The trouble with audio

Ever wonder about the advice you are generally given by the mags to audition in person? Do Stereophile and TAS still labor under the illusion that dealers are out there, willing to support home auditions for their trusted customers? Well, maybe they exist somewhere but the reality of modern purchasing is that dealers with listening rooms are going the way of the dodo, and in the last 5 years, I've not met a single dealer willing to let me hear a pair of speakers in my own room. Am not blaming the dealers, but it suggests that a magazine reviewer hiding behind the 'don't take my word for it, go hear it yourself' is now invoking this as a weak defense for the state of the reviewing art.

There are two aspects here I wish to explore, and it will take several entries. First, buying audio can be a painful experience, and it is no wonder that online dealers are taking over.
Second, the science of audio discrimination is so limited, reviewers are just not reliable as guides to purchasing when they won't even subject themselves to calibration tests. More anon.

New Audio Wiki set up

Check out the new PSAudio sponsored (created?) wiki --http://audiophilewiki.org/

Wyred4Sound

Yes, I've been quiet, real life and work got in the way, but I also have been busy breaking in the revised Wyred4Sound MC4 that I have in for review. Wyred changed a couple of modules when I reported I found the original version to be a little hard sounding with no air in the upper range. They also said the 300 hours break-in was crucial. So.....let me say, 300 hours of listening when you share a room with a family is no trivial deal. I'm at 230 hours now so the review period will commence soon but it means I've yet to re-install the now-back-in-one-piece VK500 or my newly Cullen-mod'd GCP200. All in due course.....June is looking a little more open and I'll post more as we go.

The BAT is Back (nearly)

Right channel returned yesterday -- here it is:
I've not installed it yet but it looks clean, smells almost new and am not clear on how many new parts it contains there's plenty of fresh solder there.

Affordable Audio - May Issue out now

Check out the May issue of affordable audio for my review of the PS Audio GCP 200. Just after I submitted, naturally, the gain cell in one channel went and I had to send it off to Cullen Circuits for repair. After some back and forth over warranty etc. I decided to take an upgrade option on new modified gain cells from Cullen. I am awaiting the return so I can check it out.

BAT VK500 redux

Well, I heard back to my last email, and BAT claim that my problem was a thorny one for which they cannot provide a simple solution. After changing out parts one by one, they ended up replacing them by the handful. The bill comes to $300 and I am told the channel is clean. The problem of course is that since I sent the amp to them the problem seemed to result from my PS audio preamp instead, so I wonder if BAT have replaced parts without need. But presumably, they checked first to make sure that the channel WAS making noise before replacing even the first part so I guess I have a new channel with no noise. That the unit has been out of my system now for more than 22 days means I have made a record, but as yet their site does not reflect this.

Am waiting for the channel to get back to me so I can reinstall it and check out the sound. In the interim, I'm grooving to the updated Wyred MC4 fed by my old McCormack TLC1, using both the passive and buffered outputs. Sounds pretty sweet but the Wyred needs a few hundred hours more to break-in.

BAT problem lingers

It's been 16 days since I shipped my right channel from the VK500 off to BAT. On their site service page they proudly declare that repairs take priority and the longest any customer has been without their amp is 15 days....well, I guess I broke the record. So far, my two requests for info have fallen on deaf ears.....

BAT VK500 problemo, part 2

Well, I followed the multi-step instructions, removed some two dozen torx screws, disconnected three sets of wires and eventually lifted out one whole side of the VK500, heatsinks included, which I shipped off to BAT this week. I'll post pics when I get a chance but it was actually fun to play around with the innards and not too difficult either (though ask me again when I try to put it all back together again). BAT have pretty clear (but not totally clear) instructions on this, and I was expecting just a circuit board to come out, not the whole side. Victor tells me it may cost 'little or a bit more' to fix this, so stay tuned.

Amp thoughts

What has Naim Nait 2 got in common with a BAT VK500, PA Audio GCP-200 with external power supply and a PS Audio GCPH phono stage? Both set ups amplify CD and turntable signals in my system. What are the differences?

Naim cost less than $1k a few years back,
it weighs less than 10lbs,
is half-sized.

The other set up costs $10k,
tops the scales at >150lbs,
takes up 4 boxes, one of which will not fit on a rack

Forgetting the extra cables you need to run the separates, is there 10 times the difference in sound quality? Hum........

Deal of the Year

Harmonia Mundi's 50th anniversary box set release was lauded in December's TAS, and rightly so. At $100 it offered 29 cds of top quality music through the ages, and mostly excellent sounding too, as one would expect from this label. Well, if you held off, now's the time as Amazon, among others, are selling the set for a knock down $79. That's a little over $2.50 per disk. I have no idea how anyone makes any money on this but you get a musical education for next to nothing.

BAT VK500 problemo

I woke up the other night to a persistent buzzing and scratching in the right channel. After much back and forth with cable changing and channel switching, I fired off an email to Victor at BAT who agreed, after a while, that it likely was the right channel of my amp that was acting up. Since the whole component weighs upward of 100lbs, we agreed that shipping was not ideal so I am about to embark on channel removal with a Torx driver. Stay tuned.

Affordable Audio

I accepted an offer to write for Affordable Audio. Expect the Wyred review to appear there after I've really finished it. After discussion with Wyred, they want to install an alternative module in the front channels to see if I prefer that sound.

Wyred4Sound amps

I've spent more than a week comparing a Wyred4Sound 4-channel amp with my regular gear as I grapple with the benefits of biamping my Von Schweikerts. You can real the full review here

I tried to post directly from google docs but it won't work. Cut to the chase: biamping improves soundstaging, but this Class D amp cannot match the timbre of the BAT.