Hifi Pig

Cary Audio will be exhibiting at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. The 2012 edition of this show, America’s largest consumer presentation of high-performance audio systems, will be held at the Denver Tech Center Marriott from October 12-14. Cary Audio will have two rooms with full systems on display as well as hosting a booth in the Marketplace to display Audio Electronics by Cary Audio products, our subsidiary line of lower cost gear.

Cary Audio will partner with German loudspeaker manufacturer Adam Audio in Tower Room 8025 to present two live systems on demo. The main system will feature Cary Audio’s signature SLP-05 tube preamplifier, a pair of SA-500.1 monoblock amplifiers, and a CD-303T SACD/CD/DAC playing discs and operating as a DAC for high-resolution music files from a computer. Adam Audio’s new Gamma Mk2 from its Tensor range will be the primary speakers, with a pair of Classic Columns too. These speakers all feature Adam Audio’s proprietary take on the folded Air Motion Transformer tweeter and midrange, and HexaCone woofers. This main system will also be powered by cables by Claru.

A second smaller system will also be available for listening, comprising a pair of Adam Audio Classic Compact monitors driven by the new Audio Electronics Constellation preamplifier and Hercules power amplifier. These new tube products will be making their American public debut here at RMAF. The source for this system will be an iPod in a Wadia digital dock, playing lossless music files. It will also drive the new Cary Audio HH-1 hybrid and Audio Electronics Nighthawk solid-state headphone amplifiers, with a pair of AKG K702 headphones for listening.

Who would believe that the CD player is now 30 years old…almost to the day! Who out there sold all their vinyl collection and slowly started replacing it with easy to store shiny silver discs…I for one did just that! It seems a lifetime ago and if truth be known I only really bought my first CD player 5 or so years later in the late 80s.

Remember the whole hype behind CDs when they first came out and they being the ultimate in high end audio? I distinctly recall seeing a Tomorrows World presenter smear a gloopy helping of marmalade over one of the new fangled discs and marvelling at it being washed off and then being played as if nothing had happened. I also recall the radio station, where I worked as a DJ, having a sign declaring that “Hand Acid Kills CDs”.

So what the future of the CD?  If the rumour mill is to be believed it’s a format that is on the way out, but I think it will be around for a good while yet and whilst ever there are second-hand items to be had, I know it’s a format that I’ll continue to use.

The first CD I bought? “Maters of Reality” by Masters of Reality… what was yours?

Tortuga Audio, the South Florida based manufacturer has launched its website/store highlighting its new LDR6 Passive Preamplifier. The US designed and manufactured LDR6 is the first of several high end audio products that Tortuga Audio plans on releasing over the next year geared towards discriminating music lovers interested in high performance 2-channel stereo audio.
The LDR6 is designed around the use of audio grade light dependent resistors (LDRs) that are used both as analogue switches and as digitally controlled analogue attenuators for volume control.The LDR6 accommodates 6 line stage inputs in a simple, functional, and distinctive enclosure with premium materials and components.

“When we first started working with light dependent resistors, we quickly became impressed with the exceptionally open, natural and transparent audio sound that LDRs can deliver compared to even the best potentiometers or stepped attenuators. We immediately started working on designs, testing protocols, and tools needed to deliver consistent and balanced high performance from these uniquely nonlinear components. We’re very pleased with the results so far and after 2 years of reliable operation of various prototype designs we decided it was time to introduce Tortuga Audio and our final design, the LDR6 Passive Preamplifier, to the community of audio enthusiasts,” said Morten Sissener, founder and President of Tortuga Audio.