ES 2013 Complete Coverage!!
AudioStream editor Michael Lavorgna reports live from the show in Las Vegas!
Light Harmonic Da Vinci DAC
The Da Vinci DAC has been garnering praise from both reviewers and audiophiles alike after first being exhibited at audiophile shows in 2011. Light Harmonic, a new Sacramento California based company, was launched in 2010 by Larry Ho. The Da Vinci resulted from Larry Ho’s desire to create a DAC that fulfilled his notion of what good digital audio reproduction should sound like.
Q&A with Elliot Mazer
Elliot Mazer's resume reads like a small army of overachievers. Grammy-award-winning Record Producer, Studio Owner, Recording Engineer, Inventor, Professor, and more, Elliot has worked with some of our best-known recording artists including Janis Joplin, Santana, Sinatra, The Who, and most famously Neil Young.
Musical Fidelity V-Link192 USB-S/PDIF Converter
The V-Link192 should appeal to anyone that wants to play up to 24/192 music files from their computer who own a DAC that does not have a USB input. It should also appeal to those people who have a DAC that does not support 192kHz files via USB but does support them via Coax or XLR, and even for those with an older adaptive USB DAC that does not have an asynchronous USB input.
The $99 Schiit Modi USB DAC, a Preview
I'm usually not a fan of the review preview which often times strikes me as simply a means of generating more page views (I'm also not a fan of splitting up reviews into multiple pages when one would suffice) but I will put aside my crusty perspective and say that I just received the Schiit Modi DAC which costs all of $99, hooked it up last night, and am listening to it right now.
Chord Electronics Chordette QuteHD (DSD) DAC
If you know only one thing about Chord Electronics, I'd suggest knowing they do things their own way and that way typically diverges from the main stream. This approach can be seen in any of their products industrial design from amplifiers to preamplifiers to digital to analog converters as they all share a lozenge-shaped outline and a round window for seeing into and emitting light from within.
Download of the Week: David Chesky
Never has a title been more apropos--The New York Rags. David Chesky composed this suite of 18 sumptuous rags performed on a Yamaha DCFX Mark IV Disklavier Pro concert grand piano and as he tells us in the liner notes, "You’re living in New York City … art reflects time and culture. So you take what’s around you and you write.
The Road to Analog-Sounding Digital: Are We There Yet?
You can now read my As We See It, "The Road to Analog-Sounding Digital: Are We There Yet?", in its entirety on Stereophile.
iFi iDAC & iUSBPower
iFi is an outgrowth of Abbington Music Research (AMR) "with trickle-down technology licensed from AMR and aimed primarily at the future, Computer Audio generation". We have two components under review from their Micro line--a USB DAC/Headphone amp and a USB power supply. For a combined price of $500, the iFi pair offers a lot of musical muscle for your money.
2nd Edition
Schiit Audio Modi USB DAC
How low can we go? Schiit Audio has answered this question with the Modi USB DAC coming in under the $100 mark by an entire dollar. While I don't like to focus on price since performance is why we buy audio gear, there's no getting around the fact that the Modi is $99 and that number represents the least expensive DAC to come through AudioStream HQ so far.
The Importance of the New
It seems like every generation feels that their music is the best. Our music is the most original, the most artful, the most meaningful. All this new stuff is just crap or worse, derivative crap, and all of the older stuff is mostly just oldies.
My New Critic's Picks on HDtracks
Lisa Hershfield of HDtracks asked for a new list of 10 Picks from the ever-expanding HDtracks catalog. I happily obliged and you can see them here. My old list, which was replaced by my new list is still near and dear to me so I've reproduced it here for posterity. You'll notice that this list puts sound quality after music quality.
Download of the Week: Patricia Barber
Over the years, I have found Patricia Barber to be an acquired taste. Her latest recording Smash, is for me, my favorite Patricia Barber recording. Her original songs are quite good and somewhat more melodic sounding than some of those found in her previous works. Smash was recorded and mixed by Jim Anderson who has done previous recordings for Patricia Barber including Companion, Modern Cool, and Café Blue.
Bel Canto uLink USB-S/PDIF Converter
The Bel Canto uLink asynchronous USB-S/PDIF Converter works the same as most other like-devices taking the USB output from your computer and turning it into S/PDIF data your DAC can connect to but it adds an interesting wrinkle to the proposition by including a glass ST Fiber output.
Download of the Week: Pet Sounds and a Q&A with Recording Engineer Mark Linett
According to the Discogs database, there have been 76 releases of Pet Sounds. This total includes the original mono LP, numerous LP reissues, the mono CD, a stereo version first mixed for The Pet Sound Sessions engineered and produced by Mark Linett under the supervision of Brian Wilson, a HDCD, a DCC gold disc, a 5.1 surround mix on DVD-A also engineered by Mark Linett, a Mo-Fi SACD from 2012 again engineered by Mark Linett, and the latest stereo/mono CD from 2012 mastered by Mark Linett.
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