sorry guys , I would not confront a manufacturers product with a magazine DIY design

Tuned , virtual one off's presented in their ideal conditions are not a fair basis for comparisons with serial production products

There is also a certain degree of politeness required between magazine and industry which is essential for good faith on both sides

We are loaned equipment for review at the manufacturer's expense , including transportation and we must also act in good faith.

Martin Colloms

Excellent. Anything that big, that ugly, and that expensive has got to have a designer who believes that what he's done is the dog's, erm, is a very fine piece of work...

Martin, I'm not a hifiplus subscriber, what did Paul make of the big Anthem? (I assume you mean the P1 statement at £3k per channel or whatever it is). For various reasons I have a passing interest...

The Devialet has already sadly been rejected in another thread partly on the grounds that there are too many other reviews, and indeed Stereophile has just published one with the usual thorough measurements.
Once again the enormous detail coming from this unit was mentioned which in my view should come before any considerations of rhythm, "upbeat" etc, they are real things extracted from the original recording.

I know this thread isnt about notions of rhythm but.........I would argue that systems with good timing allow the rhythm of the recording to come through. These systems dont add the feeling of rhythm.

The usual debate here (I am not applying it to you!) is:
1) listen to a Naim system,
2) oh they have boosts in the frequency response to "add" rhythm,
3) here I reply what frequencies as they sound useful and I will use them in my recording? And have a look at the test results of their CD players

uniti

CD555

Sorry but this is a bit of a frustration for me

Edited by user 02 January 2013 19:13:04(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Lord knows! Well, just based on those words, I suppose that a lot of recordings are made at >16 bit resolution, and are truncated to 16 bits for distribution, so if you're feeding that 16 bit datastream into the most significant bits of a >16 bit DAC, then you have the opportunity to undo some of the truncation. Assuming, of course, that you have a mystic-meg algorithm that can reliably guess the data that was thrown away. Mind you, if that was actually possible, you'd expect the guy who invented it to be living on a private island with a huge yacht, not hawking DACs round hifi shows :-). Perhaps - taking tongue slightly out of cheek - he's adding some sort of shaped-noise dither? I dunno, I'm firmware engineer, not a DSP engineer.

So I stand by my comment. It's very big, it's very expensive, and it's most certainly very ugly. And the guy promoting it did seem to understand how it worked and seemed genuinely convinced that it was some sort of step forward on both a technical and audio level. Martin ought to have a play, though it will mean plugging in a computer in his listening room...

I recall no audibly perceptible measured frequency error on Naim digital replay units , CD or DAC , indeed these have been historically so neutral as to show very good compatibility with non NAIM system.

There is some in house 'character' as there is with all coherently designed product lines


Martin Colloms

My only experience of a glass loudspeaker was of a much more modest model called Victoria, from French brand Waterfall. It sounded rather good, suggesting that glass might well be a good material. I doubt whether anyone in Europe imports Perfect8 from the US, though I do know that Dutch company Crystal Cable has some interesting upmarket Arabesque speakers with glass enclosures

Many materials may be used for enclosures, and most are capable of good results if used with care
There is no magic material, but the co-damped laminated glass panels of Perfect 8 are very certainly very low in self resonance with very quick decays.

Plate material does not lend itself so well to acoustic sculpting , low diffraction forms, so such a design will need to balance that potential loss against the gain in lowered colouration.

Speaker design remains a judicious balance of many constructional aspects and design factors, and the particular interests of a designer often find expression here. Then you have to see whether you agree with that interpretation of fidelity, in all its dimensions.

Martin Colloms

The Jeff Rowland Aeris DAC:

http://jeffrowlandgroup....mplifiers-aeris-dac.html

The PureDAC:

http://parttimeaudiophil...unces-puredac/#more-4703