PrimaLuna ProLogue Eight CD player
$2495, reviewed by Fred Kaplan and John Atkinson in July and October 2008.
This tube player's jitter level was a fairly low 406.5ps peak–peak. More significant, the highest-level sidebands that can be seen to either side of the central 11.025kHz tone in fig.9 lie at the power-supply–related frequencies of ±60Hz and ±120Hz. Actual data-related sidebands were much lower in level; if it weren't for the supply-related spuriae, the ProLogue Eight would have very good jitter rejection. While the left channel…
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Test Results 2: Good enough for CD playback
Test Results 3: Good enough for hi-rez audio playback
Simaudio Moon Evolution Andromeda Reference CD player
$12,500, reviewed by Brian Damkroger in January 2008.
Playing CDs (the Simaudio also has a useful input for external data), the Andromeda offered low levels of word-clock jitter, at 286ps peak–peak. The spectrum of the player's output is shown in fig.17. The highest-level sideband pair is data-related, lying at 11.025kHz, ±229Hz, though most of the higher-frequency sidebands lie at the residual level. Evident is some slight spreading of the central peak due to random low-…
I'm sitting here in front of the trusty Toshiba 286 laptop on December 31, 1992, stuck with apparently incurable writer's block; in a couple of hours, we will be taking off en famille for the latest of Larry Archibald's legendary New Year's Eve parties. I wish I had something to write about for this month's "As We See It" essay; I wish...I wish...you know, there are a number of things I really wish for right now, yet I don't believe there is a component out there that can give me what I want.
I would like to hear a loudspeaker that is tonally accurate, goes as low in the bass as is…
MOGWAI: The Hawk Is Howling
Rock Action/Matador OLE 832-1 (LP), -2 (CD). Gareth Jones, James Aparicio, prods.; Andy Miller, Tony Doogan, Andi Whitelock, engs. AAA/AAD. TT: 63:29
Performance *****
Sonics ****½
Rock Action/Matador OLE 832-1 (LP), -2 (CD). Gareth Jones, James Aparicio, prods.; Andy Miller, Tony Doogan, Andi Whitelock, engs. AAA/AAD. TT: 63:29
Performance *****
Sonics ****½
Do you remember that time in Scotland, brother? Senior year in college, studying abroad, away from home for the first time in our lives. Michelle and I had just had another of our huge blowouts, and this time it was for real. I wanted nothing more than to lock myself up in our dingy hostel room until semester was over, to escape from Michelle and all the other faces of…
Much has been made of the influence that Linn, Naim, and Rega have had on our ideas about music-system hierarchies: Before they and a handful of other British audio manufacturers kicked off the debate in the 1970s, the conventional wisdom worldwide was that the loudspeaker was more important than the record player, amplifier, or any other link in the domestic audio chain, and thus deserved to be the object of significantly greater care and attention, not to mention investment of cash. But the Brit-fi approach was different, and ostensibly better reasoned: Because musical information that's…
I once spoke to a blacksmith (named Smith, actually) about the wonderfully patterned bowie knives he made of Damascus steel. Struck by the contrast between the massive brutality of the knives themselves and the delicate beauty of the steel from which they were wrought, I asked Smith why he worked in Damascus, expecting him to extol its legendary temper or its aggressive cutting edge. After all, he was a pretty macho guy with a physique like, well, the village blacksmith's (Google it, young 'uns). He thought for a minute before responding, quietly, "Beauty is its own reward."
I…
My only other, very slight, concern was the shortness of the MS 400's cable. It's probably adequate for portable use, but using Phiatons with a desktop system kept me on too a short tether.
I was able to drive the MS 400s to greater levels than I could endure with just about any source I had, from an iPod Shuffle G1 to my iPod Classic G6. In fact, when I drove the Phiatons with the Cayin HA-1A headphone amplifier, they were so sensitive that I heard the tube rush of the Cayin's 6DJ8s at lower volume levels than I had with the harder-to-drive Sennheisers and AKGs.
Beauty is how…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Closed-back, circumaural, dynamic headphones. Frequency range: 15Hz–22kHz. Impedance: 32 ohms, ±15% at 2kHz, 1mW. THD: <1% at 1kHz, 1mW. Sensitivity: 98dB/mW at 1kHz. Audio connector: 3.5mm stereo plug; 6.3mm (1/4") stereo adapter.
Weight: 6.5 oz (185gm) without cord.
Serial Number Of Unit Reviewed: Not found.
Price: $249. Approximate number of dealers: online only. Warranty: 30-day satisfaction or money back, 1 year parts & labor.
Manufacturer: Phiaton Inc., 18662 MacArthur Blvd., Suite 405, Irvine, CA 92612. Tel: (866) 313-3203…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Apple Macintosh pro G5 computer; Apple iPod Shuffle G1, Apple iPod Classic G6.
Headphone Amplifiers: Cayin HA-1A, NuForce Icon.
Headphones: Shure ES 530, Sennheiser HD-280 pro, Grado RS-1, AKG K701.
Cables: Interconnect: Kimber Kable KCAG. Speaker: NuForce RJ45 1m.—Wes Phillips
Sidebar 3: Measurements
As I have written before, I lack the necessary hardware to measure the frequency responses of headphones. And, as Keith Howard wrote in the August 2008 issue, deciding what, exactly, is the optimal frequency response for a pair of headphones is neither obvious nor trivial.
But I do look at the drive difficulty for a pair of headphones by examining their electrical impedance. The result for the Phiaton Moderna MS 400 is shown in fig.1. I wore the headphones for this measurement, and found that the fine detail of the traces varied according to how tightly I…