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Raven Audio Avian Nighthawk MK3 Integrated Amplifier
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- Written by Oliver Amnuayphol Oliver Amnuayphol
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 15 October 2020 15 October 2020
Raven Audio has been in business for some time, but had completely escaped my awareness until early 2019, when the SoundStage! editors hipped me to them. The Texas-based manufacturer (they have an office in Shreveport, Louisiana) sells all its products direct to the consumer with a one-year trade-up policy, a three-year warranty, and 45 days of free in-home trial. As a former engineer for a consumer-direct loudspeaker company, I’m familiar with both the value proposition and the challenges inherent in this business model.
More Measurements? Here's Why . . .
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 October 2020 01 October 2020
If, last year, someone predicted that millions of people around the world would be told to leave their offices and work from home for the foreseeable future, I suspect that most of those people would have found the prospect unbelievable. But the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent global lockdown have made the unbelievable a reality; in fact, it’s the biggest experiment in working from home the world has ever seen. When almost everything and everyone was locked down, many companies had to quickly make other changes in how they operated, to adapt to a sudden “new normal” that’s unlikely to return to the old normal anytime soon -- if ever.
IsoAcoustics' zaZen I Isolation Platform -- Is It Worth a Budget-Conscious Audiophile's While?
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: System One System One
- Created: 01 October 2020 01 October 2020
If you’ve ever seen a Zen Buddhist sitting cross-legged in quiet meditation, what he or she might have been doing is called zazen -- “a means of insight into the nature of existence,” per Wikipedia, which goes on to say: “The aim of zazen is just sitting, that is, suspending all judgmental thinking and letting words, ideas, images and thoughts pass by without getting involved in them.”
Monitor Audio Gold 200 Loudspeakers
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- Written by Philip Beaudette Philip Beaudette
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 01 October 2020 01 October 2020
In my years as an audiophile, I’ve encountered a few products that have left indelible marks on my memory because they offered something I’d never heard before. One such experience that stands out is the night I unboxed a Bryston B100 SST integrated amplifier and played Tori Amos’s Boys for Pele through it. From the first notes of her concert grand piano, I realized that while my NAD C 372 integrated was pretty good, the Bryston sounded much better -- even before I’d engaged its onboard DAC, which further improved its sound quality. I also remember the first time I heard a pair of Amphion’s Argon3 speakers. I was amazed that such clarity could be accompanied by so much warm bass.
Don't Forget the CD
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- Written by Ken Kessler Ken Kessler
- Category: SoundStage! UK SoundStage! UK
- Created: 01 October 2020 01 October 2020
Some years ago, in an interview I gave to a magazine in Hungary (I think), I said that the Vinyl Revolution would never grow beyond that of a cult, albeit a fair-sized one. I am pleased to stand corrected, as mid-September 2020 saw an announcement that must have had my colleague Michael Fremer punching the air and shouting, “I told you so!” Apparently, LPs outsold CDs in the USA for the first time in more than a quarter-century.
Recommended Reference Component: dCS Bartók Digital-to-Analog Converter
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- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 01 October 2020 01 October 2020
It was in 1987, in Cambridge, England, that Mike Story founded Data Conversions Systems (dCS) as an engineering consulting firm doing work on the Blue Vixen radar system for the Royal Navy. In 1989, dCS launched itself on the waves of audio with the 900 analog-to-digital converter (ADC), followed in 1993 by the 950 digital-to-analog converter, which dCS claims was the world’s first 24-bit DAC. In 1995 came the 902 ADC and 952 DAC, which dCS says were the world’s first digital converters to use 24 bits and a sampling frequency of 96kHz.
NAD Masters M33 Integrated Amplifier-DAC
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- Written by Roger Kanno Roger Kanno
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 15 September 2020 15 September 2020
NAD’s Masters M33 integrated amplifier-DAC, announced last January in Las Vegas at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show, is the first commercially available product to implement NAD’s Hybrid Digital Purifi Eigentakt technology. This consists of Purifi Audio’s 1ET400A monaural, class-D power-amplifier technology, about which SoundStage! Network founder and publisher Doug Schneider wrote in June. Purifi Audio, founded in Denmark by entrepreneur Peter Lyngdorf and electronics designers Bruno Putzeys and Lars Risbo, was at first devoted to pure research. Later, after it had become a commercial enterprise, Purifi sent Doug an “engineering evaluation” version of the first Eigentakt amp. This comprised two 1ET400A modules, a Purifi-designed gain board, and a Hypex power supply, all housed in a DIY-style case. Doug was enthusiastic: “I was bowled over by the Purifi Eigentakt’s sound and operation. It turned on silently, made almost no noise, provided more than enough power while generating hardly any heat, and passed music through so transparently, at volume levels from low to high, that it left me in near disbelief that so small a box could accomplish so much.”
The Purifi Puzzle, Part One: The Measured Performance of the Eigentakt Amplifier
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- Written by Douglas Schneider Douglas Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 September 2020 01 September 2020
On June 1, in “Purifi Audio’s Pint-Sized Powerhouses,” I described a bit of the history and technology behind Purifi Audio’s class-D 1ET400A amplifier module and PTT6.5W04 midrange-woofer, which Purifi sells as OEM parts to other manufacturers. I also gave my impressions of the sounds of the speaker and amplifier evaluation kits Purifi sent me, as listened to in a typical two-channel setup. One kit was the Eigentakt stereo amplifier, a small, DIY-type case housing two 1ET400a modules, a Purifi-designed gain board, and a Hypex power supply. The other was the SPK5 loudspeaker, which marries the PTT6.5W04 midrange-woofer to a Mundorf air-motion transformer (AMT) tweeter in a basic enclosure mostly made of plywood. At the end of that article, I wrote that I hoped to have both products measured, and the results posted online, by “July 1 or, at the latest, August 1.”
Perfection from Pro-Ject for Under $1000? X1 Turntable with Pick it S2 Cartridge
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: System One System One
- Created: 01 September 2020 01 September 2020
Pro-Ject Audio Systems currently makes over 50 turntable models spread across 12 lines. The X1, from their X Line, stands out from that crowd for its lineage -- it’s essentially an update of Pro-Ject’s very first turntable, the 1 (aka P1), which debuted in 1991. The 1, Pro-Ject’s first product of any kind, was successful enough to give the company the kick-start it needed to eventually become the hi-fi manufacturing juggernaut it is today.
Naim Audio Supernait 3 Integrated Amplifier
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- Written by Roger Kanno Roger Kanno
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 01 September 2020 01 September 2020
In January 2014, in Las Vegas, I saw and heard Naim’s Statement NAC S1 preamplifier and NAP S1 power amplifier at the Consumer Electronics Show. I was blown away by their sound quality, visual design, and construction, all of which were breathtaking -- even at a total price of $200,000 (all prices USD). Together, the NAC S1 and NAP S1 make a large, unique-looking, floorstanding amplification tower with gorgeously curved side-panel heatsinks. They looked totally unlike any other Naim product I’d seen, and their build quality, visible in a caseless display sample was extreme and uncompromising. Their sound quality was equally impressive. Even under difficult show conditions, they drove a pair of Focal’s very large Stella Utopia floorstanding speakers to great effect.
