|
This Month's Featured Equipment Reviews |
|
|
|
DVD-Audio/SACD Software Forum Topics: |
|
Cache Directory Unwriteable |
|
Classic Audio Sources Reviews |
|
|
|
DVD-Audio/SACD Players
|
Monday, 01 November 2010
,
Written by
Michael Palmer
Audiophiles, gather round and take out your wallets. The premium sound gurus from McIntosh have announced the MCD1100 SACD Disc Player, which is engineered to deliver extended functionality and maximum musical fidelity from CD, CD-R, CD-RW, SCACD, Hybrid SACD, MP3, and WMA stereo music discs. And, it doesn't require a separate preamplifier to deliver warm, rich and emotionally engaging sound from today's many digital music sources. The MCD1100 can be added to any existing system or used as a standalone component with a set of high quality headphonesThis is what McIntosh President Charlie Randall had to say about the MCD1100: "In creating McIntosh source components, our designers and engineers have always strived to deliver all the emotional content in recorded music. For the first time, we now offer superlative McIntosh performance for not only a compact disc library, but any ...
|
|
|
|
Thursday, 29 April 2010
,
Written by
Andre Marc
Marantz has been in the home electronics game for over 50 years now. I won't go into their long and storied history, but it has covered a lot of territory. From its beginnings as Saul Marantz’s vision of high quality home entertainment products to the large Japanese conglomerate it is today, Marantz has certainly had its ups and downs. While it’s simple enough to do a Google search on their various owners, today it is owned by D&M Holdings; the same folks who own McIntosh Labs. They have been on a mission to preserve the Marantz legacy and their current crop of products in their Reference line is proof of an excellent job. Marantz has had many famous, illustrious engineers and designers under their roof, and to this day, they offer cutting edge products well reviewed by the high-end audio ...
|
|
|
|
Monday, 14 December 2009
,
Written by
Todd Whitesel
Being in business – any business - for 30 years is reason enough to celebrate, but when you've enjoyed a long-running position at the top of your field there's even more cause for rejoicing. That's the story behind Marantz's SA-KI Pearl components, a limited-edition run (500 worldwide) of “gifts” from Ken Ishiwata to those in the audio community who have enjoyed his innovative designs during his Marantz tenure. Ishiwata drew on his vast experience to design what can be described truly as a custom SACD/CD player. The SA-KI Pearl SACD/CD Player (“KI” stands for Ken Ishiwata) in many ways is a summation of Ishiwata's artistic philosophy and his goal to offer a component “to reproduce music exactly as the original artist and the recording engineers intended.” Ishiwata is reported to have personally listened to and/or tested each internal part. Considering ...
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
,
Written by
Todd Whitesel
Although the compact disc is now 27 years old, Super-Audio CD (SACD) is still a relative youngster, celebrating its 10th birthday this year. Even as sales of redbook CDs have plummeted through the decade and digital downloads have skyrocketed, against the odds – somehow – SACD has clung to life and managed to survive an industry bent on fragmentation and division. The reason is simple: SACD is sonically superior to its redbook sibling, and certainly to any of the lossy (replace first “s” with “u” for more accurate description) digital formats. The discs contain more musical information and can deliver analog-like sound with all the real and perceived benefits of redbook CD. Throw in surround-sound capability and the SACD is a formidable foe in the format war; if it only had the proper support.And as the music industry continues to ...
|
|
|
|
Friday, 01 June 2007
,
Written by
Jerry Del Colliano
Introduction
I
have owned various Krell amplifiers in my reference systems over the
years, each providing hours upon hours of listening joy. Recently,
Krell has released a new top-of-the-line lineup of gear under the
Evolution moniker that speaks to those for a need for the best of the
best and a willingness to pay for it. The review system under
evaluation is comprised of a $10,000 Krell Evolution 505 SACD player
with 24-bit 192 DACs, a $15,000 Krell Evolution 202 two-chassis stereo
preamp and the monstrous Krell Evolution 900 monaural amplifiers at
$20,000 each, or $40,000 for the stereo pair as reviewed. My review
samples are done in Krell’s signature silver finish, which is
breathtakingly beautiful out of the rack and poised on a simple table
as it is installed in my reference system.
Set-up
To
start, it is important to note that the Krell Evolution 900 power amps
are nothing short of huge. With a travel ...
|
|
|
|
|
