UHF No 70 (Net).indd - Ultra High Fidelity Magazine

I have been an avid subscriber to
UHF since 1993 (the issue had a review
of the Castle Chester and Totem Model
One), and I have enjoyed every bit of
your magazine.
Now that you have a home theatre
setup, why not review more home theatre
speakers, specifi cally those offered
by Axiom Audio? Your readers might
benefi t from such a review of this Canadian
speaker company for two reasons:
1) They are a Canadian company, eh!
2) Being mail order, if the sound of these
speakers are any good, readers who have
limited budget but would like to go home
theatre can get there without breaking
the bank.
Renante Barroga
ST-LAURENT, QC
I was hoping, and I am sure many
readers are as well, that when you test the
iPod in the next issue, that you will also
try out the new “lossless compression”
offered by iTunes version 4.5. Sounds
interesting. Just a thought.
Paul Hirvinen
THUNDER BAY, ON
Apple lent us an iPod for only one month,
and it was shipped back two days before Apple
announced its lossless compression. That
would double the iPod’s capacity.
I just bought an iPod and have been
extremely impressed by its ease of operation
and versatility. I haven’t assessed its
overall sound quality yet, and I will be
very interested in your coming review
from that perspective.
The one thing that really infuriates
me, though, is that we Canadians can’t
download from the iTunes music store.
Can you address in your article
when (if?) we will ever be able to use
the iTunes download facility? Are there
other alternatives, with a broad sampling
of artists, that are legal in Canada?
Feedback
Box 65085, Place Longueuil
Longueuil, Québec, Canada J4K 5J4
uhfmail@uhfmag.com
If not, perhaps you could provide
a CRTC contact address so we can all
send letters asking why Americans can
download songs from Canadian artists,
who permit their music to be downloaded,
but we cannot. I just can’t believe
the CRTC can be so pig-headed about
universal access to music. (Perhaps
you could offer advice on the best way
to secure a US credit card and mailing
address!)
Craig McDougall
CALGARY, AB
The CRTC has no jurisdiction in this,
Craig. The problem seems to be getting the
many worldwide divisions of the big record
companies, many of which appear to have a
pathological death wish, on side. We would
add that we have trouble getting excited over
the possibility of paying a buck for a single
song with nine tenths of the information
missing. We would like to see Apple offering
the alternative of full-resolution downloading.
One record company, Magnatunes
(www.magnatunes.com) already does.
I eagerly await your review of the
Apple iPod. I have been looking in
various stores for a chance to audition
one myself, but only computer stores
seem to carry them. They escort you to
their iPod display and allow you to listen
to their MP3 files through powered
computer speakers — no thanks! I need
to listen to WAV fi les that are well done
through a good audio system.
I produce a lot of WAV fi les from
LPs and tapes, which I usually edit with
small amount of EQ, band extrapolation
and/or normalizing before burning
them to CD. Rather than run 40 feet of
interconnect from my computer to the
main listening room for auditioning,
I have been burning “trial and error”
CDs in order to come up with my fi nal
mix. I know for certain that over the
last two years I have scrapped over 50
such CDs. The iPod seems to be a good
alternative to this wasteful method, and
even though it may not pay for itself in
saved CD blanks it should be a lot more
convenient. But like you, I need to know
what it sounds like before I decide.
Feeding the analog signal through a
mini jack is one of my concerns. Another
is the quality of its analog playback
circuit. I imagine that it is just fi ne for
background music, but most of my music
from LPs will be for dedicated listening
and I want to make sure I get it right.
The iPod has to give me the same quality
I get from my main CD playback system.
Perhaps I am expecting too much.
Lloyd Marshall
EDSON, AB
Well, you can check our fi ndings in this
issue, Lloyd. The quality of what you hear
will depend not only on the iPod but also on
the quality of the A/D converter in your
computer. In some cases it can be surprisingly
good.
I have been reading your magazine
for about two years now, and have yet
to see a better one. I live in the US, and
sadly there is no stereo magazine here
(or even in the UK, for I do read some
of them) that can even come close to
yours.
1) In UHF No. 68, you wrote an article
on testing several different speaker
cables, and I think you mentioned
something like the Nordost Valhalla is
close to the Wireworld Eclipse. Is this
correct? This cable costs around fi ve
times the price of the Eclipse, but on the
other hand I believe in your judgement.
Does this mean Nordost spend too much
on advertising?
2) Have you, or will you ever, review
the following components: Simaudio
Moon I-5 Limited Edition, JMLab
Micro Utopia BE, YBA Intégré Passion,
Naim CDS3, and NAIT5i/CD5i?
3) Will you ever compile all the technical
articles (like the ones about power,
acoustics, stereo sound, etc), and also
all the music articles by Reine? These
would be an excellent addition to your
collection of highly valuable books you
have published so far.
Ernes Ho
SAN JOSE, CA
ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 5
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