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TAVES Day 2
I'm a great admirer of Quad electrostatics, but I've been generally disappointed with their sound at audio shows. I don' know why. Maybe it's the large spaces the speakers are usually being asked to fill, or maybe the setups haven't been optimized—and, as a former owner of original Quads, I can tell you that they're finicky to set up. Also, they're always demoed with Quad electronics and, going back to my experience with the Quad 405 amp, I'm not convinced that their amps are as good as their speakers.
Whatever the reason for the Quads' unimpressive performance at shows, Toronto Quad dealer Altronics Stereo 2000 had somehow licked the problem at TAVES. The speakers were actually set up in quite a large room, open to adjoining spaces, so the speakers' job was not an easy one. And yet, the pair of Quad Reference 2905s sounded terrific, playing loud enough not to sound wimpy, and having that clarity and transparency that Quads are known for. The amps were Quad QMP monoblocks (260W)—descendents of the 405, but sounding nothing like the 405 that I remember.
The Elipson Music Center is a "lifestyle" product; the $2500 package includes a CD player/preamp/amp combo and a pair of spherical speakers that use coaxial drivers. It actually sounded pretty good, but what intrigued me was that the importer of this lifestyle product also imports the Phy-HP driver ($1300, see below), an esoteric item with a cult following that's about as un-lifestyle-oriented as they come.
Toronto-area McIntosh dealer Audio Excellence brought to the show a system that they thought would be a good match to their demo space, including a pair of 1.2kW monoblocks ($24,200/pair). Adrian Low of Audio Excellence admitted that this turned out to be overkill in the small room they had, but he said he might have brought these big amps even if he had known how small the room was, because "people want to see and hear the big amps."
Monitor Audio has a new subwoofer/satellite system they call MASS (Monitor Audio Subwoofer Satellite, $1200) that utilizes the C-CAM (ceramic coating) cone technology of their larger speakers. The subwoofer uses a 10" active and a 10" passive driver driven by a 220W amplifier, the five satellites having a 1" tweeter and 4" midrange driver. The satellite that serves as center channel has the same drivers as the front and rear speakers, but it's voiced differently to take into account its positioning in the system One of the satellites is shown here by Monitor Audio's Jeff Ginn.
Canadian loudspeaker manufacturer Paradigm is celebrating its 30th anniversary with—what else?—new speakers! The floor-standing Tribute ($6598/pair, $3299 each) has some new, patented technology, including a corrugated surround for the woofer—see below.
Reference 3A's Tash Goka is a true audiophile: no matter how good the sound of his Reference 3A speakers, he can't help tweaking and tinkering with the design to make the sound even better. The latest version of his Grand Veena is now the Grand Veena B. The B stands for Beryllium, which is now used in the tweeter. The speakers also incorporate the Surreal Acoustic Lens diffusion device that I mentioned in my 2012 CES show report. Despite the various improvements—and Beryllium is not cheap—the price for the Grand Veena B remains $8000/pair.
Source : stereophile[dot]com
TAVES Day 1
They got it right by selecting the King Edward Hotel, a luxury hotel in downtown Toronto, with many restaurants nearby, and also close to theaters. All right, so parking is expensive, but the King Edward is steps from the subway, so it's easily accessible by public transit.
And if you think that the King Edward just looks classy from the outside, have a look at the inside.
I got to the show shortly after the 11 o'clock opening, and already there was a considerable lineup of members of the media. I had pre-registered, so getting a badge did not take long.
If you had a problem finding the location of an exhibitor or where a seminar was being held, Gigi Dalka, Maggie Waymark, and Sarah Ferguson (left to right) at the TAVES Information Desk were ready to help you.
One of the rooms I was most eager to visit was Bryston's. At the last Montreal show (SSI 2012), Bryston introduced their first entry into the loudspeaker market: the Model T, designed by James Tanner, Bryston's VP Sales and Marketing, with help from driver manufacturer Axiom Audio. The speaker was on passive display, Tanner saying that he was still tweaking the design of the drivers. The advance publicity for TAVES 2012 was that the Model T would be demonstrated at the show.
Whenever I hear about a manufacturer of one kind of audio product, eg, electronics, introducing a very different kind of audio product, eg, a loudspeaker, I tend to have my doubts about the viability of the enterprise—it makes me think of the saying about the cobbler sticking to his last. But I know Bryston to be a conservative manufacturer—not in the political sense, but in the sense of not rushing into something in an impulsive way—and I know that Tanner has been in this game for a long time, and that he's a good listener.
The Model T that I heard at TAVES 2012 was very impressive indeed, with startling high-level dynamics (claimed maximum SPL is 118dB SPL at 1 meter, and I believe it), and powerful bass. The Model T is actually available in three versions: one with internal passive crossover ($6495/pair), the Model T signature with external passive crossover ($7495/pair), and a version with active crossover ($9495/pair), which was the one being demonstrated.
Bryston's Model T is the flagship of an entire line of speakers. There's a very serious-looking center channel (pictured), a smaller stand-mounted speaker called the Model T Mini ($2,550) and some wall-mounted speakers.
TAVES 2012 is billed as being "presented by" Porsche. What does this luxury sports car have to do with audio? Well, apart from being the kind of product that most audiophiles would love to own if they could afford it—and, of course, some can afford it, and do own it—the Porsche 911S on display at the show had a $20k Burmester sound system, the total price of the package being to $141k. I had earlier suggested to show organizer Suave Kajko that it would be a nice bit of PR on Porsche's part to offer a free week-long loan of the 911S to all audio/video journalists covering the show. He said he's get back to me on this, but he never did. One of the few lapses in what was an otherwise well-organized show. :-)
I was amused by the sonic choices offered by the Porsche's Burmester sound system: Smooth CD, Surround CD, Live CD, and Sound Conditioner, which gives you "music playback with strong physical presence." The CD track being played when I sat in the car was "My Own Happiness," by X-Dream, which I positively hated, but the sound as such was very good.
Nordost offered discounted prices on their cables and other accessories, one of which was a product I haven't seen before: the Qv2 "AC Line Harmonizer," part of the QRT line. You plug it in to a spare AC socket, (two or more are recommended), and the result is said to be improved sound and picture quality. The list price is $350, with a "show special" price of $300.
You want pick up some used classical records, cheap? One of the booths at TAVES had them at $5 ("other genres" was $15). And if you can't quite read the writing on the sign in the picture, the upcoming Toronto Downtown Record Show is on Sunday, November 11, 2012, 11am to 4pm, 958 Broadview Avenue.
The Ontario Vintage Radio Association, represented at TAVES by Roger Jones (left) and Simon Claughton (right), is a club for collectors and enthusiasts of antique radio and wireless equipment." In an age where "wireless" refers to networks, speakers, subwoofers, and headphones, I get a particular kind of satisfaction from considering the fact that "wireless" was around a long time before any of these modern devices, and I have a great deal of admiration for the folks that help us maintain a sense of the history of electronic equipment that we take for granted.
Source : stereophile[dot]com
Hotel Transylvania (2012)
Watch Trailer Cast: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, David Spade, Cee Lo Green, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, Andy Samberg
Director: Genndy Tartakovsky
Rating: PG
Running Time: 91 min.
Synopsis: Samurai Jack's Genndy Tartakovsky directs this animated tale concerning a hotel where monsters such as Dracula (Adam Sandler), Quasimodo (David Spade), Frankenstein (Kevin James), and his bride (Fran Drescher), along with a host of others, head to relax from a world full of humans. When a young man (Andy Samberg) stumbles onto the resort and falls for Drac's teenage daughter, comedy hijinks ensue. Cee Lo Green, Steve Buscemi, and Molly Shannon co-star.
Source : mrqe[dot]com
Can You visYoualize Yourself Wearing Denon Headphones?
With their Music Maniac line, Denon targets listeners completely obsessed with music and willing to put down the dough to reflect their commitment—essentially, the audiophile. Their product literature shows a middle-aged man, handsome (an audiophile?), and with time on his hands to dive into his collection. He listens to his over-ear Music Maniac Artisan AH-D7100 ($1,199) plugged into a Denon receiver while lounging. A cool breeze blows back his curtains. He could be at his beach house in the Bahamas or just taking a break at home. Either way, in this moment it is just him and his music.
The Denon Music Maniac Artisan
The Artisan rocks a patent-pending 50mm “Free Edge Nano Fiber Driver”. This technology circumvents permanently affixing the driver to the baffle by fixing the headphone’s driver to a polypropylene rubber surround first, which is then fixed to the baffle. The ultra-rigid nano-fiber driver, an improvement on their previous micro-fiber driver, is given room to breathe behind itself with the space provided by the rubber surround. With the Free Edge Nano Fiber Driver technology, Denon promises “the high performance sound of a box speaker in such a small form factor, expanding the frequency range to lower levels while reducing distortion.” The Artisan model features hand-carved African mahogany ear cups that rotate a full 360 degrees on a ball & socket design allowing the ear cups to rest comfortably at whatever angle fits the listener’s bone structure the best. Per the specifications, the Artisan has a 110db sensitivity, 5—45k frequency response, and 25ohm impedance.
Also in the Music Maniac line is the more “affordable” over-ear AH-D600 ($499) which has a lower sensitivity at 108db and 25ohm impedance. It also uses the 50mm Free Edge Nano Fiber Driver technologyand a patent-pending pentagonal earpad design. The reasons for the price difference between the $499 AH-D600 and the more than twice as costly Artisan model include:
- Hand-carved African mahogany wood ear cups which are not featured on the AH-D600s
- The 99.9999999% oxygen-free 10-foot long cable that comes with the Artisan is measured to spec unlike the AH-D600s 10-footer which is not measured to spec and only states itself as “oxygen-free”
- The Artisan model comes with an aluminum stand to hold your cans; the D600s do not.
The dual balanced armature based Music Maniac AH-C400 in-ears are housed in shiny and stiff Zinc Die-Cast housing. Like the two on-ear Music Maniac designs, it features an iPhone/iPod microphone and control. I listened to the AH-C400s at a September press event, and despite the loud surroundings, I could still tell this pre-production model sounded sick. I found their sound similar to the in-ear UE900s ($399.99). D&M Headphone Category Manager Petro Shimonishi informed me the AH-C400’s designer was actually listening to some Ultimate Ears while designing the AH-C400s. While similarities existed in their up-front and clear projection and palpable but uncolored midrange, the Denons offered more air and sense of recording space height while the UEs opted for depth within the sounds. The UE900s’ high end was more smoothly resolved compared to the Denon’s crisper high-end extension. This could lead one to consider the UEs highs a touch blunted compared to the Denon’s, but the Denon’s also came along with a slightly harsh treble.
The Denon Globe Cruiser: elegance and culture can be bought for $499.
The Globe Cruiser line positioned towards business travelers and others constantly on-the-go includes the on-ear noise-cancelling AH-NCW500 ($499) and the in-ear noise isolating AH-W200 ($179). The AH-NCW500 offers sophisticated style. It reminds me of an old leather couch, worn down by rears over the years. If personified, the Globe Cruiser is refined and experienced and prefers Caetano Veloso to Cream. His life is stressful, but his music is relaxing, like his old leather couch.
The on-ear Globe Cruiser models use a Bluetooth connection exclusively over the apt-X codec and claim CD quality audio over a wireless connection. Ballsy, like the Global Cruiser himself.
This guy is an asshole.
The Globe Cruiser on-ears integrate microphones into the headpiece and one can control incoming calls, volume, and music playback via the pinwheel on one side of the earcup. When testing these out for a short period, I listened via Bluetooth connection to some of Feist’s Let it Die, a modern audiophile classic. Through the Globe Cruiser on-ears, the guitars sounded relaxed and surrounded by air. When connected via Bluetooth, one does not control the volume of playback from one’s phone but instead on the built-in integrated amp within the headphone. The amp volume is turned up or down by rotating the wheel on the right ear cup forwards or backwards. If the battery on the integrated amp runs out (it’s supposed to last for 10 hours), the headphones can run in passive mode via 3.5mm connection. The on-ear Globe Cruisers are designed to fold flat for storage and run on a rechargeable battery. The two models of the Globe Cruiser, the AH-NCW500BK/Black and 500SR/Silver, retail for $499.
For those who prefer to travel light, Denon also offers the AH-W200 Globe Cruiser in-ears for $179. Featuring an adjustable neckband, these in-ears wrap behind your neck, and their lightweight look and feel more truly match the nature of someone constantly on the move. The in-ears also utilitize a Bluetooth 3.0 wireless connection and a 5-hour rechargeable battery.
Heaphones from the future…the Denon Exercise Freaks.
The third division in the Denon’s new line of headphones is the Exercise Freak obviously made for people who need their jams while running or lifting. Unlike the penny-loafer feel of the Global Cruiser, the Exercise Freak is more like an Adidas sandal: bouncy, rubbery, and colorful. Available in tarmac black, pool-water blue, or a finish-line yellow, the Exercise Freak AH-W150s are sweat-proof and use a reflective band on the neck to make yourself visible while running at night. Each color retails for $149. Be careful though, the Exercise Freaks cannot run without Bluetooth connectivity i.e. it does not come with/allow connection via a 3.5mm cable. If your playback device does not have Bluetooth connectivity, avoid these.
Finally, we have Denon’s Urban Raver line of headphones, designed specifically for bass-lovers. The over-ear AH-D400s ($399) have an LED ring on the ear cup which glows in Skrillex blue when activated. While charging the headphone’s integrated amp battery, the LED ring pulses in red.
Reminds me of…
Denon specifically states the type of music the Urban Raver is made for: “perfect for bass-heavy Techno, Trance, Drum & Bass tracks.” Listening to Andy C’s Jungle/Dub/Trance remix of Major Lazer’s “Get Free”, the Urban Ravers went incredibly DEEP reproducing the track’s throbbing hoovers and bass blasts with hefty weight and pressure but lacked textural detail in the bass opting for size, depth, and impact in the lower frequencies. Using a 50mm driver and massive cushy earcups, these headphones look as powerful as they promise. The on-ear AH-D400s have a 115db sensitivity, a 5—37k frequency response, and provide 12 hours of Bluetooth playback via a rechargeable battery but also work in passive mode.
The in-ear AH-C300 Urban Ravers use two 11mm drivers mounted in parallel in each earpiece. Each driver uses Denon’s patent-pending Double Air Compression Driver technology. The in-ears retail for $249.
Both the over-ear and in-ear Urban Ravers utilize a built-in control wheel for iPod/iPhone/iPad volume control, phone calls, and playback.
The AH-C300s use a nozzle profile for extended comfort.
Each of the four Denon Headphone lines has a suggested accompanying smartphone app. The Denon Club app for the Urban Raver connects listeners to TuneIn radio, as does the Denon Music app for the Music Maniac series. The Globe Cruiser app connects listeners to their devices travel apps instantly all from one screen. The Exercise Freak’s Denon Sport app uses your phone’s GPS to map and measure the distance and speed of your workouts. All three of these apps allow users to create custom EQ curves and share them with other Denon app users.
But as introduced and then totally ignored for the majority of this article, Denon has also just released another app: their new VisYOUalize yourself app, which allows listeners to connect to their iTunes libraries or to the online Soundcloud catalog, create a three-dimensional image-mapped version of their own face (or a friend’s) based on an uploaded photo, and manipulate the graphics. This 3-D-ified head is fitted with the Denon headphone of your choice and then bobs along with the music. The image’s face is overlaid with different styles of graphic EQs with adjustable color and intensity settings. Watching your disembodied head bob along with the music thing is actually pretty darn creepy. The folks at Denon showed me their renderings with their cats. Definitely cuter. The image at the top is of my dad bouncing along to some Rodrigo y Gabriela.
The new Denon website (http://usa.denon.com/us/headphone) features the same little programmable head game but looks way cooler/more terrifying on a bigger screen. There one can also find out more about the various new Denon headphones.
So which is right for you? Most of the grimey-raver kids I’ve chilled with probably would not spend/have over $400 to spend on headphones and would rather opt for some nitrous unless they DJ professionally or if their daddy gave them the cash, two possible subdivisions of the Urban Raver market. I guess Wall Street bros into the club scene dig trance too. So this headphone’s target expands to everyone who digs the music indicated by Denon (“Techno, Trance, Drum & Bass”) that can also afford it. Maybe they are targeting the Wall Street club bros. $499 is always a lot to pay for headphones, especially if they are targeted to a youth-based music demographic.
The Exercise Freaks are sleek and futuristic and look great for actual exercise freaks, but only offer Bluetooth compatibility. If working out with a chunky iPhone on your hip is a hindrance, think twice before buying these (a hip-attachable case is provided with the Freaks in case you are still interested).
The Music Maniac line is directed obviously at people who love music, a target so large by people who would admit to being part of it, only people with the wallet big enough to show their love will matter, but maybe that’s their intended target to begin with: music lovers with money.
The Globe Cruiser is the most clearly and correctly targeted headphone of the line with a price-point and image both matching their intended target. People constantly travelling for their job most likely earn the disposable income to shell out $500 for some sophisticated ‘phones that match the cultured and confident feel of the Globe Cruisers. I predict success with this line.
One question these clearly targeted and designed products make me ask is does sound even matter to the non-audiophile when deciding their headphone purchase? Consumers hope that purchases are reflections of who we are on the inside, and the headphone, an incredibly personal and often-used tool, should be the ultimate expression of our personalities. This is why there are so many companies jumping into the headphone market. It’s not a competition based on sound. It’s one based on who can connect the clearest to the customer as to how the music one listens to makes them feel as a person. Denon does a great job of having their headphones embody the suggested music and lifestyles with each of these ‘phones, and since they are so specific with their targets, hopefully customers will more easily identify themselves with the ‘phones.
In a recent meeting I had with another headphone manufacturer, one that was selling their luxurious appeal and color options rather than their sound technology, the majority of our conversation was spent discussing “price points” and how that would determine success in the headphone market. While the price point of the Urban Raver lines may be mismatched to its intended target, at least Denon is effectively differentiating their products with a strategy other than using a celebrity (Simon Cowell! Michael Phelps?) or by different color options (mustard yellow cans does not equal good sound). Instead, Denon is targeting people by specific lifestyles and hopefully the consumers will be able to identify themselves with their message.
Source : stereophile[dot]com
Sony SS-AR2 loudspeaker
The '2 The SS-AR2 looks very similar to the SS-AR1, but is 4" shorter, has twin 6.5" aluminum-cone woofers instead of the SS-AR1's 8" units, and has less extended low frequencies: a nominal cutoff of 42 rather than 28Hz. However, the SS-AR2's 1" soft-dome tweeter and the distinctive Scan-Speak 5" midrange drive-unit, with its sliced paper cone, are the same as in the more expensive speaker, as is the strategically braced cabinet construction: panels of Scandinavian birch with a 2"-thick front baffle built up of laminations of Japanese maple.
The woofers are in their own subenclosure, reflex-loaded with a gently flared port 2.5" in diameter and offset on the speaker's rear, just above the terminal panel's single pair of WBT binding posts. The midrange unit is also mounted within its own subenclosure, this loaded with a 2" port at the top of the rear panel. Tuned to a frequency below the midrange unit's passband, this port isn't used to extend the driver's lower-frequency response; instead, as in Wilson Audio designs, it allows the unit to have a greater dynamic range. The woofers and midrange have copper shorting rings on their magnet pole pieces, to reduce distortion. The tweeter's circular array of six neodymium magnets leaves the rear of its diaphragm unobstructed, and its range is claimed to extend to 60kHz. For more details, I refer you to Kal's review of the SS-AR1.
The Designer
The designer of Sony's SS-series models, Yoshiyuki Kaku, visited me last spring to set up the SS-AR2s in my listening room. After he'd pronounced himself satisfied with the review samples' sound, I asked him about loudspeakers in general and the SS-AR2 in particular. (My thanks to Sony's Motoyuki "Yuki" Sugiura for serving as interpreter.)
Kaku-san had originally been assigned to Sony's semiconductor division, but crossed over to the audio division more than 20 years ago. He explained that concertgoing was an important part of his life, and that his goal for the loudspeakers he designs differs somewhat from the standard "high-fidelity" approach. Even before musicians begin a performance, he told me, there is a special atmosphere in the hall as they take the stage—something that makes you excited. He looked at what is required to reproduce that atmosphere through loudspeakers, and found that it was a combination of dynamic-range capability and power linearity, so that the speaker doesn't add noise, coloration, or distortion while sounding the same at both low and high levels.
He also wanted to avoid any character imparted to the sound by the radiation from the speaker cabinet. About 15 years ago, Kaku took a bookshelf speaker with a 5" woofer and a rigid cabinet with walls 32mm thick, and isolated that cabinet by enclosing all surfaces of the speaker, other than the baffle, in a second cabinet. The resonant contributions of the original cabinet thus nullified, the result sounded completely different.
He experimented with many different enclosure materials, including aluminum, but no matter how stable and solid he made a loudspeaker's cabinet, it still produced sound, ie, distortion. The important thing, therefore, would be to control that cabinet-produced sound: If the wood is going to vibrate anyway, choose a wood whose vibrations can be controlled, and are consonant with the music, not dissonant to it. "The sound coming from the cabinet should be as beautiful as possible," he told me.
For the first third of the development period for the SS-AR1 and '2 , Kaku depended entirely on anechoic measurements, first getting the response flat, then selecting the drive-units so that the speaker's behavior remained linear as the sound-pressure level increased—only then could the actual design work begin. After many hours of listening, the choice was made to use Scandinavian birch for the close-tolerance enclosure, and 2"-thick laminated maple for the baffle. The speaker was already a "high fidelity" design before these listening sessions, but this fine tuning was the most important part of the process, "even if it doesn't appear in the measurements."
Maple is a hardwood that has been used for hundreds of years for the bodies of musical instruments, such as the violin. There are many different kinds of maple; the SS-AR speakers are made of Hokkaido maple from Japan's northernmost major island; the wood is harvested in November, when growth is slow and the grain is tight. The result is a wood that is stiff but internally damped—compared, for example, with aluminum, which is stiff but not lossy.
I asked Kaku-san why, if Sony is fully capable of developing its own high-tech drivers—remember their flat APM units from a quarter-century ago—he chose ones made by an outside vendor. He replied that the drive-units custom-made by Scan-Speak for Sony gave him what he wanted in terms of power linearity and ultimate sound quality, and it is the latter that most matters to the customer.
At the end, I asked Yoshiyuki Kaku which sound was most important to him. His answer: "the human voice."
The Sonics
At the spring 2012 shows where I first heard the SS-AR2, I'd been struck by its mellow balance. I had put this down to the large rooms in which it was being demmed—assuming that a loudspeaker with a 1" dome tweeter is to be used in a room of average size, its designer will optimize the top-octave response by balancing the on-axis energy against the restricted dispersion in the same region. In a room much larger than average, the lack of energy in the reverberant field will result in too mellow a balance. But in my own room, which is approximately 26' by 16' by 8', the SS-AR2's balance still sounded sweet, if not actually mellow.
Admittedly, the last two speakers to have resided in my room—the Lansche 5.1, reviewed in July, and the PSB Imagine Mini, reviewed in August—were far from reticent in the top octaves, and this might have affected my expectations. The Sony SS-AR2 is not a speaker for audiophiles who value sizzle for its own sake, but this is not to suggest that it obscured treble detail. The filigree details in Burt Bacharach's sparse arrangement for Dionne Warwick's recording of his "Walk On By," from The Burt Bacharach Collection (Apple Lossless file ripped from CD, Rhino R2 75339), such as the low-level vibes in the verses, were laid out clearly without being spotlit in any way.
And while the Sony's balance was kind to bright recordings—I've been listening a lot recently to 1970s Little Feat bootlegs, which share, along with Lowell George's genius, an overcooked treble—cymbals still sounded like clearly differentiated instruments made of bronze rather than anonymous sources of white noise. The Sony may sound a bit mellow, but it still readily distinguished between the different high-pitched percussion instruments in George Benson's "This Masquerade," which underpin the difference in feel between Benson's funky version on his Breezin' (Apple Lossless file ripped from CD, Warner Bros.) and the Carpenters' white-bread, all-white-notes arrangement on their Now and Then (Apple Lossless file ripped from CD, A&M). Don't get me wrong—I have a huge respect for the Carpenters. Who can hear Karen effortlessly projecting the vocal line of "Goodbye to Love," imperceptibly grabbing breath without disturbing the long, meandering melody, without tearing up? But "This Masquerade" was their nadir.
I don't think I've heard more natural reproduction of female voices in my listening room. The images of Dionne Warwick and Karen Carpenter were palpable. Using Ayre Acoustics' new QA-9 USB A/D converter, I recently ripped, to a 24-bit/192kHz AIFF file, the late Radka Toneef's reading of Jimmy Webb's "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress," from her Fairytales (LP, Odin LP03)—an audiophile favorite of the 1980s. Unlike the PSB Minis, the Sonys didn't emphasize the inevitable clicks and ticks on my much-played copy. Toneef's voice is a reedy, slender thing—she almost whispers the opening line, "See her, how she flies"—but the way she uses grace notes, and points the ends of phrases with vibrato, are masterful. Along with the mono reverb behind the image of her voice, the SS-AR2s laid all of this bare without making the voice sound too slender, too clear. And at the key change after Steve Dobrogosz's piano solo, as Toneef sings "I fell out of his eyes, I fell out of his heart," the way her voice almost breaks with emotion, was superbly uncovered by the Sonys.
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Source : stereophile[dot]com
Breaking News: Erick Lichte's New Live Reference
Lichte's appointment follows a string of prestigious conducting positions that include Artistic Directorship of Cantus, one of only two full-time vocal ensembles in the United States (2000–2009). Lichte's work with Cantus, beautifully captured on several oft-breathtaking CDs engineered by Stereophile editor John Atkinson, earned him the 2009 Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence, the highest honor granted by the professional choral organization Chorus America.
"I initially knew of Chor Leoni by reputation," Lichte told Stereophile shortly before his appointment became public. "They're respected as one of the best if not the best male choirs in North America. I initially got to know them when they sang with Cantus at a summer festival in 2002 and then at an international choir festival in Minnesota."
Once the appointment takes effect, Lichte will rehearse the choir for three hours every week, and lead them in a host of performances in Vancouver and beyond. He will also conduct their frequent appearances on the CBC Radio Canada network.
"People who are into male choral music are definitely aware of this group," says Lichte. "I'm hoping to extend their reach and reputation even further. One of my top priorities is championing some real larger-scale masterpieces for male choir that don't get performed much."
Erick Lichte (right) with composer Edie Hill during the production of Cantus performing her "A Sound Like This" recorded by John Atkinson.
After leaving Cantus, Lichte spent two years in Minneapolis, conducting college choirs, community groups, and Music of the Baroque. In 2011, he and his wife moved to Portland, OR, where he became Associate Conductor of the Oregon Repertory Singers, a "fantastic church choir," and choirs at Portland State University. Lichte relocated in order to help Dr. Ethan Sperry lead a new, fully auditioned men's choir at the university. That choir is now off and running, and, according to Lichte, "creating a new tradition of choral music in the Northwest."
Together with Sperry, Lichte also created the Male Choir Commissioning Consortium. This association of 13 male choirs from North America commissioned a sizable number of new works from distinguished living composers, including Lee Hoiby's "Last Letter Home," featured on Cantus's eponymous 2007 album.
When asked why he devotes so much of his energy to male choirs, Lichte replied, "There is something absolutely magical to me about the sound of a male choir. When you think about how the overtone series works, when a male choir sings, you not only can have all of the bass and that wonderful rich midrange, but also the overtones. To me, the pairing of the rich bottom with what happens in the overtones is such a complete sound. When a male choir locks a chord, it's absolutely stunning."
As he assumes leadership of Chor Leoni, Lichte will step away from his work with the Oregon Repertory Singers and Choirs at Portland State. The decision will allow him to continue to review equipment for Stereophile.
"I'm so excited to be working with a group of this caliber and reputation, and happy to share their music with Stereophile readers," he declares. "Lest anyone think I don't know what live unamplified music sounds like..."
Source : stereophile[dot]com
AudioQuest DragonFly USB D/A converter
Thus spoke AudioQuest's Steve Silberman, VP of development, of their brand-new USB D/A converter, the DragonFly. "There are a lot of very good DACs out there," he continued. "There are even a lot of very good affordable DACs. But the problem is, people outside of audio don't want them: They don't want old-style components like that.
"I know a lot of people who have started and sold companies, who could have anything they want. People who love music. And they don't want what our industry makes. For so long, our industry has dictated to the customer: 'You want to play CDs? You need a CD player, and this is how it has to be.' Same thing with DVDs and lots of other things: The manufacturers and the retailers dictate to the customers. I wanted to make a really high-quality audio product that meets people on their own terms."
The product that Silberman and AudioQuest had in mind was an outboard D/A converter that would sell for the same price as an Apple iPod Classic: a mere $249. The AudioQuest DragonFly measures 2.5" long, weighs three-quarters of an ounce, streams up to 24 bits and 96kHz, and plugs directly into the user's laptop or desktop computer. And it's a heck of a thing.
Description
Ideas in mind, Steve Silberman approached Gordon Rankin, the man who created what many of us regard as high-end audio's first USB D/A converter: the Wavelength Audio Crimson. The Crimson, which went on sale in 2004, wasn't Rankin's only computer-audio first. He also invented the first cross-platform asynchronous USB protocol, which allows the clock in an outboard DAC to override the clock in the datastream coming from the computer—the native frequencies of which are mathematically unrelated to audio sampling rates, to near-catastrophic effect in terms of timing errors, or jitter. Rankin has since licensed that code, given the trade name Streamlength, to a number of well-known manufacturers, and it now resides in the ROMs of many computer-audio components that have received glowing reviews in Stereophile.
The Streamlength software resides on the Texas Instruments TAS1020 controller board inside the DragonFly: one of three chips at the heart of the new converter. Rankin, who designed every aspect of the DragonFly except its connectors and cosmetics, says that AudioQuest expressed admiration for the Wavelength Proton D/A converter ($900; see my review in the October 2011 issue). Thus he began by basing a prototype on the Proton's Wolfson D/A chip. "I got it working," Rankin says, "but, for me, there was something lacking. I asked [AudioQuest] to let me do whatever I wanted, and so I ended up using the 24-bit ESS Sabre DAC." A Burr-Brown headphone amp/line amp, incorporating a 64-step analog volume control, completes the picture.
Rankin seems almost surprised at how well the finished DragonFly turned out—but he adds, with a laugh, "You don't know how much of a pain in the ass it was to get it that small! There are 107 parts inside, including five regulated power supplies." The scale of the thing's innards are typified, Rankin says, by the 1mm microdot LEDs that enable the dragonfly emblem on the DAC's zinc-alloy case to change color in accordance with the sampling rate of the file being played: green for 44.1kHz, blue for 48kHz, amber for 88.2kHz, and magneta for 96kHz. Yet for all that, the DragonFly is made in the USA.
Last but not least, the DragonFly's connectors are the sorts of things one might expect from a maker of perfectionist-quality cables: Its 3.5mm jack and USB plug feature silver-plated contacts. is machined from a compound of copper and beryllium (the latter said to add strength and elasticity), while the USB pins are copper. Both connectors undergo AudioQuest's direct-silver plating.
Installation and Setup
Installing the AudioQuest DragonFly, which is designed to work with the latest versions of Microsoft Windows and Apple OS X, took a little less than 15 minutes. Physical installation consisted simply of plugging the unit's integral USB plug into an available jack on the back of my Apple iMac and fitting the 3.5mm jack at the DragonFly's other end with an appropriate audio cable (about which I'll say more in a moment). Finishing the job was a simple matter of clicking on the Mac's Systems Preferences window (footnote 1), clicking the Sound icon, and then, under the Output tab, selecting "AudioQuest DragonFly," which appeared there as if by magic. (Under the Sound Effects tab I selected Internal Speakers, thus denying myself the pleasure of using a five-figure music system to alert me to every new kitten photo on Facebook.)
I mentioned the DragonFly's 3.5mm output jack, which might pose a challenge to The Unprepared. I still have a mini-plug-to-phono-jack adapter left over from my days as a Sony Walkman Pro owner, but I didn't press it into service. Rather, I accepted the loan, also from AudioQuest, of one of their new single-run Bridges & Falls interconnects. The interconnect cable I borrowed is a 5m run of AudioQuest Yosemite, with a 3.5mm plug of silver-plated "red" copper at one end, a pair of RCA plugs of the same composition at the other end, perfect-surface copper+ conductors, fluoropolymer air-tube dielectrics, and AudioQuest's 72V dielectric bias system: a sophisticated cable by anyone's definition. The retail value of this 5m Yosemite cable—the second-most-expensive in the Bridges & Falls line—is $1395. (I'm cheered by the existence, at the other end of the range, of the Evergreen single-run cable, which would sell for $53 for this configuration and length. I look forward to trying it.)
I've used a few different Mac-based music players in recent months, with still more on my to-do list. My reference remains Decibel v.1.0.2, by Stephen F. Booth Software, but rest assured—there are more than just one or two very good players out there. If you're still using iTunes, you're not getting the performance of which your system is capable, plain and simple.
Footnote 1: My iMac runs OS X 10.6.8.
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Source : stereophile[dot]com
From Ghastly to Gorgeous: Vencel Rebuilds a Koetsu Rosewood
Source : stereophile[dot]com
