Audiophilia

by Henry Wilkenson

The Axia replaces the Aria as entry level cartridge in the Transfiguration line. It features an aluminum body to control resonances in addition to a boron cantilever and Ogura diamond stylus. With a tracking force of 2.0 grams and an output of .38 mV, it should be easy for most phono stages to handle without a step up device. The balance of the Transfiguration line consists of the Phoenix at $4,250.00 and the top of the line Proteus at $6,000.00. According to the manufacturer, the Axia shares the basic sonic attributes of its higher priced companions.

As an ‘entry level’ cartridge, I am continually surprised by just how good the Axia is. Granted, it requires a good deal of break in, but the end result is well worth the effort. Sonically, I found the Axia to be on the neutral side of the sonic spectrum. That term is often used to describe a sonic signature that is cold and/or sterile. I’m using the term here to say that the Axia doesn’t highlight or spotlight any one area of the sonic spectrum, be it treble extension, transparency or imaging. It does all of these things equally well. Overall, the performance of this cartridge is best summed up as being well balanced.

The Axia’s treble is extended which makes for very good reproduction of cymbals. The delicacy and the texture of struck or brushed cymbals are very revealing and pleasant to listen to.

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by Anthony Kershaw

New York City, NY, April 12 — 14, 2013 — I love New York. I never did need the brilliant 1970s ad campaign to remind me. Every time I visit, which is several times a year, I’m enervated, rejuvenated. Whether it is to see the best in plays, search for the very best vinyl, have dinner at our favourite restaurants, or hang out with the most passionate audiophiles and wonderful friends, I can never wait to get back.

So, it came as a surprise that I have never visited in April during the New York Audio Show. Sometimes, I think there is audio show overload. But, like visiting New York, as soon as I leave a show and finish the report, I can’t wait until the next one. My last show was Rocky Mountain in October. You know how I feel about that audiophile love in. The whole of the Denver show is so much more than a sum of its parts. I was hoping that the New York Show would give me the same feelings and excitement.

Another great reason for visiting New York is the Audiophilia contingent here. Writers Marty Appel, Michael Levy, Henry Wilkenson and Karl Sigman all live in the centre of the universe. I was just as excited to hang with them as I was visiting the show for the first time.

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by Anthony Kershaw

DACs have made a huge comeback. With the advent of music servers and computer file delivery, a good quality DAC with USB support is now the most invited piece of kit to the cool audiophile party.

In truth, DACs have never gone away. The very best companies made them and then, almost immediately, had to produce a matching anti jitter ‘clock’ to make them work at their best. Why leave all the goodies in the CD player when you can make another box and up sell? Uber high end companies like dCS and Esoteric made these boxes work at digital’s delightful best. Other companies, without the same designer clout, muddied the already dirty digital lake. Then, came the iPod and the headphone. Mobile became hot, and young audiophiles (and a few old ones) wanted to improve the sound of the smaller devices. The Renaissance of headphone amps and small, inexpensive DACS has been instructive and eye opening to much of the audiophile community.

My good friend, and much published reviewer, Mike Mercer, dragged me kicking and screaming into this new frontier during our times at Rocky Mountain’s CanJam. For that, I’ll always be grateful. For sure, there were a lot of cheap and cheerful DACs that made earbuds sound better, but the best made good quality headphones truly sing.

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by Henry Wilkenson

A first look.

Over the past twenty or more years Jim Hagerman has been responsible for creating a number of legendary products. Among them were the Hagerman Cornet and Bugle phono stages as well as the Stereophile Class-A rated Trumpet phono stage.

Hagerman is an electrical engineer whose broad background in electronics extends back more than thirty years and was not limited to audio. He holds many patents; even one for a mass spectrometer, which is more physics than electronics. Another example are the FryKleaner devices that were derived from some work that he did on an underwater modem. The point here is that Hagerman brings an unusually broad spectrum of experience from many disciplines to audio design.

The new Hagerman Trumpet Reference could best be described as being designed from a ‘clean sheet of paper’. Every part of the Trumpet has been designed by Jim Hagerman. There is nothing off the shelf, here.

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by Karl Sigman

Until very recently, my use of digital audio files was limited to playing MP3 files from iTunes using an iPad by snapping the iPad’s USB cable directly into the front of my Marantz CD 6004 player (a very convenient feature of the CD player). But given the higher-end quality of my recently upgraded stereo system as a whole, it seemed a good time to explore using a DAC so that I could play higher resolution files starting with the standard 16bit/44.1kHz resolution of a ripped CD, and moving beyond. Further — entirely practical — motivation speeded up my decision to acquire a DAC. My young 2 year old daughter had ruined my previous CD player (by forcing 6 CDs into its tray) as well as damaging some of my CDs themselves, and my wife was pregnant with another child due within 2 months. My history of organizing books, CDs and other physical objects versus computer files did not instil confidence in anyone who knows me. So, the possibility of playing all my music and getting outstanding sound quality from digital files and a computer rather than from a CD player (let alone a turntable) was intriguing and extremely attractive to me given my situation.

I honed in on the new PS Audio NuWave DAC because it has an enticing low price ($995), and the company has a reputation for making outstanding power cords and power conditioners as well as their already well received and low priced previous model of DAC, the PS Audio Digital Link III DAC (now discontinued). The NuWave also uses, as its heart, the Burr Brown PCM1798 24 bit DAC chip, from Texas Instruments, a well regarded chip by both audiophiles and musicians alike.

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by Anthony Kershaw

The music server writing is on the CD player wall. And, has been for a couple of years. I first noticed the trend of using servers/computers rather than CD players during my first visit to the Rocky Mountain Audio Show in Denver, 2011. Many audiophiles had turned to streamlined digital playback solutions for their high end equipment. I must admit, I was surprised at the waning of CDs. Interestingly, vinyl was still holding its own. Guess you can’t keep an old audiophile down. Without pleasure, I can now say that the aforementioned writing on the wall is the death knell for CDs. For sure, music will always be available on CD, but much like vinyl, it’ll be in the domain of specialty labels and audiophile reissue companies.

Since that Denver visit, I’ve attended other shows and store demos and heard a slow and steady improvement in the sound and ease of delivery of computer files. In fact, we gave Best Sound of Show last year at the Toronto Show to a Calyx DAC/iPad based system. It was refined, detailed, rich and natural. I’ve been hoping for such a system to grace my listening room to compliment my CDs and LPs.

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