USB for iPod, iPhone, iPad...

For those who command the ultimate in uncompremised performance, say, professional musicians, or well funded audiophiles, according to the vast majority of the audio industry, and as awarded via The Absolute Sound's product of the year (see March 2012 issue), it's the AudioQuest Diamond,  $650.00 (1.5 meter).  NOW, LETS FORWARD FAST BACK TO REALITY for a moment. For the vast majority of the rest us residing in the working class world, $650.00 for a USB cable is a bit, lets say, over-the-top! Hence, yet another highly valueable tidbit can be found again in this months issue of The Absolute Sound magazine, this time, on page 38. Article title; A mini-survey of USB cables!
In my mind, any tidbit as such, is very very inportant when there are so many things that can muck up the sound quality if they are simply not thought about, or delt with.  Such is the case as pointed out by Alan Taffle in this valuable article. Of what I feel is the jist, and most important thing you can bring away from this article, is the knowledge that cables such as this, range from the above $650.00 dollar Olimpian Bench Mark to the $15.00 dollar entry level, and amazingly - all make significant contributions to the sound quality! Some good, some not so much. So at what point, do us budget minded folks need to draw the line, to get what we want...the essence of $650.00 performance, but at closer to the $15.00 price tag!

***THIS JUST IN - HOTT OFF THE PRESS***

Hot off the press, in this months issue of The Absolute Sound (Oct.2012 Pg 56), Wayne Garcia has nothing but praise for our new Debut Carbon Turntable. And as it turns out, the Debut Carbon also just received EISA's Best Turntable of the year award!  I found it extremely interesting that Wayne also tested and reviewed Rega's new RP6 $1495.00 and in his praise of this table - he exemplifies the very same features and improvements that make up the Debut Carbon!?!...yet, to get these features if your not buying the Carbon, you have to give Rega an extra thousand bucks ($1000.00) for it! The most obvious being the Carbon Tube tonearm, but as Wayne points out on the Rega, what constitutes the rest of the higher end refinements is the higher mass plinth, heavier platter, superior suspension in the motor sub chassis and feet, and the felt matt....hmmmm, guess that all adds up to a truly rock solid low noise platform for accurate retrieval of the musical nuance found within the grooves....I can live with that! But hey why spend the extra grand for it? Ah, but that's the beauty of America's free market place and competition - You get to choose! Oh, but wait, you get one more very significant advantage when buying the Debut Carbon - US!  A LOCAL DEALER, WITH FREE hands on personal support, setup assistance, and technical expertise...and of course, the thousand bucks savings you can use for gas money, or maybe even some new records....the choice is yours - Cheers!

PS: You can special order the Carbon in 7 different high gloss plinth colors, and for 100 bucks extra you can get an on-board analog to digital converter with USB output so you can upload your vinyl files...happy days are here again!

The BEST Value Turntable you can buy !

It's time to dust off some of those old favorites and be impressed with how much more musical "vinyl records" can be than your average download, I-tune, or CD!  Drop the kid stuff and lets get serious!

Our Pro-ject Debut III turntable (above) has been considered by Industry experts and vinyl fans alike, as possibly the BEST Value turntable available. At $379.00 the list of audiophile features is more than impressive, and unlike so many "entry level" tables from even big name manufactures, the Debut III DOES NOT limit you to an "entry level" cartridge (pick up & needle). Some under $500.00 tables even limit you to the basic one that "comes with the table". It's really sad because lots of these newer tables, although entry level, are so well designed that they are capable of much better performance - but with the right cartridge.  Which is one reason I personally love the Debut III.  Though it comes with an "entry level" cartridge, the very musical Ortofon 2M Red, you can upgrade it to almost any level! Well as if the Debut III wasn't good enough??? the fanatics at Pro-ject wouldn't leave well enough alone and have upgraded their own design to now not just be the BEST entry level, but to be arguably competitive with tables approaching the 1K range in both design and performance!?! 

Here's our industry news take on this just now shipping beauty;

INTRODUCING THE DEBUT CARBON, from Pro-ject....

Pro-ject once again has challenged convention by offering even better performance at an accessible price. Their extraordinarily popular original Debut III offered at $379.00 (around the price of an old or used vintage table), now has a half dozen factory upgrades. For starters, there's the addition of an 8.6 inch completely carbon fiber tone arm (normally found only on really expensive tables). Carbon Fiber tone arms increase steadiness while decreasing resonances. This results in a more detailed, higher fidelity presentation. Fitted to the Carbon Fiber arm is a true "audiophile" cartridge - 2M Red from Ortofon. This is a very well reviewed high-end cartridge of its own right! A cartridge of this calibre is usually an after market addition. The combination of this tone arm and the 2M Red provides exceptional tracking and recovery of the musical nuance found within the grooves. Another Debut Carbon upgrade is an even heavier 300mm alloy platter, mounted on top of the heavy MDF plinth. The heavier platter is smoother in rotation and lowers the "wow and flutter". (Wow and flutter you may remember having experienced in the form of your woofers jumping in and out even during an absence of musical content). Also, the platter mat is upgraded to "felt" for superior decoupling of the record and record player. The motor assembly is "sorbothane" suspended, and the entire table sits on shock adsorbing feet. You also get chassis mounted gold RCA output jacks instead of the typical hard wired connectors, making it possible to "upgrade" these as well.

Personally, I cannot think of a better designed turntable from another manufacturer without getting into the$700.00 - $1000.00 range. The new Debut Carbon gets my highest recommendation!

Used & Vintage Gear on hand

Here are some of the great deals we have in used and vintage gear as of September 14th. Of course, this list changes all of the time, as most items are one of a kind. Marantz TT-42 Turntable - $195.00, Denon AVR600 - $52.00, Denon DVD 1740 - $30.00, AVID 100A Stereo Speakers - $68.00, MB Quart Monitor Speakers - $320.00, Mirage Omni S8 Subwoofer - $125.00, Kef 100 Center Speaker - $78.00, Sansui CA2000 Preamp - $380.00, Triad LCR Gold Stereo Speakers - $600.00, Toshiba SD1800 DVD Player - $10.00, Sanus EF AVB-B1 TV/Audio Stand $270.00, Inter M R500 Pro-Power Amplifier - $250.00, Denon DVD-3910 All format Player - $350.00, Sony STR DH500 Surround Receiver - $80.00  All used items carry a 30 day warranty, and once again, change rapidly!  And as always, we have an assortment of used, and new Audiophile Record Albums on sales. "Happy hunting"

Vintage Gear, Talkin' about a bargain

Talkin' about a bargain! It's fascinating to me how easy it was for our custom department (Jim & Tom) to build such a widely known reputation for exceeding customer expectations not just in service and support, but product quality vs price. And it’s this steadfast ideal which became the model for the Hi-Fi shoppe. For instance, though our retail shoppe is only months old we’ve already won a surprising amount of customers from our competitors who were astonished by how much more performance they got for the same dollar on receivers, speakers, subwoofers, and turntables. But some of the best bargains in my opinion have to be our used gear! As we accept trades for new, we’ve acquired some fabulous vintage pieces. One couple was blown away by the nice little system they were able to assemble for just $250.00 bucks, which included a receiver, CD player and speakers. So the other day, I was tinkering around in the Loft (display location for the vintage gear) and was able to put together not just a nice little stereo system, but a kick ass audiophile system, which would rival anything today! A Sansui CA2000 Preamplifier, InterM R500 Power Amp, Denon DV3910 all format player, Triad Monitor Speakers, and a Mirage Powered Sub. Nearly every component returned a 5 star customer review when “googled”. To assemble an equivalent system new, you’d have to lay out about $7500.00! vs the paltry $1705.00 the vintage system costs here! The heart of this ultimate vintage system would give even the most discerning audiophile no excuse to ever upgrade. As the CA2000 provides an amazing assortment of controls, inputs and outputs, while staying true to its super wide frequency response of 10hz – 80 khz w/less than .03THD. And the R500 is a super cool running 250WPC power house capable of driving even the most demanding electro-stats. So whenever one might want to upgrade the speakers or anything else, the heart of this system would easily stay the course... Smokin’ Hott Deal!!!

Vintage Music Review (Special Limited Edition HQ Recording)

 

Styx - The Grand Illusion, 180 gram Vinyl Pressing, by Friday Music       *****

Performance; This is exceptional vinyl! Dubbed a “HQ recording” it’s mastered directly from the original A&M tapes, NOT from a distant relative as is too often the case with many “re-masters” re-issues, and sometimes even "so-called special editions". The mastering company is Friday Music Studios who specializes in creating “collector quality recordings”. They are a small company (when compared to the Sony’s, WB’s, or RCA's. of the world). Needless to say, The Grand Illusion as a performance and record release by Styx has been reviewed so many times I won’t bore you with yet another review about the musicians themselves, what comprises this as a theme album, or how it went on to become one of the most popular albums of all time, selling millions of the standard vinyl copies worldwide, and so on and so forth...

The only comment I will make about it is that what allowed this to become the performance it is, is in large part due to the era this came out of, a time of exceptional inspiration for rock musicians which I personally miss! Coming out of the melting pot of 60's and 70's. So many great guitar rock bands were either born during this unique time, or reached the ultimate culminating edition of themselves, resulting in an unparalleled world of original musical blends and styles, (psychedelic, Space, Industrial, jazz, blues, soul, big band, orchestra, and even Country - ROCK). Sadly, for fans like me, this level of musical artistry has not been even vaguely approached in all the time since then - combined). Guitarist James Young's said his inspiration for the guitar riff in “Miss America” came to him in the middle of the night when he was thinking about Jethro Tull’s “Minstrel in the Gallery".

Regardless, I must say that this heavy 180 gram vinyl itself appears to be a perfect pressing! It's so nice to not have even a "hint of warp". It is also housed in an extra thick gatefold cover with additional photo’s and liner notes, and includes a rice paper album sleeve (lint free ideal for record preservation and storage). So from a quality stand point, I cannot give high enough praise to such a masterful work of musical art!

Style: If you’re not familiar with it, it’s comparable to Toto or Kansas, and even hints toward Jazz Rock Fusion type bands, like Pablo Cruise. All seven band members harmonize, lots of synthesizers, piano, violin, and of course guitars, drums and bass.

Sound Quality: Sonically, this is an impressive recording. Rich instrumental textures, vocal layering, and exceptional frequency response seaming to extend from the highest highs to the lowest lows. Should you indulge yourself with one of these recordings, you will so appreciate the refreshing break from the over equalized re-masters that can end up being essentially just the mid range of an original recording). The outstanding sound quality should be appreciable even on the most entry level high fidelity system.  For instance I did all of my comparative listening tests (compared to the standard vinyl) using only modest equipment such as a set of our Monitor bookshelf speakers ($389.00/pr.) and Pro-Ject turntable/Ortofon cartridge combo ($369.00). (to be reviewed in upcoming blogs).

Too often sacrificed in today’s convenience machine is the sound quality. Thank the Gods for some small audiophile recording labels who still care about musicality, sound and build quality. Friday Music is one of these companies who take the time to remaster the recording from the original tapes, and not just make a copy of a copy (as mentioned above) or use some higher bit or scan rate (in the case of digital transfers), or who use flimsy (low cost) vinyl that typically warps or wears out prematurely. In fact, the 180 gram pressing is an impressively substantial masterwork and is perfectly flat! When we first opened and played it, I could not believe the difference in sound.  To use the cliche “night and day” is to undermine the significance of the contribution that audiophile labels can bless true music fans with.  Yes our Friday Music Remaster is a $25.99 dollar record, but OMG what an absolutely awesome musical treasure this is.  I found the layering of the vocals (as all seven band members sing) to be extraordinary – you can pick out the individual voices – do you know how many people think there is only one or two singing?  Like most audiophiles (true music lovers) I normally let the system warm up for a least 20 minutes prior to listening, most good amps sound considerably better at this point, so (do try this at home), but with this recording I was so blown away with what I heard as soon as the needle hit the groove, I had to immediately sit down and give it my undivided attention. So obvious was the sonic superiority that I actually pined for someone else to join me (my musical enjoyment is usually solely personal), just to hear what I was hearing.  I like Styx well enough, but honestly, no more than several other bands, but with this album, I now LOVE STYX, their music was like a narcotic, I had no idea the level of musicianship this band is cable of. Driving guitar work, celestial keyboarding, and hypnotic vocalization backed by a drummer who now sounded as if he was using small Louisville Sluggers instead of his normal drum styx, but what really blew me away, was the shock of how much larger the sound stage was over my original copy. When the system reached that 20 minute point at which time the amp started strutting its stuff, my connection to the music went from the equivalent of sitting in a lounge enjoying a live performance in the next room, to being transported to FRONT ROW CENTER with aural elements literally bouncing off walls to my sides and behind me.  I can now unequivocally state, that for my favorite recordings, it is these special 180 gram albums that I now intend to fill my music collection with!  Cheers!!!