Geek with Family

Captain Jack Harkness: “No idea. We know how to use it, not how it happened…” Torchwood SE1E1.

With so many consumer electronic buying choices it only makes fiscal sense to understand how and why your CD player, processor or amplifier works. All the way from the discrete electronic components (you know Black Gate capacitors are better than Radio Shack’s, right?) to the complicated recipe made up of multiple circuits. I want to understand audio electronic engineering enough to design and build my own DIY projects and gain the ability to detect bull-crank claims in manufacturer white papers and hi-fi press reviews.

Building the CMOY mint tin headphone amp (unfortunately, I’ve only cut the proto board in half and soldered the jumpers in place) got me curious about the inner workings of all my gear. With the CMOY I can follow the instructions and hopefully get good audio out of it without electrocuting myself, but I want to understand more than the beginner instructions and know how to improve the input, output and power supply circuits. So I bought some books.

Continue reading My Quest for How Audiophile Electronics Work

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Stereophile magazine has infected me with upgraditis (luckily my empty wallet’s immune system is strong). In the last two issues they’ve reviewed Vandersteen Audio’s new 2ce Signature II loudspeaker and Slim Devices’ Transporter. For under $4000, I could take my system to the next logical level. Both these components, one at the beginning and the other at the end of the audio chain, could replace my Airport Express wireless transport and Vandersteen 1c loudspeakers respectively without any regrets.

What you need to know from each review:

Continue reading The New End-to-End - Slim Devices Transporter to Vandersteen 2ce Signature II

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Paul Miller, founder of Miller Audio Research and lead consumer electronic measurement pornographer, asks what mysterious scientific measurements are missing that can better define sonic differences between audio electronics in the February Hi-Fi News. He cites the discovery of a method to measure jitter in the mid-nineties as the last new measurement technique. He also suggests that the more measurable a device’s performance the more it can be improved upon. Since jitter’s rise manufacturers of digital components have strived to reduce its ill effects.

So what’s left to measure that will better define a careful listener’s subjective impressions of a new wifi audio player, amp or loudspeakers? Synergy.

What if we figured out how to measure a whole audio system chain at once? How it might work (I have no idea if this follows any kind of scientific method, just my best guess):

• Establish baseline measurements for all individual components: Gather all the same measurements for your source, amplification and speakers as you would now with sine waves and pulses
• Use baseline high bit digital recordings that are viewed both as waveforms and spectrally
• Play both test tones and test songs through the whole system
• Use some really fancy math to compare the system measurements to those of the individual components and derive scores based on error values or 3D spectral comparisons
• Somehow present the results in layman’s terms

So go forth and measure system synergy. Remember, high end audio can only achieve new sonic heights if we set new unattainable goals.

By the way Mr. Miller mentions that everybody’s favorite new AV cable, HDMI, has terrible jitter performance. He doesn’t say how bad but I’m sure there’s a white paper with titillating charts and graphs available on his site or elsewhere.

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AudioXpress, the only DIY audio hobbyist print mag, recently published a great how to article about transferring your LPs to DVD audio (though not necessarily DVD-A). Transferring LPs to DVDs in High Resolution by Victor Skaggs (PDF download) is the most detailed LP digitizing article I’ve encountered (Hi-Fi News recently published another how to, but stopped a CD quality audio). As a bonus Mr. Skaggs does all his digitizing on a Mac using affordable software and hardware (with many low and high end alternatives). He’s so into digitizing LPs to high resolution audio that he’s discovered hidden features in Roxio Toast and had features added to Toast (music-only DVD authoring) and ClickRepair (96 kHz file support). I wish I had as much ambition and input with my software tools.

Since my successes with ripping CDs to lossless audio files (with MAX) and listening through my low jitter Airport Express, I’ve wanted to compare a high resolution LP to digital transfer to the digital CD originals. By Victor Skaggs’ comments, I’d have to think the transferred LP would win followed by lossless audio and CD last.

When I get a free weekend I’ll pop open my Rogue preamp, flip the second outputs to fixed and hook it up to my MacBook Pro. Following the AudioXpress article, I’ll record Shellac’s At Action Park, clean it up and burn a 96/24 DVD (or 192/24 DVD-A if I can figure that out). Watch out for the head-to-head test.

(via Macintouch)

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“These shouldn’t exist,” the Doctor.

With materials sourced exclusively from Cardiff, Wales’ Torchwood Institute regulated time and space Rift, Torchwood Cables will enhance your audiophile listening experience with unknown alien technology from many possible futures. The 21st century is when everything changes [in your home audio kit].

Every cable purchase includes a free bottle of “auditory enhancement” pills, Amnesiaphor (side effects may include sudden drowsiness and selective forgetfulness that in no way degrade your audiophile experience or turn you into a psychopathic murdererous pawn of a formerly deceased Torchwood agent). A satisfied customer, “It’s weird, my stereo’s never sounded better and I have no idea why. What? Are you sure? When did I get new interconnects? Oh God, I remember… I remember, Jack.”

Torchwood’s leader, Captain Jack Harkness, explains the peculiarity of the various cables’ construction, “A few months ago we were cleaning up the last of Cardiff’s Cyberman scrap and Gwen dropped an earpiece into this alien liquid/solid sphere Tosh had on her desk. There was an electric blue flash and then nothing. The Cyberman part was suspended in the middle of the liquid and when Gwen took a closer look and breathed on the thing, an audio interconnect slithered out. The alien runes on the jacket glowed and then faded. We’ve tested the conductor and termination plugs and they are definately Cyberman alloy. I don’t like it, but everyone else thinks it’s safe, especially Iantu.”

Torchwood interconnect’s jacket runes glow a calming blue when fed an audio signal keeping a constant charge on the alien dielectric (we haven’t identified the material yet but it measures better than air). The Cyberman alloy’s sonic signature is completely neutral, with no resistance and conductivity that’s off the charts.

Don’t ask what the third cable is for, you’re not ready to know.

Torchwood Institute’s doctor, Owen Harper: “I know many of you feel I don’t take AV kit seriously because I’ve got my plasma set on top of the cardboard box it shipped in, but since I’ve rewired my stereo with these cables, I’ve been listening at home more and shooting my fellow Torchwood agents less.”

Torchwood cables are only available in the U.K. Watch out for them at your local hi-fi shop.

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A friend tipped me off to this amazing music room built into a barn or guest house. Follow the link for loads of pics of five-figure turntables, loudspeakers, tube amps, CD players and cables. This guy has really bought into the “cables and isolation accessories make a difference” with interconnects and speaker cables that resemble vacuum cleaners, ceramic cable lifters (I guess DIY cable lifter kegger cups wouldn’t blend well with surrounding décor) and tank-like turntable isolation rack sitting on top of a granite tile (which I assume must be twice as thick as normal granite judging by the overbuilt quality of the rest of the room).

As impressive as the audio system components is the acoustic construction of the room, all built-in scalloped acoustic chambers on the walls and ceiling. I love the floor to high ceiling LP and CD storage that he needs those elementary school library rolling step stools to reach the highest shelf.

Too bad he’s not listening to phase and time coherent loudspeakers. All that money spent on massaging the perfect signal through four carat phono cartridges, preamps, amps and cables only to have the listening experience mangled by the loudspeaker. Heh, if you can hear the difference (I would hope this system to be punishingly revealing).

What a Fortress of Solitude (Auditude?). What’s this guy escaping from? (Not to judge, I’m just overcome with envy.)

Popularity: 12% [?]

0 dBFS+.

Ever heard of the above digital audio condition? No? Me neither until I was reading a review of my Panasonic S97 HDMI DVD player by Christine Tham on Audioholics. 0 dBFS+ is illegal (in digital audio). It is a distortion of an audio signal above the absolute digital audio amplification level ceiling of 0 dB. It can hide on your CDs from the original mastering (loudness wars), appear when your digital music files are “normalized” (like iTunes’ and your iPod’s “Sound Check”) and be introduced by an upsampling DAC while converting the signal to analog.

Continue reading im in ur dac, clippin ur t00nz

Popularity: 14% [?]

In my post “How to Camouflage Your Hi-Fi System for Higher WAF” I called for a modular, fine, antiqued wood paneling system that would make your high tech CD player look like a antique decoration instead of ugly kit. At least one audio component manufacturer agrees: DIY Paradise.

For the past week I’ve been obsessively searching for an affordable outboard DAC to improve the performance of my Airport Express (haven’t found anything that I can afford that will outperform my Onkyo TX-DS989’s DAC, but I’ll post a survey of what I’ve found). Along the way I found the Monica 2 DAC in a Jewelry Box at DIY paradise. You can buy the DAC as a bare bones DIY PCB up to a fully built model in a high grade aluminum case. Another option is to conceal the electronics in an antique jewelry box. The above pictures give you the idea. I have no idea if it’s a good idea to set a DAC PCB on velvet (probably not).

The Monica 2 is well regarded on forums (like head-fi.org where I first read about it). As an audiophile, you have to ask yourself if the wood enclosure gives the DAC a different sonic character than aluminum. Falsely transferring visual asthetics to sonic ones you could guess that the jewelry box sounds warmer, fuller with lots of treble “sparkle”; the normal aluminum case is cold and hard and analytical. Heh.

So now that we have a real world example of a camoflaged hi-fi component do think it’s a good idea or just a novelty. I wonder if DIY Paradise sells many of these compared to the fully assembled aluminums.

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The Oyaide Carbon Fiber Wall Plate, available through Music Direct, has me scratching my head. I cannot figure out how an aluminum and carbon fiber AC receptacle wall plate can have any effect on the sound of your hi-fi.

Music Direct’s copy:

OYAIDE/CARBON FIBER WALL PLATE (Without Outlet)

Not only the coolest looking wall plate ever designed, this one has technology to back it up! The Oyaide Wall Plate Mounting Frame is milled from 13mm thick, solid aluminum, machined from a single block. Check out the picture of the rear, this is not an outer frame, but an essential part of the rigidity and resonance damping properties of the wall plate! The Carbon Fiber front panel is fully shielded, non-resonant and non-magnetic. This is the first link in your entire audio system, so don’t skimp on the A/C connection! 100% Money Back Guarantee!

Note: Although the picture shows an Oyaide XXX inserted into the wall plate, the Wall Plate does not in fact come with an outlet.

Continue reading Oyaide Carbon Fiber Wall Plate - The $200 Tin Foil Hat of Audiophile Tweaks

Popularity: 19% [?]

Thank goodness this is art and not an actual turntable. The 2.5 cc Turntable’s combustion engine would at least hop the cartridge’s needle out of the groove, if not shatter your favorite vinyl LP.

The designer’s explanation (the site is in Flash and I didn’t feel like retyping, so this is a screen shot, sorry):

So, I guess my new title should be “Best Ironic Turntable Design Ever that Fulfills Your Secret Desires.”

(Via Boing Boing and Ektopia)

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