in the sub-200Hz range. Once the room was optimized, I consistently preferred the…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Remote-controlled, network-connected D/A integrated amplifier with Dirac Live LE Room Correction, tone controls, multiroom capability, and front-panel touchscreen. Analog inputs: 1 pair RCA (line), 1 pair XLR (line), 1 pair RCA (phono). Digital inputs: 2 TosLink, 2 coaxial S/PDIF, 1 AES/EBU (XLR), 1 HDMI/ ARC, Ethernet (RJ-45), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth aptX HD. BluOS supported file formats: MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG, WMA-L, ALAC, OPUS, MQA, FLAC, WAV, AIFF. Supported sample rates: up to 192kHz with bit depths 16–32. Supported cloud services: Spotify, Amazon Music…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: Oppo Digital UDP-105 universal disc player, Baetis Prodigy X PC-based music server running JRiver Media Center v26 and Roon, Pink Faun 2.16x Linux-based music server running Roon, Mytek Brooklyn, exaSound e38 Mark II and Okto DAC8 Pro D/A processors. QNAP TVS-873 NAS.
Preamplifier: Audio Research MP1.
Power amplifiers: Benchmark AHB2, Classé Sigma Mono.
Loudspeakers: Revel Ultima2 Studio (L/C/R), Revel Performa3 F206 (SL/SR), 2 JL Audio f110v2 and 1 JL Audio e110 subwoofers.
Cables: Digital cables: AudioQuest Coffee (USB).…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured NAD's Masters Series M33 using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"). Usually, before I test an amplifier, I precondition it with both channels driving a 1kHz tone at one-third power into 8 ohms for an hour. This thermally stresses an amplifier with a conventional class-AB output stage, but as the NAD is a class-D design, this wasn't necessary. However, before doing any testing I ran the M33 for an hour to ensure that it was fully warmed up. At the end of that time, the top panel was slightly warm, at 100.7°F/38.2°C.…
Jonathan Weiss doesn't do things the ordinary way. Nor does he follow the usual audio industry processes.
In 2006, Weiss founded Oswalds Mill Audio (OMA), manufacturer of a range of high-end loudspeakers and other products with exotic, vintage-inspired approaches and designs. Serious handcraft and bespoke materials, from solid hardwood enclosures to leather from luxury makers Hermès and Jean Rousseau, are behind OMA's upper-echelon pricing.
Stereophile readers might not be familiar with his speakers, for a couple of reasons. Weiss doesn't do audio shows (at least he hasn't for…
"Future generations will be able to condense into the brief space of twenty minutes the tone pictures of a lifetime—five minutes of childish prattle, five moments embalming the last feeble utterances from the death-bed. Will this not seem like holding veritable communion with immortality?"—Berliner Gramophone Company ca 1877
Patented by German-American inventor Emile Berliner in 1887, the Gramophone, which later became, generically, the small-g gramophone, is a device for making permanent, direct-to-flat-disc recordings (footnote 1)—of the human voice, musical instruments, or other…
Nirvana with Susvara: In Bed-Stuy Brooklyn, during the intense Black Lives Matter protests, there were helicopters and military-loud all-night-long barrages of "no justice, no sleep" fireworks. As my own form of sympathy, I played "Get Up, Stand Up" from the first reggae album I heard when I came to NYC, in 1974: Burnin' by the Wailers with Bob Marley (16/44.1 FLAC Tuff Gong/Qobuz). I listened with the 60 ohm, low-sensitivity (83dB/1mW), open-back, planar-magnetic HiFiMan Susvara headphones. Their $6000 price is Babylonian high (although 24kt gold is sputtered on the Susvara's nano-thin…
I was shocked and greatly saddened by news of the passing, at age 68, of Brian W. Russell, President and co-founder (along with his brother Chris Russell) of Bryston, Inc. Established in 1973, Bryston's first product was a power amplifier for the professional market. The company went on to produce just about every kind of audio equipment: preamps, multichannel amplifiers, digital equipment, surround processors, speakers, subwoofers—even turntables. I interviewed the Russell brothers and James Tanner, Vice President Sales, in 1996 .
A larger-than-life presence with a quick wit and…
The fog hung ominously thick as I climbed the 194 steps leading up to Red Rocks Amphitheatre. I'd been in Denver for the 2018 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, and the weather had suddenly turned damp and cold—unusually so for early October. Due to dense fog and possible ice, my drive in from another Colorado city had been slowed. Though I'm in good shape, I was unaccustomed to the altitude, which also slowed my pace. So, I was arriving shortly after the opening act had started.
But when I heard the heavy synth swells and somber vocals of Sharon Van Etten performing "Jupiter 4" (named for the…