Wednesday, February 16, 2011

New Music - Adele

Check out Adele's new album, 21. We've only listened to a few tracks, but her voice is AMAZING! I guess the album releases on Feb 22. I'm going to pre order it tonight.

Has anyone heard of her already?

ps - we found her from the song on the "I Am Number Four" movie trailer...

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Digital Cable Shoot-Out: Cardas Neutral Reference. Finally, the Results Are In

Finally, I am ready to post the results of my first digital cable shoot-out. As a refresher, here are the contenders:
  1. Cardas High Speed Data digital cable (S/PDIF, 1.0m) - retail $77 for 0.5m
  2. Cardas Neutral Reference Digital cable (AES/EBU, 0.5m) - retail $236 for 0.5m
I had originally planned to also include results for a Toslink cable, but bailed in the interests of time (or, laziness?). However, I do feel that the current comparison was well worth the effort. As usually happens when comparing two pieces of good equipment, albeit at different price points, my listening sessions did not indicate a winner per se, but rather revealed cables with different strengths. I did not say "strengths and weaknesses" because I believe that what one person identifies as a weakness, another might identify as a strength, or a plus. So, I will do my best to describe what I heard and what I chose, and let you be the judge.

Before I begin, a summary of today's listening conditions is in order. The BC21.1 preamp is out of order probably until next weekend, when I plan to perform the needed repairs. This means that the analog outputs from the Bryston DAC are routed directly to the inputs of the BC22 monoblocks, and the TacT performs the (digital) volume control duty. I now have an all solid state system for the first time since entering high-end audio proper. This has been an eye-opening experience - some good, some bad - but I will leave a detailed write-up until after the BC21.1 is back in the loop. The music is Ceu's self-titled album Ceu (2006), a punchy but chill Brazilian sound with clear, expressive vocals played through the Arcam. My trusty dog Brodie is lying at the other end of the couch, and I have just started a glass of the fairly good Chalone Vineyard 2007 Pinot Noir.

The Neutral Reference (NR) cable lives up to its name, and its main strength lies in the bass region. Bass notes are more clearly delineated and textured, with a quicker start and stop. Voices are presented slightly forward of the speaker plane, and background vocals are more distinct, or separated in depth, from the main vocal. Background silence between notes is decidedly blacker, though only by a shade. Overall, the NR cable conveys quickness and precision. The HSD cable is also very good, with a nearly equal dynamic performance to the Neutral Reference. Its presentation is more inline with the speaker plane, not forward of it. A main differentiator is that the HSD cable imparts a breathy, glow-y quality to vocals. I would even go far as to say the HSD yields more vocal emotion in that tube way, while the NR is more akin to a solid state sound. Somehow, the HSD seems also to give a more funky, almost laid back, rhythm to Ceu's tracks, like this is a cable that is more in sync with the musical sense she's trying to convey.

As you can see - strengths and weaknesses, plus's and minus's. In my current all solid state setup, I prefer the High Speed Data cable for its more tube like presentation. My choice will probably swing back the other way to the Neutral Reference cable when the tubed BC21.1 is back in service. In fact, when I had a detailed listen a couple weekends ago when the Blue Circle preamp was in the driver's seat, the Neutral Reference cable was my choice.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Major Ignition!

Last night when I turned on my preamp, I smelled smoke! Holy cow. Bending down to take a close look, I actually saw some wisps leaking gently from the top of the preamp cover. I have owned this preamp for 7 or 8 years, and it has performed flawlessly in every way, so - to put it mildly - this was unexpected and elicited quite a bit of alarm. I unplugged the beast, removed the cover, and found the culprit. I confirmed with Blue Circle that it is a blown filament regulator (a what??). After nearly a decade of faithful service, it just plain wore-out. Anyways, the plan is to buy a new regulator, which costs a few dollars from an electronics supply house, and install it myself with the blessing of the designer. The only operations are a couple of snips, unscrew, re-screw in the new part, then solder two leads. Simple - right? Right.


Here is a picture of the exploded device.


Lastly, I now have the Bryston DAC analog output connected directly into my amps. Digital volume control is provided by TacT. Hmm... Interesting. I don't want to write anymore on that right now, but I just know there will be plenty to report on the way this new configuration sounds when I get my preamp up and running again.