Specs & Pricing

HP’s Workshop
quite ready for primetime. I suspected a simple
level adjustment would cure the problem and
so returned the speakers for an update. This
threw my schedule into a spin, since that left
a hole that would not be filled until just after
Labor Day with the top-of-the-line Hansen
speakers, THE KINGs, from Canada.
I toyed with the notion of a quick listen to
the new “statement” speaker from Coincident
Technology (also from Canada), but decided
to wait for the Hansens, and further down
the line, take up the Ushers again and then
the Coincident. (Of course, that could be the
opposite of how things happen.)
I had a backup in mind—you have to in
this business—all along, fingers crossed,
of course. It seemed likely that the delivery
date of the Nova Physics Memory Player
was close at hand, and with a little luck, I
could probably get a sneak preview (at the
very least) into this issue. Alas, that was
not to be. If all had gone well, we would
have had first dibs on what just might be
a promising solution to certain seemingly
intractable problems in CD playback, those
caused by information dropouts. But that
unit was not quite ready for primetime,
either; it needed some minor adjustments.
And so did this writer after encountering
its (Dell) computer-controlled processor. It
is no simple matter to master its operation.
So I pushed the review date back or ahead
(depending on whether you’re a futurist or
an antediluvian) to the next issue.
If the claims made for the Memory Player
check out, it could, as I suspect from what I
understand of the operating principle, elicit an
unparalleled degree of fidelity from the compact
disc. A few words to whet your appetite: “it is
nearly impossible,” the literature says, “for a CD
drive to read 100% of the data on a CD on a
single pass…” and this, they say, is true of all
CD drives. Furthermore, “When the CD drive
misses a bit, it ‘fills the hole’ with a synthetic bit
of data called ECC (error correction codes).
This is done to prevent the listener from hearing
gaps of silence…since the ECC has no actual
information on it, the result is a congestion and
harsh odd (order) harmonics borne [sic] of a
synthetic tone, inserted to ‘hide’ the silences of
a misread CD.” One further thought, and again
I quote from Nova Physics literature, “The
Memory Player reads your inserted CD and
stores the state on banks of memory. When its
laser misses any data, it returns to read it again
until it reaches 100%. It will re-read a CD up
to 99 times, to capture all the information and
store it on banks of solid-state memory.” Hmm.
The company also claims the finished work is
indistinguishable from the digital master tape.
Equipment Updates
The Jadis D-1 Mk II CD Transport and JS-1 MkIII DAC
In Issue 163, I took a long look at a handful of CD players to assess the present-day state of the art. Not,
as you may have noticed, every last one on the market. The most troublesome of the lot was the Jadis
combination, which sounded rather spectacular, big, bold and even a bit juicy (in the musically positive
sense) upon first listen. But, some time later, in the survey, I found the unit sadly deficient in the top octave,
which wasn’t the way I first heard things. I wasn’t entirely sure whether the other players were that much
better or, more logically, whether something had gone awry with the Jadis. The North American importer
of Jadis gear these days is Pierre Gabriel, who is based in Quebec, and whose local contact man did not
have the elaborate test gear necessary to determine what, if anything, was wrong with the player.
Eventually, after much ado with messages flying back and forth across the border, we managed to
arrange shipment of the units (player and processor) back to Gabriel and offered—an offer that still
stands—to retest the Jadis if he found problems with it. Gabriel tested the unit and sent us these notes…
“The problem is in the D/A Converter’s right channel, the 5814 double-triode tube, positive phase….”
Some symptoms this caused (and we heard here in Sea Cliff) were an “unnatural top end, confusion in the
highs, less deep bass and low bass, unstable images…” and an uninvolving, unmusical sound.
Those of you who have read the magazine over the years know that Jadis makes some of the world’s
best tube-based electronics and that this reviewer holds their products in high esteem. All of this would
have been more expeditiously handled if Jadis had an American distributor and/or authorized repair
center. But their last experience with an American importer left them leery of a repeat experience here.
To sum up: We are ready, if Gabriel is willing, to have another shot at the Jadis, and put it up against
those players with which we found the most favor. HP
Editor’s Choice Redux
There were several reasons for the
omission of these Editor’s Choice awards
from Issue 165, the prime one being space.
The room resonators, in particular, almost
deserve an essay themselves. They did
dramatically change the sense of acoustic
space in Room 3, allowing a far more
convincing illusion of both soundstage
and soundfield. And they are but one of
several room resonance treatments which
I have been trying to figure out how to
describe in ways that will be meaningful
to the readers. (I wrestled with one in the
Golden Ear issue.) Anyway, without much
more ado, and no more commentary (for
now), the missing selections belong to:
Vital Accessories
Acoustic Systems Room Resonators (platinum/
gold/silver)
Prices: Platinum, $2700; Gold, $1000; Special Gold,
$1000/each; Silver. $450 each
Marigo Audio Signature 3-D Mat
Price: $195
Linestages and Phonostages
Tom Evans Vibe + Pulse power supply
Prices: The Vibe, $4600; The Pulse (optional power
supply upgrade for Vibe), $4000
Contact Information
AVATAR ACOUSTICS
13401 SW 96th Avenue
Miami, Florida 33176
(888) 991-9196
avataracoustics.com
info@avataracoustics.com
MARIGO AUDIO
3112 SE 51st Ave.
Portland, Oregon 97206
503.284.1163
marigoaudio.com
ED SHEFTEL
(818) 802-0020
Tomevansaudiodesign-usa.com
audioomniscience@aol.com
Letters to the Workshop should be sent to me in
care of HpsAudioMall@aol.com.
122 December 2006 The Absolute Sound