Absolutlely PC audio is by far the best way to go if you are truly serious.
Many potential compromises from discrete components are avoided. Less money best performance potentially.
I think I covered some of that in my preface. I didn't want to go over the territory of direct comparison but value for small investment emphasizing noise and dynamic range and leaving the "voices" to others. The folks that buy original Neumann capsules and NOS VF14 triodes for $1000's will only have it that way. The question is what can you get for <$100 in (I still think getting an undistorted 8.5 or 17V p-p off of a 9V battery is cool).
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Ha! 2001, that might have been one of the articles that convinced me to trial the C1. Thanks. 😉 Bought probably a dozen plus and outfitted a couple of entire radio chains with them. Yes, used at a moderate distance they came within a touch of EQ to sounding like our U87s. Up close though? No way, fell apart completely in comparison. Where the Neumann got bigger the C1 got grouchy. Still much better than the Rodes of the time and don't even get me started on EVs...
And stingy broadcasters popping for Neumanns out of 'fashion'? What a cute notion. Extraordinary claims, blah blah blah...
The original units had no pad. The second batch did, but that had it's own set of issues. The mxl v67i is another great mic. All in all, the C1 was a game changer and did bring the price of good mics down. I found them in the "basement" of the NAMM show. I was checking it put when a guy from Nuemann came by, put on phones listened and then looked at Alan Hyatt and said in a heavy accent and no smile "You better not be busting our patents" Then he walked away. If he had not done that I may never have given them the second and third listen. The rest is history.
Schiit Audio Modi II. Up to 24/192.
Standard $99
Uber $149
Not to mention the headphone amps and preamps for around the same cost.
Standard $99
Uber $149
Not to mention the headphone amps and preamps for around the same cost.
No sh*t, he leaves one company for another and his first design out the door is similar. His second designs for Elac are somewhat different tho, with a concentric driver.
ELAC & Mr. Jones | Stereophile.com
Hats off to him for what are purported to be great performance for little money.
ELAC & Mr. Jones | Stereophile.com
Hats off to him for what are purported to be great performance for little money.
Agreed that Andrew Jones has quite a track record for inexpensive, high performance speakers.
But, you might not want to limit yourself to the Stereophile view of reality...
Actually, its the first 4 Elac speakers that are so close to his work at Pioneer that one might wonder whether Elac is just reselling product that Pioneer is OEMing.
And while I'm an owner and appreciator of KEF Q-series speakers, I have to admit that I've been around audio long enough to not be overly impressed by coax speakers as being some kind of innovation. The usual problem is IM between the woofer cone and the tweeter.
I don't subscribe to their reality but Elac USA doesn't have pictures of the new line.
Maybe only they know.
I'm not claiming them as an innovation. I am saying that, now he has bedded in at Elac he's designed something significantly different to the pioneer speakers. No claims of goodness or novelty made by me, just difference.
At least Atkinson publishes product specs - one can then position the associated subjective stuff appropriately. And there have been some interesting ones. Like the Zanden CD player (I think I got the brand and product right - there are others).
Of course he is a peaker - but I can imagine if he did DBT's and published the results every month, Stereophile would not remain in business for very long. That's reality. I have lots of examples from the business world.
Of course he is a peaker - but I can imagine if he did DBT's and published the results every month, Stereophile would not remain in business for very long. That's reality. I have lots of examples from the business world.
Anyone who takes that magazine as anything but a shill has some serious thinking to do about serious thinking. They and The Absolute Sound are not only inaccurate they are on the border of being criminal imo. The first time I read a cable review I kept looking for missing pages or stuck pages or typos or if it was April 1st, but no! It was real!. That marks the day I knew insanity was rampant these days. This is why I am proud to be the audio infidel. Hopefully one of many. BTW, God bless Peter Aczel, he is 90 now.
I think you are saying that at least Atkinson publishes the results of his technical testing of audio gear, and his tests do sometimes have some value.
For example, while he uses a fairly easy simulated speaker load for testing power amps, his reports still shed light on the issue of power amps with relatively high source impedances.
OTOH what he tests is based partially on sighted evaluations, and that admits a lot of gaps, superfluous information and omissions.
I agree that doing DBTs might be a commercially dangerous thing for him to do. It would be especially bad to if someone were to compare DBT results with the previous decades of his and his staff's alleged listening tests.
IMO it is largely a magazine about baseless opinions and placebos.
So chucking a potentially contentious candidate in, the ODAC. Not for me as I need USB and toslink and coax inputs but not seen better measured performance for less, especially if you buy the board to integrate into your own unit.
I used to read it when it was small size because they reviewed a lot of gear. I liked JA's reviews, compared to almost all of the others who just used silly adjectives and florid language to describe sound and sell advertisements.
I remember one case (long time ago - I have forgotten the details) where one of the reviewers (DO) got a cartridge from Koetsu and complained at how long it took to break in and such. The manufacturer sent in a humorous reply debunking most of what he said as ridiculous.
I was a charter subscriber, which netted me a "1 year subscription" for if memory serves $5, that lasted for most of the rest of the decade. My subscription followed me through the rest of High School, University the first time, the Army, and University the second time. I was a fan of Holt more so than JA.
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