Innholdsfortegnelse for Jun-12 i Stereophile

Portland, Maine, my hometown for the better part of two decades, is a pretty hip place. We are not, for the most part, innovators in fashion, but we are early adopters of the more interesting recent styles. For years now, what I take to be a Brooklyn style has been prevalent among the local twentysomething crowd. The hipper restaurants are full of pretty young women and bearded men in plaid shirts who, on the one hand, seem ready for the woodlot but who, on the other hand, seem too skinny to lift a decent-size chainsaw. Likely as not, they arrived on single-speed racing bikes converted for commuter use. Nifty machines. One of the hipper local restaurants is Otto’s, a pizza joint on Congress Street, on the way up Munjoy Hill.…

ATTENTION ALL AUDIO SOCIETIES: We have a page on the Stereophile website devoted to you: www.stereophile.com/audiophile-societies. If you’d like to have your audio-society information posted on the site, e-mail Chris Vogel at info@vcable.us. Please note that it is inappropriate for a retailer to promote a new product line in “Calendar” unless this is associated with a seminar or similar event. CALIFORNIA • May–June: Lavish Hi-Fi (402 Moore Lane, Healdsburg) will hold a series of events in celebration of its new showroom. Featured gear will include the Wood Artistry Orion IV loudspeakers, designed by Siegfried Linkwitz. For more info, visit www.lavishtheaters.com. • Saturday, May 19, 4–8pm: The Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society will hold its monthly meeting and the seventh annual Software Raffle at Brooks Berdan Ltd. (110 W.…

In spite of having one end of my listening room devoted entirely to record shelving, there are now 15 cartons of LPs and 78rpm records scattered throughout my house, said bounty enduring as a source of distress for The Management. That prompted me to set about building a new record cabinet and equipment support to handle the spillover. That prompted me to take a fresh look at how my records are catalogued. And that prompted me to cull from my collection every mono record I own, thinking I would keep them separate from the rest. I was suffering one of those delusions of wisdom—in hindsight, I think it was just a headache—brought on by the screechy light of a typical February morning in the American Northeast: I imagined the time…

I MAGINE A SPEAKER FIRM with an introductory product that pushes the outside of the performance envelope while tearing the pricing envelope to shreds. A reviewer in an audio journal that tilts toward the high end deems this speaker “appallingly expensive,” notes he would have bought the test sample if he’d had the money, and confesses that being without it makes him feel “rather as though a member of the family has passed away.” Now envision a speaker company at the peak of the industry sales curve, one so successful that a mainstream hi-fi magazine ranks it No.1 in market share for two separate years. Very different companies, right? Wrong. Stereophile’s founder, J. Gordon Holt, made the comments quoted above about the ServoStatik 1,1 the loudspeaker that launched Infinity Systems—the…

Description Tubed, remote-controlled, stereo integrated amplifier. Tube complement: four 12AU7, four EL34 or KT88. Inputs: 4 pairs RCA, 1 pair HT bypass. Outputs: 4 and 8 ohm transformer taps. Maximum output power: 35Wpc with EL34s (15.6dBW), 40Wpc with KT88s (15.9dBW). Frequency response: 20Hz–30kHz, ±0.5dB. THD: <1% at full power. Signal/noise: 89dB. Input sensitivity: 300mV. Power Consumption: 300W. Dimensions 14.5" (370mm) W by 8" (205mm) H by 15.5" (400mm) D. Weight: 46.3 lbs (21kg). Serial Number of Unit Reviewed 10044978 (auditioning); 10115729 (measuring). Price $2299. Approximate number of dealers: 35. Manufacturer Durob Audio BV, PO Box 109, 5250 AC Vlijmen, The Netherlands. Tel: (31) 73-511-25-55. www.primaluna.nl. US distributor: PrimaLuna USA, 1042 North Mountain Avenue, Suite B, PMB 406, Upland, CA 91786. Tel: (909) 931-0219. www.primaluna-usa.com.…

Even at its humblest, a 300B is a fine thing. And at its best, this classic triode output tube can deliver some of the most intoxicating music playback imaginable. If tubes are liquor, the 300B is clearly absinthe. (The 2A3 is Cognac, the 45 is Armagnac, the F2a is Tequila, and the EL34 is vodka—which is to say, you can make almost anything out of an EL34, from the repulsive to the sublime.) In the 20 years since the 300B reappeared on the home audio stage, the tube has appeared in a few thoroughly original designs; of those few, the ones I’ve heard have sounded magnificent. The 300B has also shown up in a great many other, generally less expensive amps, the designs of which are decidedly me-too. Even they…

I approached this loudspeaker much as some of today’s political candidates might approach sex: as a means of reproduction, not pleasure. I brought it on myself. I asked to review Joseph Audio’s stand-mounted, two-way Pulsar because I felt an obligation to step down from the rarified air of some of the absurdly priced gear I’ve been reviewing lately and sample something more “affordable.” The Pulsar costs $7000/pair. Also, I’d heard the Pulsars in Pure Vinyl’s room at an audio show last year and was incredulous at their sound—how could such small boxes produce that much bass? I drew back the curtains and looked for a subwoofer. There wasn’t one. Still, here I was rolling away a pair of big, full-range, dynamically unrestrained Wilson MAXX 3s to replace them with a…

Analog Sources Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn turntable, Cobra tonearm, Castellon stand; OneDoF turntable; Graham Phantom II, Kuzma 4Point tonearms; Lyra Atlas, Ortofon A90, Miyajima Labs Premium BE mono, Ice Blue cartridges. Digital Sources Simaudio Moon Evolution 650D DAC/CD transport, BPT-modified Alesis Masterlink hard-disk recorder, Meridian (Sooloos) Digital Media System, Pure Music software. Preamplification Ypsilon Electronics VPS-100 phono preamplifier, darTZeel NHB-18ns preamplifier. Power Amplifiers Music Reference RM-200 Mk.II, Ypsilon Electronics Aelius monoblocks, B.M.C. Audio Amplifier C1. Loudspeakers Wilson Audio Specialties MAXX 3. Cables Phono: Hovland/Graham MG2 Music Groove. Interconnect: Stealth Sakra & Indra, TARA Labs Zero Gold, ZenSati Seraphim. Speaker: Shunyata Research Anaconda, TARA Labs Omega Gold, ZenSati Seraphim. AC: Shunyata Research King Cobra Helix CX & Anaconda CX, TARA Labs Cobalt. Accessories Oyaide AC wall box & receptacles; Shunyata Research…

I used DRA Labs’ MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Monitor Audio Silver RX6’s frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 for the nearfield responses. The Silver RX6 is specified as having a voltage sensitivity of 90dB/W/m. My estimate was slightly lower, at 88dB(B)/2.83V/m, which will not be a problem. The RX6’s impedance (fig.1) remained below 8 ohms over most of the audioband, with a minimum magnitude of 4.35 ohms at 160Hz; this speaker will work best with 4 ohm–rated amplifiers and receivers. Fig.1 was taken with both ports open. Closing the ports with the supplied foam bungs gave the impedance shown in fig.2; the speaker now behaves as a sealed-box design with a tuning frequency of 66Hz, which will help with optimizing…

When Michael Fremer reviewed the Liberty Audio B2B-1 in the October issue (p.31),2 he commented that “this all-FET, class-A phono preamplifier ($1749), made in the US by Liberty Audio, is beautifully built inside and out, and comes in a heavy-duty aluminum chassis with a baked-on crackle finish and a 3.8"-thick, black-anodized faceplate. The overall build quality and physical appearance suggest something that costs more than $3000, which is probably what it would cost were it sold through retailers and not factory direct.” He also liked its sound: “It was extremely quiet, fast, and ultradynamic. . . . If you listen mostly to rock, the Liberty is your ticket to paradise without spending crazy money.” I measured a second sample of the Liberty B2B-1 (serial no. 1004), using Stereophile’s loan sample…

Once it was just a promising idea: Hold a music festival in a sleepy music town filled with hippy venues, sign up a bunch of alternative weekly newspapers as sponsors, and fill the dozen or so showcases with Austin bands. No muss, no fuss. Very cozy. More than 20 years later, the South by Southwest Music and Media Conference has grown into a uproarious blur, this year complete with Frito-Lay’s Taj Mahal of advertising chutzpah—a mock Doritos vending machine four stories high—WiFi’d street people turned media stars, tattooed Texas teenagers drunk on green St. Patty’s Day beer, and wide-eyed British bands naïvely wearing new cowboy boots until their feet were covered in second-degree burns. Things I take for granted here in bucolic New York City—huge crowds that eventually do amble…

What to do Editor: Art Dudley’s “A Brief History of the Lost” (February, p.3) was, in a word, excellent—a column that, in all honesty, should speak to beginner (are you listening, Stephen Mejias?) and snob (Mikey? Wake up!) alike, and everyone in between. I agree with Art Dudley in that Sousa was incorrect in his supposition, and would add that now it appears that nigh on everyone feels they can sing; while there is nothing wrong with that, I do not wish to listen to everyone or their choice of music. I do not always desire to hear music that was once unavailable to me, and yet, given the proliferation of iPods, car stereos, boom boxes (remember those?), and the like, I am quite often forced to listen to the…

“Most of us just can’t taste nuances in high-priced wines.” That flat statement headlined an online recap of a recent report by Allison Aubrey on NPR’s Morning Edition. (You wouldn’t want NPR to be elitist, would you?) You can read and listen for yourself at http://tinyurl.com/7skyszs. Aubrey introduced an academic who gets paid for going to wine tastings. He’s John Hayes, PhD, assistant professor of food science at Penn State and director of the university’s Sensory Evaluation Center. Penn State Live, “the university’s official news source,” summed up Dr. Hayes’s findings: “A wine expert’s acute sense of taste may mean that expert ratings and recommendations are irrelevant to wine consumers who were not born with the ability to discern small differences in a broad range of tastes. . . .”…

"Marvins Room,” the second track on side two of Drake’s platinum-selling Take Care (LP, Cash Money/Universal Republic B0016280-01), is a veiled but nonetheless intriguing confession from a sensitive young man whose addictions to alcohol, sex, and fame have prevented him from developing any sort of healthy relationship. I’ve come to this conclusion after several happy hours of listening to the song from beginning to end, over and over again, while swapping between two very different interconnects: AudioQuest’s Sidewinder ($65/1m pair, now discontinued) and Kimber Kable’s time-honored PBJ ($110/1m pair). The song takes its name from the Los Angeles studio in which it was recorded, formerly known as Marvin Gaye Studios and founded by Gaye in 1975. According to Tom Kenny, editorial director of Mix magazine, 1 Marvin Gaye Studios was…

He’s a moving target. Days before I arrived in his hometown of Portland, Oregon, Matt Ward had left for Los Angeles, where he now works and lives about half the time. In Austin, Texas, at this year’s South by Southwest conference, I sat in a church balcony and could barely see or hear him. At the SXSW party for his label, Merge Records, Ward played a ridiculously small room. The line outside stretched into the hundreds. Hours would have passed. There was no way to get in. Ward, better known as M. Ward, has always been a busy, productive guy, playing and recording solo as well as in a duo, She & Him, with actress and singer Zooey Deschanel. He also is a frequent guest on any number of tribute…

To take these measurements, I used Stereophile’s loan sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 “As We See It,” www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/108awsi/index.html, and www.ap.com). The unit shipped to me for measurement—serial no.10115729, a different sample from the one auditioned by Robert Deutsch—was fitted with EL34 output tubes; I made sure the bias switch on the amplifier’s left side panel was set to the appropriate bias position for that tube. Maximum voltage gain into 8 ohms was on the low side for an integrated amplifier, at 36dB from the 8 ohm output transformer tap and 34dB from the 4 ohm tap, but this shouldn’t be an issue with modern line-level source components. The ProLogue Premium preserved absolute polarity and the input impedance was 35k ohms across the audioband,…

Description Single-ended tubed monophonic power amplifier. Tube complement: one each CV1673, 3A/110B, 300B, 5U4G. Output power: 10Wpc into 8 ohms at 1kHz (10dBW). Input sensitivity: ca 0.6V for rated power. Input impedance: 100k ohms. Output impedance: 8 or 16 ohms (selectable). Damping factor: 4.7 at 1kHz into 8 ohms. Voltage gain: 24dB. Distortion: 0.5% at 1kHz into 8 ohms, 2.83V output. Frequency range: 20–20kHz, flat. Dimensions 17" (435mm) W by 9.5" (245mm) H by 12.5" (320mm) D. Weight: 44 lbs (20kg). Serial numbers of units reviewed 24035, 24036. Price $19,900/pair. Approximate number of dealers: 5. Manufacturer Allnic Audio, 1105 Sicox Tower 513-14, Sangdaewon-1dong, Jungwon-gu, Songnam City Kyunngi-do 462-806, Republic of South Korea. Tel: (82) 31-777-9447. www.allnicaudio.com. US distributor: Hammertone Audio, 252 Magic Drive, Kelowna, British Columbia V1V 1N2, Canada. Tel:…

Description Two-way, ported, stand-mounted loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" Sonatex-dome tweeter, 5.5" cast magnesium-cone woofer. Crossover frequency: 2kHz. Frequency range: 42Hz–20kHz. Sensitivity: unspecified. Nominal impedance: 8 ohms. Power handling: 25–300W without clipping. Dimensions 15" (381mm) H by 9" (229mm) W by 13" (333mm) D. Weight: 36 lbs (16.3kg). Finishes Sapele, Rosewood, Cherry, Maple, Black. Serial numbers of units reviewed P-00067L & ‘R. Price $7000/pair. Approximate number of dealers: 20. Manufacturer Joseph Audio Inc., PO Box 1529 Melville, NY 11747. Tel./Fax: (800) 474-4434. www.josephaudio.com.…

In March 2006 I wrote a very favorable review of Monitor Audio’s Silver RS6 loudspeaker (see www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/306monitor/index.html). At the time, I felt this $999/pair, small-footprint floorstander produced the greatest sound quality per dollar of any speaker I’d heard. Despite the proliferation of affordable speakers of increasing quality I’ve heard since then, I remained particularly impressed by the Silver RS6’s clarity and lack of coloration and the speed of its midbass, all of which continued to exceed the performance of any other affordable speaker I’ve heard. At one point, after the review was published, I invited my classic-rock band, Assisted Living, back to my house for a listening session following a gig. As our multifaceted bass player, Paul Nunziata, who is also an audiophile, listened to rock, jazz, and high-energy jazz…

Analog Sources VPI TNT IV, Rega Planar 3 turntables; Immedia, Syrinx PU-3 tonearms; Koetsu Urushi, Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood cartridges. Digital Sources Lector CDP-7T, Creek Destiny CD players. Preamplification Vendetta Research SCP-2D, Creek Destiny phono stages; Audio Valve Eclipse line stage. Integrated Amplifier Creek Destiny. Power Amplifier Audio Research Reference 110. Loudspeakers Epos M5i, Dynaudio Excite X12, Monitor Audio Silver RS6. Cables Interconnect (all MIT): Magnum M3, MI-350 CVTwin Terminator, MI-330SG Terminator. Speaker: Acarian Systems Black Orpheus. Accessories Various by ASC, Bright Star, Celestion, Echo Busters, Salamander Designs, Simply Physics, Sound Anchor, VPI.…

For the past two decades, the “C” word in classical music—crossover—has been a bone of both hope and contention. Lured by the supposed riches that lurk amongst classical fans who want to slum it and popular music fans with upscale intellectual curiosities, artists from Caruso to Domingo to Joshua Bell have given in to this concept in search of a success to mostly disappointing results. And then of course there’s humble Gordon Sumner (aka Feyd Rautha Harkonnen) who blithely smeared his meager powers onto the work of poor John Dowland in Songs From the Labyrinth—an apt title if ever there was. In 2010 the great Renee Fleming, no stranger to taking risks and a jazz singer during her college years, dipped her toes, fairly disastrously it turns out, into the…

THE CLOUD John Atkinson To kick off our celebration of Stereophile’s first half century—Vol.1 No.1 of the magazine was published in the Fall of 1962—we are making the complete “Recommended Components” listing from the April 2012 issue available as a free app in the iTunes Store. The listing includes equipment categories that had to be omitted from the print version due to lack of space, and each entry is linked back to the original review in the free on-line archives at www.stereophile.com. Enjoy. UK: BRISTOL Paul Messenger I doubt that many dealers would agree, but the healthy numbers of attendees at the 2012 editions of Sound & Vision: The Bristol Show (February 24–26) and the Tonbridge Audiojumble (February 12) are signs of the recovery of the hi-fi market. Sound &…

In the April “Letters,” reader Lenni B labeled me “prince of price no limit.” But in 2011 I reviewed some reasonably priced phono preamplifiers, including, in my October column, the PTE MMMC ($1600). I said that it sounded “flat, cardboardy, and glary” in moving-magnet mode, but had to cut short my review when, on deadline day, I received an e-mail from designer Jim Rush. He said he’d made numerous changes in the moving-magnet section, including switching from passive to active RIAA equalization, upping the power-supply voltage to increase overload margins, going to film coupling capacitors, and using low-tolerance film caps throughout. I returned the first sample and received an updated one, which has sat here way too long.1 I don’t have the space to repeat the entire product description (see…

This column’s heading sounds like a 1950s vocal group, doesn’t it? Let’s start with some great new music. SACD fans: Prepare to vote with your wallets again. Frederick Delius (1862–1934) is one of my favorite second-rank composers who wrote first-rate music. Although not that easy to define, Delius’s music is usually instantly identifiable as his. I think that Delius’s reputation has suffered because it’s tempting to think of him as nothing more than an earnest spinner of dreamy English pastorales. But his music can be more substantial than that. An excellent new disc of Delius’s concertos for violin and cello and the double concerto for both instruments might go some way toward bringing about a reassessment. The soloists are British hometown heroes: violinist Tasmin Little and cellist Paul Watkins. Alone…

Integrated amplifiers are hot. I don’t mean in the literal sense—although having a preamplifier and stereo power amplifier in the same chassis usually results in higher running temperatures—but in the metaphorical one. Once viewed as the type of component that no serious audiophile would consider buying, integrated amps have made a comeback in popularity and prestige. Consider: the October 2006 “Recommended Components” issue of Stereophile listed 29 integrated amps, whereas the October 2011 issue lists 40. Stereophile’s 2010 Amplification Component of the Year award went to an integrated amp, the Audio Research VSi60, beating out a host of heavy-hitter preamps and power amps. The 2012 Stereophile Buyer’s Guide lists 400 integrateds. What accounts for the renewed popularity of this product category? Cost is certainly a factor, but it’s not the…

Digital Source Ayre Acoustics CX-7eMP CD player. Preamplifier Convergent Audio Technology SL-1 Renaissance. Power Amplifiers Simaudio Moon Evolution W-7, Audiopax Model 88 Mk.II. Loudspeakers Avantgarde Uno Nano, GoldenEar Triton Two, MartinLogan Montis. Cables Interconnect, Speaker, AC: Nordost Valhalla. Accessories PS Audio PerfectWave Power Plant 5, Arcici Suspense Rack, PolyCrystal amplifier stand, Nordost Sort Kone TC, Totem Acoustics Beak (on GoldenEar Triton Two), Furutech RD-2 CD demagnetizer.…

The measurements of the Allnic A-5000 DHT (serial no.24036) were performed with Stereophite’s loan sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It," www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/108awsi/index.html, a nd www.ap.com). The needle of the front-panel bias switch rested on the C of the Allnic logo, which is within the limits for output-tube bias current. I didn’t need to adjust it, therefore. The voltage gain into 8 ohms for single-ended sources was both on the low side for a power amplifier, and slightly lower than specified, at 23,7dB from the 16 ohm output-transformer tap, 23.1dB from the 8 ohm tap. For balanced sources, the gain was 4.5dB lower from both taps. The unbalanced input preserved absolute polarity, as did the balanced input when it was set to…

I used DRA Labs’ MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Joseph Audio Pulsar’s frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 for the nearfield and spatially averaged room responses. As Michael Fremer conjectured, the Pulsar is relatively insensitive, my estimate of its voltage sensitivity coming in at 83.5dB(B)/2.83V/m. However, as indicated by its plot of impedance magnitude and electrical phase against frequency (fig.1), the Pulsar is an easy load for the partnering amplifier to drive. Not only is the phase angle relatively low, the impedance remains above 8 ohms for most of the audioband, dropping below that value only in the lower midrange, to reach a minimum magnitude of 6.5 ohms at 210Hz. There is a small wrinkle between 400 and 500Hz in the…

Description Two-and-a-halfway, ported floorstanding loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" (25mm) C-CAM gold dome tweeter, 6" RST mid/woofer, 6" RST woofer. Crossover frequencies: 700Hz LF, 2.7kHz MF/HF. Frequency range: 38Hz–35kHz. Sensitivity: 90dB/W/m. Nominal impedance: 6 ohms. Maximum SPL: 114.8dBA. Power handling: 125W RMS. Recommended amplification: 40.125W RMS. Dimensions 35 5.8" (905mm) H by 10 13.16" (275mm) W by 12 3.16" (310mm) D (includes plinth and feet). Weight: 36.13 lbs (16.4kg). Finishes Black Oak, Natural Oak, Walnut, Rosenut (all real wood); High Gloss Black or White Lacquer, add $250/pair. Serial numbers of units reviewed 201869 (both). Price $1250/pair. Approximate number of dealers: 375. Manufacturer Monitor Audio Ltd., 24 Brook Road, Rayleigh, Essex SS6 7XJ, England, UK. Tel: (44) 1268-740580. Fax: (44) 1268-740589. www.monitoraudio.co.uk. US distributor: Kevro International, 902 McKay Road, Suite 4, Pickering, Ontario…

A mid-March visit John Marks and I made to Derry, New Hampshire, retailer Fidelis provided an opportunity for me to give the Wilson Audio Duettes1 a listen in John’s Rhode Island room on my way back to New York. As I’d taken along my portable speaker-measuring gear—Earthworks QTC-40 microphone, Metric Halo ULN-2 FireWire audio interface, and MacBook laptop running SMUG Software’s FuzzMeasure program—I also examined the Duettes’ in-room response. The speakers were driven by the Parasound Halo JC 1 monoblocks, as they had been for some of JM’s auditioning (see “The Fifth Element” elsewhere in this issue.). I performed this in my usual manner: I average 20 1/6-octave. smoothed responses taken for each speaker individually in a rectangular grid measuring 36" by 18" and centered on the positions of the…

George Warren Editor: I want to thank you, Michael Fremer and Stereophile magazine, for the picture and mention of the George Warren Turntable in the “Analog Corner” section of the last issue [April, p.33]. Our experience at T.H.E. Show in Las Vegas was a great one, especially my conversation with Mr. Fremer. We appreciate the time and effort Michael Fremer took to stop in our room and ask about our turntable. There is one small item in the article that is not correct, though. I may have misstated this point myself, but the standard tonearm we supply with our turntable is not the SME 301 but the Moth 301. I am sorry if I may have miscommunicated that to Mr. Fremer. We plan to be at the T.H.E. Newport Beach…