SUMMER/FALL	2001
Page Three

NORDOST: First seen/heard at the 2001 CES show in Las Vegas, the Valhalla speaker cables and interconnects were certainly the talk of the affair. All it took was a (very) brief comparison to the excellent SPM Reference to know that the Valhalla was a very special product. I took a deep breath and ordered a pair of each to try. Oh, what a mistake!

Yes, my friends, I’m here to tell you, never ever want to listen to these cables! Choose to ignore my warning and you’ll find yourself selling your soul to Beelzebub himself to have these things! 

Bottom line, the Valhalla cables are superb. I am astonished at the clarity, detail and resolution. It’s whole new world, a quantum leap, and a paradigm shift in what we thought cables could offer. Of course, choosing the right cable for a system has everything to do with personal preference, so there can never be one "best" cable, but the Valhalla should be on everyone's short list.

Now for the bad news; a 1M pair of Valhalla interconnects runs $3300.00, and a 2M pair of the speaker cables will set you back $6100.00. A might painful, but, oh, it hurts so good!

VERITY AUDIO:  Another sweet design  has been added to the exquisite family of speakers from Verity Audio. The svelte Tamino is a small 2.5-way floor stander, 4” shorter than its closest sibling, Fidelio. Tonal balance is on the warm side, with a rear-firing woofer providing tuneful and articulate bass to 40Hz. That character, coupled with a gentle impedance curve and reasonably high sensitivity, make Tamino a willing companion in a wide range of systems. $4995.00, smartly dressed in black piano.

FIRST IMPRESSION MUSIC: The cable products from FIM have created quite a buzz among the audiophile community. Some have called the FIM cables the best available. That may a hard claim to support, as cable choice is so subjective, but it would certainly be correct to say that they belong to an elite group of cables occupying the very uppermost rung.

The line is divided into two levels, Silver and Gold. The Gold Series includes an interconnect, digital cable, speaker cable and ac power cord. The Silver Series offers a speaker cable and power cord.

Though my time with the products has been limited thus far to the Silver Series, I can say that I am truly impressed. The power cables, in particular, are superb. From the moment I placed the Silver AC Cord into the system, I knew this was a very special AC cord. How to describe it? That is a bit of a challenge because its character, at least in some measure, defies description. What I hear is a wonderful sense of cohesion; things are more connected, an organic quality. I know, the terms are a bit vague, but like I said, it is hard to describe this cable! It is certainly cliché to suggest things sounded more real, but that was the case. Simply put, the cable brought realism through musical organization and structure.

Yes, of course the FIM was splendid at recreating a wonderfully dimensional soundstage, but that is almost expected from better cables today. Even so, the cables gave players a more palpable place on the stage, and made relationships between performers more real.

I have but one complaint; the dang things are stiff! If you can work around this issue in your system, I highly recommend you try these cables. Silver AC cord, 6’, $910.00.

More information on the Silver Series speaker cables and observations on the Gold products will follow in these pages soon.

ACOUSTIC ZEN: Developed by noted designer, Robert Lee (responsible for the Harmonic Technology cables, and others), the new line of Acoustic Zen cables has become an overnight success.

Though they’ve been with us for only a few months, they have gained enthusiastic reviews, impressing all who’ve had the chance to listen. I heartily agree, and have begun using the Acoustic Zen cables in several of the demo systems here, with excellent results.

At the recent Stereophile show, the Acoustic Zen/Soliloquy/Art Audio room was voted best sound at the show by Bill Gaw at Enjoy The Music. You can read Bill’s review of Acoustic Zen cables at their Website: http://www.enjoythemusic.com/hifi2001/billgaw/     

MAGNUM-DYNALAB: The Etude tuner has been a benchmark tuner in its class for over a decade. After a long tenure, the Etude has been retired. In its place, the new MD-100, which picks up right where the Etude left off, and will surely continue the tradition of superlative FM performance we’ve come to expect from MD.

Magnum-Dynalab’s twenty years of FM design experience have been brought to bear in making the MD-100 a stellar performer. Inside you’ll find a sophisticated three-stage RF front end and carefully designed analog output stage. Internal IF components are hand-matched to guarantee optimum performance.

The MD-100 will surely further the stellar reputation of its predecessor and will likely set a new standard at the price point. The MD-100 is offered at $1600.00, with an optional FTR remote control system available.

BITS

AUDIO AERO:  Heard about the new Audio Aero Prima CD player? The recent offering has met with favorable reviews from both press and consumers, so I thought it time to test drive one.

Inside the very interesting Prima is a tube-based analog section employing two 620N sub-miniature tubes. In the digital section you’ll find four times over sampled 24 bit/192kHz Burr-Brown PCM1739 DAC’s. The well respected Phillips CDM-12 drive (which can read CD-R and unfinalized CD-RW’s) has been chosen for its mechanical stability and low jitter.  Another feature unique to the Prima is the STARS® (Solution for Time Abstract Re-Sampling) system. STARS® is a combination of very high speed re-sampling, interpolation and signal enhancement techniques developed for Audio Aero by the Swiss firm Anagram Technologies, SA. OK, sounds impressive on paper, but how does it sound?

The Prima serves up a wonderfully dimensional presentation, rivaling any player I’ve heard in the price range for sound staging ability. Its tonal balance is on the slightly warm side, with good resolution of fine detail and bass better than you’d expect from a tube CD player. Though we’ve not had a chance to get the machine into a variety or systems, the early returns are indeed encouraging. At $1750.00, I think we have to say it's an extremely competitive CD player.  

XRCD: If you've never had the pleasure of listening to music recorded on an XRCD, you are missing a real treat.

XRCD (which stands for eXtended Resolution CD) is not a new format or encoding process. Rather, it is simply careful attention to detail in the mastering and manufacturing process. These techniques (developed by JVC) involve reducing the complexity of the mastering signal chain and insuring that each component is of the highest quality. All of this is done within the current CD standard, so no special equipment is required, an XRCD will play on any CD player.

The catalog consists primarily of classic re-issues of Jazz and Classical. The August issue of Down Beat magazine talks about XRCD: “The importance of the JVC XRCD series is twofold. First, the choices of material reflect a deep sense of lasting musical value. Second, the sound quality of each CD is a breakthrough, JVC engineers Akira Taguchi and Alan Yoshida lavish TLC and technology on every element of the mastering and manufacturing processes, with one goal; to bring us the sound of each recording’s original master tape. In the same issue appears a review of Art Pepper + Eleven by Art Pepper. “Definitive validation of the superiority of JVC’s digital transfers can be obtained by comparing the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab reissue of this album to the XRCD version. The now defunct Mobile Fidelity was once a highly regarded audiophile label that also worked from the original master tapes. The XRCD blows the Mobile Fidelity away, with much deeper detail in the ensembles and cleaner, more dynamic edges to Pepper’s alto and tenor.” 

While we are not stocking the XRCD’s here, we have enrolled in their affiliate member program so you can easily purchase any of the wonderful XRCD titles at their Website. Just click on the icon below.

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