Hey folks, it looks like the saga around MQA never ends, but I think they're just scraping the bottom of the barrel with one last crank of the hype machine with hopes that this is somehow face-saving as well. :-|
So as of yesterday (September 19, 2023) it appears that Canadian brand Lenbrook Group of Companies - NAD, PSB, Bluesound - has acquired the intellectual property for MQA. Let's talk about this.
Hey everyone, life's been very busy so not much time to think or work on audio stuff.
A few weeks back in my discussion of Qobuz in Canada, I said: "I'm curious, has anyone out there contacted their streaming service to request the addition of an artist or album? Were you able to get your requests included?"
Well, I received a number of responses, mostly from folks who were happy that Qobuz or TIDAL were able to oblige with putting their requests up. Here's a very well written one that I thought would be good to share with everyone... It brings up important points especially these days as we transition into more music lovers depending on the services to supply our music. Many, including myself these days are collecting more playlists than actual physical albums or spending the time to download anymore.
For this post, I thought I'd explore technological progress in the computing space. While I speak mainly about audio topics in these pages, I hope this post gives you an idea of the broader technological progress happening around us.
As per the image above, I've updated my workstation graphics card to a Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4090 Gaming OC. This card is truly a beast, covering 3.5 slots in the computer thanks to the extra vapor cooling chamber. [Related to this card is the slimmer Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4090 WindForce V2 that "just" takes up 3 slots.]
Years ago in 2017, I spoke about my GTX 1080 used in the game machine of that time. Since then, it's obvious that technology has moved forward very substantially! Every couple years has seen a new generation of graphics cards churned out by nVidia typically with AMD following suit and these days Intel making headway with their more budget-friendly ARC line.
With each iteration, we're seeing objective improvements in computational ability and physical characteristics like the shrinkage of the transistor "process" from 16nm for the GTX 1080 down to the 5nm (near limits of silicon) in the RTX 4090 today. With the ability to fit more transistors into a smaller area (higher density), the number of parallel computational cores has increased from 2560 shading cores (also known as CUDA cores) in the GTX 1080 to 16384 units in the RTX 4090, a 6.4x increase in this one metric alone; not to mention the addition of new features like the Tensor cores (high speed, mixed precision, high-dimensional matrix multiplications) released in the RTX 20*0 generation, important in deep-learning tasks.
Greeting everyone, time to jump into Part II of our assessment of lossy Bluetooth music transmission.
In Part I, we examined the use of an Android 10 device (Huawei P30 Pro) as audio transmitter showing the differences between the codecs as played back with the AIYIMA A08 PRO amplifier and its Qualcomm QCC5125 Bluetooth SoC. Please refer to that article for details about the methodology and comparison with the output from a high resolution Topping desktop DAC.
For this Part II, let's focus on the Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) codec which has become a very popular option. Other than the universal default SBC, AAC is probably the most common one for music transmission on account of the fact that the "elephant in the room" - Apple - uses this across its product lines as their standard codec running at 256kbps. Given the amount of use, this is basically a practical standard for quality music transmission over Bluetooth.
Given the broad range of computers/tablets/phones used among family members here, when I'm looking for wireless headphones, I would want to make sure the device supports AAC; probably more so than aptX or LDAC.
Note that there is actually a "family" of AAC profiles from the early Low Complexity AAC (LC-AAC) originating in 1997 up to later versions like Extended High Efficiency AAC (xHE-AAC) released in 2012. As end users, we're generally not privy to such details so I'll just use the generic term "AAC" in this article.
 |
| Blue ring around power/volume knob = Bluetooth input. |
I've been wanting to do this for awhile. The last time I had a look at Bluetooth playback quality was way back in the days of the Oppo Sonica DAC in 2017.
Bluetooth has been our ubiquitous wireless audio transmission technology for more than 2 decades now; Bluetooth 1.0 was released in 1999 but it took a few years for the number of supported devices to grow and costs to come down. Since then, with subsequent versions, we have seen an increase in bandwidth, codecs, transmission range, and power efficiency.
Currently, we are at Bluetooth 5.X (version 5.0 standard released 2016) with the potential for up to 2Mbps transfer rate and distance maximally up to 240m (800ft)! These are clearly ideal numbers. Bluetooth transmits in the 2.4GHz bandwidth like WiFi but can "hop" (Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum) between 79 channels, 1MHz wide, so there are usually no issues with coexistence.
Given the 2Mbps limitation, lossless audio transmission would be a problem. Lossless 16/44.1 stereo is already just over 1.4Mbps uncompressed. Yes, we could losslessly compress but compression ratios are variable. Due to inevitable errors in transmission plus protocol overhead, in practice, at most we should think of Bluetooth 5 as operating around 1Mbps reliably under reasonable, if not close to ideal, conditions with transmitter/receiver nearby.
By Taylor Christensen
I joined the audiophile hobby less than 10 years ago, and, as a person who relies heavily on understanding and applying scientific literature in my day job, I was baffled (pun intended) to discover the extent to which the culture of this hobby is shaped by “pseudosciency” beliefs and even frank scientific ignorance, especially when considering the high prevalence of the audiophile community being well educated and affluent.
Since then, I have thought a lot about this phenomenon. Whenever I am trying to make sense of the world, I find that exhaustive, mutually exclusive categorizations help a great deal, and I have come up with such a categorization that helps me organize and understand the strange things we see in this culture.
To communicate clearly, I need to explicitly define any words whose definitions may be ambiguous – in this case especially, because they sound very similar. Therefore, let me start with three definitions.
The first one, which I will be using frequently throughout this article, is "subjectivism," which I am defining as "any false belief in audibility".
Contrast that with the second word I want to define: "subjectivity," which relates to a person having a personal preference.
Over the last while it has been interesting checking out some TI TPA3255 "PurePath" chip Class D audio amplifiers such as the Fosi Audio TB10D [Upgraded] and AOSHIDA A7.
As you can see in the image above, I've got another one to put on the test bench for a look and listen - the AIYIMA A08 PRO (currently <US$130). Depending who you read/listen/watch, you'll see supporters who like the amp, sometimes calling it a "giant killer" of sorts, such as this blog post, or there are detractors like Andrew Robinson who seem to think these kinds of amps are only good in the nearfield and below 60dB SPL (see from 10:30). We'll talk about this below. :-)
As usual, let's start with a peek at what you get for a low price...
Finally after all these years. Despite bugging them at least since RMAF2019, it has taken ages but at last as of April 2023, Qobuz is now available here in Canada. As you can see, price in Canadian dollars is reasonable at CDN$10.83/month yearly subscription or $13/month if you prefer month-to-month. I see a 60-day trial here; there are 3-month trials out there as well so look around for one that might apply to you.
With competition these days, the price is in line with other services offering up to 24/192 lossless hi-res content; here are the current prices in Canada:
Amazon Music HD - CDN$10.99/m ($8.99/m Prime members)
Apple Music Individual - CDN$10.99/m
Spotify Premium Individual (lossy Ogg Vorbis) - CDN$9.99/m
TIDAL HiFi (16/44.1) - CDN$9.99/m
TIDAL HiFi Plus (MQA, likely FLAC hi-res transition in August) - CDN$19.99/m.
Let's continue exploring Pacific Audio Fest 2023 beyond the main ballroom and larger rooms from last time. As you're probably aware, audio shows take place in hotels with companies renting out rooms to show off their gear. At PAF2023, we have 4 hotel "wings" to explore located on the first, second, and thirteenth floors.
Mercifully, PAF2023 isn't a big show which allowed me to enter each room and have a listen over the leisurely 3 days (Friday to Sunday) that I was in Seattle. Let's go for a stroll and see what each room had to offer. While I don't think I missed any of the rooms, I'll only highlight the ones that seemed most interesting...
Hey there everyone, this week I thought I'd just put up some quicky comments/"reviews" of products I've found useful in the last while in my computer system and home network in case this might be of use to you. Nothing too fancy or necessarily even audiophile related for the most part.
First, there's this Mediasonic Probox 8-Drive USB3.2 Gen 2 10Gbps enclosure [H82-SU31C] (US$350).
 |
| Box contents: IEC power cable, 8x plastic HDD handles and screws, 3' USB-C to USB-C cable. |
In 2023, while we're getting there with high capacity "3D" and higher endurance SSD designs, we're not quite at par with the storage capacity afforded by multi-terabyte hard drives available at excellent prices. I'm sure most of us have been gathering our archive of digital memories and other media for years and have a need for all those terabytes at least backed up.
I've been using the older USB 3.0 + eSATA version (H82-SU3S2) of this device for >10 years already as a simple 3.5" HDD backup box which unfortunately went a bit flaky on me with occasional loss of connection in the last few months. Hence the upgrade to this newer model.
As per the description, this is a 10Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 device, the interface is USB-C; nothing else other than the power connector on the back and a few buttons and indicators up front.
 |
| Beelink EQ12 MiniPC, some testing with the RME ADI-2 Pro FS R Black Edition. |
Since around 2004, I've been using various computer systems for music playback, initially starting with ripped files on PCs and then quickly transitioning to server-endpoint "distributed" playback by something like 2006/2007 when I bought my first Slim Devices Squeezebox 3. I've never really looked back since, as this is IMO the superior way to manage music with a central home server repository and distributing the music around the home. It has been more than a decade since I've cared to use a CD transport other than to rip music and there's no reason why CDs would sound better anyways ("bit perfect" and all that).
Of course back in the day, especially prior to 2010, putting a computer in the sound room was likely going to be fraught with noise issues. In the 2nd decade of the 21st Century now, with much lower CPU/memory/motherboard power demands while capable of excellent speed, silent SSD drives, and small form factor MiniPCs, it's actually rather trivial these days to maintain cool and quiet, unobtrusive computers that perform well as AV "appliances". These machines will not contribute to acoustic or electrical noise pollution in listening rooms even with low ambient noise levels provided the hobbyist approaches device selection and optimization with some basic care.
Today, let's convert that little Beelink EQ12 Intel N100-based computer (discussed/reviewed last time) into something I would use as a Windows audio streamer and movie player in my media room. Let's talk about some BIOS settings, Windows set-up suggestions to consider, and computational potential.
For more than a year now, since the MeLE Quieter2Q, I've transitioned media playback away from the Raspberry Pi system in my main sound room as I've explored options in the MiniPC world. This is the result of technological progress as x86/x64 processors have become significantly more energy-efficient, available in smaller packages, with increasing processing speed, access to the huge library of PC software, and capabilities including support for multichannel HDMI audio output and 4K video decoding.
Yes, we could easily build massive "He-Man" computers these days sucking hundreds of watts to power fast CPUs and modern discrete GPUs, even as "audiophile computers", I believe these are clearly inelegant solutions for AV playback or even as a media server.
Today, let's look at a new entry - the Beelink EQ12 (currently just around US$250-300 depending on deals, with 8GB of DDR5 RAM, 500GB NVMe storage as tested). This machine uses the latest 12th Generation 10nm "Alder Lake" quad-core Intel N100 low-power processor running at up to 3.4GHz turbo. With this new generation, Intel has moved away from names like "Celeron" and "Pentium". While the specs say TDP of 6W for the part, in real life the computer does suck up more power.
For audiophiles thinking of using HQPlayer, these new processors feature the AVX2 instruction set; opening the doors for using the new versions of that software under Windows again should you desire. For the record, this machine was purchased through the usual retail channels.
Let's have a look today at this hardware, and evaluate the speed compared to previous reviewed machines on this blog.
Every once awhile, I think it's fun to try something a little different!
While the vast majority of us audiophiles buy our stuff, as per all tech hobbies at one point, this began with hobbyists in their workshops, basements, and "caves" putting together electronics parts and enthusiast kits with soldering irons making their own stuff. I remember the days in the early '70s as a child when the hi-fi system at home was put together by my dad based on designs he found in the magazines. A time before commercialization of consumer electronics was anywhere like it is today.
With miniaturization and economy of scale, these days, it's more expensive to build one's own components (both time and money) and more than likely the sound quality would not be as good. Of course, there is an element of lasting pride in building something oneself which we can never really capture when purchased with a credit card. Major respect to the DIY guys and gals out there still designing and making their own gear.
So instead of a commercially available product, let's have a look at the device shown above. It's a home-made "prototype" headphone amp lent to me by Mitch Barnett (of Accurate Sound) built on a wooden board (I guess there might be some vibration control with that ;-). He built this something like 30 years ago based on a design published in The Audio Amateur (4/91, predecessor to today's AudioXpress) by Gary A. Galo. For a bit of background on The Audio Amateur, check out this thread and post from Palustris.
.jpg)
This test was launched on March 4th and remained open to May 5, 2023; plenty of time I trust for folks who wanted to perform the test to listen and give me their results. As indicated in that invitation post, this test was created as a response to discussions on a message forum where it was said that 24-bit audio could be audibly differentiated from 16-bit files. It was offered in the discussions that the Daft Punk track "Giorgio by Moroder" from Random Access Memories, an album well-known to audiophiles, is an example of a well-produced, modern recording that benefits from 24-bits "high resolution". For years, it has been available for download at places like HDtracks, and Qobuz.
In this post, let's discuss how the test samples were created, reveal which sample is the high resolution version, and results from the respondents. Grab a drink, let's have a peek... ;-)
Well ladies and gentlemen, thanks to all who took the time to complete the information in the open "SURVEY: What audio playback system and/or streaming music service are you using in 2023?" post. The survey collected responses from February 11 to May 5, 2023 on this blog, and as usual, the responses came from audio lovers around the world, receiving in total 1330 entries with general information on demographics, broadly what kinds of systems are being used, multichannel playback, interest in masterings, and for those using streaming subscriptions, which ones.
As with any survey, we have to start with some context for the data. Obviously, the individuals who submitted results to me would have been primarily the viewers on this blog although I know the survey was advertised at various audiophile-related forums. I did not do any special advertising personally, other than mentioning it on a few forums I visited like Audiophile Style or Steve Hoffman Forum. I don't maintain much of a social media presence so basically just let the survey diffuse across the Internet.
Given the nature of this blog and its contents, I'd like to think that this survey will tell us about some of the characteristics of the subgroup of intelligent, reasonable, balanced, technically savvy, prudently skeptical, practical audiophiles around the world in the first half of 2023. ;-)
 |
| The "Monastery" of Petra (Jordan); carved out probably around 1st Century CE. Harder to get to, but I thought this was just as awe inspiring as the "Treasury" made famous in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade". |
In the last month, I had the pleasure of travelling through Jordan and Israel. As I pondered on some of the sights and sounds of the ancient civilizations, I wondered among other things, perhaps not surprisingly, on the audiophile pursuit for the purposes on this blog. :-)
Regardless of culture, we as humans share the same universal hopes, fears, and desires as we carve out a place in this world for our families and ourselves. Whether it's with a street vendor in Amman or some guy in a Shanghai night market, haggling over the best price for a souvenir T-shirt is essentially the same process. Nobody wants a bad deal, or items below expected quality.
We can discuss academically about the mechanisms of price discovery, study the complex verbal and nonverbal negotiation techniques, or explore macroeconomic determinants of supply and demand. Whether it’s getting a decent T-shirt or purchasing "high-fidelity" audio products, as consumers, value is always a core consideration as I've discussed many times over the years as a recurring theme (including here, here and here).
Coincidentally, a few weeks prior to leaving on vacation, I had a discussion on Audiophile Style with Andrew Quint who writes for The Absolute Sound. Like him, I work as a doctor and engage in the art and science of clinical care of and with people every day while pursuing the audiophile hobby in my free time. Over the years, I have virtually met some of you on forums and through E-mails also coming from clinical backgrounds whether as pharmacist, psychologists, therapists, nurses, etc. This article germinated during my travels as I thought about the complexity of clinical care and likewise some of the complexities that arise in audiophile discussions. Thankfully, related themes are nowhere as complicated or potentially perilous for us audiophiles and the epistemological debates among us seem safely parabolical of more significant ideological differences beyond just this little hobby sandbox
Since clinical care is a huge topic, permit me to talk somewhat loosely about some points of intersection since I think these factors have affected my attitudes toward the audiophile hobby and informed the judgments I make when reviewing products contained in these pages. These ideas may resonate with your own thinking as an audiophile.
(Along the way in this article, let me show you some pictures I took during the vacation!)
Not much time this week to play with the toys as I'll be heading off on vacation for a few weeks. However, I did receive the Fosi Audio TB10D [Updated Version] (<US$80) above recently that I wanted to use as an inexpensive "utility" amplifier for various measurements and experiments. It's also based on the TI TPA3255 Class D chip amplifier; same as the AOSHIDA A7 recently reviewed.
As you can see in the unboxed picture above, there are no frills, just the amplifier and a 32V/5A power supply (same specs as AOSHIDA).
This is the "Updated Version" with improvements as discussed by the Cheap Audio Man back in late 2022. Presumably this update was released around September or October 2022. I see ASR measured this amplifier in September 2022 - not sure which version that was. I purchased this amp from the usual retail channels.
Due to the time constraints, I'll focus more on "core" measurements and compare especially to the AOSHIDA.
Hey guys and gals, I must be a sucker for relatively inexpensive USB galvanic isolators. To be honest, this is mostly because I look for ways to lower noise on my measurement testbench, not that I'm concerned with the actual audiophile sound system these days! ;-)
Today, let's have a look at the recently released Topping HS02 USB2.0 isolator (currently ~US$100). This is an update to the previously reviewed HS01 last year. As you can see from the picture and specs, the box now has selectable USB-A/B connectors or USB-C. Isolation is not just applied to the in/out USB data connectors, but also the auxiliary power input with filtering which means the device could stay free of noise even if we plug in a power source with some noise in it. As usual, be mindful of power-hungry USB-powered devices which will require auxiliary power input.
Furthermore, Topping has improved compatibility now with the ability to negotiate USB2.0 low (1.5Mbps)/full (12Mbps)/high speeds (480Mbps). I can confirm that my low speed wireless keyboard dongle works fine.
The diagram showing the path of the data and power connections is relatively clear printed on top. Inside the box are a couple of pamphlets - the black one is the warranty card and Topping catalogue, and the white user manual. There's a short USB-A to USB-B cable in the plastic bag.
The company Museatex was formed around 1990 by Ed Meitner and John Wright based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Over the years, the brand was assumed under A/D/S which eventually closed in 2001. There's still a web page for information on Museatex products here. Ed Meitner has moved on these days to EMM Labs since 1998 and given his work with SACD, his name has been associated with "bitstream" type technologies since (some more info/video).
By the end of the 1980's, 1-bit Philips "Bitstream" PDM DAC chips started to show up in the market with the Philips SAA 7321 chip as one of the 1st generation devices (see Stereophile reporting back in 1989). Some of these chips were incorporated in CD players like the Meridian 208 that came out in early 1990, well-reviewed by Paul Miller in High Fidelity.
By 1991, the "second generation" Philips SAA 7350 "bitstream" DAC became available, capable of taking up to 20-bit PCM (from 16-53kHz sample rate) and upsampling to 1-bit SDM applying 3rd order noise shaping (some more history here). It is this DAC chip that's at the heart of the Museatex Melior Bitstream DAC, I believe first released in 1992. Here are the specs from the company.
The exact history of this particular unit I had access to has been shrouded in the sands of time, but was probably purchased around 1995. The original suggested price on one of these was US$899 which would be about equivalent to over US$1500 in 2023. Even to this day, I've seen comments from audiophiles who have a special affinity to the sound of this vintage DAC. Claims to fame included anti-jitter input circuitry (supposedly reducing "glare and harshness"), a custom digital filter allowing for "more accurate signal conversion", and high quality power supply with line noise filtering.
Thanks again to my friend linnrd for digging this unit out from his audio device archives. While externally it looks to be in very good shape, unfortunately, it didn't quite power up normally for me which sadly resulted in this article being more of an "autopsy" rather than actual measurements. I guess having a look inside is still better than nothing for historical documentation if nothing else.
Above, you see the small AOSHIDA A7 Class D amplifier which we'll go in depth with in this post. It's inexpensive and can be purchased for less than US$150 these days. This design is also sold as the Douk Audio H7 with a different color scheme, presumably the innards must be very similar if not identical. I preferred the look of the black AOSHIDA version with orange-ringed VU meter. I purchased this amplifier through the usual retail channels.
Over the years, it has been good to see the evolution of Class D designs and the inexpensive "chip" amplifiers. Internally, this is based on the TI TPA3255 "PurePath" chip (released in 2016) rated to provide up to 315Wpc into 4Ω stereo but at 10% THD when provided with adequate power (data sheet max is 53.5V). Notice the italics to emphasize that these numbers must be put into context. For audiophiles who want lower distortion in their amps (like <1% THD), we would be looking at much more conservative power figures than that 300+W being promoted for these amps.
(The chip also has a mono configuration that's spec'ed at up to 600W into 2Ω which would not apply for this review.)
I'm sure none of us these days have escaped news about ChatGPT from OpenAI. Articles have been ubiquitous covering the implications of what this "chatbot" is able to do. No doubt, there will be deep implications stemming from this technology already being debated through the halls of academia on how it will affect everything from education, to work, to legal ramifications. As with any likely transformative technology, there will be promise and fear.
Already, I've seen many articles out there including in our little corner of the universe with Stereophile's "As We See It" in February referencing ChatGPT.
As you're likely aware, ChatGPT achieves its remarkable abilities based on Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT-3.5) "large language model", a sophisticated "self-supervised" general AI model based on >175B parameters combed through 570GB of data as text off the Internet, books, and Wikipedia. Yes, human feedback is part of the training process and data continues to be gathered from users to improve the model. At the time of this article, the openly available online ChatGPT has been trained with data up until September 2021 as can be seen here:
Arch: Who won the Superbowl in 2023?
ChatGPT: I'm sorry, but I am not capable of predicting future events as I am a machine learning model trained on historical data. As of my knowledge cutoff date, which is in September 2021, the most recent Super Bowl was Super Bowl LVII and it has not happened yet. It is scheduled to take place on February 5, 2023, so we won't know the winner until the game is played.
.png) |
| BTW: 1.5kHz sine waveform, -65dBFS. 16-bits on the left, 24-bits on the right. |
It's amazing how time flies. Nine years ago - 2014 - at a time when hi-res audio downloads were being promoted as the "next best thing" for audiophiles, we ran a 24-bit vs. 16-bit blind listening test on this blog. I'll leave you to examine the results.
Since then, electronics like DACs have advanced quite significantly. Compared to 2014, these days, high quality asynchronous USB DACs have become ubiquitous. Jitter is basically a non-issue now. Inexpensive audio streamers like Raspberry Pi devices can be easily put together. We can all play music with wide selections of digital filters without great difficulty. Very high quality headphone amps and phenomenal headphones have become commonplace with a growing "head-fi" community.
Recently, I had some fun on this Steve Hoffman Forums thread engaging in the discussion about 16-bit vs. 24-bit; the topic of audibility again came up. As usual, things can get pretty contentious among audiophiles and since it has been awhile and perhaps some of you did not have the opportunity to participate in 2014, let's do a blind test again for those wanting to listen to 24-bit vs. 16-bit audio.
Let's use popular music rather than the more esoteric 24-bit 2L classical recordings last time - let's try some "classic" Daft Punk. ;-)
Audiophilia has a rich history filled with many products and ideas over the decades. Many of the "vintage" products can still be found these days on the used market and many carry with them an interesting story or might have developed "cult followings". I find it interesting examining these older "retro" products to help provide context when we think about the sound quality we have these days.
Some companies like the one we're looking at today - Dynaco - founded by David Hafler and Ed Laurent back in the mid-50's are well known. The company's products were popular through the '60-'70s including a foray into quad-channels. The company eventually got acquired and the brand decommissioned by 1980.
Dynaco was known for their amplifiers and "Dynakit"s they sold in the emerging hi-fi market back in the day to audio enthusiasts. Along the way, by 1969, they got into the speaker market with their "A-Series" line of products including the very popular A-25 (>1M sold worldwide according to Ed Laurent) and the speaker we'll be examining today - the less popular, larger Dynaco A-35 sibling.
Thanks again to linnrd for digging up this pair of old speakers for me to examine from his gear archive. It looks like these have been very well taken care of over almost half a Century. Well, at least there's no need to "break in" these speakers. ;-)
.jpg)
Hey there gals and guys. I've been busy over the last while getting some things at work going, so this means it's time for a survey to hear from you ;-).
It's always good to know what audio lovers are doing out there and this could of course help me look at interesting topics to examine in the future. The last time I did this was back in 2019, looking at adoption of streaming services and lossy vs. lossless among the readership - much has changed since then!
I've seen various hobbyist poll results over the last while. A common question being asked these days is "Which digital streaming service is most popular?". This certainly makes sense given the growth of Internet streaming over the years, but much too simplistic! As an audiophile blogger, my interest isn't so much about which commercial service is "winning" since it really doesn't matter too much to most of us I think, and will fluctuate depending on where one lives and what services are available. Instead, audio enthusiasts these days have access to all kinds of ways to listen to music and choices to make including whether we like "spatial audio" as a recent feature.
In Archimago's Musings style ;-), let's go deeper and get a detailed survey going, collecting anonymous data on who you are, what you use mostly, and what kind of systems you enjoy in 2023 - not just what music service...
Over the last couple years, I've shown in my PC measurement system the benefit of using USB isolation to break ground loops when test devices are connected to the ADC. There was the ADuM4160 device which was limited to "Full Speed" (12Mbps). Then I posted on the Topping HS01 which operates at a fixed USB 2.0 "High Speed" (480Mbps).
Over the Christmas holidays, I got a hold of the Intona 7055-C USB Isolator which can run at USB 3.0 "SuperSpeed" (5Gbps), basically a pass-through device which provides galvanic isolation of the USB signal and ground lines, with the flexibility of being downward-compatible with 480Mbps (most important for USB audio), 12Mbps, and even Low Speed 1.5Mbps devices.
Although audiophiles have been talking about isolators like this for years used in home set-ups, they're really meant for industrial applications where devices with USB ports might be subjected to high-voltage surges and spikes. This "C" model is designed for protection up to a modest 1kV over 60 seconds. The more expensive 7055-D can handle up to 5kVrms over 60 seconds.
 |
| A little bit of dramatics for effect. ;-) |
Like many audiophiles, I've been well aware of Patricia Barber's recordings over the years. Her discography of "reference"-sounding quality albums have already had decades of influence among hi-fi enthusiasts with increased exposure beginning in the 1990's (her first album was Split in 1989). Personally, I was introduced to her music with Café Blue released in 1994.
I think Barber is an interesting contrast to the other well-known female jazz vocalist we all know well - Diana Krall. Barber's material tends to be more original (less of the standards), more edgy, compared to Krall's accessibility and mainstream appeal.
Already, on this blog, I've mentioned the most recent album Clique! (2021, DR14 hi-res, DR13 MQA-CD) but we're not going to be mainly talking about the music on the album in this post. Rather, I want to explore the opinions and beliefs of Michael Fremer in his article "How Best to Hear Patricia Barber's Clique!" recently posted on Tracking Angle.
As I'm sure we're all aware, in the world of luxury goods, there will be fakes out there. Wandering the streets of basically any city these days, we'll run into all kinds of cheap "Gucci" and "Hermès" bags, fake "Rolex" and "Omega" watches, knock-off "Nike" sneakers, and counterfeit "Ray-Ban" sunglasses.
So too in the world of the audiophile. It's not hard these days to browse through "used" eBay listings or explore the copious products on Alibaba/AliExpress to find fake "High End Audio" products.
As you probably know, I'm not one to be impressed by most cable claims and believe that there's little value in a lot of what's being sold (collected articles here). Given the high prices for lengths of wire, is it any wonder then that some might want to capitalize on brand names to entice buyers?
A friend who knows I'm into audio stuff, "for fun", decided to get me the cables in the picture above from Singapore recently while on a business trip. The cables are more than likely made in China. As you can see, these are labeled as "Kimber Kable", with the same geometry and supposed build of 12TC speaker cables. He purchased them for <US$75 as a pair of 2.5m lengths.
[Back in 2015, I examined and had a listen to genuine Kimber 8TC.]
Happy 2023, dear audiophiles!
While I typically publish articles like measurements of audio hardware, discuss albums (usually as part of reviews or examination of things like dynamic range), and offer critiques about extreme "High End" audiophilia, every once awhile I'll talk more generally about my computer hardware and local area network (LAN). I see the network stuff as part of a broader foundation of the modern digital audio system which simply has to work reliably and efficiently for digital streaming/computer audiophiles. Like other parts of the "perfectionist" audiophile system (like say the room which is often also neglected in audiophile hardware talk), this should be optimized for best performance such that those using it will not have to suffer from speed issues or dropouts. Sometimes it's easier said than done given potential interoperability nuances of the multitudes of network hardware!
Apart from silly "audiophile ethernet switches", or "audiophile ethernet cables", there's generally nothing specific to sell to audiophiles when it comes to home network hardware. As a result, it's atypical to see long articles at audiophile websites or in the magazines about this stuff despite the importance.
As a reminder, in my experience, unless we're dealing with faulty gear, "Bits Are Bits" when it comes to sound quality - that's just reality if you take the time to analyze the audio signal objectively or run some controlled listening trials. Despite all kinds of subjective voices/claims out there otherwise, high performance modern computer networks are simply not going to change the sound of audio playback so long as they're reliably "bit-perfect". After all these years, I find no reason to be concerned about ethernet cables, or switches transferring packet data around. Whether the data is of audio content or otherwise is irrelevant - the network doesn't care whether it's audio meant for the DAC or pixels aimed at the printer.
Digital data, given how it's packaged and transmitted, when corrupted will result in rather obvious audible anomalies if not corrected (like an error-prone USB cable). You will not hear subtle changes (like "more bass" or "better soundstage" or even more vaguely "improved presence") as some reviewers seem to promote when hyping nonsensical claims of what they supposedly "heard".
