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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
29
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.
70
Basis 2200 Signature Turntable and
Vector Model 4 Arm
Paul Seydor discovers a lot to love in Basis’ mid-line offering.
78
TW Acustic Raven AC-3 Turntable
JV on a superb, handmade, three-motor turntable from Germany.
90
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.
30
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.
96
ELP LP “Declicker”
Want to remove ticks and pops from LP playback? WG on a
device that claims to do just that.
36
The Big Beat! Music Matters’ Stunning
Blue Note Vinyl Reissues
WG reports on new reissues of iconic jazz LPs.
98
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.
46
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.
54
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.
56
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.
60
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.
64
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.
68
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
8
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
14
Guest Editorial
16
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
20
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.
©008 Absolute Multimedia, Inc., March 008.
The Absolute Sound
(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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