An audiophile buddy of mine (AudioPhil) got married a few months back and a few of us decided to chip in to give him one of these Dragonfly DACs for being a good sport :-).
I don't think the Dragonfly requires much introduction since it has been around in the 1.0 iteration since 2012 and Stereophile had it grace their cover page with a full review back in September 2012. It uses an unspecified
↧
MEASUREMENTS: AudioQuest Dragonfly v1.2 Reviewed
↧
AudioPhil's Corner: Viewpoint and Follow-up on the Dragonfly 1.2...
I was offered the opportunity by Archimago to share a few thoughts regarding the Dragonfly v1.2 which I graciously received as a pre-wedding gift from my good friend the Mago himself. However, before I go into that, I'd like to provide a little background on how I feel the entire subjective high end audio hobby has changed over the past two decades or so. This leads up to why I believe that
↧
↧
MUSINGS: "Pure, Perfect Sound - Forever"
Remember that much-maligned phrase "Perfect Sound Forever"? Of course you do! For the audiophiles out there who read the usual magazines, how can we not!? We only seem to be reminded of it every few months as it's trotted out like a nagging parent bringing out old transgressions - never forgiven, never forgotten.
The name of the person(s) who came up with that catch phrase has been lost in time;
↧
MEASUREMENTS: Technics SL-1200 M3D Wow & Flutter - PlatterSpeed + Dr. Feickert's Test LP...
So, I got the Dr. Feickert's Adjust+ 7" Test LP in the mail the other day direct from Germany. It looks well pressed on good quality vinyl.
It's great to see the measurement screenshots from Michael Fremer for the various turntables reviewed so I thought it would be interesting to do my own measurements with the Technics SL-1200 (M3D) here at home. I believe that all the Technics SL-1200
↧
MEASUREMENTS: Digital Audio and the PlatterSpeed "Wow & Flutter" App
Shortly after my last post on the wow & flutter measurements with the Technics SL-1200 using the 7" test disk, Frans suggested in the comments a test using a CD to demonstrate what the results would look like using digital devices.
Great idea!
So, I whipped out good old Adobe Audition and generated a -10dBFS (same level as the Test LP signal) 3150Hz (for 33.3rpm) sine wave. I burned it on a
↧
↧
MEASUREMENTS: Microsoft Surface Pro 3 Audio.
Over the last couple years I have been using my ASUS Taichi ultrabook as my daily work/business traveller laptop. I've certainly appreciated the ultrabook form factor and speed! Although these little devices aren't cheap, there's no way for me to go back to anything larger these days in terms of a full function portable work machine...
"Unfortunately", I felt the need to upgrade the daily use
↧
MUSINGS: Vinyl Paraphernalia & Good Old (Free) Vinyl :-)
As I mentioned before, I've been going through the bargain bins at the local LP stores and it has been great finding stuff I hadn't listened to for years! Tonight, as I'm typing this I'm getting reacquainted with Henry Lee Summer's I've Got Everything album for example [recent article on Summer]. It indeed has been decades since I've heard "Hey Baby"...
Yup, old memories of high school - Gen-X
↧
MUSINGS: Stereophile's "Recommended Components" & the shift to objectivism.
The other day, I was perusing the Steve Hoffman forum and ran into this thread. Yup, Stereophile's Fall 2014 Recommended Components list is up.
A thread poster noted that the Sony Playstation 1 remains on the list again. And it's a beautiful reminder of how questionable a list like this is.
Ridge Racer! This first generation game fits in the 2MB RAM of the PS1. After loading the game you
↧
DIY / MUSINGS: Bi-Wired Canare 4S11 And Speaker Cable Discussion...
A couple weeks back I was tempted to make some of my own speaker cables out of bulk Canare 4S11 cables I had at my disposal. Note that with my Emotiva XPA-1L monoblock amplifiers situated close to the speakers themselves, I only needed 4' lengths of speaker cable. As such, it'd be ridiculous to claim that whatever speaker cable I use, there would be "huge" audible differences. I was more
↧
↧
MEASUREMENTS: Apple iPhone 4 & iPhone 6 audio output.
In terms of general look-n-feel, or usability of the product, there's nothing I can say here that has not been said about Apple's most popular devices - the iPhones. Though I'm not an Apple fanboy, my wife loves the Apple "ecosystem" and has been using an iPhone and Mac combination since the release of the iPhone 3G in June 2008.
There is no question that Apple produces some amazing devices
↧
TEST: Archimago's LP Needle Drop Blind Test.
Hello everyone. Welcome to another "blind" test! Unlike the previous High Bitrate MP3 Test last year and the more recent 24-Bit vs. 16-Bit Test, this one is much more subjective and essentially for fun :-). Not that previous tests weren't fun, but the results of this one is more for the experience of having tried (that's at least part of the fun of this hobby I hope!)...
This time, we're looking
↧
MUSINGS: Articles of Disservice - Stereophile November 2014
Over the months, I have put up posts critical of magazine articles (like this one) but I must say that the November issue of Stereophile was an "impressive" read.
I just wanted to bring up a couple of notable articles that I found interesting but highly misguided. I found these articles disturbing because they perpetuate the status quo or express an opinion that lacks constructive merit and I
↧
MEASUREMENTS: Roksan TMS (1) Wow & Flutter - PlatterSpeed test.
Greetings from this place:
Port city of Xiamen, China - just across from Taiwan.
Wrote this up right before I left Canada to go to Asia...
---------------------
Hello folks, while you're working on the vinyl LP test and as I prepare to go overseas for a few weeks, I thought it might be interesting to post the objective PlatterSpeed results from the Roksan turntable as well as a couple more
↧
↧
LP Needle Drop Test: Final Week!
Just wanted to remind everyone that I'm closing off the LP Needle Drop Blind Test survey at the end of this week (November 30). Thanks for all the submissions so far... Thanks for the downloads so please submit your results!
No real audio discussion from me this week... Just been readjusting to the work and time zone now that I'm back in North America. One thing I will note however:
That's
↧
E-Mail: "Full Dynamic Range" - Now there's a marketing phrase to get behind!
The other day, I got this E-mail from an audiophile friend:
Hi Arch,
I think this is funny. A contradiction in
every way imaginable which is why I wanted to share it with you. I know it’s
not your type of music and although I still listen to it sometimes, it’s mostly
youth sentiment for me. One of the loudest and fastest bands back in the days
was Terrorizer. Their drummer (Pete Sandoval)
↧
RESULT: Archimago's LP Needle Drop Blind Test
Okay, finally it's time to put up the test results for the "LP Needle Drop Blind Test"!
Of course the TMS system looks great compared to my "man cave" vintage Technics rig. :-)
A big thank-you to those who spent the time to listen to the 3 vinyl rips and then entered your results in the survey site I put up!
As I noted with the test page, this test is more for fun and obviously has less
↧
MUSINGS: Passion, Audiophilia, Faith and Money
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.--- Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Human passion is an interesting phenomenon isn't it? With it, we as individuals can strive to achieve in ways we look back on and marvel. Passion drives creative pursuits like symphonic compositions or visual masterpieces. Prosocial acts of compassion and love flow from this most mysterious fountain
↧
↧
MEASUREMENTS: Tascam UH-7000 USB Interface (Part I: As a DAC)
0. Preamble
Well, look what Santa brought me early this month:
So apparently I had been "nice" in his books so he decided to see about getting me an upgrade on an ADC device for vinyl recording and measurement accuracy :-).
This is the Tascam UH-7000, part of the "pro" line of audio interfaces made by Tascam/Teac. It's a simple 2-channel model. On the front we have 2 large knobs to control
↧
Happy New Year!
Hey folks, welcome to 2015 :-).
I was hoping to post on the ADC component to the Tascam UH-7000 today but the wife and I decided on a surprise trip to Disneyland instead with the kids.
Let's aim for next week...
Happy New Years to all!
↧
MEASUREMENTS: Tascam UH-7000 USB Interface (Part II: As an ADC)
TEAC & Tascam combo with size differential. The E-MU 0404USB in the background to the left.
Alright, it's time to spend some time looking at using the Tascam UH-7000 as an analogue-to-digital converter. Remember in the first instalment, I showed that this device is already a very good DAC. This time around, I wanted to see whether this device did the job well as an ADC; my main desire being to
↧