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Gramophone Dreams #61: The Art of Cable: AudioQuest, Canare, Kondo & the HoloAudio Serene preamplifier

I have this friend, a smart, good-looking young physicist from Argentina. Naturally, I call him "Gaucho." He lives in a glistening-white steel-and-glass apartment overlooking lower Manhattan. I visit him regularly, usually with a group of audio friends, mainly to compare recordings, drink wine, and talk hi-fi.

One day, unexpectedly, Gaucho invited me over to listen to his system—just me—so that I could tell him what I "really think" of his system's sound.

His digital source is Roon into a dCS Rossini DAC and Master Clock. His record player is the latest SME 20/3 turntable with an…

Gramophone Dreams #61: The Art of Cable: AudioQuest, Canare, Kondo & the HoloAudio Serene preamplifier Page 2

Then Woo Audio's 3ES preamp/electrostatic headphone amplifier arrived. Putting it in my system as a preamp radically changed my thinking about what a line-level preamplifier could be and should do. Its push-pull 6SN7 voltage-amplifier tube and push-pull 300B cathode-follower output put a shot of LSD-clarity and power-triode umph into every signal passing through it. After Jack Wu collected the 3ES, I sulked and sighed longingly for a month, wishing for a full-function linestage that would be at once vigorous and invisible.

Then, recently, when the Linn Audio LP12 Klimax record playing…

Meitner MA3 Integrated D/A processor

Music lovers (and reviewers) long for those listening moments when their entire being lights up with joy. For me, that divine spark surfaced unexpectedly one February afternoon when, late for an appointment, I dashed into the music room, searching for my keys. That's when I heard a bit of the 24/96 WAV files of this issue's Recording of the Month, conductor Andris Nelsons's mammoth survey of the complete orchestral works of Richard Strauss, which I'd cued up on repeat to help Meitner's MA3 integrated D/A converter ($10,500) settle in. I didn't know which of Nelsons's two orchestras, the…

Meitner MA3 Integrated D/A processor Page 2

Amadeus Meitner told me that Ed's "passion project" for the last few years has been perfecting the company's DS-EQ1 Optical Equalizer, a dedicated phono preamp for DS Audio optical cartridges. Through his research, EMM Labs learned how to make "serious improvements to its analog architecture." My upgraded DV2 includes component-value adjustments and "optimized" circuits in the (analog) output stage. The considerably more open soundstage and extended top of the upgraded DV2 significantly altered my impressions of this flagship integrated DAC. Had my DV2 not been upgraded, I would not have…

Meitner MA3 Integrated D/A processor Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Fully discrete single-bit 16×DSD upconverting integrated D/A processor with volume control and remote control. Roon Ready, with streaming from Tidal, Qobuz, Deezer, Spotify, and vTuner internet radio, and file playback from NAS, external drive, or USB stick using Roon or UPnP/DLNA. Inputs: AES3 (XLR), S/PDIF (RCA electrical and TosLink optical), USB, USB Media (2) Type A, a Network/ Ethernet interface (RJ45), and RS-232 for Remote and Service. USB Audio input supports up to DSD128 and DXD with full MQA decoding; other inputs support up to DSD64 and…

Meitner MA3 Integrated D/A processor Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Digital sources: dCS Rossini SACD/CD transport, Rossini DAC, and Rossini Clock; EMM Labs DV2 Integrated DAC; Synology 5-bay NAS 1019+; Roon Nucleus+ music server with HDPlex 200 linear power supply; Uptone Audio etherRegen, Small Green Computer Sonore opticalModule, TP-Link gigabit Ethernet media converters plus multimode duplex fiberoptic cable (2), Linksys routers (2); Small Green Computer linear power supply & Small Green Computer/ HDPlex four-component, 200W linear power supply (3); external hard drives, SSD USB sticks, iPad Pro; Apple 2017 Macbook…

Meitner MA3 Integrated D/A processor Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

I measured the Meitner MA3 with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system, repeating some tests with the magazine's higher-resolution APx500 system. I performed the testing using the AES3 and coaxial and TosLink S/PDIF inputs, all of which accepted data sampled at all rates up to 192kHz, as well as via the USB and network ports, the former using my MacBook Pro, the latter using Roon. Apple's AudioMIDI utility revealed that the MA3's USB port accepted 16- and 24-bit integer data sampled at all rates from 44.1kHz to 384kHz. Apple's USB Prober app identified the Meitner as "…

Nagra Room: Nagra Reference Anniversary Turntable, Wilson Chronosonic XVX Speakers, Crystal Cable, Shunyata Research, Modulum Audio

There was buzz about many rooms at the High End Munich show but perhaps few were as talked about as the Nagra/Wilson Audio Specialties setup in Atrium 4.1 F130. It seemed to be among the more packed ones, a tough room to get into. I passed by twice before I was able to poke my head in, then was only able to return briefly near the end of the show.

Nagra sales and marketing manager René Laflamme, who's also a mastering engineer, gave a couple of playback presentations of his and (if I remember correctly) Wilson Audio's Peter McGrath's recordings.

Part of the buzz was…

DS Audio, Mobile Fidelity Electronics, Aesthetix Pallene and Dione, ProAc Speakers, Ansuz Acoustics Cables

DS Audio's Tetsuaki Aoyagi, known casually as Aki, was at High End Munich introducing his new DS Audio Eccentricity Detection Stabilizer ES-001 device. The next-gen (read: young) designer attended with his parents—something seldom seen at hi-fi shows. (That said, my father attended AXPONA again this year.) And families do attend the High End Munich show, perhaps more regularly than others.

Anyway, Aoyagi's new Eccentricity Detection Stabilizer ES-001 (estimated MSRP $6000) performs a few cool functions and has a touchscreen display on top. It essentially acts an LP centering…

Audio Group Denmark: Børresen Acoustics, Aavik Acoustics, Ansuz Acoustics

While walking through the aisles of Halle at Munich High End, heading for my last couple of assigned rooms (or areas), I came across designer Michael Børresen, who, with Lars Kristensen (above), gave me a quick run-down of his latest gear. There were new speakers at both the entry and extreme levels from Børresen, and new amplification at the top end from Aavik. The three brands on display—Børresen Acoustics, Aavik Acoustics, and Ansuz Acoustics—were consolidated under one umbrella company, Audio Group Denmark, in 2020.

Two new pairs of Børresen Acoustics speakers were on demo:…