"What a preamp ought to do, apart from changing volume and switching sources, is as little as possible," wrote Stereophile Editor Jim Austin in his 2017 review of the PS Audio BHK Signature preamplifier.
And yet "the preamplifier is the heart of a system," noted Technical Editor John Atkinson in his 2013 review…
Break-in was required before I could judge the P5's sonic merits, but there was a small glitch in the process. Typically, I set Tidal to shuffle and go away, but when I did this with the P5, I returned home to a silent hi-fi. Orth directed me to the "power-off time" in the "system" menu, accessible via the "setup" function on the remote control. I disabled it.
The P5 ran just slightly warm to the touch.
Listening…
Description: Solid-state stereo preamplifier with Bluetooth, MC/MM phono stage, dual-mono AKM DAC chips, MQA. Inputs: 2 pairs balanced (XLR), 5 pairs unbalanced (RCA), 7 digital (see main text). Outputs: 2 pairs balanced (XLR), 4 pairs unbalanced (RCA) (two pre out, line out, mono sub out), headphone (¼"), 2 digital outputs (S/PDIF TosLink, coaxial). THD (20Hz–20kHz): <0.002%. Output impedance: unbalanced (RCA), 470 ohms; balanced (XLR), 100 ohms. Intermodulation distortion (60Hz: 7 kHz, 4:1): <0.002%. Input sensitivity/Impedance: Phono input (MM), 2.5mV/…
Analog sources: Kuzma Stabi R turntable & Kuzma 4Point 11" tonearm; EMT TDSN MC phono cartridge.
Digital source: Asuslaptop, BorderPatrol DAC SE.
Preamplification: Shindo Allegro.
Power amplifiers: Mytek Brooklyn AMP+, Shindo Haut-Brion, Rotel S5 Stereo.
Integrated amplifier: Rotel 1572.
Loudspeakers: DeVore Fidelity O/93.
Cables: Interconnect: Shindo Laboratory, Triode Wire Labs Spirit II. Speaker: Auditorium 23. AC: Triode Wire Labs Obsession NCF power cord, manufacturers' own.
Accessories: Kuzma Plastis 65 isolation…
I tested the Rotel Michi P5 with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"). Looking first at its behavior via its line inputs, I performed most of the testing with the balanced inputs and balanced outputs and with the volume control set to its maximum. I repeated some of the tests with the unbalanced inputs and outputs with the volume control first set to its maximum, then at 77, which is equivalent to –10dB. (The volume control operates in accurate 0.5dB steps.)
The maximum gain for the balanced input to the balanced output…
The FARP was a small, boundary-less airfield marked not by a runway or buildings but by a couple of scattered antennas and several large fuel blivets. At our dug-in perimeter, the desert spread bare before us in every direction—except in the center of my sector of view. There, beyond a depression in the…
The Sacred Veil is a commissioned piece but also a labor of love. The cantata sets poems by Whitacre's friend, Charles Anthony Silvestri, who was coming to terms with the premature death of his wife, Julie. The score also sets three of Julie's writings and two of the composer's own poems.
Whitacre's "modern Romantic" idiom takes in agreeable dissonances for expressive effect. His vocal…
Maria Schneider, the most acclaimed jazz composer of our time, has been an impressionist, devoted to preserving moments of her life when the sensual and the spiritual became indivisible. Her new double album, Data Lords, is different—or rather, half of it is. The title refers to big-data companies whose binary…
Releasing a second album so soon after a Mercury Prize–nominated debut is the kind of action a band from a previous decade would have taken—no waiting three years between releases as is common today. But then, the brand of rock produced by Dublin's five-piece Fontaines D.C., which received much positive press for last year's debut, Dogrel, has been compared to the post-punk of the late '70s, when frequent releases were common.
Speed…
Though complicated and time-consuming, Wayne's methodology produced outstanding results. His goal was not just to clean a record but to restore it to as-new condition by removing from it every contaminant found on and, in some cases, in the vinyl—impurities baked into the groove…