As Jim Austin primarily auditioned the CH Precision L1 using its direct-coupled balanced inputs and outputs with the gain adjust set to "0dB," the input impedance set to High, and with the preamplifier powered by the auxiliary X1 supply, I performed a complete set of measurements in that condition. (The manual says not to stack the L1 and X1; the supplied umbilical cable was long enough for me to place the X1 on the floor, well away from the L1.) I then repeated some of the tests using the unbalanced inputs and outputs, then performed the balanced input's…
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Sidebar 1: Pascal's Wager: Betting on Class-D Pro Audio
Twenty years ago, the Danish amplifier specialists at Pascal Audio hand-built their first prototypes in a small lakeside cabin near Copenhagen. From the start, the firm specialized in electronics for self-powered loudspeakers and amplifier systems. It now partners with audio brands in more than 70 countries.
If you're not familiar with Pascal amplification, you're not alone; it's probably the least well-known of the class-D amplification companies. It positioned itself as a behind-the-scenes supplier to PA loudspeaker…
You’re going to need to indulge me a bit, because, due to some communication difficulties, I’m not totally confident of some prices and components in this room. If I understood correctly, the handmade-in-Japan, 1-bit Sparkler Audio S503 CD Player/Transport costs $1650, and the build-it-yourself EleKit TU-8600R integrated amplifier, also from Japan, goes for $1785. The loudspeaker system appears to be custom, from AER, including that company's BD2 driver (3000 each, according to the AER website) in an acrylic stand that looks like AER's Custom (€5500/pair) but with the addition of the larger…
Sidebar 2: Specifications
Description: Ported, active standmount loudspeaker with attached stands. Driver complement: 1.1" (28mm) Esotar3 tweeter, 7" (18cm) NeoTec magnesium silicate polymer woofer. Crossover: two-way, DSP-based. Crossover frequency: 2.5kHz. Analog inputs: balanced XLRs. Digital inputs: AES3. Digital outputs: AES3. Amplifier power: 400W + 150W. Power consumption: 0.5W at idle; 453W while active. Frequency response: 33Hz–25kHz, ±3dB at 85dB SPL.
Dimensions: 44.1" (1119mm) H × 914.5" (368mm) W × 18" (457mm) D including stands. Weight: 62.8lb (28.5kg).
Finishes: "…
Sidebar 3: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: 15" MacBook Air M4 running Roon 2.0; Lenovo ThinkCentre running Roon ROCK; Grimm Audio MU1; Eversolo DMP-A10.
Preamplification: Quad 33 2024.
Amplification: Quad 303 2024, bridged.
Loudspeakers: Focal Utopia Scala EVO; Monitor Audio Gold 100 6G.
Cables: Analog interconnect: AudioQuest Black Beauty XLR. Digital: AudioQuest Wild AES3. Speaker: AudioQuest Thunderbird Zero speaker cables for the Monitor Gold/Quad combo. Power: AudioQuest Blizzard C13.
Accessories: AudioQuest PowerQuest PQ-707 power conditioner and Niagara…
On the front page of its owner's manual, Greek amplifier manufacturer Lab12 describes the Melto2 ($4995, footnote 1) as a "Remote Controlled, Fully Adjustable Phono Preamplifier." I'd describe it as a clear-speaking, fun-to-use, cartridge- and record-collector's dream. Plus: It's got tubes.
Apart from delivering an uncanny level of silence and transparency, the #1 special thing Lab12's tube phono stage can do is allow users to fine-tune resistance, capacitance, and gain to create maximally effective loads for both moving coil and moving magnet cartridges. These diverse capabilities…
The Ortofon 2M line is familiar to my ears. I own a 2M Blue that once belonged to Art Dudley (RIP). My reference cartridge in studio is a 2M Bronze. (Its microline stylus is reputed to be so close to a cutting stylus that it's safe to play a lacquer with it—only once—before sending it out for plating.) The 2M Red has the same moving magnet engine as the 2M Blue, with a bonded elliptical stylus instead of a nude elliptical. The 2M Red has high output, at 5.5mV. The output level of the Audio-Technica AT-VM95C included on the SL-40CBT is 4mV (see later). So the first thing I listened for…
Whenever I hear a Tzar, my brain recites the words I spoke to Frank Schröder: "That's the best damn cartridge I've ever heard." But then everyone knows I speak in metaphors and flash hyperbole like a smile. What my brain meant by saying those words is that the Tzar's sound is so radically different than any other cartridge that I have nothing to compare it to. Audio-Technica's AT-ART1000 "Direct Power Stereo Cartridge" comes to mind as a possibility. It uses the same coils-near-the-stylus strategy, but it features a nude line-contact stylus and a boron cantilever. The Tzar uses a carbon-…
Every first love leaves a strong impression. Hopefully it's a good one. Those of us who are phonography-positive fondly remember our first good record playing system, the first turntable-cartridge combo that let the music turn us on. Maybe it was simple, maybe it was fussy, maybe it was unreliable—no matter, it had that special ability to bring the excitement, beauty, and humanity out of the vinyl grooves, through our audio systems, and into our souls.
For me, that first-loved turntable was a Technics SL-D2 semiautomatic direct drive (footnote 1). The cartridge was an Audio-Technica…
Studio Masters: Close-up on three of the seven producers/engineers participating in the Studio Confidential series. From, l-r: Elliot Scheiner, Sylvia Massy, Niko Bolas.
Producers and engineers are the human engines that drive and shape the sound of the recordings we know and love—not to mention the ones we've yet to hear. To get us closer to the music, so to speak, the organizers of Studio Confidential, a month-long series of events held at the Loreto Theater in the Sheen Center for Thought and Culture on Bleecker Street in New York City, have brought together seven of the best…