tas_180.pdf

2 0 0 8 A n A l o g IS S U E

TUBES, vINyL

BASIS, TW AcUSTIc, PRO-JECT,

REgA, SOTA, ShElTER, DyNAvECTOR,

AIR-TIghT, GRADO, clEARAUdIo,

LyRA, VTl, AND MANy MORE...

PlUS: hIgh-End AUdIo In chInA

MUSIC MATTERS’ STUNNING

BLUE NOTE REISSUES!

BoB MoUld InTERVIEW

S T E R E O • M U LT I C H A N N E L A U D I O • M U S I C

& MORE!

MARCH 2008

The UlTimaTe analog issUe

In the age of the iPod and downloadable music, vinyl

records just keep on going. In this issue we focus on LP-

playback gear and select new LPs, with a side-trip into mono

and, for you bit-heads, a look at how to digitally archive

vinyl.

Basis 2200 Signature Turntable and

Vector Model 4 Arm

Paul Seydor discovers a lot to love in Basis’ mid-line offering.

TW Acustic Raven AC-3 Turntable

JV on a superb, handmade, three-motor turntable from Germany.

Clearaudio Goldinger V2 Moving-Coil

Cartridge and Clearaudio Double Matrix

Record Cleaner

JV on a great moving coil and the world’s most convenient

record-cleaning machine.

Start Me Up: Pro-Ject RM-5 SE, Rega

P3-24, and SOTA Comet Turntables

Wayne Garcia looks at three turntables to get you started in

analog.

ELP LP “Declicker”

Want to remove ticks and pops from LP playback? WG on a

device that claims to do just that.

The Big Beat! Music Matters’ Stunning

Blue Note Vinyl Reissues

WG reports on new reissues of iconic jazz LPs.

VAS Citation One Preampliier and

Citation Two Power Ampliier

Anthony H. Cordesman on an updated Harman-Kardon

Citation power amp and preamp from the Age of LPs.

The Analog-to-Digital Missing Link

Steven Stone shows you how to make a digital archive of

your LP collection with the Korg MR-1000 DSD recorder.

eqUipmenT RepoRTs

108

MartinLogan “Source” Loudspeaker

JV auditions a irst-rate hybrid-electrostatic priced under $2k.

Simaudio Moon LP3 and LP5.3

Phonostages

WG on two great phonostages from Canada’s Simaudio.

112

Magnum Dynalab MD-609T XM Tuner

Neil Gader on a tubed tuner for XM Radio.

Clearaudio Performance Turntable

Jim Hannon on a mid-priced ’table from Germany with a

magnetically levitated platter.

coveR sToRy

118

VTL Siegfried Power Ampliier and 7.5

Series II Preampliier

Jacob Heilbrunn on VTL’s lagship tubed ampliier and preamp.

Shelter 5000 and 7000 Moving-Coil

Phono Cartridges

Shelter’s new moving coils outperform their highly praised

predecessors—and for less money—says Chris Martens.

The cUTTing edge

124

Esoteric G-0Rb Rubidium Master Clock

Generator

Robert Harley on an atomic-clock that makes a great CD player

even greater. Plus: A short history of jitter—what it is and why

it matters.

Mono Cartridge Survey

The monophonic cartridge is making a comeback. Jacob

Heilbrunn evaluates four models—the Grado Prestige

MC+, Dynavector XV-1s, Air Tight PC-1, and Lyra Titan.

A Monophile Sampler

For the budding monophile, Mark Lehman and Jonathan

Valin list some worthy mono LPs.

hp’s WoRkshop

132

Harry Pearson evaluates an ambitious loudspeaker from a new

company called Scaena and previews the VTL Siegfried amp.

March 2008 The Absolute Sound

Contents

Letters

www.theabsolutesound.com

mUsic

founder; chairman,

editorial advisory board

editor-in-chief

executive editor

acquisitions manager

and associate editor

music editor

proofreader

art director

Harry Pearson

Robert Harley

Jonathan Valin

164

RECORDING OF THE

ISSUE

Bantock: Omar Khayyám .

Neil Gader

Bob Gendron

Mark Lehman

Torquil Dewar

Guest Editorial

FutureTAS

Products on the horizon.

senior writers

146

Rock

We speak with singer-songwriter Bob

Mould and review his latest album

as well as new CDs and LPs from

the Magnetic Fields, the Mountain

Goats, Chris Walla, Cat Power, Rufus

Wainwright, Shelby Lynne, Jesse

Dayton & Brennen Leigh, Antietam,

and Vampire Weekend. Plus, a box

of Atlantic soul and vinyl from the

Dillinger Escape Plan, Menomena,

Radiohead, Sharon Jones, Ghostface

Killah, Rush, Santana, and Simon &

Garfunkel.

John W. Cooledge, Anthony H. Cordesman,

Wayne Garcia, Robert E. Greene, Chris Martens,

Tom Martin, Dick Olsher, Andrew Quint,

Paul Seydor, Alan Taffel

reviewers and

contributing writers

Soren Baker, Greg Cahill, Guido Corona,

Dan Davis, Andy Downing, Jim Hannon,

Jacob Heilbrunn, Sue Kraft, Mark Lehman,

Ted Libbey, David McGee, Bill Milkowski,

Derk Richardson, Don Saltzman,

Steven Stone

hp’s equipment setup

Danny Gonzalez

AVguide.com

managing editor

Monica Williams

Industry News

High-end audio in China. Robert

Harley reports from the GuangZhou

show.

164

Classical

Golijov’s soundtrack for Youth Without

Youth , Handel’s Solomon , Dallas

Wind Symphony’s Crown Imperial on

Reference, the Tokyo String Quartet’s

Beethoven String Quartets, Op. 18, and

an audiophile LP reissue of the Brahms

Second Piano Concerto from Cisco.

Plus, the debut of the Multichannel

Marvels column.

Absolute Multimedia,

Inc. chairman and ceo

vice president/publisher

advertising reps

Thomas B. Martin, Jr.

Mark Fisher

Cheryl Smith

(51) 891-7775

Marvin Lewis

MTM Sales

(718) 5-880

140

Manufacturer Comments

Jennifer Martin, Wrights Reprints

(877) 65-595, : (81) 19-575, jmartin@wrightsreprints.com

subscriptions, renewals, changes of address:

(888) 7-165 (U.S.) or (815) 7-58

(outside U.S.), or write The Absolute Sound ,

Subscription Services, PO Box 69, Mt. Morris,

IL 6105. Ten issues: in the U.S., $6; Canada $5

(GST included); outside North America, $71 (includes air mail).

Payments must be by credit card (VISA, MasterCard,

American Express) or U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. bank,

with checks payable to NextScreen, LLC.

address letters to the editor,

The Absolute Sound , PO Box 1768, Tijeras, New Mexico 87059,

or e-mail rharley@nextscreen.com

classiied advertising: please use form in back of issue.

newsstand distribution and local dealers:

Contact IPD, 7500 Riverview Center Blvd., Suite 00,

Bonita Springs, Florida 1, (9) 99-50

publishing matters: contact Mark Fisher at the address below

or e-mail misher@nextscreen.com

Publications Mail Agreement 0600599

Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to

Station A / P.O. Box 5 / Windsor, ON N9A 6J5

info@theabsolutesound.com

NextScreen, LLC.

5 S. Lamar, Bldg. G-00

Austin, Texas 7875

(51) 89-868 fax: (51) 891-075

tas@nextscreen.com

142

The TAS Short List

Our top equipment picks in every

category at every price point.

174

Jazz

Coverage of hot releases from

Maceo Parker, Out to Lunch, Ari

Brown, Nicole Mitchell’s Black Earth

Ensemble, Pat Metheny, Free Form

Funky Freqs, Catherine Russell, Lizz

Wright, and Horace Silver. Plus, a

Coltrane book review.

184

TAS Back Page

We talk with Eli Gershman, Founder

and Designer, Gershman Acoustics.

(ISSN#0097-118) is published ten times per year, $ per year for U.S. residents.

NextScreen, LLC, 5 S. Lamar, Bldg G00, Austin, Texas 7875. Periodical Postage

paid at Austin, Texas and additional mailing ofices. Canadian publication mail account

#1551566. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Absolute Sound , Subscription

Services, PO Box 69, Mt Morris, IL 6105. Printed in the USA.

March 2008 The Absolute Sound

Letters

e-mail us: rharley@nextscreen.com

or write us a letter: The Absolute Sound , PO Box 1768, Tijeras, New Mexico 87059

No Substitute for

Maggies

Jonathan Valin’s glowing review of the

Magnepan MG12 and MMG speakers

in the December issue only reconirmed

what Maggie owners have known for over

30 years. There simply is no substitute.

Richard Hadley

allows me to get lost in the music that

I love—which is, after all, the absolute

sound…(well, almost).

Please keep up the good work.

it: Super Audio CD —and the players even

play the old Red Book discs, too. RH in

his original hyperbole did not declare

the Azur 840C to be the best sounding

“CD-only” player, “but [one] worthy of

comparison with reference-grade digital

front ends.” Are SACD players to be

excluded from digital front ends?

One can indulge those still in love

with the past, whether it be vinyl or Red

Book CD, but let them not get in the

way with what should be an audiophile’s

principal concern—the best musical

sounds possible, and today that means

SACDs. Ask the Chicago Symphony or

the Philadelphia Orchestra, who have

chosen SACD as the best way to exhibit

the music their great institutions create.

I have said my piece. Basta !

Christopher Mankiewicz

D. Supri

Music

Appreciation

I would like to thank TAS for the attention

it gives small, independent record labels

in its review section. Speciically, I make

reference to David McGee’s inclusion of

Maria Muldaur’s Naughty, Bawdy and Blue

on Stony Plain Records (a wonderful label

out of Edmonton, Canada) in his 2007

Golden Ear Awards. This has encouraged

me to send a note of appreciation for

your long and thoughtful practice, and

for the music it has opened up to me

that certainly would otherwise have been

missed.

Only the Best

In response to Craig Morton’s letter in

Issue 178 [ complaining that TAS reviews only

expensive products ], I only read The Absolute

Sound to learn about the state of the art. I

have very little interest in budget products.

I make no apologies for this and I am not

bragging. Other than state-of-the-art gear

and analog (yeah, I’m one of those guys),

I only read music reviews. So please TAS,

review the state of the art and I will keep

reading.

Steely Dan and

the Next Punk

Explosion

I absolutely agree with Wayne Garcia’s

opinion of Steely Dan—and this is from

someone who was once a great Steely Dan

fan. I have all their albums up to Aja . The

album cover for Aja has a plastic coating

on it that gives off a synthetic smell, which

I ind emblematic of Steely Dan’s music.

I bought Aja when I was trying to

conirm to myself that I was not wrong

about Steely Dan. Unfortunately, the

advent of Punk and New Wave in the 70s

highlighted the fact that Steely Dan are

craftsmen, not artists. Craftsmen were the

bane of 70s rock ’n’ roll. Unfortunately, I

believe contemporary music is falling into

that same trap. Nowadays MOR has been

repackaged and is being sold as “cool”—

Michael Buble, James Blunt, etc. I can

hardly wait for the next punk explosion.

Peter D’Castro

Jim Martens

P. Kogan

Christopher

Mankiewicz

Yet Again

Let’s not bother with John Lipani, who

having had a laugh and fun at my expense

[Letters, Issue 178], is doubtless off

enjoying music from his Cambridge Audio

Azur 840C, not having the ability to listen

to a DSD recording from an SACD player

that would have cost him far less and

exposed him to the miraculous sound

that awaits him when he stops laughing

and starts listening to what is currently

achievable.

Although it seems to be news to him

and RH for that matter—unless they’re

just indulging in semantic games—an

SACD player is a CD player. I wonder

what SACD stands for? Not vinyl or an 8-

track tape (giggle, giggle). No, you guessed

Invaluable Source

of Knowledge

The recent attacks on TAS for your

reviews of expensive gear, and lack of

affordable gear, are simply ridiculous!

The range of price points and variety of

equipment you review are, to me, beyond

reproach. I cannot fathom the research

and logistics it must take to do what you

do…and do so well! I have tremendous

respect for the passion and commitment

to excellence that so obviously comes

through in the reviews, articles, show

notes, etc. penned by TAS writers. I have

learned so much perusing the pages of

TAS, and have found in those pages an

invaluable source of knowledge and

experience that has helped me assemble

a selection of hardware and software that

8 March 2008 The Absolute Sound

Music Server

Revelation

Thanks for the very informative reviews

and articles on media servers. I have

been “rolling my own” for the past year,

and amazingly came to many of the

same conclusions as you about the best

software elements and overall approach.

I currently have almost 3000 classical

CDs loaded onto my system in FLAC

format. The system is a revelation that is

transforming my listening habits.

Apart from the time spent ripping, the

main headache has been creating good

tags that contain essential classical data

in consistent form. In your reviews of

the server systems you did not appear

to test how well they handled the data

organization and sorting of classical

music. This is critical to getting the best

out of the system, and the way pop

music is handled is not appropriate for

classical music. Perhaps All Media Guide

has addressed this issue, but it was not

apparent from the review. Examples of the

organization and selection functionality

that I have built into my system are:

“All chamber music with clarinet by

English composers in the early 20th

century,” and “All versions of Bach’s Trio

Sonata BWV 530 for various instrument

combinations.” In your opinion, do

the server systems offer classical music

listeners the same or an acceptable level

of selection sophistication that they offer

pop and jazz listeners? Finally, for any

classical music listener tempted to “roll

his own,” be prepared to think through

the data elements at the outset and then

expect to spend a huge amount of time

reorganizing and creating good tags.

Jeremy Grifiths

Lifestyle Music

Servers?

I commend TAS for its bold

acknowledgment that “music read from

a hard drive sounds better than the same

music read from an optical disc (‘The

Brave New World of Music Servers,’

Issue 177).” Manufacturers of high-end

CD players and transports, some of

whom advertise in TAS, will no doubt

take issue with your conclusion, but I

happen to agree with it.

However, I disagree strongly with

your decision to feature the ridiculously

expensive Sooloos ($12,900) and Qsonix

($7795) music server systems, while

ignoring the much more realistically

priced and truly revolutionary Slim

Devices Squeezebox wireless music-

streaming machine.

I use a Squeezebox (version 3) to stream

Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) iles

to my stereo. I created the FLAC iles by

ripping my CDs onto an external 500GB

hard drive. The Squeezebox retails for

$299 and a 500GB hard drive costs about

$100. I already owned the computer on

which I installed the free Slim Devices

SlimServer software, but I could have

purchased a well-equipped PC for under

$500 that would have been up to the task.

Finally, the Quad 99 CDP-2 external

upsampling digital-to-analog converter to

which my Squeezebox is connected cost

me about $1000.

The total price of my music server

system was approximately $1900, including

the PC. In addition to being vastly more

versatile, the system easily betters the

sound quality of my former $5000 CD

player/transport (the Sony SCD-1).

Without mentioning it by name, you

summarily dismiss the Squeezebox (and

its more expensive Slim Devices sibling,

the Transporter) because it relies on

“text-based lists, menus, and sub-menus

rather than on a graphic presentation that

shows you album art (‘Just Press Play,’

Issue 177).”

Browsing for music on the Sooloos

and Qsonix might be more colorful than

it is on the Squeezebox, but I do not

think this stylistic difference is worth

thousands of dollars, particularly since

you acknowledge that the sound from

the Sooloos and Qsonix analog outputs

is so “mediocre” that using an external

digital-to-analog converter is “essential

with either system (‘Sooloos and Qsonix

Head-to-Head,’ Issue 177).”

If I want to see album art, I can browse

the Internet, view it in SlimServer, or look

at the physical CD packaging itself.

In sum, TAS took a giant step into the

future by proclaiming that hard-drive-

based music servers offer the best sound

from CD audio. In the process, however,

TAS did a disservice to its readers by

anointing two wildly overpriced “lifestyle”

systems as the chosen tools to get into

hard-drive playback. Now please excuse

me as I navigate my Squeezebox to Neil

Young’s new Chrome Dreams II album

(reviewed in Issue 177), and look at the

album art, lyrics, and photographs in the

CD booklet.

Daniel A. Seff

Buy an Apple

Using a computer as a music server seems

a daunting task, at least as it is presented

in “Rolling Your Own,” by Karl Schuster

in your December issue. However, there

is a simple solution to the complexities

Mr. Schuster describes in his article: Buy

an Apple.

Trying to igure out a way around

Microsoft’s dreaded Kmixer? Apple’s Mac

OS X doesn’t have a Kmixer. Problem

solved.

Need a way to import error-free copies

of CDs to your hard drive? Click on

the “Importing” tab in Apple iTunes

Preferences and select “Use Error

Correction.” Problem solved, and no

need to add extra software like Exact

Audio Copy.

UPCOMING IN

ISSUE 181

• Complete coverage of the 2008

Consumer Electronics Show

• Report on Dolby TrueHD high-res

multichannel sound on Blu-ray Disc

• McCormack DNA-125 power

ampliier

• Usher Be-20 loudspeaker

• Inside the home of “The World’s

Number One Audiophile”

• Nola Viper Reference loudspeaker

• Affordable electronics from Exposure

• EgglestonWorks Nine loudspeaker

10 March 2008 The Absolute Sound

Letters

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