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Details: Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews; Created on Wednesday, 15 May 2013 00:00; Written by Uday Reddy

Magnum Dynalab MD 806T If you’re like me, you discover new music through a variety of sources. However, despite the increasing popularity of outlets such as Spotify, Pandora, and YouTube, my main source for new music remains the radio -- FM broadcasts listened to in the car or at home, Internet streams at home and at work -- and I suspect that’s still true for most people. While FM remains limited by the tuner’s proximity to the station, the beauty of Internet streaming is that you can tune into distant stations from all over the world, and also listen to Internet-only broadcasts. While the bit rates (as low as 32kbps) of most stations leave much to be desired, higher-quality streams up to 384kbps are available, and the sound can be reasonably good. More important, Internet Radio exposes you to all sorts of formats and genres.

Although I’d originally purchased my Logitech Transporter in late 2008 as a streaming network music player and DAC ($1999 USD, when last available), I’d largely relegated it to Internet Radio streaming, and continued to use my Wadia 830 CD player as my primary music source for the next two years, due to my preference for the Wadia’s sound. Although the Transporter did later supplant the Wadia, it has since been superseded by my Meitner MA-1 DAC; the Transporter’s primary function is once again that of a tuner. But while the Logitech may no longer be my top-dog digital source, I still love it for its ease of use.

Details: Category: The Vinyl Word; Created on Wednesday, 15 May 2013 00:00; Written by Super User

2012 was a banner year for vinyl sales worldwide; according to Billboard, it marked the fifth straight year of double-digit growth for a format left for dead by the side of the road, or relegated to the basement of aging white men and their high-end audio systems. The format still represented only 1.7% of all music sales, but growth is always preferable to the dustbin of history or someone’s garage. Vinyl’s resurgence can be attributed to a number of factors, including audiophiles, but a new generation of listeners has also emerged: a combination of hipsters and 25- to 35-year-olds who are curious to hear just how good LPs can sound.

The growing popularity of Record Store Day (April 20, 2013), combined with the surge in new releases from all the top recording artists and labels, has put vinyl back on the map -- albeit at much higher prices, as far fewer copies of each title are pressed. Makers of turntables have seen their business rebound, and some are experiencing genuine growth for the first time in decades. Online vinyl retailer Acoustic Sounds celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2013 -- who would have predicted that, in the era of smartphones and MP3s? Apparently, what goes around does come around. It just sounds better at 33.3rpm.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Push the Sky Away

Bad Seed Ltd., limited edition; 180gm LP, bonus 7” single with two extra tracks and album download code

Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: ***1/2
Overall Enjoyment: ****

If Push the Sky Away doesn’t sound quite like the band forgot to take their Abilify -- which pretty much sums up the asylum-like Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! -- there’s good reason for it. The departure of original guitarist Mick Harvey has left Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds to descend deeper into the murk of human existence; and while not as lyrically interesting as their previous recordings, Push the Sky Away successfully swings back and forth between the weary and the intimate to remain interesting throughout. Cave’s conversational and throaty delivery makes you hang on every word of “Higgs Boson Blues,” waiting for the next shoe to drop. If it feels slightly as if you’re walking a tightrope with Walt White, unsure of how it’s all going to go down in the end, it’s a testament to the orchestration and moody undertone.

Details: Category: Monthly Column; Created on Wednesday, 01 May 2013 00:00; Written by Doug Schneider

Best of SSI 2013 Singer Our “Best of” post-show awards began after the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show -- we published the article featuring the best products and systems at that event in this space on February 1. Our next show stop was Salon Son & Image 2013, held March 21-24 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. SSI is considerably smaller than CES, but is still important enough that many companies use it as a launching pad for new products, and most take the time to set up excellent display rooms to showcase their wares. This article highlights my choices for the best products and systems I saw and heard there.

Best products

One of the first products we covered at SSI 2013 was one of my favorites: the Satie loudspeaker from Arteluthe, a brand-new company based in Montreal and headed by Robert Gaboury, who used to be with Gemme Audio. Technically, the Satie is impressive -- a two-way, fully active design with a DSP-based crossover; all the electronics are built into the cabinet. Cosmetically, the Satie is a knockout, with an elegantly shaped cabinet and a superb, high-gloss finish. What surprised me was when Gaboury told me that the cabinets were not built and finished in China, like Gemme Audio’s, but in Montreal. Finally, there’s the price, which I thought very reasonable, based on what the Satie offers: $8000/pair (US or Canadian dollars; the two currencies now trade about equally).

Details: Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews; Created on Wednesday, 01 May 2013 00:00; Written by S. Andrea Sundaram

201305 rel In 2008, when I reviewed Thiel Audio’s SCS4 two-way minimonitor, they also sent along their SS1 subwoofer. While I’d heard 2.1-channel speaker systems before, that was the first time I’d integrated a subwoofer into my own two-channel system. Thanks to an external crossover dedicated to work with the SCS4 main speakers, and adjustment knobs on the sub calibrated in meters, to correspond with the sub’s distance from room boundaries, setup was a breeze. The sonic results were entirely positive, and I decided that I would further experiment with adding a sub to my usual stereo setup sometime in the future. That has taken me longer than anticipated, but I finally got the opportunity.

Many companies produce subwoofers, most of them designed to be part of home-theater systems. REL is different. From the firm’s beginning, in 1990, their subs have been intended, first and foremost, for music. An important part of REL’s philosophy is that the subwoofer should receive exactly the same signal as the main speakers. To that end, they strongly recommend using the sub’s high-level input, which connects to your amplifier’s speaker-level outputs. (Many other manufacturers now omit a high-level input, making their subs impossible to use in some stereo setups.) REL also stays away from digital room correction, relying instead on careful placement of the sub in the room. This, too, runs counter to the practice of most of their high-end competitors, and might be thought unsophisticated by some buyers. On the other hand, if you assume that the purpose of a subwoofer is to fill in the frequencies below those reproduced by the main speakers, instead of compensating for their interactions with the room, it will be playing below the frequency of the strongest room modes, unless the room is very large or the main speakers are very small.

Read more: REL R-328 Subwoofer

Details: Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews; Created on Wednesday, 01 May 2013 00:00; Written by Doug Schneider

JE Audio VM60 The JE Audio VL10.1 preamplifier, which I wrote about in May 2011, was one of the most impressive and surprising products I’ve reviewed in years. What impressed me was the sound: natural, detailed, smooth, and transparent -- a real high-flyer. What surprised me was that it was a tubed design, had a few operational quirks, and is made by a Hong Kong company I’d barely heard of. The odds didn’t seem in the VL10.1’s favor, yet it won my audiophile heart.

Now comes JE’s VM60 mono amp, which sells for $6400 USD per pair. Price-wise, and taking into account the rest of the products in JE’s line, the VM60 can be considered the VL10.1’s companion. But is it as impressive -- and as surprising?

Details: Category: Joseph Taylor's "On Music"; Created on Wednesday, 01 May 2013 00:00; Written by Joseph Taylor

Skydog In the summer of 1971 I was 15, and Atlantic Records released on one of its subsidiary labels, Capricorn Records, The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East. In those days, you found out about records from Rolling Stone or Circus, or you picked up a record because the cover caught your eye, or you heard it on FM. I’d read Rolling Stone’s generally positive review of the group’s previous LP, Idlewild South, but it was the cover photo on their new record that sold me. The band’s gear was piled high in shipping containers against a wall outside, I assumed, the Fillmore, and the band was posed against the tools of their trade. I couldn’t imagine a more exciting life than touring the country to play music.

I picked up the record at a local store and put side 1 on the turntable. I was entranced from the first notes of Willie McTell’s “Statesboro Blues.” I’d heard slide guitar before, but something about Duane Allman’s tone and the way he sustained notes pulled me in. I was gripped by all four sides of the two-LP set. The Allmans played the blues in a way that seemed closer to the source and yet more sophisticated than other rock bands of the era, and their long improvisations never lost focus or purpose. I played the entire record through twice.

Details: Category: SoundStage! UK; Created on Wednesday, 01 May 2013 00:00; Written by Ken Kessler

Ken Kessler SoundStage! UK If you're new to hi-fi, you might not be aware that, from approximately 1985 to 2005, the world was awash with hi-fi shows. With the exception of the summer months, on any weekend you could find a show somewhere in the world. From September to October, there were so many that they overlapped, and you might have to choose between, say, a show in New York and one in Milan (if your travel budget allowed).

An editor once told me that in a given year, at a time when many countries had regional as well as national shows, he was away for 35 weekends. The UK alone had shows in London, Bristol, Brighton, Bolton, and Northern Ireland. It's hard to believe this now, when all but a few of the shows are so scandalously lame, poorly organized, and insufficiently supported as to be not worth attending.

They've gotten so bad that a semi-annual "jumble sale" in the UK, held by the estimable John Howes every February and October, attracts more people for six hours on two Sundays than the alleged London show does for a whole weekend. And yet the latter contains new products displayed by exhibitors who are either importers or manufacturers, in the manner of traditional shows, while John's consists of 150 or so tables filled with second-hand equipment for sale from private individuals. His is easily the more interesting of the two events.