HiWire

Tried another Blu-ray disc, this time Magic City. The image was incredibly dark as before, so it wasn't just The Musketeers. Sony must have been testing this player with their bright 4K LCD TVs... its natural output is really dark on a plasma screen, even with the Bright Room setting turned on. I turned the Clear Black setting all the way up and it improved like it did with the Dark Skies DVD (Contrast Remaster made no difference). I might try playing around with the Deep Color setting to see if it does anything. If all else fails, I'll start messing with the player's brightness and contrast settings, but I've been through almost all of the video settings now. It's interesting to compare how well the PS3 works with my TV while the new Blu-ray player needs so much adjustment. On the plus side, the UHP-H1 is almost completely inaudible, unlike the noisy PS3. Then I put Dire Strait's Brothers In Arms SACD in the player. It was earlier in the evening this time, so I could justify turning up the volume a bit. Wow. I've listened to the Red Book layer on my Arcam FMJ CD36 and it sounded good, but the SACD output from the UHP-H1 may be better. It has the space and air and detail I mentioned before, but I also thought it was playing faster at the beginning of my listening session. There's a bit more energy in the percussion, which might be from a more upfront sound. Bass is well controlled. I'll have to play more music to be sure. I forgot how great this album sounds, and it's definitely better on speakers. There's a purity to the sound of the guitars, drums, and synthesizers. I'm not sure what other web reviewers were playing on their systems, but this thing is a keeper for sure. I'm looking forward to playing more SACDs from my small collection... it's too bad there is so little available on the format. SA-CD.net shows that the Beach Boys are being reissued by Analogue Productions... surely we can do better.

It's World Book Day! Currently reading: The Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin Market Forces by Richard Morgan

I bought a copy for my dad a few years ago (and I read it last year) – it's one of his favorite books. It's well written and full of those anecdotal science/history stories that stick in your mind. My takeaway from the book is that science can change humanity, but it doesn't do much for scientists, sometimes. Many of the inventors/discovers were considered failures in their lifetimes and they suffered through enormous hardship.

The Sony UHP-H1 arrived today. I hooked it up to my TV and preamp, updated the firmware, and put a disc from my Dark Skies DVD set in as a video torture test. It was a lower-budget alien invasion series (often considered a ripoff of The X-Files) from the mid-90s that was probably shot on video. It looked pretty rough at first... the picture was really dark (the episode started off with a night scene) and skin tones looked unnatural with some jaggies thrown in (interlacing?). I played around with the settings but mostly turned any enhancement stuff off. I suspect the jaggies are part of a poor DVD transfer rather than an interlaced signal. If you turn all the noise reduction stuff on, the picture starts to look like a cartoon. Then I put in a Blu-ray of The Musketeers (BBC, third season)... much better. I've gotten so used to the excellent Blu-ray playback from my PS3 that I took it for granted. The picture looked a little dark, but I was tired of messing around with settings so I just watched the episode with stock settings. I did notice the sound had nicer separation than the PS3's audio. Having done a basic test of video, I put The Cars SACD from Mobile Fidelity into the player... this was the big test. I've listened to this album many times. It's not hi-fi, but it's easy to compare. There's definitely more detail there. The next disc was from Alison Krauss + Union Station's Live... great stuff. Similar results: more detail, more space, more texture. There may be something to this SACD technology. I'll have to do more audio testing with my headphones, as my stereo experiments probably disturbed my neighbors. Worth it. I'm using an AmazonBasics HDMI cable and 47 Laboratory Stratos cable with Eichmann Bullet Plug RCA terminations.

Prodigy Present: The Dirtchamber Sessions, Volume One:

RIP Harry Anderson... he made the world a funnier place:

Foxygen – Hang

Did you know this album starts with Monday Morning?

I'll see if I can arrange a listening session with one. One of my local Head-Case friends has an Esoteric player and he is happy with it. The new EMM Labs (made in Canada!) TX2 transport uses an Esoteric drive. Their DA2 DAC got a good review, but it is a little pricey: https://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/equipment-reviews/1081-emm-labs-da2-reference-digital-to-analog-converter And there are the Meitner Audio MA-2, Hegel Mohican, Audio Research CD9, Cyrus Signature transport/DAC, and so many others. Call me old-fashioned, or maybe the jukebox scene from Akira just stuck in my head...

I'm sad about this. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get a UDP-205 (or whether I should buy one) before they're gone. It's the last of the reasonable-priced SACD players with analog outputs. Sony quickly discontinued their $350 UHP-H1 player after the HDMI-only UBP-X800 4K player was released last year. Marantz hasn't updated their mainstream player (the audio-only SA2005) since 2014 and Pioneer's Elite BDP-88FD Blu-ray player is almost twice the price. Marantz's flagship SA-10 SACD player is about $7,000. Esoteric, Luxman, and Accuphase players are somewhere in that stratosphere. I wrote a CD player comparison from a listening session at a local audio store a long time ago when I was shopping for my CD player (I'd love to do an updated one with new hardware and older ears): https://www.head-fi.org/threads/5-players-enter-1-player-leaves-nad-m5-simaudio-supernova-accuphase-dp-75-audio-research-cd7-arcam-cd36.277933/ I have a small DVD collection and I've upgraded to Blu-ray in the last few years, playing them on my Super Slim Sony PlayStation 3 (its Blu-ray video and analog audio output are impressive, but its DVD upsampling quality is average at best) to my Panasonic plasma TV and Arcam stereo. The Oppo UDP-205 seems to be the magic bullet. To get analog output out of HDMI-only players, you can use the $40 boxes you find on Amazon or you can try one of these: http://www.essenceelectrostatic.com/product/hdacc-ii-4k/ But I find the idea of HDMI-analog conversion dodgy at best – my preference goes to manufacturers who are capable of putting together a top-level analog output stage in their digital source along with a quality transport and DAC. It leads to fewer boxes and cables and a reasonable budget that doesn't include power supplies that cost thousands of dollars (Naim, I'm looking at you). I was also disappointed to read that Oppo dropped HDCD support in the UDP players. Some of my favorite albums are on HDCD (the entire Roxy Music CD catalog) or SACD hybrid discs – I'm invested in nearly-defunct silver disc media, although I recently started ripping my discs to Apple Lossless files as a backup strategy. My Arcam FMJ CD36 broke down last month and I had a moment of panic (I've owned it since 2007). I wrote Arcam (now owned by Harman, which it turns out is now owned by Samsung!) and they told me that they were unable to repair this "long obsolete" mechanism. I really didn't want to get rid of my beloved player and I am against disposable products in general. After about a week of inquiries, I was able to find a local shop who repaired its loader mechanism and replaced its belt – crisis averted. Arcam has been heading towards a mass-market product range for over a decade and this was the final confirmation for me. They pointed me towards their new product, the upcoming $1,000 HDA CDS10 SACD player/network streamer: http://www.audioaffair.co.uk/arcam-cds50-sacd-cd-player-with-network-streaming. Their refusal to service my CD36 left a bad taste in my mouth. I invested in an all-Arcam system a few years after getting my CD player (Arcam C31 preamp + P1 power amps) and I think they were the last statement audiophile products from the company. Changes in the market have caught some of the major players out, but I still think there is room in the middle for people with modest budgets. My recent experiences with the Chord Mojo, the Beyerdyamic Amiron, the Focal Elear headphones, and even the Schiit Fulla 2 amp/DAC proved that it's still possible to get audiophile value for money. Additionally, I enjoyed listening to the Focal Utopias and I'll have to try them again. I still believe there is and will be a demand for high end CD and SACD players, though not a large one, and the recent cassette revival proves that obsolete audio formats can return from the junk shops. High-end cassette decks are going for quite a bit of money now, and it's possible that the same could happen to disc players (provided there is a viable parts supply, particularly their transports and loading mechanisms, as I found out firsthand). The refurbished Sony UHP-H1 is selling for cheap on eBay, so I took a chance and ordered one today... I'll let you guys know if it is any good after it shows up.

I've always been curious about this one... Matador is re-releasing the Exile in Guyville on May 4, but I'm not sure if the remastering will be a step forward, backward, or sideways, considering how well the original was regarded: https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/03/liz-phair-announces-25th-anniversary-exile-in-guyville-box-set/ Metric – Grow Up and Blow Away

Pretenders

I've been running 11.2.6 on my iPad for a few weeks. No problems at all so far.

Young Marble Giants – Colossal Youth Styx – Paradise Theatre Minimal – maximal music...

Any news on the new DSHA amps? I'm guessing they turned out to be labor-intensive or prohibitively expensive to put together...

Magic City... I've been looking forward to this one for a while:

Rush – 2112 Prince – Purple Rain ... a little late to the party

I'm fairly conservative when it comes to knives. I've never had the money or the desire for "designer/custom/collector" products, so all my knives are mass produced. Just as an example, you could get the Sypderco Tenacious folder for about $45 from Amazon and you wouldn't have to worry about it: https://www.amazon.com/Spyderco-Tenacious-Plain-Folding-Knife/dp/B007CK1MNU/

The titanium frame makes it worth more, and the blade steel (RWL34) could perform reasonably: https://www.spyderco.com/forumII/viewtopic.php?t=70461 Ultimately, it's up to you if you like the design. You can buy a useful every-day-carry knife/utility folder for much, much less. This looks more like a gentleman's knife than a hard-use knife (e.g., the handle looks slippery), but the materials and fit and finish look good in the pictures.

I bought and read Black Man years ago... it was enjoyable, but I felt like I was missing something. Obviously, I should have read the other books. The book I think of immediately when the transference of consciousness is mentioned is Kiln People by David Brin... highly recommended.

Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan (for really obvious reasons)... I've been meaning to read it for years.

Getting rid of all the ports might allow them to make a waterproof iPhone/iPad (IP68). It's going to be a pain point with A/V gear for a while, though... I can foresee a booming business in XLR to Bluetooth dongles, low-latency wi-fi hubs for mixing equipment, effects, etc... maybe in ten years. Not sure if fiber optics will get a shot before cables disappear.

Keeping it on an i5 and 8GB is basically the best way to keep the price down. You can configure a new one with a 256GB SSD for only $50 more.

What are you using it for? I'd go for the 2TB Fusion drive because it has a larger SSD cache of 128GB... the 1TB Fusion drive might have a 24GB or 32GB cache: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7975498 I'd also go for 16GB of RAM and an i7, but that's just to mitigate the fact that it's a product from 2014. Graphic power is a weak point, but it's good enough to run 1080 resolution. A bit hard to justify at the prices Apple is charging, even refurbished. The strong points are that it has Thunderbolt 2 and you won't have to buy a dongle for Gigabit Ethernet or HDMI. It's probably a good idea to use an old keyboard and mouse... Apple increased the price of the new wireless keyboards and mice.

Bryan Ferry – Bête Noire