BAASnotes.com – Bay Area Audiophile Society

For Macintosh: Play is now AyreWave!

Stephen F. Booth, the prolific work-in-his-spare-time Mac audio coder, has publicly released beta code for the successor to Play – AyreWave.

Taking the same lean-and-mean approach as Play, AyreWave keeps the interface simple and adds ‘hog mode’ and ‘memory playback.’ The results are impressive. (I have been beta-testing the product for the last few weeks.)

I doubt if AyreWave is specifically targeted at Pure Audio and Amarra (it’s free after all), but this release closes the gap with those two products.

Stephen has agreed to do a future BAAS event.

Tubes for Christmas (1930)

Velodyne Impresses at Audio High

It’s great when a manufacturer is willing (and able) to put aside sales and marketing and just teach.

Yet that is exactly what Velodyne did for BAAS members yesterday at the impressive Audio High facility in Mountain View.

Members heard – and felt (!) – what real bass means to audio reproduction. Moreover, we experienced just what those dreaded “room modes” can do to bass frequencies.

Impressive indeed. Thanks, guys!

Bob

10 Most Expensive Loudspeakers?

OK, here’s the list.

I doubt if it’s totally accurate, but it’s quite entertaining.

Hint: The Japanese Transmission Audio numbers on the right go for a cool $2M.

Bob

Audio Federation Blog – An Enjoyable Read

I found this blog worth reading pretty much in its entirety. Starts with a report on RMAF 2010 and works backwards through all kinds of interesting stuff.

You may not agree with everything being said, but there is a lot of thoughtful info here (IMO). For example, I like the audiophile personas (e.g., “toy collector”) that ‘Mike’ defines.

More on the subjective side of life….

Enjoy,

Bob

Music Server Power

Would a $2000 power cable improve the sound of a music server?

You got me.

But at had fun today hooking one of my (excellent) Verstarr Grand Illusion cables into one of my company’s security appliances.

Web traffic has never flowed smoother here!

Bob

Analog Audio On the Rise (Again)

Electric House e-mag has some interesting info on the resurgence of ‘analog’ in home sound reproduction.

The article comes in two parts:

• A fairly long chat with Mike Framer about turntables (surprise!); and
• A primer on tubes (good info for the nube on tube types)

As I look across the audio scene, I see the most excitement and energy in three areas:

• Headphones
• Turntables; and
• Computer (‘music server’) playback

What about you?

Bob

Dr Dre Bemoans “Decimation of Sound” (Video)

Well, I guess that we should applaud any and all efforts to raise the quality of reproduced sound. As such, here’s the latest effort to mainstream high fidelity (again)….

Click image to view video.

Thanks, Aaron!

BAAS Member to Sell $99 Hanger

BAAS member DougOlsen has a unique item for sale on Audiogon.

A hanger. Yes, a dry-cleaner’s clothes hanger.

Cleverly marketed as a ‘cable puller’ and conservatively priced at $99 ($250 list), the device should appeal to tweakers everywhere.

Yes, humor is alive & well in the East Bay….

The ad is a joke.

Bob