USB DONE RIGHT: Two magic boxes that let computer audio ...

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McIntosh MC 501 monoblocks, Wilson
Watt/Puppy 8 speakers, PS Audio P10
power regenerator. Power cords are all
PS Audio AC12
The interconnects from turntable to
preamp are Cardas Golden Reference
RCA, for digital source to preamp and
preamp to amps, Siltech Anniversary
550i balanced XLR, speaker cables are
Siltech Anniversary 550i spade to spade.
This system can produce the music
with a lot of detail. However, I have
recently upgraded to the Siltech and
am finding the music to be a little on
the bright side; shrill to the point that I
can’t listen for too long. In short, not as
musical as before. However, I’m not sure
if it was due to the cables.
I’ve been told that tube amps would
give warmer sound, but I have never had
tube amps. I’m currently looking at the
McIntosh MC 275 Limited Edition 25th
Anniversary version. However $6500 is
a lot of money and I would like to seek
some advice on tube amps and your
opinion on these Mac tube amps as well
as suggestion for a tube amp that would
match well with my system. I enjoy the
MC 501, and the 500 watts of power
especially during a high tempo passage
with a full orchestra.
I would appreciate your opinion on
my total system. Any area for improvement?
Any weakness or mistakes that I
have made in assembling them together?
Unfortunately, I wasn’t aware of your
magazine until after I had purchased
most of the equipment.
I play classical music 95% of the time
and I have a collection of 700-800 LPs.
I do enjoy vinyl more than digital.
Alfred Cheng
TORONTO, ON
12 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine
look before we leapt.
For one thing the “tube warmth”
thing is overblown if not downright
wrong-headed. If an amplifier is any
good, you can’t tell by listening whether
it works its magic with tubes or transistors.
You want to hear the music, not the
technology. For another, if you’ve made a
mistake, a second, opposite mistake isn’t
going to fix it. In medicine that can be
unavoidable. A drug fixes one problem
but upsets your stomach, so you take an
antacid to alleviate the heartburn, but it
gives you migraines, so you take a pain
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reliever that makes you impotent, so then
you…
It’s easy to get lost this way. Perhaps
changing your amplifiers would give you
a less bright sound, but “less bright” is
not how we would choose to describe the
music system of our dreams. Backtracking
is going to be painful, but you need to
do that before you spend large amounts
more money. If you still have your old
cables, reinstall them and listen again.
Is the sound less bright, the way you
remember it? Is the lessened brightness
accompanied by a drop in detail? Reintroduce
the Siltechs one set at a time.
At what point do you hear things going
wrong? Do you hear the problem with
both digital and analog? Do you hear it
with both turntables?
Our rule of thumb is one that is
followed by the greatest military commanders:
reinforce success, not failure.
Do what you need to do to make the
system sound good. Then, and only then,
can you spend significant money to make
it better. Silver bullets are tempting, but
GET they FREE don’t ADVICE! work, because werewolves
Where don’t do exist. the questions for
our famous Free With Advice patience section comes come wisdom. from?
Our readers send them to us at uhfmail@uhfmag.com.
Alfred, let us begin with a piece The of questions, For years and our now answers, I have been using a
general advice we’ve enunciated may before. appear on Linn line, Genki in the CD magazine, player. In or my both. CD col-
Audio problems are not werewolves, and We lection don’t I reply have by a couple mail, of HDCD’s and
the solution is not a silver bullet. That and a we number don’t give of SACD’s, it for free with more added
may seem especially apt if you considering request that every your month. question At this not be time made I am public. (slowly)
that your problems began when We you do ask digitizing for your my name CD collection. and city. However
added the Siltech cables...which are, in in order Ask to away!
digitize any of my SACD’s
fact, silver. Siltechs aren’t cheap, and so (see your article in UHF No. 87) I need
you have made a major investment that an SACD player.
didn’t work out for you. Your sound is If possible this player should be a
now bright. You’ve heard, as most of us combined HDCD/SACD player and not
have, that tubes have a “warmer” sound make my limited bank account cry too
than transistors. Good move? We would loud. Do you know of a “Genki compat-
ible quality” player I could consider for
this purpose?
W. Flink
VEENENDAAL, Netherlands
Actually you aren’t digitizing your
CDs. since their content is already
digital. Rather, you are transferring
the music to your computer hard drive,
which is also digital. To get SACD onto
your hard drive, you need to go through
the analog domain. Software for direct
conversion does exist, such as Korg
AudioGate and Weiss Saracon, but we
aren’t convinced that this sort of transcoding
is superior to analog conversion.
Your HDCD discs are totally compatible
with the CD format, though
to get the decoding you’ll need to play
them back through a DAC that has the
decoding. They are rare. Oppo does
make a player that decodes HDCD and
plays SACD...and Blu-ray as well.
I’m trying to terminate my Audioquest
Rocket 88 bi-wire speaker
cables the best way possible. I was looking
at your WBT nextgen spades, or
Furutech spades/bananas. Is one better
than the other (spade vs banana) if you
forego the convenience? Is soldering
better (with silver solder of course) or
crimping? or both?
I notice you don’t have the WBT
crimping tool available presently.
One final question: would just running
the wires bare, treating with Pro-
Gold and then inserting them into the
WBT binding post on the speakers and
amp be best sound wise?
Your changing the connectors on
your speaker cables got me started on
this!
Larry Upham
HALIFAX, NS
All else being equal, Larry, crimping
is superior to soldering. We very much
like the WBT system. And by the way
we do have the WBT crimping tool once
more.
We prefer bananas to spades, because
we plug and unplug things a lot, and
they’re a lot more convenient. Some
spades don’t fit some binding posts well,
which is a problem for us, because we use
our cables with a lot of different prod-