Shawn Kernes Blog

There are a few "frivolous" things I am willing to spend money on. They include cars, watches, audio equipment, and outdoor equipment. My favorite things are highly engineered for the sake of being highly engineered. Watches, cars (or motorcycles), and tape decks rank very high on my list. I traded a Panerai PAM111 watch for a PS Audio DirectStream DAC a few months ago. I loved the watch but rarely wore it, and I have never owned a true reference level DAC before (the closest was a Benchmark DAC1-HDR, a Logitech Transporter, and a TACT 2.2XP)... Seemed like a good trade. Putting the DirectStream DAC into my system wasn't life-changing... at least not at first. I plugged it in, installed the Huron firmware update, and started streaming from Tidal. It sounded good. It wasn't until I A/B'd it against a Sonos connect that I realized how much clearer it the DirectStream was. It literally sounded as if I had removed a wet blanket from overtop my spea...

There is something lost from the experience of listening to music when you can jump from song to song, and artist to artist without ever getting up. There is something that you can only get by listening to an Album, on vynal or tape, straight through in the order the artist intended. There is something about the process of making a mix-tape for someone you care about, a knowing they will hear the songs in the order you laid them out. I have been getting back into tapes lately. For all the same reasons tapes were a natural "successor" to vinyl, I think they should, and will make a comeback in the next few years. There are a few TOTL tape decks that are well known among almost anyone who lived through the 80's and 90's. They are: Nakamichi Dragon Revox B215 (and its variants the B215-S, and H1) Tandberg 3014A While all amazing tape decks, they also already fetch amazing prices. It's not uncommon for people to pay ~$3K for one in great condition. I ...

A few days ago i ran across a craigslist ad for a Sony TC-RX79ES. $40 for a late model ES autoreverse deck with Dolby HX pro... The ad said it was "for parts", meaning it has something wrong with it... but it could be a fun project. I picked it up, got it home and gave it a good cleaning. It was already really clean so it didnt take long. The i stuck in a tape to see what it did. And, it ate the tape. I initially thought the issue had to do with dirty pinch rollers, but no such luck. Opened it up, and the rubber is all intact, all the motors work, and everything seems to have its full range of motion. My first impression looking inside the box was that there isnt much in there. But then again, the only deck i have looked inside in many years is a Nakamichi Dragon, so not really a fair comparison. After a bit of googling i found a few others who had similar symptoms: 1. fast forward and rewind work 2. it goes into cleaning mode (power on while holding the open/clos...

I have had a pair of Infinity Reference 2000.4 tower speakers since they were new in the late 90's. I vaguely remember my dad saying a couple pairs "fell off a truck"... Meaning he bought them from some guy in a parking lot or something like that. After ~20 years or so, a run-in with a careless house painter, and a child who like to poke things... They are in need of a bit of TLC. I started by removing the damaged dust cap from one of the speakers. The speaker itself is in great condition, but the dust cap is certainly in need of replacement after my little one got curious and poked it. At least it wasn't the tweeter. I wasn't able to find dustcaps that match the original plastic 1-7/8" part, but i was able to find some nice looking felt dustcaps of that size. I guess both are getting replaced. https://www.simplyspeakers.com/ While i'm at it, i might as well replace the cloth covering the pho-grill on the bottom half of the speaker. They came with...

I often browse electronics on craigslist when i need to momentarily 'veg out' at my desk. Yesterday i came across a pair of KRK Rokit 6 Gen2 speakers. There were a few things about this particular listing that caught my eye: The seller claims one of the speakers has a "capacitor issue" that he cant fix himself The ad claims these speakers are Rokit 6 Gen3. the screws on the front panel and the text on the back are a clear giveaway that they are in-fact Gen2.  I wasn't really looking to buy speakers, but if the issue is a "capacitor issue"... This looks like a good deal. And it beats only using headphones at my desk all day (although i love my headphones).  I had a nice pair of Dynaudio BM5A's for the desk that i used with a Benchmark DAC1. But i sold both the Dynaudios, and the Benchmark last year... These KRK's aren't likely as good as the Dynaudios, but sometimes a good deal now is better than nothing. And in this case, if i ca...

There is an ongoing debate in the audio community about cables. About 40 years of debate at this point. Some think they make a world of difference, others think they make no difference at all (assuming you have a well-made cable of appropriate gauge and, in some cases, shielding). For this post, I want to focus only on speaker cables. Since, at least in my system, they are the longest cable, and they are the last component in the signal chain before the speaker. Arguably, the sonic impact of cables higher up in the chain can have a bigger impact on sound (the sonic "signature" of the cable between source and preamp receives the most gain). But I have pick a place to test first, and speaker cables is it.  Given that I'm not the first person, and certainly won't be the last, to test speaker cables. I thought I would start by recreating the "classic" testing done by Nelson Pass in 1980.  https://www.passlabs.com/press/speaker-cables-science-or-snake...