I measured the T+A MP 3100 HV with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"). Looking first at the MP 3100 HV as a disc player, its error correction was the best I have encountered—there were no glitches in its output with any of the gaps in the data spiral on the Pierre Verany Digital Test CD. The optical and coaxial S/PDIF inputs and the AES/EBU input locked to datastreams with sample rates up to 192kHz. Apple's USB Prober utility identified the processor as "MP 3100 HV HD-Audio" from "T+A elektroakustik" and indicated that the T+A'…
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Denver’s Rocky Mountain Audio Fest (RMAF) has canceled its 2020 show. In an email to exhibitors signed “Your Friends, Marjorie and Marcie,” show director/owner Marjorie Baumert and Operations Director Marcie Miller state, “The course of action that we must take to remain a viable entity is to cancel our show for 2020. As we stated in March, RMAF will be issuing full refunds to those exhibitors who made their initial deposits.” (See the email.)
In the message, which was distributed in the early hours of May 19, the RMAF organizers cited Centers for Disease Control projections of “an even…
Finally—a way to get a handle on the sound of Aavik Acoustics electronics. I'd heard the Danish-made components many times at shows, but always in the context of Ansuz Acoustics cables and Børresen Acoustics loudspeakers. As much as the threesome was inevitable—all three companies are owned by Michael Børresen, Lars Kristensen, and a third shareholder—there was no way to determine the unique sound of each component in the mix.
Not that I hadn't tried. Reporting from the 2019 High End show in Munich, I noted the distinguished "earth-rooted bass and midrange" produced by the combination of…
Asked why the U-380's DAC does not decode DSD or MQA, he said, "We saw DSD sort of blooming up but then fade away again. All but one digital audio workstation worldwide is PCM. Because almost everything you get these days is PCM converted to DSD (footnote 1), it makes absolutely no sense. [In addition,] a mixed mode DAC really isn't optimal because the filtering needed for DSD is so different. Similarly, we don't do MQA because it requires an XMOS receiver, which affects the quality of non-MQA signals." Taking this into account, I took advantage of an option in my Roon music playback…
Returning to planet Earth, I was forced to admit that my reference dCS/D'Agostino setup conveyed more complexity in strings and greater detail, a livelier top, stronger bass (albeit not always so impeccably controlled), a wider soundstage with greater continuity between soundstage boundaries, and greater color contrasts, liquidity, air, and depth, but at much greater cost. The more I listened, the more the class-D U-380 impressed with the amount of color and life it could deliver from tracks I knew very, very well.
Phono and digital at Gary's
One afternoon, the Aavik U-380 made its…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Class-D integrated amplifier with D/A converter and phono stage. Analog inputs: 3 pairs RCA (line), 1 pair RCA (phono). Digital inputs: 2 coaxial S/PDIF, 2 TosLink, 1 USB (fully isolated UAC 2, asynchronous). Supported file formats: all PCM formats (MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG, WMA-L, ALAC, OPUS, FLAC, WAV, AIFF). Supported sample rates: up to 192kHz with bit depths 16–32. Analog outputs: 1 pair unbalanced preamplifier (RCA), 1 pair floating balanced phono (RCA), 2 pairs speaker binding posts. Maximum continuous output power: 300Wpc into 8 ohms (24.8dBW),…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: dCS Rossini SACD/CD transport & Rossini DAC & Rossini Clock; EMM Labs DV2 DAC; Roon Nucleus+ with linear power supply; Linksys routers (2), Small Green Computer Systemoptique optical isolation bundle, TP-Link gigabit Ethernet media converters plus multimode duplex fiber optic cable (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.
Integrated amplifier: Krell K-300i.
Power amplifiers: Dan D'Agostino…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
John Atkinson's measurements of the Aavik U-380 integrated amplifier appeared to indicate that the amp had suffered damage, perhaps during shipping. Aavik U-380 measurements will be published as a follow-up review in a future issue.—Jim Austin
Dear XX,
No industry is ever immune to setbacks and disasters that loom large on our personal landscapes. Sometimes, they seem small in retrospect, but sometimes, the magnitude of the crisis is never diminished, and the only thing that matters is survival and managing the calamity with as much grace as we can muster. At RMAF, our hearts have been broken by some of those disasters, but our spirit has always triumphed. We have never shied away from difficult times. Over the years, we have endured many obstacles, including:
Alan Stiefel's unexpected death; The city electrical grid going…
I'm not in perfect agreement with my colleagues and friends who believe that RCA's Living Stereo LPs from the late 1950s and '60s are the best-sounding commercial classical recordings ever made. To me, the Decca SXL catalog outshines them sonically, in addition to showcasing the talents of an even greater roster of artists. But that's not to say I'm immune to their charms.
The RCA catalog contains some real gems.
Like some of you, my interest in RCA classical LPs was spurred by the writings of the late Harry Pearson, founder of the magazine The Absolute Sound. But by the time I…