Zanden Audio Systems Model 3100 Preamplifier
- Written by: Garrett Hongo
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
After I graduated from college I spent a year in Japan, getting acquainted with the culture of my ancestry, coaching linebackers at Kyoto University (“Get low and explode into your opponent!” I’d shout), and generally having a great time being free, mighty, and 21. Once, on a warm autumn afternoon, I visited Ryoan-ji temple, on the northwestern outskirts of Kyoto, and took my time taking in the simple splendor of its famed rock garden. There were worn crags in puddles of green moss that seemed to float on a granular sea of smooth gray pebbles, those pebbles carefully raked into striations of linear constancy interrupted only by islands of rocks and mosses, around which they swirled in calming, concentric radiations. How like a lagoon dotted with islands! I remember thinking. How like frogs dallying in the pools and eddies of a stream! My mind kept proposing likenesses in this way until, eventually, it ran out of comparisons, and I thought of nothing but the sweet quiet of the composed scene before me, a trompe l’oeil of nothing but itself.
I'd Take a Chance on These Products Right Now
- Written by: Jeff Fritz
- Category: Opinion
It should go without saying that the best way to choose a high-end stereo component is to listen to it. In a store is fine, in your home is better. To know if it’s really right for you, you need to hear it in the context closest to how you will actually use it. You also need to see its features, feel its controls, and closely examine its build quality. Listening to music through a high-end system is, by definition, experiential. You can do tons of research online before making a buying decision, but if you haven’t actually seen, touched, and heard an audio component in a context that’s relevant to you, you lack the most important and necessary information.
YBA Passion PRE550A DAC-Preamplifier
- Written by: Vade Forrester
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
I’ve gotten the general impression that French hi-fi gear sounds sweet, with a tuneful, relaxed, enjoyable character that doesn’t impose itself on the music. So when offered an opportunity to audition YBA’s Passion PRE550A DAC-preamplifier, I eagerly accepted. YBA is a French company founded in 1981 by Yves-Bernard André, whose initials it bears.
Bob Mould: "Patch the Sky"
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Recording of the Month
Merge MRG580
Format: CD
Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: ****
Overall Enjoyment: ****
Bob Mould knows the power of loud guitars. He also knows a lot about melody. His best records, including his first solo album, Workbook (1989), or his music with the band Sugar, combine brute force with a strong pop sensibility. The guitar riffs continue to follow you around after you’ve heard them, but he matches them to songs that are radio friendly, or would be in a more perfect world.
Skogrand Cables Ravel Speaker Cables and Interconnects
- Written by: Tom Mathew
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
Last month I came across a fascinating article in Brain Pickings, a weekly neuroscience newsletter: In “The Psychology of What Makes a Great Story,” writer and blogger extraordinaire Maria Popova shared insights from the eminent Harvard psychologist Jerome Bruner about what makes a great story. I think Bruner’s ideas and Popova’s enriching discussion can be used to understand what makes for a great audio cable.
Comparisons on Paper: Bowers & Wilkins 802 Diamond D3 vs. Magico S5 Mk II
- Written by: Jeff Fritz
- Category: Opinion
Has this happened to you? You go to sleep on Friday night with a potential audio purchase on your mind -- as you drift off, you find yourself comparing two products. Then, the first thing you think of on waking Saturday morning are those two shiny new speakers you were thinking about the night before. The natural thing to do -- after making a cup of coffee -- is to get online and pore over the details of the models you’re enamored with. This exercise is especially common for audiophiles. Yes, we do the same thing with cars, but usually it’s relatively convenient to stop by the dealer to have a look, and maybe take a test drive. For audiophiles, that’s often not feasible -- unless you live in a big city that still has high-end audio dealers inhabiting actual buildings.
Soulution 560 Digital-to-Analog Converter
- Written by: Jeff Fritz
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
In high-end audio, price is always relevant -- except when it isn’t. I’ve waffled so often on this subject that sometimes I’m no longer sure where I stand. A case in point: the Soulution 560 digital-to-analog converter, which retails for $35,000 USD.
On one hand, no DAC should cost $35,000. Taking into account any reasonable ratio of manufacturing cost to retail price, I have a hard time understanding how any DAC maker can justify that sort of price. A super-high-end DAC is maybe 50 pounds’ worth of parts, including a nicely machined and finished case. For that kind of money, you can buy a couple of 200-plus-pound high-tech speakers -- 400 pounds of stuff should cost more than 50 pounds of stuff. After all, both represent high-end stuff. Besides, there are a number of terrific DACs available for less than five grand, and with much of the functionality of the Soulution 560. Wadia Digital’s di322 is a great DAC for $3500 -- precisely one-tenth the Soulution 560’s price.
Various Artists: "God Don't Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson"
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Recording of the Month
Alligator ALCD 4968
Format: CD
Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: ****
Overall Enjoyment: ****
Between 1927 and 1930, Blind Willie Johnson (1902-1947) recorded 30 sides for Columbia Records. In 1993, Columbia/Legacy reissued as The Complete Blind Willie Johnson, on two CDs. Sam Charters wrote the liner notes to the set, and he opens his lengthy essay by telling the reader that one of his most cherished possessions is “a charred bit of wood [that] is the bridge to Willie Johnson’s guitar.”
Synergistic Research Atmosphere Level 4 Speaker Cables and Interconnects, Atmosphere Level 3 Power Cords, Grounding Block and HD Ground Cables
- Written by: Howard Kneller
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
Over the last 18 years, Synergistic Research has introduced five generations of its Active Shielded signal cables, interconnects, and power cords. The company claims that applying a 30V DC bias to the cables’ shield isolates the signal from the dielectric, thus reducing phase and time distortions and improving sound quality.
More recently, Synergistic has applied this active technology to other audio products, including its PowerCell power conditioners, Tranquility Base component platforms, and Atmosphere and Frequency Equalizer (FEQ) room wave generators. In fact, Synergistic is now best known for its ever-broadening implementation of its Active Shielding technology.
Demonstrations No More: The Reality of Buying High-End Gear Today
- Written by: Jeff Fritz
- Category: Opinion
I’d say that, month after month, 90% of the correspondence I receive from readers of SoundStage! Ultra asks, in some way or other, the same question: What should I buy? I’m not alone -- look at the letters addressed to publisher Doug Schneider over on SoundStage! Hi-Fi, or to Hans Wetzel at SoundStage! Access. What amp will drive these speakers? Assuming I can get them at the same price, should I buy component A or component B? Which product will sound better in my room? And so on.
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