Author Archives: Michael Trei

Have you ever requested your self the way you ended up an audiophile? I definitely have, and I have not been capable of determine it out. Other audiophiles inform me that their father, uncle, neighbor, or whoever launched them to high quality dwelling music replica and the tools wanted to realize it, however that was by no means the case for me. My fascination with music and equipment goes again additional than I can keep in mind: My mother as soon as advised me that by age 3 I used to be climbing the bookcase to place records on the turntable and already knew the right way to function the entire hi-fi rig on my own.

Like most American households within the early Sixties, we did have a hi-fi system, and all of us cherished our music, however my father was no audiophile. Our cobbled-together stereo was modest, with a Garrard Auto Slim P MK II document changer and an oddball Japanese tube receiver known as Monacor SMX-50A, which got here full with audio system with oval paper-cone drivers.

My dad was a founding member of the “if it ain’t broke do not repair it” faculty of upgrading, so this technique remained unchanged via 4 strikes and 5 nations till we ended up in Belgium in 1972. By this level, cassettes had been taking up from records as the popular format chez Trei, so we felt it was time so as to add cassette playback to the system. We had been early adopters of the cassette format (footnote 1) and owned one of many unique Philips Norelco portables, however even my dad acknowledged its limitations for taking part in music. We made a number of journeys to native hi-fi shops, corresponding to Hi-Fi Georges DeCoster in Waterloo, to pick out an appropriate cassette participant. These would possibly as nicely have been journeys to Disneyland for me: I used to be hooked.

It was round this time that I met my first true audiophile, the daddy of my greatest buddy Gregg. Heinrich (Henry to us) was a larger-than-life Austrian, sort of a cross between Auric Goldfinger and Captain von Trapp. The household’s six youngsters—all music college students on varied devices—labored in lock-step precision Sundays when it was time to scrub the household’s crimson Mercedes 250SE. Gregg studied piano and organ and would go to the native church so he may apply on their huge pipe organ, waking up the neighborhood. Henry had a tremendous hi-fi system, with an enormous Marantz receiver, some German audio system I can not recall (Grundig, maybe?), and better of all, a Thorens TD 125 turntable with a SME 3009 tonearm and a Shure V15 III cartridge. I simply cherished watching this beautiful-yet-delicate-looking machine enjoying records from Henry’s in depth assortment of classical music with a top quality of sound I hadn’t realized was attainable till then.

Gregg had an easier system up in his bed room, with a Dual 1219 turntable constructed right into a plinth with its personal amp and a pair of basic Sennheiser HD 414 headphones. I might sneak in with my Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple albums, then escape into music performed again with much better high quality than I may obtain at dwelling. I cherished the open readability of the Sennheisers a lot that they went straight to the highest of my gift-request checklist. They turned my first high quality audio part on my eleventh birthday.

Recognizing my newfound curiosity, my dad took me to the 1973 Brussels Hi-Fi Show, the place my thoughts was blown by Dual’s show, which flipped a enjoying turntable round in an enormous gimbal, demonstrating how their dynamically balanced tonearm may play even when the other way up. The greatest impression of all, although, was made by the Nakamichi 1000 cassette deck, demoed in a system set aside in its personal listening room, identical to we discover at hi-fi reveals at this time. Who knew a puny little cassette may sound that good?

My insistence that we would have liked a Nakamichi landed on deaf ears. We ended up getting an oddball Sony mixture cassette deck, amplifier, and speaker bundle known as the TC-133CS to exchange the outdated Monacor. It all appeared cool to me, however this modification launched a brand new drawback, which might finally result in what I do at this time to earn a residing.

The Sony had a phono enter, however it was designed to work with shifting magnet cartridges, not the ceramic cartridge we had within the Garrard. To make it appropriate with the Sony, a brand new cartridge was wanted, and I instructed a Shure like Henry had in his Thorens.

My dad, although, all the time put his belief in Consumer Reports. He determined to go as an alternative with a extremely rated English cartridge known as the Goldring G850. In retrospect, it was in all probability a very good transfer, as a result of the clunky Garrard changer would not have been too mild with the fragile Shure. I someway managed to put in the brand new cartridge with out breaking off any headshell wires or bending the cantilever, and it sounded nice. I did not have a method to measure the monitoring drive, so I simply twiddled the Garrard’s downforce spring till it felt about proper and left it at that.

That system remained my listening refuge for a few years, till I went away to school and will lastly begin indulging my audiophile pursuits.

Shaknspin2

Over the final 40 years, I’ve arrange or serviced actually 1000’s of turntables, and through that point I’ve seen numerous more and more subtle instruments develop into obtainable to assist in getting your turntable optimized. I’ve had my eye on the Shaknspin pace analyzer because it was launched a few years in the past, and now there is a new Shaknspin2, which guarantees extra correct outcomes (footnote 2).

Getting the platter rotating at precisely 33 1/3 revolutions per minute would possibly sound like a basic process for a turntable, however you would be amazed at how far off some ‘tables typically are. If you wish to regulate the pace, you want an correct method to measure it. For years I used an iPhone app from Dr. Feickert Analogue known as PlatterSpeed, however this was discontinued resulting from urgent issues with the accompanying check document, and Feickert by no means upgraded the app to work past iOS 10. While the app typically labored nicely, measuring platter pace utilizing a check document is all the time going to be fraught resulting from imperfections within the urgent. PlatterSpeed overcame this drawback by together with a filter that eliminated record-centering points from the outcomes, however it’s higher to remove the variability of a check document fully.

The unique Shaknspin was reviewed by Michael Fremer in Analog Corner #313. He discovered it labored nicely and deserved a spot on Stereophile‘s Recommended Components checklist. In addition to upgrading the Shaknspin, Portugal-based producer Sempersonus has additionally appointed a US distributor, so that you not want to purchase it instantly from Portugal. Too dangerous they did not change the title (besides so as to add a “2” onto the tip),which to me seems like one thing you’d discover shelved between Fisher-Price and Mattel.

Changes within the Shaknspin2 embrace a brand new infrared transceiver that displays a beam off a marker positioned exterior the sting of the platter, which mechanically calibrates the Shaknspin2 each time you’re taking a brand new measurement, eliminating the necessity for the separate calibration process required with the unique (footnote 3). As earlier than, the outcomes might be displayed on the machine’s small display or exported to an app—however now the export choices have additionally improved and embrace help for iOS gadgets in addition to Android.

To use the Shaknspin2, you turn it on utilizing the one button on the machine then place it on the platter for an preliminary calibration. Then you choose which check you wish to run, from a menu system you navigate by rotating and tilting the machine, type of like an outdated Nintendo Wii controller. There are two check choices: a easy pace check and a extra detailed wow and flutter check, which produces a plethora of numerical outcomes and graphic readouts.

To run a pace check, you place the Shaknspin2 on the platter with the within nook of the L-shaped housing cosy up in opposition to the platter spindle, then you definitely begin the platter. Once the platter reaches working pace, the machine will analyze the rotation for a number of seconds, then ship a real-time pace readout on the show because it turns. This means that you can make changes on the fly as wanted to get the pace adjusted to get the pace precisely proper: 331/3 or 45, 78—no matter you are after. When you cease the platter, the pace show locks and adjustments from inexperienced to blue. That blue quantity signifies the nominal rotation pace.

The wow and flutter check works in an identical method, besides that there is not any readout throughout testing as there’s with the pace check; it simply lies there spinning till the outcomes display pops up—it takes about 15 seconds—after which you possibly can cease the platter and scroll via the outcomes, that are fairly in depth, together with common pace, most and minimal speeds, deviation, and wow and flutter (and wow and flutter individually), utilizing each WRMS and DIN weighting. Graphical shows of pace over time and pace distribution are additionally obtainable. Most of the outcomes might be learn instantly from the tiny display—or you possibly can switch the outcomes by way of Bluetooth to a cellphone or pill operating the Shaknspin app for Android or iOS. You can then obtain a CSV file, which might be opened in a spreadsheet program for evaluation and graphing.

The app is handy, however I discovered that the on-screen show gave me all the things I wanted. The real-time pace check may be very conscious of adjustments as you regulate the turntable’s pitch. I introduced the Shaknspin2 to a number of of my turntable setup jobs and located it simpler to make use of and extra correct than counting on a strobe disc. Several cellphone apps can be found that work in an identical method, together with your cellphone positioned instantly on the spinning platter, however the Shaknspin2 is a devoted device with higher calibration options, extra exact positioning, and extra correct and detailed outcomes. At $280, it is expensive for these with only one turntable to take care of, however it provides numerous evaluation that will be costly to duplicate with conventional check tools. I shall be including this to my device equipment for my turntable-setup work.

Footnote 2: Shaknspin2: R Prof Mario Albuquerque 5-3B, 1600-812 Lisboa, Portugal Email: [email protected] Web: shaknspin.wordpress.com. US distributor: Hyendaudio Services Tel: (973) 692-6270. Email: [email protected]. Web: hyendaudioservices.com.

Footnote 3: There’s nonetheless some calibration concerned—two steps, actually, however each are quite simple. The unique Shaknspin required a extra concerned calibration process.

They say a jack of all trades is the grasp of none. While this expression is often used to explain individuals, it additionally works for machines that play 5″ optical discs.

The Compact Disc was launched in 1982, however the 4 a long time since have seen an alphabet soup of similar-looking shiny discs together with main codecs like DVD, SACD, DVD-A, and Blu-ray Audio. As every new format arrived, {hardware} producers scrambled to maintain up, growing machines that might play nearly any disc you might throw at them (or, somewhat, insert in them). The end result was a bunch of “jack of all trades” disc spinners just like the deservedly common Oppos, which some boutique producers then used as a base unit to create their very own a number of format gamers.

But what if we gave up the notion of common compatibility and targeting constructing a participant devoted to squeezing the absolute best outcomes from the very first, and by far the commonest, shiny 5″ disc, the great old school “Red Book” Compact Disc? Would we get higher efficiency?

Among the numerous who determined to attempt is Jay Ho of Jay’s Audio, who got down to create the final word participant for the billions of normal CDs on the market (footnote 1). That quest has culminated within the CDT3-MK3. (I’ll merely name it the CDT3 from right here ahead.)

Few topics are assured to lift the hackles of the measurement-centric audio crowd fairly as a lot as a dialogue on the sonic qualities of CD transports. Okay, possibly high-performance audio cables is one other, and likewise digital-audio servers—however digital audio is ideal, proper? After all, they will inform us, bits are bits: It would not matter how fancy the machine spinning the disc is so long as all of these bits make their manner over to the D/A converter with the best values (machine-readable as one or zero) and in the best order.

But if there’s one factor we have discovered over 40 years of enhancing CD playback, it is that the format actually is not excellent in any respect. To begin with essentially the most fundamental: Why does a CD participant want to incorporate error correction if there are no errors to appropriate? Then there’s the significance of timing, a subject that has been mentioned exhaustively in these pages (footnote 2).

Every digital disc transport has at its coronary heart a drive mechanism that spins the disc and reads its floor with a laser, however as a result of constructing this part is past the capabilities of smaller high-end producers, even essentially the most high-end participant begins with a drive made by one other, bigger firm with extra assets. This method is fairly frequent with cutting-edge expertise; it is actually not a lot totally different from constructing a $3.4 million Pagani Huayra supercar, which makes use of an engine made by Mercedes-Benz.

Unfortunately, a lot of the disc mechanisms in present manufacturing are multiformat drives supposed for computer systems and/or designed to play a wide range of disc sorts. They make use of parallel methods to realize that stage of versatility. For instance, as its title implies, a Blu-ray disc depends on a blue laser, which has a really quick wavelength, to learn the tiny pits, whereas the info on a CD are much less tightly packed and have to be learn with a pink laser. So a common drive has a number of laser diodes in several colours that the drive switches between as wanted. Jay Ho believes that this compromises its efficiency.

Building the beast

To create the absolute best single-purpose CD transport, Ho turned to the final CD-only drives developed by Philips, co-inventors of the Compact Disc, particularly their top-of-the-line CD-Pro sequence first launched in 1997. The CD-Pro2LF used within the CDT3—the final of that sequence—was constructed from 2005 till 2013. So any CD-Pro2LF drive round at this time was initially constructed no less than a decade in the past, with no persevering with assist obtainable from the unique producer. Ho says Jay’s Audio has stockpiled a considerable stock of those drives and is assured they’ve a lot available to cowl potential future service points. Each CD-Pro2LF drive is totally scrutinized and put by way of its paces earlier than it goes right into a transport, and the corporate performs a variety of unspecified tweaks and upgrades in home. The CD-Pro2, with its heavyweight aluminum development, has a popularity for being one of the crucial rugged CD drives ever made; most proceed to function after a long time of use, so drive failure should not be a significant concern.

Selecting the drive mechanism was the place to begin in Jay Ho’s quest to construct his final CD transport. Next, he needed to create the best mechanical and digital atmosphere for that drive to function in, and this is the place he actually took issues to an obsessive stage. The very first thing you discover when unpacking the CDT3 is its weight: At almost 50lb, it is heavier than some fairly beefy energy amplifiers I’ve encountered. This is as a result of the whole chassis is constructed from machined aluminum slabs; you will not discover any flimsy folded sheet metal right here, with the entire CDT3’s working components connected to a central shelf that divides the internals into two halves. With the highest cowl eliminated, you’ll be able to see that the higher facet of the shelf has been milled out to separate it into six recessed compartments. These maintain the digital output board, the clock board, and naturally the CD-Pro2LF drive itself, whereas three extra compartments include linear energy provide circuits for every of these elements.

It all seems very spectacular for one thing that solely spins CDs and would not even together with a D/A converter, however that is solely the beginning. Flip the CDT3 the wrong way up and take away its base plate, and you will find a large main energy provide connected to the opposite facet of the shelf, which delivers clear energy to all of these smaller particular person circuits on the highest facet. This part has 5 encapsulated toroidal transformers with a mixed capability of 105VA and a sea of over 40 electrolytic capacitors totaling 150,000µF to clean the incoming energy.

To assist the whole construction, three isolating legs move by way of the underside cowl of the chassis and are connected on to the middle shelf. Each footer has a built-in Soundcare SuperSpike isolator made by SEAS in Norway, and this helps to forestall vibration from getting into the transport by way of its base, minimizing the affect of the supporting shelf on the CDT3’s efficiency.

With all of this chunky ultrasolid development, it will be a letdown if the CDT3 got here with an affordable generic plastic distant management. Thankfully, the accent follows the instance set by the transport itself. Weighing in at nearly 11oz, the distant is machined from the identical kind of stable aluminum block because the CDT3 itself. Its metallic buttons are satisfying to press. The distant affords a variety of features not discovered on the transport’s entrance panel, plus a number of unused buttons akin to options discovered on different Jay’s Audio elements. Due to worldwide transport rules, the 2 required AAA batteries weren’t supplied, however they do present a small screwdriver, which is required to take away the distant’s again panel to put in batteries your self.

Until a number of months in the past, Jay’s Audio merchandise have been distributed worldwide by Alvin Chee at Vinshine Audio in Singapore, however just lately, Chee determined to dedicate Vinshine to dealing with solely the Denafrips model whereas a brand new firm, Beatechnik, handles Jay’s Audio. Another latest change is the appointment of a US-based consultant, Tek Audio Specialties, to deal with service and ordering; new orders are shipped straight from Singapore, as they all the time have been. I used to be informed they plan to ultimately have Tek Audio dealing with stock and transport straight from the US, however that change has not but been made.

Hooking up

To plug the CDT3 into the remainder of your system, the participant’s again panel gives a complete set of digital output connections. From proper to left there’s AES3 on a male XLR connector, S/ PDIF on BNC and RCA, and I²S on each RJ45 and HDMI. There are not any optical outputs. The HDMI I²S output doesn’t conform to the HDMI commonplace, so you’ll be able to’t use it to interface the CDT3 with an AV receiver or processor. Instead, it follows the I²S connection protocol established by PS Audio and now utilized by a number of different high-quality DAC producers together with Denafrips, Holo Audio, Singxer, and naturally Jay’s Audio.

Each of the CDT3’s digital outputs has its personal Scientific Digital decoupling transformer, which is filtered utilizing a high-quality Mundorf capacitor. Such galvanic isolation signifies that the entire digital outputs might be (and are) energetic on a regular basis, so you’ll be able to ship the sign to a couple of part concurrently. Rounding out the CDT3’s back-panel options are an IEC energy connector, a grasp energy swap, and a pair of BNC connectors that help you join an exterior clock or use the CDT3’s personal oven-controlled crystal oscillator clock to command downstream digital elements. A bit of toggle swap tucked in subsequent to the outputs helps you to interact the CDT3’s 4× oversampling characteristic. More about that later.

The CDT3’s entrance panel is an train in simplicity with only a standby energy swap, a transparent OLED show display screen, and some fundamental transport controls like play, pause, cease, and observe skip. Additional transport features, like direct observe entry, quick ahead and again, repeat, random, and the show dimmer, can solely be accessed from the distant. The CDT3 is a top-loading participant, so there is no such thing as a mechanical drawer or disc loading slot. To play a disc, you slide again a thick aluminum cowl, place the disc straight onto the drive spindle, then place the supplied carbon-fiber disc clamp on prime of the CD spindle earlier than sliding the duvet ahead to the closed place. For clear disc-loading entry, enable no less than 6″ between the highest of the CDT3 and something above it.

For this audition, I paired the CDT3 primarily with one in every of its pure companions, the Denafrips Terminator II DAC (footnote 3). Denafrips and Jay’s Audio are mentioned to be utterly unbiased firms, however they share a typical worldwide distributor (Alvin Chee, working below totally different firm names), and there is clearly some frequent design DNA between the 2 manufacturers. The CDT3/Terminator II pairing allowed me to attach the transport and DAC utilizing I²S over HDMI and examine it to the extra frequent AES3 connection. I discovered that the variations have been fairly small, however Jay’s Audio feels strongly that I2S over HDMI is the popular connection, so I largely caught with that. For comparability, I used the equally priced Audio Note CDT2 transport, which makes use of the identical CD-Pro2LF disc drive, and likewise my Oppo UDP205 common participant.

Footnote 2: Among the “excellent sound crowd,” the errors go deeper nonetheless. For instance, there’s the truth that the assumptions made within the subject’s underlying idea are unphysical—that’s, they can’t be glad in the actual world—and that in processing, the unique datastream is usually changed with a very new datastream, and that usually the mathematical “kernel” used within the D/A conversion is totally different from the one used within the A/D conversion … however I digress.—Jim Austin

Footnote 3: See Herb Reichert’s protection of the Denafrips Terminator Plus DAC right here and his therapy of the unique Terminator DAC right here.

Washington DC space distributor Notable Audio showcased merchandise from Joseph Audio, Doshi Audio, J Sikora, Berkeley Audio Design, and Cardas Audio at AXPONA. Notable’s Jeff Fox had put collectively a powerful system, with a mixture of manufacturers we’ve seen used collectively at many prior reveals to nice impact, solely this time he used one of the best of every thing to create a system that basically sung.

On the analog facet, the large J Sikora Reference turntable ($47,000) was mixed with their KV-MAX 9″ tonearm ($11,750), and a Lyra Atlas SL Lambda cartridge ($12,995) amplified by the Doshi Audio Evolution phono stage ($19,995). Digital supply was an Aurender N30SA music server linked to a Berkeley Audio Design Alpha DAC Reference 3 ($28,000).

These sources have been amplified by a Doshi Audio Evolution preamp ($19,995) and Doshi Audio Evolution mono energy amps ($43,995, above) powering Joseph Audio Pearl Graphene audio system ($43,999/pair, backside). All wiring was Cardas Audio Clear Beyond.

Nick Doshi of Doshi Audio (above) performed me “Freddie Freeloader” from the 45rpm Analogue Productions UHQR urgent of Miles Davis’s Kind Of Blue, and the sound had a relaxed and open sound that was a breath of contemporary air in comparison with the considerably exhausting and shiny sound heard in a number of rooms on the present. Then to display the programs capacity to rock out, they performed that outdated Nineteen Eighties demo favourite “Money For Nothing” from the Dire Straits album Brothers In Arms. This early digital recording can get fairly in your face on the incorrect system, however right here it sounded highly effective but clean, with Mark Knopfler’s attribute guitar sound pushing me again in my seat . . . in a great way.

Washington DC space distributor Notable Audio showcased merchandise from Joseph Audio, Doshi Audio, J Sikora, Berkeley Audio Design, and Cardas Audio at AXPONA. Notable’s Jeff Fox had put collectively a powerful system, with a mixture of manufacturers we’ve seen used collectively at many prior exhibits to nice impact, solely this time he used the most effective of every little thing to create a system that actually sung.

On the analog aspect, the large J Sikora Reference turntable ($47,000) was mixed with their KV-MAX 9″ tonearm ($11,750), and a Lyra Atlas SL Lambda cartridge ($12,995) amplified by the Doshi Audio Evolution phono stage ($19,995). Digital supply was an Aurender N30SA music server linked to a Berkeley Audio Design Alpha DAC Reference 3 ($28,000).

These sources have been amplified by a Doshi Audio Evolution preamp ($19,995) and Doshi Audio Evolution mono energy amps ($43,995, above) powering Joseph Audio Pearl Graphene audio system ($43,999/pair, backside). All wiring was Cardas Audio Clear Beyond.

Nick Doshi of Doshi Audio (above) performed me “Freddie Freeloader” from the 45rpm Analogue Productions UHQR urgent of Miles Davis’s Kind Of Blue, and the sound had a relaxed and open sound that was a breath of contemporary air in comparison with the considerably exhausting and brilliant sound heard in a number of rooms on the present. Then to exhibit the techniques means to rock out, they performed that previous Eighties demo favourite “Money For Nothing” from the Dire Straits album Brothers In Arms. This early digital recording can get fairly in your face on the incorrect system, however right here it sounded highly effective but clean, with Mark Knopfler’s attribute guitar sound pushing me again in my seat . . . in a great way.

Washington DC space distributor Notable Audio showcased merchandise from Joseph Audio, Doshi Audio, J Sikora, Berkeley Audio Design, and Cardas Audio at AXPONA. Notable’s Jeff Fox had put collectively a powerful system, with a mixture of manufacturers we’ve seen used collectively at many prior reveals to nice impact, solely this time he used one of the best of every part to create a system that basically sung.

On the analog facet, the huge J Sikora Reference turntable ($47,000) was mixed with their KV-MAX 9″ tonearm ($11,750), and a Lyra Atlas SL Lambda cartridge ($12,995) amplified by the Doshi Audio Evolution phono stage ($19,995). Digital supply was an Aurender N30SA music server linked to a Berkeley Audio Design Alpha DAC Reference 3 ($28,000).

These sources had been amplified by a Doshi Audio Evolution preamp ($19,995) and Doshi Audio Evolution mono energy amps ($43,995, above) powering Joseph Audio Pearl Graphene audio system ($43,999/pair, backside). All wiring was Cardas Audio Clear Beyond.

Nick Doshi of Doshi Audio (above) performed me “Freddie Freeloader” from the 45rpm Analogue Productions UHQR urgent of Miles Davis’s Kind Of Blue, and the sound had a relaxed and open sound that was a breath of recent air in comparison with the considerably arduous and vibrant sound heard in a number of rooms on the present. Then to reveal the programs capability to rock out, they performed that outdated Nineteen Eighties demo favourite “Money For Nothing” from the Dire Straits album Brothers In Arms. This early digital recording can get fairly in your face on the mistaken system, however right here it sounded highly effective but easy, with Mark Knopfler’s attribute guitar sound pushing me again in my seat . . . in a great way.

It’s all the time enjoyable to see a brand new firm making their first presentation to the general public, and AXPONA 2023 marks the debut of Toronto, Canada-based Audio Craftsmen. Headed up by Thom Pahmer (above), the corporate confirmed 4 fashions, ranging in worth from the Laval stand mount at $2699/pair, as much as the ground standing flagship Halifax at $10,999/pair.

It was tough to get a very good deal with on the sound within the busy room, however the audio system seem like they’re well-finished and neatly offered.