Another vinyl product on Kickstarter

We've seen the turntable, now comes a speed-strobe-in-a-clamp design called the Uniform Frequency Orbiter from the brain of Jim Hagerman. The deadline came and went, sadly, but neat idea

Interesting new designs from PBN

I always want to hear PBN speakers but they are never where I am. Any chance at RMAF this year? That said, the company never seems to sit still and recently has announced a whole new set of speaker kits, the Scanspeak B741. Interestingly, on A'gon they even mention newer models that have yet to make their website. These offer the keen buyer a chance to acquire a serious pair of speakers where part of the price is paid in your own labor. Kits are all well and good but most audiophiles I know are very concerned with looks (or at least they have to consider the views of a significant other who likely feels that cables and woofers are not the most attractive indoor furnishings). Most audio kits end up looking like, well....kits. PBN designs some pretty serious equipment costing tens of thousands, so it's great to see them do more than offer a token cheap option in the range. If they end up looking as good when built by a real person as they do in the pics from PBN, there could be some unusual value here. 

Is your collection getting a little out of hand?

Does your partner object? Do friends find your obsession more than a little odd? Take heart, there is always someone who takes this too far and to whom you can point, with justification, as evidence that you are really quite balanced in comparison.

See this house here with all the details
Thanks to Apollo Records for the story!

Why I hate conditioners

Well, I have had a major system meltdown over the last few days. Trying out a new conditioner, from a company that shall remain nameless, the power up produced smoke and crackles, literally rather than metaphorically, with the result that one of my monos is out of service and on the way back to the manufacturer (at my expense). Seems also to have blown an output stage in another component. The last 48 hours have involved a lot of cable swaps, amp swaps, rejigging of connections etc to determine what is broken where, but basically I am down to one channel and now one mono amp.

Luckily, the Spectron monos can be reconfigured at the back to drive in stereo using the single-ended connections rather than my regular XLR cords, and I've managed to get music back up and running in this manner today but I am, I confess, just worn down by the complexity of trying to get it all to work so as to hear some music. It's almost enough to make me want to jack all this gear, go simple with an integrated amp and forget audiophilia. Almost.

No names as it's hard to know what caused all this but I would encourage you, if in the market for a new conditioner, to ask the manufacturer if they have customers with the same amps or gear you plan to use. The Spectrons are funny like this, they really don't enjoy a lot of line conditioners and despite protestations otherwise, definitely never worked well with my PS Audio P5. But at least the P5 didn't cause a system meltdown either.

All told - a house without music is a diminished space -- this much is confirmed. For now, I am just grateful to be hearing, in stereo, Kenny Burrell's new live album Special Requests

Hi end gear stolen on way to California Audio Show - alert

From Brian Ackerman of Aaudio Imports, who asks that this be circulated widely among audio buyers:

"On Friday my truck was broken into in the state of Nevada at the hotel I was staying at on my way to the California Audio Show. All the Ypsilon gear was stolen, Aelius amps, PST100 MKII, DAC100 & CDT100. Along with several Stage III cables, several HB Power Distributors, Acapella platforms and tools. Damage to my truck and a broken back window. I filed a police report and they have a detective on the case.

The retail value was around $250,000 USD.  Also the thieves didn’t get the remote controls for the PST100 preamp or CDT100 CD Player, so whomever tries to purchase these units will probably be looking to purchase the remotes at some point because the units won’t work without them. Then we can turn them over to the police department immediately after getting their information.

I suggest that we spread the word around and we all check the various websites which they might try to sell them.

They didn’t get these items:

- CD Puck for the CDT100
- Remote control for CDT100
- Owner’s manual for CDT100
- Remote control for PST100 MKII
- Owner’s manual for PST100 MKII

The gear was stolen in the city of Sparks Nevada, USA on Friday August 2nd, early morning.

Any information on this matter can be set directly to detective Jason Edmonson (see below).

Detective Jason Edmonson
Sparks Police Department
Crime Supression Unit
Cell 775-287-9295
Fax 775-353-1614
jedmonson@cityofsparks.us

Here is a complete list of the gear stolen:

1. Ypsilon Aelius Amps, http://www.aaudioimports.com/ShowPro...p?hProduct=164

2. Ypsilon PST100 MKII, http://www.aaudioimports.com/ShowPro...p?hProduct=135

3. Ypsilon DAC100 D/A Converter, http://www.aaudioimports.com/ShowPro...p?hProduct=131

4. Ypsilon CDT100 CD Player, http://www.aaudioimports.com/ShowPro...p?hProduct=132

5. HB Cable Design PowerSlave Marble (x3), http://www.aaudioimports.com/ShowPro...p?hProduct=225

6. HB Cable Design PowerSlave Acrylic, http://www.aaudioimports.com/ShowPro...p?hProduct=224

7. HB Cable Design PowerStar Horizon (x2), http://www.aaudioimports.com/ShowPro...p?hProduct=223

8. Stage III Concepts Kraken Pwr. Cord (x5), http://www.aaudioimports.com/ShowPro...p?hProduct=215

9. HB Cable Design Proton Pwr. Cord, http://hb-cable-design.com/1_english/proton.html

10. Acapella Fondato Silenzio Isolation Platform (x5), http://www.aaudioimports.com/ShowPro...sp?hProduct=24

11. Specialty Tools

I would suspect the gear may show up on ebay, craigs list or similar type websites.

Thanks for your support in this matter.

Best regards,
Brian Ackerman
Aaudio imports
4871 Raintree Drive
Parker CO. 80134
(tel) 720-851-2525
(fax) 720-851-7575
(cel) 303-264-8831

(email) brian@aaudioimports.com
(website) www.aaudioimports.com

Wired.com on the audiophile life

This article is short and interesting enough (apart from some very odd claims by the protagonist that 99% of top class audio gear is US-made, and that A-B testing won't work in audio -sigh, why do so many set themselves up like this?) but what's really entertaining here are the comments. Michael Fremer weighs in and pulls no punches, but he seems be be a lone voice, and some readers punch right back. Frothy stuff.