No. 91 December 2011

• Krakow Sonic Society, meeting #80:
  Gerhard Hirt and his S-3 network player (Ayon Audio)
  
  
  
  I do not know if you remember the interview with Gerhard Hirt, the owner of Ayon Audio, which was published in the August edition of “High Fidelity” (No. 88) – if not, I encourage you to read it HERE. To one of the questions, namely: “What is your hierarchy of sources: CD, LP, HDD, SACD?” Gerhard responded “LP, CD. That’s it.” This is a bit unusual for somebody whose company has a new product, quite revolutionary at that, and who told us a year ago, during a training for dealers in Krakow, that the company StreamUnlimited is preparing a file player for him. S-3, as it was called, was presented in Munich, during the High End 2011. However, I think that this dualism, a kind of schizophrenic approach to digital technology is not unfamiliar to many other manufacturers and music lovers. Gerhard differs from his colleagues in being very honest ...
  
  

No. 90 November 2011

• Krakow Sonic Society, meeting #79:
  Dr Ningsheng Liu (Synergy HiFi/Create Audio) and Ayon Audio KT88sx tubes
  
  
  
  79th meeting of the Krakow Sonic Society starts a new season 2011/2012. And we start it with a guest visit by Mr. Ningsheng Liu, the representative of Synergy HiFi and Create Audio, who came to Europe especially to meet with Srajan Ebaen (“6moons.com”) and with me, that is with “High Fidelity”. I do mention in my reviews products manufactured by both companies represented by him because they are impossible to miss – the tubes and fuses proposed by Create Audio are something exceptional in their price range. And Synergy HiFi amplifiers also bring happy smile to my face. The arrival of Mr. Liu to Krakow, besides a chance for sightseeing, tasting food and drinks was also meant to be an opportunity to meet with KSS members. Initially, about two months ago, I planned that the theme of the meeting will be the new KT88 tubes prepared by Create Audio. With that in mind, ...
  
  

No. 87 August 2011

• Krakow Sonic Society, meeting #78:
  vacuum tubes Takatsuki Electric Industry TA-300B from Japan
  
  
  
  Takatsuki is a city in Japan, where the company Air Tight is located. But not only that one – there is also a big company Takatsuki Electric Industry, known from, for example, modern LED lighting. Until recently. Because last year the information was released, that this company decided to manufacture in Japan (and this did not happen for a long time now) 300B electron tubes. Was Mr. Miura from Air Tight behind this inspiration, or somebody else – I do not know for sure. But because it is known, that those two companies are located close together, and Air Tight is responsible for the distribution of those tubes outside of Japan, it is highly possible. Anyway, it was quite a rumor about those new tubes. In Munich, during the show High End 2011 I saw them on the Air Tight stand and exchanged a few words about them with Mr. Miura. And this only sharpened my appetite. The tubes arrived a month later. ...
  
  

No. 85 June 2011

• Krakow Sonic Society meeting #77:
  power amplifier Reimyo KAP-777
  and vacuum tubes Create Audio Luxury Series 300B
  
  
  The seventy seventh meeting of the Krakow Sonic Society is devoted to two products – the new amplifier from the Japanese company Reimyo and also new tubes from the Chinese company Create Audio. I underline their “being new” because in both cases we got devices from the first production run. And it is not a coincidence, that we will describe them both together. Because the meeting about the Reimyo KAP-777 is the addition to the regular test (in the same, “Japanese” edition of “High Fidelity”). It is the third step of the test. I will just briefly remind, that the first one was the comparison of the KAP in my system with the power amp Soulution 710, and the second one, replacing my Ayon Polaris III with the preamplifier Reimyo CAT-777 MkII. Those tests were methodologically correct, because I always test the devices that way, but they had one shortcoming: ...
  
  

No. 84 May 2011

• Krakow Sonic Society, meeting #76: Acoustic Revive
  – anti-vibration elements, system
  
  
  
  Acoustic Revive is a brand owned by SEKIGUCHI MACHINE SALES CO., LTD. Its brain, moving force, good spirit and whatever you can think of is Mr. Ken Ishiguro. In the AR catalog we find connecting cables, but its main area of interest are the so called accessories, which are, in this case, an equally important element of the system, together with electronics and loudspeakers. As Mr. Ishiguro says, he wanted music to be played “not as if it is reproduced by a mechanical device”. “Only listening to naturally created sounds, without artifacts introduced by electronics allow us to hear, what the artist envisioned.” He tells in his interview for “6moons.com”: “I was listening to the Beatles when I was fourteen years old. It was 1976 and it was the 10th anniversary of the first arrival of the Beatles in Japan. There was a Beatles revival ...
  
  

No. 82 March 2011

• Krakow Sonic Society, meeting #75:
     What sampling frequency? How many bits?
  
  
  
  The theme of the next issue of “High Fidelity” (No. 83) are products related to high resolution files, CD quality files and sound from a computer. In the audiophile world all those are usually regarded as rubbish and only rarely distinguished from mp3. I will write more in the editorial to the “file” issue, but I want to let you know, that we are not interested in mp3. I am not pretending, that there is nothing like that, but lossy compression excludes this phenomenon from my area of interest. But… There is always a “but” coming in the least expected moment. During the experiment described below we compared also a mp3 recording with its master, the 24/96 master tape. Based on the listening session, it turns out that this “but” is very uncomfortable. Details below. Anyway, the thing I want to take a closer look at, are the files ...