Adapted articles from out-of-print and never-before-on-Internet print magazine.

The Audio Critic

Issue No. 15 Spring through Winter 1990-91

Editor and Publisher Peter Aczel Contributing Editor David Rich Cartoonist and Illustrator Tom Aczel Business Manager Bodil Aczel The Audio Critic® is an advisory service and technical review for consumers of sophisticated audio equipment. The usual delays notwithstanding, it is scheduled to be published at approximately quarterly intervals by The Audio Critic, Inc. Any conclusion, rating, recommendation, criticism, or caveat published by The Audio Critic represents the personal findings and judgments of the Editor and the Staff, based only on the equipment avail able to their scrutiny and on their knowledge of the subject, and is therefore not offered to the reader as an infallible truth nor as an irreversible opinion applying to all extant and forthcoming samples of a particular product. Address all editorial correspondence to The Editor, The Audio Critic, P.O. Box 978, Quakertown, PA 18951, USA.

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A new and highly accredited contributor to our journal discusses in depth the current state of CD player technology, from DAC architecture and digital filters to analog stage design, and rates the various approaches.

Inspired by the above, your Editor reviews a baker's dozen (count them: 13) CD players and D/A processors.

The introductory first part of our promised exposé of the wire/cable scene makes its delayed appearance.

A short (but not last) installment of the "Seminar 1989" transcript is shoehorned between timelier matters.

Plus our accustomed columns and features, including the return of "Hip Boots" and lots of CD reviews.

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Contents

The Present State of CD Player Technology: Who Is Doing It Right? By David A. Rich, Ph.D. Senior VLSI Design Engineer, TLSI, Inc. Adjunct Assistant Professor, Polytechnic University

Current CD Players and D/A Processors, New and Not So New, Multibit and One-Bit, By Peter Aczel, Editor and Publisher

Aragon D2A, Carver TL-3220, Euphonic Technology Mk II Signature, Harman/Kardon HD7600, JVCXL-Z1010TN, Meridian 208, Onkyo Integra DX-7500, Philips CD-80 , Pioneer Elite PD-71, PS Audio "Digital Link", Sony CDP-608ESD, Sony D-555 "Discman", Theta DS Pre Basic

Recommendations

The Wire and Cable Scene: Facts, Fictions, and Frauds Part I, By Peter Aczel, Editor and Publisher

Hip Boots Wading through the Mire of Misinformation in the Audio Press

John Atkinson in Stereophile

Neil Levenson in Fanfare

Seminar 1989: Exploring the Current Best Thinking on Audio Part III of the Continuing Transcript

Records & Recording

CD's from the Golden Age of Audio (Meaning Right Now)

By Peter Aczel, Editor and Publisher

Beethoven, Handel, Berlioz, Medelssohn/Schubert, Bernstein/Barber/Gershwin, Piston, Bruckner, Ravel, Dvorak, Schubert, Elgar, Verdi, Franck

Box 978: Letters to the Editor