The Voxativ room presented previews of a couple of forthcoming products, including upgrades to their 9.87 two-box (Pi-Monitor and Pi-Bass) speaker system (above). There's a new .01 Mid-Module…
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Purists might disagree, but for many listeners, having equipment that enables subtle sonic adjustments is welcome. This rings true for me, as I enjoy a wide variety of musical styles. Evidently Voxativ's Founder and Chief Engineer Inés Adler does too. Adler, a former designer of engines for Daimler's Mercedes-Benz marque, has made modern updates and options available for vintage hi-fi approaches.
There are no accidents, eh? A chance meeting with Wilson-Benesch's Luke Milnes, followed by several email and WhatsApp check-ins, led me to my final exhibit at Munich High End. There, in a system that also featured Audionet products, reigned the 308lb Wilson-Benesch Omnium loudspeaker ($169,000/pair), second in command in the company's reference Fibonacci Series. Containing three pairs of isobaric-loaded woofers, two additional bass drivers, one midrange unit, and the Fibonacci tweeter, this hardly diminutive loudspeaker (shown below) utilizes new bio-composite technology that replaces the…
The Wadax room brought huge gear and huge sound to Munich High End, along with a couple of new product introductions. Their main demo, in Atrium 4.2's E207 room presented the Wadax Atlantis Reference Server ($64,900) with a new, upgraded Reference PSU external power supply ($49,000) that's said to improve performance (as well it should). Its output noise is said to be crazy low: reportedly setting a record of 200nV of RMS noise from 0.1Hz to 20kHz. It uses a feedforward topology that adjusts its power regulation circuitry in real time based on current load requirements; this helps minimize…
In audio reviewing, there's a tension between scientific explanations for the qualities of the sound we hear and how the music, as conveyed through our equipment, makes us feel. Insights from the new field of interpersonal neurobiology can help us understand this conflict (footnote 1).
The distinction between our emotional response to music and our ability to describe and analyze it scientifically arises from the differing functions of the brain's right and left hemispheres. The right hemisphere is in constant communication with the autonomic nervous system (ANS) via branches of the…
Melco, the Japanese maker of the N50 Music Library featured in this review, is not a household name among US audiophiles. Veterans may recall the Melco 3560 turntable, which was considered extravagant at its 1978 launch, in part because it supported three tonearms. Confusingly, several subsidiaries of the giant keiretsu Mitsubishi are called MELCO (for "Mitsubishi Electric Corporation"), but the maker of the N50 is not one of those MELCOs. This "Melco" is, rather, short for "Maki Engineering Laboratory Company," and though it got its start in hi-fi, these days its best-known products are…
I connected the N50 to my Okto DAC8 Pro multichannel DAC. With stereo tracks, the N50/Okto combo was just super. I then selected some multichannel files just to see what would happen. I heard music, but the tracks were not routed to the proper channels/speakers and there was noise in unused channels—the Melco N50 is not a multichannel device. I then tried connecting my exaSound s88 to the N50, also by USB, but the two devices failed to communicate. The Melco requires that the attached DAC be UAC2 compliant. The Okto is, but the exaSound is not. Melco has a long list of compatible devices on…
Sidebar 1: Streaming with the Melco N50
I've long been curious about Melco's music libraries, so after Kal had submitted his review, I asked him to send me the N50. Then I read his review and saw his note about its limitations from its streaming "Player" output. I was determined to try it for myself.
The note at Apple's app store says that, while the Melco app doesn't support streaming to an Ethernet-connected DAC, an Ethernet-connected "Music Player" should be able to see the Melco and play music from it via its own app. So I tried it with the CH Precision C1 DAC that I still…
Sidebar 2: Specifications
Description: Network-connected music player and streamer with internal storage and compatible with directly attached and network-attached storage. Internal storage: 3.84TB SSD. Inputs/Outputs: 5 USB, 2 Ethernet (RJ-45) with Gigabit (1000Base-T). DHCP server (in isolated mode). Supported cloud services: Tidal, Qobuz,vTuner Internet Radio. Supported formats: DSF, DFF, WAV, FLAC, ALAC, AAC, AIFF, etc. Supported sample rates: 16–32 bit (PCM) to 384kHz (auto downsample to suit connected DAC), 1 bit (DSD) to 11.3MHz Quad DSD. Gapless PCM and DSD supported.
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Sidebar 3: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: Oppo Digital UDP-105 universal disc player, custom Baetis Prodigy-X4i music server running JRiver Media Center v28 and Roon 1.8, Mytek Brooklyn+ DAC, exaSound s88 streaming DAC, and Okto DAC8 Pro D/A processors. QNAP TVS-873 NAS.
Preamplifiers: Coleman Audio 7.1SW for source switching. 3 Topping Pre90s for buffer/line-drivers.
Power Amplifiers: Benchmark AHB2, NAD C 298.
Loudspeakers: Revel Ultima2 Studio with IsoAcoustics Gaia I isolation feet. Revel Performa3 f206 for surrounds. Two SVS SB-3000 & one SB-2000Pro subwoofers…
Parisian high-end audio dealer AnaMighty Sound's room, F114 in Atrium 4, showed several products made in Switzerland from darTZeel, Stenheim, and Nagra. The room also became a mini-concert venue for a couple of demo sessions on Saturday that incorporated live music: Jazz saxophonist Jérôme Sabbagh played solo, accompanied by playback of his No Filter album bandmates on the room's system. They played 24-bit/96kHz versions of the tracks with Sabbagh's sax parts/tracks omitted.
These half-hour presentations were a nice diversion; a different way of showing how, or to what extent, a system…