Stereo Times 2024 MOST WANTED COMPONENTS List

I also added to the most wanted list for 2024. This stuff if for free. There is no subscription you can go on the site and read the reviews. Why is sharing information about products we heard and enjoyed cause some people to get angry?  We are very fortunate to get to play in this hobby. It’s just free info. 

jh

@devinplombier and others - I condensed my thoughts and questions on Ethernet isolation devices like the Aardvark Ethernet Isolator, moved them to a more appropriate thread, and deleted/removed the three associated posts from below.

I forgot. Terry (and his publications) are big fans of Aric Audio tube gear, and he is spot on with that support. Aric Kimball makes some amazing tube gear, with top end components, point to point wiring, and are great values for such extraordinary equipment.....and yes I own several pieces of Aric's gear.

++1 for Terry's heads up on the updated CODA S5.5, should've named the S5.6 to mark the improvements. I purchased without hearing it, though I also got confirmation from Mike Kay at Audio Archon who is an excellent dealer.

The S5.5 is simply the best solid state amplifier I've ever heard with gear that I know. It's 50 WPC class A (more in A/B), very high current, and to my ears near perfect. I think Terry is a straight shooter, means to do well, and likes to share gear he is excited about.......I respect that.

@mitch2 - but of course. Surge protection is important and should be installed. Preferably professional solution, like Siemens. Not Monster crap. And Siemens filters cost only few hundred dollars, protect the entire house AND come with up to $100K warranty. I get THAT part.

@devinplombier - Thank you and no worries.  I am sure I have said too much already.  The audio industry is certainly not alone in rebranding existing concepts, mixing magic dust with metaphor, and pricing the resulting product so as to appear exclusive and unprecedented.

@mitch2 

I actually meant that your above posts were too good to be buried at the bottom of a general-purpose thread in the process of winding itself down. I appreciated them and thought they deserved a larger audience being in their own thread. 

My apologies for my earlier, poorly worded post. I'm re-reading myself and shaking my head. What can I say I had low blood caffeine :)

@devinplombier - Sorry to take up the space.  I will delete these if asked.

I basically started with a drill down of one of the "Most Wanted Components" - the Aardvark Ethernet Isolator, and looking into it I wound my way into why does this work, and why is this any different than typical industry products that do the same thing territory.  There are probably enough threads dedicated to Ethernet noise control.

@mitch2 perhaps move your posts above to a new thread dedicated to Ethernet noise control?

Education is the best tool to beat back ignorance. 

@mitch2 - I will get one when I see one in use at Google data center :-) For some reason I am pretty sure they don’t use "isolators" in their net connections while handling your FLAC files and streams...

There’s a difference between making a mistake in a post on a forum and committing a bunch of grammatical errors and misspellings in a professional, published review or article.

An example of the opposite is Jason Kennedy, editor or The Ear. His grammatical errors are so widespread and egregious that I simply cannot read anything by him any longer.

Sure as $h!t the guy who posts about how he can’t stand grammatical errors makes a mistake.

@ozzy62 

The name I was thinking of was Stereo Review, but the serious magazine I had in mind was Audio Magazine. Sorry for the mixup!

Didn't Stereo Times use to be a serious hi-fi magazine?

When was that?

Didn't Stereo Times use to be a serious hi-fi magazine?

I'm pretty sure a sense of humor exists on this and the S.T. Most Wanted site.

The Coda Technologies S5.5 amp is apparently sentient, even at an entry-level price point:

"It offers beautiful tonality/colors with total transparency reviling all the micro-details of the music ..."

@noromance , thanks for that.

@grislybutter , I knew you’d have my back, gris!😆

And another thing, if anyone thinks he knows what’s inside my head the joke’s on him because there’s nothing there!😎

@spenav ,

Aaaaannnnndddd there you go again.

You just proved my point. Who can’t let it go? Clearly you’re the one confused about that.

I’m confused about nothing, daddy-o. I make a simple observation and "Let loose the fanboy attack dogs!" My post wasn’t malicious, it wasn’t disparaging in any way. It was a simple observation. There was no agenda behind it. I have nothing against the guy, I don’t know him and have never read his reviews before this one. I post it and suddenly I have this nefarious agenda. You’re also under the misguided presumption you know what I’m thinking. You are the same as wrong. I hope this clears up your confusion in any future correspondence we may have. Good day to you, sir... I said good day!

@noromance +1 

I don't want to be caught here siding with members named thecarpathian or immathew but I always respect a grammar nazi. 

I care.

...grammatical errors on the internet. No one cares besides you.

@thecarpathian 

 I think you got confused way before that if you think you are providing a public service correcting spelling and grammatical errors on the internet. No one cares besides you. 

Note that "most" 'gon members don't care one wit about silly, overpriced tweeks, and it's funny to me that when somebody notes the unclothed emperor in the room they're condemned as luddites or a negative Nancy. Balderdash! You wanna collect $5,000 fuses and let your expectation bias provide the blanket of comfort that you seem to crave, more power to ya! Cheaper than a therapist maybe...but otherwise laughable.

bottom line: 

Sonically, the Ultra seems to put more “meat” on the bones, adding density, color, and weight to what is already a strikingly clean sonic picture. - AARDVARK ETHERNET ISOLATOR

He should write gooder.

Internet must be tragic for those with GPS. It’s like having lunch at an Indian buffet when you suffer from IBS.
What’s a beak dill if some one made a grammatical booboo. Have your pharmacist refill your fukitol prescription.

I enjoyed reading the Stereotimes list and had a good laugh from the QSA bit…those guys at QSA definitely have a good sense of humor.

@teajay 

Hey. Enjoy your posts. Respect.

Sorry, I got confused when you wrote "no one".

I let it go after my first post. I’m not the one who keeps bringing it up, I’m simply responding to posts directed at me.

But regardless, you also have a blessed weekend and a happy and blessed New Year.

@teajay   Let me state what you already know.  This forum has a higher percentage of members that like to rip on whatever.  Just a few years ago, it seemed like there were more posts from true gentleman whose mission was to help other members, not tear them down.

Anyway, while I may never have interest in a QSA product, I have always appreciated your input over the years and many of your reviews have led people to some very good gear indeed.  You were even kind enough to chat with me on the phone years ago about some questions I had on one of your reviews.  Thanks man.

@thecarpathian 
 I said we counting the other posters like @fthompson251 who said: “I am forever thankful to Terry for his pointing me to the Coda S5.5.I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!”. I am not the only one who thinks you should let go and frankly should have never started it. Have a blessed weekend. 

‘My point to @thecarpathian is that no one cares. We don’t read Terry’s reviews for his prose but because we appreciate his opinion.

For future reference you may want to replace "no one cares" with "I don’t care", "We don’t read" with "I don’t read" and "we appreciate" with "I appreciate" instead of taking it upon yourself to speak for everyone. But then again, speaking solely for yourself doesn’t have the same impact as including everyone versus me, does it.

Unless you have a mouse in your pocket. Then that’s just weird.

Think it’s time to let it go, don’t you?

@thecarpathian 

I find the easiest way to llok up proper spilling is to open Google and type the word as best I can.  Nearly 100% of the time I will find it (with the proper accent marks), then copy/paste

My spelling ability was once vast...now its half-vast.

Regards,

barts

It’s all relative IMO.  Terry’s minor grammatical errors never detracted from my understanding or appreciation of his articles personally.  An example of the opposite is Jason Kennedy, editor or The Ear.  His grammatical errors are so widespread and egregious that I simply cannot read anything by him any longer.  I end up rereading sentences attempting to find more natural breaks and structure just to make sense of it all.  It’s as if he skipped grade school.  How he became editor is beyond me!

@devinplombier 

Oui, oui. I know. Looks like my spellchecker sneaked it in on me and I was half asleep at midnight. Thanks.
‘My point to @thecarpathian is that no one cares. We don’t read Terry’s reviews for his prose but because we appreciate his opinion. 
‘While we are at it though, I feel compelled to point out that you didn’t need to start a new paragraph after the word “incorrectly“. The next sentence was just a continuation of the same thread of thoughts. 

I am forever thankful to Terry for his pointing me to the Coda S5.5.I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!

"Criticizing is so much easier, isn’t it?"

@spenav ,

So much easier than what? Being a professional reviewer/writer/editor who actually cares about proper grammar and misspellings in his reviews?

Yes, I imagine it is. You guys are blowing this so out of proportion it’s comical.

And thank you for pointing out my error. Anything that helps me become a better writer, I appreciate. Too bad others don’t share that point of view, huh?

@spenav

You are correct about what type of accent is to be used in this case, however I feel compelled to attract your attention to the fact that you spelled "aigue" incorrectly.

It should be "aigu", not "aigue", because the adjective derives its gender form from the noun's (here "accent"), and "accent" in French is masculine so "aigu" must be as well, and the final "e" would only be appropriate if the noun were of the feminine gender.

This thread is going weird places, isn't it

@thecarpathian 

You still didn’t get it right. Yours is what is called in French, accent grave (è). What you want is an accent aigue (é). Criticizing is so much easier, isn’t it?

Absolutely hilarious. The LTA DAC while probably sounds amazing on PCM files can’t do DSD and has no I2S input. So no spinning SACD’s via the Chinese Video HDMI to I2S adapter. A cheap ass SMSL or Topping DAC has this. And the DAC is obsoleted by Analog Devices . Of course the analog output stage it what makes the sound of a DAC. Not the chip. But at almost $4k. They should be offering offer DSD playback at minimum.

I’ll stick with my 11+ year PS Audi Directstream Sr. that still smokes DAC’s $5k or that are being proliferated on the market today.

https://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/obsolete-data-sheets/AD1865.pdf

@devinplombier

Touchè. Hey! Sweet, thank you. I just have to keep my finger pressed down on the ’e’. Thank you for ungauching me. And I don't mean that in a prison way...

@thecarpathian 

On my Pixel I just long-press the letter e and pick a character from the popup. On Windows, you have to use the ancient Character Map utility that comes with the OS.

The Android implementation is just so much quicker and friendlier to use

@devinplombier ,

How did you get that fancy thingy over the ’e’??

@thecarpathian you said touche' instead of touché, omg that's so gauche!

🤣🤣😂🤣🤣

’Cogitating’, ’perseverating’.

At least we know you own a thesaurus.

You sure get a bee in your bonnet over being corrected.

@audition__audio ​​​​​​ There are people on this forum that advertise, even though they shouldn't, the PS audio dac modifications come to mind.

@ozzy62 Sadly, even the serious academic journals go unedited these days. Outside The New Yorker, Harper's, and The Atlantic, it's word salad anarchy out there.

@mitch2 ​​

Touche’ sir, touche’!

I simply point out a grammatical error and not in any condescending, nasty and/or impolite way, and I’m accused of acrimonious behavior and being nitpicky and I’m getting crucified here. Don’t kill the messenger, I’d think a courteous ’thank you, I’ll know better next time’ was in order. Fine, screw up all the words you want. That’s it, I want my money back.

@teajay

Just so you know, we’ve got you figured out. Your spelling errors are a clever strategy designed to lull us into complacency so that you can more easily empty our bank accounts!

;o)

Sheesh...

Can we move on to the next conspiracy theory?