Analog Sources: Thorens TD-124 Mk.II turntable; EMT 997 tonearm; Shindo SPU, Ortofon SPU 90th Anniversary & SPU Synergy A, EMT OFD 25 & OFD 65 cartridges.
Digital Sources: Sony SCD-777ES SACD/CD player & PlayStation 1.
Preamplification: Auditorium 23 Hommage T1 step-up transformer, Shindo Masseto preamplifier.
Power Amplifiers: Shindo Corton-Charlemagne & Haut-Brion, Quad II.
Loudspeakers: Audio Note AN-E/SPe HE, Quad ESL.
Cables: USB: Kimber B Bus. Interconnect: Audio Note AN-vx, Shindo Silver. Speaker: Auditorium 23, Naim…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 3: Measurements
To measure the Wavelength Cosecant's performance, I used the Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and "As We See It" in the January 2008 issue), as well as our Audio Precision System One. The source was my G4 Mac mini running OS10.4.11, with the test-signal WAV files played with iTunes and Bias Peak Pro 6.0. For some tests, I also used a Dual-Core Pentium PC running Windows XP SP3, using Audacity to play the files, and at the very end of this issue's production cycle, I repeated some measurements using an Intel MacBook as the source and Audio Precision'…
Manufacturer's Comment
Editor: I want to thank both Art Dudley and John Atkinson for all their hard work. There is a lot more done by both of these men than what you see in these pages, and they should be thanked for that.
I had sent the Cosecant to John after he used it at the 2008 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest to give several demonstrations of resolution of audio files. I had put the unit in balanced mode, and that, I think, is why Art had the hum problems he had. Simply switching the internal DIP switches will result in the ground wire he used being no longer necessary; this is…
Musical Fidelity's founder, Antony Michaelson, arrived at my house to help me set up the two chassis of his sleek, limited-edition, $30,000 Titan power amplifier. (The task requires at least two people.) A week later, a representative of Musical Fidelity's US importer, KEF America, dropped by to listen and to deliver three of Musical Fidelity's new V-series products: a phono preamp, a DAC, and a headphone amp. All three fit comfortably into a small paper bag; the price of the three was $700.
Michaelson would like Musical Fidelity to be all things to all audiophiles. While…
The Titan is also far larger (and heavier) than it appears in photos. Though only slightly more than 7" high, each box is 19" wide and more than 2' deep. The front panel, the custom-made extrusions for the heatsinks, the portholed top panels, and all other visible parts, all machined from mil-spec aluminum billet, add a sleekness to the gracefully proportioned boxes, which are finished in pleasingly understated hues.
Physically, the Titan is everything the kW is not. The kW's cooling fins could grate your fingers like cheese, and its top plate is littered with non-countersunk, non-…
But once my ears had gotten a grip, the Titan treated me to effortless transparency and palpable images free of even the suggestion of etch or edginess. There was nothing crispy in the Titan's playbook, yet the amp rendered transients precisely and cleanly, without boredom-inducing softening. While I would never mistake the Titan's sound for that of a romantic-sounding tube amp—or any tube amp—it produced a tube-like musical flow and textural suppleness completely free of clichés of solid-state hardness or starch.
Classic Records recently reissued a great recording of a minor but…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Solid-state, two-channel, fully balanced power amplifier with standalone power supply. Maximum power output: 1kWpc into 8 ohms (30dBW), 2kWpc into 4 ohms (30dBW), "just short of" 4kWpc into 2 ohms (30dBW). THD+noise:<0.008%, 20Hz–20kHz. Signal/noise:>126dB, A-weighted (no reference level quoted). Intermodulation distortion: not specified. Maximum output voltage: 90V RMS, 20Hz–20kHz; 254 peak–peak. Peak output current: limited to 100A peak–peak. Frequency response: 20Hz–40kHz,–0.5dB. Input impedance: 100k ohms (balanced, unbalanced). Input…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn, Cobra, & Castellon turntable, tonearm, and stand; Graham Phantom tonearm; SME 20/12 turntable & 312S tonearm; Lyra Titan i, MySonic Hyper Eminent, Transfiguration Phoenix, Benz Micro ACE LS, Sumiko Palo Santos Presentation cartridges.
Digital Sources: Musical Fidelity kW DM 25 CD transport & DAC; dCS Scarlatti SACD transport, word clock, DAC, upsampler; BPT-modified Alesis Masterlink hard-disk recorder; Sooloos music server.
Preamplification: Manley Steelhead, Audio Research PH7, Nagra BPS…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Musical Fidelity Titan using mainly Stereophile's loaner sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It" and www.ap.com); for some tests, I also used my vintage Audio Precision System One Dual Domain.
Before performing any tests on an amplifier, I run it for 60 minutes at one-third its specified power into 8 ohms, which is thermally the worst case for an amplifier with a class-B or -AB output stage. For the Titan, this meant operating at 300Wpc into 8 ohms, which was about the limit of my…
Sound Reproduction: Loudspeakers and Rooms
By Floyd E. Toole. Focal Press (Oxford, England, UK, www.elsevier.com, footnote 1), 2008. Paperback, 550 pages, ISBN 978-0240520094. $49.95.
By Floyd E. Toole. Focal Press (Oxford, England, UK, www.elsevier.com, footnote 1), 2008. Paperback, 550 pages, ISBN 978-0240520094. $49.95.
The author of this book, Dr. Floyd E. Toole, is one of the most influential scientists in modern audio. After studying electrical engineering at the University of New Brunswick and receiving a PhD from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London, in 1965 Toole joined Canada's National Research Council (NRC), in Ottawa, Ontario, where he attained the position of Senior Research…