Some of our readers seem to believe that the essence of high-quality audio is disclosed primarily by science, and not by dreamy, bodice-ripping adventures that take place on plush carpets behind closed doors.
Perhaps they’re right. Unfortunately, I have had no personal experiences that confirm that hypothesis.
It also appears that some hard-core audiophiles think that recordings of music are simply tools for playing their gear. I believe that the gear and the recordings are both tools that reveal how I—and people in China, Africa, Alabama, and Detroit—feel about being stuck here together on planet Earth. For me, the better the recording and the gear, the more easily and directly I can connect with the worlds outside my bunker.
AUDIOQUEST NIAGARA 1000
With these beliefs in mind, I began my examination of AudioQuest’s Niagara 1000 Low-Z Power/Noise-Dissipation System ($995), which uses the same Ground-Noise Dissipation System and Ultra-Linear Noise-Dissipation Technology that the company touts for their $7995 Niagara 70001—but not its isolation transformers or transient power correction system. Though the Niagara was born of science and measurements, I now know, after six months of using it, that it can help me dream of Indian dancers and better understand musicians from Texas and Louisiana.
OKAY—SHOW ME: The first time I heard the Niagara 1000, Garth Powell, AudioQuest’s director of power products, had just plunked it into my system. I’d unplugged all my gear from my Home Depot outlet strip, and Powell had then plugged it all into the 20"-long dark-chromed tube of the Niagara: my First Watt F2 power amplifier into the single outlet labeled High Current, and everything else into the Niagara’s five remaining outlets. Sitting on the couch were my boss and my lifestyle consultant.
“So?” asked Powell. “What do you think?”
The difference was not heart stopping. Neither was it subtle. Everyone in the room heard it.
この記事は Stereophile の April 2017 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Stereophile の April 2017 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Michael Des Barres and the Art of Aural Obsession
Listening to music inspires us to take action. Upon hearing an I.E.-Instant Earworm-we must then determine the best way we can go about listening to it again (and again) at our convenience.
PLANET OF SOUND
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Audia Flight FLS10
The dogma of separates has long reigned supreme among audiophiles: If you're serious about sound quality, you're supposed to need a dedicated preamp and power amp.
Totem Acoustic Element Fire V2
Totem Acoustic was founded in 1987, in Montreal, Canada, by a former high school math teacher named Vince Bruzzese. The company's first product, the Model 1 loudspeaker,' impressed me so much I bought a pair.
MoFi Electronics MasterDeck
Get two mouthy jazz drummers in a room and watch the sparks fly. Talented turntable designer Allen Perkins, the brain behind Spiral Groove,2 Immedia's RPM turntables,³ and various SOTA models, is first and foremost a jazz drummer.
Soulution 727
AImost 14 years have passed since a review of a Soulution product appeared in the pages of Stereophile.\"
The Spin Doctor checks out the Kuzma Safir 9, a superarm from Slovenia.
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Alex goes to Japan
Arriving in Japan from the United States is like being turned upside down. This condition lasts for much of the first week. When I visited in November, the time difference between Tokyo and New York was 14 hours. \"The floating world\" is a term for the pleasure-addled urban culture of Edo-period Japan, but it's also an apt description for the twilit and not-entirely-unpleasant weirdness of first arriving in Tokyo. Everything seems slightly unreal.
Wilson Audio Specialties The WATT/Puppy
Since the original WATT/Puppy concept kicked off in the late 1980s,' there has been a 40-year evolution leading to the latest version reviewed here.
