ANALOG vs DIGITAL - Ultra High Fidelity Magazine

No. 91 CAN $6.49 / US $7.69 

ANALOG vs DIGITAL: A terrific new phono 

preamp from Audiomat, plus a great DAC/ 

preamp from Benchmark. 

MORE REVIEWS: Pure Music vs Amarra, for 

better fidelity from music on your computer, 

and a power amp that fits in the palm of 

your hand. 

PLUS: Why our brains are programmed 

to love music, why the Beatles remain so 

popular decades after their emergence, 

plus reports from two high-end shows. 

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Issue No. 91 

Cover story: It’s small but potent. The Benchmark 

HDR is a modern digital-to-analog converter, it’s a 

preamplifier, and it’s a terrific headphone amp. 

Features 

At Last…a Toronto Show! 16 

by Gerard Rejskind 

It had been years, even decades, since Toronto 

audiophiles had their own show. 

More From Montréal 2011! 20 

by Albert Simon 

Checking out the Salon Son & Image…with 

friends. 

The Musical Imperative 24 


Are humans programmed to need music? And has it 

always been that way? 

Cinema 

The 3D Wave 28 

Waves come in…but then they go out again. 

Hollywood has seen 3D waves before. Is this the 

one that sticks around? 

Nuts&Bolts 

Reference Reinvents Vinyl 31 

We know Keith O. Johnson and his colleagues have 

thought about this for a long time. Here’s how they 

got it right. 

The Listening Room 

Benchmark DAC1 HDR 34 

It’s a converter. And it’s a preamp. And it’s a 

headphone amp. And it’s terrific. 

The Audiomat Phono 2 38 

Going beyond our own reference phono preamp. 

Will it make us reach for our chequebook? 

The Moon 330A Amplifier 42 

Simaudio reverses the rend to increasingly large 

and costly power amplifiers. 

Trends TA-10.2 Amplifier 46 

If it’s small and inexpensive you’re looking for, this 

pocket-sized amp stretches credibility. 

Better Listening Through Software 48 

Playing back music from your computer with 

iTunes? Two companies say they can do better. 

Software 

The Beatles Forever 63 

by Reine Lessard and Gerard Rejskind 

The Fab Four appeared and disappeared a long, 

long time ago. So why do they still live on? 

Software Reviews 70 

by Steve Bourke and Gerard Rejskind 

Departments 

Editorial 4 

Feedback 7 

Free Advice 8 

Gossip & News 77 

State of the Art 82 

ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 3

UHF Magazine No. 91 was published in December, 2011. 

All contents are copyright 2011 by Broadcast Canada. They 

may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any 

means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, 

recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, 

without written permission from the publisher. 

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PUBLISHER & EDITOR: Gerard Rejskind 

EDITORIAL: Paul Bergman, Steve Bourke, Toby Earp, Reine 

Lessard, Albert Simon 

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4 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 

Editorial 

Maggie is a hit 

With our last issue we introduced our new electronic delivery system, 

named Maggie. Totally different from the old third-partysystem we had 

used for years, Maggie has been largely problem-free. You need a user name 

and password only to download your issue, and what you get is a DRM-free 

standard PDF. You can use it on any computer you own, plus your iPad or (if 

your eyes are good) your phone. And if you make multiple purchases, your 

user name and password are always the same. 

We knew the old service wasn’t terribly popular, and that’s praising it with 

faint damns. Though the electronic magazines were also PDF’s, they could be 

read only with Adobe reader, which is not everyone’s favorite way of reading 

this now universal format. Worse, Adobe reader needed a plug-in. No, we 

don’t like plug-ins either, especially ones that are no longer supported. 

You know what was the rate of renewals of subscriptions under the old 

system? Zero. No one ever renewed. But Maggie is popular, and she’s gained 

a lot of fans. 

We’ve been doing a lot of promotion for Maggie, and a couple of worried 

readers wondered whether that was because we hoped to kill off the print 

issue altogether. No, in fact. We simply hope to live down the black eye we 

got from the old system. So far so good. 

A tale of two shows 

The last Montreal show was featured in issue No. 90, but we had more to 

say about it. Specifically, Albert Simon had more to say, and in this issue he’s 

saying it. As you may know, Albert likes to tour around with other audiophiles, 

or even complete newbies, and write about their reactions to what they hear. 

And this Fall I travelled to Toronto for TAVES, the first audiophile show the 

city had seen since Bill Clinton was a governor. It had been so long, and the dim 

memories of previous shows were so awful that it was widely thought a Toronto 

show couldn’t succeed. But it could. And it did. I have four pages about it in this issue. 

The next show we’ll be covering is in Vegas in January. A full report will 

be in issue No. 92, and of course on line. 

Reine returns 

A number of readers told us they were sad to see Reine Lessard retire from 

UHF after her contributions to no fewer than 51 issues. They appreciated 

Toby Earp and Steve Bourke (notice it took two people to replace her), but 

they appreciated her approach to music. 

So you may notice that she is back in the contributor list for this issue. 

Back in issue No. 63, she had written a major piece on the Beatles. But 

a lot has happened since then, and the afterglow of the Beatles revolution 

shows no sign of dying out anytime soon. A new version of the feature, 

longer than the original, with appropriate updates, is in this issue. 

As for Toby, he’s working on his next musical assignment, for issue No. 92.

DOG-EARED MAGAZINES ARE WRONG! 

And we mean really wrong. You know those folded-down corners 

on magazines we just paid good money for? You don’t like them 

either, right? 

And it’s the expensive copy that’s likely to be tattered, 

torn, and… yes, dog-eared. We mean the newsstand copy. 

Why? Where do copies sit around unprotected? At the 

newsstand. Where do other people leaf through them before 

you arrive, with remains of lunch on their fingers? At the newsstand. 

Where do they stick on little labels you can’t peel off? Beats us why, but they do. 

Our subscribers, on the other hand, get pristine copies protected in plastic, with 

the address label pasted on the plastic itself, not the cover. 

We know what you really want is a perfect copy, and the fact you subscribed and 

paid a little less doesn’t mean you’ll settle for less. 

As if that weren’t reason enough, there’s the fact that with a subscription you 

qualify for a discount on one or all three of our much-praised books on hi-fi (see 

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One more thing. Some newsstands run out of UHF four days after the copies 

arrive. Have you missed copies? 

So what’s our advice? Well, sure! 

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reading other books easier. Includes in-depth 

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lexicon makes this book indispensable. And 

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other magazines advise). How to plan for 

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I was quite impressed with Paul Bergman’s 

article on audio tape (Not Made to 

Last, in UHF No. 90). It’s quite a nice 

historical overview and I learned a lot, 

especially on the origin and how it was 

brought to the US. I always thought it 

was an American invention. 

But as I was reading it I started to 

get scared. All the problems with tape 

material, recorders, constant tension, 

etc, and he did not even talk about the 

environment in which those master tapes 

are stored. With all the remastering and 

digital transfer done through decades, I 

wonder about the real quality of reissues. 

I am sure things have improved with 

digital transfer, but with Paul’s article I 

wonder about original tape conditions. 

Should we rather try to get a used old 

copy one in fair condition? 

At the Montreal Salon I came across 

a Japanese CD called LP45, and yes it 

was digitally transferred from a 45 rpm 

vinyl master. What about that? 

Jean-Pierre Séguin 

TROIS-RIVIÈRES, QC 

A number of record companies are actually 

remastering old recordings from the original 

LP rather than the “master” tape, which 

often isn’t a master at all, but a third, fourth 

or even fifth generation copy. An example is 

Sheffield, whose direct-cut Lab series discs 

were particularly excellent. Tape conditions 

do vary, but not all original pressings are 

first-rate either. 

I think Paul should be more in touch 

with the archival community. There is 

an alternative technique to “baking.” 

Over two years ago, a friend who works 

as an archivist told me one archivist 

studied the properties of the aged 

adhesive on recording tape and found 

that by lowering the temperature below 

a certain point, the stickiness is not a 

problem. The tape and the equipment 

must be kept at a lower temperature 

Feedback 


Longueuil, Québec, Canada J4H 2J6 

uhfmail@uhfmag.com 

(and presumably low humidity). I don’t 

know the specifics, but know my friend 

keeps up on research in the archivist 

community, and I trust her to be very 

knowledgeable in her field. 

David Sims 

VANCOUVER, BC 

I found the article Not Made To Last 

very interesting and informative (I now 

know why I have never cared much for 

tape). 

I would like to draw your attention to 

the final paragraph, where you close by 

saying that LP and earlier discs remain 

the true archival medium. I too believe 

this to be true except for one thing — 

outgassing. I have never known how 

vinyl outgassing affects the longevity of 

LPs. My guess is it must be minimal, 

because some of my records are more 

than 50 years old and still sound very 

good. What are your thoughts on this? 

Lloyd Marshall 

WHITEHORSE, YK 

We’re with you on this, Lloyd, because we 

too have LPs that are decades old and sound 

as good as ever. In fact they’re better than 

ever, because the gear we use to play them 

back was not even dreamed of when they 

were made. Outgassing of vinyl plasticizers 

is of some possible concerns in the case of vinyl 

tiles and car interiors, but not LPs. However 

some LP cleaners using high concentration 

of isopropyl alcohol can dissolve plasticizers 

and accelerate their deterioration. That is of 

much greater concern than outgassing. 

While its great that Toronto is finally 

getting a well-managed audio show, I 

think it could be disastrous for Montreal. 

If you look at the Montreal show for the 

past two or three years, the exhibitors 

from the US and elsewhere have been 

getting scarce. Due to the economy and 

also due to the fact that the US has many 

more audio shows now. I have notice 

that Montreal is becoming more local 

in the past few years. I fear that, since 

there is a Toronto show, it can kill the 

Montreal show. If you are a small US 

exhibitor and only have budget to go to 

one show, I would assume that you would 

go to Toronto since there is a bigger 

opportunity to hit more audiophiles in 

Toronto than Montreal. 

I seriously doubt we will have the 

kind of exhibitor turnout the Montreal 

had in the early 1990’s. The TAVES 

show might make the Montreal one 

unpopular with exhibitors. Lets hope 

that will not be the case. 

Ren Barroga 

BROSSARD, QC 

There used to be a successful Toronto 

show back in the early 80’s, Airwaves, but 

since then the Montreal show has been both 

bigger and better than the Toronto shows 

that followed. Though we wish the Toronto 

show well, there are solid reasons for the 

continuing success of the Montreal show. The 

threat, if there is one, is the explosion of US 

shows. AXPONA has a show in Jacksonville, 

FL second week of March, just three weeks 

before the next Montreal show. There was 

an AXPONA show in New York last June, 

and there might be one again. 

Are you planning to review any Olive 

products in the near future? 

Jerry Wong 

SURREY, BC 

No. We do not recommend buying commodity 

hard drives from high end audio 

companies. Olive, in our view, brings nothing 

to the table that cannot be done with 

the conventional computer gear you may 

already have. 

I have renewed my subscription 

because (1) the electronic subscription is 

easier to obtain than previously and (2) 

the journalistic content offers practical 

information in addition to equipment 

reviews. So the series of articles on 

acoustics and digital music reproduction 

is highly valued and in depth. Most hi-fi 

magazines do not provide such useful 

information even occasionally. 

Sean Leighland 

ILLNAU, Switzerland 


I enjoyed reading your review on the 

Simaudio 100D and 300D converters. I 

am planning on following your advice 

and getting a 100D, especially after I 

was made aware of Simaudio’s current 

exchange program. 

In review of the 300D, you mentioned 

that USB may not be the best input 

source for it. I wonder if you have looked 

further into this subject. After checking 

in other sites, I find that the Moon uses 

adaptive USB while some companies 

like the Wavelength uses asynchronous 

type. I just wonder if you have a chance 

to check the Wavelength Brick, which is 

similar in price to the 300D, as well as 

the Proton which is around $900. There 

are also product like the Musical Fidelity 

V-Link that provides a asynchronous 

connector to SPDIF. 

My CD player just died and I have 

decided not to replace it. The way things 

are going, the computer is a lot more efficient 

in producing good and convenient 

music reproduction. I wonder if you can 

devote a bit more time and sections to 

develop more in this area. 

Its been a pleasure reading your 

magazine in the last number of years. 

Robert Choi 

EDMONTON, AB 

Several companies are now adopting 

asynchronous USB connection, Robert, 

and oddly that includes Simaudio itself. 

The low-cost 100D has an asynchronous 

USB circuit, thus presumably sidestepping 

a major source of jitter. The more 

expensive 300D does not, simply because 

it is of slightly older design. However it 

is still limited to 16 bits, as are the USB 

circuits in a number of other converters. 

To the best of our knowledge, opening 

USB to higher definition would 

require developing drivers for the many 

computer platforms in circulation, with 


Free Advice 


Longueuil, Québec, Canada J4H 2J6 

uhfmail@uhfmag.com 

of course ongoing support. There are 

actually third-party drivers available, but 

they don’t always do what is claimed. 

We now consider USB to be a mere 

convenience, to be used when no other 

interface is available, rather than as a 

first choice. We will, however, be doing 

further testing, and in any case we expect 

to review more converters in the issues 

ahead. 

Years ago, pre children, when I had 

more time and seemingly more budget, 

I used to read your fine publication with 

the hopes of building a great sound 

system within my snack bracket. In fact, 

I purchased a pair of 3a MM’s back then, 

based upon your stellar review, and I’ve 

enjoyed them every day! 

I’m looking to purchase speakers 

that would form the beginnings of a 

home theatre system. In my search I was 

exposed to a brand that was unfamiliar 

to me — ELAC, specifically, the 207A 

model. I was impressed enough to race 

home and try to find out more about this 

German company. I was disappointed 

to discover there isn’t a lot on line other 

than a few (very positive) reviews and 

their spec sheets. 

While I realize that “beauty is in the 

ear of the beholder,” I was wondering if 

you could share any perspective that you 

or your team may have on these speakers. 

Mark Augustin 

RICHMOND HILL, ON 

Mark, we’re also impressed with 

ELAC speakers, and in fact an ELAC 

speaker was featured on the cover of 

UHF No. 89. ELAC is one of a very few 

companies to use a variation on the Heil 

tweeter, whose superiority over the usual 

dome tweeter has long seemed evident to 

us. Though early Heil loudspeakers had 

bottom ends that couldn’t match the top, 

ELAC has nicely balanced the spectrum. 

The speakers may be difficult to find, 

because ELAC has since dropped its 

Canadian distributor, Tri-Cell. It had 

announced plans to distribute directly 

from its headquarters in Kiel, Germany, 

but wiser heads prevailed, and a new 

North American distributor has since 

been named. 

I have a question I hope you can help 

me with. It refers to something I vaguely 

remember (I think) you commented on a 

long time ago, possibly in the Free Advice 

column. 

I have a five-channel amp (ATI 

1505), where the LED on the power 

switch, when turned on, randomly and 

constantly flickers. It drives me nuts! I’ve 

searched through back issues but can’t 

find it. I’m (almost) certain I read about 

this somewhere in UHF. Do you recall? 

Jim Chiga 

NEW WESTMINSTER, BC 

We do recall talking about flickering 

pilot lights, Jim, though we don’t remember 

in which issue (it would indeed have 

been in the Free Advice section). These 

problematic lights are neon bulbs, not 

LED’s, and we have never seen one that 

didn’t start to flicker within six months 

of going into service. 

If you want to try a little experiment, 

train a flashlight beam on the flickering 

neon…and it will cease flickering! Turn 

the flashlight off, however, and it will 

flicker again. We’ve seen attempts to 

explain this odd phenomenon scientifically, 

but we can’t say we found them 

convincing. 

We are told that a radioactive source 

can also keep a neon bulb from flickering, 

but judiciously-applied black electrical 

tape is both cheaper and safer! 

An audiophile friend of mine was 

kind enough to give me a 1 TB drive with 

a nice collection of high-quality music 

files that he ripped himself. To access his 

music conveniently, he utilizes an oldermodel 

Squeezebox (pre-Logitech-era) 

that he sent away to be modified to “up” 

the sound quality. 

I’m looking at configuring a similar 

setup. I’ve been trying to determine 

whether to go Squeezebox or SONOS. It 

looks like the Touch’s DAC is superior to

the original models — true? I can’t afford 

to buy an external DAC right now (I will 

sometime in near future), and from what 

I read, the Squeezebox Touch’s internal 

DAC is more than adequate for my 

listening needs. All I want at this point 

is a means to access music wirelessly 

and do justice to the quality of the files 

when connected directly to my amplifier/speakers. 

Music quality is of higher 

importance to me than is ease-of-use as I 

am accustomed to frigging with technology. 

Are you in a position to comment 

on where those two products are right 

now? Am I correct in my observation 

(mostly from Googling) that the Touch 

is the superior player in terms of music 

quality at this stage? 

John Allen 

KENSINGTON, PEI 

We have reviewed the Squeezebox, 

John, the one from — as you say — pre- 

Logitech days, and we generally liked it. 

Its built-in converter is not truly audiophile 

quality, but it wasn’t too shabby. 

And the screen on the Touch is a lot nicer 

and more informative than the two-line 

screen on the original. 

The Sonos Zoneplayer 90, which is 

the one we presume you’re looking at, is 

about $100 more than the Squeezebox 

Touch, and has no display at all. True, 

you can get an app for an iPhone, iPad 

or Android device for control, but if you 

already use one of these devices there 

is a simpler solution. Get Apple’s $99 

Airport Express. It has an optical output 

for an outboard DAC, which is the way 

we use it, but it has its own DAC as well, 

which will see you through until you can 

upgrade. It can be remote-controlled by 

the same portable devices. 

I’m using a 2009 Mac Mini and a 

Burson Audio Ha-160D DAC. The 

Burson accepts either RCA coaxial or 

USB for digital inputs. My music is 

stored on an external USB drive. 

I’ve read on a few websites that using 

the USB input and running an external 

USB drive together is not a good idea. So 

it seems I have a few options: 1. Scrap the 

external USB drive and put the music on 

the main drive and use USB. 2. Get an 

external Firewire drive for music storage 

and use USB. 3. Find a decent optical- 

to-coaxial converter (if one exists). 

This is not all cut and dried. Apparently, 

it’s not recommended to have your 

music stored on the internal drive, and 

then USB digital inputs on the DAC’s 

seem to be frowned upon as well. 

Ken Justice 

DAUPHIN, MB 

You could be right that a USB music 

drive and a USB cable to your digital-toanalog 

converter are a bad mix, Ken, but 

we don’t consider USB to be a desirable 

link anyway. At one time it was, but that 

was because computer devices offered 

no other options. Computers still don’t 

commonly sport coaxial digital outputs, 

and perhaps it’s just as well, because 

the coax lead makes a nice pipeline for 

system noise between your computer and 

your music system. 

That leaves optical, and in our tests 

it is superior to USB. We have found 

a pretty good optical cable, and the 

mini-TOSLINK adapter that lets us 

connect to the tiny digital outputs found 

Coming up in issue No. 92 of 

Small but potent loudspeakers. 

Inexpensive digital-to-analog converters. 

Pushing the envelope on computer music. 

Fresh reports from CES 

and T.H.E.Show in Vegas 

And much, much more! 


Free Free Feedback Advice Advice 

on modern computers. Both are in our 

Audiophile Store. We have our eye out 

for a better optical cable if there is one, 

but we’ve come up empty so far. 

Incidentally, though there are proquality 

Firewire DAC’s still on the 

market, Firewire itself seems poised to 

vanish, to be overtaken by Thunderbolt, 

the new high-speed interface developed 

jointly by Apple and Intel, which has 

replaced Firewire on current Macintosh 

computers. 

I am looking for a replacement turntable 

mat. I’m wondering if you have a 


preference for a felt or a cork mat, or 

maybe another type I haven’t considered? 

I have a Denon DP-23f turntable. 

Mark Boutcher 

SHERWOOD PARK, AB 

Mark, the ideal turntable design is 

the sort that doesn’t need a mat at all, 

because then, with a clamp, you can get 

the best possible rigidity of the system, 

and therefore recover the most detail. 

Few turntables are designed that way, 

however, and a felt mat is the best compromise, 

damping any possible ringing 

of the platter, but maintaining good 

rigidity. Mats made from cork, rubber, 

and other resilient materials will have a 

devastating effect on resolution. 

We should add that, notwithstanding 

what we’ve just said, some people 

do buy such mats and swear that they 

hear a huge improvement. There are 

two possible reasons for the perceived 

improvement. If the turntable, arm and 

cartridge are mediocre, losing detail can 

seem like a good thing, because artificial 

detail can be annoying. And a thick mat 

(some aftermarket mats are plenty thick) 

will raise the record, which has the same 

effect as lowering the tone arm, and 

thereby affecting the vertical tracking 

angle of the cartridge. A tone arm that 

is too low will result in exaggerated lows 

and wooly highs. Wooly highs might 

seem like a bad thing, and it is, but if 

those highs were harsh and unmusical 

in the first place, rolling them off might 

seem to offer welcome relief. 

We’d go with felt. 

I am considering the purchase of an 

11-year-old Linn Genki CD player, and I 

would ask what type of laser/mechanism 

it utilizes. The excellent review of the 

Linn Genki (in UHF Magazine No. 59) 

is not clear enough in this matter. In 

one place it reads, “the drawer is about 

three times as tall as that of the Ikemi. 

It belongs to the Philips CD-12 PRO 

transport, the same one used by a 

number of other manufacturers.” In 

another “Linn’s custom-built transport 

(used in the Ikemi and the CD-12) actually 

doubles the cost of the player.” 

Could you make it clear, please. 

Jan Jedlinski 

WARSAW, Poland 

To read the rest of this article, you 

can order either the print issue or Maggie’s 

electronic version. We continue 

with what looks like Latin, but it isn’t. Of 

course the paid version is uninterrupted! 

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duis dignisc iliscipissi. 

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facipsum esequat. Ut lan veliquat praese 

facilit lutpat nibh euguero ea feuguer 

suscing enismod dolorero odiamco 

rtiscil lamconsequat wismod modion vel 

ulputat. Utpation utpat augait am, core 

tisi.

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dunt utet autem quam, sis augue 

magniam consequat adipis adiam, consed 

te ming esent loborper iure commodio 

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iustin utatum vel ilis aut loborperilla 

feum do odolore commodolore dolore 

dolesto eu feu feu feuipsu scipit ad molorem 

ex ero odolobore dolobortie digna 

conullaor si bla consecte et exerit lum 

alismolore ming esent vullamc onullan 

henisl ute core vent volor si. 

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accum nissequam ero eraestrud dolore 

ese dolore dolutat, volobore diat praestismod 

te facilla facil inci blan et aliquis 

ciliquiscil dignis am quis niamet nisse 

eniamet, sis nibh eraesen dionum zzrilla 

feuipis modolut adip euis dolessi. 

Iquametuerat nullamc ommolore con 

utatuer ostinit nos eugiam nos adionsed 

euisi ex eril ilismod te te mod et adionse 

quissent aliquisi te doluptat ing enit 

ea alis accumsan velessectem dolorpe 

rostrud dipis nonsenisi. 

Iril iure molobor sustismod molore 

mincilit acing er accum vulput in 

utat, quat ad eril doloreet lan euismol 

ortinim digna autpat lobor sectetum 

quamconulla commy niation sequatie el 

ip ea augait, consequam adionsectet alis 

ex exer sum zzriure eugiam iriurerit ad 

eros dit alit num del ullutpat, sisisl et et 

volorper si blam, quatem init, consequi 

bla coreet, vent iriusci bla feu feuipis 

modolore dolesse conulla feuis adit laor 

ilit lutpatin el in velisci ncilla facinibh 

eugait adipit nibh et nis nonsed magna 

feummod do coreros eugait il ex eugait 

wisi ex et num quisim aut atum del del 

dolobore eros endigniatue dolor secte ex 

eugiat. Illa corperostrud tisi. 

Rud doloreet wis alit ut lum in heniscidunt 

aut ing et lorper sequis non ut ilit 

lore facilis sequat. Duis ad dolor adiam 

quatiscidunt praestie er ametummod tat. 

Agna feuipisl essequis accum in utat. 

Andigna feuguer sustrud dolore conum 

ex et enisit prat vulputat iure dunt verit 

lutpat nullam velesto commolortie 

dolorpe riurem zzrit, senit nonsequis 

nibh er sum nim aliquis at accumsa 

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ipisim irit num euisis nisl ing elit wis 

adionullamet praestrud tie consequatue 

faccum autet, quis aliquat irilismolore 

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What do we know about indoor FM 

and TV antennas that they don’t? 

A lot, it turns out. With the stampede to satellite and cable 

over the past 20 years, the design of dipole antennas has been 

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feuipis. 



Welcome to Toronto, for 

the first high end audio 

show since…oh, what 

has it been? Years? Sure. 

Decades? Pretty much. 

I go back far enough to recall that 

there really was a good high end show in 

Canada’s metropolis. It was called Airwaves, 

and it would attract maybe three 

dozen exhibitors, and mostly quality 

exhibitors. So why the long hiatus? The 

story deserves telling. I shall, however, 

heed my lawyer’s urging not to bandy 

about such adjectives as “retarded” and 

“terminally stupid.” 

There were once in fact two September 

shows in Toronto. Both were near 

the airport, which was far from ideal, 

but the fact there were two shows helped. 

One of them, run by a company called 

Hunter-Nichols, concentrated on massmarket 

consumer electronics products 

and was held in an aircraft hangar. Airwaves 

was in a hotel, as any proper high 

end show must be. There was a shuttle 

between the two, and there may even 


Features 

Toronto 2011 


have been a shuttle from downtown. 

It was all fine until it wasn’t. 

The last Airwaves — in 1985 if 

memory serves — was held on a weekend 

different from the Hunter-Nichols show, 

and to top it off, it coincided with the 

Jewish New Year. In the immortal words 

of Nintendo, it was Game Over! 

The first of the modern Montreal 

shows had been held the previous year, 

in 1984. There was a hiatus before it 

became an annual event, but it quickly 

acquired a reputation as a quality show 

that could attract serious audiophiles, 

and not just “tire kickers.” Toronto got 

a new high end show as well, run by 

a woman who had been with Hunter- 

Nichols (she would later work with an 

audio magazine named for a body part). 

But she didn’t seem to understand the 

audiophile world, and it showed. Hotels 

were mostly selected on price, and that 

meant remote (I recall only one which 

was actually downtown. Some were so 

close to airport runways that landing 

jets would drown out the music. The 

last ones had only a small handful of 

rooms, which made the trek to Markham 

scarcely worthwhile. 

These horror stories had the perverse 

effect of spreading the myth 

that a Toronto show couldn’t be good. 

That’s why there was a lot of skepticism 

when TAVES (Toronto Audio-Visual 

Entertainment Show) was announced. 

The one ray of hope was that the people 

who now run the Montreal show, Michel 

Plante and Sarah Tremblay, would be 

lending their demonstrated know-how 

to this show as well. 

The first good move was putting 

the show right downtown, at the King 

Edward Hotel, on King Street near 

Yonge, and right on the subway line. 

The King Eddie is old, built in 1903, but 

a glance at its central atrium, shown on 

this page, indicate that it is anything but 

decrepit. It remains a quality hotel. 

The second good move was inviting 

Michel and Sarah to bring over their 

technology, from signage to ticketing. 

It was difficult to tour the show without 

running into one or the other, because 

they were present to make sure everything 

was going all right. 

The problem with a new show — 

and after all these years it can only be 

considered new — is convincing exhibitors, 

who have more and more regional 

shows to choose from, to spend time and 

money on this one. A number of high 

end distributors, understandably wary, 

sat the show out, figuring they could 

always sign up in 2012 if TAVES wasn’t a 

disaster. A number of others came aboard 

figuring they’d give the new organizers 

a chance, but only one chance. They’d 

need to deliver…or else. 

On the evidence, TAVES has delivered. 

Because a show like this takes 

18 months of preparation (and not 18 

minutes, like the old shows), there will 

be a TAVES in 2012, at the same hotel. 

Pretty much all the exhibitors I talked 

to were happy with their participation, 

some of them deliriously so. Some were 

especially happy that their competitors 

hadn’t shown up!

TAVES did, however, run into a 

problem that may be peculiar to Toronto, 

namely enforcement of safety standards. 

Electrical goods that are to be plugged 

into the power line must be certified for 

safety, and that means, generally, by the 

Canadian Standards Association. There 

will be a CSA certification number on 

products from table lamps to microwave 

ovens to the coffee warmers at the dollar 

store. The number on this last one may 

be counterfeit, but it’s there. High end 

audio gear mostly doesn’t have CSA 

approval. 

Why not? The process doesn’t lend 

itself to the nature of high-end gear. 

Certification is expensive (CSA is not 

a government agency), and the testing 

involves essentially destroying the 

product. If it doesn’t pass, you modify 

it, pay again, and supply another sample 

to be destroyed. It’s obvious that this is 

better suited to toasters than to $30,000 

amplifiers. There was panic when it was 

announced that there would be inspectors 

on site the first day of the show. 

When I saw the “Naim Unplugged” 

sign, above, I figured this British company 

had decided on a static display (not 

so — Naim was 

actually showing a new wireless 

streaming system). There was, finally, 

a workable compromise. If you paid 

the inspectors a small fee, they would 

inspect your gear non-destructively 

and certify it for use at the show, 

though not beyond. Some 

exhibitors paid, but some 

didn’t, and the inspectors 

never did see everybody. 

As at other recent 

shows, fewer exhibitors 

were using CD players, 

with many favoring either 

computers (MacBook Pros 

using Pure Music software) 

or else vinyl. One turntable 

which got a lot of attention 

was the Brinkmann Bardo 

(below left) with its unique 

Rönt tube power supply (the 

black cube on its left). Also spectacular 

in appearance was the Basis B Signature, 

above right, which was sharing a huge 

room with rather too much gear. 

It sounded quite good with the Italian 

Strumento No. 4 power amplifier, 

middle right. But the previous 

day it had sounded nothing 

less than horrible with 

a six-chassis NBS 

amplifier that cost 

$82,000. NBS is 

known for expensive 

cables, not 

electroni 

c s . 

B a c k 

to the 

drawing 

board! 

There were other illdesigned 

products, such as the 

turntable whose arm pillar you see above. 

The “designer” of this table, which by 

pity I shall not name, clearly thought 

that, if it makes sense to put the motor 

in a separate housing, it must be a good 

thing to do the same with the arm. 

That’s wrong-headed, of course, but I’ve 

been seeing a number of tables with this 


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sort of harebrained setup. 

To read the rest of this 

article, you can order either the 

print issue or Maggie’s electronic 

version. We continue with what 

looks like Latin, but it isn’t. 

Of course the paid version is 

uninterrupted! 

UHF began life, in 1982, as a 

print magazine, and a rather slick 

one at that. Today it also has an 

electronic version. It looks just 

like the one you’re reading, except 

of course that it doesn’t have these 

interruptions. You do pay a small 

amount for it ($4 anywhere in 

the world, plus sales tax in Canada 

only), but you get it all. 

Actually, we’re rather hoping 

you’ll want to go and get the full 

version. Maggie has it, and it can 

be on your hard drive, or you iPad, or whatever you 

have, with a few clicks. 

Visit maggie’s page at www.uhfmag.com/maggie. 

html. 

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iliscipissi. 

Tum veliquat ulpute dolore volore facipsum esequat. 

Ut lan veliquat praese facilit lutpat nibh euguero ea 

feuguer suscing enismod dolorero odiamco rtiscil lamconsequat 

wismod modion vel ulputat. Utpation utpat 

augait am, core tisi. 

An hendreet nonsenim dit, ver sustrud dunt utet autem 

quam, sis augue magniam consequat adipis adiam, consed te 

ming esent loborper iure commodio commodit lum zzriure 

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do odolore commodolore dolore dolesto eu feu feu feuipsu 

scipit ad molorem ex ero odolobore dolobortie digna conullaor 

si bla consecte et exerit lum alismolore ming esent vullamc 

onullan henisl ute core vent volor si. 

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nissequam ero eraestrud dolore ese dolore dolutat, 

volobore diat praestismod te facilla facil inci blan 

et aliquis ciliquiscil dignis am quis niamet nisse 

eniamet, sis nibh eraesen dionum zzrilla feuipis 

modolut adip euis dolessi. 

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ostinit nos eugiam nos adionsed euisi ex eril ilismod 

te te mod et adionse quissent aliquisi te doluptat ing 

enit ea alis accumsan velessectem dolorpe rostrud 

dipis nonsenisi. 

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corperostrud tisi. 

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Agna feuipisl essequis accum in utat. Andigna feuguer 

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lutpat nullam velesto commolortie dolorpe riurem zzrit, senit 

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utatue consequat. 

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facincidunt lobor iure do ero dignit ullaortion ute feugiat. 

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conse dip ex exerat, sequat nosto do euisciliqui etum delit nos 

nonse tem iriureet, secte dolor sum zzriustrud tat, suscips 

ustrud tie vel dolore modo conse modolortio et nos nit utem 

zzrit irit pratueros dolorem diat, quipit nonsequate magna 

facip exer summodion, 


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Gentle warning: This is mainly 

Feedback 

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More From 

Montreal 2011 

an account of impressions 

and comments as expressed 

by new visitors to this year’s 

show and (occasionally) my reactions to 

them. The idea is to let you discover the 

show through their experiences. Please 

bear in mind that their interest is in 

music not in the latest gear. And if you’re 

interested only in hi-fi lingo but still 

want to know why I give importance to 

music at an audio show, and how visitors 

react to it, you might want to jump to the 

end of this article. 

I had my first shock in the Totem 

room. My friends hadn’t arrived yet and 

so I went ahead for a while. The room was 

large, the ceiling so high it was almost 

invisible, and yet two speakers filled the 

large space with authority, depth and 

fullness of sound. Klaus Gesing’s bass 

clarinet had that deep “in-your-gut” 

vibration, and Anouar Brahem’s oud was 

mesmerizing, playing The Astounding 

Eyes of Rita from CD. Hard to believe 


that all that sound came out of those 

two Earth speakers, part of the newly 

designed Totem Element Series, played 

here with Classé equipment. 

I was eager to share that experience 

with the couple I was expecting very 

soon. 

It was the first time that Marc and 

Fatima had attended such an event, and 

they seemed overwhelmed at first by the 

abundance of equipment displayed and 

the variety of music that came toward 

them as they stepped into the different 

rooms. They looked in awe at all those 

experienced visitors who shared comments 

in hallways, as they walked slowly 

among them. 

I must say they were taken aback 

when we first stepped in the Totem 

room. They were quite impressed with 

what they heard — they own another 

CD by those two musicians — I watched 

their eyes open and their eyebrows rise 

by Albert Simon 

in a surprised look, but I couldn’t get 

them to translate their expressions into 

words. Overwhelmed, perhaps. 

When we went in to listen to the 

impressive Boulder Class A amplifiers 

playing through the no less impressive 

Sonus Faber Amati Futura speakers, I 

understood something else about how 

some of us react to sound. The room 

was crowded, the volume high, and 

John McGill was going at it full tilt on 

his live recorded CD. We stayed on the 

side for a while, then we moved toward 

the middle of the room. People around 

us were stunned by the impact, but there 

was not a comment from my friends. 

“Impressive,” said Marc as we stepped 

out of the room but Fatima surprised us. 

“I felt an impact as soon as we got in.” she 

said hesitantly, “it was physical, I felt it in 

my rib cage. And then it became easier 

on me when we moved to the center.” 

We stared at her. 

Next was the room of Fidelio, well 

known for its splendid recordings. Featured 

here was music played with “no 

moving parts,” the source being a Master 

Flash card connected via USB to the 

front of a Naim HDX Solid State Drive 

(SSD). Vincent Bélanger’s cello blended 

with a large orchestra, gliding smoothly 

in an André Gagnon composition. Titled 

Là, that recording had just been released. 

The music flowed freely in the room, and 

the stage opened wide. My friends were 

mesmerized. 

We stayed for bassist Michel Donato, 

followed by Sébastien Dufour’s ukulele, 

and then we switched to the Kronos 

turntable, a creation of Louis Desjardins, 

featuring an additional lower platter 

revolving in the opposite direction. The 

powerful sound of Holst’s The Planets 

played on brass and organ was a delight. 

“The music sounded as if it wrapped 

around me,” said Marc who now found 

more words and images to express himself, 

“and the dynamic range of the LP 

was incredible.” I had suggested to him 

that he describe not just the sound he 

heard in different rooms, but focus also 

on how he felt listening to the music. 

Fatima used hand gestures to convey her 

impressions “There was this quality that 

made us enter into the music,” she said, 

at first, and then she added, “we were 

not met by the sound as we stepped in, it

seemed as if the music was elevated, like 

a house into which we walked into and 

sat.” Interesting description. 

In the Raysonic room my friends 

asked to listen to their own CD, Songs 

from a World Apart, hauntingly beautiful 

music inspired by Armenian folk songs. 

The Raysonic CD player was hooked 

to Raysonic amps and preamp and 

Revolver Cygnis speakers. “We heard 

the wind whispering through the duduk 

(armenian flute) for the first time,” said 

Mark, “as if we were sitting right next 

to it.” Fatima was smiling, “We better 

stop listening to this CD in this room or 

else we won’t want to listen to it at home 

again.” 

We were drawn into the Bluebird 

Music room by the fascinating sound 

of Ali Farka and Ry Cooder’s guitars on 

their Talking Timbuktu CD, a Blues-in- 

Africa experience, rich in percussion. 

We were charmed by the main system 

featuring top of the line Chord electronics, 

Exposure player and Peak Consult 

Princess XE speakers. Everyone in the 

room was smiling and nodding their 

heads in appreciation — the sound had 

the natural quality that makes you want 

to stop thinking and enjoy the moment. 

We then swiveled on our chairs and 

faced the Chordette Two High system, 

a superb looking mini system with a 

great sound, playing If I had a Million 

Dollars by the Barenaked Ladies. The 

USB/Bluetooth DAC was connected 

to the Scamp amplifier, which led to 

a pair of Spendor A5 speakers. The 

source? An iPad! “The sound is so fluid, 

refined,” said Fatima. “Even on higher 

volume, it never became aggressive.” 

Marc, searching for the right words, said 

he was impressed by the quality of the 

sound from such small units, and that it 

was very acceptable for a hi-fi system… 

he was no doubt still under the spell of 

the larger Chord system. 

The Burmester room had that 

unmistakable atmosphere of quiet luxury 

that surrounds exquisite works of art. 

Our eyes first caught the B-30 speakers 

and as we sat down slowly, I admired 

the 001 Player, the 088 preamp and 

the 911 Mk3 power amp. My friends 

were oblivious to such “details,” and 

sat straight in their chairs, listening 

to Linda Ronstadt’s What’s New. I had 

no idea whether they liked that kind of 

music, but it always seems that a great 

sounding system draws you in and lets 

you appreciate whatever is being played. 

My friends then pulled their own CD, 

Ama (“mother” in Tibetan) with the 

amazing voice of Yungchen Lhamo, a 

collection of modern Tibetan songs she 

dedicated to her mother. “Everything 

was crystal clear,” said Fatima excitedly. 

Added Marc, “I loved the clarity of the 

highs, and I could ‘see’ all the instruments 

for the first time.” 

The atmosphere in the Audioarts 

room was so different that it felt like 

coming out of a movie theatre and into 

broad daylight. Flamenco music was 

shaking the floorboards. It was Flamenco, 

the famous K2 HD mastering, direct 

from Pepe Romero’s original master 

tape. We’re talking 24-Bit/100 kHz here, 

and we could feel Paco Romero’s dancing 

boots crash through the floor and 

suddenly drop their tapping to a rolling, 

whispering sound. We could almost see 

those boots hovering in a blur just over 

the boards. We were stuck to our chairs 

by that powerful impact and striking 

image that the Voxatim Ampeggio 

speakers provided with just a few watts 

of power from a Monbrison integrated 

amp from Shindo Labs. 

Mark remarked, on our way out, that 

one could hear the sound of the hall 

where the performance was taking place. 

Fatima remained silent. 

Listening to music in the Audio 

Note room was quite a different experience. 

The E/Lexus Signature speakers 

were positioned in each corner, and we 

could feel (yes, feel) the presence of Ray 

Charles and Betty Carter singing their 

famous duet Baby it’s Cold Outside. It was 

played on Audio Note’s 4.1 X CD player 

through the Jinro integrated amp. When 

it ended, I pulled out one of my favorite 

choral recordings, Lux Æterna, compositions 

by Morten Lauridsen, and selected 

the angelic Dirait-on. It sounded sublime, 

the sweet voices of the Los Angeles 

Master Chorale rising in gentle waves. 

I had tried that recording in different 


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Audio Note speaker 

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Chorddette mini-system 

rooms and it had barely gotten off 

the ground. My friends sat silently, as if 

an expression, words or movement would 

break the spell. When the short piece 

ended, they looked at each other 

then at me. We walked out slowly. 

We heard quiet jazz piano 

music as we stepped in the Tube 

Magic Audio Systems room. 

Designed and made in 

Canada, the IAM 96 


wood-sided 20-watt pure Class A 

integrated amplifier was driving 

US-made Zu speakers. They 

seemed to be a great match. “So 

beautiful,” said Marc. “I also 

noticed,” remarked Fatima, 

“that we all tended to speak 

softly when we came out of 

the room.” 

The large Coup de 

Foudre room was barely lit, 

almost too dark to find our 

way once inside. Most people 

were standing, listening to Bill 

Charlap on piano with an expressive 

rendition of Leonard Bernstein’s West 

Side Story. It was one of the latest projects 

of well-known recording engineer 

Peter McGrath. And Peter was there, 

introducing the huge Alexandria X-2 

Series 2 speakers by Wilson Audio. We 

could faintly discern their cubistic shape, 

but we could clearly hear the glorious 

sound they produced. The piano was 

right there, and we were sure that, if the 

lights went on, it would materialize in 

front of us. 

Interestingly, the design of this 

specific speaker was inspired by Dave 

Wilson’s visit to the famous Musikverein 

concert hall in Vienna, built in 1870. 

Attending a rehearsal of the Vienna 

Philharmonic in 2006 in that hall, he 

suddenly realized what needed to be 

done to the Alexandria speakers, and 

created the X-2 Series 2. It is said that 

Bruno Walter considered the Musikverein 

“the finest hall in the world” for 

its “beauty of sound and power,” adding 

that, until he had conducted there, he 

“had not realized that music could be so 

beautiful.” 

Well, neither did we. 

After a while my friends found 

a seat on the large comfortable 

chair in the middle of the room, 

and Peter treated us to his latest 

recording, The Chichester Psalms by 

Leonard Bernstein. The choir suddenly 

lifted the room and we found 

ourselves in the actual hall where 

the recording took place. “In my 

job,” said Marc, who is an architect, 

“I work with space, I build space. 

Here, I am witnessing how space 

can be built with sound. This is a 

great experience.” 

TubeMagic Audio Systems IAM96 

When we reluctantly left the room 

and stood in the hallway, Fatima 

remarked how refreshing an experience 

that had been. Refreshing. Was that it? 

I knew she was comparing with other 

rooms — not mentioned here — where 

she had cringed when she had felt that 

music was virtually hurled at her as 

soon as she walked in. But here? Just 

refreshing? 

Marc interrupted my thoughts with 

his enthusiasm, “I’ve heard sounds in 

there that I had never heard in my life,” 

he said, his eyes bright and filled with 

wonder. There you go. Guys! Yep, we 

hear differently. 

Before we headed for another room, 

I had the chance to meet Luke Manley, 

designer of the impressive VTL Siegfried 

monoblock tube amps which were 

driving the Wilson speakers. We’re 

talking 12 tubes per unit and 600 watts 

each, and Luke pointed out that they 

have been conceived and designed to 

provide ease of use and maintenance. For 

example, there is an active bias system 

that shuts the amp down if a tube fails, 

and it even tells you which tube to change. 

Peter McGrath was listening to all that 

and nodding with a wide smile. “There 

is a great synergy between those components, 

amplifiers, cables (Transparent 

Audio Opus) and speakers,” he said. 

“This is what makes it all so great.” 

At the Liberty Trading room, we 

listened to my friends’ CD, The Music 

of Tuva, throat singing and instruments 

from Central Asia. Fatima and Marc 

got really excited at what they were 

discovering through the complexity of 

the sounds. “All the sounds are so clear 

and limpid,” said Fatima. “And I could 

hear the third harmonic which is often 

completely lost,” Marc said. “Some Blues

singers use that. And it’s the first time 

that I heard the flute as a voice.” 

And what was the equipment that 

reproduced the music so well and earned 

all that praise? The Roksan line: Kandy 

K2 CD player, Caspian integrated amp 

and K2 TR5 speakers, with Atlas cables 

and Gutwire power cords. Concerning 

the latter, Liberty Trading’s representative 

(a music connoisseur as we found 

out) added that people setting up a 

system should spend as much for cables 

as they do for the components. 

It was late afternoon, we were reaching 

the saturation point for my two 

companions, and I knew the end of our 

tour was near. There was so much more 

to discover in this well-attended Salon, 

so many more systems to listen to, but 

my friends were dragging their feet and 

nodding their heads with each footstep. 

Knowing what they needed, I suggested 

to have another listen in the Fidelio 

room. 

René Laflamme was there, the room 

was cool, the equipment was warm and 

the superbly-polished Sonus Faber 

Stradivari speakers glowed. “I like 

Sundays at the show,” said René who is 

in charge of all recordings at Fidelio 

Music. “The units have been warming 

up for a few days and the electrical power 

grid is at its best in the city — office 

buildings are closed and most activities 

are greatly reduced in general.” My 

friends sat, enjoying a sweet Chopin 

Étude played by Jean-Pascal Hamelin, 

followed by excerpts of Deserts by La 

Nef. The Master Flash proved to be 

an impeccable source once again. “The 

transparency is incredible here,” said 

Marc. “And everything appears neatly 

in its place,” added Fatima, struck by 

VTL Siegfried monoblocks 

the precise imaging. “There is a sense of 

power without effort,” said Marc after a 

while, “and an amazing sense of space.” 

On our way out, we listened to selections 

from René’s fantastic recording of 

Dvorak’s Symphony from the New World 

using headphones. Fatima actually said, 

“Wow! Superb,” as her features relaxed 

into a huge smile. “At this point there 

are no words…” she added. 

“Architects have often used music 

as inspiration to create their projects,” 

explained Marc, back in the hallway. 

“Sound and space create a similar image 

in the right side of our brain,” he said. 

I didn’t want to point it out, but they 

seemed much less tired after their experience 

in the Fidelio room. 

I suggested one last thing. 

I wanted them to attend an interesting 

demonstration in the Nordost room 

by Bruno de Lorimier. Using Simaudio’s 

Moon 650 CD player, 600i integrated 

amp and Joseph Audio speakers connected 

with Nordost Leif Series cables, 

Bruno explained the essential role 

that cones play in releasing unwanted 

resonances from components resting on 

them. The CD used for the demonstration 

was Cash — American IV: The Man 

Comes Around. We first heard the title 

song, an original Johnny Cash composition, 

for a minute or so, then Bruno 

inserted the aluminum cones under the 

CD player and played the song again. 

The sound had been initially excellent 

but became decidedly better with the 

addition of the aluminum cones. But 

the best results happened while listening 

to Bridge Over Troubled Water, using 

the titanium cones. The difference was 

striking, with Bruno pointing out that 

Johnny Cash now sounded 

20 years younger. 

We left the room 

without a word. 

Everything was 

obvious and we 

had all heard the 

differences but, 

as we parted, I 

was left pondering 

over that last 

demonstration. 

Later that 

week I picked up a 

copy of that CD and 

listened to it intently. Here was Johnny 

Cash, a few months before he died, singing 

some of his most poignant songs with 

a voice occasionally faltering but always 

moving. Visions of apocalypse, tender 

words of love, the sadness of regret and 

always that deep voice, struggling yet 

commanding. It was so touching that I 

couldn’t understand why anyone would 

want him to sound twenty years younger. 

Now, here is my reason for not dwelling 

at length on the gear’s technical 

descriptions. 

Say a friend of yours visited a country 

you’d like to know about. On his return 

you’d want him to tell you all about his 

trip. Would you be thrilled if he then 

spent most his time describing the plane 

that had taken him there? 


Joseph Audio Perspective speaker 

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Case number one: a man in 

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The Musical Imperative 

Berlin, identified only by his 

initials, “PM,” has suffered 

from an encephalitis which 

has destroyed the medial temporal 

lobes of his brain, which play a major 

role in memory. The result is that 

he has no memory at all, long term 

or short term. He lives only for the 

present instant, with no knowledge 

of who he is or anything that 

has ever happened to him. In 

computer terms, his personal 

memory bank is at 0 KB. 

Oh, except for one thing. 

If you play him a piece of music 

composed before his illness, he 

will recognize it. Indeed, he can 

play it on the cello, though he 

doesn’t remember that he was once 

a classical cellist. 

Case number two: in Saskatchewan, 

in the early 1960’s, a severely retarded 

young man fascinates psychologists. 

Though standard intelligence 

tests cannot be administered 

to one so handicapped, his 

IQ is estimated to be about 

35, and he cannot perform 

such simple tasks as tying 

his shoelaces. 

But there is a reason 

he becomes an object of fascination. If he 

hears a piece of music, he can play it by 

ear on the piano. Indeed, he plays quite 

well, though for obvious reason he has 

never had a piano lesson. 

Case number three: Dr. Tony Cicoria 

is an orthopedic surgeon in upstate New 

York. One day in 1994 he is using a pay 

phone, when it is struck by lightning. 

A bystander, who is a nurse, performs 

CPR and saves his life. He refuses hospitalization, 

and suffers only temporary 

memory impairment. Life goes on as 

before, except for one thing. 

Dr. Cicoria has a sudden craving 

for piano music. Though he had piano 

lessons as a boy, he has not touched the 

keyboard since, and he has been listening 

mainly to rock music, but now he is 

strongly attracted to the piano. He buys 

classical piano recordings and even sheet 



music, and becomes enamored of Vladimir 

Ashkenazy’s recordings of Chopin. 

More than that, he has the urge to play 

himself. 

And then he begins to hear music in 

his head, and he has a dream in which 

he is in a tux in a concert hall. He learns 

music notation and writes down his compositions. 

He takes lessons and learns to 

Only the Taliban 

have ever 

rejected music. 

Is your brain 

programmed 

to love it? 

play. Tony Cicoria debuts his first piano 

composition in Westport, Connecticut, 

on October 12, 2007, just 13 years 

after his literal bolt from the blue. 

By 2007 he is good enough to 

give recitals at the Sonata Adult 

Piano Camp, in Bennington, 

Vermont, where he plays the Military 

Polonaise and other Chopin 

pieces, as well as the Lightning 

Sonata, his own composition. 

The following year he debuts 

at the Goodrich Theater in 

Oneonta, New York, presented 

by the Catskill Conservatory 

in association with 

the State University of New York 

at Oneonta. The performance 

is assisted by a grant from the 

New York State Council on the 

Arts. The recital is recorded live by 

Granada Media, UK, BBC One, and 

German National Television. He is 

working on other piano pieces, as 

well as a symphony and a concerto. 

A CD of his first three 

works is available. 

What happened? 

The story of Dr. Cicoria 

is chronicled in the 

book Musicophilia by 

Oliver Sacks. Sacks 

was the model for the doctor in the 

movie Awakenings (where he is played 

by Robert de Niro), concerning the 

temporary awakening of patients who 

had been living statues since contracting 

sleeping sickness in their youth. 

Sacks has written other books about 

the marvellous strangeness of the mind 

in such books as The Man Who Mistook 

His Wife for a Hat. But Sacks doesn’t 

have the answer. He thinks Dr. Cicoria 

went into cardiac arrest at the time of the 

lightning strike, but there was no sign 

that he had had a stroke. Nor was there 

any sign of epilepsy. Sacks believes his 

brain had undergone a profound change, 

but Cicoria refuses newer and possibly 

more revealing brain tests, preferring to 

let things be. He considers his “musicophilia” 

to be a blessing and a grace, not 

to be questioned.

Music and memory 

Is there such a thing as 

musical talent? If there is, does 

that mean that music is not a 

universal asset? 

Try to recall a tune you 

have often heard. By recalling, 

I mean try humming it to 

yourself without getting any 

of the notes wrong. Now try 

humming it out loud. Can you 

do it? 

Many of us cannot, but it’s 

not because we don’t “know” 

music. In our memories it’s 

note-perfect, and the proof is 

that when we hum it we know 

if there’s a wrong note. 

But some of us can do much 

better. Oliver Sacks writes that 

if you name one of the Chopin 

Mazurkas, or even its opus 

number, he will hear it in his 

head, from start to finish, even 

visualizing the position of his 

hands on the keyboard. I once 

knew someone who would 

hum an entire symphonic 

movement, using tongue clicks 

and other vocal sounds to 

represent, with remarkable 

accuracy, the different instrument 

groups. 

This PDF you’r reading looks just 

like the print version of UHF Magazine, 

and of course you can get the real thing 

mailed to you. Just go to www.uhfmag. 

com/IndividualIssue.html. 

If Maggie’s electronic version floats 

your boat, drop by www.uhfmag.com/ 

maggie.html. 









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Publicity photo for Muppet Vision 3D at Walt Disney World. The 

It’s not the first wave of 3D, nor 

the second, nor the third. Threedimensional 

images arrived not 

long after the dawn of photography. 

The first 3D images arrived not long 

after the invention of photography itself. 

Making 3D pictures was easy enough: 

you took one picture, then moved the 

camera over a few centimetres, then 

took another. You did have to make 

sure the subject didn’t move, but then 

the exposures were then so long you 

couldn’t capture movement anyway. You 

would view the prints with a handheld 

stereoscope. The Viewmaster, still sold 

today, is a descendant of the stereoscope. 

But even a color Viewmaster slide is 

not a movie. You might be surprised to 

learn that the very first 3D film was made 

by the appropriately-named Lumière 

brothers, often considered the inventors 

of the motion picture. Their first 

3D movie lasted under a minute, and 

showed a train seemingly coming out of 


Cinema 

3D Wave 

the screen, the sort of effect that would 

be replicated again and again. 

The year was 1895. 

In the years since, we have been 

assured that 3D technology had finally 

been perfected, that it would become as 

natural to make a movie in 3D as it is 

to make it in color. As we shall see, the 

problems have remained stubborn. Many 

have been solved. Many have not. 

Forgive us for a quick explanation of 

the principles of 3D. In “real life,” each of 

our eyes sees a slightly different image, 

because they are separated by a distance 

of about 8 cm. Our brains fuse the two 

images into a single one so that we may 

perceive depth. If we use two cameras 

also spaced about 8 cm apart, and if we 

can find a way to let each eye see only 

the image “meant” for it, the viewer will 

see depth just as he or she would in real 

life. How to make each eye see only the 

appropriate picture is the challenge. 

As far as we can tell, the first real 

3D wave was in the late 1930’s. A crude 

viewing system was used for viewing. 

The two images would be superimposed, 

one of them red, the other green or bluegreen. 

The viewer would wear glasses 

with lenses of those same colors. The 

red lens would block the green image, 

and the green lens would block the red 

image. 

The same system is still used for 3D 

images in print media and the Internet, 

but its drawbacks are many. Blocking is 

imperfect, which means the viewer sees 

a double image. The system is not compatible 

with natural color. The image is 

relatively dim, and spectators often see 

unpleasant color flashes when they take 

the glasses off. 

You’ll often read articles claiming 

that during the feature-film 3D wave of 

the early 1950’s, red-green glasses were 

used. Not so. A then new technology was 

developed, still at the heart of 3D today, 

based on polarization. 

The Polaroid Corporation is best 

remembered for instant photography, 

but founder Dr. Edwin Land named his 

company for its first product, the polarizing 

lens, which he had found a way to 

manufacture inexpensively. A polarizer 

lets through light waves vibrating in 

one plane while blocking light waves 

vibrating in the plane perpendicular to 

it. Polarizing sunglasses are excellent for 

cutting reflections from road surfaces. 

Hollywood was convinced it had 

solved the problem of 3D movies. Two 

films were projected one atop the other. 

Polarizing filters, turned at 90° apart, 

were placed in front of the projector 

lenses, and viewers would wear glasses 

whose two lenses were also polarizers 

rotated appropriately. No more problems. 

The studios brought out a wave of 

hit 3D films, and predicted that, from 

now on, all films would be in 3D. Sound 

familiar? 

The wave didn’t last. 

There were good reasons for that. 

Movie theatres had two projectors, 

so that multiple reels could be shown 

without a break, but 3D required both of 

them. Now movies needed an intermis-

sion. The dead time could be used 

to sell snacks, but the intermission 

lengthened the time between 

showings and cut into profits. 

The projectionists required 

special training to keep the films 

in perfect step. That worked with 

fresh film prints, but now and then 

a film would break and need to be 

spliced. The two prints would then 

no longer be in step. 

For a while it worked, because 

it was such a novelty that audiences 

would watch nearly anything in 

3D, then as now. The first 3D 

movie of the new wave, Bwana 

Devil, was one of the worst films 

ever made, remembered today 

only for the spear thrown at the 

audience. One quickie, Man in 

the Dark, was in 3D but in black 

and white! Some better films were 

released too. The House of Wax, a 

horror feature starring Vincent 

Price, was watchable. Hitchcock’s 

Dial M For Murder was released 

in 3D, and was a unique chance to 

see Grace Kelly in depth. A major 

musical comedy, Kiss Me Kate, 

was shot in 3D but was mostly 

released in 2D. The only sign of 

its 3D origin is the bevy of objects 

thrown at the audience. There 

would be no more 3D movies, 

until… 

Now and then there would be 

an attempt to bring it back. The 

Stewardesses was a 3D soft core 

porn film shot in 16 mm and barely 

watchable. There would be 3D 

features at theme parks and world 

fairs. like the Muppet Vision 3D 

film shown at Walt Disney World. 

But one of these special movies 

would ultimately launch the next 

3D wave. 

The event was Expo 86 in Vancouver. 

The Canadian pavilion 

had an IMAX cinema which presented 

the first 70 mm IMAX film 

in 3D, a production of Canada’s 

famed National Film Board. It was 

a mere demo, but it was spectacular, 

and the giant IMAX screen solved 

one of 3D’s nagging problems: screen 

cutoff. 

The problem would manifest itself 

when an object or a scene would protrude 

from the screen. One or the other of the 

images making up the 3D image would 

be cut off by the screen edge, shatter- 

ing the illusion of reality. But the 

IMAX screen was so huge, and the 

edges so distant from the centre of 

the screen, that the problem all but 

vanished. 

That first IMAX 3D movie 

was such a hit that a cornucopia of 

documentary films were shot in 3D 

over the next decades. They would 

feature natural scenes, travelogues, 

and even 3D films shot in outer 

space, at the International Space 

Station and at the Hubble telescope. 

The IMAX 3D success would, with 

time, lead to the latest wave of commercial 

3D movies. 

But let’s back up a little. Could 

3D be brought to television? 

Following the success of IMAX 

3D in Vancouver, work picked 

up on 3D television. In 1989 an 

international conference on 3D in 

the media was held at the NFB in 

Montreal. One of the exhibitors, 

from Japan, showed up with an 

impressive 3D-TV system which 

looked resolutely modern. Its LCD 

active shutter glasses would darken 

and lighten at high speed in order 

to keep each eye from seeing the 

image meant for the other eye. 

UHF was invited to the conference, 

and we were enthusiastic, but then 

something odd happened. 

The Japanese visitors who had 

brought their marvelous system to 

Montreal, spoke nearly no English, 

and so most media covering the 

conference ignored them. At the 

same time, a US exhibitor with a 

totally bogus glasses-free system 

was represented by a glib presenter 

who could talk enthusiastically on 

camera. His system wound up on 

all the newscasts, and the Japanese 

3D system was ignored for several 

more years. 

The concept was ultimately 

brought back by a company that, 

like IMAX, was Canadian, named 

Sensio. It developed a home 3D 

system that could be used with a 

projector, and — like the Japanese 

system of years before — used active 

LCD glasses. It got distribution rights 

to a number of IMAX 3D films, and 

announced that new films would be shot 


Feedback Cinema

Feedback Cinema 

specially for the system. There was even 

a prototype device one could use to make 

one’s own Sensio 3D movies. 

But now back to the cinema. 

One of the most enthusiastic 

boosters of 3D movies was James 

Cameron, who was known to 

be working on a science fiction 

blockbuster titled Avatar. When it 

came out, it showed everyone how 

effectively 3D could be used. 

But the lesson was lost. 

Hollywood executives 

didn’t know what 3D was or 

how to shoot in 3D, and their 

technicians told them what 

they wanted to hear — that 

by some sort of crazy alchemy, 

one could add 3D to vast stores 

of 2D films. That couldn’t 

actually be done, but no one 

wanted to face the truth. High 

ticket prices brought crowds in 

to IMAX cinemas to see in “3D” 

films that were shot in neither 

IMAX nor 3D. With the effect 

blunted by the lack of actual 3D 

effects, spectators began, instead, 

to focus on 3D’s down side. 

For one thing, the screen cutoff 

problem is back. Even on the gigantic 

IMAX screen the problem 

remains, because the image 

is simply blown up to the 

screen’s size, whereas “real” 

IMAX movies use the screen 

edges to fill your peripheral 

vision. 

Then there’s the problem of 

3D glasses. Leaving aside their alleged 

“dorkiness” (you’re viewing in the dark 

after all), they’re inherently uncomfortable 

because they’re cheap. They make 

dollar-store sunglasses look good. With 

use, their plastic lenses get scratched. 

Because they’re made to a price — and 

not a high price — they are darker than 

they absolutely have to be, and they 

take away from the luminosity of the 

image. In cinemas with dim projection 

gear, dark parts of the image will all but 

disappear. 

Add to that the production errors, 

in which the image is presented either 

too far forward or too far back, making 

it difficult to focus, and giving some 

viewers headaches. 


But now let’s talk about 3D home 

theatre. 

The reason for the 3D wave of the 

1950’s was the arrival of TV (albeit black 

and white) in the living room. Television 

never did kill the movie theatre, at least 

not yet, but there was a perceived need 

to offer moviegoers something extra 

to bring them in. Today the perceived 

threat is home theatre. However, now 

home theatre is also 3D, or it can be. Is 

it taking the world by storm? 

Here too there are problems. 

Let’s start with the glasses. Watching 

TV is more of a casual activity than 

going to a movie, and needing to don 

glasses is, for all but gadgeteers, a 

showstopper. Depending on the 

3D system you select, you’ll need 

polarizing glasses, like the top pair 

shown here, or active LCD glasses, 

like the ones at bottom. Polarizing 

glasses are old technology, and all else 

being equal the LCD system is superior. 

However the glasses are heavier, because 

they’re actual electronic devices, 

and they contain batteries. In most 

systems we’ve seen, they’re slow 

to react, and they let you see a 

disturbing “ghost” image. They’re 

expensive too, and you need a pair 

for every visitor if you’re going to 

watch the Big Game in 3D. 

Actually, 3D sports have 

another problem. Look at the 

Panasonic pro 3D camera on this 

page, and you’ll see that its lenses 

are so close together they will pick up 

little depth. Panasonic is not alone in 

this. Fujifilm is almost alone in making 

a still camera, shown here, with 

actual natural spacing between 

its lenses. Sports exacerbate this 

problem, because the action is distant, 

and even an 8 cm interocular distance 

won’t pick up much depth. Photographers 

of the old Viewmaster travel discs 

would include a nearby object, such as a 

tree or a bush, to add depth to the 

scene. 

And then there’s the poor 

resolution. We’ve gotten used 

to HDTV, with its smooth images, 

but in most 3D systems each frame 

must be used for two images instead of 

one, cutting the resolution in half, and 

letting you see the scanning lines you 

had left behind when you gave your old 

Trinitron to the Sally Ann. 

What most threatens to kill this 

latest 3D wave is the lack of quality material. 

You can buy blockbuster movies, 

such as the final Harry Potter film, 

which were shot in 2D and “converted.” 

You can buy endless quantities of animated 

films whose 3D effects are cheaply 

computer-generated and therefore cheap 

to produce, but which are not worth two 

hours of your time. 

We are resolutely pro-3D, and we 

think most of the problems can be 

solved. But they aren’t being solved, and 

we’re not optimistic.

The people at Reference 

Recordings have been talking 

about a return to vinyl for 

years. However this venerable 

record company made its enviable 

reputation with top-grade LPs, then 

with HDCD and more recently SACD. 

Clearly, only quality vinyl would do. And 

earlier attempts to return to the pressing 

plant yielded disappointing results. 

There were problems with both existing 

cutting suites and pressing plants. 

Now, RR vinyl is finally back, and the 

quality…well, the first sample that came 

into our hands is among the very best 

available. More in detail in a moment. 

Reference Recordings has been 

around for decades, and although Keith 

O. Johnson wasn’t there at the very start, 

he has been the guiding genius behind 

RR during nearly all its existence. The 

story of how he got started in recording 

is legendary. 

Nuts&Bolts 

RR Reinvents 

Vinyl 

In his first year of college he built 

a three-channel audio recorder for a 

science fair, actually hand-winding the 

head coils (he came in second). Needing 

some music to demonstrate it, he got 

permission to record at a local jazz club. 

He knew so little about jazz that he didn’t 

recognize the name of the evening’s 

star, Red Norvo. His recording remains 

available under the title The Forward Look 

(RR-7). When he went job-hunting after 

college, he applied at Ampex and was told 

about the wonderful new three-channel 

stereo recorder they had developed. He 

pulled a tape from his briefcase, and it 

played perfectly on Ampex’s “unique” 

new recorder. 

Johnson went to work for Fairchild 

rather than Ampex, but made recordings 

for such companies as Klavier…and of 

course Reference Recordings, where 

he has been ever since. His college-era 

recorder followed, and was used in 

countless recording sessions. When you 

see the mention “pure analog” on an RR 

LP, you know it was made with Keith’s 

three-track machine. 

Of course even RR eventually had 

to release music on CD, though we 

were disappointed with the resulting 

sound. So was Keith, who began work, 

with the help of digital wizard Michael 

“Pflash” Pflaumer, on a CD that would 

be improved but remain backward 

compatible, HDCD. We have written 

extensively about HDCD, still used by 

RR itself and by several other producers. 

It used compression and volume limiting 

to allow the music to be encoded with 

more bits than a conventional CD. A log 

of operations was embedded at very low 

level in the dithering signal, so that a 

decoder could undo the compression and 

limiting during playback. The HDCD 

system was eventually purchased by 

Microsoft, and its technology incorporated 

into the Windows Media codec. 

Still, vinyl is back in a big way, and it 

seemed inevitable that RR would, sooner 

or later, return to the analog medium. 

First, a number of problems would have 

to be solved. 

The cutting lathe used is from 

Neumann, but it has been extensively 

reworked by mastering engineer Paul 

Stubblebine and by Keith himself (Paul 

and Keith are shown together in the 

photo on the next page). The lathe was 

simplified, leaving out any circuitry not 

actually needed to get the job done. 

There are just three amplification 

devices per channel. The mechanical 

system was modified to avoid stresses 

and undesirable motion of the elements. 

Cutting was done at half speed, as is 

common for audiophile LPs. 

We know that some older master 

tapes have not aged well (see Not Made to 

Last in UHF No. 90), but the Stravinsky 

analog tape, from 1996, had survived 

largely unscathed. Using Keith’s trusty 

three-channel recorder, the music was 

transferred to 24-bit 176.4 kHz digital. 

Now we know that will startle the 

purists, who — for possibly understandable 

reasons — have considered digital 


Nuts&Bolts 

Feedback 

to be one of the four horsemen of the 

apocalypse, and wish their LPs could 

be all-analog, as in the old days. There 

were several reasons for the choice, not 

all of them for the sake of convenience. 

First, a cutting lathe must be able 

to preview what is coming up. That’s 

because, unless you’re willing to settle 

for a six-minute playing time, you will 

vary the groove spacing depending on 

the volume. Louder passages need more 

space between grooves, but that means 

the lathe needs to “know” what’s coming 

up. 

Traditionally previewing was done by 

equipping the analog playback machine 

with two playback heads and a long loop 

between them. The first head warned 

the lathe of what was coming, and the 

second drove the cutting head. This 

once universal Rube Goldberg device 

was retired years ago, to be replaced by 

a digital delay line. 

And the digital transfer offered the 

opportunity to do some signal processing. 

Keith had always done some 

equalization on his analog tapes. He 

had a written record of what EQ had 

been applied originally, and the same 

compensation could be applied in the 

digital domain with fewer artifacts. A 

little sharpening of transients was also 

applied, to compensate for “edge smear” 

due to aging of the tape (which Paul 

Bergman called “longitudinal printing” 

in the article already mentioned). 

Do you still have doubts? Keith Johnson 

says that modern digital signal pro- 


cessing is far superior to 

the old analog methods, 

and that this more than 

makes up for any artifacts 

from the conversion 

to the very high 

resolution of the digital 

transfer, done with the 

Pacific Microsonics 

Model Two, the final 

(and greatest) of Keith’s 

HDCD converters. 

Producer Tam Henderson, 

who is RR’s 

founder, added another innovation, one 

that seems so obvious that you wonder 

why everyone doesn’t use it. It’s all too 

common for the cutting engineer, apparently 

eager to get home, to begin the exit 

groove before the last note has fully died 

away. Tam’s innovation: wait. At the end 

of the music there’s a glorious 12 to 20 

seconds of glorious silence! 

With the cutting lathe ready, RR 

needed to find someone who could press 

the disc without ruining everything. 

The pressings were done at Quality 

Record Pressings in Salina, Kansas, a 

division of the mail-order record seller 

Acoustic Sounds. QRP uses vintage 

presses (since no one has made any for 

many years), but rebuilds them with 

modern microprocessor operation, and 

accurate temperature control to avoid 

overheating the vinyl and killing the 

highs. QRP also has its own plating 

facility, a vital step in the creation of a 

quality LP. 

The RR releases are on 200-gram 

vinyl, and seem startlingly heavy if 

you’re used to most LPs. 

The Stravinsky album was 

released at the same time as another 

album, Dick Hyman’s From the 

Age of Swing. That one really was 

released on vinyl as well as HDCD. 

It will be interesting to see whether, 

as Keith O. Johnson says, the new 

LPs sound superior to the older 

“Pure Analog” ones. 

The first release 

The Stravinsky recording is a 

good choice, because it was reviewed 

most favorably, including by us, but 

it was originally recorded on analog 

tape. We have the HDCD version (RR- 

70CD), which sounds outstanding even 

without HDCD decoding, but has wonderful 

dynamics when decoded. We also 

have part of The Firebird on RR’s Tutti 

compilation SACD (RR-906SACD). 

Can vinyl top SACD? 

On the evidence, yes.

The Firebird ballet sounded disturbingly 

modern when it was inaugurated by 

Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1910. 

Critics of the time called the music noisy, 

brutal and vulgar, and the celebrated ballerina 

Pavlova actually refused to dance 

it. That seems curious since, in our own 

day, it seems no less accessible than Swan 

Lake 

Stravinsky was just 28 at the time, 

and he had been one of the composers 

who had adapted a number of Chopin 

piano pieces to become the Diaghilev 

ballet Les Sylphides. Diaghilev had actually 

assigned the Firebird ballet to the 

celebrated Russian composer Anatoly 

Liadov. However Liadov dragged his 

feet, and Diaghilev became increasingly 

impatient. When Liadov told Diaghilev 

that the ballet was coming along fine, 

and that in fact he had just bought the 

music paper so he could actually write 

it, he was fired. Diaghilev, now critically 

short of time, turned to the young Igor 

Stravinsky. 

Stravinsky rewarded him with one of 

the most enduring masterpieces of the 

new century. 

The Minnesota Orchestra is not 

exactly an unknown ensemble. Under its 

old name of the Minneapolis Symphony, The ballet is based on a Russian tale, 

it was long conducted by Antal Dorati which pits a prince against an evil ogre 

and turned out countless memorable to win the freedom of a princess he loves. 

recordings on the Mercury label. Eiji The prince of course wins out, as fairy 

Oue’s reading of the Firebird score tale princes must, with the friendly help 

sometimes seems a little idiosyncratic, of the firebird. Stravinsky’s retelling 

but it always works musically. The soft of the traditional Russian story was an 

passages, especially the Berceuse, How Maggie are instant Works success. 

lyrical and poetic, and the Infernal UHF Dance is, and has been The digital version of this recording 

leading to the ending is full of power for many and years, was especially famous for its climax, 

magic. 

a print magazine. But which we includes know possibly the most realistic 

The sound is fully up more to the and orches- more audiophiles bass drum on record. That bass drum 

tra’s magical touch. The want suite to opens read it might on their easily have overloaded either the 

with the cellos and double computer basses playing or iPad. record And they’re cutter or our London Reference 

softly at the lower limits of willing the audible to save money cartridge, too. but in fact neither happened. 

range, and you are drawn Click right here, in. The and let It doesn’t Maggie quite sound the way it does on 

LP’s noise floor is audible explain but only how just, to get CD, the however. full The actual impact of the 

and — but for two isolated ticks — version there for mallet $4. on the drum is sharper on the 

is little to remind you that you And are we hear- mean HDCD a PDF original, softer here. Perhaps 

ing an LP. Paul and Keith version have left without a lot digitl it’s because rights the master tape was then 

of headroom, for when the management full orchestra you can newer, transfer but then to again perhaps this is how 

enters, its power pushes the you device back of in your it should choice. 

be, and perhaps the original 

your chair. Yet it never sounds too loud. “sharpness” was a digital artifact. In any 

On our reference turntable, there was case, this version works perfectly, and it 

not the slightest trace of harshness or just sounds right. 

overload. The orchestra sounds like… Though Reference Recordings says it 

well, like a live orchestra. 

may release future recordings as double 

albums, possibly cut at 45 rpm, to fit all 

the music from the original CDs, this is 

a single disc, and that meant something 

had to go. The something is The Rite of 

Spring, Stravinsky’s most controversial 

ballet for Diaghilev. It too is a masterpiece. 

though it actually led to fist fights 

at its premiere in Paris. The second side 

of the LP does include The Song of the 

Nightingale, a suite from Stravinsky’s 

first opera, Le Rossignol. Stravinsky 

had been working on that opera when 

Diaghilev dropped the Firebird commission 

in his lap. It is gorgeous, though for 

my part I would have preferred to have 

the Rite of Spring on side two. Your view 

may well be different. 

This first new album from Reference 

Recordings in years sets a high water 

mark for what can be done with this 

medium that will not die. With highresolution 

music files becoming more 

common, including the remarkable HRx 

files from Reference itself, some are 

questioning the continued pertinence 

of vinyl. 

Question it no more. 


Nuts&Bolts 

Feedback

This is the second time we’ve 

reviewed a Benchmark product, 

or perhaps the third. In 

UHF No. 75 we reviewed the 

original DAC1, and we expressed considerable 

enthusiasm for it. In the next 

issue we reviewed it again, but this time 

as a headphone amplifier (perhaps you’ve 

noticed the twin headphone jacks). Once 

again, we were enthusiastic, giving it a 

second-place finish against an expensive 

competitor. 

Now comes the Benchmark DAC1 

HDR, which looks quite a lot like the 

earlier one (which remains available), 

but which adds two major features. 

For one thing it has up-to-date chips, 

with the 24-bit/192 kHz resolution you 

expect today. For another, it’s not only a 

converter but also a preamplifier. Check 

the rear view on the next page, and you’ll 

see that one of its half dozen inputs is one 

for an analog source. Ready for the best 

of both worlds? 

On our cover you can see the HDR 

along with its handsome remote control, 

which reveals how much thought has 

gone into the creation of this well-built 

unit. Here’s but a single example. We 

initially assumed that the button marked 

“dim” referred to the brightness of the 

display, but wait a minute — there is no 

display, apart from six blue LEDs which 

indicate the selected input (they all light 


Listening Room 

Benchmark HDR 

up only when the unit is muted). So 

what does “dim” mean? Push it, and the 

preamplifier dips in volume to a preset 

soft level. The HDR remembers your 

selected soft level, too. Push the “mute” 

button, and the volume dips smoothly to 

your selected “dim” level, and then goes 

to zero. All preamplifiers should work 

like this. Do you suppose Steve Jobs was 

moonlighting? 

There are two possible ways of thinking 

about the HDR. Yes, it’s a DAC with 

an integrated preamp, but then again 

you can think of it as a preamp with a 

built-in DAC. Oh, and don’t forget that 

built-in headphone amp too. 

Benchmark Media claims that its 

unique circuitry can deliver jitter-free 

output even from a source that contains 

jitter. It also claims to deliver jitterfree 

24/96 kHz performance via USB. 

We continue to consider USB to be a 

convenience, to be used when no other 

connection is available, but Benchmark 

is not just throwing it in to fatten up its 

feature list. Note that the USB circuit 

in our reference converter is very much 

an afterthought. 

Did we mention that the HDR has no 

display beyond the six blue LEDs? That 

means it won’t confirm the resolution 

that it is operating at. Plenty of other 

DACs have the same omission, and some 

users won’t care, as long as music comes 

out the other end, but we’re insecure, 

and we would like to be able to keep an 

eye on the odometer. 

At the rear of the unit is a switch 

labelled “fixed” and “variable.” That of 

course refers to volume. In “fixed” 

mode, it bypasses its volume control, 

and in that mode the HDR is just a 

DAC, albeit one with multiple inputs. 

In “variable” mode it can be used 

as a full-blown preamplifier. It was 

obvious that we would have to try it 

both ways. 

Initially, then, we used the “fixed” 

setting, and set out to discover whether 

this DAC1 is good enough just as a DAC. 

We had of course reviewed the older 

unit, but since then our own reference 

system has improved considerably, as 

has digital technology in general. We 

selected several CDs and listened to 

them using our Linn Unidisk 1.1 player 

as a transport, with an Atlas Opus digital 

cable from the Unidisk’s digital output 

to the coaxial input of our Moon 300D 

converter. We then substituted the 

DAC1 HDR for the Moon, and listened 

again. This comparison minimized the 

variables, since we used exactly the same 

cables, including the power cable, on 

both converters. 

Our first selection was the Pauline 

Viardot-Garcia art song Haï Lully, from 

soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian’s Analekta 

album (AN 2 9903). This is an especially 

terrific song from a great recording. If 

we bring it along when we’re touring a 

show, we are beset by people wanting 

the CD number (we just gave it to you, 

above). 

Both our reference converter and 

the Benchmark did well with it, but, as 

often happens, the two renditions were 

not the same. Detail was certainly not 

lacking, though Gerard thought the 

words (which are in French) were slightly 

clearer with the reference. Bayrakdarian 

seemed to be at a certain distance from 

us, and yet we could hear her breathe 

between phrases. The near-silences at 

the ends of syllables remained gorgeous. 

“Everything is lighter and brighter,” 

said Toby, “and the piano has less

weight.” But the piano nonetheless 

maintained a 

wonderful limpidity 

(there is no other 

accompaniment, nor 

is any needed), and 

the image was perhaps 

even better, if 

that was possible. 

You may notice something 

unusual about UHF’s equipment 

reviews, the Crosstalk section. 

We have long done our reviews with 

a panel, typically of three reviewers. The 

main article is based on the consensus 

of the panelists. But what happens if we 

don’t agree? 

In our unique Crosstalk section, each 

panelist gets the chance to give his/her 

opinion, to add a nuance to the article, or 

even to disagree with the others. There 

is no pressure to conform. 

And why should there be? Readers 

tell us they like to see some disagreement. 

If we can disagree among ourselves, 

they can disagree with us too. 

And that’s good. 














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Summing it up… 

Brand/model: Benchmark HDR 

Price: US$1895 

Dimensions: x cm 

Inputs: Analog, TOSLINK, coaxial, 

USB 

Outputs: coaxial, XLR 

Most liked: Outstanding performance 

on several levels 

Least liked: No readout of signal 

resolution, trade-up policy that discriminates 

against Canada 

Verdict: Three boxes in one, each one 

worth the cost 












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Listening Feedback Cinema Room

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It wasn’t quite a surprise that the Benchmark 

HDR could not quite beat either of 

our reference components, if only because 

their respective prices are disproportionately 

greater, but it gave it its best shot. And it sure 

didn’t disgrace itself. 

And it’s a bargain for a reason that might 

not be obvious at first blush. If you buy a top 

grade preamplifier and a top grade DAC in 

separate boxes, not only will you be paying 

for the boxes and their respective power 

supplies, but you could wind up connecting 

them together with a cable that costs like the 

entire Benchmark HDR! 

I spent some time — more time than I 

had intended — listening to this beautiful 

product in Vegas a year ago. I enjoyed it 

tremendously then. I enjoyed it no less once 

it arrived here. 

A bargain on more than one level. 

—Gerard Rejskind 

The converter in this device extracts 

detail to an exceptional degree. My atten- 





























CROSSTALK 

tion was drawn to string vibrations, throat 

sounds, vocal inflections, bass detail, the 

subtle differences between the tones of wind 

instruments and much more. On Haï Lully 

there was a little less weight to the piano and 

the voice was slightly brighter, but detail 

restitution is one thing that sets apart a great 

system from an ordinary one. If yours needs 

more, you should hear this DAC; it may be 

just what you want. 

That was my impression when listening 

with the reference preamp, which, I cannot 

forget, costs twelve times the price if you 

cost each half of the HDR equally. When 

you hear the HDR’s DAC through its own 

preamp instead, the unit becomes a great 

bargain, with little of its detail lost and the 

liveliness of the music unchanged. 

There is other equipment, all more 

expensive I’m afraid, which supplies a larger 

image and a greater sense of musical flow, but 

if you own this Benchmark, you may never 

feel the need to invest. 

—Toby Earp 
























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Pssst... (glance left, glance right) ... Want 

a terrific DAC for free? Here is what you can 

do. 

When you decide to upgrade your 

preamp, get this Benchmark, and the DAC 

is yours as a bonus. How do you know when 

you need a better preamp? Not simple, since 

we may feel that the path to improvement is 

a new DAC. At Benchmark they must know 

better, since they offer a double improvement 

with this unit. So when you feel the urge for 

a new DAC, think of a new preamp too. 

But hey, don’t take my word for it, ever. 

Hook this unit in, and,while you’re at it try 

the preamp section instead of yours. Hear 

the difference. You’ll know if that is what 

you need. 

That’s how good I believe it is, as a DAC 

and as a preamp. It won’t make your power 

amp sound better, but your speakers will. 

They are the ones that sing your tunes. You’ll 

probably sit a while longer in front of them. 

And exhale. 

—Albert Simon

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www.uhfmag.com/maggie.html

It occurs to us that we have reviewed 


Audiomat Phono 2 

a great number of Audiomat products, 

a number out of all proportion 

to this French company’s profile 

in the market. We’ve reviewed three 

outstanding tube integrated amplifiers, 

the Arpège, Opéra and Récital, which 

were featured in UHF No. 68, 69 and 

73 respectively, we’ve done the Tempo 

and Maestro digital-to-analog converters, 

and this is the fourth phono preamp 

from Audiomat to come through our 

listening room. Why all this attention to 

the products of what is, by any standard, 

a minor brand? 

It’s simple. We like them. 

Take the case of the phono preamplifiers, 

since one of them is featured here. 

The original Phono-1 was reviewed in 

UHF No. 56, and it got a reasonably 

good review, but not enough that we 

were tempted to reach for our cheque 

book. We were then using Bryston’s 

wonderful but long-discontinued step- 

up transformer with the tube phono 

stage in our Copland preamplifier (one 

of which is still used in our Alpha reference 

systems), and we were perfectly 

happy. Our happiness was stirred, if not 

shaken, by the very-different Phono-1.5 

(UHF No. 69). We don’t make changes 

to our reference systems unless that 

change will improve our ability to review 

other products. That was finally the case, 

and we bought it. It would do us forever, 

we figured. 

Then came the Phono-1.6 (UHF 

No. 87). In sonic terms it was just like 

the earlier one, except for one thing: 

the magic. We spend a good deal of 


time listening to vinyl, both for work 

and pleasure (often for both at the same 

time), and at every level we would be 

enjoying ourselves more. 

And now? 

We could expect this new Audiomat 

product to be a significant upgrade, but 

to be blunt we began with no intention 

whatever of buying one. At well over 

$5000, it isn’t the most expensive phono 

preamp available, or even close, but there 

can always be something a little better, 

and that means we could go on upgrading 

forever. Enough was enough. 

Case closed, then, but we’ll return to 

this topic shortly. 

Unlike the earlier Audiomat phono 

preamps, this one is not a replacement 

for the previous one, but an extension 

to the line. It costs $2200 more than the 

Phono-1.6, and therefore by implication 

it must surely offer more. We suppose 

there could eventually be a Phono 3 at 

an even higher price, though we rather 

hope not. 

The Phono 2 (the “2” is now written 

as superscript) is in a wide chassis 

like that of the Phono-1.5, but with a 

separate power supply, as before. The 

two are linked by a detachable cord 

with a five-pin XLR plug. There is but 

a single control, a front-panel switch 

that selects the MM or the MC input. 

There is a power switch, but it’s placed 

unobtrusively on the power supply, and 

you are not encouraged to use it, except 

of course to turn it on when you first get 

it. There’s a knurled post for attaching 

a ground lead if your turntable has one, 

but as ever it isn’t just a chassis ground, 

and it’s wrong for our turntable, though 

an internal jumper exists. We connected 

our ground lead to the chassis with a 

small alligator clip. 

So far there’s not much new. 

We did our listening with our 

best turntable, the one in our 

Omega system. It’s a Linn LP12 

with all the upgrades except the 

Keel, sitting on a Target VW-1 wall 

stand, with an Alphason HR-100S titanium 

tone arm and a London Reference 

cartridge. The London uses a unique 

transducer with a high output, and so 

we would be using the MM (moving 

magnet) input on both phono preamplifiers. 

We selected half a dozen particularly 

challenging LPs, and sat down to what 

we were certain would be a most pleasant 

session. 

We weren’t wrong. 

The rest of this article is available in 

the print and full electronic version. 

UHF began life, in 1982, as a print 

magazine, and a rather slick one at that. 

Today it also has an electronic version. 

It looks just like the one you’re reading, 

except of course that it doesn’t have these 

interruptions. You do pay a small amount 

for it ($4 anywhere in the world, plus 

sales tax in Canada only), but you get it 

all. 

Actually, we’re rather hoping you’ll 

want to go and get the full version. 

Maggie has it, and it can be on your hard 

drive, or you iPad, or whatever you have, 

with a few clicks. 

Visit maggie’s page at www.uhfmag. 

com/maggie.html. 









tisi. 









ex ero odolobore dolobortie digna

conullaor si bla consecte et exerit 


onullan henisl ute core 

vent volor si. 

S u m s a n d r e c o n 

hent ilit nim nis accum 

nissequam ero eraestrud 

dolore ese dolore dolutat, 

volobore diat praestismod 

te facilla facil inci blan et 

aliquis ciliquiscil dignis 

am quis niamet nisse eniamet, sis nibh 

eraesen dionum zzrilla feuipis modolut 

adip euis dolessi. 






































exerat acidunt dolesto ex er incilis 

essim numsandrem verosto eummy nim 




dipisim zzrillutetue corpera esendit ipisi 

blandrer susci te magna feugait 






























Brand/model: Audiomat Phono 2 

Price: C$5490 

Size of main unit (WDH): 42 x 30.5 

x 8.6 cm, including cone feet 

Size of power supply: 10 x 12.5 x 6 

Inputs: MM and MC 

Outputs: Coaxial 

Most liked: Performance that borders 

on magic 

Least liked: Ground lug whose 

default connection didn’t work for us 

Verdict: We bet this preamp could 

play a mean game of quidditch 



luptat. 













































Listening Feedback Room

























The Starker performance of the Bach 

solo piece, an original copy of this LP, was 

riveting. It had me on the edge of my seat all 

the way through. It had dramatic tension, 

musical passion, loads of delightful detail, 

succulent string timbres…and that was 

with the reference Audiomat Phono-1.6, a 

phono preamp which had always impressed 

me. What the Phono2 did was round all that 

out, place it in a physical space, smooth the 

dynamic gradient so that the music flowed 

easily from loud to soft... and then make the 

piece seem about two minutes shorter! 

That’s telling. When the music is over 

much too soon, you know you are hearing 

something exceptional. The exceptions 

went on and on through the program of test 

pieces, until by the end I was more or less 

speechless, and my pen refused to write. A 

listening session like this will transform your 

grumpy companions — if you have them — 

into poets, and your life into art. 

Most of us will look at the large price tag 

on this marvelous preamplifier and conclude, 

for understandable reasons, that we can’t 

afford it. It would be a mistake to turn down 

a chance to listen to it, though, just in case it 

spoiled you for more modest gear. 

That wasn’t my experience. I have two 











tisi. 














CROSSTALK 

of the six terrific vinyl recordings used in 

this review, and afterwards I couldn’t wait 

to get home and enjoy them. The Phono 2 

had opened new doors to the music. Hear it 

if you can. 

—Toby Earp 

I anticipate that the trolls on the Net 

will call me names if I identify “magic” as 

the defining characteristic of this phono 

preamplifier, but quite honestly I don’t know 

what other word I can use. Forget extra 

extension of the bottom end, liquidity of 

the highs, and all that high-end talk. A good 

recording played through this device has an 

extra touch of magic. 

Which takes nothing away from the 

older (but still current) Phono-1.6. You 

may recall that we used the same “magical” 

adjective in describing it, and the adjective 

was deserved. But this one is a Hogwarts 

graduate! 

I suppose I would prefer that it have 

internal adjustments, as the Moon 310LP 

does, but if it did, it would be a pain to use 

as a reference, since by its nature a reference 

component will be used with many other 

products. And it’s not as though I can actually 

hear any harm being done to the Phono2 contents. 

reading material for free. 

UHF difference, 

music or home theatre system. 

Most of them discovered us on line. 

They read a lot of our free material. 

And then they joined us. 

’s 

WHY A FREE ISSUE 

We remember when a number of competitors would 

put on line only only the cover image and the table of 

We would tell them that you don’t go fishing without bait. 

Sure, we live from what you spend through our site and 

the pages of our print issue. But you could spend days 

We think that’s the only way we can convince you of the 

of why you might want to trust us with the future of your 

We have readers on every continent except Antarctica. 























modolore. 

sound just because I can’t tweak the output 

capacitance. 

You don’t need me to tell you whether 

you should buy one too. Lend it an ear…and 

let it tell you in its own voice. 


How would you describe a clear pane 

of glass? Well, you wouldn’t. Listening to 

reproduced music often seems like watching 

a movie through a sealed glass window, and 

every improvement in the system makes that 

pane of glass a bit clearer, a bit cleaner, a bit 

more transparent. 

Well today that glass became a whole 

lot…less. I could say that performers popped 

to life, but then you might think that they 

jumped out of the speakers. Actually it wasn’t 

quite like that. It sounded as if they did more 

of whatever they had been doing. As if they 

were naturally more convincing. When they 

played softly, their music was softer, when 

they played with a smile and a wink, they 

cracked up, a sad lament became gloom and 

everything flowed. 

A superb phono stage such as this one 

shows you all that you’ve been missing and 

didn’t even know it. Start saving. 

—Albert Simon

THE ACOUSTIC COLLECTION: 

This is the closest we can get to a book on 

acoustics by Paul Bergman. Issues No.77- 

84: eight issues available for the price of five 

issues. Including Paul Bergman’s complete 

series on acoustics for audiophiles (room size 

and acoustics, taming reverberation, absorbing 

sound, absorbing unwanted low frequencies, diffusing 

sound, soundproofing, speaker placement 

and room acoustics, and signals for acoustic 

measurement). 

No. 90: Reviews: The Moon 300D converter, 

the Allnic L-1500 tube preamplifier, the Leema 

Elements phono preamp, the ELAC FS 249 

loudspeaker, and a tube headphone amp from 

Trends. Home theatre: We compare a new LEDbacklit 

HDTV from Samsung with our reference 

plasma. Features: We look at 3D films, and 

reveal why most of them are bogus, we cover 

the best and worst from CES and the Montreal 

Salon Son&Image, and Paul Bergman looks at 

the elements that make up a computer music 

source. Plus: Toby Earp on Rachmaninoff, the 

great 20th Century neo-Romantic. 

No. 89: Reviews: The Moon 300D converter, 

the Allnic L-1500 tube preamplifier, the Leema 

Elements phono preamp, the ELAC FS 249 

loudspeaker, and a tube headphone amp from 

Trends. Home theatre: We compare a new LEDbacklit 

HDTV from Samsung with our reference 

plasma. Features: We look at 3D films, and 

reveal why most of them are bogus, we cover 

the best and worst from CES and the Montreal 

Salon Son&Image, and Paul Bergman looks at 

the elements that make up a computer music 

source. Plus: Toby Earp on Rachmaninoff, the 

great 20th Century neo-Romantic. 

No. 88: High resolution music: We open our 

copies of Reference Recordings’ HRx 24/176.4 

recordings, and check how good they can sound 

right now. Reviews: Two speakers, the Reference 

3A Episode and the Audes Orpheus. An amazing 

four-box CD player from Cyrus. Cambridge’s 

affordable DACMagic. Blue Circle’s unusual 

Fon Lo phono preamps, two new cables from 

BIS, and headphones from AblePlanet. We try to 

determine whether a “better” USB cable sounds 

better. Plus: Paul Bergman on why many “stereo” 

recordings are done with a single microphone. 

No. 87: Digital: We review the April Music Eximus 

CD player, and we plug things into its digital 

inputs. We also try to get great sound from the 

increasingly popular Apple Airport Express. 

Analog: We listen to the Audiomat Phono-1.6, 

successor to our reference phono preamp, and 

a hand-wound step-up transformer from Allnic. 

Plus: A lovely little tube amp from Audio Space, 

the Pioneer BDP-11FD Blu-ray player, and a 

feature article on good sound in bad times. 

No.86: Analog: We review the Scheu Analogue 

Premier II turntable and Cantus arm, and we try 

two phono preamps: the Allnic H-1200 and the 

Moon LP3. Also: We continue our investigation 

of speaker connectors by putting WBT nextgens 

on our reference cable, we listen to Beats headphones, 

as well as the Shure SE530 and SE420 

phones. We also put the Zoom H2 palm-sized 

digital recorder through a tough test. Plus: color 

space in home theatre, Paul Bergman on analog 

in a digital world. 

No.85: Integrated amplifiers: the luxurious 

Sugden A21SE and the affordable Vecteur 

Ai4. We evaluate Eichmann’s new Quiessence 

cables, and chat with Keith Eichmann himself. 

We listen to a very good mid-priced speaker 

cable with four different connectors, and the 

results leave us stunned. Plus: We choose 

(and evaluate in depth) a new HDTV reference 

monitor, Paul Bergman winds up his series on 

acoustics, and we tell you how to transfer music 

to hard drive without saying you’re sorry. 

No.84: Digital streaming: the awesome Linn 

Klimax DS and the Off-Ramp Turbo 2 interface. 

Also: the classic Harbeth HL5 speaker, the 

affordable Moon CD-1 and i-1 amplifier, and 

a great phono stage from Aurum. Plus: UHF 

chats with Linn’s Gilad Tiefenbrun and Harbeth’s 

Alan Shaw, Paul Bergman discusses signals for 

acoustic measurement, and we look at the prospects 

for 3-D…at home and in the cinema. 

No.83: Digital: The Raysonic CD128 and a lowcost 

player from VisionQuest. Other reviews: The 

Moon LP5.3 phono stage, the Castle Richmond 

7i speaker, the upscale Mavros cables from 

Atlas, and a retest of the Power Foundation III 

line filter, with a better power cord this time. Plus: 

The acoustics of speaker placement, the two 

meanings of video image contrast, and a portrait 

of super tenor Placido Domingo. 

No.82: Amplifiers: A large sweet tube amplifier 

from Audio Space, the Reference 3.1, and the 

reincarnation of an old favorite, the Sugden A21. 

Digital: Bryston's first CD player, and the Blue 

Circle "Thingee," with USB at one end and lots of 

outputs at the other end. Plus: the BC Acoustique 

A3 speaker, a small subwoofer, two more London 

phono cartridges, line filters from AudioPrism 

and BIS, a blind test of three interconnects, Paul 

Bergman on soundproofing, and a thorough test 

of Sony's new-generation Blu-ray player 

No.81: Digital: The newest two-box CD player 

from Reimyo, and the magical Linn Majik 

player. Headphones a new version of our long 

time reference headphones, from the Koss pro 

division, and the affordable SR-125 headphones 

from Grado. Plus: The astonishing Sonogram 

loudspeakers from Gershman, a small but lovely 

tube integrated amplifier from CEC, and the 

London Reference phono cartridge. 

No.80: Equipment reviews: From Linn, the 

Artikulat 350A active speakers, the updated 

LP12 turntable, the Klimax Kontrol preamplifier, 

and the Linto phono stage; ASW Genius 300 

speakers, ModWright preamp and phono stage. 

Also: Bergman on absorbing low frequencies, 

emerging technologies for home theatre, and 

coverage of the Montreal Festival. 

No.79: Digital players: Simaudio’s flagship 

DVD (and CD) player, the Calypso, and Creek’s 

surprising economy EVO player. Phono stages: 

A slick tube unit from Marchand, and the superb 

Sonneteer Sedley, with USB input and output. 

Plus: the talented JAS Oscar loudspeakers, the 

Squeezebox plus our own monster power supply. 

Also: Bergman on what absorbs sound and what 

doesn’t, what’s next in home theatre, Vegas 

2007, and the secrets of the harmonica. 

No.78: Integrated amplifiers: the affordable 

Creek EVO, and the (also affordable) Audio 

Space AS-3i. Loudspeaker cables: six of them 

from Atlas and Actinote, in a blind test. Plus: 

the astonishing Aurum Acoustics Integris 300B 

complete system, and its optional CD player/ 

preamplifier. Whew! Also: Bergman on taming 

reverberation, how to put seven hours of uncompressed 

music on just one disc, and the one 

opera that even non-opera people know. 

No.77: Electronics: The Simaudio Moon P-8 

preamplifier, the successor to the legendary 

Bryston 2B power amp, the Antique Sound Lab 

Lux DT phono stage. Plus: the Reimyo DAP-777 

converter, an affordable CD player/integrated 

amp pair from CEC, and five power cords. Also: 

Paul Bergman on room size and acoustics, how 

to dezone foreign DVDs, and how to make your 

own 24/96 high resolution discs at home. 

No.76: Loudspeakers: a new look at the modern 

Back Issues 

version of the Totem Mani-2, an affordable ELAC 

speaker with a Heil tweeter, and the even more 

affordable Castle Richmond 3i. Plus headphone 

amps from Lehmann, CEC and Benchmark, a 

charger that can do all your portables, and the 

Squeezebox 3, which gets true hi-fi music from 

your computer to your stereo system. Bergman 

on speaker impedance and how to measure it. 

No.75: Amplifiers: The new Simaudio Moon W-8 

flagship, and integrated amps from Copland (the 

CTA-405) and CEC. Speakers: the Reference 3a 

Veena and the Energy Reference Connoisseur 

reborn. Plus the Benchmark DAC converter. And 

also: Bergman on the changing concept of hi-fi 

and stereo, a chat with FIM’s Winston Ma, and 

the rediscovery of a great Baroque composer, 

Christoph Graupner. 

No.74: Amplifiers: Mimetism 15.2, Qinpu A-8000, 

Raysonic SP-100, Cyrus 8vs and Rogue Stereo 

90. More reviews: Atlantis Argentera speaker, 

Cyrus CD8X player, GutWire MaxCon 2 line 

filter, Harmony remote, Music Studio 10 recording 

software. Cables: Atlas, Stager, BIS and 

DNM, including a look at how length affects 

digital cables. Plus: the (hi-fi) digital jukebox, 

why HDTV doesn’t always mean what you think, 

and Reine Lessard on The Man Who Invented 

Rock’n’Roll. 

No.73: Integrated amplifiers: Audiomat Récital 

and Exposure 2010S. Analog: Turntables 

from Roksan (Radius 5) and Goldring (the 

Rega-designed GR2), plus two cartridges, and 

four phono stages from CEC, Marchand and 

Goldring. The Harmonix Reimyo CD player, 

Audiomat Maestro DAC, ASW Genius 400 

speakers, and the Sonneteer BardOne wireless 

system. Plus: Paul Bergman on the making of an 

LP and why they don’t all sound the same. 

No.72: Music from data: How you can make your 

own audiophile CDs with equipment you already 

have. We test a DAC that yields hi-fi from your 

computer. We review the new Audio Reference 

speakers, the updated Connoisseur singleended 

tube amp, upscale Actinote cables, and 

Gershman’s Acoustic Art panels. How to tune up 

your system for a big performance boost. 

No.71: Small speaker: Reference 3a Dulcet, 

Totem Rainmaker, and a low cost speaker from 

France. A blind cable test: five cables from Atlas, 

and a Wireworld cable with different connectors 

(Eichmann, WBT nextgen, and Wireworld). The 

McCormack UDP-1 universal player, muRata 

super tweeters, Simaudio I-3 amp and Equinox 

CD player. Paul Bergman examines differences 

behind two-channel stereo and multichannel. 

No.70: How SACD won the war…or how DVD-A 

blew it. Reviews: Linn Unidisk 1.1 universal 

player and Shanling SCD-T200 player. Speakers: 

Reference 3a Royal Virtuoso, Equation 25, 

Wilson Benesch Curve. Other reviews: Simaudio 

W-5LE amp, the iPod as an audiophile source. 

Plus: future video screens, and the eternal music 

of George Gershwin 

No.69: Tube Electronics: Audiomat Opéra , 

Connoisseur SE-2 and Copland CSA29 integrated 

amps, and Shanling SP-80 monoblocks. 

Audiomat's Phono 1.5, Creek CD50, GutWire's 

NotePad and a music-related computer game 

that made us laugh out loud. Paul Bergman on 

the return of the tube, and how music critics did 

their best to kill the world’s greatest music. 

No.68: Loudspeakers: Thiel CS2.4, Focus Audio 

FS688, Iliad B1. Electronics:Vecteur I-6.2 and 

Audiomat Arpège integrated amps, Copland 306 

multichannel tube preamp, Rega Fono MC. Also: 

Audio Note and Copland CD players, GutWire 

MaxCon power filter. And there’s more: all about 

power supplies, what’s coming beyond DVD, and 

a chat with YBA’s Yves-Bernard André. 

No.67: Loudspeakers: An improved Reference 

3a MM de Capo, and the Living Voice Avatar 

OBX-R. Centre speakers from Castle, JMLab, 

ProAc, Thiel, Totem and Vandersteen. One of 

them joins our Kappa system. Two multichannel 

amps from Copland and Vecteur. Plus: plans for 

a DIY platform for placing a centre speaker atop 

any TV set, Paul Bergman on the elements of 

acoustics, and women in country music. 

No.66: Reviews: the Jadis DA-30 amplifier, the 

Copland 305 tube preamp and 520 solid state 

amp. Plus: the amazing Shanling CD player, 

Castle Stirling speakers, and a remote control 

that tells you what to watch. Also: Bergman on 

biwiring and biamplification, singer Janis Ian’s 

alternative take on music downloading, and a 

chat with Opus 3’s Jan-Eric Persson. 

No.65: Back to Vinyl: setting up an analog 

system, reviews of Rega P9 turntable, and 

phono preamps from Rega, Musical Fidelity 

and Lehmann. The Kappa reference system for 

home theatre: choosing our HDTV monitor, plus 

a review of the Moon Stellar DVD player. Antivibration: 

Atacama, Symposium, Golden Sound, 

Solid-Tech, Audioprism, Tenderfeet. Plus an 

interview with Rega’s turntable designer,. 

No.64: Speakers: Totem M1 Signature and 

Hawk, Visonik E352. YBA Passion Intégré amp, 

Cambridge IsoMagic (followup), better batteries 

for audio-to-go. Plus: the truth about upsampling, 

an improvement to our LP cleaning machine, an 

interview with Ray Kimber. 

No.63: Tube amps: ASL Leyla & Passion 

A11. Vecteur Espace speakers, 2 interconnects 

(Harmonic Technology, Eichmann), 

5 speaker cables (Pierre Gabriel, vdH , 

Harmonic Technology, Eichmann), 4 power 

cords (Wireworld, Harmonic Technology, 

Eichmann, ESP). Plus: Paul Bergman on 

soundproofing, comparing components 

in the store, big-screen TV’s to stay away 

from, a look back at the Beatles revolution. 

No.62: Amplifiers: Vecteur I-4, Musical Fidelity 

Nu-Vista M3, Antique Sound Lab MG-S11DT. 

Passive preamps: Creek and Antique Sound 

Lab. Vecteur L-4 CD player. Interconnects: VdH 

Integration, Wireworld Soltice. Plus: the right to 

copy music, for now. Choosing a DVD player by 

features. And all about music for the movies. 

No.61: Digital: Audiomat Tempo and Cambridge 

Isomagic DACs, Vecteur D-2 transport. Speakers: 

Osborn Mini Tower and Mirage OM-9. Soundcare 

Superspikes. And: new surround formats, dezoning 

DVD players. 

No.60: Speakers: Monitor Audio Silver 9, 

Reference 3a MM De Capo, Klipsch RB-5, 

Coincident Triumph Signature. Plus: a Mirage 

subwoofer and the Audiomat Solfège amp. Paul 

Bergman on reproducing extreme lows. 

No.59: CD players: Moon Eclipse, Linn Ikemi and 

Genki, Rega Jupiter/Io, Cambridge D500. Plus: 

Oskar Kithara speaker, with Heil tweeter. And: 

transferring LP to CD, the truth on digital radio, 

digital cinema vs MaxiVision 48. 

No.58: SOLD OUT 

No.57: Speakers: Dynaudio Contour 1.3, 

Gershman X-1/SW-1, Coincident Super Triumph 

Signature, Castle Inversion 15, Oskar Aulos. 

PLUS: KR 18 tube amp. Music Revolution: the 

next 5 years. Give your Hi-Fi a Fall Tune-Up. 

SEE MORE AT: 

http://www.uhfmag.com/IndividualIssue.html 

EACH ISSUE costs $6.49 (in Canada) plus tax (15% in QC, 14% in ON, NB, NS and NF, 12% in BC, 5% in other Provinces), US$7.69 in the USA, CAN$15 elsewhere (air 

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applicable taxes.

Our regard for Simaudio’s 


Moon 330A Amplifier 

talent for making power 

amplifiers hardly needs 

explaining, and it goes back 

many years. Indeed, our three reference 

systems are filled with them: a Moon 

W-8 in the Omega system, a W-5LE 

in the Alpha system, and, in the Kappa 

(home theatre) system, a W-3 and a 

W-4070SE. What we have long admired 

is the company’s knack for making a 

large amplifier that, at low volume, 

sounds like a small one. Simaudio makes 

large amps, but it hasn’t made many 

monster amps, if you understand the 

distinction. 

But the amplifiers we’ve just mentioned 

are breathtakingly expensive (in 

the case of the W-8), or had sharply 

rising costs before they were discontinued. 

There are a number of reasons 

for this. Simaudio cites the cost of 

aluminum, though we suspect skilled 

labor is probably a much bigger factor 

(Simaudio’s factory is in Canada, not 

China). The price-to-performance ratio 

of the Moon amps remains high, but the 

fact is that not everyone is going to go 

for a $12,000 amp no matter how sweet 

it sounds. 

And that is the 330A’s reason for 

being. It is considerably lower in price 

than any recent Moon power amp, and 

the design goal was to keep compromises 

to a minimum. 

The 330A is compact, much more so 

than the giant amps already mentioned, 

but its price tag is compact too, at 


$3250. It is dense, however, heavier than 

you might expect. It is moreover closely 

related to all the amplifiers already mentioned 

except the W-8, using the Renaissance 

circuit that company founder 

Victor Sima developed for his original 

Celeste amps, and which his successors 

continued to refine for years. It is fully 

complementary, which means that, by 

its very nature, it amplifies the positive 

and negative part of the wave separately. 

If you want to run one in balanced or 

bridged mode, no extra circuitry is 

needed, because it can operate that way 

naturally. 

A lot of the amplifier’s weight comes 

from its toroidal power transformer, 

which — as you can see from the picture 

on the next page — also claims a good bit 

of the innards. The eight output transistors 

are of Simaudio’s own design, and 

are closely matched, as they must be to 

get the sort of low-level resolution that 

has become a Moon trademark. 

The case is flanked by two large 

heat sinks. Seeing that heat rises, the 

fins would seem to be the wrong way 

around (vertical fins are more efficient), 

but the 330A barely got warm even when 

we pushed it…and we certainly pushed 

it! Having examined the way the 330A 

is built, we think much of the heat dissipation 

is done through the slots in the 

top, however, and we would hesitate to 

stack anything on top. 

The connectors are of good quality, 

and include XLR jacks for balanced 

operation. There are two “trigger” 

jacks to allow a preamplifier or a surround 

sound processor to turn multiple 

amplifiers on sequentially — especially 

useful in home cinema 

systems. There is also 

an RS-232 connector. 

That’s pretty much a 

dead standard in the 

computer world, but 

it is still used in some 

multi-room systems, 

including (of course) 

Simaudio’s own. 

Simaudio’s best-known amplifiers 

have come with their own built-in 

spikes (actually tiny cones). They could, 

of course, scratch furniture surfaces, 

but spikes are an effective means of 

controlling vibration. No spikes here. 

We thought at first glance that Simaudio 

had bought the amplifier’s feet from the 

same evil foot factory which seems to 

supply them for audio manufacturers on 

four continents. Not so. They’re metal, 

not plastic. They’e still flat, though, and 

if you want cones under your amp, you’ll 

have to add them. 

The machining and the fit and finish 

is up to Simaudio’s usual standard, which 

is to say first class. The jacks and the 

binding posts are of good quality, and 

there are of course XLR connectors 

for balanced connection. There’s an 

RS-232 serial plug, hardly ever found on 

computers anymore, but still common 

in multi-room systems. There are also 

“trigger” jacks, to allow a preamplifier 

or preamp/processor to turn on multiple 

amps in sequence, to avoid blowing a 

breaker. 

The 330A has its own breaker, 

though you won’t see it, because it is 

self-resetting once a problem has been 

resolved. It senses overheating and also 

direct current in the output, but there 

is no current limiting. That’s a good 

thing, because in the past we’ve heard 

current-limiting circuits that had highly 

audible effects, and we don’t mean that 

in a good way. 

The 330A would have had little real 

difficulty in driving the Reference 3a 

Suprema speakers in our Omega system, 

because it has, by most standards, plenty 

of power, and the speakers are efficient, 

but it would be a tough assignment 

nonetheless, and the result might not be

significant. Besides, we were reluctant 

to put it up against our Moon W-8. 

We listened, instead, in the 

Alpha room, with Living 

Voice OBX-R speakers…and 

our glorious 

W-5LE (before you ask, 

we will be selling the 

W-5 the same year the 

Hades Demons join the 

NHL). 

We put together a little stack of 

recordings, all but two of them SACDs, 

and played them from our Linn Unidisk 

1.1 player. As usual we listened to the 

whole series with our reference amplifier, 

and then substituted the 330A for 

our own W-5LE, and listened again. 

We don’t go back and forth, because 

we think that’s the way to get confused 

and reach conclusions we wouldn’t reach 

otherwise. 

The two amplifiers appear to have 

about the same gain, as we would expect, 

since they come from the same company 

and have similar circuit configurations. 

However we don’t do gain matching, 

because we’ve discovered in the past 

that it’s pretty much useless. We have 

actually heard (necessarily subjective) 

volume differences just from changing 

interconnects. Those differences can’t 

be measured, and are qualitative, not 

quantitative. We set volume by concensus 

just the way you probably would at 

home, according to what seems right. 

As you’ll see, we weren’t about to go 

easy on this amplifier. We began with an 

organ recording, the famous Bach Toccata 

and Fugue in D Minor (from Organ 

Treasures, Opus 3 CD22031). Would it 

sound different with the smaller amplifier? 

Well of course it would, but how 

different? 






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go to: 

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But you can also subscribe to Maggie’s 

electronic version: 

www.uhfmag.com/maggie.html. B u t 

you can also subscribe to Maggie’s 

electronic version: 

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com/maggie.html. 









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Brand/model: Simaudio Moon 330A 

Price: C$3250 

Size (WDH): 43 x 33 x 9.5 cm 

Rated power: 125 watts/channel 

Inputs: coaxial, XLR 

Most liked: Excellent build quality, 

very good control and detail 

Least liked: Less headroom than you 

might expect if all you had seen was 

the spec sheet 

Verdict: A classic design that hasn’t 

gotten old 










































































elenisi. 







luptat. 























CROSSTALK 






























velisl ing el er suscill utpatin. 

For the music lover who owns, or plans to Carmen Lundy sang, I got a good sense of construction it can’t. Not with the rising 

own, sensitive speakers, this is an amplifier her tremendous breath control, her immense costs of copper and aluminum, both of which 

to seriously consider. It does the detailing variety of tone and inflection. Margie Gibson are plentiful in this densely-packed device. 

thing very well, and it creates a large mul- was smaller but she still had a nice swing and When it’s playing loud, the 330A 

tilayered sound stage. I noticed a deep area I was willing and able to follow her lyrics, doesn’t match any of the amplifiers already 

of clear sound, and another Get layer pushing the which complete is essential for an appreciation version of the mentioned, but then again that’s not what I 

up alongside. The usual high-calibre build variations she brings to them. 

was most hoping for. As noted in the main 

quality is obvious. Not surprising, No, as this it is, free version I will is forswear not complete, comment though on Dark you Side could of article, spend Moon a couple amplifiers have always had the 

after all, a Simaudio creation. of hours reading the it. Moon, Want which the full long version? ago overplayed its wel- advantage of sounding like small amplifiers 

—Steve You can, Bourke of course, come at order my eardrums. the print Those version, who which still love we have (that’s published good) when playing softly. That’s an 

for a quarter of a it century. won’t find You the can 330A’s get rendition it from unfaithful. our back issues uncommon page. trick, and this amplifier pulls it 

There’s a lot to like in this But amp we if you also have a paid electronic version, —Toby which Earp is just off. like this one, 

don’t expect it to sound like except its humongous that it doesn’t have annoying banners like this one, and You it doesn’t won’t want to run it quite as loud as 

stablemate, the one with a W have in articles its name. tailing I off was into going faux to say Latin. that Getting if you expect the this electronic we did version with some is of of the selections. What you 

It gave good detail in the arpeggios course faster, on the and amplifier it is also to cheaper. be a W-5 It or costs even just a W-5.3 $4.30 at (Canadian) a get is an anywhere amplifier of excellent transparency 

Bach Toccata and a respectable in the roar world. from Taxes, fraction if they of the are price, applicable, you’re dreaming. are included. But I which has the headroom for the louder peaks. 

the big pipes at the end of the It’s piece. available The from admit MagZee.com. 

to having been sucked in by the same But consider something. At one time, 

sousaphonist on Comes Love was still having wild hope. It is, after all, based on the same if you wanted top quality you would need a 

fun, and the instruments in the piece were in Renaissance circuit. Maybe, just maybe, it separate amplifier and preamplifier, because 

good proportion with each other — nobody would turn out to be the old Celeste 4070 in integrated amplifiers were not good enough. 

got any special favours. When playing softly, modern dress. 

That era ended in the last century. 

the clarinet had a realistic breathiness. When Can’t be done. Not with North American 

—Gerard Rejskind

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Trends Mini Amp 

this small (we’ve included 

a CD in the picture for 

scale) and offer more than 

mere milliwatts of output power? The 

answer is class D operation…or rather 

class T, as it says on the little amplifier’s 

front panel. 

The TA-10.2 is made in China, 

though that doesn’t tell the whole story. 

It’s actually from Hong Kong, which, for 

historical reasons, has a culture different 

from that of the rest of China. Trends 

makes a number of audio components, 

all of which have in common that they 

are both small and inexpensive, and yet 

offer more than you might assume. 

We’ve tested another of Trends’ 

products, the PA-10 headphone amplifier 

(UHF No. 89), which was the same size 

as the TA-10.2, but had a hole in the top 

for the 6DJ8 tube to stick out! How was 

it? Pretty good! 

But let’s get back to this “class T” 

stuff. 

Most power amplifiers with hi-fi 

pretensions operate in class AB, a 

compromise between class B (where the 

complementary output devices operate 

in alternation with no overlap) and 

class A (where they overlap completely, 

with, of course, low efficiency). In 

recent years, more and more amplifiers 

have used another principle altogether, 

Listening Room How can a power amplifier get 


class D, or the similar class T. 

Class D amps are sometimes referred 

to as “digital” amps, though a more 

accurate term is “switching” amp. The 

output transistors don’t operate in the 

analog realm at all, but act like switches: 

they’re either on or off. The result is a 

square wave, not something you would 

want to listen to, but once it’s put 

through a low-pass filter, what you hear 

is the original signal. 

The advantage of class D is extremely 

high efficiency, and therefore less energy 

dissipated as heat. Class D amplifiers can 

be compact, too. Powered subwoofers 

have used class D for many years, and 

so have most consumer products, such 

as TV sets. 

“Class T” is a class D variant, developed 

by a now-defunct company called 

Tri-Path. The frequency of the square 

wave varies for optimum performance, 

going as high as 1.2 MHz. Trends uses 

Class T under license from the patent 

holder. 

The TA-10.2 could be considered 

an integrated amp, since it has a volume 

control, but there is only a single input. 

That said, it is nicely made, with what 

seem to be quality inputs jacks and 

binding posts that look like scaled-down 

WBT’s. The 12-volt power supply is 

outboard, but it’s not a wall wart — it 

actually includes a standard IEC 320 

jack, for use with a 

proper power cord. 

Of course you’re not likely to get 

this amplifier as the heart of a high-end 

system, but we thought we would throw 

it off the deep end, and challenge it to 

do something we don’t ask of any but 

seriously massive amps — drive our 

Reference 3a Suprema II speakers. 

It’s not that the Supremas are inefficient. 

On the contrary, they’re rated at 

91 dB, a good sensitivity even by current 

standards. But the bottom pedestal contains 

a pair of massive passive push-pull 

subwoofers. Need we spell it out? 

But we thought we’d have some fun, 

and actually put the little Trends up 

against our W-8 amplifier, which sells 

for about 67 times as much. Fair, right? 

Since the Trends has its own volume 

control, we could bypass our preamplifier 

and plug our phono stage directly 

into the Trends. Yes, we did the comparison 

with an LP. The CD is included 

in the photo is for scale, remember. 

And the recording we picked is a 

challenge: a choral recording called Laudate! 

from Proprius (PROP7800). Could 

the little amp even survive this recording 

driving those outsized speakers? 

Well, yes in fact. Because our expectations 

had been so low, we were pleasantly 

surprised. Of course there wasn’t 

much left of the recording’s impressive 

bottom end, probably because the amplifier 

couldn’t move the massive passive 

subwoofers. Even so, Steve thought 

there was way more depth than he had 

been expecting. “I was surprised by the 

luminosity of the midrange,” said Toby, 

“and there was some depth too. 

Not bad, but — remember — we 

had really done this for fun. Driving

speakers like those is not what the 

Trends is made for, and it’s not 

the reason you might buy 

one. How would it do 

with speakers that 

you might actually 

pair with it? 

We had just 

such loudspeakers 

on hand, KEF C35’s. 

These are bookshelf 

speakers with 16 cm 

Uni-Q coaxial drivers. Originally selling 

for a little over $600, they might be a 

reasonable match. We set them atop the 

Reference 3a subwoofer bases (which, 

however, were disconnected), and we 

played the choral recording again. 

We weren’t surprised to find the 

Trends much more at ease, not running 

out of breath as they had with the Supremas. 

“It’s a great big sound!” exclaimed 

Toby, amazed. “There’s a sense of the 

music in space, of the choral singers in 

their respective groups, and the soloists 

stand out too.” 

There were flaws too, needless to say, 

and we know that these KEF’s (which we 

have often used to break in equipment 

we wanted to review) were capable of 

much more. The bottom end was present 

but a little muddy. The forte passages 

were somewhat homogenized, with some 

“glare” in the upper midrange. Some 

of the recording’s legendary depth was 

reduced. Gerard complained that the 

stereo image was shifted a bit leftward 

This little box gasped for breath with 

the reference speakers, but with the highlysensitive 

KEF monitors it was a real surprise, 

with good clarity and even dynamic expressiveness. 

The voice sounded a little hard at 

the top of its range, but when you pay so little 

you can’t ask for the Moon, so to speak. 

There are a lot of inexpensive massmarket 

systems this Trends would improve. 

—Toby Earp 

No, of course you won’t even consider 

this amp as he heart of even a modest music 

system…but hold on, here. After having 

heard how it coped with the KEF speakers, 

(he was in fact sitting to the left of the 

other panelists). 

But the music remained enjoyable. 

“Its performance is a powerful argument 

for having a quality front end,” said 

Steve. Indeed, there was a lot of money 

feeding the little amplifier, and we 

could hear it. “And it’s not bad for $191.” 

That price includes the amount we 


Brand/model: trends TA-10.2 

Price: US$189 

Size (WDH): 7.5 x 13 x 4.5 cm 

Rated power output: 15 watts/channel 

Most liked: Surprising performance, 

well built 

Least liked: Light weight, easily 

tipped by speaker cables 

Verdict: Built for a purpose to near 

perfection 

CROSSTALK 

which cost more than three times its modest 

price, I can see it in a second music system. 

The kitchen? The bedroom? Next to your 

computer? 

I like the way it’s built, and it’s the perfect 

answer to a whole lot of possible questions. 

Beyond any one particular purpose, you 

might want one as a utility amplifier, to press 

it into service when needed. 

I’ve said in the past that class D (or class 

T) is a cure for a disease that has yet to be 

discovered, but I’m coming around. If that 

high-efficiency mode of operation makes 

products like this possible, let’s go with it. 


had paid for the 

KEF’s…$2 at a 

yard sale! 

We should add 

that most users 

of this amplifier 

will not be listening 

the way we 

were, at considerable 

volume across a 

large room. The TA- 

10.2’s natural habitat is 

a more intimate system. 

What would you use it for? 

One obvious place for it is next to 

your computer. Add a pair of decent 

monitor-style (i.e. small) speakers, and 

you’ll certainly outperform the usual 

computer speakers. Our KEF’s are 

expensive for the purpose if you pay 

full price, but several “legitimate” audio 

companies offer speakers that are a convenient 

size, and can sound very good 

under nearfield (close-up) conditions. 

It may also be right for a second or 

third system, which you might want 

to install in a bedroom, a kitchen or 

a workshop. We think this amp plus 

well-chosen speakers will outperform 

the usual alternatives. We’d be tempted 

to add an Airport Express to provide 

a first-class link to the music on our 

computer. 

This isn’t the first product we’ve 

reviewed from this innovative Hong 

Kong company. We have a feeling it 

won’t be the last. 

You might have heard the saying that 

little guys try harder. Napoleon was a short 

fella, so was Ghandi, and the legendary 

Winston Churchill was a compact 5’6”. 

So how high does the TA-10 stand? 

Alongside other full-sized amps it is too 

small to even notice. Its price is also tiny 

next to the cost of many normal-sized amplifiers. 

But hey, you know what they say about 

people, and the same can be true about amps: 

it’s what’s inside that really counts. 

And in this respect the TA-10 is just 

fine, and a stupendous value. It sits tall in 

the saddle. 

—Steve Bourke 


Listening Listening Feedback Room Room


Better Listening 

Through Software 

Not so long ago, using a 

computer as an audio source 

was a convenience, the next 

step beyond the five-disc 

CD changer. The technology has been 

developing, however, and our own 

research has revealed ways that we can 

make computer audio sound like a CD 

player. Indeed, we can make it sound like 

all but the very best CD player. 

We’re not the only ones to have 

noticed. At audio shows, actual CD 


players are becoming less common. 

Exhibitors in great numbers are using 

either a turntable…or a laptop computer. 

And they’re getting great sound. 

As for audiophiles, a number of them 

are now integrating an actual computer 

within their music systems. Several 

companies make small fanless computers 

that even look as though they could be 

high end components (but don’t cost as 

much), and the most popular of them is 

the Mac mini. Unobtrusive and quiet, 

it starts around $600. Add an outboard 

DVD drive (the mini no longer has one) 

plus outboard hard drives for capacity 

and perhaps security, and you’re all set. 

It needs no monitor, keyboard or mouse, 

since it can be controlled through Screen 

Sharing from another Mac, or (with 

third-party software) from an iPad. 

The major advantage to a dedicated 

on-the-spot computer, as opposed to an 

over-the-air link like the popular Airport 

Express, is that you are not limited

to the Red Book CD standard. 

The natural way to play music from 

a Mac is to use Apple’s own iTunes 

software, which comes free with OS X. 

If you own an iPod, in fact, iTunes is 

mandatory, either on a Mac or on a 

Windows PC. And iTunes works well. 

Very well. 

But are there alternatives? We’ve 

noticed that many show exhibitors are 

running their demos not with iTunes 

by itself, but with an additional software 

package called Pure Music. It caught our 

attention, because we were familiar with 

the first premium playback software on 

the market, Amarra. But Amarra was initially 

expensive, at nearly $1000 for the 

full-blown version. It has since dropped 

to $695, and the “Mini” version, which is 

perfectly adequate for today’s hardware, 

is $295. 

Pure music, on the other hand, is just 

$129 (all prices in US dollars). 

We wanted to listen for ourselves, 

and to compare both Pure Music and 

Amarra to the free iTunes. 

Pure Music 

This software is from a company 

called Channel D, which we know well. 

Channel D was the first to offer a software-based 

audio measurement system 

for Macintosh, with the quirky name of 

Mac the Scope. We used it for a time, 

eventually shifting to FuzzMeasure. 

For users who have their music stored 

in an iTunes database, Pure Music is 

nothing if not convenient. Launch 

iTunes, then launch Pure Music, and 

you’ll see the Pure Music control console 

and readout to the left and above the 

iTunes window. Using it couldn’t it be 

easier, because you can actually ignore 

it and just use iTunes as usual. For 

instance, if you click iTunes’ play button, 

iTunes doesn’t play, and Pure Music does 

instead. Talk about transparent! 

But transparent doesn’t mean easy 

to set up. Actually, the manuals of both 

software packages require long study, 

and it’s not impossible that you’ll emerge 

with less hair than you started with. 

Then again, software like this has the 

sort of depth that is likely to require 

followup sessions. 

Full disclosure: one of our panelists, 

Toby, owns a copy of Pure Music, and 

uses it along with a pro-level box connected 

via Firewire. He confirmed that 

he didn’t find it easy to set up, but he 

loves the sound he gets from it. 

We installed both pieces of software 

on a MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard. 

We ran a TOSLINK optical cable 

to our Moon 300D converter and hence 

to our Omega reference system. The 

MacBook Pro was remote-controlled via 

Screen Sharing from a MacBook Air. 

We used four selections for this first 

evaluation, two of them Red Book CDstandard, 

two of them 24-bit 96 kHz 

recordings from Fidelio. We might as 

well say right off that all four sounded 

wonderful with iTunes. But could we do 

better by buying additional software? 

The first selection was Haï Luli, an 

art song by 19th Century composer 

Pauline Viardot Garcia (Analekta AN 2 

9903). The difference afforded by Pure 

Music was subtle, but both Steve and 

Toby preferred it. “The midrange was 

less forward,” Toby said, “and it was 

less congested in the loud passages. The 

piano was lighter, and the accelerated 

tempo carried me along.” Steve agreed, 

finding that Pure Music moderated a 

certain stridency in the higher notes of 

the song. He too was drawn in. 

We seem to have trouble doing any 

reviews these days without including 

Margie Gibson’s CD, Say It With Music. 

We selected the sentimental ballad Soft 

Lights and Sweet Music, which she does 

so well. On this recording we could not 

agree. 

Gerard, who had heard relatively 

little difference with the first recording, 

was more enthusiastic about this one. 

He praised the articulation on Margie’s 

voice, and he also had good words for 

the way the piano and the cello were 

reproduced. Steve, on the contrary, 

thought that the cello seemed muddy 

and indistinct, and judged that the way 

each note decayed was less natural. 

Toby noted right off that he had been 

enthusiastic even about the iTunes version 

of the song, but he liked the Pure 

Music version even more. “The relative 

balance of frequencies is different,” 

he said. “The sound was less forward, 

and that made the instruments easier 

to follow. Gibson’s lower register was 

really good with Pure Music. On the 

passage where she sings music must 

flow, the instruments better supported 

her voice. The harmonic interplay was 

superior, and there was more detail and 

coherence.” 

What you might take away from that 

is that Pure Music really does change 

the sound, but our reactions were not 

identical. Fortunately, there are demo 

versions of these products, so that you 

can try them. 

We have several of Reference Recordings’ 

gorgeous HRx recordings, in effect 




copies of Keith O. Johnson’s masters, 

with 24-bit precision and a 176.4 kHz 

sampling rate. Why does he use 176.4 

rather than the more common 192 kHz? 

It’s because 176.4 is exactly four times the 

CD’s 44.1 kHz rate. Downsampling can 

therefore be done with fewer artifacts. 

For those listening at full resolution, the 

difference is insignificant. 

This is moot for the moment, because 

currently-available hardware doesn’t 

support either of those sampling rates. 

And when we tried to open an HRx file 

with Amarra, we got this warning. 

With iTunes we can downsample on 


the fly to 24/96 (but not, alas, 24/88.2), cello had a wonderful resonance. The 

and the result is magnificent. We are soprano seemed more distant, denoting 

eager for future computers to allow us increased depth, but at the same time 

to hear everything that is on those discs. the balance between cello and soprano 

But that’s for the future. Pure Music, was improved, which of course had 

unlike iTunes, downsamples those files musical significance. Choral voices were 

to 16/44.1, the Red Book standard. Forc- easier to pick up, and the counterpoint 

ing 24/96 operation THIS through MAGAZINE the com- was IS clearer INTERACTIVE! 

as well. Steve noted that 

puter’s Audio & Midi Utility resulted It work in the three dynamic ways. transition between soft 

in playback… at double In the speed. table of contents, and click loud on sections, an article which title, is a key to the 

There are workarounds, and you as we are shall whisked emotional right to tension the article. of the piece, is more 

see, but for the moment In the we list decided of advertisers not fluid on with the second-last Pure Music. page, 

to use the HRx files. click instead on an we ad name, used and It go wasn’t right to that the there ad itself. seemed to be 

two music selections in 24/96 resolu- Then click anything on an ad, wrong with iTunes, but Pure 

tion provided and to your us on browser flash memory will take by you Music right was to the getting advertiser’s more out Web of the page. piece. 

Fidelio, a Montreal Remember record label. when you’d have The to second circle little high-resolution numbers selection 

The first selection was the on a Schubert card you would was by then a Montreal mail in? Rom-inspired group, 

Ave Maria, featuring Vincent Doesn’t Bélanger’s that seem the like Manouche a long time Swing ago? 

Quintet, playing I 

cello, with organ and a soprano. Both Fall in Love Too Easily. 

versions were very good, but Pure Music Though it sounded, like the other 

was clearly superior. The organ’s lower selections, very good with iTunes, the 

notes were particularly rich, and the enhancement brought to it by Pure

Music was evident. “I picked up the 

tone combination from the start, and 

the counterpoint too,” said Steve. 

“The guitar is more realistic as well.” 

Pure Music also had an effect on the 

dynamics, and on the powerful sound 

of the plucked bass. There was a lot 

more subtlety to the saxophone, which 

allowed the lilting melody to develop as 

it should. The trumpet was dissonant 

but not strident. Gerard thought the 

sax reminded him of the one in the 

celebrated Antiphone Blues. 

“With iTunes this piece dragged,” 

said Toby, “and I was glad when it was 

over.” Pure Music added the liveliness it 

needed. 

Is Pure music worth what it costs? No 

doubt about it…but it has competition. 

Amarra 

Amarra is the audiophile division of 

a company well known to the professional 

recording world, Sonic Studio. 

Its products include NoNoise, which 

filters hiss, hum and other noises from 

master recordings. Its pro creds perhaps 

explain the prices of its software, $695. 

You expect pro-level software to cost 

this much. Photoshop is expensive, as is 

Adobe InDesign, on which this magazine 

is being assembled. 






You may notice something unusual 

about UHF’s equipment reviews, the 

Crosstalk section. 

We have long done our reviews with 

a panel, typically of three reviewers. The 

main article is based on the consensus 

of the panelists. But what happens if we 

don’t agree? 

In our unique Crosstalk section, each 

panelist gets the chance to give his/her 

opinion, to add a nuance to the article, or 

even to disagree with the others. There 

is no pressure to conform. 

And why should there be? Readers tell 

us they like to see some disagreement. If 

we can disagree among ourselves, they 

can disagree with us too. 

And that’s good. 









tisi. 

























































exerat acidunt. 










You probably know Apple’s long-time 

motto, “It just works.” Well, these two 

companies wouldn’t dare use a slogan like 

that. Neither product is truly user-friendly, 

and the sheer size of the user manuals can 

tell you a lot. 

But hey, at some point you’ll get them 

working, and once you do you’ll love the 

results. I like them both: Pure Music because 

it’s a bargain, Amarra for the sound. 


What a wonderful dilemma it is, having 

to choose between these two fine products. 

Pure Music delivers the highest notes with 

a light and tender touch, just the way I like 

it. Instruments were placed carefully around 

the stage and spoke without confusion or 

blur. I enjoyed especially how well the trumpets 

cut into the music, dissonant and edged 

with sharp brilliance. Could the Amarra 

improve on such a complete presentation? 

The Amarra’s version of the classic Ave 




tisi. 




CROSSTALK! 





























exer sum. 

Our equipment reviews are unusual 

in a number of ways, 

CROSSTALK 

but what makes them truly unique is 

our Crosstalk section. 

Maria by cellist Actually, Vincent Bélanger what is was especially rivet- as unusual she glided up to pitch, the hesitant trumpet 

ing. Next came is the that Manouche we review Quintet. products The as entry a group, in I Fall in Love Too Easily revealed itself 

sax’s notes were a bit richer, typically and a little of three more of us. to be right on the beat after all. And that 

three-dimensional. A We couple listen of shades to actual better music, bottom end… 

than they had sounded not sonic with excerpts. Pure Music, And the we discuss That’s not to say Pure Music’s perfor- 

trumpets were what projected we heard, with authority though with and no mance pressure was shabby. It picked out enough 

clarity. 

to conform. extra information that the midrange in all 

Yes I have to admit If that we the disagree, Amarra so did be the it. selections didn’t blur the rest, that tem- 

a better overall job But of it then than comes Pure Music, the Crosstalk. pestuous rush in Haï Luli actually did show 

though either The one main could text produce of each musical review up, is that based Margie’s glides became perceptible, 

greatness if given on the a comments chance to be made a part in of the and discussion that the glorious play in the tonalities of 

your own system. following each session. sax and trumpet in I Fall in Love… was clearly 

But at the —Steve end, each Bourkereviewer 

not an artifact of the recording but rather the 

participates in the Crosstalk, work of live musicians. 

I was reluctant a personal to hear my comment own financial on the product. Pure Music improved the bass very 

commitment We to Pure may even Music disagree software among put noticeably ourselves. too — just not quite so transpar- 

into doubt by another product, And you but know it was. what? At ently, not quite so like surfing on a clear wave 

least it wasn’t put into doubt Readers by less tell expensive us they love of organ tone. 

software! Amarra, overall, to provided see us disagree. more This was also a totally convincing dem- 

music and less grunge. Because The if we, tempestuous the “experts” onstration can that regular Red Book can sound 

rush in the middle of Haï disagree, Luli was so followed can they. superb, and that recordings as good as Ms. 

by a more telling They silence, tell Margie us our Gibson’s disagreements, Gibson’s are far too rare. 

remarkable lower mostly register minor was more but sometimes natural major, 

—Toby Earp 

empower them. 

That’s just one way UHF Magazine 

is different from all other magazines.

INTERCONNECTS 

ATLAS NAVIGATOR 

Oxygen-free continuous 

cast (OCC) cable: each 

strand is a single copper 

crystal. Two internal 

conductors, plus double 

shielding. The double shielding is copper mylar plus close-lapped 

99.997% pure OCC copper multi-stranded screen providing 100% 

RFI protection. This premium “All-Cu” version (shown here) uses 

solid copper connectors that are also continuous cast. The copper 

is then silver-plated and double-shielded. We use two in our 

reference systems. NOTE: limited quantity available. 

ORDER: ANA-2 All-Cu, 2m, $495 

ORDER: ANAB-1 All-Cu balanced, single crystal XLR, 1m, $675 

ATLAS ELEMENT 

We did a blind test, and 

this supposed starter cable 

wiped the floor with a much 

more expensive one. Which 

we dropped. 

ORDER: AEL-1, 1 m pair 

Atlas Element, $76.95 

ATLAS QUADSTAR 

Terrific in our blind test. 

With Eichmann Bullet plugs, 

or balanced with Neutrik 

XLR's. Silver solder included with kit. 

ORDER: AQS-1 pair Quadstar kit, 1m $124.95 

ORDER: AQS-1A pair Quadstar assembled, 1m $199.95 

ORDER: AQS-X pair Quadstar balanced kit, 1m $95.95 

ORDER: AQS-XA pair Quadstar balanced, assembled, 1m $169.95 

MAVROS INTERCONNECTS 

Truly terrific, a pair of these connects our phono preamp to the 

preamp of our Omega system 

ORDER: AMI-1, 1 m Mavros interconnect pair, $1195 

ORDER: AMI-2, 2 m Mavros interconnect pair, $1895 

SPEAKER CABLES 

ATLAS MAVROS CABLES 

We’ve adopted them for our Alpha system, which sounds better 

than ever before. This is a four-wire monocrystal cable with 

porous Teflon dielectric. We are not recommending them with 

standard bananas or spaces, but we offer them either with ETI 

Bayonet Bananas, at no extra cost, or WBT nextgen.. 

ORDER: AMBCu-3, 3 m pair, Bayonet bananas, $2150 

ORDER: AMBCu-5, 5 m pair, Bayonet bananas, $3850 

ORDER: AMSCu-3, 3 m pair, WBT nextgen bananas, $2390 

ORDER: AMSCu-5, 5 m pair, WBT nextgen bananas, $4090 

SEE EVEN MORE PRODUCTS 

IN OUR ON-LINE CATALOG 

www.uhfmag.com/AudiophileStore.html 

THE AUDIOPHILE STORE 53 

ATLAS HYPER SPEAKER CABLES 

A big winner in one 

of UHF’s blind tests 

of speaker cables is 

Hyper 2, an oxygen 

free stranded wire 

in Teflon dielectric. 

Plus connectors (add 

Eichmann Bayonet Bananas, $99.95/set, two sets needed for AH2, 

three for biwire), or Furutech, as shown, $70/set). Hyper Biwire is 

Hyper 2 with an added set of solid core wires for the highs. 

ORDER: AH2, Hyper 2 cable, $29.95/metre 

ORDER: AHB, Hyper Biwire cable, $49.95/metre 

ATLAS ICHOR SPEAKER CABLE 

Continuous-cast single-crystal cable, ready for biwiring. It costs 

just $235 per meter of double cable (a 2 m pair has 4 meters of 

wire). We suggest adding the Eichmann Bayonet bananas, $99.95 

per set of 4, or Furutech connectors, $70 a set of 4.. 

SINGLE CRYSTAL JUMPERS 

Not biwiring? Dump the free jumpers 

that came with your speakers. Atlas 

jumpers are made from single-crystal 

copper, gold-plated spades. 

ORDER: ACJ, four single crystal 

jumpers, $99.95 

DIGITAL CABLES 

ATLAS COMPASS DIGITAL 

Excellent performance at an affordable price. Single crystal pure 

copper. The 1.5m version sounds way better than a 1m. 

ORDER: ACD-1.5 digital cable, 1.5m, $160 

ATLAS OPUS DIGITAL 

We dumped our reference cable for this one! And to be at its very 

best, it has to be this length. There is a limited amount of this 

cable left. 

ORDER: AOD-1.5 digital cable, 1.5m, $399 

TOSLINK OPTICAL DIGITAL 

The best we’ve found yet, 

though we’re still looking. 

Add the mini-TOSLINK 

adapter for Airport Express or computers with hybrid jacks. 

ORDER: TD-1 TOSLINK cable, 1m length $22.95 

ORDER: TMT mini-TOSLINK adapter, $3.95 

CONNECTORS 

EICHMANN BAYONET BANANAS 

The Eichmann Bayonet Banana uses 

a minimum of metal, and tellurium 

copper at that, but clicks tightly into 

any binding post with spring action. 

For soldering or crimping, or both. 

ORDER: EBB kit 4 bayonet bananas, 

$99.95 


EICHMANN BULLET PLUGS 

The first phono plug to maintain the impedance of 

the cable by using metal only as an extension 

of the wire. Hollow tube centre 

pin, tiny spring for ground. Two 

contacts for soldering, two-screw 

strain relief. Gold over copper. Got 

silver cable? Get the unique Silver Bullets! 

ORDER: EBP kit 4 Bullet Plugs, $77.95 

ORDER: EBPA kit 4 Silver Bullets, $154.95 

EICHMANN CABLE PODS 

Minimum metal, gold over tellurium 

copper. Unique clamp system: the back 

button turns but the clamp doesn’t. 

Solder to it, or plug an Eichmann 

banana into it, even from inside! 

ORDER: ECP, set of four posts, $119.95 

CONNECTOR TREATMENT 

DeOxit (formerly ProGold) 

cleans connections and 

promotes conductivity. Small 

wipes for cleaning accessible 

contacts, or a squirt bottle for connections you can’t reach. 

ORDER: PGW box 25 DeOxit wipes, $35 

ORDER: PGS, can DeOxit fluid, $35 

ORDER: PGB, both when ordered at the same time, $56 

WBT NEXTGEN CONNECTORS 

WBT makes banana plugs and spades for speaker cables, all of 

which lock tightly into any post. All use crimping technology. 

These nextgen connectors are far superior to previous versions 

ORDER: WBT-0610 Kit 4 angled nextgen bananas, $160 

ORDER: WBT-0610Ag Kit 4 nextgen silver bananas, $310 

ORDER: WBT-0681 Kit 4 nextgen spades, $160 

ORDER: WBT-0681Ag Kit 4 nextgen silver spades, $310 

The high-tech minimum metal “nextgen” phono plugs. Easy to 

solder, with locking collar. Silver version available. 

ORDER: WBT-0110, kit 4 nextgen copper plugs, $190 

ORDER: WBT-0110Ag, kit 4 nextgen silver plugs, $300 

FURUTECH CONNECTORS 

Rhodium-plated banana tightens 

under pressure. Installs like WBT banana. The spade installs the 

same way too.. 

ORDER: FTB-R, set of four bananas, $70 

ORDER: FTS-R, set of four spades, $70 

TWO CABLES INTO ONE JACK 

Need to feed two preamps into 

two amps? This solid Y-adapter 

(two jacks into one phono plug) 

is gold over brass, with Teflon 

dielectric. 

ORDER: FYA, one pair Y adapters, $20

54 THE AUDIOPHILE STORE 

SILVER SOLDER 

This is a lovely solder, from the 

company that makes Enacom 

line filters (which we also like). 

Wakø-Tech solder contains 4% 

silver, no lead. 

ORDER: SR-4N, 100 g solder 

roll, $59.95 

ANALOG PRODUCTS 

LONDON REFERENCE 

Yes we can supply the awesome London 

Reference phono cartridge that we have 

adopted for ourselves. Other models on 

special order. This unique cartridge has 

a line contact stylus, and an output of 

5 mV, right for an MM preamp. 

ORDER: LRC cartridge, $4695 

GOLDRING ELITE 

If you have limited funds and you 

want an MC cartridge with a 

line contact stylus, this is a great 

choice. It's a detuned version of the 

very expensive (but discontinued) 

Excel we still own. 

ORDER: GEC cartridge, $745 

TURNTABLE BELT TREATMENT 

What this is not is a 

sticky goo for belts on 

their last legs. Rubber 

Renue removes 

oxidation from 

rubber belts, giving 

them a new lease on 

life. But what astonished us is what it does to even a brand new 

belt. Wipe down your belt every 3 months, and make analog sound 

better than ever. 

ORDER: RRU-100 drive belt treatment, $14.95 

J. A. MICHELL RECORD CLAMP 

Clamp your LP to the turntable 

platter. We use the J. A. 

Michell clamp, machined 

from nearly weightless 

aluminum. Drop it on, 

press down, tighten 

the knob. 

ORDER: MRC Michell 

record clamp, $75 

ORDER: MRC-R clamp for 

Rega and short spindles, $85 

STYLUS CLEANERS 

We’re often asked how we clean the 

stylus on our cartridge. Two ways. The Zerodust gets used after 

every play. And the Mobile Fidelity LP9 gets used every five plays. 

ORDER: Enzow Zerodust, $66.95 

ORDER: MoFi LP9 cleaner, $24 

MOON PHONO PREAMPS 

Simaudio has done it: come up 

with a world-class phono 

preamp that does 

magic. The 310LP 

(formerly the LP5.3) 

is one of the best 

available. Adjustable 

MM/MC. 

ORDER: Moon 310LP, silver (black available on order), $1599. 

Special price on interconnect, one per 310LP order. 

ORDER: ANA-1 Navigator All-Cu, 1m, $405, for $260 

ORDER: ANA-2 Navigator All-Cu, 2m, $495 for $350 

ORDER: ANAB-1 Navigator balanced, 1m, $675, for $475 

ORDER: AMI-1, 1 meter Mavros, $1195, for $895 

ORDER: AMI-2, 2 meter Mavros, $1895, for $1495 

Even more 

astonishing: the 

110LP includes 

much of the 310LP 

technology, still 

offers MM/MC, 

but costs only a 

fraction. Lively and 

musical, it’s difficult to match. 

ORDER: Moon 110LP, $599 (silver, black if desired) 

Special price on interconnect, one per 110LP order. 

ORDER AQS-1, Kit ,1 m Quadstar, $124.95, for $59.95 

ORDER AQS-1A, Fully assembled Quadstar, $199.95, for $99.95 

NOTE: The Moon preamps are shipped set for moving magnet 

setting. We’ll reset it to your specification so you won’t have to. 

LP RECORD CLEANER 

Concentrated cleaner for LP vacuum cleaning machines. 

Much safer than some formulas we’ve seen! Half litre, mix with 

demineralized or distilled water to make 4 litres. 

ORDER: LPC, $19.95 

EXSTATIC RECORD BRUSH 

The Super 

Exstatic. Includes 

a hard velvet pad 

to get into the 

grooves, two sets 

of carbon fibre 

tufts. We use it every time! 

ORDER: GSX record brush, $36 

MoFi WET/DRY BRUSH 

The Super Exstatic (shown 

above) is the best dry 

brush we know, but if 

your LP needs a wash and 

you don’t have a vacuum 

machine handy, this 

is the one to have in 

hand. Dampen it with a 

good record-cleaning fluid 

like our own LPC. 

ORDER: MFB record brush, $36 

ORDER: MFB plus LPC (4-litres), $46 

ORDER: Replacment kit for MFB, $36 


MORE ANALOG… 

TITAN STYLUS LUBRICANT 

Amazing, but true: dabbing 

a bit of this stuff on your 

stylus every 2 or 3 LPs makes 

it glide through the groove 

instead of scraping. Fine artist’s brush not included, but readily 

available in many stores. 

ORDER: TSO-1 Titan stylus oil, $39.95 

ZEROSTAT ANTISTATIC PISTOL 

A classic 

adjunct to a 

record brush 

is the Zerostat 

anti-static gun, 

especially in dry weather. Squeeze 

the trigger and release: it ionizes the 

air, which becomes conductive and 

drains off the static charge. By the 

way, it works for a lot more than 

LP’s. No batteries needed. Good for LPs, jamming printers, and 

anywhere static is a problem. 

ORDER: Z-1 Zerostat antistatic pistol, $94.95 

LP SLEEVES 

Keep your records clean and 

scratch free. Replace dirty, torn 

or missing inner sleeves with 

quality Mobile Fidelity sleeves, 

at an attractive price. 

ORDER: MFS, package of 50 

sleeves, $30 

VINYL ESSENTIALS TEST LP 

This precision-made German test record lets you check out 

channel identification, correct phase, crosstalk, the tracking 

ability of your cartridge (it’s a tougher test than the old Shure disc 

was) and the resonance of your tone arm and cartridge. When we 

need to test a turntable, this is the one we reach for. 

ORDER: LP 003, Image Hifi Test LP, $48.95 

CLEANER POWER 

ENACOM LINE FILTER 

Economy price, but astonishingly effective, we wouldn’t run our 

system with less. It actually shorts out the hash on the power line. 

ORDER: EAC Enacom line filter, $105 

ATLAS POWER BAR 

We were surprised by the massiveness 

and the fit and finish on this 

power bar. Would 

those universal 

(European/North 

American) plugs 

offer a tight fit? Do 

they ever! The standard 

IEC plug takes any power cord. With breaker and ground lug. 

Bundle it with one of our own 14-gauge shielded cords, and save. 

ORDER: APB power bar, $299 

ORDER: APBU power bar plus UHF14 cord, $349 

ORDER: APBF power bar plus UHF14F cord, $399

UHF14 POWER 

BAR 

Most power bars knock 

voltage down, and 

generate more noise 

than a kindergarten 

class. The UHF14 doesn’t. It 

features a 1.5m 14- gauge shielded 

cable, Hubbell hospital grade fourplex, and 

Furutech gold-on-copper wall plug. ORDER: UHF14-PB, $239 

Need it longer? Add $20 per metre extra 

MORE POWER TO YOU 

Better access to 

electrical power. 

Change your 77-cent 

duplex outlets for 

these Hubbell hospital 

grade outlets. Insert a 

plug and it just snaps 

in. A tighter internal 

connection as well. 

The cheapest improvement you can make to your system. 

ORDER: AC-DA Hubbell duplex outlet, $23.95 

ORDER: AC-D20 20A duplex, red color, $28.95 

INSTANT CIRCUIT CHECKER 

Plug it into an AC outlet, and the three lights can 

indicate a missing ground, incorrect polarity, switched 

wires — five problems in all. The first thing we did 

after getting ours was phone the electrician. 

ORDER: ACA-1, Instant Circuit Checker, $21 

HOSPITAL GRADE CONNECTION 

When we put a quality 

AC plug on our kettle, 

boiling time dropped by 90 

seconds! One of the best AC 

plug we have ever seen is 

the Hubbell 8215 hospital 

grade plug. It connects to wires under high pressure, and it 

should last forever. 

ORDER: AC-P2, Hubbell 8215 cord plug, $25.95 

Amazingly good at a 

much lower price are 

these two cord plugs 

from Eagle. Male and 

female versions. 

ORDER: AC-P1 Eagle male cord plug, $5.95 

ORDER: AC-PF Eagle female cord plug, $5.95 

Making your own power cords for your equipment? You’ll need 

the hard-to-get IEC 320 connector to fit the gear. 

ORDER: AC-P3 10 ampere IEC 320 plug, $9.95 

ORDER: AC-P4 15 ampere Schurter IEC 320 plug, $18.95 

IEC ON YOUR DVD PLAYER 

Why do big name DVD players come with those 

tiny two-prong plugs for their 

cords? A good shielded power 

cable will do wonders! 

ORDER: DVD-A, GutWire 

adapter, $39 


UHF 14 POWER CORD 

No budget for a premium cable? Make your own! We use several 

ourselves. Foil-shielded, to avoid picking up or transmitting noise. 

Assembled or as a kit. With Hubbell 8215 hospital grade plug and 

Schurter 15 A IEC 320 connector. For digital players, preamplifiers, 

tuners, and even medium-powered amplifiers. 

ORDER: UHF14-1.5K, 14 gauge power cable kit, $74.95 

ORDER: UHF14-1.5 14 gauge cable, assembled, $99.95 

Need it longer? Add $20 per metre extra 

20-AMPERE POWER CORD 

This is the one with the big IEC connectors whose contacts are 

rotated the other way. It’s for certain large power amps. Marinco 20 

amp hospital-grade wall plug, which fits only a 20 amp wall outlet. 

Available with a 15 amp Hubbell wall plug instead. 

ORDER: UHF14-20-1.5 cable, assembled, $99.95 

UHF/ 

FURUTECH 

POWER CORD 

We were so pleased with 

the performance of our 

UHF14 cable that we 

wanted to hear it with the upscale Furutech connectors. Wow! Pure 

copper IEC connector and copper/gold wall plug. 

ORDER: UHF14F-1.5K, 14 gauge power cable kit, $149.95 

ORDER: UHF14F-1.5 14 cable, assembled, $174.95 

GUTWIRE G CLEF POWER CABLE 

Multiple shielding, including external electrostatic shield connected 

to a clip. Used by UHF. Length 1.7 m, longer cords on order. G Clef 2 

has 195 conductors, 3 shields providing 98% shielding. Available 

optionally with 20A IEC plug (for amplifiers requiring special plug) 

ORDER: GGC G Clef, Square 1.7m, $385 

ORDER: GGC-20 G Clef, Square, 20 amp 1.7m, $385 

BETTER DIGITAL 

IMPROVED CD WITH FINYL 

The maker of Finyl claims it reduces surface 

reflections and provides a higher contrast image for 

the laser cell of your player. Use it just once. We get a 

lot of repeat orders on it. One kit can treat over 200 

discs. Or order the refill. 

ORDER: F-1 Finyl kit, $40.00 

ORDER: F-1R Finyl refill, $35.00 


MOON 300D DAC 

It wowed us so much we got it for our reference system. It 

has 24/192 resolution on coax and optical, 16/48 on USB. Its 

performance astonished us, and we’re not easily astonished. The 

full review is in UHF No. 89. 

To sweeten the deal, we’re offering bundles on our two Atlas 

digital cables, in the favored 1.5 m length. By getting the bundle, 

save $150 on an Atlas Opus (our reference, by the way), or save 

$60 on our very good Atlas Compass cable. 

ORDER: 300D, $1598 

ORDER: 300D + Opus digital cable, $1847 

ORDER: 300D + Compass digital cable, $1698 

Get another bargain: with the purchase of a 300D, get the 

UHF14F shielded power cable with Furutech connectors 

(assembled, one per purchase). Instead of $174.95, pay just 

$124.95. 

ORDER: UHF14F-1.5 (bundled only), $124.95 

NEED AN OPTICAL CABLE? See our favorites on the first 

page of this catalog insert 

A MORE AFFORDABLE DAC 

Its conversion circuit is 

identical to that of 

the superb 300D. 

We were amazed 

to find that, on 

some recordings, 

it sounded much 

like its bigger brother. 

The front panel is silver, but we’ll supply it in black on request. 

Get it in a bundle, and get a bargain on the interconnects you’ll 

be needing. 

ORDER: 100D converter, $599 

ORDER: 100D plus Element 1m cables, $639 

ORDER: 100D plus Navigator All-Cu 1m cables, $899.00 

SUPER ANTENNA MkIII 

Did you know that the Super Antenna is our best-selling store 

product of all time? We designed it years ago for our FM tuner, 

then realized how well it worked with off-air television. It also 

works wonderfully well with digital TV. We use five of them 

ourselves. 

How is it done? Our antenna has no stupid rotary switch to muck 

things up, and with a 1.8m low-loss multiple-shielded 75 ohm 

cable and gold-plated F connector, it has low internal loss. It 

covers analog and digital TV bands as well as FM. 

ORDER: FM-S Super Antenna, MkIII, $59.95


SUPPORT SYSTEMS 

TENDERFEET 

Machined cones are wonderful 

things to put under speakers or 

other audio equipment. They anchor 

it mechanically and decouple it 

acoustically at the same time. 

Tenderfeet come in various versions: 

tall (as shown) or flattened, in either 

anodized silver or black. Tall Tenderfeet have threaded holes for 

a machine screw, or for the optional hanger bolt, which lets you 

screw it into wood. If you have a fragile hardwood floor, add the 

optional Tendercup (shown above) to protect it. 

ORDER: TFG, tall silver Tenderfoot, $15 

ORDER: TFGN, tall black Tenderfoot, $16.50 

ORDER: TFP, flat silver Tenderfoot, $10 

ORDER: TCP, silver Tendercup, $10 

ORDER: THB, hanger bolt for Tenderfeet, each $0.80 

Do you prefer spikes for your speakers? Target spikes and sockets 

mount in wood. Drill the holes (but not all the way through!), 

gently hammer in the brass sockets, and screw in the spikes.. 

ORDER: S4WS kit, 8 spikes and sockets, $30 

ISOBEARINGS ARE BACK!!! 

Long discontinued, this product from Audioprism 

is back. Of the many anti-vibration products 

we have tried, this is the one that is by far most 

effective for both vertical 

and lateral vibration 

(unfortunately some of 

the most famous ones 

don’t work at all). Each 

Isobearing consists of a 

small ball and a cup to receive it. 

There are two models, each with a weight rating. The rating 

indicates the maximum weight each Isobearing should bear, but 

for optimum performance it should bear at least half of its rated 

weight. Use three or more Isobearings, placed according to the 

weight of the different sections of the amplifier, digital player, 

etc. We now use Isobearings on our DVD player, and we’re glad 

they’re back. 

ORDER: ISO-M, single Isobearing, 2 kg/4.4 lbs $25 each 

ORDER: ISO-G, single Isobearing, 7.5 kg/17 lbs $40 each 

THE SUPERSPIKE 

This is unique: a sealed unit containing a spike and a cup to 

receive it. It won’t scratch even hardwood floors. For speakers 

or equipment stands, on bare floors only. Four sizes of threaded 

shanks are available to fit speakers or stands. 

ORDER: SSKQ, 4 Superspikes, 1/4” shank, $75 

ORDER: SSKT, 4 Superspikes, 5/16” shank, $75 

ORDER: SSKS, 4 Superspikes, 6 mm shank, $75 

ORDER: SSKH, 4 Superspikes, 8 mm shank, $75 

WHAT SIZE SUPERSPIKE? 

A good ruler will let you figure it out. The stated size is the outer 

diameter of the threaded shank. Then count the threads: 

1/4” shank: 20 threads/inch 

5/16” shank: 18 threads/inch 

M6 (6mm) shank: 10 threads/cm 

M8 (8mm) shank: 8 threads/cm 

OTHER 

SUPERSPIKES 

We have also have a Superspike foot 

(at right) that replaces those useless 

feet on CD players, amps, etc., using 

the same screws to fasten them. And 

there’s a stick-on version (not shown) for other components. 

ORDER: SSKF, 4 Superspike replacement feet, $80 

ORDER: SSKA, 3 stick-on Superspike feet, $50 

SPEAKER STANDS 

Your “bookshelf” speaker shouldn’t be on a bookshelf. We have the 

four-pillar Target stands, in 24” or 28” height, ready to be filled 

with sand. 

ORDER: MR-24, one pair 24” Target stands, $325 

ORDER: MR-28, one pair 24” Target stands, $349 


AUDIO-TAK 

It’s blue, and it’s a sort of modelling clay 

that never dries. Anchor speakers to 

stands, cones to speakers, and damp out 

vibration. Leaflet with many suggested 

uses. 

ORDER: AT-2, Audio-Tak pack, $10 

AN ON-THE-WALL IDEA 

Need to fasten a speaker 

securely to the wall? Nothing 

beats the Smarter Speaker 

Support for ease of installation 

or for sheer strength. And 

it holds the speaker off the 

wall, so it can be used even 

with rear-ported speakers. 

Easily adjustable with two 

hands, not three, tested to an 

incredible 23 kg! Glass-filled 

polycarbonate is unbreakable. 

Screws and anchors included, 

available in two colors. 

ORDER: SSPS, pair of black speaker supports, $29.95 

ORDER: SSPS-W, pair of white speaker supports, $29.95 

TARGET WALL STANDS 

We keep our turntables on these, secure from floor vibrations, 

wonderful for CD players, amplifiers, and all components. 

ORDER: VW-1 Target single-shelf wall stand, $225 

ORDER: VW-2 Target dual-shelf wall stand, $280 

AUDIOPHILE RECORDINGS, RECOMMENDED BY UHF STAFF 

REFERENCE RECORDINGS 

Tutti (HDCD, SACD) 

A terrific symphonic sampler from Reference, with dazzling music 

by Bruckner, Stravinsky, etc. Also available as RR’s very first SACD 

release. Wow! 

30th Anniversary Sampler (HDCD) 

A collection of excerpts from recent Reference albums. 

Yerba Buena Bounce (HDCD) 

The (terrific) Hot Club of San Francisco is back, with great music, 

well-played, wonderfully recorded by “Profesor” Johnson! 

Crown Imperial (HDCD) 

The second chapter of the famous Pomp&Pipes saga, with the Dallas 

Wind Symphony, in a set of perfectly recorded pieces in glorious 

HDCD. 

Organ Odyssey (HDCD) 

Mary Preston, the organist of Crown Imperial, in a dazzling program 

of Widor, Mendelssohn, Vierne, and others. 

Serenade (HDCD) 

A collection of choral pieces, wonderfully sung by the Turtle Creek 

Chorale, with perhaps the best sound Keith has given them yet. 

Nojima Plays Liszt (HDCD) 

The famous 1986 recording of Minoru Nojima playing the B Minor 

Sonata and other works is back…in HDCD this time! 

Nojima Plays Ravel (HDCD) 

Nojima’s other hit disc, now also in glorious HDCD. 

Garden of Dreams (HDCD) 

David Maslanka’s evocative music for wind band. 

Beachcomber (HDCD) 

Fennell and the Dallas Wind Ensemble. Includes Tico Tico, A Chorus 

line, and a version of 76 Trombones you’ll remember for a long time. 

Trittico (HDCD) 

Large helping of wind band leader Frederick Fennell doing powerhouse 

music by Grieg, Albeniz, Nelhybel, etc. Complex and energetic. 

Fennell Favorites (LP) 

The Dallas Wind Symphony: Bach, Brahms, Prokofiev and more. 

Fireworks on this rare Reference LP. 

Jazz Hat (HDCD) 

Pianist Michael Garson, in re-releases of some of his famous recordings 

Blazing Redheads (LP) 

Not all redheads, this all-female salsa-flavored big band adds a lot of

ed pepper to its music. 

Felix Hell (HDCD) 

The young organ prodigy turns in mature versions of organ music of 

Liszt, Vierne, Rheinberger and Guilmant. Huge bottom end! 

American Requiem (HDCD) 

Richard Danielpour's awesome Requiem mass is all about war, and 

about the hope for peace too, with a dedication tied to 9/11. 

World Keys (HDCD) 

Astonishing young pianist Joel Fan amazes with music from all the 

world, including that of Prokofiev and Liszt 

Ikon of Eros (HDCD) 

Huge suite for orchestra and chorus, by John Tavener. Inspired by 

Greek Orthodox tradition. Overwhelming HDCD sound. 

PLUS THESE HDCD RECORDINGS: 

Pomp&Pipes (HDCD) 

From the Age of Swing (HDCD) 

Swing is Here (HDCD) 

Copland Symphony No. 3 (HDCD) 

Medinah Sessions, two CDs for one (HDCD) 

Ports of Call (HDCD) 

Bruckner Symphony No. 9 (HDCD) 

Ein Heldenleben (HDCD) 

SHEFFIELD 

Say It With Music (CD) 

Margie Gibson sings Irving Berlin in what may be one the greatest 

jazz vocal recordings of all time. And she’s right in your living room! 

Growing Up in Hollywood Town (XRCD) 

The Amanda Albums (CD) 

How did they do it? The two complete McBroom recordings, Growing 

Up in Hollywood Town and West of Oz, on one terrific CD 

I’ve Got the Music in Me (CD) 

This was originally Sheffield’s LAB-2 release. If you haven’t heard 

Thelma Houston belt out a song, you’re in for a treat. 

Kodo (CD) 

A Japanese neo-folk group plays astonishing music, including a 400pound 

drum that can take out a woofer. Or a wall! 

Harry James & His Big Band (Gold CD) 

Harry said he would have done this recording for free, because he 

sounded better than ever. 

Tower of Power (CD) 

This high-energy big band was originally recorded directly to disc. 

The new CD has been mastered from the original LP, not the digital 

tape copy. 

The King James Version (CD) 

Harry James and his big band, live from the chapel! 

Drum/Track Record 

OPUS 3 

Test Records 1, 2 & 3 (SACD) 

A blast from the past! Here are 14 cuts from the samplers that 

launched Opus 3. They sound better than ever, too. 

Swingcerely Yours (SACD) 

An SACD re-re-release of tracks from superb vibraphonist Lars 

Erstrand, from 1983 to 1995. Long overdue! 


Unique Classical Guitar Collection (SACD) 

An SACD, mastered from analog, of some of Opus 3’s long-discontinued 

classical guitar LPs. Terrific! 

Beyond (SACD) 

The second recording by the versatile guitarist Peder af Ugglas (who 

also did Autumn Shuffle, below), who plays every instrument there is: 

jazz, rock, blues, country. From Sweden??? 

Autumn Shuffle (SACD/LP) 

Ugglas plays a number of different guitars, and borrows from jazz, 

Blues, and (yes!) country. Piano, organ, trombone, bowed saw, etc. 

Showcase 2005 (SACD) 

The latest Opus 3 sampler, with Eric Bibb, Mattias Wager, the Erik 

Westberg Vocal Ensemble and lots more, in glorious SACD. 

Organ Treasures (SACD) 

All those showpieces for big organ you remember hearing through 

huge systems…only with all of the power and the clarity of Super 

Audio. 4.1 channels, plus 2-channel CD. 

Just Like Love (SACD/LP) 

The newest from Eric Bibb, less oriented to Gospel and more to Blues. 

Bibb’s group, Needed Time, is not here, but he’s surrounded by half a 

dozen fine musicians. A nice recording. 

Comes Love (HDCD) 

Another disc by the terrific Swedish Jazz Kings, led by saxophonist 

Tomas Ornberg, proving again Sweden understands jazz. The sound 

is luminous, sometimes dazzling. 

It’s Right Here For You (HDCD) 

Is there, anywhere, a better swing band than The Swedish Jazz Kings 

(formerly Tömas Ormberg’s Blue Five)? Closer to Kansas City than to 

Stockholm, they are captivating. 

Test CD 4 (SACD) 

A sampler of Opus 3 performers, clearer than you’ve ever heard them 

before. Hybrid disc. 

Test CD 5 (HDCD) 

Another of Opus 3’s wonderful samplers, including blues, jazz, and 

classical music. A number of fine artists, captured with the usual pure 

Blumlein stereo setup. A treat. 

Showcase (SACD/LP) 

Available as a hybrid SACD/CD disc, or a gorgeously-cut LP, with 

selections from Opus 3 releases. 

Good Stuff (DOUBLE 45 LP/HDCD/SACD) 

As soothing as a summer breeze, this disc features singer Eric Bibb 

(son of Leon), singing and playing guitar along with his group. Subtle 

weaving of instrumentation, vivid sound. 

Spirit and the Blues (DOUBLE 45 LP/CD/SACD) 

Like his father, Leon Bibb, Eric Bibb understands the blues. He and 

the other musicians, all playing strictly acoustic instruments, have 

done a fine recording, and Opus 3 has made it sound exceptional. 

Tiny Island (SACD) 

If you like Eric Bibb and his group Good Stuff as much as we do, pick 

this one up. 

20th Anniversary Celebration Disc (HDCD) 

A great sampler from Opus 3. Includes some exceptional fine pieces, 

jazz, folk and classical. The sound pickup is as good as it gets, and the 

HDCD transfer is luminous. 


Levande (CD) � 

The full recording from which “Tiden Bara Går” on Test Record No.1 

is taken. Believe it or not, this great song isn’t even the best on the 

album! A fine singer, doing folklike material…and who cares about 

understanding the words? 

Concertos for Double Bass (CD/SACD) � 

This album of modern and 19th Century music is a favorite for its 

deep, sensuous sound. And the music is worth discovering. It is lyrical, 

a delight in every way. 

Across the Bridge of Hope (SACD) 

An astonishing choral recording by the Erik Westberg Ensemble, 

famous for its Musica Sacra choral recording. 

Musica Sacra (HDCD/SACD) 

Test Record No. 4 (LP) 

PROPRIUS 

Now the Green Blade Riseth (CD/SACD/LP) 

Religious music done a new way: organ, chorus and modern instruments. 

Stunning music, arranged and performed by masters, and the 

effect is joyous. The sound is clear, and the sheer depth is unequalled 

on CD. The new SACD version is the very best SACD we have yet heard! 

Cantate Domino (CD/SACD/LP) 

This choral record is a classic of audiophile records. The title selection 

is stunningly beautiful. The second half is Christmas music, and 

includes the most stunning version of O Holy Night we’ve ever heard. 

Antiphone Blues (CD) 

This famous disc offers an unusual mix: sax and organ! The disc 

includes Ellington, Negro spirituals, and some folk music. Electrifying 

performance, and the recording quality is unequalled. 

Antiphone Blues (SACD/HDCD) 

This is the Super Audio version, with a Red Book layer that is HDCDencoded. 

The best of both worlds! 

Jazz at the Pawnshop (LP/CD/SACD) 

Jazz with legendary, nearly perfect sound, famous in audiophile 

circles for years. The LP is double, and includes extra tracks. 

Jazz at the Pawnshop 2 (CD/SACD) 

From the original master, another disc of jazz from this Swedish pub, 

with its lifelike 3-D sound. Now a classic in its own right. 

Good Vibes (CD) 

The third volume of Jazz at the Pawnshop. And just as good! 

Sketches of Standard (CD) 

ANALEKTA 

Violonchello Español (CD) 

I Musici de Montréal comes to Analekta, with a stunning album of 

Spanish and Spanish-like pieces for cello and orchestra. 

Vivace (CD) 

Classical or rock? Claude Lamothe plays two cellos at the same time 

in an amazing recording of modern compositions. 

Pauline Viardot-Garcia (CD) 

Soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian steps into the role of 19th Century 

singer and composer Pauline Viardot so convincingly that listening 

to her is like going back in time. One of the best classical recordings 

of all time! 

Romantic Pieces (CD) 

How does James Ehnes manage to get such a sweet sound from his


Stradivarius? Czech pieces from Smetana, Dvorak and Janacek. The 

playing is as glorious as the tone, and the sound is sumptuous. 

Cantabile (CD) 

The Duo Similia is made up of striking blonde twins, who play flute 

and guitar. Familiar airs from Mozart, Fauré, Elgar, Ravel, lots more. 

Fine listening. 

Nota del Sol (CD) 

The Labrie twins are back, with a delightful recording of flute and 

guitar music by Piazzola, Pujol and Machado. Joyous works. 

Fantasia (CD) 

A third, gorgeous, recording by the twins, on flute and guitar. 

Fritz Kreisler (CD) 

Possibly the best recording of Kreisler’s delightful violin music: James 

Ehnes and his Strad bring a new magic to this fine disc. 

French Showpieces (CD) 

Awesome violinist James Ehnes, with the Quebec City Symph. takes on 

Saint-Saëns, Berlioz, Chausson, Massenet, and more. 

Handel (CD) 

Superb soprano Karina Gauvin is joined by the Toronto chamber 

ensemble Tafelmusik in a series of glowing excerpts from Handel’s 

“Alcina” and “Agrippina.” The sound is smooth and lifelike, with an 

acute sense of place. 

Little Notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach (CD) 

Over 30 delightful pieces, most by Bach himself. Soprano Karina 

Gauvin’s voice is mated to Luc Beauséjour’s harpsichord work. The 

sound is deep, detailed and warm, truly of audiophile quality. 

Vivaldi: Motets for Soprano (CD) 

The wonderful soprano Karina Gauvin tackles the gorgeous but very 

difficult vocal music of Vivaldi: two motets and a psalm. 

AUDIOQUEST 

Mississipi Magic (CD/SACD) 

The legendary Blues, Gospel, rock and world beat singer and musician 

Terry Evans, in an energetic recording we loved. 

Come to Find (CD) 

The first by Bluesman Doug McLeod, as impressive as the second, and 

no Blues fan should resist it. 

You Can’t Take My Blues (CD) 

Singer/songwriter Doug MacLeod and colleagues present one of the 

most satisfying Blues records ever made. 

Unmarked Road (SACD) 

The third disc from the great Blues singer and guitarist Doug McLeod 

is every bit as good as the first two. 

Bluesquest sampler (CD) 

SILENCE 

Styles (CD) 

Is this ever a surprising disc! Violinist Marc Bélanger worked up these 

string études for his music students, but they actually deserve to be 

put out on a gold audiophile disc! The more strings he adds, the better 

it gets. 

Fable (CD) 

Easygoing modern jazz by Rémi Bolduc and his quartet, on this gold 

disc. Some exceptional guitar and bass solos. 

Musique Guy St-Onge (CD) 

One-man band St-Onge plays dozens of instruments — scores for 

fourteen films which never existed outside of his imagination. Fun 

pretext, clever, attractive music that makes you wish you could see 

the films! 

HI-RES MUSIC (FOR DVD PLAYERS) 

Brazilian Soul (24/96 DVD) 

Guitarists Laurindo Almeida and Charlie Byrd, plus percussion and 

bass, in an intimate yet explosive recording of samba and bossa nova 

music. Great! 

Jazz/Concord (24/96 DVD) 

It's 1972, and you have tickets to hear Herb Ellis, Joe Pass, Ray Brown 

and Jake Hanna at the Concord Jazz Festival. You won’t ever forget it. 

You can be there, with this high resolution disc that goes in your DVD. 

Rhythm Willie (24/96 DVD) 

Guitarists Herb Ellis and Freddie Green, with bassist Ray Brown and 

others. This is an uncompressed 24 bit 96 kHz disc that can be played 

on any DVD player. Awesome! 

Trio (24/96 DVD) 

Pianist Monty Alexander with Herb Ellis and Ray Brown. “Makes CD 

sound seem as if it’s coming through a drinking straw.” Playable on 

any DVD player, uncompressed. 

Seven Come Eleven (24/96 DVD) 

Herb Ellis and Ray Brown again, but this time with guitarist Joe 

Pass (he and Ellis alternate playing lead and rhythm), and a third 

guitarist, Jake Hanna. This is a live recording from the 1974 Concord 

Jazz Festival. 

Soular Energy (24-96 DVD/ 24-192 DVD-Audio) 

Perhaps the world’s greatest bassist, the late Ray Brown, playing with 

pianist Gene Harris, whom Brown called one of the greats. The proof 

is right on this 24/96 recording, made from the analog master. Side 2 

has a 24/192 DVD-A version. 

KLAVIER 

Sonatas for Flute and Harp 

These same great artists with sonatas by Krumpholz and Damase, as 

well as Spohr and Glinka. Oh yes, and a spectacular solo harp version 

of Ibert’s hilarious Entr’acte . 

Norman Dello Joio (CD) 

This contemporary composer delights in the tactile sound of the wind 

band, and the Keystone Wind Ensemble does his music justice. So 

does the sound, of astonishing quality! 

Obseción (CD) 

The Trio Amadé plays Piazzola, Berstein, Copland, and Emilion 

Cólon…who is the trio cellist. The Colón and Piazzola is definitely 

worth the price of admission. Lifelike sound. 

Hemispheres (CD) 

The North Texas Wind Symphony with new music by contemporary 

composers who know how to thrill. Some of the best wind band sound 

available. 

PURE PLEASURE LPs 

Duke Ellington 70th Birthday Concert (LP) 

A double 180-gram LP set, recorded live in England Includes Take the 

‘A’ Train, Satin Doll, Perdido, many others. 

After Midnight (LP) 

A mono double-album of Nat King Cole’s greatest performances, with 

his own trio. Includes Sometimes I’m Happy, Caravan, It’s Only a 

Paper Moon, Route 66, You Can Depend on Me. A great classic, available 

on premium vinyl once more. 


MOBILE FIDELITY LPs 

Santana 

This is the one with the lion on the cover, remastered from the 

original sereo master, pressed on 180-gram vinyl. 

My Aim Is True 

Yes, the original Elvis Costello album, back on quality vinyl. 

Whites Off Earth Now 

The 1986 album by the Cowboy Junkies, recorded on two-track with 

the legendary Calrec microphone and its 3D sound. 

Don’t Cry Now 

Linda Ronstadt’s 2008 LP, with I Can Almost See It, Desperado, etc.. 

Simple Dreams 

Linda Ronstadt from much longer ago, 1977: It’s So Easy, Carmelita, I 

Never Will Marry, etc. 

Prisoner in Disguise 

Linda Ronstadt from 1975: Love is a Rose, Tracks of My Tears, I Will 

Always Love You, and more.. 

Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely 

No one ever did the late-night blues better than Old Blue Eyes. Check 

out the songs: Willow Weep For Me, Blues in the Night, Ebb Tide… 

Sinatra and Strings 

With Don Costa’s lush orchestra, Sinatra sings Night and Day, Misty, 

Stardust, All Or Nothing At All, and Yesterdays. Oh, and lots more. 

Nice and Easy 

Sinatra sings love ballads on this famous recording: How Deep is the 

Ocean, Fools Rush In, Try a Little Tenderness, and Dream.. 

FIRST/LAST IMPRESSIONS 

La Fille Mal Gardée (XRCD) 

A fine ballet with the Royal Ballet Company orchestra, from the 

original 1962 Decca recording. Exceptional 

Film Spectacular II (XRCD) 

The orchestra of Stanley Black plays some of the greatest film music 

of bygone years. From the original Decca Phase 4 tape. 

Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante (XRCD) 

Igor and David Oistrakh with the Moscow Philharmonic, in a glorious 

1963 recording, from the original master tape. 

Artistry of Linda Rosenthal (HDCD) 

The great violinist Rosenthal plays favorites: Hora Staccato, Perpetuum 

Mobile, Debussy’s Beau Soir, etc. 

Suite Española (XRCD) 

The Albéniz suite, gorgeously orchestrated by Rafael Frühbeck de 

Burgos, who conducts the New Philharmonia. Beautifully remastered 

from the original 1963 tape. 

Audiophile Reference IV (SACD) 

A stunning sampler, with recognizable audiophile selections you have 

never heard sound this good! 

Songs My Dad Taught Me (HDCD) 

Jazz pianist Jeremy Monteiro and three other musicians, with a retro 

collection of unforgettable tunes. 

Café Blue (HDCD) 

Gold HDCD version of jazz singer Patricia Barber’s 1994 classic, an 

audiophile underground favorite.

We Get Requests (CD) 

An amazing 1964 Verve disc of Oscar Peterson with bassist Ray 

Brown. FIM has brought it back on a silver CD that appears to be 

XRCD in all but name. 

MISCELLANEOUS 

Christmas (LP) 

The original Fresh Aire Christmas album from Mannheim Steamroller, 

and one of the best ever made. 

Windsock 

Some of the best New Age orchestral music on an audiophile label, 

this suite was written and arranged by Rick Swanson 

Urban Surrender 

Ric Swanson again, with a fascinating suite for orchestra, and 

sometimes choral voices. 

Daydreams 

Music for finding your inner self, with guitarist Ron Cooley, and a 

good-sized little band. The title says it, though. 

Through the Lens 

The Checkfield group (John Archer and Ron Satterfield) in a classic 

New Age mix of acoustic and synth music. 


Ballade 

Pianist Jackson Berkey plays Debussy, Rachmaninoff and Satie on a 

Baldwin SD-10 grand. 

American Gramophone Sampler III 

Once a staple of audio shows, these tracks from Mannheim 

Steamroller[s Fresh Aire series are a prime example of Chip Davis’s 

awsome “Baroque’n’Roll.” 

All We Need to Know 

Jazz singer Margie Gibson’s first album since Say It With Music, on 

Sheffield. No one sings the way she does! 

Classica d’Oro (CD) 

Some of the classical world’s most important heritage, on 50 

audiophile-quality gold CDs, at just over $2 per CD. Fine artists from 

Germany, Austria, the UK, Eastern Europe. Listen to excerpts on line. 

Blues for the Saxophone Club (HDCD) 

Swing jazz pianist Jeremy Monteiro, with guest artists, including 

saxophonist Ernie Watts. The HDCD sound is explosive! 

My Foolish Heart (CD) 

A collection of live and studio pieces by Monteiro and other musicians, 

notably saxophonist Ernie Watts. 


Neil Diamond: Serenade (CD) 

Just eight songs on this European CBS disc, but what songs! I’ve Been 

This Way Before, Lady Magdalene, Reggae Strut, The Gift of Song, 

and more. Glowing sound too. 

Sources (CD) 

A wonderful recording by Bïa (pronounced Bee-yah). She’s Brazilian, 

lives in France, recorded this terrific album (in 5 languages!) in 

Montreal. Just her warm voice and guitar, plus stunning percussion. 

La mémoire du vent (CD) 

The original recording by Bïa, in French, Portuguese and English. If 

you love her second one, don’t hesitate. 

Carmin (CD) 

The third by Bïa. Different this time, with more money for production, 

but it has been spent wisely. Superb songs, gloriously sung in Portuguese, 

French and the ancient Aymara language. 

Coeur vagabond (CD) 

Bïa sings French songs in Portuguese, Brazilian songs in French. A 

delight, as usual from this astonishing singer. 

Nocturno (CD) 

Some are saying that this is Bïa’s best and most touching album since 

Sources. See if you agree. You won’t be disappointed. 

RED INDICATES RECORDINGS USED IN UHF EQUIPMENT REVIEWS 

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VINYL ALBUMS 

30th Anniv. Celebration LP22060 35.00 

After Midnight (2 LP) W782 48.00 

American Gramaphone III AG366 20.00 

Autumn Shuffle LP22042 27.95 

Ballade AG371 12.00 

Blazing Redheads RR-26 25.00 

Cantate Domino PROP7762 38.95 

Christmas LPAG1984 15.00 

Daydreams AG368 12.00 

Ellington 70th B’day (2 LP) 60001 48.00 

Fennell Favorites RR-43 25.00 

Frank Sinatra: Only the Lonely 1-326 34.75 

Good Stuff (2 LP) LP19603 47.95 

Heart like a Wheel CLP-7049 26.00 

Jazz at the Pawnshop (2-LP) 7778-79 65.00 

Jazz Trio LP8401 22.95 

Just Like Love LP20002 27.95 

Louis Armstrong Plays Handy CL591 48.00 

My Aim is True 1-329 34.75 

Nice and Easy 1-317 34.75 

Now the Green Blade Riseth PROP9093 38.95 

One Flight Up BLP-4176 26.00 

Painting Signs PPAN004 48.00 

Prisoner in Disguise 1-306 34.75 

Rainbow People LP7723 22.95 

Santana 1-303 34.75 

Showcase LP21000 22.95 

Simple Dreams 1-321 34.75 

Sinatra & Strings 1-313 34.75 

Spirit and the Blues (2 LP) LP19401 47.95 

Takin’ Off CLP-7050 26.00 

Test Record No.4 OPLP9200 27.95 

Through the Lens AG788 12.00 

Trittico RR-52 32.00 

Urban Surrender AG600 12.00 

Vinyl Essentials (test) LP003 48.95 

Whites Off Earth Now 1-292 1-292 

Windsock AG687 12.00 

HIGH-RESOLUTION MEDIA (SACD, DVD, ETC.) 

Across the Bridge of Hope CD22012 24.50 

Antiphone Blues (SACD) 7744SACD 37.95 

Audiophile Reference IV SACD 029 40.00 

Autumn Shuffle (SACD) CD22042 24.50 

Beethoven/Mendelssohn 5186 102 29.95 

Beyond (SACD) CD22072 24.50 

Brazilian Soul (DVD) HRM2009 24.95 

Cantate Domino (SACD) PSACD7762 29.95 

Conc. for Double Bass (SACD) CD8522 24.50 

Good Stuff (SACD) CD19623 24.50 

Jazz at the Pawnshop (3-SACD) PRSACD7879 90.00 

Jazz at the Pawnshop 2 (SACD) PRSACD7079 37.95 

Jazz/Concord (DVD) HRM2006 24.95 

Just Like Love (SACD) CD21002 24.50 

Mississipi Magic (SACD) AQSACD1057 24.95 

Musica Sacra (SACD) CD19516 24.50 

Now the Green Blade Riseth PRSACD9093 29.95 

Organ Treasures (SACD) CD22031 24.50 

Rhythm Willie (Audio DVD) HRM2010 24.95 

Seven Come Eleven (DVD) HRM2005 24.95 

Showcase (SACD) CD21000 24.50 

Showcase 2005 (SACD) CD22050 24.50 

Soular Energy (DVD/DVD-A) HRM2011 24.95 

Spirit & the Blues (SACD) CD19411 24.50 

Swingcerely Yours CD22081 24.50 

Tchaikovsky: Symph. #6 (SACD) 5186 107 29.95 

Test CD 4 (SACD) CD19420 24.50 

Test Records 1-2-3 CD19520 24.50 

Tiny Island (SACD) CD19824 24.50 

Trio (Audio DVD) HRM2008 24.95 

Tutti (SACD) RR-906SACD 24.00 

Unique Classical Guitar (SACD). CD22062 24.50 

Unmarked Road (SACD) AQ1046SACD 29.95 

Whose Truth, Whose Lies? AQ1054SACD 29.95 

RED BOOK COMPACT DISCS 

20th Anniversary Celebration CD19692 19.95 

30th Anniversary Sampler RR-908 16.95 

Alleluía AN 2 8810 21.00 

All We Need to Know GG-1 21.00 

An American Requiem RR-97CD 16.95 

Antiphone Blues 7744CD 21.95 

Artistry of Linda Rosenthal FIM022VD 27.95 

Bach Sonatas, violin & harpsi. AN 2 9829 21.00 

Bach Suites, Airs & Dances FL 2 3133 21.00 

Beachcomber RR-62CD 16.95 

Best of Chesky & Test, vol.3 JD111 21.95 

Beethoven Symph. 5 & 6 AN 2 9891 21.00 

Blues for the Saxophone Club 26-1084-78-2 21.95 

Bluesquest AQCD1052 21.95 

Bossa Nova JD129 21.95 

Bruckner: Symph. No.9 RR-81CD 16.95 

Café Blue 21810 21.95 

Café Blue (HDCD gold) CD 010 39.95 

Cantabile AN 2 9810 21.00 

Cantate Domino 7762CD 21.95 

Carmin ADCD10163 21.00 

Classica d’Oro (50 gold CDs) GCM-50 119.95 

Come to Find AQCD1027 21.95 

Come Love CD19703 19.95 

Companion 22963 21.00 

Coeur vagabond ADCD10191 21.00 

Concertos for Double Bass OPCD8502 21.95 

Copland Symphony No.3 RR-93CD 16.95 

Drum/Track Record 10081 21.00 

Ein Heldenleben RR-83CD 16.95 

Fable SLC9603-2 22.00 

Fantasia AN 2 9819 21.00 

Felix Hell RR-101CD 16.95 

Film Spectacular II XR24 070 35.00 

French Showpieces FL 2 3151 21.00 

Fritz Kreisler FL 2 3159 21.00 

From the Age of Swing RR-59CD 16.95 

Garden of Dreams RR-108 16.95 

Gitans Y225035 24.95 

Good Stuff CD19603 19.95 

Good Vibes PRCD9058 19.95 

Growing up in Hollywood Town LIM XR 001 38.95 

Handel FL 2 3137 21.00 

Harry Belafonte 295-037 19.95 

Harry James & His Big Band 10057-2-G 24.00 

Hemispheres K11137 21.00 

Infernal Violins AN 2 8718 21.00 

It’s Right Here For You CD19404 19.95 

I’ve Got the Music in Me 10076 21.00 

Jazz at the Pawnshop PRCD-7778 19.95 

Jazz at the Pawnshop 2 PRCD9044 19.95 


Jazz Hat RR-114 16.95 

Jazz/Vol.1 JD37 19.95 

Keep on Movin’ AQCD1031 19.95 

Kodo 12222-2 21.00 

La Fille Mal Gardée XR24 013 38.95 

La mémoire du vent ADCD10144 21.00 

Les matins habitables GSIC-895 21.00 

Levande OPCD7917 19.95 

Leyrac chante Nelligan AN 2 8815 21.00 

Liszt-Laplante FL 2 3030 21.00 

Little Notebook of Anna M. Bach FL 2 3064 21.00 

Masters of Flute & Harp KCD11019 21.00 

Medinah Sessions RR-2102 16.95 

Mendelssohn: 2 Violin Conc. FL 2 3098 21.00 

Mozart Complete Piano Trios AN 2 9827-8 27.50 

Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante XR24 069 38.95 

Mozart: Soprano Arias FL 2 3131 21.00 

Musica Sacra CD19506 19.95 

Musique Guy St-Onge SLC9700-2 22.00 

Musiques d’Europe centrale 88001 24.95 

My Foolish Heart 26-1084-92-2 21.95 

Neil Diamond: Serenade 465012-2 16.95 

Nocturno ADCD10227 21.00 

Nojima Plays Liszt RR-25CD 16.95 

Nojima Plays Ravel RR-35CD 16.95 

Non-Stop to Brazil JD29 19.95 

Norman Dello Joio K11138 21.00 

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Obseción K11134 21.95 

Opera for Two FL 2 3076 21.00 

Organ Odyssey RR-113 16.95 

Pauline Viardot-Garcia AN 2 9903 21.00 

Pomp&Pipes RR-58CD 16.95 

Ports of Call RR-80CD 16.95 

Rio After Dark JD28 19.95 

Romantic Pieces FL 2 3191 21.00 

Sans Domicile Fixe 19012-2 24.95 

Say It With Music CD-36 21.00 

Serenade RR-110 16.95 

Sketches of Standard PRCD 9036 19.95 

Songs My Dad Taught Me FIM0009 27.95 

Sources ADCD10132 21.00 

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Test CD 5 CD20000 21.95 

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There is lots of nostalgia in 

pop music circles, and there 

always has been. There will 

always be an audience for 

the Andrews Sisters, The Big Bopper, 

the Beach Boys, and countless other 

artists of the day before yesteryear. 

That is to say, their enduring popularity 

goes beyond their original musical 

significance. 

The Beatles are something else. 

Since they first arrived on the pop 

scene nearly half a century ago, and since 

they disappeared again over 40 years ago, 

we’ve been asking the same questions. 

Why? How did it happen? How can four 

adolescents from a working class town 

with no formal musical training upend 

not only the hit parade, but all of the 

arts? How could they have had such a 

massive and immediate impact on society? 

That they did is beyond question. 

As we shall see, these young musicians, 

taken in hand by classical music 

producer George Martin, struggled to 

render credible versions of the rock’n’roll 

Software 

The Beatles 

Forever! 

hits of their day, but once they began 

writing their own songs the result, 

worldwide, was electrifying. 

The pop music world had of course 

seen other hit-making machines, from 

Frank Sinatra to Elvis. But no one could 

have predicted the results, not even 

George Martin, who had a front-row 

seat. 

Since we last wrote about the Fab 

Four in UHF No. 63, the Beatles phenomenon 

has only grown. We’ll get to 

that shortly, but let us begin at the very 

beginning. 

Welcome to Liverpool 

This typical industrial and port 

city, located where the Mersey meets 

the Irish Sea, would seem ill-suited as 

a tourist magnet, but this is the birthplace 

of the Beatles. Each year hundred 

of thousands of nostalgic visitors take 

pleasure in walking its streets to search 

by Reine Lessard 

and Gerard Rejskind 

out the places where the Beatles began, 

perhaps to catch a whiff of the joyous 

madness of the 60’s. Liverpool’s avenues 

are immortalized in Beatle songs. There 

is a statue of the Beatles at the Cavern 

Club, there is a Beatles museum, there 

is an official Beatles tour, and there are 

countless boutiques hawking Beatles 

souvenirs and memorabilia. Once known 

only as the UK’s second largest port, 

Liverpool is now and forever the city of 

the Beatles. 

In the beginning… 

These wunderkinder of modern popular 

music were barely out of childhood 

when they took their first steps toward 

glory. These four lads who shook the 

world have lost nothing of their appeal. 

Look at their pictures on countless 

remastered LP’s and CD’s, in attire that 

was almost formal at first, much less so 

later. Look at those adolescent faces, 

listen to their songs, which continue to 

sell to millions of the grandchildren of 

their original fans. 

It all begins in the little church of 

Woolton, in their native Liverpool. 

There, in the summer of 1957, 

a youth of 17 named John Winston 

Lennon leads a skiffle group of six, The 

Quarrymen, who play for special events. 

At a July concert at another church, he is 

introduced to another youth, James Paul 

McCartney. Impressed with Paul’s musical 

talent, John hires him, beginning an 

unequalled musical partnership. Within 

a few weeks, John fires the weaker 

member of his group and adds a pickup 

musician, already a talented guitarist, 

even younger than himself. His name is 

George Harrison. 

Poorly dressed, working without 

a drum mer, using instruments and 

amplifiers of the crudest quality, the 

aspiring stars can get gigs only in the 

most rundown clubs. In 1959, at a new 

club called the Casbah, they finally meet 

a drummer who will add the missing 

ingredient, Peter Best. 

In 1960 John persuades his best 

friend Stuart Sutcliffe, who had attended 

the Liverpool Fine Arts School with 


Software 

Feedback 

him, to get himself a guitar and an electric 

bass and join his group. That group, 

briefly called Johnny and the Moondogs, 

evolves into the Silver Beetles. The seed 

is planted, and it will soon grow into the 

most extravagant flower in the history of 

popular music. 

Phase one 

It is in May of 1960 that the Silver 

Beetles play for then famed impresario 

Larry Parnes. Not much impressed, 

Parnes nonetheless engages them to fill 

in the breaks during Johnny Gentle’s 

tour of Scotland. The seven-concert tour 

is a flop, but it scarcely matters. Back in 

Liverpool they begin to play the Jaracana 

Coffee Bar, whose owner Allen Williams 

had written some arrangements for them 

and who will soon become their manager. 

It is their next step to local fame. 

Legend has it that it was in a dream 

that a mysterious visitor told John 

Lennon to change the spelling of 

“Beetles” to the one that would become 

so famous…to the despair of English 

teachers everywhere. 

In August they open a two-month 

engagement at the Indra Club in another 

tough port town, Hamburg. For just 

30 Deutsche Marks a day each, they 

play seven hours a night, every day 


of the week, for an audience 

of prostitutes and noisy 

drunks. It is a hard school, 

though a useful one for those 

prepared to learn. Without 

much of a developed repertoire 

they draw on sources 

across the Atlantic. Fascinated 

by African-American 

singers, Gospel, R&B and 

rock’n’roll, idolizing Elvis, 

they practice during long 

hours. Only amphetamines 

keep them awake during their 

long gigs, after which they 

sleep on makeshift beds down 

a nauseating corridor next to 

the toilets. 

By October their growing 

popularity has won them an 

upgrade to a better club, the 

Kaiserkeller, but their stay 

ends abruptly in December, 

when the police discovers 

that George is a minor and 

deports him. His bandmates, outraged, 

break the place up and get thrown out 

of the country too. 

But there is no time for melancholy. 

Barely skipping a beat, they open at 

Liverpool’s Cavern Club in February. 

They supplement their meagre pay 

with such day jobs as truck driver and 

window-dresser. 

Finally they return to the Casbah 

and then to the Litherland Town Hall, 

where crowds respond enthusiastically 

to this free-form, slightly wild, brand 

of rock that the leather-jacketed Beatles 

had developed in Hamburg. 

Just two years have gone by, but by 

now these are experienced musicians. 

They are also quick studies. 

A turning point 

By April George has finally reached 

his majority, and the Beatles are back 

in Hamburg with a 13-week contract 

at the Top Ten Club, backing a betterknown 

musician, Tony Sheridan. In May 

the Beatles accompany Sheridan on a 

recording of My Bonnie, When the Saints 

Go Marching In and Why. John, Paul and 

George also do the background vocals. 

On the same recording are pieces featuring 

the Beatles: Ain’t She Sweet (John), 

and an instrumental parody of the group 

The Shadows (George and John). 

During that period they lose Stu 

Sutcliffe, who returns to the visual arts. 

Paul takes over on bass guitar. Stu’s lady 

friend Astrid Kirchherr had created for 

Stu a hair style inspired by a French 

fashion, with hair dropping low on the 

brow. George is the first to adopt the new 

look, and John and Paul follow during a 

trip to Paris. The “mop top” Beatles are 

born. 

Decca blows it 

By the Fall of 1961 the Beatles are 

emerging as a force to be reckoned with 

both in Liverpool and in Hamburg. 

They have fashioned a highly individual 

style, allowing them to capture the 

attention of the noisy clientele of these 

working class port cities. It is surprising 

that, despite the vulgarity of the venues 

they played, they would incorporate 

vulgarity neither in their music nor in 

their lives. 

October 28th is a second major turning 

point in their development. One of 

Liverpool’s largest record shops, the 

North End Music Store, has been receiving 

numerous requests for a recording 

that could be found in no catalog: My 

Bonnie. Worse, the sales manager, who 

takes pride in offering the hippest successes, 

has never heard of this group 

which calls itself “The Beatles.” The 

manager’s name is Brian Epstein. 

Puzzled, Epstein goes to hear them at 

the Cavern Club. Legend has it he fell in 

love with John Lennon, but it’s certain 

that he is fascinated by these youths with 

the far out look, and he doesn’t hesitate 

long. He sees they have incredible stage 

presence, and they know how to draw 

the crowd along. Brian would later say 

that he considered that the decibel level 

of their playing bordered on dangerous, 

but he was con vinced that they were what 

the young generation was waiting for. 

Epstein has never managed anyone 

before, and he has to inquire how it is 

done. He finally writes up a contract 

tilted heavily in his favor. The Beatles 

sign, though Epstein himself offers no 

more than a handshake. Still, it should 

be said he will spare no expense to take 

his adoptees to the Everest of the musical 

world. 

On New Years’ Day, Epstein gets

them what should have been a rendezvous 

with glory: an audition at Decca. 

Disappointment. Producer Dick Rowe, 

who opts instead for a group called Brian 

Poole and the Tremolos (Remember 

them? No?), will eternally be known as 

the man who passed on the Beatles. 

But they are able to build on their 

audition, appearing the next month on 

TV’s Thank Your Lucky Stars, where My 

Bonnie captivates six million viewers. In 

a flash, they move beyond their working 

class roots to captivate the larger British 

society. 

In April they learn of the death of 

their friend and former colleague Stu 

Sutcliffe. They fly to Hamburg for the 

funeral, where, in any case, they have 

another seven-week gig at the Star Club. 

A third decisive step 

After the Decca flop, Epstein searches 

high and low for another producer, and 

finally finds one at EMI. He is the A&R 

man at Parlophone, a small label EMI 

is actually thinking of killing off. His 

name is George Martin, an elegant man 

and a Guildhall Music School graduate. 

He will become a counsellor, a peerless 

arranger and a prolific producer for the 

group. No doubt eager to keep his label 

alive, he tells Epstein he is willing to 

consider recording his Beatles. On June 

6, 1961, a key date, the Beatles arrive in 

George Martin’s Parlophone studio. 

Martin is not immediately enchanted 

by either the old or the new repertoire, 

and in particular he is not taken with 

drummer Pete Best. Besides, solo singers 

are all the rage just now. “I’ll call you,” 

he says. 

More than a year will go by before he 

does. Probably fascinated by certain new 

aspects of the group — John’s personality, 

Paul’s voice, George’s guitar, and 

especially the unique harmonies — he 

finally agrees to make a record with 

them. Hearing the announcement from 

Epstein, John, Paul and George forget to 

tell Pete Best…who hears the good news 

at the same time he learns the bad news: 

he is no longer a Beatle. His replacement 

is Richard Starkey, whose ostentatious 

display of rings on each finger have 

earned him the nickname Ringo. 

Already a noted drummer, Ringo will 

create a distinctive beat for the group. At 

the same time, his personal qualities will 

contribute to holding together a group 

whose members have highly divergent 

temperaments. Later acknowledged as 

the greatest drummer in rock’n’roll, the 

modest Ringo will contribute mightily 

to the group’s fame and fortune, all the 

while keeping his place at the back of 

the stage. Still, George will later say that 

“Playing without Ringo is like driving a 

car on three wheels.” John will call him 

the heart of the Beatles. 

Epstein seeks to influence neither 

their repertoire nor their haircuts, 

but he imposes some discipline on his 

charges. They must no longer drink 

beer on stage, and they must ditch their 

scruffy leather jackets. On March 7th 

the Liverpool lads appear on the BBC 

in dark suits, metamorphosed into young 

gentlemen prepared to be introduced to 

London society. Not that the change 

of look will take away from either their 

exuberance or their irreverence. 

In the Summer of 1962 John Lennon 

learns that his girlfriend Cynthia is 

pregnant, and marries her, though their 

marriage will long be kept from John’s 

adoring fans. Ringo gets engaged to a 

local hairdresser he has adored since 

childhood, Maureen Cox. 

George Martin still isn’t convinced 

of Ringo’s value. In a studio session in 

September, he calls in a studio drummer, 

relegating Ringo to playing the tambourine 

and the maracas. Several takes of 

a new song, Love Me Do, are recorded, 

but — surprise — the one Martin 

chooses to release is the one made with 

Ringo behind the drum kit. The single is 

released in October. During the last two 

months of 1962 the Beatles will return 

to Hamburg twice. They will never go 

again. 

What is unsuspected is that their 

second single will be a monster hit. 

The magic happened at the end of 

a tiring practice session at Parlophone. 

“It was a hard day…” says a discouraged 

Ringo, adding “…day’s night.” The 

phrase will of course return as the title 

of a song and a movie, but Paul and John 

join in. “It’s this rubbish we’ve been 

practicing. We could write better stuff 

than this ourselves.” 

“Go ahead,” suggests George Martin. 

The two Beatles work all night and 

return to the studio the next morning 

with a new song, Please Please Me. Martin 

listens to them playing it. “Gentlemen,” 

he says, “you have your first number one 

hit.” 

Rare are producers like Martin. 

Beyond his authentic knowledge of 

music, he is talented and passionate, 

and well connected too. He introduces 

the Beatles to Dick James, a 50’s singer 

turned publisher, who will publish the 

Beatles’ music. Publishers get half the 

gross from song sales, and so he will of 

course become very rich. 

But do the Beatles have a future? 

They now have a publisher, a producer, 

a manager, TV appearances, and two 

singles, one of them No. 17 on the 

charts. None of this is enough to awaken 

the interest of the press. Epstein faces 

the truth: the Beatles may fill the halls 


Software

Software 

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in their home town, but so far they are 

merely a local phenomenon. 

New material 

But 1963 will be decisive. It opens 

with a tour of Britain, in which our 

young lions open for well-known rock 

stars, including Roy Orbison. To such 

rock anthems as Roll Over Beethoven 

and Long Tall Sally, they add their own 

compositions, including Twist and Shout, 

whose dance steps will become a craze. 

Their rock becomes edgier. 

Just six days after the start of the 

tour, Please Please Me hits the top of the 

British charts. In March their first album 

is released. It too heads for number one, 

where it will remain an incredible seven 

months! 

On April 11th they release their third 

single, From Me to You, backed with 

Thank You Girl. 

On the 18th Paul meets actress Jane 

Asher at the Royal Albert Hall. Less 

than a month later they will be engaged. 

In the same month is born John and 

Cynthia’s son Julian. 

By June 1st Do You Want to Know a 


Secret is in second place on the charts, 

behind From Me to You. In July they 

record additional songs for a new album, 

With the Beatles. On August 3rd they play 

their 292nd gig at the Cavern Club. It 

will be their last. 

With their appearance on the TV’s 

popular Sunday Night at the Palladium, 

with its 15 million viewers, Beatlemania 

becomes a tidal wave that engulfs even 

the Royal Family. 

In October the Beatles tour Sweden, 

and the following month they open a 

new British tour in Cheltenham. At a 

command performance attended by the 

Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, 

John invites “those of you in the cheap 

seats” to clap along, “and the rest of you, 

if you could just rattle your jewelry.” The 

Queen Mother smiles gracefully. 

Their new album takes a mere five 

days to top the charts, and won’t budge 

from that spot over the next 21 weeks. It 

includes 14 new songs signed by John and 

Paul, and one by George. At the end of 

November they release their fifth single, 

and the fourth at the top of the charts, 

I Want to Hold Your Hand. It bumps She 

Loves You from number one. 

They end this astonishing year with 

The Beatles Christmas Show in London, 

which will run 16 nights. They are now 

launched toward a national career which 

is becoming international. It will lead 

them to the conquest of America. 

Beatlemania 

The year 1964 begins like a Titan 

rocket headed for orbit. The Beatles are 

a hit in Paris before flying to New York, 

where 3000 screaming fans await them 

at the airport. 

We hope you’ll want to read the rest 

of this feature, which is available on both 

versions of UHF. 






If Maggie’s electronic version floats 

your boat, drop by www.uhfmag.com/ 

maggie.html. 



















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Flute Sonatas of J. S. Bach 

Baroni/Boerner/van Cornewal 

M•A M087A 

Gerard Rejskind: The flute underwent 

a radical makeover in the late Classical 

and early Romantic eras, which is 

to say the span from Mozart’s birth 

to Beethoven’s death. The flute at the 

beginning of that period was what today 

we call the recorder. That instrument 

today is still used for period music, but 

it is also a beginner’s instrument, often 

supplied to schoolchildren (often in a 

plastic version, alas). If you’ve played the 

recorder, you’ll know that you had to be 

careful not to blow into it too hard. If you 

did it wouldn’t play louder — instead it 

would go up an octave. You would really 

feel you had mastered the recorder if you 

could stop it squeaking like that. 

The recorder had a long run, but 

when music moved out of the salons of 

nobles and the clergy and into increasingly 

large concert halls attended by 

the growing middle class, its inherent 

squeakiness became a liability. The 

recorder, unable to play loud enough, 

eventually gave way to the modern flute, 

the flûte traversière. It is made of metal, 

sometimes silver. It has no mouthpiece. 

Instead you blow across an opening (de 

travers, or sideways), the way you can get 

a sound by blowing across the neck of a 

bottle. You can get a lot more volume 

than you could hope for with a recorder. 


Software Reviews 

by Steve Bourke 

and Gerard Rejskind 

Baroque composers such as Bach 

probably never saw a modern flute 

(though it was invented in his lifetime, 

and his son Carl Philip Emmanuel made 

his career writing for it). Still, the idea of 

blowing across a hole in the instrument 

would not have been foreign to him. 

Common though the recorder was, Bach 

would also have written for the traverso, 

which you will hear on this remarkable 

recording. 

As its name implies, the traverso, 

sometimes called the Baroque flute, was 

also played by blowing across it. Two 

traversos are used in this recording of 

Bach sonatas, and it is quite possible that 

Bach wrote these works for just such an 

instrument. 

The traverso does not sound like 

the recorder, but nor does it sound like 

a modern flute. Notwithstanding the 

claim that a flute’s material doesn’t affect 

its sound (one flautist ordered up a flute 

built of concrete in an attempt to prove 

this point), you’ll probably find that the 

two traversos heard on this recording 

have a decidedly “woody” sound. Their 

range is narrower than that of modern 

flutes, which are equipped with keys. 

Not a lot is known about the origins 

of these pieces, which include two 

sonatas, in E Minor and B Minor, a Trio 

Sonata for two traversos and harpsichord, 

and the A Minor Partita. These are difficult 

pieces, possibly beyond the abilities 

of the flautists Bach usually wrote for. 

Though Bach himself was a master of 

a number of the instruments he wrote 

for, from the organ to the guitar, the 

same wasn’t always true of the musicians 

at whatever court he was working at. 

Notably, the Brandenburg Concertos, a 

gift to the margrave of Brandenburg- 

Schwedt, were never played at the time, 

almost certainly because the margrave’s 

musicians could not have handled the 

extraordinary complexity of the music. 

No such problem arises here. Diana 

Baroni has vast experience with both 

Baroque music and the traditional music 

of Latin America. She has strong mastery 

of her instrument. So does Sarah 

van Cornewal, the flutist who joins her 

in the Trio Sonata. Dirk Boerner, who 

accompanies on the harpsichord, is 

excellent as well. They play with delightful 

ease. 

Todd Garfinkle made this recording 

in Lyon, France, and he has left just 

enough hall sound that we can detect a 

brief echo at the end of a note, but not 

enough to make the sound seem hollow. 

Garfinkle records in DSD, the format 

behind SACD, though his recordings, 

so far, are to Red Book standard. What 

he has delivered is second row sound in 

a good hall. Warmly recommended. 

Bach: Cantates 

Milnes & Montréal Baroque 

Atma SACD 2403 

Steve Bourke: What has become of 

Christmas? Where is the wonderful 

holiday celebration of earlier times 

that brought friends and family closer 

together than ever. The stress of finding 

the right gift yet again,and the 

commercial season that seems to begin 

earlier each year. 

Atma Classique’s four disc series, 

containing cantatas BWV 30, 7, 167, 

130, 19, 149, 147, 82, 1, 61, 122, 123, 182, 

offers us an escape to a very different 

era, when each Sunday the people of 

Johann Sebastian Bach’s community 

enjoyed several of his cantatas during

their church services. For them, and as 

it turned out for the modern classical 

music public, he somehow found the 

time to compose almost three hundred 

cantatas, of which about two hundred 

survive, enough for every Sunday and 

saint day for five years without a repetition. 

To the congregations of Bach’s era 

it was part of a typical Sunday service, 

but to the world’s classical music community, 

the cantatas enjoy a more 

special status. Says Milton Cross, the 

esteemed classical music historian and 

critic, “perhaps no greater service has 

been performed by recorded music than 

the release on discs of Bach’s church 

cantatas.” 

While other recordings of this material 

have often used full choirs, Atma 

employs single soloists accompanied by 

single, dual, and small group instrumentation. 

Though we cannot know for 

certain, it seems likely that this soloist 

approach could have been the one that 

Bach himself had in mind when he composed 

these spiritually-inspired works. 

Each one flows with variety. In between 

the opening and closing chorales are 

duos, trios and other combinations of 

voice and instrument. Some parts are 

short and melancholic, others are longer 

and cheerful. Now a male alto gives a 

solo alone, then a bass, with organ support, 

sings a superb melody mirrored 

by the accompanying instrumentation. 

What I particularly like is the way the 

texture and range of the instruments 

match the voices they accompany. Deep 

organ tones support the bass soloist 

while the cello echoes the tenor’s part. 

Violins, flute and recorder often sound 

just like the soprano and alto voices 

singing with them. My only reservation 

is for the continuous vibrato employed 

by the male voices in particular. It gets 

to be a little too much at times. 

Each cantata in the Atma series differs 

in mood from the one that follows, 

and the quality of sound reproduction 

is uniformly high. Voices and instruments 

are presented all the way around 

the sound stage, with the soloists placed 

forward and the instruments sometimes 

behind, sometimes beside them. Seldom 

if ever does a voice seem to emerge 

directly from a speaker. Instead, thanks 

to proper stereo effect, the voices and 

instruments are separated from the 

speakers, not bunched in an irritating 

group to each side of the stage. 

If Johann Sebastian Bach were alive 

today he would surely be impressed 

by the reproduction quality offered by 

SACD technology. Thanks to it, each 

disc in this series reproduces the exceptional 

tonal color and subtle dynamics of 

the music. Any one or all four deserve to 

be in the collection of a classical music 

sophisticate. 

Aside from the disc shown, La 

Nativité, with its Christmas theme, the 

other discs are titled Marie De Nazareth, 

Saint Michel, and Saint Jean Baptiste. 

Open Sesame 

Freddie Hubbard 

Blue Note ST-84040 

Steve Bourke: Your brother-in-law has 

never understood why you listen to jazz, 

though perhaps he is willing to give it 

a try himself. So you search through 

your CD collection looking for a great 

example that is easy to like, not too 

far out in the stratosphere, but not too 

predictable either, stimulating, original 

music that will draw him toward a new 

musical world, something unlike all the 

other types of music he has heard before. 

It also has to hold your experienced attention 

as well. It must be a recording with 

real universal appeal. 

Freddie Hubbard has the solution 

for both of you. It is aptly named Open 

Sesame, suggesting that here is another 

place filled with musical wonders. 

Why choose this as an introduction 

to jazz music for a novice listener? The 

young Freddie Hubbard’s jazz is easy 

listening. Easier than early Miles, and 

easier than even Satchmo as the young 

prodigy. He forms the primary parts 

of each song into musical hooks that 

resemble the hooks found in a hit pop 

record. Hubbard can actually make a 

jazz phrase into a memorable jazz hook. 

He accomplishes this by playing his 

instrument with supreme confidence and 

power. His notes seem to be played more 

slowly than they really are, because each 

is emphasized so precisely. His strings 

of notes do not trail off into a vague blur, 

as with some other jazz artists often do. 

His trumpet tone is always clear, his 

attack ever confident. Balanced and 

proportioned evenly, his phrasing never 

sounds choppy or rashly conceived. Easy 

listening indeed. 

Open Sesame also showcases a rivalry 

that has continued since Coleman 

Hawkins brought the saxophone into 

competition with the trumpet more than 

75 jazz years ago. Every jazz fan has his 

favorite artists on these instruments, 

and of course great improvisations have 

been performed on each one. Open 

Sesame contains both in an unusual form. 

For the trumpet it announced the true 

arrival of one of hard-bop’s finest sons, 

Freddie Hubbard. 

Across the room is Tina Brooks, who 

recorded with such important jazzmen 

as Jimmy Smith, and Jackie McLean on 

Blue Note, then somehow never made 

another record after 1961. Freddie Hubbard 

is quoted: “He wrote and played 

beautifully. What a soulful, inspiring 

cat. I loved him.” 

Was Hubbard able to produce this 

high end jazz for the rest of his career? 

Like Miles and Satchmo and Harry 

James, his lip became damaged over 

time, which severely limited his attack, 

speed and articulation. Hubbard recalls: 

“I heard stories about Louis (Armstrong). 

The crowd would be cheering 

and hollering, so he would overexert 

himself. Instead of playing two choruses, 

he’d play four or five or ten. The same 

thing happened to me. You get caught 

up in the moment; you want to play with 

the same intensity as the drummer, so 

you play too loud and too long. But lips 

are very delicate, I’ve learned — there 

are a lot of different muscles in there. I 

didn’t realize how hard I was blowing. I 

thought I was the strongest trumpeter 

in the world.” 


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Freddie Hubbard became in reality 

one of the strongest and most magnetic 

figures in modern jazz, before his lip 

accident in 1992, and Open Sesame is 

proof positive of the beginnings of his 

greatness. 

Seeds We Sow 

Lindsey Buckingham 

Eagle Records ER202142 

Steve Bourke: First there was Lindsey 

Buckingham the west coast guitarist and 

folk-rock singer (and boyfriend of Stevie 

Nicks), then there was Fleetwood Mac 

and the fabulous success of Rumours, one 

of the all-time great records of modern 

rock and roll. Then came the more 

mature and experienced artist, the one 

we have admired for several years now, 

who sings with a tortured passion that 

can be almost difficult to experience. 

The difficulty lies in how easy it is to 

share and empathize with the artist. 

He communicates his understanding of 

emotion, both kind and sorrowful, in 

such a facile way that there is no escape 

from a deep reaction, to him and his 

music. He sings with dynamic shifts 

that perfectly convey the tenderness and 

agony that love can bring, to him and to 

us all. Buckingham may have mellowed 

out over the last few years — after all he 

is a happily married father and family 

man. Still he calls up his original creative 

drive at will. 

Has his personal singing and writing 

style changed much since his solo career 

got under way? His voice sounds better 

than ever. It has a burnished tone that 

reflects his maturity, and it can cause an 

internal wrenching in the musical heart 

of his audience, be it a large group or a 


solo fan listening on the bus to work. 

The title song is a message to all, 

almost in the same league as Paul 

Simon’s lyricism. Though Mr. Buckingham 

injects an aging melancholy 

into the spaces between the notes of his 

compositions that sets his work apart 

from everyone else. It is this sincere 

emotionalism that marks his music as 

worth hearing. 

Other observers have called Buckingham 

the creative force behind the 

Fleetwood Mac band. Certainly his 

guitar style is very much his own. No one 

else uses rhythmic emphasis in a guitar 

solo quite like Buckingham. He does it 

just his way, and his way only. Yes, it is 

reminiscent of parts of the Fleetwood 

Mac repertoire, as it should be. Why 

abandon a style that is still vigorous and 

immediate? It is a style that holds the 

listener, and I suspect still rejuvenates 

Buckingham himself. After I had heard 

the disc I wasn’t thinking about Fleetwood 

Mac. I was still hearing the voice 

and the individualism that makes Lindsey 

Buckingham an artist who endures. 

Rainbow People 

Eric Bibb 

Opus 3 CD7723 

Gerard Rejskind: The American-born 

Bluesman Eric Bibb lives part of the 

time in Finland, and over the years he 

has made a number of recordings for 

the seminal Swedish audiophile label 

Opus 3. We’ve given highly positive 

review to his recent recordings, but he’s 

been at this for a long time. How did he 

sound at the beginning? 

The original was of course on LP, 

since it was recorded in 1977. For that 

reason also, it’s shorter than more 

recent digital discs. Curiously, it has 

been released in multichannel format, 

though the original was of course in 

two-channel stereo. Jan-Eric Persson 

has since dropped surround sound, and 

is releasing his newer recordings in two 

channel. I approve heartily. 

This album, like pretty much all the 

Opus 3 albums of the era, was a purist 

Blumlein stereo job, using an AKG C-24 

stereo microphone. Jan-Eric was choosing 

the venue where his musicians would 

have sounded best to a live listener. He 

would then take time — a whole day if 

need be — to find exactly the right place 

for his microphones…or, in this case, his 

microphone. That’s an expensive way of 

recording if you have union musicians 

with their meters ticking, but the result 

is an amazingly coherent recording in 

which no detail can escape your attention. 

Jan-Eric once treated me to a demo 

of one of his Blumlein recordings alongside 

a recording of the same musicians 

done with the mid-side microphone 

method favored by such companies as 

Decca. No comparison. 

It’s interesting to compare the young 

Eric Bibb (he was then just 26) with the 

more mature singer we know from the 

superb later recordings, Spirit & the 

Blues, Good Stuff and Just Like Love. He 

didn’t have the confidence he would later 

acquire, which is no surprise, but his 

talent and potential are already evident. 

Lonesome Child Blues is especially excellent. 

So is Look Over Yonder, a Gospel 

song which presages his work on Spirit 

& the Blues. Lead Me, Guide Me is an 

astonishing duet with Cyndee Peters. 

Peters was also an early Opus 3 artist, 

with an album titled Black is the Color, 

and I had forgotten how good she was. 

On Sunday School, the weakest song on 

the album, you can hear that Bibbs’ voice 

control on sustained notes was not yet 

what it would later become. Still, there’s 

a lot to love on this album. 

The sound? If you read our last 

issue you’ll know that bad tape all but 

destroyed the sound archives of a generation. 

The master was made on Ampex 

tape, too. Clearly it has survived well. 

The high-definition on the SACD layer 

of this hybrid disc is highly satisfying. 

And there’s a vinyl version too!

How to Sing the Blues 

Most Blues begin, Woke up this mornin’. 

“I got a good woman,” is a bad way to begin the Blues, ’less you stick something 

nasty in the next line, like, I got a good woman with the meanest face in town. 

Then repeat it. Find something that sort of rhymes: 

Got a good woman, with the meanest face in town. 

Got teeth like Roseanne Barr 

And she weigh 500 pound 

The Blues ain’t about choice. You stuck in a ditch, you stuck in a ditch. 

Your gotta have the right car for the Blues, like Chevys and Cadillacs and 

broken-down trucks. Blues don’t travel in Volvos, BMWs, or SUV’s. Most Blues 

transportation is a Greyhound bus or a southbound train. Jet aircraft and statesponsored 

motor pools ain’t even in the runnin’. 

Walkin’ plays a major part in the Blues lifestyle. So does fixin’ to die. 

Notes From San Francisco 

Teenagers can’t sing the Blues, ‘cause they ain’t supposed to be fixin’ to die yet. 

Rory Gallagher 

Adults sing the Blues, and bein’ an adult means bein’ old enough to get the electric 

Eagle Records ER201552 

chair if you shoot a man in Memphis. 

Gerard Rejskind: In UHF No. 90 Blues can take place in New York City, but not Hawaii, Canada, or no place that 

I reviewed a film about the late Irish don’t get rain. Hard times in St. Paul or Tucson ain’t the Blues, it’s just depression. 

guitarist Rory Gallagher, once called The best places for the Blues are still Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City. 

the world’s greatest guitarist by no less Breaking your leg skiing on Mont Blanc is not the Blues. 

than Jimi Hendrix. Though the image You can’t have no Blues in an office or a shopping mall. The lighting is wrong. 

was grainy and the sound mediocre Go outside to the parking lot or sit by the dumpster. 

(the film was from 1974), Gallagher’s Good places for the Blues are the highway, the jailhouse, an empty bed, or the 

mastery THIS of his instrument MAGAZINE was nothing IS INTERACTIVE! 

bottom of a whisky glass. 

less than awesome. I was It work eager in to three spend ways. Bad places are ashrams, gallery openings, Ivy League colleges and golf courses. 

time with In this the table double of CD, contents, which click might on an article No one title, will believe it’s the Blues if you wear a suit, ’less you happen to be a ole 

provide a higher and you resolution are whisked window right onto to the Black article. man, and you slept in it. 

Gallagher’s In the magic. list of advertisers on the second-last Do you page, have the right to sing the Blues? 

The click first disc on an is from ad name, a San and Francisco go right to the Yes, ad if: itself. (a) you’re older than dirt, (b) you’re blind, (c) you shot a man in Memphis, 

studio session of unspecified Then click date, on and an it ad, or (d) you can’t be satisfied. 

and is terrific. your browser What I will heard, take in electrifyingly 

you right to the advertiser’s No, if: (a) you Web have page. all your teeth, (b) you once were blind but now can see, (c) 

better Remember sonics, is a when guitarist you’d who have uses to his circle the little man numbers in Memphis lived, (d) you have a retirement plan or trust fund. 

guitar strings as on others a card use you their would vocal then mail Blues in? is not a matter of color. Even Tiger Woods cannot sing the Blues. Gary 

cords. The Doesn’t sounds that soar, seem they like swoop, a long Coleman time ago? 

could. Ugly white people also got a leg up on the Blues. 

they burst out explosively. Even for those If you ask for water and Baby give you kerosene, it’s the Blues. Other acceptable 

who know and admire Hendrix, Eric Blues beverages are: Thunderbird, bourbon, muddy water and black coffee. 

Clapton and Keith Richards, Gallagher The following are not Blues beverages: mixed drinks, Kosher wine, Snapple and 

will be a revelation. The music is largely Perrier. 

from Gallagher’s own pen, and much A Blues death can occur in a cheap motel or a crab shack. Stabbed in the back 

of it is nothing less than brilliant, with by a jealous lover is a good Blues way to die. So is death by injection, substance 

counterpoints that constantly surprise abuse, and dying lonely on a broken down cot, but not during a tennis match or 

you. The hit on that first disc is Wheels getting liposuction. 

Within Wheels, undeniably a masterpiece. Some Blues names for women: Sadie, Big Mama, Bessie, Fat River Dumpling. 

The second disc is totally different. Women called Sierra, Sequoia, Phoenix, and Rainbow can’t sing the Blues no matter 

Recorded in December of 1979 at the how many men they shoot in Memphis. 

Old Waldorf in San Francisco, it has a Some Blues names for men: Joe, Willie, Little Willie, Big Willie. 

listing for the engineer who supposedly You can make yer own Blues name. Start with: 

recorded it, but the sound has bootleg (a) Name of physical infirmity (blind, cripple, lame, etc.) 

written all over it. My ear tells me it’s (b) First name (see above) plus name of fruit (lemon, lime, kiwi, etc.) 

from a concealed Walkman Professional (c) Last name of an American President (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, but not 

in the sixth row. The music itself is no Kennedy or Obama.) Examples: Blind Joe Lime Jefferson, Cripple Willie Kiwi 

less good for all that. Listen to the third Fillmore. 

track, Off the Handle, and marvel at the I don’t care how tragic your life, you own a iPod, you cannot sing the Blues. 

fingerwork near the end. 

Best epitaph for a Blues singer: Didn’t wake up this mornin’. 

And then it’s back to the first disc, 


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track 10, Wheels Within Wheels once 

more. 

This Christmas (Blu-ray) 

Michael McDonald 

Eagle Rock 

Gerard Rejskind: There’s classic rock, 

and then there’s nostalgia. Nostalgia 

doesn’t have to be great or even good, 

it just has to remind you of a time when 

you were happier, or in any case younger. 

Where Michael McDonald fits in, I shall 

leave to you. He comes from way back, 

having been a member of Steely Dan, 

and then the Doobie Brothers. 

Now, just as Captain Kangaroo 

wasn’t actually a kangaroo, so the 

Doobie Brothers weren’t brothers, and 

they weren’t named Doobie. A “doobie” 

is in a fact a toke. You could look it up. 

The original Doobies had a bad boy 

image, wore leather, and were favorites of 

the Hell’s Angels in the 70’s. McDonald 

took them into another era, ditching the 

electric guitars in favor of keyboards, 

horns and saxes, with Motown-style 

backup singers. Indeed, back in the 80’s, 

McDonald did a lot of covers of Motown 

classics…or parodies some would say. 

McDonald hasn’t been a Doobie for 

15 years, but he starts off what is billed as 

a Christmas album with Doobie songs. 

They are not notable as anything but 

possibly nostalgia, and McDonald has 

even less of a voice than he once may 

have had. He has impenetrable diction, 

and he has to force himself into lower 

registers. The result is not pretty. When 


he gets into actual Christmas music, the 

result is all but unbearable. He does a 

duet with one of his background vocalists, 

Drea Rhenee, and the best advice 

I have for her is that she should stop 

smoking. Yes she does, you can hear it. 

McDonald does get into the Christmas 

kitsch, with the worst version I’ve 

yet heard of I’ll Be Home for Christmas, 

and White Christmas. I’m only glad he 

didn’t include The Little Drummer Boy. 

After the applause for Christmas on 

the Bayou, McDonald says, “Thank you, 

you’re too kind.” I couldn’t agree more. 

Superman II, The Richard Donner 

Cut (Blu-ray) 

Christopher Reeve, Margo Kidder 

Warner Bros. 

Gerard Rejskind: Clearly I haven’t been 

keeping up. The remarkable version 

of Superman with Christopher Reeve 

was released on Blu-ray years ago, and 

I’ve been waiting impatiently for the 

second film to get the high-resolution 

treatment. Here it is, finally, but … 

wait a minute. The Richard Donner cut? 

Wasn’t it Richard Lester who directed 

Superman II? 

It was indeed, but the plot thickens. 

Donner was the director of the first film, 

and he was hired for the second one as 

well. Since Warner was sure there would 

be a sequel, Donner even shot some key 

scenes at the same time as the first film, 

because it was more convenient (read: 

cheaper) to do it that way. Once the first 

film had proved a success and shooting 

had begun on the second film, creative 

differences emerged. On the evidence, 

Warner wanted more of a comic book 

feel to the film, something the younger 

crowd would like. Donner was fired, and 

Lester was hired instead. 

Now, Warner could have done worse. 

Lester had directed some well-regarded 

films, having worked on the Goon Shows 

and also with the Beatles (A Hard Day’s 

Night), not to mention the two Musketeer 

films. He picked up the footage shot 

during the original film, but he discarded 

some of the new Donner footage. He 

then completed the film according to his 

vision, with — once again — Mario Puzo 

of Godfather fame writing the scenario. 

Now you can compare them side by 

side, the new one on Blu-ray, the other 

on DVD. (Random thought: would it 

have busted Warner’s budget to put the 

two on the same disc?) 

I was disappointed, since referring 

to Donner’s “vision” is doing him 

undeserved honor. There’s a lot wrong 

with the Lester version, but it turns 

out that the mistakes originated with 

Donner. For example, the super powers 

possessed by Superman and other survivors 

of Krypton are well established, 

and it is absurd to invent new ones, 

such as the ability to fire a ray from the 

end of a finger that causes levitation. 

Making up random powers is a failure 

of imagination. 

There are changes that seem arbitrary. 

We know that, in Superman II, 

Lois Lane discovers her caped friend’s 

secret identity. In the Donner version, 

she discovers it in a completely different 

way. Not better, not worse. Well, perhaps 

a little worse. 

The dumbest element in the otherwise 

very good first movie was the 

idea that, if Superman flies around the 

earth fast enough, he can turn back 

time. That’s beneath contempt. So what 

would he have done if he had directed the 

second film? Why, he would have used 

exactly the same device. Bravo! 

I was tempted to conclude that 

Warner should do a Blu-ray version of 

the Richard Lester version. However I 

viewed that version for the purpose of 

this review, and it was a lot poorer than I 

remembered. Even the flying sequences, 

so spectacular in the first film, are

unconvincing in the second. And — to 

adapt a phrase from the original Superman 

promotion — if you don’t believe a 

man can fly, you’re not going to believe 

much else. 

Sideways (Blu-ray) 

Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, 

Virginia Madsen, Sandra Oh 

20th Century Fox 

Gerard Rejskind: Is it actually possible 

for a movie to have a major effect on the 

wine industry? It would appear so. Sideways 

is set in wine country, specifically 

California’s Napa valley. The fifth star 

of the film is the pinot noir grape. One 

of the two main characters, Miles (Paul 

Giamatti) is a self-styled wine connoisseur 

with a particular passion for pinot. 

“If anybody orders merlot I’m leaving,” 

he says vehemently, “I am not drinking 

any f****** Merlot.” The result? Since 

the film came out your favorite wine 

store has been heavily stocked with pinot 

noir, with the name of that grape written 

large on the label. Such everyday wines 

as Mouton-Cadet have changed from 

Merlot to Pinot. And in October a dozen 

French winemakers were sent to jail for 

mislabelling a blend of Syrah and Merlot 

as…you guessed it, Pinot. 

Miles is a high school English teacher 

whose first novel is supposedly on the 

edge of being published. He knows the 

language of wine well enough, but it’s 

the alcohol that has him hooked. “Glass 

or bottle?” asks a bartender. Miles, who 

is alone, takes the bottle, and before he 

finishes it he might as well be drinking 

shoe polish. His deepening alcoholism, 

possibly triggered by his divorce two 

years back, is not making him any more 

endearing. He lies to his friends, he steals 

from his mother, he drives with more 

alcohol than blood in his veins, and it is 

clear that, as a human being, he is pretty 

much a fixer-upper. 

The other character is his friend Jack 

(Thomas Haden Church), who is getting 

married next weekend, but first he and 

Miles are taking a road trip through 

wine country. Jack is an actor who once 

played a doctor on network TV, but now 

does voiceovers for schlock commercials. 

Miles has fine vintages and golf on his 

mind, but Jack’s eye is on — to put none 

too fine a point on it — getting laid. And 

getting his friend laid too. 

The latter task seems difficult, 

though not, ultimately, impossible. Jack 

finds romance, or at least sex, easily 

enough with a young vineyard employee 

named Stephanie (Sandra Oh). Miles, 

whose recent sex life has centred around 

a magazine titled Barely Legal, gets close 

to Maya (Virginia Madsen), a waitress 

he has known for a while, and who knows 

possibly more about wine than he does. 

She becomes curious about his passion 

for Pinot. He explains that it’s a grape 

that is thin-skinned and temperamental, 

not a survivor that can thrive even when 

neglected. It needs constant care and 

attention, and only the most patient 

and nurturing growers can do it. We 

understand that Miles is really talking 

about himself, and Maya gets it too. 

But this is a week that cannot last. 

Stephanie doesn’t know about Jack’s 

wedding, and so takes his declaration 

of love at face value. When the truth is 

revealed, as we know it must be, both 

relationships are turned upside down. 

Another event, also involving sex, will 

reveal to Jack that he must proceed with 

his wedding. Which leaves the questions 

of whether Miles’ novel will really be 

published, and whether Maya will ever 

speak to him again. The film does not 

have a real “Hollywood ending,” and that 

is to its honor. 

There is a lot of irresponsible drinking 

in this film, and by my count the four 

characters put away five bottles during 

a single meal. After which they repair 

to Stephanie’s place for, among other 

things, more drinking. That any of the 

subsequent dialog is even coherent is a 

tribute to the heroic performance of the 

main characters’ livers. The California 

Highway Patrol must have hated this 

film. 

Sideways is, however, full of clever 

insights and fine performances. And lots 

of information about Pinot Noir. 

Inception (Blu-ray) 

Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Marion 

Cotillard 

Warner Bros. 

Gerard Rejskind: For millennia, 

dreams have fascinated humans. Where 

do we go when we dream? Do our 

dreams have meaning? Are they portents 

of things to come? In our own era science 

has studied sleep, and particularly 

dreams, what is known as REM (rapid 

eye movement) sleep. This intricate film 

proposes the next scientific advance in 

the study of dreams. 

Inception is about dreams. It builds on 

what we pretty much know. In a dream 

the usual rules of physics are suspended 

and anything can happen. You can’t 

remember how you got where you are, 

because you never remember the beginning 

of a dream. Time is accelerated, and 

a dream that actually takes an hour will 

seem to have run 10 or even 20 hours. It’s 

not always easy to know for sure whether 

you’re awake or dreaming. In a dream, 

if you die you wake up. However the 

film builds out from that, by positing an 


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invention that allows one person to enter ideas, because they recognize the ideas 

the dream of another. In such a situation, are not theirs. Thus the idea must be 

it may not be clear to you whether you well disguised. Cobb’s idea: embed it in 

are the dreamer, or whether you have a dream within a dream within a dream. 

invaded the dream of someone else. Yes, three layers of dreams. That’s one 

Why would you want to enter some- reason the film’s release on Blu-ray is 

one’s dream? Industrial espionage is one such good news: you’re unlikely to keep 

possibility. Cobb (Leonardo GET DiCaprio) THE COMPLETE the details VERSION! straight from a single theatre 

is an expert at just such espionage. You’ll have He noticed viewing, that even this if free you think you have. 

works everywhere but his own country, version of UHF Who Magazine knew that dreams need archi- 

the USA, because at home is he not is wanted quite complete. tects? These But you do, can and Cobb recruits a 

for murder — of whom will eventually get the be complete recent version architecture graduate named 

revealed. A powerful Japanese business- from Maggie Ariadne for (the $4. superb young actress Ellen 

man named Saito (Ken Watanabe) Click here, can and Page, away who we got go! 

an Oscar nomination for 

make his problems vanish with a single Juno when she was still in her teens). 

phone call, which surely makes him a Ariadne, by the way, was the mythical 

useful person to know. What he wants is character who spun the thread that 

for Cobb to do an inception, the opposite allowed Theseus to find his way out of 

of his usual modus operandi. 

the Labyrinth and slay the Minotaur. 

Specifically, what Saito wants is for Cobb trains her, appropriately enough, 

Cobb to plant an idea in the subcon- by drawing labyrinths. He then whisks 

scious of a competing industrialist, the her off to a Paris café — in a dream of 

idea of dismantling the energy empire course — so that he can demonstrate to 

his father has left him. This is an assign- her, as well as to us, the peculiar physics 

ment of bewildering complexity. In the of dreams. The scene in which a Paris 

era of dream invasion, likely victims street folds back on itself is spectacular! 

hire security firms to guard them. This The other major female character 

involves people with guns, who are not is Cobb’s wife Mal (whose name is of 

real, since they exist only in the world of course French for evil), who is played by 

dreams, but are “projections” of the sub- the amazing Marion Cotillard (who got 

ject’s subconscious. What’s more, says an Oscar for playing Edith Piaf). She is 

Cobb, people have a resistance to outside dead, in fact, but in dreams she is still 


there, and she strives to persuade Cobb 

to abandon real life and to stay with her. 

I shall say no more about that aspect of 

the story, except to say that it leads to 

more amazing surprises. 

The three-layered dream architecture 

leads to complications. If time is 

stretched tenfold in a dream, then it is 

stretched a hundredfold in the dream 

within a dream, and in the third layer 

you can actually grow old before it’s over. 

Then, although in a normal dream you 

awaken if you die, that may not be true 

in a deeper dream level. Thus, forcing 

yourself to awaken by killing yourself — 

a risky move under any conditions — is 

not really advisable. 

This is an action film, with spectacular 

settings, with such astonishing 

special effects as a fist fight in a hotel 

hallway in zero gravity, and a cornucopia 

of car chases, bombings and gun battles. 

What raises the film far above the usual 

action films are the characters, the 

actors who play them, the magnificent 

production design, Christopher’s script 

and sure-footed direction, and a complex 

network of ideas that require more than 

one viewing to fully appreciate. 

Oh yes, did I say there are three levels 

of dreams? In fact…there is a fourth. 

The Fifth Element (Blu-ray) 

Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich 

Sony 

Gerard Rejskind: This is not the film’s 

first appearance on the Blu-ray shelves, 

but it has now been re-released on Sony’s

“Blu-ray Essentials” label, with a low tion. He/she makes Jim Carrey look like are delightful characters, situations that 

enough price that it will appeal even to the poster boy for Prozac. 

are by turns hilarious and moving, and 

those who already have the DVD. I doubt I will ever again watch this sparkling dialogue that helps one forget 

Director Luc Besson wrote the origi- movie from start to finish, but it includes the bad stuff. 

nal story when he was in his teens, and it some brilliant scenes one can skip to, like Charles (Hugh Grant) finds himself 

shows, because not even the slickness of tracks on a CD. The Blu-ray transfer is going to a lot of friends’ weddings — to 

the production can overcome the plot’s terrific. The extras do not include what I which he is chronically late — but never 

juvenile origins. Every 50 centuries evil was hoping for, the Diva’s solo uninter- to his own. He is, as one former girlfriend 

aliens come to earth to wipe out all life. rupted by Leeloo fighting off the pigs. describes him, a serial monogamist. And 

How that can improve their bottom line 

so it turns out that at these weddings he 

is never explained. They can be defeated 

runs into a number of former flames, 

only by uniting the four classical ele- 

not all of whom have forgiven him. At 

ments (air, earth, fire and water, rather 

the first wedding he meets an American 

than oxygen, iron and titanium). Oh, and 

woman, Carrie, who makes his eyes light 

a “fifth element,” which is not exactly an 

up. This happens to him a lot, however, 

element, but a “perfect woman” named 

and the fact he winds up in her bed 

Leeloo. She must be brought back from 

doesn’t actually suggest a break with the 

the past by cloning, and as usual the film- 

past. Nor does wedding number three, 

makers confuse cloning with reincarna- 

which is Carrie’s, and to someone else. 

tion. She is played by Milla Jovovich. She 

Carrie is the least plausible character 

is reborn nude, as we all would be, and if 

of the film, but I cut her a lot of slack 

she is not perfect she looks pretty good. 

because she is played by the wonderful 

Among the many cultural taboos she is 

Andie Macdowell. 

unaware of is the one involving nudity. 

It is in fact the funeral of the title 

So far, no complaints. 

that causes Charles to reconsider his life, 

Oh, did I mention that the year is 

and opens him up to the possibility that 

2263? We finally get the flying cars we’ve 

wedding number four perhaps should be 

been promised since the 1950’s, but to 

his own. 

little advantage, since all it means is that 

Much of the joy of this film, and 

we have three-dimensional gridlock. Four Weddings and a Funeral also the cleverest dialogue, comes from 

Leeloo escapes into that madness and (Blu-ray) 

the secondary characters. Charles lives 

winds up in a cab piloted by a retired Hugh Grant, Andie MacDowell platonically with Scarlett (Charlotte 

special forces Major named Korben MGM 

Coleman), who has fluorescent hair and 

Dallas (Bruce Willis, who kept the Gerard Rejskind: You probably don’t spends time at one wedding under the 

undershirts he wore in the Die Hard expect romantic comedies to be com- tablecloth with the children (“Hi, I’m 

series). Apparently the Special Forces pletely plausible, and it’s not as though Scarlett; don’t let me drink too much or 

pension plan is none too generous. action movies were built on unassail- I’ll get really flirty”). There are Gareth 

Dallas will eventually learn who Leeloo able logic either. Even the most famous and Matthew (Simon Callow and John 

is and what her mission is. He will fight romantic film of all time, Casablanca, for Hannah), delightfully engaging char- 

the Mangalores, heavily-armed piglike NOT all JUST its brilliant HARDWARE and quotable lines, also REVIEWS! 

acters, who live together and are clearly 

thugs who clearly borrowed their absurd includes clinkers that a wise director gay, though their closest friends seem 

weapons from the Men in Black. He will would have Yes, run we his get pencil asked, through. constantly, Per- not to notice. One of them will give a 

visit an astonishingly elaborate resort haps what they we were will kept be reviewing because Casablanca’s in our next issue. wonderfully heartbreaking speech, and it 

in low Earth orbit, where the Diva is director, And Michael we know Curtiz, reviews then are essential. barely won’t be at one of the weddings. Rowan 

performing. The Diva is a very tall, blue But spoke equipment English. reviews are nothing if not plentiful. Atkinson is a befuddled new priest who 

extraterrestrial. She has possession of the Readers This have film, long which told has us gone that what through makes has UHF trouble with the details at the second 

stones with the four elements, and she particularly two DVD valuable incarnations to them (the are second the one other wedding. articles. And there are several other 

sings divinely, performing the mad Articles scene about was, finally, ideas, about enhanced the nuts for widescreen and bolts of the minor technology, characters with brief but amusing 

from Lucia di Lammermoor. Korben, in a TVs), is finally and also out about on Blu-ray. music Its and script film, is appearances. 

tux for once, is clearly perturbed, both a blend of sublime which are moments the very and reasons howlers For all its imperfections, it is a film 

by her weirdness and the beauty of her that for director our lovingly-created Mike Newell should systems have to exist. worth seeing more than once. The 

voice. 

Not that blue-pencilled. we will ever stop publishing hardware more reviews. 

times you see it, the more you’ll 

Also worth a mention is Ruby Rhod One of them occurs the morning remember its qualities, and the more 

(Chris Tucker) a hypermanic crossdress- after the first meeting of Charles and you’ll ignore the clinkers. 

ing “interstellar radio personality,” Carrie, the main characters, and the Oh yes, see that picture of Hugh and 

whose antics are either deeply offensive other takes place in the film’s final Andie on the front of the Blu-ray box? 

or great fun, depending on your percep- scene. In between, fortunately, there It’s not in the movie. 


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New Home 

for Jadis 

Not that Jadis is exactly new. The 

French maker of upscale tube gear (the 

name is French for “yesteryear,” no doubt 

inspired by its tube technology) has been 

around for decades. For a number of 

years, North American distribution had 

been in the hands of the Montreal-area 

company Pierre Gabriel, also known 

for its eponymous loudspeakers hardly 

anyone bought. Oh, and upscale silver 

cables. 

We liked the cables enough that we 

still use some in our reference systems, 

and some of our readers have them too, 

because we used to list them in our 

Audiophile Store. We dropped them 

because a newer incarnation of the 

cables was markedly inferior. A promised 

upgrade never turned up. In recent years 

Pierre Gabriel was mainly known for 

distributing Jadis. 

Well, what can we tell you? The 

Pierre Gabriel Web page now contains 

only the company logo and an e-mail 

link — but don’t stand on one leg waiting 

for a reply. We talked recently to 

company founder Pierre Raymond (full 

name: Pierre Gabriel Raymond), who 

has plans for the future, but not with the 

business he set up. 

But that left Jadis an orphan in 

North America. Inevitably, then, the 

French company has found a new home, 

Bluebird Music, which also distributes 


Gossip&News 

Industry News 

Chord, Spendor and Van den Hul. 

The amplifier shown above, by the 

way, is the DA30. It was reviewed in 

UHF No. 66. 

Bad season 

for TV makers 

Just the other day we were recalling 

the first plasma TV set to appear 

at Costco. It was offered at a bargain 

price…$14,000! No wonder the leading 

edge of technology is often referred to 

as the bleeding edge. Today, the cheapest 

plasmas are in the same store for $700. 

So how do you make money making 

and marketing a product that is plummeting 

toward the bottom? Apparently 

you don’t. 

You’ll recall that, several years 

ago now, Pioneer killed off its muchrespected 

Kuro line of plasma HDTVs. 

Those were generally considered to be 

the best available, and Pioneer had never 

joined the wave of commodification that 

were bringing prices ever lower. A Kuro 

HDTV would still have cost $5000 

when a competitor from Panasonic or 

Samsung might have cost $2500 (and 

today less than half of that). 

Oddly enough, there was a brief 

hope that the Kuros were coming back, 

as new Elite TV’s were announced. But 

the ads didn’t say Kuro, and they didn’t 

say Pioneer either. They are actually 

made by Sharp, and they are LCD, not 

plasma. What they have kept from the 

Kuro days are the prices, ranging from 

$6000 to $8000. 

We wish them luck, but in the meantime 

let’s see what’s happening to other 

TV makers. 

Sony, which never did recover from its 

failure to find a successor to its Trinitron 

technology, has had seven consecutive 

annual losses in its TV-manufacturing 

arm. It has now reorganized itself into 

three groups. 

One group will oversee the LCD 

operations (Sony has never made plasmas 

— a missed opportunity in our 

view), another will coordinate contract 

manufacturing, and a third will oversee 

the development of next-generation 

sets. We’re not sure we understand the 

strategy of setting up these divisions like 

silos. Chrysler was once organized that 

way (engineering, styling, marketing) 

and it nearly died as a result. 

Sony’s most troublesome competitors 

seem to be Samsung and Vizio. Even 

LG, the other Korean maker, has seen 

its sales drop. 

As for Panasonic, whose TV sets 

are well regarded, it’s projecting a net 

loss for the year of $5.5 billion. Back in 

April, Panasonic announced a cutback 

of its global workforce from 367,000 to 

350,000. Panasonic has also revealed that 

it will discontinue LCD production at its 

Mobara plant, which is near Tokyo. It 

also plans to stop shipping plasma-panel 

manufacturing equipment to Shanghai. 

Amagasaki No. 3, the largest plasma 

panel factory in the world with production 

capacity of 330,000 panels per 

month, was completed in December 

2009. 

Finally, Panasonic may sell off an 

LCD panel plant at Mobara in Chiba 

prefecture, near Tokyo. 

And Sharp is not doing well in the 

TV business either. Will making “Elite” 

sets help?

Apple to the 

rescue? 

With the TV business in the doldrums 

despite the supposed allure of 3D, 

is there room for another large company? 

No? Even if its name is Apple? 

There is a product called “Apple TV,” 

but as you possibly know it’s not a TV 

set but a small box that connects to your 

TV set and can stream content from your 

computer, your iPad, iPhone or iTunes. 

There have long been rumors that Apple 

would get into the TV business, but we 

couldn’t see why it would want to do that. 

What relaunched the rumor was that 

Steve Jobs, according to his biographer, 

did talk about a TV with “the simplest 

interface you can imagine.” He told 

Walter Isaacson that “I finally cracked 

it.” 

No details. Did you expect any? 

But the rumor mill has lots of them. 

The iPhone 4S includes “Siri,” an intelligent 

agent connected to the cloud that 

can understand natural language, at 

least up to a point, and can give you the 

information you’re seeking. So why not 

a minimalist remote control with Siri 

included. “Siri, turn on the TV and set it 

to CNN. At 8 o’clock record Casablanca 

on HBO.” 

The problem with this is that, as we’ve 

established, TV sets are a commodity, 

and Apple doesn’t do commodities. 

Or does it? Those horrible little 

netbooks were the epitome of the commodity: 

worse and worse, but cheaper 

and cheaper. Apple pretty much knocked 

them off with the iPad, and now the 

MacBook Air. Who knows? 

According to those rumors, Apple 

TV’s will actually be built by Samsung. 

Would that be the same Samsung that 

Apple is suing for patent infringement… 

the Samsung that is suing back? 

Don’t change the channel! 

And the Beats 

Go On 

Those who believe that iPod owners 

don’t care about quality must be mysti- 

fied by the continuing success of very 

expensive headphones to be used with 

this same device. An example: the Beats 

by Dr. Dre, which we reviewed in UHF 

No. 86. 

Now the company has been bought 

up. The original Beats headphones, 

were launched by Monster, the cable 

people, with hip hop producer Dr Dre 

as the front man. Beats Electronics and 

Monster are only partners, however, and 

Monster does not own them. Now Beats 

The UHF Reference The Systems 

Netflix 

Power amplifier: Simaudio Moon W-8 

Loudspeakers: Follies 

Reference 3a Suprema II 

Equipment reviews are done on at least one of 

UHF’s reference systems, selected as working 

tools. They are changed as infrequently as 

possible, because a reference that keeps changing 

is no reference. 

The Alpha system 

Our original reference is in a room with special 

acoustics, originally a recording studio, letting 

us hear what we can’t hear elsewhere. 

Main digital player: Linn Unidisk 1.1 

Additional CD player: CEC TL-51X 

belt-driven transport, Moon 300D 

converter 

Digital cable: Atlas Opus 1.5m 

Digital portable: Apple iPod Touch 

Turntable: Audiomeca J-1 

Tone arm: Audiomeca SL-5 

Pickup: Goldring Excel 

Phono preamp: Audiomat Phono 2 

Preamplifier: Copland CTA-305 

Power amplifier: Simaudio Moon W-5LE 

Loudspeakers: Living Voice Avatar 

OBX-R 

Interconnects: Atlas Navigator All-Cu, 

Pierre Gabriel ML-1 

Loudspeaker cables: Atlas Mavros with 

WBT nextgen banana connectors 

Power cords: Gutwire, Wireworld Aurora 

AC filters: Foundation Research LC-2 

(power amp), Inouye SPLC 

The Omega system 

It serves for reviews of gear that cannot easily 

fit into the Alpha system, with its small room. 

Digital players: shared with the Alpha 

system 

Turntable: Linn LP12/Lingo II 

Tone arm: Alphason HR-100S MCS 

Pickup: London Reference 

Phono preamp: Audiomat Phono 1.6 

Preamplifier: Simaudio Moon P-8 

Interconnects: Atlas Navigator All-Cu, 

Atlas Mavros, Pierre Gabriel ML-1 

Loudspeaker cables: Pierre Gabriel ML-1 

for most of the range, Wireworld Polaris 

for the twin subwoofers 

Power cords: BIS Audio Maestro, 

GutWire B-12, Wireworld 

AC filters: GutWire MaxCon Squared, 

Foundation Research LC-1 

Acoustics: Gershman Acoustic Art panels 

The Kappa system 

This is our home theatre system. As with the 

original Alpha system, we had limited space, 

and that pretty much ruled out huge projectors 

and two-metre screens. We did, however, 

finally come up with a system whose performance 

gladdens both eye and ear, with the 

needed resolution for reviews. 

HDTV monitor: Samsung PN50A550 

plasma screen 

DVD player (provisional): Pioneer BDP- 

51FD Blu-Ray player 

Preamplifier/processor: Simaudio Moon 

Attraction, 5.1 channel version 

Power amplifiers: Simaudio Moon W-3 

(main speakers), bridged Celeste 4070se 

(centre speaker), Robertson 4010 (rear) 

Main speakers: Energy Reference Connoisseur 

(1984) 

Centre speaker: Thiel MCS1 

Rear speakers: Elipson 1400 

Subwoofer: 3a Design Acoustics 

Cables: Atlas, Van den Hul, MIT, 

GutWire, Wireworld 

Line filter: GutWire MaxCon Squared 

All three systems have dedicated power lines, 

with Hubbell hospital grade outlets. Extensions 

and power bars are equipped with hospitalgrade 

connectors. 


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has been bought by smartphone maker 

HTC. 

You can see what they’re up to. A 

prominent competitor, Sony-Ericsson, 

already has its own brand of headphones, 

Walkman (the brand has been allowed 

to go to seed, but never mind). HTC 

is a major maker of Android phones, 

with a strong contingent of presumably 

street savvy young customers. Can being 

associated with a rapper be a bad thing? 

So, let’s see…HTC now has 51% 

of Beats (for $300 million), and there’s 

speculation that it is interested more 

in the brand than in the original headphones 

(which are more than pretty 

good, by the way). Beats continues its 

partnership with Hewlett-Packard (it 

designed a branded sound system for 

laptops), as well as Chrysler and of course 

Monster. 

We don’t know how much mileage 

Sony-Ericsson is getting from the Walkman 

association, but it has sunk to tenth 

position in the list of the world’s top ten 

phone makers according to a Gartner 

report. Taiwan’s HTC is seventh. 

But someone has been watching the 

success of Beats, because there’s another 

headphone brand, called Soul, fronted by 

a hip hop artist. 

A Beats near lookalike, the SL300, 

is also active and noise-cancelling, with 

a tangle-proof detachable cord, and is 

also backed by a hip hop artist, Chris 

“Ludacris” Bridges. Like the Beats, the 


Souls are available at the Apple Store, 

Amazon, and the usual suspects. The 

price, $299, is slightly lower than the list 

price of the Beats. 

So…are they as good as the Beats? 

Beats us! 

Why Is This 

Man Smiling? 

Have you followed the doings of 

Netflix in the US? What a circus it’s 

been! 

The company began life some years 

back offering DVD’s by mail, and more 

recently moved into film streaming. This 

past summer it split up the two functions, 

all but doubling the subscription 

price for most customers. When there 

was a massive backlash, and the exit of 

nearly a million customers, Netflix then 

spun off the DVD-by-mail service as a 

new company with a nearly-unspellable 

name, Qwikster. It then backtracked on 

the spinoff, but not on the doubling of 

costs. If the late Steve Jobs was lionized 

this Fall as the world’s best CEO, there 

were lots of people prepared to nominate 

Netflix’s Reed Hastings, shown here, as 

the world’s worst. 

(Oh, except for that guy, Léo Apotheker, 

who was 11 months into his reign 

at HP, the world’s number one computer 

maker, and announced HP would no 

longer make computers; but at least he 

got the boot. The boot…and about 25 

million dollars!) 

Hastings, by the way, claims that 

Netflix needs the money (don’t we all), 

but he also says that the Canadian Netflix 

operation (streaming only, $8 per 

month for all you can eat) is profitable. 

We suspect creative accounting. The 

Canadian film lineup remains pitiful, 

with a number of titles that seem to 

have bypassed cinemas to go straight 

to Netflix. Maybe we’re being difficult, 

but streaming movies from Canadian 

Netflix is like renting DVDs from the 

corner gas station. 

And need we stress once again that 

Netflix’s “HD” movies, like those of its 

competitors, are not really HD? And 

that they may blow enough Internet 

bandwidth to run you into extra charges 

with your service provider? 

Long live Blu-ray! 

goodbye 

Blockbuster 

It’s not as though we couldn’t see this 

coming. The US parent of Blockbuster 

filed for bankruptcy back in April, and 

was picked up, for reasons that totally 

escape us, by DISH TV. That should 

have doomed the Canadian branch, and 

ultimately it did, the following month in 

fact, but why? 

Fact is, the Canadian branch was 

profitable. Surprised? 

It’s easy to see the reason. In the US 

(and only in the US) such companies as 

Netflix, Apple, Google and Boxee have 

a vast choice of movies available on line. 

True, on-line movies are compressed, 

but then hamburgers are compressed 

too, and we don’t see McDo and Burger 

King closing shop. In Canada, by contrast, 

the on-line movie offerings are so 

slim they are a cruel joke. Result: the 

market for DVD rentals is much larger 

here. 

So why is Canada’s Blockbuster closing 

down, again? 

Blame globalization. And prepare to 

get angry. 

When the US business sank, its 

board of directors tried desperately to 

stay afloat, which meant it needed cash.

Blockbuster Canada, which is of course 

separately incorporated, co-signed for a 

loan for its US parent. But that loan isn’t 

going to be repaid, for obvious reasons. 

So a whole lot of Canadians are going to 

lose their jobs for nothing. 

For nothing! 

For what it’s worth, where we live 

(the Montreal area) there is a video 

rental chain that seems to be prospering 

(we won’t name them because we 

don’t love them that much). It has seen 

the handwriting on the wall, and it has 

adopted the Netflix-USA formula. For 

$10 a month, you can take out any three 

films, including Blu-ray but excluding 

new releases, and keep them as long as 

you want. When you return them, you 

can take out three more. 

It must be working, because the 

company has just taken over a location 

recently vacated by…Blockbuster! 

We Are All 

Audiophiles 

What percentage of the population 

can be described as audiophiles? One 

percent? Less? That would be our 

guess, but of course it depends on your 

definition. 

How about 34%? 

Yes, it shocked us too, but the 

Consumer Electronics Association, the 

people who organize the big CES show 

in Vegas every January, ran a survey 

revealing that audiophiles, or what it 

calls “audio enthusiasts,” are some 34%. 

Of course CEA did its survey in the 

US. The methodology is not revealed, 

and the full study is available only to 

CEA members (UHF is in fact on the 

CEA Advisory Board, but we are not 

members). The study goes on to say that 

an equal number has a “moderate” interest 

in audio. For all we know that may 

mean they don’t leave the sound down 

when they watch a movie. But CEA says 

it means “they are willing to pay more 

for high-quality audio electronics, like 

receivers and speakers.” 

But how much more? Does it mean 

paying $300 for a home-theatre-in-a-box 

instead of $200? Does it mean listening 

to digital radio (ugh!), or paying an 

installer to put speakers in the ceiling of 

every room? Does it mean still owning 

a CD player? 

We would like to believe those figures, 

we really would, but we are finding 

it hard. 

What do you think? 

ADVERTISERS 

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Charisma Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 

Europroducts International . . . 11, 15 

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Liberty Trading . . . .Cover 2, Cover 4 

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Target . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 

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What now sounds best, 

analog or digital? Not 

so long ago few audiophiles 

would even have 

asked the question. A considerable 

proportion of audiophiles would have 

rejected the notion that digital could 

ever compete with the magic of analog. 

Another considerable proportion would 

have associated vinyl with floor tiles 

rather than recordings. 

Vinyl, as we now call long-playing 

records, has made a major comeback, but 

then digital has not exactly stood still 

either. So…what’s better? I mean today, 

right now? 

This would be a short column if I 

could answer with a single word. Unfortunately 

— or perhaps fortunately — 

things aren’t so simple. 

When I tell my colleagues that an 

equipment review is going to be done 

entirely with vinyl, there are smiles all 

around. We still love analog, and perhaps 

you do too. We’re glad that the LP is 

enjoying a resurgence. But we’re not 

blind. Or deaf either. 

There were in fact good reasons for 

the recording industry to move to digital. 

The first, and the least valid in my 

view, was that it was new and shiny and 

hi-tech, and might reverse the near collapse 

of record sales in the early 80’s. Yes, 

you read that right…record sales began 

to collapse a decade and a half before 

the Internet really got going. A better 

argument was convenience. The CD was 

smaller and easier to manipulate than an 

LP, and although “perfect sound forever” 

was a crock, the CD at least appeared to 

be less vulnerable to mishandling. Nor 

could you mishandle the laser the way 

you might the phono cartridge, since a 

machine did the handling for you. If you 

didn’t like the song you heard, pressing a 

button would whisk you to the next one. 

For record producers, digital had its 

advantages too. In the age of multitrack 

pop music recording, with endless track 

bounce-downs, deterioration of sound 

with generations of copying was a 

problem. Digital would solve that. True, 

there was a hard edge to digital that 


State of the Art 


drove producers around the bend, and 

they would discreetly go back to their 

beloved analog tape machines, just so 

their ears would stop bleeding, but they 

would avoid pointing that out. 

But that was in the early days of 

digital, when the typical “16-bit” player 

would actually have only 14 bits of 

resolution, and the crudest of filters 

would be inserted into both recording 

and playback chain to avoid aliasing. 

The CD still uses the same amount 

of data — a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz 

and 16-bit words — but both recording 

and playback equipment is vastly better. 

What’s more, we’re no longer stuck with 

the (relatively) low-resolution system 

launched all those years ago by Philips 

and Sony. 

The first system-wide improvement 

to digital was HDCD, co-invented by 

Keith O. Johnson of Reference Recordings 

(HDCD was later bought by 

Microsoft, which recognized that it was a 

way to push more data through a narrow 

pipeline, exactly what Microsoft was 

trying to do on the Internet). Then came 

the DVD, which was a movie format, but 

STATE OF THE ART: 

THE BOOK 

Get the 258-page book 

containing the State of the Art 

columns from the first 60 issues 

of UHF, with all-new introductions. 

See page 6. 

whose standard included the ability of 

playing back files with 24-bit words and 

96 kHz sampling rate. Following that 

was a failed standard called DVD-Audio, 

which attempted to add surround sound 

to the mix. Sony and Philips, which were 

still collecting royalties on the CD, tried 

to continue their run with the Super 

Audio Compact Disc (SACD). Sony 

pushed it, but then lost interest. Does it 

suffer from ADD? 

And don’t get me started on Blu-ray! 

In the meantime sales of music were 

shifting more and more to the Internet. 

Though iTunes, the leader in Net music 

sales, offers only compressed music, a 

number of companies offer downloadable 

files with 24 bits and either 88.2 

or 96 kHz. You can buy for your home 

a converter that can handle files with a 

sampling rate of 192 or even 384 kHz. 

Such files don’t yet exist, but you can see 

where we’re headed. 

So what’s better? Today? Right now? 

Vinyl records sound better than they 

ever have before, because the equipment 

for playing them is immensely superior. 

That’s true even if you don’t have the 

funds for the kind of gear we have at 

UHF. We know more about what a 

turntable and arm should or should not 

do, and a good modern cartridge can 

play parts of a groove that has never been 

touched before. At very low level the LP 

is handicapped by its higher noise level, 

but it has nearly infinite resolution even 

at those very low levels. That’s where the 

perceived warmth of the LP comes from. 

But as the resolution of digital 

increases, its low-level performance 

does too. The dynamics of the highresolution 

digital recording can now 

rival those of the LP. 

We’ve gotten to the point where even 

the 1982 Red Book CD standard sounds 

better than we had ever expected. By 

comparison, though, the LP is leagues 

ahead, even if reproducing it well is 

costly. As for the new high-density 

digital files, they have the potential to 

equal the LP. The ultimate victory may 

be years away, but that’s because there’s 

still a lot of work to do.

Why do 

UHF readers 

start reading 

their magazines 

at the back? 

Countless readers have confirmed it over the 

years: when they get their hands on the 

latest issue of UHF, they open it to the last 

page. 

The reason all of them mention: Gerard 

Rejskind’s last-page column, State of the Art. Since 

the magazine’s founding, the column has grappled 

with the major questions of high end audio. It has been 

acclaimed by readers around the world. 

Now, the columns from the first 60 issues of UHF are 

brought together into one book. Each is exactly as it was originally 

published, and each is accompanied by a new introduction. 

Order your copy today: $18.95 in Canada or the US, C$32 

elsewhere in the world, air mail included.

Kandy K2 

“A neat balancing act, carried 

off here with rare success” 

Art Dudley, 

May 2010 

Altronics Stereo 

Toronto, Ont 

416-233-8906 

Ovation Audio 

Markham, Ont 

905-604-4711 

Arcadia Audio 

Elora, Ont 

416-994-5571 

Audio Two 

Windsor, Ont 

519-979-7101 

Locke Street Audio 

Hamilton, Ont 

905-529-2522 

All That Jazz 

Cookstown, Ont 

705-717-7300 

LIBERTY TRADING 

We are proud to announce that the 

ROKSAN K2 integrated amplifi er 

has won the DIAPASON D’OR AWARD 

for best amplifi er of 2009! 

GET ROKSAN AT: 

The Sound Room 

Kingston, Ont 

613-549-0445 

Oz Entreprises 

Orleans, Ont 

info@ozenterprises.net 

Villeneuve Audio Video 

Joliette, Qc 

450-755-1696 

Audiophonie 

Montreal, Qc 

514-544-2788 

“The designers spent your 

money in all the right places.” 

UHF Magazine No. 90 

WM. Layton Audio 

Montreal, QC 

514-866-1578 

Signature Audio 

Vancouver, BC 

604-873-6682 

Loyalty Sound 

Calgary, AB 

403-244-8843 

Everest Audio 

Regina, SK 

306-536-3884 

Brooklyn Audio 

Dartmouth, NS 

902-463-8773 

6 Sons Audio 

Winnipeg, MB 

204-770-2341 

259 Edgeley Blvd, Unit 10 

CONCORD, ON L4K 3Y5 

(905) 532-9004 (647) 997-4607 

FAX: (905) 532-9105 

www.libertytrading.ca 

libertytrading2009@gmail.com 

Apollo 

April Music 

Atlas Cables 

Audes 

AudioPrism 

Brik Audio 

Discwasher 

Dr. Feickert 

Gutwire Cables 

London Decca 

LSA 

Mastersound 

Mobile Fidelity 

Nerve Audio 

Nitty Gritty 

Orb Audio 

Onzow 

Penaudio 

Revolver 

Roksan 

Sonneteer 

Stillpoints 

Target Hi-Fi 

Wattgate 

Plus a wide range of 

Audiophile XRCD / 

K2HD / SACD/ LP

ANALOG vs DIGITAL - Ultra High Fidelity Magazine

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