Audio Esoterica Issue 1 - 2022

Think you don’t want a CD player anymore? This one you will want: indeed, Kalista’s DreamPlay XC is more than a CD player — it’s a CD/SACD player, but also a streamer, a DAC and a digital preamplifier all in one, with the internal DAC distinguishing it from the otherwise identical DreamPlay X. So while that X model outputs digitally via AES/EBU, coaxial SPDIF or I2S, the XC adds analogue balanced and unbalanced outputs. Kalista is a French brand spun off from Metronome Technologies in 2014, and it aims to create the highest possible level of audio equipment. Its range of sources began with a CD transport, then developing conversion technology and finally streaming, with the DreamPlay XC as the ultimate expression of their advanced technologies and design — the technical…

Think you don’t want a CD player anymore? This one you will want: indeed, Kalista’s DreamPlay XC is more than a CD player — it’s a CD/SACD player, but also a streamer, a DAC and a digital preamplifier all in one, with the internal DAC distinguishing it from the otherwise identical DreamPlay X. So while that X model outputs digitally via AES/EBU, coaxial SPDIF or I2S, the XC adds analogue balanced and unbalanced outputs. Kalista is a French brand spun off from Metronome Technologies in 2014, and it aims to create the highest possible level of audio equipment. Its range of sources began with a CD transport, then developing conversion technology and finally streaming, with the DreamPlay XC as the ultimate expression of their advanced technologies and design — the…

The wood drying takes six months. Then there’s 90 minutes of machining to flawlessly form the cabinet elements. And that’s followed by a full 126 hours of artisan handcrafting before final assembly and quality control sees a single pair of Chario’s Academy Sonnet loudspeakers signed off and ready to be shipped from their home in Italy. Chario has been handbuilding loudspeakers for 47 years from its base in Milan, long favouring heavy wood cabinet construction, and strictly of Italian origin sourced from walnut plantations in the north-east of the country. They’re age-dried for six months until the correct internal humidity is measured, before machining begins and then assembly of jointed slats with dovetail joints, which Chario regards as the best solution in attaining structural rigidity for its hefty loudspeakers. These Academy Sonnets,…

The wood drying takes six months. Then there’s 90 minutes of machining to flawlessly form the cabinet elements. And that’s followed by a full 126 hours of artisan handcrafting before final assembly and quality control sees a single pair of Chario’s Academy Sonnet loudspeakers signed off and ready to be shipped from their home in Italy. Chario has been handbuilding loudspeakers for 47 years from its base in Milan, long favouring heavy wood cabinet construction, and strictly of Italian origin sourced from walnut plantations in the north-east of the country. They’re age-dried for six months until the correct internal humidity is measured, before machining begins and then assembly of jointed slats with dovetail joints, which Chario regards as the best solution in attaining structural rigidity for its hefty loudspeakers. These…

Merging Technologies is a Swiss company best known for its prowess in digital audio recording systems, delivering hardware and technology to allow pristin-equality media to be captured in world-class studios around the globe. After a decade working for fellow Swiss audio-maker Nagra Kudelski, designer Claude Cellier founded Merging Technologies in 1990 with the intention of mastering the art of digital signal processing. Soon after it was established, Merging Technologies became one of the first companies to produce a DSD (Direct Stream Digital) recording system, and then went on to co-develop the DXD (Digital eXtreme Definition) format alongside Philips. This new DXD format worked at 352.8kHz/24-bit and was initially introduced in the Merging Pyramix workstation to combat the issues presented by editing and mastering for SACD (Super Audio CD). Among the big…

Merging Technologies is a Swiss company best known for its prowess in digital audio recording systems, delivering hardware and technology to allow pristin-equality media to be captured in world-class studios around the globe. After a decade working for fellow Swiss audio-maker Nagra Kudelski, designer Claude Cellier founded Merging Technologies in 1990 with the intention of mastering the art of digital signal processing. Soon after it was established, Merging Technologies became one of the first companies to produce a DSD (Direct Stream Digital) recording system, and then went on to co-develop the DXD (Digital eXtreme Definition) format alongside Philips. This new DXD format worked at 352.8kHz/24-bit and was initially introduced in the Merging Pyramix workstation to combat the issues presented by editing and mastering for SACD (Super Audio CD). Among the…