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Sara Cammeresi

Audiophilia —

Pardon my extended holiday from the blogosphere, my loyal readers, but I've been very busy commuting, creating sellable products at work, and spending time with The Duchess. At length, however, I have returned, and I wish to take this opportunity to announce my triumphant descent entrance into the world of high-end audio reproduction.

See this system here? This is Hi-Fi--high fidelity. What that means is that it's the highest quality fidelity.    -- Boogie Nights

Three months on from my initial visit to Audio Perfection, I made a second pilgrimage thereto for the purpose of bringing something home. I auditioned

• NHT SB-3 speakers (and no others, as the staff said there are no other speakers at that price point worth considering) connected to
• a Teac system (AG-H550 integrated amplifier and DV-H550 CD/DVD player) and
• an NAD system (C320BEE integrated amplifier and T533 CD/DVD/DVD-A player)

I don't think it's really possible to do better than the SB-3 ($540/pr at AP) without spending about three times as much money. During my last visit, I auditioned some Linn and Sonus Faber offerings ($1000/pr and $1200/pr, I think), and while they were a bit better all around, they just don't have the low-end extension of NHT's speakers, and I think they really need to be used with a subwoofer. As for electronics, I was initially more impressed by the specifications of the Teac system in that it's five-channel, and closer listening revealed that it is indeed a quite good system, but I thought the NAD system had more resolution, a rounder low-end, and didn't smear high-dynamic transients. Throw in some cables and interconnects, and now I'm a stereo owner.

(As an amusing aside, my new NHT SB-3s respond down to 39 Hz, whereas the JBL Creature 2.1 speakers I have connected to my computer only go down to 50 Hz, with the subwoofer.)

(And in the way of recommendation, follow the oldheads' advice and take some of your own CDs with you to the store to make a purchase. You'll be able to make a better judgement of the equipment's performance, and you'll hear new things you didn't even know were in the music.)

Everyone knows why he should own a good stereo, but just to reiterate the key points, there's more to good sound than just mega-bass. Harmonics matter in addition to the fundamentals. Crappy systems don't reproduce the high stuff needed for good percussion and strings, especially in pizzicato passages or guitar music. (I love saying `pizzicato.')

My XM receiver doesn't sound that good any more, sadly: no highs, one-note bass, and overall poor resolution, but that's okay because it's not really designed to go into a good stereo, just the crappy thing most people have in their cars (myself included). My CDs sound better than ever. I've also been playing with the DVD-A disc I got when I bought an Audigy sound card. For now, I'm just going to say that my initial impression is positive. I'll say more in a few days after I've had a chance to review a few DVD-As that should be arriving in the post very soon. Perhaps I'll even start posting reviews of DVD-A material!

posted by Sid at 22.10 / 173 in Audiophilia     [ Comments: 0 ]

I challenge thee! —

An amusing headline: Stern challenges FCC chairman on air.

Challenges to what? A duel?

posted by Sid at 22.41 / 195     [ Comments: 1 ]