A big hi-fi show is a great…
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I'm writing this column on the long flight back to New York City following High End Munich, the big hi-fi show that in regular times takes place each May. Because these are not regular times, this was the first Munich show since 2019. This show was smaller than other recent Munich shows: COVID in the Far East limited involvement by people and companies from East Asia, and German government–mandated attendance caps limited the number of people who could enter at any one time. Even so, it was a big show, with some interesting product introductions and prototypes.
My review samples of Genelec's G Three powered loudspeaker came with a little hand-sized green and tan cardboard card featuring a poem in bold black letters dated 1898:
At the cottage window a little bird sang.
And the light of the window did flicker.
And look. The roof up it sprang and the cottage became a house bigger.
Look. Into a world the cottage grew and the vast and wide too and filled with song was the air and like new was the sun's flare.
Below this boldly printed poem, in a smaller, finer font, it said, "Thank you for choosing Genelec. With this poem by…
In my gear stories, I use the word pure as a term to signify that the sounds of recordings are appearing to my aural-aesthetic discriminator as unpolluted, unmitigated, and unrestrained by various intrusions like noisy cone breakup, wheezing reflex ports, a behemoth enclosure that gets in its own way, or, worst of all, an energy-absorbing, dynamics-compressing passive crossover.
By driving a loudspeaker's voice-coil directly from the output of a dedicated power amplifier, a designer can avoid many of the problems that occur in passive speakers due to the impedance mismatches among the…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: 2-way active stand, wall, desk, or ceiling-mount monitor speaker with one 5.1" (130mm) polypropylene-cone midwoofer and one 0.75" (19mm) aluminum-dome tweeter in a cast-aluminum cabinet. Frequency response: 54Hz–20kHz, ±2.5dB. Crossover frequency: 3kHz. Amplifiers: Two 50W class-D/channel. Harmonic distortion: 50–100Hz <2%; >100Hz <0.5%. Input connections: 1 RCA, 1 XLR. Input impedance: 10k ohms (RCA and XLR). Comes with a detachable Iso-Pod base.
Dimensions: 11 25/32" (299mm) H × 7 7/16" (189mm) W × 7" (178mm) D with Iso-Pod installed…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog sources: Dr. Feickert Analogue Blackbird turntable with Schick 10.5" tonearm, Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum, My Sonic Lab Ultra Eminent Ex, Zu-Denon DL-103 moving coil cartridges; Music Hall Stealth turntable with Ortofon 2M Blue and 2M Black, Audio-Technica VM95E moving magnet cartridges.
Digital sources: Roon Nucleus+ music server; Denafrips Terminator Plus and HoloAudio Spring 3 D/A processors; dCS Bartók DAC/Streamer.
Preamplification: HoloAudio Serene line-level pre; EMIA, Koetsu, and Lundahl LL1931Ag step-up transformers,…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system, a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone, and an Earthworks microphone preamplifier to measure the Genelec G Three's frequency response in the farfield. I used an Earthworks QTC-40 mike for the nearfield responses.
Genelec specifies the G Three's input impedance as 10k ohms. As this is an active loudspeaker, I calculated the input impedance by using spot frequency tones generated by my Audio Precision SYS2722 and examining how the nearfield sound pressure level dropped when I increased the source impedance to 600 ohms from 20 ohms (…
Wilco: Cruel Country
dBpm (24/96 stream, Qobuz; also available as 2CD, 2LP). 2022. Jeff Tweedy, Tom Schick, prods.; Tom Schick, eng.
Performance ****½
Sonics ****½
dBpm (24/96 stream, Qobuz; also available as 2CD, 2LP). 2022. Jeff Tweedy, Tom Schick, prods.; Tom Schick, eng.
Performance ****½
Sonics ****½
The cover art for Wilco's finely hewn double album Cruel Country resembles a hand-stitched doily or the kind of patch you might have seen sewn onto the back pocket of a pair of vintage faded jeans circa 1978. It's appropriate: Wilco's music has long been a patchwork, piecing together the scope and potential of American music for the band's nearly 30 years.
Cruel Country, Wilco's latest, is anything but…
Characteristically, the email from Kal Rubinson got straight to the point: "I have a WiiM Mini that I have played with, but I am not the right one to review this as I am not sufficiently interested in or knowledgeable about wireless streaming. It ... can handle uncompressed PCM via its DACs." "I'll review it," I replied, intrigued by a $99 D/A processor that can stream hi-rez audio via Wi-Fi and that also has an analog input so it can act as a preamplifier. Functionally, the Mini resembles the Lumin P1 that I reviewed in the April 2022 issue but at a tiny fraction of the Lumin's price. I was…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Streaming D/A processor/preamplifier with Bluetooth 5.1 and 2.4GHz/5GHz dual-band Wi-Fi compatibility. Supported audio file formats: MP3, AAC, ALAC, FLAC, WAV, WMA, etc. Compatible streaming services: Spotify, Amazon Music, Deezer, TuneIn, Tidal Connect, Qobuz, iHeartRadio, Napster, SoundMachine, etc. Power input: USB Type C jack. Analog input: Line, 3.5mm stereo jack, maximum input 1V. Digital output: S/PDIF (TosLink), PCM 16/24 bits, 44.1–192kHz. Analog output: 3.5mm stereo jack, 16 bits, 48kHz, "CD quality." Maximum output level: 1V RMS or 2V RMS…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: Roon Nucleus+ file server, MBL N31, Mark Levinson No.30.6, and Mytek Brooklyn D/A processors, iPhone 11, iPad mini 2, Netgear Nighthawk router.
Power amplifiers: Parasound Halo JC 1+ monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Q Acoustics Concept 50.
Headphone amplifier: Mytek Brooklyn.
Headphones: Sennheiser HD 650 with Mini, Audeze LCD-X with Mytek.
Cables: TosLink: AudioQuest Vodka. Interconnect: AudioQuest Wild Blue. Speaker: AudioQuest Robin Hood. AC: AudioQuest Dragon Source & High Current, manufacturers' own.
Accessories…