We have added the JL Audio line to our group of companies, and are proud to feature the award winning Fathom F112 in our front room.  This is an amazing piece, easy to setup, great clear directions, and a dynamite Automatic Room Optimization circuit.  It is very fast, smooth, and clear, with none of the boominess or mud usually associated with subs.  I was worried about the integration with the Acoustic Zen Adagios as they have lightning fast bass, but the JL is every bit as fast and just as smooth.  The aspect that really surprised me was how the lower mids and upper bass cleaned up.  These are frequencies not even being reproduced by the sub, yet they are clearer and smoother and much more precise than before.  I have never noticed this before with any other sub.  The only reason I can think of is much more precise reproduction of the lower harmonics.  I am certain this would apply when using the JL Audio in any other system as well.  As an Audiophile, I consider this to be one of the best changes to my system I have ever done. 
Associated Equipment:  Cary Xciter DAC, Cary SLP 98P  preamp (moded),  Atma-Sphere M60 V3 with power supply mods and V-caps, Acoustic Zen Satori Sp. wire, Silver matrix IC, MIT Magnum MA IC, Heed Phonostage, Roksan Radius 5 w Transfiguration Axia, Acoustic Zen Adagio speakers, PS Audio Premier Power Plant.
See: http://home.jlaudio.com/

   As many of you probably already realise-I am a tweaker.  I love to experiment with gear (especially tube gear) to see if I can get it to improve.  This started years ago on my first real high end piece-a 1995  Bruce Moore Design Companion Preamp.  This little line stage was a gem, but I was assured that one could really make it sing by changing out the tubes to 7308 Amperex and changing the volume pots to  stepped gang types.  It went through a few incarnations (and my pocket book) but it really did sound a lot better.  It is still around today doing duty with yet another better set of volume control pots and sounding really great.
   This was when I realised that manufacturers make compromises based on availability of  parts, price point, design parameters, and other various reasons.  Especially the price point of a piece of equipment.  This is not to say that all the stuff out there should be tweaked, much of it is very good as it sits.  Also, as I have found out, tweaking doesn’t always result in an improvement and usually always eats into the wallet. 
   Tweaking also extends to the stands you have the equipment on, the rubber feet of the equipment (that is an area that can generally do with improvement), in general any attempt to control vibration.   Wire and interconnects will have a huge impact on the sound of the system as well.
   Tube rolling is often done, mainly because the manufacturer is not going to buy NOS tubes (New Old Stock) or high end designer tubes for their equipment.  Tube purchasing on the builder’s end is usually determined by what they can get in quantity cheaply.  Also this is one thing that most manufacturers don’t have a warranty issue with.  They’d rather you kept the piece and changed tubes (at your expense) than deal with a return.  This of course varies by manufacturer.
   My best advice to the beginning tweaker is do your research.  A lot of us have already gone down this road and will be able to help with your decision making and save you a lot of cash.  Properly spent money can reap great gains for small investments.  There are a lot of vibration control stuff out there that’s not pricey, good power cables can be had used cheap (stick to name brands), a $149 power conditioner (Panamax or Furutech) can protect your gear and make it sound a lot better, interconnects and speaker wire can definitely help (price doesn’t always equal better performance), and on and on.  Work with a dealer who will let you try some of this stuff out, and also advise you where to start based on your budget and your system.  You do need to tell us everything about the system and the room and environment it is in, even how far away you are from the neighborhood transformer and switching station.  Don’t always think that you need to replace a piece of gear to get a better system.  Of course us retailers would love you to do that, but in all honesty I don’t feel that really serves the customer.  Often times what you are hearing is a choked power supply (small power cord or standard wall plug), hash in the electrical supply itself, mismatched capacitance and impedance of the interconnects and/or speaker wire, grounding issues, etc.
   Don’t hesitate to give us a call if you have questions, or any other dealer.  Our advice is usually free (mine is) and most of us do want to help you make your system sing.  Don’t fret if we haven’t heard of everything you have in your system-there is so much out there that no one has heard it all.  There are basics that apply across the board no matter what you have.

I have to confess to my customers because this DAC and I did not get off to a good start.  One, I did not realize that it had a definite break-in period, and two, I did not realize that it was sensitive to equipment around it.  I originally had it sitting on top of my Xindac DAC, which as it turned out was the worst spot it could be in.  Once isolated, and played for 70+ hours, this unit really sang.  My reference source now includes this DAC.

How can I describe the sound of this unit?  The words: pin point resolution, musicality, big air between instruments, etc. do not really do it justice.  It has all of this and more.  I am most impressed with its ability to reproduce impact-the snap of a snare drum when hit with a wood stick; the impact of a piano, and more.  Listening to Limehouse Blues on Jazz at the Pawnshop and Willow Weep for Me on Happy Coat makes me drool.  August’s Rhapsody on August Rush puts me in front row center.  Classical is also faithfully reproduced without any clutter-each instrument is clear and tonally on the mark.

In short, this DAC is a steal at $1499.  You can read an excellent review at http://hometheaterreview.com/cary-audio-xciter-dac-reviewed/.

Our home theater room features a Marantz 8002 receiver, an Oppo BDP-83 blue ray player, a Sony Trinitron 720 P LCD monitor, all LSA Surround system with Standard LSA rear on walls, LSA2 Signature Speakers, and an LSA Statement center channel, an HD Directv receiver, and a Revel BP 120 Subwoofer.  Cabling by MIT.  Very musical and analog sounding with great color.  The visual display was tuned by Brian Wharton, an expert in tuning theaters and high end home theater systems.  This system is by appointment only as my wife rarely lets me play with it.

I have been talking to Mike Allen of JoLida, Mitch Singerman, Ralph of Atma-Sphere, and others and they all agree that one needs to watch out when using current production Electro-Harmonix tubes (New Sensor is the distributor).  If you are concerned about your tubes, please don’t hesitate to call me and I can test them on my Hickok 6000.  There has been an increasing frequency of these tubes self-destructing and taking out circuits in the equipment itself.  This is not normal.  So far the tubes identified are the EH 12Ax7, EL34, 6CA7, Genelex, and a few others.  I strongly recommend having them tested, or replacing them with brands like Winged C or Ruby.  I am joining with CE Distributing as a dealer so I will be carrying these brands from now on.   I also can get them within 3 business days if I do not have a specific tube in stock.

Many of you are probably wondering what type of system we run here at Marihart Audio.  Our demo system has  tweaked Atma-Sphere M60 3.1 monoblocks (tweaks include Power supply upgrade and V-caps) and a tweaked Cary SLP 98P preamp (tweaks are Jensen Oil Fill caps, Auracaps, Slyvania 1957 JAN 6SN7 tubes); the sources are a Soaring Audio HD Falcon Media Center, Creek Evo CD Player used as Transport with a Cary Xciter 32bit 192K DAC, and a Roksan Radius 5 with a Transfiguration Axia Cartridge, Roksan’s Xerxes Phono cable, with the table set on a Mapleshade maple block with isolators.  The Phono Stage is a Heed Quasar.  Cabling is mostly MIT Shotgun MA, Magnum MA, and Acoustic Zen Wow and Matrix. The main speakers are a choice of Acoustic Zen Adagio’s or Revel F32′s.  Speaker wire varies between Magnan Signature or Acoustic Zen Satori, depending if we run different amps as I also have a LSA Standard Integrated, Soaring Audio SLC A 300, and various JoLida gear.  The front room also has Echo busters room treatments for the corners and the sides-this giving precise imaging with a near field  holographic sound stage that literally wraps around the listener.

We have much more in the back room, such as Level 2 modified Jolida JD 302B and JD102B, Heed Obelisk SI (with augmented power supply), Cary Xciter amp and DAC, and a A25.2 Integrated.  Sources for the back room are the Jolida JD 100, Cary CDP 1, Music Hall CD25.2 (Modified by Mitch Singerman), Music Hall MMF 5.1SE with either the Bellari VP 129 or the Jolida JD9 phono stages (moded with JJ ECC 803S tubes).  Speakers are the Revel F12, LSA 1 Signature and LSA1 Statement, Canton GLE 403,and  LSA 1 Standard.  Rear room treatments include Echo Busters panels and Shakti Hallographs.  Speakers presently shown are the rare Rohrer 702 Monitors with the Isobaric Loaded 12″ subs.
  We also have other speakers not mentioned above and other electronics so you need to call to see what we have to demo.  I tune the front and backroom systems by ear to provide a musical, warm yet detailed presentation with a large soundstage and good depth of field.  I demand pinpoint imaging of vocals and instrumentals and strive to get this in all of the systems I present to my customers.  Hope to see you soon.
Dave Marihart

Cary Audio Xciter Integrated Amp
Last week I received the new Cary Audio Xciter Integrated Amp and have been playing it on various speakers and headphones for about 100 hours now.  I am really excited about this little amp-really tight, precise, lots of air, and yet very musical.  Not as dark as some of their other offerings either.  On headphones it really sounds incredible, not that it is bad on the Adagio Jr. speakers.  Amazing amount of power for a little amp.  It is rated at 9W Class A triode with 40W of peak power per channel.  Has a GREAT headphone amp that uses the 6L6 power tubes and is stable from 4 to 600 ohms.   I have tried Goldrings and Sennheisers on it and they sound wonderful.  This is the first purpose built headphone amp Cary has built in a while-and they hit a home run.  Associated equipment includes  MIT CVT2 IC and speaker interfaces, Jolida JD100 CD player and Cary CDP-1 player, MIT AVT MA ic’s, MIT Zcords and Gutwire BA-16 powercords, Adagio Jr. speakers, Goldring DR 150, AKG K260, and Sennheiser HD600 headphones.

Xindac and Cary Audio have both just revealed new Digital Audio Converters for 2009.  Both upscale the digital input  from 16bit/44k or better to 24bit/192k or 32bit/192k.

Xindac DAC-8 is a 24bit/192k upscaler that will accept any digital source through USB, optical, or coaxial inputs.  It has a choice of solid state output or tube output (6922 tube).  You also have a choice of 24bit/96k or 24bit/192k outputs.  The interesting part of this unit is that it has a volume control on the output-for you people who want to forgo the use of a preamp.  The sound stage is huge and deep with very good detailing.  I have one in house for you who want to listen to it first hand.  I would also take it to your home for you to hear it for yourself in your own system.  The company is Chinese, but have warranty repair in Oakland, CA.  Also John Tucker of Exemplar can do upgrades on this piece through us.  Retail price is 1299.00

Cary Audio’s new Xciter line includes a new 32bit/192k DAC.  It has 2 coaxial inputs, optical, and USB inputs, switchable from the front.  It also upscales any PCM source (16bit/44k, or other) to 32 bit 192k and sounds really great with a wonderful soundstage and great depth.  It will be shipping soon to the retail market and the target price is 1500.00

We just recieved our first shipment of the Audioengine W1-a Wireless Audio adapter.  It has a 100′ range, and boardcasts very high quality 2 channel stereo.  It will link between any digital source  with a receiver, preamp, or powered speakers with clean high grade audio broadcast.  Trust me, we did an acid test with it using a Shanling CDT-300 Limited as a source and a Burmeister demo CD  with a 30′ run to the speakers.  It sounded great with no loss of staging or depth of the source material.  Admittedly the run could have been longer, but with the wide bandwidth and spread spectrum tech I doubt that it would have made much difference.This thing is a steal for 149.95.