tas 167, The Absolute Sound
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December 2006
CoverStory
88 Primare130integratedamPlifier
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Jimhannonreports.
52 Cambridgeaudioazur840aClassxdintegratedamplifier
Chrismartens.
57 resolutionaudioopus21CdPlayerandintegratedamplifier
alantaffel.
62 Jamor909loudspeaker
roberte.greenegetstransported.
68 rotelrB-1091monoblockamplifier
Jacobheilbrunnreports.
72 ChapterelectronicsPrécisintegratedamplifier
neilgaderonaClassdintegrated.
76 dualConnectdC-i100interconnect
neilgaderonapuregoldcable.
78 Jouleelectravzn-80mKvemeraldotlStereoamplifier
82 ebenx-3loudspeaker
asneakpreviewofhansen’sKing,hP’slog,andequipmentupdates.
December 2006
The Absolute Sound
Contents
Salliereynoldsreports.
thetitleBoutinanalogPlayBaCK
49 nadC720Beereceiver
neilgaderonanheirtoaclassic.
SueKraft
.
Jimhannononanexcellentdanishspeaker.
117 hP’sWorkshop
Contents
founder; chairman,
editorial advisory board
editor-in-chief
editor
executive editor
managing and
music editor
acquisitions manager
and associate editor
art director
hp’s equipment setup
Harry Pearson
06
Letters
14
Manufacturer
Comments
Robert Harley
Wayne Garcia
Jonathan Valin
Bob Gendron
40
TAS Journal
Basic Repertoire: Britpop
Neil Gader
Andy Downing
17
Guest Editorial
18
Industry
News
Future
TAS
Torquil Dewar
Danny Gonzalez
senior writers
John W. Cooledge, Anthony H. Cordesman,
Robert E. Greene, Chris Martens,
Andrew Quint, Sallie Reynolds,
Paul Seydor, Alan Taffel
6
Start
Me
Up
A Complete Rega System
Barry Willis
26
reviewers and
contributing writers
3
iTAS
Soren Baker, Greg Cahill, Dan Davis,
Andy Downing, Jim Hannon, Jacob Heilbrunn,
Sue Kraft, Mark Lehman, Ted Libbey,
David McGee, Bill Milkowski,
Derk Richardson, Don Saltzman,
Max Shepherd
Neil Gader
Music
managing editor,
avguide.com
web producer
Monica M. Williams
15
Recording
of
the
Issue
Joanna Newsom:
Ys
Ari Koinuma
18
Jazz
The scoop on the newest discs from
Tomasz Stanko, Kenny Garrett, Evan
Parker, Von Freeman, Martin, Scoield,
Medeski & Wood, and David Binney.
Plus, the Anthony Wilson Nonet on
SACD and LP.
Thomas B. Martin, Jr.
Mark Fisher
Cheryl Smith
(512) 891-7775
Marvin Lewis
MTM Sales
(718) 225-8803
reprints and e-prints:
Jennifer Martin, Wrights Reprints,
toll free:
(877) 652-5295, Outside the U.S.: (281) 419-5725,
jmartin@wrightsreprints.com
subscriptions, renewals, changes of address:
phone:
(888) 732-1625 (US) or (815) 734-5833
(outside US), or write
The Absolute Sound
,
Subscription Services, PO Box 629, Mt Morris,
IL 61054. Ten issues: in the US, $36; Canada $52
(GST included); outside North America, $71 (includes air mail).
Payments must be by credit card (VISA, MasterCard,
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with checks payable to Absolute Multimedia, Inc.
editorial matters:
Address letters to The Editor,
The Absolute Sound
, PO Box 1768, Tijeras, New Mexico 87059,
or e-mail rharley@absolutemultimedia.com.
classiied advertising:
Please use form in back of issue.
newsstand distribution and local dealers:
Contact IPD, 27500 Riverview Center Blvd., Suite 400,
Bonita Springs, Florida 34134, (239) 949-4450
publishing matters:
Contact Mark Fisher at the address
below or e-mail misher@absolutemultimedia.com.
Publications Mail Agreement 40600599
Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to
Station A / P.O. Box 54 / Windsor, ON N9A 6J5
e-mail:
info@theabsolutesound.com
Absolute Multimedia, Inc.
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www.theabsolutesound.com
22
136
Classical
Coverage of the new Hilary Hahn,
Bartók’s
Mikrokosmos
, Leon Fleisher’s
The Journey
, Gabriela Montero’s
Bach
and Beyond
, Sting’s
Songs from the
Labyrinth
, Eleni Karaindrou’s
Elegy of
the Uprooting
, Mozart’s
Zaide
, two
Sony “Great Performance” remasters,
and a pair of Shostakovich SACDs.
148
Rock
Etc
.
Reviews of the latest CDs and LPs
from sunnO))) & Boris, TV on the
Radio, Bound Stems, Solomon Burke,
Lupe Fiasco, Willie Nelson, Madeleine
Peyroux, Bob Dylan, Chris Thile, The
Mars Volta, Bonnie “Prince” Billy,
Buddy Guy, Tortoise, and, a most
unusual gospel collection.
168
TAS Back Page
11 Questions for Ted Denney of
Synergistic Research, by Neil Gader.
152
2006 Absolute Multimedia, Inc., December 2006.
The Absolute Sound
(ISSN#0097-1138) is published ten times per year, $42 per year for US residents.
Absolute Multimedia, Inc., 4544 S. Lamar, Bldg G300, Austin, Texas 78745. Periodical
Postage paid at Austin, Texas and additional mailing ofices. Canadian publication
mail account #1551566. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to
The Absolute Sound
,
Subscription Services, PO Box 629, Mt Morris, IL 61054.
Printed in the USA
.
4
December 2006
The Absolute Sound
Bardaudio Wireless Audio System
Absolute Multimedia, Inc.
chairman and ceo
vice president/publisher
advertising reps
Letters
A MATTER OF TASTE
What were you thinking? I just received the October issue of TAS.
The new layout is just awful. Your recent acquisition of
Hi-Fi+
should have given you some guidance on how a hi-i publication
should be presented. I hope the intent is not to trash what is
currently the inest audiophile publication in the English language.
The layout is a lot like
The Perfect Vision
, which looks just like all of
the other home-theater magazines. None of which I have picked up in
two to three years.
Where’s the Cary?
Jim Mallon
based on your glowing review in the September 2006 TAS issue. [Since
you put] the 306 in the same league as the EMM Labs SACD Transport/
DAC, I fully expected the Cary 306 to be in the [Editors’ Choice] list. While
I’m very pleased with the performance of the Cary 306 in my system, I’m
curious to know why wasn’t it included.
NEW DESiGN KuDOS
Issue 165 is strikingly beautiful in its new design! Congratulations! It is
also appreciated that the recommended products are organized by price,
accompanied by a description of what they offer. This feels better than
organizing by degrees of performance achievement.
It is good that you are making efforts to include laudable lower-price
components, while keeping the dream alive with coverage of the very
best ones.
Len White
Robert Harley replies: I wrote the review after we had compiled the
Editors’ Choice Awards. The Cary CD 306 most certainly should have
been included; it was simply an oversight that it wasn’t. The CD 306 will
appear in our next Editors’ Choice Awards.
Carlos E Bauzá
wrote. I would like to pass along some of my observations regarding
the Audio Research 300.2 amp. I’ve owned one for about a year and
believe that he very accurately described the ampliier’s sonic character.
Mr. Martin commented on how the amp improved after keeping it
powered on for 24-48 hours. That’s exactly what I’ve found to be true.
I keep mine on all the time. In my experience, the amp’s sonic character
changes noticeably after two to three days. As the manufacturer pointed
out in its comments, the amp draws only 50 watts. I believe that it takes at
least two days for the electronic components to warm up to their optimal
operating temperature. One additional point that I would like to pass on
to Mr. Martin is the positive affect that an after-market power cord has
on this amp. The best results I’ve achieved are with a Kimber Palladian
PK-10. The amp becomes more open, extended, and smooth. I was never a
big power cord user until my experience with this amp. Its sonic character
changes dramatically with this cord.
I saw that Mr. Martin has a pair of NuForce mono amps. Maybe you can
get him to compare some of the Class D amps: NuForce, ARC 300.2 (Class
T), Jeff Rowland, etc. in a follow-up to his article. I would love to see him
use the same technique of graphing these amps against one another, and
would like him to see if power cords affect Class D designs more than
typical Class AB like the Classé.
EveAnna’s early years of musical training allowed her to listen to and
understand how M.F., the boys from Berwyn, Illinois, and of course the
guys from across our East Coast pond should sound through the electronic
technological wonders we have available.
There is one thing that I can wholeheartedly agree with EveAnna on.
Speaking for myself, I use and listen to all of the available audio product
types: analog, digital, solid-state. and. of course. vacuum tubes. I can
say after forty-plus years, tubes rule, if you really understand how the
playback of recorded music should sound.
Great stuff; don’t quit!
Ed Rusnak
issue’s Budget Systems article. Although I think the article started
down the right path, it fell lat on its face by the time Chris Martens
got to the end of your system No. 6, the $6500+ “budget” system. Only
an audiophile magazine would use the term
budget
with those kinds of
dollar signs.
First off, the No. 1 system was basically a rehash of the ERA/
Cambridge components you reviewed in the previous issue—I would
agree that these components are most likely well-matched within their
price range, and one could actually refer to them as
budget
.
Where I think you missed the boat here was a lack of alternative systems
and equipment options. In this regard, you did mention the EPOS loor-
standing speakers as an alternative to System One and stated they were
reviewed in the current issue, but the review was mysteriously missing,
leading to a lack of credibility.
Chris started to touch on system-matching within this article, which
was actually a good thing, but then lost the plot by not giving the reader
product options within the price ranges; he also seriously missed out
on subjects such as tubes vs. solid-state, etc.
Ifeltlikethisarticlecouldhavebeenmuchmorecomprehensive, especially
given your massive access to product. In my opinion a greatly missed
opportunity to really put some cool systems together within given price
ranges—
6 Awesome Systems
would sufice.
Ralph Sorrentino
Wayne Garcia replies: For those of you who missed it, we had a 28-page
feature on Class D ampliiers in our last issue, which included reviews of
the ampliiers on Mr. Sorrentino’s list, plus ive others.
Great Stuff!
I
just want to say that Neil Gader’s “13 Questions for EveAnna Manley”
Frank Mercurio
6
December 2006
The Absolute Sound
I
auditioned and purchased the Cary 306 CD/SACD player partially
Thoughts on the ARC 300.2
I
read and enjoyed the ampliier article in Issue 164 that Tom Martin
A Good Laugh
I
had a good laugh at the use of the term “budget” in your September
[Issue 165] along with her responses were right on the mark! Anyone
taking the time to learn and understand how to play a musical
instrument gets my full support for her thoughts and idealist views.
Letters
to get blood from a stone from the new formats. First of all, Red Book CD—the “aging format”
is only about 17 years old. Look how long we had the Westrex 45-45 standard [
the stereo LP
format—Ed.
]. Secondly, it has been obvious for some time now that the new “high-res” formats
would fail for many reasons—one of which is no mass-market interest in higher-idelity software.
But the biggest reason for me is that both SACD and DVD-Audio are technically handicapped.
To be brief, DSD [
Direct Stream Digital, the encoding scheme used in SACD—Ed.
] has only six bits
of intrinsic resolution (Red Book has 14), and its “real” production only goes up to 8kHz—the rest is
pure noise (Red Book goes up to 20kHz). How can a system this bad sound acceptable? By aggressive
noise-shaping. But this works only up to a certain level. Indeed, DSD is only half a format—a very
good sounding one at that, but it’s nevertheless incomplete when compared to Red Book. DSD
masters sound exceptional, but something happens along the way where they come up short at
home. A PCM master can be improved upon—a DSD master goes the other way. The bottom line?
It was best said by the editor of
Hi-Fi News
last year: “ SACD can and mostly does sound better at
price points up to $6k, but at the reference level, Red Book is the winner.” This is so true. Let’s not
forget that SACD was supposed to sound a lot better than Red Book six years ago. Some thought
that it did; you blew it out in 1999, as so many others back then did. The exception was good ol’
Jonathan Valin. He never thought it was better than reference Red Book—thank God for him. He
was one of the irst to cry out against SACD, but there have been many more since. [
I did and do
have reservations about the treble of certain SACDs and SACD players, but that doesn’t mean that I
think CD is sonically superior to SACD. I do not.—JV
]
DVD-A is no better off, but its problems are very different. First, 24-bits are much more susceptible
to external inluences (noise and timing variations). The difference is striking. In a 16-bit system a
power supply has to keep voltage or current levels to within 0.0015% in order to realize full resolution
without distortion. The demands for a 20-bit power supply are 16 times more stringent—0.0001%.
Moreover, the conversion involved with high-bit systems would require impossible accuracy. Robert
Harley covers this in
The Complete Guide to High-End Audio
(third edition). It was always true that
16 bits were enough to deine the musical waveform completely.
So where does that leave us? I for one am not afraid to say that Red Book is forever. Why? Because
it sounds so good. And there will never be enough support for a new format to replace it. Besides, it
is improving rapidly, even after 20 years, with no end in sight. Until we hear what this “old format”
can really do, I think it’s premature to anyone ask for more. Sixteen bits aren’t enough? Yes, they
are! It’s true that a 20-bit system might be a good idea, for it has been determined that humans can
hear up to 20-bit resolution. But wait—we have this 20-bit format and it’s been sitting right in front
of us for the past ten years. It’s called HDCD.
The following letters
were sent directly to HP’s
Workshop. I have edited
some of them without
the usual indications of
deleted materials. Believe
me, nothing “tough”
went out. —HP
The Real Thing
and Sonic Criteria
HP:
…I found the analysis of the digital domain the
August issue of
The Absolute Sound
particularly
interesting. I’d like to know the criteria you
used for you selection of digital sources—e.g.,
there is no Wadia, DCS, Meitner.
Another point of interest is the choice of
music. I am particularly interested in classical
music. I will buy an “audiophile” recording if
I consider the performance to be, in musical
terms, of the highest quality. Interestingly, and
this applies to all the main high-end magazines,
sometimes audiophile recordings used in
reviews may not be what are generally regarded
as amongst the best performances of a piece in
musical terms. Often top orchestras—the likes
of Berlin, Vienna, London, Chicago—are not
represented. As an aside, might I say that your
choice of material for the digital review certainly
comprised top musical performances, at least
of the more vintage variety. Whilst there may
be some sense in using audiophile recordings
to illustrate the qualities of equipment, is there
not an argument in musical terms for using
the most critically acclaimed performances,
even if they do not always “sound” the best? I
have decided to renew my subscription to
The
Absolute Sound
based on your Workshop and
The Cutting Edge.
John Harnick
Robert Harley replies: I must disagree with Mr. Harnick’s technical justiication for concluding
that SACD and DVD-Audio are inferior to CD. Moreover, I’ve had quite a bit of experience with
reference-quality CD, and to my ears, the best examples of SACD and DVD-A sound signiicantly
better than the best CD.
You can decide for yourself whether “16 bits are enough” by listening to a remarkable disc
called
The Resolution Project
(DVD-Audio player required). This disc contains musical pieces
encoded at a wide range of resolutions, from MP3 to 16-bit/44.1kHz to 24-bit/192kHz. There’s
absolutely no question after hearing this disc that high-resolution PCM is vastly better to CD. In
fact, CD is to MP3 what 24/192 is to CD.
Warren Gordon
I gather you are asking my criteria for excluding the
Wadia and DCS. The Meitner multichannel SACD
gear I have commented upon at some length. I
really don’t have a rule of thumb for reviewing
components. In this instance, I picked those digital
devices that I thought were either at the cutting
edge of playback or approaching that in more
modestly priced units. Much of this is intuitive on
my part. I am not trying to ind “representative”
products. Nothing could interest me less.
The recordings you use depend on the kind of
review you are writing. Obviously, a record from a
major label using a world-class orchestra does not,
these days, guarantee a superior interpretation,
and all too seldom a lifelike sound. Few music-
Join the discussion of all
things audio with fellow
readers and the TAS editors
and writers at the
AVGuide.com forum.
8
December 2006
The Absolute Sound
Red Book is Forever?
I
t seems that your staff is either misguided about the current digital standard or that you expect
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