Meitner Audio MA-1 DAC

$6750

MA-1 is the first product from Ed Meitner's new company

Uses MFAST™ asynchronous technology

Feed the MA-1 through any of its six inputs and the Meitner Frequency Acquisition System (MFAST™) instantly acquires the signal, buffers it, then strips jitter out completely. A high-speed asynchronous system,

it decouples input from output. MFAST™ ensures that you’ll enjoy pristine sonic clarity whether the incoming data stream is pure or anything but.

MDAT™: 2x DSD upsampling

From there, the signal goes straight into the Meitner Digital Audio Translator (MDAT™) which upsamples digital audio to 5.6 MHz, double the SACD standard sampling rate.

Our MA-1 features the standard-setting MDAC™ dual differential discrete D-to-A and MCLK™ high-purity master clock modules. Together, they’re music to our ears. Yours too, as an audition will quickly prove.

Key Features:

- Supported sampling rates of 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4 and 192kHz at word lengths up to 24 bits through all 6 digital inputs:

- 1 x USB Class 2

- 1 x AES/EBU

- 2 x TOSLINK S/PDIF

- 2 x COAX S/PDIF

- MFAST™ asynchronous technology for instant signal acquisition, jitter-free performance

- MDAT™ signal processing technology:

- Provides 2x DSD upsampling for PCM playback

- Preserves phase, frequency and dynamic integrity of waveform

- MDAC™ discrete dual differential D-to-A conversion circuit

- MCLK™ high-purity master clock that establishes new benchmarks in jitter performance

- Sleek credit-card style remote control included for input switching

- USB service port for future software upgrades

- Serial port for wired remote control

- Power supply:

- Power factor corrected

- Universal 90V-260V, 50/60Hz

- Power consumption: max. 50W

- CE Approved

Stereo analog outputs: Balanced (XLR) and Unbalanced (RCA)

Output voltage (with 0dBfs input):

- XLR outputs: 4.6Vrms (+15.4dBu)

- RCA outputs: 2.3Vrms (+9.4dBu)

Output impedance:

- 300 ohms balanced (XLR)

- 150 ohms unbalanced (RCA) 

Dimensions W x D x H: 435 x 400 x 92mm

Weight: 7.43 kg/16.39 lbs net with remote control

WIdeaLab Aurender Series digital music storage and playback systems

WIdeaLab announced today the launch of their Aurender Series digital music storage and playback systems with up to 128GB solid-state drive playback and iPad user interface. "Aurender's clocks are based on ultra-stable TCXO or OCXO oscillators with an accuracy of under 5 billionth of a second. Along with proprietary reclocking FPGAs this guarantees signal accuracy for the digital outputs. The Aurenders can store up to 6TB of music in various uncompressed or lossless formats. All models are designed to be used with high-quality DACs and have AES/EBU, coaxial and optical outputs. Other features include Linux OS customized for audio applications, up to 24-bit/192kHz resolution, a fanless design and a precision-machined aluminum case and parts designed to protect sensitive components from electromagnetic noise and vibrations. In addition the Aurenders have LAN and USB connections for transfer of music files from external storage devices or PCs. Expected retail prices are $4.600 for the Aurender A10 and $6.100 for the Aurender S10.

On A Higher Note

On A Higher Note is the US distributor for Audioaero, Luxman, Brinkmann, and Vivid Loudspeakers, and Philip O'Hanlon is its founder and president. Philip is also another guy that gets it. Music that is. Actually Philip O'Hanlon has seemingly mastered the art of music presentation and is one of hi-fi's more endearing characters. You really don’t want to leave while the bow-tied and nimble-footed Mr. O'Hanlon is spinning the tunes or telling stories.

To make matters better, the system we listened to was absolutely musically engaging to the extreme. It included the Vivid Audio G2Giya loudspeakers ($50,000/pair), Luxman M-800A class-A stereo amplifier ($19,000), Luxman E-1 phono stage ($4000), Brinkmann Oasis belt-drive turntable ($13,400), Brinkmann 9.6 tonearm ($4000), Brinkmann Pi cartridge ($2700), Audioaero La Source CD/SACD player also used as preamp ($44,000), with Crystal Cable in use throughout.

We listened to Lou Reed’s "A Walk On The Wild Side" on 12" 45rpm vinyl and Rokia Traoré’s wonderfully quirky version of "The Man I Love" and Peter Gabriel’s "The Boy In The Bubble," both on CD, and I wish I had had time for more.

The Audio Salon

LA retailer The Audio Salon was showing an impressive sounding system—Magico Q5 loudspeakers ($59,950/pair), Spectral DMA-360 monophonic reference amplifiers ($20,000/pair), Spectral DMC-30SL reference preamplifier ($10,000), and the Spectral SDR-4000 Reference CD processor ($19,000). Cable was from MIT.

The room was very dark, the Q5s were set up very far apart and the California Guitar Trio's version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" from their CD California Guitar Trio Rocks the West rocked my expectations, and I kept expecting (and kind of hoping) Freddie Mercury or his voice, would peer out from behind the curtain.

Precision Audio Video—Venture Audio—Weiss

Precision Audio Video is both a retailer and the US distributor for Venture and Weiss products. They were exhibiting the Venture Encore Loudspeakers ($46,000/pair), Venture V100A+ Reference monoblock amplifiers ($60,000/pair), Venture VP100 Reference full-function preamplifier ($28,000), Venture VP100P phono preamplifier ($26,000)—"which provides substantial higher quality for the vinyl analogue play back—a Spiral Groove SG1 turntable, with a Spiral Groove tonearm and London Decca cartridge. The Weiss Jason CD Transport ($24,000) fed a Weiss Medea DAC ($20,000) and all cabling was from Venture.

We listened to Eric Clapton’s "Tears in Heaven" unplugged on vinyl and the very nice guy from Precision A/V kept asking his associate to turn it up. One of the issues with demoing hi-fi in a huge ballroom is that it's difficult, or damn near impossible, to energize the room and fully engage the listener.

Audience The One

I got to hear both the Audience ClairAudient 2+2 loudspeaker ($5000/pair, reviewed in the July 2011 issue of Stereophile) and the diminutive ClairAudient THE ONE ($995/pair). Associated electronics and cables were also from Audience and included the Wavepower monoblocks ($14,000/pair), a class-D analog switching power amplifier that put out 200W into 8 ohms, the Wavemaster preamplifier ($13,000), and AU24e cables and power cords and an Adept Response Wavepower High Resolution Power Conditioner ($5000). The source was an Audience-modified Oppo BDP-83SE Blu-ray player, which was not for sale (priceless).

The Audience guys seemed to get no end of enjoyment watching people’s jaws hit the floor, the rug was littered with audiophile jawbones, when they played the single-driver ClairAudient THE ONE, which has nearly unbelievable bass performance for its size. Both speakers actually sounded big and solid with a nice fat midrange.

Digital Ear - Room 1

Retailer Digital Ear from Tustin, CA was all over this show. I had to keep checking my notes since I began to feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day—"I'm in the Digital Ear room, again? But I just left." Room 1 was the Revel/Levinson room—Revel Ultima Salon2 speakers ($21,998/pair), Mark Levinson No.53 monoblock amplifiers ($25,000, the first-ever switching amp from Levinson), Mark Levinson No.326S preamplifier ($10,000), the No.512 CD/SACD Player ($15,000), with cabling from Transparent Audio. I felt this tiny room did not allow you to fully appreciate what you might hear if you were in a more appropriately sized room with this kind of gear. As is, I would not recommend the Revel Salon 2s—a JA favorite—for near-field listening.

LightDims – Tame Annoyingly Bright LEDs

Great for bright blue LEDs on components.

Lightdims

Audio Consulting Meteor MC Step Up Transformer

This new level of Silver Rock MC Step Up Transformer allows for the highest possible quality impedance match and voltage gain when using MC cartridges with phono preamplifiers. It uses unusual high tech magnetic materials together with Audio Consultings's own silver wire. Cotton insulated silver wire is used for the windings, while specific coil geometry is enabling further hum rejection.
The shape of the new Meteor cabinet is intended to increase immunity towards air born vibrations. It is made woods that are carefully dried. The transformer is assembled using wood only, while high tech shielding foils avoid interference with external magnetic fields.

The new “Meteor” Silver Rock MC Step Up Transformer features:

• High tech “Meteor” magnetic material
• Silver wire, cotton sleeved and cryo treated
• High tech shielding materials
• Wooden case for optimum vibration behaviour
• organic oil treatment of wooden case
• low loss RCA connection plugs
• Gain +20 dB, or +26 dB directly available through separate RCA connectors
• cartridge impedance: from 2 to 40 Ohms
• Price: CHF13'600.00

Audeeva Conbrio music server

Read about it here

AcousticPlan Mudra

The Mudra is a complete two channel music server system, remote controlled from a battery powered wireless 8,4" touchpanel. The main unit consists two hard disks, CD/DVD ROM drive, digital audio interface/processor, D/A converter, analog volume control and a tube output stage.

Mudra uses only reliable industry components which ensure a much longer life time and a much better accuracy in audio processing than consumer components. The non resonant casing of the main unit is made of thick precision machined aluminium plates, while the remote control is CNC machined from one single aluminium block. 

No expense was spared for the tube output stage and its regulated high voltage power supply, both completely realized in pure tube technology. The analog section is fully transformer coupled, equipped with our own high quality double C-core transformers. All of the wiring for the tube output stage is carried out as point to point hand wiring, which is much more costly than using circuit boards and results in superior sonic qualities.

The complete software for the main unit as well as for the remote control is programmed in-house and uses Linux as the operating system.


Analog section:
- pure tube output stage, full transformer coupled
  output: 3V / 200Ohm
- pure tube high voltage regulator and tube rectifier
- 40 steps analog volume control with switching relais
- additional analog input (for using Mudra as a pure tube preamplifier)
  input: 250mV / 50KOhm for 1V output

Digital section:
- 2 hard discs, each with 500MB (RAID 1), optional SSD
- CD/DVD ROM drive (TEAC professional grade)
- industrial grade PC board
- digital audio processor with 192kHz/24bit format
- R2R D/A converter without any oversampling or upsampling
- additional 3 digital inputs: optical, AES/EBU, RCA
- additional 2 digital outputs: AES/EBU, RCA
- all digital interfaces transformer coupled

Remote control:
- 8,4" touch screen with wireless operation
- 10 hours battery runtime
- CNC machined casing from one single aluminium block

General informations:
- fanless operation
- external power supply with 3 conventional transformers

- Mudra is a 100% product of Germany
- operational software Linux
- extensible disk space via Ethernet

- dimensions main unit (W x H x D): 260 x 170 x  350
- dimensions remote control (W x H x D): 222 x 176 x 40
- weight: 23 kg

Davinci Master Reference Virtu tonearm

CHF 10800


These are a few highlights:

1. Invention of a four point fixed gimbal mount magnetical- and ruby bearing
2. New VTA & azimuth adjustment
3. As optional accessories available: Exchangeable tone arm tubes for best matching with your cartridges.

Basis version tube ebony wooden.

Option 1: tone arm tube made of carbon
Option 2: tone arm tube with SME-type adapter


Master's Reference Virtu tone arm, is capable to bring all details of your LP's in a brilliant, blow-by-blow, high musical lightness. 

Vertex AQ Aletheia Dac-1

£11500


The Aletheia brand will be a range of electronics with a fundamentally different approach - the fusion of outstanding electronics design with all the Vertex principles of RFI and microphony control, right down to a component-by-component level (ie each chip, capacitor, resistor and so on.....).

So far our studies have been based around amplification, and DACs. We have looked at the various choices and options for these types of devices, working through all the major permutations. With amplifiers for instance, different classes of amplification, different power supplies, valve and solid state. With DACs we have again looked at power supplies, but also the options of different conversion formats, chip types and so on. Now of course, there is nothing at all unusual in this sort of work, its what you'd expect any design company to do. However, with our work its been a little different, because we include the problems and resulting behaviours of RFI and microphony interactions in every step of our analysis.

We are now at the end of the pre-production stage of the Aletheia dac-1 project. We showed the technology demonstrator DAC at Whittlebury Hall last year, and we were very pleased that everyone thought it sounded great. Since then we have carried out some refinements internally to the design - the main one being an upgrade of the output caps, to a pair of silver/gold Mundorf items. The other main piece of work (as ever) was finishing the casework.

The key features of this design are:

1.   A completely modularised design with very high levels of process separation, with extensive anti-vibration and anti-RFI/EMI techniques throughout.

2.   16-bit d to a conversion with no oversampling or filtering. DAC circuitry housed in EM absorptive box.

3.   Passive I to V output stage using Vishay resistors and Mundorf supreme silver/gold/oil caps.

4.   Ultra-high quality quad-stage power supply topology using mains pre-filtering, fully enclosed (EMI absorptive) 100 VA transformer on decoupling mounts, a discrete component pre-regulator and 4 second-stage discrete component regulators. The regulators are Pauly Hynes Design items, heavily modified with the application of anti-RFI/EMI and anti-microphony techniques.

5.   All wiring downstream of mains transformer is solid-core silver with EMI absorptive tubing.

6.   Digital input - s/pdif BNC, RCA and optical.

7.   Analogue outputs RCA and XLR.

8.   All signal sockets mounted on decoupled sub panels.

All this effort brings huge listening benefits, especially when playing more complex music. Most digital replay gets blurred, confused and harsh with such material, mixing and intermodulating the musical programme as the intensity rises. Conversely with the dac-1, complex threads and intertwining harmonic 'fibers' of dense passages remain rich, detailed, separated and accurate. Once heard, the Aletheia dac-1 is very difficult to ignore.

For a comprehensive description of the Aletheia dac1 please see the Handbook here. Aletheia dac-1 Handbook

Stahl-Tek Vekian-CDT in black

Price - €29000

Krell Cipher SACD/CD player

$12000

Krell Cipher

Engelholm Audio Solo

Price - 500,000 SEK

Orpheus Vanguard Digital Audio Dock

With the convergence of entertainment systems, we at Team Orpheus came to realise that the future of not only audio but also entertainment technology is in all in one solutions, the main concept of which is integration. Since 2010 Team Orpheus has been developing a Digital Audio Dock (DAD). It has been created as an all encompassing solution for digital audio playback. Its aim is to allow any digital audio source to be compatible with S/PDIF and ADAT Lightpipe formats, which are protocols for transferring widely used digital audio data.

The minimalistic avant garde design, designed for simplistic eye pleasing perfection, can trick the beholder, as the Vanguard DAD houses the power and potency unrivalled by any Digital Audio Dock.

Connecting your computer to your DAD has never been simpler as a large number of connection ports are provided in the DAD for complete digital compatibility. The supported digital protocols are USB 2.0, FireWire 400, Bluetooth AD2P, LAN and USB Flash. The DAD is able to work in multichannel mode with the USB, FireWire and ADAT modules.

The DAD also comes with licensed iPod and iPhone compatibility, in a dock which not only enables playback of your iPod/iPhone content but also the recharging of the devices. The most significant aspect of the iPod dock is that it enables better quality data transfer than a normal analog jack, by reading the numerical iPod transcript, the result of which is true representation of the audio. The features don't end here: for ease of use, it is possible to control your mobile device with the DAD itself.

To make listening to music directly from the internet possible, a web interface has been included, whereby it is possible for the user to configure the their desired URL and gain direct access to and high quality playback for their preferred web hosted audio content. 

Exterior

The front panel is equipped with 9 LEDs to indicate the input selection, and two switches with which to control the input source. There is also a switch for the selection of the output sample rate which ranges from 44.1KHz to 192KHz.

To minimise jitter, the clocking information is displayed with two LEDs, to indicate whether the Phase Loop Lock (PLL) is locked and whether the system is clocked with an external signal.

The use of headphones has been made as convenient as possible by placing a headphone jack on the front panel accompanied with a volume control.

The DAD is also equipped with a USB port, located on the front panel, to enable the playback from USB flash keys and an iPod/iPhone dock on the top.

Controlling the DAD has been made as easy as possible with the controls on the front panel, or alternatively with the remote control which is capable of controlling the entire system. 

Vanguard Digital Audio Dock Specifications:

Inputs 
• Word clock IN / OUT (44.1KHz/48KHz/96KHz/192KHz)
• Firewire multichannel: 8 Channels 24Bits @ 192kHz
• USB 2.0 multichannel: 8 Channels 24Bits @ 192kHz
• LAN/Ethernet: UPnP Compliant, Configurable WebRadio 
• iPod and iPhone Dock.
• Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR A2DP (iPhone compliant)
• USB Flash Direct playback 
• HDMI not HDCP Compliant
• Optical ADAT: Up to 8 Channels 24Bits @ 48kHz
• TOSlink: 1 Channel 24Bits @ 192kHz
• Analog Line IN
  Digital Outputs 
• 4 x SPDIF channels
• 1 x ADAT
  Analog Input 
• 1 x Line In over jack
  Analog Output 
• Headphone
• 1 x Line Out over jack
  
  

QNKTC Model 999 cd player

Price 40,000 NOK

The dac is a FIR - Finite Impulse Response, digital processing in FPGA and analog processing using simple analog filters.

The designer - Børge Strand-Bergesen

STAX SR-009

Price Y388,500

New Burmester products

More pictures of Sforzato DST-01

Sforzato DST-01 Digital Stream Transport

The Japanese made two-box Sforzato DST-01 upsampling Digital Stream Transport is a DLNA enabled streamer which connects to a Network Attached Server or PC over LAN network. 
Ultra-low jitter temperature controlled crystal oscillator to control the master clock.  Large toroidal transformers, with separate supply to digital processing and other circuits.  Each transformer is placed coaxially with leg spikes provide grounding of external vibration. 
Front panel switch selects up-sampling rates of up to 192kHz with various digital filters settings (standard, no pre-echo, no post echo, minimum phase, etc.) which happens before sending digital signal to an outboard DAC.  
Please note that the second box is the power supply, not the DAC.
Sforzato is also developing a dedicated DAC for it which is going to be called the DSR-01 (DigitalStream Renderer).  Controls are done through iPod or iPhone using the included MLPlayer app.

• Supported Files: AIFF, Apple lossless, FLAC, MP3, WMA Lossless, WAV
• Sampling Frequency: 44.1k, 48k, 88.2k, 96k, 176.4k, 192k
• Bit of support: 16bit, 24bit (Lossless WMA is 44.1k/16bit only)
• Digital Output: AES/EBU, RCA (S / PDIF)
• Word clock output: BNC × 1
• Word clock input: BNC × 1
• LAN: 100Base-T RJ45
• Retail price: Yen 600,000 (approximately USD10,000)

Burmester 111 Reference Music Server

$70000

The new Reference Line Music Server convinces not only by its excellent sound quality, but also by the extremely fast processing of even very large data sets. The local player is both about the device, via the web browser, and via handheld devices such as iPad with a specially developed Burmester Darfur app to be controlled.

Streaming over WLAN is also possible. On the integrated drive slot, an existing CD collection in the highest possible quality to rip it. Were not deposited album art and track information are added automatically to a comparison with the database. Due to the forward error correction (FEC) of only a few seconds for audio CD drives, there is the possibility that older or scratched CD went to an audio data stream that includes sporadic dropouts. Without appropriate countermeasures can thus reduce the noise listening.

Audio Valve Challenger 250

€9900

The Challenger 250’s are high-performance power amplifiers with intelligent Power Management that provides a unique listening experience.

They are a continuation of our successful Challenger series (115, 150 and 180) of mono blocs first introduced in 1987. The Challenger 250’s achieve a new level of definition and perfection in quality of sound.

Like all AudioValve amplifiers, the Challenger 250’s attract attention through innovative technology, beautiful design and accurate circuitry. All AudioValve amplifiers are handcrafted products, produced with accuracy and precision.

The revolutionary and proprietary ABR circuitry, developed in-house, supervises, affects and controls each KT90 tube independently. All Challenger 250’s are delivered with KT90 tubes, which may be replaced with pin-compatible Beam-Power pentodes – the ABR sets up the correct bias-current automatically. This allows the customer to use whatever tube creates the best sound for him/her.

Another awesome convenience is that the circuitry is totally balanced throughout, which makes it possible for these amplifiers to drive all sorts of speakers, from normal drivers to exotic electrostatics and ribbons. The Challenger 250’s are particularly suitable for large speakers in big rooms. Enjoy the sonorous sound and the authentic replay that they achieve! No matter which kind of music you prefer, the Challenger 250’s are flexible and multi-functional. 

These amplifiers turn every kind of music - Heavy-Metal, Pop, RocknRoll, Classical - into something special.

Power consumption: 350 VA nominal (max 800VA)
Max output: 300 watt – RMS
Nominal output: min. 200-240 watt sin – 1% distortion at 8 ohm load
Damping: 10
Tubes: 1 12AS7, 2 AU7, 6 KT90
Bandwidth: 8hz – 65khz
S/N ratio: -69 dbm
Gain: 28 db
Fake XLR (pos, phase only pin 2) and RCA inputs
Input resistance: 47k
Speaker terminals: 8 ohm
Weight: 30 kg
Size: 42 x 40 x 20 cm (WxDxH)

Mini-Zenith m2-CD4.0 Music Archive

Price ?

FM Acoustics 268 receives the Golden award for best performance

FM ACOUSTICS receives the award for the "BEST PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR 2011"

One beautiful compliment but what makes this truly extraordinary: the award is for the FM 268 Line stage / Harmonic Linearizer

- and the FM 268 has been crafted continuously for no less than 10 years!

An award for a design that has been around for such a while... it must be a rather special unit...

This just proves once again how good an investment an FM ACOUSTICS really is.

It was advised that this award is decided upon not just by a single person but is the result of polls from music lovers, listener's comments from the presentation at the recent high end show and the verdict of a group of audio connoisseurs.

With it's unique characteristics and built-in Harmonic Linearizer the FM 268 convinces everyone.
It truly is one marvellous piece of audio jewellery.