September 2009

Transcript

September 2009 Web page printouts from the latest issue of AudioEnz http://www.audioenz.co.nz/acrobat/issues/2009/2009-09.pdf www.audioenz.co.nz AudioEnz editor: Michael Jones ph 027-44 999 75 AudioEnz - Oppo BDP-83 http://www.audioenz.co.nz/2009/oppo_bdp83.shtml Oppo BDP-83 By Michael Wong September 2009 Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray Disc Player. $1450 When Oppo announced a Blu-ray player back in 2008, various internet forums quickly filled with posts from vociferous fanboys long before the first prototypes were delivered to beta testers. It wasn’t long before the official announcement confirmed key features like multi-format playback (CD, DVD and BD in its various forms), high quality video and audio processing, including full on-board audio decoding and 7.1 analogue audio outputs, coupled to the ease of use and convenience features familiar to users of Oppo DVD players. Controversial was the omission of region-free playback for BD and DVD, historically a major draw card for prospective OPPO buyers. The official response was that Oppo had to enforce BD region coding to get a Blu-ray Disc Association licence. Not a big concern in the USA but rendering the player next to useless for overseas markets like NZ. It didn’t take long for modders to defeat the Oppo’s default DVD R1/BD A region coding. There is a firmware hack, liable to be rendered useless with future official firmware upgrades. Much sturdier is the hardware chip modification offered by the New Zealand Oppo importer, RapalloAV. This provides automatic region switching for DVD, manual switching for BD and is covered under the normal 12 month warranty when fitted by RapalloAV. First impression counts A large part of the Oppo experience is the excellent presentation. Under a full size display card, the player is safely cradled in large pieces of protective foam and wrapped in a large cloth bag, much like the popular re-usable shopping bags. There’s a well written manual, a stylish black box containing the remote control and supplied cables, including a decent HDMI cable. A bonus is a copy of the Spears & Munsil High Definition Benchmark, Blu-ray Edition test disc; chock full of test patterns and demonstration material. This latest Oppo is a much classier looking player than past Oppo players. The front panel is a luxurious piece of brushed aluminium carrying the basic controls needed to operate the unit. The minimalism extends to the exclusion of the roll call of brand name technologies that festoons modern disc players, the only logos on the Oppo are for SACD, DVD and Anchor Bay’s VRS. AudioEnz - Oppo BDP-83 http://www.audioenz.co.nz/2009/oppo_bdp83.shtml Setup and use On first power up, the user is greeted with an easy to use on-screen Set-up Wizard that will have you ready to go in six simple steps, helped by the attractive on-screen menu and the responsive, clearly labelled remote control. A major bugbear with almost all BD players has been the very slow start-up and disc loading times and sluggish disc navigation. The Oppo was a revelation. Against the stopwatch it posted start-up and loading times as fast as the reigning speed champ, the Sony Playstation 3 and about twice as fast as my resident Panasonic BD80. Jumping from chapter to chapter was equally swift. Audio performance In a dedicated two-channel music system the Oppo produced mediocre CD playback. Tonally it was a bit bright with a thin midrange and subdued bass response. The soundstage was well reproduced with good dimensionality. Images had realistic size but were slightly forward and lacked body, enclosed in a dry-ish acoustic. The Oppo sounded flat and unsatisfying, aloof and lacking in toe-tapping pace. SACD and DVD-Audio opened up a whole new dimension of musicality. Every aspect of performance was improved over CD. Better tonal balance, greater body and impact made music much more enjoyable. Home theatre performance For home theatre evaluation the Oppo was hooked up to a Rotel AVR with HDMI, coaxial digital and multi-channel analogue connections. Video was viewed on an ISF-calibrated Pioneer plasma and a Sony full-HD LCD TV. DVD playback was excellent with bright, colourful, noise-free pictures. Sharpness and fine detail surpassed that of the highly acclaimed OPPO DV-983 DVD player, a matter of necessity as the 983’s lead in picture quality had been eroded by the big manufacturers’ proprietary video processing. Blu-ray was played back in all its high definition glory. Picture quality was superb with smooth, natural looking images. Detail, contrast, colour saturation, dimensionality were all top notch. For even higher quality the OPPO has a Source Direct mode that passes the video from disc to your display au naturel, without any processing. Sonically, it was more of the results we got from the audio-only sessions. Through the HDMI connection there was the same slightly bright, forward sound, lacking in involvement and authority. Sound quality improved when the supplied HDMI cable was replaced (surprising because the supplied cables worked so well with previous Oppos) and improved again when HDMI was bypassed and coaxial digital (where applicable) or the multi-channel analogue connections were used. The bottom end gained in impact and pace, the brightness was reduced. The sound was sweeter, more engaging and importantly, some of the lost goosebump factor was restored. A class of one AudioEnz - Oppo BDP-83 http://www.audioenz.co.nz/2009/oppo_bdp83.shtml Unusually for the brand, this Oppo does not win on outright performance. In New Zealand it is not as big a bargain as in the US. For similar money you can get better sounding audio from a dedicated CDP. For half the Oppo’s price you can get just as good BD playback from the latest Panasonic BD player. But if you want a Swiss Army Knife one-box solution, the OPPO’s combination of features, performance, build quality, ease of use and reasonable price puts it in a class of one. AudioEnz - HRT Music Streamer and Music Streamer + http://www.audioenz.co.nz/2009/musicstreamer.shtml HRT Music Streamer and Music Streamer + By Michael Jones August 2009 HRT Music Streamer, $250. Music Streamer +, $650 Life was simple a few years ago. You had a CD player, an amplifier and a pair of speakers. But then many music lovers started using their computers to store music, driven by the rapidly decreasing cost of hard drive storage and the increasingly polished computer programs for organizing and playing music. And seemingly, all of a sudden, audiophiles were using music servers. But, how to transport your high quality music from your computer to the hi-fi? That’s where High Resolution Technologies come in. HRT Music Streamer The founders of HRT (Kevin Halverson from electronics firm Muse and Classic Records' Mike Hobson) saw an opportunity and grabbed it. They saw the opportunity for affordable, high quality digital to analog convertors that do one thing only – convert from usb-sourced digital to analog. Plug a Music Streamer into the usb port in any computer and improve sound quality. The two Music Streamer DACs are closely related. Both ustilise the same hexagonal casing (the MS+ with a longer extrusion). Both feature a usb port at one end and RCA sockets at the other. And both use the same usb circuitry. The Streamer + incorporates a higher quality digital chip and more power supply regulation. Both units are powered by the usb bus. Much to my delight, this means no wall warts! All plugged in My time with the two Music Streamer models involved my eight year old Macintosh iBook (a 700MHz G3 model) running iTunes 8 and a not-quite-as-old Denon 2801 AV receiver. For most of the time a Plinius 8150 acted as a power amp from the Denon’s pre-outs. A one terabyte hard drive holds some 1200 albums in Apple Lossless format. I’ve always acknowledged that that headphone output of the iBook (my iBook has no other line output) could be improved. But using the smaller Music Streamer made a huge difference. The tonal balance smoothed out, with a reduction in the forwardness of the headphone output and the addition of AudioEnz - HRT Music Streamer and Music Streamer + http://www.audioenz.co.nz/2009/musicstreamer.shtml more body and weight. Music through the Music Streamer simply became more pleasant to listen to because of this change. I found that I could (and did) listen longer than previously, as my ears were no longer subtly becoming fatigued. Tonally, the Music Streamer was a little rolled off in the treble and a touch warm in sound. This should help ameliorate some of the damage of lower bitrate audio signals and cheaper (and often a little hashy) audio gear. Adding a plus It was with some anticipation that I plugged in the more expensive Music Streamer +. And I was nonplussed at first. There was a lot more musical detail coming through but the overall sound was leaner and meaner. However, I soon realized that even usb-powered equipment benefits from a warm up. After a couple of hours I was very impressed with the Music Streamer +. That positive impression grew the longer I used it. The MS+ brought out tones of musical detail, combined with warmth and a sense of ease that encouraged listening. HRT Music Streamer + And listen is what I did. I’ve barely played a CD through my Meridian 508 since, as the sound quality of the Music Streamer + is very high. It’s not quite as good as my Meridian, in particular lacking the visceral bass impact that this player supplies – but that’s something lacking in most CD players too. That the Music Streamer + can be discussed alongside the Meridian indicates that this DAC is an over-performer. The problems found in many digital audio products were absent. There was no subtle electronic glare. More importantly to this music listener, the musical flow remained – many CD players seem to interfere with this. The obvious competitor to the Music Streamer + is the $799 Cambridge Audio DacMagic. The DacMagic is more flexible than the one-trick-pony Music Streamer, with multiple digital inputs, digital upsampling and looks like a more finished product. Unfortunately, I did not have a DacMagic at hand to directly compare to the Music Streamer +. Positive vibrations These are two excellent products. The standard Music Streamer makes a big improvement over the typical analog output of a computer. For lower-end hi-fi systems it makes a big difference for a small amount of money. Highly recommended. The Music Streamer + takes sound to another level. It competes – successfully – with the sound quality of CD players costing many times its $650 price tag. Very highly recommended for people serious abut music server sound. AudioEnz - Interview with Peter Thomson of Plinius http://www.audioenz.co.nz/2009/peterthomson_interview.shtml Interview with Peter Thomson, founder of Plinius September 2009 By Michael Jones Peter Thomson founded the iconic New Zealand hi-fi brand Plinius in 1980. Now living back in his native Australia, AudioEnz took the opportunity to quiz Peter on the early days of Plinius Q. Until the move to Christchurch this year, Plinius has always been based in and around Palmerston North. So how did a Tasmanian end up in Palmerston North? My family and I arrived in New Zealand in 1976 to start an aluminium ladder fabrication factory for a Christchurch based family business. They had a factory in Christchurch and Auckland and wanted to be able to service the lower half of the North Island from a central location. We wanted to live in New Zealand at the time, were passing through Palmerston North and I saw the position advertised in the local paper. It sounded interesting, suited my engineering background and so I applied for the job. The company owner flew up to Palmerston North to interview me and I went back to our motel after the interview with a new job plus a chook that he had won that night at the Commercial Travellers club. He didn’t want to take it back to Christchurch. Q. New Zealand was very different back then. What was the hi-fi scene like in New Zealand at the time? Most equipment in those days was either smuggled in from the outside world or built by enthusiastic amateurs of whom I became one. There was some commercial equipment available but nothing that was anywhere near sanely priced. Q. A traditional path for a hi-fi business is a guy in a garage building an amp or speaker for himself, with friends hearing it and wanting one. Is this how you started? My first real project was a head amplifier for a moving coil (MC) cartridge and after I had built it had a bit of a problem, as I didn’t actually own a MC then. So I contacted a local music lover, he had one and we tried it out in his system. It was pretty amazing for those days. He had a Yamaha receiver, Linn turntable, KEF105 Speakers and soon one of my head amps. I then built my first pre/power combination and he had the second one. AudioEnz - Interview with Peter Thomson of Plinius http://www.audioenz.co.nz/2009/peterthomson_interview.shtml Peter Thomson (left) discussing amplifier design with Jerry O'Dowling, an electrical engineer at Massey University and Robert Johnson of Audio Associates Q. It's a big jump from building the odd amp in your spare time to trying to make a living from it. When did you make the jump? What was behind the decision? Naivety and stupidity and not necessarily in that order. I think that I had no fear in those days and figured that with a bit of backing I could make a go of it. I had about $1.80 but a friend, David Lane, had a business he wanted me to run for him and so I jumped ship from the ladder factory, started with David and began serious electronic development using some of the profit from the existing business. It was amazing; I took my first amplifier and preamplifier to the PSIS Investment store in Wellington [then a major hi-fi outlet – Editor]. They had everything there but no amplifiers that would successfully drive the newly available Acoustat electrostatic loudspeakers that they were selling. My amp seemed to cope and they gave me an order for 24 of them. I couldn’t believe it. Q. Where did the name Plinius come from and how did you choose it? My wife Vonnie actually chose the name. We were stumped for a sensible name and I asked her to get a map of the moon as there are some great sounding crater names. She went to the library and found Plinius. It sounded pretty good and Plini seemed a good guy in all that he did so there it was. Q. I know there was a model 2 preamp and a model 3 power amp. What was the Plinius model 1? There was no Model 1. We started with 2 as it looked as though we had been around for a while! Q. When I was at Massey University in Palmerston North in the early 1980s I asked a local dealer about Plinius amplifiers. His response was that they didn't stock the brand as the store could go down the road and get one if a customer asked for a Plinius. How difficult did you find it to get hi-fi retailers to stock your amplifiers? Well like all things local the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. It’s also more difficult to mow but most people don’t think of that. As I said I had good support from the Wellington region but that was really about it for a while. Frank Denson from AudioEnz - Interview with Peter Thomson of Plinius http://www.audioenz.co.nz/2009/peterthomson_interview.shtml Soundline in Christchurch arrived in Palmerston North at one stage and saw and heard a Plinius 2 and 3 at Manawatu TV and Sound. He liked what he heard and George Anderson from MTV sent him around to see me. That started a very long relationship, which saw Frank selling Plinius in Christchurch for the next 27 years. The local retailers gradually began to give us some shelf space and then we started to have some success in Auckland. There was a lot of NZ manufactured competition in those days but, save for Perreaux, they all fell by the wayside. The best thing that ever happened to Plinius was the meeting and eventual friendship that Gary Morrison and I started. We were together for 20 years and it was a really rewarding relationship. Unfortunately Gary’s own brand Craft did eventually die and it was probably our fault that this happened. We decided when we merged that we would manufacture Craft in the same factory as Plinius but sadly it was not successful. I think that we tried to combine the two identities and use some common manufacturing methods. If the two had have been kept separated Craft would have continued. It would be interesting to see the result had this happened. Gary Morrison and Peter Thomson with a range of Plinius product, 1999 Q. The first Plinius models were the 2 preamp and 3 power amplifier, released in 1980. Were these units largely your own designs, or a variation on an existing circuit? The original 2 and 3 were a mix of circuit designs, some of my own, some generated by an old (now deceased) friend at Massey University and some ideas from other sources. The important thing was that they were solid and had a real ability to convey the emotion of music unlike many other amplifiers around at that time. It was a time of real experiment with transistor designs and of course a time when it was becoming quite obvious that measurement had no relationship with what was heard. Q. Sometimes known as the "Plint", the combination of the Plinius preamp combined with a smaller power amp was very popular in New Zealand. How did the Plint come about? And how did it develop over the years? AudioEnz - Interview with Peter Thomson of Plinius http://www.audioenz.co.nz/2009/peterthomson_interview.shtml I realised that to exist in New Zealand with its small population it was not going to be enough to have just one model available. We had by this time released a mono power amp and a mono preamp to cover the upper end of the market and so it seemed logical at the time to produce a less expensive amplifier to go with our 2 preamplifier. The Plint was originally a 50 Watt per channel amplifier with a relatively small but dynamic power supply and it sounded really good. As a system it had the house sound mainly due to the preamplifier and drove most speakers very well. It was less expensive to build than the larger models and allowed an entry point to more Plinius customers. The Plinius Plint – a combination of the 2 preamp and 7 (later 760) power amplifiers Q. The 2 preamplifier went through four versions (2, 2b, 2c and 2.4). How did your preamp designs change throughout the life of the 2 preamp? The 2 Preamp was in a very small box and the power supply was contained in the 3 power amp. We did make a separate power supply available at a later date during the life of the 2 and 3 and this made a huge difference to the sound of the preamp. The transformer was very large and of course there was a large storage capacity as well. The 2b was the first preamp in a slimline chassis and took what we had learned about power supplies and included these ideas in one box. The 2c was a little different and was the first with a higher gain phono stage as well as an updated line amplifier. The 2c had a larger chassis and better shielding. The 2.4 was a real change and in was introduced just prior to Gary becoming involved in the Company. In fact Gary took one look at what we had done and made a couple of very good changes to the 2.4 that certainly enhanced its sound. Consequently the 2.4mk2 was a major leap AudioEnz - Interview with Peter Thomson of Plinius http://www.audioenz.co.nz/2009/peterthomson_interview.shtml ahead. Q. Fairly early in the life of Plinius you introduced a mono power amplifier. What can you tell me about it? The Limited Mono was a variation of the original circuit from the 3 power amp. The differences were quite substantial in that the mono amp had an increased number of output devices and a much larger power supply. The transformer was around three times larger and the storage capacity was increased. Although only 125 Watts it had an immense ability to drive loudspeakers due to increased current delivery and the Limited Mono sold really well. Q. The MA100 was the first class-A Plinius power amplifier produced - a path that lead to great success for Plinius. Why did you start looking at class-A amplification? I had been messing with Class A for a while and had converted a couple of 3c power amps into mono Class A to see if I could hear what I was reading about from other parts of the world. Yes there were differences and they were significant. However there was a real issue of heat and getting rid of that efficiently was a real task. Stax at the time were using a heat pipe in one of their newer amps and so I did some research and found that we could simply fabricate a heat pipe in house. I had some help from Temperzone, the refrigeration company, and they manufactured the parts for us in Auckland. Q. The amplifier that put Plinius on the map internationally was the mighty SA100 power amplifier. Was this the culmination of the design work for Plinius amplifiers, or a new direction? Why was it that the SA range in general and this model in particular, launched Plinius internationally? The SA100, while not unique, certainly was a major change for Plinius. The large external heatsinks were very distinctive and the concept of having all that performance in a relatively small footprint opened plenty of doors. The SA100 sounded wonderful and was probably the first Plinius product that was accepted as being internationally competitive. It was the first Plinius product on show at the CES and attracted our first US Distributor. In fact it was David Chesky who heard the SA100 on the last day of the show and made a lot of noise about how it was the first time he had heard his recordings outside of a studio reproduced correctly. The mighty Plinius SA-100 power amplifier AudioEnz - Interview with Peter Thomson of Plinius http://www.audioenz.co.nz/2009/peterthomson_interview.shtml Q. Today, integrated amplifiers are mainstream at even higher price points. But back when Plinius introduced the 2100i, any serious audiophile “knew” that a pre-power combination was necessary for great sound. So why did Plinius introduce their first integrated amplifier? And was it simply a preamp and power amp shoved into the one box? The primary idea of an integrated was to provide a new entry point to Plinius. The pre/power combinations were increasing in cost for a variety of reasons and we wanted to keep the door open at the less expensive part of the market. The 2100i was our second attempt at an integrated. We tried one previously but it didn't see the light of day. The 2100i was a major rethink on Gary's part and started a very successful segment of Plinius's business. Q. I still own an 8150 integrated amp, which was another important model for Plinius internationally. What made this amplifier special? The 8150 was a progression from the 2100i. After the 2100i had been in the market for a while it was decided to go further upmarket and increase power and add a phono stage worthy of a pre/power combination. We achieved this and of course as market demands were identified, changed the power level and a few features to establish the 8200 and then the chassis change to the current rounded look demanded an model change with the 9200. For many customers the 8150/9200 concept is all that they will ever want in an amplifier and it sure does fit into a domestic environment far more easily than some of our other efforts. It’s not easy to hide an SA250 in a 'stereo' cabinet! Q. You've always been a big vinyl fan, even carting your own turntable to hi-fi shows and talks to audio groups. So it was a big event for Plinius to bring out a CD player, the CD-101. What was behind this event? The release of the CD-101 allowed our customers who had already invested heavily in the new Plinius products to finally be able to have a product that not only raised the performance bar but also physically matched the other equipment. We also needed to honour that Plinius was a music company and that people derived their musical pleasure from many different sources. Digital is as valid as analogue as are all types of music and it would be foolish not to acknowledge that there are many ways of skinning a cat. Peter Thomson is currently enjoying semi-retirement, travelling around Australia with his wife Vonnie in a caravan he built himself. AudioEnz - The PQ $100k system http://www.audioenz.co.nz/2009/pq-system.shtml AudioEnz - The PQ $100k system http://www.audioenz.co.nz/2009/pq-system.shtml The PQ $100k system By Michael Jones September 2009 It’s difficult to see and hear expensive hi-fi equipment. And no wonder – the costs of a hi-fi specialist shop to stock upmarket hi-fi verges on the prohibitive. So whenever some expensive equipment is out on show it brings out the interested audiophiles. So it was in July at The Top Hi-Fi Shop, Christchurch. Paul Quilter, the head of PQ Imports, was in Christchurch with a hi-fi system valued in excess of $100,000. As well as the more mainstream hi-fi brands of Cambridge Audio and Paradigm, Paul also passionately represents Wadia, VTL and Proac. The $100k PQ Imports system: the edge of the ProAc D38 speakers, VTL 6.5 preamp and 185 mono power amps, Wadia 781i Cd player. It was the last three brands that made up the $100k system found in one of The Top Hi-Fi Shop’s demo rooms: Wadia WA781i CD player VTL 6.5 preamplifier VTL 185 mono power amplifiers ProAc D38 loudspeakers On demo for the day, the system drew a number of audio enthusiasts to the Top Hi-Fi Shop to have a listen. Reactions were – as always – mixed, with many loving the sound. AudioEnz - The Canterbury Hi-Fi Show http://www.audioenz.co.nz/2009/canterbury-show.shtml The Canterbury Hi-Fi Show By Michael Jones September 2009 The Canterbury Hi-Fi Show. September 18-20. Canterbury’s first hi-fi show for many years is happening in September. Located at the Elms Hotel, down the Papanui end of Papanui Road, Christchurch, the show is put together by local retailers Strawberry Sound and The Top Hi-Fi Shop. Brands featured at the show include: AKG Acoustic Energy Arcam Audio Analogue Bell'O Crestron Denon Elan Escient Kondo cables Loewe PSB NAD Niles Plinius Project Rotel Sennheiser Sim2 Sonus Faber Sugden Tangent Tannoy Velodyne Vogels Some highlights Stephen Seque of Soul to Sole Audio is planning a big Sugden/Living Voice system for one room. It will comprise of a Sugden Masterclass CD Player, Sugden Masterclass LA-4 Pre-Amplifier with the two Masterclass MPA-4 Monoblocks. The speakers will be the top-of-the-range Living Voice OBX-RW speakers AudioEnz - The Canterbury Hi-Fi Show http://www.audioenz.co.nz/2009/canterbury-show.shtml with the outboard cross-over. Tony Chandler of Interdyn is planning a multi-channel Rotel/Tannoy dual-concentric system, including the new Tannoy Revolution Signature speakers. Another room includes the Sonus faber Elipsa speakers driven by an Audio Analogue Maestro CD and 50 watt class-A amplifier. The new Tannoy DC10 dual concentric speakers with another Audio Analogue combination also feature. Prize draw All who attend The Canterbury Hi-Fi Show the opportunity to go in a draw to win a great sound and home theatre system valued at $5499. Fill in an entry form, put it in the box, and you could win a high-gloss red Project Debut III Turntable, a Rotel RX1052 home theatre receiver, a Rotel RCD1072 CD player and Tannoy DC4T Revolution speakers. The Canterbury Hi-Fi Show Elms Hotel, 456 Papanui Road Friday 18th September 2009 – 4pm–9pm Saturday 19th September 2009 – 10am–7pm Sunday 20th September 2009 – 10am–4pm AudioEnz - The Vinyl Anachronist: Crème de la Crème http://www.audioenz.co.nz/2009/vinyl_creme.shtml The Vinyl Anachronist: Crème de la Crème By Marc Phillips September 2009 I’ve settled into my new digs in Austin, Texas (Live Music Capital of the World), and I’ve also settled into a new analog rig that reflects the current global modes of frugality and thrift. Yes, I’ve actually gone back to owning a Rega P3, just like I did from 1992 to 1998. This P3 is a slightly different animal, however, than that Plain Jane black model with the dark-tinted dust cover (which I always felt was tacky). My new Rega is the P3-24, with the TT-PSU power supply upgrade. I’ve added the Reference subplatter from GrooveTracer, the one with the sapphire thrust plate. Oh yes, I forgot… the plinth is high-gloss, unlike my stodgy old P3. It’s also lime green. All in all, this is pretty much the same P3 I described in my column Super Rega! While it is certainly an extraordinary turntable for the money, I have been spoiled over the last few years with some truly stellar analog rigs. I wondered if the lime green P3 would truly provide the same long-term satisfaction as the Michell Orbe SE, Rega P9 and other “super tables” I’ve had in my home over the last decade. I’ve also had plenty of exposure to tables from SME, Continuum, Spiral Groove and TW-Acustic in the last couple of years. I started thinking about what those big tables do that my new P3-24 can’t. In other words, in these days of financial instability, is it wise to plonk down $50,000 on a quality analog rig? Can you find true happiness with a Rega, Pro-Ject or even… God help me… a Technics SL-1200? Well, I have to be honest. While it’s certainly fashionable to bash high-end audio these days, those super rigs definitely do many things that their less fancy brethren cannot. Whether these accoutrements are worth the extra cash is up to you. But in many cases, the improvements are far from subtle and do not subscribe to the Law of Diminishing Returns. Big love The most obvious quality these analog rigs possess is size. As you go up the audio food chain, you’ll notice that everything starts to sound bigger. I don’t mean that piano keyboards are suddenly a AudioEnz - The Vinyl Anachronist: Crème de la Crème http://www.audioenz.co.nz/2009/vinyl_creme.shtml hundred feet across or that Edith Piaf sounds like she’s seven feet tall, but it’s just that the boundaries of the soundstage feel unlimited, and you can truly “see” beyond the walls of your listening room. The Continuum Criterion For instance, the Continuum Criterion offered soundstage and imaging that was almost spherical, resulting in sonic information that could be sensed throughout the listening room. Spatial cues were present in front of the speakers as well as behind, providing a sense that I was truly immersed in a live performance. With a powerful amp such as the conrad-johnson Premier 350 and full range speakers such as the Martin-Logan CLXs, the Criterion often made me feel like I was standing at the edge of an abyss and staring into the infinite. Silence! You have heard audio reviewers and hardcore audiophiles talk about silence when discussing quality analog, saying such ethereal things as “the silence between the notes is just as important as the notes.” That sounds goofy at first until you realize that the better the silence, the deeper the dynamic swings, which results in more musical goosebumps. Part of the original thrill of hearing music is that contrast of a very deliberate sound against total silence or the random ambience of nature. The best analog rigs are extraordinarily quiet, and easily deliver these contrasts. Cartridges such as the Koetsus are also able to lower the noise floor considerable and push pops and clicks further into the background. I once had a heated argument with a vinylphobe who insisted that a better cartridge should reveal everything in the grooves, including surface noise. He maintained that the Koetsus were therefore hiding something, which went against the true notion of fidelity. The Koetsus don’t hide surface noise, they just seem to know the difference between musical information and recording artifacts and excel at emphasizing the former. I’ve asked several engineers and designers why this is, and no one has supplied a decent explanation, so don’t ask me. It just is. Go deep! AudioEnz - The Vinyl Anachronist: Crème de la Crème http://www.audioenz.co.nz/2009/vinyl_creme.shtml If you’ve been in the audio world for a while, you know that good, accurate bass is expensive. It’s easy to get cheap, boomy bass that shakes the floor, but it’s quite different to find bass that accurately reproduces the woody rumblings of a double bass or captures the sound of the room flexing and reacting to the physical movements of the musicians. Now I’ve seen the measurements and heard the arguments about how digital has a much wider frequency response, but for me the most impressive, natural bass comes from a quality analog rig. The bass seems to feel like it’s rising from the earth, not generated from a computer file. When you get a high-quality analog rig, you have to worry more about the amplifier and the speakers. The source is never the limiting factor. I call that a bargain… In addition to tonal accuracy, midrange purity and greater detail, these three qualities define the sound of a truly great analog rig. In most cases, the more modest rigs tend to sound smaller, noisier and often gloss over the details. Many of these turntables, like my new P3-24, still provide a completely believable and natural musical presentation that can satisfy for a lifetime. But you’re kidding yourself if you think ‘tables such as an SME 30, Wilson Benesch Act ONE, Spiral Groove SG-1 or the Shindo Garrard 301 are only offering marginal improvements over the average $2000 rig. Then again, it’s all about your priorities. Like I’ve said before, if I had $50,000 to spend, it wouldn’t be on a turntable. I’d travel the world for a month, or buy a vehicle that goes really, really fast. But if I returned from the French Riviera, put the BMW M3 in the garage and still had money left over, I’d buy a nice turntable. Probably the Shindo. Marc Phillips has been writing about hi-fi and music under the Vinyl Anachronist banner since 1998. You can discuss vinyl with Marc at [email protected] AudioEnz - Music reviews http://www.audioenz.co.nz/music_current.shtml September music reviews Buddy and Julie Miller: Written in Chalk New West Records This is the kind of package that reminds me why we bother. Great booklet, lyrics with some depth, tidy production and a sum that exceeds expectation. Buddy and Julie Miller are alt-country heroes that happen to be husband and wife, are back in the studio together after an eight year hiatus produce three different sounds on the one release. Hers, his and theirs to sum it up. The nasal vocals of both are tempered with a few guests – Patty Griffin. Emmylou Harris and Robert Plant though their contribution is minimal and frankly the Plant track is not the reason to by this. The song-writing itself is delivered with convincing belief which takes us past the banal, while the tracks they really hum on are where they share the light in equal measure. Take the final track The Selfishness of Man as a great example and you will hear why this album is one of those “growers” that while not world changing certainly enhances our stay. Keep the stereo for another week and seek this out. Allan McFarlane Paolo Nutini: Sunny Side Up Atlantic A ska-raggae opener but first impressions end there. You’re kept on our toes with a constant change of genre on this very busy album. Coming up easy and Tricks of the trade draw you into the folk era of Dylan, as does one of the shortest tracks, Chamber music. This is a great acoustic track, combining the pennywhistling of Gaelic folk music with Dylan-type lyrics. In his pursuit of multi-genre music, he could have been mistaken for a Motown crooner when he lunges into No other way and for good measure, a calypso-style My hopes are high followed by a honky-tonk ragtime Pencil full of lead, to ensure he covers all audiences. A constant change of genre nearly every new track, makes it difficult to pin down the mood of this album; you’re not sure whether you’re coming or going. Sadly, Paolo’s magnetic husky voice has been toned down and overridden by instruments throughout the album. Sunny Side Up with its assorted styles is a muddle of tunes. Furthermore, the album ends AudioEnz - Music reviews http://www.audioenz.co.nz/music_current.shtml in a disappointing morose down beat mood so there’s a struggle to like the album. Patricia Evans Mark Olsen and Gary Louris: Ready for the Flood New West Records Hailing from the ‘90s alt-country band The Jayhawks, Mark Olsen and Gary Louris have long been credited with helping to bring Americana to the great mass of mainstream America. Personally I’m sure there was always a following with the labelling of genres only helping to confuse and alienate. Is there really a huge gulf between The Jayhawks and say the Eagles? Having said that it is probably a lot more fun being top of an Americana chart than 98 on Pop/Rock chart. It also gives credence to a radio station playlist that wants to avoid both Kenny Rogers and/or anything with a hint of rap/hip-hop. So while it is apparently some fourteen years since these two collaborated on Jayhawks tunes, primarily on the excellent Hollywood Town Hall, it has taken until now for them to reunite and combine their obscenely well matched voices into a new set of tunes. The excellent tracks are truly wonderful, while some will out twee their stay all too soon. Harmonically they remain as well matched as ever, guitar wise name your hero without moving to the virtuoso jazz freak and you’ll get the idea. Simple songs, well crafted, a message or two, good harmonies, though not too complicated which you will see as either good or bad. Perhaps too “nice” for some, certainly missing the edge of the full band of days gone by, but a welcome listen none-the-less. Allan McFarlane Boh Runga: Right Here Universal Music that’s too often begging to be pared back. With two of her LA backing men also claiming the critical territory of production, arranging and mixing, the Boh we’ve come to know vocal performance is repeatedly swamped by a tide of too much intrusive guitar and over-stated percussion. Choruses are particularly vulnerable to this emphasis overload approach, but the verses too get it in the neck in most of the songs. Ultimately, you just want the plugs pulled out. Left with the woman and not much more than her guitar, we’d have space to appreciate the lyrics – which usually offer a plausible enough weave of idiomatic home truths (“You’re out there on your own/Collecting memories to bring back”), but which can also stumble clumsily (“The sky tells the earth there could never be another/And the earth smiles cos she knows she speaks the truth”). Aligning that lovely voice with more astute studio personnel will hopefully be part of the terms of the lady’s return to New Zealand. Paul Green Simon & Garfunkel: Live 1969 Sony Legacy AudioEnz - Music reviews http://www.audioenz.co.nz/music_current.shtml Before the release of Bridge Over Troubled Water, their final studio album, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel went out on the road touring around America. Several of the performances were taped for a future album release, shelved when the duo broke up. But the future is now, as excerpts from these recordings are here as Live 1969. The Bridge recordings were in the can, but this tour was the first time that the audience heard these now well-known songs. It seems weird now that the beginning of Bridge Over Troubled Water is not drowned out in applause, as it would be from now on. Accompanied by a four-piece band of seriously good but understated studio musician, Simon and Garfunkel traverse through their entire catalogue. The performances and sound quality are both excellent. Michael Jones Patrick Watson: Wooden Arms Secret City Records You’ll probably respond with ambivalence and write off further exploration if brighter compact songs of orthodox structure are generally your favoured choice. Patrick Watson seems dedicated to articulating more ephemeral and confounding aspects of living, and in pursuit of the elusive his work has drawn criticism for being sometimes disjointed and indulgently fragmented. But there’s a character in this eschewing of convention that is inventive and disarming. With a marvelously versatile vocal range (encompassing Devendra Banhart-style giddiness, the musing of Nick Drake, or Coldplay angelic angst) and detailed passages of instrumentation that interlock with enterprising counterpoint, there’s rarely any drift or over-dramatisation. Instead, referencing iconic influences, we are spun along – in Beijing by insistent piano arpeggios reminiscent of Phillip Glass alternated with haywire percussive interludes, in Wooden Arms by plucked then bowed cellos and a his and hers duet that shimmers ruefully a la Leonard Cohen, and in the reeling Traveling Salesman by vaudeville horns and discordant lead guitar redolent of a burly Tom Waits ballad. There’s constant adjustment of pace and rhythm, of mood and texture. And as we dip and twist from crescendo to diminuendo, through phrases that are never over-worked, there’s a real feel here for those seams of consonance and dissonance that underpin us all. Paul Green Repin plays Brahms Deutsche Grammophon Brahms: Violin Concerto in D, Op.77; Concerto for Violin and Cello in A minor, Op.102. Vadim Repin (violin), Truls Mörk (cello), Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Riccardo Chailly AudioEnz - Music reviews http://www.audioenz.co.nz/music_current.shtml The Russian violinist Vadim Repin is often billed as the greatest violinist of his generation. Having not warmed to his Beethoven I’m pleased to report that here we are on much more suitable ground. Here is a true romantic violinist in full flight. This is as close to the legendary Heiftz performance as I have encountered, with the added benefit of 21st century technology. Big toned, full vibrato risk taking yet with gloriously accurate playing that the All Blacks can currently only dream about. Indulge urgently. This is great fun. Allan McFarlane