Digital Processor Reviews

Sort By: Post DateTitle Publish Date
Hi-Rez Disc Player/Transport ReviewsAudacious AudioDigital Processor Reviews
dCS Puccini SACD playback system
John Atkinson  |  Dec 14, 2009  |  0 comments
It's now 10 years since the launch of the two high-resolution audio disc formats, SACD and DVD-Audio. Yet, perhaps partly because both were hobbled in various ways to please the record industry, perhaps partly because too many supposed hi-rez releases sounded no better than CD, and perhaps partly because record retailers weren't sure how to display the formats to their best advantage, neither took off in any substantive way. DVD-A disappeared, and SACD survived only as a niche format for high-quality classical releases in both two- and multichannel forms. As we got deeper into the same decade, digital technology, despite various sparks and flashes, went into the doldrums. Mainstream digital technology was increasingly concerned with squashing the music into fewer and more portable bits, not with increased sound quality. Even the concept of "CD sound quality" began to seem an unattainable goal, as MP3 files became the dominant music carrier.
Continue Reading »
Budget Component ReviewsDigital Processor ReviewsComputer Audio Reviews
HRT Music Streamer USB D/A Converter
Art Dudley  |  Nov 20, 2009  |  0 comments
My favorite moment in the Zack Snyder film Watchmen—apart from the Dylan-fueled title sequence, which itself contains some of the most memorable scenes in recent cinema—comes when retired crimefighter Daniel "Nite Owl II" Dreiberg arrives home to find the doctrinaire and mildly crazy Walter "Rorschach" Kovacs in his kitchen, eating beans straight from the can. The startled Dreiberg asks his visitor, "Would you like me to heat those up for you?"
Continue Reading »
Budget Component ReviewsDigital Processor ReviewsComputer Audio Reviews
HRT Music Streamer+ USB D/A Converter
Art Dudley  |  Nov 13, 2009  |  0 comments
Every now and then an affordable product comes along that's so good, even wealthy shoppers want it. Past examples in domestic audio include the Rega RB300 tonearm, the original Quicksilver Mono amplifier, the Grace F9E phono cartridge—even Sony's unwitting CD player, the original PlayStation. Based on word of mouth alone, one might add the HRT Music Streamer+ to that lauded list.
Continue Reading »
Digital Processor ReviewsComputer Audio Reviews
Ayre Acoustics QB-9 USB DAC
Wes Phillips  |  Oct 16, 2009  |  1 comments
These days, it seems you can't shake a stick without hitting a USB DAC, but Ayre's QB-9 ($2500) is something a little different. Ayre's marketing manager, Steve Silberman, was adamant: "The QB-9 isn't a computer peripheral. It makes computers real high-end music sources."
Continue Reading »
CD Player/Transport ReviewsHi-Rez Disc Player/Transport ReviewsAudacious AudioDigital Processor Reviews
dCS Scarlatti SACD/CD playback system
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 18, 2009  |  0 comments
Is anyone in this economy shopping for a four-box, rack-swallowing, two-channel SACD/CD player contending for the state of the art and costing $79,996? dCS is betting that its Scarlatti will attract a small crowd of those wealthy music enthusiasts who, in any economy, reliably pony up for the best. For the rest of us, the Scarlatti will be a spectator sport.
Continue Reading »
CD Player/Transport ReviewsDigital Processor ReviewsMedia Server ReviewsComputer Audio Reviews
T+A Music Player Media Streamer
Jon Iverson  |  Aug 14, 2009  |  0 comments
"Two years ago I discovered my latest guilty pleasure: Internet radio. As long as it's 192k or higher. My whole buying/download cycle had been reduced. The pleasure and savings have increased. If they succeed in killing Net radio, I'm done with the hobby."—Reader Peter DeBoer, in response to a recent Stereophile online poll.
Continue Reading »
Budget Component ReviewsDigital Processor ReviewsComputer Audio Reviews
Music Hall dac25.2 D/A processor
Sam Tellig  |  Jan 05, 2010  |  First Published: Aug 05, 2009  |  1 comments
Roy Hall has been Creek Audio's US importer for more than 20 years. Did you know that all Creek gear is now made in China? Just like Cambridge Audio, Quad, and many B&W models. Just like some US speaker brands, for which virtually all parts are made in China but are assembled, it's claimed, in the US. Three cheers for brands like LFD, Rega, Sugden, and Harbeth—all still made in the UK. For French marques made in France. For Italian products produced in Italy. Etc.
Continue Reading »
Digital Processor ReviewsComputer Audio Reviews
Wavelength Cosecant v3 USB digital/analog converter
Art Dudley  |  Jun 23, 2009  |  0 comments
While my enthusiasm for the long-discontinued Sony PlayStation 1 remains high (see the July 2008 Stereophile), I freely acknowledge that not every high-end audio enthusiast wants a CD player with an injection-molded chassis, a Robot Commando handset, and a remarkable lack of long-term reliability: Yes, the Sony sounds wonderful, but sound isn't everything.
Continue Reading »
Budget Component ReviewsDigital Processor ReviewsComputer Audio Reviews
Bel Canto USB Link 24/96 USB-S/PDIF converter
John Atkinson  |  May 15, 2009  |  0 comments
The speed with which audiophiles have adopted a computer of some sort as their primary source of recorded music might be thought breathtaking. But with the ubiquitous Apple iPod painlessly persuading people to get used to the idea of storing their music libraries on computer hard drives, the next logical step was to access those libraries in listening rooms as well as on the move. A few months back, I wrote a basic guide to the various strategies for getting the best sound from a computer: "Music Served: Extracting Music from your PC." Since then, Minnesota manufacturer Bel Canto Design has released a product that aims to simplify matters even further.
Continue Reading »
Budget Component ReviewsDigital Processor ReviewsComputer Audio Reviews
Musical Fidelity V-DAC D/A processor
Sam Tellig  |  Nov 06, 2009  |  First Published: May 06, 2009  |  2 comments
"The victor belongs to the spoils."—F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and the Damned, 1922
Continue Reading »
CD Player/Transport ReviewsAudacious AudioDigital Processor Reviews
Meridian 808.2/808i.2 Signature Reference CD player/preamplifier
John Atkinson  |  Apr 13, 2009  |  0 comments
It's been a while since I auditioned a Meridian CD player in my system. I had enthusiastically reviewed the English company's groundbreaking Pro-MCD player in early 1986, and over the years had kept up with the progress they were making in digital playback, either through my own reviews or by performing the measurements to accompany reviews by other Stereophile writers. The 508-24 player, reviewed by Wes Phillips in May 1998, was one of the finest digital products of the 1990s, I thought. But when Meridian began promoting surround sound and DVD-Audio at the turn of the century, their goals became somewhat incompatible with my own. Yes, I can appreciate what surround playback can do, but my own musical life is still solidly rooted in Two-Channel Land.
Continue Reading »
Budget Component ReviewsDigital Processor ReviewsComputer Audio Reviews
Cambridge Audio Azur DacMagic D/A converter
Sam Tellig  |  May 29, 2009  |  First Published: Mar 01, 2009  |  0 comments
In 1989, Cambridge Audio, then run by Stan Curtis—who is still active in hi-fi— introduced their DAC 1. At about the same time, within a few weeks of each other, Arcam introduced their Delta Black Box and Musical Fidelity their Digilog. I forget who was first among the three. Arcam, I think. But the DAC race was on, led by the British. (There was even a DAC called the Dacula.) US companies got into the DAC race, too—at higher prices, of course.
Continue Reading »
Budget Component ReviewsDigital Processor ReviewsMedia Server Reviews
Wadia Digital 170iTransport digital iPod dock
Wes Phillips  |  Oct 09, 2008  |  0 comments
Last December, when Wadia Digital announced that it was releasing an iPod docking cradle that could access the digital signal before it had passed through the player's own D/A converter, many audiopundits were surprised. I was disbelieving, and nearly told Wadia's John Schaffer that he was shining me on. After all, Apple has tiptoed around the whole issue of consumers being able to digitally copy their iTunes files, going so far as to wrap its iTunes Music Store files in digital rights management (DRM) code.
Continue Reading »
Solid State Preamp ReviewsBudget Component ReviewsDigital Processor ReviewsHeadphone ReviewsComputer Audio Reviews
Benchmark DAC1 Pre USB D/A headphone amplifier
Sam Tellig  |  Dec 28, 2008  |  First Published: Oct 09, 2008  |  0 comments
Most of this column is dedicated to two hi-fi products for the masses—not from Lvov, via Vladimir Lamm, of Lamm Industries; or from Leningrad, via Victor Khomenko, of Balanced Audio Technologies; nor from any other Soviet-born audio hero. (Neither Vladimir nor Victor is on the list of "Name of Russia" contenders for greatest Russian of all time.) Nor from any consumer audio company, but from the world of professional audio. An Iron Curtain almost separates the two.
Continue Reading »
Digital Processor ReviewsMedia Server Reviews
Linn Klimax DS network D/A processor
Wes Phillips  |  Mar 12, 2008  |  1 comments
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.
Continue Reading »

Pages

X