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Any concerns that artistic shortcomings might have been the reason that Cecilia Bartoli held back release of this 2013 collection of concert arias and extended vocal scenas are dispelled immediately once you listen. It may be difficult to imagine Bartoli's light mezzo-soprano undertaking Beethoven's dramatic scena "Ah! perfido"…

In the subsequent months, he happily spent a good deal of time at home with his wife and their 14-year-old son. When his creativity needed an outlet, along came an offer from CBS to write and record the theme song and musical cues for a new comedy show, B Positive. And after the pandemic peaked, he told me, "I did some concerts, got a little gig-playing money…

The Altec A-7-500 offers a highly efficient, rather forward sound for use in large to very large listening rooms or for very-high-volume "Row A" listening in smaller rooms; sound is rather forward but smooth; relatively little "horn" coloration; drivers excellently blended; bass moderately deep (useful to around 50Hz in most rooms), very tight, well defined; highs smooth and rather soft, yielding most-natural high-end quality at high listening levels; stereo imaging fairly good but optimum listening area somewhat small; an…

In college, I majored in physics, but I took a lot of theater courses. Not acting—I never had any affinity for that—but all the other aspects of theater: set design, directing, theory of performance, playwriting. One professor, a playwright himself, offered some advice to his students that has served me well ever since: To learn the craft, observe your response first, then look to the text to figure out what about it caused you to respond the way you did.

It was an important…

The transport part of the player is even easier to nail, this thinking goes, because all it needs to do is extract the data accurately, something any box-store CD…

Description: CD/SACD/MQA-CD player/transport supporting "Red Book" CD, CD-R, CD-RW, MQA CD, hybrid and single-layer. 800 × 480, 24-bit AMOLED display. User control via dual-concentric rotary knob with push function, CH Control Android app, and remote control. Digital outputs: CH Link HD (proprietary) supporting high-definition uncompressed audio and control; data rates: 16/44.1 or 24/88.2kHz (CD, MQA CD); 1 bit/2.8224MHz (SACD); AES3: 16/44.1 or 24/88.2kHz (CD, MQA CD); 24/44.1, 88.2, 176.4kHz or 1/2.8224MHz DoP (SACD); S/PDIF (RCA) 16/44.1 or 24/88.2kHz (CD,…

Digital sources: Intel NUC computer with SSD drive running Roon Optimized Core Kit, Roon Nucleus+; Denafrips Avatar CD transport; Synology DS918+ 4-bay Network Attached Storage device with 16TB; TP-Link 8-Port Gigabit network switch (unmanaged); dCS Rossini DAC.
Preamplification: Pass Labs XP-25 phono preamplifier, Pass Labs XP-22 line preamplifier.
Power amplifiers: Pass Labs XA60.8 monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties Alexx V.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Carbon & Cinnamon & Coffee, Comprehensive Connectivity DXLRP-…

I tested the CH Precision D1.5 SACD/CD player/transport with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system. As the D1.5 doesn't have digital inputs, I assessed its performance, using its own power supply and internal clock, with a Sony test SACD and a CD-R with 16-bit test signals.

I used the Pierre Verany Digital Test CD, which has gaps of various lengths in the data spiral, to check the D1.5's error correction. The Compact Disc Standard requires only that a player cope with gaps of up to 0.2mm in length, but the D1.5 played the tracks with gaps up to 2mm without…