An Audioquest amazing bargain

As a regular Stereophile subscriber for over three decades now I have read my share of articles and reviews on big $$$ components of all sorts. The budget components are interesting as well, although usually not enough so that I would give more than a casual glance at them. The rave reviewed $129. Pioneer SP-BS22 speakers for example look great in the magazine, to look at them in real life they would make a great pair of headphones.  

 

Regular readers of this blog know that I am no fan of digital audio, although I will admit it has come a long way since the screeching CDs of the mid '80s. My living room system has a home theater PC that I get my tv on (yes, free from the internet), and also enjoy Pandora for casual listening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I have been curious about some of the newer USB dacs that have recently appeared on the market. The Audioquest Dragonfly ($250.) is one that has had some rave reviews for a number of months now, and this month's issue mentions a new 1.2 version that is supposedly improved and sells for $149,  $100. less than the previous version. A quick bit of scouting around and my friends at the Stereo Shop had the older version for $99.

 

 

I was bored, the weather was nice, and I figured "ah, what the heck". I got in my car and went to the Shop.

 

 

 This also gives me the chance to pop in on my friend Mark, who owns the CD Exchange and is also an audiophile.

 

 Mark had a newly reissued first time on vinyl copy of the  Ani Di Franco album "Not a Pretty Girl", and I felt what better way to justify a digital purchase than by buying an analog record!

The recording of this is spectacular, by the way. Obviously remastered for vinyl, not just a warmed over CD mix.

 

Anyway, by the time I made my way in to the Stereo Shop to see my friend Bob, there was a guy  actually bringing a Dragonfly back for a refund. What are the odds? Said all it was was louder than what he was using.

 

 

I made my way home and plugged in the Dragonfly. Setup was straight forward, intuitive, and less than five minutes. I switched on Pandora and within a couple of minutes the difference was obvious. What's not to like? While my allegiance is still to analog, this is a welcome addition- very listenable. A noticeable improvement over the Acurus Act 3 I was using (yes, I know this is antiquated technology,but I told you I am not into digital).

 Plus it frees up the coax S/PDIF on my PC for another future use.

 

 

I would highly recommend this to anybody looking for a cheap upgrade and improvement in their computer's sound.  It basically replaces your sound card without any wires or soldering, and it works great as a headphone amp as well. I only wish it were a little wider on top and had RCA jacks as opposed to a 3.5 mm jack, but you can't have it all, I guess.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inner Demons (or how impossible it is to find a 5AR4 tube in Rochester on a weekend)

We all have our occasional technical traumas. Whether it's a glitchy CD, an arcing vacuum tube, a blown woofer, a corrupted data download, sooner or later something smacks us in the face.
Maybe whimsical, maybe traumatic, maybe even devastating. I decided I wanted more volume in the family room, 801s are wonderful, but tired of having to turn the volume up to 11. Room too big, too dead. Concrete/brick  lower family room.

Pushed them aside for now,would like to move them upstairs at some point. Need help.(See the New Years resolutions in the previous post.


  Anyway,bored,so  I reassembled my way more complicated biamped home brew concoction Altec Manta Ray horn/ JBL pro woofer (22 something) in Altec cabinets with a TDL custom active outboard crossover.(Whew!).


   Yes, that is as complicated as it sounds, but not new, I have done this before.

   Ming Da 30 watt SET triodes running the horns, Decent solid state amp running the woofers. Like the flexibility of biamping. Plus now I have all the headroom I want. 30 watts on these horns is like a bolt of lightning in a fish pond.  Looks ugly in a cool sort of way.


   Worked great for a few nights, the last couple my system was dead. I don't mean dead dead, everything lit up, just no sound. Did the usual switch sources, eliminate this, swap that, loose interest.
 Go upstairs and eat. The next night, same again.


Decided yesterday to get serious, and became convinced the culprit was the 5AR4 rectifier tube in my FAP V-1 preamp. Didn't look lit, felt cold, all the other tubes were lit. Didn't think this possible, as the rectifier is part of the power supply, how could the other tubes be lit? Oh, well.

                                             

The culprit?

   Thus began my quest.

  At work on a Saturday, crazy busy, a limited time if at all to run out and grab a tube.Closest obviously would be best.

My first thought- My buddy Joe. He would surely have one and he is right around the corner. Whoops! He is on a cruise until the end of the month.

Next- The Guitar Center. These rectifiers are commonly used in guitar amps as well. "Sorry, we are out of stock but I can order it for you (Groove Tubes, $30!).

Rowe, a couple of a/v specialty stores in Henrietta, The Stereo Shop, no one within a few miles had a 5AR4.

  Finally felt some promise from a music store on South Ave, called them as soon as they opened at 11. "Sure, probably, but  I need to wait until someone else gets in to look for it, I am all alone in the store". He took my number and promised to call me back.

  Three hours went buy, I called back and the guy had left. "He went home because he worked 6 days this week and needs to watch his niece blah blah blah. He will call you Monday".

 Explained that I wanted to get one this weekend and he got all defensive!
"Well, when you call two hours from closing on a Saturday blah blah blah!".

Explained that I didn't, called right at 11 when they opened.

 So number two  promised he would try to help me, also took my number.

 Another couple of hours went by, no call, so I tried a third time.

 "Yeah, I am looking right now, I'll call you back in a couple of minutes".

 Got home at 6:30 Saturday night and had a message- "Sorry I really did try". Anyway, Sound Source will have one of these, just didn't have a chance to run over there.

  Curiosity got the best of me, and I pulled the tube out and tested it.

  Fine.

 Don't know if it wasn't seated properly or what, but it turns out I didn't need a tube at all.

    Demons?

  Yeah, but at least I don't have to call the idiots on South Ave. anymore.

Happy New Year!

  Happy 2014!

 Have you made your resolutions?

I have made mine.

I will stop dumping on Craigslist, obviously the bigger something gets, the more people will attack it, especially me.

 I will stop dumping on CD's, dying format anyway. The new High Resolution Digital downloads have easily surpassed them,and I promise not to try them.


I will stop asking my friends to come over to help me move my heavy speakers.


I will stop Googling to death the things I am considering purchasing.

I will clean my equipment. Not just dust, dustcovers,dusting, scrubbing. When the natural sunlight beams in, everything looks disgusting.

I will get a replacement stylus for my Shure V15 type 5. Not XMR. MR. I have a lot of useable cartridges,would like to get this working again.

I will make an effort to post here more often.

  Anyway, happy New Year again, and may the Gods of good fortune drop an original Marantz model 7 at your doorstep!


                                                   Ciao!

My favorite Christmas song ever

  This is without a doubt my absolute favorite Christmas song of all time.

 Progressive rock (read Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, etc.) was my biggest thing during my early audiophile days. I think I was probably 12 or 14 when it all started, FM had just become available (I'm dating myself, I know).

WCMF was one of Rochester's first FM stations, and when you looked at the FM program listings in the newspaper they listed WCMF as "progressive rock". This was always humorous to me, as progressive simply meant one song played after another, one song progressed into another. But at the time, this was the music they were playing, so it became labeled as progressive rock.

 I had subwoofers back when no one knew what they were, and the Moogs and pedal notes were so deep it just rocked the room. I have almost every ELP album still, I think Lucky Man actually took out one of the subs! Genesis- The  Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, and of course Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon. Pink Floyd music has survived much more so than ELP or Yes, but I still love to pop on these lps, dim the lights and go back in time to my junior high years.

 I visited WCMF back in the day, and saw two guys sitting on a carpeted floor in an unfinished room with two turntables (probably Technics)  and a microphone (long before Beck) and thought it rather anti climactic. They supplemented their station by doing equipment repairs, and I think I was there to pick something up.

 Nonetheless, these songs were an average of 20 minutes long (a typical album side), and were sometimes referred to as concept rock, or art rock. Try to interest the 20 somethings of today in something that long and profound! There were no drum machines, samplers or digital edits, strictly talent and a lot of creativity. The sound quality and production values were first rate. I would put them up against a lot of the stuff being recorded today.

 And it was all analog! Glorious analog!

Just lit my Christmas lights.......

 Just lit my Christmas lights, thinkin' I need a few other colors besides orange. Purple? Not good. Emissions leak. Green? Not good either,also a leak and ready to explode. Red? way too late. Call the fire department.Also remember these have between 300-500 or more volts running through them. If Santa urinates on them he will go up like a Tiki torch! Nice for keeping the house warm on this 20 degree night, though.Put a baking rack above a triode amp and the cookies came out perfect. Rumor has it that Rudolph's red nose came from attempting to sniff one of these.........  

Happy Thanksgiving!

 With headphones enjoying a resurgence in the industry, Dr. Dre, House of  Marley and others now have a new competitor, Mr. Bean.
 His first model is the Cranberry One, and your head becomes an integral part of the system (patent pending). This takes the "over the ear" category one step further. I might have tried this today, but not on any other holiday. Reasonably priced at 70 cents a pound. Twenty cents more if you want them to butter the balls, an optional tweak that makes it easier to take on and off. .
These are best used raw, as deep frying it will change the resonant frequency and Squash the highs.
Manufacturing these is a Gravy job, according to Bean. His green Bean casserole has pretty much reached its peak, and he was looking for a new venture, another piece of the Pie.Another Leg up on the rest of the world,he didn't want to just "Wing it".  A simple matter of Stuffing these in their packages. I won't Mince words, this is unique!  I will stay aBreast of his progress. Thank you in advance for laughing at at least some of this. Can't believe how popular headphones got again after all these years! This one may or may not be as popular.

  Seriously, hoping you all had a great day, I know I did. Got together with all the ladies in my life, Mother, Sister, Girlfriend. A year ago today I couldn't swallow, just diagnosed. Decent progress, and a lot to be thankful for this year, thank you for your interest and your visits, questions, emails,and contributions!  A lot of great people have come out of the woodwork for this blog, and it is making it all worthwhile!


                                                         Don

Tony Taddeo

It dawned on me that I made a significant omission in my April 2012 post on local area manufacturers.

   I was reading this month's issue of Stereophile, the industry update section, when the words "Digital Antidote" jumped out at me on page 16. "Wow", I thought. That was Tony Taddeo's biggest claim to fame years ago, and someone is reusing the moniker! Reading a little deeper, a company in England- iFi - is actually using his technology! Their Digital Antidote Plus  is based on his work and credits him accordingly.  

Tony started the Taddeo Loudspeaker Company, with an office on Elmwood Ave. in Brighton. The early antidotes he assembled himself. I would see Tony often in the shops around town, and if you have been following this blog you know that I don't have a great affinity for things digital. He always tried to get me to try one of these. I told him I had no use for CDs.

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Basically a buffer stage that goes in between the line levels of your cd player and the preamp input, this was a filter that made digital sound presentable, kind of like unhooking your tweeters. As I shunned the equalizer/dynamic range expander/processor band aids years ago (I haven't even had bass and treble controls on my equipment in 40 years!), I wasn't quick to want to jump on this one. To this day I have not tried one, but there have been numerous people over the years that swear by these! Good to see that his technology is live and kicking- sadly many years after Tony's passing.

Tony was kind of special to me. As coincidence would have it, he was a counselor at camp Pathfinder in Algonquin park, Ontario Canada years ago. For one of the  seasons I was one of his campers. This goes back probably 45+ years. I remember laying in bed one night with him telling us a story, Dracula, aka the Bram Stoker version. In great detail, as I later read the book and he didn't leave much out. He definitely made life there a lot more bearable, I was a young kid who really didn't want to be there. 

My first re-acquaintance with him was at JB Sound, where his first attempt at an audio product was a pair of speakers. He wanted to bring them in and play them for us. "Sure", I said, really great to see him again after 

all those years. 

We put them on the shelf,probably next to a pair of Advents,one of our best sellers in the mid priced segment. Set up the comparator to flip back and forth, and his speakers sounded AWFUL. Mind you not a completely finished product by any stretch, more of a working prototype. He had been hyping these to me for months before he brought them in, a technology so "revolutionary" that he couldn't tell me any more about them. I remember them being extremely efficient, the top part of the cabinet being somewhat horn loaded.You could see the look in his face as we switched back and forth. He tried to keep a poker face but couldn't. A few years later, I remember seeing a pair of these as empty cabinets for sale at The Speaker Place parts store in Henrietta.  

 In all fairness, there have been some great speakers over the years that sounded lousy when you A/B'd them. The DCM Time Window is one that comes to mind. Yamaha NS 10Ms.  Energy, with their first model 22's demanded a separate room as part of their franchise agreement. A/B'ing  was not the way to accurately evaluate a speaker, but it is what sold them. People would pick the most impressive sound, later to realize listening fatigue after an hour or so. 

As time went by, he came up with more refined speaker designs, I saw a few at Soundworks, but never heard them. A few products came along that impressed him, I remember him spending an hour with a tape measure with a pair of Von Schweikert VR-4s. 

I remember him telling me that blue leds are more expensive than red ones.

His claim to fame will always be the Digital Antidote, and to have had some enduring success with an audio product in this industry is impressive. .