search

JL Audio Fathom f110v2 powered subwoofer

Some contentious issues will not be resolved in my lifetime: vinyl vs digital, tubes vs solid state, subjective vs objective, streaming vs physical media.

Also, subwoofers vs no subwoofers in a stereo music system.

Setting aside the issues of cost and space and domestic tranquility and considering only the quality of the musical experience, I believe a subwoofer, or a few, should be a basic component of any modern audio system.

Regardless of the size and range of yours, loudspeakers—the main ones—are always positioned for optimal tonal balance and imaging based on their…

JL Audio Fathom f110v2 powered subwoofer Page 2

I started out in multichannel, feeding the subs—either one or three—from the Sub/LFE (low-frequency effects) channel of my multichannel server. In that arrangement, the main speakers are running full-range while the sub gets only the LFE channel on tracks that have one. Post calibration, the results were rewarding, even though on music the LFE channel mostly tracks the low-frequency content of the front channels and contains little unique information. On a recent recording of Jean Guillou's organ transcription of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, performed by Zuzana Ferjencíková on…

JL Audio Fathom f110v2 powered subwoofer Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Powered, sealed-box subwoofer. Drive-unit: one 10" cone woofer. Effective displacement: 160in2. Effective piston area: 60in3. Low-pass filter: 30–130Hz, 12dB or 24dB/octave. High-pass filter: not supplied. Inputs: stereo or mono balanced (single XLR connector), stereo or mono unbalanced (single RCA connector). Input modes: Master, Slave. Outputs: single balanced (XLR) to additional subwoofer. Input impedance: 50k ohms (RCA), 100k ohms (XLR). Front-panel controls: Power (On/Off/Automatic Signal Sensing); Digital Automatic Room Optimization (Demo/…

JL Audio Fathom f110v2 powered subwoofer Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Digital sources: Oppo Digital UDP-105 universal disc player, Pink Faun 2.16 Linux-based music server running Roon (review forthcoming), Baetis Prodigy-X PC-based music server running JRiver Media Center v26 and Roon, Mytek Brooklyn, exaSound e38 Mark II and Okto DAC8 Pro D/A processors. QNAP TVS-873 NAS.
Preamplifier: Audio Research MP1.
Power amplifiers: Benchmark AHB2, Classé Sigma Mono.
Loudspeakers: Revel Ultima2 Studio (L/C/R), Revel Performa3 f206 (SL/SR).
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Coffee (USB). Interconnects: AudioQuest Earth/DBS…

JL Audio Fathom f110v2 powered subwoofer Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

Before JL's Digital Automatic Room Optimization, D.A.R.O., (fig.1, dotted red trace), a large, broad hump at 32Hz and two nulls at 66Hz and 84Hz dominate the sub-100Hz range. After D.A.R.O. (solid blue trace), the 32Hz hump is mitigated and the range below the nulls is flattened and extended. Note that, as positioned, the single subwoofer cannot significantly reduce the two main nulls. Note the smooth low-frequency extension to below 15Hz, impressive for a single 10" driver.

Fig.1 In-room low-frequency response of single JL Audio f110v2…

Terry Riley: Get What You Need

For two months, I'd been planning to attend Terry Riley's appearance at Seattle's 536-seat Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall. For two weeks, I'd been planning to watch a presidential-candidate debate on television. Only one problem: As it turned out, the two events were scheduled for the same night. Even after a decade of trying to master the muddle known as multitasking, it was impossible to do both.

The resolution to the conflict was less challenging than you might imagine. Hearing Terry, who turned 85 in June, perform live one more time meant the world to me. After I left the Bay…

Gramophone Dreams #39: HoloAudio May D/A processor & Intona USB isolator

In contrast to phono cartridges and analog tape recorders, digital audio converters distinguish themselves by the fact that they can be fashioned in an almost infinite number of ways. Therefore, the odds against two manufacturers' DACs or ADCs sounding exactly the same are extremely large.

Nevertheless, I've heard countless audiophiles say that "bits are bits" and that today's digital-to-analog converters sound mostly the same. Some go as far as to declare today's DACs blameless—neutral—when debating issues of audio-system sound quality.

In my view, such opinions deny the…

Gramophone Dreams #39: HoloAudio May D/A processor & Intona USB isolator Page 2

Tim Connor's USB care package also included a 0.2m length of Intona Professional Impedance Controlled USB cable ($450), which I inserted between my Mac mini and the Intona isolator. Between the isolator and the May DAC, I used a 5m Cardas Clear Serial Bus USB cable. Alternately, with my portable MacBook Air as the source, I connected the May DAC to the Intona isolator with a 1m AudioQuest Diamond USB cable.

Out of respect for Tim's opinion, I carefully examined the effects of these Intona products; however, except where noted, all critical observations about the HoloAudio May DAC made…

Gold Note DS-10 D/A processor

I felt like I'd just been offered a choice of 31 flavors of Baskin-Robbins ice cream topped with up to 57 varieties of Heinz ketchup, 57 condiments, and 47 brands of coddled cream. My head began to spin, my stomach churned, and my mouth grew very dry as I read that Gold Note's DS-10 ($2995) was a "chameleon DAC" with 192 setup options that enable it to "completely blend in with different music genres, giving the listener the opportunity to adapt the behavior of the unit to the music playing, to one's stereo system and, most of all, to the listener's taste."

My brain was rattled by…

Gold Note DS-10 D/A processor Page 2

When I saw a notification to update firmware, I did so. Unfortunately, the new firmware refused to shake hands with Roon. During the first of several WhatsApp sessions with Lenzi, we enlisted my MacBook Pro to first receive, by email, and then install, via the DS-10's mini-USB port, an older firmware version that worked fine with Roon, although it did not display MQA correctly. I was assured that I was hearing MQA, that the MQA logo would be displayed when new Roon-friendly software was released, and that the sound was exactly the same as with the current firmware (footnote 1).

Another…