CONVERTERS: An upgrade to our reference digital-to-analog ...

No. 93 CAN $6.49 / US $7.69 

CONVERTERS: An upgrade to our reference 

digital-to-analog converter, and a budget 

DAC that could be just what you need. 

REVIEWS: The newest current dumping 

amplifier from Quad, a new flagship 

turntable from Well Tempered, and two 

power filters. 

PLUS: A new, surprisingly affordable 

addition to our home cinema reference, 

feedback vs. feedforward, and a mammoth 

roundup of audio shows. 

RETURN LABELS ONLY OF UNDELIVERED COPIES TO: 

270 rue Victoria, Longueuil, QC, Canada J4H 2J6 

Printed in Canada 

SPRING 2013 

Canadian Publication Sales 

Product Agreement 

No. 40065638

UHF’s Audiophile Boutique 

is a source of premium-grade 

products, all recommended by 

us, at special prices. Such as 

this Moon CD3.3X player, with 

Simaudio’s own transport, and a 

digital input, to use its DAC with 

other sources. Originally $3200, 

now factory-refurbished with 

five-year warranty, $1950. 

The Moon 250i 

integrated amplifier, 

originally $1800, factoryrefurbished 

for $1395. 

Quantities of all these 

products are limited, 

but new products will 

be added as we receive 

them. 

Simaudio’s terrific economy 

integrated was the i-1, 

originally $1700. Factoryrefurbished 

with five-year 

warranty, in stock for $1425. 

Great as the heart of a highgrade 

economy music system 

or a second system. 

We also have DACs, both the original 300D (still our 

reference) and the affordable 100D. You’ll also find phono 

preamplifiers, all at special prices. All of these products are 

recommended by UHF. 

www.audiophileboutique.com 

a division of UHF Magazine

Issue No. 93 

Nuts&Bolts 

Feedback and Feedforward 34 

by Paul Bergman 

Feedback in amplifiers is widely understood. 

Feedforward not so much. 

The Listening Room 

Quad Elite QSP Amplifier 36 

Nostalgic for Quad’s legendary current-dumping 

amps? They’ve never gone away. 

The Well Tempered Versalex 40 

The most recent turntable from the maverick mind 

of Bill Firebaugh. 

Moon 300D v.2 44 

It’s our reference digital-to-analog converter in 

an upgraded (and more expensive) version. We 

compare. 

An Affordable DAC 48 

A digital-to-analog converter at a lower price, from 

BRIK. 

Two Power Filters 50 

From GutWire and Kingsound, solutions to your power 

problems. 

Radar For Your Turntable 53 

These two devices from Speednic tell you how fast 

your turntable is going 

Cover story: The economy DAC from Brik, and the new 

and improved version of Simaudio’s Moon 300D, both 

running from USB. 

Features 

A Tale of Three Shows 16 

by Gerard Rejskind and Albert Simon 

A whirlwind of news and observations from Vegas, 

Toronto and Montreal. 

Audio Then and Now 26 

As we enter our 31st year, we look back at some 

product reviews that have stuck in our memories. 

Cinema 

Onkyo’s Home-Cinema Solution 30 

If you want to save money by using a receiver for 

a high-end home cinema system, check out the 

Onkyo TX-NR709. 

Samsung’s Tube Boombox 54 

If you associate Samsung with oversized phones and 

high-grade TV sets, lend an ear to this! 

Software 

The Magic of the Violin 63 

by Reine Lessard 

One of the orchestra’s oldest instruments remains a 

firm favorite. 

Software Reviews 70 

by Steve Bourke, Albert Simon and Gerard Rejskind 

Departments 

Feedback 7 

Free Advice 9 

Gossip & News 78 

State of the Art 82 

ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 3

UHF Magazine No. 93 was published in May, 2013. All 

contents are copyright 2013 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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EDITORIAL: Paul Bergman, Steve Bourke, Toby Earp, Reine 

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Ultra High Fidelity Magazine is completely independent of 

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Editorial 

Getting UHF distributed 

You possibly learned about it on our blog: our long-time newsstand distributor, 

Stonehouse Publications, a division of Transmedia, has closed its doors. 

It happened without warning. Some publishers actually shipped magazines 

to them and discovered there was nobody home. Ugly! 

It was ugly for another reason too. Stonehouse was late, late, late with its 

payments. When it closed, it took tens of thousands of dollars of our money 

with it. The magazine business is tough enough today, even if we’re getting 

everything that is due us. 

However, it’s only money. We’re in this for love, but don’t tell that to our 

new newsstand distributor, Disticor. 

The age of the DAC 

Unless you’re a new reader leafing through your first issue, you’ll know that 

it stands for digital-to-analog converter. For many years, the DAC was just an 

internal module, tucked into a dark corner of your CD player. Though the 

CD will be around for a while, the CD player is dying. Today, it’s just one of 

a number of digital sources, which may include your computer’s hard drive, 

or even a dedicated computer. That means you’re likely to be shopping for a 

standalone DAC. Several are reviewed in this issue. Expect to hear a lot more 

on this. 

But I’ve often said that product reviews are by no means the most important 

part of UHF. We’ll also be writing extensively about how to choose one, and 

what to do with it. We’re here to help. 

Smart robbers 

It hasn’t happened for many years, and we do take precautions, but if someone 

really, really wants to get into your place, they will. Our headquarters were 

broken into while we were off covering TAVES, the Toronto show. All it took 

was violence, plus intelligence. Except they came up short on the second one. 

They went for the easy stuff: a shelftop stereo system that was perhaps 

worth $100, and three of four beers that were in a fridge. Then they got ambitious, 

going for our Samsung plasma TV. They ripped all the wires out, but 

unlocking the stand requires an IQ superior to one’s shoe size. They did run 

off with the TV’s remote, ignoring the far more valuable universal remote. 

Of course, we know that most burglars don’t turn to crime because they 

weren’t making enough money in nuclear fusion. We remember the robber 

who stuck up a bank while wearing his hockey sweater…with his name in 

huge letters on his back. Then there was the blackmailer who knew enough 

to use a public phone to deliver his threat…but didn’t know it was a poor idea 

to pay for the call with a credit card. 

Sounds as though one or the other of those guys got parole. 

4 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

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Yet 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? 

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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? 

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Much, much more to read… 

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It’s a practical manual for the discovery and 

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reading other books easier. Includes in-depth 

coverage of how the hardware works, 

including tubes, “alternative” loudspeakers, 

subwoofers, crossover networks, 

biamplification. It explains why, not just how. 

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and a gauge is included. A complete audio 

lexicon makes this book indispensable. And 

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choose, what to expect. The history of hi-fi. 

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which ones are scams. How to tell a good 

connector from a rotten one. How to set up 

a home theatre system that will also play 

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other magazines advise). How to plan for 

your dream system even if your accountant 

says you can’t afford it. A valuable volume 

with 224 pages of essential information for 

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Take $5 off any or each of those prices if you subscribe 

or extend a subscription at the same time

This is a difficult e-mail to write but 

also a happy one, as it not only confirms 

what I long suspected but what you 

showed me using your iPhone at the 

Montreal hi-fi show a few years ago. 

At the time I remained unconvinced 

of the merits of computer audio. My 

system consists of a VPI Mk III table 

with an SME IV tone arm and Shure V15 

MK V cartridge, a YBA CD1a player, 

Linn Ikemi CD player, Nakamichi 

CD player, Rega Fono, Linn Majik 

integrated amplifier, and a pair of Linn 

Kan II speakers. This year I got married 

to my American sweetheart, moved to 

NYC to be with my new bride, and along 

with me came my equipment, 1000-plus 

vinyl records and close to 4000 CDs. 

Thankfully she was welcoming and 

didn’t demand a divorce when she saw all 

those boxes, but on seeing a copy of UHF 

she asked if it was possible to digitize our 

music. 

I resisted because most of my collection 

consists of classical and opera, 

and I wanted the liner notes and libretti 

close at hand. I also love the physical 

aspect of it all. Fast forward to this past 

weekend, one MacBook Pro, Stello U3, 

Moon 300D DAC, BIS cables and even 

an optical cable for the aging YBA. 

I plugged everything together, 

downloading the Remote app for the 

iPad, and sat down to listen. First the 

YBA through the Moon. The sound was 

much improved, bringing the machine 

into the 21st century. Then the MacBook 

Pro and Stello. Shocked! I had no idea 

it was going to be this good. My Ikemi 

and YBA were bested by a computer! 

I think this whole process is democratizing. 

By that I mean that no longer 

are we beholden to CD drives and their 

limited shelf life. Imagine paying for a 

Krell, Naim or Linn only to find that 

some third-party supplier like Philips 

has decided to stop manufacturing the 

laser assembly. 

Feedback 


Longueuil, Québec, Canada J4H 2J6 

uhfmail@uhfmag.com 

Thanks for showing me the future 

three years ago. 

Nick Lakoumentas 

NEW YORK, NY 

We were just as shocked as you are, Nick. 

We still are. 

Will you be reviewing the Audioquest 

DragonFly? 

Dan Marois 

GATINEAU, QC 

We’re certainly looking at the Dragonfly, 

Dan. There is an explosion of new digitalto-analog 

converters at all prices, and we’re 

building up a list of new ones we want to 

try. By its price and its size, the Dragonfly 

is an eyecatcher. 

I’m writing to address the changing 

nature of audio review publications such 

as yours in the wake of the Internet 

revolution. One of the new capabilities 

that the Internet provides is the ability 

for audiophiles to communicate with 

other audiophiles though forums in 

cyberspace. I contend that has marked 

a revolution in how consumers of highpriced 

and (occasionally) high-performance 

audio equipment make decisions. 

I would first like to outline from where 

we have changed, and I believe that once 

that is understood it will be obvious why 

Internet audio forums are a change for 

the best. 

In the past, it was almost the exclusive 

role of audio magazines to promote 

“high-end” audio equipment. Manufacturers 

certainly promote their own 

products, as do dealers, but ultimately 

neither group is viewed by consumers as 

“objective” in their evaluations of these 

products because of their obvious financial 

incentive to sell you their products. 

This is where audio review magazines 

or the audio press found an important 

niche. By taking on the role of the 

expert judge of the “true” value of audio 

equipment, these publications helped the 

consumer seeking high performance for 

their money make an “informed” decision 

about which product they should 

buy. In doing so, audio publications 

quickly became the axle in the wheel of 

the audio industry. If one followed the 

reviews of a particular publication, one 

could then put different manufacturers 

and brands into a hierarchy of quality 

and performance. 

This pattern is not just true of audio 

equipment but other consumer goods as 

well, such as cars, watches, beer, clothing, 

handbags and soft drinks. Certainly 

brand names speak volumes about personal 

identity within the subculture of 

audiophiles. 

Consider: when two audiophiles 

meet, the first thing that they often do 

is talk about what stereo equipment they 

have. In doing so, they are positioning 

themselves into a respective social 

hierarchy based on the products they 

have decided to purchase, and how 

they and others view the significance of 

the product brand. For example, “I’m 

a serious listener because I have these 

brands but I can tell that you are a more 

serious listener because you have these 

more desirable brands.” The key point 

here, however, is it was the audio review 

magazines which determined the desirability 

of the brands, thus making the 

desirability more universal and hierarchical 

among audio enthusiasts. 

The Internet changed this, and it is 

a change for the better. At first, daring 

entrepreneurs used the growing reliance 

on Web-based communications 

to market whole publications. But the 

orientation of these publications was 

basically the same. Audio “expert” 

opinion was used as an endorsement 

of products that the consuming public 

was encouraged to buy. You may ask 

yourself how many times you have had 

the experience of purchasing an audio 

component that was highly reviewed 

that just seemed, well…average at best? 

Then, if one looks closer at the audio 

publication that rated the component 

in question, it is not surprising to find 

that many of the manufacturers and 

distributors buying advertising space 

in the publication also seem to be get- 


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ting positive reviews. In fact, one major 

publication in the US has an explicit 

policy of only reviewing equipment 

from manufactures that advertise in the 

magazine. Outside of UHF Magazine, 

to your credit, I have never read a bad 

review of an audio component. It seems 

to be an industry where the vast majority 

of the products are rated above average, 

which, if you stop to think about it, is 

statistically impossible! 

Now for the light at the end of this 

dark tunnel and for the value of audio 

reviews 2.0: the great thing about 

audio consumers going online en masse 

is that now consumers, rather than 

“expert reviewers,” are writing reviews 

of equipment. I for one have personally 

found these reviews much more truthful 

and valuable. While there are many 

limitations to consumer reviews such as 

personal biases, lack of reviewer experience, 

knowledge, access to related comparison 

products, etc., there is at least 

one revolutionary advantage: consumer 

reviews are not (yet) funded by the audio 

industry! In fact, consumer reviews are 

an opportunity for the consumers of 

8 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 

audio products to break the monopoly 

(or, more accurately, oligopoly) that 

audio review magazines previously had 

on influencing audio consumer decisions. 

Moreover, some consumers have 

a far superior technical knowledge of 

electronics and have actually dissected 

popular audio designs, and in many cases 

exposed the gross discrepancy between 

the cost that the manufacturer charges 

for the component and the relative cost 

that it would take someone to build the 

same product. 

I have noticed that UHF is now 30 

years old. That is an amazingly long time 

to be in a business as fickle as this. I also 

sincerely commend you on a publication 

that I have followed for a long time and, 

admittedly, was my gateway drug into 

this hobby. However, not just in the last 

30 years but even within the last 10 years, 

the audio review publishing world has 

changed dramatically. I have also noticed 

that while UHF was very quick to go 

online, it is still a top-down publication 

that gives readers very little room to 

communicate their own appraisals of 

their equipment with other audiophiles. 

While I value the Free Advice and cherish 

the musical artist backgrounds, I believe 

that the sun is setting on the monopoly 

of the role of the expert reviewer and 

on top-down audio review publishing. A 

grass-roots movement of consumer-toconsumer 

communications is happening 

in audio, as it is elsewhere, and I wonder 

how GET or even THE whether COMPLETE UHF plans VERSION! to work 

with You’ll it as we have go forward. noticed that this free 

version of UHF Magazine Rick Meyers 

is not quite complete. BURLINGTON, But you can ON 

get the complete version 

We don’t from regard Maggie the “dramatic for $4. changes” 

in audio Click reviewing here, as and rosily away as you we do, go! Rick. 

In any field, from audio to automobiles to 

politics, nothing is more easily available than 

opinions, and that has been true for years. 

Check sites like homeaudioadvice.com or 

epinions.com for some frightening examples. 

Or Facebook. 

There is of course no product so awful 

that it doesn’t have fans on the Internet, 

and no product so thoroughly excellent that 

it won’t draw criticism from people who 

insist it “suks.” We think this explosion of 

opinions, some of them from people with an 

axe to grind, makes choosing more difficult, 

not easier. 

Although we review equipment because 

readers expect an audio magazine to do that, 

we have long considered that the reviews 

are the least valuable part of UHF. The 

accompanying articles (yes, including Free 

Advice) are what set us apart from most 

other audio magazines, and certainly from 

the online review sites. 

It’s true that we have never set up a 

reader discussion group, but there’s a reason 

for it. Unless we spend a lot of time we don’t 

have policing it, a discussion group will turn 

into a jungle. Check the comments over at 

engadget.com, or at a major newspaper like 

the Globe and Mail. Though we have a 

pretty good fan base, some individuals have 

actually set up blogs just so they can flame us. 

It gets nasty out there, and we would rather 

the people with anger management issues pay 

for their own bandwidth. 

Something else we have never done is pick 

up easy money by having Google ads on our 

site. We’ve looked into it, because Google calls 

us regularly, but a lot of the resulting ads 

we’ve checked are downright fraudulent. If 

we have a mission, it’s to warn you off stuff 

like that. 

I purchased a Mephisto II CD player 

from Pierre Lurné in 2004. Recently 

I advertised it for sale, and sold it to 

a person in Torino, Italy. As voltage 

is different in Europe, I opened the 

Mephisto’s separate power supply and 

there was a sliding switch to change 

over to 230 V/50 Hz. The manual never 

mentioned this. I did not change the 

installed fuse. My customer has blown 

the fuse, replaced it and thinks he has 

also blown a capacitor. As you know, 

Audiomecca has closed. Would you have 

a hotline number for them, or contact 

suggestions? 

Ed King 

QUALICUM BEACH, BC 

Our contacts don’t seem to work, Ed. 

Pierre was interviewed in TNT Audio as 

recently as 2011, but the last Web site address 

we have for him takes us to a Russian spa. 

We wonder how the Italian purchaser knows 

a capacitor has blown. If it has, that is probably 

unrelated to the blowing of the fuse. If 

he knows which capacitor is damaged (if it’s 

blackened, say), a competent audio technician 

should be able to replace it even without a 

schematic.

Free Advice 


Longueuil, Québec, Canada J4H 2J6 

uhfmail@uhfmag.com 

Over the years I have much benefited 

from your advice and many 

of my components and accessories 

have been purchased (some from your 

store) after input from your magazine. 

So thanks! 

I have been listening to a lot of LPs 

again lately and am interested in upgrading 

my older system. I was perusing your 

store and intrigued by the recommended 

cartridges and preamps for example, but 

not at all sure which component should 

be upgraded first, or perhaps more 

importantly, provide the “best bang for 

the buck” on my system. On the analog 

side I start with an almost original LP12 

(upgraded chassis) with original SME V 

tone arm and Grado cartridge, down to 

a Pro-Ject SE preamp, then down to a 

fairly new Audio Research power amp. 

What single item would you recommend 

to upgrade to provide most improvement 

Likely erroneously, I tend to go 

for the quick-fix items I can change 

easily myself, like upgrade to one of the 

Simaudio preamps in your store, rather 

than tone arms, cartridges and the like, 

which would probably require me finding 

someone I trust to set up properly 

(not easy any more). 

Jeff Burrowes 

CALGARY, AB 

a volume control. 

If you have someone available who 

knows how to work on Linns, you might 

inquire what level of improvement you 

can obtain for how much of your wealth. 

You don’t say what Grado cartridge you 

have, but it’s possible that you should be 

looking at the cartridge and the phono 

preamp as areas of attention. Whatever 

your choice, it makes sense to take as 

large a leap as possible. Small upgrades 

are expensive, and they often lead to 

heartburn. 

“sound card.” 

Don’t buy a sound card from Asus, 

or from any other computer company. 

Don’t buy a sound card at all. To explain 

why we say this, consider what a “sound 

card” actually is. It is a DAC — a digitalto-analog 

converter — something that 

a high-end audio dealer (including our 

own Audiophile Store) could sell you for 

hundreds of dollars, if not thousands. It 

is also an ADC — an analog-to-digital 

converter — which, logically, should 

cost every bit as much. Audio cards cost 

a piddly fraction of these prices. It’s not 

because computer makers are so much 

smarter or less greedy than audio people, 

but because they know beans about 

audio. To add insult to whatever else 

they’re doing to you, the sound card is 

placed inside the computer case, possibly 

the most audio-hostile environment you 

can imagine. We suppose placing it next 

to the core of a nuclear reactor might be 

worse. 

We wish audio stores carried audio 

interfaces, and we would ourselves, 

but the people who make them cater 

to musicians, and they regard us with 

undisguised hostility. What you need 

is an outboard audio interface, probably 

connecting via USB, from a company 

catering to musicians. That might 

include Edirol (a division of Roland, 

of synthetizer fame), Apogee, Focusrite, 

Alesis, etc. If you haven’t already 

guessed, this class of gear will come not 

from computer dealers but from stores 

I have recently upgraded my Heybrook 

TT2 turntable and purchased 

a Pro-ject USB-V Phono box to hook 

the Heybrook up to my HP desktop 

computer. I downloaded Audacity as my 

audio editor. All is well? No, not even 

close. 

The recorded music has an annoying 

background hiss that is not present 

when playing the Heybrook through 

the phono-box directly. Based on a few 

hours GET of searching FREE the ADVICE! Web for answers, 

it appears Where I do should the questions replace the for sound 

our famous card in Free my computer Advice section (still the come original from? catering to musicians. It will work with 

Our readers sound send card). them I saw to us a highly-rated uhfmail@uhfmag.com. 

sound commonly available software, including 

card The from questions, Asus called and our Xonar answers, Essence Audacity. 

may appear STX and on ST. line, I in was the wondering magazine, whether or both. If you’re willing to splurge on big 

there We are don’t any other reply options by mail, you could hard drives (plus hard drives that can 

suggest. and we I would don’t give prefer it for to spend free more serve for backups) you may even want to 

Jeff, it’s possible your Linn can if you be request on my that stereo your before question spending not be made a few public. record at higher resolution: 24 bits and 

upgraded further at reasonable cost (an 

expression not often associated with 

Linn, to be frank), but finding an arm 

beyond the very good SME V is an 

expensive project, and that’s not where 

you should be looking. 

But we’re puzzled. Unless we’re 

missing something, your Pro-Ject SE is 

a phono preamp, also called a phono section, 

intended to feed a preamplifier or 

integrated amplifier. You can’t actually 

be feeding a power amplifier directly, 

because if you were, you would not have 

hundred We do ask on for my your computer. name and I am city. not a 

hi-tech computer Ask away! person, however I do 

like tablet control of all my music from 

my couch, which is why I am digitizing 

my albums (plus it will be less expensive 

than purchasing new CDs and yield, 

hopefully, better sound). 

Peter DeCordova 

MISSISSAUGA, ON 

Your project is perfectly sound, Peter, 

but there is one item in your letter that 

rings alarm bells for us. That is the item 

96 kHz or 88.2 kHz sampling rate. After 

all, your source, an LP, has (theoretically) 

an infinite sampling rate. 

I have a VTL Ultimate Preamp that 

requires a fair amount of maintenance. 

It is still fully operational, but requires 

a number of parts to be replaced. 

The switches and attenuators are 

going. Also, when I purchased it used 

about eight years ago from someone 

in the US, the border thugs actually 

opened the preamp and loosened many 


Free Feedback 

Advice 

also lets dust in. The preamp includes 

three attenuators (left, right and master 

volume) and two source switches for the 

left and right channels. If they merely 

require cleaning, which would not be 

surprising, any competent service technician 

can do it, and the fact that this 

is a tube preamplifier is not important. 

If they suffer from wear, you will need 

service from a VTL service centre. In 

that case we suggest contacting VTL 

and asking for a recommendation. The 

company may elect to do the service 

itself. 

Capacitors are a different matter. The 

VTL Ultimate was not known for easy 

serviceability, and changing them may 

be difficult, unduly expensive, or even 

impossible. Good quality capacitors 

probably have a shelf life of at least three 

decades, but heat degrades them faster, 

and your preamplifier would run at least 

warm. Still, since you say that you are 

happy with the preamp’s performance, 

we would put off a complete rebuild until 

it is needed. Which might be never. 

But are you saying that customs 

authorities opened the unit and loosened 

parts? If so, they must not be overburdened 

with work! We’d guess that can 

be fixed easily by whoever cleans the 

working parts. You may get off cheap. 

components. This also could use some 

careful reconstruction as well. 

There is a local audio shop I have dealt 

with in the past for various purchases, 

but not for repairs of this nature. I am 

not sure if they can do tube repairs. I 

am wondering if there is anyone you 

may suggest in Canada who would specialize 

in repairs and upgrades of tube 

preamps, mainly switches, attenuators 

and capacitors. 

Can you offer any other advice on what 

I should be asking for in terms of replacing 

parts for longevity and cost-effective 

improvements in sound? I am actually 

quite happy with the performance of 

this preamp, so I do not feel the need to 

perform massive upgrades. 

Wilson Tam 

EDMONTON, AB 

It’s not certain that the attenuators 

and switches actually need replacement, 

Wilson. The top plate on your preamplifier 

is ventilated, as it must be to dissipate 

the heat of tubes, and what lets heat out 

I have an old Talisman Alchemist A 

cartridge (circa early 80’s) installed in a 

Grace 707 arm on an older Linn LP12 

turntable. I also have a Revolver turntable 

(circa 1985) with a 2008 Clearaudio 

Classic cartridge on it. (I bought the 

LP12 recently to replace the Revolver — 

planning to do the upgrades soon). I am 

using a Copland CTA-405 integrated 

with Energy Reference Connoisseur 

speakers (circa 1988). 

My question is whether you would 

expect the music to sound better if I 

replaced the Talisman cartridge with the 

Clearaudio on the LP12. I believe the 

sound from the LP12 should be better 

(tighter bass, more defined midrange, 

clearer highs). The Revolver sounded 

better, but that may have been due to the 

newer cartridge. I’m hoping that a new 

cartridge on the LP12 should allow it to 

exceed the performance of the Revolver. 

I am asking before taking the table to a 

dealer to have the Clearaudio cartridge 


Free Feedback 

Advice 

installed, as I don’t think I can adjust it 

correctly. Alternatively, do you think 

the Clearaudio is worth it? Would I be 

better off just buying a new cartridge 

(perhaps one of the Goldrings from the 

audio store)? 

Dave Rose 

EDMONTON, AB 

Dave, the tightness of the bass and the 

clarity of the highs are much influenced 

by vertical tracking angle, which is in 

turn determined by tone arm height. 

Too low an arm will give you loose bass 

and muddy highs. Too high an arm 

will give you thin bass and shrill highs. 

Either extreme will muddy up the focus 

on a good recording. 

We would look for a new cartridge, 

one with a line contact stylus. That will 

give you lower distortion and less noise, 

as well as enhanced dynamics. Of course, 

any cartridge must be set up properly. 

I recently installed new KT88 

output tubes into my Dynankit Mark 

III amplifier. One of the tubes, which 

is not defective, produces a mechanical 

noise, a hum. What can I do to reduce 

this mechanical noise? 

Walter C. Labys 

MORGANTOWN, WV 

Actually, Walter, we think the KT88 is 

defective. If the elements are not tightly 

secured, they can vibrate. The culprit in 

your case is probably the cathode, since 

it is heated, in most amplifiers, by AC. It 

can’t be fixed, since you can’t get at the 

innards of the tube without breaking the 

vacuum seal, and so the only solution, if 

the hum is loud enough to be objectionable, 

is to change it. 

This is, I think, only the second time 

I’ve written in the 20 years I’ve been 

reading your wonderful magazine. I was 

fascinated — well, captivated is more 

like it — by your review of the Stello U3 

(UHF No. 92). 

I have been using a Mac Mini as a 

music server for about eight months, and 

I grew so discouraged that I took it out 

of the system. I had optimized it with 

Pure Music, used the best Toslink interconnect 

I could find, an all-glass one 

from Wireworld, with results that were 

always pleasant but never fully musical 

or dynamic. The plain fact was that CDs 

from my disc spinner very often sounded 

better than the same music, even hi-res 

versions, played from the Mini. And 

signal from both goes through a Naim 

nDAC, a very good one indeed. 

I suspect the problem is noise from the 

ugly little internal power supply in the 

Mini. Earlier versions had an external 

power module — no prize, but probably 

much better than this internal version. 

The symptoms were very consistent with 

a bad power supply: loss of dynamics, a 

certain veiling at all frequencies. Your 

friend’s $300 used Mini may well be 

better. 

I wonder if you think the U3 would 

somehow buffer or defeat this problem. 

I would love to hear what you’re hearing 

(and surprised that you hear it straight 

out of iTunes, without using Pure 

Music). I guess what I would like is some 

assurance that I can go ahead and order 

one with some certainty of success. 

Don Braid 

CALGARY, AB 


Free Feedback 

Advice 

Your letter is thought-provoking, 

Don, because it brings up something 

we hadn’t thought of. You’re right: the 

Mac mini now has an internal power 

supply, which means it is closer to the 

computer’s works. We may get a chance 

to experiment with different versions of 

the mini, and we think this may be an 

ongoing project as we learn more. 

For the moment we can tell you 

this. In our Omega reference system 

the dedicated computer is an aging 

MacBook Pro, which is running from a 

battery plugged into a charger. However, 

we also pull in music over Wi-Fi from 

a distant Mac Pro, which of course has 

an internal power supply. The quality 

is indistinguishable. That is to say, if 

we listen to the same music residing 

on the local and the remote computer, 

there is no audible change. Both sound 

better than the original CD on our Linn 

Unidisk. 

I just read your review of the Stello 

U3 and am contemplating a purchase. 

Have you reviewed AES/EBU cables 

in any of your issues, as I’d like to know 

if there is any reason for using them 

over coaxial? (The Stello has an AES/ 

EBU output.) 

John Clarke 

BURNABY, BC 

We’ve tried it, and it works very well, 


John, though we didn’t have exactly the 

same cables in coax and AES/EBU form, 

and so we couldn’t compare directly (we 

may possibly do so). The benefit may be 

indirect. The digital cable carries some 

very high frequency traffic, and you don’t 

want this stuff to leak into the analog 

part of the chain. The balanced cable 

has an advantage on that score. 

speakers represent a reasonable choice. I 

note that the Episodes are more efficient, 

at 91 dB versus 88 dB for the Sonograms, 

but are slightly more expensive. Is there 

anything else I should consider in assessing 

these two speakers, given my large 

constraint of being unable to audition 

them? 

Barry Ward 

COQUITLAM, BC 

Barry, either speaker would be an 

upgrade over your Paradigms, which 

were not truly reference speakers despite 

their name. We praised the Sonogram to 

the skies when it first appeared because 

of its startlingly low price, but that price 

has since soared. 

Your Linn amplifier has limited 

muscle, and it will be much more at 

ease with the higher efficiency and the 

simplified crossover of the Reference 3a. 

That would be our choice. 

Should I use the 100 ohm setting or 

the 470 ohm setting with a 0.8 mV Benz- 

Micro M cartridge? I bought a couple of 

Moon 310LP’s from you last year and 

would appreciate your advice when you 

have a moment. 

David Ebertt 

DRAYTON, ON 

I am GET looking THE to COMPLETE upgrade my VERSION! speakers 

from You’ll Paradigm have Reference noticed that to either this free Looking over the Benz-Micro spec 

Reference 3A version Episodes of UHF or Gershman Magazine sheet, we would expect that the 470 

Sonogram is not speakers. quite complete. Unfortunately, But you can ohm setting would be right. The 100 

neither company get the has complete a dealer version in the ohm setting, which is fine for most MC 

Vancouver area from where Maggie I could for audition $4. cartridges, would probably be too low. 

these speakers. Click I here, did have and the away chance we go! to 

listen to the Sonograms several years ago Just wondering if you have had a 

when they were first introduced. They chance to look at TVs since UHF No. 89. 

have since been upgraded, I understand. I know new high definition will be here 

My amp is a Linn LK140 with the in March. I’m looking to buy now but 

companion preamp, the Linn Kollector, not a smart TV or 3D. Could you give 

both of which I have had for a number me a recommendation? 

of years. I also have the Linn Genki 

Terry Iuvancigh 

CD player and plan to add a DAC in 

THUNDER BAY, ON 

the future. I use Navigator All-Cu 

interconnects and my speaker cables Terry, if you mean the so-called 4K 

are Wireworld Atlantis with Milty gold sets, their problem is that not only is 

connection bananas. I have the Inouye there no 4K source available, but none 

synergistic power line conditioner and is even proposed. The new sets will 

Stingray power bar with upgraded power therefore have to upsample. We’ve seen 

cords. I have a rather large listening room side-by-side comparisons that appeared 

that could be characterized as “bright” in to show that upsampling Blu-ray to 4K 

terms of its sound characteristics. resolution provides a dramatic improvement. 

What we actually noticed My question is whether these two 

was

Free Feedback 

Advice 

that the standard 1080p set provided for 

comparison looked just awful, and had 

clearly been sabotaged. 

For the moment, we recommend a 

plasma TV from a major manufacturer, 

such as Samsung or Panasonic. 

I have a pair of the original Quad II 

tube monoblocks as well as the accompanying 

preamp. The monoblocks work 

well, but the preamp is a bit flaky, plus it 

falls seriously short of supporting most 

of today’s sources. 

Which reasonably-priced preamp 

should I consider pairing with the 

Quads? 

Which speakers should I consider? I 

would prefer bookshelf models or similar 

size with stands, due to lack of space. 

I owned a pair of Quad ESL-57’s that 

worked beautifully with the amps, but 

space and WAF forced me to sell. 

The sources will be mostly Apple/ 

Mac products. 

Andreja Bozovic 

TORONTO, ON 

Your monoblocks, which are still sold 

in slightly more powerful versions, were 

very good, and if they show no signs of 

failure you should certainly hang on to 

them. The preamplifier of the same era 

was not nearly as good, and if it is acting 

up we agree that you should have it put 

to sleep. 

When it comes to a new preamplifier, 

we can’t be sure what you would call a 

reasonable price. We very much like 

the Copland CTA-305, which is in our 

Alpha reference system. It uses tubes, 

and even includes a very good phono 

section. If you don’t already have a good 

quality digital-to-analog converter to go 

with your Mac-based source, you might 

look at the Eximus DP1, which was on 

the cover of UHF No. 92, and is both a 

preamp and a DAC. You could also look 

at the Benchmark DAC1 HDR, which 

was in the previous issue. 

As for speakers, you’ll need something 

efficient, because your Quad amps 

have limited muscle. We suppose that, if 

the Wife Acceptance Factor nixed the 

Quads, the replacement speakers will 

need to be small, but they can’t be TOO 

small, because very small speakers are 

not known for efficiency. The possible 

choices are many, and might include 

Reference 3a, Harbeth, KEF, and a 

number of others. 

I have recently been lucky enough to 

inherit a large collection of LPs to add 

to my own, and need more shelf space. 

The obvious thing to do is to rip all my 

CDs so I can replace the shelves with 

some 2000 CDs on them with shelves 

Get UHF from Maggie 

on your desktop or iPad 

anywhere in the world! 

An issue of UHF anywhere you live for C$4.00 

Subscribing for as little as C$20 (tax in Canada only) 



Free Feedback 

Advice 

for LPs. So I have taken an older Mac- 

Book Pro (with built-in optical drive) 

and connected it to an OWC RAID 5 

array with 3 TB of usable space (it has 

four 1 TB drives, but half is used for the 

redundancy of the RAID 5, allowing for 

one drive to fail and be replaced with 

no data loss. This leaves 3 TB for the 

iTunes library, which should be plenty 

with Apple Lossless encoding). 

I have set iTunes to keep a library 

on this disk. Sound output is set to 

go through a Musical Fidelity V-DAC 

MkII connected to my preamp. I can 

even control it with a remote app on my 

iPhone. 

I have a few dozen SACDs and a 

handful of DVD-A’s. I know I can play 

them on my Ayre C5xe, and use the 

preamp’s tape output to go through 

a Griffin iMic and record them from 

analog using Final Vinyl, then divide the 

resulting files into tracks and manually 

place them in iTunes. Is there a more 

elegant way of doing this part without a 

trip into the analog domain? 

Christopher Moss 

TATAMAGOUCHE, NS 

Probably not, though our answer may 

change. Utilities exist for converting 

DSD (the recording format of SACD) 

into the more familiar pulse-code modulation, 

and some of the newest converters 

can actually read DSD. For the moment 


that does not result in a straight-through 

high-grade playback system for SACD. 

Which could mean, for the nonce, 

taking that trip through the analog 

domain. However, we do not recommend 

using the Griffin iMic, an essential 

product when it first came out, but 

primitive by modern standards. We 

think you should get a modern analogto-digital 

converter like the ones found 

in music stores and far superior to what 

went before. For that matter, we do not 

recommend that you transfer highresolution 

recordings such as those of 

SACD and DVD-Audio into the CD’s 

16-bit/44.1 kHz resolution. contents. Go for 24 

bits and 96 kHz as a minimum. If your 

DAC can’t deal with those files without 

downsampling, your next one will. 

But if you have reading only material a few of for these free. 

discs, why not keep them around and 

play them from your UHF Ayre? difference, That’s what 

we’re doing. 

WHY A FREE ISSUE 

with friends in the large living room with 

a cathedral ceiling and hardwood floors. 

But to make the sound room better, I 

will need a new CD player, as I have a 

large CD collection to go with my more 

modest vinyl records. The downstairs 

room is quite big, but it has wall to wall 

carpets and an eight-foot ceiling, so it 

won’t be nearly as bright as my previous 

living room. 

So here’s what I have: a Rotel CD-1072 

(HDCD) with a Musical Fidelity X-10 v3 

DAC, a Music Hall 5.1 turntable with a 

Denon 103 cartridge; a Musical Fidelity 

A-3.2 dual mono integrated amp. The 

latest addition will be the B&W CM-9 

speakers. 

How much do I need to spend (and 

cost is important in these pre-retirement 

days) for a really good CD player that 

can play SACDs and HDCD discs? 

Or should I just keep the Rotel in the 

audiophile system (it doesn’t do SACD, 

though) and just spend $300 or so on a 

decent CD player for the upstairs living 

room? 

Most of the new stuff I am buying is 

vinyl, but there are some well-recorded 

CDs and SACDs I might get if I had a 

really sweet CD player. But it seems like 

I am going to have to spend well over 

$1000 to improve on the Rotel with the 

MF DAC, right? I’m not very computer 

savvy, so I don’t think some kind of 

music server would work. 

We remember when a number of competitors Keep would up the great work. If it weren’t 

put on line only only the cover image and for the you table guys, of I would have never gotten 

back into vinyl! Just wish I hadn’t sold 

We would tell them that you don’t go fishing all my without albums bait. in 1983! 

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

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

We think that’s the only way we can convince On you the of other hand, Alan, if so many 

music lovers had not sold their collections 

future to adopt of your the new digital “miracle,” 

of why you might want to trust us with the 

music or home theatre system. few of us would have the fabulous LP 

We We have are readers in the on process every continent of selling except collections Antarctica. we’ve built up over the years. 

our home Most and downsizing. of them discovered But I have us on line. You’ve probably noticed that only 

found a new They place read that a lot will of our afford free me material. high-end specialty stores still have CD 

my own downstairs And then man-cave, they joined i.e. a us. players at all. Over the past three years 

dedicated sound room, so I am going to we haven’t recommended buying a CD 

be moving everything around, leaving player, because there is a better way to 

the basic home theatre system upstairs, play CDs, and you can probably guess 

and making my downstairs room the what that is. Yes, loading them into a 

audiophile heaven. Upstairs I will still computer. 

occasionally play some CDs while You did specify that you’re not 

making dinner or briefly hanging out computer savvy, though setting up a

Free Free Feedback Advice Advice 

computer, either dedicated or remote, to 

act as a music server is not rocket science. 

Several companies make standalone 

servers for those who don’t want to get 

their hands dirty with bits and bytes. On 

the other hand, a single computer could 

handle both your “man cave” and your 

upstairs system. Just add two devices, 

such as Apple Airport Express, with an 

iPad, iPod touch or iPhone as a remote. 

You do need a certain level of familiarity 

with computers to do the initial setup, we 

admit, but once the computer is properly 

configured, it is not much more complex 

than a typical CD player. 

Standalone servers cost more, and 

of course they don’t all sound alike. A 

rule of thumb: don’t buy one that has 

an internal hard drive. Drives are a 

commodity, now made essentially by 

only two companies, and no high end 

audio company can sell you one at an 

advantageous price. 

Regarding your Super Antenna, do I 

understand correctly that it can be used 

to pull high-definition digital TV signal 

off air to a HD capable TV without any 

additional converter? 

I think I remember that you used to 

sell the Inouye power line conditioner. 

Do you know where I can get my unit 

checked out, as I am wondering after 

all these years whether it is working 

properly? 

John Clarke 

BURNABY, BC 

Yes, an antenna will pull in highdefinition 

TV, providing the set has a 

digital tuner, which pretty much all sets 

built in the past eight years have. It will 

even give better resolution than cable. 

Inouye’s Web site has disappeared, 

and even so the company had been inactive 

for many years. Since the circuit was 

proprietary, it will be difficult for anyone 

else to verify it. 

As a possible point of interest, it is 

likely that the neon bulbs on the front 

of the unit are flickering. That is normal 

for all neon bulbs, which begin flickering 

within a few months of being put 

into service. That seems to be harmless, 

though it can be annoying. 

FREE ADVICE ON LINE! 

www.uhfmag.com/FreeAdvice.html 


Features 

Three Shows 

My impression was that CES by Gerard Rejskind 

2013 was smaller than 

the previous one, at least The city itself remains in the doldrums. 

The huge shopping area of the 

in high-end audio. More 

venues were added, however, notably CityCenter — the property of those 

the Mandalay Bay, shown above. Its two financial success stories, MGM and 

cavernous halls were used for press Dubai — remains vestigial, occupied 

day, including the ever-crowded CES only by the usual suspects (Chanel, 

Unveiled event. The Venetian (still used Louis Vuitton, Cartier — who may not 

for high-performance audio and a few even be paying rent). That same complex 

other sections) was no longer adequate. no longer has a Cirque du Soleil show. 

It was still pretty much impossible to Down the strip, the Sahara remains 

get into the Samsung press conference, boarded up, and the skeleton of a new 

though, unless it was one’s only assignment 

of the day. 

has grown only a little since last year, and 

building where the Stardust once stood 

A bonus for ink- and pixel-stained appears abandoned again. The all-glass 

wretches such as I: the breakfasts and condo complex on the next page remains 

lunches at the Mandalay Bay were surprisingly 

good. But once the main show roof and more and more of its windows 

deserted, with a stationary crane on its 

opened, it was back to the Venetian’s broken. Getting into even the best restaurants 

does not require a reservation. 

stale bagels and plastic muffins — not 

precisely what they serve in Venice! What’s booming? Prostitution, for 


one thing. The undocumented people 

handing out cards for “girls that want 

to meet you” have been joined by competitors. 

The Gun Store, whose ads are 

found on many a taxi roof, is now just 

one commerce pandering to murderous 

instincts. Significantly, perhaps, a gun 

show was following CES at the Venetian. 

As for CES, it did seem somewhat 

smaller this year, though that’s not how 

the organizers tell it. In high-end audio, 

a number of regulars were either absent 

or had cut back their presence radically. 

That was noticeable even at “the zoo,” 

the convention centre that is the size of 

a dozen airplane hangars. 

What has not shrunk, despite CEA’s 

best efforts, is the number of journalists 

and pseudo-journalists, whose sheer 

numbers make it difficult to get into the 

more popular press conferences. The 

press-only CES Unveiled event was so 

overcrowded that it was difficult to get 

close to the tables of exhibitors. Pepcom’s 

invitation-only Digital Experience 

seemed less like a mob scene, perhaps 

because the aisles were wider. Free food 

and drink have lost none of their drawing 

power. There seems to be a Vegas 

company that specializes in making ice 

sculptures for events. Sculptures like one 

on the next page can usually be seen near 

to one of the bars, but an event without 

ice would be quite un-Vegas-like. 

At one time, high-end audio manufacturers 

would pay for a table at one 

or other event, but times are tough and 

it shows. The only audio manufacturer 

we spotted at either after-hours show, 

other than those who make diminutive 

Bluetooth speakers, was Beats by Dr. 

Dre. Yes, the headphone maker. It is now 

independent, having severed ties with 

Monster. We had given the original Beat 

phones a warm review, but subsequent 

reviews, including one in The New York 

Times, have been savage. Were the stores 

flooded with knockoffs? A Beats representative 

acknowledged the possibility, 

but assured me that the new production 

runs would be of uniformly high quality. 

Once the show itself was on, there 

was of course lots to see and hear. Some

Feedback 

Features 

speaker line. Thiel would like 

to keep its large room if it can 

find some company with deep 

pockets to share the considerable 

cost. 

I finally got to hear 

the impressively styled 

D’Agostino Momentum 

monoblock amplifiers (featured 

in Gossip&News in UHF 

No. 89). Dan D’Agostino, you 

may know, was co-founder 

of Krell and its long-term 

designer, until he placed 

second in a game of corporate 

politics. The Momentums 

cost $42,000 a pair, and they 

certainly have distinctive styling. 

I heard them three times, 

including in the rooms of 

major names were missing, as already Wisdom Audio and YG Acoustics. 

noted, and others were present in name My impression was that they sound 

only. That is to say, though their names as distinctive as they look, which is to 

were in the CES guide (which looks say that they have a recognizable sound. 

like the phone book of a medium-sized But then Krell amps did too. 

town), they did not have rooms of their One company I didn’t remember 

own, but had merely lent their gear to seeing in the CES high-end section 

actual exhibitors. That was the case of a lately is McIntosh. This amplifier 

number of cable companies, not surprisingly, 

but — for example — Simaudio for years, passing from one owner to 

company has been in the doldrums 

“placed” products with prominent another, but it is now Italian, owned 

exhibitors and did not set up their own by the consortium that is home to the 

(usually static) room. Even Liberty excellent speaker manufacturer, Sonus 

Trading, whose US division, May Audio, Faber. One result was already evident. 

Why a free version? 

usually books numerous rooms, this time The MC275 tube amplifier, a Mac classic 

design, now has proper input jacks, 

shared a room, and a small one at that. 

For years now, we have been publishing, on our Web site, a free PDF 

Most of the high-end companies were and also massive binding posts that 

version of our magazine. 

in the Venetian tower, in proper hotel have replaced the 1950’s style barrier 

The reason is simple. We know you’re looking for information, and 

rooms, and not in the huge cubes made strips that were incompatible with good 

that is almost certainly why you’ve come to visit our site. And that’s why 

up by partitioning ballrooms. Most of cables. 

we give away what some competitors consider to be a startlingly large 

the ballrooms had in fact been converted What should a speaker enclosure be 

amount of information…for free. 

to private meeting spaces. An exception made from? How about glass? In fact, I 

We would give it all away for free, if we could still stay in business. 

was the Thiel-Bryston room. Though saw three glass loudspeakers in Vegas. 

Recent figures indicate that each issue is getting downloaded as many 

the space is too large, and cube-shaped The one at right is the Point MkII, 

as 100,000 times, and that figure keeps growing. 

besides, it has always been made to sound from a Swedish company whose name is 

Yes, we know, if we had a nickel for each download… 

good, thanks to the liberal use of plants, spelled Perfect8. Last year the Perfect8 

Truth is, we’re in the business of helping you enjoy music at home 

folding screens and other acoustic aids. I saw had eight midrange drivers, which 

under the best possible conditions. And movies too. We’ll do what we need 

Thiel’s new CS2.7 speaker was being seemed to account for the name. This 

to do in order to get the information to you. 

demonstrated. This $9900 speaker is the one has but two. It seems the name 

Of course, we also want you to read our published editions too. We 

first created since Jim Thiel’s untimely refers to the speaker’s bidirectional 

hope that, having read this far, you’ll want to read on. 

death in 2009. It is based on his designs, radiation pattern, which resembles a 

however, and certainly it sounds superb. figure eight. 

It was accompanied by Bryston electronics, 

DAC and streamer. 

by your house, you’ll know that glass 

If you’ve heard a large truck passing 

However this was the last time we’ll rattles. The Perfect8 is made not from 

see these two companies together, window glass, but from several bonded 

because Bryston now has its own loud- 

layers of the sort of glass they make 


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expensive coffee tables from. This 

smaller speaker seemed much more at home than the one I had 

heard the previous year, which had been much too large for 

the hotel room. I stayed for several selections. The Perfect8 

handled a Blues recording very well, and sounded delightfully 

natural on classical orchestra and opera. The price? At 

$115,000 it isn’t for the impecunious. 

Then there’s the intriguing speaker at left, the Giya 

G1, the flagship of the South African firm Vivid. 

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The year 2011 saw the first 

Toronto high-end audio 

show in many years. The previous 

long-running shows, 

which had become smaller and smaller 

(and been held farther and farther out 

of town) had left sour memories. Would 

a new show succeed? Could it succeed? 

To the relief of the organizers, the 

answer turned out to be yes. Operations, 

set up with the aid of Michel Plante 

and Sarah Tremblay from the alwayssuccessful 

Montreal Salon Son&Image, 

contrasted pleasantly with the chaos of 

bygone years. TAVES (Toronto Audio 

Video Entertainment Show) was held 

at a quality downtown venue, the King 

Edward Hotel, and there was plenty to 

see and hear. 

And that was despite the reluctance 

of some industry members to leap in. I 

had talked to several potential exhibitors 

who had decided to sit out the first year, 

waiting to see whether the new organizers 

could draw them in. 

Michel and Sarah were not part of 

the organization this past year, but they 

were touring the show, and they told me 

that the 2012 TAVES had exactly the 

same number of exhibitors as the previous 

edition. Of course, an exhibit can 

be a large salon or it can be a table, and 

my subjective impression was that the 

by Gerard Rejskind 

show had not grown, and might have 

shrunk slightly. It may take a third show 

(2013) to confirm whether TAVES has 

momentum. 

In any case, don’t go thinking that 

this second TAVES has anything whatever 

in common with the Toronto shows 

of yesteryear. 

Putting a show into a downtown 

luxury hotel costs money, and TAVES 

landed an unlikely sponsor with deep 

pockets, Porsche. The first thing you 

saw entering the lobby of the King 

Eddie was the grey Porsche 911 shown 

above. The link with what is essentially 

a high-end audio show? The Porsche 

did have a Burmester sound system, and 

it you asked politely 

and didn’t look too scruffy, you could sit 

in the all-enveloping leather seats and 

hear it. Note also the large banners for 

Burmester and LG, both of which are of 

course paid for. 

Bryston, which is close to being a 

local brand (it’s located in Peterborough), 

had its usual large room, but this 

time it wasn’t limited to showing off 

other people’s loudspeakers. Jim Tanner 

had asked a Canadian speaker company, 

Axiom, to design him a speaker he could 

live happily with, and their creation is 

being spun into a whole new Bryston 

line. You can see Jim with one of his new 

Model T speakers on the next page. This 

efficient (94 dB) floorstanding loudspeaker 

will sell for $6495. There 

will, however, be a 

whole series of them, 

including one with an 

outboard crossover, 

an active one (using a 

new version of Bryston’s 

own electronic crossover), a smaller 

stand-mounted speaker, a centre speaker 

for home theatre, and lots more. Axiom 

has been around a long time, but with a 

rather low profile. The new line is getting 

plenty of attention. The Model T 

sounded rather good, despite the dodgy 

acoustics, with solid bass. 

I saw and heard a familiar speaker, 

the Auditorium from Britain’s Living 

Voice. It’s the downmarket model from 

the Living Voice Avatar speaker that we 

have long used in our Alpha reference 

system. It was in a rather good system, 

which included a Simon Yorke turntable, 

a Manley Stingray tube amplifier and 

Chinook phono preamp. I stayed to 

enjoy a classic recording of Eartha Kitt. 

Gorgeous. 


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price, not including 

shipping from 

the Toronto 

factory, is just 

under $25,000. 

The speaker 

is the creation 

of Marlen Mogilever, 

who also 

makes high-end 

cables and at one 

time built equipment stands 

too. We hope he has the resources to sus- 

I hadn’t seen tain the marketing 

Mimetism electronics 

in some years, but speaker as well. 

of this impressive 

the products of this You may 

Franco-Swiss company also have 

were back, looking and noticed the 

sounding very good. RJH Refere 

n c e O n e 

On the previous page 

is the 35.2 preamplifier speaker on the 

(under $6000), which next page, with its 

was feeding Mimetism’s 

own 45.2 power It’s the creation of 

giant cone driver. 

amplifier and a pair Ron Harper, who 

of compact but very has placed a reflexloaded 

full-range 

good Kudos Super 10 

speakers. Mimetism Audio Nirvana 

is working on a new driver into a complex 

hand-assem- 

series, including (perhaps 

surprisingly) a bled enclosure. 

CD player. 

T h e f i n i s h 

You have possibly is gorgeous, 

noticed the speaker at and the sound 

right. The Blueberry is too. The 

Hill Rhapsody very speakers were 

much dominates the driven by a pair 

room, though it is of classic Quad II 

handsome in a modernist 

sort of way, sculpted Several years 

tube monoblocks. 

from layered Russian ago, Gershman 

Baltic birch. It needs to Acoustics launched 

be seen to be believed, a startlingly inexpensive 

SHOW REPORTS 

and then it needs to be 

heard to be believed. floorstanding 

speaker 

The optional bottom 

section Shows contains Las two Vegas, called the 

powered servo-controlled 

subwoofers, one looking up, the other looking down. and The of midrange course in is Montreal. Reviewed in UHF No. 81, it sold 

in Toronto, Sonogram. 

bipolar (there’s a second driver at the rear), and Sure, all you the drivers can find can countless be oriented show reports initially on for line, $3600, but… and it seemed 

or moved back and forth individually in precise, calibrated UHF fashion. adds Efficiency its own unique too take. good to be true. It was, alas, and its 

is very high, at 98 dB, and the Rhapsody was Even being our driven show to pictures concert are levels better, price have rapidly you noticed? soared, pricing it out of many, 

with a tiny tube amplifier. The result was striking, and We visitors cover the were shows asking on line, possibly for free. most, budgets. Gershman was back 

each other And whether then we they expand had on yet the made experience with a in new UHF entry-level itself. speaker, the Idol. It 

it to the end of the Going hall to to hear a show? is floorstanding, like the Sonogram, though 


the Either Blueberry way, follow Hill. it The through it has our a eyes. smaller footprint. Its initial price is 

even lower, at $3000. I heard it with a Cambridge 

amplifier and an Esoteric CD player. 

If Gershman can keep the price from flying 

into the stratosphere, it should earn a place 

on your “must-hear” list. 

Speaking of affordable audio, the amplifier 

at left caught my eye, and my ear too, the 

Vif MA KT88. It’s a prototype, which you 

will have guessed by the fact that the model 

number is on a piece of sticky tape. It looks 

as though it could have come from Audio 

Research, but in fact it’s made in Markham, 

and it sells for an impressively low $2699. If

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you look closely at the 

model name, you’ll 

see that it uses KT88 

output tubes. Accompanied 

by a Well 

Tempered Amadeus 

turntable and ProAc 

speakers, it sounded 

very good. 

Cabasse had come 

with its new Pacific 

3SA speakers, which are 

tall black towers, not 

the large globe-shaped 

speakers of recent years. 

They’re $16,000 in semiactive 

form (that is, with 

the woofers driven by 

its own amplifiers), or 

$22,000 in fully active 

form. I listened to an Eric 

Bibb recording, Booker’s 

Guitar (a reference to his 

guitar, once owned by the 

legendary Booker T), and 

it sounded sweet, but with 

excellent transients. 

There were other outstanding 

speakers, including 

the Atohm GT3 from 

France ($10,900), a tall 

tower with exquisite finish 

and superb dynamics and 

image, and the Virgo 25 from 

the always excellent Audio Physic 

of Germany. 

Todd Garfinkle of M•A Records was at a table, selling his fascinating 

recordings of classical and esoteric music. Next to him, conveniently 

enough, was Woo Audio, which makes a bewildering variety of amplifiers 

for hard-core headphone users. Naturally, some visitors were bringing 

M•A CDs over to listen. Woo even has a dedicated model for Stax electrostatic 

headphones. The combination is over $6000, but it is truly the state of the art. 

The woman at top right is singer Anne Bisson, who is listening to her own CD, 

Portraits&Perfume, through headphones. Since then, by the way, Anne’s LP Blue Mind 

has been named one of 2012’s top pressings by Tone Audio. 

Like most conventions, TAVES included an after-hours cocktail party for trade 

and press. The event is supposed to afford networking opportunities, but the noise 

level inevitably precludes conversation. The party included a singer, with an animated 

backdrop but no front lighting, so that she looked like a character from a Bond title 

sequence. The noise level was fearsome (see my SPL reading at right), with peaks of as 

much as 97 dB, even before she began singing. That was my cue to head for somewhere 

quieter…and safer. My ears are important to me! 

My conclusion? This second edition of TAVES was worth attending, though it 

has not (yet) attained the critical mass of the Montreal or Denver shows. What we’ll 

be keeping an eye on in the next year or two is whether it can grow, for grow it must if it is to survive in the long term. Too 

many manufacturers and distributors were still sitting it out, and that included local companies, for which travel costs are 

relatively modest. TAVES must find ways to win them over. 


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Luc and Benoît turned to each 

other and nodded slowly as 

the first notes of Dirty Three 

emerged from the speakers. 

Luc had brought his CD along and 

asked to listen to it in the Salon Idéal 

room. On a Rega system, including 

an Apollo-R player, a Brio integrated 

amp and RS5 speakers, the Australian 

rock band sounded truly excellent. And 

that wasn’t all that elicited mutual nods 

of approval. I noticed it again when 

Loreena McKennitt began to sing The 

Wind that Shakes the Barley on an LP via 

a Rega RP3 turntable (shown below). 

“Such richness!” said Benoît. I smiled as 

I watched him get into a long conversation 

about the turntable with the Rega 

representative. 

And that, dear reader and fellow 

audiophile, was a pattern that manifested 

by Albert Simon 

throughout the Montreal show. Visitors 

were attracted by sound quality they 

were “discovering” through LPs, with 

turntables used in a large proportion 

of the rooms. The key word here is 

used. Some years ago, they were mostly 

displayed on cube pedestals as beautiful 

sculptures, but rarely heard. People 

would ooh and ah at the latest CD players, 

merely glancing at the turntables on 

their way out. 

But something else was happening. In 

rare instances, at that time, visitors were 

surprised to find that the music originated 

from a laptop or server, and they 

commonly assumed that it was merely 

for reasons of convenience. This time, 

however, Luc and Benoît were surprised 

to find that in most of the rooms where 

a turntable was not the source, music 

emerged from a computer. And I wanted 

to give them a chance to experience what 

I believe is the most important upgrade 

to digital reproduction. 

Such was the case with a Linn 

system that included the Akurate 

DSM player (read: internal drive, 

not CD player) and the Akurate 

2200 amplifier, through Tannoy 

Definition DC8 speakers. Control 

was through an iPad. “The sound 

is kind of…round,” said Benoît. “It’s 

rich and enveloping.” Luc chimed in: 

“And it’s gentle and discreet.” “In what 

way?” I asked, a bit puzzled. “It’s just… 

true,” he said. 

When was the last time you heard 

comments like that about digital 

reproduction? 

I lost track of Benoît, who was quite 

taken with the different models of 

affordable turntables offered by Pro- 

Ject. “Such a great choice,” he said as 

he stepped out of the crowded room. 

Further on, the just-as-affordable Grant 

Fidelity speakers were a wonderful 

surprise for my two friends as they 

sat silently listening to Benoît’s CD, 

the piano music of composer Federico 

Mompou, played by Jenny Lin on her 

Silent Music album. He asked to listen to 

his own CD of Hildegard Von Bingen, 

11,000 Virgins, sung by Anonymous 4. 

“Wonderful!” was the only comment 

Benoît managed to muster, as if emerging 

from a dream. “Incredible!” added 

Luc. “Best sound I’ve heard today.” 

We quietly entered the Fidelio 

room, where I explained that they were 

going to hear music reproduced “with 

no moving parts.” They looked at me 

curiously as they took their seats. The 

source was a Mac mini computer, or 



more accurately, a Mac mini with a 

Master Flash card plugged into one 

of its USB jacks. The signal travelled 

through Siltech cables to an Ayre KXR 

preamp and a VXR amp, and reached us 

through Audio Physic Avantera speakers. 

The sound of Vincent Bélanger’s 

cello was superb in Schubert’s Ave 

Maria (Bélanger also played live at the 

show — you can see him on the previous 

page). The next treat in store for us was 

a very recent recording of Ginastera’s 

music played by I Musici de Montréal. “I 

wanted to use a microphone configuration 

similar to that used by Mercury on 

their legendary LPs,” whispered Fidelio’s 

René Laflamme, “and we’re listening to 

it at 192 kHz.” Fabulous! 

I wanted my friends to have a very 

different experience, a spectacular music 

display on a grand scale. We walked 

into the Coup de Foudre room, which 

featured the Wilson Audio Sophia 

Series 3 speakers (above), a hefty pair 

of VTL MB-185 Series III power amps 

and a VTL 5.5 preamp, all connected 

by Transparent Audio cables. The 

sources were an AMG turntable and 

Peter McGrath’s own recordings. We 

listened to two selections on LP, first 

John Coltrane and then the Ray Brown 

Trio playing Easy Does It and Sweet 

Georgia Brown from their Soular Energy 

album. The music was palpable, and the 

impression of being at a live performance 

was uncanny. 

Peter opened his laptop and selected 

a superb rendition of Schubert’s The 

Shepherd on the Rock for soprano, clarinet 

and piano, followed by an earthshattering 

live performance of Cabaret. 

To my surprise, Luc and Benoît were 

unmoved. They found it overwhelming, 

and I recognized the early signs of audio 

saturation. 

It was time for a much needed break. 

Spending four days in a row at an 

audio show has made me resilient. I find 

I can walk through room after room 

without carrying my last impressions 

along with me, rinsing them off along 


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the way, so to speak, and remaining 

available for the next impression. Not 

so for most occasional visitors. The 

contrast between rooms can be disturbing. 

Imagine spending an evening at a 

concert listening to, say, a string quartet, 

and immediately after walking into a 

crowded jazz club. Remember to take 

frequent breaks at your next show. 

The next day I accompanied Michael, 

who had interesting comments about 

the Fidelio sound. After listening to the 

Mânouche Swing Quintet followed by an 

excerpt of the I Musici string orchestra 

with a solo piano on a Master Flash 

card, he said, “This is my reference. 

One doesn’t make any effort, the brain 

relaxes.” Again, fellow audiophile, when 

was the last time you heard comments 

like that about digital reproduction? 

Michael also told me how much he 

liked the music in the Audio Note room, 

listening to Karen Young’s Live in Your 

Living Room. “Everything was beautiful,” 

he said. “Her voice, the cymbals…so difficult 

to reproduce cymbals. When they 

sound so good, you know that the highs 

are just right.” The CD was played on the 

Audio Note CD 4.1X and the Oto Phone 

SE Signature class A phono integrated 

tube amp, driving AN-E Spe/HE speakers 

positioned in the corners of the room, 

as intended in their original design. “I’m 

not impressed any more with all kinds of 

performance extremes,” added Michael. 

Above: Dr. Feckert’s Firebird turntable and 

arm, with room for a second tone arm, and 

the Monk Audio phono preamp, with settings 

for every recording curve we know of. 

“When I listen to a system for the first 

time, I ask myself a basic question: would 

I want to listen to music on it for four 

hours?” 

My friends couldn’t sample everything 

at the show (few visitors can), so 

they missed some fascinating stuff, such 

as the Plurison room, and specifically the 

stunningly designed Devialet D-Premier 

(on the previous page). This mirrorpolished 

alloy block, set up vertically 

flat against the wall like a work of art, 

is a 240-watt integrated amp/DAC. It 

was driving a pair of superb Electra Be 

speakers by Focal, and had no trouble 

filling the huge room. Rutter’s Requiem 

was simple and airy in its purity, and 

yet solidly grounded by the richly deep 

sound of the organ. 

Oh, did I mention the source? A 

laptop. 

I should add that while there are 

many excellent articles covering every 

single new component at audio shows 

and the latest technologies (see elsewhere 

in this issue), I choose to write 

about people who listen to some of those 

components and the way they react to 

the music those technologies recreate. 

Sound, yes, of course, but music above 

all else — music and emotion. 

Let me conclude by sharing part of a 

conversation I had with Peter McGrath. 

After we listened to his poignant live 

recording of Jordi Savall at a concert a 

few weeks earlier, where Savall’s Baroque 

ensemble was joined by a three-member 

group from Mexico, Peter explained that 

the legendary viola da gamba virtuoso 

had sat alone on stage and played a piece 

from Sainte-Colombe’s Tombeau Les 

Regrets, titled Les Pleurs — a meditation 

on loss. It was Savall’s tribute to his wife, 

soprano Monserrat Figueras, who had 

died the previous November. 

“Besides all the equipment I use when 

I’m mixing,” said Peter, “I have another 

set of ears, my wife’s. She always tells me 

to push the singers back. In this venue 

she was sitting in the fifth row. ‘No, 

they were not so forward,’ she would say. 

When I was working on the section with 

Savall alone on stage playing Les Pleurs, 

my wife began to cry as she walked into 

the room. I asked her why. ‘Because 

that’s what I did when I heard it play live,’ 

she said.” 



Over the years, we have published 

a lot of equipment 

reviews, and a lot of other 

interesting articles as well. 

Let’s look back at a few of the more 

interesting ones. Most of these products 

are long discontinued, it goes without 

saying, but the memory lingers on. 

The Energy Reference Connoisseur 

Audio Then and Now 

$2000 a pair in rosewood finish, but 

would probably be closer to $10,000 

today. Energy later produced a new 

speaker of the same name that was far 

inferior. Today, Energy is one of the 

brand names of Klipsch. 

Henry See pronounced the Winchesters 

the finest speakers he had ever heard. 

So what happened to the Winchester? 

Castle discontinued it. Not smart. 

The Castle Eden 

This was another Castle speaker 

that got a rave review, this one in UHF 

No. 53. 

The Castle Winchester 

Another speaker became famous in 

our pages after it got such a rave review 

from us (UHF No. 30) that many readers 

who had not read quite carefully thought 

we had adopted it as a new reference. 

One of the best two-way speakers 

ever made, the original RefCon used 

unique drivers. The woofer’s cone was 

hand-stitched to the surround, and the 

dual hyperdome tweeter was the result 

of a research project at Waterloo University. 

It was so good we adopted it as a 

reference, and these speakers still serve 

in our Kappa home cinema system. 

In our original review (Hi-Fi Sound 

No. 9), we wrote: The very wide range is one 

factor which influenced our choice. The second 

is the sheer beauty of the music that comes 

out of this speaker. The detail is truly superb. 

The depth and stereo image are as good as 

we can recall hearing from any loudspeaker. 

The Reference Connoisseur cost 

That speaker was the Castle Winchester, 

then that British company’s new 

flagship, selling for the bargain price of 

$3660. There was nothing this speaker 

did not do well. By four o’clock the 

day of the review, we still had another 

speaker we had scheduled for a quick 

listen, but the panelists refused. They 

wanted to hear more from the Winchesters. 

Odette Roy, who had to make 

supper, stayed until six, and the other 

three hung around until seven. Panelist 

Our enthusiasm was due in part to 

its modest $1400 price, but also to its 

surprising way with music. We praised 

its “warm, lively sound, (with) a touch of 

real magic.” 

Oddly, Castle had a floorstanding 

speaker at exactly the same price, the 

Kendal. It was so poor that we didn’t 

even make it through our stack of test 

records. 

So what did Castle do? Right. They 

killed off the Eden but kept the Kendal. 

The Spectral SDR-1000SL 

In some quarters, the Compact Disc 

was hailed as the summum of high fidelity, 

“perfect sound forever.” For our part, 

we were appalled. Must we put up forever 

with those overly shrill highs, that thin 

bottom end, that impoverished sense 

of space? It would gradually become 

apparent that the worst of the musical 

damage was due not to the medium but 



to the terrible players. And they really 

were terrible. 

The engineer behind Reference 

Recordings, Keith O. Johnson, told us 

not to worry, that there was a breakthrough 

coming. That breakthrough 

turned out to be HDCD, but Johnson 

was also chief engineer of Spectral. 

While we awaited his breakthrough, he 

designed a CD player that astonished us 

and gladdened our hearts. 

The first one we reviewed, in UHF 

No. 26, was the SDR-1000, which 

contained a preamplifier (Spectral is 

rather famous for those too). It was so 

obviously superior to any other player 

that comparisons were barely needed. 

In issue No. 33, we reviewed the 

preamp-less SDR-1000SL (the “SL” 

stood for “straight line”). By then, some 

credible competitors had emerged, 

and in that issue we also reviewed the 

Esoteric P-2/D-2 and CD-Z5000, the 

Carver tube player, the MSB Silver, the 

Proceed PCD2 and PDT2/PDP2, and 

the unfortunately named Micromega 

Duo.BS. The Spectral was so superior 

that we bought it, and we opined (mistakenly) 

that it might never be surpassed. 

It was, of course. We replaced it 

with a Parasound transport, built by 

CEC, and a Counterpoint DAC, able to 

decode Keith Johnson’s other invention, 

HDCD. 

The Spectral was expensive, especially 

in Canada, at $9600. However, 

the US price was just $5795, then worth 

about C$6550. Our cheque was the last 

ever cashed by the Canadian distributor 

before it closed its doors forever. 

The Simaudio W-4070 

Anyone remember when Simaudio, 

originally called Sima Audio (for founder 

Victor Sima) was just a minor regional 

amplifier maker? That was many years 

ago, but it was widely believed that the 

company entered the big leagues in 1993 

because of our review of the Celeste 

W-4070 power amplifier. 

The amplifier was the first to use 

what Victor Sima dubbed the Renaissance 

circuit, which would be the engine 

of Simaudio amplifiers for many years. 

The review was a rave, and we can do no 

better than to quote from it… 

The impact of the big drums (on the John 

Newton Howard recording) was powerful 

without a trace of distortion. The warmth 

of the sound struck us once more, as did 

the driving rhythm. “You just put your 

pen down and listen,” said Henry, who left 

his notebook blank until the music stopped. 

Gerard commented that the rhythm was so 

well rendered that you could predict what 

was coming next! It was close to a perfect 

performance. 

Even so, that didn’t quite prepare us for 

what we would hear now. 

The next recording was Testament, the 

LP version of this blockbuster choral recording. 

The brass section opened with the initial 

fanfare, and then the chorale began to sing. 

“Oh, God!” exclaimed Henry, who put his 

pen down again…as did we all. 

The effect of the review was buttressed 

by reviews of two other amplifiers 

in the same issue. One was lukewarm, 

and the other was perhaps the most 

devastating condemnation we have ever 

published. That made it clear, for those 

who didn’t know us well, that we don’t 

give praise to the undeserving. 

When a refined special edition version 

came out, we bought it, and it is still 

used, in bridged mode, for the centre 

channel of our Kappa cinema system. 

We would later choose, as a reference, a 

Moon W-5 amplifier, based on the same 

circuit design. 

Digital-to-Analog converters 

DACs, as they are known, are popular 

these days, and we’ve been running 

reviews on all we can get our hands on. 

Back in 1994, no one had thought of storing 

music on hard drives, which were too 

small to hold much music anyway. Even 

so, UHF No. 41 included three DAC 

reviews, with two of them pictured on 

the cover. 

Of course, DACs then had a different 

purpose. You would connect one to the 

digital output of a CD player with the 

hope of improving it. You might also 

buy a CD transport — essentially a disc 

drive without its own converter — as a 



source. This was the first time our cover 

actually featured converters. 

The top one in the cover photo was 

the McCormack DAC-1, one of the 

first products from the renamed Mod 

Squad. Though McCormack (named 

for founder Steve McCormack, who 

would later leave the company) would 

turn out some very good products, the 

DAC-1 wasn’t one of them. We did 

praise its lively and detailed sound, perhaps 

because we were not yet expecting 

much from digital products not named 

Spectral, but we also said it suffered from 

“occasional confusion and hardness at 

the top end.” That might not be what 

you would want to spend $1495 (in 1994 

dollars) on. 

The bottom DAC in the cover picture 

is the Enlightened Audio Design 

DSP-7000, then costing a hefty $2800. 

We very much liked its broad, full-sized 

sound, though at times it seemed to 

magnify the music. Albert Simon likened 

the experience to watching a stage play 

through binoculars. We all commented 

on the EAD’s lack of warmth, then a 

drives were not very large 

at all. It was expected that 

We remember when a you number would of mix competitors your music would 

put on line only only the down cover to image two and channels the table of 

contents. and put it on a blank CD. 

We would tell them that you The don’t grey go box fishing on the without left bait. 

Sure, we live from what of you the spend cover photo through is a our DAC, site and 

the pages of our print issue. the C$1150 But you DA53 could spend from days 

reading CEC. material And for free. it was pretty 

We think that’s the only good, way we though can convince significantly you of the 

UHF it difference, sounded better getting 

of why you might want to its trust signal us with from the our future CEC of your 

music or home TL51X theatre player system. than from 

We have readers on every the continent computer via except USB. Antarctica. The 

Most of them DA53 discovered had a us microphone on line. input and 

They read a lot volume of our control, free material. which means it also contained 

they an joined analog-to-digital us. converter. 

common failing of digital audio. And then 

EAD would later be the first company 

to include HDCD-decoding in The DIY LP cleaner 

its DAC. Simaudio’s Moon Attraction Our best-selling issue ever was UHF 

preamp/DAC for home cinema was No. 58, and this is the reason for its 

based on an EAD design. Today our runaway popularity. 

Attraction is semi-retired, but we still 

use it to decode HDCD. 

The third DAC in the issue was the 

QED Reference Digit. “I did not like 

what I heard with this converter,” wrote 

Albert Simon, “and I liked it even less 

when I found out its price.” That price 

was $1050, a pretty penny at the time. 

Henry See likened listening to the QED 

to having an arrow shot into your ear. 

Making your own recordings 

Issue No. 72 (above) was the first in 

which a computer appeared as a part of 

a music system. The laptop on the cover 

is an Apple iBook, running Audacity, 

open-source recording software. We also 

tried other software, including Digidesign’s 

ProTools and Apple’s GarageBand. 

The vertical blue device next to it is 

the Digidesign MBox, an inexpensive 

USB interface box: it included both a 

DAC (for playback) and an analog-todigital 

converter for recording. The 

MBox could provide phantom 

power to our Earthworks 

QTC-1 condenser 

microphones. The article 

was our first describing the 

use of a computer and its 

hard drive as a music storage 

system. 

It was likely to be a 

temporary system, however, 

because “large” hard 


Like us, a lot of audiophiles enjoy the 

sound of LPs but hate the noise caused 

by dirt and worse. There are plenty of 

LP-cleaning machines available, but 

they are universally expensive. Could 

you actually build one at home? Yes. And 

we did, for about $150 of parts. A really 

good craftsman could probably do it for 

less. 

What made this machine possible was 

the small wet-dry shop vacuum cleaner, 

commonly available in hardware stores 

for $50. You place the LP on the platter, 

apply the cleaning fluid to it, brush it into 

the grooves, and then vacuum it all up, 

leaving your LP clean and dry. 

One of our readers subsequently suggested 

an improvement to our design, 

using an inertia-driven platter and leaving 

out the drive motor. As for us, we 

harnessed our knowledge of chemistry 

to develop a record-cleaning fluid that 

would be effective against oils and grime, 

but wouldn’t leave a sticky residue and 

would be safe for your precious vinyl. 

No, don’t write and ask whether you 

can get a copy of that issue, because it is 

long gone. A PDF version was not possible, 

because UHF was not put together 

by purely electronic means until issue 

No. 68. We’re not about to make photocopies 

either. 

The prodigious sales of issue No. 58 

are a sign that, even before the LP’s 

relatively recent renaissance, it still commanded 

solid interest from audiophiles. 

It is perhaps also a sign that we ought 

to develop a second version of our LPcleaning 

machine. We’ve got ideas. 

How about it? 


Cinema 

Onkyo’s Home 

Cinema Solution 

There are home cinema processors 

and then there are 

receivers. Any big box store 

you might wander into will 

have only the latter. A gulf seems to be 

widening between them. 

You would no doubt assume that the 

standalone processors would be superior, 

whereas receivers would have a lot of 

doubtful legacy circuitry crammed into 

a small box. You would also assume that 

having less in the box is going to cost 

you…more. You would of course be 

right. 

In our own home cinema reference 

system, we have been borrowing other 

people’s processors, but we knew it was 

time we had our own. We had our eyes 

on the Moon CP-8, and also on the 

Bryston SP-2, both well-regarded. And 

both extremely expensive. Truth is, we 

couldn’t get either one for review, and 

it’s not because we haven’t asked. Such 

upscale products are built in very small 

quantities even by the larger high end 

companies, and, unlike what you might 

expect, they are in huge demand. You’ve 

heard of the one percent? 

We don’t know how big your upgrade 

budget is, but ours is a little anemic just 

at the moment. Losing our newsstand 

distributor (see this issue’s Editorial) and 

the huge amount of money it owed us left 


us with a slimmer budget than we would 

have liked. Which got us to thinking. 

The quality of the processor depends 

in part on the chipsets used, but a lot of 

companies use the same chipsets. Could 

we do well by selecting a receiver from 

one of the better receivers, and simply 

ignoring its power amplifiers? 

We thought first of Pioneer, Denon 

and Marantz, but when we checked the 

feature on some of their newer receivers 

we saw that couldn’t work. Thanks 

to ongoing price wars, manufacturers 

are cutting features in order to remain 

competitive (which is to say, cheap). 

One feature widely cut is preamplifier 

outputs. Which means we couldn’t 

bypass the power amplifiers and use 

our own. Using such amplifiers was not 

an acceptable compromise, but was a 

receiver a realistic alternative at all? 

We did finally find an exception. 

Onkyo is not as well known as Pioneer, 

Yamaha or Panasonic, but it has long had 

a reputation for superior build quality. 

We selected the TX-NR709, a 7.1-channel 

receiver with a full set of connectors, 

The Onkyo TX-NR709 

may be the last (and 

best) of a dying breed 

and a price that varies between $600 

and $1000, depending on where you 

buy it. 

The Onkyo has the chips we 

had hoped for aboard, including the 

Marvell Qdeo chip, which handles 

upscaling and deinterlacing (it is 

also used by Oppo and Cambridge). 

It even comes with the Audyssey 

alignment system, which uses a 

microphone placed at the listening 

position in order to align levels and 

time delay of the different channels. 

Still, if it was to do what we hoped on 

movie sound, it needed to be at least 

very good at the basics: as a two-channel 

audio-only preamplifier. 

Any product with this many connectors 

can be a challenge to set up, and 

no mistake. Of course a knowledgeable 

dealer can easily do the job for you, but 

receivers like this are often sold in big 

stores full of “associates” on minimum 

wage, or even on line. The good side of 

this bewildering complexity is that the 

TX-N709 can do pretty much anything 

you might want to do. Or at least it 

can if you can connect it properly and 

then program it suitably. It does come 

with one of those “quick start” leaflets 

included with most technology products 

today, but “quick,” in this case, has only 

an ironic meaning. 

We were startled to find that, right 

out of the box, the receiver sounded not 

at all as we expect receivers to sound, and 

as we had feared it might. After some 50 

hours of run-in time (the minimum we’ll 

put any product through before listening 

to it), we sat down for some serious 

comparisons. 

You can, of course, get the paid 

version of this issue, and we hope you’ll 

want to. If Maggie’s electronic version 

floats your boat, drop by www.uhfmag. 

com/maggie.html. We continue in 

imitation Latin. 






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Feedback Cinema 



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rcilis eum. 



Will That Be 3D or HD? 

Do you actually have to choose 

between them? You may 

have to, not that you should 

expect manufacturers to tell 

you that. 

We’re very fond of 

high-definition television, 

and in fact “fond” 

may be too mild a word. 

We look back with no 

fondness at all to the 

days of visible scanning 

lines you could see 

from across the room. 

However, they’re back, 

and if you have looked 

critically at recent television 

sets, you may have 

noticed it. 

The problem is 3D. 

The major television 

set makers have been, 

for the most part, losing 

money on every television 

set they sell. TVs 

had become a commodity, 

with little in the 

way of technological 

distinctions to give one brand an edge 

over another. Only price mattered then, 

unless some new innovation — any 

innovation — could persuade consumers 

to pass their existing TVs on to their 

grandparents and go shopping again. 

The current gee-whiz innovation, you’ll 

have noticed, is 4K, with four times the 

resolution of high-def, for which there 

are, unfortunately, no consumer sources. 

Before that there was…3D. 

Now, 3D television is a genuine 

upgrade, not just one more item on a 

company’s spec sheet. Unfortunately, 

it may have a down side. We may have 

to choose between 3D and the highdefinition 

images we have come to love. 

Let’s see why. 

There are two contemporary systems 

for viewing three-dimensional television 

images. 

One is passive, using polarizing filters, 

the same method used for 3D in the 

1950’s. Two images are superimposed, 

but with polarization that is angled at 

90°. You wear glasses with polarizing 

lenses that are rotated 90° in respect 

to the other. Each eye sees the image 

intended for it. The glasses are cheap 

(too cheap for the most part), light and 

durable. 

In fact, the consumer system does 

not work just like the one used in cinemas, 

because the image is delivered by 

the same limited-bandwidth system as 

2D. Two pictures, one for the left eye 

and one for the right, must share the 

bandwidth available. The result is two 

images of 960 x 540 lines each instead 

of Blu-ray’s usual 1920 x 1080 lines. You 

have traded away HD in order to get 3D. 

But never fear, say the proponents 

of passive 3D. Your brain will somehow 

fuse together the two half-resolution 

images to reconstitute a full resolution 

picture. We wish this were true, but 

two minutes spent watching a passive 

3D screen at a big box store will make 

it plain that the argument is bogus. 

Suddenly, you can see the individual 

scanning lines, just as you could in the 

days of cathode ray tubes. Step back to a 

more typical viewing distance, and you 

can still see them. In order to get 3D, you 

feel as though you had returned to 1996. 

The other 3D-delivery system is 

active. The set alternates between two 

high-definition images for a sixtieth 

of a second. The active glasses include 

LCD shutters that lighten and darken in 

time with the appearance of the images, 

so that each eye sees only the image it 

should. 

The disadvantages 

are evident. 

The glasses are 

electronic devices, 

relatively heavy, 

with a battery, 

requiring line 

of sight with the 

player. To avoid 

“ghost” images, 

the screen must 

be able to react at 

very high speed. 

LCD screens, 

used in the majority 

of sets, have 

dif f icult y w it h 

this. But at least 

active 3D maintains 

full HD. 

Or does it? 

Not if we judge by some tests that 

were done on European sets by Vincent 

Alzieu and Pierre-Jean Alzieu on 

lesnumeriques.com (an English version 

is available at digitalversus.com). On 

the basis of their published test images, 

none scores perfectly, or (in our evaluation) 

very well. Especially poor were 

Samsung’s entry-level (6-series) active 

3D sets. Samsung admitted these sets did 

not have the same level of performance 

as the company’s top series and argued 

that there is more than one sort of full 

HD. It has since removed the “Full HD” 

logo from those sets. 

In the light of this, it appears that 

you really may have to choose between 

3D and HD. Is the tradeoff worthwhile? 

Considering that a lot of “3D” material, 

including movies, is not actually shot in 

3D but is “converted,” the tradeoff seems 

like a poor one. 

We suggest trusting your eyes. We 

love 3D, but we love high-definition 

images even more. 


W 

h iledoing research 

for this brief article, I 

realized that these two 

terms are commonly 

used today to refer not only to amplifier 

topology, but to management styles. 

Feedback is what a manager gives an 

employee during the dreaded annual 

performance review. Feedforward is a 

set of suggestions that are deemed to be 

useful for the future. It seems to be nothing 

more than “constructive” feedback. 

I’m glad I no longer need to deal with 

this sort of bureaucratic stupidity. 

In electronics, however, feedback 

and feedforward have totally distinct 

meanings, though both are methods 

with the same aim: reducing distortion 

in an amplifying device. 

Feedback 

It is sometimes called inverse feedback, 

to distinguish it from the positive 

feedback heard when a public address 

system is turned up too high. It is commonly 

used in amplifying circuits in 

order to reduce distortion and possibly to 

alter a circuit’s bandpass. A small amount 

of the output signal is brought back to 

the input and added in with its phase 

reversed in order to cancel out a part 

of the signal, and reduce the harmonic 

distortion added by the amplification 

device. 

IN 

+ 

– 

OUT 

Feedback also reduces the gain 

(amplification) of the circuit, to be sure, 

and so the circuit must be designed for 

higher gain than it would otherwise 

require. Since gain is always accompanied 

by increased distortion, this would 


Nuts&Bolts 

Feedback and Feedforward 

appear at first glance to be a poor tradeoff. 

On closer examination, however the 

advantage of feedback becomes apparent. 

The altered output signal appears at the 

output inverted, and can cancel out some 

of the spurious harmonics (i.e. harmonic 

distortion) that can be found at the 

output. The more inverse feedback is 

added, the lower the harmonic distortion 

can be made. 

Now let’s add a capacitor to the 

feedback loop. 

IN 

by Paul Bergman 

+ 

– 

OUT 

A capacitor is a high pass filter, which 

means it passes higher frequencies 

more effectively than lower frequencies. 

Adding the capacitor increases the 

amount of feedback at higher frequencies, 

and thus has a filtering effect, rolling 

off the upper highs. Such filtering 

is used to avoid amplifying frequencies 

that the system cannot effectively deal 

with, it is used in crossover networks, 

and also to tailor frequency response in 

phono preamplifiers, tape preamps and 

even microphone preamps. An additional 

benefit is that feedback can stabilize a 

circuit that might otherwise be marginally 

stable, especially one driving a 

reactive load, such as a loudspeaker. 

Inverse feedback has been used since 

the early 1930’s, and its benefits are so 

evident that it is hardly a wonder that it 

remains in widespread use today. However, 

it is not without disadvantages, and 

for that reason a number of manufacturers 

boast that their products do not use 

feedback. 

What is wrong with feedback? One 

disadvantage may already have occurred 

to you. 

We are taking a sample of the output 

signal and bringing it back to the input to 

effect a correction. However, the signal 

we are attempting to correct is already at 

the output. It appears evident that, for a 

rapidly changing signal, such as a musical 

transient, the leading edge of the signal 

will emerge uncorrected. This problem 

is recognized by experienced designers, 

who advise making the circuit behave 

properly in “open loop” conditions (that 

is, with the feedback loop disconnected), 

and only then applying feedback. 

It was once common to use a feedback 

loop to effect RIAA equalization 

in phono preamplifiers. In part because 

of the problem I have mentioned, other 

filtering methods are commonly used 

in all but the most primitive phono 

preamplifiers. 

This may be the right time to add that 

some “class D” amplifiers are designed to 

have very high distortion, which is then 

corrected with feedback. The problem 

is, I believe, evident. 

Today it’s common, as already noted, 

for an amplifier manufacturer to boast 

that its products do not use feedback. In 

many cases this actually means that the 

amplifier does not use overall feedback, 

a loop that goes from the output all the 

way back to the input. It is common, 

however, to use feedback on individual 

amplifier stages, not only to reduce distortion 

but also to stabilize a circuit that 

might otherwise “ring,” the electronic 

counterpart to the familiar mechanical 

resonance. Ironically enough, a feedback 

loop can itself be a source of instability, 

allowing an amplifier to behave like an 

oscillator! Methods for avoiding this 

have, however, been understood since 

the 1930’s. 

Feedforward 

The concept is by no means a recent

Nuts&Bolts 

Feedback 

one. QUAD founder Peter J. Walker, in 

his seminal 1975 AES white paper on 

current dumping, noted that engineer 

Harold Black had patented feedforward 

error correction back in 1928. Black 

had also patented feedback, a technique 

that got much more attention. Walker 

returned to the feedforward concept, 

believing that distortion could thus be 

reduced to zero, all the while avoiding 

the well-known disadvantages of 

feedback. 

In feedback, you will recall, we bring 

a portion of the (presumably) distorted 

output signal back to the input so that 

we can correct it. Feedforward, as its 

name implies, operates in the opposite 

fashion, bringing the (presumably) 

undistorted input signal to the output. 

Walker concluded in his paper that conventional 

push-pull amplifier circuits, 

whether class AB or class A, could not 

fully eliminate distortion products near 

the zero-volt line, the point at which one 

of the push-pull devices “hands off” to 

the other. He therefore proposed his 

current dumping principle, which was 

at the heart of a commercial product, 

the QUAD 405 amplifier. Other current 

dumping models would follow, and 

remain available today. 

The concept works in this fashion. A 

high-powered, though high-distortion, 

title, they concluded that in fact it does specifically the non-linearity of this gain 

work, THIS stating MAGAZINE that “this article IS INTERACTIVE! 

endorses with variations in the signal. Once again, 

the soundness It of work the current in three dumping ways. this distortion can be minimized by the 

principle.” In the table They of contents, did take issue click with on an the article use title, of conventional feedback, but the 

identification and you are of current whisked dumping right to the as a article. authors believe that the QUAD 405 is 

form In the of list feedforward of advertisers and they on the also second-last cast not page, able to reduce it to zero. 

doubt click on an the ad ability name, of and such go a circuit right to to the ad All itself. is not lost, however. Vanderkooy 

produce zero-distortion Then click output. on an ad, Their and Lipshitz provide a mathematical 

amplifier is used to provide the energy and your analysis browser (both will authors take you are right physicists) to the advertiser’s analysis Web that page. indicate the possibility of 

to drive the loudspeaker. A much smaller Remember mathematical when and you’d not easily have to accessible circle little designing numbersa bridge configuration without 

class A amplifier, which can be made to the non-specialized a card you reader. would The then paper mail in? this problem. Their idea depends on sufficient 

available gain, however, and they 

to produce output at vanishingly low did, however, Doesn’t that argue seem that like the a long current time ago? 

distortion, operates in parallel. At the 

output, a balance bridge is used so that 

the undistorted output of the small 

amplifier may correct the output of the 

large one. Since the two amplifiers operate 

in parallel, their respective signals 

arrive at the output at the same time, and 

there can therefore be no time-domain 

difference. A simplified equivalent circuit 

would look like this: 

On paper it would appear that such 

a circuit would be quite perfect, or at 

least as perfect as the smaller of the 

two amplifiers, and apparently Walker 

expected it would be so. Though his 

feedforward, or current dumping, circuit 

has been much praised, its claim to 

virtual perfection has not been immune 

from criticism. In 1976 two researchers 

from the University of Waterloo, 

John Vanderkooy and Stanley Lipshitz, 

published a paper titled Current Dumping 

— Does It Really Work? 

Notwithstanding the provocative 

dumping configuration produces not 

one but two varieties of distortion, only 

one of which can be totally eliminated 

by Walker’s configuration. 

The analysis of Vanderkooy and 

Lipshitz, it must be emphasized, is mathematical 

and is not based on empirical 

data — that is to say, hands-on experience 

with the QUAD 405. Some critics 

had claimed that distortion could not 

be eliminated unless the small amplifier’s 

transconductance was infinite, 

which would of course be impossible. 

Vanderkooy and Lipshitz conclude 

otherwise. According to them, we are 

left with an error, which (ironically) 

may be made vanishingly small by the 

use of…feedback. They state that the 

QUAD 405’s circuit would reduce this 

distortion to some 132 dB below full 

output. Although this distortion may be 

level-independent (that is, it is constant 

regardless of signal level and becomes 

more dominant at low levels) it is essentially 

insignificant. 

However, Vanderkooy and Lipshitz 

postulate a second source of distortion, 

one caused by an imbalance in the bridge 

circuit used for the small amplifier to 

correct the output of the large one. The 

imbalance would result from the asymmetry 

of the dumper’s current gain, and 

conclude by inviting readers to produce 

a better solution. 

I need hardly add that a mathematical 

analysis is not an amplifier design. If it 

were, designs could be made entirely on 

paper (or, today, inside a computer), and 

then simply sent to the manufacturing 

facility. 

Nor is total harmonic distortion 

(THD) — the addition of spurious 

overtones to the music signal — the only 

form of distortion in amplifiers. Intermodulation 

distortion (IM), which may 

affect two tones of differing frequency, 

and slew distortion, an artifact caused 

by a broadband signal transiting an 

amplifier with limited rise time, can be 

important sources of imperfection in an 

amplifier. They may, ultimately, be more 

important than THD itself. 


Listening Room 

QUAD Elite QSP Amplifier 

This iconic British company is 

now Chinese-owned, though 

its headquarters remain in 

Huntingdon, England, 

where they have been since the War. 

Its name is a now-obscure acronym 

for Quality Unit Amplifier Domestic, a 

topsy-turvy moniker that a government 

bureaucrat might have hatched. 

The company’s original name was The 

Acoustical Manufacturing Co. Ltd., and it 

can still be found on the name plates of 

products that are over 30 years old. 

QUAD is perhaps best known for 

its immensely successful electrostatic 

speakers. Some die-hard QUAD fans 

insist that the original electrostat, the 

ESL-57, which is well over 60 years old, 

remains unbeatable for sheer realism. 

It is ironic that, for many years, the 

way to make these electrostatics sound 

their best was not to match them with 

QUAD’s own amplifiers. 


But that changed in the 70’s with 

an innovative design from QUAD’s 

founder, Peter Walker. Based on the concept 

of feedforward, originally patented 

in the 1930’s, Walker developed a totally 

new amplifier topology that could, at 

least theoretically, banish distortion 

altogether. Walker proposed using a 

crude but powerful class B amplifier, and 

then controlling its output with a much 

smaller class A amplifier. He called the 

new system current dumping. The new 

amplifiers, unlike QUAD’s earlier solid 

state designs, could give excellent results 

even with the company’s demanding 

electrostatic speakers. QUAD says that 

with the QSP (which seems to stand for 

“QUAD stereo power”), the current 

dumping principle has been refined to 

a greater extent than ever, and that it 

eliminates the problems of crossover 

distortion, quiescent current adjustment, 

thermal tracking and transistor 

matching, all concerns for the designers 

of conventional amplifiers. No internal 

adjustments are needed. 

For more on the operation of these 

amplifiers, see Feedback and Feedforward 

in this issue. 

Though the Elite QSP is compact 

as powerful amplifiers go, it truly is 

powerful, rated at 140 watts/channel 

into 8 ohms. Harmonic distortion, as 

you would expect, is vanishingly low, 

at 0.01%, below the resolution of nearly 

all instruments, and possibly below the 

noise level, which is itself low. Under 

stress the amplifier runs warm, though 

never truly hot. Still, you’ll need to 

provide for adequate ventilation. 

A glance at the rear panel indicates 

that QUAD engineers give little credence 

to the importance of choosing 

good speaker cables. What appear to 

be the usual five-way binding posts are 

actually designed for one single type of


connection: bare wires. You probably 

know that quality cables don’t come in 

that form. Though you can certainly 

get away with putting a solid core wire 

directly into a binding post, you wouldn’t 

do that to stranded wire without risking 

rapid deterioration and a dodgy connection. 

Because loudspeakers have such a 

low impedance, often 4 ohms or less, 

even minor resistance in the connection 

will have a dramatic effect. 

Fortunately, there is a way to connect 

better wires. With small pliers you can 

pry off the tiny stoppers on the ends of 

the posts and plug a banana connector 

into the end. Note, however, that 

the connection will be firm only if the 

posts are themselves tight. We strongly 

suggest retightening them every few 

months. 

The rear panel also has 15-pin 

computer-style plugs to allow you to use 

QUAD’s Ampbus cables in lieu of proper 

interconnects. It surely won’t come as a 

surprise that we favor the interconnects. 

We were reminded of the bad old days 

when QUAD components (and those 

of several other British manufacturers) 

came with those dreadful round DIN 

plugs. At least now you have a choice. 

We gave the QSP more than 100 

hours of break-in time, and then we did 

some serious listening in our Omega 

system, comparing it to our Moon W-8 

reference amplifier. This was another 

all-LP review, bringing a smile to the 

faces of our panelists. 

This review is incomplete in this, 

the free version of UHF. You can buy 

this issue, in either paper or electronic 

version, but there are savings to be made 

if you subscribe. 

For a subscription to the print issue, 

go to: 

www.uhfmag.com/subscription.html 

But you can also subscribe to Maggie’s 

electronic version: 

www.uhfmag.com/maggie.html. 









tisi. 

“All Amplifiers 

Sound the Same” 

It’s amazing how often we still hear and read this absurd comment. At one time 

there were several audio magazines whose philosophies — if we may be so kind 

as to call them that — were predicated on this precept (they also believed all CD 

players sounded the same). Why such magazines found it useful to publish amplifier 

tests remains a mystery, but it is moot, for one by one they closed their doors. 

Is the claim more than a dumb assumption? 

Sometimes it is. The Internet is filled with reports of blind tests, many of 

them “ABX” tests, purporting to show that listeners cannot identify differences 

in amplifiers, cables, etc. unless they know what they are listening to. The earliest 

such test we are aware of is from the early 80’s, when Dr. Floyd Toole, then at 

Canada’s National Research Council, ran a blind comparison of several amplifiers, 

showing no consistent audible results. A magazine then concluded that therefore 

all amplifiers sound the same (a conclusion that Toole himself did not endorse). 

Stereo Review ran an article by Canadian author Ian Masters concluding they all 

sound the same. He maintains it to this day. 

We don’t, as is obvious. ABX tests run afoul of an important part of the scientific 

method, called the range rule: a system must be tested with the same parameters 

under which it was designed to operate. Amplifiers are made for musical enjoyment 

over time, not quick A-B comparisons. 

Beyond that, we ask this question. There are two types of magazines. Which 

will help you get the most satisfaction from your system? 













Summing it up… 

Model: Quad Elite QSP 

Price: $1995 

Size (WDH): 55 x 45 x 27 cm 

Rated power: 140 watts/channel 

Most liked: Outstanding sound 

Least liked: Poor usability of the 

binding posts 

Verdict: Peter Walker’s legacy lives 

on 




























Listening Feedback Room 









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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. 92: Reviews: The Mastersound Evolution 

845 tube amplifier, the Eximus DP1 preamplifier- 

DAC, two USB interfaces for much better 

computer audio, from M2Tech and Stello. Plus 

the 3T hybrid interconnect from Van den Hul 

and both interconnects and digital cables from 

Atlas. Home theatre: A guide to the state of the 

art so far. Features: A look back on this, our 

30th anniversary, a chat with A.J. Van den Hul, 

Paul Bergman’s audio lexicon, and the latest 

from Vegas. Also: The classical music genres: 

Romantic, Baroque, modern, etc. 

No. 91: Reviews: The Benchmark DAC1 HDR, 

the Audiomat Phono2, the Moon 300A power 

amplifier, the Trends palm-sized power amp, 

and two software packages for music playback: 

Pure Music and Amarra. Home theatre: The 3D 

wave...is this the year it catches on? Features: 

Are humans programmed to need music? Show 

reports, from Toronto and Montreal. And how 

Reference Recordings has reinvented vinyl. Plus: 

Reine Lessard on why the Beatles live on and on. 

No. 90: Reviews: The Moon 100D converter and 

110LP phono preamp, another phono preamp 

from Nerve (who?), the Thorens TD-309 turntable, 

the Revolver Music 5 loudspeaker, a blind 

test of two new interconnects from Atlas. Home 

theatre: Apple’s second stab at a set-top box for 

your TV. Features: Paul Bergman reveals how 

precious master tapes turned out to have short 

lives, and we have more show reports. Plus: Toby 

Earp on the great Count Basie. 

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 Vegas and Montreal, and Paul 

Bergman looks at the elements that make up a 

computer music source. Plus: 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: The Scheu Analogue Premier 

II turntable and Cantus arm, and 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, 

and the Shure SE530 and SE420 phones. We 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 

Back Issues 

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 

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: Bergman on soundproofing, 

comparing components in the store. 

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. 

SEE MORE AT: 

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

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Well Tempered Versalex 

It’s probably safe to assume that 

Bill Firebaugh is a Bach fan. It 

was 1985 when he designed his 

first turntable and named it for 

one of Johann Sebastian’s most famous 

keyboard pieces. His company never did 

climb into the exalted heights occupied 

by the best-known turntable makers, but 

he has endured…which is more than can 

be said of some once famous companies 

we all know. 

The Versalex model name has a less 

obvious origin, though anyone with 

some notion of Latin will recall that 

“lex” means “law,” and is therefore 

likely to conclude that the name means 

“against the law.” That seems fitting 

because, throughout his career, Firebaugh 

has maintained that “the law” 

(i.e. what is considered obvious by his 

competitors, and thus mandatory) is 

wrong. 

Let us then examine the problem of a 

turntable platter’s bearing. We’ve known 

since the 1970’s that the major source 

of noise and vibration in a turntable is 

likely to be not the motor, as was once 

assumed, but the bearing. Most turntable 

designers, therefore, concentrate 

on establishing a friction-free contact 


between the platter spindle and the 

shaft, with as little play as possible. The 

ways of doing this are well established. 

Typically, that means tapering the shaft 

of the platter that rests against a ball 

bearing at the bottom of the well, soaked 

in light oil. Tapering the shaft means its 

rotating surface is small, and one can 

expect minimal noise if the machining 

is of good quality. However, Firebaugh 

long ago pointed to a problem with such 

bearings. The belt from the motor to 

the platter pulls the platter laterally, and 

therefore the shaft will rub against the 

side of the well. Problem! 

To make matters worse, the tight 

tolerances leave little room for even light 

oil to find its way between spindle and 

well. 

Others have noticed the same problems. 

On some turntables the belt goes 

from the motor to the sides of the platter, 

then on to a second pulley on the other 

side. That eliminates the side thrust, but 

the second pulley adds a new source of 

vibration, thus swapping one problem 

for another. Tiny holes may be drilled 

into the spindle to let oil circulate, 

but Bill Firebaugh found that measure 

unsatisfactory. 

Firebaugh’s solution is to use the 

side of the well as the bearing, reducing 

noise and vibration as much as possible, 

but there’s more to it than that. His 

spindle is much smaller than the well in 

which it spins, leaving room for lubricant, 

and it is supported at five points: 

from underneath, and at each of four 

lateral points. The supports are nitrite 

rubber, the material used for engine 

piston seals. The lubricant is not oil but 

silicone, which also provides damping of 

vibrations. 

The Versalex comes with Firebaugh’s 

own LTD arm, and that’s not of conventional 

design either. Like a turntable, a 

tone arm must be made according to 

requirements that conflict. Make the 

bearings too tight and you have excessive 

friction. Make them too loose and 

they will “chatter,” adding spurious 

vibrations to the desired vibrations you 

need to recover from the record groove. 

What’s more, excessive play will hamper 

the arm and cartridge’s ability to recover 

subtle information from the groove. 

His solution was to suspend the centre 

of the arm (actually a black golf ball) 

from an overhead support with a twisted 

monofilament thread. The ball bathes


in silicone, which damps out vibration 

and keeps the arm centred. By twisting 

the filament loop, you apply antiskating 

force, all without resorting to the usual 

Rube Goldberg weights and pulleys. 

The plinth of the Versalex is made of 

a slab of Baltic plywood, with a decorative 

walnut veneer glued to the top. The 

rubber feet are hollow so they can absorb 

vibrations. There is an outboard power 

supply to run the single-speed motor — 

you select the desired platter speed by 

looping the monofilament drive thread 

around the appropriate pulley. 

The LTD arm, which is also available 

separately, does not have its own 

output cable. Instead, it is fitted with 

a pair of good quality output jacks, 

into which you plug the interconnect 

cable of your choice. That adds to the 

cost, to be sure, but considering the 

mediocre cables supplied with all too 

many turntables, we can only applaud. 

This article is available in complete 

form in either our print issue or in Maggie’s 

electronic edition. 









tisi. 



















































Brand/model: Well Tempered 

Versalex turntable and LTD arm 

Price: C$4975 

Size (WDH): 48 x 41.5 x 18.2 cm 

Most liked: xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx 

xxxx. 

Least liked: xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx 

xxxx. 

Verdict: xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx 

xxxx. 






































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consequi bla coreet, vent iriusci bla feu faccum autet. 


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Listening Listening Feedback Room Room 

Moon 300D v.2 

That Simaudio created a 

terrific digital-to-analog 

converter with its 300D is 

by now well established. We 

liked it so much that we bought one. It 

joined our reference systems initially 

in conjunction with an Apple Airport 

Express, linked by optical fibre. Since 

then we have added other equipment, 

including a dedicated computer, and that 

has made our CD player obsolete. 

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. 

The original 300D, reviewed in UHF 

No. 89, like all the other DACs arriving 

on the market, is an increasingly familiar 

device. It converts a digital signal, which 

can come from a CD player, a computer 

or some other digital source, into a twochannel 

analog signal that can be amplified 

and sent to loudspeakers. There are 

plenty of devices for doing this, more or 

less well. Your iPod contains a DAC, and 

so almost certainly does your computer. 

The 300D, however, does the job better 

than other DACs we have heard, including 

some that were far more expensive, 

but older. 

How do you connect a DAC like this? 

There are several ways. 

The 300D has two coaxial inputs, 

known as S/PDIF (which stands for 

Sony/Philips Digital InterFace). An 

S/PDIF cable looks like half of an analog 

interconnect pair. Most CD players 

have S/PDIF digital outputs, so that 

they may be used as transports, leaving 

an outboard DAC to do the conversion 

to analog. DVD players once had such 


outputs too, though you we should warn 

you that most recent ones do not. 

The 300D, by the way, does not 

have an AES/EBU balanced input (the 

acronym refers to the organizations 

that established the standard, the Audio 

Engineering Society and the European 

Broadcast Union). It does have balanced 

analog outputs, as you’ll see from the rear 

panel, shown on the next page. 

There is an optical input, to which 

you can connect a TOSLINK optical 

cable (the “TOS” in the acronym stands 

for Toshiba, which first popularized it). 

That’s the input you’ll use from an Apple 

Airport Express, which has a digital 

optical output. So do all Macintosh 

computers except the MacBook Air, and 

some Windows computers. 

Finally, there is USB, the interface 

found on all modern computers to connect 

keyboards, mice, hard drives, cameras 

and a host of other devices. USB can 

also be used as an audio input or output, 

and the upgrade to the USB circuitry is 

the major reason for the upgrades of the 

300D and some of its competitors. 

Early consumer DACs didn’t come 

with USB inputs at all, because a USB 

cable is limited to a length of 5 metres, 

which makes it impractical unless the 

computer is close to the music system, or 

is actually part of the music system. The 

first USB connections were often afterthoughts, 

off-the-shelf chips of the type 

used in low-cost computers, with limited 

capabilities. Resolution was typically 

limited to 16 bits with a 48 kHz sampling 

rate. Some companies went so far as to 

state, incorrectly, that the 16/48 limit 

was that of the USB standard. Modern 

USB links are also asynchronous (see the 

Synchronous and Asynchronous sidebar on 

page 46). 

Many audiophiles now add compact 

computers to their music systems as 

sources, and they need full resolution 

from USB. That’s our case, and we have 

been using an outboard USB device, the 

Stello U3 (reviewed in UHF No. 92), to 

convert USB to S/PDIF. Simaudio has 

now engineered its own USB circuit, 

which is the major upgrade included in 

version 2 of the 300D. Simaudio says 

other unspecified refinements have been 

added as well. 

The price has also been “improved,” 

and we’ll get to that shortly. 

This second version of the 300D 

looks identical to the original, and 

Simaudio offers a factory upgrade. The 

front panel is untouched, and one result 

is that the 300D still has no remote 

control. We think that should be the next 

improvement on Simaudio’s to-do list. 

We would need to listen twice to the 

new 300D. Since we use the outboard 

Stello to connect to our 300D’s coaxial 

input, we would simply substitute the 

new 300D to determine whether it 

sounds different. We would then remove 

the Stello and use the 300D’s own USB 

input. We selected four recordings, two 

of them high definition, two in standard 

Red Book CD format. 

The first was the Rachmaninoff 

Symphonic Dances (Reference Recordings 

HR-96), a 24-bit 176.4 kHz recording 

from the company’s magnificent HRx 

series distributed on DVD-ROM for 

loading onto a hard drive. 

We weren’t sure whether we were 

hearing a meaningful difference. With 

both converters the quality was superb. 

Gerard thought there was a minor difference 

in the sound of the strings, but 

wasn’t certain it represented an improvement. 

Albert focused on what seemed to 

be a minor difference in the woodwinds. 

Toby thought the new 300D might possibly 

be quieter and more transparent, 

and that the strain of melancholy in 

Rachmaninoff’s music might be more 

apparent. Our notes were filled with 

question marks.

Listening Listening Feedback Room Room 

We continued with another recording, 

in 16/44.1 resolution this time, 

the Scherzo from Bruckner’s Symphony 

No. 9 (RR-81CD). We have often used 

this remarkable recording in equipment 

evaluations, in either its original HDCD 

form or its enhanced SACD version. It 

is supremely enjoyable, but also highly 

revealing. 

Only Toby thought he detected a 

possible improvement, preceding his 

explanation by saying “I have to be 

careful.” He thought the new 300D 

brought him closer to the music, farther 

from the confusion and bombast that 

is the hallmark of this music when it is 

inadequately reproduced. 

Albert and Gerard, however, found 

both renditions outstanding. 

The third piece was 24/176.4, just 

like the first. It had come from a flash 

key from Fidelio, and featured the 

Mathias Landaeus Trio playing What a 

Wonderful World. This is an outstanding 

recording, projecting a vast space, with 

depth and an attractive “roundness” to 

the instruments. It was wonderful with 

both DACs. Toby wondered whether, 

just possibly, he was hearing more with 

the newer DAC, but suspected that he 

was noticing more because he was hearing 

the music for the second time. 

We should mention that we sometimes 

counter this real danger by returning 

to the reference for another listen. 

If the difference is real, it will become 

evident. 

We ended with Margie Gibson’s Soft 

Lights and Sweet Music from her Say It 

With Music album. There might in fact 

have been a small difference favoring the 

newer 300D but, perhaps significantly, 

we didn’t all focus on the same aspects 

of the song. Albert thought the piano 

seemed louder, with a little more detail 

emerging. Toby thought the sound was a 

little more glassy and edgy with the older 

DAC, and that the newer one revealed 

extra detail and a quieter background. 

Gerard estimated that certain sounds 

were “punchier” with the newer DAC, 

but he wasn’t sure of that either. “If this 

had been a blind test,” he said, “I don’t 

think we would have spotted any of this.” 

We agreed. 

We now came to the second part of 

the test, using the same four recordings. 

We removed the Stello from the circuit 

and ran our BIS Audio USB cable from 

the computer directly to the new 300D’s 

own USB input. The Moon showed up 

right away in the Audio & Midi Setup 

utility of our MacBook Pro, and once 

again we selected a resolution of 24 bits 

and a sampling rate of 176.4 kHz. 

It was obvious from the start that 

the 300D’s USB circuit had been vastly 

improved — with the old one we could 

not have played at such high resolution 

at all. Depth and percussive impact were 

superb. Were we hearing more than we 

had using the outboard Stello USB box? 

As the music continued, we weren’t 

so sure. Gerard liked the detail in the 

complex structure of the large orchestra, 

and especially the clearer harmony of the 

woodwinds. “The difference isn’t huge, 

but it’s real.” Toby and Albert liked the 

newer DAC’s version initially, but then 

found the music less involving. Why? It 

was certainly not because we were getting 

bored with Rachmaninoff! 


Brand/model: Moon 300D v.2.0 

Price: C$2200 

Size (WDH): 19 X 28 X 8.5 cm 

Inputs: USB, coaxial (2x), optical 

Outputs: Coaxial, balanced 

Most liked: USB finally modernized 

Least liked: Sticker shock, rhythm 

sometimes weaker (USB) 

Verdict: An overdue improvement to 

a landmark product 

The Bruckner was going to be a 

tough test, in part because rhythm is 

such an important part of its appeal. 

With our original 300D and its outboard 

USB box, we loved what we heard. The 

new DAC, with its own USB circuit, 

sounded impressive as well. Louder 

instruments, notably the brass, seemed 

more restrained, letting us hear softer 

background details more clearly. 

There was another difference too. 

When we had first listened to the piece 

with our own DAC, we had initially set 

the volume uncomfortably high and 

begun again at a more reasonable volume 

(we choose this by consensus). Albert 

wanted to hear the Scherzo at the same 

level through the new DAC. Surprisingly, 

that high level now seemed more 

bearable. 

Gerard added a negative note, one 

involving timing. The rhythm of the 

Bruckner is very strong, and you should 

be able to mark it with your hand. With 

the new 300D it was noticeably harder to 

do. We would return to the older DAC 

to confirm that. 

That problem cropped up again 

on What a Wonderful World, which is 

a swing piece. In nearly all respects it 

sounded wonderful, with a strikingly 

natural piano sound. Yet the rhythm 

seemed weaker, and all three of us 

noticed it. 

The final song, Soft Lights and Sweet 

Music, was a delight, as it nearly always 

is. Margie Gibson’s mastery of phrasing, 

the way she slides from one note to the 

other, were superb. The accompanying 



Synchronous and Asynchronous 

These terms have to do with timing. Phone calls are synchronous: you and the 

person you’re calling must be there at the same time. E-mail is asynchronous: you 

can send a message whether the recipient is available at that moment or not. 

Early digital connections were synchronous, meaning that there was a one-way 

link between the digital signal source and the DAC. Such connections suffered 

from high jitter, a cyclic inaccuracy in timing, caused by the DAC’s dependence 

on a noisy and imprecise clock signal derived from the CD or other source. Better 

players were asynchronous, establishing a two-way link. That means the DAC “told” 

the source when to send the data, and assembled it using its own master clock. 

Because the first USB inputs on consumer DACs were mere afterthoughts, they 

were typically synchronous. However, USB is a two-way pipe and lends itself well 

to the vastly superior asynchronous system. 

instruments — piano, cello and bass — 

were gorgeous. There was depth and 

wonderful presence. Yes, but was it 

better than it had been with the original 

300D plus the Stello? Toby thought he 

had found one syllable that had been a 

little edgy but was now smoothed out. 

Not much there. We were comparing 

superb with superb. 

But what about rhythm? We listened 

to another Gibson song, Puttin’ on the 

Ritz, a bouncy show tune, and we could 

hear that our own DAC communicated 

the rhythm more solidly. 

Now here are the tough questions. 

Is the new 300D worth its higher price, 

and if you have the older one, as we do, 

should you upgrade? 

We are not among those who shout 

greed when a product’s price rises. There 

are many factors determining a manufactured 

product’s price, from manpower 

cost to price of materials. The size of the 

market is important too. Many high-end 

audio products sell in tiny numbers, 

making economy of scale impossible. 

On the other hand, competition places 

downward pressure on prices. There is 

an explosion in the number of quality 

DACs now, and the reasons are obvious. 

Simaudio would have weighed all of 

these factors in setting its price. 

We have seen the price of the 300D 

climbing, from the original $1600 to 

$1800 and now to $2200. The 300D 

has more and more competitors, but it 

remains one of the world’s finest DACs. 

We will change ours for another if a new 

one can help us do our job better. That 

time has not yet come. 

As noted, the original 300D can be 

upgraded to the v.2 standard for $800. 

This is done at the factory and arranged 

through your authorized dealer. That 

sounds like a lot, but a proper USB 

input is mandatory if you want to have a 

dedicated computer as part of your music 

system, as we do. 

You do have other choices. We’re 

using an outboard USB interface, whose 

price of $495 is well below that of the 

300D upgrade. However, we also needed 

a digital cable to run from the Stello USB 

box to the DAC. Ours, an Atlas Mavros, 

sells for $599. Do the math, and you’ll 

see that we are not exactly saving money. 

That’s the combination we are staying 

with for the time being, and it is 

giving us unparalleled sound, to enable 

us to do our work, but also to warm our 

souls. 

CROSSTALK 

The 300D was an excellent reference 

quality DAC, and there I sat, expecting to 

be impressed by its new incarnation. 

Well, I enjoyed the music tremendously. 

It was almost frustrating, however, to notice 

how beautiful it sounded and find that I had 

nothing to say about it. What I really mean 

is that I had nothing to add because, as far 

as I could tell, it didn’t add anything. 

The USB section has been improved 

from so-so to very good, okay. But “very 

good” is far from reference quality, as is the 

rest of this DAC. If its price were unchanged 

I would have recommended this model over 

the previous one to any serious music lover 

and audiophile. At its much higher price, I’m 

not so sure. 

—Albert Simon 

It really was way past time Simaudio 

added a proper USB circuit to its otherwise 

superb 300D converter. It has, and that’s 

good. That circuit is not yet state of the art, 

however, and considering that the price has 

risen by some $600, that’s a disappointment. 

I don’t want to overstate this. Anyone 

using the simple USB input in the original 

300D would not have been pleased. The new 

one is immensely better, no question about 

it, and I suspect many purchasers will love 

it. The reality is, however, that it still sounds 

better through its other inputs. 

—Gerard Rejskind 

I was expecting the upgraded Moon converter 

to sell itself to me easily. The original 

300D was tremendously good, and only the 

limitations of its USB input kept me from 

putting one on my shopping list. On this 

new version, music via the coax input hardly 

spoiled the impression. The Rachmaninoff 

was perhaps a little quieter, the Bruckner 

made more musical sense to me. I noted the 

piano’s timing on What a Wonderful World — 

it truly is a wonderful world when a piece of 

gear like this one can get you further into 

the music. The new 300D, via its coax input, 

was no worse, and perhaps a little better than 

the older one. 

But the next time around, using the 

USB input, that timing wasn’t quite right. 

Two plays of Margie Gibson’s delightful 

version of Puttin’ on the Ritz made it clear 

that, with the USB input, this new 300D 

didn’t have as solid rhythm as the older 

model. Oh, counting time on this piece isn’t 

easy. Margie syncopates like the Duke, and 

there were two moments when I lost it even 

with the older model DAC. But on USB, the 

new model never quite let me get settled in. 

Hi-res capability via USB is a real upgrade, 

but I missed the rhythm. 

—Toby Earp 


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An Affordable DAC 

Do you really need to spend 

thousands of dollars for a 

digital-to-analog converter 

if you aspire to good music? 

No. In fact, we can name one good one 

that costs “mere” hundreds, namely the 

Moon 100D. It even has asynchronous 

USB. But the 100D costs over $600. 

How well can you do at much less than 

half its price? 

Brik is a Taiwanese company that 

makes an entire series of small audio 

products, all of them in the same size 

box, shaped like — yes — a brick. 

These components can be stacked, 

the way hi-fi components once were, 

or they can be inserted into cases that 

the company offers as an option. The 

series includes a phono preamplifier, a 

small integrated amplifier, a headphone 

amplifier and an Internet radio. And of 

course, this converter. The DAC comes 

with a “wall wart” power supply, but 

an optional power supply is available, 

capable of supplying clean power to the 

other components in the series as well. 

All of these modules are the same price. 

The DAC is a simple enough device. 

Its only front-panel switch selects among 

the three inputs: USB, coaxial and optical. 

A switch at the rear selects output 

level so that you can match it to the gain 

of your amplifier and run your volume 

control at a comfortable level. Because 

the unit is small, its USB input is miniature, 

not the usual USB-B jack. We used 

the cable supplied with the Brik, rather 

than our own premium-grade BIS Audio 

cable. 


We ran the Brik for some 200 hours, 

using the USB and then the coaxial 

input, then listened to it alongside our 

Moon 300D DAC. Yes, we know the 

300D is far more expensive, but our 

reference system would actually be made 

from perfect products, if such existed. We 

avoided selecting the same recordings 

we had used in evaluating the 300D v.2, 

to avoid the temptation to make inappropriate 

comparisons. 

For reasons we have explained, our 

reference system uses an outboard 

USB box, a Stello U3, which then feeds 

our DAC’s coaxial input (the Stello is 

reviewed in UHF No. 92). We used the 

same initial setup with the Brik. 

The first selection was Jennifer 

Warnes’ Way Down Deep from her album 

The Hunter. This is another of the songs 

she wrote with Leonard Cohen. This 

song is clearly about (ahem!) sex, and 

features percussive effects that will stress 

any loudspeaker. And any source too. 

We were in agreement that the Brik 


Brand/model: Brik DAC 

Price: C$250 

Size (WDH): 14 x 16.3 x 5 cm 

Inputs: Mini-USB, coaxial, optical 

Outputs: Coaxial 

Most liked: Surprisingly good performance 

with S/PDIF source 

Least liked: Mediocre USB performance 

Verdict: Terrific for some applications 

did well, though it was not the equal 

of our reference converter. The sound 

was by no means thin, but the resonant 

percussive punch was considerably 

reduced, and that certainly took away 

from the song’s mesmerizing impact. 

There was a good side, however, because 

the voices — those of Jennifer and her 

backup singers (Blondie Chaplin, Kevin 

Dorsey and Warnes herself) — were 

easier to understand. As for Warnes’ own 

solo voice, it was less silky but exhibited 

none of the all-too-familiar artifacts of 

bad digital. 

We continued with an old favorite, 

the Elegia from Arensky’s Piano Trio 

No. 1 on the Dorian label. This longvanished 

recording features three 

Canadian-based musicians billed as the 

Rembrandt Trio. Properly reproduced, 

this recording carries you off into a 

dream world. Poorly reproduced, on the 

other hand, it merely puts you to sleep. 

It is as fragile as a gossamer web. Would 

it survive? 

It did. Yes, the piano notes were 

a little punchier, and the very softest 

passages were a bit less magical, but 

that’s not what we were thinking about 

while we listened. “Logically, this seems 

impossible,” said Steve. “Nice work,” 

added Albert. 

We would hesitate to review a digital 

product without including Margie 

Gibson’s Say It With Music album (Sheffield 

CD-36), because her songs are at 

once sonically revealing and musically 

delightful. Or they should be. We 

selected the perky ballad The Best Thing 

for You. 

The song held together and remained 

enjoyable when played through the 

Brik. There were certainly differences, 

however. Margie’s voice was noticeably 

grainier, and the lack of smoothness 

made it seem more artificial, taking 

away a little of its natural warmth. Piano 

chords were punchier and trailing notes 

shorter. The depth was curtailed. There 

was plenty of detail in both voice and 

accompanying instruments, but in a song 

like this, mere detail is not what’s most 

important. 

And yet, long as the list of flaws may 

seem, the essentials of the song survived 

and it remained supremely enjoyable. 

Through its coaxial input, then, the


Brik turned in a respectable performance. 

We listened briefly to the optical 

input, running an optical cable from 

our Airport Express. Performance was 

similarly fine. Which left the USB input 

to be listened to. That is where many 

DACs fail. 

Until recently, most of them actually 

lacked a USB input altogether, because 

so few customers could be expected 

to have a computer within easy reach 

(5 metres or less) of their music systems. 

The first DACs to have this essential 

input implemented the feature with a 

low-cost synchronous circuit that might 

have worked fine for a keyboard or a 

mouse, but not a high-grade audio component. 

See the sidebar, Synchronous and 

Asynchronous, on page 46 that explains 

the difference. The inexpensive chips 

behind these circuits cannot handle 

high-definition signals, and do none too 

well with standard-definition files either. 

That, unfortunately, is what Brik 

used. When plugged into our MacBook 

Pro via its camera-style USB cord, 

the Brik converter identified itself as 

a “C-media USB headphone set.” The 

C-media is a multiuse chip from Taiwan 

that includes a headphone amplifier, 

though Brik has not used it. The dual 

DAC on the chip is limited to 48 kHz 

sampling rate and 16 bits. 

Naturally, we were expecting the 

worst with this chip, and it didn’t disappoint 

us! We listened again to the 

Margie Gibson song, which had now lost 

much of its appeal. Notes seemed truncated 

and the overall sound was more 

distant. Margie’s voice, normally so 

smooth, was now hard-edged. Paradoxically, 

everything seemed mushy because 

detail was deficient. Albert was kinder, 

finding the song “not so bad,” though 

limited to two dimensions. 

We think that the high-end audio 

industry needs to invest in the development 

of a hi-fi oriented USB chip. Such 

chips exist, though on the evidence they 

are expensive. Economy of scale would 

help, we suspect, and a superior chip 

could be made available to all manufacturers 

without resulting in everyone’s 

products sounding alike. 

So much for the future; let us return 

to this inexpensive little box. The 

conclusion is obvious. Brik has made an 

inexpensive DAC that — through two 

of its three inputs — can produce real 

music likely to please you. The third 

input might as well not be there. 

We give the Brik DAC, therefore, a 

conditional pass. If your source is coaxial 

or optical — and it very well may be — 

it’s a bargain. 

CROSSTALK 

This is a good DAC but not a great 

one. That is not meant to be disparaging, 

since it actually sounded better than it has 

any right to. Just don’t expect to be blown 

away by the music you’ll hear. It does certain 

things better than expected but, as is 

often the case, it is lacking in other areas. 

The listening experience was not as satisfying 

when I kept comparing every aspect of 

the reproduced performances. 

However, as soon as I stopped being 

so analytical I started enjoying the music 

and, yes, there was music coming out of our 

speakers, and it had no trouble filling the 

room. 

As I said, a good DAC. Entry level 

would I say? Yes. And for a while. 


This is an astonishingly good DAC, but 

whether you should consider one depends 

on your plans for it. If the source will be an 

Airport Express, a CD transport or a dedicated 

computer equipped with an optical 

output, you can expect good performance 

at low cost. If you want to listen to highresolution 

files, however, you would need 

a proper USB connection. The Brik’s USB 

input doesn’t do the job, and it drops the 

quality below what I consider acceptable. 

Of course, I mean what I would consider 

acceptable for my main music system. If 

a couple of the Brik devices will be feeding 

your kitchen system or sitting next to your 

computer, you may be more forgiving. 

The optional power supply may make it 

sound even better. 


Most of us would agree that you usually 

get what you pay for. If you spend a lot you 

get a lot in return. If you don’t, you won’t. 

Well, once in a while a product comes 

along that gives a lot and costs only a little. 

Bass sounded the way it should, treble 

too. I kept listening for clues that this 

DAC was cheap, of mediocre quality, but I 

couldn’t hear any. When coupled with the 

Stello USB interface, it played Way Down 

Deep just the way Jennifer Warnes would 

like to hear it, and it presented the full orchestra 

almost as well as its more expensive 

counterpart. 

Even without the help of the Stello, it 

sounded better than was believable at this 

price point. At just half the cost of a first 

class ticket to a Rolling Stones concert in 

the Big Apple, this big little DAC is a steal 

of a deal. 

—Steve Bourke 



Two Power Filters 

We need hardly tell you 

that controversy swirls 

over the use of filters to 

be placed between your 

music or cinema system and your local 

power utility. You may be told the power 

is just fine the way it is, and any residual 

electrical interference that remains 

will be dealt with perfectly adequately 

by your product’s own power supply. 

Indeed, we know of amplifiers that 

include small filter networks right inside 

their chassis. 

We also know that the critics are 

blowing smoke. 

And we know that because we can 

hear the results for ourselves. If we 

remove the filtering from either of our 

music systems, we are horrified by the 

increased shrillness and harshness. 

What’s more, our eyes confirm what 

our ears tell us, for when we first added 

a filter to our cinema system, the next 

thing we had to do was lower the contrast 

on our plasma TV. Yes, filtering has that 

kind of effect. 

Not all filters, unfortunately, work 

well, or at all. Many are made of plastic 

and have unshielded cords, and are thus 

vulnerable to more spurious noise than 

they can possibly take out. Some include 

so-called surge suppressors, which can 

supposedly protect your system against 

events that hardly ever occur outside 

urban legends (see the sidebar, Conditioning 

Versus Protection, on page 52). Some 

have connectors that can be charitably 


described as “dodgy.” Such “filters” are, 

unfortunately, in the majority. 

Our original reference system, in the 

Alpha room, still uses an Inouye SPLC 

filter, long out of production, as well as 

a Foundation Research LC-2 for the 

power amplifier. Both our Omega audio 

system and our Kappa cinema system 

are equipped with GutWire MaxCon 

Squared filters. We did the listening 

for the review of these two products on 

our Omega system. We listened first 

with our GutWire filter in place, then 

we listened again, substituting first one 

filter, then the other. 

There was a reason we made this 

an all-digital test. Digital components 

generate plenty of noise, which often 

propagates through the power wiring. 

And perhaps we should repeat a surprising 

anecdote we’ve written about before. 

At one time, our Omega system 

included a power bar that had cost 

perhaps $4 at Walmart, but that surely 

couldn’t matter, because none of the 

main system was actually plugged into it. 

It fed the little light over the turntable, 

and also a portable computer charger. 

We needed a longer cord, however, and 

we substituted an all-metal power bar 

along with one of our shielded power 

cords. Wow! Everyone noticed, without 

prompting, that a veil had been lifted 

from the music. That power bar had 

not been feeding anything vital, but its 

unshielded cable was crossing all the 

other cables. That was enough! 

The three music selections we used 

for this review were on a remote Mac 

Pro computer’s hard drive, streamed to 

a MacBook Pro via Wi-Fi (that sounds 

complicated, but operationally it just 

works). From the MacBook, a BIS Audio 

USB cable took the signal to our Stello 

U3 USB interface, then via an Atlas 

Mavros digital cable to a Moon 300D 

converter. That is how we now listen to 

most digital music. All three selections 

were from Red Book CDs. 

The GutWire 4 Bar 

This filter looks very much like 

the MaxCon Squared it replaces, with 

four Hubbell outlets. The green dots 

on the outlets indicate their hospital 

grade rating, and the IEC jack is from 

Furutech. GutWire does not specify 

what is inside the device, other than to 

say that there are no series components 

that would limit current to a large power 

amplifier. 

The case is milled aluminum. 

GutWire says the filter uses “ERPi 

(Improved Electron Rectification Processing) 

Level 2.” We’re not certain 

what that could mean, since if you 

rectify AC you get DC. GutWire cites 

“extensive use of natural minerals like 

Binch-tan and Microcrystalline Quartz. 

Both minerals can release negative ions 

and far infrared (FIR) which helps to 

improve the flow and ‘cleanness’ of the 

AC current.” We should mention that 

the company also makes a titanium and 

germanium iPhone case with claimed 

health benefits. Just so you know. 

The 4 Bar costs $1099, about the 

same price as our MaxCon. Like the 

MaxCon, it has no captive power cord, 

and none is supplied, which means you’ll 

need to add your own, an extra expense. 

That’s not an item on which you will 

want to pinch pennies. 

We began with Carmen Lundy 

singing ’Round Midnight from her Self 

Portrait album (JVCXR-0005-2). We 

listened to it with our older GutWire, 

and then we substituted the 4 Bar and 

listened again. 

The song sounded different, but we 

weren’t initially certain whether that 

difference was an improvement. Though 

the volume had been left untouched, 

both Albert and Gerard thought the


song sounded louder…too loud, in fact. 

One result, however, was that some of 

the fine details in Lundy’s voice and in 

the strings were more apparent. “Certain 

syllables were too prominent,” said 

Gerard, “and they began to annoy me. 

The sibilance was more pronounced 

as well.” Steve, by contrast, liked the 

“bigger and fuller presentation,” and preferred 

the 4 Bar. Albert also praised the 

more airy and dynamic sound obtained 

with the 4 Bar. 

We continued with Doug McLeod’s 

Blues number, Run With the Devil from 

Come to Find (Audioquest AQCD1027). 

Gerard noted right off that the song 

seemed louder than it had been with 

our MaxCon filter, even though the 

MaxCon, like the 4 Bar, has no currentlimiting 

elements. Some syllables were 

more prominent, as with the first song. 

Steve found the sound more forward. 

The increased apparent loudness 

(which, we must stress, is due to a subjective 

effect) also brought advantages. 

McLeod sometimes lets phrases tail 

off, making his final syllables difficult 

to hear. With the 4 Bar, we found the 

text easier to follow (and it is worth 

following). His guitar was even more 

percussive, and we mean that as praise. 

“The guitar is palpable,” said Albert 

admiringly. 

The final piece was Norman Dello 

Joio’s Fantasy on a Theme by Haydn for 

wind band (Klavier K11138). This is an 

impressive recording, with percussion 

that can shake the floor and your whole 

body. Gerard found the woodwinds a 

little too forward with the 4 Bar, but 

really the performance was outstanding 

with both filters. Neither Albert nor 

Steve found the differences significant. 

As you can see, the new GutWire is 

only a little different from the old one. 

But we had a challenger waiting. 

Kingsound KS-010 Current Smoother 

This filter from China looks like 

a serious product, housed in a mauve 

anodized aluminum chassis with screwin 

spike feet and a captive power cord. 

It has six outlets to the GutWire’s four. 

Though they have no hospital-grade 

designation, they offer a tight connection, 

and inserting a plug into any of the 

outlets requires some force. Its power 

cord is both stiff 

and short. When we gave it a half twist in 

order to orient it so that the plug was the 

right way up, the unit flipped over! The 

version of the KS-010 we reviewed costs 

$595, but there is, fortunately, another 

version with the same model name but 

a longer cable (1.8 metres), available for 

$695. That $100 surplus may seem like 

a lot for just an extra length of wire, but 

it is expensive wire. Even at that price, 

though, the Kingsound still comes in 

well below the price of nearly all other 

power filters. 

Why spiked feet on a box that 

contains no audio circuitry? That’s 

presumably to stabilize it against ambient 

vibration, and it is what you would 

want to do with an amplifier or digital 

player as well. In an electronic circuit, 

any joint is potentially microphonic and 

can generate noise if it moves. Broadband 

noise contains higher frequencies, 

which can propagate from one conductor 

to another. The spikes may or may not 

make a difference, but including them is 

good practice. 

Kingsound says the device does not 

contain the usual resistors and coils that 

might limit current. So what is in it? The 

documentation mentions only “the same 

technology found in advanced medical 

equipment and voltage regulating principles 

normally used in laser devices.” 

That’s more than a little vague, but it’s 

all we were able to find out. 

The power cord, as already noted, 

is captive, and it is not the usual offthe-shelf 

AC cabling. It is made from 

OCC single-crystal copper with double 

shielding, cryogenically treated (we can’t 

vouch for the usefulness of this last 

feature, but Kingsound doesn’t charge 

extra for it). The wall plug is a Furutech, 

with conductive 

surfaces of 

pure copper, not the 

usual brass, nickel, etc. 

Though the KS-010 has 

six outlets, they are daisy-chained, 

which means that there is a shorter path 

to the one nearest the power cord than to 

the one at the other end. That was where 

we plugged in our Moon W-8 power 

amplifier, which would require all of the 

current the KS-010 could pass on. With 

everything plugged in, we let it all warm 

up for 10 minutes and listened once more 

to our three selected recordings. 

The opening of ’Round Midnight 

was superb, with plenty of detail and 

wonderfully clear lyrics. Yet there was 

something wrong. The bottom end was 

constrained, almost anemic, and everything 

seemed smaller. Kingsound claims 

that the KS-010 doesn’t limit current, 

but our W-8 demands a lot of current. 

We left most of our gear, including 

the Moon P-8 preamplifier and 300D 

DAC, connected to the Kingsound, but 

plugged the amplifier directly into the 

Hubbell duplex outlet in the wall. 

And that made all the difference. 

The orchestra had returned to its 

normal size, and Carmen Lundy’s voice 

had once again found all of its warmth 

and smoothness. Her lower tones had 

more natural resonance. We hung on 

her every word. “This is almost like the 

reference,” said Steve. 

We continued with the Doug 

McLeod Blues song, and once again 

we were pleased with what we heard. 

His acoustic guitar sounded lively and 

realistic. McLeod himself had wonderful 

presence, and his voice was clear and 

expressive. Rhythm was strong. 

Were the lyrics actually easier to 

follow than they had been with our 

MaxCon filter? Both Gerard and Albert 

thought they were. “The guitar had less 

punch when it was slapped,” said Steve, 

“but the lyrics were better defined. It’s 

a matter of emphasis.” 



Conditioning Versus Protection 

If we mention AC power conditioner to most people, they think of a very different 

device that is much more common: the surge protector. The two are not the 

same, and in some ways they are opposites. 

The rationale behind the surge protector is that there may be power “surges” 

(quick rises in line voltage beyond the usual voltage) that can destroy your expensive 

equipment. A surge protector looks like an ordinary power bar, but contains some 

sort of magic circuit that will either moderate a surge in some unknown way or 

else “take a bullet,” sacrificing itself to save your other gear. 

Fortunately, such surges are rare, and that’s putting the worst face on it. When 

was the last time you lost a refrigerator to a “power surge”? Huge power surges can 

result from lightning strikes, but the resulting voltage will usually be high enough 

to leap across several centimetres, and will bypass any protective circuit. 

Our lawyers would like us to add that if you live in certain vulnerable places, 

especially rural areas, you may see more power surges than city people would. 

The other thing you should know is that the typical surge protector is of dreadful 

quality, and will make you think you’re listening to a $200 boom box. 

With the final wind band piece, 

we were unanimous: the Kingsound 

KS-010 is a high-class piece of gear. 

The impact of the tympani was huge, 

even greater than with the reference 

filter (perhaps plugging the W-8 directly 

into the wall would be a good idea there 

too). Impact aside, there seemed to be 

improved definition of the woodwinds, 

possibly because there was no veiling 

to hide them. “The woodwinds sound 

entirely natural,” said Gerard. “They’re 

magnificent.” 

Final conclusions 

Both filters sound very good, and 

either one can make your system sound 

its best. 

The Kingsound has some obvious 

advantages over its rival: more outlets, 

the included high-grade captive cord, 

and spiked feet. Disadvantages include 

its inability to handle a power amplifier 

the size of ours, and a power cord that, 

in its cheaper version, is too short to be 

useful. 

You are no doubt aware that there 

are many power conditioners on the 

market, at widely divergent prices. Some 

are protection circuits rather than filters, 

and — unless you live out in the country 

at the top of a treeless hill — you’ll want 

to avoid them. An acceptable filter will 

have outlets offering a tight connection, 

and enough of them to accept all 

the products you need to feed. It will 

have a large, shielded power cable with 

a high-grade wall plug that has proper 

mechanical connections, not a cheap 

molded plug. Or, of course, it may have 

no cord at all, letting you make your own 

choice. 

Last but not least, it will have to 

actually do something. Something good. 

That should go without saying, but don’t 

count on being able to determine that by 

reading the literature. 

CROSSTALK 

At only half the cost of the GutWire 

4 Bar, the Kingsound might turn out to be 

a bargain. Let’s see now: it has inputs for 

power cords, it has a sleek, streamlined look 

that I like. I like its color too. How about its 

function? 

No problem for detail, and the bass 

performance rang true. The music provoked 

a visceral response, similar to what I remembered 

from the reference line conditioner. 

The GutWire 4 Bar is close in performance 

to its older sibling, which happens to 

be our reference. Both of these conditioners 

are high-calibre products, and either one 

can improve the overall performance of a 

high-end system. 

—Steve Bourke 

We should never underestimate the 

importance of good, clean power. The process 

of testing it is never simple, however, 

since any unit designed to do the cleaning 

stands in its own way. 

When I hear details and improvements 

that I had never noticed before, without 

losing the music I knew, I conclude that the 

unit is more transparent than the previous 

one. That happened with the GutWire as I 

became aware of a richer orchestral texture, 

lyrics that became clearer and an image that 

appeared to be even more convincing than 

the reference. 

And yet, even if it sounded different, 

I also loved the music played through the 

Kingsound. I felt, more than heard, a good 

sense of balance through the pieces that we 

listened to. All the elements that I appreciated 

above were present, but less obviously 

so. It didn’t make a point of sounding better, 

it just let the music flow. And, seemingly, 

very close to the reference. 


I’m bothered by the poor quality and 

quantity of information available for both 

of these devices. Poor documentation is 

common for audio cables, and it is often due, 

at best, to development that has been done 

largely by ear, or, at worst, because the cables 

have been made from unicorn tears and fairy 

dust. A power filter should be a little more 

straightforward. 

So if you ask me how the GutWire 

and the Kingsound work, I can’t tell you. I 

presume the designers know, but in fact they 

may be a little vague on the details too. 

But what you want to know is what happens 

when you plug your gear into one of 

these and you listen to music. 

In both cases, good things happened. Or, 

more accurately, bad things didn’t. I liked the 

4 Bar less than its predecessor, but it really 

doesn’t restrict current. The Kingsound 

couldn’t deliver all the current demanded 

by our very large amplifier, but it otherwise 

equalled and perhaps even outperformed the 

more expensive GutWires. If you get it with 

the longer power cord, I recommend it. 




Radar For 

Your Turntable 

How do you know whether 

your turntable is turning at 

the right speed? With most 

turntables it doesn’t matter, 

because if the speed is wrong you can’t 

change it. We’re rather in favor of correct 

speed being baked-in anyway, but 

sometimes it’s not. These two devices 

can allow you to check the platter speed. 

What you do with the information is 

then up to you. 

Of course, you don’t need an expensive 

device to read the speed of a turntable 

platter. The simplest speed-check 

Yes, we know the SpeedNic is a 

one-trick pony, but so are Triple Crown 

winners. 

Why wouldn’t your fixed-speed 

turntable be going at the right speed? 

It might not if it is having traction 

problems. Can it be that the drive belt 

is slipping? If so, the drag of the stylus 

in a highly modulated groove can slow it 

down intermittently. The SpeedNic can 

confirm it, after which you’ll do what you 

have to do. 

Fortunately, neither of our turntables 

(a Linn LP12 and an Audiomeca J-1) 

showed any detectable speed variation 

on either the 33 or 45 r/min speeds (the 

SpeedNic has a setting for 78 r/min as 

well). Our J-1 turntable actually does 

have variable speed control, and the 

SpeedNic made adjustment easy. Just 

for fun, we also tried it on an old directdrive 

table with variable speed. Setting 

the speed was easy, much easier than 

with the turntable’s own neon-lit strobe 

display. Playing a busy groove or putting 

extra weight on the platter had no visible 

effect either. Because the strobe disc has 

such clear markings, any speed error 

would be obvious. 

There is no external power supply, 

since the SpeedNic does not depend on 

the power-line frequency to generate its 

stroboscopic light. It runs in fact on batteries, 

namely three alkaline C cells. We 

wished there were a proper battery door 

on the unit, but in fact the batteries are 

accessible only by removing four Philipshead 

screws from the bottom plate. 

THIS MAGAZINE IS INTERACTIVE! 

That’s a clear inconvenience, though 

It work in three ways. LEDs draw little current, and the unit 

In the table of contents, click on is typically an article used title, only a few seconds at a 

and you are whisked right to time. the The article. batteries can thus be expected 

In the list of advertisers on the to second-last for years. page, 

device is just click a on cardboard an ad name, circle and with go right to The the SpeedNic ad itself. is wonderfully wellmade, 

ad, with a substantial cast aluminum 

strobe patterns on it, often Then included click with on an 

the and turntable. your browser You illuminate will take you it with right a to case the advertiser’s anodized in Web either page. silver or black. 

lamp (preferably Remember neon, when or something you’d have else to circle Its price little of numbers $399 reflects its luxurious fit 

that can go on and on off a quickly). card you However would then and mail finish. in? You won’t buy one for looks 

the 60 Hz (or 50 Doesn’t Hz in most that of seem the world) like a long alone, time though. ago? For a store that sells and 

frequency doesn’t mesh well with, say, 33 sets up turntables, it is clearly a must. 

and a third r/min. The two SpeedNic It may also be useful for anyone with a 

devices include a beautiful aluminum turntable that does not have fixed speed, 

strobe disc, but also a quartz-controlled like our Audiomeca. It could even have 

LED light that will allow an accurate a permanent place next to the turntable 

reading. LEDs, like neon bulbs but itself. It’s a handsome product that will 

unlike incandescents, turn on and off make a good-looking turntable look even 

instantly. 

better. 



Samsung Boom Box 

If you associate Samsung with 

either smartphones or (as we do) 

top-grade TV sets, you’ll see this 

device, the DA-E750, as something 

(as Monty Python would say) completely 

different. 









tisi. 















































Brand/model: Samsung DA-E750 

Price: C$600 (street price) 

Size (WDH): 45 x 24 x 15 cm 

Connectivity: Bluetooth 3.0/Apt-X, 

Airplay, AllShare, Apple and Samsung 

docks 

Rated power: 20 watts/channel 

(main), 40 watts (woofer) 

Most liked: Stunning looks 

Least liked: Digital volume control 

reduces resolution 

Verdict: A tweak away from perfection 











































elenisi. 







luptat. 

Od tat lor sim nisci tat at ut iril eum 

vullaor se ex enim dignim digna commodolore 

commy num veniam dolut 




nonsed delenim.

THE AUDIOPHILE STORE 55 

INTERCONNECTS 

ATLAS HYPER SYMMETRICAL 

Oxygen-free continuous 

cast (OCC): each strand 

is a single copper 

crystal. Two internal 

conductors, plus double 

shielding (copper Mylar 

plus braided screen). 

ORDER: AHS-1 Hyper Symmetrical, 1m, $425, AHS-2, 2m, $539 

ORDER: AHSB-1 Balanced, single crystal XLR, 1m, $725 

ATLAS ELEMENT 

We did a blind test, and 

this supposed starter 

cable wiped the floor with 

a much more expensive 

one. Which we dropped. 

And then they improved 

it further with the Integra 

connector, which is noncompressing 

and solder-free. 

ORDER: AELI-1, 1 m pair Atlas Element Integra, $99 

PIERRE GABRIEL SILVER 

UHF’s reference systems still include some of Pierre Gabriel’s silver 

interconnects and speaker cables. Now they’re back, with a superb 

silver interconnect, fitted with WBT’s superb nextgen silver locking 

connectors. Also available with copper nextgen connectors. 

ORDER: PGI-1, 1 m interconnect pair, silver nextgens, $995 

ORDER: PGI-2, 2 m interconnect pair, silver nextgens, $1595 

ORDER: PGIC-1, 1 m interconnect pair, copper nextgens, $879 

MAVROS OCC 

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, $85/set). Hyper Biwire is 

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

ORDER: AH2, Hyper 2 cable, $34.95/metre 

ORDER: AHB, Hyper Biwire cable, $54.95/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, $85 per 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 OPUS DIGITAL 

This was our long-time reference, originally selling for $399. We 

now have a limited stock at a drastically reduced price. 

ORDER: AOD-1.5 digital cable, 1.5m, $239 

ATLAS MAVROS DIGITAL 

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. It 

comes in a squirt bottle 

even for connections you 

can’t reach. NASA likes it, 

and so do we. 

ORDER: PGS, can DeOxit fluid, $43.95 

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 

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

preamp of our Omega system. Single-crystal copper. 

ORDER: AMI-1, 1 m Mavros interconnect pair, $1499 

ORDER: AMI-2, 2 m Mavros interconnect pair, $2100 

SPEAKER CABLES 

ATLAS MAVROS CABLES 

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

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

Teflon dielectric, available with OCC spades, as shown, or with 

rhodium-plated locking bananas. We can upgrade to WBT 

nextgen locking bananas. 

ORDER: AMBCu-3, 3 m pair, OCC spades or bananas, $2999 

ORDER: AMBCu-5, 5 m pair, $4800 

ORDER: WBT, upgrade from rhodium bananas to WBT nextgen 

locking bananas, $130 per set of four (3 sets needed for biwiring) 

This is our new reference digital cable. We recommend it for the 

best systems. 

ORDER: AMD-1.5 digital cable, 1.5m, $599 

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-1.8 TOSLINK cable, 1.8m length $22.95 

ORDER: TD-3 TOSLINK cable, 3m length $29.95 

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 

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, $85 

ORDER: FTS-R, set of four spades, $85 

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 

www.uhfmag.com/AudiophileStore.html

56 

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 as a reference. 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, $18.95 

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 CLEANER 

We’re often asked how we clean the stylus on our cartridge. The 

Enzow Zerodust gets used after every play. Its gummy surface 

sucks dust from the stylus, and washes under the tap. 

ORDER: Enzow Zerodust, $66.95 

THE AUDIOPHILE STORE 

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: Hyper Symmetrical, 1m, $425, for $265 

ORDER: Hyper Symmetrical, 2m, $539 for $399 

ORDER: Hyper balanced, 1m, $725, for $535 

ORDER: AMI-1, 1 meter Mavros, $1499, for $1199 

ORDER: AMI-2, 2 meter Mavros, $2100, for $1749 

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 AEL-1, Atlas Element, $99.95, for $59.95 

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: Replacement 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 

antistatic 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 

KINGSOUND CURRENT 

SMOOTHER 

Economy priced, but astonishingly effective —we wouldn’t run 

our system with less. We had been waiting eagerly for a power 

filter that actually worked and didn’t have a price in four digits. 

This is it. A solid cast-metal body houses six high-grade AC outlets 

(not hospital-grade, but offering wonderfully tight contact). The 

1.8-metre OCC (single-crystal) captive power cord is cryogenically 

treated and fitted with a pure-copper Furutech plug. 

NOTE: The photo shows a unit with a shorter and less practical 

power cord. It would cost less, but we don’t recommend it. 

ORDER: KS-010, Current Smoother $695 


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 plugs 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 


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. 

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

BETTER DIGITAL 

MOON 300D v.2 DAC 

It has 24/192 resolution on coax, optical and asynchronous USB. 

The full review of version 1 is in UHF No. 89. The review of this 

version is in issue No. 93. 

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 on an Atlas Opus cable (usually $239). 

ORDER: 300D V.2, $2200 

ORDER: 300D v.2 + Opus digital cable, $2350 

ORDER: 300D v.2+ Mavros digital cable, $2600 

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 

AN IMPORTANT NOTE We still have stock of the older 300D, 

which is our reference. The main difference is in the USB input, 

which is now asynchronous.. A factory upgrade is available for 

$800. 

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, $649 

ORDER: 100D plus Element 1m cables, $699 

ORDER: 100D plus Hyper Symmetrical 1m cables, $899 

SUPER ANTENNA MkIII 

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 

THORENS TURNTABLES 

AND GOLDRING CARTRIDGES 

AVAILABLE ON LINE 

www.uhfmag.com/AudiophileStore 

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 four of them ourselves. How is it done? Our 

antenna has no stupid rotary switch to muck things up. It uses 

a high-grade video transformer, and with a low-loss multipleshielded 

75 ohm cable and gold-plated F connector, it has low 

internal loss. It covers digital TV bands as well as FM. 

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


58 

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. If you have a fragile hardwood floor, add the 

optional Tendercup (shown above) to protect it. 

ORDER: TFG, tall silver Tenderfoot, $18 

ORDER: TFGN, tall black Tenderfoot, $23 

ORDER: TFP, flat silver Tenderfoot, $15 

ORDER: TFP, flat black Tenderfoot, $17 

ORDER: TCP, silver Tendercup, $15 

ORDER: TCPN, black Tendercup, $17 

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 

FOUNDATION SPEAKER STANDS 

The ultimate loudspeaker stand, made from patented high-density 

material. There is nothing deader. Available in Canada and US 

only, Stands will be drop-shipped to your address by Focus Audio 

via UPS. 

ORDER: FFA one pair 24” Foundation stands, $1495 

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 white only. 

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 “Professor” 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. 

www.uhfmag.com/AudiophileStore.html 

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


red 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 400- 

pound 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 


60 

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! (NOW OUT OF STOCK) 

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 

Payment by VISA or MasterCard, cheque or money order (in Canada). All merchandise is guaranteed unless explicitly sold “as 

is.” Certain items (the Super Antenna, the EAC line filter, and most standard-length cables) may be returned within 21 days less 

shipping cost. Other items may be subject to a restocking charge. Defective recordings will be exchanged for new copies. 

HERE’S HOW TO CALCULATE YOUR SHIPPING COST: 

IN CANADA: up to $30, $2.10, up to $60, $3.00, above $70 not counting taxes, free. In Canada shipping costs are taxable. 

TO THE USA: up to $30, $3.00, up to $60,$4.20, above $60, 5%. 

TO OTHER COUNTRIES: up to $30, $5.40. Up to $60, $9.00. Above $60, 10%. Magazines, books and taxes are not counted 

toward the total. 

BRAND MODEL DESCRIPTION PRICE EACH QUANTITY TOTAL PRICE 

ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE 

270 rue Victoria, LONGUEUIL, Québec, Canada J4H 2J6 

Tel.: (450) 651-5720 FAX: (450) 651-3383 

Internet: www.uhfmag.com/AudiophileStore.html 

E-mail: uhfmail@uhfmag.com 

TOTAL COST OF ACCESSORIES 

COST OF RECORDS ON OTHER SIDE OF THE PAGE 

SHIPPING COST (SEE ABOVE) 

TOTAL COST BEFORE TAXES 

13% HST (NB, NS, NF, ON, PEI) 

5% GST (rest of Canada)____________________9.97% TVQ (Québec only)____________TOTAL______________ 

On the other side of this page, circle the number of each of the records you need. On the coupon above, add in the list of accessories, calculate the total, and add shipping and all applicable taxes. All prices 

are in Canadian dollars. Include a cheque or money order (Canada or US only), or include your credit card number (VISA or MasterCard), expiry date and signature. Note that prices may fluctuate, and 

the current price always applies. We are not responsible for typographical errors. If a price drops after we go to press (yes, it does happen), you will be credited for any overpayment. 

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62 


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 21.00 

30th Anniversary Sampler RR-908 16.95 

Alleluía AN 2 8810 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 21.95 

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 21.95 

Good Vibes PRCD9058 21.95 

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 21.95 

I’ve Got the Music in Me 10076 21.00 

Jazz at the Pawnshop PRCD-7778 21.95 

Jazz at the Pawnshop 2 PRCD9044 21.95 

Jazz Hat RR-114 16.95 

www.uhfmag.com/AudiophileStore.html 

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 

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Nojima Plays Ravel RR-35CD 16.95 

Non-Stop to Brazil JD29 19.95 

Norman Dello Joio K11138 21.00 

Nota del Sol AN 2 9817 21.00 

Now the Green Blade Riseth PRCD9093 21.95 

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 

Spirit and the Blues CD19401 19.95 

Styles SLC9604-2 22.00 

Suite Española XR24 068 38.95 

Swing is Here RR-72CD 16.95 

Swingcerely Yours CD2208 24.95 

Telemann Sonatas for 2 Violins FL 2 3085 21.00 

Test CD 5 CD20000 21.95 

The King James Version 10068-2-F 21.00 

Tower of Power 10074 21.00 

Trittico RR-52CD 16.95 

Tutti (HDCD) RR-906CD 16.95 

Ultimate Demonstration Disc UD95 20.00 

Villa-Lobos FL 2 3051 21.00 

Violonchelo Español AN 2 9897 21.00 

Vivace AN 2 9808 21.00 

Vivaldi: Motets for Soprano FL 2 3099 21.00 

Vivaldi: Per Archi FL 2 3128 21.00 

We Get Requests K2HD 032 38,95 

World Keys RR-106 16.95 

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Software 

Violin hand-built by Albert Courchesne, lent to UHF, and photographed by Albert Simon 

The Magic of 

the Violin 

The alleyways of the world’s innocent games and playacting. 

great cities have always The alleyways of my own childhood 

been the playground of their were special. There I would find farmers 

youngest citizens. Outdoor hawking their wares at the top of their 

stairways soaring high above their heads, lungs, along with the ragman and the 

the mysterious sheds, back gardens of 

unplanted sod are the theatres of their by Reine Lessard 

iceman. The iceman impressed me most, 

with his hooklike tongs that seemed an 

extension of his arm, allowing him to 

lift great blocks with astonishing ease. I 

would think of those characters in pirate 

stories, with hooks for hands. 

Among these passersby was my favorite: 

the fiddler. Dressed in a dark suit 

with a glistening white starched collar 

and a black tie, he wore dark glasses and a 

hat, which he would place on the ground 

when he was ready to play, revealing his 

slick black hair. A spiritual ancestor of 

today’s subway musicians, he would play 

passionately a few classical pieces for a 

tiny audience, and with luck he would 

find a few coins in his hat. Despite my 

tender age, I thought his eyes reflected 

all the sadness of the world. 

Was he a talented musician without a 

job? I recall him with emotion as I write, 

thinking he had never had the chance to 

play with a great orchestra as he might 

have deserved. 

When I look back on my childhood, 

two musical instruments play a large 

role: the piano and the violin. The latter 

had belonged to one of my uncles, and 

it awaited the opportunity to recover its 

voice. As it rested atop our mahogany 

piano, what dreams it evoked in me! The 

violin is surely the most expressive of all 

the bowed instruments, capable of filling 

you with nostalgia, making your feet 

dance, producing sounds that alternate 

between plaintive and joyous. 

The beginning 

Must we suppose that the violin is 

the product of countless experiments 

across the centuries? Can we say that 

its genealogy is at once diffused and 

diverse? Though many music historians 

cite its long development, is that not like 

saying that the agora of ancient Athens 

was the precursor of the Internet? So 

what? Does the violin have many cousins, 

as some researchers claim? Or did 

it appear fully-formed, by spontaneous 

generation? 

The violin, it must be said, is at once 

archaic and contemporary. Four and 

a half centuries’ worth of musicians 


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and music lovers have contemplated aces, with their grandiose architecture 

it, adored it, made it sing, drawn from and opulent interiors, reflect the financial 

ease created by the newborn phe- 

it dances, laughter, sobs, reverie. Four 

and a half centuries’ worth of experts nomenon of international commerce. In 

have failed to elucidate the mystery surrounding 

its unknown inventor, its date ing the wealth resulting from seemingly 

all things there is a flamboyance reflect- 

of birth, its creation in its nearly final endless expansion. The rich — royalty, 

form. 

nobility and high clergy — show their 

I shall reluctantly turn to conjecture. wealth by filling their palaces with the 

I shall however stay with the basics: the most sumptuous furnishings and decor. 

violin and its rapid rise. 

In Italy, inspired by Antiquity, the arts 

are borne to a level unequalled in human 

Is it really the same instrument? 

GET THE COMPLETE history VERSION! by such as Michelangelo, at once 

All musical instruments You’ll throughout have noticed painter, that this sculptor, free architect and poet, 

history have undergone major version and often 

UHF Raffaelo Magazine Sanzio, known as Raphael, 

surprising transformations. is not You quite might complete. painter But and you architect, can and Leonardo da 

well ponder what the medieval get trumpet the complete Vinci, version painter, architect, sculptor, inventor 

for and $4. author. 

has in common with the much from more Maggie 

powerful modern trumpet, Click whose here, valves and away But we while go! most of the arts take their 

allow it to change key. Or what a late 18 th cue from ancient Greece and Rome, 

century piano, whose sound board would music is an exception. Only in literary 

not have survived Beethoven’s energetic references can we find any hint of what 

playing, has in common with the pianoforte 

that followed it, to say nothing of suppose that the ancients used some 

music was like 20 centuries ago. We can 

the modern piano? What of the guitar? form of musical notation, but if it existed 

And what of percussion, which changed it has been lost. Thus music must be 

radically over time? Some instruments reinvented as it is imagined to have been. 

have vanished completely, such as the Of course, it is fashioned in the spirit 

recorder, replaced by the flute, the of the new times: flamboyant. There is 

clarinet, the bassoon and a growing a search for new sounds. With powerful 

brass added to the orchestra, string 

woodwind family, its role relegated to 

period music. 

instruments also needed a louder and 

The violin alone is nearly unchanged. brighter sound, lest they be drowned out. 

The violins of Amati, Guarneri and In southern Europe, between the 

Stradivari are the same instruments Adriatic and the Mediterranean, lies 

found in modern symphony orchestras, Italy. In the north of Italy, at the foot of 

having barely evolved. 

the Alps, is Lombardy. In Lombardy are 

But where did it come from, this the cities of Cremona, Milan and Venice. 

prodigious instrument that alone can In one of those cities, there lives a certain 

rival the female voice, to which it is man, perhaps a musician, or possibly 

often compared, able to express the most an engineer, though that is but a guess. 

varied emotions? How to explain that, What we know for sure is that he is a 

after its invention, instrument makers luthier of genius. One day, this luthier 

seemed so satisfied with their work that invents and makes the first violin. 

they sought neither to improve it nor to If his name is unknown, so is the year 

replace it, content merely to imitate it? of his invention, though it is thought to 

Was it so very perfect? 

have been around 1520. The chronicles 

I believe that the answer is yes, that of the time have left us not a phrase, not 

the violin was, one day, invented in its a word, to mark such a seminal event. 

final and perfect form, as though nothing 

could ever be added. 

in its final form, to be perfected over 

Yet we do know that the violin appeared 

two centuries by such men as Amati, 

Italy, forever Italy 

Guarneri and Stradivari. 

Let us look back to the spirit of In Brescia, around the middle of 

renewal that washed over the end of the 16 th century, lives a luthier named 

the 15 th century on the eve of the pre- Gasparo da Saló, who, with his student 

Baroque period. The Renaissance pal- 

Giovanni Paolo Maggini, attempts to 


transform the viol into a sort of rudimentary 

violin. The viol has six metal 

strings and two sound holes whose two 

ends curve in the same direction. Its 

evocative sound has little power. Da 

Saló, born in 1540, creates a bowed 

string instrument that looks not unlike 

the violin we know. It will be called the 

viola da braccio (literally a viol braced on 

the arm), but it is not yet a violin. 

At about the same time in Cremona, 

Andrea Amati — 20 years older than de 

Saló — founds a school for luthiers and 

builds instruments with four strings, 

instruments we would recognize as 

violins. In fact, the oldest surviving 

violin was built in Cremona by Amati 

himself. That can lead us to believe 

that he came into possession of the 

secrets of this mysterious genius of 

Lombardy. Perhaps he somehow found 

plans for the instrument, or even had 

the chance to hold in his hands the precious 

object he would later reproduce. 

But he himself is not the inventor 

of the violin, and that has been proved 

beyond doubt. We can say, however, that 

he was the first famous luthier of Cremona. 

With the gift of an extraordinary 

acoustical sense, he worked diligently 

to find the right balance between the 

instrument’s acoustical and aesthetic 

qualities. He perfected his violins by 

seeking out the right woods, and by 

importing from the Orient, by way of

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Venice, the ingredients to make his 

lacquers. 

The violin’s rapid rise 

The violin has a stupefyingly broad 

range of expression, It can produce a 

tone that is at once sustained and varied, 

as only the human voice could previously 

do, and its sound is remarkably powerful. 

At its beginnings, its loud and strident 

sound offended the influential, which is 

to say the nobility and the high clergy, 

who found it vulgar. But impoverished 

musicians playing for local festivities 

quickly saw its advantages and were 

eager to acquire the new and inexpensive 

instrument. Beating time with their feet, 

they played on public squares and in taverns, 

providing a magnificent alternative 

to the poor viol, which struggled to make 

itself heard out of doors. 

The technical, acoustical and aesthetic 

challenges of the new, larger 

orchestras and the increasingly vast concert 

halls required louder instruments. 

Pressing the violin into service became a 

necessity, and that necessity finally won 

over the critics. Thus the violin began 

its meteoric rise which — stimulated by 

opera — accelerated toward an apogee 

no instrument had ever reached in so 

short a time. This invention of the 16 th 

century took but a few decades to attain 

requires the warmth of the sun to set 

the lacquers, and that is is why they are 

behind on their deliveries. The violin 

ordered was probably made by one of 

Amati’s two sons, both master luthiers. 

They develop a style that will remain 

until Stradivari later makes changes that 

will lead to the modern violin. 

A member of the illustrious Amati 

dynasty, Andrea’s grandson Nicoló 

(1596-1684), distinguishes himself by 

the meticulous care he brings to his 

violins, whose finish and sound are of 

great beauty. Among his many students 

are Antonio Stradivari and Andrea 

Guarneri — the second will found his 

own dynasty, ending with Bartolomeo 

Giuseppe (1687-1745) and Giuseppe del 

Gesù. Nicoló will die in his 50’s, leaving 

How Maggie Works behind some 250 violins, of which some 

UHF is, and has 150 beenhave survived. 

for many years, Del Gesù, though he will follow the 

a print magazine. But example we know of his master, experiments with 

more and more audiophiles multiple variations in the dimensions, 

want to read it on architecture their and other elements. Over 

computer or iPad. And time they’re 

makes the sound board less 

willing to save money convex too. and lengthens the sound holes, 

Click here, and let so Maggie that his violins play louder. The extra 

explain how to get power the full of del Gesù’s Guarneris charms 

version for $4. a number of great violinists, including 

And we mean a Paganini. PDF Though Paganini owns more 

version without digitl than rights one Stradivarius, he has a particular 

management you can fondness transfer to for the Guarneris — understandable 

choice. considering the power of his 

a status that is unmatched the — device I would of say your 

unmatchable — rising from mere folk playing — and he owns the most famous 

instrument to first instrument of the of them, known as El Canon. (We should 

orchestra. 

note that a contemporary violinist, the 

Evidence? In all accounts of the age, late Yehudi Menuhin, also preferred a 

it is said that in 1560 Charles X, the Guarneri for playing certain works. A 

king of France, commissioned Amati Guarneri from 1729 is shown on this 

to make him 38 bowed instruments, page.) 

including six violas, eight cellos and 24 That said, the greatest luthier of them 

violins. Such was the reputation this all — greater than Nicoló Amati, greater 

instrument of Cremona enjoyed even than Guarneri del Gesù — eclipsing all 

in faraway France, for Cremona was others, is Antonio Stradivari (1644?- 

the world centre of the luthier’s art, its 1737). He builds not only violins but 

violins selling for twice the price of those also cellos and violas. His instruments 

from Brescia, and that would continue. outshine all others in the perfection of 

Why? This anecdote says it all. their form, the amplitude of their sound, 

Galileo (1564-1642), the famous and the incomparable varnish used to 

astronomer, through the good offices of protect them from the ravages of the 

a monk, orders a violin for his nephew years. No wonder musicians and collectors 

today are willing to bid awesome 

but becomes worried as time passes 

with no sign of the instrument. In an sums to obtain a Stradivarius. 

exchange of letters, one of the monks The true artisans of modern violinmaking 

have taken this immortal mega- 

explains to his impatient client that the 

perfection of an instrument of Cremona star as their model. 

Before starting his studies with 

Nicoló Amati, Stradivari is already an 

accomplished sculptor, despite his youth. 

In Cremona, luthiers and artists live 

in the same district. Fascinated by the 

violin, he knocks at his neighbor’s door 

one day. Nicoló quickly sees his young 

student’s immense potential, with skills 

far above those of his other apprentices. 

In the first years of his apprenticeship, 

Stradivari is influenced by his illustrious 

master and makes only Amati models, 

violins that are known today as “Amatized” 

Stradivaris. No doubt because of 

the excellence of his work, he has labels 

printed bearing the inscription Alumnus 

Nicolai Amati. After his teacher’s 


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death in 1684, Stradivari 

lightly modifies the dimensions of the 

violin, making the sound-board even 

less convex, accentuating the curve of 

the waist, and slightly straightening 

the sound holes. He works tirelessly to 

improve his creations, and through his 

knowledge of chemistry he pays great 

attention to the varnishes with which 

he finishes his instruments. 

His reputation extends beyond the 

borders of his country, bringing him 

orders from all over, for which he is 

of course well paid. He is prolific until 

1698, when his wife dies, leaving him 

with six children. Dejected by the loss 

of the woman he loves, he stops making 

violins and sells his house. 

One day, however, he meets a woman 

20 years his junior, and finds both love 

and renewed creative ardor. She will 

bear him five children, and he will give 

himself to his art with renewed passion. 

We are now in 1700. A hundred and 

fifty years and much water have flowed 

under the bridge since the time of 

Andrea Amati. Ever in quest of perfection, 

Stradivari regards each instrument 

as a new opportunity to improve his 

art. Reducing the convexity a few millimetres, 

or refining the shape of the 

sound holes, he gives each of his violins 

a unique timbre and ever greater visual 

beauty. His art is at its peak, and between 

now and his death in 1737 he will sign his 

greatest creations. It is his golden age. 


versial of all the violins of the Golden the art of Cremona is a 1716 Stradivarius 

Age is The Messiah. Stradivari had never he purchased from its owner, the Count 

Yes, sold we it get and asked, it had constantly, never been played. Cosio de Salabue. 

what we will Since be 1904 reviewing it has been in our kept next like issue. a sacred Happy though Tarisio is amid his 

And we relic know in the reviews illustrious are essential. Hill Collection at treasures, one day he decides to sell 

But equipment the reviews Ashmolean are nothing Museum if not in Oxford. plentiful. It some of them. Gathering them in a 

Readers have has long spent told the us that intervening what makes centuries UHF in large burlap sack, he walks from Milan 

particularly valuable museums to and them private are the collections, other articles. and it to Paris, arriving dusty and filthy. Not 

Articles about ideas, remains about the in pristine nuts and condition. bolts of the technology, taking the time to freshen up, he walks 

and also Why about did music Stradivari and film, refuse to sell into a luthier’s workshop and opens his 

which this violin are the or very allow reasons it to be played? That bag. The luthier watches him, agape, 

for our lovingly-created remains an enigma. systems to exist. wondering how this filthy character 

Violin-making in Cremona Not that takes we the will ever I can’t stop publishing resist the hardware temptation reviews. of can have come into possession of such 

world by storm, continuing its extraordinary 

development until the death of 

Stradivari at the age of 93. His instruments, 

so perfect in their own time, are 

still suited to modern music. 

Montreal luthier Jules Saint-Michel 

told me some years ago that no one had 

ever bested Stradivari. A luthier might 

do less well, or try to do as well, but 

doing better is impossible. 

The idea will be familiar to audio- 

mentioning the famous Red Diamond, 

a Stradivarius violin that may have 

inspired François Girard, the young 

director of The Red Violin, a hit with 

moviegoers and music lovers alike. I 

can’t tell you which private collector 

acquired it after it had passed through 

the hands of several illustrious virtuosos, 

but I know that Stradivari built it in 1732. 

Throughout his long life, Stradivari 

built more string instruments than 

treasures. Judging the book by its cover, 

he offers a nominal sum for the violins, 

and Tarisio naively accepts. 

“I have several more like these at 

home,” he tells the buyer before leaving. 

On the way home the truth hits him: he 

didn’t get a fair price for his instruments 

because he looked so pitiful. He decides 

to return to Paris, this time dressed to 

the nines. 

A year later we find our man in Paris 

philes: two designers can use the 

same loudspeaker configurations or 

the same amplifier circuits and obtain 

very different results. In the same way, a 

master luthier may have all the required 

talents, have access to the finest woods, 

find the ideal varnish, and imitate perfectly 

the proportions of the Stradivarius 

violin, but what he makes will not have 

the same perfection. Violin-making is 

science, yes, but it is first of all art. And 

genius. 

Where are they now? 

Some of these antique violins are in 

museums. That’s the case of del Gesù’s 

El Canon, at the Palazzo Municipale of 

Genoa. The School of Violin and Viola 

Makers also keeps a number of antique 

instruments in the Palazzo dell’Arte, as 

do a number of cultural institutions in 

England and elsewhere in the world. The 

Lady Blunt, the Stradivarius shown on 

this page, was sold for nearly £10 million 

for Japanese earthquake relief. 

The most famous and most contro- 

NOT JUST HARDWARE REVIEWS! 

anyone else: some 1200 violins, as well 

as altos and cellos. Nearly 500 of these 

instruments have survived, though 

most have been modified to conform 

to modern standards. Inevitable though 

those changes were. we can only regret 

that we will never hear the sound of the 

original instruments. 

Two of Stradivari’s sons, apprentices 

in their father’s workshop, died not long 

after him. The youngest, little interested 

in violin-making, sold the instruments 

and remaining violin parts to a collector 

who was one of the master’s admirers. 

Some of his tools and gauges are today 

in the Cremona Museum. But the master 

left few clues to his techniques, aside 

from some sketches of violins with inlaid 

wood, which he had built occasionally. 

In the 19 th century, a collector-dealer 

enters our story, buying a considerable 

number of violins, some already famous. 

His name is Luigi Tarisio and he lives 

in Milan. 

He is a carpenter by trade, and his 

work takes him into homes across Italy. 

Though not himself a violinist, he has 

boundless passion for the instrument. 

Each time he sees a violin in a home, he 

purchases it, often for a trifling sum. He 

becomes one of the top experts on the 

violin and quickly builds up a phenomenal 

collection. Among these jewels of

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once more, where he becomes friends 

with a man named Vuillaume, certainly 

the greatest French luthier of his day. 

Now and then, Tarisio brings him 

instruments, never failing to add, “I have 

at home one of Stradivari’s most famous 

violins. It belonged to the Count Cosio 

de Salabue. It was built in 1716, and it 

has never even been played.” Intrigued 

and eager, Vuillaume and other luthiers 

hope to see, at last, the mysterious violin. 

One day Vuillaume’s son-in-law, 

a famous virtuoso, tells Tarisio: “You 

know, your violin is like the Messiah. 

He is always prophesied, but we never 

see Him arrive.” 

Time passes, and one day Vuillaume 

hears of the death of Luigi Tarisio. 

Hastily gathering all the money he can. 

he hies himself to Milan. Tarisio had 

lived by himself in a room in which he 

allowed no visitors. It was there that he 

died, alone, a violin clutched to his chest. 

That violin is The Messiah, the name 

that will remain. 

Vuillaume sets out to find Tarisio’s 

heirs, and for his entire fortune of 80,000 

francs — an enormous sum for the 

time — he buys not only The Messiah 

but also Tarisio’s other violins, stored 

any which way, in drawers or even in a 

stable. The collection is worth millions 

even then. 

Certain experts challenge the 

authenticity of The Messiah, claiming 

it is a copy, the real one having been 

lost. Oh, the fantastic stories told about 

the famous violins and violin-making in 

Cremona during the Golden Age! 

A word about the theft of string 

instruments, especially those of Cremona 

at its peak. How do you fence a 

Stradivarius or a Guarneri? In most 

cases, the thieves are found and the 

instruments returned to their rightful 

owners. 

Each year, the world’s capitals are the 

scene of violin auctions, which of course 

attract not only eager musicians but also 

collectors and speculators. The prices 

fetched by the violins of master luthiers 

of the mid-17 th century to the death of 

Stradivari have continued to soar. But it 

is the precious violins of the 18 th century 

that dominate these filled events. Even 

if Guarneri del Gesù’ instruments reach 

exceptional prices, it is the Stradivarius 

violins that are the most eagerly sought 

after for their sound and their beauty, but 

also because they are so well preserved. 

That last point greatly influences the 

price. 

Closer to home, the Canadian violinist 

Angèle Dubeau has an authentic 

Stradivarius of 1732 that, some years 

back, was at the centre of a hotlycontested 

legal battle from which she 

emerged victorious. She had purchased 

it from another fine violinist, Arthur 

Leblanc, when she obtained her masters 

in music at the age of 15. Her precious 

instrument, “Arthur,” had undergone 

minor alterations long before she bought 

it: its neck was lengthened, and its sound 

board reinforced to improve resistance 

to increased string tension. Nearly all 

antique instruments have been similarly 

modified. 

Dubeau replies to some detractors 

who claim that the reputations of certain 

18 th century master luthiers are overblown, 

and she adds her voice to those 

who consider the violins of the Golden 

Age to be supreme: 

“All the top solo violinists play 

exceptional instruments, Stradivaris or 

Guarneris, either bought or borrowed. 

I’ve had the opportunity to play other 

excellent violins, including a Vuillaume, 


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

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

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reading material for free. 

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

UHF difference, 

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

music or home theatre system. 

We have readers on every continent except Antarctica. 

Most of them discovered us on line. 

They read a lot of our free material. 

And then they and joined I very us. much enjoyed them, but a 

Stradivarius — I mean an instrument 

built in Stradivari’s mature years — is 

unsurpassed. It has an infinitely large 

palette of colors. It is perfect on every 

string. Its low notes are velvet, its high 

notes are pearls.” 

She adds: “You know, an ear that is 

trained to recognize different sounds can 

tell a Stradivarius from another violin. 

If I gather a group of music lovers in a 

room and I play them the same piece 

on different violins, they can tell which 

violin was the Stradivarius. 

“A violinist’s instrument is an extension 

of his being. For my part I have 

tamed my violin, and it has tamed me, 

because a violin of such quality requires 

special care. It can be capricious. For 

instance, it’s very sensitive to changes 

in temperature and it is quite fragile.” 

Some years back, we had dropped 

by her record producer to pick up some 

discs, and while we waited we heard, 

coming from around the corner, the 

sound of a violin that was so sweet and 

fine that it was heart-rending. We looked 

at each other. Impossible! They’ve managed 

to make this good a recording, with 

a sound so perfect even in the high notes? 

We peeked through the doorway and 

saw…Angèle Dubeau with her Strad! 

You may say that without the talent of 

the artist even a Stradivarius will sound 

banal. No doubt, but in the hands of a 

master it is the quintessence of the art. 

Many of the great instruments of the 

Golden Age are still around, played by 

great violinists who either own them 

or have them on loan. Certain philanthropic 

collectors do lend out their 

instruments, happy to hear them singing 

once more in the hands of a master. The 

late violinist and collector Isaac Stern 

regularly lent out his classic instruments 

to talented but impoverished violin 

students. 

That is admirable, though it no doubt 

leaves the young violinist in perpetual 

insecurity, never knowing when the 

instrument that is “an extension of his 

being” may be taken from him. 

The anatomy of the violin 

The modern family of bowed instruments 

is composed of the violin, the 

viola, the cello and the double bass. 

Similarly-shaped, the four instruments 

are built in the same way, differing only 

in size and of course tonal range. 

Don’t be fooled by the apparent 

simplicity of the violin. This tiny and 

lightweight instrument contains over 

70 different parts, shaped and glued 

together by hand. And don’t be fooled 

by the similarity in appearance to that 

ancient instrument, the viol, whose 

sound is familiar to those who have seen 

the film Tous les matins du monde. Seen 

from the front the two instruments do 

look similar, but then you notice the 

differences. 

The most obvious difference is that 

the viol has six strings and the violin 

only four. Unlike the violin, the viol has 

frets, like a guitar. The viol’s sound box 

is larger, and though its sound is rich, it 

doesn’t carry, whereas the violin’s sound 

is both clear and powerful. 

The viol’s body consists of a convex 

sound board mounted onto a flat and 

rigid box to make a simple resonant 


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body. The vibrations of 

the strings are transmitted 

by the bridge to the 

sound board, whose own 

vibrations are accentuated 

by the resonance 

of the body. Two gracefully 

sculpted holes let 

the sound escape. In the 

viol they are C-shaped, 

whereas in the violin 

they are longer, in the 

shape of a cursive ƒ. The 

longer sound holes let 

the vibrations travel 

along the grain of the 

wood. 

But there are even 

more basic differences, 

for the violin is 

a remarkable acoustical 

invention. 

The violin’s body is 

a hollow box with two 

resonant faces, not just 

one. The front face is 

the sound board, convex 

in shape and reinforced 

by a bar. The rear face, 

also convex, looks nearly 

identical. Both are thin, 

their curved shapes 

helping to resist the 

pressure of the bridge and the internal 

soundpost. The two are joined by the 

ribs. A thin and rounded wood piece, 

the bridge, elevates the strings above 

the surface of the sound board. Because 

of the near symmetry of the chassis, 

the acoustical energy transmitted to 

the sound board by the bridge is then 

retransmitted to the back by the soundpost, 

a tiny movable piece that seems of 

little significance but is in fact essential 

to the sound (its French name is l’âme, 

which means “the soul”). The soundpost 

is a small pine cylinder pressed between 

the sound board and the back, which 

the luthier inserts and positions very 

precisely through a sound hole of the 

completed violin. The vibration of the 

two interacting panels sets up a threedimensional 

sound field. This acoustical 

phenomenon gives the violin not only its 

sonic energy, but also the richness and 

warmth that is at the very heart of its 

power over the emotions. 

Scroll 

Sound board 

Back 

Rib 

Waist 

Sound hole 

Purling 

Tail piece 

Neck 

Making a violin requires great skills, 

including remarkable manual dexterity, 

solid technical mastery and an authentic 

passion for the instrument and the art 

of violin-making. Even in our age of 

unprecedented technological advances, 

it is unthinkable to build a quality violin 

by industrial methods. It requires a 

cycle of aging of the woods, followed 

by lacquering. The lacquers must be 

applied in several coats, each given time 

to harden before the next is applied. The 

wood must dry over time, perhaps even 

a number of years. 

Strange as it may seem, the first 

luthiers knew by intuition and by empirical 

knowledge gleaned through countless 

experiments what modern acousticians 

have confirmed scientifically about the 

design, the mastery of shape, its acoustical 

aptitudes and the choice of woods. 

Maple is used for the back, the ribs and 

the neck, ebony for the fingerboard, 

the tailpiece and the tuning pegs, and 

Tuning pegs 

Fingerboard 

pine for the soundpost, 

the sound board and its 

reinforcing bar. 

The spruce pine originally 

used came from the 

Alps of Lombardy, which 

may explain Cremona’s 

place at the heart of violinmaking. 

Pine for modern 

violins mostly comes from 

Switzerland and Germany. 

The violin of the future? 

I shiver with horror to 

think that the violin nearly 

vanished in the very first 

century of its existence. 

History speaks of the diseases, 

the Black Plague 

and cholera, that decimated 

the population of 

Bridge 

much of Europe between 

1630 and 1650. Nicoló 

Amati was the only survivor 

of the master luthiers 

of that time. On his shoulders 

rested the future of 

the violin. His premature 

death would have meant 

the death of the violin as 

well, and the entire development 

of music would 

have changed. 

As already noted, the height of the 

bridge was reduced several times to let 

the violin to play louder. In the early 19 th 

century, the tuning of the orchestra was 

raised, with middle A migrating from 

its traditional frequency of 416 Hz to 

440 Hz, requiring a stronger sound 

board bar and a longer neck to prevent 

the increased string tension from actually 

breaking the instrument. 

More recently, since the War, the 

tuning has been increased even further 

to beyond 440 Hz, in order to make 

the orchestral sound “brighter.” That, I 

believe, shows a lack of respect for the 

composers and also poses a danger for 

the human voice and the instruments 

of the orchestra. Union agreements 

signed by the musicians of the Montreal 

Symphony Orchestra — and reportedly 

other orchestras as well — contain a 

clause limiting middle A to a maximum 

of 442 Hz, in order to protect the instruments. 

Not every orchestra member is 


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fortunate enough to own a Stradivarius, 

but all play instruments of 

great value. Will we one day see 

a priceless violin snap in two, or a 

singer’s voice irremediably damaged, 

all to serve a conductor’s 

whim? 

As for some future violin, built 

to be strong enough to sustain 

even greater string tension, Jules 

Saint-Michel rejected the idea. 

“No one will invent a new violin 

for that. Luthiers are conservative 

to the depths of their souls. Like 

the violinists who aspire to play 

like Paganini, luthiers dream of 

making a violin as good as those 

of Stradivari, who took his art to the 

zenith.” 

What may help to explain the unique 

sound of the Stradivarius is its incomparable 

varnish. Matching that varnish is 

the ideal of every luthier. Research has 

given us the formula for the varnishes he 

used, and we know how he applied it, but 

knowing the formula isn’t everything, 

just as knowing a great chef’s recipe 

doesn’t mean you can cook as well as he 

can. No two cooks will ever achieve the 

same results. 

I have concentrated on the famous 

Italian masters and mentioned the great 

French luthier Vuillaume, but other 

immensely talented luthiers could also 

be found in Switzerland, Germany, 

Hungary and all the way to Scandinavia, 

where master luthiers still make fine 

instruments today. 

Each violin is unique, just as each 

living being is unique. Even a moderately 

practiced eye will distinguish between 

one violin and another. The trees whose 

wood is used may have grown in different 

climates, but even two pieces of 

wood from the same source cannot be 

identical. As for varnishing, it is an art 

that rests more on the luthier’s skilful 

hand than on the actual composition 

of the varnish, and so the final finish is 

characterized by the style and the ability 

of each luthier. 

Another distinctive sign is the scroll, 

the spiral form at the end of the neck. Of 

course it has no influence on the sound, 

but each luthier brings great care to its 

shape. It is said that Stradivari’s superb 

scrolls indicate that he was familiar with 

the elements of geometry. And that he 

had talent as a sculptor…for was that not 

his first métier? 

The indispensable bow 

You can’t write about the violin without 

mentioning the bow, since, to state 

the obvious, one cannot exist without 

the other. Yet for a long time musicians 

considered the bow a mere accessory. If 

it broke, they shrugged and replaced it. 

That has changed. 

If the origin of the violin is shrouded 

in mystery, we can say the same for the 

bow. What were the first bows made of, 

and to play what instruments? We can 

imagine that they were rather simple. 

Bows had already evolved by the middle 

of the 18 th century, and though they were 

made in the luthier’s workshop they 

would be the creation of the assistant, 

not the master. Small wonder that the 

makers of the bows in the 17 th and most 

of the 18 th century are quite unknown. 

But in the second half of the 18 th 

century the Tourte family of France 

enters the stage, and the bow undergoes 

profound transformations. The Tourtes 

take the art of bow-making to such a 

summit that their creations will remain 

unmatched. The son, François Xavier, is 

known as the “Stradivari of the bow.” 

We mustn’t ignore the contributions 

that violinists themselves made to the 

development of the bow. Modern bowmakers 

still call on the best virtuosos 

to evaluate the quality of the bows they 

make and the value of their ideas for new 

innovations. 

For centuries, horsehair has been 

preferred for bows, especially white 

horsehair, which is long, sturdy 

and fairly easy to find. Attempts 

to substitute synthetic or metallic 

materials have been fruitless. 

Laymen, of which of course I am 

one, may be surprised to learn that 

some musicians take more care in 

choosing their bows than their violins, 

because the bow determines the 

play of the violinist’s muscles. Some 

even pay more for the bow than for 

the violin! 

Over the past few decades, the 

cost of high-quality bows has shot 

into the stratosphere. A good bow 

is as much a work of art as a good 

violin, and you need a small fortune to 

afford a good Tourte, just as you need a 

large fortume to acquire a Stradivarius 

or a Guarneri. 

The singing wood 

Alive, I was mute. Now that I am dead, 

I sing softly. 

So said one day a tree, become a 

violin. The words are not mine, and 

they are translated from Latin, but I am 

making them mine, with apologies to the 

conservationists. 

Used with discernment, the wood 

of a tree is a powerful tool in human 

hands. The paper and the boards from 

our forests are the source of our means 

of survival, communication and the arts. 

And that includes the creation of sublime 

musical instruments. 

Since the Baroque period, through 

the Classical and Romantic eras, the 

violin has been at the heart of the development 

of Western music. It is present 

in folk, jazz, chamber music, and of 

course classical orchestral music. Can 

we imagine a chamber or symphony 

ensemble without one or more violins? 

Is it not the violinist who, before each 

concert, gives the note to which all the 

other musicians tune their instruments? 

Apart from the conductor, the first violin 

is the only musician who enters the stage 

alone, to the applause of the already 

charmed spectators. 

The pitiless passage of time has left 

no signs of age on the violin, which has 

lost none of its sonic beauty nor its power 

to bewitch us. Ancient but never old, it 

is irreplaceable. 


Software Reviews 

From the New World 

Hamelin/Youth Orch. of the Americas 

Fidelio FACD029 

Albert Simon: Fidelio recorded this 

album during a live performance at the 

Domaine Forget in scenic Charlevoix, 

Quebec. Two tube microphones were 

used and a dCS converter provided the 

amazing resolution of 24 bits/352 kHz 

DXD in the Xtract HD process. This 

is, in short, a set of high-definition files, 

ready for transfer onto a computer hard 

drive. I should add that both this recording 

and the Holst (the next review) are 

also available as conventional CDs. 

I find it important to mention all that 

before talking about the music itself. 

There are tons of recordings available of 

Dvorak’s Symphony From the New World, 

but I’ve never heard one that sounded 

like this and, in this case, the quality of 

the sound and the recreation of the venue 

are an integral part of the joy of listening 

to this popular symphony. I was instantly 

transported to the fifth row when the 

first notes of the Adagio introduction 

appeared on the right side of the stage, 

played by the violas and cellos. 

Dvorak was asked to be director 

of the new National Conservatory of 

Music in New York City in 1892. He 

stayed only three years in the US, always 

longing for his Czech homeland, even 

spending part of his summers with his 

countrymen in Spillville, Iowa, a small 

town known as a Bohemian settlement. 

Premiered at Carnegie Hall on December 

16, 1893, the symphony is said to 

have been composed partly in New 


Steve Bourke, 

Albert Simon 

and Gerard Rejskind 

York and partly in Iowa, inspired both 

by Black folk songs and by Longfellow’s 

poem Song of Hiawatha. The romantic 

melodies — which seem to have more 

in common with his native Bohemia 

than the Americas — flow abundantly 

throughout the work and would sound 

familiar to most music lovers, having 

been played in countless circumstances. 

Neil Armstrong even took a recording 

of this symphony to the Moon on 

Apollo 11. 

Three of Dvorak’s students contributed 

to the popularity of the English 

horn tune in the Largo when, 30 years 

later, they fitted it with a “Negro Spiritual” 

text. The most famous one, often 

referred to as a hymn, remains Fisher’s 

Going Home. 

Listening to the majestic opening 

of that Largo on horns, trumpet and 

trombone reaching from centre back on 

the large stage, I put aside all my speculations 

and waited for the tender and noble 

tune on the English horn. Sheer beauty! 

It was a tad faster than I am used to — 

after all, Dvorak did change his original 

Adagio to Largo. But no matter. I was 

there, in the middle of the fifth row, and 

that was quite an experience, all the way 

to the last coda and bursting applause. 

But wait, this work is not the only one 

on this album, aptly subtitled Musiques 

du nouveau monde (note the plural). 

There are two other interesting pieces 

by contemporary composers, Danzon 

no. 2 by Mexican composer Arturo 

Marquez, and Bootlegger’s Tarantella by 

Canada’s John Estacio. The danzon is 

a traditional Cuban dance that became 

popular in Mexico during the 1940’s. 

Its charm lies in the contrast between 

an easygoing theme and a vivaciously 

syncopated rhythmic one, and you can 

“see it all happen” on stage in this lavish 

version. Such energy and enthusiasm 

from those young performers in the 

Youth Orchestra of the Americas, conducted 

by Jean-Pascal Hamelin. 

The Bootlegger’s Tarantella is an overture 

to John Estacio’s opera Filumena, 

which premiered in 2003. It is a little 

gem, starting with a startling bang and 

developing in a cascade of fascinating 

themes and rhythms, reminiscent of 

some movie scores. It swells and flows 

like a joyful stream bounding over 

glistening rocks. A happy ending to a 

sensational album. 

Holst: The Planets 

Buzz Ensemble, Mélanie Barney 

Fidelio FACD028 

Albert Simon: The deep low growl of 

the organ opens the stage in a sombre 

mood, guided by the shining brass 

hovering above it. War is on the way. 

Mars has risen defiantly, and his march 

is a relentless crescendo, exploding into 

a shattering climax. This arrangement of 

The Planets is a delight. The organ and 

the brass blend with such fluidity that I 

couldn’t help imagining an underwater 

dance between a whale and dolphins. 

Venus, the Bringer of Peace is a soothing 

balm on the wounds of Mars, and 

the interwoven textures of brass and 

organ seem to float airily above the wide 

stage. Recorded in Montreal’s St-Viateur 

d’Outremont Church, whose organ dates 

from 1913 and was totally restored in 

1991, it lets you hear and actually feel 

the huge space where the performance 

took place. Proof that the 24 bit/96 kHz 

Xtract HD process was carried out 

impeccably.

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Holst wrote The Planets during World 

War I and initially called it “a series of 

mood pieces.” He later considered it a 

progression of life, starting with Mars, 

a tormented beginning, Jupiter, the 

“prime” of life, Saturn (said to be Holst’s 

favourite movement), the mature years, 

and Neptune, the mystic, shrouding the 

end of life. For those interested in the 

ancient symbolism of astrology — not 

the ridiculous daily horoscope — it is 

important to note that Holst had Alan 

Leo’s book The Art of Synthesis in his 

library, and he may have been introduced 

to this influential astrologer at that time. 

Regardless of the origins of this 

work, I was truly impressed by Enrico 

O. Dastous’ sensitive arrangement for 

organ and brass. It is a natural, as if it 

had to be written for this combination 

of instruments. And the wonderful 

interpretation by the five musicians of 

the Buzz Ensemble was perfectly right 

and balanced in each movement. Mélanie 

Barney handled the organ with superb 

virtuosity and gave it the sweet touch of a 

breath when a subtle yet solid foundation 

is needed. 

It leaves me wanting to hear it again. 

Right now. 

Emerging 

Fan-Ya Lin 

IsoMike 5604 

Gerard Rejskind: Ray Kimber is best 

known for the audio cables that bear his 

name, but he has other passions in his 

life, beyond wires, and indeed beyond 

ordinary commerce. 

One of those passions is IsoMike, a 

recording method introduced a decade 

ago that used a pair of microphones on 

either side of a large cardioid-shaped 

baffle. In 2006 he began to record in 

four-channel surround DSD. The four 

microphones are quite close together, and 

the stereo/surround effects depend on 

the precedence of arrival of each sound, 

and not on mere volume differences. 

For a number of years, Kimber has 

been demonstrating his recordings in 

large, heavily-damped rooms at shows 

such as CES and RMAF in Denver. If 

you like what you hear, you can buy some 

of the performances on SACD. 

This is one of those SACDs. The 

young Taiwanese pianist Fan-Ya Lin 

came to study music in Ogden, Utah, 

even though three other conservatories, 

including Juilliard, had accepted her. 

Ogden just happens to be where Kimber 

Kable is located. 

Still in her early 20’s, she has a 

remarkable maturity. On this superb 

recording she takes on some challenging 

works, including a piano transcription of 

Bach’s Toccata in C Minor (not the famous 

one for organ, but unmistakably Bach) 

and Beethoven’s appropriately-titled 

Appassionata sonata. She certainly does 

have the passion of youth. She can play 

with effortless power when power is 

required. You can’t play Chopin the same 

way you play Beethoven, however, but in 

three Chopin works, a Nocturne, an Étude 

and a Ballade, she has the sensitive touch 

that is needed. 

I had heard an excerpt from this 

recording on Kimber’s own fourchannel 

installation, and I was sold. This 

SACD is similarly superb, both musically 

and sonically. 

Remarkable as they are, IsoMike 

recordings are not Ray Kimber’s bread 

and butter, though. Buy this recording, 

and every penny will go to one of the 

charities Ray supports. 

Janitsch: Sonate da camera vol. 1 

Notturna 

ATMA Classique ACD2 2595 

Steve Bourke: A quiet Saturday afternoon 

was the perfect time to enjoy these 

Baroque sonatas. Four of the five are in 

minor keys, and all of them cast two 

different types of oboe, the standard and 

the d’amore, in the leading roles. They 

are a pure delight. 

The mood for the most part is on 

the serene side of melancholia. Bold and 

aggressive it surely is not. Melancholy 

does not have to mean unhappy though, 

and the unusual oboe d’amore is of particular 

interest. 

The oboe d’amore’s voice is created 

thanks to the narrower bore of the hole 

drilled through its length. Today it is 

seldom heard as a regular member of 

the symphony orchestra, and for no 

good reason. The standard oboe usually 

takes the d’amore’s parts, robbing the 

audience of an opportunity to hear a 

wonderful instrument. Its deep, musky 

timbre deserves to be experienced more 

often than it is. 

Johann Janitsch, composer of these 

sonata da cameras, studied law before 

deciding on a career in music. In spite of 

his vocational switch, he enjoyed a high 

level of success, becoming a member of 

Frederick the Great’s court orchestra, 

where he played the double bass. Thanks 

to the orchestra’s short season, from 

December to February, he had enough 

extra time to compose pieces for the 

following year. 

These Quadro sonatas were created 

for another purpose altogether. 

Every Friday Janitsch invited amateur 

musicians to join him and several other 

members of the court orchestra for the 

simple joy of making music together. 

The sonatas were generously composed 

by Janitsch to enrich this regular gathering. 

In so doing he began to democratize 

Berlin’s culture. Musicians from the 

Prussian middle class rubbed musical 

shoulders with the court elite. 

Amateurs and professionals alike 

must have been impressed by the quality 

of Janitsch’s sonatas, because 250 years 

later everyone, from every background, 

has access to their beauty. 


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Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture 

Previn/London Symphony Orchestra 

Hi-Q HIQXRCD7 

Gerard Rejskind: We are all pretty 

much aware that not every note that 

came from the pen of Tchaikovsky (or 

Mozart or Beethoven or Brahms) is of 

equal value. Tchaikovsky was responsible 

for numerous deathless masterpieces, 

but he also wrote for money, as most 

composers are compelled to do. The 

1812 Overture, commemorating the 

defeat of Napoleon’s Grand Army by 

the Russians (with the help of a harsh 

winter, poor supply lines and disease), 

was an example of political composing. 

Tchaikovsky wrote it long after the fact, 

with a premiere in 1882 in Moscow. It 

was commissioned for the consecration 

of the Temple of Christ the Redeemer, 

which was a memorial to Napoleon’s 

defeat. 

In this musical recounting of the 

long battle, in which only a small fraction 

of Napoleon’s half million soldiers 

survived, there are some obvious anachronisms. 

La Marseillaise, which Tchaikovsky 

used to represent the French, 

was banned in Napoleon’s time. As for 

the Russian national anthem, which 

is used as counterpoint, it had not yet 

been written. This is not, in any case, 

Tchaikovsky’s best work. If it is so often 

Silence GSOCD-5227 

GET FREE Gerard ADVICE! Rejskind: Before I get to the 

Where do the music, questions let me for introduce the cast of 

our famous Free Advice characters. section Patricia come from? Deslauriers is a noted 

Our readers send them to Montreal us at uhfmail@uhfmag.com. 

jazz bassist. Guy St-Onge 

The questions, is and Quebec’s our answers, most prolific composer, 

may appear on line, in arranger the magazine, and musician. or both. He can play 

We don’t reply a number by mail, of instruments, and even 

and we don’t released give it for a CD freeon which he played more 

if you request that your question than two not dozen be made of them. public. He also owns a 

We do ask for your wonderful name and studio city. and mastering suite set 

recorded today, that is because modern Ask on away! a quiet lake in the Laurentians, the 

technology has made it easy to add what studio where this recording was made. 

was problematic in the 1880’s, the sound The music is that by Richard Desjardins, 

of live cannons and the clanging of the best known as a singer. His are the kinds 

bells of Moscow. It is, in short, a hi-fi of songs whose words you actually listen 

showpiece. 

to, be they about love or various social 

Or it would be if there were a hi-fi issues. He is also, however, an exceptional 

tunesmith, and this trio, which 

system in existence that could reproduce 

the sound of either cannons or bells. also includes drummer Paul Brochu, 

Some audiophiles believe that theirs transposes the tunes into a jazz setting. 


can, but that is because they have not 

heard either live. I have, and they sound 

nothing like what you are likely to hear 

on this or any other recording of this 

tired warhorse. 

This one is worse than most, however. 

The EMI recording is from 1972, 

the period when studios were using “hot” 

tape formulations that turned out to be 

short-lived (see Not Made to Last in UHF 

No. 90). This sounds as though it may be 

a CD mastered from a sixth- or seventhgeneration 

tape. It is gritty and distorted 

even in the long orchestral introduction. 

long before we get to the ordnance and 

the bells. 

The recording includes two much 

better Tchaikovsky pieces, the overture 

to Romeo and Juliet,and the Marche Slave. 

But frankly, who cares? 

Lucky Lucky 

Patricia Deslauriers Trio 

This isn’t the first time Richard 

Desjardins’ music has been covered. 

French singer Francis Cabrel, some years 

back, did his own version of Desjardins’ 

Quand j’aime une fois j’aime pour toujours 

as a country song, of all things. A good 

song is a good song, and they are the raw 

material for this excellent album. 

In many jazz groups the bass is purely 

a rhythm instrument, like the drums. 

However, in the first song, 335 Nord, 

Deslaurier’s bass carries the melody, 

with chords from St-Onge’s piano highlighting 

the tune and Brochu’s drums 

adding the subtlest of subtle effects. 

Throughout the album, Deslauriers 

and St-Onge alternate as soloists. The 

arrangements are often intricate, but you 

never lose track of the melody, which is 

a mark of good jazz. 

Heard detached from the words, these 

truly are exceptional melodies. Jenny was 

a superb love song, and remains very fine 

in this jazz instrumental interpretation. 

Tu m’aimes-tu, the song that first made 

Desjardins famous, is delightfully intricate 

and is well handled here. 

The recording is on St-Onge’s own 

Silence label, which has in the past 

released several gold audiophile-quality 

CDs. Like earlier Silence discs, this one 

too sounds natural and delightful. 

Live at Montreux (DVD) 

Miles Davis 

Eagle Records

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Steve Bourke: Miles Davis once said 

that “the beginning and the end is 

everything. You’ve got to start and stop 

gracefully.” 

Starting he surely does on this amalgam 

of nearly two decades of appearances 

at the famed Swiss festival, but he 

takes his own sweet time. The first five 

minutes offer up just his electric bassist, 

playing a two-beat. The camera catches 

Miles flashing two fingers in a signal to 

his bandmate, but we have not yet heard 

a single note from his trumpet. Percussion 

arrives to keep the bassist company. 

Davis is hunched over, seemingly preoccupied. 

Still no music has emerged from 

his instrument. I am starting to lose 

patience. 

Finally, the stuff that helped to make 

him a jazz hero and pop icon arrives. A 

hesitant, melancholic stream of notes 

leads towards more empty musical space, 

but it is the very space that draws us in. 

Suspense in music, the kind more often 

associated with great theatrical drama, 

floats in the air around the trumpeter. 

Get on with it, come on. I want more of 

that. 

Davis never does disappoint all the 

way through these highlights. Though 

his styling starts to become familiar, it is 

never, ever predictable. I am tempted to 

compare him to John Scofield, though I 

prefer Davis’ approach. He makes music 

the listener can step into. Too often a 

jazzman’s dominating virtuosity separates 

him from his audience, pushing 

it away from what could have been an 

emotional connection. 

Miles Davis’ jazz is democratic, not 

elitist, not too proud. He gives us music 

at a pace that makes it accessible to 

almost everyone. It welcomes us into his 

jazz universe, with no spaceship needed 

for the voyage. Says Robben Ford, one of 

Davis’ guitarists, “Miles’ music has the 

sparseness of the blues. His use of space 

is uncanny. Nobody has as large a field 

to explore.” 

Along with his style and considerable 

substance, Miles delivers one other 

bonus inside this Montreux retrospective. 

He reprises some of the earlier 

compositions that he and Gil Evans 

developed together. This time he has 

Quincy Jones and a full orchestra behind 

him. So what, you might think, lots of 

music stars redo their older hits — but 

Miles Davis was not in the habit of looking 

back. He made it a rule throughout 

his career never to return to earlier 

material, no matter how much money 

he could earn by doing so. 

As an audio-visual panorama of Miles 

Davis’ various visits to the Montreux Jazz 

Festival, this is an important historical 

document. As pure entertainment, it is 

no less valuable. 

There’s a Time 

Doug MacLeod 

Reference Recordings RR-130 

Gerard Rejskind: Doug MacLeod 

says that early in his singing career, he 

was not yet certain about this choice of 

calling, and he found himself sitting on 

a curb in Norfolk, Virginia, with Ernie 

Banks (the Bluesman, not the baseball 

player). He told Banks he didn’t know 

whether he had the right to sing the 

Blues, because he had never picked 

cotton or known any of the hardships 

that are in the background of the great 

Bluesmen. 

“You ever been lonely?” asked Banks. 

“Yeah.” “You ever been hurt? Scared? 

Needed money? Needed loving?” 

“Yeah.” “That’s the Blues too, son. Write 

about that.” 

And he has taken that advice to heart 

across more than 20 albums, including 

several audiophile-quality discs for 

Audioquest Music. Now he’s landed at 

Reference Recordings. Resident engineer 

Keith O. Johnson, justly famous 

for some of the world’s greatest classical 

and jazz recordings, has created his first 

Blues album. You would expect this to be 

Doug MacLeod’s best-sounding album, 

and of course it is, but I would argue that 

it is in fact his best album ever. 

In technical terms it seems disarmingly 

simple, without the omnipresent 

overdubbing and sound processing that 

have done so much to make the words 

“high fidelity” such a travesty. On a 

cavernous soundstage at George Lucas’ 

Skywalker Ranch, MacLeod sat down 

with bassist Denny Croy and drummer 

Jimi Bott, and just played and sang. 

This is not a two-microphone purist 

recording, because Johnson cares only 

about the results he wants, and he takes 

whatever is needed to get them. He puts 

us right there, in front of the musicians. 

And we don’t want to leave. 

MacLeod uses several different 

guitars, which are identified in the 

booklet, which also includes pictures of 

the instruments. The emphasis is on his 

lyrics and guitar work, with solid backup 

by Croy’s bass and percussion accents by 

Bott that are often subtle and delicate. 

This album is different from most Blues 

albums you may have heard. I recognized 

one earlier song, Run With the Devil, 

which was on the Come to Find album. 

This time, MacLeod has dropped the 

“walking” rhythm of the earlier version 

in favor of a delivery that is nearly conversational. 

It’s different, but it works. 

Some Blues singers are almost painfully 

earnest, but MacLeod’s songs have 

always had more than a little humor 

to them. The Up Song is a play on the 

many ways the word “up” can be used, 

and it is anything but a downer. On My 

In-laws are Outlaws, MacLeod claims 

poetic license, “which they tell me is 

just a little less important than a fishing 

license.” The Entitled Few could have 

been a campaign song for the recent US 

presidential election — I leave you to 

guess which candidate might have liked 

it. 

MacLeod returns to the tradition 

of the talking Blues for Dubb’s Talkin’ 

Religion Blues. In that song, MacLeod 

gets into a discussion with a preacher 

who warns him he’s bound for hell unless 

he believes what the preacher believes. 

On the first run-through of the CD, I 

played that one several times in a row. 

I can think of but one reason not to 

order this wonderful HDCD album, 

and it is this. Reference is promising a 

two-disc vinyl version. 


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Carpenters Gold 

Karen and Richard Carpenter 

A&M 5328998 

Gerard Rejskind: They were brother 

and sister, Karen and Richard Carpenter. 

He arranged and sometimes wrote the 

songs, and she brought her warm and 

expressive voice to hit after hit. They 

achieved extraordinary success, releasing 

10 albums, not counting the posthumous 

ones, and amassing three Grammy 

awards as well as 15 other nominations. 

Can it possibly be 31 years since Karen 

died suddenly at the age of 32 from complications 

due to her lifelong anorexia? 

After the first two Grammies they 

won in 1970, Carpenters (they preferred 

not to use “the” before their name) produced 

a record-breaking run of hits. Yet 

their very success made them a target for 

hipper critics, just as Céline Dion’s success 

has attracted hatred. This was the 

age of rock music, with untrained voices 

bellowing over guitars and percussion. 

Punk rock debased the musical currency 

further. Carpenters’ ballads were out of 

sync, as though they had been born too 

late. Richard Carpenter blamed their 

label, A&M, for projecting an overwhelmingly 

wholesome image of them 

in an increasingly chaotic popular music 

world. I would argue that he contributed 

to the problem with his anachronistically 

lush arrangements, with massed strings 

and nostalgic piano. It didn’t help that, 

toward the end, their repertoire contained 

more and more retro songs from 

decades past, such as Please Mr. Postman 

and Jambalaya. 

But no matter. If you have never 

listened attentively to Karen Carpenter’s 

expressive mezzo-soprano voice singing 


Rainy Days and Mondays, I Need to Be in for DVD, then for Blu-ray, and even for 

Love or We’ve Only Just Begun, you’re in mobile phones. It now has an extension 

for a surprise, and I suspect a happy one. of its video sound technology, with 

Karen’s warm and solid lower register the awkward name of Dolby TrueHD 

commands attention, and the emotional with Advanced 96k Upsampling. This 

impact of the songs is often overwhelming. 

The age of the ballad will never be Symphony is among the first releases 

admirable concert by the San Francisco 

over, no matter the current fad, and no with this new process. 

one sang a love ballad the way she did. Film sound is pretty much all 


I could argue with the choice of recorded with a digital sampling rate of 

the 20 songs on this Japanese-made 48 kHz, just above that of the Compact 

gold album. For instance, I would have Disc. A good Blu-ray player or A/V 

included We remember Desperado when and Don’t a number Cry For of Me competitors receiver would will increase that to 96 kHz 

Argentina, put on line and only left off only Calling the cover Occupants image of and by the upsampling. table of What more can Dolby 

Interplanetary Craft. However, contents. this collection 

would has tell a much them more that serious you don’t problem. go fishing Let’s without be bait. clear on one thing: you 

bring to the table? 

We 

Though Sure, we the live CD from is what billed you as “K2HD,” spend through can’t our add site information and that was never 

with the pages 24-bit of 100 our kHz print mastering, issue. But a you disc could captured spend in days the original recording. Early 

can be no better reading than the material tape it for was free. upsampling was done in the crudest way, 

We mastered think from. that’s The the only original way Carpenters we can convince by repeating you of the each sample once (films 

LPs were smooth to the UHF point difference, of glossiness, 

why but you this might disc want has to an trust exaggerated us with the twice future to simulate of your a rate of 48 frames per 

work the same way: each frame is shown 

of 

edge that makes music listening or home a chore theatre from system. second). Modern digital upsampling is 

about We have five readers songs in. on every continent except done Antarctica. by interpolation: generating an 

The obvious Most alternative, of them discovered if you have us a on estimation line. of what the “missing” sample 

turntable, is They to find read some a lot of of the our original free material. should have been. Dolby claims to have 

LPs. Otherwise, And there then are they earlier joined Car-uspenters 

CD releases that might be more 

an interpolation algorithm that is more 

satisfying than this one. 

100th Anniversary (Blu-ray) 

San Francisco Symphony 

SFS Media 

Gerard Rejskind: Dolby has come a 

long way from the technology that made 

it famous all those years ago, tape noise 

reduction. It developed surround sound, 

first for older media such as VHS, then 

precise than what your own system could 

possibly do on the fly. 

The San Francisco Symphony was 

part of the city’s rebuilding effort after 

the devastating earthquake and resulting 

firestorm of 1906, and it celebrated its 

centenary in 2011 with this gala concert. 

Over the years it has had several conductors 

who can reasonably be termed 

legendary, including Pierre Monteux, 

Josef Krips and Seiji Ozawa. In 1995 

it snared the excellent Michael Tilson 

Thomas from the London Symphony. 

He is of course on the podium for this 

gala. 

An orchestra needs to be good to 

rise to the challenge of a work such as 

Benjamin Britten’s Young Person’s Guide 

to the Orchestra, because every instrumental 

section gets a solo. The slightest 

weakness will be easily noticed. It is clear 

that the San Francisco is a thoroughly 

homogeneous orchestra. Under Thomas’ 

confident direction and firm pacing, it 

shines. 

The major work of the evening is 

Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, with 

Itzhak Perlman as soloist. It seems odd 

to recall that other musicians of the time 

were scandalized by this concerto. It was

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expected that, before a soloist begins, 

there will be an orchestral introduction, 

with the exposition of the main 

themes, on which the soloist will present 

variations. In this case, the solo violin 

is the first instrument you hear, and it 

does its own exposition, thank you. Of 

course, most concertgoers care little 

about technical cavils, and the concerto 

has become a favorite of the Romantic 

repertoire. Perlman has a total mastery 

of the concerto, and he makes his 1714 

Stradivarius sing with a warmth and 

smoothness that serve the beauty of the 

concerto flawlessly. 

There are two other works on the 

program: Aaron Copland’s well-known 

Billy the Kid ballet suite and a thoroughly 

forgettable Short Ride in a Fast Machine 

(not short enough, if you ask me). 

Since this is an anniversary concert, 

the Blu-ray includes a historical documentary. 

You can of course go right to 

the music if you wish. 

It’s difficult to be sure what contribution 

the Dolby upsampling system 

makes to the pleasure of the experience, 

but the sound is among the very best I 

have heard from Blu-ray. I should also 

mention the sharp film work. As soon as 

an instrument or group of instruments 

begins to play, the camera is there, 

without a millisecond of delay. You can, 

of course, simply listen without looking 

at the screen, but the taut visuals add 

beguiled by the city of the title. Among 

those under the spell of Paris is Gil 

(Owen Wilson), a successful Hollywood 

screenwriter who would rather be a novelist. 

He falls head over heels in love with 

the City of Lights, prepared to move 

there because his literary heroes, such as 

Ernest Hemingway, did. He is in Paris 

NOT JUST with his fiancée HARDWARE Inez (Rachel McAdams), REVIEWS! 

rooted back in the 1960’s. “I’m pretty 

who does not share his enthusiasm, good at picking up vibrations,” he says. 

and warns Yes, we him get that asked, she can constantly, never live He refers to his fiancée as “sexy,” which 

what anywhere we will but be the reviewing United States. in our Nor next do issue. Hemingway greets at face value, and 

Inez’s And parents, we know who reviews have yet are to essential. forgive adds that “there’s a bit of a disconnect 

But equipment France for reviews having “betrayed” are nothing the if not US plentiful. with the big things.” When Hemingway 

Readers over Iraq. have We long can told guess us that that what sending makes UHF asks him whether he has read his book 

particularly out the valuable wedding to invitations them are the would other be articles. (which would have been A Farewell to 

immensely to the understanding Articles of the about premature. ideas, about the nuts and bolts of the Arms), technology, Gil exclaims that “I love all your 

workings of the complex and wonderful 

machine that is the symphony orchestra. 

Allen and is also no about stranger music to and fantasy. film, In 

Sleeper he which travelled are the a century very reasons into the 

works.” Hemingway doesn’t react to this 

misplaced statement, nor does anyone 

Need I add that I recommend it future, for our and lovingly-created Everything systems You’ve Always to exist. ask what he means by having “panic 

highly? 

Not that Wanted we will to ever Know stop About publishing Sex he played hardware a reviews. attacks” or being “a Hollywood hired 

Midnight in Paris (Blu-ray) 

Owen Wilson, Marion Cotillard 

Sony Pictures 

Gerard Rejskind: It is common to say 

that it has been many years since there 

has been a good Woody Allen film. It 

is every bit as common to say that a 

mediocre Woody Allen film is better 

than a good film from most directors. 

Is this, finally, the Woody Allen film we 

were waiting for? Yes and no. 

Yes, because there is a lot to love in 

this imaginative story, and especially in 

its setting. No, because…well, we shall 

see in due time. 

Countless are those who have been 

sperm. In this film, Gil (clearly an avatar 

for Allen himself) is a young writer who 

falls in love with Paris and mysteriously 

returns every night to the 1920’s, where 

he meets his cultural heroes, Hemingway, 

Gertrude Stein, F. Scott and Zelda 

Fitzgerald, Cole Porter, Picasso, Jean 

Cocteau, and a gregarious yet solemn 

young woman named Adriana (Marion 

Cotillard, who for once does not need 

to hide her French accent). Adriana 

has lived with Picasso and Utrillo, and 

he quickly learns to prefer her to his 

uncultivated fiancée. 

Gil’s nightly time travel always happens 

the same way: at exactly midnight 

he is picked up by an antique limo (“This 

is a great old Peugeot. I have a friend in 

Beverly Hills who has one.”). He is taken 

to a party where these long–departed 

luminaries are to be found, sometimes 

wandering from party to party. Champagne 

flows. Gertrude Stein even offers 

to read the manuscript of his novel and 

critique it. 

That’s where the film begins to 

derail, and the problem lies in Allen’s 

script. I’m aware that he got an Oscar 

for it, but it contains fatal errors that 

just keep on coming, and once I had 

noticed them I could no longer suspend 

my disbelief. Gil talks more like a hack 

screenwriter than a novelist, and his 21 st - 

century patter would have been incomprehensible 

90 years earlier. Start with 

the first paragraph of his manuscript: 

“What was prosaic and even vulgar to 

one generation has been transmuted by 

the mere passing of years to a status at 

once magical and also camp.” The word 

“camp” in this context is archaic today, 

a sign of terrible writing, but would have 

been gibberish in 1920. Yet the line is 

greeted with approval. He seems to be 

hand.” If we suppose Gil writes the way 

he talks, Gertrude Stein might well 

have advised him to have his manuscript 

translated into English. 

Curiously, many of the worst anachronisms 

are not found in Allen’s original 

script, and thus were added later. On 

the other hand, Stein’s advice, in the 

original, is laden with anachronisms to 

the breaking point, and Allen wisely took 

them out. 

Owen Wilson began to irritate me 

well before the film’s midpoint. We know 

he is a stand-in for Allen, but he takes 

the opportunity to imitate the Woody 

Allen of the Annie Hall era. He does it 

effectively, but before the end I found 


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him no more attractive than his appalling 

fiancée and horrible prospective 

in-laws. 

Which leaves us with…oh yes, we’ll 

always have Paris. Paris in the rain has 

never looked better. 

The Red Violin (Blu-ray) 

Samuel L. Jackson, Colm Feore 

Alliance 

Gerard Rejskind: Short stories can’t 

easily make a transition to the screen, 

unless they are fleshed out and the sauce 

is diluted to the point where it becomes 

watery. One device for putting together 

several short stories into a film is to 

link them together by some device. In 

The Yellow Rolls-Royce the device was a 

gaudily painted luxury car. In this one 

it is a violin. 

In truth, the Golden Age violins 

played by today’s top classical musicians 

are often more than three centuries old, 

and inevitably they have passed through 

many hands, picking up a history of their 

own. The stories that make up this film 

are linked by a violin, whose bright red 

lacquer makes it unique. The reason for 

the color is a mystery, though it will be 

explained before the film is over. 

The story is, however, rooted in the 

present. At an auction house in Montreal, 

a number of precious artifacts are 

being auctioned off, including the red 

violin of the title. There are several 

bidders, who want the violin for different 

reasons. As the auction progresses, 

the events in the violin’s life are told in 

flashback, starting with its creation in 

1681 in Cremona by a master luthier 

named Nicolò Bussotti. He is such a 

perfectionist that he carefully examines 

and lavishly praises a violin made by an 

apprentice, and then smashes it against 

his workbench. The red violin, born of 

tragedy, will be his masterpiece and will 

carry his legacy across the ages. 

We see it in several ages, though 

the transition from one to the other is 

seldom made explicit. It is played by a 

young orphan of exceptional talent but 

uncertain health, mentored by Georges 

Poussin, allegedly the inventor of the 

metronome. It somehow finds its way 

into the hands of a Roma violinist. It 

becomes the inspiration of Frederick 

Pope, a dashing Romantic-era violinist, 

a cross between Paganini and Liszt. It 

finds its way to China at a dangerous 

time for musicians, Chiang Ching’s 

Cultural Revolution. Finally, there it is 

in a Montreal auction house. An American 

expert on the Golden Age of string 

instruments, Charles Morritz (Samuel 

L. Jackson), identifies this red violin as 

the red violin, and of course that drives 

up the bids. 

There are many surprises I shall not 

reveal, but the film also leaves us with 

some philosophical questions. Is musical 

skill the same thing as artistic sensibility? 

Should a great art creation go to the 

one who can best appreciate it, and not 

merely to one who can afford it? Does 

art trump man-made laws? 

Director and co-screenwriter François 

Girard has chosen not to dub any of 

the languages of the film, which include 

Italian, German, English, French and 

Chinese, simply subtitling as necessary. 

Joshua Bell is the violinist we hear playing 

the Oscar-winning score by John 

Corigliano. 

The Red Violin was originally released 

over a decade ago on a dreadful DVD. 

This Blu-ray version, I need hardly 

explain, is a vast improvement. 

Skyfall (Blu-ray) 

Daniel Craig, Judi Dench 

MGM 

Gerard Rejskind: When was the 

last time a Bond picture got an Oscar 

nomination? In fact it’s happened before. 

Goldfinger earned one for sound effects, 

and the dreary Thunderball got a nomination 

for visual effects. Sheena Easton 

won an Oscar for the song For Your Eyes 

Only, but that was 30 years ago. 

Not that Skyfall, the third film with 

Daniel Craig as Bond, has done that 

much better. For all the talk about being 

in contention for best actress and even 

best film, Skyfall got two Oscars, and 

one of those went to Adele for the title 

song. 

Of course, the Oscar is not the 

ultimate sign of excellence, even if does 

have the highest profile. Skyfall has been 

widely praised as the best Bond picture 

ever, and there is a good deal to the 

claim. It is grittier and more realistic, 

abandoning the illusion that its hero is 

indestructible and forever young. Craig 

is visibly older than he was the last time 

he starred in the role (the insolvency of 

MGM caused a long delay), and so he is 

no longer the debonair young Lothario. 

But then, the original Ian Fleming story 

structure is creaky in the joints too. 

An earlier Bond picture, shot independently, 

had a similar premise. In 

Never Say Never Again, an older Sean 

Connery is brought back to an MI6 

which, like him, has aged. There is a 

new M, who has little time for the old 

double-0 nonsense, and sends Bond to a 

fat farm to “eliminate the free radicals.” 

In an economically-troubled Britain, 

there have been budget cutbacks, and 

even Q’s gee-whiz gadgets don’t always 

work. In Skyfall, M is still played by the 

admirable Judi Dench, but she is also 


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getting on (she was 77 when the film 

was made), and Whitehall is preparing 

to ease her out. She has made several 

mistakes. Her judgement call got agent 

007 killed, and she lost a hard drive with 

the names of NATO agents to Silva 

(Javier Bardem), a psychotic version of 

Wikileaks’ Julian Assange. 

Of course, 007 is not going to stay 

dead, but he doesn’t come out of his 

ordeal in good shape either, and he 

needs retraining before returning “to 

the field.” He flunks every preparedness 

test there is, but M covers for him and he 

goes after Silva anyway. Silva, however, 

was once a double-0 agent himself and 

is one step ahead of him. Before setting 

out, Bond meets the new Q, who is disconcertingly 

young and regards Bond as 

he might his grandfather. Their meeting 

takes place in an art gallery, in front of a 

Turner painting showing a once-mighty 

warship being towed away for scrap. 

Judi Dench’s brilliant career, which 

included roles in Shakespeare in Love, Tea 

with Mussolini and Chocolat, is ending 

with this role, and the writers have wisely 

expanded it to the point of making her 

Bond’s co-star. There were rumors she 

might get an Oscar nomination, but the 

people behind the gold statuette have 

disappointed us before. 

As in any Bond film, a lot happens 

before the enemy is defeated. Bond 

will need all of Q’s clever gadgets and 

computer knowledge in the search. He 

will even resurrect the old Aston-Martin 

DB9 from Goldfinger, though we have 

seen it destroyed twice before. It still 

come with machine guns and an ejection 

seat, but no longer has a bulletproof 

windshield. 

In the Fleming books, Bond was 

an upper-class English gentleman, and 

Fleming initially opposed the casting 

of the Scottish Sean Connery (he did 

live to see Dr. No, however, and loved 

it). In a nod to that casting decision, the 

script does make Bond Scottish, and the 

dénouement takes place in the Highland 

manor where Bond spent an unhappy 

childhood. 

Skyfall does include one more happy 

casting decision: Naomie Harris as Eve, 

a younger double-0 whose panache 

nearly steals the film from Craig. We’d 

like to see her again, but at the end she 

winds up in a desk job. Well, a desk job 

isn’t as final as death, even if it sometimes 

feels that way, and the next director can 

always reverse the decision. 

Oh yes, Sam Mendes says he’ll be too 

busy to direct the next Bond film. We 

can only hope that “too busy” is code 

for “more money, please.” 

Romeo and Juliet 

Leonard Whiting, Olivia Hussey 

Paramount 

Gerard Rejskind: One critic has 

referred to this Zeffirelli production as 

the greatest film ever made of a Shakespeare 

play. In fact, it does not deserve 

that limitation. This 1968 movie is one 

of the greatest films of the 20 th century, 

and since film began in that century, 

we could call it one of the greatest of 

all time. 

The play is of course about love. 

Though Shakespeare wrote it early in 

his career (it is at the centre of the magnificent 

Shakespeare in Love), it contains 

some of the Bard’s most poignant and 

beautiful poetry, polished as poetry 

rarely is. However, directors have all too 

often sought out older actors who were 

presumed to possess the experience to do 

justice to Shakespeare’s text. You can still 

find an audio version of Albert Finney 

and Claire Bloom reading the play. 

Despite their wonderful mastery of the 

text, they have no feel for the explosive 

emotions of two teenagers in love. 

What Franco Zeffirelli did was give 

emotion priority over the mechanics of 

the reading. The two protagonists were 

mere teenagers — Juliet was 12 according 

to the text — and so he recruited 

teenagers for the roles. Leonard Whiting 

and Olivia Hussey are barely older 

than the characters they are playing, 

respectively 18 and 17 when the film 

was released, younger when they were 

before the cameras. Their unbridled, 

unreasoned passion might ring hollow 

in seasoned Shakespearean actors, but it 

has the glow of truth in these bright-eyed 

youngsters. A youthful Michael York, 

who would play d’Artagnan in The Three 

Musketeers, is totally plausible as Tybalt, 

the hot-blooded teenager with more 

pride than judgement, ready to draw a 

sword at any imagined slight. 

Zeffirelli trimmed the text to make it 

more conversational, but did not change 

it — after all, Shakespeare knew what he 

was doing. He coached his young actors 

in the details of Elizabethan English. 

Even the rantings of the emotionally 

disturbed Mercutio (John McEnery) are 

made to sound like real talking rather 

than dead words on a page. The choreography 

of the deadly battles of young 

people on the streets of Verona — all 

too contemporary, alas — is masterful. 

All this is buttressed by a superb music 

score by the great Nino Rota. 

No, you can’t buy this masterpiece 

in Blu-ray, and even the aging DVD 

is difficult to find. I tracked down just 

a handful of copies in the US, none in 

Canada. Only a few copies are available 

in France, in PAL format, naturally. 

Why? I place the blame on today’s 

paranoia about what we are pleased to 

call child abuse. What studio today 

would dare relaunch a film in which two 

teenagers play a nude scene? Even when 

the film was first released in 1968, Olivia 

Hussey was not permitted into a cinema 

to see it, because (gasp!) nude breasts 

were shown briefly. Her own! 

Yet Shakespeare’s play is in fact 

about child abuse, the brutal forcing 

of a 12-year-old girl into an unwanted 

marriage under pain of death (faced with 

her refusal, her mother says, “I wish the 

fool were wedded to her grave”). The 

film should be on school curriculums… 

but don’t hold your breath. 


Gossip&News 

Ask the Doc 

When this short feature was first 

published, in 1990, digital 

radio was “coming.” It’s 

long been here, but hardly 

anyone is aware of it, and 

23 years later this satirical 

piece still stands. 

Doc, have you heard anything 

about this new digital radio that’s supposed 

to be coming? 

I’m sorry to say that, with my very 

busy practice and having to do rounds at 

the hospital, I’ve been falling somewhat 

behind in the literature. 

This isn’t in the literature, doc. There 

was a demonstration put on the other day for 

local notables and journalists. They all got on 

a tour bus, and they were given headphones 

so they could listen to an experimental digital 

radio transmission. 

An usual sort of leisure activity. As 

you know, we doctors prefer golf. 

It wasn’t a leisure activity. There was an 

engineer from the CBC who spoke. According 

to the newspapers, he said digital radio was 

the medium of the future, though he thought 

it would take quite a long time to come. 

Ah! Then perhaps it will arrive at the 

same time we begin commuting to work 

in personal jet helicopters. 

Personal jet helicopters? 

That prediction was made at the 1930 

World’s Fair. They said it would come, 

though it would take quite a while. 

Then you don’t think digital radio is 

around the corner? 

Well, we are arriving at corners 

rather more frequently than we used to. 

You should see how many times a week 

I receive a prospectus for a new miracle 

drug. 

Is there any connection between that and 

digital radio? 

Well, new drugs frequently promise, 

or seem to promise, radical improvements 

to problems of which most doctors 

were not previously aware. 

Is that like digital radio? 

Not entirely. There are stringent 

legal regulations on 

claims that may be made 

for drugs. Perhaps the same 

regulations should apply to 

digital audio prescriptions, 

but at the moment they do not. 

Is it possible to transmit radio 

digitally? 

Certainly. Wasn’t it demonstrated to 

journalists just the other day? 

But that was just a demonstration. Is 

it really practical? How can you transmit 

sound digitally? 

It should present little difficulty. 

At the moment we are already recording 

sound digitally. That is to say, we 

are recording only a list of data about 

the sound, and a digital circuit at the 

playback end of the chain uses the data 

to reconstitute the original sound wave, 

much as a doctor would use the data in 

a medical history to reconstitute the 

evolution of a pathology. Digital radio 

would work the same way, except that 

instead of recording the data on an optical 

disc, we would transmit it by radio. 

That sounds complicated. 

Preventing poliomyelitis was once 

complicated too, but now the technology 

is well developed. In the case of 

digital audio, not only do we know how 

to encode and decode digital sound, we 

have inexpensive integrated circuits for 

doing it. 

You mean that you could use an ordinary 

FM station to transmit digital sound? 

No, for the same reason you couldn’t 

record digitally on an LP. Assuming you 

As we enter our 31st 

year, we go back in 

time to UHF No. 27, 

and our satire section, 

“Ask the Doc.” 

use the same 44.1 kHz sampling rate 

as CD — which would seem logical — 

then you would need to send, in each 

second, 44,100 words of information, 

multiplied by the 16 bits in each word. 

That makes…ah… 

I have a calculator in my pocket, doc. It 

makes 705,600 bits. 

Thank you. I’m afraid that after my 

second pre-med year I was rather too 

busy with physiology and anatomy to 

have much time to practice mathematics. 

Of course, you have two channels of 

sound, and so you need to… 

So you have nearly a million and a half 

bits per second. 

I’m afraid so. Transmitting digitally 

is equivalent to transmitting a 1.5 MHz 

sound wave. It is rather beyond the 

capabilities of present-day FM stations. 

Digital stations will require rather more 

bandwidth, and bandwidth is as scarce as 

hospital beds. 

Is there any way around this? 

No doubt there is. Digital engineers 

are good at data compression, in which 

redundant information is eliminated. A 

telephone line with an audio bandwidth 

of 2.5 kHz can be used to transmit data 

at nearly 20,000 bits per second on the 

newest modems. 

That’s eight times better. So if you use the 

same techniques for digital radio, you would 

need a bandwidth of only… 

Only 176,400 Hz. I hope you didn’t 

mind me borrowing your calculator. 

With government restrictions on health 

care spending, it’s difficult to budget for 

new equipment. 

Will digital radio sound better? 

In the sense that digital discs sound 

better, yes. If you drive through a city 

with tall buildings, the error-correction 

circuits will be rather busy, but if the 

data can somehow be recovered, then 

the transmission will be noise-free. 

And if it can’t? 

We doctors are aware that you can’t 

save every patient. 

Will I live long enough to get digital 

radio, doc? 

Take off your shirt, and I’ll get my 

nurse to draw a blood sample. 


Gossip&News 

Feedback 

Industry 

News 

Simaudio 

Streaming 

It was in 2011 that Simaudio moved 

out of its rented quarters (two nearby 

sites, for business and manufacturing) 

and finally acquired its own building. 

We got an early tour (Simaudio and 

UHF are about a 15-minute drive from 

each other) some two months later. The 

company was barely settled in, and we 

were frequently warned to watch our 

heads and not trip over the tools. More 

than a year later, the building was finally 

completed and the press got the official 

tour. 

Simaudio CEO Jean Poulin is shown 

in the top picture in an assembly area. 

Nearly all assembly is done in-house, 

though circuit boards are “populated” 

(fitted with components) by another 

nearby company. The bottom picture 

shows Simaudio products awaiting 

shipments to various parts of the world, 

including (as you can see from the labels 

on the wall) Russia and Hong Kong. We 

were shown one gigantic space that was 

empty but for a wooden bench in the 

middle. It’s used to test Moon gear for 

electromagnetic emissions, to be sure 

it complies with international requirements, 

especially those of the European 

Union. 

The evening was also Simaudio’s 

opportunity to preview its new MIND 

audio streaming system (the acronym 

stands for Moon Intelligent Network 

Device). Unlike many other streaming 

systems, it uses your own home computer 

network to store music. Some 

audiophiles, including us, use a dedicated 

computer that is part of the music 

system. The MIND module replaces 

that extra computer. You connect it to 

your router via Ethernet during setup 

only, and after that it will stream over 

Wi-Fi. 

Simaudio recommends, as we do, a 

dual-band router, which can use the lesscrowded 

5 GHz band. Control is done 

by a free iOS (iPad, iPhone, etc.) application. 

An Android version is promised as 

well. 

MIND doesn’t use iTunes, though 

it can use the iTunes library as a source. 

It can read the common audio formats, 

including WAV, FLAC and Apple Lossless. 

The first MIND module offered 

is the Moon 180, which connects via 

AES/EBU, S/PDIF or TOSLINK to 

the digital-to-analog converter of your 

choice. Future Moon DACs will have 

MIND compatibility as an option. 

With this new technology and its 

vast new space, Simaudio has grown 

to world-class proportions. Recently a 

Radio-Canada reporter visited us for an 

interview and glanced admiringly at our 

Moon electronics. He was astonished to 

learn that this globally-famous brand 

had its home not far from us. 

And not just its home. In an era that 

has seen so much manufacturing shifting 

to China, Simaudio intends to keep 

production where it has always been, in 

Canada. 


Gossip&News 

Feedback 

Mac Sold 

This news is about McIntosh, not 

the Macintosh. The venerable American 

company once belonged to Clarion 

(yes, the car audio people, Heaven only 

knows why), who balked at spending 

the money that was clearly needed to 

keep the company afloat. It was sold to 

D&M Holdings, whose initials stand for 

its major brands, Denon and Marantz. 

D&M itself, once a Japanese company, 


got hawked about, 

however, and at one 

point belonged in part 

to Bain Capital. Yes, 

that Bain Capital. 

And it wasn’t a 

hands-off investment, 

either. It 

seems there are 

suits who think 

they understand… 

well, anything. 

Now it’s been sold again. 

The UHF Reference Systems 

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 digital playback: CEC 

TL-51X belt-driven transport, Moon 

300D converter, Apple MacBook Pro, 

Stello U3 interface 

Digital cable: Atlas Mavros 1.5m 

Digital portable: Apple iPhone 4S 

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 

Power amplifier: Simaudio Moon W-8 

Loudspeakers: Reference 3a Suprema II 

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, UHF14, 

Wireworld 

AC filters: GutWire MaxCon 2 , 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 ruled out huge projectors and 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 

Source: Pioneer BDP-51FD Blu-Ray 

player, Apple TV 

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. 

The new buyer is Fine Sounds, the Italian 

company that owns Sonus Faber, 

Wadia Digital and Sumiko. 

It’s good to see McIntosh find a home 

with an actual high-end audio company. 

We will be following developments with 

interest. We can already see improvements. 

For decades, even Mac’s classic 

amps, like the MC275 above, came with 

those horrible little barrier strips that 

wouldn’t fit quality speaker cables. But 

check the picture. Better, huh? 

Thiel Sold Too 

Since Jim Thiel’s untimely death in 

2009 at the age of 61, the speaker company 

had been run by co-founder Kathy 

Gornik. She hired a new engineering 

team to transform Jim’s many paper 

designs into reality, such as the CS3.7, 

shown here. 

Now the company has been sold to a 

private equity firm based in Nashville. 

Bill Thomas replaces Gornik as CEO.

Gossip&News 

Gossip&News 

Feedback 

Is this bad news for Thiel fans (and 

we count ourselves in that number)? 

Thomas says the company will inject the 

capital needed to speed up research and 

get speakers to market faster. The Thiel 

facility in Lexington, KY, will remain, 

as will many of the existing staff. It’s 

clear that the new owners are taking a 

hands-on role. We also hope they know 

that progress can take time. 

In the meantime, Gornik and her 

daughter, Dawn Cloyd (who had been 

taking care of international sales), have 

found new homes with Quadrant Solutions. 

Quadrant makes permanent magnets 

and magnetic assemblies…in other 

words, they make parts for loudspeaker 

companies. It’s a little like going from 

making cars to making steering wheels. 

We wish them both well. 

ML In-Wall 

That’s MartinLogan (as it is now 

spelled), and this is one of the latest 

models, the Helos 12 ($329 in Canada). 

How Maggie If you Works associate the company with tall 

UHF is, and high-end has beenelectrostatic speakers, this 

for many product, years, meant to go into the wall or the 

a print magazine. ceiling, But we may know surprise you. Or perhaps 

more and more not, audiophiles as this once exclusive brand long ago 

Sony 4Kwant to read moved it on into their the vast spaces of the Big Box 

Sony announced its new computer “4K” TV or iPad. stores. And they’re 

sets in Vegas, and it took willing the stage to save money We have too. no opinion as to the relative 

let quality Maggie of this speaker, but we do 

at NAB (the National Association Click here, of and 

Broadcasters) to launch them, explain at least how have to get an the opinion full concerning in-wall 

in the US. The smallest, the Bravia version and for $4. in-ceiling speakers. They’re fine 

XBR-55X900A, will cost $5,000. And These we mean for supermarkets a PDF and elevators, but we 

are LCD sets with LED backlight, version not without ourselves digitl rights wouldn’t touch them. 

plasmas (which Sony has management never made), you can transfer to 

with resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 the lines. device of your choice. 

Whither 

Panasonic? 

ADVERTISERS 

ADL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 

Audiophile Store . . . . . . . . . . 55-62 

Audiyo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 

BIS Audio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 

Blue Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 

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

Clarity Cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 

Divergent Technologies . . . . . . . . . 8 

Entre’Acte. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 

Europroducts International . . . . . . 15 

Furutech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 

Keith Monks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 

Kingsound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 

Liberty Trading . . . . . . . . . Cover 4 

Living Voice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 

Maggie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13, 43 

Manley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 

Moon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 

There is of course no consumer 

source for such high-resolution material, 

but Sony Pictures has announced a new 

line of “Mastered in 4K” Blu-ray discs. 

They’re ordinary 1080p high-definition 

films, but they’ve been mastered from 4K 

material. 

Well, all right, but has Sony seen 

the film Baraka? It’s mastered from 8K 

material, and it’s been available for years 

(it’s recommended, by the way). 

As we write this we’re still waiting 

for OLED sets, promised by several 

companies, including Sony. 

The TV business is a dodgy one these 

days, and in March a rumor sprang up 

that Panasonic was dropping plasma 

TVs. Not so, for now at least, but the 

company will spend $2.7 million to 

“restructure.” We suspect that means 

job cuts. 

Quad. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Cover 4 

Sunn Mook Acoustics . . . . . . . . . 13 

Simaudio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 

Simon Yorke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 

Sonic Artistry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 

Super Antenna . . . . . . . . . . Cover 3 

Thorens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 

UHF Back Issues. . . . . . . . . . . . 39 

UHF Books. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 


How loud should you listen to 

music? That’s a discussion 

you may have had many 

times, first with your parents, 

then possibly with your significant 

other, and perhaps with your neighbors. 

Is there such a thing as too loud? There 

certainly is. Too soft? Definitely. 

One goal of a high fidelity system is 

to reproduce, at home, the experience of 

being at a live musical performance. It 

follows that the music should be at the 

same loudness it would be if it were live. 

Now, I can already hear the objection: 

you can’t play it as loud because your living 

room is much smaller than a concert hall. 

That’s a misconception. The perceived 

loudness should be that of a live performance, 

and of course less acoustic 

energy is needed to produce it in a small 

living room than in Symphony Hall or 

Madison Square Garden. 

What happens if you listen at too low 

a level? 

If your source is the radio, probably 

not much. Stations compete to be the 

loudest on the dial, and so they use large 

amounts of dynamic compression, typically 

some 30 decibels or so. The result 

is that a (supposedly) soft passage will 

be a thousand times louder than it would 

be in real life. And so everything will be 

easily audible, but the relationship of the 

different sounds that make up the music 

will be pretty much squished. 

But the radio is not a real hi-fi source, 

except in exceptional circumstances, 

such as a live concert, and even then only 

if the engineers can keep their hands off 

the dynamics. Let us suppose that you 

are listening to a top-quality CD, LP 

or digital file, and that the sound is not 

compressed. What then? 

What then happens is that the softer 

sounds will be very soft indeed. It might 

not matter if you listen to rockers who 

have turned their guitar amplifiers up 

to “11,” but most music does include 

soft passages that will be several tens of 

decibels below max. In a real concert hall 

or other musical venue, you would hear 

them easily. At home, the answer is not 

so clear. 


State of the Art 

by Gerard Rejskind 

Natural, unamplified music has a 

huge dynamic range. It’s true of a solo 

piano, and so you can imagine the range 

of a symphony orchestra or a jazz band. 

Some dynamic peaks will actually not 

have been recorded, because they consist 

of very brief, very loud spikes of energy. 

That may not matter, because a brief 

spike will be at such a high frequency it 

wouldn’t be audible anyway. Content at 

very low level is another matter. When 

you reproduce it, or attempt to reproduce 

it, you are between a rock and a hard 

place. 

There is of course the danger that 

a soft passage, especially in classical 

music, will disappear altogether. Play a 

symphony at background level, and some 

pianissimo passages will be barely above 

audibility. This may be true even if you 

have pristine hearing, because any home 

has background noise, originating from 

heating or ventilation, refrigerators, 

passing traffic, and all the sounds of 

everyday living. The difference between 

this background hubbub and the maximum 

loudness of the music is the real 

dynamic range available to you. 

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. 

It won’t just be just soft passages 

you’ll be missing, either. Certain important 

music-related cues are down in 

the dust, and it is these cues that let 

you hear the difference between two 

otherwise similar musical instruments, 

as well as harmony, depth, space and 

other elements that add immensely to 

the enjoyment of a recording. 

Yet it is possible to listen too loud. If 

you play music at louder-than-realistic 

levels, then of course you could actually 

damage your hearing, and ironically at 

such punishing levels you will perceive 

less, not more. Even at realistic levels, 

which I am of course advocating, you 

may be sabotaging your own pleasure. 

That’s because not all systems are 

capable of even adequate performance 

at concert levels, and indeed that’s 

one reason the best systems can be so 

expensive. That fact may not be obvious, 

because the ear can be easily tricked. If 

distortion is high, you’ll think the sound 

is loud. Do a test: turn the volume all the 

way up on a small radio. Loud, isn’t it? In 

fact it isn’t (a portable radio can work up 

a tenth of a watt when the wind is blowing 

the right way), but distortion makes 

it seem loud — that’s an established 

psychoacoustic phenomenon. Distortion 

will actually mask that precious 

low-level information. Some expensive 

hi-fi systems sound reasonably good at 

medium volume, but at loud levels begin 

to sound like…well, hi-fi. 

So how loud should you listen? 

I would recommend listening so that 

the loudest passages are at full concert 

level, or as loud as the system is capable 

of playing with low distortion, whichever 

is softer. Of course you’ll hear the most 

detail, including timbre and spatial cues, 

if the room is quiet. 

What happens if the maximum loudness 

at which your system sounds good is 

well short of concert levels? Well, you’ll 

be losing detail, and the quest for high 

fidelity is a quest to preserve that detail. 

A good system can play loud enough 

to let you hear all of the music. A great 

system can play that loud without sounding 

as though it’s playing loud.

I’ve got cable. What do I need your Super 

Antenna for? 

You might well wonder, but a surprising number of cable and satellite 

subscribers are ordering it. The “HDTV” cable channels are mostly 

compressed. A lot! Put the Super 

Antenna on your TV’s second 

input, and get local over-the-air 

channels the way they are meant 

to be viewed! 

Over the years we’ve sold 

thousands. In this, the Super 

Antenna’s latest incarnation, we 

buy and rebuild a junk antenna. 

We add our own high-quality 

transformer and a luxurious 

low-loss multi-shielded 

cable with a 24K gold-plated 

F-connector. 

Its broadband design covers the 

digital HDTV channels plus the 

entire FM band. 

SEE THE SUPER ANTENNA MkIII at The Audiophile Store, page 57 

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 have been 

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.

ESL 2912 

The second model in the ESL range, 

it employs six electrostatic panels, 

the inner two utilising a concentric 

rings of anodes used to create 

the point source image. While all 

electrodes receive the same music 

signal, each electrode area reacts 

slightly differently, so that treble 

frequencies appear to come from the 

centre of the speaker. Construction 

is of tensioned aluminum extrusions 

coupled to stainless steel support 

structures. Highest-quality 

components are used. Three types 

of protection systems protect the 

panels from damage. 

Elite QSP 

The newest 

version 

of Quad’s 

famous 

currentdumping 

amplifier 

LIBERTY 

TRADING 

“I’d buy one of these in a heartbeat.” 

Ken Kessler, Hi-Fi News, April 2012 

“This 

inexpensive 

amplifier is a 

jewel.” 

UHF Magazine 

No. 93 

100 Bass Pro Mills Drive, Unit 48 

VAUGHAN, ON L4K 5X1 

(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 

DH Labs 

Discwasher 

Dr. Feickert 

Gutwire Cables 

Kingrex 

London Decca 

LSA 

Mastersound 

Mobile Fidelity 

Nerve Audio 

Nitty Gritty 

Orb Audio 

Onzow 

Penaudio 

Quad 

Revolver 

Roksan 

Sonneteer 

Stillpoints 

Target Hi-Fi 

Wattgate 

Plus a wide range of 

Audiophile XRCD / 

K2HD / SACD/ LP

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