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Random Noise 1
An old boy’s toys
For approximately a quarter-eon after the Big
Bang, I wrote for The Stereo Times and did
some editing too. Allow me to remark that
editing is a dispiriting chore. As often as
not, the more assiduous the editor, the more
pissed off the editee. So now, well along in
my second childhood, I’ve returned to the old
cyber-sod with my very own column wherein I
intend to rattle and prattle on about music
and audio. I might even be cajoled into
parting with my recipe for braised raccoon.
But let’s limit today’s topic to audio. (See
what I mean about a column? I write “let’s”
but really mean, “Brace yourself, Bridget, for
this is what I’m going to do.”)
My last gig was with a Sound Stage
publication, UltraAudio.com. I covered some
nifty stuff but was denied a chance to write
about my recentmost speakers, Wilson Audio’s
eighth iteration of the WATT / Puppy system.
My UA editor set that pleasure aside for
himself. (His comments have yet to appear.)
Gathering up my wounded pride, I covered the 8
for my own Webzine, LaFolia.com.
Here, then, a thumbnail summary of the
speaker’s strengths and attractions. Gorgeous
to look at, Bentley quality, as is fitting,
considering the price. Transparency and
resolution are among the 8’s strongest
features, likewise what I hear as an absence
of coloration – if it’s at all possible to
describe any speaker as uncolored. From the
softest whisper onward, the 8’s dynamics leave
little to desire. For a reviewer particularly,
the speaker’s capacity to reveal changes
elsewhere in one’s system – cables, acoustic
isolation, amplification, whatever – remains
of paramount significance.
I hesitate to describe the 8 as musical, even
tho it does yeoman service in that department.
It’s the term that gives me pause. I’ve
discovered, for many of us sound geeks, that
“musical” mean colored. I’ve also discovered,
for many of us sound geeks, that recordings
serve as fuel. For the key to understanding
what I mean by that cryptic remark, try asking
your target subject, “What kind of music do
you like?” If he or she responds, “Oh, all
kinds,” the fuel’s composition matters less
than how brightly it burns. For my part, type
of music notwithstanding, I want to get as far
into the recording as it’s possible to go,
which means in effect that I don’t want my
components providing euphonious
interpretations to the software’s contents.
And that brings me to a surprise.
An absurdly
small pair of digital mono amps – review items
– flat-out humiliated the 200-lb. behemoths
I’d been using for several years. You may have
seen the Mark Levinson No.33H monos. They call
to mind what a matched pair of space heaters
in Flash Gordon’s pied-à-terre might have
looked like. I believe they’re still in
production and even more expensive than the
$20k they cost when I acquired them from
Madrigal Audio Labs as compensation for
editing La Folia, then under Madrigal’s
sponsorship. The engineering is astonishing.
The 33H doubles its output as the load’s
impedance is halved, down to one ohm. While
there aren’t many amps capable of that, an
amazing feat didn’t deter the 33H pair from
sounding rather crude in comparison with
NuForce Reference 9 SE monos ($4k / pair),
which have since joined this reporter’s sound
system.
The Ref 9 SE is as clean, open, transparent,
dynamic and honest a component as ever I’ve
heard. Tiny as they are, they’ve never proved
wanting in driving the 8s. Recently, I
reminded myself of that with Xenakis:
Percussion Works (Mode 171 / 173, three CDs).
A number of these compositions by the maverick
avant-garde composer (1922-2001) feature large
drums that shook the room. Some early design
problems – start-up and turn-off noises – have
been ironed out. Version 2, which I’ll
probably cover here, is said to overcome the
present model’s only fault. My wife and I
listen to FM radio as we work in our
respective art studios, and the Ref 9 SE’s RFI
necessitates their being turned off when,
ideally, I’d prefer to keep their circuit
boards warm. Not that it seems to matter. The
amps sound great immediately after turn-on.
(As a curiosity for those who care, it isn’t
the amp that broadcasts the RFI so much as its
speaker cable. Disconnect the cable and the FM
interference stops.)
While I don’t mean to beat up on Mark Levinson
products, the next piece of gear likewise
trounced another component bearing that
world-famous marque, the No.390S CD player. My
since departed 390S began life as No.39, which
Madrigal upgraded, the “S” designation
indicating la crème de la crème. Compared to
the player that replaced it, one heard a fair
amount of gravier in the crème. (For you
Anglophones out there, the word means
“gravel.”)
The 390S’s successor, the Integris CDP, is the
work of Derrick Moss. His company, Aurum
Acoustics, is a fairly new enterprise based in
Canada. I’ve discovered that the CDP
designation often indicates player only. The
Integris’s “P” actually stands for “preamp.”
Derrick Moss conceived the CDP to operate,
ideally, with his fully integrated 300B audio
system. At $12,000, it’s an expensive
component that, at these altitudes, i.e., the
Fanatics’ Republic of Audiophilia, is
reasonably priced for what it accomplishes:
resolution beyond one’s fondest dreams,
dynamic subtlety, harmonic veracity, and it
makes a wicked good espresso. For a fuller
explanation and views of innards and outards,
go to
www.aurumacoustics.com.
I just submitted my final Ultra Audio review,
as it happens, of the most intriguing stuff
I’ve yet covered. It won’t be posted till
April 15. Until then, it wouldn’t do to say
much here other than I’m buying Acoustic
Revive’s RD-3 Disc Demagnetizer and RIO-5 II
Tourmaline Negative Ion Generator, the work of
a Japanese innovator, Ken Ishiguro. Together
they do good things to CDs. The US
distributor is at
LotusGroupUSA.com. You can click on
Acoustic Revive there or go directly to
Acoustic-Revive.com.
I’m using Nordost balanced Valhalla
interconnects between the CDP and Nuforce
amps, and Nordost Valkyrja speaker cables. The
electronic components sit atop trios of Golden
Sound DH Cones and DH Squares. For the CDP,
there’s also a 16x16x2-inch concrete garden
tile supported by a quartet of Vibrapod Cones.
The power cords to the three electronic
components are Aurum Acoustics’ mod of Cardas
Golden Reference. The two to the digital amps
have ferrites at the IEC end, the one to the
CDP, not. At Derrick Moss’s suggestion, a
Richard Gray’s Power Company 1200S occupies
the other outlet of the dedicated duplex the
CDP’s plugged into. (The audio system has four
FIM 880 duplex outlets at its disposal.) Moss
feels that the unit benefits from the RGPC’s
enormous choke. He also recommends, and now
installs, a gold-plated Isoclean Power fuse in
his CDP.
And I do believe that’s about it. Next time,
music. Brace yourself, Bridget….
Mike Silverton
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