search

Russellmania: Bryston & the Brothers Russell Page 2

Deutsch: But you don't agree with it?

Chris Russell: Well, we can't disprove it. If we set up double-blind listening tests, we'd probably wind up with the same guesswork results as everybody else, because we're trying to respond with our conscious perceptions. The thing we find, though, is that every time we make an improvement to a product and send it out to the field with no announcement, we get feedback from the field that people are hearing the difference and are responding to it.

Deutsch: How do you define what is an improvement? Is it technical performance?

Chris…

Fine Tunes #4

In the September 1998 installment of "Fine Tunes," I wrote about the benefits of using nearfield listening to minimize your room's effect on the sound of your system. What you hear at the listening position should be first-arrival sounds from the speakers rather than chaotic reflections—in-phase and out—from the room. Allen Perkins of Immedia, importer of Audio Physic speakers, has written a white paper entitled "Principles and Techniques of Speaker Placement." It's provided to all purchasers of Audio Physic speakers. Essentially, it's a primer on nearfield loudspeaker placement (footnote 1…

Fine Tunes #4 Page 2

Next on Audio Physic's menu for good sound is room mapping. This is helpful for those without dedicated listening rooms, or with rooms of less than ideal proportions. Measure your room and draw a simple floor plan. Then divide the room into even divisions. According to the plan, the even points on the grid (fig.2) are where the bass will be reinforced.

Fig.2 ABC Grid, Even Divisions

Ideal speaker placements would be at A2 and C2, with the listening chair at B, against the wall. If you prefer the speakers on the short wall, you can get almost the same bass reinforcement by…

Fine Tunes #4 Page 3

Adjusting balance is next. If the system is set for equal output but the center image is off to one side, one speaker may be closer than the other. Compensate by moving one of them slightly forward or back. If a vocal you're familiar with should be centered but sounds slightly pulled to the right, move the right speaker back or the left one forward. Small movements can be quite audible.

Finally, focus the image. The basic technique is to rotate only one speaker baffle to change the dispersion pattern. Toe-in, as it's called, is best done with an audio bud on hand. Sit in the listening…

Fine Tunes #4 Letters

Letters in response appeared in the February and April 1999 issue.

Fine Tunes
Editor: I consider Jonathan Scull's "Fine Tunes" a great addition to Stereophile. While the speaker-placement grids (October '98, p.65) don't exactly work in my listening area "out of the box," they were a good starting point, and have resulted in better sound over time.

I wonder, though, how long this column can last without starting to repeat material. Here's a suggestion: select a few readers' systems and send someone out to tune them, reporting on what you found, what you did, and the results…

Sutherland Engineering 12dAX7 USB DAC/preamplifier

Computers and vacuum tubes go together like Trent Lott and flyaway hair, right? The last time filaments glowed in computers was during the 1960s, when a computer was a building. I remember laughing at the ponytailed computer-science dweebs back then, who spent their college days playing nursemaid to a football field's worth of electronics capable of little more than adding two plus two. Chained to a computer half the day, as most of us now are, guess who had the last laugh?

So if you're going to be plopped in front of a screen all day, the least you can do for yourself is squeeze some…

Sutherland Engineering 12dAX7 USB DAC/preamplifier Page 2

Okay Computer Sound
I've been using a pretty-good-sounding and very inexpensive (ca $200) Onkyo SE-U55 outboard USB-based converter with my Mac G4. It has optical and coaxial digital as well as analog line inputs and outputs, and built-in A/D and D/A converters so that, with the appropriate recording software (I use Peak LE 2.58 for Mac), I can feed it a cassette deck's analog output and store it digitally on the G4's hard drive. The Onkyo also has a headphone jack with volume control, which the Sutherland 12dAX7 doesn't, so for sheer versatility, the SE-U55 can't be beat. But while the…

Sutherland Engineering 12dAX7 USB DAC/preamplifier Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: USB-based vacuum-tube D/A converter and preamplifier with USB 1.0 data input. Sample rates supported: 32, 44.1, 48kHz. Digital word length supported: 16 bits. No specifications given. Supplied with USB cable and setup CD-ROM.
Dimensions: 14.75" W by 3" H by 8" D. Weight: 10 lbs.
Serial number of unit reviewed: None visible (pcb is marked "0001").
Price: $1600. Approximate number of dealers: 5.
Manufacturer: Sutherland Engineering, P.O. Box 1633, Lawrence, KS 66044. Tel: (913) 841-3355. Fax: (913) 841-3737. Web: www.12dAX7.com.

Sutherland Engineering 12dAX7 USB DAC/preamplifier Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Computers: Apple Macintosh G4, Apple iBook.
Power amplifier: Hafler DH-200.
Loudspeakers: Eminent Technology LFT-11, Acoustic Energy Aego2, and Cambridge SoundWorks MegaWorks 210D powered satellite-subwoofer systems.
Cables: Discovery Cable Essence interconnect.—Michael Fremer

Sutherland Engineering 12dAX7 USB DAC/preamplifier Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

To test the Sutherland 12dAX7, I used a Dell 866MHz Pentium 3 desktop PC fitted with both USB 1.0 and USB 2.0 ports, with the test signals in WAV format and output using CoolEdit 2000. Installing the device was simple. When the special symmetrical USB cable—with a flat connector at each end—was hooked up, the PC's new hardware wizard recognized the 12dAX7's Burr-Brown PCM2702 chip and installed the necessary driver files from the CD-R supplied by Sutherland. I could then choose the 12dAX7 as the output device from within CoolEdit 2000. I later used my Apple iBook…