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Nagra CDP CD player Follow-Up, July 2007

Wes Phillips wrote again about the Nagra CDP in July 2007 (Vol.30 No.7):

I tapped Send and sat back, content to have completed another review. Nothing beats the satisfaction of having written something—it almost compensates for the pain of having to actually do it.

Tink went my computer. (I know it said tink because that's what it calls that sound in Preferences.) I opened John Atkinson's e-mail, expecting an Attaboy, Wes!

Wrong. "Wes, I distinctly remember instructing you that Nagra requested you listen in single-ended configuration, since there's one gain stage fewer…

Nagra CDP CD player Follow-Up, Associated Equipment

Sidebar 4: Follow-Up Associated Equipment

Preamplifiers: Ayre K-1xe, Conrad-Johnson ACT 2, Krell Evolution 202, NHT PVC.
Power Amplifiers: MX-R, Krell Evolution 600.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties WATT/Puppy 8, NHT M-00.
Cables: Interconnect: Shunyata Research Aries & Antares. Speaker: Shunyata Research Lyra.
Accessories: Furutech eTP-609 distribution box, FP-20A(R) duplex outlets, RDP panels; OSAR Selway/Magruder equipment racks; Ayre Myrtle Wood Blocks.—Wes Phillips

Roku SoundBridge M1001 network music player

My interest in wireless network music players began during David Hyman's keynote speech at Home Entertainment 2003. Then CEO of Gracenote, Inc. (footnote 1), Hyman stunned me with his opinion that CDs and DVDs were already obsolete. Rather than pursue discs with greater storage capacity, Hyman urged industry designers to design music-server units with large hard drives to allow instantaneous access to any digital music track. With all of your music stored on a central hard drive, you could, within seconds, locate a specific track among thousands just by knowing the name of the artist, song,…

Roku SoundBridge M1001 network music player Page 2

Then, trouble: I'd visited www.napster.com to buy October's "Recording of the Month," Keith Jarrett's The Carnegie Hall Concert (ECM 1989/90). Once I'd entered my credit-card information, Napster had rapidly downloaded the 13 files that make up the two-CD set and written them to my hard drive as DRM-wrapped, lossless WMA files. Download completed, I browsed my music library, found the album, and clicked on the first track, Part 1. The SoundBridge displayed "Acquiring License"; then, its time display showed that the music was flowing through the M1001. Just to check, I switched from Windows'…

Roku SoundBridge M1001 network music player Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Two-channel, solid-state network music player with built in WiFi adapter, 400MHz Blackfin DSP chip, and 16MB buffer RAM. Connectors: Ethernet (one), analog line out (1/8", variable or fixed level), digital S/PDIF output (RCA coaxial and TosLink), Wired Network (Ethernet), Wireless Network (WiFi). Maximum analog line output: 2.83V peak–peak (1V RMS). Dynamic range: 90dB. THD: –90dB, typical. Signal/noise: 96dB. Sample rates supported (kHz): 8, 11, 12, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48. Bit depth supported: 8, 16, stereo or mono. File formats handled: MP3,…

Roku SoundBridge M1001 network music player Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Music Server: IBM X30 laptop with 1.2GHz Pentium 3 processor, 788MHz system board, 760MB RAM, and 80GB hard drive running Windows XP (v.2002, Service Pack 2). WiFi network comprises D-Link Airplus Extreme G DWL-G640 Wireless 108g Notebook PCMCIA adapter with D-Link DSL-G800 AP Wireless Range Extender. Music-server music library: "My Music" subdirectory on IBM X30 laptop. Music-server software: Windows Media Connect 2.0, Firefly, Slim Devices SlimServer.
Analog Sources: Day-Sequerra Signature 1 Reference, McIntosh MR-78 FM tuners.
Digital Sources:…

Roku SoundBridge M1001 network music player Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

To measure the Roku SoundBridge M1001, my original plan was to use it to access the uncompressed test-tone data files residing in the iTunes library on the Mac mini that acts as my household music server. Unfortunately, while the Roku recognized the existence of both the library and the SlimServer software that feeds the library to my Squeezebox, I kept getting a "Server Not Responding" error message when I tried to browse that library. I checked that the Mac's Network, Firewall, and Music Sharing settings were correct, but to no avail, so I ended up installing…

Rega P1 record player

For a word that first appeared in print only 35 years ago, prequel has a lot of impact—if only in a commercial sense. The television series Smallville has become a staple of American broadcasting. Film producers gambled millions on the chance that audiences would want to know what happened when Batman began. And while moviegoers have turned their backs on the apparently awful Hannibal Rising, the book of the same name is doing brisk business indeed.

Our antediluvian interest isn't limited to superheroes and scary creeps: After enjoying the Rega Planar 2 record player for 32 years…

Rega P1 record player Page 2

The RB100's bearings appeared free of egregious friction—although the high residual antiskating force made this a little more difficult than usual to check—and while the MDF platter wasn't entirely free from runout error, it was shockingly good for a product in this price range. I've seen platters on four-figure turntables, made of both alloy and acrylic, that weren't nearly as true. Platter speed was spot-on at 45rpm, but over 1% high at 33.3rpm, which most users would consider audible.

Performance
The Rega P1 surprised me by being the rare turntable whose performance changed…

Rega P1 record player Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Two-speed, belt-driven turntable with synchronous AC motor, MDF platter, pivoted tonearm with aluminum-alloy armtube, moving-magnet phono cartridge with replaceable stylus. Wow and flutter: unspecified. Rumble: unspecified. Tonearm spindle to pivot distance: 222.8mm. Tonearm effective length: 240mm. Downforce: noncalibrated counterweight. Antiskating: calibrated sliding magnet.
Dimensions: 17.5" (450mm) W by ca 4.5" (115mm) H (with dustcover) by 15" (385mm) D. Weight: not specified.
Finish: Gray semigloss.
Serial Number Of Unit Reviewed:…