SERVICE,

SALES...
DID WE SAY

Audiophilia
SERVICE?

Volume 1, Issue 1

August 15, 2008

Contact: Editor@aslgroup.com
dCS Puccini—Incorruptible!
By Parker King sub. But, something was miss- OMG!…the sound of the Puc-
After many months of saving ing, I wanted to get back into cini’s analog out, through the
from my rental property in- music more, and after the Puc- Arcam’s ADC and finally
come, I recently purchased a cini was released, I just had to through the Arcam’s DAC,
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
dCS Puccini, their one-box have one. Of course, my was STILL better than the
CD/SACD machine (afford it budget would not allow im- DV139 analog output on ste-
on just a hifi industry income? proving more than one com- reo direct! The output from
…not likely). There is much ponent at a time, so now here the Ring DAC is SO-O-O
ASL beehive 2
to be said about this machine, I am with a Puccini into an good that it loses little going
Charlie’s column 3 even more than the abso!ute AVR350. As a ‘front-end first’ through all that extra crap!
sound review presented re- guy from my days with Linn, Basically, analog output from
New Burmester 3
cently. But first, I must relate this is not too bad. In fact, it’s the Puccini is incorruptible,
Nordost Seminars 4 how the above title came to surprisingly good. you can’t make it bad no mat-
mind. ter how hard (cont’d page 2)
Having the AVR350, with its
connection and
I was out of the hifi industry processing flexibil-
for 4 years, from 99-03, and ity, allowed me to
during that time I was forced do some compari-
to sell off my Linn Aktiv Kaber sons after enjoying
system. So, I started rebuilding the Ring DAC
following being hired by ASL analog out through
and found that Arcam had my Nordost Frey
dramatically improved in my intercons. One
absence, so I was happy for a day recently I de-
Special points of long time with a DV139, cided to push the
interest: AVR350 and a Piega surround ‘direct’ stereo
speaker setup with a REL B2 button to off –
• Audiophilia is recom-
mended for Audiophile
Systems dealer/rep reading
Nordost Pulsar Points not just pointy
ONLY!
…and neither are the Quasar amps on top of them! something like Roger Waters’
• Charlie Krone. VP/customer Points. Yes, we are all familiar Amused to Death, and play 30
service, wants to warp with isolation devices, going
Seriously, the Nordost points
seconds. Then pop just 3 of
time! (see page 3) back to Mod Squad Tiptoes the aluminum Pulsar Points
with the bendy points. Well, DO work. The best demo under it (4 takes too much
let me tell you, the points of we’ve experienced is to start time and is too exacting, with 3
• Meet Jenny Smith, the with something like an Arcam
the Nordost products won’t you can put two under the
hardest-working woman in be bending any time soon, CD player by itself, playing front easy enough, then easily
ASL-biz (see page 2) unless maybe you put a ceiling- music with a wide dynamic put one under the middle of
high stack of Burmester 909 range and heavy overlay mix, the back of the (cont’d page 2)
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1
Page 2

dCS Puccini—Incorruptible! (cont’d)

you try. Now I am listening to music all Puccini as digital
the time and enjoying every genre even preamp, and
on my bookshelf Piega TP 3. I have source in two
been wonderfully stunned by what I’m more digital
hearing from my standards – Van Mor- sources (out of
rison’s Moondance, whole album but a records, sorry),
special new appreciation for the title the DV139 for
track, Bjork’s first album, you know the the occasional
woodwind track with the prominent movie, and the
bassoon is awesome, heretofore irritat- DirecTV box for
ing. Sinatra even in mono, so much music videos.
more going on in the Nelson Riddle Looking forward
backup, surprising amount of acoustic to getting the
seeping through. Overall, the most max out of my
noticeable things are, of course, the incorruptible
near analog acoustic space, and the Puccini!
harmonic resonance and richness in
group vocal and instrumental works.

My next plan is to save for a Burmester

power amp, probably the 036 but
maybe the 956 Mk2, drive it with the

ASL Beehive—who’z who heah. Bzzzzzzzz.

Meet Jenny Smith, one of the newer Jenny facilitates incoming and outgoing molly-coddled right out of her. This
ASL employees with 1 1/2 years ser- product flow, she tries to get vendors lady can work, pick ‘em up and lay ‘em
vice. to play nice, she assists dealers and down!!! Call Jenny directly at exten-
Jenny brought to ASL a wealth of reps get what they want, and she’s sion 215.
knowledge in marketing and distribu- Cambre’ girl! You got the questions
tion management, about Cambre’ and
domestic and inter- she’s got the answers,
national business “You got the questions and if she doesn’t, she’s
management, a jolly fine guesser, very
AND...she likes mu-
about Cambre’ and she’s creative.
sic! (Not only that, got the answers, and if she Finally, Jenny is one of
she is also a musi- doesn’t, she’s a jolly fine the few people of her
cian, playing guitar guesser, very creative.” generation not to have
and piano, Hoo-ah!) had the work ethic

Nordost Pulsar Points not just pointy (cont’d)

the unit). Do another 30 seconds and
you’ve made the $120 sale because of
the increased resolution. But wait! In
a big step, swap out to the Titanium
points and play another 30 seconds…
Nordost Quasar
greater resolution, much more precise
placement, more detail and more com- Points
prehensible vocals. A $450 step up in a
couple minutes. And, your customers
will love you for it.
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1
Page 3

WAY too much information...from Charlie

Charlie Krone, ASL Vice President for I have to put a client Until I can learn
Customer Service, is at the sharp edge off until the morning to warp time
of our drive to continue being the best so I can confirm my either ahead 19
in the industry at taking care of our answer with a Brit. hours or back 5
customers. He recently took some ASL clients have hours (remember
time out of his busy day to respond to invested in a quality- that movie Fre-
questions about customer service- of-life product. If quency w/Dennis
there is an issue, Quaid?), this re-
question, or concern mains my most
Audiophilia: “As VP for customer ser- that they need to troubling and
vice, what do you see as your most have addressed, and difficult task.”
difficult task?” I cannot address it, I
feel personally that
The Krone: “Temporal customer ser- the service has not Audiophilia:
vice. When I get a call at 2:30pm from lived up to the prod- “What are the
John Q. Hifi asking if he can use the uct. I do have a most common
dual-AES output of his Lynx soundcard rather unique knowl- operational ques-
with a dCS Elgar @24/192 (for exam- edge of our product Charlie graduated from college. tions that you see
ple), I can make an educated guess lines (OW!!!! My that are not well
based upon online research and my arm!), but even the addressed by the
own knowledge-base. But, seeing as it great Charlie sometimes needs to con- owner’s manual?”
is 2:30pm, that would make it cocktail sult with the Big Brains who designed
hour in Cambridge, and the usual sup- the stuff.
port contacts across the big swimming The Krone: “We represent several
pool are not at their posts. That means lines, so I’ll pick one (cont’d below)

New Burmester Products!

Burmester Audiosysteme debuted or optional external power supply. power amp.
three new products at this year’s Mu- Sound quality is reference all the way, The B30 tower loudspeaker is a con-
nich Hi End Show: The 077 Reference US MAP is expected to range from tinuation of the Burmester tower line-
Line Preamp, the 082 Classic Line Inte- $40-55k depending on power supply. up at about $16k in standard Elsberry,
grated Amp, and the
B30 tower loud-
speaker. The 082 classic-line
integrated is expected
“The 077 is offered as a to fill the gap between
The 077 is offered as reference alternative to the the $9500 Rondo 051
a reference alterna- and the $22,500 Classic
tive to the venerable venerable 808 (scheduled soon Line 032. At a US MAP
808 (scheduled soon for Mk6 incarnation)” of about $18k, the 082
for Mk6 incarnation) is descended from the Burmester 077
and offers an internal 035 preamp and 036

WAY too much information...from Charlie (cont’d)

from each. I’d like to say upfront the ternal digital sources. 069 and 001 CD players have a variable
documentation is excellent for all of For Burmester: Tricky. There is such analog output that allows them to be
our products. That being said, there is a wide variety of products, electronic hooked directly to power amplifiers.
always room for improvement. and otherwise, that it would be prohibi- They also feature several digital inputs
tively time consuming to try to excerpt which effectively make them fantastic
For dCS: I often get the question, “Do each handbook. Since Burmester preamps for digital sources. All of the
the SPDIF inputs run through the up- manufactures their products with a CD players sport digital inputs, but I
sampler in the DAC?”, and most com- ‘system approach’, I do sometimes get really dig the flexibility of the upper tier
monly with respect to the Puccini. The questions about how easy it is to inte- of CD players. (But of course, you
Paganini and Scarlatti DACs have no grate Burmester products with those of really should get a preamp or inte-
upsampler built-in, so that would be a other manufacturers. The short an- grated amp with that. Why? Because I
rather obvious ‘no’. The Puccini will swer is that it is a breeze! On this said so, that’s why!)”
only upsample redbook discs, not ex- front, it is worth mentioning that the (continued in next issue of Audiophilia)
 Audiophilia is an occasional publication of Audiophile Systems LTD.
Volume 1, Number 1, August 15, 2008

Executive Editors: Tony Gregory, CEO and Karen Richardson, President

Managing Editor: Parker King
Contributors: Charlie Krone, VP/customer service, Parker King, Jenny Smith, Paula
Harris
8709 Castle Park Drive
Indianapolis, IN 46256
Phone: 317-841-4100 All content is the sole property of Audiophile Systems LTD. and is for the sole use
Fax: 317-841-4107
General e-mail: aslgroup@aslgroup.com of our dealers and representatives.

Audiophile Systems LTD is a premier importer, distributor and sales company for
SERVICE, SALES... high-end audio electronics. Our primary focus is the retrieval and transmission of
DID WE SAY SERVICE? all musical information from any music storage medium, including computer files,
digital discs, and vinyl discs. For 35 years, our customers have looked to us for the
Expression transported. ultimate in performance and consumer satisfaction.

Audiophilesystems.com

Nordost seminars week of August 17th

Nordost will be conducting two seminars
at Audiophile Systems in Indianapolis the
week of August 17th.
Bjorn Bengtsson, Nordost’s International ODIN
Sales trainer will be here from Sweden as
our presenter. Michael Taylor, Director of Supreme Reference Power Cord
North American Sales, and Joe Reynolds,
President of Nordost, will be here as well.
WE HOPE THAT YOU CAN COME!
A limited number of slots are still available.
Travel expenses will be reimbursed. If
you’re interested in attending, please con-
tact Karen Richardson or Mike Marko.

Bjorn
Bengtsson

Quantum Resonant Technology

QX2