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[Editor's Note: The following letter was distributed April 21st to people in the industry.]

Dear Joel,

Hi-Fi Shows have long been an important and familiar part of the audio landscape, as important to manufacturers and magazines as they are to consumers. But the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic has clearly altered that landscape out of all recognition. Large segments of the US (and World) population are enduring limitations on travel and social interaction. Governments and city administrations are banning audiences…

There are, of course, any number of little boxes that can extract audio from the HDMI video bitstream; they began to appear on the market to fill a need for a way to route audio from a player's HDMI output In the recent past, you could buy a good-quality—even audiophile-grade—universal player and listen to SACDs via its good-sounding analog outputs. But good-sounding universal players are becoming scarce. People still want to play their discs, though, now and into the future, even after their current player…

Editor: When I started my quest to extract DSD64 and 24/192 PCM from discs to an external DAC, I knew legality was paramount. USB and AES/EBU outputs would have stripped the HDCP encoding, so I went with S/PDIF Coax/Toslink and a manufacturer well-versed in HDMI and HDCP devices. End result: the DSD and PCM at the Coax/Toslink outputs are fully HDCP copy-protected, adhere to the DTCP standards and are not in violation of the SACD and Blu-ray Audio regulations. An indication of industry acceptance: SACD label Channel Classics has welcomed the D.BOB to the…

Description: Digital breakout box for extracting stereo PCM and DSD audio from HDMI sources. Digital outputs: 2 S/PDIF (1 TosLink, 1 RCA), 1 HDMI. Digital inputs: HDMI, miniUSB (for firmware updates). Supported sample rates: up to 192kHz PCM with bit depths 16–24, DSD64. HDMI compliance: HDMI 1.4b. HDCP compliance: HDCP 1.4. Video resolution: Up to 4K60Hz YCbCr 4:2:0. Video bandwidth: 10.2Gbps. Power consumption: 0.84W. Supplied accessories: 12V/1A DC power supply, international power cable adapters, 120–240V AC 50–60Hz AC cord, user manual.
Dimensions: 8.5…

Digital sources: Oppo Digital UDP-105 universal disc player, Baetis Prodigy-X PC-based music server running JRiver Media Center v25 and Roon, Mytek Brooklyn D/A processor. QNAP TVS-873 NAS.
Preamplifiers: Audio Research MP1, Parasound P7.
Power amplifiers: Benchmark AHB2, Hegel C-53, Classé Sigma Mono.
Loudspeakers: Revel Ultima2 Studio.
Cables: Digital cables: AudioQuest Coffee (USB). Analog interconnects: AudioQuest Earth/DBS balanced, Kubala-Sosna Anticipation (RCA). Speaker cables: Benchmark Studio&Stage (NL2 to banana), Canare…

The first test I performed of the GeerFab D.BOB was to examine if its output was bit-perfect—ie, if the bits it outputs via S/PDIF are the same as those sent to it via HDMI. Using my Audio Precision SYS2722, I created a 24-bit S/PDIF signal representing a 1kHz tone at –120dBFS, with triangular dither applied at the LSB level. Fig.1 shows the spectrum of this signal, analyzed in the digital domain (no conversion to analog) by looping the Audio Precision's S/PDIF output to its S/PDIF input. The FFT bins lie at the –180dBFS level, and the noise floor is the spectrum…

Next, I'd gauge how best to make contact, which depended upon his degree of musical immersion. I hated to jolt him out of the experience. Most times he'd be relaxed, eyes closed, head gently nodding or fingers or a foot tapping to the beat. Or he might be reading LP liner notes. Once in a while,…

This month's chronicle is about a unique product I've been anxious to explore since I encountered it at last year's Capital Audiofest: Linear Tube…

With the Stax SR-009S
Russian pianist Alexander Melnikov plays Debussy: Préludes du 2e Livre, La Mer (24/96 FLAC Harmonia Mundi/Qobuz) on his own Sébastien êrard piano, built in 1885, and it is like no Debussy I have heard. When I play this recording for my friends, they get uncomfortable because the tones emitted, especially from the piano's lower registers, are colorful and…

Many thanks to the venerable Herb Reichert for his thoughtful column on our Z10e electrostatic headphone amp / integrated amp. We know it takes a lot of time to dive into such a versatile product, and we appreciate the effort Herb put in to so thoroughly explore the Z10e's capabilities.

Herb mentions that the dynamic headphone output fell a bit short of expectations with the hard-to-drive HiFiMan Susvara, and laments, "Why can't Linear Tube Audio give the headphone output the same power and gain it gives the speaker output?"

Since sending Herb this…