Innehållsförteckning för Feb-14 från Stereophile

THIS ISSUE: Are people becoming isolated by their love for music? You don’t need me to tell you that listening habits are changing. Although those who predict that the end of our beloved home stereo systems is near1 have more than a little in common with those who predict the imminent destruction of humankind, there’s no question that listening via computers, iPods, and headphones has become the order of the day among a large segment of younger Americans. We’re all familiar with this shift in listening habits. While there’s certainly a plus side—more people than ever are listening to music at all hours of day and night—there’s also a huge public minus. Between cell phones and iWhatevers, it’s no longer easy to pass a slow walker on the street, or…

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. ▪Arizona Wednesday, January 29, 7pm: The Arizona Audio-Video Club will hold its monthly meeting (location TBA) with guest speaker Kavi Alexander, of Water Lily Acoustics. For more info, visit www.azavclub.org, or contact Adam Goldfine at (602) 524-3974 or goldfineam@aol.com. CALIFORNIA ▪Saturday, January 25, 5–8pm: The Los Angeles & Orange County Audio Society will hold its monthly meeting at Southern California’s newest audio dealership, Brian Berdan’s Audio Element (117 E. Union…

Écoute la lumière THIS ISSUE: Artie listens to the light, sips some sauternes, and recommends some recordings. Domestic audio is based on two simple processes: transforming movement into electricity and electricity back into movement. Easy peasy. Audio engineers have been doing those things for ages. Have they improved their craft to the same extent as the people who, over the same period of time, earned their livings making, say, automobiles and pharmaceuticals? I don’t know. But if it were possible to spend an entire day driving a new car from 50 years ago, treating diabetes and erectile dysfunction with the treatments that were available 50 years ago, and listening to 50-year-old records on 50-year-old playback gear, the answer might seem more clear. Actually, I was just kidding about the answer…

OUR EDITORS PICK THEIR MOST Unforgettable Recordings Much as we audiophiles love a good format war—nothing like a dustup over the tactility of vinyl vs the convenience of downloads—not to mention all the ever-evolving gear, the base of this pursuit is still the music. Which is why February is the month least cruel, and time again for our annual “Records To Die For.” The following choices of the venerable—and venerated—staff of this fine mag represent to them the best of their music collections. Variety and whim happily abound. And by revealing what they most like to listen to, our writers tell us who, in some ways, they are. Everyone is encouraged to [ahem] expose himself a little bit by thinking outside the box. Go ahead—confess a devotion to Black Sabbath,…

Analog Source Linn Sondek LP12 turntable with Lingo power supply, Linn Ekos tonearm, Linn Arkiv B phono cartridge. Digital Sources Marantz Reference NA-11S1 media player; Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP universal player; Apple 2.7GHz i7 Mac mini laptop running OS10.7, iTunes 10, Pure Music 1.89, Audirvana Plus 1.5.10, JRiver Media Center 19 for Mac; Benchmark DAC2 HGC, NAD M51 D/A converters; Ayre Acoustics QA-9 & Benchmark ADC1 USB A/D converters. Preamplification Channel D Seta L phono preamplifier, Pass Labs XP-30 line preamplifier. Power Amplifiers Pass Labs XA60.5, MBL Corona C15 (both monoblocks). Loudspeakers Vivid Giya G3, Wilson Audio Specialties Alexia. Cables Digital: DH Labs Silver Sonic, AES/EBU; AudioQuest Coffee, Belkin Gold USB; AudioQuest FireWire 400 (prototype); AudioQuest Diamond, Ethernet. Interconnect: AudioQuest Wild, Kubala-Sosna Elation! (balanced). Speaker: Kubala-Sosna Elation!. AC: Kubala-Sosna Elation!, XLO…

Analog Sources Clearaudio Ovation turntable/tonearm with Talisman V2 cartridge. Digital Sources Benchmark DAC1 HDR; Hewlett-Packard EliteBook laptop running JRiver Media Center 18; Bel Canto Design DAC3.5 VB Mk.II D/A converter & CD2 CD player & VB1 power supply. Preamplification Clearaudio Basic+ phono preamplifier. Power Amplifiers Rogue Audio M-180 monoblocks. Loudspeakers Revel F208. Headphones Sennheiser HD600. Cables USB: Cardas Clear, DH Labs. Digital: Silver Sonic D-110 AES/EBU, Stereovox hdvx coaxial. Interconnect: Sain Line Systems Pure (balanced) & Pure (unbalanced). Speaker: Kimber Kable BiFocal X. AC: Sain Line Systems Reference. Accessories Ready Acoustics room treatments, ASC Tube Traps, Butcher Block audio table. —Erick Lichte…

Analog Sources Garrard 301, Thorens TD 124 turntables; EMT 997, Thomas Schick tonearms; EMT OFD 25 & OFD 65, TSD 15 70th Anniversary pickup heads. Digital Sources Wavelength Proton, AudioQuest DragonFly USB D/A converters; Apple iMac G5 computer running Apple iTunes v.11.0, Decibel v.1.2.11 playback softwares; Sony SCD-777ES SACD/CD player. Preamplification Hommage T2 step-up transformer, Shindo Laboratory Vosne-Romanee & Masseto preamplifiers. Power Amplifiers Shindo Laboratory Corton-Charlemagne & Cortese, Fi 421A. Loudspeakers Altec Valencia. Cables USB: AudioQuest Carbon, Nordost Blue Heaven. Interconnect (single-ended): Audio Note AN-Vx, Shindo Laboratory Silver. Speaker: Auditorium 23. Accessories Box Furniture Company D3S rack under source & amplification components; Keith Monks record-cleaning machine. —Art Dudley…

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 Vendetta Research SCP-2D, Creek Destiny phono stages; Audio Valve Eclipse line stage. Power Amplifier Audio Research Reference 75. Integrated Amplifier Creek Destiny. Loudspeakers Epos M5i & M16i, Dynaudio Excite X12. Cables Interconnect (all MIT): Magnum M3, MI-350 CVTwin Terminator, MI-330SG Terminator. Speaker: Acarian Systems Black Orpheus. AC: manufacturers’ own. Accessories Various by ASC, Bright Star, Celestion, Echo Busters, Salamander Designs, Simply Physics, Sound Anchor, VPI. —Robert J. Reina…

FOLLOW-UP Audience Au24 SE interconnect In my review of Audience’s new Au24 SE interconnect in the December 2013 issue, a miscommunication with Audience’s president, John McDonald, led me to report that their RCA-fitted Au24 interconnect, in either its Au24e or SE configuration, is identical to the corresponding version of Audience’s Low-Z phono cable; and that the High-Z phono cable is the same as Audience’s Au24e speaker cable.1 In fact, the opposite is true: It’s the High-Z phono cable that’s identical to the interconnects, and the Low-Z version, which is what I was sent, that’s made from the speaker cable. The review sample was the right match for my Lyra Titan i cartridge, but the differences I heard between it and a standard Au24e interconnect weren’t solely due to the new…

Tell the Truth Paul Janeway can’t remember the exact moment he turned to the dark side but, laughing heartily at the question, he does know who is responsible. Raised in a Pentecostalleaning church, Janeway is now the lead singer in the Southern soul band St. Paul & the Broken Bones. “You know what’s funny? No one’s asked me this before, so I’ve never had to admit this, but the band that really that got me listening to other stuff was U2. I’m probably gonna get beat up for saying that, but the reason why is because it had a kind of pseudo-Christian thing going in a song like ‘40,’ so my mom wasn’t so anti-U2. What’s hilarious now is that I can’t tell you the last time I listened to…

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. Bringing High End to the young Editor: This one deserves its own news item on the website: www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/audiophilesluring-youngsters-into-boring-conversations-2013110180809. —Alain Rogister alain.rogister@gmail.com Biased reviews? Editor: I enjoyed Robert Deutsch’s review of the PSB Imagine T2 speaker in the November 2013 issue of Stereophile. I honestly did. But two things caught my attention: Mr. Deutsch states that he, like most of us, forms opinions of speaker sound quality based on his impressions formed at the Consumer Electronics Show and regional audio shows. We do? I…

THIS ISSUE: Sam reviews the Stirling Broadcast SB-88 loudspeaker and finds a $24.88 surprise at Walmart. Speakers & Surprises Ifeel for my fat-cat audio friends as they try to choose between Stereophile’s joint loudspeakers of 2013: Wilson Audio Specialties’ Alexandria XLF at $200,000/pair, or the YG Acoustics Sonja 1.3 at $106,800/pair? They have to agonize over making a choice. I’m happy with the DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/93 ($12,000/pair). The Harbeth 30.1 monitor ($5990–$6790/pair, depending on finish). Or the KEF LS50 50th Anniversary Model ($1499.99). The KEF is our 2013 Product of the Year, after all. I ran out and bought a pair. The KEFs are ideally suited to nearfield listening in my squarish listening room. The Orangutan O/93s are fine for our living room, where I listen from about 12’…

Cables, No Cables Last month, I wrote about Light Harmonic’s use of Kickstarter to fund the final production and packaging of their Geek Out portable USB DAC–headphone amplifier. The campaign raised $303,061 from 2146 backers. That success led Light Harmonic to create a new division dedicated to mass-market products: LH Labs. The Geek Out would be its first product. (Pre-orders are still being accepted.) LHL’s second product would be the Geek Pulse, a “pure class-A” desktop integrated amplifier–DAC capable of handling 32-bit/384kHz PCM files, as well as decoding native DSD64 and DSD128 files. That project, too, would be made with the help of a crowdfunding website—this time, Indiegogo.com. The campaign was launched October 28, with a goal of $38,000. As of November 24, with 27 days remaining in their campaign,…

I was alerted to the new VEGA D/A processor from Chinese manufacturer AURALiC by Michael Lavorgna’s rave review for our sister site AudioStream.com in April 2013: “Everything I played through the Auralic Vega was equally wow-inducing. Everything. . . . Music I’ve heard hundreds of times was presented with a crisp, clean, and delicate clarity that was simply uncanny and made things old, new again. . . . Its ability to turn music reproduction into an engaging and thrilling musical experience is simply stunning.”1 That sounded like a DAC I needed to review, but it wasn’t until July that AURALiC co-founder Xuanqian Wang handdelivered a review sample of the VEGA. And it wasn’t until October 2013 that I was able to embark on this review. AURALiC . . . .…

I totally called this one. In 2007, I spent time with Bel Canto Design’s e.One DAC3 D/A processor. In his review of the DAC3 in the November 2007 issue (www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/1107bc/index.html), John Atkinson quoted my comparison of it with the Benchmark DAC1, which I called “the Swiss army knife of audio” and “one of the only future-proof source components you can buy these days.” Sure enough, in 2013, the standalone DAC-preamp has become an integral part of the audiophile world, and no company has led the way to the high-quality DAC/preamp/headphone amp as confidently as has Benchmark Media. I bought my original Benchmark DAC1 ($995) because I was an up-and-coming musician who didn’t have a ton of cash but who knew what high-quality audio was supposed to sound like. I produced…

The road to hell is paved with good inventions: clever ideas that appear, in hindsight, motivated more by a desire to sell clever ideas than to make musically superior products. The DiaLogue tube amplifiers from PrimaLuna have, at their heart, a clever idea of their own: an output circuit that is user-switchable between triode operation, in which the screen grid of a tetrode or pentode power tube is defeated by means of connection to the tube’s anode; and Ultralinear operation, in which the screen grid of a tetrode or pentode carries a portion of the AC music signal, supplied by a tap on the output-transformer primary, in a feedback-like effort to reduce distortion and increase power. Fans of the former often report a sweeter, more tubey sound, while fans of…

I’ve long kept an eye on Michael Creek’s loudspeakers (Epos) and electronics (Creek). He’s always moving forward, with either updates of current designs or a revamp of an entire product line. And though I’ve found that many of his new-product ideas tend to feature evolutionary rather than revolutionary sonic improvements, I’ve found that they always represent excellent sound quality for the dollar in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Of the five Epos speakers I’ve reviewed, I have a soft spot for the M5i bookshelf ($899/pair). Ever since I reviewed it in the February 2011 issue (see www.stereophile.com/content/epos-m5i-loudspeaker), the M5i has been my benchmark for affordable speakers, has served me well in my evaluations of affordable electronics, and is usually the speaker I grab when I want to throw together a system…

Erick Lichte’s review of Benchmark’s DAC2 HGC D/A converter in this issue gave me an ideal opportunity to spill some ink on the company’s ADC1 USB A/D converter. The ADC1 is housed in the same small case as the DAC (one rack unit high, half the rack unit width), and is offered with a black front panel with rack ears, or a silver aluminum panel without ears, either for $1795. The front panel offers, from left to right: a Mode toggle to switch between internal and external clocks; a second toggle to select the sample rate (44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192kHz) for the Main and Auxiliary outputs and to select ADAT or AES/EBU data formats; a third toggle to select the meter range (1dB or 6dB/division) and Peak Hold…

Before anything else, there’s his musicality. No one has ever played the piano like James Carroll Booker III. If the piano is New Orleans’ preeminent musical instrument, then Booker is its most talented virtuoso. A child prodigy who went on the road as part of Little Richard’s band when he was 14, the Ivory Emperor, the Bronze Liberace, Li’l Booker, Little Chopin in Living Color (as he was variously known throughout his life) was breathtakingly gifted. Although he could play blazingly fast, it was his grand gestures and his uncanny ability to drop quotations into a piece—the theme song of the Woody Woodpecker cartoon series inserted into a Chopin Nocturne is a memorable example—that made him such a singular talent. While grounded in stride and New Orleans second-line rhythms, Booker…

AUDIO NEWS & VIEWS SUBMISSIONS: Those promoting audio-related seminars, shows, and meetings should e-mail the when, where, and who to stephen.mejias@sorc.com at least eight weeks before the month of the event. The deadline for the April 2014 issue is January 23, 2014. UK: CHISWICK, WEST LONDON< Paul Messenger In the February 2012 “Industry Update” I wrote about Touraj Moghaddam, a founder (in 1985) of and the engineering know-how behind Roksan Audio. He’d recently decided to leave Roksan to follow his passion for the extreme high end in the form of his new company, Vertere Ltd. Vertere’s first products were its Pulse series of cables. I’ve tried several of these, with excellent results, and they seem to have been well received by other writers around the world. But, however good they…

Phono Tools & Phono Preamps THIS ISSUE: Acoustical Systems’ SMARTractor and Hagerman Audio Lab’s Trumpet Reference phono stage spend some time in Mikey’s system. On analogplanet.com you’ll find coverage of my visit last November to the 10th annual Manila Hi-Fi Show, which took place the weekend of the devastating typhoon Haiyan (Filipinos call it Yolanda). Because the people I met there are such big Stereophile fans, I wanted to be sure to give them a shout-out in this column, too. Despite the weather, which prevented audiophiles living on other islands of the archipelago from flying in for the event, at least 2000 managed to attend. These are passionate, enthusiastic audiophiles—and the high proportion of young people, particularly among the vinyl buyers, was encouraging. The greeting I received throughout the show…

Middle Child Syndrome In 1974, in England, Australian Reverse-Pommy pianist and recording engineer Billy Woodman founded the Acoustic Transducer Co. (ATC) as a maker of loudspeaker drive-units. That makes ATC a few years younger than Spendor (1969) and a few years older than Harbeth (1977). When I mentioned all that to a quick-witted audio buddy, he immediately came back with “Middle Child Syndrome!” It does seem that ATC has gotten less attention in the US than its older and younger British siblings. In an effort to rectify that, ATC is updating their loudspeaker designs and changing their US distribution arrangements. ATC developed the first soft-dome midrange driver, and pioneered self-contained active (ie, powered) speakers. The company remains independently owned, and their products—which include preamplifiers, power and integrated amplifiers, a CD…

II used 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) to examine the Auralic Vega’s measured behavior. I used my 2012-vintage Apple MacBook Pro to examine the processor’s performance via its USB port. All measurements were taken with the Vega’s volume control, which operates in accurate 0.5dB steps, set to its maximum of “100.” Apple’s USB Prober utility identified the Vega as having the Product String “AURALiC USB Audio 2.0” and the Manufacturer String “AURALiC,” and confirmed that the Vega operates in the optimal isochronous asynchronous mode. The Vega’s AES/EBU and S/PDIF inputs successfully locked to datastreams with sample rates up to 192kHz, including TosLink, which is usually restricted to 96kHz. The maximum output voltage was the…

I examined the Benchmark DAC2 HGC’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 DAC2 HGC’s performance via its USB port was tested using my 2012-vintage Apple MacBook Pro. Apple’s USB Prober utility identified the Benchmark as having the Product String “Benchmark DAC2 USB Audio 1.0” or “Benchmark DAC2 USB Audio 2.0,” depending on which mode the DAC2’s USB input had been set to. The Benchmark operated with the preferred isochronous asynchronous protocol in both USB modes. Set to USB1.0, the DAC2 accepted data with sample rates up to 96kHz; set to USB2.0, it also worked with data sampled at 176.4 and 192kHz. As usual, the TosLink input locked to data at sample…

I measured the PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premium’s performance using Stereophile’s loan sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 “As We See It” and www.ap.com). With two choices of output tube, each capable of being operated in Triode (green LED) or Ultralinear (red LED) mode, and with three output-transformer taps available, the DiaLogue Premium offers 12 different ways of being used, and is therefore 12 different amplifiers in one chassis. Because a full characterization of the behavior of each of those 12 amplifiers would have been an incredibly timeconsuming procedure, I concentrated on the PrimaLuna’s performance with KT120 output tubes operated in Triode mode, which was Art Dudley’s preference, repeating some of the measurements in the other 11 operating conditions. Getting the common factors out of the…

I used DRA Labs’ MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Epos Elan 10’s frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 for the nearfield responses. All the measurements were performed with the clothless “audiophile” grille fitted to the front baffle, which gives a smoothly curved contour in the vicinity of the drivers. The Elan 10’s voltage sensitivity is specified as 89dB/2.83V/m; my estimate was very close, at 88.6dB(B)/2.83V/m, which is within the margin of experimental error. The impedance is specified as 4 ohms; my measurement (fig.1) indicates that the Elan 10 drops to that value only in the lower midrange, and that its impedance remains above 6 ohms for most of the audioband. This speaker will be an easy load for the partnering amplifier.…

To examine how the Benchmark ADC1 USB performed on the test bench, 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”). I analyzed the AES/EBU output data in the digital domain, then repeated some measurements using the USB connection and Vinyl Studio running on my MacBook Pro, examining the resultant AIFF files with Adobe Audition’s FFT analyzer. The high specified input impedance of 200k ohms from 20Hz to 20kHz was confirmed by my measurements. The ADC1 preserved absolute polarity, the input XLRs being wired with pin 2 hot. With gain set to “0,” an input of 1kHz at 1V resulted in a digital level of–22.08dBFS, meaning that 12.7V or 24.3dBu would be required for 0dBFS. Switching the…

Arcam A19 Editor: It’s great when a reviewer gets to the essence of a product that we’ve designed, and Stephen Mejias has hit the nail on the head when it comes to the A19 integrated amplifier [January 2013]. We have had a great reaction to this product, which has often been described as a return to our roots and to the iconic A60 amplifier, which launched the company nearly 40 years ago. The biggest differences in real-world performance are often down to the quality of the preamp stages. Reducing noise and distortion in this section has delivered the ability to reproduce the very fine levels of detail that can draw you into the music without calling attention to itself. Many products add a sound-quality signature or artifact that listeners can…