Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2016 i Stereophile

THIS ISSUE: Reports of highperformance audio’s death have been exaggerated. It’s one of audiophiledom’s eternal questions: What can we do to draw more music lovers into the audiophile fold? Of the proposals bandied about on audio forums, two seem predominant: a) sell stuff more people can afford, and b) sit your neighbor or the cable guy in front of your stereo, cross your fingers, and let ’er rip—the theory behind b) being that the experience will be so epic as to transform the reluctant participant into an audiophile butterfly. As if. These ideas aren’t wrong, but their aim is all over the map. Actual human beings have a ton of other things—and not just fun things— they’d rather do. Things that don’t involve sitting in front of music while doing…

ATTENTION ALL AUDIO SOCIETIES: We have a page on the Stereophile website dedicated solely to you: www.stereophile.com/audiophilesocieties. If you’d like to have your audio-society information posted on the site, e-mail Chris Vogel at info@XLinkAudio.com. Please note that it is inappropriate for a retailer to promote a new product line in “Calendar” unless this is associated with a seminar or similar event. CALIFORNIA ❚ Sunday, March 20, 2–5pm: The Los Angeles & Orange County Audio Society will hold its monthly meeting at Upscale Audio, in Upland (2504 Spring Terrace). The event will be hosted by the “Tube King” himself, Upscale Audio’s own Kevin Deal, who will present his latest personal tube-search adventures, and give tours of his workshop and warehouse full of exotic tubes! Listen to and learn about PrimaLuna electronics,…

In conversation with Bonnie Raitt these days, one word continually jumps out: groove. She’s speaking of her music, of course, but the blues singer and guitarist—her gifts as commanding as ever on her latest, Dig In Deep—has also survived some family struggles in the past decade that nearly forced her out of her personal groove. In 2004, Raitt lost her mother, Marjorie; a year later, her father, Broadway luminary John Raitt, died. Four years after that, her brother Steve died of brain cancer at 61. After a seven-year sabbatical that many fans worried might become permanent, Raitt returned in 2012, sounding re-energized, to release Slipstream, which won that year’s Grammy for Best Americana Album. Raitt is now fully back in the cycle of recording and touring, the rhythm that has…

Analog Sources Garrard 301, Thorens TD 124 turntables; Abis SA-1.2, EMT 997 tonearms; EMT OFD 25 & OFD 15 & TSD 15 pickup heads; Denon DL-103, Miyajima Premium BE Mono II cartridges. Digital Sources Halide Designs DAC HD USB D/A converter; Apple iMac G5 computer running Audirvana Plus 1.5.12; Sony SCD-777 SACD/CD player. Preamplification Auditorium 23 Hommage T2 step-up transformer, Shindo Laboratory Aurieges Equalizer Amplifier phono preamplifier & Masseto preamplifier. Power Amplifiers Shindo Laboratory Corton-Charlemagne monoblocks. Loudspeakers Altec Valencia, DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/96. Cables USB: Wireworld Revelation 2.0. Interconnect: Audio Note AN-Vx, Nordost Blue Heaven, Shindo Laboratory Silver. Speaker: Auditorium 23. AC: manufacturers’ stock cords. Accessories Box Furniture Company D3S rack (source & amplification components), Audiodesksysteme Gläss Vinyl Cleaner.…

Digital Sources Apple 2.7GHz i7 Mac mini running OS 10.10.3, iTunes 12, Pure Music 2.0, Audirvana Plus 1.5.10; Antipodes DX Reference music server; iPad mini running Aurender Conductor app for N10, iPeng 8 for Antipodes DX; PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream D/A processor; AudioQuest JitterBug USB noise filter; UpTone Audio USB Regen. Preamplifier Ayre KX-R Twenty. Power Amplifiers Vandersteen M7-HPA monoblocks. Loudspeakers Vandersteen Model 7 Mk.II. Cables Digital: AudioQuest Coffee (USB) & Vodka (Ethernet), Kimber Kable Orchid (AES/EBU), Esperanto Audio (S/PDIF). Interconnect (balanced): AudioQuest Wild. Speaker: AudioQuest/Vandersteen. AC: Kubala-Sosna Elation!, manufacturers’ own. Accessories Target TT-5 equipment racks; Ayre Acoustics Myrtle Blocks; ASC Tube Traps, RPG Abffusor panels; Shunyata Research Dark Field cable elevators; Audio Power Industries 116 Mk.II & PE-1 AC line conditioners (hard drive, computers). AC power comes from two…

Analog Sources Technics SL1200 Mk.2 turntable; Abis SA-1.2 tonearm; Jasmine Turtle MC, Ortofon CG 35 Di, Zu Denon DL-103 cartridges. Pioneer PLX-1000 turntable; Ortofon 2M Red, Shure M35X cartridges. Digital Sources Integra DPS-7.2 DVD-A player, Halide DAC HD USB D/A converter. Preamplification Lounge Audio Copla MC step-up amplifier; Lounge Audio LCR Mk.III, Parasound Halo JC 3+ phono preamps; PrimaLuna ProLogue Premium preamplifier. Integrated Amplifiers Line Magnetic LM-518IA, Rogue Audio Sphinx. Power Amplifier PrimaLuna ProLogue Premium Stereo. Loudspeakers Dynaudio Excite X14, Falcon Acoustics LS3/5a, KEF LS50, Technics SB-C700. Cables Interconnect: AudioQuest Cinnamon & Big Sur & Golden Gate, Auditorium 23, Kimber Kable Silver Streak. Speaker: AudioQuest Type 4 & GO-4, Auditorium 23. Accessories Sound Anchor stands, Dr. Feickert Analogue cartridge protractor & Adjust+ software, Shure styluspressure gauge.…

THIS ISSUE: A second listen to an esoteric class-D amplifier. SPEC RPA-W7EX REAL-SOUND AMPLIFIER Most days, I consider myself a lucky man for having such a great job. I mean, come on: getting paid to review new audio gear? Sweet. Most days. But there are days when disrupting my playback system, however slightly, is the last thing I want to do. Lately there have been a lot of those days, because my core system—Garrard 301 turntable, EMT 997 tonearm, various EMT and Ortofon pickup heads, Hommage T2 phono transformer, Shindo Laboratory Masseto preamplifier and Haut-Brion power amplifier, Altec Valencia speakers—has been sounding good. Really good. During this time, three extraordinary records have attracted and held my attention to an unusual extent: the three LPs released early last year by the…

BLACK SABBATH Paranoid Warner Bros./Rhino R2 552927/R1552927 (2 CDs/2 LPs). 1970/2016. Roger Bain, orig. prod.; Tom Allom, Brian Humphries, orig. engs.; Andy Pearce, Matt Wortham, remastering. AAD? TT: 85:49 PERFORMANCE SONICS They liked the cachet of being into the occult until they didn’t. They fought with skinheads, so they wrote “Fairies Wear Boots,” a nasty/silly song about them with a widely misunderstood title. In one of their most famous singles, they rhyme masses with . . . masses. But if you had to choose a starting point for the entire genre of metal, Paranoid was that moment. Ozzy Osbourne, Bill Ward, and Tommy Iommi are currently out on what’s billed as the “final” Black Sabbath tour, and so, in the spirit of cross marketing, the 2009 Sanctuary Records reissues of…

FEEDBACK TO THE EDITOR TAKE HEED! Unless marked otherwise, all letters to the magazine and its writers are assumed to be for possible publication. In the spirit of vigorous debate implied by the First Amendment, and unless we are requested not to, we publish correspondents’ e-mail addresses. Are we hobbyists? Editor, In the February issue, (“Letters,” p.11) Dale M. Lanzone bridled at the use of the term hobbyist to describe an audiophile. Are we hobbyists? Yes and no. A few years ago, I asked my 40-year-old son what he would call my nearly 60-year penchant for the audio/stereo experience. “It’s a hobby, Dad.” Yes, I thought, that’s what it is. But that’s the equipment part—the part of the brain that clicks in when listening to what the gear does to…

In order to fabricate copper or silver into a strand or conductor, it is first cast and then drawn through a die— a process that creates a directional pattern in the conductor’s internal grain structure, and most importantly, a non-symmetrical overlay of grains at the conductor’s surface. This asymmetrical surface structure causes a slight directional difference in impedance at high noise and interference frequencies. Due to skin-effect, such high-frequency energy travels almost exclusively on the surface of a conductor, giving significance to the directional difference in impedance at these frequencies. Because all energy will always take the path of least resistance, when a cable is oriented so that the highfrequency noise—whether from a computer, radio station, cell tower, etc.—is “directed” to ground, or to the end of the cable attached…

Sophia Singer’s office system is built around a vintage Garrard 401 turntable with an SME 3009 tonearm, a Goldring cartridge (“I don’t go for very expensive cartridges, because I’m paying to replace the stylus so often”), a “bog-standard” Rotel integrated amplifier, and Heybrook Helios loudspeakers (“I’m a great fan of buying used equipment”). In Singer’s front room are a Nottingham Analog turntable (also with SME arm), AcousTech phono preamp, Classé preamplifier, Chord Electronics power amp (“My son had it, but then he moved to the States and couldn’t get it adapted for the power over there—so I got a wonderful present!”), and floorstanding loudspeakers from Leema Acoustics. She cleans LPs on an older Keith Monks RCM, lovingly maintained by her assistant.…

For over 30 years, since the introduction of CD, the Toslink Optical system couldn’t get any audiophile respect. The reason was two-fold: the system’s bandwidth limitations got more theoretical attention than the system’s inherent noise isolation advantage, and, the supplied-for-free Toslink cables that were most everyone’s introduction to Toslink, were and are very poor cables. 30+ years later, Toslink Optical is very much alive and well. It is often the highest performance means for connecting much of our electronic world—televisions, set-top boxes, media streamers, soundbars, disc players, gaming consoles, computers, and more. All Toslink cables provide perfect galvanic isolation, reducing the irritation and confusion caused by noise in the system—but most Toslink cables do a poor job of passing light without damaging the signal. Imperfections in an optical fi ber…

Described by manufacturer April Music as an “all-inone music center,” the Aura Note Version 2 ($2500) is a 125Wpc integrated amplifier with a built-in CD player, USB DAC, and FM tuner. The Aura Note is further enhanced by a Bluetooth receiver, a pair of line-level output jacks, and a headphone jack. The hackneyed but not inappropriate comparison to a Swiss Army knife comes to mind—but where that wellloved tool does a great many things with less than perfection, I’ve now heard the Aura Note V2 do at least two different things well enough that no excuses need be made on its behalf. (By contrast, I keep my own Swiss Army knife in the glovebox of my car. I use its knife blade, scissors, bottle opener, screwdriver, and fishhook disgorger only…

The first I heard about Elac’s new Debut line of speakers was from two 12-yearolds at T.H.E. Show Newport Beach 2015. “Elac’s room is making the best sound at the show,” they said. Elac? I thought. I have an Elac Miracord 40A turntable. Hmmmm . . . So I walked to Elac’s room and listened to the Debut B5 bookshelf speakers ($229.99/pair). I was impressed—but maybe not as impressed as everyone else in the room seemed to be. In the halls, people were raving: “Did you hear Andrew Jones’s new speaker?” Show bloggers went crazy. People kept asking me, “Herb—what’d you think of the Elacs?” My polite response was always, “I’m glad I’m not in the business of making $1000/pair speakers.” I’d heard for myself how the Debut B5s did…

In the early 1970s, I lived in a village 40 miles north of London, England, and regularly drove through an only slightly larger village called Houghton Regis. And every time I did so, this budding audiophile was thrilled to see a factory in the High Street with a nameplate proudly announcing that it was the site of Teledyne Acoustic Research’s European operations. I was aware of the American brand because of a chance encounter with a pair of Acoustic Research LST speakers, and the geographical connection led to an increased interest in their speakers.1 A sort of local-boy, er, local-multinational conglomerate-makes-good story. Sort of. By 1967, AR was owned by Teledyne; Acoustic Research had been incorporated by Edgar Villchur2 in 1954 to manufacture his groundbreaking acoustic-suspension loudspeaker designs, and by…

In the new millennium, no country other than Cuba has exported more important jazz musicians to the United States than has Israel. But even though the Israeli jazz phenomenon has been much discussed in the jazz press, critics have been late to recognize that Avishai Cohen is one of the best trumpet players alive. Cohen has two siblings who also play jazz, and his charismatic older sister, Anat, who has been winning major jazz polls on clarinet for several years, gets most of the attention in the family. And then there is Avishai’s name problem: One of the best-known Israeli jazz musicians, a bassist of the same name, got to New York first. But Cohen’s recent recordings, such as Flood, Triveni II, and Dark Nights, all released by Anzic Records,…

BILLY COBHAM The Atlantic Years 1973–1978 Atlantic/Rhino 0081227952433 (8 CDs). 2015. Billy Cobham, prod.; Ken Scott, Roy Segal, others, engs.; Dominique Brethes, remastering. ADD. TT: 6:11:50 PERFORMANCE SONICS Drummer Billy Cobham left John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra, taking with him keyboardist Jan Hammer. Together, in 1973, they made Spectrum, with rock guitarist Tommy Bolin. Spectrum showcases Cobham’s songwriting and intensely virtuoso drumming, characterized by precision and power at breakneck speed through challenging time signatures. “Stratus” was a radio hit, and “Red Baron” a durable funk staple. Cobham assembled a band of more like-minded players for his second album, Crosswinds (1974), which showed him maturing as a writer while remaining one of the most astonishing drummers ever recorded. John Abercrombie assumed the guitar chair, while Randy Brecker on trumpet and flugelhorn and…

Almost since the dawn of electronically reproduced sound, there have been some of the same audiophile debates— sometimes productive, sometimes not: valves vs. transistors, cones vs. fl at panel, analog vs. digital… Debates have also raged about power fi lters and power protection. Many approaches to the noise fi ltering of AC power can yield meaningful results. However, they may also impart ringing, current compression, and non-linear distortions. Some cures are worse than the disease—not as good as plugging straight into the wall. Our Niagara Low-Z Power Noise-Dissipation Systems take a holistic approach to power management—one grounded in verifi able science, representing over 20 years of exhaustive research into AC power products designed for audiophiles, broadcast engineers, and professionalaudio applications. With an AudioQuest Niagara 7000 or Niagara 1000, you’ll experience…

I performed a full set of measurements on the April Music Aura Note V2 using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 “As We See It,” www.stereophile.com/content/measurements-maps-precision). I looked first at the behavior of the digital inputs, using either S/PDIF data sourced from the Audio Precision via an optical link, or USB data from my MacBook Pro running on battery power. To avoid overloading the April’s power-amplifier section, I examined the signals at its line-output jacks without any load attached to the speaker terminals. (Plugging headphones into the headphone jack mutes both the speaker and line-level outputs.) The TosLink input locked to data with sample rates up to 192kHz. Apple’s AudioMIDI app revealed that the Aura Note V2 accepted 24-bit integer data at all sample rates from 32…

With a media server like the Aurender N10, there’s not much that can be assessed on the test bench. However, I did look at the properties of the N10’s AES/EBU output, using a 45’-long cable to connect the N10 in the listening room to my Audio Precision SYS2722 in the test lab. Even so, with the N10 playing 24-bit J-Test data sampled at 44.1kHz, the jitter in the AES/EBU datastream was very low, at 293.3 picoseconds (average value over a 700Hz–100kHz bandwidth). The eye pattern (fig.1) was wide open, as it should be. All 24 bits were active in the digital outputs with 24-bit PCM files and transcoded DSD files. However, there was one peculiarity with DSD: The Aurender app offers the user the choice of transcoding DSD files either…

I used DRA Labs’ MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Elac Debut B6’s frequency response in the farfield; for the nearfield frequency response, I used an Earthworks QTC-40, which has a 1⁄4" capsule and thus doesn’t present a significant obstacle to the sound. My estimate of the Elac B6’s voltage sensitivity was 85dB/2.83V/m, which is 2dB below the specified 87dB/2.83V/m. I suspect that this difference is due to the B6’s behavior in the top octaves (see later). I have plotted how the Elac’s impedance varies with frequency on a more extended vertical scale than usual (fig.1), as the magnitude remains above my usual 20-ohm scale limit for the entire treble region. With a minimum value of 6 ohms at 190Hz and an electrical phase angle…

I measured the Acoustic Research AR-M2 with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 “As We See It,” http://tinyurl.com/4ffpve4). Source materials were WAV and AIFF test-tone files, as well as DSD64 and DSD128 files of test tones prepared for me by Malcolm Hawksford. The AR-M2’s battery was fully charged at the start of the testing. The maximum output level was 1.89V from the line output jack and 3.71V from the headphone jack, both with the volume set to its maximum. The output impedance was 100 ohms from the line-out jack and 10 ohms from the headphone jack, both figures across the audioband. Though 10 ohms is a little higher than optimal, with headphones like the AudioQuest NightHawk and Audeze LCD-X, both of which have a constant impedance of…

COPLAND Billy the Kid (complete), Rodeo (complete), El Salón México, An Outdoor Overture Andrew Litton, Colorado Symphony Orchestra BIS 2164 (CD). 2015. Robert Suff, prod.; Matthias Spitzbarth, eng. DDD. TT: 77:26 PERFORMANCE SONICS It’s time to marvel anew at Brooklynborn Aaron Copland’s ability to write music that actually sounded the way the legendary American West felt and looked. With chords as open as the sky and as vast as the landscape, and the judicious use of cowboy songs (“Get Along, Little Dogies” is just one), he created moods and pictures that immediately feel familiar, but are so skillfully wrought that they always seem as fresh as the pioneer spirit. The ballet Billy the Kid follows the life and death of the outlaw—a myth made real through dance—and its opening and…

THIS ISSUE: NAD, Graham Engineering, Mørch, Acoustic Sounds, and Elac Americas respond to our reviews of their products. NAD Masters Series M22 Editor: NAD thanks Stereophile for the kind words and thorough evaluation of the M22’s sound and measured performance (March 2016). NAD has always been known as an amplifier company, and the M22 is our best effort to date. That it can stand shoulder to shoulder with many highly regarded high-end amplifiers is testament to NAD’s thorough engineering and application of advanced technology. After over 40 years of producing high-performing and easily affordable amplifiers, NAD has based its success on extracting the very last morsel of performance from a given technology. This pragmatic approach has sometimes led us away from convention, to produce some very interesting designs that favor…