EQUIPMENT REVIEW - Naim DAC digital converter by Alan Sircom and Malcolm Steward

Naim DAC digital converter

Naim Audio never made a DAC, in the same way that it never made a CD player. In other words, it doesn’t bring out a product just to fill a range or even because it’s fashionable to do so. It brings out a product because it can finally add something substantial to the line-up. Which is why Naim Audio has its first DAC.

The development of the DAC shows just how much commitment the company has to its future. This is a product designed to bring out the best in its computer-side sources (such as the HDX hard disk player tested last year, or with a plug in drive, any passing PC or Mac or even the much-loved and
much-under-rated Squeezebox). That it can be used with a CD transport or an existing Naim CD player is almost a secondary consideration.

The DAC itself uses a pair of PCM1704K chips by Burr-Brown, a regular feature in Naim players. But before the data makes it to the DAC itself, the datastream is read into a SHARC DSP that acts as data receiver, filter for out-of-band artefacts and acts as a 40bit, 16x oversampler and a buffer. This is aided by a tin of salmon and a Blackfin DSP chip, which controls both USB and the DAC, and a reclocking gate circuit directly prior to the DAC chip (I’m lying about the tin of salmon). It’s also the first high-end DAC with an Apple Authentication Chip, meaning it will talk to iPods and iPhones.

Cleverly, the DAC makes jitter a thing of the past, without resorting to asynchronous sample-rate conversion. Instead, it references the datastream to one of 10 fixed frequencies and the SHARC chip picks out the right oscillator to clock-lock the signal. If the signal doesn’t fit one of those 10 frequencies, then it falls back on ASRC. Naim did this by hiring a pair of the sharpest-tool-in-the-box mathematicians to write some extremely elegant code.

The key thing to the DAC is its simplicity, inside and out. That being said, the five buttons on the front make it one of the most button-heavy DAC out there. These can work to control the files on a USB thumb drive, or select one of eight S/PDIF and additional USB digital inputs on the rear panel. The DAC’s big feather in its cap (aside from the uniqueness of it being the first DAC from hitherto DAC-deniers Naim) is it can handle recordings at a sample rate of up to 768kHz and at 32bit resolution. Of course, you have to ask whether this makes a difference to mere mortals armed with 44.1kHz, 16bit CD files transferred to computer, but it suggests that Naim’s own music label is going to start moving from big high resolution downloads to really big, really high resolution music downloads soon.

But forget the sort of high-res files that only studio engineers can get a hold of right now. How does it sound with regular music, off regular music CDs? Jolly damn fine, really. It’s immediately obvious and recognisable as an upgrade of the first water. It’s obvious because you listen to something played
perfectly fine without it, play the same thing with the DAC in place and wonder how you could ever live with the sound you had liked or even loved a minute or two before. It’s more three-dimensional, more detailed, more transparent, more musical and most of all more likeable than before. That doesn’t mean they were ‘nice sounding’; play a piece of music that was rough-edged and it sounds
just as rough-edged, but you want to listen to the music more.

A key recording that demonstrates all of the above is ‘Butterfly’ by Jason Mraz. It’s a wry, deliberately syrupy-soul track with some of the most dodgy (and downright rude) sounding lyrics you’ve heard since the 1980s. And on through the DAC, those lyrics stopped sounding like soft-core porn and started sounding like sarcasm. Other tracks were given the same treatment through the DAC. It just gets more out of the music. Whether you flipped between DAC and no-DAC within a single track or spun out whole albums, the difference was clear and hard to live without once heard.

But there’s that other great Naim concept, too – the upgrade path. Adding in a beefy power supply adds a lot more to the performance, although curiously I’d say more in the ‘audiophile’ direction than necessarily the ‘Naimophile’. The upgrade gives even more image space, solidity and separation and could get even the flattest of flat earthers starting to talk about micro-dynamics. The improvement is noticeable and significant, although it must be said so is the hole that added power supply makes in your bank balance. The upgrade doesn’t have to happen at time of purchase and is an easy fit (simply remove the Burndy plug protector and connect in the PSU, the power feed to the DAC remains in use), allowing you to buy a five or even seven grand DAC in stages.

Here’s where it gets a bit twisty. I compared the DAC fed from a Naim HDX and a Naim CDX2 player, in the context of an all-Naim system into Focal loudspeakers at Infidelity, in Hampton Wick. The HDX alone was not as exciting as the CDX2; the HDX+DAC was a lot more dynamic, musical and exciting
than the CDX2, but the CDX2+DAC sounded muddied compared to the HDX on its own. This was true whether or not the DAC was had been through the ‘pimp my power supply’ upgrade. Given the DAC was fine dealing with USB sticks, HDXs and more besides, I suspect this is down to a simple mismatch, probably on the CDX2 side. I don’t think it means ‘not for use with CD’!

My only real grumble about the Naim DAC is that it will spend most of its first year or two being demonstrated in the context of Naim electronics. Nothing wrong with that… except people not in the Naim camp might wrongly think of it as a product for Naim users only. That’s missing the point altogether – think of this as a gateway DAC. You see, the DAC has all the usual attributes of the Naim sound (a very ordered, dynamic and musically-focused presentation) but also comes with the sort of performance aspects that would charm any other brand of audiophile (great stereo, image depth, scale and tonal accuracy). You’d struggle to imagine a guy with a system comprising single-ended triodes and horn speakers signing up for a Naim CD player, but you’d struggle to imagine them not liking the sound of the Naim DAC. Yes, it’s a product that every Naim HDX owner will be salivating over and the queue to hear and buy one among that user-group is growing almost hourly. However, it’s also the DAC that would make non-Naim ‘muggles’ start to think kindly of products like the HDX. Pretty soon, they start using black boxes on a daily basis and begin upping the dosage with an amp, then a power supply or two. That’s the thing about the Naim DAC… it’s addictive.

Sonus Faber Liuto Tower Loudspeakers by Alan Sircom

Sonus Faber Liuto Tower

Sonus faber's Liuto range, the replacement for the popular Domus line, stands between the entry level Toy range (not the best name; they aren't Toys but legitimate loudspeakers in their own right) and the Classic series and the Homage series above that. There are a standmount, a floorstandear and a centre channel in the Liuto series, and the standmount and floorstander area vailable in two finishes.We looked at the wood-finish tower speaker.

Sonus faber is well-known and well respected for its finish, and the company has been very shrewd about the way these ranges are put together. The Toy series is leather-wrapped b,u ta smooth,box or barred black leather. The leather finish on the other ranges is embossed, almost like a Morocco grain. The Liuto series adds natural walnut or black piano gloss finish, the Classic brings lacquer to the party and the Homage series shows what happens when you tell musical instrument makers to make a piano lacquer finish. Each range is beautifully finished in its own right, but if you spend more, you get more. Of all the speakers in the current lines (except, of course, for the Minima Vintage), the Liuto wood speakers look most like classic Sonus fabers.

Everything aboutt his speaker bespeaks class and luxury. The speakers coming in their own covers inside the box, the elegantly laid out kit of parts, the overall fit and finish of even the single set of custom made multy-type speaker terminals... all of this sets the speaker apart from the norm. It's a loudspeaker that your friends will look appreciatively on and comment on how fine (and expensive) it looks.

The Liuto lines are of 'restrained elegance'. Liuto is 'lute' in ltalian and the speaker shares the distinctive lute-shaped panels (ribbed internally for added stiffness and listening pleasure, double entendre entirely intended) of many Sonus faber designs, but its fine proportions and overall fit and finish will make it acceptable in homes where a glossy lacquered cherry or maple finish could look garish. The piano black is refined while the natural walnut finish blends well with furniture that doesn't feature on the cover of Homes & Gardens. The rear outrigger to hold the back set of spikes is the only line-breaker, but event his doesn't ruin the overall look.

The Liuto Tower is a rear ported three-way design, using drive units built to the company's specifications. All three drivers call on a different material specification; the 25mm tweeter is a soft fabric dome, the midrange is a 150 mm polypropylene/textile cone and the 220 mm bass unit is an aluminium/magnesium affair, complete with 'coaxial anti-compressor' or flattened phase plug finished in an elegant golden-brass. Recently, Sonus faber has been using smaller ring radiator tweeters in its models, but the low crossover point on that fast woofer (350Hz) meant the midrange driver reaches its upper limits sooner and the larger 25mm tweeter has to kick in at around 3kHz, a tough call for the smaller tweeter. Sonus faber uses a second-order crossover design, with a claimed accent on time alignment. The result is a loudspeaker with a relatively high sensitivity (89dB suggested)a nominal impedance of eight ohms, and in use it seemed to be delightfully untroubled in flirting with integrateds and power amps of all shapes and sizes. Sonus suggests amps with less than 40W and more than 250W on tap should be avoided and I'd agree with those ratings. This isn't the loudspeaker for flea-powered triode or Tripath amps. The speaker is domestically fr endly, in that it needs a good set-up, but doesn't demand micrometer precision installations. That said, the speakers work best when carefully leveled and it seems padicularly important to get tweeter height uniform. A good trick here is to use the front baffle as guide, as the top plate is gently curved. Where the Liuto towers get demanding is in room size. They need a deceptively large room to come to life, as they seem to need a lot of distance from side walls. Curiously for a rear-ported speaker, distance to the wall behind the speakers is less important (a metre or less is fine) but the Liutos appear to require a good 3m between the speakers and and about 1.5m from the side walls.

There's a reason or two for so much air needed around the speakers.The first is the soundstage lt 's vast and family friendly. T his has the sort of off axis performance usually found in coaxial drive units, meaning the Liuto isn't the sort of speaker that confines you the driver's seat. Get up, walk around, dance, invite friends and family into the Audio Lair...everyone gets the good stereo soundstage. Good imaging and a big soundstage are Sonus faber family traits, but the Liuto shines even by those standards. The Liuto are not your typical Sonus faber loudspeaker in other ways, too. Or at least, they are not your typical current Sonus faber loudspeaker. They have a touch of the old school Sonus about the presentation, in all the right ways. Early model Sonus speakers had a 'how does it do that?' ability with the bass; a grip, drive and depth that made people grow passionate about models like the Elector Amator and the Extrema. That a mini monitor could deliver so much bottom end energy came as something of a shock.

In most cases, once you make a pair of loudspeakers that have useful energy below 40Hz, the size-and cost of the enclosure- rises while the ability to keep time falls. In other words, bottom octave bass demands big, slow and expensive loudspeakers. While the Liuto are not exactly poundstretcher speakers, the speakers overall size in no way suggestst here's alot of tight, deep bass on tap. Even the spec sheet points to 40Hz as the bottom of the frequency response. B ut there's real earth movings tuff going on here; the kind of bass that makes you reach for Dub Syndicate and Leftfield tracks, and even some bad-boy KLF beats. Oh boy – subterranean, gut-churning, powerful, deep, deep bass. The sort of bass that either comes with a health warning, or is a part of a far bigger, more expensives peaker design. Full range? Not quite, but close enough for most people.

This inexorablyle ads to the other big feather in the Liuto's fretboard. The Liuto's bass unleashes the animal in you, and it doesn't disappoint. Out come the sturm und drang albums, Mahler's E ighth, Bach's organ works, BBC Sessions of John Bonham beating merry hell out of a drum kit while the rest of Led Zep try to hold on, Basie's orchestra playing at maximum tightness, maximum energy. The stufft hat's almost a guilty pleasure, because you play it loud and play it to show off your system, even if only to yourself. Pretty soon, you find yourself air guitaring a long to AC/DC and singing to Guns'n'Roses 'Paradise City'. Then you stop and takes tock...this is a Sonus faber you've just spent a few merry hours head banging along with. And Sonus faber speakers are warm and polite, aren't they? Well, that's the point. The Liutos can do warm and polite if you give them warm and polite, or they can play to your animal side. Or both.

Closer analysis (whent he monkey lord is put back in his place) reveals the reason why they do both so well is because the balance is rich and dynamic enough to make delicate sounds charming and make loud sound 'natural' instead of 'raucous'. Note that I said sound natural instead of just natural; put up against a pair of neutral transducers on a par with the Liutos and you'll hear where the bass trades depth for accuracy and where it gets out of line. You'll also probably become more a ware of the Liuto Tower's driver crossover points, because those accurate speakers will possibly have better integration across the board; the Liuto is very good from speaker to speaker, but you can hear better. However, the net result of any such comparison with the notionally 'more accurate transducer' in most cases would be to out it back and rock out with the Liutos. What's truly remarkable about the Sonus faber Liuto Tower is that fun factor never wanes. You'll always want to come back for more and one track will inevitably lead on to the next. lf you want to fill abig room with big sound but don't need a huge speaker, the Liuto is as sound as a pound (but preferably not sterling).

Bauer Audio dps turntable by Art Dudley

Bauer Audio dps turntable

Bookmark and Share By Art Dudley • April, 2010

Although LPs remain, for me, the high-end medium of choice, I'm not terribly interested in today's high-end record players. Most of them, from the 1980s through the present, have been soulless, uninspired, me-too products that utterly fail to communicate the presence, momentum, and punch of recorded music. And in certain ways—expense, complexity, size, cosmetics—some have been, quite simply, ridiculous.
But a relative few have seemed the products of original thinking. And most of those have stood the test of time: The ">Well Tempered Turntable. The Rega Planar 9. The Roksan Xerxes and its descendants. The VPI Scout and its variants (footnote 1).

If only for the originality and sheer quality of its design, I wonder if the dps turntable from Bauer Audio of Munich, Germany—the model name is an initialism for its native-language descriptive, der plattenspieler—might also deserve a place in that select group, far from the overpriced, overstyled, underengineered norm. Near the end of last year, after a mildly agonizing wait, I received a sample of the dps from US distributor Ayre Acoustics and set about learning the answer.

Description
The dps turntable hides a number of surprises under an outwardly simple skin. The bottommost portion—let's call it the plinth—is a precisely cut and polished sheet of aluminum about 0.4" thick. Adding to the mass is a stainless-steel motor housing fastened rigidly in place at the left-front corner; together, it and the plinth weigh a little over 15 lbs.

That aluminum plinth is also home to three shallow PVC cups, on threaded acrylic posts, that the user can raise or lower in order to level the next layer up. All three cups are filled with elastomer buttons, which act as supporting springs for the next layer.

The middle portion of the dps is a laminate of six separate sheets: two layers of a lossy damping material—described as an anti-vibration foil—sandwiched by three relatively thin sheets of Baltic birch plywood, with an even thinner sheet of cork bonded to the underneath of the uppermost surface. The laminations are hidden from view by a serenely pretty hardwood frame, although the layer of cork stands very slightly proud of it, by design. That thin sheet of cork serves to support the dps turntable's uppermost layer: a sheet of shiny black acrylic, beautifully made, and pierced by precisely milled mounting holes for the platter bearing and tonearm, as well as an opening through which the top of the motor pokes.

The acrylic top sheet is fitted with a substantial alloy bearing well, with an inside diameter of 30mm. At the center of the well is a stationary spindle 10mm in diameter, machined from a tungsten alloy, recessed on its top end to receive a 3mm ruby thrust ball. A multi-tiered polymer hub, 25mm in diameter at its largest point, slips over the spindle and contacts the thrust ball, becoming the sole moving part of this inverted, zero-clearance bearing—but there's a twist: The hub also contacts the bottom of the well through a pliant O-ring. That, along with the presence of a viscous silicone oil in the bearing well, creates considerable resistance.
That seems wrong, of course—until you consider the other half of the dps drive system: a three-phase AC synchronous motor with exceptionally high torque. That motor, custom-made for dps and and topped with a well-machined polymer pulley, remains in full-power mode as it works to overcome the constant friction in the platter bearing. In the process, speed stability, as governed by the motor's external power supply, itself becomes both a constant and a fixed element, irrespective of platter inertia. Contrast that to a system in which the power delivered to a synchronous motor is reduced after startup, as the platter and bearing spin more or less freely: From that point forward, the power supply, no matter how cleverly designed, can merely correct rather than maintain the speed.

Looked at another way: The combination of resistive bearing and high-torque motor confers the benefits of a high-mass platter, but without the mass—and thus without the consequent penalty of stored energy. That design innovation allowed designer Willibald Bauer to select light, rigid, and altogether vinyl-like acrylic as his platter material, with all the attendant benefits.

So we accept that the platter bearing and motor of the dps turntable comprise a single element of the design—yet even that falls short of the full truth. The third, equally crucial part is a high-quality power supply for the motor, without which the above would be of little consequence. And this is where Bauer's US distributor, the manufacturer Ayre Acoustics, arrives on the scene. Charles Hansen of Ayre first saw the dps at a show in Frankfurt a number of years ago and was thoroughly impressed, especially with the upmarket version, in which the three-phase AC motor is driven with a custom three-phase power supply. Yet the upmarket power supply adds significantly to the price. So, to allow the dps to be sold in the US for more or less the same price as in Europe, Willi Bauer agreed to let Ayre create a three-phase supply for a North American edition of the dps. Hansen and his team had to start with a clean slate.
That turned out to be a good thing. Ultimately, Ayre developed a pure analog oscillator—a digital supply would have been a snap, but it would have dumped RFI into the system—with three outputs, spaced 120° from one another and amplified by a zero-feedback amp (an Ayre hallmark, after all). And because no motor is perfect, the individual levels for all three sets of windings can be adjusted to match the motor. Neat.

Installation and setup
My review sample of the dps turntable was installed by Willi Bauer, during a time when he and Ayre Acoustics' Steve Silberman were traveling through my area on their way to New York City. But, with respect for the designer's expertise, nothing about the setup of the dps seemed beyond the capabilities of the average hobbyist. In fact, during the review period, I had cause both to change tonearms and to temporarily move the turntable out of the way—and none of that was very hard at all.

That said, the current dps owner's manual covers only the Ayre-built power supply, with no information at all about the turntable itself. Unless and until a more comprehensive manual is published, the buyer should expect his or her dealer to perform all setup chores.

As with so many very good turntables—and a few bad ones—the design of the dps is such that the thing must virtually be assembled in situ. That in itself didn't take long, and the process began with one element I haven't mentioned until now: a thin, pliant, foam-rubber–like mat of the same dimensions as the dps itself, which is spread over the user's equipment support, under the aluminum plinth. The Shindo-green mat—too bad you can't see it in use!—didn't react in any way with the finished surface of my wooden Box Furniture Company rack, and was easy to remove when the time came.

From there, installing the dps was a straightforward matter of: lining up the various strata with one another; leveling the surfaces; adding the viscous oil, thrust ball, and hub to the bearing well; installing the platter and belt; and connecting the power supply to AC socket and turntable alike.

As first installed, my review sample was equipped with Bauer Audio's brand-new dps tonearm, a well-conceived and -made unipivot with a carbon-fiber armtube and a neat trough for oil damping. Given the newness of the Bauer arm and my interest in assessing one component at a time, I soon switched over to my own well-loved Naim Aro tonearm, the use of which can be considered the basis for all the observations that follow. (With Bauer's and Ayre's indulgence, I may report on the dps arm at some other time.) That Willi Bauer also has a great deal of experience with the Naim arm was obvious in a number of ways: The opening for the Naim's mount was located and milled perfectly on the spare acrylic top supplied, and the correct opening—with the correct subminiature screw holes—was made for the Aro's electrical disconnect plug. According to their website, Bauer can even supply a totally Naim-friendly top, the underside of which is milled to accept Naim's onboard Prefix phono stage.

During assembly I noted that literally all of the dps's component parts were apparently very well made. Notwithstanding the small gap between the motor and the acrylic top, all of the layers lined up perfectly with one another. And neither the motor pulley nor the acrylic platter—the latter supplied without a mat, and with a spin-on acrylic record clamp—showed any signs of runout error. The only wrinkle was that, on the coldest and hence driest days here, the acrylic was more than slightly prone to static electricity.
The Ayre power supply was a breeze to use: It didn't hum, it didn't overheat, and it was easy to select between 33.33 and 45rpm; the latter speed simply required me to press and hold the supply's combination pilot light and power switch for longer than two seconds.

Listening
The dps sounded like the most precisely made, brilliantly set-up Linn or Roksan turntable I'd ever heard. Its musical tightness and rightness, in terms of pitches and rhythms alike, were unsurpassed in my experience: If there exists a domestic playback product that can do a better job of nailing those musical essentials, I have yet to hear it.

The dps was also, as far as I could tell, the most completely uncolored turntable I've heard. Similarly, it was among the most spatially amazing source components I've had in my home: Playing stereo records, its ability to suggest depth and the precise layering and positioning of voices and instruments was almost revelatory. (On that count I'll go back on my word, briefly, and say that the combination of dps turntable and dps tonearm was superior, although the German 'table wrung a lot more spatial performance from the musically solid Naim Aro than I'd imagined was there.) On Leonard Cohen's "The Gypsy's Wife," from Recent Songs (Columbia JC 36264), the voice, guitar, bass, and oud were all disembodied from the speakers, yet solid in their own rights. My reference Thorens TD-124, with EMT 997 or Schick tonearm, was just as solid and substantial, but flatter and less spatially detailed. And Howard Hanson and the Eastman-Rochester Symphony Orchestra's recording of Samuel Barber's Capricorn Concerto for Flute, Oboe, Trumpet and Strings (Mercury Living Presence SRI-75049)—the sort of beautifully made LP that sounds fine on almost any player—was more convincing on the dps: great snap, great presence, and, again, extraordinarily good stereo imaging. Flutes, trumpets, and all the string-section voices were there.

Given that superior pitch stability was among the goals specified for the dps's unique bearing design, I made sure to audition a few records with which I'm most sensitive to wow and flutter, particularly Nick Drake's "Time Has Told Me," from the album Five Leaves Left, itself from the Fruit Tree reissue box (Island 006025 17456969). The combination of Drake's rich chord voicings and mildly out-of-tune guitar make for challenging listening, even under the best of playback circumstances; on the dps, that and the other selections on the album were supremely easy to enjoy. Additionally, the instruments and voice had more substance than with my combination of Linn LP12 and Naim Aro—especially, I noticed, regarding Danny Thompson's acoustic bass, which sounded both bigger and woodier on the dps.

Comparing the combination of Bauer dps turntable and Naim Aro with my Thorens TD-124 turntable and EMT 997 arm might be interesting to most listeners, if not germane to the experiences of most audio hobbyists: The point can't be overmade that cartridges that work with one combo often can't function at all with another, making direct comparisons tricky and beset with the need for more than the usual degree of inference. (We can only guess what an Ortofon SPU might sound like with a Naim Aro: The pairing is in fact impossible.) That said, my Thorens setup often sounded fuller and deeper in the bottom two octaves, if occasionally a bit too full. Carl Radle's electric bass line in "Run of the Mill," from George Harrison's All Things Must Pass (Apple STCH 639), sounded pleasantly bigger on the Thorens; on the dps, by contrast, Radle sounded more "in the pocket," leaning against the beat in a more convincing and compelling way. But the hugely deep bass and percussion in "Polly Come Home," from Robert Plant and Alison Krauss's Raising Sand (Rounder 11661), sounded thoroughly better on the Thorens rig: bigger, deeper, scarier. Even subtle low-frequency content, such as the low B with which the double basses of the London Symphony open Peter Maag's recording of Mendelssohn's Overture: The Hebrides (Decca/Speakers Corner SXL 2246), was at times stronger, and thus more musically effective, on the Thorens.

Notwithstanding its lesser whomp, the dps was quite good at getting across timbral color and richness, given records so endowed; in other words, the clean bass of the Bauer Audio turntable didn't translate into lean sound overall. The clarinet that opens Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Deutsche Grammophon/Speakers Corner 253 093, with Luben Yordanoff, violin, Albert Tetard, cello, Claude Desurmont, clarinet, and Daniel Barenboim, piano) sounded, if anything, richer and more complex on the dps. And for whatever reason, the Naim Aro was better with the dps than with the Linn LP12—same cartridge, of course—at keeping clean and poised the intense piano chords that open the work's Vocalise section. And the contribution to the playback made by the dps's superb spatial qualities can't be overstated.
Finally—and of great importance to me these days, having immersed myself in the world of powerful idler-wheel turntables, high-mass tonearms, and low-compliance pickups—let's consider the notion of musical momentum and flow: that feeling of the notes being pulled along purposefully rather than just bunching up between the speakers. In recent years I've come to expect less in that regard from modern players than their vintage counterparts, but I was pleasantly surprised by the dps. It sounded distinctly more involving than my Linn LP12 when used with the very same arm and cartridge, so much so that I wish the dps had a wide enough top plate to mount a proper tonearm (just kidding—sort of) so that I could make a real and fair comparison. But even as it stands, the dps was consistently involving and satisfying, and as far as very recent turntables are concerned, only the VPI Scout is on the same performance level in this regard.

Conclusions
Reviewers do their best work when they keep their minds open and avoid even thinking doctrinaire thoughts. That said, I can't fight the fact that the very best turntables I've used have been the sort that require painstaking setup—and that have a resolutely powerful motor/drive system. For anyone who needed it, here's more evidence.

Other than that, all bets are off: As so often happens in the face of original ideas, certain older notions fall by the wayside. Thanks to the fresh design work of Willi Bauer (and, for that matter, Charlie Hansen), the dps turntable may change your mind about belt drive, acrylic platters, clamps, or any number of other things.

But forget all that: Sound trumps theory and music trumps sound, by which axioms the Bauer Audio dps turntable is a striking, unambiguous success. My lack of enthusiasm for most modern record players has, I'm sorry to say, left me relatively ill equipped to judge the dps on the basis of value. But I'm satisfied that its US price is quite fair compared with what the 'table sells for in Europe, and I'm very much convinced of the quality of its parts and construction. As the English say of new products that seem more than prepared to compete, this should put the cat amongst the pigeons.

An extraordinary product, and fuller than most of ideas and music.

SOLID TECH - Rack of Silence as reviewed by Marshall Nack

SOLID TECH - Rack of Silence as reviewed by Marshall Nack

With this review, Marshall Nack joins Positive Feedback Online as an Associate Editor. Formerly a Senior Editor with The Stereotimes, Marshall brings with him many years of experience in fine audio, and five years of editorial work at ST. We welcome him to the editorial community of PFO!

Note: this article was originally intended as a follow-up to the Rack of Silence review posted on Stereotimes by Greg Petan. (Interested readers who would like to read this prior review can find it at www.stereotimes.com/acc120503.shtm.)

Assembly

The Solid Tech Rack of Silence (ROS) arrived in two surprisingly compact and lightweight packages: a large cardboard tube for the four uprights and a medium, component-sized box for the struts and hardware. Everything was well packed, but I had imagined a full-sized four-shelf rack would arrive in something bigger and heavier. The surprise was that the ROS is shipped as a partially assembled kit. The kit wound up taking my wife and I the better part of an evening to assemble. Maybe we didn't read the instructions as thoroughly as we should have; make sure you do. After the first column you get the idea and it becomes easier, but the instructions were sketchy and that first column wasn't easy. An exploded diagram showing all the parts, their names and how they all fit together would have been helpful.

Warning: ALL PARTS ARE COLOR CODED AND MUST BE ASSEMBLED ACCORDINGLY. Each piece is machined to fit its color-coded mate, and identical looking parts with different colored stickers are not interchangeable.

The ROS Personality
I first moved the von Gaylord Audio CD transport from the Polycrystal shelf where it had been sitting on Combak RFS-65 footers and placed it on the top, heavy-duty shelf of the ROS. Yeah, there were obvious differences. On Dance of the Night Creatures (Mapleshade MS 06032), featuring trombonist Thurman Green in small group jazz combos, the sound became complex and more interesting, also weightier with a darker tonal balance—quite the opposite of lean. When I heard Hamiet Bluiett come in and with his baritone sax solo a minute or two into the first track, uh-huh, there was no doubt—this was sound you could sink your teeth into. The sax itself was bigger and engaged you with enhanced body and presence. Macro dynamics had more authority, but at the same time little events were better defined. Ditto for the drum-kit occupying the deep right corner of the stage and the trombone dead center on track two. The enhanced body was accompanied by lots of little events becoming audible, and together these filled up the soundstage with a thick density of info. I like to think of it as becoming kind of chewy, with all kinds of interesting things going on. Next, I moved the power supply for the von Gaylord Audio pre-amp. Mezzo soprano Anne Sofie Von Otter exhibited much the same metamorphosis on Anne Sofie Von Otter sings Offenbach (DG 289 471 501-2), her body became fuller and warmer, and also more lifelike. The ROS adds a taut kind of flesh throughout the frequency spectrum, not the fatty or overhanging kind. Instruments gain body mass and, logically enough, their images also get bigger. They are stable and don't move about in space, but they are no longer pinpoint. This took a while to get used to, but now I'm certain these bigger, more massive images more closely approximate the genuine thing; after all, there ain't no pinpoint imaging in the real world, is there? On the rare occasions when I have heard actual imaging, it's always been a diffuse kind. After you get used to this, pinpoint imaging seems like a reduction and unrealistic. In both of these selections, one of the biggest changes was a tonal shift to the midrange. Apart from the well-known adage that the music lives in the midrange, this is a welcome thing because most of us have too much treble energy. I dealt with this problem by using a Shakti Online on the power cable to the pre-amp. After the ROS brought it in line, I was able to remove the Shakti and let some of the treble back. I do enjoy removing these various sonic band-aids; if you choose your components wisely they will sound better singing in their unadulterated voice, all else being equal. These effects brought to mind the Shunyata Hydra power conditioner. With its noise suppression and velvety deep black background, the Hydra presents instruments in greater relief and allows low-level information to come to the surface, while giving them more mass. Ditto for the ROS. I have to say there were exceptions. The Electrocompaniet EMC1 UP CD player, used as a transport, was artifact free and midrangy when placed on the ROS. Back on the Polycrystal shelf sitting on its built-in footers, it was not as smooth and not as neutral, but there was greater low-end slam and more treble. All in all, the Electrocompaniet EMC1 UP sounded more enjoyable on the Polycrystal rack. In this case, the component already had a lot of midrange energy; putting it on the ROS enhanced what was already sufficient, and it became too much.

Feet of Silence

The Feet of Silence borrow design elements from both the ROS and the DOS. Like the ROS, the FOS use a stainless steel ball bearing as the point of contact with the component. On the ROS, the ball bearing is secured with a wad of Blutack on the crossbar. On the FOS, the ball bearing is fixed in an aluminum tube with its own damping. And, like the DOS, it has a suspension that needs to be tweaked. The FOS suspensions use rubber 'O' rings in place of metal springs. Depending on the weight of the component to be supported, you reduce or increase the tension on the FOS by adjusting the number of 'O' rings, or use a different gauge 'O' ring. The distribution of the component's weight might dictate more tension under the transformer area of the chassis, for example. You'll know you've achieved the correct suspension when the FOS displaces by 3 to 5 mm as you seat the component on it. Using the FOS on the ROS does another tonal shift back to the frequency extremes, while giving big gains in articulation and focus. The von Gaylord Audio power supply literally opened up with more texture and sparkle when I put FOS under it. Similarly, the CEC TL1X CD transport sounded great on the ROS, but I detected that midrangy cast again and an associated congestion. Putting it on the FOS resulted in a transformation. Like the von Gaylord power supply, it opened up, with gobs more transparency, definition and dynamics, throwing images that floated in 3-D space. When I removed the FOS from under the Lamm L2 pre-amp control chassis, still leaving FOS under the power supply chassis, the sound was looser, more relaxed, more diffuse and, of course, had more midrange. There was more distance between you and the performance. Sometimes this is just what the system needs. I liked to listen to the Lamm L2 both ways. For me right now, I'm liking the enhanced midrange of the ROS without any FOS. Note: the Lamm's two chassis weigh in under 20 Lbs each and may not have been heavy enough to distend the FOS sufficiently. The Feet of Silence used by themselves apart from the ROS can have very positive results. Swapping the FOS for the Harmonix Combak RFS-65, my reference footers, was essentially a lateral move. They sounded different under the Von Gaylord pre-amp, but both were very good. I found the same results with the Von Gaylord Audio Nirvana Mk II mono blocks; both footers were very good. For me, this means the FoS are competitive with the best support devices available.

Setup Tweaks

After assembling the ROS, there's still a good bit of tweaking to be done. If you opt for the Disks of Silence (DOS) footers, which replace the standard, rigid footers at the base of the four columns (a strongly recommended option), you need to mass load the rack. The key to getting the most out of the ROS with the DOS is to understand that it is based upon spring suspension. The DOS has a bunch of coiled metal springs that need to distend properly for it to function as designed. About 90 lbs minimum and 200 lbs max will do the trick. I found loading it with 100 lbs or more worked best. Without the proper weight and correct tension on the springs in the DOS, the resonant frequency of the ROS will be within the audio band—not good. By the way, there is no minimum required weight for each fixed shelf, but they do max out at 85 lbs, while the heavy-duty shelf has a 170 lb limit. The Rack of Silence with four fixed shelves and Disc of Silence footers under the columns, as used here, is fairly rigid. Putting some FOS under a component made it susceptible to environmental shocks, visible in it's jiggling, and raised my anxiety level about accidentally bumping into the rack and dislodging a component. Nothing ever happened, thanks G_D, but extra vigilance is required.

Conclusion

At the moment, I have three racks. Each has its own characteristics, and each sounds different. The Polycrystal tends to emphasize frequency extremes and thin the midrange, while enhancing definition. Overall, it gives a thinner, more focused sound with pinpoint imaging. The Mapleshade Rack of Samson, made from solid maple slabs, lends the characteristically pleasing acoustic properties of the wood, while cleaning up mid-thru-upper bass resonances. The Solid Tech Rack Of Silence is a radically different design than those conventional racks. It employs a theory of resonance control based on light mass and various suspensions. You'll have to put aside your preconceived notions about mass loading and approach this project with an open mind. I found it to greatly enhance instrumental body, fullness, detailretrieval and dynamics, while sounding quieter, more artifact free. Realism and presence were improved and this heightened my involvement in the music. Depending on the component, you'll find each rack has usefulness. I like to keep all the phono gear on the Rack of Samson. And the Electrocompaniet EMC 1 CD player preferred being on the Polycrystal. But most gear was happiest on the Solid Tech Rack Of Silence. Apart form its unusual and esthetically interesting appearance, noted by fellow scribe Greg Petan in his review, the Rack of Silence is a serious tool for the audiophile on the edge. Used with or without the Feet Of Silence, it brought improvements beyond what my other racks offered, improvements that I wouldn't want to be without.
Marshall Nack

Interview with Colleen Cardas by Alan Sircom

Colleen Cardas - Meet Your Maker - by Alan Sircom

We spoke to Colleen Cardas, President of Cardas Audio about the genesis of the Clear cable line, and how it calls on more than 20 years of development by Colleenís father and chief designer, George Cardas.

AS: How did Cardas Audio start?
CC: My father started Cardas Audio in the late 1980s. Heís always been involved with a lot of live music, and he recognised that they were unable to recreate the live experience, when they brought it into living rooms. He identified that one of the things that was lacking in that area related specifically to cable.

AS: Why is the Golden Ratio so important to Cardas?
CC: When people think of Cardas Audio, they think of the Golden Ratio. The Golden Ratio is found everywhere. Itís in nature. Itís not like we created the Golden Ratio, but we identified it as something we could use in cable design that made cables sound better. Itís a big part of our lives, in terms of what Cardas is. That stranding and the sizing of the strands has been used in everything from the first cable Cardas released up to and including the Clear. We may make improvements in the dielectric, and the terminations used along the way, but we would never stray from that being whatís most important.

AS: You make almost everything. What does that involve?
CC: It requires more ‘hands on’ treatment, so the copper being mined in the US and drawn to our specifications – thatincludes going through diamond dies and being coated – all of that process is not only time consuming, but requires a lot of involvement with suppliers. But each component can be made to our specifications in terms of purity and manufacture. So it actually makes for a longer, more difficult process, but it makes for a purer end product.

AS: Does Clear continue to build on the successes of the past?
CC: Clear is the evolution of all that is Cardas. There have been four ‘families’ of Cardas products; the initial range, then there’s the family called Hexlink Gold, followed by the Cross series (with its aircored dielectrics and crossfield conductors). After that, we created the Reference series of products. And now Clear. Each one is a derivative of the improvements made in the previous cable.

AS: How long did Clear take to design?
CC: The product took the longest of all for George to develop. It was a bit frustrating because he had to develop things like the process of terminating the speaker cable. It’s not ‘oh let’s smash a connector on the end of it’, we had to make custom dies and machine custom spades. There was no buying anything off the shelf; we even made each machine to make the connectors. And, then there’s the stripping the cable itself, because there’s no solder involved in the speaker cable connection, it uses an elaborate crimping system, but we still have to deal with the litz coating. We announced the speaker cable in January 2008, and it took us another year to get the process just right. By which time we had two speaker cables, an interconnect and a revolutionary new XLR to go with the phono interconnect line.

AS: Where do you go from here?
CC: The Neutral Reference cable separated out into a three product line, with loudspeaker cables, interconnects and power cords in each one. The technology from Neutral Reference went into a greater product line and I assume that’s going to happen with the Clear as well. As opposed to Neutral Reference, though, we are going to work from Clear down, and probably have less expensive variants of the Clear.

Accuphase Stereo Phono Amplifier C-27 by Dirk Sommer

Accuphase Stereo Phono Amplifier C-27 by Dirk Sommer [Editor in Chief]

Which dedicated follower of analogue music reproduction would have ever dreamed of this 20 years ago? The Japanese noble maker Accuphase is for the first time presenting a separate, extremely elaborate phono/equalizerpreamplifier. It was in the end of the year 2001, during the celebrations for the 25th anniversary of P.I.A. [the Accuphase distributor in Germany], in a time when many, in particular U.S. high-end manufacturers have put an emphasis on home cinema - no longer a big issue today, eh? - when also Saito-San, in his capacity as Vice-President of Accuphase, unreservedly stood up for the two-channel stereo rendition of music. How serious this commitment was meant is, amongst other things, documented by the analogue tuner T-1000, which was to receive an image hifi award, and the stunning CD player DP-500. Accuphase actually never bothered about alleged future trends but rather had faith in those audiophiles who would like to acquire the very best component for the playback of the currently widespread formats and media - and, yes, Accuphase succeeded.
To this date analogue aficionados had a choice among various phono boards to suit their preamplifiers or integrated amps from Accuphase. Now this maker is trying to meet the ever so growing demands of vinyl lovers with sophisticated audio components at home by launching a phono/equalizer-preamplifier which is capable of processing the signals of up to three pickup cartridges, whereby it doesn't matter if the cartridge is of the moving-magnet or moving-coil variety. Each input can be configured accordingly. Yet this is not carried out by simply switching an additional amplification stage in the signal path on or off, like is the case with nearly any other
competitive phono preamplifier. No way, in the C-27 Accuphase allows itself the luxury of providing two independent amplification stages, one completely optimised for MM, the other one for MC.

Moving-magnet pickups generate an output voltage which is about ten times higher than the output voltage of a "normal" moving-coil pickup and they are usually designed for a load impedance of 47 kOhm. Therefore, three FET buffer amplifiers (x2) with high input impedance, arranged in parallel configuration, are taking care of the incoming signal before it is handed over to six likewise parallel-configured differential amplifiers in a push-pull circuitry. In addition to the standard 47 kOhm, this amplifier stage also offers a load impedance of 1 kOhm and 100 kOhm, which is activated by relays and accordingly selected by means of a rotary knob on the front panel. The substantially weaker MC-signals are boosted via eight parallel differential amplifiers in order to ensure a low load impedance as well as an extremely high signal-to-noise ratio which is oh so important for the operation of pickups with movingcoil technology. Load impedance can conveniently be selected, again by means of a rotary knob, whereby 3, 10, 30, 100, 300 and lastly 1000 Ohm are provided for experimentation. For each amplifier section, the gain can be augmented by 10 dB and then a subsonic filter can be activated by simply pressing a button. It goes without saying that the C-27 also features a memory facility for load impedance, overall gain, subsonic filter and, last but not least, MC- respectively MM-mode of operation. All this can be programmed for each input. The MM- and MC-amplifier of each channel share one circuit board made of Teflon which is said to have a low dielectric constant as well as low loss. The two boards for left and right channel are mounted above each other and supplied with energy by separate encapsulated toroidal power transformers with downstream stabilisation. The output signal is available at both RCA and balanced XLR connectors for each channel. Fortunately, you need no longer worry about the correct polarity of the balanced output signal and, if necessary, to have the phase eventual inverted at the preamplifier. It's because by means of a slide switch on the rear panel one can select if pin 2 or pin 3 of the XLR socket is to conduct the "hot" signal. The fine electronic circuitry is embedded in an elegant cabinet with a champagnecoloured front and the side panels made from precious wood, whereby the entire artwork stands on special resonance-absorbing feet. Something one can actually take for granted if made by Accuphase.

Upon my first encounter with the C-27 I considered the possibility of testing its MM stage utterly fascinating. Though not with an MM pickup but with Ortofon's SPU in combination with the silver-wired step-up transformer Ortofon T-100. This was due to the fact that my own phono/equalizer-preamp from Einstein would only accept the tiny signals from moving-coils and thus excluding whichever experiment with step-up transformers anyway. The suitable settings in the C-27 are quickly engaged: input 1 is switched to MM, subsonic filter switched off and the additional gain activated. As to the load impedance, I switched between 47 kOhm and 100 kOhm during the listening session. With the old Contemporary-Mono-LP Shelly Manne & His Men Play "Peter Gunn" (C 3560) the higher load impedance yielded a tad more openness and sheen in the sound picture. However the irresistible swing of this old but still fascinatingrecord was conveyed by SPU, T-100 and C-27 independent from the load setting in the latter. Although I had to turn up the volume knob of my Brinkmann Marconi [preamplifier] more than I usually do in order to get to a more exciting playback level, there was absolutely no noise from the speakers spoiling the calmness in my listening room when I lifted the tone arm for changing records. Owing to the exemplary signal-to-noise ratio of the C-27 as well as to its unconstrained and emotionally appealing way of playing you get bewitched by the charm of the SPU
Royal after only a few beats. A small portion of more intensity can still be wormed out of this classic pickup when the Accuphase takes its signals directly in MC mode, i.e. without the detour through the T-100: now the musicians seem to groove along with stronger devotion,
the instruments sound more sophisticated and pulses have more impact. After a short time of listening you have simply forgotten how old this recording actually is, while you are carried away by enthralling rhythms and pleasing melodies. In the end I thought to myself that I should more often search my vinyl archive for old treasures and also have the SPU wakened up for doing the tracking from time to time.
Yet in the first place, we are talking about the C-27 here, which is currently working in "high gain" mode of operation and loading the SPU with 100 Ohm. When I switched to 30 Ohm the playback level was significantly lower so I went back to 100 Ohm again. In this configuration I did not need to turn up the volume knob on the Marconi as far as with the C-27 being in MM mode and the T-100 loading the SPU. Although the Accuphase without step-up transformer had to accomplish an additional gain of 30 dB, some low noise was audible only during playback intervals and my ears in close proximity to the tweeters. Evidently, the engineers at Accuphase have once again done an excellent job here! Ultimately, it's the sound that counts, and which ought to be ideally assessed by comparison, for instance with my fully balanced phono/equalizer from Einstein. Once again after a long time Chuck Maggione's Children of Sanchez came to rest on
the platter of the Brinkmann LaGrange. The dynamic overture with its opulent instrumentation was really thrilling, no matter which of the two phono stages took over the amplification. Through the Einstein and balanced tone arm leads from Precision Interface Technology it altogether sounded a bit more analytical and a tad too chilly than through the Accuphase and leads from Ortofon. I have usually a large
selection of tone arm leads from various makers at hand, but unfortunately not the balanced and unbalanced variety of the same maker. Therefore I cannot say for sure as to whether the audibly perceived differences are on the respective phono stages or rather the leads. It's however safe to say that the purist Einstein and the opulently equipped Accuphase are both playing at the same extremely high level, even if there are marginal differences audible, which eventually may be a matter of personal taste and preferences also.

What has been said above can be applied on the condition that - like with the Einstein phono stage - the output signal of the C-27 is sent to the preamplifier in balanced mode. Now, unlike the Einstein, the Accuphase also offers the possibility of signal transfer via unbalanced output jacks and interconnects. Well, in this respect I can make some definite statements because I happen to own balanced as well as
unbalanced interconnects from the same type and maker. For this specific comparison I allowed myself a different tone arm/cartridge combination: the dedicated position on the LaGrange for 12-inch tone arms was taken over by the Brinkmann 12.1. arm to which I mounted the quite expensive (from an absolute point of view) Air Tight PC-3 cartridge, yet which nevertheless offers excellent value for money and is ideally loaded with 100 Ohm. To wit: luminous sound colours, the wonderful transparency and effortless rendition of pulses made the Discovery reissue of Oregon's Out of the Woods a joy to listen to all the way across Side A, during which the PC-3 could also flourish again after a long time of rest. With "Waterwheel", my favourite piece on Side B, the audible differences between balanced and unbalanced connection from C-27 to the Marconi preamp were very small indeed: through the RCA interconnects the sonic picture was a wee bit more crisp and vivid and in the high frequencies a trace more gleaming still. Yet I should rather verify this first impression by playing one of the "test records" I'm most familiar with. So, Dick Schory's Percussion Spectacle makes soon clear that by means of XLR interconnects there are simply more of the minute soundstage information transferred to the preamplifier than via the RCA jacks. I assume that the hint more sheen I heard in unbalanced mode might well be attributed to the valves in the phase inverter stage of the Marconi. So I kept the balanced leads connected for the next records I was going to listen to. After two pickup cartridges with rather low internal resistance I went to confront the input of the C-27 with the Da Vinci [by Clearaudio] of which the gold-wired coils have an impedance above 30 Ohm. For this cartridge I preferred a load impedance of 300 Ohm rather than 1000 Ohm, because the first setting created the illusion of a deeper, more 3-dimensional soundstage whereas with the latter load the sonic portrait took more centre stage. Differentiation, the love for details and utter dynamics were exactly as one would have expected from the Da Vinci in combination with highclass phono stages.

Summing up, the Accuphase C-27 was made to drive any pickup cartridge to itsmaximum performance. From this point of view it's actually a great pity that we all had to wait for this world-class phono amplifier until the end of 2008.

Accuphase CD Player DP-400 Nobel Prize by Lothar Brandt

Accuphase CD Player DP-400 Nobel Prize by Lothar Brandt

It comes in as noble appearance because it's a direct descendant of a noble house. It is adjuvant because it is good for a digital control centre. How good it really is has to be resolved, though. The least expensive CD player of the Accuphase family is preparing itself for an exclusive review in AUDIO. Such a reputation is certainly not acquired easily. "We must get it for the next issue" was the unanimous agreement among us - without having heard a single tone yet - when we got wind of the DP-400's existence before it was to be launched to the public. Which led to a nearly conspiratorial express delivery in order to have AUDIO presenting, in the here and now, the brand-new and least expensive CD player in the portfolio of the Japanese noble maker. Take it or leave it: we consider the price tag not being a bargain, though. In particular for a CD player which at the first sight plays nothing but the "antique" CD format, from a today's point of view, that is. So, how come AUDIO dares to announce "Super Price" on its cover? It's because our testers examined and, above all, auditioned the DP-400 more than once. Like its discontinued predecessor DP-57, the newcomer also offers digital inputs. The internal DAC of the "Multiple Delta-Sigma" type was made to process various digital sources, too. Network players of all kind and price classes are invited to dock to the co-axial input for sonic improvement. Those notoriously hum-loop endangered satellite tuners may use the optical Toslink input instead in order to avoid any tedious ambient noise. At first, the network option seemed a bit weird to me because it somehow wasn't typically Accuphase. But then it was soon to open my eyes. My colleague Bernhard Rietschel proceeded to dock the Sonos (see page 54) and owing to the DP-400's nearly loss-less digital volume control he connected the latter directly to Audionet's MAX power amplifiers. Well, the transformation of the DP-400 into converter/preamplifier/player could not only outclass the DAC inside the Sonos but pushed all the incoming musical signals to unexpected sonic heights.

When - just for fun - Rietschel tuned in the web-radio station "Otto's Opera House" I thought I couldn't trust my ears as to how wonderfully magic Humperdinck's opera "Hänsel & Gretel" sounded with all its colours, power and depth. Simply stunning how the DP-400 could refine the data-reduced food. In my opinion the converter section of the DP-400 is simply too good to be exclusively supplied by its own tried and tested, solid CD transport we know from its bigger brother DP-500. Although the processor - which Accuphase dubbed "MDS++" - has to get along with merely two instead of four DACs of the PCM 1796 type, these chips from Burr-Brown (taken over by Texas Instruments in the meantime) are employed in a similar way. The wafers are good enough for a sampling rate up to 192 kHz / 24 bit in pure stereo operation. Accuphase has implemented them in parallel configuration - hence "multiple" - and tapped each the phase-correct and
phase-inverted signal. After a current-to-voltage conversion the voltages from both paths are added - hence "Sigma" (the mathematic sign for sum). Eventually, the phase-correct and phase-inverted currents are subtracted in the output stage - hence "Delta" (the mathematic sign for difference). All the investment Accuphase put into "Multiple Delta Sigma" is said to rigorously reduce converter errors and eventually lead to more precision and dynamic rendition as well as to distinctly lower noise and distortion.

And this is what's really going on! Our lab has reported sensationally low values at the measuring threshold for signal-to-noise ratio and distortion. Jitter, too, is beyond good and evil and hence there is no reason to be afraid of any roughened sound caused by the dreaded digital clock jitter. This noble Japanese however did not like if CDs showed scratches or smear. In particular when the wedges on our test
CD were wider than 1.3 mm the DP-400 reacted with drop-outs. On the other hand, who can imagine an Accuphase owner stockpiling messy CDs in his collection? For that the silver disks are simply sounding too good with the DP-400. Right away the newcomer seemed to be on par with its bigger brother DP-500, which without any doubt can be considered one of the best integrated CD player on this planet. In order to still hear any difference at all within this unobtrusive, neutral, airytransparent and fascinatingly dynamic flood of sound we had to reach for the finest surgical scalpels: the two Accuphase players - output level fully up - were docked to the in-house super preamplifier C-2810 (reviewed in AUDIO 09/06) at the latter's balanced high-level inputs via the top XLR interconnects KS 1136 from Kimber.

Audionet's MAX were driving the unerring KEF Reference 207/2 speakers. Yet even when auditioned through this top audio chain, the "little one" did not let itself get shaken off. TACET's highly audiophile production of String Quartets by Josef Haydn was rendered by both players as if it was the most natural thing in the world, i.e. with artfully differentiated sound colours and a precisely illuminated soundstage. With the rather rustic and ping-pong-stereo-recorded "Forever Changes" by the band Love (Oldie-CD of the month 07/08) one could distinctly perceive each single whirr of acoustic guitar strings and each snare beat from the drummer. During the extensive
listening session, juryman Rietschel in particular conceded a tad more punch and deeper sound colours in favour of the more expensive Accuphase. Lots of hard rock, orchestra bangs, piano impacts and female voices later Rietschel however agreed with the other testers: if the DP-500 may add a big plus to its 125 sonic points, then the DP-400 is nonetheless coming very, very close to this dream score. The smallest Accuphase CD player, too, lives up to its reputation.

SUMMING UP
I've already taken the youngest Accuphase-baby to my heart. Of course, it does sound better when connected to a top preamplifier than without. And it's definitely boosting the best of its qualities when self-supplied by CDs. On the other hand, it can really demonstrate highest class, too, when employed as DAC in a network or as preamplifier in a digital chain. Owing to this versatility, the seemingly high price is
suddenly coming down to a fair noble price.

The AUDIOgramme:
Sound and craftsmanship: Outstanding / Reference Class / 125 sonic points
Price-Performance Ratio: Outstanding

Accuphase E-250 4/2009 STEREOPLAY, by Johannes Maier

The Little Prince
With the E-250 Accuphase is presenting the new integrated youngster. Explosive power may not be expected by hi-fi fans, but perhaps all the more a sterling sound?

Actually, the new amp from Accuphase should not merely be called E-250 but should rather be decorated - next to its type designation - with a title of nobility. After all, which other integrated amplifier can proudly look back onto such an impressive gallery of ancestral portraits, i.e. from the vintage E-202 of 1975 via -203, -205, -206, -210, -211, -212 till E-213, which was reviewed in Stereoplay July 2005.
Consequently, the E-250's manner of appearance is rather conservative. Thecustomary meters on the front panel will always tell you the transferred power by their majestically waving indicators. And once again, this Accuphase amp will have faith in every knowing and experienced audiophile to make responsible use of the loudness compensator, tone controls and tape monitor switch provided. It's nice to
see that - like in the past - one can choose between speaker output A and B, which are to be connected to some hefty terminals. It's also prime to have the input selector knob engaging altogether six high-level inputs plus an additional input to be realised by two alternative boards optionally available from Accuphase as DAC-20 or AD-20 for vinyl aficionados.

Last but not least, the new Accuphase can be connected to a CD player via a dedicated XLR input, yet not necessarily so, because the signal becomes unbalanced right after the input, whereby at this spot some common amplifier ICs are used rather than the more sophisticated, special instrumentation amps employed in its bigger brothers. On the other hand, much more than by history and features, the E-250 is to excel by its electronic volume control now dubbed AAVA-II (see insert "Loud and Wise") which can also be found in the preamplifier C-2110. Quite unlike conventional methods of volume control this one was made to refrain from decreasing the signal-to-noise ratio and hence the dynamics in music. And whilst one could consider the previous AAVA circuitries providing more or less a grave for ICs, Accuphase managed to straighten the circuitry layout in the E-250. Strong input amplifiers, custom-made precision metal-film resistors with odd values as well as an array of meticulously operating switching ICs: a certain complexity is evident yet this complexity seems to remain within reason. Well, perhaps only so far that in the foreseeable future similar circuitries might appear in the amplifiers of various competitors. We at Stereoplay could make a bet on that! Owing to the solid preparatory work of the AAVA-II circuitry, a dualconstruction
of the input circuits for the power section, as can still be found in the predecessor E-213, does no longer make sense. Instead, Accuphase has 2 implemented an even more elaborate layout of current feedback. Now, before this feedback is to take corrective action in the input circuit, a specially processed portion of the input signal is added. Indeed a technical delicacy from which an engineer can
easily read out the possibilities of a particularly subtle optimisation with respect to distortions.

Loud and Wise
We at Stereoplay have already marvelled at the IC-loaded AAVA (Accuphase Analog Vari-gain Amplifier) in the preamplifier C-2110 (issue 09/2008), yet the slimmer electronic volume control in the E-250 seems even more attractive. The input amplifier - equipped with pretty strong transistors - is augmenting the signals in so far that an array of altogether 144 precision resistors can call up a variety of current bits. The listening volume is adjusted by a combination of 16 voltage-current converters. The number of possible volume steps is 216 = 65,536, as determined by current switches, whereupon the music signal is converted from a voltage into a current, to allow control by current switches, and then back into a voltage. The entire process is carried out in the analogue domain. The electronic circuitry employs only fixed-value resistors and hence there is virtually no left/right tracking error, also at low volume levels. Crosstalk, too, is not an issue here. Lastly, the unique AAVA-II does not induce any changes in impedance and there is no alteration of frequency response. We connected the E-250 to the "Vescova" speakers from Isophon (reviewed in issue 08/2008) and right after the first beats the entire listening panel got immediately thrilled by the warm and extremely vivid aura the E-250 was able to convey. We were downright hypnotised by the wonderfully driving, vibrant rhythm, whilst this amp was willingly showing us how a drummer was pushing his band with peppery, dry bangs on the snare and coal-black hits on the bass drum. However the E-250 never sounded uncomfortable. Lesser amps might have been misled to sound like rumble here, yet through the Accuphase everything remained in a complete musical context. Also no airs and graces when it came to spatial rendition: the deep soundstage starts right at the speakers whereby instruments and voices are positioned with focus and three-dimensionality. Some songs from Kari Bremnes' new album "LY" (Indigo CD) are describing landscapes and a wide open sky. Including some fine highlights on the percussion, the E-250 is capable of displaying that with joy and at the same time is maintaining the seriousness and sweetness in the songs of the woman from Norway. We soon realized that the new integrated Accuphase plays in a different league when compared to the E-213, which can still be considered a very good amp. It's because when the latter had to deal with complex passages in music, it did react with a certain anxiety and occupied voices with a kind of raspy tone. Not so the E-250 which was taking a deep breath and kept playing along with its relaxed, sublime temper.

Yes, the Unison Research "Unico 100" (issue 11/2008) from Italy delivers somewhat more bass and the Pathos "Logos" (issue 12/2005) from the same country is a bit more resolving in the highest frequencies. However in the long run our little prince is definitely the more charming musician and that's why we rewarded it with 56 sonic points - plus Stereoplay's "Highlight" crown.

07-05-2008 STEREOVOX Interview POSITIVE FEEDBACK ONLINE-VOL. 30

Chris Sommovigo of Stereovox
by PFO

PFO Why do cables make a difference? Interconnects, speaker, and AC cords?

Stereovox Everything that a signal must pass through will be affected by that signal and, in turn, affect that signal. By "signal" I mean to say an organized impulse (or impulses) of electrical current and voltage excited in a wire. RE: "Making a difference": To what degree this is noticeable is and always has been a matter of intense debate within our industry. But the fact remains that no such electrical impulse can travel without a medium, and within that medium there is a continuum of inter-affectivity between the signal and the medium.

PFO What about metals....copper versus silver versus gold versus what? What about blends?

SV There is no silver-bullet theory that works to satisfaction. It's sexy to tout "pure silver" or "pure gold" or "umpteen nines pure copper"—but in reality this kind of silver bullet commodity marketing has little to do with the actuality of the design. The performance value of metals, for instance, are not necessarily distinguished by their hyper-purity or atomic number alone but are as affected by their temper, their gauge, and their shape.

PFO What about dielectrics... Teflon versus what?

SV Dielectrics are an intimate part of the continuum: the medium, as combined with the metal wire itself. They impart various characteristics, from the basic capacitive elements to piezoelectric/triboelectric effects that might be excited in reaction to the electrostatic fields surging through them. There is no perfect dielectric, but rather there are choices to be made depending upon what outcome a designer requires.

PFO What about no dielectric?

SV No such thing.

PFO What about measurements... what do they tell us? What do they not tell us?

SV Measurements can tell us the basics, helping to collect data from which to hopefully derive more concrete theories about why audio cables can affect the signal in ways that listeners notice. But measurements so far have failed to help us establish a predictability-curve for cable design except in cases of extreme electrical characteristics. It is impossible, for instance, to use electrical measurement apparatuses to garner any useful knowledge about the difference between two cables that are otherwise exactly alike except for the temper of their conductors. And yet temper is important.

PFO What about connectors... how important?

SV Without them you would have a hard time getting the signal out of one thing and into another, thus – important. I personally believe that the connector has the greatest potential for screwing things up, so I decided to partner with Stuart Marcus of Vampire Wire to create Xhadow connectors. A connector cannot improve your cable—but a proper connector properly terminated can help to make it as good as it is. That's about all you can ask from connectors.

PFO Why this geometry... ribbon, twisted, braded, spiraled...?

SV Elements of design meant to shape and otherwise manipulate electrostatic and electromagnetic fields interacting with each other and with the media within which they travel.

PFO What about cryoing? What is going on with this?

SV Cryoing is a slow process of deep freezing and then slow thawing meant to relax the otherwise stressed crystal matrix in metal wires, typically stressed by the drawing process. Cryo therefore affects temper.

PFO Why shielding? Why not shielding?

SV Shielding both protects the signal wire from interference from outside sources as well as prevents leakage of the signal to areas outside the cable. Shielding recommends itself in some cases, not necessarily in others. I like to think of shielding like the roof in a convertible: it's nice to have it in place once it starts raining. Given the overactive radio-infected electronic environments we tend to live in, it would seem like it's always raining.

PFO What about run-in? Why is/isn't it important?

SV Cables seem to take time to "settle" in to a system. I have no measured data that explain the process. Others have put forth the "capacitor forming" analogy, which is only a quasi-analogy as a length of wire can be successfully modeled as a capacitor (or a resistor or an inductor). It seems generally accepted that "break-in" occurs with cables, and it is also generally accepted that no one knows exactly why. That includes me.

PFO What about lengths? Why are/aren't they important?

SV Basic rule: Long interconnects, short speaker cables. The essential reason stemmed from the notion that the series resistance of a speaker cable over a long length can adversely affect the ability of an amplifier to properly damp the momentum of a woofer in motion. Long interconnects are not so adversely affected by the series resistance, but in cables with capacitance or inductance features that are not "middle of the road" there may be potential for the interconnect to affect the signal in the same way a high-pass or low-pass filter might work. That seems unlikely given the design of most cables in the market, but there will always be that stray product from a "revolutionary" thinker that will cause a problem in extreme lengths.

PFO What is directionality?

SV Signals traveling in an audio system, be they analog or digital, are AC signals. Alternating current "goes both ways" in a conductor: the positive-going half of the signal propagates a field toward the load, while the negative-going half of the signal propagates it toward the source. Ebb and flow. If you think of it like a piston in an engine it illustrates well: you cannot have a "directional" piston—it must move as easily back and forth in order to do its work. If it moves more easily back than forth, it is to some degree broken.

So it is with an AC signal. If it works better in one direction than the other—check the connectors and joints before you proclaim directionality. I know this is an unpopular position to take. Call me a curmudgeon.

PFO How did you get into this?

SV I missed a left turn at Albuquerque—the rest is history.

PFO What is your fundamental design philosophy/goal?

SV Design simply, elegantly, and refine refine refine.

PFO Why these?

SV Simplicity is the essence of elegance, and elegance is simply a word that expresses (for me) the essence of a whole and complete answer.

PFO How do you approach accomplishing those philosophies/goals?

SV Staring. Sometimes rubbing my temples works.

PFO How successful do you feel you have been at achieving the goals that you have set for yourself?

SV I'm fairly satisfied with the progressive evolution of my designs. I've been refining these ideas for almost 15 years and I still find small areas to tweak.

PFO How do you plan to push beyond what you have already accomplished?

SV Accumulate experience based on my past designs, theorize about changes, employ methods to test the theory, etc.

PFO Where is this all heading?

SV Ball bearings. It's all ball bearings these days. But I think that there are advances yet to be made in wireless wires.

PFO Others that you admire?

SV Ray Kimber and George Cardas.

These guys are the real Godfathers of audio cable, both completely legit and unerringly cool.

YBA-Listening with the eyes...as well with the ears.

The French high-end audio firm YBA, which takes its name from owner and founder Yves-Bernard André, has just launched YBA Design—a brand-within-a-brand whose components are performance oriented, yet affordably priced. YBA Design replaces YBA’s former Audio Refinement line, offering components developed in France, but manufactured in Asia to hold costs down. In terms of aesthetics and sound quality, however, YBA Design products are significantly more ambitious than the Audio Refinement models they replace. Two great examples are the YC201 CD player and YA201 integrated amplifier—the first YBA Design components to reach our shores.

Even before you hear these units, they make a strong impression with their exotic appearance. All YBA Design components share common chassis sizes and faceplate designs; to add a touch of mystery, YBA deliberately omits traditional silk-screened product names, model numbers, and switch-function labels. Powered down, the units look nearly identical, with nothing to detract from their sculptural simplicity save for the logo, a stylized letter “Y.” Once the units are powered up, their normally blackedout display windows are bathed in soft blue-gray light, with graphics and text that make component identity and control- button functions clear.

The designers at YBA clearly burned midnight oil to get the appearance of its components just so, an effort the firm’s Web site explains through this slogan: “We also listen with the eyes….” When I first saw the YC201 and YA201, I found them so beautiful (and beautifully made) that I thought they surely would cost a small fortune. But they don’t. Selling for $1649 apiece, both are highly credible mid-tier offerings. Over time I’ve come to perceive the amp as the stronger performer of the two; but let’s start by discussing the CD player, since its sonic strengths form the core of what is also special and right about the amplifier.

The YC201 is a 24-bit/192kHz upsampling CD player whose most distinctive characteristics are terrific midrange finesse and liquidity—a certain smooth, urbane, soulful sound that sweeps listeners into the flow of the music. The player is so beguiling, I would sit down planning to listen for just a few minutes, only to look up and realize I was halfway through a disc and completely engrossed in the music. Interestingly, the YC201’s midrange strengths are not born of exceptionally high resolution. Oh, the resolution is certainly good, perhaps very good, but it is not the main event. The midrange excellence flows from an elusive combination of factors, including timbral accuracy, tonal richness, a hint of warmth, and the ability to allow sounds to emerge from and recede back into a quiet noise floor in a strikingly realistic way. More than many players in this price range, the YC201 reminds listeners that air is a fluid medium, in which the reverberations of various instruments interact in complex ways, much like the ripples generated when a handful of pebbles is thrown into a still pool. Put all these qualities together and you have a player whose sound is sumptuous and seductive.

This is quite clear on a high-quality recording of complex orchestral material, such as David Chesky’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra from Area 31 [Chesky]. The first movement starts with a complicated rhythmic theme carried by tympani, handclaps, and a celeste, and then unfolds into an angular and yet strangely sweet opening statement from the solo violin. The YC201 would highlight, in turn, the earthy punch of the tympani, the sharp “pop” of the handclaps, and the mysterious ring of the celeste, and then shift gears to nail the incisive sound of the violin. At the same time, it did an excellent job of portraying the decay of the various instrumental voices within the reverberant recording venue, and an exceptional job of reproducing soundstage depth cues, so that the soundstage seemed to extend far behind the loudspeakers, almost making me feel as though I could get up from my chair and walk out into the stage.

My favorable assessment was tempered by two small but noticeable sonic shortcomings. First, the YC201 lacks a bit of the resolution that today’s best mid-priced CD players achieve. Rega’s sub-$1000 Apollo, which I had on hand for comparison, retrieved significantly more musically relevant information. Second, the YC201 slightly softened details and dynamics at the frequency extremes—a characteristic that may be part of the player’s almost eerie smoothness, but that was not, strictly speaking, accurate. Neither of these is a damning flaw by any stretch of the imagination, but together they made me think the YC201 was leaving some sonic potential on the discs unfulfilled.

The YA201 amplifier is a 100Wpc solid-state integrated design whose sonic strengths parallel those of the YC201, but with two important differences. First, at its best, it offers substantially more transparency and resolution; second, it delivers crisper response at upper and lower frequency extremes. I say “at its best,” because the YA201 could sound almost like two different amplifiers, depending on playback volume. At low-to-moderate levels, it sounded pleasing, but overly polite, with tone colors that seemed somewhat washed out. But with the volume turned up, the amplifier’s character changed dramatically for the better. With added volume tone colors became richer and more vibrant, and instrumental and vocal timbres were infused with life.

One recording that crystallized this impression was Philip Hii’s classical guitar rendition of the Chopin Nocturnes [DSG]. At low levels, both Hii’s guitar and the acoustics of the recording venue sounded flat and a bit like high-end “elevator music.” But with the volume turned up, the improvement in focus and resolution.

As for tonal characteristics, down low, the YA201 sounded hearty and warm yet clear, though without the last word in low-frequency transient response or “traction” (that is, the ability to control woofers firmly and precisely). Several class D amplifiers I’ve evaluated lately offer better bass performance than the YA201 does, though I think this amp could hold its own against like-priced integrated amplifiers and separates (e.g., the NAD C 162/C 272 pair). Highs were delicate, sweet, and pleasantly extended, though the YA201 did not provide the razorsharp treble transient response and transparency that some listeners crave and that certain higher-priced amplifiers deliver. Even so, the YA201’s treble characteristics make it somewhat forgiving of overly bright associated components, while still preserving a healthy measure of clarity.

As with the YC201, the broad center of the midrange is where the YA201 shines, delineating layers of musical subtleties in ways that make many midpriced components sound simplistic. What makes the YBA’s midrange special is an extraordinary expressiveness. For example, it reveals how the notes of Paul Winter’s saxophone on Icarus [Epic, LP] begin with a rise in pressure at the mouthpiece, followed by initial bursts of sound as the reed starts to vibrate, and finally bloom as the air column inside the sax begins to resonate. Granted, many good integrated amplifiers catch these distinctions to some degree, but not with this kind of assuredness on inner details. This midrange sophistication and richness make the YA201 an awful lot of amplifier for the money.

One minor glitch: My review sample came with faulty control logic, making it respond to remote control buttons meant for use with the YC201 CD player. YBA will probably have this problem straightened out by the time you read this.

Summing up, YBA Design’s YC201 is a lovely CD player to look at and one blessed with seductive midrange sound. The only thing holding it from class leadership is stiff competition from new mid-priced entries. The YA201 integrated amp, on the other hand, is a class leader because it offers the same midrange magic as the YC201, plus greater transparency and better response at the frequency extremes. Most importantly, these components convey real musical joie de vivre.

Stereovox SEI-600II and LSP-600 interconnect and speaker cables

Stereovox SEI-600II & LSP-600 interconnect & speaker cable

By Brian Damkroger • February, 2007

Stereophile editor John Atkinson said one evening in 1995, "What I find fascinating is that, in an industry as mature as audio cables, a new company can appear out of the blue and upset everything." He was gently poking fun at my admission that I found cable design fascinating, in particular the practice of combining different conductor materials.

JA's comment was understandable. After all, in 1995 we already had round, flat, and tubular conductors made of silver, gold, and copper, as well as various alloys and combinations of different core and plating materials. There were cables shielded by various fabrics and polymers, Teflon, air, water, and even light. Some were shielded, some weren't; some had exotic termination circuits; a few even came with power supplies that applied a bias voltage to their shields. It seemed as if most of the technical avenues had already been explored and were being represented by manufacturers then active. And now here we are, a decade later, and new high-end cable makers continue to emerge.

Where have I heard that name before?
Stereovox isn't exactly new. It was established as a cable company in 1999 by Chris Sommovigo and longtime partner Antonio de Almeida Santos, and Sommovigo's presence in the industry goes back much further still. He started Illuminati in 1992 with what was, arguably, the first true 75-ohm digital S/PDIF cable, and thus the first design to address the problem of reflections due to mismatched impedances. A later Illuminati model, the Orchid, is widely and fondly remembered as the first really killer digital cable.

Sommovigo then moved to Utah, where he worked with Ray Kimber of Kimber Kable: Kimber distributed Illuminati products, and the two worked together on a product-development effort. That project didn't work out, but during this time Sommovigo and Santos launched a recording company, Stereovox, and began with a recording of the Moscow Symphony made in the winter of 1996. The arrangement with Kimber ended, the existing Illuminati designs became Kimber Kable products, and Sommovigo began designing cables on his own again—to be marketed under the Stereovox banner.

The first two Stereovox cables, the SEI-600 interconnect and LSP-600 speaker cable, were introduced, to rave reviews, in 1999. They sounded great and had unique, machined-from-rod aluminum connectors made by a company called Xhadow. Scratch the surface a bit and you find out that Sommovigo is part of Xhadow as well—his partner there is Stuart Marcus, of Vampire Wire and Sound Connections fame. Unfortunately, the Stereovox cables' introduction coincided perfectly with the dot-com crash—"bad timing for a cost-no-object luxury product," Sommovigo wryly noted. Never deterred for long, he went about redesigning versions of the cables that were less expensive to produce, and incorporated a few new ideas in the process.

It's what's inside that counts
All current Stereovox analog cables share a common design: a twisted-pair arrangement of two identical coaxial conductors, and some other bits I'll shortly describe. At the center of each coaxial conductor is a fine conductor of solid-core silver. Air-articulated, or bubbled, Teflon tape is wrapped helically around this, after which the tape's surface is lightly sintered to produce a consistent interface with the next layer, the shield. The shield is not a standard braided or foil type but an extremely fine, multi-conductor wire of silver-plated copper, which also is helically wrapped around the cable. Teflon is then sintered onto the outside of the shield. Two of these assemblies are twisted together, the bundle encased in a PVC jacket and an outer sheath of Nomex.

At each end of the cable the two grounds are joined, as are the two center conductors, and the appropriate Xhadow connector is attached via a clamp-and-solder process called Intimately Stressed Contact. There are actually two more Teflon-shielded silver-coated copper conductors alongside the twisted pair—the "other bits" mentioned above. These are there but are not used in the single-ended interconnects and speaker cables, but form the third conductor in the balanced interconnect.

Everything about the Stereovox cables oozes luxury, from the spiffy aluminum briefcases they're packaged in to the way they solidly connect with just a light push. I'm no fan of the polished, chrome-plated flash I see in some audio jewelry, and I'm intolerant of the excessively thick and rigid stupidity that's sometimes equated with high-performance cables. The Stereovox wires, on the other hand, are right on the mark. They're small, flexible, easy to route, and, as I noted above, make getting a solid connection nearly idiot-proof, even in hidden, impossible-to-reach places.

Lovely to behold and delightful to install, but...
The performance of high-end gear has improved dramatically since JA made his comment back in 1995. The latest generation of electronics—such as the Halcro dm58 and VTL S-400 power amplifiers—are incredible. They have eradicated enough of the colorations inherent to solid-state and tube designs, respectively, that they sound more like each other than each does its own predecessor. The best modern turntables sound much more neutral, and much more alike, than they did only a few years ago. Phono cartridges, CD transports, and even integrated CD players are all moving steadily toward a common neutrality—or toward a common, apparently fundamental limit in how nearly absolute neutrality can be approached.

A similar maturation process has occurred in the cable world, with each generation of designs sounding less colored and more alike than the previous one. With today's best cables, it's no longer possible to talk about the consistent character of silver conductors, for example, or the different sounds of coaxial, flat-conductor, or Litz-wire geometries. Today's best cables approach neutrality closely enough to challenge the terms colorations and distortions, and can instead be discussed in terms of providing slightly different perspectives on neutrality. Without question, the Stereovox cables fall solidly into this group, and deserve to be compared with the very best. They may or may not be a listener's top choice, depending on his or her gear, software, room, and preferences, but they'll be contenders—provided the listener wants to actually hear what the rest of the system is doing.

My two longtime reference speaker cables and interconnects, Nordost's Valhallas and Nirvana's SX-Ltds, are two of today's very best, and sit at opposite ends of the spectrum in their approach to neutrality. The Valhallas are all about speed, clarity, and definition, and are slightly cool in their reproduction of instrumental timbres. The Nirvanas' strengths are their coherence and their rich, natural portrayal of tonal colors and textures—but they lack the Valhallas' transient speed and edge definition. Two other designs I've reviewed recently, the Audience Au24 and Silversmith's Silver, fall in between: tonally more neutral, but not quite matching the Nordosts' or Nirvanas' strengths.

It's against this backdrop that the question arises: Are Chris Sommovigo's latest Stereovox creations more examples of the state of the cable art, or are they harbingers of the next plateau in cable design? In terms of tonal balance, the Stereovox wires resembled the Valhallas quite closely. Male vocals had slightly less body and solidity than through the Nirvanas, or than they do live. The timbres of closely miked guitars and cellos was leaned out slightly as well, though not to as great an extent as with the Valhallas. Both the Stereovoxes and the Valhallas can sound neutral with the right surroundings, but the surroundings will likely be right more often with the Stereovox cables.

The Stereovox wires distinguished themselves more dramatically in their handling of other aspects of a recording: dynamic range, temporal precision, edge definition, and how well they balanced all of these with tonal complexity, image density, and coherence. To compress my six months of listening to all types of music into an easily digested example, pull out an LP of Dire Straits' Making Movies (Warner Bros. BSK 3480) and cue up side 1. Everyone over the age of 40 has a copy, and it's a nicely recorded album with excellent dynamics, a wealth of detail, and pretty well-balanced portrayals of voices and acoustic instruments.

With my system and in my room, which are pretty decent and, if anything, slightly warm-sounding, the Stereovox cables were the best I've yet heard at balancing this mix of competing attributes. The sharp drum rolls in "Romeo and Juliet" were startlingly explosive, yet had a solid, realistic body and skin tone. Mark Knopfler's arpeggio resonator guitar lines were right on the money as well, each note beginning with a sharp snap and developing into a hollow, metallic tone that combined a shallow, metallic plink with a softer, deeper ring. In comparison, the Valhallas gave the drums and guitar a bit too much contrast, with overemphasized transients and not quite enough body. The Nirvana SX-Ltds, on the other hand, produced wonderfully dense, complex, and dimensional images, but with neither the impact nor the clarity they had with the Stereovoxes or Valhallas.

Other examples: the image of Knopfler's voice was precise, but a bit anorexic with the Valhallas; he was back up to fighting weight with the Nirvanas, though slightly soft in his articulation. With the Stereovox wires, the portrayal came close—not quite there, but awfully close—to combining the best attributes of the Valhallas and the Nirvanas. The nearly spoken passages two-thirds of the way through "Romeo and Juliet" were particularly telling. Knopfler's image and the surrounding echo were crystal clear with the Valhallas, the apparent boundaries of the space around him precisely located—but the three were so sharply bounded that they were almost disconnected. The opposite occurred with the Nirvana SX-Ltds: there was a realistic, natural coherence, but neither Knopfler nor the walls had quite the certainty or specificity they should. Here again, Sommovigo's Stereovox cables approximated a best-of-both-worlds balance.

The way the Stereovox wires re-created space also seemed a bit more "right" than I've heard with other cables. Prior to spending time with them, I found it easy to accept the perspective of whichever cable, Nordost or Nirvana, was in my system at the time. The Valhallas gave me smaller, more focused images and a more dramatic sense of the space between them. The SX-Ltds produced a larger, more coherent soundstage, but with a slightly softer focus. Despite their differences, both seemed reasonable, and more right than wrong. The Stereovoxes' middle ground and combination of strengths raised the bar, however, and made me more aware of the compromises the other two were making.

Analogue Productions' incredible 45rpm set of Creedence Clearwater Revival's singles (Analogue Productions AAP CCR7) arrived about halfway through my listening sessions and thereafter monopolized my turntable. Maybe my sensitivities were heightened through immersion and repetition, or maybe I was just OD-ing on CCR, but I found myself getting unreasonably picky about everything. I kept cleaning my stylus. I revisited my cartridge's alignment. I meticulously scrubbed the records and double-checked the positioning of my Wilson Audio Sophia 2 loudspeakers. I experimented and made sure that the door and windows were opened just so, and made my Catahoula Zippy curl up in exactly the right spot. Everything mattered, and all of it seemed to bug me. With the Valhallas, there was a glare in John Fogerty's voice that I found unlistenable. I could listen through the Nirvanas for hours on end, but I just wasn't getting into the music. With the Stereovox cables, it all fell into place. For two weeks straight, I stopped tweaking and fidgeting and just enjoyed the music.

Summing up
I was really impressed with the Stereovox cables, and strongly recommend that anyone shopping for cables—or just looking to upgrade and learn more about their system—arrange an audition. I don't know what represents good value in high-end cables any more, or even what that phrase might mean, but $1000 for interconnects and $2500 for speaker cables is probably credible, if not necessarily sane.

The Stereovox cables aren't perfect or perfectly transparent. They have less, though still some, of the cool tonal balance and transient edge that limit the Nordost Valhallas—but they have all of the Valhallas' speed and clarity. The Stereovoxes are more dynamic and temporally precise than Nirvana's SX-Ltd, yet retain much of their coherence and tonal richness. Time will tell if the SEI-600II and LSP-600 are the first of a new generation of cables that will establish a new standard of performance, but they are, at the very least, among the select group of cables that comprise "the best I've heard." Even in 2006, an industry as mature as high-end cables can be shaken up. Fascinating, isn't it?

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