Digital sources: dCS Rossini SACD/CD transport & Rossini DAC & Rossini Clock; EMM Labs DV2 DAC; Roon Nucleus+ music server with linear power supply; Linksys routers (2), Small Green Computer Sonore opticalModules (2), TP-Link gigabit Ethernet media converters plus multi-mode duplex fiber optic cable (2); Small Green Computer/ HDPlex four-component 200W linear power supply (3); external hard drives, SSD USB sticks, iPad Pro.
Power amplifiers: Dan D'Agostino Master Systems Progression monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties Alexia…
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Sidebar 3: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 4: Measurements
I measured the MBL Noble Line N11's performance with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"), repeating some of the tests with a loan sample of Audio Precision's more-recent, higher-performance APx555 system. As advised in the manual, using the front-panel menu, I deactivated all the N11's inputs other than one of the balanced inputs and the unbalanced CD1 input for the measurements. I performed all the testing with the N11 set to its recommended Unity Gain mode and its volume control set to its maximum in that mode, "70." I then…
New Orleans, Louisiana — As I write this, my city is locked down. To make sure of it, the National Guard is encamped in Louis Armstrong Park, site of Congo Square, where in former times enslaved Americans gathered to dance and play music, and tourists gathered to watch them. People still gather there when the city is not locked down; they gather at other places, too. No one's gathering now. The atmosphere now is eerily similar to how it was in September and October 2005, when the city was evacuated after Hurricane Katrina. Back then, when people started returning—around Halloween, to a city…
James Booker is his own stream in New Orleans piano and the other main influence on contemporary players, after Professor Longhair. Henry Butler, Harry Connick Jr., Josh Paxton, and Jon Cleary are some of the pianists whose styles Booker influenced.
Rather than continue the New Orleans piano tradition, Booker leapt forward and sideways, combining classical, jazz, blues, and R&B forms into a completely original music that earned him the nickname "The Bronze Liberace." His audacious virtuosity was difficult to capture in the studio, but 1982's Classified: Remixed and Expanded…
There are some standing jokes in the audio industry about the qualities a piece of equipment must have in order to be truly "high-end." One definition is that it must be unavailable, unreliable, and dangerous. Another is that it will sound great, break, and its manufacturer go out of business. By meeting at least half of these variables, the Spatial Coherence TVA-1 preamplifier qualifies as a classic audiophile product.
Manufactured and marketed by Spatial, Inc. for three years (the last reference I was able to find was the 1981 Audio magazine annual equipment guide), its claim to fame…
Sidebar 1: Associated Equipment
Turntable: VPI HW-19 Mk.II fitted with the Well-Tempered Arm and Ortofon X-5MC cartridge; CD player: Musical Concepts modified Magnavox 1040; Power amplifiers: Belles Model One, plus a 180Wpc amp of my own construction; Speakers: Legacy-1; Interconnects: Mogami Neglex; Speaker cable: LiveWire BC-4. The Spatial Coherence was auditioned alone and in a side-by-side comparison with a Harman/Kardon Citation 21.
Source material used: LPs: The Scott Hamilton Quintet in Concert (Concord Jazz CJ-233); The King James Version, Harry James and his Big Band (…
Sidebar 2: Specifications
Description: Full-function solid-state preamplifier with two phono inputs, three line-level inputs, two tape loops with selectable two-way dubbing. Original published specifications: Frequency response: 10Hz–40kHz +0, –0.5dB. Max output: 10V. THD: 0.05%. IMD: 0.05%. Phono S/N ratio: 80dB. Measured performance (footnote 1): RIAA accuracy: R channel, –0.25dB at 20Hz, –0.75dB at 20kHz (net: ±1dB); L channel, –0.25dB at 20Hz, –0.25dB at 20kHz (net: ±0.5dB). Line level frequency response: R channel, 20Hz–30kHz, +0dB, –0.1dB; L channel, 20Hz–30kHz, +0.5dB, –0.1dB.…
Today is March 22, 2020. Outside my door, the plague is gaining intensity. People are wearing masks and rubber gloves. But outside the window by my desk, there is a Callery pear tree, and every day its blossoms are becoming more intensely white. Each day its brightness (measured in units of luminous flux) increases noticeably. The optical radiance of its zillion-petal whiteness illuminates the whole garden.
Looking out that desk window, I notice also the spring-warmed radiance of the sun, the racing shadows of ravenous sparrows, and daffodils. Each one of those things, in its way, affects…
The HEDDphone's rectangular AMT drivers are installed into a conventional-looking but very solidly built (718gm!), circumaural, open-back headset with thick, tight-fitting ear cups that cupped my ears with greater bulk and pressure than I have previously experienced with headphones.
But that is okay. Form must follow function.
At 42 ohms and 87dB/mW, the HEDDphone is easier to drive than the 83.5dB/mW HiFiMan HE6se and about the same difficulty as the 47 ohm, 88dB/mW Abyss AB-1266 TCs, which means it still requires extra gain and current to sound its best.
I…
Spectral is a bit of an enigma in the high-end audio world. Although nearly 20 years old and one of the founders of the American high-end audio industry, Spectral isn't a name that comes quickly to mind when considering the best of the best in high-end.
Spectral's low profile is of their own choosing. They advertise very little, their products are demonstrated in a small number of stores, they almost never send products to magazines for review, and they are very quiet about their accomplishments. Rather than push their products on customers, they seem to let a small segment of the market…