Cary Audio now goes direct

I know they've been selling some discounted units on site for awhile, but this morning I received the official press release to the effect that Cary Audio now has online sales for their entire product line -- though it also includes dealerships, but they will not be called this anymore. Confused? Welcome to the new world of audio retail....

Cary Audio is pleased to announce the launching of CaryDirect (www.carydirect.com), a direct to consumer webstore, in conjunction with a new dealer program that assimilates dealers into the direct to consumer model.

 

 

CaryDirect (www.carydirect.com) is an online e-commerce webstore encompassing our entire product catalog, making it available directly to consumers. With the changing landscape of brick and mortar showrooms, CaryDirect will offer free shipping and a 30-day return guarantee allowing customers to experience risk-free in-home evaluations of Cary Audio products. 

 

While our model will be direct-to-consumer, CaryDirect is actually a hybrid model which takes great care to include our current dealer base into the direct to consumer model. Our dealers will now be called Cary Retail Reps or Cary Brokers and will continue to play a key role, as much or as little as they choose. The model incentivizes Cary Retail Reps to continue to have demonstration product on display for sales and promotional purposes within their local markets. Our goal is to make the Cary Audio buying experience transparent and consistent for the end-user customer. This program not only supports our past dealers, but will also generate a much larger base of new Cary Retail Reps and Cary Brokers that can profit from our hybrid model, which is more in-line with how they prefer to do business in today’s market. This is a win, win, win for our customers, dealers, and Cary Audio.

 

CaryDirect (www.carydirect.com) is only available in the U.S. and countries where there is no Cary Audio representation. Customers in countries where there is current distribution will be directed to the appropriate contact person for that country. For more information on CaryDirect and/or our new Cary Retail Rep or Cary Broker program, please contact Cary Audio at sales@caryaudio.com, or by phone at 919-867-4333.

 

Artisan Fidelity update and the Platterspeed app

Well, email this week confirmed what I expected, unforeseen problems causing a further delay. In this case it's a finish problem that necessitates some stripping back and refinishing of the plinth. Glad to have it taken care of now but it's par for the course given comments from other owners of Artisan tables.

Still, gives me time to tweak my SME to the utmost. Talk online of various speed checking apps left me unhappy with the output of the IRM app on my iPhone so I looked into the Dr. Feickert free app. It's great but you need to feed it a 3150hz frequency. Despite its supposed prevalence, only one of the several test records I own has this: the Analogue Productions Ultimate Test LP (side note, does it strike anyone else how limited most of the tracks on these LPs are for normal users, i.e., those without dedicated test equipment; purchase such LPs with caution despite their claims for utility).

Anyway, the free Dr. Feickert Platterspeed app takes a listen to your system as you play the track produces a summary image. Here's mine after several rounds of tweaking. It's amazing how much variation is induced by small changes. Am fairly sure that tables need to warm up a bit and stabilize or you can get variation there too.  And of course, the accuracy of your phone or iPad mic is likely to matter too. Try as I may, I could not get it dead on 3150hz, only slightly below and a large bit above....but when I checked with the good Dr, I received a reply that the numbers were so close that it was unlikely there was a living person who could discriminate further. Good enough for me and a fun app. Am going to try on any table that comes my way to see what sort of variation is out there.

Crowd sourcing vinyl releases? Meet Feedbands

Feeedbands invites input, options to learn about bands and the chance to influence releases. Musicians get to retain rights. The music releases right now don't particularly appeal to me but that's a matter of taste; the concept is great. Find out more at http://feedbands.tumblr.com/

There's no hoarder like a vinyl hoarder....

Tales from the dark side, though who amongst us is without sin?  Meet some obsessive vinyl hoarders

Potential Audioquest Rigged Demo Exposed

Potential Audioquest Rigged Demo Exposed: Audiophile drama is unfolding as an Audioquest HDMI cable demo,  showing unrealistic changes in sound, was seemingly debunked as fraudulent by Mark Waldrep, Dr. AIX.  It's a bit more complicated than it might appear but read both sides at the link above.



Btw -- Audio Advisor is having a decent sale on Audioquest cables right now!

New vinyl kickstarter....and it ain't cheap

Learned this from the always informative and entertaining Michael Fremer's Analog Planet -- a new recording project for jazz enthusiasts. Backing it could get pricey, 6 LPs cost over $300 in the first year, and from I can glean online, these are sourced from digital files so purists might be perturbed. Still, one has to admire the plan -- and it includes the artists owning their own music too. Check it out:

Sinatra's Columbia years re-done....

And you can get some samples HERE

Artisan Fidelity table on the way

I've been intrigued by the Artisan Fidelity tables for a long while.  For those who don't know, their tables are a melding of old parts and modern precision tooling to reveal the magic of old Lenco, Garrard and Technics engineering. Reports for the few owners are very positive, and the few comments from reviewers that have heard one confirm that these tables might be quite special. Seems odd in one sense, that something like an old idler-wheel design, discarded over time in the face of newer developments, might be repurposed and tuned up by modern tools, with a dedicated new plinth to create a mix of traditional and modern that some say is the bees knees of analog reproduction.

Well, who would not want to hear one of these creations, especially given the drop dead good looks that the Artisan Fidelity folks seem to deliver.  I mean, look at this and weep, record lovers:

As one dealer told me, you could buy an Artisan Fidelity and just give up worrying about your front-end, it would be the product to get you off the upgrade path. At the prices charged, I'd hope so but then, in audio land, tables prices like Artisan Fidelity might be considered modest in comparison to what lists for Class A in Stereophile.  Still, no one is going to buy one of these on a whim, these are tables for those who love their records. That same dealer (and a few owners) told me that Artisan's estimates of completion time are not very reliable though, and I'm here to confirm this is the case. Three months? Dream on...am already past month four, so a reliable estimate is really more like five or six.

Personally, I like the look of the 401, it captures something of a time (late 60s, sci-fi 'new era' modernity) and the chance to hear this with a 12" arm is too much to resist, so one is coming. Chris at Artisan has even been good enough to send some pics along the way as they go through their construction process which I will be updating here. It's a slow process, we worked out the details last October after several months of back and forth, and the table is only now taking form that allows for pictures, but patience is a virtue, right.  Here's a sample.

First, pick a finish -- I love the reddish wood hues you can see on various table in the Artisan Gallery (here) so, if you have a choice in the matter, why not go for it. This is African Paduak, and in it's raw form starts like this, shown on right.

Of course, once coated, it will take on the lovely reddish hue found in their finished plinths, and for me it strikes the right mix of classic, traditional and slightly modern. Hey, it's all in the eyes of the perceiver, right?. Artisan Fidelity can do a range of finishes, covering numerous veneers and motor car gloss style painted surfaces. I suspect you only have to ask if they don't have something that catches your eye.


Plinth under construction:

Taking shape:

My choice of table is the 401, which to me has the near-perfect look that I prefer to the 301 model -- no logic here, this is purely my taste:

BENQ treVolo portable electrostatic speaker

I've been having some fun recently with wireless speakers, using them to connect to my laptop, phone and iPads via Bluetooth for music and radio around my home and on the deck, in settings where my normal gear just does not go. BENQ's treVolo is an interesting alternative to the boxy designs of most, presenting an electrostatic, wing-flap design that looks as cute as it sounds.

The electrostatic 'wings' can fold back for storage but when opened allow space for the passive radiators. Specified as a quad-amped design with dual 2.5" front firing woofers that also has power storage for up to 12 hours of use without plugging in, the treVolo certainly is a little different. Throw in line out capability for using it as a feed to your stereo if you want to stream, and three ambience modes (pure, warm, and vivid), ability to have your phone calls routed through it, with automatic music-pausing and resumption for the call duration, and you start to appreciate how feature packed is this little design (though personally, the idea of telephone calls coming through my speakers sends shivers of horror up my spine!).   There's an app available too to change ambience mode and check battery power.

So, that's the basic structure, all wrapped up in small package a little over 6" tall, 5" deep and, with the electrostatics opened up, about 11" wide. Of course, all this is irrelevant to audio fans if the sound is akin to a boombox. Thankfully, what we have here is better, in fact much better than you might imagine. Whether it's the aptX Bluetooth, the active DSP crossover reportedly used or the electrostatic meets drivers combination, the package works to give you sonics to enjoy.

As you might expect from the electrostatic type design, this sonics of the treVolo are nicely airy and detailed. There's a quickness and light touch to percussion is anything but tizzy and and gives the music here a level of realism indicative of better speakers. Vocals and midrange instrumental details come through cleanly. Bass is certainly present but clearly not where this speaker is going to win most admirers. That said, the right recordings indicate that what's provided is well articulated and definitely not a single-note boom.  The Tsuyoshi Trio's Midnight Sugar sounds lively and real, with the stand up bass having real body and detail.  As you might imagine however, this is a speaker that does acoustic jazz, chamber, ambient, and vocal music better than heavy rock, its limitations being apparent on Black Sabbath's Heaven and Hell, where the laws of physics make it difficult for the treVolo to deliver the punch and power required.

While the treVolo can go loud and fill a typical room, this is not where it shines. I've had it in the outside screened porch and been happy enough with it, never wanting it louder, but where it works best, in my view, is in nearfield listening. Placed on a table near my chair, controlled from my laptop while I work, this little speaker can give you an extremely pleasing, intimate listening experience that will put you off ever relying on your computers speakers again. Given this application, and the treVolo's elegant form and portability, you can handily carry it with you anywhere your computer goes for a level of sound that's really hard to argue with in such use. The lack of wires and the ability to place it anywhere makes it more enjoyable than decent headphones for me.

Another aspect of this design that works for me is the sound radiation on both sides of the panel, which results in a spatial quality to the sound that works wonderfully when the treVolo is placed on a open table in my sitting room. Moving around the room, the music sounds good in all directions, unlike small box speakers where the soundstaging can collapse when you shift position.

I have only minor quibbles with this product. The user interface is somewhat confusing, I could never remember how to reset the ambience to the mode I wanted and have it stay there when powered off. Since the power button also controls ambience setting, the light code can be confusing. And good luck if, like me,  you misplace the manual and try to locate one online. The BenQ site is one of the most unfriendly I've experienced for occasional navigation. Still, battery life is reliably long, bluetooth pairing is easy, and you can have this unpacked and playing music in a matter of minutes.

At a similar price to the Audioengine B2, it's fair to ask how it compares. I'd give the B2 the nod in terms of room-filling ability and bass quality, it just has the ability to sound much bigger than it looks,  but the treVolo is more portable and a little better sounding in nearfield use with quieter forms of music.  The BenQ also has features such as phone call pass through that also might be of value to some. It looks more dramatic too. Make the choice primarily based on your lifestyle, either will instantly elevate your computer audio experience so it's really how you wish to use them.  At $299, the treVolo is hardly an impulse buy but over several months, I've enjoyed it enough to consider it good value for my lifestyle, offering superior sound and convenience in one very attractive physical form. There really is no excuse any more for putting up with the speakers in your computer. Life is good.  More information here http://www.trevolomusic.com

And don't forget the joker

I suppose most folks don't consider Motorhead to be audiophile approved but man, I saw the band live, missed them on a couple of cancellations too, over what now seems to be nealry 40 years of touring. Had that first album on Chiswick records too ('those swinging hips') which got lost along the way somewhere, so it's with more than a little sadness that I learned Lemmy died last night. Few people live live that hard and that full and remain polite, funny, pleasant human beings. Lemmy did. And his bio makes for good reading too. Crank up Ace of Spades and just let that music kick your ass into tomorrow. Farewell a rock start who did not tease his hair, tattoo himself for the camera or pretend to be a tough guy. He just got on with the music.

Genesis release customizable Forte speaker

The press release came in today from Genesis. I don't tend to reproduce too many of these here but I've found Gary Koh to be eminently helpful and insightful in his work so this one seems noteworthy to me. The Genesis line of speakers always appealed to me, though I've never had the opportunity to hear them outside the occasional audio show. This one looks tasty though, there's something about a tall speaker that sounds right to my ears. 

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"The Genesis Fortè is the latest model in a long legacy of 6-foot-tall line-source two-tower loudspeakers dating back to 1994 with the introduction of the Genesis II.5. Other illustrious models in this series included the Genesis 350SE (2000) and the Genesis 2.2 Junior (2011). The Genesis Fortè features a 48-inch ribbon midrange, a line-array of ribbon ring-radiator tweeters and two 12-inch servo-controlled solid aluminum-cone woofers per loudspeaker. In a departure from previous Genesis models, for the first time the Fortè will be available in “any” finish and is fully customizable with various options. A custom-finish mid-specification model in fiddleback maple and high gloss black will be shown at CES 2016. Price on application.

While it looks outwardly similar to many of its predecessors, the Fortè incorporates all new design and technology. The cabinet is constructed out of a constrained-layer damped composite material to further reduce cabinet resonance. The crossover has been re-worked with the new Genesis 48-inch midrange driver. The servo-controlled 12-inch woofers ensure deep, accurate bass with improvements in the Dynamic Power Delivery System (DPDS). A revised crossover improves coherence between the midrange and the woofer. Careful selection of crossover frequencies ensure that the lobing common with many other line-source loudspeakers has been eliminated at the listening position.

The Genesis Ring-Radiator Ribbon Tweeter (GR3T^™) displays remarkable clarity in the upper frequencies. It is often described as “the worlds best tweeter”. The 6mm ring radiator produces excellent dispersion up to 20kHz and above. With a line-array of 12 front-firing tweeters and a single 48-inch midrange, the Genesis Fortè is almost a perfect line source from 120Hz to 40kHz.

Nothing has much has changed in theoretical acoustics since ‘The Theory of Sound’ by mathematician and physicist Lord John William Strutt, Baron Rayleigh was published in 1877. There are still only two proper ways for a transducer to propagate sound in a room: a point-source and a line-source. Anything else, or everything in between, is a compromise.

In order for all frequencies of sound from the loudspeaker to reach the listener at exactly the same time, a coherent wave front is important - not just “time-alignment” of drivers. The ideal is either an infinitely small pulsating point or a thin pulsating line with a length on the order of the room dimension.

The huge advantage a line-source loudspeaker has over a point-source loudspeaker is that there is no vertical dispersion of the sound-wave. This carries several advantages: First, the spectral content of the waveform is consistent throughout the length of the line-source. With a line-source loudspeaker, seating height does not matter. There is no need to sit with the ears of the listener aligned to the height of the point-source or to aim the speaker at the head of the listener.

The second benefit of the line-source loudspeaker is that the attenuation of sound pressure level is -3dB with a doubling of distance instead of -6dB with a point-source. Hence, the change in loudness level is much less over small changes in distance. This results in a much larger area within which the speaker can be enjoyed, and hence can be enjoyed by a much larger audience. In a large room, this also results in much more dynamic sound with an equivalent amplifier.

“The Genesis Fortè is the ultimate loudspeaker for the family in a living room or even the great room,” said Mr. Gary Leonard Koh, Genesis’ CEO and Chief Designer. “It sounds good sitting down, it sounds good even when you are standing up, and the whole family can be enjoying the music at the same time.”

 “There is already quite an improvement when you go from a conventional cone/dynamic loudspeaker to a ribbon or planar-magnetic,” said Mr. Koh. “But it can be really shocking when you go from a conventional loudspeaker to a ribbon line-source. The effortlessness of musical peaks, huge dynamic contrasts and the ability to resolve the tiniest musical details – that’s what gives many listeners a sense of euphoria. It makes listening to music a visceral experience.”

“The Fortè is the perfect loudspeaker for the family,” said Ms Carolyn Koh, Genesis’ Chief Operating Officer. “At night, when you don’t want to disturb the sleep of the rest of your family, it plays softly with no loss of detail. This, to me, is the greatest advantage of Genesis loudspeakers. Many speakers have to be played loudly before you can begin to enjoy the music. The ribbon drivers and the servo-bass technology mean that there is no loss of resolution in the mid-high, and no loss of impact in the bass even when played softly.”

“You can also sit anywhere in the room,” continued Mr. Koh. “With conventional loudspeakers, it sounds half as loud when you double the distance away from the speaker. With the Fortè, music sounds half as loud at four times the distance away.”

Columbia House makes a comeback....with vinyl

Who'd have thought....I used Columbia House to start getting cheap CDs when I eventually decided to break down and go digital in the mid 90s (I was a reticent late adopter). Even visited their HQ once when doing some tech work in late 90s. Never a fan of their shipping model and sort of auto-enrollment in 'selections of the month', a practice for defaulting new customers that online folks now seem to have adopted wholesale, but I didn't realize they'd actually gone out of business a couple of years ago. Well, they're coming back.....selling records it seems. Read more HERE

Legacy introduce new high power amp for $1600

New press announcement from Legacy. I used to run a pair of their Legacy IIIs which were great and I've enjoyed the Studio HDs I had in for review a couple of years back. Good people - this one looks very interesting and priced competitively.

LEGACY Audio Introduces Powerbloc2 Dual Mono Amplifier  (Springfield, IL) Legacy Audio introduces the Powerbloc² dual mono amplifier featuring 325 watts per channel x 2 @ 8 ohms and 650 watts per channel x 2 @ 4 ohms. Audiophiles will appreciate the detail and resolution from the ultra-wide 1.5Hz to 70kHz bandwidth. Professionals will love the abundance of effortless power. Characterized by solid and taut low end with fully developed shimmer in the top extremes, Powerbloc² is one of the most versatile reference grade amplifiers today. Featuring the latest high efficiency Class D ICEpower® design, the Powerbloc²features short circuit protection. Far less power is wasted both in use and at idle, and unit life is extended by the lack of heat buildup. With up to 30 amps of peak current available per channel, the cool running design can drive a wide range of speaker loads. The Powerbloc² can be used in pairs with Legacy Audio's DSP based processors/crossovers, such as the Wavelaunch or Wavelet, to raise system performance to a new level. The Powerbloc² is currently available for order and will begin shipping January 2016. For a full list of Legacy dealers & international distributors, please visit:http://legacyaudio.com/audition/ Introductory MSRP: $1,600 Specifications: Inputs: 2 balanced XLR, 2 unbalanced RCA Outputs: 2 pair gold plated safety approved five-way binding posts Damping factor: 1,000 < 1kHz Voltage Gain: 27.4 dB Dynamic Range: 117 dB Peak Current: 30 amps/channel THD: 0.005% at rated output TIM: 0.0045% at rated output Dimensions: 3" H x 17" W x 14" D Weight: 20 lbs

Raven Blackhawk LE review now live

I've spent a most enjoyable 6 months with Raven Audio's limited edition version of their original Nighthawk integrated amp, the Blackhawk. You can find the review live now in Hifi'Zine.

To say I think this amp is enjoyable would be an understatement but it's a product that's as lovely to use as it is to hear, and it put smiles on my face over multiple listening sessions. The original model is wonderful, this upgraded version just a tad better all round. Ah, tubes...what can I say?

Have a few more items in the works. Been keen to try a few new phono stages with tubes but it's proved a bit more problematic than I had imagined. Between backlogs in requests for samples (yes, I really do want to hear the Rogers PA-1A), the requirement to actually purchase an Allnic 1201 with return rights, and the silence in response to my effort to get Luxman's new tubed phono stage in, I've had to return a couple of samples of from ATA when buyers wanted their hands on them or they proved noisy in my rig so nothing happening there now. But stay tuned -- am having some fun with BenQ's TreVolo, a sort of small panel Bluetooth speaker and I have (or think I have) an Artisan Fidelity table on the way, though that is proving to require patience -- my plan to document the build as it occurred seems to have hit a brick wall as the build has stalled over two months with little to show other than a veneer selection. Now if only Raven would develop a phono stage.....

BBC gives vinyl a spin

Interesting article on the BBC homepage today about Soulines turntables in the UK. "I think every home should have a turntable," says Igor Gligorov. "The world would be a better place."  I can't embed their video items outside the UK apparently -- but check them out here: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35041053