Neli finally found a happy spot to burn in new cables: hanging off the back of a DVD bookcase in the middle of the second listening room.

One of the problems is finding a place so the cables hang down naturally - twisting them up UNnaturally tends to affect the sonic qualities, seems to take them longer to relax when the finally get put into use.

Another problem is keeping them out of the way of foot traffic - stepping on the cables ain’t so good for them either.,.. not to mention tripping over them and sailing into the Walker turntable… or something…

Seems to work really well.

The cables, interconnects and speaker, have both ends connected to the burn-in device - which sends a number of signals through the cables, simulating music - but presumably at a very high volume with lots of dynamics and lots of frequencies. all in order to speed up the burn-in process by a factor of 10 or so.

We use the Nordost burn in device for our cables. There is a newer model that may now be available…

Unfortunately, we did not get to hear these new cables (the Nordost Frey) before we sent them out on audition… so us cats still have a big curiosity that needs scratching.

We use 10 meter optical cables to connect the EMMLabs / Meitner transport to the Meitner DAC.

This is so that we can have the transport near where we sit and the DAC (using its nice built-in preamplifier) within 1 meter of the amps so that we can use a very expensive interconnect, the Stealth INDRA, between the DAC and the amplifiers. These optical cables cost about $50 for the 3, all told (10 meters of INDRA would cost about $57,000.00 - assuming you could get them to make you a pair).

There are 3, bright orange 10 meter optical cables that connect to the DAC. No, this would NOT be our first choice in colors!

You can see we have to label them so that we can tell one from the other. The cables that we decided on only came in one color.

The other sides of the cables are connected to the transport - also labeled, of course.

Yeah, not quite audiphile grade labeling - cheap masking tape and crude pen markings. Hmmmmmm…. Maybe someday we will upgrade to using…. *gasp* colored tape and no pen scriblings?

Here is Neli’s description of how and where she found them:

“The emmLabs ST interface cables are 125/62.5u (micron) multimode simplex ST to ST optical patch cables. We ordered them from GoCables – http://www.gocables.com/

Here’s the category listing here:
http://www.gocables.com/Fiber_Optic_Patch_Cables/
/index_multimode_simplex.htm

And here are the specific cables here:
http://www.gocables.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=G&Product_Code=GCFA1TT

When I researched cable sources, I wanted a high quality connector — not plastic connectors — GoCables says:

> SC, ST, LC, FC, MT-RJ, E2000 and MU connectors have polished ceramic ferrules for precision and durability.

This is one of the reasons that I selected these cables, even though it would be more convenient to have 3 different colors, or 3 different color terminations at the end — we marked ours so that we can tell ‘em apart when they’re all laid out. We have not heard a difference between these and the stock 2-meter cables that emmLabs ships with the pair. Sometime, I should order another set and have ‘em cryoed, and see if that makes an improvement.

I remember looking through a number of network equipment sites before settling on these cables.

There was also some talk some weeks ago on Audiogon regarding audiophile-grade (and audiophile-grade-expensive) optical links. Haven’t tried any of these.”

The tubes on the Audio Aero Prestige monoblock amplifers give off a rather uncommon white light. So we just had to take some pictures…

The amps were moved downstairs and put on the Marten Coltrane / EDGE/ Lamm / Audio Note system. They do quite well with these speakers - despite the low impedance in the speaker bass frequencies and the minimal 40 watts per channel from the amps.

The amps are actually swapper here in these pictures - usually, putting the left amp on the left would have the tubes be on the ‘outside’ of the amps from the perspective of the listening position - whereas here they are on the inside.

The new Frey interconnects look slightly different that tne old Valkryja interconnects… and use different (Nordost-branded WBT) conenctors.

The new Nordost Frey interconects are a slightly darker purple and slightly skinnier than the old Valkryja

The old interconnects…

The new interconnects

The new interconnects

The new interconnects. Like the speaker cables, the green indicates that these are demo interconencts and not for resale.

The new connectors come with instructions, but they are of the common (counter-intuitive) turn clockwise to loosen, turn counter clockwise to tighten and fasten the connector to the binding post.

Nope, haven’t heard how these sound yet either…

The new Nordost Frey speaker cable looks exactly like the old Valkyrja speaker cable.

Here is a picture of them side-by-side. Both cables are purplish ribbon cables a little less than 2 inches wide.

The green on the spade connectors indicates that these are demo cables, not for resale (they have to be sent back to the factory for retermination before they can be sold).

We haven’t heard them yet..

Stay tuned…

The Prestige is better sounding than the Capitole.

What a relief.

You know, we really like the Capitole (especially me). So much of the competition that is supposed to be ‘better’ sound like a lot of digititus to me: heavy on the detail, light on the music.

But the Prestige had sounded pretty darn good at CES… but that was over a year and a half ago. And there had been rumours that they had made some changes since then…

But, no, all is OK. This thing really sounds pretty good.

In comparison with the Capitole:

A tighter denser soundfield. More solidity. More coherence. More transparency. More real.

More detail but NOT at the expense of the music.

More midi and micro-dynamics. About the same macro-dynamics - which has always been one of the premiere features of the Capitole.

Warmth is about the same, … well, maybe a little less. Still has that analog-like romantic tinge to it.

Tighter in the bass. Much. Much more detail. Which is a good thing… and it was one of the few weaknesses of the Capitole that its bass did not have enough detail for some people, but….Actually I am hoping and anticipating that the bass loosens up a little more over time (the Capitole took awhile too, about 6 weeks or so). Just a little. There is this balance - between detail and control in the bass yet a natural looseness that makes it all sound real - can’t describe it, but you know it when you hear it (the Audio Note U.K. Kegons amplifiers got it in spades).

Just one compaint.

Why do all these SACD players have to be so SLOW? Yes, they have to scan the disc dozens of times to determine which kind of redbook format the CD is recorded in, and then to determine if it is also an SACD. But, geez.

No, it is only marginally slower than the Meitner. And not as bad as the Sony SCD-1 as I remember it. So it is not unusually slow. What IS unusual is for the person putting in the CD (for exmaple, me!) to be of the patient, I’ve got 5 to 10 seconds to spare, variety of audiophile.

So, ***drum roll please*** …

Presenting the New World Champion of the Single Box Players (and it even plays SACD)….. The Audio Aero Prestige.

I like it.

Spent the last few days cleaning out the ‘closet’ of older cables and equipment that we really aren’t using and putting it up for sale. So far its mostly been Nordost cables,

but we have some older Shunyata speaker cables and interconnects, a used Audio Note M1 Phono preamplifier and CD2.1x player, Sonus Faber Extrema speakers, a ‘B’ stock Denon 3910, an Edge NL12 amplifier and Signature One preamplifier,…

and I’m sure there’s more, but…

I justknow we are not the only packrats out there… its amazing how all this stuff starts piling up, filing every crevice and cranny…

I just know we can’t be the only ones…

As we mentioned last time, we decided to move the Audio Aero Prestige CD/SACD Player downstairs and put it on the Sound Lab U1 system in place of the Audio Aero Capitole.

The equipment rack with the Prestige on the bottom shelf (hey, at least this one is a front-loader) topped by the Brinkmann Balance and Walker Proscenium Gold turntables. We run the turntables through the linestage built into the Prestige (and previously the Audio Aero Capitole).

A closeup of the Prestige with HRS damping plate on top.

Underneath the Prestige, with HRS triple-tall Nimbus feet - notive the black diamond racing cones are still attached.

The new solid metal, heavy weight, remote control for the Prestige.

A close up of the remote control.

A close up of the remote control logo.

Next… sonics. Hint, its a across the board improvement compared to the Capitole, and this from an avowed Capitole lover, me.

With the caveat that the Meitner is 50% more expensive than the Prestige, we will try to provide some illumination on our impressions of the differences and similarities of these two CD/SACD players… both with built-in linestages.

The Prestige is still not quite broken in but it does have about 600 hours on it - and the Meitner CDSD tranport has an upgrade which we have not had here yet. But I think we can say something about their relative sonic attributes.

In comparison with the Meitner the Prestige has about the same soundstaging and imaging capabilities, though perhaps a little higher noise floor and a little less detail - as one might expect from a tube output stage - lending to a little bit of fog between the musicians in the sound field.

In some sense the Prestige is more enjoyable to listen to, presenting the music with an enthusiastic and optimistic attitude, with a slight exaggeration of various tonalities lending it an ‘analog warmth’. This seems to me to be much more so than the Capitole, which had an ‘analog-like’, somewhat accentuated, macro dynamic attack but not so much of the wonderful micro-dynamic attack and inner warmth of the Prestige… at least that’s what I am hearing, anyway.

The way I think of it is that the Prestige sounds like the way music sounds after a half (YMMV) glass of wine. The Meitner sounds like the music does when stone-cold sober.

The Meitner sounds real, like it really sounded like in the studio. It is a wayback machine with frequently astonishing capabilities - like having the awesome privilege of having a special ticket to attend, in person, the recording sessions of your favorite music.

And for those who have not heard the Meitner and hear something completely different than what I hear when listening to live sound, whether in a studio or elsewhere - this is not the overly etched, harsh, in-your-face dante-reality of the accuracy-must-mean-extreme-exaggeration-of-treble-attack-and-decay-so-it-sounds-like-delta-function-hell situation here. This is the ‘you are there, believe it or not, this is what the musicians cum studio engineer actually sounded like’ show.

The Prestige sounds like music, like the way music is supposed to sound. Enjoyable, a smile and toe-tapping required (in this toe-tapper sense I felt it was better than the Meitner - but we have yet to try the HRS Nimbus trick on the DCC2, so stay tuned), beautiful with all the detail and coherency and clarity that our minds want, along with all the juice that our hearts want.

So, really, it is up to each of us to choose our poison, or, actually, to choose our preferred elixir.

Next: The Audio Aero Prestige vrs the Audio Aero Capitole.

Party on, Garth!

Before we get to the comparisons…

We put the Prestige up on the HRS Nimbus ‘’feet’ which helped dial in the Prestige as it was sitting on the HRS M3 Isolation Base.

Here is the Prestige up with the 3 black diamond racing cones that come with the Prestige as their standard feet lying in front of the Prestige.

More pictures of the Prestige and the HRS Nimbuses, which in this picture were put under the place where the Black Diamond Racing cones usually go, abd you can see that the screws that stick out and screw into the cones are now sticking into the Nimbuses.

We changed this in the current configuration to put the Nimbuses in a configuration so that they would not get stuck… But we haven’t done a sonic comparison to determine any differences besides the aesthetic.

The Audio Note Kegons are also up on Nimbuses…

Just an FYI, here are the controls on the left side control panel of the Prestige

And on the right side…

Sonically, this improved the clarity, lowered the noise floor tremendously, and made the Prestige competitive with the Meitner, albeit with an entirely different sonic flavor. More on the comparison next, and as we moved the Prestige downstairs in preperation for the weekend’s (and Monday’s (today)) guests, replacing the Audio Aero Capitole with the Prestige in the SoundLab U1 / EDGE system, we can now also report at some length on the differences we hear between the Capitole and the Prestige.