January 2011

In This Issue....
Equipment Reviews Pus CES / T.H.E. Show Preview
Article By Steven R. Rochlin

  Welcome to 2011! Has another year come and gone already? As many of us within the industry are preparing for the CES/T.H.E. Show in Las Vegas, of course i had to heed the call of first things first. As such, in this issue of Enjoy the Music.com's Review Magazine we have some excellent reviews for you to enjoy. 

First up could be a real game changer as Wayne Donnelly tests the edge-of-the-art just available technology of  Bybee Labs' new Music Rails. Having spoken to Wayne on the phone, he is really smitten by this new quieting technology to reduce power supply noise. The great thing about this tweak is that it cam be implemented in many high-end audio products, so instead of buying a completely new piece of equipment, you could spend far less and tweak what you already have!

Next up is the Calyx 500 monoblock power amplifiers as reviewed by Tom Lyle. This Class D amplifier shows the promise of what is capable with this technology. About 20 years ago i recall Infinity offering a Class D car audio amplifier. The reason i mention this is that within my past lifetime i sold and installed high-end car audio systems. As such, new toys like the Infinity would come into the store for sale and must admit it sounded horrible! The then excellent blue-colored Soundstream Class A and Nakamichi amplifiers totally trounced Infinity's Class D offering. Well time and technology does indeed move forward and Tom does a great job assessing the latest generation of Class D amplification.

Then we have something cool and inexpensive for those DIY subwoofer builders, if you have a passive sub... or plan to perhaps bi- or tri-wire your speakers. Jeff Poth breaks down the Dayton SA1000 subwoofer amplifier and with a wide variety of adjustments is should mate into virtually any system. 

Last and most certainly not least is perhaps the longest-running speakers within my systems (even including my fave KEF 104//2!). Phil Gold takes a spin with the new iteration of the now classic Reference 3A, this time in MM de Capo i version. If you have never personally tried these jewel monitors you really owe it to yourself to find a way to hear them ASAP. So rarely has a single loudspeaker design stood the test of time, and the Reference 3A is among those very few products that have staying power for what must now be around two decades!

CES/T.H.E. Show Preview
How could any January come to pass within some mention of the impending Las Vegas shows? As we all know the drill, no need to spill many cyberwords on it. So instead, will simply say slip on over to Enjoy the Music.com's CES/T.H.E. Show preview and see what will be at the show weeks before others report about them. Of course in the end what really matters is that you...

Enjoy the Music,

Steven R. Rochlin