BAASnotes.com – Bay Area Audiophile Society

Empirical Audio Event – Digital Audio at its Finest

Yesterday, about 30 BAAS members were treated to a fine demonstration of state-of-the-art digital audio.

On center stage were the pioneering products of Steve Nugent’s Empirical Audio. The key product highlight was the introduction to the new Overdrive DAC. Also on hand was a Pace Car tr-clocking/jitter reduction device and Steve’s personal Parasound JC-1 monoblocs.

The sound that they produced  through the Ficion F-300 speakers (supplemented by 15″ Rythmic Signature subs) was driving, extended and accurate. Great stuff!

But the true highlight of the day was Steve himself, and the wisdom and common sense that he shared with us about the past/present/future of digital sudio. Steve is a natural educator, and he helped many guests sort through the obstacles that they had encountered. In particular, he demonstrated jitter and the sonic contamination that it causes.

We ended each of the demos with a quick comparison with my highly-modified Berkeley Audio Alpha DAC (I call it my “Beta DAC” <g>). My opinions are biased by ownership, but I’ll say that the Empirical stack sounded great – at half the price.  

So many thanks to Steve (and Janet and Lucy), and we wish them all the best.

by Bob Walters

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