Innehållsförteckning för Dec-13 från Stereophile

Snob Appeal It began innocently enough. In June, Slate.com published a sampling from an exhibit by the photographer Kai Schaefer, in which classic LPs of different eras were partnered with the similarly classic record players on which they might have been played: Tea for the Tillerman on a Dual 1219, Kind of Blue on a Rek-O-Kut Rondine, Sgt. Pepper’s on a Thorens TD 124—you get the idea. The photos worked as cultural documents, as good-natured kitsch, as surprisingly beautiful and compelling industrial art. I was thoroughly charmed. Schaefer’s own website, www.worldrecords.me, has as its epigraph a quote from the writer Jean Paul: “Memory is the only paradise from which we cannot be driven.” Resoundingly true—nonetheless, some nitwit on Slate tried her damnedest. In yet the billion-teenth example of the questionable…

Go Bluetooth Am I the only one who values content and convenience over sound quality? There. I’ve said it. I am not an audiophile; ie, someone who’s in love with recorded sound for its own sake. The search for ideal sound can leave a person burned out and broke. That might be why I love Internet radio via Bluetooth. So much content. So convenient, via smartphone or laptop. As for computer-audio downloads, they’re too complicated, chaotic, and costly. I might pay for streaming high-resolution audio, if the content and convenience are there. More than one computer guru has said that digital subscriptions are the future. Who wants to “own” and store physical media? I love Musical Fidelity’s M1SDAC with aptX Bluetooth (see “Sam’s Space” in October), even though my iPhone…

Building Better Beats In an August 21 post to his popular Lefsetz Letter blog, music-industry analyst Bob Lefsetz shared with his readers the great and often surprising joy of listening to music through a good set of headphones, specifically the open-back, planar-magnetic Audeze LCD-2.1 Lefsetz clearly does not mess around: He went straight to the top of the headphone hierarchy. If you’re at all familiar with the exciting world of headphone listening, you’ve heard of Audeze (pronounced odyssey). Since their impressive debut at the 2009 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, the young audio company has drawn from hi-fi critics and enthusiasts the sort of rave reviews typically reserved for the most respected brands. With the LCD-2s, Lefsetz rediscovers his music collection, hears new details in old favorites, and is transported to…

Hoodoo Grooves Whether he’s picking his guitar on one of his irresistible groove tunes, like “Polk Salad Annie,” or gently singing a ballad, like his immortal “Rainy Night in Georgia,” singer, songwriter, and guitar picker Tony Joe White has often seemed possessed by a transcendental magic. Perhaps named for that otherworldly assistance, his latest record, Hoodoo, may have received an extra boost from the supernatural world. The album was recorded in an antebellum mansion White owns in Franklin, Tennessee, site of one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. White, who lives in nearby Leipers Fork, uses the Franklin house as his office and recording studio. No one dares sleep there. “A lot of people . . . like Cadillac, my drummer—he’s pretty superstitious, ol’ Cadillac . . .…

ART DUDLEY “We put music in the souls of our amplifiers. Every amplifier, every tube, every transformer has music in its soul.” Not to be cynical, but I’ve heard, over the years, countless variations on that sentiment. Not to be naïve, but it rang with somewhat-greater-than-usual sincerity when given voice by 45-year-old Richard Wugang—founder, with his late father, of Virginia-based Sophia Electric, Inc. Wugang speaks with similar import of his audio upbringing: of the days he spent helping his engineer father disassemble and study some of the classic audio transformers that came their way, the older man noting in a green ledger the results of their experiments. Years later, after Richard had achieved success as a banker, there came a day when he looked up from his desk to see…

Channel D Seta Model L phono preamplifier New Jersey–based Channel D, best known for its Pure Music and Pure Vinyl programs for Apple computers, also offers a couple of hardware products. Michael Fremer reviewed Channel D’s Seta Model L, a battery-powered, solid-state phono preamplifier, in the August 2010 issue (see http://tinyurl.com/q3w99x9). The basic Seta L costs $37991 and includes balanced and single-ended inputs, balanced unequalized outputs, switchable gain, and a built-in power supply based on rechargeable batteries. A $1199 option adds RIAA correction for both balanced and single-ended outputs. Michael was impressed by what he heard from the Channel D preamp: “[T]he Model L is a quiet, remarkably neutral-sounding, extremely well-built phono preamplifier capable of excellent low-level resolution. . . . Recordings made using the Seta Model L’s RIAA-equalized outputs…

ANY CLOD CAN HAVE THE FACTS; HAVING OPINIONS IS AN ART THIS ISSUE: Arcam, Channel D, Constellation, Fehlauer, Musical Surroundings, Simaudio Moon, and Sophia Electric respond to our coverage of their products. Musical Surroundings Editor: I always look forward to the October “Recommended Components” issue and just received my October 2013 copy. I need to apologize to Jon Iverson for misspelling his name in quoting his review of the Aesthetix Romulus tube DAC/CD player in our advertisement in that same issue. Another apology is to Stereophile, John Atkinson, and Stephen Mejias for failing to read the part of their e-mail that stated, “We don’t allow reviews to be quoted in Stereophile until the issue that follows the one in which the review is published.” As a longtime advertiser, we always…

FEEDBACK TO THE EDITOR The enjoyable middle Editor: I totally enjoyed and agree with Sam Tellig’s praise for Bluetooth in Stereophile (“Sam’s Space,” October 2013). I recently tried to point out to my local audiophile group that it is now possible, by connecting your computer to your audio system, to listen to practically any recording ever made, in perfectly listenable sound, for a very modest subscription fee. But nobody cared. What jerks! I think it must be a matter of age and perspective. I started listening to music on a portable phonograph in my dorm room in 1955, and everything since then has been an amazing improvement. But now most folks are perfectly happy with earbuds, a small group of affluent audiophiles turn up their noses at anything costing less…

A Question of Balance The quest for vinyl quiet seems, at best, quixotic. By “vinyl quiet” I don’t mean “quiet vinyl,” which we now reliably get from pressing plants like QRP, RTI, Pallas, and a few others. I’m referring to makes of phono preamplifiers who set as a primary design goal electronic “quiet,” ie, an absence or minimum of electronic noise. A stylus coursing through the groove of even the quietest LP still produces a considerable amount of noise. If you’ve ever made a digital file from an LP using an analog-to-digital converter equipped with a level meter, you know what I’m talking about. Yet despite what such meters display, practically speaking, to the ears, a clean LP in good condition is quiet when first amplified, even by a multi-tubed…

All the Amp You Need? Lindell Audio, a Swedish professional-audio company, was founded in 2010 by recording engineer Tobias Lindell, and claims to offer equipment “by engineers, for engineers.” Tobias Lindell specifies the features and functions that he wants each product to incorporate; the actual circuit designs are by others. Although Lindell’s corporate headquarters are in Sweden, the products are manufactured in China, and are competitively priced. Lindell makes rack-mount and “lunchbox” compressors, limiters, and microphone preamplifiers. They also make a 32-bit/192kHz digital-to-analog converter, as well as a power amplifier intended to drive passive monitoring loudspeakers such as Yamaha’s NS-10 and ProAc’s Studio 100. I became aware of Lindell Audio when I saw a photograph of their handsome AMPX dual-mono, class-A–only power amplifier in an e-newsletter from New York City…

JOHN ATKINSON With the help of 20:20 hindsight, it looks as if I made a decision when I joined Stereophile: to review a loudspeaker from Wilson Audio Specialties every 11 years. In June 1991, I reported on Wilson’s WATT 3/Puppy 2 combination (see www.stereophile.com/content/wilson-watt-series-3-puppy-2-loudspeaker), which cost $12,400/pair in an automotive gloss-paint finish. This was followed in July 2002 by my review of the Wilson Sophia ($11,700/pair; www.stereo phile.com/floorloudspeakers/619/index.html). And now, in December 2013, I am writing about the Wilson Alexia, which costs a not-inconsiderable $48,500/pair. I first heard the Alexia at the 2012 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, but didn’t decide that I needed to get a pair into my listening room until the following January, when, at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show, I heard a pair of them driven by…

BRIAN DAMKROGER A reader once noted that I tend to stick with the same reference gear longer than most reviewers. In addition to Audience’s Au24e interconnect, I’ve been using Nordost’s Valhalla, Nirvana’s S-X, and Stereovox’s SEI-600II for many years. They’re ancient in audiophile terms, and, other than the Audience cables, have long since been discontinued or replaced. However, they are still excellent, and conveniently define a continuum of qualities that I use to assess cables. At one end, the Nordost Valhalla is sharply focused and excels at reproducing transients. At the other end, the Nirvana S-X strips away electronic grunge, and beautifully conveys the continuity of the space and musical flow. The Au24e and Stereovox are near the middle and share many—but not all—of the others’ strengths. A recent e-mail…

At a time when CD players have morphed into all-purpose digital source/preamplifiers, it seemed anachronistic for San Francisco–based Parasound to introduce a CD player3 in 2013 that was nothing but a CD player.3 However, the Halo CD 1 ($4500) is more than it seems. Its CDROM drive spins CDs at four times the usual speed, controlled by software from Holm Acoustics, so that every bit is read at least twice before being sent to a large RAM buffer. Playback is thus from memory, not directly from the spinning disc. John Marks reviewed the Halo CD 1 in June 2013: “It didn’t take too much listening for me to conclude that, for playing regular CDs, the Parasound CD 1 was quite similar in essential sound to Bricasti’s justly fêted M1 DAC…

Boxes In New York City, the birthplace of peace and quiet, the phrase close quarters takes on new meaning. To really connect with the greatest city on the planet, you have to descend to the clattering, hygienic depths of the New York City subway system, and there, amid the primal funk, standing in the doorway of a No.2 train hurtling beneath Manhattan, I recently realized that my fellow travelers were all connected to their device of choice via telltale headphone lines. While digital downloads, most unfortunately of the lo-rez variety, have changed the world of music forever, another, earlier world refuses to go quietly into any good night. There, across the subway car, wrestling with an uncooperative dust jacket, stood a man reading an actual paper-and-glue book. Physical media—eg, books,…

AUDIO NEWS & VIEWS UK: GLASGOW AND THE ORKNEY ISLANDS Paul Messenger According to a press release from Linn Products’ recently appointed PR company, 2013 is the year that the Sondek LP12 turntable reaches the illustrious age of 40—a sobering thought that reminds me that I have been in this business nearly as long. To celebrate the occasion, Linn—with some help from Highland Park, an ancient whisky distillery in Scotland’s Orkney Islands—has come up with an Anniversary Limited Edition of the LP12. The link between the companies is that the plinth of this limited edition is made from casks of Spanish oak previously used to store and age Highland Park’s single-malt whiskies. Arguably the best news is that each package comes complete with an attractively presented bottle of 40-year-old Highland…

Old Tricks for New Dogs Memory mitigates adversity.—Lucius Lactantius (ca 240–ca 320 AD) Pity the aging perfectionist, the happy diversions of whose younger days—washing records, oiling turntables, leveling equipment racks, cleaning tube pins—have now become hated chores. And this from a man who used to redo his Roksan Xerxes setup every few months, just for “fun.” Sad irony, then, that an interest in mono LPs and shellacs came upon me so late in life, for it is a field in which the experts, among whose number I count God, would have me use different stylus profiles, different tonearm setups, different step-up transformers, and different playback-equalization curves when playing different mono records. I endure in doing the first three, because those things are necessary to both my enjoyment of music and…

2013 PRODUCTS OF THE YEAR AWARDS It’s time to celebrate another memorable year in high-end audio. Each December since 1992, Stereophile has named a few special components its Products of the Year. These are components that not only define the present audio landscape, but that we hope will someday be seen as classics—things you’ll want to pass on to future generations of audiophiles and music lovers. This year, we’ve awarded components in five primary categories: Loudspeakers (including subwoofers), Analog Components (turntables, tonearms, phono cartridges, phono preamps, phono accessories), Digital Components (transports, processors, music servers, disc players, DACs), Amplification Components (preamplifiers, power amplifiers, integrateds), and Accessories (all those extras that keep us busy and satisfied). Our two favorite and most important categories are Budget Component of the Year and Overall Component…

BRIAN DAMKROGER When I reviewed Simaudio’s Moon Evolution 880M monoblock amplifier for the June 2013 issue, I communicated via phone and e-mail with the company’s VP of marketing, Lionel Goodfield. When the topic of hearing the 880Ms at their best came up, I could almost imagine him shrugging as he said, “Just use it with the most transparent, revealing preamp you can find.” Not surprisingly, he then went on to say that Simaudio’s own Moon Evolution 850P would serve nicely in that role. My cynical side might normally have discounted any such suggestion from a marketing man, but I’d been hearing the same sort of thing from other sources. And, as it happened, there was an 850P at Stereophile World Headquarters . . . Love at First Sight When it…

Like many audiophiles of a certain age, I first became aware of the Norwegian company Electrocompaniet when I read a follow-up review of “The Two-Channel Audio Power Amplifier” in Vol.1 No.4 of The Audio Critic, cover-dated July/August/September 1977. “Okay, audio freaks, eat your hearts out. Here’s what we think is the world’s best-sounding power amplifier,” Peter Aczel had written of this 25Wpc amplifier in his original review in 1976. Electrocompaniet was founded 40 years ago, in 1973, by Per Abrahamsen, initially to distribute cheap Bulgarian speakers in Norway and to manufacture publicaddress electronics. The design of its first hi-fi amplifier, introduced in the mid-1970s, was heavily influenced by the thinking of Finnish engineer Matti Otala, then an up-and-coming superstar in the world of audio engineers, and was described in a…

CLASSICAL ROCK / POP JAZZ Deadlines and the Dead don’t mix. Let me explain . . . Back when I was a cub reporter, green as ivy, I was, in retrospect, suckered into volunteering to review a Grateful Dead concert. I dutifully drove to the venue for the 8pm show, abstained from intoxicating substances, and was on track—until I realized that, after two hours, the band was still on just the third song. Jerry was deep into an epic, 2000-bar solo that was gaining rather than losing momentum. In Deadspeak, it was one of those nights. A dash to a pay phone (a pay what?) triggered a full-blown anxiety attack as my crew-cut, old-school editor confirmed that, no matter what the hell this band was doing onstage, I had to…