Enjoy the Music.com's extended
holiday vacation October 19th through 30th
11 / /16 / 07
The Tape Project, presented by
Paul Stubblebine Mastering (PSM) in concert with
Bottlehead Corporation, have launched their Audiophile Music Series on
reel-to-reel tape! PSM and valve electronics experts Bottlehead Corporation now offer a series of analog releases for discerning audiophiles an analog tape. Slated for ten releases per year and sold primarily on a subscription basis, the 15ips (inches per second) half-track stereo, reel-to-reel recordings encompass a wide range of musical styles, the first of which include Classical, Jazz, Blues, Americana and Roots music. The company is recommending tape machines and specifications for playback, as well as offering its own specially modified tape decks with custom valve components from Bottlehead Corp. "The only two requirements for the music that we release are that the master must exist on analog tape and that the music be great" stated Paul Stubblebine. "That it be music that moves the listener. That it be music that can stand the test of time, and continue to bring satisfaction for years," The first ten titles are:
1) The Number White by jazz singer Jacqui Naylor
2) Dave Alvin's Blackjack David
3) Arnold Overtures original music by Malcolm Arnold with the London Philharmonic Orchestra recorded by Grammy-Winning engineer and audiophile equipment designer Keith Johnson
4) The album that established Robert Cray as a strong new voice in the blues False
Accusations
5) Raphael Fruhbeck de Burgos with the New Philharmonia Orchestra performing Albeniz - Suite Espanola
6) David Oistrakh and the London Symphony Orchestra with music by Bruch and Hindemith
7) Eiji Oue and the Minnesota Orchestra performing Exotic Dances from the Opera (Saint-Saëns, Strauss, Rabaud)
8) Bill Evans Waltz for Debby live at the Village Vanguard in 1961
9) Mose Allison in 1959's Creek Bank engineered by Rudy Van Gelder
10) The incomparable Sonny Rollins in Saxophone Colossus.
11 / 15 / 07
Forty thousands dollars! Yes, it started at $17,000 and
in approximately a month's time we are up to over $40,000, as this is what the
Enjoy the Music.com Audiophile Equipment contest will be giving away in
prizes to our Mailing List members. Now is the time to take advantage and join
our Mailing List so you can get your chance at winning your fair share! Am
sure you are curious as to what we are giving away, so check out the growing
list of prizes by clicking
here.
For
the past two years Enjoy the Music.com has provided audiophiles a way
of giving hints to their loved ones of what they wanted for the holiday
season. The response to both of these articles has been overwhelmingly
positive! Enjoy the Music.com is proud to present our third annual
Great Audiophile Gift 2007 suggestions! Pricing of these gifts range from
$1295... to free, with an average price being $484 (not factoring in the free
protractor). So those who feel being an audiophile is expensive, or are
constantly whining about magazines only covering uber-expensive products,
should take note! Enjoy the Music.com has reviewed each product so you
can read about them and decide for yourself what may work best within your
music reproduction system. We make it easy for you to pick and choose
favorites, then print it out and give to your loved ones as a subtle, or not
so subtle, hint. See our special Great Audiophile Gift 2007 picks by clicking
here.
11 / 14 / 07
Audience's Au24 interconnect cable
($572 for one meter RCA interconnect, $1025 for one meter XLR) continues to be the reference for many audiophiles in part due to the cable's excellent time domain
performance. The materials, design and construction techniques utilized in the Au24 cable line reflect the latest thinking of the company's state-of-the-art in high-resolution technology. The Au24 cables are constructed of OHNO continuous cast single crystal copper conductors with polypropylene insulation and cross-linked polyethylene jacket material. All Audience cables are designed for low eddy-current resistance. This, claims Audience, is the key electrical characteristic for good time response. Eddy-currents are created by the magnetic field found around a cable when an electrical signal is present. This magnetic field builds up and collapses as the signal varies. When the field collapses it induces an opposing voltage back into the cable. This opposing voltage causes eddy-currents in the conductor. Naturally the Au24 cables exhibits extremely low eddy-current resistance. The result is natural reproduction as heard in real life without added emphasis or editorializing. Audience also takes
advantage of their exclusive Au24 RCA connectors used on all cables requiring RCA termination. These are said to be far less colored than bulkier, fancier connectors. They are an advanced, minimalist design and have excellent grip and low contact resistance. Audience balanced analog and AES/EBU digital interconnects are terminated with Neutrik XLR
plugs.
Updated! Audience is now offering an enhanced version of the Au24 cables and powerChords. The enhanced cables
further extend the performance of their Au24 with an enhanced level of
transparency as compared to the standard Au24 cables and powerChord. According
to Audience's owner John McDonald, "The word silkier comes to mind. The enhanced cables are more like a very well broken in cable; however right out of the box. The enhanced cables still go through a break in period resulting in a richer and smoother reproduction of sound. This improvement in performance is due to improved conductivity resulting from new Audience proprietary techniques." The
new 'e' version prices will be approximately $175 more per powerChord, $150 for RCA interconnect and $300 more for standard loudspeaker cables.
Ray Samuels Audio has announced their The Predator portable headphone amplifier/DAC
combination. It is designed to drive all headphones with ease plus has a lower floor noise than the company's Hornet and Tomahawk portable amplifiers. They have implemented a Lithium Ion rechargeable battery in The Predator, giving the unit an operating time of approximately 6 to 7 days of playback at 8 hours per day on one full charge. The amplifier has a three position gain switch to handle various headphone sensitivities, making it a truly universal amplifier for both highly sensitive and hard to drive headphones.
11 / 13 / 07
Orb
Audio Mod4 system ($1999) is an extreme, 'over the top' system designed to match large rooms and/or those seeking big sound. The
company's new BOSS Horizontal Stand easily accommodate a Mod4 system (as does Orb's HOSS floor stand). The base system includes three Mod4 satellites for front and Mod2 speakers for rear surround speakers (in 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1 configurations). The system also includes 3 handmade stainless steel BOSS Mod4 Wall Mounts (for the front speakers) and basic black or white desk stands for the rear speakers. Audiophiles can substitute to the BOSS Horizontal Mod4 Desk Stands or HOSS Mod4 Floor Stands, or add additional BOSS wall mounts. The base system also includes a 200 watt Super Eight subwoofer and upgrade to Orb Audio's 300 watt Uber Ten subwoofer for only $299. The Mod4 satellites are available in Metallic Black Gloss, Pearl White Gloss, Hand Polished Steel ($320 option) and Hand Antiqued Copper ($480 option).
The company The Sound Of The Valve
will be holding their Rome Hi-End 2007 on November 17 and 18 at the prestigious Jolly Midas Hotel in via
Aurelia. Both static and active demonstrations will take place with a total of 45 exhibitors on hand. Audiophiles
accessories, books, music, etc will be for sale during this event. Entry is free of
charge. The Sound Of The Valve also operates a show in Milan and another in Sicilia each year.
11 / 12 / 07
Enjoy the Music.com now offers the
November edition of The $ensible Sound's
online! Equipment reviewed within this issue includes Oppo DV-980H universal player, the Sangean HDT-1X HD tuner, Parasound's Zphono, RealTraps' MondoTraps, the Audyssey Sound Equalizer and JoLida's Musical Envoy.
technical editor David A. Rich's editorial he says, "JBL has just published
The JBL story: 60 years of Audio Innovations, an eponymous coffee-table-sized tome covering all aspects of the company’s product lines for home, studio, and theater. The text, which assumes a basic knowledge of audio, is intertwined with color pictures of the consumer electronics you fondly remember and the giant studio monitor you wished would fit in your home. Featured prominently are the flagship JBL drivers, which were the heart of the speakers. Also included are archival diagrams and old advertisements from the JBL archives. The book begins at the founding of Lansing Manufacturing Company (1927) and peeks behind the scenes at the engineers and technicians (the innovators) and the record producers and musicians (the early adopters). Distributed by Hal Leonard Corporation, this glossy work is available for just $20.00 at Amazon.com and should be part of any
T$S reader’s library."
You can see the table of contents and read the complete editorial by clicking
here.
Silent Running Audio
(SRA), a designer/manufacturer of audio and video isolation products, has announced an OEM relationship with
TW-Acustic Turntables . This German manufacturer of high-end audio turntables wil have SRA provide VR, Ohio Class and Virginia Class platforms for their products. Component-specific platforms will conform to the company's Raven AC ($11,500) or Raven One ($5500) turntables. Silent Running Audio does not believe in placing the plinth and motors on the same plane. "Should an owner choose to change an arm or add a motor down the road, an SRA adaptation to the new configuration will be a fast and simple process" says an SRA
representative. "This is a huge performance compromise. Our designs will employ separate isolation pods for each motor, plus a separate unit for the main plinth." Prices for
TW-Acustic specific SRA isoBASES will begin at $900. SRA products are distributed in 31 countries and hold 23 national and international patents.
11 / 09 / 07
Wavelength Audio, longstanding manufacturer of top quality vacuum tube amplification and USB DAC products for computer audio, now offer their Crimson USB DAC with
upgradeable DAC module and DHT outputs (from $7500 on up depending on configuration). The Crimson is unique in that it is completely
programmable from the USB side, with computer code for this process being housed on the
DAC module. Each module can completely change the characteristics of the Crimson's ability to transform a digital signal to analog sound. Also of note is that the Crimson uses Directly Heated Triodes (71A, WE101L/M and RE134) as the output tubes while a 6V4 tube rectifier powers the high voltage. While the standard unit is extremely impressive, owners can choose various upgraded including a Silver upgrade ($7500), volume control ($750), WE101L/M +3dB output ($750), and/or Telefunken RE134 +5dB
($1000).
Tent Labs'
DIY CD player is a fully modular design for ease of DIY building. All modules come pre-assembled and tested, while the required wiring is prepared and the cabinet comes as a set of parts. Total assembly does not require high levels of experience in electronics, though does ask for a small bit of time to build it (between 6 and 12 hours depending on the builders experience). Capable of playing CD, CD-R and CD-RW, the Tent Labs DIY CD player has both analog and digital outputs. An optional module accepts SPDIF and USB audio as inputs, which converts the player to a universal playback device for either discs or PC-based audio files. Of interesting note is that this unit uses non-oversampling conversion and has a tube based output stage. Parts specific to this unit include the Philips CDproM LF drive, a DAC that accepts the I2S data and reclocks it, PCM1704 DACs, an IV converter using an E88CC valve as transimpedance amplifier, and various power supplied for different stages within the unit.
11 / 08 / 07
Enjoy the Music.com now offers a world
premiere of The Abso!ute Sound's Issue 177, December
2007 table of contents and editorial! This edition features a special
report on music servers including the Arcam MS250, Sooloos music server and Qsonix's Q100/110.
Within Robert Harley's editorial, A Striking Vision For The Future,
he says "But new audio technologies don't always deepen our connection with music. The debate over sound quality aside, when CDs effectively replaced LPs for the vast majority of the population, some things were lost. There was a special feeling about browsing through LPs in a store, taking several home, and listening to them while looking at their jackets. LP cover art was in many cases an important extension of the musical expression. You read the liner notes, looked at who played on the record, followed individual musicians’ development, and recognized connections among artists."
You can see the table of contents and read the complete editorial by clicking
here.
ReQuest, a leaders in the audio and video server market, has finally been granted a U.S. patent for its acclaimed NetSync
technology. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted ReQuest, Inc. patent no. 09/884,661 which covers the synchronization of media including audio, video, and digital photos from a central media server to additional media servers and portable devices over a LAN or the Internet, via wired or wireless communications. The patent was filed on June 19th, 2001, which predates by several months Apple Computer's original introduction of its popular iPod. NetSync is ReQuest's proprietary, key enabling technology that allows its music servers and other audio-video component designs to share and exchange audio-video entertainment, setup and operations data, and to interact under the control of external "clients" including personal computers and personal wireless devices. How this new patent may affect licensing or in the way other products sync is not yet clear. "We're very happy to have received our NetSync patent," says company CEO Peter Cholnoky, "And we look upon this as an important milestone for our company. The patent validates ReQuest's place as an innovator in home entertainment overall, and we look forward to actively marketing our technology to third-party providers and marketers of media devices and solutions, offering the opportunity to leverage our technology to add sharing and syncing of music, playlists, and movies or videos, to their own designs."
11 / 07 / 07
Both CEDIA spring and Stereophile show
cancelled. On August 2 Enjoy the
Music.com reported within our Industry News page that the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA),
an international trade association of companies that specialize in designing and installing electronic systems for the
home with more than 3,500 member companies worldwide, had announced a Spring
2008 show. Recently CEDIA said, "Market conditions and additional member feedback prompt change from large, traditional trade show format to smaller, more intimate
environment." Now it appears due to lack of interest or market
conditions, that there will be no show. A statement from CEDIA now says,
"Though there was support for the recently announced Spring Expo concept
initially, member feedback regarding market condition changes and other factors have prompted CEDIA to step back from Spring Expo at this time and focus on education and expanding the exposure opportunities with architects, builders and interior designers at the third annual Electronic Lifestyles
Forum." This is akin to high-end audio, where certain shows have stepped
back while others are greatly flourishing, CEDIA said it is "important to CEDIA members, particularly to manufacturers and exhibitors who have significant cost factors to consider for each trade show they
attend." CEDIA executive director Don Gilpin said, "The feedback from our members has changed over the past couple of months, and they are no longer ready for a full-force tradeshow such as what was planned for the 2008 Spring
Expo." As for Stereophile, it appears they, too, have cancelled
their event. Of note is that the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest show has greatly flourished,
selling out exhibition rooms months in advance. Enjoy the Music.com has
well over 100 show reports online, they can all be accessed by clicking
here.
Added 11/09/07: "We did not cancel anything," says Utz Baldwin, president of CEDIA in a recent interview concerning their spring event. The event was widely reported as "cancelled" by many in the media. Utz prefers the term "stepping back" concerning their plans that were to hold a spring event. Still, it was interesting they had the basic spring event web 'file folder tag' on CEDIA's
website a few days ago that now seems to have vanished. Utz also says, "Sometimes the association leadership takes its members out of its comfort
zone... We never intended to force feed a new show to our members." He further felt the need to better clarify his wording
"market conditions" for "stepping back" from the show. He was not saying there is a housing market slowdown, what he means is that he was referring to perhaps the lack of "buy in for the event."
Avnera,
a pioneer in semiconductor technology enabling breakthrough products for wireless audio applications, has announced the
availability of their new ICs that enable16-bit/48kHz PCM via wireless
communication. This new system uses the 2.4GHz spectrum for real-time streaming transmission technology designed specifically for music. Avnera incorporates six sound quality innovations that reconstruct corrupted packets when they arrive rather than just re-sending them, improving signal reception and eliminating interference problems. Avnera employs audio specific forward error correction to let the receiver repair lost data due to bursts of interference. This feature allows the system to forgo the typical retransmission regime used in many wireless systems. Avnera also employs psycho-acoustic techniques and time dispersion to spread out errors in time. These features allow the AvneraAudio system to conceal longer bursts of interference. The system uses any of 40 possible channels, making the system more resilient to interference in addition to making it less of an interferer to other systems. A dynamic frequency selection algorithm chooses the optimal channel for communication. This feature monitors the entire 2.4 GHz spectrum for interference and seamlessly switches channels if required while maintaining a perfect audio link. Lastly, a dynamic power control technique allows the radio frequency amplifier to increase power if the receiver is far away, or decrease if it is close. Current wireless systems
generally handle only 35 feet of single transmission, whereas this new system claim to reach to 100 feet. This
additional power feature makes the system very power efficient and less of an interferer to other wireless systems which is critical in a crowded usage environment. With previous technology, going wireless meant using eight chips and 131 separate parts. An Avnera-based solution requires just 2 chips and 65 parts.
11 / 06 / 07
Let the holiday season begin as loudspeaker manufacturer
Aperion Audio has announced a special promotion for the holidays in partnership with electronics manufacturer
Outlaw Audio to give customers a great deal on speakers and audio
equipment. As both companies sell directly to customers online, this makes for a very unique partnership. Through this partnership, Aperion is offering a 5 percent discount toward Outlaw Audio electronics to any customer making a speaker purchase of $998 or more. This promotion will run until December 31, 2007. "We recognize our customers love for music, movies, and the high-performance equipment used to compliment their passion," says Aperion Audio VP of Marketing John Wanderscheid. "Most of our customers are upgrading their entire home entertainment system along with their speakers. With this offer, they will be able to select one of our award-winning home theater systems and get a discount on any additional electronics they wish to purchase through Outlaw Audio. It’s a way for us to say thanks to our customers and to introduce them to another online retailer with great products and service."
Enjoy the Music.com has reviewed many Aperion Audio
loudspeakers including their Intimus 632-LR bookshelf and 634-VAC center channel
(click
here), 633T floorstander (click
here), and Intimus 522D powered towers (click
here). We also have reviews of Outlaw Audio's Model 950 home theater
preamp/processor plus Model 7100 multi-channel power amplifier (click
here) and their RR2150 stereo receiver (click
here).
Just
a quick update as Enjoy the Music.com is now at over $30,000 in prizes
for the Equipment Contest! In the past two years, our Mailing List members
have enjoyed the opportunity to win their share of over $100,000 in prizes. We
are currently in talks with quite a few manufacturers and expect the contest
to reach well over $40,000 by the end of this week.
If you are not a member of our Mailing List
then click
here to join.
If you are a manufacturer/distributor and would
like to enjoy the benefits of being part of our Equipment Contest please click
here.
11 / 05 / 07
Imagine
Studios' Lucid Acoustics designed by Jeff Keyes
new Custom 7F ($12,000 to $15,000 depending finish) is an innovative floorstanding loudspeaker with 300-watt powered
subwoofer. The Custom 7F has some some of the latest driver technology plus beautiful cabinet design. A machined aluminum input plate holds insulated high-end
loudspeaker binding posts while the driver compliment includes a Scan speak 7-inch Revelator Mid and Scan-Speak Air-Circ tweeter. For subwoofer duties, the Scan-Speak 10-inch revelator produces deep, powerful bass. The Imagine Studios Custom 7F can be bi-wired and/or bi-amplified and the cabinet is
available in high gloss black, or various automotive finished or exotic woods. Overall frequency response is from 30Hz to 40kHz with a 90/dB/W/m sensitivity at 6 Ohms. Dimensions are 41 x 9.4 x 16 (HxWxD in inches) and each unit weights 75 lbs.
Wavecor, an innovative in driver technology that produces high quality units for both the industry and DIY'ers, has launched their new WF110WA midrange
(pictured) and SW310WA
woofer. The WF110WA is a 4.50-inch midrange/woofer that features a large 32mm voice coil, black glass fiber bobbin, and extensive ventilation. This driver contains no compromises and is available with heat sink cooled dual neodymium magnet or with a large ferrite motor in both 4 and 8
Ohms versions. The SW310WA heavy duty 12.25-inch subwoofer has a 2-inch voice coil, very rigid die cast frame, and huge ventilated motor system. The driver's resonant frequency is 26Hz and has a moving mass of 178 grams.
11 / 02 / 07
Enjoy the Music.com has officially
launched this year's Equipment Contest, with over $28,00 in prizes, and should
reach well over $40,000 in the next few days! In the past two years well over $100,000 in prizes have been offered, with each contest creating a huge buzz throughout the audiophile community. In concert with many high-end audio manufacturers from around the world,
Enjoy the Music.com has put together their third annual contest with over $28,000
(with more to come) in prizes that will be awarded to our opt-in Mailing List members. "As the only audiophile magazine with the resources and support to have the opportunity to offer over $125,000 in prizes in the past three years, it brings me great joy to
give away thousands of dollars in consumer electronics to our enthusiast worldwide readership" said Steven R. Rochlin, editor of
Enjoy the Music.com. "Once again the high-end audio community has spoken in their great respect for Enjoy the Music.com. Our service to our readership comes first and foremost with our equipment and music reviews plus editorial articles, worldwide show reports and so much more. We are continually expanding our information-based Web site and now provide over 100 show reports from around the world plus hundreds of equipment and music reviews. We are the Internet's largest Web site for independent high-performance audio information, news, and reviews worldwide."
The contest begins November 1, 2007 and will end March 31, 2008 with
winners being notified via e-mail. While many manufacturers are in discussions with providing more products to be given away, as of this date
Enjoy the Music.com is awarding over $28,000 in prizes within their third annual contest from many leading high-end companies including AAA Audio, Aperion Audio, Audience AV, Axiom Audio, Boston Audio, Empirical Audio, Environmental Potentials, Furutech, Gemme Audio, ModWright, Role Audio, The Music Cable and Ultra Systems. To learn more about the contest please
click here.
11 / 01 / 07
Enjoy
the Music.com has just posted the
November editions of our Superior
Audio and Review
Magazine. With over ten pieces of new equipment reviewed this
month, our November issues have many great
articles for your enjoyment. In editor Steven R. Rochlin's editorial he takes
on the ABX and subjective versus objective debate head on, as he personally
was involved with an ABX test well over a decade ago with E. Brad Meyer of the
Boston Audio Society. Perhaps ABX is like fashion, it comes around from time
to time so do not throw anything out?
Many new articles are now online including...
Viewpoint Article
Subs Versus Obs, ABX And Other Ramblings
Audiolics Anonymous Chapter 97: My Audience Part Deux
Audience adeptResponse aR6 & aR12 High Resolution Power Conditioner.
BAS Speaker
ABX: Preliminary Discussion By E. Brad Meyer
Equipment Reviewed
The Cartridge Man's Music Maker III
CSE Isolation Regulator RK-100
HiDiamond Cable Reference Black Gold Interconnect & Diamond Power + 1 New
Parasound NewClassic Model 2100 Preamplifier & Model 2125 Amplifier
Sennheiser CX 500 In-Ear Headphones
Music Reviews
A great-sounding recording of a symphony composed by legendary conductor Felix
Weingartner Plus nine other reviews including jazz, bluegrass and rock!
See the November Review
Magazine by clicking
here.
This month we have:
Final Sound 1000i Electrostatic Loudspeaker
Nightingale Gala Tubed Stereo Amplifier
Plus Flashbacks Of:
Lamm Industries Model L2 Reference Line-Level Preamplifier
Ray Samuels Audio Emmeline XR-10B MM/MC Phonostage
See the November issue of
Superior Audio by clicking
here.
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High-Performance Audio Reviews
