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Jim Austin is the new editor of Stereophile


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Good wishes John. I’m glad the measurements will be continuing and even expanding.

Main listening (small home office):

Main setup: Surge protectors +>Isol-8 Mini sub Axis Power Strip/Protection>QuietPC Low Noise Server>Roon (Audiolense DRC)>Stack Audio Link II>Kii Control>Kii Three BXT (on their own electric circuit) >GIK Room Treatments.

Secondary Path: Server with Audiolense RC>RPi4 or analog>Cayin iDAC6 MKII (tube mode) (XLR)>Kii Three BXT

Bedroom: SBTouch to Cambridge Soundworks Desktop Setup.
Living Room/Kitchen: Ropieee (RPi3b+ with touchscreen) + Schiit Modi3E to a pair of Morel Hogtalare. 

All absolute statements about audio are false :)

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4 hours ago, John_Atkinson said:

 

Thank you beetlemania. I will still be doing all the measurements to accompany Stereophile's reviews but now will have some time to do more in-depth investigation. One area, for example, concerns how an amplifier's distortion spectrum changes with output voltage and output current. I also want to use a scientific graphing app to show a loudpeaker's complex impedance as a "pigtail" plot, which I think will be illuminating. Again, this is something in the frantic schedule to publish each issue's content that I just haven't had the time to work on.

 

John Atkinson

(Soon to be Technical) Editor, Stereophile

https://www.audiograph.se/

 

Man is anything better than the PowerCube measures for amplifiers?  

 

Congrats on more time JA.  First subscribed in the 1980's.  So I've been reading you and your publication a long time. 

And always keep in mind: Cognitive biases, like seeing optical illusions are a sign of a normally functioning brain. We all have them, it’s nothing to be ashamed about, but it is something that affects our objective evaluation of reality. 

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John,

 

Thank you for your many years of ensuring that Stereophile was always a quality publication and a leader in the field. I also always appreciated your personal reviews of audio equipment. I bought a pair of Pass XA-60.5 amps after you said "I don't have much to say about the Pass Labs XA60.5 other than this: It is the best-sounding amplifier I have ever used."

 

They are wonderful amplifiers, and were a bargain, as you noted, and I have never regretted purchasing them for a minute.

 

JC

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9 hours ago, esldude said:

https://www.audiograph.se/

 

Man is anything better than the PowerCube measures for amplifiers?  

 

PowerCube measurements are really telling overall. It is surprising how much differences it shows between amplifiers. When you combine that with loudspeaker complex impedance / EPDR figures, no wonder there are some differences...

 

Local hifi magazine here, as well as the one from our western neighbor Sweden, publishes PowerCube measurement results for amplifiers which is really nice. For loudspeakers they also publish group delay plots which is also nice.

 

Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer

Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers

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19 hours ago, John_Atkinson said:

 

Thank you beetlemania. I will still be doing all the measurements to accompany Stereophile's reviews but now will have some time to do more in-depth investigation. One area, for example, concerns how an amplifier's distortion spectrum changes with output voltage and output current. I also want to use a scientific graphing app to show a loudpeaker's complex impedance as a "pigtail" plot...

 

This!

Hey MQA, if it is not all $voodoo$, show us the math!

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JA, 

  Please continue on. Two of your measurements are the “one look” evaluation I use to separate the wheat from the chaff. 

  Speaker impulse waterfall. Not so much the cleanliness of the decay, the top line. That is the frequency response. 

  The 1 KHz output at -90.3 dB. At 16 and 24 bit resolution. The drop in noise floor shows resolution. Expect to see -160 dB for any dac over 99.00. 

  Also like seeing what the sine wave output is at -90.3 dB and 16 bits. Amazing to see an expensive dac not outputting three clean voltage levels here. 

  When I see an interesting speaker or dac tested I look at these tests before reading. If the review conclusion does not match the results of these simple tests move to the next review of interest. 

 

2012 Mac Mini, i5 - 2.5 GHz, 16 GB RAM. SSD,  PM/PV software, Focusrite Clarett 4Pre 4 channel interface. Daysequerra M4.0X Broadcast monitor., My_Ref Evolution rev a , Klipsch La Scala II, Blue Sky Sub 12

Clarett used as ADC for vinyl rips.

Corning Optical Thunderbolt cable used to connect computer to 4Pre. Dac fed by iFi iPower and Noise Trapper isolation transformer. 

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  • 1 month later...

Just got in the May issue of Stereophile.

John Atkinson still listed at the top of the mast as Editor?

Austin still only as a contributing editor?

 

"The gullibility of audiophiles is what astonishes me the most, even after all these years. How is it possible, how did it ever happen, that they trust fairy-tale purveyors and mystic gurus more than reliable sources of scientific information?"

Peter Aczel - The Audio Critic

nomqa.webp.aa713f2bb9e304522011cdb2d2ca907d.webp  R.I.P. MQA 2014-2023: Hyped product thanks to uneducated, uncritical advocates & captured press.

 

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