Audio Research SP

Transcription

Audio Research SP

in this issue
ISSUE 144 ■ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2003
viewpoints
F R O M T H E E D I TO R
LETTERS
4
8
M A N U FA C T U R E R C O M M E N T S
148
columns
F U T U R E TA S : P r o d u c t s o n t h e H o r i z o n
I N D U S T RY N E W S
20
ABSOLUTE ANALOG
20
18
26
Stephan Harrell spins a trio of European imports—
Roksan’s Radius 5, Thorens’s TD850, and Nottingham’s Horizon.
tas journal
3 0 T H A N N I V E R S A R Y F E AT U R E
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From our third issue, HP’s groundbreaking review of the Audio Research SP-3 preamp, the
product that launched a tube revival, with a contemporary comment from HP.
E D I TO R S ’ C H O I C E AWA R D S
36
Our second annual assemblage of the very best products reviewed in these pages.
SPECIAL REPORT
67
Alan Taffel listens to the Acura/ELS’s breakthrough DVD-A Auto Sound System.
equipment repor ts
SOPHIA ELECTRIC BABY AMPLIFIER
73
Baby indeed! Wayne Garcia listens to this tiny, good sounding,
and inexpensive tube amplifier—and she’s cute too.
P OW E R TO T H E P E O P L E : N I N E P OW E R C O N D I T I O N E R S S U R V E Y E D
75
Chris Martens gives you the lowdown on 9—yes 9!—ways to improve your AC power.
AY R E A X - 7 I N T E G R AT E D A M P L I F I E R
85
Robert Harley likes what he hears from Ayre’s tasty new integrated amp.
THIEL CS2.4 LOUDSPEAKER
89
Thiel’s latest floorstander gets a workout from our man in Studio City, Neil Gader.
MERIDIAN 502 ANALOGUE CONTROLLER
A N D 5 5 9 P OW E R A M P L I F I E R
93
“Just right” is how Sue Kraft describes this mid-priced pair from Meridian.
67
SOUNDLINE AUDIO SL2 LOUDSPEAKER
97
Robert E. Greene checks out this hybrid design,
and tells you how to save a few bucks, too.
S U T H E R L A N D P H . D. B AT T E RY - P OW E R E D P H O N O S TA G E
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No AC = very quiet LP playback. Wayne Garcia on the latest from the mind of Ron Sutherland.
M U S I C A L F I D E L I T Y T R I - V I S TA C D / S A C D P L AY E R
104
The company’s name describes the player, according to Shane Buettner.
the cutting edge
LINN’S MARVELOUS MUSIK MACHINE: THE KIVOR DIGITAL-AUDIO SERVER
111
Nicholas Bedworth checks out Linn’s 21st Century music box.
BOULDER’S 2008 PHONO PREAMPLIFIER,
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1 0 1 2 DA C / P R E A M P L I F I E R , A N D 1 0 6 0 P OW E R A M P L I F I E R
Paul Seydor takes an in-depth look at these gorgeously built and ultra-pricey components.
H P ’ S WO R K S H O P
75
2
133
Surround Sound in Action: The Recordings, A Cross Section of Some Hits (and Misses)
HP on the current state of multichannel sound.
THE ABSOLUTE SOUND ■ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2003
music
CLASSICAL
151
Handel: Rinaldo; Aci, Galatea e Polifemo
Sibelius: Rondo of the Waves
Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet, The Stone Flower
Eighth Blackbird: Thirteen Ways
Chopin: Piano works, Mozart: Piano Sonatas, Schubert: Three Piano Sonatas
SACD
R E C O R D I N G O F T H E I S S U E : Rainbow
Body (Atlanta/Spano)
Paris: La Belle Epoque (Yo-Yo Ma)
Beethoven: Symphonies 5 and 7; Puccini: La Boheme
Lloyd: Fourth Symphony, Harris/Gould: Symphonies, Schuman: Credendum
DV D - A
Elgar/Payne: Symphony No. 3, Shostakovich: The Bolt, Jazz Suites
JA Z Z
163
Randy Weston: Randy Weston box set
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Shirley Horn: May the Music Never End
Joel Harrison: Free Country, Adam Levy: Get Your Glow On
Lee Konitz with Alan Broadbent: Live-Lee
Ralph Alessi: This and That and Vice & Virtue
Apa Ini: Apa Ini
Miles Davis: The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions box set
SACD
John Coltrane: Blue Trane, Bill Charlap: Star Dust, Miles Davis: Steamin’
POP & ROCK
171
Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Greendale
My Morning Jacket: It Still Moves
Cheap Trick: Special One
111
Bela Fleck: Little Worlds
Absolute Audiophilia: A Mighty Welcome Wind: Joan Baez and Ian & Sylvia on Cisco LP
SACD
The Man Who Invented Soul: The Sam Cooke ABKCO remasters
Nickel Creek: Nickel Creek and This Time
The Kinks: Everybody’s In Show-Biz and Low Budget
DV D - A
Steely Dan: Everything Must Go
Deacon John’s Jump Blues
ON THE FRINGE
New records from The Mars Volta, Café Tacuba, Tomahawk, Mondo Generator, EELS,
Northern State, and various ’60s surf-rock “legends.”
tas retrospective
184
Neil Gader reminisces on the early days of his lifelong love affair with audio.
171
WWW.THEABSOLUTESOUND.COM
3
from the editor…
s you’ll see in this issue’s Letters, our Recommended Systems feature in
TAS 143 stirred up quite a controversy. At issue is how much of one’s
overall system budget should be allocated to loudspeakers. I had recommended driving an $11,700 pair of Wilson Audio Sophia loudspeakers
with a $1550 Naim Nait 5 integrated amplifier. Juxtaposed with this
system was Jonathan Valin’s recommendation of a $128,832 package, of which
“just” $19,000 was spent on loudspeakers. Both of us have lived with and enjoyed
our respective choices, and both of us felt confident recommending them as systems we would buy ourselves. But which approach is “correct”?
In the early days of “hi-fi,” the conventional wisdom held that because the
loudspeakers actually produced the sound, they were the most important component and deserved the lion’s share of the budget. Implicit in this argument was the
belief that turntables, preamps, amplifiers, and cables had little or no effect on the
sound. This idea was stood on its head in the early 1970s by Linn Products
founder Ivor Tiefenbrun, who virtually single-handedly demonstrated to the world
the turntable’s effect on reproduced sound.
Thus began the movement that held that the further upstream the component,
the more influence it had on the overall sound. Source quality was paramount.
This school of thought holds that if the signal isn’t pristine at the start of the
chain, nothing downstream can ever make it better. In fact, better loudspeakers at
the end of a poor-quality reproduction chain actually sound worse than less good
loudspeakers because the better loudspeakers more accurately reveal upstream
flaws and distortions.
I understand the logic of this position, and partially subscribe to it. Believe
me, you don’t want a grungy, bright, hard, and flat CD player or digital processor
feeding high-resolution electronics and loudspeakers.
Nonetheless, my recent experience with very high quality and easy-to-drive
loudspeakers, combined with exceptionally musical and affordable amplification,
suggests that there’s still a strong argument for putting most of your hi-fi budget
into loudspeakers—provided that the components are chosen and matched extremely carefully. High-sensitivity loudspeakers with a flat impedance curve can be driven to
satisfying levels with low-powered (read “low-priced”) amplification. And there are
a few precious gems of inexpensive amplification that deliver outrageously good
sound when matched with the right loudspeaker. Find the right combinations of
these components and you get the best sound for the least money.
This is, of course, not the approach one takes when cost is secondary to sound
quality. But it works when bang-for-the-buck is a priority. It’s like a Subaru
WRX; it gets you much of the BMW 330 experience for a fraction of the price,
but no one would choose the Subaru if cost were not the primary consideration.
That’s why we present such a broad spectrum of prices and approaches in our
Recommended Systems feature.
Putting together a musically rewarding stereo system requires vastly more
insight and sensitivity than an “‘x’ percentage should be allocated to the source, ‘x’
to the amplification, and ‘x’ to the loudspeakers” mentality. Component matching
is an art, with rules and guidelines about how to assemble a system. It therefore
seems appropriate to close this piece with a quote from Michael Polanyi’s Personal
Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy: “Rules of art can be useful, but they
do not determine the practice of an art; they are maxims, which can serve as a
guide to an art only if they can be integrated into the practical knowledge of the
art. They cannot replace this knowledge.”
A
Robert Harley
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founder; chairman, editorial advisory board
Harry Pearson
editor-in-chief Robert Harley
editor Wayne Garcia
associate editor Jonathan Valin
managing & music editor Bob Gendron
acquisitions manager Neil Gader
& associate editor
copy editor Mark Lehman
music sub-editor Andrew Quint, Classical
equipment setup Scot Markwell
editorial advisory board Sallie Reynolds
advisor, cutting edge Atul Kanagat
senior writers
John W. Cooledge, Anthony H. Cordesman,
Gary Giddins, Robert E. Greene, J. Gordon Holt,
Fred Kaplan, Greg Kot, John Nork, Arthur S. Pfeffer,
Paul Seydor, Kevin Whitehead, Roman Zajcew
reviewers and contributing writers
Shane Buettner, Dan Davis, Frank Doris, Allan
Freeman, Roy Gregory, Stephan Harrell, John
Higgins, Sue Kraft, Mark Lehman, Arthur B. Lintgen,
Anna Logg, Chris Martens, David Morrell, Aric Press,
Derk Richardson, Dan Schwartz, Gene Seymour,
Aaron M. Shatzman, Alan Taffel
design/production Design Farm, Inc.
web editor Jerry Sommers
Absolute Multimedia, Inc.
chairman and ceo Thomas B. Martin, Jr.
publisher Mark Fisher
advertising reps Cheryl Smith
(512) 439-6951
Marvin Lewis, MTM Sales
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copyright© Absolute Multimedia, Inc., Issue 144, October/November 2003.
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LETTERS
COLOSSAL IGNORANCE
Editor:
Having just read the latest issue
(143), I confess I find myself astonished—I never dreamed, after all these
years as a subscriber, that I would find
myself insulted by The Absolute Sound!
However, after reading Mr. Yogi
Saxena’s letter I find myself in a state of
outrage. This may come as a shock to
Yogi (he of the “30 years in the high
end”), but there are actually readers of
The Absolute Sound who own some of
those supposedly outrageously priced
products he saw so fit to lambaste. Even
more shockingly, we think we got a bargain. (I consider anything a bargain that
will give me a lifetime of pleasure,
regardless of price.) So yes, I own
[Nordost] Valhalla, both the speaker
cable and interconnects. And, I actually
drove them home in my Porsche. (Only
IN THE NEXT ISSUE
B&O’s BeoLab 5 Loudspeaker
Massive SACD and DVD-A Player Survey
Golden Ear Awards
Recommended Source Components
YBA Passion Integrated Amp
Conrad-Johnson Premier 140 amplifier
Exclusive: Vandersteen 5A Loudspeaker
The Most Significant Products of
the Past 30 Years
8
after I had made sure I had enough time
by checking my Rolex.)
However, my outrage only increased
when I read your From the Editor section, in which, to my eyes, it seemed as
though you were being a borderline
apologist for the criteria used in selecting Product of the Year.
To quote you, “reader Yogi Saxena
raises some interesting points about
high-end audio.” No, he doesn’t. Yogi
raises no point worth even a passing
thought. He does not speak for me, nor
does he speak for the thousands of other
high-end enthusiasts he claims to be one
of. We, the folks he seems to detest, are
the reason that the high-end evolves,
because it is we who purchase the $19k
amps and $23k speakers. The fact that
we do this enables companies like
Wilson Audio, Burmester, and Talon to
survive, and propagate their cuttingedge technologies into lower-priced fare,
from which folks like Mr. Saxena benefit.
His letter whines and raves about a
product that, most likely, he will never
own. Yet, he fails to realize that these
products simply do not appear in a vacuum. They are the result of thousands of
hours of research and the outlay of serious capital. Capital generated, I might
add, by folks like yours truly.
Let me conclude by being blunt: we
Porsche-driving, Valhalla-listening,
Rolex-wearing heathen do not buy and
read The Absolute Sound to hear our tastes
being trashed in print by what can only
be termed colossal ignorance. We buy it
to stay informed, entertained, and up to
date on what the high-end arena has to
offer us. If The Absolute Sound should
start pandering to the Lowest Common
Denominator (we were glad to see fewer
exclamation points on your most recent
cover), then we will go elsewhere, and
you will have alienated a crucial core
constituency of the high end, to the
STEPHEN J. KENNY
detriment of all.
MULTICHANNEL QUESTIONS
Editor:
I most enjoy Harry Pearson’s and J.
Gordon Holt’s columns, and I must ask
Harry a few questions.
Why would one need, when listening to classical music, a multichannel
speaker system where each of the supporting (side and rear) speakers are full
range? I ask the question assuming that
this supporting information is limited
in volume and frequency response.
Your positive comments regarding
the Acarian Elite speaker remind me of
very positive comments made some time
ago about the Innersound speaker. Some
comparative comments would go a long
way toward explaining how these two
different, similarly priced speakers compare, and the virtues of each.
HENRY GROSSBARD
HP REPLIES: To take your first question first, the
“supporting” channels sometimes contain fullrange information and not just ambient information. There are classical compositions that utilize surround sound, and many of today’s
younger generation of composers write with that
kind of spatial deployment in mind, and, no
doubt, more will do so. I’m not sure, based on my
experimentation (still in its neo-natal stages),
LETTERS
that you have to have full-range speakers in the
center or rear, as long as the speakers are of similar manufacture and cover most of the frequency
range, to wit, the Coincident Technology system I
used in the initial SACD sessions, or the
Magnepan system I have been listening to of late.
Surround is in its infancy and no one, to
my ears, has yet mastered the technology. We
still await the recordings that use spatial
dimensions to create a greater illusion of the
real thing. Given that drawback, you probably can see why I am hedging my response: I
just don’t know enough yet, and it isn’t for
want of trying.
As for your second question, the two speaker systems do not sound at all alike. The only
thing they have in common is my enthusiasm
for their musicality. I know I am swimming
against the tide of “modern” reviewing in saying this, but I believe the only significant comparison to be made is between any given speaker system and the real thing. However, it ought
to be self-evident that the Innersound with its
electrostatic panel and cone-type woofer system
will have discontinuities that the all-cone
drivers of the Alon don’t have, as well as a
much narrower listening window. By converse
measure, the electrostatics will give you a kind
of resolution you’ll get from no cone-type speaker that presently exists, while you won’t have to
sit with a head vise on to get stereo staging.
SHOCK ABSORBERS AND TURNTABLE
SUSPENSIONS
Editor:
Issue 142 has an especially meaningful turntable assessment by Robert E.
Greene. The Well Tempered review challenges popular notions in a way Mr.
Greene expresses quite lucidly. He rightfully defends the old notion of comparing
the sound of the turntable to the sound of
the master tape!
Damping at the cartridge end is an
idea whose time has come, even if it has
not been commercially successful in the
past. No car goes on the road without
shock absorbers, but most turntables
take on the tracks without them.
HP’s mention of VPI’s peripheral
10
LETTERS
clamp is also an idea for our times.
Clamping LPs at the label is good
enough, but clamping at the periphery
solves obviously audible wow [problems],
which is easily confirmed by looking at
the arm swinging up and down
with peripheral warps.
Thanks for the continuing light into
phonograph reproduction.
CARLOS E. BAUZA
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE ABSOLUTE
SOUND?
Editor:
First, I’m a long time subscriber and
fan of TAS, which is clearly experiencing
a renaissance in quality and focus.
HP has mused recently about the
conundrum one faces upon hearing the
state of the art in solid-state and tube
amplification gear. To paraphrase HP, at
their finest, both paradigms take the listener closer to the absolute sound than
we’ve ever been before. But if that’s so,
why should the results still sound so different from each other?
Well, what if we were comparing
beautiful women instead? I would propose Grace Kelly, Charlize Theron, and
Catherine Zeta-Jones for our thought
experiment. All perfect, all distinct from
each other. Even if you substitute your
own idea of “perfection,” (whether the
topic is women or amplifiers), should we
be surprised that “perfection” manifests
itself in such a way that two (or more)
creations might share certain attributes,
yet be dissimilar, simultaneously perfect
DENNIS POGGENBURG
and unique?
provided in your Recommended Systems
article in the June/July 2003 issue.
First, the entry-level systems do not
include inexpensive but quality turntables, e.g., NAD and Pro-Ject, that
would not add a great deal to a system’s
cost. More importantly, the retail prices
quoted do not include necessary interconnect cables or speaker wires, or powerline filters or system cabinetry. These
items would provide a more realistic
estimate of the total price of a highfidelity system.
What was most surprising were the
speakers chosen for three of the latter systems. It is incompatible one would spend a
whopping 61% (System Six), 76% (System
Seven) but then just a meager 15% (System
Nine) on speakers. I consider myself an
Audiophile-In-Training (AIT), and may
never be sure if there is a perfect formula of
what percentage to spend on an item, but
believe one should always strive for balance
among components.
When spending over a 1/10 of a million dollars on a cutting edge/cost-noobject dream two-channel system, one
would probably not want to buy speakers that “will not fill out the bottom two
octaves...nor will they give you...midbass authority...will not sound quite as
airy or extended as the best ribbon
tweeters...nor will they be quite as seamless and low in distortion as the best
JAY MANDEL
electrostats.”
RECOMMENDED SYSTEMS
CONTROVERSY, PART II
Editor:
For better or worse I have been an
RECOMMENDED SYSTEMS
CONTROVERSY, PART I
Editor:
I have enjoyed reading The Absolute
Sound for many years and recently re-subscribed to your magazine. I was surprised
and disappointed at the sometimes
incomplete and misleading information
11
LETTERS
avid reader of all your issues starting
with Issue 1 and own all of them. Even
though at times I had felt irritated with
some reviews and chagrined by [your]
not reviewing equipment I thought you
ought to I refrained all these years from
writing to you about my reservations.
But now comes your Issue 143 with its
Recommended Systems and [I] find it
truly irritating. For starters, you feature
nine of them clustered as follows: four
systems priced between $1500–$5000,
four systems between $11,000–$20,000,
and low [sic] and behold: one lonely system priced at $130,000!
Statistically speaking, these prices
are not normally distributed. From a
logical and practical point of view you
should have offered systems in the range
of $40,000–$60,000 to fill the yawning
gap between these two extremes.
But now for my real beef with
Jonathan Valin’s contribution. I fail to
see his logic in recommending a
$130,000 system which includes
$19,000 speakers, $41,000 in electronics, $35,000 in analog front end, and
$20,000 in assorted cables and powerline enhancer. Any knowledgeable and
high-end savvy person will tell you that
speakers are the most critical component
in a system. To spend a mere 14% of a
very costly system on speakers which are
“great” but “incapable of filling out the
bottom two octaves” and “will not
sound quite as airy or extended” makes
no sense.
There are turntables which cost half
the price, and electronic gear which
costs much less, not to mention cables
which are more reasonably priced to
leave enough money to buy excellent
speakers which will cover the entire
range with accuracy, speed, authority,
and closeness to the real thing. Think
of the big Kharma, Wilson’s MAXX,
the Adrenaline, and others. I for one
would have allocated $130,000 entirely
differently and achieve[d] as good or
better results. For now I have to make
do with a $50,000 system.
MICHAEL NATHANSON
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Thank you, Mr.
Mandel, for suggesting we include turntables
and cables in the entry-level systems. We’ll keep
that in mind next year when we put together
the next Recommended Systems feature.
To address the budget-allocation issue
raised by Mssrs. Mandel and Nathanson,
the Recommended Systems feature reflects
the different tastes and sensibilities of our
editorial staff. For example, I was perfectly happy to drive the $11,700 Wilson
Sophia with the $1550 Naim integrated
amplifier. If given a $20,000 budget, I’d
probably spend more than half of it on
loudspeakers and seek out the extraordinary
values in electronics and front ends. But
that’s just my approach.
Jonathan Valin has a different view, as
his recommendation (which he lives with on a
daily basis) shows. Jonathan has had in his
home, and has ongoing access to, some of the
world’s largest and most expensive loudspeaker systems. Nonetheless, he has chosen to live
with the system he described.
Finally, HP was slated to recommend a
system between $20,000 and our top system
at $130,000, but he was unable to turn in
the copy before deadline.
ROBERT HARLEY REPLIES:
The notion that a
stereo system should be put together strictly
on a percentile basis is, in my opinion, idiotic. What I recommended was not the
upshot of a cut-and-dry formula, worked
out meticulously by calculator or in consultation with an accountant, but a realworld hi-fi system that I’ve lived with for
better than a year and whose parts were chosen because they have proven to work
superbly well together (regardless of individual prices or percentage points).
Moreover, this is a system that will fit into
virtually any listening room short of the
palatial, and that will play there as accurately and musically and pleasurably as
any I’ve heard, including many that cost
tens of thousands of dollars (and tens of percentile points) more. Sure, the Kharma
Reference Monitor 3.2s have their limitations—which I listed. But so does every
speaker I’ve heard, regardless of price.
Moreover, in the aggregate, the 3.2s limitaJONATHAN VALIN ADDS:
tions are far less noisome than those of these
others, including all of the ones that Mr.
Nathanson mentioned. That loudspeakers
are arguably the most important part of a
system does not mean that they need be the
most expensive part of the system. It
depends on the loudspeaker, don’cha think?
(Which is precisely why the Kharma
Reference Monitor 3.2s are such an extraordinary deal.) I might add, in passing, that
before spending more money on—or allocating more percentage points to—loudspeakers,
I’d spend less. I’d pick the Magneplanar
20.1s, the Sound Lab M-1s, and the Quad
electrostats—all of which cost substantially
less than the Kharmas—ahead of any of the
behemoths Mr. Nathanson and, by implication, Mr. Mandel apparently have in mind.
And, no, I wouldn’t cheap out on the frontend or on electronics or cabling for these
either. A good speaker is only as good as
what comes ahead of it. And frankly what
comes ahead of it can turn good into great.
FM TUNER FANS
Editor:
I wish to thank everyone, especially
Neil Gader and Robert Harley, for the
excellent June/July issue of The Absolute
Sound. Of particular interest to me was
the tuner survey. As one of the cofounders of the Tuner Information
Center and the FM Tuner discussion
group it does my heart good to see
interest in FM tuners. We have a young
Web site for this very interest. Our
Web site [www.fmtunerinfo.com] was
established to give the music lover,
hobbyist, and FM DX’er a place to
learn and contribute to the advancement of FM. We have information
pages, reviews, and how-to modifications to help improve sound quality on
classic and even modern FM tuners.
Our discussion group is at 1000 members worldwide and consists of all
types of folks from young members
starting out to engineers and hobbyists
bent on squeezing out the best from
their tuners and sound systems.
JIM RIVERS
LETTERS
ACOUSTICS PRIMER
Editor:
It has occurred to me that it has
been a very long time since any articles
on room acoustics have appeared, as they
did in the days of future past. Given how
“revealing” all our equipment is, it
would seem timely to enlist the advice
of an acoustician in how best to maximize the room to eliminate bass modes.
HP has, periodically, reminded us to
damp the “first and second” reflection
points, which is great. However, bass
nodes are most likely still a mystery to
most readers, and a short explanation of
what they do and where they will show
up would be helpful. Even reminding
people not to put their couches in the
middle of the room (incoming waveform!) might be a helpful tip.
The equipment most of us have is
probably very good, but the chance of us
getting everything out of it that we can is
unlikely. Given TAS’s influence, why
don’t you help out the readership and save
them some money? Robert E. Greene
seems the logical choice for such an article, scientist—and pragmatist—that he
is, but it’s past time for an article like the
G. MCLEOD
ones between issues 38-50.
A THOUSAND QUESTIONS FOR HP
Editor:
The reprints of original articles from
The Absolute Sound [our 30th
Anniversary features running in Issues
140–145] is [sic] impressive in the display of wisdom, eloquence, and fundamental style (in the way Bogart or Orson
Welles had it, as opposed to stylish) that
is clearly inimitable. The editorial staff
appears well aware of this, which makes
the obvious disconnect it creates, at the
very least, disconcerting. The immediate, overwhelming feeling one has after
reading them (more so for people the
articles are new to) is “How does this
connect to the present?” What happened
to this equipment or the people that cre-
14
ated it? Did they dissipate their creative
energies or move on to new things?
What happened to the ideas embodied
in these products? Are they represented
in other equipment to the same degree
since then or now? A thousand questions
to be sure, but you have the source to
draw upon to answer them. The magazine, your readers, and the public at
large would benefit enormously if you
prevailed upon Mr. Pearson to put it all
in perspective, to give it context. There
has never been anyone nearly so successful at sketching out powerful themes
and historical perspectives in regards to
audio (and no doubt visual) media. Who
else could talk about the zeitgeist of the
times then and now while making profound sense and never sacrificing
artistry[?] I am sure he has all manner of
stories to tell from behind as well as in
front of the scenes. No one doubts he has
led an interesting life; let him tell us
about it. Basically, get him to expand on
all the possibilities and themes hinted at
in these articles and build upon that. It
would be good if he could respond to a
question or two each issue from readers,
as well. He responds colorfully and well.
It could easily lead to valuable insights.
The dynamism of these exchanges are
not easily duplicated elsewhere. I’m sure
this will get you thinking in a number
of directions regarding HP. This is
entirely the point. Whatever direction
you have him galloping in, it’s bound to
JOHN PENTURN
be fruitful.
Ask and ye shall receive. See this issue’s
30th Anniversary feature. —RH
OF SUBWOOFERS AND SINE WAVES
Editor:
I agree with Mr. Holt’s assertion
that the use of subwoofers in an audio
system can improve the overall performance in the bass region. However what I
take umbrage with is his assertion that a
test using a sine wave is proof that a
subwoofer cannot be localized while
playing music. Music is a complex signal made up of sine waves, not a single
sine wave as in his testing method.
I suggest a similar test, but instead
of using a static sine wave use white
noise, pink noise, or perhaps actual
music (what a novel concept). Turn the
main amplifier off so that the signal is
being reproduced by the subwoofer only.
Then do the blindfold test. The results
will vary depending on the crossover
design and the crossover frequency
employed for the test. The ability to
localize the signal is greatly enhanced
when a complex signal is used.
I believe the key to obtaining seamless integration between the main speakers and a subwoofer system is the quality of the crossover used. This is where
most subwoofers fall far short of the performance audiophiles expect from their
systems. The only subwoofer that I
would use in my personal system is the
Krell MRS [Master Reference Subwoofer—
Ed.] The Krell’s crossover has the flexibility necessary to allow proper system
integration. Unfortunately the MRS
costs what a nice automobile does, so my
audio system remains subwooferless. I
prefer faults of omission rather than
faults of commission, i.e., no bass is betMR. HARRISON
ter than bad bass.
J. GORDON HOLT REPLIES: Of course real music
consists of fundamental and harmonic sine
waves (plus transients). The whole point of
using a bass sine wave for my test is to demonstrate that, without the presence of higher frequencies (which virtually all bass instruments
produce), our ears are unable to tell where bass
frequencies are coming from. As you point out,
it is the function of the sub’s crossover network
to ensure that those musical frequencies high
enough for us to locate are sufficiently attenuated (and routed to the upper-range fronts) to
place them where they belong. A properly
designed crossover will do this.
Believe me, there are powered subwoofers
available for far less than the MRS costs that
will produce superb low end without distortions
of bass “directionality.” Read the subwoofer
reviews in TAS and The Perfect Vision.
futureTAS
Products on the Horizon Neil Gader
NEAT Sending The Ultimatum
eat Acoustics of the UK has been well regarded for the sonic consistency of its traditional, though rather staid
loudspeakers. The U.S. debut of its Ultimatum line should show Neat in a completely new light. The imposing
MF9 is a multi-chamber/multidriver enclosure using six proprietary 6.5" mid/woofers (redesigned to meet
Ultimatum’s requirements), an inverted titanium-dome main tweeter, plus two upward-firing EMIT supertweeters. The other Ultimatum models incorporate a similar smorgasbord of features including critically braced birch-plywood
cabinets, tri-laminate baffle-coupling, compound (isobaric) bass-loading, and upward-firing area-drive supertweeters. These
include the scaled-down MF7 and MF5, and the MFS mini-monitor. A range of finishes can be supplied, including wood
veneers and a high-gloss “piano” lacquer.
N
Prices: MF9, $17,000; MF7, $13,500; MF5, $9500; MFS, $5500. For more information call Toffco at (314) 454-9966
Headphone Amps In Hi-Res?
n a complete inside-out redesign, Musical Fidelity’s
X-CanV3 tube/transistor headphone amp now features very
low output impedance in order to drive even the lowest sensitivity, load-challenging headphones. The circuit topology is
nearly identical to that of the MF’s Tri-Vista SACD player, except
for its ECC88 output tubes (in place of the Tri-Vista’s 5703s).
Frequency response is rated to 100kHz, with an ultra-low-distortion of 0.008%THD from 20Hz–20kHz. Channel separation is
rated at 76dB. The high-quality Alps volume control is said to
keep channel balance within ±0.2dB. The low-feedback circuit is
housed in a new non-microphonic extrusion, and the font panel is
machined from mil-spec aluminum billet.
I
Price: $395. www.musicalfidelity.com
Upsampling Alive And Well At Arcam
rcam’s FMJ CD33 CD player upsamples to 192kHz, using four Wolfson WM8740 DACs per channel. The
Wolfsons are said to employ “analog averaging” between DACs to increase linearity and reduce distortion. In
comparison with the FMJ CD23T, which it replaces, Arcam says that listeners should hear improvements in
soundstaging and imaging, high- and low-frequency extension, detail, and dynamics. Like its predecessors, the
CD33 uses independently regulated power supplies for digital and analog circuitry and employs dual transformers, including an ultra-low-noise toroid for critical audio stages. As with all models in Arcam’s FMJ (Full Metal Jacket) line, the
CD33’s faceplate is machined
from a solid 8mm aluminum
extrusion, and the chassis is constructed of Acousteel, a threelayer laminate utilizing “constrained layer damping” to greatly reduce chassis resonance.
A
Price: $2499
www.audiophilesystems.com
18
Plinius Takes The
Plunge
eplacing critically
acclaimed products is
always a risky business.
Plinius, however, is confident that its new 9200 and 9100
integrated amplifiers (adios 8200
and 8100!) will match the performance of separates. Both amplifiers have received a thorough
reworking. The 9200 received the bulk of the improvements, including a faster power-amp circuit with an output stage
tuned for better high-frequency performance. And as in Plinius’ advanced SA series, each amplifier channel has its own
input section regulator. Power output has also increased to 200W, due mainly to a larger transformer. The 120W 9100
boasts many of the same upgrades, as well as a preamp section similar to that in the 9200. New curvaceous cosmetics
are derived from Plinius’ multichannel Odeon amplifier.
R
Prices: 9200, $3495; 9100, $2295
www.pliniususa.com
Noises Off—
Or “Waiter, Cancel That Hash!”
ince 1991 DH Labs has been quietly yet consistently producing cables of exceptional value.
Noted since its inception for its use of silver,
DH now offers the Power Plus Reference
Series AC power cord. Handcrafted of high-purity copper for improved conductivity, the Power Plus is also
said to use noise-canceling geometries to lower the intraconductor interactions that create noise or “hash” in the
audio and video chain. The Power Plus features two 12gauge conductors and a ground, and is wrapped in an attractive
custom insulation that the company claims reduces coloration and
improves overall transparency.
S
Price: $200 (2-meter length) www.silversonic.com
Upsampling Affordability From Simaudio
n another sign that audiophile companies are not conceding the hi-rez ground to SACD and DVD-A, Canada’s
Simaudio has released the Equinox, one of the most affordable components in its elite Moon Audio Reference Series.
The Equinox combines the styling of the Moon Eclipse with the audio circuitry of the Nova and the Orion. With an upsampler
that reputedly converts the signal to 24-bit/352.8kHz,
the Equinox employs a Philips-based transport and
in-house developed software. Separate digital and
analog power supplies boast seven stages
of voltage regulation. Burr-Brown
BB1730E 24-bit/96kHz DACs and an
8x-oversampling filter handle the conversion process, while a 25ppm digital
clocking system should reduce jitter to
very low levels.
I
Price: $1995 www.simaudio.com
19
I
N
D
U
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T
A Look Inside the Wilson
R
Y
N
E
W
S
Audio Factory
Robert Harley
ilson Audio, already a formidable player in high-end
loudspeakers, has taken a
significant step forward
with the recent introductions of the
WATT/Puppy 7 (see my review last
issue) and Sophia loudspeakers. As a
result of several new design techniques,
these products share a sound that represents a departure from the traditional
“Wilson sound.” Indeed, it was the discovery of these new techniques that
inspired Dave Wilson to embark on his
all-out assault on the state-of-the-art in
loudspeakers, the new $125,000 X-2
Alexandria.
To learn more about how Wilson
loudspeakers are made, and to get an
advance listen to the X-2 Alexandria, I
visited the Wilson factory in Provo,
Utah. The factory, which employs 50
people, was built twelve years ago
specifically for manufacturing loudspeakers.
W
20
The tour began in the cabinet shop
where raw sheets of Wilson’s “M” and
“X” materials are machined into cabinet
components (see sidebar). The machined
panels are glued together and held for
seven days in a clamp. Dozens of adhesives were tested before arriving at the
current combination of glues. No dowels
or hardware are used in the cabinet construction to ensure that the entire enclosure behaves as a single unit, both for
improved sonics and longevity.
The glued panels are deliberately
made larger than necessary so that they
overhang each other to provide a
stronger and tighter joint than if the
panels had mated exactly. After this
excess material is machined off, the cabinets are inspected and touched up via
hand-sanding.
The next stop is the gel-coat booth
where a 1/16th-inch-thick layer of a
polymer-based plastic is applied to the
cabinet. Gel coat, used mainly to seal
fiberglass boats against water, seals the
loudspeaker’s cabinet joints, protects it
from humidity, and provides a uniform
painting surface. The coated cabinets are
then hand-sanded to a very tight tolerance: I saw a worker using a thin feeler
Raw X material awaits machining
gauge and a straight edge to check panel
flatness, and then sanding certain areas
over a vacuum table that instantly sucks
dust out of the room.
The cabinets are painted with two
coats plus an automotive-like clear coat,
and left to cure for seven days. This cabinet construction reportedly takes ten
times longer than conventional techniques based on wood- or vinyl-veneered
medium-density fiberboard (MDF).
In another part of the factory, raw
loudspeaker drivers are modified, tested,
labeled, cataloged, and prepared for
insertion in the cabinets. The drivers’ frequency responses are measured by
mounting the drivers in a jig attached to
a small anechoic chamber. The drivers
Gel-coat sanding
are measured twice, before modification
and after. Each driver is matched to the
other drivers that will go into a finished
loudspeaker, and its individual characteristics are archived. If a customer needs a
replacement driver, Wilson looks up the
serial number of the loudspeaker and
checks the archived characteristics of the
X and M Cabinet Materials
he so-called “X” and “M” materials used in all Wilson loudspeakers were developed by
Wilson Audio in conjunction
with the materials-technology laboratory
at Brigham Young University. The goal
was to develop a loudspeaker-cabinet
material with the ideal properties of low
resonance, quick decay of those resonances, and structural rigidity. A loudspeaker cabinet made of such material
would contribute less sound of its own,
allowing the loudspeaker to exhibit
lower coloration, greater resolution, and
higher transient fidelity.
After experimenting with and measuring dozens of different materials over
several years, Wilson settled on what he
calls X and M materials, both of which
are epoxy-based composites. X material
contains no wood products, is machined
like metal, and according to Wilson, has
vastly better resonance and damping
characteristics compared to the mediumdensity fiberboard (MDF) typically used
in loudspeaker cabinets. The top-of-theline X material has the rigidity of steel
and is very heavy—a 3"-thick sheet
measuring 2' x 2' weighs 115 pounds. M
material is slightly less dense, contains
3% wood products, and is used in less
critical applications as well as in upperrange enclosures where its properties
T
22
make it ideal for mounting small drivers.
(You can see the combinations of X and
M materials in the raw cabinet photos—
X is the darker material.) X and M are
sometimes augmented with blocks of
lead to increase the mass. The upper panels of the X-2 and the WATT side panels, for example, contain lead inserts fitted into machined-out cavities.
I saw dozens of cumulative-spectral
decay plots (a measurement that shows
the frequency and duration of resonances)
for different materials, and M and X were
orders of magnitude better than MDF.
Dave Wilson has the luxury of asking the
factory to make identical loudspeakers
except for the cabinet material, and after
listening to many different combinations, can identify some cabinet materials
by their sonic signatures.
M and X materials are reportedly as
much as fourteen times more expensive
than MDF. Moreover, they take much
longer to cut because they machine more
like steel than wood—one side panel for
the X-2 loudspeaker takes eight hours to
machine. Because the material is so hard,
the cutter must move slowly and be
withdrawn periodically to cool. Despite
the high cost and slow manufacturing
associated with these materials, Wilson
believes they are essential to producing
RH
loudspeaker enclosures.
Drivers are measured in the small anechoic chamber
A WATT cabinet is clamped for assembly
The X-2 Alexandria
Buffing a finished cabinet
24
driver in that customer’s particular product, thus ensuring that the replacement
is a perfect match.
The crossovers are made with pointto-point wiring rather than on a circuit
board. This technique has many advantages, including the ability to position
and orient crossover components for
lowest interaction among them.
Although capacitor tolerances are typically 10% (or worse), Wilson achieves
0.3% precision by measuring every
capacitor and then trimming it by
adding smaller-value capacitors to realize the target capacitance. This not only
ensures that the crossover performs
exactly as designed, but also guarantees
a perfect match between left and right
loudspeakers. The inductors are custom-wound in the Wilson factory, and
feature core materials developed by
Wilson. The entire crossover assembly
is mounted in an enclosure (either plastic, machined aluminum, or machined
he great library in Alexandria,
Egypt, was the repository of all
knowledge in the ancient world.
Dave Wilson thinks of the X-2 as
the manifestation of everything he’s learned
about loudspeaker design over the past thirty years, hence the name of his new flagship
product.
The X-2 employs two woofers (a 15"
and 13") in a front-ported cabinet, two 7"
midrange drivers, an inverted-dome
tweeter, and a rear-firing supertweeter.
Sensitivity is rated at 96dB, and the minimum recommended amplifier power is
just 20 watts. Each X-2 weighs 750
pounds uncrated.
The X-2’s predecessor (the X-1) has
long used modules that move forward and
backward on tracks to achieve correct time
alignment. For the X-2, Wilson developed a technique called Aspherical Group
Delay in which the midrange and tweeter
modules tilt as well as slide back and forth
to deliver perfect alignment of the drivers
T
at any listening distance. This not only
improves time coherence, but also allows
the X-2 to be used in smaller rooms with
closer listening distances.
After the factory tour, I had an opportunity to spend about 90 minutes with the
X-2 Alexandria and my own CDs at Dave
Wilson’s home. We first listened to the
ten-year-old X-1 to establish a reference
baseline. I’d heard the X-1 at shows, but
Wilson’s setup was by far the best I’d heard
this loudspeaker sound.
Switching to the X-2 was revelatory;
the new design was not only higher in resolution than the X-1, but vastly more
musically involving. Driven by a pair of
Mark Levinson No.33 amplifiers (fed by
240V lines) and an Audio Research
Reference 2 Mk.2 preamp, the X-2 had
staggering dynamic contrasts, a huge
three-dimensional soundstage with precise
imaging, and a gorgeous rendering of tonal
colors (the latter was not the X-1’s strong
suit). The X-2 also beautifully resolved
individual instrumental lines in complex
passages. After such a short audition, any
listening impressions must be considered
preliminary, but based on what I heard, the
X-2 Alexandria appears to be a significant
achievement and a serious contender for
RH
the state of the art.
X material, depending on the
loudspeaker) and potted. Even
the internal wiring harness that
connects the crossover to the
drivers is made to exact specifications, with a precise number
of twists in the wire, an exact
length, and a specific type of
wire for each driver.
The finished crossovers and
drivers are mounted in the enclosures, and then packed in wooden crates in front of a loading
dock.
The entire process is slow
and laborious. For example, it takes just
under seven weeks to make a WATT
and Puppy from start to finish. I came
away with the impression that the
Wilson factory is more of a large-scale
handcrafting shop rather than a small&
scale industrial factory.
25
A
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Three European Imports
Stephan Harrell
rom my first turntable in
1979, the Micro-Seiki DD-7,
I’ve been intrigued by the various approaches available to
and chosen by analog designers. Given the myriad variables, each has
its strengths and shortcomings, and the
trick is finding the right balance in the
implementation.
Some do many things well. Few do
it all. And by “doing it all,” what I’m
really saying is doing little; ideally the
device is getting out of the way of the
musical signal. Most of us can agree on
some desirable goals: low noise floor,
stable and proper speed, rapid recovery
from disturbances, dissipation of
unwanted resonance across a broad frequency range, and, of course, the ability
to make music come alive in our homes.
The three ’tables on hand, ranging
between $1000 and $2000 (including
arm), are different in appearance, design
principles and, among other things,
sheer physical weight—ranging from a
low of fifteen pounds for the Roksan to a
high of forty-eight pounds for the
Thorens (whose platter alone weighs in
at nearly nine pounds). The only things
they have in common are that all come
with pick-up arms, spin vinyl, and lack
suspensions and dustcovers.
F
The main plinth (housing the motor
assembly) is decoupled at three points
from the subplinth (housing the main
bearing, platter, and pick-up arm), an
approach that is said to minimize
acoustic breakthrough. The platter is
machined from solid acrylic; three
adjustable spike feet allow for leveling.
Overall fit-’n’-finish strikes me as excellent at this price point.
The NIMA arm is the only unipivot
in this survey. It features a stainless steel
bearing, aluminum alloy arm tube, and
acrylic yoke and headshell. Setup of the
arm was a bit more challenging than
with the other models under review. The
“special, flexible PCB” (as in printed circuit board) ribbon arm cable requires
careful handling, because it’s not really
all that flexible. Also, since the azimuth
and VTF rely on a common counter-
weight, it’s challenging not to impact
one while setting the other.
The Radius 5 was great for grooving
to Isaac Hayes’ Hot Buttered Soul [Stax].
Its most obvious characteristic is that it
is rhythmically insistent. The Roksan is
physically compelling, powerful, wellpaced, beat-based, and—believe it or
not—does all this while running a bit
slow. Considering that I’ve heard a number of turntables which ran at correct
and precise speed that couldn’t get me
into the groove of the music, this struck
me as interesting.
During a chat with Ken Lyon (manufacturer of the Neaunce isolation platforms by Greater Ranges) I mentioned
this and his response struck me as quite
cogent: “Doing pace, rhythm, and timing involves maintaining and preserving
the shape and architecture of notes.
Rhythmically Insistent
The Roksan Radius 5
Clearly (and not just in the case of
the Plexiglas version, as the Radius 5
comes in a gloss maple finish, too), this
is not your father’s Roksan. The Radius
5 looks like no Roksan that came before
it, though the drive mechanism does feature the company’s resiliently mounted
pulley fitted to a custom synchronous
motor.
26
Thorens TD850
Speed is only one aspect. How well the
table maintains the relationships
between its various drive/suspension and
pickup sub-components, and how rapidly it can recover from disturbances and
suppress resonance evenly across a broad
frequency spectrum are equally if not
more important than how rapidly the
information passes beneath the stylus.
We do know that an elevated speed
could provide a psycho-acoustic effect of
being ‘uptempo’ but does nothing at all
to preserve music’s architecture and generally harms it.”
Moving on, ambience is respectable
at this price and the presence of performers is credible, though they tend to
linger at the front half of the stage. The
rich harmonica and dobro on Dylan’s Oh
Mercy [Columbia] were well delineated
on “The Man with the Long Black
Coat.” The wailing lead guitar on Dire
Straits’ “Six Blade Knife” [Warner]
made a surgical strike through the
humid summer air in my listening room
…definitely an attention-getter.
What I didn’t get was the extended
trailing edge (decay) of notes that provides the nuance and related level of emotional connection that I crave. If you’re
into that kind of detail, or emotional
insight, this unit won’t be your best
choice. But it did engage me, kinetically.
Big, Bold, Pure
Thorens TD850
Thorens has been around through
the past three centuries. In 1883, it
28
began building cylinder-and-disc movements; in the early 1900s it made
Edelweiss and Helvetia music boxes and
other disc mechanisms, and its turntables, including the TD124 and 124II
(made from 1957 to 1966) and the
TD125 (from 1968 to 1971) are widely
renowned.
At the turn of this century, Thorens
experienced some challenges and by 2002
had announced a restructuring to begin a
step-by-step re-launching of the brand.
The new 800 series begins with the
$1299 TD800, while the $1999 TD850
is the second in the series. The chassis
design—said to improve signal behavior
and resonance absorption—is a sandwich made of two pieces of thick highdensity wood flexibly bonded to a
slightly thinner steel plate. Three polymer-damped adjustable feet support the
heavy base. The ’table features a silentrunning bearing made of two sinter
bushes with a polished stainless steel
axle inside. The tungsten ball at the end
runs on a self-lubricating bearing point.
An outboard motor controller allows the
user to select speed. Like the Roksan,
this ’table also was a bit slow.
The TD850 came mounted with a
Thorens TP300 (looks like a Rega to
me) with VTA adjustability. Other tonearms up to 10 inches can also be used.
This table did a good job of revealing production values. The title track
from Laurie Anderson’s Strange Angels
[Warner] was big and natural with the
lead guitar boldly showing the way. It
was deep and articulate on the driving
bass and keyboards on “Monkey’s Paw,”
and this immediately helped me connect
kinesthetically. Timing—which is fundamental and manifests itself at all levels of music, including individual notes
and subtle shifts and cues—was most
respectable.
The biggest, and first draw, for me
was the Thorens’ tonal purity. Again, on
“Monkey’s Paw,” it was easy to pick out
Bobby McFerrin’s vocals from the mix of
six other supporting characters.
Though I detected some midbass
overhang on acoustic bass at high volumes, the purity of tone everywhere else
was admirable. Whether on the adamant
tempo of “Choctow Hayride” or the
seductive “Let Me Touch You for
Awhile” from Alison Krauss’ New
Favorite [Rounder], the 850 delivered
pace on par with the Roksan, plus some
of the nuance and finer detail that allows
me to connect more than physically to
the music.
Music emerged from a dark and
quiet backdrop. With a bit of the audible groove rush I hear on every ’table,
the Thorens slipped right into the big
ambience of Chet Baker’s Chet
[Analogue Productions]. His horn was
large, loud, subtle, detailed, and
nuanced, with precise imaging. I prefer
more organic images (densely saturated
with an acoustic bloom as the sound
moves toward you), but again, that’s the
good thing about having choices.
In short, purity of tone, fine attack,
and more roundness to notes than the
Roksan. It isn’t as insistent as the Radius
5, but can do big and bold (and speak in
more hues of color).
Balanced, Smooth and Coherent
Nottingham Horizon
As if its ’tables weren’t already
unusual looking, Nottingham has gone
a step further with this most recent—
and least expensive—offering. The
Horizon’s platter (slightly slimmer than
the one found on the Space Deck) sits in
a well at the center of a plank-of-a-chassis that houses the main bearing. The
well holds an Admiralty bronze bearing
with soft inner and hardened outer spin-
dles, and is oil-filled. To the right is the
simple to set up and easy to love Rega
250 arm that uses a split-collet mount
to allow easy VTA adjustability. To the
left is Nottingham’s low-torque motor
30
system with just enough power to keep
records spinning at proper speed (which
they did), once started by hand. A pulley about two inches wide drives the
comparatively thick belt.
Designer Tom Fletcher says, “Like
all Nottingham turntables, if we’d put a
[power] switch on it we would not want
you to buy it, because if the motor started the turntable from a standing start
there would be too much power in the
motor when it reached the right
speed—too much power means resonance, and the record and tonearm
vibrate. Just try writing a letter when
the table is moving!”
The Horizon demanded a significant
amount of time to settle. Until the 60hour mark, I heard a lot of hardness in
the midband. After that, things
smoothed out nicely. While not in the
same league as the Space Deck (which is
2.5 times the cost), height and depth of
stage were admirable at this price. The
presentation was good for pop and most
jazz, but this combo couldn’t handle
classical; absent was the gravitas that
made for the mood. That is, until I
switched from the AT OC-9 to the
Dynavector 20x-l cartridge, which was
clearly a better match.
Piano attack and rubato on Ray
Brown’s Soular Energy [Concord] were
very good. I was definitely swayed by
the tone of the Laurindo Almeida’s guitar on the direct-to-disc version of
LA4’s Just Friends [Concord]. The
Dynavector seemed slightly noisier on
the Horizon than on the Space Deck,
but it brought correct weight to instruments. Bloom was allowed to build
(appropriately) instead of being smothered or smoothed over. And I could
more easily sense the body/volume of
instruments, when it was there on the
recording. The lively snap from percussion was consistently available.
Without going over the whole
playlist again, the bottom line is this:
Immediately, and over the long haul, the
Horizon does not draw attention to
itself. In fact, you may find it boring. It
does not have the drive of the Roksan,
but it does play the beats. It does not
offer precision imaging, but that’s not
something that I demand. It shares, to a
lesser degree, many of the attributes of
its big brother (reviewed in Issue 138).
The images on the stage are slightly less
saturated, but still full and dense. The
Horizon’s not as nuanced, not as extended at the frequency extremes, and so on.
But, more importantly, it is well balanced within itself.
It does, after time, gently pull me in
by revealing the flow, texture, and harmonic coherence of musical lines. To my
ears, that ability goes a long way
towards the goal of capturing the intent
of the performer. And that, at this price,
&
says a lot about its value.
D I S T R I B U TO R I N F O R M AT I O N
Roksan Radius 5
MAY AUDIO MARKETING, INC.
2150 Liberty Drive, Unit 7
Niagara Falls New York 14304
(716) 283-4434
www.mayaudio.com
Price: $1295
Thorens TD850
TRIAN ELECTRONICS, INC.
5816 Highway K
Waunakee, Wisconsin 53597
(608) 850-3600
[email protected]
Price: $1999
Nottingham Horizon
AUDIOPHILE SYSTEMS, LTD.
8709 Castle Park Drive
Indianapolis, Indiana 46256
(317) 841-4100
Price: $1000
31
D
uring this magazine’s infancy in the early Seventies, solid-state gear was the norm. But a fledgling company
from Minneapolis named Audio Research would soon (and forever) change the shape of the high end with
this, its first readily available product.
Audio Research SP-3 Preamplifier
(from Volume 1, Number 3, Fall 1973)
Manufacturer: Audio Research Corp., 2843 26th Ave., South,
Minneapolis, Minn., 55406. Price: $595. Units tested: No.
274021-5 and No. 277211-4. Source: On memo from Audio Research.
The debate over tubes vs. transistors still rages, with the
current crop of Great Experts telling us that there is no inherent
difference between the way each sounds. The differences, we are
assured, rest in the way each device distorts, in the circuit
designs, in the dynamic characteristics of tubes and transistors.
The reason, by the way, there is still a debate: Music lovers
have begun to rediscover tubes; that is, they have discovered
that tube-type equipment often sounds better than even the
most elaborate solid-state devices.
32
That brings us, rather prematurely, to Audio Research’s SP3. It was designed by Bill Johnson; it was designed around
tubes (although there is a transistor in the power supply); it is,
by contemporary standards, hideously expensive—and likely to
get more so in the next few months.
A properly functioning SP-3 is, in my opinion, the best
sounding preamplifier available in America today.
I did, however, have problems in coming to this conclusion.
Part of the problem was, at least partly, psychological. Not my
own psychology but the psychology of some of the more articulate Audio Research owners, who have a mystique of their
own. Part of their rigidity in attitude (“The SP-3 is the best and
that is the end of that”) is, I believe, the result of a defensive-
ness that is the end product of the notion that they are the
keepers of the flame against transistorized techno-freaks. Well,
the technocrats do say tubes are old-fashioned. Certainly
Johnson’s circuitry is rather basic and conservative, with no
gee-whiz noise-reduction-decompression-chamber gollies.
Still, if you love music and if you know how it sounds in live
performance, you need make no apologies for the SP-3. Rather,
it seems to me, the transistor crowd ought to be on the defensive telling us why, after a decade, no one can design a solidstate preamp that has more transparency and more openness
(particularly in the mid-range) than the Audio Research.
Still, I was rather keen about having the Audio Research
preamp for testing. And I was positively astonished when the
first unit borrowed from Audio Research (No. 274021-5)
sounded not one whit superior to the Citation 11a, just different. Fat to the point of sloppiness in the bass; reverberation even
when there was little present in the recording (a la Command
discs), and rather rounded, though satisfactory, in transient
detailing. Most amazing of all: It wasn’t particularly transparent. I thought then for sure that Audio Research owners were
hearing things not available (by ear anyway) to the rest of us.
With the help of Alvin Foster, founder of the Boston Audio
Society (the classiest audiophile’s group in the nation), I concluded that the SP-3 varied rather noticeably from the RIAA
equalization curve at opposite extremes of the frequency spectrum. (RIAA compensation, inherent in disc cutting, is usually specified from 50 to 15,000 cycles. Stewart Hegeman,
among others, holds the dark suspicion that the main reason
there are audible differences between preamps is because of
nonlinearities in RIAA compensation.)
We postponed the scheduled review of the SP-3. Later, in
discussing the preamp with Audio Research, I described symptoms that made the company’s representative conclude there
were defects in my unit (although I have not learned, to this
day, what they were). Unit No. 2 arrived shortly.
Instantly I heard a transparency that shattered my complacency about the SP-3. The audible sensation was one of opening a window on the music. That is to say, the second SP-3
sounded instantly and identifiably more authentic, the closest
to the live experience of any preamplifier in my experience.
There was, though, a slight hardness about the sound (not
grain, not grit, but something considerably colder and glassier.)
Still, in several long listening sessions, we were able to hear
audible colorations in the Citation 11a, including a faintly noxious “hooded” effect in the mid-range that, on voices particularly, made vocalists sound slightly hoarse, as if their voices had
been transposed downward about a quarter-octave. The
Citation also exhibited, by comparison, a certain steeliness in
the upper mid-range when it was pushed hard. We had, hitherto, assumed that to be a function of American disc-cutting
and equalization practices. The Citation 11a is exceedingly
crisp up and down the entire range of music. The SP-3, however, particularly in the mid-range, reproduced music with a
freedom and a touch of liquidity (that liquidity may be a col-
34
oration for all I know) that is considerably more like the real
thing than the sparse dryness of the Citation 11a.
The bass on the second SP-3 is still fat, though not overbearingly so, and the bass detail reminds me of the bass detail
attainable with the better Decca Mk V cartridges. That fatness,
I would imagine, could be an asset if you’re using an acoustic
suspension speaker such as the Advent—or if you use American
recordings, nearly all of which start rolling off at 50 cycles. The
bass end of Mark Levinson’s preamp outclasses the SP-3. But,
limiting comparison only to the extreme bottom, one would
have to say it’s an aesthetic tossup between the Citation 11a and
the Audio Research. (The 11a does have a subsonic filter, which
the SP-3 does not. The subsonic filter is, like it or not, an
absolute necessity in nearly every decent audio system.) The
11a is, subjectively, leaner and tighter when it comes to reproducing extreme bass. In the extreme highs, 10,000 to 20,000
cycles, the SP-3 floats along, open—but without being crisp,
verging on graininess in loud passages. In distortion and signalto-noise ratio, the Audio Research wipes out all competition.
If it’s looks and convenience you want in a preamp, forget
the SP-3. Its tone controls, for example, color the sound. Its
contour control does not, to my ear, achieve anything resembling the Fletcher-Munson curve (but then neither does anybody else’s). The thing is, in appearance, the Margaret
Rutherford of preamps, although I understand Audio Research
will give you a different panel and Marantz-type knobs for an
extra $50 if your sensibilities are ravished by the SP-3’s looks.
And, as we suggested before, Audio Research seems to be
having some problems with quality control (which they shouldn’t when they charge this much for a product). Technical consultant Frank Richards opened my SP-3 and found, on the
phono circuit board, a number of less than satisfactory solder
connections. (The other circuit boards were beautifully assembled.) After he doctored these, the sound become even more transparent. (I do not know how to explain this. I just know it is so.)
With the solder connections improved, the hardness we
sometimes noticed on SP-3 No. 2 simply disappeared. The
sound, at this point, was translucent.
The bass could be tighter, I think, and the very top octave
a touch more lucid. But these are really quibbles, because, when
all is said and done, the Audio Research is incomparable in the
mid-range (where most of the music is) and it is for this reason
more than any other that I’d be willing to flatly pronounce this
HP
preamp the best.
HP COMMENTS: Upon re-reading this review, which had an
almost revolutionary impact in its day, I realize how innocent we
(all) were, and how very little we understood compared with the
hindsight we have acquired in days since. Looked at through
today’s eyes, I find my comments left much to be desired.
In the innocence department, we can all chortle, perhaps
wistfully, when I call this $600 unit “hideously expensive.”
Who knew then what lay ahead, once Joe Grado, with his
Signature cartridges, started an audio arms race in pricing? I
regret that I hadn’t yet “discovered” the
three-dimensional soundfield, for one of
the things (I learned later) that the
Audio Research did that comparable
transistorized preamps couldn’t was to
recreate a sense of front-to-back depth.
Also in the “who knew” department is
the absence of any commentary, though
much was to come, on the ARC’s expansive headroom in handling phono cartridge outputs, a factor that trumped the
limited overload characteristics, with
their attendant distortions, from the
transistor sisters.
I also note my obsession with subsonic filters, whose necessity was then
occasioned by the primitive turntable
isolation systems of the time, a problem
compounded by the 45/45-degree
groove cutting of the stereo disc. I would
spit in the eye of a sub-sonic filter today,
knowing how it would color and distort
the bottom octave performance of a
revealing system. We didn’t really have
the multiplicity of revealing speaker systems then that we have today, a commanding reason why I insisted, from the
outset, that we concentrate on midrange
accuracy as our cutting-edge paradigm,
and hoped we could get good treble
(which we had from the electrostatics of
the day) as well. Deep bass? That was in
the works, and from Hartley with its 30inch subwoofer, not an entirely practical
device for most of us.
The real strength of the original SP31 (and how I would love to hear it again
with today’s ears and associated gears)
lay exactly in its ability to create a seethrough effect in the midband, one we
called transparency. We failed to say
exactly what we heard that wasn’t
“transparent” about the solid-state competition, notably, our then reference, the
Citation 11, a unit whose virtues receded quickly over time. Much of that lack
originated from the inherent “grain” and
texture, or electronic glaze, that all
solid-state devices of the day exhibited,
that is, until John Curl’s JC-2 was commissioned by the real Mark Levinson
(who now ironically is promoting tubed
units). What Curl would do and what
his preamp did was lower, by a seeming
order of magnitude, the transistor colorations we had grown accustomed to.
Lower, but not eliminate. And part of
the lowering came from the very darkness of the unit’s top-octave response.
The SP-3 may not have had much extension at the top, particularly above, say,
10kHz—but what it did have sounded
both natural and like unto the real
thing, that is, the sound of unamplified
music in a real space. And it had that
touch of what I called liquidity to offset
the Sahara sereness of the solid-state
gear, though, even then, we suspected a
bit too much of that.
I don’t think we’d have been as forgiving of the bottom end of the SP-3’s
behavior as we then were, but, as noted,
flat, uncolored response in the bottom
two octaves lay two decades or so ahead
of us. The “3,” in the context of its time,
had bass that compensated for the equipment shortcomings of the day.
Over time, I have come to believe
that the essential difference between
even the best solid-state gear and stateof-the-art tubed designs lies, not in the
circuitry, but in the nature of the devices
themselves. Tubes produce a continuous
flow of electrons. Transistors are, at
heart, switching devices. Wish I had
been the guy (it was Doug Sax, Ed.)who
said: “Digital finishes what the transistor started.” I think we perceive, however subliminally, those switchings. And
that our minds have to work a bit harder to coalesce these into something
approximating the continuousness we
hear in everyday sounds, musical or otherwise.
I said the review was “revolutionary.” I think, pardon my seeming
immodesty, that, in its time, it granted
intellectual respectability to tubed circuitry, convincing some of us that we’d
been sold a prematurely-hatched bill of
goods with solid-state and, despite the
shortcomings of this review, of that I am
&
profoundly glad.
1The times were so hard for those searching out tube
designs that there developed a lively trade in old Dyna
PAS preamps, which Johnson, in the very early days,
modified, largely a custom business. Hence, the numerical designations of his early Audio Research gear, a la
their Dyna ancestors.
35
editors’ choice
W
elcome to TAS Editors’ Choice—a complete
listing of The Absolute Sound’s
Recommended Products. Several
formatting changes have been
instituted since last year’s version. First, and most obviously, we have
dropped our “Class” ratings (just as we’ve
already done with our regular Recommended
Products features). Although that ranking
system served a purpose, it proved too arbitrary for our taste. Instead we’ve adopted the
more straightforward method of ranking products by price category, in order of ascending price within each
LOUDSPEAKERS
Under $500
PARADIGM ATOM
$189
www.paradigm.com
A killer value, Paradigm’s tiny
Atom does an awful lot right and
possesses no glaring flaws. With
a smooth frequency response, an
open treble and natural midrange,
this little guy only falls short in
the bottom two octaves, though it
will display a coarseness when
pushed too loud. (Reviewed by
Robert Harley in Issue 133)
PSB ALPHA B
$249
www.psbspeakers.com
Although it lacks the detail, neutrality, and refinement of the great
British minis, PSB’s Alpha B
nonetheless does what a good
36
mini should—sounds open and
spacious, with precise imaging
and good three-dimensionality.
The midrange is honest and musically engaging, though bass and
dynamics are of course limited.
category. You may also notice that there are price ceilings for
each component group. The super-expensive
gear will get its day in the sun in next issue’s
Golden Ear Awards. Those products aside, what
follows is a list of the stuff that—out of all the
components reviewed in these pages—we
would buy.
Also note, a “Best Buy” designation is
awarded—sparingly—to models that we
feel, no matter their price, offer the highest
value within their categories.
Finally, complete reviews of the majority of
these components can be found on our Web site, AVGuide.com.
“boom” when the speaker’s
pushed too hard. Nevertheless,
the Monitor 5 “has a lively, engaging sound with a tonal balance
that is…in a crude way not unsuggestive of Quads.”(Reviewed by
Paul Seydor in Issue 133)
MONITOR AUDIO
BRONZE B2
$399
www.monitoraudio.com
While rather generic looking, this
two-way from Monitor Audio is
unusually clean, open, detailed,
and dynamically nimble in the
midrange. The
bass is remarkably
weighty and powerful, while the
metal-dome tweeter is airy and
detailed, without
edge. (Reviewed by
Wayne Garcia in
Issue 140)
$500–$1000
B&W 602.5 S3
Price: $700
www.bwspeakers.com
Recently spiffed-up
with fresh cabinetry,
Nautilus tweeter
technology, and a
newly fashioned
Kevlar mid/bass
driver, B&W’s 602.5
Series 3 is dynamic, taut, and
detailed. Like an
English schoolmaster, it lacks warmth
and forgiveness,
but its speed, detail, and
absence of overhang allow the
best recordings to shine.
(Reviewed by WG in Issue 137)
PARADIGM MONITOR 5
$549
www.paradigm.com
The prominent top-end
mandates careful
placement, equipment
matching, or preferably
a tone control;
the midrange
has a tiny
nasality; and
the port
exhibits some
SNELL QBx 20
$750
www.snellacoustics.com
The pint-sized QBx 20 sets a standard in build quality, cabinet finish,
and rigidity in this range. Though it
doesn’t quite match the overall
transparency and extension of the
larger Snell K, except for restricted
bass output it has no serious
shortcomings either.
(Reviewed by Neil Gader in Issue 135)
PSB IMAGE 5T
$799
www.psbspeakers.com
Rich, dynamic,
spacious, and
easy-going, the
Image 5T is yet
another remarkable performer
from Canada’s
PSB. What it gives
up in ultimate delicacy and detail, it
more than makes
up for in every
other way.
SPENDOR S-3/5
$949
www.qsandd.com
Its dimensions are Lilliputian, so
its dynamic and bass limitations
are real, though it lacks neither
warmth nor richness. Used as
intended, this mini-monitor
exhibits neutrality that rivals
Spendor’s SP 1/2, while demonstrating wonderful openness,
transparency, and imaging. (The
$1250 SE version trades
midrange warmth for improved
transparency, resolution, and
dynamic range.) (Reviewed by Paul
Seydor in Issues 119 and 143)
NHT ST-4
$1000
www.nhthifi.com
For not much more than massmarket chain-store speakers, the
recommended products
ST-4s provide a
heaping helping of
high-end sound,
offering extended
high- and low-frequency response,
open and articulate
midrange, excellent
dynamic agility, and
a tweeter/midrange
driver combination
that speaks with
one coherent voice.
Imaging and overall
balance are fine,
too, provided you’re
careful with setup. (Reviewed by
Chris Martens in Issue 141)
$1000–$1500
TOTEM ARRO
$1100
www.totemacoustic.com
“A minor miracle,” is
how Editor-in-Chief
Robert Harley
described Totem’s
Arro, “combining
extraordinary resolution, transparency, and soundstaging for the price. It is built to the
same standard as mega-buck
loudspeakers, but on a much
smaller scale. You also get a
beautiful wood-veneered cabinet,
not a vinyl-wrap box.”
(Reviewed by RH in Issue 124)
DEFINITIVE TECHNOLOGY
POWER MONITOR 700
$1200
www.definitivetech.com
Possessed of a solid
midrange and an
extended treble that,
nevertheless, doesn’t
fully bloom, the
PowerMonitor yields
unstoppable dynamics and bass
flat to 30Hz, eliminating the need
for a subwoofer. With corner-tocorner soundstaging, the
PowerMonitor sounds much larger
than it is. (Reviewed by NG in Issue
133)
dynamic and amplitude limits, this
speaker is required listening.
(Reviewed by NG in Issue 141)
RED ROSE MUSIC SPIRIT
STUDIO MONITORS
$1200
www.redrosemusic.com
Possessed of excellent imaging and
soundstaging, reasonable volume
capabilities, and respectable bass,
the Spirit is beautifully balanced,
offering plenty of resolution, but
with a smooth, extended treble and
a gentle “middle-of-the-hall” perspective that tends not to overemphasize recording flaws. (Reviewed
by CM as part of the Red Rose Spirit
This time- and phase-accurate,
three-way floorstander has striking
timbral accuracy, spatial focus,
and resolution. The baffle-less
design imbues it with an openness reminiscent of planars or
electrostats. Benefits from biwiring and attention to adjusting
the back-tilt via stands. (Reviewed
by Shane Buettner in Issue 139)
MEADOWLARK AUDIO
KESTREL2
$1695
www.meadowlarkaudio.com
Meadowlark replaces its Kestrel
with the Kestrel2—a two-way,
time- and phase-aligned, transmission-line design built with premium-quality parts and materials.
You’ll be drawn in by its energetic
dynamics, thrilled by its articulate
and extended bass, and stunned
by the huge, deep, high-resolution
soundstages it creates.
(Reviewed by CM on
$1500
www.infinitysystems.com
With a curvilinear aluminum enclosure, ceramic-composite drivers, powered midbass, and
Infinity’s R.A.B.O.S.
system, which
smoothes the dominant resonant peak
of the room, the
2.6 has a transparent, cool, somewhat clinical personality. Unflappable
at nearly any volume, with excellent
bass extension. (Reviewed by NG in
Issue 134)
$1501–$2000
VANDERSTEEN 2CE
SIGNATURE
$1549
www.vandersteen.com
$1200
www.proac-usa.com
Dinky dynamite, the Reference 8
is a loudspeaker for connoisseurs
who prize precision. It needs a
fast subwoofer to keep up with its
transient acrobatics. Highs are
open and the soundstage threedimensional. Despite its obvious
38
AUDIO PHYSIC
YARA
$1995
www.immediasound.com
Despite its small cabinet
volume, this 2-way, downward-firing bass-reflex loudspeaker possesses an
exceedingly natural and
extended bass, rich
midrange, and silky highs.
Soundstaging, too, is excellent. Optimized for smaller
rooms with average ceiling
heights. (Reviewed by NG
in Issue 142)
$2000–$2500
FOCAL-JMLAB 906
MAGNEPAN MG 1.6
$1725
www.magenpan.com
Magnepan’s 1.6 planar is one of
the great high-end speaker values. The bass is just respectable
and the highs are a little soft, but
with its top-to-bottom frequency
coherence, great speed, wideopen soundstaging, and transparency, this moderately priced
Maggie is a music lover’s delight.
(Reviewed by JV in Issue 124)
POLK AUDIO LSI-15
$1740
www.polkaudio.com
Strengths are its
detailed yet refined
highs and smooth open
midrange. Where the
LSi-15 falls short is in
the bass, which has a
lot of energy but not
quite the tightness and
control that would raise
this otherwise-excellent
effort up a notch.
$2200
www.audioplusservices.com
A compact two-way with
Grand Utopia technology
makes for a vivid palette
of musical color, dynamics, and definition.
Exceptional transparency
and freedom from box
colorations. The open,
airy tweeter has some
added brilliance, but this is a compact with a one-two punch of graceful good looks and uncommon musicality. (Reviewed by NG in Issue 140)
TOTEM HAWK
(Reviewed by Anthony H.
PROAC TABLETTE
NG in Issue 135)
AVGuide.com, May 2003).
system on AVGuide.com, April 2003)
INFINITY INTERMEZZO 2.6
with chamber music and vocals,
conveying an involvement and intimacy with the music like few others in this range. (Reviewed by
Cordesman in Issue 135)
SONUS FABER
CONCERTO
$1895
www.sumikoaudio.net
Neutral and transparent in its
midrange and treble, and a bit
lean in upper-bass energy—but
never thin—the Concerto excels
$2295
An impeccably finished, “overachiever at this price that communicates the soul and spirit of
music.” With “essentially correct”
tonal balance,
tremendous
presence, and
prodigious
soundstaging
more typical of a
mini-monitor, the
two-way, narrowbaffle Hawk is
superbly engineered and “fundamentally
right.” (Reviewed
by Peter Braverman in Issue 139)
THIEL CS1.6
$2390
www.thielaudio.com
A sleek little
beauty, the
CS1.6 delivers a relaxed
musical presentation, with
an accurate
tonal balance, exceptionally low
noise floor, a
huge expansive soundstage, and
excellent
dynamic resolution. What this
speaker won’t do is reproduce the
bottom octave or deliver the highest dynamic peaks. (Reviewed by
Tom Miiller in Issue 135)
REFERENCE 3A MM DE
CAPO I
$2500
www.reference3a.com
The Reference 3A De Capo uses
the latest version of Daniel
Dehay’s famous 8" direct-drive
(crossoverless) carbon-fiber driver,
along with a custom SEAS silkdome tweeter in a beautifully finished rear-ported enclosure. At a
sensitivity of 92dB/watt, it can be
used with amps from 8 watts up
for excellent performance, and
really shines when paired with a
first-rate subwoofer. (Reviewed by
from the mid-40s through 20kHz,
so utterly neutral that when the
manufacturer of a highly regarded
speaker/room DSP applied it to a
pair of them, it made so little difference that he momentarily wondered if his device was working,
though the deepest bass requires
a subwoofer. (Reviewed by REG in
Issue 90)
MARTINLOGAN AEON i
$3295
www.martinlogan.com
The original Aeon
(reviewed in Issue
139) displayed a newfound coherence
between its electrostatic panel and aluminum-cone bass driver. That model has
now been replaced by
the Aeon i, using
’Logan’s new
Generation 2 ESL
panel, a newly
designed 8" woofer,
and a re-designed
crossover. If it proves
to be better than the
original, this will be
one terrific speaker.
(Review pending)
VANDERSTEEN 3A
SIGNATURE
$3495
www.vandersteen.com
Aaron Shatzman in Issue 132)
VON SCHWEIKERT VR-2
$2500
www.vonschweikert.com
Von Schweikert’s VR-2 (“VR” for
Virtual Reality) is a tower-type,
transmission-line design that
offers deeply extended (mid-20Hz
range) bass, a midrange and treble with electrostatic-like clarity,
and downright explosive dynamics. The ambience recovery driver—when adjusted for appropriate
output level—works, too, adding
plausible depth to the soundstage. (Reviewed by CM on
AVguide.com)
$2500–$5000
$2749
www.qsandd.com
Designed by the legendary
Spencer Hughes, this three-way is,
40
speaker for those who thought
they could only afford a skinny
two-way tower. Exquisitely finished,
this 90-pounder has dynamics and
extension to burn. It especially
shines in low-level resolution and
nuance. Some may find the tweeter a bit lean and white in character, but most will revel in this
bang-for-the-buck triumph. (Golden
Ear Award, Issue 133)
THIEL CS2.4
$3900
www.thielaudio.com
This superbly crafted 3-way floorstander features a unique concentric tweeter/midrange configuration that yields pinpoint images
and an ultrawide soundstage.
Dynamics,
both micro
and macro,
are invigorating. The
CS2.4 is
both analytical and musical,
with a sweet yet
bright treble balance requiring quality amplification and
attention to setup. (Reviewed by
REVEL PERFORMA F30
$3500
www.revelspeakers.com
The three-way, full-range loud-
(Reviewed by Anna
Logg in Issue 141)
$5000–$10,000
GENELEC S30D ACTIVE
$5700
www.genelec.com
This self-powered
Finnish design
comes equipped
with a superb ribbon tweeter—
essentially flat to
40kHz—a
smooth midrange
response, and
accurate bass to
the mid-30Hz range. Being a professional monitor, the Genelec
can also pump out plenty of
sound, has digital as well as analog inputs, and adjustments for
each driver. (Reviewed by REG in
Issue 142)
QUAD 988 & 989
$4375
www.magnepan.com
Yet another great deal from
Magnepan, this large
ribbon/quasi-ribbon dipole gives
you much of the sound of its big
brother, the 20.1, for considerably
less dough. As with the 20.1, be
sure to bring a high-power, highquality amp to the party, and
make sure you have sufficient
space to let these things
“breathe” or the ribbon tweeter
will start to glare.
(Golden Ear Award, Issue 121)
(Reviewed by PS in Issue 130 & 126)
MAGNEPAN MG 3.6
Like all Vandersteen designs, the
3A Signature is time-and-phase
accurate. Its driver complement
features the patented midrange
and tweeter used in the vaunted
Vandersteen 5. A world-class
speaker at a real-world price.
$4800
www.dynaudiousa.com
Dynaudio’s 25th Anniversary compact monitor is a worthy alternative to the larger models in this
range. Beautifully wrapped in a
burled birch veneer, it reaches
down to around 35Hz, presents a
large soundstage of
tonal richness and
dynamically complexity, and, though
small, is capable of
surprising punch
and high output.
$6500 & $8500
www.iagamerica.com
The latest incarnation of Peter
Walker’s classic electrostatic is,
from around 40Hz on out, neutral, coherent, linear, and transparent, with lower coloration and
distortion than its predecessor. It
will not generate the deepest
bass, but in normal-sized or
smaller rooms it will play at natural levels with a purity and accuracy that spoil you for other
designs. The larger 988 retains
most of the essential virtues but
will play louder and go deeper in
the bass. The principal sacrifice
is a certain projection in the
upper midrange and lower highs
that undermines the peerless
neutrality of the original.
NG in this issue)
SPENDOR SP-1/2
DYNAUDIO “SPECIAL
TWENTY-FIVE”
quick, detailed, and neutral, while
excellent imaging and soundstaging complete the package.
(Reviewed by AHC
in Issue 141)
INNERSOUND EROS MK 3
$9500
www.innersound.net
Innersound’s aptly named Eros
marries an electrostatic panel to
a cone-bass system backed by a
folded eight-foot transmission line;
a supplied 200-watt amplifier, in
turn, powers the woofer.
Remarkably coherent over its range,
the Eros’s sound is alive and very
present. (HP’s Workshop, Issue 116)
SONUS FABER
CREMONA
$10,000–$20,000
$7500
www.sumikoaudio.net
This gorgeous looking and sounding Italian floorstander is warm,
airy, and seductive. It excels at
resolving low-level information, is
dynamically quite nimble as well
as forceful, and presents a holographic soundstage. And though
the Cremona is a “musical” as
opposed to entirely “neutral”
design, it is very transparent to
the source.
MARTINLOGAN
PRODIGY
COINCIDENT SPEAKER
TECHNOLOGY TOTAL
ECLIPSE
$7999
www.coincidentspeaker.com
Israel Bloom’s 94dB-sensitive
Coincident Total Eclipse is a
divine match with low-powered
single-ended triode amps—or any
other low- or high-powered amps,
for that matter. With its high resolution, beautiful dynamic shading,
smooth midrange, and visceral
bass, the Total Eclipse veers
toward the warm side, and the
midrange is a bit laid-back.
(Golden Ear Award Issue 133)
KEF REFERENCE 205
$8000
www.kef.com
British speaker company KEF is
back in the U.S. with a full line of
high-quality offerings. Part of its
top Reference Series, the 205 is
a full-range model using KEF’s socalled “Hypertweeter,” with a useful frequency response up to
80kHz. In-room bass response
extends to 30Hz; the midrange is
42
$10,995
www.martinlogan.com
A descendent of
MartinLogan’s
$79,000
Statement E2, the
electrostatic-hybrid
Prodigy is exceptionally transparent
and dynamic from
250Hz on up,
below which twin
10-inch woofers
kick in. Though
very good, here is
where the superiority of the ’stat
makes the bass
sound ever so
slightly slower than
the rest. Setup is
critical. (Reviewed
by AHC in Issue 134)
REVEL STUDIO
$10,995
www.revelspeakers.com
With astonishing dynamics,
extremely low coloration, and gorgeous build quality, Revel’s Studio
is not just a fine performer, but an
excellent value. The midband, in
particular, combines low coloration
with startling resolution of music’s
dynamic envelope. (Reviewed by
TOM in The Perfect Vision in Issue 21)
VANDERSTEEN MODEL 5
and 5A
$11,400, $14,700
www.vandersteen.com
The Vandersteen Model 5 is a
great value. For $11,400 you get
a powered 12" woofer,
Vandersteen’s ingenious technique for smoothing the in-room
bass response, and a smooth,
unfatiguing tonal balance. The
new 5A (review pending) is an
upgrade rather than a replacement. (Reviewed by RH
in Issue 118)
MAGNEPAN MG 20.1
$11,995
www.magnepan.com
With better
octave-to-octave
balance and
coherence than
the 20R, and the
same fabulous
treble and nonpareil “there-inthe-room-withyou” midrange
presence, the
20.1 (like all
Maggie speakers) is the very
definition of
great-sound-forthe-dollar. Be
aware: All Maggies take lots of
space and lots of amplifier power
to sound their best. (HP’s
Workshop, Issue 136)
WILSON SOPHIA
$11,700
www.wilsonaudio.com
Wilson’s Sophia has all the hallmarks of Wilson loudspeakers—
extraordinary transient fidelity,
deep bass extension, a huge spatial presentation, and a cabinet
that contributes no sound of its
own. With surprising bass and
dynamics for its size, the Sophia
sounds like a much larger speaker—gorgeous finish quality and
attention to detail, too.
(Recommended Systems, Issue 136)
LEGACY WHISPER
$14,500
www.legacy-audio.com
The Legacy Whisper is
all about musical
engagement, not the
analytical dissection
of a recording. A fivefoot-tall, two-hundredpound hunk of
Wurlitzeresque wood
sculpture, the ten-driver Whisper excels at
low-level resolution,
transient delivery,
and dynamic con-
trasts, large and small, though its
frequency extremes are somewhat soft. (Reviewed by AHC in
Issue 135)
SOUND LAB M-1
$15,270
www.soundlab-speakers.com
A huge electrostat, artfully subdivided into angled strips and panels to produce a hemispherical
wavelaunch and to reduce “drumhead” resonances, the M-1 has
the biggest soundfield, far and
away the best bass, and most
lifelike dynamic range of any ’stat,
in addition to the traditional
virtues of ’stats (gorgeous tone
color, lightning transient
response, single-driver coherence,
and phenomenal inner detail).
$20,000–$25,000
KHARMA
CERAMIQUE
REFERENCE
MONITOR 3.2
$20,000
www.gttgroup.com
This diminutive
two-way floorstander, which
won one of our
Editors’ Choice
Awards last year,
generates a
huge, transparent
soundstage
and a simply
ethereal
blend of
tonal beauty
and dynamic
nuance. It is also,
save for the two bottom octaves
(below 40Hz), the most musically
detailed speaker JV knows of.
AVALON EIDOLON
$21,520–25,090
www.avalonacoustics.com
With the right ancillary components and very careful setup, the
Eidolon is capable of astonishing
soundstaging, resolution, and
transparency. Doesn’t go as low
in the bass, and won’t play as
loudly as many similarly priced
loudspeakers. Nonetheless, the
Eidolon is exceptionally captivating and musical.
(Golden Ear Award, Issue 127)
WILSON AUDIO
WATT/PUPPY 7
$22,400
www.wilsonaudio.com
This classic loudspeaker has
taken a significant jump in performance with the new 7 version.
Although modest in dimensions,
the WP7 has the big sound associated with much larger systems.
With astonishing dynamic impact
and coherence, coupled with deep
bass extension and gorgeous rendering of inner detail, the WP7 is
enormously rewarding musically.
ROTEL RB-1090
$1995
www.rotel.com
Voluptuous and yin-like, and ever
so slightly laid-back in character,
the RB-1090 is capable of extracting the lowest rumble that a
speaker can produce. But it also
extracts high-frequency information like a hummingbird sips nectar. Transparency might be
improved, but for sheer orchestral
weight the 1090 has the power to
make it one of the best pound-forpound deals in the high end.
(Reviewed By NG in Issue 128)
$2000–$5000
AUDIO RESEARCH VS55
$2495
www.audioresearch.com
POWER AMPLIFIERS
Under $2000
PARASOUND HALO A23
$850
www.parasound.com
Parasound’s A23 isn’t the last
word in low-end authority, and it’s a
bit cool in the midrange, but what
it lacks in oomph it makes up for
in finesse and pitch definition.
Moreover, this reasonably priced
amp is musically quite involving.
(Reviewed by SB in Issue 138)
QUAD 909
$1499
www.quad-hifi.com
Its sound quality not only sets a
benchmark for its size and price, but
leaves virtually nothing to be desired
compared to the best. Its midrange
in particular is near state-of-the-art.
Up and down the scale this latest
iteration of Peter Walker’s patented
“current dumping” circuit displays
an ease, relaxation, and naturalness
that sweeps considerations of mere
hi-fi aside. (Reviewed By PS in Issue
128)
44
ARC’s formula is simple: Put its latest circuit
refinements in a nice but not lavish chassis, keep the power output
moderate, and price within reach
of most music lovers. The result is
the stunning new VS55, which
delivers ARC’s classic sound in an
affordable package. May not be
enough power for low-sensitivity
loudspeakers or for those wanting
to rock the house, but when used
with the right speakers at sensible
volumes, it is pure magic.
(Reviewed By RH in Issue 141)
Designer Dennis Had’s affectionately dubbed “Rocket 88” is
unusual in that there is no driver
stage in the amp’s circuit. That
means you’ll need a high-output
preamp to use it, but when so
paired expect a sound that Dan
Davis said propelled him “to the
musical bliss we all want from our
systems.” Outstanding articulation and dynamic definition, especially in the midrange. (Reviewed
complete lack of strain. In addition to keeping its cool during
loud and complex passages, the
A308 has an astonishingly quiet
background that allows low-level
details to come alive. The result
is massive dynamic contrasts that
convey the excitement and drama
of large-scale music, in particular.
Slightly up-front treble rendering
suggests mating with non-aggressive loudspeakers. (Reviewed by
by Dan Davis in Issue 139)
RH in Issue 139)
MCCORMACK AUDIO
DNA-225
QUICKSILVER V4 MONO
$2795
www.mccormack.com
This 225Wpc amplifier has spectacular soundstaging, dimensionality, and the ability to create a convincing illusion of instruments and
voices within an acoustic. Its tonal
balance tends to be lean and lively, rather than rich, dark, and fullbodied. These quibbles aside, the
DNA-225 is eminently musical and
an extraordinary value. (Reviewed
by RH in Issue 134)
SUNFIRE SIGNATURE
“ARCHITECT’S CHOICE”
MK II
$3395
www.sunfire.com
Though it weighs less and is
slightly smaller than the Sunfire
Signature, the Architect’s Choice
is even more powerful and a little
better sounding. Designer Bob
Carver has somehow managed to
lower an already vanishingly low
noise floor; the effect is a startling new cleanliness and purity—
there is no grain—yet with all the
muscle of its predecessor. Carver
still insists on tailoring the spectral balance with a Gundry Dip
that pushes the presence region
ever so slightly back.
$3995/pair
www.quicksilveraudio.com
Like past amplifiers from Mike
Sanders, these monoblocks
demonstrate unrivaled stability and
composure under very demanding
dynamic conditions, a soundstage
of Cinerama-like width, depth, and
three-dimensionality, with stunning
rendition of height. As with all tube
amplifiers, neutrality is somewhat
dependent upon speaker impedance, but Sanders has got the
gestalt, the big picture, right.
(Reviewed by PS in Issue 138)
CLASSÉ CAM-200
$4000/pair
www.classeaudio.com
These solidly built, compactly elegant monoblock amps capture the
MUSICAL FIDELITY A308
$3595
www.musicalfidelity.com
CARY AUDIO CAD-808
$2500
www.caryaudio.com
This powerhouse (250Wpc into 8
ohms, 450Wpc into 4) can drive
virtually any loudspeaker with
remarkable dynamic agility and a
colors and textures of instruments
and ensembles as well as many
far costlier units. Like most Classé
products, they also get just right
the minute dynamic contrasts, and
untangle complex orchestral passages with aplomb. They roll off
the highs a bit; when two instruments play high notes in unison,
their harmonic overtones tend to
merge. (Reviewed by Fred Kaplan in
Issue 132)
ANTIQUE SOUND LAB
HURRICANE
$4400/pair
www.divertech.com
word in dynamic capability, indistinguishable from its Signature
big brother. Its sound is so addictively pure, you’ll want to keep
turning it up, which is where the
higher-powered Signature comes
in. But, at 220 watts per side,
and the right setup, you can’t go
wrong with this amp. (Recom-
fiers—both solid-state and tube—
offer, that is, a melding of the
speed, focus, and bass control of
the former with the liquidity of the
latter. (Reviewed by ASP in Issue 130)
PARASOUND HALO JC 1
MONAURAL AMPLIFIER
Though considerable controversy
surrounds the latest incarnation
of this amplifier, designer Joseph
Lau has fashioned something
that, when rigged the way HP initially auditioned it, is redefining
what we consider to be the stateof-the-art. A KT-88-driven
monoblock design, the Hurricane
is easy to set up and not difficult
to maintain (though biasing it is
an inexact science). (Reviewed in
$6000/pair
www.parasound.com
The latest collaboration between
the legendary designer John Curl
and Parasound has resulted in
the Halo JC 1: “…silky-smooth,
crystal clear and abundantly
detailed. The kind you could listen
to all day long without fatigue.”
(Reviewed by SK in Issue 141)
Greg Petan in Issue 136)
AIR TIGHT ATM 300
$6300
www.axiss-usa.com
HP’s Workshop, Issue 140)
MERIDIAN 559
$4495
www.meridian-usa.com
Although it may lack the ultimate
in spatial detail and depth, the
559 is an impressive performer—
refined warm, clear, and well balanced—and its 300W are enough
to drive any speaker on the market. (Reviewed by SK in this Issue)
$5000–$10,000
The Air Tight ATM 300 is one of
the handful of 300B SET amplifiers that lays claim to magical
sound extending beyond the
midrange. This amp’s airy highs,
natural tonality, and low bass
extension defy common perceptions of 300B SETs. Gorgeous in
build and sonics. (Reviewed by
BAT VK-75SE
$5500
www.gamutaudio.com
The original 200Wpc
Gamut D200 stereo
amplifier was
extraordinarily neutral, detailed, and
lively—with superb imaging
and soundstaging. It was, however, cool and clinical in balance.
The “new” D200 adds richer tone
color to the mix at the price of a
little large-scale dynamic life.
$8500
www.balanced.com
HERRON AUDIO M150
$5895/pair
www.herronaudio.com
This outstanding solid-state
design from Keith Herron gives
the listener a large slice of what
many more expensive ampli-
46
MBL 8011
$9075
www.mbl-hifi.com
The 8011 delivers a smooth,
clear, grain-free sound that if anything is slightly soft, tonally
speaking. With 1100 watts of
peak pulse power, the mbl never
shows signs of strain, while its
low noise and excellent resolution
allow recordings to sound as
musical as they can. (Reviewed by
REG in Issue 135)
AIR TIGHT 211
$9800/pair
www.axiss-usa.com
Scot Markwell in Issue 128)
GAMUT D200
(Review pending)
two gain stages to deliver a very
clean sound across the frequency
range. This amp combines a
sense of effortless drive with
silent backgrounds, outstanding
musical articulation, excellent
bass and dynamics, and the ability to keep track of the finest
musical threads. (Reviewed by
mended by HP in Issue 143)
THETA CITADEL
MONOBLOCK
$15,800/pair
www.thetadigital.com
Theta’s Citadel is one of those
amps that seem to shine with any
speaker or cable. This sculpted
aluminum tower’s strengths
include spot-on tonal balance,
superior resolution, tremendous
dynamic power, deep taut bass,
and highs that are detailed without exaggeration. Its overall tonal
character is warm, with a natural
midband and realistic soundstage.
(Reviewed by AHC in Issue 138)
JOULE ELECTRA GRAND
MARQUIS
$16,000/pair
www.joule-electra.com
If you’ve never heard a tubed
design, sans output transformers,
you have no idea of the kind of
pure clarity and naturalness of
which tubes are capable. This earlier Joule design is a bit klutzy for
those with fickle fingers, and will
seem underpowered in low efficiency/big room installations, but
the sound is so addictive that,
once heard, it just somehow
seems more right than most anything else. Be wary if your speaker is of ported design. (Reviewed
by HP in Issue 115)
BAT’s VK-75SE is a tube design
that, while displaying many of the
attributes we love about glowing
glass—smoothness, liquidity,
depth, harmonic complexity—
does so with, as reviewer Sue
Kraft put it, a “lack of candy-coating in the midrange.” In addition,
the VK-75SE is virtually grain-free
and excels at reproducing dynamics. (Reviewed by SK in Issue 133)
At 22Wpc, the single-ended 211s
have more than enough juice to
drive sensibly chosen speakers.
Their refined, extended, dimensional, and dynamically authoritative presentation make them a
very attractive choice for someone
looking to assemble a superior
SET-based system that will not
suffer from most of the limitations
of its lower-powered brethren.
TENOR AUDIO CLASSIC
SERIES 75 WP
$18,995/pair
www.tenoraudio.com
(Reviewed by SM in Issue 143)
$10,000–$20,000
PASS LABS X350
EDGE NL-10
$9000
www.passlabs.com
Nelson Pass’s X350 employs but
$10,800
www.edgeamp.com
Except for authority and the last
Tenor’s 75Wpc, output-transformerless monoblocks reproduce
harmonics and dynamics more
realistically than any amps that JV
has heard. Like all OTLs, the
Tenors prefer 8–16 ohm loads,
though they will handle 4 ohms at
a substantial reduction in power.
Matched to the right speakers,
they are simply more “alive” than
the competition. A magical combination with Rockport Hyperions
and Kharma Reference Monitor
3.2’s. (Reviewed by JV in Issue 136)
and yet the thing has very good
authority too, though the widest
dynamics will not be as dramatically rendered as they are by the
very best. (Reviewed by WG in TPV
CLASSÉ CAV-180
$4000
www.classeaudio.com
Issue 46)
$2000–$5000
ohms and 300W into 4 ohms),
cool-running, Class T (!), digital
switching amp produces a surprisingly ARC-like sound with much of
the natural brightness, airiness,
and light of ARC tubes. ARC joins
the Digital Age with a bang! Who’d
’a thunk it? (Review pending)
THETA DREADNAUGHT II
ADCOM GFA-7805
MULTICHANNEL
AMPLIFIERS
$2400
www.adcom.com
Under $2000
ROTEL RMB1075
$999
www.rotel.com
Rotel’s THX Ultra-certified RMB1075 provides a robust 120W
into five channels, along with a
smooth midrange and plenty of
weight down below.
(Reviewed by NG in TPV
Issue 44)
This behemoth 300Wpc (x5)
amplifier can drive virtually any
loudspeaker system to any sane
listening level without a hint of
strain. The top end may not be as
transparent as mega-buck multichannel amplifiers, but this
amount of output power and overall sound quality are hard to fault
for the price. (Reviewed by RH in
TPV Issue 50.)
AUDIO REFINEMENT
MULTI 5
$1499
www.anthemav.com
Though not endowed with the
muscle and resulting dynamic
drama of larger units, the PVA 7
is very refined sounding, with
good resolution and depth. With
surround music and film soundtracks the Anthem is both spacious and focused, with a smooth
and pleasurable balance.
$2495
Along with a startlingly pure
sound that emerges from a dead
silent background, other virtues
include a faithful presentation of
dynamic range, excellent spatial
characteristics, commanding bass
and an easy-going way with
rhythms. These strengths easily
overcome a polite top, softened
transients, and a midrange to the
warm side of neutral. (Reviewed
(Reviewed by SB in TPV Issue 42)
by Alan Taffel in TPV Issue 37)
OUTLAW AUDIO
MODEL 770
CARY CINEMA 5
ANTHEM PVA 7
$1799
www.outlawaudio.com
The Model 770 is a no-nonsense
workhorse design housed in an
unadorned box. The unit includes
seven modular amplifiers delivering 200W each into 8 ohms and
300W into 4 ohms. The sound is
seductive and surprisingly sweet,
$3995
www.caryaudio.com
Only a handful of more
expensive amps
better what Cary
has achieved
with the Cinema
5. It’s immediate
and airy, with good
depth, superior image placement,
a fine top-to-bottom-tonal balance
(its overall character is warm but
not “dark”), complex harmonics, a
smooth top-end, and bass that
seems to go right through the
floor and into the earth.
(Reviewed by WG in TPV Issue 50)
Although the CAV-180 is priced
somewhere between serious
budget multichannel amplifiers
($2k or so) and upper-end amps
such as the Theta Dreadnaught,
its build and sound quality have
more in common with the big
boys. With the same circuit topology as Classé’s two-channel
amplifiers, the five-channel,
180Wpc CAV-180 brings audiophile-grade sound to the multichannel party. (Reviewed by RH in
TPV Issue 48)
$5000–$16,500
AYRE V-6X
$5500 (2 channel), $1250 per
additional channel
www.ayre.com
$6750
www.thetadigital.com
The trouble with building an instant
classic like the Theta Dreadnaught
is coming up with an encore. Like
the original Dreadnaught, the
Dread II is fully balanced with zero
global feedback. The new model
delivers more power and impact,
along with better low-end authority
and control. It also has a bit more
energy in the upper midrange and
treble than its predecessor, and
sacrifices just a bit of the warmth
and musicality to attain these
improvements. (Reviewed by SB in
TPV Issue 46)
KRELL THEATER AMP
STANDARD
Ayre’s updated V-6x can be configured for up to six channels, and
is a fully balanced, zero-globalfeedback design. It offers an
incredible combination of musicality and resolution. Where the V-6
was light in the lower registers,
which spotlighted the midrange,
the V-6x adds low-end weight and
extension, making the entire
musical picture richer and more
engaging and involving.
(Reviewed by SB in TPV Issue 41)
AUDIO RESEARCH 150M
$6495 for 5-channel version
($750/additional power module)
A stunning—and stunningly successful—departure for the highend Tube Gods at Audio Research
Corporation. This relatively lightweight, entirely modular (the
150M can be fitted with up to
seven power amplification modules, each rated at 150W into 8
$7500
www.krellonline.com
A very Krell-like FPB (Fully Power
Balanced) 5-channel amplifier that
generates a powerful-sounding
200W into 8 ohms and 400W into
4. The Krell, like the ARC 150M,
shares much of the build quality
and sound of its celebrated
monoblock siblings: a rich, articulate, slightly dark, and very hard-hitting presentation that is voluptuous
on music and pin-you-to-your-seat
stunning on film soundtracks. You
won’t lack for weight or impact with
this baby—and its soundstage is
phenomenal. (Review pending)
PLINIUS ODEON
$9495–$9995 depending on
number of channels
www.pliniususa.com
With its modular design, userselectable number of channels,
and stunning build quality, the
Odeon is a contender for the
state-of-the-art in multichannel
designs. The Odeon’s sound is
49
characterized by effortless dynamics, a rock-solid and rhythmically
engaging bottom end, and
midrange and treble purity on par
with the best solid-state two-channel amplifiers. (Reviewed by RH in
TPV Issue 50)
lar wines that leaves us wondering “Why spend more,” the 50W
rated C 320BEE gives such a
strong taste of the high-end that
you might be tempted to think it
doesn’t get any better than this. It
does, of course, but you’ll have to
spend at least a grand before the
difference is worth it. Also noteworthy is NAD’s C 370 ($699), which,
though not quite as refined as the
320BEE, is a great choice for those
who simply need more power.
$1000–$1500
PRIMARE I20
$10,995 (fully loaded)
www.balanced.com
$1250
www.sumikoaudio.net
(Reviewed by WG in TPV Issue 38)
This beautifully finished 70Wpc
dual-mono design has a detailed,
pristine character that’s somewhat dry and cool with a tightly
controlled but not especially
extended low end. Its highly
dynamic personality excels with
uptempo material.
SUGDEN A21A
$1495
www.stanalogaudio.com
ROWLAND MC-6
$16,500
www.jeffrowland.com
This gorgeous 150Wpc six-channel amp is also a superb twochannel performer. In either surround or stereo mode, it is rich in
color, very finely detailed, a bit
dark in balance, and incredibly
hard-hitting, with the most powerful and authoritative bass JV has
heard from any amp. (Reviewed
by JV in Issue 132)
INTEGRATED
AMPLIFIERS
Under $1000
$1501–$3000
NAIM NAIT 5
$1550
www.naimusa.com
Naim’s latest Nait is
a sonic wonder, delivering so much musical
pleasure at such a reasonable price
that one could easily ask if it can
get any better. That doesn’t mean
the Nait is the world’s best amp,
simply that it pulls you into the
music in a completely satisfying
way. (Reviewed by WG in Issue 136)
$3000–$5000
AYON AUDIO 300B
$3400
www.ayonaudio.com
This beautiful 300B-driven integrated offers what we expect from
low-wattage (15W) triode
designs—palpable dimensionality,
lifelike textures, wide open soundstaging, and fine dynamic shading—without the exorbitant price
tags of similar models. Though
the Ayon’s tonal qualities veer
towards the warm and dark side,
the thing is nonetheless well balanced, and its midrange (particularly vocals) is a major strength.
(Reviewed by Stephan Harrell in
Issue 139)
BALANCED AUDIO
TECHNOLOGY VK-300X
$3995–$5995 (Depending on
options)
www.balanced.com
PLINIUS 8100 & 8200MK2
$1995 & $2995
www.pliniususa.com
Except for the absence of a
phonostage, you’d be hardpressed to distinguish the sound
of the 100Wpc 8100 from its
175 watt Big Bro’ 8200 (at
$2995, recently upgraded to a
Mk2 version). Minimalist in
appearance with muscular internals, the 8100 never seems to
run shy of dynamic reserves. The
8200Mk2’s circuit redesign adds
muscle and faster transient reflexes, sweeter harmonic integrity,
and a more spacious treble.
Available in your
choice of three different output
stages—solid-state, tube,
or 6H30 “SuperTube”—BAT’s VK300X is a great value. The sound
is airy, detailed, harmonically well
structured, and very immediate.
And with 150W output, it will not
only drive pretty much anything,
but it will do so with dynamic
authority as well as agility.
The warm rich sonics of the pure
Class A Sugden more than made
up for its econo-retro appearance.
At 25Wpc, it runs hotter than a firecracker and it won’t power every
speaker, but the speakers that fit
the bill have never sounded sweeter. (Reviewed by NG in Issue 143)
CREEK 5350SE
$1500
www.musichallaudio.com
NAD C 320BEE
$399
www.nadelectronics.com
Like one of those amazing ten-dolThe Creek is a subtle performer,
with an appealing combination of
detail, ease, fluidity, and grace.
BALANCED AUDIO
TECHNOLOGY VK-6200
BAT’s VK-6200 is a top-flight solidstate amplifier. Powerful, yet capable of great delicacy, it is also
remarkably transparent, fast, and
possessed of great tonal and textural details as well as beautiful
dynamic shading. A knockout with
multichannel music and film sound.
Some may prefer a more robust
presentation, but the 5350SE has
a very engaging way with the music.
BURMESTER 991 RONDO
AYRE AX-7
$2950
www.ayre.com
$4495
The AX-7 has all the hallmarks of
the Ayre sound, but scaled down
in output power. This beautifully
made integrated has an amazing
dimensionality, openness, image
specificity, and transparency that
rival much more expensive separates. Don’t be put off by the
modest 60Wpc output rating; the
AX-7 sounds robust and dynamic,
and has bass extension that
belies its modest specification.
Sweetness was the trait that continually came to mind while listening to this 100Wpc German integrated. The treble is easy and
effortless and may just be the best
of this particular breed. Tonally, the
Rondo is rich and warm with a
midrange bloom and a slightly forward tilt. This beautifully finished
piece features Burmester’s trademark chrome faceplate, balanced
and unbalanced inputs, and
adjustable gain for each input.
(Reviewed by RH in this Issue)
51
YBA INTÉGRÉ PASSION
$4650 ($4800 w/phono)
Elegant execution and jewelerquality touches—inside and out—
make this 100-watter a top-flight
contender. Isolation of the internal
components from vibration contributes to the vivid imaging, excellent resolution, transparency, and
wide soundstage. The Passion is
competitive with any integrated of
similar output near its price. A
high-quality remote control is
included. (Review pending)
$5000–$7000
MUSICAL FIDELITY
TRI-VISTA 300
$6000
The Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista 300
is a musically honest amplifier
whose prime virtues are stunning
“you-are-there” resolution and
focus, a neutral spectral balance,
and an uncanny ability to help
source components and loudspeakers perform at their best.
PREAMPLIFIERS
Under $1000
QUAD 99 and QC-24
$999 (each)
www.iagamerica.com
ed, and its rich authoritative bass
more than compensates. Includes
balanced inputs for CD and balanced outputs. A learning remote
and so-so mm/mc phonostage
complete the package. (Reviewed
by Anna Logg in Issue 132)
NAIM NAC 112
Along with a dandy mm and mc
phonostage, the Quad 99 features a novel tilt control for tone
correction that works like a charm
when you need it. A solid
middle-level performer, it lacks
mostly the ultimate transparency,
liveliness, and dynamic openness
of the very best units. The
all-tube QC-24 linestage is the
least expensive to suggest that
elusive quality of “continuousness” in its presentation. The QC24 has first-rate imaging in all
dimensions, and a lively, engaging, remarkably neutral presentation. (Reviewed by PS in Issues 128
$1250 ($2250 w/Flatcap2
power supply)
www.naimusa.com
This linestage does not come with
its own power supply, meaning
you must use it with a Naim
power amp or add the outboard
Flatcap2 (an additional $950).
Either way, you’ll get a quiet,
immediate, and musically compelling sound, if not the last
degree of detail and dimensionality. (Reviewed by WG in Issue 138)
QUICKSILVER REMOTE
CONTROL LINESTAGE
$1395
www.quicksilveraudio.com
& 135)
$1000–$2000
MARSH P2000
$1195
www.marshsounddesign.com
Quicksilver’s remote control tube
linestage delivers a great sense
of weight and power as well as a
huge, 3-D soundstage; the tradeoff is a dip in midrange presence.
Musical Fidelity’s A308 has
extremely low levels of tonal coloration, coupled with an extremely
open and transparent soundstage.
The treble is clean and pristine,
with no trace of grain or hardness.
The A308’s greatest strength is
its ability to resolve high-frequency
detail without sounding etched.
Wide dynamics, remote control,
and terrific build quality round out
this high-value preamp. (Reviewed
by RH in Issue 139)
MERIDIAN 502
$2575
With plenty of features, including
an optional mm/mc phono module and dual-room drive-capability,
Meridian’s 502 is chock full of
first-rate parts, and delivers a
sound that’s tonally well balanced, smooth, focused, clean,
and musically compelling.
(Reviewed by CM in Issue 142)
AUDIO RESEARCH SP16L
(Reviewed by Sue Kraft in this issue)
ROWLAND CONCENTRA II
$1995
EAR 864
$6950
www.jeffrowland.com
Rather than sounding spectacular,
the Concentra reproduces music
with subtlety and verisimilitude,
and a sonic backdrop of preternatural silence. Each curve of the
chassis and turn of the volume
control exudes luxury of the highest order. (Reviewed by JM and
NG in Issue 125)
The P2000 is an
impressively built and finished model with a slightly laidback presentation, terrific focus,
good dynamics, and a highly
coherent and engaging way with
the music. It’s a little to the warm
side, and a bit sibilant, but this is
a knockout linestage and an
amazing value. (Reviewed by PB in
Issue 137)
Outstanding dimensionality, rich
tonal color in the lower registers,
and a huge soundstage characterize this classic-sounding preamp.
The review sample sounded a little forward and grainy in the upper
midrange and lower treble, marring an otherwise superb sound.
ARC suggests that this character
was caused by tube variation, and
is not intrinsic to the unit.
ROTEL RC1090
$1199
www.rotel.com
Clean and detailed describes this
feature-laden unit. Though it tilts
slightly toward the clinical side in
balance, its musicality is unaffect-
$2000–$3000
MUSICAL FIDELITY A308
$2395
$2995
www.ear-usa.com
EAR’s tube-driven 864 is built to
the highest standards, with a
sound so good that reviewer
Aaron Shatzman said it was “one
of the few preamplifiers I have
heard that delivers sound that
would satisfy for the long term.”
(Reviewed by Aaron Shatzman in
Issues 134 and 141)
$3000–$5000
HERRON VTSP-1A
$3995
www.herronaudio.com
A musical perfectionist’s
linestage, this compact all-tube
unit is elegantly engineered and
executed, with little glitz and no
remote. The sound is unusually
quiet, precisely timed, and threedimensional. The epitome of
finesse: bloomy without lushness
53
or bloat, with superb resolution
and recreation of space.
BAT VK-51SE
$9000 (with remote option)
www.balanced.com
(Reviewed by ASP in Issue 116)
PLACETTE AUDIO ACTIVE
LINESTAGE
$4000
www.placetteaudio.com
“Transparency, transparency,
transparency” is the holy grail of
the Placette’s designer, Guy
Hammel, and he certainly delivers, along with spectacular
dynamic range, highest resolution,
noise at the residual levels of the
parts themselves, and a neutral
tonal balance that favors no part
of the spectrum. (Reviewed by PS
in Issue 126)
SIM AUDIO MOON P-5
$4295
www.simaudio.com
$219
www.gspaudio.com
without sounding nearly as “hi-fi”
as most of its competition. It is
not, in longer-term listening, difficult to hear its flaws, but the HP100 reminds us just how clinical,
ultimately, almost all components
sound, and it does so by sounding as “unclinical” as anything HP
has heard. (Reviewed by PB in
BAT’s top preamp combines
authority, punch, detail, spaciousness and precision into one beautifully made chassis. (Reviewed by
SB in Issue 143)
AUDIO RESEARCH
REFERENCE 2MKII
$10,000
and 137)
WYTECH OPAL
(Reviewed by Anna Logg in Issue 131)
$5000–$10,000
$7500
www.wyetechlabs.com
Built like a tank, this mauve,
tubed, two-piece Canadian powerhouse projects seamless tonality,
top to bottom, with natural,
extended mid-and-upper treble,
full, uncolored midrange, and powerful bass. Outstanding dynamics,
with ample microdynamics and
effortless climaxes, wrapped in
state-of-the-art transparency with
detailing to die for. (Reviewed by
DD in Issue 127)
PASS LABS X-1
$5900
www.passlabs.com
Remarkably similar in sound to
the $10,000 XO.2—the main difference is in the power supply—
Pass Labs’s X-1 has the kind of
natural air and harmonic sweetness we normally associate with
tubes coupled with superb deep
bass, overall neutrality, and good
dynamic contrasts. (Reviewed by
AHC in Issue 128)
HOVLAND HP-100
$6500 (with MC phono stage)
www.hovlandcompany.com
The Hovland HP-100 captures the
essential “rightness” of music
Under $500
GRAM AMP 2
Issue 131; HP’s Workshop, Issues 131
A beautifully built two-chassis
design, the Sim Moon P-5, though
slightly dark in character, provides a
largely uncolored, highly transparent, and highly detailed, if unforgiving, window to the source.
PHONOSTAGES
This stripped-down little bugger
has a sweet, mellow sound, and
very low noise and perceived distortion. It’s strictly for moving
magnets and high-output moving
coils. The sound is a little veiled
(though remarkably grain-free),
and, while not the last word in
wide dynamics, it has astonishing
composure and musical integrity.
(Reviewed by PS in Issue134)
The finest linestage ARC has yet
made. With superb soundstaging
combined with a newfound image
focus and top-to-bottom neutrality,
the Ref 2MkII manages to sound
big, airy, and bloomy without
sounding over-inflated, “whitish,”
or aggressive. Superb inner
detail, lovely treble and bass, and
exceptional dynamics (for tubes).
MONOLITHIC SOUND
PS-1/HC-1
$399/$259
www.monolithicsound.com
EDGE SIGNATURE 1
VTL TL7.5
$8950
www.edgeamp.com
$10,000
www.vtl.com
Unusual because it can be powered by either batteries or AC, the
Edge—when powered by batteries, please note—has a glorious
top end, a rich middle register, a
wonderfully complex harmonic
structure, and delivers plenty of
ambient information. What it
lacks is vocal body, low-frequency
punch, and the last word in
dynamic wallop. (HP’s Workshop,
This unconventional two-chassis
linestage delivers a tube-like
sweetness, effortless dynamics,
and a brightly illuminated soundstage. With the subtlety to handle everything from chamber
music to the dynamic clout
required for heavy rock and heavy
Wagner, this VTL also delivers
superb speech and soundtrack
reproduction for home theater. A
sample RH auditioned exhibited
some operating quirks. (Reviewed
Issue 137)
by ASP in Issue 139)
It’s solidly built (with optional
dual-mono power supply) and flexible enough to mate with most
linestages and cartridges.
Harmonically and spatially full,
with well-nuanced detail retrieval,
admirable dynamics, and solid,
rhythmic drive. Slightly less
extended at the extremes than
Plinius Jarrah and Lehmann Black
Cube, but the purity of tone and
openness in the mids is quite
special for a unit at this price.
(Reviewed by SH in Issue 128)
$500–$1000
GRADO PH-1
$500
www.gradolabs.com
The wood-bodied PH-1 is a versatile unit that works equally well
with high- and low-output cartridges. Though it is susceptible
to environmental noise, the sound
55
is open and easy, with an expansive soundstage, natural highs,
and lower octaves with texture,
tonal refinement, and power.
and distortion, and greater transparency. Some listeners may want
more dynamic “punch” and personality, but this is hard to beat
for low coloration.
be the stuff of audiophile dreams,
but its sound is. The Groove has
an immediacy and presence
LEHMANN BLACK CUBE
$695
www.audioadvancements.com
This much-praised model now
comes with a beefier power supply. Otherwise, features remain
the same, including switchable
mm/mc and limited options for
loading. Now really wowie-zowie in
the dynamics department, with
imaging so stable you could map
out each instrument, bass both
ample and articulate, and really
good transparency. Principal reservation concerns a certain “whiteness” that translates into a mild
dryness. (Reviewed by PS in Issue
BENZ LUKASCHEK PP-1
$1350
www.musicalsurroundings.com
A solid-state, miniaturized hideaway box powered by a wall transformer. External AC plus short signal path yields very wide dynamics
and space retrieval with a comforting middle-of-the-road sonic balance and airy bloom much like
that of the Benz Ruby 2 cartridge,
if a little darker. Warmth is
enhanced by 22k input impedance.
matched by few others. Its timing
and musical interplay are remarkably “right,” with a dynamic life
much like the real thing. Yet it’s
this model’s completeness in
every way and lack of easily discernible colorations that make it
special. (Reviewed by Roy Gregory
in Issue 132)
$4000–$7000
$1000–$2000
PHONOMENON PHONO
PREAMP WITH BPS
POWER SUPPLY
$1200
An Apollonian grace, poise, low
noise, and neutrality characterize
this excellent unit, which includes
options for fine-tuning the loading
and gain of both moving coils and
moving magnets. Add the external
power supply for even lower noise
121 & JV in Issue 143)
AUDIO RESEARCH
REFERENCE PHONO
$7000
PASS LABS XOno
KRELL KPE PHONO
$1600 ($2200 for Reference
version)
www.krellonline.com
$4200
www.passlabs.com
One of the great phono preamps,
Pass Labs’ dual-chassis XOno
combines the best qualities of
tube and solid-state, and its load-
PLINIUS JARRAH
Excellent dimensionality, openness, and vocal articulation and
body are among the Plinius’ many
strengths, along with an airy top
end and good weight down below,
though its overall sound does
lean slightly to the lighter side.
(Reviewed by Don Saltzman in Issue
133)
$849
www.pliniususa.com
it eats shelf space; yes, it throws
a lot of heat, and yes, it is about
as good as it gets. Exquisite
dynamic contrasts? Check. An
easy relaxed presentation?
Check. Headroom to spare?
Check. A glorious midrange, excellent bottom octave, and full rendition of instrumental body? Triplecheck. The highs aren’t as airy or
extended as some, but they are
natural and non-fatiguing.
This surprisingly inexpensive, twobox (power supply/preamp)
phonostage from Krell has everything going for it, save for tubelike air and bloom: terrific soundstaging, pinpoint imaging, remarkable detail, and exceptional bass.
Good sound and a good deal.
ing and gain can be configured for
pretty much any moving magnet
and coil cartridge. Sonic attributes include a beautiful, detailed
midrange, high frequencies that
are both airy and transparent, and
an accurate rendering of each
acoustic space.
(Golden Ear Award Issue 133)
Like the Ref 2MKII, the Ref Phono
is a model combination of soundstaging, dynamics, detail, transparency, and gorgeousness of tone
color. At once big and airy and
detailed and focused, the Ref
Phono has lost the cloudiness and
whitish grain of previous ARC
phonostages, without losing their
lifelike bloom. Although it has a
built-in transformer for very low-output cartridges, this “high gain”
input does not sound as pure as
the “low gain” one, which limits the
preamp’s use to relatively high-output mc’s (.5mV or more) or mm’s.
Like all tube head amps, it is not
the last word in bass definition.
(Recommended by JV in Issue 139)
$2000–$4000
SUTHERLAND Ph.D.
$3000
www.acousticsounds.com
Ron Sutherland’s battery-powered
Ph.D. is so quiet that it takes a
while to get used to its sound.
Once you’ve adjusted, expect to
hear “into” your records in a way
unlike before. Beyond its silence,
the Ph.D. has a tube-like liquidity,
terrific detail, a wonderful way
with dynamic nuance, and remarkable transparency. (Reviewed by
AESTHETIX IO
$6500 without volume control;
$9000 with; $12,000 for
Signature version
PASSIVE VOLUME
CONTROL
PLACETTE AUDIO
REMOTE VOLUME
CONTROL
$1000
www.placetteaudio.com
This 125-step passive control uses
costly Vishay resistors to deliver a
sound as smooth and transparent
as a cool spring morning in Idaho’s
Sawtooth Mountains. Designed
WG in this issue)
TOM EVANS “THE GROOVE”
$3950
www.besthifiintheworld.com
Its small, plastic housing may not
Phono fanatics with both space
and cash will want to audition this
24-tube, two-chassis beauty. Yes,
57
and built in Boise, the Placette
allows for a single line-level input
only. But if it’s pristine resolution
you want, look no further. Includes
remote control. (Reviewed by NG in
Issue 119)
DIGITAL SOURCES
Under $1000
NAD C 541I
$500
NAD’s C 541i delivers a warm,
easy, and open sound, though it
is slightly rough around the edges
$1000–$2000
YAMAHA DVD-S2300
$1000
www.yamaha.com
Universal players are still relatively rare beasts and the DVDS2300 is the first we’ve heard
that doesn’t fall flat on its face
with one format or another.
Although its SACD performance
isn’t in the same league as the
Tri-Vistas of the world, this player
is right in there with the Sony
SACD players in its price range,
and it’s competent with DVDVideo and DVD-Audio alike.
(Review pending)
SONY DVP-NS999ES
$1199
www.sony.com
and a bit forward in perspective.
These flaws are hardly a distraction given the NAD’s overall musicality and superb value.
SONY SCD-C222ES
$500
www.sony.com
For those requiring 5-disc changer convenience as well as SACD
stereo/multichannel performance, Sony’s lowest price ES-quality player offers solid construction
and dual transformers. Though
its SACD performance won’t quite
match the dynamism and harmonic opulence of Sony’s uppercrust players, the 222ES comes
surprisingly close. Good multichannel speaker management
and a flexible remote control
complete the package. (Review
pending)
PHILIPS DVD963SA
$599
www.consumer.philips.com
As the name suggests, Philips’
DVD963SA (a replacement for the
962 Dan Davis reviewed in Issue
142) is a versatile machine that
plays back standard CDs (with
optional upsampling to either
96k/24-bit or 172k/24-bit),
stereo and multichannel SACDs,
and DVDs. Though not the last
word in detail, it has a remarkably
direct sound, reasonable amounts
of air, and a pleasingly warm presentation. (Pending review)
ent the different elements in a
musical performance with their
interrelationships intact.” A toploader, the Jupiter does require
some space above it. (Reviewed
by Roy Gregory in Issue 135)
MARANTZ DV8400
$1699
www.marantz.com
$2300
www.naimusa.com
Naim’s CD 5 shares the same
musical traits found in other Naim
5 Series components. It’s got a
natural tonal balance, it’s warm
without being fat, and it delivers
fine overall detail with the engaging musicality that Naim is
famous for.
(Reviewed by WG Issue 139)
The Ayre CX-7 is a minimalist
design with great attention lavished on the power supply and
analog output circuitry. Highly
involving, the Ayre brings an
unusual sense of rhythmic rightness to all music, with deep,
defined bass, excellent dynamics,
three-dimensionality, and tonal
accuracy. (Reviewed by Sue Kraft in
Issue 141)
GAMUT CD-1
This solidly built universal player
does it all—DVD-Audio, SACD
(both in two-channel and multichannel), DVD-Video, and CD. In
all formats, the sound is remarkably open, detailed, and dynamic.
The treble is a bit bright (particularly playing DVD-A), but otherwise
the DV-8300 is an excellent performer. (Review pending)
REGA JUPITER
$1895
www.toffco.com
Rega’s Jupiter is a highly musical
player that sacrifices the widest
dynamic contrasts and ultimate
resolution for the ability to “pres-
$3895
NAIM CD 5
$2950
www.ayre.com
(Reviewed by SB in TPV 46)
MERIDIAN 588
$2000–$3000
AYRE CX-7
Though not as beefy
as its immediate
predecessor (the
DVP-9000ES), Sony’s
DVP-NS999ES remains an
excellent performer. With newly
added multichannel SACD capability, only higher-priced SACD-Audioonly players outperform it.
$3000–$5000
$2950
www.gamutaudio.com
Despite a low frequency roll-off
audible in systems
that extend below 40Hz,
the Gamut reduces digital distortions and allows the listener to
hear deep into the soundstage.
According to Harry Pearson, “The
CD-1 has no obvious ‘character’
and is closer to the silver ideal of
complete neutrality than even the
Burmester….” A tremendous
value. (HP’s Workshop, Issue 136)
As with the rest of Meridian’s 500
series, the 588 CD player has
finesse, detail, excellent tonal balance, and musicality. (Reviewed
as part of SK’s Meridian article in
this Issue)
SIMAUDIO MOON
STELLAR
$3950 ($5995 with Faroudja
progressive scan)
www.simaudio.com
SimAudio’s Stellar is built like the
Bismarck and is competitive with
dedicated CD players in its price
range. Though its sound is highly
resolved, with excellent extension
at the frequency extremes, its
midrange is on the forward side.
The Stellar is also an excellent
DVD-video player with striking
image depth. While there are no
quibbles with its performance, a
question of value does arise, as
competitors from Arcam and others give up no ground in performance and offer DVD-A and/or
SACD playback to boot. (Reviewed
by SB in TPV Issue 47)
$5000–$12,000
MUSICAL FIDELITY TRI-VISTA
$6500
The Tri-Vista would be an easy
recommendation as a standard
CD player, so the fact that it also
59
features near-reference-quality
SACD playback, albeit in two
channels, is just icing on the
cake. Its choke-regulated power
supply, upsampling with CDs, and
use of tubes in the analog output
stage allow the Tri-Vista to communicate the very substance of
music. Only 800 of these will be
made. (Reviewed by Shane
Buettner in this issue)
sound that has more air and
detail, better imaging, and lower
noise than earlier versions.
Comes equipped with the RB300
arm and is available in a rainbow
of colors. (Reviewed by David
TURNTABLES
Under $1000
MUSIC HALL MMF-5
W/GOLDRING 1012GX
CARTRIDGE
$499
www.musichallaudio.com
Music Hall’s integrated turntable
package provides the LP lover
with a warm, musically engaging,
and affordable vinyl playback solution. Its bass isn’t the most
defined, and it’s a bit forward in
the upper midrange, but the
Music Hall is an outstanding
value. (Reviewed by SH
in Issue 135)
REGA P3
$650
www.rega.co.uk
Rega’s newest edition P3 includes
refinements to the base and
motor-mounting assembly for a
NOTTINGHAM ANALOGUE
SYSTEMS SPACE DECK and
SPACE ARM
$2500
Morrell in Issue127)
PRO-JECT AUDIO
SYSTEMS WOOD CLASSIC
$749
www.sumikoaudio.net
MARK LEVINSON
Nº 360S DAC
$7500
www.marklevinson.com
Delivering extraordinary resolution
with utter grace and smoothness,
the Nº 360S approaches state-ofthe-art performance. It offers
detail without etch, has an
extremely clean and smooth treble, and conjures up a deep
soundstage. Rivals its bigger
brother, the Levinson Nº 30.6.
$2000–$5000
and scale that the
really great turntables have. But this
combination proves eminently satisfying and doesn’t
leave you hankering for something
else. (Reviewed by PS in Issue 132)
ROKSAN RADIUS 5
$1295
www.mayaudio.com
Pro-Ject’s Wood Classic delivers
surprisingly good vocal and instrumental shadings, excellent attack
and decay, the ability to reveal
large and small dynamic contrasts, and an unexpected level of
musical connectedness.
$1000–$2000
From its ultra-quiet
backdrop to its mastery
of pace and space, explosive
and agile dynamics, harmonic
integrity, tonal continuity, saturated images, and deep yet nimble
bass, this combo won SH over.
Not the last word in upper frequency extension, but so engaging the reviewer bought the review
sample. (Reviewed by SH in Issue
138)
The Radius 5’s strength is its
rhythmic drive. This model is compelling and powerful, with fine
pace, good presence, and sharp
transients. What it lacks is the
ability to retrieve the finest detail
and the trailing edge of notes.
REGA P25
(Reviewed by SH in this issue)
$1150
www.rega.co.uk
THORENS TD850
VPI HW-19 MK.IV
W/JMW-10 ARM
$3190 ($4090 with JMW-10.5
Arm; $1850 turntable only)
www.vpiindustries.com
$1999
www.thorens.com
Rich and musical
with tight bass and
smooth highs, though not the
extension or detail found in the
very best, the P25 is a remarkable performer at an amazing
price. Setup is a breeze, though
the arm (purposefully) lacks VTA
adjustment. (Reviewed by WG in
Issue 141)
BASIS 1400/REGA 300
$1200 w/out arm; $1700
w/Rega RB300 arm
Clean, lively, and nimble, the
Basis 1400 lacks the great
authority, deep black backgrounds, and projection of size
The latest from Thorens shows
you what’s in the grooves. With
deep, well-defined bass, an excellent way with timing, a quiet background, and natural tonal balance,
its only obvious weakness is
some midbass overhang on
acoustic bass at high volumes.
(Reviewed by SH in this Issue)
LINN SONDEK LP 12
$2000
www.linninc.com
The original high-end turntable,
Linn’s LP12 conveys the rhythm
and pace that are the very foundation of music, and it gets better
with age—owners of any vintage
LP12 can upgrade to the current
model. (Recommended Systems,
Issue 136)
Although it doesn’t have some of
the refinements—mechanical and
sonic—that make the top VPI’s so
remarkable, the HW-19 Mk.IV is
nonetheless a terrific-sounding
turntable, providing a large taste
of the sound delivered by its costlier brothers. (Recommended
Systems, Issues 124, 130)
VPI ARIES WITH
JMW-10.5 ARM
$4600 ($3700 with JMW-10 arm;
$2400 turntable only)
Using the same platter and bearing assembly as the TNT Mk.5,
this lovely gloss-black model provides detailed, neutral, and
dynamically nuanced LP playback,
with a richer, weightier balance
than you’ll find from Linn & Rega.
(Reviewed by Tamara Baker in Issue
114; HP’s Workshop, Issue 116)
61
$5000–$10,000
that larger, heavier turntables
seem to offer. (Reviewed by PS in
TRANSPARENT AUDIO
WELL-TEMPERED
REFERENCE TURNTABLE
AND TONEARM
Issue 129)
$5495
www.welltemperedlab.com
SOTA MILLENNIA
$7360 ($6440 Non-vacuum
version)
www.sotaturntables.com
their models with Rega’s terrific
sounding and affordable RB-300.
Musically compelling, with excellent balance and good detail, if
not the final word in any one category. (Reviewed by David Morrell in
Issue127)
$1000–$2000
SME 309
This belt-driven turntable
(equipped with the “trapeze-like”
Well-Tempered arm) is as rich
sounding as the best, and as
long-term listenable. All it lacks is
a little dynamic oomph, a little
openness in the top treble, and a
little detail in comparison to the
top arms and tables. (Reviewed
by REG in Issue 142)
VPI TNT MK.5
$6000 (turntable with flywheel
and SDS
power supply)
Lower groove
noise and
greater detail, transparency, and
presence, along with a richer,
deeper response from the
midrange into the deepest bass
are among this classic design’s
many hallmarks.
A massive, gloss-black affair
that’s hung (not sprung) from four
sturdy pillars. Motor and vacuum
pump for the platter are housed
in outboard boxes. Exceptional
midrange clarity is its most distinctive attraction, and highs are
silky smooth. Dynamics are good,
and the bass is very defined, if
leaner than life. (Reviewed by
AHC in Issue123)
CLEARAUDIO REFERENCE
$9000
$1550
www.sumikoaudio.net
A black tapered
titanium beauty,
the 309 is a rarity
in today’s high-performance models—an arm with a
removable head shell for easier
cartridge swapping. (Also see
Recommended Turntables)
MØRCH DP-6 (PRECISION
ARM WAND VERSION)
TRI-PLANAR VII
$3900
www.triplanar.com
The Mørch’s sophisticated engineering creates a sound with virtually no resonant signature, while
arm tubes of different masses
allow you to obtain a perfect
match for any cartridge. An especially synergistic combo with the
Eurolab table (offered as a package by Audio Advancements).
$2000–$3000
VPI JMW-10.5 & JMW-12.5
Clearaudio’s classic combo marries a simple, foolproof design with
a straight-line arm whose sonic
disappearing act compensates for
functional foibles and fussy setup.
How a cartridge sounds in this
table/arm is how that cartridge
sounds, period (almost). (Reviewed
by ASP in Issue 113)
This magnificent integrated
turntable is one of those rare
products with that difficult-todefine sense of rightness. The
arm is SME’s excellent 309, the
platter/mat/clamping system
rivals some vacuum hold-downs,
and the sound has extraordinary
stability, control, definition,
dynamics, and detail, sacrificing
only that last degree of blackness
of background and size and scale
$2300 & $2800
Available in 10- and 12-inch versions, this beautifully made unipivot may be trickier to set up than
some, but its sound rewards the
effort. It’s highly revealing without
being cold, with some of the
deepest, most powerful bass to
be heard. VTA adjustment during
playback allows for exceptional
fine-tuning. (Reviewed by AHC in
Issue 129)
ARMS
Under $1000
REGA RB-300
$350
www.rega.co.uk
Turntable manufacturers who don’t build their
own arms frequently package
$3500
www.sumikoaudio.net
Robust and dynamic, the SME V
is rich with features that include a
cast-magnesium one-piece wand,
ABEC 7 bearings, and fluid-controlled lateral damping. The V
projects a ripe, soothing character
with unsurpassed bass resolution, excellent inner detail, and
great tracking ability.
www.audioadvancements.com
$6999
www.sumikoaudio.net
SME SERIES V
$1890
(Reviewed by REG in Issue 132)
SME MODEL 10A
(WITH ARM)
and powerfully dynamic, with
tracking that rivals the very
best.
The new incarnation of the TriPlanar incorporates the late Herb
Papier’s final thoughts on arm
design. Built by his handpicked
successor, Dung Tri Mai, the version VII does, as HP said, “what
the Koetsu does; it removes colorations…but leaves the ‘lushness’ and ‘sweetness’ of the
music in a field of the highest
resolve and definition.” (Preview in
HP’s Workshop, Issue 143, full review
pending)
CARTRIDGES
Under $500
GRADO PRESTIGE GOLD
$180
www.gradolabs.com
$3000–$5000
GRAHAM 2.2
$3200
The best unipivot arm ever made,
Bob Graham’s exquisitely crafted
2.2 is a hi-fi masterpiece:
extremely detailed, full in color,
63
Grado’s Prestige Gold cartridge
has its flaws—a lack of inner
detail and an audible grain being
chief among them—but its
strengths are such that you can
easily listen through them. These
include a somewhat too warm yet
very pleasant (and yes, euphonious) balance, sweet if not hugely airy treble, and taut if not especially layered bass, and a remarkably lively presentation. (Reviewed
Sonata may lack the transparency and resolution of the very
best, yet it delivers a naturally
sweet treble, refined tone colors,
and very good detail, particularly
in the middle band. (Reviewed by
$1000–$2000
$2000–$3000
GRADO REFERENCE
GRADO STATEMENT
$1200
www.gradolabs.com
$2500
www.gradolabs.com
Grado’s Statement combines the
virtues of Grado’s moving iron
series—glorious tone color and
rich authoritative midbass—with
much (though not all) of the
WG in Issue 141)
DYNAVECTOR KARAT
17D MK II
$750
www.dynavector.co.jp
by WG in Issue 141)
ORTOFON OM20 and
OM30
$195 and $285
www.ortofon.com
The OM20 has a relaxed, easy listenability that makes it among the
most appealing of all pickups; the
OM30 is fractionally more transparent, lively, and dynamic, but at a
slight cost in the sheer listenability
of its sibling. Both are superb
trackers and attain a level of
sonic/musical performance disproportionate to their bargain-basement prices. (Reviewed in Issue 137)
A beautiful-sounding moving-iron cartridge. Not the last
word in detail or transient speed
or top end air, the Reference is
nonetheless enormously musical.
A luscious
midrange, superb
dynamics, and overall neutrality from the
midbass through the highs translate into an impression of both
high accuracy and glorious musicality. Soundstaging is spectacular,
imaging spot-on, tracking superb.
ORTOFON
KONTRAPUNKT B
$900
www.ortofon.com
$500–$1000
GRADO REFERENCE
SONATA
$500
www.gradolabs.com
A wonderful performer, the
SUMIKO CELEBRATION
$1500
www.sumikoaudio.net
This low-output moving coil yields
a dark, mellow sound that, while
far from accurate, is certainly high
on listenability and musicality.
Difficult to rate, as it has certainly
succeeded in achieving what its
designers set out to do, even if
that isn’t quite the Absolute
Sound. Average tracking.
Issue 118)
BENZ RUBY 2
$3000
$1995
An excellent soundstager with
phenomenally good bass, the
$400
www.shure.com
NG in Issue 121)
Issue 112)
detail, transient speed, and top
end extension of moving coils.
Because of its low output, the
Statement must be used with a
head amp. (Reviewed by JV in
LYRA HELIKON
SHURE V15VxMR
A darkish tonal balance may
make for a lush, relaxed midrange
and less detailed treble, but LPs
simply sound right with this classic Shure. Terrific tracking, reliability, and high output. (Reviewed by
(Reviewed by Adam Walinsky in
A pickup of unusual precision,
refinement, and delicacy, with natural detail and transparency. Though
a little on the cool side of neutral,
it has no prominent colorations—
virtually nothing to call attention to
itself— with particularly good layering, and soundstaging that always
seems appropriate to the source.
Superb tracking. (Reviewed by PS in
Issue 137)
This low-output
moving coil’s easy
tonal character
highlights no single
virtue at the expense of others.
It’s got fine harmonic, ambient,
and spatial resolution, excellent
tracking, sweet and mellow textures, and it plays through groove
grit without a hint of concealment.
Helikon is a little cooler and whiter in balance
than the Clearaudio Harmony,
though not analytical sounding,
and is almost the Harmony’s
equal in inner detail. The bargain
in high-end moving-coil cartridges.
(HP’s Workshop, Issues 132, 136)
65
special
report
The Acura/ELS DVD-A Auto Sound System
Alan Taffel
conomic doldrums notwithstanding, the luxury auto segment is growing strongly and
has attracted a crowd of
manufacturers.
In order to gain market share, these carmakers must constantly find new
ways to set their
products apart. Highpowered, multi-speakered
sound systems have been
mandatory in this market for years, but
Lexus recently raised the stakes by offering, as an option, a system with indis-
E
discrete surround sound, built to high
standards, and customized to each application by Mr.
Scheiner. If the concept proves successful, expect to see the ELS logo on
other luxury marques (Panasonic says it is
talking to several already).
After spending a day with these vehicles and a
stack of familiar discs, it was clear that the
Acura/ELS DVD-A system is both a resounding
success and a major breakthrough in auto sound.
putable high-end credentials. Its Mark
Levinson audio system has proven popular across the entire Lexus product line. So
emboldened, Acura has now gone several
steps further by becoming the first
automaker to include a DVD-Audio system as original equipment—in fact, as
standard equipment—in a car. The
Acura/ELS system will debut on the allnew 2004 TL sport sedan being released
this fall.
In the case of the Acura installation,
hardware consists of eight speakers: four
6.5" front and rear surrounds, two 1"
tweeters, a 3.25" center, and an 8"
Kevlar-coned subwoofer. A six-channel,
225-watt amp provides the oomph. The
head unit is a six-disc in-dash changer
that accommodates CD, DVD-A, audio
DVD-Rs, CD-R/W, and DTS-encoded
discs. Neither MP3 nor SACD is supported. The system will
handle 5.1-channel
DVD-As at up to
96/24 resolution, while stereo DVD-As can
be up to 192/24. As
a bonus, the head unit supports
XM satellite radio, also standard.
Obviously, Acura contributed the car
and Panasonic created the audio hardware. Scheiner’s contribution is less visible but highly audible. He tuned the system, using DVD-As that he’d mixed, to
come as close as possible to the sound he
created in the studio, paying particular
attention to clarity and accuracy of image
placement. This is the rare case, in either
car or home audio systems, where the
same set of experienced ears has control
of both the recording and playback sonics. It’s a laudable model.
But all this effort raises the question
of whether it is actually a good idea to
put DVD-A (or any discrete, multichan-
The Concept
The Acura/ELS system is a three-way
collaboration among Acura, Panasonic
Automotive Systems, and five-time
Grammy-winning recording engineer
Elliot Scheiner. Panasonic created the new
ELS brand to connote automotive products that will be designed specifically for
Recording Engineer Elliot Scheiner
67
special report
nel, high-resolution format) into a car.
Can the format’s higher resolution even
be heard in such a noisy, acoustically
hazardous environment? Does discrete
surround provide a more satisfying experience than those dreadful synthesized
“environments” now pervasive in premium auto sound systems? What about
rear seat passengers—how do they fare?
I was able to answer all these questions at the July press launch of the new
TL. This event was no passive dog-andpony show. Acura provided a fleet of
TL’s, over six hours of drive time on both
highway and mountain roads, and samples of every one of the car’s competitors,
including a Levinson-equipped Lexus.
Motoring with CDs
Premium auto sound systems
attempt to envelop the listener primari-
68
ly through the use of as many as a dozen
speakers scattered throughout the interior. Yet there are still only two channels
of information, and the perceived soundstage usually ends up primarily in front
of the driver. Because the rear speakers
are merely duplicating front channel
material, the intended illusion of surround sound collapses. Engaging DSPdriven surround modes like “Concert
Hall” or “Jazz Club” only adds ersatz
reverb and dubious EQ to the signal.
The Acura/ELS system dispenses
with these bogus surround modes and
rests content with a forward-balanced
soundstage when playing CDs.
However, it has two unique assets that,
even in this mode, elevate it above the
fray. First, there is a center-channel
speaker smack dab in the middle of the
top of the dashboard. In DVD-A mode,
of course, this speaker is fed its own discrete material; however, in stereo it
receives a judicious mix of L+R information. The result are that vocals and solo
instrumentalists sound far more precisely and solidly planted than in typical car
stereos. The system’s second secret
weapon is its subwoofer, which for once
is a true subwoofer, capable of getting
down.
I compared the Acura/ELS to both
the Lexus/Levinson and BMW Premium
systems. The latter wasn’t really in the
running, being far less transparent or
extended (in either direction) than the
others, so I’ll confine my comments
accordingly. For source material, I used,
among others, the Counting Crows’ first
album and EMI’s reissue of Previn conducting Holst’s Planets. For a car stereo,
the Acura/ELS system is quite impressive on CDs. My main complaints are a
recessed midrange that causes vocals to
sound a little hollow, and high frequencies that, due to a lack of complete
special report
extension, miss some transient details.
However, the system makes up for these
shortcomings with superior imaging, a
rich tonal balance, and bass that’s powerful, punchy, and passably tight. I must
say, it’s nice to hear car bass that is actually deep—as opposed to just loud.
The Levinson system, as we’ve
reported in these pages, is certainly of
high caliber. It is the more neutral of the
two, with more natural vocals, more
extended highs, and greater overall resolution. However, the Levinson’s bass is
neither as full nor as deep as that of the
ELS, and its tonal balance is decidedly
on the thin side. The lack of a center
channel speaker is immediately evident,
as vocals never imaged properly.
All told, the Levinson system is
polite, correct, and rather austere (much
like the car it inhabits). The Acura/ELS
is less refined, but more fun (also reflecting its host vehicle). In the past, this
might have been a yin vs. yang toss-up,
wholly dependent upon one’s listening
preferences. Today, however, there is
another factor, for only one of these systems can play DVD-As.
Motoring with DVD-As
To the question, “Is the greater resolution of DVD-A audible within the
confines of a car?” Not only can I
respond in the affirmative, I can attest
that there is simply no contest. The
DVD-A system exceeded my expectations to an extraordinary degree. When I
switched from the CD to the DVD-A of
the aforementioned Planets, the sound
leapt to an entirely new level of
dynamics, tonal accuracy, resolution, power, and finesse. It was
akin to switching from Polaroid
snapshots to photos taken by a
Leica—everything was vastly better. In addition, the DVD-A’s
soundstage was no longer in
front of me, but was now convincingly and compellingly
enveloping.
The contrast between formats was equally stark with
more subtle recordings. On
Soular Energy by the Ray Brown
Trio, the CD sounded quite good but the
DVD-A was markedly more open. The
piano had far more of the correct ringing
characteristic in its overtones, and
dynamics were less compressed. Perhaps
this was an even more telling comparison between the two formats, since both
versions of this recording had only two
channels. Thus, the DVD-A’s much
higher (192kHz/24-bit) resolution was
solely responsible for the sonic improvement. Of course, the level of transparency was not on a par with a good home
audio system, but this is a car system,
after all.
At the briefing that kicked off this
press event, Scheiner said that he was
first drawn to the concept of DVD-A in
a car because it is the only environment
where the listener’s positions are known
and fixed. On the road, I listened to the
Acura/ELS system from all sitting positions. I found no appreciable difference
between the driver and front passenger
seats. The rear seat, as expected, was
another matter. From that perch, the
front channels are but wafts in the distance, leaving only the surround channels clearly audible.
This led to some bizarre results. For
instance, on “Drive” from the DVD-A of
REM’s Automatic for the People, the heavy
reverb on Michael Stipe’s voice is sent
exclusively to the rear channels. From
the back seat of the TL, I could hear only
that echo, with no associated source. The
effect was surreal, almost comic. Acura
acknowledges this situation, but says it’s
not concerned because its research indicates that the back seat is only occasion-
69
special report
ally occupied. The decision was made
not to compromise the front seat occupants’ experience in deference to those in
the rear, and undoubtedly it was the
right choice.
One other aspect of the Acura/ELS
system is worthy of commendation. The
user interface is what DVD-A should be,
but usually isn’t. Propelled by the need
to simplify things for the driver,
Panasonic exorcised most of DVD-A’s
ergonomic demons. The resulting system works exactly like a car CD, regardless of each disc’s format. There are no
menus to navigate, no decisions to make.
The interface is particularly intuitive if
the host vehicle is ordered with the
optional navigation system, which
includes a large, bright touchscreen.
Another welcome addition would be
the ability to access a DVD-A’s menu if
desired. By maintaining the current unit’s
interface as the default, but offering the
ability to delve into the menu structure
as needed, the current system’s virtue of
simplicity would be maintained while
its flexibility would be enhanced. As it
currently stands, for example, the user
has no ability to select a desired, nondefault audio mode. Finally, as noted
above, the Acura/ELS system does not
play either MP3 discs or SACDs, and it
would be nice if it did. From a consumer
perspective, a universal player in the car
is every bit as appealing as one at home.
Conclusion
Room for Improvement
The Acura/ELS is the first of a new
generation of auto sound systems. As
such, it is bound to have areas where
improvement can be wrought and features
now missing can be added. In the former
category, I have already discussed the system’s shortfalls when playing CDs.
Panasonic confirms that there was no
effort to oversample, upsample, or otherwise massage the CD bitstream in ways
that typically improve the sound. Its
efforts were directly primarily toward
DVD-A performance, and it shows.
Hopefully, in the next version a little more
attention can be given to CD performance.
As for missing features, the most
obvious is a means of creating realistic
surround sound from stereo sources,
including both CD and satellite radio.
Once you’ve grown accustomed to true
surround sound in your car, “duplicate
stereo” will no longer cut it. I predict
this will be true even for those who, like
me, prefer to play CDs in pure stereo on
their home system. Panasonic was right
to shun the path of synthesized environments, but both Dolby Pro Logic II and
DTS Neo:6 are now available to generate
credible surround channels. One of these
new formats ought to be included as
soon as possible.
The Acura/ELS DVD-Audio system
heralds a new era in auto sound. It proves
conclusively, and somewhat surprisingly,
that the format’s sonic advantages can be
abundantly evident within a car. With
far higher resolution and true, discrete
surround sound, there simply is no comparison between the Acura/ELS system
playing DVD-As and even the best CDbased car stereo. This obvious sonic superiority, combined with a vastly simplified
interface, is bound to make the nascent
format more accessible than it has ever
been. As the first of its kind, the system
is not yet perfect. Its CD performance,
while very good, could clearly be better.
And there are several desirable features
that will hopefully find their way onto
next year’s model. But none of this takes
away from the joint achievement of
Acura and Panasonic. The Acura/ELS
audio system is a remarkably auspicious
and successful debut.
&
Nice car, too.
M A N U FA C T U R E R I N F O R M AT I O N
AMERICAN HONDA MOTOR COMPANY, INC.
1919 Torrance Boulevard
Torrance, California 90501
(800) 382-2238
www.acura.com
Price: $34,000 (including car)
71
equipment report
Sophia Electric Baby Amplifier
Wayne Garcia
ne thing that often gets
overlooked in this hobby is
that our quest for sounds
absolute is supposed to be
fun. So imagine how
delighted I was to walk into Sophia
Electric’s room at CES this past January
and find—nestled between the company’s exotic single-ended triode 845
($7500) and 300B ($5000) amplifiers—
a tiny little thing, almost toy-like,
called the Baby Amplifier.
Selling for just $899 and measuring a
mere 7" x 9" x 5", tot-like this amp most
certainly is. A toy, however, it most certainly is not. Cranking out a manly 10
watts per channel in a Class A push-pull
configuration, the Baby uses four Russian
military 6P1T output tubes and two
U.S.-sourced NOS 5670 input/driver
tubes. When the time comes, tube
replacement cost is only ten bucks a pop,
or $60 for the complete set. Though the
Baby is a power amplifier, it does sport a
volume control. Assuming your source
component (sorry kids, just one pair of
input jacks is provided) has enough output voltage to drive it (and most will), no
preamp is required, save for switching
needs. (This is how I used the Baby.) A
removable power cord, a single pair of
binding posts, and a headphone jack are
the only other connections. The unit’s
chassis is suitably adorable, with painted
matte surface, sculpted metal cosmetic
adornments, and wooden “ears.”
Before I talk about the sound,
Sophia’s specs for the amp are worth noting (though unverified by me).
Frequency response is rated from
6–80kHz ±3dB, and signal-to-noise
ratio -95dB, with less that 1% distortion at full power. Also bear in mind
that, construction-wise, the circuitry is
not hand-wired but laid out on a printed circuit board to which the tube sockets are attached. (You didn’t really
expect hand-soldered point-to-point
wiring for $899, did you?)
O
The manufacturer recommends
50–100 hours of break-in time, and
indeed Baby sounds a bit cranky straight
out of the cradle—rather thin and edgy.
But with time this little amp produces
some pretty terrific sound.
Its strengths are a very open and
well-defined soundstage of impressive
width, depth, and height, good detail,
and a pretty natural rendering of instrumental tone and texture. For instance,
on Jascha Horenstein’s reading of the
Mahler Sixth [Unicorn LP], string choirs
are convincingly laid out as groups,
there is a nice sense of air and space
between and around individual instruments, and the percussion, particularly
snare and tympani, are placed well at the
back of and above the orchestra, seemingly located on risers.
The Baby can rock, too. With Cheap
Trick’s “Scent of a Woman,” from the
new CD Special One [Big3 Records], the
Baby sounds surprisingly ballsy, delivering (within reason) loud, stinging electric guitars, throbbing 12-string electric
bass lines, and a taut, propulsive drum
sound in my smallish listening room.
But given the Baby’s low power, it will
run out of gas with my Sonus Faber
Cremonas (which are an okay, but not
ideal match). Once you cross the threshold, clipping is sudden and audible,
exhibiting both dynamic clamping and
distortion. Ideally, I would recommend
speakers of 90dB+ sensitivity and a
nominal 8-ohm load.
Listening to Ravel’s Gaspard de la
nuit (Argerich [DG Originals CD]), the
Baby exhibited a lovely tone—it’s not
particularly romantically tubey, by the
way—if not the last word in harmonic
structure or micro- and macro-dynamic
layering.
Ultimately, Sophia’s Baby amp is a
lot of fun. It’s musically engaging, with a
good sense of rhythmic drive, a lot of
midrange presence and air, good detail,
and notably well-defined bass. Match it
with the right speaker, respect its power
limitations, sit back, and enjoy. Oh, it’s
one hell of a nice headphone amp, too. &
S P E C I F I C AT I O N S
Power output: 10Wpc
Inputs: One pair RCA
Dimensions: 7" x 9" x 5"
Weight: 20 lbs.
A S S O C I AT E D E Q U I P M E N T
Rega P25 turntable, Cardas Ruby Myrtle
Heart Cartridge; Sutherland PhD phonostage; BAT VK-D5 CD player; Philips
DVD963SA SACD/DVD player; Sonus Faber
Cremona speakers; Grado SR 80 headphones; Cardas Neutral Reference speaker
cables, Cardas Golden Reference interconnects; Finite Elemente “Spider” equipment
rack; ASC Tube Traps; Richard Gray’s Power
Company 400S and 600S; Essential Sound
Products Power Conditioner/Strip
SOPHIA ELECTRIC, INC.
3715 Yorktown Village Pass
Annandale, Virginia 22003
(703) 204-1429
[email protected]
www.sophiaelectric.com
Price: $899
73
equipment report
Power to the People:
Nine Power Conditioners Surveyed
Chris Martens
ower conditioners are controversial; some people swear by
them, while others regard
them with a suspicion normally reserved for cure-all
medicines or carburetors that promise
you 120 miles per gallon. The controversy is understandable, perhaps
because—while one can intuitively
grasp that changes in signal-bearing components would affect sound—it’s much
harder to envision how changes in the
quality of AC power would affect sound
(if they affect it at all).
Many audiophiles are familiar with
the claims power-conditioner manufacturers make in support of their products: to wit, conditioners help remove
noise from the AC lines, “stiffen up”
power supplies by preventing shortterm voltage and/or current drops, prevent damage that might be caused by
sudden surges, and prevent components—especially digital components—from transmitting contaminating noise via shared power lines. In the
abstract, these all seem like good
things, yet fundamental questions
remain. Do power conditioners actually
make a difference you can hear in your
system, and, if so, do those “differences”
constitute real improve-ments? If there are
improvements, how big are they? Do all
components need power conditioning,
or just those that handle low-level signals? If your components already have
good power supplies, is power conditioning necessary? And if power conditioners affect sound, do they have identifiable “voicing” in the sense that other
audio components do?
I don’t claim to have all the answers
to these questions, but I’d like to share
a few of the basic insights I gleaned
through working on this survey. First,
power conditioners do make readily
P
audible differences in the sound of audio
systems—differences that often represent genuine improvements. Second,
the magnitude of improvement can be
surprisingly large—at least as significant as improvements achieved by
changing interconnect or speaker
cables, and in some cases much more
substantial than that. (Some conditioners made it sound as though I had
switched major components—almost
as if I had magically stepped up an
equipment class or two!) Third, digital
source components generally are more
likely to benefit from power conditioning than amplifiers (which is not to say
conditioning can’t help amplifiers, but
rather that with them the effects of
conditioning can be mixed). Fourth, I
found that when components already
have extremely robust power supplies
(as does the amplifier in the test system
used in this survey), it is difficult to
find conditioners that will improve the
sound—and some actually degrade it.
Finally, I observed that power conditioners do have their own equivalent of
“voicing,” meaning they impart certain consistent, characteristic sounds to
the audio system. In a moment, I will
share my observations of the characteristic “voices” of the conditioners in this
survey, but first let me describe the
survey process.
This survey examines nine different
power conditioners, which fall into two
groups: those intended primarily for use
with digital source (or low-power analog) components, and those intended to
provide “whole-system” conditioning.
In the interest of consistency and accuracy, I used one high-resolution, fullrange (i.e., solid bass down to 25Hz)
audio system for all my listening tests,
and by design that system included four
different digital disc players spanning a
broad range of price/performance
points. After doing some familiarization
listening with the conditioners, I performed two rounds of concentrated listening tests, first using each conditioner connected to digital source components
only, and then—for conditioners rated
with “whole-system” capabilities—
using the conditioners connected to digital sources and the main system amplifier.
Below, I provide a capsule review of
each conditioner, with comments on
each unit’s characteristic sound.
Argentum Acoustics
PowerGrid X8
rgentum’s PowerGrid X8 is
intended solely for use with digital
source components or low-power
analog components. The X8 is constructed as two completely isolated power conditioners (each supporting four Hubbell
power outlets, and each capable of 500
watts of output) built on one chassis—a
true “dual-mono” design. Argentum recommends connecting digital source
components to one set of outlets, and
low-power analog components to the
other. The X8’s external appearance is
elegant, and fit and finish are superb.
A
CHARACTERISTIC SOUND: The
PowerGrid X8 gave the test system an
almost shockingly high-resolution
sound, and not the sort of artificial resolution born of brightness, but the real
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equipment report
thing—resolution made possible
through the unit’s extremely low noise
floor and remarkable ability to help system components resolve exceedingly fine
variations in timbre, texture, and dynamics. If you picture your system as having
an imaginary “Focus & Resolution” control knob, then the PowerGrid X8 was
the conditioner that turned that control
up about as far as it could go.
As I listened to reference discs, I was
astonished to hear the X8 help my source
components show textural and timbral
nuances I’d never heard before (nuances I
never dreamed were encoded in my discs).
The X8 lifted the performance of source
components more than a few notches, so
that good $300 CD players sounded more
like $1000 models, and $1000 models
better still. Overall, this conditioner was
a delight whose only drawbacks were a
slightly analytical (though not particularly bright) sound overall, combined with a
moderate tendency to reveal any edginess,
76
such as sibilance or hard-edged string or
brass tones, present in recordings.
BREAK-IN: The PowerGrid X8 requires
no break-in.
Audio Magic Stealth Mini
Power Purifier-Digital and
Stealth Power Purifier
udio Magic’s Stealth Mini Power
Purifier-Digital (“Mini Stealth,” for
short) provides two high-quality
outlets and is—as its name suggests—
meant for use only with digital source
components, while the full-size Stealth
Power Purifier (“Big Stealth,” for short)
provides six outlets and is meant as a
conditioner for the whole system. Audio
Magic feels the Mini Stealth sounds
slightly superior to the Big Stealth with
digital sources, and thus recommends
A
using the conditioners as a synergistic
pair. Accordingly, I tested both the Mini
Stealth and the Big Stealth with source
components, and then tested the pair
together powering the whole system.
Both Stealth models are housed in
extremely modest plastic enclosures
whose appearance is “vintage Radio
Shack”—meaning they give an impression of both utilitarian ruggedness and
cheapness. While I strongly believe it’s
what’s inside a component that counts,
conditioners as costly as these deserve
much better packaging.
equipment report
CHARACTERISTIC SOUND, MINI
STEALTH: The Mini Stealth imbued the
system with three characteristics that
added up to wonderful musicality.
First, the Mini Stealth uncannily
helped filter out (or at least mitigate)
hash, edginess, and glare, yet at the
same time enabled components to render low-level details and textures with
greater refinement and focus. This was
a great combination, since it meant I
heard less of what I didn’t want (noise,
sibilance, harsh string or brass tones,
overshoot, etc.), but more of what I did
want (textures, timbres, subtle shifts in
expression). The remarkable thing was
that the Mini Stealth achieved smoothness without any dullness or loss of resolution. Second, the Mini Stealth did a
great job at enhancing the system’s
presentation of soundstage layering and
depth. Third, more than most conditioners in this survey, the Mini Stealth
promoted excellent bass reproduction,
with great midbass weight and sharp
focus and attack on bass transients. The
only drawbacks to this conditioner
were: (a) it only provided two outlets,
(b) it could be perceived to impart a
slightly “dark” tonality, and (c) it was
perhaps not quite as revealing as the
Argentum PowerGrid X8. In the end,
though, the product stood firmly on its
many strengths.
Magic correctly predicted that the MiniStealth would sound better on digital
sources. The three main differences I
heard with the Big Stealth were a slight
dullness on fine details, a trace of edge or
ringing on hard transients, and a tendency toward more flattened soundstage perspectives. Thus, if all you need is conditioning for digital sources, go with the
Mini Stealth.
CHARACTERISTIC SOUND, BIG
STEALTH: The Big Stealth was “voiced”
similarly to the Mini Stealth, but Audio
USING THE STEALTH PAIR TO POWER
THE WHOLE SYSTEM: The Stealth pair
proved excellent in some contexts, but
overall the two conditioners made for a
somewhat uneasy marriage. At its best,
the Stealth pair helped the system produce big, deep, lively sonic images.
However, the “voices” of the two products
did not always coalesce gracefully; at
times, the Big Stealth’s slight edginess
conflicted with the Mini Stealth’s smoothness, and the Big Stealth’s slightly less
77
equipment report
defined treble likewise sounded at odds
with the Mini Stealth’s silvery harmonic
structures. Given the considerable cost of
the full-size Stealth, I would forego the
larger model and use the Mini Stealth on
its own.
BREAK-IN: Both Audio Magic conditioners require considerable break-in.
Chang Lightspeed CLS
6400 ISO Mk II and CLS
HT 1000 Mk II
hang Audio’s Lightspeed CLS
6400 and CLS HT 1000 Mk II are
intended as whole-system power
conditioners, the 6400 being a mid-line
model and the HT 1000 a high-end one.
The CLS 6400 provides six “Hospital
Grade” outlets with two outlets providing special filtering for use with digital
sources, and four outlets for general-purpose analog use. In turn, the HT 1000
provides twelve outlets separated into
three groups: four for digital sources,
four with extra current capacity for
power amps, and four for low-power
analog components. Both models are
housed in wide, matte-black metal
enclosures, which, while not particularly
stylish, appear well built.
C
CHARACTERISTIC SOUNDS: With
digital sources, the 6400 and HT 1000
imparted extremely similar (though
not quite identical) “signature sounds”
on audio systems. The Chang “house
sound” favored overall system musicality over definition and resolution, offering a delightful blend of digital noise
suppression, excellent and delicate
midrange resolution, plenty of soundstage depth, and powerful and extended bass. In back-to-back comparisons
with the Mini-Stealth, the Chang conditioners gave the system a more lively
and revealing midrange character
(albeit at the expense of a minor
increase in perceived “edge”), and
tighter, leaner, more muscular bass. As
one of their greatest strengths, both
Changs promoted satisfyingly natural,
“organic” system voicing (where nothing ever sounded “spectacular” in an
artificial way, yet nothing seemed to
have been left out). The only sonic difference I detected between the Chang
models was the HT 1000’s ability to
help the system produce very slightly
larger and more resolved images than
the 6400. As two of the least costly conditioners in this survey, both Changs
offer exceptional value for
money (though the 6400 is perhaps the bigger bargain).
Both Changs achieved mixed
results when powering the entire
test system. Midrange and upper
midrange smoothness improved
somewhat, but at the expense of
midbass and low bass weight falling off
a bit. These mixed results should not be
considered a mark against the Changs,
since the test system featured a Musical
Fidelity Tri-Vista integrated amplifier
whose beefy, choke-regulated power
supply proved very difficult for most
conditioners to improve upon. In separate testing in a system using Parasound
electronics, both Changs performed
beautifully, helping the Parasound components produce clearer midrange and
more solid bass.
BREAK-IN: Both Chang conditioners
require considerable break-in.
ARGENTUM ACOUSTICS
XLO/ULTRALINK PRODUCTS, INC.
2030 South Carlos Avenue
Ontario, California 91761
(909) 947-6960
www.argentumacoustics.com
Price: $1600
AUDIO MAGIC
18063 East Gunnison Place
Aurora, Colorado 80017
(303) 369-1814
www.audio-magic.com
Prices: Mini, $799; Magic, $1699
CHANG LIGHTSPEED AUDIO
6465 Monroe St. Suite E
Sylvania, Ohio 43560
(419) 885-1485
www.changlightspeed.com
Prices: CLS 6400, $565; CLS HT 1000,
$1200
EXACTPOWER
Atlantis Power Quality Systems, Inc.
9411 Winnetka Avenue
Chatsworth, California 91311
(800) 773-7977
www.exactpower.com
Price: $1995
FURMAN SOUND, INC.
1997 South McDowell Blvd.
Petaluma, California 94954-6919
(707) 763-1010
www.furmansound.com
Price: $3250
ExactPower EP15A
QUANTUM PRODUCTS, INC.
943-A Euclid Street
Santa Monica, California 90403
(310) 394-4488
www.quantumqrt.com
Price: $1299
xactPower’s EP15A is a whole-system power conditioner that applies
nine different correction techniques
to produce the best possible AC power.
Perhaps most distinctive of these is
ExactPower’s patented feed-forward
technique for making active, real-time
RICHARD GRAY’S POWER COMPANY, LLC
2727 Prytania Street, Suite 6
New Orleans, Louisiana 70130
(504) 247-0300
www.richardgrayspowercompany.com
Price: $2100
E
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equipment report
voltage corrections. The EP15A provides a highly informative display that
can show instantaneous output voltage,
output current, or output wattage. The
EP15A provides eight high-quality outlets, and is housed in a lovely brushed
silver case.
CHARACTERISTIC SOUND: With digital sources the EP15A produced a system sound that combined Chang-like
warmth and naturalness with Argentum-like resolution and focus. What I
heard was energetic and well-defined
bass, midrange textures that were
exquisitely delineated (if not quite the
Argentum’s equal), plus a good measure
of freedom from midrange and treble
hash and grit. Most of the time, and on
most material, this combination of
virtues worked well, but at moments the
EP15A made the system sound a touch
“mechanical” or “electronic.” In my listening notes I observed that the EP15A
80
“always produces good sound, but not
always the sweetness or heartiness of real
music.” Like the Changs, the EP15A
achieved mixed results when powering
the whole test system. The EP15
enhanced the system’s three-dimensionality throughout the midrange, but with a
shift in overall balance—where the
midrange came forward and the midbass
became withdrawn—that took away some
of the warmth and punch that made the
EP15A so enjoyable with digital sources
only. Again, given the nearly faultless
power supply in the test system’s Musical
Fidelity amplifier, these mixed results
shouldn’t be counted against the EP15A.
Like the Changs, the EP15A performed
superbly when tested in my secondary,
Parasound-powered system (yielding
some of the most airy treble and potent
bass I’ve ever heard from that system).
BREAK-IN: The ExactPower EP15A
requires no break-in.
Furman IT-Reference
’ve seen countless Furman conditioners in professional musicians’ equipment racks, but until the ITReference appeared on my doorstep I
had no idea Furman made products targeted toward high-end audio enthusiasts. Weighing a back-straining eighty
pounds, Furman’s IT-Reference is one
conditioner that cannot be, umm, taken
lightly. The IT-Reference provides
twelve high-quality outlets, one group
of four for power amplifiers, and four
isolated “symmetrically balanced”
groups of two for use with digital and
low-power analog components. The IT-
I
equipment report
Reference is packaged in a massive black
chassis with a raised, brushed-aluminum
centerplate to which a welcome pair of
carrying handles are attached.
CHARACTERISTIC SOUND: With digital sources the IT-Reference exhibited
two sonic qualities that set it apart.
First, the IT-Reference gave the system
simply remarkable dynamic power and
agility. Just as Argentum’s PowerGrid
X8 revealed textures and timbres with
great focus and clarity, the IT-Reference
revealed the dynamic envelopes of
instruments and voices with unequaled
realism and freedom from compression.
Second, the IT-Reference helped the system produce extraordinary bass—bass
that was richly textured and deeply
extended, with authority second to
none. Still, the IT-Reference was not
without flaws. Like the Argentum X8,
the IT-Reference gave the system a highly resolved sound, but unlike the X8,
the IT-Reference let the system lapse
into brief bursts of edginess and glare
(especially on heavily modulated vocals
or string passages). While these lapses
occurred only occasionally, the combination of unrestrained dynamic power plus
upper midrange glare was not a pleasant
one (suggesting greater smoothness and
warmth were needed).
Happily, when the IT-Reference was
used to drive the entire system, the system’s upper midrange became somewhat
rounder and more three-dimensional,
and its midbass took on an added
warmth that helped balance out and
“humanize” the sound. While the ITReference’s occasional rough edges never
went away completely, connecting the
amp to the conditioner helped leverage
its great strengths and mitigate its
weaknesses.
BREAK-IN: The Furman IT-Reference
requires no break-in.
Quantum RT800
he Quantum RT800 is one of the
most unusual conditioners in this
survey, as the following excerpt
from its product bulletin makes clear:
“The RT800 employs a unique and cutting edge technology, Quantum
Resonance Technology. QRT is a technology based on research into the random behavior of photons and electrons
T
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equipment report
in AC electricity (as well as) principles
of electromagnetic field theory and
quantum physics. The goal is to affect a
more ordered electron behavior.”
Interestingly, Quantum claims that the
RT800, which operates in parallel to the
AC lines, creates a “tuned” electromagnetic field frequency pattern that “harmonizes and tunes the existing electromagnetic fields in the environment
within a given radius of 35 feet.” The
RT800 is a whole-system conditioner
that provides eight “hospital-grade”
outlets. The unit is housed in a simple
black metal enclosure with polished end
caps, and a forward-facing QRT frequency display.
RT800 imparted a system sound with
four distinguishing characteristics. First,
the treble range took on a soft, gentle,
edge-free quality. Second, the
midrange—and especially the upper
82
midrange—took on a subtle prominence
or forwardness. Third, the bass—and
especially the vital midbass—became
softer and noticeably recessed. Fourth,
sonic images became larger, with a
smooth and spacious—yet strangely diffuse, quality. Taken together, these qualities might be interpreted as adding
overall spaciousness and a certain kind of
clarity (or midrange emphasis) to the
sound, but my sense was that the
changes in fact dulled the inherent clarity and focus of the system, and significantly reduced its power and impact in
the bass region. I evaluated the RT800
with digital sources, with the entire test
system, and with my secondary
(Parasound-powered) test system. In all
cases the sonic affects of the conditioner
were similar.
While certain aspects of the
RT800’s sound are appealing (e.g., its
treble smoothness and freedom from
edginess and glare), my feeling is that
QRT technology requires further development before its potential can be fully
realized in high-end audio systems.
BREAK-IN: The RT800 requires little
break-in time.
Richard Gray’s Power
Company 1200s
he RGPC 1200s is a whole-system
conditioner that provides twelve
Hubbell outlets organized as two
groups of six (internally, the 1200S is
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equipment report
the equivalent of two RGPC 600S sixoutlet conditioners). Unlike most other
conditioners in this survey, the 1200S
connects in parallel to the AC lines,
meaning that components sharing the
same AC lines with the 1200S will enjoy
most of its benefits even if they are not
plugged directly into the unit. In fact,
RGPC even suggests that power amplifiers be plugged into an AC outlet adjacent to the one through which the 1200S
draws power. The 1200S enclosure
appears well made, sporting a lovely art
deco faceplate in which the RGPC logo
is displayed behind a window shaped
like a funky ’50’s-style TV screen.
RGPC 1200S gave the test system a host
of characteristics greatly prized by audiophiles, including unusually pure
midrange tonalities with finely-resolved
textures, vibrant and energetic bass,
stunning three-dimensional imaging,
and a huge soundstage. Again and again,
though, the uncanny three-dimensionality of the RGPC-powered system was
what grabbed me (that wonderful
“reach-out-and-shake-hands-with-theperformers” quality). One could quibble
that the 1200S made the system sound
just a hair midrange-forward, or that it
promoted a midrange that could be a bit
aggressive, but that would be to overlook the engaging and unfailingly musical quality the RGPC brought to the
system.
More than other conditioners in this
survey, the RGPC really came into its
own when powering the whole test system. RGPC claims there should be virtually no sonic difference between plugging the amplifier into a wall socket
adjacent to the 1200S versus plugging
it directly into the conditioner, but in
practice I found there was a difference—
small, but quite worthwhile. Specifically, once the amp was connected
through the 1200S, the system’s
midrange pulled back a bit and
smoothed out, while its midbass
became richer and more powerful. With
those two changes in place, the end
result was—to my ears—pure magic.
BREAK-IN: The RGPC requires a moderate amount of break-in.
&
Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista 300 integrated
amplifier; Parasound Halo P3 preamplifier
and A23 power amplifier; Sony DVPS9000ES and DVP-NS500V DVD/SACD/CD
players; Roksan Kandy Mk III DVD/CD player; Rega Planet 2000 CD Player; JVC XVSA600BK DVD-A/DVD-V/CD player; Von
Schweikert VR-2 and Meadowlark Kestral2
loudspeakers; Audio Magic, Cardas, and
Rega interconnects; Audioquest CV-6 and
Cardas Neutral Reference speaker cables
83
equipment report
Ayre AX-7 Integrated Amplifier
Robert Harley
ot that long ago, integrated
amplifiers fit a stereotype:
underpowered, ugly British boxes, lightweight in
build quality with funky
connectors and sound suitable only for
entry-level systems. That situation was
unfortunate, because the integrated
amplifier is the perfect solution for
music lovers with space and budget
constraints or those who value the simplicity of installation and operation an
integrated amp offers.
The high-end audio industry finally
woke up to the fact that integrated
amplifiers could be something more
than their stereotype. Witness the explosion in very high quality integrateds
from such marques as Mark Levinson,
Krell, Balanced Audio Technology,
Perreaux, Musical Fidelity, and now
Ayre Acoustics.
Ayre’s first integrated amp, the
$2950 AX-7, perfectly understands its
charter: Combine high-end circuitry
with moderate output power in a wellmade, easy-to-operate product, and hit
N
the “sweet spot” in the amplificationpricing curve.
The AX-7 is a solidly built no-frills
product. No phonostage is included—
you’ll need an outboard phono preamp
to play LPs. A “processor pass-through”
mode sets one of the inputs (either
because music signals never pass
through the controller.
Volume is adjusted either from the
remote or via a large bar just above the
volume display. Inputs are selected by
pushbuttons marked with “star”
“moon,” “planet,” and “comet” icons. I
The AX-7 is simply a high-end preamp and
power amplifier scaled down in features and
output power that happens to be enclosed in
a single chassis.
unbalanced or balanced) to unity gain
(input level equals output level). This
feature means you can run the left and
right channels of a surround-sound controller through the AX-7 without disturbing the correct channel-level balance established by the audio/video controller. It also means you can combine a
music and home-theater system without
compromising musical performance,
suppose that with months of use, one
would begin to associate an input with
its icon. (I didn’t.) The unusual loudspeaker terminals are outstanding—far
better than five-way binding posts—and
should be standard-issue on all amplifiers. These are the same terminals used
in Ayre’s $10k V-6x amplifier, as well as
the Theta Dreadnaught (also designed,
by the way, by Ayre’s Charles Hansen).
85
equipment report
Overall build quality is excellent;
the AX-7 is simply a high-end preamp
and power amplifier scaled down in features and output power that happens to
be enclosed in a single chassis.
It takes many hours of critical listening to discern and describe exactly
why a product is musically communicative or not, but sometimes it takes only
a few minutes to know if the product is
fundamentally right.
A hallmark of products that are
right is the compulsion you feel to listen
to music. The AX-7 is a case in point. I
had planned on setting it up and letting
it play with a CD source on repeat for a
day, so it could settle in prior to bona
fide listening sessions. But before I
could leave the listening room, I felt the
urge to sit down and enjoy what I was
hearing—for several hours. This initial
performance was more akin to that from
86
warmed-up separates, not an integrated
amplifier just out of the box.
Things got even better once the AX7 had been powered up for several
weeks. The amp got sweeter, more open,
detailed, and engaging. The AX-7 has a
remarkable ability to present music as a
coherent combination of individual
musical lines rather than as a single large
agglomerate sound in which instruments congeal tonally and spatially. I
could shift my attention among instruments or orchestral sections and clearly
hear subtle lines in the presence of more
prominent ones.
This impression was largely the
result of the AX-7’s overall high resolution, but it was also aided by the amp’s
ability to convey a sense of bloom and air
around individual instruments. Images
were not only spatially distinct from
each other, but were also separated from
the surrounding acoustic. Many amplifiers tend to fuse the reverberation and
air of an instrument with the image
itself, reducing the impression of hearing an instrument surrounded by a real
acoustic space. In addition, the soundstage was remarkably transparent and
open, with tremendous clarity.
Soundstage width, depth, and dimensionality were all terrific by any measure, and amazing for such a modestly
priced integrated amplifier.
Tonally, the AX-7 tended toward
the lighter side of neutral, with a slight
emphasis on the upper midrange and
treble. The bottom end was fairly full
and well-defined, but just a little lacking in warmth and the sense of solidity I
hear from larger separate amplifiers.
Consequently, basses didn’t “light up”
the acoustic as fully, which somewhat
truncated the sense of space. The AX-7
equipment report
Ayre’s new AX-7 knows its mission—high
performance in an affordable, compact,
simple package—and delivers on it in spades.
also seemed to spotlight the upper mids,
emphasizing harmonics over fundamentals. This had the effect of rendering
tonal colors as somewhat less saturated
than in life, almost like a slightly underexposed photograph.
This is the AX-7’s only shortcoming, and perhaps my description gives
the false impression that it was a defining characteristic of the amplifier. It
wasn’t. Nor was the AX-7 bright,
etched, or overly analytical. Rather, the
AX-7 leaned toward a clean, quick,
transparent, and highly detailed sound,
with a slight concession in warmth and
richness of tonal color.
I greatly enjoyed the AX-7’s sense
of pace and the way music flowed naturally. I’m not talking about “toe-tapping” pace, but the entirely natural way
music starts, stops, builds, and ebbs.
Some amplifiers with terrific dynamics
and “slam” can sound mechanical, stiff,
and rhythmically artificial. The AX-7
by contrast conveyed a sense of musicmaking, particularly in grooves laid
down by first-rate rhythm sections.
Check out bassist Eddie Gomez and
drummer Peter Erskine on Eliane Elias’
wonderful Cross Currents [Denon]. The
AX-7 beautifully conveyed the drive,
rhythmic nuances, and delicious flourishes these musicians contributed to
this disc.
As for output power, the AX-7
didn’t fully exploit the dynamic capabilities of the Wilson WATT/Puppy 7
nor the Avalon Eidolon Diamond
(review in progress)—but I wasn’t
expecting it to. Nonetheless, the AX-7
drove both these loudspeaker surprisingly well, with no sense of congealing
or soundstage constriction during loud
passages. Even with a very high drive
signal from the Theta Generation VIII
DAC and the AX-7’s volume at maxi-
mum, I couldn’t get the Ayre to clip. I
did hear a gentle compression of
dynamics and a slight softening of the
bass as the AX-7 reached its power
limitations, but overall the sound had
a robustness I didn’t expect from a
60Wpc integrated amplifier.
I should further address the AX7’s modest output power rating. First,
the difference between what is considered low output power (60W) and
moderate output power (100W) is just
2.2dB. Driving a 90.2dB-sensitive
loudspeaker with 60W will produce
the same sound-pressure level as driving a speaker with a sensitivity of
88dB with 100W. Choose your loudspeakers carefully and the AX-7 will
sound like a powerhouse.
Second, the AX-7 is rated at 120W
into 4 ohms. An amplifier that can double its output power as the impedance is
halved will sound more powerful in realworld conditions (driving loudspeakers
with impedance dips in the bass) than an
amplifier that only marginally increases
its output power as the impedance
drops. The ability to double the output
power when the impedance is halved
suggests high current capacity (relative
to 8-ohm output power). In my experience, amplifiers with greater current
capacity sound more powerful than their
8-ohm power rating would suggest.
Finally, there’s a theory that lowoutput-power amplifiers sound sweeter
than their more powerful counterparts.
I’ve found that to be the case in some
amplifier lines in which the circuit
topology remains identical, with the
only difference being power supply size,
and the number of output transistors
and heat sinks.
In other words, don’t dismiss the
AX-7 because it has “only” 60 watts per
channel.
Ayre’s new AX-7 knows its mission—high-performance in an affordable, compact, simple package—and
delivers on it in spades. Rather than
striving for brute-force output power,
the AX-7 puts the emphasis on other
qualities: resolution, transparency,
soundstaging, and dimensionality. In
these respects, the AX-7 sounds more
like expensive separates rather than an
integrated amplifier.
The AX-7 does, however, have a
tendency to slightly emphasize the
upper-midrange and treble, somewhat
thinning tonal color. This isn’t a significant liability in light of the amplifier’s
great strengths.
Beyond this analysis of the AX-7’s
sonic characteristics, this amplifier was
unfailingly musical, enjoyable, and
engaging. When mated with moderate- to high-sensitivity loudspeakers,
the AX-7 is fully up to the task of
becoming the anchor of a highly musi&
cal system.
Integrated amplifier with remote control
Power output: 60Wpc continuous into 8
ohms, 120Wpc continuous into 4 ohms
Gain: 35dB (at maximum volume)
Inputs: Two unbalanced on RCA jacks, two
balanced on XLR jacks
Dimensions: 17.25" x 4.75" x 13.75"
Weight: 25 lbs.
Theta Generation VIII digital processor;
Meridian 800 CD/DVD-Audio player; Marantz
DV8400 universal player; Wilson
WATT/Puppy 7, Avalon Eidolon Diamond, and
Totem Arro loudspeakers; Nordost Valhalla,
MIT Oracle, and Cardas Neutral Reference
cables and interconnects; Acoustic Room
Systems room treatment
AYRE ACOUSTICS, INC.
2300-B Central Avenue
Boulder, Colorado 80301
(303) 442-7300
www.ayre.com
Price: $2950
87
equipment report
Thiel CS2.4 Loudspeaker
Neil Gader
uery: How do you make a
seventy-pound floorstanding loudspeaker disappear?
Well, you could hire some
muscle and haul it out of
the room. Or, you could
consider Thiel Audio’s CS2.4. It has the
uncanny ability to generate a w-i-d-e
soundstage with impeccable imaging
and then, faster than a Buddy Rich rim
shot, vanish into thin air.
The Thiel CS2.4 is indeed fast.
Fastidious also describes every aspect of
this loudspeaker. From the precision tolerances and finish of the cabinetry and
transducers to the superb quality of the
packing materials, it exhibits a nearobsessive attention to detail.
Like the CS2.3 it replaces, the CS2.4
is a three-way bass-reflex system that
benefits from some evolutionary
changes. Thiel designs and builds its
metal-diaphragm transducers. The 1"
dome-tweeter and 3.5" midrange are
coincident-array designs—a driverwithin-a-driver setup, sometimes called
“coaxial.” The drivers share a single voice
coil and mechanical crossover but—in
the CS2.4—use a neodymium magnet
for improved efficiency. Additionally the
venting has been improved, increasing
thermal efficiency, reducing resonances,
and making the transducer an easier load
to drive. The 8" inverted-dome woofer
boasts improved efficiency, and the all
new 7.5" x 11" passive radiator adds 2dB
more output. First-order crossovers are
employed throughout, with crossover
points of 1kHz and 4kHz. The highly
rigid cabinet uses 1"-thick walls and a
massive 3" front baffle. The baffle is also
marginally thicker than before, and the
radius has been modified to further
reduce diffraction effects. In classic Thiel
fashion the front baffle is sloped backward for correct time alignment between
the woofer and the tweeter/midrange.
Thiel’s optional “Outriggers” were sup-
Q
plied for added stability in my carpeted listening room. They are 17"-long flat aluminum brackets that are secured in the
existing footer holes in the base of the
CS2.4. The ends of the Outriggers angle
outward beyond the edges of the base,
widening the footprint of the speaker; they
are pre-drilled to accept the sharp footers
that come with each pair of CS 2.4’s.
Note: Thiel’s set-up parameters need
to be respected. Its instruction manual
states that eight feet is the minimum
distance the listener should be seated
from the speakers to permit the drivers
to fully integrate—a recommendation
entirely consistent with first-order
designs. Thus seating height and distance is a significant variable in minimizing lobing effects and creating a
coherent sound. I preferred to be slightly lower in my seat at the minimum distance my small listening room limited
me to. This created a richer, more textured sound particularly with low-baritone vocalists like Tom Waits [Mule
Variations; Epitaph].
The character of the CS2.4 was
bright, bold, and expressive, not warmly romantic yet not coldly clinical either.
Although not a “hot cocoa by the
hearth” kind of speaker, the CS2.4 surprised me with a full-throated openness
and expansiveness that I’ve found lacking in some other Thiel designs. The
treble had a “right now” immediacy and
clarity that bordered on an electrostat.
Following Audra McDonald’s a cappella
introduction in “Lay Down Your Head,”
89
equipment report
[How Glory Goes; Nonesuch], the
entrance of the harp and string quartet
was breathtaking in the intricacy of the
softest details and the clarity of the space
they occupied. Clearly the CS2.4 is a
speaker that elucidates the minutiae of
music with a resolving power on a par
with any speaker in this price range.
There is a sophistication to this
Thiel’s sound that is a balanced mixture
of extension, micro- and macro-dynamics, speed, and transparency. A recording
that shows these sonic attributes was
Nickel Creek’s self-titled debut album
[Sugar Hill, SACD]. Nickel Creek is an
acoustic trio with a fresh folk/country/
pop fusion style; its blazing instrumentals incorporate bluegrass banjo, violin,
mandolin, guitar, and acoustic bass.
During each track the mandolin, tinybodied and highly percussive, and the
bluegrass banjo possessed all the crisp
articulation and speed of the real things.
Characteristic of the mandolin, the clatter
of the flat-pick off the strings almost
matched the volume of the string note
being struck. The banjo had a forward
sound, accurately pushy in its aggressiveness. The guitar, larger and warmer,
seemed a little thin in body resonance,
however. Sara Watkins’s soaring violin
imparted rich energy from its soundboard,
but as it neared its upper-octave limits it
grew a bit constricted. Images were reproduced with locked-tight stability and
pristine edge definition. On a reference
piano recording like Live At Bernie’s
[Groove Note, SACD], the Thiels
wrapped themselves around the warmish
tonality of Bill Cunliffe’s grand conveying
the lush soundboard and Cunliffe’s gentle
modulation of the sustain pedal. My one
reservation was the coolness the Thiel displayed in the top octaves—a faint hardness depriving the keyboard’s hammers of
some of their felt cushion, and attenuating
the more delicate interplay of harmonics.
Bass extension was taut and plummeted confidently into the low 30Hz
region, offering as much bass as most of
us desire (unless your last name is
Richter). If there was any overhang or
bloating attributable to the passive radiator, it was subtle, indeed—low- and
mid-bass notes were tuneful and quick,
with natural bloom. Loudspeakers often
“thicken” and congeal the lower octaves
of a piano, but the CS2.4 never lost sight
of individual notes or fast-tempo chord
patterns. During “Wrapped Around
Your Finger” [Synchronicity; A&M,
SACD] the marriage of Sting’s melodic
bass line steered cleanly free of Stewart
Copeland’s inventive kick drum
rhythms, the textural quality of each
unfudged by the other. And during
“Murder By Numbers,” I could hear the
complete kick drum—from the foot
pedal impacting the skin from behind to
the depth charge assault out the front.
Speaking of murder, there was
Copeland’s ripping snare drum being
murdered beat by beat, each thwack
conveying its own transient signature.
It’s a tribute to Thiel’s cabinet rigidity and baffle design that this relatively
large speaker is able to soundstage and
image as tightly as a mini-monitor.
Orchestral soundstage reproduction was
as wide and as deep as I’ve encountered in
my listening room. And the CS2.4
achieved these results honestly without
recessing the tonal balance or sucking out
the upper mids. The speaker also delights
in properly scaling orchestral images,
especially cello and bass sections and the
immediate ambient envelope around
them; the quality of the midbass plays a
large role in recreating the hall acoustic.
This was where the CS2.4 was at its most
satisfying: not merely imaging in the
sterile vacuum of a recording studio but
suggesting the reverberant “life” of the
ambient space surrounding the direct
sound of a player’s instrument.
If there’s a single speed bump that
listeners should note prior to dashing off
a check, it’s a trait in the lower treble
region that some will find persuasive
and others bothersome. On a naturalistic
recording of solo violin like Arturo
Delmoni’s Bach, Kreisler, Ysaÿe [Water
Lily Records], it can heard as a silvery
additive—a narrow spot-light illuminating the fiddle’s upper harmonics. A
vocal example of this trait can be heard
with former Police frontman Sting. He
has an upper register that sounds slightly hoarse, like air rushing past an alto
saxophone reed. On a song like the
aforementioned “Murder By Numbers,”
where he gives his upper range a workout, the Thiels make it easier to key on
this throaty detail, at times almost to
the point of distraction. The retrieval of
this embroidered harmonic and transient information is interesting in and of
itself, but more than what one would
likely hear in an unamplified venue.
Like a little extra vanilla icing on a
chocolate cake it doesn’t upend the overall balance of the speaker. But it’s there.
For the past quarter century Thiel
Audio’s high-end credentials have
become near legendary. The CS2.4 is
such a sonically satisfying loudspeaker,
nearly faultless in so many parameters,
that I almost feel a little greedy for
wishing for less—as in a bit less treble
energy. But that’s the very personal
nature of the pursuit of the absolute
sound. Near perfection is always elusive, perfection itself an unattainable
grail. On a quest for a loudspeaker?
Any audiophile worthy of the name
&
needs to hear the CS2.4.
Type: Three-way, reflex type
Drivers: 1" dome tweeter/3.5" coincident midrange, 8" woofer, 7.5" x 11" passive radiator
Frequency Response: 36Hz–25kHz ±2dB
Sensitivity: 87dB
Impedance: 4 ohms (3 ohms minimum)
Dimensions: 11" x 14" x 41.5"
Weight: 70 lbs.
Sota Cosmos Series III turntable; SME V
pick-up arm; Shure V15VxMR cartridge; Sony
C222ES SACD multichannel, Sony DVP9000ES; Plinius 8200 Mk2 integrated amp;
Placette Volume Control preamp; Nordost
Valhalla and Blue Heaven cabling; Kimber
Kable BiFocal XL, Wireworld Equinox III,
Wireworld Silver Electra & Kimber Palladian
power cords; Richard Gray line conditioners
THIEL AUDIO
1026 Nandino Blvd.
Lexington, Kentucky 40511
(859) 254-9427
www.thielaudio.com
Price: $3900 (Optional outriggers: $250)
91
equipment report
Meridian 502 Analogue Controller and
559 Power Amplifier
Sue Kraft
or someone whose “home theater” system consists of a
microscopic thirteen-inch TV
and a VCR from the Dark
Ages, it’s inspiriting to know
that a company with the technical credentials of Meridian hasn’t forgotten
about us old-fangled two-channel
diehards. Not that I didn’t think a fully
balanced 500 Series Meridian system
wouldn’t sound good. I just didn’t
think, at least for the money, it would
sound quite this good. Retailing at
$3895, $2575, and $4495 respectively,
the 588 compact-disc player, 502 analog
controller, and 559 stereo power amp
may not be the least expensive components I‘ve reviewed, but they are easily
the best I’ve heard in their price range.
And here’s the kicker. If the siren song of
multichannel surround ever does
become too overpowering to resist, you
won’t be left with a couple of white elephants lying around collecting dust.
Meridian’s building-block design philosophy allows you to use the 559 (for
example) in bridged mode for each of
the front channels of a 568 digital surround processor. Fifteen-hundred watts
per (into 4 ohms) ought to set you back
in your listening chair! Or take advantage of the two-room software that
F
comes nested in the 502 controller to
link sources in the main room to a second location such as study or family
room. Or if you want to pursue the minimalist approach and alleviate the angst
of fussing with interconnects, simply
connect the digital output of the 588
CD player directly to one of Meridian’s
DSP loudspeakers.
The 502 controller has been
designed as a reference-quality partner
to the 500 series amplifiers or M60
active loudspeakers. Inside the simple
yet elegant slim-line case is a fully balanced, dual-mono preamp utilizing separate, isolated printed circuit boards and
four separate DC supplies for both its
left and right channels. A separate DC
supply is also used for the microprocessor section. High-quality components
include Nichicon and polypropylene
capacitors, ultra-linear amplifier stages,
four-layer PCB construction, low-flux
toroidal transformers, and gold-plated
connectors.
The 502’s many features include a
pair of balanced (XLR) and unbalanced
(RCA) outputs, seven inputs (3 balanced, 4 unbalanced), two unbalanced
tape outputs, user-adjustable sensitivity,
and a phonostage option with mc or mm
plug-in modules for each channel. The
front panel has an LED display
with a row of seven buttons directly beneath it to control various
functions such as source, mute,
off, and volume. I didn’t think I’d
like the up/down volume control
at first (knobs are so much easier
to use when you’re in a hurry), but
it turned out to be a moot point,
as I ended up using the included
Meridian System Remote (MSR)
99% of the time anyway. At first
glance, the four-dozen or so buttons of
varying shapes, colors, and sizes may
look a bit intimidating, but for the purposes of operating the preamp and CD
player, I found the MSR to be fairly simple and straightforward. I only needed to
refer to the owner’s manual once to figure out the phase button.
According to Meridian, the “core
design of the 559 employs a radical new
amplifier topology first featured in the
Meridian flagship DSP8000 loudspeaker.” This new topology is an implementation of several RF techniques and
novel circuit designs, resulting in a lowfeedback design with distortion that
measures as low as conventional amplifier topologies. Like the 502, the 559 is
also fully balanced and features dualmono construction. In fact, to drive the
amplifier unbalanced via the RCA
inputs, the signal is first balanced using
a proprietary “superbal” op amp input
configuration before being applied to
the amplifier. Twin low-noise high-mass
1.2kVA transformers and more than
80,000pF of audiophile-grade smoothing capacitors deliver a staunch 300W
per channel into 8 ohms and a staggering 1500W into 4 ohms (when used in
mono—bridged—configuration). The
only parts the left and right channels
93
equipment report
share are the enclosure; even the soft
start on the mains primary side is shorted out when the amplifier is running to
avoid any possible interaction.
Unlike the svelte 502, the 559 is
housed in a substantial 82-pound rackmountable steel chassis with brushed
aluminum faceplate. Internal heatsinks
make for a clean and environmentally
friendly appearance. Controls include
front-panel standby and rear-panel balanced/single-ended inputs, twin goldplated high-current binding posts for
bi-wiring, and a switch for stereo/
bridge mode.
For the cable tweakers out there, I
settled on a Kaptovator power cord for
the 559 amp and Elrod Signature 2 for
the 502 pre. The Elrod can be a bit
unruly to work with (it’s the size of a
small fire hose, only not as flexible), but a
sonic wonder when it comes to opening
94
up the midrange. It would have been nice
to try a second Elrod on the CD player,
but the 588 had to settle for stock. My
Harmonic Technology interconnects
seemed to be the best choice once again,
along with a pair of Coincident Total
Reference speaker cable.
My first impressions of the Meridian
trio were that of a remarkably well balanced, naturally smooth, musically satisfying, and all-around listener-friendly
system. A seductive sense of dynamic
ease and effortlessness immediately
catches the ear, along with a notably
broad, enveloping soundstage. Bass is
solid and extended, with unwavering
control over the dual 10" woofers in the
Coincident Totals. The presentation is
remarkably linear from top to bottom,
with no discernable forwardness in any
frequency range. Solid-state gear can
sometimes become so thin you feel as if
you are hearing through images instead of
around them. With the Meridian,
images were not overly lush by any
means, but had a palpability and substance more reminiscent of tubes than
transistors. If you like folksy bluegrass
music, Misty River’s Live at the Backstage
Gate [MRCD] is right up your alley.
With the Meridian, the bass fiddle on
“Black Pony” actually sounds like there’s
a hollow wooden box attached to the
strings. Vocals are temptingly smooth,
natural, and articulate; the last track is a
four-part harmony (a cappella) rendition
of “America the Beautiful” that will
bring tears to your eyes.
The XRCD version of Dave Grusin’s
Discovered Again Plus! [LIM XR] is a
superb recording that could have been
tailor-made to accentuate all the positive
attributes of the Meridian. I don’t think
I’ve heard XRCD sound better on my
equipment report
ond bowl. ‘This porridge is too cold,’ she
said. So, she tasted the last bowl of porridge. ‘Ahhh, this porridge is just right,’
she said happily and she ate it all up.”
Like that last bowl of porridge, the
&
Meridian gear was “just right!”
588 Compact Disc Player With System Remote
Outputs: One coax digital SPDIF/IEC1937; one
each unbalanced (RCA) and balanced (XLR)
Dimensions: 3.46" x 12.64" x 13.07"
Weight: 14 lbs.
502 Analogue Controller With System Remote
system. Transients were quick, clean,
and precise; high frequencies sweet and
clear; and separation of images superb.
I’m not sure exactly how to describe it,
but there was a black background that
seemed atypical of solid-state, making
images appear more rich and distinct in
contrast. I didn’t hear any hint of that
“white-ish” quality associated with some
transistor designs. On the Brazilian flavored “Captain Bacardi,” percussive
instruments hung magically in mid-air,
seeming totally detached from the
speakers and everything else around
them. The sound was more than just
enjoyable; it was kickback-in-yourfavorite-easychair comfortable. And by
that I don’t mean laid-back or polite. It
just had a rightness and ease about it
that allowed you to forget about the
stack of machinery in front of you, and
savor the music.
Although the main focus of this
article centers on the 502 and 559, the
technical and sonic merits of the 588
compact-disc player are equally (if not
more) impressive than the analog equipment under review. I spent a fair amount
of time mixing and matching components, and although the best synergy
was ultimately achieved when using the
three Meridian pieces together as a system, I wouldn’t have been unhappy with
any of these units on its own. The 502
preamp was perhaps a little less open
and spacious than the Ayre K-5x, but
exhibited better clarity and focus, along
with a smoother and fuller midrange
presentation.
I was particularly impressed with
how well the 559 performed against the
$8500 BAT 75SE tube amp. Throwing a
tube amp into the mix may be one of
those apples and oranges things, but I
can remember thinking at the time how
the 559 could have been the solid-state
sibling of the 75SE. It didn’t have the
extraordinary level of three-dimensionality or spatial detail, but was almost as
clean, smooth, and refined as the 75SE.
So, is there anything I don’t I like
about the 502/559 combo? For one
thing, the fact that I’ll have to send it
back. In separate listening tests, I slightly preferred the 559 amp over the 502
preamp, but when partnered together,
along with the impressive 588 CD player, it was tough to find any faults worth
the ink to complain about. What’s not
to like about a rig that is clear, focused,
naturally smooth, palpable, effortlessly
dynamic, and, above all, well-balanced
and sonically gratifying? Add to that the
built-in system flexibility that comes
with all Meridian components, and you
have a package that’s tough to beat.
I can’t help but be reminded of a
quote from the classic children’s story
Goldilocks and the Three Bears: “She tasted the porridge from the first bowl.
‘This porridge is too hot!’ she exclaimed.
So, she tasted the porridge from the sec-
Inputs: Four unbalanced (RCA), three
balanced (XLR)
Outputs: One each unbalanced (RCA) and
balanced (XLR); two unbalanced tape
Phonostage gain: N/A
Phonostage input impedance: N/A
Features: user-adjustable sensitivity, optional
phono modules
Dimensions: 3.46" x 12.64" x 13.07"
Weight: 10 lbs.
559 Solid-State Stereo Power Amplifier
Power output: 300Wpc into 8 ohms
Dimensions: 7.85" x 18.90" x 18.98"
Weight: 82 lbs.
Ayre CX-7 compact disc player; Ayre K-5x,
BAT VK-3i and VDH P1 preamps; Ayre V-5x
and BAT 75SE amps; Coincident Total
Eclipse speakers; Coincident Total Reference
speaker cable; Harmonic Technology Pro
Silway II and Purist Audio Design interconnects; JPS Kaptovator and EPS Signature 2
power cords; PS Audio Ultimate Outlet;
Symposium Svelte Shelves and Rollerblocks
MERIDIAN AMERICA INC.
Suite 122, Building 2400
3800 Camp Creek Parkway
Atlanta, Georgia 30331
(404) 344-7111
www.meridian-audio.com
Prices: 588 CD player: $3895; 502 preamp: $2575; 559 amp: $4495
95
equipment report
Soundline Audio SL2 Loudspeaker
Robert E. Greene
ant to buy a $12,000
speaker system for
$3495? Welcome to
the world of e-commerce. When you buy
a $12,000 speaker at a dealer, keep in
mind that about $5000 of that stays
with the dealer. A good bit more goes
W
for distribution, warehousing, advertising, and other kinds of overhead.
Soundline has none of this. No dealers,
no warehousing—your pair of speakers
is made to your order, no overhead to
amount to anything. What Soundline
does have in the SL2 is a superb speaker
offering amazing value for money.
Of course you give up something.
There is no one to hold your hand and tell
you that you are doing the right thing to
buy it; you have to trust your ears. But
you do have a chance to listen extensively. Even if you don’t live in Southern
California and can’t stop by the manufacturer, you have a ten-day home-trial period when your speakers arrive. If you are
not happy, Soundline will pick up your
speakers and take them back with a full
refund. But I would be surprised if it gets
any returns. Hearing is believing, and
this speaker sounded exceptionally good
in my room. Moreover, it is a design that
is far more nearly room-independent by
nature than most, so I am quite confident
it will sound exceptionally good in your
place, too. Soundline lives in a different
world from the ordinary, commercial, dealer-based distribution of most speaker companies. But it is a world you most definitely ought to explore. All you need is a little
patience—there is a four-to-six-week waiting period while your speaker is assembled
and tested after your order is received. But
the SL2s are worth waiting for.
The SL2 is a hybrid: the lower frequencies are handled by a box unit at the
bottom of the speaker, and the higher
frequencies are produced by a tall, narrow ribbon/planar magnetic driver operated as a dipole in a 10"-wide baffle.
This driver comes from BohlenderGraebener, the same people who make
the drivers for Wisdom speakers.
The crossover is second order at
250Hz. The speaker is reminiscent in
appearance of the Carver Amazing (second version) and the MartinLogan
hybrid electrostatics (except that the
line source isn’t visually transparent),
and looks graceful. Being a dipole, it has
to be out from the wall a bit, but not too
far, since the dipole operation does not
go down into the bass.
This type of design, with bass close
97
equipment report
to the floor and in effect floor-loaded,
and with higher frequencies run in
dipole fashion, has a considerable history and a lot to recommend it. For a start,
the floor-loading gives the bass a directivity behavior that is not that far from
the overall directivity of a dipole, so the
integration problem is not too difficult.
The wavelength of 250Hz is a bit over
four feet and one is not hearing much
directionality vertically at that wavelength, so if frequency response matches
and directivity does not jump much, a
good integration will be obtained. I first
encountered this idea in the Gradient
1.3 many years ago (a speaker I still
own), but there the transition was to a
point-source dynamic driver operating
as a dipole. The idea worked there and it
works here, too. The blend is good, and
of course from 250Hz on up, coherence
is total—there is only one driver.
98
Since the higher frequencies are
reproduced by a line source, there is no
floor bounce to speak of. And since the
speakers are dipolar, a proper setup will
put the listener in a null for what would
otherwise be the first reflection. HP
often and rightly comments on the
importance of damping the early reflections. But here if you set them up right,
there is nothing to damp—it is a long
time before anything arrives where you
are except the direct sound.
Forget if you wish all this technobabble, and just listen: What you hear is
first off an unusually well defined and
expansive (if the material so justifies)
soundstage, which seems independent of
your own listening room. The long time
before any of your own room’s reflections
are heard creates a stunning feeling of
being immersed in the acoustics of the
original venue. This is one of the big
things high end is about, and it works a
treat here.
A second big thing—and for many
people it may be even more important—
is that the SL2 sounds remarkably
smooth and flat. If you look at the manufacturer’s measurements on the Web
site, the curve is so flat that one can
hardly believe that it was not obtained
under some sort of, shall we say, optimistic conditions. But in fact, it is totally legitimate. Just putting up my
Liberty Audio Suite mike in a natural
position, no special tweaking involved,
produced an essentially identically
smooth, flat curve. This speaker is flatter
than a lot of microphones! And this is
more than some anechoic-chamber technical point. The controlled radiation
pattern already discussed produces an
equally smooth and flat listening
impression in-room at actual plausible
equipment report
listening distances. There is no “measures flat anechoically but sounds all over
the map in the real world” effect here, as
there can often be with many floorstanding boxes. (Incidentally, the highfrequency driver has, as I understand it,
a resonance that is notched out electrically by a suitable notch-filter network.
But, contrary to what many audiophiles
believe, the composite will be not only
flat but phase and time correct: minimum phase frequency correction of a
minimum phase resonance yields both
time and frequency response correctness
at one and the same time. Life would
improve in the audio world if people
would take this in once and for all.)
A third general point is worth mentioning before I go on to specific listening experiences: The SL2 is exceptionally transparent sounding. One truly
hears far into the recording in every
sense, without paying the price of excessive peaky, “hi-fi” treble. In fact, no
electrostatic I am aware of is quite as
simultaneously clean, smooth, and uniform in radiation pattern in the treble as
this (most electrostatics get either
beamy or resonantly fuzzy a bit above
the upper mids, although the effect is
usually not unpleasant).
While the SL2 certainly sounds
quite true to timbre on single instruments (more on that in a moment), it is
on larger-scaled material that it really
comes
into
its
own.
“My”
Waterlily/Philadelphia Orchestra recording Nature’s Realm really took me
back to the actual experience of listening
on the spot. The Reference Recording
Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances/Etudes
Tableaux sounded as detailed, spacious,
and beautiful as it should, and the SL2
handled the deep bass with aplomb.
(While the SL2 does not go to truly subterranean depths—you might want a
subwoofer for earthquakes and volcanic
eruptions—it does easily go deep
enough in room to make orchestral
music naturally balanced and convincing in the bottom end.) The
Bach/Sitkovetsky Goldberg Variations
CD (string orchestra arrangement)
sounded beautifully realistic in tonal
terms and gave one the feeling that one
could almost walk among the players in
terms of imaging. Finally, the concert
recordings of the orchestra I play in (St.
Matthews Chamber Orchestra) gave a
remarkable sense of the actual acoustics
of the room we play in (where I have
heard from the audience, as well as
played in, a great many concerts).
One of the things I like to try is to
play along with my own solo recordings
to check how close the reproduced sound
gets to the real thing. Of course, this
requires another listener since the “under
the ear” violin sound is quite different
from the sound at listener distance. One
of my audiophile friends (an astute listener) described the match not only in
tonal character but in image as so close
that the reproduced violin and the real
violin tended to form a unified whole.
This is something that almost never happens. A good tonal match is rare enough,
and in combination with a match in spatial character of the source is rare indeed.
Audiophiles are social creatures, and
it is not easy for a speaker company to
make its way that does not spend money
on going to shows, on advertising, and
in general on making itself “visible” to
the high-end community. It is hard to
get the “buzz” going that seems so
important. But I hope that you will have
the independence of mind to investigate
Soundline. The SL2 really is a remarkable speaker. To my ears it is better integrated than any hybrid electrostatic I am
familiar with, not to mention cleaner
and smoother in the top end. It is less
colored through the upper midband
than any of the Magneplanars I have
auditioned (there is a serious directivity
problem in going from a wide midrange
to a narrow treble ribbon). It “soundstages” superbly well, and if it gives up
a small amount in the department of
total absence of material-related coloration in the midrange to something
like the Harbeth Monitor 40, it offers
other things in return: lower price, less
sensitivity to placement, and greater
reach into the room than most speakers.
(Most box speakers, however excellent,
need to be carefully placed and listened
to quite close up to get their full quality. Line sources have a greater “room
reach.”) There are always nits one can
pick, and, as with every speaker I have
ever encountered, a little tweaking
around with the Z Systems digital
equalizer enabled me to make the
speaker sound even smoother than it is
by nature. But “little” is the operative
word here; the SL2 is remarkable in its
in-room behavior all on its own. The
original version Carver Amazings,
which have dipole line-source bass to go
with the dipole line source, showed that
there would be something to be gained
in that direction, albeit at much higher
cost (four expensive woofers per side)
and vastly less convenient size (the original Amazings are room dominators).
And if you feel that point-source imaging is more natural than line source, the
Gradient Revolutions would be competitive in other respects and offer
equally superb soundstaging of the
point source type.
But let’s be sensible here. These are
comparisons with some of the world’s
best speakers. And people are paying
more than the price of a pair of
Soundlines for little two-way boxes on
stands. For the amount of money
involved, the SL2 is truly stunning. Not
perfect, but what a truly high-end
speaker at a price many people would
pay for cables and power cords. Listen
&
up! You’ll be glad you did.
Driver complement: 10.4" woofer,
planar/magnetic line-source mid/tweeter
Frequency response: 35–20,000 Hz ±3dB
Sensitivity: 86dB
Weight: 86 lbs.
SOUNDLINE AUDIO
2995 Van Buren
Riverside, California 92503
(909) 789-5714
www.soundlineaudio.com
Price: $3495 per pair plus $89 shipping
and handling (in USA)
99
equipment report
Sutherland Ph.D. Battery-Powered Phonostage
Wayne Garcia
ome years ago, Chad Kassem
of Acoustic Sounds sent me
the
Ron
Sutherlanddesigned AcousTech PH-1
for review. It was quiet and
had good detail, terrific dynamics, and
that all-important ability to grab and
pull you into the music. At $1200 it
was a steal. (I’ve not yet heard it, but
the PH-1 was recently upgraded to a
$1500 “Premium Edition.”) Now,
under his own banner, comes
Sutherland’s Ph.D., a $3000 batterypowered phonostage that has forever
changed the way I listen to records, and
is certain to influence how I judge other
phono preamps in the future.
Ron Sutherland isn’t the first guy to
realize that AC line noise is to musical
pleasure what a swarm of bees is to a
picnic. Nor is he the first to build a battery-powered audio component. What
he may be the first to do, however, is
build a battery-powered phonostage
without an AC cord (most batteryequipped designs have an AC power
option and use wall current for recharging) or an on/off switch. Given that a
shopping basket’s worth of D-cells (16
total—8 per side) are used to power the
unit, with an estimated active life of
about a month, I was initially dismayed
S
to calculate that I’d have to open up the
Ph.D. once every thirty or so days to
swap batteries.
But Sutherland has thought up a
clever way of getting around this inconvenience: “I figure if there is a power
switch, for sure it will sometimes be
accidentally left on. Then a dead battery
is a frustration rather than a sonic advantage.” What Sutherland devised is a signal-sensing circuit that automatically
powers the unit on, puts it into standby,
and eventually powers off. But signalsensing circuits create their own sonic
problems by generating digital switching noise. Sutherland found a way
around that, too. Here’s how the Ph.D.
works: You power it up by either tapping the headshell, brushing the stylus,
or lowering the stylus into a record
groove. A pair of green LEDs indicates
“on,” and the monitoring circuit—as
well as any associated loading and
switching noise—is removed from the
signal path. After 30 minutes, the monitor “peeks” at the signal (indicated by a
yellow LED). If a signal is present the
monitor is again removed and the yellow
LED turns off. This cycle repeats every
30 minutes. If no signal is detected, the
Ph.D. stays in standby for another halfhour, and then shuts off. The peek-a-boo
process (i.e., switching noise
time) lasts about one-half second. A pair of red LEDs indicates when the batteries are
spent, and at discount the cost
of battery replacement should
be roughly $16 once a year.
I asked Sutherland about
warm-up and break in. “While
designing the Ph.D., I kept a
very close lookout for needless
power consumption. Consequently, there is very little
power used and, thus, very little
heat generated within the components. There is essentially no temperature rise and no ‘warm-up.’ The design
also has little or no DC voltage across
the signal-carrying capacitors, thus
dielectric-forming is also not an issue.
However, if a listener prefers to power
up (notice I did not say ‘warm up’)
before listening, just tap the headshell or
brush off the stylus. It will then kick
into power on.”
At thirty-seven pounds, the Ph.D. is
heavier than many a linestage or fullfunction preamp, and as is typical of
Sutherland products it is beautifully
built (the brushed aluminum faceplate is
half-an-inch thick). Changing batteries
requires the removal of the four feet, at
which point the chassis’ outer skin slides
off. The batteries run around the outsides of the main circuit board, which,
in addition to the phonostage, also holds
two sets of small adjustable sub-circuit
boards. One is for gain and the other for
cartridge loading (see specs below for
details). To change values you simply
remove a board (they’re attached via
small pins), rotate it to the desired setting, and plug it back in.
My initial listening sessions with
the Ph.D. have been exciting yet hard to
get my mind around. The thing is so
quiet that it took me about a month to
101
equipment report
adjust to the silence, and I remain mesmerized by the way music emerges from
such pristinely uncluttered sonic spaces.
What I’m trying to convey is not the
usual “black background” reviewers
describe, but something more akin to
viewing the night sky from a place far
away from the glare of city lights. Yes,
the “background” of the sky is very
black, and yet it’s not an opaque, velvety
black but one of infinite space, depth,
and purity.
Translating this notion to the
Sutherland while listening to, say, Ivan
Moravec playing Beethoven’s Pathétique
Sonata [Connoisseur Society] is to realize
to what extent noise can diminish our
sense of a musician’s artistry. The individual notes of the piano ring truer, with
much greater precision and a sense of the
physicality behind the attack, be it powerful or delicate. Chords have a wealth of
colors and harmonic textures normally
clouded by grain and fine strands of
electronic noise. Arpeggios gallop forward with a newfound verve. Dynamic
expression is clearer and more varied.
And with a poet like Moravec—the
beauty of his “voice,” the cadence of his
line, the precision of his thought—the
reward is high.
And with a different kind of poet,
Bob Dylan, the interplay of his acoustic
guitar with his expressive, highly mannered phrasing on a song such as “Visions
of Johanna” [Live 1966; Classic Records],
brings new levels of subtlety, brilliance,
and meaning to his surrealist imagery.
And because all this “stuff” isn’t
“clinging” to musical notes, like a sticky
spider’s web, it’s impossible not to be
riveted by what unfolds before us. The
result is very much like that we experience at a great live musical event, where
we sometimes realize that we’ve stopped
breathing for several seconds, or that the
pace of our breathing has slowed down
as a physical and emotional reaction to
the performance.
(Add to the Sutherland’s batterypowered silence a complete lack of any
hum or susceptibility to radio frequencies—and I live in a high-RF location.)
Although I’m not usually a freak for
soundstaging, there’s something about
the Ph.D.’s silence that has redefined the
term for me. Returning to that notion of
a pure, starlit sky, and using Analogue
Productions’s 45-rpm pressing of John
Coltrane’s Soultrane, I was startled by
how “uncompressed,” for lack of a better
word, the acoustic space of this record is.
Through the Sutherland it sounds deep
and expansive. There’s a remarkable
sense of the instruments occupying the
recorded space, and that the space
encompassing them does so in 360
degrees. Moreover, instruments like
piano and especially Paul Chambers’
acoustic bass project sound from all surfaces, not simply from the front.
Tonally, the Ph.D. hits me as close to
ideal. It has none of the dryness, false hifi “detail,” or cool detachment that
plagues some solid-state designs, nor is it
just as falsely—though more pleasantly—romantic like certain tube designs.
On “Good Morning Heartache,” from
Ella Fitzgerald’s Clap Hands, Here Comes
Charlie! [Verve], the triangle is clear,
metallic, shimmering, yet delicate, and
Ella’s voice is particularly creamy and lilting, with each turn of phrase gorgeously
articulated. The bottom end of the bass
guitar tones on the White Stripes’
“Seven Nation Army” [Elephant; Third
Man] was appropriately fat and fuzztoned, and the kick drum carried much
of the visceral power heard (and felt)
with the real thing.
Dynamics too, seem to be wonderfully realized, on both the micro
and macro levels. Although batterydriven preamps and amps sometimes
seem to suffer dynamically, this seems
to be an ideal way to amplify very
low-level phono signals.
Much as I’m crazy about the Ph.D., a
brief follow-up will most likely be called
for. For one thing I know that, good as it
is, my Rega P25 turntable is a limiting
factor here. A new rig will soon be
assembled using the latest Tri-Planar
VII. Also, at least one other highly
praised phonostage is on the way for
comparison’s sake. In the meantime, the
Sutherland Ph.D. strikes me as a significant achievement, and one that’s brought
&
me to a new state of vinyl nirvana.
Gain: (Selectable) 45dB, 50dB, 55dB, 60dB
Cartridge loading: (Selectable) 100 ohms,
200 ohms, 1 kOhm, 47 kOhms
Weight: 37 lbs.
Rega P25 turntable; Cardas Myrtle Heart
cartridge; Balanced Audio Technology VK300X integrated amplifier; Primare SP31.7
A/V controller and BAT VK-6200 multichannel amplifier; Sonus Faber Cremona speakers; Cardas Neutral Reference speaker
cables, Cardas Golden Reference interconnects; Finite Elemente “Spider” equipment
rack; ASC Tube Traps; Richard Gray’s Power
Company 400S and 600S; Essential Sound
Products Power Conditioner/Strip
ACOUSTIC SOUNDS
P. O. Box 1905
Salina, Kansas 67402
(785) 825-8609
Price: $3000
103
equipment report
Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista CD/SACD Player
Shane Buettner
t the end of 2002 there was
considerable buzz about the
Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista
CD/SACD player—and not
just because the limited edition Tri-Vista series signaled that
Musical Fidelity had embarked on a
more ambitious course for this particular
line of products. In spite of SACD’s
steady gain of momentum in the audiophile community, just a handful of highend manufacturers had built players.
Some blamed this paucity on the “format war” with DVD-A; some said the
lack of an open standard for a digital
interface was the culprit, while others
speculated that exorbitant licensing fees
were keeping most high-end companies
out, and causing those that did make
players to charge a kidney. Enter Antony
Michaelson.
The Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista is a
limited-edition product that costs
$6500. In addition to SACD playback,
this single-box player incorporates
“upsampling” on CD playback and a
choke-regulated power supply, techniques used in some of Musical Fidelity’s
A
104
previous digital playback gear. The TriVista also features vacuum tubes in its
analog output stage. While the upperend Sony players have been consistently
good to excellent SACD players, they are
all thoroughly mediocre as CD players.
A single-box player with reference-quality playback of both CD and SACD for
$6500 would be a hell of a feat for
Musical Fidelity—or anyone else.
Whatever else the Tri-Vista might
be, dainty she ain’t. Her sleek, silveryfinish box weighs 51 pounds, which had
me wondering if the thing was stacked
inside with bricks.
Although this player isn’t a video
product, Michaelson and Co. couldn’t
resist some theatrics. The Tri-Vista series
products sport the ballyhoo touch of
glowing feet that cycle from red to
amber as the product is powered up. The
cycle finishes with the feet glowing a
glacial blue to indicate all circuits are go.
Worth noting on the back panel are
the two single-ended (RCA) analog outputs for the left and right channels.
That’s right, no multichannel SACD.
Dark Side of the Moon notwithstanding,
the promise of multichannel has thus far
remained much greater than the sum of
its ridiculous mixes and horrendous
choices of program material (see DVD-A
with 5.1-channel re-mix of Deep
Purple’s Machine Head among others).
Multichannel’s promise for greater realism and musical expression intrigued
me for a time, but I’ve given up on it, at
least for now. The precious few tasteful
surround mixes I’ve heard simply add
too little to the stereo experience to justify the additional expense audiophiles
would have to incur in high-quality
amplification, speakers, and cabling.
Even for a guy like me, who has a surround/home-theater system built around
his two-channel rig, there aren’t (as of
now) any reference-quality multichannel
linestages. That means your surround
processor is your preamp. And no matter
how good that surround processor is, it
isn’t going sound like a BAT VK-51SE
or an Audio Research Ref II Mk2. Also
consider how much more a player like
the Tri-Vista would have had to cost to
include three times as many channels at
the same quality level. All this is my
equipment report
(long-winded) way of saying that the
omission of multichannel outputs isn’t
something that bothers me about the
Tri-Vista.
Two sets of digital audio inputs and
outputs are also on the back panel, each
with TosLink optical and coaxial connections. These allow you to connect an
outboard DAC to the Tri-Vista, or to
turn the Tri-Vista into an outboard
DAC. One thing I noticed, though, was
that although the Tri-Vista’s Philipsbased transport mechanism will recognize and play DVD-Video standard
audio discs (like the 24-bit/96kHz
DADs from Classic and Chesky), the
digital output is down-rez’d from 24/96
to 16/48.
Opening up the Tri-Vista, you’re not
going to feel cheated for your $6500.
The analog output stage uses four of the
little 5703 triode tubes that everyone
except Musical Fidelity is dubbing the
“Tri-Vistor.” Sourced from the
Cumberland Air Force, the 5703 is lauded by Michaelson for low noise and long
life, but of course, no manufacturer is
going to say it chose a particular tube for
high noise, low bandwidth, and short
life. In any case, Musical Fidelity
includes one full set of spare 5703s with
every Tri-Vista. Nice insurance policy!
Defining terms in the digital world
is slippery. Virtually all CD players
today oversample 16/44 PCM to higher
sample rates. So what’s upsampling? In
most of the designs I’ve seen, what this
means is that an additional oversampling filter is cascaded with another
oversampling filter in front of or in the
DAC. It’s important to note that
although this technique can improve
perceived sound quality, the sample rate
is increased by interpolation—the real
resolution of the signal is not increased.
In the case of the Tri-Vista, a Cirrus
Logic CS8420 “sample rate converter”
chip “upsamples” (oversamples) 16/44
signals to 192kHz. According to
Musical Fidelity, the signal is then oversampled again with the 8x filter in the
Burr-Brown PCM-1738 DACs that are
used to convert both PCM and DSD to
analog. Two PCM-1738s are the heart of
the Tri-Vista’s digital front end, with
one DAC used for CD playback and the
other for DSD. Although the PCM1738 is obviously capable of decoding
both formats, separate signal paths and
power supplies are provided for each,
since DSD signals obviously don’t need
to be upsampled.
Even with the feet glowing blue the
Tri-Vista sounds as soggy as yesterday’s
corn flakes when it’s new, out of the box.
It takes more than a week of continuous
105
equipment report
music playing for it to reach its full performance capability. Also for the needto-know file, I found that, unless the
player is left powered up continuously, it
exhibits a hardness in the upper
midrange, a condition that all but disappears when it’s left on. Now, let’s get to
the fun stuff.
The Tri-Vista is quite simply a wonderful player that communicates music.
As I’ll explain, it does have some character of its own, but is nevertheless a pure
joy to listen to and not so far from neutral that you can’t hear what’s on the
recordings, with enough romance to
draw you in and enough veracity to keep
you enthralled.
Starting at the top, the Tri-Vista’s
presentation with SACD is full-bodied
and rich, with rock-solid imaging.
Groove Note’s SACD mastering of Ray
Brown Trio’s Soular Energy brings out
the Tri-Vista’s sonic signature: It is just
a bit heavier and warmer with the lowest bass notes, and the piano takes on
some extra sheen; but both instruments
are so defined and so there in space, with
an envelope of air around them and a
holographic density that’s astonishing,
that the music has real presence. And
yet small details like Brown’s hands
slapping up and down the bass and sliding on the strings are clearly apparent.
The Tri-Vista is no less deft with vocals.
On Alison Krauss’ Forget About It
[Rounder], Krauss’ voice is pure and
ethereal with lots of breathiness and
great focus. With a more densely layered and dynamic production like
Beck’s Sea Change [Interscope], the TriVista is able to combine delicate musical shading, texture, and resolution,
with nothing lost in the mix. On “End
of the Day,” when the kick and snare
drums energize the room, you can practically see the little beans in the shakers.
The focus and density of images remain
consistent no matter how complex or
dynamic the material.
With CDs the Tri-Vista is perhaps
even more impressive. The only CD
player I’ve heard that matches, and perhaps exceeds, the Tri-Vista’s combination of easy-on-the-ears, non-mechanical
106
sound and high resolution is Wadia’s
861. And that player costs $2000 more
than the Tri-Vista and doesn’t play
SACDs. Among CD’s shortcomings is
its bottled-up, mechanical sound that’s
just not as involving as good vinyl playback or SACD. So many CD players,
even excellent ones, walk a tightrope
between offering the utmost resolution
and revealing too much of the CD’s
faults. Ayre’s phenomenal D-1x is an
example of a player that’s simply so good
and so highly resolved that sometimes
you hear more than you want to. The
Tri-Vista does not offer that level of outright transparency, although it’s certainly no slouch in this area, but with the
upsampling and tubes has its own
charms. In addition to maintaining the
same midrange allure mentioned above,
the Tri-Vista played CDs with a tightly
woven, highly integrated sound that
simply sounds less like CD than I’m
used to hearing. Strikingly, the Tri-Vista
made even my poor recordings sound
more relaxed, open, and involving.
Some have referred to upsampling as
the “magic bullet” that turns an entire
CD collection into something as good as
SACD. Switching between the layers of
any well-mastered hybrid CD/SACD
disc on this player makes it clear that
there ain’t a magic bullet powerful
enough to close that gap. But the TriVista is certainly the kind of player that
can and does improve your whole CD
collection, and will have you dragging
discs out one by one into the wee hours
of the morning.
Now let me put the Tri-Vista’s performance in perspective a bit. I lived
with a Sony SCD-XA777ES for several
months. As surprising as this is, the
Tri-Vista doesn’t separate itself from
that player by a wide margin with
SACD. The Tri-Vista has that tube
magic in the midrange, a bit more
sparkle on top, and a bit more resolution overall, but it doesn’t trounce the
XA777ES with SACD. Where the TriVista runs away is in its performance as
a CD player, where it’s just hands-down
superior in every way. And it’s got
glowing feet, for chrissake.
During the review period I happened to have a stack of CD/SACD playback gear from dCS for direct comparison. The Verdi transport and Delius
DAC carry a retail price of just under
$18,995, and they do sound better. The
dCS combo offers more transparency and
layering from the front of the soundstage to the back, and also pushes
images farther out to the sides, beyond
the speakers. The dCS gear is also free of
the bass bump and slight upper
midrange sheen of the Musical Fidelity.
But these are trifles that will be heard
clearly in only the most revealing systems. The Tri-Vista is not embarrassed
by this comparison, in spite of the nearly 3:1 price difference. In fact, with
CDs, although the dCS is more resolved
and transparent, the Tri-Vista is more
fleshy and natural, making the dCS
sound a bit sterile in comparison.
When I think about what it is that
captivates me about the Tri-Vista I find
myself reaching for the same adjectives I
use when telling people why I prefer
tube preamps to solid-state. There’s a
sense of vividness and life in the
midrange of the music that’s completely
un-hi-fi-like and more engaging to listen to. The Tri-Vista communicates
music to me in a way that few components I’ve used can match—especially
digital ones. I just melt into the music.
The Tri-Vista is far and away the best
CD/SACD player I’ve heard this side of
dCS’s nearly $20k stack. It would be a
no-brainer as a CD player at its price;
that you can’t get a better SACD player
without spending a lot more is gravy. &
Outputs: Two single-ended on RCA jacks
Dimensions: 18.9" x 6.5" x 15"
Weight: 51.5 lbs.
KEVRO INTERNATIONAL
902 McKay Rd., Suite 4
Pickering, Ontario L1W 3X8 Canada
(908) 428 2800
Price: $6500
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Linn’s Marvelous Musik Machine:
The Kivor Digital-Audio Server
Nicholas Bedworth
any years ago, my
parents were given
a beautifully lacquered,
burled
maple box, inside of
which was a gleaming Thorens
music mechanism. After being
wound up with a little key, it played
a number of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century melodies from Mittel
Europa, both popular and classical.
This contraption—an object of fascination and delight to the child I was
then—could as easily have been
built in 1850 or even 1750. What I
remember most was the rich sound
emanating from the maple box, and
how strongly it made the cabinet on
which it sat resonate.
Despite the archaic nature of this
mechanical music box, it embodies
the fundamental principles of the
music recording and playback systems of today. The tunes were encoded via a stubby forest of little
metal pins on a small, horizontal cylinder. As this cylinder rotated, one or more of the pins would strike some of the perhaps 60
comb-like tines of a polished metal plate. After each song, the
cylinder would shift a tiny amount along its axis, and a new tune
would play. The Thorens mechanism stored music in a binary,
digital, form, so that it could be readily duplicated by an assembly worker having no prior knowledge or experience of the original composition. The lateral position of each pin encoded the
pitch of the note, while the circumferential placement determined
its timing. The person who manually programmed several minutes of music in this way could only have been Swiss.
M
Fast-forwarding 40-odd years to the present, Federal Express
recently showed up at the door of my plantation-style bungalow bearing several large boxes on a skid. The arrival of Linn
Products’ twenty-first-century flagship Kivor digital audio
server components had been eagerly anticipated. A few days
later, the ever-amiable Brian Morris of Linn “dropped in” (from
Glasgow) to help me set them up and explain the fine points of
the system’s operation.
The Linn Kivor digital audio server comprises three main
parts: a Tunboks hard-disk digital music archive, an Oktal
multichannel digital-to-analog converter, and within the
Tunboks, a Linn PCI Musik Machine card that controls the
With the base configuration of the Kivor capable of storing 250
uncompressed CDs on 152 gigabytes of hard disk, it’s not hard to see
why “music-rendering” devices are a solution with a bright future.
111
flow of bits to and from the drives. Taken together, the
Tunboks, PCI Musik Machine, and Oktal make up a (very)
high-end digital audio server. In exchange for $16,000 to
$20,000, one can simultaneously distribute eight fully independent stereo channels of wonderful, natural music throughout your (presumably rather extensive) house, boat, or airplane.
On its pair of hard drives (expandable to a total of eleven), the
Tunboks can store, at a minimum, some two-hundred-and-fifty
hours of music, at full, uncompressed CD resolution. The Oktal
takes the resulting digital data streams and converts them to
line-level audio for play back by a complement of stereo or
multichannel amplifiers.
Shining Monolithic Design,
With A Few Little Lights
Like almost all Linn products, the external appearance of
the Kivor components expresses a road seldom taken by industrial designers. Perhaps this is to be expected by a race that
speaks with its teeth clenched together. Linn’s minimalist ethic
is sharply defined, provocative, yet warm and elegant. The mas-
112
sive Tunboks chassis sports a gorgeous, almost liquid, silvery
front plate with a deep clear-coated finish, baked on at the Linn
premises. At the center of a chassis-spanning horizontal groove,
there is a narrow slot, through which one feeds CDs into the
Tunboks. Below this, a semi-oval indentation conceals a
recessed electric blue light (a rather fashionable color these
days) that spreads a fan of enticing illumination. Similarly
styled, but much shorter, the Oktal chassis came in the alternative, deep black finish. By comparison, this surface is rather
dull looking, similar to that of other high-end products. My
vote is clearly for the silver.
The Tunboks has no front-panel controls, not even a power
switch. The Oktal has a few indicator lights (the most important of which goes on whenever an HDCD-encoded track is
playing), and, like the Tunboks, lacks front-panel controls.
Linn points out that these components are intended for the custom-install market, where multiple remote-control touchscreens are expected. For operating the system, we used a Dell
Latitude c800 laptop running the rudimentary Windows program that Linn provides. Ripping CDs is mindlessly simple,
with the Tunboks copying the data from plastic to hard drive
at 4x to 5x real-time. Given that once the tracks are copied
they’re going to stay in the Tunboks for a very long time, it’s
worth a bit of extra effort to give each CD a decent cleaning
before transferring it. (Music Advancement Company’s disc
cleaner spritzer makes a significant sonic difference, because,
according to the vendor, it removes the residual mold-release
crud left over from the manufacturing process.)
Sonically, these components are a marvel. I’d start off by
saying they boast high-end credentials, while at the same time
offering the flexibility of multizone distribution and softwaredriven remote control. Because they lack obvious colorations or
defects, describing how they do sound is rather problematic.
The most enduring impression of the Oktal and Tunboks is
their naturalness. There’s nothing to irritate or draw one’s
attention away from the music. They are exceedingly pleasant,
without being euphonic. Frequency response goes down to
extreme lows, way below 20Hz, while the midrange is transparent and open, and the highs extended. In terms of soundstaging and imaging, the representation of the character of the
venue, and of individual sound sources within it, is exemplary.
Certainly the level of resolution and freedom from digital
grunge far exceed that of a good mid-price-range stand-alone
CD player such as the Rega Jupiter. Because the data are sim-
ply being spooled back from a hard drive, it’s not surprising
that jitter and related artifacts would be greatly reduced. I
found that, as usual, replacing the power cords with higherquality ones yields sonic benefits. In the case of the Oktal, the
best power cord I found for it is the Tara Labs RSC Air AC. The
RSC significantly increased the amount of detail; it was almost
as if you could see the pieces of tape on the recording room floor
showing the talent where to stand. All kinds of subtle ambient
spatial cues emerged, with voices sounding that much more
human. In short, the Kivor, together with the recommended
cabling, has a non-electronic sound to it. It simply sounds
right, which is a rare quality.
What’s Next?
The few weeks I spent with the Kivor demonstrated how
one can have performance and convenience in the same package. A lower-cost Linn digital audio server, the Linn Index, is
now on the market, but for large-scale systems, the Kivor is an
elegant solution that stakes out the high-end of the digital
audio server space.
113
While the direction that the digital
media world is heading in isn’t fully
clear, the speed of transformation is obviously accelerating. Computer technology
tends to bring about enormous changes
whenever it’s injected into new application areas. While all this is fun to watch,
it’s a constant scramble to keep up.
Despite its ancient attributes, the
Thorens music box provides a useful
point of reference. It’s deeply satisfying
in its own way, and doesn’t even use
electricity. It will still play beautiful
music in 100 years—no user’s manual
required.
&
Linn Kivor Tunboks Hard Disk Music Archive
Two hard disk drives, 76 gigabytes each
Control connectors: Two RS232 ports, one
RJ45 Ethernet, one RJ11 modem
Weight: 26 lbs.
Linn Kivor PCI Musik Machine (mounted
inside the Tunboks)
Digital inputs: AES/EBU interface on RJ12
Hits & Misses
connector: one stereo channel, one RJ11
socket
y friends who tried out the
Kivor immediately preferred it
to operating a conventional
CD player. There’s something
quite compelling about simply picking an album from a list, compared
with rummaging around for the right CD,
placing it in the tray, locating the remote control, and so on. Even Linn’s rudimentary laptop user interface got the point across. With
the base configuration of the Kivor capable
of storing 250 uncompressed CDs on 152
gigabytes of hard disk, it’s not hard to see
why “music-rendering” devices are a solution with a bright future.
Like most digital audio servers and jukeboxes, from Windows XP desktops with
Windows Media Player on up, the Kivor
Tunboks automatically gathers album indexing details (or “metadata”) by querying an
Internet-accessible database (in this case,
Gracenote’s CDDB). This approach is great,
except when the metadata aren’t right, or
there are no data for your favorite album. In
either case, you’ll have to enter or correct the
data manually—a reasonably tedious task.
Not all the hardware capabilities of the
Kivor are supported or accessible by software. This is typical for a hardware-dominated engineering company: Nobody really
wants to deal with the human issues at the
end-user level. Anyway, real men write device
drivers. While the Tunboks and Oktal can
handle 96kHz samples at 24 bits, there’s no
obvious way to transfer such files from a digital audio workstation or PC to the Kivor. This
would be a natural application of the Kivor,
but if you need this capability, check with
Linn first. There’s no upsampling, either, so
the 44/16 data ripped from CDs is what
comes back out.
Although Linux is a reasonable choice
as an embedded operating system, until
Linn ports the Windows audio codecs, it’s
M
not possible to use the bit-perfect, Windows
Media Pro lossless codec. Compressing
audio files with this technology doubles the
capacity of the system. Related codecs
would let the Kivor store multichannel
music, which it doesn’t do at present.
The Kivor does, however, support various MP3 bit rates. Unfortunately, while the
many virtues of the Tunboks and Oktal still
manage to shine through, so to speak, the
truly dreadful qualities of MP3—a hangover
from the days of dial-up Internet access and
small disks—cannot be disguised. This
codec is lossy, providing 5:1 compression
along with various “psychoacoustic adjustments” that supposedly make up for the
loss of information. They don’t and can’t.
Apart from the distortion of timbres, edginess, and so forth, perhaps the most disturbing MP3 artifact is a weird, spatial shimmering of the soundstage: It’s as if the
sound sources are moving around and splattering. In any event, it’s no fault of Linn’s, but
ignore the MP3 encoding option.
Linn doesn’t supply a conventional
remote for this product. Keep in mind that
the Kivor’s primary application is multizone,
multiroom musical enjoyment. Imagine the
“digital home” of a few years hence, in
which there are “user interfaces” at convenient locations around the house.
Because the Kivor is, at its core, a microprocessor-based computer system (in this
case, an AMD Duron processor running
Linux), there’s no need for mechanical
switches. Linn was one of the first companies to adopt the XiVA protocol, which is a
cross-vendor, standardized way of communicating and controlling consumer electronics
devices. Crestron and AMX touchscreens,
for example, provide a colorful, graphical
“control point” that can be used to manage
the Kivor, and just about anything else in
your household that runs on electricity. NB
Digital outputs: AES/EBU interface on RJ12
connector: eight stereo channels using
four connectors
Linn Kivor Oktal Digital-to-Analog converter
Analog inputs: One single-ended RCA stereo pair
Analog outputs: Eight single-ended RCA
stereo pairs
Digital inputs: AES/EBU interface on RJ12
connector: eight stereo channels using
four connectors; one S/PDIF
on RCA connector
Digital outputs: AES/EBU interface on RJ12
connector: one stereo channel; one
S/PDIF on RCA connector
Dimensions: 19" x 3.5" x 14"
Weight: 11 lbs.
Rega Jupiter CD player; Onkyo TS-DX989
receiver (level 2 upgrade); Paradigm
Reference Series Studio/100 speakers and
Reference Series Servo-15 subwoofers with
X-30 external crossover; Purist Audio Design
system conditioning audio CD; Audioquest
Amazon interconnect, Kilimanjaro double biwire speaker cable, Coral subwoofer cable,
and Python preamp jumper cable; Music
Advancement Company Delta power cord and
“Compact Disk Magic” CD cleaner; Richard
Gray’s Power Company RGPC 1200S;
Sencore SP 295 Audio analyzer; Tara Labs
RSC Air AC power cord; Wireworld Silver
Electra III+ power cord
LINN PRODUCTS INC.
8787 Perimeter Park Boulevard
Jacksonville, Florida 32216
(904) 645-5242
www.linninc.com
Price: $16,000 to $20,000, installed
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Boulder’s 2008 Phono Preamplifier,
1012 DAC/Preamplifier, and 1060 Power Amplifier
Paul Seydor
hen Wayne Garcia first proposed that I review
Boulder’s new $29,000 phono preamp—that’s
right, phonostage only—I thought, “Why
not?” But in fact I had a sizeable chip on my
shoulder. I’ve heard many of the so-called best
of the ultra-expensive electronics in systems I know well, including my own, and never found them worth the money. Oftener
than not they’re no better sounding than moderately priced
units, sometimes not as good, on occasion not even as well made.
When they do sound better, the margin of superiority is frequently so tiny as to render the price differences ridiculous.
Bruce Van Allen, Boulder’s public relations and field rep,
requested that I also review the 1012 preamp/DAC ($16,000)
and the 1060 stereo power-amp ($19,000). He felt that only
in a complete Boulder setup would the designs reveal their full
superiority.1 I’ll not leave you in suspense. We proceeded to
comparative listening—Van Allen and my colleague Neil
Gader joining me—the first thing spinning on the SME
Model 20 Analogue Productions’ LP of Sonny Rollins’s Way
Out West. My current reference is superb—Phonomena phono
stage, Placette linestage, Carver A-720x power amp (this
James Croft design one of the rare amps ever made that is
actually flat into any speaker’s impedance curve)—utterly neu-
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tral, dynamic, and detailed. Then we
switched over to the Boulders.
Because we were at my place, Neil
held his tongue, Van Allen likewise. The expression on my face—
mouth agape, jaw properly dropping—was more eloquent than
anything I could say. “Well, Paul,”
said Neil at last, “I wasn’t going to
say anything, but it certainly isn’t
subtle, is it?” No, it wasn’t.
Right off, three things hit us.
First, a transparency and sheer clarity—the speakers my trusty Quad
988s—that I had never heard before. Calling it brilliant, as if lights had illuminated what was previously dim,
suggests the reference system is considerably less superb than it
is and that the Boulders exhibit glare. Neither is the case. As I
am not a photographer, I can’t use Harry Pearson’s photographic analogies, though I suspect they are close to what I’m
trying to get at: a vividness in the rendition of Rollins’ saxophone, present seemingly without veils.
Second was the dynamics. Mind you, this is not all that
dynamically wide a recording, but the music emerged with an
ease and freedom seemingly without dynamic limitations. The
wooden blocks (or whatever) that set the initial tone and tempo
came across with an immediacy that left us in disbelief. Once
the cymbals and bass kicked in, the ensemble became tactile.
Not necessarily realistic, for this is after all early stereo: Rollins
left, his percussionist and bassist right, nothing much between.
That’s how the Boulder rendered them.
1This is true, but a single Boulder component will still make its presence obvious in any good or better system.
119
Third, there were a grip and control as difficult to define as
they were confidence-inspiring to hear. Words like “rhythm” or
“timing” applied to electronic equipment make little sense to
me, but that elusive ability of a component to keep the presentation whole, integral, unfettered, unfrayed and unfrazzled
under the most grueling of real-world dynamic conditions is
what really separates a good to excellent system from a truly
outstanding one. This the Boulder units accomplish to the
highest, rarest degree.
Among other things, this translates into bass response
stunning in its extension, articulation, and clarity. It’s common
knowledge Quads need a subwoofer for the deepest bass, but
these electronics made me feel the need for one less than ever
before. Put on Ray Brown’s Soular Energy—in Pure
Audiophile’s magnificent new vinyl pressing or GrooveNotes’s
fabulous SACD reissue—and I doubt you’d even miss a subwoofer, so full, rich, and strong is the double bass, while Gene
Harris’s piano floats above, around, and through it.
On full-scale symphonic material, like the glorious vinyl of
Bernstein’s Carmen [DG], the impression of being in a theater
is breathtaking. Placement of the brass instruments as they
sound and resound is such that you can practically diagram
them on their tiers, while bells and cymbals dazzle with crystalline clarity. The whole vast panorama of orchestra, soloists,
and multiple choruses was reproduced with such transparency
of texture, truth of tone and timbre, and size and depth of
soundstage that visualization became not just easy but almost
second-nature.
Tube fans may find the Boulders dry, because they completely lack the bogus bloom of tubes—an effect I blissfully succumb
to, though it’s still an overlay, however lovely. The Boulders, by
contrast, reproduce every recorded ambience uniquely. A somewhat distant, beautifully atmospheric recording like Cincinnati’s
new Stravinsky program [Telarc SACD] blooms as ripe and juicy
as you please, while the multi-miked Levine Don Quixote [DG]
sounds both luscious and ravishingly intimate.
The Boulders make an unprecedented amount of detail
available. Please note my word choice: available. They don’t
shove detail at you or flood arclights everywhere by hyping the
upper midrange and lower highs. At first, the control and
detail are so extraordinary you might think the sound analytical. But once you get used to it—the review units were already
broken in, so I can’t address break-in issues—it feels utterly
natural: there for you to notice if you like yet never detracting
from the gestalt. Nor do they give you a false mellowness and depth by building a Gundry Dip into
the response. Which means that closely miked
vocalists are rendered with the full intimacy that is
in the recording (on Muddy Waters: Folk Singer
[MCA Chess, SACD or vinyl], the added reverb is
instantly, nakedly audible).
So far I’ve discussed sonics as if these Boulder units
were more or less interchangeable, because that is how they
sound. But this review has mixed products from the company’s
two lines: the all-out-assault-on-the-state-of-the art 2000
Series, of which the 2008 is the phonostage, and the “lesser”
1000 Series, to which the 1012 and 1060 belong (there is no
separate phono preamp). A complete Series 1000, which
includes the 1012 and 1060 stereo or 1050 mono amps, costs
between $35,000 and $50,000. A complete Series 2000, which
includes 2008, 2010 linestage, 2020 DAC, and 2060 stereo
amp or 2050 mono amps, costs between $135,000 and
$161,000. Inasmuch as I’ve not heard the whole line together,
I have no way of knowing how much better those components
are. But considering that the 1012 and 1060 are obviously,
demonstrably state-of-the-art, how much better could the others be?
I did compare the 2008 with the 1012’s built-in phonostage. Since for many audiophiles (and, alas, far too many
reviewers), super-expensive equipment is sort of what they have
in place of God, I am unsure what I can say without causing
disappointment. Of course, the 1012’s phono section isn’t as
good as the 2008. The former exhibits nearly all the transparency without quite the combination of the latter’s absolute
smoothness and absolute control. But it’s still world-class.
Circuitry, topography, features, and overall design of these
three units are far too complex to do anything but summarize
here. Build, workmanship, and parts quality raise the bar so
high it’s virtually out of sight of most other manufacturers,
even those who market similarly priced equipment. Before he
founded Boulder, Jeff Nelson worked in film sound in
Hollywood, where he met Deane Jensen, who developed a
state-of-the-art gain stage called the 990 circuit. This became
the basis of the 993 module, which lies at the heart of the 2000
Series electronics. The 2008 employs three 993s per channel,
plus an additional gain circuit, called the 995, for low-level MC
signals. A separate chassis houses the independent power-supplies: one for the relays and one each for the left and right channels and for the logic circuitry.
121
The three inputs come with
easily removable “Personality”
cards, one for moving magnets and
two at 100 ohms for moving coils.
Two additional cards are provided
for those who wish to solder in
their own resistors to match any
given MC exactly. There are two
pairs of outputs, and a provision
for connecting a demagnetizer
thereafter available with the push
of a button. All connections are balanced
only (this is true of all Boulder products). The front
panel has buttons for power, mute, demag, input selection, mono
(hooray!), a low-cut filter (5, 10, 20Hz, or Out). Finally, there are
three equalization selections: RIAA and two custom slots for as
many as three optional cards.
Nelson’s philosophy is as anti-minimalist as it gets.
According to Van Allen, “The fewest parts in the signal path can
work well under ideal conditions, but not where you don’t have
control over everything. Jeff’s designs can be taken out into the
world and hooked up into any system, any product, any configuration and they will work, assuming they’re being used for the
function they’re designed to be used for. And they will work for
many decades, a minimum of fifty years.” The principal difference between the 1000 and 2000 Series is not in the circuitry or
the topography, which is mostly identical, but in the execution.
In place of all discrete circuitry and components, the 1000 Series
employs a combination of discrete transistors and microcircuitry. Power supplies are internal (those in the 2000 line external),
their feet less complex in their damping and isolation characteristics. According to Van Allen, 2000 Series components will not
benefit from any after-market power cords or isolation feet or
platforms; they are self-contained, to be used as is.
The 1012 preamplifier is a full-function unit designed to
perform as both a state-of-the-art analog and digital preamplifier. In addition to its phono input (a switch selects 47kOhm
mm or mc, fixed at a sensible 100 ohms), there are three other
analog inputs. There are also three AES/EBU and one TosLink
digital inputs. A substantial part of the 1012’s circuitry is
devoted to an exceptionally sophisticated digital-to-analog converter. Again, there’s not space to detail the circuitry, nor do I
have the technical competence to do so. Suffice it to say that the
1012’s DSP employs a proprietary algorithm, called rather
coyly “upandoversampling,” that sends, in Van Allen’s words,
“the maximum number of bits that the DAC can handle to the
converter. If it’s a regular CD, we bring it up as far as possible
without choking the DAC. The algorithm effectively makes a
16-bit word length 24-bits; then we resample it with another
mathematical algorithm—it’s the same technology that
enhances digital photography—from 44k to 705k per second,
all done as one process. It was the most powerful DSP we could
find at the time of the 1012’s design, and it’s still one of
the fastest and most powerful.”
I can address only the sonic manifestations. With the
Boulder being fed by the transport of Sony’s SCD-XA777ES, I
have heard no finer reproduction of standard digital sources in
my system this side of the Elgar. As with everything else from
Boulder, the paramount impression is of peerless control, clarity, transparency, immaculate separation of line and texture, in
sum, less “stuff” between you and the music. What makes the
Elgar better? The dCS removes virtually any trace of electronics as such. Even with the best sources, the 1012, outstanding
though it is, doesn’t quite achieve that, but then neither has
any other Red Book digital reproduction in my system. My
only other observation is that with some less than good sources
I occasionally found myself wishing that discretion constituted
a greater part of its valor.
The Boulder 1012 is my idea of a near-ideal preamplifier,
its features and ergonomics so intelligently thought out they
should become the textbook for the rest of the industry. The
only reason for that “near” is the absence of a mono switch.
Despite its complexity, the 1012’s operation is so intuitive I
used it for days before consulting the manual. A large illuminated display, with adjustable brightness, lets you read all settings from across the room. A beautifully machined handset
accesses volume, balance, polarity, mute, and source selection.
Balance and volume pots move in 0.5dB steps, the volume pot
having a hundred increments. Until you’ve enjoyed a balance
control like this one, you have no idea the precision of imaging
123
that is possible no matter where you sit. The 1012 allows you
to assign a name to each input, which appears in the display
when you select it, and also to equalize levels among the inputs.
When you switch from digital to analog, the digital electronics are turned off. According to Van Allen, “it’s the high speed
clocks that create the noise, so what is turned off are the clocks,
the DSPs, and the D/A converters. All that stays on is the frontpanel display.”
I feel a bit silly using the word “bargain” in reference to a
single component that costs this much, but in the context of
super-expensive equipment the 1012 really does constitute an
amazing deal. Consider that so-called state-of-the-art
linestages, D/A converters, and phono preamps these days seem
to start at four to five thousand, that few (if any) can boast comparable performance (and virtually none comparable build), and
that this preamplifier combines three true state-of-the-art components into one chassis—suddenly that sixteen grand seems
considerably less outrageous (the dCS Elgar alone is $12,000,
2
Boulder’s own 2020 DAC $34,000).
If I have left little space for the 1060 amplifier, it is because
I don’t have much to say about an amplifier that seems to do its
job perfectly. At 300 watts a channel, class AB, completely dual
mono, with some of the most sophisticated and effective protection circuitry built into any amplifier, it drove every speaker I hooked up to it as if it weren’t there. In my system, it performed far, far better, especially with respect to neutrality and
accurate tonal balance, than a competing amplifier costing
almost twice as much (and to which the adjective “revolutionary” has been ludicrously applied).
These Boulder products are for all practical purposes
beyond criticism in the normal sense of the word. Would I buy
them for myself? The easy answer is that I can’t afford them.
But that’s a feeble dodge to a serious question. When they were
taken away and I hooked up my Quad 99 preamp to the
Carver/Croft amp, I initially missed some of the Boulders’ fantastic detail and superhuman control. But within a day, especially once my old units, turned off for several months, had
warmed up, I was enjoying music with no frustrated longing
for “something better.” Indeed, this setup has a quite wonderful neutrality and musicality that I’d be hard-pressed to give up
for any amount of money.
Perhaps the most honest answer would be to say that, along
with the dCS Elgar, Boulder’s are the first and only stratospherically-priced audio components that I’d be tempted to buy
if I could afford them. But even then, being a music lover first,
an audiophile second, I could think of other, better things to do
with the money, such as—sticking strictly to enjoyment of
music—a concert tour of several of the musical centers of
England and Europe, where my wife and I could hear the
Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics, the Amsterdam
Concertgebouw, the London Symphony, not to mention the
2Those who believe that stand-alone CD players are preferable to transport/DAC separates can rejoice. By the time this reaches print, Boulder will have made the 1012 available sans DAC as the 1010 for $11,000.
great opera houses, all with a transparency, naturalness, dynamic range, width and depth of soundstaging, and freedom from
distortion that are more like the real thing than any reproduction because they are the real thing.
Of course, no audio components could withstand such a
comparison, though these Boulders would certainly come up
much less wanting than almost all others. Even if you can’t
afford them, I urge a serious listen, if only to hear for yourself
what can be done with electronics not just now but more than
likely in the foreseeable future. Nelson designs them, and guarantees their performance, for literally a lifetime of music reproduction. Nothing I heard during the several months I was privileged to use them suggests there is the slightest hint of irony
&
or hyperbole in that statement.
2008 Isolated Phono Preamplifier
Gain: mc: 64 or 54dB; mm: 44 or 34dB
Input impedance: mc: 1000 ohm; mm: 47kOhm
Dimensions: 18" x 5.25" x 15.5" (main and power supply each)
Weight: N/A
Boulder 1012 DAC Preamplifier
Inputs: Three balanced line level, one phono
Outputs: Two balanced main, one balanced record
Features: Sampling rates: 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96kHz (AES/EBU)
Upandoversampling: 32, 44.1, 48kHz; 16X, 88.2, 96kHz
DSP Speed: 1GFLOP, 167MHz clock
Dimensions: 10" x 5.75" x 15.75"
Weight: N/A
1060 Stereo Power Amplifier
Power output: 300W per channel into 8, 4, or 2 ohms
Dimensions: 18" x 9.5" x 22.5"
Weight: 140 lbs.
SME Model 20/IVvi; Dynavector Karat, Sumiko Blue Bird, and Ortofon
cartridges; Phonomena phono stage; Quad 99 and Placette Audio preamps; Quad 909, Sunfire Signature and Architect’s Choice, and
Carver/Croft amps; Sony STD777ES and Quad 99-CDP CD players;
Quad 988, Sonus Faber Amati, and Spendor S3/5 and S3/5SE speakers; Audio Physic Minos and REL Studio 3 subwoofers; Kimber,
Hovland, and Nordost cables and interconnects
M A N U FA C T U E R I N F O R M AT I O N
BOULDER AMPLIFIERS
3235 Prairie Avenue
Boulder, Colorado 80301
(303) 449-8220
www.boulderamp.com
Prices: 2008 Isolated Phono Preamplifier: $29,000; 1012 DAC
Preamplifier: $16,000; 1060 Stereo Power
Amplifier: $19,000
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Surround Sound in Action: The Recordings
A Cross Section of Some Hits (and Misses)
fter listening to the recordings evaluated here, and
many that aren’t, I’ve come to the conclusion that
the art of engineering multichannel sound remains
yet in its infancy. And I don’t believe that many of
the record companies are doing us any favor in failing to describe the surround techniques you’re going to
encounter on their discs.
For one thing, with the exception of Telarc’s SACD
issues, Channel Classics’s work, and some of the most recent
multichannel recordings from the Big Boys, many so-called
“surround” issues are simply remixes of eight (or more) track
masters. That is, they were not specifically conceived to make
the most of the surround experience. That some of them
do—I am thinking here of Columbia’s Bernstein reissues, the
Sam Cooke disc, and the Chailly Messiaen Turangalila—is a
tribute to the intelligence of the remix producers and engineers. Still, you never really will know, necessarily, how some
of these discs are meant to be heard. Unless there is good
cause for it, I don’t see the point in remixing just to put
instruments or voices in the rear speakers (as Decca has done
on its complete La Bohème or DG on its reissue of Bernstein’s
complete West Side Story).
We also have the tantalizing prospect of hearing some of the
last century’s Golden Age recordings in their three-channel
originals, vide, the review of Antill’s Corroboree on Everest. And
I regret that certain three-channel originals, i.e., Columbia’s
Bernstein series, couldn’t have been engineered for a straight
transfer of the mastertapes, despite the care and skill with which
these, and four of that company’s old Quad recordings, have
been rejuvenated. Just because we have six channels to play with
doesn’t mean we always have to use them. (I have included the
dates of the Bernstein sessions so you can identify the recording
technology then in use. See the review for specifics.)
There is also a lack of standardization when it comes to the
deployment of the channels and with certain exceptions almost
no recording notes to let you know how to adjust the levels of
the respective channels. Telarc lets you know it uses the socalled subwoofer channel to carry ambient information; Chesky,
on the other hand, with its unique system of encoding, tells you
squat. Ditto for Columbia and most of the others. “They think
it’s too expensive to insert a sheet of notes with the discs,”
according to one well-placed guy in the industry. It seems to
me that this kind of corporate penny-pinching is antithetical to
A
the promotion of a new recording process, and certainly not in
the best interests of the music lover or audiophile.
I thought of giving our readers the settings I used for the
most natural playback of the discs under discussion, but
thought again when I came to the conclusion that no two listeners were likely to have the same spatial distribution of
their speakers or even similar room acoustic characteristics.
All I can say is, for almost all of the recordings I’m reviewing
here, you shouldn’t hear anything from the rear speakers other
than hall ambience.
We have the tantalizingprospect
of hearing some of last century’s
Golden Age recordings in their
three-channel originals....
I had hoped to have the space to update my general
thoughts on surround sound and the equipment available to
hear it at its best. There still is no player on the market that
recording professionals recommend for best DSD sound, save for
a discontinued Philips 1000 (as modified by electronics whiz,
Ed Meitner). Meitner’s quite expensive decoder, the DAC-6, is
beyond the reach of most, but well worth the investment, short
of the day when his technology will find its way into commercial units.
For these reviews, I used the Meitner gear, a Sunfire
Theater Grand III A/V preamp/control center (soon to give
way to sessions with a Meitner control unit), Nordost SPM
Reference, Quattro Fil, and Blue Heaven cabling, and two
Plinius solid-state amplifiers (the SB300 and the Odeon), as
well as three surround speaker setups: an Alón system based
around the new Lotus Elite Signature and LCR models, a
Coincident Speaker Technology system built around its Total
Victory and Total Eclipse Center speakers, and a Magnepan
system based on 3.6s as main speakers, a CC3 center channel,
and a pair of MG-MC1 surrounds. I’m sure you won’t be surprised to learn that the last two of these systems worked best
in Room One in Sea Cliff, with the dipolar back-channel
Maggies giving an incredibly good sense of hall ambience.
133
and a widescreen cross-stage tympani attack in the last seconds
that ends the composition with a most satisfying bang.
My first reaction was to ask Sony’s Colin Cigarran, who
Antill: Corroboree. Villa-Lobos: The Little
supplied me with most of the initial SACD issues (including
Train of the Caipira. Ginastera: Estancia;
this one, of which he was justly proud) whether there were any
Panambi. Sir Eugene Goossens, London
more Everest three-channel issues forthcoming. I was fantasizSymphony Orchestra. Bert Whyte (prod. &
ing about Whyte’s recordings of Khachaturian’s Gayneh, Falla’s
eng.). DSD version: David Baker (prod.);
El Amor Brujo, the spectacular Stravinsky Petrouchka, even
Tracy Martinson (eng.). Everest/Vanguard
Vanguard’s The Weavers at Carnegie Hall. (Vanguard owns the
Classics VSD 512.
rights to the Everest catalog.)
Which set me to thinking. During the late 1950s, almost
his is the recording that has blown the socks off everyeveryone was using a three-track recorder. The thinking then
one for whom I have played it. And interestingly
was that multichannel, when it came, would be a three
enough, it’s a straight transfer from the Everest original
(upfront) speaker affair. The pack was led by Mercury, followed
three-channel tapes, done without alteration of the originals,
by RCA, Everest, Vanguard, and, yes, even Columbia, i.e., the
electronic or otherwise. Which means we have just three
New York crew, people who made up a close-knit community
channels up front, no surround, and no low-frequency effects
of technicians who then shared the now quaint belief that the
(or ambience) channel.
best (classical) sound was the one that most nearly captured the
The Antill and Ginastera pieces were recorded on half-inch
concert experience.
masters by Bert Whyte at Walthamstow Assembly Hall in
Cigarran told me that since the (recent) death of Vanguard’s
London in the late 1950s, the
Seymour Solomon, its catalog
Villa-Lobos on 35mm magnetic
had passed into someone else’s
I have no idea what kind of
film, whose use Everest piocontrol, so we could expect no
neered. And so we find, partic- politics has to be played out, but if immediate
three-channel
ularly in the case of the Antill,
releases. And whether or not
we could get the original Mercury Sony can persuade the current
a recording at least 45 years old
and a sonic hair-raiser so specowners of the RCA and
and RCA three-track recordings
tacular you’d think the tapes
Mercury catalogs to release
were made yesterday. We also
three-channel recordings of
issued with the same skill and
can hear, quite clearly, the diftheir catalogs is an issue yet to
integrity evinced in this Everest
ference between the sound of
be resolved. (There is an online
tape and 35mm. To these ears,
movement afoot to rouse High
issue, think of the joy in Mudville. Enders on behalf of a campaign
the 35mm sound is etched and
forward—not bad, mind you,
to have these old three-tracks
but considerably different from the top-octave response of tape,
transferred, exactly as recorded, to the multichannel medium.)
which I prefer, and so will you when you grab up this disc.
I have no idea what kind of politics has to be played out,
The Antill ballet has long been around, and on both Super
but if we could get the original Mercury and RCA threeLP and CD lists; but two channels just don’t do its complexitrack recordings issued with the same skill and integrity
ties justice. With a true third and center channel, you get a
evinced in this Everest issue, think of the joy in Mudville.
clarity of delineation within orchestral textures and between its
Think of what such a move would do to further the cause of
sections that lets you hear deeply into the complex scoring. The
multichannel music.
dynamic range is staggering, confirming what those familiar
The originals as they were meant to be heard: Dorati’s
with mastertape sound have always said: that LP and CD are
Firebird, Reiner’s Scheherazade, Munch’s Berlioz, Paray’s Saintbut “lite” imitations of what was recorded. This, as we shall see,
Saëns’ Organ Symphony—the prospects seem almost celestial. Of
has provocative implications.
course, this would put SACD on the map in the high-end comCorroboree, a ballet, is an orchestral interpretation of
munity and, I believe, lead to its universal acceptance as the
Australian aboriginal ceremonies that throws in a few native
premier surround medium. Or just maybe the forces behind
instruments, especially the ultra-low-frequency bull-roarer
DVD-A multichannel will get the drop on the DSD folks.
(inaudible in other transfers, but very much present here if your
(Keep in mind that I have not begun my DVD-A explorations.
system goes down really far), in the wilder moments of the finale
These sessions will be in progress by the time you read this.)
(which is, of course, the house-buster I play for visiting potenAnd so: If only one of the multichannel discs I commend to
tates). There is extensive percussion, which floats, as it does in
your tender mercies could be called indispensable, this one
the concert hall, above and separated from the main ensemble
would be it. A sonic-super—make that supersonic—thriller
forces; a gong crash that will rivet you into undivided attention;
that foretells great things that could yet come to pass.
The Super Surround Discs
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Bernstein in “Surround” Sound
All of these recordings were conducted by Leonard Bernstein and
played by the New York Philharmonic. Most were originally produced
by John McClure, save for The Planets, which was produced by
Richard Killough. The SACD remixes were produced by Louise de la
Fuente and engineered by Richard King. Most were recorded at
Manhattan Center, save for the Copland Billy the Kid, which was
recorded in Boston’s Symphony Hall, the Britten Sea Interludes,
recorded at Columbia’s 30th Street Studio in Manhattan, and the
Holst Planets, recorded in Avery Fisher (né Philharmonic) Hall,
prior to its many sonic modifications.
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4; The Nutcracker Suite. Sony 87982.
The Symphony was recorded in 1973. The Nutcracker in 1960.
Copland: Appalachian Spring. El Sálon México. Billy the Kid.
Rodeo. Sony 987327. Rodeo was recorded in 1960. Billy the Kid
in l959. Appalachian in 1961. El Sálon Mexico in 1961.
Britten: Four Sea Interludes (from the opera Peter Grimes). Holst:
The Planets. Sony 87984. The Holst was recorded in l971. The
Britten in l973.
ever let it be said that Leonard Bernstein’s death before
the second coming of surround sound was a deterrent to
his resurrection in multichannel. The earliest recordings
in this Sony reissue come from three-track masters, and the
last—the Holst and Britten—from eight-track originals. Even
DG has gotten into the act with a recent multi-remix of
Bernstein’s complete West Side Story, the curious hybrid with
the leads sung by opera stars (who sound wrong and much too
old for the characters they play), made curiouser by splaying
voices all round you in the rear.
The thing that took me by surprise about these versions of
the original Columbia LP issues was just how good some of the
original “mastertapes” were, purely in terms of fidelity and
width of frequency and dynamic range. The LPs were cut from
two-track production tape mixdowns that had been juiced up
by the head of the original recording team, John McClure,
whose ear I had thought bordered on the metallic (tin), given
the sound we could then hear. Little did I know (even though I
had my suspicions) that, at the corporation’s insistence, the
commercial releases were eq’d to adhere to Columbia’s house
sound of the time—that is, no extreme bass, sharply boosted
and equalized highs, compression limiting, and so on. Had to
sound “good,” thought the in-house geniuses of the day, on
cheap equipment. But as it turns out, many of McClure’s mastertapes are quite respectable, a few better than that. The fault
lay not necessarily in his ears, m’dears, but in the production
tapes he turned out, at Columbia’s insistence.
What Sony insisted upon, to showcase its new SACD processing, was that these Bernstein’s issues be remixed employing
N
all six channels, instead of, Vanguard-like, just adhering to the
miking of the originals, which, in this case, would have meant
that most of these issues would have been three-channels
upfront like the Vanguard Corroboree. The bigger surprise here
is how skillfully, subtly, and, most importantly, tastefully, producer Louise de la Fuente and her engineer, Richard King, have
managed to “sweeten” the sound to suggest an authentic sixspeaker sonics. The rears and the low-frequency effects channel
are discreetly used to suggest both ambience and sometimes
just a touch more low-frequency bang for the buck, the kind
you get from the best multichannel recordings, even those that
do not use the LFE speaker for added bass. In the case of the
sixth, or so-called “.1” track, the team used orchestral fundamentals below 120Hz (at reduced levels) to enrich the sound,
and it works—because the low bass sounds the way it does in a
good hall. Understand that, in other hands, such reprocessing
could become a joke. As it has with the DG West Side Story.
Columbia, now Sony, has gone through three “periods” of
recording. First, a three-track era from 1957 to the late 1960s;
then in the early 1970s, it was four-track quadraphonic; and
after, and until now, multitracks, starting with eight channels.
In this instance, the Copland and Tchaikovsky come from threechannel originals, the others from either four-channel quadraphonics or the multitracks. On the quad recordings, where there
was no center channel, de la Fuente and King derived a center
by using a bit of left- and right-channel information.
Understand that, these kind words about McClure aside,
few of his recordings of Bernstein are anywhere near the stateof-the-art, but because Bernstein was a creature of intense personal loyalties, he stuck with McClure, despite McClure’s
string of mediocrities. (The only one I can readily think of is his
recording, for DG, of the complete Bizet Carmen.) Many of
these were, after all, recorded in Manhattan Center, a cow barn
of an auditorium (now owned by the Moonies and used for
wrestling spectaculars) that has a quite reverberant tilted-up
character (and is highly susceptible to downtown Manhattan
traffic noises), although what you hear much depends on how
the microphones were placed. In this case, closer is better. The
best sounding of the bunch is the Copland Billy the Kid, recorded in an empty Symphony Hall in Boston, although, truth to
tell, the Britten and the Tchaikovsky aren’t far behind in quality. The Tchaikovsky and Holst recorded in the much-despised
Philharmonic Hall don’t sound half bad. Who knew?
For example, Copland’s El Sálon México is quite impressive,
with its huge bass drum, even if Manhattan Center’s ambient
1 If you do not have the Meitner decoder, the DAC-6 and a Philips deck, all of these recordings will sound far less attractive in the upper frequencies.
137
signature lends a mild boost to the range in which much of the
percussion falls.1 The sound is forward and vivid. And who can
beat Bernstein doing Copland? Nobody, methinks.
Interestingly enough, that bass drum has all but disappeared from the Rodeo reading, which has more distant miking and thus more of the singularly unattractive reverb characteristic of Manhattan Center. That reverb lends an “edge” to
forte sections that will remind you why we never bought
Columbias back when. It was that traffic noise outside the
Center in lower Manhattan that sometimes tempted the engineers to whack off the bottom end of the bass spectrum. On
the right surround speaker system, the Tchaikovsky Fourth
sounds pretty good, and the studio-recorded Britten Sea
Interludes are beauties. I had hoped that Bernstein’s classic
reading of Appalachian Spring would be similarly rejuvenated,
but really, for all of the de la Fuente/King magic, it couldn’t
be rid of its froggy original sonic.
As with so many SACD recordings, a careful adjustment of
the output levels of your speakers can sometimes work near
wonders. With these, you’ll want to run the rear channels down
a bit, and perhaps, depending on your listening room’s acoustic,
take the bass up a decibel or two (in my system, I keep the bass
three to four decibels down from reference level). If things get
a bit too tweety-pie, you can back off a step or two in the center channel.
You’ll want these discs for the Britten, some of the
Copland, and the Tchaikovsky. His Nutcracker and the Fourth
are played to a fare-thee-well by a much less finely tuned
Philharmonic than we have around these days. Surely no
dancers outside of The Matrix could keep up with the tempi of
this Nutcracker. I am not much impressed with the Holst (hated
the Saturn movement and that door-bell-like chime Bernstein
used at the conclusion), though I really like the way Uranus and
Jupiter came off. I’d guess Bernstein recorded this as a sop rendered unto some Columbia commercial edict. But Bernstein is
still Bernstein, and he is “actualized” on these in better sound
than you could have heard on discs during his prime. One thing
seems certain: There will never be better realizations, on disc,
of his artistry in these sessions.
Bach: The Four Great Toccatas and Fugues. E. Power Biggs (organ).
Andrew Kazdin (orig. prod.); Hellmuth Kolbe; Raymond Moore, Ed
Michalski (engs.); SACD: Louise de la Fuente (prod.); Richard King
(eng.). Sony 87983
ere is a wonderfully crazy disc.
Columbia sent its team, back in
l973, at the height of the fourchannel quadriphonic craze, to Freiberg,
Germany, whose cathedral boasts four
separate organ manuals at four places in
the church. All can be played from one
central console. And even though the four organs are not locat-
H
ed in the four corners of the church, Kazdin and his team
recorded them as if they were. (The liner notes will show you
the actual position, and you could replicate those positions if
you care to heave your speakers hither, thither, and yon.)
Biggs, an organ popularizer who had more than one bestselling disc 30 years (or so) ago, has never had much of a reputation in the circles of those devotees of the instrument who
know their stuff. (They called him E. Bower Pigs.) But it can’t
be said he isn’t fun to listen to if you don’t know any better, and
on this disc, there is that—fun.
The cut I used to demonstrate a key point of the surround
experience is the last on the disc, the Fugue from the Toccata,
Adagio and Fugue in C Major [BMV 564]. The point, made to me
by Telarc’s Robert Woods some time ago, was that you really
haven’t heard a pedal point’s pressure wave until you hear it in
surround. Boy, was he ever not kidding. The piece starts out
innocently enough, with the main melody of the fugue up front.
But as it progresses, you can hear the other manuals joining in
around you. A fugue in 4-D. Which makes Bach’s scoring perfectly clear. But just you wait: As we near the final moments,
low and lower pedal points enter the sonic soundstage as the
overall volume of sound increases (with no distortion) until
there are some low-frequency pulses that not only shake the
room, but you and your innards as well. If you are mischievous
and have the money, you can throw in a couple more subwoofers
in the back of the room and really come close to replicating what
we might, half-wittingly, call The Power of the Organ.
Sam Cooke at The Copa. Al Schmitt (orig. prod.); Bernard Keville
(eng.). Recorded live July 7 and 9, l964. Restoration and 5.1
remix by Steve Rosenthal of The Magic Shop; Bob Ludwig (mastering). ABKCO 99702.
he big shock you’ll get from this
recording, particularly if you listen in the dark, is just how
incredibly “real” Sam Cooke’s voice
sounds. This may well be the most lifelike recording of a human voice I’ve
heard—ever! It is so good, it’s almost
scary. If multichannel sound can attain and adhere to this kind of
realism, then it really will become the sonic advance that it must
be to decisively improve on the best two-channel stereo.
The recording was made at Manhattan’s Copa, in those days
the premier nightspot for a rising young artist. (The original
Copa, alas, is long gone. And so is Cooke.) Cooke had failed at
the Copa the first time around, and this time, he came brilliantly prepared, and with a stunning back-up band. RCA’s
Bernard Keville, underrated in his day, was on hand to capture
the sonics during the two concerts from which this disc is
derived. You won’t have a problem telling which session is
which, because on the one, Cooke’s voice sounds frayed and
hoarse (the second night?) and the band somewhat more distantly miked. These are not the cuts that are the killers. It’s the
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ones made when his voice was fresh and his “presence” more
dynamic—for example, his renditions of “When I Fall in Love”
and the knockout punch “Twisting the Night Away” during
which you’d swear you can “feel” his gyrations to the music.
Rosenthal’s genius in this restoration/remix lies in the
canny way he uses the new medium. The back channels,
which I expected to be filled with nightclub noise, aren’t. Just
the right touch of ambience from behind to complete the illusion that you, too, are there.
I received this note from Colin Cigarran of Sony when I
wrote to tell him how impressed I was with the recording,
and it bears repeating: “When we demo-ed it in Chicago for a
listening party with about 250 invited guests (many of whom
are in Sam’s immediate and extended family), I saw something
I never would have ever imagined at a SACD demo; it actually made people get up out of their seats and begin dancing
spontaneously. It was incredible. About 25 people just got up
and rushed near the front speakers and all began twisting to
“Twisting the Night Away” and were having the greatest time.
Needless to say, this enthusiasm made the whole room erupt
This may well be the most realistic recording of a human voice
I’ve heard—ever! It’s so good,
it’s almost scar y.
into one giant dance party. It was just amazing.”
An essential SACD issue for anyone who wants to hear the
potential of the multichannel medium and a surefire demo disc
to convince the skeptical that there may be reason to rejoice.
Who knows? You too may wind up doing the twist, once again.
Higdon: blue cathedral (cq). Barber: Symphony No. 1. Copland:
Appalachian Spring. Theofanidis: Rainbow Body. Robert Spano
(cond), Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Elaine Martone (prod); Jack
Renner (eng). Telarc SACD 60596.
et’s get the sonics out of the way at
the outset. This disc, like many
another SACD issue these days, is
not sonically consistent. For example, on
the Bernstein/Copland SACD issue we
talked about above, there aren’t two cuts
that sound alike. And even though each
of the cuts on this Telarc disc does share the basic features of the
company’s house sound (more so than the Sony issue), there is one
cut, and unfortunately the Barber, that sounds less transparent,
cloudier, and more veiled than the other three. Those constitute
a showcase for good sonics and they have considerable trans-
L
parency and impact, and perhaps they are the best examples of
state-of-the-art surround per se. I did some checking with my
sources in Atlanta to see if Telarc had changed its basic mike
setup during the two sessions (April and September) and learned
that only Jennifer’s Hidgon’s work was recorded separately. The
other three were recorded in a session on April 12 and, according
to sources there, the mikes weren’t moved. Both the Theofanidis
and Copland works are up to Telarc’s standard of excellence—and
both, particularly the Theofanidis, are of demonstration disc
quality. So, pondereth I, what happened?
There was no change in the weather. So it pretty much had
to be a change in the orchestra itself or the orchestration. And
sure enough, the Barber requires more players; and given the (relatively) small size of the stage in the Woodruff hall, those extra
players made the difference between a thick cloudy sound and the
transparent one bestowed on the other two pieces. To wit: the
Copland performing forces: two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, two
clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, two trombones, timpani, percussion, harp, piano, and strings.
Barber performing forces: three flutes, piccolo, two oboes,
English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings.
If the mikes had been moved somewhat further back for the
Barber, who knows what might have been the sonic result?
Why is all this important? Because the use of additional
channels in the recording of sound means you are going to hear,
with ever-increasing precision, into the recording venue itself,
indeed, into the recording process. Things you can get away with
in two-channel stereo will be nakedly exposed with the additional sound sources. As an arresting aside, and from an sonically educated observer on the scene, Telarc producers (Martone and
Bob Woods) use headphones to check the orchestral detail and
they listen to a two-channel mix, one that Telarc’s engineers
(Renner and Michael Bishop) mike separately from the multichannel mix, a wrinkle added to their recording brew about two
years ago. Telarc’s folks, our observer reports, have learned that a
convincing stand-alone two-channel recording cannot be mixed
down from a multichannel setup. The engineers, when in
Atlanta, do have a sound system for playback in the control
room, and switch their attention from the two-channel mix to
the surround one. When the SACD hybrid discs are released,
they contain the two separate recordings of the same session, not
a mixdown from the surround.
What this suggests and one of the themes of these reviews is
that the recording professionals are still in the process of discovering how to make multichannel recordings that demonstrate the
medium’s strengths.
Back, at last, to the music.
I was hoping that Spano would breathe fire into the Barber
symphony, the kind that so infused the old Mercury/Howard
Hanson reading, the touchstone for this terrific one-movement
work (actually, you can hear three in the one). In some respects,
the Barber reminds me of some of Bartók’s nervy edginess and
141
that, rather than sheerly coloristic touches, ought to be the driving force behind
the piece. The Copland, beautifully
recorded and played, is missing panache
(the sort of thing Bernstein could provide
with both conducting hands tied behind
him). And it is missing the sense of
atmosphere, the pure lyricism, you’ll find
on the old (and classic) RCA/Koussevitsky
recording. It’s decent enough, mind you,
but nothing special, which is what we’d
expect of Spano. That Spano shows up for
the Theofanidis piece, which has quite
striking sound, with a bass drum to knock
your fillings out, but seems to me to be
like Crumby George on a bad day. The
composer in this instance is writing variations on a theme by Hildegard von
Bingen, the medievalist tunester. It starts
nowhere, and, to these ears, goes nowhere.
The genuinely striking piece on the
disc and the one worth buying it for is the
Jennifer Higdon work, entitled blue cathedral. Higdon has written a concerto for
orchestra for the Philadelphia, which
Telarc will record with Atlanta after this
year’s September performance there. Much
grinding of molars for the Philadelphians, who commissioned the piece, but
who languish without a recording contract. The piece was a succès d’éstime when
performed there. (It was also played at
Tanglewood’s New Music Festival this
summer.) Higdon’s liner notes about her
short piece (12 minutes) are as moving as
any I’ve read from a composer.
She wrote it in memory of her
younger brother who died of melanoma.
He was a clarinet player; she, a flutist; and
the piece is something of a dialogue
between the two instruments as they proceed down the aisle of a glass cathedral
high among the clouds. The flute, toward
the work’s end, fades away and the clarinet, alone, quietly plays into eternity.
Wonderful wonderful sound Renner
gave this work, down to the 60 Chinese
exercise balls that the string section players shake at a critical moment. (If you’ve
never heard these, you should; they shimmer.) If you let your imagination run
wild, you too can walk down that aisle and
see and hear what they see and hear.
142
The use of additional channels in the recording of sound means you
are going to hear with ever-increasing precision into the recording
venue itself, indeed, into the recording process. Things you can get
away with in two-channel stereo will be nakedly exposed.
Messiaen: Turangalila Symphonie. Chailly (cond). Concertgebouw.
Andrew Cornall (prod); John Dunkerley (eng). Decca 470-627.
his is, just maybe, the one orchestral DSD recording that best
shows the virtues of excellent surround sound. Not only does the recording have wider dynamic range than I’ve
heard from any digital encoding, it also
has an equally expansive frequency spectrum. The low bass is nothing short of the sensational, and the
high percussion and Ondes Martenot2 float in the realistic-
T
sounding spaces afforded by Amsterdam’s Grotezaal. The producer’s notes about the remix for multichannel are illuminating. He and his engineer decided to run much of the gamelan-like percussion section up your listening room’s left wall,
while the Ondes float eerily free on the right. The sounds
aren’t behind you, but rather in a deep semi-circle close to
where you sit. It makes musical sense given the density of
Messiaen’s complex scoring, and allows you to hear “into” the
piece as no conventional two-channel recording ever could.
2 An electronic descendant of the Theremin that uses a keyboard and sounds like a disturbed angel’s wail.
143
Whether you’ll be able to abide Turangalila and its ten
movements is strictly up to you. This recording, by Chailly, is
the most convincing of the work, even better than the old
Previn/EMI sonic spectacular and far ahead of a too limpid
Ozawa/RCA effort of days long ago. (I heard the Philadelphia
play this live at the Academy of Music, thanks to Dr. Quint,
once upon a time. Andrew Davis was at the helm, helpful in his
explanations of how the symphony functions.) But I have to
take the symphony in doses (about half at a sitting) because the
work is just too rich to absorb in one shot, unless you’re hearing it live. Messiaen’s lushness is like falling into a pool of
vanilla Haagen-Dazs ice cream, and as much as I like ice cream
I don’t often feel inclined to swim in it. But you certainly won’t
want to pass up a strong dose of the sonics here (try cuts one
and six). They are revelatory. And a sensation.
144
Recommended, Without Reservations:
Baroque Music: For Brass and Organ. Empire Brass Quintet;
William Kuhlman (organ). recorded live at Iowa’s Luther College.
Robert Woods (prod.); Robert Friedrich (eng.). Telarc SACD
60614.
f the opening Purcell (the basis for
Britten’s Young Person’s Guide) doesn’t
thrill you out of your socks, then you
need to readjust your surround system.
There’s nothing quite like multichannel
to give you the feel of a large organ’s
pressure waves. Whether this sort of
music, per se, gets you in your jollies, who can say?
I
Don’t Bother:
Norah Jones: Come Away with Me. Blue Note Records 72435411747.
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he deserves better than the thin,
anemic, and utterly unspectacular
5.1 sound she gets here.
Stravinsky: Petrouchka. The Firebird Suite. Sir Charles Mackerras
(cond.). London Symphony. Vanguard Classics VSD 506.
he liner notes will give you fair warning: And we quote:
“Petrouchka is an eight-track recording…the concept for
the recording was to create a recording heard from the
vantage point of the conductor. In order to make a more plau-
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sible balance from the listener’s point of
view, certain instruments, such as the
drums and piano, were placed to the rear
of the conductor, so that effectively, on
this disc, the conductor and the listener
as well are placed literally in the center of
the orchestra.” Reminiscent of the disastrous Andrew Kazdin/Columbia Bartók Concerto for Orchestra,
which used four-channel quad to immerse the listener among
the instruments.
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1. Francesca da Rimini.
Christopher Seaman (cond.). Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.
Olga Kern (piano). Harmonia Mundi HMU 807323.
his doesn’t even come close to the stunning
Rachmaninoff Concerto Harmonia Mundi recorded in
Rochester not long ago, a recording that did justice to
the wonderful acoustics in the same hall Mercury once used.
It isn’t good surround, and it has the earmarks of a recording
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145
made without the use of Ed Meitner’s brilliant DSD encoding/decoding equipment. What a disappointment. And not a
very electric interpretation of the Tchaikovsky, either.
Sibelius: Symphony No. 2. Tubin: Symphony No. 5. Paavo Järvi
(cond.). Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
Mozart: Night Music. Andrew Manze (cond.). The English Concert.
Harmonia Mundi HMU 807280.
A
gain, messy highs, like SACD can be without the
Meitner magic touch. And on these old instruments, it’s
excruciating.
ry acoustics. Somewhat veiled
sound. You would have thought
Järvi would bring something special to the Sibelius as he has done for so
many other north European composers,
including the Tubin done here.
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147
MANUFACTURER COMMENTS
AUDIO MAGIC STEALTHS
I would like to thank Chris Martens
for taking the time to listen to the
Stealths; he is a true professional.
However, I am going to use the old
excuse that we manufacturers use: After
talking with Wayne Garcia it came to
my attention that Chris was under the
impression I did a full burn-in before
sending the Stealths, when in fact, I had
not done a full cooker-burn. The Stealths
still required 300-500 hours of hard load
time; Chris cooked them for a week (168
hours), still 200-300 hours short of
required time. The Mini dig usually
burns in 100 hours sooner than the big
Stealth, so this would explain the results
Chris got. I’m just sorry Chris really
never heard the Stealths. After selling
500 units or more, I’ve learned, and my
customers would agree, they are a bear to
break-in, but when they do it’s heaven.
Perhaps a follow-up review is in order to
justify my claims. As for the cosmetics,
yes, they are modest boxes (which by the
way aren’t exactly cheap) but most of the
effort was put inside the Stealths (I prefer performance over looks any day). If
you want both worlds, I guess the retail
could be jacked up...nah.
JERRY RAMSEY, AUDIO MAGIC
RICHARD GRAY POWER COMPANY
1200S POWER CONDITIONER
We thank Chris Martens for including us in his power conditioner survey
and are delighted at the positive results
achieved with the RGPC 1200S in his
reference system. He raises two issues
that we want to address for the benefit of
your readers.
The “moderate break-in” time of the
RGPC unit that Chris refers to is actually needed for the components plugged
into it and not the RGPC unit itself. All
components on the same circuit require
time to adjust to the more laboratorygrade of current, and within 15 to 30
minutes users will begin to notice the
positive effects on their equipment.
148
Chris does advise correctly that we
recommend plugging basic power
amplifiers directly into AC wall outlets.
This is an option for the consumer to
consider and one we recommend because
all components plugged into the same
AC circuit receive Richard Gray’s noncurrent limiting, parallel power
enhancement whether or not they are
plugged into an RGPC unit. Since the
two inductors within the RGPC 1200S
have no sonic signature of their own, we
believe the audible difference heard by
Chris is merely the additional minimal
resistance of the six-foot power cord.
Many amplifier manufacturers who recommend plugging their equipment
directly into a wall outlet, and never into
a current limiting, traditional “power
line conditioner,” recommend RGPC
because their amplifiers can be plugged
directly into the wall yet still receive the
parallel RGPC benefit.
Again, thanks to Chris. His conclusion that the unit was “pure magic” says
it all!
DICK MCCARTHY, PRESIDENT,
RICHARD GRAY’S POWER COMPANY
THORENS TD850 TURNTABLE
We would like to thank Mr. Harrell
for taking the time and effort to review
the TD850. Since the release of the initial production run, we also discovered
the speed variances. The TD850, like all
the 800 series products, includes an
external power supply that has the ability to fine-tune the platter speed. We
have found this adjustment to change
after shipment due to vibrations and
such, and the current versions are locked
in more precisely, solving the low speed
problem. In addition, the TD850 is now
available in both a Silver or Black finish
and with the TP300 arm or without an
arm ($1599) with an optional, add-on
dust cover. The three polymer-damped
feet are precision-adjustable for precise
table-leveling.
BRIAN ANDERSON
m u s i c
classical
Classical Caps
Handel: Rinaldo. Vivica Genaux (Rinaldo),
Inga Kalna (Armida), Miah Persson
(Almirena). Freiburger Baroque Orchestra,
René Jacobs, conductor. Martin Sauer,
producer; René Möller, engineer.
Harmonia Mundi 901796.98 (3 CDs)
Handel: Aci, Galatea e Polifemo. Sandrine
Piau (Aci), Sara Mingardo (Galatea),
Laurent Naouri (Polifemo). Le Concert
d’Astrée, Emmanuelle Haïm, conductor.
Daniel Zalay, producer; Jean Chatauret,
engineer. Virgin 45557 (2 CDs)
he rediscovery of Handel’s Italian operas is among the
great legacies of
the Baroque revival. Their glories are easily
heard in this new
pair of releases
revealing
the
genius of a composer still in his
green twenties.
Rinaldo is a prime example. A
“magic” opera full of special effects (the
premiere featured sparrows released over
the heads of the audience), it’s a complex
tale of love set during the Crusaders’s
siege of Jerusalem. All the ingredients of
stirring spectacle are here: Christians
and Muslims (including sorcerers of
both persuasions pitted against each
other), brave warriors, a captive princess,
and much more. Handel’s music bursts
with life, especially in this vividly performed version by René Jacobs and a
faultless cast.
Jacobs pulls out all the stops—widely varied tempos and dynamics, fierce
attacks, free embellishments, vibrant
percussion, and over-the-top sound
effects. It’s invidious to single out individuals other than the leads, but even
those put off by countertenors should
T
Conductor Rene Jacobs
enjoy Lawrence Zazzo’s full-voiced
Goffredo. Leading the cast is the vivacious Vivica Genaux, a mezzo singing
the castrato role of Rinaldo in a voice
full of color and expression, with truckloads of personality and exciting high
notes. Miah Persson is an excellent
Almirena, Rinaldo’s love interest.
Though Persson is superior to the
aggressive Cecilia Bartoli in the
Hogwood set, it is Inga Kalna as Armida
who almost steals the show. As the
Muslim sorceress, she tears into her
opening “Furie terribili” and flaunts
dazzling coloratura fireworks in her big
scene at the end of Act II. A great
recording of a great opera.
Written a few years earlier, in 1708,
Aci, Galatea e Polifemo is a cantata for
three voices—really a chamber opera,
not to be confused with Handel’s later
masque on the same subject, the English
Acis and Galatea. Both are based on the
myth from Ovid’s Metamorphoses depicting the ill-fated lovers and the jealous
giant Polifemo, whose unrequited love
for Galatea triggers tragedy.
Again, terrific singing and lively conducting
make this rarity must listening for Handelians.
Polifemo requires a bass
with an incredibly wide
range; here he’s sung by
baritone Laurent Naouri,
who ranges from treble A
to a convincing low D
while fully encompassing
the complex feelings raging within the giant.
Sandrine Piau is a wonderful Aci; her high-flying
lyric soprano eloquently
depicts the brave but
doomed
lover.
The
Galatea, Sara Mingardo, is
the star of the show, her
rich alto packed with
power and emotion.
Emmanuelle Haïm conducts the crack
period-instrument group with spot-on
pacing and keeps the drama moving.
Sonics (except for some awkward internal
balances) are fine, but Harmonia Mundi’s
sound for Rinaldo is outstanding—all
those colorful sound effects (e.g., wind
machine) and bird chirps register; the
percussion has bite and excitement; and
DAN DAVIS
the voices are true.
Sibelius: Rondo of the Waves. Fragments
from a Suite. The Oceanides. Seven Early
Works. Lahti Symphony, Osmo Vänskä,
conductor. Robert Suff, producer; Ingo
Petry, engineer. BIS 1445
his compilation
of
orchestral
rarities—all but
the famous Oceanides in recorded premieres—vividly
illustrates the evolution of Sibelius the practical musician
fluently turning out serviceable occasional pieces into Sibelius the uncom-
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m u s i c
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promising, austere, hyper-critical perfectionist who finally succumbed to selfimposed silence when he felt he could no
longer live up to his own exalted standards. Cassation, Music for a Scene,
Coronation March, Romantic Piece, March
of the Pori Regiment, Cortège, and the gorgeous Spring Song are all distinctly minor
albeit skillful and enjoyable efforts from
around the turn of the century. Part of
their interest, in addition to unfailing
melodic appeal, is in how they mix
familiar Sibelian trademarks with
uncharacteristic ideas that the more
mature composer would jettison from
his musical arsenal. Touches of
Tchaikovsky, Dvorák, Bizet, Chabrier,
the Johann Strausses, and others flit
casually by as if returning from a pleasantly inebriated fin de siècle dinner party.
But by 1914 Sibelius had long
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achieved his own, utterly individual
voice. The struggle now was to create
only masterpieces in that voice, with the
result that the composer experimented
with two preliminary versions of the seainspired tone poem that was to become
The Oceanides. These fascinating test runs
are entitled Fragments from a Suite and
Rondo of the Waves. Both are shorter and
less developed than the exquisite final
version, the Rondo more impressionist
and prismatic, as if Sibelius had to recalibrate his response to Debussy in
tackling this subject. The Oceanides that
we’ve come to know and love—
Sibelius’s greatest tone poem until the
valedictory and ineffably elusive
Tapiola—is more lucid, more shapely,
more dramatic (with the billowy
“storm” music moved back, to become a
climactic culmination). Like all of
Sibelius’s best music, it seems somehow
more discovered than written. In short,
the composer expanded and tinkered
and reordered and refined until he had a
far better composition. But that, my
friends, is what makes a genius: he keeps
on working when others would have
been satisfied with less.
Osmo Vänskä and the Lahti
Symphony play Sibelius like they own
him—which, considering this is the fiftyfirst volume of BIS’s ongoing complete
recorded Sibelius edition—they pretty
nearly do. The recording takes full advantage of the clear, warm, spacious acoustics
of the Lahti Sibelius Hall. It’s airy, immediate, detailed, dynamic, and tonally
resplendent—ideal for this Nordic master’s sensuous, majestic, and meltingly
lovely paean to the water nymphs of
MARK LEHMAN
ancient Greece.
m u s i c
Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet. Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra, Vladimir
Ashkenazy, conductor. Andrew Cornall, producer; Colin Moorfoot, Michael Mailes,
engineers. Decca B0000226
Prokofiev: The Stone Flower. BBC
Philharmonic Orchestra, Gianandrea
Noseda, conductor. Mike George, producer;
Stephen Rinker, engineer. Chandos 10058
rokofiev was
not really a
great composer of
symphonies. His
talents as a melodist and orchestrator with a uniquely
original style and
penchant for short
dances are better
suited for ballet.
He has actually
been called a suite
writer, as opposed
to Shostakovich, the symphonist. Romeo
and Juliet is probably Prokofiev’s greatest
score. It is a long way from the former
enfant terrible’s Scythian Suite, but the
grand symphonic scope and seemingly
endless melody punctuated by dazzling
orchestration and gentle dissonances
make it the natural modern successor to
the great Tchaikovsky ballets. Lorin
Maazel’s brilliantly engineered version
with the Cleveland Orchestra (Decca)
provides the ideal combination of drama,
rhythmic precision, and lyrical beauty.
Andre Previn (EMI) and Dmitri
Kitajenko (Chandos) emphasize the
romantic elements at the cost of losing
much of the excitement and dynamic
contrast inherent in the music. Prokofiev
extracted three orchestral suites, and
many others of varying length have been
recorded. Riccardo Muti’s (EMI) flamboyantly performed and garishly recorded version of music from Prokofiev’s first
two suites presents a dazzling display of
the Philadelphia Orchestra’s virtuosity,
but Michael Tilson Thomas (RCA) has
arranged the best collection of excerpts.
His lengthy suite concentrates more on
the plot and still makes an effective con-
P
cert piece. MTT plays it lean, light, and
generally fast, and the sound is excellent.
Vladimir Ashkenazy established his
credentials as an interpreter of Prokofiev’s ballets with a translucently engineered digital recording of Cinderella,
also with the Cleveland Orchestra
(Decca). His approach to Romeo and Juliet
is generally similar to Maazel’s, and
preferable to Previn and Kitajenko.
However, neither he nor the Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra can match
Maazel and the flawless execution of the
Cleveland Orchestra in performance or
sound. Ashkenazy’s rhythms are marginally more flaccid; the hairpin dynamics
are missing; and, surprisingly, he tends
to rush the love music at the end of Act
I. Decca’s sound is more opaque, glassy,
and just plain digital. It lacks the analog
bloom and sharp transients clearly evident even on the digital remastering of
Maazel’s analog original. Ashkenazy is
solid, but Maazel is special.
The Stone Flower will not be mistaken
for Romeo and Juliet. The silly plot is a far
cry from Shakespeare; the
melodic content and even
much of the orchestration
are feeble when compared
to Prokofiev’s masterpiece.
Nevertheless, it has its
moments. The striking
orchestral coloring (brass
and winds) for the theme of
the Mistress of the Copper
Mountain contrasting with
Danilo’s simple melody
combine to make an outstanding prologue. “Severyan’s Death” concluding
Act 3 generates a level of
power reminiscent of prime
Prokofiev. There are a few
other interesting new
dances mixed with material
lifted from previous works,
but not enough to justify
repeated hearings of the
complete ballet.
Gianandrea Noseda is
presently Principal Con-
classical
ductor of the BBC Philharmonic. He
was presumably exposed to Russian ballet during a previous stint as Principal
Guest Conductor at the Mariinsky
Theatre. The sound is big and bold in
the usual Chandos manner, with huge
instrumental images within a hyperreverberant soundstage. Noseda and the
engineer do all they can for a painfully
long score that only rarely approaches
the level of Romeo and Juliet.
ARTHUR B. LINTGEN
Eighth Blackbird: Thirteen Ways. Judith
Sherman, producer and engineer. Cedille
Records 90000 067
he six young
musicians
of
Eighth Blackbird—
flute, clarinet, violin/viola, cello, piano, and percussion
—started playing
together as undergraduates at Oberlin in
the mid-1990s. They’ve since won a
number of prestigious awards, have
T
Eighth Blackbird
153
m u s i c
classical
toured extensively, and are currently
ensemble-in-residence at two Chicago
universities. On the evidence of Thirteen
Ways, its first commercial recording,
Eighth Blackbird may be the most vital
and accomplished chamber group committed to contemporary music to
emerge since Peter Serkin’s Tashi more
than a quarter century ago.
The sextet offers four works by
Americans of three generations. The
elder statesman here is George Perle (b.
1915), who wrote Critical Moments 2 for
Eighth Blackbird in 2001: nine brief
and finely limned movements that fully
exploit the expressive and coloristic
possibilities of this particular instrumental combination. Perle still works
in the rigorous academic style in vogue
50 years ago, but don’t be put off—the
piece rewards close attention and
repeated hearings. The other wellknown composer represented is Joan
Tower (b. 1938) whose 1980 Petroushskates was arranged for Eighth
Blackbird by Allen Otte. This sixminute piece successfully combines,
believe it or not, Tower’s love of both
Stravinsky and figure skating—“a sort
of musical carnival on ice,” according to
the composer. David Schober’s (b. 1974)
Variations is dramatically charged,
employing an advanced musical syntax
including some of Olivier Messiaen’s
“modes of limited transposition.” (I
don’t think I’ve ever before encountered
another composer who actually utilized
the late Frenchman’s ingenious harmonic system.) Variations is a highly absorbing work for which no program is provided—or required.
The disc concludes with the halfhour-long Thirteen Ways by Thomas
Albert (b. 1948), based on Wallace
Stevens’s set of poems Thirteen Ways of
Looking at a Blackbird (from which the
group takes its name). Albert creates 13
aphoristic movements, each preceded by
Stevens’s verse that is recited by the six
artists. The imagery is striking in its
clarity yet laden with meaning, and the
music is quite evocative. The style
ranges from John Adams-like minimalism to tender tonal lyricism; compositional materials include the Fibonacci
154
series of numbers and (very subtly) the
accompaniment to The Beatles’s
“Blackbird.” But none of these factors
register as you attend to this compelling
and very beautiful music.
The six players are all young masters
of their instruments. The sound is
detailed and uncolored, with the piano
properly scaled and positioned behind
the other musicians. Percussion has
immediacy and loads of character.
Urgently recommended. ANDREW QUINT
Chopin: Piano works. Ivan Moravec, piano.
Todd Landor, producer; Tim Martyn, engineer. Vox 7908
Mozart: Piano Sonatas, Fantasy in D
minor. Alfred Brendel, piano. Martha de
Francisco, producer; Jean-Marie Geijsen,
engineer. Philips 473689
Schubert: Three Piano Sonatas. Murray
Perahia, piano. Andreas Neubrenner, producer; Christian Starke, engineer. Sony
87706
ow in his early
70s, Ivan Moravec, treasured by
audiophiles and
piano buffs alike
for his famous
Connoisseur
Society LPs that
wedded
great
sound to legendary
performances, is
back in the recording studio. Recorded in vibrant sonics, Moravec’s new
all-Chopin recital
is not to be missed.
He illustrates his
mastery of the elusive art of rubato,
displaying wondrous keyboard touch and control along
with infinite degrees of shading and
dynamics.
His interpretations are like no one
else’s but remain faithful to the
music’s spirit and letter, making that
old warhorse, Chopin’s B flat minor
N
Sonata, sound fresh, even its “Funeral
March” movement. There, he never
wallows in sentiment, giving the
quiet, almost hesitant, middle section’s frail beauties an emotional wallop by flanking it with a spare, measured tread in the march. The Fourth
Ballade is marginally more cogent
than his 1963 version; the Berceuse
sparkles; a trio of Mazurkas is full of
life. Best is the great F minor Fantasie,
which can seem episodic but here is as
tightly knit as a “fantasy” can be. It’s
played with the magisterial command,
dramatic power, and weight befitting
perhaps the greatest of all Chopin’s
works.
Another choice release by a veteran
pianist is Alfred Brendel’s new Mozart
disc. At 72, he’s embarked on a new,
more exalted career stage, his probing
interpretations now enhanced by a
greater communicativeness that pays
special dividends in Mozart, whose
deceptive simplicity cloaks deeper
currents. In concert and on discs, his
tone is now rounder, his poetic
impulses more fully developed, his
tendency to didactic interruptions of
the musical flow virtually banished.
This is apparent in the D minor
Fantasy, K. 397, where he ventures
into the composer’s depths with a
directness and gravity matched in the
three sonatas—the hybrid F major, K.
533/494 and the great A minor, K.
310, where his nuanced playing
eclipses his earlier recordings, and the
D major, K. 311. The disc teems with
special delights such as Brendel’s gorgeous singing slow movements, his
telling use of Mozart’s apt pauses in
the K. 311, and the relaxed, natural
phrasing and runs in the F major
sonata. This is by far Brendel’s best
solo Mozart recording, enhanced by
being one of the few that realistically
captures his actual sound and timbre.
Recently, Murray Perahia has also
scaled higher peaks of interpretive
insights. His new set of Schubert’s last
three piano sonatas displays beautiful
tone (he never resorts to banging, even
in the most acerbic loud passages),
crystal-clear articulation, and a new
m u s i c
classical
rhythmic tautness. The D. 958 and D.
959 sonatas are the highlights on this
CD, Beethovenesque in their sweep and
power. In the wrenching Andantino of
the A major Sonata, D. 959, one of the
most hair-raising depictions of the
breakdown of rationality ever written,
Perahia’s approach may seem coolly
classical, eschewing the unbridled
Romanticism more commonly heard,
but his restraint actually intensifies its
emotional power. The last of the trio,
the great B flat minor, D. 960, disappoints. Perahia differentiates the first
two long, slow movements but at the
cost of making the Sonata’s first movement sound glib. Despite stunning
pianism and a stirring finale, it seems
an interpretation still being formed
rather than a full-blown statement. But
fresh sonics and two first-rate readings
out of three make this highly recomDD
mendable.
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SACD
RECORDING
OF THE
I S S U E
Rainbow Body. Barber: Symphony No. 1.
Copland: Suite from Appalachian Spring.
Theofanidis: Rainbow Body. Higdon: blue
cathedral. Atlanta Symphony Orchestra,
Robert Spano, conductor. Elaine Martone,
producer; Jack Renner, engineer. Hybrid
multichannel. Telarc 60596 (Sonic rating: 9)
hese days, Robert Spano is the most
talked about American conductor of
his generation and the Atlanta orchestra’s playing is consistently world-class.
The upward trajectory of this partner-
T
ship continues on the follow-up to their
Grammy-winning A Sea Symphony.
Spano and Atlanta give us Rainbow Body:
something familiar (the Barber), something very familiar (the Copland), and
two immediately appealing new compositions. The entire program has a youthful freshness and a distinctly American
flavor. Samuel Barber wrote his First
Symphony at 25, a 20-minute essay in
one movement that’s concise, yet still
Romantic in scale and outlook. Spano’s
reading is propulsive, with lovely symphonic textures. His Appalachian Spring
is a highly contrasted and emotionally
potent performance, worthy of consideration alongside Bernstein’s 1961 recording (now available as a Sony multichannel SACD). The opening pages feature
beautiful instrumental balances and colors, and a great sense of expectancy; the
faster sections are emphatic and rhythmically pointed. The final rendering of
m u s i c
Paris: La Belle Époque.
Massenet: Meditation from
Thaïs. Fauré: Sonata, Opus
13. Saint-Saëns: Havanaise.
Franck: Sonata in A Major.
Yo-Yo Ma, cello; Kathryn
Stott, piano. Steven Epstein,
producer; Richard King,
engineer. Single-layer multichannel. Sony 87287
(Sonic rating: 6)
athering these four
staples of the lateRomantic French repertoire under the
heading of Paris—
La Belle Epoque is
Yo-Yo Ma’s way of
trying to distract
attention from his
greedy appropriation of violin territory: Every-thing
here was originally written for the
smaller, brighter, more agile instrument, though the Franck was transcribed for cello over a century ago and
has long been considered a cello standard. Ma himself transcribed the other
three items.
In truth, the glorious Franck
Sonata, with its vaulting melodies and
richly glowing, stained-glass chromaticism—a work of august nobility and
celestial splendor—does nicely with the
cello’s baritone replacing the violin’s
soprano. It benefits from the larger
instrument’s greater warmth and regal
ease in sustaining long, mellifluous
lines. The cello conveys the high-minded Victorian sentiment of Massenet’s
celebrated Meditation just as well, but
seems a bit cumbersome for the fleeter
Saint-Saëns and Fauré; this is painfully
evident, despite Ma’s superb virtuosity,
in the allegro vivo Scherzo of Fauré’s
Opus 13 Sonata. One wonders why Ma
couldn’t have chosen one of Fauré’s two
perfectly fine cello sonatas.
Amazingly, there is competition for
the Franck Sonata—in the cello version,
no less—on multichannel SACD. Pieter
Wispelwey, with pianist Paolo Giacometti, performs it on Channel Classics
G
Conductor Robert Spano
“Simple Gifts” towards the end is noble,
without seeming overblown.
The two recent works, from
Christopher Theofanidis (b. 1967) and
Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962), are both powerful and knowingly constructed pieces
that utilize a sophisticated but fully accessible harmonic language. For Rainbow
Body the melodic material derives, the
composer tells us, from the chant of
Hildegard von Bingen—yet it seems to
share some genetic material with a central
theme from its Copland disc mate. It’s
expertly scored, rising to a glorious conclusion. Higdon aims for a musical esthetic as big as the outdoors with her blue
cathedral: “I found myself imagining a
journey through a glass cathedral in the
sky.” This moving and dramatically
shaped work was commissioned to honor
the 75th anniversary of the Curtis
Institute but also serves as a tribute to
Higdon’s prematurely deceased younger
brother—there are moments of loving
dialogue between clarinet (his instrument) and flute (Higdon’s).
The surround mix is conservative for
Telarc—and very successful. It’s like a
stereo recording, but the most dimensional two-channel recording you’ve ever
heard. Rear channels are sonically invisible; the soundfield extends from well
behind the front speakers to a point just
in front of the listening position. There’s
great dynamic impact and a satisfying
bottom end. The treble is a bit soft but,
increasingly, I’m wondering about the
role of my Sony player in this regard. AQ
classical
18602 (along with a Schumann piece
originally for horn and the Brahms First
Violin Sonata also arranged—absurdly—for cello). Yo-Yo Ma on Sony is
more tightly focused and more intense,
with cello attacks noticeably more incisive; Wispelwey on Channel Classics is
smoother, sweeter, more introspective
and atmospheric. These are two of the
finest cellists in the world today, both
with distinguished accompanists, and
both enjoy engineering that adds the
refinement, ambience, depth, and fullness at which SACD multichannel
excels. That said, I prefer the Wispelwey, both the playing and sonics. The
recording has a magic that simply draws
me deeper into the music, and, in the
rapturous central recitativo-fantasia—
surely one of the most sublimely beautiful movements in all of Western art
music—Wispelwey casts an enchantment that holds me transfixed every
ML
time I listen.
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5. Symphony
No. 7. Vienna Philharmonic, Carlos
Kleiber, conductor. Werner Mayer and
Hans Weber, original producers; Andrew
Wedman, new stereo and surround mixes.
Hybrid multichannel. Deutsche Grammophon 471 639 (Sonic rating: 6)
Puccini: La Bohème. Angela Gheorghiu
(Mimi); Roberto Alagna (Rodolpho). La
Scala Orchestra and chorus, Riccardo
Chailly, conductor. Andrew Cornall, producer; Jonathan Stokes and Philip Siney, engineers and SACD mix. Hybrid multichannel.
Decca 470 624 (Sonic rating: 3)
leiber’s mid1970s
Beethoven symphony
recordings are richly deserving of
their “classic” status—at the same
time emotionally
direct and sensitive,
nuanced, full of
subtle shadings and
inflections.
The
opening movement
of No. 5 is furious,
K
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m u s i c
classical
a rhythmic juggernaut; the subsequent
Andante con moto alternates flowing
lyricism and an imposing weightiness.
The finale blazes triumphantly. All four
movements of Symphony No. 7 are truly
balletic. After an eloquently shaped
introduction, the main body of the first
movement has a joyous stride, as Kleiber
introduces small accelerandos that contribute to the headlong rush. The
Allegretto unfolds with an organic
inevitability while the concluding
Allegro con brio has an infectious swing.
If the multichannel here sounds a
little synthetic (which, generated from
multimiked tapes, it is), it’s tastefully
executed, with a sensible amount of
reverberation in the rear channels. I
actually prefer the stereo program—
there’s more than enough spaciousness
in the two-channel mix. The SACD has
158
less of a bite and edge to the strings
compared to the LPs (especially with
No. 5), but there’s as much air, and
instrumental signatures are just as
appealing. The SACD version is at least
the equal of the vinyl with dynamics;
both the LPs and SACD are way ahead
of the CD reissue (in DG’s “The
Originals” series) in terms of refinement
and lack of grain.
To the best of my knowledge, this
1998 Bohème is the first full-length opera
to appear in surround sound on SACD or
DVD-A. While the performance won’t
eclipse De los Angeles/Björling/
Beecham or Freni/Pavarotti/Karajan, it
is an excellent one, strongly cast well
beyond the superstar leads. Chailly leads
with a terrific sense of dramatic impetus
and attention to orchestral color. The
DSD remastering characterizes the voic-
es beautifully. But the multichannel
presentation disappoints. Mostly, the
singers are positioned in front of the
orchestra, and that’s OK—I can accept
this perspective as a “concert” performance (even though a more ambitious
engineer might have taken a stab at portraying vocalists on a stage and orchestra
in a pit between them and the listener).
But episodically, voices appear in the
surround channels in misguided
attempts at staginess. Take, for instance,
Mimi’s entrance in Act III when she
pops up, coughing consumptively and
then singing in the right rear channel,
moving over the course of about 10 seconds up to the front. It’s irrational,
annoying, confusing, and ultimately
derails the dramatic flow of the action. A
low grade for this one, sonically, for setAQ
ting a bad example.
m u s i c
George Lloyd: Fourth Symphony, “Arctic.”
Albany Symphony Orchestra, George Lloyd,
conductor. No producer credits. Albany
Records TROY 498 (Sonic rating: 6)
Roy Harris: Symphony No. 2. Morton
Gould: Symphony No. 3. Albany Symphony
Orchestra, David Alan Miller, conductor.
Gregory Squires, producer and engineer.
Albany Records TROY 515 (Sonic rating: 6)
William Schuman: Credendum. Concerto
for Piano and Orchestra. Symphony No. 4.
Albany Symphony Orchestra, David Alan
Miller, conductor; John McCabe, piano.
Gregory Squires, producer and engineer.
Albany Records TROY 566 (Sonic rating: 8)
All: Hybrid Stereo.
f ever composers
fulfilled Arnold
Schoenberg’s reassurance that there’s
still plenty of
music to be written in good old C
major, it’s the four
represented on this
superb trio of
SACDs from Albany Records. Despite considerable
stylistic
differences, their music
is tonal, thematically and/or rhythmically
driven,
and traditional in
form and structure. You’d even
be forgiven for using the word “old-fashioned,” inasmuch as their aesthetic is
romantic in the sense that they clearly
believe music must be about something
beyond itself: feelings, emotions, ideas,
places and things, stories and dramas.
The British composer George Lloyd
is the most conservative—almost reactionary. If you weren’t told his “Arctic”
symphony was written over a four-year
period after his ship was struck by a torpedo in the North Atlantic during the
Second World War, an incident that left
I
him physically impaired and emotionally
traumatized, you wouldn’t guess it from
the music. Almost unvaryingly pretty,
the symphony evokes the British pastoral
idiom of early Vaughan Williams,
Moeran, even Grainger; only the most
benignly dissonant chords darken horizons otherwise blue and sunny. There are
some epic ambitions that aren’t quite
realized, the span of the last two movements rather exceeding their inspiration.
During his career, Lloyd was criticized for
his conservatism and for lacking a genuinely individual style, charges the
“Arctic” by no means escapes. All the
same, filled with “big tunes” so beloved
of early-to-mid-Twentieth Century
British composers, it affords much pleasure if you just allow yourself to bask in its
sensuous warmth and sunlight. The
Albany Symphony Orchestra, conducted
by the composer, plays with great conviction and the 1989 recording is rich in
atmosphere, with a very accommodating
dynamic range.
Whatever else you might say about
the three Americans here, they are certainly not lacking in stylistic individuality, Roy Harris and William Schuman
especially. Harris’s Second and Morton
Gould’s Third Symphonies both suffered
troubled births that resulted in premieres of compromised versions. David
Alan Miller, Albany’s music director,
reinstated the many cuts Harris himself
made under duress and restored Gould’s
original fourth movement. The Harris
doesn’t represent his best work, its ideas
rather too insistently stated, but it certainly deserves this fine performance.
The big surprise is the Gould Third, an
imaginative piece, full of sharp wit and
mordant irony, with one of the most
inventive scherzos written by any composer of the last century. Known mostly
for pops-oriented scores, Gould plainly
had some chops as a serious composer
(his greatest advocate was Dimitri
Mitropoulos, no less).
Schuman’s solid craftsmanship and
disciplined manipulation of classic forms
are all the more remarkable given that he
never heard a classical concert until he
was nineteen. The compositions in this
collection are three-movement structures
classical
(typically fast-slow-fast), characterized by
his uniquely New York kind of electric
energy. Credendum is a strong declamatory
work scored for huge orchestra with augmented brass, wind, and percussion
(including steel plates), while the Piano
Concerto (John McCabe the probing
soloist) is a moving chamber piece. The
intense Symphony No. 4, much admired
by Copland, begins in somber tones and
ends with a flourish in the form of—
shades of Schoenberg—a C major chord.
Released in SACD but derived from
stereo PCM sources, the clean, transparent recordings ideally mediate proximity
and soundstage, with superior definition.
The Schuman, in particular, is of reference quality. The Albany plays with dedication, skill, and an apposite bite to the
sonority, while Miller’s conducting is
rhythmically incisive and expressively
alert. These are two of the most important recordings of modern American
PAUL SEYDOR
music in recent years.
DVD-A
Elgar/Payne: Symphony No. 3.
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Paul
Daniel, conductor. Andrew Walton, producer; Tony Faulkner, engineer. Naxos
5.110003 (Sonic Rating: 5)
Shostakovich: The Bolt. Jazz Suites Nos. 1
& 2. Tahiti Trot. Russian State Symphony
Orchestra, Dmitry Yablonsky, conductor.
Lubiv Doronina, producer; Aleksander
Karasec, engineer. Naxos 5.110006
(Sonic Rating: 8)
hen Anthony
Payne’s “elaboration” of the
sketches for Elgar’s
never-completed
Symphony No. 3—
and its first recording, from Andrew
Davis and the BBC
Symphony Orchestra—burst onto
the scene five years
ago, two questions
were
frequently
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159
m u s i c
raised. First, (given the composer’s wellknown, if ambivalent, deathbed pronouncement in 1934 that no one should
“tinker” with his unfinished opus) should
it have been done? And second, as it has
been done, how good was it? The
answers, to most fair-minded listeners,
seem to be “yes” and “quite good.” The
Elgar family ultimately supported the
project, and Payne’s 55-minute creation is remarkably coherent, especially
if you consider that he had a lot less to
go on than Deryck Cooke did for his
performing version of Mahler’s Tenth.
The composer’s spirit pervades every
page; both the Edwardian stolidity and
a Wagnerian harmonic richness—as
just one example, take the striving
melody that serves as the first movement’s second subject. The darkly
somber Adagio solenne is quite successful; the finale, which required the most
inventiveness on Payne’s part, offers
characteristic marching figures and a
soulful hymn-like theme that sticks in
the mind long after the piece ends. Paul
Daniels conducts with feeling and
insight, and the Bournemouth orchestra is a full-voiced and technically
accomplished ensemble. This performance isn’t that far off the standard set by
my current favorite, Colin Davis (on
LSO Live).
The material on the Shostakovich
DVD-A may come as a revelation to
those who know the composer from
monumental symphonies and anguished, encrypted string quartets. Shostakovich, in fact, had a real affinity for
popular idioms; but if all the music here
is on the lighter side, none of it is trivial. (Well, maybe Tahiti Trot, an arrangement of “Tea for Two” that Shostakovich
orchestrated in 40 minutes on a bet, isn’t
one for the ages.) Best is the eightmovement suite from The Bolt, a tale of
industrial sabotage—scintillating, tuneful, and brilliantly scored, utilizing the
language of the First Symphony and The
Age of Gold. The two Jazz Suites are
immediately appealing as well, though
don’t expect evocations of Duke
Ellington or Charlie Parker: What we
get is more like Offenbach and Kurt
Weill. The more substantial Suite No. 2
was assembled by the composer from
various film scores, ballets, and theater
works, and includes a waltz used prominently in the final Stanley Kubrick film,
Eyes Wide Shut.
Both DVD-As were original multichannel recordings (a stereo version is
included as well, of course, along with
classical
5.1 MLP, DTS, and AC3 programs). The
Elgar’s surround sound is no more
dimensional than a good two-channel
effort, and instrumental textures aren’t
especially refined. But the Shostakovich
disc is a real winner, sonically as well as
musically—very atmospheric and spaAQ
cious, yet loaded with detail.
The Best in New-Format Software
(All titles multichannel unless otherwise noted)
SACD
Bach: The Four Great Toccatas and Fugues. Biggs, organ. Sony 87983 (9) (TAS 143)
Patricia Barber: Modern Cool. Mobile Fidelity Hybrid Stereo 2003 (8) (TAS 137)
Beck: Sea Change. Geffen 0694935372 (9) (TAS 141)
Big Brother and the Holding Company: Cheap Thrills. Legacy 65784 (8)
John Coltrane: Soultrane. Mobile Fidelity 2020 (8) (TAS 143)
Sam Cooke: All the ABKCO Remastered Collection Hybrid Stereo titles (review this issue)
Dvorák: Symphonies 8 & 9 (Fischer). Philips 470 617 (9) (review, TAS 142)
Exceptional Masterpieces. Combattimento Consort. Bona Nova 10011 (9) (Golden Ear, TAS 139)
Bill Evans: Waltz For Debby. Analogue Productions Hybrid Stereo 9399 (8) (TAS 136)
Alison Krauss: Now That I’ve Found You. Rounder Hybrid Stereo 0325 (9) (Golden Ear, TAS 139)
Love & Lament (Cappella Figuralis). Channel Classics 17002 (9) (TAS 137)
Natalie MacMaster: In My Hands. Rounder Hybrid Stereo 7025 (8) (TAS 137)
Mahler: Symphony No. 1 (Tilson Thomas). SFS Media 0002 (10) (TAS 139)
Music of Turina and Debussy (Lopez-Cobos). Telarc 60574 (9) (TAS 135)
Art Pepper: Meets the Rhythm Section. Analogue Productions Hybrid Stereo 7532 (8) (TAS 140)
The Police: Outlandos d’Amour. A&M Single-layer Stereo 493 602 (8) (TAS 141)
Poulenc: Concerto for Organ. Linn Records CKD 180 (9) (TAS 138)
Rainbow Body. Barber. Copland. Theofanidis. Telarc 60596 (9) (review, this issue)
The Rolling Stones: All 20 ABKCO studio records and collections. ABKCO Hybrid Stereo (TAS 138)
Rossini: Famous Overtures (Marriner). PentaTone 5186 106 (9) (TAS 142)
Saint-Saëns/Tchaikovsky/Bruch: Cello Works. Channel (10) (Golden Ear, TAS 133)
Stravinsky/Brahms: Violin Concertos (Hahn). Sony 89649 (8) (Recording of the Issue, TAS 135)
Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony. Telarc 60588 (8) (TAS 138)
DVD-A
Deacon John’s Jump Blues. AIX 81004 (9) (review, this issue)
Grateful Dead: Workingman’s Dead. Warner Brothers 78356 (9) (TAS 135)
Mickey Hart: Best Of: Over the Edge and Back. Rykodisc 10494 (10) (TAS 137)
John McEuen and Jimmy Ibbotson: Nitty Gritty Surround. AIX 80008 (8) (TAS 135)
R.E.M.: Automatic for the People. Warner Brothers 78175 (8) (TAS 140)
John Williams: A.I. Warner Brothers 48096 (9) (TAS 135)
Zephyr: Voices Unbound. AIX 80012 (10) (Golden Ear, TAS 139)
Key: Number in parenthesis refers to sonic rating, with 10 being the best
161
m u s i c
jazz
Jazz Caps
Randy Weston: Randy Weston. Jack
Lewis, Lee Kraft, Teddy Reig, original producers; Michael Cuscuna, reissue producer; Malcolm Addey, remastering. Mosaic
Select MS-004 (3 CDs; Mail order only:
www.mosaicrecords.com)
andy Weston
is a tall man
who takes the
long view—over
other
people’s
heads, toward a
mother
continent, or another time. When he emerged
in the 1950s, no American jazz musician
had more African pride, or acted more
like the ’20s Harlem Renaissance was
still in full swing. Langston Hughes
wrote his liner notes—and lyrics, which
Porgy and Bess/Carmen Jones star Brock
Peters sang (like a lugubrious Ellington
baritone, alas). Weston took piano lessons from Thelonious Monk, from whom
he learned how to really reduce his materials. He hired father-of-the-saxophone
Coleman Hawkins for a 1959 quintet
date. He was world music before that
was a bad idea.
This three-CD mini-box includes
five 1957-63 albums for four labels—
including Little Niles for sextet, Live at
the Five Spot with Hawkins and Kenny
Dorham, plus a newly issued 1960 date
with Ron Carter, Roy Haynes, and bari
saxist Cecil Payne (whose incisive timing and dark sound make him a perfect
fit). Weston has written some enduring
tunes, here including “Little Niles,”
“Kucheza Blues,” “Congolese Children,” and “Hi Fly” (reprised, all but
unaltered, as “204”). Each has a strong
melodic/rhythmic hook, those two elements fused. (That sounds like Monk
too.) “Nice Ice” plays with a plain rising and falling major scale, anticipating jokey Carla Bley.
Weston’s a terrific pianist, a drum
choir. Like Monk he picked up on
R
Ellington’s starkness: the combination
of jabbing attack, sturdy no-frills
chords, and lines voiced octaves apart.
He likes Monk’s broken tumbles down
the keys too, but Weston has his own
long-legged lope. The trio date Piano-ala-Mode includes a standout “Honeysuckle Rose,” where he recasts the
bridge as an ascending series of fast
repeated notes, a witty rewrite that
leaves the original intact. (Connie Kay’s
chiming-cymbals solo’s a beaut, too.)
Trombonist Melba Liston arranged
every session with multiple horns, from
quintet up, using Monkish adjacent-note
dissonances to make the mid-size bands
sound bigger. That said, she brings out
Weston’s own character as composer,
even with Monk’s horns Johnny Griffin
and Ray Copeland in the sextet.
The two big-band projects on the
last disc, previously available on one
CD, get a hard, clarified remix from
Malcolm Addey. (Jazz was recorded well
back then; he knows enough to get out
of the way.) Uhuru Afrika from 1960 is
the grandest and least of these sessions.
Even Afrocentrists were vague about
details then, and the particulars of lyricist Hughes’s African landscape are limited to the jungle and flowing Congo.
“Kucheza Blues” aside, the multiple
drummers (Max Roach, Olatunji, and
Candido among them) and Liston’s
orchestral ya-yas flirt with bachelor-pad
exotica and Hollywood Bible-epic
kitsch, without going quite that far. By
Highlife three years later, Weston had
made his first African trip, to Nigeria,
and the pieces are shorter, more tuneful
and merry: more true to the source, not
to mention congenial to his own musical
temperament. (Liston sounds happier
with this stuff too.) Weston’s next step
was logical. Five years later he was running a nightspot in Morocco, the
African Rhythms Club. KEVIN WHITEHEAD
Shirley Horn: May the Music Never End.
Horn, producer; David Baker, engineer.
Verve 440 076 028
o jazz singer
alive has a surer
way with a lyric
than Shirley Horn.
In the pantheon,
she belongs next to
Billie Holiday, not
because she sounds like her—she doesn’t, at all—but because, like Holiday,
she cuts quick to the core of a song,
possesses it, and crafts the sensation
that it’s telling her story, that she’s
composing it, re-living its sorrows and
joys, on the spot.
Horn has had it rough lately. Her
bass player of 20 years died. One of her
legs was amputated, a complication of
diabetes, preventing her from playing
the piano (her self-accompaniment
relied greatly on the sustain pedal,
which she can no longer press). Her
N
Harry Pearson
163
m u s i c
JAZZ
new album, May the Music Never End,
features another pianist, and that’s a
problem, especially on the love ballads,
which Horn sings very, very slowly.
She would use the piano to stir moods
between the lines, ornamenting the
space or prolonging the silence; her
vocal and keyboard stylings shaped
each other in a way that two separate
people, one singer, one pianist, could
not replicate. Still, her fill-in here,
George Mesterhazy, is competent, and
the guest pianist on two songs, Ahmad
Jamal, playing at his peak these days,
is much more. Horn sings not only
with her customary attunement to a
lyric, but also with an emotional rawness
unheard from her till now. On “Never Let
Me Go,” listen to the regret in the line
“all my bridges burned,” the smoldering
passion in “by my flaming heart,” and the
desperation underlying the whispered
confidence of “You’d never leave me,
164
would you/uh-uhh.” On “Ill Wind,” she
gets the full malice of the force at hand,
telling the gust to “blow away” with an
icy fear. Her recitations of “Yesterday”
and the title tune seem so nakedly autobiographical, so naturally intense, you
almost want to turn away. She retains her
touch on the breezy numbers, too. No
one else can glide through an upbeat
blues as sensuously yet insouciantly as she
does on “Take Love Easy.”
The recording puts too much reverb
on Horn’s voice (a recent concert at
Carnegie Hall suggests she needs no sonic
sweetening), and I wish drummer Steve
Williams—Horn’s rhythmic soulmate—
had been mixed more prominently.
Otherwise, the sound quality is very good.
Coda: At that Carnegie concert, Horn
took her encore at the piano bench; she
played well, and her voice—the whole
ensemble—took on an easiness from days
old. She said she’s been experimenting
with a trick pedal and will start playing
again soon. Even without Horn at the
piano, May the Music Never End is her best
album since 1998’s I Remember Miles. Her
next album could be amazing.
FRED KAPLAN
Joel Harrison: Free Country. Harrison, producer. ACT 94192
Adam Levy: Get Your Glow On. Jay
Newland, producer. Lost Wax 0301
n their latest
recordings,
bop-savvy guitarists Adam Levy
and Joel Harrison
tap pop diva
Norah Jones for a
little vocal magic. Like Charlie Hunter,
the avatar of new jazz-fusion guitar, Levy
and Harrison transplanted themselves
O
m u s i c
from the San
Francisco
Bay
Area to the potentially higher profiles offered by
New York City.
Levy’s career includes stints with Tracy Chapman and
Jones. While Get Your Glow On illuminates his sleek and biting electric guitar
tone, bright acoustic soloing, and pop,
funk, and soul sides, he puts his eloquent
picking in the service of guests vocalists
on four tunes, including soul singers
Otis Clay (for Bob Dylan’s “Tonight I’ll
Be Staying Here With You”) and the
ubiquitous Ms. Jones (Elvis Presley’s
“Love Me Tender”). He also allows generous room for Tin Hat Trio’s Rob
Burger to stretch out on country-tinged
piano and funky-space organ. Producer
Jay Newland (co-producer and engineer
of Jones’s breakthrough) gives every
instrument plenty of distinct presence
without having to battle through any
unnecessary studio sheen.
Harrison, who concentrated on composing on such previous releases as
Transience, flexes his arranging chops on
this “jazz Americana” collection of folk
and country tunes. Jones utters the
album’s first notes on an exquisitely slow
version of Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the
Line,” and returns for a dreamy
“Tennessee Waltz.” Harrison’s quintet
(including Lost Tribe saxophonist David
Binney and String Trio of New York violinist Rob Thomas) pushes Jones and
other guest singers (Jen Chapin, Raz
Kennedy) into adventurous territory with
tricky tempos and complex harmonies.
Sampled sounds and additional guests—
including accordionist Tony Cedras, keyboardist Rob Burger, and pianist Uri
Caine—further complicate the textures,
all of which are mixed cinematically with
attention to depth and breadth on a
soundstage where Mingus, Gil Evans,
Henry Threadgill, and Bill Frisell all
might feel comfortable. Harrison’s guitar
tone ranges from ringing to weepy, he
occasionally putting blues- and acid-rock
exclamation points on this delivery of
Pony Express music into the post-modern
DERK RICHARDSON
age.
Lee Konitz with Alan Broadbent: Live-Lee.
Orrin Keepnews, producer; Phil Edwards,
engineer. Milestone 9329
ee Konitz plays
for adults—not
that jazz extroverts
don’t, necessarily,
but the alto saxophonist
always
trusts his audience
to meet him half way. Stick with his
long, leisurely-developed argument, and
he’ll repay your time and attention. Cool,
folks call him, but who makes a more
intimate bargain with the listener, or has
a more confidential timbre? His sound’s
often soft, sometimes bracing, always
sensitive to fine nuances of emotional
weather or musical syntax. Improvising
on the most trod-upon standards—
“Cherokee” for instance—he squirrels his
way through thickets of chords, staying
off well-cleared paths without getting
tangled in the briars. Admirers say he
always avoided imitating Charlie Parker,
and his more pliant tone is certainly his
own. But Parker’s knack for making
every improvised phrase seem like an
aphorism, and for swinging to an implicit double-time beat, inspires Konitz still.
All he needs, really, is good company,
and he finds it in pianist Alan
Broadbent, who plays with more clarity,
economy, and acuity here than in other
settings where I’ve heard him. (He may
be best known to jazz folk for his work
with Charlie Haden’s Quartet West.) An
autumn 2000 week at LA’s Jazz Bakery
was his first on-stage encounter with
Konitz; Live-Lee was recorded on the
weekend. From the top of “I’ll
Remember April,” where the saxophonist instantly picks up on the pianist’s
understated but cloddish march—a
gambit each immediately drops,
Broadbent moving on to terse staccato
chords, and then rolling harmonies—it’s
clear Konitz is with someone who understands him, gets the game, and has the
resources to keep up.
Both musicians studied with Lennie
Tristano, and inherited his love of walking time and long snaky syncopated
L
JAZZ
lines: an improbably sturdy amalgam of
Parker and Bach. Still, they’re less
indebted to Tristano’s mannerisms than
his contrapuntal outlook; they tug at
each other all sorts of ways. Konitz has
made other nice duo records (like the
recent Gong with Wind Suite with Matt
Wilson on SteepleChase), but this one
matches any for simpatico.
Sound is more present and less
reverbed-up than on many live dates, the
recording detailed enough to pick up
Lee’s faintest feints. And the audience is
so graciously quiet you’ll wonder if the
KW
applause was dubbed in.
Ralph Alessi: This Against That and Vice &
Virtue. Alessi and Ravi Coltrane, producers;
Bobo Fini, engineer. RKM 003 and 002
KM is a new,
artist-controlled label set up
by Ravi Coltrane
(John’s son and a
fine tenor saxman),
but it’s no vanity
operation; Coltrane
doesn’t even play
on its first three
releases. Two are
led by Ralph Alessi, the trumpeter in
Steve Coleman’s
band. This Against That sports a quintet
of stars, including clarinetist Don Byron
and pianist Jason Moran. Vice & Virtue
consists of duets and trios with drums or
trombone.
Alessi blows with a pure tone that
segues into a knife-edged blues, and often
ends phrases a half-tone off target while
sounding just right. Both albums might
veer toward “chamber jazz”—a bit cerebral and precious—but for the simmering ensemble work, loosely structured yet
tightly coordinated, which thickens the
tension and makes the resolutions all the
more satisfying. On This Against That,
bassist Drew Gress anchors the rhythm,
while drummer Nasheet Waits klook-amops around its edges and guitarist
David Gilmore stirs the spice. Vice &
Virtue consists mainly of little-played
standards: a contemplative take on
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165
m u s i c
JAZZ
Ornette Coleman’s “Peace,” with drummer Shane Endsley prodding from way
outside the beat; a loose-swing version of
Monk’s “Bye Ya,” with Endsley pounding
the sharp angles. There are some trumpet-flugelhorn-trombone trios, each horn
tracing a separate melodic line but harmonizing like a church hymn. This is
heady stuff from a promising venture.
The sonics are vivid, too—a bit too much
bass, but a spacious soundstage, clarion
horns, and very clear, crisp percussion. FK
APA INI: APA INI. Tobias Delius and Dick
Lucas, producers; Lucas, engineer. DATA 033
here are many
varieties of that
hardy jazz offshoot
called European
improvised music.
A few of them:
blow-off-the-roof
T
166
free play, full of rough-housing horns;
pointillism, in which the sonic texture is
constructed incrementally, from small or
isolated sounds; vamp-based wailing
sparked by West African drummers. A
new Amsterdam quartet combines all of
the above in a wholly natural way. APA
INI—Indonesian for “What is that?”—
includes two mainstays of the city’s
well-developed jazz-and-improvising
scene, tenor saxophonist (and occasional
clarinetist) Tobias Delius and bassist
Wilbert de Joode, alongside two more
recent arrivals, Senegalese percussionist
Serigne C. M. Gueye and English trombonist Hilary Jeffery.
Serigne’s hand drums (including
djembé and the conga-set-like
bugarabu) and rhythms rooted in
Senegalese traditions set the pace, but a
key reason the band succeeds is that
everyone can get percussive. De Joode
shuns amplification in favor of high
string-tension and a pushy, front-loaded
attack like Jimmy Blanton’s. Jeffery possesses a range of expressive effects, from
forceful plosives to misshapen, muted
tones, gleaned from his new music (he’s
a James Fulkerson protégé) and jazz
experience. And Delius, as those of us
who’ve heard him keep saying, is one of
the tenor’s well-kept secrets, with the
lavish, sumptuous tone of a ’30s swing
hero, an original harmonic ear, and a full
quiver of attacks; he can slide a note in
sideways, let it burst like a bubble, or
pop like a champagne cork.
This isn’t your vamp-happy, minimalism-on-the-cheap world-music scam.
Once the groove is established the
improvisers’s instincts take over, and
from there the texture may get thicker or
thinner. “Bugar,” for one, takes off from
a complex bugarabu doubletime dance,
whose rhythm Delius picks up on and
elaborates; Jeffery grabs that elaboration
m u s i c
and follows his own vector, as De Joode
embroiders the drum tempo, sometimes
layering his own cycles over the top. And
Gueye is no beat box; he too knows when
to change up and lay back and acknowledge the changing terrain. The long and
short improvisations have those good
close-listening jazzy qualities: surprise,
variety, momentum.
Dutch wiz Dick Lucas’s sound is
typically pristine, if mastered at a typically low level. For contrast they play
two of Delius’s shapely tunes so well you
KW
wish they’d play some more.
Miles Davis: The Complete Jack Johnson
Sessions. Teo Macero, producer, original
sessions; Bob Belden, producer, compilation. Columbia/Legacy 86359 (5 CDs)
istening to all five CDs of The
Complete Jack Johnson Sessions is something like poring over the transcripts
L
and blackboard
drawings of the
Manhattan
Project,
the
WWII research
group
that
developed the
atomic bomb. There’s more detail than
the average citizen would ever need,
but for the Miles Davis or jazz-rock
fusion completist, it yields a mother
lode of seminal information. A pair of
25-minute tracks, “Right Off” and
“Yesternow,” famously stitched together with additional material by Teo
Macero, filled the two sides of the original 1971 LP, A Tribute to Jack Johnson,
which writer Bill Milkowski calls
Davis’ “rock manifesto.” Here they take
up only a portion of the last disc of
music recorded between February and
June 1970. Whoever invests in this
expansive box set—which includes
JAZZ
Davis’ original notes, essays by Bob
Belden, Michael Cuscuna, and
Milkowski, and four-and-a-half hours
of previously unissued material (34 of
the 42 tracks)—will be someone who
takes it on faith that more is more.
The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions raises the question, “how many takes of
‘Willie Nelson’ and ‘Nem Um Talvez’
does anyone need?” That depends on
how closely one wants to examine this
crucial transitional period between
Davis’ relatively tame electric experiments on Bitches Brew and full-blown
Africanized funk of On the Corner. The
session-by-session breakdown finds the
then-44-year-old trumpeter exploring
hardcore funk rhythms and psychedelic
guitar-driven textures in a workshoplike setting over the course of four
months (during which Davis undertook
many live test runs at Fillmore East and
West). A parade of all-star musicians
167
m u s i c
came through the studio and made brief
appearances, including Ron Carter,
Gene Perla, Airto, Hermeto Pascoal, and
Wayne Shorter.
The late Coltrane-inspired guitarist
Sonny Sharrock finally gets credit for his
contribution to several of the “Willie
Nelson” tracks; Chick Corea and Keith
Jarrett share electric keyboard duties,
with Herbie Hancock dropping in on
organ, and soprano saxophonist Steve
Grossman emerging as an impressive
foil. But what makes this Davis’s “rock
manifesto,” indeed what makes it rock
harder than any jazz had before, are the
rhythm sections—one with guitarist
John McLaughlin, bassist Dave Holland,
and drummer Jack DeJohnette, the
other with McLaughlin joined by bassist
Michael Henderson and drummer Billy
Cobham. And while some jams range
between ten and 15 minutes, Davis had
not yet suspended his interest in songforms, and his oft-cited obsession with
the funk innovations of James Brown
and Sly Stone is palpable in the surging
pulses and staccato phrasing.
The keyboardists provide intriguing
color and texture, but the bassists—
Holland grooving with surprising ferocity, and Henderson introducing pivotal
repetitive patterns—and drummers—
Cobham likewise adding even more
focus and hitting harder than
DeJohnette—exert far greater sway. In
this exploded and up-close view (made
intimate by meticulous remastering that
yields clean instrumental presence and
separation), however, McLaughlin is the
player who most rivals Davis, preparing
himself for lift-off into the Mahavishnu
stratosphere with radical rhythm comping and Hendrix-like wah-wah manipulations. Should anyone think Davis was
at all tentative about his funky moves,
his forceful trumpeting conveys no reticence whatsoever; he blows with exhilaration of a man who knows exactly
where he’s been and where he’s going. DR
SACD
John Coltrane: Blue Train. Rudy Van
Gelder, engineer & remastering. Hybrid
stereo SACD (vs. Classic Records 200gram mono LP). Blue Note 41757 (Sonic
Rating: 7)
Bill Charlap: Stardust. Joel Moss, engineer. Hybrid multichannel. Blue Note
41746 (Sonic Rating: 7)
Miles Davis: Steamin’. Rudy Van Gelder,
engineer. Shawn R. Britton, remastering.
Hybrid mono. Mobile Fidelity 2019 (Sonic
Rating: 8)
A
few mainstream
jazz
labels have started
venturing
into
SACD, most with
puzzlingly mixed
results, but Blue
Note’s maiden voyage seems on track.
Blue Train, Coltrane’s 1957 anthemic mix of
hard-bop blues and
ballads, is a natural
first choice—one of
the label’s all-time
best sellers and
sonic wonders. It’s
a superb SACD:
Trane’s sax seems
right there, as do
Lee
Morgan’s
trumpet and Curtis Fuller’s trombone;
Philly Joe Jones’ drums crash and simmer; Paul Chambers’ bass slaps and
growls. For fuller fidelity, go to Classic
Records’ new 200-gram mono LP, which
reveals a bit more of the horns’ brass bite
and subtle phrasing. Still, the sonic difference isn’t as huge as vinylphiles
might assume.
Bill Charlap’s Stardust came out, on
standard CD, just last year and deserves
a listen now if you missed it then.
Charlap is a traditional pianist, bordering on cabaret but for his mastery of
dynamics and a quietly adventurous
way with chords. Kenny and Peter
Washington, on bass and drums, keep
the pressure up. Guitarist Jim Hall and
Basie’s tenor saxman, Frank Wess, sit in
on a few songs. Tony Bennett sings two
JAZZ
(weakly), Shirley Horn one (marvelously). All the songs are by Hoagy
Carmichael, and they’re delights. The
sonics are extraordinarily vivid; Wess’
sax sounds very nearly real; Horn’s voice
is more present than on her own
albums. The piano sparkles. Only the
bass is a bit bloated.
Steamin’ is the second classic-jazz
SACD released by Mobile Fidelity (the
first being the wondrous remastering of
Coltrane’s Soultrane). It’s the least of the
five albums that stemmed from the
Miles Davis Quintet’s legendary
marathon sessions for Prestige in 1956,
but that’s like being the least-delicious
dish in a five-star restaurant. The sound
is jaw-droppingly 3-D; Red Garland’s
piano never sounded so full on any previous issue; Coltrane sometimes sounds a
bit harsh, but that’s due to a stiff reed,
FK
not the format.
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popular
Pop Caps
Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Greendale.
Young and L.A. Johnson, producers.
Reprise 48533
“That guy just keeps singin’/Can’t
somebody shut him up?/I don’t know
for the life of me where he comes up
with this stuff”
—lyric from “Grandpa’s Interview”
ith Greendale,
the ever-restless Neil Young has
made a new masterpiece, the scope
of which hasn’t
been seen or heard
since 1976’s Rust Never Sleeps. A musical
novel, Greendale intertwines the plausible story of a small town and its residents with imperative issues of homegrown militancy, government spying,
personal privacy, media supremacy, corporate greed, and environmental
destruction. That Young pulls it off
without drowning is remarkable; that he
does it so cohesively, cleverly, and coherently is astonishing.
Greendale is a modern parable of
humanity and ethics. At its core are the
values that Young has always supported:
family, freedom, honor, and especially,
love and affection. While he’s remained
active and made a string of solid albums,
Young hasn’t been this sharp, agitated, or
motivated in some time. He’s timed
Greendale to arrive just as the battle for
Alaska’s natural resources is heating up.
Though he could have chosen another setting, Young picked the site of America’s
last wilderness as ground zero, and it’s
there where the narrative culminates.
For a story to which no synopsis does
justice, Young’s loaded up on lyrical
scenery. Tiki torches, dusty Cadillac
Eldorados, news helicopters, drug stashes, and concealed money are among the
props that illuminate his vision, each
subtly revealing their importance after
W
Neil Young
every listen. To emphasize characters’
speech, Young’s voice assumes different
timbres and goes as far as blaring messages through a megaphone.
In channeling Jimmy Reed’s
relaxed, slow, smoldering electric blues
and pairing it with folk melodies,
Young has found the perfect musical
accompaniment to his spoken-sung
lyrics. There’s precedent in the undulating waves of “The Days That Used To
Be” and progressive momentum in the
autobiographical “I Am the Ocean,” but
Crazy Horse has never loped, shuffled, or
rollicked quite like this. Eight of the ten
songs—chapters, really—are variations
on basic, groove-heavy blues riffs which
Young opens like an aluminum can,
rocks back and forth, works up and
down, and bobs like a buoy at sea. Crazy
Horse veterans Ralph Molina and Billy
Talbot lean their loose rhythms into
Young’s hypnotic guitar sway and howling harmonica. (Guitarist Frank
Sampedro doesn’t appear on the record,
allowing Young’s playing to roam freely
and sound more open.) Ironically, it’s an
acoustic song that’s most likely to be
embraced. An instant classic, “Bandit” is
a subconscious soul-searcher speared by
Young slapping a slackened E-string as
he whispers hopeful lyrics. Falling in the
middle of Greendale, it’s the record’s
transitional moment.
Sonically, the music floats by, taking
on a cameras-rolling feel. If there’s one
minor flaw, it comes via a few schmaltzy
lyrics and layered choruses during the
album closing “Be the Rain.” But the
song possesses one of the sturdiest,
catchiest hooks Young’s ever written. It
comes on like a flood—a huge release
after the nine previous tracks that keep
building tension until it all explodes in
one nine-minute rush. True to form,
Young leaves some questions unresolved, some mysteries open-ended, but
provides enough detail without giving
everything away.
Like every Young record, Greendale
is available on vinyl. Initial pressings of
the CD come with a DVD of Young
acoustically performing the album in its
entirety, and Young’s hand-held feature
film scripted for the record arrives on
DVD in the fall.
Reprise has also reissued and remastered the four long out-of-print records
Young made before his brief, controversial stint with Geffen. Of these, 1974’s On
the Beach is the decade’s forgotten gem, a
dark reflection on American politics,
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m u s i c
popular
paranoia, and shattered culture—from
the failed hippie dream to the emptiness
of celebrity to Nixon. The other albums
are spotty yet have their own secret
rewards, especially 1981’s Re-ac-tor,
which finds Young charged up about
Japanese automobiles on “Motor City”
and riffing over the same lyrical phrase
for nine minutes on “T-Bone.” The
Chinese calendar says 2003 is the Year of
the Sheep, but have no doubt: this is the
BOB GENDRON
Year of the Horse.
My Morning Jacket: It Still Moves. Jim
James, producer. ATO RCA 52979
he third album
from
Louisville’s My Morning
Jacket, It Still
Moves is an evershifting sonic tapestry, incorporating
T
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reverb-drenched psychedelic ballads,
Southern-flavored rockers, flashes of
Exile on Main Street-era Stones (Memphis
horns and all), as well as hints of the
Yardbirds, The Band, Grateful Dead,
Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and The
Beach Boys. And I’ve yet to mention the
guy MMJ is most often compared to,
Neil Young.
While it’s true that bandleadersinger-songwriter Jim James’s voice does
sound like Young’s—though James’s
tenor is the sweeter instrument—and
the band’s many influences are worn like
proverbial hearts-on-the-sleeve, such
comparisons both simplify and discount
what MMJ is aiming at and achieving.
None of these musical inspirations come
off as self-conscious copycatting, but
rather like an amalgamation of experimental forces being channeled through
five guys who love to play and create
music together, with a fair dash of ’60’s-
style innocence thrown in for good
measure. Though It Still Moves is not
quite the equal of MMJ’s last full-length
outing, At Dawn, it is ambitious and
lengthy, clocking in at 70-plus minutes.
The first nine songs are particularly
strong, hinting at the imagination and
power the group is reported to display in
concert. But the last three tracks run out
of steam, and a shorter playlist would
have made for a better album.
The sound of the record is very good.
The acoustic ballads, with their layers of
reverb, are spacious, and like the songs
they contain rather dreamy, while the
electric numbers nicely capture the feeling of a live-in-the-studio rock band,
with a bit of depth and surprising focus.
Quibbles about the last few songs aside,
if you know My Morning Jacket you
will want to get It Still Moves. If you
don’t know them you should—but start
WAYNE GARCIA
with At Dawn.
m u s i c
popular
Cheap Trick: Special One. Cheap Trick,
Chris Shaw, et al., producers. BIG3
Records 36333
n their first studio release in
six years, music’s
power-pop geniuses
have made what’s
their finest and first
must-have studio
album since recording Dream Police nearly 25 years ago. Having spent the ’80s
and early ’90s wallowing in mawkish
self-parody, Cheap Trick’s future didn’t
look bright. By the decade’s close, the
band managed two decent sets, but both
fell victim to hard-luck circumstance—
Warner didn’t promote 1994’s Woke Up
With A Monster and Red Ant went bankrupt three weeks after 1997’s Cheap Trick
hit streets. Smelling the Spinal Tap
irony, Trick took matters into their own
hands. Refusing to die, they returned
reinvigorated to their playful arena-rock
roots, hit the road, and self-released two
fantastic live records.
Made on its own terms, Special One is
their reward. The music has all the hallmarks of the band’s heyday: crunchy guitars, grappling hooks, fervent songwriting, sweet melodies, blue-eyed soul, and
wacky humor. The lynchpin is the strutting “Scent of a Woman,” one of the
catchiest singles ever penned by the very
unit that wrote the pop-dictionary entry
for mesmeric. On the song, Rick Neilson
cranks out hyper power chords and interjects clipped country-blues riffs; Bun E.
Carlos pounds out a simple but insistent
backbeat; and Robin Zander shifts his
soaring dynamic vocals into full throttle,
demonstrating a range that no rock
singer his age (50) has a right to possess.
The remainder of Special One follows
suit. Longtime fans will delight in slight
references to the band’s classic songs.
The Nirvana-meets-Harry Chapin dirge
“Best Friend” recalls the bizarro “The
Ballad of TV Violence”; the Japaneseinflected guitar on the title track is a tip
of the hat to their favorite country; the
burnt ZZ Top shuffle on the instrumental “Low Life In High Heels/Hummer”
O
Cheap Trick
complements 1977’s “Mandocello.”
Produced by an all-star lineup that
includes Steve Albini and Jack Douglas,
the production has a big, edgy sound.
With a genuine bottom end, Tom
Petersson’s 12-string bass is particularly
prominent, and on top, Zander’s high
notes are well preserved. Initial pressings
come with a bonus DVD. A triumphant
return for one of rock’s great bands. BG
Béla Fleck & The Flecktones: Little
Worlds. Fleck, producer. Columbia 90358
(3 CDs)
ittle Worlds
may be the
first album in
over three years
by Béla Fleck &
The Flecktones,
but that doesn’t
mean the brilliant banjo player and his
equally talented bandmates have been
idle. Clocking in at roughly two hours
and twenty minutes, this 3-disc set runs
the range from Irish jigs to dirges, hiphop to jazz, bluegrass to new age, world
to technopop. And though not every
song is a winner (there are a few “jazz
lite” numbers I could do without),
remarkable quality and connectedness
are present in every track, adding up to
L
an impressive arc of musical invention.
In addition to the basic Flecktones
lineup (Fleck, banjo; Victor Wooten,
bass; Future Man, synth-axe drumitar;
Jeff Coffin, tenor and alto saxes), Fleck
invited a staggering array of guest talent
to collaborate on the project. Vocalists
Bobby McFerrin and Divinity turn out a
charming hip-hop take on Flatt and
Scruggs’ “The Ballad of Jed Clampett,”
the song which inspired Fleck to pick up
the banjo at age 15 and which also
includes Sam Bush on mandolin.
Branford Marsalis’s soprano sax is sprinkled throughout, most beautifully in
“Captive Delusions,” a lovely and wistful duet with Jeff Coffin’s tenor. Derek
Trucks lends his electric guitar to a few
cuts, Jerry Douglas his dobro, and “The
Leaning Tower” features The Chieftains.
This is just a partial list of the musicians
and layers of instrumental tones and textures found on Little Worlds.
Co-mastered by audiophile veteran
Doug Sax, the sonics are excellent, with
a super-clean flat studio perspective,
exceptionally snappy dynamics, and a
taut, well-articulated bottom end.
Granted, three CDs is a lot of music.
But Fleck, the ’Tones, and their friends
pull it off. For the less hardcore fan, a
condensed single-disc version is also
WG
available.
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m u s i c
popular
SACD
The Man Who Invented Soul: The Sam
Cooke ABKCO Remasters
Sam Cooke: Ain’t That Good News. 98992
Sam Cooke: At The Copa. 99702
Sam Cooke: Keep Movin’ On. 95632
Sam Cooke: Portrait of a Legend 19511964. 92642
am Cooke had one of the all-timegreat voices—pretty but not feminine, warm yet exceptionally pure,
slightly gravelly but never rough. And
though it’s tempting to call him a “soul
singer,” he was really far too versatile to
wear but a single badge. With his roots
planted deeply in the soil of southern
gospel, Cooke’s drive to succeed (he was
the first black artist to start his own
For all: ABKCO. Hybrid stereo save for At
the Copa, hybrid multichannel. Various original producers; Jody Klein and Teri Landi,
restoration producers. (Sonic Rating: 8)
A
B
S
O
L
U
record label) and far-ranging musical
interests led him to write an extraordinary string of pop hits (beginning with
1957’s “You Send Me”) and soul classics
(such as “Shake”), in addition to covering country (“Tennessee Waltz”) and
folk (“If I Had a Hammer,” “Blowin’ in
the Wind”). But whatever he sang—
even the schmaltzy stuff—soulful it certainly was.
S
T
E
A
U
D
I
O
P
H
I
L
I
A
A Mighty Welcome Wind
JONATHAN VALIN
Joan Baez: Farewell Angelina. Maynard Solomon, producer. Vanguard VSD 79200/Cisco Records (180-gram vinyl)
Ian and Sylvia: Northern Journey. Maynard Solomon, producer. Vanguard VSD 79154/Cisco Records (180-gram vinyl)
n 1960, when Joan Baez recorded
her first eponymous album for
Vanguard, in that famously pure,
flame-like soprano, folk music meant
English and Scottish ballads from
Francis Child’s collection, a smattering of
protest songs from the thirties and forties,
a few oft-performed Negro spirituals and
laments, and a bit of left-leaning international repertory. By the time she recorded
her heavily Dylan-influenced Farewell
Angelina in 1965, the world had changed
irrevocably. It had taken Dylan to remind us
that we, too, were folk who made music.
And it had taken the devastating history of
the early sixties to turn a tradition-bound, quasi-academic genre
into living poetry.
The two wonderful Vanguard albums that Cisco has reissued
on 180-gram vinyl span the divide between traditional folk music
of the early ’60s and the post-Dylan folk music of the mid-’60s,
though his influence is felt on each.
The Canadian duo of Ian Tyson and Sylvia Fricker recorded
Northern Journey in 1963, soon after making a splash at the
Newport Folk Festival. The album contains two of their best selfpenned songs, “Some Day Soon” and “You Were on My Mind”
(both, like so many other Ian and Sylvia songs, “hits” for other
artists, though neither better performed than they are here),
along with bluegrass and c&w-tinged fare, as well as traditional
folk ballads. Traditional or contemporary, all of the numbers on
this album are terrific. And Cisco’s sound is to die for. The roughhewn timbres of Ian and Sylvia’s voices and the down-home twang
I
of their harmonies were distinctively different than the planeddown prettiness of groups like Peter, Paul, and Mary. The album
captures this authentic rawness, sexiness, and playfulness with
“you-are-there” realism.
Joan Baez was mixing Dylan with folk as early as ’62. But on
Farewell Angelina she “stepped out,” to use a phrase that Dylan
was fond of. The first three numbers on Side One are Dylan
tunes— “Farewell, Angelina,” “Daddy, You Been On My Mind,” “It’s
All Over Now, Baby Blue”—and Side Two ends with “A Hard Rain
Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.” In between she sings traditional ballads,
with particularly gorgeous renditions of “Wild Mountain Thyme”
and “The River in the Pines.” For some, Joan Baez singing Dylan
is a bit too much like Cecilia Bartoli singing The Beatles. To me,
The Voice Meets The Poet is an entire success—a bit high-flown,
sure, but nonetheless incredibly lovely, spirited, and chaste.
Cisco’s remastered sound, taken like that of the Ian and Sylvia
album from the original half-inch tape and mastered pure analog
(with tubes, at that), is the best I’ve heard from this recording—
and I’ve been living with various iterations of this great disc since
it first came out.
While it is only too easy now to laugh at the earnestness and
innocence and, yes, phoniness of the folk craze (Baez, for example, knew not one blessed thing about the history of the songs
she immortalized), if you were there at the time—and I was—you
will always look back on albums like these, and the four or five
years that the folk revival flourished, with immense love and sadness, for in looking back on them you’re looking back on yourself,
before, during, and after time, tide, and the terrible sixties beat
all or most of the yearning hopefulness out of you.
For Bob Pincus and the other good folks at Cisco, I have only
one request: More, please.
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m u s i c
Ain’t That Good News was Cooke’s
first record on his own Tracey label. At
this point in his career (late ’63/early
’64) Cooke had moved beyond the teen
love songs (“Cupid,” “Only Sixteen,”
“Wonderful World”) that had made
him so popular, and into a more
mature, worldly, and funky style.
(Revisiting these records is a sad
reminder at just how great was his loss,
gunned down at 33.) Although the
spine-tingling anthem, “A Change Is
Gonna Come” (inspired by Dylan’s
Blowin’ in the Wind”), is arguably
Cooke’s greatest song, Good News contains any number of unforgettable
numbers, and “Falling In Love” is a
heartbreaking unrequited love song.
At The Copa is an interesting snapshot of live Cooke, though one taken
with a somewhat distorted lens as the
singer deliberately reverted to more
popular fare to please the nightclub’s
toney audience. Regardless, the band is
superb, the arrangements classy, and
Cooke, who had flopped at the venue six
years earlier, is in top form. Highlights
include “Nobody Knows You When
You’re Down and Out,” Cooke’s standard medley of hits, and a rollicking
“Twistin’ the Night Away.” The sound
here is the best of the batch, the most
transparent, holographic, and dynamically free. Copa also has a carefully crafted 5.1-channel surround mix, with the
listener placed in the audience (occasional conversation and tinkling ice
cubes and all) and Cooke and his musicians where they should be—in front of
us, dammit.
The compilations, Keep Movin’ On
and Portrait, duplicate much of the same
material, with Movin’ On basically covering the last year of Cooke’s career and
Portrait, with its 30 tracks and staggering 83-minute playing time, spanning
the entire breadth of it, including his
first recording with the Soul Stirrers,
1951’s “Jesus Gave Me Water.” The
sound of the studio cuts varies, naturally, but as with the Stones titles ABKCO
has knocked another one out of the park,
and the liner notes by Peter Guralnick
(who’s currently writing Cooke’s bio) are
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outstanding.
Nickel Creek: Nickel Creek. Sugar Hill
3970 (Sonic Rating: 7)
Nickel Creek: This Side. Sugar Hill 3970
(Sonic Rating: 8)
For both: Hybrid multichannel. Alison
Krauss, original producer; Gary Paczosa,
SACD producer.
hen the “bluegrass-plus”
acoustic trio Nickel
Creek (NC) released its self-titled
debut album in
2000, critics and
audiences were won
over in equal measure. Nickel Creek
went on to sell over
800,000 discs and
earned a Grammy
nomination.
In
August 2002, the group released This
Side, which has since been awarded the
Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk
Album. It’s easy to hear why. The charm
of this Southern Cal-based band stems
from its fresh challenge to our preconceptions of homespun musical genres
like folk and bluegrass—NC simultaneously honors old-world traditions while
respinning them with contemporary
country-pop hooks and hill-country
accents. Here, the echoes of bluegrass
legends Flatt & Scruggs and The
Dillards rub shoulders with those of The
Beatles and Eagles. With Sara Watkins
on violin and Sean Watkins on guitar
(both sing lead as well), NC offers crisp
ensemble playing, but it’s Chris Thile’s
mandolin virtuosity and quirky singing
that puts the caffeine in the coffee and
keeps it percolating. When he lies out,
Nickel Creek loses a few pennies.
Whereas NC’s debut album hewed
closely to the roots-oriented folk periphery, This Side finds the trio striding
toward mainstream center. But with just
one instrumental (compared to five on
Nickel Creek), the added songwriting
chores result in growing pains.
There is no contest between these
hybrid discs’ PCM and SACD layers. The
W
popular
SACD stereo layer returns the resonant
body to the instruments and removes a
layer of grunge from the top end.
Dimensionality and separation of images
are improved as well. The multichannel
mixes couldn’t be less similar. The mix
on Nickel Creek is flat and lacking an
acoustic envelope, while the more creative, involving mix on This Side is discretely immersive with a wide, dimensional soundstage. Sugar Hill has also
made available on SACD Dolly Parton’s
Little Sparrow and Halos and Horns, the
country star’s mountain-roots albums
from 2001 and 2002, respectively.
NEIL GADER
The Kinks: Everybody’s In Show-Biz and
Low Budget. Mobile Fidelity 2010 & 2008
For both: Hybrid stereo. Ray Davies, original producer; Shawn Britton, remastering.
(Sonic Rating: 7)
obile Fidelity’s
decision to put
The Kinks on
SACD is a good
one. Like The
Animals’, this British band’s catalog
has been crying out
for better mastering
for years. The
downside to these
two records is that
they arrived after
The Kinks had
peaked, and are stepchildren to classics
like The Village Green Preservation Society.
1972’s Everybody’s In Show-Biz is a
concept double album, with half dedicated to live performances and the other
to songs about life on the road. But the
music suffers from Ray Davies’ pop
eccentricities. The studio side’s quirky
musical arrangements play like a defective melding of The Band and E.L.
Doctorow’s Ragtime; the live performances are similarly jumbled.
Released in 1979, Low Budget was the
last good Kinks record. That the album’s
title, and songs like “A Gallon of Gas,”
refer to the American economic recession
and oil crisis is fitting, since a handful of
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popular
watered-down pop-rock songs (“Catch
Me Now I’m Falling,” “Superman”) and
their glitzy Broadway choruses now
sound like a time capsule containing Bad
Company and Eddie Money.
These discs continue MoFi’s ongoing
streak of Super Audio sonic success. Both
are remastered from original, Ray
Davies-approved analog tapes. The studio material is wide open, with significant depth, taut bass, and impeccable
phasing. Davies’ voice cracks with attitudinal emotion, the rhythm pops, and the
drums seem thisclose to being right in
front of our noses. We hear without
interference the fussed-over guitar tones,
specifically dialed in for each song. Get
Low Budget for its snapshot of late ’70s
America, dirty crank (“Low Budget,” “In
A Space”), and thick, thumping sound,
but hope that MoFi gets its hands on The
Kinks’ mid-to-late Sixties catalog and
BG
does it this kind of justice.
DVD-A
Steely Dan: Everything Must Go. Walter
Becker and Donald Fagen, producers.
Reprise 48435 (Sonic Rating: 9)
hen Steely Dan
is at its considerable best, one feels
as if he’s dropping
in on a believable
situation, a vignette
taken from a larger,
complex reality. Certainly, the events of
the past few years, since 2000’s
Grammy-winning Two Against Nature,
have provided plenty of mise-en-scènes for
Donald Fagen and Walter Becker’s darkly cynical sensibilities: “Godwhacker” is
a strangely ambivalent take on post9/11 American vengefulness and the
title track considers Enronesque corporate malfeasance. But throughout
Everything Must Go, the composer/lyricists more often adopt a stance of distanced ironic observation, rather than
truly inhabiting their creations.
Much seems very familiar: Fagen
under the spell of another unbalanced
free spirit (now half his age) in “Lunch
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with Gina” or nostalgically recalling the
good life (“Things I Miss the Most”).
Textual details seem familiar, too—it’s
Jill St. John instead of Tuesday Weld
that our hero is reminded of this time
out; we’re drinking Tanqueray instead of
Cuervo Gold or kirschwasser-from-ashell. Apart from the words, many of the
songs sound like other Steely Dan songs.
Walter and Donald may devise new
adventuresome harmonic excursions,
but the backing vocals, horn arrangements, the facile guitar curlicues—
you’ve heard it all before. It’s nice to
have Becker’s amiably loping bass on
every cut, though his guitar solos can
wear thin and one lead vocal from the
guy (“Slang of Ages”) is one too many
when his partner still has one of the
most arresting voices in all of pop music.
The sound on the CD is what you’d
expect—open, dynamic, detailed, great
bass. The DVD-A was released simultaneously and, presumably, the 5.1 multichannel is not a revisionist afterthought.
It’s rational, consistent, and clarifying.
Lead vocals, bass, drums, and sax solos
are solidly anchored in front; behind,
there are subsidiary guitar parts, horn
sections, some sweetening vocals. For
once, there isn’t the sense of the music
being pulled apart but, rather, a pleasing
three-dimensional mass of sound, the
preferred way to experience this material.
ANDREW QUINT
Deacon John’s Jump Blues. Cyril E. Vetter,
producer; Mark Waldrep, DVD-A producer.
Image 0557 (CD); AIX 81004 (DVD-A)
(Sonic Rating: 9)
ouisiana blues
guitarist/vocal
ist Deacon John
Moore is a session
player who’s played with the likes
of Irma Thomas
and Lee Dorsey over a 40-year career.
Here, he leads a cast of New Orleans legends through an homage to ’50s and
’60s Crescent City jump blues, gospel,
and R&B. Allen Toussaint and Dr. John
are among the guests, but this project’s
appeal is in how well it captures the
L
period’s feel without sounding at all
derivative, forced, or canned. It’s loaded
with talents that, for one reason or
another, never got their names on the
marquee the way Professor Longhair and
Fats Domino did.
In Moore’s case, he never made a solo
record that gave him national exposure.
On this, his dulcet rhythms and gilded
tones sound best where they’re at—in
the thick of the music, modest so that
they never subtract from the song’s
intent or stick out in an ensemble where
no individual is the star. Another Big
Easy performer, pianist Henry Butler
tinkles the ivory on “Jumpin’ In The
Morning,” the disc’s sweaty opener.
Butler, who collaborated with acoustic
blues sensation Corey Harris on 2000’s
Vu-du Menz, is one of jazz’s unsung
greats, a visionary artist with the potential to revitalize anything he plays.
Other standouts include The Zion
Harmonizers’ spiritual a cappella reading
of “Jesus Is On The Main Line” and a
swaying big-band version of the Dave
Bartholomew standard “Someday,”
which Moore sings in a mellifluous voice
that makes the song a classy throwback
to the late Forties. We can almost taste
the Mint Julep and picture women in
their crisp white dresses twirling in
front of a bandstand. If there’s one complaint, it’s that the music is occasionally
too safe. Rather than allow this to be a
distraction, listeners should explore the
original music that inspired this disc—
the eight-disc Mercury Rhythm ’N’ Blues
Story is a terrific touchstone.
Sonics are spectacular and incredibly
clean. The DVD-A is two-sided, one
holding 5.1 Dolby Digital and DTS,
PCM, videos, and liner notes, and the
other, the superior 5.1 MLP mixes.
Originally recorded with tube amps and
Neumann mikes onto an analog 24track master, it’s the first entry in AIX’s
“Analog and Vintage Gear Series.” The
stereo presentation is beautiful, but surround enthusiasts should opt for the 5.1
“Audience” mix—wonderful balance,
huge imaging, and nice use of the rear
channels. Conversely, the 5.1 “Stage”
program is oppressive, with too much
going on behind the listener’s head. BG
C
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179
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New Music from The Mars Volta, Café Tacuba, Tomahawk, Mondo
Generator, EELS, Northern State, and ’60s surf-rock “legends”
Bob Gendron
Third in an occasional series presenting some
of the freshest and most creative new rock and
pop music out there, from innovative artists
worth getting to know.
he most intoxicating headtrip of a record you’ll hear
this year is The Mars Volta’s
De-Loused in the Comatorium [GSL/Strummer/Universal 00593]. In 2001, when poised to
break into the mainstream, At the
Drive-In hastily
called it quits,
three-fifths of the
band went on to
form Sparta, a
good but unspectacular emo-rock
unit, while the other two-fifths—the
two members with Afro hairdos, Omar
Rodriguez and Cedric Bixler—founded
The Mars Volta. Now it’s clear why
ATDI split: That group could never possibly contain the intergalactic sounds
forged by Mars Volta. This is the psychedelic crossroads at which The
Grateful Dead’s freak-out acid tests
come face to face with Parliament’s
mothership funk, where Led Zeppelin’s
monster-boogie firewater mixes with
Can’s complex art-rock elixir. Granted,
when Bixler pushes into the upper peaks
of his vocal register, he sounds pinched,
somewhere betwixt Rush’s Geddy Lee
and Queensryche’s Geoff Tate. But this
record is so extremely strange—and so
extreme—that the ambition fits. None
of this would be possible without Rick
Rubin’s mind-boggling production. So
many sounds happen concurrently—
battery rounds of drums going off like
cherrybombs, cooing organs, knots of
heat-baked electronics, boiling AfroBeat syncopation, speak-and-spell guitar
T
180
tones, threatening bass lines—that it’s a
marvel not to hear this collapse in one
messy heap. But Rubin has balanced
these kinds of loads before, with Rage
Against the Machine and Slayer. He does
it again here, but makes it all sound
even larger, bolder, more imminent. DeLoused is a 10-song cycle inspired by a
childhood friend of the band’s who died
young, whose story the band will soon
make available. But knowing the lyrics
isn’t necessary, for this is as musically
astonishing
and
psychologically
thrilling as it gets from a band that’s
challenging itself and listeners into
another dimension.
While the adage of music as a
universal language
that doesn’t need
translation may not
hold true for all
artists, it does for
Café Tacuba. On its fifth outing,
Mexico City’s premier pop quartet continues to make International Relations
sound sublime. Cuatro Caminos [MCA
32492] isn’t as musically encompassing
as 1999’s double-supreme Reves/Yosoy,
but it’s more cohesive and focused, taking the band ever closer to being the
Latin Beatles—that’s Beatles circa 1967,
with a larger palette at their disposal.
Whether it’s a strummed pop-rock stimulant (“Cero y Uno”) or an urgent electro-acoustic flamenco-tinged ballad
(“Eres”), the music sounds natural,
native. Which of course, it is not. Café
Tacuba continues to have one ear monitoring Latino traditions, and the other
on the pulse of American and British
culture—lush walls of orchestrated
strings, slivers of ambient loops, fizzing
box-echo percussion, and spring-loaded
guitars acknowledge The Flaming Lips,
Radiohead, Grandaddy, and Super Furry
Animals. But none of those groups manage bossa nova, folk hip-hop, and psychedelic Britpop on the same record.
Café Tacuba does. Like a magic wand,
Elfuego Buendia’s waves his sizzling
phrasing and gamut-running tonalities
over the music, flavoring it with madcap
spice that crosses the sound of The
Clash’s Joe Strummer with Robyn
Hitchcock. If you still need further reassurance that Café Tacuba is one of the
ten most exciting groups in pop today,
the band landed soundscape producerextraordinaire Dave Fridmann, who has
mighty select taste. As he’s done with
the Lips and Mercury Rev, he gives the
sonics a panoramic feel and a mediumsoft texture no other producer has yet
mastered. Fun. Smart. Irreverent.
Indispensable.
Rock groups don’t come more pedigreed than Tomahawk. Fronted by former Faith No More
vocalist Mike Patton,
the quartet counts exJesus Lizard guitarist
Duane
Denison,
Melvins bassist Kevin
Rutmanis, and past
Helmet drummer John Stanier as members. On its second go-round, Mit Gas
[Ipecac 40], Tomahawk crosses Angel
Dust-era Faith No More with Down-era
Jesus Lizard, mixing up tempos, helicopter-blade-chop rhythms, and buckled
guitar leads in creating a soundscape
that runs from grinding to moonlit. One
of music’s dynamically gifted singers,
Patton is in prime form, manipulating
accents and syllables to match the
music’s theatrical effects and go-stopturn-go velocity. He taunts, cheers,
comforts, and snarls, and when called
for, channels Nick Cave’s sternness, Axl
W h e r e To B u y
The Absolute Sound is available throughout North America at Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Tower Records
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181
Rose’s demonic register, and Bootsy
Collins’ offbeat disposition. Rutmanis’
funky bass drills like a bit plunging into
bedrock. Stanier’s walloping cementblock beats sit at the center of the
music’s closed-fist tightness. Occasional
surpluses of electronic and pre-recorded
effects (the record’s last two songs are
forgettable) are the only kinks. Those
aside, this is an involving, surprising,
noisy ride—one well worth taking, if
only to hear Patton’s vocal acrobatics.
Tomahawk and Joe Barresi handled the
production, giving the record a rocksolid foundation on which dry, concussive rhythm instruments blend with
warmer keyboards and vocals.
Queens of the
Stone Age bassist
Nick Oliveri is one
of the craziest
minds in music.
His shaved eggshaped head, shirtless chest, nicotine appetite, and microphone-swallowing jaws make for quite a
fiendish sight onstage. The same zealousness is heard in his songs. A Drug
Problem That Never Existed [Ipecac
41], the second album from Oliveri’s
Mondo Generator side project, claims
the energy and insanity many records are
hyped at delivering but seldom do. While
the music leans toward the punk-metal
side, Oliveri is a throwback of sorts—a
musician who couldn’t care less what people think, and who plays for fun without
regard to trends, political correctness, or
neatness. He also writes some pretty good
tunes, his gonzo humor matching his
chemical curiosities and spastic eruptions. In between the rafter-swinging
chaos, Oliveri ventures to interesting corners: “Do the Headright” is a warped
update on the girl-group sing-along of
the ’60s, “All I Can Do” is starkly naked
folk-rock laid bare on an acoustic guitar
with a background church vocal supplying the choral swell, and “I’m Free” is a
blistering Steppenwolf road jam for the
new century. Foo Fighters producer Brad
Cook co-produced with Oliveri. It’s an
average-sounding rock record, with a
loud, crunchy midrange and a nondescript low-end.
182
Mark Oliver
Everett has been
making
great
records under his
EELS
moniker
since 1992, when
he was just 20
years old. His pop goldmine streak continues with Shootenanny! [Dreamworks 50442], one of the year’s happiest
records. In the past, Everett’s songs have
been concerned with disaster (he even
looked like Ted Kazcinski on the cover
of 2001’s Souljacker), but something’s
caused him do a near-180-degree spin.
Songs like “Rock Hard Times” and
“Restraining Order Blues” would
appear to follow Everett’s previous trajectory, but there’s a difference. He
sounds liberated, comfortable, relaxed,
and accepting of his imperfections—of
his humanity. These sentiments abound
in his glittering music, in his halfgauzed, half-smoked voice, but most of
all, in his uplifting lines. On “Love of
the Loveless,” he sounds like he’s
singing the Coca-Cola song to the
whole world; on the giddy “Saturday
Morning,” he’s jumping off sofas recalling what it’s like to get up as a kid on
the first day of the weekend and have
the whole day ahead; on the perfect jangle-pop of “Dirty Girl,” he’s made a
back-porch ditty that reflects on life’s
fleeting good times. Though Everett is
a multi-instrumentalist, his cosmic
blues, pop waltzes, and American-style
pub rock get help from a four-piece
band. Shootenanny! has spotless production, the kind of realism and warm presence we expect from an LP.
Occasionally, Everett’s vocal timbre
sounds a lot like Beck’s, making
Shootenanny! the warm and fuzzy counterpart to the merry prankster’s 2002
masterpiece of lost love, Sea Change.
Those who think
they hate all rap,
consider the women
of Northern State:
Julie Potash served
on Hillary Clinton’s
Senatorial campaign,
Correne Spero has a degree from Oberlin,
and Robyn Goodmark is a kindergarten
teacher. Not exactly your typical hip-hop
biography, but these white Long Island
females aren’t your typical contemporary
rap group. In taking the music back to
its Brooklyn roots—simple beats, firm
grooves, turntable scratches, real instruments, and best of all, sensible messages—Northern State has made 2003’s
smartest, freshest hip-hop EP, Dying In
Stereo [Star Time 16]. The lyrics are
devoid of guns, gangsta, and ganja; there
are no braggadocio sex boasts, violent
fantasies, or personal vendettas. Songs
like “Vicious Cycle” and “All the Same”
address politics, women’s equality, and
social consciousness, yet never bog down
in idealism or preachiness—the delirious wordplay and grinning pop-culture
name-checking on “Trinity” and “At the
Party” make certain of that. The trio’s
melodies, harmonies, and poetic licenses
flow, rhyme, and explode like old
Beastie Boys and De La Soul singles, and
Northern State embraces their independence in a similarly confident,
punky, and funky manner—they’re having fun, they’re good at what they do,
and they know it. Dying In Stereo is the
most infectious female-group hip-hop
record since Luscious Jackson’s 1992
roots-based In Search of Manny—only
better.
Finally,
grab
your
towel,
Coppertone, and Mai Tai. For those who
can’t get enough of Hawaii or California,
and for whom the label’s 40-other surfmusic releases aren’t enough, Sundazed
has issued Lost
Legends of Surf
Guitar Volumes I –
III [11126/7/8]—
60 tracks (many previously unreleased)
of
reverb-soaked
Fender Jazzmaster and Telecaster guitars
teamed with bongo beats, carefree horns,
stretchy bass lines, and muscle-car sound
effects. These wave-crashing chords and
chiming scales aren’t anything we
haven’t already heard, but nonetheless
provide a lighthearted Polaroid of an
innocent time. All three volumes come
with song-by-song liner notes, memorabilia, and informative sidebars of who’sBG
who in ‘60s surf-rock.
Ind e x t o A d v er ti s er s
Accuphase ................................Cover II & page 1
www.accuphase.com
Acoustic Sounds ....................................116,117
www.acousticsounds.com
Acoustic Zen ..................................................30
www.acousticzen.com
Airtight ..........................................................56
www.axiss-usa.com
Alon By Acarian ..............................................77
www.alonbyacarian.com
Antique Sound Lab ........................................152
www.divertech.com
Art Audio ........................................................82
www.artaudio.com
Atma-Sphere Music Systems..........................143
www.atma-sphere.com
Audio Advisor ................................................110
www.audioadvisor.com
Audio Connection ..........................................166
www.audioconnect.com
Audio Note......................................................96
www.audionote.co.uk
Audio Outlet..................................................120
www.audiooutlet.com
Audio Plus Services ........................................48
Audio Tweakers ............................................174
www.audiotweakers.com
Audio Video Logic..........................................172
www.audiovideologic.com
AudioQuest ..............Cover IVwww.audioquest.com
Avalon Acoustics ............................................62
www.avalonacoustics.com
AvantGarde ..................................................107
www.avantgarde-usa.com
Ayre Acoustics ................................................58
www.ayre.com
B & W Loudspeakers ......................................27
www.bwspeakers.com
Boulder Amplifiers ..........................................66
www.boulderamp.com
Burmester ......................................................60
www.burmester.de
Cable Company ............................................160
www.fatwyre.com
Cardas Audio ..........................................Cover III
www.cardas.com
CES..............................................................118
www.CES.org
Chesky Records ............................................167
www.chesky.com
Cisco Music ..................................................149
www.ciscomusic.com
Classe Audio ..................................................45
www.classeaudio.com
Conrad Johnson ..............................................10
www.conradjohnson.com
Dali Loudspeakers ........................................112
www.dali.usa.com
Delve Audio ..................................................169
www.delveaudio.com
DEQX..............................................................88
www.deqx.com
Dynaudio ........................................................84
www.dynaudio.com
Edge Electronics ............................................83
www.edgeamp.com
Electrocompaniet ............................................74
www.electrocompaniet.com
Elusive Disc ..................................................155
www.elusivedisc.com
Flat Earth Audio ............................................152
www.flatearthaudio.com
Furman Sound ................................................68
www.furmansound.com
Gallo Acoustics ..................................15, 16, 17
www.roundsound.com
Genesis Advanced Technology..........................33
www.genesisloudspeakers.com/as2
Glacier Audio ................................108, 109, 134
www.glacieraudio.com
Goodwin’s High End ......................................168
www.goodwinshighend.com
Grommes Precision ........................................80
GTT Audio and Video ....................................124
www.gttgroup.com
HALCRO..........................................................37
www.halcro.com
Harmonic Technology ......................................90
www.harmonictech.com
Herron Audio ................................................147
www.herronaudio.com
Hovland ..........................................................94
www.hovlandcompany.com
IAG America ....................................................81
www.iagamerica.com
Immedia ......................................................149
Innersound ....................................................29
www.innersound.net
Joseph Audio ..................................................69
www.josephaudio.com
JVC Disk or America ......................................164
www.xrcd.com
KEF America ..................................................92
www.KEF.com
Kimber Kable ................................................100
www.kimber.com
Legacy Audio ..................................................23
www.legacy-audio.com
Mactone ......................................................144
Magnepan ......................................................72
www.magnepan.com
Magnum Dynalab ..........................................145
www.magnumdynalab.com
Marten Design ................................................71
www.martendesign.com
Martin Logan ..................................................54
www.martinlogan.com
May Audio Marketing ..............................31, 105
www.mayaudio.com
MBL ............................................................148
www.mbl-hifi.com
MuRata ........................................................113
Music Direct ................................................122
www.amusicdirect.com
Musical Fidelity .............................................. 47
Musical Surroundings ......................................78
NAD ..............................................................39
Nordost ............................................................0
www.nordost.com
Paradigm ..........................................................9
www.paradigm.com
Pass Labs ......................................................98
www.passlabs.com
Pierre Gabriel Acoustics ..................................86
www.peirregabriel.com
Plinius ............................................................76
www.pliniusaudio.com
Profundo ........................................................35
www.profundo.us
PSB Loudspeakers ............................................5
www.psbspeakers.com
Red Rose Music..............................................11
www.redrosemusic.com
Reference 3A ................................................142
www.reference3A.com
Rotel ..............................................................43
ww.rotel.com
Sakura Systems............................................158
ww.sakurasystems.com
Sanus Systems..............................................6,7
www.sanus.com
Siltech..........................................................142
www.siltechcables.com
Smart Devices ................................................64
www.smartdev.com
Sony ......................................................41, 156
www.sony.com
Sound City ....................................................138
www.soundcity.com
Stanalog Imports ..........................................162
www.stanalogaudio.com
Sumiko ..........................................................13
www.sumikoaudio.com
Talon Audio ..................................................102
www.talonaudio.com
Thiel Audio......................................................52
www.thielaudio.com
Totem Acoustics..............................................50
Tri-Cell Enterprises ........................................114
www.tricell-ent.com
Upscale Audio ..............................................136
www.upscaleaudio.com
Van Slyke Engineering....................................150
www.vsengr.com
Velodyne Acoustics ......24, 25 www.velodyne.com
Virtual Dynamics ..........................................140
www.virtualdynamics.ca
Walker Audio ................................................146
www.walkeraudio.com
WBT ............................................................100
www.wbtusa.com
Wilson Audio ..................................................21
www.wilsonaudio.com
MARKETPLACE
ADA Music ....................................................126
www.ada-music.com
Archive Audio ................................................129
Audio Consultants ........................................127
www.audioconsultants.com
Audiophile Intl ..............................................131
www.audiophileusa.com
Audio Limits..................................................130
www.audiolimits.com
AvantGarde Music ........................................132
www.avantgardemusic.biz
Canary Audio ................................................127
www.canaryaudio.com
Coincident Speaker Technology ......................128
www.coincidentspeaker.com
Digiphase ....................................................131
www.digiphase.com
Equi-Tech ......................................................129
www.equitech.com
Fab Audio ....................................................158
www.fabaudio.com
Gutwire Audio Cables ....................................132
www.gutwire.com
Hagerman Technology....................................132
www.hagtech.com
Manley Labs ................................................128
www.manleylabs.com
Per Madsen Design ......................................129
www.rackittm.com
Rix Rax ........................................................126
www.rixrax.com
Silversmith Audio ..........................................130
www.silversmithaudio.com
Sounds Real Audio ........................................131
www.soundsrealaudio.com
Stereo Trading Outlet ....................................130
www.tsto.com
Tenor Audio ..................................................126
www.tenoraudio.com
TMH Audio ....................................................132
www.tmhaudio.com
Vibrapod ......................................................128
www.vibrapod.com
Wireworld......................................................127
www.wireworldaudio.com
183
T
A
S
R
E
T
R
O
S
P
E
C
T
I
V
E
The Start of the Affair
Neil Gader
ithin my circle of friends during the 1970s, I wasn’t the
first one bitten by the audio
bug. It was my oldest friend,
Steve. And he was bitten
hard. Although we were both
avid TAS readers and had
been since Issue 1 (and how could we not be with the
ever-persuasive HP as a mutual friend?), Steve was the
enthusiast who read each issue cover to cover with
what amounted to near religious fervor. And it was
Steve who took that high-end high dive and laid down
some serious moolah for a true reference system.
Steve set his sights on the ARC D-150 stereo
amplifier, its stable mate, the SP3a preamplifier, and
Magnepan’s tri-panel Timpani 1D planar-magnetic
loudspeakers. When the Revox straight-tracking
turntable received rave notices from HP, Steve pronounced himself ready to take the plunge.
Completing the system with ADC’s XLM cartridge
(soon to require a fresh stylus due to its tendency to
suffer SCCS—Sudden Collapsing Cantilever
Syndrome) and Bob Fulton’s dangerously thick and
unwieldy Gold speaker cables, Steve was on the fast
track to audio nirvana like no one I’d known besides
HP himself.
I was living in NYC at the time and only learned
of Steve’s resolve to acquire this system when he called
requesting a favor. He had a bead on the amplifier,
retubed, in mint condition, and available from a reputable high-end dealer on the Upper East Side, the
legendary Lyric Hi-Fi. The price was $2750.
This was used? I was convinced that Steve had
gone nuts. I was also green with envy. Steve asked that
I confirm its condition prior to him sending the cash.
But I knew that his mind was already made up.
On my lunch hour I took the subway up
Lexington Avenue to Lyric where I encountered the
D-150—a 100-plus-pound beast overflowing with fat
6550 output tubes—resting ominously in a corner.
The chunky aluminum faceplate was mobbed with
huge meters for tube biasing and line voltage readout,
and a large black knob to individually select output
tubes for rebiasing. Back in L.A., Steve was busy purchasing the other gear, including the ARC preamp.
The SP3a, however, was making a quick stop prior to
W
184
its arrival at Steve’s house. He was having it shipped
directly from the factory to mod-specialist Frank Van
Alstine for the installation of a toggle switch to bypass
the tone controls—a tweak that had been validated in
the pages of TAS. Even the guys at ARC were a little
awed by someone buying one of their products and
not even listening to it before having it modified! But
that was the power of TAS. It mattered less to our
readers what the manufacturer said than what HP and
the senior writers heard.
When I moved back to L.A., Steve left me a key
and an open invitation to fire up the system whenever he was at work. This was also a new experience:
a friend of mine having a genuine reference system in
his own home. Somehow this was distinctly different from visiting HP in his Sea Cliff digs and listening to systems that always seemed otherworldly—and unattainable.
As a heavy listener of the singer-songwriters of the
era, I fell in love with the “right there” quality of this
system’s vocal reproduction, the huge images, the veritable wall of sound. The speed of snare drum transients,
the complexity the system extracted from the lowest
level information, and, of course, the sustain of the bell
at the close of “Peace Train” (never again I promise!)
from Lincoln Mayorga’s Sheffield direct-to-disc LP were
nothing if not magical. This was also the first system
outside of Sea Cliff that enabled me to identify what
was going right and going wrong with recordings.
Eventually, I started hearing the system’s limitations too: It required scads of volume to come alive
dynamically and to breathe; it wasn’t happy playing
loud, as the Maggies simply couldn’t impart the
unbridled dynamism of orchestral crescendos; and the
D-150 didn’t have the control at the bottom that we
take for granted in finer amplifiers today. But these
shortcomings were hardly dismaying then. Even now
its sound remains indelible—fast, palpable, romantic,
and remarkable.
Ultimately, Steve managed to unhook himself
from the hobby, hooking me in the bargain. He sold
the ARC gear to a collector in Japan for pretty much
what he’d paid for it. Today it seems clearer than it
did at the time that as Steve closed this chapter in his
life, a fulfilling and extended chapter was just beginning in my own. One that continues to this day. &

Audio Research SP

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