Saturday, October 27, 2012

2 Million Hits And Counting!






















Thank you all the visitors who visits this blog every day.

After almost two and half years of blogging the blog is still here, there has some times I just wanted to close it down, but after massive positive response from you readers I will keep this blog alive.












Screen photo by Oleksiy M.

ALEF Director Linestage

















$45000

DC-6Mhz Bandwidth
True Dual Mono
Pure Class-A
Ultra precise 64-step resistor attenuator
Remote controlled
Optional Battery Power Supply
Optional ultra-high gloss lacquers available

Friday, October 26, 2012

Auralic VEGA digital audio processor


































€3300

VEGA, the next generation digital audio processor, is developed with the goal of 'seeking for non-compromised sound'. With plenty of I/O ports and powerful function, it will become the kernel component of your high-end stereo system.

With Sanctuary Audio Processor as heart, AURALiC introduces several cutting-edge technology for VEGA: Megahertz upsampling algorithm up-samples all PCM music to 1.5MHz in 32bit; Femto Master Clock provides an ultimate clock precision with jitter only 82 femtoseconds(0.082 picosecond). Binding with other AURALiC's patented technologies such as 'ORFEO Class-A module' and discrete 'Purer-Power™ solution', VEGA will bring high resolution music playback experience to climax.

VEGA supports all high resolution music formats including DXD(352.8KS/s, 384KS/s in 32bit) as well as DSD stream at 2.8224MHz and 5.6448MHz. Five digital inputs include AES/EBU, coaxial(set of two), toslink and USB. The balanced and single-ended analog outputs can connect to power amplifier directly, adjusting volume in digital precision without dynamic loss.

The six built-in filter modes each contains several digital filters optimized for corresponding sampling rate. These filters are sololy developed by AURALiC to optimize the listening experience for different music and format. VEGA allows its user to customize according to different music formats, tuning sound best to personal preference.

Specifications

Frequency Response
20 - 20KHz, +/- 0.1dB

Signal/Noise
126dB, 20Hz-20KHz, A-weighted

THD+N
0,0003 %

Dynamic Range
130dB, 20Hz-20KHz, A-weighted

Digital Inputs
1*AES/EBU
2*Coaxial
1*Toslink
1*USB 2.0 buffered by ActiveUSB™

Analog Outputs
1*Balanced(output impedance 2.2ohm)
1*Single-ended(output impedance 50ohm)

Supported Digital Formats
All PCM from 44.1KS/s to 384KS/s in 32Bit
DSD64( 2.8224MHz) and DSD128(5.6448MHz)

Output Voltage
Max. 4.2V with dynamic-loss-free digital volume

Human Interface
AURALiC RC-1 remote control
512*64 pixels OLED Display

Dimension
11''W x 9''D x 2.6''H (33cm x 23cm x 6.5cm)

Weight
7.3 pounds (3.3kg)

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

MSB DAC IV plus and Femto 140 Clock





























The DAC IV plus is an updated DAC IV with a new look, plus the new Femto 140 clock which is included in every DAC.





















This new clock offers excellent accuracy with jitter under 140 femtoseconds (.140 psec). There is 2nd lowest jitter clock available for audio in the world today.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

EMM Labs TSDX CD/SACD reference transport








$17000

The TSDX CD/SACD transport has been built with the award winning technology used in the XDS1. Like the DAC2X, its companion converter, the TSDX transport has also been endowed with the latest generation MDAT™ up-converting DSP. Together with the DAC2X the TSDX+DAC2X combo represents EMM Labs newest flagship digital source system.

Along with the silky smooth, super responsive Esoteric™ drive, the TSDX employs our latest generation reference high-isolation resonant mode power supply that reduces digital noise, ultra-tight regulation and virtually complete isolation from power-line impurities and fluctuations.

• Latest generation MDAT™ DSP: 2xDSD (5.6Mhz) up-sampling DSP which preserves phase, frequency and dynamic integrity of waveforms

• EMM Optilink digital output for galvanically isolated connection to DAC2X converter.

• Esoteric™ CD/SACD drive

• Latest generation reference high-isolation resonant mode power system

• AES/EBU output for PCM from CD or SACD

• Polarity inversion performed in the digital domain

• Precision-machined aluminum multifunction infrared remote control

Brochure

Bertram Proxima Flow Series cables









































Proxima S-Flow

Interconnect 2x1m €4400 - extra m €3000
Speaker 2x1m €7455 - extra m €5735
AC cable 1,5m €5800























































Proxima CS-Flow

Interconnect 2x1m €2950 - extra m €1700
Speaker 2x1m €3900 - extra m €2485
AC cable 1,5m €3900















Proxima C-Flow

Interconnect 2x1m €1850 - extra m €1025
Speaker 2x1m €2725 - extra m €1150
AC cable 1,5m €2100

All prices excl vat/taxes


Monday, October 22, 2012

Hørning Hybrid Sati Transference Zigma Turntable












In anthracite
















In black

€19500

The success  of the SATI  lies in its unique combination of a supremely massive 50 kg platter(with bolted polymer mat), state of the art motor and its custom high tech main bearing. The proof of Sati’s success is not only in the ability to produce superior wow and flutter statistics, but it is easy to hear as well.

For a start, listen to a good piano recording. The piano, in particular needs accurate pitch,sustain and decay for maximum enjoyment. Some companies try to achieve absolute pitch by adding three motors to turn the platter, but they forget that three motors can never run at absolutely the same velocity.Thus sullying the signal with constant speed shifts. The problem is made worse when the turntable is suspended: floating in all different directions, causing additional speed fluctuations. Each time the speed fluctuates the listener looses vital information that separates reality from ‘hi-fi”. Sati narrows this gap like no other turntable in history. Some companies will add fly wheels in order to repair the speed accuracy. This is merely a band-aid to try and help a weak turntable motor.  But not so on the SATI, you will hear no improvement by adding a flywheel or additional motors!

Platter:
When it comes to speed stability in the presence intermittent drag (the needle in the groove) you simply cannot beat pure mass and momentum. It is simple physics. At 50 kg the Sati platter is 3-5 times as massive as most competitors ‘high mass’ platters. It even trumps the great Micro Seiki SX-8000 and Continuum Caliburn by a margin of 25%!! No commercially made platter comes close to  the Sati platter. Not only is the Sati platter more massive, but its cast aluminium composition gives it superior damping qualities to those of acrylic, lead, steel, etc. Another important quality for a record players performance is the platters ability to always maintain neutral support to the sound.  Neither too damped (some record players platter is made with Rubber, glue, lead etc. and is sounding thick and slow!). Nor too rigid: plastic acrylic platters lack  bass performance and will always have a signature resonance.  The acryl platter adds a layer of noise over all the  music.

Bearing:
The all important main bearing is a 12 mm tungsten ball which can carry a 500 kg platter with ease. The tungsten ball is the heart of the bearing along with the 16 mm axel.  This bearing system produces an ultimate flow of resonances out of the platter, and the reason why the SATI plays better than other high end turntables with magnetic bearing and air bearing where the resonances stays inside the platter.  Magnetic and air bearing tables  have no ultimate grounding of resonance. Air bearings and magnetic bearings therefore work as a high pass filter and will, as a rule, have less bass and the sound will be brighter and thin! When the Sati is playing, people are surprised over how much body, control and foundational bass exists in even the most familiar recordings.

Motor:
If you look at all other turntable brochures today, nobody really wants to talk about their motors, because they are not at all up to the desired standards! In the sixties we had much better motors, At that time you could buy excellent flywheel motors which had a controlled feedback system with an optical encoder!
The Sati motor is not a flywheel motor but a flat high inertia 12 pole motor with three hall elements which are controlled by an optical encoder 2048 times every time the motor runs one rpm.  No other motor on todays turntables has a 12 pole BRUSHLESS DC MOTOR.

The old SATI motor was a two pole brushless motor from Origin Live and they also made the analog speed control, but that motor had difficulty maintaining the same speed, it was drifting.  Many owners of Thorens, Linn and others have upgraded there turntables with this Origin Live motor. In America they also uses this small two poles motor on the Teres and other turntables.

The ClearAudio Reference turntable uses a 4 pole motor but unfortunately with low inertia and much less ‘horsepower’than that of Sati. In automotive terms; the ClearAudio motor is a 4 cylinder ‘engine’ to Sati’s 12 cylinder. While low power together with light plastic platter yields a constant speed, the high inertia motor of Sati combined with its massive platter give speed control under even the most demanding vinyl recordings. The result is a naturalness you can hear; decay and sustain are brilliantly captured.Voices take on a human emotional element never heard before. And the bass is now a solid driving foundation to the music- just as in real life.

The 12 pole SATI motor is controlled in a unique way because its not controlled in standard digitally way. It’s controlled by three soft sinus wave signals.

In the very beginning I had developed a tube controlled powersupply which was controlled a very good Papst pancake motor, This had the wanted soft wave control, but only one wave.

If you use digitally zero to one (with 0-1) control, will it control the motor very hard! On the scope you can see it as small zigzag peaks, the motor do not like these peaks and will act acordingly (it will not flow fluently). This is very easy to hear in comparison. 90% of high end turntables are controlled this way.

With the new SATI motor with high power output, the single soft wave is expanded to three soft waves, and these are controlled by three hall elements, which al the time are controlling the 12 poles to run in exact and constant speed. The more times the motor is controlled, the more exact it is running, and now we are free of all this drifting every time we turn on the turntable and we are also free of the digital distortion where the motor runs zigzag.

The old motor weight was 36 gram the new is 0.7 kg. Furthermore, the new motor employs soft start, it takes about 6 seconds before it’s running full speed.

The new motor is so strong that you can use a cleaning brush while you are playing your music without  hearing any speed change. The motor has such strength and accuracy, combined with the platter’s massive momentum  it can hold the 50 kg platter like an iron fist.  The specially formulated belts’ elasticity has absolutely minimum interference.

Plinth:
The platter and the tone arm are integrated with a 40 mm thick alumium plinth, and the arm board is a massive 150 mm aluminium tower. This strong integration is responsible for the arm and platter  resonating in sync with each other. This becomes a problem in turntables where the tone arm plinth is placed outside the platters plinth. The Sati plinths feet have their own design with low resonating, anti vibration gel between the plinth and main table support. To totally optimize the Sati Turntable an air table with very low resonance should be placed underneath the Sati Turntable to filter out lowest frequency disturbance.

Two arms can be fitted with a extra plinth.

The SATI Transference Ultimate record player achieves a  new reality for playing analog records.  No digital  system can match the sound quality of a good analog recording.
The Sati Turntable was made for the pure love of music and the joy it brings, nothing more, nothing less. It is a heart warming experience.

You owe it to yourself to listen to the SATI and you will be both thrilled and surprised at how real-to-life good vinyl can sound. The Sati Turntable is a new level of music reproduction.


Saturday, October 20, 2012

FM Acoustics Resolution 266 preamp - pictures



































































A great little used 266, just change AC plug and update the modules - a 30 minute job, and 266 can compete with the best preamps on the market today.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Schröder LT Tonearm
































$8900

LT looks like a conventional pivoted type, it's actually a sophisticated linear-tracking 'arm whose patent-pending mechanism keeps the cartridge's stylus in perfect tangency.

It does this by adjusting the tonearm's pivot, which moves free of the mounting base via an ingenious magnetic mechanism. The LT offers no adjustment for offset angle or anti-skating; both are unnecessary, given the design. VTA/SRA, azimuth and tracking-force adjustment remain.

The LT's wooden armwand snakewood or grenadill are available, is treated to eliminate the effect of temperature and humidity, and the headshell is made of a proprietary material chosen for its stiffness, low mass and great internal damping. Internal wire is a high-purity copper type that's been cryogenically treated.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Astin Trew Concord Dac















£3800


Your Final System HD Ref3 SE Music Server Transport






































$12850

The HD Reference 3 Special Edition (HD.Ref-3) is a state of the art, high definition, reference music server transport. It's modeled after the major label recording studio servers we've seen in today's digital recording set-ups. The Ref-3 is designed to be paired with a USB capable digital to analog converter (DAC) for the best possible performance. There are no left and right "RCA analog outputs" like a CD player. This digital computer transport is specifically designed to be used with a DAC.

We have offered a true reference server unmatched by any current computer music server available today. There's a SOtM USB PCI digital audio output card. We supply your server with 32 GB of RAM, 512 GB of Solid State storage as well as a Blu-Ray Rom drive. You can upgrade to 1TB of SSD storage via a RAID configuration as well. We feel our Ref-3 is substantially better than ANYTHING currently available. The HD Ref-3 is a true Giant Killer at a decent price. The current music server competition just doesn't stand a chance!

If you're not convinced, check out our specs below and then check the competition's top model specs (if they'll even tell you what they are). We've outdone ALL of them by at least a factor of 3. Specs aren't everything and we're well aware of that. We use specs only as a GUIDE to base our comparisons on and use our ears to make the final decision. Either way, we think you'll appreciate our hard work and extensive testing especially once you hear one.

Remember, the YFS HD Ref-3 is totally custom! If you want a feature added or deleted, it's no problem. We'll make the unit exactly to your spec. We'll price the unit according to the options you want.

GENERAL FEATURES:
Pre-loaded CD ripping software and DEMO version of DVD-A ripping software suite
Pre-loaded Audiophile Digital Playback Suite [Foobar 2K, JRiver, JPlay, or AP] of YOUR CHOICE (We recommend Album Player)
Full User Touch Control via your Tablet/ iPad
No Monitor, Keyboard, or Mouse Required for Operation
Rack Mountable EMI/ RFI Shielded Industrial Steel Case with Lockable Front Door for Protection/ Security
Bit-Perfect Playback via PCI Digital Audio Output via USB or XLR (Add $500 for XLR)
True RAM-Buffered Playback Support
Complete Remote Login Support
Access to Your Music Anywhere
Full Future Upgrade Ability
Jukebox-Style Interface (GUI) with Full Touch-Screen Support (With Album Player ONLY)
All Current Bit-Rates Supported for Digital Files Playback (16/44.1 - 32/384)

OPERATING NOISE LEVEL:
YFS "Silent Server Design" creates SPL's UNDER 12 dB at normal load from 3 feet away.

SPECIFICATIONS:
6 Core Processing
32 GB of DDR3 Ram
(1) SOtM USB 2.0 Audiophile PCI Digital Output Card
(1) 512 GB SSD (Upgradeable to 1TB if desired via RAID config)
(1) External Non-Switching Power Supply for the SOtM USB Card
(1) Blu-Ray ROM drive
(2) USB 3.0 ports
(8) USB 2.0 ports
(2) Frontside USB 2.0 ports
(1) OPTIONAL Firewire (IEEE 1394) PCI Output Card (Free of Charge If Needed)
(1) HDMI Video Output
(1) DVI Video Output
(1) D-SUB Video Output
Windows 7 Professional Operating System

Burmester MusicCenter 111 - inside part 2









































































































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Burmester MusicCenter 111 - inside part 1



















































































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Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Hegel P20 Preamplifier








$2850

P20 replaces PA4 mk2, and release date is end of November.

High Fidelity Cables CT-1E Series






















Interconnects + phono - $2800 for 1 meter (each additional 0.5 m is $350)





















Digital - $1400 for 1 meter (each additional 0.5 m is $175)

The CT-1E has all the features of the normal CT-1 along with the following:

A new conductor alloy is used in the enhanced version which has a greatly increased ferromagnetic permeability for increased levels of Magnetic Conduction and performance.

The conductor is treated with a proprietary material that lowers dielectric absorption so signals are not held back by the changes in electrical charges in the teflon dielectric.

The PinLok connector has been redesigned for increased ferromagnetic permeability in the pin itself. This allows low level signals to move more easily into the conductor.

Precision 24K gold plate is applied at 300 microns which is double the industries thickest plating recommendations. The ground ring is also plated to help ensure a optimal low level signal performance.