These criticisms are correct. We don't.
The reason is simple: Although they are universally described in the mainstream press as being of "CD quality," MP3s and their lossy-compressed ilk do not offer…
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As Wes Phillips recently reported on this website, CD sales are down and legal downloads of audio files are up. Stereophile has been criticized more than once for not paying enough attention to the subjects of MP3 and other compressed file formats, such as AAC, and for offering no guidance at all to readers about how to get the best sound quality from compressed downloads.
For reference, fig.3 shows the spectrum of the signal on the CD. Other than the well-defined green vertical lines representing the tones and the uniform background noise, the spectrum is clean. Important points to note with this graph are that 1) all musical fundamentals lie to the left of the 4000Hz (4kHz) mark; 2) the region between the next three divisions, 4kHz, 8kHz and 16kHz, is where musical harmonics and the "air" on a recording reside; and 3) the region above 16kHz—more than a quarter of the horizontal scale—will be inaudible to most adults.
Fig.3 Spectrum of 500Hz-…
I'm writing these words on the flight home from the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show, held January 7–10 in Las Vegas. I wasn't sure what to expect at this year's CES. Though the official stats show that the US economy has grown for the fourth straight year, audio retailers I spoke with before the Show feel that that economic growth has not resulted in any increase in consumers' disposable incomes. In fact, with the drying up of credit, retailers are concerned that 2008 may well be a step back from 2007 in overall sales, and that high-end audio—a niche category within a niche category—will be…
Even the most savvy Stereophile reader might wonder what a "network music player" is. Linn rightly considers a music server to be a combination of 1) stored digital files, 2) music-management software, and 3) a device that uses #2 to transfer #1 to your hi-fi. What Linn's Klimax DS is is a high-quality digital-to-analog converter (DAC) that receives digital data through an Ethernet connection rather than optical or electrical S/PDIF or AES/EBU inputs.
The Klimax DS doesn't store your files—you'll need a network-attached storage (NAS) drive for that—nor does it allow you to…
Then you log your computer with the hi-rez files on to the network where the NAS drive resides, create a new folder, and transfer them to the NAS drive, which allows you then to play them through the Klimax DS (footnote 2).
"You're good—you're very good"
That's why you'd want a Klimax DS. Listen to "Red Book"–quality files and you'll be happy, but you won't be getting better sound than with many other high-end CD players. Linn would argue that point—and perhaps they're right. Certainly, the DS sounded very much as good as I remember the CD12 sounding, which was about as good as "Red…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-channel, solid-state, Ethernet-connected digital-to-analog converter. Inputs: Ethernet (100Base-T RJ45), two RS-232. Outputs (stereo pairs): RCA, balanced XLR. File types supported: FLAC, WAV. Audio sample rates: 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz, 176kHz, 192kHz. Word depths: 12–24 bits.
Dimensions: 13.65" (350mm) W by 2.35" (60mm) H by 13.8" (355mm) D. Weight: 22 lbs (10kg).
Finish: Aluminum.
Serial Number Of Unit Reviewed: 1134832; "Assembled, Tested, Packed by Gary Robertson."
Price: $20,000. Approximate number of dealers: 130.
…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Source: Ayre C5-xe universal player.
Preamplifier: Linn Klimax Kontrol.
Power Amplifier: Krell Evolution 600.
Loudspeakers: Hansen Audio Prince V2.
Cables: Interconnect: Stealth Indra & Nanofiber. Speaker: Stealth Dream.
Accessories: Composite Products CF-1000-5 equipment stand & amp stands; Furutech eTP-609 distribution box & RDP panels; RealTraps Mini & Mondo Traps.—Wes Phillips
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I examined the Klimax DS's measured behavior mainly using Audio Precision's top-model SYS2722 system. I primarily used the Linn's balanced outputs, though I did spot checks on the unbalanced outputs. My files for testing digital components are archived as AIF files, but because the Klimax doesn't recognize that format, I first had to transcode them all to WAV files, then copy them over the WiFi network to a new folder, imaginatively titled "Test Tones," which I created on the big NAS drive supplied by Linn for this review. I could then navigate to the folder using…
My very first review of a preamplifier, for British magazine Hi-Fi News & Record Review in May 1984, was of the Audio Research SP-10. In my opening to that review, I wrote that, "more than any other component," a preamplifier "should approximate to the late Peter Walker's 'Straight Wire with Gain.'" By this I meant that a preamplifier should not be in the business of effecting dramatic changes, and in any case, dramatic changes are not the kind that prove to be of lasting value. However, I also wrote back then that what I became increasingly aware of while using the SP-10 "was the fact…
"Okay." After first wondering at the eclectic nature of Stephen's music—Jeff Buckley, Neil Young, and Marc Bolan rubbing shoulders with son star Henry Fiol—I set it to Shuffle and set off for the bus stop. On came a track that was too interesting to be techno, too musical to be house, too danceable to be ambient or trance. (I was later told that it was "chill-out" music.) An extraordinarily low-frequency bass line rode along beneath out-of-my-head sound effects and sampled robotic voices: "I love this music...I love this philosophy..." It was "Nightwalker," a track from DJ Trentemøller's…