Art Dudley

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BIS Audio
SSI 2014
Art Dudley  |  Apr 01, 2014  |  1 comments
Speaking of companies that specialize in affordable audio cables, Quebec's BIS Audio was doing a very brisk business in the Pavillon du Canada.
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BIS: simple and good
SSI 2013
Art Dudley  |  Mar 21, 2013  |  1 comments
When Bernard Brien started his company BIS a number of years ago, the refurbishing of vintage electronics comprised the bulk of his business—but over time, he says, he was struck by the sonic weaknesses of older wiring, and the potential for improvement by swapping it for new. A peripheral involvement in aeronautics led Brien to discover the suitability of that industry’s cabling for audio purposes: “It has low mass, low resistance, high bandwidth, and, especially, low mass,” he says, “and it isn’t very expensive.” Brien also touted the simplicity of his products with a phrase, the alliteration of which is lost in translation: “C’est un fil, pas un filtre.” Bien sur!
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Bisson, free
SSI 2013
Art Dudley  |  Mar 25, 2013  |  1 comments
One doesn’t normally think of a private concert by a gifted recording artist as a particularly bad way to start the day, but. . .

On Saturday morning at SSI, I stepped into the Oracle Audio room just in time for owner Jacques Reindeau to invite me to hear a few selections from the album Blue Mind by the Montreal-based composer and chanteuse Anne Bisson, played on an almost all-Oracle system—with the artist standing in front of me, singing along with her recorded self.

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Blue Circle in the Pavillon
SSI 2014
Art Dudley  |  Apr 01, 2014  |  0 comments
Although their sign suggested that this was a passive display, the Blue Circle Audio table in the Pavillon du Canada was anything but. The always-colorful Gilbert Yeung offered visible and audible proof that his line of PLC Thingee power-line conditioners—with prices starting at $CAD220 each for the four-outlet versions in the foreground—effectively removed noise from household AC current. I was thoroughly impressed (not to mention entertained).
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Book Review: Get Better Sound
Reference
Art Dudley  |  Jul 14, 2009  |  0 comments
Get Better Sound
By Jim Smith. Quarter Note Press (Cumming, GA), 2008. Paperback, 293 pages. ISBN 978-0-9820807-0-2. $44.50.
Web: www.getbettersound.com.
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Book Review: Swiss Precision: The Story of the Thorens TD 124 and Other Classic Turntables
ReferenceFeatures
Art Dudley  |  Apr 29, 2008  |  First Published: Apr 30, 2008  |  0 comments
Swiss Precision: The Story of the Thorens TD 124 and Other Classic Turntables
Swiss Precision: The Story of the Thorens TD 124 and Other Classic Turntables
by Joachim Bung. Published by Joachim and Angelika Bung, Schmitten, Germany (info@td-124.de), 2008. Hardcover, 288 pages, four-color, ISBN 978-3-00-021162-1. Price: €59 plus overseas mailing.
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Bricasti and Harbeth at Sound by Singer
NY Audio Show 2013
Art Dudley  |  Apr 18, 2013  |  0 comments
More evidence that the Bricasti Model 1 D/A converter ($8495), while certainly not cheap, represents quite good value for the money was found in one of the rooms sponsored by New York retailer Sound by Singer. During a conversation about a new power-supply upgrade for the Model 1, I asked Bricasti's Brian Zolner if the new board is retrofittable to older Bricasti units, and he assured me that it is—for just $150. [John Marks will discuss the new power supply in a "Follow-Up" to appear in our July issue.–Ed.]
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Bricasti: Greater than Average Insight
RMAF 2012
Art Dudley  |  Oct 19, 2012  |  0 comments
As a card-carrying member of The Insecure, I tend to clam up when I'm around people who are considerably more intelligent or well-informed than I. Consequently, I had embarrassingly little to say in the presence of Bricasti Audio's Brian Zolner, whose understanding of the various digital-filtering choices offered by his company's M1 D/A converter ($8495) was as deep as it was generously and at times even humorously offered. In any event, the Bricasti sounded fine at the front of a system in which a pair of Harbeth HL5 loudspeakers ($5690/pair) was driven by the undeniably beautiful Dan D'Agostino Momentum Stereo amplifier ($25,000).
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Brinkmann EMT Titanium phono cartridge
Phono Cartridge Reviews
Art Dudley  |  Aug 19, 2006  |  0 comments
There are a thousand different ways to make a loudspeaker. A hundred to make an amplifier. And at least a million to make a piece of wire. But here's the deal with a moving-coil phono cartridge: stylus, cantilever, rubber grommet, tensioning wire, coils, magnet, output pins, and maybe a body. Done.
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Brodmann and Electrocompaniet
RMAF 2012
Art Dudley  |  Oct 18, 2012  |  4 comments
It was that rarest of rare occasions in audio-show reporting: I entered the demonstration room of a brand that was unfamiliar to me, and was impressed at once by a sort of musical rightness I seldom hear from modern playback gear. Sure, I was familiar with the company that made the CD player, preamp, and monoblock amps in use—Electrocompaniet, whose solid-state amps are among the few I consider worthy of comparison to the best tube designs—but the Austrian loudspeaker manufacturer Brodmann Acoustics was new to me. Their stand-mounted Festival S ($4500/pair), driven by a pair of Electrocompaniet AW180 monoblocks ($5425 each) allowed the solo violin in a Paganini work to have far greater than usual texture, tone, and presence. Based on my experience at RMAF, the pairing of these two brands is something you should go out of your way to hear.
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