USB DONE RIGHT: Two magic boxes that let computer audio ...

No. 92 CAN $6.49 / US $7.69 

USB DONE RIGHT: Two magic boxes that let 

computer audio outshine the very best CD 

players. 

REVIEWS: Mastersound’s superb singleended 

tube amplifier, the gorgeous Eximus 

DP1 preamp and converter, and new cables 

from Atlas and Van den Hul. 

PLUS: Cliffs Biffs notes on home theatre, 

a (possibly surprising) lexicon of audio and 

video, high end then and now, and lots from 

the Vegas shows. 

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Issue No. 92 

Cover story: It’s beathtakingly beautiful, but the Eximus 

DP1 preamp-converter’s beauty doesn’t stop at the 

exterior. Behind it, the partly eclipsed Moon against 

a field of stars. 

Features 

Vegas 2012 16 

by Gerard Rejskind 

It was billed as the biggest CES ever, and you know 

what? It may have been just that. 

Audio Then and Now 24 


On this, our 30 th anniversary, we look at the 

evolution of hi-fi. 

Cinema 

Biffs notes on Home Theatre 25 

Yes, Biff’s notes. Cliff has lawyers! 

Rendezvous 

A. J. Van den Hul 28 

UHF’s Steve Bourke chats with the evergreen 

inventor and industrialist. 

Nuts&Bolts 

High Definition 32 

by Paul Bergman 

It’s not what you think. Paul presents a compact 

dictionary you may find useful. 

The Listening Room 

Mastersound Evolution 845 Amplifier 38 

It’s big, it’s expensive and it’s Italian. And we had 

never realized how good it really is. 

The Eximus DP1 42 

Imagine you could find a preamplifier-converter 

designed by Apple…at a Samsung price! 

Two USB interfaces 46 

Most contemporary DACs have USB inputs that are 

best avoided. But these two outboard boxes, from 

M2Tech and Stello respectively, change everything. 

Van den Hul 3T Hybrid Interconnect 50 

A. J. Van den Hul pioneered the use of dual 

materials in audio cables. That didn’t prepare us for 

his newest hybrid cable. 

New Cables from Atlas 52 

The Scottish company discontinued some of its 

best-known cables, but launches new ones. They 

don’t all pass, but those that do… 

Software 

Classics and Then Some 63 

by Toby Earp 

There’s more to classical music than just “classical 

music.” 

Software Reviews 70 

by Steve Bourke and Gerard Rejskind 

Departments 

Editorial 4 

Feedback 7 

Free Advice 8 

Gossip & News 77 

State of the Art 82 

ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 3

UHF Magazine No. 92 was published in September, 2012. 

All contents are copyright 2012 by Broadcast Canada. They 

may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any 

means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, 

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4 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 

Editorial 

Happy birthday to us 

It happens every five years — we get a birthday that is evenly divisible by 

five. So here we are at the age of 30. The prime of life, some would say, though 

others might think that, for magazines, you should multiply by seven, as you 

do for dogs. 

And I’ve been around for the whole ride, since I was the original editor 

(though not the original publisher). Of course I’ve seen a lot of changes, 

in audio gear, in technology, in marketing, and in music itself. In all that 

time, though, UHF (or Hi-Fi Sound as it then was) has changed relatively 

little. Adapted, yes, because we’ve had to, but our quest has remained largely 

untouched. 

And you know what that quest is, because chances are you share it: to find 

ever better ways to reproduce music at home so that we can feel the emotion 

we could expect if we were hearing it live. 

Products for review 

Over the years I’ve been asked this a lot: how do we choose products we 

review in the pages of UHF? 

There is actually quite a list of criteria. We want products that are interesting, 

and ones that are actually available (which rules out startup companies 

in their first days). We like to have a certain mix of products, some of which 

may be extraordinarily expensive, but others more affordable. We also strive 

to get an advance idea of how good the product may turn out to be. We figure 

you would rather read about products you should go out and listen to, rather 

than products we think you should avoid. 

Some of the products we review are ones that eventually wind up in our 

Audiophile Store. In this issue we listened to two USB interface boxes, the 

M2Tech HiFace and the Stello U3, which we made efforts to acquire because 

we liked them and we thought you would too. But the evaluation always comes 

before the listing. 

The final criterion is one you might not anticipate: availability. 

You probably expect that manufacturers and distributors would be breaking 

down our doors to get us to review their products. Sometimes that’s true. All 

too often it’s not. In the current issue we expected to review a high-profile 

loudspeaker from a company whose name begins with the letter “T.” We were 

given what seemed to be a green light, but then we were refused. 

That put us in difficulty. The Eximus DP1 had been pencilled in for our 

next issue, but the unavailability of the “T” speaker left us with a hole. It 

worked out fine, because we liked the DP1 enough to put it on our cover. 

But we don’t intend to be caught like that again. There is, after all, another 

criterion to make our review list. We need to be able to trust you.

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newsstand. Where do other people leaf through them before you 

arrive, with remains of lunch on their fingers? At the newsstand. 

Where do they stick on little labels you can’t peel off? 

Our subscribers, on the other hand, get pristine copies protected in plastic, with 

the address label pasted on the plastic itself, not the cover. 

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Much, much more to read… 

This is our original book, which has been 

read by thousands of audiophiles, both 

beginners and advanced. It’s still relevant to 

much of what you want to accomplish. 

It’s a practical manual for the discovery and 

exploration of high fidelity, which will make 

reading other books easier. Includes in-depth 

coverage of how the hardware works, 

including tubes, “alternative” loudspeakers, 

subwoofers, crossover networks, 

biamplification. It explains why, not just how. 

It has full instructions for aligning a tone arm, 

and a gauge is included. A complete audio 

lexicon makes this book indispensable. And 

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This long-running best seller includes 

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choose, what to expect. The history of hi-fi. 

How to compare equipment that’s not in the 

same store. What accessories work, and 

which ones are scams. How to tell a good 

connector from a rotten one. How to set up 

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other magazines advise). How to plan for 

your dream system even if your accountant 

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A note of thanks for your valuable, 

feature coverage of our new Stravinsky 

LP. Oddly, Harry Pearson agrees with 

me that The Song of the Nightingale is 

the better side, musically and sonically, 

whereas you prefer the Firebird. Different 

strokes! FYI, The Rite of Spring is 

much too long to fit on an LP side. It’ll 

be along in due course on its own LP, at 

45 rpm, if it’ll fit. 

Minor details: The Forward Look is 

RR-8, not RR-7, and Paul Stubblebine’s 

lathe is a Scully, with a Neumann SX-74 

cutter head (custom electronics by 

Nelson Pass). 

Tam Henderson 

Reference Recordings 

SAN FRANCISCO, CA 

Thanks for the corrections, Tam. It’s true 

that The Rite of Spring is not to everyone’s 

liking, and it sounds resolutely “modern” 

even today, more so than the Firebird, but 

it remains a significant work that broke with 

the past, and still, we think, deserves being 

considered a masterpiece. 

We’ve received the Rachmaninoff LP, 

which is reviewed in this issue. 

I just purchased your latest edition 

(at a newsstand) as I was interested about 

your take on Pure Music and Amarra 

(Better Listening Through Software, UHF 

No. 91). 

I noticed an ad from Blue Circle, and 

I wonder why I haven’t seen any reviews 

on their amps preamps etc. I know at 

one time you were selling the “Thingee” 

(if memory serves me correctly). I do 

own Blue Circle gear and would highly 

recommend any it. 

Joey O’Donohue 

PIERREFONDS, QC 

We did indeed review (and sell) the Thingee, 

and we also reviewed the phono preamps 

in UHF No. 88. 

We’ve talked to Blue Circle about review- 

Feedback 


Longueuil, Québec, Canada J4H 2J6 

uhfmail@uhfmag.com 

ing some other products, and we still may, 

but some products are built in very small 

numbers, and Blue Circle sometimes hasn’t 

considered a review useful. That may change, 

of course. 

I have just read the last issue of your 

magazine (UHF No. 91). Although I 

always enjoy reading it, there is something 

I disagree with. 

I own a dCS Puccini and U-Clock 

(upgraded to be able to decode 24/192 

music). The link between the U-Clock 

and the Puccini is an Atlas Opus cable 

(1.5 m). As a source, I use a Mac mini 

with a USB cable and the Pure Music 

software. I must say that this is much 

better musically than a direct connection 

to the player. Maybe it is due to the 

master clock, I do not know, but I think 

your recommendation not to use the 

USB output may not be valid as a rule. 

Philippe Martiat 

BRUSSELS, Belgium 

Indeed, Philippe. See the next letter. 

I read the Pure Music and Amarra 

reviews with great interest, but I was 

intrigued by your comments that current 

computers have limitations that don’t 

allow resolution beyond 24/96. 

Perhaps if using the TOSLINK 

output of your Mac computer, but have 

you, or will you be trying some of the 

USB-to-S/PDIF adapters that will 

allow up to 24/192 resolution, including 

24/88.2 and 24/176.4? 

I’m using an M2Tech adapter from 

Italy, and in my Mac’s Audio/Midi 

panel, I am seeing all the resolutions 

supported by the YBA Design WD202 

DAC. Attached is a screen shot of the 

panel showing the resolutions — forgive 

the iPhone snapshot, as I couldn’t figure 

out how to capture a screen grab with 

the drop-down menu intact to show the 

resolutions. 

Edwin Leong 

VANCOUVER, BC 

The M2Tech is reviewed in this issue, 

Edwin, and we were impressed enough to 

pick it up for our Audiophile Store. We also 

picked up the Stello U3, which is now in 

our reference systems. These devices yield 

much better quality than one can get from 

the off-the-shelf USB chips that are used in 

most (but not quite all) present-day DACs. 

Did you happen to notice Charisma 

Audio at the Toronto show? I bought 

a set of his Silent Plugs after chatting 

with Glen, who reviewed the plugs for 6 

Moons. I do find Glenn a good reviewer. 

He seems to actually enjoy listening to 

music…rather like UHF does. Bernard 

at Charisma Audio confessed he doesn’t 

understand quite how they do it. It 

is treating a problem we never knew 

existed. But the effect is immediate. 

I don’t understand it all but if you 

try them you’ll hear the analog ease that 

takes over and propels the music. One of 

those head-shaking no-brainers. Give 

them a listen. You have to hear them to 

believe how more involving the music 

suddenly becomes. 

And oh yes, I do believe your readers 

will want to hear your take on them. And 

the best part is they are $199 for a set 

of four. If you give them a listen let me 

know what you think. 

Lloyd Smith 

MALAGASH, NS 

The Silent Plugs are for placing into four 

unused phono jacks in a preamplifier. They 

are non-metallic, and so they don’t shortcircuit 

anything. Toby bought a set, and we 

tried them on our Moon P-8. Toby hears a 

considerable difference on his gear, just as 

you do, but with the P-8 it really wasn’t 

obvious. It may depend on the build quality 

of the equipment. 


I have thoroughly enjoyed your two 

books: The World of High Fidelity and The 

UHF Guide to Ultra High Fidelity. Both 

provide an excellent introduction to hi-fi. 

You have defined high fidelity as “the 

closest possible approach to the original 

sound.” This is achieved by equipment 

that adds the least (transparent?) to 

the sound — a very difficult feat indeed. 

Say my end goal in audio is transparency, 

aren’t passive preamplifiers designed to 

do just that? Yet I do not see them being 

used as reference components by professional 

reviewers/audiophiles such as 

yourself. Is it fair to say that passive preamps 

are more silent (transparent) than 

active preamps? And shouldn’t reviewers 

use passive preamps as benchmark to 

review all other (active) preamps? One 

of the most “sophisticated” and expensive 

passive preamps I’ve come across is 

England’s Music First Audio. Do you 

plan to review their product? 

Hypothetically speaking, given 

the time when Messrs.. Rejskind and 

Simon are no longer reviewing audio 

components, what would your reference 

system consist of? Would you be using 

a passive preamp with active speakers? 

Balanced cable over RCA? 

Larry Byrd 

CALGARY, AB 

It’s hard to say, Larry, because you 

are presuming a time when the magazine 

changes management, and indeed 

owners. It’s hardly up to us to speculate 

on what our eventual successors might 

or might not do. Most audio magazines 

don’t actually have reference systems at 

all, as you may know. 

That said, theory notwithstanding, 

the very best preamps are active, not 

passive, though a passive preamplifier 

may be a good choice if the budget for 

the best (read: expensive) is not available. 

Indeed, we have reviewed several passive 


Free Advice 


Longueuil, Québec, Canada J4H 2J6 

uhfmail@uhfmag.com 

preamps over the years, and we have even 

had three of them in our Audiophile 

Store. We’re speaking from experience, 

at least our experience so far. 

Balanced cables may or may not be a 

good choice, depending on the design of 

the balancing circuits in the components 

being linked, but we can’t use them in 

our reference systems. If we did, how 

could we review components that don’t 

have balanced connections? 

I have very much enjoyed your site 

and writing for a number of years now. 

You provide an important service to 

the audio community, from the beginner 

level to the audiophile level, by 

your objectivity and straightforward 

approach. Your ability to articulate 

your listening session experiences is 

very much helpful in understanding the 

interaction of the components used and 

the product you are reviewing. 

Most of the audiophile articles and 

sites I have read talk about passive speakers. 

Curiously, why are active speakers 

not as often reviewed/discussed in the 

audiophile community? What have been 

your experiences with active speakers? 

And have you or your friends/colleague 

have had a chance to audition them in 

recent period — ATC, Focal, Dynaudio, 

Meridian, Linn are few high-end 

makes that comes to my mind. What 

are your thoughts in this technology? 

And would you recommend them for 

home use given that they’ve come a long 

way from its “studio monitor” ancestors? 

What do you see to be the biggest 

obstacle of active speakers? Do you 

foresee the day when an active speaker 

would be your reference speaker? 

Andrew Lee 

TORONTO, ON 

To answer your last question first, 

Andrew, no, an active speaker cannot 

be our reference, and the reason is possibly 

obvious. If we had active speakers 

(speakers with built-in amplifiers), we 

could not review amplifiers. By the way, 

for exactly the same reason we don’t use 

balanced connectors on our gear. If we 

did, how could we review components 

without balanced connections? 

That said, there are some very good 

active loudspeakers available, and we 

had one (a Linn Artikulat) on the cover 

of UHF No. 80). We liked it. A lot. We 

also liked the Aurum Integra system, 

which was on the cover of UHF No. 78. 

There are major advantages to 

active speakers. The amplifier (usually 

amplifiers — plural) can be designed 

with particular drivers in mind, and the 

troublesome speaker cables can be kept 

extremely short. The crossover can be 

active too, potentially delivering much 

better performance than the common 

passive crossover. All good. But there’s 

a disadvantage to putting the amplifiers 

right inside the enclosure, where they are 

directly subjected to massive vibration. 

In short, this is not an easy technology 

to work with, and not all designers pull 

it off successfully. 

I recently installed new KT88’s into 

my Dynakit Mk III amplifiers. One of 

the tubes, which is not defective, produces 

a mechanical noise, a hum. What 

can I do to reduce this mechanical noise? 

Walter C. Labys 

MORGANTOWN, WV 

Actually, Walter, we think the KT88 

is defective. If its elements are not tightly 

secured, they can vibrate. The culprit in 

your case is probably the cathode, since it 

is heated, in most amplifiers, by alternating 

current (60 Hz in North America). 

The tube can’t be fixed, since you can’t 

get at its innards without breaking the 

vacuum seal, and so the only solution, if 

the hum is loud enough to be objectionable, 

is to change it. 

My husband George is currently 

loading up my Mac mini with his music 

(nice of me to let him use it, isn’t it?) and 

I need some advice. We think we’d like 

to try the digital-to-analog converter, 

but are curious to know performance 

differences (if any?) among:

1) Mac Mini ---> Optical TOSLINK 

cable, with adapter ---> 300D or… 

2) Mac Mini ---> Stello U3 USB ---> 

Mavros digital cable ---> 300D or… 

3) Other options/suggestions? 

The Stello does look like an interesting 

device to be sure…but not required 

with my mini. George is excited (again, 

ah!!) and needs a great source. He’ll want 

whatever will give him all of his music. 

Ivy Engler 

OTTAWA, ON 

Well, Ivy, option 2 is the best one, and 

in fact that’s what we’re using ourselves 

now. That combination outperforms 

even our beloved Linn Unidisk player. 

That said, the optical link costs next to 

nothing…well, except for the converter 

itself of course. At the very least it’s a 

great interim step, and will let you do 

better than you would with the vast 

majority of players. 

I’ve been assuming, here, that your 

Mac mini is within easy reach of the 

music system. If it isn’t, you may want 

to consider an Apple Airport Express, 

as a wireless link from the computer. 

You would then use the optical cable 

and the DAC. The Airport Express, in 

its current incarnation, won’t handle any 

of the newer high-definition formats, but 

it’s a whiz with Red Book CDs. 

I have a biwire speaker cable terminated 

with bananas at the speaker end, 

but I am considering purchasing a pair of 

speakers that only accept single-wire. Is 

there an adapter that I can plug-into the 

two bananas at one end, and which has a 

single banana at the other end? It would 

thereby convert two bi-wire bananas into 

a single-wire banana? The bananas I am 

using are WBT. 

If there is such an adapter, are they 

of similar quality to WBTs or better? 

Ted Antifeau 

NELSON, BC 

If you are using the older WBT 

angled bananas, the solution is simple, 

Ted: plug one banana into the rear 

button of the other, make sure everything 

is tight, and you’re good to go. If 

you’re using the newer (and superior) 

WBT nextgen bananas, though, that 

won’t work, because the rear button is 

plastic, not metal. In that case your best 

bet is to remove the bananas, and try 

to put both wires into the same banana 

plug. Unless they are unusually large, 

that should work. 

I have a rather large collection of CDs 

and I have been using a crappy DVD 

player for my audio listening, I am wanting 

to upgrade to a BD multiplayer and 

have been looking at the Oppo BDP95 

and the Cambridge Audio Azur 751BDP, 

I want audio listening to be the primary 

focus, and Blu-ray second, but I am at a 

standstill as to which one do I go with, 

I like the Oppo for its XLR outputs, as 

my integrated amp has the same inputs, 

but my local audio dealer says to go with 

the Azur (he’s a big seller of Cambridge 

products). What do you think? 

Marque Padley 

VERNON, BC 

Well, if we were big sellers of Cambridge 

products, we would also recommend 

that you go with the Cambridge. 

Wouldn’t you? We haven’t reviewed 

either player, though both, at this point, 

Coming up in issue No. 93 of 

Affordable digital-to-analog converters 

The return of Quad’s current-dumping amp 

Turntables and loudspeakers 

And much, much more! 


Free Free Feedback Advice Advice 

have a good reputation. Both players 

will play SACD, and both will play 3D 

movies too, if that’s important to you. 

The presence of balanced XLR connectors 

on the Oppo might be a convincing 

advantage, but so is the fact that you 

have a local dealer for Cambridge, one 

who can help you if you run into any 

problems. 

With either one you are going to 

hear a dramatic improvement over the 

low-cost DVD player you’ve been using 

for CDs, and presumably movies, but 


if we were you we would reverse our 

priorities, putting Blu-ray playback first. 

Why? Because, as you’ll see from the 

present issue as well as from our recent 

writings, the computer has come into 

its own as a major digital audio source. 

At pretty much any audio show, now, 

there are at least as many computers as 

CD players, and that’s not just a matter 

of convenience. We think CDs will be 

around for a while, but CD players are 

clearly on the endangered list. 

However we have a different point of 

view on Blu-ray. Not only is the Blu-ray 

disc the best format for high definition 

movies, it is the ONLY format that can 

deliver genuine high definition. And 

notwithstanding what the hucksters are 

saying, that’s not about to change. 

I would like some advice. I’d like 

to get a DAC (Moon 100D or 300D, 

Peachtree iDAC or NAD M51), and I’m 

not sure which to get, or how to connect 

it to my iMac. 

My iMac is about 20 metres away 

from my hi-fi system (Simaudio P4002 

and W4070SE, Totem Model One Signature 

speakers, Nordost SPM interconnects, 

Nordost Solarwind speaker cables, 

and finally Nordost Red Dawn XLR 

cables between the power supply and the 

preamp. Someone suggested using USB 

extenders, connected by Ethernet CAT5 

between them. Is that the best solution? 

Claude Dalcourt 

LAVAL, QC 

The USB extenders you mention are 

not mere accessories, Claude, but active 

transducers requiring power. You’d need 

two of them, but they’re not likely to give 

you great results. Most current converters 

use USB chips of uncertain quality. 

Considering the distance between 

your computer and your music system, 

we would suggest the $99 Apple Airport 

Express, which you would connect to 

your computer wirelessly via Wi-Fi. You 

can then connect it to your DAC with an 

optical cable. 

An unexpected question: is it typical 

for RCA input “shorting plugs” to have 

an impedance? If so, why? 

When I received my replacement 

VdH mono power amp from the Audiophile 

Boutique about a year ago, it was 

missing the required RCA shorting plug 

for its second, unused input jack. The 

amp must have that plug in place for 

operation (almost no volume otherwise) 

so I just stole a shorting plug from my 

now unused Celeste 4070. Problem 

solved, happy audiophile. 

Now I’m finally preparing to sell the 

4070, and so I need to buy a shorting 

plug. On a whim I checked the resistance 

of the existing shorting plug (centre conductor 

to ground) and — surprise! It was

about 147 ohms. I was expecting roughly 

0.00 ohms. I checked the 4070 manual 

and it refers to these plugs as “dummy 

loads” rather than shorting plugs. Both 

my ears and my VdH amp seem quite 

happy with the 147 ohm “short,” so I’m 

not particularly concerned, just curious. 

I performed a quick Google search, and 

one DIY site instructs to use a 470 ohm 

resistor. Given that most power amps 

have an input impedance of 20,000+ 

ohms, why 147 ohms versus 470 ohms 

or anything else? 

Finally, any idea of where to buy 

shorting plugs? I’ve called a few true 

audiophile stores in my vicinity, and thus 

far nobody carries them. I’d assumed 

they’d be an easy accessory, like spikes 

and cones. Even you don’t sell them!!! 

Jeff Tennant 

BURLINGTON, ON 

No, we don’t, Jeff, because the market 

for them would be vanishingly small. We 

can easily make you up a pair if you want. 

The manual for the old Celeste 4070 

power amplifier (we still own one) does 

indeed refer to a dummy load, though 

later documentation was changed to 

refer to a shorting plug. We measured 

the resistance of the dummy plugs on 

our Moon W-5LE (an evolution of the 

older Celeste 4250SE), and came up with 

2.2 ohms. That’s the resistance of the 

instrument cables and connectors. 

The Celeste and Moon units use 

differential amplifiers, with inputs for 

the inverting and non-inverting inputs. 

They are thus naturally balanced without 

the addition of extraneous circuitry, 

which is a good thing. With a singleended 

(unbalanced) input, you would 

connect the unused input to ground, or 

nearly to ground. In the newer Moon 

amps, the plug really is a shorting plug. 

My system consist of a PS Audio 

PWT memory player as transport, PS 

Audio PWD MK II DAC connected to 

the PWT using PS Audio A12 HDMI 

cable via I2S Oppo MDC 95 universal 

player (for SACD), McInTosh PT10 

turntable with Clearaudio Stradivari 

V2 MC pickup, VPI Scout II TT with 

Clearaudio Virtuoso MM. I have a 

McIntosh C2300 tube preamp, a pair of 

Two-Channel Audio 

is Alive and Well at 

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Eichmann Cables and connectors 

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Ringmat Accessories 

Soundcare Accessories 

Sugden Electronics 

Thorens Turntables 

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Free Free Feedback Advice Advice


McIntosh MC 501 monoblocks, Wilson 

Watt/Puppy 8 speakers, PS Audio P10 

power regenerator. Power cords are all 

PS Audio AC12 

The interconnects from turntable to 

preamp are Cardas Golden Reference 

RCA, for digital source to preamp and 

preamp to amps, Siltech Anniversary 

550i balanced XLR, speaker cables are 

Siltech Anniversary 550i spade to spade. 

This system can produce the music 

with a lot of detail. However, I have 

recently upgraded to the Siltech and 

am finding the music to be a little on 

the bright side; shrill to the point that I 

can’t listen for too long. In short, not as 

musical as before. However, I’m not sure 

if it was due to the cables. 

I’ve been told that tube amps would 

give warmer sound, but I have never had 

tube amps. I’m currently looking at the 

McIntosh MC 275 Limited Edition 25th 

Anniversary version. However $6500 is 

a lot of money and I would like to seek 

some advice on tube amps and your 

opinion on these Mac tube amps as well 

as suggestion for a tube amp that would 

match well with my system. I enjoy the 

MC 501, and the 500 watts of power 

especially during a high tempo passage 

with a full orchestra. 

I would appreciate your opinion on 

my total system. Any area for improvement? 

Any weakness or mistakes that I 

have made in assembling them together? 

Unfortunately, I wasn’t aware of your 

magazine until after I had purchased 

most of the equipment. 

I play classical music 95% of the time 

and I have a collection of 700-800 LPs. 

I do enjoy vinyl more than digital. 

Alfred Cheng 

TORONTO, ON 


look before we leapt. 

For one thing the “tube warmth” 

thing is overblown if not downright 

wrong-headed. If an amplifier is any 

good, you can’t tell by listening whether 

it works its magic with tubes or transistors. 

You want to hear the music, not the 

technology. For another, if you’ve made a 

mistake, a second, opposite mistake isn’t 

going to fix it. In medicine that can be 

unavoidable. A drug fixes one problem 

but upsets your stomach, so you take an 

antacid to alleviate the heartburn, but it 

gives you migraines, so you take a pain 

GET THE COMPLETE VERSION! 

You’ll have noticed that this free 

version of UHF Magazine 

is not quite complete. But you can 

get the complete version 

from Maggie for $4. 

Click here, and away we go! 

reliever that makes you impotent, so then 

you… 

It’s easy to get lost this way. Perhaps 

changing your amplifiers would give you 

a less bright sound, but “less bright” is 

not how we would choose to describe the 

music system of our dreams. Backtracking 

is going to be painful, but you need to 

do that before you spend large amounts 

more money. If you still have your old 

cables, reinstall them and listen again. 

Is the sound less bright, the way you 

remember it? Is the lessened brightness 

accompanied by a drop in detail? Reintroduce 

the Siltechs one set at a time. 

At what point do you hear things going 

wrong? Do you hear the problem with 

both digital and analog? Do you hear it 

with both turntables? 

Our rule of thumb is one that is 

followed by the greatest military commanders: 

reinforce success, not failure. 

Do what you need to do to make the 

system sound good. Then, and only then, 

can you spend significant money to make 

it better. Silver bullets are tempting, but 

GET they FREE don’t ADVICE! work, because werewolves 

Where don’t do exist. the questions for 

our famous Free With Advice patience section comes come wisdom. from? 

Our readers send them to us at uhfmail@uhfmag.com. 

Alfred, let us begin with a piece The of questions, For years and our now answers, I have been using a 

general advice we’ve enunciated may before. appear on Linn line, Genki in the CD magazine, player. In or my both. CD col- 

Audio problems are not werewolves, and We lection don’t I reply have by a couple mail, of HDCD’s and 

the solution is not a silver bullet. That and a we number don’t give of SACD’s, it for free with more added 

may seem especially apt if you considering request that every your month. question At this not be time made I am public. (slowly) 

that your problems began when We you do ask digitizing for your my name CD collection. and city. However 

added the Siltech cables...which are, in in order Ask to away! 

digitize any of my SACD’s 

fact, silver. Siltechs aren’t cheap, and so (see your article in UHF No. 87) I need 

you have made a major investment that an SACD player. 

didn’t work out for you. Your sound is If possible this player should be a 

now bright. You’ve heard, as most of us combined HDCD/SACD player and not 

have, that tubes have a “warmer” sound make my limited bank account cry too 

than transistors. Good move? We would loud. Do you know of a “Genki compat- 

ible quality” player I could consider for 

this purpose? 

W. Flink 

VEENENDAAL, Netherlands 

Actually you aren’t digitizing your 

CDs. since their content is already 

digital. Rather, you are transferring 

the music to your computer hard drive, 

which is also digital. To get SACD onto 

your hard drive, you need to go through 

the analog domain. Software for direct 

conversion does exist, such as Korg 

AudioGate and Weiss Saracon, but we 

aren’t convinced that this sort of transcoding 

is superior to analog conversion. 

Your HDCD discs are totally compatible 

with the CD format, though 

to get the decoding you’ll need to play 

them back through a DAC that has the 

decoding. They are rare. Oppo does 

make a player that decodes HDCD and 

plays SACD...and Blu-ray as well. 

I’m trying to terminate my Audioquest 

Rocket 88 bi-wire speaker 

cables the best way possible. I was looking 

at your WBT nextgen spades, or 

Furutech spades/bananas. Is one better 

than the other (spade vs banana) if you 

forego the convenience? Is soldering 

better (with silver solder of course) or 

crimping? or both? 

I notice you don’t have the WBT 

crimping tool available presently. 

One final question: would just running 

the wires bare, treating with Pro- 

Gold and then inserting them into the 

WBT binding post on the speakers and 

amp be best sound wise? 

Your changing the connectors on 

your speaker cables got me started on 

this! 

Larry Upham 

HALIFAX, NS 

All else being equal, Larry, crimping 

is superior to soldering. We very much 

like the WBT system. And by the way 

we do have the WBT crimping tool once 

more. 

We prefer bananas to spades, because 

we plug and unplug things a lot, and 

they’re a lot more convenient. Some 

spades don’t fit some binding posts well, 

which is a problem for us, because we use 

our cables with a lot of different prod-

ucts. And finally if the binding posts are 

poorly machined, bananas will probably 

make a better contact. 

However some users prefer spades, 

and that’s fair enough. The WBT 

nextgen spades are especially effective, 

because their rubber-metal sandwich 

construction makes contact under pressure. 

They use the same crimping system 

as the bananas, and are interchangeable. 

I’m hoping you can give me some 

insight into the cause of a particularly 

nasty scratchy sound produced by my 

stereo, namely when it has to reproduce 

certain vocal or piano sounds. A good 

example would be the vocals of Norah 

Jones, or Neil Diamond. However, on 

some CDs, the scratching is completely 

absent, and the sound is magnificent. 

The problem is not volume-related. 

I have a Yamaha A-S2000 integrated 

amplifier, Cambridge Audio 650c CD 

player, DACMagic and Totem Rainmakers. 

I’m using basic cables, I have 

systematically isolated every component 

and cable except the amplifier. The 

amplifier is only four months old, but 

has produced this sound as long as I have 

had it. I have even tried a different AC 

power source, power bar, etc. 

Julian Picard 

PORT MOODY, BC 

For the answer to this question, 

check out our complete version, print or 

electronic. 

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I’ve got cable. What do I need your 

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You might well wonder, but a surprising number of cable 

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A lot! Put the Super Antenna on 

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Over the years we’ve sold 

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We add our own high-quality 

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No, it’s not the New York 

harbor, but the Las Vegas 

skyline…specifically the 

front of the New York New 

York hotel-casino. The US economy 

being what it is, there isn’t much new in 

the way of fresh constructions in Vegas, 

and so the old ones are the best. 

Vegas is still ailing, and a quick tour 

confirms it. The abandoned skeletons of 

partly-built casinos remain abandoned 

for the third year in a row. The shopping 

area of the CityCenter, which was new 

two years ago, remains a ghost town, 

with rooms aplenty available even during 

CES. You still don’t need to phone ahead 

for a table at a good restaurant. A giant 

condominium complex which, last year, 

was awaiting its finishing touches, is still 

awaiting them. Unemployment remains 

high, but my hotel has a special wicket 

where you can cash your paycheck! At 

the end of the Strip, the Sahara, once the 

venue for CES high end audio, is boarded 

up. Just beyond are stores offering to buy 

your furniture for cash. 


Features 

Vegas 2012 


What is thriving in Vegas is the 

prostitution trade, actually illegal in 

Clark County, but right out in the open. 

In previous years, the people handing 

out sex workers’ business cards on the 

Strip had phone numbers on their shirts. 

Now they bear huge QR codes on the 

back. Aim your smartphone at a code, 

and you’re instantly connected to the 

dispatch office of “Girls That (sic) Want 

to Meet You.” 

But of course Vegas is one thing, CES 

is another. Not only has the number of 

exhibitors at CES shrunk over the past 

decade, but even large companies are — 

but for a few exceptions — taking smaller 

spaces and sending fewer people. The 

world’s biggest consumer electronics 

company, Apple, doesn’t come to CES 

and never has, and Microsoft announced 

that 2012 would be its final appearance 

(but that it would still “strongly support” 

CES, whatever that means). However 

CEA, which organizes the show, has 

been busy recruiting new exhibitors for 

countless new sections. The “iLounge” 

section (for Apple-themed products) 

tripled in size. There was now a section 

for “green products.” There was a 

“Eureka” section for particularly bright 

ideas. And there was a PMA (Photo 

Marketing Association) section with 

cameras and such. 

Three of the new sections were at the 

Venetian, the same venue as high end 

audio, and the crowds were larger than 

ever. Fortunately the Adult Entertainment 

Expo (aka the porno show), which 

normally occupies the east end of the 

Sands complex, moved to the Riviera, 

which had also been the venue for high 

end audio once upon a time. 

Most of the high end exhibits were 

in the Venetian tower, whose rooms are 

more or less suited to serious listening. 

Some exhibitors prefer the much larger 

rooms of the convention centre, though 

they are, to put it bluntly, dreadful. 

That’s because they’re not real rooms, 

but partitioned sections of ballrooms, 

nearly cube-shaped, with walls that are 

little better than cardboard. This year 

many of those awful rooms had been 

reserved for meetings. One large room 

was used as overflow for the press centre. 

Oh yes…the press. It’s been clear for 

a while that the press situation was out 

of control. Audiophiles used to crash 

CES by printing up business cards 

showing they were “consultants,” but 

as journalists or bloggers they have it 

better, they get in free, and can even

attend press events, some with free food 

and drink. The result was that, in recent 

years, it was impossible to get into some 

large press conferences, such as those of 

Samsung. 

And so this year CEA tightened up 

the requirements. Hobbyists with personal 

blogs were out. After some 23 years 

going to CES, even I had to provide 

a sample article with my byline. And 

you know what the results were? Nada! 

The lineups were longer than ever, and 

I still didn’t make it into the Samsung 

conference. Fortunately some media 

were live-blogging it, and if you knew 

where to get a hookup to the Internet, 

you were as good as there. 

The crowds did indicate, however, 

that CEA’s efforts at pulling in new 

participants has paid off. If the official 

figures can be believed (and I admit 

sometimes taking them with a grain or 

two of salt), this year’s CES saw over 

156,000 visitors. If true, that’s a giant 

leap forward. And I must admit that 

I haven’t seen the show this busy in a 

decade. Some other figures, drawn from 

an independent audit: there were 3319 

exhibitors, an increase of 22%, 35,734 

international visitors from 150 countries, 

and 5000 media representatives. 

That round number seems suspiciously 

approximate, but I don’t doubt that there 

were a lot of us. 

The report on the independent audit 

ends with a curious warning for us, inkstained 

wretches: The official name of the 

global technology event is “International 

CES.” Subsequent references to the show 

can be shortened to “CES.” Please do not use 

“Consumer Electronics Show” to refer to the 

International CES. 

Why? That’s what “CES” stands for, 

doesn’t it? My guess is that “consumer 

electronics show” has become generic, 

and that other shows are referring to 

themselves that way. Coca-Cola doesn’t 

want you referring to a “Coke” if you 

don’t mean its product. 

The CES ice sculpture at left is 

from CES Unveiled, the big press event 

that occurs two days before opening 

day. At one time it was a showcase 

for the products that had won CES 

Innovation Awards. For the past few 

years, though, it’s been a showcase for 

companies that pay a certain amount 

of money for a table, to allow them 

to buttonhole hungry (and thirsty) 

journalists before anyone else gets 

to them. The shift occurred because 

some outside organizations set up off-site 

events much like that. There’s Pepcom’s 

rodeo-themes Digital Roundup, and of 

course Showstoppers. All of them offer 

free food and drink, always a magnet. 

Digital Roundup and Showstoppers are, 

however, invitation-only, with no onsite 

registration. That keeps the crowds 

more manageable than they are at CES 

Unveiled, where all you need to enter is 

a CES press badge. 

Did I mention there are 5000 of 

those? 

The reason these evening events have 

become popular is that it’s easy to get 

lost in the crowd at CES. The exhibitor 

guide is the thickness of the phone book 


The “real” object in this photo is the Treasure Island, at bottom. Looming over it is the Palazzo, reflected in an acrylic panel. 

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of a good-sized city. At 

the “zoo” (the Las Vegas 

Convention Center, where 

the biggest commercial 

action takes place), smaller 

booths are easily overlooked 

even by visitors 

who, like me, are diligent 

about doing every aisle. 

If you’ve never been to a 

show like CES, you can’t 

imagine its scope. So how 

do you get noticed? That’s 

where the evening events 

come in. 

And some exhibitors put 

a lot of money into those 

evening presentations. 

Note the angel at left, 

who was there…well, to 

draw How attention. Maggie Works She was 

hired UHF by is, SugarSync, and has been which is one of the many “cloud” storage systems. 

Clouds? for many Angels? years, Yes, we all get it. 

a print These magazine. are noisy But events, we know and so you won’t see much in the way of actual 

more high and end more audio audiophiles companies there. Some 3D video demos were common 

in want the to last read two it years, on their though not so much now. Still, there were some 

computer products or of iPad. more And than they’re personal interest. 

willing The to man save above money right too. is 

Click from here, Other and World let Maggie Com- 

explain puting, how a long-time to get the on-line full 

merchant version for for Apple-ori- $4. 

ented And products we mean (we’re a PDF long- 

version time customers without digitl too), rights and 

management what he’s you holding can transfer is of to 

the considerable device of your interest choice. 

to 

audiophiles, the MiniStack 

Max. Like many of our 

own readers, we’ve added 

a computer to our Omega 

reference system, which 

serves instead of a CD 

player (it actually sounds 

superior, as we’ve detailed 

elsewhere in this issue). 

Often that computer is the 

small and silent Mac mini. 

The mini no longer packs 

an optical drive, however. 

The MiniStack Max fits 

under and over it, offering 

the optical drive, extra 

hard drive space, and even a slot for an SD camera card. But the device is still not 

on the OWC site, and probably won’t arrive until late Summer. 

My attention was also grabbed by Mikey (at right), from BlueMic. It’s the first 

stereo recording microphone for iPhone, recent iPod touches and iPads. It fits in 

the dock connector, and the free recording software has a helpful upside-down 

screen. But like the MiniStack, it’s not yet available either.

The rest of this article can be found 

in the complete print or electronic version 

of UHF No. 92. Order the print issue from 

www.uhfmag.com/IndividualIssue.html 

(it’s case sensitive). Or subscribe at www. 

uhfmag.com/Subscription.html. The 

electronic issue is available from www. 

uhfmag.com/magie.html. 

We now continue in imitation Latin. 






suscing enismod dolorero odiamco rtiscil 

lamconsequat wismod modion vel ulputat. 

Utpation utpat augait am, core tisi. 



magniam consequat adipis 

adiam, consed te ming esent 

loborper iure commodio commodit 

lum zzriure vullumsan 

henim iustin utatum vel ilis aut 

loborperilla feum do odolore commodolore 

dolore dolesto eu feu feu feuipsu scipit ad molorem ex ero 

odolobore dolobortie digna conullaor si bla consecte et 

exerit lum alismolore ming esent vullamc onullan henisl 

ute core vent volor si. 


accum nissequam ero eraestrud 

dolore ese dolore dolutat, volobore 

diat praestismod te facilla 

facil inci blan et aliquis ciliquiscil 

dignis am quis niamet nisse 



Iquametuerat nullamc ommolore con utatuer ostinit nos eugiam nos adionsed euisi ex 

eril ilismod te te mod et adionse quissent aliquisi te doluptat ing enit ea alis 

accumsan velessectem dolorpe rostrud dipis nonsenisi. 

Iril iure molobor sustismod molore mincilit acing er accum vulput in 

utat, quat ad eril doloreet lan euismol ortinim digna autpat lobor sectetum 

quamconulla commy niation sequatie el ip ea augait, consequam adionsectet 

alis ex exer sum zzriure eugiam iriurerit ad eros dit alit num del ullutpat, sisisl 

et et volorper si blam, quatem init, consequi bla coreet, vent iriusci bla feu feuipis 

modolore dolesse conulla feuis adit laor ilit lutpatin el in velisci ncilla facinibh 

eugait adipit nibh et nis nonsed magna feummod do coreros eugait il ex eugait wisi 

ex et num quisim aut atum del del dolobore eros endigniatue dolor secte ex eugiat. 

Illa corperostrud tisi. 

Rud doloreet wis alit ut lum in heniscidunt aut ing et lorper sequis non ut ilit lore 

facilis sequat. Duis ad dolor adiam quatiscidunt praestie er ametummod tat. 

Agna feuipisl essequis accum in utat. Andigna feuguer sustrud dolore conum ex et 

enisit prat vulputat iure dunt verit lutpat nullam velesto commolortie dolorpe riurem zzrit, 

senit nonsequis nibh er sum nim aliquis at accumsa ndrercipsum vent nullam, venis nim 

ipisim irit num euisis nisl ing elit wis adionullamet praestrud tie consequatue faccum autet, 

quis aliquat irilismolore exerat acidunt dolesto ex er incilis essim numsandrem verosto eummy 

nim velendre er ing euis nonulla faccumm olortionulla feuipsum eu facipis cipit, volobore eril- 


The adjustable driver on a Blumenhofer Genuin FS 2 

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laor in utpatie vel iustisl dipisim zzrillutetue corpera esendit 

ipisi blandrer susci te magna feugait vel ut iniam, velis amcore 

facilisl erit venit augait lute tem ing ercilit, velisci liquatuer il 

utatue consequat. 

Cil et veraessisl utat, sed tio dionsendipit nit aliquisi eu 

facincidunt lobor iure do ero dignit ullaortion ute feugiat. Lorem 

eum iurer iure tatue modigna feugait eros nisl utatum ip el ex 

eu feui eu facipsusto ea faccums andignis dit illaore do odit ilis 

dipit do euis eui te feugait niamcom modolor perilluptat. To 

commy nim iustio duipis num nostrud magna facip euis exerosto 

dolor sequipit augait lor se commodo lobore dolore conse 

conumsandit aliquisci tet lore tio eugait ad magnit utpat la feum 

nisl exercil lutatio consed tatem zzrilit aliquam quat utpat wisit 

praestie feuisim num do od exer augait duisse et lumsan etuercilisit 

nonsectet wissi blamcon utpat verostio et wisi tetueros nos autat 

lutat prat, commy nullamet adip esto delis dignisl dolorpe rcilis 

eum eu feu feugiam zzrit utat, con elenisi. 

Commod dolestrud te te euis alis niamconsed eummod te tet 

ing exerili quatummod dolute tem zzrit at alit, con ut iusto dit nos 

accum nummodiam, quamet, sequiscipit accum adiat volorem nos 

aliquatuerit iusto con velenit ilit luptat. 

Od tat lor sim nisci tat at ut iril eum vullaor se ex enim dignim 

digna commodolore commy num veniam dolut wiscipit exercil ut ilis 

eum non volessim dunt wisl do do commod magniat. Ut wisisim zzrit 

nonsequatie magnit nos nonsed delenim dolenis adiatem zzrilisit ad 

doluptat. Quat ip eugait wissenis adipissecte do eu feugait praessit ute 

veniamc onulla feugueril et lore min essenis nos et amet lore molobor 

percipit in eniam, vulla coreet, venim eugiate dolore dionseniam nulla 

conse dip ex exerat, sequat nosto do euisciliqui etum delit nos nonse tem 

iriureet, secte dolor sum zzriustrud tat, suscips 

ustrud tie vel dolore modo conse modolortio et 

nos nit utem zzrit irit pratueros dolorem diat, 

quipit nonsequate magna facip exer summodion 

vullaore duis euismod ignibh esting et, vel estrud 

estrud dipisit inciduis aliquam eum doloborer sed 

tionsenit lum nos dolore eum niam iustrud euis am 

euipsum molobore cor at. Duiscilla adigna feugiam vent aliquam 

alit eu feu facip eu feugait ulputat, volortisisi. 

Il dignit erostie facidunt atio dolorem iustie magna core duipit 

wismod modit vel inibh et lore commolo rerosto delesseniat. 

Eliquis ex eugiam, suscidu ismodoloreet at. 

Molum zzriurem ad tem ipit aliquat. Ut nisl erciduis 

at. Ectem dolobore vulpute feu faci endre dipsuscip el etumsan 

diametu mmodoloreet lore volore faccummy nulla at velit alit 

lorperos ad dio dolortin euis am il dolenibh eummy nonullam il et, 

quipit in ea faccum nos atue dolorerat la feumsandit enisim velis aut velit veros adipsusto 

odiamet augait iriliquisim velesse quatet alisi exero odolestrud mincipiscing endre doluptat prat, sit adignisl utet accum volor 

at, quis adit luptat. Ud dolor incipis modigniat acinibh erilla adignim num nim am, commod ea aut essequate ming ea facin 

velis dolore magna con ulla feugait augiamcore commy nisi. 

Ommy nim in ea augait, quam dolore consed tetue eu faccum vel utat. Ut aci bla facip et autatis autem dolenim nit, velisl 

ing el er suscill utpatin henibh ese duis alit, suscil dolesto coreet et vel et nummy nulla adit lorpero odo doluptatie verosting 

et vel utpat volorem quat adionsent ad molore deliqui psummy nit luptat, venibh erat. 

Duissi exerat, quis nos nulla feugueros niat, quisl dunt aute te dolor si. 

Ecte tatisim irit erat er sum iliquat am erit adiam, susci bla faci exerilit at praestrud magnim volore tis aut nim nostio 

commy nim deliqui sciduis nonsequatue euip ea aut ad eugait, conse ex essi tat, quis num ipit utem dolor sit aci eros dolorperat, 

volor sum atumsandre magna aut nos at praestie velisl et augait 

Re facin henis nisl iustrud enim aute duis dignisc iliscipissi. 

20 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

Tum veliquat ulpute dolore volore facipsum esequat. Ut 

lan veliquat praese facilit lutpat nibh euguero ea feuguer 

suscing enismod dolorero odiamco rtiscil lamconsequat 

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am, core tisi. 

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utet autem quam, sis augue magniam consequat 

adipis adiam, consed te ming esent loborper iure 

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iustin utatum vel ilis aut loborperilla feum do odolore 

commodolore dolore dolesto eu feu feu feuipsu scipit 

ad molorem ex ero odolobore dolobortie digna conullaor 

si bla consecte et exerit lum alismolore ming esent 

vullamc onullan henisl ute core vent volor si. 

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dolore ese dolore dolutat, volobore diat praestismod 

te facilla facil inci 

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nisse eniamet, sis nibh 

eraesen dionum zzrilla 

feuipis modolut adip euis 

dolessi. 

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atum del del dolobore eros endigniatue dolor secte ex eugiat. Illa corperostrud tisi. 


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Rud doloreet wis alit ut lum 

in heniscidunt aut ing et lorper 

sequis non ut ilit lore facilis 

sequat. Duis ad dolor adiam 

quatiscidunt praestie er ametummod 

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feuipsum eu facipis cipit, volobore 

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corpera esendit ipisi blandrer susci te 

magna feugait vel ut iniam, velis amcore facilisl erit venit 

augait lute tem ing ercilit, velisci liquatuer il utatue consequat. 

Cil et veraessisl utat, sed tio dionsendipit nit aliquisi eu facincidunt lobor iure do 

ero dignit ullaortion ute feugiat. Lorem eum iurer iure tatue modigna feugait eros 

nisl utatum ip el ex eu feui eu facipsusto ea faccums andignis dit illaore do odit ilis 

dipit do euis eui te feugait niamcom modolor perilluptat. To commy nim iustio duipis 

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exercil lutatio consed tatem zzrilit aliquam quat utpat wisit praestie feuisim num do 

od exer augait duisse et lumsan etuercilisit nonsectet wissi blamcon utpat verostio 

et wisi tetueros nos autat lutat prat, commy nullamet adip esto delis dignisl dolorpe 

rcilis eum eu feu feugiam zzrit utat, con elenisi. 

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dolute tem zzrit at alit, con ut iusto dit nos accum nummodiam, quamet, sequiscipit 

accum adiat volorem nos aliquatuerit iusto con velenit ilit luptat. 

Od tat lor sim nisci tat at ut iril eum vullaor se ex enim dignim digna commodolore 

commy num veniam dolut wiscipit exercil ut ilis eum non volessim dunt wisl do do 

commod magniat. Ut wisisim zzrit nonsequatie magnit nos nonsed delenim dolenis 

adiatem zzrilisit ad doluptat. Quat ip eugait wissenis adipissecte do eu feugait praessit 

ute veniamc onulla feugueril et lore min essenis nos et amet lore molobor percipit in eniam, 

vulla coreet, venim eugiate dolore dionseniam nulla conse dip ex exerat, sequat nosto do 

euisciliqui etum delit nos nonse tem iriureet, secte dolor sum zzriustrud tat, suscips ustrud 

tie vel dolore modo conse modolortio et nos nit utem zzrit irit pratueros dolorem diat, quipit 

nonsequate magna facip exer summodion vullaore duis euismod ignibh esting et, vel estrud estrud 

dipisit inciduis aliquam eum doloborer sed tionsenit lum nos dolore eum niam iustrud euis am 

euipsum molobore cor at. Duiscilla adigna feugiam vent aliquam alit eu feu facip eu feugait ulputat, volortisisi. 

Il dignit erostie facidunt atio dolorem iustie magna core duipit wismod modit vel inibh et lore commolo rerosto delesseniat. 

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mmodoloreet lore volore faccummy nulla at velit alit lorperos ad dio dolortin euis am il dolenibh eummy nonullam il et, quipit in 

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si. 

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enismod dolorero odiamco rtiscil lamconsequat wismod modion vel ulputat. Utpation 

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onullan henisl ute core vent volor si. 

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dolessi. 

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utat, quat ad eril doloreet 

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quamconulla commy 

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augait, consequam adionsectet 

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zzriure. 


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On this, our 30th anniversary, 

Feedback 

Features 

Audio Then and Now 

it’s interesting to look back 

at the articles of our very 

first issue. But it’s even more 

instructive to look at the ads. Start with 

the rear cover. 

Can you imagine a cassette ad in 

a magazine today? Okay, cassettes are 

history, but how about an ad for blank 

CD’s or DVD’s? No? 

How about this one? 

Strange, that doesn’t look like Rega’s 

logo! And did Rega actually make speakers 

in 1982? In fact no. The now-forgotten 

Edon company was then the Rega 

importer, but had a hankering to build 

speakers. It asked Rega if it would mind 

if it borrowed the famous name. The 

speakers were in fact reasonably good, 

and were later sold as Rega Camber, and 

then just as Camber. They later morphed 


into a maker of equipment and speaker 

stands. Incidentally, Edon refused to pay 

for that first ad, whose cut line, below 

the logo, read, “setting new standards 

in performance quality no value.” 

Although 1982 is usually given as 

the year Sony and Philips launched the 

Compact Disc, when we began no one 

had ever seen one, and so, inevitably, 

there were ads for turntables. Systemdek 

was represented, and that was hardly 

surprising, since the Systemdek was then 

an audiophile favorite. But this ad for a 

Technics with a plug-in cartridge might 

come as a bit of a surprise. 

We don’t know what Panasonic was 

thinking of with this ad. It did make 

some tables that were then highly 

praised, such as the SP-10, but the 

SL-DL5 came from a different galaxy. 

It featured direct drive, like most other 

mass market turntables, but it also had 

a flimsy and downright dodgy straightline 

tracking arm, and a P-mount 

plug-in phono cartridge whose rigidity 

depended entirely on the friction of the 

mount on the cartridge pins. 

That was our first Quad ad, placed 

by the brand’s then-new distributor, 

May Audio. It would become our most 

faithful advertiser. It and its successor 

companies have advertised in every 

issue of the magazine, with only a 

single exception. May Audio became 

our first product source when we set up 

our Audiophile Store in 1988. Although 

the store sources products from 18 

companies today, May and its successor, 

Liberty Trading, remain major sources. 

Other major ads in that first issue 

included Teac (with a cassette deck), 

Harman/Kardon, B&W, and — of 

yes — Classé, whose wondrous DR-2 

pure class A amplifier was then justly 

famous. 

And Mitsubishi. With a color double 

spread advertising…a receiver!

Q. What is a home theatre 

system? 

A. Oh sure, let’s start with a 

softball question. Not! There 

was a survey done maybe three 

years ago on what percentage 

of the population owned home 

theatre systems. We don’t 

recall the size of the yes and 

no votes, which don’t mean 

much anyway, but we do recall 

that the single largest group 

answered that they didn’t know. 

And we have a feeling we’ll 

have trouble answering the 

question too. What is a home 

theatre system? 

We’re tempted by the following 

definition: a home theatre 

system (or a home cinema 

system, a term we prefer since 

cinemas aren’t theatres) is one 

which is optimized for watching 

movies, and can allow 

watching a film the way the 

director would like you to see 

what he/she has created. 

Q. Where does “home theatre 

in a box” come in? 

A. It doesn’t. That’s just a marketing 

term. If having a HTIB means you have a 

home theatre system, then who doesn’t? 

Q. How good a TV set do you need 

before you can claim to have a home 

theatre system? 

A. Nowadays the minimum is 1080p 

vertical resolution. 

Q. But isn’t 720p considered high 

definition too? 

A. Sure, if you’re not difficult, but 

that’s not what we’re talking about, are 

we? 

Q. How big does the screen need to 

be to qualify for home theatre? 

Cinema 

A. It doesn’t matter, because the larger 

the screen, the farther away you’re likely 

to sit. The minimum practical size is 76 

cm — that’s 40 inches — because sets 

smaller than that are mostly junk. If 

you watch a 40-inch set from 6 ft away, 

that’s exactly like watching an 80-inch 

set from 12 ft away. 

Q. How big does a home theatre room 

need to be? 

Why isn’t it Cliffs 

Notes? What, you 

don’t think Cliff has 

lawyers? 

A. Big enough for the 

screen, the speakers and some 

chairs. Of course if you’ll be 

hosting movie parties, you’ll 

want more space. And ideally 

you should have enough floor 

area so that no one will be 

seated too close to a speaker. 

Q. Does that mean home 

theatre has a “sweet spot,” like 

regular stereo? 

A. Yes, though with surround 

sound the imbalance, 

if there is one, may be less 

evident. When you have a 

centre speaker next to the 

screen, it’s hard to get a “hole 

in the middle.” 

Q. Speaking of surround 

sound, do you absolutely have 

to have it? What’s wrong with 

good old two-channel stereo? 

A. It’s generally assumed 

that a home theatre system 

will have 5.1 or 7.1 channels. 

However it is a poorly-kept 

secret that many film directors 

are not that keen on surround (“I 

suppose we should put some sounds 

back there now and again”), and it is 

possible to have a very good film-viewing 

experience with fewer channels. Indeed, 

if going to full surround means buying a 

Home Theatre in a Box, that’s definitely 

the wrong way to go. 

Q. Can you do at least without a centre 

channel? 

A. Yes. Just put your receiver or 

preamp into “phantom mode.” The 

sounds meant for the centre will be sent 

to the left and right speakers equally. If 

the speakers are set up right, you’ll have 

strong stereo image, and the illusion that 

there’s a third speaker right in the centre. 

Actually, a two-channel stereo system 

should be set up like that too. 


Feedback Cinema 

Q. What about those sound 

bars that are supposed to give 

you surround from just one 

speaker? 

A. Isn’t it bad enough that 

there are single speakers that 

claim to deliver stereo? They 

don’t deliver two channels, so 

let’s try for five channels, sure! 

That’ll work. 

Q. If I do go to surround 

sound, do I need five identical 

speakers? 

A. Ideally, sure, but that’s 

not always practical. It may be 

especially difficult to use the 

same model as the others for the 

centre channel. 

Q. But don’t all the makers of home 

theatre speakers have a model meant for 

the centre channel? 

A. The rest of this article can be 

found in the complete print or electronic 

version of UHF No. 92. Order 

the print issue from www.uhfmag.com/ 

IndividualIssue.html (it’s case sensitive). 

Or subscribe at www.uhfmag.com/Subscription.html. 

The electronic issue is 

available from Maggie at www.uhfmag. 

com/maggie.html. 










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How Maggie Works 

UHF is, and has been 

for many years, 

a print magazine. But we know 

more and more audiophiles 

want to read it on their 

computer or iPad. And they’re 

willing to save money too. 

Click here, and let Maggie 

explain how to get the full 

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Feedback Cinema

This multitalented designer 

and entrepreneur has been 

around for more years than we 

can remember. His eponymous 

Netherlands company is known for a number 

of products, from phono cartridges (including 

a stylus shape he invented) to electronics to 

high-performance cables. Never afraid of 

innovation, he actually made cables containing 

no metal (he used carbon fibre instead). 

One of his new “3T” hybrid interconnect 

cables is reviewed in this issue. 

Late in 2011, UHF’s Steve Bourke 

caught up with him. He revealed the philosophy 

behind 3T, but he began with everything 

he had learned over the years about record 

playback. 

* * * 

UHF: When you’re playing an LP, and 

the stylus touches down on the record, what 

happens to the record itself? 

AJV: There’s a minor deformation 

resulting from the displacement forces. 

UHF: And is there a sharp rise in temperature 

at that point? 

AJV: A higher temperature, yes. I’ve 

measured a temperature of five to six 


Rendezvous 

A. J. Van den Hul 

degrees higher than the environmental 

temperature. There is some deformation 

of the groove, but only for 

mechanical reasons. There is no thermal 

deformation. 

UHF: So there is some distortion of the 

groove? 

AJV: But there will be restoration of the 

groove shape, because the temperature 

is far under that which would cause 

permanent deformation. 

UHF: Is that the reason that vinyl records 

last as long as they do? 

AJV: There are other factors. The stylus 

must fit exactly in the groove. As soon as 

you use a spherical stylus, there’s much 

more a deformation, because the friction 

is much higher. 

UHF: Really! 

AJV: The next step is the elliptical stylus. 

The temperature rise is a little less than 

with a spherical, but still. One that 

doesn’t raise the temperature much is the 

Shibata stylus. That’s because its cross 

section is half circular, half elliptical. 

There is another shape, used by some 

companies, which copy the shape of the 

cutting chisel. However, there is another 

“but.” The angle of the stylus relative to 

the groove is not exacty 90°. The result 

is that sometimes the stylus moves up, 

because it is squeezed by the groove 

sides, or it is bottoming. The only stylus 

that fits in any situation is still mine. Of 

course some companies don’t want to 

pay the royalty. 

UHF: What is the most difficult aspect of 

building a cartridge? 

AJV: It’s the adjustment of the stylus 

exactly in line with the position of 

the armature. And as far as the structure 

goes, it’s the fine tuning of the 

cartridge — the cantilever at one end, 

and the suspension and the rubber at 

the other end. You have to be careful, 

because there’s a magnification effect, 

As the stylus moves up and down, he 

top of the stylus must be in exactly the 

same position as the 45-45 coil. You 

have to do it by eye. You have to adjust 

it for maximum response and maximum 

channel separation. 

UHF: It sounds like surgery. If you move 

your hand too much in one direction or the 

other, will the cartridge then be damaged? 

Will you have to begin all over again? 

AJV: If you are beginner, then yes, for 

sure. I have very specific tools, some 40 

or 50 of them lying around my microscope. 

I have a number of tweezers, each 

for its own job. I have magnetic tweezers, 

non-magnetic tweezers, very precise 

tools, each for a particular purpose. 

UHF: Have you used the same tools 

throughout your career? 

AJV: I obtained them many years ago, 

and I maintain their quality by polishing 

them. For screwdrivers, I use a very 

precise grinding stone, so that they have 

the shape to fit perfectly into the screws, 

so that they don’t slip and damage the 

evironment. 

UHF: These are tools you made. 

AJV: Yes, because when you don’t find 

what you need, you build it yourself. 

Adhesives are very important too. 

UHF: You use some special space-age glue? 

AJV: I use Locktite 401. It is commonly 

used for screws that are tightened, so 

that they don’t come loose again. But you

have to be careful with it. I regularly get 

a drop on my trousers, or on my T-shirt. 

But I don’t care. 

UHF: Do you wear gloves when you’re 

working? 

AJV: Never. 

UHF: Have you ever accidentally injured 

yourself while assembling a cartridge? 

AJV: Sometimes. You hold the cartridge 

in one hand, and you have a tool with a 

very shap cutting edge in the other hand. 

And if you’re very unlucky, when you’re 

repaiting a cartridge something breaks 

away. But that’s all over now, I don’t do 

these things anymore. 

UHF: When you are gluing the diamond to 

the cantilever, how tiny is the patch of glue 

that you are using? 

AJV: A fraction of a cubic millimetre. A 

fraction. If you use too much it may look 

at first as if you’ve done a great job, but 

the stylus is completely encapsulated 

in adhesive. Customers don’t like that, 

being greater experts than I am! And 

second, it makes a mess, and that’s 

something you don’t want. The lower 

the moving mass, the better. Mass has 

inertia. Less is better. 

UHF: And that’s why your cartridge bodies 

are not massive. 

AJV: Specifically, the design is 

minimalistic. 

UHF: If you asked a composer which of his 

creations he was proudest of, Bartok or Bach 

might make this or that choice. Is there one 

aspect of your cartridge designs, other than 

your world-famous line contact stylus, that 

you are particularly proud of? 

AJV: Yes, the damping rubber. It is very 

difficult to put the right ingredients 

together to get the right damping. I’m 

very lucky to have the right one, I keep 

it in the deep freezer… 

UHF: The deep freezer? 

AJV: Yes, to maintain the quality. 

There’s no air exposure, and there’s no 

chemical exposure, and so it remains in 

pristine condition. But to have a damping 

rubber that is stable over a long 

period is extremely difficult. That is 

often ignored, and if you don’t pay attention 

to it, forget it. It is a very serious 

part of the construction of a cartridge. 

UHF: And if the rubber deteriorates, that 

will have a profound effect on the sound of 

the cartridge. 

AJV: Yes, it must be soft, and not 

exposed to any chemicals. But if the 

space where the turntable is placed is 

open to the kitchen, where you fry fish 

or whatever, that is bad. Any kind of oil 

is bad. There’s a little bit just from your 

body, but any oil is bad. Then there’s 

the question of cleaning the cartridge. 

You don’t use a liquid that is toxic, and 

you don’t use a liquid that contains old 

oil from previous cleanings. You reach 

over the cantilever and over the oil, and 

reach back to the camping rubber. 

UHF: And that can cause the cartridge to 

lose its integrity. 

AJV: Yes, the repositioning forces of the 

rubber are finished. It becomes soft and 

easier to move, and sticky, and it stops 

damping. 

UHF: What do you recommend? 

AJV: I recommend a good vodka. You 

fill the cap with vodka, and use a brush 

to get a little bit of it to clean the stylus. 

Once you have done that, you stop cleaning, 

and then you drink the vodka, to 

celebrate having a clean cartridge. Vodka 

doesn’t contain any sugar or caramel, 

like Jack Daniels. It is pure alcohol, and 

the best cleaning fluid you can get. But 

never reuse it. People who reuse their 

cleaning fluid, or put the brush back in 

the fluid afterward, are brushing the dirt 

back onto the stylus. 

UHF: I want to go back to an interview you 

gave back in 1986… 

AJV: That was a long time ago! 

UHF: You said that the LP creates a 

spaciousness and depth that digital music 

cannot. Do you think that’s still true? 

AJV: Yes, it’s still true, but CD is getting 

better, and there are some whose 

sound I really enjoy, but on average the 

number of LPs with spacious information 

is higher. It’s partly because of the 

processing, and partly because of the 

technology, and the education of one’s 

ears. The musical education, aimed at 

enjoying music, is fading away. 

But the technology itself cannot 

produced the highest resolution, as you 

can have with analog recording. Part of 

it is the medium, and part of it is the art 

of making the recording. Many engineers 

use a great number of microphones, and 

that reduces spatial information. There 

are all kinds of phase effects among the 

sounds recorded by the microphones. 

The use of two or three microphones 

— for stereo, I’m not taling about multichannel 

recording — is the only way 

to maintain accurate spatial information 

patterns. It’s not because of frequency 

response, but of timing. The CD goes to 

20.05 kHz, but if the timing is not right, 

then the spaciousness is mostly lost. 

UHF: Do you foresee that, in the area of LP 

production, there might be a technological 

advance yet to be discovered? 

AJV: I doubt it, because the world 

interest in LPs is very limited. Many 

people do enjoy LPs, but for the younger 

generations the LP is a curiosity, just as 

we regard the phonograph of Thomas 

Edison as a curiosity. That’s a pity, but 

it’s the case. 

However interest in LPs is still very 

big, as I can see from the number of 

cartridge repairs we make. 

UHF: Can you put a number, worldwide, 

of the number of LP listeners? 

AJV: I’ve been thinking about this question, 

and I think it would be four to five 

million. That’s it. 

UHF: In the field of musical production in 

general, do you see improvements that need 

to be made in the next 20 to 30 years? 

AJV: If a piece of music is accepted by 

the listener, it doesn’t mean it’s good. 

It means only that the recording and 

the taste of the listener are a match. If 

the listeners then attend live concerts, 

they become aware of the much greater 


Rendezvous 

Feedback

Rendezvous 

Feedback 


number of sonic delights available. They 

then realize they need to work for better 

quality. 

I call this the “Vienna effect.” Once 

you have been to Vienna, and you have 

attended concerts there for a week, 

forget it! But of course it need not be 

specifically Vienna. There are other 

cities with great concert halls, but when 

I spend a week in Vienna — as I regularly 

do, with all kinds of concerts, all kinds of 

rehearsals, all kinds of training, opera, 

classical music, it opens your ears in a 

way that makes you hungry to retrieve 

that sound again. The basis for many 

designs I’ve made in my life is to make 

the sound better, and more “Viennalike,” 

if I may call it that. 

UHF: Do you have any new ideas you hope 

to have the opportunity to develop? 

AJV: Yes, I’ve just finished a project 

called 3T, a new set of cables. 

UHF: Can you disccuss it? 

AJV: Yes, certainly. Most people who 

have looked into cables — if they 

understand anything of it at all — have 

concentrated on electron transmission. 

But it’s not just electrons that move in 

a cable, it’s electromagnetic fields. By 

concentrating only on the first part, 

electron transmission, the second part 

is completely forgotten, or not even 

recognized. If you make a conductor, 

focusing on both, you may not have a 

perfect conductor, and there might be 

some resistance, but you have a much 

better technology than if you focused 

on just one property. 

Let me propose an example. If you 

are looking for a lady to marry, imagine 

that you had decided only one thing, that 

she must be precisely 1m85 tall. You’ve 

focused on just one property, but that 

doesn’t mean you will have a happy marriage. 

It is the balance of properties that 

can make the best match. Does she have 

the same style as you have, does she like 

the same food? The more you have in 

common, the better the story will work 

out. 

UHF: Why have some aspects of design, 

then, been ignored for so many years? 

AJV: Because some people don’t care, 

or because they find the subject too 

complicated, or because they simply 

don’t have the necessary knowledge, or 

perhaps because they couldn’t find the 

right materials to use. Being aware of 

the problem is one thing, finding the 

solution is another. 

UHF: And you’ve been working toward 

the solution. 

AJV: Yes. It’s cost me two years of thinking 

— not making anything, just thinking. 

Then I said to my manufacturer, if 

you do this, it will work. I’ve given the 

resulting cables to friends, and to some 

very critical people, and the results were 

optimistic. They said, “Please continue, 

because this is what we want.” After 

they had listened, if they reconnected 

the cables they had before, they were 

just rubbish. 

UHF: This sounds like great news. 

AJV: I think so. It’s good news not only 

for replay, but also for recording, because 

if the recording is better, then the replay 

will be better too. 

UHF: Certainly we’re dependent on the 

quality of the recording we’re listening to. 

AJV: Yes. I’ll give you some of the properties 

of the product. 

First, there’s no oxydation. It does 

not suffer from metal fatigue. There is 

a very god strain relief, so you can pull 

on it and it won’t break. The structure 

is amorphous. This is better than a 

crystal structure, because crystals have 

boundaries. It is stable at high temperature, 

and it can handle much higher 

temperatures than regular cable. there is 

no electroplating. There is no chemical 

or mechanical aging. It’s very flexible, 

but it doesn’t age when you flex it. There 

is an extremely low number of internal 

barriers or boundaries. That means the 

cable has an extremely long lifespan with 

no change in sound quality. It has a very 

short run-in time, a minimum of two 

hours, up to six hours. It produces an 

extremely high resolution without any 

harshness, which means sharp “esses” 

completely disappear. You might think 

there is frequency range missing, but it 

is crystal barriers that produce the sharp 

“s” sound. 

The most amazing thing is that 

sonically — not by measurement but 

by listening — you can hear very clear 

information. If you listen to strings, 

for example, they are very lifelike, just 

because of the range between 2 kHz and 

10 kHz. 

It is really amazing.

Kandy K2 

“A neat balancing act, carried 

off here with rare success” 

Art Dudley, 

May 2010 

Altronics Stereo 

Toronto, Ont 

416-233-8906 

Ovation Audio 

Markham, Ont 

905-604-4711 

Arcadia Audio 

Elora, Ont 

416-994-5571 

Audio Two 

Windsor, Ont 

519-979-7101 

Locke Street Audio 

Hamilton, Ont 

905-529-2522 

All That Jazz 

Cookstown, Ont 

705-717-7300 


We are proud to announce that the 

ROKSAN K2 integrated amplifi er 

has won the DIAPASON D’OR AWARD 

for best amplifi er of 2009! 

GET ROKSAN AT: 

The Sound Room 

Kingston, Ont 

613-549-0445 

Oz Entreprises 

Orleans, Ont 

info@ozenterprises.net 

Villeneuve Audio Video 

Joliette, Qc 

450-755-1696 

Audiophonie 

Montreal, Qc 

514-544-2788 

“The designers spent your 

money in all the right places.” 

UHF Magazine No. 90 

WM. Layton Audio 

Montreal, QC 

514-866-1578 

Signature Audio 

Vancouver, BC 

604-873-6682 

Loyalty Sound 

Calgary, AB 

403-244-8843 

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(905) 532-9004 (647) 997-4607 

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Plus a wide range of 

Audiophile XRCD / 

K2HD / SACD/ LP

AAC This is the music compression 

format used by the world’s largest music 

store, iTunes, and many assume that one 

of the A’s stands for “Apple.” In fact it 

stands for Advanced Audio Coding, and 

it is an accepted standard. Like MP3, 

which AAC was intended to replace, it 

is a lossy system. See codec. 

Absolute phase A music 

system can be connected in either absolute 

phase or reverse phase. With absolute 

phase, the wave from a drumbeat, 

for instance, will begin with motion 

toward the listeners rather than away. 

Though this can be audible, it is difficult 

to ensure that all components of the 

chain are in phase. Some amplifiers and 

preamplifiers reverse phase (though of 

course if the signal gets phase-reversed 

twice, it is then back in phase. Some 

recordings are phase-reversed too. 

AB tests This method of evaluating 

audio systems involve quick comparisons, 

on the theory that auditory 

memory is short. The ABX test, favored 

today, includes two systems, A and B, 

but also X, which is identical to A and B, 

though the subject is not told which. It is 

common to set up such tests with levels 

closely matched, and with the person 

conducting the test not knowing which 

product is which (the double blind test). 

Readers of UHF will know that AB and 

ABX tests are controversial. 

Acoustic suspension 

A loudspeaker configuration that placed 

a highly compliant (soft) woofer in a 

small sealed enclosure. The stiffness 

of the air in the enclosure would compensate 

for the floppiness of the woofer 

cone, and the combination would allow 

reproduction of deeper bass than had 

previously seemed possible. The famous 

AR2 speaker used the acoustic suspension 

principle, and was much copied. 


Nuts&Bolts 

High Definition 

by Paul Bergman 

Acoustic suspension was not without 

problems. These speakers were inefficient, 

requiring huge amplifier power. If 

their power handling ability was limited, 

they had poor dynamic range. A more 

esoteric problem was imbalance between 

the stiffness of the air at the rear of the 

cone and the normal atmospheric pressure 

at the front. The result was a sound 

wave that was not quite symmetrical. 

Aliasing Best known in digital 

recording, aliasing is an undesirable 

phenomenon that occurs when there are 

signal frequencies that are more than 

half the digital sampling frequency (44.1 

kHz in the case of the Compact Disc). A 

sharp filter is used to take out any signal 

frequencies beyond 20 kHz. However 

aliasing also occurs in film, whose “sampling 

rate” is a very low 24 Hz (24 images 

per second). Aliasing is the reason that 

you see cars whose wheels seem to be 

Paul Bergman brings 

back his lexicon 

feature from UHF’s 

early issues…only 

much expanded! 

turning backward. 

Analog This word became 

common some decades ago in opposition 

to “digital.” In audio, a sound wave 

is recorded in a format analogous to the 

sound wave itself: a modulated record 

groove, a magnetic pattern on tape, etc. 

Note that the electrical signal itself is 

an analog of the acoustic wave. Digital 

systems use a numerical description of 

the signal, by periodic sampling of the 

analog wave, using binary digits (1’s 

and O’s). 

Antiskating A lateral force 

applied to a turntable’s tone arm, with 

a spring, a weight or a magnet, to compensate 

for the natural skating force on 

the arm. If a tone arm were straight and 

the cartridge mounted parallel to the 

arm, there would be no skating force. 

However such an arm would undergo 

major tracking errors as it arced across 

the record. Most arms therefore are 

curved or bent, or the cartridge is 

mounted at an angle. The geometry 

results in a force pushing the arm toward 

the record centre. Because actual skating 

force depends on several factors, including 

the composition of the record itself, 

antiskating can only be approximate. 

Balanced line This is a 

wiring scheme almost universally used 

in studios, and not uncommon in high 

end home audio. A balanced line includes 

three wires: a ground, a “hot” signal 

wire, and a third wire that carries the 

same signal but in opposite phase. An 

advantage is that any induced noise can 

be expected to influence both signal 

wires, but noise will be cancelled out 

at the receiving end. A balanced circuit 

should therefore have high common mode 

rejection, of any noise that is common 

to both. 

Bass reflex A loudspeaker 

enclosure that uses resonance (a Helmholtz 

resonator) to reverse the phase of 

the speaker’s backwave so that it can 

emerge in phase with the front wave.

Reflex speakers, the most common kind 

is called upon to reproduce a signal 

today, are more efficient than speakers 

louder than the absolute maximum 

in sealed enclosures, and can therefore 

it can handle. An example might be 

be driven by smaller amplifiers. However 

when the desired output voltage of 

reflex speakers can produce little output 

an amplifier is higher than the power 

below their resonant frequencies, 

supply voltage. This is different from 

and have difficulty maintaining 

compression, which can also result 

control at low frequencies. 

from overload, but is more gradual. 

Bass trap A large space, 

Codec It stands for compressor- 

typically part of a wall, intended 

decompressor, a system for making 

to resonate at low frequencies and 

digital files smaller and then reconsti- 

reduce reverberation by turning 

tuting them. FLAC and Apple Lossless 

acoustic energy into heat. Bass traps 

are rightly called codecs, but the term 

are common in studios, rarer in homes w h i c h , 

is a misnomer for MP3, AAC and JPEG 

because they take up considerable space. in its simplest form, is 

(for images). That’s because the files 

Biamplification The use of 

composed of two parallel plates with air 

between them. As an electrical charge 

are not compressed but carved up, with 

large amounts of data, often a major- 

separate amplifiers to drive the woofer builds up on one plate, it repels electrons ity, simply discarded. Of course with 

and the tweeter of a two-way speaker on the opposite plate, and current will such “compression,” there can be no 

(triamplification can also be used with flow. In electronic circuits capacitors can decompression. 

a three-way speaker). Biamplification 

is usually passive, with the speaker’s 

block direct current but pass alternating 

currents, such as audio signals. Com- Compliance The opposite 

existing crossover left in place. In active mercial capacitors use different materials of stiffness, compliance expresses how 

biamplification, the crossover is removed intended for the purpose, however many readily a mechanical system (a phono 

or bypassed, and an active electronic devices and materials, such as cables, cartridge stylus or a speaker cone) can 

crossover is placed before the amplifiers. act as capacitors (see biwiring). This is be moved. In most systems there is 

That is advantageous, but it is difficult sometimes desirable, sometimes not. an optimum amount of compliance, 

WHY A FREE ISSUE 

to engineer, and is less commonly used. 

whereas extremes produce undesirable 

Class A, etc. Push-pull side effects. 

Biwiring The use of separate amplifiers are said to operate under dif- 

speaker cables from the amplifier to the We remember ferent classes. when In a number class B amplifier, of competitors each would Compression Before the 

woofer and tweeter of a two-way loud- put on amplifying line only only device the (a cover tube, image a transistor, and the table development of of digital sound and codecs, 

speaker (triwiring also exists). Biwiring or a set of either contents. one) will amplify half compression referred to a reduction of a 

allows better current flow to the speak- We would of tell the them signal that wave, you positive don’t go or negative. fishing without signal’s bait. dynamic range, with soft music 

ers, and better decouples the drivers, Sure, but we That live usually from what leaves you a discontinuity spend through near our site passages and made louder and loud peaks 

the extra wire acts as a capacitor, which the pages the transition of our print point, issue. leading But you to a could form of spend reduced days to manageable levels. Nearly 

is not always an advantage. 

distortion reading most audible material at low for levels. free. In a all radio stations use massive amounts 

We think class that’s A amplifier, the only both way devices we can operate convince all you of of compression the (as much as 30 dB, or 

Blumlein pair This refers the time, eliminating UHF difference, the discontinuity, 1000 times) in order to sound as loud 

to a pair of “near coincident” stereo of why you but might wasting want energy. to trust Class us with AB the ampli- future as of possible. your Many recordings are also 

microphones, first described by Britfiers music are compromises, or home theatre with system. the two compressed, sometimes for the same 

ish audio engineer Alan Blumlein We in have devices readers in on operation every continent more than except 50% of Antarctica. reason, sometimes because it is difficult 

1931. Blumlein actually used the term the Most time. of Class them D discovered amplifiers, us common on line. to fit the dynamic range of certain music 

“binaural” rather than “stereo,” and in They mass-market read a lot products, of our free and material. also in within the dynamic space available. 

considered loudspeaker reproduction to 

be a compromise, inferior to headphone 

subwoofers And (the then “D” they is sometimes joined us. 

mistakenly 

taken to mean “digital”) amplify Crossover network 

listening. Blumlein pairs are still used pulses, which are run through a low-pass This is a filter, used with a loudspeaker 

by some producers who wish to recre- filter to reconstitute the signal. Class having more than one driver, to filter 

ate as accurately as possible a musical T amplifiers, originated by the now signal frequencies so that they go to 

event. Recreation is not always the goal, defunct TriPath, are a variation on class the appropriate driver. In most speak- 

however, and a Blumlein pair (or its D. It is common to refer to single-ended ers for domestic use, the crossover is 

derivatives, such as the ORTF pair or circuits, such as those in preamplifiers, passive, composed of capacitors, coils 

the mid-side pair) require time and care as “pure class A,” but this is meaningless. and/or resistors, placed right in the 

to set up properly. 

Capacitor An electrical device 

Clipping This is a phenomenon 

which occurs when an amplifying device 

enclosure. Some high-end systems and 

nearly all studio monitors use two or 

more amplifiers (see biamping), with 


Nuts&Bolts 

Feedback

Nuts&Bolts 

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an active crossover, more like a 

preamplifier. A crossover may 

have secondary functions, such 

as matching drivers of unequal 

efficiency and compensating for 

phase differences. 

Crossover distortion 

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Nuts&Bolts 

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Nuts&Bolts 

Feedback

We were thinking that 

we had seen this Italian 

tube amplifier before, 

and indeed we had. And 

we don’t mean one like it, but this very 

one. It’s a demo model. It’s been to Vegas 

at least three times, and we’ve seen it 

perhaps twice more. Sometimes it was 

playing, sometimes not. It would be 

understandable if it looked a little tired, 

though in fact, but for one of its tubes, 

it looked fresh and rested. 

The output tubes — since we’re on 

the subject — are 845 triodes. The 845 

has been around forever. RCA developed 

it in 1931 as a driver for its AM radio 

transmitters. Like other tubes designed 

for transmitters, it can operate at much 

higher voltages than the usual KT88 and 

other 6L6 variants common in modern 

audio amplifiers, but its bayonet mount 

betrays its age. The tube is oriented in its 

socket by a tiny nub that fits into a slot. 

If the nub breaks off you can easily insert 

the tube the wrong way around. That 


Listening Room 

Mastersound 

Evolution 845 

had clearly happened with one of the 

tubes in our amplifier, and a blackened 

patch on the circuit board was silent witness 

to what had happened. We replaced 

the tube, and the amplifier seemed none 

the worse for the experience. 

On the rear panel are recessed controls 

for setting up bias of the tubes. 

This is to be done by “qualified personnel,” 

according to Mastersound, but the 

owner’s manual gives no hint as to how 

this is to be done. Oddly, Mastersound 

refers to the bias settings as “semiautomatic.” 

We ignored them. 

You might assume that the 845 tubes 

are arranged in the usual push-pull 

configuration, but they’re not. This is a 

single-ended amp, with the two output 

tubes (on each channel) operating in 

parallel. Why? Single-ended amplifiers 

suffer from relatively high even-order 

harmonic distortion, but they are 

exceptionally linear at very low output. 

They go “class A” amplifiers one better. 

Inverse feedback can be used to reduce 

harmonic distortion on an amplifier, but 

the Mastersound eschews that as well. 

Now perhaps the configuration calls 

for a bit of explanation. The usual way 

of configuring a power amplifier, either 

tube or solid state, is with a pair of 

complementary output devices, one for 

the positive half of the wave, one for the 

negative half. That allows partial cancellation 

of harmonic distortion (actually 

the even harmonics, though not the 

more disturbing and unmusical odd 

harmonics). On the other hand, the 

wave can be asymmetrical if the two 

devices aren’t rigorously identical, and 

there can be a discontinuity at the zero 

point, where one device takes over from 

the other. In a single-ended amplifier, a 

single device or group of devices does 

all the work, and there can therefore be 

neither discontinuity nor asymmetry. 

The Evolution 845’s styling is identifiably 

Italian, which is far from being 

a criticism. The amplifier is solid, and it 

is heavy, which inspires confidence. It is 

wider than many equipment racks. However 

its most noticeable styling device is 

also its most problematic: the multileafed 

metallic structure that protects the 

output tubes physically and helps dissipate 

the considerable heat generated. 

Tap the structure and it rings like the 

bells of St. Mary’s. If this amplifier were 

ours, and assuming we didn’t own a cat, 

we would probably remove it. 

The front panel is a simple one, with 

an input selector and the volume control. 

There are four inputs, one of them identified 

as “tape” (the term seems quaint 

nowadays), but it is not part of a tape 

loop. Another input is labelled “direct,” 

which means it bypasses the volume 

control. That would be useful for the 

main channels of a home cinema system. 

A two-button remote control made from 

the same wood as the chassis sides allows 

adjustment of volume. 

Though the Mastersound 845 had 

been to a lot of shows and had presumably 

had plenty of run-in time, it also had 

one new tube, and so we gave it something 

like 100 hours more before getting 

down to serious listening. Although our

equipment stands are wider than most, 

we elected to operate the Mastersound 

on the floor, sitting on its built-in cones. 

That’s because we remember years ago 

reviewing another large tube amplifier, 

the Audiomat Opéra (UHF No. 69), 

and finding its bottom end a little 

lean. Placing it on the floor had made 

everything right again. Incidentally, 

our Moon W-8 reference amplifier 

also sits on cones, and we also have it 

on our hardwood floor. 

We decided to make this an allanalog 

session, and so we ran our Atlas 

Mavros cables directly from our phono 

preamplifier to the Mastersound. The 

amplifier has output posts for both 

4 ohm and 8 ohm speakers. Our Reference 

3a Supremas have a 4 ohm impedance, 

but we know from experience that 

the 8 ohm output often sounds better, 

because the 8 ohm transformer winding 

has less wire. We thought that, if the 

amplifier didn’t seem to have enough 

muscle, we could always switch to the 

4 ohm tap. 

It never happened. 

The rest of this review of the Mastersound 

amplifier can be found in the 

complete print or electronic version of 

UHF No. 92. Order the print issue from 

www.uhfmag.com/IndividualIssue.html 

(it’s case sensitive). Or subscribe at www. 

uhfmag.com/Subscription.html. The 

electronic issue is available from Maggie 

at www.uhfmag.com/maggie.html. 










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THIS MAGAZINE IS INTERACTIVE! 

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It work in three ways. 

Summing In the table it up… of contents, click on an article title, 

and you are whisked right to the article. 

Model: Mastersound In the list Evolution of advertisers 845 on the second-last page, 

Price: $15,000 click on an ad name, and go right to the ad itself. 

Sizet (WDH): 55 x 45 x 27 Then cm, click on an ad, 

Inputs: and your Three browser high-level, will one take direct you right to the advertiser’s Web page. 

Rated power: Remember 55 watts/channel when you’d have to circle little numbers 

Most liked: Outstanding on a card sound you would then mail in? 

Least liked: Heat Doesn’t diffuser that rings seem like like a a Lorem long time eum ago? 

iurer iure tatue modigna 

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Verdict: Forget power ratings, this eu facipsusto ea faccums andignis dit 

amplifier can handle pretty much illaore do odit ilis dipit do euis eui te 

anything 


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Listening Room

Listening Feedback Room 

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CROSSTALK! 

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If we disagree, so be it. 

But then comes the Crosstalk. 

The main text CROSSTALK 

of each review is based 

on the comments made in the discussion 

This amp is my friend! 

ent following whole. By each comparison, session. it almost seems 

It weighs like a monster but dances like But that at other the components end, each reviewer handle the music in 

a ballerina. Even at maximum volume it has participates separate ranges in of the highs, Crosstalk, mids and lows. This 

a great sense of fun, of exhilaration in the a personal amp hands comment the speakers on the a complete product. package, 

Firebird’s tutti passages and spookiness We in may I thought, even disagree a genuine among chunk ourselves. of the original 

the oboe solo. The reference does a great event, And containing you know all the what? essential elements 

expectant hush, but the Mastersound’s hush that Readers made that tell us performance they love memorable, 

was more expectant. Two notes beating including to see the us background disagree. on which it was 

together convinced me Doug McLeod’s Because set. if we, the “experts” can 

guitar sounded more guitar-like, because a No disagree, easy task. so can they. 

darn guitar is never perfectly in tune. Mining They Such tell us a reproduction our disagreements, doesn’t strike you 

for Gold pulled me right in, then showed me mostly at first minor as being, but say, sometimes detailed or major, transparent 

Margo Timmins in this terrific recording as much empower as being true. them. If you love it, that’s 

was leaning more to the worn-out junkie side That’s because just it one was way masterly UHF recorded Magazine and, if you 

than the passionate cowboy one. I think they is different don’t, then from it all was other not. But, magazines. 

whatever the 

put mood enhancers in this amplifier. case may be, it’ll always be music. And that 

Either that or it was wired up by Cecilia is a great comfort, even before you actually 

Bartoli. Enjoy! 

listen — knowing that you’ll always be 

—Toby Earp offered the best seat in the house. 

—Albert Simon 

We are talking reference quality here. 

This amp has a way of scooping the whole 

music performance at once, creating a coher- 


You know, I must have heard this amplifier 

(and I mean this very amplifier) at three 

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diametu. 

Vegas shows, perhaps four. But, as too often 

happens, a product may be playing but it is 

not the focus of the room, and it’s impossible 

to get more than a casual impression. 

Mastersound? It looks nice, but… 

Now that I’ve heard the Evolution 845 

under the best possible conditions — in 

UHF’s Omega reference system — I’m 

wowed. I just hadn’t realized how good it 

was. This is not an amplifier whose underlying 

technology impresses you, or even calls 

attention to itself. You might look at the 

available power when you’re in the store, but 

you’ll forget about it once you get it home 

and the first recording comes on. 

Is it an “impressive” amplifier? I’m wary 

of systems that are too impressive, because 

I want the music to impress me, not the 

hardware. That’s exactly what the Evolution 

845 gets right. 

It’s not cheap, but it has its place in the 

very best systems. 

—Gerard Rejskind

THE ACOUSTIC COLLECTION: 

This is the closest we can get to a book on 

acoustics by Paul Bergman. Issues No.77- 

84: eight issues available for the price of five 

issues. Including Paul Bergman’s complete 

series on acoustics for audiophiles (room size 

and acoustics, taming reverberation, absorbing 

sound, absorbing unwanted low frequencies, diffusing 

sound, soundproofing, speaker placement 

and room acoustics, and signals for acoustic 

measurement). 

No. 91: Reviews: The Benchmark DAC1 HDR, 

the Audiomat Phono2, the Moon 300A power 

amplifier, the Trends palm-sized power amp, 

and two software packages for music playback: 

Pure Music and Amarra. Home theatre: The 3D 

wave...is this the year it catches on?. Features: 

Are humans programmed to need music? TShow 

reports, from Toronto and Montreal. And how 

Reference Recordings has reinvented vinyl. Plus: 

Reine Lessard on why the Beatles live on and on. 

No. 90: Reviews: The Moon 100D converter and 

110LP phono preamp, another phono preamp 

from Nerve (who?), the Thorens TD-309 turntable, 

the Revolver Music 5 loudspeaker, a blind 

test of two new interconnects from Atlas. Home 

theatre: Apple’s second stab at a set-top box for 

your TV. Features: Paul Bergman reveals how 

precious master tapes turned out to have short 

lives, and we have more show reports. Plus: Toby 

Earp on the great Count Basie. 

No. 89: Reviews: The Moon 300D converter, 

the Allnic L-1500 tube preamplifier, the Leema 

Elements phono preamp, the ELAC FS 249 

loudspeaker, and a tube headphone amp from 

Trends. Home theatre: We compare a new LEDbacklit 

HDTV from Samsung with our reference 

plasma. Features: We look at 3D films, and 

reveal why most of them are bogus, we cover 

the best and worst from Vegas and Montreal, 

and Paul Bergman looks at the elements that 

make up a computer music source. Plus: Toby 

Earp on Rachmaninoff, the great 20th Century 

neo-Romantic. 

No. 88: High resolution music: We open our 

copies of Reference Recordings’ HRx 24/176.4 

recordings, and check how good they can sound 

right now. Reviews: Two speakers, the Reference 

3A Episode and the Audes Orpheus. An amazing 

four-box CD player from Cyrus. Cambridge’s 

affordable DACMagic. Blue Circle’s unusual 

Fon Lo phono preamps, two new cables from 

BIS, and headphones from AblePlanet. We try to 

determine whether a “better” USB cable sounds 

better. Plus: Paul Bergman on why many “stereo” 

recordings are done with a single microphone. 

No. 87: Digital: We review the April Music Eximus 

CD player, and we plug things into its digital 

inputs. We also try to get great sound from the 

increasingly popular Apple Airport Express. 

Analog: We listen to the Audiomat Phono-1.6, 

successor to our reference phono preamp, and 

a hand-wound step-up transformer from Allnic. 

Plus: A lovely little tube amp from Audio Space, 

the Pioneer BDP-11FD Blu-ray player, and a 

feature article on good sound in bad times. 

No.86: Analog: The Scheu Analogue Premier 

II turntable and Cantus arm, and two phono 

preamps: the Allnic H-1200 and the Moon LP3. 

Also: We continue our investigation of speaker 

connectors by putting WBT nextgens on our 

reference cable, we listen to Beats headphones, 

and the Shure SE530 and SE420 phones. We put 

the Zoom H2 palm-sized digital recorder through 

a tough test. Plus: color space in home theatre, 

Paul Bergman on analog in a digital world. 

No.85: Integrated amplifiers: the luxurious 

Sugden A21SE and the affordable Vecteur 

Ai4. We evaluate Eichmann’s new Quiessence 

cables, and chat with Keith Eichmann himself. 

We listen to a very good mid-priced speaker 

cable with four different connectors, and the 

results leave us stunned. Plus: We choose 

(and evaluate in depth) a new HDTV reference 

monitor, Paul Bergman winds up his series on 

acoustics, and we tell you how to transfer music 

to hard drive without saying you’re sorry. 

No.84: Digital streaming: the awesome Linn 

Klimax DS and the Off-Ramp Turbo 2 interface. 

Also: the classic Harbeth HL5 speaker, the 

affordable Moon CD-1 and i-1 amplifier, and 

a great phono stage from Aurum. Plus: UHF 

chats with Linn’s Gilad Tiefenbrun and Harbeth’s 

Alan Shaw, Paul Bergman discusses signals for 

acoustic measurement, and we look at the prospects 

for 3-D…at home and in the cinema. 

No.83: Digital: The Raysonic CD128 and a lowcost 

player from VisionQuest. Other reviews: The 

Moon LP5.3 phono stage, the Castle Richmond 

7i speaker, the upscale Mavros cables from 

Atlas, and a retest of the Power Foundation III 

line filter, with a better power cord this time. Plus: 

The acoustics of speaker placement, the two 

meanings of video image contrast, and a portrait 

of super tenor Placido Domingo. 

No.82: Amplifiers: A large sweet tube amplifier 

from Audio Space, the Reference 3.1, and the 

reincarnation of an old favorite, the Sugden A21. 

Digital: Bryston's first CD player, and the Blue 

Circle "Thingee," with USB at one end and lots of 

outputs at the other end. Plus: the BC Acoustique 

A3 speaker, a small subwoofer, two more London 

phono cartridges, line filters from AudioPrism 

and BIS, a blind test of three interconnects, Paul 

Bergman on soundproofing, and a thorough test 

of Sony's new-generation Blu-ray player 

No.81: Digital: The newest two-box CD player 

from Reimyo, and the magical Linn Majik 

player. Headphones a new version of our long 

time reference headphones, from the Koss pro 

division, and the affordable SR-125 headphones 

from Grado. Plus: The astonishing Sonogram 

loudspeakers from Gershman, a small but lovely 

tube integrated amplifier from CEC, and the 

London Reference phono cartridge. 

No.80: Equipment reviews: From Linn, the 

Artikulat 350A active speakers, the updated 

LP12 turntable, the Klimax Kontrol preamplifier, 

and the Linto phono stage; ASW Genius 300 

speakers, ModWright preamp and phono stage. 

Also: Bergman on absorbing low frequencies, 

emerging technologies for home theatre, and 

coverage of the Montreal Festival. 

No.79: Digital players: Simaudio’s flagship 

DVD (and CD) player, the Calypso, and Creek’s 

surprising economy EVO player. Phono stages: 

A slick tube unit from Marchand, and the superb 

Sonneteer Sedley, with USB input and output. 

Plus: the talented JAS Oscar loudspeakers, the 

Squeezebox plus our own monster power supply. 

Also: Bergman on what absorbs sound and what 

doesn’t, what’s next in home theatre, Vegas 

2007, and the secrets of the harmonica. 

No.78: Integrated amplifiers: the affordable 

Creek EVO, and the (also affordable) Audio 

Space AS-3i. Loudspeaker cables: six of them 

from Atlas and Actinote, in a blind test. Plus: 

the astonishing Aurum Acoustics Integris 300B 

complete system, and its optional CD player/ 

preamplifier. Whew! Also: Bergman on taming 

reverberation, how to put seven hours of uncompressed 

music on just one disc, and the one 

opera that even non-opera people know. 

No.77: Electronics: The Simaudio Moon P-8 

preamplifier, the successor to the legendary 

Bryston 2B power amp, the Antique Sound Lab 

Lux DT phono stage. Plus: the Reimyo DAP-777 

Back Issues 

converter, an affordable CD player/integrated 

amp pair from CEC, and five power cords. Also: 

Paul Bergman on room size and acoustics, how 

to dezone foreign DVDs, and how to make your 

own 24/96 high resolution discs at home. 

No.76: Loudspeakers: a new look at the modern 

version of the Totem Mani-2, an affordable ELAC 

speaker with a Heil tweeter, and the even more 

affordable Castle Richmond 3i. Plus headphone 

amps from Lehmann, CEC and Benchmark, a 

charger that can do all your portables, and the 

Squeezebox 3, which gets true hi-fi music from 

your computer to your stereo system. Bergman 

on speaker impedance and how to measure it. 

No.75: Amplifiers: The new Simaudio Moon W-8 

flagship, and integrated amps from Copland (the 

CTA-405) and CEC. Speakers: the Reference 3a 

Veena and the Energy Reference Connoisseur 

reborn. Plus the Benchmark DAC converter. And 

also: Bergman on the changing concept of hi-fi 

and stereo, a chat with FIM’s Winston Ma, and 

the rediscovery of a great Baroque composer, 

Christoph Graupner. 

No.74: Amplifiers: Mimetism 15.2, Qinpu A-8000, 

Raysonic SP-100, Cyrus 8vs and Rogue Stereo 

90. More reviews: Atlantis Argentera speaker, 

Cyrus CD8X player, GutWire MaxCon 2 line 

filter, Harmony remote, Music Studio 10 recording 

software. Cables: Atlas, Stager, BIS and 

DNM, including a look at how length affects 

digital cables. Plus: the (hi-fi) digital jukebox, 

why HDTV doesn’t always mean what you think, 

and Reine Lessard on The Man Who Invented 

Rock’n’Roll. 

No.73: Integrated amplifiers: Audiomat Récital 

and Exposure 2010S. Analog: Turntables 

from Roksan (Radius 5) and Goldring (the 

Rega-designed GR2), plus two cartridges, and 

four phono stages from CEC, Marchand and 

Goldring. The Harmonix Reimyo CD player, 

Audiomat Maestro DAC, ASW Genius 400 

speakers, and the Sonneteer BardOne wireless 

system. Plus: Paul Bergman on the making of an 

LP and why they don’t all sound the same. 

No.72: Music from data: How you can make your 

own audiophile CDs with equipment you already 

have. We test a DAC that yields hi-fi from your 

computer. We review the new Audio Reference 

speakers, the updated Connoisseur singleended 

tube amp, upscale Actinote cables, and 

Gershman’s Acoustic Art panels. How to tune up 

your system for a big performance boost. 

No.71: Small speaker: Reference 3a Dulcet, 

Totem Rainmaker, and a low cost speaker from 

France. A blind cable test: five cables from Atlas, 

and a Wireworld cable with different connectors 

(Eichmann, WBT nextgen, and Wireworld). The 

McCormack UDP-1 universal player, muRata 

super tweeters, Simaudio I-3 amp and Equinox 

CD player. Paul Bergman examines differences 

behind two-channel stereo and multichannel. 

No.70: How SACD won the war…or how DVD-A 

blew it. Reviews: Linn Unidisk 1.1 universal 

player and Shanling SCD-T200 player. Speakers: 

Reference 3a Royal Virtuoso, Equation 25, 

Wilson Benesch Curve. Other reviews: Simaudio 

W-5LE amp, the iPod as an audiophile source. 

Plus: future video screens, and the eternal music 

of George Gershwin 

No.69: Tube Electronics: Audiomat Opéra , 

Connoisseur SE-2 and Copland CSA29 integrated 

amps, and Shanling SP-80 monoblocks. 

Audiomat's Phono 1.5, Creek CD50, GutWire's 

NotePad and a music-related computer game 

that made us laugh out loud. Paul Bergman on 

the return of the tube, and how music critics did 

their best to kill the world’s greatest music. 

No.68: Loudspeakers: Thiel CS2.4, Focus Audio 

FS688, Iliad B1. Electronics:Vecteur I-6.2 and 

Audiomat Arpège integrated amps, Copland 306 

multichannel tube preamp, Rega Fono MC. Also: 

Audio Note and Copland CD players, GutWire 

MaxCon power filter. And there’s more: all about 

power supplies, what’s coming beyond DVD, and 

a chat with YBA’s Yves-Bernard André. 

No.67: Loudspeakers: An improved Reference 

3a MM de Capo, and the Living Voice Avatar 

OBX-R. Centre speakers from Castle, JMLab, 

ProAc, Thiel, Totem and Vandersteen. One of 

them joins our Kappa system. Two multichannel 

amps from Copland and Vecteur. Plus: plans for 

a DIY platform for placing a centre speaker atop 

any TV set, Paul Bergman on the elements of 

acoustics, and women in country music. 

No.66: Reviews: the Jadis DA-30 amplifier, the 

Copland 305 tube preamp and 520 solid state 

amp. Plus: the amazing Shanling CD player, 

Castle Stirling speakers, and a remote control 

that tells you what to watch. Also: Bergman on 

biwiring and biamplification, singer Janis Ian’s 

alternative take on music downloading, and a 

chat with Opus 3’s Jan-Eric Persson. 

No.65: Back to Vinyl: setting up an analog 

system, reviews of Rega P9 turntable, and 

phono preamps from Rega, Musical Fidelity 

and Lehmann. The Kappa reference system for 

home theatre: choosing our HDTV monitor, plus 

a review of the Moon Stellar DVD player. Antivibration: 

Atacama, Symposium, Golden Sound, 

Solid-Tech, Audioprism, Tenderfeet. Plus an 

interview with Rega’s turntable designer,. 

No.64: Speakers: Totem M1 Signature and 

Hawk, Visonik E352. YBA Passion Intégré amp, 

Cambridge IsoMagic (followup), better batteries 

for audio-to-go. Plus: the truth about upsampling, 

an improvement to our LP cleaning machine, an 

interview with Ray Kimber. 

No.63: Tube amps: ASL Leyla & Passion 

A11. Vecteur Espace speakers, 2 interconnects 

(Harmonic Technology, Eichmann), 

5 speaker cables (Pierre Gabriel, vdH , 

Harmonic Technology, Eichmann), 4 power 

cords (Wireworld, Harmonic Technology, 

Eichmann, ESP). Plus: Paul Bergman on 

soundproofing, comparing components 

in the store, big-screen TV’s to stay away 

from, a look back at the Beatles revolution. 

No.62: Amplifiers: Vecteur I-4, Musical Fidelity 

Nu-Vista M3, Antique Sound Lab MG-S11DT. 

Passive preamps: Creek and Antique Sound 

Lab. Vecteur L-4 CD player. Interconnects: VdH 

Integration, Wireworld Soltice. Plus: the right to 

copy music, for now. Choosing a DVD player by 

features. And all about music for the movies. 

No.61: Digital: Audiomat Tempo and Cambridge 

Isomagic DACs, Vecteur D-2 transport. Speakers: 

Osborn Mini Tower and Mirage OM-9. Soundcare 

Superspikes. And: new surround formats, dezoning 

DVD players. 

No.60: Speakers: Monitor Audio Silver 9, 

Reference 3a MM De Capo, Klipsch RB-5, 

Coincident Triumph Signature. Plus: a Mirage 

subwoofer and the Audiomat Solfège amp. Paul 

Bergman on reproducing extreme lows. 

No.59: CD players: Moon Eclipse, Linn Ikemi and 

Genki, Rega Jupiter/Io, Cambridge D500. Plus: 

Oskar Kithara speaker, with Heil tweeter. And: 

transferring LP to CD, the truth on digital radio, 

digital cinema vs MaxiVision 48. 

SEE MORE AT: 

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T 


Eximus DP1 

o begin with, what is it? Is 

it a preamplifier? Yes. Is it a 

digital-to-analog converter? 

Definitely. A headphone 

amplifier? That too, but first things first. 

Let us discuss the often talked-about 

wife acceptance factor. The very concept 

whiffs of sexism, but it is an undeniable 

fact that the ranks of audiophiles count 

a lot more men than women. This can 

seem to be an enigma, because the ranks 

of music lovers include at least as many 

women as men. Whatever the reason, 

it is usually men who choose the music 

system, but in many (most?) cases it is the 

Which brings us to the Eximus DP1, 

perhaps the handsomest audio consumer 

product we have ever reviewed. Even 

Albert Simon’s superb cover picture can 

barely prepare you for the astonishing 

look of this product. Built from a single 

block of cast aluminum, it made us think 

of the MacBook Pro laptop, which is also 

cast aluminum, but with a Zen touch 

that goes beyond. Look at the holes that 

allow heat dispersion. Look at the amazing 

pattern of leaves cut into the top, but 

don’t miss the two wayward leaves that 

are just above the volume control. 

And speaking of the volume con- 

woman who has laid out the furniture trol, you just know that knob didn’t 

and designed the décor. That the two come out of anyone’s parts bin. 

may clash hardly needs explaining. Things are not always as they seem, 

A woman living alone will almost of course. Just as some “Japanese,” 

certainly choose a smaller, more discreet “German” and “Korean” cars are actu- 

system than a solitary man might, but ally designed in Europe and the US, so 

the problem is less one of size than of the DP1 is from the California studio 

design. True, some of the best loud- of Alex Rasmussen, who has also done 

speakers and amplifiers are large, often cosmetics for such companies as Ayre 

obtrusively so, but then grand pianos are and Constellation Audio. It’s truly a 

large too, yet it’s almost unimaginable global world! 

that anyone would say, “It’s too big, I The Eximus is from South Korea’s 

don’t want that in my house.” 

April Music, and we have run across 

It’s never too big unless it’s ugly. the name before. An Eximus CD player, 


with a full set of digital inputs, was 

reviewed in UHF No. 86. CD players 

are leaving the stage, however, and 

standalone DAC’s are replacing them. 

Choose your source: a CD transport (if 

you can find one), your CD player (if you 

still have one), or your computer, with or 

without some sort of interface accessory. 

The DP1 (the initials possibly stand 

for “digital preamp”) fits right in. 

It is now increasingly 

common for preamplifiers, 

amplifiers and even receivers 

to have digital inputs, though 

in many cases they’re an afterthought 

that might better not 

have been thought of at all. 

Fortunately that’s not always 

true. The Benchmark DAC1 HDR, 

which was on the cover of our last issue, 

is primarily a DAC (and a good one), 

which includes a preamp. This one is 

the other way around, though that’s a 

distinction without a difference. 

Although the emphasis is on digital, 

there are two analog inputs. One of 

them, unfortunately, is wasted in our 

view, by being placed on the front panel. 

Does anyone still use a portable player 

as a source? 

The rear panel, shown on the next 

page, includes a good set of interfaces, 

including one you may not have seen 

before, labelled I 2 S, which stands for 

Integrated Interchip Sound. This link 

is for connecting a disc drive to a DAC, 

and it separates the data and clock 

streams for lower jitter. Though it was 

developed in 1986, it is rarely used. PS 

Audio uses it for its own transport and 

DAC, but this particular connector is 

proprietary. April Music does make a 

transport. 

The front panel has the analog input 

already mentioned, a headphone jack, 

and a source selector. A tiny LED indicates 

the source resolution, glowing red 

(44.1 or 48 kHz sampling rate), yellow 

(88.2 or 96) or green (176.4 or 192). We 

were surprised to find that the DP1 

doesn’t come with a remote control, an 

omission that could be a dealbreaker for 

some. 

Because the DP1 is multitalented, we 

needed to do more than one evaluation, 

in order to answer the questions we (and 

you, probably) have.

The optical connection 

Up until now one of our major digital 

sources had been an Apple Airport 

Express, streaming music from a distant 

Mac Pro and linked to our Moon 300D 

reference DAC with an optical cable. 

The first test, therefore, was to 

compare the DP1’s converter 

to the Moon using this same 

connection method. We chose 

two recordings. 

The rest of this review of the 

Eximus DP1 can be found in the 

complete print or electronic version 

of UHF No. 92. Order the 

print issue from www.uhfmag. 

com/IndividualIssue.html (it’s case 

sensitive). Or subscribe at www.uhfmag. 

com/Subscription.html. The electronic 

issue is available from Maggie at www. 

uhfmag.com/maggie.html. 










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Summing it up… 

Brand/model: Eximus DP1 

Price: C$3295 

Size (WDH): 20.8 x 29 x 6.3 cm 

Inputs: six digital, two analog 

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Listening Room

Listening Room 

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CROSSTALK! 

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The main text of each review is based 


CROSSTALK 

following each session. 

If you’re thinking of upgrading your But What’s at the more, end, each for some, reviewer one look and 

DAC, why not upgrade your preamp as well? participates your spouse-life-partner-mother-of-your 

in the Crosstalk, 

Yes, I know, looking for a new preamp may a personal children-and-self-appointed-all-around- 

comment on the product. 

not be as sexy as exploring the onslaught We may audiomania-critic even disagree will among be charmed ourselves. too. 

of new technologies which are shattering And you know what? —Albert Simon 

established ideas about sources, but a good Readers tell us they love 

preamp remains a must. 

Even to see with us the disagree. least-favorite optical cable, 

After listening to the Eximus DP1 I can Because the Eximus if we, DP1 the provided “experts” lots can of detail and 

now say that you don’t have to choose. This space. disagree, The birdlike so can flutes they. in the Britten 

unit is a wonderful combination of both and, They piece tell were us absolutely our disagreements, charming, on a clean 

after its performance here, I bet it’ll also give mostly background. minor but Connected sometimes via its major, USB input, it 

a new life to your LPs — yes, they’re hot painted empower the orchestra them. in the Rachmaninoff 

and getting hotter. No, it didn’t match our That’s piece just in one fine way strokes UHF of Magazine relief and clearly 

reference system, but that is not much of is a different separated from the all snare other drum magazines. 

and the triangle. 

surprise. What was surprising was how close I thought there was a little more detail 

it came to it and, in one case, very close. in the low bass with the Stello interface, but 

If you’re starting out, you’ll have a solid there was not really a lot to choose from 

base with tons of potential for growth, on the two USB connections. Compared with 

which to build the rest of your system. And the reference Moon DAC via the Stello U3, 

if you’re a heard-it-all audiophile, let this unit the reference provided new insight into the 

into your life, and let your ears be charmed. sounds, how a piano note is taken up and 









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ese dolore dolutat. 

prolonged by the double basses. In comparison 

the DP1 was just a bit less lively, Margie 

Gibson a bit breathier-sounding, and that, 

from the final test, appeared to be because 

we had to listen to the Eximus’ DAC through 

its preamp section. 

Whew! That was a lot of A-B comparing. 

The DP1 is a very good converter, and if it’s 

not fair to put it up against a preamp that 

costs like the reference, it gave us no choice, 

and it performed very well even so. 

—Toby Earp 

This unit is so beautiful you just want 

it to sound the way it looks, which is to say 

better than anything else. That would be an 

impossible mission, but it is good enough to 

be the heart of a terrific modern computerbased 

music system. Forget the low cost, 

which is a mere bonus. 

—Gerard Rejskind

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USB Interfaces 

two featured in this review wouldn’t 

even exist. A properly-designed 

digital-to-analog converter would 

offer you optimum performance on every 

single one of its inputs. At the moment, 

that is mostly not what happens. 

We think we know the reason. The 

most common digital audio connections 

— coaxial (S/PDIF), AES/EBU 

and TOSLINK — are familiar to audio 

engineers because they’ve been working 

with them for years, even decades. Until 

not too long ago, high end DAC’s didn’t 

actually have USB inputs, because those 

are computer interfaces meant for keyboards 

and cameras, not audio circuits. 

When USB audio inputs finally became 

common it was as an afterthought. 

Customers expected USB, and so high end 

DAC makers went shopping for a chip, 

or even a complete circuit board. On the 

evidence, most of them didn’t spend any 

more than they had to. 

Indeed, some of them didn’t even 

bother Googling USB, otherwise they 

wouldn’t claim, as some do, that USB 

audio is limited to a 48 kHz sampling 

rate. That limitation was due not to the 

Listening Room In a perfect world products like the 


USB standard but to the lousy circuits 

they had been using. It was in part for 

that reason that we have been recommending 

an optical link (many modern 

computers have TOSLINK outputs, 

including all modern Macs except the 

MacBook Airs). And indeed the optical 

link works very well, well enough that we 

were getting results very close to those 

of our Linn Unidisk 1.1 player. 

USB’s second-class status may be 

changing, but in the meantime there 

are special products to the rescue. These 

two boxes are examples. What they do 

is run the USB output signal from a 

computer, through a properly-optimized 

USB circuit, and then output it through 

the sort of conventional digital link that 

audio engineers are familiar with, such 

Finally…USB done 

right. As for us, we 

were in for a major 

surprise. You too, 

possibly. 

as coaxial, or the balanced AES/EBU. 

How do they work? Fabulously well, 

as we would discover. Indeed, we were 

in for a major surprise, and as you read 

this report perhaps you will be too. 

Before we begin, we should stress that 

this connection method is useful only 

if you either have a dedicated computer 

that is part of your music system, or 

at least a computer that is only a short 

distance away from the system. A USB 

cable cannot be longer than 5 metres. 

Although it is possible to insert a 

repeater circuit, that hardly seems like 

a desirable solution to the distance 

problem. Running a very long digital 

cable of any sort can actually cost more 

than just adding a dedicated computer 

to the system. 

Which is what many audiophiles are 

choosing to do. We’ll have some hints 

on doing just that shortly. For our part, 

we have added an aging MacBook Pro 

portable computer to our Omega reference 

system. Until now, we had been 

connecting it to our Moon 300D DAC 

with our TOSLINK optical cable. 

Could an outboard USB circuit do 

better? We would see. 

The M2Tech HiFace 

If you expect a “proper” USB circuit 

to be large and complex, you may be 

puzzled by the Italian-made HiFace. 

It’s simply a small plastic device with 

a connector at each end. There are no 

controls. The HiFace does require a 

driver for either Windows or OS X, but 

neither is included. There is only a slip 

of paper with a link for downloading the 

one you need. 

The HiFace definitely has price on 

its side. Teac lists it for $200 ($220 with 

a BNC connector instead of the more 

common phono jack), but street price 

can be as little as $150, as we will see in 

a moment. 

Because USB cables are for data 

only, you might suppose that all cables 

will give the same result. That’s not the 

case, as we determined with listening 

tests some time back, but the point is 

moot, because the HiFace can plug 

directly into the computer (we don’t 

suggest plugging it into a USB dock). At 

the other end, you should of course use 

the best cable possible. We have been

using the Atlas Opus (now discontinued 

but still available from The Audiophile 

Store at $240), but we have now upgraded 

to the Atlas Mavros ($565), reviewed 

elsewhere in this issue. 

For the comparison, we first listened 

to the music selections with the usual 

TOSLINK (optical) connection from 

our MacBook Pro to our 300D DAC. 

They sound downright terrific that 

way. Of course there’s always something 

beyond “terrific,” a fact that gave us 

hope. 

We began with the Non Allegro from 

Reference Recordings’ Rachmaninoff 

Symphonic Dances album. We used the 

HRx version available on DVD-ROM, 

essentially a copy of Keith O. Johnson’s 

master recording. This is a 24-bit 

176.4 kHz file, but our optical setup 

requires downsampling to 96 kHz. 

That’s not ideal, but it still sounded 

stunning. 

Of course with the HiFace we could 

go to the file’s native resolution, but not 

without an odd problem. No matter what 

we did, the display on our Moon DAC 

indicated a sampling rate of 48 kHz. 

The exceedingly brief instructions offer 

no hint as to the problem, though some 

research on the company site gave us the 

solution. Despite what you might expect, 

the DAC’s front panel display doesn’t 

really measure the sampling rate of the 

incoming signal. The source must tell it 

what the rate is. The HiFace does not 

meet established USB standards, and it 

does not give the DAC accurate information. 

However its driver does give you 

access to a full range of resolutions, even 

if they’re not reflected by the display. 

In any case we certainly liked what 

the HiFace did to the music. “It’s a 

marriage of digital with the listenability 

of analog,” said Steve, who wondered 

whether even a live audience would have 

been able to hear everything we were 

hearing. The space was huge and welldefined 

(Keith Johnson usually nails 

this), with a beautifully natural decay 

of notes. We thought back to the days 

of early digital, when the trailing ends 

of notes would just vanish. At the same 

time the background was a deep black, 

lending dynamic contrast to music that 

has plenty of it. The sound was bright, 

but in a natural way, without the artificial 

“crispness” 

of bad digital. Or bad anything. 

Yes, but the recording had been 

terrific with the optical link too. Was 

it better with this little USB dongle? It 

was unanimous. Yes. 

We continued with another HRx 

recording, Some of These Days from the 

Hot Club of San Francisco’s Yerba Buena 

Bounce album. Even with the optical link, 

and its forced downsampling, the album 

was musically much more interesting 

than it had been with the CD. In its full 

resolution rendition, it was much better 

yet. The lively rhythm was tireless. The 

violin was natural, not a bit strident. The 

clarinet had extra body, and the trombone 

had a lovely growl. The trumpet 

sound was powerful. The voice was more 

natural too, and the words especially 

clear. 

And remember that this was in comparison 

to the same file played with the 

optical link, not to the original CD. 

For the final selection we turned to 

Fidelio’s recording of Dvorak’s Symphony 

From the New World. This is a 24-bit 

96 kHz recording, which Fidelio gave us 

on a memory card. We were of course 

able to play it at native resolution even 

with the optical link. 

The space was well-rendered even 

with the TOSLINK, but the HiFace 

blew up the balloon a little, increasing 

both spaciousness and impact. We could 

hear that the woodwinds were placed 

near the back of the orchestra. We 

wished that the strings had been a little 

silkier, but there was no confusion, even 

in the complex passages. 

There’s a lot to be said for the 

M2Tech HiFace. It offers what seems 

to be the best possible link between a 

computer and a modern DAC, and it 

gives you access to pretty much any file 

resolution being used today. True, it 

lies to the DAC, but you quickly forgive 

that and revel in the sound. The HiFace 

also has economics on its side. It costs 

less than the alternative we were also 

reviewing, and it doesn’t even need a 

USB cable. 

We wish it were prettier, but the 

music 

it makes is gorgeous. We were just about 

ready to pick one up ourselves. But of 

course we had another such device to 

listen to. 

The Stello U3 

This USB interface looks like a 

high end product, and of course it is, 

resembling an Apple TV. Stello is one 

of the brand names of April Music, a 

South Korean company whose products 

we have reviewed before. Another of its 

products, the Eximus DP1, is on the 

cover of this issue. The Stello costs $495. 

Like the HiFace, the Stello has a 

coaxial digital output, but it also has 

a balanced AES/EBU output, possibly 

useful if your DAC has the appropriate 

input. Like the HiFace the U3 is powered 

by the computer’s own USB circuit. 

However it requires a cable to link it to 

the computer. It doesn’t come with one, 

but USB cables are cheap, and if you’re 

like us you have a couple of them lying 

around. 

Ah, but do all USB cables perform 

the same? Not according to an earlier 

test (in UHF No. 88), in which we tried 

a premium USB cable from BIS Audio 

on an Edirol UA-25 converter. The BIS 

was audibly superior, which came as a 

surprise. We therefore performed the 

test with the BIS. 

The U3 is supplied with a disc, 

which includes the instruction manual 

in PDF form as well as a driver for Windows 

computers. Our Mac requires no 

driver. When it’s plugged in, the Stello 

identifies itself as an XMOS USB 2.0 

device. It offers a full set of resolutions 

to match anything available today. 

We selected the appropriate resolution 

using our Mac’s Audio Devices utility. 

Note, however, that the utility does 

not change resolution automatically 

according to the file being read. If you 

leave the resolution at 24/192 the data 

will be upsampled (and the DAC’s front 

panel will read 192 kHz). However you 


Listening Listening Feedback Room Room


won’t want to do that 

with 176.4 or 88.2 kHz 

files. For the purposes of this review, we 

selected the native resolution whenever 

we could. 

On a Windows computer the U3 will 

also advertise itself as an XMOS device, 

which means it will work with no driver. 

However one of our customers warned 

us that the results were poor, and that 

there was a reason the U3 came with a 

driver. Install it, and all is well. 

It didn’t take us very long to realize 

that there was no way we were sending 

this box back to the distributor. 

We began with the Rachmaninoff, 

and we were pleased to see the red 

“176” LED light up on our Moon 300D 

DAC. Our initial impression was that 

the orchestra was more distant than it 

had been before, but then we realized 

that of course it really should be more 

distant, because that’s the way a symphony 

orchestra is laid out. The depth, 

already prodigious, was increased again. 

A trace of “edginess” on the strings, 

just noticeable before, was gone. “The 

fortissimo didn’t hurt my ears this time,” 

said Steve. Albert admired the timbres 

of the woodwinds, and especially the 

bassoon. The oboe and the saxophone 

were improved as well. “The sound is 

cleaner,” said Albert, “yet at the same 

time there’s more music.” 

The piano did seem to have more 


reverberation, perhaps too 

much, but it may have been recorded 

that way. 

We continued with Some of These 

Days, and the performance wowed us 

even more, because this time everything 

was clearly better rendered. The violin 

was silkier and it never hardened up 

even on loud and complex passages. The 

clarinet was at once detailed and natural, 

and Steve swore he could hear echoes 

within the clarinet’s own tube. The voice 

was clear and clean, with added detail in 

the bottom register. 

But those are mere sonic details, 

and what especially delighted us was 

the overall musical sound, because that 

has a direct relation to the performance. 

Rhythm was communicative, and the 

music flowed with ease. There was a 

joyous ambience, which brought us back 

in our imaginations to the smoky prewar 

Paris cabaret of Django and Stéphane. 

We had one final recording, the 

excerpt from Dvorak’s New World Symphony. 

Because it’s a 24/96 recording, we 

had been able to listen to it natively even 

with our TOSLINK optical cable. We 

had liked it, but there were some obvious 

imperfections. We were about to hear all 

our doubts swept away. 

One of our frequent observations is 

that digital recording (and everything 

else) has trouble reproducing violins, 

and that massed violins and woodwinds 

typically sound too loud and rather 

grating. We had noticed exactly that 

with the optical link, but there was no 

sign of those flaws this time. Fortissimo 

passages were loud, to be sure, but they 

were naturally loud, as they would be had 

we been at the original recording venue. 

The violins were clear and even forward, 

but never annoyingly so. In truth, all 

of the instrumental timbres seemed 

natural, and we thoroughly enjoyed 

the performance. 

But we had one more question. 

The three selections we had used 

were high resolution, with 24 bits and 

either 176.4 or 96 kHz sampling rate. 

What could this USB interface do with 

a standard CD? We selected one of 

our favorites, Margie Gibson singing I 

Got Lost in His Arms from her Sheffield 

album, Say It With Music. We knew 

that our computer, with its optical link, 

would sound only slightly inferior to the 

original CD played on our superlative 

Linn Unidisk 1.1 player. We returned 

to the optical link, dialed the resolution 

down to 16/44, and listened. Sure 

enough, the song was gorgeous. Could 

the Stello do better? 

It could, and it did. Over the years 

we have numerous times been surprised 

to learn that a standard CD could sound 

so much better than we had supposed, 

and it was happening once more. With 

the USB link, it was vastly superior, with 

finer detail, and more of the emotion 

that Margie communicates so well. 

But we weren’t done yet. “I want to 

try one more thing,” said Gerard, dropping 

the original Sheffield CD into the 

drawer of our Linn player. 

Our jaws dropped. We were left 

stunned, and we looked at each other 

awestruck, because the difference was 

not a slight one. The Linn sounded 

veiled by comparison, and we didn’t even 

need to take notes. There was a long 

silence after the piece was done. We had 

just heard computer audio outperform 

a player we consider to be the best ever 

made! 

We have other findings that may 

interest you. The less-expensive HiFace 

can also outperform our Linn. And 

when we streamed music from our 

distant Mac Pro, over Wi-Fi, to our 

resident MacBook Pro, we would hear 

no diminution in performance.

Conclusions 

That we would recommend both 

the Stello and the HiFace to you pretty 

much goes without saying, and of course 

it reinforced the advice we have been 

giving you over the past three years or 

so: don’t buy any CD player that doesn’t 

have digital inputs. 

However this review had clear implications 

for us, for our reference systems, 

and even for our Audiophile Store. 

We were, of course, going to be 

keeping the Stello U3. Our CD listening 

would be done with it from now on. The 

Linn would henceforth be reserved for 

playing SACDs and a rare DVD-Audio. 

Albert had been shopping for a new 

CD player, but wanted to hear this setup 

in his own system. Subsequently he 

purchased a used but recent Mac mini 

for a little over $300, which has become 

his “CD” player. He controls it from his 

iPhone or iPad. 

As for our store, we wondered 

whether we could add some of the products 

we were about to grace with this 

rave review. We did. Both the HiFace 

and the Stello U3 are now listed on our 

Look, I really hadn’t expected this. Yes, 

I knew that audio from a computer could be 

very good, that it could rival the very best 

disc players, because I had seen it again and 

again. But “rival” is not the same as “beat.” 

“Rival” is not the same as “grind into the 

dust.” 

Not long ago I considered computer 

audio to be a convenience, the same way 

that a CD changer was, only much better. 

Sure, there was a performance hit, and you’d 

expect that, and you accepted the tradeoff. 

Well, forget the tradeoff. Audio from 

a computer can be far superior. And that’s 

good, because more and more companies 

are getting out of the CD player business. 

“Associates” at big-box stores don’t even 

know what they are, and the newest cars 

don’t have CD slots anymore. Welcome to 

the future. 

Only it’s not the future anymore. 

—Gerard Rejskind 

Imagine the scene. A huge crowd has 

“digital” page (the HiFace is available 

in limited quantities, unfortunately). 

While we were at it we called BIS Audio 

and asked whether we could buy stock of 

their excellent USB cable. We could and 

we did. 

Why does computer audio sound 

better than the best CD player made? 

Let us attempt a guess. 

You’ll recall that the Compact 

Disc format was finalized in 1982, 

but designed some time before. The 

economy was then in one of its periodic 

recessions (of course, we had seen nothing 

yet!), and, as always happens during 

a recession, music was number one on 

the list of budget items that could be 

cut. There was pressure from Big Music 

to launch the laser music disc, ready or 

not. It was a lot more ready than we 

assumed, but it bears the marks of its 

rushed development. 

In particular, though the naysayers 

like to say that “bits is bits,” in fact the 

digital data is recorded on the CD in 

analog form. The pits in the aluminum 

(actually the “lands,” seen from the other 

side) don’t directly correspond to digital 

CROSSTALK 

gathered in front of the castle walls, nervously 

awaiting the arrival of the two heroes. 

The enormous doors open slowly, and the 

crowd, lined up on either side, suddenly 

bursts into cheers as the two minuscule 

giant-killers emerge, casting long shadows: 

the Stello U3 and the M2Tech HiFace. 

Add one of them to your system and 

you’ll be cheering too. And you’ll soon be 

scrambling through your hard disc, uncovering 

musical gems, hidden under the guise of 

ordinary files. The highest quality files will 

be revealed to their full potential, but that 

was not the most important realization that 

I had. By far, the most impressive result was 

the giant-killing quality that was uncovered 

in ordinary 44.1 kHz files. 

No need to wait for rare 192 kHz recordings, 

some of the future is already here. Now! 

—Albert Simon 

Keith Johnson and the folks at Reference 

have done it again. They are selling digital 

music recorded at a resolution rate of 176.4 

data. Rather, the length of a “land” 

(which is of course an analog value) 

expresses how many zeros must go by 

before a one appears, or vice versa. These 

analog values must be read in real time 

from a rapidly spinning disc, turned by 

a mechanism whose precision has little 

in common with that of a Swiss watch. 

You can see the problem. 

A computer hard drive is different. 

Data is actually stored as a sequence of 

ones and zeros. Just as important is the 

fact that the data is loaded into computer 

memory before being turned back into 

analog sound, which means you don’t 

have to worry about the quality of the 

drive’s bearing. 

Of course if the source of the music 

file is a CD, the problem remains of 

getting it off as accurately as possible. 

There are competing software packages 

available claiming to do this better, and 

you can expect us to write about this 

topic in the future. 

It happens now and then that a review 

session is so revealing that it changes our 

minds about the very nature of our work. 

This was such a session. 

kHz, and in so doing are setting the standard 

for others to match. As more recordings 

become available at this high a resolution, 

how to prepare for their arrival? 

Can your system let you hear this much 

extra digital beauty, with either of these 

USB interfaces plugged into your computer 

source? The answer is a cheerful yes, and an 

even cheerier guess what else they can do. If 

you use a modern DAC, then either of these 

devices will give your Reference Recording 

all that they need to show their real stuff. 

That’s all well and good, you might 

say, but my CD collection is mostly 44.6, 

plus I have a few 24/96 downloads. So can 

this thing give me any improvement to my 

present reality? The good news is that each 

of these interfaces adds detail, presence and 

transparency to both Red Book discs and 

high-res downloads. Both really and truly 

change the quality of all of the music I heard 

today, no matter what digital format was 

playing. 

—Steve Bourke 


Listening Feedback Room

amplifier. The same would be true of 

other cables that are “semi-balanced,” 

or (more accurately) pseudo-balanced. 

There are four 3T interconnects, 

named respectively The Valley, The 

Rock Hybrid, The Hill Hybrid, and The 

Mountain Hybrid. Thus this one is second 

from the bottom. It is, however, far from 

being an entry-level cable, with a price 

of $695. A balanced version with XLR 

connectors is offered at the same price. 

There are also 3T loudspeaker cables. 

The price doesn’t buy you a full 

metre, however, and that presented a 

problem for us. Still, with a little adjustment 

we used The Rock to connect our 

phono preamp to the reference preamplifier 

in our Omega system. That would 

put The Rock up against our newest 

reference cable, the $1500 Atlas Mavros. 

VdH 3T “The Rock” 

Unfair? Well, that’s what having a reference 

is all about! And there is a 3T cable 

of about that price if that’s the way you 

roll. 

structure, and therefore has no crystal In the past we have criticized Van den 

in Europe at least, A.J. Van boundaries. 

Hul cables for their connectors, which 

den Hul’s eponymous com- Now, not all critics can be made to made rather loose contact with anything 

pany is known for a wide agree that there is an actual problem we attempted to plug them into. As 

array of audio products, including a full that can be traced to the presence of before, these connectors are composed 

line of electronics. In North America it’s crystalline boundaries, but a number of a rigid outer shell with what appears 

famous for phono cartridges, but espe- of cable manufacturers are using Ohno to be a sheet metal collar inside it. We 

cially for audio cables. Steve Bourque’s single-crystal copper, which allows a tried them on several pieces of gear, and 

Rendezvous session with A.J. is elsewhere single crystal to be over 100 metres we are pleased to say that the fit was quite 

in this issue. 

long. We ourselves are design-agnostic. snug. We can’t comment on their likely 

Van den Hul cables are not of the There are claims we believe in, not on longevity. 

generic sort hawked by a growing theoretical grounds, but because we have This was, once again, an all-vinyl 

number of small and not-so-small 

providers, sourced from big wire mills 

seen excellent products made that way. comparison, starting with a new Refer- 

THIS Van MAGAZINE den Hul makes IS other INTERACTIVE! 

claims for ence Recordings LP of Rachmaninoff’s 

overseas. VdH was the first (and, as far its 3T materials, It work beyond in three the ways. advantage Symphonic Dances (RM-1504). As we’ve 

as we know, the only) company to offer In of the amorphous table of construction. contents, click The on cable’s an article mentioned title, before, this recording is 

wires containing no metal at all. VdH’s transmission and you are path whisked remains right intact to the even article. notable for its great depth of image, as 

The First and The Second interconnects In if the list wire of is advertisers bent, something on the second-last not true most page, of Keith O. Johnson’s recordings 

used carbon filaments rather than the click of many on an an ad expensive name, and high-tech go right to cable. the ad are. itself. The LP is especially strong in that 

usual copper, silver, or silver-coated And the 3T cable Then is click said on to an be ad, immune department, as is the HRx 24/176.4 

copper. We still own a pair and of The your browser to changes will in take temperature, you right as to well the advertiser’s as to version. Web page. 

Second cables, in fact. Now comes the Remember natural aging. when It you’d should, have so the to circle company little numbers With The Rock the depth was notice- 

3T hybrid cable (“3T” stands for True says, last on forever. a card Needless you would to then say, this mail last in? ably shallower, with the result that the 

Transmission Technology). 

is not Doesn’t a characteristic that seem we like can a long expect time to ago? 

musicians seemed closer to us. For that 

From that name you might conclude test! 

reason the music appeared to be louder. 

that the cable is made from three dif- As you can see from our picture, There was still a lot of detail, though 

ferent materials. In fact its composition the cable appears to have a directional Toby thought there were elements miss- 

begins with five materials, all metals arrow, but you may want to ignore it. ing, making the long string lines less 

this time, plus a sixth one, the carbon The cable’s double-braided shield is interesting. The piano had somewhat 

that VdH has used before. The different connected at only one end, identified by less detail as well. Even so, Toby found 

materials are blended into an amorphous a sticker that reads “ground end.” That the recording, through The Rock, to be 

mass which, unlike conventional copper end would be connected to the preampli- “harmonically exciting.” Steve gave it a 

or silver, does not have a crystalline fier if there is one, or to an integrated mixed rating. “It’s in the same ball park 

Listening Room Not everyone is aware that, 


as the Mavros, but it’s stuck on second 

base. 

For a subscription to the print issue, 

go to: 

www.uhfmag.com/subscription.html 

But you can also subscribe to Maggie’s 

electronic version: 

www.uhfmag.com/maggie.html. 









tisi. 









































Testing Cables 

This review of the Van den Hul 3T is one of several cable tests in this issue. The ones that 

follow were blind tests, but this one is not. Which may possibly leave you with questions. 

Why did you use analog for this test? Wouldn’t high-definition digital have been a 

better choice? 

An excellent choice yes, but that doesn’t necessarily make it better. Our vinyl 

playback system, like indeed our other systems, is of very high level. And we selected 

recordings of exceptional musical and technical merit. This was a tough test. 

Why not place the test cable between the preamplifier and power amplifier? 

The Van den Hul cable supplied was simply too short to reach between preamp 

and amp on either of our reference systems. We also liked the idea of comparing 

the 3T to a cable that is commercially available today. 

Was this a blind test? 

No, though the cable tests that follow were done blind. 

Would the result have been different if the test had been blind? 

Based on our experience we don’t think so. Despite frequent claims to the 

contrary, differences among cables are clearly audible, and knowing what you are 

listening to doesn’t make a difference. Doing a blind test with a single cable and 

a reference is largely pointless, since we know that the test will always begin with 

the reference. 

Wouldn’t it be better to have a full set of a manufacturer’s cables rather than just one? 

Isn’t it true that there is a synergy among the cables of a single manufacturer? 

A number of manufacturers claim exactly that, and frankly we don’t blame 

them. Of course they would rather you get all your cables from them, in what will 

probably be billed as a matched set. But where does the synergy come in? We think 

each cable should do its job as well as it can be done, or at least as well as it can 

be done considering the financial constraints. The “synergy” can even be a bad 

sign. Imagine a speaker cable whose sound is a little on the “zingy” side, whereas 

the interconnect of the same series has a gentle high-frequency rolloff, therefore 

“taming” the problematic highs. What you would have in reality is two bad cables. 

Two wrongs don’t make a right, and don’t get us started on three wrongs. 

Isn’t it true that, as price goes up, you reach a point of diminishing returns? 

Sure, and some cables are breathtakingly expensive, but where is that point of 

diminishing returns? Not everyone agrees. Indeed, we’ve noted that, for many 

audiophiles, that point is 10% over what they themselves paid. 

But will you hear the difference between two cables if you don’t have the very best 

systems? 

If you do the comparison in a way that will give meaningful results (and we 

think you could do worse than imitate our method), you might hear a difference on 

lesser systems, just as you would on a system like ours. However any upgrade will 

make an audible difference. You wouldn’t use an expensive cable on a moderatelypriced 

system, not because you wouldn’t hear a difference, but because some other 

upgrade would in all likelihood make more of a difference. 


















numsandrem. 



When we first reviewed 


New Atlas Cables 

Atlas audio cables a 

number of years ago, it 

wasn’t with the intent 

of adding any of them to our Audiophile 

Store, because — as ever — the 

listening comes first, the store listing 

comes second. If ever. But the listening 

was convincing, and so were the prices. 

Those first Atlas cables offered quality, 

but also value, or at least a number of 

them did. 

But time marches on. So do copper 

prices, and we mean upward. Atlas has 

replaced many of its cables, including 

some of our favorites, with new ones. 

Would we be as happy with the new creations? 

Might they have taken shortcuts 

to save money, and thereby downgraded 

the performance? That’s what this 

review session was all about. 

This was a blind test. It wasn’t double 

blind, because Gerard knew what the 

cables were. However Steve and Toby did 

not, and Gerard avoided all comments 

during the actual session. 

Hyper Asymmetrical, 1 m, $309 

We were surprised by Atlas’ use 

of the name Hyper for this series. The 

Hyper series of loudspeaker cables are 

amazing for their modest cost, but they 

are made from conventional oxygen-free 

copper. The Hyper interconnects use 

single-crystal continuous cast copper, 

created with the Japanese-invented 

Ohno process. That’s more expensive, or 


it should be. There are, as we shall see, 

two versions of the Hyper interconnect 

cable. 

This “asymmetrical” version is made 

the way most interconnects are made, 

with a coaxial construction. The centre 

conductor is the one with OCC copper, 

but the ground return is also the shielding. 

That shield is made up of two layers 

of braided copper. The connectors are 

solder-free, and are structured so that 

they don’t compress the wire. 

This was an all-analog test, using 

three LPs. We compared the test cables 

to the expensive Atlas Mavros interconnect 

that runs between the phono stage 

and the preamplifier in our Omega 

reference system. 

We began with the Non Allegro from 

the Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances 

(Reference Recordings RR-1504). The 

Hyper did quite well, but predictably 

it did not compare with the Mavros. 

Though there was good depth and a 

plausible stereo image, there was some 

confusion in the highs, accompanied 

by some hardness in the strings. Some 

loud passages seemed too loud, though 

the volume level was untouched. There 

appeared to be a tonal shift favoring the 

higher frequencies. Overall the sound 

was more constricted and less refined. 

“The triangle has a sound comparable to 

lens flare on a photograph,” complained 

Toby. 

Steve had a compliment that actually 

wasn’t one: “The music is easier 

to take because it is less emotionally 

overwhelming.” 

We continued with an old favorite 

choral recording, Laudate! (Proprius 

PROP 7800 — the exclamation mark is 

part of the title). Listening to it with the 

Mavros was an experience, but it paled 

with the Hyper. The female voices were 

somewhat hard, and male voices lacked 

their usual richness. Dynamic contrast 

was reduced, but paradoxically some 

passages seemed too loud. “It’s beautiful, 

but it’s less realistic,” said Gerard, after 

the session was over. 

The final recording was another 

old favorite, Hard Day on the Planet 

by Loudon Wainwright III (who, by 

the way, is the father of two other 

well-known artists, Rufus and Martha 

Wainwright). It sounded very good with 

the Hyper, but not as exciting as we had 

hoped. The words were actually easier to 

follow, but that was due to an artificial 

“edginess” which also added confusion 

to some passages. Toby compared the 

effect to the “speech” button on the radio 

of his old Volvo: it helps comprehension 

at the expense of enjoyment. Rhythm 

was strong, but Loudon’s voice was dark, 

despite the brightness, and even harsh. 

The Hyper Asymmetrical is not 

inexpensive, and for its price we had 

hoped for better performance. We can’t 

recommend it. 

Hyper Symmetrical, 1 m, $413 

Never mind the similarity of name, 

this is a totally different cable. It’s the 

replacement for a long-time favorite of 

ours, the Navigator All-Cu. It’s “symmetrical” 

because it has two singlecrystal 

conductors to ferry the audio. 

The two shields, one of them braided 

and the other consisting of copper-plated 

Mylar foil, are connected at only one 

end, and thus are not involved in audio 

transmission. 

The price difference with the preceding 

cable may not be huge, but the 

performance gap certainly is. “This one 

is closer to awesome,” said Toby. “The 

flow and the dynamics are more liquid, 

though that liquid is too viscous and not 

as free-flowing as with the reference.” 

Steve found the timbres of the oboe, 

clarinet close to perfect. Gerard noted 

that the woodwinds seemed more dis-

tant, but then they are usually positioned 

near the rear of the orchestra. 

We came to a preliminary conclusion 

that it was too bad this cable and the 

preceding one share a name. 

We listened to Laudate! and once 

again we found the improvement to be 

huge. 

Both Steve and Gerard concentrated 

on the often troublesome female voices, 

which this time were consistently strong 

and even vibrant. They weren’t quite 

as eerily natural as they had been with 

the Mavros, and they even hardened up 

somewhat in one passage, but we liked 

the dynamics. We also liked the great 

depth, which is what this remarkable 

recording was famous for. 

Toby approved as well. “It’s still 

viscous and not easy-flowing,” he said, 

“but it was nice.” 

On Hard Day on the Planet, the Hyper 

Symmetrical came into its own, and it 

was close to matching the performance 

of our reference. The vocal articulation 

of this song was excellent. So was the 

bottom end, and there was an exciting 

liveliness to the piece. “The excellence of 

the cable reminded me that Wainwright 

is an important poet, like Dylan or 

Harry Chapin,” said Steve. Toby thought 

the sound was a little thinner, though he 

liked the bass tone. “I hope it’s cheap,” 

he said. 

Well, no, it’s not exactly cheap, but 

it is barely more expensive than the 

Navigator it is meant to replace, and we 

can say that it is every bit as good. In a 

time of audio inflation, that’s a pleasant 

surprise. 

We’ve added it to the store. 

Ascent Symmetrical, 1 m, $973 

When we originally adopted several 

of the Atlas interconnects for our store, 

there was one which cost about double 

the price of the Navigator All-Cu (which 

of course we praised). It sounded excellent. 

Trouble was, it sounded just like the 

Navigator, and so we never did recommend 

it. This Ascent cable would seem 

to be its equivalent. Could it justify its 

higher price? 

The Ascent Symmetrical (shown 

above) looks fancier than the Hyper, but 

its configuration is nearly the same. The 

difference is in the dielectric insulation. 

Atlas calls the series “High V.” 

That stands for “high velocity.” We 

might assume that electrons can travel 

at the speed of light, but the medium it 

travels through, in this case copper, will 

slow it down. Atlas says that the capacitance 

of conventional cable structure 

also slows down the passage of electrons. 

Its High V cables are insulated with 

microporous PTFE foam. There’s a 

white paper on the subject, as there are 

for so many cables. We’ve read it, but of 

course technical claims never serve as 

the basis for our evaluations. We were, 

however, eager to listen. The proof of 

the pudding… 

Expensive though the Ascent is, 

remember that our own favorite, the 

Mavros, has risen in price, to $1594 (suggested 

list) for the usual 1 metre length. 

We would pit one against the other. 

The Ascent did very well, letting 

through tremendous energy, with convincing 

spaciousness and depth. The 

rhythm was strong (we might assume we 

could take that for granted, but we would 

be wrong). The strings were delightfully 

crystalline, and we admired the timbres 

of the piano, the woodwinds and the 

brass. The music seemed less loud than 

with the two previous cables, but that 

was because it appeared to be coming 

from farther back. “There may be some 

confusion in the highs,” said Toby, “but 

not much.” 

We continued with the Laudate! 

choral recording, and by the time we 

were finished we were pretty much ready 

to give this remarkable cable a pass. 

Once again the space was huge, as 

of course it should be. The opening 

notes from the organ were gorgeous, 

and everything kept on getting better. 

The voices were more rich than bright. 

Though there was lovely intermodulation 

among the voices, the separation of 

sounds was just fine. “That’s a good trick 

to have pulled off,” said Toby. 

Of course the cable wasn’t inventing 

any of this, merely letting it through. 

On the final song, Hard Day on the 

Planet, the Ascent was a good match 

for our Mavros. The dynamics of this 

energetic song were strong. The plucked 

bass had a wonderful resonance, and 

even the finger snaps at the opening were 

more present. The saxophone had been 

a little “buzzy” with the previous cables, 

but not with this one. “I love the way the 

beat comes in,” said Toby. “I could read 

the singer’s intention better. When he 

sings you know he’s chuckling because 

you can sense it.” He thought the Ascent 

might actually be the best cable yet. 

Well…not quite. When such questions 

come up we then return to our 

reference, as we did this time. We listened 

to the Wainwright song with the 

Mavros back in its place. It remains the 

undisputed champion. 

But on two out of three less-expensive 

analog cables, Atlas has clearly done the 

right thing. 

Digital cables 

A coaxial digital cable looks like half 

of a pair of analog interconnects, but 

of course it isn’t, or at least it shouldn’t 

be. The role of a digital cable is totally 

different. You shouldn’t expect the differences 

in tonal balance that you would 

have with analog wiring, but that doesn’t 




mean that any old wire will do. Yes, we 

know, “bits is bits.” But then “tires is 

tires,” right? 

Coaxial digital cables are designed 

to have a consistent internal impedance. 

That’s important, because an impedance 

mismatch can trigger a standing wave: 

a signal “echo” that travels back and 

forth down the length of the wire, and 

can confuse the digital receiver circuit. 

One way to minimize the standing 

wave problem is to use a longer cable. A 

1.5 metre cable is a good choice, because 

the standing wave will take longer to 

return. We’ve confirmed the difference 

by listening. 

We’ve been using an older Atlas cable 

as a reference, the Opus. Originally 

priced at $399, the Opus is now discontinued, 

though our store still has stock at 

$239. We selected two new Atlas digital 

cables. both in the 1.5 m length. The test 

cables were placed between our Stello U3 

USB box (reviewed in this issue) and our 

Moon 300D converter. Our three digital 

selections were in 16/24 resolution, 

played from our MacBook Pro computer. 

The Ascent digital, 1.5 m, $250 

We began with an old favorite, the 

choral recording Now the Green Blade 

Riseth. It sounds so good you might suppose 

that it couldn’t possibly get spoiled, 

but we know from experience that it is 

surprisingly fragile. 

The Ascent did quite well by it, 

preserving the rhythm and the space. 

The organ was present, though the flute 

got somewhat lost after its opening solo. 

Male voices were thinner, and the esses 

were more prominent. Steve found the 

sound too harsh for his taste. 

We continued with Jen Chapin singing 

Stevie Wonder’s You Haven’t Done 

Nothin’. We are used to hearing it on 


our Linn SACD player, but the CD layer 

sounds superb too. On this recording the 

Ascent sounded very much better, and 

we agreed that it pretty well matched 

the Opus. Chapin’s voice had excellent 

articulation, and the space around her 

was well rendered. The string bass had 

lost some fullness, leaving more room for 

the other accompanying instrument, the 

saxophone. 

We wound up that session with 

Margie Gibson’s The Song is Ended from 

her Say It With Music album. Once again 

the Ascent was close to the Opus, giving 

Margie the full measure of presence we 

are used to hearing. The nuances that 

make the performance so memorable 

were all there. There was, to be sure, 

a difference at the bottom end, which 

seemed a little less solid. “It’s a little 

muffled,” said Toby, “and it’s not quite 

as warm either.” 

The Ascent’s price is almost the same 

as that of the now-discontinued Opus. 

We prefer the Opus, but it’s discontinued, 

and the stock won’t last forever. 

The Mavros digital, 1.5 m, $625 

What will paying more than double 

the price buy you? This digital cable 

has the same name as one of our analog 

reference cables, and so we could hardly 

wait to hear it. 

Like the analog version, the Mavros 

digital uses microporous PTFE foam as 

an insulator. Both the actual wire and the 

connectors are made from continuous 

cast single-crystal copper. 

We began with Now the Green Blade 

Riseth, and in the first minute we knew 

we had a winner. 

One characteristic we look for in 

a digital cable is coherence: the sonic 

elements should hang together so that 

they make sense, with no confusion. The 

Mavros got it right. There was no smearing, 

no exaggerated sibilance. “There’s 

a huge sound stage filled with beautiful 

music,” said Steve. This is as good as it 

gets! 

We were every bit as impressed with 

the Jen Chapin song. This time the 

sound was balanced and solid, with the 

bass and the saxophone sharing the stage 

equally. Both were wonderfully realistic, 

with very good presence. 

“But the flavor is different,” said 

Toby. With the Opus the sound is lush, 

but with the Mavros there’s an extra 

measure of clarity. You can hear the lip 

sounds, and just listen to the way Chapin 

lets her voice trail off. This is a good 

blend of science and sound.” 

We were pretty sure the Mavros 

would do well with the Margie Gibson 

song, and of course we were right. From 

the very opening, the bass and piano 

were exceptionally plausible. Margie’s 

voice was magnificent, with well-delineated 

voice. Voice and instruments were 

coherent and balanced. “I liked that,” 

said Toby. “You can just listen and enjoy 

what you want.” Steve wondered whether 

the bass was thinner. “It’s possibly less 

lush,” said Toby, “but that’s a matter of 

taste.” 

Some conclusions 

As we’ve already noted, we had 

decided to pick up the Hyper Symmetrical 

and the Ascent Symmetrical for the 

store. The Ascent digital might turn out 

to be a good choice once the supply of 

Opus digital cables was exhausted. The 

Mavros digital was a go. 

And indeed we purchased one ourselves 

for our reference systems. 

What about balanced cables? 

We’ve already mentioned why we 

don’t use them: we would be unable to 

review non-balanced products without 

also changing cables. However that’s not 

a constraint you need to pay attention to, 

and these cables are available in balanced 

form, with XLR connectors, mostly at 

considerably higher prices. 

The Hyper Symmetrical balanced 

has a list price of $753 (the coaxial 

version is $413). The Ascent balanced 

is $1182 (the unbalanced is $973). The 

Mavros digital cable is available in AES/ 

EBU balanced versions for $670.

INTERCONNECTS 

ATLAS HYPER SYMMETRICAL 

Oxygen-free continuous 

cast (OCC) cable: 

each strand is a single 

copper crystal. Two 

internal conductors, 

plus double shielding. 

The double shielding is 

copper Mylar plus braided screen providing 100% RFI protection. 

ORDER: AHS-1 Hyper Symmetrical, 1m, $399 

ORDER: AHSB-1 Balanced, single crystal XLR, 1m, $725 

ATLAS ELEMENT 

We did a blind test, and 

this supposed starter 

cable wiped the floor with 

a much more expensive 

one. Which we dropped. 

And then they improved 

it further with the Integra 

connector, which is noncompressing 

and solder-free. 

ORDER: AELI-1, 1 m pair Atlas Element Integra, $99 

ATLAS QUADSTAR 

Terrific in our blind test. 

With Eichmann Bullet plugs, 

or balanced with Neutrik 

XLR's. Silver solder included with kit. 

ORDER: AQS-1 pair Quadstar kit, 1m $124.95 

ORDER: AQS-1A pair Quadstar assembled, 1m $199.95 

ORDER: AQS-X pair Quadstar balanced kit, 1m $95.95 

ORDER: AQS-XA pair Quadstar balanced, assembled, 1m $169.95 

MAVROS INTERCONNECTS 

Truly terrific, a pair of these connects our phono preamp to the 

preamp of our Omega system 

ORDER: AMI-1, 1 m Mavros interconnect pair, $1499 

ORDER: AMI-2, 2 m Mavros interconnect pair, $2100 

SPEAKER CABLES 

ATLAS MAVROS CABLES 

We’ve adopted them for our Alpha system, which sounds better 

than ever. This is a four-wire monocrystal cable with porous 

Teflon dielectric, available with OCC spades, as shown, or with 

rhodium-plated locking bananas that look like Furutechs but are 

Atlas-branded. We can upgrade to WBT nextgen locking bananas. 

ORDER: AMBCu-3, 3 m pair, OCC spades or bananas, $2999 

ORDER: AMBCu-5, 5 m pair, $4800 

ORDER: WBT, upgrade from rhodium bananas to WBT nextgen 

locking bananas, $130 per setof four (3 sets needed for biwiring) 

SEE EVEN MORE PRODUCTS 

IN OUR ON-LINE CATALOG 

www.uhfmag.com/AudiophileStore.html 

THE AUDIOPHILE STORE 55 

ATLAS HYPER SPEAKER CABLES 

A big winner in one 

of UHF’s blind tests 

of speaker cables is 

Hyper 2, an oxygen 

free stranded wire 

in Teflon dielectric. 

Plus connectors (add 

Eichmann Bayonet Bananas, $99.95/set, two sets needed for AH2, 

three for biwire), or Furutech, as shown, $70/set). Hyper Biwire is 

Hyper 2 with an added set of solid core wires for the highs. 

ORDER: AH2, Hyper 2 cable, $29.95/metre 

ORDER: AHB, Hyper Biwire cable, $49.95/metre 

ATLAS ICHOR SPEAKER CABLE 

Continuous-cast single-crystal cable, ready for biwiring. It costs 

just $235 per meter of double cable (a 2 m pair has 4 meters of 

wire). We suggest adding the Eichmann Bayonet bananas, $99.95 

per set of 4, or Furutech connectors, $70 a set of 4.. 

SINGLE CRYSTAL JUMPERS 

Not biwiring? Dump the free jumpers 

that came with your speakers. Atlas 

jumpers are made from single-crystal 

copper, gold-plated spades. 

ORDER: ACJ, four single crystal 

jumpers, $99.95 

DIGITAL CABLES 

ATLAS OPUS DIGITAL 

This was our long-time reference, originally selling for $399. We 

now have a limited stock at a drastically reduced price. 

ORDER: AOD-1.5 digital cable, 1.5m, $239 

ATLAS MAVROS DIGITAL 

This is our new reference digital cable. We recommend it for the 

best systems. 

ORDER: AMD-1.5 digital cable, 1.5m, $599 

TOSLINK OPTICAL DIGITAL 

The best we’ve found yet, 

though we’re still looking. 

Add the mini-TOSLINK 

adapter for Airport Express or computers with hybrid jacks. 

ORDER: TD-1 TOSLINK cable, 1m length $22.95 

ORDER: TMT mini-TOSLINK adapter, $3.95 

CONNECTORS 

EICHMANN BAYONET BANANAS 

The Eichmann Bayonet Banana uses 

a minimum of metal, and tellurium 

copper at that, but clicks tightly into 

any binding post with spring action. 

For soldering or crimping, or both. 

ORDER: EBB kit 4 bayonet bananas, 

$99.95 


EICHMANN BULLET PLUGS 

The first phono plug to maintain the impedance of 

the cable by using metal only as an extension 

of the wire. Hollow tube centre 

pin, tiny spring for ground. Two 

contacts for soldering, two-screw 

strain relief. Gold over copper. Got 

silver cable? Get the unique Silver Bullets! 

ORDER: EBP kit 4 Bullet Plugs, $77.95 

ORDER: EBPA kit 4 Silver Bullets, $154.95 

EICHMANN CABLE PODS 

Minimum metal, gold over tellurium 

copper. Unique clamp system: the back 

button turns but the clamp doesn’t. 

Solder to it, or plug an Eichmann 

banana into it, even from inside! 

ORDER: ECP, set of four posts, $119.95 

CONNECTOR TREATMENT 

DeOxit (formerly ProGold) 

cleans connections and 

promotes conductivity. It 

comes in a squirt bottle 

even for connections you 

can’t reach. NASA likes it, 

and so do we. 

ORDER: PGS, can DeOxit fluid, $39.95 

WBT NEXTGEN CONNECTORS 

WBT makes banana plugs and spades for speaker cables, all of 

which lock tightly into any post. All use crimping technology. 

These nextgen connectors are far superior to previous versions 

ORDER: WBT-0610 Kit 4 angled nextgen bananas, $160 

ORDER: WBT-0610Ag Kit 4 nextgen silver bananas, $310 

ORDER: WBT-0681 Kit 4 nextgen spades, $160 

ORDER: WBT-0681Ag Kit 4 nextgen silver spades, $310 

The high-tech minimum metal “nextgen” phono plugs. Easy to 

solder, with locking collar. Silver version available. 

ORDER: WBT-0110, kit 4 nextgen copper plugs, $190 

ORDER: WBT-0110Ag, kit 4 nextgen silver plugs, $300 

FURUTECH CONNECTORS 

Rhodium-plated banana tightens 

under pressure. Installs like WBT banana. The spade installs the 

same way too.. 

ORDER: FTB-R, set of four bananas, $70 

ORDER: FTS-R, set of four spades, $70 

TWO CABLES INTO ONE JACK 

Need to feed two preamps into 

two amps? This solid Y-adapter 

(two jacks into one phono plug) 

is gold over brass, with Teflon 

dielectric. 

ORDER: FYA, one pair Y adapters, $20

56 THE AUDIOPHILE STORE 

SILVER SOLDER 

This is a lovely solder, from the 

company that makes Enacom 

line filters (which we also like). 

Wakø-Tech solder contains 4% 

silver, no lead. 

ORDER: SR-4N, 100 g solder 

roll, $59.95 

ANALOG PRODUCTS 

LONDON REFERENCE 

Yes we can supply the awesome London 

Reference phono cartridge that we have 

adopted as a reference. Other models on 

special order. This unique cartridge has 

a line contact stylus, and an output of 

5 mV, right for an MM preamp. 

ORDER: LRC cartridge, $4695 

GOLDRING ELITE 

If you have limited funds and you 

want an MC cartridge with a 

line contact stylus, this is a great 

choice. It's a detuned version of the 

very expensive (but discontinued) 

Excel we still own. 

ORDER: GEC cartridge, $745 

TURNTABLE BELT TREATMENT 

What this is not is a 

sticky goo for belts on 

their last legs. Rubber 

Renue removes 

oxidation from 

rubber belts, giving 

them a new lease on 

life. But what astonished us is what it does to even a brand new 

belt. Wipe down your belt every 3 months, and make analog sound 

better than ever. 

ORDER: RRU-100 drive belt treatment, $16.95 

J. A. MICHELL RECORD CLAMP 

Clamp your LP to the turntable 

platter. We use the J. A. 

Michell clamp, machined 

from nearly weightless 

aluminum. Drop it on, 

press down, tighten 

the knob. 

ORDER: MRC Michell 

record clamp, $75 

ORDER: MRC-R clamp for 

Rega and short spindles, $85 

STYLUS CLEANERS 

We’re often asked how we clean the 

stylus on our cartridge. Two ways. The Zerodust gets used after 

every play. And the Mobile Fidelity LP9 gets used every five plays. 

ORDER: Enzow Zerodust, $66.95 

ORDER: MoFi LP9 cleaner, $24 

MOON PHONO PREAMPS 

Simaudio has done it: come up 

with a world-class phono 

preamp that does 

magic. The 310LP 

(formerly the LP5.3) 

is one of the best 

available. Adjustable 

MM/MC. 

ORDER: Moon 310LP, silver (black available on order), $1599. 

Special price on interconnect, one per 310LP order. 

ORDER: ANA-1 Navigator All-Cu, 1m, $405, for $260 

ORDER: ANA-2 Navigator All-Cu, 2m, $495 for $350 

ORDER: ANAB-1 Navigator balanced, 1m, $675, for $475 

ORDER: AMI-1, 1 meter Mavros, $1195, for $895 

ORDER: AMI-2, 2 meter Mavros, $1895, for $1495 

Even more 

astonishing: the 

110LP includes 

much of the 310LP 

technology, still 

offers MM/MC, 

but costs only a 

fraction. Lively and 

musical, it’s difficult to match. 

ORDER: Moon 110LP, $599 (silver, black if desired) 

Special price on interconnect, one per 110LP order. 

ORDER AQS-1, Kit ,1 m Quadstar, $124.95, for $59.95 

ORDER AQS-1A, Fully assembled Quadstar, $199.95, for $99.95 

NOTE: The Moon preamps are shipped set for moving magnet 

setting. We’ll reset it to your specification so you won’t have to. 

LP RECORD CLEANER 

Concentrated cleaner for LP vacuum cleaning machines. 

Much safer than some formulas we’ve seen! Half litre, mix with 

demineralized or distilled water to make 4 litres. 

ORDER: LPC, $19.95 

EXSTATIC RECORD BRUSH 

The Super 

Exstatic. Includes 

a hard velvet pad 

to get into the 

grooves, two sets 

of carbon fibre 

tufts. We use it every time! 

ORDER: GSX record brush, $36 

MoFi WET/DRY BRUSH 

The Super Exstatic (shown 

above) is the best dry 

brush we know, but if 

your LP needs a wash and 

you don’t have a vacuum 

machine handy, this 

is the one to have in 

hand. Dampen it with a 

good record-cleaning fluid 

like our own LPC. 

ORDER: MFB record brush, $36 

ORDER: MFB plus LPC (4-litres), $46 

ORDER: Replacment kit for MFB, $36 


MORE ANALOG… 

TITAN STYLUS LUBRICANT 

Amazing, but true: dabbing 

a bit of this stuff on your 

stylus every 2 or 3 LPs makes 

it glide through the groove 

instead of scraping. Fine artist’s brush not included, but readily 

available in many stores. 

ORDER: TSO-1 Titan stylus oil, $39.95 

ZEROSTAT ANTISTATIC PISTOL 

A classic 

adjunct to a 

record brush 

is the Zerostat 

anti-static gun, 

especially in dry weather. Squeeze 

the trigger and release: it ionizes the 

air, which becomes conductive and 

drains off the static charge. By the 

way, it works for a lot more than 

LP’s. No batteries needed. Good for LPs, jamming printers, and 

anywhere static is a problem. 

ORDER: Z-1 Zerostat antistatic pistol, $94.95 

LP SLEEVES 

Keep your records clean and 

scratch free. Replace dirty, torn 

or missing inner sleeves with 

quality Mobile Fidelity sleeves, 

at an attractive price. 

ORDER: MFS, package of 50 

sleeves, $30 

VINYL ESSENTIALS TEST LP 

This precision-made German test record lets you check out 

channel identification, correct phase, crosstalk, the tracking 

ability of your cartridge (it’s a tougher test than the old Shure disc 

was) and the resonance of your tone arm and cartridge. When we 

need to test a turntable, this is the one we reach for. 

ORDER: LP 003, Image Hifi Test LP, $48.95 

CLEANER POWER 

ENACOM LINE FILTER 

Economy price, but astonishingly effective, we wouldn’t run our 

system with less. It actually shorts out the hash on the power line. 

ORDER: Currently out of stock 

THORENS TURNTABLES 

AND GOLDRING CARTRIDGES 

AVAILABLE ON LINE 

www.uhfmag.com/AudiophileStore

UHF14 POWER 

BAR 

Most power bars knock 

voltage down, and 

generate more noise 

than a kindergarten 

class. The UHF14 doesn’t. It 

features a 1.5m 14- gauge shielded 

cable, Hubbell hospital grade fourplex, and 

Furutech gold-on-copper wall plug. ORDER: UHF14-PB, $239 

Need it longer? Add $20 per metre extra 

MORE POWER TO YOU 

Better access to 

electrical power. 

Change your 77-cent 

duplex outlets for 

these Hubbell hospital 

grade outlets. Insert a 

plug and it just snaps 

in. A tighter internal 

connection as well. 

The cheapest improvement you can make to your system. 

ORDER: AC-DA Hubbell duplex outlet, $23.95 

ORDER: AC-D20 20A duplex, red color, $28.95 

INSTANT CIRCUIT CHECKER 

Plug it into an AC outlet, and the three lights can 

indicate a missing ground, incorrect polarity, switched 

wires — five problems in all. The first thing we did 

after getting ours was phone the electrician. 

ORDER: ACA-1, Instant Circuit Checker, $21 

HOSPITAL GRADE CONNECTION 

When we put a quality 

AC plug on our kettle, 

boiling time dropped by 90 

seconds! One of the best AC 

plug we have ever seen is 

the Hubbell 8215 hospital 

grade plug. It connects to wires under high pressure, and it 

should last forever. 

ORDER: AC-P2, Hubbell 8215 cord plug, $25.95 

Amazingly good at a 

much lower price are 

these two cord plugs 

from Eagle. Male and 

female versions. 

ORDER: AC-P1 Eagle male cord plug, $5.95 

ORDER: AC-PF Eagle female cord plug, $5.95 

Making your own power cords for your equipment? You’ll need 

the hard-to-get IEC 320 connector to fit the gear. 

ORDER: AC-P3 10 ampere IEC 320 plug, $9.95 

ORDER: AC-P4 15 ampere Schurter IEC 320 plug, $18.95 

IEC ON YOUR DVD PLAYER 

Why do big name DVD players come with those 

tiny two-prong plugs for their 

cords? A good shielded power 

cable will do wonders! 

ORDER: DVD-A, GutWire 

adapter, $39 


UHF 14 POWER CORD 

No budget for a premium cable? Make your own! We use several 

ourselves. Foil-shielded, to avoid picking up or transmitting noise. 

Assembled or as a kit. With Hubbell 8215 hospital grade plug and 

Schurter 15 A IEC 320 connector. For digital players, preamplifiers, 

tuners, and even medium-powered amplifiers. 

ORDER: UHF14-1.5K, 14 gauge power cable kit, $74.95 

ORDER: UHF14-1.5 14 gauge cable, assembled, $99.95 

Need it longer? Add $20 per metre extra 

20-AMPERE POWER CORD 

This is the one with the big IEC connectors whose contacts are 

rotated the other way. It’s for certain large power amps. Marinco 20 

amp hospital-grade wall plug, which fits only a 20 amp wall outlet. 

Available with a 15 amp Hubbell wall plug instead. 

ORDER: UHF14-20-1.5 cable, assembled, $99.95 

UHF/ 

FURUTECH 

POWER CORD 

We were so pleased with 

the performance of our 

UHF14 cable that we 

wanted to hear it with the upscale Furutech connectors. Wow! Pure 

copper IEC connector and copper/gold wall plug. 

ORDER: UHF14F-1.5K, 14 gauge power cable kit, $149.95 

ORDER: UHF14F-1.5 14 cable, assembled, $174.95 

GUTWIRE G CLEF POWER CABLE 

Multiple shielding, including external electrostatic shield connected 

to a clip. Used by UHF. Length 1.7 m, longer cords on order. G Clef 2 

has 195 conductors, 3 shields providing 98% shielding. Available 

optionally with 20A IEC plug (for amplifiers requiring special plug) 

ORDER: GGC G Clef, Square 1.7m, $385 

ORDER: GGC-20 G Clef, Square, 20 amp 1.7m, $385 

BETTER DIGITAL 

IMPROVED CD WITH FINYL 

The maker of Finyl claims it reduces surface 

reflections and provides a higher contrast image for 

the laser cell of your player. Use it just once. We get a 

lot of repeat orders on it. One kit can treat over 200 

discs. Or order the refill. 

ORDER: F-1 Finyl kit, $40.00 

ORDER: F-1R Finyl refill, $35.00 


MOON 300D DAC 

It wowed us so much we got it for our reference system. It 

has 24/192 resolution on coax and optical, 16/48 on USB. Its 

performance astonished us, and we’re not easily astonished. The 

full review is in UHF No. 89. 

To sweeten the deal, we’re offering bundles on our two Atlas 

digital cables, in the favored 1.5 m length. By getting the bundle, 

save on an Atlas Opus cable (usually $239). 

ORDER: 300D, $1399 while stocks last 

ORDER: 300D + Opus digital cable, $1499 

ORDER: 300D + Mavros digital cable, $1799 

Get another bargain: with the purchase of a 300D, get the 

UHF14F shielded power cable with Furutech connectors 

(assembled, one per purchase). Instead of $174.95, pay just 

$124.95. 

ORDER: UHF14F-1.5 (bundled only), $124.95 

AN IMPORTANT NOTE We’ve dropped the price on the 300D 

because it will soon be replaced by the 300D v.2, at $2200. A 

factory upgrade will be available for $800. 

A MORE AFFORDABLE DAC 

Its conversion circuit is 

identical to that of 

the superb 300D. 

We were amazed 

to find that, on 

some recordings, 

it sounded much 

like its bigger brother. 

The front panel is silver, but we’ll supply it in black on request. 

Get it in a bundle, and get a bargain on the interconnects you’ll 

be needing. 

ORDER: 100D converter, $599 

ORDER: 100D plus Element 1m cables, $639 

ORDER: 100D plus Hyper Symetrical 1m cables, $899.00 

SUPER ANTENNA MkIII 

Did you know that the Super Antenna is our best-selling store 

product of all time? We designed it years ago for our FM tuner, 

then realized how well it worked with off-air television. It also 

works wonderfully well with digital TV. We use five of them 

ourselves. How is it done? Our antenna has no stupid rotary switch 

to muck things up. It uses a high-grade video transformer, and 

with a low-loss multiple-shielded 75 ohm cable and gold-plated 

F connector, it has low internal loss. It covers digital TV bands as 

well as FM. 

ORDER: FM-S Super Antenna, MkIII, $59.95


SUPPORT SYSTEMS 

TENDERFEET 

Machined cones 

are wonderful 

things to put under 

speakers or other 

audio equipment. 

They anchor it 

mechanically 

and decouple it 

acoustically at 

the same time. 

Tenderfeet come in 

various versions: 

tall (as shown) or 

flattened, in either 

anodized silver or black. Tall Tenderfeet have threaded holes for 

a machine screw. If you have a fragile hardwood floor, add the 

optional Tendercup (shown above) to protect it. 

ORDER: TFG, tall silver Tenderfoot, $18 

ORDER: TFGN, tall black Tenderfoot, $23 

ORDER: TFP, flat silver Tenderfoot, $15 

ORDER: TFP, flat black Tenderfoot, $17 

ORDER: TCP, silver Tendercup, $15 

ORDER: TCPN, black Tendercup, $17 

ISOBEARINGS ARE BACK!!! 

Long discontinued, this product from Audioprism 

is back. Of the many anti-vibration products 

we have tried, this is the one that is by far most 

effective for both vertical 

and lateral vibration 

(unfortunately some of 

the most famous ones 

don’t work at all). Each 

Isobearing consists of a 

small ball and a cup to receive it. 

There are two models, each with a weight rating. The rating 

indicates the maximum weight each Isobearing should bear, but 

for optimum performance it should bear at least half of its rated 

weight. Use three or more Isobearings, placed according to the 

weight of the different sections of the amplifier, digital player, 

etc. We now use Isobearings on our DVD player, and we’re glad 

they’re back. 

ORDER: ISO-M, single Isobearing, 2 kg/4.4 lbs $25 each 

ORDER: ISO-G, single Isobearing, 7.5 kg/17 lbs $40 each 

THE SUPERSPIKE 

This is unique: a sealed unit containing a spike and a cup to 

receive it. It won’t scratch even hardwood floors. For speakers 

or equipment stands, on bare floors only. Four sizes of threaded 

shanks are available to fit speakers or stands. 

ORDER: SSKQ, 4 Superspikes, 1/4” shank, $75 

ORDER: SSKT, 4 Superspikes, 5/16” shank, $75 

ORDER: SSKS, 4 Superspikes, 6 mm shank, $75 

ORDER: SSKH, 4 Superspikes, 8 mm shank, $75 

WHAT SIZE SUPERSPIKE? 

A good ruler will let you figure it out. The stated size is the outer 

diameter of the threaded shank. Then count the threads: 

1/4” shank: 20 threads/inch 

5/16” shank: 18 threads/inch 

M6 (6mm) shank: 10 threads/cm 

M8 (8mm) shank: 8 threads/cm 

OTHER 

SUPERSPIKES 

We have also have a Superspike foot 

(at right) that replaces those useless 

feet on CD players, amps, etc., using 

the same screws to fasten them. And 

there’s a stick-on version (not shown) for other components. 

ORDER: SSKF, 4 Superspike replacement feet, $80 

ORDER: SSKA, 3 stick-on Superspike feet, $50 

SPEAKER STANDS 

Your “bookshelf” speaker shouldn’t be on a bookshelf. We have the 

four-pillar Target stands, in 24” or 28” height, ready to be filled 

with sand. OUT OF STOCK, NEW PRICES TO BE ANNOUNCED 

ORDER: MR-24, one pair 24” Target stands 

ORDER: MR-28, one pair 28” Target stands 


AUDIO-TAK 

It’s blue, and it’s a sort of modelling clay 

that never dries. Anchor speakers to 

stands, cones to speakers, and damp out 

vibration. Leaflet with many suggested 

uses. 

ORDER: AT-2, Audio-Tak pack, $10 

AN ON-THE-WALL IDEA 

Need to fasten a speaker 

securely to the wall? Nothing 

beats the Smarter Speaker 

Support for ease of installation 

or for sheer strength. And 

it holds the speaker off the 

wall, so it can be used even 

with rear-ported speakers. 

Easily adjustable with two 

hands, not three, tested to an 

incredible 23 kg! Glass-filled 

polycarbonate is unbreakable. 

Screws and anchors included, 

available in two colors. 

ORDER: SSPS, pair of black speaker supports, $29.95 

ORDER: SSPS-W, pair of white speaker supports, $29.95 

TARGET WALL STANDS 

We keep our turntables on these, secure from floor vibrations, 

wonderful for CD players, amplifiers, and all components. 

ORDER: VW-1 Target single-shelf wall stand, $225 

ORDER: VW-2 Target dual-shelf wall stand, $280 

AUDIOPHILE RECORDINGS, RECOMMENDED BY UHF STAFF 

REFERENCE RECORDINGS 

Tutti (HDCD, SACD) 

A terrific symphonic sampler from Reference, with dazzling music 

by Bruckner, Stravinsky, etc. Also available as RR’s very first SACD 

release. Wow! 

30th Anniversary Sampler (HDCD) 

A collection of excerpts from recent Reference albums. 

Yerba Buena Bounce (HDCD) 

The (terrific) Hot Club of San Francisco is back, with great music, 

well-played, wonderfully recorded by “Profesor” Johnson! 

Crown Imperial (HDCD) 

The second chapter of the famous Pomp&Pipes saga, with the Dallas 

Wind Symphony, in a set of perfectly recorded pieces in glorious 

HDCD. 

Organ Odyssey (HDCD) 

Mary Preston, the organist of Crown Imperial, in a dazzling program 

of Widor, Mendelssohn, Vierne, and others. 

Serenade (HDCD) 

A collection of choral pieces, wonderfully sung by the Turtle Creek 

Chorale, with perhaps the best sound Keith has given them yet. 

Nojima Plays Liszt (HDCD) 

The famous 1986 recording of Minoru Nojima playing the B Minor 

Sonata and other works is back…in HDCD this time! 

Nojima Plays Ravel (HDCD) 

Nojima’s other hit disc, now also in glorious HDCD. 

Garden of Dreams (HDCD) 

David Maslanka’s evocative music for wind band. 

Beachcomber (HDCD) 

Fennell and the Dallas Wind Ensemble. Includes Tico Tico, A Chorus 

line, and a version of 76 Trombones you’ll remember for a long time. 

Trittico (HDCD) 

Large helping of wind band leader Frederick Fennell doing powerhouse 

music by Grieg, Albeniz, Nelhybel, etc. Complex and energetic. 

Fennell Favorites (LP) 

The Dallas Wind Symphony: Bach, Brahms, Prokofiev and more. 

Fireworks on this rare Reference LP. 

Jazz Hat (HDCD) 

Pianist Michael Garson, in re-releases of some of his famous recordings 

Blazing Redheads (LP) 

Not all redheads, this all-female salsa-flavored big band adds a lot of

ed pepper to its music. 

Felix Hell (HDCD) 

The young organ prodigy turns in mature versions of organ music of 

Liszt, Vierne, Rheinberger and Guilmant. Huge bottom end! 

American Requiem (HDCD) 

Richard Danielpour's awesome Requiem mass is all about war, and 

about the hope for peace too, with a dedication tied to 9/11. 

World Keys (HDCD) 

Astonishing young pianist Joel Fan amazes with music from all the 

world, including that of Prokofiev and Liszt 

Ikon of Eros (HDCD) 

Huge suite for orchestra and chorus, by John Tavener. Inspired by 

Greek Orthodox tradition. Overwhelming HDCD sound. 

PLUS THESE HDCD RECORDINGS: 

Pomp&Pipes (HDCD) 

From the Age of Swing (HDCD) 

Swing is Here (HDCD) 

Copland Symphony No. 3 (HDCD) 

Medinah Sessions, two CDs for one (HDCD) 

Ports of Call (HDCD) 

Bruckner Symphony No. 9 (HDCD) 

Ein Heldenleben (HDCD) 

SHEFFIELD 

Say It With Music (CD) 

Margie Gibson sings Irving Berlin in what may be one the greatest 

jazz vocal recordings of all time. And she’s right in your living room! 

Growing Up in Hollywood Town (XRCD) 

The Amanda Albums (CD) 

How did they do it? The two complete McBroom recordings, Growing 

Up in Hollywood Town and West of Oz, on one terrific CD 

I’ve Got the Music in Me (CD) 

This was originally Sheffield’s LAB-2 release. If you haven’t heard 

Thelma Houston belt out a song, you’re in for a treat. 

Kodo (CD) 

A Japanese neo-folk group plays astonishing music, including a 400pound 

drum that can take out a woofer. Or a wall! 

Harry James & His Big Band (Gold CD) 

Harry said he would have done this recording for free, because he 

sounded better than ever. 

Tower of Power (CD) 

This high-energy big band was originally recorded directly to disc. 

The new CD has been mastered from the original LP, not the digital 

tape copy. 

The King James Version (CD) 

Harry James and his big band, live from the chapel! 

Drum/Track Record 

OPUS 3 

Test Records 1, 2 & 3 (SACD) 

A blast from the past! Here are 14 cuts from the samplers that 

launched Opus 3. They sound better than ever, too. 

Swingcerely Yours (SACD) 

An SACD re-re-release of tracks from superb vibraphonist Lars 

Erstrand, from 1983 to 1995. Long overdue! 


Unique Classical Guitar Collection (SACD) 

An SACD, mastered from analog, of some of Opus 3’s long-discontinued 

classical guitar LPs. Terrific! 

Beyond (SACD) 

The second recording by the versatile guitarist Peder af Ugglas (who 

also did Autumn Shuffle, below), who plays every instrument there is: 

jazz, rock, blues, country. From Sweden??? 

Autumn Shuffle (SACD/LP) 

Ugglas plays a number of different guitars, and borrows from jazz, 

Blues, and (yes!) country. Piano, organ, trombone, bowed saw, etc. 

Showcase 2005 (SACD) 

The latest Opus 3 sampler, with Eric Bibb, Mattias Wager, the Erik 

Westberg Vocal Ensemble and lots more, in glorious SACD. 

Organ Treasures (SACD) 

All those showpieces for big organ you remember hearing through 

huge systems…only with all of the power and the clarity of Super 

Audio. 4.1 channels, plus 2-channel CD. 

Just Like Love (SACD/LP) 

The newest from Eric Bibb, less oriented to Gospel and more to Blues. 

Bibb’s group, Needed Time, is not here, but he’s surrounded by half a 

dozen fine musicians. A nice recording. 

Comes Love (HDCD) 

Another disc by the terrific Swedish Jazz Kings, led by saxophonist 

Tomas Ornberg, proving again Sweden understands jazz. The sound 

is luminous, sometimes dazzling. 

It’s Right Here For You (HDCD) 

Is there, anywhere, a better swing band than The Swedish Jazz Kings 

(formerly Tömas Ormberg’s Blue Five)? Closer to Kansas City than to 

Stockholm, they are captivating. 

Test CD 4 (SACD) 

A sampler of Opus 3 performers, clearer than you’ve ever heard them 

before. Hybrid disc. 

Test CD 5 (HDCD) 

Another of Opus 3’s wonderful samplers, including blues, jazz, and 

classical music. A number of fine artists, captured with the usual pure 

Blumlein stereo setup. A treat. 

Showcase (SACD/LP) 

Available as a hybrid SACD/CD disc, or a gorgeously-cut LP, with 

selections from Opus 3 releases. 

Good Stuff (DOUBLE 45 LP/HDCD/SACD) 

As soothing as a summer breeze, this disc features singer Eric Bibb 

(son of Leon), singing and playing guitar along with his group. Subtle 

weaving of instrumentation, vivid sound. 

Spirit and the Blues (DOUBLE 45 LP/CD/SACD) 

Like his father, Leon Bibb, Eric Bibb understands the blues. He and 

the other musicians, all playing strictly acoustic instruments, have 

done a fine recording, and Opus 3 has made it sound exceptional. 

Tiny Island (SACD) 

If you like Eric Bibb and his group Good Stuff as much as we do, pick 

this one up. 

20th Anniversary Celebration Disc (HDCD) 

A great sampler from Opus 3. Includes some exceptional fine pieces, 

jazz, folk and classical. The sound pickup is as good as it gets, and the 

HDCD transfer is luminous. 


Levande (CD) � 

The full recording from which “Tiden Bara Går” on Test Record No.1 

is taken. Believe it or not, this great song isn’t even the best on the 

album! A fine singer, doing folklike material…and who cares about 

understanding the words? 

Concertos for Double Bass (CD/SACD) � 

This album of modern and 19th Century music is a favorite for its 

deep, sensuous sound. And the music is worth discovering. It is lyrical, 

a delight in every way. 

Across the Bridge of Hope (SACD) 

An astonishing choral recording by the Erik Westberg Ensemble, 

famous for its Musica Sacra choral recording. 

Musica Sacra (HDCD/SACD) 

Test Record No. 4 (LP) 

PROPRIUS 

Now the Green Blade Riseth (CD/SACD/LP) 

Religious music done a new way: organ, chorus and modern instruments. 

Stunning music, arranged and performed by masters, and the 

effect is joyous. The sound is clear, and the sheer depth is unequalled 

on CD. The new SACD version is the very best SACD we have yet heard! 

Cantate Domino (CD/SACD/LP) 

This choral record is a classic of audiophile records. The title selection 

is stunningly beautiful. The second half is Christmas music, and 

includes the most stunning version of O Holy Night we’ve ever heard. 

Antiphone Blues (CD) 

This famous disc offers an unusual mix: sax and organ! The disc 

includes Ellington, Negro spirituals, and some folk music. Electrifying 

performance, and the recording quality is unequalled. 

Antiphone Blues (SACD/HDCD) 

This is the Super Audio version, with a Red Book layer that is HDCDencoded. 

The best of both worlds! 

Jazz at the Pawnshop (LP/CD/SACD) 

Jazz with legendary, nearly perfect sound, famous in audiophile 

circles for years. The LP is double, and includes extra tracks. 

Jazz at the Pawnshop 2 (CD/SACD) 

From the original master, another disc of jazz from this Swedish pub, 

with its lifelike 3-D sound. Now a classic in its own right. 

Good Vibes (CD) 

The third volume of Jazz at the Pawnshop. And just as good! 

Sketches of Standard (CD) 

ANALEKTA 

Violonchello Español (CD) 

I Musici de Montréal comes to Analekta, with a stunning album of 

Spanish and Spanish-like pieces for cello and orchestra. 

Vivace (CD) 

Classical or rock? Claude Lamothe plays two cellos at the same time 

in an amazing recording of modern compositions. 

Pauline Viardot-Garcia (CD) 

Soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian steps into the role of 19th Century 

singer and composer Pauline Viardot so convincingly that listening 

to her is like going back in time. One of the best classical recordings 

of all time! 

Romantic Pieces (CD) 

How does James Ehnes manage to get such a sweet sound from his


Stradivarius? Czech pieces from Smetana, Dvorak and Janacek. The 

playing is as glorious as the tone, and the sound is sumptuous. 

Cantabile (CD) 

The Duo Similia is made up of striking blonde twins, who play flute 

and guitar. Familiar airs from Mozart, Fauré, Elgar, Ravel, lots more. 

Fine listening. 

Nota del Sol (CD) 

The Labrie twins are back, with a delightful recording of flute and 

guitar music by Piazzola, Pujol and Machado. Joyous works. 

Fantasia (CD) 

A third, gorgeous, recording by the twins, on flute and guitar. 

Fritz Kreisler (CD) 

Possibly the best recording of Kreisler’s delightful violin music: James 

Ehnes and his Strad bring a new magic to this fine disc. 

French Showpieces (CD) 

Awesome violinist James Ehnes, with the Quebec City Symph. takes on 

Saint-Saëns, Berlioz, Chausson, Massenet, and more. 

Handel (CD) 

Superb soprano Karina Gauvin is joined by the Toronto chamber 

ensemble Tafelmusik in a series of glowing excerpts from Handel’s 

“Alcina” and “Agrippina.” The sound is smooth and lifelike, with an 

acute sense of place. 

Little Notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach (CD) 

Over 30 delightful pieces, most by Bach himself. Soprano Karina 

Gauvin’s voice is mated to Luc Beauséjour’s harpsichord work. The 

sound is deep, detailed and warm, truly of audiophile quality. 

Vivaldi: Motets for Soprano (CD) 

The wonderful soprano Karina Gauvin tackles the gorgeous but very 

difficult vocal music of Vivaldi: two motets and a psalm. 

AUDIOQUEST 

Mississipi Magic (CD/SACD) 

The legendary Blues, Gospel, rock and world beat singer and musician 

Terry Evans, in an energetic recording we loved. 

Come to Find (CD) 

The first by Bluesman Doug McLeod, as impressive as the second, and 

no Blues fan should resist it. 

You Can’t Take My Blues (CD) 

Singer/songwriter Doug MacLeod and colleagues present one of the 

most satisfying Blues records ever made. 

Unmarked Road (SACD) 

The third disc from the great Blues singer and guitarist Doug McLeod 

is every bit as good as the first two. 

Bluesquest sampler (CD) 

SILENCE 

Styles (CD) 

Is this ever a surprising disc! Violinist Marc Bélanger worked up these 

string études for his music students, but they actually deserve to be 

put out on a gold audiophile disc! The more strings he adds, the better 

it gets. 

Fable (CD) 

Easygoing modern jazz by Rémi Bolduc and his quartet, on this gold 

disc. Some exceptional guitar and bass solos. 

Musique Guy St-Onge (CD) 

One-man band St-Onge plays dozens of instruments — scores for 

fourteen films which never existed outside of his imagination. Fun 

pretext, clever, attractive music that makes you wish you could see 

the films! 

HI-RES MUSIC (FOR DVD PLAYERS) 

Brazilian Soul (24/96 DVD) 

Guitarists Laurindo Almeida and Charlie Byrd, plus percussion and 

bass, in an intimate yet explosive recording of samba and bossa nova 

music. Great! 

Jazz/Concord (24/96 DVD) 

It's 1972, and you have tickets to hear Herb Ellis, Joe Pass, Ray Brown 

and Jake Hanna at the Concord Jazz Festival. You won’t ever forget it. 

You can be there, with this high resolution disc that goes in your DVD. 

Rhythm Willie (24/96 DVD) 

Guitarists Herb Ellis and Freddie Green, with bassist Ray Brown and 

others. This is an uncompressed 24 bit 96 kHz disc that can be played 

on any DVD player. Awesome! 

Trio (24/96 DVD) 

Pianist Monty Alexander with Herb Ellis and Ray Brown. “Makes CD 

sound seem as if it’s coming through a drinking straw.” Playable on 

any DVD player, uncompressed. 

Seven Come Eleven (24/96 DVD) 

Herb Ellis and Ray Brown again, but this time with guitarist Joe 

Pass (he and Ellis alternate playing lead and rhythm), and a third 

guitarist, Jake Hanna. This is a live recording from the 1974 Concord 

Jazz Festival. 

Soular Energy (24-96 DVD/ 24-192 DVD-Audio) 

Perhaps the world’s greatest bassist, the late Ray Brown, playing with 

pianist Gene Harris, whom Brown called one of the greats. The proof 

is right on this 24/96 recording, made from the analog master. Side 2 

has a 24/192 DVD-A version. 

KLAVIER 

Sonatas for Flute and Harp 

These same great artists with sonatas by Krumpholz and Damase, as 

well as Spohr and Glinka. Oh yes, and a spectacular solo harp version 

of Ibert’s hilarious Entr’acte . 

Norman Dello Joio (CD) 

This contemporary composer delights in the tactile sound of the wind 

band, and the Keystone Wind Ensemble does his music justice. So 

does the sound, of astonishing quality! 

Obseción (CD) 

The Trio Amadé plays Piazzola, Berstein, Copland, and Emilion 

Cólon…who is the trio cellist. The Colón and Piazzola is definitely 

worth the price of admission. Lifelike sound. 

Hemispheres (CD) 

The North Texas Wind Symphony with new music by contemporary 

composers who know how to thrill. Some of the best wind band sound 

available. 

PURE PLEASURE LPs 

Duke Ellington 70th Birthday Concert (LP) 

A double 180-gram LP set, recorded live in England Includes Take the 

‘A’ Train, Satin Doll, Perdido, many others. 

After Midnight (LP) 

A mono double-album of Nat King Cole’s greatest performances, with 

his own trio. Includes Sometimes I’m Happy, Caravan, It’s Only a 

Paper Moon, Route 66, You Can Depend on Me. A great classic, available 

on premium vinyl once more. 


MOBILE FIDELITY LPs 

Santana 

This is the one with the lion on the cover, remastered from the 

original sereo master, pressed on 180-gram vinyl. 

My Aim Is True 

Yes, the original Elvis Costello album, back on quality vinyl. 

Whites Off Earth Now 

The 1986 album by the Cowboy Junkies, recorded on two-track with 

the legendary Calrec microphone and its 3D sound. 

Don’t Cry Now 

Linda Ronstadt’s 2008 LP, with I Can Almost See It, Desperado, etc.. 

Simple Dreams 

Linda Ronstadt from much longer ago, 1977: It’s So Easy, Carmelita, I 

Never Will Marry, etc. 

Prisoner in Disguise 

Linda Ronstadt from 1975: Love is a Rose, Tracks of My Tears, I Will 

Always Love You, and more.. 

Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely 

No one ever did the late-night blues better than Old Blue Eyes. Check 

out the songs: Willow Weep For Me, Blues in the Night, Ebb Tide… 

Sinatra and Strings 

With Don Costa’s lush orchestra, Sinatra sings Night and Day, Misty, 

Stardust, All Or Nothing At All, and Yesterdays. Oh, and lots more. 

Nice and Easy 

Sinatra sings love ballads on this famous recording: How Deep is the 

Ocean, Fools Rush In, Try a Little Tenderness, and Dream.. 

FIRST/LAST IMPRESSIONS 

La Fille Mal Gardée (XRCD) 

A fine ballet with the Royal Ballet Company orchestra, from the 

original 1962 Decca recording. Exceptional 

Film Spectacular II (XRCD) 

The orchestra of Stanley Black plays some of the greatest film music 

of bygone years. From the original Decca Phase 4 tape. 

Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante (XRCD) 

Igor and David Oistrakh with the Moscow Philharmonic, in a glorious 

1963 recording, from the original master tape. 

Artistry of Linda Rosenthal (HDCD) 

The great violinist Rosenthal plays favorites: Hora Staccato, Perpetuum 

Mobile, Debussy’s Beau Soir, etc. 

Suite Española (XRCD) 

The Albéniz suite, gorgeously orchestrated by Rafael Frühbeck de 

Burgos, who conducts the New Philharmonia. Beautifully remastered 

from the original 1963 tape. 

Audiophile Reference IV (SACD) 

A stunning sampler, with recognizable audiophile selections you have 

never heard sound this good! 

Songs My Dad Taught Me (HDCD) 

Jazz pianist Jeremy Monteiro and three other musicians, with a retro 

collection of unforgettable tunes. 

Café Blue (HDCD) 

Gold HDCD version of jazz singer Patricia Barber’s 1994 classic, an 

audiophile underground favorite.

We Get Requests (CD) 

An amazing 1964 Verve disc of Oscar Peterson with bassist Ray 

Brown. FIM has brought it back on a silver CD that appears to be 

XRCD in all but name. 

MISCELLANEOUS 

Christmas (LP) 

The original Fresh Aire Christmas album from Mannheim Steamroller, 

and one of the best ever made. 

Windsock 

Some of the best New Age orchestral music on an audiophile label, 

this suite was written and arranged by Rick Swanson 

Urban Surrender 

Ric Swanson again, with a fascinating suite for orchestra, and 

sometimes choral voices. 

Daydreams 

Music for finding your inner self, with guitarist Ron Cooley, and a 

good-sized little band. The title says it, though. 

Through the Lens 

The Checkfield group (John Archer and Ron Satterfield) in a classic 

New Age mix of acoustic and synth music. 


Ballade 

Pianist Jackson Berkey plays Debussy, Rachmaninoff and Satie on a 

Baldwin SD-10 grand. 

American Gramophone Sampler III 

Once a staple of audio shows, these tracks from Mannheim 

Steamroller[s Fresh Aire series are a prime example of Chip Davis’s 

awsome “Baroque’n’Roll.” 

All We Need to Know 

Jazz singer Margie Gibson’s first album since Say It With Music, on 

Sheffield. No one sings the way she does! (NOW OUT OF STOCK) 

Classica d’Oro (CD) 

Some of the classical world’s most important heritage, on 50 

audiophile-quality gold CDs, at just over $2 per CD. Fine artists from 

Germany, Austria, the UK, Eastern Europe. Listen to excerpts on line. 

Blues for the Saxophone Club (HDCD) 

Swing jazz pianist Jeremy Monteiro, with guest artists, including 

saxophonist Ernie Watts. The HDCD sound is explosive! 

My Foolish Heart (CD) 

A collection of live and studio pieces by Monteiro and other musicians, 

notably saxophonist Ernie Watts. 


Neil Diamond: Serenade (CD) 

Just eight songs on this European CBS disc, but what songs! I’ve Been 

This Way Before, Lady Magdalene, Reggae Strut, The Gift of Song, 

and more. Glowing sound too. 

Sources (CD) 

A wonderful recording by Bïa (pronounced Bee-yah). She’s Brazilian, 

lives in France, recorded this terrific album (in 5 languages!) in 

Montreal. Just her warm voice and guitar, plus stunning percussion. 

La mémoire du vent (CD) 

The original recording by Bïa, in French, Portuguese and English. If 

you love her second one, don’t hesitate. 

Carmin (CD) 

The third by Bïa. Different this time, with more money for production, 

but it has been spent wisely. Superb songs, gloriously sung in Portuguese, 

French and the ancient Aymara language. 

Coeur vagabond (CD) 

Bïa sings French songs in Portuguese, Brazilian songs in French. A 

delight, as usual from this astonishing singer. 

Nocturno (CD) 

Some are saying that this is Bïa’s best and most touching album since 

Sources. See if you agree. You won’t be disappointed. 

RED INDICATES RECORDINGS USED IN UHF EQUIPMENT REVIEWS 

Payment by VISA or MasterCard, cheque or money order (in Canada). All merchandise is guaranteed unless explicitly sold “as 

is.” Certain items (the Super Antenna, the EAC line filter, and most standard-length cables) may be returned within 21 days less 

shipping cost. Other items may be subject to a restocking charge. Defective recordings will be exchanged for new copies. 

HERE’S HOW TO CALCULATE YOUR SHIPPING COST: 

IN CANADA: up to $30, $2.10, up to $60, $3.00, above $70 not counting taxes, free. In Canada shipping costs are taxable. 

TO THE USA: up to $30, $3.00, up to $60,$4.20, above $60, 5%. 

TO OTHER COUNTRIES: up to $30, $5.40. Up to $60, $9.00. Above $60, 10%. Magazines, books and taxes are not counted 

toward the total. 

BRAND MODEL DESCRIPTION PRICE EACH QUANTITY TOTAL PRICE 

ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE 

270 rue Victoria, LONGUEUIL, Québec, Canada J4H 2J6 

Tel.: (450) 651-5720 FAX: (450) 651-3383 

Internet: www.uhfmag.com/AudiophileStore.html 

E-mail: uhfmail@uhfmag.com 

TOTAL COST OF ACCESSORIES 

COST OF RECORDS ON OTHER SIDE OF THE PAGE 

SHIPPING COST (SEE ABOVE) 

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So you have, or plan to have, a 

classical music collection of at 

least several hours’ length. And 

you are going to serve your 

music from a computer using the popular 

iTunes or something similar. This will 

be fun! 

Once your hard drive starts to load 

up with music files, you can stream your 

music through the house, send it to 

your high end DAC, control it from an 

iPod. You can play all your music files 

in some kind of order, or you can play 

them all at random. If you want to hear 

specific pieces you can look them up in 

your software’s index, but if you want 

anything like a musical program, you’ll 

have to make playlists. 

The main index already has the 

capability of finding music by artist, by 

album and by composer (and by many 

other perhaps less useful criteria too, 

such as length and bit rate). A playlist 

makes it possible to group your classical 

music by period. That’s something you 

might want to do, since in principle the 

Software 

Classics and 

Then Some 

music of a given period shares certain 

characteristics. If you know one favorite 

composer’s music is in the style of the 

Romantic period, another Romantic 

might please you too. 

Of course, then you have to understand 

something about the musical periods. 

Baroque, Classical, Romantic: who’s 

in which, and why? My own decision 

to use my computer as a digital source 

brought me up against a need to know. 

If your classical collection, by accident 

or design, includes only the Big 

Three — Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, 

listed in chronological order — that’s 

okay. You still have a heck of a lot of 

classical music to listen to. (Not to mention 

the immense number of recorded 

performances of their pieces.) Your 

classification task is easy, though: you 

can just drag them all into one playlist. 

Call it “classical,” why not? 

But if you want to leave room to 

expand, you can start off right now by 

by Toby Earp 

putting Johann Sebastian Bach into 

another section and calling it “Baroque.” 

Leave the others in “Classical.” 

How’s that? First we had everything 

by the Big Three in Classical, and now 

we’ve split off Bach to a separate period 

— but the others are still Classical! 

It’s true that we are only considering 

small-c classical music here. When 

the term was first used, in the mid-19 th 

Century, it meant the pre-Romantics. 

Today “classical music” means basically 

all “heavy” or art music dating from the 

invention of a practical way to write it 

down. Within classical music, though, 

there is a Classical period, and that is 

where Mozart and early Beethoven are 

considered to belong. 

All through setting up an iTunes 

classical music library based on style and 

period, we’ll be concerned with distinguishing 

musical styles more specifically. 

We would do the same thing with jazz, 

dividing it up into swing, bebop, cool 

jazz, Dixieland and so forth, then perhaps 

subdividing a bit more: swing and 

big band swing for example. 

So let’s start by describing the Classical 

period within classical music. After 

that we’ll swing back to the forerunners, 

then jump ahead to more recent times. 

We have to remember, though, that 

just because a period ends and another 

begins, that doesn’t mean that either the 

music of earlier periods, or music written 

in the style of earlier periods, did not 

remain popular. 

Like all changes in musical style, 

the Classical was a modernization of 

what had come to seem old-fashioned to 

many. From about 1750, an association 

was made between the ideas of classical 

Greece, expressed two thousand years 

earlier, and the new development of 

“natural philosophy”: the first steps 

toward what would become modern 

science. There was a confidence that 

the workings of the universe could be 

discovered, via an orderly approach, to 

be structured in an orderly and logical 

way. Music, in its turn, became more 

clearly structured. Instrumental music 

began to be divided into movements 


Software 

Feedback 

laid out as inter-related developments of (who called him “Papa”) and tutor to 

one or more themes. These themes were Beethoven. Most of Haydn’s music is 

expressed in a single melodic line sup- upbeat in feeling — the counts didn’t 

ported by harmony, that is, chords. At the want the music they paid for to depress 

same time, music became more widely them — and indeed threaded through 

accessible. Where only churches and and through with wit and humour. His 

palaces had been performance venues, Surprise Symphony No. 94, still popular 

now much of the nobility and even the today, includes a single fortissimo chord 

simply rich became patrons of art music. at the end of the piano opening theme of 

We already have NOT Mozart JUST and the HARDWARE second movement, but no REVIEWS! 

other such 

Beethoven on the Classical-era team. chords before or after. 

Mozart died young and Beethoven was Yes, You we get might asked, not constantly, listen to Haydn after 

already at the turning point of the what next we breaking will be reviewing up with in someone our next (and issue. then 

era, the Romantic. To find a ClassicalAnd 

again, we know perhaps reviews you are might). essential. Although he 

style composer who enjoyed a But long equipment and did clearly reviews write are nothing some pieces if not to plentiful. express 

prolific career and can truly represent Readers an have deep long feeling, told us in that general what his makes music UHFis 

entire era, we can very reasonably particularly turn more valuable structured, to them are bright the other and worldly, articles. 

to Joseph Haydn. Articles about ideas, the about melody the and nuts harmonies and bolts meticulously of the technology, 

and worked also about out, rather music than and evoking film, strong 

emotion. which are (For the that very kind reasons of thing we’ll 

for our have lovingly-created to wait for systems Beethoven.) to exist. What 

Born into a musical but not a noble 

family, he was apprenticed as a musician 

when he was six years old and struggled 

from rags to riches, finally employed for 

the greater part of his working life by 

the Esterhazy counts of Hungary. He 

was able to produce 106 symphonies, 70 

quartets, 45 trios, 62 piano sonatas and 

upwards of 70 other solo piano works, 

about 36 concertos, four oratorios, fifteen 

masses and fifteen operas between 

about 1750 and 1802. 

While with the Esterhazys, composing 

and managing an orchestra, he 

was relatively isolated and dreamed of 

Vienna, the seat of the music-loving 

Hapsburg emperors and centre of the 

musical world. Vienna is where he 

ended his life, universally admired, 

beloved friend of the late genius Mozart 


notable Classical names include Johann 

Sebastian’s eldest son, the surprising and 

original Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach, 

even though the earlier Baroque period 

claims him too. There is Luigi Boccherini; 

and Johann and his son Carl Stamitz 

who invented the multi-movement 

symphony. Among others we could add 

Gluck, who had great influence on opera, 

Salieri (made infamous — or some would 

say slandered — by Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus) 

and Antonio Soler for the keyboard. 

And now we move to Bach, or rather 

to his time. 

That wasn’t really so long before 

the opening of the Classical era. 

Johann Sebastian Bach was still writing 

when Haydn was a teenager, though 

even then he was regarded by many as 

old-fashioned, a provincial pastor. Albert 

Schweitzer, the great humanitarian 

Not that we will Haydn ever stop did for publishing music was hardware experiment reviews. 

doctor and Bach scholar, called Bach “an 

with form, discovering new possibili- end,” a finality to whose work we always 

ties in the quartet, the sonata and the return. Douglas Adams, author of The 

symphony — like that surprise chord, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, said of 

which everyone agreed was delightful. the Big Three, “Beethoven tells you what 

Just as significantly for our musical it’s like to be Beethoven and Mozart tells 

heritage, at the end of his life he pro- you what it’s like to be human. Bach tells 

duced two great oratorios. One factor you what it’s like to be the universe.” 

in their greatness was the time Haydn 

took to write them: over a year for the 

first, The Creation. Earlier in his life, 

like almost all composers, he had had to 

turn out music rapidly for his employer 

(who for all his wealth, couldn’t hear 

new music at anything like the rate we 

can today). Haydn knew The Creation 

and The Four Seasons were to be his last 

works and he wanted them as close to 

sublime as he could make them. It was a 

revelation at the time. 

If the editor were to let me occupy a 

mere rind of the Software Reviews’ territory 

in this magazine, I would suggest 

a single recording as an introduction to 

the best in the composers’ repertoires. 

That’s a tall order, and my choice for 

Haydn is a cheat because it’s multiple 

discs: the Beaux Arts Trio’s Complete 

Haydn Trios on Philips. 

Revered today, too much of a stand- 

So now your Classical-period playlout to be a mere representative of the 

ist includes Haydn and Mozart. As if Baroque, Bach was largely forgotten 

their work needed great company, you in the years after his death. Beethoven 

will still be able to send Beethoven and attracted attention in his youth by per- 

Schubert to join them (even though these formances of fugues by Bach in Vienna, 

two are both sometimes placed with the and Mozart had to be led to him, perhaps 

coming Romantic wave). Other very by the Viennese music patron Gottfried

van Swieten. The discovery marked his 

music until his death. 

We ourselves should not forget Bach, 

and he can be a formidable anchor for a 

Baroque playlist. However the Baroque 

period saw a veritable explosion of music, 

as royalty, the nobility and the Church 

all became newly able to pay for it, and 

paying for it was fashionable. We have 

several hundred composers from which 

to choose. The time period: roughly 

1600 to about 1760. The style: pull up a 

good photo of the interior of a Baroque 

church (like the Brazilian one on this 

page)! It is full of life, some would say 

too much of it, too ornamented, too busy. It 


is almost a theatrical stage, yet airy, full 

of light, not dark and Gothic. The eye 

is led upward, yet there is a profusion of 

detailed, sensual ornamentation to entice We remember when a number of competitors would 

it to dally on the way. 

put own. on line There only is only the the Red cover Priest image of Venice, and the school table as of a choirboy. When he was 20, 

In music, opera was born. The very Antonio Vivaldi, whose contents. Four Seasons Purcell took his teacher John Blow’s 

first opera, from around 1597, is lost, We would concertos tell them are that probably you don’t better go known fishing without job as organist bait. at Westminster Abbey. 

but we do have Monteverdi’s 1607 Orfeo. Sure, even we live than from the what Pachelbel you spend Canon through — also our Blow, site and a well-known composer, may 

Much which is modern can be traced the a pages Baroque of our piece print — issue. and then But you there could are spend have days stepped aside in favor of a young 

to this highly varied form, in which Couperin, reading Telemann, material Rameau, for Handel free. man he considered his better. (After 

drama, instrumental and vocal music had We think and Pergolesi. that’s the only way we can convince Purcell’s you of the early death, Blow went back 

equal time, each influencing the other. Let us choose UHF one difference, of the rare com- to the post.) Three years later Purcell 

Voices and instruments took up solo of why posers you might who speaks want English to trust us like with a native. the future became of your organist at the Chapel Royal 

roles within a group, and vocal or voice- He is in music fact a native, or home the theatre only Baroque system. as well — which may have resulted in 

like expressivity became important. We have English readers master: on Henry every continent Purcell, who except has Antarctica. scheduling problems. 

Although the chord was not to become a claim Most to of be them regarded discovered as the greatest us on line. Thirteen years after that he was dead, 

a foundation element until the Classical English They composer read a lot of all. of our free material. the cause undiagnosed, leaving a wife 

era, music started to be composed on 

And then they joined us. 

and two children. Four other children 

the basis of major or minor tonality, and 

had predeceased him. He was buried next 

support for a single, expressive melodic 

to the organ at Westminster Abbey and 

line. 

very widely honored and mourned. 

In performance, ornaments such as 

Not surprisingly, given where he 

the trill and the mordent (a partial trill) 

worked, Purcell’s output was very largely 

became common practice. Such “frills” 

vocal and choral. He composed a great 

were pleasing decorations, “helping” the 

many hymns, anthems and choral odes 

musical line but not developing it. They 

for the Church and for the court, as 

were used to show virtuoso ability, but 

well as songs and catches (part songs), 

they also served to help instruments 

an opera, Dido and Æneas, which is still 

like the guitar and the harpsichord, 

popular, and operatic dramas like his 

whose notes decayed fast, keep up with 

Faery Queen. The English theatre of this 

the sustained notes of the violin and the 

period was lively and popular, and in the 

organ. Bach wrote out a detailed table of 

last five years of his life he composed 

them in a little book, his Klavierbüchlein 

orchestral music for more than forty 

for his son Wilhelm Friedemann. 

plays. He produced other instrumental 

A list of even the best-known Purcell was typical of the period in work, in the form of airs, suites, trio 

Baroque composers takes up a good that he worked under the patronage of sonatas and keyboard music full of 

deal of a paragraph: Schütz, Monteverdi, the Church and the Crown. His father melodies which are still lifted today for 

Frescobaldi, Cavalli, Lully, Buxtehüde, and uncle were singers, gentlemen of the films and popular songs. 

Corelli, Purcell and the two Scarlattis, Chapel Royal; when his father died, his Purcell was a highly individual 

father and son. The many Bachs of the uncle took five-year-old Henry under his creator. He wrote no concertos, a form 

Baroque take up a few lines of their wing and got him admitted to the Chapel which, thanks to Vivaldi, Corelli, 


Software

Software 

Feedback 

for musical directions dates Duke Ercole d’Este in Ferrara in 1503, 

from the dominance of Italy in he left there ahead of the plague which 

Renaissance musical culture. killed his successor, Jacob Obrecht. At 

More important than any other this point he apparently went directly 

factor, though, was the question home to Condé-sur-l’Escaut in northern 

of musical heritage: there wasn’t 

much of one. Western music was 

imagined and invented in those 

two centuries. So too were several 

key instruments: the violin, 

the guitar and the hurdy-gurdy 

for example. (I am joking about 

the hurdy-gurdy. Many popular 

instruments of the time have 

also been lost, become curiosities 

or, like the sackbut, evolved 

into more sophisticated forms.) 

The most characteristic element 

of Renaissance musical 

style enjoys renewed interest 

France, where he died in 1521. 

Handel and others, exemplifies the 

today: polyphony. This is the 

simultaneous playing or singing 

of multiple melodies. It 

emerged from church singing, 

at first as a second voice woven 

around a main line called the 

cantus firmus. Over time polyphonic 

Baroque more than perhaps any musi- compositions became more and more 

cal form except opera. His Fantasias for elaborate. As a kind of culmination, we A book of Josquin’s masses is the 

viols were written at age 21, when the have Thomas Tallis’ Spem in alium, writ- oldest surviving set of printed works 

polyphonic fantasia form was already ten for eight choirs of five voices each. by a single composer, and during his 

old-fashioned, but they are masterpieces Perhaps unexpectedly, it sound s neither lifetime there were several other press 

of audacious invention and brilliant turgid nor busy. Today’s renaissance in runs of his work as well. His name was so 

working-out of counterpoint, indeed choral singing has made several record- much a guarantee of a sale that one 16 

worthy of Bach. And as with Mozart, we ings available, and you can also hear it 

can only regret the loss of the glorious in Janet Cardiff’s permanent exhibition 

music he might have created had he lived in the Rideau Street Chapel in Ottawa. 

longer. 

We can look to the composer Josquin 

But listen to what he did leave! Desprez to give us a window on the 

As a single-disc introduction to evolution of music in the Renaissance 

Purcell’s music, the superb Canadian period. He was born around 1450, 

soprano, Karina Gauvin, has a disc on perhaps in France, and we have very 

the ATMA label called: Purcell. Among little biographical information about 

others, it includes both vocal and instru- him, yet he was perhaps the greatest 

mental pieces from Dido and Æneas and name of the period before Palestrina. 

The Faery Queen. 

He may have been a choirboy at St. 

The Renaissance period, which Quentin in northern France, but that 

preceded the Baroque, is a longer one, town was the centre of a thousand-year 

starting about 1400, but it contains history of war, in which Church records 

fewer composers, less music and less were destroyed. He may have studied 

varied music. The reasons for this are counterpoint with Johannes Ockeghem, 

multiple. A bourgeois class with time a Flemish composer of great renown. 

for entertainment only emerged toward Josquin seems to have traveled to the 

the end of the period. Musical notation, south of France, then to Milan. In Rome 

and printing for its distribution, were he was a member of the papal choir and 

just developing. Political stability was may have carved his name into the wall 

established slowly. The use of Italian of the Sistine Chapel. Employed by the 

th THIS MAGAZINE IS INTERACTIVE! 

It work in three ways. 

In the table of contents, click on an article title, 

and you are whisked right to the article. 

In the list of advertisers on the second-last page, 

click on an ad name, and go right to the ad itself. 

Then click on an ad, 

and your browser will take you right to the advertiser’s Web page. 

Remember when you’d have to circle little numbers 

on a card you would then mail in? 

Doesn’t that seem like a long time ago? 

- 

Century printer declared, “Now Josquin 

is dead, he’s composing more than ever.” 

Later scholarship has eliminated many 

works of dubious attribution, but what is 

clearly Josquin’s has been compared to 

Beethoven’s in terms of its musical quality 

and its influence on the music of the 

time. Josquin pulled together elements 

from French, Italian and Flemish sources 

to create a style in which musical subpatterns 

or motifs were shared between 

voices and identified with sung texts. 

We take this kind of thing for granted 

in music today. 

The superb singing of the Tallis 

Scholars will introduce you to Josquin 

on Gimell Records’ Missa Malheur me bat 

and Fortuna desperata, but there wasn’t 

room on that CD for two whole masses 

plus the popular tunes which provide the 

cantus firmus or parody structure — and 

the name — for each one. The parody 

was a common Renaissance mass form, 


in which a multipart popular song was 

the basis for a polyphonic work. If you 

can find the Fortuna Desperata mass by 

The Clerks’ Group, on Gaudeamus, 

you will hear both the popular song 

and the highly refined and fascinating 

mass which it inspired. You can also hear 

such pairings on recordings of works 

by Ockeghem, Obrecht, Pipelare and 

other Renaissance composers. Still other 

works which can go into the playlist 

would be by Dufay, de la Rue, Brumel, 

Taverner, Tye and Tallis, and the later 

and better-known works by Palestrina, 

de Lassus, Byrd and Gabrieli. All of 

these composers wrote secular as well as 

religious works, and you may even want 

a separate playlist for those. 

Now we turn and move toward our 

own time, and we start with a revolution. 

A musical one, certainly, but there had 

been a political revolution in France and 

the old order had been destroyed. A short 

period How of Maggie hope in Works the brotherhood of 

man UHF had is, been and swept has been away in the Reign 

of Terror. for many Hope years, returned, still more 

a print briefly, magazine. with the But arrival we know of Bonaparte, 

more to whom and Beethoven more audiophiles dedicated the work 

that want marks to read the it threshold on their of the postcomputer 

Classical or era. iPad. It was And his they’re third symphony, 

called willing the to save Eroica, money and the too. era was the 

Romantic, Click here, founded and let in Maggie rebellion against 

the explain Classical how past. to get the full 

version for $4. 

And we mean a PDF 

version without digitl rights 

We won’t be alone if we look briefly management you can transfer to 

back further than 1400, to a time when 

a single-line chant, or a chant in unison 

with lines separated by four or five-note 

intervals, was used in church. Some 

composers of today, perhaps feeling a 

need to reinvent a tradition, hark back 

to composers like Agricola, and Pérotin 

of Notre-Dame who introduced 

measured rhythm to Gregorian chant. 

There is inventive and expressive work 

even in this simple tradition. The period 

is known as the Medieval and is dated 

all the way back to the fall of Rome. 

The works of Hildegard of Bingen, a 

German monastic of the 12th century, 

the device of your choice. 

have gained popularity today, especially The symphony broke major ties. It 

in New Age circles. She was a multital- was more than twice as long as any of 

ented visionary whose music involves a Haydn’s and Mozart’s, and it contained 

single melodic line and explores a range what appeared to be errors in structure. 

of pitch wider than the conventional one It had a funeral march for a second 

in churches of the time. The melodies movement, followed incredibly by two 

are often lovely. 

celebratory final movements. 

At this point in our survey we stand The Viennese audience did not 

just this side of the Middle Ages, looking receive it well; the work played ener- 

back at a time before written music. Our getically and at length with expectations 

period playlists have four sections: Medi- that had been built up over decades. 

eval — or you can call it Early Music, if We can try to see causes — Bonaparte, 

you also happen to have recordings of Beethoven’s despair over his growing 

pieces composed during or before the deafness — but if the work resonates 

Roman Empire — Renaissance, Baroque with the listener, it is because it has 

and Classical. To recap developments in achieved its goal of the expansion of 

musical styles: from a single-line chant to a traditional form with an individual, 

polyphony, then to single melodic lines emotional expressiveness that points to 

supported by harmony in major/minor a more-than-individual truth. 

tones in the Baroque, then to a single line And it offers tunes! Melody, melodic 

supported by chords and worked out in subjects, abound in the Eroica and are 

themes in the Classical period. integral to all Romantic compositions. 

This is where we came in. 

Sergei Rachmaninoff, composing a 

century later (it’s a long-lived tradition, 

stretching to John Williams today) spins 

them out very long. Melodic music has 

great popular appeal and Romantic composers 

wrote for a general audience, not a 

musically-educated one. The period saw 

a rising middle class transformed by the 

Industrial Revolution, orchestras that 

supported themselves, music schools, 

and an increased popular appreciation of 

art music that resulted in…piano sales. 

The instrument, brought to a technological 

peak, characterized the era. 

So did genuine innovation in music. 

Let’s take Richard Wagner as a star 

example of this. Aiming for the marriage 

of art, music and literature into “musicdrama,” 

he produced The Ring of the Nibelung, 

a four-opera cycle which extends 

the form practically into the realm of 

religion. His innovations include supplying 

his own libretto (rather than writing 

music to someone else’s), making solo 

pieces advance the story (instead of arias 

being star turns for virtuoso singers) and 

the leitmotif, a recurring musical phrase 

which identifies a character and mood 

and helps to hold a long work together. 

He also innovated in harmony. 

In contrast to Wagner stands 

Johannes Brahms, who wrote the kind 

of music Wagner didn’t: symphonies, 

chamber music, concertos. Brahms was 

a piano virtuoso and master of counterpoint. 

His work is easy to see as an echo 

of Beethoven’s titanic re-creation of 


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musical practice: anchored in structure 

and aiming for newer forms. 

Toward the end of the 19th Century, 

nationalism became grafted onto 

Romantic composition. Composers 

like Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov in 

Russia searched for a specific Russian 

musical expression. Similar goals were 

adopted by Grieg in Norway, Sibelius 

in Finland, Dvorák in Czechoslovakia, 

de Falla in Spain. Whatever its inspiration, 

the music of the period is still 

the most popular in the world, and for 

the Romantic playlist there are a great 

many composers we haven’t named so 

far and really should. Rossini, Schubert, 

Berlioz, the Strausses father and son, the 

Mendelssohns, brother and sister, the 

Schumanns husband and wife, Verdi, 

Franck, Lalo, Offenbach, Bruckner, 

Saint-Saëns, Bizet, Bruch, Mussorgsky, 

Tchaikovsky, Janacek, Elgar, Puccini, 

Mahler, Debussy, Ravel, de Falla, 

Respighi. Whew! 

We haven’t included any 20th skills earned him a sponsorship that sent double — to start a Liszt library could 

him and his family to Vienna, where well be the Canadian pianist Louis 

he studied with Beethoven’s student Lortie’s Complete Années de Pélerinage, 

Carl Czerny and met Beethoven and on Chandos. He plays a Fazioli grand; 

Schubert. He studied in Paris during the chords are sumptuous and the hall 

the 1830’s, a time when new techniques sound is clear. 

were being developed for the piano, The Romantic style’s popularity 

and resolved to become a virtuoso after showed no sign of diminishing over 

hearing Paganini play the violin. This a century of social and technological 

he did, and toured Europe extensively upheaval. A reaction had to come, 

in the 1840’s, as a result becoming very among composers and musicians above 

rich and giving much away to charities, all. Certainly there had been excesses. 

especially musical charities. He was Lisztomania was only one flowering of 

SHOW REPORTS 

received with hysterical admiration by the cult of the virtuoso. Performers were 

women, generating a phenomenon called accused of pandering to audiences and 

Lisztomania (which may ring a certain outright neglect of the score in the name 

bell in our time). Shows A in genuine Las Vegas, Romantic, of self-expression. Some composers felt 

he did not marry, in but Toronto, had more or less that there was no adventure left in the 

extended and love of course relationships. in Montreal. In the genre. 

Sure, you 1860’s, can after find the countless death of show two of reports his three on line, However but… no Beethoven appeared to 

children, UHF he adds became its a own Franciscan unique monk. take. drag the music world by sheer creative 

Even His our daughter, show pictures Cosima, are married better, have Richard you noticed? force into a new flowering. The Modern 

Wagner. We cover the shows on line, for free. period is marked both by schools of new 

And then we expand on the experience in UHF musical itself. expression and by individuals 

Going to a show? seeking to innovate, many of them 

Either way, follow it through our eyes. 

radically. The name is ironic, because 

arguably the period is over! There is no 

single Modern musical current, unless it 

is the stretching of earlier formal limits, 

especially tonality. We shall have to look 

briefly at several composers instead of 

choosing one to speak for all. 

The neoclassicists returned to form 

and thematic elements, but they did it 

in three different ways, depending on 

whether they were named Stravinsky, 

Hindemith or Schoenberg. Stravinsky’s 

work evolved from the early Russian 

period, which includes The Rite of Spring, 

The Firebird and Petrushka, to a neoclassic 

period in which he returned to eighteenth-century 

forms like the concerto 

Known in his lifetime as much or grosso. He never became fixed in a style, 

more as a virtuoso pianist than as a and in his final phase he experimented 

composer, he still produced innovative with Schoenberg’s twelve-tone system. 

-Cen- music. He was the first to compose a Paul Hindemith, a favorite composer of 

tury Romantics in that list and we’ve left symphonic poem, writing thirteen of Glenn Gould, reinvented the keyboard 

out some earlier ones. 

them, as well as other symphonic works, fugue in his Ludus Tonalis. It was based 

Who can stand for the Romantics? three piano concertos and a great many on an equal-interval twelve-tone octave. 

Franz Liszt encouraged and sponsored shorter works for piano. Notable among The brilliant Schoenberg developed a 

other Romantics, including Saint-Saëns these last are the Transcendental and structure for music using the twelve 

and Wagner. He was born in Hungary Paganini Études, the Années de Pélerinage, notes of the chromatic scale but no key, 

in 1811. His father played several instru- the Grand and Concert Études and the later called serialism. Early in his life he 

ments and had worked for the Esterhazy great B minor Sonata. He created many created works in the Romantic tradition 

counts who also employed Haydn. The choral works as well, both secular and that seemed to reconcile Brahms and 

young Liszt began learning piano at age religious. 

Wagner. He also wrote new arrange- 

seven; by nine years old his performing A single disc — well, a nicely-priced ments of works by Bach, Handel, his 


mentor Gustav Mahler, and others, 

sometimes “correcting” what he viewed 

as defects in the originals’ style. These 

three composers are grouped into the 

neoclassical category because of the way 

they explored musical form, but they did 

not collaborate. Schoenberg actually 

disliked Stravinsky. 

Microtonalists like Charles Ives, 

Karlheinz Stockhausen and Terry Riley 

abandoned fixed key signatures and the 

eight-note octave. Others like Harry 

Partch dropped the equal-temperament 

tuning system. Starting in mid-century, 

composers experimented with pieces 

made of prerecorded sounds, rather than 

music performed from a score. Known 

as musique concrète, it is at the root of live 

electronic and electroacoustic music. 

Names in this school are Pierre Schaeffer, 

Edgard Varèse and the American 

John Cage. Cage introduced the idea of 

random events determining the content 

The recording is The Young Person’s 

Guide to the Orchestra with the Kansas 

City Symphony on Reference Recordings. 

Get it in the HRx version if your 

computer system will either output 

native high-resolution files, or downsample 

them acceptably. Apple’s iTunes 

will accept the file in high-res if your 

Import Settings preference is set to AIFF 

or Apple Lossless. The recording, which 

won a Grammy in 2011, is also available 

on hybrid SACD/HDCD. 

GET THE COMPLETE VERSION! 

of a performance. His most famous piece 

is 4’33”, in which musicians take their 

places but do not play their instruments 

for four minutes and thirty-three seconds. 

The “musical content” is whatever 

the audience happens to hear during that Contemporary classical music (but 

time. 

can we still call it that?) has not suc- 

To choose a single disc of Modern ceeded in furnishing a new, common 

music is to snub almost everyone. If artistic approach to music. Rising popu- 

you’re going to do that, better go all the lation and improved communications 

way. I’m going to recommend a piece have made it possible, even necessary, 

that was intended to teach a musical for multiple schools to flourish simul- 

tradition, by a Modern composer I taneously. This will pose a problem for 

haven’t mentioned at all. That would be a playlist after a collection has grown, 

Benjamin Britten. 

when different works from the same 

period may not seem to have much in 

common. We can, however, create a 

Contemporary playlist toward the end 

of the 20th You’ll have noticed that this free 

version of UHF Magazine 

is not quite complete. But you can 

get the complete version 

from Maggie for $4. 

Click here, and away we go! 

Century. 

We can populate it with Minimalists: 

Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Terry Riley 

and John Adams, major composers in 

this group. Typically such music is 

composed of rhythmic and tonal phrases 

repeated with small variations which 

accumulate to give the impression of 

waves propagating through the music. 

It can be rewarding when you listen 

with focused attention, but it works for 

driving and housework as well! 

Another composers’ group would 

include John Tavener (not to be confused 

with the Renaissance English composer 

John Taverner), Arvo Pärt, and Henryk 

Gorecki, whose Third Symphony of Sorrowful 

Song, in memory of those lost in 

the Holocaust, had worldwide appeal. 

The work of all three has a strong 

spiritual dimension. Pärt’s characteristic 

style, which he calls tintinnabulist, is 

inspired by Medieval and Renaissance 

music. He turned to these while his 

native Estonia was under Soviet occupation. 

In several of their works, both 

he and Steve Reich have abandoned 

harmonic movement by composing long 

pieces in a single key. However the fact 

that their music is in a key at all makes 

it more accessible than that of some 

Moderns. 

In one way, listening to composers of 

the Contemporary period, and even the 

Modern, is like visiting an audio show 

and looking for innovative gear. You are 

bound to find at least one odd-looking 

speaker which you would probably not 

consider buying but which proves that 

audio designers are continuing to push 

the creative envelope. If you associate 

contemporary music with the weird and 

the experimental, you will be confirmed 

in this by the work of Sir Harrison 

Birtwistle and George Crumb. The 

latter explores timbre with spoken flute 

(you can imagine the technique) and 

glass marbles pouring into a piano. More 

accessible may be the music of Thomas 

Adès. 

My suggestion for this playlist 

category would be kuniko plays reich, a 

performance on marimba by Japanese 

percussionist Kuniko, available in formats 

from MP3 to 24/192 FLAC, or as a 

physical CD, from Linn Records. Reich 

originally wrote Electric Counterpoint, 

for guitarist Pat Metheny in 1987, and 

Kuniko has arranged it for percussion 

with Reich’s approval. The performance 

is masterful and the sound is vivid. 

Having done this research to make 

my own iTunes playlists, I can vouch for 

the fact that it works well from several 

points of view. It makes it a little easier to 

find a given work and it makes it simple 

to set up a program of background listening 

in one style (although the Modern 

and Contemporary pieces tend to vary 

a little more than the others). More than 

these, it gives me a feel for Western 

musical development over time. I think 

I listen a little better for that. 


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Britten: Three Suites for Cello 

Denise Djovic 

Atma ACD22524 

Steve Bourke: What classical composer 

would be daring enough to try to compete 

head-to-head with Beethoven? No 

one did, really. Brahms felt compelled 

to be “the next Beethoven” in his early 

years, before finding his own unique 

voice. 

After the monumental solo cello 

sonatas and partitas of J. S. Bach, was any 

other composer brave enough to create 

music for the cello alone? Max Reger and 

Zoltán Kodály both attempted to do so 

in 1915, and so began a century of glory 

and praise for this elegant instrument. 

Superior cello virtuosos Pablo Casals 

and Mstislav Rostropovich inspired 

more than one modern composer to 

make music that was worthy of their 

skill, and so it was with Benjamin Britten. 

After seeing Rostropovich play 

Shostakovitch’s first cello concerto in 

1960, he declared it “the most extraordinary 

cello performance I have ever 

heard.” He immediately began to compose 

for Rostropovich, the wonderful 

result being the extraordinary music 

found in these suites, completed in 1971. 

Each is brimming with variety — 

upper octave wisps of pleasure followed 

by deep musky tones, then a tiny, almost 

inaudible, fragile sound creates suspense. 

Then a rush of modern harmonies 

abruptly shifts the mood. It builds and 

expands until your emotions again start 


Software Reviews 

by Steve Bourke 

and Gerard Rejskind 

to anticipate a shift to the next magnetic 

feeling. It becomes a pleasant guessing 

game to predict which moods, and what 

tempos, are about to arrive. 

Rhythmic switches are constant, 

so much so that I began to experience 

the music as a rewarding kind of classical 

jazz. Only that jazz element called 

improvisation is not present. 

Perhaps you admire great musicianship 

as well as great music. If that is the 

case, cellist Denise Djokic is just the one 

to reward you with the professionalism 

you require. Benjamin Britten himself 

surely had a virtuoso like her in mind 

when he declared that he “always liked 

to write music not just for performers, 

but for people who are close to me 

spiritually.” 

Denise has been named by Maclean’s 

magazine as one of 25 Canadians who 

are changing our world. Elle Magazine 

describes her as one of “Canada’s most 

powerful women.” In her hands the 

instrument flourishes. All its textures, 

tones and delicacies are hers for the 

playing, and ours to enjoy. 

And the cello, once scorned by lovers 

of the viola de gamba during the mid-18 th 

Century, is today an icon of the classical 

music world, adored for its tonal beauty 

and stylistic versatility. 

Harpsichord Music From a Thin 

Place 

Paul Cienniwa 

Balaena WCS 059 

Gerard Rejskind: There’s no mystery 

why the harpsichord fell out of favor in 

the late 18 th Century and was replaced 

by the piano. The harpsichord produces 

sound by strumming its strings, rather 

like a guitar, and it lacked the loudness to 

compete with the ever larger orchestras 

in the new and bigger concert halls. It 

had another disadvantage too. Unlike 

the organ, whose repertoire it was 

expected to play, the harpsichord plays 

each note at the same volume, narrowing 

its range of emotional expression. 

Though Bach played and wrote for the 

harpsichord (or “the keyboard,” which 

could mean organ or harpsichord), the 

great pianist Glenn Gould argued that 

he would have preferred the piano had 

he had access to it. 

And yet there is something special 

about the sound of the harpsichord, even 

to our ears so jaded by the infinite variety 

of electronic instruments. Unlike the 

piano, the harpsichord produces notes 

with a discreet fundamental tone, which 

is however rich in harmonics. It cannot 

be confused with any other instrument. 

That very richness, however, make it 

challenging to record, and to reproduce. 

Pretty much any reproduction system 

has difficulty with higher frequencies, 

and that goes double for digital. Few 

instruments other than the modern 

flute have such harmonics, and they’re 

a challenge. The result is that many 

harpsichord recordings are difficult to 

listen to for long, because they trigger 

major listener fatigue. 

This recording is a major exception. 

To capture at once the delicacy and 

the richness of the instrument, engineer 

Walter Klimasewski used a single pair 

of Schoeps CMC 64 microphones, with 

neither equalization nor compression. 

Avoiding compression and volume 

limiting usually means leaving plenty 

of headroom, but in fact there is a lot of 

volume on this CD. All the bits are used, 

yet there is no trace of overload. 

Why the odd title? Paul Cienniwa 

says that the “thin place” is the threshold

etween the ordinary and the spiritual. 

“It is my desire,” he says, “to bring my 

audience to a thin place through the 

beautiful stately elegance of the harpsichord’s 

most introspective repertoire.” 

The pieces he has chosen are mostly 

French (the Couperins, both Louis and 

François) Rameau, and Forqueray, as well 

as Sweelinck, Byrd and Bach. I’ve heard 

some of this music sound rather deadly, 

especially that of Louis Couperin. Cienniwa 

gives it life, not by accelerating the 

tempo, but because he has a feel for its 

innate beauty. No listener fatigue here. 

Not many music lovers, even lovers of 

the Baroque and the Renaissance, have 

large collections of music for solo harpsichord, 

but this fine recording belongs 

in the collection of those who just love 

music. 

Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances 

(LP) 

Eiji Oue/ Minnesota Orchestra 

Reference Recordings RM-1504 

Gerard Rejskind: The Minnesota has 

done a number of exceptional recordings 

for Reference Recordings (and for 

Mercury, years ago when it was called 

the Minneapolis Symphony), but this 

one of Rachmaninoff’s highly approachable 

orchestral suite counts among the 

best. Curiously the label, not long after, 

recorded the Utah Symphony with the 

same suite (RR-105), but it wasn’t nearly 

as successful, and this one remains the 

one to get. It’s still available in HDCD 

on RR-96CD. Now you can get it on LP. 

Many people know Rachmaninoff for 

what were mostly early neo-Romantic 

works, such as the piano concertos, and 

especially the Concerto No. 2, which 

dates from 1901. The Symphonic Dances 

were composed in 1940, not long before 

Rachmaninoff’s death. Originally written 

for two pianos, it seemed destined 

to be a ballet. His Rhapsody on a Theme 

of Paganini had been produced successfully 

as a ballet just the year before, 

and Rachmaninoff’s neighbor on Long 

Island was none other than the great 

choreographer Mikhail Fokine, who 

showed great interest. However Fokine 

was in ill health and would die not long 

after (as would Rachmaninoff), and so 

the dances became an orchestral suite. 

And it is a gorgeous one. The dancelike 

character is most noticeable in the 

second movement, the Andante Con 

Moto, with its waltz theme. The first 

movement, with the curious marking 

Non Allegro, is highly rhythmic, and even 

syncopated, and it is difficult to imagine 

it being danced to. It includes a tenor 

saxophone and a piano — Rachmaninoff 

was one of the most famous pianists of 

his age, lest we forget. There are haunting 

passages inspired by the liturgical 

chants of the Russian Orthodox Church. 

As in Rachmaninoff’s other orchestral 

music, much use is made of rich instrumental 

textures. It is a wonderful vehicle 

for a good orchestra, and the Minnesota 

is a very good orchestra. 

Also on the recording is the Vocalise, 

which Rachmaninoff wrote in 1912 

for soprano Antonina Nezhdanova. It 

was meant as a wordless song, with the 

soprano (or alternatively a tenor) choosing 

the syllables to be sung, with the 

music transposed to whatever key was 

best for the singer. There are some fine 

recordings with soprano of the Vocalise, 

but it is most often played, as here, in its 

orchestral arrangement. 

After my particularly warm review in 

UHF No. 91 of the Stravinsky Firebird, 

on one of Reference’s two inaugural 

LPs, I found this one initially less overwhelming, 

but I quickly realized why. 

The recording is also available in highresolution 

digital (24/176.4) in the HRx 

series, and we had in fact been using that 

version in equipment reviews in this very 

issue. I was used to this music sounding 

terrific. 

So how does the LP compare? Not 

surprisingly the two do not sound 

identical, but by any standard this is a 

simply wonderful LP. Technically it is a 

triumph, and the HRx version is as well. 

Happily, the music and the performers 

deserve no less. 

Schindler’s List 

Rösner/Orch. Symphonique Bienne 

Atma ACD22579 

Steve Bourke: Trying to watch and 

enjoy a movie without the soundtrack 

isn’t most people’s idea of good entertainment, 

for it is often the music in a 

movie that gives a dramatic moment its 

real impact. 

The reverse, where we seek out and 

buy just the soundtrack of a movie, and 

listen to it without seeing any moving 

pictures, may seem like a poor choice 

too. How often is thematic music from 

a film truly entertaining all by itself? 

As often as you like, if you choose 

John William’s musical score from 

Schindler’s List. 

Williams’ ability and reputation 

have been earned the hard way. After 

completing his studies at UCLA and 

the famous Julliard School of Music in 

New York, he found work as a studio 

and club musician playing jazz on the 

piano. Hollywood and orchestration jobs 

in Los Angeles were the next step, and 

from there he has won the admiration of 

film producers and audiences worldwide. 

At last count he has been honoured with 

20 Grammys, five Academy Awards, four 

Golden Globe Awards, two Emmys, 

and seven BAFTA Awards. He has also 

served as principal conductor of the 

Boston Pops Orchestra for 13 years and 

has composed many successful concert 

pieces. 

The theme of Schindler’s List is considered 

one of Williams’ masterpieces, 


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and will continue to be heard for the 

simple reason that it is deeply moving 

and tender, on a par with the great violin 

music from the classical repertoire. 

Ernest Bloch’s Suite Hebraïque 

rewards the listener with another showcase 

of the violin’s possibilities. The 

canvas for Bloch’s tone painting is 

composed of several melodies that he 

copied from a Jewish encyclopedia in 

the early 20 th century. Bloch blends them 

with his own sensibility to create moods 

and sweeps of notes that every violin 

enthusiast should enjoy. 

Though Bloch is remembered primarily 

for his compositions with Jewish 

themes, he was fascinated by many 

other genres. Renaissance, Baroque, 

Gregorian chant, Chinese, and Native 

American music. All had a profound 

influence on his musical life. 

His interest in exploring the Baroque 

produced the Concerto Grosso No. 1. Its 

structure and instrumental content is 

all Baroque, yet the theme and mood 

have a distinctly modern feel. There is 

an elegant edge to the rhythm that is 

all at once jazzy and reminiscent of the 

majestic John Sebastian Bach, the king 

of the Baroque. 

Profound spiritual expression from 

John Williams and Ernest Bloch blended 

into a masterful musical ebb and flow. 

This is the promise to be found here. 

Yerba Buena Bounce (LP) 

Hot Club of San Francisco 

Reference Recordings RM-2503 

Gerard Rejskind: This is Reference 

Recordings’ most ambitious LP production 

in a long time. The original HDCD 

version contained a lot of music, and so, 


to avoid omitting anything, RR has cut it 

onto two discs. Turning at 45 rpm. And 

on 200-gram vinyl, if you please! 

And the music is worth it, because 

the Hot Club of San Francisco is no 

pale imitation of its inspiration, Django 

Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli’s 

Le Hot Club de France. Though Americans 

believe, not without reason, that 

jazz is their own invention, or at least 

that of its long-ignored Black community, 

the delightful genre that is 

swing jazz is…yes, a French invention. 

As an aside, I should mention that 

the Hot Club de France is mainly 

remembered for the period up to 1940 

(Nuages, Django’s most famous piece, 

was recorded that year). The Hot Club’s 

sound changed, because Grappelli fell ill 

on tour and wound up passing the War in 

England. He was replaced not by another 

violinist but by a clarinetist. Django 

himself thrived and even became rich, 

even though jazz was officially banned 

by the Nazis as degenerate music, and a 

million of Django’s Roma compatriots 

were being shipped to death camps. After 

the war he was shunned by some as a collaborator, 

and he became alcoholic, not 

showing up for gigs, and even forgetting 

to bring his guitar. He died in 1953. 

But back to San Francisco. The 

Hot Club was founded in 1993 by Paul 

Mehling, who remains lead guitarist 

(the “Django” of the group) today. He is 

backed by two rhythm guitarists, Jason 

Vanderford and Jeff Magidson, as well as 

bassist Ari Munkres. To reproduce the 

Hot Club sound of the 30’s, there has to 

be a violinist. He is Evan Price. 

This recording, made in 2006, was 

their tenth. They were featured on 

another audiophile label, the defunct 

Clarity Records, before coming across 

to Reference Recordings. 

The 16 tracks across the four sides of 

the LP set include some of the original 

Hot Club pieces, including Mystery 

Pacific, with its locomotive rhythm and 

Rythme Futur, with a similar theme. 

There are two other Django compositions, 

Black and White and Improvisation 

No. 2. 

There is also the gorgeous Souvenir 

de Villingen, which Stéphane Grappelli 

wrote nearly four decades after his Hot 

Club days. 

There are newer pieces, such as the 

Beatles’ I’m So Happy Just to Dance With 

You (in which Seth Asarno contributes 

his bandoneon, to give it a haunting 

tango-like rhythm). and three compositions 

from Mehling himself, including 

the title piece. There is David Girsman’s 

mandolin, added to the three guitars on 

two of the pieces. The album ends with a 

jam session, featuring the Club members 

plus clarinet, trumpet, trombone and 

tuba, plus Mehling singing the classic 

Some of These Days. That ends the album 

on a joyous tone, but really joy permeates 

all of this music, and that is the best 

thing one can say about a swing album. 

Though the group is relatively small, 

its sound can easily sink into cacophony, 

as it does now and then on the original 

HDCD-encoded disc. The sound was 

far more coherent on the HRx highdefinition 

version, and the musicians 

seemed to be playing better. That’s also 

the case on this excellent analog transfer. 

The 200-gram discs from Quality 

Records are dead quiet, but for a mysterious 

background rumble I couldn’t 

identify (undetectable however once the 

music begins). All in all, this is fine music 

delivered in flawless form. 

Portraits & Perfume 

Anne Bisson 

CAMILIO CAM2 4054 

Gerard Rejskind: This is Anne Bisson’s 

second recording, if you omit one she 

made a number of years back. She is best 

known in Quebec as a television host. 

Though she is francophone, she writes 

and sings in English. The earlier album, 

Blue Mind (mentioned in Gossip&News 

in UHF No. 87) was filled with her own

songs. Except for the frothy September 

in Montreal, those songs were serious, 

sometimes heavy, with Bisson’s emotional 

voice delivering all of their weight. 

This album, as its title suggests, is 

a lot lighter. Though the first disc was 

done with the Quebec audiophile label 

Fidelio, this one is on her own label, with 

the marketing done by the juggernaut, 

Universal Music. Universal suggested 

she make the disc more commercial by 

including some standards (read: pop 

songs that left the hit parade to enter 

the light jazz realm). She did, though 

the results are uneven. The Nearness of 

You and Jobim’s How Insensitive are both 

gorgeous, but are ill-suited to Bisson’s 

emotionally-charged voice. So is another 

standard, In the Wee Small Hours of the 

Morning, which opens a cappella. That’s 

risky, and the risk doesn’t quite pay off. 

With a Little Help From My Friends works 

much better. She sings it at a much slower 

tempo than Paul McCartney does, but 

she does it justice, and I was amused 

by the accompaniment, which closely 

evokes that of the Beatles themselves. 

Still, it is her own songs that are 

worth waiting for. Ripples is a delightful 

slow ballad, with only Bisson’s solo 

piano, without the strings and synths 

of some other songs. The same is true 

of My Little Boy, which is a love song 

despite the title. What’s Wrong With Me 

is a lively big band swing tune, and it is 

a showstopper. Also terrific is I Like You 

Too, borrowed from an album that Julie 

Lebon did two decades ago (with music 

by Guy St-Onge). It’s great fun, with 

a plot twist I wouldn’t dare give away. 

Looking down the list, she has perhaps 

six keepers out of the dozen, and that as 

you know is way better than average. 

Let me mention Guy St-Onge again, 

since it is evident that without him this 

recording would not exist. He is Anne’s 

mentor, arranger, co-producer, and a lot 

more. There are few instruments Guy 

can’t play with supreme virtuosity. On 

Roger Water’s Us and Them he plays 

piano, bass, drums, percussion, celesta, 

vibraphone, accordion, barrel organ, 

chimes and synth. Not at the same time, 

I would assume, and so thank goodness 

for multitracking. 

The recording exists in both CD 

and LP form, and they are not of equal 

quality. In the case of Blue Mind, the LP 

sounded wonderful, whereas the CD was 

dull and unfocused. I thought Fidelio 

should have refused it. This time it’s the 

reverse. The CD sounds terrific (besides, 

it has three more songs on it), and it’s the 

LP that left me wanting. 

Anne Bisson says that her recordings 

are a hit in Asia as well as North 

America, and I’m not surprised. There 

seems to be dozens of pretty female 

Asian singers with good elocution, but 

who don’t appear to have any clue what 

they are singing. Anne Bisson knows 

exactly what she’s singing. contents. For a start, 

she wrote a lot of it. 

Pick up Blue Mind too, on vinyl if you 

can. 

reading material for free. 


to break away from the standard rock 

format of guitars and drums by introducing 

orchestral strings in their new band. 

Ads were placed in British magazines 

and on the poster board of The Royal 

Academy of Music, with the happy result 

that two cellists, a violinist, a keyboard 

player and a bassist joined the founding 

fathers. 

The next challenge was how to 

capture the string sound on a live stage. 

Contact mikes sitting on the cello body 

We remember when a number of competitors were less would than effective, and after two 

put on line only only the cover image and years the table of experimenting, of 

their sound 

engineer solved the problem by using 

We would tell them that you don’t go fishing technology without bait. which is commonplace today, 

Sure, we live from what you spend through but our was site new and then — building transduc- 

the pages of our print issue. But you could ers spend into the days instrument bridges. 

Was the orchestra’s stage presence 

We think that’s the only way we can convince all that you different of the from that of the usual 

UHF difference, guitar, drums, and keyboard format? 

of why you might want to trust us with the future The string of your section had an image that 

music or home theatre system. stood out. One cellist wore a monk’s cap, 

We have readers on every continent except coupled Antarctica. with a full tuxedo and Converse 

Most of them discovered us on line. All-star sneakers. The violinist strutted 

They read a lot of our free material. the stage wearing a very long black cape 

And then they joined us. 

covering his high-heeled boots. Flower 

power shirts and the prerequisite long 

hair and beards completed the look. 

Sound production left a lot of notes 

in the lurch in those days. The Moog 

synthesizer comes off sounding like a 

slightly strangled French horn, and the 

overall balance of strings and guitars 

in the 1972 concert was totally out of 

whack. 

By 1974 much had changed. Banks 

of amps there were not, but the seven 

instrumentalists on stage were a coher- 

Electric Light Orchestra Live ent group, with the cellists now off their 

ELO 

chairs and onto their feet, dancing all 

Eagle Vision 

over the place, even clutching the cello 

Steve Bourke: With Jeff Lynne song- horizontally, like a bass guitar. The cellos 

writing, singing, and playing lead guitar have stepped forward into a primary 

for one huge hit after another, ELO position in the rock orchestra, while 

scored a baker’s dozen of top ten singles, the violin is barely heard — a dramatic 

during a run of popularity that spanned change from the earlier arrangements 

nine years, from 1972 to 1981. These when the violin regularly performed 

three live concerts from 1976, 1974 and jazzy solos on stage. 

1973, amount to a detailed and fascinat- By the time of the third concert ELO 

ing look at the evolution of rock concert had established itself as full-fledged 

staging and image-making from an era members of the British and American 

many of us recall with fond nostalgia. rock elite, thanks to a string of hits on 

The band that became a rock orches- both sides of the Atlantic. Does its music 

tra was founded by Jeff Lynne and Roy hold up today, in spite of the enormous 

Wood, both former members of The explosion of all musical genres since the 

Move, a UK rock group. They wanted seventies? You be the judge. 


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When Harry Met Sally (Blu-ray) 

Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan 

20th things don’t go any better. Harry is 

going to get married, and, in a wonderful 

exchange, Sally tells him how optimistic 

he’s being (translation: what woman 

would marry this guy?). Another five 

years, and both are free. Sally has broken 

off with her clueless lawyer boyfriend, 

and Harry is getting divorced (his 

recounting of the breakup to his best 

friend Jess [Bruno Kirby] while they are 

doing the wave at a ball game is one of 

the film’s many brilliant moments). 

In another memorable scene, Harry 

has a delayed meltdown after running 

across his ex-wife and her new husband, 

and throws an upsetting tantrum. Sally 

runs out to upbraid him, and then the 

dialog twists in a way that is unexpected, 

but seems so right that we should have 

GET seen FREE it coming. ADVICE! 

Where do The the questions best movies forare 

about change, 

Century Fox our famous Free specifically Advice section about how come the from? characters we 

Gerard Rejskind: Mention Our readers this film, send them learn to to us care at uhfmail@uhfmag.com. 

about change with time and 

and everyone will talk about the famous The questions, what happens and our to answers, them. We expect that 

scene about halfway through, may when appear Sally on line, Harry in and the Sally magazine, will wind or both. up together, 

convinces Harry that women can fake We don’t despite reply their by efforts mail, to set each other up 

orgasms, by having a fake orgasm right and we with don’t others give — it for this free is a romantic comedy 

there in a crowded restaurant. if you request Funny that your after question all. At the not start be of made the film, public. and even 

though this scene is, it is in fact the We least do ask at for its your midpoint, name the and chasm city. between them 

convincing one in a movie that is rich in is so Ask vast away! 

that compromise seems impos- 

home truths. 

sible. Both Harry and Sally do change, 

Rob Reiner directed this film, and however, and the way they change is the 

that’s already a reason to recommend subject of delight after delight. This film 

it, but so is the script by Nora Ephron. is a treasure, and its arrival on Blu-ray is 

Ephron, who later both wrote and cause for celebration. 

directed such films as You’ve Got Mail and 

Sleepless in Seattle, has an ear for the way 

people talk. Or at least for the way people 

wished they talked, or the way they think 

they remember talking. The memorable 

scenes are so numerous I hardly know 

where to begin. 

There is of course the opening, in 

which Harry and Sally, freshly out of 

university, share a ride from Chicago to 

New York. Harry (Billy Crystal) is still 

an asocial boor, and Sally (Meg Ryan) is 

frighteningly high-maintenance. Sally 

says she can’t tell Harry her life story 

because “nothing has happened to me 

yet,” but she is on her way to New York 

to become a journalist. “So you can write 

about what happens to other people?” 

offers Harry. 

We see them again five years later, Carlito’s Way (Blu-ray) 

and they are mainly older versions of Al Pacino, Penelope Anne Miller 

themselves. They meet on a plane, and Universal 


Gerard Rejskind: The film opens in 

a courtroom, in front of a judge who is 

pretty close to letting off steam. Carlito 

Brigante (Al Pacino), whom he had 

sentenced to 30 years of hard time for 

cocaine trafficking, is getting out after 

only five because the evidence against 

him had been gathered illegally. Carlito 

rubs it in: the judge had thought it would 

take three decades to rehabilitate him, 

but here he is completely rehabilitated 

after only five. He will never be in 

trouble again. 

Of course the judge doesn’t believe 

him, and neither do we, but he tells 

anyone who will listen — and some 

who will not — that his only ambition 

now is to gather a little money and set 

up a car rental agency in the Bahamas. 

No, not as a cover for drug trafficking 

or for laundering money, but to live 

in peace where it’s sunny and warm. 

He repeats the unlikely pledge to Gail 

(Penelope Ann Miller), the girlfriend 

he had dumped before being arrested so 

that she wouldn’t waste her life waiting 

for him. She is a dancer, supposedly in 

some sort of musical, whose stage turns 

out to have a pole in the middle of it. 

He wants to get a better life for her too, 

though convincing her she won’t just 

watch him bleed to death in some alley 

will take some doing. 

Going straight is not as easy as he has 

made it sound, as he discovers his first 

day back on the street. “I just have to 

make a delivery, it will take 10 minutes,” 

a friend tells him. Yeah, sure! As Pacino 

said in another gangster film, “Just when 

I think I’m out, they pull me back in.” 

To earn the money he needs, Carlito 

takes a job running a high-class disco 

club for a friend. Gee, he couldn’t possibly 

run across unsavory characters in 

a club, could he? Carlito plays with fire, 

blowing off a guy from the Bronx who 

is clearly a made man. He figures that, 

since he doesn’t plan to be there long, 

what the hell! Carlito’s old friends have 

longer term plans, though, and are reluctant 

to burn their bridges. Inevitably 

their career paths will diverge. 

However, no one he will meet in 

the club or in the mean streets of New 

York will be any sleazier than Kleinfeld 

(Sean Penn), the lawyer who piloted his 

successful appeal. Kleinfeld is also an

old friend, and is thus in a position to 

call in favors. Carlito is pretty generous 

for someone who used to traffic in coke. 

That sets up the final third of the film, 

in which Carlito, clearly established now 

as the good guy, will take on the scum of 

the earth, which description fits nearly 

everyone within five city blocks. 

Carlito’s Way is not Pacino’s greatest 

role, but he makes Carlito an engaging 

character, and the brisk dialog moves the 

story along, as of course does the action. 

Did the producers need to have a 

crew ready to shoot in the Bahamas? 

Perhaps, perhaps not. 

Fiddler on the Roof 

Topol, Molly Picon 

20 th Century Fox 

Gerard Rejskind: Can a story from a 

distant place and time still have universal 

appeal? The answer can only be yes. 

When we see a story of humans struggling 

to live and love, and put food on the 

table, and hang on to what dignity they 

can, we can sense the relation to our own 

experience. Indeed, it can be said that if 

a writer fails to establish a connection 

with his reader, it is most often because 

he has tried too hard to be “universal.” 

But you can’t relate to a character who 

isn’t from anywhere. 

That no doubt explains why the 

stories of Sholom Aleichem (the pen 

name of Russian/Ukrainian storyteller 

Solomon Rabinovich) remain popular 

far outside the large Jewish diaspora. 

Originally written in Yiddish, the lingua 

franca of Eastern European Jews, his 

stories are tableaux of life in the shtetls 

(predominantly Jewish villages) of Russia 

and Ukraine from about the 1840’s to the 

dawn of the 20th Century. Sometimes 

called the Jewish Mark Twain, he had an 

engaging narrative style that lends itself 

to easy translation, and his characters 

were strongly drawn. They belonged to 

a world that no longer exists, but their 

appeal endures because, despite our 

varied origins, we have more in common 

than we are willing to admit. 

Those qualities made the stories an 

appealing source for a musical comedy, 

created in 1964 by Joseph Stein, with 

music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by 

Sheldon Harnick. Most of the Sholom 

Aleichem stories have one-off characters, 

but he did write an entire series of them 

centred around the milkman Tevye 

(Topol), and so these were the stories 

that became the musical. Tevye, like the 

other residents of the little shtetl, called 

Anatevka in the musical, are strong 

on tradition. Directly addressing the 

camera, Tevye explains that it is through 

tradition that each knows who he is, and 

what God expects of him. 

However, the world is about to 

change, as the 20th CROSSTALK! 

Our equipment reviews are unusual 

in a number of ways, 

but what makes them truly unique is 

our Crosstalk section. 

Actually, what is especially unusual 

is that we review products as a group, 

typically of three of us. 

We listen to actual music, 

not sonic excerpts. And we discuss 

what we heard, though with no pressure 

to conform. 

If we disagree, so be it. 

But then comes the Crosstalk. 

The main text of each review is based 


following each session. 

But at the end, each reviewer 

participates in the Crosstalk, 

a personal comment Century on looms. the product. 

Tevye has We may five daughters. even disagree Ever among since ourselves. 

anyone can remember, And you marriages know what? have 

been arranged, Readers often through tell us they the ser- love 

vices of matchmakers to see such us as disagree. Yente (the 

wonderful Molly Because Picon), if we, who the knows “experts” how can 

to put the best face disagree, on her so suggestions. can they. 

“So she’s nearsighted, They tell us is our your disagreements, son so 

much to look mostly at?” minor Or: “He’ll but sometimes beat you, major, 

but only when he’s sober, empower so you’re them. all 

right.” Tevye That’s and just his long-suffering one way UHF wife Magazine 

quotations, for “when you’re rich, they 

think you really know.” 

Not all musical comedies have sunny 

endings, of course. West Side Story is 

based on Romeo and Juliet, and ends 

with the violent death of a major character. 

Fiddler on the Roof ends with an ethnic 

cleansing, as we would call it today, not 

something likely to send the audience 

out chuckling. 

Indeed, the age-old menace of 

anti-Semitism is omnipresent. Though 

Anatevka has a Jewish majority, it also 

has a Russian Orthodox church that is 

larger and more sumptuous than the 

ramshackle synagogue. The Jewish villagers 

are all too aware of the mindless 

hostility of the Russian imperial regime. 

When the elderly rabbi is asked whether 

there is a blessing for the Tsar, he replies 

that there is: “God bless and keep the 

Tsar…far away from us.” 

The story does include a pogrom, 

but, no doubt as a concession to the lighthearted 

musical comedy genre, it is singularly 

bloodless. There is destruction 

of property, but as anyone familiar with 

the conditions of the Jewish diaspora in 

Tsarist Russia will know, Jews seldom 

got off that easily. Indeed, Fiddler on the 

Roof omits one of the particularly heartwrenching 

tragedies of the Tevye stories. 

I am not certain that the authors made 

the right decision. Comedy and pathos 

can never be far apart, and significantly 

one of Sholom Aleichem’s books bore the 

title, Some Laughter, Some Tears. 

The ending includes an unsettling 

detail that is perhaps not deliberate. The 

displaced Jews are headed for various 

destinations, including America and 

Golde (Norma is different Crane) from first all met other on their magazines. 

Palestine. However, one of Golde and 

wedding day, but it will not be so for their Tevye’s daughters, along with her hus- 

daughters. Tevye resists the concept of band and baby, are headed for Krakow. 

“love,” clearly the enemy of tradition, but The baby will be about 40 at the time 

he has much too good a heart to fight to of the Krakow ghetto, the one shown 

the bitter end against the daughters he in Schindler’s List. We can guess there 

adores. With but a single exception. will be tears aplenty to accompany the 

Tradition, for Tevye and the other laughter. 

residents of Anatevka, englobes much This is a long film, inevitably so, since 

more than Judaism, but of course the it must follow the story of three of the 

Bible figures prominently. Tevye is five daughters, but it is sumptuous, and 

constantly quoting it — or actually mis- full of delights. The music is memorable, 

quoting it — and his dream is of being and some of the songs (such as Sunrise, 

rich enough to drop his milk route, and Sunset and To Life) have since become 

sit in the synagogue and pray. He would standards. Its polished transfer to Blu- 

no longer be corrected in his Biblical ray is most welcome. 


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Your System 

Belongs on the Wall 

Target Wall Stands 

at The Audiophile Store 

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World 

(Blu-ray) 

Milton Berle, Buddy Hackett, Ethel 

Merman, Spencer Tracy, all-star cast 

MGM 

Gerard Rejskind: This long comedy 

is from the 60’s, but not the real 60’s. 

Stanley Kramer (known for such films at 

Judgement at Nuremberg and Guess Who’s 

Coming to Dinner) made it in 1963, the 

year before the cultural revolution that 

began with the emergence of the Beatles. 

Its spirit is actually that of the 1950’s, 


and I do not mean that as a compliment. 

However it has a couple of redeeming 

qualities I shall get to in a moment. 

Here’s the setup. A number of tourists, 

some related and some not, are 

passed on a dangerous mountain curve 


by an elderly motorist (Jimmy Durante) 

who drives off the road, and — in an era 

before seat belts — is “thrown clear.” 

Before We remember he kicks when the a bucket number (all of competitors too would 

put literally, on line and only if it’s only subtlety the cover you image want, and the table of 

you should look to some contents. other film), 

We he would reveals tell that them he buried that you a treasure don’t go in fishing a without bait. 

Sure, California we live park. from The what tourists you spend decide through to our site and 

the find pages the treasure of our and print split issue. it up, But but you their could spend days 

agreement falls reading apart within material moments, for free. than pure. 

We and think soon that’s it is every the only man, way and woman, we can convince for you of the 

him/herself. UHF difference, 

of why This you very might long want film, to trust shot us in with what the future of your 

was still billed music as or Cinerama home theatre but system. was 

We actually have readers Super Panavision, on every continent is loaded except Antarctica. 

with sight Most gags, of and them no cliché discovered is so hoary us on line. 

that it cannot They read be used a lot at of least our free twice. material. 

The saving grace And is, then however, they joined that the us. 

large cast includes nearly every comic 

of the age, including many who are still 

remembered and revered half a century 

later. The major characters are played 

by Milton Berle, Mickey Rooney, Buddy 

Hackett, Sid Caesar, Phil Silvers, Andy 

Devine, Don Knotts and even Buster 

Keaton. And then there are walk-ons 

by the likes of Jack Benny, Howard Da 

Silva, Carl Reiner, and even The Three 

Stooges. Where else can you see these 

comedy stars of the golden age, not 

on grainy kinescopes, but in 70 mm 

widescreen? Nowhere, that’s where. 

I’ve already alluded to this film’s 

running time, which —like its title — is 

longer than it absolutely has to be, and 

to fill up all that time the screenwriters 

resort to plot twists that were ancient 

when movie cameras were still handcranked. 

One of the competing couples 

attempts to win the race by chartering a 

plane, but a second couple does exactly 

the same. There are problems with both 

planes, but different ones, with neither 

getting any points for either originality 

or plausibility. One couple goes to a 

hardware store for picks and shovels in 

order to dig up the treasure, but accidentally 

gets locked in, and uses every 

cliché there is in an attempt to get out (a 

lot of it involves explosives). The Buddy 

Hackett character has a difference of 

opinion with a gas station owner, and it 

all ends with nothing of the station left 

standing. I admit to laughing. A lot. 

There are two major characters I 

have not yet mentioned. Singer Ethel 

Merman, at her shrillest and brassiest, 

is the mother in law from hell, and is 

the butt (I use the word advisedly) of 

sexist joke after sexist joke, many of 

them involving her underpants, which 

make the Sears catalog of the time seem 

racy. And there is the wonderful Spencer 

Tracy as the police captain who is 

tracking the movements of this unlikely 

bunch, but whose motives may be less 

Is this movie funny? Sure it is, and 

many of the laughs are delivered by 

people who were the very best in the 

business. Expect to wince twice for each 

time you laugh, but in a movie of this 

length you still get a pretty fair payoff. 

At least you do until the end. 

Then writers William and Tania 

Rose fall off the diving board, with the 

most agonizingly awful denouement one 

can imagine. I won’t describe it, because 

watching it again was bad enough, but 

there should be a “critics’ cut,” which 

would omit the last awful 10 minutes and 

move straight to the final credits. You’ve 

been warned.

Do your friends have bassier speakers 

than you do? Do they sneer when 

you play your hi-fi system? Do they 

check your fridge for traces of leftover 

quiche? Time for a visit to the good 

doctor… 

Doc, I’m not happy. I’d like to have lots 

more bass from my speakers, and I don’t 

know how to get it. 

Hmm…you’re suffering from bass 

anemia, are you? A battery of tests would 

be in order. I may have a bed available 

Friday… 

That’s not necessary, doc, I’m already 

sure of the diagnosis. I just don’t know what 

to do about it. 

Self-diagnosis is a terrible thing, as 

the medical association is always pointing 

out. Who are these friends? Do they 

have proper accreditation? 

I don’t know, and that’s not the point. 

Their bass is full and beautiful, and mine is 

lean and miserly. Why shouldn’t I get in on 

the good life too? 

Perhaps I should take a complete history. 

Just lie on the couch. Now, when 

did the symptoms begin? 

A few weeks ago. At first I didn’t think 

anything of it. A friend of mine dropped by, 

and he brought over a new record he had just 

bought. It was the latest Streisand record. 

When I played it he kept frowning and 

saying, “I don’t understand why you don’t 

have more bass.” 

Had you noticed a lack of bass before 

that? 

I can’t remember. But he said on his 

system he could actually feel the whomping of 

the bass and the thumping of the drums, and 

on mine he could barely hear them, much less 

feel them. And I had to admit he was right. 

How could you tell? Had you heard 

his system? 

Not at the time. 

Then you apparently made your diagnosis 

on inadequate medical evidence. 

But then I heard his system — he was 

really eager to have me come over — and I 

Gossip&News 

Ask the Doc 

had to agree. He had far more bass 

than I did. 

And this bothered you? 

Well of course. The worst 

part came when he asked me 

how much I had paid for my 

speakers. I told him they had 

cost me $950, and that they 

were very well reviewed in the 

best magazines. He made a rather sarcastic 

comment about the magazines… 

Tch! He should lose his license to 

practise. 

…and he told me his own speakers cost 

only $280. At that point I didn’t know what 

to say. 

Well, it sounds to me as though you 

are suffering from what Freud would 

have called bass envy. 

Is it curable, doc? 

Many companies will tell you it 

can be cured only by purchasing their 

products. Personally I favor a multidisciplinary 

approach to medicine. 

Meaning? 

Meaning that the best cure for bass 

envy is to decide what you really want. 

Tell me, did you prefer the record as you 

heard it from your friend’s system? 

I don’t know. It certainly had more bass. 

Think back. Could you understand 

the words? 

I don’t remember. I was so entranced by 

the drums and the string bass that I wasn’t 

listening for the words. 

Do you consider it normal that the 

drums and bass should engage your 

We go back in time to 

UHF No. 23, and our 

long-running satirical 

section, “Ask the Doc.” 

Some of the entries 

have aged gracefully. 

attention more than the words? 

I hadn’t thought of it. Maybe not. 

Is it normal, doc? 

Well, who can say what is 

normal nowadays? It is not up to 

doctors to judge their patients. 

But I might suggest a short clinical 

test which may provide at least 

some relief. The next time you visit 

your friend, try slapping the side of his 

speaker with the palm of your hand. 

Why? 

Chances are that you will hear a 

hollow low-pitched sound. Chances are 

also that this sound will be familiar, 

since it will have exactly the same pitch 

as the bass and drums that impressed 

you so. 

Are you saying that the bass I was hearing 

didn’t come from the record? 

When you think about it, all speaker 

makers are up against the same laws of 

physics, and those laws dictate that a 

speaker of reasonable size will drop in 

efficiency as the frequency goes down. 

A resonance, however, seems to increase 

output. And so if you place a resonance 

at the very point where the speaker is 

dropping in response, it will appear to 

have extended bass. 

That’s amazing doc! You mean some 

speaker manufacturers deliberately introduce 

resonances into their speakers? 

That is seldom necessary. For $280 a 

pair, there is no way to pay for enough 

materials to prevent severe resonances. 

But it is possible to tune those resonances 

so they appear to help the bass 

response. 

You say the resonances appear to help the 

bass response. But don’t they actually help? 

As far as the test instruments are 

concerned, yes. For the music, no. You 

are hearing the cabinet, not the music. 

Thanks, doc! I’m feeling much better 

already. 

My receptionist will prepare your 

bill. I’m afraid this sort of intervention 

is not covered by medicare. 


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Industry 

News 

Vanishing CD 

Players 

It’s been true for a long time that CD 

players have been disappearing. Go into 

a Best Buy and ask where the CD players 

are. If the “associate” is young, he won’t 

even know what you mean. 

We rather anticipate that they’ll soon 

be vanishing from shelves of audiophile 

stores too, and indeed that may already 

be happening. Bryston BCD-1 player, 

which has been drawing plenty of attention 

(it was reviewed in UHF No. 82), has 

been discontinued. 

It’s not really because it wasn’t selling. 

Like many (indeed most) high end 

makers of players, Bryston was using 

Philips transports. A model that Philips 

no longer makes. That puts companies 

like Bryston in a peculiar position. 

In many countries, including Canada, 

manufacturers are required to offer spare 

parts for their products during a certain 

period of time. Philips sells to OEM 

customers through an intermediary, thus 

exempting itself from the requirement. 

But the high end manufacturers are 

bound by the laws. Thus Bryston has a 

certain number of these now discontinued 

transports, but will put them aside 

to service units that fail. 

One reason that Philips is used by so 

many companies is that most of its competitors 

have gotten out of a shrinking 

market. Philips is bound to do the same. 

Anyone still making an audiophile-grade 

CD player that doesn’t have digital 

inputs has to be seeing the writing on 

the wall. 

Let us repeat something we’ve been 

saying. We don’t think the physical disc 

is going to vanish just yet, and we’ll get 

to the reasons in a moment. The players 

are another matter. 


TV Doldrums 

Didn’t we write about this in our last 

issue? We did indeed. But there’s lots 

more happening in videoland, and it isn’t 

all good news. For anybody. 

But perhaps Samsung is doing a 

little better than anyone else. Samsung’s 

European sales director Michael Zoeller 

was at a press conference in Dubrovnik 

(you should see our airline bill!), and let 

slip that at the Berlin IFA in August, his 

company will be launching a new “superluxury 

TV.” What does that mean? That 

was all he would say. And no, apparently, 

it is not an OLED set (that one was 

shown at CES in January), though it 

too will be in IFA. So what does “super 

luxury” mean? The buzz says it will be 

a 4K set, with 2160-line resolution. 

That, by the way, is stretching the 

meaning of 4K, which originally meant 

four times as many pixels as HDTV in 

each dimension, and thus 16 times more 

pixels. The new “4K” sets being shown 

by such companies as Sharp and LG use 

the new definition. Not that you should 

expect 4K source material just yet, unless 

you own a cinema chain. 

Oh, yes, rumors continue to flow, 

predicting that Apple plans to swim 

against the current and launch its 

own TV set, with what Steve Jobs had 

described as having “the simplest user 

interface you can imagine.” Believable? 

No? 

Yet some people continue to believe 

it. A poll, by two companies called KAE 

and Toluna (whatever!) indicates that 

25% of US consumers would buy an 

Apple television set if it came out, and 

30% in the economically-embattled UK. 

And that’s for the general population! 

For people who already know Apple 

because they own an Apple product, the 

intention to buy rises to 38% in the US 

and 43% in the UK. Let’s see…what’s 

30% of the population of Great Britain? 

In the meantime, Samsung (them 

again) opined that an eventual Apple 

television wouldn’t be as good as Samsung’s 

own in picture quality. We’re 

prepared to agree, impressed as we are 

with Samsung TV’s (a Samsung plasma 

is our reference), but there’s another 

rumor that says Samsung will be the 

supplier for Apple! Call your bookie! 

Then there’s Sony, which has just 

anointed a new CEO, Kazuo Hirai 

(above), to replace the hapless Sir Howard 

Stringer. The company has fallen on 

hard times, being beaten or threatened 

by Apple on everything from music 

players to game platforms to computers. 

It is now worth about 3% of Apple’s 

own value. Hirai vows his company will 

rebound. Perhaps he’ll begin by dumping 

the company’s current slogan, which is 

“Make Believe.” 

Sony once made the world’s best TV 

sets, but for years has been making rather 

dowdy LCD panels. And losing money 

at it. Now Sony is cutting its costs by 

finding a supplier that can sell it TV 

panels for less. 

The supplier? Yes...Samsung! Them 

again. 

Philips has seen better days as well, 

with such unsuccessful TV sets as the 

much-too-wide 21:9 set shown above. 

Journalists at CES often skip the venerable 

company’s TV presentations, and 

so Philips won’t make them anymore. 

So there! 

Oh, there will still be Philips-branded 

sets, by a new company called TP Vision,

eing formed with Hong Kong’s TPV 

Technology. New televisions created by 

the venture will be developed, manufactured 

and marketed by TP Vision, but 

will be badged Philips. The new CEO of 

TP Vision, Maarten de Vries, says that 

his new company “will continue to bring 

the high level of innovation consumers 

expect from a Philips TV.” 

Oh? Do we still expect it? 

Does this sound like a good time to 

be getting into the TV business? Guess 

who thinks it is… 

Of course IKEA sells more than Billy 

bookcases. Its stores stock Ikea-branded 

stoves and refrigerators too. Next? TV 

sets. 

Oh, it won’t make them by themselves, 

they have a partner. And no, 

it’s not Samsung, it’s TCL Multimedia 

of Hong Kong. TCL makes RCA sets 

among others, though we can’t recall 

seeing them anywhere fancier than 

Walmart. IKEA is also, you may have 

heard, planning to build an entire model 

community in the UK. Perhaps it will 

come with a little hex key. 

Faux 3D 

(the Beat Goes On) 

What’s been holding back the growth 

of home 3D? Well, there’s the fact that a 

lot of people are still paying off their 2D 

HDTV’s. There’s the fact that both the 

quality and the quantity of 3D material 

leaves something to be desired. And then 

there are the dorky glasses. 

So here’s Stream Networks, with its 

Ultra-D technology, designed to solve 

both the supply and the glasses problems. 

Just in time…if it works. 

We might as well say that the image 

shown here would be misleading even 

if it applied to real 3D, but it doesn’t. 

We can’t do better than by quoting the 

company’s claim from its Web site (the 

abusive use of upper case letters is theirs): 

Ultra-D is a proprietary 3D technology 

(viewing without glasses) that can be used 

for PCs, Picture Frames, Tablets, TVs 

and other displays; How Maggie Revolutionary Works tablets 

(Android based UHF and Windows is, and has based); beenSet 

Top 

Boxes with Browsers for many for connecting years, the web 

to TVs. a (Non-consumer print magazine. applications But we know of the 

technology more are enormous and more as they audiophiles can apply to 

medical, military want and to read many it other on their industrial 

fields.) computer or iPad. And they’re 

Sure, we willing can see to the save military money jumping too. 

on a system Click that here, adds and bogus let “3D” Maggie information 

to explain perfectly how good to images. get the full We’re 

told it costs a lot version of money for to $4. “convert” 

2D to 3D, and And here’s we mean a set-top a PDF box that 

does it on version the fly. without Or not. digitl rights 

We management have no plans you to test can the transfer Ultra-D to 

system, for the the device same of reason your we choice. 

have no 

plans to test perpetual motion machines. 

(And perpetual motion isn’t dead. 

At CES, we got an invitation to drop by 

and recharge our cell phone on a system 

that uses water as fuel. You can’t make 

this stuff up. Or at least we can’t, though 

clearly some people can.) 

Also on the faux 3D front, James 

Cameron, who accelerated the current 

taste for the third dimension with his 

hugely successful Avatar, gave in to the 

commercial lure, and “converted” his hit 

film Titanic to 3D. Now if there’s someone 

who should know that fake 3D is not 

3D, you’d think it’s Cameron, because 

he has been so harsh on previous faux 

3D movies. 

But hey, the 100 th anniversary of the 

Titanic’s sinking was in April, the 

newspapers and the Web were filled 

with Titanic lore, as were the bookstores, 

and a 3D re-release could only 

be a success. 

So how did Cameron do it? 

Actually the conversion was done 

by a company called Stereo D, using 

computers to draw new scenes, essentially 

making up new backgrounds. 

The painstaking process, which cost 

some $18 million, and which Cameron 

described as being like mowing the lawn 

with nail clippers, was eased by the fact 

that many scenes had been computergenerated 

anyway.. 

The problem — and we’ve pointed 

this out before — is that in a real 3D 

movie people and objects have “roundness.” 

In converted films, you see flat 

people and flat objects, some closer than 

others. We could call it 2.1D. 

Cameron says that, with scenes 

showing the Titanic itself, he had to 

rein in his team and reduce the amount 

of added 3D, because otherwise the ship 

looked like a miniature. Yes, but it was a 

miniature, wasn’t it? 

Samsung 

Adopts Tubes 

Well, why not? There is a booming 

business in making boomboxes for use 

with iPhones, iPads and other mobile 

devices. 

The DA-E750 is a nifty-looking miniature 

sound system, whose top-mounted 

round window gives you a glimpse of its 

glowing tubes. The tubes, by the way, are 

for the $800 device’s preamplifier section. 

The three amplifiers (including one for 

the “powerful” subwoofer) are solid state. 


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And they’re class D. 

You can send music from an Apple 

iOS device (with AirPlay) or from an 

Android device (with AllShare). Or, if 

you must, with Bluetooth. 

As you’ll recognize, this is the opposite 

of what Chicken Little warned us 

about. Blogger Mike Masnick doesn’t 


think the end is near for the “content 

industry,” and he has numbers to prove 

it. Masnick and his Floor64 colleague 

Michael Ho released their report, titled 

The Sky Is Rising, at the last MIDEM 

music industry convention in Cannes 

in January. It purports to shows how the 

global entertainment industry actually 

grew by 50% in the last decade, despite 

BitTorrent and all the warez sites. 

We should warn you that the report 

was commissioned by a computer indus- 

The UHF Reference Systems 

Equipment reviews are done on at least one of 

UHF’s reference systems, selected as working 

tools. They are changed as infrequently as 

possible, because a reference that keeps changing 

is no reference. 

The Alpha system 

Our original reference is in a room with special 

acoustics, originally a recording studio, letting 

us hear what we can’t hear elsewhere. 

Main digital player: Linn Unidisk 1.1 

Additional digital playback: CEC 

TL-51X belt-driven transport, Moon 

300D converter, Apple MacBook Pro, 

Stello U3 interface 

Digital cable: Atlas Mavros 1.5m 

Digital portable: Apple iPhone 4S 

Turntable: Audiomeca J-1 

Tone arm: Audiomeca SL-5 

Pickup: Goldring Excel 

Phono preamp: Audiomat Phono 2 

Preamplifier: Copland CTA-305 

Power amplifier: Simaudio Moon W-5LE 

Loudspeakers: Living Voice Avatar 

OBX-R 

Interconnects: Atlas Navigator All-Cu, 

Pierre Gabriel ML-1 

Loudspeaker cables: Atlas Mavros with 

WBT nextgen banana connectors 

Power cords: Gutwire, Wireworld Aurora 

AC filters: Foundation Research LC-2 

(power amp), Inouye SPLC 

The Omega system 

It serves for reviews of gear that cannot easily 

fit into the Alpha system, with its small room. 

Digital players: shared with the Alpha 

system 

Turntable: Linn LP12/Lingo II 

Tone arm: Alphason HR-100S MCS 

Pickup: London Reference 

Phono preamp: Audiomat Phono 1.6 

Preamplifier: Simaudio Moon P-8 

Power amplifier: Simaudio Moon W-8 

Loudspeakers: Reference 3a Suprema II 

Interconnects: Atlas Navigator All-Cu, 

Atlas Mavros, Pierre Gabriel ML-1 

Loudspeaker cables: Pierre Gabriel ML-1 

for most of the range, Wireworld Polaris 

for the twin subwoofers 

Power cords: BIS Audio Maestro, UHF14, 

Wireworld 

AC filters: GutWire MaxCon Squared, 

Foundation Research LC-1 

Acoustics: Gershman Acoustic Art panels 

The Kappa system 

This is our home theatre system. As with the 

original Alpha system, we had limited space, 

and that ruled out huge projectors and screens. 

We did, however, finally come up with a system 

whose performance gladdens both eye and ear, 

with the needed resolution for reviews. 

HDTV monitor: Samsung PN50A550 

plasma screen 

Source: Pioneer BDP-51FD Blu-Ray 

player, Apple TV 

Preamplifier/processor: Simaudio Moon 

Attraction, 5.1 channel version 

Power amplifiers: Simaudio Moon W-3 

(main speakers), bridged Celeste 4070se 

(centre speaker), Robertson 4010 (rear) 

Main speakers: Energy Reference Connoisseur 

(1984) 

Centre speaker: Thiel MCS1 

Rear speakers: Elipson 1400 

Subwoofer: 3a Design Acoustics 

Cables: Atlas, Van den Hul, MIT, 

GutWire, Wireworld 

Line filter: GutWire MaxCon Squared 

All three systems have dedicated power lines, 

with Hubbell hospital grade outlets. Extensions 

and power bars are equipped with hospitalgrade 

connectors. 

try association that includes Google and 

Facebook among its members, and which 

therefore may have a certain agenda. 

Judge for yourself, though. A PDF of 

the report is at http://gigaom2.files. 

wordpress.com/2012/01/theskyisrising. 

pdf. 

Here’s the new sponsor of TAVES, 

the Toronto show. 

Yes it’s a Porsche, but what’s a car 

company doing sponsoring a high end 

audio show? Well, the latest 911 (the 

“real” Porsche, if you ask us — there is 

no substitute) will be featuring a sound 

system from Burmester. Expensive, if we 

had to guess, but then so is the car. You 

may recall that, some years back, a James 

Bond picture, Die Another Day, featured 

an Aston Martin Vanquish with a Linn 

12.1-channel system. 

TAVES is scheduled for September 

28th to 30th at the King Edward hotel in 

downtown Toronto, the same (excellent) 

venue as last year. 

From the sublime to the ridiculous… 

Certain stores, like Best Buy, have 

been offering trades on your DVDs 

against the same titles in Blu-ray. Oh, 

they don’t offer much, something like 

$5, but it’s found money, right? 

Amazon has its own trade-in program 

on music, films and even electronics. 

That’s amazon.com, by the way, not 

amazon.ca. Amazon does offer to give 

you a gift certificate of up to $4 or even 

a little more, though user reviews are 

overwhelmingly negative. 

But Amazon is now offering to buy 

your “old fashioned” CDs against credit 

you can use to buy the music in MP3 on 

the company’s US-only music store. 

Yes, sure. We’re going to unload our 

full-resolution recordings, and then pay 

money to get the music back in a lossy 

compressed version!

Working Tools 

Most of the tools we work with can bear the strain. The lens contains 

are amplifiers, loudspeakers, and of plastic, and Leica lenses don’t. However, 

course computers and software. But Panasonic told us that Leica had helped 

UHF wouldn’t be a magazine if it didn’t set up its Lumix lens plant, and our tests 

include pictures, and most of those with the loaner camera confirmed that 

pictures come from our own cameras. the Lumix lens (14-42 mm, or 28-84 mm 

And we have several GET of them. THE COMPLETE Albert in full-frame VERSION! terms) offers terrific 

uses a Sony R1 for photos You’ll accompanying have noticed performance. 

that this free 

reviews. For shows, he has version been using of UHF Magazine However, the GF3 (known as the 

a compact Lumix TZ7 is not camera, quite complete. and GF3X But if you you can buy it with the compact 

Gerard has been using a slightly get the older complete zoom) version has a different advantage: it will 

version, the TZ3 (the camera from at left). Maggie let for us $4. do a lot more of our show coverage 

The two Lumix cameras Click are here, out- and away by available we go! 

light rather than flash. Flash 

standing picture-takers, and you don’t just looks less natural. What’s more, a 

have to look far for the reason: they have lot of modern audio gear has reflective 

Leica lenses. We have no trouble seeing surfaces that look awful lit by flash, if 

that advantage on our high-resolution indeed they can be photographed at all. 

screens, and you can see it in our pages The GF3X lets us look into near dark- 

too. 

ness and dig out the light we need. 

But we were in for a surprise when 

Panasonic lent us the GF3X, above right. 

With its 3X zoom lens telescoped, it is 

barely bigger than a point-and-shoot, 

and it weighs a scant 100 g more, but 

it has interchangeable lenses, a large 

sensor, and it shoots RAW photos, not 

just compressed JPEG. It even has a 

(small) built in flash, indispensable for 

show coverage. 

It does not, as you can see, come with 

a Leica lens, though Leica does make 

its famous lenses for it, if your budget 

The photos on this page tell the 

story. The Mastersound amplifier then 

awaiting review was very dimly lit. The 

TZ3, at ISO 800, could do no better 

than the photo at left. The yellowish 

tone is digital noise, and could not be 

removed by rebalancing. The photo at 

right is from the GF3, operating with a 

sensitivity, of ISO 1600. Even blown up 

to large size, there is no noise apparent. 

We ordered a GF3X, and we have 

now received it. It will make our photos 

look better than ever. 

ADVERTISERS 

ADL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 

Allnic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 

April Music . . . . . . . . . . . . Cover 2 

Audiophile Store . . . . . . . . . . 55-62 

Audio Zendo . . . . . . . . . . . Cover 3 

Audiyo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 

Aurum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 

Blue Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 

Calyx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 

Charisma Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 

Europroducts International . . . 11, 15 

Furutech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 

Hammertone Audio . . . . . . . . . . 12 

Liberty Trading . .31, Cover 2, Cover 4 

Madison Audio Lab . . . . . . . . . . 14 

Maggie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 

Manley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 

Mok & Martensen . . . . . . . . . . . 30 

Moon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 

Mutine . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Cover 3 

Quad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Cover 4 

Roksan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 

Simaudio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 

Simon Yorke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 

Sonic Artistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 

Super Antenna . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 

Target . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 

Thorens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 

UHF Back Issues . . . . . . . . . . . 41 

UHF Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 


Gossip&News 

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I’ve just read a review of two ultraluxurious 

sedans, from Rolls- 

Royce and Bentley. At one time 

the two car brands were made by 

the same company, though today they 

belong to BMW and VW respectively. 

Back then, the literature included no 

information on engine power, or even 

the number of cylinders (an urban legend 

of the day claimed that the hood was 

welded shut, and the company would 

fly in an engineer if your car ever broke 

down). You needed to know only that the 

power was “sufficient to exceed any speed 

limit in the world.” Today, Bentley says 

its Mulsanne touring car’s V8 engine 

develops 512 PS (505 bhp/377 kW), while 

the “massive torque” (1020 Nm/712 lb ft) 

is delivered at 1750 rpm. Got that? 

I’m a little surprised that no amplifier 

manufacturer has ever been as reticent 

to advertise available power. Of course 

if your amplifier will put out a kilowatt 

you’d be silly not to feature the fact 

prominently in your ads, but what about 

those very expensive amplifiers with 

available power of maybe 10 watts? Or 

even less? Has no one ever been tempted 

to say merely that an amplifier has “sufficient 

power to drive any speaker made 

today beyond concert levels?” 

True, that could be dangerous, 

because out there somewhere is, no 

doubt, a speaker that requires energy 

from a small substation to produce 

more than a pitiful squeak. Still, just 

as the power race in the auto world 

overshadowed more significant technical 

virtues, so the question of amplifier 

power has often taken on an exaggerated 

importance. 

This is all the more evident today, 

when efficient speakers are so much 

in vogue, making smaller amplifiers 

an interesting choice. Though it’s not 

impossible to design a high-powered 

amp that sounds transparent, the challenge 

grows with every additional 

amplifying device you add. Besides, 

does anyone remember when a 25 watt 

amplifier was a muscle amp? 

But do those power ratings matter, 

and do they even mean what they appear 


State of the Art 


to mean? Let me return to the automobile 

analogy again. 

Consider an engine promising 450 

horsepower. By any standard short of 

Formula One that’s a lot of power, or 

is it? Put that engine into a two-seater 

sports car and, sure enough, you’ve got 

yourself a mean machine. Put the same 

engine into a giant SUV, like a Cadillac 

Escalade or a Lincoln Navigator, and you 

won’t be getting more than leisurely performance. 

That’s because those horses 

have a lot of steel and plastic to haul. 

Put the motor into one of those pickup 

trucks with the double rear wheels, 

meant to pull a small yacht, and you’ll 

find yourself struggling to make it up a 

steep incline. 

And so it is with amplifiers. Pick up 

antique AR2 acoustic suspension speakers, 

and your muscle amp may seem 

barely adequate. Listen to uncompressed 

recordings of large musical ensembles, 

and suddenly you’ll be glad you set your 

amplifier choice to “overkill.” Then 

again, with a different speaker, with 

other music choices, you may be content 

with a tiny amount of power. 

STATE OF THE ART: 

THE BOOK 

Get the 258-page book 

containing the State of the Art 

columns from the first 60 issues 

of UHF, with all-new introductions. 

See page 6. 

And, as with cars, raw power doesn’t 

tell the whole story. Power is voltage 

multiplied by current, but some “powerful” 

amplifiers can’t deliver adequate 

current into real-life loudspeakers. 

Similarly, some small but “powerful” car 

engines have low torque, or can deliver 

adequate torque only at high engine 

speeds. It’s the torque that gets you to 

cruising speed, and it’s the current that 

drives the loudspeaker. 

But there’s one more problem with 

power ratings. Watts are a linear measure, 

but loudness is logarithmic. 

Double the power, from 50 watts to 

100 watts, say, and the increase is only 

3 dB (supposedly the smallest audible 

increment, though we know that’s not 

true). Some listening tests seem to indicate 

that most listeners will judge a 10 dB 

increase to be subjectively a doubling of 

loudness, but in fact it’s a tenfold increase. 

That’s right…increasing output from 

10 watts to 100 watts sounds subjectively 

like a mere doubling of loudness. 

Some years ago there was an attempt 

to develop a logarithmic scale for amplifiers, 

and perhaps we should return to 

that. Let us call the new unit the dBl 

(“l” for loudness), and let us arbitrarily 

set 0 dBl to correspond to an output of 

1 watt. Then 10 watts would be 10 dBl, 

and 100 watts would be 20 dBl. A monster 

amplifier with an output of a kilowatt 

would be rated at 30 dBl. The advantage 

of such a rating would be that the numbers 

would correspond, subjectively, to 

what you could expect to hear. 

I don’t expect to see the dBl adopted 

by the audio industry, if only because 

of the damage it would do to bragging 

rights. Anyway, even a logarithmic 

rating wouldn’t tell the whole story. 

Many amplifiers appear to deliver twice 

the lower into a 4 ohm load as they do 

into an 8 ohm load, and some amplifiers 

can sustain more current draw than 

others. The interaction of amplifier 

and loudspeaker shape the listening 

experience. 

But don’t be overimpressed with 

those power ratings. Perhaps Rolls 

Royce had it right all along.

Why do 

UHF readers 

start reading 

their magazines 

at the back? 

Countless readers have confirmed it over the 

years: when they get their hands on the 

latest issue of UHF, they open it to the last 

page. 

The reason all of them mention: Gerard 

Rejskind’s last-page column, State of the Art. Since 

the magazine’s founding, the column has grappled 

with the major questions of high end audio. It has been 

acclaimed by readers around the world. 

Now, the columns from the first 60 issues of UHF are 

brought together into one book. Each is exactly as it was originally 

published, and each is accompanied by a new introduction. 

Order your copy today: $18.95 in Canada or the US, C$32 

elsewhere in the world, air mail included.

ESL 2905 

The largest of Quad’s full-range ESL 

models, it employs six electrostatic 

panels, the inner two utilising the 

concentric rings of anodes used 

to create the point source image. 

The highest quality components 

are used, including rare core transformers 

and high-grade audiophile 

capacitors. A rigid three-dimensional 

structural support system, 

combined with an overall speaker 

mass of 41.6kg ensures the maximum 

transmission of sound energy 

resulting in the most dynamic and 

powerful Quad ESL ever produced. 

Elite QSP 

The newest 

version 

of Quad’s 

famous 

current 

dumping 

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“I’d buy one of these in a heartbeat.” 

Ken Kessler, Hi-Fi News, April 2012 

SEE QUAD AT 

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REFERENCE 

QUAD DEALER 

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2889 Bloor St. W. 

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