Audio Note at RMAF 2014

Audio Note has a modest system once again in their room at RMAF 2014 this year.

TT Two Deluxe – $3,525 – Updated TT Two suspended, two motor turntable with wood-
veneered Russian birch plywood plinth, all internals upgraded to superior materials. An
external power supply with electronic speed switching is available as an option or
upgrade. Black Ash shown. Black or white gloss, rosewood and cherry are also available.

Arm Three V2 – $2,000 – New Audio Note-designed 9” tone arm, AN-AI 99.99% pure
silver wire with AN-Vx external cable. Single piece tapered arm tube from tip to tail. A
drop in replacement for 9”arms based on Rega geometry. Available in black or silver.
IQ3 – $980 – Our best moving magnet cartridge, with a Pocan body weighing 6 grams.
The square cross-section titanium cantilever with an Audio Note type 2 is identical to the
one used in our $4k+ IOI low output moving coil cartridge.

CDT One/ II – $4,100 – The display may be dimmed or turned off and a remote control
is included. Brushed aluminum fascia with aluminum buttons (shown), or black acrylic
fascia with gold buttons is available.

DAC2.1x Signature – $5,500 – A Red Book DAC utilizing the AD1865 18 bit chip that
allows it to read 24/96 files, (albeit truncated to 18 bits.) I/V conversion is accomplished
via purpose designed, in-house wound transformers. As in all Audio Note DACs, no up-
sampling, oversampling or filtering is used. Analog output utilizes a pair of 6922 tubes,
while power is rectified by a 6X5 tube. Output coupling is via Audio Note copper foil
capacitors. Audio Note tantalum resistors are used in critical locations. Your choice of
brushed aluminum (shown) or black acrylic fascia.

OTO SE Phono Signature – $6,325 ($5,525 line) – We took the classic OTO parallel single-
ended, EL84 integrated amp, added AN tantalum resistors and AN foil caps in critical
locations, then replaced the M4 IE output transformers with IHiB double c-core models –
superior magnetic core material in a superior topology. Available with your choice of a
brushed aluminum or black acrylic faceplate.

AN J/D – $3,700/pair satin ($4,000 as show w/hemp woofer) – Two way, acoustic suspension
speaker system, 92dB/w/m sensitive, using an 8″ woofer and a 1″ silk dome tweeter,
wired with Audio Note D copper speaker cable. This entry level version of the J uses a
cabinet with MDF front and back faces and particle board top/bottom/sides. The D model
is only available in satin black ash.

Audiophile’s Guide to High-end Audio Subwoofers

Moved the old Audiophile’s Guide to High-end Audio Subwoofers page to the new website. Updated it. And isn’t it interesting that there are fewer subwoofers available now than even just a few years ago.

For example, the Krell take-no-prisoners wait-a-half-hour-after-eating subwoofer presented at CEDIA 2012 is no longer found on their website.

Perhaps REL is just continuing to grow market share. Perhaps full-range speakers are just getting better at handling the low frequencies. Perhaps hybrid home audio / home theater systems are no longer as popular as they were a few years ago.

Whatever.

Still fun things even though we never actually had one here. Talked about it some. Mostly back when we had a combined home audio / home theater system.

But never actually did anything about it…

Apparently not a lot of you all did either, though many people we talk to USED to have one at one time or another.

 

More online high-end audio blogs and magazines

Added AudioFi.net, Headphone.guru to the English-language online high-end audio blogs and magazines page for a total of 70 now.

Also added Hi-Fi.ru (Russian), HiFi Live.es (Spanish), HiFi.com.pl (Polish) to the foreign-language high-end audio blogs and magazines page for a total of 45.

OK. A little overwhelming. But pretty cool. A lot of people expressing their opinions and lots of avenues for gear to find a way to get some ‘air time’.

We can look at the stats which tell us how many clicks each of the website logos received. Some people click on logos of websites they have never seen before. Some find their old favorites that they haven’t visited in awhile.

Popular today is Dagogo, Sixmoons, Mono and Stereo, Absolute Sound, the Audio Beat

Yesterday it was Stereophile, Top Audio Gear, Audio X Press, UHF Magazine, and the State of Sound

The fact that these change so much day-to-day is fascinating and not a little bit completely confusing.

The difference between online blogs and online magazines is really, really blurry. I guess blogs make it easy to see the latest articles and magazines often make you think a little harder about what you are looking for.

Some have ‘think pieces’ but most just have lots of reviews. Both rely a lot on having a review of a specific piece of gear that people are using Google to search for.

A few are trying to have fun but most are treating the hobby as a Very Serious, Complex and Technical hobby – not for the faint of heart ;-P

But when I zoom around the web, visiting a lot of these websites, I come away with the feeling that this is a very rich and rewarding hobby, with lots to offer everybody.

Enjoy!