Innehållsförteckning för Apr-13 från Stereophile

There’s No Business Without Show Business Cole Porter: An All-Star Tribute (DVD, VAI) includes outtakes of the great Ethel Merman filming for TV, in 1960, a performance of Irving Berlin’s “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.” In take after take, something goes wrong. Each time the director shouts “Cut!,” Merman stops in her tracks, almost as if deflating; when the director yells “Action!” she starts from the top, fresh as new, the model showbiz professional. This issue of Stereophile hits newsstands days after the first consumer Show of the 2013 season, AXPONA in Chicago, has ended. The next four months see audio shows in Montreal, New York, Munich, Newport Beach, San Francisco, and Washington DC. A goodly number of exhibitors at these shows could learn a thing or two from Ethel Merman, who…

ATTENTION ALL AUDIO SOCIETIES: We have a page on the Stereophile website devoted to you: www.stereophile.com/audiophile-societies. If you’d like to have your audio-society information posted on the site, e-mail Chris Vogel at info@vcable.us. 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, April 21, 2–5pm: The Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society will hold its monthly meeting at Evolution Audio & Video (5341 Derry Avenue, Suite S, Agoura Hills). Featured gear will include Bob Carver amplifiers and Wisdom Audio’s L75 loudspeakers. Manufacturer representatives will be on hand to discuss their products. A raffle is planned and lunch will be served. Guests, visitors, and new members are invited, and…

Double Up In March 2008, when I bought my PSB Alpha B1 loudspeakers, I decided that I should also buy PSB’s matching SubSeries 1 subwoofer. It seems odd to me now that I would have considered the $449 subwoofer a necessary complement to speakers that sold for $279/pair. What was I thinking? Was I rolling in money? Certainly not. Was I merely young and fancy free? Yes and no. Was I sex-starved? Quite possibly. (See this month’s “Listening.”) In any case, I must have thought the subwoofer very important. It’s strange, though, because I can’t recall a time when I actually used it. The only thing I do remember is that the sub took up valuable space and collected a crazy amount of dust, pushed into a corner of my…

The classes each cover a wide range of performance. Carefully read our descriptions here, the original reviews, and (heaven forbid) reviews in other magazines to put together a short list of components to choose from. Evaluate your room, your source material and front-end(s), your speakers, and your tastes. With luck, you may come up with a selection to audition at your favorite dealer(s). “Recommended Components” will not tell you what to buy any more than Consumer Reports would presume to tell you whom to marry! CLASS A Best attainable sound for a component of its kind, almost without practical considerations; “the least musical compromise.” A Class A system is one for which you don’t have to make a leap of faith to believe that you’re hearing the real thing. With…

It was the strangest thing. In the fall of 2008 I was comparing Ayre Acoustics’ then-new KX-R line preamplifier with no preamplifier at all—I was feeding the power amplifier directly with the output of the Logitech Transporter D/A processor. (Levels were matched for the comparisons, of course, made possible by the fact that the Transporter has a digital-domain volume control.) Being a rational being, I knew that the active circuitry of a preamplifier, as well as the extra socketry and cables, would be less transparent to the audio signal than a single piece of wire. I wanted to determine by how much the Ayre preamp fell short of that standard. So much for the effect of expectations on perception: the KX-R sounded better than no preamp at all! As Wes…

Analog Sources Linn Sondek LP12 turntable with Lingo power supply, Linn Ekos tonearm, Linn Arkiv B phono cartridge. Digital Sources Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP universal player; Apple 2.7GHz i7 Mac mini laptop running OS10.7.5, iTunes 10, Pure Music 1.86; Shuttle PC with Lynx AES16 soundcard & dual-core AMD Athlon processor running Windows 7, Foobar 2000, Adobe Audition 3.0; dCS Debussy, Mark Levinson No.30.6, Arcam FMJ D33, Logitech Transporter D/A converters; Ayre Acoustics QA-9 USB A/D converter; Halide USB-S/PDIF converter; Mirage MMS-5A media server. Preamplification Liberty B2B-1 phono preamplifier; Ayre Acoustics K-5xeMP, Classé CP-800, Nagra Jazz line preamplifiers. Power Amplifiers Classé CT-M600, Lamm M1.2 Reference (both monoblocks). Loudspeakers BBC LS3/5A, Joseph Audio Perspective, KEF LS50, Vandersteen Treo. Cables Digital: DH Labs Silver Sonic. AES/EBU: AudioQuest Coffee, Belkin Gold USB. FireWire: AudioQuest FireWire…

Before performing any measurements, I ran one of the Ypsilon Aelius amplifiers (serial no.31) for an hour at onethird its specified maximum power of 67W into 8 ohms, thermally the worst case for an amplifier with a class-B output stage. At the end of that period, the heatsinks were moderately hot at 44.2°C (111.5°F), while the chassis was cooler at 40°C (103.9°F). I then measured the amplifier, using Stereophile’s loan sample of the top-ofthe-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and the January 2008 “As We See It,” www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/108awsi/index.html). I first performed a complete set of tests using the Siemens NOS C3g input tube, whose sound Michael Fremer preferred, then repeated some tests using the Electro-Harmonix 6C45PiEH, Ypsilon’s stock input tube for sales outside the US. I used the Aelius’s…

Description Tubed monoblock power amplifier. Tube complement: two 6C33C, two 6N6P, one 6AK5, one 5651, one 12AX7. Output power: 18W into 4, 8, or 16 ohms at 0.7% THD (9.55, 12.55, 15.55dBW, respectively). Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz at 18Wpc, –0.3dB. Input impedance: 41k ohms. Input sensitivity: 0.85V. Slew rate (48V peak–peak): 15V/ìs. Signal/noise ratio, ref. 4V RMS into 16 ohms: typically 90dB A-weighted. Dimensions 16" (445mm) W by 8.25" (210mm) H by 20.375" (520mm) D. Weight: 81 lbs (36.8kg). Serial numbers of units reviewed B10253, B10254. Price $37,290/pair. Approximate number of dealers: 10. Manufacturer Lamm Industries, Inc., 2621 E. 24th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11235. Tel: (718) 368-0181. Fax: (718) 368-0140. www.lammindustries.com.…

Branding can be powerful—a well-developed brand connotes strong images in the consumer’s mind. Apple means ergonomics, elegance, ego. Fremer means analog, exuberance, fastidiousness. Rolex means Swiss-made, precision, expensive. Nagra means Swiss-made, precision, expensive. I’ve heard the occasional Nagra product at audio shows, but infrequently. When I have, I’ve been in awe of the gorgeous but understated quality of their handmade construction. And the rooms containing Nagra gear always produced superb sound. My fondest memory of Nagra gear dates back almost a decade. I’d booked a gig for the John Atkinson Trio to perform jazz standards and originals at my local country club in New York City. Our usual drummer, Allen Perkins, of tonearm/turntable maker Immedia, was on the West Coast, so I had to find a drummer to replace him.…

Analog Sources VPI TNT IV, Rega Planar 3 turntables; Immedia, Syrinx PU-3 tonearms; Koetsu Urushi, Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood cartridges. Digital Sources Lector CDP-7T, Creek Destiny CD players. Preamplification Audio Valve Eclipse, Audio Research Reference 5SE line stages; Vendetta Research SCP-2D phono stage. Power Amplifiers Audio Research Reference 110 & Reference 75. Loudspeakers Epos M16i, Monitor Audio Silver RS6, Nola Viper Reference III. Cables Interconnect (all MIT): Magnum M3, MI-350 CVTwin Terminator, MI-330SG Terminator. Speaker: Accent Speaker Technology Blue Thunder. AC: manufacturers’ own. Accessories Various by ASC, Bright Star, Celestion, Echo Busters, Salamander Designs, Simply Physics, Sound Anchor, VPI.…

I examined the behavior of the Autonomic Controls Mirage MMS-5A’s analog and digital outputs with Stereophile’s loan sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and the January 2008 “As We See It,” http://tinyurl.com/4ffpve4). The most important characteristic of an S/PDIF output is that it have low datastream jitter. With streamed data, once jitter is introduced, it can only be low-pass filtered, not eliminated; the lower the level of jitter from the outset, the better. With the MMS-5A’s S/PDIF output connected to the SYS2722 with a 6’-long Apature cable with an RCA-BNC adapter at the analyzer end, I got somewhat paradoxical results. (All my test files were uncompressed WAVs.) With 16-bit/44.1kHz J-Test data and the MMS-5A set to output 16/44.1 data, the measured datastream jitter was a high…

CLASSICAL ROCK/POP JAZZ Around the last decade of the previous century, something significant happened in jazz. Suddenly, many of the best players were no longer Americans. Actually, it was not sudden. It was a gradual flowering that achieved critical mass and could no longer be overlooked. One of the breakthrough players was Tomasz Stanko, of Poland. It took longer for his importance to be recognized, especially in the US. Perhaps Stanko seemed more “foreign.” He had spent most of his career in a Soviet satellite. When he began releasing his extraordinary string of albums on the ECM label in 1995, his projects were esoteric. Matka Joanna, his first masterpiece, was based on an obscure 1961 Polish film. From the Green Hill had an ensemble that included bass clarinet, bandoneón, and…

FEEDBACK TO THE EDITOR The wrong goal? Editor: I found Mr. Atkinson’s piece on the BSG qøl (February 2013, p.95) refreshing. First, he researched and revealed the technology inside the box and gave a well-balanced report, unlike some solely subjective reviews of this “mystery” device that I have read elsewhere. Second, this review also illustrates my long-held opinion about the nature of what we hear in our listening rooms. Should we really be trying to “re-create” the original performance? Or do we really want something different? Our enjoyment of a live event is made up of many facets, like the venue, the people, the mood, and the moment. It’s not realistic to expect to re-create this intangible magic time after time without fail. The point of a great sound system…

TechDAS’s Air Force One Takes Off in America In vinyl’s heyday, Roy Matthews ran EMI’s record-pressing plant in Hayes, Middlesex, in the UK. He even had a hand in designing and building new presses for the company. But when EMI, like most other record labels, shut down their plant and scrapped most of their presses, Matthews retired. In 2000, when Matthews was in his 80s, he was lured out of retirement and found himself once again, to his surprise and delight, running a pressing plant using refurbished presses, many of his own design. You can read my interview with him at http://tinyurl.com/be6qd23, and see photos of the facility, then called Portal Space Records, at www.analogplanet.com/content/take-virtualtour-0. I thought of Matthews when, at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show, I spoke with the…

Out on the Town with New Gear Reading the November 2012 Stereophile, my eye was caught by John Atkinson’s very enthusiastic review (he bought the review sample) of Ayre Acoustics’ new QA-9 analog-to-digital converter (www.stereophile.com/content/ayre-acoustics-qa-9-usb-ad-converter). Over and above the intrinsic interest of the QA-9’s claimed flat response down to about 1Hz, and that it is a cutting-edge ADC from a maker of consumer rather than professional audio gear, I had just been engaged by early-music scholar and organist Beverly Jerold to produce and engineer a recording of historically informed performances of Baroque organ music by Buxtehude (b. 1637), Clérambault (b. 1676), J.S. Bach (b. 1685), and Domenico Scarlatti (b. 1685). The recording venue was the Auditorium of the Third Meeting House of the First Baptist Church in America, in Providence,…

This business biography of hi-fi pioneer Gilbert Briggs and his company, Wharfedale, is an exhaustively researched labor of love on the part of his grand-nephew David Briggs. In a sense, the book is a prequel to Ken Kessler’s KEF: 50 Years of Innovation in Sound (2011; see www.stereophile.com/content/bookreview-ikef-50-years-innovation-soundi). That’s because KEF’s founder, Raymond Cooke, worked for Gilbert Briggs at Wharfedale from the early 1950s through mid-1961. But that is getting ahead of ourselves. The story told in A Pair of Wharfedales begins in 1890, when Gilbert Briggs was born, in Clayton Village in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in the north of England. The full flowering of the industrial revolution, especially automated weaving, had brought both unprecedented prosperity and unprecedented grinding labor to Victorian-era British cities. Briggs’s father, supervisor of a textile…

Description Remotecontrolled, three-chassis line preamplifier. Analog inputs: 6 balanced, 6 unbalanced, plus Tape Input. Analog outputs: 2 pairs (1 variable-level, Master; 1 fixed-level, Slave) balanced on XLRs; 2 pairs (Master, Slave) unbalanced on RCAs. Gain range: –90dB to +10dB in 99 steps of 1dB. Frequency response: 2Hz–60kHz, –3dB. Signal/noise: >110dB ref. 5V. Channel separation: 100dB at 1kHz, ref. 1V. CMRR: 60dB at 1kHz. Input impedance: 42k ohms, balanced. Output impedance: 120 ohms, singleended; 120 ohms, balanced. Power consumption: 45W. Dimensions (each chassis) 17" (432mm) W by 4" (102mm) H by 12" (305mm) D. Shipping weight: 75 lbs (34kg). Serial numbers of units reviewed 24405 (control chassis), 24404 (left-channel chassis), 24403 (rightchannel chassis). Price $16,500. Approximate number of dealers: 15. Manufacturer Pass Laboratories Inc., PO Box 219, Foresthill, CA 95631. Tel:…

I knew nothing of Ypsilon when I first saw its products in a room at an overseas audio show. Even though the speakers in this system were complete unknowns, I was convinced that it was the electronics that were responsible for the magical balance of what I was hearing. That was confirmed when I reviewed the VPS-100 phono preamplifier in August 2009 and PST-100 Mk.II preamplifier in July 2011. Greek austerity ends at the factory door of Ypsilon Electronics. The luxury components designed and manufactured within are innovative, high-performance, visually elegant, and expensive. They’re aimed at audio enthusiasts, mostly outside Greece, who can afford to indulge themselves. Obviously, no Greek would object—the nation’s economy, and those employed by Ypsilon, can only benefit from this small company’s success, however minor the…

Analog Sources Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn turntable, Cobra tonearm, Castellon stand; TechDAS Air Force One turntable; Graham Engineering Phantom Supreme II, Kuzma 4Point tonearms; Lyra Atlas & Titan i, Ortofon Anna, Miyajima Labs Focus (mono), cartridges. Digital Sources MSB Platinum Diamond DAC IV D/A converter & Platinum Data CD IV CD transport, Simaudio Moon Evolution 650D DAC–CD transport, BPT-modified Alesis Masterlink hard-disk recorder, Meridian Digital Media System music server, Pure Music playback software. Preamplifiers darTZeel NHB-18ns, Ypsilon VPS-100. Power Amplifiers darTZeel NHB-458 (monoblocks), Dan D’Agostino Momentum (monoblocks), and Musical Fidelity Titan (stereo). Loudspeakers Wilson Audio Specialties Alexandria XLF. Cables Phono: Hovland/Graham MG2 Music Groove, Nordost Valhalla. Interconnect: TARA Labs Zero Gold, Stealth Sakra & Indra, Nordost Tyr. Speaker: TARA Labs Omega Gold, Stealth Dream V10, Nordost Tyr. AC: Shunyata Research…

To measure one of the Lamm ML2.2 amplifiers (serial no.B10254), I used Stereophile’s loan sample of the top-of-theline Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and the January 2008 “As We See It,” www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/108awsi/index.html). Before performing any measurements, I ran the amplifier with a 1kHz tone at 1W into 8 ohms for an hour, then turned off the signal generator and adjusted the outputstage plate voltage and current, following the detailed instructions in the manual and using the recommended Fluke 87 meter. Lamm recommends that the wall voltage be 120V for this procedure; unfortunately, the voltage in my quiet suburban neighborhood remained higher than that, at 124.4V. After adjustment, the plate voltage for the measurements was 174.4V DC and the plate current voltage was 0.305V, both figures within the recommended ranges.…

Description Tubed line preamplifier. Tube complement: two 12AX7, one 12AT7. Frequency response: 10Hz–50kHz, +0/–0.5dB. Input impedance: >75k ohms. Output impedance: 50 ohms. Signal/noise ratio (ref. 1V): 105dB (ASA-A weighting). Dynamic range: >112dB, gain at +12dB. Total harmonic distortion: <0.02% 1V RMS, gain at 0dB. Channel separation:< 78dB. Dimensions 12" (310mm) W by 3" (75mm) H by 10" (255mm) D. Weight 7 lbs (3.2kg). Serial number of unit reviewed 55025166156025. Price $12,250. Approximate number of dealers: 10. Manufacturer Audio Technology Switzerland SA, 30A, ch. de l’Orio, 1032 Romanel-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland. Tel: (41) 021-643-72-40. Fax: (41) 021-641-75-32. US distributor: Audio Technology Switzerland (USA) Inc., 450 W. Main Street, Suite B-4, Gallatin, TN 37066. Tel: (615) 451-4168. Fax: (615) 451-4175. www.nagraaudio.com.…

I bought a Slim Devices Squeezebox network player in the spring of 2006 and my life changed. Having audio files on a server and being able to play them through my high-end rig via the Squeezebox’s S/PDIF output liberated my music from the tyranny of a physical medium. As I wrote in my review (see www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/906slim/index.html), “physical discs seem so 20th century!” After Wes Phillips reviewed the Squeezebox’s big brother, the Transporter, in February 2007, I bought the review sample and lived happily ever after in the world of bits rather than atoms—at least until the summer of 2010, when Slim Devices’ new owner, Logitech, brought out the Squeezebox Touch. The Touch (see http://tinyurl.com/72l5qo5) did everything the Transporter did, with a full-color display, at one-eighth the price! Inexplicably, Logitech discontinued…

Digital Sources Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP universal player; Apple 2.7GHz i7 Mac mini laptop running OS10.7, iTunes 10, Pure Music 1.86; Mark Levinson No.30.6, Arcam FMJ D33 D/A converters; Halide USB-S/PDIF bridge; Ayre Acoustics QA-9 USB A/D converter. Preamplification Pass Labs XP-30 line preamplifier. Power Amplifiers Classé CT-M600, Lamm M1.2 Reference (both monoblocks). Loudspeakers Vandersteen Treo, Joseph Audio Perspective. Cables Digital: AudioQuest SVT-4 (S/PDIF), DH Labs Silver Sonic. AES/EBU: AudioQuest Coffee, Belkin Gold USB. FireWire: AudioQuest FireWire 400 (prototype). Interconnect: Audio-Quest Wild (balanced) & Cheetah (unbalanced). Speaker: Cardas Clear. AC: XLO Reference 3, manufacturers’ own. Accessories Audio Power Industries 116 Mk.II & PE-1, APC S-15 AC line conditioners (computers, hard drive); ASC Tube Traps, RPG Abffusor panels; Target TT-5 equipment racks; Ayre Acoustics Myrtle Blocks; Shunyata Research Dark Field cable elevators.…

TechDAS Air Force One Editor: When I first saw the Air Force One turntable, and only in a photograph at that, I stopped short. For me, this was the most beautiful and technically sophisticated turntable I’d ever seen! And, as luck would have it, my enthusiasm was well received by our Japanese friends, and I was delighted to be given the assignment of distribution, not only in the US but also in Canada and South America. Michael [Fremer]’s analysis sums up most of what I’d say: It is a tour de force in all aspects—styling, technical innovation, ease of use, and silent, reliable consistency. Not to mention, of course, a soaring and thrilling musical experience. The design expertise Mr. Nishikawa and his associates bring to this turntable is simply breathtaking!…

HOLLAND/JAPAN John Atkinson It’s the end of an era. Breaking news as we went to press was that Royal Philips Electronics NV, 50 years after unveiling the Compact Cassette and 30 years after, with Sony, launching the Compact Disc, is selling its audio and video unit to focus on more profitable medical equipment and energy-saving light bulbs. The purchaser is Japan’s Funai Electric Co., who will pay 150 million euros ($202 million) in cash and a license fee for Philips’ Lifestyle Entertainment unit. US: JAMES BONGIORNO, 1943–2013 David A. Rich James Bongiorno, an engineer of exceptional abilities, passed away on January 10. He was born in 1943 and had contracted cancer of the liver in 1984 (see www.stereophile.com/news/10278/index.html). Audio engineer and senior editor of Secrets of Home Theater and High…

How I learned to stop worrying and love sucky bass Beethoven understood the pathos of the gap between idea and realization, and the sense of strain put on the listener’s imagination is essential. —Charles Rosen Bass, like sex, is something most young men desire in excess: To the novice, quantity trumps quality, and as long as he can hear from his playback system the deepest sounds of an orchestral bass drum or five-string electric bass (low string tuned to B-0 or C-1), he is completely satisfied. Meanwhile, bass texture, bass color, bass momentum, bass nuance, bass tension, and, especially, bass feel have now joined the short-nosed sturgeon, the Arkansas fatmucket clam, the Iberian lynx, and the teacher of European culture on the edge of extinction. And relatively few music lovers…

HI-FI Components listed here have been formally reviewed in Stereophile and have been found to be among the best available in each of four or five quality classes. Whether a component is listed in Class A or Class E, we highly recommend its purchase. Each listing—in alphabetical order within classes—is followed by a brief description of the product’s sonic characteristics and a code indicating the Stereophile Volume and Issue in which that product’s report appeared. Thus the September 2012 issue is indicated as “Vol.35 No.9.” Some products listed have not yet been reported on; these are marked (NR), for “Not Reviewed.” We recommend that you read any product’s entire review before seriously contemplating a purchase (products without reviews should therefore be treated with more caution)—many salient characteristics, peculiarities, and caveats…

while the selection and fine tuning of exhilarating-sounding vintage audio equipment is an exciting, often life-long search, let’s not forget it’s ultimately the music that matters—mankind’s mysterious mastery of making air move in esthetically & emotionally thrilling ways. Most importantly, remember to ask yourself the age-old question: Can I dance to it?” This has always been the conundrum of being an audiophile: Are you in it for the gear or for the music? And while it’s perfectly acceptable, even preferable, to choose both, for many the choice is stark. For Yves Beauvais, who has now moved between the worlds of music and high-end audio, and whose website for his vintage-gear business, Vintage Vacuum Audio (www.vintagevacuumaudio.com), bears the above statement, the answer is simple. “Most of the people I sell gear…

Imeasured the Pass Laboratories XP-30’s electrical performance with Stereophile’s loan sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and the January 2008 “As We See It,” http://tinyurl.com/4ffpve4). The maximum gain for both balanced input/balanced output and single-ended input/singleended output, with the volume control set to “99,” was slightly less than the specified 10dB, at 9.45dB. The volume control operated in accurate 1dB steps, meaning that the unity-gain setting was “89.” The balanced input impedance was slightly but inconsequentially lower thanspecified, at 39k ohms at low and middle frequencies, and 35k ohms at the top of the audioband. The single-ended input impedances were half these values, as expected. The balanced output impedance was close to the specification at 20 and 1kHz, at 117 ohms, but rose to 1127 ohms…

Description Hybrid monoblock power amplifier. Tube complement: one Siemens C3g or Electro- Harmonix 6C45PiEH. Output power (before clipping): 200W into 8 ohms (23dBW), 380W into 4 ohms (22.8dBW), 500W into 2 ohms (21.0dB), with the first 60W in class-A. Inputs: unbalanced (RCA), balanced (XLR). Voltage gain: x30 (29.5dB). Input impedance: 47k ohms. Bandwidth: 11Hz–75kHz, –3dB. Output impedance: 0.4 ohm, 20Hz–20kHz (into 8 ohms). Frequency response: N/A. THD: N/A. Signal/noise: N/A. Dimensions 16.6" (425mm) W by 9" (230mm) H by 16.6" (425mm) D. Weight: 99 lbs (45kg). Serial numbers of units reviewed 31, 32. Price $36,000/pair. Approximate number of dealers: 9. Manufacturer Ypsilon Electronics, 8AG. Athanasioy St., Peania-19002, Athens, Greece. Tel: (30) 210-66-44-588. Fax: (30) 210-66-44-812. www.ypsilonelectronics.com. US distributor: Aaudio Imports, 4871 Raintree Drive, Parker, CO 80134. Tel: (720) 851-2525. Fax:…

MONOBLOCK POWER AMPLIFIER The challenge is biblical in character, if not in scope: A half year after railing, in these pages, against our industry’s overabundance of products that cost more than $20,000 (see www.stereophile.com/content/skin-deep), fate has given me such a thing to review. In truth, it wasn’t the fault of fate or even God, but of my own doing: Having reviewed the Lamm ML2.1 monophonic amplifier ($29,290/pair) in Stereophile’s October 2004 issue, and having been so impressed that I bought the review pair and kept them as my reference for a couple of years, I felt compelled to hear that amplifier’s successor. My opportunity came with the announcement, last summer, of Lamm’s ML2.2 monoblock ($37,290/pair); soon thereafter, a review pair was dispatched to my home via air freight. (It may…

Analog Sources Garrard 301, Thorens TD 124 turntables; EMT 997, Artemis Lab TA-1 tonearms; Ortofon SPU, EMT TSD 15 70th Anniversary pickup heads; Miyabi 47 cartridge. Digital Sources AudioQuest DragonFly USB DAC; Apple iMac G5 computer running Apple iTunes v.11.0, Decibel v.1.0.2 playback softwares; Sony SCD-777ES SACD/CD player. Preamplification Auditorium 23 Standard (SPU version), Silvercore One-to-Ten, Hommage T2 step-up transformers; Shindo Masseto preamplifier. Power Amplifiers Shindo Corton-Charlemagne, Shindo Haut-Brion, Fi 421A. Loudspeakers Audio Note AN-E/SPe HE, Quad ESL, Wilson Audio Sophia 2, DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/96. Cables USB: AudioQuest Carbon, Nordost Blue Heaven. Interconnect: Audio Note AN-Vx, Shindo Silver. Speaker: Auditorium 23. AC: manufacturer’s own. Accessories Box Furniture Company D3S rack (source, amplification components); Keith Monks record-cleaning machine; Peter W. Belt Cream Electret.…

I measured the Nagra Jazz preamplifier with Stereophile’s loan sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and the January 2008 “As We See It,” www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/108awsi/index.html). The review sample had only unbalanced inputs but was fitted with the optional balanced output transformers. I therefore performed a complete suite of measurements from both the unbalanced and balanced outputs, though in the following text I have concentrated on the balanced outputs, as that is how Bob Reina used the Jazz for his auditioning. The voltage gain at 1kHz was 11.65dB from both sets of outputs with the frontpanel switch set to +12dB, and –0.25dB with the switch set to 0dB. A reading of “0dB” on the Jazz’s front-panel modulometer corresponded to 1V output into 100k ohms. Both outputs preserved absolute…

Description Remotecontrolled, Ethernetconnected media server. Digital outputs: one S/PDIF on coaxial RCA (also 5.1-channel output), one digital 7.1-channel output, USB. Analog outputs: four pairs unbalanced on RCAs, individually assignable. Streaming services supported: Last.fm, Pandora Internet radio, Rhapsody, SiriusXM Internet Radio, Spotify, TuneIn; add-on URLs for radio stations; guest computer/device streaming via AirPlay. Audio file formats supported: .aif, .aifc, .aiff, .au, .cda, .flac, .m4a, .m4p, .mp2, .mp3, .mpa, .rmi, .snd, .wav, .wma, .wpl. Image file formats supported: .bmp, .jpg, .png, .tif. Sample rates supported: Digital outputs selectable: 44.1, 48, 96, 192kHz at 16-or 24-bit resolution. Volume-control range: –80dB to +20dB. Analog outputs: Frequency range: <10Hz–48kHz. Signal/noise: 97dB (A-weighted). Dynamic range: >113dB. Channel separation: >90dB. Maximum output level: 2V. Maximum power consumption: 25W. Dimensions 17" (431mm) W by 2.25" (57.5mm) H with…

In 1972, the late biologist Stephen Jay Gould made a convincing case for what he called “punctuated evolution”: long periods of evolutionary stasis interrupted by brief periods of rapid change in response to major environmental changes. (If you don’t believe in evolution, you can jump to the next paragraph.) The same is true of this magazine’s measurement regime, which we began in 1989. Every component is subjected to a standardized set of tests that remains the same for years. But occasionally, a new test device or my exposure to new thinking leads to rapid change. Such was the case at January’s Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas, when I was discussing my measurements of digital products with MBL’s chief engineer, Jürgen Reis. Many components these days offer users a choice…

Pride and Joy After World War II, you could still walk into a club in Chicago, New Orleans, or New York’s Greenwich Village and hear indigenous American music being played by characters whose authenticity is almost unimaginable in today’s overproduced, celebrityobsessed music culture. There was enough music in those days to spawn dreams of a career that, like so many others in modern America, no longer exists: record-label owner. “One night, we were hanging out in Houston and Lightnin’ asked me, ‘Chris, do you want to go hear my cousin?’ And I said, ‘Who’s your cousin?’ And he said, ‘Cliff.’ ’Course, I’d go anyplace Lightnin’ would go, so we drove to Frenchtown in Houston, near the shipyards. Them rats were so huge crossing the street—enormous!” Chris Strachwitz says recently with…