Art Dudley

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Starting the Day with Leben and DeVore
SSI 2010
Art Dudley  |  Mar 26, 2010  |  1 comments
I started my day the right way: listening to a good LP of acoustic music. In one of three Coup de Foudre rooms I listened to Skip James's final album on a system comprising the new Brinkmann DD turntable (price TBD) with an EMT TSD 15 fineline phono cartridge ($1800), Auditorium 23 step-up transformer ($995), Leben RS30 EQ moving-magnet phono preamp ($2595), Leben CS300 XS integrated amplifier ($3495), and DeVore Fidelity 3XL loudspeakers ($3700/pair without stands), the latter of which were capable of allowing the music to sound surprisingly, delightfully big. Cables were all by Auditorium 23, and the source and amplification components were supported by a typically beautiful Sapele rack from the Box Furniture company.
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Naim Uniti CD player/receiver
CD Player/Transport ReviewsIntegrated Amp ReviewsDigital Processor Reviews
Art Dudley  |  Mar 22, 2010  |  1 comments
In an industry whose newest products are often as discouragingly unaffordable as they are short of the sonic mark, the Naim Audio Uniti ($3795) stands out. In a single reasonably sized box, the Uniti combines the guts of Naim's Nait 5i integrated amplifier and CD5i CD player with various additional sources: an FM/DAB tuner, and interfaces for an iPod, a USB memory stick, an iRadio, and a UPnP-compatible connected computer or server—all for the price of a very good television set.
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Listening #86
Floor Loudspeaker ReviewsArt Dudley Listening
Art Dudley  |  Feb 26, 2010  |  0 comments
On two occasions I've caught myself wondering how to afford a pair of Wilson Audio loudspeakers. Interestingly, both happened within the past year. The first was in April 2009, at the Son et Image show in Montreal, during a demonstration of the MAXX Series 3. The experience was notable for its blend of genuinely great sound with genuine musicality: Each performance unfolded of its own natural accord, with human randomness and nuance, and without the fussy, mechanical, shallow artifice that attracts some audiophiles in the way a carnivorous plant attracts flies—and, if they're lucky, kills them (the audiophiles, that is).
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Hanss Acoustics T-30 turntable
Audacious AudioTurntable Reviews
Art Dudley  |  Feb 23, 2010  |  0 comments
Revolver? More like evolver: 80 years after the first electrically driven record players became available, professional and amateur engineers continue to seek new ways to spin LPs with ever-greater steadiness and precision.
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Happy New Year!
As We See It
Art Dudley  |  Jan 15, 2010  |  0 comments
I'm fortunate to own some very nice hi-fi gear: Different turntables, tonearms, and pickups for different records. Two pairs of really superb full-range loudspeakers. A choice of mildly exotic amplifiers—my favorite combination of which (a stereo preamplifier and a pair of monoblock power amps) sells for a little over $21,000. The average American consumer would think that's insane.
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Listening #85
Art Dudley Listening
Art Dudley  |  Feb 02, 2010  |  First Published: Jan 02, 2010  |  0 comments
We murder to dissect.—William Wordsworth
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Listening #84
Art Dudley ListeningCable ReviewsPowerline Accessory Reviews
Art Dudley  |  Dec 23, 2009  |  0 comments
She responds as expected to the only sound: hysterical voices!—Brian Eno
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PrimaLuna DiaLogue Seven power amplifier
Tube Power Amp Reviews
Art Dudley  |  Dec 23, 2009  |  0 comments
Step 1: Find something that works. Step 2: Use it. Step 3: Repeat as necessary, then retire.
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Listening #83
Art Dudley ListeningThink Pieces
Art Dudley  |  Nov 20, 2009  |  1 comments
"Think before you speak is criticism's motto; speak before you think is creation's."—E.M. Forster, "The Raison d'Être of Criticism in the Arts," 1947 (footnote 1)
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HRT Music Streamer USB D/A Converter
Budget Component ReviewsDigital Processor ReviewsComputer Audio Reviews
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?"
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