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Emmanual Go demonstrated his outstanding First Sound Presence Deluxe preamps.

by Darin Forkenbrock ho knew we have a manufac- looking for the purest sound he could ishing the purity of the music. turer of extremely high-quality get. After a few years he found the Emmanuel is somewhat of a per- preamplifiers right here in our need to break away from the limitations fectionist. He scrutinizes every aspect neighborhood (Renton, WA)? Em- of passives and started working on the of his craft, going so far as to strip the manuel Go is the Founder and Owner of line stages he offers today. His focus insulation off tiny input wires. That First Sound Audio. He started back in with his current preamps is to find ways was probably behind him meeting Joe at 1989, working on passive preamps, to lower the noise floor, without dimin- the club at 2pm to start setting up.

Pacific Northwest Audio Society, P.O. Box 435, Mercer Island, WA 98040 ● www.audiosociety.org EL CANT DE LA SIBIL The Wind That Shakes The Barley Maliorca-Valencia 1400-1560 Dead Can Dance Montserrat Figueras-La Capella Reial De Into the Labyrinth Catalunya-Jordi Savall ALIA VOX CAD 3013 CD AVSA9806 Track 1 & 2 Slack Key Tuning Demo Break Led Kaapana & Mike Kaawa Force of Nature (Live at Triple Door)

Blue Moon Revisited Misa Criolla—Kyrie Cowboy Junkies José Carreras The Trinity Sessions Misa Criolla-Navidad Nuestra-Navidad En 8568-2-R Verano by Ariel Ramirez Philips 420 955-2

Because The Three Of Us The Beatles Ben Harper Love Welcome To the Cruel World EMI 0946 3 79808 2 America 7243 8 39320 2 3

Get Out Of Town Norwegian Wood Holly Cole Patricia Barber It Happened One Night Live A Fortnight In France Metro Blue CDP724385269905 Blue Note Records 7243 5 78213 2 2

Track? The Long Road Dire Straits Eddie Vedder & Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan On Every Street Eat Pray Love Original Motion Picture Vertigo 510160-2 SoundTrack, 0252748590

I Want To Hold Your Hand The Nearness Of You TV Carpio Branford Marsalis Across the Universe Music From the Mo- Trio Jeepy tion Picture-2 CD Set Columbia CK 44199 Interscope B000997302

My Body Is A Cage Forza Dentro Me Holly Stell Scratch My Back Downloaded from the internet

2 Pacific Northwest Audio Society Audioletter May 2013 The interior view of the First Sound Presence Deluxe preamplifier shows the true dual mono layout, stepped attenuator volume controls and the massive capacitor storage.

One advantage of working with a board power supply, MIT caps and a smaller boutique audio company like more elaborate grounding topol- First Sound is that Emmanuel can work ogy. The rest of the system consisted of with you individually to customize your an Ayre C5 XE multi-player as the unit with a number of features and op- source, a Berning 60 watt single-ended tions he offers, from different types of OTL tube amplifier, cables from Q Au- wiring, grounding schemes, component dio, a Furman IT Reference 20i power types, etc. One of the more surprising conditioner and the club’s Genesis demonstrations of the evening was G7.2f speakers and Kosmic rack. when Emmanuel showed off the inputs Emmanuel is toying with the idea of in his unit that utilized different types of developing a line of power amps, but wire; the difference in sound was more he’s still waiting for the final bit of in- dramatic than most of us were expect- spiration to decide which direction to ing and it seems a great way to tailor go. We had a great turnout for the For more information, check out your sound and synergy with the com- meeting and Emmanuel’s hard work in Emmanuels’s web site: ponents you’re connecting. putting together a polished presentation http://www.firstsoundaudio.com Emmanuel brought two preamps, the and great system left many members First Sound Presence Deluxe and the there listening past 10pm. Presence Deluxe 4.0 with Paramount upgrade; the latter includes a 2nd out-

Pacific Northwest Audio Society Audioletter May 2013 3 by Darin Forkenbrock New Chairs friends Jonathan Zimmer and Lisa Vote on June Meeting Dupar for donating the chairs to the Our Vice President, Jay Hope, recently Budget found a new set of chairs for the club. Jonathan and Lisa are co-owners of Dupar & Company caterers, one of We will vote to allocate a budget of up club. If you attended the February to $500 for the June meeting. This will meeting you noticed how much better the largest catering companies in the Seattle/Bellevue area. Be sure to con- cover expenses such as food and drinks, padding and back support these chairs video taping the event, piano rental, etc. provide, while taking up less space than sider Dupar & Company if you need the old ones. This deal was too good to help with a special event or party. pass up…40 chairs that would have cost http://www.duparandcompany.com Elections us $25-40 each and all we had to do Our annual election for club officers was stack them up in the back of my Vote on Cart for Chairs will be held at the May meeting and the pickup and transport them from Red- We will vote to spend up to $200 on a newly elected officers will take over in mond. These are so durable we’ll likely cart for the new chairs. This will allow July. still be sitting on them two decades us to wheel them out of storage in from now. Special thanks to Jay’s stacks of 10 high.

by Gary Koh

he PNWAS 9th May meeting will 3) The classic Thorens TD 350 sus- North American distributor, Rutherford feature a range of turntables from pended sub-chassis turntable incl. SME Audio will offer club members a 20% Thorens, a German company that has M2 arm ($7,200 w/o cartridge) and Or- discount off the retail price of any been in business for 130 years. Thorens tofon Cadenza Bronze MC cartridge Thorens turntable purchased in the was a very popular brand in the early ($2,200) month of May. In addition, when a club high-end audio days when vinyl ruled. 4) The club's Rega turntable with arm member makes such a purchase, Ruth- Many of you may remember the popu- and Audio Technica OC9 cartridge will erford Audio will contribute 5% of the lar Thorens TD125 and the TD160 be used as the reference. retail price to the club coffers!! This which are still much sought-after today. In order for club members to hear will surely make our next incoming In 1979, the Thorens Reference Turnta- the differences between the turntables, Treasurer very happy. ble set the high-water mark for refer- they will be placed on identical equip- While Rutherford Audio is located ence turntables as much as the Infinity ment racks. We will use two units of the in Canada, you will still get local set-up Reference Standard in 1978 set the $24,000 Burmester Ph100 Reference- and support for your purchase from club high-water mark for reference loud- line Phono Stage with both MM and member Joe Pittman and Kosmic as speakers. MC inputs which allows us to level- they are the official Seattle dealer for The line-up will include: match and optimize the different car- Thorens. 1) The value fully automatic Thorens tridges used. The club's Genesis I60 You don't have to be at the meeting TD 170-1 incl. arm and Ortofon amplifier and Genesis 7.2f loudspeakers to take advantage of this offer, but you OMB10 MM cartridge ($750) will be used as our members are all have to be there to get to hear this 2) The mid-price Thorens TD 295 Mk familiar with the sound. TURNTABLE FASHION PARADE! IV incl. arm and Audio Technica As an additional benefit to fully AT95E MM cartridge ($1,500) paid-up PNWAS members, the Thorens

4 Pacific Northwest Audio Society Audioletter May 2013 by Darin Forkenbrock

Featuring Seattle Opera Soprano Marcy Stonikas http://www.marcystonikas.com

fter the fantastic success of last year's "Live vs. Recorded" meeting we decided to make this an annual June event for the Audio Society. It's hard to beat the energy and excite- ment that goes along with a live performance and recording and playing back the perform- ance is our way of putting our own audiophile spin on the evening. This year we have two musical artists who you won't want to miss. We're fortunate to have partnered with the Seattle Opera to find so- prano Marcy Stonikas. Marcy is an accom- plished opera singer, who's played around the world from Seattle to Vienna. In addition, we have Seattle violin soloist Marie' Rossano. Marie has appeared as a soloist with the Seattle Symphony and is also the winner of the 2012 Classical KING FM Young Artist Award. She'll be performing at the Juliard School be- Seattle Violin Soloist Marie' Rossano fore our event and with the Salt Lake Sym- http://www.marierossano.com phony after. Phillip Chance, recording engineer for the http://www.seattleopera.org Seattle Woodwind Orchestra, will join us to record the performances of these two amazing women. Please RSVP to this email ad- dress, in order to assist us with planning. pacificnorth- [email protected]

Pacific Northwest Audio Society Audioletter May 2013 5 Visitors Welcome! ship deems appropriate. Editorial Meetings are held on the second Thursday Club Website Editorial submissions are welcome. of every month at 7:30pm at 4545 Island www.audiosociety.org Content must be audio-related or of general Crest Way, Mercer Island, WA 98040. interest to the club in plain text or Word E-mail document format without automation PNWAS Mission Statement [email protected] To bring people with a common interest in (macros and scripts). We reserve the right US Mail music reproduced at its best, for their to edit for style, content, and length. Pacific Northwest Audio Society, PO Box mutual edification and pleasure. Editorial Deadline: two weeks before meet- 435, Mercer Island, WA 98040 To facilitate the exchange and dissemina- ing date. tion of accurate data concerning audio Annual Dues Publishing any editorial material is contin- equipment and musical recordings. $60 due each January. New members pay a gent upon the approval of the Executive Committee. To promote, sponsor, and cultivate the prorated $5 per month for remainder of highest quality reproduction of music in year. Disclaimer the home. Elected Officers Opinions in this Audioletter are those of their To encourage maintenance of high stan- President: Darin Forkenbrock authors; the Pacific Northwest Audio Society dards in the performance, recording and [email protected] itself does not endorse or criticize products. transmission of music. Vice-President: Jay Hope Copyright 2013 by the Pacific Northwest [email protected] Audio Society except as noted; all rights PNWAS Objectives Secretary/Treasurer: Bruce Brown reserved. 1. Provide a forum for meeting other audio- [email protected] No part of this publication may be reprinted philes and exchanging information on or otherwise reproduced without the written musical recordings and audio equipment. Committee Chairs permission of the: 2. Demonstrate and compare equipment Editor: Joe Pittman and recordings. [email protected] 3. Give members opportunities to become Equipment: Jerry Pomeroy familiar with the techniques of audio [email protected] manufacturing, testing, repair, recording, Music: Vacant– Volunteers? broadcasting, etc. Refreshment: Vacant– Volunteers? The Pacific Northwest Audio Society 4. Explore related avenues as the member- PO Box 435, Mercer Island, WA 98040

Pacific Northwest Audio Society Audioletter February 2013 6