Weekend Playlist Vol. 2

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Josh

This weeks Weekend Playlist is inspired by the tragic passing of Don Cornelius, the charismatic and unforgettable host of the TV classic “Soul Train”.

From the LA Times – “Don was a visionary and giant in our business,” producer and composer Quincy Jones said in a statement. “Before MTV there was ‘Soul Train’; that will be the great legacy of Don Cornelius. His contributions to television, music and our culture as a whole will never be matched.”

R.I.P. Don Cornelius.

Enjoy these amazing videos and the legacy of Soul Train.

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Feature Comparison

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Caleb

We’ve added the ability to compare products ALOaudio.com.  Compare headphones, cables and all kinds of audio products by clicking the ‘Add to compare list’ next to a product.  Not all products are comparable yet, but we’re rolling this feature out over this next week so you’ll soon be able to compare everything on the site.  Check-out the screen shot below.

Compare features on ALOaudio.com

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Wherever the Music Takes You – ALO Video#1

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Josh

We’ve been talking around the shop for quite a while now about shooting videos, Ken has a few cameras and we had a few ideas. Last week Ken brought in a nice Olympus PEN EP-3 and we set out to make our first ALO Audio video. We spent a day shooting and working out some ideas and at the end of the day we were surprised, we actually had a video on our hands!

The first in a series we plan on shooting this year to document our growth, answer questions, explain new products, share the music we are listening to (and making), as well as demonstrate our tried and true products to new audiences. We are excited to bring you this new dimension of our business and we hope you thoroughly enjoy each and every video.

Click the link below to watch the video and be sure to subscribe to our Vimeo channel!
Wherever The Music Takes You

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Weekend Video Playlist #1

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Ken Ball

All week long we listen to really great music at work (which is awesome). We’ve decided to make a playlist to share some of our favorite tunes! While these may not be Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs test pressings – they are cool. Enjoy these videos that belong to some of the songs we’ve been listening to around the shop this week. Have a great weekend and happy listening at home!

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HI-FI ON THE GO

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Ken Ball

Colorfly C4 Pocket Hi Fi

Posted by Josh Spacek

The very first portable player I ever owned was made by Sanyo. It was from the mid 80’s, it was big, awkward and I thought it was really cool. I took it to school and showed it off every chance I got. I even got a small mono speaker that plugged into the headphone jack so I could meagerly blast the schoolyard with my mix tapes at recess. Eventually I broke a pair of headphones right off into the jack and my awesome cassette player never recovered. Time moved on, I got several Walkmans and then Discmans and finally an iPod. I still miss the old tape player though…. or maybe I don’t.

Fast forward several years – Apple launches the iPod and the world is forever changed. Our collective thinking about the possibilities of portable music has shifted, now we not only use iPods – but our phones, satellite radio, and a host of other mediums for our on the go listening. There is virtually an endless supply of music and an equally infinite variety of players battling over our ears.

Enter the Colorfly C4 Pocket Hi-Fi Music Player. It’s got a classic look, a basic user interface, compact design and best of all – the capability to play high resolution tracks.

The Colorfly C4 simply and plainly sounds good. It looks cool, even with it’s larger-than-most dimensions, and it sounds really good. I sat around all day listening to many classic recordings on the player and it was really enjoyable, with full clear sound, nice separation and a sound stage you just aren’t used to in portable players. The C4 will drive most full sized headphones – and well. It plays WAV (up to and including 192 kHz / 24bit), FLAC (44.1kHz, 48kHz and 96kHz 16 Bit), OGG Vorbis, APE (44.1kHz and 48kHz 16 Bit) and MP3 (up to 320kbps) files.

Not only is the Colorfly a portable player but it works independently as a DAC using the S/PDIF output, and it’s also a home player using the same output. The Colorfly C4 can even be used as a hifi sample rate converter, using the coaxial digital input and then the coaxial digital output. The C4 is so much more than music on the go.

It’s classic looks and vintage size may recall the days of those first portable cassette players but this no Walkman – instead we now have access to crystal clear hi fi audio everywhere we go. The future is awesome.

My only real complaint so far is that there is a brief added pause between songs and the battery could last a bit longer (6 hours is the expected length).

With a firmware update on the horizon you’ll soon be able to take your 24bit FLAC files on the go as well!

I stumbled upon a couple of nice articles that I found to be helpful and informative on the Colorfly C4 (as the actual product website is a bit difficult to understand). Enjoy the good reading!

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/gadgets/ipods-and-portable-audio/ipod-and-mp3-players/colorful-colorfly-940437/review

http://www.gizmag.com/colorfly-pocket-hifi-music-player/20597/

C4 Specs:
CIRRUS LOGIC CS4398 DAC chip
CIRRUS LOGIC CS8422 SRC chip
3.7 V battery, SNR up to 108 Db, THD lowers than 0.003%
The precision of 0805 resistance is up to 1% in the simulation
Black 3U PCB
3U Gilt RCA interface for SPDIF IN/OUT (top grade)
3U Gilt interface for 6.3mm earphone (top grade)
The rate of the Jitter is lower than 5ps

ALO Audio is proud to be the exclusive U.S. distributor of this fine player.

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Product of the year!

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Ken Ball


Tone Audio has named the Cypher Labs AlgoRhythm Solo and The ALO audio Rx MK II headphone amp the headphone audio Product of the Year! What a great way to end the year, thanks to everyone at Tone Audio!!

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Farewell, Steve

Posted on October 6, 2011 by Ken Ball

I am old enough to have been using computers since the early days of DOS, with command prompts and 5 ¼ floppy disks. So, I am very familiar with the Windows operating system, having grown up using it. Later on – out of sheer frustration – I bought a G4 Power Mac and was blown away by it. Why? Because everything worked, nothing crashed, and I was not on an endless hunt for ridiculous drivers in order for things to work as they should. I could buy a new Mac, use a cable to connect it to my old computer, and transfer everything over all at once? Holy cow! And when does it crash or lock up? I have been a Mac user ever since, because the thing worked effortlessly, and the operating system was simple and intuitive. This is a very common experience that I am sure most of you have had. When the iPod came out, I was just blown away by it. Steve Jobs and Apple are to portable digital music what Thomas Edison was to vinyl. Apple products have long been known for pleasing the masses; they are easy to use, reliable, and elegantly designed.

As the founder of ALO audio, my life changed dramatically with Steve Jobs’ creation of the iPod. The iPod was the spark that started the fire for ALO audio – the one thing that lead to another, in a cascading domino effect that has made everything possible today. I have several full-time employees who earn a living as a direct consequence of the awesome wake that Steve Jobs and Apple has created in the world. None of us would be fortunate enough to have the job we have today if it were not for Steve and his revolutionary product, and for this we are so very thankful. I would not have what I consider my dream job with out the iPod. Things would not be the same, nor would I have the music where it should be, always playing close at hand. It brings me great sadness to see that Steve is no longer with us. I can only hope his legacy and vision will continue to burn on in all future Apple products. Thank you, Steve Jobs! Rest in peace.

KB

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ALO audio Local Portland OR – Head-Fi Meet

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Ken Ball

Last month we hosted our local Head-fi meet at our new ALO audio shop. We had plenty of awesome headphone rigs set up for people to come and check out so many different systems. I want to thank the vendors who participated in our meet and helped out, it was a all out awesome audio day.

Audeze, Red Wine Audio, Cypher Labs, Cavalli Audio.

            RWAlogo.jpeg            Audeze_logo.jpeg            CypherLabsBlackShirtLogo.jpg

We plan to have this meet every September so look forward to doing this again next year.

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Introducing Cryo-Fi; The New Cryogenic Treatment from ALO audio

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Ken Ball
ALO audio's Cryo-Fi™

Cryo-Fi™ from ALO audio

One of the most engaging aspects of hi-fi is the lively and spirited debate over what contributes to suberb sound.  Whether the topic of conversation is a minute detail or a broad question of sound reproduction, all discussions are treated with equal fervor.  Topics of debate can range from the purely subjective to the truly esoteric (i.e. preference for transistors or vacuum tubes to the inherent fidelity of analog and digital formats).  Some topics remain perpetual lightning rods of controversy, like the importance of interconnects in your hi-fi system or the benefit of equipment ‘burn-in.’  One of our favorite “lightning rods” is how cryogenic treatment affects audio components.

All done loading the ALO audio Cryo-Fi™

Cryo-Fi™ at the new ALO audio shop

Cryogenic treatment of cables and audio components has long been a controversial subject in audio circles and will undoubtedly continue to be so.  The figures and numerical results of measured tests often give way to the subjective and tactile preference of the particular enthusiast. To many, what sounds pleasing is something that can be identified immediately, even if there is not empirical proof of a change in sound quality.  This circumstance is at the heart of hi-fi, keeping us engaged and interested in the musical experience well beyond the edge of the spec sheet.

I have spoken personally with hundreds of audio aficionados regarding the topic of cryogenic treatment, and some swear by it while others dismiss it.  Both parties deliver valid points to support their claims, remaining firmly entrenched in their respective positions.
Loading the Cryo-Fi™ Machine

Adding cables for a Cryo-Fi™ treatment

A brief survey of the long history of low temperature technology reveals a variety of demonstrable benefits of the cryogenic treatment of metals.  During World War II, researchers discovered that metals exposed to cold temperatures showed more resistance to wear than the same metals without such exposure.

In the 1960’s, when NASA engineers first retrieved and analyzed a spacecraft that had returned from the cold vacuum of space, they soon realized that many of the metal parts came back stronger than they were prior to spending time in space.  These early observations helped birth an industry dedicated to the cryogenic treatment of all manners of metals and products.

While the physical effects and benefits of cryogenic treatment of metals have been well documented, its application and benefit to the aural experience in the world of hi-fi continues to remain somewhat less resolved.  Regardless, for ALO audio, a final and definitive resolution to this debate isn’t required to take action and glean the benefits, however subtle they may be, from the cryogenic (“cryo”) process.  Our philosophy regarding cryo treatment is very simple and concurrent with our main objective here at ALO audio: to do whatever we can to make the best sounding, highest-quality interconnects possible.

Because we believe in the benefits of the cryo process, we have been outsourcing the cryo treatment of all of our cables and components since 2007.  As we have grown, it became apparent that we needed to bring our cryo treatment in-house.  This spring, we hooked up with the folks at CryoTron Corporation to assist with the project. They were instrumental in helping us attain our very own cryogenic processor.  It is one of the more sophisticated processors available today, and gets the job done consistently and accurately.

The cryogenic treatment process is computer-controlled by a very specific program, allowing for the deep treatment of every conductor we make in a safe and effective environment.  This is the benefit of bringing our cryogenic treatment in-house; we are able to control every aspect of its application and alter it to specifically suit our hi-fi demands.

With the highest-quality sound reproduction in mind, we have developed a precise program for our cryogenic process, a process we are pleased to introduce as Cryo-Fi™.  The Cryo-Fi™ deep cryogenic treatment is designed to extract every sonic benefit from the cryogenic process and develop each to its fullest potential.  We believe our new Cryo-Fi™ treatment will easily meet or exceed the results of even the best cryogenic programs out there because of our unwavering focus on the aural impact of our component treatments.  We hope you appreciate our diligence in this arena and our dedication to producing the best sounding cables we possibly can.  And regardless of which side of the cryo debate you may find yourself on, we think you’ll enjoy the final product resulting from our continuing efforts to seek out and explore technologies that promise the key to higher fidelity.
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Ipod Line Out Dock cable: why use one?

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Ken Ball

 

 

One of the questions that we get asked regularly by people looking to upgrade their mobile listening setups is “What is the benefit of using a Line Out Dock cable?”, more commonly know as a “LOD.”  Let me back up a second first.  One of the best and easiest ways to improve your listening experience from the start is to simply convert your CDs to “lossless” file formats.  This is a whole other topic so I will stop there, but keep in mind that going down the path to better sound quality begins with the source material and the better the quality of file you use, the better the sound that can be produced.  Now, back to the LOD cable.

When using an external headphone amplifier with your iPod, you have two possible output options for getting the audio signal from the iPod to your external amp. The first option is the headphone out jack, located at the top of the iPod. This is where most people plug in directly with headphones. Some people will also use a mini to mini cable to take the signal from the headphone-out jack to an external headphone amp. The second way is to tap the line level out signal from the iPod’s 30-pin dock, located at the bottom of the iPod. In this dock, the smart folks at Apple have dedicated a couple of these pins for audio, but the most important factor is that it is a clean line level out audio signal. Here, you can tap the left and right audio signals off your iPod. The difference between the headphone out and the line level out is that the headphone out signal was meant to drive your headphones directly, so the audio signal goes through an internal amplification stage. The line level out signal does not go through this audio-altering process and is what we would describe as a much cleaner signal, and is therefore more appropriate to send to a higher quality – and more powerful – external headphone amplifier. In other words, taking the signal from the headphone out jack to your external amp is effectively amplifying an already amplified audio signal. When you use a L.O.D., the iPod’s internal volume control is disabled, so your external amplifier will allow you to control the volume. The end result of using a L.O.D. with an external headphone amp is significant, with tighter and deeper bass as well as overall improved dynamics.

Ken Ball, ALO audio

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