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Posted by Malcolm  Wednesday, 24th of February 2010 at 02:13:54 AM
As well as having a full-time job as a professional contributor, writing and reviewing for Hi-Fi Choice, HiFiCritic, Hi-Fi Plus, Australian Hi-Fi, EnjoyThe Music.com, and TheHiFiJournal.com, I have decided to start another web site to maintain alongside this one. It can be found at http://www.computer-audio.info and will detail my experiences with… computer audio. These are set to increase, particularly now that Hi-Fi Choice has designated me its Emerging Technologies Critic, which is going to be a whole lot of fun, I am sure.
Certainly, the last few weeks, during which I have been playing with the Linn Majik DS-I for Hi-Fi Choice have not disappointed, and I have a commission to review the Naim UnitiQute as soon as it arrives officially for EnjoyThe Music.com, and another from Choice to report on the fabulous-looking Olive server. The road ahead certainly looks interesting even if the possibilities for sleep are rapidly diminishing… but I can always snatch a few moments Buckminster Fuller style during the day.
Posted by Malcolm Monday, 15th of February 2010 at 11:38:45 PM
Bad news for me – but good news for some-one else – is that I have to dispose of my chipped, 20Valve Turbo 2-litre Coupe Fiat. The engine devloped a worrisome ticking while cruising (honestly) on the M25 and seized slightly when I pulled into Clacketts Lane services. All the fluids, though, stayed in their respective parts of the block. It restarted but erring on the side of caution I asked the AA to transport us home.
I’m not a mechanic but it didn’t sound too frightening to me. Trouble is, a lack of free time and dodgy health means that I am not going to be stripping the engine to solve whatever the problem turns out to be. So the old girl is up for sale complete with around £400 worth of new discs and pads all round, and a brand new PECO cat-back exhaust system. Two sets of wheels/tyres are available: the original coop alloys – with well-worn rubber – and a set of refurbed 17-inch Dare V1s with almost new Falkens 452s that have maybe done 200 miles.
The previous owner dinked the bonnet (nearside front) and the dump valve has disappeared. (I suspect it found its way into one of my son’s ex-girlfriends’ cars.) However, if you are mechanically inclined the Coop ought to be an easy fixer-upper, and an inexpensive route into some crazily fast performance motoring.
I have all the keys, red and blue.
Posted by Malcolm Wednesday, 10th of February 2010 at 02:37:29 PM
From where, I wonder, do many forum correspondants get their crazy ideas? And what on earth convinces them that their imaginings bear any remote relationship to the truth? Both these questions, please note, are purely rhetorical.
One forumite recently stated: “The old Flat Response and Review (sic) magazines thoroughly enjoyed ripping some poor sods( sic) pride and joy to pieces.
“Some of the stuff written at the time about MF, Cyrus and Audiolab was quite shocking. With hindsight it was also quite obviously written without even listening to the kit – or they were lying.”
I cut my journalistic teeth on those titles and I remember the articles mentioned because I wrote at least one of them. So, getting things straight from the outset, I was not lying because I realised very early in my career that what I wrote could well come back to haunt me, as this proves. I also insisted that if any manufacturer disagreed with what I had said about his product I would always be able to demonstrate to him what was wrong: ask, for one example of many, Peter Gaskarth, then MD at KEF, before it fell into Chinese ownership, to whom I demonstrated what was wrong with a well-received by other titles KEF loudspeaker. That is very difficult to do when you haven’t listened to – and, presumably, therefore, do not have – the product.
I well remember reviewing the then immensely popular and well-received Audiolab 8000A and Mission Cyrus 1 amplifiers. I recall my closing remarks which went along the lines of “My only problem is deciding which one of these is truly the worst.” If that remark struck you as being “quite shocking,” all I can say is that had you been there and heard what I did – as, indeed, my publisher did – you would have had to agree with me. Those amps were the most dire, weedy-sounding confections imaginable. Their performances were truly dismal. They changed, of course, over subsequent years and became reasonably good before they, too, were snapped up by the Chinese. Cyrus departed from the Mission stable before Mission became part of the Chinese IAG operation, which now owns Audiolab, QUAD, Castle, Wharfedale and others.
The fact that theseproducts might have been “some poor sod’s pride and joy” is entirely irrelevant. Reviews are not intended to be congratulatory pats on the back for buyers who have selected the ‘chosen’ components.
I do not know, but can imagine, what I might have written about any other manufacturers but rest asssured that it would not have been at all litigious. (And so not genuinely “shocking” or truly entertaining. And there are many hair-curling tales that could be told about certain manufacturers were it not for libel laws.) My publisher in those days had been thoroughly schooled in libel, and would descend on me from a great height if I ever dared try to say anything, even if it was the truth, that might land us with a lawyer’s letter. We were such a small operation that a law-suit could have easily wiped us out of existence.
It would do some forum fans good to bear in mind libel actions before they begin casting aspersions and making ridiculous assumptions.
Posted by Malcolm Wednesday, 27th of January 2010 at 02:26:08 AM
A friendly and amazingly helpful visitor to this site has very kindly spent a great deal of time scanning his collection of Hi-Fi Review magazines and posting me sheaves of articles I wrote for that title back in the 80s. That was back in those far-off days before we all carried USB drives on our keyrings. In fact it was before USB drives had been invented. I kept no copies of those articles and thought that they were effectively gone for good. Little did I know that one HFR reader had kept his entire collection of the magazine in his loft… Thank you, Peter!
Even though I am as busy as can be right now, I will try to burn some midnight oil and start OCRing my way through those articles as quickly as I can. The first, an interview with Gregson and Collister from 1988, is already available here. Please forgive any literals or other errors you might find: it has been a long day, I’m knackered and I still have lots of work to do in preparation for 2 heavy listening sessions starting tomorrow.
 Linn Majik DS-I Two fellows from Linn have been here today installing a Majik-DS-I system for me to have a play with: that’s one hi-fi component –or 5 if you include the Majik 109 speakers and their stands – and about the same number of networking boxes, along with a USB hard disk and an iPod touch for some added fun. All went well and I even managed to reconstruct the Linn/Naim axis by patching the output of my Naim HDX to act as a UPnP serverthrough an ethernet hub into the Linn Majik DS-I. Actually, my maths are wrong: I just spotted the RipNAS ripping/storage unit Linn supplied with the DS-I. Nonetheless, the balance of boxes in my home and office seems to be inexorably tilting away from regular hi-fi to favour computer and computerised hardware.
 Keith Monks Ruby Bringing me straight back down to earth, at the far end of the room there sits toy no.2: £4000 worth of Keith Monks Ruby Record Cleaning Machine, all fired up, full of eco-friendly fluid, ready to start cleaning the LPs that were missed the last time I had a Monks RCM here. So my music room looks a little contradictory at the moment. A hand-crafted machine that celebrates Keith Monk’s 40-year anniversary of de-lousing vinyl at one end, and the technology that replaces the CD players that Linn is no longer producing at the other.
It was good to see the Linn boys again after all the years during which I had little contact with the company. The last visit they made was when I was living in London, and that is nearly a decade ago. You could always expect them to arrive in interesting motors and it was nice to see that that hasn’t changed. Alan Williams today bounced down my rutted, muddy, unmade-up road in a a Ford Mustang. I’m so glad I don’t have to pay his chiropractor bills. My lane knocks seven shades of sh*t out of Land Rovers: it certainly wasn’t built for friendliness to American muscle cars. My kind of car, though: the extras bill included the carpets!
Posted by Malcolm Friday, 22nd of January 2010 at 05:51:34 PM
The new hi-fi e-zine I told you a little about is nearly ready to launch.
 the Hi-Fi Journal The coders are still tidying up/finishing bits and pieces and there is still plenty of content to upload but you can get an idea of how it is going to look at www.thehifijournal.com. Take look and let us know what you think, bearing in mind that it is not finished yet. Please regard this link as just a sneak preview. I hope it is going to be a lot of fun and trust me that the words ‘kit’ and ‘awesome’ are never going to appear on it.
Posted by Malcolm Tuesday, 12th of January 2010 at 01:19:52 AM
Up until about 5 years ago, I used to schlepp across to Las Vegas every January to attend the International Consumer Electronics Show, or CES.
Back then the dollar was pathetically weak, which made the USA a great place in which to shop, particularly when the sales were on – and they rather conveniently coincided with CES. So four days traipsing round, and staying in, revolting Las Vegas hotels was a small price to pay for having to buy an additional suitcase to bring home all the clothing and footware bargains I’d purchase. However, the show’s appeal began to dwindle as hi-fi increasingly assumed less importance in the overall scheme of things. Digital plumbing – piping MP3s round ‘intelligent’ homes – began to assume greater importance at the event and this opened the door to all manner of custom installation widgets, which helped introduce computers and gaming into the mix, especially when the Comdex show bit the big one. Now if you find CI shows too tedious to visit (and what is there to interest anyone in a plasma lift?), you’ll find computer shows ten times worse, believe me. By the way, in the UK the CEDIA show looks to be moribund at best, and I frequently hear moans and groans from exhibitors at Europe’s ISE, which rather proves my long-held theory that there’s only a finite number of the main audience for whole house integration – one is bound eventually to run out of drug dealers and professional footballers.
So when what was the world’s finest hi-fi show started turning into the world’s most boring custom install and computer show, I cancelled my winter sojourn in Nevada. By a strange twist of fate, though, it appears that computerised devices are now looking like they might well be the saviours of the quality audio industry with companies such as Linn and Naim producing hard disk players and network streaming devices. Linn has even announced very loudly that it has no further interest in making CD players even though its record label will still sell you CDs. When this soft digital media movement starts to assume significant importance at the higher end I might be tempted back to Vegas. I do not, however, plan to cross the Atlantic, or even my road, to gaze at any mass-produced, twopenny-halfpenny commodity audio gadgets sourced from China or Eastern Europe.
Earlier today I received an e-mail from an American hi-fi magazine editor who had just arrived home after attending CES 2010: he described the experience as ‘dismal’ with ‘lots of gloom’, ‘and the impression that the vendor room count was ‘lower by about 25% than two years ago’, and that overall attendance was between 10% and 15% less. Compare this with the ‘official’ report that spoke of attendance for the first two days exceeding expectations (which is completely meaningless spin and typical of the rubbish pumped out by, or on behalf, of show organisers the world over.) I know whose opinion I would sooner believe, but if computer audio can have a meaningful impact upon CES, I might just reinstate the event in my calendar. I could certainly do with some more £25 Timberland deck shoes and a few new Abercrombie & Fitch sweaters.
Going to Vegas also currently might prove beneficial to my health: I have just spent three days snowed into my house with no electricity and, hence, no lighting and no heating. At one point my wife and I dug our way into her car so that we could enjoy its heating, which was more effective than our domestic alternative – candles! Yeah, Vegas still has some appeal even without CES.
Posted by Malcolm Sunday, 13th of December 2009 at 02:42:17 AM
As I noted on Twitter on 29 November, Naim’s MD, Paul Stephenson called by and brought with him the DAC that had had my name on it ever since I heard the early pre-production samples.
To say it came as a surprise after auditioning and being terribly enthusiastic about the review sample is quite some understatement. The ‘real’ DAC performed stunningly well straight out of its box – although I suspect that it might have seen a couple of week’s warm-up in his home before it was handed over – and I remarked to Paul that it might be a good idea if we were to listen to it without the XPS2 connected. I was taken aback when he said that the power supply was not connected, and waved the Burndy at me to demonstrate the fact. The sound of the review sample did not have anything like the body and solidity of the production example without the bolstering effects of the XPS2/PowerLine.
 Naim DAC internals When the system was configured as I had had it when I wrote the review, i.e. HDX–Chord Indigo Digital–DAC/XPS2/PowerLine–Chord Solstice, most music was little short of mind-blowing. The didgeridoo on Vivid Curve’s Live at Edgefield CD was doing stuff that I have never heard a didgeridoo do with such clarity and transparency before. At this juncture I ought point out that the superlative Chord Company Solstice interconnect I was/still am using costs nearly as bloody much as the DAC but in the context of my system, it isn’t really that much. [I find it hard to believe that I can consider a metre of wire to be honestly worth £1500 but my ears tell me it is.]
You can read in detail about my experiences with the Naim DAC in the next issue of HIFICRITIC and an upcoming Hi-Fi Plus, and, I guess, on the e-zine we are launching – details here very soon because the publisher was talking to the coders this week – as well as here at some time in the future.
Suffice it to say that my search for a truly great DAC is currently satisfied. The Naim DAC sounds superb and, as if that were not sufficient, is such a well considered design that I cannot imagine it becoming redundant for quite some time… decades maybe, on past experience.
Posted by Malcolm Thursday, 3rd of December 2009 at 05:38:36 PM
I never thought that I would ever find myself in agreement with Rupert Murdoch but he has gone on record saying something with which I concur wholeheartedly.
 Rupert Murdoch As he struggles to figure out how his papers, such as The Times, The Sun and the New York Post, can start charging users for online content, he has realised that unless other publishers follow his lead, his empire might well be scuppered.
Murdoch made his comments at a two-day American workshop, run by the Federal Trade Commission, called ‘How will journalism survive the internet age?’
He said: “We need to do a better job of persuading consumers that high-quality reliable news and information does not come for free… Good journalism is an expensive commodity.”
“Good journalism is an expensive commodity.”
One can only hope that his remarks alert a few editors and publishers in the printed hi-fi press, parts of which seem to have a ‘use anybody so long as they cost next to nothing’ attitude. This flawed notion probably works wonders as far as the accounts department is concerned but it ignores the fact that the magazine reader is having to put up with abyssmal, uninformed writing. It truly is no wonder that their circulations are about as small and safe as a fire-walking daschund’s testicles.
I fear for the specialised print media, altrhough it only has itself to blame for its predicament. It lost sight of the fact that people who buy car titles, hi-fi titles, and ther like are enthusiasts. They appreciate the informed, well crafted journalism of professional writers – who should also be enthusiasts. Without them the publishers face only one way out. And there are no prizes for guessing what I mean by that.
Posted by Malcolm Wednesday, 2nd of December 2009 at 02:23:11 AM
The above two entities really ought to be kept away from each other. I write this having just destroyed yet another frightfully expensive, high performance interconnect cable.
You see the trouble is that high performance and robustness do not always go hand-in-hand. Or, at least, the sort of robustness that is necessary to withstand use in the hands of a reviewer does not.
 Naim Hi-Line Take, for example, the stunning Naim Hi-Line DIN to DIN cable. What makes this cable such an outstanding performer is the delicate mechanical coupling that prevents spurious vibrational energy finding its way into an amplifier through the mechanical bond between the cable, the plug and the socket to which it connects. This needs to be minimal except for the signal-carrying components within the plug. The ‘fragile’ components dissipate or reject energy before it is transmitted through these into the amplifier PCB. The trouble is that while this works swimmingly for a normal end-user who fits his interconnect then does not think about remaking its connection for, perhaps, six months, a year or longer, it is not ideal for the reviewer who might connect and dress the cable and then disconnect it 20, 30, or more times a day.
Thankfully, the more switched-on PRs appreciate this fact and convey it to their employers, which saves me the embarassment every time I have a £500+ cable fall apart in my hands, which happens all too regularly.
It is a real dilemma, especially when my favourite cable at the moment has a retail price of £1500 for a metre length. No, I have not vaped one of these just yet… I suppose because it is left pretty much permanently in the same place in my system and does not suffer the swapping about that my Chord Company Indigos have to endure day in day out. And the latter, while I would recommend them to anyone look rather fragile to my eyes because of the number and construction of the wires entering the plugs. It makes me nervous just to look at them. But they do sound bloody magnificent.
 Chord Company Indigo Digital Plus I guess it is one of the contradictions/problems that one has to accept when using a system that is capable of being frighteningly revealing. That level of insight can be compromised by poor cables so one has to use the best. Unfortunately that often means cables that need to be handled with kid gloves… or, preferably, cables that never need to be handled at all. My system currently occupies more floor space than most would deem necessary merely so that I can dress the interconnects ands other cables such that contact with anything else – other leads, the wall and my Quadraspire Sunoko Vent stands – is eliminated. It appals me when I think of how much floor space I am paying for to leave deliberately unnoccupied just so my music sounds better.
Regardless, the best things in life certainly are not free; and they are not even always cost-effective if truth be told.
Posted by Malcolm Tuesday, 3rd of November 2009 at 11:16:40 PM
At the end of this month – provided the publisher keeps cracking the whip over the team that is doing the coding and development – there will be an exciting new source of information on the web for hi-fi enthusiasts.
The new e-zine will be stereo hi-fi through and through, and there will, unlike so many other titles, be no dilution of its content with TV, AV and gaming distractions. We may let the iPod and its brethren sneak a look-in now and then as the pint sized devices play an important part these days in getting music to potential hi-fi fans. Computer audio – servers, streamers and the like – will definitely be covered because the editor values and enjoys their role in contemporary music systems. Did I mention that I will be the editor? Naturally, we will also be covering CD players, amps, speakers, turntables, tone-arms and cartridges along with accessories such as tables, cables and stands.
In terms of editorial content there will be news, honest equipment reviews, music reviews and a mystery shopper feature, along with columns and the occasional interview. The site will also host databases listing every manufacturer and retailer in the land enabling viewers easily to request information about products from their makers or arrange a demonstration at a convenient store. Updates will happen on a regular basis, and we plan to be giving away some terrific hi-fi through regular competitions.
Once the website is fully up and running I will post the URL so you can come and take a look around but right now we’d prefer not to have people seeing the site in a state of disarray. We look forward to having you visit us at the end of November.
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