08-31-10




Just Released as a SHM-SA-CD [Super High Material-SACD] in Japan...Got my copy today and I must say the packaging is sumptuous!
This is the first high res issue of the classic Who's Next album.  I am playing it right now on the Esoteric X-05, Aesthetix Calypso and Mark Levinson amp. The sound is very good NOT BRIGHT with better fine detail. More listening is of course needed -  so far so good. I also got the first Dire Straits album and Steely Dan - Aja in the same SHM-SA-CD packages. Will have images and some detail on the sound soon. 

Magico V2's are shipping to us next week. We cannot wait to get em set up and running here.

08-19-10




Well, well.....the Weiss DAC-202 arrived today. From the moment you unwrap it, view its beautiful box and open it up, it is impressive. I can say the install of the Weiss drivers and installation went very smoothly. I find the feature set to be the best yet on this planet. I hooked it up driving the latest Mark Levinson ML 532H amp directly via Transparent XLR cables. It sounds absolutely fabulous immediately. We are running a 3 meter 4pin to 6 pin 1394-3 Audioquest firewire cable from the computer to the firewire input on the weiss. It locks to every thing I throw at it without any problem. 

 


We are stocking and selling The Ayre QB-9, Esoteric D-07, Berkeley Alpha, Weiss DAC-202 and the way cool Peachtree Products. If there is another store in the world doing this I am not aware of it. Computer audio is REALLY here.




The awesome Ayre QB-9 dac.


07-24-10

Wanted to talk a little about using a computer in conjunction with an audiophile grade, modern DAC.  We continue to get very fine, bit transparent data using the HIFACE 192 kHz Digital Audio Interface. Here are a few images of laptop and DAC combos we are running.




This is the display from our Sony Windows 7 laptop, foorbar 2000 playing Neil Young - Archives Volume one Disc 8. These are from the blu-ray box set mastered at 24 bit 192 kHz.



Neil Young files playing at 24 bit resolution, as displayed by the awesome Berkley Alpha DAC- notice that these files are indeed also HDCD encoded. We are driving directly the Mark Levinson ML532H power amp. The preamp section in the Alpha is second to none.



Berkley showing that 192 Khz is indeed possible and works great!



Here we have a brand new HP Windows 7 computer with 17.4" display. We are again running Foobar 2000. Output is via HiFace/BNC to Audioquest Hawkeye BNC > RCA digital coax -- sweet. We are running the Esoteric SA-50 SACD/CD player that is also a high-end DAC/Preamp. The Esoteric features USB, S/PDIF and Toslink inputs. The Esoteric can handle files natively at 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4 and 192kHz. The very cool thing is here you still have a reference SACD and CD player transport to boot!   



Shows Esoteric DAC locked to Santana Supernatural 24bit 96Khz files. The Esoteric can drive power amps directly with a high-end built in preamp to control digital inputs and volume. This can be altered in the setup menu. Very nice combo!



Here is the wonderful Esoteric D-07 Dual-Mono 32 bit Digital preamp. Here we have a Windows 7 HP laptop running Foobar 2000 at up to 24 bit 192 kHz. Input to the DAC is via HiFace > S/PDIF Audioquest Hawkeye BNC digital cable. Audio is then driven directly to the power amp. Check out my hip HP 500 Gig pocket drive. It has Herbie's Audio feet on it and it has a type B USB connection, allowing use of a top tier USB cable by Transparent Audio. 

06-15-10

We are very excited about the Magico line of speakers and customer interest is very high too.



Cheers!


06-06-10



Been away....we will be back soon.

05-28-10

Interesting article from NY Times about high end audio and lossy compression

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/10/business/media/10audio.html

Letter about compressed audio, etc. by Steve Wilson of Porcupine Tree

http://www.recordstoreday.com/Home

05-25-10

Hello out there....just a quick thought...We had a discussion here yesterday about the continued importance of high end compact disc players. One of the best analogies that came about was -- "I have a Kindel bookreader and it will never replace books or even magazines for me"  They are just different things. We all love computer audio here; we are just not ready to say we don't need a great CD player in our lives, because we do. Having the physical media and artwork in your hand is relaxing and familiar too.


Here is one of the world's best examples -- The Esoteric X-05 SACD/CD player -- breathtaking build, looks and performance.


05-11-10

Please help us wecome Magico Loudspeakers  -- 




Hello music lovers -- we are proud to announce a very important addition to our offerings in loudspeakers. In ~ 6 to 7 weeks we will receive our first pair of Magico loudspeakers. We have the V2 model ordered and can't wait to play them for you. Watch this space for further updates.
Combined with our state of the art tube and solid state electronics, world's best sources and cables, we can put together a system that will surpass all your expectations! Please visit the official Magico website www.magico.net for more details...

04/29/10




Above image taken in the back of our Store today.

Well spring has really sprung here in Upstate New York. It has been a wild couple of weeks for Victoria and I. We went to see our absolute favorite band The Church [from Australia] twice!  The first show was in Cleveland at The Winchester on April 17th...great place to see a band. That is why we were in Cleveland for the Record Store day. Next we went to Sellersville, PA. for the April 24th show. The Sellersville theater is also an excellent venue with an old Victorian feel. It has an attached restaurant too that has a great bar to take a load off before and after. Highly recommended place to visit. It is located just north of Philadelphia and is a breeze to drive to. We got to visit with the band members both times and have some great pictures and memories of the trips.



This is me on the left with my buddy Steve Kilbey of The Church 


Watch this space for a major new speaker line coming to our store soon...[and I do mean major].

Lastly, we are putting up some real nice used gear right now on our used/demo page.


04/28/10

Saturday the 17th was international record store day. My sources and first hand experience says record sales are booming. We were in Cleveland, OH. for a show and went to 2 record stores.

  

The most impressive one was Music Saves on Waterloo Road. We waited in line for 35 minutes just to get in the place. On hand was a fantastic selection of gorgeous new vinyl. Most people were buying records in all sizes -- CD's pretty much not that day.

Some pics from our Cleveland jaunt --


Me in front of the way excellent Great Lakes Brewing pub and restaurant -- Downtown next to the public market -- great food and drink!


The Church on stage at The Winchester, Lakewood section of Clev. OH. 04-17-10   taken with my new camera phone --


--feast your eyes on this record player --




03/30/10



Just in is the highly anticipated Magnepan 1.7 in deluxe finish black grill with black aluminum side panels --
Right off the bat we are getting really nice, accurate, articulate sound. See the Parasound Halo gear -- P3 preamp and A21 power amp.
This is the amp our friends at The Absolute Sound strongly recommend as "The Amp" to get the best out of Magnepan speakers.

Make an appointment to come and see/hear these beauties!


03/28/10



This image shows The Analog Shop Sony Vaio laptop with the M2Tech Hiface being used running foorbar 2000 --

HIFACE 192 kHz Digital Audio Interface



Very exciting new product we are now carrying is the M2TECH HiFace USB to Spdif digital adapter. This is the finest sounding and functioning item we have found at anywhere near its asking price. The HiFace works seamlessly once it's drivers are installed. The unit comes with a disc and you can very easily check for latest drivers on the manufactures website. The Hiface allows bit perfect output at 44.1, 48, 88.2, 176.4 and 192 kHz. We tested it with both the Berkeley Audio Design Alpha and the Esoteric D-07 dacs.  This is monumental at the low asking price.

So....how does it sound?

It sounds great! I encounted no problems like drop outs or pops whatsoever. No more windows [or mac] SRC [sample rate converter] messing up my coveted, and growing fast, high resolution audio files. Don't get me wrong, Daniel Weiss has a more expensive unit -- the INT-202 which does this too via firewire interface. We will do a comparison soon. Bear in mind the price difference is large between the two so we expect a bit of difference. Bottom line is for the asking price the flood gates will open to a lot more people with the fantastic little Hiface.

Available now at The Analog Shop, Inc.

BNC output Hiface -- $180.00
RCA output Hiface -- $150.00

Here is a link to the Italian manufacturers website -- http://www.m2tech.biz/products.html

Shoot us an email or give a call if you need more info...exciting times in computer audio!!!


03/19/10



Hello music lovers....many cool things happening right now at our store. The Peachtree line is really hot. We have the Peachtree Nova on display to see and hear.
The idecco is the worlds first direct digital from ipod integrated amp. This allows you to use the fantastic internal dac inside the idecco for digital to analog conversion. This vastly improves the sound from your ipod. The idecco is the "I gotta have it" desktop unit right now. Such a steal at only $999.00. See this link for a superb review by Six Moons magazine -- http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/idecco/idecco.html  Coupled with a good set of speakers like the Dynaudio Excite 12 or the Harbeth P3ESR you have the makings of a superb office system or smaller room system. Don't forget these units have killer headphone amps included -- we have the Audio Technica models to see and hear. With the headphones I promise you sound like a pair of $20K loudspeakers with $19,850.00 left for music purchases :^) or other gear.  

Magnepan is planning to start shipping the new 1.7 speakers at the end of the month. This is highly anticipated to be sure. We have ours ordered in deluxe [$100.00 more] finish -- black cloth w/black aluminum. We now have a sample of the silver aluminum for you to see to compare when ordering.

Computer audio is booming. We have the Berkeley Alpha and the Esoteric D-07 dacs tied into a brand new, very cool Sony laptop. We are interfacing with the superb M2Tech Hiface or the Weiss INT-202 firewire.  Come by to hear how awesome this can sound. Our Esoteric SA-50 and D-07 are now fully broken in and they are rocking right now.

The Clearaudio concept is on display now with the Clearaudio Aurum Alpha mk II wood. The build, fit and finish, and sound are all the best available in this price [~$1,760.00 with cartridge included]. VPI 16.5 record cleaners on display and in stock very shortly. We should have supplies like fluid too. VPI Classic turntable coming in soon. We will have it setup with a very good cartridge [TBD, ideas?] and the latest, greatest yet, Convergent Audio Technology Renaissance preamp.

We have just added Parasound to our Solid State electronics products. Very happy to be offering the Halo series. These are world class products with a great reputation for value. We think the A21 and A23 amps paired with the Magnepan speakers will be a big hit.

Lastly, Sonus Faber Cremona M speakers will be back on display in just a few days. The latest M is really something special. We chose the beautiful graphite finish...we will get them breaking in early next week.

Later...........
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03/04/10

Well......our high end audio business sure is exciting these days. I want to touch on the subject of high resolution audio. First off, we have been selling real high resolution audio since the day we opened in the form of top notch Vinyl LP playback gear. The Analog Shop has established itself as an extremely knowledgeable dealer that offers the best products available to help music lovers get the most from their existing or growing music collections.

We see two great ways to enjoy music now in the home that are impressive from any standpoint. One of the reasons our new website has been delayed so long has been my fascination with computer audio. Computer audio done right is really excellent sounding. I have been collecting lossless music on several [six now] external hard drives for about 3 years. In the last six months the flood gates have opened for higher than CD quality files. We had on display simultaneously the Ayre QB-9, the Berkeley Audio Alpha and the Weiss Minerva DAC at the end of 2009. Armed with a ton of superb music and top notch audio gear to feed these dacs output to I was like a kid with the keys to a candy shop.

Having amassed a huge collection of music in this lifetime has its problems as far as locating and listening to it. Since setting up our computer audio system in the shop we are assembling incredibly diverse play lists. Finally I can find and play almost anything I have and this is monumental.

Simultaneously we have been greeted by an avalanche of Analog products in all price ranges. The latest Rega turntables are absolutely the finest this firm has ever offered. Clearaudio continues to amaze us with their diverse offerings and product mix. The new Clearaudio Concept record player is cool as all get out. Clearaudio offer a mix of tables from just over $1000.00 up to $150.000.00! Linn Products has introduced several superb new updates to the classic LP-12 turntable. Ortofon phono cartridges are selling really well from 2M blue at only $199.00 to the world beating MC-A90 MC cartridge. Old favorites of ours Dynavector, Benz Micro, Lyra and Shelter all are pushing the envelope of value and sound quality.

The Speaker front has been much the same as other product ranges. We are now offering Harbeth Monitors from the design genius of Alan Shaw. We have displayed the Harbeth 40.1, the Harbeth Compact 7ES, the Harbeth HL5 Super and the world beating Harbeth P3-ESR. Sonus Faber replaced the Domus Series the New Sonus Faber Toy range. Sonus Faber also released the new Liuto range including the Liuto floorstander. We are pleased to see our buying decisions reinforced in The Absolute Sounds Best of Golden Ear awards this year. We have both the Sonus Faber Liuto and the Harbeth P3-ESR set up in our two downstairs listening rooms. Last years winner the Revel Ultima Salon 2 is set up in our reference room on the second floor!

Magnepan has been a hot seller this past year and with the announcement of the new Magnepan MG 1.7 panel speaker lovers everywhere should be [and are] rejoicing.

 We have not even touched on disc players and electronics.....stay tuned.