Audiophilia

by Anthony Kershaw

I’ve been listening to JM Lab products for many years, primarily at shows and at a few Canadian dealers. They always seem to be on show. They look magnificent, feature top quality components and are in the upper echelon of high end pricing. Interestingly, they have never been among my favorites. Sure, all the models, from stand mounted monitors to the aptly titled Grande Utopia sound grand, indeed, but to my ears they miss some of the clinical nature of other similarly priced loudspeakers. Maybe the softer edge is the point. They are very popular and obviously appeal to a segment of the moneyed audiophile population.

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Dear Readers:

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By Andrew Levine

I’ve been thinking about the so-called “audiophile” crowd lately and come to the conclusion that they are a composite of many different predilections, some of which are listed here in alphabetical order:

Fetishist

Do you buy only 24k gold CD’s and use the most esoteric of digital interconnects? Assuming you employ a jitter-immune DAC the digital source / medium & connecting cables are of no importance. Please test double-blind if in doubt.

Freak

Do you believe that vinyl records sound better than digitally encoded music converted back into the analog domain?Assuming a high-quality, very accurately clocked ADC is used and the high-quality, accurately clocked DAC employed is jitter-immune, an exact digital “copy” of an analog source, fed to the sameamplifier stage, is indistinguishable from the analog source. Please test double-blind if in doubt.

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I was on Twitter earlier this afternoon. I follow Will Harris and he mentioned TWIT (This Week in Tech) was just about to go live from the Twit Cottage with host Leo Laporte. It’s usually a great show with the chatty, funny and technically erudite Leo Laporte, serial grump John Dvorak and sundry guests (sometimes including the verbose name dropper extraordinaire, Jason Calacanis — at which point, I turn off!).

This was a particularly excellent show (#199) with lots of news — the Palm Pre (which looks fantastic), the new iPhone 3GS, the switch from analogue to digital in the US TV realm, etc. What got my attention, though, as I sipped a French martini, was a recommendation for an iPhone application, the Public Radio Tuner — Public Radio on Your iPhone (downloadable from the iPhone app store on the device or iTunes).

This wonderful FREE app gives the iPhone owner a veritable smorgasbord of US public radio stations. Which means fantastic classical, jazz and smart talk. This is good news as classical stations are slowly going the way of the Dodo, especially here in Canada (CBC, are you listening? Didn’t think so!).

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by Anthony Kershaw

[The Planar 25 is now the P5. More information can be found about the updated version at the Rega website. Web address below - Ed]

It would seem the Renaissance for analogue equipment continues. The CD companies’ arrogant stance over the dusty remains of turntables and cartridges now, more than ever, seems premature. The Rega Planar 25 stands firmly among the many new ‘tables, enhancing the very best qualities that discerning audiophiles expect. The turntable was presented as an anniversary celebration of Rega’s analogue achievements of the past 25 years and fills a void between the venerable Planar 3 and Rega’s statement Planar 9. Using excellence in research and design from both ends of Rega’s spectrum, the 25 would seem to be the perfect platform upon which the rank and file enthusiast would build a fine analogue front end.

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by Martin Appel

My first reaction to seeing ads for GamuT in the magazines was, “Where have they been hiding?” My first meeting with GamuT gear was at a New York Stereophile Show about ten years ago. The company had a run of success with their original CD-1 CD player and their line of solid state amplifiers. Both their amps and CD player met with a wide body of critical approval in the audio press and were sought after by many. The CD player, as well as the amps, went through various upgrades and improvements to address some lingering criticisms as to relating to performance in the frequency extremes, for the CD player and, for some, their amplifiers sounding a little too analytical and sterile. The company has since changed hands — Lars Golar is now in charge and is the design and spiritual leader of this Danish company. He believes in using solid science as the basis for his designs and in the end, like any designer worth his salt, he listens.

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