TRUE HI-FI FROM A COMPUTER

Transcription

TRUE HI-FI FROM A COMPUTER: We size up
Linn’s Klimax DS and Empirical Audio’s OffRamp link to your stereo system
WE ALSO REVIEW: The contrarian Harbeth
HL5 loudspeaker, an affordable amp and
CD player from Simaudio, and two add-ons
for the Aurum CDP preamp/player
PLUS: Bergman on signals for acoustic tests,
the future of 3-D cinema, and the question
of exploding prices for high end audio and
No. 84 CAN $6.49 / US $7.69 video
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Roksan Kandy LIII
“The Kandy has always been good.
It just got a whole lot better.
Nothing can match the Kandy MKIII's
transparent midrange performance”
What Hi-Fi?, Five-star rating
The Gradient
Helsinki
The Helsinki uses controlled directivity,
the very essence of the unique Gradient
loudspeaker design philosophy.
It changes the way people perceive music!
The Absolute Sound
Golden Ear Award, 2008
AY
JUST M
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IO
Just May Audio
111 Zenway Blvd., Unit 9
WOODBRIDGE, ON L4H 3H9
Tel. : (905) 265-8675 • Fax : (905) 265-8595
www.justiceaudio.com • [email protected]
ASW Speakers
Atlas
Audioprism
Sonneteer
Bard Audio
QED
Target
Vandersteen
McCormack
Harmonix
Jaton
Operetta
WBT
Reimyo
Apollo
GutWire
FIM Accessories
Goldring
Milty
Discwasher
Perfect Sound
Nitty Gritty
Xindak
Gradient Speakers
LAST record care
WATTGate
Audiophile CDs
Audiophile LPs
DVD and SACD
Our editor goes to the long-running Montreal
show
Montréal 2008: Another View
by Albert Simon
Albert tours the show, and he has company
27
Is Hi-Fi Too Expensive?
32
A UHF reader wonders why high end price tags are
so…well, high
Issue No. 84
Rendezvous
Tiefenbrun on the Future
Gilad Tiefebrun, the man in charge of Linn’s
future products
36
Breaking the Rules: Alan Shaw
38
The designer of Harbeth speakers explains why he
does the exact opposite of what everyone else does
The Listening Room
The Linn Klimax DS
Looking like a mere preamp, it brings music in
from the ether with consummate quality
40
The Empirical Audio Off-Ramp
44
The missing link between your computer and your
stereo system
The Harbeth HL5 Speaker
48
Theory says a speaker like this shouldn’t sound any
good. So much for theory!
Cover story: The Harbeth SL5 loudspeaker, and
the Klimax DS (Digital Streaming), Linn’s nextgeneration music source, both reviewed in this issue.
Behind them, the Carina nebula, as seen by the
Hubble telescope.
18
22
Features
Touring Montreal
by Gerard Rejskind
The Moon i-1 and CD-1
Simaudio goodness…at $1500 per box!
54
Legrand the Great 65
by Reine Lessard
The astonishing saga of composer Michel Legrand
Software Reviews
by Reine Lessard and Gerard Rejskind
Cinema
Movies in 3-D
An “in-depth” look at old and new technologies
51
Software
Acoustics
Noise for Measurement
by Paul Bergman
White or pink noise? Square waves? Which?
Aurum CDP Add-Ons
This spectacular CD preamp/player picks up a
phono input and a headphone amp
24
72
Departments
Editorial
Feedback
Free Advice
Gossip & News
State of the Art
4
7
9
78
82
ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine    3    
UHF Magazine No. 84 was published in July, 2008. All
contents are copyright 2008 by Broadcast Canada. They
may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any
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4   ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine
Editorial
Why information wants to be free
It was Steward Brand who first postulated this back in 1984. He told a
hackers’ conference:
On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it’s so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On
the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it
out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting
against each other.
Brand, by the way, was one of the people behind The Whole Earth Catalog,
the counterculture publication famous in the 70’s and 80’s, and later The
Whole Earth Review. I shall add that a number of innovations that make UHF
Magazine unique are based on Brand’s writings.
The concept has been taken a step further by Chris Anderson, editor in
chief of Wired, who has written a book titled Free, which will be out next
year. Anderson argues that distribution through the Web, particularly of
information, is very cheap and keeps getting cheaper all the time, to the point
where the price is not far from zero. That, he says, is why Yahoo now offers
unlimited (i.e. infinite) space for free e-mail, and Google offers its awesome
processing power for free. To preview the book (which, appropriately, will
be available for free), read his article Why $0.00 is the Future of Business in
Wired magazine. Yes, it’s available for free, at http://www.wired.com/techbiz/
it/magazine/16-03/ff_free.
Naturally, as a publisher I have been paying a good deal of attention to
Anderson. Ever since the birth of our Web site a dozen years ago I have been
convinced that the key to success is to give away as much information as
possible. This can be risky, to be sure, but you can’t go fishing without bait.
There is our Free Advice section, which is freely accessible on line, as well as
our extended show reports, and even a free PDF version of the magazine,
with about half the material available for nothing. That free version, by the
way, gets downloaded from 30 to 40 thousand times a month.
Of course UHF cannot quite be given away, because the print issue belongs
to the age of pre-digital technology, with distribution costs that are anything but free. Even so, I’m keeping an eye on some ongoing experiments.
For instance, postmodern author Neil Gaiman is giving away Web copies
of some of his books, even though they also exist in print form. Canadian
science-fiction author Cory Doctorow does the same, and he says it works
fine, though his publisher was understandably nervous at first.
The age of zero dollars is catching up with newspapers too. The New York
Times has joined the free bandwagon, after a failed experiment keeping some
of its key information behind a pay wall. That didn’t work, because the Times
can pay for its Web site only through advertising, and charging anything for
access kills the traffic.
Strangely enough, when the Globe&Mail published an article on Chris
Anderson and his support of free information, you had to pay to read the
article! But the laws of irony have caught up with the Globe, and as of May 31st,
the paper dumped its pay wall and made its information available freely.
So…can information truly be free? I’m keeping an eye on developments.
MAGAZINE DOG-EARED? WELL THEN…
How come it happens all the time… you receive a magazine,
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But we have the solution.
The way to avoid dog-eared pages is not what most people think.
It’s the expensive copy that’s likely to be tattered, torn, and…
yes, dog-eared. We mean the newsstand copy.
Where do copies sit around unprotected? At the newsstand.
Where do other people leaf through them before you arrive, with
remains of lunch on their fingers? At the newsstand. Where do
they stick on little labels you can’t even peel off? Why do they
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Our subscribers, on the other hand, get pristine copies,
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Feedback
Longueuil, Québec, Canada J4K 5J4
[email protected]
I was in the process of recommending the VisionQuest DVD-4808 to my
brother based on your review in the
last issue. Unfortunately, I was unable
to locate it on the company’s website
http://www.visionquestce.com/ They do
have a 6808 which does not have HDCD
(not a serious issue for my brother),
however no DVD-4802. Would you
be able to provide an outlet where we
could obtain this model or do you know
if it was discontinued? I have read your
magazine enough to know that the 6808
may be as good or even better than the
4802, and then again it may not.
It was a pleasure to read a review
of what I would have totally ignored
as a viable player and an oasis from the
kilobuck models and the usual laws for
diminishing returns
Brian Salter
ÎLE-BIZARD, QC
I have read you review of the VisionQuest 4802 DVD player, and I wonder if
you could tell me where I can purchase
one.
Bernie Doars
LONDON, ON
Does VisionQuest have a website? I
am wondering where I can purchase the
DVD player that you recently reviewed
(UHF No. 83).
Mark Boutcher
SHERWOOD PARK, AB
Mark, no review we have done in the last
five years has drawn as much mail as that
of the $80 VisionQuest DVD-4802. Most
of the mail expressed frustration at being
unable to track it down. Models change
rapidly in this category, however, and the
one we reviewed has been replaced by another,
the VQM-9350, which doesn’t seem to have
the HDCD chip, however. Whether it has
equivalent performance is anyone’s guess.
The company can be found at www.
visionquestce.com, and the player can be
purchased from TigerDirect, though frankly
you have to be dedicated to find it on their
site.
I am writing regarding an article in
UHF No. 77 which describes how to
transfer LPs to high resolution 24/96
DVD. It took me a long time to prepare
for this, as I first had to acquire a 24/96
recorder, install a DVD writer and purchase the software. The software you
recommended was Roxio’s Easy Media
Creator so I purchased an EMC10 suite
(the latest version), but guess what — it
does not support 24/96 audio. It took
almost two weeks of communicating
with Roxio for them to finally admit it. I did however find another program
which works nicely and costs only about
half as much. It is Audio DVD Creator
from Goland Tech. The free trial has
limited use and is good for 30 days
during which time you can permanently
activate it for $39.95. I find it quicker
and easier to use than the Easy Media
Creator suite which has a lot of programs
imbedded in it, each designed for a different purpose. I suppose I will one day
find another use for EMC10 (photos,
video, 16/44.1 audio etc.), but for now
Audio DVD Creator is the one for me.
Just thought you should know.
Lloyd Marshall
WHITEHORSE, YT
We appreciate the information, Lloyd. It
appeared logical that Roxio’s Easy Media
Creator for Windows should be a featurefor-feature match for its Toast software for
the Mac. But Roxio is a strange company,
and since it went to the bother of giving the
two programs different names, we should
have guessed they might not be identical in
other ways.
You guys have put together a great
magazine — I have been reading it (and
heeding your advice, mostly) for many
years now. I have never written to any
publication anywhere, anytime but I feel
compelled to do so now. I got back into vinyl about a year and
a half ago. I really love the vinyl sound
and I do not regret the shift back into
vinyl, even after buying back many of
the LPs I had sold in the late 1980s.
Here’s my rant: where is the quality
control in LP production? In the past
year, I have purchased about 150 brand
new, sealed (not used) LPs. Of this 150,
I had 16 with significant defects — even
on the “high quality” 200 gram releases.
This is a defect rate of 10.7%, which
is totally unacceptable — scandalous I
would venture to say, especially since
most stores and/or record companies will
not replace a defective LP. I can’t think
of any other product with such a high
defect rate (except for those $25 DVD
players and related ilk).
I have purchased some 1200 CDs in
my lifetime, and I only recall three with
defects. Don’t get me wrong. I prefer
the sound of vinyl over CDs, at least on
my system (Pro-Ject RPM-10 turntable
with Sumiko Blackbird cartridge). But a
10.7% defect rate is totally unacceptable.
Have you guys experienced anything
similar?
Robert
OTTAWA, ON
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard this
rant, Robert. There have always been defective LPs, but the situation has gotten worse
for a couple of reasons. With the decline of
the LP in the late 80’s, many of the best
pressing plants closed down, as did the sources
of the highest quality vinyl. Labels are left
to search out both cutting suites and pressing
plants that can offer acceptable quality. For
some of the details on the troubles of vinyl,
see Paul Bergman’s article The Making
of an LP in UHF No. 73. Note also that,
as prices of new LPs have soared, consumers
are (quite rightly) less prepared to accept
even minor blemishes that would once have
been overlooked.
The problem may get worse before it gets
better. As the CD sinks into the sunset, there
is a corresponding boom in vinyl productions,
and demand for cutting rooms and pressing
plants will make top quality results increasingly hard to come by.
Feedback
Would you care to comment on the
price Denon charges for an Ethernet
cable?
Jimmy Gauvin
QUÉBEC, QC
What, you mean you don’t think an
Ethernet cable can possibly be worth $500,
Jimmy?
We admit to being uncomfortable with
what’s been happening in the wonderful
world of audio-related cables over the last
while. This is indeed a case in point. Ethernet sends information in packets, so that
even clock information — important in
conventional digital connections — isn’t a
problem because it will be rebuilt. So robust
is the Ethernet system that you can run a
kilometre of cable and it will still work. Or
perhaps it no longer will, but then you’ll
know enough to look for a damaged wire or
connector. The trouble is not just that this
Ethernet cable appears to be snake oil, but
that this sort of borderline lunacy (if it is
indeed borderline) gives a bad name to the
entire hi-fi industry.
A few months ago, the Audioholics Home
Theater Forum came up with a blind test
comparing Monster 1000 speaker cable to a
wire made by soldering several coat hangers
together. No one could hear the difference, or
so we are told, and the hilarious story swept
across the Web like a prairie fire. And well
it might have, but the laughter obscures the
fact that not all cables do sound the same,
and that anyone using hardware store wire
(or coat hangers, needless to say) is not going
to be able to tell the difference between two
amplifiers or digital players either. We wish
some of these companies could see that they
are tinkling in their own drinking water.
I just picked up Issue No. 83 of your
fine magazine. I noted with interest your
coverage of this year’s CES.
Among the manufacturers represented in your coverage was Soundsmith
of Peekskill, NY. On page 33, I saw the
lovely photo you took of the Soundsmith
system with the Straingauge, V PI
turntable, etc. and was saddened to note
you didn’t identify that wondrous power
conditioner pictured in the bottom right
of your photo — the Silver Circle Audio
Pure Power One 5.0. It is manufactured
by a tiny yet ambitious company in
Houston, Texas, mine. We also supplied
all of the cabling and power cords for the
Soundsmith system.
I don’t expect you to identify it at this
late date. It was gratifying to know that
we in some way contributed to the lovely
sound you heard in that room.
Dave Stanard
HOUSTON, TX
Better late than never, we hope.
Have you ever considered doing a test
of outdoor speakers? Outdoor living is
growing fast in Canada, and certainly in
our short summer many of us spend time
outside listening to tunes.
Daryl Hanstke
KITCHENER, ON
Daryl, we live in fear our next door
neighbors will get a pair of them.
Free Advice
Longueuil, Québec, Canada J4K 5J4
[email protected]
I’ve always enjoyed your magazine.
Your journalistic writing style is a pleasure to read.
My question concerns speaker design.
Why do smaller speakers generally have
lower sensitivity (dB) and lower impedance (ohms)? What are they, anyway?
Is it a sign of good speaker design if the
sensitivity and impedance are higher?
What factors shape the dB and ohms
ratings? As an example, the Living Voice
Avatar uses the ScanSpeak Revelator
tweeter…the same tweeter used in the
Focus Audio FS688. Why are the dB
and ohm specs very different between
the two? According to ScanSpeak, the
Revelator itself has a sensitivity of 91db.
I’ve come across Tyler Acoustics (Internet only) speakers, and they also use the
Revelator tweeter in their standmounted
monitors but their dB and ohm specs are
much higher than those of the FS688.
Are the two specs manipulated by
the speaker designer? What are the
advantages and disadvantages?
Larry Byrd
What a great question, Larry! It’s
so good it merits an entire article, but
perhaps we can make a down payment
on one.
If a loudspeaker has low sensitivity
that doesn’t mean it’s a bad speaker, only
that you will need more amplifier power
to drive it. Even so sensitivity is relative.
A sealed “acoustic suspension” speaker
like the celebrated AR2 has an efficiency
of 2%…it produces 2% sound for 98%
heat. But even a highly efficient speaker
like the Klipschorn has an efficiency that
hovers around no more than 15%. Those
figures look so bad that no designer
wants to use them anymore. Instead,
they use sensitivity figures. If the rating
is 91 dB, that means that if the speaker
is fed a 1 kHz tone at 1 watt, the sound
level one metre in front of the speaker
will be 91 decibels. This rating method
lends itself to self-serving creative measurement, but we don’t mean to suggest
that this is why it is used.
There is a trade-off among small
cabinet size, extended low-frequency
response, and high efficiency. Essentially
you can have two out of three, and it is
the designer’s job to pick which two. At
the moment very high-efficiency speakers are in fashion, because they can be
used with high-quality but low-powered
amplifiers. Of course, a tweeter like the
Revelator doesn’t “know” how big the
cabinet is. It is, however, connected to a
crossover network part of whose job it is
to match the efficiency between woofer
and tweeter.
Impedance is another matter. We
might want to have a perfectly resistive
impedance at a constant 8 ohms, but
because drivers and crossovers have
capacitance and inductance this is nearly
impossible to achieve. The impedance of
an “8 ohm” speaker may dip to 3 ohms
at one frequency and soar to 100 ohms
at some other frequency. Swings that
extreme are tough on an amplifier, and
especially a solid state amplifier, and so
the speaker designer has one more job to
do: keep the impedance within reasonable bounds. Different designers make
very different choices yet manage to get
good results.
There are many paths to Heaven.
And to The Other Place as well.
My speakers have two sets of posts
for biwiring or biamping. Would it be
better to biwire using “decent” cables or
use only one set of “very good” cables? Also, spades or banana plugs? It
seems to me you favor bananas, but if I
were constantly swapping speakers and/
or amplifiers for comparisons…
Ken Hicknell
KITCHENER, ON
Yes, exactly, Ken, though we have
other reasons to favor bananas. They are
of standard size, or at least they are supposed to be, whereas spades are whatever
size and shape the designer wishes. To
add to the fun, some binding posts are
nearly impossible to tighten adequately,
and don’t stay tight in any case.
In general we favor one great cable
over a mediocre biwire pair. Sometimes
the answer is not quite that simple,
though, which means that the answer
may change depending on the individual
cables.
I have a question concerning the
purchase of a moving coil cartridge.
I am using a Copland CTA 305
preamp, which only takes high output
moving coil. If I understand correctly
what I have read in your mag, a low
output is much better. If I were full of
money this question would be irrelevant
because I would purchase an Audiomat
phono stage and a low output MC.
So I have the Copland, and I use a
Clearaudio Master Solution with a Satisfy tone arm. I already own a Benz Ace
high output cartridge. I wish to upgrade
to a better cartridge. If I purchase a
low output I won’t be able to afford
more than the Moon LP3, or the Rega
Fono. Would either of these still bring
out the advantage of the low output, or
should I look mainly to high output
cartridges? André Avon
ST-JEAN SUR RICHELIEU, QC
We haven’t listened to the Moon LP3
phono stage, André (the Moon LP5.3
reviewed in UHF No. 83 is superb but
far more expensive). We do consider the
Rega Fono excellent, about the equivalent of your Copland preamplifier’s
built-in phono stage, but of course for
low impedance (low output) cartridges.
Perhaps we should make plain why
a low output cartridge is superior to a
high output MC cartridge, at least in
theory. Since it is the coil that moves, it
needs to be kept light, with less wire in
it. Because its low impedance is not what
a conventional phono stage “expects” to
see, it requires either an extra stage of
amplification or a transformer. A high
output MC cartridge is a compromise:
Class, eh!
The smooth, powerful sound of
Pure Class “A” returns to Canada Integrated amplifiers, CD players
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Still completely hand made in
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Celebrating 10 years serving Canadian music lovers
the coil is larger and thus more massive,
with more inertia. It may still be very
good, but all else being equal it is handicapped by that extra moving mass.
Have we really answered your question? Perhaps not. If you have the funds
available for one of the better MC cartridges, then yes, you are likely to enjoy
the difference.
you’re not listening to the headphones.
Several companies used to offer
headphone adapter boxes, including
QED, which had a whole catalog of such
audio accessories. But consider what that
involved. The box was connected to the
output of your amplifier, and the loudspeaker cables were connected to binding posts on the box itself. Thus when
you wanted to listen through speakers,
Congratulations for your magazine! the amplifier output passed through
Great!
a short cable to the box, through the
I own : a TEAC VRDS T-1 transport box’s internal wiring (usually a printed
and DT-1 converter, a Copland CSA 28 circuit board) and a switch, and then out
amp, KEF 104.2 REF speakers, Ultra- through another set of binding posts.
Link Discovery home theatre intercon- That might have been convenient, but
nects, MIT speaker cables, and a Van it sure didn’t sound good.
den Hul The Mainstream
Come to think of it, it may not have
The music is very sibilant with rock sounded good with the headphones
or heavy metal, and unlistenable with either. Most headphones are a lot more
volume high or medium high. What or sensitive than loudspeakers are, or
where is the wrong component in my appear so because they sit right on your
system?
ears, and the tiny residual hiss or hum of
My budget is about $1500. What do the typical
amplifier, inaudible through
you suggest ?
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found that, with some loud passages, it
What we would recommend is a dediwas nearly unlistenable.
cated headphone amplifier. A number of
Its replacement will possibly cost companies offer them at widely varymore than $1500, but then again you can ing prices, including Creek, Grado
probably resell the Copland to someone and Antique Sound Lab, to mention
who doesn’t read us. While you’re at it but three. Connect it to the “tape out”
you may want to pick up better intercon- jacks on your preamplifier or integrated
nects too.
amplifier, so that you can turn down the
volume on your main system and still
Where can I get an adapter that will listen to the headphones.
connect a pair of headphones to speaker
Want to do it for even less? We know
outputs? I’m looking at getting an amp someone who for five bucks at a yard sale,
that does not have a headphone output. picked up an old amp which happened to
Ideas?
have a headphone jack. An amp like that
Phil Elliott may or may not sound as good as a real
TORONTO, ON headphone amp, but it’s sure easier on
the wallet.
We do have ideas, Phil, but they may
come as a disappointment. There is no
I’m looking at using a Sony PlayStaconvenient way to connect headphones tion 3 as a Blu-ray player for my Pioneer
to your amplifier without putting up Elite Kuro PRO-110FD plasma. I do not
with a huge performance hit. And we own a home theatre setup, but do have a
mean a performance hit even when Linn analog two-channel audio system.
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We don’t own a PlayStation 3, Tony,
but we believe it can’t be done, at least
not in the way you would like, because
the console is not able to separate its
audio and video. You can set the console’s
preferences to output both audio and
video via HDMI (you will of course need
an HDMI cable), but we know of no way
to send video out through HDMI and
audio through the analog jacks.
The workaround is to set your TV
set to mute its internal speakers and
feed audio via its own left and right
front analog jacks. That means putting
the audio through the TV set’s audio
circuits, and there will be something of
a performance hit. On the other hand
you’ll be getting the best possible picture
on your Kuro plasma.
I have a quick question for you
regarding the (reconnection) of my
speakers, which are ProAc Tablette
Signature 2000’s.
The tweeters on this model are offset
from the centred woofer. For the life
of me I cannot remember whether the
correct setup is to have the tweeters on
the inward or outward side to maximize
audio quality. I recently moved, and of
course did not take note of the original
configuration, and my instruction sheet
has magically gotten lost in the move! Is there a general rule here or does it
depend on the speaker make. Ian Beswick
NORTH YORK, ON
Both, actually, Ian. The general rule
for nearly all speakers is that the tweeter
needs to be on the inside. But just to
complicate things there is at least one
exception. All Reference 3a speakers are
meant to have the tweeter to the outside.
That was true when Daniel Dehay was
the designer, and it’s still true now that
Reference 3a has become a Canadian
company.
Why should it be toward the inside?
Our guess is that this places the tweeter
(slightly) farther away from the side
walls, whose reflections in the higher
frequencies can mess up the coherence
of the music big time. A second possible
explanation is that it is more difficult to
maintain a stereo image at higher frequencies, and so it’s best if the tweeters
are closer together.
So what does Reference 3a know that
the others don’t? And why do some top
designers place their drivers in line?
Beats us.
We’re looking for a system that
allows us to copy CDs and play them
wirelessly at home. The Logitech
Squeezebox is an option, but it is just a
bit unfriendly in terms of the main DAC
itself. For example, the switches on it are
not defined by a mechanical click when
depressed.
I’m looking for something I can
control from my Windows XP-based
computer, essentially, a large hard drive
Advice
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I would like to connect the PS3 to the
plasma via HDMI, but would also like
to connect analog stereo to my audio
system for better sound. Is there a way to connect analog twochannel stereo audio from the PS3 to my
Linn? Tony G.
MONTREAL, QC
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filled with CDs, with software on my
wireless PC, and a DAC connected to
my preamp. That sounds like the Squeezebox configuration, but of course as I
noted, the SB is a bit inaccessible.
Any thoughts or suggestions are most
welcome since we’d like to enjoy the same
convenience as others out there with
high quality sound.
Chris Chamberlin,
Frontier Computing
TORONTO, ON
Chris, for the benefit of readers who
haven’t met you, we should explain that
you are non-sighted, but that your company is dedicated to making life better
for the disabled through technology.
The buttons on the Squeezebox
remote are less of a problem than the
gorgeous fluorescent screen, which, alas,
will do you little good. We can read ours
from across the room, but you need a
device that can be made to talk to you.
We would suggest getting one of the new
inexpensive compact laptop computers,
which can be had for not much more
than the Squeezebox itself, which is
to say it’s not expensive at all by audio
accessory standards. You can install
your favorite accessibility software, and
you can get it to stream music from
your main computer over your Wi-Fi
network.
You will, of course want a proper
interface between the laptop and your
digital-to-analog converter. The Blue
Circle “Thingee” would be a very good
choice, but note that this very issue
includes some alternatives, one of them
more costly. And the other a lot more
costly. We’ll be checking out other
alternatives in future issues.
Thanks for putting out such a great
magazine (and for the great education,
too)! I eagerly look forward to renewing
my subscription.
I started upgrading my system a year
or two ago (source first) by purchasing
a CEC TL51XR belt-drive CD player
(very musical/analog sounding). I have
heard it paired with an Audiomat Arpège
Référence integrated amp and enjoyed
the experience. Then I read your article
about the Sugden A21a Series 2, which
sounds great!
Now I have been offered a nice tradein deal on my current equipment from a
Sugden dealer in Ontario, but I am not in
a position to audition it here in Alberta. I
can afford the Sugden but the Audiomat
would probably have to wait a year or
more. Knowing you have reviewed both,
how do you feel they compare?
I could also use some advice as to what
speakers might do either amp justice. I
am giving some thought to the Reference
3A MM De Capo-i, as it seems a good
performer, sensitive enough(?) at a price
point I can consider in a few years. Do
you know them? What do you think? I have two rooms I could set up in:
3.4 m x 4.9 m, or 3.6 m x 9.4 m. Would
the Sugden be appropriate for the larger
room?
The CEC was my first significant
upgrade and I hope the amp will be as
satisfying a choice as I don’t plan on
replacing my next purchase for a long
time. Wires will be replaced last.
Jay McHollister
STETTLER, AB
Jay, we have reviewed the MM de
I have asked for help before and you
have always helped. I came across this
CEC CD player at that great shopping
emporium, Value Village. I figured that
there was something I could tinker with
and maybe not shock myself to coma
status. I took it home set her up, put
on Live at Carnegie Hall by Monk and
Coltrane, and out came pretty darn good
sound.
The CD player is small by even 1980’s
standards, and it shows track numbers
but not time elapsed. I contacted Brian at
Venus Hi-Fi in Detroit, but he couldn’t
find any info. Opening the CDP shows
a well contracted inside with a very solid
transport. I paid a whopping $5.95 for
it.
Do you have any information? What
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would have been its price, and what year
was its conception?
Alan Callaghan
STRATFORD, PEI
You’re not giving us much to go on,
Alan, so we’ll have to resort to some
educated guessing.
So let’s see. CEC launched its now
famous belt-drive transport in 1992, so
we can suppose that the unit you spent
your savings on (!) came before that. The
very first CEC player dates from 1983, a
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year after the CD format’s launch, but it
would have been available in any quantities only in Asia. So our guess is that your
player dates from somewhere from 1985
to 1991. But that’s a pretty broad window.
In the earlier part of that window, players were expensive: our original Teac
player (which still runs, and is used for
equipment break-in) cost $1500 in 1986.
Prices tumbled rapidly over the next
half decade, as expensive discrete parts
were replaced by large-scale integrated
circuits, made possible for the exploding
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Capo…twice in fact, in issue No. 60,
then the improved “i” version in No. 67.
The speaker is a distant cousin of the
Reference 3a Suprema speaker in our
Omega reference system, and it is quite
efficient. Indeed, for a stand-mounted
speaker it is exceptionally efficient. That
is in part because of its extremely simple
crossover — simply a capacitor in series
with the tweeter — which steals little
power from the drivers, especially the
woofer/midrange.
Either the Audiomat or the Sugden
would work well with these speakers in
the smaller of the two rooms you mention. We are very fond of the Audiomat,
as you no doubt know, but it is indeed
more expensive. You don’t mention what
amplifier you have now, but if it is really
making you suffer then you should give
the edge to the Sugden, which has a
sweet sound owing little to its solid state
topology. How much is an extra year or
more of listening pleasure worth?
If you go for the larger of your two
possible rooms, you may want to look
beyond either amplifier. We should
mention for the benefit of the metricallychallenged that your second room has
dimensions of about 12 x 31 feet. That’s
a ton — sorry, a tonne — of space, and
we would look for a beefier amplifier in
that case.
We would also work on the acoustics,
because big rooms are harder to work
with than medium-sized ones (small
rooms are another matter).
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was probably about $800, and one got
Vandersteens for about $1200 back in
the 90’s, but I can’t find where to go to
get current used value on the Allisons
and Counterpoint. There are no listings
for this type of stuff on eBay.
Victor Brok
BALTIMORE, MD
market for players. In that case the price
might be closer to $600.
One thing sure, you took a calculated
risk, and we would have done the same.
I just found this site and am hoping
you can help. I inherited some older
audiophile equipment (a pair of Allison One speakers, Audio Research
AP-8 preamp, Vandersteen II speakers,
Counterpoint SA-12 tube/MOSFET
power amp), and I have no idea what
some pieces are worth. I know the AR
As you know, Victor, used gear is
worth what someone is willing to pay for
it. The rarer the equipment, the lower
are the odds that there is any of it out
there for anyone to show interest in, and
that makes evaluation difficult.
The Allison One still exists, though
of course audio pioneer Roy Allison is
no longer with the company that bears
his name. We haven’t seen an Allison
One for a good decade, though, and its
very obscurity makes it difficult to sell
it for more than a small fraction of its
original cost. Much better known is the
Vandersteen II, because it is still made
in a more modern incarnation, and looks
the same as it always did. It is much
sought after, and rightly so, but Richard
Vandersteen has never followed the lead
of other makers and inflated his prices
to the bursting point. The Vandersteen
II would, however, probably sell used for
its original selling price, at least if it’s in
mint condition.
The Counterpoint SA-12 is more
problematic, because the company is no
longer around, and that tends to depress
prices. What’s more, the model is old,
dating back to somewhere between
1984 and 1988 (it was superseded by the
SA-100). Since tube gear runs warmer
than solid state and may therefore have
a shorter life, and since some early
Counterpoint tube products had reliability problems, you can guess that the
selling price will be in the low three
digits. On the plus side, the original
designer, Michael Elliott, does repairs
and upgrades at Alta Vista Audio, so even
a dying SA-12 can be saved.
We have no information on your
preamp, and we wonder whether you
actually mean Audio Research (which is
today merely a brand owned by economy
marketer Audiovox, but in bygone years
was famous for speakers), or Acoustic
Research, known for tube gear in the
main. Either way, that model name is
unknown to us.
I guess you don’t like to give an
opinion on a particular component, , but
I would be happy to have your opinion
about a CD/SACD player I am saving
for.
I have build, in several steps by
listening a lot, a system that now sound
rather fine. I have also, with the help
of my dealer who came to my living
room, made some acoustical treatment
(absorption, diffusion, and even some
kind of bass traps: I realized that my
leather sofa and armchairs were empty
wood cabinets. I filled them with mineral
wood, which did a lot for the bass).
The system I started to build a few
years ago is the following: Marantz 11S2
CD/SACD player, Mimetism integrated
15.2 amplifier and 45.2 power amplifier,
that I use for biamping my 802D speakers. I have an interconnect cable linking
the player to the integrated amp, and a
second one linking the preamp section
to the second amplifier (both are Atlas
Mavros XLR). Finally, my speaker cables
are Atlas Mavros.
Why a free version?
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To me it is a terrific system, but I still erable efforts to optimize your system, Anthem products less smooth than we
have a feeling that something could bring and filling your sofa with mineral wool liked, and perhaps that was a relic of
in more music. I have the impression it would strike most people as a heroic their origin. Anthem was a division of
is the source. I want to stick with my measure. Though there is nothing the now-vanished Sonic Frontiers, but
dealer (because he knows me and gives really wrong with your Marantz, you are built for economy with cheaper parts.
me now a systematic 10% discount on probably ready for an upgrade to your The sound then was downright gritty,
and we heard no improvement when the
new equipment). He suggested the dCS source.
brand was picked up by Paradigm. We
Puccini player, and I had the impression
I have been a reader of your magazine lost interest a long time ago, and to be
that it was improving listening pleasure.
For years
wethe
have
beenversion
publishing,
on ourbut
Web
a free
PDFheard any recent Anthem
fair we
haven’t
since
French
(ULTRA),
I site,
This player has also the advantage
of now,
version
of
our
magazine.
having digital inputs. Nevertheless, it left off reading audio mags for a couple products. But of course you have, since
The
reason
is simple.
andand MCA-50 are current
the MCA-20
is a major investment, and I will
have
to of
years. We know you’re looking for information,
that
is
almost
certainly
why
you’ve
come
to
visit
our
site.
And
that’s
My setup is: Integra Research RDC products. why
save money for almost a year. I also know
we
give
away
what
competitors
consider
to be a startlingly
large
Anthem
MCA-20
and MCA-50,
But if
you’re looking for warmth —
that auto-suggestion can play a role. Did 7.1, some
amount
of
information…for
free.
you ever happen to insert it into one of Pioneer PRO150FD, Toshiba XA-2, and we mean the natural warmth of live
We would give
all away
for free,
if we60could
still staymusical
in business.
SonyitPS3,
Paradigm
Studio
v2, Studio
instruments, not some artificial
your reference system
Recent
figures
indicate
that
each
issue
is
getting
downloaded
as many
superimposed on music — a
Philippe Martiat CC150 v2, Studio ADP v2 and Heybrook coloration
as 100,000
and
that
figure
HB1
My
source
is keeps
mainlygrowing.
my PC
very large Classé amp may not be your
BRUSSELS,
Belgiumtimes,
Yes, we know, ifI am
we had
a nickel
each download…
checking
to for
upgrade
my amps. best choice. Classé, which is now part
Truth
is,
we’re
in
the
business
of
helping
you enjoy
at home
cold. music
of the
B&W group (along with Rotel),
Philippe, our guess is that the dCS I find the Anthems harsh and
under
the
best
possible
conditions.
And
movies
too.
We’ll
do
what had
we need
terrific build quality, but
(which we have heard under very good I am looking at the Classé CA-2200 has long
to
do
in
order
to
get
the
information
to
you.
conditions, though not in our reference for my front left and right. I would its emphasis was on competing with the
Of
want
you toonread
our published
too.
Weamps, Krell. Warmth is not
systems) would be a major step
upcourse,
from we
likealso
your
advice
it and
any othereditions
king of
huge
hope
that,
having
read
this
far,
you’ll
want
to
read
on.
the Marantz. As you note, the Puccini’s recommendation.
what leaps to mind when we hear Krell
digital input is an advantage, and can
Claude Poitras mentioned either. Truth to tell, the more
give you the option of adding a computer
ST-JOSEPH-DU-LAC, QC powerful the amplifier, the more difficult
as a second audio source.
it is to make it sound transparent. The
It appears that you have made considClaude, in the past we have also found last time we lent an ear to Classé power
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you have solid reason to believe that the
Ikemi is the weak spot in your system,
you might want to look at some other
upgrade. And if the Ikemi is your weak
spot, then you have a heck of a system!
I am the owner of both the Simaudio
W-3 and W-4070SE power amplifiers.
Which amp would you consider superior?. You sort of panned the W-3 when
you tested it, and the W-4070SE has
long been your favorite, but is it better
than the W-3?
Mel Lochbaum
STOUFFVILLE, ON
No it’s not, Mel. We didn’t pan the
W-3 in UHF No. 54, but we reviewed it
at the same time as an updated W-5, and
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we thought that, even if you ignored the
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(in most brands, the smaller amp will
amplifiers, their smaller models were breathtaking price, Bryston manages sound more transparent than the bigger
musically more interesting than their to break the rule as well, and at a much one).
big ones.
higher price (with corresponding qualIn any case, time marches on, and
It’s well known that we consider ity) so does Linn. Those are examples.
subsequently we bought a W-3 to power
Simaudio an exception, since we own
But before you make any expensive the front left and right channels of our
two of their large power amps. At a less changes to your electronics, you may Kappa reference system. It was evident
want to take a good look at the inter- to us that the newer W-3 was superior to
face between your main source — your the one we had reviewed. Not that the
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and a large sound stage are welcome of of passive preamplifiers. .)
course. for details
In theory, aren’t they the ideal equipDave Literovich ment in a reference-grade stereo system?
ST. CATHARINES, ON W hy bother with tubes when they
“massage” the sound and add artifacts
The Linn Ikemi is getting a little (which may be musical but take away
long of tooth, Dave, and it can certainly from reality) to the music. Indeed, if such
be beaten…including by Linn itself. an ideal passive preamp does come along,
When we reviewed the Linn Majik does this add more weight to adding a
player (UHF No. 81), we did judge it “higher” quality amplifier, given that
to be superior to most earlier players, the preamp does not add anything to the
including the Ikemi.
sound/music? That said, the Ikemi was a killer
Is it so difficult (in your mind)
player when it was launched, and it to manufacture an excellent passive
remains very, very good today. Unless preamp? Do you plan to review them in
The Capital Region’s Premier High End Dealership
Advice
Feedback
Free
dvice!
A
e
e
r
F
n
te i
Participa
your magazine anytime soon? Talk about
adding a “green” component (no electricity needed) to your stereo system! Jerome Lee
TORONTO, ON
I have a question about the iPod. I’ve
read some articles (it was also mentioned
in the latest UHF mag) about the first
iPod docking station that can get a digital
signal out of the latest iPods, The Wadia
iTransport. This could be very interesting for me, as I already own a Cyrus
DAC XP. It would be possible to put all
my CDs on a 160 Gb iPod and enjoy the
“ease of use” of an iPod combined with
very good sound quality.
I can’t believe reading a CD through
my laptop DVD player is the best way to
get the digital info into the iPod.
Emmanuel
GHENT, Belgium
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As far as we know, Emmanuel, the
Wadia iTransport is the only device
currently available capable of getting a
clean digital signal from an unmodified
iPod.
But much as we too love the iPod, we
think the most convenient way to store
music is not on a portable player but on a
hard drive connected to your computer.,
with the iPod as a satellite of it Those
possibilities are discussed in detail in the
current issue.
FREE ADVICE ON LINE!
www.uhfmag.com/FreeAdvice.html
Feedback
Advice
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We have in fact reviewed several
passive preamplifiers over the years,
Jerome, including models from McCormack, Simaudio, Antique Sound Lab
and QED. A pair of passives was on the
cover of UHF No. 54, and over the years
four have been listed in our Audiophile
Store.
It seems evident that the designer
of a passive preamp starts out with an
advantage: the best transistor or tube
circuit cannot be as perfect as no circuit.
Nor can any circuit be as inexpensive as
no circuit. Those are solid advantages,
but with them come disadvantages too.
We have often said that making a
top-grade preamplifier is more difficult
than building a competent power amplifier. Why? It’s because the signal handled
by the preamplifier is smaller and more
fragile. Make the preamp passive, and
the signal will be even more fragile.
We have seen many a manufacturer
produce a great power amplifier and then
a mediocre integrated amp. Why? The
preamp section wasn’t the easy assignment the designer thought. Add to that
the fact that most (though not all) passive
preamps have an excessively high output
impedance, and you can see why the very
best preamps are active, not passive.
Can a passive preamp be a great
economy choice? It certainly can. Can
it be the best? We have our doubts.
A QUIET REVOLUTION
Acoustics
Part VIII
White Noise, Pink Noise, Other Noises
I
f you wish to measure the frequency
response of an amplifier, you can
use a normal sine wave
generator to provide a
series of pure tones at the
desired frequencies. With
loudspeakers, that method
doesn’t work.
The reason it doesn’t
work is that when you measure a loudspeaker, you are
also measuring the room
it is located in. Even if you
have access to an anechoic
chamber (which I alluded
too in my first installment,
in UHF No. 77), there will
be acoustical artifacts that
will color the results to
the point of making them
meaningless.
There is, I bel ieve,
no way of measuring the
response of a loudspeaker
that is both pure and meaningful, and
I have mentioned the reasons before.
To provide but one example, it seems
evident that, in a “perfect” anechoic
chamber, the energy emanating from
the rear of a loudspeaker would not be
measured. A loudspeaker radiates lowfrequency sound all around, however,
and it is likely that the speaker designer
will have counted on you hearing it. That
is, he will have counted on the room
boundaries reflecting those low frequencies back to you. If that reflection does
not occur, the bass notes will not be as
loud, and the speaker may sound thin.
How, then, may we measure speaker
response, and how may we measure the
contribution of the room? If, as appears
to be the case, the speaker and the room
are inseparable, functioning in tandem,
are we measuring anything at all?
If I ask you to measure the frequency
response of a speaker in your room,
using a good microphone and a tone
generator, it might occur to you that
this would be exceedingly simple. You
by Paul Bergman
set up the microphone at your usual
listening position, plugged into an audio
measuring meter (all-in-one meters with
built-in microphones are commonly
available). You would then plug the tone
generator into your amplifier, and read
the meter output at each of a number of
frequencies.
If you then took that list of readings
and plotted them on a sheet of graph
paper, you would be in for a shock.
How could the response be so bad? It
looks nothing like the similar curve of
the frequency response of an amplifier,
which would look ruler-flat. This curve,
on the contrary, looks like the teeth of a
comb.
That isn’t terribly encouraging, but
I’m afraid that is the actual response of
the signal reaching your ear. Note that
I have put “ear” in the singular, for the
response at your other ear might be
significantly different. Similarly, shifting
the microphone a few centimeters to the
side would also have changed the look
of the curve, though in all likelihood it
would not have made it look any more
encouraging. A typical curve might
look like the one at top on
the next page. Even so, it
appears to have been done
in an anechoic chamber,
which explains the rather
lean bottom end.
Why is this?
The answer to this and
other questions can be found
in the complete print or
electronic version of UHF
No. 84. Order the print issue
from w w w.uhfmag.com /
IndividualIssue.html (it’s
case sensitive). Or subscribe
at www.uhfmag.com/Subscription.html. The electronic issue is available from
www.magzee.com.
We now continue in
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The nature of hiss
Most people are familiar with the
expression white noise, which however
they may describe as hiss. The name was
coined by analogy with white light, which
contains (presumably) all visible colors.
In the same way, white noise contains
sound of every audible frequency. You
can hear white noise by tuning an FM
radio between stations (with the muting
turned off ). Graphically, it looks like
this.
Acoustics
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Acoustics
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Back Issues
THE ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION:
Issues No.7-19 (except 11, 15, 17 and 18, out of
print): nine issues available for the price of five
(see below). A piece of audio history. Available
separately at the regular price.
No.83: Digital: The dramatically-styled Raysonic
CD128 and an absurdly low-cost player from
VisionQuest. Other reviews: The Moon LP5.3
phono stage, the Castle Richmond 7i speaker,
the upscale Mavros cables from Atlas, and a
retest of the Power Foundation III line filter, with
a better power cord this time. Plus: The acoustics
of speaker placement, the two meanings of video
image contrast, and a portrait of super tenor
Placido Domingo.
No.82: Amplifiers: A large sweet tube amplifier
from Audio Space, the Reference 3.1, and the
reincarnation of an old favorite, the Sugden A21.
Digital: Bryston's first CD player, and the Blue
Circle "Thingee," with USB at one end and lots of
outputs at the other end. Plus: the BC Acoustique
A3 speaker, a small subwoofer, two more London
phono cartridges, line filters from AudioPrism
and BIS, a blind test of three interconnects, Paul
Bergman on soundproofing, and a thorough test
of Sony's new-generation Blu-ray player
No.81: Digital: The newest two-box CD player
from Reimyo, and the magical Linn Majik
player. Headphones a new version of our long
time reference headphones, from the Koss pro
division, and the affordable SR-125 headphones
from Grado. Plus: The astonishing Sonogram
loudspeakers from Gershman, a small but lovely
tube integrated amplifier from CEC, and the
London Reference phono cartridge.
No.80: Equipment reviews: From Linn, the
Artikulat 350A active speakers, the updated
LP12 turntable, the Klimax Kontrol preamplifier,
and the Linto phono stage; ASW Genius 300
speakers, ModWright preamp and phono stage.
Also: Bergman on absorbing low frequencies,
emerging technologies for home theatre, and
coverage of the Montreal Festival.
No.78: Integrated amplifiers: the affordable
Creek EVO, and the (also affordable) Audio
Space AS-3i. Loudspeaker cables: six of them
from Atlas and Actinote, in a blind test. Plus:
the astonishing Aurum Acoustics Integris 300B
complete system, and its optional CD player/
preamplifier. Whew! Also: Bergman on taming
reverberation, how to put seven hours of uncompressed music on just one disc, and the one
opera that even non-opera people know.
CD players, GutWire MaxCon power filter. And
there’s more: all about power supplies, what’s
coming beyond DVD, and a chat with YBA’s
Yves-Bernard André.
No.75: Amplifiers: The new Simaudio Moon W-8
flagship, and integrated amps from Copland (the
CTA-405) and CEC. Speakers: the Reference 3a
Veena and the Energy Reference Connoisseur
reborn. Plus the Benchmark DAC converter. And
also: Bergman on the changing concept of hi-fi
and stereo, a chat with FIM’s Winston Ma, and
the rediscovery of a great Baroque composer,
Christoph Graupner.
No.67: Loudspeakers: A new, improved
Reference 3a MM de Capo, and the awesome
Living Voice Avatar OBX-R. Centre speakers
for surround from Castle, JMLab, ProAc, Thiel,
Totem and Vandersteen. One of them joins our
Kappa system. Two multichannel amps from
Copland and Vecteur. Plus: plans for a DIY
platform for placing a centre speaker atop any TV
set, Paul Bergman on the elements of acoustics,
and women in country music.
No.74: Amplifiers: Mimetism 15.2, Qinpu A-8000,
Raysonic SP-100, Cyrus 8vs and Rogue Stereo
90. More reviews: Atlantis Argentera speaker,
Cyrus CD8X player, GutWire MaxCon Squared
line filter, Harmony remote, Music Studio 10
recording software. Cables: Atlas, Stager, BIS
and DNM, including a look at how length affects
digital cables. Plus: the (hi-fi) digital jukebox,
why HDTV doesn’t always mean what you think,
and Reine Lessard on The Man Who Invented
Rock’n’Roll.
No.73: Integrated amplifiers: Audiomat Récital
and the affordable Exposure 2010S. Analog:
Turntables from Roksan (Radius 5) and Goldring
(the Rega-designed GR2), plus two cartridges,
and four phono stages from CEC, Marchand
and Goldring. The Harmonix Reimyo CD player,
Audiomat Maestro DAC, ASW Genius 400
speakers, and the Sonneteer BardOne wireless
system. Plus: Paul Bergman on the making of an
LP and why they don’t all sound the same, and
the many ways of compressing video so it looks
(almost) like film.
No.72: Music from data: We look at ways you
can make your own audiophile CDs with equipment you already have, and we test a DAC that
yields hi-fi from your computer. We review the
new Audio Reference speakers, the updated
Connoisseur single-ended tube amp, upscale
Actinote cables, and Gershman’s Acoustic Art
panels. How to tune up your system for an inexpensive performance boost. And much more.
No.71: Three small speaker: Reference 3a
Dulcet, Totem Rainmaker, and a low cost speaker
from France. We do a complex blind cable test:
five cables from Atlas, and one Wireworld cable
with different connectors (Eichmann, WBT nextgen, and Wireworld). The McCormack UDP-1
universal player, muRata super tweeters, the
Simaudio I-3 amp and Equinox CD player. Paul
Bergman reveals the philosophical differences
behind two-channel stereo and multichannel.
No.70: How SACD won the war…or how DVD-A
blew it. Reviews: Linn Unidisk 1.1 universal
player and Shanling SCD-T200 player. Speakers:
Reference 3a Royal Virtuoso, Equation 25,
Wilson Benesch Curve. Other reviews: Simaudio
W-5LE amp, the iPod as an audiophile source.
Plus: future video screens, and the eternal music
of George Gershwin
No.77: Electronics: The Simaudio Moon P-8
preamplifier, the successor to the legendary
Bryston 2B power amp, the Antique Sound Lab
Lux DT phono stage. Plus: the Reimyo DAP-777
converter, an affordable CD player/integrated
amp pair from CEC, and five power cords. Also:
Paul Bergman on room size and acoustics, how
to dezone foreign DVDs, and how to make your
own 24/96 high resolution discs at home.
No.69: Tube Electronics: Audiomat Opéra ,
Connoisseur SE-2 and Copland CSA29 integrated amps, and Shanling SP-80 monoblocks.
Audiomat's Phono-1.5, Creek CD50, a great new
remote control, GutWire's NotePad antivibration
device, and a music-related computer game that
made us laugh out loud. Paul Bergman on the
return of the tube, and how music critics did their
best to kill the world’s greatest music.
No.76: Loudspeakers: a new look at the modern
version of the Totem Mani-2, an affordable ELAC
speaker with a Heil tweeter, and the even more
affordable Castle Richmond 3i. Plus headphone
amps from Lehmann, CEC and Benchmark, a
No.68: Loudspeakers: Thiel CS2.4, Focus
Audio FS688, Iliad B1. Electronics:Vecteur
I-6.2 and Audiomat Arpège integrated amplifiers, Copland 306 multichannel tube preamp,
Rega Fono MC. Also: Audio Note and Copland
No.66: Reviews: the Jadis DA-30 amplifier, the
Copland 305 tube preamp and 520 solid state
amp. Plus: the amazing Shanling CD player,
Castle Stirling speakers, and a remote control
that tells you what to watch. Also: Bergman on
biwiring and biamplification, singer Janis Ian’s
alternative take on music downloading, and a
chat with Opus 3’s Jan-Eric Persson.
No.65: Back to Vinyl: setting up an analog
system, reviews of Rega P9 turntable, and
phono preamps from Rega, Musical Fidelity
and Lehmann. The Kappa reference system for
home theatre: choosingour HDTV monitor, plus
a review of the Moon Stellar DVD player. Antivibration: Atacama, Symposium, Golden Sound,
Solid-Tech, Audioprism, Tenderfeet. Plus an
interview with Rega’s turntable designer, and a
look back at what UHF was like 20 years ago.
No.64: Speakers: Totem M1 Signature and
Hawk, Visonik E352. YBA Passion Intégré amp,
Cambridge IsoMagic (followup), better batteries
for audio-to-go. Plus: the truth about upsampling,
an improvement to our LP cleaning machine, an
interview with Ray Kimber.
.No.63: Tube amps: ASL Leyla & Passion
A11. Vecteur Espace speakers, 2 interconnects (Harmonic Technology Eichmann),
5 speaker cables (Pierre Gabriel, vdH ,
Harmonic Technology, Eichmann), 4 power
cords (Wireworld, Harmonic Technology,
Eichmann, ESP). Plus: Paul Bergman on
soundproofing, how to compare components
in the store, big-screen TV’s to stay away
from, a look back at the Beatles revolution.
No.62: Amplifiers: Vecteur I-4, Musical Fidelity
Nu-Vista M3, Antique Sound Lab MG-S11DT.
Passive preamps: Creek and Antique Sound
Lab. Vecteur L-4 CD player. Interconnects: VdH
Integration, Wireworld Soltice. Plus: the right to
copy music, for now. Choosing a DVD player by
features. And all about music for the movies.
your own machine to clean LP’s.
No.57: Speakers: Dynaudio Contour 1.3,
Gershman X-1/SW-1, Coincident Super Triumph
Signature, Castle Inversion 15, Oskar Aulos.
PLUS: KR 18 tube amp. Music Revolution: the
next 5 years. Give your Hi-Fi a Fall Tune-Up.
No.56: Integrated amps: Simaudio I-5, Roksan
Caspian, Myryad MI120, Vecteur Club 10, NVA
AP10 Also: Cambridge T500 tuner, Totem Forest.
Phono stages: Creek, Lehmann, Audiomat.
Interconnects: Actinote, Van den Hul, Pierre
Gabriel. Plus: Paul Bergman on power and current…why you need both
No.55: CD players: Linn CD12, Copland
CDA-289, Roksan Caspian, AMC CD8a. Other
reviews: Enigma Oremus speaker, Magenta
ADE-24 black box. Plus: the DSD challenge for
the next audio disc, pirate music on the Net, the
explosion of off-air video choices.
No.54: Electronics: Creek A52se, Simaudio W-3
and W-5 amps. Copland CSA-303, Sima P-400
and F.T. Audio preamps (two of them passive).
Musical Fidelity X-DAC revisited, Ergo AMT
phones, 4 line filters, 2 interconnects..
No.53: Loudspeakers:Reference 3a Intégrale,
Energy Veritas v2.8, Epos ES30, Totem Shaman,
Mirage 390is, Castle Eden. Paul Bergman on
biamping, biwiring, balanced lines, and more.
No.52: CD players: Alchemist Nexus, Cambridge
CD6, YBA Intégré, Musical Fidelity X-DAC,
Assemblage DAC-2. Subwoofers: Energy ES-8
and NHT PS-8. Plus: Paul Bergman on reproducing deep bass, and behind digital television.
No.51: Integrated amps: YBA Intégré DT,
Alchemist Forseti, Primare A-20, NVA AP50
Cambridge A1. CD players: Adcom GCD-750,
Rega Planet. An economy system to recommend
to friends, ATI 1505 5-channel amp, Bergman on
impedance, why connectors matter, making your
own power bars.
No.50: CD: Cambridge DiscMagic/DACMagic,
Primare D-20, Dynaco CDV Pro. Analog: Rega
Planar 9, Linn LP12 after 25 years. Also: Moon
preamp, Linn Linto phono stage, Ergo and Grado
headphones. Speaker cables: Linn K-400,
Sheffield, MIT 750 Also: 15 years of UHF.
No.49: Power amps: Simaudio Moon, Bryston 3B
ST, N.E.W. DCA-33, plus the Alchemist Forseti
amp and preamp, and McCormack Micro components. Our new Reference 3a Suprema II reference speakers, and a followup on the Copland
277 player. Plus: how HDCD really works.
Listening Room
No.79: Digital players: Simaudio’s flagship
DVD (and CD) player, the Calypso, and Creek’s
surprising economy EVO player. Phono stages:
A slick tube unit from Marchand, and the superb
Sonneteer Sedley, with USB input and output.
Plus: the talented JAS Oscar loudspeakers, the
Squeezebox plus our own monster power supply.
Also: Bergman on what absorbs sound and what
doesn’t, what’s next in home theatre, Vegas
2007, and the secrets of the harmonica.
charger that can do all your portables, and the
Squeezebox 3, which gets true hi-fi music from
your computer to your stereo system. Bergman
on speaker impedance and how to measure it.
No.61: Digital: Audiomat Tempo and Cambridge
Isomagic DACs, Vecteur D-2 transport. Speakers:
Osborn Mini Tower and Mirage OM-9. Soundcare
Superspikes. And: new surround formats, dezoning DVD players.
No.48: Loudspeakers: JMLabs Daline 3.1,
Vandersteen 3a, Totem Tabù, Royd Minstrel.
CD: Cambridge CD4, Copland CDA-277. A
interview with the founder of a Canadian audiophile record label.
No.60: Speakers: Monitor Audio Silver 9,
Reference 3a MM De Capo, Klipsch RB-5,
Coincident Triumph Signature. Plus: a Mirage
subwoofer and the Audiomat Solfège amp. Paul
Bergman on reproducing extreme lows.
No.47: FM tuners: Magnum Dynalab MD-108,
Audiolab 8000T, Fanfare FT-1. Speaker cables:
QED Qudos, Wireworld Equinox and Eclipse,
MIT MH-750. Parasound C/BD-2000 transport
and D/AC-2000 converter. Upgrading your
system for next to nothing.
No.59: CD players: Moon Eclipse, Linn Ikemi and
Genki, Rega Jupiter/Io, Cambridge D500. Plus:
Oskar Kithara speaker, with Heil tweeter. And:
transferring LP to CD, the truth on digital radio,
digital cinema vs MaxiVision 48.
No.58: Amplifiers: ASL AQ1003, Passion I10
& I11, Rogue 88, Jadis Orchestra Reference,
Linar 250. Headphone amps: Creek, Antique
Sound Lab, NVA, Audio Valve. Plus: Foundation
Research LC-2 line filter, Gutwire power cord,
Pierre Gabriel ML-1 2000 cable. And: building
No.46: Electronics: Simaudio 4070SE amp &
P-4002 preamp, Copland CTA-301 & CTA-505,
N.E.W. P-3 preamp. Digital cables: Wireworld,
Audiostream, MIT, XLO, Audioprism, and
Wireworld’s box for comparing cables. Also: YBA
CD-1 and Spécial CD players. Yves-Bernard
André talks about about his “blue diode.”
To see older issues:
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Cinema
I
s 3-D the next revolution in
home theatre? Or in movie
theatres for that matter? Perhaps, but we’ve heard that
promise before. It has always led
to headaches…for those watching
it, and also for those investing in
it. Yet perhaps, just perhaps, 3-D’s
time has come at last.
How 3-D works
Not all creatures can see three
dimensions. Birds, for instance,
have their eyes so far apart that
the views don’t overlap, serving for
a wide panoramic view. Humans,
like all primates, have eyes close
enough together that they see the
same thing twice, from slightly
different angles. The brain fuses
the two images together to form a
three-dimensional image.
To capture a scene in three
dimensions, we need t wo
images that are also taken
from slightly different angles.
Then we need to arrange
things so that each of the
viewer’s eyes sees the image
that is appropriate.
Only that’s easier said than done.
enough, the first patent for 3-D motion
pictures was applied for in 1890, well
before movies became common! The
system showed two images side
by side, and the viewer needed
to hold a stereoscope, an obvious
problem!
It was only in 1922
that the first practical 3-D
movie appeared, using the
anaglyph system. One image is
colored red, and overtop of it
is a blue or green image. You
wear glasses with appropriate
colored lenses. Through the
red lens, the red image bleaches
out to uniform red, but through
the green or blue lens you see the
other image as dark. So through
the red lens you see the blue picture, and through the blue lens you
see the red picture.
The system is still used for
3-D still photographs. On the
next page, for instance, is an
anaglyph of the international
space station, taken from the
Atlantis shuttle. But anaglyphs
don’t work well w it h color
images, and some viewers suffer from
“color bombardment,” rapid red and
blue-green flashes.
Movies in the
Third Dimension
Early 3-D
The best known of the truly old 3-D
devices is the stereoscope.
Falls, the Grand Canyon, etc. Most are
black and white or sepia, though this one,
from 1899, has been colorized.
Stereoscopes can still be found in
antique shops, but its descendents,
including the venerable ViewMaster are
still available new.
But why not combine the third dimension with motion? Movies can be made in
3-D too, and they long have been.
Looking something like a pair of
binoculars, it lets each eye see a distinct
image for 3-D. Once popular in parlors,
it featured mainly scenic views: Niagara
3-D on the screen
Adding an extra dimension makes
an image seem more real, but real
life doesn’t stand still. Surprisingly
The era of polarization
The man who made this possible
was Dr. Edwin Land, founder of the
Polaroid Corporation, and developer of
inexpensive polarizing filters. His filters
were the solution for color 3-D movies.
You may know that polarized sunglasses cut glare from the roadway,
because the ref lection is polarized
horizontally, and the lenses are polarized
vertically. In the new color 3-D system,
introduced in 1952 and popular in Hollywood for several years, the two images
were projected onto a metallized screen
through twin polarizing filters turned
90° to each other. The viewer wore
glasses whose polarizing lenses were also
angled at 90° to each other, and each eye
would see only the image intended for
it. The first of a bevy of 3-D films was
“ghosting”: leakage of a faint
image to the “wrong” eye. The
LCD system is still used in the
top IMAX cinemas, with older
ones continuing with polarizing
glasses.
3-D in home theatre
Can 3-D films be shown at
home? It’s been tried, certainly.
There is a DV D version of
Spy Kids 3-D which includes
the anaglyph version of the
film’s 3-D scene, with red-green
glasses included in the box. The
results have been uniformly dreadful.
But remember that the LCD system
was first demonstrated with television,
not cinema. A Canadian company,
Sensio, has adapted the LCD technology to video. A projector is used with a
control box, which sends remote signals
to special LCD glasses.
The system works well, but Sensio’s
range of films remains thin. The 3-D
movies of the 50’s were mostly junk,
and in many cases the stereo prints are
lost. For the moment, IMAX 3-D is the
company’s best source.
3-D without glasses?
The Philips screen shown on the
previous page is real, and it does offer
3-D without glasses. But how can it show
a different image to your left and right
eye?
It does it with a lenticular screen, like
stolen they could hardly be made of those of those novelty 3-D postcards of
precision optical glass. Was there a scenes from the Bible. To see the image
solution?
properly you need to be in the sweet spot,
IMAX to the rescue
pretty much dead centre. The resolution
The 70 mm projector running film LCD glasses
is of course affected, which would seem
horizontally for double-sized frames,
was mean
There
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What about holography?
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visit ourtoElectronic
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issue or
subscribe,
visit be made in
systems now besting multiplex
cinemas, later versions used wireless control.
full color.
MagZee.
why go out for a movie, unless…
IMAX adopted the LCD system for
The future of 3-D home theatre?
To be sure, you still had to wear the best cinemas, offering a brighter It’s here, and it will get better, but don’t
glasses, and because they were so often image, better optical quality, and less count on losing the specs.
How the electronic version works
Cinema
Feedback
Bwana Devil, whose poster is on
this page.
The new system was much
better, but it introduced new
problems. Two projectors were
needed, and two projectionists
too. Because the system tied up
both projectors, there had to be
an intermission at the end of
each reel. If the film broke and
had to be spliced (as we’ve all
seen in Cinema Paradiso), the two
images would be out of step, and
the film would be unwatchable.
Glasses remained a problem
too. They were uncomfortable, and
the cheap plastic lenses caused serious
eye strain. So did the spacing between
images, which was left to the whim
of the projectionists. If the projector
beams diverged, the 3-D image would
seem distant, and in fact many people
would find it impossible to fuse the
two images into one. More often they
converged, placing objects very close to
the viewer, making them cross their eyes
uncomfortably. The fad ebbed, and some
films that had been shot in 3-D, such as
Kiss Me Kate and Dial M for Murder, were
widely distributed in 2-D.
There were numerous attempts
to bring back 3-D, eliminating the
twin-projector problem by placing the
two images on the same film, either
horizontally or vertically. Such films as
Jaws 3-D, Hallowe’en 3-D, and (worst of
all) The Stewardesses were done this way.
But resolution was poor, and the cheap
glasses remained problematic as well.
Features
A
Festival in Montreal
t one time we could take it for
granted that, one year after
the next, this large consumer
audio and video show would
keep on getting bigger. But the world
has changed, and times are tougher than
they once were.
The show changed hands over two
years ago, and new Festival president
Michel Plante, at right, had big plans. He
would feature all consumer electronics,
not just audio and video. And the first
year it worked. Sony was there with all
of its lines, including cameras. Apple
was there. So were some of the gaming
companies.
This year was Plante’s third show. No
Apple. No Sony. No games, either. Even
some of the major high end audio companies were not there, and there were
hardly any really large home theatre
displays. At the same time, if the show
had not grown — and it’s my impression
it hadn’t — it seemed to be a better show,
with fewer rooms that had visitors fleeing
with their hands over their ears. If there
was less to see and hear, something I’m
not in a position to measure, there was
more to enjoy.
Lest I give you the wrong idea, there
were home theatre rooms, two of them
more than pretty good. Plurison had
a particularly good one, using a large
DreamVision DLP projector with an
anamorphic lens, and Focal speakers.
P io ne e r ’s
room, in which it was showing off its
Kuro plasma screens, was a stunner, and
helped move the Kuros a little higher
on our shopping list. The Sharp display
might have been interesting if the best
screens had not been placed in direct
sunlight.
Tenor had a very good room, which
included the prototype preamplifier
shown below left, with Tenor 300M
monoblocks driving Kharma Grand
Céramique speakers. Oh…until someone put on a CD, couldn’t hear anything,
then turned it way up, and… Ceramic
drivers take poorly to abuse, and the
show cont inued wit h Avalon
speakers, which sounded very
good too, fortunately.
Several speakers
grabbed my ear, including the
two German Duevel omnidirectional speakers in the
Mutine rooms. At the lower end
of the price scale was the Timefield
speaker, at left on the next page…yes, the
one with the tiny driver (there’s another
on the back side). It’s a kit, taking some
two hours to put together, not including staining. Add the battery-powered
amplifier and DVD/CD player, and
you’ve rung up a bill of $1000. Truly a
system for troubled economic times.
A speaker better suited to CEO’s,
possibly, is the Vienna Acoustics speaker
shown at right on the next page. It’s
called simply The Music, and frankly
it’s a stunner, with natural sound and
an image that was rock solid despite the
fact that they were positioned maybe a
block apart. The price may require solid
financing, at $25K a pair. The source
was a pretty good one too, an SME
turntable.
The Reference 3a Grand Veena
speakers were back. They had mightily
disappointed me a year ago, but had
sounded vastly improved in Vegas, and
they sounded superb this time as well,
with the sort of big-speaker dynamics
you can’t get from small units. The
company was also showing the $5500
Episode, midway between the Veena and
Grand Veena. But there was something
odd emanating from the right channel.
It seems a thumb had gone into a tweeter
while the right speaker was being moved,
and a repair done “in the field” was not
quite to factory spec. Too bad, because
they looked and especially sounded more
than a little interesting. I hope to get
another listen soon.
I was surprised to see Thiel, which
doesn’t usually come to Canadian shows,
but the company now has an official
distributor here, namely SF Marketing.
I was cordially received, despite some
hackles raised at SF by our recent review
of a speaker from Castle, which SF also
distributes.
It’s not often that anyone offers
comparisons of cables, but Nordost
was. The comparison was between the
startlingly expensive Odin cables, which
cost more than $20K, and the company’s
Of course those who know Gilbert (and couples with a dCS player and even a
the gear he designs) will know that the Nagra digital recorder for playing master
earlier flagship, the Valhalla. The system message on the shirt is a blatant lie.
tapes. The powers amps vary from one
sounded very good with both cables, with
I also spent a little time listening year to the next, but they have sounded
Burmester source and electronics, and to the Linn digital streaming systems, consistently harsh. This year the big
Avalon speakers. I must admit that the including the Klimax DS we were wait- Zarastro II speakers were driven by the
Odin cable sounded substantially supe- ing to pick up after closing time for a small Ayre monoblocks, and that seemed
rior, making Jennifer Warnes’ version of review. Perhaps more interesting for to make all the difference. Who says all
Leonard Cohen’s Ballad of the Runaway most budgets was the Sneaky
amplifiers sound alike?
Horse sound more like the coveted LP DS , wh ich a lso st rea m s
By the end of the show
version. I was disappointed, because music from your computer,
I was looking for favorite
I don’t want cables to but includes a full preamp,
rooms to return to, and it
cost that much, phono stage and power amp,
is perhaps significant that I
but…
for $1995. Oh, and there’s a
had myself a good list. One
No, this free version is not complete, though you could spend a couple
I heard the new economy version of the
of them was the Charisma
of hours reading it. Want the full version?
same recording Linn LP12. It has a built-in
room, which featured the
You can, of course, order the print version, which we have published
through Lam- “Majik” power supply, and
large Audio Space tube
for a quarter of a century. You can get it from our back issues page.
h o r n s , w i t h uses a Pro-Ject carbon fibre
amplifier we reviewed last
But we also have a paid electronic version, which is just like this one,
tube electronics tone arm and a Linn Adikt
year, and a Scheu Analogue
except that it doesn’t have annoying banners like this one, and it doesn’t
and an MS turn- MM cartridge. It’s under
turntable, driving a pair of
have articles tailing off into faux Latin. Getting the electronic version is of
table. It was the $4000, and can be upgraded
the small Harbeth 7ES-3
course faster, and it is also cheaper. It costs just $4.30 (Canadian) anywhere
LP version this to the full-blown version
speakers. Was I just tired
in the world. Taxes, if they are applicable, are included.
t i me. I’m not if you get the yen (or the
and needing to sit down?
It’s available from MagZee.com.
always that fond dollars).
No, there was more. The
of Lamhorns, but
I spent a half hour or so
music (the LA4 jazz group)
I have to admit listening to a speaker made
kept me in my chair.
that this system not far from us, the Gemme
Oh yes, it is a longwas a delight.
Katana. It’s certainly sleek,
standing tradition that, no
I spent a little and coupled with a Gamut
matter when the Montreal
time in the Blue CD player and electronics,
show is held, it snows.
Circle room, but it was a lively and impresSo check out the picture
came away only sive demo. The damages
above, taken on the openwith one photo: come to $9395.
ing day!
t hat of Gilber t
Verit y Audio always
Now to Albert Simon,
Yeung showing off takes one of the few large
on the next pages, who
his handcraf ted hotel rooms for its larger
toured with friends and
tee-shirt (above). s p e a k e r s , w h i c h it
acquaintances.
Get the complete version
Feature
Feedback
Montréal 2008: Another Look
I
Feature
Feedback
t’s evening now. The cats are out, by Albert
romping in the woods and two fine
guitarists from Capo Verde are quietly playing their own
compositions (Dôs, with Vasco Martins and Voginha,
guitars) — a unique blend of Portuguese music moistened by
the night air of that island off the west coast of Africa. My
laptop glows softly.
I recall the first words Denis said to me as he sat in the
Simaudio room “It’s been so long since I actually sat to listen
to music.” He paused and then added, with a touch of regret,
“I forgot how enjoyable that can be.” It was his first time
at the show and, arriving straight from his office, he was
discovering a whole musical world that had somehow passed
him by in the last few years. A music lover at heart but lacking
adequate equipment to enjoy it, he recalled the countless times
his children were told, in no uncertain terms, never to touch
his many LPs, and yet they sat there, lined up on his shelves,
waiting.
Mov ing away from t he
large Dynaudio speakers, he
marveled at the French-made
Dôme speakers in the Plurison
room, a remarkably satisf ying sound streaming from that
pair of wall mounted, small
enclosures and a small but solidsounding subwoofer. Quite a
contrast, however, to the huge
Muon speakers, as we entered
the KEF room, a boldly designed
pair of aluminum sculptures,
exquisitely created by Ross Lovegrove. Denis was quite impressed
Simon
by Johan Coorg’s powerful presentation and
by the riveting sound the speakers produced.
The rest of the system was composed of Musical Fidelity amps
and CD player or, alternately, an iPod playing through the
amazing Wadia iTransport. Denis said he would make sure
to visit this room again with his two teenagers on Sunday.
On we went to other very different experiences in various
rooms until we reached the Tenor room, a dimly lit, spacious
room in which a pair of Avalon speakers were driven by a pair of
hefty looking power amps with the distinctive wooden Tenor
finish. We sat and listened to a wonderful rendition of Laura
Fygi’s The Latin Touch. “Of everything I’ve heard so far,” said
Denis, in a confidential tone, “this is the sound I prefer. Such
clarity and depth!”
We squinted as we stepped out into the bright hallway and
headed for another dimly-lit room where a low stage, featuring
an array of jewel-like Jadis equipment, was set between a huge
pair of Pierre Gabriel Grand Master speakers — all linked
with the new Pierre Gabriel cables. A mesmerized audience
was glued to the seats by the virtuoso playing of Anne-Sophie
Mütter’s violin in the Carmen-Fantaisie. I know this recording
well, and it always bothered me that it projects a much largerthan-life violin sound. Setting the volume to get a good level
for the orchestra, one always ends up with a solo violin which
sounds as loud as a brass instrument. But then we heard the
rich and expressive voice of Jean-Pierre Ferland singing Adieu
ma beauté from his CD Tournée 2000, and all was well. What
am I saying, it was fantastic, he was right there in front of us.
“Another room I’d like my kids to visit on Sunday,” said Denis,
very impressed.
He was also taken with the performance of the Hadouk Trio
playing through the polished black Avant
G arde Gershman speakers,
and remained in
his thoughts on
his way out of
the room. When
we entered t he
Mutine room, he
wondered at the
style and technology of the omnidirectional Planets
speakers by Duevel
“They look small
and their design is
striking,” he said, as
he tried to find the
best seat in he middle
of the room. “You can
sit any where,” I told
him, “I was here earlier
l at e r
on , i n ver y
d i f f e r e nt c i r c u m stances. Read on.)
We parted on those words and
agreed to meet again on Sunday with his teenage kids.
The next day I toured the show with Benoît, who is an
avid music lover, and for him too it was his first time at
the show. Full of
energy, he was eager Facing page: Denis, lending an ear; an
to get on his way ELAC speaker with Heil tweeter`; Audio
and we started with Research Reference 610, with 16 6550
the packed Totem tubes.
room. After listen- Above: A Denon DCD-CX3 SACD player
ing to the fascinat- and DRA-CX3 amplifier, $1295 each.
ing sound of Bob Below: Benoît
Brozman’s g uitar
blues (Post-Industrial
Blues, last track How I Love that Woman) he raised his eyebrows
and whispered “Are these playing that?” He was referring
Feature
Feedback
today, you’ll see.” He looked at me questioningly.
And then the music started and Cassandra Wilson sang
Blue Light Till Dawn, and there were no more comments for a
long while, just a smile and I thought I even detected a sigh. He
then wanted to listen to part of his own CD, the soundtrack
of Natural Born Killers. “I wanted to listen to the voice of
Leonard Cohen,” he explained, “and hear its deep bass
with this system.”
“Very good,” he exclaimed at the end. We then listened
to Bianca Luna, a beautifully-crafted song by Italian singer
and songwriter Gianmaria Testa, his gravelly voice filling
the room, yet his presence clearly identifiable in front
of us, between the sphere-adorned speakers. Next was
Mexican-American singer Lila Downs (featured in the
2003 film Frida) and her husky voice in Cielo Rojo from
her latest CD Una Sangre/One Blood. “Very appealing,” Denis
said as we finally emerged from the small room, “the sound
is nicely balanced, with no hardness whatsoever, and the bass
does not smother the rest.”
When we approached the corner room featuring the large
and elegant Sarastro II speakers (recently upgraded with a
new tweeter and crossover) by Verity Audio, Denis was much
more relaxed. He barely glanced at the impressive pair of
Ayre monoblocks or the dCS Scarlatti CD player. He just sat,
listening to the gorgeous sound of choir and organ in Rutter’s
Requiem, enjoying every moment of it. “I don’t know how to
reconcile listening to music with my lifestyle, where I am
always running,” he said after a while with a hint of sadness.
“I realize now how long it has been since I have actually taken
the time to listen to music.”
“And yet it is necessary,” I replied, knowing exactly how
he felt, “as necessary as recharging your cell phone, and it is
also part of one’s search for balance. Listening to music is the
antidote to that lifestyle so many of us lead.”
“Actually no,” I added, thinking of the countless people
who keep on running with music pouring into their ears. “It
is not just the music but the act of taking the time to pause
and listen to it.”
Denis was thoughtful for a while and then he said “I
understand now why it is so important to have a dedicated
listening room, a place of solace where one walks in for
the sole purpose of listening to music.”
“Actually, there is also another way of looking at it,” I
replied, thinking of real-life situations, “There are those
who maintain that using one’s living area as a listening
room makes music available more often and to more
members of the family.”
He considered that for a while. “As a matter of fact,
having a system one likes is not a luxury,” concluded
Denis, “and the way I like to think of one is to ask myself,
which one will I be less irritated by?”
It was my turn to consider that for a little while. “Here
is how I see it,” I suggested, “ask yourself during the day,
which of these systems would I most look forward to?
Which one do I think would make it easier for me to pause
and enjoy taking the time to listen to my music?” (Interestingly, someone was to tell me about this very concept
to Totem’s spe- driven by the AudiAt left: Fidelio Records’ high-resolution
cial 20 th anni- omat Recital Mk2
digital recording system
versary model, i nt e g r at e d t u b e
Below left: The Duevel Bella Luna DiaThe One, small, amp, linked to the
mante omnidirectional loudspeaker
refined speakers CEC TLOX transBelow right: An Antique Sound Lab
with an exqui- port coupled to the
Cadenza DT monoblock
site yet authori- Audiomat Maestro
t a t i v e v o i c e Reference DAC ,
standing before they revealed the brilliant playing of the Fortin-Léveillé
us. (Benoît once guitar duo on Avenida Café. “It makes me feel good,” said
lent me his CD Benoît, though I could tell he was eager to try something more
of Bob Broz- affordable in the next room. Sitting on either side of a pair
man’s collabora- of freshly-minted Mimetism CD player and integrated amp,
tion with Japanese guitarist Takashi Hirayasu titled Jin Jin/ the German made Planets speakers, also by Duevel, wove a
Firefly, a true delight, by the way. Hope you don’t mind the beautiful tapestry. We first heard Chega de Saudade, a Jobim
digression, it is about music, after all, isn’t it?). We were then song performed by Rosa Passos, guitar and vocals, with Yo Yo
treated to a superb demonstration of the wall mounted Tribe 3 Ma on Obrigado Brazil, followed by two songs with Gianmaria
years now, we Testa.
have been
publishing,
on our
Web
site, “and
a freethe
PDF
speakers in stereo mode, followed by the 5.1For
configuration.
“It’s really
tempting,”
said
Benoît,
music seems
version
of
our
magazine.
Singer Ariane Moffat’s voice was suspended in the air, lifelike to spread into the room. It really fills it without being loud.”
placement
The reason
simple.
We know
looking
andShoki Shoki,
in 3D and true in height (no doubt due to the
of is
the
He then
askedyou’re
to hear
a trackfor
on information,
one of his CDs,
that
is
almost
certainly
why
you’ve
come
to
visit
our
site.
And
that’s
speakers on the wall). “I feel as if I am rediscovering the artist,” with the tremendous Afro-Beat energy of Femiwhy
Kuti. Before
we“and
give away
what some
consider
be a startlingly
large Terre de Feu
said Benoît who knows her work quite well,
I am hearwe competitors
left, we heard
anothertointeresting
selection,
amount
of information…for
free.
ing sounds spreading about the stage, through
space,
sounds by Contrevent,
a jazz fusion group of five musicians with a
We
would
give
it
all
away
free,own,
if wewith
could
still stay
in and
business.
I never heard before.” Welcome to high end audio, I wanted to sound allfor
their
guitars,
cello
vibraphone.
Recent
figures
indicate
that
each
issue
is
getting
downloaded
many by René
say.
In the Fidelio room, where we are alwaysastreated
as
100,000
times,
and
that
figure
keeps
growing.
After a few more listening discoveries in other rooms, and Laflamme to his latest recordings on his label, Benoît closed
concluded,
Yes, we know,
a nickel
for each
download…
after glancing at some of the prices, Benoît
as weif we
hishad
eyes.
He didn’t
want
to know that the speakers were the
Truth
is,
we’re
in
the
business
of
helping
youorenjoy
music
at home
were going up the stairs to another floor, “I think I am going Sarastro II by Verity Audio
that the
amps
were by Nagra. He
under
the
best
possible
conditions.
And
movies
too.
We’ll
do
what we needMichel
to feel much poorer at the end of the day.”
just wanted to enjoy a track from the newly-recorded
to doand
in order
to get the
information
to you.
I knew how he felt,
how most
Donato
trio album.
“That sounds really good,” he said, “With
Of
course,
we
also
want
you
to
read
our published
editions too. We
people react when they first learn just my eyes closed I could
see everything.”
hope
that,
having
read
this
far,
you’ll
want
to
read
on.
about the price of, say, cables.
After a few more listening experiences in different rooms —
“Nobody comes here for the first some of them not so favorable — Benoît felt exhausted. “I never
time with a planned budget for thought it would be so draining,” he had to admit. But just
quality audio gear,” I tried to before calling it quits he wanted to listen to a budget system
explain. “They listen, discover he had read about. Bette and Stef were playing their Bossaa whole new way of enjoying Nova rhythm on Day by Day when we arrived in the Bluebird
music, and then much later, room. The “Ultimate Budget Hi-Fi” system featured an Expooften when they ache with life’s sure player and
pressures, they remember how a mp, d r i v i ng
they felt, and they start planning a pair of small
for it.” Only when ready, not (but not smallbefore, I thought.
sounding ) Neat
We spent a long time with speakers. Benoît
the Neeper speakers from Den- sat and listened
mark, listening to a Yo Yo Ma i n t e n t l y. H e
CD (Obrigado Brazil) played on a then pulled one
dCS Scarlatti player. Benoît loved his CDs, Jourwhat he heard and asked to play ney Inwards by
one of his solo piano albums. He LT J Bu kem.
listened intently and remained T he volu me
silent when we walked out.
was too loud,
Sitting in front of the omni- and he asked
directional Bella Luna Diamante to lower it. He
speakers by Duevel was quite kept listening to
an experience for us in one of the deep and vibrant
the Mutine rooms. Expertly rhythms and then asked
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Feedback
Why a free version?
created Reference 3a Episode on display.
On Sunday morning I greeted Denis once again, his two
teenagers, Manon and Guillaume, and their friend Robin.
We headed for the huge Coup de Foudre room, featuring
the splendid Wilson Audio WATT Puppy 8 speakers and the
large VTL MB450 power amps. We were greeted by none
other than legendary recording engineer Peter McGrath, who
offered us his original master recording of The Death of Tybalt,
a majestic and thundering interpretation of Prokofiev’s Ballet
Romeo and Juliet by Norway’s Bergen Philharmonic, Andrew
Litton conducting. We were all stunned by the sheer energy
and palpable presence of the orchestra. When it ended in an
incredibly powerful crash, Manon’s quiet voice brought us
back to reality “What makes the sound so good?” she asked,
looking straight at us. She had heard nothing like it before.
How do you answer such a question? “Well, it starts with
the gentleman you just met, who recorded it,” I stumbled, “and
then you have all the high end equipment in front of you.” I
continued, “Well, actually, every single thing along the way
counts…” I heard myself mumbling, more to myself. What
about the musicians and their conductor, I thought, and the hall
where it all took place?
By the time I tried considering all of that, we had reached
the Sumiko room and walked in on the Kodò Japanese drummers on Mondo Head, the deeply-felt sounds flying across the
stage or exploding between the Vienna Acoustics speakers.
“We could hear everything!” said Guillaume as we headed for
the Pierre Gabriel room. We arrived and found the best seats
just as Felix Leclerc
started singing his At left: The new Reference 3a Episode
famous song Moi, loudspeaker
mes souliers in his Above: Denis, Guillaume, and Manon
deep, expressive and (seated)
unique voice. “We
Feature
Feedback
to hear another of his CDs, Tabla Beat Science. “Interesting, and very clear sound,” he said as we left. “There was
no confusion, I could hear all instruments, and the highs
were very clear.” He was getting excited.
“Are you less tired now?” I asked. “Yes,” he said, “how
did you know?” I smiled. “When the sound is good, your
brain doesn’t need to work hard to adapt, it can relax and
enjoy the music.”
“One more room,” he said, and we finished with a
beauty. Billy Holiday sang for us through Harbeth speakers (HL Compact TES-3) and Audio Research amp and
preamp, a shiny black LP rotating on the striking Simon
Yorke turntable. “Got to go,” said Benoît. “Can’t take any
more, I’m up to my ears,” he added with a big smile.
After he left, I had the pleasure of meeting George
Short of North Creek Music who had designed the original tweeter ribbon on my Apogee Stage speakers, which
I used in my system before my present Oskar Kithara (I
still have those Apogees by the way), and I listened to his
latest design, the 1.1 In-Wall Ribbon, linked to a Simaudio
amp and a Naim CD player. I was impressed by the open,
airy sound of Bach played by Jacques Loussier’s trio with
his unique jazz touch. I asked to listen to one of my CDs,
choosing Estate from Sur les Quais, a slow yet rhythmic piece
featuring a jazz quintet including Daniel Mille’s accordion. It
was sweetly and clearly rendered with plenty of fine detail, but
we did agree that the subwoofer units he thought he needed
to add were not properly balanced for the room. (He later told
me he had adjusted them to match the narrow room, and all
was now well.) In my opinion, his
1.1 Ribbons (1.1 meters high) don’t
need any help and would be great
on their own.
In the Divergent Technologies
room, featuring the Reference 3a
Grand Veena speakers and Antique
Sound Lab Cadenza DT amplifiers, I listened to Flamenco Passion
with guitarist Gino D’Auri, a real
treat, I thought. I then asked for
Laudate Dominum, an inspired
Mozart composition with Karina
Gauvin, soprano, choir and organ.
“It’s so beautiful,” said someone
next to me. “They also have a
great player,” added another. And
he was right, an emmLabs CDSA
integrated design (CD and SACD)
coupled to the award winning
Antique SoundLab Flora EX DT
preamp. I also asked to listen to A
Gaelic Blessing, the last track on the
Rutter Requiem album, a lovely,
serene melody for men’s choir with
some of the deepest organ sounds I
have ever heard. Awesome!
And I had a peek at the newly
Feature
Feedback
could really see
him, he was right
there, in front of
u s ,” e x c l a i m e d
Manon and Guillaume both at once.
Listen to them, I
thought, and felt
so proud of them.
Soon after we
heard Jean-Pierre
Ferland’s touching song Adieu ma
beauté again, and
right on cue the
lights in the room
d i m med a s t he
lyrics went Il est
temps de baisser l’éclairage et de laisser ce qu’on aime nous toucher
(The time has come to dim the lights and let ourselves be
touched by what we love). Merci, Pierre.
We continued from room to room, letting them choose
which ones they wanted to go to. They made questioning
faces (or worse) as they came out of some of them, and they
seemed to know good sound when they heard it. Contrary to
some others, they never asked what they should be listening
for, they just expected to hear good music — and it didn’t
matter that it was different from what they prefer to listen to.
(By the way, they were not as impressed, Denis told me, as he
had expected them to be, following the full demonstration of
the huge KEF Muon speakers. Hmmm.)
We spent a long time in the Mutine room featuring the
Planets speakers. Guillaume wanted to hear one of his CDs
Dan Desnoyers Live at Pacha Club Ibiza. “The sound is super
good,” he said. “Usually the deep bass covers most of the
rest, but not here. I’ve never heard it sound so good.” Manon
then handed over her CD and we listened to Bongo Bong from
Manu Chao’s Clandestino. “We hear everything,” said Manon,
excitedly. “It is all well separated and very melodious.”
W hat did I say?
Isn’t t hat amazing?
Audiophile-speak, first
time at the show, eh?
Just before leaving I suggested a song
by Bïa, Sous le vent du
monde from her CD
Sources, and they all
loved it, including their
friend Robin. “The
sound spreads into the
room,” said Den is,
echoing Benoît’s earlier
comments, “it doesn’t
seem to come out of
the speakers.”
“A good test of
qu a l it y sou nd,” I
At left: Famed recording engineer Peter
said, seeing they were
McGrath
glued to their seats,
Below right: A loud band drowns out the
“is to notice how difchatter at the Festival cocktail party
ficult it is sometimes
Below left: The rear panel of Totem’s
to leave a room.”
anniversary speaker, “The One”
They looked at each
other and smiled.
They finally went out in the hall and soon after Manon,
Guillaume and Robin had to leave. “We feel exhausted,” they
explained. It does requires a good deal of energy, I thought,
to focus on proper listening to music — especially when one
is used to considering music as mere background.
My final visit with Denis was to the Brosseau Audio-Video
room. He liked the Vista speakers by Martin-Logan so much
that he wanted to hear how they would handle his CD Maya
with Habib Koité and Bamada, a blend of traditional African
rhythms and modern sounds. “Very interesting, “ he remarked,
“I am really impressed.” I checked the rest of the system and
noticed it was exclusively Cambridge Azur’s 840 line of player
and amps. Very nice indeed.
My highlight at the show was the time I spent at closing
time on Saturday afternoon, with Peter McGrath, his thoughts
and his music. (Take a moment to check on the Internet or at
the back of some of your best recordings, and you’ll know who
I am talking about.) “They are my window on my work,” he
told me, pointing in the direction of the Wilson Audio WATT
Puppy 8 speakers (Peter Mc Grath is also sales director for
Wilson Audio). “They tell me exactly what I have done, that’s
how accurate they are.” I had no doubt.
“Gerard told me he was here yesterday,” I started, “and
listened to your master recording of the Richard Strauss’s
Four Last Songs with Renée Fleming. I have heard her singing
the last one on my car radio, and loved it. And I have an older
recording at home with Elizabeth Schwarzkopf. Can I hear
the fourth song?”
“Sit right there,” he suggested, pointing to the lone armchair, “but I’m afraid you’ll have to listen to the third one too.”
Well, someone has to do it.
And, as I faced, expectantly, the vast space between and
around the speakers, the gloriously somber orchestral sound
(Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the San Francisco Symphony) filled the air smoothly, rising with surprising power
as Fleming’s warm soprano voice appeared and blended in.
I forgot where I was and what I
had to do. When the fourth song
started wit h its unmistakable
theme, I turned to Peter “I always
thought this beginning sounds so
much like a film score,” I said.
Peter ag reed, “Du ring
World War II,” he explained, “many composers left Europe
for the US and worked in Hollywood, bringing along what
they were exposed to and that was the beginning of modern
film scores. Richard Strauss was one of their main influences
at that time.”
We listened to more of his recordings, including
Leroy Anderson’s Trumpeter’s Lullaby and his latest
recording, completed on the Sunday prior, of
young pianist Valentina Lisitsa (write that
name down), who seems to have a magic touch,
so light and so precise. We listened to her
playing of Schumann’s Kinderzenen, followed
by Liszt’s La Campanella. “She plays so fast,” I
said, “yet without hurrying.”
“Yes,” he replied, “that’s exactly it.” I also
discovered the mastery of Constantin Lipschitz as
he played excerpts of Bach’s Well Tempered Klavier
and noticed Peter’s admiration for this pianist’s
profound knowledge of that masterpiece. I loved all of
it, the amazing presence of the performers, the depth
and width of the space created around them and the
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Feature
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how I liked introducing newcomers to the FSI in Montreal
every year.
“The point is not to have entertainment,” I added, “but a
truly moving musical experience.”
“Yes,” answered McGrath, “and a glass of wine with it,”
he added, with a twinkle in his eyes. “Somehow, I don’t see
myself having a glass of wine while watching a movie, but
with music yes.”
“It’s your role as journalists,” he continued passionately,
“to reach all these new categories of people and help them
discover this experience through the high end equipment that
is available.”
“Instead of keeping it all among us, audiophiles,” I concurred, “preaching to the converted, so to speak.”
“Exactly,” he said.
Is Hi-Fi Too Expensive?
Feature
Feedback
T
his is a letter I have wanted
to write for quite a while,
about both your magazine
in particular, and the audio
industry as a whole. It took me some
time to understand my intuitive response
to the relationship between the audio
industry and your magazine’s promotion of it and to formulate a (hopefully)
coherent response to what I have long
observed.
To me, the enjoyment of the reproduction of music in the home is the core
of this pastime, yet I feel that for many
people this is lost, as they enter into a
spiral of consumption, supported by
the industry and its publications. This
spiral of consumption, where one is
always seeking to make improvements
and striving to keep up with the latest
equipment that is either tacitly or overtly
promoted by audio review
publications, threatens the
essential enjoyment that
first attracts people to the
hobby. My hope is that you
would one day write an article on keeping this pastime in
perspective within one’s life. I
think another interesting article
for your readership would focus on
why audio equipment costs as much as it
does.
I would like to address the latter point
first.
Recently I’ve noticed that a lot of the
equipment you have both been reviewing
in your magazine and adding to your reference system(s) has made a significant
jump in price, well beyond that of the
rate of inflation, or the consumer price
index. Take, for example, some of the
following components you have recently
tested and their respective prices:
•London Reference phono cartridge
($5,295 USD)
•Linn Artikulat 350A Aktiv speakers
($48,000)
•L i n n K l i m a x K o nt r o l p r e a m p
($15,000)
•Aurum Acoustics Integris 300B amplifier and speakers ($33,000)
by Rick Meyers
•Aurum Integris CDP ($13,200)
•Simaudio Moon W-8 ($12,500)
•Simaudio Moon P-8 ($12,800)
•Audiomat Récital amplifier ($15,000)
I would be really curious to know how
these respective manufactures justify
their prices for products such as these.
As an example, for the retail price of
a Linn Klimax Kontrol preamp
(without a phono stage), I
have seen new, entrylevel, Japanese
automobiles
advertised,
such as the
To y o t a
Yaris. For
on your covers?
To burst the audiophile dream bubble
for a moment, how could anyone —
regardless of how much money they have
and how many resources they control —
possibly justify spending $40,000 USD
for a pair of speakers (active or not) or
$13,800 USD for a preamp, when two
billion of the world’s six billion people
live on a single US dollar per day or
less (according to the UN)? Who
in their right mind would spend so
much money on such a narcissistic
indulgence when so many people
go without the necessities of life
in both the developing world
and in Canada; where one in
five children is growing up in
poverty? Surely if you have
the time and imagination to dream
of what it would be like to own such
equipment, you have the mental facility
to think of both something better to do
with your money, and also something
better to do with your time. If you can’t,
might I suggest even a small donation
to the Stephen Lewis Foundation or to
UNICEF?
Closer to home, I can’t help but notice
the skyrocketing price of Simaudio
equipment. I remember from earlier
issues (UHF No. 37), how the founder
of Simaudio, Victor Sima, had a vision
of producing exceptional-sounding
equipment — his best equipment — at
affordable prices. After the company
was leveraged away from him by the
current owners when he was in financial
difficulty (that would also be an interesting topic for an exposé), it is interesting
to see the prices of Simaudio equipment
“reach for the moon” in sharp contrast to
its founder’s original guiding principle
of affordable excellence. I recently contacted Simaudio myself to find out that
the replacement cost for a new faceplate
for my scratched Moon W-5. It was $700!
Again, how can there be any rationale
for charging prices like this beyond the
simple motive of plain greed?
There comes a point when reading
about and buying audio equipment
$
$
$
the cost of the Linn
Artikulate Speakers I could
purchase two new Honda Accords!
Now I wonder, does more engineering go into a pair of Linn Artikulate
speakers than into a Honda Accord?
Do more materials go into the speakers
than into one Honda Accord, never mind
alone two? Do these speakers have to
pass more stringent regulations than an
automobile?
I think that we all know the answer to
these questions. From your perspective,
how can a manufactures justify asking
prices like these? Simply why do they
cost so much? How can you promote
their products in good faith?
I know that you will likely say that
you are not promoting them, only
testing them, but by telling us how
wonderful they sound you are in effect
promoting both them and the consumption of products of their kind. If not, why
feature them in your magazine, let alone
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will edit out the criticisms of Simaudio
and Linn.
REPlies…
Costa Koulisakis, Simaudio
This is indeed well thought out and
written. There seem to be multiple “subissues” stemming from the main one,
which is the increasing prices of highend audio and how that is justified. The
sub-issues are related to specific product
types, namely speakers and electronics.
The other issue is, of course, his mention of how magazines can endorse the
consumption of such products.
There is, to the best of my knowledge, one factual error in the letter I
feel compelled to point out: Simaudio
was not “leveraged away” from Victor
Sima. He never “needed” money. Victor
realized that to grow the business to the
next level he would have to invest, and
made the choice of selling it instead —
he grew tired of running this business
and wanted out to do something else,
which he did for a few years. He sold
the company to a then-employee, Jean
Poulin, who purchased it over an agreed
period. I don’t know the details, but this
was the general agreement.
Regarding increasing prices, yes,
Feature
Feedback
sions with their income. In particular,
the shift toward glowing reviews of the
ultra-expensive equipment acculturates
many to yearn for equipment whose
price so far outstrips its utility in their
lives if they were to actually purchase
them. In most cases, it would do them
fiscal and, consequently, social harm.
The most benefit is experienced by the
manufacturers who lend you the equipment to test and use in your reference
systems, but I would like to think that
you and the staff of your publication
have more integrity than those people
charging $48,000 for a pair of speakers,
$5,300 for a phono cartridge, or $700
for a new amplifier faceplate. I urge you
then to consider more practical articles
on assisting people in being satisfied
with the equipment they already own,
rather than constantly inviting them to
yearn for more. More always comes at
a price, both to specific individuals and
our broader society as a whole.
Lastly, in an attempt to be balanced
myself in giving feedback, I really do
love the attention that your editors,
particularly Reine Lessard, give to music
reviews and musical features. It extends
the scope of the magazine beyond the
promotion of audio equipment, to the
true enjoyment of musical reproduction
in the home. I can’t help but be interested to know
if you will print this, or, if you do, if you
CAMBRIDGE AUDIO • CLEARAUDIO •EXPOSURE AUDIO • GRADO •ELAC•TRIANGLE•MUSICAL FIDELITY
becomes more than just the joy of listening to music. For many it becomes
an obsession that draws them into a
pastime that urges them toward financial
decisions they probably would not have
otherwise made. As an example, if you
have a mortgage on your house, as many
do, the cost of spending $12,500 (plus
tax) for a new Simaudio Moon W-8
amplifier would be the equivalent of
$25,000 in equity lost in your home after
five years, if you were instead to put that
same money down on the principal of
your mortgage (within the first five years
of owning your home). Additionally, the
estimated resale value five years later for
the Simaudio Moon W-8 amp would
only be $6,250 at the very most. The
difference in lost personal equity in this
case would be almost $19,000! While the
cost of audio equipment is high, the cost
in lost equity in savings to the middleincome earner who purchases it is even
higher. How wise of a decision is it for
anyone with a mortgage to purchase an
amplifier of that price?
I return to the question of how manufactures can ask such prices for equipment and hope to get it. The answer
is that they could never hope to do it
without you and publications like yours.
And even if Linn only sells one pair of
flagship speakers per year, or Simaudio
sells only one pair of $23,000 separates
per year, the significance of having ultraexclusive products such as these reviewed
by widely-read publications, is that it
gradually brackets and acculturates the
expectations of the buying public to pay
way more for audio equipment than they
otherwise would consider paying. The
existence of even more outrageouslypriced pieces moves up the subjective
judgment of what is “reasonable” for a
good audio component, and that in turn
causes consumers to spend more than
they otherwise would before they were
“educated” in the value of high fidelity
audio.
When you think about what service
your publication provides to people
who read it, I’d be curious to know if
you are more on the side of promoting
the industry, and particular companies
like Simaudio and Linn that regularly
advertise in your publication, than
assisting consumers to make wise deci-
Feature
Feedback
it is true that our prices have crept
up. The W-5 was $5295 in 1997, and
finished at $7300 in 2006. Of course,
many improvements, both internal and
external, were done over this nine-year
period. You can say the same about a
1997 Accord vs. a 2006 model. They are
two different cars, with very different
prices. The increase in price is not only
in response to inflation, but more so to
product improvement.
Another important factor today is
manufacturing location. Manufacturing
in North America has been undercut by
the Chinese. However, it is our belief
that there is still, at this moment, no
substitute for the ultimate in quality
control and overall product quality that
is achieved when products are domestically made. The savings of Asian subcontracting are also trickling away, as China
slowly yields to improving its output
quality, which involves certifications,
new laws, and numerous local, national
and international regulations that must
be put into place to assure a high-quality
product. This last part is already a factor
for every manufacturer who seeks to sell
its products in the international market,
as there are huge start-up costs just to get
a product certified for specific markets.
Many of these regulations did not exist,
or were not enforced, just a decade ago.
On the other hand, at Simaudio we
are aware of the value-conscious cus34   ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine
tomer, and the high-end audio prices that
continue to spiral upward (as justified
above). This is why we have invested to
develop entry-level products, that both
cater to this customer and hail back to
our roots. In fact, the Classic Series
in general is about high-end value, as
most models’ predecessors were more
expensive and inferior (from both a
technological and sonic standpoint, in
our opinion): P5.3 vs. P-5, W5.3 vs. W-5,
CD5.3 vs. Nova, i5.3 vs. i-5. Considering
that the prices have remained the same
or dropped between old and new models,
is an indication that the emergence of
newer technologies and manufacturing
techniques, along with improving existing ones, have altogether prevailed to
allow this outcome.
In closing, the sheer fact that these
aforementioned models, in addition to
the entry-level i-1 and CD-1, are all
manufactured right here in our own
Montreal-suburb facility, should be, we
hope, a clear indicator that we are indeed
aware of budget-minded customers who
value high-fidelity music reproduction
above all else in their entertainment
system.
Gerard Rejskind, UHF
Rick, some of the same questions that
plague you have occurred to us at UHF
as well, and between review sessions we
often discuss them. Even so, the exam-
ples you note are by no means extreme.
How about a $300,000 loudspeaker?
How about an amplifier for which just
a replacement tube costs thousands of
dollars? How about interconnect cables
that can cost as much as $100,000? Are
these products even any good?
Fortunately, it isn’t necessary to spend
anything close to those amounts to get
the benefit of music well reproduced.
One can do it for something around
$3000 or so, and considerably less if one
begins with used equipment. Such a
system can, however, give one a taste for
better, hence the temptation to upgrade.
UHF does, of course, attempt to help
those who want to move to something
better, but how high one should go is
not our call.
The comparison with the Honda
Accord is a tempting one, but imagine
that Honda were manufacturing not
millions of Accords but only 200, or
even 100 — figures not atypical for very
high end products. The R&D, which
can easily run to billions, would have
to be paid for by that handful of buyers.
What would that car then cost? There
are of course such cars, from the likes
of Ferrari, Lamborghini and Bugatti,
and their price tags are, like those of
certain audio products, nothing less than
breathtaking.
We can, of course, choose philanthropy over music, as you suggest, and
some of us do exactly that. We can
choose to reduce our impact on the
environment by any means available, and
some of us do that as well. We can also
choose to raise our net worth rather than
spend our money for what may give us
pleasure now, and if so our heirs will no
doubt thank us.
However music is not a sphere of
interest like any other. Readers tell us
that the discovery of high fidelity, which
is to say the means of reproducing it at
home, is a life-changing experience.
That too is an investment, just as reducing one’s mortgage is an investment.
The hedonist’s motto is that “he who
dies with the most toys wins.” There is
an alternative motto: “he who dies with
the biggest bank account wins.” But
notice something. Either way, you die.
How to spend our fleeting time on Earth
is a choice that faces each of us.
Rendezvous
Tiefenbrun on the Future
UHF: With the new Sneaky DS streaming
device, Linn is betting on streaming audio
as being the future.
Tiefenbrun: Yes. A Sneaky DS plus a
pair of speakers can be $3000 or less.
You could have one in each room of
your house and create a multi-room
system. Anybody who has a high quality streaming system has already made
the investment of putting music onto a
hard drive, and can now stream music
through Ethernet cable, or even over
the power line.
UHF: Does the Sneaky DS do high resolution streaming?
Tiefenbrun: It does, yes. It’s platformindependent, and so it can play all
formats. That will be in all our products
moving forward — there will be a Majik
DS at some point. Every “DS” will offer
high performance and convenience.
They’ll support the 24-bit music files we
offer as downloads from Linn Records,
and if someone else offers a high-resolution format we’ll support that too. It’s a
new paradigm for listening to music.
UHF: So computers are not the enemy.
Tiefenbrun: No, it’s what you do
with them that’s important. When we
embarked on creating the DS system,
some three or four years ago, we wanted
to evaluate the potential of the technology. When we realized it could give us
better sound than we had been getting,
that was when we embarked on this
engineering journey.
UHF: You’re responsible for new products at
Linn, and looking into the future can mean
making false starts. For instance, the Kivor
server seemed forward-looking, but can we
say now that it’s obsolete?
Tiefenbrun: I think we can. Hard drives
have been a big thorn in the side of the
consumer electronics industry. There’s
a right way and a wrong way to manage
hard drives. The right way is to have
them in a bank of drives, easily accessible, hot-swappable, RAID-configured,
provided by one of the major world
suppliers, such as Netgear. The wrong
way — which was the only way when we
developed the Kivor — was to put the
hard drive inside the product. But then
you limit the capacity of the product, and
you build the unreliability of hard drives
into a hi-fi product.
UHF: Hard drives are noisy.
Tiefenbrun: They’re noisy, and they’re
also unreliable, and they also can’t be
used in an open way by anything else on
the network. Amazingly, there are still
companies manufacturing Kivor-like
products. I don’t understand that. It’s
anti-customer.
The rest of this article can be found in
the complete print or electronic version
of UHF No. 84. Order the print issue
from www.uhfmag.com/IndividualIs-
That’s Gilad
Tiefenbrun, and yes,
he’s the son of Linn’s
founder, Ivor. His
beat: development of
future products
sue.html (it’s case sensitive). Or subscribe
at www.uhfmag.com/Subscription.html.
The electronic issue is available from
www.magzee.com.
We now cont inue in im itat ion
Latin.
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tat.
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eu facipsusto ea faccums andignis dit
illaore do odit ilis dipit.
Rendezvous
Feedback
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tat.
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luptat.
Breaking the Rules: Alan Shaw
A
Rendezvous
Feedback
l an Shaw is managing director and
chie f d e s ig n e r o f
Harbeth, the British loudspeaker company he
took over from founder Dudley
Harwood when he was just 29
(Shaw and Harwood are shown
together on the facing page). Two
decades later, Shaw maintains
the original philosophy, which
runs counter to that of most
other speaker builders. No heavy
braced MDF cabinetry here. But
can you make great speakers by
ignoring what almost every other designer
“knows?” UHF sat down with Shaw to
discuss his unique company.
UHF: Harbeth speakers have always been in
thin-walled boxes. How did all that begin?
Shaw: It was the BBC’s philosophy, and
it came about for two reasons. In the
1950’s the BBC was moving from being
a radio-only service to radio and television. The coronation of the Queen in
1953 marked the beginning of television
as an entertainment force in the UK. So
suddenly they found themselves needing to make speakers that were lighter,
more portable, and in smaller boxes,
because they were going out with the
cameras. This required novel construction techniques.
UHF: So initially it was a matter of
practicality.
Shaw: Yes, and it was only later that they
realized they had stumbled across what
was actually an acoustically superior
system. All BBC speakers from 1959 used
thin-walled cabinets.
UHF: What had they in fact discovered?
Shaw: What they found was — and this
is where accidental good luck came in —
was that, by attaching an accelerometer
to the sides of various speakers, they
could identify particular resonances
occurring somewhere within the box.
The discovery was that, as long as resonances were suppressed by, say, 30 dB,
they were inaudible. But if they rose
above that threshold they became audible
as resonances. The conclusion was that
it was only necessary that the cabinet be
good enough to suppress those resonances
sufficiently, and no more. There is no
point in driving them further down. If
it’s inaudible, it’s inaudible.
UHF: Which would suggest that conventional enclosure designs are overkill.
Shaw: Those concepts do have some
advantages, but the disadvantage is that
at low frequencies, say 50 Hz to 100 Hz,
the box will literally breathe with the
music. You can feel this by touch.
Now on classical music this can
add a “bloom” or a “warmth” to the
sound, because although the box sides
are moving only microscopically, their
output may be 50 times greater than that
of the bass driver itself. But on rock’n’roll
it sounds a little soft.
UHF: On rock you want dry punch.
Shaw: You want dry punch, yes. But
since none of our customers are in the
rock’n’roll dry punch market, it’s not a
problem for us. We have what the Japanese call “emotional fidelity.”
UHF: What a great phrase!
Shaw: Yes, isn’t it good?
UHF: But some of your competitors are
going to ask, why not suppress those resonances completely? How can we be sure that
they won’t be audible? What if we can get
Speaker cabinets
are supposed to be
thick and heavy…
but don’t tell that to
Harbeth’s designer
those resonances 70 dB down?
Shaw: That’s a fair point, but
it’s bad engineering, because it
adds cost and complexity without improving the product.
Secondly, it’s easy for us to kid
ourselves about how good our
ears are. They’re not as good
under scientifically-controlled
conditions as we might wish.
It’s quite easy to synthetize
this audibility business.
For instance, I created some
music with Adobe Audition,
cloned it on several multitracks, passed it through band filters,
and mixed it back in with the original.
Then I cranked it up to the point where
I could just tell that the filter resonances
had changed the character of the music.
You have to get to an astonishingly high
level. So we’re on fairly solid ground with
this, but no doubt there are exceptions.
UHF: Some manufacturers have argued
for thin-walled cabinets on the rationale that
violins have thin-walled cabinets. That’s not
Harbeth’s point of view, or is it?
Shaw: It is, I would say. The secret of
the sound of a wooden instrument is
the mass of the wood and the perimeter
fixing methods, and any damping applied
to it. You can hardly imagine what a
chipboard violin would sound like, or
an MDF violin.
UHF: It’s been done, apparently.
Shaw: Has it really? (LAUGHS) But
the secret is to pick the right material
and then damp it. In our case there are
rubber bitumen pads on the inside.
UHF: The critics will argue that an instrument has to produce music, whereas a speaker
must reproduce music.
Shaw: That’s a fair point, but again it
would appear that as long as the resonances are adequately suppressed — and
you could add another 10 dB of margin
just to be safe — job done. Remember
that in the 1970’s — though it’s not
true now — the BBC had thousands of
engineers, who had nothing better to
do than to nitpick. If they had found
some sort of audible coloration in the
BBC monitors, they would have made it
fairly well known.
it looks like a very simple box, put it
in front of a cabinetmaker and it will
become his nightmare.
UHF: Do you check box resonances in your
quality control tests?
Shaw: No, once the box is standardized
it remains standard. I’ve never known a
case in which we were concerned enough
about the integrity of the construction
to check the resonances.
UHF: What are the other design criteria
for modern Harbeth speakers?
Shaw: They’re unchanged from the
traditional Harbeth speakers. If we can
make human voice sound convincing —
that is, that you close your eyes and
you can just about believe that there is
someone trapped inside that box — you
find that most music will sound correct.
The reason is that musical instruments
have been around for only 35 or 40
thousand years, whereas our auditory
system has developed over more like 20
million years.
UHF: And we hear human voices more
often.
Shaw: Constantly. Not only that, but
even with severely limited bandwidth,
such as that of the telephone, which is
AM radio quality or worse, or portable
phone, we are still capable of resolving
emotion and so on. We are very good at
interpreting voice.
I fear that this art of listening to voice
over speakers is now pooh-poohed, but
we carry on doing the same old thing.
Voice is really critical.
Rendezvous
Feedback
UHF: Now obviously you’re too young to be
the original designer of those speakers.
Shaw: I’m 50 now, and I’ve owned Harbeth for 21 years.
UHF: How did you get into the business?
Shaw: Well, I was in the semiconductor industr y with a large Japanese
multinational, NEC. I had first become
interested in loudspeakers when I was
about four. In our classroom we had
a loudspeaker on the wall, and every
afternoon we’d have to listen to the BBC,
and this voice coming from this box in
the corner was magical.
In my teens I was lucky enough to
get a job running errands at a local
BBC station. One Saturday this new
miniature speaker had arrived, and the
others were standing around listening
to it. It was the LS3/5a. We were all
captivated by the way this shoebox was
able to reproduce sound. That got me
completely hooked.
So when Dudley Harwood, founder
of Harbeth, retired and was selling the
business, I thought…
UHF: This is it!
Shaw: This is fate.
UHF: But you remained with the original
philosophy.
Shaw: Yes, because I believe in it. It’s not
perfect, because there’s no such thing as
a perfect loudspeaker, or if there is we
don’t make it. But it’s an engineeringbased philosophy, where we benefit from
research done with public money. Because
it was public money, most of it was placed
in the public domain. Anybody who so
chose could pick it up and run with it.
The problem now is t hat t h is
sort of box is deeply unpopular with
cabinetmakers.
UHF: Why?
Shaw: The reason is that the front and
back are both removable, held on by
screws. When this box is cut as a panel,
and folded up, the absence of a fixed
front and back means there is no lateral
support. Cabinetmakers like things that
pull together with tongue-and-grooved
baffles and backs.
UHF: There are no braces, as there are in
other speakers?
Shaw: No. So the quality of craftsmanship in getting these corners gap-free,
without wax or filler, is challenging, and
is reflected in the price. So, although
Listening Room
Linn Klimax DS
Y
es, we know, you feel as
though you’ve seen it before.
In fact it looks just like the
Klimax Kontrol, the preamplifier that was reviewed in UHF No. 80.
It has the same sleek case, built like the
safety deposit box at your bank. There
are no buttons or knobs to mar the
flowing lines. It looks like an expensive
product, and of course it is.
But what is it?
You might assume that it’s a preamplifier, but in fact it is designed to be used
with a preamplifier, such as the Klimax
Kontrol. The “DS” stands for “digital
streaming,” and it is a cornerstone of
Linn’s belief that the computer hard
drive is the music source of the future.
We share that belief, incidentally,
and for that reason we were eager to get
our hands on what could be the proof
of concept of the new age. True, there
are other ways to get music from a hard
drive, including the Blue Circle Thingee
(UHF No. 81), the Slim Devices/Logitech Squeezebox (UHF No. 76), and the
Off-Ramp device reviewed in the pages
ahead. Linn itself makes two other “DS”
devices, with yet another coming by the
time you read this, the cheapest selling
for $1995.
There is a fundamental difference
between the Linn DS systems and the
digital servers offered by more and more
companies. Unlike them, the Linns do
not contain hard drives. Indeed, the only
moving part in the Klimax DS is the
power switch, which is at the rear. The
music itself is stored on a hard drive, but
that drive is not included. The strategy is
logical. Hard drives are incredibly cheap
today, and you can get the capacity you
want, and upgrade inexpensively whenever you desire. By contrast, the “huge”
dedicated drive in a server will look puny
in a couple of years. And what do you do
when it goes to that great IT centre in
the sky?
Here’s how t he Linn DS units
work.
The assumption is made that you
have not only at least one computer, but
also a network. To add a network to your
computer, just add a router, a box from
such suppliers as D-Link and Linksys.
They are usually wireless, and a high-
From the makers of
the LP12 turntable,
the third high fidelity
music source
speed modem,
either DSL or cable, will generally
be connected to it too. The music can
reside on a net work-attached disc,
which in practical terms means any hard
disc configured to be accessible on the
network. The Linn DS unit is linked to
the router by Ethernet (Ethernet cables,
unlike USB cables can be very long).
Music is then controlled either from
the remote computer, which is less than
convenient, or from a wireless device
linked to the network.
Linn has chosen to use an open
standard for its control software, and
we can anticipate that the options will
multiply. For the moment, however, the
software appears to have been rushed out
the door.
Three pieces of software are actually needed, two of them at this time
for Windows only. LinnConfig and
LinnGUI can be downloaded from
the Linn Web site and installed under
Windows XP or Vista. The third is
TwonkyMedia, a UPnP media server,
which is bundled with some hard drives,
and will work on both Windows and Mac
OS X. There is a 30-day demo version,
after which it costs 30 €.
Don’t expect too much help from
the Linn instruction manual, which
appears to have been written before
the software was out. We installed the
needed programs on a Dell Inspiron, but
or DVD-Audio systems. Still, with our
Unidisk the recording was glorious.
Could the Klimax DS match it?
Not exactly, because what we heard
was different, but in what way? The
pace seemed a little slower, thought
Reine, and Albert wondered whether
the depth might be shallower. Still, this
was more than pretty good, with voices
well defined and natural. The solo flute
at the opening was satisfyingly silky, and
it remained audible even when the voices
and other instruments came onto the
stage. “The sound is a little lighter,” said
Albert, “but possibly a little less clumped
together.”
We proceeded with James Ehnes’
version of Dvorak’s Romantic Pieces for
Violin (Analekta AN 2 3191). The violin
is the key in this piece, because it has
been captured in a more lifelike fashion
than is common. “It’s a little silkier,”
said Gerard, “but that means there’s less
of the texture of the bow caressing the
resin. I’m not sure whether that’s good
or not.” That detail aside, however, the
version we heard through the Klimax DS
was more different than either better or
worse. It was, in any case, outstandingly
musical. The piano was solid, the playing
surefooted.
And here, unfortunately, the article
in our free issue tails off.
from www.uhfmag.com/IndividualIssue.html (it’s case sensitive). Or subscribe
www.magzee.com.
Latin.
tisi.
Room
Listening
Feedback
we needed considerable telephone guidance from Aldburn Electronics, Linn’s
Canadian distributor. For the moment
we consider the DS products to be like
the LP12 turntable: you let your dealer
do the unboxing and installation.
Not that this need be a permanent
situation. The LinnGUI (shown at right)
may look like a cross between Windows
95 and Mac OS 8, but future software
will make the DS products accessible
to other Wi-Fi devices, including the
iPhone and iPod Touch. In a hurry?
Linn has a software development kit
available, so you can roll your own.
For this review we kept it simple. All
of the software plus the music selections
(ripped in WAV format) were placed on
our Dell Inspiron laptop. As you can see,
some of our music selections showed up
in the LinnGUI window twice, a problem we decided not to hunt down.
The Klimax DS has the same heavy
anodized aluminum case as the Klimax
Kontrol, and it feels more than substantial. The look is gorgeous. A remote
control is supplied, though its function
is a mystery. In the photo studio, with
no Ethernet connection available, the
screen showed only a blue dot. With a
connection established the dot expanded
to the Linn logo, and in operation it
showed such information as the resolution of the incoming signal.
Like the Klimax Kontrol, the DS
has an overhanging lid that masks the
cabling. However it made it impossible
to use one of our larger power cables
(we never do tests with off-the-shelf
cables). A GutWire 16 cable did just fine,
however. The rear panel has only analog
outputs, either balanced or unbalanced.
We used the latter.
For this session we put the Klimax DS
up against Linn’s own Unidisk 1.1 player,
which is our long-time reference, and one
of the best digital players in the world.
We listened to the CDs first, and then
compared the same selections streamed
from the Dell to the Klimax DS.
We began with an old favorite, the
choral recording Now the Green Blade
Riseth (Proprius PRCD9093). Note that
we avoided the SACD version, to keep
the comparison fair. Though the Klimax
DS can decode high-res recordings, it
is not set up for the proprietary SACD
Room
Listening
Feedback
Sizing Up
the Music
Hard drives are getting better all the time. The first hard drive we bought in
the early days of UHF had a capacity of 20 megabytes, and even
so it cost $900. Today a 2 terabyte drive, holding one hundred
thousand times as much, can be had for $500. It will hold a lot
of music.
How much? A typical Compact Disc contains some 600
Mb of actual music, so our 2 Tb disc will hold more
than 3300 complete albums, though of course highdefinition files (24-bit, 96 or 192 kHz) will be
much larger still. You can choose to use lossless
compression, at least on the CD-quality files..
If we were you we would forgo the compression.
The only two lossless codecs are the open-source
FLAC, which works with the Linn DS systems, and the
proprietary Apple Lossless, which works with iPods. Ripping
your CDs to uncompressed WAV will give you the most flexibility.
One thing you don’t want to do is rip your CD collection to hard drive twice. If you
need to convert to some other format — such as Apple Lossless for an iPod — it’s
easy to do automatically.
Oh yes, one more thing.
Hard drives are mortal, and dropping prices haven’t made them any more
failure-proof. You need a second drive with an up-to-date copy of your media drive,
containing all your ripped CDs and the music you’ve bought on line. Keeping that
drive in a safety deposit box may be a good idea too. Your music collection can
quickly become the most valuable single thing you own.
Rud doloreet wis alit ut lum in henis42   ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine
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atue dolorerat la feumsandit enisim velis
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Summing it up…
Brand/model: Linn Klimax DS
Price: C$18,500
Size (WDH): 35 x 35.5 x 5 cm
Most liked: Brings home the advantage of tomorrow’s (today’s?) music
source
Least liked: A million miles from
plug and play
Verdict: For many people, a proof
of concept. For others, the ultimate
music source
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CROSSTALK
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et augait
Room
Feedback
Listening
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Taking the Off-Ramp
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G
etting music off your computer? Piece of cake! Put an
audio cable between your
computer sound card and
your amplifier or preamplifier. You
can even use an iPod as a source. It’s a
computer too.
You say you want better quality than
that? We understand you perfectly
because we want that too. Empirical
Audio’s Off-Ramp Turbo 2 offers exactly
that.
The Off-Ramp doesn’t look like a
mass-produced product, and it isn’t.
Steve Nugent of Empirical Audio (his
picture is on the next page) is known first
and foremost as a guy who does modifications, particularly to digital products.
His Web site includes white papers on
what is wrong with commercial digital
products, and he will correct them.
Among the products he will modify are
players, transports, digital-to-analog
converters (notably the already excellent
Benchmark), and even the Logitech
Squeezebox. Nugent is also the guy who
came up with the revelation that, all else
being equal, a 1.5 m digital cable will
sound better than the usual 1 m cable.
You may recall that we put his claim to a
blind test in UHF No. 74. Turned out he
was right.
So what is
t he dev ice
here, and
why should
you consider
getting one?
The OffRamp Turbo
2 is that missing link between
your computer and
your stereo system, at least
if that system has a good quality digital-to-analog converter. At
the left end of the box, you can see a
standard USB jack, which allows you to
connect the box to a modern computer.
The very short cord is a digital output,
which plugs into a digital-to-analog
converter’s coaxial digital input.
Yes, you do need to own a DAC in
order to make a high quality connection
to your music system. Not everyone
does, because in recent years even quality
players have become one-box units, for
the most part without a digital input that
would enable you to get access to their
built-in DACs. Is there a way around
this? Not if you want to use your computer as a serious source there isn’t. It’s
no mystery to audiophiles that a proper
converter costs money, sometimes a lot
of money. Can you settle for conversion
done by a computer card, an iPod, or
even a Squeezebox? Sure…but the key
word is settle.
There are three ways of getting audio
out of a computer. One — and by far
the most popular — is by USB, the allpurpose bus that modern computers use
to connect everything, from keyboards
to cameras. It’s the connection used by
the Off-Ramp too. Another is by Ethernet. The Squeezebox can use Ethernet,
but that limits it to CD-quality. This
Got a computer? Who
needs a CD player?
limitation is not set in stone, and the
Linn Klimax DS, reviewed in the previous pages, does manage to run 24 bits at
sampling frequencies up to 192 kHz over
Ethernet. Nugent says there is no cheap
way to do this, and to keep costs down
he has selected USB, though he admits
it is not optimal.
The third way, in case you’re wondering, is wirelessly over Wi-Fi. Empirical
Audio does have a wireless version of the
Off-Ramp, essentially a highly modified
version of Apple’s Airport Express.
How easy is it to make a USB link
from computer to stereo system? It’s
easy if you don’t care about quality, but
Nugent is not in that game. The challenge, he says, is to generate a low-jitter
signal and to keep the jitter low from
the computer all the way to the DAC.
It goes pretty much without saying that
the device and any other components in
the path, must not add audible noise or
distortion to the signal. He adds that if
a volume control is present (neither the
Off-Ramp nor our DAC has one), it must
not degrade the sound either.
Of course plenty can go wrong inside
the computer before the signal ever gets
to the Off-Ramp. Nugent says that it’s all
right to use the ubiquitous iTunes on a
Mac, but not on a PC. Nor does he favor
Microsoft’s Windows Media Player,
preferring to use the free Foobar2000
or the $40 J.River. As for ripping the
music (converting it from a CD’s native
format to WAV (the Windows audio
file system), Nugent likes the free Exact
Audio Copy.
To add to the fun, all computer USB
outputs are not alike either. Some Dell
computers, he says, allow audible ticks to
leak into the output, and he has found no
way to remove them. He also warned us
that, on some Macintosh portables, the
two USB ports do not sound the same.
We have spotted no differences between
the ports on our MacBook Pro, but that
With our reference the recording
was wonderful, but we heard distinct
differences when we moved to the version on our MacBook Pro. The bottom
end remained solid, and that helped
the percussion, but the overall impact
was reduced. The woodwinds were still
attractive, though we had preferred them
the first time around. “The sound is
less refined,” said Albert, leading inevitably into a discussion of the meaning
of refinement in the musical context.
Gerard thought the computer could have
matched or outperformed the majority of
CD players with this recording, though
not of course the best ones.
We continued with a piece of lieder,
Pauline Viardot-Garcia’s Haï Luli,
sung by soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian
(Analekta AN 2 9903). This exceptional
recording is a favorite of ours, both for
its undeniable sonic excellence but also
for the sheer pleasure we have in hearing
the song again.
It sounded very good, indeed almost
as good as with our own player. “Her
voice is almost as clear,” said Gerard,
“and the top end is almost right.” Indeed,
the text remained clear, and the balance
between voice and piano was admirable,
though there was just a little less of the
quality that earned the recording its
favored status around here.
We continued with a recent jazz
recording from Reference Recordings, encoded of course in the HDCD
compatible enhancement system. We
listened to Sway from the Hot Club of
San Francisco, the excellent group which
used to record for the Clarity label until
that company’s untimely demise. This is
a recording with killer dynamics and a
rich, textured sound, as well as rhythm
that makes it difficult to keep one’s body
still.
It sounded very good when we listened from the computer, but it wasn’t
perfect by any means. The spaciousness
of the recording was noticeably reduced,
as was the group’s full-tilt rhythm. Some
of the color was washed away, and the
timbres of the guitars were less distinct.
The musical structure was a little more
chaotic. As before, there was at least a
little less of everything, and yet…
And yet we were hearing more than
most players are capable of delivering.
In particular, the rhythm still worked,
making us happy to listen to this exceptional recording,
Could we possibly do a test like this
without getting singer Margie Gibson
Room
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is reportedly not the case with the entrylevel MacBook (the forward one is said
to be the better one).
For this review, we selected four
music selections…two of them encoded
in HDCD. We did use iTunes to do the
ripping into uncompressed WAV format
(Macs do support this Windows format,
as well as Apple’s own AIFF equivalent).
Of course you would set iTunes not to
alter volume or perform equalization
(this is done in the “Advanced” preference pane).
We then played them right from the
Finder, without getting iTunes involved
in the transaction. In order to make the
connection, you tell Windows or the
Mac OS to set the “USB device” (that’s
how the Off-Ramp identifies itself) as
the computer’s audio output. Our DAC
does not handle 24/96 material, by the
way, though the Off-Ramp can.
We placed t he Off-Ramp right
behind our Counterpoint DA-10A DAC,
plugging it into one of its coaxial digital
inputs. For comparison, we plugged the
digital output of our Linn Unidisk 1.1
into the Counterpoint’s other digital
input.
Why do it this way? We are aware
that our DAC, which is a number of
years old, cannot really match our Linn
player, however we wanted to keep the
comparison as fair as possible. The same
DAC would be used both as a reference
and as the conversion device for the OffRamp.
And since our converter includes
HDCD decoding, we could use HDCDencoded discs in the comparison. The
code, hidden in the digital recording’s
low-level dither, makes it through the
ripping process and the transmission
through the USB circuit and the OffRamp just fine. The opposite would be
worrisome, because it would mean that
the signal had been redithered, and was
no longer bit-for-bit identical to the
original.
Such a disc was in fact first on our
list. We listened to the Scherzo from
Reference Recordings’ version of Bruckner’s superb Symphony No. 5. This is a
lively, dynamic piece featuring brass,
woodwinds and plenty of percussion. Its
rhythm is insistent, and when it works
right it is downright irresistible.
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involved? Her Sheffield CD of Irving
Berlin songs, Say It With Music, pretty
much always sounds good, if only for
musical reasons, yet some of its qualities
are surprisingly fragile. And we’re a little
spoiled, remember.
Yet this was the recording which
sounded best coming from the computer.
We listened to You Keep Coming Back
Like a Song, one of several hits on this
recording.
Gerard t hought Margie’s voice
sounded a touch less natural than it had
with our reference, but it remained clear
and warm, and filled with emotional
impact. The violin and bass, which
accompany the song along with Lincoln
Mayorga’s piano, were attractive. “The
counterpoint among the instruments
and the singer at the end is magnificent,”
commented Reine.
Indeed, we agreed that the computer,
connected with the Off-Ramp, managed
to get most musical aspects right. And
we have to warn you that, as the car
companies say, your mileage may vary.
That could be true for several reasons.
As already noted, not all computer
USB connections are alike. Nor are the
computer power supplies which feed the
USB circuits. You won’t be surprised to
hear that computers are electrically noisy
environments. To minimize electrical
noise, by the way, we ran our laptop
from battery power. That may not be
practical in day-to-day use. Of course all
DACs are not equal. Nugent says most
are slow because they incorporate filters,
intended to smooth their way through
tests of compliance with regulations. He
does, of course, offer mods.
Nugent warns, incidentally, that
computers running Microsoft Vista have
a peculiar issue, namely that audio output
will be reduced, presumably by truncating the data. Because the Off-Ramp
operates entirely in the 24-bit world, it
isn’t vulnerable to that problem.
If you adopt the Off-Ramp, you
may want to experiment with different
software packages, both for ripping your
music to WAV format and for actually
playing the music once it is on your hard
drive. Our test method, running the
ripped music directly from the OS, may
work well, but it takes away much of the
advantage of storing music on hard disc.
Summing it up…
Brand/model: Empirical Audio OffRamp Turbo 2
Price: $975
Size (WDH): 14 x 10 x 6 cm
Most liked: Nails the fundamentals
Least liked: Captive digital cord
Verdict: The next step: capture all of
the magic available with the world’s
best players
It doesn’t allow playing tracks continuously, and of course it doesn’t allow the
use of playlists, a major advantage to
computer audio storage.
There are possible improvements
Nugent could make to the Off-Ramp
itself, we suspect. Notably, it’s powered
by a rather ordinary-looking wall wart,
something you don’t expect from a high
quality piece of audio gear. We were
also surprised by the presence of that
very short captive digital cord. Nugent,
don’t forget, was the guy who alerted
the world to the superiority of a longer
digital cable.
We went into this review not knowing what to expect, and therefore hoping
for a miracle. Why wasn’t it possible for
it to match or beat the finest CD players,
which are handicapped by complex and
noisy mechanics and a spinning disc? As
far as we could anticipate, the sky was the
limit.
And the Off-Ramp does do well,
certainly better than any CD player that
costs what it does. Of course you have
to add a computer and a good quality
standalone DAC, but perhaps you have
those already.
We believe that music is destined to
be stored on a hard drive, not on polycarbonate discs. We will need quality links
between computer and stereo system.
This one is already pretty good, and we
predict it will get better yet.
CROSSTALK
This listening session was a revelation
for me. Not that it was bad, but it was a
disappointment. Perhaps I was expecting
too much from this little black box whose
very sight seemed to promise an entry into
fantastic worlds.
All the same, notwithstanding certain
reservations — attacks less than satisfactory,
reduced impact, hot passages that turned out
to be lukewarm, a certain hardness to piano
tones — I noted fine details, emotion carried
by both instrumental and vocal passages, and
harmony that was well rendered. These are,
in brief, qualities not to be underestimated.
—Reine Lessard
I rather harbored the hope that this
device plus our computer could match the
sonic joy of our very expensive reference
player. I should have known better.
Yet it is pretty good, good enough to
compete with traditional CD players that
cost what the Off-Ramp costs, or indeed a
good deal more. And if we assume that you
already have a computer and adequate storage space for your music, that’s all you need
to spend. Not bad.
We know from the previous review that,
if you can throw enough money at the task,
you can get music from your computer with
no compromise at all. For a tiny fraction of
that cost, this device gets you a large fraction
of the sound.
Music from digital will just keep getting
better and better.
—Gerard Rejskind
I liked what I heard, I even got involved in
the music, writing my impressions, listening
intently, and yet I wasn’t quite sure. Most of
the music seemed to be there but, somehow,
I wasn’t touched and it didn’t reach me as I
had expected.
I couldn’t quite explain what was missing. Ever noticed how, after a summer rain,
the air suddenly clears and smells so fresh,
how ordinary colors seem richly saturated
and objects stand out, neatly outlined?
Remember how it all looked before the rain?
Not really? Well, now you know how music
sounded to my ears during the listening tests.
It was good, yes, but it just didn’t have the
after-the-rain effect that I heard with the
reference.
—Albert Simon
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Harbeth HL5
W
h en you k now t hat
Harbeth was and is a
long-time supplier of
monitors to the BBC,
that helps explain the look. The Beeb
has the most conservative of images.
Founded in 1959 by Dudley Harwood
(his wife Elizabeth supplied the second
syllable in the name), Harbeth has deviated little from the original philosophy.
That philosophy, we should add, runs
counter to everything that passes for
conventional wisdom.
Alan Shaw (see Rendezvous in this
issue) is only Harbeth’s second designer,
and has been running it for over two
decades. He has maintained the basic
design, preferring thin-walled cabinets
to the rigid monocoques favored by virtually all others. Do thin walls vibrate?
Certainly, but they also don’t store
energy as long.
The look is another matter. Some
British speaker manufacturers of the 50’s
have gone for a decidedly contemporary
look — B&W is the obvious example.
Not Harbeth. What we have here is a
plain rectangular box with sharp edges,
albeit a nicely-finished box, with a cloth
grille which isn’t even supposed to come
off (we pried it off for photographic
reasons). There are no concessions to
fashion, for better or for worse.
This is clearly a three-way speaker,
though it can also be considered a twoway. The Harbeth-designed 20 cm
woofer and the main metal dome tweeter
cover pretty much all of the audible
range. The smallest driver is a super
tweeter, which comes in at 15 kHz
and goes up to a claimed 24 kHz. The
tuned port is on the front. At rear are
two pairs of what look like J.A. Michell
binding posts — though they may be
knockoffs, because those are, alas, no
longer made.
The speakers need stands, obviously,
but lower ones than most “bookshelf”
speakers. Harbeth recommends a height
of 41 to 51 cm. Our HL5’s came with
wood stands from a Canadian company,
Skylan. The pillars were partly filled
with sand, and we were told that bottom
end performance could be fine tuned by
adding or removing sand.
Our speakers were well run in, having
just completed a well-received four days
at the Montreal show. We set them up in
our Omega system, initially in the same
location as our Reference 3a Suprema
reference speakers. We always begin
that way, and then adjust positioning and
toe-in for optimum performance at the
frequency extremes. In this case we left
them as we had installed them, because
the balance seemed so right that we
couldn’t determine what change might
lead to an improvement.
We pulled out half a dozen of our
favorite LPs and proceeded to a comparison. The first was the Olympic Fanfare
from Wilson Audio’s long-discontinued
Center Stage album. This highly dynamic
piece for wind band includes several
drum rolls right at the frequency where
a lot of speakers get into trouble. Reflex
speakers like the Harbeth, we might add,
do especially poorly on this recording.
Not surprisingly, the Harbeth’s
single woofer could not quite keep up
with the two push-pull subwoofers of
our Supremas. That doesn’t mean the
speakers are thin at the bottom, however.
you start thinking about weeding the
garden.
But feet were tapping this time,
because the lively rhythm pulled us right
in. There aren’t a lot of musicians in this
ensemble (five by our count), but they
can get tangled up, making it difficult
to follow them all. The great transparency of the Harbeths let us hear all the
nuances. That rollicking sousaphone,
which sometimes sounds tone deaf, was
tuneful and made us smile. The soaring
clarinet passages made us smile even
more broadly.
“And then there’s the banjo,” said
Reine. “It deserves a prize for best supporting performer.”
We t urned next to a somewhat
difficult pop recording, Paul Simon’s
Graceland, from which we selected
Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes. As on
Summing it up…
Brand/model: Harbeth HL5
Price: $5299, plus $395 for optional
stands
Size (HWD): 64 x 32 x 30 cm
Sensitivity (claimed): 86 dB
Rated impedance: 6-8 ohms
Most liked: Great performance at
both ends, and in between
Least liked: Uncompromising old
school styling
Verdict: A contender for the heavyweight crown
many mainstream recordings, the highs
are not quite natural, but they should be
neither shrill nor distorted.
And they weren’t. We enjoyed the
impressive chestiness of the accompanying singers, the South African group
Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Simon’s
voice was warm and largely natural. The
lyrics were easily audible, more indeed
than with our reference speakers. The
originality of the arrangement was most
enjoyable.
Yet those are mere details, and the
whole in this case is more than the sum
of its parts. The airiness of the sound
allowed the song to take flight, and the
nearly perfect tonal balance served the
music wonderfully well.
We figured that if the speakers had
done well with male voices, they might
do as well with female voices. We put
on Barbra Streisand’s Send in the Clowns
from The Broadway Album.
From the first warm notes of the bassoon, floating in a large space, we were
conquered. The piano came in, and it
too was captivating. Then, when Barbra
entered, we listened to the song, not the
sound. That was easy to do, because the
clarity of the sound allowed us to hang
on every word and syllable. “Her voice is
magnificent,” said Albert, “and it’s every
bit as good in very soft passages as it is
in lyrical flights. These are reference
quality loudspeakers.”
The final album on our list, as in all
our loudspeaker tests, was Secret of the
Andes, from an old Nautilus LP, though
it is still found on the JVC Audiophile CD.
The introduction includes a plethora of
Central American percussion instruments that are a speaker engineer’s worst
nightmare.
But a good speaker should be able to
handle it, and of course the Harbeths
did. The “secret” was no secret at all.
The distinct colors of the instruments
were easy to separate. In the second (jazz)
part, the kick drum was very good, as
was the electric bass. The cymbal was
natural, as it had been in the earlier wind
band pieces. As with all of the recordings, individual instruments were firmly
anchored in space…and that’s despite
the fact that, as you can guess, all three
of us couldn’t possibly be in the “sweet
spot.”
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Indeed, we judged the tonal balance to
be nigh on perfect, and the good news
didn’t stop there. The woodwinds were
clear and attractive, the cymbals surprisingly natural. The brass was rich, warm
and convincing.
We noted the image, too. The Harbeths were barely toed-in, since we had
positioned them exactly like our own
speakers. We heard nothing that suggested a different placement would give
better results. Indeed, we couldn’t have
determined how to reposition them. We
were satisfied that we could push on.
One note before we do, however.
The Harbeths have a sensitivity rating
of 86 dB, which is very low by current
standards, and that would appear to rule
out the use of small amplifiers. Sensitivity ratings can be arbitrary, however, and
we were surprised by the low rating. We
found ourselves running the HL5’s just
2 dB louder than our Supremas, which
have a 92 dB rating. We think Harbeth
is being conservative.
We continued with another wind
band piece, the suite from A Chorus Line,
performed by the Dallas Wind Band
(it’s on the album Beachcomber, Reference Recordings RR-62). The explosive
dynamics of this LP are a handful for
any speaker, but the Harbeths handled
it with equanimity. There was plenty of
impact, including in the extreme bass.
No sign of booming here! Everything
was clear, including the small percussion
instruments which are the backdrop for
the huge orchestral forces. We could
hear it all. The brass was very bright,
but not all shrill or exaggerated.
Gerard did think some aspects were
a little too “hi-fi,” but the other panelists
strongly disagreed, and the subject never
came up again.
Opus 3’s Showcase album (LP20000)
is another LP whose grooves contain
dynamite. The jazz piece Comes Love is
sheer delight when it’s handled right,
and the Harbeths definitely handled it
right.
The star of this selection is Kenny
Davern’s remarkable clarinet, and the
co-star is the lively and insistent rhythm
set up by the banjo and the piano. Some
speakers, as we have often mentioned,
seem “heavy,” and drag the rhythm
down. Instead of tapping your foot,
Albert was ready to pronounce the
Harbeths one of the best deals on the
market, but he wanted to hear one final
recording: the Pauline Viardot song Haï
Luli (Analekta AN 2 9903). The results
were predictably very good. Though
soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian was a
little farther forward, there was plenty
of space around her. As with the other
songs, the text was easy to follow.
In the lab the frequency response (above
right) was quite good, with minor peaks
in the midrange (the one at 63 Hz is a
room effect). The sine wave trace above
left is of a 31.5 Hz tone at high level, and
it is nearly perfect. Below that the output
appears sinusoidal, but is made up entirely
of harmonics. We were surprised by the
rolloff at the top end, considering the
presence of a super tweeter.
The 100 Hz square wave is very good,
with an excellent shape, and only a trace
of a double riser showing a phase difference between the drivers.
This is a review which barely requires
a conclusion. These classically-styled
speakers seem expensive when you first
see them, but the more you listen the
more you realize what a bargain they
are.
Room
Feedback
Listening
CROSSTALK
Should I be annoyed or delighted? Here’s
a company that thumbs its nose at what
“everybody knows,” namely that speaker
enclosures must be stiff and heavy, or else
they’ll shake like a five-year old at a midnight
showing of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
There should be a price to pay for ignoring
basic principles, no?
Yet there isn’t, putting aside the looks
for the moment. You might expect boom at
the bottom end, but it’s not there. On the
contrary, the bass notes are both clean and
plentiful. You could expect a touch of shrillness from that super tweeter, yet it’s not there
either. The sound sparkles, but only to the
extent real music does.
But enough with mere details. There
is, in the world, a handful of loudspeakers
that are a delight to listen to with any sort
of music, which deliver magic, and whose
qualities go beyond any considerations of
size or price. The Harbeth HL5 is one of
that handful.
—Gerard Rejskind
often irritated by aggressive speakers turning highs into darts, or slowly bored with
an ever-present woolly bass, I must warn
you that you should be ready for a serious
upgrade after you reach the store.
Come to think of it, even if you are not
ready, you will be — after a minute or two.
Chances are you’ve never heard your music
played quite like that, and after you bring a
pair home you’ll probably realize that you
never knew how good the rest of your system
actually was. It could be that you have been
upgrading upstream for quite a while, noticing how well your speakers responded, but
unaware of the limitations they might have
imposed on the signal you’ve worked so hard
to improve.
You might truly stop searching and spend
more time listening to glorious music, real
music. And, who knows, you might even
stop reading this magazine altogether, fully
content, having no need for further comments or advice.
—Albert Simon
Look no further, stop searching and run
to the nearest Harbeth dealer. If you are
These loudspeakers, whose look is
charmingly and reassuringly retro, delighted
me by their indisputable qualities. Indeed, so
enthusiastic I am that I feel the need to slow
down and get my thoughts in order.
Let’s begin with the lateral and vertical
space, which are highly generous, as is the
image, the depth, the excellent spectral
balance, the large dynamic palette, and the
exemplary tidiness.
From the start of the session and right
through the end, I felt irresistibly drawn in
by a rhythm that was full of authority.
There is a multitude of detail, and the
instruments have a sound that can leave you
gasping. I’m thinking here of the bewitching
warmth of the woodwinds, the brightness
of the brass, the fluidity of the piano, of the
sensuality of the human voice. The thunder
of the bass drum, the roll of the tympani,
the cymbals, and countless other percussion
instruments, make a joyful noise. But make
no mistake, this is never noise for the sake
of noise! What you hear is always musical.
Here and there, unexpected sounds add to
the magic.
My listening pleasure, in short, was
complete.
—Reine Lessard
Aurum Integris CDP, Plus…
T
Listening with CDs
Though we had already listened to
Room
Listening
Feedback
his isn’t the first time we’ve
had this all-in-one machine
in our Omega reference
system, and indeed it was on
the cover of UHF No. 78, along with
the triamplified speakers also made by
the Newfoundland company, Aurum
Acoustics. We had really enjoyed it the
first time, and indeed we had liked the
whole package. Only now the CDP
is available with a couple of optional
modules, making the “Integris” name
even more appropriate.
This is a high end product with a
correspondingly high price tag, well
outside the average budget, though possibly not outside the range of your wish
list. Then again, there’s a lot in the box.
Though the CDP looks like any other
luxury CD player, it is also a full-featured
preamplifier, and an uncommonly good
one too. If that’s not enough, you can
now order your Integris CDP with a
phono stage, and/or a headphone amp.
Neither module is cheap, and we knew
they would need to show extraordinary
performance in order to justify the price.
Would they?
the Integris, we had been told by
Derrick Moss, had been given several
evolutionary improvements, and we
wanted to hear it again before we moved
on to the new modules.
We set it up on a shelf of our Omega
system, using a B12 cable to plug it into
our MaxCon Squared power line filter.
We then prepared to compare it to our
own player, the Linn Unidisk 1.1, and
our reference preamplifier, the Moon
P-8. We selected three particularly good
CDs.
The first was the evocative wind band
suite Ghosts (Klavier K11150), which
opens with the worrisome clanking of
chains well beyond the room boundaries.
The chain sound is surprisingly complex,
with a mixture of metal and wood, but
the CDP kept them distinct. The bottom
end — and this recording has plenty of
it — was huge, but without muddiness.
The image and depth were exemplary,
everything holding together even when
the larger orchestra came in. “I like the
excellent control of the orchestral explosions,” said Albert. Reine smiled at the
phrase, and agreed.
We continued with the Gospel
number Master’s Plan f rom Doug
McLeod’s Come to Find album. The tonal
balance was somewhat different from
the way it had been with our own player
and preamplifier. There was a little less
weight and “woodiness” to
McLeod’s guitar, though at the same
time the fine details of the fingerwork
came out even better. McLeod’s voice
was warm and natural, his frequent
dropped syllables easy to pick up.
“There’s a lot of micro-information in
the voice and in the guitar modulations,”
said Reine. “The guitar has a distinctly
metallic sound, and I don’t mean to
make that sound like a defect. Quite the
contrary, in fact.”
The third and final CD was from
our ever-present Margie Gibson Say It
With Music album (Sheffield CD-36),
specifically the bittersweet ballad Soft
Lights and Sweet Music.
“It f lirts with perfection,” said
Gerard, who then put his pen down.
The opening piano notes set the stage,
promising that good things would
follow, and they did. Margie’s voice was
gorgeous, warm and captivating, full of
tiny inflections. The same was true of
the accompaniment.
“There’s a little less weight, though,”
said Albert. “You notice it in Margie’s
low notes, but you wouldn’t notice it
unless you did a direct comparison.
Besides, who’s to say that our reference
player or preamp doesn’t add weight?”
The first conclusion, then, was that
the CDP was at least as good as we
remembered it, capable of keeping up
with the best reference components.
So far so good, but what about the new
modules?
Room
Feedback
Listening
Were there differences, compared
to our reference? As with CDs, there
was a little less weight to the bottom
end, which remained however more
than satisfactory. That left the higher
frequencies a little more prominent,
but they were by no means shrill or
otherwise unpleasant.
We continued with Comes Love, the
jazz piece from the Opus 3 Showcase disc
(LP20000). The five musicians behind
this music (the Swedish Jazz Kings plus
clarinetist Kenny Davern) clearly have a
good time, and it’s vital that the fun be
communicated.
Oh, and it was! We were able to
follow the melodic line of each instrument, including the sousaphone, which
does its work at frequencies some music
systems largely ignore. The articulation
Playing vinyl
The first thing we noticed is that in the bass was particularly good. The
As you can see from the photo of the the phono module is dead quiet, and rhythm, maintained by the piano and the
rear panel above, the optional phono that remained true no matter how we banjo, was light and strong, and when
stage has several settings to accom- oriented the cables, suggesting that the clarinet soared we soared with it. “It
modate different cartridges. The input the phono circuit is immune to radio- touches us inside,” said Reine.
The tonal balance? Once again it was
switch controls sensitivity. There are f requenc y interference. W hen we
two settings for moving coil cartridges, toggled the mute command on and off, shifted a little toward the highs, but not
since some “low output” pickups still we could hear no change from listening enough to bring any complaints.
We continued with Diamonds on the
have higher output than others. The position. So far so good, but how would
Soles of Her Shoes from Paul Simon’s
third setting is for moving magnet it sound?
(MM) cartridges. There is a separate
We began with A Chorus Line from Graceland LP (hey, Warner, there’s an
gain setting, allowing you to add 6 to the Reference Recordings Beachcomber LP you could reissue, like, any time). It
12 dB more level, in case your turn- album. It was, said Albert, “like a fire- begins with the impressive mass baritone
table sounds too much softer than other works show.” The large wind orchestra, sound of Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
sources. The third switch selects “Hi-Z” conducted with a firm hand by the Albert found them less viscerally impresor “Lo-Z” impedance (Z being the legendary Frederick Fennell, fairly sive, lacking a bit in seismic body. There
common abbreviation for impedance). exploded, all but taking our breath were no other complaints, because the
The Lo-Z setting will be the right match away. Transients were quick and clean, song worked at every level. Rhythm was
for a low-output MC cartridge, and the the orchestral mass totally transparent. quick, the complex (and highly original)
Hi-Z setting (commonly 47 thousand Admittedly, not many recordings sound accompaniment limpid, and the energy
ohms) is the one to choose for MM or anything like this, but the CDP showed intact.
high-output MC cartridges.
The minor upward shift in tonal balus it could keep up.
ance, already noted, allowed us to hear
We picked the MM setting. Although
What
long-time readers
tell us theyit
most
like about UHF
is that
it of the not-quite-natural
a little
more
our unique London Reference
cartridge
Summing
up…
does
more
than
review
amplifiers
and
speakers.
sibilance, which is of course an artifact
is not an MM type, it actually has higher
In every
issue,Brand/model:
we discuss ideas.
of the recording. On the other hand it
output than usual, nominally
5 mV.
Aurum Integris CDP
that
We try
to tellPrice:
you what
you need
to know,
besides
what CD
player
to the lyrics easier.
made
following
Derrick Moss was worried
might
C$13,500.
$2500
for the
phono,
buy.
We ended with the opening song
overload his phono input, but in fact it $1000 for the headphone amp, $3300
just
It’s fine.
one of thefor
features
any
otherStreisand’s Broadway Album.
from
Barbra
and our cartridge got along
both that makes UHF Magazine unlike
audio
magazine.
It comes from a musical (Stephen SondWe did the comparison against our Size (WDH): 55 x 57 x  13 cm
large outboard Audiomat Phono-1.5. Most liked: Outstanding perforheim’s Sunday in the Park With George),
It actually costs about the same as the mance from every source
but Streisand has reworked it so that it
CDP’s phono module, and we have it Least liked: No digital input, medioturns into an argument between her and
three record producers who do not want
connected with an Atlas Mavros inter- cre headphone module
her to do this album (“You gotta appeal
connect, which itself costs about that. Verdict: Compact, yes, but with all
to the kids.”). It’s a hoot.
Need we add that none of this gear is for you need aboard
It’s also plenty complex, with voices
audiophiles just starting out?
Not just hardware…
coming in and out of a dense and lively
orchestral background. Poorly reproduced, it would turn into incomprehensible mush.
As with the other recordings the
top end was a little more prominent,
though still not shrill, but that actually
helped us follow the complex weave of
words and notes of this hilarious show
biz standoff. For Streisand, singing this
is a tough challenge, and she pulls it off
with spirit and her usual musicianship.
Here, by the way, is another LP which
should be brought back. The CD version
is strictly weak tea.
This is a topnotch phono preamp.
If the CDP itself is right for you, and
of course if your budget can absorb the
body blow, getting this phono module is
a no-brainer.
The headphone module
We have, for the moment at least, no
reference headphone amplifier, which
makes comparisons impossible. We did,
however, lend the add-in phone module
an ear, using our Koss PRO/4A A A
headphones.
We might as well tell you right away
that this was the one disappointment in
what is in every other way a world class
high end audio component.
To begin with we didn’t find the
phono stage terribly convenient. The
phone jack is at the rear, and so is the
switch for turning it on and off. That
switch does not kill the output to the
amplifier (that would add a small but
significant performance hit), so you need
to shut the power amp down in order
to listen with phones. It goes without
saying that a standalone headphone amp
would win in sheer ergonomics.
But it would win on sonic grounds as
well. On Ghosts (one of the CDs used in
the earlier review), the sound was edgy
and muffled. The guitar in Master’s Plan
was distorted, with a pronounced boom
and little in the way of detail. Haï Luli
was unpleasant too, and we wondered
whether the headphone amp might have
difficulty driving our large professionalgrade headphones. We know that they’re
not well suited to iPods, for example.
We listened again with a pair of
Sennheiser PMX 40 phones. These
are designed for use with such devices
as iPods, and are “street style,” with a
headband that fits the back of the head.
The result was much the same. For comparison, we listened to the same Doug
McLeod song directly from an iPod
Photo, and then from an iPod Touch.
Both sounded far better, with the latter
sounding particularly superior.
Of course we can’t judge what has
gone wrong here, but we would recommend one of a number of excellent standalone headphone amps, which can be
connected to the CDP’s tape out jacks.
We reviewed several in UHF No. 76.
Conclusions
If you already have Aurum gear, you
can add the phono module knowing
that, as in your original purchase, you
are not sacrificing musicality in favor of
compactness. If you’re still looking for
the definitive preamp and CD player,
this could easily be the last you’ll ever
need to buy.
We do wish there were a digital input,
to let the CDP’s outstanding converter
process signals from outside the built-in
player.
Then again, that could be Aurum’s
next add-on module.
CROSSTALK
Another unique feature!
Room
Feedback
Listening
Well, that was quite an experience. three elements so indispensable to the audio- up at least a little less space in your budget,
Something often happens when we are so phile experience are found at their highest since you’ll be saving on cables.
Give it serious thought.
used to look for problems and find none, level in this player-preamp duo. It is the clar—Reine Lessard
something wonderful and puzzling too. As it ity and the impeccable image that stand out
appeared, from the start, that this was a solid in every selection we listened to. The result is
You can always tell when a designer is
contender, I relaxed and let myself enjoy the a profusion of details and micro-information
music, noticing interesting differences here that audiophiles always appreciate. Lyrics spending long hours listening, not just meaand there, but overall just easing into and are clear, and the modulations, inflections, suring. His stuff may not have better specs,
smiling through the listening session. That sensitivity, the sensuous gliding over certain but the final product will have a certain aura
ordinarya products
notes,
all most
this guides
the listener do
to their
on a reviews:
was the wonderful part of it.
You know
how
audio magazines
number don’t
of have.
This
player
is
oneofof those. Derrick
of
fabulous
surprises.
Then
there
is
The puzzling part came later,reviewers,
as the path
some with doubtful “reference” systems, are assigned reviews
Moss
may
have
a
whole
battery of measuring
the
natural
tone
and
the
warmth
of
both
familiar pieces began to appear dressed
in
a
individual components.
instruments,
but
he
has
voices
and
instruments.
The
percussion
and
new light somehow, not necessarily better,
UHF, on the other hand, maintains actual reference systems, on whichlistened, and he has
created
a product that is a delight
strings
passages
mark the inonce
but what? And it even occurred to me
that massed
all reviews
are done.
Alland
ourbrass
reviewers
participate
eachagain
review.
The
to
listen
to.
irresistible
rhythm
of
the
loudest
passages.
we might actually be closer to the original
main article is based on the concensus, if there is one, but sometimes on
I’m anticipating that some will ask why
recording. Was our reference systemdivergence.
adding The dynamic range is plenty broad.
the
stage
is so expensive when it
Its
optional
phono
section
is
indispensits qualities to the music or was the CDP
just
And then each reviewer gets to write a “Crosstalk,” aphono
personal
comdoesn’t
even
have
its own case and power
ablemay
for vinyl
lovers.
Listening
carefully,
I
getting out of the way? And if it was ment,
gettingwhich
even disagree with the others.
supply.
The
answer
can
confirm
that
it
is
up
to
the
performance
out of the way, isn’t that the most desirable
There is no pressure to confirm. What you read is really what we is in the listening. The
of that
the main
Aurum
unit,
and unique.
it merits your phono preamp may be built in, but it offers
quality one should be aiming for? think. And
is what
makes
UHF
—Albert Simon consideration. Note that, being a CD player, standalone quality.
And then some!
preamp and phono stage, it replaces three
—Gerard Rejskind
The image, the spread, the depth…these products. It takes up less space. It also takes
The Moon on a Budget
Room
Feedback
Listening
C
orrect us if we’re wrong, but
didn’t Simaudio (née Sima
Audio) begin life as a company offering high end at
bargain prices? Sure, we remember. Go
back to our issue No. 37 for a review
of the W-4070 power amp, which cost
well under $2000, and which shamed
two vastly more expensive amplifiers
reviewed in the same issue.
But that was a decade ago, and the cost
of making anything in the industrialized
countries has soared. Yes, that includes
audio components. That’s the reason so
many products are now assembled in
places such as China.
But not Simaudio’s stuff. The topof-the-line products are still made in the
factory located about 15 km east of our
offices. Their prices have edged way up,
it is true, but fortunately so has the quality. Even so, we sort of miss the days of
affordable products from this Canadian
company.
And if you share our nostalgia, your
wishes have just come true. The new
amplifier, dubbed the Moon i-1 (yes,
with a lower case i — it seems Apple’s
inf luence is every where) costs just
$1500 in Canada or
the US. The matching Moon CD-1
player is the same price. They look made
for each other, stacked like that, don’t
they?
The units come with remote controls
capable of controlling either amp or
player. Simaudio also offers its fancier
all-metal remote for an extra $375,
though we’re not sure why anyone would
spend that for a remote with no number
keypad!
Let’s take a closer look, and — even
more important — a listen.
The Moon i-1 integrated amplifier
Do you have to take shortcuts to
build an amplifier at this price in North
America? Of course you do, but fortunately they don’t show from the front.
The heavy aluminum panel is beautifully
sculpted, its finish impeccable. It is at the
rear, which you can see on page 56, that
you can spot the savings. The top of the
rear panel and the cover don’t line up
properly, leaving a gap. The input jacks
are not top rank, and that’s for sure.
We’ll get to the sound shortly, but the
engineers at least haven’t skimped on the
features.
There are no fewer than six inputs,
five of them
available from the rear, and
one marked “MP” for an MP3 player,
connected to a front jack. The video
input bypasses the volume control, so
that it can be used for the left and right
front speakers in a surround system.
At the rear is a preamplifier output, to
make it possible to use an external power
amplifier or an amplified subwoofer.
The obviously missing feature is a
tape loop. True, cassette decks are most
often found in yard sales now, but a
volume-independent output for recording with a computer would have been
welcome.
On the front panel is a full-sized
headphone jack, and the rightmost
button mutes the speakers for headphone
listening.
The one jarring note is the volume
knob. Not only are there no index marks,
but the dimple is so far out from the
panel that it is difficult even to guess
what volume you are selecting.
Our two units arrived brand new,
and we set them up to run for a few
days before doing any serious listening.
Simaudio says its products sound best
after 300 hours, but we had to settle for
less than half of that.
We installed the i-1 in our Alpha
room, and we compared it to reference
gear that is, shall we say, in a totally
different price category: our Copland
A n hendreet
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core vent volor si.
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elenisi.
Room
Feedback
Listening
CTA-305 tube preamplifier, and Sim
audio’s own W-5LE power amplifier.
The interconnect cord linking the i-1
and CD-1 cost nearly as much as both
units put together. As usual, we used
audiophile-grade, shielded power cords,
and we plugged the units into filtered AC
power.
At this point we have reviewed a
number of relatively economical amplifiers, and we know that comparing them
to our expensive hand-picked components is a big challenge, some would
even say an unfair one. At the same
time we’ve learned to be unforgiving,
especially on the single criterion of musicality. Notwithstanding our tendency
to characterize $1500 as “entry level,”
there aren’t many people who will spend
that without budgeting for a while. And
unless the product, whatever it is, can get
them involved in the music, they made a
mistake reaching for a credit card.
We selected five CDs, avoiding
SACDs, since we would later play the
same discs with the CD-1. Initially, we
listened to them on our Linn Unidisk
player.
The first was Stephen McNeff ’s
haunting(!) wind band suite, Ghosts
(Klavier K11150), with its disturbing
clanking of chains and its effective use
of brass and woodwinds to create a dark
mood. This recording is notable for
its great depth — the initial clanking
appears to be way beyond the room
walls — and for its interwoven harmony
and dissonance.
from www.uhfmag.com/IndividualIssue.html (it’s case sensitive). Or subscribe
www.magzee.com.
Latin.
tisi.
Room
Feedback
Listening
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adignim num nim am, commod ea aut
essequate ming ea facin velis dolore
magna con ulla feugait augiamcore
commy nisi.
Summing it up…
Brand/model: Simaudio Moon i-1
and CD-1
Price: $1500 each
Size (WDH): each 39.5 x 11.8 x
12.4 cm
Most liked: Beautifully matched for
great sonic value
Least liked: No recording output on
amplifier, poorly thought out volume
control, reluctance of the player to
play discs that are not pristine.
Verdict: Simaudio revisits its origins
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Margie’s
back!
And she’s at
The
Audiophile
Store
Yo u r
System
Belongs on the Wall
Good enough
UHF uses them!
Target One and Two-Shelf
Wall Stands
at
The Audiophile Store
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Room
Listening
Feedback
CROSSTALK
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THE AUDIOPHILE STORE
ATLAS QUADSTAR
INTERCONNECTS
ATLAS NAVIGATOR
Oxygen-free continuous
cast (OCC) cable: each
strand is a single copper
crystal. Two internal
conductors, plus double
shielding. The double shielding is copper mylar plus close-lapped
99.997% pure OCC copper multi-stranded screen providing 100%
RFI protection. The premium “All-Cu” version (shown here)
uses solid copper connectors that are also continuous cast. The
copper is then silver-plated and double-shielded.We use two in our
reference systems. Special-order lengths from the factory.
ORDER: AN-1 pair, 1m, $300, AN-2 pair, 2m, $350
ORDER: ANA-1 All-Cu, 1m, $405, ANA-2 All-Cu, 2m, $495
ORDER: ANAB-1 All-Cu balanced, single crystal XLR, 1m, $675
ATLAS VOYAGER
A cable with superior performance at an
economical price. Oxygen-free copper,
continuously cast, double-shielded with conductive
PVC plus close lapped 99.9997% pure OCC copper
multi-stranded screen, for 100% coverage against
RFI. Direct gold-plated, non compressing, doublescreened, self cleaning RCA plugs. Also available
with the All-Cu connectors like those of the
Navigator (above).
ORDER: AV-1, Voyager 1m pair, $285, AV-2, 2m pair, $325
ORDER: AVA-1, All-Cu 1m pair, $375, AVA-2 2m pair, $420
This could be the world’s lowest-cost
interconnect with single-crystal copper. It has
the same connectors as the Equator (below),
and we thought it sounded like a much more
expensive cable.
ORDER: AQ-1, 1 m pair Atlas Questor, $140
ORDER: AQ-2, 2 m pair Atlas Questor, $180
MAVROS INTERCONNECTS
ORDER: AMI-1, 1 m Mavros interconnect pair, $1195
ORDER: AMI-2, 2 m Mavros interconnect pair, $1895
ATLAS MAVROS CABLES
We’ve adopted them for our Alpha system, which sounds better
than ever before. This is a four-wire monocrystal cable with
porous Teflon dielectric. Available with copper bananas or spades,
or with superb monocrystal pure copper spades.
These cables
use WBT
NextGen
locking connectors, and
they are a virtual match for
our own reference cables.
ORDER: MB-130, 1.3 meter pair Actinote MB, $740
Continuous-cast single-crystal cable, ready for biwiring. It costs
just $235 per meter of double cable (a 2 m pair has 4 meters of
wire). We suggest adding the Eichmann Bayonet bananas, $57.95
per set of 4, or Furutech connectors (at right).
SINGLE CRYSTAL JUMPERS
PRISMAL DUAL INTERCONNECT
This Swiss-made cable has especially solid connectors. Teflon
dielectric. oxygen-free copper Toss your “free” interconnects!
ORDER: PD-1, 1 meter pair Prisma Dual Interconnect, $34.95
Not biwiring? Dump the free jumpers that
with your speakers. Atlas jumpers are
made from single-crystal copper,
goldplated spades.
ORDER: ACJ, four single crystal
jumpers,
$99.95
CONNECTOR TREATMENT
DeOxit (formerly ProGold)
cleans connections and
promotes conductivity. Small
wipes for cleaning accessible
contacts, or a squirt bottle for connections you can’t reach.
ORDER: PGW box 25 DeOxit wipes, $35
ORDER: PGS, can DeOxit fluid, $35
ORDER: PGB, both when ordered at the same time, $56
www.uhfmag.com/AudiophileStore.html
Excellent performance at an affordable price. Single crystal pure
copper. The 1.5m version sounds way better than a 1m.
ORDER: ACD-1.5 digital cable, 1m, $160
CONNECTORS
EICHMANN BAYONET BANANAS
The Eichmann Bayonet
Banana uses a minimum of
metal, and tellurium copper
at that, but clicks tightly into
any binding post with spring
action. For soldering or crimping, or both.
ORDER: EBB kit 4 bayonet bananas, $57.95
EICHMANN SPADES
ATLAS ICHOR SPEAKER CABLE
ACTINOTE MB INTERCONNECTS
ATLAS COMPASS DIGITAL
We dumped our reference cable for this one! And to be at its very
best, it has to be this length.
ORDER: AOD-1.5 digital cable, 1.5m, $399
SPEAKER CABLES
A big winner in one of UHF’s blind tests of speaker cables is
Hyper 2, an oxygen free stranded wire in Teflon dielectric.
Inexpensive too. Plus connectors (we recommend Eichmann
Bayonet Bananas, $57.95/set).
ORDER: AH2, Hyper 2 cable, $29.95/metre
ORDER: AHB, Hyper Biwire cable, $49.95/metre
Perhaps the best $150
interconnect cable you could
buy. Only it costs just $90. And
yes, that’s in Canadian funds.
Other lengths on order.
ORDER: AE-1, 1 m pair Atlas Equator, $90
ORDER: AE-2, 2 m pair Atlas Equator, $125
DIGITAL CABLES
ATLAS OPUS DIGITAL
ATLAS HYPER SPEAKER CABLES
ATLAS EQUATOR
Need to feed two preamps into two
amps? This solid Y-adapter (two
jacks into one phono plug) is gold
over brass, with Teflon dielectric.
ORDER: FYA, one pair Y adapters, $20
Terrific in our blind test.
With Eichmann Bullet plugs,
or balanced with Neutrik
XLR's. Silver solder included with kit.
ORDER: AQS-1 pair Quadstar kit, 1m $95.95
ORDER: AQS-1A pair Quadstar assembled, 1m $169.95
ORDER: AQS-X pair Quadstar balanced kit, 1m $95.95
ORDER: AQS-XA pair Quadstar balanced, assembled, 1m $169.95
ORDER: AMBCu-3, 3 m pair, copper bananas, $2150
ORDER: AMBCu-5, 5 m pair, copper bananas, $3850
ORDER: AMSCu-3, 3 m pair, copper spades, $2150
ORDER: AMSCu-5, 5 m pair, copper spades, $3850
ORDER: AMSX-3, 3 m pair, monocrystal spades, $2800
ORDER: AMSX-5, 5 m pair, monocrystal spades, $4150
ATLAS QUESTOR
TWO CABLES INTO ONE JACK
59
came
Ready to solder, in
gold-plated copper, or
pure silver. Two sizes,
plus extra narrow for
barrier strips (McIntosh,
Vandersteen, etc.). Price for sets of four.
A. ORDER: EXB, set of 4, barrier strips, $20
B. ORDER: EXQ, set of 4, 1/4" (6.3 mm), $28
C. ORDER: EXQA, set of 4, 1/4" (6.3 mm), silver, $47
D. ORDER: EXF, set of 4, 5/16" (8 mm), $37
E. ORDER: EXF,A set of 4, 5/16" (8 mm), silver, $57
EICHMANN BULLET PLUGS
The first phono plug to maintain
the impedance of the cable by using
metal only as an extension of the
wire. Hollow tube centre pin, tiny
spring for ground. Two contacts for
soldering, two-screw strain relief.
Gold over copper. Got silver cable? Get the unique Silver Bullets!
ORDER: EBP kit 4 Bullet Plugs, $54.95
ORDER: EBPA kit 4 Silver Bullets, $139.95
EICHMANN CABLE PODS
Minimum metal, gold over tellurium
copper. Unique clamp system: the back
button turns but the clamp doesn’t.
Solder to it, or plug an Eichmann
banana into it, even from inside!
ORDER: ECP, set of four posts, $54.95
MICHELL BINDING POSTS
Big Mother posts are machined to
stay tight. Gold-plated. Long, shank
for mounting in speaker cabinets. Limited stock.
ORDER: Big Mother, 4 gold posts for speakers $55
ORDER ON LINE
www.uhfmag.com
60
MORE CONNECTORS
ANALOG PRODUCTS
For crimping connections to certain connectors from WBT or
Furutech, we recommend the gold crimping sleeves from WBT,
and the special crimping tool.
Buy the tool at the same time as appropriate WBT or Furutech
connectors, and we’ll buy it back at the price you paid when
you’re through.
ORDER: WBT-0403 crimping tool (refundable), $125.
The sleeves are shown here, actual size.
WBT-0431
WBT-0432
WBT-0433
WBT-0434
WBT-0435
WBT-0436
WBT-0437
WBT-0438
0.75 mm sleeve
1 mm sleeve
1.5 mm sleeve
2.5 mm sleeve
4 mm sleeve
6 mm sleeve
10 mm sleeve
15 mm sleeve
$0.50
$0.50
$0.50
$0.50
$0.60
$0.70
$0.85
$0.95
MORE ANALOG…
LONDON REFERENCE
ATLAS QUADSTAR PHONO BOX
Yes we can supply the awesome London
Reference phono cartridge that we have
adopted for ourselves. Other models on
special order. this unique cartridge has
a line contact stylus, and an output of
5 mV…right for an MM preamp.
ORDER: LRC cartridge, $4695
GOLDRING ELITE
If you have limited funds and
want an MC cartridge with
line contact stylus, this is a great
choice. It's a detuned version of the
very expensive (but discontinued)
Excel we still own.
ORDER: GEC cartridge, $745
you
a
REGA FONO
We can’t get
over how
good it is…
and how
affordable.
The Rega
Fono is a
superb way to
add vinyl to your system. For low sensitivity MC cartridges. While
stocks last.
ORDER: RF-MC high sensitivity phono preamp, $565 now $495
FURUTECH CONNECTORS
Rhodium-plated banana tightens
under pressure. Installs like
WBT-0645 banana. The spade's great too!.
ORDER: FTB-R, set of four bananas, $70
ORDER: FTS-R, set of four spades, $70
LP RECORD CLEANER
WBT CONNECTORS
WBT makes banana plugs for speaker cables, all of which lock
tightly into any post. All use crimping technology.
ORDER: WBT-0644 Kit 4 Topline straight bananas, $90
ORDER: WBT-0645 Kit 4 angled bananas, $110
ORDER: WBT-0600 Kit 4 Topline bananas, $180
EXSTATIC RECORD BRUSH
the Goldring
Super eXstatic. It
includes a hard
velvet pad to get
into the grooves,
plus two sets of
carbon fibre tufts. We’ve worn one out already, because we use it
every time!
ORDER: GSX record brush, $36
J. A. MICHELL RECORD CLAMP
ORDER: WBT-0108, kit 4 Topline crimp plugs, $190
ORDER: WBT-0101, kit 4 Topline solder plugs, $190
The 0144 Midline version has “only” three layers of gold plating,
smaller and lighter, with the same locking action.
ORDER: WBT-0144, kit 4 Topline solder plugs, $90
NEW! The high-tech minimum metal “nextgen” phono plugs.
Easy to solder, with locking collar. Silver version available.
TITAN STYLUS LUBRICANT
Amazing, but true: dabbing
a bit of this stuff on your
stylus every 2 or 3 LPs makes
it glide through the groove
instead of scraping. Fine artist’s brush not included, but readily
available in many stores.
ORDER: TSO-1 Titan stylus oil, $39.95
ZEROSTAT ANTISTATIC PISTOL
A classic
adjunct to
the brush is
the Zerostat
anti-static
gun. Squeeze
the trigger
and release: it
ionizes the air,
which becomes
conductive and drains off the static charge. By the way, it works
for a lot more than LP’s. No batteries needed.
ORDER: Z-1 Zerostat antistatic pistol, $94..95
LP SLEEVES
Concentrated cleaner for LP vacuum cleaning machines.
Much safer than some formulas we’ve seen! Half litre, mix with
demineralized or distilled water to make 4 litres.
ORDER: LPC, $19.95
ORDER: WBT-0110, kit 4 nextgen copper plugs, $170
ORDER: WBT-0110Au, kit 4 nextgen silver plugs, $280
Got a tone arm with a 5-pin DIN
plug. Substitute this Quadstar cable
and box, and add the interconnect
of your choice. straight DIN (shown)
needs 7 cm clearance. If you have
less, get the version with an angled
DIN plug.
ORDER: AQPS, Quadstar phono
box, $248
ORDER: AQPA, Quadstar phono box, angled DIN, $248
Clamp your LP to the turntable platter. We use the J. A. Michell
clamp, machined from
nearly weightless
aluminum. Drop it
on, press down,
tighten the knob.
ORDER: MRC
Michell record
clamp, $75
ORDER: MRC-R
clamp for Rega and
short spindles, $85
Keep your records clean and
scratch free. Replace dirty,
torn or missing inner sleeves
with soft-plastic-in-paper Nitty
Gritty sleeves.
ORDER: PDI, package of 30
sleeves, $30
TURNTABLE BELT TREATMENT
What this is not
is a sticky goo for
belts on their last
legs. Rubber Renue
removes oxidation
from rubber belts,
giving them a new
lease on life. But what astonished us is what it does to even a brand
new belt. Wipe down your belt every 3 months, and make analog
sound better than ever.
ORDER: RRU-100 drive belt treatment, $14.95
VINYL ESSENTIALS TEST LP
This precision-made German test record lets you check out channel
identification, correct phase, crosstalk, the tracking ability of your
cartridge (it’s a tougher test than the old Shure disc was, and the
resonance of your tone arm and cartridge. When we need to test a
turntable, this is the one we reach for.
ORDER: LP 003, Image Hifi Test LP, $48.95
IF WE DON’T LIKE IT YOU WON’T SEE IT HERE
SUPER ANTENNA
MkIII
INSTANT CIRCUIT CHECKER
Plug it into an AC outlet, and the three lights can
indicate a missing ground, incorrect polarity,
switched wires — five problems in all. Some of these
problems can be fatal, but none of them is good for
feeding your music or home theatre system. The
first thing we did after getting ours was phone the
electrician.
ORDER: ACA-1, Instant Circuit Checker, $21
Ours has no stupid rotary switch to muck
things up, and with a 1.8m low-loss 75
ohm cable and gold-plated push-on F
connector, it has low internal loss. Covers
analog and digital TV bands as well as FM.
ORDER: FM-S Super Antenna, MkIII, $55
GUTWIRE G CLEF POWER CABLE
CLEANER POWER
MAXCON2 POWER FILTER
Looks great,
and does a
wonderful
job. Made
from milled
aircraft-grade
aluminum,
with Furutech and Hubbell connectors. Parallel filtering, so it can
be used even with very large power amplifiers. List $1299, but…
ORDER: GMC, MaxCon2 power line filter, $995
Needs IEC power cord: order one at the same time at 20% off!
Multiple shielding, including external electrostatic shield
connected to a clip. Used by UHF. Now in an upgraded version,
with performance “squared.” Length 1.7 m, longer cords on order.
G Clef 2 has 195 conductors, 3 shields providing 98% shielding.
Available with 20A IEC plug (for amplifiers requiring special plug)
ORDER: GGC G Clef, Square 1.7m, $385
STINGRAY POWER BAR
Most power bars knock voltage to your equipment way down,
and generate more noise than
a kindergarten class. The
Gutwire Stingray Squared
doesn’t. 12 gauge doubleshielded cable, Hubbell
hospital grade connectors at
both ends. Indispensable!
ORDER: GSR-2 Stingray Squared power bar, $285
We dumped our
cheap power
strip, added a
GutWire 16 power
cord, and made
our system sound better, even though no major component was
plugged into it. ORDER: EPS power strip, $48
Take $10 off any one of our IEC power cords or cord kits with
an EPS purchase
MORE POWER TO YOU
Better access to
electrical power.
Change your 77-cent
duplex outlets for
these Hubbell hospital
grade outlets. Insert a
plug and it just snaps
in. A tighter internal
connection as well.
Possibly the cheapest improvement you can make to your system.
ORDER: AC-DA Hubbell duplex outlet, $23.95
ORDER: AC-DB (more than one outlet), $21.95
ORDER: AC-D20 20A duplex, red color, $28.95
When we put a quality
AC plug on our kettle,
boiling time dropped by
90 seconds! The best AC
plug we have ever seen is
the Hubbell 8215 hospital
grade plug. It connects to wires under high pressure, and it
should last forever.
ORDER: AC-P2 Hubbell cord plug, $25.95
Amazingly good at a much lower price are these two cord plugs
from Eagle. No hospital rating, but a rather good mechanical
connection. Male and female versions.
ORDER: AC-P1 Eagle male cord plug, $5.95
ORDER: AC-PF Eagle female cord plug, $5.95
Making your own power cords for your equipment? You’ll need
the hard-to-get IEC 320 connector to fit the gear. We have two
sizes.
Gutwire’s B12 is a fat pipe, well-shielded, to which we’ve added a
Hubbell 8215 hospital grade wall plug and the Furutech IEC copper
connector. We use a couple of these ourselves, and we love them!
Optionally available as an easy-to-assemble kit, with the blue jacket
pre-stripped and shrink-wrapped at one end.
ORDER: GWB12, 1.5 m B12 power cord, $285
ORDER: GWB12K, 1.5 m B12 power cord kit, $240
Need it longer? Add $95 per metre extra
ORDER: AC-P3 10 ampere IEC 320 plug, $9.95
ORDER: AC-P4 15 ampere Schurter IEC 320 plug, $18.95
GUTWIRE 16
EICHMANN POWER STRIP
HOSPITAL GRADE CONNECTION
GUTWIRE/UHF B12
ENACOM LINE FILTER
Economy price, but astonishingly effective, we wouldn’t run our
system with less. It actually shorts out the hash on the power line.
ORDER: EAC Enacom line filter, $105
61
No budget for a premium cable? Make your own! We use several
ourselves, and they even
make our computers run
better! Double-shielded,
to avoid picking up
or transmitting noise.
GutWire 16, assembled
or as a kit. (If you are
not comfortable around
electricity, we suggest
the assembled one.) With
the Hubbell 8215 hospital
grade plug and the
Schurter 15 A IEC 320 connector. Highly suitable for digital players,
preamplifiers, tuners, and even medium-powered amplifiers.
ORDER: GW16-1.5K, GutWire 16 gauge power cable kit, $79.95
ORDER: GW16-1.5 GutWire 16 cable, assembled, $119.95
Need it longer? Add $28 per metre extra
IEC ON YOUR DVD PLAYER
Why do big name DVD players come with those tiny two-prong
plugs for their cords? A
good shielded power cable
will do wonders! Take $18
off if you order an adapter
at the same time as a G
Clef or B12 cable, or $8
off if you order one with a
GutWire 16.
ORDER: DVD-A, GutWire adapter, $39
SILVER SOLDER
This is a lovely solder, from the
company that makes Enacom
line filters (which we also like).
Wakø-Tech solder contains 4%
silver, no lead.
ORDER: SR-4N, 100 g solder
roll, $59.95
BETTER DIGITAL
IMPROVED CD WITH FINYL
This is the most famous of all the treatments for
Compact Discs. The maker of Finyl claims it reduces
surface reflections and provides a higher contrast
image for the laser cell of your player. Use it just
once. We get a lot of repeat orders on it. One kit can
treat over 200 discs. Or order the refill.
ORDER: F-1 Finyl kit, $40.00
ORDER: F-1R Finyl refill, $35.00
CLEAN YOUR PLAYER
After as little as three
months, your new
player will have more
trouble reading your
CD’s. Why? Dust on
the lens. We’re happy
to have found the
new Milty CD lens
cleaner. Unlike some
commonly-available
discs, the Milty is nonabrasive, so we use it and rest easy. Can be used wet or dry.
ORDER: 2021 Milty CD lens cleaner, $35
62
SUPPORT SYSTEMS
THE SUPERSPIKE
TENDERFEET
Machined cones are wonderful
things to put under speakers or
other audio equipment. They anchor
it mechanically and decouple it
acoustically at the same time.
Tenderfeet come in various versions:
tall (as shown) or flattened, in either
anodized silver or black. Tall Tenderfeet have threaded holes for
a machine screw, or for the optional hanger bolt, which lets you
screw it into wood. If you have a fragile hardwood floor, add the
optional Tendercup (shown above) to protect it.
ORDER: TFG, tall silver Tenderfoot, $15
ORDER: TFGN, tall black Tenderfoot, $16.50
ORDER: TFP, flat silver Tenderfoot, $10
ORDER: TCP, silver Tendercup, $10
ORDER: THB, hanger bolt for Tenderfeet, each $0.80
This is unique: a sealed unit containing a spike and a cup to
receive it. It won’t scratch even hardwood floors. For speakers
or equipment stands, on bare floors only. Four sizes of threaded
shanks are available to fit speakers or stands.
ORDER: SSKQ, 4 Superspikes, 1/4” shank, $75
ORDER: SSKT, 4 Superspikes, 5/16” shank, $75
ORDER: SSKS, 4 Superspikes, 6 mm shank, $75
ORDER: SSKH, 4 Superspikes, 8 mm shank, $75
WHAT SIZE SUPERSPIKE?
Do you prefer spikes for your speakers? Target spikes and sockets
mount in wood. Available with or without tools.
ORDER: S4W kit, 8 spikes, sockets and tools, $39
ORDER: S4WS kit, 8 spikes and sockets, $30
AUDIO-TAK
It’s blue, and it’s a sort of modelling
clay that never dries. Anchor
speakers to stands, cones to speakers,
and damp out vibration. Leaflet with
suggested uses.
ORDER: AT-2, Audio-Tak pack, $10
A good ruler will let you figure it out. The stated size is the outer
diameter of the threaded shank. Then count the threads:
1/4” shank: 20 threads/inch
5/16” shank: 18 threads/inch
M6 (6mm) shank: 10 threads/cm
M8 (8mm) shank: 8 threads/cm
OTHER
SUPERSPIKES
FOUNDATION STANDS
Absolutely the best speaker stand known to us. They’re filled with
a proprietary material that deadens the stand completely. Matte
black, with spikes adjustable from the top. Height 61 cm (24”).
ORDER: FFA, one pair Foundation stands, $1295
AN ON-THE-WALL IDEA
Need to fasten a speaker
securely to the wall? Nothing
beats the Smarter Speaker
Support for ease of installation
or for sheer strength. And
it holds the speaker off the
wall, so it can be used even
with rear-ported speakers.
Easily adjustable with two
hands, not three, tested to an
incredible 23 kg! Glass-filled
polycarbonate is unbreakable.
Screws and anchors included,
available in two colors.
ORDER: SSPS, pair of black speaker supports, $29.95
ORDER: SSPS-W, pair of white speaker supports, $29.95
TARGET WALL STANDS
We keep our turntables on these, secure from floor vibrations, but
they’re wonderful for CD players, amplifiers, and virtually all
components.
ORDER: VW-1 Target single-shelf wall stand, $199
We have also have a Superspike foot
(at right) that replaces those useless
feet on CD players, amps, etc., using
the same screws to fasten them. And
there’s a stick-on version (not shown) for other components.
ORDER: SSKF, 4 Superspike replacement feet, $80
ORDER: SSKA, 3 stick-on Superspike feet, $50
ORDER: VW-2 Target dual-shelf wall stand, $259
AUDIOPHILE RECORDINGS, RECOMMENDED BY UHF STAFF
REFERENCE RECORDINGS
Nojima Plays Ravel (HDCD)
Nojima’s other hit disc, now also in glorious HDCD.
30th Anniversary Sampler (HDCD)
A collection of excerpts from recent Reference albums.
Yerba Buena Bounce (HDCD)
The (terrific) Hot Club of San Francisco is back, with great music,
well-played, wonderfully recorded by “Profesor” Johnson!
Crown Imperial (HDCD)
The second chapter of the famous Pomp&Pipes saga, with the Dallas
Wind Symphony, in a set of perfectly recorded pieces in glorious
HDCD.
Organ Odyssey (HDCD)
Mary Preston, the organist of Crown Imperial, in a dazzling program
of Widor, Mendelssohn, Vierne, and others.
Serenade (HDCD)
A collection of choral pieces, wonderfully sung by the Turtle Creek
Chorale, with perhaps the best sound Keith has given them yet.
Nojima Plays Liszt (HDCD)
The famous 1986 recording of Minoru Nojima playing the B Minor
Sonata and other works is back…in HDCD this time!
Garden of Dreams (HDCD)
David Maslanka’s evocative music for wind band.
Beachcomber (LP/HDCD) �
Fennell and the Dallas Wind Ensemble.Includes Tico Tico, A Chorus
line, and a version of 76 Trombones you’ll remember for a long time.
Holst (LP) �
From the composer of The Planets, 3 suites for wind band, plus the
Hammersmith Prelude and Scherzo.
Trittico (HDCD) �
Large helping of wind band leader Frederick Fennell doing powerhouse music by Grieg, Albeniz, Nelhybel, etc. Complex and energetic.
Fennell Favorites (LP)
The Dallas Wind Symphony: Bach, Brahms, Prokofiev and more.
Fireworks on this rare Reference LP.
The Oxnard Sessions, vol. 1 (LP) �
Pianist Michael Garson, of Serendipity fame, takes on familiar standards, backed by five fine musicians. Inventive and beautiful.
Dick Hyman - Fats Waller (LP)
Analog version of this famous recording, cut to CD during the performance. Keith Johnson simultaneously recorded the performance on
his own hand-built analog recorder.
Blazing Redheads (LP)
Not all redheads, this all-female salsa-flavored big band adds a lot of
red pepper to its music.
Felix Hell (HDCD)
The young organ prodigy turns in mature versions of organ music of
Liszt, Vierne, Rheinberger and Guilmant. Huge bottom end!
American Requiem (HDCD)
Richard Danielpour's awesome Requiem mass is all about war, and
about the hope for peace too, with a dedication tied to 9/11.
World Keys (HDCD)
Astonishing young pianist Joel Fan amazes with music from all the
world, including that of Prokofiev and Liszt
Ikon of Eros (HDCD)
Huge suite for orchestra and chorus, by John Tavener. Inspired by
Greek Orthodox tradition. Overwhelming HDCD sound.
Comes Love (HDCD) �
Another disc by the terrific Swedish Jazz Kings, led by saxophonist
Tomas Ornberg, proving again Sweden understands jazz. The sound
is luminous, sometimes dazzling.
PLUS THESE HDCD RECORDINGS:
Pomp&Pipes (HDCD) �
Requiem (HDCD) �
From the Age of Swing (HDCD) �
Swing is Here (HDCD) �
Copland Symphony No. 3 (HDCD) �
Medinah Sessions, two CDs for one (HDCD)
Ports of Call (HDCD)
Tutti (HDCD)
Bruckner Symphony No. 9 (HDCD) �
Ein Heldenleben (HDCD) �
It’s Right Here For You (HDCD) �
Is there, anywhere, a better swing band than The Swedish Jazz Kings
(formerly Tömas Ormberg’s Blue Five)? Closer to Kansas City than to
Stockholm, they are captivating.
SHEFFIELD
Test CD 4 (SACD)
A sampler of Opus 3 performers, clearer than you’ve ever heard them
before. Hybrid disc.
Say It With Music (CD) �
Margie Gibson sings Irving Berlin in what may be one the greatest
jazz vocal recordings of all time. And she’s right in your living room!
Growing Up in Hollywood Town (XRCD) �
FIM's XRCD version of the original Amanda McBroom LP.
Test CD 5 (HDCD) �
Another of Opus 3’s wonderful samplers, including blues, jazz, and
classical music. A number of fine artists, captured with the usual pure
Blumlein stereo setup. A treat.
I’ve Got the Music in Me (CD) �
This was originally Sheffield’s LAB-2 release. If you haven’t heard
Thelma Houston belt out a song, you’re in for a treat.
Showcase (SACD/LP) �
Available as a hybrid SACD/CD disc, or a gorgeously-cut LP, with
selections from Opus 3 releases.
Harry James & His Big Band (Gold CD)
Harry said he would have done this recording for free, because he
sounded better than ever.
Good Stuff (DOUBLE 45 LP/HDCD/SACD) �
As soothing as a summer breeze, this disc features singer Eric Bibb
(son of Leon), singing and playing guitar along with his group. Subtle
weaving of instrumentation, vivid sound.
The King James Version (CD)
Harry James and his big band, live from the chapel!
Spirit and the Blues (DOUBLE 45 LP/CD/SACD) �
Like his father, Leon Bibb, Eric Bibb understands the blues. He and
the other musicians, all playing strictly acoustic instruments, have
done a fine recording, and Opus 3 has made it sound exceptional.
Drum/Track Record (XRCD2) �
OPUS 3
Test Records 1, 2 & 3 (SACD)
A blast from the past! Here are 14 cuts from the samplers that
launched Opus 3. They sound better than ever, too
Tiny Island (SACD)
If you like Eric Bibb and his group Good Stuff as much as we do, pick
this one up.
Swingcerely Yours (SACD)
An SACD re-re-release of tracks from superb vibraphonist Lars
Erstrand, from 1983 to 1995. Long overdue!
20th Anniversary Celebration Disc (HDCD) �
A great sampler from Opus 3. Includes some exceptional fine pieces,
jazz, folk and classical. The sound pickup is as good as it gets, and the
HDCD transfer is luminous.
Unique Classical Guitar Collection (SACD)
An SACD, mastered from analog, of some of Opus 3’s long-discontinued classical guitar LPs. Terrific!
Beyond (SACD)
The second recording by the versatile guitarist Peder af Ugglas (who
also did Autumn Shuffle, below), who plays every instrument there is:
jazz, rock, blues, country. From Sweden???
Autumn Shuffle (SACD/LP)
Ugglas plays a number of different guitars, and borrows from jazz,
Blues, and (yes!) country. Piano, organ, trombone, bowed saw, etc.
Showcase 2005 (SACD)
The latest Opus 3 sampler, with Eric Bibb, Mattias Wager, the Erik
Westberg Vocal Ensemble and lots more, in glorious SACD.
Organ Treasures (SACD) �
All those showpieces for big organ you remember hearing through
huge systems…only with all of the power and the clarity of Super
Audio. 4.1 channels, plus 2-channel CD.
Just Like Love (SACD/LP) �
The newest from Eric Bibb, less oriented to Gospel and more to Blues.
Bibb’s group, Needed Time, is not here, but he’s surrounded by half a
dozen fine musicians. A nice recording. Hybrid SACD.
Levande (CD) �
The full recording from which “Tiden Bara Går” on Test Record No.1
is taken. Believe it or not, this great song isn’t even the best on the
album! A fine singer, doing folklike material…and who cares about
understanding the words?
Concertos for Double Bass (CD/SACD) �
This album of modern and 19th Century music is a favorite for its
deep, sensuous sound. And the music is worth discovering. It is sensuous and lyrical, a delight in every way.
Across the Bridge of Hope (SACD)
An astonishing choral recording by the Erik Westberg Ensemble,
famous for its Musica Sacra choral recording.
Musica Sacra (HDCD/SACD) �
Test Record No.4 (LP) �
PROPRIUS
Antiphone Blues (CD) �
This famous disc offers an unusual mix: sax and organ! The disc
includes Ellington, Negro spirituals, and some folk music. Electrifying performance, and the recording quality is unequalled.
Antiphone Blues (SACD/HDCD) �
This is the Super Audio version, with a Red Book layer that is HDCDencoded. The best of both worlds!
63
Now the Green Blade Riseth (CD/SACD) �
Religious music done a new way: organ, chorus and modern orchestra. Stunning music, arranged and performed by masters, and the
effect is joyous. The sound is clear, and the sheer depth is unequalled
on CD. The new SACD version is the very best SACD we have yet heard!
Jazz at the Pawnshop Set (SACD) �
The entire set oin glorious SACD, plus a video DVD with interviews
with the set’s creators.
Jazz at the Pawnshop 2 (CD/SACD) �
From the original master, another disc of jazz from this Swedish pub,
with its lifelike 3-D sound. Now a classic in its own right.
Good Vibes (CD)
The third volume of Jazz at the Pawnshop. And just as good!
Cantate Domino (CD/SACD) �
This choral record is a classic of audiophile records. The title selection is stunningly beautiful. The second half is Christmas music, and
includes the most stunning version of O Holy Night we’ve ever heard.
Sketches of Standard (CD)
ANALEKTA
Graupner: Vocal & Instr. Music vol.1 (CD)
Geneviève Soly and Les idées heureuses play music from a lost genius
whose reputation once outshon Bach’s.
Graupner: Partitas, vol.1 (CD)
Geneviève Soly plays some of Christoph Graupner’s incredibly rich
harpsichord music
Graupner: Vocal & Instr. Music vol.2 (CD)
Graupner: Partitas vol.3 (CD)
Graupner: Christmas in Darmstadt (CD)
SPECIAL PRICE ON ALL 8 CDs (see last page)
Violonchello Español (CD) �
I Musici de Montréal comes to Analekta, with a stunning album of
Spanish and Spanish-like pieces for cello and orchestra: Glazunov, de
Falla, Albéniz, Granados, and more.
Vivace (CD) �
Classical or rock? Claude Lamothe plays two cellos at the same time
in an amazing recording of modern compositions.
Pauline Viardot-Garcia (CD) �
Soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian steps into the role of 19th Century
singer and composer Pauline Viardot so convincingly that listening
to her is like going back in time. One of the best classical recordings
of all time!
Romantic Pieces (CD) �
How does James Ehnes manage to get such a sweet sound from his
Stradivarius? Czech pieces from Smetana, Dvorak and Janacek.
The playing is as glorious as the tone, and the sound is sumptuous.
Bonus: Analekta’s 10th sampler is included.
Once Upon a Time… (Video DVD)
Violinist Angèle Dubeau et her La Pietà string group with a spectacular video of music inspired by the Underworld…with the devil
himself in attendence. Includes other videos plus two CD’s worth of
uncompressed music. Superb!
64
Cantabile (CD)
The Duo Similia is made up of striking blonde twins, who play flute
and guitar. Familiar airs from Mozart, Fauré, Elgar, Ravel, lots more.
Fine listening.
Nota del Sol (CD) �
The Labrie twins are back, with a delightful recording of flute and
guitar music by Piazzola, Pujol and Machado. Joyous works, wonderfully played and recorded
Fantasia (CD)
A third, gorgeous, recording by the twins, on flute and guitar.
Camara died just before the disc was released.
Styles (CD)
Is this ever a surprising disc! Violinist Marc Bélanger worked up these
string études for his music students, but they actually deserve to be
put out on a gold audiophile disc! The more strings he adds, the better
it gets.
Fable (CD)
Easygoing modern jazz by Rémi Bolduc and his quartet, on this gold
disc. Some exceptional guitar and bass solos.
Fritz Kreisler (CD)
Possibly the best recording of Kreisler’s delightful violin music: James
Ehnes and his Strad bring a new magic to this fine disc.
Musique Guy St-Onge (CD)
One-man band St-Onge plays dozens of instruments — scores for
fourteen films which never existed outside of his imagination. Fun
pretext, clever, attractive music that makes you wish you could see
the films!
French Showpieces (CD) �
Awesome violinist James Ehnes, with the Quebec City Symph. takes on
Saint-Saëns, Berlioz, Chausson, Massenet, and more.
HI-RES MUSIC (FOR DVD PLAYERS)
Handel (CD) �
Superb soprano Karina Gauvin is joined by the Toronto chamber
ensemble Tafelmusik in a series of glowing excerpts from Handel’s
“Alcina” and “Agrippina.” The sound is smooth and lifelike, with an
acute sense of place.
Little Notebook of Anna Magdalana Bach (CD) �
Over 30 delightful pieces, most by Bach himself. Soprano Karina
Gauvin’s voice is mated to Luc Beauséjour’s harpsichord work. The
sound is deep, detailed and warm, truly of audiophile quality.
Vivaldi: Motets for Soprano (CD) �
The wonderful soprano Karina Gauvin tackles the gorgeous but very
difficult vocal music of Vivaldi: two motets and a psalm.
AUDIOQUEST
Mississipi Magic (CD/SACD)
The legendary Blues, Gospel, rock and world beat singer and musician Terry Evans, in an energetic recording we loved.
Come to Find (CD) �
The first by Bluesman Doug McLeod, as impressive as the second, and
no Blues fan should resist it.
You Can’t Take My Blues (CD) �
Singer/songwriter Doug MacLeod and colleagues present one of the
most satisfying Blues records ever made.
Unmarked Road (SACD)
The third disc from the great blues singer and guitarist Doug McLeod
is every bit as good as the first two.
Brazilian Soul (24/96 DVD)
Guitarists Laurindo Almeida and Charlie Byrd, plus percussion and
bass, in an intimate yet explosive recording of samba and bossa nova
music. Great!
Jazz/Concord (24/96 DVD)
It's 1972, and you have tickets to hear Herb Ellis, Joe Pass, Ray Brown
and Jake Hanna at the Concord Jazz Festival. You won’t ever forget it.
You can be there, with this high resolution disc that goes in your DVD.
Rhythm Willie (24/96DVD) �
Guitarists Herb Ellis and Freddie Green, With bassist Ray Brown and
others. This is an uncompressed 24 bit 96 kHz disc that can be played
on any video DVD player. Awesome!
Trio (24/96 DVD) �
Pianist Monty Alexander with Herb Ellis and Ray Brown. “Makes CD
sound seem as if it’s coming through a drinking straw.” Playable on
any DVD player, uncompressed.
Seven Come Eleven (24/96 DVD)
Herb Ellis and Ray Brown again, but this time with guitarist Joe
Pass (he and Ellis alternate playing lead and rhythm), and a third
guitarist, Jake Hanna. This is a live recording from the 1974 Concord
Jazz Festival.
Soular Energy (24-96 DVD/ 24-192 DVD-Audio) �
Perhaps the world’s greatest bassist, the late Ray Brown, playing with
pianist Gene Harris, whom Brown called one of the greats. The proof
is right on this 24/96 recording, made from the analog master. Side 2
has a 24/192 DVD-A version.
powerhouse! Engineered by Keith O. Johnson, with a great transfer by
Bruce Leek.
Sonatas for Flute and Harp
These same great artists with sonatas by Krumpholz and Damase, as
well as Spohr and Glinka. Oh yes, and a spectacular solo harp version
of Ibert’s hilarious Entr’acte .
Norman Dello Joio (CD) �
This contemporary composer delights in the tactile sound of the wind
band, and the Keystone Wind Ensemble does his music justice. So
does the sound, of astonishing quality!
Carmina Burana (CD)
The celebrated Carl Orff oratorio sends chills down your spine, thanks
to the huge orchestra, gigantic choir, and of course the clarity and
depth of the Klavier sound.
Obseción (CD)
The Trio Amadé plays Piazzola, Berstein, Copland, and Emilion
Cólon…who is the trio cellist. The Colón and Piazzola is definitely
worth the price of admission. Lifelike sound.
Misbehavin’ (CD)
The superb Denver Brass does Gershwin (Cuban Overture, Porgy and
Bess), plus On the Town, Sweet Georgia Brown, and of course Ain’t
Misbehavin’. Great sound.
Hemispheres (CD)
The North Texas Wind Symphony with new music by contemporary
composers who know how to thrill. Some of the best wind band sound
available.
Illuminations (CD)
Absolutely great chamber musicians take on music by Villa-Lobos,
Malcolm Arnold, and some composers you may not know but you’ll
wish you did. Sublime sound, nothing less.
Mozart Serenade and Divertimenti (CD)
Lowell Graham (of Center Stage fame, Wilson Audio) conducts a
glowing version of these pieces, including the famous “Grand Partita.”
The engineering, by Bruce Leek, is absolutely first-rate.
Kickin’ the Clouds Away (CD)
Gershwin died more than 60 years ago, but you can hear him playing
piano in glowing stereo. Nineteen of his pieces are on this fine CD,
including a solo piano version of the Rhapsody in Blue.
FIRST/LAST IMPRESSIONS
KLAVIER
La Fille Mal Gardée (XRCD)
A fine ballet with the Royal Ballet Company orchestra, from the
original 1962 Decca recording. Exceptional
Evolution (CD)
Lowell Graham and the USAF wind band, with two superb suites by
Holst, plus music by Nelhybel, Hanson, etc. Lively, tactile sound with
impact by Bruce Leek..
Film Spectacular II (XRCD)
The orchestra of Stanley Black plays some of the greatest film music
of bygone years. From the original Decca Phase 4 tape.
Poetics (CD) �
A superb wind band recording which includes a breathtaking
concerto for percussion.
Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante (XRCD)
Igor and David Oistrakh with the Moscow Philharmonic, in a glorious
1963 recording, from the original master tape
Tres Americas (CD)
A gold audiophile disc of lively Latin fusion music. Irka Mateo and
Tadeo de Marco sing and play, drawing their influence from Africa as
well as their native Brazil. Clear, close-in sound.
Ghosts (CD) �
This haunting(!) wind band recording features a suite of music that
could be the soundtrack to a film that will keep you awake nights. A
recording of astonishing dynamics and depth
Artistry oi Linda Rosenthal (HDCD) �
The great violinist Rosenthal plays favorites: Hora Staccato, Perpetuum Mobile, Debussy’s Beau Soir, etc.
Djembé Tigui (CD)
This gold disc features the voice and percussion of African artist
Sekou Camara, captured by the famous Soundfield microphone.
Caprice (CD) �
Can harp be spectacular? Believe it! This famous Klavier recording
features Susann McDonald playing Fauré, Glinka and Liszt, is a
Whose Truth, Whose Lies (SACD) �
The third disc from the great blues singer and guitarist Doug McLeod
is t as good as the first. These songs have powerful rhythm, and can
make you smile and cry at the same time.
Bluesquest sampler (CD)
SILENCE
Suite Española (XRCD) �
The Albéniz suite, gorgeously orchestrated by Rafael Frühbeck de
Burgos, who conducts the New Philharmonia. Beautifully remastered
from the original 1963 tape.
Audiophile Reference IV (SACD) �
A stunning sampler, with recognizable audiophile selections you have
never heard sound this good!
Songs My Dad Taught Me (HDCD)
Jazz pianist Jeremy Monteiro and three other musicians, with a retro
collection of unforgettable tunes.
A Time for Us (HDCD)
Orchestral versions of music from great movies. Easy to love!.
Café Blue (HDCD/CD) �
Gold HDCD version of jazz singer Patricia Barber’s 1994 classic, an
audiophile underground favorite. Or get the original CD, at lower cost.
MISCELLANEOUS
Pipes Rhode Island �
John Marks recorded this tour of the organs of the tiny state, with
amazing tones, captured in astonishing sound
65
Austria, the UK, Eastern Europe. Listen to excerpts on line.
Montreal. Just her warm voice and guitar,
Audiophile (XRCD) �
A fine jazz recording, including Secret of the Andes. We never test a
speaker without it.
La mémoire du vent (CD)
The original recording by Bïa, in French, Portuguese and English. If
you love her second one, don’t hesitate.
Blues for the Saxophone Club (HDCD) �
Swing jazz pianist Jeremy Monteiro, with guest artists, including
saxophonist Ernie Watts. The HDCD sound is explosive!
Carmin (CD) �
The third by Bïa. Different this time, with more money for production,
but it has been spent wisely. Superb songs, gloriously sung in Portuguese, French and the ancient Aymara language.
My Foolish Heart (CD)
A collection of live and atudio pieces by Monteiro and other musicians, notably saxophonist Eernie Watts
Coeur vagabond (CD)
Bïa sings French songs in Portuguese, Brazilian songs in French. A
delight, as usual from this astonishing singer
Neil Diamond: Serenade (CD)
Just eight songs on this European CBS disc, but what songs! I’ve Been
This Way Before, Lady Magdalene, Reggae Strut, The Gift of Song,
and more. Glowing sound too.
All We Need to Know �
Jazz singer Margie Gibson’s first album since Say It With Music, on
Sheffield. No one sings the way she does!
Harry Belafonte (CD)
We haven’t heard Belafonte sound like this except on analog. The 16
songs include Island in the Sun, Jamaica Farewell, Midnight Special,
Michael Row the Boat Ashore, Brown Skin Girl, etc.
Classica d’Oro (CD)
All of the classical world’s most important heritage, on 50 audiophilequality gold CDs, at under $4 per CD. Fine artists from Germany,
Sources (CD) �
A wonderful recording by Bïa (pronounced Bee-yah). She’s Brazilian,
lives in France, recorded this terrific album (in 5 languages!) in
Nightclub (CD) �
Patricia Barber, doing nightclub standards rather than her own
songs. But can she do them!
Modern Cool (CD)
The previous release from Patricia Barber, including songs she does
live on the Companion live disc.
SEE EVEN MORE PRODUCTS
IN OUR ON-LINE CATALOG
www,uhfmag.com/AudiophileStore.html
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items (the Super Antenna, the EAC line filter, and most standard-length cables) may be returned within 21 days less shipping cost. Other
items may be subject to a restocking charge. Defective recordings will be exchanged for new copies.
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66
VINYL ALBUMS
Autumn Shuffle
Beachcomber
Blazing Redheads
Dick Hyman — Fats Waller
Fennell Favorites
Good Stuff (2 LP)
Holst
Jazz at the Pawnshop
Just like Love
Showcase
Spirit and the Blues (2 LP)
Test Record No.4
The Oxnard Sessions
Trittico
Vinyl Essentials (test)
Bach Suites, Airs & Dances
FL 2 3133
21.00
Beachcomber
RR-62CD
16.95
Best of Chesky & Test, vol.3 JD111
21.95
Best of the Red Army Chorus AN 2 8800
21.00
Beethoven Symph. 5 & 6
AN 2 9891
21.00
Blues for the Saxophone Club 26-1084-78-2 21.95
Bluesquest
AQCD1052 21.95
Bossa Nova
JD129
21.95
Bruckner: Symph. No.9
RR-81CD
16.95
Café Blue
21810
21.95
Café Blue (HDCD gold)
CD 010
39.95
Cantabile
AN 2 9810
21.00
Cantate Domino
7762CD
21.95
Caprice
K11133
21.00
Carmin
ADCD10163 21.00
Carmina Burana
K 11136
21.00
Classica d’Oro (50 CDs)
GCM-50
149.95
NEW MEDIA (SACD, DVD, ETC.)
Come to Find
AQCD1027 21.95
Across the Bridge of Hope
CD22012
24.95 Come Love
CD19703
19.95
Antiphone Blues (SACD)
7744SACD 37.95 Companion
22963
21.00
Audiophile Reference IV
SACD 029
40.00 Coeur vagabond
ADCD10191 21.00
Autumn Shuffle (SACD)
CD22042
24.95 Concertos for Double Bass
OPCD8502 21.95
Beethoven/Mendelssohn
5186 102
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Software
Legrand
O
the Great
ne day, a lad who would have
been knee-high to a grasshopper
managed to hoist himself up to
the bench of an old piano, abandoned by his illustrious father who wanted
freedom to pursue his artistic career. The
lad’s name: Michel Legrand. The instrument will be his companion for life. “I will
always feel at home,” he will later say at the
peak of his own glory, “as long as I have paper
to write on and a piano to play.”
To follow the development of such a
career is no mean task, especially when it
is as effervescent as that of the musician
who is my subject. Yet if the subject is
a creator in his chosen sphere, if he is
transcendent to the point of gaining a
planetary reputation, if he has inspired
by his style that of his contemporaries,
if he has influenced even creators yet
to come by his originality…well, then,
there are no obstacles, efforts or risks
capable of derailing an intrepid and
adventurous author. She knows what
happy surprises await her at every turn
and at the end of the voyage.
A classical composer, a jazzman, a
film composer, an arranger, an actor,
an orchestral conductor, a producer, a
virtuoso pianist, a sensitive singer with
a warm voice, Michel Legrand’s recordings are everywhere. He is a superstar, an
indefatigable musician, and the diversity
of the development of his career makes
him unique.
The birth of a prodigy
He is not born in auspicious circum-
by Reine Lessard
stances. The child of a dysfunctional
couple, virtually abandoned by his father
at the age of three, he might have suffered the distress of so many children
in similar circumstances, and never
recovered.
His father was Raymond Legrand
(1908-1973), a pupil of Gabriel Fauré,
composer, performer, arranger, and an
eminent conductor of the music hall
and its derivatives. Michel’s mother is
Armenian. His uncle, Jacques Hélian
(1912-1986), is France’s greatest conductor of variety of the Post-war period
and into the 50’s. He is a formidable
arranger, whose music gave the French,
following the dark years of the Occupation, a taste for life, with his colorful
arrangements (Fleur de Paris, a hymn
to the Liberation, sung by Maurice
Chevalier, and C’est Si Bon, a hit for Yves
Montand and so many others). That got
him known as far away as America.
W hen M ichel’s parents f inally
divorce, in 1946, it has been 11 years
since his father left home, leaving
behind him a wife without financial
means, a daughter aged seven, Michel
himself, aged three, and an apartment
less than modest. Michel’s big sister
will grow up to be a formidable singer
and pianist, but for the moment she is of
course in school. Their mother finds a
job outside the home. Left all day with
a grandmother who, loving though she
may be, speaks a language that is to
him incomprehensible, Michel fills the
vacuum in his young life with that dusty
piano his father left behind. Giving in
to the fascination of those white and
black keys, he attempts to repeat airs
he has heard on the radio. He finds the
task easy, thanks to his prodigious auditory memory, and he even succeeds in
improvising harmonies.
It quickly becomes evident that the
boy has a gift, and his mother enrols
both him and his sister for piano lessons
with a teacher who lives nearby.
One day Michel sees a film in which
singer Tino Rossi plays the role of Franz
Schubert, and he will be marked for life
by the scenes showing the composer in
the midst of his work of creation. He now
spends even more hours at the keyboard,
and when he turns nine the sages of
the Conservatoire National de Musique
de Paris bend their own rules and allow
him to come study with the best professors — among them the inevitable Nadia
Boulanger!
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He would often recount how demanding she was. She was a monster! But I
adored her as much as I resented her. Music
aside, she taught me all about art, philosophy,
rigor and discipline and, by the time I was
20, I was ready for a career. I had acquired
such a technique that even today, when I am
on the podium, or I play, or I write, I know
exactly what I want. He adds that after
she was made they must have broken the
mold.
During his seven years at the Conservatoire he works hard, and he is rewarded
with a number of prizes. Harmony aside,
he attends courses in counterpoint
and fugue, orchestral conducting, and
accompaniment, but also in performance. By the time he graduates at the age
of 17 he can play something like a dozen
instruments.
He is finally reconciled with his
famous father, and enters the world of
popular music by writing arrangements
for the Raymond Legrand orchestra. He
is quickly adopted as an accompanist by
some of the great French pop stars of
the time. In 1954 the US label Columbia
signs him to do an album of popular
tunes, including Autumn Leaves, The Last
Time I Saw Paris, April in Paris, La Vie
en Rose, Under Paris Skies, etc. Titled I
Love Paris, the LP racks up sales of eight
million (it has since been re-released as a
double CD with a 32-page booklet about
Legrand).
At the age of 22, his name has crossed
the ocean.
And so will he. Maurice Chevalier,
the great French boulevardier, who is
pursuing his career in the United States,
hires Michel Legrand as musical director, allowing him to travel across a land
of which so many European artists have
only dreamed.
The New Wave
At the end of the 50’s, Legrand is
struck by the appearance of cinema’s
Nouvelle Vague, the challenge to the
stagnation of French moviemaking, a
movement that will sweep across the
world, including to Hollywood itself.
A coterie of young directors who reject
traditional cinema, such as François
Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, A lain
Resnais, Claude Chabrol and Eric
Roehmer, set out to create films that are
at once new and personal. Together they
will create the cinéma d’auteur, which will
flourish alongside the traditional cinéma
de studio.
After surfing on this wave, Michel
Legrand is sought out by the nouvelle
vague directors to write film music. His
work day is dizzying. After the completion of new LPs, including Holiday in
Rome and La Valse des Lilas, he moves
into the movies. Initially he uses a nom
de plume, Lucien Legrand, to write the
music for Les amants du Tage by Henri
Verneuil, considered to be the most
American of French directors. He will
henceforth add the color of his music to
some ten films and TV broadcasts each
year. Let us simply say that his contribution to the Seventh Art in both France
and the New World will be staggering,
and it will never let up.
When Michel Legrand returns from
the US in 1956, he has several rock’n’roll
records in his baggage, and he tries to
raise the interest of such singers as Boris
Vian and Henri Salvador in this new
music, which they consider frivolous
and doomed to oblivion. However Vian,
under the name of Vernon Sinclair,
comes up with a few texts in French,
which Legrand will perform under the
name Mig Bike (which will later become
Big Mike), with a rock’n’roll sauce.
They are brought out as singles under
the name of Henry Cording and His
Original Rock and Roll Boys (Cording
being none other than Henri Salvador).
The titles are downright absurd: Rock
and Roll-Mops; Dis-lui qu’tu m’aimes;
Rock-Hoquet and Va t’faire cuire un oeuf,
man! These recordings, all of them
under pseudonyms, are the first 100%
French rock songs, launched thanks to
Legrand’s spirit of innovation.
It is said t hat t his Fontana 45,
intended initially as parody, was the
liveliest “made in France” recording
ever. Today it is, of course, a collectors’
item.
Jazz and trio
The recordings keep on coming:
Michel Legrand plays Cole Porter (1957),
followed by Legrand in Rio (1958) on
the Philips label. Invited to a festival
of students and youth in the USSR, he
meets a young French model, whom he
marries. They will have three children.
Hervé and Benjamin will become musicians like their father and grandfather,
while his daughter Eugénie Angot will
become a champion in equestrian circles,
specializing in obstacle racing.
In 1958 in New York, Legrand conducts studio sessions with the flower
of American jazz, whose favorite he
becomes. He works with trumpetist
Miles Davis, saxophonists John Coltrane
and Ben Webster, pianist Bill Evans, plus
Phil Woods, Herbie Mann and others.
One of these meetings results in the
album Legrand Jazz. Entirely made in
USA, it truly is “grand” jazz. We can
see his orientation toward jazz growing
in importance.
Taking flight
Michel Legrand is a magnificent
melodist, and his original and sensuous
airs are on everyone’s lips. He sings
for the ear and the heart of those who
sometimes don’t even know the creator
of the tunes running through their
heads. What is particularly amazing is
that many of his compositions for the
movies have outlived the popularity of
the films they were created for.
For Legrand it is as Nadia Boulanger
taught him, namely that melody is king.
Put whatever you want on top and under
the melody, but whatever happens it is the
melody that counts. He will often say that
melody is a mistress to which he will
always remain faithful.
Here’s a telling example: the 1966
film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, whose
hit song, Non je ne pourrai jamais vire
sans toi, translated by Norman Gimbel
under the title I Will Wait For You, will
become a hit song for Frank Sinatra,
Johnny Mathis, Eddie Fisher, Brenda
Lee, Andy Williams, Tony Bennet,
Louis Armstrong and Cher. Carried by
these artists, it spans the world.
Legrand’s career in film music really
takes flight from 1961 to 1967, when
he writes music for seven of Jean-Luc
Godard’s films. In 1961 he writes the
music for Agnès Varda’s film Cléo from
5 to 7, in which he is also an actor. The
same year he begins a collaboration with
Varda’s husband, director Jacques Demy,
which will lead to several excellent
films: Lola, Trois Places Pour le 26, and
the most famous one, The Umbrellas of
Cherbourg, which won the Palme d’Or at
Cannes in 1964 and garnered two Oscar
nominations.
Then followed The Young Girls of
Rochefort (1967-68), with its lively and
catchy melodies, and Peau d’âne (1970),
a tale on the theme of incest, based on
one of the fables of Charles Perrault.
The film has been praised for its sets
and costumes, but also the remarkable
actors and the singing voices — among
which that of Michel’s sister, Christiane
Legrand (who also sings in The Umbrellas
of Cherbourg), and who is a member of
The Swingle Singers, the Blue Stars and
the Double Six.
Sponsored by the celebrated American film music composer Henry Mancini, Legrand has immense success
with his music for Norman Jewison’s
The Thomas Crown Affair, with Steve
McQueen. The music is notable for
its lively rhythms, but especially for
the staggeringly beautiful song The
Windmills of Your Mind, which becomes
a worldwide hit and earns Legrand an
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Of course he had discovered jazz when
he was but 12, when he had attended a
concert by the great jazz trumpetist
Dizzy Gillespie. In several of Legrand’s
scores, you can find rhythms from jazz,
a genre he finally espoused totally. In
1968, with bassist Ray Brown, he gives
several concerts at Shelly’s Manne-Hole,
the Los Angeles club founded by drummer Shelly Manne. The sessions can be
found on a Verve recording.
It was during that period that Beatlemania is at its height, though Legrand
shows little sign of being attracted to the
Fab Four’s music. Another type of music
entirely pulls him in, when, with a group
of friends, he discovers the Dixieland
jazz of New Orleans. Fascinated, he
burns with the yearning to promote
this music, which he finds extraordinary, and to make better known its roots.
All the while plunging into this form
of jazz, he undertakes serious research
into the African-American musicians
who created it. He is astonished by
the creativity of these people, among
the poorest of the North-American
continent, who use simple implements,
sometimes discarded, to make musical
instruments that let them explode joyously in a type of music at the antipodes
with the Blues.
Totally spellbound, Legrand, prin-
cipally a pianist and guitarist, takes up
once again the trombone, to spend the
1980’s in the domain of Dixieland jazz.
He forms, with André (Dédé) Ceccarelli
and Marc-Michel Le Bévillon, respectively drummer and bassist, a jazz trio
that will make three recordings. A few
years later he gets together with the great
American saxophonists Phil Woods and
John Haley “Zoot” Sims to record After
the Rain, on lyrics by Marilyn and Alan
Bergman. He produces the opening of
the MIDEM, the World Music Market
show, with singer Shirley Bassey, already
known for songs in three of the Bond
films, Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever
and Moonraker.
In 1991, still fascinated by New
Orleans and its music, he brings several
friends together to form Les contretemps,
which is both an association and a New
Orleans jazz band. That will draw a good
deal of interest, but above all it will give
Legrand a lot of pleasure.
He especially enjoys the great freedom Dixieland musicians have to improvise with him around a basic melody.
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Oscar. Recall also his music for the 1969
Richard Brooks film The Happy Ending,
and the song What Are You Doing the Rest
of Your Life, with words by his favorite
lyricists, Marilyn and Alan Bergman.
He is a star of television as well, writing music for The Maurice Chevalier Show,
The Danny Kaye Show and a Shirley Bassey
Special. He is nominated for Grammy
Awards 27 times, and from 1971 to 1975
he takes five of the statuettes home.
Notwithstanding his growing presence in the US, he continues to write
for French cinema, with predictable
success.
The best is yet to come
Legrand remains a subject of conversation through the 70’s for his brilliant
music for Pieces of Dreams; his symphonic
ode for Joseph Losey’s The Go-Between
(which earns the Palme d’Or at Cannes);
his Oscar-winning music for Robert
Mulligan’s Summer of 42 (notable for its
tender and heady refrain, The Summer
Knows, on words by the Bergmans and
sung by Barbra Streisand); Les Mariés
de l’an II (nominated for top honors
at Cannes); Jean-Paul Rappeneau’s Le
Sauvage; Jean-Pierre Blanc’s La Vieille
Fille; Édouard Molinaro’s Le Gang des
Otages.
He produces a first album in which he
not only plays but also sings, surprising
everyone with the beauty of his voice,
his warm and expressive timbre.
After this pause he continues with
more film music, with the eerie theme
of Jacques Deray’s Outside Man; the
Baroque score for Richard Lester’s
The Three Musketeers; Clint Eastwood’s
Breezy (earning him two Golden Globe
nominations); John Frankenheimer’s
Story of a Love Story; Orson Welles’ Truth
and Lies and F for Fake; Joseph Losey’s
film on the resistance against the Franco
régime Les Routes du Sud; Louis Malle’s
Atlantic City; Falling in Love Again, whose
theme song, Yesterday’s Dreams, gets a
Golden Globe nomination.
In 1983 he does the music for the
“unofficial” Bond film Never Say Never
Again, with Sean Connery. The same
year, 1983, he receives another Oscar
for the score of Yentl, in which Barbra
Streisand sings the captivating and
touching songs Papa, Can You Hear Me
and The Way He Makes Me Feel, both of
them nominated as well. He does the
orchestration for the film too, and of
course conducts.
In the 90’s, after his earlier experiences with a jazz trio, Legrand is attracted
to bigger bands. He goes on international
tour conducting the orchestra for such
artists as Ray Charles, Barbra Streisand,
Stéphane Grappelli and Diana Ross.
In the same decade he writes music
for Robert Altman’s satirical film on the
fashion industry Ready to Wear, Claude
Lelouch’s Les Misérables, and Danièle
Thompson’s La Bûche.
He tries his hand at other styles as
well. His 1975 opera Monte Cristo is
not the hoped-for success, but Le PasseMuraille, on a libretto by Didier van
Cauwelaert, is a solid success. We must
not forget his fable for CD, La Petite
Fille aux Allumettes, with words by Jean
Dréjac and featuring Mel Ferrer. In
2000, he writes La Bicyclette Bleue for
television.
His Concertoratorio for symphony
orchestra, large mixed choir, six soloists
and two pianists was commissioned by
the French government for the bicentenary of the Revolution, in 1989. Premiered
in Lyon that same year, the Concertoratorio was performed in Havana the
following year, and received its North
American premiere at the University of
Montreal in 2007.
Working under pressure
Doing film music over again is impossible, says Legrand, not without a tinge
of regret. As is generally known, the
composer is the person who arrives
when the film is nearly done, the script
is finished, scenes have been shot, and
there is already at least a rough cut of
the final film. When comes the time to
create the music, everything happens
in front of the screen, the director and
the film crew. Any wishes or personal
requirements the composer may have
must be expressed with the greatest
tact, to avoid offending all those who
have worked on the film so far. It is in
this emotionally charged atmosphere
that the composer must find themes
for certain scenes, modulate them with
originality, and put them together in
order to buttress the story, but without recorded voice of his great friend, the A melody comes from who knows where, he
breaking the film’s rhythm, and always late Claude Nougaro.
once revealed. It comes because you search
In 2005 he writes the music for Steve for it, you work all the time, you pursue it as
preserving the soul of the scenario. It is
thus that, in Yentl, in the main themes as Suissa’s film Cavalcade.
you would if you were doing body building.
in the individual songs, every element is
In March of 2007 he in Washington I don’t believe in inspiration. If you are not
different, yet they remain coherent.
to receive the Living Jazz Legend Award, a musician, if you don’t work at it, if you
Yet it does happen that a composer after which he visits Birdland in New don’t prepare madly for it night and day over
has more maneuvering room, and that York, to do a set with his friend Ron weeks, months and years, and you merely
before shooting begins he receives from Carter and the talented young drummer wait for inspiration, it will never come. If,
the director preliminary ideas on the Louis Nash.
on the other hand, you write constantly, if
sort of music he wants, on its color. The
I lower the curtain on this decade by you are always in movement, always at work,
composer can then adapt the music to mentioning the award, in 2003, of the always searching, it may come and visit.
each scene as needed. It also happens that medal of Officer of the Légion d’Honneur
Legrand knows enough to apprecia film is built around music that already of France.
ate the professionalism of Americans in
exists. But no matter what the working
their artistic endeavors. Not all would
method, Legrand’s film music has always Evaluating Legrand
agree with him, for in the 60’s musicians
been inspired.
To better take the measure of this would come into the studio and await the
Beyond his passion for music, the colossus in the midst of an exceptional visit of their muse while looking at the
man of a million facets who is Michel musical genealogy — a father who is ceiling, perhaps under the influence of
Legrand has also mastered horseback
composer
bandleader,
an uncle
but he says: I am fascin No, thisa free
versionand
is not
complete, though
you some
couldsubstance,
spend a couple
riding, sailing, and piloting. Heofdoes
in
who
is
also
a
bandleader,
a
sister
who
ated,
because
Americans
are professionals,
hours reading it. Want the full version?
fact own his own small plane. You can,
is of
a course,
remarkable
musician
and
singer,
and
that’s
all
there
is
to
it.
When I go into
order the print version, which we have published
two
children
musicians
of
great
reputathe
studio
it’s
wonderful:
everyone
is in place,
tion —we
must
recognize
his
tremendous
on
time,
already
tuned
up,
and
the
scores are
versatility.
He
has
worked
everywhere,
in
on
the
music
stands.
France,
on
the
other
every
musical
genre,
with
the
cream
of
hand,
is
a
land
of
amateurs.
I
work
so
hard,
musicians
of It
the
latter
such demanding
fashion, and this French
course faster,
and it isand
alsosingers
cheaper.
costs
justpart
$4.30in(Canadian)
anywhere
of
the
20th
Century
and
the
first
decade
dilettantism
bugs
me.
It doesn’t interest me,
of
this
one.
We
must
also
acknowledge
and
I
turn
my
back
on
it.
his astonishing work capacity and his
Michel Legrand has never broken
prolific output. His film work alone is with his classical roots, and he has frean uninterrupted series of remarkable quently returned to them. From 1998
productions, some 250 films in all.
to 2004 he recorded several CDs with
If he became most famous as a film the French classical trumpetist Maurice
composer, it is more accurate to say that André. On three occasions in this decade
he is simply a musician, and a great one. he has played the works of Erik Satie. In
Throughout his career he exhibits a rare 1994 he conducted the requiems of Fauré
eclecticism, with impressionistic and and Duruflé. In 1992, classical soprano
ethnic touches that bear witness to the Kiri te Kanawa recorded an album titled
And more…
universality of his music. His writing, Kiri Sings Michel Legrand.
After the numerous collections of rhythmic, ornamental, with alternating
Michel Legrand’s music released over dynamic and romantic passages, rhap- Epilogue
the years, Universal brings out an sodic or swinging, sometimes gentle and
Despite a marvellous career and a
anthology in 2001. In 2005, Universal meditative, his elegant orchestrations at now respectable age — he is 76 — LegJazz puts together a multi-disc set titled once sensual and original, the ambience rand shows no signs of slowing down. He
Le Cinéma de Michel Legrand, with 90 he can create…all these distinguish has been asked how he can do all that he
fascinating titles over four CDs. The him from all others. As if that were not does (and he does do it all), so much more
pieces include some of the best of this enough, as a solo pianist and improviser than anyone else, his diverse activities
prolific composer over a half century he is breathtaking.
and his travels. For me, time is an arithof career. However Legrand doesn’t
He does not compose at the piano, metical dimension I don’t truly understand.
participate in the project, preferring to but writes directly on the page, for when He prefers to follow his artistic impulses,
concentrate on the present and especially he reads a score he hears it in his head. which are outside real time. Three days
the future, rather than the past.
In this way at least, he is like Mozart, and three nights working at top speed, and
In June of the same year Legrand, who is said to have written fully-formed then suddenly I do slow down, and then one
whose generosity is proverbial, is in scores right on his music paper. Though hour lasts three days. Because, he says, the
the studio to record several song titles melodies come to him effortlessly, time when you are just waiting, that is the
among several jazz greats, with the Legrand doesn’t believe in inspiration. real period of creation.
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by Reine Lessard
and Gerard Rejskind
Winterreise (Schubert)
C. Prégardien/Pentaèdre
Atma ACD2 2546
Lessard: The title means “winter
journey.” Coming at the peak of the
period of German Romantic lieder, this
Schubert cycle includes 24 lied for voice
and piano in two series of a dozen each,
composed the year before his death. It
is 1827. Beethoven has just died, before
Schubert can meet him and show him
his own work. It is, for him, the last
straw. Ill and homeless, in financial difficulty, he suffers from frequent bouts
of depression.
The music to which these poems, by
the German poet Wilhelm Müller, are
set is in turn filled with bitterness and
irony (no.1, Good Night); rage (No. 2,
The Weather Vane); pain (No. 3, Frozen
Tears); disillusion, weariness, despair in
response to indifference (No. 4, Numbness); petition (announced by the French
horn in No. 6); sadness (No. 17, The Inn);
love and tenderness. At that point in his
life, Schubert is much troubled by these
poems, long lovers’ complaints in which
he espouses the destiny of the traveller.
Was he too, like the subject of the poems,
not betrayed by his beloved? And so we
seem him erring through winter landscapes, pierced by the cawing of crows.
Composed principally in minor key,
with energetic tempos that bring this
interior voyage within reach, this music
is captivating. The listener accompanies the disillusioned lover, wandering
through the cold, until his meeting
with a man with hurdy-gurdy, which
announces the end of his travels. His
final destination, clearly, is the grave.
I make no secret of my love for Schubert, and I must admit that this chamber arrangement for five instruments
(clarinet, bassoon, oboe d’amore, horn
and flute) initially worried me. However
this arrangement, signed by the audacious Normand Forget, also featuring
the great accordionist Joseph Petric,
delighted me. I would dare to say that,
if the composer could hear it he would
be at once astonished and pleased. I must
praise the impetuosity of Forget, and
also his genius in using each instrument
according to the sound and color that is
its own, with quiet assurance, respecting
the performance of each musician. The
accordion adds accents that heighten
the pathetic beauty of this music. Each
melody contains heartrending emotion,
perfectly clear in the performance of
singer Christoph Prégardien — inconsolable pain, anguish, anger. Though
Prégardien is billed as a tenor, he is here
closer to the register of the baritone, by
his warmth and his expressiveness.
Let me add that the recording is the
sort of impeccable production to which
Atma’s Johanne Goyette has accustomed
us. In particular, there is a remarkable
sense of space, in which each instrument
is in its place. Speaking of instruments,
all the musicians show flawless technique
and contagious sensitivity. This album is
a jewel.
La Mer
Nézet-Séguin/Orch. Métropolitain
Atma SACD2 2549
Lessard: Here is the sea in all its states,
as seen, heard and experienced by three
composers of different origins. The
album begins and ends with France’s
Claude Debussy, and serves as bookends
to England’s Benjamin Britten and
Canada’s Pierre Mercure.
Debussy’s well-known tone poem
La Mer opens the album. The three
symphonic sketches, of great evocative
power, were composed between 1903
and 1905. Poorly received at its mediocre
1905 premiere, it was warmly applauded
three years later. It is often programmed,
and is one of the best works from the
great composer.
Debussy is often categorized as an
impressionist, though he detested the
term. He was nonetheless different from
the composers who preceded him, just
as Manet, Monet and Renoir left their
contemporaries behind when they left
the studio to paint in the cruel light of
day. Debussy created sonic territories
that were new, and in all of his works
instruments propose a reverie.
This recording, by the Orchestre
Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, under
its brilliant young conductor Yannick
Nézet-Séguin, paints through sound an
ocean alternating tirelessly among states
of agitation, tumult, and calm. De l’aube à
midi sur la mer in B Minor, bewitches the
listener, dazzled by blue tides speckled
with specks of sunlight. Jeux de voyage,
followed by Dialogues du vent et de la mer,
are animated and tumultuous, the latter
piece especially. A thousand delightful
sounds dazzle us. Here a clarinet, there
a flute throw light you can literally see
among the rocks, making audible the
downpour, the roar of wind, the crashing
of waves. What an architect of sound
was this composer, so rebellious against
all the old rules! He uses with genius an
incredible variety of instruments, drawing from each the sound that characterizes it. He is matchless, and La mer is a
masterpiece.
The Four Sea Interludes are drawn
from Benjamin Britten’s opera Peter
Grimes, which marked the emergence of
the great lyrical composer. Britten’s left
us mainly vocal works and opera, though
he also wrote instrumental music. His
complex compositions and orchestrations were tonal, with an occasional side
No doubt influenced by his colleagues
in Europe and the rest of Canada in a
time of challenges to all literature and
art that had gone before, he absorbed
their will to break with academism. A
pioneer of the avant-garde, he was one of
the founders of the Société de musique
contemporaine du Québec. A Montreal
concert hall is named after him.
The Fantaisie impromptu included
here is aptly named Kaléidoscope. It
presents an avalanche of images that
don’t always seem connected one to
the other. The listener is carried along
down a thousand avenues of sound, or
Debussyesque orchestral colors, and
rhythms that recall Stravinsky and
Honneger. Other passages suggest jazz,
for Mercure had a great love of Glenn
Miller.
If you are attracted by modern
music, that’s one more reason to get this
album.
The disc ends in spectacular fashion
with the irresistible Prélude à l’après-midi
d’un faune, which is always a concert
favorite. This symphonic poem, which
took Debussy two years to write, was
one of the great choreographies danced
by Nijinski and the Ballets russes.
But let us look closely at this music,
inspired by the poem of the same title by
Stéphane Mallarmé, sometimes called
“the prince of poets.” Literary critic
Jacques Rivière wrote that Debussy
reconstituted the most primitive and the
subtlest sounds. Other critics said that no
one else is more equipped to hear the voices
of nature, and to disentangle their vast
harmonies from the noise that remains mere
confusion for most of us.
I am not an unconditional enthusiast
of anyone or anything, not even Debussy.
And yet it is through this Prélude that I
can realize the extent to which Debussy
demanded an irreproachable euphony in
his search for the purity and perfection
of each sound. Listening to this jewel of
a recording is a source of deep delight.
Nézet-Séguin conducts with brilliance an orchestra which now deserves
the admiration of all for its worldwide
performances. The sound of this SACD,
which is the work of excellent recording
engineer Johanne Goyette, will please
the most demanding audiophile. Because
she has a marked taste for the authentic
timbre of musical instruments, she
avoids excessive remixing and reworking after the fact, as — alas — too many
major label producers do.
Dvorak: Serenade, Bagatelles,
Czech Suite
Graham/National Chamber Players
Klavier K11126
Lessard: The celebrated Czech Romantic composer left a huge body of work
for the piano, for voice, for symphonic
orchestra, and chamber orchestra, as
well as operas and religious music. His
fabulous career began in his native Bohemia and extended to the United States.
He was even appointed conductor of the
National Music Conservatory of New
York, where he composed his 9th and
final symphony, aptly titled Symphony
From the New World. To the influence
of the European musical tradition and
Czech folklore, he added Negro spirituals, Native American music and popular
songs. However he worked hardest to
popularize the music of his own land.
This album contains three absolutely
captivating works, the Serenade in D
Minor, Op. 44, the Bagatelles, Op. 47, and
the Czech Suite, Op. 39. The three works
are of undeniable charm, and are pleasing from the first hearing. They contain
great melodic richness, sudden changes
of mood — martial airs, dances, lyrical
flights, with nostalgia, joy, vivacity, brio,
romance. It is admirably played by the
National Chamber Players.
Lowell Graham was conductor of
the top United States Air Force band in
Washington, and he continues his career
as conductor of civilian orchestras as
well.
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trip into the atonal world.
Peter Grimes was inspired by the story
of the antagonism of the inhabitants
of a small fishing village for a rather
ambiguous character. Grimes, himself
a fishermen, is hard and unpleasant. He
becomes a suspect following two successive deaths of children he was training
to be sailors. The desperate Grimes flees
on a stormy sea, never to return.
These marine interludes, which are
symphonic and impressionistic, are
frequently excerpted as concert pieces.
They deserve to be heard and heard
again to appreciate all their beauty.
The low-pitched instruments set the
scene and communicate the interior
conflicts of all of the actors of this drama.
Through this noise, a sad melody occasionally surfaces.
The first interlude, Dawn, opens with
a flute passage of engrossing beauty,
followed by brass in different tonalities expressing menace. In Sunday, on
the other hand, the composer has used
bells and an imitation of the sounds of
nature to set the scene of a clear Sunday
morning, though it is not without
troubling hints. Moonlight presents soft
chords that seem initially to be an odd
departure from the previous sections,
though it then established a natural link
with them. Storm…well, it is exactly
that, a perfect storm. The elements are
unbridled, as are the instruments and
the musicians.
Dialogues between clarinet and other
woodwinds, everywhere trills, staccatos,
astonishingly effective percussion, and
a few glissandos going up and down by
brass that surprised and impressed me.
That is the ever satisfying Britten.
The other middle piece is from
Canadian composer Pierre Mercure
(1927-1966). Snatched too young from
the musical world by a car accident in
France, he was one of the most remarkable composers of his time. Playing several instruments but especially known
as a bassoonist, he contributed to the
development of so-called contemporary
music. He was also, at Radio-Canada, the
creator and producer of several unforgettable television programs on music.
Through elect ron ic music and
musique concrète, he worked to break with
the constraints of conformist composing.
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The sound is superb, but I wasn’t
surprised. Klavier has always brought
the greatest care to the sound of its
recordings.
Organ Odyssey
Mary Preston
Reference Recordings RR-113
Rejskind: The great organs of the world
are mostly in churches, and there’s no
mystery about that. For centuries the
organ was favored by composers who
were paid by the Church (or, from
the Reformation forward, by churches).
As of the 19 th Century, however, the
churches had lost much of their temporal power, and with that their once
fabulous finances. Money had now
shifted to the secular world. Though
nearly all churches still have organs, it
was for a more general public that organ
music was composed. That presented a
problem.
Take the case of Camille Saint-Saëns’
Symphony No. 3, with its impressive final
movement for organ and orchestra. Just
where do you play it? Many concert halls
do have organs, but for the most part
they lack the power to allow them to
match that of a full symphony orchestra.
You can of course perform it in an actual
church, many of which today would be
happy for the extra income, but few
churches can seat the huge audiences
that can pay for a hundred unionized
musicians. The ones that are large
enough have such long reverberation
times that they are poorly suited to musical performances. When the Montreal
Symphony Orchestra recorded this work
a couple of decades ago, the sound of
the organ was brought in from a remote
location, the Oratoire St-Joseph, while
the orchestra played across town. (That
organ, by the way, is inside a spherical
dome, easily the worst possible acoustical
configuration, intended to impress from
the outside, not the inside.)
All this to say that the city of Dallas
is fortunate indeed to have a serious concert hall, the Meyerson Symphony Hall,
equipped with an organ of grand scale.
This C. B. Fisk organ is not a Europeanstyle tracker-action instrument, but an
organ in the American style, which is
to say with very high pressure in the
pipes. The organ is large anyway, but
the huge pressure gives it an even bigger
sound. That is arguably achieved at the
expense of nuance and finesse, but the
most refined organs would scarcely be
audible in the Meyerson hall.
Reference Recordings has taken
advantage of the presence of this organ
in the Meyerson venue, twice in fact.
The first recording, which remains justly
famous, is Pomp&Pipes (RR-58CD). Last
year, a second recording was done in
that hall, Crown Imperial (RR-112), with
music for organ and orchestra by Gabrieli, Hindemith, and even Wagner.
The present solo recording is by Mary
Preston, Meyerson’s resident organist,
and who was the organist on Crown
Imperial. She has put together a program
of organ works by Mendelssohn, Louis
Vierne, Charles Ives, and Charles-Marie
Widor, among others.
It is a nicely varied program, alternating between thunder and soft breezes.
The work that will be most familiar to
lovers of organ music is the final one,
the Toccata from Widor’s Symphony
No. 5, which Preston plays with brio,
but there is another, softer, Widor
piece, the Andante sostenuto from the
Symphony No. 9. It is totally different
from the better-known piece, certainly
a lot calmer, with complex fingerwork
under its apparent simplicity. Its ending
makes use of the biggest of the organ’s
pipes, which are striking if your system
can reproduce tones that low.
The most frivolous piece on the
recording is Ives’ Variations on “America,”
which non-Americans will recognize
as God Save the Queen. It was meant as
a sort of musical joke, but I wondered
whether it can be played in concert
without the spectators standing up. The
least frivolous piece is Olivier Messiaen’s
La Nativité du Seeigneur: “Dieu Parmi
Nous.” I have limited tolerance for Messiaen, who always, it seems to me, took
too much to heart his stature as an icon
of (then) contemporary music. Even the
Vierne Pièces de Fantaisie are more fun,
and yet Vierne is not always a lot of
laughs.
Keith O. Johnson has resisted the
temptation to record the organ from too
close in, throwing in our face the incredible power of those supercharged pipes
(it is common, I might add, to record the
Widor Toccata that way). Nor is he too
distant, but you will need to listen at a
good level to allow the layers of sound
to develop as they should. The recording, encoded in HDCD, is a triumph of
balance, and I recommend it.
“Swingcerely Yours”
Lars Erstrand
Opus 3 CD22081
Rejskind: There has long been, within
the audiophile movement, a faction
opposed to the very idea of audiophile
recordings. Their thesis is that it’s better
to listen to a garage band on a boom box
than an incompetent artist on the finest
system in the world. Audiophile labels,
it is claimed, hire musicians not good
enough to get honest work, never mind
recording contracts with major labels..
Much venom has particularly been
reserved for Swedish jazz musicians,
who are often labelled incompetent.
Of course, Sweden virtually invented
audiophile recording, and that turned
into an outlet for jazz musicians known
to the labels.
There is a grain of truth to these
claims, as there is to many a shrill screed,
Test Records, because some of the pieces
were the work of Opus 3’s cofounder, Bo
Hansson, who left years ago and took his
music with him. Jan-Eric has the best
ones, I think, and the re-release of these
excerpts is an event worth celebrating.
Test Records 1-2-3
Various artists
Opus 3 CD19520
Opus 3: Is this ever a blast from the past!
When the Opus 3 label was launched in
1977, there was resistance from buyers
who had never heard of these artists.
Jan-Eric Persson’s clever gambit was to
bring out three “test records” — actually
samplers. It worked.
The Opus 3 sound was a revelation.
Persson used a single pair of microphones, arranged in classic Blumlein
pattern, plugged directly into his analog
tape recorder. Persson would put his
musicians in an acoustically desirable
venue rather than in a studio, and he
would take a day to find the perfect
position for his microphones.
Though I still own the original LPs,
it felt good to listen to these pieces again.
It begins with what was possibly the most
overexposed selection from these three
recordings, Thérèse Juel’s Tiden bara
går. This superb song persuaded a lot of
people to buy her entire album, Levande,
and I was one of them. (It remains available only on CD, not even on SACD.) It
still sounds very good, and possibly even
a little better, with sibilants that are a
little less “ hot. ”
There are guitar pieces, by Peder
Riis, Duodecima and the Stockholm
Guitar Quartet (recently re-released on
the Unique Classical Guitar Collection,
CD22062)3. There’s the Buddy Bolden
Blues, by Tomas Örnberg’s Blue Five, one
of my favorite pieces from the original
Test Records. Eric Bibb makes an early
appearance with Going Home, worth a
listen, though he didn’t have his later
mastery. Lars Erstrand is here too.
I should add that it wouldn’t have
been possible to re-release the complete
Holly Cole
Holly Cole
Alert 6152810418
Rejskind: Hardly a newcomer, Cole
has a good dozen albums already on the
market, but she has chosen, oddly, to give
this new album simply her own name.
With her warm and slightly smoky voice,
she can establish an intimate rapport
with the listener. To add to the pleasures,
there are many exceptionally fine jazz
musicians who will return her calls.
Like many jazz singers, Cole doesn’t
often choose to sing a familiar song the
way a lot of people have sung it before
her. She likes to slow it down or speed
it up, to deconstruct it. Cole has coproduced this new album with bassist Greg
Cohen, who suggested working with a
bigger band than the small ensembles
she usually has backing her.
She has looked at the tempo in which
most of her songs are usually sung, and
then done the opposite. Johnny Mercer’s
Charade, normally slow and wistful, is
sung almost frenetically by Cole. On the
other hand, she slows the normally lively
Alley Cat way down. When it’s not the
tempo it’s the rhythm. Listen to what she
does with Irving Berlin’s Be Careful, It’s
My Heart. Far from being the usual flowing ballad, here it is highly syncopated.
The song most like what I’ve heard
from previous Cole albums is her own
Larger Than Life, whose subject is her
own (extensive) travels. She is accompanied by discreet piano and bass, with
a saxophone interlude. The sound is
intimate.
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but only a grain. There are plenty of forgettable artists on specialized labels, just
as there are on the Billboard charts. On
the other hand the accident of the development of Swedish labels has exposed
us to some astonishing musicians, who
are not only technically skilled, but
who also “ get ” jazz. Vibraphonist Lars
Erstrand is one of them. Erstrand has
actually played with Benny Goodman,
and in 1991 he made a recording with
Lionel Hampton, considered by many
the greatest vibraphonist of all time, and
a major influence on Erstrand’s style.
Erstrand is best know for the multidisc collection of the Proprius series,
Jazz at the Pawnshop, done live in 1976 in
a pub in Stockholm. It was at the same
time that Jan-Eric Persson was preparing to launch his own label, and asked
Erstrand to play on his first test recordings. Some three years later Erstrand
performed on his first Opus 3 recording,
with violinist Gunnar Lidberg. It was the
beginning of a fruitful collaboration.
These pieces, released between 1983
and 1995, were all captured on analog
tape, before Persson moved over to DSD
recording. This compilation is an SACD,
with of course the usual Red Book CD
layer. I pulled out some of my Erstrand
Lps, eager to see how the master tapes
had fared over the decades, and of course
what the transfer to digital would add or
take away.
The result was encouraging. Body
and Soul, from Lars Erstrand and Four
Brothers (Opus 3 8402) is very good, with
Knud Jörgensen’s piano sounding much
as it had on vinyl. The tenor sax solo by
Roland Jivelid has a little less warmth,
but remains very good. And the solo by
Erstrand remains dazzling artistically
and sonically. Also notable are Stompin’
at the Savoy, from A Tribute to the Benny
Goodman Orchestra, and Sweet Georgia
Brown from Dream Dancing. The last
three tracks are duets with great (and
non-Swedish!) jazzmen, trombonist Roy
Williams, saxophonist Danny Moss, and
cornetist Bob Barnard.
Unfortunately none of these remarkable performances can be had on vinyl,
outside of used record stores, but the
transfer to SACD has been well done.
Erstrand is one of the jazz greats, and
these are some his best recordings.
dexterity which is, however, no barrier accept her Oscar for Best Actress. Justice
to either warmth or emotion. Magnus exists after all!
For director Olivier Dahan, the task
Persson plays percussion and vibes to
good effect. These musicians are happy presented almost insurmountable difto be making music together.
ficulties. You can’t use a contemporary
Munen Musoe promises six minutes singer to imitate Piaf, because she is
that transport us literally into the clouds inimitable. But Piaf’s early songs are
promised by the album title. It is meant from 78 rpm records. Somehow you
to evoke the ethereal atmosphere of have to match these recordings to the
Dave’s apartment, situated on a hill. speaking voice of Cotillard. Worse, some
Particularly gorgeous and moving, dedi- scenes call for Piaf to be rehearsing, and
cated to the memory of the composer’s there are no recordings of that. How do
mother, The Lament to B.G. opens with you handle that double transition, from
ill happento? finished song?
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time, and we get to see that development
This is an audiophile-quality SACD in the film. There should have been a
we owe to engineer Jan-Eric Persson, nomination just for the soundtrack.
and it is a delight to listen to.
There’s more. Cotillard is much taller
Room in the Clouds
than the diminutive Piaf, but she plays
David Wilczewski
short (and she is photographed that way),
Opus 3 CD22051
to the extent that one is convinced that
Lessard: Wilczewski is an accomplished
Cotillard and Piaf share the same statmusician, a composer who commands
ure. Early in the film, she is an attractive
great respect in the vast jazz family, and
young woman, but with more mouthy
a composer, as well as the producer of
street smarts than refinement. Later
this CD. His clarinet and his saxophone
she is prematurely aged by alcohol and
open a dialog, here, with a bass, acoustic
prescription drugs she used to fight the
guitars, drums and other percussion.
pain from her several car accidents. At
In the company of his accomplices, he
her death, not yet 50, she looked nearly
demonstrates the power of jazz to pull
twice her age, and Cotillard makes us
the listener into moods that may be
believe that we are seeing the real Piaf.
dreamy, amorous, joyous, spirited, and
The best moments are the concerts.
even bluesy.
There is the first one, when she has an
The album opens with Mio, a touch- La Vie en Rose
acute case of nerves, and realizes she is
ing, mellow piece that reveals immedi- Marion Cotillard
not dressed for the stage. There is the
ately the sensitivity of the musicians. Rejskind: I was watching for the second one where, undermined from ill health,
The opening notes are from talented time this remarkable biopic of singer she faints. (The film opens with that
bassist Torbjorn Zetterberg, who will Édith Piaf, marvelling once more at the scene.) And there is the late one at the
play a major role throughout the album. way Mario Cotillard not only plays Piaf Olympia, when she sings the Charles
The drums of Hux Flux Nettermalm but becomes her. And I was going over in Dumont song that sums up her life, Non
follow, subtle in this first piece, though my mind the reasons Cotillard couldn’t je ne regrette rien. It is impossible to see
it will not always be so. Throughout, possibly get the Oscar she deserved. that scene without feeling chills.
Wilczewski’s clarinet and tenor sax The first, is that by its very nature, the
The DVD version includes, as an
hold your attention by playing, with film cannot be dubbed without being option, an English-dubbed soundtrack.
sensuality and a rare charisma, segments destroyed, but American audiences are Don’t watch it that way if you care at all
of rare virtuosity. He is bolstered by a resistant to subtitles. Another is that about the film. Second, don’t buy the
rhythm section of irresistible authority. the story jumps about in time, and may more expensive Blu-ray version. It has
Improvisations are as frequent as they be opaque to those not familiar with been ineptly upsampled from convenare delightful. Guitarists Max Schultz Piaf’s life.
tional NTSC, and its quality is fuzzy at
After the film ended I switched over best. But whatever you do, you must see
and Peter Nylander, and in tracks 3 and
13 Mattias Torell, show exceptional to television just in time to see Cotillard this film.
There is an obvious down side to
using more musicians, namely that they
weren’t all available at the same time.
The result is that this is a multitrack
album, with tracks laid down separately
in New York and Toronto. The resulting
sound is pleasant, without harshness, but
it is flat, without the depth of the best
recordings. Still, Holly Cole fans require
no further invitation.
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Copyright: The Canadian DMCA
T
he United States revamped
its copyright law just in
time for the Millennium.
We knew Canada would
too, because it signed an international treaty saying it would do so.
An earlier (Liberal) government had
tabled a bill, which died when it was
discovered the minister had had her
campaign financed by the entertainment industry.
On June 11th, Industry Minister
Jim Prentice tabled a new bill on copyright. It raised hackles for a variety of
reasons.
Just as in the US, it would now be
illegal to circumvent copy-protection.
That would include Sony’s infamous
root-kit CD protection, and the laughably weak encryption of DVDs. Want
to put a DVD you have paid for on your
iPod? Ready for a $20,000 fine?
We’ve put together some quotations
from the bill.
29.22 (1) It is not an infringement of copyright for an individual to reproduce onto a
medium or device a musical work embodied
in a sound recording…if the following conditions are met:
(a) the sound recording is not an infringing copy;
(b) the individual legally obtained the
sound recording, otherwise than by borrowing it or renting it, and owns the medium
or device on which it is reproduced;
(c) the individual, in order to make
the reproduction, did not circumvent a
technological measure or cause one to be
circumvented
(d) the individual reproduces the sound
recording no more than once for each device
that the individual owns, whether the reproduction is made directly onto the device or is
made onto a medium that is to be used with
the device;
(e) the individual does not give the
reproduction away; and
( f ) the reproduction is used only for
private purposes.
watch the program at a more convenient
time;
And what happens if you don’t erase
your recording right away?
(1.1) …a defendant who is an individual
is liable for statutory damages of $500
in respect of all the defendant’s infringements that were done for the defendant’s
private purposes and that are involved in
the proceedings.
There is a similar clause for films.
Most CDs don’t include “technological
measures,” but DVDs do, and clause
29.22c opens you up to bankruptcy if
you move it to an iPod or your laptop
computer. Parenthetically, very small
laptops, such as the MacBook Air, don’t
have optical drives, and can play movies
only from hard disc.
Now comes the clause that allows you
to record Sex and the City while you’re
out. But there’s a catch.
29.23 (1) It is not an infringement of
copyright for an individual to fix a communication signal, to reproduce a work or
sound recording that is being broadcast or to
fix or reproduce a performer’s performance
that is being broadcast, in order to record a
program for the purpose of listening to or
watching it later, if the following conditions
are met:
(a) the individual receives the program
legally;
(b) the individual, in order to record the
program, did not illegally circumvent a technological measure or cause one to be illegally
circumvented, within the meanings of the
definitions “circumvent” and “technological
measure” in section 41;
(c) the individual makes no more than
one recording of the program;
(d) the individual keeps the recording no
longer than necessary in order to listen to or
In the US, as you no doubt know,
entertainment companies are endlessly
taking people to court for alleged
infringement. The door is open here
too…
(3) A claimant’s only remedy against a
person who fails to perform his or her obligations under subsection (1) is statutory damages in an amount that the court considers
just, but not less than $5,000 and not more
than $10,000.
(3.1) Every person, except a person who
is acting on behalf of a library, archive or
museum or an educational institution, is
guilty of an offence who knowingly and for
commercial purposes contravenes section 41.1
and is liable
(a) on conviction on indictment, to a fine
not exceeding $1,000,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or
to both; or
(b) on summary conviction, to a fine not
exceeding $25,000 or to imprisonment for
a term not exceeding six months or to both.
Should we worry about this? Perhaps
not immediately. A bill this complex will
get a thorough going over in committee,
and that won’t happen until next Fall, by
which time an election is likely. And as
we write this, re-election of the Conservatives, even with another minority, is a
toss-up.
On the next page is a first comment
by professor of law Michael Geist, easier
to read than the bill.
Copyright: Check the fine Print
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A
s expected, the Canadian
DMCA is big, complicated,
and a close model of the US
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (Industry Canada provides a
large number of fact sheets on its site).
I’ll have much more to say once I’ve had
a careful read, but these are my five key
points to take away:
1. As expected, Prentice has provided
a series of attention-grabbing provisions
to consumers, including time shifting,
private copying of music (transferring a
song to your iPod), and format shifting
(changing format from analog to digital).
These are good provisions that did not
exist in the delayed December bill. However, check the fine print, since the rules
are subject to a host of strict limitations
and, more importantly, undermined by
the digital lock provisions. The effect of
the digital lock provisions is to render
these rights virtually meaningless in the
digital environment, because anything
that is locked down (i.e. copy-controlled
CD, no-copy mandate on a digital
television broadcast) may not be copied.
As for everyday activities like transferring a DVD to your iPod — those are
infringing too. Indeed, the law makes it
an infringement to circumvent the locks
for these purposes.
2. The digital lock provisions are
worse than the DMCA. Yes — worse.
The law creates a blanket prohibition
on circumvention with very limited
exceptions, and creates a ban against
distributing the tools that can be used
to circumvent. While Prentice could
have adopted a more balanced approach
(as New Zealand and Canada’s Bill C-60
did), the effect of these provisions will
be to make Canadians infringers for a
host of activities that are common today,
including watching out-of-region-coded
DVDs, copying and pasting materials
from a DRM’d book, or even unlocking
a cellphone. The liability for picking
the digital lock is up to $20,000 per
infringement.
While that is similar to the US law,
the exceptions are worse. The Canadian
law includes a few limited exceptions for
privacy, encryption research, interoper78   ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine
by Michael Geist
able computer programs, people with
sight disabilities, and security, yet Canadians can’t actually use these exceptions
since the tools needed to pick the digital
lock in order to protect their privacy are
banned. In other words, check the fine
print again — you can protect your privacy, but the tools to do so are now illegal. Dig deeper and it gets worse. Under
the US law there is a mandatory review
process every three years to identify new
exceptions. Under the Canadian law, its
up to the government to introduce new
exceptions if it thinks it is needed. Overall, these anti-circumvention provisions
go far beyond what is needed to comply
with the WIPO Internet treaties, and
represents an astonishing abdication of
the principles of copyright balance that
have guided Canadian policy for many
years. 3. The other headline grabber is the
$500 fine for private use infringement.
This will be heralded as a reasonable
compromise, but check the fine print.
Canadian law already allows a court
to order damages below $500 per
infringement, so the change may not
be as dramatic as expected. Moreover,
the $500 fine may well be offset by the
new sources of much larger liability, as
Canadians face $20,000 per infringe-
ment for transferring music from a copyprotected CD to their iPod. Finally, it
is already arguably legal to download
sound recordings in Canada. Under
the proposal, there are exceptions for
uploading or posting music online (i.e.
making available), and even the suggestion that posting a copyright-protected
work to YouTube could result in the
larger $20,000 per infringement damage
award.
4. The ISP provisions are precisely
as expected with a statutory noticeand-notice system. However, check the
fine print. The role of the ISP may be
undermined by the Anti-Counterfeiting
Trade Agreement, which the government trumpets in its press release.
5. The education community received
several provisions that are largely gutted
by the fine print. For example, library
materials can be distributed in electronic
form, but must not extend beyond five
days. In other words, it turns librarians into locksmiths. Moreover, there
is an Internet exception that educators
wanted, but it does not apply for any
works that are either password-protected
or include a notification that they cannot
be used. In other words, online materials
that are available under a Creative Commons license are fair game (as they are
already), but most everything else is still
potentially subject to a restriction. This
was precisely what many feared — rather
than pursuing the far superior expansion
of fair dealing, the education community
got a provision that does little to enhance
classroom learning.
I’ll have more to say soon, but the
takeaway is that the DMCA provisions
are worse than those in the US and
the consumer exceptions riddled with
limitations, as the government promotes
a strategy of locking down content and
launching lawsuits against Internet
users.
Michael Geist is a professor of law at the
University of Ottawa, and holds the Canada
Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce
Law. He writes frequently on copyright and
privacy issues. All italics shown here are
our own.
Shrinking Batteries
Portable electronic gear keeps getting smaller and smaller, too small for
conventional batteries. And button cells
have a painfully short life in most gear.
Enter the AAAA battery. With its
diameter just over 8 mm, it can fit even
tiny products, such as small remote
controls, and Bluetooth earpieces. Energizer’s “Quad A” is shown here alongside
two larger cells.
f ull-sized bricks, they couldn’t be
saved.
How could things get worse? Because
Château Hi-Fi is old (it was built 160
years ago to house the engineers of the
first bridge on the St. Lawrence river),
the insurance refused to pay. Check page
5, paragraph 16, which says…
Good news (it couldn’t get much
worse): the garage has now been rebuilt
and looks better than ever. As soon as
the big steel electric door is in place, the
moving van will bring the stock back
from our rented warehouse space.
The UHF Reference Systems
Projected US price is $1.75 per pair,
somewhat more than the larger cells
cost, but we’ll wait to see the street price.
There has to be a reason a small AAA
costs more than a larger AA…doesn’t
there?
The Day the
Roof Fell In
Readers of our blog know all about
this. Just as our last issue was going to
press, a wild snow and ice storm knocked
down the garage next to Château Hi-Fi.
Not only is this a garage, but it is primary
storage space, with a small fortune in
stock. When the workman had cut away
the door, this is what we saw.
Equipment reviews are done on at least one of
UHF’s reference systems, selected as working
tools. They are changed infrequently.
The Alpha system
Our original reference is in a room with special
acoustics, originally a recording studio, letting
us hear what we can’t hear elsewhere.
The Omega system
It serves for reviews of gear that cannot
easily fit into the Alpha system, with its small
room.
Not nice! Notice the boxes at right?
Fortunately they were on the “good” side
of the building, and suffered minimum
damage.
But the storm didn’t just take down
the roof. Though the walls were heavy
masonry (concrete blocks faced with
Digital players: shared with the Alpha
system
Turntable: Linn LP12/Lingo II
Tone arm: Alphason HR-100S MCS
Pickup: London Reference
Phono preamp: Audiomat Phono-1.5
Preamplifier: Simaudio Moon P-8
Power amplifier: Simaudio Moon W-8
Loudspeakers: Reference 3a Suprema II
The Kappa system
This is our home theatre system. As with
the original Alpha system, we had limited
space, and that pretty much ruled out huge
projectors and two-metre screens. We did,
however, finally come up with a system whose
performance gladdens both eye and ear, with
the needed resolution for reviews.
HDTV monitor: Hitachi 43UWX10B
CRT-based rear projector
DVD players: Simaudio Moon Stellar
with Faroudja Stingray video processor,
Sony BDP-S300 Blu-Ray player
Preamplifier/processor: Simaudio Moon
Attraction, 5.1 channel version
Power amplifiers: Simaudio Moon W-3
(main speakers), bridged Celeste 4070se
(centre speaker), Robertson 4010 (rear)
Main speakers: Energy Reference
Connoisseur
Centre speaker: Thiel MCS1, on UHF’s
own TV-top platform
Rear speakers: Elipson 1400
Subwoofer: 3a Design Acoustics
Cables: Atlas, Van den Hul, MIT,
GutWire, Wireworld
Line filter: GutWire MaxCon Squared
All three systems have dedicated power
lines, with Hubbell hospital grade outlets.
Extensions and power bars are equipped with
hospital-grade connectors.
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Main digital player: Linn Unidisk 1.1
Additional CD player: CEC TL-51X
belt-driven transport, Counterpoint
DA-10A converter with HDCD card.
Digital cable: Atlas Opus 1.5m
Digital portable: Apple iPod 60 Gb
Turntable: Audiomeca J-1
Tone arm: Audiomeca SL-5
Pickup: Goldring Excel
Phono preamp: Audiomat Phono-1.5
Preamplifier: Copland CTA-305
Power amplifier: Simaudio Moon
W-5LE)
Loudspeakers: Living Voice Avatar
OBX-R
Interconnects: Pierre Gabriel ML-1,
Atlas Voyager All-Cu
Loudspeaker cables: Atlas Mavros
Power cords: Gutwire, Wireworld Aurora
AC filters: Foundation Research LC-2
(power amp), Inouye SPLC.
Interconnects: Pierre Gabriel ML-1,
Atlas Navigator All-Cu
Loudspeaker cables: Pierre Gabriel ML1 for most of the range, Wireworld Polaris
for the twin subwoofers.
Power cords: BIS Audio Maestro,
GutWire B-12, Wireworld
AC filters: GutWire MaxCon Squared,
Foundation Research LC-1
Acoustics: Gershman Acoustic Art panels
News From the Trenches
W
a nt your next home
theatre system to have
a front projector? You
say you don’t have room
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for a big one?
Enter Optoma, whose Pico Projector
is said to be the size of a smartphone (but
quite a lot thicker, if
we go by t he
picture).
As
the
logo on
the top indicates, it uses Texas
I nst r u ment s’ DLP
(Digital Light Processing)
system,
whose magic mirrors manipulate light
directly. Usually there is a rotating color
wheel, to allow a single DLP unit to treat
the three primary colors (red-greenblue) sequentially. In this case, the light
source is a bank of color LEDs, which
can turn on and off instantly — no color
wheel needed.
We suspect the Pico is better suited
to an iPod than to a Blu-ray player, but
we shall see. It will arrive this year in
Europe and Asia in “limited quantities”
(that usually means media reviewers
only), and in North America in 2009.
Beyond HD DVD?
It’s no secret that Toshiba left a pile
of money on the table when it walked
away from its HD DVD train wreck. We
figured it was but a matter of time before
it swallowed its pride and launched its
first Blu-ray player.
But no.
Worse, the company is in denial. It is
planning to release a new upconverting
player that can yield high definition from
standard DVDs. Take that, Sony.
That is of course impossible. At one
time, Japanese generals who failed would
commit hara kiri. Today, it seems, they
try to take their companies with them.
Bad times at Bösendorfer
Like many other high-end companies, Bösendorfer had its state-of-the-art
showroom in Manhattan. Had? Yes,
indeed. As we write this the Web site
for the showroom still announces the
5th anniversary party.
But it turned out to be a wake.
It’s not a surprise that the US economy
is not in the best shape it has ever been
in, and in bad times luxury products are
what you cut back on. The Bösendorfer
below is an extra fancy one, decorated with hundreds of Swarowski
crystals. Bösendorfer is also in
the high end loudspeaker business, though that part of its
activities had yet to catch fire.
Indeed, this is not the first sign of
trouble at the fabled German company.
Lisa Feldmann, “is that this vortex we
have created for Bösendorfer in New
York City, a vortex of global reach, is just
being discarded — together with the
network of new owners, artists and aficionados; but most importantly, the
knowledge and vast experience of our
technical department. What does this
mean for the future of the Bösendorfer
piano?”
The loudspeakers, we assume, are
history.
Wireless bandwidth
More and more, entertainment,
including music and movies, is going
wireless. Oh, except in Canada, whose
wireless data plans are among the most
expensive in the world.
We got a kick of a blog by Christopher Shaw on itworldcanada.com.
“The price of mobile data access is
higher in Canada than it is in Rwanda.
In fact when I first looked into this in
April of 2007, some mobility providers in Canada were charging rates
almost 21 times higher than Terracom
in Rwanda. Mobile data rates are also
significantly cheaper than Canada in
Egypt, Botswana, Vietnam and Bolivia.
In fact, why limit comparisons to things
terrestrial? Sending data using a Canadian mobility provider costs more than
sending the same amount of data from
the Hubble Space Telescope!
“Canadian
rates
are
so high
What long-time readers tell us they most
like about
UHF
is that
it that
I almost have to wonder if mobility
does more than review amplifiers and speakers.
In every issue, we discuss ideas. providers in Canada are deliberately
to what
grab CD
a bigplayer
chunktoof cash
We try to tell you what you need toattempting
know, besides
at the expense of killing off their own
buy.
market
and taking
down
one of IT’s
It’s one of the features that makes UHF
Magazine
unlike
any other
hottest growth areas at the same time.”
audio magazine.
It wasn’t the company itself that had
paid to set up the New York showroom, Apple iPhone arrives in Canada
but Gerhard Feldmann, a concert techIt’s coming July 11th, with an expennician and piano maker of international sive data plan from Rogers and its Fido
renown, along with Lisa Feldmann. subsidiary.
When Bösendorfer was bought up by
Trouble is, Rogers Has never had
Yamaha, the partners hoped that the new have an “all you can eat” data plan, as
owner would use the venue to develop AT&T does in the US. Surely one would
the brand. Instead, Yamaha’s CEO be announced.
simply told t hem it was all over.
Not so. A lot of expectant fans are up
“What is most disturbing to us” says in arms.
Not just hardware…
UHF picks up a new iPod
The iPod Touch is, in our view, much
more desirable than the iPhone at least
for audiophiles. The reason: it’s available with 32 Gb of memory space, twice
what you can get on an iPhone, and just
adequate for storing music in lossless
form.
We’ll be telling you more about it,
but we can tell you one thing off the top.
Tiny as it is, it sounds considerably better
than our older iPod Photo.
ADVERTISERS
Audiophileboutique.com . . . . Cover 3
Audio Dream. . . . . . . . . . . . . 10, 57
Audiophile Store. . . . . . . . . . 59-66
Audio Space. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Aurum Acoustics . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
BC Acoustique. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
BIS Audio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Blue Circle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Charisma Audio. . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Cyrus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Diamond Groove. . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Divergent Technology. . . . . . . . . 35
DNM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Ecosse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
ETI (Eichmann). . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Europroducts International . . 10, 13, 17
Gradient. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cover 2
Harbeth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Hifisupply.ca. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Integris. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Just May Audio. . . . . . . . . . Cover 2
MagZee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Marchand Electronics. . . . . . . . . 12
Moon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Pathos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Planet of Sound. . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Reference 3a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Rocky Mountain Fest. . . . . . . . . . 35
Roksan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cover 2
Simaudio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Signature Audio. . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Stereo Passion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Sugden. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Totem Acoustic. . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
UHF Back Issues. . . . . . . . . . . . 21
UHF Books. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
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lent to one twelfth of an album. That
produces certain distortions. Indeed,
the survey says that, in the US at least,
71% of music sales are still in physical
form (CD and LP), with 29% in paid
downloads.
Whatever quibbles we might have
with the MusicWatch methodology,
we acknowledge that the trend is clear:
the sale of music over the Internet is
growing, and it is clearly the future. We
have no problem with that, and indeed
we predicted this in some detail some
The decline of the record store
15 years ago. But what troubled us then,
It’s continuing, and it is perhaps even and still does, is that on-line music
accelerating.
sales consist for the most part of music
No, this free version is not complete, though you could spend a couple
compressed with lossy codecs like
of hours reading it. Want the full version?
MP3 and AAC
You can, of course, order the print version, which we have published
People don’t know what they’re
missing. Our job — and your
assignment too should you wish
to accept it — is to let them
know.
course faster, and it is also cheaper. It costs just $4.30 (Canadian) anywhere
But then again…
Why not roll your own? If you
had a little handheld device that
could record in 24-bits at 96 kHz,
what could you do with it?
That was we wondered when
we looked over the Zoom H2, a
complete recording system that
fits in your palm. Yes, including
It was just last June that Apple’s iTunes the microphone. Four microphones in
music store (shown above) was the number fact.
three music retailer in the US. Number
one was, as you might expect, Wal-Mart.
No more, according to the NPD
Group’s MusicWatch project. The
iTunes store has vaulted to first place,
with 19% of music sales. Wal-Mart is
now second, a position it is not used
to occupying. Best Buy is third, and
Amazon and Target share fourth spot.
There are two bookstores in the top 10:
Borders and Barnes & Noble, in 7th and
9th place, holding respectively 3% and
2% of the market.
The group sends out press releases,
but doesn’t usually publish full results
of its surveys, since those are paid for by
subscribers. However the Ars Technica
Web site leaked the results of this one.
MusicWatch tracks the number of
Why four? Because if you’ll settle for
sales, not their dollar value. It also con- a sampling rate of 48 kHz, you can use
siders the sale of a single song at iTunes it to record surround.
or other virtual retailer to be equivaAll for $200.
I
State of the Art
s the Compact Disc dead? You
might expect me to say yes, because
many years ago (UHF No. 38 in
1994, to be exact) I wrote an article
saying it was slated for replacement. By
what? By downloadable files, I said, sold
by what I dubbed “The Global Record
Store” (I’m looking at you, iTunes). And
because those music files would use lossy
compression, I added that it was our role
as audiophiles to insist on keeping access
to pristine, uncompressed music. The
article was adorned with the image of a
tombstone bearing the CD’s name.
Not bad as prophecies go!
Has that prophecy come to pass?
Yes and no. Certainly the disc has its
best days behind it, and CD sales have
been dropping for years. At first on-line
file sharing was eating into record sales,
but more recently it has been on-line
sales of music. In the US, the biggest
music retailer is not Virgin or HMV, but
Apple’s iTunes. Apple is closely followed
by Wal-Mart, which has its own store for
downloadable music. In Europe sales of
physical discs have dropped sharply, and
in some markets vinyl actually outsells
CDs.
Time to ditch the CD player and
open an iTunes account? Not so fast.
Certainly this is not a good time for
anyone to launch an expensive new CD
player. Indeed, in mainstream stores the
players are long gone. And why not? A
DVD player will play CDs just fine. A
growing number of people, including
audiophiles, are loading their music onto
hard drives, whose prices have dropped
precipitously. For perhaps $250 you can
buy a terabyte of storage, enough to
store 1700 full CDs even with no compression. Where do you get the music
to fill that space? There are a couple of
possibilities.
One possibility — one that is accelerating in importance — is the Internet.
The iTunes store doesn’t sell music
without lossy compression, but plenty of
other sources do. HDTracks and MusicGiants are two such sources. Another
is Magnatune (magnatune.com), which
indeed gives away MP3 files as samples,
by Gerard Rejskind
and charges only for full-resolution
versions. So do some audiophile record
companies: Linn and Fidelio. Those two
go a step further, selling high resolution
(24/96) files, which can be played from
your computer or burned to DVD. Why
not say goodbye to those silvery discs and
their dedicated hardware?
And we will, but the decline may
be slower than expected, because the
bandwidth to accommodate full-sized
files is not there. Yes, if you have highspeed Internet and you’re patient you
can download a huge music file right
now, but imagine everyone doing that.
There’s a reason iTunes and Wal-Mart
are selling only highly-compressed files.
They’re aiming at a broad clientele, not
a tiny niche. Downloadable video faces
the same problem, only much more so.
Niche artists will make CDs, because
they can be sold at concerts, whereas
computer files can’t. For major artists the
CD remains for the moment an option
for delivering music as well. Less than
a dollar goes into the making of a CD,
and even shipping and retailing adds
less than you might suppose. Transfer-
STATE OF THE ART:
THE BOOK
Get the 258-page book
containing the State of the Art
columns from the first 60 issues
of UHF, with all-new introductions.
See page 6.
ring the music at full resolution from the
CD onto a hard drive takes seconds.
Your computer can grab track titles and
perhaps the cover art from the Internet,
and that doesn’t take long either. You can
then listen to the music on your computer, stream it with or without wires to
anywhere in your home, and even copy it
to an iPod or other player. What’s more,
CDs are self-archiving. You should do a
backup of your media drive, but if you
don’t, you still own the original.
Hard-core audiophiles will of course
wonder whether playing music from a
hard drive involves unpalatable quality
compromises. Two of the reviews in this
very issue are aimed at answering that
question. More than ever, a computer
can be used as a media source, even
within a high end system.
So what happens next?
The decline of the Compact Disc is
now inevitable. If you buy a CD player
today you may be using it for a long time,
but odds are you will never replace it, and
odds are also it will become merely one
of several music sources.
There’s something extraordinary
about having a vast music selection at
your fingertips, with any music you
can think of being no more than 10
seconds away. You need to experience it
to understand it. But will embracing the
new storage medium mean settling for
second best sound?
Probably not. Indeed, some presentday CD players, despite their traditional
look, work just like computers. The drive
is just like the one in your computer, and
it loads the music into a memory buffer.
The music then plays not from the disc
but from the buffer. This is exactly the
way the iPod Classic works. But if you
already have a computer, and it has a hard
drive and an optical drive, why can’t it
be every bit as good? Indeed, why can’t
it be better?
The key to tomorrow’s digital will
be the interface between computer and
stereo system. You may continue buying
music on silvery discs for a while yet, or
you may not, but you’ll be using that
music in a whole new way.
Luxury audio electronics of unique value and reference quality at unique
prices.
Some of the best-built high-end products ever made
The legendary Van den Hul amplifiers and preamps at less than half the original price
M-1 Monoblocks, US$7350 now $3350*
S-1 Stereo power amplifier, US$3795 now $1865*
A-1 Preamplifier, US$3895 now $1750*
See them at÷
www.audiophileboutique.com
New, with one-year North American warranty
Shipped from points in either Canada or
USA. Billed in Canadian dollars, equivalent to stated price in
US dollars.
Brand new Rega-designed Goldring turntables
The GR2 is an exceptional plug and play turntable, with Rega RB200 arm
and Goldring 1012 cartridge (which has a $300 price tag,
but it included with the GR2). C$899 now $720.*
Maximum economy: the GR1.2 turntable
This amazing entry-level turntable was a bargain at its original $499.95 price,
but now the price is even lower, just $399. This Rega-designed table includes
the RB150 tone arm and a Goldring Elektra pickup (which sells for $117 all
by itself). The GR1.2 comes pre-adjusted, except for stylus pressure. Then
plug it in, and it will play. C$499.95 now $399.*
audiophileboutique.com
a division of Broadcast Canada, publisher of UHF Magazine
[email protected]
(450) 651-5720
Why do
UHF readers
start reading
their magazines
at the back?
Countless readers have confirmed it over the
years: when they get their hands on the
latest issue of UHF, they open it to the last
page.
The reason all of them mention: Gerard
Rejskind’s last-page column, State of the Art. Since
the magazine’s founding, the column has grappled
with the major questions of high end audio. It has been
acclaimed by readers around the world.
Now, the columns from the first 60 issues of UHF are
brought together into one book. Each is exactly as it was originally
published, and each is accompanied by a new introduction.
Order your copy today: $18.95 in Canada or the US, C$32
elsewhere in the world, air mail included.
What do we know about
indoor FM and TV antennas
that they don’t?
A lot, it turns out. With the stampede to satellite and cable
over the past 20 years, the design of dipole antennas has been
left to the makers of junk.
It was years ago that UHF designed a high-quality antenna for its
own use. It was so good we offered it for sale as the Super Antenna,
and saw thousands of them sold. Why? Because it’s better.
In this, the Super Antenna’s third incarnation, we buy one of
those trashy antennas, rip everything out until we are left
with the rods and the case, and we rebuild it. We add our own
high-quality transformer (can you believe the junk antenna
didn’t even have one?), and a double-shielded cable with a 24K
gold plated F-connector.
The broadband design covers the range from analog channels 2 to 69, including the
entire FM band. And a number of our customers around the world tell us they’re
getting great results with over-the-air HDTV.
SEE THE SUPER ANTENNA MkIII at The Audiophile Store, page 59

TRUE HI-FI FROM A COMPUTER

Transcription

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