oy Pa THE 5 BEST VINTAGE SPEAKERS pies aaeets . ADAM Audio's Classic Column MK3 RETURN mEAIR MOTIO TRANSFORMER AFFORDABLE LOUDSPEAKERS Emotiva, PSB, DefTech, Polk AFFORDABLE DIGITAL EXCELLENCE x Halide's USB DAC / a] AFFORDABLE | SONIC ‘ s ELEGANCE Unison Research's Simply Italy Amplifier Researching the Blues with ss Ali: eee (and Extraordinarily Expensive) PICKAy WavleleiXes he ee Single-Ended Triode Amplifiers and Components CD 4.1% CD Player 211 reo Amplifier no Block Amplifiers TO Phono Signature Integrated Amplifier OC Mm UR Ua ewe ele OM Cel CHA MAL Lm NICOL) iReLe LL) ROBERT LIGHTON AUDIO 37 WEST 20TH STREET SUITE 1206 NEW YORK CITY ROBERTLIGHTON.COM 212.343.2299 Ae Ua‘THERE AREAS MANY OPINIONS. [AS THERE ARE EXPERTS fier alles time, I think I finally get it. 1 was recently reunited with an old friend from high school ‘My best friend from high school, in fact. Our families got together, everyone got along, and as the dust of conversation setled toward the rug, of companionable silence, talk turned to work. And when the inevitable happened, and my old friend and his asked how much a person had to spend these days in order to get a good music system, I answered their question with a question—a question that, crazily enough, just popped into my head: “Do you want an appliance that'll get the ob done, oF do you have faith chat a ood system «an transform listening into something special?” ‘My friend looked at me as if Td just to worship with us 11,00 a.m. in the sanctuary, Outstanding Music wife—classical-music lovers both— ~ foes ‘This ssue: Why are we avdiophiles? crimes, and wearing ridiculous outfits), I don't bring a great deal of vigor to those debates. Rather, when asked by nonbelievers how an intelligent, well-educated person could possibly believe in something that is not demonstrably true, I jietly and calmly and happil feply: “Thats why its called ith: IFT could prove any of this shit, it would be no more mysterious than driver's ed.” Faith, of course, comes with a degree of ritual I criticize my church's stewards, but [also love them—and their silly hats—because they give me the ritual that I need. So it goes with audio. Is it foolish to spend $10,000 on an amplifier, or to stay up until 2am adjusting speaker toc-in, or to waste a day comparing three different brands of the same vacuum tube, or to own five different pressings of the same record? aske,“Stll we ply Tvl Put, That evening was OF cous in. And oe hoe tings for would it be more fan to shoot up the way I love the smell of the incense Shdhave unicsexwithech others When I finally put my ont oof well-wom pews or the wives?” (The reader is free to answer finger on the quality look of stained glass or that silly sit- that chetorical question for himself) He cleared his throat and gave me his answer, variations on which all Stereophile readers have heard in such situations: “I don't need anything that good. I just want to hear my CDs.” ‘Heroin sounds better and better, doesn't it? ‘That evening was when I finally put my finger on the «quality that separates me from the non-audiophile: faith. I believe. Like Frankie Laine and the Buzzcocks and Saint Anthony, I believe. For no good reason, I believe. Some audiophiles say they got that way becaus, at a crucial point in their young lives, they heard their father's, neighbor's, or uncle's hi-fi system, and then always wanted to re-create that experience. That's cool, That might even be enviable, But that wasn't my trip. I simply had faith that there must be a better way to listen to records than on a ‘Webcor record player—just as some people come away from theit frst tp to the theater o thei ist cigar or their Bist glass of wine and think: That was allright, but here must be something better. T'ma person of faith in the more traditional sense, and sometimes F'm called on to defend that, too. As a non- ‘evangelistic Catholic who shares the concern of many that the governors of my religion have a lot to answer for in terms of hoarding obscene wealth, covering up obscene stereopilecom August 2012 that separates me from the non-audiophile: faith. I believe. stand-kneel routine, about which no sane God could possibly care. But that's okay, because those are all rituals that I love and Ineed. Here's my definition of a ritual: It’s merely a splint to which one binds the fragile bones of one’s life. It doesn’t matter what the splint is made of or what it looks like or even how little or (especially) how much it costs. To be effective, a ritual need only be loved. ‘When you get right down to it, and in spite ofall my carping to the contrary, [love being an audiophile. Ttused to be like this: Someone and his wife would ask how much a person had to spend these days to get a good music system, and I would say: “Let me tell you about the Rega Planar 3 turntable ...” Now I suspect that the best any of ts can do isto let the world sec, at every opportunity, how recorded music has made us happy in an otherwise unhappy world: not choleri, not unsatisfied, not acquisitive, and not covetous. Just happy, and at peace with the things we've chosen to enrich our lives Can faith be contagious? Damned if I know. Art Duley (artudley@sorccom) practices his audiophile faith in rural upstate New York. 1 Tec no move dail about othe elgons, and distinc less about oneINTRODUCING SUB SOUL-SHAKING SOUND HEART-POUNDING DESIGN ONE-BUTTON SETUP S10] TO} EET CEs MAGNOLIA | GiFEATURE Brotherly Love Aiter 15 years of silence, Jeff and Steven McDonald, the SoCal brothers at the center of punk/pop band Redd Kross, return with an unexpected album, Researching the Blues. By Robert Baird. EQUIPMENT REPORTS Adam Audio Classic Series Column MK3 loudspeaker by Kalman Rubinson PSB Imagine Mini loudspeaker by John Atkinson Emotiva X-REF XRT-5.2 loudspeaker by Robert J. Reina darTZeel NHB-458 monoblock power amplifier by Michael Fremer Halide DAC HD USB D/A converter by John Atkinson FOLLOW-UPS ‘Musical Fidelity V-DAC Il D/A processor by John Atkinson Clearaudio Concept turntable by Erick Lichte Polk RTi A3 loudspeaker by John Atkinson Supe (525 4734-570 SS 059 2544) VoLI5 Na Aug 202 I anber 39. Conyt © 200 by San tik Magan UC. Ales rer Pbishd rt stereophilecom + Avevst 2012yA Vy fe lize ed aI Ve Ae Ra ei en a eC Pe Rak ees ecu aa “If it’s not the eighth wonder of the modern world, | say demand a recount.” —Wes Phillips, Stereophile ae en) d a joy to use.” — Chris Thomas, HiFi+ “As for the KX-R, | can’t say enough good things. | believe it to be the most complete product Ayre has ever made—a defining achievement for a company known for its string of audio achievements.” ~ Pete Roth, Ultra Audio So that clunking sound... It’s actually generated by precision ball-bearing stepper motors that actuate rotary switches in a “fly-by-wire” system identical to that used on ultra-modern aircraft. We used a solid-silver contact, De eee Seen ue eae ee ee gece) mechanism within our multi-award-winning KX-R preamplifier. An industry first in state-of-the-art audio gear. Seen Ra ee eR ee ec eco sac} Se ee Re ee Le eo ae eae es ese oe are a few obscure ones out there (without a built-in op-amp) which sound OK, but still not good enough for our purposes. Then we tried relays. Closer, but all of them introduced audible colorations. So we tried FET switches—finally we were getting somewhere! When properly applied they are capable of excellent sound, so we use them in our less-expensive equipment. Still, we had to do better for the KX-R—Shallco switches, made in North Carolina, are the only devices we've heard that are virtually indistinguishable from the bypass. CL Re ee Cn eee Oc changing the gain of the preamplifier circuit itself, thus improving the signal-to-noise ratio by up CPOE ae een eee Reece Rue ne oa) removes itself from the signal path and delivers the highest performance volume solution ever _ eee ee eo eee CUR ceed Cae ape eee cman |A CMe met)AUGUST 2012 COLUMNS 3 Asweseeit Afterall ths time, Art Dudley thinks he finally gets it: being an auciophile is an act of faith 11 Letters Readers comment on Stereophil's incompatibility with the iPad 3, compliment John Atkinson, complain about Erick Licht, and agree that listening withthe lights off makes your system sound better. Get on your Soapbox! Visit the forums at ‘wwwstereophile.com. 15 industry Update High-end audio news, including the shows and dealer-sponsored evens taking place in uly and August 2012 and a report from the High End Society's High End 2012 show held in Murich in May. Want to know more? Goto the "News Desk" at www.stereophile.com for up-to-the-minute info. 21. sams space Som Teligautionsthe Spl tly iterated amplifier rom Unison Research 27 Analog Corner ‘Michael Fremer on the affordable Manley Chinook phono preampifier and the expensive Ice Blue phono cartridge 33° Listening ‘Art Dudley polls his peers to rank the 10 best vintage loudspeakers 41 The entry Level Stephen Mejias enjoys his music onthe move with Thiksound's tmsO1 in-ear manitorandlves wth the Define Technology SMAS loudspeaker. hitecom = August 2012 pal 47 The Fifth Element "You Must Hear These Recordings!” explodes John Marks, outlining the results of his recent classical concert season competition 111 Record Reviews ‘August's “Recording ofthe Month’ isa long overdue recording of Scott Joplin’ opera, Treemonisha. In Classical this month, we have a new recording of Beethoven's Missa Solemmnis. In Rock/Pop, we give a critical isten to new albums by Neil Young and Neneh Cherry. And in Jazz the latest by Pat Martino and Andy Shepard as well asa classy reissue of a classic Louis Armstrong lve album are reviewed. 117 Manufacturers’ Comments Manley, Definitive Technology, Halide, and Polk respond to our reviews, and Ortofon warns of gray-market dangers. 122 aural Robert Just because you're from the desert doesn't mean you're a sage, for a sage brush, or even any wiser than the general populace. Yet Giant Sand’s Howe Gelb is all that and more, says Robert Baird. A conversation with one of alt rock's reigning geniuses. INFORMATION 120 Audio Mart T18 Manufacturers’ Showcase T19 Dealers’ Showcase TI8 Advertiser IndexIf You — Coy a Cy ETL) oa Nola era = Can Sound! ADVERTISING SALES Mey oc DFFICERS OF SOURCE INTERLINK COMPANIES, INC Doe ne eects " seo a aan Mea RC eel Com conc soumesrinvcoret_ Sephn s ‘job of selling and educating SOURCE NTERINK EDI Lc Teed eee ae cwwewnitoreat Roa FULT R ORO RI rtIcy w"Gnomamasramoucret Dog Em Pee oat swatncatact Roce eee ened ae setae meciontehin rete ees DIGITAL MEDIA Cee Se Ras e A meneneeemmoermniee Cog Tene ON ane R Ca Sieenonr cr Tay ko iPhone® or Pad” to an AudioQuest roan soiree romeo Pe eee peta CONSUMER MARKETING ENTHUSIAST MEDIA SUBSCRIPTION COMPANY, NC to life with any of our 5 models sraveenecranmerammnt DoT Bieter erences a: & Ps) i) | s ea Fe mee CoN) JomRTKHSON jo . : Se a — fos wot oe bid cor ry mec audioquestOAV i itors’ inte State of the art Y COU econ Meu eeu Cg eC ee eeeZB SILTECH EXPL4RER = Choose your direction Siltech’s new affordable cable range is based on....copper technology! Exploring new ground in cable metallurgy, finding new ways, Siltech is introducing a revolutionary technology based on 6N pure mono crystal copper. Join the expedition and discover our new treasure. AS0U Siltech is distributed by Audio Plus Services - www.audioplusservices.com - 800.663.9352 www.sitlechcables.comwnat SAAAA WW LETTERS FEEDBACK TO THE EDITOR ‘Stereophile & the iPad 3 Editor: subscribe to Stereophile via Apple's news- stand, and have been hoping each month that you upgrade the resolution of your publication to match that ofthe new iPad 3. No luck, even for your June publica- tion, es basically unreadable, and an “unpleasant reading experience. I subscribe to several other publications, including Photoshop and Photography and Wired Magazine... all perfect. When will Siccophile be fixing this? —Russ Gitson Johannesburg South Afica rus @lightinetcs com Tundestand that the Pad 3's Retna diplay takes longer to fully render a pf thar the carer Pads, depending onthe complexity of the pag. If he magazine fist comes up with ragged text and you zoom it ont and back in agai, it does snap to the higher resolution. Source Interlink Media's ap developer tells me that he is curenty evaluating our options for iPad HD. There are some tradeofsinvoled Jon Atkinion Anexcellent resource Editor: Asa relatively new subscriber (just three years and counting!) I thank you forthe ‘excellent coverage of everything, fom the affordable to the extravagant state ofthe art. Iam especially appreciative of John ‘Atkinson's tireless work in the “Meeasare- ‘ments” segment of each major review at times he uncovers unusual behavior in the equipment that may have been missed by the subjective reviewer. Thank John; in my opinion, your contribu- this way has made Sterephilean Joseph Tham doe@shaweca excellent resource! Occupy Erick Lichte Editor: “Maybe Erick Lichte ought to keep his right-wing polities out of his equipment reviews (April, p73). He just moved to Portland and he's already telling them hhow to behave, aside from ruining my reading. Unfortunately just renewed my subscription last month. —Frad Casidy _fedcasidy @dshmailnet Think you have mised my ate, Fed. My stereopilecom © August 2012 artim of the Occupy rally I witnesed was d- rected purely atthe methods of protest Isa that day did not comment on my own views of the ‘movement itse/-whid ae rather mixed. fn fc, juny own if Lam about as apolitical ait es What Few that day wes ineffectual yeling ‘much oft ude and no one lteing. Whatever your politcal persuasion, La totally convinced ‘hat yelling and hating isthe worst way to te heard, and certainly not the way to sway someone’ thinking or actions. Yelling and screaming can convey emotion which I clearly feat the rally, but not ideas o nance of ‘argument. The Occupy movement neve found way to artcdate its message in wey that people would listen to and though con- sider. Since listening ia theme we write about in Sereophile, Lalo thought my observation aout the lak of listening and the disregard for fing heard a he rally made for an additional tie-in to my ari Lfound the methods ofthat day's Ocupy rally anther to what we try 1 preach in Stereophile: the jo, the ar andthe necessity of xen. Tad not mean forthe arte tobe very serious or polit. Rath, ws ying to te together the Jona belavior Isa that dy withthe arent ‘rend of lta-expensve audio and relate it to th fine work that Rogue Audio does in making quality audio equipren inthe US that isnot absurdly expensive. Brick Lite Not crazy... Editor: In response to Joe Q's letter, “Crazy” in the May issue (pt): No sit, Me. Joe, you are definitely not crazy! I have always found a dark or at least darkened envi ronment to provide fora more focused and enjoyable listening experience. We hhave multiple senses competing for our attention al the time, and the more we can lesen the competition of other senses in our auditory experiences, the better. Strong visual stimuli (ea brightly lie cnvironment) area significant sensory ‘axe HEED! Unless marked otherwise alters to the magazine and its writers are assumed tobe fr possible publication. In the spr of ‘vigorous debate implied bythe First Amendment, ‘and unless we ae requested not to, we publish Correspondents’ e-mail addresses. distraction, a are any other intrusive sen sations-like an uncomfortably cold room, or the smell of cooking bacon. T recall a subjective study, published sometime in the early 1970s, in which duplicate pais of loudspeakers from several manufacturers were auditioned by a nonprofessiona listening audience, eho were asked simply to identify which, speakers they thought sounded “better.” “The two pais of speakers were identical, but one pair had been given black grille- cloths, the other white. The subjects had no idea they were listening to identical pairs of speakers, but the ones with the black grilles trounced the ones with the whic grilles. ‘Draw your own conclusions, dear listenersand manufacturers. Cool factor and ego factor aside, shouldnt our hand- ware be heard and not seen? —Dr Jol feb@ncrom ssvatalll Ealitor: Joe QS letter (*Crazy” May 2012, pt) ‘ill probably draw responses about the psychological effect of dimming lights ‘while listening. It is unlikely the sound vill improve when the lights are dimmed bbuenot cured all the way off. Light dim- ‘mets change brightness with silicon-con- twolled reetiies (SCRs) that “chop up” the AC. This introduces some DC and distortion into the AC line. I believe the correct technical term for this is grunge. Distorted AC generally gives sound veiled quality. Itcan alo impart an ag- gressive, etched quality chat an occasional listener will hear as “vivid” and prefer. yen a fraction of a volt of DC in an ‘AC line can cause power transformers {mostly larger toroids) to vibrate and buzz audibly a the AC line frequency and its harmonics. Light dimmers in ‘other rooms can be equally problematic. Tay telling your family not to turn on. the lights in a room they're not using. “Transformers for low-volage lighting canalso contribute noise to the AC line. AC line conditioners, DC blockers, and even dedicated AC lines wary in their cffectiveness. Light dimmers are harmless only when set to maximum brightness or when fally earned off. Richard Schram Parasound 1Pane) toot) Ce Find all this and much more at MUA ee tte eee WANA Necolsiretel lk Mao] 7 <0 OSES TES EES,WorLD CLASS DBLBENLON eT era NO SOC Re Re Aas CALL FOR OUR RECOMMENDATIONS ~ 800-716-3553 - revi dag a 4 S i Hy my J Deeded Sa eE Sa cand past Cre Srl) ParascundZphonoPhonaPreame rinse i bead cd eee cay css GTIME OUTENE ic ur aco ui Ree Parente) = aa OTROS NT en eras a 800-716-3553 :“Heard it Through the Grapevine?” © [© 1966 Norman Whitfield & Barrett Strong] I'll bet you’re wonderin how they knew? ok them by surprise when they found what others knew. fou may have seen what several reviewers have said, here’s what “civilian” audiophiles like yourself, are sayin’ about qol™... Tele ciel a Meola ele) their'input, but didnt let them [members of his Pek ee ee eet Do ac Ree ee eee CCRT Mea Teen ee) Ee Tet cal slight improvement in dynamism, an ability to ere ee eae elec) them buried in the central image), all wth no Cee Mle cu kee gt Ot abe a Tul ese ag pee ee ee ene vee “listen to music much more and with much more enjoyment than before qol. Long live gol - | need it everynight.” Deen ero “My wife started to listen later in the evening. She is a pianist, | am a retired flutist, college prof, so music is really o big Sa me ee en Moen eo a Ma eT eg Reamer) wonderful, those were her exact words, and she told me I was clever fo buy itand said she was proud of me! eS ete ke a A Se RR a ene Le ee mek oe old recordings, and thats when | felt the QOL really began to shine. | played a 60s recording of the Rat Pack in Chicago. With QOL | noticed the background piano tone was really nice. Without it could hear the piano, but | got no sense of its real fone. |listen to a lot of variety, and | recommend you listen to Deep Forest, a 1992 Epic release. There were sounds ee aren eit es ae keen i Steve Geibel “This thing is simply amazing. ..wth the QOL the improvement over before is simply staggering, With the QOL tm rediscovering all my collection as so many details in the background ofthe recordings before almost inaudible ore now much more distinguishable. Even tracks that were sounding so so, are now much better and more enjoyable. This besides the increased holographic experience all around and a more natural and fuller timbre of every instrument and voice." Alessandro Chioccheti “The gol is @ game changer In over 40 years now hearing all ypes of systems and devices there have been contenders but R6‘cigar until now. ... We have never been closer to the live experience until QOL entered our home. At $3995 it was «stretch that my wife reminded me of almost everyday. Then when heord she hos chonged her tune.” Ce een. ee eee eta) Become part of the grapevine. If you haven't heard qol™, stop wonderin, hear for yourself and trust your own ears! Ty the qal™ Signal Completion Stage for 30 doys at nearly no risk*. w_ *For more information, visit www.bsgt.com. Or call us if you like: 310.827. bsgt (2748).\\ + A+ a x. TS UPDAT GERMANY: MUNICH Paul Messenger ‘Western economies ‘might sill be in the doldrums, but special- isthifisalive and well living in southem Germany. That was the strong impression I gained fom a coupe of hays spent struggling to get round the High End Society’s High End 2012 show, held in Munich's M.OCC. on May 3-6. Ie’s already Europe's leading annual audio event, and the increasing strength of the high-end sector means that this show is becoming the most important gathering of hi-fi people on the international calendar, arguably more so than the annual Consumer Electronics Show, held each January in Las Vegas. Despite some off-site exhibitions in Munich hotels, High End continues to grow steadily, in numbers of both. exhibitors and visitors. Nearly 15,000 people attended the 2012 show, up 4% ‘over 2011, the total including 4400 trade representatives and nearly 500 from the media. The 366 exhibitors represented an 8.6% increase over 2011, and the show guide ran to 450 pages. Not only did many visitors attend from overseas, including a substantial number from the Far East, but High End was crammed with loads of equipment, budget and upmarket, from sources all around the world. The show is “high end” in both name and actuality, but it covers all the hifi bases, from the budget to the stratospherically priced, from the latest streamers and servers to some of the biggest tube amps and horn loudspeak- ers on the planet. The reappearance at the show of such major multinationals as Pioneer does tend to affirm the long-term survival ofthe audio sector asa whole. Tconducted no formal survey, but {got a strong impression that vinyl spin- ners and tube amplifiers were atleast as widespread at High End 2012 as digital sources and solid-state amplifi- sterephiecom + August 2012 | N DUSTRY swore NEWS & VIEWS Hein: Lehtenegger an the Provlectturtabes with ther arbor tber cation. While computer-based audio Alay represents one of hi ftures vinyl replay remains particularly strong in Germany. The big black discs were being played in many exhibit rooms, and a generous area in one hall was devoted to vendors selling LPs to a healthy crowd of browsers. High End has become too large to comprehensively cover in the two days J was there, or in the space allotted for this report. Despite all the media chat- ter about a global recession, there was litle evidence of it among the many recently founded companies that this year exhibited at Munich for the first time. Specialist hi is clearly live and healthy in Germany. ‘Among the less costly electronics I spotted were Cambridge Audio’s new DacMagie Plus, alongside a Seream Magic 6 that’ larger than its predecessor, the NP30, and promises significantly higher performance. Cam- bridge is moving resolutely upmarket with its new top-of-the-line 851A integrated amplifier and 851C CD player, the latter doubling asa flexible digital preamplifier. Thelieve Markus Sauer will be covering Creek Audio in more detail next month, but it’s worth noting that Mike Creek’s son, Lute, i taking an increasingly significant role in the com- pany. Their very competitive, entry- level Evo 50 CD player now features full digital preamplifier facilities. Chord Electronics established some serious high-end cred with is upmarket and very stylish full-size SUBMISSIONS: Those promoting audioelated ‘seminars shows and meetings should ‘emailthe when where, and who to Stepherrmejas@sorccomat east eight weeks bore the month ofthe event. The deadline forthe October 2012 issue's Jly 20,2012 CALENDAR OF INDUSTRY EVENTS ATTENTION ALL AUDIO SOCIETIES: We have a page on the Stereophile website devoted to your www.stereophile. com/audiophile-societes.If you'd like to have your audio-society information posted on the site, e-mail Chris Vogel at infoavcable.us. Please note thats inappropriate for a retailer to promote anew product ine in "Calendar” unless this is associated with a seminar or similar event. CALIFORNIA Sunday, August 19, 12~4pm: The ‘Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society will hold its monthly meeting inthe Penthouse Ballroom of the Buena Park Holiday Inn (7000 Beach Boulevard). With a special focus (on affordable audio equipment, the event will feature Dynamic Design cables, ModWright amplification and source components, and Van LL SpeakerWorks loudspeakers, Representatives from each company will be on hand to discuss their products. Eastwind Import will have LPs and CDs for sale, a raffleis planned, and lunch will be served. Guests, visitors, and new members are invited, and parking is free. For ‘more info, visit www-laocas.com or call Bob Levi at (714) 281-5850. Sunday, September 9, 2-Spm: The ‘Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society will hold a meeting at Audio High (605 N. La Brea Avenue, Los ‘Angeles). Jay Rein of Bluebird Music, North American distributor for Chord, Exposure, Peak Consult, Spendor, and van den Hul, will be on hand to present these brands' latest offerings. Kubala-Sosna loudspeaker cables, interconnects, and power cords will also be featured. A raffle is planned and lunch willbe served. Guests, Visitors, and new members are invited. For more info, visit www laocas.com or call Bob Levi at (714) 281-5850. GEORGIA Sunday, August 19, 3-7Zpm: TheAre we Clear? Coot Realeke at al 21s-entury shows the vig stalin Munich were busy components. The latest to join these ranks is their DSX1000 network streamer, which avoids WiFi except for control, preferring a wired Ethernet connection for best 24-bit/192kHz performance, and including a DAC based on the QBD76. Much of the same DAC technology is also found in the tiny new QuteHD DAC, from ‘Chord’ much less costly and very bijou Chordette range. ‘With headquarters in Vienna and a factory in the Czech Republic, Pro-Ject has done much to create the vinyl revival, and all three versions of its inexpensive Debut turntable will feature a carbon-fiber armtube for 2012, Pro-Ject’s Box range of electron- ics continues to grow, and has settled into three distinct lines: the beer- budget, ultra-compact $ models; the double-height but still inexpensi DS components; and the new RS line, featuring heavier casework, tubes, and balanced connectivity at prices ca $1000 per component. Korean operation Silbatone Acous- ties, in association with Japan’s GLP. Laboratory, has a habit of creating the best sound at High End by each year taking a large room in at the M.O.C. and stocking it with numerous slver- ‘wired triode amplifiers, as well as huge original and replica Western Electric “theater” horn loudspeakers. 'm not sure what electronies were being used when I dropped by their very crowded demo room, but the sound was mag nificent in its effortessness and scale, thanks mainly to the speakers’ WE15A hhoms with WES55 field-coil drivers, which operated from 80Hz to 6kHz. Good though these 1928 homs clearly were, I was told that they weren't as good as the 1926 models but were cheaper to make—at least two pertinent ‘messages for our industry sterephiecom + August 2012 Germans evidently have long liked large hor systems, and a few doors down the cor- ridor [found another very en- tertaining tube'nthom demo. This one combined large multiway hors from German brand Cessaro, their flares fashioned from laminated ‘wood, with Graham Tricker’s fine Tron Siren Il and 8W 300B Discovery tube amplif- ‘ation, Farther down the hall I found Voxativ Loudspeak- cers’ Ampeggio Due, whose solitary field-coil/Permendur driver is loaded by an M- shaped twin horn and huge baffle T also ‘met Stefan Noll, the designer respon sible for Voxativ’s new POL and MOL tubed pre- and power amps. ‘There must have been a dozen more rooms doing the tube'n‘horn thing in cone form or another, sometimes in hybrid formats that are likely to be more domestically acceptable. I was very taken by a tube amplifier system I found driving a new Kaiser Acoustics stand-mounted speaker. The Thrax (the his silent) pre-and power amps are actually assembled in Bulgaria, but tuse some of the finest materials from around the worlds the preamp features full microprocessor remote control and Jooks very much the business. ‘Two brands of large and costly speakers caught my attention, includ- inga name new to me. Ocean Way, a legendary recording studio operat- ing on the West Coast of the US, was showing the big, black, HR3 powered hybrid bom speakee. It makes no con- cession to domesticity, but this Allen Sides design did demonstrate that pro audio can teach hi-fi something about headroom, One could say much the same about TAD, owned by Pio- neer but based in the US and run by Andrew Jones. Its advanced drive-unit technology is respected by both profes- sional and consumer users—no surprise, considering the excellent demo I heard in Munich, Although both are actually owned outside the UK, two leading British speaker brands introduced particular! interesting new models at both ends of the price range. KEF claims that its new L$50 is an attempt to recapture the spirit ofthe classic LS3/Sa. I'm not sure the comparison is particularly appropriate, especially as the LS50 is port-loaded, But I enjoyed the demon- stration of this near-miniature, which INDUSTRY UPDATE features a very complex enclosure, including a cunningly shaped front baffle, and a new Uni-Q drive-unit that builds on lessons KEF learned from the design and manufacture of their Blade and R100 models. Back in 2004, I was very impressed by the sound quality of Tannoy’s Prestige Kensington, with its 10" Dual Concentric drive-unit with alnico magnetand despite its rather archaic styling and limited bass extension, the latter due to a well-damped port tuned to 53Hz. Now Tannoy has upgraded ‘Audio/Video Club of Atlanta anc Avatar Acoustics (545 Wentworth Court, Fayetteville) will host a product, demonstration and Southern BBQ picnic. Featured brands will include ‘Abingdon Music Research, Dr. Feickert Analogue, Karan Acoustics, ‘Monk Audio, and Rosso Fiorentino Electroacousties. For more info, Visit www.a-vcoa org. RSVP: John Morrison, (770) 330-3919 or jhm3@ bellsouthinet, MARYLAND Saturdays, August 4 and, 12-4pm: United Home Audio (10820 Guilford Road, Suite 209, Annapolis Junction) will hst an open house with International Phonograph, a company devoted to high-quality analog tape recordings. For more info, vsit www. thomeaudio.com and wor. internationalphonogra MINNESOTA Saturday, September 29, 2pm: ‘Analog Audio of Minnesota (7701 Peony Lane, Maple Grove) will host an all-viny listening party featuring an unreleased test pressing from Blue Note/Music Matters, and the latest releases from Analogue Productions, ORG, and Speakers Corner. For more info, visit www. analogaudio-mn.com. Space is limited. RSVP: (612) 808- 0709 or paul@analogaudio-mn.com. ‘TENNESSEE IH Soturday-Sunday, September 1-2 The Fourth Annual Emofest will take place at Emotiva (135 SE Parkway Court, Franklin), The event will include factory tours, product demonstrations, live music, Southern BBQ, and giveaways, Admission is free, For more info, visit ww.emotiva.com/ about/emofest.Bowers &Wilkins The cleanest, fastest subwoofer ever Sa \ Deon a Cea een DB1 head énd shoulders above the rest. The kind of control thet stops sonic distortion Caen Ca a ues oem mete eco) Pee he eR Ee Lec aces) Cee ec Pete tm eae mei uc) ene ae cae PSU RCs RO Cer eathis alnico-powered 10-incher, putit in amodem enclosure, tuned the port much lower, to 24Hz, and christened the end result the Definition DC10A. The trade reaction was reportedly very positives the only bad ne\ sumers was the rather hefty price. Karl-Heinz Fink and Ken Ishiwata ‘were both on hand to launch Boston Acoustics’ new M series of three midpriced speaker models, in which “balanced mode” techniques are used to avoid resonances in the midrange driver. Fink made the point that driv unit technology is now so advanced that ehe limiting factor is the enclosure, and that something more sophisticated than making cabinets stiffer is now required. The top M model, the three- ‘way M350, is a slim tower design with four bass drivers and a separate plinth, and sells for €2600/pair ($3250/pai). Fora truly original approach to loudspeaker design, Swiss company AHLM and their Swedish designer entreat one t give the Bjom a home! Described as an “android design” and sitting high on a tripod stand, the Bjorn looks more like a stage spotlight than loudspeaker: the tweeter is placed on the side of a compact cylindrical enclo- sture made from a four-layer sandwich of natural materials. Simply irresistible? ‘Well, maybe ... different, certainly The beautiful Estelon speakers, from Estonia, have already made ‘waves, so perhaps the speakers made by Onda Ligera rom neighbor. ing Latvia, will have a similar impact. Prices of goods from these former Soviet states tend to be very com- petitive, Latvia has a long tradition of Fimiture production, and the Wa 168D speaker looks intriguingas does the DA003 DAC, which omits any high-frequency filtering. In many ways, Audio Physic typifies the thoroughness of German engineering, and this year, proprietor and designer Manfred Diestertich introduced a new range of entry- level speakers, the Yaras, as well as tweaked version of the popular Virgo 25. The Virgo 25 Plus features special silver WBT terminals feeding the tweeter that provide worthwhile ‘mechanical decoupling, and the cenclosure’s interior now incorporates drilled MDF sections and an open-cell ceramic foam. Aurelia isa relatively new Finnish loudspeaker brand, but its waveguide techniques are a clue to the participa- tion of designer Antti Louhivaara, who for con- sterephilecom « August INDUSTRY UPDATE helped found Amphion in the late 1990s, The tall and very slim Graphica combines waveguide and line-source approaches to very promising effect, in both aesthetic and performance t. Densen's Thom comes up with something o1 this year it was an AirPlay-compatible streamer called the Oxygen, distin- guishable from the herd in that the same case is used throughout the model line, though the insides can be upgraded: the 10, 20, 40, and 75 variations models ‘ments in both DAC and power-supply arrangements. Compensating for the poor acoustics of most exhibition rooms isa constant problem for high-end exhibitors. There's not a great deal you can do about the bass, apart from moving the speakers around for best results, but the midrange is another story. In the Sep- tember 2011 issue I mentioned Kaiser Acoustie's attractive, microperforated LeadingEdge acoustic panels; they again did sterling service at High End 2012, An alternative approach, seen and heard in the Ocean Way room, were the Mumax Air Motion Absorber (AMA) panels from Denmark, intro- duced by Ole Lund Christensen. These work by reducin than air pressure, and therefore need to be placed a few inches from a wall Constructed on a beech frame, the ‘main absorbing surface uses a special white paint and is claimed to be less -pendent than usual for an 70%, 250H12-4kH1; and 40% at 125H1z, both measured with the panel 8" from a wal Although new Thorens turntables were being demonstrated elsewhere, I found the Swissonor room very inter esting, Alongside a simple modular tube amp and three high-sensitivity BACH, tractrix-horn speakers with coaxial driv- cers were a number of modifications for old Thorens TD 124 turntables (which believe Art Dudley has already tried and written about). The most interest- ing part was arguably a comprehes display of rare and prototype Thorens gear from the 1950s and “60s, including an extraordinary and ingenious parallel mekingtumeble Whether ancient or moder, tubes and homs or computer audio and digital amps, High End 2012 had something of interest for every hi-fi enthusiast. Just don’t expect to get ‘round a High End show in one or even two days, present improve- air motion rather “extraordinarily Pred claltLee oa The JosephAudio Pulsar 15" High, 8 1/2" Wide Spectacularly Deep. Get the full story at www.josephaudio.com Preece ciara ae Rc ue ts ce) uu who have era en Cee em en reproducing (near) full-range bass, Petia Deere Ervonruess Musicaurry Exciusive Tecunovocy (G00) 474. HIFI (4434)Well, maybe you're i “Tube Curious.” Just go with it. SONUS FABER Amati Futura Look, everyone knows I'm a solid state kinda guy. But lotely I've been fantasizing... about tubes. PRIMALUNA ProLogue Premium ‘MANLEY Integrated Amp 52299 PEACHTREE AUDIO Dac 5995 ENE ENT ed )-1E} Ase merry ~ Tube Upgrades! Huge stocks of cryogenically treated vintage new old stock (N.O.S.) 2 TERRELL CUM UR LORI OMA OR Ta sen CCU Deanne a Le a kere Tec coun Be co ce aon Ce cc Lea OC aa cee aS aoe Cee cen GL LT ae oO aco EL LUM OR URL AL TG UFY PSCALE ROA A etre Roroiaal AUDIO Peek Cae eae Lede) prentstiag ears (S09) $31-S686 rax: [S03] 9385-6968INSIGHTS ON ALL THINGS AUDIO SAM'S 'y SAM TELLIG WN pace Flavor Bombs < C le [other] subject produces a ature so anxious, expressed not so much in its grandiosity asin its defensive jokiness an regular-guydom. ‘Adam Gopnik was writing about wine in his latest book, The Table Comes Fist: Family, Franc, and the Meaning of Food (Alfred A. Knopf, 2011; p.178). Te comes out in paperback on August 21. We met up with Adam in last month's column, Most of the book originally appeared as essays in The New Yorker, where you can swallow your Gopnik in small gulps, For taste ofthe tome, you can savor Chapter 10, whose title asks “In Vino Veritas?” Gopnik jpegs wine critic Robert Parker asa quintessentially American number cruncher. Parkers newsletter, ‘The Wine Advocate, grades the chateaux of France ‘ona 100-point system: “What [Parker] brought tothe table was whae Americans alvays bring «encyclopedic ambitions and a universal numerical system. ... [W]hat mattered was not so much that the list was right-who could tll for sure?as that the list existed” (p.179). ‘Chez Gopnik, Parker is among the “apostles of ara American empiricism~an insistence that facts and numbers could show you what was really going on.” ‘With Parker, maybe the numbers do. Gopnik’s problem with Parker, and other writers who «grade wine, is that wine drinkers might eschew those wines that score, say, a78 or an 82, passing up good values filled with distinctive character and the flavor of a particular terroir, or region of sol. Instead, we follow wine experts by the nose and look for “flavor bombs’, “big wines that are exploding with fruit and alcohol, and which showed up better in tastings” (p:180). ‘We have flavor bombs in hi, too—such as loudspeakers that show up better in shoot-outs or dealer demonstrations than they do afier we've gotten them home and listened for a while. (Pd tell Gopnik this myself, but | don't know him from Adam) Gopnik is fond of lesser French wines~the ones we used. to drink before winemakers from Down Under dropped those flavor bombs with snappy, snazzy labels: “A real man likes moles and frailties; a real man marries his wine, as he ‘marries his wife, and sees her through the thin spots” (p.182), Gopnik notes a penchant among Australian winemakers for tossing into the same vat grapes from different parts of the country-it’s akin to Wal Street's practice of bundling ‘mortgages. Call it a mish-mash; the same thing goes on in hief, where designers pluck different “features” off the shelf. Gopnik introduces French cognitive psychologist Frédéric Bouchet, who found that if he put red food dye in white ‘wine, even “savvy” drinkers couldn't tell white from red. ‘What a trickster! Bouchet conducted a stealth wine stereophilecom + Avevst 2012 ‘Tis ss: Flavor bombs ting words lead us by the nase, Unison’s Simply Italy integrated ampliier. ‘The Simply tals stanesssteel tube cage makes the amp even more beaut saysSam. tasting: first vin de table then a grand cru, No one seemed to notice it was the same wine with a different label. He studied tasting notes from 44 pros at a wine exposition. He found that “when a taster experiences a particular wine, the words they [sid use to describe it are those that they link to this sort of wine.” Gopnik sums up: “the expert tastes what he expects to taste and says what he has said before” (p.184).. Bouchet didn’t stop. He looked at magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of the brains of wine connoisseurs. He found that when they use pet phrases to describe different wines, different areas of their brains lit up. Gopnik calls this “entirely sincere self-delusion.” Like much of what you read in the hi-fi press? Rachel Herz, PhD, isa visiting professor in psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University Medical School and the author of the book That's Disgusting: Unraveling the _Mysteris of Repulsion (W.W. Norton & Co., 2012). You can look her up at RachelHlerz.com. Word labels, Herz says, are “markedly more powerful with nose sensations than they are with other kinds” (quoted in Gopnik, p.184). Words lead usby the nose. Do word labels lead us by the ears as well? There are alot of provocative thoughts in The Table Comes Fist, Some good recipes and cooking advice, too. While you're waiting for the paperback to appear, feast your eyes on this delicious item: Unison Research Simply Italy integrated amplifier (Officially, Unison Research is known as A.RLLA. Advanced Research in Audio, The founder is Giovanni Maria Sachetti, ‘whom I call the godfather of Italian hi-fi. The “industry” did 2SAMS SPACE Unison Research ‘ARIA. Advanced Research in Audio via Barone, 4 31030 Dosson di Casier (Treviso) Italy Tai (39) 0422-633547 Fax: (39) 0422-633550 ‘wes: wn wunisonresearch com not exist in Italy before Sr. Schetti and others in and around Vicenza, includ- ing Franco, didn’t have to import loudspeakers They could make and export d Sachetti holds a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Padua, laly’s second oldest after Bologna. His colleague—Unison's visiting professor, if you willis the distinguished Dottore Leopoldo Rossctto, a fall professor in Padua’s department of information engineering, Unison actually does research Here is their own translation of their introduction to the Unico Nuovo hybrid tube/MOSFET integrated lin, realized that they US distributor: Colleen Cardas Imports Austin, TX rau (512) 262-6280 wes: wwy.colleencardasimports.com amplifier: “Opening a highway over now ten ously only timidly approached, the Ialian firm established new rules in the design of integrated amplifies... Unison Research didn't sink into idleness bue kept om having tests and experi cores, pi nts, with the spirit off to find those hidden laws and secrets that makes an amplifier to become a magic box able to free the music, give her vitality.” The Simply Italy isa pure eube design. There are no transistors in the signal path, but ewo tubes per channel: an ECC82 (12AU7) input/driver and an EL34B output tube. Branded Tui Sol, the tubes come from the Ne Sensor factory in Saratov, Russia Tve visited the Jaison factory several times-including the orig inal igs, next to a pig farm in the hills above Vicenza. Unison now sh factory with its sister company, Opera Loudspeakers (different entities with common ownership). The companies ed on the outskirts of Treviso, north of Venice. Terrific terroir for hit butt not for growing cording to Giovanni Nasa, pal owner of Opera and Unison Radishes, radshes—the only thi that grows around here are radishes!” there are than an hour's drive aw are loc nt vineyards less Opera and Unison might be the only companies in hifi with a wine cellar on the premises. Acafe, too. A glass of wel-chlled prosecco would be peje right now. The Simply Ialy is rated to deliver “about” 12W, with an output transformer with a 6 ohm output impedance that is optimized for speakers with a nominal input impedance of 4-8 ohms. Watts—me feedback switch atop the [And We may need a new name for our Cable Library! traddition to $2.5 million in cables you can try at home in Se OCU MCR ErS eg as alot of Resonance Control footers and isolation platforms, Pea eek Accessories, Sa The Cable Company. The Cable Library. COTamplifier lets the user choose between 5dB (back position) and 1.8dB (front). Other than this, there are no user- accessible adjustments, There are four line-level inputs and a tape loop— ‘meaning five inputs, really ‘There's no headphone output, no balance control; there are no preamp outputs, There's a beautiful infrared remote control with 30 buttons, 28 of them for Unison Research CD players, tuners, etc. The company will ofer a simpler remote with only volume up/down, for those content to only control the Simply Italy's motorized ALPS volume pot The inlays around the volume and selector knobs are of solid wood, to help damp vibrations. The knobs themselves, turned from nonmagnetic stainless stel, are hefty and heavy enough to produce a reassuringly Smooth flywheel efect The sanless- steel bands under the tubes help isolate the circuitry below from the The Simply Haste outputs optimized far 4-8 chm speakers. heat ofthe tubes and the transformers. The tube sockets are ceramic. Etc Considering the styling, the build quality, and the sound, the price is reasonable at $2450. Sometimes you get more when you ask for less. The Simply Italy measures 10” (260mm) wide by 7.5” 350mm) high by 15:5" (190mm) deep, ineluding the knobs in front and the connectors con the back. It comes with a stainless- sawsseace}}) steel cage that I think makes iteven more beautiful, while protecting it against pets, kids, and owner oafishness. Drop some object on your tube amp and you'll lear, the hard way, why you should cage the poor beast. (You can change the feedback switch without removing the cage by carefully poking something through the cage—say, the supplied Allen wrench used to tighten the cage’s screws) At my place, the amplifier hardly got warm, even on vwarm days in late spring—an advantage, since the Simply Italy is most likely to be used in rooms of small to medium size. You won't have to sweat the heat. The Simply Ialy’s output cubes ran in single-ended ultralinear mode. The output transformers are wound, in- house, in such a way that each EL34 pentode tube behaves almost as iit were a triode, Unison calls this “ionic bias’—a type of autobias circuit that continually adjusts the bias current Cables, es, and so much more! Components, Acoustics, Resonance Control, & other Essentials! ‘Askabout the award-wining, {uly automat utrasoncViny Cleaner co N-]R5 (COMPANY } Power Line Products &AC Cables Dozens fLine Fier Legions of AC Cables avalable forin-home auton — Supreme Fuse fm Hif-Tning 999% Sive-+ 15 Gold = 100% Stat ofthe Art NEW! Hind Headphone Library Compare top headphones at home inyour own stem or performance and comfort Good people. Good advice. Great systems, one customer ata time, 125 Union Square Ne Hop, PA 18938 1.00 FATWYRE » 215.862.4870 Eimaitcable@thecblecocom = www.thecableco.com ‘Al major credit cards Free consultation» Most orders ship fre!CELEBRATING 10 YEARS TRC W Vas = Wi Fi) rela pf Paar ey Bi cael Tn Mea) Pe aes ela ar eyo! eee a Cee reas Ce ne ad See ete ee ee ee Meera ld FO oo Cn ee ee ae Cor ee eT nc ie ml © YG AcoOusTIcCS” Brereton reer Nemrestienoe Be aTapplied to cach EL34 output tube over time, as the tube ages. There are no manual bias adjustments for the user to ‘make. Sr. Sachetti has told me that he avoids rmning output tubes at or near the top of their parameters. This results in better sound and greater reliability, he told me Single-ended Sonics Maybe its no surprise that the Simply Tealy didn’t sound like a flea-watt single-ended:-triode amplifier with 2A3, tubes. Irisn't one. Itsounded more assertive, more confident, less dynam cally challenged than something thae winds and wimps its way on three or four watts. Ie didet sound like an BL34 push- pull amplifier, ether~at least to my orechet lee cars). OF course, this is sweeping generality, but the EL34 tube islown ora soft fizzy, warm sound. ‘And somewhat loose bass. This “reissue” Tung-Sol EL34B tube may be an EL34 of a different character: less fuzzy, less phasey, more in control, [hear that the Mullard “reissue” EL34 from New Sensor also sounds terrific. Ttried the Simply Italy with the Rega Apollo-R CD player (used as both a player and as a transport), Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista DAC, and Triangle Cométe Anniversaire loudspeakers. also used my Harbeth ‘Compact 7 ESW speakers. I'l ry some of the newer Opera speakers as soon as I get the chance. For whatever reasons, the Simply Italy nailed the notes. Like its predecessor, the Simply Two, which I twice heard atthe factory, the Simply Tealy delivered the truth of timbre that tube amps are noted for, as well as something they're not: tight bass. Within the limits of what 12W allow T thought that the higher negative feedback ing 3 on Rb dElred a crisper, quicker, more clearly articulated sound, There's no setting for OdB feedback, perhaps because the ‘output stage must have some feedback to work properly. Some Unison Research amplifiers, parallel single-ended designs, use ‘muliple KT88 output tubes to offer ‘more than 12W. But perhaps a certain purity comes from just one output tube per channel ‘Ask our friend Adam Gopnik about cooking with too many main ingredients. He likes dishes with three. T think the same thing happens in hi-fi: stereophilecom + August 2012 saw's space |) put in too many parts and you spoil the sound, You get glop. Tasked Sr. Sachetti about his own reference system. He mentioned the Teatro Olimpico, in his home town of Vicenza. Designed by the architect Palladio and buile between 1580 and 1585, its the oldest surviving enclosed theater in the world, Another Italian hi- fi designer once took me to a concert there. Has Sr. Sachetti re-created the Olimpico’s sound~pure and pristine—in an integrated amplifier? ‘There was something architectural about the sound of the Simply Italy Not just the timing, bue the structures of the notes sounded right. The notes rang true. This is where the Simply Italy excelled: It put notes in their places. Yet it didn’t oversimplify, didnt sound threadbare or excessively austere. The notes don’t have to slog, through silicon. ‘Thisis a 12W amplifier best suited toa small to medium-size room: a den, a small library, a spare bedroom, an office. It lacked the dimensionality, the expansiveness ofthe larger Unison Research tube amps I've heard. It didn’t portray space as well, For that you need more power, from a bigger amp, fora lot more money. But maybe you'd give up something else: that ate purity of sound. nnd there are reasons you might not want a big tube amp. The money. The heat. The heavy costs of replacing tubes. The maintenance and the hassle of sending a big tube amp out for repair. The Simply Italy isan amplifier Tcan recommend to someone who wants tubes without trouble Have you downsized? Do you live in an apartment? Listen in a small room? Want to simplify? Word is getting around that the Simply Italy can drive speakers it shouldn't be able to—like the BBC's classic LS3/SA. I wouldn't recommend it for difficult speaker loads, however. (Or for large rooms. love to hear this amplifier driving something like the Klipsch La Scala. “The Simply Italy dares to think small and make the most of it to turn what could be a weaknesslow power—into a strength. Sometimes you get more when you don’t ask for so much. It’s the Fiat 500 of high-end hi-fi, Temakes me want smaller amp. a Sam Tellig (anselig@sorecom) devours bok while listening to his musi via head- phones and tube anps in deepest, darkest Connecticut Just call Crutchfield for the latest in top brand A/V gear Get award-winning service from experts who know the gear and can provide the right solutions for you Free shipping on most orders. For your free A/V catalog orto tak: toa Crutchtield expert, call: 1-800-317-6595 visit www.crutchfleld.com/stereophilesa. PrimaLuna® M More TAS Editors’ Choice Awards than any other brand. a Created by skilled craftsman and built to last a lifetime, El starting at $1795. “Built to a high standard, the PrimaLuna ProLogue Premium [Integrated] offers outstanding sound quality at a very reasonable price. In my listening tests, it .. . gave high-end references more than a run for their money.” — Robert Deutsch, Stereophile, June 2012 = “I mhappy to grant the [ProLogue Premium] integrated an 2 Exceptional Value Award for 2012. Like the legendary tube ww)" amplifiers from McIntosh and Marantz, it’s an amplifier you can hand down to your family members through the years.” —Jeff Dorgay, Tone Audi, April 2012 Exceptional Value Award ATS (A i pacar rear rrpINSIDER VIEWS ON EVERYTHING VINYL. Fe ea (G NALOG by eter rnenien —~ CORNER ‘This SSUE: H8S's le Blue moving-cl cartridge and Manley Laboratories! Chinook phono preamplifier receive the Fremer treatment. From a Corner to a Planet! nalogPlanet.com has gone live. Allan ‘Toussaint should ttle an album, Elvis Costello should write a song, I'm run- ning the website, and will continue to write chis monthly column for Steeophile, as well as equipment reviews (though fewer of the latter). The new site also includes reviews of analog components originally published in Stereophile, and will shortly feature all 200-plus installments ‘of “Analog Comer,” almost none of which has ever been available online. Let the hunt for contradictions begin! I've gotten letters that say, “You know, back in the April 1996 issue you wrote blah-blah-blah, but in April 2012 you wrote bleh-bleh-bleh, which is a complete contradiction. What gives?” My answer, as always, is “You tell me!” ‘AnalogPlanet.com also incorporates more than a decade’s worth of content from my own website, MusicAngle.com, which has now been shut down, as well as feature articles, interviews, and reviews originally published in my print magazine, The Tracking Angle, from 1994 to 1998, (Old MusicAngle.com links will be redirected to the versions ported to AnalogPlanet.com.) ‘There's room on AnalogPlanet to go into greater detail than I could ever have space for here~including, for example, about how to use a digital microscope to set stylus rake angle (SRA), how to use a digital oscilloscope to set cartridge azimuth, and how to measure the horizontal and vertical resonant frequencies of tonearms and cartridges. (Speaking of SRA, be sure to download Jon M. Risch and Bruce R. ‘Maier’s “More Than One Vertical Tracking Angle,” originally published in the March 1981 issue of Audio, and reprinted courtesy of Bonnier Corporation. My friend Wally Malewicz, of Wally Tools fame, sent me a copy few years age isthe source of my advocacy ofa setand-forget SRA of 92° The site will also include reviews of cartridges, tonearms, turntables, and phono preamps, tips on setup and buying used LPs, and whatever else analog needs including, On AnalogPlanct, I can review something someone else has already reviewed in Stereophile and give you a second opinion, and vice versa [hear you: “More cable reviews, please!” HES Ice Blue moving-coil cartridge Produets with good backstories are always easier to review— like the ingenious preamplifier circuit Sully Sullenberger devised just after the bird strike forced his landing in the Hudson River. It doesn’t get much easier than that. Yes, I'm kidding, but sometimes you just don’t know what to think. We actually received e-mails informing us that the new AnalogPlanet.com logo has the tonearm backward, We knew that, but it was the only way to have itand the platter serve as the loin analog. I realize that anal is part of analog, stereophilecom + August 2012 Sle lve MC phon carrie. but really, sometimes you do just have to let go. Eugene Stoecki, designer of the H&S Ice Blue ($9000), tells me that he was, for 10 years, Ortofon's technical director in Germany, when Erik Rohmann (for whom the MCRohmann cartridge was named) was the Danish company’s president and owner. In that position, Stoecki “refined the quality control and testing procedures of Ortofon (MC 30 Golden Ear Panel), influenced design and technical Features of MC technology” such as the move to higher-output, low-impedance designs, and was involved in the Ortofon Measurement Group, which designed the TC-3000 cartridge and turntable test computer. “It was not an easy task to improve the sound quality of the best (MC cartridges in the world,” Stoccki writes, but said that he has succeeded by reimagining the generator system housing, which he thought was a “weak point in an otherwise supreme cartridge design.” Interestingly, not that it matters, despite his association with Ortofon, Stoecki didn’t claim that he'd actually ever designed and builea cartridge before. And he says that, other than the generator housing, he hasn’t really created anything new-an amazingly honest admission, [ thought. So what has Stoecki done? Is this $9000 cartridge a stripped MCRohmann or other Ortofon cartridge? OF course not. But it does make use of one Ortofon innovation, the Wide Range Damping (WRD) system used in the A90, ‘Windfeld, and other upper-end Ortofons. Ortofon claims 4 patent, so I'm not sure how H&S is using it. Perhaps a “professional courte: ‘The WRD sandwiches a small, heavy platinum dise between two rubber dampers, each of which has a different compliance, hence resonant frequeney. This innovation is said to produce “perfect damping” or elimination of distortion and resonances throughout the audioband, the results being superior tracking and a linear response in the aANALOG CORNER: of 200uV at tkHz/Sem/s. The A90s output is also low, but about 30% higher: 270uV. Bither requires a hi ise phono preamplifier, HES Cartridge Clinic Nashua, NH 03060 Zena Stickd eu (603) 883-1982 swith a step-up transformer a good Kirchfeldstrasse 8 wes: www.bertrandaudio.com fistatoes : “ poe ‘The H&S and Ortofon designs are ear ean ad Manley Laboratories, Inc. ‘ore similar dan differen in terms of pO Ono 13880 Magnolia Avenue Jateral and vertical tracking, compliance, Fax: +49 (0)8766-930-1 Chino, CA 91710 and other specs. The recommended ‘we: www cartridge-clinic.de 7a (309) 627-4256 Fax: (809) 628-2482 US distributor: Wes: www. manley.com Bertrand Audio Imports 49 Fairview Avenue tracking force for both is 2.3gm. And while a 5.5 ohms the Ice Blue's internal impedance/DC resistance is specced 15 ohms higher than the A9O's its recommended loading is 100 ohms (vs the A90's >10 ohms). In most respects, the Ice Blue’s basic n, the “nude” Ice Blue specifications are more different from | weighs 0.8gm less than the A90. The than similar to the A90's Its cantilever | Ice Blue's generator resi is of tapered aluminum (not boron), | extremely rigid frame of aviation the stylus is an 8x40um line-contact aluminum, said to be “specially (vsthe A90' 5x100um Replicant 100, | shaped,” in which are incorporated upper octaves—10 ohms realistic, with 30-50 ‘ohms optimal. I found the Ice Blue's recommended loading spec of 100 ‘ohms to be provisional. Fifty ohms tamed the top end and smoothed out the cartridge’s overall performance with the Manley Laboratories Chinook phono preamplifier (reviewed below) ‘The Ypsilon combo of VPS-100 produced by a phono preamp and MC 16 step-up transformer, with 150 ohm parallel loading resistors, produced the equivalent of loading the Ice Blue with 85 ohms, which isas low ough. “nude” Vishay (Pm waiting for all-new, smetalfoil resistors) Hooked up to a phono preamp that could deal with its low output, the Ice Blue proved to be yet another in a recent series of remarkably neutral cartridges, though its overall personality wa at forward in the treble region, it emphasized attack at the expense of sustain, and its decay ‘was somewhat truncated, The Ice Blue won't appeal to those eho want eartdge to supply warmth or sheen, or those who like an ultra-refined, delicate, or polite top end more suited to classical music than to jazz or, especially, rock (og, my limited ‘experiences with Benz cartridges). Like the Ortofon A90 and the Lyra Aas, the H&cS Ice Blue had a superbly well-balanced sound: deep, taut bass, a transparent midband, and a fast, dean, extended top end, Ifa recording had ANALOG CORNER excess high-frequency energy, I heard it IFit had deep, powerful, extended bass that’s what the Ice Blue delivered, free of bloat or excess energy, bass transients fully expressed The recent reissue of Patricia Barber's Nightclub, mastered by Bob Ludwig from the digital tapes, cut by Doug Sax, and pressed on two 182m LPs (Premonition), should please all fans ofthe singer, even those who leave auidio-show demo rooms sereaming “Enough Barber already” That w bbe me, but this is one of her best, and is tansparent, dhree-dimensional m with crystalline, shimmer ghs and deep, expressive bass. The Bie delivered all effectively d I though the Lyra Atlas was both equally revealing of low-level detail and dynamically more supple, particularly microdynamically—it better expressed the small-scale shifts that reveal the breath of lfe and make recorded music sound almost live. And while the A90 couldn't match the Ice Blue or the Atlas in macrodynamic slam, it rivaled the Lyra’s detail retrieval and surpassed Ne carrcgee NC carvaper age Aion uM Corvggee ticcanmeger www.elusivedisc.com Cen Se ee MUST HAVE GEAR & ACCESSORIES! eee Re Cae Pee ory ina Fa) aca! & ‘ie vert tua typ Clan eco icnars any Sing Package! Berar Te eee a ed(( avatoc comnex the Ice Blue's, though not by much, ‘When I played Nathan Milstein’s recording of the Beethoven Violin Concerto, with Erich Leinsdorf conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra (red vinyl, UK Columbia/ Franklin Mint SAX 2508), the string silkiness and other instrumental textures weren't quite as palpable through the Ice Blue as I remembered hearing from the Atlas. Swapping to the Atlas brought them back. Strong. con the initial attack, the Ice Blue was a better rock and jazz than a classical cartridge—at least in my system, The Ice Blue produced a wide soundstage-not surprising, given the degree of channel separation I ‘measured—though that stage was somewhat forward, and not quite as deep as the A90's or the Atlas’ ‘The Ice Blue struck me as being a very fine overall performer, particularly tonally, but I have difficult ‘wrapping my brain around its price. For even an established company— Lyra, say—$9000 would push the cost of a cartridge to the outer limits. But Lyra has, over decades, also steadily pushed the envelopes of design and execution; the resulting steady improvements in sound and their commensurate cost increases follow an understandable trajectory. Ortofon, with its long history of technological innovation and exceptional-sounding products lensed che pectic ASD + $4300. A new company offering its very first cartridge—one that, however well executed, s not long on technological achievement, and that sounds very but not exceptionally ‘goods, in my opinion, a tough sell ar $9000. Though the H&S Ice Blue exhibited somewhat wider range overall, I preferred the Ortofon A90 at less than half the price. But were I to spend close to $10,000 for a eared, Pd choose the asymmetrically structured Lyra Atlas that I reviewed in May 2012 ($9500), which has a yokeless dual-magnet motor system and ‘whose cantilever assembly is mounted directly to its body, among other notable design features, till ro come is ‘Ortofon's new Anna ($8500), which, like the A90, features an SLM body and a completely new magnet system. don't know H&S's cost structure— the distribution deals it makes with importers, how much it spent devising the rigid aluminum frame that holds the Ice Blue's generator, or how long x0 Manley Labs Chink ters much ofthe expensive Stethead's sound fr $2260, it takes to make an Ice Blue—but had the cartridge’s price been closer to $5000 than $10,000, it would be far more attractive, and much easier to recommend. Manley Laboratories Chinook phono preamplifier ‘The Manley Laboratories Steelhead phono preamplifier remains one of my favorite pieces of audio gear. The CD- Rs I made using it stil sound speetacu- har ts combination of ultea-lexibility, excellent signal/noise ratio, dynamic expressiveness, and low coloration remains hard to beat. Getting me to pare with my Steelhead took the Ypailon VPS-100 phono preamp, plus that company's outboard MC-10 and MC-16 step-up transformers, which remain unbeaten for transparency—but ina package that costs four times the Steelhead’ price of $8000. Now comes Manley’s Chinook: a one-box, tube-and-FET-cascode moving-coil/magnet phono preamp that produces more than a taste of the Steelhead! sound for only $2250. ‘With the Chinook you lose alot ofthe Steelhead's convenience and flexibility, as well sits unique, autoformer-based MC input and outboard power supply. However you sillgeta fenufally rade (in the US), feature-packed phono preamp named after a slmon, and, for ‘utube-FET (no step-up transformers) amplification design capable of 604B of gain,a very quict one. Half of the ‘Chinool’s interior realestate is taken uy by the power supply and ts large toroidal ‘power transformer. Switching between gains of 45dB (MM) and 604B (MC) requires you to remove the Chinook’s thin, perforated top plate; changing the resistive and capacitive loading is done via DIP switches om the rear pane!—not nearly as flexible or convenient as the Steelhead ... but consider that $5750 difference in price. For resistive loading, there ae five DIP switches per channel, for loads of from 26 to 787 ohms in 31 steps, plus 47k ohms for MM cartridges; seven options of capacitive loading are offered, rom 50 to 350pF, which should be sufficient for all bur the insufferably obsessed. ‘A pair of dual-triode 6922 tubes produces the gain, while a second, direct-coupled pair act as output drivers; between the tube pairs is the passive RIAA equalization. Any 6D]8, "7308, or ECC88 tube can be used; for this review, I used the stock 6922 tubes. ‘EveAnna Manley says that the out- put configuration has “beefy current- driving capabilities” witha super-low ‘output impedance that can drive long Iengths of cable. You can read more about the circuit design, and see the CChinook’s elegantly laid out circuit board stuffed with audiophile-quality parts, at www.manley.com/mchphp. The Chinook incorporates the “four-comer” RIAA circuit, which includes a time constant of 3.185, nicknamed “Neumann” because many, if not most, modern lacquers are cut usinga Neumann cutter head, which protects itself by limiting at SOkH1z the otherwise rising RIAA pre-emphasis curve. While this “cornet” is not part ofthe RIAA spec, proponents argue that itshould be added in the RIAA layback spec to better mirror the pre- Emphasis curve ued in cing There's a great deal of controversy about this: Keith Howard and John Atkinson, among others, don’ think this fourth comer is a good idea. But that anyonein 2012 is still willing to argue about such ‘minutiae indicates to me that there's lenty of life left in the analog beast. f you wane to delve more deeply, see Keith Howard's detailed discussion at www stereophile.com/features/cut_, and_thrust_riaa_Ip equalization) ‘But whatever he fourth comer’ measurable or audible effects, I couldn't hear them—though of course T didn't get to hear the Chinook with ‘August 2012 « stereopilecomthree comers, so I don't know what ‘Comer Four might have added or subtracted from its sound. How did the Chinook sound? It swas remarkably quiet, even when confronted with the H&S Ice Blue's 200uV output. And while I haven't had a Steelhead here for along time, the Chinook revived my memory of it by not sounding overtly “tubey,” which I think isa plus. Instead, it combined the sense of relaxation and abundant ‘musical flow that tubes do so well, with the neutral tonal balance of good solid-state designs. The Chinook’s transient attack was very clean and ever so slightly on the soft side of neutral, which is far preferable to the ed and hypereleanness of lesser solid~ state phono preamps. Its sustain was generous, as was the de in part to its subjectively excell signal/noise ratio. The bass was well extended and reasonably taut, and pect of good soundstaging ing was preseatand accounted for. I played some old, familiar records, such as the original UK “Porky Prime Cut” pressing of Elvis Costello’s Trust (F Beat XXLP MI), which has some of the ‘most convincingly recorded drums and cymbals you're likely to hear ona rock album. [Legendary English ‘mastering engineer George Peckham used to inscribe “A Porky Prime Cut” on the lacquers he cut=Ed] “From a Whisper to a Scream,” obliquely referenced in the title ofthis column, features a duet of Costello and Squeeze’s Glen Tilbrook, each voice panned slightly toward the center, to appear adjacent left and right speakers. should be no doubt about where each singer seems to be standing, and each should be locked in his own space clearly untethered from the speaker near him. The Chinook locked them in, producing well-defined, three~ dimensional singing heads. Vocal sibilants were cleanly rendered with just the right amount of grt, neither too soft nor too etched. Tn most ways, the Chinook sounded as advertised, very much like the Steclhead, probably shaving off a bit here and there in subtle sins of ANALOG CORNER omission. However, it fell noticeably short in macrodynamicsthough it was stil very good even there, especially considering the price. The Chinook’s dynamics were good; but as best I can recall its sound, the Steelhead, with its much larger power supply, summoned up greater overall slam and majesty, and was better able to grip and define the dynamic rhythmic contours of explosive musical passages. But look: the Steelhead’s basically excellent soundits silky sheen, and a graceful, ly subtle warmth that Ifele more than heard— remains intact in the Chinook. What ‘Manley Labs has had to carefully and scape away in order to lower inook’s cost is proportionately far less than the big chunk of change they've hacked from the Steelhead's PTF you ca afford a Stcethead, and the Chinook’s $2250 price is sili a stretch, do yourself a huge favor: Get off the couch and 5+ jj Michael Fremer has been pushin musical virtues of LP playback since he started writing for Stereophile in 1995. almost ina Dire Roa iree) Eyes bu TSN eMC Renee Ros Retna) eee UTR ATS oe ge kere eM cede pry eR ree eater Rae Eat nt enM er ecu celts Dee og Every great performance deserves an audience. erry ae aEstablished 1 sree Igacay an Toll Free 800: ooNeedleDocts Pree eco wed the company tO greatly improve Y f Ml with = repiacernent, the DEBUT ‘CARBON, has @ ss plinth fiber tonearm. rs “rubk thick has allo ing its price. Is bon: idition to the arband’ motor 10s a pai of 2 the motor and ‘rounded pulley 5 The drive systern een upgraded with belt ‘sed from 10" 9 1 ‘Debut Carbon © a 2 artridg ngrade i's supplied © Ws hardwired Ci and the put jacks ‘areridge-and Out $399. price is stil Se ae Ca eee aa eee has ener Lael ere Snare ane Pane ule ees rane Ue aia er Fourpoint “O"-ring feet peer a eae Pe See Leaded vane™ suspension arr ennr Lateral ere iia Pca ae Laan Peers re Lael Pe aaa Slog err Coane seal Pre Hee halWC IN SEARCH OF THE EXCEPTIONAL : LISTEN | NG by ART DUDLEY ‘ais ssut: Art Dudley pols his peers on what vintage ‘speakers have Stood the test of time Five vintage loudspeakers you should hear before you die hy vintage? Because the best vintage gear offers an abundance of musically agreeable qualities that are missing from even the best contemporary gear. Those qualities may or may not be crucial to your enjoyment of recorded music (the liberated male of the 2ist century is free to prioritize for himself those aspects of playback fidelity that matter most, some of which aren't at all well served by antique equipment), and the difficulty and expense of going retro can prove too much for those with 10 little time, too little money, and too little background knowledge. Yet for some of us, the characteristics associated with vintage gear are precisely the things we seek. Not that we go looking for abuse. Consider that there are contemporary phono products that offer at least some of the runt and drive of their vintage counterparts. And it isn't, hard to find amps and preamps that matchor even exceed the electronics of yesteryear in terms of color, texture, impact, and scale. Yet when it comes to loudspeakers, there are precious few modern examples that approximate the characteristic strengths of their vintage counterparts—and none that meet or exceed them, So for some of us, the question becomes: Why not vintage? Abandoning the coaxial drivers and the compression drivers and the horns of yesterday in an age of more advanced machines makes no more sense than abandoning oil paints in the age of acrylics: Ina pursuit ‘where technology is meant to serve at, i's never wise to limit one’s choices. And for me, atleast, that axiom gains certainty every time I'm told, by the sad, defensive gurus of yesterday, that these are choices we're not supposed to like. Dork passage ‘The portion of my basement that I think of as my workshop, where I repair and pulverize things in more or ess equal Teastre, has at its center ane of fou steel floor ek learned something about doen lst incr, while buld- ing a cabinet for my 78pm records: fuse a hammer or a screwdriver to rap on one of those jacks with even an eyelash of force, the sound sends my sleeping dog into a barking fit of considerable frenzy. (I regret the impression that our two- year-old Jack Russell terrier behaves well the remainder of the time, her default conduct being that of a cognitively chal- lenged demon with a severe personality disorder. During the sweeks and months since I made this discovery, visitors to our hhome have seldom filed to be entertained. ‘During the weeks and months since I made this discovery, Te alto been struck bya purl: As sore readers have noted, I need only mention the names of certain classic products in order to fill my in-box with hate mail from a fi stereoptilecom * August 2022 dozen apparently retired or otherwise underoccupied ham- radio enthusiasts the catalyst for thee geckesezutes being iy audacity in writing about certain things without first consulting The Experts: themselves. Thus this column comes with a warning label: The 3000 words that follow are devoted to a handful of specific vintage loudspeakers. If in reading this column, you're inspired to convivially share recommendations of other such products, we'll be delighted to hear from you. If, on the ‘other hand, you're inspired to Ineed only offer a selflatering contrast mention the between the thoughts that follow and the godlike names of sghmes of your own audio certain classic nnovledge and opinions, be advised thar we will hi-fi products make fun of you, typically in order to by imitating either Truman Capote or the comic-book guy from The Simpsons while fill my in-box with hate mail reading your lee loud froma dozen to family and fiends, who Seldom Bilt be entrained. apparently ‘Trouble is, the field of retired or vintage loudspeakers is one “ swith which T have precious — litle experience, the choices UNderoccupied i so many, so diverse, so ham-radio rare (the best of America’s enthusiasts. vintage speakers have long been of interest to collectors, thus many are now overseas), so expensive, and, more often, than not, so damn big, Consequently, for this column I tured to some real experts. I began by calling two vintage Toving friend to ask them to recommend collegues of experience, circumspection, good taste, and, where vintage audio represents a commercial interest, a reputation for honest and honorable dealing. I ended up with alist of 12, comprising manufacturers, distributors, retailers, rebuilders, and one journalist, in the US and Europe. Of these, three declined to participate, and another two participated but declined to be named. That left the following seven names, offered in alphabetical order: Rath Aschenbreants, owner ofthe minafictring, distribution, and retail company Auditorium 23 (www. auditorium23 de). Early Bender, proprietor of HiFiTown (www-hifitown, com) and son of the late Walt Bender, founder of Audiomart. Jonathan Halper, owner of the distribution company Tone Imports (www.toneimports.com). 2EMOTIVA RETHINK HIGH-END Love what you hear. Go ahead. Sit back and relax. Pick that one track that means everything to you. And enjoy. It’s time high-end audio returns to its roots. In music. In having fun. In loving what you hear. Rethink high-end audio at emotiva.com. EMOTIVA.COM * 877-EMO-TECH‘Vu Hoang, owner of the retail store Déji vu Audio (www:dejavuaudio.com) and ‘manufacturer of his own vintage- inspired electronics and speakers. Joe Levy, owner of the ‘manufacturing company Tempo Electric (www.tempoelectriecom) and colleague of the late Dr. Arthur Loesch. Herb Reichert, New York audio journalist and former Audio Note distributor. Jonathan Weiss, owner of the audio manufacturing, distribution, and retail company Oswalds Mill ‘Audio (www.oswaldsmillaudio.com). ‘My methodology was simple: Tasked each of these people . name at least five must-hear vintage loudspeakers, thinking— correctly, as it turned out—that the ‘most frequently named products ‘would comprise the final top five. As T wrote in my leer to all correspondents: Complete loudspeakers and raw rivers ay both be considered for this list. For obvious rasons—I hope for this piece tobe genuinely heli to the peso of limited experience in the _feld—I would prefer to emphasize the former But we all know examples of “hee ta define certain pet yet which are not associated with just a single vintage cabinet. would also prefer to emphasize domestic. eee least borderline-domestic oudspeakers—and youre _few to define that as you see fit That leaves unanswered a single, obvious question: How does one define vintage? Age is not the only answer, I consider a 1972 Altec Flamenco-a generously sized floorstanding speaker with wooden arillework that could have been designed by Aubrey Beardsley—to be a vintage product, while a 1956 Acoustic Research AR-L impresses ‘me as unambiguously contemporary. Speaking only for myself, when it ‘comes to speakers, vintage is partly about sensitivity and efficiency, autly about size and scale, partly Tout placing a greater emphasis ‘on midrange quality and color than ‘on frequency extension, and partly about the sheer engineering atiude expressed by the designer. Whereas in contemporary audio there are any number of products that result from a designer having identified a single performance bugiboo and banished ie stereoptilecom * August 2022 ‘Quad EectrostateLoudapeker. ‘tec 6048, wwith some or another clever solution, the best vintage products strike me as more holistic creations. Vintage engineering is seldom clever; it’s simply good. T gave my correspondents a bit more evince! Since we live in a world where a Google search ofthe words vintage audio brings ‘up page afer page of Pioneer receivers and fy ludpcher ges it onde Inurt to mention: Tee this as alist of mostly high-efficiency loudspeakers, mostly from before the 1970s “Then I se them loose to break those rules—which, Tm happy to say, some of them gleefully did. With no further ado, here are the most commonly recommended vintage loudspeakers, arranged in ascending order of consensus: Quad Electrostatic Loudspeaker Availabilty: good Serviceability: very good (but transform- cersare, at this ime, irreplaceable) ustenine |) ) Price range: reasonable to moder ately high In fifth place we find the one domesticaudio product that transcends not only progress itself but every sort of snobbery devised by man and audiophile alike: Vintage nuts, ubeaholics, spec nerds, trophy-system spendthrifis, and even the poor, sad flat-carthers have all, at one time or another, bowed down before designer Peter J. Walker's classic Quad Electrostatic Loudspeaker (it never bore the model number 57), produced for over 30 years by the Acoustical Manufacturing Company of Huntingdon, England. Some 55 years afer it went on sale, the Quad ESL remains the reference loudspeaker most often cited by designers, dealers, and itis, ‘And for good reason: The ‘openness and transparency of this full-range electrostatic—it uses two bass panels and a single treble panel to reproduce a surprising majority of the audible spectrum—has never been bettered, Admittedly, I can't help seeing the ESL, with its signal- driven stators and ingeniously constant-charged diaphragms, as being somewhat analogous to field coil in place of a permanent magnet; surely the Quad’s abundance of natural detail bears ‘out that analogy. Two of my panelists put the Quad in their top five, and two more mentioned jas runner-up: remarkable for a loudspeaker of limited dispersion, sensitivity, and drivability, and severely limited dynamic range. As Herb Reichert suggests, one might do well to view them as “large, beautiful earphones: They deliver color, texture, instrumental tone, and the poetic subtleties of music better than any loudspeaker I know of.” Indeed, the ESL’s sonic purity and musical prowess ae so impressive that is the one clectrostati loudspeaker that earns the renee of people who pray at other a i a dynamic loudspeaker with a Altec 6048 drive-unit Availability: ir to good Serviceability: excellent Price range: reasonable to moderately high ‘A direct descendent of Altec’s 601 field-coil driver of 1941—itselfUsTENING considered the first coaxial loudspeaker the Altec 604 “Duplex” was introduced in 1944, and superseded in 1949 by the more well-loved Altec 604B. Both incorporate a 15" bass cone with a 3" flat-wire voice-coil, cntered—iterally— with 2 high-frequency compression diver, itself loaded with a multi-cell hhom, Alnico V permanent magnets are used throughout. When operated with the correct Altec crossover network, the (6048's frequency range is estimated as 30Hz~16kHz; a hom redesign for the ‘Altec 604C gave that and subsequent Duplex drivers a marked inerease in treble extension. Early members of the Altec 604 fami found in one of two Altec cabinets: the model 605 floorstander or the 606 comer enclosure, both of which are decent looking in a large, severe, post- WPA sort of way. Other 604-friendly enclosure designs abound, though there's an apparent lack of consensus among collectors. (I know: [was shocked, too.) Joe Levy prefers the Japanese Onien cabinets, which he says were brought to prominence of drive-units are sometimes by a 1977 article by the pioncering journalist Jean Hiraga; these, he say can be had for between $1500 and $2500/pair. Herb Reichert describes the Altec 604 asa driver that was “carefully, cost-no-object-engineered to show producers what, exactly, is coming down the mike feed. You really want to know what's hidden in those record grooves? These will show you.” Availability: poor Serviceabilty: good Price range: moderately high Imagine a 15" coaxial drive-unit that’s so well engineered it doesn’t require an electrical crossover between its low- and high-frequency halves. Such a thin obscutt Introduced in 1947 as the MI-11411, this fall-range driver was described by RCA asa “duo-cone” unit—its low and high-frequency diaphragms had separate voice-cils and separate alnico V magnets—with a high-compliance suspension, a stated frequency range of 25Hz~16kH,z, and an acoustical crossover centered at 1600Hz. Notably, the MI-11411 and its progeny were the first speakers to use Kapton voice- coil formers, for enhanced power hhandling-thanks to the prescience of designer Harry F. Olson, who also invented RCA’s iconic 44-A and 77-8. microphones. Four versions in all were made: The LC-1a, LC-1b, and LC-1e are all distinguished from their progenitor by the addition to the bass cone of seven semi-ovoid “acoustic domes” that add abit of desired mass to the cone, in addition to deflecting the output of the high-frequency driver-the latter effect enhanced by the addition of a stationary two-lobe deflector, referred to in vintage circles as the “butterfly.” ‘According to Early Bender, “This brainchild of RCA’s brilliance and cecentric Dr. Harry Olson may be the midrange champ among titans” He added that the LC-1 was pethaps the one speaker among his recommendations that received the sgrcatest engineering effort Jonathan ‘Weiss agrees, adding that the TTT Pri celatngside the tiber-rare Eckmiller, al escribe its sound ‘Weiss added, nduced their own enclosures for pro an Jomestic LC-1 applications, ineludi the LS-1 wall-mount cabinet and the Olson-designed LS-L1 floorstanding cabinet. Weiss says that a previously unpublished (Olson design for an LC-1 corner horn has recently come to light; he expects to produce that snclosure before long Western Electric 753C loudspeaker Availability: discouragin Serviceabifiy Price range: high to extortionate ‘The Western Electric 753C is a complete, ewo-way, permanent loudspeaker from 1946, supplied 2 beautifully finished walnut cabinet about 30" high. (The « of che latter seems incongrious, king Telephone,” ally called standi it, wasnt intend: mestic The drivers are a 15" Jensen woofer, and a Western Electric 32, horn whose compression driver—or “receiver,” in the parlance of the day was the Western Electric 713A, which featured an aluminum diaphragm, (Variations on the 713A used a c diaphr sound.) mm, resulting in a very to have lavished considerable empirical effort on devising onboard crossover, which usrewn } features a pair of especialy big Comell-Dubellier oil capac ‘Althou rare and pairs have fetched $50,000 and up—the Western Electric 753C sits atop the Want listo athan Halpern erent, rich, and beautiful. Ifyou audio show, maybe 70 percent of the people wouldn't get it: ‘Whe ' the bass, es the imagin forth, But other people will he: and say, ‘Tnever knew a speaker this coherent, this good, was made in the 1940s." Western Elet Availabilit ic 755A drive-unit poor Serviceability: reasonably g high to very high the Western drive-unit, “a pe 7 cnnial treasured all o favorite, nFirst was the Space Shuttle and ribbon topology ‘SPM. Next came Valhalla and Micro Mono-Filament construction. Together they created near perfect ‘onditions for optimized signal transfer. Then the Norse series brought those technologies to cables with more rt zemlinsky I wonder whether Gustav Mabler ever came to wish that Alma Schindler had ended up marrying Alexander Zemlin- sky rather than him. Alma had given up Zeminsky for his ack of international ospects and his homely appearance. ‘Rnother Bruckner salen Zelinsky ‘was an organist whose early music ap- pealed to Brahms. Schoenberg married Zeminsky’s sister; thereafter, Zemlin- sky gave Schoenberg counterpoint les- sons, making Zemilinsky Schoenberg's only formal music teacher. Parts of the first movement might strike one as photocopied Dvotik (not a bad thing), except that there's an underlying sad- ness that Dvotik seldom tapped into. ‘The second movement isa selE-assured example of formal development. ‘There are lovely moments in the third movement and blissful moments in the fourth—which includes, possibly asa homage to Brahms, a quasi-academiic five-part fugue for strings. This compi- lation also includes the first recording of the original version of the Prelude to the opera Es War Einmal...., whose world premiere Mahler conducted. ‘The Czech Philharmonic and Antony ‘Beaumont are in top form. BLISS SUK: SYMPHONY 2, ASRAEL ‘haus Poe or, Malaysian Piharmonic Orchestra BIS 1776 SACD/CD) 2003 Jens Brun, pro. Hans Kitt, eng.ODD.TT: 6018 Suk’s Symphony in ¢ of 1905-1906, subtitled Asael for the Angel of Death in Islamic angelology, was occasioned by the death of Suk’s father-in-law, rweneTacenent }}) Dvotik, But before Suk could com- plete it, Suk’s wife, Otylka, also died. Expect a bumpy ride. The symphony i, in two parts, encompassing five move- ments, While it may be apt (in some sense) to observe that the orchestration overall cals to mind that of Richard Strauss that one section could be inspired by a Mabler funeral march, and another has echoes of Wagner's Tristan, all that disserves Suk’s original- ity and craftsmanship. If you need to first dip in only a toe, the second of two slow movements, Adagio, has a lovely violin solo In its complexity, length, and emotional intensity, this demand- ing recording is the polar opposite of the Puccini and Rota CDs, and Asal is well worth getting to know. The sound is ominous, and the Malaysian Philharmonic plays like a world-class orchestra. BLISS: A COLOUR SYMPHONY, CELLO CONCERTO, THE ENCHANTRESS Unda ine, mezz-sopcana Rapa! Wallisch cla; ster Orchestra Vernon Hanley ‘Chandos 0221 (CD). 1987/2008 tion Coens prod: Ralph Couzens eng DDD. TT. 75:8 ‘The young Archur Bliss received his first commission for a major work and promptly caught a very bad case of writer's block. Browsing the book- shelves ata friend’s house, Bliss took down a volume about heraldry and, in reading about traditional heraldry’s associations of colors with aterbutes (cg “Red-the colour of rubies, wine, revelry, courage and magic”), found his inspiration. A Colour Symphony is inspired and hugely accessible. Imagine Elgar, but updated with a dash of Stravinsky's dissonance and a soupgon of self-confident Milhaudian cheek. If you've pigeonholed Bliss as a composer of film and ballet music, think again— this CD includes his late-period Cello Concerto and The Enchantress a work formally similar to Barber's Knowvill Summer of 1915. RAUTAVAARA: SYMPHONY 8, THE JOURNEY; VIOLIN CONCERTO Jnslko Kut, ili: Oso Vrs, Lahti ‘Symphony Orchestra BiS 115 CD). 2008: Robert St prod: neo Pty, fre ODD.TT Set ‘One might criticize Rautavaara’s Sym- phony 8, composed in 1999, for its lack of traditional development and for be- ing episodic, but inall fairness, do not those criticisms apply also to Bartsk’s Concerto for Orchestra? Rastavaara's writing is dissonant but not ugly; even when his music s foreboding, the scor- ing is warm and lush. The work was stopen shield ae mag) 1. Audio cable braiding technique that allows pure signal to fore uete mM cnet Peer ee Rune US ec uy relationship enhances fidelity. daa Eee on ERKINGER KABLE DE RYE Cte) sea)commissioned for the Philadelphia Or- chestra, and Rautavaara kept in mind both that ensemble’s celebrated tonal richness and, in the Bartokian sch their virtuosity. A dense and challeng- ing work, and rewarding to listen to. ‘The Violin Concerto has echoes of Bar ber’s and Bartok’s works in that form. SCHREKER: ORCHESTRAL WORKS PRELUDE TO A GRAND OPERA, INTERMEZZO FOR STRINGS, PRELUDE TO DIE GEZEICHNETEN, ROMANTIC SUITE ames Conon Cologne Gorzeich Orchestra fl Clases Spal import 56784 (CD) 1998. Daniel Za, prod: mar Kerp, Hartwig Paulsen, ‘ngs DOD. TT: 6628. In 1914, Franz Schreker reworked the Prelude to his work in progress, the decadent opera Die Gezechneten (Th Stigmatized), into the standalone or- chestral work Prelude to. Grand Opera. ‘One would be tempted to yell “Copy- cat!” at Alexander Courage, who com- posed the theme musi for the original Star Trek TV series, and perhaps at John ‘Williams as well—but it’s unlikely that either had even seen Schreker’s name. Aer the opera's premiere in 1918, a succes de scandale, more than 60. performances followed in Europe. But in 1933 Schreker's works were banned by the Nazis. The opera was revived in 1979; four recordings are now available, but it was not performed in the US until 2010. Based on the works on this CD, Schreker was a master orchestrator and a highly individual composer—his sounds shimmer in space. ADAMS: THE DHARMA AT BIG SUR, ‘MY FATHER KNEW CHARLES IVES “Trac Sivrman sting elect Wiliam Houghton trumpet BBC Symphony Orchestra, lhn Adame Nonesuch 79857.2 2 CDs) 2006. Martin Sauer, prod; Tobias Lehmann ‘Mark Wiser, eng. DD. TT" 5300 This one pushed all my “bad” buttons. “Like, wow, man, you really have to check out the dharma you get up at Big Sur. lel change your whole vibe.” ‘Then, when I saw that it was a concerto for sixstring electric violin, all T could do was write a note to myself to bring itto my next aromatherapy session, for background music. However, itis often good to lite to things you ae you wort like. The Dharma at Big Suris 2 wonderful concerto, virtuosic and rich in content. Each ofits two movements isa tribute to an American composer: the rather meditative first to Lou Har- ison, the virtuosic second to Terry stereoptilecom * August 2022 Riley. Over and above the predictably ‘unusual gamelan-like orchestration, the work is interesting because itis written in just or pure (not equal-tempered) intonation, in the key of B-except for the second harp, which is justly-tuned in the key of E. As if that weren't enough, the sixstring violin extends a fifth below the range of the viola, to F, which provides surprising bass. Soloist ‘Tracy Silverman plays the pants off the violin part. The other Adams work here, My Father Knew Charles Ives is also well worth getting to know. (Dharma shows signs of catching on; in 2009, for Deutsche Grammophon, Leila Josefo~ wwicz and Adams recorded ie with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Good!) ‘TREDICI: FINAL ALICE Barbara Hendricks, singer Sr Georg Sot Chicago ‘Srmphory Decea Eloquence Attra 442 995-5 (CD. 1981/2008 lames Mallinson pred; James Lock John Dunkery, Michal Mates ens: ODD. TT This work, dedicated to conductor Sir Georg Solti, might have pushed all my anti-trendoid “bad” buttons, except for the fact chat, back in the day, I pur- chased and was charmed by a None- such CD of in Memory ofa Summer Day, another of the large-scale works in which Del Tredici obsesses over the re- lationship between the actual people in the background of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) THe FleTH ELemeNr |) ) and 11-year-old Alice Pleasance Liddell (Alice). didn’t follow up and obtain F- nal Aliz, a song cycle composed before Summer Day. Tnow regret that I did notit's the stronger work. The soprano (Barbara Hendricks) both narrates, by reciting from Wonderland’ courtroom scene, and sings arias based on poems connected with the novel. The final aria, a setting of Carroll’sacrostic poem “A Boat, Neath a Sunny Sky,” is heartrendingly poignant. Del Tredie’s writing, on the surface so much like a nursery song, has subtle and troubling depths. Final Alle ends with the oboe playing the ‘A (4402) to which the rest of an orchestra tunes, making an evenin, Featuring this work something of musical palindrome. Leonard Slatkin has revived Final Alice with soprano Hila Plitmann, who is married co ‘composer Eric Whitacre. All praise and honors to the Detroit Symphony for putting up an HD-quality YouTube video of Pliemann performing in concert this past March the final aria of Final Alice (www-youtube.com/ watchiv=zhE TeflPHsA). Don't miss it! can’t wait for their new, uncut recording (Solt’s omits two scenes), to be released early next year. SHOSTAKOVICH: AN INTRODUCTION TO DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH PIANO CONCERTO 2, SYMPHONY 5, FESTIVE OVERTURE, TAHITI TROT Neem lr Music de Monreal Concerto: Dit ‘Shostakovich plano: Maxum Shostakovich, oy Scoti National Orchesta| {Chandos intro 2027 (CD). 2008 Rachel Sith Yemesteng, DOD. TT: 7442 ‘This budget compilation isa three- fer winner in our Fantasy Symphony Season write-in competition. Shosta- kovich’s Symphony 5 was the second~ ‘most-popular work among the winning entries; his Piano Concerto 2 was included in my own season: and his irky, charming orchestration of “Tea foc Two"-waten from memory, on abet, in 45 minutes, after hearing a recording of the song once—made this lise of Unfamiliar Treasures. Although in 1928 the USSR subscribed to no international copyright conventions, assume that the Soviet authorities didn'e wane co rub Westerners’ noses in blatant infringements. So by way of protective coloration, Shostakovich’ orchestration of “Tea for Two" is titled Tabi Trt. Who knew? m Jol Marks (oboumarks@sorccom) can't renember a time when he wast searching Jor the perfect sound,PASS The XP-20: it's one of the finest preamplifiers in the world. The vanishingly low IMD results in astonishing detail that is unmatched by any Cena ER cia Coc n Ra ae Editor-in-Chief Bee eeu R Ce a narJeff and Steven McDonald Resuscitate Redd Kross Krimson Tide “Steven was T2 eirrwe cet | en sini laying with Black Plag~he wasn’t even a te his | the edges of mainstream su Fifteen years after the band's last record, the pair hav Ider brother, Jeff McDonald uitarst and lad singer of Redd Kross, “The only punk shows hack chen were in Helly wo« reunited with drummer Roy McDonald (no relation) uitarist Robert Hecker—the quartet who made the second 1y Merge d by Superc- a Redd and they were few and far between, Ac the time, we were a band that was desperately tying to play, so I would cold-call rc listed [in the phone book}, and ¢ blew us off And ords, th the Black Flag single, I noticed Lawndale w hunk leader Mac MeCaughan. After all these year and that's the next town from Hawthorne. I Kross retinion re joth McDonalk amehow and I talked to Greg Ginn, and he suid, tations and the risks rehearsal ue! Iwasinan cd churdhin |" "Reunion bu hack lus g mistake that they mak full-length Redd Kross alburr cnt and We f ir friends. And then they played a ful et. It was like tle party and from that point on, when they ta is that they ae try s in Hollywood, they would he opening a sound of particular More than 30 years after they began playing a mix of didn’t do that. Ie was realy just or punk and pop as impressionable California kids, Jeff and his | make a Redd Kross record! This i just the way all of us play.” bassist-singer brother, Seven McDonald—creatve sibling Maybe this record willbe the least co Redd whose advanced musical geekery, Hendrix-like fashion Kross has ever done,” Steven adds with a laugh.headphone ever 0644 Phone Toll Free 800.229. com| 6 Email infooNeedieDoctor: wat HiF/ Erland ned 1979 Fax 612.978.9024 4, St. Louis Park, 612.378.0543) 1906 Excelsior BN MIN5S416 te shgscae op ‘Happy Listening: “John Grado ng recording & price po — Robert H. Levi / Positive je Feedback FOUROSENLThe title track’s garage-rock abandon—and catchy repeated chorus lines—are a classic example of the band’s mix of the tuneful and assaultive: the Beatles meet the Ramones. ‘When the music world last saw the McDonald brothers, they ‘were being swamped as were so many other acs atthe time, by the comporate machinations ofthe late 1990s, which eventually formed the world’s largest seller of music, Vivendis Universal Music Group. Their abel, PolyGram, was folded into Universal and, like alot of other bands, they were dropped, But as both brothers point out, having been disillusioned by their record label didn't mean they ever really shattered. “We never broke up, offically” Jeff says. “When we made ‘our last record, Show World (1997) it came out just months be~ fore the record labels were consumed by one conglomerate. It was such a massive change. It was too much to deal with, And wwe had toured for so long, and we were just ready to take a break, and the break just continued. -ver stopped writing “Butl songs. Thats kind of why Tm doing this new record. I found that I sil loved music sil stened to it, and was sill always tinkering with iin the studio, So, eventually wwe ust thought, make analbam?” In 2006, the McDonalds were talked into making alive appear- ance ata Los Angeles rock'n'roll film and music festival, Don't Knock the Rock. A short run of live igs in Spain followed. In a move that echoed earlier, quirky Redd Kross side projects made under the names Tater Totz and Anarchy 6, the brothers and their wives, calling themselves Ze Malibu Kids, made 2. one-off recor, Sound lt Ou, for the Spanish label Houston Party Records. Inspired by allthis renewed activity, Jeff who has aways been Redd Kross’ main songwriterthough Steven has made such memorable contr butions as “Where I Am Today,” the blockbuster at the center of Third Eye (1990)-began to determinedly work on the song snippets he'd been jotting down for years. “les really strange. I write songs, but Im not disciplined, so cevery time I had an idea for a verse or a chorus, I'd sing it into my laptop and forget about it. And then it would go into my iTunes. was always anti the Shuffle mode on the iPod, but I kinda succumbed to it. We'd be driving around, and this song part would come on, and Pd think it was really good and I ‘would decide to finish it So it was almost like someone else vwas choosing the songs we were going to actually work on. Thad tons of unfinished songs, and occasionally, when one would strike my fancy, I would actually get down and finish it While Jeff is the songwriting engine, Steven, who's Ben paying his rent By producing albus for ‘other bands, has become Redd Kross in-house producer and engineer. Itsa role he’s humble about. “My brother did alot” Steven says “It’s simple and makes fora good story: he wrote the tunes and I produced the record, But he's giving me too such credit” The tracks for Researching the Blues came together over the past five years, although according to Steven, 60 to 70% of the album was recorded in two weeks at King Size Sound Lab, in Eagle Rock, California. Recording the backing vocals and several ofthe lead vocal, then mixing the entire project, came in another burst of activity after Steven heard the rough mixes that Jeff had been working on at home following his iPod Shuffle epiphany. “L made up some rough mixes and sequenced it” says Jf “Ithad been so long [since Vd heard a Redd Kross record] that it was like listening to a record by another band. I knew, techni- cally, didn't have the ability to finish it. That's Steven’ thing, He was touring with his other band, OFF in Australia, and I puta CD of what I had done in his bag before he let and sid, “You've got to listen to this? He wast enthused, but he called ime when he got there and sid, This is great, and when I get home Tm gonna finish it” Lite brother Steven's account, though essentially the same, adds detail. “On that trip Thad two things that [listened to: this huge Albert Einstein biography on tape, and Reseathing the Blues I went all the way to Perth, Australia, lke a 21-hour joumey. When I got to Perth, it was like 11am and I knew Thad to stay up. So I grabbed a train down to the beach and I put my headphones on and listened to where Jeff had left it. Iwas in the central sation in Perth and I heard ‘Researching the Blues for the first time, and it was like, ‘Holy shit, this isawesome! And from there the record unfolded, one track after an- other: All these songs that I hadnt been able to touch base with ina long time, they fle ike good frends that I was really glad to hear from. And I had ideas about how I could drive this home, how I could finish this I got really inspired, and I called [Je] from Cottesloe Beach, which was my destination, and started sgabbing for an hour solid—I had great rates, We were excited. I ‘was siting there facing the Indian Ocean, and he was at home, and had a vision for how I could finish this. Igoe home right before Christmas, and then I dag in at the top ofthe year and finished it” True to Jeffs words, Researching the Bhes sounds ike the continuation of Redd Kross rather than some ill-fated experi- ‘ment in sounding “new” or ‘postin rock.” The brothers signature blend of big, crunchy walls of guitar, punk angst, crashing percussion, and the hooks that have always marked them as devotees of sunny 60s music, retains its vibrancy on Researching The title track’s garage-rock abandon—and catchy repea acai price S800 y when ¢y purchased with arog Trestle ‘4 CLEARAUDIO NANO RECOMMENDED PHONO ‘PREAMPMec hus fond TONEARM excalence is precisely whet YOu should expect from the Ovation. rahe care, Te Absokee Sound tober 2011 continuing the trend of bundling together Carmnore sophisticated WrTeab: arms. eve carerigges into fine-soundnd put relatively hassiefree combinations, Clearaudio recently efeaged what may De te MOS ‘ambitious such package ye: with @ magnet bearing arm and Par man vo Gold cartrage, the Oe isa Terrfic- sounding combo. ris YoOy well balanced: ‘ah excellent detail thet emer OS from silent Neckgrounds, exceptional Pech stability, end fewer extended Highs” Meveyne Gorcia TAS # 221 March 2012 Ds son —— ere BLACK W/ PIANO BLACK LACGUER. siLvER W/ PIANO BLACK LACQUER, SILVER W/CLEAR LACGUER The incorporates the technology of chearaucio's Innovation series Of Tumtables in @ more affordsble Sfeemye’ design wan te COncoPLS ease of use. TALISMANN v2 GOLD > panzer wood/auriru sedate plinth Ve price $1750 «Prem mass faded ond interne) ch Pith sinless evel Sok SemMPNO ties 4 grab lveing and icking fk Innovation. + aus palin plan wen wera when « Mhwetined ekuminurn subpleter purchased + ppenoupled 3 speed OC On, ‘sah Optical Speed Cont} (esc) Ce + Decourerorm reeourea a egret Poe saan ber armwand: mocines Clr en neadshel, an ow carer of erty counterweigh Os8er"ON adjusted pyinternel mecharis™. y CLEARAUDIO BASIC PLUS > , y ‘im/MC PHONO PREAMP a 2 4 CLEARAUDIO Ze | PRODUCT a aley EGOSEQUIPMENT REPORT KALMAN RUBINSON ADAM Audio Classic Column MK3 LOUDSPEAKER aka ADAM Audio. What grabbed me was the array of imposingly high-tech speakers comprising their elite Tensor lis Atlanta Convention Center, they not only looked more advanced than anything else around, they had the audacity to sound superb in a totally inappropriate acoustic situation, Despite the surrounding busyness of the Expo, I was able to sit down and actually enjoy the Beatles’ Love on DVD- Audio. Clearly, these guys knew what they were doing, I vowed to follow up on it. ADAM's ribbon drivers are based on Oskar Heil’s original ‘Air Motion Transformer. The AMT was popular in the early 1970s, principally for its use as the tweeter in the AMT-1 loudspeaker, designed by ElectroStatic Sound Systems. Fun- damentally, the AMT isa relatively long ribbon in which is embedded a serpentine aluminum strip that functions as, a voice-coil. The stip is then folde« suspended in a strong dipole magnetic field. When the signal ‘current is passed through the aluminum strip, the alternating, now-adjacent portions ofthe strip attract and repel each other. ‘The results a rapid opening and closing ofthe accordion ples that effect rpid expiation and inspiration of at between them. According to Heil, this accelerates the air five times faster than could a diaphragm radiator, and con- tributes to the AMT’s wide dynamic range. It has relatively high power handling because the actual area ofthe voice-coil and ribbon is many times larger than the area that faces the ‘twas three or four years ago, ata CEDIA Expo, that I Lz appened upon Advanted Dynami Andis Morin Sitting oue in the middle of the floor of the accordion-style, and Serer wey ie PCIe! eee eee cee ce Nominal impedance: 4 ohms. ar rans listener, due to the folding, and because the sof ribbon mate rial is relatively nonresonant. The popularity of the commer- Gal speaker resulted in the publication of many DIY articles based on it, I builta pair of AMT speakers based on a design published in Audio Amatew in 1977. New AMT-based com- ‘mercial and DIY designs still appear today. Physicist Klaus Heinz, who met Oskar Heil in 1982, says on ADAM's website that he thought that “the new kinemat- {cs to move the air was intellectually brilliant, and the audible success inspiring” Heinz and electrical engineer Roland Stenz, founded ADAM Audio in Berlin, Germany, in 1999, and remain committed to the further development of the AMT. principle, This has resulted in ADAM's eXtended Accelerat- ing Ribbon Technology (X-ART), which eliminates “hug ‘magnetic structures in front of the diaphragm,” thereby re ‘moving some of the hom-like coloration of the original design and permitting wider dispersion, The use of modern material, such as Kapton diaphragms and neodymium magnets, reduces distortion and improv handling. These improvements have also made possible the ‘manufacture of midrange X-ART drivers. The subject ofthis review, the Classic Coltimn MK3, uses a small X-ART driver from 2.8kH up, and a larger X-ART driver from 2.8kH2 down to 800H2. Meanwhile, back in the States, years passed. At each subsequent CEDIA Expo or Consumer Electronics Show, ADAM’s Roger Fortier and I kibitzed and reaffirmed that eeophile about ADAM Audio, Recently, I visited a Manhattan audio shop and, lo sensitivity, dispersion, and power really should write something for‘ Pires Pes eed rane ea cr ont a raz) eros pes Mal aan Fax: (516) 97. Pee ee or eeeSKILL SETS What are they? Why should you care? Audio skill sets Gifted electronic designers. Great speaker designers. Innovative cable designers. What do they ll have in common? ‘They've invested tremendous time and resources in developing their art. Iestheir skillset. Can one be successful doing the other? I can only think of a handful of audio designers who brought excellent products to the market in more than, one field. Why isit so hard? Its simple —they have developed a unique skill set, be it designing electronics, loud- speakers, cables, whatever. But that skill set does not transfer to another field. Itrequires developingan entirely new skill set The and formulas ‘Then why do weaccept the system set-up theories and formulas from these designers as good practice? Have they invested thousands ofhours voie- ing systems in hundreds of rooms? No. It not their skill set. Here's a question Toften ask when I speak at seminars—if one room/ system set-up theory is good, why does every other theory differ almost entirely? Most importantly, which one is right? Since none have a system voicing skill set developed over thousands of hours in hundreds of different envi- ronments, may I respectfully suggest that the answer to the above question may be NONE? Get Better Sound: Reference Set-up Manu: Get bett Actual practice ‘Travelingaround North America, voicing systems ofall types and prices, one thing has become obvious. ‘The theoriesand formulas wwe read about on the In- ternetand other placesare ‘woefully inadequate when itcomes to real systems in real rooms. In fact, every system I've encountered—including those that exactly followed the principles put forth by gifted designers—were performing far below their potential! I should also say that includes installations done by dealers who at least cared enough to perform a basic installation. It’s the same thing— the skill set involved in being able to run a successful retail business doesn't necessarily transfer to finely honed set-up skills Been there, doing that Could I design a loudspeaker? I could, butyou probably wouldn't want it, Because, even though I have some theories in the field of loudspeaker design, the truth is, that’s not my skill set. Neither is neurosurgery. Mine is system voicing, as has been proven in hundreds of homes and at many audio shows. Empowering audiophiles Whatever your skill set may be, it sets you apart from your next-door neighbor. But voicing your own system to its full effect is a totally different skill set. You won't acquire it by at- tending shows, reading, magazines, and most certainly notby follow- ing the confusing and ‘competing set-up the- ories on the Internet. That's why I wrote the Get Better Sound set-up manual and produced the 3-disk DVD set. It whylsendtheacclaimed QuarterNotes newsletters to Get Better Sound ‘owners—for free. I want to provide audiophiles with practical set-up tips that have been proven to work on every voicing site I've done. I focus ‘on what actually works and what can transform your listening experience. Get more For more information, including what audiophiles and reviewers are saying, visitour secure website at www. sgetbettersound.com. Place your order there. To find out more, e-mail jim@ sgetbettersound.com or call me at 770- 777-2096. Best regards, Tin Suith PS—Check out this review: www, ositive-feedback.com/Issue59/bet- ter_sound.htm DVD, and RoomPlay™ Custom Voicing. ound from any home audio system! Internet: www.getbettersound.com + Phone: 770-777-2095 + E-mail: jim@getbettersound.comThe Classi Column MKS i tabled wth a heavy base, and behold, there in che main listening room were ADAM Tensor Betas ( $30,000/pair in semi-active form) and, in another room, the passive Classic Column MK3s, Both sounded exciting enough to get my juices lowing and ov [ADAM AUDIO CLASSIC COLUMN MK.3 LOUDSPEAKER. ‘come my long inertia. I chose the passive Classic Column because it’s attractively priced at $7000/pair, and because 1 think most Stereophile readers prefer to use their own amps. There is also an active version ($10,000/pair) that may well be the subject for future investigation Description Roger Fortier delivered the Clasic Column MK3s 1 realized Td chosen wisely. Ie a clean, beavsifully simple design with smarly chamfered edges, four drivers on the front, wo ports on the back, and wo pairs of multiway terminals for Single or biwiting. The drivers are vertically arrayed: tweeter and midrange ribbons above, the two woofers below “Those woofers have HexaCone diaphragmshoneycomb Nomex structures coated with Kevlar~and are individually loaded inside the cabinet, each with its own port. ADAM states thatthe Classic Colman is a3.5-way speaker, ‘hich is confirmed by the inclusion of a 150Hz crossover specification, with both woofers operating together below that frequency. The lower woofer rolls off above 150Hz, leaving the upper woofer to provide a better blend with the midrange in terms of dispersion The Classic Colurmnis supported by asf, heavy base, to which are affixed adjustable and imposing spike fect. The grille is magnetically attached; chose of us who tend to eschew grilles can have a front panel unmarked by unused fasteners. Allin all, an impressively executed design. Set-Up Fortier and I placed the Columns in the spots where similar speakers had worked so well in the past, hooked them up to the system, and let ‘em rip. My first impression was | distinctly positive. There was no doubt chat the Column was ‘used DRA Labs’ MLSSA system ‘and a calibrated DPA 4006 ‘microphone to measure the ADAM Classic Column MG's frequency response in the farfield. For the nearfield responses | used an Earthworks QTC-40, with its small, /." capsule. | left the speaker's grille off for these measurements. My estimate of the ADAM's voltage sensitivity was 88:548(B)/283V/m: slightly below the specified 90dB, The impedance remained below 6 ohms for ‘much of the midrange and bass (fig), with a minimum magnitude of 335 ohms at I5SHz, The electrical phase angle was _generally low, but the rising impedance and increasingly capacitive angle below 25H suggest the presence of aDC- blocking capacitor in the woofer feed. While there isa suspicious-looking discontinuity at 600H2 in the impedance trace, Ifound no cabinet resonances at that frequency. The enclosure's sidewalls seemed well damped; only the rear panel had some significant resonant modes, stereophilecom + August 2012 Fig2 shows a cumulative spectral-decay plot calculated from the output of a plastic-tape accelerometer fastened to the rear panel's center; modes of delayed energy can be seen at 313, 457, and 668Hz. | doubt these will have any audible consequences, given that this panel faces away from the listener. ‘The minimum value of 3.6 ohms at -44Hz in the impedance-magnitude trace suggests that this is the ports' tuning. frequency—however, the nearfeld Fig: ADAM Clasic Colum MK, electrical Impedance sli and phase (eashed (Zohms/ vented), responses of the upper woofer (fig.3, green trace) and lower woofer (blue) both have the expected minimum- ‘motion notch a litie lower in frequency, at 41Hz, This is where the back pressure from the port resonance holds the ‘woofer cone stationary, and the outputs of the upper (red) and lower (brown) ports peaks narrowly between 30 and {60H2. Both ports roll off sharply above that region, but also apparent in the ‘midrange output of each port is a peak Fig2 ADAM Classic Clu MIG. curate spectral decay lt caclated tem output of acceler fterarene to cenfertearpnel (MS ening Valogeto speaker, 755V/measurement bard mH).SELECTION 2012 feet Cc —— Dre szaal J 3 SeouC ay Innovation Wood Master Innovation Wood €% Musical Surroundings phone: 510.547.5006 www.musicalsurroundings.coma well-balanced, fall-range speakerexactly what I'd been led to expect from what I'd heard in my previous encoun- ters with them, On axis, chere was no significant difference between the sounds, grilles on and grilles off, but the sound- stage’s width and, toa smaller degree, its depth seemed abit limited with them on. This precipitated a series of adjustments of position, toe-in angle, and grilles on/off. The ‘optimal combination seemed to be: speakers toed in so that their tweeter axes crossed 1-2' behind the listening position ‘More acute toe-in angles increased the soundstage width a bitat the expense of depth: less acute angles produced the cpposie oct I reach the mame conclusion ss before about the grilles, and the same preference: leave ‘em off, Listening CConsideringall the technical attention ADAM has lavished on their X-ART driver, it was interesting that my attention ‘was first drawn to the low end of the audioband. The extreme bottom end was extremely detailed and extended. A classic test track, “Cosmic Hippo,” from Béla Fleck’s Flight ofthe Cosmic Hipp (CD, Wamer Bros, 26562-2), offered a good demonstra- tion of the Column’s bass. The first verse usually sounds fll and deep through most competent systems, but in the second verse the bass line is an octave deeper, which often resus in a significandly more woolly texture or in outright wooker ses. ‘Through the Columns there was none ofthat: the second verse simply sounded awesomely deeper. In the same range, all the timpani strokes in Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony's new recording of Beethoven's Sympho- ny 7 (SACD/CD, SFS Media 10116) were tight but resonant and lively, the impact of mallet on skin unobscared. ‘Moving up the audioband, first male and then female voices ‘were imbued with their characteristic chest and head reso- [ADAM AUDIO CLASSIC COLUMN MK.3 LOUDSPEAKER. nances, but in seemingly perfect equilibrium with the rest of the range of each voice. Whether the voice was low, such as that of Leonard Cohen on his Fn Your Man (CD, Columbia CK 44191), or ofbass Gottlob Frick as Rocco in Beethoven's Fidelio, with Otto Klemperer and the Philharmonia Orchestra (CD, EMI CMS 7 69324 2)-or higher, suchas soprano Dawn Upshaw'sin Golou's Tne Sng, Cello and with a ‘Spano and the Atlanta guitar had Symphony (CD, Deutsche Gram- ‘mophon B0009069-02) of Lisa Bea Gerrard's in Dead! Can Dance’s ance 0! Into the Lali (CD, 44D fundamentals, 483912} ah ws poreyed Maccantes with uncanny clarity Similarly, 7 cello and gar ads natunlba- and transients ance of fndamentls, harmonics, and transients that added up to-a shavadded ‘most realistic presence right there up toa most Beane the Clips OF enn, realistic aside from their fundamental tones, mos ofthese sounds get Presence. their unique qualities from fre- quencies above 80H; the great success of the Cohimns must, also have been due to the excellent blend that ADAM Audio has made ofthe outputs oftheir X-ART ribbons and these cone drivers. Now for the real glory of the Classic Column MK3: From the midrange up, the sound was marvelously transparent. Almost every dise I listened to through the ADAMs offered new revelations of detail and nuance, regardless of how familiar was with it. It didn't matter what I played=the Column’ ex- traordinary X-ART midrange and treble drivers never failed at 600Hz, the frequency of the glitch in ‘the impedance graph. These peaks are well dovin in level, however. Fig3 shows thatthe lower (blue trace) rolls off above 150Hz, while ‘the upper woofer (green) extends two ‘octaves higher in frequency, before crossing over to the X-ART units (black) just below kHz. The upper wooter ros, off sharply, and while a peak at 4kHzis apparent nits output, this is well sup- pressed by the crossover. The response ‘of the AMT drive-unitsis extremely fat, “with justa slight excess apparent around: 10kH2—not a region that adds bright- rness—and an output that extends at fll level to the 30kHz limit of the graph. Fig.4 ‘shows how these individual responses, ‘sumin the farfield, averaged across a 30° horizontal windows on the tweeter _axis—the low frequencies extend to the port tuning frequency of 44Hz, with then a steep rolloft, Higher frequency, this speaker is extraordinary fla. ‘Whether soflat an on-axis response translates toa neutral tonal balance depends a great deal ona speaker's ‘behavior off axis. The Classic Column [MKG's horizontal dispersion is shown infig5. The speaker's off-axis behavior isrelatively uniform up to 2kHz, above ‘which the radiation pattern dramatically narrows, which ina typical room, will Fiz3 ADAM Classic Column MIG, acousti cros- fer on HF als at 50, ceca for mirophone ‘esponse with nearfeld responses cf upper \wooer Gren race, lower woofer (blue), upper port (ed, lower pot bron) respectively poled Below hz, cer 9002, 900H2- stereoptilecom * August 2022 Fig. ADAM ciasi Column MIG, anechoc ‘espns on HF ais 50” averaged across 30° horzontal window and corected fr microphone response with comple sum of near woofer {nd port responses pated below 300H2. Figs ADAM Classic Column MIG, tera response {arly 50" normalized to response on HF aus, ‘rombacko font dferencesin response 90-5" axis refrence response difeences in response 590° otlans o[ADAM AUDIO CLASSIC COLUMN MK.3 LOUDSPEAKER Cert) Two pats of binding peste allow fr b-nringor bi-amng to impress me. Nor were their detail and clarity byproducts of a tipped-up HEF range. Switching from the Mcintosh MC303, three-channel amp to the Bel Canto REF1000 MEI mono- blocks, I noted some softening of the HF-and even mor: with the Anthem Statement M1 monoblocks. John Atkin- son's measurements will augment these impressions, but at no time did the Columns treble sound bright to me. The delicacy of ts detail was come by honestly. Tpulled out the original CD edition of Atrium Musicae cde Madki's La Folia dela Spagna (CD, Harmonia Mundi 1951050), which combines sound effects with music ranging from the serious to the sly. The great variety of instrumental mie range, and spacious soundstaging k -at system demo, and all of those qualities wer evident as never before through the Classic Column MK3s. In fact, [heard a few whispered comments by performers that I'd never noticed before. Dynamic shading was both exquisite and broad, My wife thinks her cat lose more than a few hairs when, in past playings of this disc, he levitated in response to the crack of a whip—but had he heard i through the Columns, he prob- ably would have lost a few of his nine lives. e almost knocked ‘me over-and [kn it was coming voices, wide dj made this long The Columns carried over all ofthese felcities to bigger. denser music, which they portrayed with no loss of transpa eney or detail. The finale of Mahler's Symphony 2, with Fischer conducting the Budapest Festival Orchestra (SACD/ CD, Channel Classies CCS SA 23506), was spacious and. massive. The low and midbass were full and well defined. The soundstage, even in just two channels, was broad and deep, with an imposing feeling of presence and proximity. “olumns allowed me However, as in the concert hal, the to revel in the waves of glorious exultation and focus on the melodic lines woven by individual voices and instruments, Conclusions Overall, the characteristics of ADAM Audio’s Classic Col- umn MK3 include a smooth and natural spectral balance, remarkable transparency across the spectrum (and most notably from the midrange up),and tight, fal, wellextended bass. It could also deliver dynamic contrasts both subele and staggering, Its excellent soundstage, however, was quite ‘measurements, continued compensate for the slight excess at the base of the top octave. In the vertical plane (fig.6), the ADAM's response hardly changes at all over a:+5° window centered on the tweeter axis, whichis. significant considering that the tweeter isa high 42" from the ground. Turning tothe time domain, fig7 indicates that the tweeter and woot- ers are connected in positive acoustic polarity, the midrange driver in inverted polarity. However, the decay of each Fig ADANA Classic Clurnn MK vertical response far 850, rarmalin toresponse on Hae, fram bckto ron ierencesin response 15° ove ans ference response, differences inre- ponte 5-10 below au drive-unit's step blends smoothly with the start of that ofthe next-lower uni, hich suggests optimal crossover design and correlates with the superb integra- tion ofthe drive-unit outputs seen in fg 4. Kal Rubinson commented very favorably cn the Classic Column Mk3's upper-fre- quency transparency, and the ADAM's cumulative spectral-decay plot on the tweeter axis is indeed superbly clean fig). (\gnore the black ridge of energy just below 16kHzin this graph, whichis, Fig7 ADAM Cleic Colurn MK, te response on Hans t 50 (Sms tie window, 308s banda) ‘caused by interference from the mea- ‘surement computer's video circuitry.) ‘Measuring audio components can sometimes be a frustrating business, ‘as anomalous behavior requites further investigation to make sure that what is. being observed is intrinsic to the device under test. By contrast, examining the ADAM Classic Column MK3's perfor- mance was an unalloyed pleasure: Each measurement indicated sensible and effective audio engineering. —Sohn Atkinson Fig.8 ADAM Clasic Clunn MKS, comulative Spectral decay pot on HF aia st 50" (Ooms ‘eatinforward, and seemed to begin in the room, right at the speak~ crs’ baffles. Indeed, it created the illusion of listening in the Id, even at my normal liste Classic Column MK3 will ehrll many lsteners~ie g distance of Thi did me—but some, also including myself, prefer to look into a ge without bein is greatly a matter of taste ‘music. The Columns delivered thrilling impact and presence swith pop and rock. I isten mostly to classical music, which is composed, performed, and recorded to be heard some distance from the stage. Nonetheless, the Columns’ presentation of all sorts of music was thoroughly engrossing and convincing, however much it differed from my usval preferences In appearance and footprint, the Classic Column MK3 bears some resemblance to the Aerial Acoustics 7T, which [reviewed in the March 2012 issue (89850/pair; sce ww. stereophile.com/content/acrial-acoustics-model-Tt loudspeaker). The 7Ts’ sound is smoothly balanced and ‘open, and they produced what was, for me, an appropriately soundst smack up against it. OF course, this a function of one’s choice of distanced soundstage with classical recordings. The Acrials bass scemed less fall than the Column’s, but the 7 was un perturbed by organ-pedal notes at high volumes. Although the Column seemed to go deeper at any reasonable volume Tcould get them to misbehave if I pursued such a eruel intention. Ifyou audition both, I don't think you'd have dif- ficulty choosing between them-but I wouldn’e presume to predice what that choice would bs All that said, 'd choose ADAM Audio's Classic Column MKS in a heartbeat if my listening room could accommo- ADAM AUDIO CLASSIC COLUMN MK. LOUDSPEA) PT we sp ete by Digital Sources Sony XA-5400 Cree ee een ee a 61 Reference v6 digital surround contol noes eee ce cee aon? erent ae ae eee Pes) Eaoyeorn ao Loudspeakers Aerial Acoust ar Diamond. eke eet Peat ete balanced. Speaker: AudioQuest AC:JPS Aluminata, AudioQui et Cerner tere eee eer i eter SP tee S date more than one speaker system. Compared to the awe~ some spaciousness and warmth of the Bowers & Wilkins 800 Diamond, the Classic Column MK3 is a splash of cool water in the face and a kick in the butt. It gave me an alter nate and entirely refreshing depiction of everything I threw avit. ADAM Audio may be a name new to the American high end, but my hat’ off to them: The Column MK3 is ly named a Classic. aM ee et et USB DACs TAKING COMPUTER AUDIO TO AN ENTIRELY NEW LEVEL. (0) = k z ri Re rm 7 es i) Digital Music made perfect with USB DACs and Tubes! WAVELENGTHAUDIO.con DUR ee eee eet LD TET Ty ae Reyer PROTON 24/96 De aeWharfedale’s new “Jade” series ... the experts are already talking. Se eR ee Enea eres a Re ae ann ean en ne ea ae eR er Rr nr Ree in heavyweight tracks, they can handle re om Maree cans ra ere “These are seriously capable speakers, “the Jade's bring immense power and Teen eM ae Te eco eee On Reaaeac So Se eed Bison aaa are manufactured in-house with no middle vendors. .) rN anol enn ! ee eee Bere perrsrentees eet SSS Nn teeny The Award-Winning Universal Player eee) chemo OPPO Digital, Inc. | (650) 961-1118 | www.oppodigital.com | Mountain View. cAEQUIPMENT REPORT PSB Imagine Mini LOUDSPEAKER $ oh he first loudspeaker I heard from the Canadian company PSB was the Stratus, an affordably priced (814007 pai), two-way tower with a sofe-dome tweeter and an 8" woofer. The Stratus had ben- cfited from designer Paul Barton’s being able to use the anechoic chamber at the Canadian government's National Research Center, in Ottawa. The Stratus was reviewed for Stereophile by J. Gordon Holt in our May 1988 issue; he de- scribed the speaker as “eminently listenable,” though Gordon also fle thac it was “a litle lacking in guts and liveliness” Thad sat in on some of his isteni impressed by what I heard. I subsequently met Barton at the 1988 Audio Engineering Society Convention in Los Angeles, and, inthe first of many, ssions and had been Sete Ir SON CG eer ey ree eters ene ies Poa eee ea Coes Comet Lorene rae rons erat) met 28 eee leaned more about loudspeaker design than I had realized there was to lear, (My interview with Barton was published in our October 1997 issue; see wwutstereophile.com /interviews/231/indexhtml) Thave reviewed several PSB speakers over the years, but the two that most stick in my memory are the Synchrony One (April 2008; www tereophile OBpsbindexem!) and com/Aloorloudspeakers/ Alpha B1 (May 200 standloudspeakers/507psb sony One on $4500” pair, he Alpha Bi $279 par and while Twas very impressed with what Barton had achieved with the asive speaker, [was ‘managed on what must have been an almost nonexistent sn more impressed with what he'd Mini PFS-27 stands, Pea a renee aos reese eee ite Court, Pi Perec enc n od etadas ONLY THE MUSIC WHEN THE WORLD STOPS AND THERE |S... Scarlatti. The Ultimate Digital Playback System “The aC Scarlatti is the best sounding, most satisfying digitial playback system I've heard.” Stereophile gO e a Impaty NorhAmetin Manufactured in the UK by Data Conversion Systems Ld, Unt 1, Bucknngway Business Park, Anderson load, Swavesey, Cambri30 IMAGINE MINI LOUDSPEAKER build budget. The Alpha B1 had not been out of place hung on the end of very expensive amplification and source com- ponents—while it lacked deep bass and loudness capability and ultimate transparency, it communicated the music in an cffective manner out of all proportion to its price. Yet when paired with inexpensive components, the BI was forgiving (of any sonic ills committed upstream~as Stephen Mejias can testify, having used the B1s as his “Entry Level” ree cever since we published my review. and emotion”; Robert Deutsch felt the launch of the Minis to be one the show's highlights, “Measuring just 925" high by 5.75" wide by 83" deep and ‘weighing 665 lbs the Mini marries the tianium-dome tweeter used in the other Imagine models to a4" woofer that hasa 3" polypropylene cone filled with clay/ceramic materials and a rubber surround. As well as the main ceramic magnet, ths driv unit's motor uses a second, neodymium magnet resting atop the pole piece to mulkiply the magnetic force factor. The crossover is setat 22kFz, with fourth-order Linkwitz-Riley slopes. “The woofer is reflex-loaded with a flared 1" porton the cabinet’ rear, and electrical connec- ‘Then Came the Mini PSB's Imagine series represented an attempt to bring the benefits of the Synchrony technology to more affordable speakers. Both Sum Telig and Kal Rubinson favor- ably reviewed the Imagine T tower ($2000 pair) in June 2009, while John Marks liked ‘what he heard from the Imagine B booksh (61000/pai) in no fewer than three install ens of is clan, The Pith Een” for that year. Then, at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, PSB previewed the smallest, least expensive model in the Imagine series, the Mini, Costing $760/puir in satn-fnish ‘wood veneer, or $830/pair in high-gloss black cor white, the Mini was one of the hits of CES 2011. Stephen Mejias (sce wwwstereophile ‘com/content/psbs-imagine-mini) commented that “the sound of acoustic guitars was enchi ing and commanding, with fine detail, impa to measure the PSB Imagine Min's (le response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 forthe nearfeld and spatially averaged room responses. With ts 7" capsule, the Earthworks mike is small enough to not significantly affect the tuning ofthe port When used for anearfeld measurement. ‘As expected from its small siz, the Imagine Miniis not very sensi- tive, my estimate coming in at 85:5d8(8)/2.83V/m. Thisisa couple of dB lower than average, but within ex- perimental eror ofthe specified 854. The specification lst the impedance as 4.chms and, as shown in fig the mog- nitude does drop below 6 ohms forthe entire midrange, reaching a minimum value of 3.15 ohms at 300Hz, The com- bination of 44 ohms and ~45® electrical phase angle at 177Hz means that an arn- plfierratedinto 4 ohms should be used ifthe little PSBis to sound atts best. The impedance traces appear free from the smal discontinuities in the midrange that would imply the existence of cabinet resonances of some kind. used DRA Labs’ MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone ste philecom + August 2012 vy lf act, Nevertheless, when | investigated the ‘enclosure's vibrational behavior with ‘simple plastic-tape accelerometer, ound a fairly strong mode at 488Hz ‘onal surfaces, as well asa second resonance an octave higher that was present only on the sidewalls fig.2) ‘This graph was taken with the speaker sitting on upturned spikes, which allows the resonances to develop to thei full- ‘est extent. Taking the cones away so that the speaker sat on its hard rubber base reduced the amplitude of these resonances alittle, but they remain the Min’'s Achilles heel; some experimenta- Fig PSB imagine Min electrical impedance (so id) and phase @ashea) (2 ohms/vertical it.) tion is via a recessed pair of binding posts on the speaker's base, which is made of hard rub- ber. Two circular cutouts at the rear allow slim (4mm) plugs to be inserted from behind to reach the downward-pointing binding poss. ‘The tiny cabinet feanures curved sidewalls and top panel, and the baffle is Finished in ‘matte black. The matching PFS-27 stands cost $$300/pair an extruded aluminum pillar bolts ‘on toa heavy base, while the aluminum top plate is bolted to the Minis base and locks to the stand. Cutouts in the top and bottom plates allow the speaker cable to be threaded ‘up through the rear section ofthe single pil an internal partition allows the front section of the pillato be filled with damping materia “The smal port ard to minimize wind noe. tion willbe necessary to: coloration they give rise to. The saddle centered on 78Hz in the impedance-magnitude trace in fig sug~ gests that this is the tuning frequency of the small port on the rear panel. This is confirmed by the nearfield response of the woofer (fig.3, blue trace), which has a notch at the same frequency. (The ‘woofer cone is being held stationary ‘by the back pressure from the port resonance; therefore, all the output at this frequency comes from the port.) ‘The port's response (red trace) peaks between 60 and 120Hz, with textbook imize any Fig.2 SB imagine Min, cumulative special decay ot calculated rom output of acelerometer a5 {ened o cee of side panel (MLS driving voltage to speaker, 755V; measurement bandwith, 24H), nThe VPI Traveler ae SUCK ne (Om mCoRleRU acura American Engineering SATAN En RicieaCoRaei www.facebook.com/vpiindustries‘Sound Quality For logistical reasons, I began my auditioning of the Imagine ‘Minis with them siting on 24" Celestion Si stands, spiked to the wooden floor beneath the carpet and with each stand’s central pillar filled with a mixture of dry sand and lead shot. I raised the speakers with uptumed Mod Squad Tiptoes so that my ears were level with the tweeter axes, and put Shelby Lynne's Jus a Litle Lovin’ (CD, Lost Highway B0009789-2) in the Ayre CX-5 player’ tray. ‘Well, this was defintely a small speaker. While the upper ‘bass was reproduced in full measure, with tidy control and good definition, the low and midbass were missing in action. ‘Midrange and treble sounded natural and neutral, with good high-frequency extension, though pink noise sounded hollow Gee eny eae c ee cerns soundstage was wide, deep, and stable, However, Lynne’s voice in the title track had a slightly “hooty” coloration. investigated this by playing the hal-step-spaced tone- burst track on Ealtors Choice (CD, STPHO16-2) and listen ing to the cabinet sidewalls’ behavior with a stethoscope. ‘The cabinet was quite lively in the octave above middle C. Getting rid of the cones so that the Minis’ hard rubber bases sat directly atop the stands reduced the effect of these resonances, Ultimately, I used small strips of Sorbothane between the speakers and the stands’ top plates, which both tamed the cabinet’s misbehavior and usefully fattened the upper bassa bit then used the Mini's dedicated PFS-27 stands, which had arrived after the speakers. Without any filling, these stands allowed the Minis’ cabinet resonances to be more 30 IMAGINE MINI LOUDSPEAKER fully developed than with the Sorbothane-lamped Celestion stands, Filling the front section of the PSB stand's pillar with something like cat litter (use a plastic bag to minimize mess) would be a good idea. I went back to the Celestion stands Listening to the warble tones on Editors Choice I could readily hear the tones down to the 80Hz band; the 63H band was audible thanks to some support from a room mode. The tones were inaudible atthe listening postion from 50Hz down, but there was no wind noise from the port at normal listening levels in this region. Whether of not the lack of i low bass will be a problem will de~ Midrange pend on the music played. With “Just and treble a Little Lovin" or Paul Simon's “You sounded Can Call Me Al” from his Graceland {ALAC file ripped from CD, Warner natural Bros), the lack of midbass and below and neutral, was nota problem. However, in the ‘i title trackof Simon's Hearts and Bones With good (Cb, Warner Brow. 23942-2), the high- low B sng of Antony Jacksons frequency bass guitar was given short sbrif, Similarly, in the chorus of “Here Sxtension. 1Am,” from Lyle Lovett’ Live in Texas (ALAC file ripped from CD, MCA), the sound lost power when Viktor Krauss’s double bass drops to the low E (laa), There was a good sense of pace, however in “Get Ready for Christmas Day,” from Paul Simon's So Beautifid or So What (24-bit/96kHz ALAC file, HDtracks/Hear Music HRM-32814), ‘2dB/octave rollof slopes above and low-level resonance just below kHz, The sum of the woofer and port outputs, ‘account acoustic phase and the different distances of the two radia~ tors from a nominal farfield microphone position, is shown as the black trace be~ low 300H2 in fig:3. The slightrise in the is entirely an artifact of the nearfield measurement technique; the Mini willbe flat down to 100Hz or so, and ~6dB at the port tuning frequency. Higher in frequency in fig.3, the Imag- ine Mini's response, averaged across a +30? horizontal window on the tweeter {axis is basicaly fla, though with sight ‘excesses of energy in the upper mid- range and top two octaves. Paul Barton ‘sent me a graph taken in the NRC's an- ‘echoic chamber, displaying the average ‘of the on-axis response and the respons- .6515° to either side (not shown). This ‘was almost identical to the trace infig3 above 400Hz. The tweeter’s titanium dome has a fundamental resonance at 24 8kHz, which results ina large peak above the audioband. While this will hhave no audible consequences with CDs, which will nt excite this resonance, !do. ‘wonder if the presence of tis resonance contributed tothe increased auaibilty of clicks | thought I noticed with LP rips. sampled at 192kHz. ‘The PSB's lateral dispersion fig 4) is ‘smooth and even in the midrange and presence region, but the radiation pattern narrowsa little above 4.4kHz Inthe vertical plane (not shown), 3 suckout develops in a Ae Fig: 8 imagine Min anechoie response on HF ‘at 50" averaged across 30° harontal win. ow and corectea for microphone response, with rneareld responses of woler (ius) and prt red) rd thai complex sum (black), espetivaly lat {edbelow 350H, IH, 300K stereoptilecom * August 2022 Fig. PB age Mitral espnse fly at ‘50 normaized to response on Hanis rom back ‘rot ieences response 90-5 of ati refer nee rerponte dlferenees response 590" of aus Fig PSB Imagine Mi patil averaged, "/eectave esponsa in IN sistening roam (te; of Emotva XAT-5.2 (ue: of BEC L53/5A (gear,