Digital_Source_Components_Buyers_Guide.pdf

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STEREO • MUSIC
Buyer’s Guide to
Digital Source componentS
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Contents
|
From the editor
|
on the Horizon
|
Feature Articles
|
disc Players
|
dACs
|
Music servers & Accessories
|
integrated Amps with usB dACs
Contents
Features
• From the editor
• on the Horizon:
Hot new products
coming Your Way
• Why a music Server?
• music Server File
Formats explained
tHis seCtioN sPoNsored By
Disc Players
DACs
Music Servers &
Accessories
Integrated
Amplifiers with
USB DACs
& Digital
Amplifiers
• oppo BDp-95 Blu-ray/
universal player
• marantz Sa8004
• Simaudio moon cD-1
• cambridge audio azur
840c
• Bryston BcD-1
• esoteric Sa-50
• cary audio classic cD
303t
• esoteric K-03
• dcS puccini/u-clock
• Hrt iStreamer
• Hrt music Streamer pro
• cambridge audio Dac magic
• musical Fidelity m1 Dac and
V-link uSB adapter
• peachtree audio iDac
• Benchmark Dac1 HDr
• Bryston BDa-1/audio
research Dac 7
• Wyrd4Sound Dac-2
• Berkeley alpha Dac
• Weiss Dac 202
• dcS Debussy Dac
• Berkeley alpha uSB interface
• 8 Soundcards compared
• Wadia i170 itransport ipod
Dock
• Bel canto and Focusrite uSB
converters
• channel D pure music Software
• logitech Squeezebox touch
• linn majik DS1
• micromega Wm-10 WiFi music
Streamer
• olive 06HD music Server
• nuForce icon
• Hegel H200
• peachtree iDecco
• naD m2
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STEREO • MUSIC
Buyer’s Guide to
Digital Source componentS
publisher.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jim Hannon
editors-in-chief
. . . . . . . . . . robert Harley
alan Sircom
executive editor
. . . . . . . . . Jonathan Valin
acquisitions manager
and associate editor
. . . . . neil gader
founder; chairman,
editorial advisory board
. . Harry pearson
music editor
. . . . . . . . . . . . mark lehman
creative director
. . . . . . . . Shelley lai
production coordinator
. . aaron chamberlain
senior writers
. . . . . . . . . . . anthony H. cordesman
Wayne garcia
robert e. greene
chris martens
tom martin
Dick olsher
andrew Quint
paul Seydor
Steven Stone
alan taffel
reviewers &
contributing writers
. . . . . Jim Hannon
Jacob Heilbrunn
Kirk midtskog
NextScreen, LLC, Inc.
chairman and ceo
. . . . . . . tom martin
vp/group publisher
. . . . . . Jim Hannon
advertising reps
. . . . . . . . cheryl Smith
(512) 891-7775
marvin lewis
mtm Sales
(718) 225-8803
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address letters to the editor:
the absolute Sound,
8868 research Blvd., austin, tX 78758 or
rharley@nextscreen.com or alan@hifiplus.com
©2011 nextScreen, llc
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integrated Amps with usB dACs
FROM THE
Editor
The Computer-audio Revolution
W
elcome to the 2011 edition of our Buyer’s guide to Digital Source components, brought to you by
The Absolute Sound
and
Hi-Fi Plus.
in this guide you’ll find reviews of 41 digital components, ranging from disc players to Dacs to music servers. it’s no surprise that,
compared with last year’s guide, this edition has many fewer disc player reviews and many more music-server reviews. the move
away from packaged media such as cD and toward computer-based music deliver has reached juggernaut status in the past year.
both companies’ multiple listening rooms, at two private
homes, and at a French retailer’s showroom. At Focal, we
heard a complete stereo system, called Bird, consisting of
amplification, a woofer built into the amplifier chassis, and two
satellite speakers. The source component is an iPad, iPhone,
or similar device that streams music to Bird wirelessly at full
CD resolution. (Incidentally, the $999 Focal Bird sounded
amazingly great; watch for a review in
The Absolute Sound.)
In Paris to tour Micromega, I heard wireless streaming
in three different venues; France’s premier high-end audio
retailer, Présence Audio Conseil, the listening room in
Micromega’s factory, and in the home of Micromega’s CEO.
With Micromega’s forthcoming Aria streaming DAC, you
simply stream music from your iPhone, iPad, or WiFi-enabled
computer to the stereo system via the Aria. Listeners took
turns playing music without ever getting out of their seats or
pulling out physical media. We passed around our “nomadic”
devices among each other, encouraging musical exploration
and sharing. Not only was this amazingly convenient, but
the sound quality was uncompromised. The Aria was at the
front end of one of a handful of the best stereos I’ve heard,
a mega-system with a price tag approaching seven figures.
Even in this demanding context, the streaming music and the
Aria’s DACs delivered stunningly great sound.
I heard eight different systems during my week-long visit,
and if it hadn’t been for me bringing my own reference CDs,
we would have never inserted a single disc into a player in
any of the eight systems.
If that’s not a revolution, I don’t know what is.
My own recent experience confirms this powerful revolution.
A loudspeaker manufacturer visited my listening room
last week to set up a pair of speakers for review. After the
speakers were roughly in place and we were about to listen
to music for the first time, I showed the speaker manufacturer
my disc player, opened the drawer, handed him the remote
control, and invited him to play his reference discs so that he
could dial-in the speakers’ positions. “Discs?” he snorted.
“I don’t play
discs.”
He proceeded to pull out his tiny laptop
computer and ask me for a USB connection to my DAC so
that he could play his music from iTunes.
In another sign of the changing times, during a visit to
France the week before to tour speaker manufacturer Focal
and electronics company Micromega, virtually of the listening
we did was via wireless music streaming. This was true at
robert Harley
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