Description: Two-chassis, top-loading CD player with internal 24-bit/705.6kHz upsampling and 24-bit D/A conversion. Digital filter and upsampling: 24-bit Burr-Brown DF-1704 digital filters. D/A conversion: 4 matched Burr-Brown PCM-1704U-K DACs in fully balanced configuration. Digital inputs: S/PDIF (BNC). Digital outputs: S/PDIF (BNC), AES/UBU (XLR). Analog outputs: balanced (XLR), unbalanced (RCA). Maximum voltage output: 4.0V balanced, 2.0V unbalanced. Output impedance: 50 ohms (unbalanced), 25 ohms (balanced). Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz, +0/–0.1dB; 5Hz–…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Source: VPI TNT HR-X turntable & tonearm; Lyra Titan, Grado Statement Reference cartridges.
Digital Source: Simaudio Moon Eclipse, Primare CD31 CD players.
Preamplification: Sutherland PhD phono stage; Sutherland Direct Line Stage, Placette Active Line Stage, VTL TL-7.5 preamplifiers.
Power Amplifiers: VTL Ichiban and Mark Levinson No.20.6 monoblocks, VTL S-400.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties Sophia 2.
Cables: Stereovox, Audience, Nordost Valhalla interconnects and speaker cables. AC: Audience PowerChord.
Accessories:…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Simaudio Moon Evolution Andromeda Reference's performance using both our Audio Precision System One and an Audio Precision System SYS2722, the latter on loan from AP (see "As We See It" and Audio Precision's website).
Like Simaudio's single-box SuperNova, reviewed by Wes Phillips in January 2007 (see my measurements), the Andromeda had superb error correction, suffering no glitches in its output with the Pierre Verany test CD until the gaps in the data spiral were more than 2mm in length.
From its unbalanced RCA jacks, the Andromeda'…
Whenever my family and I travel together, I catch a glimpse of how the human mind works. Immediately after checking into our hotel, my wife goes to work distributing the contents of our suitcases among the room's various cabinets, closets, and drawers. Then, the next morning, I discover the location of my underpants heuristically: seeking without knowing, in the hope that some newly learned pattern will be imprinted on my brain. Thus do I earn the luxury of complacence: Every morning thereafter, my things are right where I know they should be.
That procedure is useful not only…
The sound was richly, realistically detailed, without the slightest suggestion of added brightness. The latter quality may seem obvious to the point of being silly, given the 755-C's treble limitations, yet neither did it sound as dull as I might have expected. So far, the Altec has been responsible for at least two reviewing clichés, howsoever pleasant and true: first, that of discovering some worthwhile musical detail that had previously escaped my attention, in this instance the arpeggio that guitarist Tony Rice plays behind the fiddle in the opening bars of his song "Manzanita"; and…
Sidebar: Dating Decrepit Drivers
Decades ago, the Electronic Industries Alliance established a source code for manufacturers to use on various finished components: potentiometers, transformers, large capacitors, and the like. I learned about it during the years when I was still buying and collecting electric guitars and amplifiers, and more than once, the code kept me from being burned. (Nothing screams unoriginal quite as loudly as a 1956 Fender tweed Harvard amp with volume and tone controls from the years of the Nixon administration.)
The EIA code is also a boon to anyone just…
Enid Lumley accosted me in the corridors of Santa Monica's BayView Plaza Hotel in March: "That doesn't sound like a real piano!" I was taken aback. The sound to which the redoubtable Ms. Lumley was referring emanated from a 7' Steinway we had hired for James Boyk to play at the Stereophile show. Jim was conducting a series of tutorials on how the sound of a real piano is constituted, so Enid's criticism, on the face of things, seemed absurd. As my face obviously showed this conclusion, she hastily explained that, of course it was a real piano, but the fact that it overloaded the 40-seat room…
However, in general, I feel that to deny the importance of an undeniable aspect of live sound—its time integrity across the whole audio band—is treading on dangerous ground: it cannot be denied that the transient impact of real sound is always lacking in reproduced.
In real life, all the frequency components making up a waveform arrive at the ears at the same time. In the bass, listening tests have shown that changing the time relationship of a low-frequency fundamental with respect to its harmonics—by a high-pass filter, for example—is audible. In fact, KEF's Laurie Fincham has…
Stop me if you've heard this one: Back in the early 1990s, just after the fall of the Soviet Union, I debated professor of music engineering and magazine columnist Ken Pohlmann on a talk show on the CBS radio network. The subject was analog sound vs digital sound, but I guess when Pohlmann felt I was getting the upper hand, he felt he needed to play the tube card. Derisively, he said, "I bet you're one of those tube guys, too, aren't you?" Before I could open my mouth, he continued: "You know, the Soviet Union's military gear, including the MIG fighters, ran on tube electronics, and look…
Pushing the front-panel Power button causes the Mute LED to blink red and the Power LED blue. The Mode light glows green for Tetrode mode, red for Triode; push the Mode button to switch between them, either in Standby mode or after power-up. The entire power-up cycle takes less than a minute, during which time, if you look down through the top cover, you can see the LEDs next to each output tube blink as they indicate that the auto-bias system is adjusting each tube's bias voltage. When every LED is emitting a steady green light, indicating that all output tubes have reached their operating…