Feature Articles
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- Created on Wednesday, 15 May 2013 00:00
- Written by Hans Wetzel
The value proposition is a difficult one to measure. The natural inclination is to buy the biggest, the fastest, the best. If one is buying a Ford Mustang, for instance, a V6 motor simply isn’t an option. It’s all well and good that it makes over 300hp and looks the part, but as soon as you pull up next to a 5.0-liter variant with 412hp, it’s all for naught. Of course, there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with the “base” Mustang -- except for the fact that a Mustang is supposed to have eight cylinders rumbling under its hood. To V6 Mustang owners out there, I say, you’re doing it wrong. The counterargument would proceed that some people don’t need anything more than a V6. “But this gets better gas mileage, and look how much money I’ll save!” That’s true. And yet it matters so little to me it almost hurts.
In late 2012, when I was looking for a pair of loudspeakers to replace my excellent but idiosyncratic Mirage OMD-28s, fellow writers suggested I check out KEF’s R series. Last year, when Doug Schneider reviewed KEF’s R500 ($2599.98 USD per pair), he compared that floorstander favorably with Revel’s flagship, the Salon2 ($22,000/pair). I immediately looked up the specs of KEF’s top R model, the R900. Biggest speaker in the line? Check. Two 8” woofers per cabinet? Check. Most expensive speakers in the line? At $4999.98/pair, they certainly are. Other SoundStage! Network contributors kindly counseled that something like the R700, with its 6.5” woofers and $3699.98/pair price, might be the better option. “Better fit for your room,” they said; “more affordable,” they said.
I promptly ordered a pair of R900s.
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- Created on Wednesday, 01 May 2013 00:00
- Written by Hans Wetzel
I like to drink. It’s one of those things that casually represses my inner introvert, allowing my more obnoxious tendencies to shine through for all around me to see. Sometimes it’s a night of beers, preferably of the British variety. This allows me to drink for a long period of time without doing too much damage to me, my close relationships, or my immediate surroundings. When I’m trying to facilitate the process of rediscovering a less imperfect “me,” I’ll resort to a bottle of wine to get the job done. Pinot noir, my loyal, red-blooded friend, we meet again. In increasingly frequent moments of laziness, I’ll turn to scotch whisky, the beverage that seems to yield me the most cerebral feelings of intoxication. I find that modest amounts of the amber, oak-aged liquid offer a direct path to the highest clarity of thought.
But despite my deep respect and affection for alcohol, I’ve never developed a dependency on it. When I imbibe too much, my body kindly informs me that I’d be making a galactically poor choice if I tried to have any more. I then swear off the good stuff until I’m once again ready to renew our acquaintance. I’m fortunate for not having a very addictive personality. I’m too cautious to dabble in other substances, too stingy to gamble, and my relationship with food has never been too problematic, despite my penchant for Sour Patch Kids.
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- Created on Wednesday, 01 May 2013 00:00
- Written by Tim Shea
As a glance in my closet confirms, I’m not a huge fan of fashion or style. I’m more about function and value. But despite my proclivity for practicality, I can appreciate when something looks good. And if I can get style, performance, and value together in one package, I’m good with that.
But unless boxy really blows your skirt, there’s not much style to be found among inexpensive speakers. Sonus Faber (pronounced SO-nus FAH-ber) feels your pain, and has had the audacity to launch a line of speakers, Venere (for Venus, and pronounced VAY-neh-ray), that offer style and substance at very reasonable prices.
The Venere 2.5s ($2498 USD per pair) are the most stylish audio components ever to grace my system. Before I even had a chance to ask, my wife remarked on how much she liked their looks. She, too, is Italian, so the deck was probably stacked a little in the Venere’s favor. I’m a little more conservative about style, but even I could appreciate the Venere’s graceful proportions and curves.
Unlike my wife, the Venere 2.5 is not 100% Italian. While it was designed by folks in Italy, and the drivers were specced by Sonus Faber and sourced from other European manufacturers, those sexy cabinets are made and the final assembly is done in China.
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- Created on Wednesday, 01 May 2013 00:00
- Written by Joseph Taylor
Telarc TEL-34021-02
Format: CD
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Michael Feinstein is a singer and pianist, but he is also, and perhaps primarily, an archivist of the Great American Songbook. Channel surfing the other day, I stumbled on Michael Feinstein’s American Songbook, which PBS first broadcast in 2010. Feinstein was visiting the Gershwin archives in San Francisco (they’ve since been moved to the Library of Congress). Feinstein was a friend of Ira Gershwin’s, and his extensive research of Gershwin’s recordings and sheet music helped ensure that the legacies of Ira and his brother George would be accurately and fully preserved.
Read more: Michael Feinstein: "Change of Heart: The Songs of André Previn"
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- Created on Monday, 15 April 2013 00:00
- Written by Vince Hanada
Furutech, a Japanese audio company established in 1988, has been described as a maker of audio accessories: high-end power and speaker cables, car-audio cables, RCA connectors, etc. I’d never used anything made by them; as I browsed Furutech’s website, their products look to be of very high quality, and fit into a very narrow niche of high-end audio.
Recently, under the Alpha Design Labs by Furutech brand, the company has launched affordable headphones and related electronics such as headphone amps and DACs. Their latest such product, and the subject of this review, is the ADL Esprit USB DAC, which builds on ADL’s successful GT40 24-bit/96kHz USB DAC with headphone amplifier by adding a preamplifier section. At a retail price of $899 USD, the Esprit looks to be a versatile component that could find its way into the homes and offices of many audiophiles.
Read more: Alpha Design Labs by Furutech Esprit USB DAC/Headphone Amplifier/Preamplifier
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- Created on Monday, 15 April 2013 00:00
- Written by Joseph Taylor
Columbia/ISO 8876546192 2
Format: CD
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In 2004, after suffering a heart attack while on tour, David Bowie made rare guest appearances onstage with other musicians, such as Arcade Fire, and helped out on a handful of recordings. For the most part, though, he laid low long enough that most of his fans assumed he’d retired. He’d earned it. After more than 30 years of image changes and musical experimentation, the most radical thing David Bowie could do was refuse to drag himself out for a nostalgia tour.
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- Created on Monday, 01 April 2013 00:00
- Written by Hans Wetzel
I am not obsessed with high-end audio equipment. Reading some audio reviews out there, one would get the impression that reviewers get a hard-on for big, brutish amplifiers and tall, elegantly designed loudspeakers. Listening rooms become shrines to equipment, rows of CDs, and framed pictures of Miles Davis. And the act of reviewing becomes a deeply ritualized evaluation period in which legal pads are filled with listening notes, and grave expressions are highlighted by a markedly furrowed brow.
To which I say -- eff that. While I find much stereo equipment cool, conceptually and aesthetically, at the end of the workday I just want to turn on my stereo, have a beer, and relax. Eighty percent of the time my stereo is playing, I’m doing something else -- and seeing as my cable box, Apple TV, and Sony PlayStation 3 are all routed through my integrated amplifier, it’s easy to see why my stereo is almost always on.
This is out of necessity. I don’t yet own my own place, with a room dedicated to manly pursuits like blasting awful music, drinking too much alcohol, or screaming at my TV in hopes that my beloved FC Arsenal will hear me telling them to stop sucking so hard. One day. As senior editor of GoodSound!, I envision such a room as being used primarily for reviewing audio equipment, with all sorts of gear haphazardly strewn about. And it most certainly would be strewn -- right now I’m staring at eight reviews’ worth of gear, a number that will probably increase if I can manage to make the time for it.
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- Created on Monday, 01 April 2013 00:00
- Written by Thom Moon
SVS, long among the top manufacturers of subwoofers, is an interesting example of a 21st-century business. As chief designer Mark Mason said to me, “SVS has a very virtual organization structure. Our president is located in Maryland, I’m in Toronto, our director of marketing is in San Francisco, and our director of [customer service] is in New York. We all congregate monthly at our warehouse in Girard, Ohio, outside of Youngstown.” And SVS speakers are manufactured in China.
Recently, SVS launched the Ultra line of full-range speakers for music and home-theater systems: the Bookshelf, the Surround, the Center, and the subject of this review, the Ultra Tower. In his feature on the Towers in our coverage of the 2012 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, publisher Doug Schneider pronounced that he was “blown away by the way they sounded -- rich, detailed, exceedingly clean, particularly through the midrange, and notably extended in the bass.”
After spending several weeks with them, my feeling is . . . “What he said!”
Description
The Ultra Tower is an imposing beast that reminds me a bit of the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey. It stands 45”H x 13.8"W x 16.25"D and weighs 75 pounds. While a pair of them make for two bulky packages, SVS coddles them so well in their boxes that they arrived at my door unscathed.
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- Created on Monday, 01 April 2013 00:00
- Written by Joseph Taylor
Telarc International TEL-33814-02
Format: CD
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Move is Hiromi’s second disc with bassist Anthony Jackson and drummer Simon Phillips, aka the Trio Project. Even with Hiromi’s acoustic piano dominating, Voice (2011), her first CD with this group, had more pronounced rock elements than her other jazz-trio recordings. Move continues that trend, and manages to balance even more deftly the muscle of rock music with the complexity of jazz improvisation.
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- Created on Friday, 15 March 2013 00:00
- Written by Thom Moon
The rise of computer audio has made an outboard digital-to-analog converter (DAC) all but a necessity. Computer soundcards, no matter how good, don’t provide the best sound. The only way to get high-quality sound from a computer connected to an audio system is to have the computer output a digital signal and convert it to analog nearer the sound system.
The latest wrinkle has been the introduction of wireless DACs that eliminate the need for USB or FireWire cables. NuForce’s Air DACs fall into this category.
The only real differences between the Air DAC uWireless System and the Air DAC iWireless System are the form of the transmitter and the computer it connects to. The uWireless’s slick little hockey-stick-shaped transmitter plugs into a standard USB port. The iWireless has a 30-pin connector that mates with most Apple iPods, iPads, and iPhones, as well as a dongle that will connect to any standard USB port.
Read more: NuForce Air DAC iWireless System and Air DAC uWireless System D/A Converters
