![]() ![]() Consider the Ayazi mk2, which is designed around the ESS9023 DAC chip. Founded in Athens in 2016 by George Ligerakis and Vasilis Tounas, Ideon Audio manufactures only digital gear and takes some unorthodox approaches to getting it to sound good. Which brings me to the Ideon Ayazi mk2 DAC ($3950) and 3R Master Time Black Star USB reclocker (also $3950), a two-box digital source that made me think about the ways a component can encourage us to seek out certain musical experiences. It requires a more complex and multilateral approach. Engineering a digital source that is able to engage and hold your attention is not addressed by simple strategies like lowering distortion or minimizing jitter. ![]() ![]() Unfortunately, these qualities do not show up on an oscilloscope (footnote 1). I tend to think of these qualities as reproduced music's third dimension for me, they are essential to the illusion of a musical event happening in my listening room. Many digital sources excel at reproducing the contours of music, including the tiny sonic minutiae some listeners call "plankton." What they struggle with is filling in those contours with realistic information that registers as texture, color, impact, physicality, presence, and, most importantly, a sense of tonal densityof music pressurizing the air. I've listened to, and reviewed, plenty of nice-sounding digital gear, but I cannot remember many times I thought, "wow, this sounds incredible!" the way I sometimes do when I listen to a system organized around a wellset-up turntable. For me though, this musically exciting fact is sonically challenging, because I have a strong preference for music pressed on vinyl. What I'm getting around to saying is that, for many of us, streaming has become a crucial part of our musical diets, more indispensable than CDs ever were. During the most isolating months of the pandemic, Roon, Tidal, and Qobuz allowed me to spend many happy hours learning about Indian classical music, the pop traditions of Ethiopia, Mali, and Senegal, and some obscure corners of lover's rock and classic reggae, propelled record by record through the Tidal and Qobuz catalogs by Roon's machine-learning algorithms. I teach college classes, and my music-loving students know more about a broader array of music than I did at their age, thanks partly to YouTube and Spotify. ![]() Today, the internet and streaming have revolutionized access to music in ways that are frankly thrilling (if not for musicians, then definitely for listeners). It was usually necessary to buy a recording in order to hear it, so one's budget had to be apportioned impactfully. I grew up at a time when music was obtainable mostly on physical media: records, CDs, cassettes. I learned about music in places like this one, having figured out that the occasional eye roll was worth putting up with for the information and knowledge on offer. For those willing to hang out, it can be a place of authentic learning, like an impromptu grad-school seminar with Johnny Paycheck or the Mighty Diamonds on the stereo. It's run by a middle-aged guy with an ambiguous past, a lawyerly knowledge of recorded music, and the uneasy charisma of a carnie, and staffed by the guy's teenage male acolytes, who comport themselves like insiders privy to a really stupendous secret. But I like it just as much because great record stores tend to resemble one another in more idiosyncratic ways, and this one has the earmarks of the great record stores of my youth. I like it for the usual reasons: well-chosen merchandise, fair prices, fun music on the speakers while you browse. My little corner of Brooklyn happens to have a terrific little record shop. ![]()
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