Listening
Listening to the dual-mono pink noise track on the Editor's Choice CD (Stereophile STPH016-2), I noticed too much treble energy. I followed the advice in the manual to toe-in the speakers so that they point at a location just in front of the listening position. This reduced the treble excess sufficiently that I could now hear that the pink…
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The music source was my Roon Nucleus+ feeding audio data over my network to an MBL N31 CD player/DAC, which was connected to a pair of Parasound Halo JC 1+ monoblocks. The speakers were single-wired with AudioQuest Robin Hood cable.
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way, reflex-loaded, floorstanding loudspeaker. Drive units: 1" (25.4mm), diamond-dome tweeter; 5" (130mm) Continuum-cone, FST midrange unit; two 6.5" (165mm) Aerofoil-cone woofers. Crossover frequencies: not specified. Frequency response: 24Hz– 28kHz ±3dB. Frequency range: 20Hz–35kHz. Nominal impedance: 8 ohms. Minimum impedance: 3 ohms. Sensitivity: 89dB/2.83V/m. Recommended amplifier power: 50–200W into 8 ohms, unclipped program. Supplied accessories: jumper cables, rubber-tipped feet, and spikes, with a spanner and rod to fit the latter.…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog source: Linn Sondek LP12 turntable with Lingo power supply, Linn Ekos tonearm, Linn Arkiv B cartridge, Channel D Seta L phono preamplifier.
Digital Sources: Roon Nucleus+ file server; Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP universal player; MBL N31 CD player/DAC; Ayre Acoustics QA-9 A/D converter.
Power amplifiers: Parasound Halo JC 1+ monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: PSB Synchrony T600.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Vodka (Ethernet), AudioQuest Coffee (USB), DH Labs (1m, AES/EBU). Interconnect: AudioQuest Wild Blue (balanced). Speaker: AudioQuest Robin…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system, a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone, and an Earthworks microphone preamplifier to measure the Bowers & Wilkins 804 D4's frequency response in the farfield. My primary axis for the measurements was level with the tweeter, but I also performed a series of tests on an axis level with the midrange unit, which is 36" from the floor, the height of my ears in my listening chair. I used an Earthworks QTC-40 mike for the nearfield and in-room responses.
Bowers & Wilkins specifies the 804 D4's anechoic sensitivity as 89dB/2.83V/m.…
Tattoo You is near and dear to me. It came out in August 1981, just before I entered 10th grade, the age when a person's rock'n'roll aesthetic begins to take shape. This album was formative.
I knew about the Rolling Stones mainly through the Hot Rocks compilation, from listening on radio to hits from Some Girls (which came out when I was too young and sheltered in leafy suburbia to understand the urban grit and decadence described in its lyrics), and from Emotional Rescue, which I owned, and which I thought (and still think) lacks interesting music in the grooves to match the cool cover…
"Resolution can be a tricky thing when it comes to digital," my friend Michael Lavorgna recently told me. "Too much, and my focus shifts from music to sound; too little, and I become less engaged." Lavorgna, a visual artist and proprietor of the online audio-and-music publication Twittering Machines (footnote 1), is one of my favorite people to talk to about records, books, art, and hi-fi. We've been doing it for almost 20 years.
What Michael said about resolution mirrored my own experience but nagged at me. If resolution is a good thing, then how can there be too much of it? After…
In my system, the Jadis DAC did two things remarkably, uncannily well. First, it created a vast, shimmering soundstage that extended across the rear wall of my loft and encouraged me to spend hours enjoying the magic of stereophonic recording. The scale of the sonic images was as big as the recording allowed. When listening to "Polk Salad Annie," from Walk a Mile in My Shoes: The Essential '70s Masters (RCA/Qobuz 16/44.1 stream), Elvis Presley's voice seemed to emanate not just from above my Altec Valencia speakers but from the intersection of the rear wall and ceiling, 15.5' above the floor…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: tubed, two-chassis. 24-bit, D/A converter. Tube complement: two ECC82 and two ECC88 in the analog section and one each EL84 and EF86 in the power supply. Inputs: one each AES3, S/PDIF electrical (RCA), S/PDIF optical (TosLink), USB. AES3, coaxial, and TosLink inputs convert data up to 24/192; USB accepts and converts data up to 24/384, plus DSD. Outputs: One pair unbalanced (RCA), one pair balanced (XLR). The JS1 MkV is fully balanced through the XLR outputs. S/N ratio: >100dB. Frequency range: 20Hz–20kHz. Output level: 2.5V RMS.
Dimensions:…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog sources: Garrard 301 turntable in a Box Furniture Co. plinth; Thomas Schick 12" tonearm; Hana Umami Red, Ortofon SPU Classic G, and Zu/Denon DL-103 cartridges.
Digital sources: Sonnet Morpheus DAC; Sonore opticalRendu; Roon Nucleus+; Small Green Computer sonicTransporter i5 server running Roon Core.
Preamplification: Shindo Aurieges preamplifier; Parasound Halo JC 3+ phono preamplifier.
Power amplifiers: Shindo Montille; Line Magnetic LM-845IA; SET amplifier with triode-wired 307A output tubes, built by Oliver Sayes.
Loudspeakers:…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used my Audio Precision SYS2722 to examine the Jadis JS1 MkV's performance. To minimize the possibility of the analog circuitry picking up noise from the power supply, I placed the supply on the floor, as far away from the processor chassis as the two umbilical cables would allow. The heatsinks on the back of the supply became very hot during testing, their temperature stabilizing at 135.3°F (57.4°C).
The processor's AES3 and optical and coaxial S/PDIF inputs locked to data sampled up to 192kHz. Apple's AudioMIDI utility revealed that the USB inputs…