Show Report: California Audio Show 2012
Jason Victor Serinus reports live from the show with complete coverage. Included are favorite picks for best sound, lots of photos, and of course, colorful commentary.
darTZeel NHB-458 monoblock amplifier
A recent (unpublished) letter to the editor argued that the reference for audio perfection is the sound of real instruments in a real space. The writer claimed that, since the art and/or science of audio is advancing, and because it is a "scientific truth" that the closer you get to perfection, the less divergence there is components.
Listening #116
This month I am writing about five vintage loudspeakers you should hear before you die. Why vintage? Because the best vintage gear offers an abundance of musically agreeable qualities that are missing from even the best contemporary gear.
Emotiva X-Ref XRT-5.2 loudspeaker
We've all read about how bookstores, appliance stores, and other bricks-and-mortar retailers are suffering with the increasing domination of Internet sales. That got me thinking about audio dealers. I've always believed that one can't really make an informed purchase of audiophile equipment without hearing it in a system properly set up by and at at a serious audio retailer.
PSB Imagine Mini loudspeaker
The first loudspeaker I heard from the Canadian company PSB was the Stratus, an affordably priced ($1400/pair), two-way tower with a soft-dome tweeter and an 8" woofer. The Stratus had benefited from designer Paul Barton's being able to use the anechoic chamber at the Canadian government's National Research Center, in Ottawa.
Meridian Digital Media System (Sooloos)
It's been more than five years since the original Sooloos Music Server hit the market, and four since I reviewed it, in the September 2008 issue. The system became a favorite of mine, and was named Stereophile's Product of the Year for 2008. A lot has changed since then: the hardware, the software, the price, the company's ownership--even the product's name. One question remains: Is it still the best overall music server on the market?
Chesky Goes Binaural
With the release of their first Binaural+ high-resolution downloads, Chesky Records and HDtracks intend to take music lovers one step closer to the real musical event. Made possible by work that composer David Chesky, founder of Chesky Records and cofounder of HDtracks, has been doing at Princeton University with Dr. Edgar Choueiri, Chesky's Binaural+ downloads make possible the playback of binaural recordings on both headphones and a pair of loudspeakers.
Halide Design DAC HD D/A converter
When it comes to getting audio from a PC via its USB port, the buzzword du jour is asynchronous. This cryptic term refers to which device has control over the timing of the audio data being streamed from the computer: the computer itself, or the device receiving the data. It might seem logical to have the computer control the timing, but this is not so.
ADAM Audio Classic Column MK3 loudspeaker
It was three or four years ago, at a CEDIA Expo, that I first happened upon Advanced Dynamic Audio Monitors, aka ADAM Audio. What grabbed me was the array of imposingly high-tech speakers comprising their elite Tensor line.
Rush: Working Men
"We tried to do some work between the legs of . . . "Ummmm . . . that sounds weird." Rock musicians--do they ever think about anything but sex?
Musical Fidelity V-DAC II D/A processor
There's so much uncertainty and confusion surrounding computer audio and high-resolution downloads. Which hi-rez formats will win out? How do you store the downloads you've bought? (Easy. Don't buy them.) How do you access them? Will digital rights management (DRM) cramp your style, or data-storage fees for cloud computing crumple your wallet?
McIntosh Laboratories MC275 power amplifier
McIntosh Laboratories is back in the act with a limited-edition revival of the MC275 tube amplifier, the original of which was produced from May 1961 through July 1973--one of the longest model runs in hi-fi history.
Enzo Natali R.I.P.
I first met Enzo in the early 1980s. While he played an important role is establishing US high-end brands in Europe--his company, Audio Natali, founded in 1959, distributes Audio Research, Krell, Dan D'Agostino, Transparent, VTL, Ayre, Wilson, MartinLogan, and Shunyata in Italy, as well as European brands like Devialet and darTZeel--he was also the consummate gentleman.
The Entry Level #20
It was another flawlessly beautiful spring morning, and I was in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, to help John Atkinson pack up the Lansche Audio 5.1 loudspeakers ($41,000/pair). John had only just completed his listening and bench tests (see his review in the July issue), and was not ready to let go of the lovely Lansches--but the speakers would be picked up by a trucking company that afternoon and sent to our cover photographer, Eric Swanson, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Jadis Eurythmie II loudspeaker
The Jadis Eurythmie speakers ($37,000/pair) arrived in a multitude of oversized boxes. Importer Northstar Leading the Way's Frank Garbie dragged them into our downstairs lobby and broke them open, elevatoring the individual modules up to our door. This happened on one of my office days, but Kathleen pushed me out the door in the morning with a "Don't worry cherie, I can handle it..."
Jadis SE300B monoblock amplifier
I've never written a love story before, but then, there's always a first time. This romance concerns the stunningly anthropomorhic Jadis Eurythmie II (mostly) horn speakers and the petite, jewel-like and vivacious Jadis SE300B amps--a 10W single-ended triode design with paralleled output tubes.
Audio Alchemy DTI•Pro 32 Jitter Filter
With the introduction of Audio Alchemy's Digital Transmission Interface (DTI) more than three years ago, the company created an entirely new category of hi-fi product: the jitter filter. The original DTI was a good start, but didn't always improve the sound of the better-quality digital front-ends.
2012 Recommended Components
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