My demo set-up. A Mac mini streaming audio over the Ethernet using SlimServer. The music itself is encoded with the Apple lossless codec and stored on an external hard drive connected via a WiebeTech Firewire DriveDock. The Squeezebox 2 receives the stream and transfers it over on optical digital connection to a Headroom Overture DAC connected to a Headroom Coda amplifier, to which Sennheiser HD650 headphones are hooked up (with the stock cable, I don’t believe in cable snake oil).
Ray Samuels, making an emphatic point.
Paolo’s Channel Islands DAC and a Woo Audio tube amplifier
Dan Gardner’s homebrew Gilmore amps. Dan is now wondering how to take his home-built ethos to the next level.
Paolo, a.k.a. calaf, with the smaller of his two Woo Audio tube amps.
For a change, I connected the Squeezebox 2 to Daniel Gardner’s Benchmark DAC1. A very impressive piece of gear, with an excellent headphone amplifier section in its own right but shown here with Daniel’s DIY amps based on Kevin Gilmore’s designs. Left: Dynahi. Right: Dynalo.
Clarke reflecting deeply while performing A/B testing of the Benchmark DAC1 against the new Headroom Portable Desktop DAC+amp combo.
Next to those two amps are a Channel Islands VDA-1 DAC, VHP-1 amp and VAC-1power supply (only one, though, it’s like Sophie’s choice whether to power the DAC or the amp). Next is a Musical Fidelity X-DAC V3, X-CAN V3 and X-PSU V3. In the foreground, a Singlepower Maestro ZR. The consensus of A/B testers was that the Channel Islands stack is nearly undistinguishable from the Musical Fidelity, and thus offers better value. The Benchmark DAC1 was higher rated than the VDA-1 when used as a pure DAC. When comparing the DAC1’s built-in amplifier against the CI stack, the results were more mixed.
Karsten, a.k.a bubbagump, sitting behind a Headroom Max balanced amp.
Leeav, a.k.a. NeilPeart, relaxing in the high-end room
I attended a rather unusual performance yesterday night, Norwegian artist Leif Inge‘s 9 Beet Stretch. Actually, I shouldn’t be using the past tense as it started at 10PM and is still running as I write (I left around 8AM). You see, the work is Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, digitally stretched to last 24 hours. It may sound like a happening gimmick, but interestingly enough some passages are still recognizable despite the tempo mangling. When combined with the setting – a typically SoMa artists’ live-work loft with exposed rafters and liberally appointed with couches, reclining chairs, bean bags and mattresses – this gives off a definite tinge of unreality. Amusingly enough, when Beethoven first released his Ninth Symphony, it was criticized for being too long.
Beethoven’s Ninth is the reason why audio CDs last 74 minutes – the symphony, known in Japan as the 大九 (“Dai Kyu”, Great Ninth) is very popular there and Sony engineers ensured it would fit on a single disc. If they had preferred Mahler, we might have a higher capacity medium. Will the 24-hour Ninth become the yardstick for MP3 players? Not that this is the longest piece in the modern repertoire – the notorious musical provocateur John Cage wrote one called Organ2/ASLSP that started playing on September 5, 2001 and is expected to complete after 639 years…
Update (2017-10-05):
This technique was used to great effect in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk by stretching Elgar’s Enigma Variations, more specifically Nimrod, but having it remain recognizable despite the dilation.