Hours of Operation:

Tuesday through Friday from 11:00 AM to 6 PM, Saturday 11 AM to 5 PM
Closed most Holidays
1120 Douglas Blvd., Suite B, Roseville, CA 95678

At the present time I will be in the shop on Thursday and Friday all day, and every other Saturday.  I can do Tuesday and every other Saturday by appointment if you wish my undivided attention.  Please don’t hesitate to call if you have questions.

We have decided to set up consignment guidelines for all new equipment coming into the store.  Starting on February 1, we will no longer accept equipment that will sell for under $500.  For the $500 to $1000 retail (as determined by Audiogon Bluebook) our commission rate is 30%.  For $1000 retail on up the rate is 25%.  We include free listing on our website, and can list on Audiogon.  Please give us a call for more information.

We have recently become Brodmann Acoustics dealers and now have their Festival F1 and F2 speakers.  They are in the back room in the main system on our new Cary Audio SA 500.1 monoblocks.  The Cary’s are the much acclaimed 500W/ch monoblocks. Dagogo reviewed the VC7 by Bosendorfer http://www.dagogo.com/View-Article.asp?hArticle=356, and this is the latest incarnation of these speakers under the Brodmann line.  Speakers built by piano makers?  Makes sense.  This line has been somewhat redesigned, cleaning up some of the previous deficiencies of the Bosendorfer’s.  In short, they have become our favorites-dynamic, musical, and pretty efficient.  Prices are reasonable, considering the slam and punch these guys have, and WIFE FRIENDLY.   For more information go to: http://www.brodmannacoustics.com/index.php?id=114

Another CES is behind us, and I saw and heard a bunch while I was there for 4 days.  I mostly focused on THE Show and the Venetian where the high end was located.
Venetian:  Acoustic Zen has a room with Triode, and as usual it was very good, but in all honesty not quite as good as I have heard in the past.  Triode had their 845 based amps there, but I really like their KT88 based amps better.  The interesting part in the room was the Nittobo Acoustic Engineering diffusers.  See: http://www.noe.co.jp/en/ for their Acoustic Groove system.  Music Hall had their normal good sounding room with the Epos Elan speaker, and a new table they are importing by EAT-the Forte- see: http://www.euroaudioteam.com/en/eat-forte-turntable-000007.html.  Great sounding, and a step up from the MMF 11, although a big jump in price.  Mike Creek was there although I may have dropped a few points in his eyes due to my comment about Creek ( just don’t get much call for it?-didn’t know I was looking at the back of his head).   Cary Audio was there with there new music server, and other gear.  Their choice of amps included the SA 500.1 monoblocks with the SLP 05 preamp, 306 Pro CD Player, and TAD speakers.  I fell in love with the SA 500.1′s and brought them home.  See: http://www.caryaudio.com/products/classic.html.
THE Show:  Exemplar Audio/ Stillpoints room was one of the best rooms at either show.  The speakers were single driver Feastrex powered by Exemplar’s 300B Single Ended amps, Preamp, and modified Oppo 95 as a source.  All was on a Stillpoints rack, with the Stillpoints Ultimate feet.  Room treatment was by Zilplex.  See:  http://www.stillpoints.us/Stillponts/Products.html for the Stillpoints, http://www.exemplaraudio.com/Home.html for Exemplar, http://www.feastrex.com/products.html#3 for the Feastrex.  http://zilplex.com/index.html are the room treatments that were highly effective-they got out of the way of the music, yet were superb at reducing room resonances.   Chapman Audio was there with the new version of the T8, and an all Cary sound system.  Great speakers, in fact Stuart will be dropping by a pair of T8′s at the shop later next week.  Then there was Brodmann.  Equal to the best sound I heard in any room at either show, out of speakers costing a fraction of most companies.  I have heard these at several shows, and finally jumped on them.  We now have the Festival 2′s in our showroom, and the Festival 1′s are available for demo.  Almost bought the Vienna VC2, but didn’t know if our customers were ready for a $20,900 speaker.  See: http://www.brodmannacoustics.com/index.php?id=16 for the Festival speakers.
That covers the highlights of CES for me with one exception.  I have my eye on an Italian company called Master Sound s.a.s. and on Resolution Audio.  Both excellent, and worth consideration.  See:http://www.mastersoundsas.it/master%201_1_ing/integrati.htm for Master Sound and http://www.resolutionaudio.com/ for Resolution Audio.

Our meeting this month will be at Dave Sykes house in Foresthill. It will start at 1:00 PM and go to roughly 230 PM.  The Review Committee will have a meeting right after the main meeting, and there will be demo of the First Watt SIT2 amp in Dave’s system.
Directions: I-80 to Foresthill Exit,  take the road to get on Foresthill Rd., follow Foresthill Rd. 15 miles, turn Right on Todd Valley Rd., go 1 mile, turn Right on Green Ridge Rd., go about 1 mile, turn Right on Birchwood Dr., go 1 mile, and Dave’s is the second to last house at the end on the right (20617 Birchwood).  Walk past the main house to the little house in the back.
Hope to see you there.

We have some great equipment coming in over the next few weeks.  Cary is shipping us the famous CAD 300 SEI for our showroom, due to arrive next week.  JoLida is shipping the newly modified FX-10 and should be here in 2 weeks.  This FX 10 has the ESA clarity caps, Hexfred diodes, carbon resistors, and Gold Pin Tungsol 12AX7′s and also the new Alps volume control.  Michael Fremer and I will be the first to get them.  We have the MIT Matrix 60′s breaking in on the front system along with a new set of LSA 1 Statement monitors.  Also the Cary SLI80 is breaking in nicely and is featured in the front room.  We have gotten in some Musical Fidelity gear, a new Electrocompaniet EC5, some Sumo gear, Marsh HD 500DS amp, and a Nothingham Spacedeck Turntable.  Next 2 weeks will see more consignment gear including Acoustat ES 1+1 and Acoustic Research Integrated.
Come see us!!

Steve Lester of Linn, Tannoy, and Peachtree was here and gave a very informative overview of computer audio as it is now.  We also listened to the Linn Majik in a small networked system he set up using a NAS drive, an Ipad for a controller, and the Linn Majik connected to our main system.  The sound was quite analog, sweet, warm, large soundstage with none of the digital artifacts one normally hears with computer music.

Steve covered a lot of ground during his 1 hour talk.  I will just cover the highlights here.  One of the most important in using computer as a source is to rip the cd/download, etc. properly.  Most of the normal techniques introduce errors and jitter.  He recommended going to Chris Connaker’s website Computer Audiophile: http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Computer-Audiophile-Symposium-Performance-Playback for an in depth set of tips to ripping and storing music files properly.  He also covered UPNP players in some detail (Universal Plug and Play) and talked about Apple products such as Airport Express and Apple TV.  He talked about using USB (bad) vs. ethernet (good) for transfer of data.  USB has a bad way of introducing jitter into the signal, whereas ethernet there is very little or no jitter.  Network set up using ethernet is preferable.  Peachtree DAC’s and integrateds are one of the few units designed from the gate to deal with very high amounts of jitter in the signal (10,000 times that of other DAC’s).  He mentioned that Amora software as mentioned by Chris Connaker does a very good job of cleaning up Itunes and other signals.  if you need to contact Steve you can through his website at: http://www.stevenlester.net/

We just got in the Cary SLP 03 in Black in stock, and the SLI 80 Signature Integrated amp.  We have 1 03 in backstock, and 1 on the floor to demo, and the SLI 80 is in the front room on the Magnapan 1.7′s.  We also recieved our shipment of the LV1 and LV2 Audio Pro speakers from Sweden, a computer speaker that has an incredibly clear wireless connection.  Also has a sub that auto syncs with the speakers for flawless reproduction of any music.  That should be out for demo next week.  See http://www.audiopro.com/products/living-lv2, for the sub see http://www.audiopro.com/products/living-lvsub .  For Cary Audio see: http://www.caryaudio.com/products/classic/SLI80.html and http://www.caryaudio.com/products/classic/SLP03.html .  The Cary SLP 03 was lowered $1000 to $1995.  And if you want the SLI 80, order before Dec 31 to save $500, and get a free paint job of your choice.  Call for details.

New Stuff:
Got the new Audioengine 5+ speakers in and they are now breaking in on Airport Express.  20W minimum RMS /channel more power (50 W/ch, 125 W peak) and they come with a remote control now.
Got in a new shipment of Panamax surge and line conditioners:  M8-AV and M8-AV Pro.  Not only surge protection but over/under voltage protection as well, and series filters on the Pro version.
Also have the Oppo BDP 93 and 95 in stock.  I have limited backstock of the 93, and a 95 to demo.  I can get these within 2 days if I am out, but I try to stock these items.

Sales:
Audioengine 5 speakers in black are on sale-limited to stock on hand.  Now $299.00 rather than $349.00.  Only have 2 pairs left so get them soon.

Consignment:
Have a Sumo amp, an Adcom amp, some Healthkit Pro Audio speakers, Alesis powered speakers with data link, Acurus phonostage, Exactpower conditioner, and much more.

There will be a meeting of the Sierra Nevada Audiophile Society this weekend, Dec. 10, at 1:00 PM.  It will be held at Audio Experience, 1120 B Douglas Blvd., Roseville, CA.  Steve Lester, the Linn, Tannoy, and more representative will be giving an in depth talk on computer audio.  This talk will cover some of the basics but mostly be aimed at integration and use of servers and hard drives for music storage, with wireless/ wired networks and distribution systems.  Linn Majik and other systems will be demonstrated.  The main system will be the Cary 98P Preamp, the First Watt M2 or Soaring Audio A 600, Exemplar Audio 93, Bryston BDA 1, and Acoustic Zen Adagio speakers.
If you need any help please call me at 530-320-1576 or 916-742-5322.  See you there!

I recently received the new upgraded version of the JD9 Phonostage and plugged it into my system.  The upgrades included ESA Clarity caps, Hexfred diodes, better ceramic resistors, Tungsol 12AX7 Gold Pin, and a new application of carbon resistors.  As a side note the carbon resistors are not used in the signal path, but improve the sound anyway.
This phonostage is a gem in hiding.  It has the ability to make any table sound great.  Good solid bottom end, quiet, clean transients, very very musical and nonfatigueing.  I haven’t critically reviewed it yet, but I was so impressed with what I heard that I ordered one for my home system.  On the home unit I was able to get the recommended 30 ohm loading for my Transfiguration Axia cartridge installed by JoLida.  If you have a JD9-get it modified by JoLida.
The retail is $695 and worth every penny.