February 7th: Breaking in new gear |
The review sessions begin next week, and we're busy breaking in gear, in two different systems, so that they're ready for listening.
 How do we do it? The Moon 300D digital-to-analog converter, shown in this picture, is being fed via our own optical cable from an Airport Express module, which is streaming music from the huge collection on a hard drive in a different room. The 300D is feeding an amplifier, which is in turn feeding the ELAC speakers we mentioned a couple of days ago. They were factory-sealed too. Simaudio says the Moon needs 300 hours of break-in time. That's nearly two weeks. We'll do the best we can, and we're running it 24/7..
In fact we'll be starting our sessions with other gear, which got a head start on the break-in, namely two phono preamps and a line stage preamplifier.
Some critics of UHF (and of what they call scornfully the "subjective" school of reviewing) reject the idea that electronic products need breaking in at all. Our suggestion: take a 30-kilometre hike in brand new shoes, and we'll visit you in the intensive care ward. |
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February 5th: Preparing for review sessions |
By the end of today we will have all of the products scheduled for review in issue No. 89 of UHF, including a loudspeaker, two of whose drivers you see here.
 The speaker is an ELAC FS 249, and this picture shows a couple of its unusual features. You've probably never seen a woofer quite like this one before. On the other hand you probably have seen a tweeter like this one. It's the justly famous Heil Air Motion Transformer. And it does things most tweeters don't do.
However we won't be starting the review sessions with these speakers, because they are a long way from being broken in. We do, however, have a number of products we have had a chance to run in, including two phono preamps, one of them with tubes and a built-in step-up transformer. We'll also have a tube preamplifier. We'll have a new digital-to-analog converter (trust us, you're going to be seeing a lot more of these over the next year or two). We have a cute little headphone amp, also with a tube in it. Anyone see a trend?
We have a couple of different devices that claim to isolate your system from harmful external vibrations. Most such devices don't work, and we have the test results to prove it, but these look potentially promising.
And we have a new HDTV, one of the LCD models backlit (or rather edge-lit) with LEDs rather than those awful fluorescent tubes. We had expected two of them, actually, but the second one, from a company we won't name, failed to show in time for our deadline. We will of course be putting this set up against our reference Samsung plasma.
The next issue goes to press in early March.
BY THE WAY: It's Flash Sale time again. It's not often we offer a free product, but we have one this time...a product some audiophiles have billed as the biggest upgrade they have ever made. Check it out...but do it before Monday at 10 am. |
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February 2nd: The viol makes a comeback at The Audiophile Store |
The viol family of instruments looks something like the modern violin, viola, cello and double bass, but it is a cousin, not an ancestor, and its sound is different, richer in harmonics, haunting. Some years ago the film Tous les matins du monde (All the mornings of the world) triggered a boom in sales of viol recordings. Lucky us...our Audiophile Store then had the soundtrack album, and we ordered them in by the crateload.
 The M•A record label has a new recording of viol music by Marin Marais, the subject of the film, and it is by far the best-sounding such recording we have heard. The suites on this remarkable CD includes a piece in homage to his mentor (also the subjct of the film), Sainte-Colombe.
The viol has a deeply resonant sound, but with a harmonic structure that is unique. It is off-putting at first, but itgrows on you quickly, and then you want to hear more.
Todd Garfinkle of M•A makes wonderful recordings, and the first three titles we added to our store have been ordered in large quantities since we first listed them last Fall. We've added this one, and we think you'll want to have it too. Just go to our M•A page, where you can listen to an excerpt, and then order your own copy. Of course, lend an ear to the first three as well. All are in stock and waiting for you. |
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January 29th: More thoughts on the iPad |
We're generally reasonably enthusiastic about Apple products (UHF has been created on Macintosh computers since 1984, and we even taught some major league magazines how to use them). Still, we know how how to restrain ourselves. Our current issue includes an in-depth article on the Apple TV, and as you may have noticed it is mostly negative.
 So what about the iPad, the $499 (and up) slate computer launched by Steve Jobs two days ago? Public reaction on line has been negative, even vicious. So were early reports from analysts, who were expecting...well, who knows what? It doesn't have a camera. It doesn't have Flash, It doesn't have multitasking. What kind of name is iPad? Fail! (What would the trolls do without that word?)
But the same trolls said the same things about the first iPod, because they couldn't see that the innovation was not so much the device itself as the ecosystem that would accompany it. In the same way, we think Jobs spent too much time dazzling us with the hardware and not enough on the coming ecosystem. Our take: this is huge, by far the technology story of the year, perhaps the decade.
It's surely no secret that Apple has been in intensive talks with the publishers of major newspapers and magazines, many of whom are staring into the abyss. The talks have been of limited scope because of Jobs' usual care to keep the new product secret. Now the wraps are off, and the talks will begin in earnest. Print publications will not abandon the presses for a while, perhaps not for a long time, but there will be a rapid migration toward the iPad just as the record labels quickly migrated to the iTunes store. That store, need we stress, is the biggest music retailer in the US, one of the bigest in the world.
We do expect to have a presence in the iPad ecosystem. And this afternoon, we received confirmation from Apple that we have been accepted in the iPad/iPhone developer program.
We'll keep you in the loop.
BY THE WAY: Analog fans (or wannabe analog fans) shouldn't miss this weekend's Flash Sale, which runs through Monday morning. |
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January 27th: UHF on the Apple iPad |
| Steve Jobs revealed the Apple tablet, called the iPad, and the demo included UHF Magazine, no less.
No it didn't, we lie. It actually included such publications as the New York Times and the New Yorker, but the rumor mill had it that Jobs was introducing not just a new gadget but a reinvention of print media. He would save the printed press. The iPad would do for print what the iPod and the iTunes store had done for music. How could we not be interested?
But our enthusiasm may have been premature. Jobs did show off a new store, called iBooks, to sell...well, books of course. Magazines? Newspapers? Just images, but no plans revealed. Shoot!
It looks as though we'll have to go ahead and reserve press time for UHF No. 89 after all, even though that's so 20th Century. It will be in early March.
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January 25th: Lexicon busted? |
The story originated with Audioholics, but it has been sweeping across the blogosphere. The new Lexicon BD-30 Blu-ray player, with its $3500 price tag, is in fact an Oppo BDP-83, the much-praised economy Blu-ray/SACD/HDCD player available for just $500.
There is of course a tradition of high end companies modifying and upgrading off-the-shelf mass-market players and rebadging them at considerably more than the original price. Entire high-end companies got their start in that way, including MSB and McCormack (once known as The Mod Squad). Better power supplies, superior analog circuits made with discrete transistors...it's all a big help, and it's legitimate.
However Audioholics claims that Lexicon went to no such trouble, and it confirmed it by dismantling both players and comparing them side by side. Their conclusion: Lexicon built a new chassis with a fancy faceplate, and dropped the entire unmodified Oppo player inside!
The Oppo is on the left, the Lexicon on the right. You be the judge. Better yet, drop by the relevant Audioholics page and check out both the text and the additional side-by-side photos.
We're hoping to see a comment by Lexicon's parent company, Harman International, soon. A story like this can destroy a brand name, and it won't take months to do so.
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January 22nd: Free HD movies from the NFB |
That's the National Film Board of Canada. Even in Hollywood it's legendary as a pioneer in film, and we've heard major producers tell us that we just don't appreciate what we've got.
So now's our chance to find out.
 The NFB has long maintained, in major Canadian cities, a "Robotheque," a place where you can go and tell the "robot" what you wanted to watch from the NFB's vast stock. The original user interface was designed by then-UHF reviewer Henry See.
But time marches on, and many of the NFB's productions have migrated to the Web. And if you have the bandwidth, you can now view some films in high definition. And that includes some Oscar-nominated (and Oscar-winner) productions. You don't have to be Canadian, either. Just go to the NFB site. For productions in French, you can visit the site of the Office National du Film, which also has HD on line. The ONF also offers a free app for the iPhone and the iPod touch, though no English-language version yet exists.
BY THEWAY: It's Flash Sale time again, and, exceptionally, we've duplicated last week's Flash Sale, the one offering half-price on back issues. But there won't be a third time, and it ends Monday morning. Go for it! |
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January 15th: A big Flash Sale |
 We're back in the office and starting to make our way through the orders that have poured in since we left for Vegas and CES on January 3rd. We expect to be pretty much caught up by Monday.
Because of CES there was no Flash Sale last weekend, so we're making up for it this weekend. Only once before has a Flash Sale targeted UHF Magazine itself, and even so it was nothing like this sale. Do a quick calculation, and you can actually subscribe, or extend your subscription...for free!
(We're extending the same privilege to readers who subscribed or renewed earlier in 2010.)
But remember, the Flash Sale ends Monday at 10 am EST.
UPDATE: It's now over, but it returns every Friday at 3 pm.
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January 14th: And now back to work |
Not that doing all those Vegas reports wasn't work, but since the start of the year we've been offering no more than a skeleton crew service. We do it every year so that we can give CES our full attention.
 But as we wing back home, we'll be preparing shipments of recordings, magazines, accessories, books, whatever you've ordered (the first mail truck arrives Friday around 3 pm). Anything we don't catch will go out Monday.
Oh yes...Friday 3 pm.
That's the hour our next Flash Sale will begin. It involves magazines, we can tell you that much, and it's a one-time opportunity to get your hands on some reading material. It runs, as usual, through Monday at 10 am EST. Watch for it. |
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January 11th: Oracle Delphi MkVI |
Yes, there is, finally, an Oracle Mk VI turntable!
 That was one of the revelations of CES 2010, which ended yesterday. You can see the details at our Day 4 coverage, or -- if you want to follow the shows along with us -- start with the Day Zero report and see them all.
Oracle founder Jacques Riendeau (that's him at right) says it's a shame it has taken 30 years to make these advances. What we can tell you is that the effect is dramatic, and that if you own a MkV Delphi...yes, an upgrade is available.
As for us, we have some meetings scheduled, and we fly back to cold Montreal on Thursday. Our offices reopen on Friday the 15th. That, by the way, will be the date of the next Flash Sale, starting at 3 pm EST. |
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January 9th: Did this amp arrive in Vegas by time machine? |
Our coverage of the two shows in Vegas continues. You can read our daily reports (starting with Day Zero) here.
 This was one of the many tube amplifiers we spotted at T.H.E.Show. How's that for a retro look? Check the black crinkled finish, the 40's-styled switches and "jewel" pilot lights. And how about that sound VU level meter at the rear? Or the black identity tag?
Bending down to read the tag revealed the amplifier's identity. It's from Atma-Sphere, a company long in love with technology of an earlier day. It even refurbishes old Empire turntables and tone arms.
Oh yes, the two monoblocks did sound very good. |
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January 7th: Any surface a touch-screen |
You can read our roundup of "Day Zero" of CES in our reports from Vegas, but we wanted to tell you about Light Blue Optics, a British company whose amazing product is shown here.
 In a story that sounds not unlike that of Google, four PhD students at Cambridge came up with an idea and founded a company. The idea: a small battery-powered laser projector that can throw an image from its built-in computer onto the table in front of it. But here's the kicker: it's interactive. You can push buttons on the projected image, and you can even flick the image sideways, just as you can on an iPhone.
You can't buy one, because it's still demoware, intended to interest potential manufacturers who can find applications for it. In a short film, a tourist looks out her cab window at London Bridge, and by tapping a virtual button on the window, she can read about its history. A poster shows a pillar in a dress shop that acts like a touch-sensitive catalog page.
We hope to see this in real-life products. |
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January 6th: First CES report on line |
And it's no thanks to CES, whose press room at the Venetian is the size of a large handkerchief, with on-line access that is mainly symbolic. However we're used to the frustration that comes with trying to deal with the organizers of this (admittedly) huge show.
We'll get on line where and when we can. But you can already read the first part of our Day Zero coverage of CES. |
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January 5th: CES about to begin |
 It's another beautiful day in Vegas...more beautiful than what we left behind anyway.
When the taxi showed up to take us to the airport early Sunday morning, the street was difficult to navigate because of the overnight snow accumulation, and also because it was blocked off because another house, down the street from Château Hi-Fi, was burning! In Vegas? It was 15°C and sunny. And the trip was a delight. Because of enhanced security measures, we all had to travel nude, which tended to make the in-flight entertainment system a tad redundant.
But back to business. The Consumer Electronics Show, technically, runs four days. But before it opens there is a press day. And before the press day there is the "CES Unveiled" reception (which is not what it seems, as we shall explain later), and before that a well-known speaker manufacturer has an open house. We'll be there of course.
A few words about Vegas itself. Though it hasn't really crawled out from beneath the recession, prices aren't as low as they were a year ago. No 80% off sales at Saks Fifth Avenue, or at Brookstone, either. Perhaps that proves something, and perhaps it doesn't. The CityCenter complex, a long-abandoned joint project of MGM Grand (which is in trouble) and Dubai (need we say more?), has opened, sort of, and includes some spectacular architecture, but also some of the ugliest structures on the planet.
But we're just here for the show, and then we're leaving. It's not our problem.
The Vegas 2010 Preview is on line, and more reports will follow. |
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January 2nd: Off to Vegas |
 We've been doing this for two decades, heading down to Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show (and to Chicago back when there was a Summer CES), so we can report on it. Of course in the early days we didn't post reports on the World Wide Web because -- it seems odd to think about it -- there was no World wide Web.
You'll be seeing the first report, with text and pictures, on the morning of the 7th, but you can already read our CES Preview.
We're stil busy all day today getting orders ready for shipping, but as of tomorrow there will be only minimal service, because our offices will be closed. We're back on the 15th.
But in the meantime you'll be hearing lots from us. |
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January 1st: First terrific new recording of the year |
 Yesterday we told you about Jen Chapin's ReVisions SACD, possibly the best-sounding recording we have ever heard. Today, get a look (and a listen) to another new recording, We Get Requests, a 1964 Verve recording that has been brought back to life (and we mean life) by First Impressions Music. The disc uses pure silver as a substrate, and the K2 process which may be similar to xrcd. We liked it so much we actually included it in our equipment reviews.
Canada's Oscar Peterson was one of the jazz world's great pianists, and Ray Brown may have been the greatest bassist of all time. You can see the CD over on our Miscellaneous Disc page (we really need to set up an FIM page), and you can even listen to a sample.
BY THE WAY: Our first Flash Sale of the year is now on, and runs through Monday morning. There will be no Flash Sale next week because of the Consumer Electronics Show, so the following one will begin on January 15th. During CES itself there will be no products shipped, but order during the sale hours and you'll get the special price. |
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December 31st: Terrific new recording at the store |
 First of all, we want to wish you, in the coming year, everything you had hoped for in this dying year. For our part we're not unhappy to see it flicker out, but we're optimistic about things to come.
And now let us alert you to the last new recording to join our Audiophile Store this year. Jen Chapin is the daughter of singer Harry Chapin (her mother is famous too), and she's terrific in this set of songs from Stevie Wonder. The accompaniment (just sax and bass, but what sax, and what bass!) are just as good. Listen to the astonishing 3-D effect that the famous Soundfield microphone can provide. The full review of this hybrid SACD is in our current issue, and we used it in some of our equipment reviews too. It is perhaps the most realistic recording we have yet heard.
And we now have a few in stock. Click on the image, and you can order it. |
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December 30th: Vegas preview now on line |
It's time to pack our bags, head for the airport (well, Sunday) and prepare for pat-downs, strip searches, interminable delays, and whatever else US Homeland Security can devise in order to sink the US economy.
 But we're not here to talk about that. Our preview of CES 2010 is now on line, with the good news, the bad news, and the many details on what CEA leader Gary Shapiro has been up to in the past 12 months. The show runs from January 7th to 10th, with events on the 5th and 6th as well. We'll be reporting on all of those.
We wil also be reporting on T.H.E. Show, a disaster last year, but perhaps better this year, because it has moved to a location that is not in a different time zone.
The first report will be going up on the morning of the 7th. Follow along, and see how much fun we're having. Or not. |
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December 29th: Free Advice updated, preparing for Vegas |
 The latest instalment of our long-running (since 1982) Free Advice column is now up, and we're working on more replies. Keep the questions coming.
And now we're preparing for our wall-to-wall coverage of the two Vegas extravaganzas (CES and T.H.E.Show). At least we hope to get there. Draconian "security" rules imposed on non-US travellers going to the US are resulting in countless flights being cancelled. We don't mean delayed, we mean cancelled outright. One such rule: a plane leaves on time, or it doesn't leave at all.
Oh well, we'll see. Our Vegas preview will be on line shortly. If we can't get there, we'd guess a lot of other people won't get there either. Las Vegas, need we remind you, used to be a desert. It could be again. |
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December 23rd: Better wireless audio at the Garage Sale |
A lot of the products we offer at our Garage Sale are new, but some are demos, and that includes a new hardware offering we've just added.
We mentioned in our current issue that, to our surprise, streaming uncompressed audio to an Airport Express over the 5 GHz band results in far better sound than it does if you use the crowded 2.4 GHz band. So we're offering, for $89.95, a Netgear router that broadcasts over both bands at the same time. It's a demo, tested (it works fine) but never installed.
Speaking of bargains, our Flash Sale normally begins Friday at 3 pm. But that's Christmas Day, so we'll actually launch it Thursday at noon. |
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December 20th: Our Christmas schedule |
 We're still hard at work filling orders for magazines, books, recordings, audio accessories and other products, including Van den Hul electronics and Thorens turntables. We'll be going at it until noon Thursday, the 24th, Our daily mail truck comes early on Christmas Eve, and we'll be doing a final shipment then.
We will of course be closed on the 25th, and also Monday the 28th.
We'll update you shortly on our schedule for the New Year, including our usual on-line extravaganza during the Consumer Electronics Show. Our preview of CES 2010 will be going on line shortly. |
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December 18th: Fake Steve Jobs nails it |
We want to draw your attention to a blog entry that has a lot to say about what has happened to our increasingy mercantile (read: brain-dead) economic ecosystem. Does it have anything to do with high end audio? Oh, does it ever! We leave you to ponder it and draw the conclusions you find appropriate.
 The blog entry is from Fake Steve Jobs. His real name is Daniel Lyons, and he writes for Newsweek, though for the first couple of years, when he was writing The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, his identity was the subject of much speculation.
The subject is the iPhone, but if you read it carefully (or even not that carefully), you'll see that it's about much more than that. The posting was prompted by some loose talk by a top executive at AT&T (the carrier that has iPhone exclusivity in the US) about the fact iPhone users use a lot of bandwidth, that 3% of customers burn through 40% of available bandwidth, and that AT&T might use some sort of incentive (actually disincentive) to get iPhone owners to use their devices less. Good idea?
Not according to Fake Steve Jobs, who went ballistic, and posted a (fake) interview with the CEO of AT&T. Everyone should read it, not just AT&T (or iPhone) users.
Notice that we have not yet given you the link. Just before we do, we will warn you that Lyons' alter ego uses all of the vocabulary that the English language, in its wisdom, provides for. If your ears bleed easily, don't click, and continue to believe in the Tooth Fairy.
But everyone else should read this and think about it. Here is the link, which will cause the post to open in a new window.
BY THE WAY: It's Flash Sale time again, which means you have a couple of chances to save big on speaker cables and balanced interconnects. Till Monday morning. |
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December 17th: Panasonic buys Sanyo |
We can't say this is a huge surprise, since companies worldwide have been snapping each other up in the interests of synergy (that's spelled m-o-n-o-p-o-l-y). But the reason for Sanyo's particular attractiveness might come as a surprise.
It's this device you see here.
 Eneloop batteries may look like other NiMH (nickel-metal-hydride) rechargeable batteries, but Sanyo makes extravagant claims for it.
For one thing, they come already charged (coming soon, cigarettes that come already lit). This works only because, Sanyo claims, their self-discharge rate is low, meaning that they hold a charge much better than othet rechargeables. Other claims: they have much higher capacity, and a long life: a thousand charge-discharge cycles. And they have low impedance, so that they maintain higher voltage under load.
That might sound like PR bumpf, but we've been working with these for the last six months, and the claims seem to check out. Eneloop batteries are by far the best rechargeables we've seen, and indeed their capacity can rival or surpass that of alkalines. Has the Energizer bunny met his match?
Apparently it's the Eneloop technology that attracted the attention of Panasonic. After all, Panasonic already makes pretty much everything Sanyo does, including cameras and batteries, but this is something new. Panasonic also has its eye on another Sanyo technology, incolving solar cells.
Panasonic paid US$4.6 billion for just over 50% of Sanyo. |
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December 14th: Silver and copper prices |
We've received some comments about our last entry, in which we said that, at today's commodity prices, silver costs less than copper does. That has obvious importance in the audio cable world, in which silver cables are often double the price of copper. Can it be true? Not exacty.
Checking commodity prices at bloombeg.com, we get prices of about $17 per troy ounce for silver and $26.22 a pound for copper (both figures in US dollars). Let's do a little conversion.
A troy ounce is not the same as the unit you may buy bananas in. It's equivalent to 31.1 grams. So silver costs currently about $0.55 per gram.
An avoirdupoid pound (the familiar US and British measure) contains 454 g. So copper costs $0.06 per gram, about a tenth as much.
But the real-life difference may be less, because elemental copper are not what you use to make wire. Proper wire is made from highly-processed oxygen-free copper, or even continuous-cast copper, either of which is many times more expensive. |
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December 14th: Making fun of cables |
Do we believe in the importance of good audio and video cables? You bet. Is the high end cable industry filled with snake oil salesmen? You've said a mouthful, there. Is it easy to tell the good guys from the bad guys? Problem is, the bad guys are giving the good guys a black eye.
 Last week, Wireworld launched its Super Platinum HDMI cable, shown here. "Platinum" is just a name, and in fact it's made of silver, which is actually cheaper not wildly more expensive than the usual copper, believe it or not. What attracted the attention of such technology blogs as Engadget is the price, $1000. And that's for the 1m length. There will be a 30 m length as well.
What makes a digital cable worth that sort of money? According to the press release, it has:
molded carbon fiber connectors, the company's unique new 24-conductor DNA Helix™ design with solid silver conductors, and high-speed/high-bandwidth capabilities to meet even the most stringent system requirements - including the new HDMI v1.4 High Speed with Ethernet specification.
As a point of information, HDMI Licensing, LLC now forbids licensees from using HDMI versions to label their cables, and Wireworld is a little near the line there (though specifying the Ethernet spec is okay). But it was the price that got the bloggers going. Engadget had little trouble making up its mind.
It has a patent-pending DNA Helix conductor design formed by the gods themselves out of 24 solid silver conductors. Hell, $1,000 is probably a bargain for one of these one meter cables. Your eyes are worth it, after all. You're welcome.
Figure there's a touch of sarcasm here? Of course, readers chimed in with even more vicious responses. Some samples:
Wait, next week Monster will come out with their $2000 cable made from Gypsy tears
They are more expensive, but the fact of the matter is that there *is* a difference between the cheapest speaker cable and more expensive speaker cable, as speaker cable transmits an analogue signal whereas with HDMI transmitting a digital signal, there are only 0's and 1's being transmitted so absolutely NO difference between the cheapest $5 cable and this. Even a $1-2 HDMI will do exactly the same job, coz HDMI is digital. I've got multiple HDMI sources hooked up to my HDTV, through an HDMI switch, coz I'm running out of HDMI ports LOL:
I've bought nothing but those one cent cables from Amazon, and never had a single problem.
Is that cable strong enough to hang someone from marketing?
Awesome. Nothing says signal quality like a carbon-fiber connector shroud. Because if it makes race cars faster, it must make TV pixels faster.
Ooohhhhh... pretty! What kind of nonsense could they possibly be using in their cables to get the price that high? Platinum core wire? Plus a 1500% luxury-dumbass markup?
Notice the reference to Monster Cable? Bloggers have been on Monster's case since someone ran a blind test comparing a Monster speaker cable to a set of untwisted coathangers. We're not here to defend Monster (and indeed, we recently published a negative review of their optical cable), but we're unhappy with the fact that such over-the-top products push so many people to the opposite camp. They then assume that a $3 cable must be a ripoff, because you can get one for $2.35. They also bring out of the woodwork the pseudo-engineers, the ones who proclaim that digital cables are all the same, because bits is bits (the "last week I couldn't spell engineer, now I are one" crowd).
Full disclosure: our Audiophile Store once sold Wireworld cables. We became increasingly disenchanted with the company, and found what we consider to be a better supplier. Even back then, we were refusing to carry some Wireworld products we considered absurdly expensive.
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December 10th: UHF free edition on line, print issue arrives tomorrow |
 Our free edition contains a lot more than you might expect, because about half the articles are complete, and can be read on-screen. You can see it over at The Reading Room, where you just click on the thumbnail of the UHF 88 cover,.
The print issues left the Beauceville printing plant today, and we'll be getting them tomorrow morning. By Monday, copies to subscribers will be in the mail.
For those who have ordered the free paid edition from MagZee, it will be available as of tomorrow as well.
With the new issue well and truly launched, we are now concentrating on the content for the next issue, and we are actually doing the first review listening session tomorrow afternoon! The subject is a high end loudspeaker cable.
We will also be turning our attention to the Consumer Electronics Show, because a major report on CES will be part of the next issue. We'll be getting a preview on line in the next few days. In the meantime you can still get a look at our daily reports from the 2009 edition.
UPDATE: The new issue has been delivered, and is now on line for subscribers and all who have ordered the issue. Go to MagZee and log in with your user name and password. Remember that it's always case-sensitive, so watch that shift key.
BY THE WAY: The Flash Sale is on again, and runs all weekend. We've just topped up our stock of certain items, and it seems to be a good time to offer some specials. |
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December 9th: Renewal forms mailed, UHF 88 set to ship |
We did as we usually do: we sent renewal notices first to subscribers who have e-mail adresses. True, many of those addresses are out of date (or bogus), but thanks to the many readers who renewed on-line, and saved us the cost of a stamp.
 But if you haven't yet, you'll be getting our renewal form in the next few days.
And unless your subscription is well and truly dead, you'll also be getting issue No. 88 of UHF. It's been printed, and despite the massive snowstorm that has struck Quebec, it will be shipped tomorrow, and we should have it Friday.
So will the fulfilment house that sends copies to subscribers, so it will soon be in the mail, and then in your mailbox.
The electronic edition will be published at the same time. |
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December 4th: The limits of USB audio??? |
We hate this, hate this, when our magazine is not even yet released (it will be here probably at the end of next week) and we already have to do an update on a major review. But here goes.
 In the new issue we give an extended listen to Reference Recordings' HRx high-resolution files, using three different digital-to-analog converters, including the Cambridge DACMagic (shown here). We also published a full review of the DACMagic.
Full review? Not quite. Reader Jeff Tennant pointed out a page in the FAQ of Cambridge Audio:
Question: Is it possible to pass a 96 kHz, 24 bit signal from my computer to the DacMagic through the USB connection?
Answer: No, over USB, it will always be a 16/44.1 or 48 kHz input to the DacMagic as that's all that standard USB audio can do. This is simply a limitation of standard USB audio.
Now, this is flat-out wrong, and Cambridge should know better. Indeed, a lot of 24/96 recordings are getting made with pro or prosumer-level interface boxes that connect to a computer via USB. However we had done our evaluation of HRx using an optical cable, and we hadn't thought to try the USB link. So we've gone back to try it, and sure enough the Cambridge can't do it. Though our MacBook Pro happily outputs 24/96 to our Edirol UA-25, with the Cambridge it allows no more than 16/48.
The FAQ proceeds to reassure us that this truncated signal will, however, be upsampled to 192 kHz. Yes, well, thanks for nothing.
In any case, we'll know better than to take things like this for granted.
BY THE WAY: It's Flash Sale time once more, running from now through Monday morning at 10 am. This week, a special price on one of our former reference components, loudspeaker cables, and a very special ofer on our magazines. |
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December 2nd: The next issue of UHF in production |
We had reserved time on the presses for November 30th (Monday), and we made it, albeit rather late at night, as the last details were put into place.
Of course we long ago put behind us the procedure which has someone from the pre-press lab coming to pick up the material. Printers don't need films anymore, because they go directly from computer to printing plates. We now do our own Postscript rendering (our new computer can do the whole issue in 90 seconds!), and the pages fly over our fibre optic Internet connection to…
 Well, to Beauceville, well north of Quebec City, where the Interglobe printing plant is located. Even the proofs will come to us electronically, probably tomorrow.
While we're waiting for delivery (originally scheduled for mid-month, but possibly coming sooner), we're preparing the two electronic editions. The paid version, bound for MagZee (which you can preorder here), will be released the same day as the magazine is delivered. The free edition (which looks just like the paid edition, and is about half complete, should be available before the end of next week.Of course you can see the preview (the cover and the table of contents) over at The Reading Room.
We got into scheduling problems with this issue, for what may be obvious reasons. Publication of issue 87 was way late, for reasons beyond our control, and we wanted to get caught up by getting No. 88 out before the end of the year. We succeeded, but we had a lot of events colliding: the principal photography (two days), the final review listening session, which was just Tuesday of last week, and a final marathon of writing and correcting.
But we're quite excited about this issue, which we think has a lot of interesting material in it. We hope you'll agree. |
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November 27th: All out push to get UHF 88 into production |
Press time has been reserved for Monday, for delivery before the holidays. There's still a lot to do, so it will be a busy weekend.
We had a final listening session on Tuesday, and that was certainly a scramble. A product scheduled for review failed, leaving us with a hole. Fortunately, we had a backup product.
It seems we had more reviews than usual this time, and we spent a lot of time in the Omega listening room, but at least we got everything done.
A reminder: if you've moved, or if your subscription needs renewing, this is a good time to e-mail us and let us know.
BY THE WAY: It's Black Friday in the US, and the blowout sale tradition has spread worldwide. Amusingly enough, this year it coincides with Buy Nothing Day, when you're supposed to give consuming a rest. As if! But we're getting into the act with our Flash Sale, which this weekend is very much analog-oriented. |
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November 23rd: Free Advice updated, final review session |
We have just updated our Free Advice section, surely the longest-running audio advice section ever (it began in September 1982, more than a decade before the World Wide Web. Keep the questions coming, and we'll try to keep up with them.
Tomorrow morning sees our final review session, and just in time too. Issue 88 is slated for production on Monday, and there isn't a lot of slip time available if we want it to be delivered in December. |
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November 21st: UHF 88 preview on line |
Of course the issue is not completed yet, since it goes into production only a week Monday (November 30th. But we've finished the cover, which you can see here in miniature. You can also see it full-sized over at The Reading Room, where you can also look over the table of contents. You can preorder the issue as well.
The loudspeakers you see are, respectively, the Audes Orpheus from Estonia, and the Reference 3A Episode. We liked them both a lot, but they are quite different (even aside from their prices), and you'l want to read our reviews carefully to see which you should go and hear first.
We expect to be right on schedule with this issue, to be delivered to the post office and the national and internation distributors in the first half of December (with the exact date to be announced). However there is still plenty of work to be done, including one short listening session, scheduled for Tuesday morning.
BY THE WAY: The Flash Sale still has nearly two days to run. Drop by and get a look. |
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November 17th: Your new MartinLogan dealer...Future Shop? |
Is this a sign of the times? A celebrated high end speaker manufacturer, MartinLogan (it now spells its name with no hyphen) has a new Canadian dealer. It's Future Shop, a clone of its owner, Best Buy.
 Why?
For one thing MartinLogan has been spinning off its technology to lower-priced products, which might be a natural for a big box store. The argument of MartinLogan's Canadian distributor, Plurison, is that this initiative will help all dealers by getting the MartinLogan brand name better known, but that specialty dealers will still carry more models, especially upscale models, the ones that the second-time buyer may be looking for.
But, as you might suppose, skeptics abound.
Here's what they're saying. Even the supposed economy ML products are not what a Future Shop buyer thinks of as cheap. The ad reproduced here has nothing cheaper than a $700 centre speaker. The trashy acoustics of a big box store are not ideal for showing off the subtleties of good sound. Their "associates," whose salaries require that many of them live with their parents, probably won't be the best people to advise buyers on what matches what. And finally these stores are not known for carrying the sort of amplification that electrostatic speakers require anyway.
One other detail: Plurison president Daniel Jacques is quoted by Marketnews as reassuring dealers that Future Shop won't undersell them. But Canadian law doesn't allow that sort of enforcement. (Neither did US law, until a US Supreme Court decision last year.) We'll be interested in seeing how this plays out. We'll check back on the Future Shop site a year from now. |
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November 16th: A third Thorens turntable at The Audiophile Boutique |
We had three of Thorens many German-built turntables for evaluation, so that we could decide whether they could earn a place in our Audiophile Boutique. We had rather expected that they would have something of a family look and a family sound.
 They don't. The TD-295 Mark IV, shown here, looks as though it comes from a different company. Its build quality surprised us, as did its performance, even with the supplied Audio-Technica AT95 cartridge.
In fact, we were so surprised that, when the initial test was done, we actually mounted one of our reference cartridges, a Goldring Excel, on it and listened again. This turntable and arm do much better than you would expect.
Since we tried an upscale cartridge on our TD-295, we're making it possible for you to do the same. We're offering bargain prices if you get the table at the same time as one of the Goldrings we're recommending. Get a look at all three Thorens, and read the UHF evaluations, on the Boutique's analog page. |
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November 13th: Phono cartridges at The Audiophile Boutique |
The Audiophile Boutique is of course a division of our Audiophile Store, and it's expanding. We have now added a series of phono cartridges to the catalog.
The four shown here are from Goldring. The one at right was already listed: it's the Goldring Elite, a detuned version of the Excel that is one of our two reference cartridges. The blue one next to it is also a moving coil cartridge, but with high output, capable of driving a normal MM phono preamplifier. The other two are moving magnet cartridges, which we are recommending for two reasons.
First, they have lower inductance than some other MM cartridges, including other Goldrings, which means they'll have more natural high frequencies. Second, they have line-contact stylii, capable of playing the actual groove wall, not just one point on each wall. Even with a worn recording, a line contact stylus can play parts of the groove that have never been touched. Still listed is our own London Reference cartridge, which is indeed...our reference! And you'll see the Moon phono preamps, the LP3 and the LP5.3. You might want to grab one, because the price is rising in the next month.
Click on the picture to see the lineup. And if you're thinking about picking up a Thorens turntable from the Boutique, you can get a price break on a cartridge upgrade. at the same time.
BY THE WAY: Friday is Flash Sale time again. The theme this week: upgrade your power source!
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November 11th: Press time reserved |
We're not quite done with our review sessions for issue No. 88 of UHF, but we have already reserved press time. It's November 30th, which should get the issue into your hands before the Holidays.
What will be in it?
 Well, the speaker shown here, the Reference 3A Episode, will be among those reviewed (the other is the Audes Orpheus). We will also be reviewing a four-box CD player from Cyrus and an inexpensive standalone DAC from Cambridge, the DACMagic. We have a pair of phono preamplifiers from Blue Circle. We'll listen to a pair of inexpensive components from Hong Kong: a USB interface for your stereo system, and a very small tube headphone amp. And we have a couple of cables coming up to. One of them is a USB cable. Can it make a difference? Won't that be interesting?
But, as we always insist, there's a lot more to UHF than the equipment reviews.
We'll be doing a preliminary evaluation of Reference Recordings' high-resolution HRx recordings, essentially direct copies of Keith O. Johnson's master recordings. And we'll be doing that with not one but three different digital-to-analog converters, all of them borrowed.
Paul Bergman will look at the state of stereo, and why it has been all but abandoned by a lot of record producers. He'll be including some revealing oscillograms, in fact.
We'll be looking at boxes for feeding your TV with supposedly high-definition material, with focus on the (not very satisfying) Apple TV.
Our Software section will look back at the years of the James Bond franchise, including an evaluation of the music, which has always played an important role in the films themselves, but also in the very successful marketing.
In the next day or so some subscribers will be receiving e-mailed reminders that it may be time to renew their subscriptions. Next week we'll follow up with snail mail reminders. Of course you don't need to wait. Our renewal page gets you back in the game in just a minute. Or you can start a new subscription just as fast. |
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November 7th: A bargain turntable from Thorens at The Audiophile Boutique |
We said that we were going to fast-track our evaluations of the new Thorens turntables destined (we hoped) for our Audiophile Boutique. We now have a second Thorens table in stock, and it surprised us.
 The TD-190-2 is a belt-driven table with a suspended subchassis and a quite sophisticated arm, offered complete with Ortofon OM-10 cartridge for $699 (Canadian). Get a look at it on our analog page.
It's so spectacularly good that it may be worth getting it with a better pickup (we have a couple of suggestions, with special upgrade prices, of course). And as with the TD-170 we launched a few days ago, you can read our complete evaluation in PDF format.
Ah, but can you trust our evaluation? As you'll see, we don't pull our punches. And if we didn't feel comfortable recommending these products to our friends, we won't offer them to you either. That's the policy we've built our reputation on.
We have one more Thorens table in stock, and we'll be evaluating it shortly. If it scores well, we'll add it to our catalog. If not... |
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November 6th: Great listening session |
We've spent a pleasant few hours with a Cyrus CD player. But can we truly call it a CD player? It actually consists of four boxes, each with its own power cord: a CD transport (it's shown here), a digital-to analog converter, and -- oh yes -- two optional add-on power supplies, one for each.
 Four boxes means a hefty price tag, as you might suppose, coming to more than $6000, not counting the advisable cabling (did we mention the four power cords?). It's good stuff, though, and you'll be able to read all about it in our next issue, going to press before the month is out.
We'll be reserving some time next week to wind up the review sessions. More details when we know them.
BY THE WAY: Friday means Flash Sale time again. We have a closeout on a beloved interconnect cable, and a bargain for analog fans too. |
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November 2nd: UHF site's leap forward |
 Is it all right if we put up the miniature of our current issue cover up once more? The reason is that, as at the start of every month, we collate the latest statistics on our Web site, and we're seeing things we haven't seen before.
Let's start with that current issue. The free edition of issue No. 87 went on line at The Reading Room on October 7th, and on the 8th our site served up nearly 32 thousand hits! By the end of October the issue had been downloaded 12,811 times! That's a record, and not by just a bit, for a first-month download figure. That and the traffic over the past month has pushed up the number of issue downloads over the past year over the half million mark for the first time, to 508,341. That's from Nov.1, 2008 to Oct.31, 2009.
Sorry for this little bit of boasting, and now back to business. We have another review session scheduled for Wednesday, and we have two more Thorens turntables to lend an ear to (see the previous blog post). |
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November 2nd: A first Thorens turntable at The Audiophile Boutique |
 Late last week we got our first three Thorens turntables for evaluation, with the aim of, perhaps, adding them to The Audiophile Boutique. It was going to take time because we never offer anything, via either the Boutique or The Audiophile Store, without evaluating it ourselves. that means we try it in one of our reference systems just as we would for an article in the magazine.
The first turntable to show up at the Boutique is the TD-170, a plug-and-play economy turntable complete with Ortofon cartridge. No turntable specialist needed to get it going. Have a look, and you can even read the PDF version of our evaluation.
We have two more Thorens tables here, and we will be evaluating them and (if we like them) adding them to our catalog. We will also be offering bundles, with phono preamps, upgraded cartridges and other analog-oriented products, to sweeten the deal further.
Thorens products are Swiss-designed and German-built, as is well-known. However the company closed and was purchased a number of years ago, which means the turntables offered today are unrelated to the Thorens tables of yesteryear. Today it offers a huge range of turntables, tone arms and cartridges. |
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October 30th: Another day of listening |
And another terrific day it was too. The Reference 3a Episode may not look like our Suprema reference speaker, but it is a close cousin, and in fact a direct descendent. The best we can say is that the family sound was very much audible, perhaps more so than with any other Reference 3a loudspeaker we have reviewed.
Ours are not this color, by the way, but we admired the flawless finish as much as the quick and rich sound. One detail: the speaker sits on three brass cones, not four, so it can't possibly wobble. We wish the people who make bistro tables would figure out the same thing (but then they would put the company that makes matchbooks out of business, wouldn't they?).
The next issue of UHF is advancing nicely, with tentative press time (to be firmed up in the next week or so) for the end of November. Our next session, probably next week, will be of a Cyrus four-box CD player. Why four boxes? A transport, a DAC, and an optional power supply upgrade for each one. We're expecting good things.
We will also be doing another DAC, an inexpensive one from Cambridge, the DACMagic. We pressed it into service when we were breaking in loudspeakers, and we have reason to look forward to spending more time with it.
BY THE WAY: It's Friday, and that means time for another Flash Sale, which runs through Monday morning. The spotlight is on interconnect cables. Buy two or more, any combination, and you get a substantial discount. |
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October 29th: More review sessions |
We spent Wednesday listening to the Audes Orpheus loudspeakers. And a mighty pleasant day it was too. All the details will be in our next issue, coming in December. To make it even more pleasant we made it an all-LP session. We plan to do the same Friday, with another pair of upscale speakers, the Reference 3A Episodes.
 Speaking of LPs, we were of course using the Audiomat Phono-1.6 phono preamp, reviewed in our current issue, which we have decided to acquire. Which means, let us remind you, that our older goody, the Phono-1.5, is available over at the Garage Sale. It is switchable MM/MC, with the newer, upgraded power supply. Just $1750, while it's there.
There's other nifty stuff at the Garage Sale too. Drop by. |
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October 26th: Thorens turntables arrive |
We ordered them some time ago, and three of them have finally arrived: Thorens turntables from Germany. They will shortly be listed at The Audiophile Boutique, the audio component section of The Audiophile Store.
 The turntable you see here is the TD-295, in piano black. It and two lower cost models may be our replacements for the Rega-designed Goldring turntables we were offering for some time at the Boutique. Only now they're all gone.
But you know us. We won't list anything at either The Audiophile Store or the Audiophile Boutique that we wouldn't recommend to our closest friends. For that reason the three Thorens models have not yet been listed. However we are making their evaluation top priority, and we expect to have results by the end of the week.
And if they flunk our tests?
They may, of course, and if so the table will be sold as an open-box product, with full disclosure. We're optimistic, however, because we kow how these tables are made. And we should add that modern Thorens turntables have nothing in common with the former Thorens, whose products we were, for the most part, not keen on.
We've made some changes to The Audiophile Boutique too, with more changes to come. For one thing the pages of the Web site have the UHF logo...not using our famous brand name was a mistake. And the policy on shipping costs is now the same as that of The Audiophile Store. In many cases shipping is free.
Also coming soon is a line of phono cartridges, also recommended by us. Stand by for more. |
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October 25th: Hi-def sound from our computer |
We spent a number of hours doing some interesting comparisons. We listened to some original recordings -- on CD, SACD or LP -- and compared them to high-resolution versions, such as the HRx recordings from Reference Recordings, one of which is shown here.
 We may as well warn you that HRx is a little ahead of its time, because it is waiting for playback equipment to catch up. In Vegas we heard a prototype PS Audio player that could handle about 10 minutes of HRx before its buffer ran out and dreadful things happened (but it sounded stunning during those 10 minutes). HRx recordings are actually DVD-ROMs loaded with WAV files. The files have a resolution of 24 bits with a sampling rate of 176.4 kHz. They are essentially copies of Keith O. Johnson's master recordings.
We borrowed three digital-to-analog converters for these comparisons, varying in price from $500 to $5000. The session will be the basis of a four-part article on high-resolution digital audio: what we heard, how we were able to play it back, how you can play it back, and what to expect when you do.
Several other companies also offer high-resolution music files, either on DVD-ROM or via download. They have a lower sampling rate than HRx, typically 96 kHz, but they are also easier to play back with existing equipment. We tried one of those too, and did a direct comparison with the same music on a Red Book CD.
Though this session was not for our Listening Room feature, we did undertake it as a group: Albert, Gerard and Toby. Sessions for our equipment reviews will continue next week. |
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October 23rd: Better music through the air |
Perhaps you've read the article Music Through the Air in the current issue of UHF. In it, we described running music from our computer, over Wi-Fi, to an inexpensive Airport Express device, and through a digital-to-analog converter (in this case the DAC that was part of the April Music Eximus player. The results were pretty good, but clearly not (yet) up to audiophile standards.
 Today we are continuing the exploration. We'll be listening to Reference Recordings' high-resolution HRx recordings through our Omega reference system. However there's something interesting we've noticed.
We've been using the Airport Express to break in gear we'll be reviewing in the next few days, and it became evident that what we were hearing was way better than what we had heard previously. What had changed? Well, we had swapped our aging D-Link router for a new Airport Extreme. The difference is that the two Airport devices can communicate by faster 802.11n standard on the uncrowded 5 GHz band, rather than the increasingly busy 2.4GHz band. We expected fewer dropouts, but we were surprised by the great increase in sonic fidelity.
We'll be listening some more at today's session, and we'll let you know what we find.
BY THE WAY: It's Flash Sale time again. This weekend we feature discounts on selected classical CDs from Analekta. But quantities are limited, and there are no rain checks at these prices. |
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October 19th: M•A Recordings Now at The Audiophile Store |
We hadn't listed any of the titles from Todd Garfinkle's amazing label for years, and we're not sure why not. We were goaded into action by Albert Simon's review in UHF No. 87, in which he began with: "Get it for the sound. Period."
 He was writing about volume 1 of Bach's haunting solo cello suites, played by the young Swiss cellist Martin Zeller. He went on to mention the "unique feeling of authenticity," and opined that "this version might successfully challenge all your previous references."
While we were at it, we added another pair of recent M•A titles you may want to explore, both of them in the nebulous category of World Music. Visit our M•A page, and you can listen to excerpts from the three recordings. They're $17.95 (in Canadian dollars. |
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