Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
by John Stone
Pacific Northwest Audio Society, P.O. Box 435, Mercer Island, WA 98040 ● www.audiosociety.org
March 2012
ur February meeting brought to-gether two Washington audio
manufacturers, Daedalus Audio andModWright Instruments. Althoughneither company has any formal busi-
ness ties with the other, it was evidentfrom the onset that Lou Hinkley fromDaedalus and Dan Wright from Mod-Wright share a professional respect andpersonal friendship. This relationship
was in evidence as they comfortablytook turns demonstrating system com-ponents and playing musical selections.On center stage for this meeting was theDaedalus Audio Athena speakers.
phot
osby
Joe
Pitt
man
Dan Wright from ModWright Instruments in Amboy (Vancouver) Washingtontells us about the electronics that will be demonstrated.
2 Pacific Northwest Audio Society Audioletter March 2012
These speakers, displaying the cabinet work of a mastercraftsman (Do a Wiki search on the word Daedalus forsome insight on the company name), utilize solid hard-wood (walnut in this case) for the cabinet, and proprietarydrivers, integrated with an advanced crossover. Thesespeakers are 96 dB efficient with a near-constant 6.5 ohmimpedance, making them very amp friendly.
While we achieved good sound on some tracks, I feltthat the speakers overall, were not a good match with theroom. Both manufacturers agreed that Daedalus’ largerspeaker, the Ulysses, would have performed better in ourlarge room. The sound quality varied by track and byseating position. As I wandered around the room, thesound would go from strained and a little harsh-soundingat the back of the room, to a much better sound whensitting in the center of the first row (nearfield). Musicselections provided by members and presenters were con-sistently excellent. Thanks to all who brought music.See the playlist that follows.
Sharing the stage was the ModWright 150SE amp, LS100 preamp with onboard DAC, and tube-modified Oppo BDP-95.The new KWI200 Integrated amp was on static display for most of the evening, but was briefly played at the very end of themeeting. Note: ModWright is offering a 15% discount to all club members in good standing, who wish to obtain a tube-modified Oppo BDP-95 and mention that they heard it at the February meeting. Please contact ModWright directly forfurther details.
Lou Hinkley from Daedalus in Bellingham Washington tells us aboutloudspeakers, especially their wonderful woodwork and finish.
Pacific Northwest Audio Society Audioletter March 2012 3
After the meeting had officially ended, Dan switched over to play the KWI200 Integrated amp with its integral DAC, usingmusic files from his server. Sorry to say, I was starting the cleanup and didn’t write down the tracks he played during thistime.
Artist Track Title Album Format
Rebecca Pidgeon Spanish Harlem Raven (Chesky) 16 Bit 44 KHz FLAC file playedthrough DAC in ModWrightLS100
Beethoven’s 9th Symphony Movement III excerpt(?)
? 16 Bit 44 KHz FLAC file playedthrough DAC in ModWrightLS100
Hugh Masekela Stimela Hope 16 Bit 44 KHz FLAC file playedthrough DAC in ModWrightLS100
Dave Brubeck Quartet Take Five Take Five 16 Bit 44 KHz FLAC file playedthrough DAC in ModWrightLS100
Cat Power House of the RisingSun
Live Sessions CD played on ModWright OppoBDP-95
Blue Chamber Quarter La Fiesta FIM CD played on ModWright OppoBDP-95
Diana Krall ? ? CD played on ModWright OppoBDP-95
Annie Lennox A Thousand BeautifulThings
Bare CD played on ModWright OppoBDP-95
The Pretty Things Death of a Socialite Emotions CD played on ModWright OppoBDP-95
The Who Underture Tommy SACD played on ModWrightOppo BDP-95
Rachael Yamagata and RayLaMontagne
Duet Elephants…Teeth SinkingInto Heart
CD played on ModWright OppoBDP-95
Stevie Ray Vaughn Mary Had a LittleLamb
Texas Flood CD played on ModWright OppoBDP-95
Muddy Waters My Home Is In theDelta
Folk Singer ?
Nora Jones and RayCharles
Here We Go Again Genius LovesCompany
16 Bit 44 KHz FLAC file playedthrough DAC in ModWrightLS100
The Mavericks Blue Moon Music For All Oc-casions, Apollo13 Soundtrack
CD played on ModWright OppoBDP-95
Mazzy Star ? ?
4 Pacific Northwest Audio Society Audioletter March 2012
by John Stone
he February meeting marks mylast as President of PNWAS. As
mentioned during that meeting, I will beout of the country on a temporary workassignment during the next two meet-ings, including the March meeting whenelection of officers is accomplished. Iwould like to thank my fellow officers
Darin Forkenbrock and Bruce Brown,along with the rest of the club’s Execu-tive Committee, for helping with theenjoyable task of running our club. Iwould encourage any of you who mightbe interested in participating with theorganization of club events, to stronglyconsider volunteering for one of the
officer positions or in the club’s musicor equipment committees. It does in-volve some work, but the work is usu-ally fun and done with the support ofthe exceptional people we have on ourExecutive Committee.
or those of you who watched theGrammy presentations on TV, this
year’s Best Rock Album went to theFoo Fighters for their album “WastingLight.” During his acceptance speech,lead guitarist/singer Dave Grohl stated"To me this award means a lot becauseit shows that the human element of mu-sic is what's important. Singing into amicrophone and learning to play aninstrument and learning to do yourcraft, that's the most important thing forpeople to do... It's not about being per-fect, it's not about sounding absolutelycorrect, it's not about what goes on in acomputer. It's about what goes on inhere [your heart] and what goes on inhere [your head]." Dave’s statementtouched off a small controversy regard-ing the pros/cons of electronic/computer-processed music which ismildly amusing in its own right, but youcan read about that yourself (http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/the-beat-goes-on/posts/read-dave-grohls-fun-clarification-of-his-grammy-acceptance-speech) . Dave’s point wasthat the human element, from his pointof view, has been reduced in recentyears by the music industry. This pointwas also raised in the February 2012issue of Stereophile by Steve Gutten-berg in the March Stereophile (As WeSee It) tells of artists who record hun-dreds of takes and then let the engineers
sort things out and create the “perfect”performance. Robert Harley brings upa related point in the January 2012 issueof The Absolute Sound “As recordingtechnology became more powerful, therecord producer’s role was transformedfrom coach and business liaison be-tween the artist and record company tofull-fledged autuer. In fact, some poprecords can be considered creations ofthe producer…” In essence, it boilsdown to some form of acceptable com-promise between the two extremes,commercial success (doing whatever ittakes to sell product and make money)
and personal success (doing what I liketo do, being creative, and interactingwith other performers in the creativeprocess whether I make money or not).On a different tact, what percentage of aperformers commercial success islinked to their stage appearance(Beyonce, Ricky Martin, Lady Gaga) vstheir musical ability (Adele, LyleLovett), but I digress. John Valin andHarry Pearson in the Absolute Soundhas mused about the three camps ofaudiophiles; the fidelity to the mastertape or disc group, the fidelity to acous-
tic instruments in real space group, andfidelity to a persons own musical tastes(it sounds good to me). Is there a com-parison to be made between what, asDave Grohl puts it “…its about whatgoes on in your heart” and one of thethree categories of audiophiles? I’mnever sure how much new music we asaudiophiles actually purchase. In myview, we seem to focus on the illusivecollectable, remastered, or hi-rez ver-sion of older music vs new music (anygenre). My data set is small, so I couldeasily be way off base here. Is thiscounterproductive to our own cause,that of listening to good music, in that itdoes not promote the generation of“new” good music? I know, we’re asmall group and we probably don’t mat-ter to the mainstream music industry,but even so, shouldn’t we be willing tosupport our musical preferences withour wallets? Each month, Stereophileand The Absolute Sound reviews sev-eral new albums and CDs, many ofwhich are recommended by the review-ers. In the last year, have you pur-chased any of these reviewed selec-tions? If not, why not? As always,forward your comments and opinions toJoe Pittman for inclusion in nextmonth’s newsletter. Due to my out-of-town work assignment, I’ll not be rant-ing in this space for at least a couple ofmonths, so please, consider providing
by John Stone
Pacific Northwest Audio Society Audioletter March 2012 5
by Gary Koh
he next meeting will unveil theupgraded CLUB LOUDSPEAK-
ERS. We approved an upgrade of theclub's donated Genesis 7.1f loudspeak-ers to the G7.2f level at last August'smeeting. The upgrade is finally com-pleted, and they will be unveiled withthe presentation by Steve McCormackat the next meeting Thursday, March8th.
Mark this into your calendarnow.
Many members still remember themagical evening of music we had morethan two years ago when Steve McCor-mack presented his Virtual RealityEngine-1 preamp to the club and prettymuch blew everyone away. By the endof the meeting, some members wereproposing to spend entire treasury of theclub to buy the VRE-1 from Steve!Good thing that cooler heads pre-vailed..... but we still long for that magi-cal moment again. Our President, JohnStone, would like to remind us (since hewon't be at themeeting) that we still don't have enoughin the club treasury to buy the newVRE-1C.
Here's the chance. Steve is bringing hislatest version, the VRE-1C for yet an-other presentation. This is the first timeever that a remote-controlled version ofa preamp sounds better than the manualversion using a stepped, discrete-resistor attenuator. Steve will tell ushow he managed to do it at the PacificNorthwest Audio Society meeting,Thursday, March 8th.
In case you don't know who SteveMcCormack is, he was the founder ofMcCormack Audio (since sold to Con-rad Johnson), recorded and engineeredsome of the most sought after DirectDisc LPs ever made with M&K RealTime, founded the Mod Squad, andinvented the Tiptoes.
This is a photo of the system which was demonstrated at theRocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver last October. Steve’s newpreamp is shown on the middle shelf. We intend to play somevinyl which will include the very rare an famous M&K LP’s like“FOR DUKE” and “Earl “Fatha” Hines”!!!
phot
osby
Joe
Pitt
man
March 8 PNWAS MeetingSteve McCormack from SMc Audiowill demonstrate his new VRE-1cpreamp.
April 12 PNWAS MeetingKara Chaffee with DeHavilland fromVancouver, WA will demonstrate her50A triode push-pull amps.
Pacific Northwest Audio Society Audioletter March 2012 6
Linn LP12 with Ekos tonearm andLingo motor power supply. Excellentsound quality with minor cosmeticflaws. Clear dust cover in very goodcondition, no noticeable scratches.Original plinth from the early 80'shas been upgraded to circus bear-ing/subplatter, original trampolin,silver interconnect and silver head-shell wire. Does not include car-tridge. I don't have the box. $3,000for cash. This is a personal sale andnot subject to WSST. Contact JoePittman email [email protected]
Disclaimer: The Pacific Northwest AudioSociety does not endorse nor is liable for
any advertisement in any way. Everyone iscautioned to proceed at their own risk.
by John Stone
The club’s SCD-777 for saleIf any club members are interested con-tact [email protected] ASAP.These SACD players have state of theart Transports in them, they are gettingrare so this won’t last long.
Proposed Rack PurchaseThe Club has been presented with anincredible offer to purchase an acrylicequipment rack similar to those wehave had at club meetings in the pastfor $1600 +tax. This is a five shelf unit(MSRP $6550) that can be expandedand/or reconfigured as needed to sup-port club functions.
In a two rack configuration it willfit in our current cabinet replacing ourexisting rolling equipment rack. Theold rack can be sold via silent auction.The executive committee recommendsmoving on this purchase immediately.
We will be voting on the motionbelow at the March 2012 meeting:
“The Executive Committee movesthe club use $1800 from our generalpurpose checking account to purchasean acrylic equipment racks from Kos-mic.
Proposed Oppo PurchaseBased on recent meetings The execu-tive committee feels the best coarse ofaction for the club is to purchase astock Oppo BDP-95. We will be votingon the motion below at the March 2012meeting:
“The Executive committee movesthat the club use previously-approvedmoney from the $2000 allocated for adigital playback system to purchase astock Oppo BDP-95. The cost of theOppo will be between $950 and $1100.
Visitors Welcome!Meetings are held on the second Thursdayof every month at 7:30pm at 4545 IslandCrest Way, Mercer Island, WA 98040.
PNWAS Mission StatementTo bring people with a common interest in
music reproduced at its best, for theirmutual edification and pleasure.
To facilitate the exchange and dissemina-tion of accurate data concerning audioequipment and musical recordings.
To promote, sponsor, and cultivate thehighest quality reproduction of music inthe home.
To encourage maintenance of high stan-dards in the performance, recording andtransmission of music.
PNWAS Objectives1. Provide a forum for meeting other audio-
philes and exchanging information onmusical recordings and audio equipment.
2. Demonstrate and compare equipmentand recordings.
3. Give members opportunities to becomefamiliar with the techniques of audiomanufacturing, testing, repair, recording,broadcasting, etc.
4. Explore related avenues as the member-
ship deems appropriate.
Club Websitewww.audiosociety.org
US MailPacific Northwest Audio Society, PO Box435, Mercer Island, WA 98040
Annual Dues$60 due each January. New members pay aprorated $5 per month for remainder ofyear.
Elected OfficersPresident: John Stone
[email protected]: Darin Forkenbrock
[email protected]/Treasurer: Bruce Brown
Committee ChairsEditor: Joe Pittman
[email protected]: Jerry Pomeroy
[email protected]: Vacant– Volunteers?Refreshment: Vacant– Volunteers?
EditorialEditorial submissions are welcome.Content must be audio-related or of generalinterest to the club in plain text or Worddocument format without automation(macros and scripts). We reserve the rightto edit for style, content, and length.Editorial Deadline: two weeks before meet-ing date.Publishing any editorial material is contin-gent upon the approval of the ExecutiveCommittee.
DisclaimerOpinions in this Audioletter are those of theirauthors; the Pacific Northwest Audio Societyitself does not endorse or criticize products.Copyright 2011 by the Pacific NorthwestAudio Society except as noted; all rightsreserved.No part of this publication may be reprintedor otherwise reproduced without the writtenpermission of the
PO Box 435, Mercer Island, WA 98040
