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Website last updated - 21/12/2011

 

 

 

 

23/05/2011

Online reporting on the High End 2011 hi-fi show that took place in Munich is now appearing.  Here are some websites to take a look at.

http://www.my-hiend.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=3657

http://www.soundstageglobal.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout =blog&id=10&Itemid=160

http://www.hifistatement.net/de/panorama/events/item/871-highend-2011-helmut-baumgartners-messerundgang-–-teil-1

 

15/4/2011

Amazon UK has a lot of SACDs / hybrid SACDs for sale and some are at ridiculously low prices.  As I write, Elton John’s Honky Chateau is £3.99. The Who’s Tommy is £9.99 for a double disc version (the first disc alone is equivalent to the vinyl double album).   Also some (some, mind you) of the Living Stereo reissues are about £6 to £8.  Well worth checking it out.

Incidentally, the last time I bought Living Stereo’s from Amazon they noticed the shift in popularity (I bought about a dozen) and they shoved the price up a fair bit the next week.

There are also a lot of fairly cheap Blu-ray titles as well.  I only recently got into Blu-rays because I bought a Blu-ray writer for my PC in order to archive.  For those handful of people who are not aware (i.e. slowpokes like me) the picture quality of Blu-ray is much better than for DVD (provided the transfer is done properly!) and the prices have come down a lot compared to when Blu-ray was launched.

 

15/4/2011

Wahay!  My new toy arrived today - the MSB Technology Universal Media Transport.

I believe that it is the first one in the UK.  It plays pretty much any disc except data discs above 24/192 (the MSB Technology Platinum Data CD IV will play discs up to 32/384 but won’t play SACDs nor Blu-ray).

Paul from ABC Audio brought it over and we connected it up.  First off we tried some SACDs and they sounded very good indeed.

Paul had to leave so he wanted to quickly try a Blu-ray disc to check the image.

Big mistake to be rushed into any new item, as it meant I did what I usually never do - I did not read the manual.  So, naturally, we could not get it to work.  After reading the manual I pressed one button and hey presto!  Yes, the picture is very good, insofar as I can tell on my aging plasma.

Cds sound great as well.

Here is a picture showing the UMT sitting above the DAC and power supply.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can feel a hard weekend coming on checking out the UMT.  It’s a dirty job but someone has to do it.

 

15/4/2011

YouTube took down the video of Carlos Kleiber conducting Beethoven Symphony No 5 that I linked to in the Video section.  But I found another version, so you can still see it!

 

15/4/2011

I visited Audio World ‘11 (i.e. the Heathrow hi-fi show) on the first day (Saturday).

This was a small show compared to previous ones.  As you might expect, some nice things, some interesting things, some pretty dreadful things (which I will not name).

I went with a friend, who was so outraged by the price of petrol at a nearby filling station that he said ****, stopped the car, got out, walked over to the price sign and took a photograph.

 

15/4/2011

Oh dear, I have been a bit remiss regarding updating the site for a while.  To be fair, I have been doing other things, but even so...

First, there was a nice review of the Bright Star IsoNodes by Adventures In Hi-Fi Audio.

To see the review please go to

http://www.adventuresinhifiaudio.com/05/03/2011/bright-star-audio-isonodes-squidgy-wonders-from-america/

I am glad that Neil picked up on the IsoNodes leaving the tonal balance unchanged and not softening the sound unlike his experience with Sorbothane.

For the money Bright Star IsoNodes really are a bargain.

 

15/02/2011

Most of the online reporting on hi-fi at CES and THE 2011 has now finished.  As usual there have been differences of opinion. At least there are lots of pictures to look at. Here are some of the relevant links:

21hifi http://www.21hifi.com/newshifi/hifishow/ces2011/index.htm

Absolute Sound http://www.avguide.com/channel/the-absolute-sound/blog

AudioCircle http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?board=153.0

 

Audio Federation http://www.audiofederation.com/blog/

Audiogon http://www.audiogon.com/news/item/1296077044.html

Computer Audiophile http://www.computeraudiophile.com/taxonomy/term/48 27 39 46 49 38 43 47

Dagogo http://www.dagogo.com/View-Event.asp?hEvent=33

Enjoy The Music http://www.enjoythemusic.com/ces_2011/

Positive Feedback http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue53/toc.htm

Soundstage http://www.soundstageglobal.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout =blog&id=8&Itemid=3

Stereophile http://www.stereophile.com/category/ces-2011

Stereotimes http://www.stereotimes.com/showreports.shtml

Ultra High-End http://www.ultrahighendforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=209&t=4105

Ultra High Fidelity http://www.uhfmag.com/Vegas2011/index.html

 

21hifi is a Chinese website.  From my point of view it is just for the pictures. It is one of the few websites to cover (not surprisingly) the Guangzhou AV Fair.

Audio Federation is a hi-fi dealer / distributor in Denver, run by Mike and Neli, and I greatly enjoy their website even whilst disagreeing with a lot of it. This dealer has some really expensive equipment. In the past Mike has done some extraordinary coverage of shows, in terms of the quality of the pictures and the forthright opinions that he offers - check out their coverage of various past shows.  He has cut down on the number of pictures but is as opinionated as ever “Clueless show reports by 2nd and 3rd tier magazines are still all the rage“. He now seems to have it in for Jonathan Valin’s coverage at Absolute Sound. I like the fact that he has a definite and consistent point of view, and agree with some of it.  I particularly note his recent explanation of the difference between a worthwhile review and a clueless review on 10 February.

 

However, when it comes to reviewing hi-fi shows I think most comments are nonsense ultimately. From experience I know that to make a judgement of equipment based on what is heard at shows is fairly silly. As an exhibitor I have had plenty of problems in getting a good sound at a show with systems that I know are good - windows resonating, ceilings resonating, bad acoustics that can’t be treated, etc.  Interestingly, I note from the various pictures of CES / THE the lack of room treatment in many of the exhibitors’ rooms.  So, do you really think you could make a valid judgement of a piece of equipment in those circumstances?

 

I particularly liked the title of one of the reviews at Positive Feedback - “We Came, We Saw, We Left”.

Soundstage also is courting controversy - having a go at certain, not inexpensive, rooms for not sounding good, in their opinion.

 

15/02/2011

News page updated for new models from Bel Canto and MSB Technology.

 

 

15/02/2011

The new website is now operational!