witchdoctor.co.nz

Psyrok & Li’l Sister Jen – Calculus (Psylince) CD REVIEW

Gary Steel — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 01:05:36 +0000

PSYROK IS WELLINGTON musician/producer Si White, who put this five-track EP together via the internet in collaboration with Swedish vocalist Jenny Larsson (Li’l Sister Jen).
It’s roughly in the same territory as Portishead: slow, melancholy trip-hop with a spacious, aqueous ambience.
Problem #1: Most of these songs go on for way too long, and would have benefited by being pruned back to around half their length. They simply don’t justify their six or seven-minute length, given the lack of dramatic development, or anything else; just the same loops, instrumental motifs and chorus/vocals repeated over again. Problem #2: Neither Larsson’s singing or lyrics are distinctive enough to really make a mark, and tend towards a high-pitched winsomeness that is vaguely irritating. Problem #3: The audio is clearly unmastered, and should have had an audio engineer’s careful tweaking before unleashed on the world. While the quality of the production is mostly smooth and clear, it’s lacking in texture, impact and the bass quality and depth varies from track to track. For instance, ‘Perpetual Snow’ is a dub-oriented track with the most hopeless, boxy bass transients imaginable, while ‘A World Unknown’ has a bass sound that overwhelms an otherwise subtle musical picture.
Si White is clearly a talented musician/producer and Calculus shows he’s capable of some deft musical/compositional touches, but too often this release betrays its bedroom-recorded origins. Call me old-school, but this style of music aims for a certain sonic slickness, and while partially successful, this EP sounds like it was never played back on anything like professional sound monitors, or EQ’d to suit the home listening environment. It’s an excellent project to add to his CV, and some followers of local electronic music might find it gratifying, but it’s more calling card than great music. GARY STEEL
Sound = 2.5/5
Music = 2.5/5

Note: This EP can be downloaded free of charge from

www.psyrok.com

or bought at iTunes.

Petition against online censorship

Gary Steel — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 20:37:30 +0000

WITH NOISE LEVELS around SOPA and Megaupload almost deafening ACTA – the anti-counterfeiting trade agreement which the US has ratified with a growing number of EU and Asian countries – has been overlooked, even though it is in the throes of being pushed through the EU.
But an online petition aimed at EU lawmakers has been attracting a steady amount of signatures from the online community, with its creators aiming for two million signatures from the global online community before it is submitted to the EU in a few days.
The petition’s creators are not mincing words, and state that: “ACTA – a global treaty – could allow corporations to censor the Internet. Negotiated in secret by a small number of rich countries and corporate powers, it would set up a shadowy new anti-counterfeiting body to allow private interests to police everything that we do online and impose massive penalties – even prison sentences – against people they say have harmed their business”.
This impassioned statement has clearly resonated with large numbers of internet users across the world, as the volume of signatures continues to grow on a minute by minute basis. Whilst the petitions creators were originally aiming for 500,000 signatures, they’d surpassed this with the number of online signatures well past the 1.3 million mark. PAT PILCHER
The petition can be found at https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stop_acta/

JONO MCCLEERY – THERE IS (Counter/Border) CD REVIEW

Gary Steel — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 05:07:24 +0000

HERE COMES ANOTHER one. Another singer-songwriter who sacrilegiously takes Nick Drake’s melancholia, and makes it a lifestyle choice; another beige-coloured minstrel who disrespectfully takes Jeff Buckley’s multi-octave intensity, and turns it into vocal vanity.
And yet apparently, Jono McCleery is eliciting rave reviews.
McCleery (a British songwriter who’s on his second outing) is one more in a recent line of introspective strummers – most notably Fink – who combine acoustic picking with electronic beats and pieces. It’s a genre that’s mind-bendingly boring except for the poor naïve lovelorn women who have convinced themselves that he’s really sensitive and the way men should be in the real world.
As far as it goes, There Is is nicely cooked. The sound and arrangements are mellow and muted and there’s nothing jarring about them. There’s even some strings, because we all know that when you combine a mellow voice with mellow acoustic guitar and a lovelorn lyric the grown up way to accentuate all this is with some elegiac, slightly weeping strings. But the recording is oddly constrained. There’s none of the expansiveness of say, Nick Drake’s sound world – no woody, textured basses or cellos. In fact, the whole thing is notable for its lack of any grit or texture, as if it’s stuck somehow in a digital bubble, and as nice as it sounds, just never sounds fully animated.
No, There Is just won’t do. Even McCleery’s cover of that great Black song from the ‘80s, ‘Wonderful Life’, lacks the intended resonance, and the whole thing is limited by his own very limited vocal register. But it’s worst crime is that it’s dull. GARY STEEL
Sound = 2.5
Music = 2.5

Little Axe – If You Want Loyalty Buy A Dog (On-U Sound/Southbound) CD REVIEW

Gary Steel — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:14:56 +0000

AS A REVIEWER with a constant stream of new releases to get through, it’s always something of a thrill to come across a release that’s balm to the ears. Here, then, is an album that pushes my sonic pleasure spot.
For the uninitiated, Little Axe is a project headed by multi-instrumentalist Skip McDonald, and with cohorts like producer Adrian Sherwood. It came out of the On-U Sound melting pot which, in the ‘80s was responsible for many extraordinary explorations and mutations of dub, rock and other genres, and was founded on a musical repertory of seasoned American players working across outfits like African Headcharge and Tackhead. Amazingly, McDonald and his mates were the backing band behind some of the best hip-hop tracks ever laid down before they ever met up with Sherwood; seminal pieces like ‘White Lines’ for Grandmaster Flash.
Little Axe has been churning out albums since 1994, and their unique pitch is a cross pollination of old blues and dub, all mixed up in a contemporary fashion, but not so contemporary that it’s a flash in the pan. If You Want Loyalty Buy A Dog isn’t quite as sonically enhanced as their previous album, Stone Cold Ohio (2006), but it still sounds intoxicatingly great. While that album was big on overdubbed gospel-oriented vocals, their latest is much heavier on the dub angle, with propulsive bass throughout. Blues and righteous dub prove to be natural bedmates, as both are infused with the sweat of struggle and slavery.
Mostly, the vocals here are treated like elements in the music, rather than carriers of tunes, and they’re either sampled, or made to sound like old blues voices taken off ancient 78rpm records. They’re certainly treated to make them sound weathered and ghostly, which adds hugely to the atmosphere, and means there are pleasingly lo-res but highly textured elements in with the more hi-tech aspects of the production.
There’s a plethora of boring dub-oriented music out there at the moment, and sadly, too much of it comes from NZ bands! Little Axe shows how it should be done, not only by basing their template on a particularly gratifying strand of righteous dub, but by having Sherwood work his magic mixing on those dubs. But it’s not just a dub album, with its crisp rhythms and perfectly placed splashes of guitar (even some acoustic) and other instruments giving it some clean and sparkling tonal characteristics to contrast with the down-home and gritty elements of the vocals and bass.
Some have said that If You Want Loyalty Buy A Dog is Little Axe coasting, and simply repeating past glories. I disagree. It doesn’t rewrite the book, but there’s enough going on here that’s different to what they’ve done previously to make it a welcome addition to the Little Axe catalogue. GARY STEEL
Sound = 4/5
Music = 4/5

Hi-fi Nostalgia

Gary Steel — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 02:23:56 +0000

THE LAST COUPLE of years have been tough for a lot of us. For me it included the loss of both my parents. Perhaps that is why I am having waves off nostalgia. Last week it was forking out for a trip back to the UK later this year to visit the place of my childhood, and last night it was soaking in a re-run of Notting Hill.

Of course it could simply be that I am losing it. I suspect that I am becoming a certified BOF (Boring Old Fart). People do not tend to tell you that you are now a BOF. It is not just that I notice I have told a particular story before but even worse, listeners develop a glassed look and remember an urgent appointment with the dentist.

Anyway whatever the reason, it was time to pull out a couple of 20-year-old bits of hi-fi equipment and listen to a Pioneer stable platter mechanism CD player (with in-built legato DAC) and a fifty watt Harmon Kardon. The questions on my mind included:

Did they really sound too bad?

Can I justify the money that I have spent over the last two decades?

Can you take the old gear and with minimum fuss ‘modernise’ the sound?

Horrors, but might I even prefer the sound (or was it just the warm glow of nostalgia)?

This is not intended as a review of the couple of bits of equipment mentioned. However, they were not chosen by accident. A decade ago I was concerned about my son’s lack of direction in life. I sold off the expensive hi-fi system I owned except for the Royd Albion speakers and installed Chris in his first Glenfield do-up home project. The equipment above was my inexpensive ‘fill in’ system while I gradually rebuilt back to my present Naim/Cyrus combination. I was a bit gobsmacked at the time however, by how much joy the ‘fill in’ system gave me, and thought it was worth revisiting.

Okay, for the uninitiated, what does this old gear sound like? The Pioneer has been much respected in its time and has been used as the basis for some later quite flash incarnations. It is a bit warm by today’s standards. Particularly when used through its own internal DAC, it is like adding just the slightest touch of reverb. It does not have the leading edge (bleeding edge?) preferred by a true Naimaholic and certainly not the slam of a Wadia. It is soft, almost analogue-like and very low on fatigue. It did improve slightly with burn-in, careful placement and the upgrading of the mains cable and plug, but the essential signature was still there. I was pleasantly surprised at how well complex material was handled and on simple material the open midrange was a complete joy. The biggest pleasure of all was that it encouraged no critical listening. A friend and I have both used systems of this ilk in a bach setting (crib for those of you on the mainland). Somehow, that well describes its best qualities: dated, relaxed and easy going, not something that you would share with snobby friends but your family can love it. Before you rush out and buy one on Trade Me however, the laser has a limited life and the replacement lasers are distinctly inferior.

The HK amplifier has an equally enthusiastic and energetic approach to music. It has a dry, grainy sound on strings and is far from clean or sweet by today’s standards.Though it is a sound that is not taken seriously by the hi-fi press, one reviewer commenting ‘just what was HK trying to achieve?’ I still find it satisfying in a visceral way. Much of modern recording, particularly in the digital domain, seems to lack warmth and weight and it can sound thin and sterile. Again I was able to clean up the sound a little with replacement gold-plated fuses, a week’s burn-in and replacement mains cables. As the amplifier had no ‘direct’ option some fuzziness was inevitable, however. The HK sounds subjectively loud, the sound fills the house and it is subjectively satisfying.

I know the word is overused and ill defined but the combination of these two pieces of equipment sounds quite ‘musical’. No, I don’t yet know what the word means, but it has something to do with an emotional and visceral response to the music. When combined with the forgiving qualities of Chord Signature cables then music brings a smile to the face, the foot starts tapping and there is a soft feeling in the stomach. Perhaps this is what nostalgia is all about. It is the search for a warmly remembered emotional experience.

To finish my jottings the system is now back to the original Naim server driving my Cyrus gear. I was a little nervous, wondering what it would in fact sound like after a couple of weeks switched off. Even allowing for the cold start it is a more reserved sound than outlined above. The Debbie Harwood recording ‘Soothe Me’ still has some of its shiny gloss, so I am assuming that is in the mix. Her voice emerges naturally forward of the band and is not so large as before but still satisfying. Nat King Cole’s ‘The Very Thought Of You’ now has a more relaxed orchestral sound. Even the wonderfully expressive Anjani has been tamed a little. The Cyrus is after all ‘a singing shoebox’ and I am now conscious that it works hard at times to drive the speakers though technically much more powerful than the H.K. But it is so clean!

I could go on, but the pattern is clear. There is no ‘winner’. If the house was bigger I would have both systems with one in the study or workshop and if there was still a bach then it would be a no brainer. What is good is to put the hundreds of CDs away and to be able to flick through the 100s of sound files on the iPhone. Life doesn’t get much easier than that and for a warmer sound with bags of fidelity there are still the headphones plugged into the computer. Now that could well be the future. JOHN GROOM

Megaupload shutdown backlash looms

Gary Steel — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 02:07:22 +0000

FOLLOWING THE MEGAUPLOAD raid, shutdown and subsequent media circus, the service has been depicted as a den of iniquity, piracy and copyright violation. A backlash, however, is looming as the many people who used Megaupload legitimately to share non copyright infringing files kick off a fight to get their data back.
Politically, the saga also appears to be heating up as the various pirate parties scattered around the globe plan to file an official complaint to the US authorities listing the many thousands of legitimate Megaupload users impacted by the FBI raid (esimtates vary but the staggeringly large figure of 50 million Megaupload users is most quoted).
The timing of these moves is interesting, with a growing number of EU states ratifying the ACTA agreement, further enflaming an already tense situation as a growing number of people fight for what they see as the digital equivalent of freedom of speech.
Adding further fuel to what can only be described as an already firery situation, all the data contained on Megaupload’s servers may be about to be deleted, as it’s unable to pay the companies it contracted to store its data, because the US government has frozen its money.
Interestingly, the tangled web woven out of this situation means that the authorities may not be the target of any legal action taken by affected parties as Megauploads servers were not confiscated by the FBI, but were instead copied. The actual servers continue to be housed in data centres operated by two companies, both of whom could end up wearing any litigation that comes out of this sorry saga. PAT PILCHER

‘Dick Smith Stores Face Closure’ – Why I’m not surprised

Gary Steel — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:46:00 +0000

BACK IN ITS glory days, Dick Smith was a haven for the geek. This was even before computer geekery was commonplace, but there were always serious young chaps with horn-rimmed spectacles who got all worked up about the nuts and bolts of DIY electronics.
The Australian-owned company was never going to rule the world, but it had its niche; one that would only be challenged in time by el cheapo rival Jaycar.
Somewhere along the way, Dick Smith seems to have had a brainwave. Either that, or Woolworths’ offer to buy him out was just too good to resist.
With all manner of gadgetry moving from the geek to the domain of the average consumer, it must have also seemed like the right time to expand and diversify into this seemingly profitable sector.
Obviously, things haven’t panned out the way Woolworths wanted it to, and the giant Australasian supermarket chain is planning to sell its interest in Dick Smith. But before it does so, it will be making the planned cull of “underperforming” stores. No information has come to light yet on how many of the 71 NZ Dick Smith stores – 19 of which are in Auckland – will be for the chopping board.
Meanwhile, old Mr Smith has gone on the rampage, threatening to cause all kinds of trouble if Woolworths sell Dick Smith to foreign interests.
I’m no expert in the business of business, but it doesn’t take a genius to understand at least some of the reasons the Dick Smith stores are in trouble.
To start with, it’s clear that there aren’t as many serious young men who like splicing wires together with soldering irons (or whatever) as there used to be. DIY was, and remains, very niche. So much so that it’s hard to see the need for a Dick Smith store in just about every shopping centre. It’s sad that what was once Dick Smith’s core has melted away, but I guess that’s what happens when the electronics scene goes hog-wild. I mean, back in the ’80s, electronic devices were expensive and thin on the ground. By contrast, in 2012, who would want to make a gadget that they could buy from the $2 shop?

The latest branding makeover

The Dick Smith stores should, therefore, be capitalising on the profusion of cool gadgets that has invaded the market in the past decade, and making a right old bundle. But these cool gadgets aren’t exclusive to Dick Smith: they’re also available from those other mega-retailers who saw an opportunity in electronics, including Harvey Norman, which one suspects sells most of the gear that Dick Smith wishes it could. The thing is, Hardly Normal (as it is not-so-affectionately known in the trade) is an aggressive company with immense buying power, competitive pricing and the floor space to stock a much, much wider variety of doo-dads than Dick Smith.
So that’s one problem for Mr Smith. Here’s another: famously poor service. Somehow, in the transition from its place in electronic geekdom to consumer gadget dispenser, it lost sight of what it needed from its staff. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve encountered appalling service at Dick Smith, and alarmingly, it’s endemic to the stores throughout the country. Which isn’t to say that I haven’t occasionally had an excellent service experience, but it’s rare. More often, you’re likely to find Dick Smith employees chatting amongst themselves and ignoring the inevitable questions their customers need answered. On occasions when I have forced myself on unsuspecting staff (so to speak) I’ve encountered everything from downright rudeness to irrelevant and sometimes wrong-headed sales pitches for gear that won’t do the job I need it to, to “we know it all and you, the customer, are merely putty in our hands” snobbism. Often, I’ve actually had money to spend, but have still walked out empty-handed. Gone are the days, then, when Dick Smith was staffed with people who were just like its customers: electronics nerds with a genuine enthusiasm for their jobs.
Woolworths doesn’t seem to have known how to capitalise on the strengths of the Dick Smith brand, either. Last year, when the Amazon Kindle was finally made available in NZ and old Dick could have had an exclusive on the marvellous wee e-reader, instead they polluted the scenario by cross-promoting Kindle through both Dick Smith and its Countdown supermarkets! Worse still, they marketed the previous-generation of Amazon Kindle as a special deal (it wasn’t) a mere few weeks before introducing the very latest version of the gadget, at an even better price. I’m surprised that my colleagues in the tech media sphere haven’t soundly berated Woolworths for this callous lack of customer respect.
One last point: If a store doesn’t really know what it is, then it’s impossible to create the kind of branding that will sell it. Dick Smith has tried doing a little bit of everything, but who in their right mind wants to buy DVDs or games from an outlet with such a poor selection? Similarly, who would buy a television panel from an outlet with so few brands on display, when they can walk a few metres and take in a vast range of HD wonderment at somewhere like JBs. The branding in recent years has been confused, to say the least. First we had that ineffectual and quite hilarious line: “Dick Smith Electronics – That’s where you go”. But at least they still had Dick’s craggy face on a distinctive yellow and black background. Then they changed their line to “Talk to the Techxperts”, which might have sounded modern in 1980, but seems anachronistic in 2012. And oddly (possibly because JBs’ branding is all bright yellows) they opted for a plain black logo and store branding, giving it a slightly depressed, monochrome vibe that makes the store very easy not to notice.
In short, I’m sure that Dick Smith still does some things right. I’ve bought the odd thing from them. But it’s really, really easy to see what they’ve done wrong, and most of it wouldn’t be too hard to put to rights.
But then again, perhaps it’s just too late in the day. GARY STEEL

The Great Preamp Play-off

Gary Steel — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:49:00 +0000

Gary Steel compares the characteristics and functionality of four preamps, and comes to some surprising conclusions.

BACK IN DECEMBER 2011, it suddenly occurred to me that I was feeling starved of music. Despite the sonic revelations that a pair of Martin Logan floor-standers had brought to my life in October 2010, I spent less time listening to music in 2011 than any other year of my life, except for those formative years when I was too young to own a stereo.
It got me thinking. Sure, it had been a busy year, and as I enter the ragged glory of my middle years, I’m not so keen to listen while I work, either. But something else was turning me off. Occasionally, I would sit in the sweet spot and find my ears on a sonic Garden of Eden, but more often, I felt like my sinuses were being scraped with a very sharp surgical instrument. It’s true that when I’m on edge, or have had too many coffees, that music does take on a sharp edge. It’s also true that so many CDs (both contemporary and “classic rock”) are compressed to buggery, or “remastered” (that is, set to LOUD) in such a way as to make listening to them extremely tiring.
But I came to the conclusion that my hi-fi was accentuating these sonic nasties, adding a layer of sharp, digital glare that so often made listening at anything but the lowest volumes uncomfortable.
So… In December, I entered the learned portal of the Witchdoctor forum and asked if anyone had advice on a preamp that might make listening a more pleasurable, more sensuous, less tiring experience; a preamp that didn’t hide the deficiencies of those less sonically satisfying albums, and didn’t dress them up, but made them more tolerable.
Offers came flooding in, and a few of them I accepted. International Dynamics offered their PrimaLuna ProLogue Premium (valve) Preamp, while SoulToSoul Audio provided me with the nicely priced Yarland PM7 tube preamp. Witchdoctor guru Ashley Kramer, “on holiday” in South Africa getting his root canal fixed and sorting out his wife-to-be, generously lent me his highly unusual Stereo Knight passive preamp, and these would go up against my current preamp, a Rotel RC-1550.
Luckily, I had these to play with over the Christmas/New Year break, and even more luckily, the cicadas were slow to start inflicting their tinnitus-inducing love calls this Summer (probably due to the lack of a real Summer!), so all the right conditions for relaxed auditioning conditions were met.
I listened to a variety of discs on all the preamps, but for the test, I selected six CDs with differing sound palettes, and then got the wife – who isn’t a hi-fi nut but has a fine set of ears – to join me for the listening sessions. The songs were these:
1) Holly Cole’s version of The Beach Boys’ ‘God Only Knows’ (from her Shade album), which (like all of Cole’s albums) is incredibly recorded and engineered, and brings out both the richness and detail of the acoustic jazz-based performances.

2) International Observer’s ‘Vale’ from their Seen album. This is former Thompson Twins man Tom Bailey’s 2001 introspective electronic-dub album, which is incredibly detailed and precise in terms of imaging.

3) Madonna’s ‘Forbidden Love’ (from Confessions On A Dancefloor), a fat, pumping, sizzling dance tune with a strident vocal. [This was the wife’s choice.]

4) King Crimson’s ‘Epitaph’ from the group’s 1969 album, In The Court Of The Crimson King. Recently remastered by Porcupine Tree’s Steven Wilson, it combines acoustic elements (guitar picking) with surging mellotrons.

5) The Doors’ ‘The WASP (Texas Radio And The Big Beat)’ from LA Woman. A fairly rough recording by the group’s standards, it was remastered for the 40th anniversary in 2006, and sounds detailed and captures both Morrison’s gruff proto-rap/poem and also the bass-heavy groove, but is almost too crisp. [Note: this album has just been reissued AGAIN, but we haven’t compared it to the 2006 remaster at time of writing.]

6) Janet Jackson’s ‘Discipline’, a very naughty song from the album of the same name from 2008, which features incredible detail, but also superior booty-bass groove. Probably the kind of record the typical Witchdoctor reader would sneer at, but hey, I don’t care.

PrimaLuna – The first and last thing we notice is that with the ProLogue Premium, music drenches the whole space. That is, the sound field becomes really wide, really deep, with no crimping in the height department either. It catches the gorgeousness of the Holly Cole track, with particular emphasis on the aged woody bass and the general ambience, and her voice sounds rich and creamy. International Observer is missing a bit of the bass depth I’m used to hearing through the Rotel, but otherwise was spectacular: very smooth, incredible detail, and the intentional “out of phase” moments were head spinning.

It also had Madonna really coming alive, bringing real dynamics and swing to the disco groove, and rendering her voice bearable. One thing about the ProLogue Premium is there’s nothing particularly mellow, despite the valves. The mellotron on the King Crimson track is naturally harsh, and that’s the way it plays, but the preamp captures the richness and the incredible surging dynamic of the track. On The Doors’ track, however, the guitar hits a particularly niggling trebly part of the sound spectrum, and detracts from what otherwise sounds great. Perhaps most surprising was how it rendered the Janet Jackson disc, making even this sizzling slow booty groove musical, while still allowing a good wallop of bass heft to show itself.

Yarland – Unfortunately, the PrimaLuna would prove a tough act to follow. It emphasised the bass in the Holly Cole track, and made it very “nice”, but there detail and texture was noticeably absent, and, as the wife noted, somehow “it’s lost its balance.” With International Observer, the bass was once again more emphasised, but neither the detail nor the song’s dynamics were as well articulated. Again, with the Madonna track, there was a sense of “something missing,” which was reiterated by the King Crimson song where it was almost as if a layer of the piece had been surreptitiously extracted. The bass felt clunkier, and that was to the detriment of the overall sound, with its precise mix of acoustic and electric elements.

However, there’s one thing the Yarland does really well: there’s a section of the mid-range that just sounds more emotive, and it’s the same sonic area that displayed the echoed decay of the guitars in a way that no other preamp in this little exercise did. The Doors was a little less harsh, but came with a sacrifice: less dynamic, less BIG, less detail. Janet Jackson? The bass felt boxy, and overall, the track failed to convince.

Stereo Knight – Ashley’s magic box, which he imported from the parent company in the US, rendered Holly Cole with incredible detail. If only detail was everything, we’d be onto a winner here. International Observer’s bass simply crawled into a crack in the furniture and disappeared. Madonna sounded clinical, metallic, nasal. King Crimson sounded small, completely losing its vastness. Jim Morrison’s voice sounded great on The Doors’ track. Janet Jackson was somehow underwhelming.

With the Stereo Knight, it’s hard to put your finger on what it’s not doing right, but listening to the music through it just lacks that x-factor, that magic we’re all hoping will intoxicate us. The detail is there, but the overall image is reduced. Importantly, the width and height of the sound stage is just not there, and neither is the depth. But… but… The Stereo Knight may be the best preamp in this test. Because it’s genuinely passive, and doesn’t require any power, then it should be doing what the ultimate preamp would do: become merely an empty vessel through which the sources flow to the speakers. Reading between the lines, it may be revealing the limitations of my setup, and that’s worrying.
Oh, did I mention my setup? My pride and joy is a Yamaha CD-S2000, which feeds my Martin Logan Purity floor standers. The complicating factor is that the ML’s are powered speakers: each speaker has its own 200-watt “high resolution switching amplifier”. These can’t be bypassed – while it is possible to wire up an extra amp, one presumes it would be coloured by the amps in the speakers. Those amps, of course, must be connected to a preamp via a pair of very long RCA leads.
If the Stereo Knight is as much of a magic machine as Mr Kramer maintains, then it looks like I’m in trouble, and that it is simply exposing my power amps for what they are. But don’t forget, the Martin Logans do sound incredible when paired with great-sounding recordings.
Rotel – When all was said and done, I switched my humble Rotel back on and took that for a spin on the same six CDs. It sounded fine. Holly Cole sounded smoother, and her voice sounded breathier. International Observer sounded less spectacular than with the PrimaLuna, but somehow more perfectly integrated, and with more bass heft. King Crimson also sounded less immense and slightly less dynamic than with the PrimaLuna, but the spread of sound and the layering was really grand. The Doors’ didn’t sound as volatile/exciting as the PrimaLuna, but not bad, at all, while Janet Jackson sounded incredible.

For sound alone, the PrimaLuna ProLogue Premium was the winner of this play-off. There’s something wonderfully dynamic and spatial about this preamp, but nothing soft or flabby: it really knows how to make a rhythm section swing, and I couldn’t see any great deficiencies, apart from its slight reticence on the real bottom end of the bass spectrum.
Surprisingly, however, my second choice would be the Rotel I already own. It’s smooth, easy to listen to and well integrated. It’s just that it does and can sound sharp on horribly recorded discs… as can the PrimaLuna.
Stereophiles seem to be commonly opting for big, solid state power amps and valve amps to take off that digital glare and give it that bit of dynamic and musicality that digital amps seem to find lacking. In my situation, however, valves have a few real disadvantages. I like to listen to music in my breaks from hacking away at my computer, for periods of as little as 15 minutes to as much as an hour at a time. This means it’s more practical to leave the stereo switched on. With valve preamps (or amps) you’re aware that those valves degrade with every passing hour, so it’s best to only switch them on when you’re planning to listen to music; but to let them warm up for 10 or 15 minutes. For me, that’s a pain in the butt.
For anyone wanting a really stunning valve preamp, I wouldn’t hesitate at recommending the PrimaLuna. Its idiosyncratic design will appeal immensely to some, while to others it will look like a weird black bread basket with glowing orbs inside. It certainly proved difficult to house on my rack simply because of its height, which meant I had to relegate my turntable to storage for a month. Personally, I loved it, mainly because (apart from its great sound) of its build. The PrimaLuna isn’t just heavy, it’s clearly built with care and attention to every detail, and has convenient features built in, like lights that come on when a valve needs replacing. That’s just one of the things they’ve come up with to make this ancient technology easier to live with and maintain. As for that sound, the PrimaLuna doesn’t have that signature mellow valve sound at all. If there’s something sharp-sounding on the recording, it will allow that sharp-sound in all its glory (or otherwise). But it does somehow make the sharpness that much more tolerable, and I think part of that is that overall, it’s more dynamic and natural-sounding to the human ear (as opposed to a graph).
PrimaLuna is a Dutch company that clearly wants to bring valve gear into the 21st Century, while keeping perhaps a degree of the snob value of such gear in its idiosyncratic design and superior quality, every step of the way.
Yarland, on the other hand, is a Chinese company whose gear can be described as “budget” by comparison, and it although the build quality is fine, it doesn’t measure up to PrimaLuna’s fine standards. The PrimaLuna, for instance, features a light that switches from red to green when it’s warmed up and ready to use. The Yarland is more basic. It puts a noticeable burst of sound through the speakers when switched on (even with the volume switch down) and there’s a detectable hiss that will worry some more than others. The apparently real woodgrain fascia (which I thought was painted) looked cheap to my eyes, but I kind of liked its ugly ducking status, and it’s certainly heavy, while less imposing than the PrimaLuna, and about half as wide. Both have easy to use remotes defined by their simplicity (basically just volume controls) although the PrimaLuna volume was easier to manipulate at reduced gradients, while it was hard to get the volume ‘just right’ on the Yarland.
I should add, however, that while the Yarland’s bass sounded a bit boxy on my system, and lacked the integration of sound I was hankering for, someone else might find that it sounds fantastic on their system, and until I did a direct comparison with the PrimaLuna, I thought it sounded pretty good. And it does, it really does… just not as good.

Back to square one, then. The inconvenience of tube preamps in my situation means I’ll probably hold on to my Rotel for now, while slowly searching for a preamp that will put it to shame. Perhaps it’s time to try something by one of our fine local manufacturers? GARY STEEL

Note: There’s much I could have added to this assessment, including information about the inputs and – an important one, this – the fact that valve preamps are upgradeable, in the sense that you can switch the valves and potentially overhaul the sound. So… nothing is set in stone or definitive!

PrimaLuna ProLogue Premium $2995
www.internationaldynamics.co.nz

Yarland $1499
www.soultosoleaudio.com

Stereo Knight Magnetic Passive Preamp: Silverstone-Balance
[contact for price]
www.stereoknight.com

Rotel $1299
www.internationaldynamics.co.nz

3D Piracy The Next Frontier

Gary Steel — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:00:25 +0000

The Pirate Bay sees 3D printed goods as the next big thing for piracy, reports Witchdoctor’s new columnist, PAT PILCHER, who is fresh back from the CES fair.

WITH THE KIM Dotcom/Megaupload saga dominating tech media both here and offshore, awareness of piracy is at an all-time high. Add to this the SOPA saga, and the politics of the digital economy are gaining a huge amount of attention.
Like petrol poured onto a raging fire, The Pirate Bay (TPB) is hyping things up even further by talking up the next big thing in piracy. In a blog post The Pirate Bay sees items created by 3D printers as the next digital boundary to be toppled by piracy.
While the idea of 3D printed objects isn’t new, piracy of them is. If the idea of trading digital models for digital objects that can be created on a 3D printer seems unlikely, take a moment to consider this:
Not so long ago when a fast internet connection was a rare thing, and most of us were stuck with pokey dial-up internet, we laughed at the idea of downloading an entire TV series. A few years later, most of us are on multi-megabit broadband, and peer-to-peer technologies make downloading whole TV series, albums and movies easier than going through the grief of heading down to the store to buy the DVD. Funnily enough, big media is no longer laughing.
The crux of the Pirate bays thesis is the 3D printer. So how do they work? In a nutshell, a 3D printer is the business end of computer-aided design and manufacture, otherwise known as CAD-CAM. Budding designers, engineers and architects use a CAD package such at Autodesk to create digital 3D models onscreen that can then be fed it into a 3D printer which will literally create a solid 3D prototype of the design.
The significance of this is potentially huge. Early low- resolution inkjet printers were expensive and at best did an average job of document printing. Nowadays, they’re so affordable that many buy a new photo capable inkjet printer because it’s cheaper than buying replacement ink cartridges. Should 3D printer technologies develop at a similarly rapid pace, the potential for piracy (and its knock-on impacts on the wider business community) could be immense.
3D printers are already becoming increasingly commonplace. 3D printer manufacturer Makerbot showcased a sub US$2000 3D printer at CES that could print solid objects in two colours. The digital models required for Makerbot and other 3D printers to do their thing are not large and as such can be easily traded over peer-to-peer networks.
Putting all this together, an interesting scenario emerges: In the near future it might be possible that instead of heading to the mall to buy something, we might instead download a design we like online and have our 3D printer knock out a version. Online trade in files for 3D objects and the digital rights to be able to download and print them could be bigger than huge.
While the whole 3D model and 3D printing category is only really beginning to emerge now, the Pirate Bay has already set up a category for pirated 3D models in anticipation of their explosive growth. Looks like the three strikes law could get more interesting in the near future.

NAD VISO 1 Wireless Speaker System REVIEW

AshK — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:50:47 +0000

$999

5 Stars

A superb next-gen speaker system to make the wiry/wired hi-fi snobs feel really old and gnarly

THE OLD CD player/amplifier/speakers combination that’s formed the basis of the majority of hi-fi systems over the years seems to be on the way out. Not so much for the hi-fi cognoscenti who’d only be parted from his system at gunpoint, but rather for your average guy who just wants some music in his home. One of the hot items waiting in the wings to take over is the wireless speaker system.

These compact, versatile yet simple devices come in a number of shapes and forms and are finding a lot of favour with consumers, which makes a great deal of sense in the space-challenged digital world we live in today. The younger generation in particular may not own a single compact disc, so why would they want a CD player? They usually have untold quantities of music stored on a notebook computer somewhere and all they want is to be able to listen to it how and when they choose, without clutter or complexity.

This is where products along the lines of NAD’s VISO 1 come in. This high-end (for the category) speaker system allows users to dock an iPod or iPhone, to stream CD quality music from any Bluetooth device or even to plug in their TV. It can be easily shifted from room to room if needed and promises high quality sound, which makes it an all-in-one music system that would seem to be ideal for many music lovers.

The online images of the VISO 1 are deceiving. For some reason, I imagined it to be about the size of a shoebox but it actually arrived in a large carton that could easily house two bookshelf speakers. Why all the padding? Once the lid was popped, the real picture emerged. This is a big unit measuring 48cm wide by 26cm high and 30cm deep, so a shoebox it definitely isn’t, but that size bodes well in sonic terms (a big cabinet usually equals big sound) – bear in mind that it’s still smaller than the most obvious competitor, B&W’s Zeppelin Air. The VISO 1’s rounded design, gloss black finish and silver metal ring cut down on the sense of bulk and add a distinct touch of style, even of elegance depending on your tastes. A small IR remote is part of the package, while the only controls on the unit are a power switch, source selector and volume buttons.

Inside the VISO 1 can be found a bi-amplified NAD Direct Digital amplifier system, which dispenses with any analogue amplification technology. This is the same circuitry that is found in NAD’s much higher end hi-fi kit. A docked iPod feeds its digital stream directly to the VISO 1’s onboard DAC, once again keeping things in the digital domain as long as possible, while the optical digital input accepts high-res signals at up to 24/96. Wireless streaming is handled via the Bluetooth aptX format, which theoretically means that the sound should be of CD quality… but only if the source files are CD quality, of course. The speaker system comprises two small full range drivers and a woofer, which have been optimised by NAD’s sister company, PSB Speakers, with emphasis placed on reducing cabinet resonances and improving the sound radiation characteristics. The frequency response is quoted as 33Hz – 28kHz (-6dB).

Operating the VISO 1 is simplicity itself, as expected; dock a compatible Apple device in the very well designed adjustable and rotating docking cradle, turn it on and press play. A moment later, you get music. Pairing Bluetooth devices is also a bit of a doddle and took very little time.

The first track I tried with the VISO 1 was a 320kb rip of ‘Stand Inside Your Love’ by The Smashing Pumpkins. This track does great things on the right system and it only really sounds right when it’s played at high levels, so I cranked up the VISO 1 and hit the play button on my 80Gb iPod Classic. The initial drums came in with far more weight, control and intensity than I’d been expecting; in fact, for what is effectively a big iPod speaker system, this was impressive stuff. I nudged the volume up, then up again and when nothing went bang, I just held down the volume button until Scotty said “the engines cannae take no more, Captain”, but funnily enough, this engine could.

The VISO 1 was blasting out a raucous rock track at maximum volume, which is quite a bit louder than any other iPod based speaker system I’ve tried. Importantly, it was staying in control with tight, quick bass, no distortion (bar that already on the track), no hissing top end, and it wasn’t blowing up or imploding. Air was pumping out of the single side mounted port as if pushed by a V8, and the poor old cat had very definitely fled the room for quieter surroundings. After around ten tracks at these immodest, neighbour bothering levels, the VISO 1 wasn’t even warm to the touch.

Fortunately, the VISO 1 isn’t just good at playing music very loud without suffering damage to its internal organs, it’s also got quite a soft touch with the lighter stuff, making acoustic tracks from the likes of Bob Dylan, Patricia Barber and Van Morrison sound extremely good indeed. There’s a decent degree of width to the soundstage and a nicely resolved overall balance – that heavy bass isn’t overblown and doesn’t boom, so it’s never an issue, while the treble is also reasonably extended but without harshness. I’d pick that B&W’s Zeppelin Mini (and the big Zep for that matter) would allow more detail to stand out and would likely be more neutral as the NAD does tend towards a warm sound, but that’s based on audio memory, which is less than reliable. A side-by-side test would be revealing, but I definitely wouldn’t turn up my nose at any of these units.

Bluetooth streaming from my iPhone sounded fine but there’s a sonic advantage to be had from using the dock. It’s quite marginal though, and unless you’re seriously into critical listening the convenience of wireless streaming might make it your preferred choice. I never used the VISO 1’s optical input because the unit’s form factor made it too big to be placed next to its natural partner – an ultra-thin LED TV set with woeful speakers. The NAD is a beefy bit of kit to site close to a TV without getting in the way; you’re basically dealing with something the size of a full blown home theatre centre speaker here. The ability to accept 24/96 signals is nice but this isn’t really a super high-resolution audio system capable of revealing the fine distinctions between 16/44 and higher bitrates.

So, what’s not to like about NAD’s VISO 1 then? Not much, actually. Having AirPlay support would be nice but it’s not a deal breaker as the VISO 1 can talk to most of the appropriate devices anyway. Other than that, it sounds good, goes way loud, is reasonably portable, looks pretty sweet, doesn’t blow up under provocation and isn’t outrageously expensive. All up, the VISO 1 is an entertaining and well-designed sound system that definitely deserves a listen if you’re in the market for this kind of unit. ASHLEY KRAMER