Indholdsfortegnelse for June 2016 i Stereophile

THIS ISSUE: Sad to say, not all reviewers are as impartial as they should be. Note: All dialogue quoted verbatim from e-mail exchanges to which I am privy; the stage directions are imaginary. Dramatis Personæ: BILL, director of marketing for PS Audio RANDY,1 amateur reviewer for a commercial audiophile website DICK, 2 professional reviewer for an established audio magazine (not Stereophile SCENE ONE The stage is completely darkened, save for a small pool of light L. and another R. At L. we see RANDY in his office, sitting with his feet up on his desk. Other than a computer and a telephone, his desk is barren. At R. is BILL, sitting in his office. On BILL’s desk are an “I love Colorado” coffee mug, a half-eaten croissant, several piles of…

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. Arizona ❚Wednesday, June 29, 7–9pm: the Arizona Audio Video Club is having a PS Audio night, during which we will sample the soon-to-be-released BHK Signature preamp, coupled with the well-reviewed BHK Signature stereo amplifier. The highly regarded line of Bascom H. King (BHK) amplifiers demonstrate Paul McGowan’s commitment to providing marketleading electronics at prices many people can afford. Come join us at Trinity Lutheran Church, 9424 N. Seventh Street,…

“This is getting to be a habit.” That’s how I ended the first paragraph of my review of Bowers & Wilkins’ 800 Diamond speaker,1 in the May 2011 issue; apparently, Stereophile’s habit of reviewing models from B&W’s 800 series remains unbroken. Later in that review, I said that “The 800 Diamond doesn’t look radically different from its predecessors.” That doesn’t apply to the 802 D3 Diamond ($22,000/pair). It’s still a three-way system with tapered-tube high-frequency and midrange enclosures, stacked and nestled into a generous bass enclosure that’s vented on the bottom into the space between it and its plinth. But other than that, the 802 D3 radically differs from the previous generation: only eight components are retained. Four of those are the binding posts, another is the diamond-dome tweeter, and…

In August 2015, I visited Bowers & Wilkins in England. It was an exciting prospect to see the factory, and meet the people who designed and built the speakers I’ve been using for years. Of course, as the time of my visit approached, it was impossible not to speculate that something important was afoot—there was growing Internet buzz that it was time for B&W to update its 800-series speakers. Nonetheless, B&W remained tight-lipped. I arrived in Brighton in the morning and took the afternoon to tour the town. I hadn’t been there in over 40 years, and barely recognized it. I’d remembered a bright, busy sand-and-sailing town, but Brighton is now deep in the throes of urban renewal, with construction and reconstruction sites on nearly every block. There was a…

Analog Sources Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn & Castellon turntable & stand; TechDAS Air Force One turntable; Kuzma 4Point, Mørch DP-8, Reed 3P, Swedish Analog Technologies tonearms; Lyra Atlas & Atlas SL & Etna, Ortofon Anna & A95, Ikeda (mono), Miyajima Labs Zero (mono) & Madake cartridges. Digital Sources Simaudio Moon Evolution 650D transport-DAC & 780D streaming DSD DAC; Lynx Hilo A/D-D/A converter; Meridian Sooloos Digital Media System; Pure Vinyl, Vinyl Studio softwares. Preamplification Ypsilon MC-10L & MC-16L step-up transformers; LKV Veros, Pure Audio Vinyl, Viva, Ypsilon VPS-100 phono preamplifiers; darTZeel NHB-18NS preamplifier. Power Amplifiers darTZeel NHB-458 monoblocks. Loudspeakers Wilson Audio Specialties Alexandria XLF. Cables Interconnect: Snake River Audio Boomslang S/PDIF, Stealth Sakra & Indra, TARA Labs Zero Evolution & Zero, Teresonic Clarison Gold, Wireworld Platinum Eclipse. Speaker: TARA Labs Omega…

Analog Source Linn LP12 turntable, SME M2-9 tonearm, Dynavector DV-20X2L cartridge. Digital Sources Schiit Audio Bifrost D/A converter, Integra DPS-7.2 disc player. Preamplification Dynavector SUP-200 step-up transformer & P75 Mk.3 phono stage; Parasound Halo JC 3+ phono stage; PrimaLuna ProLogue Premium, Simaudio Moon Neo 350P preamplifiers. Power Amplifiers Line Magnetic LM-518IA, PrimaLuna ProLogue Premium, Simaudio Moon Neo 330A. Integrated Amplifiers Schiit Audio Ragnarok, Simaudio Moon Neo 340i. Headphone Amplifiers Audeze Deckhard, Burson Conductor Virtuoso, Schiit Audio Asgard, Simaudio Moon Neo 230HAD. Headphones AKG K812, Audeze EL-8, AudioQuest Night-Hawk, JH Audio Roxanne. Loudspeakers DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/93, Zu Audio Soul Supreme. Cables Digital: Kimber Kable D60 Data Flex Studio. Interconnect: AudioQuest Cinnamon, Auditorium 23, Kimber Kable Silver Streak. Speaker: AudioQuest GO-4, Auditorium 23. Accessories Sound Anchor stands, Dr. Feickert Analogue cartridge…

I measured the Ayre Acoustics Codex 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, played on my MacBook Pro running on battery power with Pure Music 3.0. (I couldn’t get the TosLink optical input to work with S/PDIF data sourced from an Astell&Kern AK100.1) Apple’s USB Prober utility identified the Codex as “Ayre USB Interface” from “Ayre Acoustics,” and the serial number was given as “Streamlength(tm).” The Codex operated in the optimal isochronous asynchronous USB mode, and Apple’s AudioMIDI utility revealed that it accepted 24-bit integer data sampled at all rates from 44.1 to 384kHz. The volume control’s maximum setting was “100,” and it operated in accurate 1dB steps. The maximum output level at 1kHz…

Digital Sources DAC: 8-channel Cranesong Avocet monitor controller for 5.1-channel surround plus stereo bass. Power Amplifiers Lipinski Sound Mono Block L-301V. Speakers Revel Ultima Gem2. Subwoofers JL Audio Fathom f112 (stereo pair), each powered by dedicated 20 amp line, permitting 1500Wpc bass peaks with no power sag. Cables Interconnect (analog): Mogami low-capacitance OFC (balanced AES/EBU). Speaker: Mogami eight-conductor OFC, doubled 14 AWG, equivalent to 8 gauge. Accessories Surge-X series protectors with Surge-X RFI/EMI filters. RealTraps MondoTraps, Sonex One acoustic panels, AudioVero Acourate & AcourateConvolver software, Room EQ Wizard analysis software, dedicated 230V/100 amp power service, central-point grounding, 115V/20 amp hospital-grade isolated ground outlets. Listening Room 18'–20' 7" (5.5–6.3m) L by 14' (4.3m) W by 12' (3.6m) H in front, rising to 23' (7m) in rear. Volume: 4536ft3 (128m3).…

KING CURTIS The Complete Atco Singles Real Gone Music/Rhino 6400413 (3 CDs). 2015. King Curtis, Tom Dowd, Arif Mardin, others, orig. prods.; Gordon Anderson, compilation prod.; various engs. AAD? TT: 2:57:41 During his brief career, King Curtis (né Curtis Ousley), who at 37 was stabbed to death in Manhattan, was a saxophone colossus. As a prolific studio ace and sideman, he played on records by such dissimilar luminaries as John Lennon, Ben E. King, and Herbie Mann. And as bandleader, his classic LPs include Plays the Great Memphis Hits and Live at Fillmore West. Curtis recorded a wealth of essential singles in two stints at Atco (1958– 1959 and 1965–1971), as this collection of “66 smokin’ r&b instrumentals”, full of rare singles mixes, indisputably proves. The greatest revelation is how…

THIS ISSUE: Vandersteen, PBN, Marten, Linear Tube Audio, and MQA respond to our reviews of their products. Vandersteen Model Seven Mk.II & M7-HPA Editor: Reading John Atkinson’s amazing review of our flagship powered-speaker system (May 2016, p.77), we at Vandersteen Audio are exceptionally pleased that JA so prominently discussed the concept of value. In spite of the advantages that flagship products have in allowing the designer to throw more money at them, in many respects it’s more difficult to offer more real technology than the customer expects at these price points than it was or is with something like our legendary Model 2. Our previous flagship, the Model 5A, certainly met this value criterion. This was a sub-$20,000/pair speaker with a patented aerodynamic midrange that remains a fixture in our…

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. R.I.P. Roy Allison Editor: I am writing to let you know that Roy Allison passed away at the beginning of March. Roy was very big in the audiophile community, with his legendary work with Edgar Villchur at AR, and then with his own line of loudspeakers. I was also surprised to learn 30 years ago, when I married my wife, that Roy was her uncle. His younger brother is my wife’s father. I always liked to brag to my audiophile friends that I was related to Roy…

I used DRA Labs’ MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Bowers & Wilkins 802 D3 Diamond’s frequency response in the farfield; I used an Earthworks QTC-40 for the nearfield frequency responses. (For logistical reasons, I measured a different sample from those auditioned by KR.) As with the Marten Coltrane 3, reviewed elsewhere in this issue, the 802 D3 was too bulky to be lifted off the ground. The earlier-than-usual reflections of the drive-units’ output from the ground thus compromised the measurements’ resolution in the midrange. The loudspeaker was also too heavy for me to lift it onto my Outline computer-controlled turntable, so I had to examine its off-axis behavior by manually rotating the loudspeaker on its casters and checking the angle with a protractor, a…

Marten is a small Swedish loudspeaker manufacturer with great aspirations, some of which the company has largely met. Leif Mårten Olofsson founded Marten and designs the speakers, while brother Jörgen Olofsson runs the business as CEO—a division of creative and administrative labors similar to the working relationship between David and Norman Chesky, the founders of Chesky Records and HDtracks. Marten’s ambitious “statement” model, the Coltrane Supreme 2—a 78.8"-tall, 507-lb design that costs half a million bucks—effectively makes the point that this little company can build big. Designing and building a $500,000/pair speaker is one thing; selling it is another. But a year ago, when I met the Olofssons after hours at High End 2015, in Munich, they told me they’d sold four sets of Coltrane Supreme 2s that day. They…

Digital Sources MacBook Pro computer (early 2015); Benchmark DAC 1, PS Audio DirectStream DACs; Apogee Groove, Meridian Explorer USB DACs; Ayre Acoustics CX-7eMP CD player. Analog Sources Thorens TD 124 turntable reconditioned by Schopper AG; Oswalds Mill Audio slate plinth; Ortofon RMG-212 tonearm (rebuilt); Schick 12” tonearm; Ortofon 90th Anniversary SPU cartridge; Sony XDR-F1HD AM/FM/HD tuner. Preamplification Auditorium 23 standard step-up transformer; PS Audio NuWave Phono Converter phono stage/analog-to-digital converter, EAR phono stage. Integrated Amplifier Leben CS-600. Headphone Sennheiser HD 650, JH Audio JH-16 IEMs. Loudspeakers DeVore Fidelity The Nine. Cables USB: AudioQuest Cinnamon & Carbon & Coffee, Comprehensive Connectivity Company USB2-AB-10ST. Interconnect: Auditorium 23, The Chord Company (UK) Chorus and Chameleon Silver Plus, Q Cables Tao. Speaker: Auditorium 23. AC: Belden 14-gauge shielded, stock cords. Accessories Chilton’s Durham media…

Digital Sources Apple MacBook Pro computer (2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD) running OS 10.10.4, Roon v.1.1 build 102, JRiver Media Center 19, iTunes 12, Amarra Computer Music Player, VLC, Reaper 4.78, XLD; Western Digital 2TB NAS Device; Oppo BDP-103 Universal BD player; Meridian Sooloos Digital Media System (Control 15, QNAP TS-669 Pro NAS); Apple iPad Air & iPhone 6. Benchmark DAC1 USB & DAC2 HGC, Ayre Acoustics QB-9DSD, AudioQuest DragonFly, Chord Hugo TT USB DACs. Preamplifier Marantz AV7005 in Pure Direct Mode. Power Amplifiers Classé CAM 350 monoblocks (2). Loudspeakers Emotiva 5, MartinLogan Prodigy; MartinLogan BalancedForce 212 (2), Velodyne Servo-F subwoofers. Headphones AKG K 240, Audeze LCD-X, AudioQuest NightHawk, Grado HP1, NAD Viso, Sennheiser Amperior. Cables Interconnect: AudioQuest Victoria (for DragonFly) & Diamond (USB) & HD6…

EDITOR’S PICK RECORDING OF THE MONTH ESPERANZA SPALDING Emily’s D+Evolution Concord 7238281 (LP). 2016. Esperanza Spalding, Tony Visconti, prods.; Kyle Hoffman, Tim Price, engs.; Martin Cooke, Kyle McAulay, Erin Tonkon, asst. engs.; Paul Blakemore, mastering; Mario Borgatta, mix. DDA? TT: 43:41 It may have started back in 2011, when the crowd at the Grammy Awards let out a collective “Who?” as Esperanza Spalding was named Best New Artist, an award almost everyone had thought would go straight to Justin Bieber. Spalding was the first jazz artist ever to win that award. The resulting notoriety took the jazz bassist and singer, who’d lived almost entirely in the rather insular world of jazz, by surprise. In 2012 she released Radio Music Society, which featured a Wayne Shorter cover. A year later she…

SUBMISSIONS: Those promoting audio-related seminars, shows, and meetings should e-mail the when, where, and who to JAtkinson@enthusiastnetwork.com at least eight weeks before the month of the event. The deadline for the August 2016 issue is May 20, 2016. US: NEW YORK John Atkinson With this issue, we welcome to our staff Jana Dagdagan. Jana has joined us as The Enthusiast Network’s Hi-Tech Group Editorial Assistant after some time spent working in audio retailing, video blogging, and performing music. She will be working on all of TEN’s Hi-Tech properties—Stereophile, AnalogPlanet.com, AudioStream.com, InnerFidelity.com, Sound&Vision, and Shutterbug—and will be based in our New York office. I asked Jana to write a few words describing what she brings to us: “I am 23, Filipino-Chinese, and am originally from Honolulu, Hawaii. Music has been a…

Eine kleine Nachtmusik it ain’t. And yet, in 1992, lightning struck, tectonic plates shifted, and the third symphony of Polish composer Henryk Mikolaj Górecki (1933–2010) became a bona-fide hit. Defying both skeptics and logic, a recording of this decidedly sepia-toned work, subtitled The Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, by the London Sinfonietta conducted by American maestro David Zinman, and featuring soprano soloist Dawn Upshaw, eventually sold over a million copies, making it the largest-selling recording of modern classical music ever. Although shocked and gratified, classicalmusic fans everywhere were left scratching their heads. And while author David Steinberg posed a now infamous swipe, “is it being played as background music to Chardonnay and brie?”, a review of a recording of the symphony by the Polish National Radio symphony Orchestra, posted on Gramophone.com…

Digital Sources Oppo Digital BDP-105 universal BD player; Baetis XR3 PC-based music server; exaSound e28, Merging Technologies NADAC-8 multichannel D/A processors; QNAP TS569L NAS. Preamplifiers Audio Research MP1, Parasound Halo P 7. Power Amplifiers McIntosh Laboratories MC303, Parasound Halo A 31, Theta Digital Dreadnaught D. Loudspeakers Bowers & Wilkins 800 Diamond. Cables Digital: AudioQuest Vodka (HDMI) & Carbon (USB). Analog Interconnects: AudioQuest Earth/DBS balanced, Kubala-Sosna Anticipation (RCA, XLR). Speaker: AudioQuest Oak/DBS biwire. AC: AudioQuest NRG-10, JPS Aluminata, Kubala-Sosna Emotion. Accessories Environmental Potentials EP-2450 power conditioner, CyberPower 850PFCLCD AC filter (supplied with Baetis server). Listening Room 24' L by 14' W by 8' H, with two MSR Acoustics Dimension4 SpringTraps in front corners, two Ready Acoustics Chameleon Super Sub Bass Traps at sides, and moderately sound-absorbing furniture. Front wall has large…

I used DRA Labs’ MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Marten Coltrane 3’s frequency response in the farfield; for the in-room and nearfield frequency responses, I used an Earthworks QTC-40. Because of the Coltrane 3’s size and weight, I traveled to Michael Fremer’s place to measure the speaker in situ, but it was too heavy for us to lift it very high off the ground. The earlier-than-usual reflections of the drive-units’ output from the ground meant that I had to aggressively window the impulse-response data, thus compromising the resolution in the midrange. Fig.1 shows the Coltrane 3’s electrical impedance and phase. The impedance remains above 6 ohms for the entire midrange and treble regions, and though the magnitude drops to a minimum value of 3.1…

I performed a full set of measurements on the Linear Tube Audio microZOTL2.0 using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 “As We See It,” www.stereophile.com/content/measurements-maps-precision). The three sets of outputs—headphone, RCA jacks, speaker terminals—are connected in parallel, with a shunt 470k ohm resistor connecting the hot connection to ground. I therefore took most of the measurements from the RCA jacks. Because the amplifier’s unique output stage uses an RF oscillator modulated with the audio signal, there was around 7mV of RF noise present on its output, so I experimented with using the Audio Precision passive low-pass filter to eliminate the effect of this noise, as well as a brickwall filter at 20kHz for the distortion measurements. The maximum voltage gain was a low 12.9dB, and the microZOTL2.0…

I measured the Meridian Explorer2 with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 “As We See It,” http://tinyurl.com/4ffpve4). Source materials were WAV and AIFF testtone files, played with Pure Music 3.0 on my MacBook Pro running on battery power. As with the original Explorer, I performed a complete set of measurements from both the line-level and headphone outputs, but most of what I describe here is the Explorer’s performance from its line output; I comment on the headphone output only when it differed. I also comment on the Explorer2’s measurements only when they differ from the original Explorer’s. (You can find the original measurements online.1) The maximum output level at 1kHz was very similar to the original’s, at 2.12V from the line output and 1.85V from the headphone…

I first spied the Ayre Codex two Januarys ago, at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show, and its scrappy proletarian vibe sure made it look different from any other The Codex retails for $1795 and sits nicely on a desk, like a thick hardback book stood on its long edge: it’s much taller than it is wide, and deeper than it is tall. Other DAC–headphone amps have gone this route, including Denon’s DA-300USB and NuForce’s Icon. But unlike DACs that can be placed horizontally or vertically, the Codex Ayre creation. On learning that its price would be well under $2000, I was immediately curious what Charley Hansen and his gang—makers of the $3450 QB-9DSD USB digital-to-analog converter, plus a few five-figure amps and preamps—could create when cost is an object. Indeed,…

“Bass—the final frontier,” declared Captain James T. Kirk. I have no doubt: The biggest problem in nearly every listening room is getting the bass to sound right. Today, we voyage to the frontier of bass response. A Brief History of Time Because my listening room is also a mastering room, it has to be as accurate as possible (see photo on p.125). The floor is a concrete slab, with solid-block wall construction and a cathedral ceiling 23' high at the rear—there are no floor-to-ceiling resonances. A bay window hidden behind the curtains disperses the lengthwise room mode by varying it between 18' and 20.6'. The curtains tighten the stereo image and damp the subtle resonant chamber that would otherwise color the sound. As technology has improved, the system and treatments…

MAHLER Symphony 2, arr. for piano four hands by Bruno Walter Maasa Nakazawa, Suhrud Athavale, pianos Naxos 8.573350 (CD). 2016. Andrea Kleibel, prod.; David Mero, prod., eng. DDD. TT: 76:24 None other than the great Bruno Walter is responsible for this piano reduction, published, with Mahler’s approval, the year after the orchestral score. The purpose of such exercises was to disseminate music that otherwise would have been very difficult for the masses to hear: since most middle-class (and upward) households owned a piano, these reductions were fascinating, entertaining, and a way of keeping up with, er, the Mahlers for anyone who lived outside a city as grand as Berlin or Vienna. Nowadays, listening to this is a stumper of sorts. It does have the advantage of presenting an aural Xray—…

GEORGE COLEMAN A Master Speaks George Coleman, tenor saxophone; Mike LeDonne, piano; Bob Cranshaw, bass; George Coleman Jr., drums; Peter Bernstein, guitar Smoke Sessions SSR-1603 (CD). 2016. Paul Stache, prod.; Chris Allen, eng. DAD? TT: 66:04 In jazz, it’s common for fans and even critics to sentimentalize octogenarians and claim they can still play their butts off. It is usually wishful thinking. Not in George Coleman’s case. This album cuts him no breaks. The opener, Bronislaw Kaper’s “Invitation,” requires him to lavish, for 13 minutes, fresh variations on a song everyone has played. His upper register is clear, his reflexes quick as ever. In 1964, Coleman was a full collaborator with Miles Davis on one of the great albums of all time, My Funny Valentine. But his discography as a…