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-INEXPENSIVE PHONO CARTRIDGE
ELECTROCOMPANIET AMPLIFIER
REPORT FROM THE 1989 WCES
THE AUDIO ANARCHIST
KURT WEILL ON RECORD
The Beginnings...
The sound of aloudspeaker is ultimately determined by the quality
and consistency of its component parts. At Polk Audio, unique
drivers and crossovers are used to achieve acoherent, seamless and
balanced musical presentation. For an explanation of how we use
these parts to make superior sounding products, please contact
Mark Suskind.
5601 Metro Drive, Baltimore, MD. 21215 •301-358-3600

CONTENTS
AS WE SEE IT 5
Should hi-fi components be compared to the sound of live unamplified music?
John Atkinson ponders the problems.
LETTERS 15
INDUSTRY UPDATE 39
High-end news from the US and UK, including loudspeaker measurements at the
1989 WCES from Peter Mitchell.
THE AUDIO ANARCHIST 52
The return of Sam Tellig. His topic? CD players from Adcom, Magnavox, Onkyo, and Yamaha.
LAS VEGAS 64
Thomas J. Norton, Dick Olsher, and John Atkinson report from the 1989 Winter Consumer
Electronics Show.
PURE GOLD 98
Alvin Gold reports on the sound of two new tonearms, the Roksan Artemiz and Linn EKOS
EQUIPMENT REPORTS
Theta DS Pre DIA preamplifier (LL) 104
Accuphase DP-80L/DC-81L CD player (JA) 109
Audire Noble amplifier (DO) 117
Electrocompaniet AW100 amplifier (DO) 121
Inouye Synergistic Power Line Conditioner (JA) 124
Ortofon 540 cartridge (TJN) 129
Shure VST Ill cartridge (TJN) 131
Audioquest 404i-L cartridge (TJN) 132
Nitty Gritty Hybrid Record/CD cleaning machine (JA) 135
FOLLOW-UP
California Audio Labs Tempest II CD player (JA) 116
Sony DAS-703ES D/A processor (JA) 138
Magnavox CDB472 CD player (JA) 138
Magnavox CDB582 CD player (JA) 138
The Mod Squad Prism CD player (JA) 138
Sonographe SD1 Beta CD player (JA) 138
Yamaha CDX-1110U CD player (JA) 138
Adcom GCD-575 CD player (JA) 138
Onkyo DX-G10 CD player (JA) 138
Audio Control Industrial SA-3050A spectrum analyzer (BS) 142
Rogers LS3/5a loudspeaker (JA) 143
100 YEARS OF TRADITION 145
Riccardo Chailly, the new conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, talks with Barbara Jahn.
BUILDING A LIBRARY 157
Christopher Breunig examines recorded performances of Shostakovich's Symphony 10.
THE MUSIC OF KURT WEILL 161
Robert Deutsch listens to recent recordings.
RECORD REVIEWS 169
MANUFACTURERS' COMMENTS 195
COMING ATTRACTIONS 4
WHERE TO BUY STEREOPHILE 207
AUDIO MART 213
BACK ISSUES 100
SUBSCRIPTIONS 99
FOREIGN SUBSCRIPTIONS 99
ADVERTISER INDEX 225
THE FINAL WORD 226
Larry Archibald expresses acogent handful of thoughts.
MARCH 1989 VOL. 12 NO. 3
Stereophile, March 1989 3

COMING ATTRACTIONS
Audiophiles have been waiting for it with bated On the music side, Dick Olsher will be talk-
breath; manufacturers and retailers with acute ing to recordist Peter McGrath, who has been
anxiety; yes, the April issue of Stereopbile will engineering some stunningly natural record-
contain acompletely updated "Recommended ings for Harmonia Mundi USA; Gordon Emer-
Components." Briefly describing more than son talks with cellist Janos Starker; and Mort
300 turntables, tonearms, cartridges, CD play- Frank reviews two new Beethoven symphony
ers, preamplifiers, power amplifiers, tuners, cycles, from Bernard Haitink and Riccardo Muti.
tape recorders, and accessories, all of which Finally, don't forget that Stereopbile's next
we can vouch for on sonic grounds, "Recom- high-end hi-fi show, to be held at the Dunfey
mended Components" distills the wisdom of San Mateo hotel near the San Francisco Inter-
the magazine's contributors into one easily national airport, takes place from April 21 to 23.
digestible, take-with-you-to-the-store package We will be publishing apreview to what will
The Audio Anarchist, Sam Tellig, has been be happening at the show—which we hope
listening to amplifiers, specifically the Krell will feature public demonstrations of the In-
KSA-80 and the B&K ST. 140. His report on this finity IRS V, Wilson WATT/WHOW combina-
comparison will appear in April, while the tion, and the Martin-Logan Statement—in next
equipment report section of the magazine fea- month's issue.
tores Larry Archibald on a$12,000 loudspeaker
from Altec Lansing, yours truly on some mort.
affordable bookshelf speakers, as well as Linn\
new EKOS tonearm, Dick Olsher on Talisman's
Virtuoso Boron high-output cartridge, Don
Scott on recent FM tuners, and Bill Sommer-
werck on surround-sound processors and
Dolby stereo decoders. The April issue will also
include the index to every review and article
that appeared in Stereopbile in 1988 that was
promised for this issue. (Sorry)
STAFF Advertising Representatives

East of the Mississippi dForeign:
Nelson &Associates (Ken Nelson)
Publisher Larry Archibald
(914) 476-3157
Founder and Chief Tester J Gordon Holt Yonkers, NY
Editor John Atkinson West of the Mississippi & National Dealer:
Assistant Editor Richard Lehned Nelson &Associates (Laura J. Atkinson)
Senior Contributing Editors (505) 988-3284
Thomas J. Norton Sam Tellig Santa Fe, NM
Dick Olsher Production Manager Rebecca Willard
Contributing Editors (hardware) Production Andrew Main, Janice St. Marie
Amis Balgaivis Ken Kessler
Martin Colioms Peter W. Mitchell Ad Copy Manager Martha Payne
Gary A. Galo Bebo Moroni Art Directors Michael Motley, Michael Picón
Alvin Gold Markus Sauer Cover Illustration Jim Wood
George M. Graves II Don A. Scott
Support Staff Allan Mandell, Danny Sandoval,
Larry Greenhill Bill Sommerwerck
Beverly Kier-Smith
Jack Hannold Peter Van Willenswaard
Musician in Residence Lewis Lipnick Typesetting Copygraphics
Contributing Editors (records)
©StereophIle — Vol. 12 No. 3, March 1989, issue Num-
Leslie S. Berkley Beth Jacques
ber 110. Stereophile (ISSN #0585-2544) is published
Christopher Breunig Barbara Jahn
monthly, $35 per year for US residents by Stereophlie,
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Stereophile, March 1989

AS WE SEE IT
The
Chicken
and
the Egg
John Atkinson
tis inarguable that the quality of magnet- son's and Berliner's mechanical grooves on
/ ically recorded sound has improved technical grounds. (Those were the days: the
immeasurably in the last 101 years. 101 cassette still doesn't begin to rival the LP when
years? Yes, according to afascinating account it comes to quality, yet it has now become the
in last May's issue of the Journal of tbe Audio main medium for recorded music.) Only in
Engineering Society, it was in 1888 that the 1936 did AEG and BASF (then adivision of the
Cincinnatti-based engineer Oberlin Smith IG Farbenindustrie chemical giant) record Sir
experimented with recording information on Thomas Beecham and the LPO in concert in
steel wire by drawing it across the comer of an aprogram of Vaughan Williams, Delius, Mozart,
electromagnet around which acoil had been and Rirnsky-Korsakov on tape. (In conjunction
wound. Smith only carried out experiments with BASF, Chandos released alimited-edition
without producing apractical recording sys- "50th Anniversary of Tape Recording" cassette
tem, and it wasn't until 1898 that the Dane, of this concert in 1984; it is well worth seek-
Valdemar Poulsen, was granted aGerman pat- ing out.)
ent for a"Method for the reception of news, By the time of WW II, recording on tape was
signals, and the like" For some reason, the mag- commonplace in Germany, and Richard Lehnert
netic recording of music didn't seem to be a reviews a1944 Munich tape of Des Fliegende
high priority, probably because it was obvious transfened to mono CD by Rodolphe,
that the technology didn't begin to rival Edi- in this month's record-review section. The

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recorded balance is remarkably true to Wagner's to be the only ones in the audience who even
music, but, as Richard points out, the sound noticed this sonic travesty, let alone be bothered
suffers from the ills you would expect from by it. Yes, Iam regularly exposed to very high
what was still an early technology. Midrange quality sound; witness my review of the new
climaxes are distorted, highs are grating, and Accuphase CD player in this issue. But no, I
there is an abundance of dropouts. These days, don't think that my sensibilities have been fine-
you would think such technical deficiencies tuned by exposure to the highest of high-end
to be athing of the past, of course. components to such apoint that perfectly
Of course? Let me digress. My wife is aballet respectable reproduced sound quality fails to
nut and is determined to educate me in the satisfy. It also wasn't just that Iwas expecting
dance. So far she has dragged me along to two the real thing, live music. Rather, Iam sure that
performances by the Albuquerque-based South everyone else in that audience just heard what
West Ballet company and one by the Paul Tay- they recognized as "reproduced" music These
lor Dance Company. Iam gradually learning to people, persistently exposed to the very poorest
differentiate the good from the bad, but as I standard of quality—TV and radio sound (FM,
started from avery low base of knowledge — not just AM)— heard asound in the auditorium
none —at least some of the time Iforget the that was no different in kind from what they
subtleties of the dance and enjoy the music, expected reproduced music to sound like. Iam
courtesy of the New Mexico Symphony (a convinced that the public has been trained to
transfigured ensemble since the dynamic Neil anticipate so little quality from recorded sound
Stulberg took over as Music Director). Imagine that they are now not bothered by the fact that
my horror, therefore, when we discovered as they often receive no quality whatsoever.
we took our seats for the most recent perfor- An unfortunate fact of modem life, you must
mance that the company was to dance to music be thinking, but what relevance does it have
from acassette! This in the 1500-seater audito- to Stereopbile readers? Well, when you talk to
rium that serves as home to the Symphony! professional audio engineers, it is hard not to
The ballet was by Balanchine, the music by be convinced that we have reached aplateau
Tchaikovsky (the third piano concerto) via the where the fundamental performance of nearly
house PA system—two huge (and presumably all aspects of the recording/reproduction chain
expensive) enclosures either side of the stage is so good that any further improvement would
and another flying over the proscenium arch. be unnecessary. Improvement might even be
We were treated to some of the most abysmal undesirable in that it would increase costs with-
reproduced sound Ihad ever heard. It could out bestowing any perceived benefit. Occa-
have been used to demonstrate everything that sionally, therefore, particularly when Iread a
could be wrong with a1989 music reproduc- letter like the one from Donald Bisbee that
tion system: the soundstage was nonexistent, kicks off this month's "Letters" column, com-
everything coming from asingle point in space plaining about the unpleasant fact that those
(I think this is technically refer rcd to as "mono"); components our writers find to be the best-
the noise level competed with low-level instru- sounding are also the most expensive, Iwonder
ments for your attention; clarinets sounded like if audiophiles bave become unnecessarily
oboes, oboes sounded like screaming cats; vio- fussy about sound quality. But when Ihave an
lins screeched to the point where you wished experience like that recent ballet performance,
that Stradivarius had devoted himself to some Ibecome even more convinced that to strive
other craft; some piano notes sounded as if for the best possible performance, no matter
accompanied by an out-of-tune xylophone, what the ultimate cost, is the only acceptable
others as if the hammers were made of sponge philosophy for any kind of audio engineer.
rubber; there were no highs or lows; and at When Ihear an engineer promulgating the idea
levels above mezzoforte, the sound degenerated that audiophiles are suffering from some kind
into aroar of clipping distortion. Amore com- of mass self-delusion, an opinion that appears
prehensive example of noise, distortion, resonant to be commonly held among the establishment
coloration, and tonal imbalance would be hard audio-engineering cornmunity, Iremind myself
to imagine. The 1944 recording, even in mono, that it's those very same engineers who are
is aparadigm of excellence by comparison. responsible for the kind of sound that has
The puzzle was that my wife and Iseemed lowered the American public's expectations of

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or audio writer that something is probably ing the mix is doomed to failure. Think of the
good enough, or that no one will notice asys- Second Law of Thermodynamics—think of
tem's problems, or it is not worth spending Humpty Dumpty!
more money, or that audiophiles have unneces- An interesting letter this month from Hank
sarily high expectations, reach for arope. R. Bernstein comments on one of the conclu-
Except that hangin's too good for 'em. sions Idrew in last November's essay: that it is
Iam sure that in Oberlin Smith's time, it was possible to judge the quality of ahi-fi compo-
felt that if only the technical problem of the nent using music that has no original reference;
recording process could be overcome, then rock or jazz using electric instruments, for
everything would be perfect. But even with example. Mr. Bernstein feels very strongly that
perfect recording equipment, questions arise this is fundamentally unsound in that the
as to how it is used, as Iendeavored to describe reviewer is then unable to communicate any
in this space last November. That "As We See real description of the component's sound to
It" essay outlined opposing philosophies con- areader: "In the end all that reviewer can tell
cerning how to record classical music. First, me is that he liked or disliked what he heard:
and one to which Iadhere in my own record- that the sound of the electric guitar seemed to
ings, is to treat the recording process as docu- come from aproper position on the stage, that
mentary, where the recordist attempts to cap- the effect was quite dramatic as the sound was
ture as faithfully as possible on atwo-channel made to cascade across the listening stage at
recorder such aspects as instrumental timbre some propitious musical moment, that the
and balance, the ideal relationship between the component under consideration reproduced
direct sound of the instruments and their these engineered effects well, or better than
associated reverberation, and the positional brand X component which he had reviewed
information necessary for an accurate stereo or listened to the month before."
image to be reconstructed. (You can see from Without the absolute reference standard of
Barbara Jahn's interview with Riccardo Chailly unamplified acoustic music in its performance
in this issue how much aworld-class conduc- venue, astandard suggested by.l. Gordon Holt
tor likes this philosophy.) in last October's "As We See It," Mr. Bernstein
Second, and aphilosophy which has dominated suggests that the reviewer's conclusions are
the world of classical recording since the early useless to the reader. He goes on to say that,
'60s, is to record the orchestra as though it were with the absolute sound used as areference,
agiant rock band. Every instrument or, at best, however, the reviewer can offer the reader
group of instruments is given its own micro- observations about reproduced sound that are
phone; the engineer tries to minimize the meaningful: "He may tell me that the music is
acoustic leakage from one mic to another; the recessed, as if Iwere in Row Rinstead of Row
output of each mic is fed to aseparate track on D; that the timbre of the cellos is true but that
amultitrack recorder; and for the mixdown to the sound of massed strings is abit more brittle
stereo, the engineer assigns aprecise position . than what one would hear in live performance."
along the line joining the two loudspeakers to In broad principle, Iwould not take issue
each track. Artificial reverberation and tonal with any of Mr. Bernstein's reasoning. However,
equalization are often added, to "sweeten" the Ihave to point out from apractical standpoint
sound, and, just as with atypical rock record- that a reviewer who assesses components
ing, the producer "balances" the level of all the solely on whether they help asystem more or
tracks to produce what to his or her ears is the less closely resemble the sound of live, urtunplified
"best" sound. music will paradoxically very quickly fall into
Itried to explain the reasons behind this error! This, of course, is not because the abso-
recording philosophy in Von!! No.11, pointing lute sound of live music is not something to
out that its protagonists regard the recording which we all aspire, but because it is almost
of classical music as adifferent art form from never available in the context of recorded
the live performance of the same music. Fun- music except in very broad background terms.
damentally, however, Ihave to say that such a If this sounds confusing, let me examine the
stripping down of amusical event to its bare implications of the statement that it is more use-
essentials at the time of the sessions and ful to the reader to be offered the observation

that acomponent makes aclassical recording areviewer using this recording to assess the qual-
sound as if the listener were "in Row Rinstead ity of components would downgrade neutral-
of Row D" at alive performance. As apiece of sounding components on the grounds that
anecdotal information, describing what happened they made the sound less like the sound of live
when acomponent was inserted in a"refer- music; le, it would sound too bright. Compo-
ence" system, this statement can't be criticized. nents that are intrinsically too dull will be
However, as avalue judgment it falls short of unjustifiably upgraded for the opposite reason.
the mark, for it assumes that the record used This causal dichotomy holds true for every
to form the observation has within its grooves aspect of sound reproduction, not just tonal
the ability for aperfect system to reproduce the balance (Visitors to either of Stereophile's 1987
sound of live music in the listener's room. hi-fi shows will remember that Idevoted a
"ain't so, fella. Only if aclassical record has whole hour's lecture to just how arecording's
been made with everyone involved—from ability to create astereo soundstage is altered
musicians to recording engineer to producer by the microphone technique used!) The con-
to cutting engineer—concerned with the accu- clusion must be obvious: use only those clas-
rate preservation of every aspect of the original sical records in listening tests that have been
sound and performance, will this assumption made according to philosophy #1 above. Use
be correct. Otherwise, the listener has to use program material that is intrinsically neutral in
arecording that is no different in kind from a tonal balance, that has the instrumental balance
multitrack rock recording to judge the sound that the composer intended, that is uncolored,
of acomponent, and that record will have and that has the capability to create atrue
probably been considerably altered from the stereo image.
"sound of five unamplified music" in just about OK, name some records that you know con-
every way. Attempting to use the absolute form to this standard.
sound—love that phrase!—as areference, you Name one.
may think that you can make value judgments Difficult, isn't it? In fact, Ican only think of
about ahi-fi component because you already one commercial orchestral recording that gets
know what aclassical recording should sound close to this ideal, Sheffield Lab's Firebird, with
like—the real thing. In actuality, as the record- Erich Leinsdorf conducting the LA Phil (CD
ing doesn't have that potential, you need first 24), and even that is flawed: it was recorded in
to assess its quality by listening to it through what Ifeel was an unsuitable acoustic, too dry
components that you need already to know the and with too small avolume for such adyna-
sound of when compared with the sound of mic work. In fact, you have to realize that
live music You need knowledge of the chicken recording engineers, even when they aim for
before you can assess the quality of the egg, but honesty in recording, are always forced to com-
you only have access to the quality of the promise some areas of reproduction in favor
chicken if first you know all about the egg. of others. Les Berkley, for example, reviews a
Confused? Consider the statement that a new Hungaroton production of Alessandro
component makes the sound "recessed" when Scarlatti's oratorio Judith this month, where
compared with the real thing. There are two, the engineers chose to use microphones that
not one, value judgments that can be drawn: were timbrally accurate. However, they also
the first is Mr. Bernstein's: je, that the compo- used amic technique, probably dictated by the
nent makes the sound more recessed; the sec- wry nanifes of those microphones, that destroyed
ond is that the component more accurately any sense of areal soundstage. Many of the Wil-
allows the intrinsically more recessed sound son and Reference Recordings are similarly tim-
within the grooves of the LP to be reproduced. brally accurate, at the expense of the stereo
Which is correct? You have no way of know-
ing. Read Robert Levine's review, for example,
Il was intrigued to reul in the November/December 1988 issue
of the new Michael Tilson Thomas recording
of The Absolute Sound that pianist and educator James Boyle
of Mahler's Symphony 3on CBS Masterworks is offering acommercial cassette, realized by some of his stu-
dents at Caltcch, which appears to be based on my series of
in this issue, where he notes that it "sounds as lectures on how different stereo microphone techniques affect
if each solo instrumentalist ... had aseparate the reproduced soundstage. Readers interested in acquiring
this tape should contact Mr Boyle at Performance Recordings,
microphone on his lap," resulting in "the most 2135 Holmby Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90025-5915. 1M: (213)
crisp, spotless Third imaginable." Isuggest that 475-8261.
10 Stereophile, March 1989

image, while recordings that aim to preserve image position and well-defined image depth
the accuracy of the soundstage nearly always with Magical Ring, Ithen know that any clas-
seem to require the use of microphones that sical recording will reproduce with the max-
color instrumental tone quality, sometimes imum image specificity of which it is capable.
more than alittle. And many recordings, particu- The reverse, Mr. Bernstein—if, say, Iuse atypi-
larly those made with large numbers of micro- cal orchestral recording from one of the major
phones, both add coloration and destroy any companies as my benchmark record—will not
semblance of arealistic-sounding stereo image be true.
What Iam trying to lead you toward is a Similarly, Iuse Wilson, Reference, Water Lily
recognition that it is too simplistic—and pom- Acoustics, and Sheffield Lab classical record-
pous—to insist that equipment reviewers ings to assess departures from tonal neutrality,
unthinkingly adopt the dialectic involving log- pink noise to look for the presence of resonant
ically inconsistent comparisons to live sound. problems, pretty much any modem rock album
This inevitably leads to the reviewer becom- to assess the ability of amplifiers and speakers
ing trapped in an endless loop. Rather, it is more to present tight, well-defined midbass, good
fruitful for reviewers to base their value judg- organ recordings and sinewave sweeps to
ments on specific recordings that they already investigate low-frequency extension, drum and
know have aparticular character in one area of percussion recordings to investigate "jump fac-
reproduction. Areviewer's initial task is one of tor" and overall dynamics, in fact any record-
diagnosis, and any recording is appropriate for ing where Ican break the logical judgmental
use, not just those that can be compared to live loop due to the fact that Ihave independent
sound, if it aids the reviewer in this phase of the knowledge of how the recording should sound.
review. (How else could you justify the use of As an aside, it is for this reason that Iregard it
non-musical test signals, for instance?) as essential for reviewers to be actively involved
The Clannad Magical Ring album that I in making their own recordings, because this
mentioned last November, and that Mr. Bern- gives them that knowledge absolutely. (Though,
stein suggests Iabandon as atest record on the as has recently been pointed out with respect
grounds that it doesn't have averifiable source to Dick Olsher's use of his recordings of his
sound, is such an album. While it would be wife's voice, this removes the capability of
pointless to use this recording to examine a readers to repeat his test). Which of all these
component's departure from tonal neutrality, parameters is most important Ibelieve to be a
Iuse it specifically to examine asystem's ability personal choice, associated with the listener's
to throw awell-defined soundstage with width musical taste. J. Gordon Holt, for example,
and depth. The fact that it has no absolute refer- would agree with Mr. Bemstein's apparent feel-
ent is irrelevant in this respect: asystem's imaging that it should be tonal neutrality; as would
ing ability can be benchmarked with any Peter Mitchell, who, when asked by Bud Fried
recording that contains pure intensity-stereo at the 1989 WCES (full report in this issue),
information, and in actual fact, panpotted replied that "good frequency response is a
multi-mono rock recordings tend to be more 'necessary but not sufficient condition' for
informative than atypical classical recording, great sound. Other things are important, but
as almost none of the latter are recorded so as if the frequency response is irregular, the other
to encode this information. (The only excep- qualities don't matter because the speaker
tions are recordings made in apure, coincident- won't reproduce the real sound of music."
figure-of-eight manner or in avariant of the M-S But the most important thing for areviewer
technique, and these are rare beasts indeed.) is to use as wide arange of recordings as pos-
In addition to the intensity-stereo lateral imag- sible in order to frame value judgments which
ing contained on Magical Ring, the fact that can be communicated intact to someone else.
its producer has used sophisticated artificial As, again, Peter Mitchell pointed out in arecent
reverberation enables agood system to present "Industry Update" feature (December 1988,
considerable image depth. There is no need for p.47), merely to compare the sound of acom-
acomparison with live "images" here; the fact ponent with the reviewer's memories of live
that the recording possesses the requisite sound can lead to error unless be or she uses
information makes it asufficiently sensitive asufficiently varied selection of recordings.
test. If Ihear the attributes of specific lateral So where does my idea, as expressed in

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November, of the reviewer using his visceral on the listener's arm. Mr. Bernstein states that
response fit into this neat framework of diag- areviewer must provide his reader with an intel-
nosis and judgment? And how does live music ligibly stated standard by which he will judge
fit into it? components coming before him. Ultimately it's
As follows: The whole business of diagno- goosebumps, Mr. Bernstein. Goosebumps.
sis described above seems designed to allow
the reviewer more to get ahandle on what a A change for Mr. T
component is doing wrong than on what it Finally, Iwould like to take this opportunity to
does right. The latter, however, is more impor- welcome the irrepressible Sam Tellig back to
tant—the fundamental purpose of ahi-fi sys- Stereopbile in anew guise. Having written
tem is to enable its owner to enjoy music in the about affordable equipment for the magazine
home—and the listener who is sensitive to the since 1982, when in what was the second offi-
music has ashortcut to discovering it. But in cial Audio Cheapskate column in Vol.5 No 102
order for alistener to become musically sen- he offered some thoughts on good moving-
sitive, it is incumbent on him or her to regularly magnet pickup cartridges, Sam felt that it was
experience the real thing. How can you make time to expand his horizons. In his new role of
yourself receptive to Mahler's music, as opposed the Audio Anarchist, he will be wandering farther
to the sound of Mahler's scoring, if you don't afield in search of sonic excellence (though Iam
expose yourself to the music as the composer sure his fundamentally cheap nature will shine
originally intended it to be heard? If, then, alis- through). In this issue, he reports on his expe-
tener who regularly attends live music finds rience with four of the latest CD players, rang-
that acomponent somehow destroys his or her ing from the inexpensive Magnavox CDB582
ability to enjoy the music—and this is true of to a$2500 Onkyo. Welcome back, Sam! 111
all kinds of music—then all else is irrelevant, even
tonal accuracy. AsJ. Gordon Holt emphasized
many years ago, acomponent must have the 2It didn't seem strange in those innocent days that the first
official Cheapskate column ss s not to appear until the summer
ability to allow the music to raise goosebumps 011983, in Vol.6 N Œ2.
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energies and faith. 9.
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LETTERS
We regret that resources do not permit us to reply individually to letters, particularly those
requesting advice about particular equipment purchases. Were we to do this, asignificant serv-
ice charge would have to be assessed—and we don't have time to do it anyway! Although all
letters are read and noted, only those of general interest are selected for publication.
Stereofools? has it, make economy preamps that will run all
Editor: over the comparable Adcom, Hafler, NAD, and
Must Stereopbile make aStereofool of itself by Carver models abounding at our local mid-fl
constantly recommending grossly overpriced chains in terms of soundstaging, smoothness,
products? detail, and transparency. Yet these are not
Merely increasing the price of an item will reviewed in Stereopbile, or mentioned with
not make it sound any better! So how come on intent to review, much less recommended. I'd
p.71 of the December '88 issue Iread about love to see you substantiate or undercut the
Mandrake phono leads that cost f500 per meter credibility of the rumor.
(or Si per mm!)? Idon't criticize your reviewing asizable
Even if these wires are custom-made out of amount of expensive equipment. It's nice, even
exotic (superconducting?) material, can you if Ican't afford it, to know how close certain
explain how you can put $1000 into ameter of equipment can come to the sound of live music,
thin wire? And just what adifference in sound what the state of the art actually is. Unfortunate
it actually makes? though it may be, the best designs and parts
Idoubt that anyone at your magazine could cost lots of money and (apparently) allow
really hear the difference between these and recorded music to sound much more "real"
other cables even if they could see them. This than the equipment Ifind affordable. Nor
kind of "sound improvement" is 1% inspira- would Ieven think of denying those who can
tion and 99% desperation, written by people afford to buy the state of the art their oppor- •
who know as little about cables (as in Dick 01- tunity to learn what new contestants have
sher's recent review) as they do about money. entered the arena. And Ido think you cover
Donald Bisbee affordable equipment reasonably well.
Columbus, OH But really, the kind of people who can afford
the WAMM system can also afford to take the
Why no affordable products? time (Lord knows their dealers will welcome
Editor: their visits)to listen to whether some manufac-
You spend entirely too much text and too many turer's latest version of its kilobuck amp is actu-
reviewer hours evaluating the latest versions ally an improvement or not. And you can spend
of contenders for penultimate component the space you would've given to the review of
honors, while leaving too many of your readers the revision in telling me whether it's worth
in the dark about the performance (often going to the trouble of borrowing that econ-
enough even the existence) of components omy amp or preamp for ahome comparison
they could actually afford to bring home. with an Adcom (or other "cheap" piece).
Thus we see re-reviews of the Quad ESLs ad In other words, we who have less money are
infinitum, the CAL Aria and Versa Dynamics the ones who more urgently need your help
turntable ad nauseam, and of the same ol' to narrow (because, in the end, it still comes
products by Rowland, ARC, Krell, etc., ad down to our listening) the field of choices. Is
yawnum. And we wait—is it two years now? it worth adrive to Iowa or Chicago from Min-
Or longer?—for areview of the Systemdek; the neapolis to hear the cheapest Thiels? Ithink so,
Spendors are dropped from the "Recom- because of your writing. But the Systemdek?
mended" list because of lack of recent audi- Idon't know yet ...
tioning, and you apparently have never heard Thanks for, like, letting me share your space,
of the affordable preamps from Bryston and and for keeping Stereopbile interesting.
Belles. (Come on, Sam!) Doug Stevens
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40 times better? Ifelt atweak's mild superiority at such crass
Editor. behavior until Irecognized that my own speak-
Is the $8000 Sony CDP-R1 IDAS -R1 combina- ers had been placed in my own living room
tion reviewed by JGH in December 40 times with far greater concern for looks than for
better than a$200 Magnavox? And why can't sound optimization. Apparently, Ifind room
we have aCheapskate column in every issue? aesthetics at least as important to me as musical
Jim Griggs aesthetics.
Volcano, HI Ido recognize that Iam writing to Stereo-
pbile and not to Home Entertainment. 1am just
State-of-the-art? wondering—which is the path most taken?
Editor: Anybody care to take any bets? Are you good
With reference toi. Gordon Holt's review of speaker manufacturers listening?
the $8000 Sony CD player, the CDP-Rl is by no Anyway, thanks for the best stereo magazine.
means state-of-the-art when it comes to track- Iam looking forward with great anticipation
ing. My Philips 880 and my Technics 770 both to the coming of your High-End show to my
track all 50 bands of the Verany disc with only city in April. Stephen Pratt
ahandful of clicks, and aMagnavox 460 Iused San Francisco, CA
to have did the same. Seems single-beam lasers
are better trackers than multiple-beam devices. JA's idiosyncrasy?
Bernard A. Engholm Editor:
Carlsbad, CA Ienjoy reading John Atkinson's reviews, com-
mentaries, and the like; it seems we share many
Frustrating? of the same likes when it comes to equipment
Editor: reviews, and his reports are very informative
Stereopbile is truly the most frustrating mag- (sometimes over my head!) and are for the most
azine Ihave read in the field of audio in 49 part clearly written, with enough wit to keep
years. Iam renewing against my better judg- the reading enjoyable. Ihave one gripe, though.
ment, with hope that you will find something Do you—John—know what it has to do with?
in audio gear that is good and reasonably priced. You mean you can't guess? Do you want ahint?
But Idoubt it. Do you know that I've already given you some?
Audio, Higb Fidelity, Stereo Review, and Yes, it's those blasted rhetorical questions of
musician magazines (varied assortments) have yours that keep popping up like mushrooms
been more enjoyable reading, more satisfying, all over the place in your writing! In the De-
and more helpful. Frank Lidonni cember '88 issue, Icounted four in the "Com-
Brooklyn, NY ing Attractions" report alone, and that's out of
four paragraphs, with two in just the first para-
So much for speaker graph. Iwon't take up your time going through
placement? other writings; suffice it to say one need only
Editor: look for the sign of the "?". It's probably not
Iread with enjoyment Mr. Lewis Lipnick's' so strange, but this "style" seems to have crept
review of the Martin-Logan Sequels in the De- into the writings of others on the reviewing
cember 1988 issue of Stereophile. Mr. Lipnick staff of late. At least Idon't remember it quite
did his usual precise job of describing the phys- as much even just several issues ago. No big
ical and musical attributes of yet another inter- deal.. .
but just thought I'd bring it to your
esting piece of stereo gear. Well done! attention. Maybe I'll end with arhetorical ques-
In his review, Mr. Lipnick used one column tion of my own: Who edits the editor?!
to describe the care he took in placing the Stew Glick
speakers for the best sound. In great contrast Springwater, NY
to that, Iwas amused to notice (on p.182 of the
same issue) an advertisement from GNP in Ricbard Lebnert. And Iedit bim.
Pasadena that showed the same Martin-Logan
Sequels parked snugly at each end of alarge Whither records?
cabinet, with their backs to the wall. So much Editor:
for speaker placement. Having been areader for almost two years now

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Madrigal Audio Laboratories, PO. Box 781, Middletown. CT 06457 ITT TLX 4942158
and enjoying the magazine, Ihave recently Now, I'm not always acautious shopper
been bitten by the used record-collecting bug! when it comes to purchases of new recordings.
Could you inform me of the best places to write Most tend to hit the shelves of the retailers well
to (newsletters, stores, etc.) for information in advance of most reviews. So occasional im-
about and purchase of used classical and jazz pulse buys are an adjunct to my usual pattern
records. Ken Clybor of careful attention to well-considered and
Wheeling, IL responsible reviews. In the case of the Nielsen
pairing, however, Iheld off obtaining it even
fly our two "In Search of Black Diamonds" though it was performed by alocal orchestra
surveys, in Vol.!! No.! (San Francisco area) and conducted by aman who had done some
and Vol.11 No.4 (NYC). Immortal Perfor- impressive work in Dresden. What Idid was
mances Records and Tapes, 1404 W 30tb St., to read three favorable reviews in national pub-
Austin, TX 78703, conducts record auctions lications and to listen to recommendations
by mail. Recollections, 012743 Eighth Street, from people who are in the habit of engaging
Berkeley, CA 94 710 (Tel: (415)548-7786), pub- in critically comparative auditions of various
lishes an excellent catalog of rare secondhand recorded works. When Ifinally got the CD and
classical andjazz LPs. It might also be worth played it, my reaction was, "Why did Ibother
contacting Music By The Sea, 542 Coast High- waiting? This is afine recording." Yes, there are
way 101, Leucadia, CA 92024, who conduct acouple of spots where overzealous multi-
abusy mail-order record service. Stereophile miking results in minor distractions. But the
will also be happy to print short letters from overall performance is dynamic and beautifully
readers who know of good dealers in used wrought. Moreover, in comparison with the
classical andjazz records, particularly in the parsimonious Karajan/Berlin Philharmonic
Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, recording of the Fourth only, this disc has one
and Atlanta areas. —RL of the most coherent performances of the Fifth
that I've heard. A distinct bonus, especially
Whither Gordon? when the latter piece can easily be allowed to
Editor: wander and completely lose any semblance of
I've noted with only passing interest the occa- interpretive focus.
sional outcries from long-time Stereophile So what's my beef, aside from disagreeing
readers over the relegation ofi. Gordon liolt with JA? 'lb alarge extent it's the fact that Idon't
to an emeritus status as "Founder and Chief even know what I'm disagreeing with. Aone-
ltster." The obvious implication seen by these sentence put-down certainly is unenlighten-
alarmists is the insidious transformation of the ing and, frankly, somewhat irresponsible. My
publication into some hideous mutation which primary gripe, however, is that the job of
no longer holds true to the principles of jour- reviewing hasn't been properly left to the re-
nalistic integrity—or whatever. Up to now I've viewer. One reason Idon't read TAS with any
not had any real concerns even remotely re- regularity is the constant opinionated potshots
lated to such paranoia. After all, amonthly for- with which Harry Pearson peppers his publica-
mat with lots of equipment and music reviews tion under the guise of footnotes. Even worse
is enough to keep most casual readers happy. is the nauseating toadyism engaged in by vir-
With the December issue, however, asingle, tually all TAS writers ("Oh, you're so right, Mr.
one-sentence footnote has me wondering. In Pearson, your guru-ship! Pardon me for hav-
Richard Schneider's review of the Blomstedt/ ing an independent thought!"). Idon't think
San Francisco Symphony recording of Hinde- Iwant to see Stereopbile go down that road. I
mith's Matbis der Maier, 7kauermusik, and would certainly think that the editor who al-
Symphonic Metamorphoses, the reviewer lows Dick Olsher to indulge himself in meta-
makes note of the fact that the other London physical meanderings on speaker cables can
recording recently done by the same assem- leave the music reviewers alone.
blage is acombination of both the fourth and That said, Ido have acomment for the real
fifth Symphonies by Carl Nielsen. A footnote reviewer, Richard Schneider. Idon't agree that
pops up with the initials JA: "A brief listen to there are no other "viable Mathis rivals." The
the Nielsen 4at Lewis Lipnick's leads me to sug- fine 1960s recording by Constantin Silvestri
gest that it is worth avoiding." and the Philharmonia Orchestra (Angel S

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35643) comes to mind immediately. Perhaps audition various Carver components. Idid not
more relevant, however, is the 1973 perfor- like everything that Iheard, but Idid like afew
mance by the London Symphony conducted products very much. It was surprising how
by Jascha Horenstein, now available in aremas- different each amp sounded; there were also
tered CD version (Chandos CHAN 8533). reception differences in the tuners, and sound-
While I'm on aroll, Mr. Editor, Sir, why can't stage differences with the preamps. And re-
we see consistent appearances of the Audio member, these were only Carver components.
Cheapskate? Can't Sam Tellig meet adeadline? The point of this letter is that not all Carver
Ican't believe he's running out of inexpensive products (or others, for that matter) should be
equipment to audition. condemned because aportion of the entire
Jim McClanahan product line is lacking in some area. Ibelieve
Clovis, CA that Carver's marketing strategy has also turned
Witb hindsight, Mr McClanahan is right that people away from their products. Instead of
myfootnote appeared to be an unsupported blasting aproduct (Carver or otherwise) un-
put-down. Ibad eagerly anticipated Blom- justly, spend some time evaluating the prod-
stedt 's London recordings after becoming ena- uct based on its individual merits. You may
mored of bis superb Ein Heldenleben with the even surprise yourself, just as Idid.
Dresden Staatskapelle for Denon (33C37- R. D. Nickolett, II
7561). But Iwas so deeply disappointed by the West Allis, WI
Nielsen 4 recording in particular by tbe
leaden, unmagical beginning to the first Carver & LP sound
movement, that discretion abandoned me and Editor:
Ilaunched into print. Iwas very pleased to see aCarver ad in the
December issue. Irealize that there were differ-
The presence of Polk ences between Stereopbile and Bob Carver.
Editor: Bob Carver, King of 'Controversy, Master of
This must be the first of 1000 letters regarding Understatement; ads you love to love and love
the advertisement on the inside front cover of to hate (I hate the labels but love the audacity).
the December '88 issue of Stereophile. You've It's awonder the Silver Seven wasn't called the
sold out! It is irksome to think that you allow Astounding Amplifier. But seriously, what had
that company to advertise in Stereophile. I've all this to do with omitting these products from
listened to bis speakers, and, like many other product reviews? What happened to scientific
audiophiles, do not believe in ginunicic products. objectivity? If these products are crap, then
I've always considered, until this day, the print that, but don't censor this stuff by omis-
products advertised in your magazine to be the sion. This is the worst sin to inflict on your
state of the art in audio, not in promotion. readers—a great disservice! I2M not aCarver
You've let me down. Kevin Szymanski fan (no chance to form an opinion), nor am I
Cleveland, OH in his employ, but Ifeel frustrated about delib-
erate withholding of information/opinion,
The condemnation of Carver whether good or bad, about these products.
Editor: Incidentally, that "smooth-blended" LP
Upon seeing Carver advertisements once again sound is phony!' And who wants to listen to the
in Stereophile magazine, Iwas prompted to scratches and pops on top of that? Isuspect that
comment on Carver products and general per- much of the snob appeal of LPs comes from the
ceptions. At first Iwas skeptical (or worse) of enormous financial investment in them. Sure,
Bob Carver and his "inventions." Before ever CD sound isn't perfect, and Ifully expect that
even "bothering" to audition any Carver prod- when solid-state-ROM with multi-hundred-
ucts, Ihad several excuses of why they did not kilohertz sampling rates comes down to mass-
merit the effort (not sold at the local high-end production, the CD collectors will be throwing
salons, advertising that appeared to contain rocks at that new-tech sound.
more puffery than substance, inconsistent or R. Gloria
incomplete specifications listed in the adver- Granada Hills, CA
tisements, too much gimmickry).
One day Idecided to "waste some time" and IYes, Iattend several live classical concerts ayear.

Thiel & service Bob to design his new Silver Seven tube amp?
Editor: LA did suggest, in Vol.10 No.3, ". ..
Istill await
Please consider this apaean not only to the Bob Carver's assault on state-of-the-art ampli-
sound of the Thiel CS3.5 speakers, but also to fier design, based on his perceptions of musical
the soundness of Thiel's service arrangements. reality. ..Come on, Bob, show us the best you
Ifound that the tweeter of one and the mid- can do in amplifiers." It would seem that he
range of my other speaker were collapsed. took you guys seriously by doing just that. Will
While they could be pulled out with avacuum you now reciprocate by reporting on this new
cleaner, there were apparently permanent amplifier? I, for one, would like to see what you
creases. A phone call was made to Thiel on a think of the Silver Seven. Can it really be as
Friday afternoon, and the receptionist said that good as the ads say? And what about some of
Iwould be called back. Having dealt with other the other Carver equipment, such as the rib-
electronic equipment concerns, Iwas amazed bon loudspeaker? Is it really an audiophile
when afellow named Dave returned my call a product?
short time after 5pm and apologized for mak- Now to another subject. In the Letters sec-
ing me wait two hours. tion (M)l.11 No.12), Ben A. 'Ripper described the
After he asked the obvious question, "Do poor performance of the Thiel CS3.5 on low
you have cats and kids?", Ifelt that sinking feel- organ pedal (serious breakup), and JA responded
ing which accompanies another decision to that this is". ..
common to any speaker that
spend quite abit of money to repair damage uses EQ to extend low-frequency response."
from the onslaughts of small beings. Although Ire-read the report on the speaker in Vol.10
the answer to his question was "Yes," without No.1 by Anthony H. Cordesman. He raved
hesitation Dave said that Thiel would honor the about the bass performance of this speaker
10-year warranty. He offered to send replace- (". ..
its full-bass range is actually deeper, better
ment drivers, as well as pay for local labor since controlled, and more dynamic than most sub-
the dealer where Ihad purchased the speakers woofer systems"). But in afootnote, JA seemed
two years ago was quite adistance from me. to back off from that abit by saying that the
When assured that Icould handle the labor woofer was working hard near the lower end
myself, he gave explicit directions and spent of its range. Was that away of hinting at poor
some extra time patiently and eagerly answer- deep-bass response at high volume? If so, why
ing other questions for me. Ireceived the not come out and say it plainly? If this speaker
drivers by UPS second-day air. He only stipu- really breaks up as badly as Mr. 'Ripper says, I
lated that Ireturn the damaged drivers. would consider it aserious weakness that any
A company like this deserves to be recog- report should address in no uncertain terms
nized and, in this small way, rewarded with (yes, Ido listen to alot of organ). And is the state-
good publicity. Thank you for your attention, ment about the compromised low-frequency
Thiel, and Stereophile for introducing me to response of speakers with EQ really true?
their products. What's the story here?
Robert Lichtenstein, Ph.D. Gene D. Robinson
Chester, NJ Harrisonburg, VA
fiel & Carver Margins of Reality

Editor: Editor:
As Iwas thumbing through the newly arrived Mr. N.Vong's rambling and largely irrelevant dia-
Stereopbffe (Vo1.11 Nœ12), like Ialways do when tribe, "Pseudoscience vs Reality" (November
it arrives, to see what goodies await within, I 1988)—unfortunately typical of much of the
got ajolt. What was this? An advertisement skeptical commentary on this difficult topic—
from Carver Corporation. No, it couldn't be, belies any familiarity with the book he declaims,
because JA had written in Vol.10 No.5 that no or any respect for the scientific objectivity he
further advertising would be accepted from defends. Categorical dismissal of evidence in-
Carver Corp. But there it was. What's the expla- consistent with personal belief systems can
nation? Is this aone-time-only phenomenon, hardly advance the scientific dialogue on any
or has the feud between Carver and Stereopbile issue, however complex, and he offers only a
been resolved? Could it be that this feud led few substantive points that merit any response:

First, the main concerns of the book Mar- If Mr. Wong would now care to read the
gins of Reality are not "religion, magic, and var- book he has critiqued in the abstract, or to
ious mysteries," but the summary, for an in- inform himself of the details of our technology,
formed lay audience, of more than adecade of protocols, and results, we would welcome his
extensive engineering research on the interac- objective comments on any specific issues.
tion of human consciousness with various Robert G. Jahn, Brendaj. Dunne
physical devices, systems, and processes, with Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
particular attention to the demonstrable anom-
alous aspects of such interactions. By actual Price & Reality
page count, more than 80% of the text is de- Editor:
voted to technical discussion of the experi- After reading Tom Wong's letter "Pseudoscience
ments and theoretical models, and their di- vs Reality" in Vol.11 No.11, which responded
rectly pursuant consequences. The remainder to my letter"Margins of Reality" in Vol.11 No.7,
is simply an attempt to set these results and Itelephoned Mr. Wong to ask whether he had
their scientific implications within 2 broader even seen the book Margins of Reality, which
historical and philosophical context. Indeed, his letter had criticized so violently.
if the book has any special character compared He hadn't, and said that this didn't matter
to others in the field, it is that it is rooted in because my letter had described the book quite
experimental fact. well. Ibought some extra copies and sent him
Second, Mr. Wong's intuition notwithstand- one. Subsequently he 'phoned, and we had a
ing, the benchmark experiments are indeed pleasant conversation. The dogmatic tone evi-
microelectric in nature. The primary noise dent in his letter was now moderated, and he
source is acommercial microelectric board agreed that he would read the book thoroughly.
based on thermal electron migration across a Incidentally, Tom Wong's call had inter-
reverse-volted solid-state junction. Obviously rupted my reading of the Nov. 22 New York
some of the downstream circuitry involves Times. Ireturned to the front page of that
larger-scale signals to count and display the day "Science Times" section and saw this head-
effects, but this is hardly acompromise of the line: "3 Scientists Say Travel in Time Isn't So
basic process. While we have not specifically Far Out."
included 5V doorbells in our assortment of Ithought to myself, here on the one hand is
feedback modes, very similar effects have been 'Rim Wong, who cannot conceive the possibil-
obtained on various pseudorandom circuits, ity of minds affecting microelectronic events,
on amacroscopic random mechanical cascade, and here on the other hand are respected mem-
and on certain analog optical and mechanical bers of the academic establishment publishing
devices. apaper (in Physical Review Letters) with acom-
Third, the experimental results displayed in plex mathematical analysis to establish the pos-
the book are not "selected" in the pejorative sibility of "wormholes" in space that would
sense Mr. Wong implies. They are quite repre- permit time travel and upset the apparent laws
sentative samples of ahuge database that is of causality.
summarized in the appendix, and has been pre- The Times says this paper was written by
sented in full in an extensive sequence of ar- Drs. Kip S. Thorne and Ulvi Yurtsever of the
chival publications and supplementary tech- California Institute of Technology, and Dr.
nical reports, fully referenced in the book's Michael S. Morris of the University of Wiscon-
bibliographies. In particular, seven referenced sin, after ayear of study and consultation with
publications, totaling 170 pages, have appeared other astrophysicists. Dr. Robert M. Wald of the
in "reputable" (sic) engineering, physics, and University of Chicago told the Times that "han-
psychology journals, while some 25 technical dles" similar to the above-mentioned "worm-
reports, totaling over 2000 pages, have been holes" are known to exist on the quantum
distributed to amailing list of over 1300. These level, and that "events within the 'quantum
reports contain every shred of data—positive, foam' can be manipulated ...
producing effects
negative, or inconclusive—acquired in this observable in ... the everyday world we can
program to the date of issue. Alisting of these see and touch." And Dr. Thorne wrote that the
reports, as well as the reports themselves, is possibility of time and space travel through
available to any interested respondent. such wormholes depends on whether the

"averaged weak energy conditions" can be vio- [and is sure that] the history of the preceding
lated, which might be determined by apro- 100,000 years is all wrong."
gram of experiments. It is interesting that, in Tom Wong's letter suggested Icancel my Ste-
Margins of Reality, authors Jahn and Dunne reopbile subscription, buy a$499 (or perhaps
also turn to quantum theory to explain psi $299) rack system, and upgrade it by psi. Now
phenomena. he may suggest that Idiscard the rack and use
Time travel through wormholes seems more awormhole to visit Beethoven playing his
outré than psi influence on random microelec- "Hammerklavier" sonata. 3
tronic events, yet always it is psi that most raises Edison Price
the hackles of the technical/academic estab- New York, NY
lishment. In 1956, the magazine Astounding
Science Fiction published an article on the Reality & Wong
Hieronymous Machine, aPeter-Belt-reminis- Editor:
cent psi device that had been granted aUS Pat- After reading JAs comment following my letter
ent (#2,482,773). Reacting to reader's com- "Pseudoscience vs Reality" in Vol.11 Nall, I
ments, ASFs then-Editor, the celebrated John was alittle startled to learn that, contrary to my
W. Campbe11, 2 wrote in the March 1957 issue: letter, Mr. John Crabbe was far from joking
"Our Western culture is the only culture that when he made the allusion to apossible psy-
does not accept the reality of psi powers in one chokinetic process affecting the behavior of
form or another. ..
[it] has rejected psi powers audio circuitry as apossible explanation for
as part of reality for about two centuries or people hearing differences when there should
so [and] is very, very sure they are impossible,
3 And, of course, to church in Leipzig on Sundays to hear
2It was reading the pint John W. Campbell's editorials in the Johann Sebastian play the organ. Maybe Stereopbile should
',Os— yes. Iam that old—that stimulated my interest in mag- sign an exclusive contract with NASA (for Iassume it will be
azine editing as away of life. And am Ialone in thinking that they who will monopolize wormhole travel, the government
though Astounding may have become more "modem- when being the only organ iZat ion capable of funding the creation
it metamorphosed into Analog in the early '60s, it also lost of the necessary rotating black hole) to offer such tours to its
acertain something? —JA readers.
be none, and vice versa. Imay have been under research deficiencies are given in this book
the naive impression that any primary hypo- (including the particular REG psychokinetic
thesis should be the most probable and nor- experiments that Mr. Price was raving about—
mative explanation, not the most improbable see postscript) that, after areading, even com-
and paranormal. Or perhaps, this time, Mr. mitted occultists would probably have to
Crabbe reached alittle too deep into the bot- squint harder than Clint Eastwood to see their
tom of his hypothesis barrel. Even the infa- mystical and religious auras—if they don't lose
mous Enid Lumley at TAS would probably keep grips trying to read something too concrete and
this one to herself in the ultra-lunatic fringe. factual for their minds. After athorough historic
This whole affair parallels somewhat loosely analysis of spiritualists, mediums, and psychics,
what Isaac Asimov once lamented: What's Paul Kurtz made this concluding remark: "The
obvious to one person isn't always so obvious same psychological processes seem to be pres-
to another. ent in our age and earlier ages. There is often
I'm also more and more convinced that willful deceit and fraud on the part of psychics
besides consistently churning out "inconclu- or mediums, and the hunger to believe in a
sive results," the scientific investigation into the spiritualistic or paranormal universe and super
paranormal is also consistently involved in psychics on the part of credulous believers.
scandals concerning its propriety. According The more things change, the more they stay the
to abook titled A Skeptic's Handbook of Para- same!" It's quite understandable why parapsy-
psychology, edited by Paul Kurtz, Chairman of chology still has ahard time making the ranks
the Committee for the Scientific Investigation among other sciences.
of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), para- JA's comment that "one man's pseudoscience
psychological research, even on the rare occa- is another's belief structure" was, perhaps, too
sion when results are claimed, is riddled with tempered. In rough street slang, how about:
flawed scientific protocol, personal bias, data one man's Inillsbit is another's wasted time and
manipulation, and outright fraud (mostly in the money—or should it be one woman's, when
test subjects). So many graphic examples of referring to acertain actress who is laughing
ONE LOOK AND

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all the way to the bank for her various advoca- agreements over questions offact - (my em-
cies in the name of metaphysics. Evidently, phases). Then logically, any apparent disagree-
with even lightweight BS garnering such mar- ment in value this subjectivist (yours truly) has
ket potential, there must be hordes of real with JA could be diminished by some univer-
suckers for star appeal and fantasy, with reason salizable facts. I'm confident we can both agree
and realism not even taking aback seat in their on one fact: We want Stereophile to improve
minds. Figuratively speaking, human cognitive and continue to be amagazine of the highest
functions must be taking permanent residence journalistic integrity!?
in the hearts of some people rather than their Tom Wong
brains. But, sorry, no apology; I'm confident Alhambra, CA
that being judgmental, in this case, is ademon- PS: On the night of November 7, 1988, Mr. Edi-
stration of moral resolve—not prejudice. son Price called me from New York City to
Actually, my gripe is really toward people of question whether Ihad actually read the book
high visibility who are seriously dogmatic on Margins of Reality that Icriticized in my afore-
matters that are clearly wrong, illogical, stupid, mentioned letter to Stereophile. Igave him an
ambiguous, or (bear with me) one-dimensional. honest answer, and we exchanged addresses
Riled by all these easy targets, Isometimes feel and telephone numbers. However, Iwould like
like askeptic who has been turned into ahit- to point out that reading or not reading Mr.
man, pitted against the suppliers of unchecked Price's book is not really germane to my criti-
ammunition destined to the terrorist nation of cism of his book-recommendation letter to this
charlatans, and sanctioned by what seems to magazine. Ithought Iwas very clear when
be the law's deliberate policy of vagueness on using his references to the book and, if not, I
these issues. make no apology for expressing my opinion
In anticipation of those who will argue that of pseudoscientific practices and their pro-
what's wrong, stupid, or illogical is never obvi- tagonists in general
ous or "black and white," please pardon my
omission of any immediate or graphic illustra- More of afrontal assault?
tion to the contrary. Truthfully, what's really Editor.
important isn't in the arguing or disagreeing Mr. Atkinson's rebuff of Mr. Holt's argument
itself, but, as Isaac Asimov once wrote: "We ("As We See It," November and October '88,
owe it to ourselves as iewecuble human beings, respectively) seemed more afrontal assault
as thinking human beings, to do what we can than awell-reasoned reply. But for whatever
to make humanity rational." reason, the reply misses the point. Taken by
Certainly, there are those who believe that itself, Mr. Atkinson's position is simple enough,
groups such as the Flat Earth Society are merely and undoubtedly quite correct. People, singly
under another "belief structure," and that those as consumers and hobbyists, or collectively sit-
who believe the Holocaust never occurred are ting on a"relatively formal listening" jury, can
just expressing their honest opinions. Perhaps and will make value judgments about the qual-
I'm really vehemently opposed to the "L" word ity and likeability of the reproduced sound
(spelled "1 -i -b-e-r-a-1 -i -s-m") and can't get over they hear. I've done that every time I've pur-
the self-evident fact that there are still plain lies chased anew component. Iassume everyone
and half-truths in this free (and responsible?) else has, too.
country, and that everything isn't merely a But the position of areviewer is distinctly
harmless "matter of opinion." We may have different from my own as consumer and hob-
uncensored pluralism galore, but no real con- byist. The reviewer must provide his reader
sensus to even separate night from day. By now, with an intelligibly stated standard by which
it's undeniable that I'm not an adherent of he, the reviewer, will judge all components
social relativism, either. coming before him. Your magazine rejects
In Charles L. Reid's book, Choice and Action: number crunching as the objective standard.
An Introduction to Ethics, he wrote: "One In its place, Mr. Holt suggests that the standard
argument against sociological or descriptive is unamplified acoustic music in its perfor-
relativism is that the appearance of dissimilar- mance venue. Though not without some faults
ities is diminished by noticing how some ap- which Mr. Atkinson highlights, it is astandard
parent disagreements in values are really dis- with which Ican live Certainly it is far superior

BEAUTIFUL MU
IS ONLY
SKIN DEEP
"Skin effect"
is a phenomenon
which causes dis-
continuities in the
behavior of electrical
current as it flows thru
the core and outer skin
of an audio conductor.
This effect causes much
of the distortion, poor imaging
and poor dynamic contrast
in most conventional speaker
cables.
LiveWire Black prevents
these problems by using 6
surface-only conductors.
These technically sophisti-
cated conductors have a
single layer of .254mm OFHC
copper stranded around a
polypropylene core.
Audition LiveWire Black
oc
at your nearest Audioquest
dealer and he'll show you
how to keep your music skin
ouclioque deep and beautiful.
P 0 Box 3060, San Clemente, CA 92672 USA Tel: 714/498-2770 Fax: 714/498-5112 Tlx: 205864
to a"standard" based solely on each reviewer's cordings themselves are an art form, and per-
unique visceral response. haps he is right (though the quality of that art
Even if the purely visceral reviewer is able form may not be all he asserts it to be). Yet refer-
to recreate his evaluation two months later and ence to anew art form creates more problems
still arrive at the same conclusion (which is by than it solves.
no means anecessity), his reasons and results Consider the position of areviewer of mod-
are useless to me, the reader. Whether his listen- ern design art (which others may call graphic
ing material is "totally artificial" rock or asolo or commercial art). Modern design art has only
violin, Ishall be no better informed. In the end, itself as areference. Each piece must stand or
all that reviewer can tell me is that he liked or fall exclusively on how it makes the viewer feel.
disliked what he heard: that the sound of the All areviewer of any such piece can tell his
electric guitar seemed to come from aproper audience is how the work affected him and
position on the stage, that the effect was quite why he believes he was thus affected. Even if
dramatic as the sound was made to cascade he compares the subject work to another paint-
across the listening stage at some propitious ing previously reviewed and seen by the reader,
musical moment, that the component under that reader is no better informed. Every work
consideration reproduced these engineered stands alone, every work is its own standard.
effects well, or better than the Brand X com- Even if the reviewer and Iagree that of all the
ponent he reviewed or listened to the month myriad possibilities we only like modern de-
before. At best, all I, the reader, can do with sign paintings which fall within the boundaries
such areview is to reconstruct the reviewer's of possibilities A-G, Istill can judge nothing by
test and see if Iagree. Unfortunately, Ihaven't his review. He may think it fits within A-G and
the time, the facilities, or availability of com- Imay not. There is no outside standard by
ponents to do that. While Iwill surely listen to which to measure. So, as areader looking for
components Imight buy, Iuse reviews to help guidance, should Itravel to afaraway city to see
narrow the field. painting X or hear component Y, Iam still left
Mr. Holt, on the other hand, offers me obser- adrift.
vations about reproduced sound which can fit There is a wonderful record of modern
areference Ialready have. He may tell me that music by Kreiger (CRI SD 483) featuring elec-
the music is recessed, as if Iwere in Row R trically produced sounds miraculously pro-
instead of Row D; that the timbre of the cellos pelled around the room. Ihave listened to this
is true, but that the sound of massed strings is record on many systems and enjoyed it on
abit more brittle than what one would hear in each. But which system brings out the sound
live performance Imay not agree with his con- closest to the composer's intent, Ihave no way
clusions once Ihear the component under of knowing. There is awonderful record by
consideration (any more than Imight agree Arturo Delmoni called Songs My Mother Taught
with the visceral reviewer). But—and it's abig Me (Northstar DS0004), featuring aviolin and
"but" —over ashort time Ican learn what the piano. The latter is arecord by which Ican
more objective reviewer considers the stan- fairly judge asystem or component because I
dard, and thereafter more fairly judge his re- know what it's supposed to sound like—and
views and the components he considers. Imay for me, sounding like live is what it's all about.
learn that what JGH says sound like real violas Iintend no disrespect when Isuggest that
to me sound abit fiat, or that what JA (if Imay Mr. Atkinson abandon Magical Ring as atest
make so bold)says sound like real violins to me record and use only records with averifiable
sound abit bright. But with that information source sound. Even if no source material or
Ican evaluate their reviews and thereby more reproduction equipment can ever fully realize
fairly judge the components they critique. the original, and even if the hall acoustics are
The main point of Mr. Holt's October article as unknown as the brand of fiddle, at least I
was that manufacturers have forsaken the stan- have areference, one which has stood the test
dard of live music as the goal to be achieved by of time and is likely to survive into the future.
sound reproduction. Iagree, the new sound of For himself, I'm sure Mr. Atkinson will never
components and source material is too glitzy, buy acomponent or system which makes Mag-
too bright, too piercing to be pleasant. ical Ring sound bad. But that, of course, is a
Mr. Atkinson counters by asserting that re- decision he makes as hobbyist and consumer,

not as areviewer. Hank R. Bernstein Ialso find each issue filled with some remark-
Warwick, MD able letters from readers who are passionate
about one or another aspect of areviewer's
See 'As We See It,' p.5, forfurther discussion praise or pan of aproduct or musical perfor-
on this thorny subject. —JA mance. The variety of commentary reminds
me of the sort of random musings one finds on
Not Class A Cable? public walls; "gramofitti," if you will. Now, it
Editor: looks like it's my turn to jump into the mire.
After reading TAS for 8years, Ilike Stereophile. In his Vol.11 No.6 review of the DCM Time
Iam tired, however, of seeing the speaker cable Frame TF1000 loudspedce4 Inoted JÁs descrip-
report each month. And Idon't agree with Mr. tion of aconstant-velocity stream of air, capa-
Olsher's giving the TARA Labs cable aClass A ble of being produced only by afan, as repre-
rating. Ilistened to them at aGNP dealer in sentative of an acoustic "DC" component. The
California, where they sounded good, but reader most likely would infer from this that
when Iwent back to the MIT Shotguns Iwas aloudspeaker is not capable of reproducing a
back in Class A. More bass, more air. Even both voltage step function, which has aDC compo-
dealers at the same time said the TARA Labs was nent. This reminded me of an article which
not Class A speaker cable. That's what Ihate appeared in alate 1977 edition of Audio. The
about those guys at TAS—they're always right. topic then centered around the behavior of air
So IA-B'd some Radio Shack 18-gauge solid- as atransmission medium. Discussing ahome-
core cable with the original Monster. In the brew acoustical polarity meter, the author
bass, Monster won. The upper mids and highs described air as a"capacitive" medium which
on the Radio Shack won. So Itied them togeth- time-differentiates waveforms, producing, for
er—bingo! Lows-mids-highs jump out of asys- example, positive and negative pressure spikes
tem like you would not believe Igive it aClass instead of squarewaves from aloudspeaker
Bor C. Just twist the 18 gauge on the Monster being fed asquarewave signal. As proof, he
tightly. It took me three days to break the cables cited his experience with attempting to repro-
in. Stranded and solid sounds good. Together. duce a120Hz squarewave from an unbaffled
No matter what the engineers say. 8" loudspeaker, and concluded that this was
Bill Glenn not possible due to the capacitor effect (sic) of
Ridgecrest, CA the air.
What he completely failed to consider is that
Speakers, fans, & DC the low-frequency response of areal, piston-
Editor: type loudspeaker, unbaffled, looks exactly like
Congratulations on your fine and thoroughly aperfect differentiator, with afarfield pressure
entertaining publication. Not only do Ienjoy response (vs frequency) of +6dB/octave (above
the excellent equipment reviews, Iuse them its fundamental resonance). 4 As aresult, be-
as practical guides for purchases and recom- cause this system radiates greater power at high
mendations. Ibelieve Ihave greatly benefited frequencies than at low frequencies, the wave-
from your reviewers' attention-getting com- form takes on a"spiked" characteristic attrib-
mentary on component performance on an, utable to the high-frequency leading and trail-
er.. .
absolute scale, as well as on more mun- ing edges of asquarewave. But, more to the
dane issues like cost-performance. For exam- matter at hand, the corollary conclusion er-
ple, several Stereophile recommendations I roneously drawn was that aloudspeaker could
have purchased are Celestion loudspeakers, the never produce a"DC" component, because a
VP! HW19 Il (ET-2 arm), and the PS Audio 4.6 capacitor (the air) will not pass DC.
preamp (with optional power supply). Iside This brings me back to the point of the fol-
with JA about the SL600s: although they may lowing, rather lengthy, discussion, and that is,
not be the last word in analytical detail, they what is "DC" in an acoustical sense? Is it a
are consistently the most musical speakers I constant-velocity mass flow, or ambient air
have ever had the pleasure to enjoy (for almost pressure, or neither? Part of the confusion here
four years now), and have served my catholic is the sloppy manner in which both acousti-
musical tastes extremely well (subwoofered at
80Hz, Imight add). 4Acoustics. Beranek, McGraw•Hill (1954), 9.210.

dans and lay persons use acoustic terminology air particles in the elemental mass reverse their
What, for example, is meant by "particle veloc- direction and move through their equilibrium
ity," "acoustic pressure," and "sound"? It point to some new value of displacement. And
wouldn't do here to take the time required to so the cycle continues as long as the piston
develop the acoustic wave equation and the oscillates. The average (actually root- mean-
Navier-Stokes fluid flow equations in order to square) particle velocity is that value assriciated
point out their substantial differences. Let me with the oscillatory movement of the elemental
begin, instead, by resorting to asimple descrip- air mass about its undistributed, or rest, position.
tion of what happens in asimple, one-dimen- On the average, there is no net change in the
sional plane acoustic wave. mass of the particle element, but because the
Air is an elastic, compressible fluid. Two volume of the element changes due to the com-
things immediately derive from this: 1) The pressible nature of the air, there occurs achange
restoring force responsible for propagating a in air density above or below the static ambient
wave in air is simply the nondirectional elas- value, and acorresponding change in pressure
tic opposition created when afluid is com- above or below its static value of about 14.7
pressed. The wave propagates by virtue of the lbs/in 2,multiplied by aconstant related to the
continuous, homogeneous nature of the air, specific heat nature of diatomic gases. The
which allows energy to be transferred from one root-mean-square of this oscillating pressure
molecule to another. 2) Because fluids cannot change is the value of acoustic pressure.' This
support shear loads, sound waves in air are is not the same as dynamic (momentum-induced)
necessarily longitudinal waves; the molecules pressure generated by amoving fluid, such as
transmitting the wave move back and forth could be assumed from JA's use of the fan anal-
(oscillate) in the direction of wave propagation, ogy. For that, we need the aforementioned
producing alternating regions of compression Navier-Stokes equation.
(higher than static air density) and rarefaction As aresult of all this mechanical activity, the
(lower density). energy radiated by the loudspeaker is propa-
Aplane wave is the simplest type of motion gated to infinity by the wave motion in the air,
propagated through fluids, and worthy of dis- and eventually converted to heat by molecu-
cussion here as it represents the type of wave- lar friction. Sound radiation, therefore, is a
front associated with any sound source at large damping mechanism which removes energy
acoustic distances from that source. A plane from vibrating structures. But if sound is en-
wave may readily be produced in afluid con- ergy transmitted by wave motion of amechan-
fined by arigid structure, such as apipe, by the ical medium, wherein is the "sound" produced
action of avibrating piston (eg, loudspeaker) by astatic value of local air pressure, je, "DC"?
placed at one end of the pipe. If this pipe is con- Returning to the discussion of the Time Win-
stant in cross-section and infinitely long (or ter- dow, it would appear that the only sound asso-
minated by aperfect absorber), the relation- ciated with the reproduction of avoltage step
ships between particle velocity of an elemental function is that radiated at the instantaneous
mass of air, the density change, and resultant occurrence of the function. 6 This leads to
pressure change can be obtained by use of the another question, namely, what happens to the
one-dimensional acoustic wave equation. energy delivered to aloudspeaker supplied
In anutshell, the wave equation indicates with aDC voltage? The answer would seem to
that the particle velocity of avolume element be that it is all dissipated as heat within the
(an imaginary deformable box) containing air voice-coil. But there's an additional term that
molecules is the direct result of acceleration should be mentioned. If that loudspeaker were
of that elemental mass due to an imbalance of radiating into a perfectly sealed, constant-
forces (a pressure gradient), which in turn is volume enclosure, the air-pressure rise in the
due to compression of the air by the loud- enclosure due to the incremental change in vol-
speaker. If the loudspeaker were apiston with
unlimited stroke and constant velocity, the 5Conversion to sound pressure level (Lp or SPL) is alogarith-
mic operation using the sound pressure associated with human
instantaneous particle velocity would eventu-
hearing sensitivity as areference value, with the answer in
ally equal that of the piston itself. But since the decibels.
loudspeaker reverses its direction, and pro-

6The mathematician Dirac had afew things to say about step
duces ararefaction for every compression, the functions; where is he when we need him?

urne produced by the speaker, minus thermal offer one more counter to the "fan" analogy.
losses, could be considered an energy source Per my earlier discussion, sound pressure is
upon removal of voltage from the speaker. In produced only if, due to the particle velocity,
that sense, air can act as acapacitor-like energy- there results an incremental change in elemen-
storage medium, but not in an acoustical sense. tal volume with no net mass flow. A fan, per-
Stephen Coyne is basically correct in his let- force, produces amass flow or it ain't afan. Fur-
ter in Stereopbile Vol.]] No.11 in stating that ther, JA is correct in stating that, ceterisparibus,
"DC" is represented by a semipermanent acoustic particle velocity is proportional to pis-
change in the barometric pressure, but Idis- ton velocity, but particle velocity is not per se
agree slightly with acouple of his points: 1) the determinant of intensity, sound power radi-
Whether or not aspeaker itself can produce DC ation. Acoustic power, and correspondingly
is not a function of the room in which it intensity, are products of the in-phase compo-
resides; rather, as Isee it, it is related to its ability nents of pressure and velocity. In the near-field
to produce anet permanent change in air vol- of aloudspeaker (le, [2Pi xrilambda] is much
ume (hence the density) of an enclosed air less than 1, where ris the distance from the
space (a constant control volume). Clearly, per source) the velocity component can be very
Mr. Coyne's discussion of driver displacement large, but the phase shift between velocity and
due to an applied voltage or current, this is pos- pressure is also large. The result is that only a
sible with any airtight infinite baffle or acoustic small percentage of the available air velocity
suspension system in aroom. It is just as clearly contributes to the radiated power, and pressure
not possible with reflex-loaded drivers or di- in the farfield. This is easy to see by observing
pole panel radiators, as the net volume change the large cone displacements (and hence,
within the control volume is zero. In actual velocities) associated with an unbaffled direct
application, of course, the "control volume" radiator, which at low frequencies produces
of alistening room is not acoustically defined only aminute amount of radiated power.
at zero frequency because of atypical room's lb conclude, Ibelieve it's important to exam-
inability to support astatic pressure differential ine some of these issues if only to increase our
with respect to surrounding rooms. Mr. Coyne general awareness of the science (and art) of
stated it more simply: rooms are "leaky." sound reproduction.
2) The air-particle displacement due to an Dan Lilley
acoustic plane wavefront is very small, even at Indianapolis, IN
high sound-pressure levels. Air molecules,
under vibration due to an acoustic pressure gra- DC, speakers, & fans
dient, simply do not move several feet except Editor:
in the immediate vicinity of extremely non- Speakers hypothetically can produce DC if DC
linear events such as rocket engine burns or is defined as astandard acoustical (longitudinal,
warhead explosions. Also, for agiven sound- pressure) wave of infinite period and infini-
pressure level, mean particle displacement is tesimal frequency.
independent of frequency and wavelength. The perspective of Stephen Coyne's letter
This is probably not intuitive to anyone who (published Vol.11 No.11) is absolutely correct
has observed the relative cone displacements in that if aspeaker cone in an airtight enclosure
of awoofer producing 30Hz and atweeter becomes displaced from its resting position in
producing 5kHz. But it must be remembered an airtight room, then the pressure in that room
that the majority of the particle motion in the will rise above or fall below its initial pressure,
nearfield of asmall piston radiator (small com- and will stay at the altered pressure until the
pared to the wavelength of the sound radiated) cone returns to its initial position.
is not related to radiated acoustic power, or to The fan-produced airstream is apoor anal-
sound pressure in the farfield. Rather, it is the ogy to aDC wave, because wave motion itself
reactive component of fluid motion which does not result in anet transport of mass (mat-
returns its stored energy to the driver during ter) in the direction of wave propagation. The
the completion of the pressure cycle. 7 airstream itself certainly transports matter, and
As if Ihaven't gone on long enough, let me if the molecules of air impact an eardrum or
other pressure sensor, pressure will be detected
- But don't bother to tell ghat to Pioneer's ad agencv. because of the conversion of air-molecule

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Care Created aClassic:
Energy 22 Reference Connoisseur.
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four years later when Energy passed it's final Energy's brilliance of sound is matched
gruelling test. only by the brilliance of the cabinets which
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3641 McNicoll Ave., Scarborough, Ontario. Canada. MI X IG5 (416) 321-1800 Fax (416) 321-1500
momentum into force over the area of the sen- velocity motion until, as indicated by Dr
sor, but so would force exerted by afinger or Feleppa, the voice-coil moves out of the mag-
aweight. That same pressure sensor would net gap. But the fact remains that a loud-
respond equivalently to the DC wave produced speaker which acts as a high-pass filter of
by adisplaced speaker cone. Just because all some order or another depending on its prin-
mechanisms elicit aresponse from the sensor ciple of operation, cannot reproduce the sonic
doesn't mean all mechanisms are the same. equivalent of aDC voltage step. —JA
According to Colloms, in High Performance
Loudspeakers, the force on the speaker coil is Phase noise?
F= Bli, where B is the flux density, 1is the Editor:
length of wire in the flux, and iis the current. Ihave been much intrigued by an advertise-
So, aDC current (resulting from aDC voltage) ment for MIT cables, printed in your July 1988
causes aforce that is constant until the wire of issue (pp.54, 55) and doubtless in other issues.
the coil starts to come out of the gap. Equilib- In this ad, two graphs purport to show "phase
rium occurs when the force divided by the noise" performance of MIT's M1-330 cable
cone area equals the external pressure. At that compared with an anonymous brand of solid-
point, the cone displacement is constant, as is core cable In my very considerable experience
the pressure in the room. of testing audio cables, using pulse and sine-
A more rigorous way of describing what JA wave methods up to 250MHz, Ihave never
was taught might be that voltage change, (or, seen anything like the illustrated effects, so I
rather, current change) leads to adiaphragm set about trying to duplicate them.
position change, which leads achange in posi- Somewhat misleadingly, there is no scale
tion of air molecules (particles). This change shown directly on the graphs, but those famil-
in position requires acceleration and velocity. iar with digital storage oscilloscopes will notice
It forces molecules together (if the diaphragm the datum and cursor markers and values (A,
moves into the room) and creates alocalized T, dA, and dT), from which Ideduce that the
region of higher-than-ambient pressure. If the scale on both is 50mV per division vertical and
voltage reverses, as in asignal with frequency 20Ons per division horizontal.
greater than zero, the molecules adjacent to the Further, there is no clue as to the transmit-
diaphragm are pulled apart, and alow-pressure ting and terminating impedances at the ends
region is established behind the high-pressure of the cables, which, especially at these fre-
region, etc., etc., and the sequence of alternat- quencies (up to 30MHz at least), is vital infor-
ing high-pressure and low-pressure regions mation for interpreting the graphs. My guess
propagates into the room according to the is that the pulse is sent from alow impedance,
physics of diffraction. roughly equal to the characteristic impedance
In the case of astep voltage and current, the of the cable, and is being received in ahigh
initial voltage change causes abroad-band impedance.
high-pressure (or low-pressure) pulse to be Itherefore set up atest using avariable pulse
propagated, followed by aconstant mainten- generator (output impedance 50 ohms, rise-
ance of pressure (high or low)—a DC pressure. time 5ns), and two oscilloscopes, one a100MHz,
Particles initially move as aconsequence of dia- 400Ms/s digital storage, and the other a250MHz
phragm movement, but after the initial pres- analog. Cables tested were two types: RG58
sure transition, they have no net movement coaxial (50 ohm characteristic impedance) and
(just random, thermal motion). Using your QED 79 speaker cable (PVC insulation, about
own words, the particles move only as voltage 80 ohm characteristic impedance), both sam-
or current changes. If the voltage alternates, ples about 1.2m long.
particles move back and forth; if the voltage is With signals of acouple of volts or so, Isaw
constant, particles don't move. nothing remarkable except abit of ringing due
Ernest Feleppa, Ph.D. to the mistermination and the poor dielectric
New York, NY of the QED cable. With the QED cable only,
however, when Ilowered the signal level to the
Ithink my misunderstanding arose from a 150mV or so of the MIT tests, Ifound all sorts
consideration of the fact that a DC voltage of pulse trains, principally consisting of up to
applied to adrive-unit produces aconstant- 1ps of 20MHz at up to 60mV peak-to-peak

r MUM Jleilt PHI! .
4
11», most
1 fie1111,1;MIIMJI11
11.41111
141
ra nsparent cone speakers I have heard. speakers are arevelation. Their dynamic performar
...As far as I'm concerned, it redefines the art of in advance of anything I've heard before.
miniature speaker design. ...And what aproduct, Few new companies in the hi-fi
John Atkinson. Stereophile, Sep 1988. field can boast aspeaker that leapfrogs existing
references and sets new standards of technical and
This is without doubt awholly remarkable loudspeaker, musical excellence.
and astunning endorsement of the Well developed David Praket Hi-Fi Answers, Mar 1988.
metal cone bass units.
...on current showing the state of the art miniature, The AE-1 has an 88dB/W sensitivity, and is designed to
bar none. handle —and I mean handle— something like 200W. But
...to the author's knowledge, the most awesomely those are just numbers —the reality is quite
dynamic and articulate miniature ever made. extraordinary.
Alvin Gold, Hi-Fi Choice, Jun 1988 ...As astonishing as the dynamics of the AE-1 are, so too
is its bass extension, which has depth and fullness quite
out of line for aspeaker this size.
Alvin Gold, Stereophile, Aug 1988.
• -- I s-'•
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amplitude. "Good heavens," Ithought, "this problem, as described above;
must be the phase noise MIT is going on 2) Just to the left of the graphs, the signal has
about." Ifigured this must be due to some just undergone astep change and the phase
funny characteristic of PVC dielectric. noise is the resultant ringing—undesirable, but
Ithen noticed that the pulse trains followed awell-understood effect and easily cured by
acyclic pattern, the pattern repeating every impedance matching;
25.6p,s. This rang warning bells, since 4' cables 3) MIT really has found acable so bad that
do not do things on atimescale of 25ps. At first it suffers from nonuniform dispersion and
Isuspected Iwas picking up aradio station, but delay exceeding 10Ons/m, and some interesting
turning off the DSO killed the signal com- properties besides.
pletely and left clean pulses from the generator Can MIT comment and perhaps elucidate
(still with ringing, of course). Clearly, the inter- their tests? Ialso find their comments on time
ference was radio-frequency emissions from alignment and phase correctness very hard to
the DSO. This ties in with the fact that the swallow; Ican demonstrate phase-correct sig-
shielded cable did not pick it up. Iwas now left nal transmission down 20m of RG58 at 60MHz,
with asignal which, try as Imight, did not so Iam not quite sure what MIT cable is sup-
show the "pretransient noise" shown on the posed to add to the fund of human knowledge.
MIT graphs. Likewise the other cable firms advertising "low
Since MIT is presumably not claiming that phase shift" and "intertransient silence."
something is happening before the signal Richard L. Black
arrives at their oscilloscope, the noise they Sevenoaks, Kent, UK
show must start as the first part of the signal
arrives, the main part arriving after adelay of We sent a copy of Mr Black's letter to Bruce
over 100ns, equivalent to 20m of cable. So Brisson of MITfor comment, but we didn't
three conclusions suggest themselves: receive areply in time to appear in this issue.
I) MIT is suffering from some form of RH
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Undy's home-recordable CD, discussed in this
space last July, is proceeding toward its com-
mercial introduction about ayear from now.
The patented dye polymer coating that is the
basis of the re-recordable CD was developed
by Optical Data Inc. (ODI), aTandy-owned
subsidiary in Oregon. Teijin Ltd., amajor Jap-
anese synthetic materials manufacturer, has
been licensed by ODI to produce blank discs
for the system, and according to Infoworld (a
computer industry newspaper), Teijin is work-
ing with Japanese hardware manufacturers to
produce the disk-drive mechanisms. The tech-
nology has also been licensed by Philips/DuPont
Optical (PD0), owner of giant CD pressing
plants in North Carolina and Europe.
After delaying and strangling the marketing
of DAT recorders, major record companies are
now gearing up to oppose the recordable CD.
In any case, ODI expects the new medium to
be abig success in computers, where each $5
blank CD will be able to store up to 500 mega-
bytes of data, equivalent to adozen hard disks
or hundreds of floppy disks. So in the long run,
even if the record industry finds away to block
the sale of audio-only CD recorders, computer-
CD recorders (and perhaps video CD recorders)
will be readily available, and separate adaptors
will enable them to handle audio signals.
CES: The View From a

Spectrum Analyzer
.1n c,pecially bountiful crop of new loud-
39
speakers sprouted at this year's Winter Con- mike was held at the height at which we listened.
sumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Else- The TDL representative asserted that since
where in this issue you'll find CES reports by his speaker is dead flat in the top octave, the
the usual crew of Stereophile reviewers and edi- droop above 10kHz in the analyzer's curve
tors. Idecided to join the reporting fray this must be an error in my measuring microphone
year, but with agimmick. In addition to listen- Ican't rule out that possibility, since the mike
ing to loudspeakers, Idid aquick measurement hasn't been back to the factory for recalibration
of frequency response using pink noise and a in over ayear. So these curves are best viewed
portable Ivie IE-30A real-time spectrum analyzer. as ameasure of relative, not absolute, response.
Such measurements usually correlate well with The main thing to look for: asmooth curve
my own perceptions of aspeaker's tonal accu- that can be fitted to astraight line, especially
racy; it will be interesting to see whether they in the midrange, with up-and-down deviations
illuminate the comments of other listeners. of no more than 2dB. Aslight downward tilt
The Ivie displays the response on an array reflects the low- frequency reinforcement
of LEDs, with ahorizontal resolution of one- provided by off-axis sound from the other
third octave and avertical resolution that can speaker in the pair. But many speakers exhibited
be set to 1, 2, or 3dB. The 1dB setting is the amore pronounced tilt, reflecting atendency
most useful, since differences of 1dB can be of speaker designers to favor amellower, more
heard, but Iused the 2dB setting (with atotal "musical" tonal balance that offsets the bright-
range of ±12dB) in order to be sure of encom- ness of recordings.
passing the amplitude range of every speaker. For convenience, the flattest curves are plotted
In addition to the 13 curves shown here, some first. Subjective comments are based on tests
other measurements were taken but were with afew familiar CDs (including one recorded
erased from the analyzer's memory before by Brad Meyer and myself, Titanic 162, with
being copied onto paper. James Johnson playing Bach on the Flentrop
Each speaker was measured at adistance of organ at Harvard's Busch-Reisinger Museum).
1to 1.5 meters on-axis, close enough to min- Ialso checked each speaker's deep bass using
imize room effects, though Isuspect the 60Hz one of the Pierre Verany test CDs (PV-784031)
peak in many of the curves may be aroom described here in September. Track 20 of this
problem. Because of the need to do the meas- disc contains rapidly warbled sinewave tones
urement quickly without obstructing the flow at regularly spaced frequencies from 16Hz up.
of CES dealer traffic into the demo rooms, pink One caveat should be noted: Iconsidered
noise was fed to both speakers in apair, and excluding PSB from the following report, since
either the left or right speaker was measured— Ioccasionally write for the company. (Like Len
the one whose response appeared less likely Feldman and Martin Colloms, Iderive part of
to be affected by reflections from walls and fur- my income from consulting and writing for
niture. Inevitably the microphone picked up manufacturers.) But since Ihad no part in
some off-axis output from the other speaker designing PSB's speakers and have no direct
in the pair, especially at low frequencies where stake in their success, it seems fairer to mention
most speakers are omnidirectional; this accounts potential conflicts of interest than to exclude
for the elevated bass and low midrange in some products that might interest readers.
of the curves.
In speakers with vertically arrayed drivers,
the response often varies drastically with
height. Most of the CES demo rooms were set
up with rows of upright chairs, putting listeners'
ears higher than asoft sofa or easy chair would.
Noticing my measurement, acouple of manu-
facturers specifically mentioned that their
speakers were optimized for aheight of 36";
but when demonstrating with chairs that yield
ahigher listener position, it's up to them to raise
or tilt their speakers to compensate. Since my
goal here was to measure what people heard, the

IIII
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11111 1 1 111
1111 1 I111
1111 1 11II
1111 1 111
@IQ .7, has beite_r71
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(Leith a
ow _A/ "sow _-
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-11141
tea Teem Idled
i.ddl \\/ biter Allison Al.1311
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13
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lax 1001:
Fig.1 /
4 -octave response of 13 loudspeakers, measured at the UCES
1
Thiel GSM (52450/pr): The featured speaker ¡chile show.

in the Thiel room, and my first opportunity to Snell B ($3500/pr) and Snell K/11 (5465/pr):
test it. Exceptionally fiat response, with sound The prototype Bmade apowerful initial impres-
to match: clear and detailed, with excellent sion, though the speaker needs refinement and
imaging. The 3.5's only important limitation is several months away from production. Bass
is its inability to handle deep bass at high levels, was awesomely deep and clean, subjectively
necessary to reproduce Mahler climaxes. At flat to 16Hz at high levels without distortion.
levels above 90dB, severe distortion set in The treble was abit too bright and crisply
below 50Hz. Reportedly this will be remedied etched for my taste; interestingly, this is not
in the CS5. reflected in the on-axis analyzer curve. The
PSB CS 260 ($1100 /pr) and PSB 40 Mk.0 K/II (curve not shown), anew version of Snell's
($400/pr): Both models have transparent, airy smallest and cheapest spealcec was demonstrated
imaging, with accurate string tone and remark- behind large grille frames and produced a
able resolution of detail in complex sounds. pleasingly large sonic image. But its tonal bal-
Distortion was noted below 50Hz in the CS ance was too lean; apparently it needs the bass
(formerly Cirrus) 260. The lack of deep bass in support of near- the- wall installation.
the budget-priced 40 Mk.11 is disguised by a Sumo Aria ($3000/pr): Large panel speakers
subjectively pleasing midbass hump. driven by avoice-coil, designed by Canadian
TDL Monitor ($4600 /pr): An impressive Paul Burton (not to be confused with Paul Bar-
English transmission-line system with superbly ton of PSB, also Canadian). Gorgeously musical
balanced sound, excellent definition of corn- sound, with liquid midrange and sweet highs.
plex textures, and moderately airy imaging. Burton's own curves show the 10kHz droop,
Highs extended rather than sweet. Good dyna- 16kHz peak, and amidrange irregularity that
mics and very clean bass, with low distortion he expects to iron out soon. Subjectively the
down to 25Hz and useful output to 16Hz. Slim- speaker's only important flaw was its inability
mer than the TDL Reference Standard that to play loud. Claimed sensitivity is 86dB, but
made astrong impression at the New York Stereo- that seems optimistic; loud peaks appeared to

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dim lights and clip amplifiers. (curve not shown) struck me as afine speaker
Crigler Bros. Slant Six ($1700/pr): Who- for beginners, with impressive air and depth,
ever the Crigler brothers of Mobile, Alabama well-balanced sound, and imaging that is sur-
may be, they know how to make agood-sound- prisingly unimpaired by shelf-mounting close
ing speaker. The Slant Six is abasic two-way to awall.
with ahighly refined crossover in aslant-front 3a Midi Master (curve not shown): Another
box of triangular cross-section that can be height-sensitive design. In the CES demo,
mounted on stands or installed on amatching seated listeners were aligned with acrossover
woofer cabinet. The sound was open, clear, suckout, and the speakers sounded somewhat
and airy with good depth, smooth treble, and hollow. Analyzer curves revealed much flatter
aslight thickening of low-midrange textures. responses at both higher and lower positions.
The optional woofer delivered undistorted Fried D/2 ($4000/pr assembled, $1100 kit),
bass down to 25Hz. The measured response G/3 ($2400/pr), R/4 (51050/pr): Irving "Bud"
varied drastically with height, being somewhat Fried demonstrated the imaging and dynamics
irregular at head height in the demo room (as of the D/2 system: focus and dynamic punch
shown); in another measurement taken afew were impressive, but at high levels the deep-
inches lower (not shown) the response was bass output was accompanied by grille noise.
much flatter. The G/3 sounded more lifelike overall, and the
Focus High Definition monitor ($1450/ analyzer revealed asmoother response curve.
pr): Great imaging, with lots of air and depth, The R/4 speakers (curve not shown) sounded
accompanied by extended (but not peaky) muddled and unimpressive with their backs
highs. The balance was abit bright, but the clar- parallel to the wall, but the analyzer revealed
ity of soundstage was impressive. The 8" bass- their on-axis response to be uncommonly flat;
reflex woofer produced usable bass down to and when we toed them in toward the stereo
31Hz with moderate distortion. seat, their imaging and tonal accuracy improved
VMPS Super Tower HI ($4700/pr): The dramatically.
speakers were near one end of arelatively long At the end, Bud Fried asked whether Iam
room, and chairs were set up at the opposite one of those people who think that frequency
end where boundary reinforcement yielded response is aspeaker's most important param-
powerful bass fundamentals down to 20Hz. eter. My response used the language of acol-
But at that distance the tonal balance was so lege logic course: good frequency response is
mellow that vocals and midrange details lacked a"necessary but not sufficient condition" for
definition. At amid-room position 8' from the great sound. Other things are important, but
speakers, the midbass was still overly rich, but if the frequency response is irregular, the other
the sound became impressively smooth and qualities don't matter because the speaker
clear, with acrisp and extended top end. won't reproduce the real sound of music.
Tannoy DC3000 ($1800/pr): This "dual
concentric" design (like KEF's Uni -Q, with Digital radio again
tweeter mounted in the center of the woofer) In November 88, this column described ICT's
produced mixed results. The bottom end was plan to compress eight stereo programs of dig-
clean and solid down to 25Hz, and the highs itally encoded audio into one video channel
were clear, smooth, and sweet, but midrange for nationwide distribution via satellite relays
textures were dark and unclear. and local cable-TV systems. ICT reserved a
Allison AL130 (MOO /pr) and Allison AL110 room at the January CES but didn't show up.
($340/pr): The AL130 is the largest, and the Instead, awidely rumored competitor, Digital
AL110 the next-to-smallest, of six conventional- Radio Laboratories of Lomita, CA, turned out
looking boxes designed for people who don't to be real and perhaps more advanced than
like the prisms and other unconventional ICT. DRL, like ICT, proposes to sell a$200 tuner
shapes that earlier Allison speakers employed that would receive and unscramble the cable
to optimize the coupling of woofer output to signal, select adigital broadcast, and decode it.
room boundaries. While the AL130's bass was DRL promises 16 commercial-free stereo
impressively distortion-free and its imaging programs (32 channels) for only PS/month,
was good, its midbass seemed recessed and with sound quality that may be abit better than
violins abit pinched. The budget-priced AL110 the ICT system's. DRL's CES demo used aDAT
Sœreophile, March 1989 .4 3

NICITTIMS11. XRT 22
Loudspeaker System deliven
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tape as its source, but Brad Meyer brought a UK: Ken KeilliOr
DAT dub of familiar CDs that enabled us to Empire-building is back in the British psyche
check DRL's transmission scheme with both Despite adiminution of this country's politi-
high-level and low-level sounds. As far as we cal clout over the last 50 years, the UK is fight-
could tell, DRL's method of combining 16 pro- ing back with financial territorialism— if such
grams of digital audio into one video channel athing exists. Along with the near-daily reports
causes no detectable change in sound at either we receive about British purchases of foreign
high or low levels—unlike ICT's scheme, companies (especially American), there's been
which in aprevious test seemed to add some some serious action in the hi-fi sector.
low-level noise and slight high-level congestion. Iwouldn't say that the conglomerates which
While ICT reportedly uses digital data com- are appearing in the UK are some hyper-patri-
pression to reduce the average word length by otic response to 20 years' worth of taunts about
60%, DRL uses both data compression and Japan's market supremacy If it is, so much the
special modulation techniques to accommo- better—it's always nice to see patriotism lead-
date abit rate greater than the channel band- ing to something constructive—but it's much
width. The secret is in how the video signal is more sensible to put it down to good business
"modulated" by the ones and zeroes in the dig- sense. But if the build-up of alliances is adirect
ital code. It is analogous to the problem of using response to Japanese domination, then we have
amodem to transmit computer code through along way to go; not one of the British hi-fi
the 3000Hz bandwidth of avoice-grade tele- empires is even within spitting distance of the
phone line Until recently, modems used simple size of aToshiba or Matsushita. (That's not to
modulation methods and could transmit only say that our non-hi-fi electronics firms can't
1200 (or at most 2400) bits per second', but compete. Amstrad is growing like aweed, while
more complex modulation schemes let new GEC, Thorn-EM!, and afew others can count
modems send 9600 bits/s over the same phone an awful lot of zeroes to the right of the first digit.)
line. DRL's system evidently sends 32 channels What's been happening is that the healthi-
of 16-bit digital code (a total of 22 megabits/s) est British companies, both manufacturers and
through a6MHz video channel. distributors, are buying up complementary
Experimental digital broadcasts are scheduled firms, both healthy ones and smaller firms that
for this spring in the Los Angeles area. But since have hit choppy waters. And in addition to
DRL has neither awarehouse full of tuners to adding more names to the company directo-
sell nor firm contracts with cable companies ries, these firms are turning over figures that
to carry the signal, nationwide digital radio ser- will forever silence detractors of the British hi-fi
vice is unlikely to begin before 1990. scene Ican report to you from recently published
Next month: news about FMX. figures (see Table One) that the UK specialist
sector can boast nearly 20 "declared" compa-
nies doing over £1 million per annum. Remem-
ber, that's pounds, not lira, Deutschmarlcs, or
dollars, and I'm talking real hi-fi, not clock-
radios or computers. More to the point is the
run-down of the heavies, with ten companies
turning over £3m, and more than half of those
over £5m. Do the conversions to local currency
(1.8:1, $:£) and you'll be abit more impressed.
Of more relevance to hi-fi consumers are the
takeovers, because it means that previously
small and/or weak companies now have the
backing of bigger operations. The credibility
which is aby-product of such alliances can
only help the marketing men in the export ter-
ritories. The run-down goes something like
this, with speculative remarks being strictly my
own fevered imaginings:
As is probably widely known, KEF's parent

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With signal phase integrity now maintained, all the depth,
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In every area of cable performance, we designed for one
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company AGI controls Boothroyd-Stuart,
which manufactures Meridian products. Merid- TABLE ONE
ian has always been regarded as an innovative Selected UK companies'
company concerned with style, domestic turnovers for 1987
acceptability, and ergonomic advancement. It
is, in effect, one of very few rivals for Bang & 1987 turnover
Company (8)
Olufsen who, whatever you may feel about
Goodmans £18,364,573 ($33,974,500)
their products, created and now own avery El&W Loudspeakers £I1,110,869 ($ 20,555,100)
lucrative market niche. (B&O's UK turnover in KEF £9,967,267 ($18,439,400)
Elac/TDL £7,288,004 ($13,482,800)
1987 was over £25m, which is quite amazing Celestion
when you consider that the UK is the best place International £6,879,620 ($12,727,300)
Mission Electronics £6,562,908 ($12,141,400)
on earth for affordable homegrown hi-fi, and
Linn Products £5,537,000* ($10,243,400)
that the hi-fi press has done nothing to further Thnnoy £5,254,845 ($9,721,500)
Quad Electro-
B&O's cause.) Meridian has had ashaky past,
acoustics £4,395,722 ($8,132,100)
ablend of rave reviews, reasonable sales, and Wharfedale £3,957,012 ($7,320,500)
the usual run of supply and reliability prob- Mordaunt -Short £1,907,94 I ($3,529,700)
Musical (British)
lems, but it has managed to maintain the esteem Fidelity £1,881,562 ($3,480,900)
of the industry Although relative autonomy has QED £1,714,205 ($3,171,300)
Swisstone (Rogers) £1,557,272 ($2,881,000)
been maintained, you can assume that KEF will A&R Cambridge
whip Meridian into shape, while KEF will ben- (Arcam) £1,405,627 ($2,600,400)
Monitor Audio £1,356,955 ($2,510,400)
efit from the company's expertise in elec-
Boothroyd-Stuart
tronics. Meridian is now refining one of the (Meridian) £1,134,593 ($2,099,000)
most advanced, multi-room remote-control Heybrook £1,081,678 ($2,001,100)
Spendor £718,416 ($1,329,100)
systems on offer, so they just might emerge as SME £697,110 ($1,289,700)
the classy alternative to the Danish high-tech Goldring £399,716 ($739,500)
mid-fl market standard. (Incidentally, from

February 1, Meridian, previously imported to Figures are quoted from the MBA Report on the Britisb Hi -Fi
Industry as quoted in Vol.2 No.4 of the healthily radical UK
the US by Madrigal, will be in charge of their
trade magazine Private Eye- R (published by)ohn S. Vizor &
own distribution in this country.) Associates, PO Box 68, Stratford-upon-Avon, 0/37 8QU, UK.
The Goodmans axis is the current European 011-44-789-87666). US dolLir equivalents have been cal-
culated at £1. $1.85 and have been rounded off to the nearest
industry leader for both turnover and brand $100.
acquisition, but it should be pointed out that
asubstantial portion of Goodmans' fl8m+ products. Creek will be operating under the
turnover comes from badge-engineered low -fi aegis of Mordaunt-Short, who first demon-
imports, including midi-systems and portables, strated their interest in aline of electronics with
as well from the manufacture of OEM in-car last year's Mordaunt-Short-built integrated
drive-units for the major automobile manufac- amplifier. As M-S's Chris Short is one of the can-
turers. The Goodmans name still graces domes- niest, most intelligent men in the entire indus-
tic loudspeaker systems of their own making, try, he could turn Creek into aworld-beater.
but the company has also acquired Mordaunt- One of the hottest of all the multi-make con-
Short and Tannoy, both healthy companies in cerns is also the hardest to describe. The Hi -Fi
their own right. You might find it puzzling that Markets/Natural Sound Systems axis has its
aspeaker maker as established as Goodmans fingers in distribution, retail, and now manu-
would want two more speaker lines, but the facturing, but I'm damned if Iknow what com-
companies are complementary. 'annoy, for pany belongs to which division. A bit of history
munple, does very well in the professional sec- is in order, provided Ican climb the family tree.
tor (studios, public address systems, etc), while In anutshell, Hi -Fi Markets is the house that
Mordaunt-Short has cachet in the hi-fi sector NAD built. More precisely, NAD is the house
which both 'annoy and Goodmans lack. The that Hi -Fi Markets built, if you accept that
latest company to join the fold is Creek, one of NAD's global success began in the UK. Headed
the darlings of the specialist press. Creek has by Malcolm Blockley, who helped to establish
asolid reputation for integrated amplifiers, sort Marantz and other makes in the UK, Hi -Fi Mar-
of like Nairn for the pooç with aloyal following
for its conservative, high value-for-money 11986 figure.

THE ADCOM GFP-555
PREAMPLIFIER
A remarkable combination of exceptional performance,

flexibility and value.
The GFP-555's musical performance is outstanding—by any
measurement or listening criterion. For example, Stereophile*
calls it "one of the most satisfying preamps around in terms ot
overall tonal balance...You can go back to it after afew weeks
and still feel it to be basically right; it reveals most associated
equipment as more colored than itself."
At the same time, the GFP-555 is surprisingly affordable.
Again, from Stereophile: "It is unclear from close examina-
tion why it should cost only $500. .. it outperforms several
competitors from the $2500 bracket."
Here are just afew examples of how we did it. The GFP-555's
gain path includes the most innovative state-of-the-art linear
amplifiers ever used in high fidelity components, and is simple
and direct from input to output.
The speed of the gain stages is almost fifty times faster than
CD or LP signals. And the noise and distortion measurements
are incredibly low. Direct coupling makes possible afrequency
response from below 1Hz to beyond 400,000 Hz.
Superb construction, incorporating regulated power supplies
with large filter capacitors, provides superior performance no
matter how widely the musical signal or AC line voltage may
fluctuate.
As for flexibility, you can listen to any source while taping
from another There's an unusual number of inputs and
outputs, plus adjustable phono gain and capacitance.
If you'd like the full story of this remarkable preamplifier
and the review from Stereophile*, please write. Of course, the
fastest way to hear its demonstrably superior combination of
sonic performance, flexibility and value is to visit your nearest
Adcom dealer
ADCOM
11 Elkins Road, East Brunswick, NJ 08816 201-390-1130
Distributed in Canada by PRO ACOUSTICS, INC.,
Pointe Claire, Quebec H9R 4X5
"Vol. 9No. 7(November 1986)

kets started out by creating a network of stances I'd rather not publicize, despite having
independent dealers who received, in exchange apromising product line, Cambridge went into
for amembership fee, protected lines to stock receivership. In what appears to be record time,
in their shops. Given exclusive access to makes Hi -Fi Markets beat all comers in picking up
such as NAD and Boston Acoustics, the retailers Cambridge, and there were quite afew presti-
were then spared the vicious cost-cutting gious makes looking at this innovative com-
endemic to the UK, thus assuring them of pany. Cambridge had made its mark as apro-
decent margins on at least some of their lines. ducer of world-class CD players, including the
Additionally, the buying power for anetwork innovative CD2, and highly regarded, afford-
of 150+ outlets enabled Hi -Fi Markets to supply able amplifiers, the products of top designer
the network with discounts on other, nonex- Stan Curtis. As seems to be an integral part of
clusive lines. Hi- Fi Markets also supports the being asmall British company, supply and relia-
dealers with lots of advertising, point-of-sale bility problems plagued Cambridge, but none
material, and other incentives, and it turned out could deny the brand's potential. With ahard-
to be good business for those who joined and as -nails boss like Blockley at the helm, Cam-
knew how to make the most of the relationship. bridge might finally realize its full potential,
What really made the company, though, was especially as Curtis's services have been retained.
the runaway success of NAD, which it distributed And because Cambridge products sell in the
and publicized with an effectiveness yet unmatched sector just above NAD, Onkyo, and Sansui, Hi -Fi
by any other brand in the budget sector. Hi -Fi Markets can now cover another sector without
Markets remains the UK distributor, but it is stepping on its own toes. Best of all, it means
linked to Natural Sound Systems, which distrib- that the future of Cambridge is virtually assured,
utes other lines of electronics including Onkyo. and that owners of existing models needn't
Additionally, Blockley runs Sansui Electronics worry about back-up. Distribution of Cam-
UK Ltd. This, you might think, is madness, dis- bridge products in the US remains in the capa-
tributing three competing lines, but events ble hands of Celestion Industries Inc. of 49
have proven otherwise. For starters, NAD no Doug Brown Way, Holliston, MA 01746.
longer owns the entry-level sector; Rotel and The real ace-in-the-hole in UK potential is
other makes have chipped away at its monop- Blockley's captive PR person, one Andy Giles.
oly. More important, though, is the upgrade Beyond any doubt the best public-relations
market, the thousands of customers who wizard in the industry, Giles is capable of mar-
bought NAD 3020s years ago and are now keting just about any product that lands on his
ready to move up astep. desk, and has been instrumental in both Hi -Fi
NAD has been less than successful when it Markets' and Natural Sound Systems' past suc-
comes to moving upmarket in the UK, its more cesses. Cambridge, prior to the change of
expensive products failing to win hearts the ownership, had pretty good marketing, but
way the still-running '3020 did adecade ago. nothing like that which Giles can provide. Plans
With Sansui, which has always maintained are already afoot for new models, as well as the
street credibility in the budget-to-mid sector, long-awaited delivery of the Mk.II version of
and with Onkyo—never successfully dis- the flagship CD player (though this will not
tributed here until NSS took it on—Hi -Fi Mar- now reach the US until the Fall).
lcets/NSS can cover the affordable sector three The race is now on for empire-building on
ways. agrand scale, with the conglomerates—now
The company's latest acquisition is yet that Hi -Fi Markets manufactures in the UK—
another line of electronics, one which will not likely to enjoy much of their growth through
only allow Hi -Fi Markets/NSS to move even exports. Fillet you know who buys what next,
further upmarket, but which will also add the but Ireckon we have along way to go before
requisite amount of Britishness needed to this game of Monopoly is finished.
attract the still large xenophobic market. Ialso
heard that Malcolm Blockley has long wanted
Min
to have aUK manufacturing base, so this move
satisfies another need. The acquisition is Cam-
bridge Audio, and therein lies another tale.
Because of a set of unfortunate circum-

Entec Phantom Acoustics
Eplk Pioneer Elite
Euphonic Technology Proton
Focal PS Audio
Forté PSB Speakers
Hafler Quad
Harmonla Mundi Reference Recordings
Image Rotel
infinity IRS Shadow
Here sthe current list of exhibitors KEF Sonographe
Kimber Kable Sony ES
and manufacturers displaying Lantana SOTA
and demonstrating at the Lexicon Sound Connections
Bay Area High End Hi -Fi show. Linn Sound Goods
LiveWire Sound Technology
Luxman Spectral
A&S Speakers Magnepan Stax
Access to Music Mark Levinson Stereo Plus
Acoustat Mamie Acoustics Straight Wire
Acoustic Energy Martin-Logan Sumiko
Apogee May Audio Marketing Synthesis
Aragon MB Quart Tara Labs
Arcicl Merlin TDL
Audible Difference Mirage Theta
Audio Excellence Mission Thiel
Audio Products International Mod Squad Threshold
Audloquest Mondial Triad Design
Audio Research Monitor Vacuum Tube Logic
B&K Moore Frankland Vandersteen
B&W MS Brasfield versa Dynamics
BEL Muse Electronics VPI industries
Both.' Vidikron Museatex Wadla
California Audio Labs NAD Western Audio
Cardas Naim Wilson
Carver Nelson-Reed Yamaha
Castle Nikko
Celestion NItty Gritty
Chesky Records Onkyo
Classé Audio Performance Audio
Conrad-Johnson Perreaux
DB Audio
dbx
Denon
Discrete Technology
Dynavector
Elite Electronics
Energy
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I
once told Larry Archibald it might be The transport does make adifference—or,
worth, say, a 10% loss in sound quality to put it another way, not all digital outs are
with CD not to have to jump up and turn created equal. Recently, at Definitive Hi -Fi in
over the damned record. Sometimes aCD saves Mamaroneck, NY, afew of us Thursday night
you from popping up twice—Mahler's Fifth or 'philes were listening to CDs through Mike
Bruckner's Seventh on asingle disc instead of Moffat's Theta outboard digital processor. We
three LP sides—or three times—Mortres Magic tried different players. There were differences.
Flute on three CDs instead of 6LP sides. That It's hard to say something definitive (ouch), but
might be worth a15% sacrifice. subjectively it appears that sturdier players
Idon't know that you will need to lose even retrieve the encoded data with fewer errors.
10%. Unless, of course, you have aturntable Sony transports sounded particularly good.
like aVersa Dynamics 2.0 or aGoldmund Ref- Now, some promising players.
erence. These players—from Magnavox, Adcom,
Now, if only the cost of CDs would come Yamaha, and Onkyo—are in four different
down. price ranges. Strictly speaking, none is com-
That may happen soon. The New Ibrk Times petitive with any of the others, so all compar-
reports agrowing CD glut. (Goody-goody. isons will be "unfair." But what the hell? What's
Goody got it and he has to get rid of it.) Joe interesting is what you can get for your money,
Epstein, of Berkshire Record Outlet, hints of and whether it's worth spending the money for
impending CD cut-outs. (How do you "cut amore expensive player. If you're expecting
out" aCD? Gouge ahole in the edge of the asurvey of players in aparticular price range,
disc?) The Wall StreetJournal reports that GE forget it. No one could listen to them all, any-
has developed anew resin, which will make it way. More interesting to make unfair compar-
possible for CDs to be molded quicker—that isons. And more in the spirit of The Audio
should worsen the glut! And sale prices for Anarchist.
"full-price" CDs have already dropped to as lit- Most of my listening took place through the
tle as $9.99 per disc in New York. line stage of the Forte Model 2preamplifier.
There's more encouraging news. Three of the players, all except the Magnavox
Designers such as Dan D'Agostino, of Krell, CDB582, had variable outputs, so Iauditioned
and John Bicht, of Versa Dynamics, are turn- these directly into aThreshold SA/3 or B&K
ing their attention to CD. Both Dan and John ST-140 power amp. Interestingly, the B&K
are looking into transports—or rather, the amplifier was better at revealing differences
whole "front end" retrieval system, which than the Threshold. Interconnects were Dis-
includes the laser assembly. Audiophiles may crete Technology Platinum and the very prom-
be paying as much attention to CD transports ising new Audio Prism Ultima ($160 retail for
as to turntables. ..and perhaps as much money! a1m pair). Speaker cable was $5.75/yard Naim
Expect to see top-loading players with inno- Cable, which sounds at least as good as, if not
vative clamping and damping mechanisms, better than, some very costly cables with bull-
which may obviate the need for such devices shit stories attached to them. Speakers were
as CD Rings. , Martin-Logan Sequels.
Iran the dropout tests of the second Pierre
IThe probk-m with CD Rings is you can't always irmove them Verany test disc on each machine. Ialso tested
without disc damage if you change your mind ...or change acouple of damaged discs in each player. Then
players and then change your mind. We need to see hard
evidence—tests, not testimonials—as to what CD Rings do Isent all the machines to Santa Fe, except for
or do not do when used with avariety of players. Vim might
the Onkyo, which weighs 60 pounds. Santa Fe
try piggybacking a CD-Ringed disc—or aringed Mod Squad
CD Damper—atop anaked disc. Warning: this %yin not work already has another DX-G10 So the Onkyo
in all players, and might jam some. If my ram are not mistaken,
DX-G10 they measured is not the DX-G10 I
you get an effect similar to ringing each individual disc without
actually having to do so. heard. [See "Follow-Up" in this issue. —JA]

Magnavox CDB582 CD player
Magnavox CDB582: $249 ver, the 582 played four out of five damaged
This machine is basic and uncluttered—no discs in my collection, including two discs no
frivolous features like Favorite Track Selection, other player has been able to flawlessly track.
unless you count the headphone jack with no If only the sound quality had been abit (or
volume control. It comes with an uncluttered even two bits. ..
hell, Idon't know) better, I
wireless remote, but lacks digital out. The trans- could recommend this machine most enthu-
port looks improved over previous generations siastically at the piddling price. Maybe Igot a
of inexpensive Philips-made players, and the bum one—you expect sample-to-sample var-
drawer lets you use 3" CDs without adaptors. iations at this price point. Ishould also say, in
Soundstaging was good, but not spectacu- fairness to Philips, that Ihave not heard abetter
lar. It shrank during tough-sledding passages, machine at the price (I have seen the 582 selling
like the fourth movement of Tchaikovsky's for as low as $179.95), and Ihave heard far worse
Manfred (get Riccardo Chailly's stunning per- You may have better luck.
formance—London 421 441-2). At the same
time, dynamics became compressed—as they Adcom GCD -575: $599
do, say, on acheap receiver. Bass extension was Igot two samples of this machine—early pro-
good for aplayer in this price category, but the duction and late production. Late production
bass was not particularly tight. is better, Ithink—the sound is smoother. Victor
Resolution of low-level detail was fair—I Campos of Adcom told me about the changes,
have yet to hear aPhilips-made machine with most having to do with tighter tolerances and
really great resolution. Ithink the Philips fog afew parts upgrades.
helps explain why modified Magnavoxes have Never mind the tech stuff, this is avery good-
enjoyed such popularity. sounding player for the money—devastating
But it wasn't the fog that bothered me so to most of the competition at the price in that
much. My sample of the CDB582, furnished once Iheard the Adcom, most of the other
from adealer and not via North American Phil- players were unacceptable. What makes the
ips, exhibited aroughness and coarseness on Adcom so devastating is its low-level resolu-
strings that Idon't recall hearing with, say, the tion — ie, clarity. This is from a16-bit Philips
Magnavox CDB650. And, as of early January, DAC with 4x oversampling. Iwonder why 1
you could still find CDB650s around, here and haven't heard this resolution from Magnavox
there, in small quantities, for around $270. That and Philips machines.
is abuy! Soundstaging is very good, and imaging is
One aspect of the 582's performance was excellent. Ambience retrieval, too, is most im-
truly outstanding: its ability to track. The 582 pressive—just short of the very best you can
played through track 35 of Disc 2of the Pierre get with aCD player and far better than what
Verany test disc set—these tracks simulate you might expect for the price Instruments are
dropouts. Anything beyond track 27 is beyond very clearly localized, and there is air around
"standard values but inside the theoretical [sic] them—they don't exist in avoid, as they do
correction capabilities of CD players." The 582 with some CD players.
even played track 36 without glitching too There are limits to the performance, of course
much. There are only 38 basic tracks. Moreo- Dynamics are somewhat reined in. When you

Stereophile Vol. 11. No. 8
Ohm CLS Drivers "So the bottom line is quite favor-

able: the Walsh 5is afull-range
speaker that is quite clean and
Make Your images very well:' "Soundstaging
is another strength and joy, and
Speakers Disappear at their best the 5s can set up a

very palpable illusion of the origi-
nal performing spacer "In its
From Our $5000 Walsh 5 present incarnation, it is one of
the few dynamic speakers that m
to Our $600 Sound jaded electrostatic taste buds
Cylinders the Critics could live with."—Dick Olsher
are Impressed.
Audio 6-88
"The Walsh 5is one of the
cleanest speakers available...I
perceived remarkable depth and
spaciousness to music well
recorded in aconcert hall. This
spaciousness did not result in a
vague mass of sound: image loc:
tion is sharply defined and
accurately placed ...They are a
masterpiece of the speaker
designer's art."'
Stereo Review 1-ss

"The sound of the Ohm Sound
Cylinders was smooth, balance
and thoroughly enjoyable, well
beyond what anyone would exp
from such asmall, light speak(
Its dispersion was subjectively
complete, and we were never
aware of the speakers as distini
sound sources, no matter how
much we moved around the
room ...these speakers certair
offer impressive value for theft
price and size." 3
New York Times 3-88

". ..the various frequencies
emerge in their natural phase
relationship—more than in cc
ventional designs. To what ex
this accounts for the speakers
fine sound may be debatable,
\; \e4
k 7
there is no question that the C
Sound Cylinders represent at
excellent bargain, with aciar
and richness of sound rarely
/*\ found in aspeaker of this sizi
price." 4
Find out about buying, direc

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free 800-221-6984
For Those Who C
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••• IRMO 101,ear ••••
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Adcom GCD-575 CD player
get to the fourth movement of Tchaikovsky's Hirsch's test sample). Sonically the Adcom
Manfred, this machine, like many, gives up—it GCD-575 is awinner at the price, but not so
cannot deal in atotally satisfactory way with good that Iwould be tempted to switch from
the dynamics. something like aMagnavox CDB650. Isuppose
Parts quality looks good for the price except my real complaint is that Adcom did not
for the drawer mechanism, made by Sony, which choose to build this player to ahigher price
looks like it belongs on acheap machine Every point.
time Iused the drawer, Ithought it might break
—but it didn't. Even more disturbing was the Yamaha CDX- 1110U: $1199
poor shock resistance. This player skipped This machine (at $1199 list) is one of the new
when Iwalked up to it! And Ihad it on aMis- generation of Yamaha "hi-bit" or "pseudo" 18-
sion Isoplat with aVP! Magic Brick on top. (The bit players, as the competition calls them. I've
Adcom is shipped with no transport screws. been trying to sort out the technical claims—
Maybe that's amistake.) Yamaha's vs the competition's (je, those
Adcom is known for innovation. The GCD- manufacturers who offer players with "true"
575 has, in effect, its own built-in line amp, 18-bit DACS). Ihave failed.
which gives avariable output of up to 5.3V, Briefly, an oversampling digital filter gener-
with an output impedance of 100 ohms. You ates additional bits beyond the 16 bits of the
control the output level with a.conveniently basic CD format. In the Yamaha scheme, 18 bits
located volume control on the lower-right cor- from the oversampling filter's output are wired
ner of the front panel. The Adcom GCD-575 through switches to the inputs of a16-bit DAC.
can probably drive any power amplifier di- When the two upper bits are not being used,
rectly. You could have adynamite duo: GCD- which is most of the time, the 18 bits are shifted
575 and GFA-535 power amp for under $1000 so the two unused bits are ignored and the 16
list. lower bits are used instead. The analog gain
Another novel feature is AFPC (Analog Fre- then needs to be reduced by 12dB accordingly.
quency/Phase Contour). Switching this gives The question is whether this "bit-switching"
you adip in the presence region, boosting fre- causes distortion. Onkyo, in a"white paper,"
quencies below IkHz by about 1dB, cutting fre- contends that it can, while Yamaha, not surpris-
quencies above IkHz by an increasing amount ingly, contends that it doesn't. On the contrary,
to -3.2db at 20kHz. This is akin to aslight LF says Yamaha, their bit-switching scheme actu-
boost upward with the Quad 34 preamp's tilt ally acts as adynamic noise reducer. Acynic
control. Ifound this feature occasionally use- might wonder whether Yamaha uses this scheme
ful, but it's no substitute for adequate weight because 16-bit DACs are cheaper than 18-bit
in the bass. DACs. But I'm not the Audio Cynic—just the
The Adcom sports apolarity reversal switch Audio Anarchist.
that works via remote. Julian Hirsch says he Yamaha's poop sheet makes abig fuss over
couldn't hear any difference with the switch the fact that the machine delivers such alow
in or out. Ibet you can! When the setting was level of digital signal leakage that no analog fil-
right, there was more air around the instru- ter is needed to clean up the digital mess. ..
ah,
ments. More space. noise But Yamaha supplies afilter anyway—via
What causes me to hesitate about this player asecond pair of output jacks. This is weird, be-
is the flimsy factor—the rickety drawer and the cause analog-out from the player sounds much
player's exceptionally poor resistance to shock better with just the digital filter, just as Yamaha
(this on the two samples Ihad, plus another says it does. According to Yamaha, there is vir-
sample Iexamined. .. as well as on Julian tually no phase shift with just the digital filter.

How Hi is your Fi?
A
AMRITA AUDIO
P.O. Bo\ 770 Fairfield, Iowa (800) 4-AMRITA
Yamaha COX-1110U CD player
Ihear aclearer, cleaner, more focused sound. it would be unfair to single out this excellent
Why, then, spend money on the extra analog machine for special criticism when the same
filter and extra pair of jacks? Inscrutable! If they comment might be made about many, if not
didn't do this, maybe they could afford to put most, other CD players. But Idid find this sense
in apair of true 18-bit DACs. Ah ...
but Yamaha of something "going on," and Ican't help but
claims that the bit-shifting is sonically benefi- wonder whether or not it has something to do
cial. You can see how easy it is to get bogged with bit-shifting. It especially makes me ner-
down. vous when Yamaha talks about the bit-shifting
Let's not, for we would then lose sight of the scheme operating like adynamic noise reducer.
fact that this is asuperb-sounding player— Noise reduction is probably one reason why
probably the most analoguey player Ihave yet Iso passionately hate cassettes—it takes away
heard. from the certainty and the solidity of the music
Why so analoguey? All this may be moot, of course, if Yamaha
The Yamaha CDX1110 has ambience aplenty goes to true 18-bit DACs in their next genera-
—the kind of life, light, and air that analog tion of players. Meanwhile, this does not take
freaks have been craving. There is abloom away from what Yamaha has achieved right
around instruments—especially noticeable now. This is one fine-sounding player. It might
with an amplifier which itself has plenty of even be the best Ihave heard to date at any
bloom, like the B&K ST-140. (Through the price.
Threshold SA/3, all the CD players tended to Tracking, if you are keeping track, is excel-
sound more alike.) Whether or not this spa- lent. The CDX1110 tracked through track 35 of
ciousness is specious—a partial byproduct of Disc 2of the Pierre Verany test set with nary a
the bit-shifting process—I don't know and glitch, hiccup, or warble.
don't care. It's lovely. Enjoy it! And the CDX1110 has one unusual feature I
This spaciousness is combined with an ex- must mention: the analog outputs are not
qtfisitely smooth, sweet, and delicate high end fixed, they are variable. And the volume con-
—rather like areally neat high-end cartridge! trol, conveniently adjustable from the remote
Again, lovely. control, is said to operate in the digital
Sounds too good to be true, huh? domain—a benefit, says Yamaha, of all this
Well, on the downside, the Yamaha CDX1110 shifting bit business. So maybe it is aboon
does not have all the low-end body and low- rather than abane.
end punch of some more expensive players. Incidentally, Ipreferred the Yamaha with my
Mid there is something vaguely uncertain about discs naked—no rings. Ifelt the rings were roll-
the way notes emerge from the silences. ing off the exquisite highs. ,
In the December 1988 issue of Hi -Fi News
& Record Review, Paul Miller writes about
2If you decide to de-ring your discs, use arazor blade to gently
machines that do not offer atotally quiet back- pry up the ring along the outer circumference of the disc—
ground. You can't hear hiss, but there's avague enough so you can slide scissors underneath and cut. Now,
holding the disc firmly in its jewel box with ahandkerchief,
sense that something is "going on" in the back- slowly peel off the ring. Remove any residue adhesive with
ground. the gentle masking tape sold in paint departments. Do not use
solvents. lk- ringing is not always successful. If you like the
Paul wasn't talking about the Yamaha, and way Cl) Ring> sound with your present player, leave them on.

Onkyo DX-G10 CD player
Onkyo DX -G10: $2500 not load—the display gave areading of zeros

"This is aCD player?" asked my UPS delivery and the machine would not play. Ihad to shut
man. "I thought it was aThreshold or aKrell off the machine, clearing the microprocessor.
or something." This worked every time—I was then able to
The Onkyo DX-G10 weighs 60 pounds! And play the disc. A minor glitch, but still not a
lists for $2500. problem Ishould have encountered in a$2500
It is by far the biggest, heaviest CD player I machine. The DX-G10 tracked up to Track 31
have had in my system. And it's beautifully of Disc 2 of the Pierre Verany test disc set,
made, too. Elegant, uncluttered design— started to hiccup on Tracks 32 and 33, and
Yamaha could certainly take some lessons. faltered badly on Track 34. The Magnavox
Piano-black side panels—beautiful. Welcome CDB582 did much better at one-tenth the
features include alarge knob for variable for- price.
ward and reverse—why didn't someone else This is agood player—beautifully built and
think of that? The Onkyo DX-G10 has another exquisitely designed. Iwish Ihad found it less
terrific feature: you can dim or turn off the dis- lacking in life, light, and sparkle. As it is, Imust
play with apush of abutton on the remote. tell you that Ipreferred the Yamaha at less than
What ablessing to those of us who often listen half the price.
in the dark.
Sonically, this player—which has true 18-bit Conclusions
DACs with 8x oversampling—is most impres- Each of these four players is attractive in some
sive. Dynamics are particularly rewarding. This ways—the price of the Magnavox, the clarity
player can really open up and let it rip on pas- of the Adcom, the sweetness and spaciousness
sages like the final movement of the Manfred. of the Yamaha, the authority and dynamics of
The bass is firm and tight. Instruments are pre- the Onkyo.
cisely localized, and, unlike the Yamaha, emerge But none of them completely blows me
from abackground of silence. away, although the Yamaha did pass my ulti-
The DX-G10 strikes me as having the creamy- mate test: Iwas never once tempted during a
textured smoothness Ihave come to associate listening session to turn the player off and listen
with Onkyo products. The sound is unfatigu- to LPs! All the other machines ultimately had
ing, quite lovely at times, and yet it can become me fleeing to my turntable. On the other hand,
uninvolving. Never irritable, just bland. Ijust Istill like my turntable set-up better than the
wish there were more air and sparkle, more life. Yamaha CDX- 1110.
There were times when Ireally loved this Idon't think you will go wrong with the
player's solidity in reproducing the dynamics Yamaha, assuming that its DACs are properly
of apiano. But even there Imissed asatisfying trimmed. (I would try to find adealer who
sense of the acoustical environment in which could verify for me that they are—that way he
that piano was located. Have we got some will have earned his 40 points.) But if you al-
phase shift going on here? ready have aCD player and don't have to buy
Features on this player include apolarity anew one, you might just sit tight.
switch to change absolute phase (useful), and You might wait for interesting CD transports
the aforementioned display dimmer. All the and black boxes (outboard decoder units) to
controls functioned flawlessly except for one come on the market. Wait, too, for manufac-
glitch. Sometimes, unpredictably, adisc would turers to provide individual calibration charts

ZSE TM
Write to: ZSE, 805 Woodman Avenue, Winslow, IL 61089

showing that each player's DACs are linear. it something else, he doesn't have to trade them
for the whole shifty bit business to settle down. in. He only needs to start imagining the next
Wait and see what Dan DAgostino and John product. (Sometimes he actually gets to hear
Bicht come up with. Or Stan Warren, Paul aproduct, which spoils everything. He then
McGowan, or John Beyer. If 1988 was the year has to read the reviews to latch on to something
of the kludge, then 1989 could be the year of else. You can see why Frank likes products
the black box—CD separates. which are unavailable. He's "owned" aFinial
Or you could be like my friend Frank. He now for several years.)
imagines that he's purchased certain products Why not take acue from Frank? Imagine that
— right now he's imagining that he bought a you own one of these four CD players—take
pair of hard-to-get English speakers which he your choice. Cut out apicture of it and place
has read areview of but hasn't heard. This is it next to your present player. Then, several
ideal, since the speakers can sound better and months from now, when the imagined player
better as Frank imagines more and more. When has been superseded by another model, cut out
he tires of these speakers and gets excited about that player and pretend you own it, too. $
Every once in agreat while

aproduct comes along that
offers performance which rises
above the current variety of
clever designs and marketing
hype When this occurs the
new level of performance
achieved can be readily heard
by both the ardent audiophile
and the novice listener.
Paradigm is abreakthrough
loudspeaker that provides a
level of musical truth that
simply must be heard
Oh yes, the price for such
glorious performance? Well
that's even more remarkable
1I
music ...above all.
In the US AudiaStream Corporation, MPO Box 2410, Niagara Falls, NY 14302
In Canada Paradigm Electronics Inc., 4141 Weston ai #5, Weston, ON M9L

What's ATransfer
*V*.
Magnetic Field Powuf
G'esitVI-R
4.0t
Sim Sewn *Cum% Tee Trans.". Ftmt.,
Good question, amplifier design, are responsible for the

but before I get characteristic 'sound' or 'sonic signature'
deeply into the of different designs. And each is ever so
answer, let me tell subtly unique.
you alittle bit
Audio Audio
about amplifiers Signal In Input Output Signal Out Speaker
!robot" in general.
Every amplifier
eee Amp el>
known to humankind changes This audio signal
N snever exactly the same
the audio signal just alittle bit as it passes as this one.
through from input to output This is
because, simply, no amplifier is absolutely The TRANSFER FUNCTION is simply
perfect, and each must, because it exists in the scientific expression of the exact way the
the real world, slightly modify the audio as audio signal is changed as it passes through.
it goes through. If you know the transfer function, and if you
Most modern amplifiers change and can give that same transfer function to ten
modify the audio signal very little, but all do different amplifier designs, they will all
it, and the subtle changes, different in each sound the same.
Power* Musical
evoluhon
Distributed in Canada b‘ lechnotoçv
Its output voltage swing must be greater, its
phase shift must be less, and of course, its
output power must be at least as much.
Then, and only then, can the reference trans-
fer function be successfully cloned into the
`copy-cat' amp, and unfortunately, the 'dirt
cheap' amp becomes not so dirt cheap
anymore.
Output current, heat sink metal, out-
put voltage, and power... that's where most
of the money is in an amplifier design.
But, Bob, how can
your new M-4.0t amplifier at $799
possibly deliver almost as much
output current into 2ohms as the
big Krell?
Absolute Maximum Output
Current, continuous, per
channel, 2ohm reactive load,
AMPLIFIERS both channels operating
Krell KSA 200

28
Carver M-4 Ot
25
Threshold SA-2
22
Does that mean a
dirt cheap amplifier can be made Ihave agreat patent, the Magnetic
to sound the same as a$5,000 Field Power Supply, apower supply that can
reference amp? easily deliver five times as much current as
I wish it were so, but no, not by along any other power supply of the same manu-
shot. In order to successfully give an ampli- facturing cost That's how. And my patent
fier aspecific transfer function, the basic doesn't run out for another 11 years.
design must have fundamental performance Until then, or until my next ad,
characteristics that equal or exceed the ref- Warmest regards,
erence amplifier from which the original fe4
transfer function was obtained.
For example, the 'dirt cheap' amp P.S. If you'd like to know more about my
must have alower noise floor than the transfer functions, write to Carver Corpora-
reference; it must have instantaneous cur- tion, in care of me, at P.O. Box 1237,
rent and voltage rise time speeds as fast or Lynnwood, WA 98046.
faster; it must have an intrinsic input imped-
ance equal to or mater than the reference.
CARVER
Accurate
Carver Corporation, P.O. Box 1237, Lynnwood, VVA 98046

as Vegas! Swarming crowds! Bright lights! now, in this writer's opinion, the premier CES
Showgirls! Excitement! Music! This must for auditioning new audio products. Unfor-
be the fabled Las Vegas Strip! No, it's the tunately, amassive remodeling and expansion
Las Vegas Convention Center during the 1989 at the Riviera is beginning, and will reach full
Winter Consumer Electronics Show. steam shortly; by 1991 it will be the largest pri-
Actually, like all CESes, the winter affair is vately owned hotel in the world—its main
spread out among several venues: the Conven- building, at 42 stories, will be the tallest in
tion Center, home to everything from digital Nevada. Ihave no firsthand knowledge as to
watches to video; the adjoining Hilton Hotel, whether or not this will interfere with next
holding more of the same; the Sahara Hotel, year's CES; it would be afirst-class calamity if
embracing the "Adult" Video vendors; and the CES moved Specialty Audio back to the Sa-
Riviera Hotel, hosting Specialty Audio exhib- hara. Their one show there, in 1986, was asonic
itors. There's actually agood deal of overlap: disaster.
some audio products were to be found in the Ishould have known what Iwas letting my-
"Zoo" (the, ah, affectionate name for the Con- self in for when Iagreed to cover loudspeakers
vention Center), and some video products for this show report. Every year there are more
were shown in the Riviera. To my knowledge, new loudspeaker designs than those in almost
however, no audio manufacturers confused any other product category. Inevitably, Imust
"esoteric" with "erotic" and set up shop in the have missed something. I'm reasonably certain
Sahara. Isaw everything of (audio) significance at the
It's not exactly awell-kept secret that Spe- "Zoo." Time limitations prevented me from
cialty Audio, once the glamor-child of the CES, checking out the exhibitors at the Golden Nug-
is now the orphan. At the Summer CES in Chi- get, adowntown hotel where asmall gaggle of
cago it had been squeezed into the tiny rooms manufacturers hold their own little mini-show
at the McCormick Center Hotel. The rooms at each year, but JA managed to cover it. I'm cer-
the Riviera in Las Vegas, on the other hand, tain Iat least stuck my head into every room in
while still far from ideal, are definitely superior the Riviera. But there were the inevitable over-
to those in the McCormick. The Winter CES is crowded rooms, over-loud rooms, and excru-

dating rooms. Imade anote to return to all but head against the wall. Last year he bought six
the latter two categories (from which Ifled in —count 'ern—six 801 Matrices (three pair) to
sheer panic), but there is never enough time at use in his surround-sound system. He could
aCES, so Ididn't get back to some. So, apolo- have saved Sit, and left himself some room to
gies to those Imissed. Before Ibegin, afew actually cohabit his listening room with his
"housekeeping" notes: with rare exceptions, loudspeakers, had the 802 Matrix been avail-
I'll only cover new products. All prices quoted able at the time.)
are per pair unless otherwise stated, and avail- Hales Audio is not aname likely to be famil-
ability dates and prices of products not yet on iar to most audiophiles—certainly it wasn't to
the market should be considered tentative— me. Their System Tivo is their first effort (in the
the manufacturer's best estimate as of early manner of Versa Dynamics, their System One
January 1989. will come later). It consists of two 7" woofers
Every show, it seems, sees the establishment mounted symmetrically (above and below) an
of a"trend" in loudspeaker design. This show inverted, ICevlar-dome tweeter. A cutaway
was no exception: the trend was the three- mock-up of the loudspeaker cabinet revealed
piece loudspeaker system. That is, two satel- avery solidly constructed, heavily braced (and
lites and a(non) ,-subwoofer. You already know well-finished) system with good-quality cross-
about such systems from Bose and Cambridge over parts. The drivers, too, are quality units—
Soundworks 2(unless you just returned from the woofers appeared to be Dynaudios, the
along visit with your guru in Tibet). Now we tweeter aFocal. The price struck me as rather
also have systems from AR, Boston Acoustics, on the high side at $2300, but the sound was
and Design Acoustics. The Bose Boston Acous- very well balanced. In short, anew company
tics, and AR systems all appear to be variations with anew product worthy of attention.
on atheme by KEF (Models 104 and 107) after SOTA is already on the market with their
an idea by Elipson. Specifically, they incor- $1595 Panorama loudspeakers. Here they an-
porate atotally enclosed woofer or woofers
connected to the outside world by vented ports.
They are, in essence, tuned resonators, their
success dependent upon the designer's skill.
None of them (save the KEF, which also incor-
porates external equalization) is in any way
competitive with atrue subwoofer. But, Isup-
pose, they fill some perceived market need.
But on to the stuff you really want to know
about. Here, in no particular order, is the scoop
Thomas J. Aorton,
on the latest from the wonderful, wacky world
of loudspeakers. (There were, as usual, acouple
of really wacky ones, which I'll get to in due
course.)
B&W introduced the Matrix 802 Series 2
Much as the older 802 paralleled the 801, the
new Matrix 802 uses two 200mm bass drivers,
Dick Olsher, and
in contrast to the Matrix 801's single 300mm
woofer, and claims abass extension down to
27Hz in contrast to its larger sibling's 20Hz
John Atkinson
report on the 1989
(with B&W's bass alignment filter). The $3600
802 Matrix appears to use the same mid- and
high-frequency drivers as its big brother, and
Winter Consumer
is 3dB more sensitive. (That noise you hear in
the background is Stereopbile's own Bill Som-
merwerck grinding his teeth and bashing his
Electronics Show
ISee DO's subwoofcr review in the January 1989 issue.
2Actually, the Cambridge Soundworin is afintr-piece system,
with two subwoofers.

flounced aless expensive stablemate with a dual-density front baffle, and direct-driven
woofers in the two-ways (designed for asmooth,
more conventionally shaped cabinet, the Vista.
Retailing for S995, it has a7" Kevlar-cone natural rolloff, thus eliminating the need for
woofer and Y
4"tweeter. The introduction was crossover components in the woofer circuits).
rather low-key however, and the Vista was not One of the smaller models was on demo (I
to be heard in the SOTA suite—where the believe it was the least expensive), but sounded
Panorama had appropriated the sonic duties. well-balanced and reasonably open for such
Acoustic Research was on hand with their asmall, probably inexpensive design. Isay
full range of loudspeakers (including the afore- "probably" because no prices have been set
mentioned STC 660 three-piece system). The as yet. The whole line was designed in the UK
AR display, in fact, was the design highlight of by David Berriman, and originally made for
the show. The entire room was set up to resem- AR's European market. The US versions will be
ble an old-time Western town, complete with manufactured here. Availability is expected by
horses (not real ones, alas), and the whole AR summer.
staff gussied-up as mean, gun-totin' hombres. The AR exhibit was in one of several large
Along one wall of this large room was arow of display areas on the Riviera's lobby level. Close
Western storefronts, each one ademo room. by the AR suite were two rooms which were
As Imoseyed into the local saloon (or was it the highlights of the show. In one, Fosgate /Audi-
General Store-1 can't recall) Iwas confronted onics combined their surround-sound system
by the upcoming AR Spirit Series. It's aline of with projection television from Barco Elec-
six models, all save the largest designed for tronics. The stunner here was the showing of
stand-mounting. They don't look particularly an extended NHK (Japanese) High-Definition
impressive, but are supposedly designed with Television video tape on alarge screen—I'd
attention to detail: frameless grilles, 36c-m thick, guess perhaps 9'x15'. Whereas in most projec-
tion TV setups with surround sound, the sound
clearly dominates, in this demo Irecall little
about the sound—the picture was so stunning
that it shut out everything else. Alas, the com-
patible HDTV systems Ihave seen don't come
close in quality to this dedicated design, and
our FCC has mandated that any system chosen
for the US must be compatible with existing
NTSC sets. The only way you'll ever see the real
McCoy in your home is via fiber-optic cable,
apossibility being pursued in some quarters.
Two rooms down from Fosgate/Barco, Wil-
son Audio was making astunning impression
in more ways than one. The primary attraction
here was the introduction of the Series VI
WAMM. The general configuration remains the
same—WAMM groupies will recognize it im-
mediately—but the design changes are con-
siderable. First of all, the midrange enclosures
(located above and below the tweeter module)
are now larger, built with sloping front baffles
for time alignment, and made of the same
mineral-loaded material used in the WATT.
When Ifirst saw the WATT at aWinter CES a
few years back, Icommented to Dave that he
should use apair of WATTs as midrange drivers
in an updated WAMM. The new midrange boxes
aren't WAT'lb (they're smaller and more rectan-
AR Spirit speakers are designed in the UK gular), but are cut from the same cloth. Perhaps
by ex-journalist David Berriman. they could be called mini-WATTs. Or perhaps

"WATM"? 3 In any event, the internal design of four-way, five-driver system is tri-amped, its
these midrange systems is also changed, as is internal amplifiers totaling 400Wpc. The front
the crossover of the complete system. The panel has driver-level adjustments, and the bass
front baffle of the mid-woofer cabinet (not the crossover point can also be varied from 80 to
separate subwoofers) is also made of the WATT's 250Hz. When Iheard them they did not appear
cabinet material. The never-svelte WAMM is to be at their optimum, but with the adjust-
now even more weighty-2000 pounds for the ments available there is aconsiderable margin
four-piece system. A ton of fun. Price? If you for success or failure in the setup. Price, $4500.
have to ask ...0K, so it's $80,000 (including An unpowered version, the 511 (at $3000), may
Dave Wilson's personal setup services). The also be externally tri-amped.
sound? Easily the most imposing at the show, Carver now has two 'Amazing" models, the
and in many (but not all) ways the best. But it Platinum edition at $2695 and the smaller Sil-
depended on where you were seated. Ilistened ver at $2195. Though these are substantially
from the back row, which Iwas told held the more expensive than the original, they also
"reviewer" seats. A friend who attended the include an electronic control system. This
demo twice (and sat in both the back and front device provides asonic hologram generator,
rows) reported that the sound in back was in- asub-bass generator, and anew "Gundry Per-
deed the best. In front, to put it charitably, it spective" control. This last is the most intrig-
was disappointing. The WAMM is a"voiced" uing, and is said to psychoacoustically vary the
system, and is naturally at its best in the seat listener's distance from the loudspeakers. For
used for that voicing. those who just want the loudspeakers without
For those interested, Wilson was using (if my the extras, you'll have to wait afew months
notes are correct) the Ken Chan Koetsu pickup when aversion of the Silver may become avail-
(this modified by Sound Chamber in Hong able sans electronic processors.
Kong), the Versa Dynamics 2.0 turntable/arm, Opus 3now has aline of loudspeakers avail-
Vendetta Research phono preamps driving a able through May Audio. But the important
custom, John Curl-designed, line preamplifier, news is that May Audio will be distributing their
Krell amplification (References on the full- superb LPs and CDs. The reports reaching me
range units, KMA-200s on the subwoofers), of Opus 3's demise may have been premature.
and MIT cables throughout. Infinity has anew RS series of mid-priced
There was other news from the Wilson suite loudspeakers, six models ranging from the
as well. The WATT will soon be available in a 2001 ($238) to the floor-standing 6001 ($1058).
Series II configuration from $5700; earlier units All have newly developed woofers of injection-
can be updated. Among the changes in the molded graphite. The midrange domes use a
Series II are aclaimed improvement in mid- polypropylene skin reinforced with hollow
range linearity, aslightly fuller sound with graphite spheres. EMIT tweeters are used in the
more low-end impact, and an increase in the top two models. Their display was not con-
minimum impedance (in the 2.2kHz to 2.6kHz ducive to serious auditioning when Iwas there,
region) from 0.4 to 1.7 ohms. The Series Ils much business being conducted. Infinity, inci-
were not on demo. Also new—CDs from Wil- dentally, appears to save their big guns for the
son Audio! The market demands were appar- Chicago show, their more popularly priced
ently too strong. Ipicked up two new Wilson models for Las Vegas. Audio Research, Coun-
recordings on CD and also purchased the same terpoint, and Versa Dynamics, however, were
discs on vinyl. Iplan to compare them soon. all using IRS Betas in their setups, and Infinity
But not now; we must move on (reluctantly) president Arnie Nudell was seen several times
from the Wilson Audio suite and get on with in the halls, apparently checking closely to
the report. make sure his next-to-the-top models were
Alt« Lansing has built on the technology making agood showing. They were at their
developed for their flagship, the five-way active best in the Versa Dynamics room (with VTL/
Bias 550 (to be reviewed next month in Stereo- Manley electronics).
pbile), with another, considerably less expen- I'll make an exception, at this point, to my
sive model, the 512. Also self-powered, this stated intention to discuss only new develop-
ments. Precise Acoustic Laboratories had
3Wilson Audio lbeny their Monitor 10 set up in adedicated room,

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,S Stereophile, March 1989

Getting what JA thought to be agood sound in aroom that, strictly speaking, was too
small, Counterpoint was one of anumber of exhibitors using Infinity IRS Betas.
driven by Spectral electronics (including the the latter was on display. It was one of the best
Spectral CD player/preamp) and demonstrated small loudspeakers Iheard at the show. The
by designer Keith Johnson. The sound here Scan tweeter is arelatively new design, smoother
was strikingly good—clean, naturally detailed, and sweeter than previous tweeters from that
and spacious. Keith uses an unusual low-fre- source, and the Kevlar midrange appeared to
quency design with this system. The ported combine low coloration with reasonable bass
cabinet is apparently tuned to a lower fre- extension and weight for so small an enclosure
quency than called for by standard alignments. (14 liters). No US importer had been found as
This is said to optimize the overall, in-room of my visit, but some had expressed interest.
response, not the anechoic performance. It Nestorovic Labs' 'type 5AS Mark Ill has
appears to work remarkably well. The bass end been updated several times since DO's review
was stunning in its depth and impact, espe- nearly three years ago (Vol.9 No.5). The de-
cially for arelatively small, mid-priced (81595) igner, the genial Mile Nestorovic, played one
loudspeaker. of his Nagra-recorded master tapes (Seattle
The Avance Delta 2loudspeaker from Den- Symhony, Ibelieve) over the 5ASes, and the
mark made impressive sounds in the. Just results were impressive. At $3000/pair, aretest
Speakers 4 room. This is amedium-size, stand- might be in order.
mounted, two-way system in the shape of a There's been a rethinking of high-end
truncated pyramid. The drivers-6.5" Kevlar models at Kindel Audio. The PLS-As and PLS-
woofer and soh-dome tweeter—are both from Bs have been well received, but apparently the
Scan, and the cabinet is cast from an inert fiber shippers took adislike to them and damaged
concrete. Avance makes acomplete line of afair proportion. The new top-of-the-line
speakers, some larger than the Delta 2, but only MQLS- 1(81850) should be available by the
time you read this. It's atwo-piece system with
4Just Speakers is asupplier of raw drivers and parts from a
number of manufacturers and appears to be primarily awhole-
amoderately large subwoofer module on the
sale operation. bottom and atall, narrow mid/tweeter cabinet

A Commitment To
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Crafted by atop tnclustnal destgner in
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BOG Vidikron USA Inc In Canada Distributed by

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lenbrook Industries
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Flanked by the new VMPS Super Tower Ill speakers, from left to right are J. Peter Moncrieff
of IAR, Clark Johnsen of The Modern Audio Association and author of The Wood Effect,
Brian Cheney of VMPS, and Neil Levenson of Fanfare and The Absolute Sound.
on top. The subwooter is avented, dual-10" Vandersteen showed the improved model
driver system with aclaimed F3 (3dB-down 2Ci (111195/pair) which seemed, on abrief audi-
point) of 26Hz and strong output to 20Hz. The tion, to be more open at the top than its pre-
upper section has an array of four 6.5" drivers decessor. Iunderstand apair has been sent to
—two on top, two on the bottom—and asin- JA for evaluation. Iasked Richard Vandersteen
gle 1" dome at the center. The response of the about the rumored Model 3. There really is
four midrange drivers is staggered so that all of such an animal in the works. It will be abit
them respond in the lower part of their range, taller than the 2Ci (no stands required) and will
but only the inner two in the upper portion sell for around $2500/pair. Richard said it just
(between the 2pi/4pi transition). The system might be ready for the Stereopbile show in San
sounded very open in alimited audition, per- Francisco in April. Here's hoping.
haps alittle laid-back but with avery detailed One of the more striking new loudspeakers,
yet sweet high end. at least in concept, was shown by Sumo. Known
VMPS was on hand with its new Super as the Aria (no relation to California Audio Labs'
Tower Ills (84695/pair). Big changes from the CD player of the same name), it is atall, wide,
earlier version include asymmetrical mid- planar system of radically new design. The
tweeter array (the leaf supertweeter is now in driver consists of asingle-element, full-range
the middle instead of at the top, where it fired loudspeaker. Its "cone" is aflat, thin, polyester
over everyone's heads), and a new cabinet membrane, driven at its center by what appears
design with curved front edges for reduced to be aconventional voice-coil. It is said to
diffraction. This change also has the incidental react as apoint source, rather than as apiston,
but welcome effect of improving the cabinet's with true coherency. And it did sound coher-
appearance, as does the new, light oak finish. ent. Prototypes of this same system had been
VMPS's cosmetics have moved smartly from shown in Chicago and needed further work.
the '50s to the '80s in one swell foop. Brian The design shown in Las Vegas appeared to
Cheney played me his German cowbell and
alphorn recording—heady stuff. Irequested
excerpts from the Willow soundtrack (Virgin 5Ihad just bought this album the day before at the local lbwer
Records—got their last copy—after hearing it in Dave Wil-
Records America, 790939-2), and Brian pro- son's suite on the WAMMs. The record had been mixed down
over WATIii and Entrc subwoofcrs with impressive sonic
ceeded to rock the walls with this spectacular
results—which is why Dave had used it. Musically, however,
recording. 5 can't say, having only heard parts of it as of this writing.

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address most of the problems. The loudspeaker revolved around anew, bookshelf-sized ver-
is the work of designers Paul Burton and Moray sion of the LM210, the CM205 ($995). C-J had
Campbell at Highwood Audio in Canada, and a"silent" display, so no audition was possible,
is being distributed by Sumo. The only prob- but the new speaker is said to incorporate all
lem Isee is one of perceived value: the Aria will of the qualities of the '210 save for some reduc-
sell for $3000, and appears to be afar less com- tion in low-end extension. Except for styling
plex system to manufacture than some con- (which some may prefer), Ibelieve that the
siderably less expensive systems, both planar LM210 might still make more economic sense,
and conventional. Still, smaller, less-expensive at least for the dedicated audiophile who
versions were shown in Chicago and can be wouldn't dream of putting this "bookshelf'
expected in the next year or two if the design system on areal bookshelf. You still need stands,
principle proves successful. which will bring the total cost of the '205 up
Thiel showed their existing line of loud- to nearly the price of the '210.
speakers. The much-fabled CS 5, however, was Ihad planned to visit with Monitor Audio's
not yet to be seen. It might be ready for Sum- head honcho, Mo Iqbal, to get the scoop on his
mer CES in Chicago, according to Tom Thiel latest tweeter, asophisticated dome of alumi-
(Tom is General Manager, brother Jim heads up num/magnesium alloy anodized with gold. But
design). So don't look for it in the stores just Ididn't get back to the MA suite until the last
yet. day, by which time Mo was winging his way
Another new company, Crigier Brothers, back to the UK. Sorry, Mo. But Idid get to hear
showed their new Slant Six loudspeaker. You the new model based on this tweeter design.
may not be familiar with the Criglers by name, The tweeter appears to be derived from the one
but they originally formed two of the three used in the R852/952 loudspeakers (still on my
principals of MCM, aloudspeaker company list of the best dome tweeters around), but the
you may have heard of. When the third prin- application of gold is said to further improve
cipal, Jim Hauer, moved north to Dayton, Ohio stiffness (the first breakup mode is claimed to
with the company's name and designs (it even- be 28kHz, 5kHz higher than in the earlier de-
tually became Focus), the Criglers remained sign). A brief audition of the new Monitor
behind in Mobile, Alabama and began work- Audio 1200/Gold MD demonstrated superb HF
ing on new designs and tending to their (still detail without excess, and no obvious grain,
operating) retail business. The Slant Six is their tizz, or other nasties. Iwas not seated in the
first product to be introduced for national dis- "sweet spot," however, so judgment of the
tribution (a larger system is in the works). It is other qualities of this new design will have to
basically atwo-piece system (6.5" woofer, wait until we are able to do afull review. The
metal-dome tweeter) abit taller than atypical 1200 is anarrow, floor-standing column com-
two-way but still requiring (short) stands. The bining what looks to be about a7" woofer (the
front is sharply raked. If you took aSpica TC-50 literature does not say) with the new tweeter.
and stretched it to about three times its pres- Cabinet finish is typical of Monitor Audio,
ent height, you'd have arough idea of the shape which is to say bettered by no one. It doesn't
it is very solidly built, with a1.375"-thick cabi- come cheap, however, at $2250.
net. The price of the two-way will be $950 Sound-Lab demonstrated their A5/B5 com-
with stands. Also available is amatching 8" sub- bination. The $5000/pair A-5 is the smallest of
woofer, whose cabinet is designed to sit under Sound-Lab's single-diaphragm cylindrical radi-
the Slant Six and take the place of the stands (its ators, the B-5 ($2500 each) is their smallest flat-
narrow front matches the Slant Six, but it ex- panel electrostatic subwoofer. A single B-5
tends deeper in the rear to obtain the neces- flanked by apair of A-5s was set up (Sound-Lab
sary volume). With subwoofer, the price is had brought apair of the B-5s, but there wasn't
$1699. While one choral recording Ilistened room for the full system), driven by the previ-
to sounded abit forward through the midrange, ously unheard (by me) MFA tube electronics.
anumber of other discs demonstrated avery The overall balance was impressive, but sound-
promising sound—clean, sweet, unexagger- staging—both imaging and depth—was less
ated highs, extended bass (I heard it with the so. Isuspect this system simply must have more
subwoofer), and fine soundstaging. room to breathe than was provided by asmall
Loudspeaker news at Conrad-Johnson hotel suite, where it formed avirtual room-

Cliff 'BERET&
Featuring ahost of firsts, beginnin
with the new MDT-33, Morel'
high-efficiency double -magne
tweeter whose frequency response
falls within an incredible + —0.6dB.
Paired with the MW-164. Morel's
long-throw double-magnet woofer,
making its debut in acabinet system.
Followed by the cabinet itself, a
radical rhombic design angled up for
greater depth and imaging.
Duet is pure Morel, and pure
performance, from its Hexatech
voice coil to its drivers.
Call or write for more on Duet
and Morel's full line of home and
auto speaker systems.
morel
Morel Acoustics USA
414 Harvard Street. Brookline, MA 02146
tel. (617) 277-6663 telex 650-2499475
divider. Visually, the arrangement was impos- passing an accident, Isuppose.
ing, but less intimidating in the natural, light I've saved the highlight of the show for last:
finish seen here than in the black seen at an Snell Acoustics demonstrated aprototype of
earlier CES. 6 their Model B, alarge, floor-standing, four-way
Permit me abrief digression to cover two system designed to compensate for common
items of anon-loudspeaker nature. Reference room-mode problems. This is particularly true
Recordings announced the first of what may in the bass, where two 10" woofers are placed
be aseries of laser video discs. Produced by a in anear-floor position to compensate for the
man who must be world's most knowledge- 'Allison effect" (a common midbass dip caused
able videophile, Joe Kane,' it is atest disc de- by mounting woofers above the floor). The
signed to assist the home-user in proper setup two woofers are also staggered in position—
and calibration of the videophile's monitor and one in front, one in the rear—to further
audio system, and includes some impressive smooth any inevitable location-caused anoma-
demonstration material as well. If you're into lies. The Model B is alarge (bigger than the
laser video, this disc is amust-have. It will retail Type A), four-way, ported design; in addition
for $59.95. On adiffetent note, Audio-lècimica to the two woofers, it includes an 8" mid-
announced that they will be marketing the woofer, 1.5" mid-tweeter, and 0.75" super
0C9 pickup (reviewed in the February 1989 tweeter. The dispersion of the latter is said to
Stereopbde by yours truly) in the US under their eliminate the need for arear tweeter. Flat re-
Signet banner. Price is expected to be S700, a sponse is claimed to 18Hz, with a119dB capa-
welcome $200 reduction from the price bility (at 1meter) at that frequency. Ican't
charged by other "gray-market" importers. vouch for the latter, but other observers re-
Every show, it seems, sees the introduction ported aclean 16Hz tone from the system.
of the unbelievable product or two. Loud- More to the point, on demonstration the sys-
speakers seem particularly prone to the bizarre tem revealed astrikingly real sound. Balance
Waterworks Acoustics was in attendance was superb, soundstaging precise, and bass
with their Soundpipes. Made of what appears could only be described as awesome. Kevin
to be PVC piping about 5-6" in diameter, Voecks, Snell's designer, conducted the demo.
curved at the top like aship's ventilation stack, It was pre-programmed, with 18 varied selec-
the System l‘vo (there is asmaller System One) tions (committed from CD to DAT for con-
incorporates two 5" woofers and a dome venience) played in acompletely darkened
tweeter in asymmetrical, over-under config- room. The latter, in my experience, always
uration. It must be seen to be appreciated. A helps, but most of the credit goes to the loud-
subwoofer is available. Water resistance is speaker. It's agood thing it was demonstrated
claimed. It wasn't being properly demon- in the dark; the ridiculous grin on my face
strated, so Ican't comment on the sound; you'll throughout the demonstration would have
have to paddle down to your nearby Waterworks been very embarrassing. But don't expect to
Acoustics dealer to hear them for yourself. find the Bat your Snell dealer just yet; these
Compared with our next entry, the Sound- were engineering prototypes. Afinished system
pipes came across as aserious audiophile ef- is still six months to ayear away, price forecast
fort. Acompany called Amtech Video Audio at $3500.
Manufacturing has taken your ordinary track The Triad System Ten is the work of design-
lighting, removed the light sockets, and in- ers David Cornwall and Robert Grodinsky.
stalled loudspeakers therein. Honest. Separate Readers might recall that Bob Grodinsky mar-
modules are available for woofer, tweeter, and keted aline of electronics under his own name
midrange. According to the literature, you can in the early '80s. Their System Ten has been
"stack woofers, tweeters, midranges in any designed with special attention to minimizing
sequence or position you desire." Ididn't get the effects of stored energy. This three-way sys-
to hear them—the room, believe it or not, was tem has three rather ordinary-looking drivers,
too crowded! Sort of like slowing down when a10" woofer, and 4" midrange dome tweeter,
housed in an elegant truncated pyramid of a
cabinet with gently curved top and sides. The
6 Which may have been the A-3/B-3 combo. Idon't rece.
7See Kanes interview with Robert E. Greene in Vol.I No.2 of
sound was dynamic and punchy, yet open.
The Perfect Vision. 'Iliad has been known in the past primarily for

THANK
CUSTOMER
SATISFACTION -
You
1988 Stereophile magazine
reader survey —
• 91°. of Magneplanar
owners said they would
tho feeling
buy Magneplanars if they
had it to do over again.
8°. said "maybe" and
less than 100* said "no."
• More Stereophile readers
is mutual!
owned Magneplanars
than any other speaker
brand.
DEALER
SATISFACTION -
1989 Inside Track survey
conducted with dealers,
Magnepan was rated:
#1 in Distribution Policies
#2 in Prompt Resolution of
Problems
#2 in Quality of Sales Reps
Striving for quality since 1971
III MAGNEPAN
1645 Ninth Street
White Bear Lake, MN 55110
'If you are one of the 1°. who are unhappy with your Magneplanars. please let us know why.
their satellite/subwoofer systems aimed at the price tag of $8k to $10k to be more realistic.
video sound market. The System Ten, at $2500, Finial no longer sees the 'table as being afford-
just might give them an entry into the audio- able by a"large" number of audiophiles, and
phile market. does not consider that an annual production
This is where I'm supposed to do my best of 300 units would produce asatisfactory re-
Siskel and Ebert impersonation and pick the turn on investment. The technology, however,
Best Sound of Show. It's atoss between the is available for licensing, and Finial is looking
WAMM and the Snell B. The Snell B clearly at alternative applications.
made the biggest impression on this reviewer, Unquestionably, the 'table is hellishly com-
but Icouldn't avoid reflecting on the cost of the plicated, difficult to build in small batches, and
WAMM during my audition of that imposing very expensive. Yet, in the context of aGold-
product. To be fair to the latter, it had to fill a mund Reference or aVersa Dynamics, it does
room at least six times the size of that holding represent exceptional value, and the underly-
the Snells, with an audience of at least 30 peo- ing technology works very well indeed. Asam-
ple soaking up the sound. ple from the initial production run was on hand
Another year, another Las Vegas CES. Shortly so that those of us assembled at this public exe-
before the show, Ireceived aletter from an old cution "could actually see and hear the real
friend, who's not really into audio, asking me thing, and how great it sounds." The Laser
to recommend a good loudspeaker. The Ibrntable excelled in the playback of old and
requirements? It had to mount on the wall and worn records. An old, '70s-vintage, chronically
cost less than $150/pair. I'm still pondering abused Jim Croce album sounded brand new.
what to write in his "Dear Wayne" letter. We Because the groove angle (as determined by
sometimes forget that the larger manufacturers reflection of alight beam from the top portion
have to deal with just this sort of attitude from of the groove wall) and its associated radius of
the great General Public Fortunately, the high curvature are used to determine the modula-
end is under no such limitation. They keep tion velocity, the optical 'table is not bothered
pushing at the physical barriers separating by such surface damage as scratches. And ticks
today's loudspeakers from the ideal. Such and pops are effectively suppressed by afast-
efforts are invariably costly—we'll never see acting "Noise Blanker circuit." The demonstra-
audio Nirvana for $150—but as long as cus- tion even included aCD vs LP single-blind
tomers are willing to pay the price, the effort comparison. And Iclearly preferred the sound
will continue. One thing is certain, however: of the LP Oh, in case you're wondering, the ini-
Stereopbile is unlikely to run short of interest- tial production run is not for sale. It will be
ing loudspeakers to review in years ahead. relegated to collecting dust on the shelf. Isup-
—Thomasj. Norton pose that Finial is not anxious to give compe-
titors achance to study the design in detail, but
Isee this more properly as atombstone to the
Dick Olsher audio crime of the century. We've had this juicy
The Sun Sets on the Finial Technology bone dangled in front of our collective psyches
laser l'urntable: Dateline January 6, 1989, for three years now—only to have it rudely
Las Vegas, Nevada. In the parlance of acrap- yanked away.
shooter, the Finial Laser Ibrntable "sevened-
out." At apress conference, Finial surprised Analog News: In spite of the ever-growing
everyone by announcing the cancellation of digital specter of doom and gloom in the '905,
any marketing plans for the 'table. Ironically, there was aspate of new and mostly afforda-
this came on the heels of an initial production ble turntables. Bill Firebaugh of the Well-litin-
run of some 35 units and aclear vindication of pered lab has been very busy fathering two
the technology that went into the 'table. Ac- new 'tables. Joining the Well-Tempered 'table
cording to ex-GE executive Jacques Robinson, ($1695 w/arm) are the WT Record Player ($795),
the company's chairman, Finial concluded, on which includes asimplified version of the WT
the basis of acost analysis, "that the unit is too arm, and acost-no-object 'table/arm at $5000.
expensive to produce." Retail price estimates The budget 'table gives up little of the estab-
of only three months ago were in the vicinity lished WT technological base: the plinth is
of about $4000. Currently, Finial believes a damped, the belt-driven platter is made from

acrylic, the armtube is sand-filled, the arm
pivot is damped with silicon fluid, the motor
mount is isolated from the plinth, and the WT
bearing has been retained.
Arcia's Onyx, designed by Rodney

Herman.
A new line of Dual turntables is now avail-
Bill Firebaugh's no-holds-barred attempt able in the US, imported by Ortofon Inc. Of
on LP replay, the WTT Signature, will cost most interest in the line, whose prices range
$5000.
from $180 to $750, is the CS 7000 ($750), also
Dubbed "the next best record player," the dubbed the Golden 1. This is athree-speed,
Model 1.0 from Versa Dynamics reflects most semi-automatic, belt-driven 'table, complete
of the technology of the Model 2.0 at amore with adecent dynamically balanced tonearm,
"affordable" $6000 price point. The Model 1.0 floating subchassis, wood plinth, and beautiful
features asimplified Versa arm, azero-clearance black piano lacquer and 24-carat gold trim.
spindle bearing system, and avacuum hold- On the third floor of the Riviera it was dif-
down system. The air compressor system is ficult not to bump into one of the May Audio
new, and partly because of the reduced air-flow Marketing suites, as they occupied no less
requirements of the 1.0, it is very quiet and can than six rooms. And no wonder—May Audio
be conveniently placed within the listening and Nizar Akhrass now import WBT connec-
environment. And I'm told by reliable sources tors, QED accessories and electronics, Deema
that the 1.0 sonically gives up very little, if any- record accessories, Castle speakers, Target
thing, to its much more expensive big brother. audio products, RATA turntable stands and the
li È , 10 lbrlyte mod kit for the Linn, Alphason,Jeck-
M I Float headphones, Kristlin products,
Haropa. Opus 3records, CDs, and speakers,
Goldring cartridges, and apartridge in apear
tree Joining the Alphason line is amoderately
priced turntable ($900) designed along the lines
of the more costly Sonata. The Solo features
a three-point hung suspension, a mineral-
loaded elastomer platter, and aspecially devel-
oped bearing material that is claimed to reduce
"The next best record player": Versa noise levels with continued playing.
Dynamics' Model 1.0. Basis Audio announced the introduction
of the Basis "Debut Gold Standard," an up-
Rod Herman is at it again. Having severed his graded version of the original and by now two-
ties with SOTA, he has designed and engi- year-old "Debut." Changes in the motor and
neered anew budget 'table, called the Onyx, pulley are claimed to increase torque delivery
for Arcici. The plinth is lead-packed, and non- to the platter without increasing the noise level.
suspended. Vibrational isolation is accom- The platter and bearing have also been im-
plished with damping pads made of aSorbo- proved and "have resulted in lower friction,
thane-derivative material. Belt drive is achieved lower noise, and atenfold increase in the pre-
via a magnetically shielded synchronous cision of the rotating assembly." Retail price of
motor. The platter is 1" -thick acrylic. A $160 the new model is $6900.
isolation stand is included in the package, Imanaged to get acloser look at the Sim-
which is projected to retail for $895. plyPhysics Aviator tonearm. This is atangen-

tial air-bearing arm using acrylic for both the ating in parallel at 36MHz in a64x oversam-
arm and airtube. Forced air exiting through piing technique (equivalent to the computing
holes in the top of the fixed airtube creates a power of 100 PCs), then the price begins to
laminar boundary between the tube and a make alot of sense.
lightweight glide The horizontal mass appears Theta Digital introduced the DS Pro pro-
to be much less than that of similar designs, and cessor ($3200), the processor-only version of
at $950, complete with pump, it would appear their DS Pre digital preamplifier reviewed by
to compete sonically with much more expen- Lewis Lipnick in this issue. The Pro does not
sive arms. have the control functions of the Pre, and
Dynavector has come up with an improved therefore needs aline-level preamp.
magnetic circuit for its line of moving-coil car- Even Krell has entered the field. Krell Dig-
tridges. Dynavector points out that conven- ital's DSP-1 processor uses four Motorola
tional design assumes that the magnetic force DSP56000 chips and 64x oversampling. Burr
is constant and unaffected by armature move- Brown's fastest 18-bit DACs are used. Pure
ments; the output voltage of the coil is pre- class-A current-to-voltage converters are used
sumed to be strictly proportional to the veloc- at the DAC outputs. The entire processing chain
ity of the stylus or cantilever. However, canti- of the DSP-1, after the feed from the laser is
lever movement produces atime-varying change decoded, is completely dual -mona There are
in the magnetic force which then intermodu- two Motorola 56000 processors, one Burr
lates the output voltage. This effect can appar- Brown DAC, one current-to-voltage convertor,
ently be minimized by the addition of ashort- and one balanced analog gain stage per chan-
ing wire or ring on the front yoke of the mag- nel. As you can imagine, the projected price tag
netic circuit. The model XX -1 ($1295), ahigh- is ahefty $6500. Krell, however, has gone one
output MC with asolid boron cantilever, incor- step further than the competition and is also
porates aswitchable "flux damper," or shorting offering amechanical counterpart to the DSP-
wire in the cartridge body itself. If this is such 1—the MD-1 CD Transport. Of course, you
asignificant improvement, then I'm not sure may use your favorite CD player with the DSP-1
Iunderstand the benefit of being able to switch or opt for the best transport money can buy (a
it off. mere $3000 or so). You're bound to get a
Moving-coil cartridges by Benz of Switzer- chuckle out of the MD-1; there's aclear visual
land are now available in the US from Panther resemblance here to an analog turntable. It's
Enterprises. Benz is the outfit that manufac- atop-loading system—the CD spins freely in
tures the van den Hul and Carnegie cartridges, the center of the unit, held down by aweighted
so expect similar cartridges at amore favora- puck, and there is even adust cover in the
ble price.
The Digital Frontier: Digital signal proces-

sors are proliferating. Such devices are based
on the assumption that even expensive CD
players do not provide the ultimate in digital
filtering and digital-to-analog conversion profi-
ciency. At present this is avalid assumption.
Typically, CD players employ cheap (read slow
and non-linear) DACs and do not possess the
Krell Digital's top-loading (I) MD-1 CD
computing power to perform sophisticated
transport
digital filtering. These processors take over the
digital data stream from aCD player's digital works. In the tradition of the finest analog
output socket and do the rest of the processing. 'tables, the entire Transport is isolated from
The Wadia 2000 processor was in evidence mechanical vibrations (I wonder, though, if the
at anumber of suites. It packs alot of techni- dust cover will introduce airborne acoustic
cal sophistication, and, at about $6500, is one feedback from the speakers). The unit is built
of the most expensive devices of this type that around an all-metal Philips industrial-grade CD
Iknow of. But when you consider that it uses transport and laser mechanism. The laser uses
premium 18-bit DACs and four DSP chips oper- aglass lens rather than aplastic one to improve

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focusing and increase the useful life of the With 4,500,000 CD players sold in 1988, it
optics. Apparently the plastic lenses tend to should not take agenius to figure out that CD
cloud up after several years of use. sales are also heating up (even though, accord-
A much more modest offering comes from ing to the figures published by the Electronic
A&R Cambridge. The Arcam Delta Black Box Industries Association, this gives a market
is designed to improve on the sound of budget penetration of only 13% of US households).
CD players and offers selected dual Philips 16- With that kind of market demand, even the
bit DACs, 4x oversampling and digital filtering, staunchest of analog labels now offer CDs.
discrete class-A analog circuitry using audio- Dave Wilson of Wilson Audio now offers the
phile-grade caps and resistors, and afully regu- audiophile achoice, and Iagree completely. If
lated power supply. Retail price is also modest, you have not done so already, you should
amere $650. See JA's review last month to find investigate the direct-to-digital, 64x-oversam-
out how it sounds. pled jazz CDs from C.hesky Records. Pro-
Oh yes, there were also afew new CD play- ducer David Chesky is quite proud of the musi-
ers. Kinergetics unveiled the KCD-20B. This cal value and sonic quality of these recordings.
is a16-bit version of the superb KCD-20A (14- A new and exclusively digital label on the
bit machines are no longer available), and is block is Dorian Recordings. Sharing space
based on the 680 Philips chassis using selected at the show with Aural Symphonics and using
digital filters and DAC chips. Price will be $1195. their system, Ispent some time listening to a
Melos Audio introduced the CD-T8 ($2295): sampling of Dorian CDs. Played back through
an 8x oversampling, 18-bit deck using an all- apair of Martin-Logan CLSes with Nelson-Reed
tube analog section. The player (surprise!) is subwoofers on the bottom, these CDs consis-
based not on the ubiquitous Philips chassis, but tently provided aspacious and natural sound-
on the Sony 507 (better transport). stage. My favorites were The English Lute Song
Finally, SimplyPhysics is doing something (DOR-90109) and Solid Brass At The Opera
about that flimsy Philips transport. The !so- (DOR-90108).
drive ($99.95) is atwo-part mod for any of the
Philips 560, 471, 472, 473, and 650 players. The Preamps and Amps Galore: The recent
Isodrive replaces the Philips upper disc clamp trend toward tube/transistor hybrid circuitry
and bearing with amachined brass rod and has depleted the ranks of the all-tube manufac-
bearing assembly (or, in the 560/650 players, turers. For example, Counterpoint and Audio
with amachined Delrin thrust point). The new Research no longer build pure tube designs.
bearing snaps right into the same fitting used This has led some pundits in the industry to
by the Philips bearing, and should be easy to coin the term "token tube" designs. A good
install. Next, a5" -diameter plastic disc is placed example of this is the new Audio Research
in the drawer on top of the CD you wish to play. SP-14 prearnp ($2995). It is all-FET except for
This disc has aslightly raised lip and alow- asingle 6DJ8 tube in the phono section. Let's
friction upper surface; as it is pushed down face it, this is asolid-state design with merely
over the CD by the upper bearing, it flattens the slightest tube-sound infusion. Also new
and dampens the CD. The Isodrive is also from Audio Research are two good-looking
claimed to center the CD to the true center of power amps—the Classic 30 and 60. Both fea-
spin. Rick Roberts of SimplyPhysics is ada- ture aFET input stage and a6550 output stage
mantly opposed to what he calls the ring run-
around: the Sims Vibration Rings, aka Monster
Cable CD Rings, aka Euphonic Technology CD
Rings, alca Audioquest CD Rings. First, he claims
that it is impossible to apply the rings accur-
ately enough to truly stabilize the CD. Second,
according to Rick, the rings start oozing glue
around their edges, which eventually spreads
COMM"
out over the disc surface, trapping dirt; also, the
glue lets go with time, decentering the rings
even more Does anyone out there care to com-
ment on the ring problem? Is it real or imagined? Audio Research $2995 SP-14 preamplifier

driven by a6FQ7 phase splitter. The "classic" tition from anumber of sources: Quicksilver
touch here involves the operation of the 6550 Audio's new preamp ($1195), known simply
tubes in atriode mode, with the screen grid as the Preamplifier, appears to be extremely
tied to the plate. The tubes are cooled by avery well built, is all-tube in design, and even uses
quiet fan and the amps are touted for their atube regulator. Additional competition in the
inherent reliability. same price point is offered by the MFA Magus
Counterpoint's Models 3.1, 5.1, and 7.1 are A-2 preamp ($895) and the Lazarus Cascade
leaving the line, as is the concept of all-tube Deluxe ($1200).
designs. Three new hybrid preamps are taking
their places: the SA-1000 ($835), the SA-3000
($1795), and the SA-5000 ($3000). The use of
hybrid circuits allows at least 70dB overall gain
from the phono input to main out with very
good signal/noise ratio. Even a0.5mV nomi-
nal MC cartridge can be driven directly into MFA's $895 Magus A-2
these preamps.
The new Conrad-Johnson PV- 10 repre- Manley is Vacuum Tube Logic of Amer-
sents the latest implementation of the circuit ica's new flagship line. This "reference series"
topology pioneered in the Premier Seven. At combines much-improved cosmetics (how
$995, the PV-10 will be the least expensive pre- about stainless-steel covers!) with afew tech-
amp in C-J's line. According to Lew Johnson, nical improvements over the standard line For
the PV- 10 is more than aworthy successor to example, the Manley 350 monoblocics ($66001
the PV-5, and, at almost half the price of the pair) differ from the VTL 300 monoblocks in
PV-5, is said to be sonically superior. This all- their slightly higher power rating, and in the
tube design has zero feedback circuits in both Manley's three separate power supplies for the
line and phono stages, and passive RIAA equali- input, driver, and output stages. Also, both the
zation in the phono stage. The low-impedance Manley 350 and 150 offer feedback controls
regulated power supply uses no electrolytic and afront-panel selector for bias readout.
The YBA line of electronics is now available
through Sumiko, the exclusive US distributor.
Designed by Yves Bernard Andre, about as per-
fectionist an audiophile as you'll ever find, all
products in the line are the result of extensive
listening, exclusive use of custom passive parts,
and careful system integration to assure that the
Conrad-Johnson's DF -10 combines CD final product is sonically identical to the pro-
player and line preamplifier totype Three levels of design are available each
level consisting of an amp and apreamp. Prices
caps (a source of component failure in the hover around $6000 for Level 1, $3000 for
past). Instead, expensive polypropylene and Level 2, and $1600 for Level 3. After Yves Ber-
polystyrene caps are used exclusively for line
filtering and bypass. Also new from C-J is the
Model DF -1 CD-player/preamp ($1385). The
CD-player section represents C-J's best effort
to date, while the FET-based line-level preamp
section draws heavily on the Motif line of elec-
tronics. Thus, in amodestly priced package,
you've got the nucleus for aCD-based system.
The preamp section can accommodate two
high-level inputs (eg, tape deck and tuner), and
also provides atape output. This strikes me YEIA's Level 3power amplifier from Sumiko
as agreat concept, and should appeal to those features minimalist design philosophy and
audiophiles who have kicked the analog bucket. much attention to the sound of "passive"
C-J's PV-10 preamp should find stiff compe- components

nard gave me the "grand tour," and Iobserved
the personal way in which he relates to the var-
ious parts in the chassis, Ihad little trouble
believing that the design as awhole must sound
wonderfully musical. Hook forward to review-
ing asampling from this line.
The Futterman is back! Dallas-based and
immodestly named Prodigy Audio Labora-
tories introduced the Monoblock 150 ampli- Sumo's Mk.II Andromeda
fier—an updated version ofJulius Futterman's
capacitively coupled, output-transformerless state amplification. Agtron, amanufacturer of
circuit. Improvements in the output stage and analytical laboratory electronics and photomet-
power supply are claimed to have improved the rics, apparently also harbors anumber of audi-
bass performance and reliability At $7000/pair ophiles, including president and CEO Carl
they are not cheap, but welcome back anyway! Staub. So Agtron is off in anew direction, but
what is really arefreshing change is that here
is anew high-end manufacturer with an al-
ready-established design, manufacturing, and
service base. The Platinum FHT line was de-
signed with computer-aided time-domain cir-
cuit modeling, which allows iterative analysis
of circuit behavior in response to dynamic
stimulation. This system is claimed to have the
ability to quantify and analyze the effects of
such things as capacitor dielectrics, dissipation
factor, and group-delay distortion effects. The
FHT preamp ($3000 w/phono module) is not
Prodigy's Monoblock 150 amplifier—a Fut-
only based on this time-domain design, but
terman by any other name!
also uses premium passive parts, class-A gain
stages, an external power transformer, and four
Sumo introduced the Andromeda II, a$1499, separate and regulated power supplies. It all
200W/8-ohm solid-state amp, and, according sounds very good; Ilook forward to hearing
to Sumo, their "finest high-end amplifier." one of these.
Sumo also announced that Great American The Classé Audio DR-5 preamp ($1995) is
Sound (GAS), the progenitor of such products descended from the DR-7. It is moving- coil-
as Ampzilla and Son of Ampzilla, has been pur- capable and balanced in construction. The DR-
chased by Sumo's parent company and is being 8 amp, at $2395, can put out 280W into 2
restructured to operate as asister company. The ohms, and is also bridgeable for awhopping
first order of business will be the establishment 850W into 2ohms.
of factory-authorized service centers around
the country to take care of the needs of current
GAS owners.
New from Boulder are the 250AE ($3590/
pair) and 500AE ($5590/pair) amplifiers. They
are based on the discrete, high-performance
op-amp circuit topology of the 500, but with-
out some of the professional touches such as
input attenuators. The amps can be used in
either stereo or mono mode. In stereo, the
power output of the 500AE is 150W into 8 Classe Audio DR-5 balanced preamplifier
ohms; in mono, apair may be bridged to pro-
duce 500W into 8ohms. Dan D'Agostino must really be asci-fi nut,
Platinum, adivision of Agtron and anew because he's at it again. From the Forbidden
guy on the block, offers afull array of solid- Planet (home of the Krell race) we now have

K iseki: "Hear the sound of one hand clapping."
Introducing new Kiseki. Handcrafted cartridges lovingly produced by asmall

number of masters in the old tradition. No expense has been spared in the
design and execution of these joyful expressions of the art of cartridge making.
Imagine cartridge bodies hewn from solid blocks of polished stone, rare hard-
woods and exotic alloys. Sapphires, diamonds and rubies form jewelled canti-
levers artfully shaped by lasers. Styli are first precision-ground: then, in a
unique process using human hair, buffed to perfection.
The magic of Kiseki lies in the ability to resolve the zen riddle that is music: Delicate.
majestic...intimate, powerful... refined, explosive! . .
controlled, emotional...natural.
Kiseki replaces recorded confusion with clarity and in so doing, recreates real music.
e. Blue Gold. Magnesium alloy body, aluminum with boron overlay cantilever. Kiseki Jewel stylus. A taste
of handbuilt greatness Light. delicate, and smooth with alarge soundstage. S600.
▪ Purpleheartwoed Sapphire. Purpleheartwood body. pure sapphire cantilever. Kiseki Jewel stylus.
Vivid, detailed, rich. resonant. Best Buy. Hi-Fi Answers 1988. $975.
o Agaat Ruby. Solid agate body. 4.5 mm ruby cantilever. Kiseki Jewel stylus. $1250.
Strikingly beautiful. both visually and sonically. Sweet, lyrical, and refined. Never shrill or abrasive.
▪ Black Heart. Black Heartwood body. boron cantilever, hand selected Kiseki Jewel. hand tuned after run
in Relaxed, composed. and supremely musical. $4.000.
o• Lapis Lazuli. Carved Lapis Lazuli body. solid diamond cantilever, hand-tuned after run in. allow several
months for special order. Price: Upon request.
Kiseki is pronounced kiss-say'- key
P.O. BOX 5046

BERKELEY, CA 94705
415-843-4500
Hi SP...R.(11110e. March I()s‘

the Altair amp. The Altair is actually afirst for (already available in the UK) to the US. There's
Krell, being their first class-AB design, and is afull line of electronics under $1000 which
rated at 100W/8 ohms, 200/4, and 400/2. It's promises to offer excellent value.
diminutive in size and heft, but not in price—a Not to be outdone, Mission Electronics,
cool $5500—and is aimed mainly at the Euro- which just opened aUS subsidiary, is expand-
pean market and at those who want both Krell ing its Cyrus line of audiophile products. For
sound and the convenience of being able to example, the Cyrus Il at $799 is areally good-
shelf-mount their entire system. Krell also looking integrated amp with a50W/8 ohm
introduced anew affordable preamplifier, the rating.
KSP-7B, to be priced at $2200. Unusually at this New from Hailer are the Iris Preamp and
price level, the main outputs of the '7B, which digital FM Miner. The preamp features adis-
replaces the PAM-7, are balanced. crete, class-A J-FET design and, of course, the
IRIS remote. IRIS stands for Infrared Integrated
System and uses infrared-activated digital cir-
cuitry to interface with Cadmium Sulfide photo
resistors to yield 0.25dB volume and 0.1dB bal-
ance resolution without compromising the sig-
nal integrity. The high-powered infrared emit-
ters in the IRIS eliminate the need to precisely
aim the remote at the preamp, and after along
Krell's first class-AB amplifier, the 100W/ demo by Jim Strickland Iconcluded that this
channel Altair is avery flexible, user-friendly device.
FM Acoustics Ltd. of Switzerland showed Odds & Ends: Even though JA instructed me
off their superb line of electronics, still as to concentrate on electronic products, Ican't
expensive as ever. There are two new amps: the help commenting on acouple of new and very
810 at (you'd better sit down for this one) exciting loudspeakers. First, the Aria, anew
$22,000 and the 610 at $12,500. There is also type of planar design from Sumo. Designed
anew preamp, priced at amere $55op. Because and manufactured exclusively for Sumo by
FM Acoustics had impressed me previously as Highwood Audio in Calgary, Alberta, Canada,
being specification-oriented, Iwas quite sur- the speaker features the first full-range dynamic
prised by the following excerpt from one of moving-coil driver. A spiderless voice-coil (fer-
their Technical Bulletins: "In low-noise circuits rofluid is used to center the voice-coil in the
such as preamplifiers each transistor is addi- gap) is used to vibrate the center of astretched
tionally selected by ear because it was found rectangular mylar membrane. A lot of work
that even transistors that have the same spectral went into controlling and minimizing the atten-
noise density and other technical parameters dant drumhead resonances. Flat response is
can still sound different" claimed from 40Hz to over 20kHz. The pair I
After a pleasant chat with Bob Carver, I heard had very good bass quality and imaged
listened very briefly to the Carver M-4.0t ($1000) extremely well. At $3000 /pair, this promises
monoblocks (supposedly the sonic clones of to be an excellent value.
the tubed Silver Seven) driving apair of the The new Model A-5 from Sound-Lab is a
Amazing Silver Edition speakers ($2200/pair). full-range electrostatic design along the lines
Guess what? The overall sound was quite tubey: of the A-3, and the first to employ curved side
soft and liquid on top, loose on the bottom. baffles to reduce front-to-back dipole cancel-
Carver kindly agreed to provide me with apair lation and improve the impact of the lower
of the Silver M-4.0ts and the Amazing Loud- rnids. At $4995 /pair, it promises to outshine the
speaker Platinum Edition ($2600/pair) for afull A-3 at aconsiderable savings in cost.
review. The best sound at the show? Unquestion-
A visit to the Acoustic Research suite ably, the live brass band Iran into at the Con-
meant blending into the Old West, complete vention Center. After that, and with only acou-
with authentically attired, gunslingin' sales ple of exceptions (one being the sound at the
staff. AR, really trying to make waves, intro- Versa Dynamics/Manley /Cardas suite), every-
duced the Spirit line of speakers and electronics thing at the show sounded like afar cry from

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live music. Generally, the sound was overly there being abass honk audible in some seats.
detailed, bright, and etched. Iwonder if there's The speakers, driven in this instance by apair
an audiophile agenda at work here—give the of SA-20s and Counterpoint's cost-no-object
audiophile what he most craves. I'll just hope SA-9/SA-11 remote-control preamplifier combo,
that's not the case, and remain an optimist by usually require the listener to sit at least 8' away
attributing what Iheard to show conditions. in order that the sound from the vertically
—Dick Oisher widely-spaced drivers integrates properly. Yet
the Counterpoint room was one of the few, in
my opinion, where music could be enjoyed.
John Atkinson Perhaps it was due to intelligent use of RPG Dif-
As Editor, Iexpected to have amore relaxing fusors. Certainly the Haitink Shostakovich 13,
show of it than ibm or Dick: 8my reporting task the "Babi Yar" symphony (London 414 410- 1),
was simply to report on what, if anything, they featured adeep, well-focused soundstage and
missed, spending most of my time in interest- neutral tonalities (except when the bass drum
ing conversation and the enjoyment of music drove the room into overload).
It was only when Iarrived at the show that I Another exhibitor to feature LP out of choice
realized that Iwould only know if they had was the room shared by V'I'L, Cardas, and
missed something after the show, when it Versa Dynamics, where IRS Betas were again
would be too late for me to hear and see it. I featured. Sounding sweeter in the treble than
therefore had to attempt to see everything after any of the samples J. Gordon Holt reviewed for
all! Phooey! Stereopblle, the Betas were driven by Manley
First, despite nearly every manufacturer and 500W monos on the mid/treble panels and
retailer confirming that the Fall of 1988 had Manley 350s on the bass. Front end was aVersa
been very bad for high-end business, everyone 2.0 fitted with aBenz cartridge feeding aMan-
seemed in an upbeat mood. Apparently high- ley Reference preamplifier, and cabling was,
end sales had picked up in the pre-Christmas naturally, by Cardas. Miles Davis's classic Kind
period and everyone expected 1989 to be abet- of Blue album sounded about the most nat-
ter year all 'round than '88. The overall mood ural—and musical—as 1have heard.
reflected the fact that the lack of sales in 1988 Audio Research had avast mausoleum of
wasn't due to the fact that consumers didn't ademo room, but also both remained loyal to
have any money; it was more due to the fact analog—using an Oracle/SME/Benz front
that although they did have money, they wer- end—and chose to use IRS Betas. Ilistened to
en't going to commit to pricey purchases until anumber of recordings in their room—it was
the future looked alittle more settled. my first opportunity to listen to the SP15 pre-
Second, it was noteworthy that, despite the amplifier aild Classic 150 power amplifiers—
launch at the show of an interesting bunch of and the one that stuck in my mind was the new
new turntables, almost every exhibitor was Chesky LP of Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe, per-
using CD to demonstrate their amps or speak- formed by the Boston Symphony under Charles
ers. It appeared that Wadia and Theta had Munch. Dating from 1955, the original two-
loaned many exhibitors samples of their D/A channel master was made at 30ips; the record
processors—I remember the days when it was cut by John Dent using Tim de Paravicini-
would have been Linn or Oracle that brought designed tube cutting amplifiers. The big news
large stocks of their front-ends to ashow for from Chesky in Las Vegas was the launch of
the same purpose—and the rooms that primar- CDs made with a6MHz-sampling A/D conver-
ily played LP were rare indeed. Counterpoint's tor that, according to David Chesky, "is to
Michael Elliott was using an Oracle/vdH EMT/ Colossus as ajet is to apropeller plane." The
SAEC LP player to get good sounds from the releases include asuperb 1962 performance of
soundtrack to the Coppola movie One From Brahrns's Symphony 1, from the London Sym-
the Heart even though he was using IRS Betas phony Orchestra conducted byJascha Horen-
in avery unsuitable room, the listeners being stein, engineered by Kenneth Wilkinson and
only 4-5' away from the mid/treble towers and produced by Chuck Gerhardt, as well as
Chesky's first original recordings, of small-
8My late father's name was Harry. Wouldn't it have been aneat group jazz. One of the latter, featuring veteran
thing for this report ill had been named after him? trumpet player Clark Terry, sounded convinc-

50IVY
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ingly natural in The Mod Squad room, played of electronics—drove 53735 Duetta Signature
on aPrism CD player and reproduced via Van- speakers in bi-amped mode via the new Apo-
dersteen 4A loudspeakers driven by Audio gee DAX electronic crossover. The DAX, which
Research Classic 150s. (The room acoustics had costs $3995, can be operated in both balanced
been extensively modified with ibbe 'naps and and single-ended modes, and offers control of
RPG Diffusors.) treble/woofer balance and ashelf of ±2dB at
News from the Moddies themselves at the 5kHz to allow for the rake of the speaker pan-
show was that the Line Drive Deluxe AGI that els, with six numerical readouts showing what
so impressed me in the January issue has had the user has selected. The sound here was
to have aprice increase, to $1095. It is also now about the least hi-fi Ihave heard in ahotel
available with the Phono Drive as asingle com- room: effortlessly smooth, yet revealingly
ponent, the Duet, costing $2595. A Duet cos- detailed, with extended highs. This was the
metic upgrade kit, for those who already own room where Iheard my personal "Best Record
separate Phono and Line Drives, consists of a of the Show": an album of solo violin music
double-height faceplate, anew top plate, and performed by Arturo Dehnoni 9and produced
extra feet, and will cost $595. As well as the by Jason with Water Lily Acoustics' Kavi Alex-
Clark Terry album, Ienjoyed atrack from a ander. Recorded in an abbey, the image of the
Canadian CD in the Mod Squad room that had violinist was presented with, in the immortal
been recommended by The Absolute Sounds words of the Audio Cheapskate, "palpable
Michael Fremer: "Cowboy Junkies," from the presence."
album The 7kinity Sessions (BMG 8568-R-R), The Wilson Audio Specialties room was
features adelicious solo female voice (unfor- also, of course, where analog was to be heard,
tunately with LF airconditioner accompani- and Iduly took my turn in exposing my psy-
ment) recorded with aCalrec Soundfield mic che to the WAMM Series Six. Weu, I
have to say
direct to R-DAT. Certainly one of the most that, when it comes to reproducing the sound
"real" recordings Iheard at the show. of David Abel and Julie Steinberg playing two
To return to analog, you could also hear real of Bartók's Six Roumanian Dances, this sys-
records in the Apogee room, where Jason tem faithfully created for me the illusion that
Bloom had asystem set up around aBasis turn- areal violinist and pianist were there in the
table fitted with an Airtangent tonearm carrying room. But at what cost! $80,000 for the speak-
aKoetsu Rosewood Signature cartridge. Cello
electronics—Jason Bloom said that he didn't
9Arturo Delmoni will be giving afree recital at Stereopbile's
want Apogee to be associated with just one line San Francisco show, due to take place April 21 through 23
The Mod Squad room featured their Prism CD player and Duet preamplifier, with ARC Clas-
sic 150s driving Vandersteen 4As

ers, with probably another $40,000 for the rest these two processors sounded in the VMPS
of the system. And the illusion of reality broke room, where Brian Cheney had set up both fed
down, Ifelt, with larger-scale music. Still some with the digital output of aSony player. The
work to do, David and Sheryl Lee—but you're new VMPS Super Tower III speakers were
getting closer and closer to that elusive absolute being driven by Classé DR-3 amplifiers, and
sound. Brian had arranged for the room to approxi-
Following this experience, Ivisited the Kin- mate alive-end/dead-end environment. De-
ergetics room, where the affable Tony Di spite arather warm balance overall, the sound
Chian was producing musical sounds from afar was exceptionally transparent, and differences
more modest system. A Kinergetics KCD-30 were readily audible. Both decoders seemed
CD player fed the latest version of their KBA-75 to be champions at the traditional hi-fi perfor-
stereo class-A power amplifier») driving Spica mance aspects: inaudible noise, irrelevant dis-
Tt -50s supported on dedicated speaker stands tortion, etc.; and both effectively presented the
that enclosed apair of Kinergetics BSC-100 music. But they differed in the manner in
subwoofers driven by their matching ampli- which they handled that music. The Wadia's
fier/controller/crossover. As Iwalked in, Tony presentation of my own piano recording
was playing asolo guitar track from the Harmo- seemed to emphasize the acoustic space, the
nia Munch Tarantule-Tarantelle album, which ambient soundfield on the recording, while
sounded, if not real in the sense of musicians rendering the piano rather mellow-sounding
being in the room, as is characteristic of the in comparison with what Iremembered the
WAMM, then believable, albeit on asmaller actual piano tone to be. The Theta, with the
scale. Iasked Tony to play my own piano re- VMPS speakers, seemed more true to the tonal
cording on the HFN/RR Test CD. Having quality of the Steinway. Maybe both, maybe all
played the disc in anumber of other rooms and CD replay systems, should still be regarded as
having been surprised at how different the works-in-progress when it comes to state-of-
piano sounded on otherwise good-sounding the-art CD sound.
systems, Iam pleased to note thin the sound in VMPS distributes the John Curl-designed
the Kinergetics room was stunningly true to the Wndetta Research amplification, and launched
sound of the original Steinway. Nice one, Ken anew version of the SCP2 phono preamplifier
and Tony! which has become both J. Gordon Holt's and
Now that I'm launched on the subject of dig- my reference. The SCP2A has revised power
ital replay, California Audio Labs launched supplies, with five times as much reservoir
a premium version of their Tempest II CD capacitance, giving a total of 20,000g per
player. The Tempest Special Edition is priced channel, and separate secondary windings for
at $3995, compared with the standard version's positive and negative voltage rails. The SCP2A
$2995—not $2200 as LA quoted in his review now has zero loop feedback. Still dual-mono
of Thiel speakers in January. The SE uses se- in construction, adouble-width front panel
lected Burr Brown 18-bit DACs and an 8x- now straps the two channel modules, though
oversampling digital filter and, according to the two power transformers remain indepen-
CAL's Art Paymer, offers "a 20% improvement dently housed. The retail price is to be $2250.
in detail resolution over the standard Tempest." Madrigal Audio Laboratories announced a
Ihad the chance to listen to the 64x-oversam- plethora of new Mark Levinson products at
piing Wadia 2000 "decoding computer" in a the show, the No.25 dual monaural phono pre-
number of rooms and Ihave to say that Iwas amp, No.20.5 class-A monoblock power ampli-
impressed. The Wadia, which uses AT&T DSP fier, and No.27 100Wpc power amplifier. The
chips to implement the digital filtration and Na27, to be priced at $3495, is asmaller cousin
oversampling, with the filter coefficients stored of the No.23 class-AB amplifier, retaining the
in replaceable ROMs, must be up there with the latter's dual-monaural construction and burst-
Theta DS Pre processor in being close to the proof protection. The No.25 is built in an iden-
state of the art in reconstructing an analog sig- tically sized enclosure to the PLS -226 power
nal from the digital data stored on CD. Yet Ihave supply for the No.26 preamp, and carries the
to admit to some surprise as to how different No.26's phono board, providing it with four
regulated voltage rails, one each for the posi-
10 The changes involve the addition of independent voltage
regulators on the left- and right-channel low-level circuits. tive and negative supplies of each channel. The

The fully loaded Mark Levinson preamplifier system: from left to right, No.25 phono pream-
plifier, No.26 line preamplifier with balanced-input board, PLS-226 power supply
user can power the No.25 from the second out- products at CES was anew loudspeaker from
put socket on the preamp's PLS-226 supply, but Meridian, the System D600, comprised of an
Madrigal has found that the best performance aluminum-dome tweeter with two 160mm
is obtained when the No.25 is powered from polypropylene bass/midrange drivers in a
an independent PLS-226 supply. The '25 is reflex enclosure That this is more than aloud-
available in two versions, High Gain at $1875
and Low Gain at $1800; the PLS-226 costs
$950; owners of phono -equipped No.26s can
buy just the No.25 enclosure and mother
board, their dealer then transferring the phono
card from '26 to '25. The empty space in the
'26 can then be fitted with the Mark Levinson
balanced line-input card, to be used with the
XLR input sockets already present on the rear
panel.
The No.20.5 is adirect descendant of the
No.20, an additional $1000 bringing the price
per pair to $11,500. All differences between the
two are contained on the plug-in AP-4 card,
which carries the audio input circuitry, second
voltage gain stage, and current mirror, and
replaces the earlier amplifier's AP-3 card. (All
except the earliest-production No.20s can be
upgraded by changing this card.) We have a
'25/'26 combination and apair of '20.5s in
Santa Fe; areview is planned to appear in the
very near future.
The English Meridian products were dis-
tributed by Madrigal, but it was announced in
Las Vegas that from February 1, their own sub-
sidiary company will handle US distribution.
The split appeared to be amicable, and was due
both to Meridian's parent company, AGI, who
also own KEF, needing to rationalize their US
operation and the possibility of future Madrigal
products aiming at the same market sector as Meridian 0600 "intelligent" loudspeaker
Meridian. For me, one of the most exciting features digital inputs

THE
eDE q°
MARCH 1989
Flip Side
THE NEWS- • LETTER OF AUDIOPHILE SYSTEMS
Equipment Supports from

The Sound Organisation
Hi-Fi furniture is much more than a convenient housing for your hi-fi
components. The type of cabinet you select will actually affect the overall
performance of your system.
The most obvious example of this involves the turntable. Some years ago
the common wisdom was that, to combat acoustic feedback and other environmental
problems, a turntable should be placed on avery massive cabinet. Unfortunately,
while a heavy cabinet moves very little, its movement is at a very low frequency,
usually below the cut-off frequency of the turntable suspension. Thus this vibration
passes right through the turntable suspension and is fed directly into the hi-fi
system. The disastrous effect this has on the performance of the system has now been
documented repeatedly by the hi-fi press around the world. Today it is accepted that
turntables should be placed on arigid, low mass table. Rigid to prevent movement,
low mass so that any vibrations will be at a high enough frequency to be filtered
out by the turntable's suspension.
It has also been documented that other components are affected by vibrations as
well. Cassette decks, CD players, and even amplifiers and tuners all have
mechanical components that are susceptible to micro-
phonic problems. Even when mechanical parts are
limited to switches, volume controls, and circuit board
connectors, it has been found that performance improves
when the component is placed on a low mass, rigid
support.
The Sound Organisation, a small British company,
manufactures acomplete line of equipment supports that
allow you to get the best performance from your hi-fi
system. These range from simple Turntable Tables or
Wall Shelves to complete Stacking Systems that can be
assembled in dozens of configurations and rearranged as
your system changes. (The photo shows only one of the
possibilities. Several different base units are available and
any number of stackers can be added as required.)
All Sound Organisation supports, even the simplest
Turntable Substand, are constructed to the highest
standards and incorporate a rigid, welded steel
framework. Each laminated shelf is supported by
pointed spikes that decouple it from the mass of the
framework.
For additional Information on Sound Organisation products and the name of the dealer nearest you
contact:
Audiophile Systems, Ltd., 8709 Castle Park Dr., Indianapolis, IN 46256 (317) 849-7103
Aldburn Electronics, 127 Portland Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5V 2N4 (416) 863-0915
titcreophile. March 1989

speaker is apparent from the soft green digital pinpoint any particular instrumental or vocal
display at the top of each speaker's baffle. The image. You can imagine our surprise when the
D600 is an active speaker, each carrying an curtain was pulled back to reveal asingle cen-
electronic crossover and three power ampli- trally placed speaker. The Stereolith "Duetto,"
fiers dedicated to the drive-units: 70W each for which will cost 81095 in white or black lacquer
the tweeter and upper of the two woofers, or 8795 in avinyl finish, is a two-channel
140W for the bass. But it is more than even that, speaker, but has only one enclosure.
as the D600 is intended to be the heart of asys- The intention of designer Walter Schupbach
tem. Its rear panel carries two analog and three was to produce a single speaker that
digital inputs (two coax, one optical), the latter reproduced afull-sized "stereo" image. How
feeding aphase-locked loop synchronization it attempts to achieve this is not exactly clear
circuit, a4x-oversampling digital filter, and dual from the supplied literature, and you will see
16-bit DACs. that Ifelt it did not exactly achieve this goal.
The '600 comes with afull-function remote But for non-audiophiles who want a"big," spa-
control, the 609, that offers source switching, cious sound with the minimum of space taken
analog control of volume featuring 64 steps, up in their living room, the Duetto, which can
channel balance, an HF tilt control, control of be ceiling-mounted above alarge-screen TV
bass shelving to add adegree of room optimi- monitor or projection TV, will, Iam sure, be
zation, all affecting both speakers or just one. very popular. Expect to see it in the Sharper
ACD player with aserial data output and apair Image catalog real soon.
of D600s would be all that would be required
to set up acomplete remote-control CD sys-
tem. The '600 can also communicate with
"intelligent" sources: add aMeridian 204 FM
tuner/timer, and this too can be controlled by
the loudspeaker remote control, the speaker
display indicating what station has been se-
lected and its frequency, etc.
The potential for multi-room systems is
obvious, but for Stereopbile readers, the pri-
mary aspect of such aproduct will be sound
quality. Well, Ihave to say that Iwas impressed.
Whether it was the fact that this was asystem
effectively without interconnects or speaker
cables, Idon't know, but the sound (from the
Hogwood Messiah recording on L'Oiseau -Lyre)
had awealth of detail apparent, without any
upfront "glare." Highs were smooth and ex- Revox's two-channel, single enclosure
tended, and the stereo imaging was excellent, Stereolith speaker
being stable and precisely focused. Ilook for-
ward to receiving apair of D600s for review. Back in the land of audiophile speakers,
The Swiss Revolt company has also been Martin-Logan announced new versions of
turning their attention to multi-room and re- their CLS and Sequel electrostatics. The
mote-controlled systems, but the product of 82925/pair CLS Series II features an improved
theirs Ifound most intriguing at the show was amplifier interface, with abetter transformer,
anew loudspeaker system. Larry Archibald and which, in conjunction with an increased excur-
Iwere sat down in front of acurtain and asked sion ability for the membrane, results in 2dB
for opinions on the sound of their new speaker, increased sensitivity, 2dB more power han-
which was being used in conjunction with a dling, and about athird of an octave lower bass
Revox "Piccolo" subwoofer. In particular, Re- extension, with alower Q. In addition, the
vox was interested in how we found the stereo Series II speaker has a"soft contour" switch,
imaging. Ifound the soundstage wide, but not which shelves down the response between
that well focused. There was an impressive 2kHz and 20kHz to allow for some flexibility
"big" quality to the imaging, but it was hard to in matching other components in the system.

Quattro II...
Numbers that count.
The STAX CDP Quattro II is hardly the sole 18-bit, 8-times-over-
sampling compact disc player on the market. What makes it preferable
to the others?
Readers of this publication can no doubt recall that the most
demanding listeners found earlier 14-bit and 16-bit designs notably defi-
cient in the retrieval of low-level details, particularly those conveying
the ambience of the recording site. As maker of the world's most
revealing headphones, STAX has demonstrated an understanding of
the nuances of recorded sound that, culminating in the unequalled
SR-Lambda Signature, uniquely qualifies this company to extract more
information from the compact disc medium.
The heart of the Quattro II is its 2ladder-network-type 18-bit
DIA converters, externally bit-trimmed for full accuracy and low-level
linearity—one per channel, to prevent phase differences between left
and right signals. The most obvious virtue of the 8-times-oversampling
approach is that the filtering of the digital output can be kept simple,
resulting in atreble as precisely detailed as it is lacking in so-called
digital asperity. Similarly, the down-to-DC bass response delivers the
performance the digital format has always promised.
Other niceties abound. The master clock, the base timer of digi-
tal data reconstruction and DIA conversion, is run from an isolated
power supply to avoid timing glitter. This clock generator is not located
in the player section, permitting ajitter-free resampling (DIA) timing
pulse to be fed directly to the DAC sample-and-hold 1-V converter.
The fixed direct output proceeds immediately from this I-V point—no
DC-cut capacitor or DC-null-
ing feedback servo.
Digital audio is,
simply put, numbers into
music. Whatever compact
disc you choose, the STAX
Quattro II allows those
numbers to count for more
—more information, more
detail, to move you closer
to the original musical
experience.
STAX
Pictured: CDP Quattro II high.resolution compact disc player. Photo: Ken Fabrick.
For afull-line brochure, please send E5.00 to:
Stax Kogyo, Inc. 940 E. Dominguez St., Carson. CA 90746
(The original CLS Ifound to be very demand- digital output. If the CD has its copy-protect
ing on the rest of the system if the overall bal- flag set, afront-panel LED lights to show that
ance was not to become too forward in the tre- that is the case, but the Nakamichi continues
ble.) The Series II Sequel has appeared with to record. In fact, the only thing it will not do
almost indecent haste after the original at present is to record from an analog source
model—Lewis Lipnick's review for Stereopbile at 44.1kHz, which seems to me to be astrange
only appeared last December—but designer omission: the ability to prepare amaster tape
Gayle Sanders felt the changes important for CD production without going through any
enough to be implemented right away. The kind of sampling-frequency convertor would
dynamic woofer now has asealed-box align- seem to be an obvious task for aDAT recorder.
ment, to give better time-domain performance, Will the RIAA sue on the grounds that sales
while the speaker is supplied in bi- wirable of the Nakamichi 1000 will represent lost sales
form. A bass control has been added to allow of LPs and CDs due to teenagers copying them
tailoring of the woofer output to better inter- on to DAT tapes? Well, they could try, I'm sure,
face with the listener's room, and the EHT sup- but as this beautifully made two-box
ply has been made "stiffer" so that fluctuation Nakamichi is to be priced at $10,000 ($4600 for
in the line voltage up to ±15% will have no the self-calibrating 16-bit A/D and 20-bit D/A
effect. This has been achieved with only a$100 digital processor, $5400 for the remote control
increase in the price of the speaker, to $2300. and transport, which features Nalcamichi's pro-
And the Statement, Martin-Logan's $40,000 prietary "F.A.S.T" tape-loading mechanism),
statement in speaker design? Gayle informed it is hard to see that the RIAA will have acase.
me that they are in production, with the first And if the RIAA doesn't sue, then surely a
system due to ship in January. We are keeping precedent for sales of consumer R-DAT
our fingers crossed that Stereopbile readers will machines in the US will have been set if they
be able to hear the Statement, along with the do decide to take legal action when some other
Wilson WHOW and the Infinity IRS V, at our manufacturer introduces a$1000 machine.
show next month in San Francisco. Finally: the show marked the 50th anniver-
With one exception, Japanese manufacturers sary of television in the USA and Monster
were quiet about DAT. The exception, however, Cable's 10th anniversary. Monster celebrated
made enough noise for all, for it was the occasion by launching their most expen-
Nakamichi launching what was both their first sive cables yet, the M.Sigma Series M2000 inter-
consumer R-DAT recorder and the first to be connect which, complete with Monster's ihr-
officially sold in the US despite the threats of bine Connectors, is priced at $750 for alm pair,
lawsuits by the RIAA. Indeed, Nakamichi seem and M.Sigma Series M2 speaker cable, again
almost to be courting litigation as, contrary to priced at $750 but this for an 8' pair. (The orig-
the "gentleman's agreement" among DAT inal Monster Cable sold for $0.65/ft back in
manufacturers that consumer machines would 1979.) —John Atkinson
not be able to record digitally at 44.1kHz, the
CD sampling frequency, the new Nakamichi II Yes, the coincidence between the model number and that
of the original Nakamichi state-of-the-art analog cassette
1000" will record directly from aCD player's machine of about 15 years ago is intentional.
el»!
,10111:
: 111 },
.
II 1 ez
P •••••imi
• ààà
Nakamichi's desirable Model 1000 R-DAT transport and digital processor

WHY IT TAKES A
20-BIT CD PLAYER
TO APPROACH TRUE
16-BIT LINEARITY.
If human ingenuity could
build the perfect 16-bit digital-to-
analog converter, there would be
no need for Denon's new 20-bit
approach to building CD Players. illi
Unfortunately, 16-bit players have
always been susceptible to distor-
tion-inducing non-linearities and
quantization errors. This means
they can't maintain accurate
spacing between all of the 65,536
amplitude levels available from
the 16-bit samples of the Compact
Di sc . This oscilloscope trace confirms the even spacing
of amplitude levels in Denon's 20-bit system.
Enter Denon's "Delta" sys-
tem. It combines the world's first 20-bit 8x resampling digital filter with the first true 20- bit
linear converters to process each 16-bit sample to four additional digits of accuracy. (That's
something like using 3.141593 as the value of "pi" when everyone else uses 3.14.)
This is no mere computational trick: Denon
20-bit CD Players literally extract more music from
the Compact Disc. They exhibit better dynamic
range, lower noise, and lower distortion during
quiet passages. In the process, Denon 20-bit
machines reveal more of the low-level detail that
defines musical timbre. On well-recorded CDs,
you'll hear more of what makes afrench horn
sound like afrench horn.
There's more. Since the days of Denon's early digital recorders, we've understood that
not all digital bits are created equal. The digital word's Most Significant Bit (MSB) contrib -
utes 32,768 times the amplitude of the Least Significant Bit (LSB).
That's why every Denon Compact Disc Player since 1983 has included the Super Linear
Converter —acircuit we use to hand-adjust the MSB of every Player for superior accuracy.
Recognizing the wisdom of Denon's approach, independent academic papers have now
identified D/A conversion error in the MSB as the primary culprit behind audible distortion
in Compact Disc Players.
With Super Linear Converters, the 20-bit "Delta" circuit, and Denon refinements in
power supply, laser transport and chassis design, the new Denon DCD -3520 and DCD -1520
elevate digital playback to anew level of musi-
cality. In the process, they achieve the closest
approach yet to true 16-bit linearity.
DES.GN INTEGRITY
Dena. Amen.. lot 222 New Rood Ro.s.p000y. N107054 (7011575.7810

Hatter Ca Precise Acoustic Laboratories
5910 Crescent Blvd. 200 Williams Dr. Ste. B
Pennsauken, NJ 08109 Ramsey, NJ 07446
(609) 662-6355 (201) 934-1335
Hales Audio Loudspeakers Ouicksilver Audio
PO Box 1028 3707 Merrimac Circle
Pleasanton. CA 94566 Stockton, CA 95209
(415) 846-1520 (209) 477-6428
Infinity Systems Inc. Reference Recordings
9409 Owensmouth Ave Box 77225-x
Chatsworth, CA 91311 San Francisco, CA 94107
1818) 709-9400 (415) 355-1892
Kindel Audio SimplyPhysics, Inc.
3615 Presley Ave. 4230 Glenchase Lane
Riverside, CA 92507 Houston, TX 77014
(714) 787-0662 (713) 537-5083
Kinergetics Inc. SOTA Industries
6029 Reseda Blvd PO Box 7075
Tarzana, CA 91356 Berkeley, CA 94707
(818)345-2851 (415) 527-1649
Krell Industries Snell Acoustics
20 Higgins Dr 709 1
/ Micheltorena St
2
Milford, CT 06460 Los Angeles. CA 90026
(203) 874-3139 (213) 662-9000
Lazarus Electronics Sound Lab
15046 Friar St 6451 Mountain View Dr.
Van Nuys, CA 91411 Park City. UT 84060-6128
(818) 242-1215 (801) 649-0172
MR Cambridge/Audio Influx Carver Corporation MM Levinson/Madrigal Ltd Sumo
RR a2, Box 478 PO Box 1237 2081 S Main St 21300 Supenor SI
Highland Lakes, NJ 07422 Lynnwood, WA 98036 Middletown. Cl 06457 Chatsworth, CA 91311
(201) 764-8958 (206) 775-1202 (203) 346-0896 (818) 407-2400
Acoustic Research/Teledyne Chesky Records Martin-Logan TDL
330 Turnpike St PO Box 1268. Radio City Station 2001 Delaware 652 Glenbrook Rd.
Canton, MA 02021 New York, NY 10101 Stamford, CT 06906
Lawrence, KS 66046
(617) 821-2300 (800) 426-8576 (913) 749-0133 (203) 324-7269
Altus Lansing Consumer Classé Audio Inc, Theta Digital Corp.
May Audio Marketing Ud.
Products 9414 Cote de Liesse Rd 76 Main St 6360 Van Nuys Blvd Ste 5
Milford, PA 18337 Lachine, Quebec Champlain, NY 12919 Van Nuys. CA 91401
(717) 296-4434 Canada HOT 1A1 (518) 298-4434 (714) se - 8908
Amtech Video Audio Mfg. (514) 636-6384 Thiel Audio Products Company
Melon Audio
4848 Vogelsang Conrad-Johnson 723 Bound Brook Rd. 1042 Nandino Blvd
Sacramento, GA 95842 2800R Don rAve Dunellen. NJ 08812 Lexington, KY 40511
(916) 331-5133 Fairfax, VA 22031 (201) 968-8771 (606) 254-9427
Apogee Acoustics (703) 698-8581 Triad Design Inc.
Meridian
35 York Industrial Park Counterpoint 14120-K Sullyfield Circle PO Box 99
Randolph, MA 02368 10635 Roselle St Chantilly, VA 22021 Fairview. OR 97024
(617)963-0124 San Diego CA 92121 (703) 818-3028 (503) 666-3666
Arcici Inc. (619) 598-9090 MFA Systems VMPS Audio Products Co.
2067 Broadway, Ste 41 Crigier Brothers/ 3178 Fowler Rd. 3412 Enc CI
New York, NY 10023 Audible Difference San Jose, CA 95135 El Sobrante, CA 94803
(212) 724-6021 3963 Cottage Hill Rd (408) 274-5679 (415) 222-4276
Audio Research Cora Mobile, AL 36609 Vacuum Tube Logic/Manley
6801 Shingle Creek Parkway (205)666-9197 Mission Electronics Corp. 4774 Munetta SI.a9
Minneapolis, MN 55430 Dorian Recordings of America Chino. CA 91710
(612) 566-7570 17 State St Ste 2E 5985 Atlantic Dr x6 (714) 627-7204
Troy, NY 12180 Mississauga, Ontario
Audio-Technica US Inc. Vandersteen Audio
1221 Commerce Dr (518) 274-5475 Canada L4W 1S4
116 W Fourth St
(416) 673-3777
Stow, OH 44224 Dual/Ortolon Hanford, CA 93230
(216)686-2600 122 Dupont St The Mod Squad 1209) 582-0324
Avance/Just Speakers, Inc. Plainview, NY 11803 542 N Highway 101 Versa Dynamics
3170 23rd St (516) 349-9180 Leucadia. CA 92024 Orchard House. Cedar Grove Rd
San Francisco, CA 94110 Dynavector Systems USA Inc. (619) 436-7666 Media, PA 19063
(415) 641-9228 2217 S Grand Ave Monitor Audio (215) 356-1235
SAW Loudspeakers Santa Ana, CA 92705 1755 Plummer St .Unit 20 Wadia/Duntech
PO Box 653 (714) 549-7204 Pickenng, Ontario 4821 McAlpine Farm Rd
Buffalo, NY 14240 Canada L1W 3S1 Charlotte NC 28226
FM Acoustics
(416) 297-0595 (416) 831-4741 (704) 542-8600
PO. Box 854
Basis Audio Benicia, GA 94510 Monster Cable Products, Inc Waterworks acoustics
47 Green Heron Lane (707) 745-4444 101 Townsend St 3365 Fernside Blvd
Nashua. NH 03062 Finial Technology San Francisco, CA 94107 Alameda, CA 94501
707 East Evelyn Ave (415) 777-1355 (415) 522-0374
(603)888-6017
Benz/Panther Sunnyvale. CA 94086 Nakamichl U.S.A. Well-Tempered Lab/
Enterprises (408) 720-9800 19701 S Vermont Ave Transparent Audio Marketing
8825 Urbana Ave FosgatelAudionics Torrance, CA 90502 RI 202, Box 117
Arleta, CA 91331 55 W. 100 St (213) 538-8150 Hollis, ME 04042
(818) 909-0294 Heber City, UT 84032 (207) 929-4553
Nestorovic Labs
Boulder Amplifiers (801) 654-4046
8307 NE 110th PI Wilson Audio Specialties
4850 Sterling Dr Futterman/ Kirkland, WA 98034 100 Rush Landing Rd Ste 101
Boulder. CO 80301 Prodigy Audio Laboratories (206) 821-0225 Novato, CA 94945
(303) 449-8220 4345 Lindberg Dr PlatinumlAgtron (415) 897-8440
California Audio Labs Addison. TX 75001 475 Edison Way YBA/Sumilco, Inc.
7231 Garden Grove Blvd Ste F (214) 980-2628 PO. Box 20456 PO Box 5046
Garden Grove, CA 92641 Great American Sound Reno, NV 89515 Berkeley, CA 94705
(714) 894-9747 see Sumo (702) 329-8993 (415) 843-4500
Stcreophile. March 1989

PURE GOLD
Alvin Gold
Roksan keeps its reputation, at least so far as
S
orne months ago, one of the mainstream
British hi-fi magazines published an product names are concerned. Artimez, indeed!
editorial explaining why they would no What does it sound like to you? An Olympian
longer publish group reviews of turntables. The god? Awatery Australian beer? No, with aname
magazine concerned was New Hi -Fi Sound, like that, it has to be the real thing.
whose format includes agroup test of 8or 10 With the number of new arms being released
products of one type each month. Their rea- down to atrickle (launches never were two a
son for dropping record players wasn't any per- penny, but they're fewer and farther between
ceived inadequacy—they still produce tests of now), most are concentrated at the budget end
cassette decks—but the increasing difficulty of the market, or go straight for the top end.
in putting together sufficiently large groups of This reflects their respective manufacturers'
black-vinyl record-playing roundabouts. By desires to make enough of aliving either by
their reckoning, the situation has passed the selling lots of arms, or by selling relatively few
point of diminishing returns. That's the wrong with good margins. But Roksan, as usual, is
phrase, but you know what Imean. doing things their way: the Artimez is aimed
Nevertheless, and with acertain amount of squarely at the unglamorous and competitive
difficulty, agroup of some 25 or so assorted middle market area.
new, revised, or previously ignored record The Artimez is asimplified version (ha) of an
players, arms, and suchlike were assembled for arm—the ultimate Roksan arm—yet to come.
atest Iwas responsible for, and we only just That model, due for release this year, is to be
missed several additional models. Ifound this called the Cambyses, and will offer amore
wholly remarkable, and not alittle pleasing. sophisticated version of the Artimez bearings
Almost in the very month that PolyGram and amore user-friendly arm-cueing device.
announces that classical LP production on the How the latter is to be achieved isn't clear.
famous Deutsche Grammophon label is to As befits the progeny of ayoung, vigorous,
cease, we have as catholic aselection of new design-oriented outfit like Roksan, the Artimez
and exciting record-playing components as I is ashowcase for new thinking. As befits the
have seen in half adecade or more. So some- popular image of the technical press, flounder-
one has done his or her sums wrong. There ing around in atechnological pea soup and sad-
were important models at all price levels, dled with the stereotyped role (I always thought
designed to appeal to the audiophile or to the stereotypes suited hi-fi reviewers particularly
more general user (in rare and welcome cases, well) of disseminating rationalist obfuscation,
both), and there were also the Well-Tempered Idon't intend to get too heavy on this one. The
Turntable and Arm. Yes, we had all sorts here. ideas behind the design can't be ignored, though.
One of the stars, if only because the com- The front of the arm consists of awide-diam-
pany's outstanding success with their first eter armtube with the headshell press-formed
product is bound to excite close attention to from the collapsed end of the tube, the novel
anything they do, came from the outfit whose features here being the forging process and the
first product was the oddly named Xerxes turn- strength of the headshell contributed by the
table, aresounding success that has not been two thicknesses (2mm) of metal involved.
matched by their second product, the Darius The other end of the arm Ifind harder to
loudspeaker. The burning question of the come to grips with. There are some important
moment is whether their tonearm continues plus points, for example the low center of grav-
in the tradition of innovation in the service of ity of the counterweight section (I'll have more
art that Roksan achieved with the Xerxes itself. to say on this shortly), and the placing of the
In this country, the Xerxes is now the clear vertical bearings in the horizontal plane of the
number two, outselling all other expensive record, reducing the lifting effect of the arm
turntables as convincingly as it remains outsold over warps and stuff like that.
by the eternal Linn Sondek itself. What's really unusual, however, is the way

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the counterweight is coupled to the arm. More bearings do not tether the tube at one end
correctly, Ishould say decoupled, as it is hung properly, and it makes itself felt by adding an
from aunipivot bearing which bears into a edge of excitability to treble reproduction. This
cone-shaped depression in acarrier which can seems to add to the apparent clarity of the
be positioned anywhere along the length of the design, but it's afalse clarity which superim-
arm rear extension. The idea is to reduce inertia poses an unvaryingly steely quality on the
at the stylus tip during maximum arm acceler- music, and which results in aloss of stereo
ation. As the arm moves sideways, the coun- image specificity.
terweight is moved through alateral arc, but in My feeling is that the design is inherently
the first place at least it doesn't rotate around highly talented, but it stands to benefit from
the arm pivot point, though it tends to catch the settling-in process that will almost cer-
up over an interval too long to be relevant to tainly occur as production continues. The price
our argument. The same principle operates in is attractive, however, at least in the UK. It
the vertical plane. costs £350.
At worst, the idea seems unobjectionable, Given CD and all that, Roksan may reasona-
and indeed provides adegree of decoupling bly have expected to have had aclear run with
without damping that might be welcomed. the introduction of their arm, but it wasn't to
The Artimez arm does provide low effective be. The heavyweight arm introduction of the
mass, but there is aproblem in that tracking year, of course, is the Linn Ekos. Visually almost
force varies with vertical orientation, which identical to the Ittok, it is atriumph of the arti-
shunts the counterweight toward or away from san, being essentially bankrupt of new think-
the arm pivot. The effect, which cannot be ing, especially when measured against the Arti-
desirable, is to modulate tracking force accord- mez. Instead, it could be seen as the triumph
ing to vertical orientation. As the arm rides the of evolution over revolution. But it is atriumph.
crest of awarp, tracking force is at aminimum. The arm is not the same as the Wok because
It would have been better the other way. Imust almost all the components are different. Ithink
also question the design of the bearings. The only the bias force dial—incidentally, the only
bias mechanism is odd, too, but not damag- item now made in Japan—is carried over from
ingly so; we'll pass it by. the old model. The differences extend to the
My arm sample was an early one, suffering materials, interfaces, and manufacturing pro-
what Ihope are only teething problems: to wit, cesses involved, but other than that the two
bearings that, according to their state of adjust- arms look pretty similar. The Ekos has ablack
ment, were either too tight or too slack and finish, while the Wok is covered in bright
which always seemed amite notchy. Engineers metal, au naturel as it were. Paradoxically it
in other companies who are enthusiastic about looks much more expensive that way. There
other aspects of the arm (the armtube/head- have even been black Ittoks, which must be
shell receives the most consistent praise) regard almost totally indistinguishable from the Ekos.
the lack of bearing behavior as inherent. I'll sus- In such cases you'll have to look at the armrest.
pend judgment. They did, after all, get avery The Ekos armrest is built into the base struc-
complex bearing design spectacularly right in ture, bringing the arm into line with virtually
the case of the Xerxes itself. all other arms and thus simplifying installation.
If the design appears to be kind of half cocked, Armrest apart, the differences between the
the sound is rather better than that description two Linn arms are small but vital, in engineer-
implies—between y
4and 7
4, I'd say. The design ing terms and in performance. But these differ-
lacks the "Linn bloom," and has aRega -like ences make the arm considerably more expen-
homogeneity in the midband allied to alevel sive. The armtube, of anew and harder alloy,
of in-depth resolution that is quite special, instead of being screwed and glued at each
matching almost anything on the market. Bass end, is secured by just ahigh-tech glue, amuch
slam is excellent, but not at the expense of more elegant solution that avoids deforming
tunefulness, separation, or control. and stressing the components. Linn claims this
Only two features prevent the Artimez from join is functionally identical to aone-piece
attaining top-level ranking. Treble quality isn't armtube. Who am Ito argue?
quite right. This lack of rightness is consistent The armtube and headshell are made from
with excitability in the armtube, where the new ultra-hard alloys, and the bearing hous-

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din
ing is machined from solid instead of being cast The new arm successfully addresses just
àla Ittok, which enables amuch harder alloy those areas where the look was at its weakest,
to be used. Asimilar story applies at the head- and make no mistake: it is avery impressive
shell end. The bearings are made to lian toler- machine. The most striking advances apparent
ances. Linn says that this is as good as can be in the new arm are much more consistent and
achieved in practice, and even then only by explicit stereo imagery, and asweeter, more
selection since 4iim is the best that can be lucid presentation. Consistency is at the root
ensured for individual machining operations. of these things, and ties in with what can best
Iconfess (without prejudice) that Iwas star- be described as an "on rails" quality when play-
tled to discover that this is precisely the toler- ing music, which had much of the poise and
ance level Rega claims to achieve routinely with strength exemplified by the Airtangent, though
their £90 arm, the RB300 (incidentally, the the two are hardly comparable in any other
component Rega claims is their most profita- respect.
ble). Rega also says they could make the Ekos Except this one: The Ekos is capable of one
cheaper than they could make the Ittok, but rather remarkable feat that is bettered by very
they don't, and words are cheap, n'est-ce pas? few arms, of which the Airtangent is perhaps
What else has Linn done? They've changed preeminent. It reproduces acoherent and be-
the output plug, which is metal and reshaped lievable soundstage right down into the darkest
for strength, an apparently minor change that recesses of the bass. By contrast, the Wok foun-
Linn says had asurprisingly large audible effect. dered here, with stereo images largely mono'd
The cable can be retrofitted to other Linn arms at the lowest frequencies. The Ekos was, in any
too, but note that the wiring (as opposed to the case sharper and leaner through the bass, which
plug) remains identical. Finally, arm cueing is made it sometimes less obvious, but consider-
damped in both directions to reduce reso- ably meaner and more potent when something
nances from this source. This makes it apig to came along to stir it into life. It excelled on
handle when lifting the arm from asuspended orchestral bass and cellos and—most strikingly
turntable but practice makes perfect. Or not, of all—the soft ambient cues that define an
depending. acoustic space. It's easy to see where the ste-
The new Linn arm is expensive, but if justifi- reo ability springs from.
cation can be provided by the way the arm be- The Ittok is also amite coarse by the finest
haves, then there can be no complaints. Icon- standards, and here, too, the Ekos shows con-
fess to finding the price—a little over twice that siderably greater capabilities. Though less obvi-
of the Ittok —hard to swallow unless Linn really ous than the Ittok, it has greater subtlety and
intends making the arm in very small quanti- range, agreater ability to show light and dark,
ties. Rightly or wrongly, Iperceive the SME piano and forte. The Ekos follows the music
Series V as alot more expensive to build, even better and imposes less of itself in the process.
if it doesn't necessarily show any resulting In short, it is one of the finest arms available,
musical advantage. When questioned on these acomment especially true of pivoted arms.
matters, Linn pointed out that on ascale of This is one Linn product of which Ihave no
hardness known as the ABEX scale, their bear- complaints, other than that it isn't cheap
ing rated 7against 5for the SME V, and 0(would enough that everyone could have one S
you believe) for the Wok, But Idon't know if
this means anything except that they're inter-
ested in what SME is doing. That's significant,
evreeeeeee
Isuppose. STEREOPHILE
Summarizing, the Ekos is all about building
an Ittok -like arm much, much stronger, but Subscribe
offering all the old advantages including the
practicality and lack of temperament for which today
the Ittok was justly renowned. The Ekos also form on page
has the third mounting hole demanded by the
Troika, and it was with that cartridge, and both
99
elneeeeeee
Linn and Pink Triangle turntables, that Idid
most of my listening.

EQUIPMENT REPORTS
THETA DS Pre DIA PREAMPLIFIER
Lewis Lipnick
Theta DSPre D/A preamplifier
Digital signal processor/preamplifier. Dimensions: 19" W x15" D x3.75" H. Weight: 29 lbs. Price:
$4000 ($3200 without control center). Approximate number of dealers: 40. Manufacturer: Theta
Digital Corporation, 6360 Van Nuys Blvd., Suite 5, Van Nuys, CA 91401. Tel: (714) 997-8908.
When Ifirst set foot in the McCormick Hotel for all digital audio components having astan-
at the 1988 Summer CES, alot of the hot gossip dard serial digital output, including CD, DAT,
appeared to be centered around Theta Digital's Digital Laser Video, et al. It can be used as a
DS Pre. Even people Iran into who had previ- line-level preamp (no phono section is in-
ously shown their distaste for anything digital cluded), or in conjunction with an existing pre-
were foaming at the mouth about how musi- amp, its active volume and balance controls
cal and "analog" -sounding this product was. capable of being bypassed. There are two
It is not, of course, possible to really judge any- inputs for digital source material, as well as one
thing at aCES. But my initial two encounters digital tape monitor circuit access located on
with the DS Pre at the show' confirmed the the rear panel, served by standard RCA jacks
general consensus: this product is something (this product is electronically, not optically,
special, and may well be considered amile- coupled with source material). A novel "thru-
stone in the further refinement of digital audio put" analog input allows addition of an
reproduction. Iknow the skeptics in the read- upstream preamp, or any other line-level
ing audience are probably thinking about turn- source (tape, tuner, etc). Analog output (fixed
ing to another review, reaffirming their auto- or variable) is also fed through standard female
matic bias against anything non-analog. And RCA jacks. The front panel has eight toggle
Ireadily admit that Ihave been one of the switches similar to those used by Audio Re-
enemy, since Iactually use CDs as source mate- search: four serve the digital domain (input
rial in my eipment reviews. Horrors. But selector, tape monitor, channel reverse, abso-
before you damn the DS Pre, yours truly, and lute phase reverse), and four control power,
digital audio in general, Isuggest you read the mute function, upstream thruput signal bypass,
following review, and take alisten to aproduct and fixed or variable volume. There's alarge
that just might make you think twice. volume control on the far right of the faceplate,
adjacent to the left- and right-channel balance
Technical highlights trim pots. There are also two red indicator
The DS Pre is asignal-processing control unit lamps placed in line with the front switch array:
one for power, the other to confirm digital
source connection. The review unit in my
IIn Rowland Research's suite in conjunction with C- Ipre-
amp. Model amplifier, and Avalon loudspeakers. Also, of listening room is entirely finished in black,
course. in the Theta Digital Suite with an Audio Research D- except for the gold-plated Theta logo located
125 amp and Thiel speakers. Mata= CD-94 playas wat being
used for digital SOUrCe material in both cases. on the front left of the faceplate.
10 i Stereophile, March 1989

In my discussions with Neil Sinclair and Mike remove the cover, pull out the four ROMs, and
Moffat, the two founders of Theta Digital, it was replace them with the upgrades. The idea of
clear that their philosophy follows aclear diver- variable software programmability is astroke
gence from accepted past practice in digital of genius; rather than having to send aprod-
audio design. Rather than looking for new uct back to the manufacturer for upgrades (we
methods to cover up the sins of imperfect all know about those hassles), the owner will
digital-to-analog conversion, as has been pretty be able to totally change the sonic characteris-
much SOP so far, they have decided to take the tics in ten minutes. 1Weakers will love it—
bull by the horns and build aproduct that gets rather than having to deal with VTA, they can
the conversion right in the first place. They play with interchangeable ROMs. 4
claim that this will allow the listener to hear all The DS Pre is built like atank. In order to pre-
of the musical harmonic textures and detail, vent external digital interference, the chassis
without the "warm, sweet, but blurred" col- is composed of solid steel, plated first with cop-
orations required to make most digital mate- per, then with zinc Internal layout of compo-
rial palatable. I'm not so sure that this design nents is neatly done, with the four ROMs easily
goal is entirely original, but the DS Pre appears accessible on the main board. The unit is sup-
to be the most successful attempt that Ihave plied with one Straight Wire Videolink cable,
heard so far. 2 to access digital source materia1. 3Output from
The DS Pre uses nonswitching, 8x-over- my review sample was single-ended only. By
sampling digital filtration and conversion, fol- the time you read this, the DS Pro (digital sec-
lowed by a6dB/octave, single-pole low-pass tion without preamplifier capabilities) will
analog filter, with less than 3° of phase shift in probably be available in both single-ended and
the audio band. It also incorporates seven sep- balanced configurations. Costs of the DS Pro,
arate power supplies, in order to insure "that at press time, are slated to be set at $3200
current draw in one area won't compromise (single-ended) and $4000 (balanced).
performance in another." Mike Moffat claims
that the DS Pre is the first digital audio compo- System setup
nent to use adigital filter with aproprietary Iplugged the DS Pre into my present reference
composite algorithm which optimizes for time system, which consists of aMark Levinson
domain, group delay, transient ability, and fre- No.26 preamp, No.23 power amplifier, and
quency response. According to him, all other B&W Matrix 801 Series Two Monitors. The DS
designs use asingle-purpose filter chip opti- Pre was auditioned as acontrol preamp directly
mizing only for the latter. He also claims that into the No.23 (in single-ended mode), bypass-
the Theta-designed filter, which appears to use ing the No.26, and as afixed-level digital pro-
aDSP chip per channel, each served by two cessor into the No 26's line-level input. In this
ROMs (Read-Only Memories) to hold its coeffi- configuration, connection between preamp
cients, has atenfold increase in computing and power amp was auditioned in both single-
power over all others. The DS Pre is capable of ended and balanced modes. CD players used
80 million computations per second, reserved, included aRotel 820BX2, Philips CD880, and
Iam told, mostly for phase and time error cor- two different Adcom GCD-575s. 6 Interconnect
rection. 3 between all components consisted of Madri-
But perhaps the most revolutionary feature gal HPC, and Audioquest's LiveWire Emerald
of the DS Pre is the fact that its digital filters are and Lapis. Speaker cable was LiveWire Clear in
programmable, allowing the owner to easily bi-wired configuration.
upgrade the unit in the field as software
becomes available from the manufacturer.
Changing the filter is easily done (if /can do it 4Neil sent me an extra set of ROMs to play with that extend
the bandpass to 21.6kHz (20kHz is standard). Although the new
without screwing up, it must be easy); simply
filter produced a slightly more open quality of sound, it injected
anoticeably hard, glassy sheen to the upper midrange
5Since digital source material has a bandwidth of between 2.2
2Ihave not yet had the opportunity to audition the Wadia dig.
and 3.0MHz. Theta claims that choice of cable is critical. Iarixec
ital processor, which appears to be the Theta's only serious Iauditioned several interlinks, and also found the supplied
competition.
Straight Wire Videolink to sound best.
3The V/adia is capable of 72 million computations per sec- 6The first Adcom GCD.575 began exhibiting manic problems
ond, used mostly Ibelieve, to implement its 64x oversampling afew months after adding it to my system. It was replaced with
digital filter. aproperly operating duplicate about six weeks ago.

Musical & Sonic Impressions power amps). Although the Theta seems par-
My first impressions of the DS Pre were not so ticularly immune to cable interactions (output
good. From the beginning, Iwas bothered by impedance is 2ohms!), it did seem to lose asig-
a rather loud "ticking" noise, occurring at nificant amount of openness, musical finesse,
sometimes regular (every five seconds), some- and overall clarity when routed directly into
times irregular intervals. Although Neil was at the No.23 power amp. When Itried the same
aloss to explain the origin of the problem, he thing with an Adcom GFP-555 preamplifier,
suggested that it could be due to apoor digi- however, the tables were turned: the sound
tal source connection caused by the smaller- became congested, opaque, and grainy with
than-standard Cardas RCA jacks used on the the preamp in circuit. So it appears that the
early production units, and that crimping the quality and transparency of the downstream
outer portion of the male connector might preamp are of utmost importance in this case
help. This made some difference, although I After spending several hours trying the DS Pre
was still plagued with sporadic ticking. 7 Neil in both configurations, Idecided to do all
asked me to sit tight until they could duplicate listening for this review with the No.26 in line,
this phenomenon at their lab, which dropped using abalanced connection to the No.23. The
rather alarge fly in the journalistic ointment. DS Pre also appears to benefit from use of an
At about this time, John Atkinson came Adcom ACE-515 Power Enhancer. Insertion of
through town, which coincided nicely with a this AC filtration device significantly improved
meeting of our listening group of musicians overall clarity by removing aslight (and Ido
from the National Symphony. Although the mean slight) "mist" covering the sound.
evening wasn't altogether alost cause, 8 the Next, Idecided to do comparative listening
general consensus followed the lines of "that using all three source CD players (Adcom,
damn ticking is so distracting, Ireally can't Rotel, and Philips). One would assume that dig-
make any determinations." (Murphy's Law ital information originating from different CD
always seems to strike at the worst possible players would be identical, right? Wrong!
time.) Two weeks later, Neil informed me that While the Rotel and Philips machines sounded
they had seen two other similar problems in pretty much alike (the Philips winning by a
the field with the DS Pre, and had narrowed the small but discernible margin), the Adcom was
fault down to high-frequency RF interference. adifferent story altogether. In comparison with
It hadn't dawned on me, but since my listen- the other two, the Adcom sounded dull, tubby,
ing room is located about one mile from the lacked transient definition, masked ambient
Pentagon, with all of its microwave and secu- information the others retrieved, and produced
rity transmissions, the possibility of RF made amore distant perspective. So the theory that
alot of sense. The next day, Ihad anew DS Pre it doesn't make any difference what type of dig-
with an RF blocking filter in place, and acase ital source is used with outboard D/A con-
of sonic apples and oranges. 9 Not only was that verters just got blown out of the water. It has
irritating ticking gone, but the sound was so been suggested to me by people with more
much more musically involving and realistic. knowledge than Iof digital theory that flawed
Deeper soundstage, better bass extension, more error correction in this sample of the Adcom
transparent, less brittle and bright, and, last but could be the cause of the sonic difference Per-
not least, asense of clarity Ihad never before haps. Whether this is the case or not, Iwould
heard from anything other than master tapes. advise anyone interested in purchasing aDS Pre
Finally, Icould do some serious listening. to audition different CD Players with the Theta
In my system, the DS Pre definitely does bet- before making any final decisions. For pur-
ter when fed through the No.26 preamp poses of this review, almost all listening was
(balanced or single-ended between pre- and done with the Philips CD880 in line Ialso audi-
tioned all three source players without the DS
Pre. Not bad, but no cigar.
7The mystery was compounded by the fact that the Adcom
Four grand is awhole lot of money for some-
GCD-575 seemed to produce much more of the irritating tick-
ing than the Rotel or Philips. thing that is basically already included in most
In spite of this, we all had agood time playing records, dis- digital source hardware, so naturally one might
cussing music, and generally raising hell.
well ask if the DS Pre really gives that much
9Theta has informed me that they arc including the RF block-
ing filter in all current production units. sonic improvement. Iwould have to say yes,

although one of my musical colleagues felt that, diminishing the sizes of the ensemble or of
while it does give some improvement, it just individual performers. Skeptics who feel that
ain't worth that many bucks. His point is well digital source material doesn't contain any nat-
taken ... if you plan to use the DS Pre in a ural spatial information should first listen to the
$3000 system. But if you've invested significant Theta, then open their mouths.
time and money into obtaining the closest Dynamically, the Theta is abombshell. Both
thing to the original (or, some would say, abso- ends of the dynamic scale are accurately
lute) sound, then it's probably worth consider- reproduced, without any change of harmonic
ing. Perhaps the best-value/performance ratio coloration or souncistaging; something Ihave
can be ascertained by comparing the DS Pre yet to hear from any other digital device (except
with one of the most respected and established for master tapes). As good as the Tempest II is,
CD players now available: the California Audio it simply cannot compete in this area. The
Labs Tempest II ($3000 current retail price). problem isn't so much with the ultimate
In comparison with the DS Pre, the Tempest dynamic capabilities of the Tempest II; it doesn't
II is both colored and artificial. Don't get me lack guts. But it pales alittle in comparison with
wrong. It's still agreat-sounding product, and the much more open and effortless Theta. Full
with the exception of the DS Pre, remains my orchestral climaxes with the DS Pre have that
favorite CD player by awide margin. It's just "live music punch" that'll blow you out of the
that it is more of an editorializing "musical room, assuming that your system can handle
instrument" than the Theta. If you're one of the task. (Mine sure can—the No.23 has never
those who prefers the euphonic characteris- sounded so good; it's the first time I've heard
tics of classic tube designs over neutrality, the commercial digital source material with natural
CAL might come out on top. But in compari- dynamics, and this amp just loves it!) If you
son with the Theta, it sounds hazy, indistinct, decide to audition the DS Pre, and like full
and defocused, almost as if one were listening orchestral sound, Istrongly suggest that you
through agauze curtain. It's also more fre- take along the Chanclos CD of Richard Strauss's
quency-dependent in soundstaging (upper- Alpine Symphony (Neeme Jârvi, Scottish
midrange material being thrust slightly for- National Orchestra, Chandos CD 8557) and the
ward), and prone to bring everything closer to EMI Eminence recording of Vaughan Williams's
the listener as the volume increases. Ihad not Job (Vernon Handley, LPO, EMX 9506).
really noticed these problems before, since a Although they sound very good with the Tem-
lèmpest II had been part of my reference sys- pest II, the Theta gives awhole new dimension
tem for some time. When the CAL/Theta com- to the word "transient."
parison was made, however, the latter sounded While the DS Pre is not particularly sensitive
so much more open, clea4 dynamic, grain-free, to interconnects, Ihave found its lack of col-
and naturally spacious. Perhaps the best orations and superb transparency to show up
description of the two would be (as Al Merz, the strengths and weaknesses of different
one of my National Symphony colleagues so cables better than the more output-sensitive
succinctly stated), "the CAL sounds like I'm Tempest II. Our musicians' listening group
standing offstage, in the wings, while the Theta auditioned complete systems (source/pre-
opens the door, and places me in the hall." amp/power amp) of Madrigal HPC and Live-
One of the arguments against digital in Wire Lapis in double-blind tests, and unani-
general is the lack of natural three-dimensional mously preferred the Lapis. While we all felt
space and ambience retrieval. Well, that argu- that it brought the entire soundstage closer to
ment just went out the window, because the the listener, it reproduced overall harmonic tex-
Theta does what no digital source before had tures, delineated individual musical lines, and
done for me: It recreates the natural space and generally sounded more "real" than the HPC.
soundstage present at the recording site as well While I'm not willing to unconditionally state
as anything Ihave yet heard.") Front-to-back, that the Lapis will be abetter cable than HPC
lateral, and vertical dimensions are remarkably in all instances (cables are much too system -
well reproduced, without exaggerating or dependent), it is definitely the more musically
believable of the two in my system.
10 Using recordings in which thave been artistic-ally involved.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the DS
so as to be able to credibly compare original is reproduced. Pre is its ability to open up the sound, placing
Stereophi le, March 1989 107

the listener at the microphone and unraveling ing digital haze and grit. Iwill admit that there
complex musical material in a natural way, are still problems to be addressed in digital
without sounding antiseptic In some ways, it audio, particularly in the original AID conver-
is very similar to the B&W 801 Series Two sion. But with the advent of the DS Pre, the
Matrix Monitor, aspeaker Istill feel to be just nightmare of inadequate DIA conversion, with
about the most musically accurate currently all of its attendant musical aberrations, can
available It doesn't take away or add, but merely finally be put to rest. Aside from retrieving
passes an honest signal. The Theta may appear what is, in my opinion, the best sound ever
to produce aforward perspective in compar- from CD, the DS Pre offers so much more flex-
ison with the Tempest II. But Ibelieve it to be ibility than dedicated products such as the CAL
actually accurate in this respect, the CAL tend- Tempest Il. Whether or not you subscribe to
ing to exaggerate soundstage depth, creating the validity of digital sound reproduction, or
apleasant, but not necessarily accurate per- even if you're not in the market for anew audio
spective. When auditioned head to head with toy, the DS Pre should be at the top of your
the Theta, it also appears to be blur individual component audition list. Iwould suggest, how-
musical voices, covering up low-level harmon- ever, that you check your bank balance on the
ics, effectively placing abarrier between the way to your local Theta dealer. It just might
performer and listener. At the same time, the come in handy.
DS Pre is not hard-sounding or brittle in any
way. There are, of course, still some digital Postscript: JA
recordings that will cause earbleeds. But we all Lewis sent me the first sample of the DS Pre, the
accept the theory about "garbage in, garbage one that ticked," so that Icould compare it
out," don't we? Even with this in mind, I've with the Accuphase CD player reviewed else-
been surprised at how much better most of my where in this issue, as well as carry out some
CDs sound with the DS Pre No, it doesn't turn basic measurements. Fig.1 shows the y 3-octave
ammonia into ambrosia, but the highly refined analyzed spectrum of the DS Pre's output when
sonic performance of this product brings so playing the dithered -90dB tone on the CBS
much more music to my ears. It's not amatter CD-1 test disc. Apart from the intrinsic dither
of covering up the imperfect, but rather asuc- noise on the disc and the higher harmonics of
cessful method of conveying what's already there the signal present between 10 and 20kHz, the
waveform is commendably clean, as can be
Shortcomings seen by the high level of the IkHz band in the
There aren't any. spectrum and the complete absence of any
mains-related noise down to the -112dB meas-
Conclusions urement floor. The error in absolute level was
For me, the Theta DS Pre is indeed asound for one of the best Ihave measured, -90.31dB
sore ears. Although there are other products being reproduced as -91.5dB. To see how other
available which are certainly listenable, the DS top-rated CD players fare on this test, see both
Pre sets an entirely new standard of perfor-
mance. No more colorations. No more artifi-
II It did tick slightly in Santa Fe, hut only on its Digital Input
cially created euphonic sonic syrup to make the One. All the measurements and listening to this sample were
unlistenable more palatable. No more irritat done with Digital Input Two.
11111111 1 11111111 1 II111111 11

1.1d
-4a
111
-1111 I II111111 1 I1111111 I II111111 I 1I

-
let 111: 111111 ION: 11112 1111! Wiz

Theta DS Pre: 1kHz tone at -90.31dB Fig.2 Theta DS Pre: De-emphasis error,
with noise and spuriae first sample

"Follow-up" and my review of the Accuphase plotted against frequency, which reaches a
in this issue, as well as the "Follow-up" section maximum of +1.4dB at 10kHz with respect to
in my review of the Arcam Black Box in the the level at IkHz. This will certainly be audi-
February issue (p.95). ble as aslightly "thin-sounding" character with
The basic frequency response of the Theta pre-emphasized discs. To judge by Lewis's
was commendably flat between 10Hz and remarks on the sound of the final sample of the
20kHz, without any ripples in the top audio Theta, Iassume that this problem was cor-
octave. The Santa Fe sample, however, evinced rected, but if you have an early Theta and its
aresponse error when playing pre-emphasized sound is inconsistently thin, then Isuggest you
discs, the processor applying an inadequate contact your dealer about having it upgraded.
amount of de-emphasis. Fig.2 shows the error —John Atkinson
ACCUPHASE DP-80L CD PLAYER/

DC-81 DIGITAL PROCESSOR
John Atkinson
Accuphase DP-80L/DC-81L CD player
Two-box remote-control CD player/processor connected by either optical or coaxial standard

EIA serial data link. Unique processor features: 8x oversampling digital filter with discrete 20-bit
DACs: de-emphasis operating in digital domain; remote-control level control operating in the
digital domain, offering 0-40dB attenuation in 1dB steps. Specifications: Frequency response:
4Hz-20kHz ±0.3dB. THD: 0.0016% (1kHz), 0.002% (20Hz-20kHz). S/N ratio: 120dB. Channel
separation: 112dB. Maximum output voltage (DC-81L): 25V balanced/unbalanced. Output imped-
ance (DC-81L): 25/25 ohms balanced (XLR sockets), 50 ohms unbalanced (RCA sockets). Dimen-
sions: 18.75" (475mm) W by 55/16" (135mm) H by 14.75" (373mm) D (both). Weight: 33.1 lbs (DP-
80L), 35.1 lbs (DC-81L). Approximate number of dealers: 50. Price: $13,000 (DP-80L: $4750, DC-
81L: $8250). Manufacturer: Accuphase Laboratory Inc., Japan. Distributor: Madrigal Ltd., PO
Box 781, Middletown, CT 06457. Tel: (203) 346-0896.
Prologue could the purchase of this Accuphase two-box

$13,000! You could buy two Hyundai Excels CD player be justified on any rational grounds?
for that kind of money. Or one 5-liter Ford Mus- What if it did offer state-of-the-art sound qual-
tang. Or two-thirds of aSaab 900 llirbo. How ity? Would it really be 50 times better than a

humble Magnavox? Would it even be 4.3 times mind that Iaddressed myself to the subject of
better than the California Audio Labs Tempest this review.
II? And would it approach the sound quality
routinely offered from LP by the similarly Technical highlights
priced Versa Dynamics 2.0 turntable? The Accuphase DP-80L CD player and DC-81L
Before turning to the answers to those ques- digital processor are refined versions of the
tions, let me tell you atale. A friend of mine original DP-80 and DC-81 that Ireviewed for
back in the UK finally gave into temptation a Stereophile in Von° No.6. That $8000 player
couple of years back and bought aFerrari. It featured a2x-oversampling digital filter and dis-
wasn't new, of course, but it was abeautiful car, crete 16-bit DACs and had what was then the
Pininfarina-designed; Isuppose you could call most accessible CD sound that Ihad heard.
it atwo-door sedan, to distinguish it from the Even that well-known digiphobe Larry Archi-
hairier mid-engined Maranello machines. A bald was moved to praise its sound. It didn't
year or so back, when Iwas visiting the old quite approach the resolving power of the orig-
country, my friend was taking my wife and Ifor inal Stax Quattro, however, which was, in those
aspin in his dream car and asked if Iwould like far-off days—September 1987—the champ
to take aturn behind the wheel of the beast. when it came to the retrieval of detail.
Would I? What would you have said? Identically styled and sized to the original
Actually, Ifelt equivocal: bending the body- '80/'81 combination, with champagne-gold
work of one's friend's Ferrari is asurefire way front panels and highly lacquered persimmon
of terminating that friendship! But drive it Idid. wood endcheeks, the new units are very differ-
Yes, you could buy alot of Hyundai Excels for ent under the skin. The player is based on adie-
the price of such a car, even quite a few cast aluminum chassis and now has asprung
Mustangs. And an Excel will certainly get you transport, compared with the original's un-
to the same place via the same roads as will a sprung unit, and is capable of playing 3" discs.
Ferrari. But Iam here to say that it is not the A hinged panel conceals all function buttons,
same experience. You may drive ordinary cars; apart from Play, Track Search (Back/Forward),
with athoroughbred like that Ferrari, driver and Pause. All the functions, including Open/
and car take on asymbiotic relationship, the Close, are duplicated on the supplied infrared
tires becoming the extension of your nerve remote control. The power supply is hefty,
endings. The car both is responsive to your based on alarge toroidal transformer at the
wishes and feeds back all you need to know unit's rear, and includes aline filter on the
about the road and your relationship with it; mains input. Asingle large printed circuit board
it is almost as if you need only think about what carries all the circuitry responsible for control-
line you want the car to take, and the deed is ling the disc motor and linear-drive laser sled,
done. , That Ferrari redefined my attitude to for extracting and demodulating the data from
driving. No, Iwill never be able to afford one the disc, and for presenting it in the EIA-
myself, but Iam glad to know that it exists. standard, multiplexed, two-channel serial for-
The only possible justification for high price, mat to the output sockets. (1Wo optical outputs
therefore, is that you get more, not only than are provided, as well as a75 ohm coaxial out-
you expected but also than you knew existed. put.) Sony LSIs handle the servo control and
That is the only standard by which to judge digital processing tasks, and two 8-bit micro-
human artifacts designed without compromise, processors are used, one each for mechanism
and it was only with that finally clear in my control and for display/control key handling,
with asingle master clock used throughout the
1That Ferrari is the only car Ihave ever driven that actually
player. Adiscrete red LED numeric display indi-
felt more secure on the road above 100mph than below. (At
double-nickel speeds, you're not giving the tiger anything on cates play, track/index numben and time, though,
which to chew IThis is assuming that the roads are empty, of
course. A lasting conclusion from my experience with this car
as with the display on the processor unit, this
was that the English toads ale not good enough for it, even the is alittle too discreet, being hard to read from
freeways being tot) crowded to allow it room to breathe. HUI
on the empty roads within the body of France, or on those in the other side of asunlit room.
the USA's desert Southwest —long straightaways, interesting The equally massive DC-81L features sepa-
curves, and rw traffic—driving such acar to its limits, or at
rate toroidal transformers for the digital and
least to the driver's, must be the nearest thing to winning Wim-
bledon. beating Main Pros: for the checkered flag at the Monaco analog sections, again with intrinsic mains sup-
Grand Prix, and having your first symphom premiered by the
Chicago Symphony all in the same year
ply filtering. A hinged flap on the front panel
HO Stereophile, March 1989

conceals digital source select and level up/ applies the appropriate de-emphasis (with an
down buttons, these duplicated on the DP- accuracy said to be ±0.001dB!) and adjusts the
801:s remote control. Red LEDs display which output level digitally. (This is done by multiply-
of the optical or coaxial inputs has been ing the digital word representing the analog
selected, the sampling frequency of the input sample value by acoefficient selected by the
signal, whether or not the input is pre- volume up/down buttons. For example, to
emphasized, and the amount of output attenu- reduce the level by 20dB, each digital word
ation selected, in dB down to -40dB. Four would be multiplied by the coefficient 0.1.)
main printed circuit boards, in two layers, Whenever mathematical operations are car-
almost completely fill the unit's interior. On the ried out in the digital domain, the result is
bottom are the digital and power-supply always adigital word with more bits than the
boards, the latter carrying the rectification and original. This therefore has to be truncated
filter circuitry to provide separate regulated 5V somehow, and as simply chopping off the extra
rails for the digital circuitry and left and right least significant bits reintroduces quantization
DACs; left and right regulated -37V rails for the noise, this must be done with some sophisti-
DACs; independent regulated ±19V supplies cation, rounding off rather than rounding up
for the left and right analog boards; and a24V or down. The Accuphase therefore uses a
rail for the relays. noise-shaper circuit to accomplish this task,
Fig.1 shows ablock diagram of the complete truncating the filter's internal words to 20 bits.
processor. The digital board takes the input The final stage on the digital board consists of
datastream, identifies the sampling frequency, two arrays of serial-to-parallel converters; the
and automatically reconstitutes the correct two sets of 20-bit-wide parallel datastreams,
clock frequency-32, 44.1, or 48kHz—using together with a"deglitch" signal per channel,
a phase-locked loop. Error correction is are then taken via an edge connector to a
applied if necessary, and the data for left and mother board.
right channels are separated ánd resampled by This, in turn, leads to the two analog boards,
adigital filter operating at 352.8kHz. This is one per channel. These are shielded magnet-
specified as giving 110dB attenuation between ically and electrically and each is also electri-
24kHz and 328.7kHz, with less than 0.0001% cally isolated from the digital-processing board
ripple in the passband. The digital filter also by 21 optoisolators —expensive, high-speed
ene
OPTIC4 2 '
CITIC.4
" ? ;!1
YTCA4 «Cl Mee!.
WU , Sid Verb\ I
MAIM ' I
mum V@-{)-1
Fig. 1
Stereophile, March 1989 Ill

Hewlett-Packard devices—one for each bit and Three corners are fitted with ibbetraps, the
one for the deglitch signal. Finally, we get to the floor is carpeted, and there is aminimum of flat
heart of the system, the D/A converter which, featureless surfaces facing each other. The sin-
as in the original DC-81, is adiscrete current- gle listening chair is some 2.5m from the
multiplying device. The '81L's DAC, however, speakers, with the wall behind it alternating
is a20-bit device, which implies aresistor toler- between picture window concealed by blinds
ance of an astonishing less-than-one-part-in and 16" -diameter llibetraps, with a2'-high
219 ;le, less than 0.00019% error! This, Isus- planter running almost the full width.
pect, is where asignificant proportion of the My idea was to create a reasonably live
DC-81I:s cost lies—and how do you even mea- room-1 feel that totally dead rooms are not
sure that you have trimmed aresistor to that the ideal speaker environment—but with the
degree of accuracy unless you already have an furnishings and 'flibetraps used to ensure that
accurate 20-bit A/D converter? no one frequency band is too prominent.
The deglitch signal controls asample-and- All signals are routed through aMod Squad
hold circuit, followed by acurrent-to-voltage Line Drive Deluxe AGT passive control center,
converter. The analog output voltage is then with Audioquest LiveWire Lapis interconnects
processed by an 18dB/octave Butterworth low- used between it and the CD players as well as
pass filter to rid it of the 352.8kHz sampling fre- to feed the power amplifiers. The Accuphase
quency components and their multiples, this was therefore auditioned from its single-ended
based on a GIC (General Impedance Con- outputs, but from my experience with Mark
verter) circuit; separate unity-gain buffers, con- Levinson amplification used in balanced mode,
structed from discrete transistors, provide Isuspect that using the Accuphase's balanced
balanced and unbalanced outputs from XLR outputs will provide aslight improvement in
and RCA sockets respectively. No DC-blocking overall transparency
capacitors are used, the output buffers featur- The Accuphase units come fitted with two-
ing DC-servo circuitry. pin mains plugs that can be inserted into the
All things considered, the Accuphase player wall socket either way around. Madrigal's
is built to an outrageously high standard and Michael Wesley recommends feeling the enclo-
will probably outlast its owner, as indeed it sures for the level of very slight mechanical
should at this price level. vibration and using the orientation which gives
the lower level. 1have to say that Icould feel
The Sound no difference either way, but this may be due
You might well feel that the system in which to the fact that the mains waveform in this part
the Accuphase was auditioned was a little of the country seems to be agood sinewave,
unbalanced in that its total cost was less than with no distortion or DC offset apparent.
that of the player. Yet it is capable of giving a For comparison purposes, Iused the first
considerable degree of musical pleasure with sample of the Theta DS Pre reviewed by Lewis
high-quality sources and Ihad every confi- Lipnick elsewhere in this issue and the Sony
dence that its resolving power would prove DAS-R1 digital processor, both driven from the
equal to the task set it. Celestion SL700 loud- Accuphase DP-80L transport's coaxial digital
speakers, sitting on their own spiked stands outputs. (The Sony transport had ceased to
well away from room boundaries, are driven work except for intermittently while in tran-
by apair of VTL 100W Compact monoblock sit from). Gordon Holt's listening room, and
amplifiers (each sitting on aMission Isoplat and as the DAS-Rl processor has aunique, twin-
plugged into one half of an Inouye power line optical input, comparisons with the optically
conditioner). The speakers are bi-wired with connected Sony system were not possible) The
Monster MI speaker cable. The wall behind DC-81L processor, however, was driven from
them is almost all covered, first with three the DP-80L's optical data output to allow easy
layers of records, then with bookshelves up to A/B'ing. The final reference was aCalifornia
the 9' ceiling. The speakers are sited along the Audio Labs Tempest II CD player, which offers
longer wall of the slightly asymmetrical 20' by afamiliar, highly musical standard of CD repro-
16' room, and the sidewalls have bookcases duction. All the players were isolated from
strategically positioned where the primary vibration with Audioquest Sorbothane feet.
reflection from the speakers would occur. Needless to say, all levels were carefully

matched for comparisons using alkHz test- But looking at the more fundamental aspects
tone track and amillivoltmeter. This procedure of reproduction, there are three main areas
may well have introduced some sonic changes where, historically, CD sound has fallen down.
itself, as the Accuphase had to be operated with First, and foremost, is the ability routinely
its digital volume control set to -4dB and the offered by even modest LP players to commu-
Theta with its analog volume control in circuit, nicate the musical values of arecording. CD
both of which might be thought to add aslight playback too often leaves the listener sitting iso-
handicap. The levels of the Sony and the CAL lated from any feeling of "event" or perfor-
were matched to the other two by using the mance. The music may be there but it is ren-
Line Drive's volume control. There was no way dered, to an extent that differs widely from
around these compromises, however. A more individual to individual, inaccessible. The
serious source of error became apparent when sound is cold, the presentation soulless. The
the Accuphase was compared with the Theta second aspect concerns the inability of many
processor, as the latter seemed to sound too players to present afull-bodied soundstage
bright and thin, but in an inconsistent manner. with appropriately miked recordings, one pos-
Its measured frequency response did feature sessing both depth and a solid feeling to
atiny bit more HF energy, being flat to 20kHz, individual instrumental images. The usual pre-
whereas the Accuphase has avery slight droop sentation ranges from aflat, one-dimensional
in its top octave, but it turned out that the stage to one that does possess adegree of depth
Theta's de-emphasis characteristic was wrong, but with instrumental and vocal images resem-
pre-emphasized discs being replayed with an bling paper cutouts within that stage. Third is
error that reached amaximum of +1.4dB at the absolute retrieval of detail. Though impor-
101cHz. All the comments concerning the Theta tant, this is actually the least essential of the
therefore involve non-pre-emphasized CDs. three to my way of thinking. Ican put up with
It also transpired that the Accuphase's ana- asound that is slightly fuzzy around the edges
log output has inverted polarity, which will be if the soundstage envelops the listener and the
expected to introduce an audible difference music is present and accounted for. Other
between it and the other three reference listeners, of course, will rate this aspect higher,
decoders/players, which are polarity-correct. or even highest.
For long-term listening, Icompensated for this As with its predecessor, this Accuphase
by reversing both sets of speaker leads, but for renders CD sound with an open quality that
A/B purposes with all but the Theta (which has allows the music to communicate. "Easy on the
adigital polarity reverse switch), this was out ear" sounds too dismissive, too passive a
of the question. Ihope, therefore, that Ihave phrase, but it correctly describes the player's
adequately compensated for this factor in my ability to avoid any trace of listening fatigue. As
comments. is often the case with LP, CD effortlessly follows
So, what was the Accuphase combination's CD. There is an "analoguey" bloom that draws
sound like? you into the sound. In this respect, it is rivaled
In aword, superb. only by the Sony and CAL machines, the sam-
"Superb," along with "excellent," "good," ple of the Theta sounding rather cold by com-
and "wonderful," is, as Itell other writers for parison. With pedigree discs, like the Cheskys
this magazine when I'm wearing my editor's (CD19, the new 64x -oversampled Brahms 1
hat, aword conveying almost no meaning. I from Horenstein, in particular) and Harmonia
should expand on this adjective, therefore. Mundis, the sound—and Ihope you realize the
Tonally, the Accuphase is less thin than the pain it causes to say this—was better than that
sample of the Theta that Iauditioned, even tak- produced by my Linn Troika/Ekos/Sondek
ing into account the latter's de-emphasis error. player, in that it was equally musical while
It is slightly more forward than the Sony RI, allowing the virtues of CD—silent back-
however, with which it shares an awesomely grounds and stable imaging—to shine forth.
deep bass, even with subwooferless Celestions. From my experience in JGH's listening room,
By comparison, the CAL Tempest, while true Isuspect that it even begins to approach LP
to the musical aspects, is rather unsubtle in the played on the Versa Dynamics player.
upper midrange and altogether more untidy Imaging? Here, the Tempest II remained the
in its rendering of orchestral tone colors. champion: its soundstage was deeper than that

of the other three machines, allowing you to intrinsically higher resolution, and their pre-
"hear the walls" to the best extent, and sentation is both finer-grained and detailed.
individual images had the most "rounded" The Sony in its optically coupled mode most
nature. (Its midrange balance, however, does nearly approaches the vivid resolution of, say,
push some instruments toward the listener.) Of Kodachrome 25, the Accuphase rendering
the three solid-state players, the Accuphase recorded tape hiss with fractionally more grain.
most nearly approached the absolute spatial The optically coupled Accuphase, however,
presentation of the CAL, while having less of is slightly better than the coaxially coupled
aforward midband. On my piano recording on Sony and has the best ability of the four to
the HFN/RR Test CD, the Accuphase set back resolve the sounds of instruments with almost
the Steinway more within the acoustic of the identical sounds. Take the 1980 EMI Planets
hall than did the Sony and CAL machines, from the LPO under Boult (CDM 7690452,
approaching the analog tape in this respect, and from an analog original, and in my opinion the
also had more detail concerning the piano most natural-sounding recording of this work).
sound apparent. (As this disc is pre-empha- In the "Saturn" movement, Hoist has arranged
sized, Icouldn't compare the sound of the for the music to "tick" between two contrast-
Theta.) There was slightly more action noise ing pitch centers to indicate the remorseless
apparent with the '80L/'81L, and you could passing of time. 'Rvo flutes and abass flute, dou-
also hear to agreater degree than with the other bled by harps, start the movement by rocking
players that the piano was not quite in tune. between chords containing tritones and major
(Above the low bass, apiano has more than one ninths, A/F-natural/B-natural and G/E-flat/A-
string for each note, and when played hard, natural —could you even begin to guess that
these tend over time to drift away from each the first two iterations of the tune are accom-
other.) panied by E-major and A-fiat scales in the bass
Listening to the original-instruments Leon- and that the piece will eventually end in a
hardt Brandenburg set on Seon (RSCD-1005 declaration of C-major? (Though ahint of ambi-
06)—my favorite, with acast of soloists that guity remains, the harps insisting on reminding
includes Anner Bylsma on cello, Frans &fig- the listener of the existence of B-natural, which
gen on recorder, and Sigiswald Kuijken on of course is still a"white" note) As reproduced
violin—the Accuphase and the CAL players by the Accuphase, the manner in which Hoist
were the closest to the LP when it came to the has achieved this degree of bittersweet tonal
presentation of areal acoustic space between ambiguity 2is presented with such adegree of
and behind the speakers. The tube player, how- clarity that one has no need for the score There
ever, was less good at rendering the individual it all is, laid out before the listener, every
images of musicians within that space, while instrumental sound discrete yet without its
the Sony and Theta presented shallower images relationship with the whole being destroyed.
overall. When the flutes are reinforced by clarinets, for
When it came to the resolution of fine detail, example, the Accuphase enables you to hear
the Accuphase, Theta, and Sony pulled away the filling out of the sound without losing sight
from the Tempest to quite alarge extent. To use of the individual natures of flute and clarinet
aphotographic analogy, you are often better tonality If the epitome of poor CD sound is the
off using acoarse-grained film, such as Tri- X, dilution of instrumental tone color, the result
when you use alens with inherently low reso- being to render an orchestra as agiant harmon-
lution. Being made more aware of the film's ica, the sound of this Accuphase is the farthest
grain structure actually lends an illusion of from that travesty that Ihave yet heard.
sharpness, while afine-grain emulsion throws
2As is always the case, the CD liner notes are toedly inadequate
up the shortcomings of the lens in sharp con- when compared with the original LP Imake no apology for
trast. (Hal) The CAL is similar in that it disguises quoting, therefore, from asplendid interview with Sir Adrian
Boult that was reprinted from Boult's My Own humpet on
arelatively low resolution (within the context the LP jacket. Boult, Hoist, and others were having dinner
of this group) by the high contrast and relative before the first public performance of The Planets in 1919:
". ..Geoffrey lbye put his finger on the place in Neptune where
granularity of its presentation. The sound may the trombones are busy with aG sharp major chord and the
appear to be detailed, but, on close examina- trumpets are doing an Eminor one 'I'm sorry Gustav,' he said,
'but Ithink that is going to sound dreadful.' Yes. Iknow it
tion, the detail is, to some extent at least, illu- is,' said Gustav, 'but what do you do when they come like
sory. The other three players, however, have that?' "

The DAC used by the Accuphase is undoubt- 1 11111111 1 11111111 1 11111111 1 11_
edly avery high-class design. Listening to the

fade to noise of adithered 500Hz sinewave on
the CBS test disc revealed arelatively pure-
sounding tone, with the only discrete compo-
nents audible being second or fourth har-
monics one or two octaves higher. Unusually,
when compared with the Theta or CAL, the
le6d 1 II111111 1 11 1111 1 11111111 !
Accuphase was similar to the Sony on this track
las 1z lik 1St
in that the level of broad-band noise increased
as the signal dropped below -90dB. The Flg.2 Accuphase CD-81L: 1kHz tone at
-90.31dB with noise and spuriae
Theta's low-level noise remained constant in
level, though the CAL's was more granular- frequency response gave .1 lower limit of
sounding than any of the other three. -0.7dB at 4Hz and an upper limit of -0.25dB
One test that Ididn't have time to perform at 20kHz, with no discernible ripples in the top
before the test sample had to be returned to octave. Unusually, and irritatingly, investigating
Madrigal was to listen to the Accuphase's output the output polarity with araised-cosine pulse
with asignificant amount of attenuation set track revealed that the decoder output was
with its digital level control. When level inverting, something that should be taken into
changes are performed in the digital domain, consideration when comparing the Accuphase
quantization noise can be injected due to the with other machines in adealer's listening
truncation of the digital words output by the room.
multiplier chip. From my tests with only afew Fig.2 shows the y
r octave analyzed spectrum
dB of attenuation, however, Iwould suggest when the left channel of the Accuphase was
that the Accuphase is well-engineered in this reproducing the dithered -90.31dB tone on the
respect. CBS CD-1 test CD. Theoretically, atone at
Finally, Iassessed the Accuphase's error- -90.31dB is only described by three quantizing
correction capabilities using Stereopbile's stan- levels, thus should reproduce as astepped
dard test, disc two of the Pierre Verany set squarewave The use of dither when recording
(PV.788031 /788032), which contains an exact- this computer-generated tone, however, means
ing series of tracks cut so as to test aplayer's that it should actually be reproduced as apure
ability to track signals at the edge of the CD- sinewave, overlaid with the dither noise. Any
standard envelope The Accuphase coped with spuriae and noise apart from that already pres-
all the tracks perfectly up to 35, a2.4mm drop- ent on the disc, therefore, will be due to the
out, when it clicked once per revolution. Track player, not to the digital process. As can be seen
36, a2.5mm dropout, was handled identically, from fig.2, the -90.31dB tone reproduces alit-
while tracks 37 and 38, 3mm and 4mm drop- tle too high in level, at -86dB. (The right chan-
outs, resulted in occasional muting as well as nel was slightly better at -87dB, but neither is
clicks. This is excellent error-correction per- as good as should be mandatory at this price
formance, nevertheless. Looking at the perfor- level.) The lkHz band, however, is some 14dB
mance of the player with the disc's "torture above the 2kHz band, implying a level of
tracks," track 43, which combines a2.4mm second-harmonic distortion of around 20%,
dropout with the minimum track pitch allowed which is one of the best Ihave yet measured,
by the standard, featured one click per revo- being equaled only by the Theta DS Pre,
lution; tracks 49 and 50, which feature two suc- Yamaha CDX-1110U, and one channel of the
cessive 2.4mm and 3mm gaps in the data Onkyo DX-G10. 3The Accuphase can also be
respectively, both gave one louder click per seen to introduce fourth-harmonic distortion
revolution. Again, this is excellent perfor- at around the same level as second-, but any
mance. harmonics above that are submerged in the
Measurements
3If this distortion seems high to you, remember that this is
The output impedance of the unbalanced out- at an extremely low level, -90dB, which will itself he inau-
dible in all hut the very quietest listening rooms at high play.
puts was right on spec at 50 ohms, as was the hack volumes. As the recorded level rises above this, any har-
maximum output level at 2.5V. Looking at the monic distortion will rapidly drop to vanishingly small levels.

II111111 1 I1111111 1 II111111 1 11 low in level and the -80.77dB tone 0.3dB too
low, this typical of one of the better-quality
Philips 16-bit chip sets. Note that the CAL also
shows some supply-related noise, the 63Hz
band lying at -101.5dB and the 125Hz band at
-102.5dB. (Both are well below audibility,
however.) 4
-1hdi
Conclusion
11Hz vat
Larry Archibald noted back in 1982, in the very
Fig.3 Theta DS Pre: lkHz tone at -90.31dB
first issue to appear under his publishership
11111111 I I1111111 1 11111111 1 11 (Vol.5 No.1), that he felt that "consumers are fed
up with the repeated cries of ecstasy over prod-
ucts which really have nothing to offer but
newness and are usually very expensive" Well,
my opinion of the Accuphase DP-80L/DC-81L
-ha
combination could certainly be construed as
-1(12d1 acry of ecstasy, and it is, without adoubt, very
expensive In fact, it is the most expensive CD
-1.41 1 11111111 1 1 111111 1 11111111 1 11
player yet to reach the market. But as it does
nog offer the best sound Ihave yet to hear from
FigA Sony DAS-R1: 1kFlz tone at -90.31dB compact dise the price does indeed correlate
with performance. Having experienced the
manner in which it achieves the apparently
impossible, in that it retrieves fine detail from
CD witbout destroying the musical whole by
floodlighting the soundstage, to go back to a
-98,0
humble Magnavox or even the excellent-
sounding Yamaha '1110 becomes unthinkable
It is not just that the Accuphase is so many
times better. The difference between the
Ii: .billt His INI Accuphase and ordinary CD players is the
Fig-5 CAL Tempest II: 1kHz tone at -90.31dB difference between apainting and aprint made
of that painting.
intrinsic rising level of noise and higher-order For those of us whose boats have yet to
rubbish. This is lower in level relative to the come in, it would be best to ignore the exis-
IkHz tone than with some other machines, tence of this Ferrari of aCD player, its price ren-
however, also being similar to the Theta, dering it so inaccessible that we might as well
Yamaha, Adcom GCD-575, and Onkyo in this not even think about it. But if your boat bas
respect. come in, preferably with awell-stocked hold,
Figs.3, 4, and 5show the y
r octave noise and the only players/decoders in the same sonic
distortion spectra for the three machines that league as the Accuphase DP-80L/DC-81L, in
Icompared sonically with the Accuphase, the my opinion, 5are the three with which Icom-
Theta DS Pre, Sony DAS -R1, and CAL Tempest pared it: the Theta DS Pre ($4000 plus trans-
II, respectively. The Theta again shows avery
clean IkHz sinewave at -90dB, with just 1.2dB 4The 60Hz level is very strongly affected by the positioning
of the CALs power supply. The measurements for fig.5 were
of expansion evident; the Sony has some third-. taken with the player proper separated some 6" above its power
as well as second-harmonic distortion present supply. When the player is positioned directly on top of the
power supply, as would seem intuitively correct, the 60Hz level
on the tone, with 2dB of compression evident rises by almost 20dB to -83dB, presumably duc to the injection
at -90dB; while the CAL has predominantly of hum from the u-ansfomier into the tube circuitry. It is essen-
tial, therefore, to arrange for the Tempest's two boxes to be
second-harmonic apparent, some 9dB below physically separated to get the maximum sonic performance
from it.
the level of the fundamental. The CAL shows
5Ihave yet to hear the Spectral or W2dia in familiar circum-
the most low-level expansion of any of the stances, although the latter did sound to be in the same class
four, the -90.31dB tone reproducing 3.2dB too as the Theta at the WCES.

port), Sony RI ($8000), and CAL Tempest II The answer has to be yes—if you can afford it.
($3000). The latter, however, is distinctly Me, I'd be happy to live with any one of the
untidy-sounding by comparison, though its four. But as the number of CDs with true 16-
soundstage presentation is the deepest and bit information on them begin to proliferate in
widest. Should you choose the Accuphase over the next couple of years, the Accuphase DP-
one of the other three? The answer must be 80L/DC-81L (and the Theta and the Sony) will
that it's eight of one and thirteen of the other. be there to greet them.
AUDIRE NOBLE IPOWER AMPLIFIER

Dick Olsher
Class-A biased monoblock amplifier. Power output (20Hz to 20kHz): 75W/8 ohms, 150W/4 ohms,
280W/2 ohms. Frequency response (-1dB): 2Hz-100kHz. Power bandwidth: 2Hz-50kHz. Har-
monic distortion (20Hz-20kHz): 0.01% at rated power. Slew rate: 50V/its. Input impedance: 51k
ohms. Input sensitivity: 1.2V RMS. Hum and noise: -110dB. Size: 11.5" W x16" H x4" D. Weight:
25 pounds each. Price: $2100/pr. Serial numbers tested: 1015 & 1016. Approximate number of
dealers: 15. Manufacturer: Audire Inc., 9576 El Tambor Avenue, Fountain Valley, CA 92708. Tel:
(714) 968-1236.
The recent debate over the intrinsic sound whether it eliminates all sonic differences is not
quality of audio amplifiers would appear to be at all evident. And any apriori claims that amps
athoroughly modern preoccupation. Do amp- with perfectly matched transfer functions must
lifiers sound differently, and if so, why? On the sound alike should be viewed with ahealthy
one, hand there are the "scientists" who attempt dose of skepticism. First of all, there are some
to rationalize reproduced music in terms of serious limitations. For example, you can't
measurements. According to this point of view, speed up aslow amp without amajor circuit
observed sound differences are solely attributa- redesign, although the reverse is possible. Sec-
ble to readily measurable electrical perfor- ond, just how close is close enough? In other
mance criteria. A simple expression of this words, to what degree must the transfer func-
approach is the belief that sound differences tions be matched before audible differences
between well-designed modern amplifiers, disappear? Some differences might be signifi-
operating comfortably below overload, are cant to -40dB.
caused by small frequency-response differ- But the theoretical rug is really pulled out
ences. When these frequency deviations are from underneath such an approach when you
equalized out, the sonic differences suppos- consider the following: Just how well do we
edly disappear. More sophistication is offered really know this transfer function? Do we pres-
by the approach championed by Bob Carver; ently know all of the pertinent parameters that
namely, the attempt to match amplifier transfer influence perceived sound quality? Isubmit
functions. Here, the relationship between amp that we do not. In the past ten years we have
lifier input and output is analyzed into anum- discovered new forms of transient distortion
ber of components such as frequency response, (remember TIM and SID!), and our understand-
slew rate, harmonic distortion spectrum, and ing of amplifier current demands into reactive
phase response. By matching the transfer func- loads has expanded. Isuspect that we still have
tion of amplifier A to that of amplifier B, the alot to learn. And if that's the case, then our
claim is made that amp Bis now asonic clone present analytic transfer function is incomplete,
of amp A. This smacks of genetic engineering, offering only apartial sonic match. Part of the
but proponents of this method hasten to add problem is that our measurements may not
that it is morally justified on the grounds of always relate to the listening environment. Test-
offering the sound of an expensive tube ampli- bench measurements into an 8-ohm resistor
fier in the trappings of readily affordable solid- in no way simulate the highly reactive load of
state designs. adynamic loudspeaker. Thus, measurements
Obviously, this procedure should bridge the or specifications derived in this manner will
sonic gulf between the two amplifiers, but not adequately describe the performance of an

amp into areal-world speaker load. One day fier performs better. Even when some knowl-
the set of essential measurement criteria may edgeable people realized that this is not true
be complete. That, however, will only happen any more, because of the standard generally
with continued input from "humanist" audi- achieved, the trend has persisted, because pro-
ophiles. motion has made the market—or at least sec-
While scientists view man as amachine and tions of it—'specification conscious.' Some, of
attempt to reduce human perceptions to aset course, have discovered for themselves that the
of measurements, humanists represent the audible performance does not appear to be
other side of the coin. For them, reproduced related to the figures on the specification and
music is experienced, and its quality intuitively have concluded that specifications are value-
judged, by reference to the perception of live less—the only reliable test is to listen to it.' "
music. If "canned" music is to elicit similar All of this was written over 30 years ago by
emotional reactions as live, then how is this illu- Norman Crowhurst. The paper was titled "Some
sion to be maximized? This is the essential Defects in Amplifier Performance Not Covered
question; static specifications are entirely sec- by Standard Specifications," and was presented
ondary. In the language of Zen, "to understand during the 1957 annual convention of the Audio
is not to understand." The answer to this para- Engineering Society in New York. Crowhurst
dox lies in the insight that to feel the music, our goes on to discuss several performance areas
intellect must be dethroned and free reign not addressed by conventional specifications,
given to our intuitive or emotional capacities. including the problems of heavy feedback de-
As the equipment puts fewer and fewer obsta- signs, amplifier clipping characteristics, recov-
cles in our path, the road to the top of the ery from overload, and testing with reactive
mountain becomes easier and easier. Awaiting speaker loads. One of his major conclusions
us there is a"beautiful view from the summit": is that performance criteria need to be coordi-
acceptance of reproduced music as asatisfy- nated to avoid, for example, aiming at an
ing truth. The designer then must think and unnecessarily excellent frequency response at
not think. He must be able to measure, but not the expense of some other desirable chracteris-
merely listenfor his measurements. He must tic. Ican only hope that, 30 years from now,
truly hear the music. this has become commonplace.
Irecently came across apaper that surprised On, then, to the subject of the review, the
the hell out of me, not so much because of its unusually styled monoblodc Noble power ampli-
content but because of its date. Let me quote fier from Californian company Audire. Ican-
briefly: 'All forms of distortion in amplifiers, not dispute Audire's claim that the Noble ampli-
measured according to conventional methods, fier is decended from royal lineage. It is, after
are either so far below the minimum audible all, ascaled-down version of Audire's Monarch
distortion level, or are so far below distortion amplifier, retaining the latter's circuit topology
of the same kind produced by other links in the and impressive heatsink fascia. The massive
chain—the pickup, loudspeaker, or even the heatsink is used to cool the output devices by
human ear itself—that it should no longer be air convection, thereby avoiding the use of
possible to hear any difference between the (generally noisy) fans. The circuitry is all dis-
performance of any good modem amplifier. Cer- crete, with aDC-coupled input. All gain stages
tainly, none of them should produce any audi- are true class-A, complementary push-pull,
ble component of distortion. The fact remains from input to output. The power supply fea-
that some good amplifiers are observed to tures atoroidal transformer and acapacitor
'sound cleaner' in some way than others ... reservoir of 52,000µF, which accounts for the
But work has gone on until fabulous figures of Noble's ability to swing 20A transient current
performance are achieved—distortion in the peaks.
region of 0.1% (and some even lower) and fre- The Noble is available in two versions: the
quency response from afraction of acycle up Noble I, nominally 75W of class-A power into
to the region of amegacycle within 0.1dB or so. 8ohms; and the Noble II, 200W of class-AB
By the figures, such amplifiers should rate as power into 8ohms. However, only the Noble
audibly perfect. This trend seems to have been Iwas the subject of this report. The Noble is
followed because of abelief that abetter speci- claimed to be stable into any load, whether
fication in these regards must mean the ampli- resistive, capacitive, or inductive, and because

Pilar Lorengar as Pamina, and Hermann Prey
as Papageno. ,
My initial impression of the sound presented
by the Nobles was of acool, dry, grainy mid-
range with aslight loss of focus and image pal-
pability within the soundstage. After acouple
of hours of warmup the situation improved
slightly, but not enough to avert an initial diag-
nosis of "solid-state sound" syndrome. For
example, the Act II.v. trio between Tamino,
Sarastro, and Pamina was texturally too grainy,
with aslight brightness through the upper
soprano registers. The spatial outlines of the
voices were not as well resolved as they should
be, and the soundstage perspective was dis-
tinctly two-dimensional. On the plus side, the
soundstage was reasonably transparent and
dynamic shadings were reproduced effort-
lessly. There was also lots of detail, but on bal-
ance Ifound the sound quality unappealing;
Audire Noble amplifier there just wasn't asufficient measure of mid-

range smoothness, sweetness, and focus.
of its high current-drive capability into low- Ialso detected asomewhat dryish overtone
impedance loads, it should have no difficulty structure on David Abel's Guarnerius (Wilson
in driving anything from Apogees to electro- Audio's Beethoven Sonata in G, Op.96 for Piano
stats. Speaker connections are via good-quality and Violin). As David Wilson has pointed out,
binding posts. Complete with walnut side the Guarnerius sings with speed, focus, and
panels, the Noble strikes an elegant pose, look- sweetness. Through the Noble I, however, there
ing as if it ought to sound very good. was less of the last two. The piano bass was
The amplifiers were auditioned with Quad deep, but.not as well detailed as, say, that
ESL-63 and Celestion SL600 loudspeakers, through the Electrocompaniet AW100 also
while aThreshold FET-10 preamp was used reviewed in this issue.
throughout. The analog front end consisted of Moving on to the Paganini compositions for
the SOTA vacuum 'table/SME V ionearm and Violin and Guitar (Telefunken 6.35574), spe-
Surniko's Virtuoso Boron cartridge The speaker cifically the Centone di Sonate No.2 in D, the
cable used in all cases was 12' runs of the TARA violin overtones were again objectionable;
Labs Space & Time Phase II. Interconnects slightly bright and steely without the requisite
were the Kimber KCAG and the Cogan Hall degree of sweetness.
Intermezzo, the latter acable which I'm begin- As usual, the Opus 3Test Record /provided
ning to like very, very much. agold mine of information. For starters, Therese
The Noble's first task was to drive the Quad Juel's voice (cut Al) was overly sibilant. The
'63s. Mozart's The Magic Flute with Solti con- soundstage was wide and spacious, but the
ducting the Vienna Philharmonic (London
IIfeel that recorded opera is sometimes preferable to live
OSA-1397) provided the basis for my first sonic opera—you don't have to reconcile the dramatic elements of
impression. Ihave had adifficult time coming the plot with the physical incongruity of the performer, and
can let your imagination provide the missing physical details.
to grips with the miking technique employed On this point. Iecho Leopold Stokowski's feelings, so ably
on this recording. At times Iappear to be situ- c2,iressed during an extemporaneous address before the 1932
New York meeting of the Acoustical Society of America: "You
ated above the performers, though the solos go to Tannbauser, and the idea back of Tannbauser is that
appear in anatural perspective. There's alack Venus, the most beautiful woman who ever existed, should
tempt Tarinhauser from the narrow path of virtue. But unfor-
of spatial cohesion between the orchestra and tunately Venus NRN chosen because she had amarvelous larynx,
and unfortunately sometimes she weighed too many pounds,
the rest of the performers within the sound-
and unfortunately—but Ileave that to your imagination.
stage; clear evidence of multimiking. Yet there's And so the whole evening, the whole point and meaning of
that drama is changed and spoiled because you couldn't
plenty of drama and beautiful singing. Especial-
imagine anybody ¡laughter]. Well —It is such apleasure to
ly noteworthy are Renate Holm as Papagena, talk to physicists. They understand everything!"

depth perspective was slightly diminished. ness was not in evidence. However, midrange
Reproduction of the double bass was very good textures were astringent, insufficiently sweet
in terms of speed, but there was aslight loss of and smooth. The soundstage was noticeably
detail resolution in the lowest registers. The 2-D, and instrumental outlines lacked incisive
upper registers of the sax and brass (cut A4) spatial focus.
were slightly bright. Overall, the sound quality
was abit hard. Summary
Pedro Aledo's voice (Pierre Verany PV 12793), As you can see, this amplifier pushed mostly
normally well-behaved, took on abright edge the wrong buttons for me. Its class-A operation
through the upper octaves. And there was also and that wonderful heatsink radiator were very
anoticeable defocusing of the vocal outlines. much appreciated during the cold Santa Fe
The sense of hall on Laudate! (Proprius winter nights. But its performance in the crit-
7800) came right through with atransparent ical midband failed to warm my heart, and in
soundstage, but voices in the choir tended to fact consistently irritated me. With either the
blend together, making it difficult to pinpoint electrostatic or dynamic speaker loads, the
individual voices. Again, the soundstage appeared Noble Icould not reproduce midrange textures
to be two-dimensional, and soprano voices with the smoothness and sweetness of the real
were overly sibilant and bright. thing. This, for me, was its major failing. This
Neither did Cleo Laine's voice (Live at Car- parched and slightly grainy midrange quality
negie Hall, RCA LPL1 -5015) escape adultera- altered timbral purity enough to seriously
tion. The mids were dry, and most of the sweet- erode my listening enjoyment. There was also
ness normally there was leached out of her atendency toward brightness and hardness in
voice. the upper mids and lower treble, which indi-
Piano tone was the least affected by the Noble's cates the need for careful integration of the amp
dry nature. For example, take the Chopin Noc- with aparticular load. Bass control and exten-
turnes (Volt, Connoisseur Society CS-1065). sion are very good, as is the representation of
Ivan Moravec's beautiful phrasing and delicate dynamics, and the Noble Idoes achieve adecent
touch were all there, but midrange textures level of transparency. But for me, that's just not
were atad too hard. enough to overcome its problems in the mid-
Iran the Lesley Test with both the Quads and range. Finally, soundstage depth and image pal-
the Celestions. The results were similar in both pability and focus are in the category of typical
cases. With the Noble Iin the chain, the charac- solid-state performance. To paraphrase Keith
ter of Lesley's voice was slightly hard and Johnson, instrumental outlines are hung to dry
grainy. In addition, the spatial outlines of her on clotheslines between the speakers. Those
voice were not as tight as they should have serious about imaging should try a(good) tube
been. Changing speakers and interconnects did amplifier (the VTL 75W stereo amp is agood
improve the situation up to apoint. With the starting point).
SL600s and the Cogan-Hall interconnects, At $2100, is it fair to expect aproduct to pro-
essentially all of the brightness Icataloged vide asignificant slice of the best performance
earlier as being characteristic of the Quad/ available? Ido think so, and unfortunately, the
Noble combination disappeared, as did some Noble Idoes not compare favorably in this
of the midrange grain and spatial blur. Much of respect with other (more expensive) solid-state
the Noble's character, however, including the amplifiers in Stereophile's Class Aand B"Rec-
textural dryness, hardness, and 2-D sound- ommended Components." It isn't just that I
stage, were unaffected by the change in loud- don't see the Noble approaching the perfor-
speaker. This leads me to conclude that these, mance level of, say, aKrell or aLevinson, it not
indeed, represent the inherent sonic signature being close in the areas of tonal purity, smooth-
of this model. ness, and image focus. It just appears to be too
As afinal illustration of the Noble l's perfor- expensive for what it does have to offer. S
mance capabilities driving the SL600s, let me
describe how it fared on Belshazzar 's Feast
(EMI SAN-324). The dynamics of this work were
very well reproduced, without strain or loss of
control during complex passages. Excess bright-

ELECTROCOMPANIET AW100
POWER AMPLIFIER
Dick Olsher
Electrocompaniet AW100 amplifier
Class-AB biased stereo amplifier. Rated output power (0.2% THD): 2x100W into 8ohms, 2x180W
into 4ohms, and 2x305W into 2ohms. Output impedance: less than 0.006 ohm. Input imped-
ance: 10k ohms. Input sensitivity: 1V Recommended source impedance: less than 1000 ohms.
Max peak current: 65A. THD (measured at 1kHz at half power into 8ohms): less than 0.003%.
Dimensions: 17.3" by 14.2" by 5.2". Weight: 35 lbs. Price: $2195. Approximate number of dealers:
35. Warranty: 5years parts and labor. Manufacturer: Electrocompaniet A.S., Solheimsveien 72,
N-1473 Skaarer, Norway. US Importer: Music &Sound Imports, 30 Snowflake Road, Huntingdon
Valley, PA 19006. Tel: (215) 357-7858.
Zymurgy is defined as the art and science of The final class was devoted to beer judging.
yeast fermentation, but is often used as afancy Atotal of nine beers in various categories were
euphemism for the joy of homebrewing. You to be judged in asingle-blind fashion. The
may be legitimately wondering at this point score sheet required anumerical score in five
what homebrewing has to do with audio in categories, as follows: Bouquet/Aroma (10
general and amplifiers in particular. Having points), Appearance (10 points), Flavor as
recently completed aclass on homebrewing, appropriate for the style (15 points), Body (full
Iwas struck by certain parallels between these or thin) (5 points), and DrinIcability/Impression
hobbies. The class spanned five evenings over (10 points). A score of 40 or greater out of a
afive-week period and covered everything maximum of 50 points would denote aworld-
from preparation of the wort, malt extracts, class beer. The aroma of beer is defined as the
grain mashing, hops, yeasts, fermentation tech- smell of beer relative to the malt and grain,
niques, bottling, and recipe designs. The ses- while the bouquet is the aroma that hops con-
sions were enriched by agenerous supply of tribute to the beer. The appearance of the beer
homebrew and popcorn, courtesy of the is judged by the amount of head retention, the
instructor. This brings me to the first parallel: color, and clarity of the fluid. Flavor is broken
everything goes better with ahome brew This down into the feel, taste, and aftertaste (that's
maxim is merely an extension of Hammond's right, beer tasters don't spit it out) of the beer
Cardinal Principle of Audio: the perceived under test. The taste of beer is quite complex,
sound quality of one's system is directly pro- and should be amixture of the four basic taste
portional to the number of drinks consumed. perceptions of the tongue: bitter, sour, salt, and
(That's Will Hammond of KPFK's "In-Fidelity" sweet. The key here is the balance between the
radio program in Los Angeles.) bitterness of the hops and the sweetness of the

malt. The aftertaste should be clean and pleas- ohm dynamic loudspeaker can present an
ant, never cloyingly sweet. The final category impedance modulus as low as 1ohm to the
addresses the overall impression of the beer. amplifier; exactly the sort of behavior that
Is it abeer we would personally buy and drink would go unnoticed with atest bench 8-ohm
again? The similarity to audio reviewing is quite purely resistive load.
clear. Would the reviewer be willing to spend Electrocompaniet's current design engineer,
his own hard-earned money on the product Per Abrahamsen, is clearly amodernist who
and live with it happily ever after? has gone acouple of steps further. One of them
Because of the diversity of the class members is attention to detail. Transistors are carefully
and the subjective nature of the judging, I matched, internal wiring is minimized, and the
expected alot of disagreement over the rela- use of active circuit protection and fuses in the
tive rankings of the beers. In fact, the surprising signal path is avoided. Not only that, but the
finding was that, with one exception, the indi- design is not finalized completely in the labo-
vidual scores were tightly bunched around the ratory. For example, alistening panel decided
average. Such precision (le, asmall standard on the extent of class-A operation, le, the point
deviation) underlines the general validity of the where the output device bias slides to class B.
subjective reviewing process. The exception This is arefreshing approach, and one Ithink
turned out to be Belgian Gueuze Lambic beer. other manufacturers should note. Electrocom-
Wild yeast is used to ferment this beer in apro- paniet's tweaking procedure places the ear/
cess "perfected" by Belgian monks over many brain squarely in the decision process. Adesign
centuries. To my taste buds, the Lambic's fla- completely predicated on lab measurements
vor was remarkably close to that of spoiled will likely fail to take into account sonically sig-
apple cider—definitely an "acquired taste:' The nificant aspects of performance that are difficult
highest-scoring beer that evening turned out or simply impossible to measure at present.
to be Young's Special London Ale, with an aver- The AW100's input stage is aclass-A biased
age score of 40.8 and apersonal score of 43. transconductance amplifier without any overall
Other high scorers were Guinness Stout (38), feedback, loop feedback only being used around
Heineken Special Dark (36), Pilsener Urquell the output stage. The power supply shares a
(33), and Anchor Liberty Ale (34). In last place single 600VA toroidal transformer. However,
was the only entry in the American pilsener cat- separate 10,000g capacitor reservoirs are used
egory: Corona Extra, with an average score of for each channel. These reservoirs are bypassed
20. 1 with polycarbonate and polypropylene film
From beer to amplifiers: Electrocompaniet capacitors to enhance their speed. Physically,
was founded in Oslo, Norway, in 1974, primar- the EC amp is fairly diminutive in size and
ily to produce a25W solid-state amplifier based weighs in at alightweight 35 pounds. It neither
on adesign by Dr. Matti Otala and Jan Lohstro. has the look nor feel of aKrell or aMark Levin-
That amplifier was the first commercial tran- son, and construction quality resembles that
sistor amplifier to embody the crux of what I of a$1000 effort (which it may very well be in
have dubbed the modern school of amplifier its domestic market). Speaker connections are
design. The essential features of such modern via high-quality binding posts, which allow the
designs are the use of low overall feedback, use of large-gauge bare cable terminations.
high slew rate, ahighish class-A/B bias, extended Ikicked the AW 100 around for acouple of
open-loop frequency response, and ahigh months before conducting any formal listening
current-drive capability into real-world reac- tests. So Igot more than adecent first impres-
tive speaker loads. The basic idea is to minimize sion (and, Imight add, quite afavorable one)
transient distortions and maintain adequate before the final testing phase. First of all, the
current drive under all load conditions. Ocala, EC was not obviously asolid-state design; a
for example, has shown that under certain quick listen did not immediately reveal its ped-
dynamic conditions, what is nominally an 8- igree. There was no grain, hardness, or upper-
octave harshness. In fact, the upper octaves
were sweet, and transients were well-con-
ITo he fair. Ishould point out that this beer was downrated
because ola skunk', aroma and aharsh aftertaste most likely trolled. The EC seemed to excel in the repro-
caused by aphotochemical reaction. Beers are light -sensitive,
duction of dynamic shadings. The soundstage
211d morale in clear hunks under bright lights tin asupermarket
shelf will affect their ar0f1111 and flavor. appeared to expand dynamically, with lots of

headroom—almost as though an expander had generally clean, dynamic, and always listenable.
been added to the system. The soundstage was William lton's Belshazzar's Feast (EMI SAN-
slightly laid-back. But despite that, and except 324) brought further confirmation that the
in the bass (where Ifelt the two to be compara- Electro was darker-sounding than the Cochrans,
ble), Iclearly preferred the EC to the sound of and not as palpable and lush in the mids. There
the uninvolving Motif MS-100. Bass power and was no sign of compression or confusion on
definition were very good, as was resolution choral and orchestral crescendos, and Iactually
of low-level inner detail. On the minus side, I thought the AW100 more powerful in the bass
was put off by aslightly artificial reproduction and better extended in the treble.
of musical textures. There was an "off' flavor The issues of soundstage palpability, depth-
to the midrange that was at first very obvious, perspective reproduction, and textural integ-
but faded somewhat with continued exposure. rity—the hallmarks of agood tube amplifier—
At no time was Ifooled into believing the per- were raised again on the Opus 3 Test Rec-
formance level of the EC approximated that of ord I. The darker mida were noted again, as
an amplifier belonging in Stereopbile's Class were the consistent reduction of stage depth
A category. It simply lacked the resolution and squashing of instrumental outlines. Pedro
powers and purity of, say, aMark Levinson No. Aledo's old and new folksongs (Pierre Verany
23. So by the time the final testing began, the PV 12793) suffered asimilar fate. Here the over-
real question was, just how firm afooting did all sound quality was clean and fast, with only
the AW100 have in Class B? slightly hardened mida. But outlines were not
With one exception, analog program mate- as well-fleshed-out, and the depth perspective
rial was used exclusively during the final testing was reduced. What this boils down to is that,
phase. My front end consisted of the SOTA through the Electrocompaniet, the illusion of
Vacuum /SME V/Sumiko Virtuoso Boron com- a3-D soundstage, together with fine spatial
bination feeding the Threshold FET- 10 pre- resolution, is much more difficult to obtain
amp. Interconnects were the Cardas and Kim- than with agood tube amplifier.
ber KCAG, while the TARA Labs Space & Time Next, Itried the AWI00 full-range with the
Phase Il and Cardas Hex speaker cables were SL600s, obtaining similar results. Neither did
used. Speaker loads consisted of the Celestion my findings change with the Quad '63s. There
System 6000 and SL600s, and the Quad ESL- were still aslight darkish tinge to midrange tex-
63s on Arcici stands. (The Arcicis greatly tures and the now familiar complaints about
improve the Quad's reproduction of bass sta- the losses in soundstage image palpability and
bility and clarity.) depth.
The EC's first task was as adirect substitution Paganini's Sonatas (Opus 2) for Violin and
for the Cochran Delta Mode amps driving the Guitar (Telefunken 6.35574-DX) provide asim-
SL600s in Celestion's fullrange System 6000. ple spatial framework for evaluating soundstage
This, Ifigured, was going to be atough one for interrelationships. It is said that Paganini's early
the AWI00 to handle: the Delta Modes had musical education was on his father's mandolin;
proved to mate synergistically with the System later, as afamous violin virtuoso, he reverted
6000, bringing about an unmatched conjunc- to playing the guitar. But that the guitar was a
tion of detail, tonal purity, and palpable imag- favorite of his is not at all obvious, at least from
ery without being either overly analytic or soft. the Op.2 collection. Clearly the guitar is dwarfed
In addition to the price difference—some by the virtuoso violin writing, the former
S8000—this represented an ultimate judgment merely assigned to handle simple bass lines.
day for the EC. The results were surprising. The recording engineers must have felt that
On the Lesley Test—using master tapes of way too, because Gyorgy Terebesi's violin is
my wife Lesley singing—my spouse's sweet miked too closely. This was obvious enough
highs were very much in evidence. However, through the Electro, but the spatial perspectives
there was aslight darkening of midrange tex- were not clearly drawn. The violin outlines
tures and aslightly more chesty tonality. The were oversized, and it was unclear that the gui-
focus was very good, with the core of the voice tar and violin belonged in the same acoustic
tightly bunched in space, but the outline was space.
slightly flat or 2-D. There was some residual David Abel's Guarnerius (Wilson Audio:
veiling of the soundstage, but the sound was Beethoven Sonata for Piano & Violin) was also

darkly textured and not as well integrated and good focus and resolution of low-level detail.
tightly focused as it should be. The Cochrans There was aslightly laid-back perspective to
here yielded aslightly more forward perspec- the soundstage, but this was not as serious as
tive, lighter textures, much more palpable mids, its failure to properly flesh out asoundstage.
and amore vivid and better-delineated sound- It did no worse or better in this department
stage. In general, bass lines were tight and than most solid-state amplifiers. The illusion
clearly resolved. of 3-D is just not as convincing as that available
The AWI00's overall report card was quite from, for example, the VTL dual 75W amp,
favorable. It was capable of quick, clean, dyna- which, at S1950, costs about $250 less than the
mic reproduction of topnotch program mate- Electrocompaniet. If this aspect of sound repro-
rial. The bass was powerful and well-articu- duction is of paramount importance to you, I
lated. At the other frequency extreme, Ifound suggest you investigate tube amplifier alter-
the treble to be sweet, with excellent transient natives.
control. The AWI00 clearly transcended many The AWI00 betters anything that Ihave heard
of the traditional faults of solid-state designs. in Class C of Stereophile's "Recommended
It was neither harsh nor brash through the Components"; Iwould therefore rank it in the
upper octaves, and proved easy to live with bottom of Class B. There is really nothing more
over the long haul. reasonably priced here that matches its perfor-
Midrange textures were slightly dark, which mance capabilities in the areas of high current
may be ablessing with some speaker systems, drive and reproduction of dynamic shadings
but was acoloration Ifound bothersome. Just and performance at the frequency extremes.
how much this will affect you Icannot tell. For Still, you should understand that while it is not
me there was always a slight sensation of my favorite Class Bamp, at the asking price it
artificiality about this amp. It generated aspa- is worth aserious listen.
cious and transparent soundstage, with very
INOUYE SYNERGISTIC POWER LINE

CONDITIONER
John Atkinson
Dual power line conditioner with: 1800VA capacity; two independent sets of two output sockets,
transient protection fuses, and limited five-year warranty. Price: 6525. Approximate number of
dealers: 20. Distributor: Artech Electronics Ltd., PO Box 1165, Champlain, NY 12919. Tel: (514)
631-6448.
If you ever have the need to separate those at In addition, most modern hi-fi components—
the cutting edge of audiopbilia nervosa from the exception being the output stages of nearly
the skeptics/conservatives of the audio world, all power amplifiers—interpose some kind of
all you need do is ask whether the quality of voltage regulation between the basic power
the mains voltage available from the wall socket supply and the audio stages, this offering per-
has any effect on asystem's sound quality. haps another 50-60dB of audio-band power-
"Absolutely not," the latter group would guffaw, supply noise rejection. In fact, it is usual in cir-
pointing out to their questioner that between cuit analysis, Iunderstand, to assume that all
the line cord of any component and its audio power-supply rails, no matter what their DC
circuitry is ahefty filtering system, consisting voltage, are at ground potential with respect to
of the mains transformer, one or more diode AC signals, so low is the power-supply imped-
bridges, and shunt arrays of electrolytic reser- ance to ground assumed to be. Even if there is
voir capacitors, often bypassed with low-value asignificant degree of HF noise on the AC line,
film caps to ensure alow impedance at RE Any it will be efficiently shunted to ground long
high-frequency noise on the line will be faced before it can have any effect on acomponent's
with avery-low impedance pathway to ground. sound quality.

Inouye AC line conditioner
And as nearly all modem electronic compo- that the mains waveform is agood sinewave.
nents are dual-rail, complementary designs, Even though LL found that it reduced the levels
any noise which is identical on both live and of midrange background noise, he felt that it
neutral lines, even if it did manage to get limited dynamics, endowing the music with an
through to the sensitive audio sections, will be overall gray coloration.
rejected by those circuits' intrinsic common- The Inouye Synergistic Power Line Condi-
mode rejection. tioner appears to be similar to the Adcom prod-
Yet many audiophiles, having experimented uct in that it offers filtration of RFI and noise.
with the various power-line filters and transient It is built on an aluminum, nonmagnetic chas-
spike suppressors available for use with com- sis, and fitted with alarge-gauge power cord.
puters,' report hearing sonic improvements Internally, the line-conditioner circuitry is
with some of these theoretically superfluous contained on a single, large, double-sided
devices. A year or so ago, in Von' No.4, Lewis printed circuit board. Following the wall power
Lipnick found that Adcom's ACE-515 RF fil- as it enters the conditioner through astandard
ter/spike suppressor unit improved the perfor- IEC socket, the Live voltage goes via athick pcb
mance of apair of Rowland Research Model track to first a15A circuit-breaker, then to the
Five power amplifiers, improving the sense of on/off switch, this containing ared neon indi-
focus and clarity, as well as improving the sense cator lamp. Both the Live and Neutral rails are
of solidity in the bass (though the same manu- shunted to ground by high-voltage ceramic
facturer's Coherence One preamplifier seemed capacitors (to provide alow-impedance ground
unaffected, and the Model Seven power ampli- for RF noise) and by metal-oxide varistors (to
fier was made to sound watery and thin). On squelch transient voltage peaks higher than the
the other hand, Lewis didn't like the effect of mains's maximum 170V or so). Both Live and
the Straight Wire Power Purifier 8, amuch Neutral lines are divided into two at this point,
more sophisticated unit that is said to ensure each feeding two sets of two three-pin sockets
via an elaborate filtering arrangement of two
II'm talking here specifically of units that employ simple filter- heavy-gauge, air-cored coils per line, giving a
ing and transient suppression. Conditioners that employ some
kind of ferroresonant circuit, as supplied for use with com-
total of eight, and eight more ceramic capaci-
puters, are acomplete no-no for hi-fi purposes in my opin- tors. These components appear to make up
ion. Even if you can stand the mechanical hum. Ibelieve they
impose ahigh source impedance on the AC mains, which is series L-C-L filters. Astar-grounding topology
the last thing you would want for an amplifier or preamplifier. is used, again via thick pcb traces. Finally, each

pair of sockets is further protected against tran- Isuspect that the short length of unscreened
sient spikes with aseries fuse/shunt vans- twin cable between the Conditioner and avoltage
tor/red neon/shunt varistor/series fuse net- divider/current limiter at the 'scope input was
work. The neons remain lit while this final picking up RF noise radiated from the dimmer.
transient defense is active. The main problem here seemed to be that
Asmall criticism concerning these four inter- the mains waveform in Stereopbile's part of
nal fuses, which presumably will have to be New Mexico is avery good sinewave—due to
replaced occasionally: The cover is fixed to the alow population density and acomplete lack
chassis with Allen-head screws, and one screw of heavy industry. Given that moving to New
on the review sample was fastened so tight that Jersey for this review is out of the question,
Istripped its hexagonal socket with the wrench. something else was called for to reveal the
Ihad to drill the screw out to remove the cover, SPLC's intrinsic behavior. Feeding a high-
which was apain in the neck. Perhaps Inouye . frequency sinewave into the Inouye's mains
could look into this problem. 2 input, between either leg to ground, revealed
One of the factors that bothers me with any adeep notch to appear at 88kHz—presumably
type of line conditioner is that long experience the fundamental tuning of the filter—when the
has led me to distrust anything that places any response at the appropriate conditioned output
kind of impedance upstream of ahi-fi compo- was measured. Measuring the series impedance
nent's power supply. Amie Balgalvis has reported of the neutral leg and its impedance to ground
in these pages the favorable effects of having at spot frequencies also indicated that the unit's
adedicated AC circuit installed directly between response should roll off above the audio band,
the house circuit-breaker and his hi-fi system; but in addition indicated that another notch
Iplan to have adedicated supply installed for should be present at 44kHz—except that I
my relatively new listening room later this couldn't then find this notch with a high-
Spring. Iam extremely distrustful of having frequency sinewave sweep. (A puzzle!)
anything in the line that would impede, for Could it be significant that these notches
example, apower amplifier's need to suck cur- coincide with the fundamental CD sampling
rent from the pole transformer. The traditional frequency and its second harmonic, present to
"Christmas Tree" of two- and three-way mains some extent in the outputs of all CD players?
adaptors plugged into asingle socket is anathema, Ihaven't the faintest idea, except that with the
therefore. Inouye, however, claims avery low CD players and digital processors Ihad to
insertion loss for their SPLC: Imeasured a hand—the Sony DAS -R1, Accuphase DP-80L/
presumably negligible in/out impedance of DC-8IL, Precision Audio DVIC-47I, Magnavox
approximately 0.75 ohms on each rail at 60Hz. CDB472, and Theta DS Pre—I rapidly became
While the conditioner would pass audio-band convinced that there was asignificant, if vari-
energy present on the line, it shunted compo- able, degree of improvement in their sound. In
nents higher than 20kHz to ground with general, it was as though the black of the sonic
increasing effectiveness as the frequency backgrounds became even more black, to the
increased. Looking (carefully) at the AC wave- benefit of the music, with an opening up of the
form straight from the wall with a'scope, I back of the soundstage. The greatest effect
could induce HF noise on the line with thyris- noticeable was with the least expensive player.
tor dimmer switches and add some triangula- Am Ireporting on the sound of CD players
tion by turning on and off my trusty Black & with less noise on their AC mains inputs? Idon't
Decker drill plugged into the same circuit. actually think so. Of course, you can't listen to
Looking at the output of the Inouye SPLC, the aCD player that doesn't have aheadphone
sinewave remained slightly more pure with the socket without apower amplifier or speaker,
drill operating, though it still was triangulated so identifying cause and effect is impossible.
alittle at the moment when the drill was turned But Iam sure that the audible improvement
on. It was also hard to come to any sensible here is not so much the reduction of mains-
conclusion regarding the HF thyristor switching borne noise that would otherwise degrade CD-
noise as the Inouye appeared to have no effect. player performance, but the other way around:
when aCD player is plugged into the Inouye
2Under no circumstances should the SPLC's cover be removed filter, RF garbage present on its power supply
while the unit is plugged into the wall. The entire pcb is at
mains potential! rails (which, if not shunted to ground by the

reservoir electrolytics, will find its way to the this was not enough for the bass to sound more
mains supply via the diode bridge the "wrong" under-damped. To be honest, though, this
way around) is prevented from affecting the effect on the VTLs' bass was almost insignifi-
performance of the preamplifier and power cant much of the time.
amplifier. Here the two sets of sockets on the To explore the effect of the Inouye with a
Inouye start to make sense: plug the CD player more conventional preamplifier, Ithen used
into one, then use the other for the preamplifier. it with the line stage of aPS Audio 4.6 fitted
My next auditioning session involved trying with its M-500 power supply. (As this was at
the conditioner with my Linn Sondek LP12 night, Ihad the dimmer-controlled lights on—
plugged into it. The Linn has afrequency- might as well give the SPLC something to get
synthesized supply to provide its synchronous its teeth into.) After my experience with power
motor with a60Hz AC sinewave, so any noise amplifiers, Iwasn't expecting much of achange
present on the AC line should be expected to with the Inouye SPLC. The 4.6's auxiliary
have no effect. In addition, as with any belt- power transformer is amassive hunk of iron-
driven turntable, the flexible belt acts as alow- ware that you would not expect to benefit from
pass filter in conjunction with the moment of any additional AC line filtration, particularly
inertia of the rotating platter, rejecting any HF with the relatively clean AC here in Santa Fe. I
fluctuations in the motion of the motor. Things was very wrong. The difference between the
weren't so cut and dried, however, when it 4.6 sans the Inouye and with it upstream of the
came to the listening. Half the time Ifelt that preamp supply was the largest Iexperienced
the SPLC rendered the music more stable in its with any of the equipment Ihad to hand. The
pitch centers; half the time Ididn't. No conclu- sound of the 4.6 line stage is something Ialways
sion here, I'm afraid. think of as "typical" PS: open, clear, detailed,
Inouye suggests that electrostatic loudspeakers always musical, but also grainy in the lower tre-
benefit from having their polarizing supplies ble when compared with true Class Apreamps.
plugged into the SPLC, with users in Canada This is why Iprefer to use it in its "straight -
reporting a30-50% improvement in perfor- wire" setting, when it acts as apassive control
mance. Iintend, therefore, to pass the review center. Yet listening to »acy Chapman (Elektra
sample on to Dick Olsher or J. Gordon Holt so 960774-1), 3with the 4.6's line stage in circuit,
that they can report on its effect with Quads the Inouye rendered the sound considerably
and Sound Labs, respectively. more musical. The lower-treble graininess,
Returning to electronics, Idon't use acon- heard as a"cack" in Chapman's mocha-flavored
ventional preamplifier at present in my refer- vocalizing, was considerably reduced, the
ence system: the Mod Squad's Line Drive sound becoming smoother yet without mel-
Deluxe AGT forms the system heart, with the lowing out HF detail. The triangle on "Moun-
Vendetta Research SCP2 dual-mono phono tains of Things," for instance, remained as clear
preamplifier providing the urge and equaliza- as crystal. Not surprisingly, Tracy Chapman led
tion for LP replay. Itried the effect of the SPLC to Joan Armatrading: the superb "Willow"
on the sound of the Vendetta Research. Well, from her 1977 Sbow Some Emotion. Again, the
the results were not as favorable as with the CD effect of the SPLC was to render the singer less
players. With aphono preamplifier plugged electronic, the music more accessible, and now
into each channel of the Inouye, the sound asuspicion Ihad about the low frequencies
became somewhat less full-blooded, with less was confirmed. Kick drum had more body,
of a feeling of unrestricted low-frequency more "thud"; bass guitar had more weight.
dynamics. This effect was, to my surprise, not Ialso used the Inouye SPLC with my dedicated
noticeable when Itried the Inouye conditioner headphone amplifier for most of the head-
with the VTL 100W monos —one plugged into phone listening to be reported on in the next
each half of the SPLC—but was afactor with issue. Here, again, Ifound the effect to be an
my Krell KSA-50. The sound of the Vils seemed
to improve, however, becoming more fluid. 3It is one of the tragedies of hi-fi shows that they enable you
The rather forward midrange characteristic of to hear great albums like this too many times. My colleague
at Gramophone, Ivor Humphreys, feels that much contem-
this amplifier receded, the soundstage thus porary music i12., the equivalent of a sell-by date: after acertain
number of plays. you do not need u) hear the music again.
acquiring atouch more depth. Low frequen- Unfortunately, the musically monotonous overkill at this year's
cies did acquire atouch more bloom, though WCES almost got me to that stage with this album.

improvement. Backgrounds became adeeper about it, as is "the better the quality of your
grade of silent, and instrumental specificity mains and the cleanliness of your RF environ-
within the souncistage improved. Any hint of ment, the less need you have for such adevice"
aggressiveness in the treble was diminished. Except that this neat theorizing doesn't jibe
lb put these comments into context, the improve- with my experience of the PS Audio preamplifier.
ment was remarkably similar to that observed Well-made, and certainly offering very posi-
between the sound of an amplifier or pream- tive effects with some of the equipment with
plifier when it is first turned on and that when which Iused it, the $525 Inouye faces stiff
it is fully warmed-up. competition from Adcom's ACE-515 ($180),
from The Audio Advisor's Tripplite LC-1800
Conclusion ($308), and even from Straight Wire's Power
'lb sum up my findings: The Inouye Synergistic Purifier 8($495). Stereopbile received asignifi-
Power Line Conditioner had positive effects on cant amount of strongly dissenting mail from
the system's sonics when CD players were readers following the appearance of Lewis's
plugged into it; it had, as best as Ican conclude, mainly negative review last April (for example,
no effect on the Linn Sondek (though it might see the letter from Mr. William Beuthel of Den-
offer an improvement with turntables driven ver, CO, in Vol.11 No.11, p.27). As the SPLC's
directly from the mains voltage, particularly in effect will be component-dependent and will
areas where the mains is particularly dirty); it also depend on the degree to which your AC
changed the sound of the Vendetta Research mains is noisy or contaminated,* Isuggest that,
phono preamplifier and the Krell KSA-50 in if you can find adealer willing to cooperate,
ways that Ifelt to be worse; it changed the you try the Inouye with each of your compo-
sound of the VTL monoblocics and of my class- nents in your own system before making afinal
A headphone amplifier in ways which Ifelt to purchase decision. You may find that you get
be improvements; and it effected an astonish- the same improvement with your preamplifier
ing improvement on the sound of the PS Audio that Idid with the 4.6. As for me, the Inouye's
4.6/M-500 combination's line stage. (Any effect on CD replay in my reference system was
improvement from its use with electrostatic sufficiently great that Iwouldn't want to part
speakers is still to be reported on.) As Larry with it.
Archibald offered when Idiscussed this review's
findings with him, "it appears the better acom- 4 Someone living in the heart oía city, with alarge variety of
ponent's power supply, the smaller the degree thyristor dimmers. TVs with switched-mode power supplies,
and electric 1110(ors of all kinds, will he in asituation very differ-
of improvement offered by the Inouye," which ent from someone who lives in the remote depths of one of
Isuppose is pretty obvious when you think the mountain states.
THE CARTRIDGE CHRONICLES: PART II _

Thomas J. Norton
In the first part of this survey (Stereopbrie Vol.12 moving-coil stages are generally expensive,
No.2, February 1989), Ilooked at four moving- especially those which justify the use of ahigh-
coil pickups. They weren't the most expensive priced moving-coil, asignificant saving is pos-
on the market by along shot, but you aren't sible if you don't already own apreamp with
likely to find any of them in your local Circuit suitable gain. If you're of the school which
City, either. In this episode we'll cover two believes in using alow-output moving-coil
fixed-coil pickups—of the moving-magnet straight into anormal phono input, this may
variety—and asingle moving-coil, these pickups not be aconsideration, but low noise is. There
ranging from $100 to $550 in price. is no free lunch.
Fixed-coil pickups have, in general, one dis- The same associated equipment was used in
tinct advantage over the vast majority of mov- these evaluations as in the last installment: Well-
ing-coils ,—they require no step-up device
beyond the standard phono input. Since good IDiscounting, of course, high-output moving-coils.

Tempered Arm on VP! HW-I9 Mk.II turntable,
Klyne SK-5a preamp (without use of its switch-
able MC high-frequency compensation cir-
cuit), PS Audio 200cx power amp, and B&W
801 Matrix loudspeakers. Interconnects were
Monster M-1000, speaker cable Monster M-1.
All measurements were made at the tape-
monitor outputs of the Klyne (which means
that they include the frequency response of the
latter, aminor consideration since it is far flatter
than that of any of the cartridges). The arm rest
of the WTA, which some have accused of reso-
nating, was removed in all listening evaluations
just as aprecaution; asoft (dry) sponge under Ortofon 530 cartridge, which shares a
the arm tube in the rest position kept the styli common body with the 540
from plopping down onto the turntable sub-
chassis. several other major pickup manufacturers who
A brief comment on tonearm compatibility: are branching out into things digital and video.
In general, any of the moving-coils (here or in The 540 is Ortofon's top-of-the-line mov-
Part I) should present no difficulties with any ing-magnet cartridge. The 500 line consists of
typical medium- to medium-high-mass audi- three models, different (apparently) only in sty-
ophile tonearm. The Ortofon and Shure pick- lus sophistication. The 520 has an elliptical tip,
ups are, however, higher in compliance than the 530 afine line, and the 540 the so-called
the moving-coils. Either one, but especially the Fritz Gyger II. The latter appears to be similar
Ortofon, would be better suited to alower- in concept, though not identical in shape, to
mass arm. (The Shure damper slightly lessens the van den Hul. Fritz Gyger, the designer of
its sensitivity to amismatch.) The Well-"kmpered the Fritz Gyger II (to state the obvious), is
Arm, because of its inherently heavy damping, apparently also responsible for the design of
appeared well matched to all of the pickups, the so-called Replicant stylus, used in Ortofon's
which is why (aside from its fine sonic attrib- flagship MC3000. All three of the 500-series
utes) it was used in this survey. pickups are also available for P-mounting, for
In Part I, Icommented on the problem of the information of our two subscribers who are
physical clearance between cartridge and disc. into such bizarre activities.
Ihad aserious problem with the van den Hul Output voltage is specified at 3.0mV at 11cHz,
MC One (its replacement has not yet arrived as 5cm/s lateral velocity, while cartridge mass is
of this writing), and minor difficulties with the amodest 5.0 grams. Optimum downforce is
Monster Genesis 500 and the Krell KC-100. In said to be in the 1.25-1.5gm range.
this installment, only the Ortofon 540 had a
clearance so minimal as to discourage VTA The Sound: One of the problems in acar-
experimentation. Ihave not yet determined if tridge survey of this nature is that you run the
this is a "design trend," but it could cause risk of being hypercritical of perfectly good
difficulties when using such pickups with turn- middle-of-the-road cartridges. The 540 is a
tables lacking any provision for flattening very respectable performer about which Imay
warped recordings. It may not always be useful be more critical than it deserves. Isimply never
advice, but, as always, your best protection in really warmed up to it. Its measured perfor-
insuring compatibility is adealer you trust. mance, as we shall see, was impeccable. It did
nothing really "wrong" and never offended,
Ortofon 540: $300 but somehow it never really moved me in the
Ortofon wants to be your cartridge company. ways in which the better moving-coils or, more
Or so it seems, given their introduction of a to the point, the comparably priced Grado
number of totally new models in the last couple MCZ (review to come soon) did.
of years. They are, it would appear—much like Iadmit to acertain ambivalence concerning
Grado Labs—still heavily dependent upon the the Ortofon, however. It does have anumber of
phono cartridge for their bottom line, unlike definite strengths. Its high-frequency response

was extremely clean and properly balanced. dip so common in other pickups around 5.0kHz
Sibilants were particularly well-controlled. was entirely absent here, the only notable devi-
Hard transients—plucked guitar strings, the ation being aslight rise at 8-10kHz (+1.2dB in
details lending character to various percussive the worst channel). It must be noted, however,
instruments, and the like—had anatural clarity, that the 540, like most moving-magnet pickups,
neither dulled nor excessively etched or over- is sensitive to load capacitance. The measure-
bright. In the low end, the 540 had arespect- ments, and much of the listening, were done
able solidity, although it tended toward lean- with atotal load capacitance of 218pF (25pF
ness and detail at the expense of extension and preamp input, 168pF for 1m of Monster M-1000
weight. Midbass was neither lean nor under- interconnect, 25pF for the capacitance of the
damped, walking afine line between the two. internal wiring of the Well-Tempered Arm).
Instrumental timbre tended to lack warmth— Increase the capacitance beyond that point,
though not to the extent of drying up the over- and the mild rise at 8-10kHz becomes more
all balance—but otherwise was difficult to pronounced, the dropoff at 201cHz more severe
fault. (An extreme case: with 548pF total load capac-
In short, for every one of the 540's sonic itance, the left channel peaked at +3dB at 81cHz
strengths, acounterbalancing weakness de- and dropped to -8.1dB 20kHz). In my opinion,
tracted from my enjoyment. Some examples the 540 should be used into 250pF (or less) load
may best illustrate what Imean. On Kor the 540 capacitance. If your preamp input has afairly
had good detail within the chorus and excel- high input capacitance, 2you might be able to
lent differentiation of individual voices, but compensate with alow-capacitance interconnect.
compared with the best pickups its reproduc- Be advised: many audiophile-grade intercon-
tion of ambience was abit hard, its layering less nects are fairly high in capacitance. Imeasured
dimensional. On Magnum Opus Volume 2, the Straight Wire LSI, for example, at 283pF/meter,
540 presented avery detailed sonic picture; the Cardas Hexlink at 395pF/meter. Obviously, I
reedy quality of the high pipes was distinctly recommend neither for use with the 540, or
evident. The Ortofon's bass on this recording with any other pickup sensitive to load capac-
was taut and detailed, with no muddiness itance (moving-coils and Grados are not). The
whatsoever. Yet its low end was noticeably less modest MAS Musicable, on the other hand,
deep and unrestricted than that of some of the measured 65pF/meter.
other pickups in this survey. The 540's sound- The Ortofon 540 tracked well up to 80µm.
stage was smaller, less open. And although its Subjective tracking was comparable with any
high end was very detailed, its sense of air and pickup in the survey, including the most expen-
top extension was no better than the other sive.
non-moving-coils.
The Ortofon reproduced "Live" Direct- to- Conclusions: The most difficult review to
Disc Flamenco Fever with obvious detail. The write is of aproduct which the reviewer feels
solo voice was well-focused; bass—footwork is good when judged on any objective basis,
and drums—was distinctly taut; guitar had a but which fails to push the right buttons. For
sparkling sound. But the presentation was cool me, the 540 is just such aproduct. If you take
and rather lean, and depth was less pronounced my chosen test record as areference, the Orto-
in comparison with the better pickups, with fon is inarguably flat. The upper-midrange/
aless spatial audience sound and less clear lower-treble dip of some cartridges—the
delineation of movement of performers within Grado family, for example—undoubtedly con-
the soundstage. tributes to their feeling of depth and their
refusal to sound anything but sweet except
The Measurements: The frequency response with the most egregious program material. The
of the 540 was extremely fiat: ±1.0dB from Ortofon, with its measured linearity through
20Hz to 12.5kHz on both channels (the chan- the rnidband, is not at all euphonic. But remem-
nels weren't absolutely identical, but the differ- ber my caution concerning test records—
ences were inconsequential—more than 1.0dB they're all abit different. And this isn't Stereo
at only 1.2dB at 40Hz). The left channel was
-2.3dB at 20kHz, the right -4.0dB at the same 2 This information is often unpublished. Check with the
frequency. The lower-treble/upper-midrange manufacturer of your prcamp.

Review; until Ican compare a540 with aGrado my first reaction after installing the Shure in the
MCZ with an identical frequency response (not WTA and putting on afavored recording was
likely), I'll have to go with my subjective one of disbelief. Perhaps Iwas expecting what
impressions. In the right system, the Ortofon most audiophiles instinctively expect from
may well lock in to provide arewarding match. (relatively) cheap pickups—not much. What
It certainly does many things well and nothing Iheard was adecent soundstage, aclean, non-
really poorly. But it was, for me, merely com- irritating high end, very good tracking (that
petent; Iwas not moved to describe it with was no surprise), and, overall, avery satisfac-
superlatives in any way. tory performance overall.
But aperformance, it must be said, which is
Shure VST III: $100 unlikely to satisfy the very critical listener over
Tom has just laid out afortune for anew ampli- the long haul. The positive traits Ihave listed
fier and speakers and he still needs anew car- were quite apparent. If your expectations are
tridge. His old one never was anything special, modest, you might be tempted into along-term
but lately it's been sounding more tired than relationship with the VST III. It is certainly
ever. He'd like to buy avdH or aKrell or a- --- inoffensive, its failures subtractive rather than
(fill in the MS), but those other purchases additive. Critical audiophiles, unfortunately,
have laid him out like amackerel. ..
Dick just have atendency to either praise to the skies or
had alittle "accident" and is now faced with condemn unmercifully. On that basis, the
a$600 replacement bill for abusted cantilever Shure remains earthbound. Its uppermost
on his $1000 cartridge. Something about a highs were subdued, shaving off critical bits
party. He'll replace that moving-coil eventually, of information: ambience was dulled, the sense
but needs something to tide him over without of openness and HF extension limited, and the
making abig dent in his "save for areplacement"
overall effect noticeably "closed-in." Midrange
budget ...You're putting together amodest was abit forward, but at the same time lacked
system for Uncle Harry. Harry has abig collec- fully developed "life" or presence. Bass was
tion of "classic" MOR music (he's big on Lester strong and well-extended but softened, as were
Lanin), but doesn't have abig budget. Or. .. dynamics. Soundstage, as noted, was effective,
You get the picture. I'll venture that most of but depth only moderately well-developed.
our readers are looking for something abit And surface noise, paradoxically considering
more upper-end than a"lowly" $100 moving- the VST's balance, was more prominent than
magnet cartridge. You probably think that such on cartridges with more fully developed detail.
acartridge has to sound impossibly ratty. For Let's be fair, however. I'm comparing the VST
hoi polloi, lumpenproles, and their ilk. Ill with the sound of top-quality pickups eight
If that be true, then the ilk are in on awell- to ten times its modest cost. If small details on,
kept secret. Shure's VST Ill is certainly no sub- for example, Ojebokoren—Cyndee Peters
stitute for the best high-end pickups, but it (Opus 377-04) were less than arresting—the
won't make you reach for TV Guide, either. curtailing of the airy, ambient environment sur-
Even in ahigh-end system. Isay that because rounding the performers and the openness of
Cyndee Peter's voice soaring gently above the
chorus; the sense, in short, of "being there" —
you don't really expect them at this price. If the
VST III fails to totally involve the listener, it also
fails to distract from the essential enjoyment
of the listening experience. Remember, my first
reaction—before getting analytical, as critics
are prone to do—was favorable. Inner clarity
and detail may not have been totally convinc-
ing, but the Shure does not sound dull. Veiled,
yes—reminiscent of a thin gauze curtain
between the listener and the performers—but
acurtain light enough to leave the musical fab-
ric essentially intact. Depth was foreshortened,
Shure VST Ill cartridge but not lost. Bass may not challenge the tilt i-

mate definition of your subwoofers, but it will magnet cartridges of the mid-'70s, but with
give them something to think about. better tracking. Those pickups generally sold
Aword on the Shure damper brush. For the for under $100 in that deflated era; we've come
neophytes in the group, the VST III incor- along way since then, but for aprice. The
porates the damper adapted from its more Shure is unlikely to satisfy the serious audio-
expensive pickups—a small brush with a phile for critical listening, but it might make for
damped hinge attached to the pickup body. It an affordable, very listenable cartridge for non-
is designed to ride on the record during play, critical sessions—those occasions when you
not only cleaning the disc, but providing damp- want to enjoy those less- than-striking-
ing which effectively minimizes the amplitude sounding recordings for their musical merit.
of the low-frequency arm/cartridge resonance. If you have the capability to make quick car-
In contrast to the experiences of others in the tridge changes, the Shure would provide ayeo-
audiophile press, Ifound that the use of this man back-up capability and spare wear and
damper actually improved the overall sound, tear on the family jewel. Especially if the sys-
increasing HF clarity and detail. In any event, tem is used by others. For full-time use, how-
it won't cost you anything to experiment. Isus- ever, Tom and Dick will likely replace it at the
pect that the effectiveness of the brush is arm- first opportunity. And Uncle Harry? Those
dependent. Lester Lanin recordings never sounded better.
All amatter of your expectations.
Measurements: Loaded with atotal of just
under 300pF load capacitance, the general Audioquest 4041 -L: $550
response trend of the VST III was smooth, but Audioquest is perhaps best known for their
tapered off at the top end. It was up very LiveWire connecting cable and their audio
slightly at the low end (+0.1 to +0.8dB from accessories. But they have been marketing car-
20Hz to IkHz left channel, flatter on the right), tridges almost from their inception. The 404i-L
then dropped to between -0.8 and -1.5dB (left moving-coil is an updated version of the earlier
channel, -2.1dB right) from IkHz to 12.5kHz. 404, first made available in 1982. The Lindi-
The trend at HF was down: -2.5dB at 16kHz, cates the standard low-output version (0.5mV,
-5.3dB at 20kHz (for left channel; -3.7dB and IkHz, 5cm/s lateral velocity); a404i-MH (for
-7.4dB respectively for the right). The mea- mid-high) is also available with an output high
surements above were taken (and all listening enough to drive astandard phono stage (1.4mV).
tests were conducted) with this loading. The The 404i-L incorporates ahollow boron can-
effect of changes in the load capacitance were tilever with aline-contact stylus mounted in
less pronounced than with the Ortofon 540. arigid, cast-metal body. The overall mass was
Increasing it increased the rolloff at 20kHz, unspecified, but Iestimated it to be around
reducing it to about 225pF slightly reduced the 8gm.
HF rolloff (to -2.5dB at 16kHz, -4.2dB at
20kHz, left channel) but also reduced the out- The Sound: The Audioquest 404i-L wasn't
put from 8kHz to 12.5kHz by about 0.5dB. auditioned until the very end of this survey.
'hacking was good up to 80µm, with excellent Nothing personal, it just worked out that way.
subjective tracking on a wide range of Iwish it hadn't, because the 404i-L was one of
recordings. those pleasant surprises that every reviewer
Output is the same as the Ortofon at 3.0mV hopes for but doesn't really expect. Briefly
(1kHz, 5cm/s), while cartridge mass is alittle stated, the 404i-L was adelight, in many ways
higher at 6.6gm. Maximum downforce is sped- the "find" of the survey. By that Idon't mean
fled at 1.25gm, the brush requiring another that it was the best-sounding cartridge of the
0.5gm. seven reviewed (including those in Part I), but
it provided astrong taste of the best qualities
Conclusion: The VST III was not shamed in of the better $1000 pickups (at least those that
use through ahigh-end system. If it failed to Ihave auditioned) at half the price.
remind me of its more pricey competitors, it Before this turns into a love- fest, let me
did remind me of something else In the immor- briefly point out the areas where Ifelt the 404i-
tal words of the bard, 3"Déjà vu all over again";
3Yogi Berra.
the Shure is reminiscent of the best moving-

response or poor tracking. The 404i-L showed
no sign of either problem.
Compared with an early version of the Grado
Tiz-a cartridge directly competitive in price—
the Audioquest was leaner and more detailed.
Low-frequency response was less extended,
but tauter through the 404i-L; highs were more
detailed, but less sweet. The Grado had the
more three-dimensional image and more expan-
sive soundstage, the Audioquest had more "life"
and drive. The TLZ was more laid-back, the
404i-L more up-front and punchy. They sound
Audioquest 4041-L cartridge quite different, and if pressed I'd have to call
the Audioquest the more neutral of the two.
But the Grado is extremely listenable, and
Lcame up abit short. While it was respectable requires no step-up device. 4
in three-dimensionality and depth, the latter (The Audioquest has the highest output of
was somewhat truncated. Overall, the sonic all the moving-coils surveyed. That means you
perspective was a bit forward, especially might be able to get away with using it with-
through the upper midrange and lower treble. out astep-up device, depending on your sys-
A hint of hardness was sometimes evident, tem's gain and noise level. Itried this briefly.
although it was not consistent. And the Audi- The Klyne had abit too much hiss for this to
oquest's low-frequency response was tight but be totally successful, and I'm still not con-
lacked the last word in potency and extension. vinced that 47k ohms is asuitable load for a
But the 404i-L's positive qualities were moving-coil. Iused the 80-ohm setting of the
immediately apparent. It was open, clear, trans- Klyne pre-preamp for most of my auditioning.
parent, and, yes, "airy" in away which the Ihave not auditioned the MH version of the
non-moving-coils surveyed could not match. Audioquest, which has aspecified output vir-
Although, as Ihave stated, it lacked the last tually the same as that of the Grados.)
word in depth, it was not flat or two-
dimensional. Its overall soundstage was good, The Measurements: The 404i-L didn't sound
with notably tight focus. That elusive "jump as if it had ahigh-frequency peak, nor did it
factor" was present; the 404i-L is a"fast" car- measure that way. Above lkHz the response was
tridge. But this quality didn't appear to come -1.5dB left channel, -1.7dB to -2.0dB right
from any exaggeration of the high-frequency channel, from 4kHz to 12.5kHz. At 20kHz, the
response. There was excellent inner detail, yet left channel was -0.4dB, the right -2.5dB.
never an etched or clinical quality. The HF qual- Below IkHz there was little worth commenting
ities varied with the program material—a good on—a gradual rise to +0.9dB in the 20-40Hz
sign, indicating that the cartridge did not dom- region (left), +1.1dB at 20Hz (right).
inate the program material with its own color- The Audioquest's measured tracking ability
ations. Bright, hard transients were fast and was its only real problem area. At the recom-
open—the snap of aclosely miked guitar string, mended 1.8gm (used in most of the listening
the sparkle of a brushed cymbal (with the tests) it was only able to track 60µm. Increasing
right combination of sizzle and silkiness). But the downforce to 2.1gm allowed it tojust man-
that character was properly tamed when asofter age 70µm; 2.3gm gave marginal results at
touch was called for. On Debussy's Sonata for 80µm. Increasing the force to 2.1gm did seem
Violin and Piano (Wilson Audio W-8722), to reduce the touch of hardness which was
for example, the violin was sweet and warm, sometimes noted in the listening tests. Aside
with the sound of the rosin on the bow audi- from that, however, the subjective tracking abil-
ble but not obtrusive. The sound here was nat-
urally detailed, but in no way bright or edgy.
4After these comparisons had been concluded, Joe Grado
And sibilants were particularly well-controlled, informed stereopbile that the NICZ and TU2 auditioned were
not representative cif current production. Iwill he reviewing
clear yet never spitty or sandpapery—the latter
the current versions of these promising contenders within the
asure sign of either atipped-up high-frequency next two or three issues of the magazine.

icy of the Audioquest, as Ihave already noted, Also, to repeat an important point, there is
never gave any cause for concern. (Keep in the question of frequency response. The mea-
mind that the measurements only show the sured response of these pickups does relate, in
tracking in the upper bass-300Hz.) It should afashion, to their sonic character. But recall
be said, however, that in my experience the again that, until there is agreement on atest rec-
Well-Tempered Arm has managed to extract ord which is an absolute reference (and, in the
good tracking from pickups which had caused wake of the digital juggernaut, don't hold your
problems in more conventional arms. 5 breath), test-record results must remain use-
ful but relative guides, not holy writ. One
Conclusion: The Audioquest has alot going observation must be made concerning the CBS
for it. Because of an impending deadline, Iwasn't CTC 330 test record used here. On asignificant
able to spend as much time with it as with the number of the measurements made in this sur-
other cartridges, but 1have no problem what- vey, the right-channel frequency response
soever in giving it astrong recommendation. measured down by an average of about -2.5dB
at 20kHz and -1.2dB at 16kHz. Though this may
not be statistically conclusive. Iam inclined to
Overall Conclusions discount any channel mismatch of that degree
It should be obvious that Ifound the best of the as an aberration of the test record.
moving-coils to be superior to the best of the In truth, none of the pickups evaluated here
fixed-coils. The latter couldn't match the tight is likely to seriously disappoint, in the right sys-
focus and "air" of the former, yet the fixed-coil tem, but my top choices are very definitely the
manufacturers have argued that there is no van den Hul MC One, the Krell KC-100, and the
inherent reason why this should be so. They Audioquest 404i- L. Iconfess to aslight over-
have apoint. But when they sometimes argue all preference for the Krell; it simply locked into
that moving-coils are inherently inferior, I my system better than the others. But Icould
have to point out that record cutting heads are live quite happily with either of the other two;
all, to my knowledge, moving-coils. That isn't Idon't see how you could go wrong with any
an argument for the superiority of the moving- of them.
coil, just an observation that every recording
you hear has already passed through one such
device on its way to the lacquer. The argument Manufacturer/Distributor
is also made that the distinctive, lively quality Addresses
of moving-coils is due to "ringing," to which Audioquest, PO Box 3060, San Clemente CA
they are said to be prone. Perhaps. But it's afact 92672. Tel: (416)475-8643.
that all physical systems ring or resonate in Ortofon, 122 Dupont Street, Plainview, NY
some fashion in response to an excitation; you 11803. Tel: (516) 349-8670.
can damp such ringing either by the selection Shure Brothers, Inc., 222 Hartrey Avenue,
of the material used in construction or by later Evanston, IL 60202. Tel: (312) 866-2200.
application of well-chosen damping materials. From Part I:
The history of audio transducer design is ahis- Audio-Technica US Inc., 1221 Commerce
tory of attempts to control ringing and reso- Drive, Stow, OH 44224. Tel: (216)686-2600.
nance by placing them out of the audible band Monster Cable Products Inc., 101 Townsend
or by applying appropriate damping, without Street, San Francisco, CA 94107. Tel: (415)
throwing the baby out with the bathwater by 777-1355.
deadening the transient response. Compro- Music Hall (Audio-Technica AT OC -9), 108
mises are inevitable. 6 Station Road, Great Neck, NY 11023. in (516)
487-3663.
My infamous Dynavector 170 had tracked poorly in aPre- Krell Industries, 20 Higgins Drive, Milford,
mier FT-3, but was surefooted in the WTA.
CT 06460. Tel: (203) 874-3139.
6A distinction must be made here between damping of the
actual transducer system. he it pickup or loudspeaker driver
Transparent Audio Marketing (vdH), Box
(or driver/enclosure system). and damping of the system sup- 117, Rt. 202, Hollis, ME 04042. Tel: (207)
porting structures: cartridge body or loudspeaker cabinet struc-
ture (as contrasted to the interior airspace/port )"Me damping 929-4553.
of the former must be carefully hr.danCed. The damping of the
latter, in my opinion, cannot he overdone (within practical
physical limitations).

NITTY GRITTY HYBRID LP/CD
CLEANING MACHINE
John Atkinson
Nitty Gritty Hybrid Record/CD cleaning machine
LP/CD cleaning machine. Price: 5550 ($610 with oak finish). Comes with 16oz bottle of Puri-
fier 2LP cleaning fluid, 4oz bottle of Pure CD, and small whisk to clean Vac Sweep lips. Replace-
ment Parts: Purifier 2LP cleaning fluid, $12.95 (16oz), $44.95 (1 gallon): Pure CD cleaning fluid.
$9.95 (4oz): Vac Sweep replacement kit, $9.95: Capstan replacement kit: $9.95. Nitty Gritty coffee
mug: $3.95. Approximate number of dealers: 150. Manufacturer: Nitty Gritty Record Care Products
Inc.. 4650 Arrow Highway, F4, Montclair, CA 91763. Tel: (714) 625-5525.
The beauty of formative experiences is that ords in an apparent state of pristine grace? It is
they are easy to remember, resulting in aplen- only the dirt on the groove walls that matters,
tiful supply of anecdotes with which to open and with the high contact pressure involved,
pieces of writing. Take, for example, the sub- the stylus can do apretty good job of pushing
ject of record cleaning. Never one to take on such groove dirt out of its way. If you hear ticks
tasks unnecessarily, Ialways found the whole and pops from your system while playing LPs
subject of keeping records in visually pristine and they're not due to static, then there is some-
condition aroyal pain in the keester. In addi- thing wrong with your system. (Actually, JV
tion, the whole ritual involving unguents, emol- said "turntable," but we're all more open-
lients, brushes, creams, and lotions carefully minded now, aren't we?)
and painstakingly applied both to record and Resonances in the pickup cartridge, tone-
to stylus, struck me both as obsessive and arm, turntable, and loudspeaker exaggerate the
something that delayed the act of listening to nature of the sound produced by the small
music too much to be bearable. When Ibeheld items of debris not forced out of the way by the
Naim Audio's Julian Vereker cleaning arecord stylus. The preamplifier RIAA equalization
at an audio show in 1977 by rubbing it on his drastically rolls off the highs from any transient
sweater, Iwas already wide open to his argu- leading edge from a"tick," turning it into a
ment that, hey, why do you need to keep rec- much more subjectively endurable "plop," but

any mechanical resonant behavior will restore of an integral acrylic dust cover, to which is
the annoyance of the noise. Add, then, the fact attached abuffing pad for CDs, and an eccen-
that many preamplifiers back then in the dark tric cam/CD support that plugs into the LP-
ages of the late '70s had such limited HF over- drive capstan to provide asuitable nontangen-
load margins that any transient would send tial cleaning motion. Looking at the machine
them into hysterics, and it is not surprising that from left to right, asmall rotating platter with
audiophiles became convinced that record dirt acentral spindle supports the label area of an
was auniversal barrier to the enjoyment of LP To its right is the vacuum slot, with lips con-
recorded music. sisting of afine- fibered brush material Nitty
Me, Ibought the first of three Linn Sondek Gritty calls "Vac Sweep." To its right is asmall
LP12s and found that, yes, the subjective an- rubber puck/capstan that rotates the LP by rub-
noyance of record ticks went down, even with bing on its rim, athree-position rocker switch,
the SME 3009 III and Shure V15 IV Iwas using ahole to store the CD adaptor, and alarger hole
back then. Since then, better tonearms, good to store the CD cleaning-fluid bottle. Finally,
MC cartridges—therein lies atale—and, most the right-hand side of the machine consists of
importantly, better preamplifiers have kept areservoir for the "Purifier 2" record-cleaning
surface noise down to aminimum in my var- fluid—it holds 16oz—and apushbutton to
ious systems. Apart from keeping the grooves pump the fluid on to the brushes either side of
free from superficial dust with acarbon-fiber the vacuum slot. Underneath is aplastic tray
brush, and keeping static down with ahumidi- to catch waste fluid. While the top of the Hy-
fier and Discwasher Zerostat pistol, Ihave vir- brid is made from ablack plastic material, the
tually no problems with record ticks and pops. lower half of the plinth is available in wood-
You don't believe me? Ask Larry Archibald, a finish vinyl or, for an additional $60, asatin-
regular visitor to my listening room, if he is finish oak veneer.
disturbed by noise when enjoying LPs in my To clean an LP, the user first pumps fluid on
system. Or even the venerable JGH, in whom the brushes until they are saturated with Puri-
we trust. fier 2. You then push the LP against the rubber
But. capstan, engage its edge with aslot, and lower
Some of my records bave been getting nois- it on to the spindle. Pushing the on/off switch
ier than others. (I don't play those for Larry, and away from you turns on the capstan motor and
Gordon wouldn't listen to them anyway — the LP is revolved two or three times to thor-
they're mainly rock.) And my bride of just over oughly wet the grooves and allow the fine bris-
ayear had brought with her to Santa Fe adowry tles of the brush to lift groove debris into sus-
of some of the dirtiest records Ihave ever laid pension. The switch is then pushed toward the
eyes on.,So when the chance came to try Nitty user, the motor turns on again but now a
Gritty's fairly new 2 "Hybrid" LP and CD clean- powerful suction action removes the solution
ing machine, Ijumped at it. and the dirt with it. Because the side being
The Hybrid appears to be based on Nitty cleaned is facing down, gravity helps to keep
Gritty's 1.5/2.5Fi Mk.II LP-cleaning machines, 5 muck suspended free from the groove walls
the only apparent difference being the addition before the vacuum has had achance to remove
it. Three to five revolutions of the record are
I"Unfair." protests Laura, pointing out that she keeps her sufficient for the record to be left completely
records in excellent condition. The dirty discs are her mother's.
dry and clean.
2That really should have read "new: and you should have
To clean CDs, the cam/CD support is plugged
been reading this text many months ago. hut the Hybrid fell
prey to the kind of confusion that occasionally befalls review into the capstan—you have to push all the way
samples. We originally sent it back in mid-1988 to Bill Sum-
merwerck in Mechanicsburg—love that name, and it was so
and turn to lock it into place—and the CD
appropriate. Bill being such atechy — Pennsylvania, hut Bill placed upon it playing side up. A line of "Pure
moved to the Northwest and it missed him hy days. The Nitty
Gritty finally followed BS to the land of rain. hut he got deeply
CD" cleaning fluid is applied from the dispens-
embroiled in his new ¡oho( writing software manuals, and by ing bottle along adiameter, with maybe asec-
the time he was ready to start work on the review. Ihad him
tied up with surround-sound processors and inexpensive
amplifiers. It finally arrived hack in the land of enchantment —
well, that's what New Mexico license plates started saying when 3Differences between the Hsbrid and Nitty Gritty's lessen:8.1'1-
Stereopbile went monthly—and Ideputized myself to embark ,
MT machines comprise the motor to rotate the LP and the
on the review as being the least likely person to want to use reservoir/pump system to wet the brushes, while the more
the machine. And you think everything runs like clockwork expensive Mini-Put Iand 2have asecond. upper Vactalra slot
here? so that both sides of the record can be cleaned simultaneously.

ond one at right angles to the first if the disc is an occasional minor tick, taking the intrinsic
very soiled. The motor is then started (but not background noise below the level of the master
the vacuum) and the lid with its buffing pad is tape hiss. What Ihad not expected, however,
lowered on to the CD. After 30-60 seconds, the was achange in the tonal quality of the music!
CD is clean and static-free and the lid should Aslightly harsh edge to the sound of voice and
be carefully raised to prevent the CD from fly- saxophone had gone, the sounds being now
ing off while the motor is still turning. considerably more natural.
Nitty Gritty supplies atransparent LP and Ifound this effect astonishing—and consis-
pocket microscope to their dealers in order to tent, particularly with older records. Some old
demonstrate the efficacy of their machines' Deccas, for example, have got increasingly
cleaning actions. As they also sent one to me, noisy with age. The Nitty Gritty, again, both
my first test was to try it for myself. Isprinkled cleaned up the groove noise and rendered the
one side of the album with amixture of fine overall sound more smooth. Ican only assume
dust from the yard and talc (my wife's Magie that the various soaps and additives that are
Noire from Lancome, for those who want full added to the vinyl biscuit to facilitate pressing
experimental details). Looking at the disc through gradually leach out the body of the record over
the microscope revealed, as expected, grooves time, rendering the groove wall more granu-
that looked as though an entire football squad lar in texture. Presumably the thorough scrub-
had wiped the gack from their uniforms with bing and vacuuming of the groove performed
the disc. Iprimed the Vac Sweep lips with 15 by the Nitty Gritty machine removes this gar-
pushes of the pump; on to the Hybrid went the bage, leaving the groove wall in amore homo-
disc, its edge engaging the slot in the edge of geneous condition.
the capstan; the rocker switch was pushed back What the machine cannot do, of course, is
and the disc was rotated past the wet brushes compensate for the effect of groove damage
for two revolutions; the switch was then pushed from poorly tracking cartridges or from
to the forward position and the disc revolved scratches. These the LP owner has to live with,
for three revolutions while the vacuum pump unfortunately. No record-cleaning system can
did its stuff.
compensate for handling abuse, and cleaning
The result was remarkable. Adry, clean rec- my mother-in-law's Mario Lanza records did
ord, with no line of gunk left where the sweep nothing about the myriads of fine scratches,
had been when Iturned the machine off and even while lowering the level of background
with only an occasional speck of talc or dust groove noise and improving the overall sound.
in the grooves evident through the microscope.
When it comes to CD cleaning, Iam more
Asecond cleaning removed even these. Other skeptical. Couple the fact that CD players have
users of cleaning machines have warned about powerful error correction with the fact that the
residues left in the grooves when the cleaning disc is played upside-down so that gravity
liquid evaporates. Using the clear record and helps surface dross to be flung off the rotating
suitably strong lights, Ifailed to find any evi- disc, and Iam not convinced that aCD needs
dence of such aresidue. Acaution: Nitty Gritty any more help in keeping clean as long as it is
warns against overfilling the reservoir. It is very well looked after and handled properly.
tempting to empty the entire 16 ounces of Puri- There lies the rub, however, as Inever failed
fier 2liquid into the reservoir all at once. Of to be astonished by the muck and grime pres-
course, Idid just that. When the container is ent on even new CDs, fingerprints in particular.
full, the fluid creeps out of the top, even when The Nitty Gritty Hybrid proved excellent at
the cap is screwed tight, due to its very low sur- leaving CD surfaces in mint condition, though
face tension. monitoring the level of corrected errors using
The time had come for areal record. the appropriate LED on aMeridian MCD-Pro
Ireached for my British RCA pressing of player revealed no significant improvement
Casino Royale, well-chewed by countless car- with any of the CDs Icleaned. (I suspect that
tridges and exposed to the ravages of the ele- most errors are due to microscopic scratches
ments (and paper inner sleeves) for some 22 rather than to surface dirt.) However, aclean
years. The background groove noise is not par- CD is certainly athing of joy, and the Hybrid
ticularly high in level, but has agritty quality does get the little silver devils clean. As the CD
Just one clean on the Hybrid reduced this to adaptor only increases the price of the LP clean-

ing machine by $60 or so, Irecommend that wonders on your LP collection, as well as keep
you might as well get the Hybrid. And for those your CDs clean. Irepeat that the degree of
who scour the secondhand CD market, it will improvement in the removal of aharshness on
be an essential purchase, forming asynergis- female voice had to be heard to be believed. My
tic partnership with a proprietary scratch wife Laura wasn't even in the same room, yet
remover such as CD Saver. 4 she called out when Iput the cleaned LP back on
the Linn, asking what Ihad done to the system.
Conclusion As far as domestic acceptability goes, having
Istill feel that if you are plagued with record once tried aKeith Monks machine and found
noise, you should seriously investigate your it large, noisy, and fiddly in the extreme, Iwas
system to make sure that some components are impressed by the Nitty Gritty's compact size,
not exaggerating the effects of ticks and pops. ease of use, and the small amount of time it
An MC cartridge with aresponse that rises like takes to clean an LP or CD. Nitty Gritty is not
aski slope in its top octave, used in aflimsy, res- going to get this machine back in ahurry.
onant tonearm mounted on an inexpensive Has the Nitty Gritty Hybrid converted me
direct-drive turntable with aplastic plinth, will into the kind of fanatic who religiously cleans
make even the cleanest LP sound like you an LP twice before playing? Sorry, no. Istill
habitually use your records to store lawn sand need my music fix in too much of ahurry for
on. But given that you have awell-matched sys- that degree of commitment. What Ido, there-
tem, the Nitty Gritty Hybrid will work sonic fore, is to put on aCD and then happily clean
my LPs, whistling while Iwork.
See)OH's reviews in Vol.10 No.8 and Vol.11 No.8.
FOLLOW UP
CD players
You will see from the reviews of the Accuphase lkHz tone higher than the 8th, and the Audio
and Theta decoders elsewhere in this issue that Control analyzer we use has too limited a
we have started to include in Stereopbile's dynamic range to reveal the presence of har-
reviews the y
3-octave analyzed spectrum of a monics that are significantly lower than -20dB
player's output while it reproduces the with respect to the fundamental. Nevertheless,
dithered -90.31dB tone from the CBS CD-1 it is good enough to reveal major differences
test CD. ,With an undithered signal, atone at between CD players, giving an approximate
this level only crosses three quantizing levels idea of the levels of low-order distortion com-
and therefore is not sufficiently described for ponents present at low levels, as well as the
it to be reproduced as asinewave. However, as level of power-supply-related noise. The
the code representing this tone on track 19 on graphical representation of aplayer's low-level
the CBS disc bas had an appropriate amount performance is more informative, therefore,
of dither noise added when the CD was cut, it than astraight statement of by how many dB
should reproduce as apure, if noisy, sinewave. it compresses or expands the level at -90.3IdB.
Any distortion components present can there- (The rising level in the two octaves above 5kHz
fore be laid at the door of the individual player's in all the spectra is, Ipresume, due mainly to
decoder and electronics. the dither noise on the CD. However, as its level
A '/3-octave spectrum analyzer obviously is not quite constant from player to player, it
does not have sufficient resolving power to must also contain acontribution from decoder-
reveal individual distortion harmonics of a generated spuriae.)
For this follow-up, Ilooked at the spectra for
two players that have been previously well-
IThose interested in examining the low-level performance
of CD pLayes will find it %Val worthwhile investing in this disc received by Stereopbile's reviewers, the Mod
Priced at $45 plus $1.75 postage and handling, it is available Squad Prism and Sonographe SDI Beta; apro-
from Old Colony Sound Lab. PO Box 243. Peterborough. NH
03458. Tel: (603)924-6371, 9-4 EST, M-F. cessor, the Sony DAS -703E5, that was one of

' 11111111 11111111 1 III11111 1 I1 I 11111111 1 111111 1 I1111111 1 II
-9111
-9411
-911.11
-11211
-
-iidil 1111,. 1 1I111111 1 11111111 1 11
:ad: Ink liz ;e: alm: Ibis Ins

Fig.l Sony DAS-703ES: lkHz tone at Fig.3 Sonographe SD1 Beta
-90.31dB with noise and spuriae
1 11111111 1 11111111 1 I1111111 1 11
11111111 I 11111111 I 11111111 I II
-9411
-led
-lid
liz
liz Flg.4 Magnavox CDB472
Fig.2 Mod Squad Prism
our references of acouple of years back; a 12dB below the level of the fundamental
recently discontinued 16-bit Magnavox, the respectively, but the sinewave is relatively pure
CDB472; as well as the four players reviewed nonetheless. Note the absence of mains-related
by Sam Tellig in his "Audio Anarchist" column products.
this month: the Adcom GCD-575, Magnavox By comparison, the Sonographe SDI Beta
CDB582, Onkyo DX-G10, and Yamaha CDX- (fig.3) does show noise present at 60Hz and its
1110U. multiples, the strongest component (-94dB)
Fig.1 shows the spectrum of the -90.31dB lying at 120Hz, the full-wave diode bridge
dithered tone when reproduced by the left switching frequency Distortion levels are rela-
channel of the Sony DAS-703ES. (The right tively low, however, the second harmonic
channel was practically identical.) This 1986- being 12dB below the fundamental, the third
vintage, then-state-of-the-art, 4x-oversam- 13.5dB, and the fourth 12dB again. Absolute
piing, 16-bit processor shows quite alarge level error for this machine, which uses Philips'
negative level error at -90dB: -4.5dB, 2 this earlier TDA1540 14-bit DAC with oversampling,
typical of the performance of amachine that is a hair over 3dB of compression; le, the
uses the Philips TDA1541 dual 16-bit DAC chip. -90.31dB tone reproduces at -87dB.
Note the very high level of second-harmonic Looking at the stock Magnavox CDB472,
distortion, however, and the much-higher- which uses a4x-oversampling digital filter with
than-usual level of HF noise relative to the fun- true 16-bit DACs, this features a4.5dB negative
damental. error at -90.31dB on the left channel (fig.4), the
The spectrum for the Mod Squad Prism right channel being 1dB better. The main dis-
favorably reviewed by Tom Norton in May 1988 tortion component present is the second har-
can be seen in fig.2. Again using the TD1541 16- monic, at -104dB (9dB below the fundamen-
bit DAC chip, this player also shows an expan- tal), and power-supply components can be
sion error at -90dB, but much less than the seen at -108dB (60Hz), -104dB (120Hz), and
Sony, -90.31dB reproducing as -92dB. Even- -106dB (240Hz). The newer Magnavox '582
order distortion is evidenced by the raised features much less level error at -1dB (right)
levels of the 2kHz and 4kHz bands, 10dB and and -2dB (left), despite being avery inexpen-
sive player. Fig.5 shows the spectrum of noise
2All la-vcIs accuratc to 0.5dB. and spuriae for the left channel: there is still

1 II1
11111 1 111
11111 I 111
11111 1 II
-Nd
1-
94d
-98d
-166d
lix 11111: net 11111 ISM lit
Flg.5 Magnavox CDB582 Fig.7 Adcom / GCD-575
I 11111111 I 11111111 I 11111111 II
1111
44i
I
- -
-ISM
/
! 1111
lix ACC\ I* Fig.8 Adcom GCD-575: AFPC response
Flg.6 %mane CDX-1110U

expensive Accuphase player, the very expen-
some 60Hz hum visible (but hardly audible) at sive Theta DS Pre, and one channel of the
-106dB, but otherwise power-supply noise is merely expensive Onkyo DX-G10. The level
lower than the older model, as is the level of of HF noise and spuriae is also lower than usual.
second harmonic distortion. Third and fourth Maximum output level of the '1110U is 2.1V.
harmonics are noticeable, however, though Fig.7 shows the noise/spuriae spectrum
these are still no higher relative to the fun- for the Adcom GCD-575. Any level error at
damental than with the CDB472. Examining -90.31dB was below the resolving power of the
the frequency response of the CDB582, the Audio Control analyzer. Power-supply noise
lows were extended, -1dB at 4Hz, while the was below the measurement threshold at
highs showed aslight roll-off, the top audio -112dB. The Adcom was also excellent when
octave being shelved down by 0.3dB. De- it came to distortion, the main harmonics pres-
emphasis was within 0.1dB of perfect. Maxi- ent being third, fourth, and fifth, all at -104dB;
mum output level is 1.9V. le, -14dB with respect to the fundamental and
De-emphasis was also within 0.1dB of flat as good as the Yamaha at less than half the
from the unfiltered outputs of the Yamaha price The maximum output level is higher than
CDX-1110U. Down by 0.7dB at 4Hz, this usual at 2.55V from the fixed-output sockets,
pseudo-18-bit player was ostensibly fiat which will make the Adcom sound consider-
throughout the audio range, with perhaps a ably louder in uncompensated switched A/B
slight (+0.2dB) shelf in the midband. Fig.6 tests against other players. From the variable
shows the spectrum of the noise and spuriae sockets, controlled by afront-panel knob, the
while the Yamaha was playing the -90.31dB '575's MOL is ahigh 5.15V, making it suitable
tone on the CBS disc. The absolute level error for direct-driving even the most insensitive
was mildly compressive, the left channel power amplifiers. The Adcom showed rather
replaying the tone at -88dB and the right at more frequency-response variation than the
-86.5dB. Hum at 60Hz appears at -107dB, other players, being 0.7dB down at 20kHz and
while the main distortion components pres- 2.3dB down at 4Hz. With the "Analog Fre-
ent appear to equal levels of second, third, and quency/Phase Contouring" (AFPC) switched
fourth harmonic, at -102dB; le, -14dB relative in, the response was markedly altered, as
to the lkHz fundamental. In this respect, this shown by fig.8. The entire midrange is boosted
Yamaha is almost as good as the incredibly by just over ldB, while the treble is shelved

outputs, variable and fixed, was 2.1V. The fre-
quency response showed mild tailoring, with
avery slight tilt downward of -0.45dB between
60Hz and 18kHz. Iwould expect the DX-GIO's
fundamental sound to be alittle bass-promi-
nent as aresult. Response limits were -0.9dB
at 4Hz and -0.6dB at 20kHz, both figures rela-
tive to the level at 60Hz. There was also aslight
de-emphasis error measurable, reaching amax-
imum of +0.45dB (left channel) and +0.35dB
Onkyo DX-G10 (right) at 41cHz, relative to the level at IkHz. This
will be audible as aslight feeling of additional
presence to pre-emphasized discs, and Ihave
down by 2dB, this superimposed upon the to admit to some surprise to discover that this
intrinsic slight HF droop. ("AFPC" seems rather expensive and beautifully constructed player
afancy label for what, to judge from the curve doesn't measure absolutely flat.
in fig.8, is ashaping network consisting of two What conclusions should be drawn from
resistors and acapacitor per channel.) De- these results? First, Ithink it mandatory for
emphasis was accurate, though similar to the companies offering expensive players to offer
Adcom's basic response in being down 0.4dB DIA converters with very little or no level error
at 16kHz. at -90dB. If Magnavox and Adcom can offer
It turned out that the sample of the Onkyo this in mid-priced and inexpensive players,
DX-G10 auditioned by Sam Tellig had its DACs then premium-priced players should feature
misaligned, something that just should not performance at least as good. The increased
happen with a$2500 player. Looking at the level of profit from an expensive machine
low-level performance of the Santa Fe sample should, Iwould have thought, allow enough
of this massive, true 18-bit player, there also margin for the manufacturer—or even the
appeared to be aDAC Imbalance. The upper dealer—to align both channels of the machine
trace in fig.9 is the -octave analyzed spectrum (if it allows for DAC adjustment) before sale. All
for the right channel, showing just over 4dB you need is aspectrum analyzer, acopy of the
of compression at -90dB, while the lower trace CBS test CD, and ascrewdriver. Increasing
is the left channel, revealing amild 1dB of player price does buy better, more rugged build
expansion. (The levels at -80.77dB were altered quality, but also appears to buy aplayer with
by +2.5dB and -0.5dB, respectively.) Both lower levels of distortion and spuriae at very
traces are identical below 250Hz, with power- low levels, as well as with intrinsically lower
supply noise just visible at -107dB (60Hz) and levels of power-supply-related noise. These
-102.5dB (120Hz). The left channel is truly are all factors which, in conjunction with good
excellent when it comes to distortion added to low-level DAC linearity, well-matched between
the dithered tone, any low-order harmonics channels, seem to correlate with good CD
being 14-15dB below the level of the fun- sound. Remember, however, that even if the
damental. The right channel is less good, how- digital circuitry is excellent, an inadequately
ever, with some second-harmonic at 2kHz designed analog stage can throw away much
noticeable. The right-hand channel had some of its performance. And none of these more
midrange noise apparent below lkHz, giving traditional measurements indicate the effect of
the visual effect of an exaggerated left-hand digital signal timing jitter from poorly perform-
"shoulder" to the IkHz band. ing transports, another factor which will affect
If both channels measured as good as the sound quality.
left, this OnIcyo would be the best player Ihave One thing that doesn't appear to correlate
ever measured, reproducing the -90.31dB directly with sound quality is the number of
dithered tone with very low distortion and very decoder bits. The only common factor among
little level error. As it stands, however, it is only the machines covered in this set of tests is that
halfway to that status. they all use 4x- or 8x-oversampling digital
Looking at the less esoteric measurements, filters, with then a final low-order analog
the maximum output level from all the Onkyo's reconstruction filter. (The Yamaha offers its

user the opportunity of doing away even with of the SA-3050A includes anumber of improve-
that.) Other than that, they use 14-bit, 16-bit, ments that Iand other users had wanted:
pseudo 18-bit, linear 18-bit, and, if you indude •When you select the "slow" setting, the dis-
the Accuphase CD player also reviewed in this play blanks out for afew seconds while the
issue, 20-bit DACs, with only arough correla- processor averages the readings. When the dis-
tion of sound quality with DAC bits. play reappears, it is close to its final values. The
—John Atkinson "slow" display is now stable enough to be use-
ful for frequency-response measurements.
Audio Control Industrial "Fast" and "medium" displays work as before
SA-3050A audio analyzer •The low-voltage dropout relay is now con-
When Ireviewed the Audio Control Industrial nected to the battery only when the unit is
SA-3050A third-octave analyzer in Vo1.11 No.6, operating; it is no longer acontinuous (though
Icame down very hard on what Iperceived as light) drain. You no longer need to keep the SA-
its deficiencies. Iwas frankly expecting perfec- 3050A plugged in when not using it. (It turns
tion (Audio Control Industrial generally makes out that the short battery life Iexperienced was
good stuff at afair price), and when the product due to adefective battery, not to excessive drain
didn't meet my standards, Iwas less than from the relay.)
charitable in my denunciation. •The "loss of memory" suffered by my unit
Some of my criticisms were valid. Ihad, was caused by the wrong resistors on the
however, forgotten the unavoidable com- board.
promises required in designing areasonably Ican now recommend the SA-3050A with-
priced spectrum analyzer. These compromises out reservation, as aClass Btest instrument.'
revolve around the impossibility of building Iappreciate Audio Control Industrial's willing-
adetector circuit that can simultaneously read ness to listen to suggestions from its customers
the true peak value of the signal and derive a and work with them to make their products
stable average value. more useful. If you have an early SA-3050A,
Short of an all-digital design, the only com- ACI will update it for anominal fee (The modifi-
plete solution to this problem is to build two cation involves replacing the computer's ROM
sets of detectors: one that reads peak values, and the power switch.) —BS
another that takes along-term average. (I once
worked for acompany that did just that.) Of Rogers LS3/5a loudspeaker
course, such asolution takes up alot of board In last month's review of the venerable LS3/52
space and money. loudspeaker (Vol.11 No.2, p.I15), you will re-
The usual compromise is to build adetector member that Ihad intended to compare an 11-
circuit with little or no filtering, so that it accu- year-old pair of these BBC-designed monitor
rately records peaks. The user then switches speakers against abrand-new pair. As explained
in more and more capacitance to average out in the review, this turned out not to be possi-
the measurements. This arrangement corre- ble before the review deadline, due to the new
sponds to the "fast," "medium," and "slow" pair getting lost in shipping. (As Murphy's Law
settings on analyzers. would have it, they finally arrived just after the
Unfortunately, capacitors cost money and take February issue had been put to bed.) The new
up space At low frequencies really large capaci- version of the LS3/52 differs in detail from
tors are needed, so we run out of space and those manufactured before 1987, the supplier
money again. Audio Control Industrial's filter- of the drive-units, KEF, having carried out a
ing at the "slow" setting in the original review research program to render the design more
sample was not enough for areasonably steady consistent in manufacture and nearer the target
display when using pink noise. (Steadiness is performance originally specified by the BBC.
important when measuring frequency response; In particular; the increased uniformity in tweeter
how are you to separate the display's flopping production meant that the auto-transformer
around from "real" changes in the measurement?) in the appropriate leg of the crossover used to
Isuggested to ACI that they average the read- match the tweeter level to the woofer could be
ings in software—that is, do mathematically
what acapacitor does electrically. They took IStereo»!le has purchased an Audio Control Industrial SA •
my suggestion seriously, and the latest version 3050A to use for the majority of its loudspeaker itsieves.—JA

replaced by asimple constant-impedance resis- To conclude, my experience of the latest ver-
tive divider. This results in aslightly lower over- sion of the LS3/5a confirms last month's ten-
all impedance, to an 11 ohm characteristic rather tative recommendation. Still somewhat com-
than the original's 16 ohms. In addition, the promised concerning overall dynamics and HF
original Neoprene surround of the B110 bass/ smoothness and clarity when compared with
midrange unit has been replaced by aPVC for- such modern miniatures as the considerably
mulation to reduce the amplitude of apersist- more expensive Acoustic Energy AEI and Ce-
ent slight peak around I
kHz. As the target of lestion SL600Si, and having adistinctly tubby
the redesign was to produce asound identical midbass, the latest version of the LS3/5a still
to that of the original, the LS3/5a designation has one of the least colored midbands around,
remains unchanged. throws adeep, beautifully defined soundstage,
To conclude my review, therefore, Icarried and has aslightly sweeter top end than it used
out listening tests comparing old against new. to. At $650/pair, the LS3/5a (manufactured by
both pairs being auditioned on 24" Chicago Spendor, Harbeth, and Goodmans, as well as
stands positioned well out in the room and by Rogers) is worthy of aClass C recommen-
driven by VTL 100\V monoblocks. The differ- dation in Stereopbile's "Recommended Com-
ences were minor in degree but nonetheless ponents." But if you have an old pair and are
noticeable. In particular, aslight nasality char- happy with the sound, Iwouldn't bother
acteristic of the older pair was significantly changing to the new version. —JA
lower in level with the new pair. resulting in a
slightly warmer balance overall. Dynamics also
seemed very slightly less compressed and the
treble slightly sweeter, with less of a"fizz"
16
apparent. To put these comments into perspec-
tive, when Itried auditioning one of the dec- 12
ade-old 3/5as with one of he '88 samples as
apair, what differences there were between the
two did not prevent the speakers from per- 4
forming quite well as astereo pair. Ihave audi- 14Ikn:
tioned anumber of speakers where there was
Flg.1 Modulus of Impedance, 1978 sample
more of asonic difference between channels.
ow ji11: ;
Figs.1 and 2show the impedances of the old
and new versions, respectively As can be seen
from fig.2, the latest version does have an over- 11
all lower impedance, with minima just below
8ohms, but the shape is identical apart from 12
in the three octaves above 7kHz. Fig.3 shows
the averaged. 14-octave frequency response of
the two pairs of speakers, measured on-axis in- 4 J 1
'
room at adistance of 1m. (The upper trace is
1
1111 1810: IMI: :Kt
the 1978 LS3/5a; the lower trace is the 1988 Fig.2 Modulus of impedance, 1988 sample
speaker.) Differences can be seen primarily in
the treble, where the latest version lacks the
1 1 1111111 1 1 1111111 ! 1 4 : É I, 1. I ; I
INC
slight prominence in the 'kHz region. The top
two octaves are also hinged down acouple of -MOE_
dB compared with the older sample. The re-
sponse in the lower frequencies seems pretty
much identical, though the design's intrinsic
160Hz hump is perhaps asmidgen better-con-
trolled. (Note that the dip in the 250Hz region
on both traces is due to destructive interference
between the direct sound from the speaker and Fig.3 LIP-averaged 1 2 -octave frequency
/
that reflected from the floor between the speaker response at 1m (upper trace, 1978 sample:
and the measuring microphone.) lower trace, 1988 sample)

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MONSTER CABLE .
TIPTOES LAst"
Riccardo Chailly, the new Conductor of
Amsterdam's famed Concertgebouw
Orchestra, talks with Barbara Jahn
o
u
O
nSeptember I, 1988, the 35-year-old
Riccardo °badly officially became the
fifth Conductor (and the first non-
loo
Dutchman) to take cbarge of the Concertge-
bouw Orchestra. Iwas lucky enough to speak
to bim on that day, and despite the momentous
responsibilities and commitments ahead of
e him, be was full of enthusiasm.
o
BJ: You are still with the Berlin Radio Sym- six months, so Ihad to balance these demands
phony Orchestra after six years, you are Musi- with my other work. Fortunately, Isucceeded
cal Director of the Teatro Communale di and Ifind Ihave now done alot of the back-
Bologna. .. ground work and we've got together some-
RC: Yes, Ihave been with them for three years thing like 40 different symphonic programs.
and have just renewed my appointment there BJ: Was it difficult to break Bernard Haitink's
for the next three years. mold after 26 years?
BJ: ... and now you are Chief Conductor of RC: Well, it wasn't aquestion of breaking, but
the Concertgebouw. awillingness to continue.
RC: Yes, although Iofficially took over today, BJ: But your style is very different.
I've been very busy with them for the past two RC: Yes, absolutely. We are different personal-
years. ities, as all conductors are. But the idea was to
BJ: And you took them on tour in May. continue the tradition arrived at after 100 years,
RC: Yes, amajor European tour and that formed especially with the Romantic repertoire. But
avery important bond in our musical relation- there is agreat willingness to allow new light
ship. They played fantastically well—I was so into the repertoire —there was not enough
pleased about that. emphasis on avant-garde music or Italian and
BJ: When did Bernard Haitink actually leave French music, so Iwanted to accent those three
the Concertgebouw? areas of the repertoire. Avant-garde is the most
RC: Ithink it was about one and ahalf years difficult and the one we must work the hardest
ago, and for that interim period Iwas asked to on. It is avery, very demanding project.
anticipate my period as chief conductor as Bi: You 've made a number of recordings of
muchas! could. So Igave alot of unscheduled 20th -century music, particularly Stravinsky
time, to keep close to the orchestra and to work RC: Yes, and we have moved on to Berio; there
on new repertoire. They didn't want me to is arecording in October of Formazioni which
appear in Amsterdam and then disappear for Berio wrote for the Concertgebouw.

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lhadn't realized that. RC: When Istand on the podium Iam facing
RC: Yes, it was premiered ayear ago. It is a the Concertgebouw sound. It is avery clearly
major symphonic piece. determined sound that is the consequence of
DJ: Looking at your list of Stravinsky record- 100 years' legend. Therefore Itry to follow that
ings—The Rake's Progress, Le Sacre, Sym- instinctive klang, although Ican underline the
phony of Psalms, Le Chant du Rossignol, Le warmth of the strings, and ask for more dark-
Baiser de la fee, and so on—are you trying to ness in the lower strings in the Cello Concerto
create arevival of interest in bis music? of Shostakovich, for instance. But, in general,
RC: Yes, Ido believe very much in Stravinsky's the woodwinds have that unique, spectacular
music. The London Sinfonietta was wonder- Netherlands School sound and technique. The
ful in The Rake's Progress, and the other disc woodwind players have an incredibly strong
of smaller pieces. My activity with the Concert- personality too—you notice it as soon as there
gebouw is to present Stravinsky in general; we is asolo coming through, and the flautist has
did atour with Le Sacre—it is one of the most awooden flute which gives aunique color and
incredible showpieces for orchestra and, in a
way, the masterpiece of this century.
Bi: Do you feel that since Stravinsky 's death
there bas been something of adecline in in-
terest in his music?
"There is a
RC: It really depends on the country. In Italy
and Holland he is very highly regarded, but not
great will-
played enough. So next season we will perform
Le Chant du Rossignol, amasterpiece which
ingness to
has been completely dropped from the major
repertoire.
allow new
BJ: What do you think of Robert Craft's re-
cordings of Stravinsky?
light into the
RC: Very technical and, in away, cynical, cold
readings. Iadmire them for their clarity and
repertoire"
faithfulness; Isee the presence of someone
who has been next to the composer, and who
therefore knows exactly what the composer combines so well with the other wooden in-
wants, but Idon't see an interpreter there. That struments. But there is astable, absolutely equal
is not the case when Stravinsky himself is con- quality to all the orchestral groups in this
ducting; you feel not only the genius of the orchestra—you can't say which is the best.
composer but agreat personality. Mengelberg for 50 years, Van Beinum for 14,
BJ: So what do you put into Stravinsky when Haitink for 26, and there was of course ¡(es, the
you conduct? first chief conductor. This is something you
RC: In certain repertoire Ilike alyrical as well feel—you have the benefit of 100 years of fan-
as alate Romantic piece with great moments tastic work.
of neo-classicismo. Ialso like to underline, in Bi: Will it be Riccardo Cbailly for 25 years
pieces like Le Sacre, the frantic side of the too?
rhythm, and the modernity of scores like Le RC: [Laughs] Idon't know, I've never thought
Chant du Rossignol —this neo-impressionismo. of that. But Ifeel agreat orchestra consists of
It is almost post -Debussyian in the color of the fine players and aconductor who is associated
orchestra. The early piece, L'oiseau du feu, with them for along time. You could call it spe-
needs aspecial color, and later pieces like cial, unique luck that Holland had only Dutch
Movements for piano and orchestra demand conductors for 100 years who were really
acompletely different, more abstract sense of good. It is easy to say Iwant anational conduc-
color. tor to follow anational tradition, but it is still
BJ: And when you conduct the Concertge- luck. In Italy we have had, and still have, phe-
bouw what kind of color do you lookfor there: nomenal conductors, but we've never had the
blended strings, pastoral woodwind—or does case of an orchestra that was kept for 100 years
this change with the work? only by Italian conductors. To keep all that tal-
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ent in one place is the secret of the Concertge- orchestra. But they worked wonderfully. The
bouw's wonderful tradition. only problem was we had 200 people in the
When Iwas in Berlin it was the opposite feel- audience instead of 2000! I'll never forget walk-
ing, because after the 15 years of Fricsay, there ing out of the door and down those famous
were some years with Lorin Maazel who kept stairs to the platform in the Concertgebouw to
the standard very high, then they were six and see just asmall group of people.
ahalf years without achief conductor. So when BJ: Because it was aconcert of 20tb-century
Iarrived Ihad to start from the beginning, music?
because the orchestra was in astate of mental RC: Yeah, exactly.
disease. They'd lost their bonhomie because BJ: So you needed to educate the audience too?
they'd lost their repertoire, they'd lost their RC: Well, this was ashock. They did not under-
prestige, they'd lost their recording image.
stand avant-garde music and maybe it wasn't
Everything had collapsed in six and half years. well advertised. Possibly in the past they were
Therefore Ihad to work like crazy; Ihad to give given bad avant-garde music, but that was a
them an identity, internationally speaking, by
tours and recordings.
BJ: Do Radio Symphony Orchestras have more
rehearsal time?
RC: Yes. We had aweekly program, which "To keep all
meant five to seven rehearsals. The Concert-
gebouw has about half that. that talent in
one place is
BJ: So that helped you when you took over
Berlin.
RC: It did. To develop the repertoire, and give
time to assimilate, think about, and correct the secret of
myself. Icould never have accepted the Con-
certgebouw without eight years in Berlin. That
the Concert-
gebouw's
was the basis of my career.
W: It must be agreat privilege to be Principal
wonderful
Conductor of the Concertgebouw after asuc-
cession of Dutch conductors.
tradition"
RC: Ithink so, definitely.
BJ: How did that come about?
RC:Just by luck, really. Iwent there in January
1985, completely unaware of what was going
on with Haitink—I was absolutely mentally vir- very interesting program.
gin in that respect. So Ithink that was the rea- BJ: Was tbe orchestra happy to play it?
son for my success. Iwas there as guest con- RC: Yeah, yeah. They were very engaged by it,
ductor, pleased to be facing agreat orchestra, and over the following two years we worked
with three different programs in two weeks: very hard on it. Iwas appointed Chief Conduc-
an avant-garde program, aRussian program, tor in June '85, and things moved so fast in
and an American/Italian evening. Ihad the those months. Since then I've had alot of meet-
opportunity to show them many different ings with the Artistic Committee of the orches-
types of repertoire. For me it was agreat time, tra and its manager to make things better, and
completely without any stress, which some- this year the Cseries is completely full. You see,
times happens when you are facing areally we changed its structure; we've called it "Pi-
first-class orchestra. casso," and we've combined avant-garde music
BY: Was their response to you good? with the major masterpieces of this century. So,
RC: It was extraordinary from the beginning. for example, we did Formazioni in the first half
And Istarted in amost unpopular way. The and Le Sacre du Printemps in the second, and
debut concert was on the 5th (or 6th) ofJanu- the concert was completely sold out.
ary, afull avant-garde concert of Italian music: DJ: Which is the most expensive Series? That
Berio, Petrassi, and Bussotti. So it was the most must surely reflect the audience's preference?
difficult way to start arelationship with agreat RC: Ithink it's the ASeries, with Romantic and

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late-Romantic music. It's the most traditional just recently Manon. ,The way Carreras sings
program: Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler, Schumann.
in Acts 3and 4of Manon is unbelievable. He
BJ: I've beard your Dvorak 9and Brahms I
told me it is his favorite recording; he is very
and Ilove the drama and tension in them. pleased with his singing and interpretation, and
Again, your approacb is very different from he is right. He is always good, but what he did
Haitink's, so what is the audience's reaction in those two acts is frightening! The sense of
to you? drama!
RC: So far, staggering! Idon't like to say that BJ: We've heard a lot about the acoustical
though, Iwould rather you came along to see properties of the Concertgebouw Hall when
it for yourself. You would immediately under- it is full and when it is empty How have you
stand the temperature around my music- found it?
making in Amsterdam. But yes, Iam avery
RC: Mengelberg used to have abig curtain
different musician and personality from Ber-
behind his back facing the orchestra to mute
nard Haitink, and maybe that's why Ihave been the sound when he rehearsed, and we do that
so well accepted. You see, in Amsterdam the sometimes, especially when they remove chairs
decision is completely democratic—the or- for arecording because then there is even more
chestra, not the management, chooses the
echo from the wooden floor. It is sometimes
chief conductor. Their votes were made in difficult to listen for details from the podium;
three different periods over six months. more so than from the audience.
BJ: And you were chosen on the basis ofyour BJ: Wbat about when you are recording? I've
appearances as guest conductor? just heard Bernard Haitink's last recording
RC: Right. with the Concertgebouw of the Beethoven Sym-
BJ: It mustfeel wonderful to go to an orchestra phonies, and here Volker Straus from Philips
knowing that they really want you. was multimiking so that be could -adjust"
RC: To come out with the majority of votes the sound to more accurately represent the
from 120 people—you must understand what received sound heard in the ball when full.
that means, especially as the only other com- What is the Decca technique?
petitor left in the final with me (and Idon't RC: Not multi-miking. Since digital recording
want to say who that was) is one of the greatest they use two microphones above the head of
conductors in the world. So it was even more the conductor to balance the sound of the
flattering for me. whole orchestra. There are additional micro-
BJ: But won't it sap your energies being in phones for special close effects with, say, the
charge of three orchestras?
percussion. But no microphone for the brass,
RC: Yes. Therefore Ido intend to stop, in June and Ithink in Dvorak 9, if Iremember well, one
1989, the RSO Berlin because Isimply mentally microphone for the woodwind. But so few
and physically can't do that too. It is really far microphones it was absolutely frightening. It
too much to be chief conductor to three orches-
is mainly done with those two above my head,
tras. Iextended, by ayear my stay with the RSO and there is no rebalancing, as when remaster-
Berlin because Ashkenazy cannot start with ing tapes. We have to produce the sound we
them until September '89, and they really did
want at the performance. The major danger is
not want agap after the trauma they had when that if you lose concentration for amoment,
Maazel left. So I've kept the title as asign of the balance or some details that you want are
friendship and trust, but Ihave reduced my sea- lost. Later on you are stuck, you cannot get it
son with them by one half. But even doing four back.
weeks only is not easy because in Amsterdam BJ: Isn't that like giving a concert perfor-
Ihave acontract for 14-16 weeks ayear, and mance though?
Imust make recordings too. RC: No, it's different because the position of
BJ: And in Bologna? the orchestra is not anormal symphony con-
RC: The opening season is opera for two cert position. In Amsterdam we have the brass
months, then two to three weeks of symphony on the right side of the stage. When we re-
concerts and one recording per year. That's corded in the parterre, when the chairs have
never obligatory, but there is awillingness
between myself and Decca to produce Italian
IVânnly recommended by Roben Levine in the February 89
opera recordings there; so we did Macbeth, and Stereopbile.

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been removed, we separate horns on the left
enough because he's very good, and as acom-
and the rest of the brass on the right. The horns poser Iwas adisaster—no creative side at all.
need much more space than the trumpets and It was acold consequence of agood study; it
trombones; if they were all together you would was just technical.
have avery thick, woolly, emphatic sound. BJ: So what exactly did yourfatber teach you?
Separated, there is amore transparent quality, RC: The harmonies and counterpoint of the
but it makes it harder for the orchestra to bal- former Classics, and Ihad to compose aRo-
ance itself; so the conductor has to control that mance for piano, aScena Lyrica for voice and
because Decca says, "If you want more detail orchestra. But he was extremely severe in coun-
from the horns or bassoon, you must do it terpoint—very thorough and persistent.
there and then. Don't ask us to balance here Rightly enough, because when Iconducted
and there." And there's always aconflict; I Bach (I've been conducting for 20 years), and
would love, as Idid before with the stereo sys- the last movement of Mozart's "Jupiter," I
tem, to have one finger on the recording con- remembered my father's lessons; I'll never
sole to alter that balance. With the digital sys-
have words enough to thank him for making
tem, Decca categorically refuses to do that, and
me learn the fugal formula and construction
Ithink they are right; the sound is better, more so well.
wide-ranging—but it is much harder for the BJ: Ibelieve you studied conducting at the
conductor.
Conservatoire. Is there great value in that?
BJ: Your musical education began with the RC: Very much. As aprofessional Ibelieve you
study of composition. Do you think that's why
cannot learn—you must be born aconductor
you have agreat empathy with 20th-century —but you need to be told what to do with your
music?
arms; you must be instructed how to beat.
RC: My father was my first teacher; he is still Without that you cannot really consider your-
alive, and he is avery well-known Italian com-
self aconductor. You can be an instinctive con-
poser. So he was my mentor in music, and he
ductor, but technique is the basis on which you
was very severe, Itell you. It was avery old- can develop your own way. Istudied with Piero
fashioned education Igot—he taught me the Guarino who gave me the ABCs, and then with
first four years of my education in just four Franco Caracciola in Milan, who was the most
months. Those four months are fixed here in important technical teacher. The summer
my mind, like ashock. He wanted to give me courses Idid for three years in Sienna with
the heaviest and most thorough basis, and he Franco Ferrara were most impressive for the
succeeded, but it was so demanding. After that interpretation of music. He was the most gifted
Iwent to the Conservatory Guiseppe Verdi in Italian conductor (together with lbscanini). He
Milan with Bruno Bettinelli, who was the lead- would not teach technique, only music.
ing teacher of composition. So I've followed BJ: Which conductors did you aspire to?
avant-garde music very much since Istudied RC: He was one of my long-term idols, with
composition. Ihave agreat admiration for the Karajan and Carlos Kleiber, and my Italian men-
sister of Claudio Abbado, Luciana, who for tor since Iwas very young was Claudio Ab-
more than ten years has been head of aseries bado. He made me his assistant in La Scala, then
in Milan called Musica di Nostro Tempo that is
engaged me regularly each season after that as
only devoted to avant-garde music, using the
aguest conductor. My idols from the past are
four orchestras we have in Milan: La Scala, the Toscanini, Bruno Walter for Brahms and Mah-
Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the two ler, and Ihave an enormous admiration for two
Chamber Orchestras. Igrew up with that, and British conductors: one Iconsider in some
Claudio Abbado was an active figure there ways the best Mahler conductor—Sir John
(when he was Chief Conductor of La Scala), Barbirolli— he had aunique gift. Another I
doing important things with Stockhausen, admired very much was Sir Thomas Beecham,
Nono, and Berio. In October Ipremiere Con- especially with his recordings of Bobeme and
certo Grosso No.4 of Schnittke, that we at the Carmen.
Concertgebouw commissioned, and we'll keep BIJ: You have conducted agreat deal of opera.
doing those kind of things regularly. Do you think ofyourselfprimarily as an opera
BJ: Do you still compose? conducto nor asymphonic conductor?
RC: No, Inever did. My father's more than RC: Ithink one completes and is afulfillment

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of the other. Of the two Ithink opera conduct- Romantic composer, Wagenaar. He is sort of a
ing is the most complete, because it is aunity combination of Strauss and late Verdi in his
of all the elements. The symphonic concert is approach to orchestral scoring. It was very
aspectacular event for the conductor, but it is popular at the time of Mengelberg— he did all
not as complete. those Overtures, but then Van Beinum and Hai-
BJ: I've beard two different opinions: Some tink never performed them. So for 50 years he
conductors find opera easien because there is has been forgotten.
more rehearsal time. Others say it is more dif
ficult because there is so much to think about
at once. What do you feel?
RC: Ithink if you are aborn conductor, with
"My idols
all your technique in order, the symphony con-
cert is difficult for musical reasons, but opera
from the
conducting is far more complex for its numer-
ous problems. Also, with symphony concerts,
past are
you make your own interpretation, you real-
ize your own wishes. In opera it is adaily com-
Toscanini,
promise with the vocal aspect, it is aconstant
combination of willingness and compromise.
Bruno
If you cannot compromise then you better not
even start thinking of being an opera con-
Walter for
ductor.
Si: Why are so many young Italian conduc-
Brahms and
tors expected to be able to cope with opera? Is
it purely the Italian vocal tradition?
Mahler"
RC: Yeah, and the amount of repertoire we
have in that respect. There is anew way with BJ: Do you like to record cycles of works? I
the new generation of conductors to start in the know you bave afew Bruckner symphonies
old-fashioned way—in the pit as aprompter, under way, and now two of Schumann 's.
and up eventually to the podium. My genera- RC: As long as it's not apre-ordered project.
tion, in the '70s, felt the major thing was to be If it is, Iam obsessed before Istart and Iprob-
asymphonic conductor. Istarted with opera ably will not take it on. If Iknow Ican approach
as aconsequence of the nature of my country, it as Iwant, when Ifeel ready, and not be
but it was not my first aim; my major aim was pushed, then Ithink there will be acycle. For
symphonic, as with Claudio Abbado, my great instance, with Schumann, it will be along time
friend. But the idea was always to do both. before we feel we are ready to record the next
BJ: What are yourfuture recording plans? ones. Everything is aconsequence of my music-
RC: With the Concertgebouw, first the Berio, making. Cycles are not the principle to go
which will be avery big shock for the lovers for—that is abig mistake. There, Imust say,
of the Concertgebouw tradition in terms of Decca is agreat partner; Ihave done five years
recording direction; everyone is expecting a and have just renewed for another five, and I've
program of Mahler, but I'll do Bruckner 4and never once felt forced to do something because
start with Mahler much farther into the future. it's commercial. Ihave made commercial and
He is well taken care of in the hands of Leonard noncommercial recordings, like the Zemlinslcy.
Bernstein and more recent conductors like Hai- BJ: Yes, those recordings are very welcome in
tink, who is one of my favorite conductors for the catalog.
late Mahler. Then there will be Schumann's RC: Decca respected my wishes to make them,
Symphony 1, and we've just recorded Schu- and now Symphony 2with Psalm 23 is com-
mann 4, and Shostakovich's Piano Concerto 1 ing on the market with the Berlin Radio. There
with Ronald Brautigam, astaggering new tal- will be more later; Decca is happy to discuss
ent from Holland. We are all sure he will go a with me the repertoire I'd like to do. With
long way; we will couple that with the Shos- Bruckner, I've recorded 1, 3, and 7with the
takovich Cello Concerto 2with Lynn Harrell. Berlin Radio; if Ido complete the cycle it will
Then we'll record the Overtures of aDutch probably be with different orchestras! S

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AUDIO
BUILDING ALIBRARY
Shostalcovich's
Tenth
Symphony
Christopher Breunig
T
he 1979 English translation of Testi- recorded it with the NYP exactly one year later
mony—Memoirs of Dmitri Shostako- — reissued in 1965 by CBS (61457, mono).
vich as related to Solomon Volkov up- A decade has passed since the publication
turned many previous ideas of what his music of the Ninth (the classical orientation of which
was about. The use of ciphers, such as DSCH disappointed the Soviets, who expected avic-
(the composer's musical signature, translating tory tribute along the lines of the "Leningrad"
to the notes D, E-flat, C, B, via German usage) wartime Symphony). Shostakovich was cen-
permeates various works. Thus an autobio- sured by the Communist Party bureaucrats in
graphical reference is implied (?). But Volkov achilling 1948 decree, whereafter the com-
claims that Symphony 10 "is about the Stalin poser released film scores and "acceptable"
years" —specifically, the rampaging scherzo is cantatas, but withheld more meaningful works.
"a portrait of Stalin: that's the basis." This The Tenth came after Stalin's death. At the time
month I've chosen the work, by common con- he was reported as saying, merely, "I wanted
sent Shostakovich's best symphony, because to portray human emotions and passions." In
four new CD versions have arrived. Testimony, Shostakovich says he was unable
Three of these depart from tempo norms to write an apotheosis to Stalin.
established in recordings by Mitropoulos, Kara- Perhaps it is best to disregard all of this
jan, and Ormandy, who took the Allegretto (iii) (Shostakovich's work will provide atreasure-
at between my,- Ily,m;prvi, Rozhdestvensky, store for student theses for many decades). It
and Haitink (a CD transfer of his first, analog is not aStrauss tone-poem but, as Khachatu-
recording in the complete Decca/London cy- rian wrote, with insight or not, "a true sym-
cle) range from 13:15 to 12:23. Leonard Slatkin phony—of deep emotional and philosophical
(whose St. Louis/RCA recording comes with content"! In outline, the Tenth comprises a
the best analytical note, by Richard Freed) fol- long, brooding, opening Moderato, the heavy-
lows the Mitropoulos precedent. Mitropoulos footed swirling scherzo (ii), the three-section
gave the world premiere in New York, on Oc- Allegretto (iii), and awondrous Andante land-
tober 14, 1953 (two months before Mravinsky scape with woodwind voices, leading abruptly
conducted the Leningrad premiere), and he to the boisterous finale.

-AFTER A DECADE OF R & D Stark authenticity comes via the USSR Minis-
try of Culture Orchestra, under Rozhdestven-
sky (Olympia OCD 131), whose slow Allegretto
avoids the dirge-like characterization of Hai-
t
ink and the LPO, and where the introduction
to (iv) is deeply imaginative in unfolding. The
MK digital recording is edgy; woodwinds
quiek, bassoons croak, and the thump of tim-
pani add to the raucousness of brass. As arefer-
ence measure of what other conductors are up
to, Ifind this auseful disc. But, frankly, Idon't
think Icould sit through it end to end.
It's apity that in Haitink's admirable LPO ver-
ion from 1977 (Decca/London 421 353-2)
there is an obvious change in orchestral pres-
ence after the first movement. This is, never-
theless, the best-sounding Tenth on CD. But,
without fillup, and with reservations about the
This patented design allows an $850
tempo for (iii), which in context strikes me as
pair of loudspeakers to outperform
marginally too slow, it is not quite competitive
speakers costing many times their
at full price.
price.
The new Chandos recording by the Scottish
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with panache, as filler. After their superb Sho- centric reading, long-drawn-out in (i). The ad
stakovich 7, Iwas alittle disappointed at parts hoc National Philharmonic plays excitingly in
of the inner movements. Not only do these (ii), and the Gerhardt/Auger analog recording
sound alittle blurred in the resonant Caird Hall is excellent. But as an RCA deletion it should
setting (Dundee), but they lack the electricity not command any silly prices (RL 25049). Nor
we now expect from this spontaneous conduc- can the 1971 Philadelphia/Ormandy Tenth,
tor. The outer movements, though, are grip- produced for CBS by Thomas Frost (M 30295)
ping, and there are some deeply eloquent be considered exceptional. It is very proficient,
woodwind solos in (iv), and afine solo by the the scherzo fast, but uninvolvingly for all that.
new leader, Andrew Martin, in the third section Ormandy exploits the rich sonorities of his
of (iii). Next to Rozhdestvensky,prvi's is the marvelous string section, but the lack of depth
most impressive of the Andante (iv) readings, in the soundstage (winds obviously close-
and the finale rips along with real fire. It is the miked) diminishes the atmospheric qualities
smoothed sonorities of the St. Louis/Slatkin of the actual playing. Apity, when Ormandy
version (RCA RD 86597), partly attributable to was achampion of the composer (as well as of
the damping acoustic of Powell Hall, that let Sibelius). There is some fabulous detail, eg, the
down this otherwise very well-constructed, principal horn entry in (iv).
beautifully balanced performance. Tempi are Of greater documentary interest is the su-
effective, but the storm of (ii) is lightweight, perb realization (1956) by the Czech Philhar-
secured from the sense of struggle, or irony. monic under Ancerl. This must have been a
Slatkin builds the finale very well, but the Supraphon co-production, but it appeared on
Moderato (i) is too serene. DG (later Heliodor 478 412, mono). The winds
There is no coupling. Nor on the oldest of can never have sounded so haunting as here in
the digital CDs, the second recording made by (iv)/Andante. Ancerl takes (ii) at avery brisk
Karajan and the BPO (DG 413 361-2). The speed indeed, convincing because he seems
Tenth is the only Shostakovich symphony to coax relentless energy and more and more
recorded by Karajan; his earlier, analog one tone from his great orchestra. Not even the
(1966) was arevelation, recorded in amassively autocratic Yevgeny Mravinsky matched this
reverberant way. Apparently, there's aMoscow reading overall. He starts the scherzo with slug-
concert performance on Melodiya, too, from gish, heavy-mannered style, with the gawky
1969 (CIO 21227 009). Critic Robert Layton is Leningrad PO winds giving apeasant flavor to
enthusiastic about the digital Tenth; my own the writing. Apart from the meticulous artic-
preference lies with the older one, in spite of ulation, it is difficult to penetrate Mravinsky's
inferior massed string tone. In (iii) Ifind the account; to sense what he really felt about the
new reading slightly mannered, lacking the work. Pressed on noisy vinyl, Soviet copies
individuality in woodwind voices of the 1966, were distributed abroad in the '60s; the date is
which has more expressive freshness. Ilike, not given on my copy, but judging from the
too, the impressive weight of lower strings at slick but slight finale Iwould say that Mravin-
the opening of the bars; simplified in Karajan/II. sky either did not understand, or did not care
Simon Rattle's EMI recording with the Phil- for the score.
harmonia %vas apparently prompted by success And the pioneering Mitropoulos LP compar-
in the concert hall together in 1985. Enthusiasts isons with an original copy show quite aloss
may tolerate the waywardly slow Allegretto, in the "Classics" transfer (as issued in the UK,
and the sound is certainly beautifully engi- at any rate), with blurring of articulation and
neered on the LP (I have not heard the CD, a"soggy" orchestral quality. Recorded hum
CDC 47350). The Penguin Guide gives adis- seriously mars quiet passages, and my UK
missive review, but Rattle's highly individual Philips pressing is quite free of that. The
account Ifind persuasive, since it is so clearly scherzo is so like Ancerl's you could not tell
felt deeply. There are some dragged moments them apart; if anything, the drive is even more
in (i), where Rattle strives for alarge-scale demonic. Ilike, too, the urgency and fluidity
effect. of line in the sardonic coda. But, unless the
Of what might be termed the "middle-gen- US reissue was fault-free, not recommended
eration" Tenths—Previn's, Svetlanov's, Tjek- for awork of such dynamic contrasts—thou&
navorian's—I know only the third. It's an ec- musically very fine indeed.

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The Music of Kurt Weill
/
nserious (le, classical) music circles, Kurt
Weill is generally considered to be one of
the "might have beens." In his twenties
and early thirties—which, given that he was
born in 1900, also happened to be the twenties
and thirties—he wrote serious works like
chamber music and operas. Upon his exile to
America, however, he became acomposer of
Broadway musicals, avocation that many clas-
sical music critics hold in esteem similar to that
reserved for individuals who produce child
pornography or who provide athletes with
steroids. On Broadway, Weill has had some
Aufstieg and Fall der Stadt Mabagonny spectacular flops (eg, The Firebrand of Flor-
(Rise and Fall of the City ofMabajtonny) Text by Benoit
ence)as well as some solid hits (eg, One Much
Brecht
Lotte Lenya, Jenny; Heinz Sauerbaum, Jim; Fritz Goell- of Venus).
nitz, Jalcob; Gisela Litz, Begbick; Horst Gunter, Moses; Mabagonny and The Threepenny Opera are
Peter Markwort. Fatty Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggenberg,
definitely among Weill's "serious" works, using
cond.
CBS M2K 77341 (2 CDs only). Digital remastering by texts by Bertolt Brecht (about as serious aplay-
Leroy Parkins and Frank Decker, eng.; George Davis, wright as one can find), and amusical idiom
George Avakian, prods. ADD. Mono. TT 21600
distinctly closer to Wozzeck than to Hello
Aufstieg and Fall der Stadt Mabagonny
Anje Silja, Jenny; Wolfgang Neumann, Jim; Frederic Dolly! In contemporary musical theater, the
Mayer, Jakob; Anny Schlemm, Begbick; Klaus Hine, show that comes closest to matching these
Moses; Thomas Lehrberger, Fatty. Külner Rundfunkor-
works in content and style (other than the
chester, Jan Latham-Kiinig, cond.
Capriccio C 73 159/ I-3 (3 LPs), 10 160-61 (2 CDs). Hel- admittedly Brecht/Weill-inspired Cabaret) is
mut Buttner, Hermann Kaldenhoff, engs. DDA/DDD. Sondheim's Sweeney Todd. One difference is
TT: 2:21:25
that Brecht's "epic theater" technique often
Die Dreigroscbenoper
(The Threepenny Opera) ltxt by- Bertolt Brecht involves deliberate dissociation of the songs
Erich Schellow, Macheath,; Lotte Lenya, Jenny; Johanna from the book, whereas Sondheim typically
von Koczian, Polly; Inge Wblffberg, Lucy; Willy ltenk-
aims for integration.
Trebisch, Mr. Peachum; 'nude Hesterburg, Mrs.
Peachum. Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggenberg, cond. In listening to the recordings of Mabagonny
CBS MK 4 263' (CD only). ADD. TT. 7314. and The Threepenny Opera, Imust admit that
Die Sieben 7bdsünden, Little Threepenny Music
my own response is more admiration than ado-
(The Seven Deadly Sins) Text by Bertolt Brecht
Julia Migenes-Johnson, Anna I& II; Robert Tear, Stuart ration. Both are fascinating pieces, and provide
Kale, Alan Opie, Roderick Kennedy, The Family; LSO, apowerful stylistic (as opposed to literal) evo-
Michael Tilson Thomas
cation of Germany in the inter-war years. On
CBS MK 44529 (Cl) only). Steven Epstein, prod.; Bud Gra-
ham, eng. ODD. TT: 55:25 record, both suffer from the absence of the vis-
Street Scene, Original Broadway Cast ual dimension, and, in my case, from having to
Lyrics by Langston Hughes. Maurice Abravanel, cond.
CBS MK 44668 (CD only). Original recording produced follow the English translation of the libretto.
by Goddard Lieberson. Digital remastering by Leroy (You'd think that anyone with my surname
Parkins; Frank Decker, eng. ADD. Mono. TT: 5220
would speak German, but the answer is nein.)
Berlin and American Theater Songs
Lotte Lenya; Maurice Levine and Roger Bean, concis. Mabagonny, with its bizarre plot (in one scene,
CBS MK 42638 (CD only). Digital remastering by Kevin aman eats himself to death), mixture of Ger-
P. BOUtOtC; Martin Greenblatt, eng. ADD. TT 7201
man and Germanized-English lyrics (eg, ".'ve
The Unknown Kurt Wein
Teresa Straus; Richard Woitach, piano lost our good old mama and must have Dollars
Nonesuch 79019-1 (LP), -2 (CD). Frank Laico, eng.; Eric oh you know why"), and uncompromisingly
Salzman, prod. DDA/DDD. Tr 55:20
bitter view of humanity, is the less accessible
St ratas Sings Weill
Teresa Stratas; Y Chamber Symphony, Gerard Schwartz of the two works, and, unlike The Threepenny
Nonesuch 79131-1 (LP), -2 (CD). Paul Goodman, eng.; Opera, it has not enjoyed agreat deal of popu-
Robert Hurwitz, prod. DDA. TT: 48:58
lar success. The score has some quite lovely

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melodies that are placed in the context of as a "ballet with singing." All the familiar
orchestrations that tend to de-emphasize the hallmarks of the collaboration are there, with
lyricism and lean in the direction of modern Brecht on his usual ideological soapbox (the
dissonances. extended title specifies said sins as being "of
The CBS recording has had the field to itself the Petty-Bourgeois"), and Weill providing
since 1955; transferred to CD (in rather dry- music that has afew Threepenny echoes, as
sounding mono), it is agood representative of well as passages that sound alot like Mahler.
the older approach to the piece: words and act- Julia Migenes, who sings the part originally done
ing are given prominence over music and sing- by Lenya, has an operatic as well as aBroadway
ing, tempos are on the fast side (producing a background; here, she seems determined not
"nervous" feel), and any "romantic" tendencies to use her "operatic" voice, and ends up sound-
are expunged. By contrast, it is clear from the ing like across between Lenya and Barbra Strei-
opening bars that the new Capriccio record- sand. Tilson Thomas conducts The Seven
ing sets out to present Mabagonny more like Deadly Sins and the Threepenny suite with
areal opera than aBrechtian "play with music." verve. Liner notes detailing technical aspects
Thus, the string section sounds bigger, the of the recording (eg, microphones used) suggest
music is allowed to breathe more, and the awareness of audiophile concerns, and, indeed,
singing—especially by Anje Silja, who sings the the sound has exceptional depth and clarity.
central role ofJenny, sung by Lotte Lenya on Street Scene belongs to Weill's Broadway
CBS—is of amuch higher caliber. Sound qual- period, and is the piece that represents, for me,
ity is quite natural, with the CD having abit areal find. This "Broadway opera" was aspe-
more clarity and the LP abit more (added?) cial favorite of Weill's; in the notes he wrote for
depth. For me, Mabagonny still remains a the recording, he describes it as the culmina-
problematic work, but the Capriccio recording tion of his attempts to develop aform of musi-
makes the more persuasive claim to give it spe- cal theater that would integrate drama, music,
cial status. spoken word, song, and movement. Based on
The Threepenny Opera remains the epitome Elmer Rice's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, with
of the Brecht/Weill style, juxtaposing Brecht's lyrics by Langston Hughes, Street Scene deals
cynical world view with Weill's haunting melo- with the lives of tenement dwellers in New
dies; music to soothe the savage Brecht. York City. Porgy and Bess is an obvious
Incidentally, if you're familiar only with the influence, musically as well as dramatically, but
English versions of "Mack the Knife" as sung Weill's sense of musical identity allows him to
by Louis Armstrong or Bobby Darin (remem- transcend what in lesser hands might have
ber him?), you may be surprised to learn from become amere Gershwin pastiche. To be sure,
the original German that the ostensible hero the score does not have songs with the soar-
of the piece is arapist as well as amurderer— ing tunes that characterize Gershwin's master-
more Mack the Ripper than Robin Hood. The piece (no "Bess You Is My Woman Now"), but
recording has an authentic theatrical style, with the songs it does have are consistently attractive
acast of actors who sing rather than singers and work well in theatrical terms. I'd love to see
who act. Voice fanatic that tam, my preference this show on stage. The CBS CD is of the orig-
would have been for the latter, although it must inal 1947 recording that has long been unavail-
be said that till himself stipulated performers able. It sounds just like a1947 mono recording—
with cabaret rather than operatic voices. (What no more, no less. Most of the performers have
did he know, anyway?) The digital transfer of operatic voices, but the singing, except for
the 1958 recording is very well done, taming Anne Jeffreys' Rose Maurrant, is not particularly
the excessive brightness of the original. Over- distinguished. Street Scene is amost interesting
all, this is still the best available recording of piece of musical theater, and this is its only
The Threepenny Opera, although those who available recording, so we cannot afford to be
want to hear the English version may want to too choosy, but Ihope there will be anew com-
hunt down the recording of the 1976 New plete recording (this is acondensed version)
York Shakespeare Festival production (CBS PS with atopflight cast in the near future.
34326, nla). During her husband's lifetime, Lotte Lenya
The last product of the Brecht/Weill collabo- appeared in anumber of his shows, aprocess
ration was The Seven Deadly Sins, described that sometimes involved Weill having to lower,

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by as much as afifth, the keys in which her with near-perfect balance between piano and
character's songs were originally written. After voice. For the CD version, Nonesuch has uncon-
his death, Lenya became the foremost cham- scionably omitted almost all of the extensive
pion of Weill's music, and achieved great suc- documentation (ie, lyrics, translations, infor-
cess in revivals of The Threepenny Opera. Her mation on the history of each song, pictures)
association with Weill's music is so complete that accompany the LP At twice the cost of the
that the library of materials maintained by the LP, this simply will not do! Sonically, there is
Kurt Weill Foundation, formed to preserve and little basis for preference, so Iwould go for
promote Weill's works, is called the Weill/Lenya the LP.
Research Center. If this flurry of Weill releases makes you think
Lenya's performances of Weill's songs are that we are in the midst of aweal revival, you're
widely regarded as definitive, but her recording right. Fully staged as well as concert produc-
of Berlin and American theater songs merely tions are popping up all over, and there are
makes one wonder what all the fuss is about. more recordings in the offing. In particular,
The voice itself is not avery attractive instru- Decca/London has announced a five-year
ment, with anarrow range, little power, and a recording project that will encompass all of
considerable waver. What is most striking, Weill's major and most of his minor works.
however, is the contrast between her renditions Coming from other sources are new recordings
of the Broadway and the Berlin songs. In Eng- of Lady in the Dark, based on last summer's
lish, her accent is not very obtrusive, but her Edinburgh Festival concert performance, pos-
phrasing and expression are so bland that she sibly with Julie Andrews in the lead, and One
might as well have learned these songs phonet- Touch of Venus, with Judy Kaye. Now, if only
ically. (Ironically, the gushy liner notes iden- some record company would have the cour-
tify meaning as what she says to be her greatest age to have ago at The Firebrand of Florence
strength as aperformer.) Only in the Berlin and Love Life!
songs (recorded in 1955, only two years earlier
than the American songs) is there areal sense IMe too, and wasn't that the hem Ikmd movie—or at least the
of involvement and excitement. Even here, I one where the character, were fleNhed out alittle —JA
found myself getting tired of the basic sound

of the voice; so, for me, the "Legend Called
Lenya" (as the liner notes refer to her) remains
Superb Clarity
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Rosa Klebb in From Russia With Love. , Dynamics 8L Imaging
If Lenya doesn't make an airtight case for Clarity Interconnects
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Lenya's great credit, she recognized Stratas as
reproduce the sound of music
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in your system. You must hear
songs, and made available to her some old
sheet music that had been gathering dust in the
the dramatic difference for
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RECORD REVIEWS
direction give bold testimony to what might

Classical have been if only RCA had undertaken the pro-
ject to record Copland's orchestral music with
BAKTÓK: String Quartets I& 2
him conducting American orchestras instead
Chilingirian Quattet
Chandos ABRD 1280 (LP), CHAN 8588 (CD). Anthony of the CBS Masterworks project which ensued
Howell, Mg.; Tim Handley, prod. DDD. TT: 56:05 with Copland conducting various London
orchestras. The CBS series, which has begun
We have become so used to the aggressive to appear on CD, was quite uneven in sound as
assault on Bartók's Quartets that at first hearing well as performance. The London orchestras
these readings by the Chilingirian seem decid- did a good job, but often seemed under-
edly lukewarm. Yet on subsequent listenings, rehearsed. Interestingly, the best recordings
particularly with the score in hand, it becomes from the CBS series were done with freelance
surprisingly evident that Bartók's modes of New York musicians: the original chamber-
attacking accentuation, his terse rhythmic orchestra version of the full-length Appala-
mottos, and his relentless alterations of pace chian Spring, and the Old American Songs
and tempo can be followed to the letter and still with William Warfield. During this period of
produce more subdued interpretations than are the 1960s, RCA had three house orchestras
the norm. So the Chilingirian cannot be which could have done ample justice to
accused of paying little heed to Bartók's "Copland Conducts Copland": the Chicago
demands, nor can they be faulted for their zest and Boston Symphonies, and the Philadelphia
and immaculate coordination. So what is it that Orchestra; a few titles could have been
prevents these performances from taking recorded in New York with studio players.
flight? Ithink perhaps the problem lies in a If you're shopping around for an Appala-
quality that, perversely, many other quartets chian Spring in the orchestral suite version,
aspire to, yet never attain: atotally homogene- this one's it. Bernstein/NYPO on CBS is the
ous color and integrity of intention. Lack of closest thing to it, beautiful in its own right, but
individuality among the players is somehow, something special took place at this Copland/
here, adeficiency; and yet both performances, BSO session between composer-conductor
and particularly that of the second quartet, are and orchestra. Perhaps it was afeeling of tra-
more than adequate and indisputably recom- dition and shared experience. Although the
mendable. actual concert premiere of the Suite had been
The recording is beautifully balanced, and given by the NYPO under Rodzinski, it was the
the dry acoustic of West Dean College, BSO under Koussevitzky which made the pre-
Chichester, seems especially apposite. There miere recording in 1946 with Copland out in
is just asmidgen more bloom to the strings on the hall. Now here he is on the same podium
LP, but the effect is negligible, so if you prefer nearly 15 years later, going one on one with the
black vinyl, go for it. —BarbaraJahn conductor and orchestra who put him on the
map as far back as 1930. The bucolic charm and
COPLAND: Suites from Appalachian Spring, The rustic magic are truly within hailing distance
Tender Land, Billy the Kid of Koussevitzky, and blow Copland's own later
Aaron Copland, Boston Symphony (Appalachian, Ten- LSO recording for CBS out of the water, along
der); Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra (Billy)
with everyone else's except Bernstein/NYPO
RCA 6802- 2-RG (CD only). Reissue engineer: Anthony
Salvatore; Reissue Supervisor: Andre Gauthier. ADD. on CBS, not Bernstein/LAPO on DG!
TT: 66:07 The Tender Land is an opera seldom per-
formed, and never in major houses. Arundown
Here are three of Aaron Copland's orchestral of its scenario looks hokey as hell, but the
works; the two played by the BSO under his orchestral suite, of which this is the only

recording, is prime Copland Americana from linist, wind player, or the like, Iwould turn to
the 1950s. In no way should it be considered this set to hear how it should sound. One can
apoor cousin of Appalachian Spring, as some hear the bows on the strings, feel the breath on
observers contend. Its two movements com- the flutes. And the playing, qua playing, is
prise music of great lyric beauty, and the superb; the LSO is heard to its best advantage.
hoedown is an orchestral tour de force. The Granted, the Third is not as full of Sturm und
quirky, eccentric 196013S0 gives it their all, and Drang as most of the other Mahler Sympho-
the sound, as originally produced and engi- nies, but Idon't ever remember hearing it
neered by Peter Dellheim and John Crawford, devoid of emotion. The first movement just
is spacious, detailed, and richly 'passed. It is also takes place. The third movement sounds jolly.
slightly congested in the heavy tuttis, as was The finale doesn't thunder; it doesn't leave one
the original record, but less so. awestruck, as if something great had just hap-
The Ormandy/Philadelphia recording of pened. The reading didn't only leave me cold,
Billy the Kid has that beautiful, seductive it left me feeling as if Ihad just read the score,
sound of which Philadelphia fans have had rather than having just heard or experienced
waking wet dreams. But this is asound for it. In some ways Ifelt closer to the music than
Tchaikovsky 5, not Billy. Beneath the Copland's ever before, but further away from the mean-
Americanisms lies astory of emotional, psy- ing. It sounds faster than other Thirds, but
chological, and physical violence, set against isn't—this was my first clue. What we get is a
the indifference of astrange and hostile environ- glorious presentation of glorious music, with
ment. The scenario would have been impos- no problems attached: happy-go-lucky Gustav
sible without Freud, and the music would have the orchestrator. There's something to be said
been impossible without Stravinsky, the French for such an approach, but not much.
Impressionists, and Les Six. That's no place for The Rückert Lieder, as sung by the always-
apretty orchestra. For Billy, it boils down to wonderful Janet Baker, are heard in areading
a single choice, Bernstein/NYPO on CBS, certainly closer to Mahler's spirit than the Sym-
recorded in Boston's Symphony Hall. Isn't it phony (and that's one of the reasons why I'm
asmall world. The CBS "Best Value" compila- convinced that Tilson Thomas has given us this
tion also contains Bernstein's Appalachian type of Third on purpose—he obviously can
Spring, to which Ihave so glowingly referred, find depth when he wants to), although the top
along with Fanfarefor the Common Man, and of the mezzo voice is not so evenly produced
arip-roaring Suite from Rodeo. Duplication of as before. Still, there's much to enjoy—even
repertoire? 'Fraid so. In cases where there's no revel in—here.
way around it, it's worth it. I'm not being sarcastic—I genuinely enjoyed
—Richard Schneider these discs. There's something to be said for
Mahler as pure music, without emotional bag-
MAHLER: Symphony 3, Rückert Lieder gage. Mahlerians may object to the WASPy
Dame Janet Baker, mezzo-soprano; Edwin Paling, solo approach, but, in away, this should be apart
violin; Maurice Murphy, solo post horn; London Sym- of each collection. It's an alternate view, and it's
phony Chorus, Southend Boy's Choir, LSO; Michael Td-
good to simply hear the music so clearly. Ican't
son Thomas
CBS Masterworks M2K 44553 (2 CDs only). Michael
help believing that Tilson Thomas and the engi-
Sheady, eng.; David Mottley, prod. DDD. TT 123:52 neers have gotten precisely what they wanted—
the most crisp, spotless Third imaginable.
The two things Ilike most about this new pre- —Robert Levine
sentation of Mahler's Symphony 3may be just
those things others take to be drawbacks: the ROREM: String Symphony, Sunday Morning, Eagles
reading is un -interpreted, un-editorialized, and Atlanta Symphony; Robert Shaw (Symphony); Louis Lane
(Sunday. Eagles)
cool, and the engineering is so flawless and
New World NW353- I(LP), NV/353-2 (CD). Jack Renner,
clear that it sounds as if each solo instrumen- cng.; Robert Woods, prod. DDD. 5E16
talist, in turn, had aseparate microphone on
his lap. Tilson Thomas makes the symphony To describe Ned Rorem's music as accessible
sound vaguely like amovie soundtrack—sort would be an insult to his considerable intelli-
of like Victory at Sea. This is meant more as an gence, as it would be to that of his following,
observation than acriticism. which, though not of the masses, is as substan-
The approach is detached; the music is tial as it is dedicated. Reflection upon the strength
exquisitely played and recorded. It may, in act, of Rorem's position in the American concert
be the most beautiful-sounding Third on disc, scene, in addition to his fame, even notoriety,
partially due to the playing, part to the engi- as ahighly self-revealing autobiographer and
neering. Ican't remember it ever sounding cultural observer, inclines one to ask why var-
more clinically clear: If Iwere an aspiring vio- ious past recordings of his works have been

scattered about on minor labels, many of which alienating, and to touch our hearts without
are no longer in business. Fortunately, New embarrassing, sets him nearly in aclass by him-
World Records is astrong, independent com- self among today's composers.
pany with an apparently excellent grasp of —Richard Schneider
grantsmanship, virtually the only way record
ings such as theirs can be made today. The fact ALLESANDRO SCARLATTI: La Giardina (Judith)
that their recordings are tastefully packaged Maria Zadori (sop), Judith; Katalin Germs (mezzo), OZi25;
Jozsef Gregor (bass). Priest: Drew Minter (cc-tenor).
and well-marketed doesn't hurt either.
Holofernes: Guy de May (ten), Captain; Capella Savaria,
Rorem is nothing if not literary, and agreat Nicholas McGegan
measure of his fame rests upon vocal settings Hungantton HCD 12910 (CD only). Andras Szekely, prod.
from awide variety of poetic sources. But he Ferenc Pecsi, eng. DDD. Ti'; 7144
is also ahighly gifted and colorful orchestra- This recording represents the world-premiere
tor, even to the point of extravagance at times. appearance on disc (of any sort) of an oratorio
When acomposer of Rorem's flair for instru- that ought not to have waited so long. La
mental plumage sets himself the task of writ- Giuditta probably does not qualify as aneglected
ing awork for strings alone, one must take masterpiece, but Iwas surprised how pleas-
notice. String Symphony was commissioned antly time passed as Ilistened to this lengthy
by the Atlanta Symphony, with Robert Shaw CD. The Biblical story ofJudith is well known
as the designated premiere conductor. For the (boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses head),
composer, personal statement and professional and has been told with more dramatic force
assignment were one and the same. The sym- elsewhere, but never in such elegant musical
phony is one of the few works which Rorem terms. The excellent notes which accompany
has not based upon literary references, and, as the CD (it is packaged in aslipcase to accom-
the composer points out in his notes, it's not modate the 76-page booklet) give aconcise
really asymphony, but asuite of brief and for- (and well-translated) description of the Italian
mally simple dance and song forms. Simple but oratorio as Scarlatti wrote it, and call him,
not simplistic, there are layers of meaning not without reason, Handel's most impor-
beneath the surface, and Rorem needs no pic- tant precursor.
colos or tam-tams to hide behind. He can do For the most part, this performance is asuc-
anything with strings that has ever been done. cess. The Capella Savaria plays as well as many
With Sunday Morning and Eagles, we are of the more celebrated Western European
back in the world of Rorem the everything-but- ensembles, demonstrating avigor and enthu-
the- kitchen-sink orchestrator. That doesn't siasm that Nicholas McGegan reins in but does
mean bombastic or vulgar. Rorem never shouts, not dampen. (This, mind you, in spite of living
forces, or hectors, although Ido sometimes under the iron boot of Godless Tyranny.) Into-
find myself asking if that was perhaps one tam- nation is very good, ensemble playing has just
tam stroke or cymbal crash too many. the right touch of roughness that lends charac-
The eight titled movements of Sunday ter to authentic performance, and everyone
Morning refer to poems by Wallace Stevens, seems to enjoy what they are doing.
and there is aconcerto-for-orchestra aspect to The soloists are nearly all as fine; Ihave
the constituent breakdown of the orchestra already praised Drew Minter sufficiently in
throughout the movements, which bear such another review, and he does as well here. If his
titles as "Passions of rain," "Death is the mother Holofernes is never quite the blustering hero
of beauty," and .. aring of men." Eagles is a he might be, he evokes adegree of sympathy
single-movement tone poem on Walt Whit- in the love scene that is well beyond what the
man's "A Dalliance of Eagles." bare text implies. Katalin Gemes is afull-voiced
Shaw gets amagnificently polished and com- Ozias who succeeds in conveying all of the
municative performance from his strings, and emotional context of the music; Guy de May
Louis Lane does no less with the two works is suitably offended as the Captain whom no
assigned to him. The technical production by one will believe, and Jozsef Gregor's Priest may
Telarc's moonlighting Robert Woods and Jack be abit thin in tone (where is David Thomas?),
Renner gives digital abetter name than certain but his pitch is reasonably secure, and he can
recent Telarcs have done. For me, the CD wins bluster when necessary. The problem here is
over the LP, which had anoisy side 2and was Maria Zadori. Ifind her rather rough-grained
warped anyway. voice not nearly pretty enough for Judith, nor
If you are unfamiliar with Rorem, Ican think does she possess nearly the emotional or
of no better introduction than this recording, dynamic range required by the role. Sight-
particularly if you enjoy orchestral music of the unseen and gender unknown, Minter's Holo-
spectacular persuasion. The fact that Rorem has femes would be amuch more interesting pros-
the capacity to challenge our minds without pect for anight under the desert moon. Despite

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this, the love duet between the two principals undercurrent, in text and music, of genuine
is exquisite, both for Scarlatti's delicate music sadness which Dame Janet does not miss.
and the subtly ironic text. "Meeres Stille" is delivered with ahypnotic,
Ihave had anumber of good things to say almost disturbing gentleness—nothing moves;
about the sound of Hungaroton CDs in the it's genuinely eerie. "Wanderers Nachtlied" is
past; this one is more of amixed bag. I'm afraid aremarkable composition, amere minute and
it's multi-miked, and not very subtly. There is ahalf long, but its cry for peace is so heartfelt
little sense of instruments playing together in and rendered with such sincerity that it has the
areal space, and the soloists appear to be some- impact of along, powerful poem. And to men-
where else entirely. On the other hand, the tion just one more (there are 19, and Icould go
microphones used seem to be excellent: instru- on for pages), the disturbing "Der Flüchtling,"
mental timbre is extremely realistic; flutes are with its merry "lively morning breeze" opening
sweet and airy; and the double bass is firm and and subsequent "the smiling earth is but agrave
rich. Multi- miking need not be entirely evil (as for me" stanzas, here makes dramatic sense:
afew Chandos recordings demonstrate), but Dame Janet is less lilting in the opening than
Ferenc Pecsi needs alot more experience in most singers, giving us warning that there's
the technique. nasty work ahead.
In sum, then, something new and worth Iwould be remiss if 1were to say that 30+
hearing. And amatter of interest: the Capella years of singing have taken no toll on this
Savaria is sponsored by the SOROS Founda- singer's voice, but the truth is that the problems
tion, VEPEX Contractor Ltd., and Sabaria Boot are remarkably few. There's an F# on the world
and Shoe Factory. Sounds suspiciously like a "quelle" in the first song which is uncomfort-
capitalist arrangement to me. —Les Berkley able, and elsewhere one feels that 10 years ago
asong might have been taken more slowly
SCHUBERT: Lieder
because the singer had more breath to offer,
The Hyperion Schubert Edition, Mel
but, such tiny criticisms aside, the voice has
Dame Janet Baker, mezzo; Graham Johnson, piano
Hyperion CDJ 33001 (CD only). Martin Compton, prod.; held up staggeringly well. Perhaps now there
Antony Howell, eng. DDD. TT0,32 are only six degrees of dynamic shading where
previously there were ten—tsk, tsk.
This is the first in what is to be an approxi- Graham Johnson's accompaniments are so
mately 35-disc set comprising all the songs of much more than that—I wish there were abet-
Franz Schubert—the first time such amam- ter word. He is responsible for the intelligent
moth effort has been undertaken. Fischer- and informative notes about the project and
Dieslcau's remarkable recordings missed about each song which are to be found in the book-
200 songs which simply either had to be sung let, and it is obvious that he knows—and
by awoman or were too far away from his vocal loves—his Schubert. His playing is gorgeous
range to transpose (even the baritone's greatest —in "Meeres Stifle" he's barely noticeable, but
fans would have trouble hearing him in "Der defines the song—and elsewhere he is apart-
Hitt auf dem Felsen"). The Hyperion series will ner to Dame Janet. I'll be looking forward to
feature different singers, and rather than the next volume in this series. Hyperion is to
presenting the songs chronologically (although be congratulated on all counts: their ambition,
I'd love to hear that, too), they will be bound their impeccable, natural engineering, and their
together by atheme, apoet, or the like. These production values. Bravi! —Robert Levine
19 songs have the poets Schiller and Goethe in
common, and make up afascinating program.
SCHUBERT: Piano Sonatas
Dame Janet's great gift has always been the No.19 in c, D.958; No.20 in A, D.959; No.21 in B-flat,
manner in which she can, from the first note D.960; Allegretto in c, D.915; Three Piano Pieces, D.946
or two of asong, invite the listener into the Maurizio Pollini, piano
song's world without making the experience Deutsche Grammophon 419 229-1 (3 LPs), -2 (2 CDs).
seem stilted. She never exaggerates, never Guenther Hermanns, eng.; Rainer Brock or Guenther
Breest (D.960), prod. DDD. TT 141:41
imposes herself on the music, and does it all
without seeming selfless or faceless. Most of the How you react to these performances will
songs here are filled with many emotions, some depend upon what you think of Pollini's play-
of them in conflict, and their humanity never ing. If you find him excessively intellectual, his
fails to come through in Dame Janet's readings. recordings of Beethoven and Schumann chilly
The very first song, the 1812 "Der Jüngling and unfeeling, perhaps you should look else-
am Bache," is afinely spun tale about innocent where to explore Schubert's last three sonatas.
eagerness, and the singer lets it flow with the Pollini certainly makes no poetic meditation
simplicity it requires. By contrast, "Schaefer's on death; for such an interpretation you might
Klagelied" seems straightforward but has an best go to an artist such as Claudio Arrau, who

watts into 8ohms), but more than makes up in sonic
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both in playing and written opinion relates weights, either. Pollini illuminates the Three
exquisite threnody in these pieces. How you Pieces especially, his treatment ideal to convey
react will depend also on what you hear in their bald contrasts between agitation and serenity.
these sonatas. It may be argued quite convinc- The only insufficiency Idetected in these
ingly that they are the works of aman compos- readings was that Pollini does not read in the
ing under adeath sentence (I find such an anal- music the sense of wonder and discovery that
ysis far more holistically applicable to Schubert Artur Schnabel brought to his pioneering EMI
than to anything in late Mahler), but they are recordings from the '30s. , This is unfair, of
also supremely introspective, hardly death. course; it is hardly Pollini's fault that Schnabel
obsessed or even uniformly anguished. Upon made these works part of the standard reper-
repeated hearings, conceptions such as Arrau's toire long before Pollini's career began. Pollini's
become less poetic than prosaic and lugubri- intelligence, taste, and soul are what put him
ous. On the other hand, Ican think of no body in Schnabel's league. Needless to say, this set
of Romantic piano work more appropriate to is strongly recommended. —Kevin Conklin
Pollini's talents than Schubert's last sonatas, so
impassioned but free of obviously sensualist
SCHUBERT: Piano Sonata in A, 0.959
or virtuosic elements, so rewarding in the SCHUMANN: Piano Sonata No.2 in g
hands of aplayer whose restraint conceals Murray Perahia, piano
much art. CBS M 44569 (LP), MK 44569 (CD). Tony Faulkner &
Andrew Kazdin (Schubert), ibm Lazarus & Andrew Kaz-
In D.958, the darkest sonata, Pollini makes
din (Schumann), ens.; Andrew kazdin. prod.
the abrupt c/E-Flat transitions of the first move- DDA/DDD. TT 54:14
ment transitory islands of hope and repose,
rather than biffing through them, or pointing The highlights of these two performances for
up melodrama. By sustaining slightly the first me are the beautifully inward, albeit classically
note of each triplet in the finale, and paying pas- restrained slow movements. Classical, in fact,
sionate attention to the contrast between pp is an apt description for the pianist's approach
and fp, Pollini makes this movement thrillingly to the Schubert, whose first movement, Inote
spectral, no predictable tarantella macabre. by the way for those interested, is played minus
D.959 inspires Pollini's best performance; he the exposition repeat. It is asplendid perfor-
holds together this beautifully balanced sonata mance in almost all respects, marvelously full
with sureness. Needless to say, Pollini the great of affect in the Andantino and really gorgeously
technician sails through the harmonically wild, conceived in the scherzo's trio section and,
emotionally disturbing effusion of the scherzo; most especially, in the finale. The playing
but, in amasterly touch, he offsets this with an throughout is extremely sensitive, as well, in
understated chorale-like opening theme to the the Schumann, though here, again, Perahia's
Rondo, projecting nobility and meditation only leanness of tone and color is rather more Apol-
punctuated by anguish. lonian than Dionysian, as in the more temper-
The B-flat is the most deceiving of the lot: amental and mercurial Argerich version of the
while seemingly simple in its block chords and G-minor Sonata. It remains only to be mentioned
spare variation, it is easy for apianist to lose that the evenly balanced piano reproduction
control of structure in the expansiveness. Pol- is most satisfactory, but Ifind the London-
lini is the first Iknow of, save Schnabel and Ser- based recording of the Schubert superior in
kin, to embody Schubert's improvisational color and warmth to the cooler, less ravishing
aspect and elegiac sense without dirgelike wal- Schumann, which originated in New York (per-
lowing or noodling like abad jazz musician. haps this might have also been amatter of a
Life goes on, agreat soul transcends self-pity difference in pianos). —Igor Kipnis
in the face of death: this conviction sustains
through the remaining three movements. Pol-
lini's advocacy for this outwardly romantic SCHUMANN: Cello Concerto; Works for Cello &
work recalls Jascha Horenstein's reading of the Piano
Bruckner Ninth: complete faith in the com- Fantasiestücke, Op.129 & 73; Adagio and Allegro, øp.70;
Fünf Stücke im Volkston, Op.102
poser's great soul, though living in afaltering Yo -Vo Ma, cello; Emanuel Ax, piano; Bavarian Radio Sym-
and tormented body; complete agreement phony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis
with his transcendence of traditional structural CBS Masterworks M 42663 (LP), MK 42663 (CD). Con-
and harmonic forms, complete conviction that certo: Martin Wohr, eng.; David Mottley, prod. Cello
bathos is the worst possible argument for this & piano: John Newton. eng.; David Mouley, Wolfgang
Schneiderjames Mallinson, prods. DIM/ODD. i1 60:42
belief. The conviction carries over into Pollini's
performances of the Allegretto and the Three
Piano Pieces. These are not works of the emo-
ISchnabel's recordings of 0.959 and 0.960 are available in
tional range of the Sonatas, but hardly make- the US as part of Arabesque 8145-2, aboxed set of three LPs.

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Much of the work Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax and re-record agood bit of it many times over
have turned out for CBS Masterworks has the next four-plus decades. The present per-
seemed the musical analog of the slick album formances—the RPO ones date from October,
covers and posters that CBS produces in its 1973, the LSO sessions from November of
relentless promotion of the artists: soft in focus, 1974, when Stokowski was just over 91Y2 years
unbearably pretty, and laden with pretension. old—were made three to four years before his
The technical perfection is there, but all too death. It's therefore tempting and not incorrect
often without inspiration. The duo breaks that to describe these, at least in part, as autumnal
trend in this release, but the concerto with Davis interpretations. But even though those old
and the Bavarian RSO firmly perpetuates it. early Philadelphia recordings have apassion-
Striving for poetry but stumbling into halt- ately gripping, freewheeling intensity and
ingly phrased lines and acool, tentative feel- incredible instrumental excitement, as well as
ing, Ma and Davis give little sign of such con- loads of personality, the much more recent per-
viction as is evident in the recent DG issue with formances reissued here on CD are almost
Bernstein, Mischa Maisky, and the Vienna Phil- always absorbing. The excitement may be
harmonic. The occasional expressive legato sporadic, yet there is sometimes an amazing
passages yield ultimately to adrowsy torpor vitality present. Can you imagine the effect
that reveals only prettiness where beauty should Stokowski's kind of performances would have
be. The bloated orchestral sound punctuated by had in an opera house at the incredible
rather screechy flutes and massed violins doesn't moment in the funeral music when the vassals
aid the effect. The malaise persists through raise Siegfried's body? And, as usual for the old
most of the Fantasiestücke for cello and piano, magician, the orchestral tone, especially in his
and the stage seems set for another entire specialty, the strings, is invariably warm and
recording struck from the typical Ma/Ax mold. singing, marvelously lyrical, and even sensu-
But ahealthy dose of passion informs the ously shaped. Just listen to what he does with
final two pieces, Adagio and Allegro, and Fünf the transition to the Liebestod. That silky string
Stücke im Volkston. In an applauded departure, sound is also for the most part reasonably well
Ma and Ax take off, convincing us that they are characterized in the recording, although Idon't
thrilled to be playing music. These wonderful find what basically amounts to mellow sonics
little compositions display the never-questioned especially up to date. Brilliance is lacking on
techniques of the players and add the intangible the top end in the 1974 pieces; more separa-
thrill of inspiration. They alone are worth tion, greater detail, and better imaging are
the price. apparent in the sessions of the previous year,
The cello in these duets is rich and full- but there one also is subjected to alittle stri-
bodied (unlike the concerto), and the piano, dency at climaxes, as, for instance, at the end
though abit smothered-sounding, is also quite of the Meistersinger excerpts. A few more
good. The piano is more lifelike on the LP, but access points in the tracking (the Funeral
that is the most obvious difference between the March, the Dance of the Apprentices, Entrance
two formats. The similarity is such that you of the Mastersingers, and the Liebestod) would
should probably choose to match the strength not have been amiss. —Igor Kipnls
of your own system.
You may not be inclined to listen to the WAGNER: Parslfal
whole of this release every time, but you will Ramon Vinay, Parsifal; Martha Mridl, Kundry; Ludwig
Weber, Gurnemanz; George London, Amfortas; Her-
never regret having those final two performances. mann Uhde, Klingsorjosef Greindl, Titurel; others;
—Robert Hesson 1953 Bayreuth Festival Chorus & Orchestra; Clemens
Krauss
Rodolphe RPC 32516.17 (2 CDs only). ADD (mono). TT

WAGNER: Concert Pieces 3:57:00
Ginterdintimerung: Siegfried's Rhine Journey and WAGNER: Der Fllegende Hollandes•
Funeral Music; Brünnhilde's Immolation. Die Meister- Hans Hotter, Hollander ;Georg Hann, Daland; Viorica
singer: Prelude to Act Ill, Dance of the Apprentices, Ursuleac, Senda; Karl Ostertag. Erik; Louise Willer, Mary;
Entrance of the Mastersingers. »istan und /snide: Pre- Franz Klarwein, Steuermann; Chorus & Orchestra,
lude and Liebestod Munich State Opera, 1944; Clemens Krauss
Leopold Stokowski, LSO (Gótterdeimmerung), RPO Rodolphe RPC 32515 (CD only). ADD (mono). TM
(Meistersinger & 7kistan) 124:00
RCA 5995-2-RC (CD only). Christopher Parker, Robert
Auger, Anthony Salvatore, engs.; Richard Mohr, prod. In three releases mere months apart, Rodolphe
ADD. TT, 68:18 has given us Clemens Krauss versions of three
fifths of Wagner's massive canon. And, if this
Stokowski's earliest recordings of some of this 1953 Parsifal and 1944 Hollander do not rise
music go back to his work with the Philadel- automatically to the top of the heap as did last
phia Orchestra in 1931, and he was to record summer's stupendous Krauss Ring cycle (from

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the same Bayreuth season as this Parsifal), they Kollo (Solti) takes good care of the young, light
were certainly worth dusting off. part, Reiner Goldberg (Jordan) the clear-ringing
Boulez's wretched rush-through of 1970 heroic aspects, but Ramon Vinay's thick, pork-
aside, this is the shortest complete Parsifal on barrel voice is even more wrong for this role
record (Melodram carries an abridged version, than it was for the Siegmund he sang that same
in Italian, with Gui and CiII2s). Unlike Wagner's summer. Regardless, he improves throughout,
other works, to which very specific "correct" and, in Act III, wrests himself heroically from
tempi seem appended in the listener's mind, self-torturing depths ("Und ich—ich bin's");
Parsifal seems almost infinitely flexible; "Nur cine Waffe taugt" is thrillingly heroic.
Krauss's 237 minutes seem just as "right" as Jor- Ludwig Weber's hooty Act IGurnemanz
dan's 244, Knappertsbusch's 250, ICarajan's reminds more of Hagen's rough savagery than
254, Sold's 260, Levine's 278, and even Goodall's the avuncular expositor we're used to, or even
287. In Parsifal, \ Vag,ner suspends time, creat-
1 Hans Sotin's (Levine) gruff kindliness. But
ing more asuffusion of sound than his usual there's a tortured passion here you'll find
drive to an inevitable dénouement. As Gur- nowhere else, not even in Hotter (Knapperts-
nemanz tells the ever-wondering Parsifal, "here busch)—Weber not so much recounts as relives
time becomes space." This ostensibly Christian his discovery of Amfortas after the spear's theft.
fever-dream that never mentions the names And the hootiness disappears by Act Ill. George
"Jesus" or "Christ" creates drifting clouds of London is much more convincing than he was
harmony rather than the magnificent dawns, to be with Kna nine years later, his voice much
dusks, and lightning bolts of the Ring, or the darker here (it later became so bright as to
almost horrific clarity of lkistan, its psychic obscure pitch), less relentlessly aggressive and
and spiritual sister. Beginning and ending, like inappropriately robust. Though no one has (for
7Yistan, with the sacrament of communion me) bettered Fischer-Dieskau (Solti) for sheer
(though here sacred, again ostensibly), it is beauty of singing wedded to consummate
unlike the earlier music-drama in that the entire vocal acting, London will do just fine, thanks.
cycle could simply begin again, the previous His final Act Ill refusal to perform communion
circuit forgotten, Parsifal wandering off like ("Nein! Nicht mehr!") is overpowering.
Amfortas before him to be seduced by another Ah, but Martha Mtidl as Kundry —that
Kundry, wounded by another Klingsor. Tristan smooth, liquid voice, afar cry (literally) from
and Isolde are transfigured to ahigher realm; Waltraud Meier's recent histrionics for Levine
Panears principals seem doomed—or blessed— and Goodall, and much like Yvonne Minton for
to endlessly repeat their roles in the timeless- Jordan. Miidl's Act II scene with Vinay goes
ness of dream. The work—truly amystery down smoothly, though not too smoothly. My
play—seems less reducible less fathomable the only caveat: From time to time she cuts words
more Ihear it; I'm alternately astounded that and notes extremely short; Idon't know
it is not respected and loved even more than whether this is for dramatic intent or to save her
it is, and that it is performed at all. voice, but it seldom works. She's not quite the
All of which is to say that Krauss's tempi are vocal actress here that Gwyneth Jones (Boulez)
fine by me. Only in the Act Ientrance of the or Christa Ludwig (Solti) have since become.
Gralsritter do things fall apart—orchestra and Hermann Uhde gives lUingsor aruddy author-
chorus never quite manage to play and sing ity, rather than the usual harsh-voiced postur-
together. There are no such problems in II and ing. Josef Greindl is excellent in the tiny part
III. Wagner's blunted climaxes and endless of Titurel, and Gene Tobin and ayoung Theo
diminuendi are finely honed, but not by too Adam are undistinguished Gralsritter. The four
much, and Krauss's profluence is inevitable Squires, like the solo Flower Maidens, go
enough to banish thoughts of mere "conduct- uncredited, though the third Squire sounds like
ing." This is also true of the self-effacing Goo- Gerhard Stolze (who sang small roles at Bay-
dall and Jordan, but surprised me after hearing reuth that summer).
Krauss's electrifying Ring. Another reaffirma- There are striking differences in recorded
tion of the truism that agreat conductor serves sound between this Parsifal and the Ring,
the work, not himself. recorded within weeks of one another. What
Despite Ramon Vinay's valiant attempts, his the Ring lacked in bass can be found here;
Parsifal remains, for the most part, dark and where the Ring's brass were buried and lost at
constipated; it's hard to itnag,ine apoorer piece the bottom of the Bayreuth pit, they are here
of vocal casting. It's bad enough that the role gloriously present. The entire orchestra, in fact,
must be sung by amature tenor at all, so youth- is almost perfectly balanced with the voices
ful did Wagner intend the part—it requires a throughout. Only the flutes and the prompter
young, light, clear voice—but you can't have are too annoyingly audible. But the orchestral
that and a Heldentenor in one body. René sound during the Flower Maiden scene is

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almost lush. Unfortunately, these two CDs (yes, among Senta, Erik, and orchestra during Erik's
this is another Rodolphe double-play bargain) Act Ill dream kept me on the edge of my seat—
are the harshest, most unlistenably glaring I such emotional immediacy is found only in live
have heard. Plus plenty of tape hiss. Graphic performances. Franz Klarwein's Steuermann
equalizers? Treble controls? Use em if you got is at least as good—a clear, sumptuous, lyric
'em. (There's also print-through pre-echo from tenor with asubtle comic sense.
improperly stored master tapes.) As Senta, Viorica Ursuleac has intonation
Hollander's sound is remarkably good; bet- problems and too much vibrato, lags labori-
ter than it has any right to be, considering the ously in the slow passages, and virtually dis-
1944 transcription date of this historic first-ever appears in piano sections—no support or
complete recording of the work. But this broad- control—yet manages to redeem herself in the
cast performance (available 30 years ago on 1oudex more histrionic moments. Louise Willer's
Mercury) was recorded on magnetic tape, back Mary is much more dependable, yet somehow
when Germany was still the only country to less memorable. Ursuleac remains the most idi-
own the technology. Though congested and osyncratic Senta I've heard.
harsh during the loud passages (including most The booklets for both operas contain no
of Act 111), and with many dropouts, the rest of notes, one photo each (Krauss), German-only
the opera actually sounds better than the Par- librettos (missing half of Hollander's Act III),
sifal and Ring of nine years later. The brasses and about 800 typos apiece. These should not
come through with power and resonance (this be your first recordings of either Parsifal or
time they weren't buried in the Bayreuth pit), Hollander—I recommend Knappertsbusch,
and voices are very present and three- Solti, Levine, or Jordan (once on Erato, now
dimensional (in mono!). But, like the 1953 Par- available through Musical Heritage) for the
sifal, the high end is painfully grating. former, Dorati, Nelsson, or Klemperer (though
Krauss is convincing at Hollander's helm; his not Solti, for achange) for the latter—but these
Act III is probably the best I've heard, helped very good performances in not-very-good
to no small degree by the Munich Staatsoper (Parsifal) and surprisingly-good- for- its- time
chorus, another of those robust, vibrant ensem- (Hollander. )sound make solid second or third
bles from one of the golden ages of German versions, and valuable lessons in operatic his-
singing. Krauss's drive, as in his 1953 Ring, is tory. Rodolphe: more, please.
undeniable, generating ample excitement in the —Richard Lehnert
Overture and throughout the opera, here done
in three separate acts (not the continuous Bay- WEBERN: Complete Music for String Quartet
reuth version). After aragged Overture and Act Quartetto Italiano
Philips 420 796-2 (CD only). ADD. rn 5253
I, the orchestra pulls itself together for the rest
of the work, often sounding almost demoni- This reissue from 1970 proves afascinating disc,
cally inspired. showing Webern's developing style from the
The cast is impressive: the young Hans Hot- recently discovered slow movement for String
ter as the Hollânder, his voice so heartbreak- Quartet of 1905, with its full-blooded Roman-
ingly youthful and light in tone (though not in tic harmonies, to the concentrated contrapun-
power), and with so effortless atop, as to be vir- tal lines of the Op.28 Quartet of 1938. The com-
tually unrecognizable—that is, until his over- plete String Quartet of 1905 is in one contin-
whelming Act III entrance ("Verloren!")—as uous and intense movement, its language still
the towering Wotan and Gumemanz of the '50s firmly rooted in the post-Wagnerian Roman-
and early '60s. "Die Frist ist urn" is impassioned ticism common to the early compositions of
enough, though not as tortured as Fischer- the Second Viennese School. The Five Move-
Dieskau for Konwitschny. But that Act III . ments for String Quartet, Op.5, of only four
It makes Simon Estes (Nelsson /Bayreuth) years later could not bring greater contrast.
sound like atyro. Concerned primarily with color and effects—
Georg Hann's Daland is adry barker. Though wood on string, abrasive tremolandi on the
dramatically appropriate for this gruff, materi- bridge, brittle pizzicati—their germinal con-
alistic schemer, such achoice impairs his duet struction and concision lead inevitably to the
with Hotter, cutting short the harmonies. His extreme brevity of the 6 Bagatelles, which
Act II "Miigst du, mein Kind" is strong, though together last less than four minutes; Schoen-
lacking the bantering playfulness Georgio Tozzi berg said of them, "Consider what moderation
brought to the role on stage and, for Dorati, on is required to express oneself so briefly." With
record. As Erik, Karl Ostertag displays apas- birdsong also captured here by the recording,
sionate tenor of Heiden proportions (though an extra, but wholly suitable, dimension seems
with aslight tendency to nasality), milking the to have been specially added!
part for every drop of drama. The tension Recorded in the neutral acoustic of La Tour

Answers Defivies the stee of the crt
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de Peilz, Switzerland, with balance and dis- declamatory passages—of which there are few
tance sensitively judged, these pieces are heard in this program—he has atendency to empha-
to their best advantage. —Barbara Jahn size too explosively. This, however, is aminor
fault when outweighed by the interpretive
Classical Collections intelligence and eloquent sensitivity with
which he transforms song into memorable,
ALFREDO KRAUS: Arie Antic/al enjoyable experience.
Arias by Giordano, Ciampi (Ann), Handel, Pergolesi, A. In aprogram chock-full of virtues, it's dif-
Scarlatti, Tenaglia, Gluck, Hasse, Salvator Rosa,
Niedermeyer
ficult to single out highlights. However, Pergo-
Alfredo Kraus, tenor; Jose Tordesillas, piano lesi's "Se tu m'ami," Gluck's "0 del mio dolce
Nimbus NI 5102 (CD only). DDD. TT: 45:46 ardor," and Scarlatti's "0 cessate di piag,armi"
offer models of legato expressivity, tone col-
A most welcome release. The appealing 17th- oration, and pellucid articulation not often
and 18th-century (one now believed to have encountered, at least to this degree, on the con-
been composed in the 19th century) songs and temporary vocal scene. Only in the last-named
arias presented here captivated audiences not composer's delectable "Le violette" was Icon-
so long ago when sung with bewitching finesse scious of limited warmth and charm when
by such as John McCormack, Tito Schipa, Dino comparing Kraus's singing to Schipa's famous,
Borgioli, etc. Beniamino Gigli also sang and idiosyncratic rendition. José Tordesillas's piano
recorded them with lachrymose passion, if not accompaniment, although adequate, is too self-
with the artful insights of others. effacing for optimum musicality.
The comparatively few vocal recitals (and Although Nimbus usually provides fine engi-
their recorded counterparts) presented these neering, they have fallen below their anticipated
days generally emphasize popular operatic arias high standards here. The first cut is poorly
or musical diets designed for the palates of balanced, over-reverberant, and appears to
sophisticated vocal aficionados, with German have been taped in awet-walled bathroom.
Lieder as the entrée. Don't get me wrong! As There is some improvement later, but the engi-
afrequent gourmand of both, Ienjoy this fare; neers don't succeed in providing the balanced,
Ido, though, miss the delightful ditties by Ales- intimate ambience and immediacy that the
sandro Scarlatti, Tommaso Giordano, Vincenzo superiority of the performance merits. None-
Ciampi, etc. These composers and others of theless, not to be missed by singing and song
similar ilk are offered here, and their recorded enthusiasts. —Bernard Soli
renaissance Ls doubly welcome as it features the
bravura artistry of such apersuasive, stylistic
master as Alfredo Kraus. 20TH-CENTURY SOLO CELLO MUSIC
Truls Otterbech Mork, cello
The man is avocal miracle! As amember of
Nordheina Clamavi; Crumb, Sonata for solo violon-
the audience at his 1966 Metropolitan Opera cello; Lidholna Fantasia sopra laudi; Kodály: Sonata
debut, Ihave vivid memories of the very posi- for solo violoncello
tive impression that his beautifully conceived Simax NC 1023 (CD only). Ame Akselberg, eng.; Arild
Erikstad, prod. TT: 64:24
interpretation (of the Duke in Rigoletto) made
on me. And of his wide-ranging, crystalline Few sounds seem to touch us as closely as the
tenor voice—despite the following day's Neu' sound of the solo cello. The bit of the bow
York Times criticism that "Kraus has not been stretches some inner string, pulling us as the
blessed with avoice that is going to make alast- body vibrates harmonically. In the hands of a
ing impression in vocal history." What the master, the violoncello is unsurpassed as asolo
instrument may lack in opulence is more than instrument. %Is Otterbech Mork is surely one
compensated for by its silvery pure tenor clar- of the finest cellists on this planet, and this is
ity (no baritone overtones), wide range, and one of the finest CD reproductions of string
firm technical foundation. The voice still sounds sound to date.
as admirable as it did 23 years ago, even though, The four works presented here are all highly
when this disc was taped, the tenor was but a emotional, thoroughly modem, recorded beau-
few days shy of his 60th birthday. No allow- tifully, and, despite the well-known law to the
ances have to be made for his age, although, contrary, are performed with an impossible
unlike wine, voices do not generally improve ease that conjures images of magical string
with the passing of years. One cannot fault his players of the past —Paganini, Casals, and a
superbly controlled breathing and long, expres- handful of others.
sive phrases. As in 1966, Istill hear patches of The excellent liner notes give concise and
tonal dryness. Another critical aspect which insightful backgrounds on the composers, with
has neither improved nor deteriorated since each work dated, except for the Kodály. Also
that time is interpretive rather than vocal. In included are all recording details; recordists,

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take note. The sound has clarity without being sive manner, as if she were attempting to reach
harsh, or losing the resonance of the instru- the farthest row back in a2000-seat house The
ment. The master was made with two Brüel & effect is stunning—there isn't an empty or
Kjaer omnis on Sony PCM-701/RTW AD unimportant moment on this disc.
3/Sony SL2000 digital equipment. The opening selections are by Handel:
Ame Nordheim is deeply influenced by Béla divinely controlled readings of "Dank sei dir,
Bartók (true of avast number of contemporary Herr" and "Lascia ch'io planga." They are
composers, myself included), but rather than followed by aSchumann group—"Widmung"
imitating Bartók's, Nordheim's compositional absolutely soars, "Frülingsnacht" is ecstatic,
style is genuinely evolutionary, unique and and the others are, by turns, introspective,
masterful in its own right. Clamavi is an poetic, and soulful. The two Schubert groups-
incredibly good piece, the sound both clam- 10 songs altogether—are startling in their vari-
orous and sweet. Mork displays flawless move- ety. "Der Musensohn" is suitably energetic and
ment between octaves, his intonation is spot playful, sung very fast and with no problems
on, and he conveys afieryand patient spirit. in articulation or pitch. The "Ave Maria" is gor-
The first movement of George Crumb's geous—reverential, intimate, scaled down and
Sonata for Solo Violoncello is astudy in con- all of apiece—a veritable lesson in legato sing-
trasts, alternating between pizzicatos and emo- ing. I'll only mention two others: "Der Tod und
tional double stops. This work, too, is reminis- das Madchen" and "Erlkonig." Norman uses
cent of Bartók, particularly of the later string abaritonal sound for the Death figures in both,
quartets. The last movement features fast- and she amazes. lithe voice she uses for the lit-
paced, widely spaced arpeggios enriched with tle child is not quite as innocent as one would
doublestops. This is virtuoso modern music like, well, it only proves that the singer is human.
of the highest order. The encores by Brahms and Strauss are impres-
Ingvar Lidholm's Fantasia sopra laudi fea- sive, but the two Negro Spirituals which close
tures subtle, breathtaking, high pizzicato tones. the show bring the house down, and quite
The disc is absolutely silent, rich in sound, and rightly so.
never glaring. All CDs should sound this good. Some may find the sound abit harsh, partic-
The imaging, too, is excellent, presenting one ularly near the program's start (one can imagine
perfectly sized cello in your listening area. The the engineers twisting away to get the balance
composition never lets up in intensity, and and treble right), but it's certainly never areal
despite only one instrument creating the tex- issue. Geoffrey Parsons is amore-than-sympa-
ture, the tonal variety, masterful dynamics, and thetic accompanist, although his piano suffers
awesome attention to detail make this aselec- most from the sharp acoustic. And the singing
tion you won't want to miss. The movement is really spectacular. This is arelatively easy pro-
ends on abeautiful high G# (the cello's highest) gram to digest, and Norman turns it into an
that would be hard to match on the violin. event to remember. Booklet with notes, texts,
Mork's mastery of every tone, spanning nearly and translations, and the applause on separate
five octaves, is nothing short of spectacular. cueing points! Go buy this—it's agreat bet.
The CD ends with Kodgly's Sonata for Solo —Robert Levine
Violoncello, Op.8, which exploits virtually
every effect possible on the instrument. There
is asection that sounds like the work of several Show Musk
cellists, with broken chords spanning three
octaves in the blink of an eye. In short, this is PUMP BOYS AND DINETTES: On Broadway
amagical offering; if you like the cello, you'll Performed & written by: Jim Wann, John Foley, Mark
love this disc. —James Berwin Hardwick, Debra Monk, C2SS Morgan, John Schimmel
CBS MK 37790 (CD only). Mike Berniker, Billy Sherrill.
prods. ADD. TT 3210
JESSYE NORMAN: In Recital
Songs by Hârtdel, Schubert. Schumann. Brahms. R. Strauss
Yes, these waitresses and greasemonkeys were
Jessye Norman, soprano; Geoffrey Parsons. piano
Philips 422 048-2 (CD only). Volker Straus, prod.; Peter on Broadway some years back, and did OK
Laenger, eng. DDD. TT: 6429 there, too. Pump Boys & Dinettes is not so
much a"show" as arevue, aplotless evening
This concert, taped live at the Hohenems Fes- spent hanging around the g,aspumps and diner
tival in Feldkirch, Austria in June of 1987, will of some little bump in aroad called Highway
serve as quite an eye- (and ear-)opener for 57. A plot, however, is not missed—the songs
those who have always found this singer's are that good. This is light country rock, tightly
recital discs abit on the reserved side. Idon't sung and played by aband taut as atrampoline,
know the size of the hall in which this took funny, intelligent, and constantly inventive—
place, but Miss Norman sings in agrand, expan- you keep thinking asong or lyric is going in

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one direction, when suddenly it zags like a vodka and caviar. In such Brubeck standards
jackrabbit. But most of all, the songs are u, hole- as "Unsquare Dance," "St. Louis Blues," "Three
some in ways Ithought were long dead. And, To Get Ready," and "Take Five" (CD only), as
remarkably, the fresh humor seems to be at no well as new vehicles "Give Me A Hit" and "Thane
one's expense. for June," you'll be treated to some fine main-
Available on LP for about 15 minutes some stream blowing and more than alittle invention.
six or seven years ago, PB&D has at last been Moscow Night—recorded live in March of
reissued on CD, and the news is all good. Nine- 1987 in Moscow's Russiya Concert Hall—
teen country-rock tunes totaling almost an constitutes one of the first musical documents
hour was abit much to ask of asingle vinyl bis- to emanate from glasnost. The concert came
cuit in the first place; that LP had much in at the end of the Brubeck Quartet's first string
common with the original cast recording of of 13 USSR appearances, and was taped in coop-
Hair; including tinny treble, no bass, and sound- eration with Melodiya, the official Soviet rec-
ing as if recorded in acardboard carton full of ord company.
Wonderbread. Clarinetist Smith's musical presence is always
Well, these wonderful, charming, down- refreshing. Although for many years he has
home songs can finally breathe—the differ- been deeply immersed in the classical avant
ence between CD and LP versions of the "Menu garde as both composer (he's aformer Prix de
Song," for example, is one of those night-and- Rome winner) and performer, his jazz efforts
day contrasts digiphiles love, and rightly so. barely reflect—at least in obvious ways—that
Granted, what little sense of ensemble (it was orientation. They do, however, reflect an unerr-
false anyway) the LP had is gone now, and you ing sense of the long line, particularly evident
don't want to listen to PB&D on headphones— in "Theme for June," in which he constructs
the reverb'll give you whiplash—but other than soaring roullades of notes that alternately sur-
that, there's no contest. For example: Lyrics that prise and fulfill expectation. Riveting, beauti-
I've been trying to figure out for the last six fully sculpted work, indeed.
years are now effortlessly intelligible; subtleties If pianist Brubeck's playing cannot accurately
of emotion are so much more palpable on be described as "swinging," that fact has never
CD—Debra Monk's little half-smiles come diminished my appreciation of his often imagina-
across vocally here, not at all on my old LP, even tive keyboard explorations. Here one finds
when listened for; and "Fisherman's Prayer" liberal helpings of such Brubeck trademarks
sounds like the acappella quartet it is, not atrio as pulsing, stride left hand topped with angular,
whose bassman stepped out for aBallentine. shifting accents, and solos that inexorably build
Icould go on—little discoveries abound in to climaxes of orchestral proportion. Unfor-
every cut—but you've heard enough; highly tunately—as in the midst of "St. Louis Blues" —
recommended. —Richard Lehnert these climaxes sometimes depend more heav-
ily on repetitive banging than on inspirational
heat. The lyrical side of Brubeck's personality
Jazz is revealed at the outset of "St. Louis Blues" and
throughout his brother Howard's pastel-colored
DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET: Moscow Mg&
"Theme for June." While the latter may never
Concord Ja2z CJ-3S3 (LP), CCD-4353 (CD•) Gary Clay-
become ajazz standard, its mix of impressionis-
ton, eng, Russell Gloyd, Carl E Jefferson, prods
DDA/DDD. TIS 42 23, 49 56' tic harmonies, soft-edged funk, and romanti-
cism is entirely winning.
When Dave Brubeck, bass guitarist Chris Bru - The Soviet audience was obviously enjoy-
beck, clarinetist Bill Smith, and drummer ing itself at this concert, and Concord's sound
Randy Jones made their much-publicized re- retrieval provides astrong sense of "being
turn last year to perform at the historic Reagan- there." Despite the metallic clanginess of the
Gorbachev summit, the pianist presented Gor- piano's upper octaves (some of it due to the
bachev with apre-production copy of this CD. instrument itself?), instrumental timbres have
(Yes, we're told that Gorbachev owns aCD generally been captured with admirable verac-
player.) During aconversation with Brubeck ity. When compared to the LP version, the
following the latter trip, he mentioned that overall sound of the CD is also abit on the
when Nancy Reagan leaned over and asked the metallic side. For some listeners, Isuspect, the
Secretary General whether he liked jazz, the CD will sound more immediate. To my ears, the
it-ply was, "I like good jazz, and this is good jazz." tradeoff is areduction in presence and natural-
If that summit recital had anything in com- ness. And don't buy the CD for the "Take Five"
mon with the performances preserved on bonus. It's not one of the more compelling
Moscou,Night, then we can safely assume accounts of what has long been the quartet's
the Soviet leader's taste extends well beyond signature piece. —Gordon Emerson

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MILES DAVIS: The Columbia Years 1955-1985 you say? Most important is "I Thought About
Columbia C5X 45000 (5 LPs), C4K 45000 (4 CDs). Jeff You:' recorded in 1963 at the Antibes Jazz Fes-
Rosen. prod. ADA/ADD. TT 4:14:16 tival. Supported by atrio of Hancock, Carter,
and Williams, Miles takes ablistering, swagger-
CBS is going in big for 5- and 6-disc retrospec- ing solo, followed by amellow, puckish Han-
tive sets these days; in the last couple years cock chorus and adesultory Carter solo (it's
we've had big boxes from Sinatra, Springsteen, easy to forget that, great as he was in '63, Ron
Dylan, and now Miles Davis. Unfortunately, Carter has since improved tremendously, in all
while the Sinatra box brought back into print ways). Miles then returns for amelancholy final
scores of items long unavailable, the Springsteen chorus more in keeping with the tune's lyrics.
set was all new live recordings, and Dylan's Bio- This cut is at least as good as anything on Miles
graph made available, for the first time, two Davis In Europe (nia), from which it was omitted.
well-packed LPs' worth of important, rare tracks, The alternate takes: "Someday My Prince
The Columbia Years 1955-1985 is mighty slim Will Come," with Mobley, Kelly, Chambers, and
pickings in terms of unreleased goodies. Cobb, is little more than half the length of the
Suffice it to say that CBS has not warmed my take that made it on to the LP of the same name,
heartly cockles by releasing such rehashes of and aquick glance at the credits will show why:
already-in-print material as Ballads and Miles no Coltrane. But Davis's solo sounds quite abit
and Coltrane, when there's plenty of stuff in better structured than the one released, though
the can that's never seen the light of US day: it's still tentative. Hank Mobley's tenor solo
Aura, Pangaea, Black Beauty, and the rest of sounds not atenth as intimidated (by Trane?)
the Plugged Nic.kel sessions, for starters. Colum- as on the take we've heard for the past 25 years,
bia Years offers, instead, an admittedly well- and Wynton Kelly's solo is fresher, more adven-
chosen and -organized collection of the basic turous. Except for Coltrane's absence, this
Miles, with apaltry 35 minutes' worth of previ- "Prince" is superior in every way. In "Flamenco
ously unreleased material, three of those four Sketches," from the historic 1959 Kind of Blue
tracks alternate takes. sessions with Coltrane, Adderly, Evans, Cham-
'Spose Ishouldn't gripe Producer/compiler bers, and Cobb, it's Coltrane's turn to sound
Jeff Rosen has done one admirable job of hesitant and short on ideas, while Miles seems
choosing, as he claimed in arecent NPR inter- to force things abit; the ending, however, is less
view, only those 35 tracks on which Miles's peaceful here, more bittersweet. Wayne Shorter's
playing was particularly hot. Listening to all five lazily loping "Pinocchio," from 1967, is taken
LPs in order, one each of "Blues," "Standards," at about half the speed of the version found on
"Originals," "Moods," and "Electric," unequiv- Nefertiti. It's easy to see why this one wasn't
ocally underlines Davis's stature as the single released, lacking as it does any urgency or neces-
most important figure in jazz. Ever. Even I, who sity. Hancock and Williams seem to be trying
own over 100 Davis recordings, sat there stunned to goose things along continually, to no avail,
anew at the sheer volume of definitive, epochal but even this contrast adds no creative tension.
performances contained in these discs: "All Serious Davis collectors have little reason to
Blues," "Blues for Pablo," "Footprints," "My buy this set; "I Thought About You," "Prince,"
Funny Valentine," the long-unavailable "Love and the two brief cuts from Jazz flack, long
For Sale," "Miles," "So What," "Water Babies:' out of print, are hardly enough to justify the
"Masqalero," the frighteningly relentless "Sivad" expense of five LPs, let alone four CDs, and the
from the Live-Evil band, "Honky Tonk," and much-touted digital remastering and the half-
"Miles Runs the Voodoo Down." And much dozen digital remixes are unremarkable, albeit
more. Lakes of ink have been spilled about how tape hiss is much reduced. But for those just
Davis and his uniquely introverted trumpet beginning to interest themselves in Miles, it's
sensibility and deep, deep tone have single- hard to imagine amore well-rounded introduc-
handedly turned the jazz world around not tion: There are as many important perfor-
once, but three or four times. But the truism's mances here as you could expect to find in a
nonetheless true, and The Columbia Years, set of this size, and, at 50+ minutes per LP, 604-
though of course lacking anything recorded minutes per CD, the timings are generous
before 1956 (le, Bebop and Cool), proves it as enough. Beginners sí, fanatics ?la
no other compilation I've heard. Rosen also —Richard Lchnert
turns a neat chronological trick: each disc
manages to have at least one track recorded
later than any on the previous disc; time advances KEITH JARRET!: Dark Intervals
in afive-steps-forward, four-steps-back spiral. Keith Jarrett, piano
But you hard-core collectors have waited ECM 1379 (837 342-1, LP; -2, CD). Kinilo oikaWa, mg.;
Manfred Eicher, prod. DDA/DDD. rr: 58:22
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returned, however briefly, to the form that really was). Simon took alot of flak from those
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improvisations. But with adifference—only South African stars without giving them their
asingle LP this time (instead of two, three, or due. He countered with the fact that although
ten), that LP composed of eight short sections, he had been influenced by some sampler cas-
each with atitle. This is afar cry from unbroken settes from Africa, not only did he give people
piano improvs spanning three LP sides, titled their proper credit, but he recorded Graceland
only with the name and date of the venue. in South Africa, using some of the local talent
In this live concert recorded in Japan in April he'd admired on those samplers. The introduc-
'87, Jarrett's staggering technique remains tion to "Helpless" featured an acappella male
intact, only more finely tuned. The set opens, chorus led by James Shabalala. It was one of the
appropriately enough, with "Opening," in high spots of the album.
which chaos emerges out of order, the last half That chorus, famous throughout Africa for
of the 13-minute piece arumbling exploration their many religious albums, is called Lady-
of the piano's bass strings. "Hymn" follows, smith Black Mambazo. This, their second Ameri-
more redolent of cantonal lamentation than the can album since Graceland, contains 13 songs,
Gurdjieffian chords of Jarrett's 1980 Sacred most sung in Ladysmith's native Zulu. Many
Hymns; "Prayer" might have been abetter tide, deal with faith in God, South Africa's pass laws,
so plain is the playing's supplication. "Amer- dowry negotiations, problems with lions kill-
icana" opens with gospel leached through ing the cattle, jealousy of the group's success,
Copland—pastoral America only is evoked, of all kinds of friendship, and tributes to Hugh
course, not Chicago or even Allentown, PA (Jar- Masekela, Miriam Makeba, Duma Ndiovu, and
rett's home town). "Parallels" are just that, right Paul Simon. The best cut on the album, "Wayi-
and left hands shadowing each other with bambezela (Don't Waste Her Time)," is about
meticulous imprecision, as if cast over rough two kinds of exile: that of migrant workers
ground, in an obstinate, linear rhythm divorced from their homes, and that of South African
from breath's ease. "Fire Dance" builds to a nationals (like Miriam Makeba) who still bring
churning, frenzied climax, the ghost of Villa- South African culture with them wherever they
Lobos hovering near. "Ritual Prayer" is based go. The song is sung, or chanted, in call-and-
in the Near East—I imagine squat Greek Ortho- response. It's amazing in its starkness and com-
dox basses rumbling out the lower harmonies. plexity. There is also awonderful Paul Simon
And "Recitative" could be called "Paradise arrangement of "Amazing Grace," sung in English.
Regained," so inevitably does it build to its cen- The album was recorded on analog recorders
tral, benign apotheosis, then fall back to great at the Hit Factory in NYC, but mixed and ma.stered
but quiet peace. using aMitsubishi X80 Recorder by Bob Lud-
This album of often profound beauty, had wig at Masterdisk, NY. Recording quality is high
it been released by anyone else, would call for (compression is low). Worth auditioning (and
much more acclaim; as it is, it's just another Jar- it's better than Graceland for showing off male
rett solo masterpiece in the tradition of Stair- voices). —Gary S. Krakow
case and The Moth and the Flame. The CD's
DDD sound is some of the most natural solo MINISTRY: The Land of Rape and Honey
Sire 25799- I(LP), -2(CD) Hypo Luxe, Hermes Pan, Eddie
piano sound I've heard (assuming you listen
Echo, prods.; Jourgensen, Barker, Steve Spapperi, Julian
with your ears nearly touching the sound-
Herzfeld, Keith Auerbach, engs. AAA/AAD. T1 40:32
board), entirely without harshness or glare.
But, good as the CD is, the LP is better in the As the companion video clip "Stigmato" leaps
usual ways—deeper, rounder, more full, with up the charts in New York clubland, Sire
greater three-dimensionality. Records calls this "the latest in agro rock ... an
—Richard Lehnert aggressive challenge to smug music industry
norms." Actually, Ministry is two guys from
Chicago, IL (Alain Jourgensen and Paul Barker)
Popular who shed the rest of the band's original mem-
bers after their last album (Tivitcb, 1986) and
LADYSMITH BLACK MAINBAZO: Journey of Dreams
Warner Bros. 25753-1 (LP), -2 (CI)). Russ Titelman,
abruptly changed styles. Known previously for
Joseph Shabalala, prods. ADA/ADD. TM 49:19 light disco pop—"Work for Love" is agood
example—Ministry now sounds like someone
Two years ago, Paul Simon's Graceland yeas the took Big Black, the radical alternative Chicago
rage. Hits were played on the radio. Everybody band who did it first, and treated it to the works

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in aworld-class recording studio. Ministry has, It's hostility you can dance to, and that's a
in fact, burst on the industrial dance rock scene shame, because in aland of rape and honey,
alittle late. It's aparticularly vicious and, one there's alot to be genuinely mad about.
might think, cynically manipulative incarna- —BethJacques
tion of the "let's burn down the cornfield and
the whole damn barn" point of view already JESSE WINCHESTER: Humour Me
exemplified so well by Brit art-noise rockers Sugar Hill SH 1023 (LP), SH-CD- 1023 (CD'). Bd Vorn
Throbbing Gristle and our own Skinny Puppy Dick, mg.; Jesse Winchester, prod. ADA/ADD.
40:34, 52:21'
and Sonic Youth.
Still, if you can relate to naked hostility taken
Last we heard from Jesse was back in '81, when
well over the top (and who among us hasn't Talk Memphis was released—all funk'n'jive
had those days?), this release is extraordinar-
and no songs you could really stick afork in.
ily well-recorded and -produced. Some may I've got no idea what else he's been doing in all
say it's awaste of production dollars to lavish that time, but one thing for sure: Humour Me's
them on the likes of "Stigmata," acheerful boy-
got his best songs since Nothing But A Breeze,
hates-girl paean which features the most posi- way back in '77.
tive line of the whole album: Your best Winchester's long, famous Canadian exile
weapon is the look in your eyes." Equally in protest of the Vietnam War was, unlike that
charming are "Destruction," asoundtrack for of most of his confreres, the result of his pro-
Dance Club in Hell, and "Hizbollah," which found Christian faith. Though that faith has sur-
deploys Middle Eastern tonalities to imply that faced only sporadically in his music ("I Can't
we're all in this together and it stinks. This is Stand Up Alone," "Working in the Vineyard,"
one band that won't play Live Aid or Sun City "I'm Looking For AMiracle"), it permeates vir-
either, if only because their internationalism tually every one of Humour Me's dozen songs.
owes as much to atruly staggering self-absorp- This is not the snarling Old Testament self-
tion as to trendy DJ Mark Kamin's "world righteousness of Dylan, the white-hot zeal of
music" house style, cut with sitars, African nase Aretha, U2's pompous piety, or even the devout
flutes, and Islamic voices ovér the top. smolder of Al Green. No, Winchester's is awry,
Motivated equally as one-in-the-eye for a tested, seasoned faith, as attested in the funkily
former girlfriend, I'm told, and by the primal contemplative "Thanks To You": "Someday up
urge to make money, Ministry's new stance in Glory, I'll weep and tell astory to someone
does, after all, perfectly exemplify the attitude who will smile and say, 'You're amess, but
of the '80s. In the land of rape and honey, you're my child'. .. Iwould take the credit, but
where social ills are coated with fancy sneakers, it's thanks to you."
tabloid TV, and supply-side economics, Minis- There's compassion here, too: "And they just
try's rage—as well as its "where's mine?" can't help themselves, they've given up con-
stance—is perfectly understandable. Yes, it's trol; they hear alittle voice that lives down in
alittle unfocused, more than alittle misogynis- their soul, saying 'Let's us go and find acozy
tic, and just like ateenager in atantrum who's little hell,' and no one tells them 'No,' and they
discovered he can't have it all, after all. just can't help themselves."
These boys are disillusioned, mean, and on Nor is Winchester's Christianity sexless: "I
the make, determined to shake the world until Don't Think You Love Me Anymore" lists all the
it rattles, and the production will certainly do little things—playing footsie, sleeping spoon-
that. It's painstaking, expensive, full of effects, wise— that disappear when love sours.
sampling, squeaks, delay, and reverses borrowed But those are just the words. What Ican't tell
from dub reggae: exciting, hypnotic music you here is how good it all sounds—JW's vel-
underpinned by a relentless backbeat that vety voice, so much like Lyle Lovett's but so
dares you to turn the system up. Don't do it. much more fluid, his languid phrasing, gor-
Produced with Hypo Luxa, Hermes Pan, and geous melodies, and arrangements that manage
Eddie Echo, Ministry wants you to fear for your to sound lush and spare at the same time (with
hi-fi set-up. Hold on to the fear or you will help from sidemen Bela Fleck, Jim Horn, and
quickly find out whether your amplifier clips the amazing Mark O'Connor, among others).
and why you should audition this release The LP's reverb, false as it surely must be, is
through old Cerwin- Vega PAs. The treble is entirely gone on CD. The LP is warmer, lusher,
spilcey, on CD the dynamic range on tracks like by far the more sensual experience, but the CD
"Deity" and "Golden Dawn" shoots from zero includes two songs—"Pushover" and "Love
to the red zone, and the drum machine does Is Fair" —not on the LP (or cassette, for those
not stop. But unlike the socially conscious who care) that I'd surely hate to do without.
nihilism of Ian Dury's "Plaistow Patricia," for Welcome the hell back, Jesse—what took
instance, Ministry's stance is just plain peevish. you so long? —Richard Lehnert

Dynamic Freedom 1).,igned nl Binh in the USA
Present day source material will tax the most capable of

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popping noises. The addition of Spectra Passive Woofer 1
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MANUFACTURERS' COMMENTS
Erratum MN RIM 2-01W/r) é11111(dp) vs 1111(111) a 10 II MI5:
5.1IN S.
Our apologies to Stan Klyne of Klyne Audio Ap
1.1
Arts, Ltd., from whose Manufacturer's Com- 1.1
-------
"----- -
ment on p.180 of the February issue aline was
accidentally dropped. The passage should
15.11
bave read as follows:
21.II
Regarding listening test methods: On several I
25.11
occasions, while describing his sonic percep-
111.111
tions of the SK -6, the reviewer made several
15.11
comparisons to "competing" and "reference"
units, without actually naming those units.
-em u III II ist re .
Adcom GCD-575 CD player
Fig. 1 Effect of AFPC circuit
Editor:
Conceptually, the Adcom GCD-575 was in •010 MUCTS1011 « mew ri NC III 12:S1.14
sue
tended to be the CD player of choice in its price
range with respect to sonic quality, audibly and
measurably superior in resolution, detail, clar-
ity, and ambience retrieval. We were indeed
pleased that Stereopbile concluded from its
-UM
listening tests that we have achieved these Nb
objectives. Yes, stereophiles, one can now

objectively document many of the sonically
identifiable differences among CD players, Fig 2 GCD-575 Phase Response
even though other publications which regu-
larly review CD players still lack the sophisti- etc.), negatively affected the overall sonic per-
cated new instrumentation neceçsary to iden- formance, due to less accurate reading of sig-
tify and quantify these subtle distinctions. nals still in the digital domain and the need for
The drawer mechanism we chose for the greater error correction.
GCD-575 is also used by other companies, and The heavier, costlier drawer mechanisms
has proven to be one of the most reliable on the used in the $1200-$2500 machines with which
market. In fact, none failed in our life- tests the $600 GCD-575 was compared would have
which replicated the equivalent of many years given better shock resistance, but not, in our
of normal home use. opinion, greater reliability...and certainly
Our drawer's function is simply to move the would not have permitted us to keep our tar-
disc in and out of the machine. Once in place, geted price.
the drawer is disengaged and not in the We felt that the best price/performance solu-
mechanical circuit. The mechanism which tion in this instance was acompromise:
takes over, containing the turntable, laser drive, a) employing atightly controlled internal
and other mechanical components, is mounted suspension, and
in ametal housing, suspended by four short- b) suggesting placement of the player on a
travel suspension springs with asymmetrical sturdy, nonresonant surface which will not
resonances and damping. This system gives fast transmit floor vibrations to the player.
recovery from minor shocks and vibration and We have also "deadened" the resonance of
retains the precision of focus between the laser the chassis enclosure by lining the interior with
beam and the disc. alead-impregnated material. Dropping acoin
We found in our research and development flat onto the top cover can demonstrate the
work that alooser, less controlled springing, nonresonant "thud" which results from this
while providing greater absorption of larger unheralded improvement.
shocks (rapping on the cabinet, shaky floors, In his "Follow-Up" measurements, JA iden-

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ADCOM •AKG
ALTEC LANSING Dealer Won't Sell You Equipment
BANG & OLUFSEN In aSealed Box.
BRYSON
CARNEGIE The reason is our pre-sale check out. We open
CHICAGO SPEAKER STANDS
CWD CABINETS
everything that plugs into AC and then run them
DENON for100 hours to obviously, eliminate the bad ones.
KEF •KLIPSCH Then, for those CD players which allow us to, we
LEXICON •LUXMAN adjust all of the D/A converters for their lowest error
MARK LEVINSON and tracking. The same personal care is given to
MARTIN LOGAN
three-head tape decks and turn tables then, you're
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tified one of the main effects of the Adcom standing why it happened. We'll keep you
selectable "AFPC" circuit, but overlooked informed.
another of its aspects; and our reasons for using As you know, tracking ability is determined
them in combination. The second, unidenti- by many factors—the level of CIRC error cor-
fied circuit function is the controlled reduction rection, error-anticipation programs, servo
of separation between the two channels (see operation, etc. In order to avoid what we be-
fig.». This, in conjunction with the Frequency lieve to be audible penalties inherent in some
Contouring noted by JA, attempts to duplicate tracking-enhancement schemes, we have
the way agood moving-coil cartridge responds adopted amore conservative approach that
when playing representative analog discs. The admittedly asks the disc manufacturer to ad-
data from which the AFPC circuit was derived, here to accepted industry limitations for burst
both frequency response and phase, resulted errors, etc. Silly us! We are pleased, however,
from analyses of the actual response of that Sam found the DX-GIO's tracking ability
hundreds of well-regarded phono cartridges. to be far better than CD standards call for.
The use of AFPC should be reserved for D/A linearity, and its consequent effects on
those CDs whose original recordings, either overall sound quality, is amuch more delicate
analog or digital, were made with microphones issue. Ambience is largely amatter of low-level
and techniques originally developed for the musical dynamics. Anon-linear D/A converter
mastering and subsequent playback of analog either expands or compresses low-level signals,
vinyl discs: peaky cardioid microphones, very thus altering those dynamics. As we have not
close pick-up and/or excessive and unnatural yet seen any studies that attempt to correlate
separation. These would be somewhat com- positive and negative nonlinearities with an
pensated for, or made less aurally insulting, by enhanced or reduced perception of ambience,
the "softening" effect of vinyl disc playback: we can only suggest that one type of misalign-
translation losses, vinyl deformation, etc. The ment might be perceived as more desirable
effects of AFPC, we feel, make these excesses than the other. In reality, both are specious and
on a CD more forgivable or, perhaps, less it would be interesting to see efforts to resolve
irritating. the question.
JA says that acommon factor among the John Atkinson's observation that Sam's DX-
machines tested is a"final low-order analog G10 suffered from misaligned D/A converters
reconstruction filter." In fact, the GCD-575 is is, through no fault of his own, not true—
differentiated by the use of an FDNR analog fil- maybe. To explain: When Sam returned his
ter that has virtually zero group delay. The devi- unit, Iasked our technical division to check
ation from zero phase error is less than 0.5° linearity. Due to some quirks in a newly
from 20Hz to 20kHz (see fig.2, actually run on acquired Audio Precision test instrument, its
the same GCD- 575 sent to Stereopbile for accompanying Compaq microcomputer, and
tests). This phase-error performance is, to the (yes) some initial ignorance on our part, we
best of our knowledge, unsurpassed by any CD "identified" supposed nonlinearities that might
player presently available, regardless of price, have accounted for some of the things Sam
and represents asignificant innovation in the heard. Itold Sam. He told John. And, as it turns
price category of the GCD-575. out, we're all wrong. What we identified was
C. Victor Campos actually acomputer RAM shortage that gave us
Adcom spurious test results. Unfortunately, we didn't
discover the procedural error until we had pur-
Onkyo DX-G10 CD player posely twiddled with the alignment pots in
Editor: an attempt to find out what was (or was not)
Sam unit, which is in my office as Iwrite going on. So, John, flip acoin—heads, it was
this, has anarchistically refused to exhibit the (aligned); tails, it wasn't.
loading glitch he mentioned even though I've We appreciate Sam's enthusiasm for the DX-
spent adecent part of the last four days force- GIO's dynamic capabilities. There is really no
feeding it every disc Icould lay my hands on. magic here—the key is power supply and there
Maybe it likes our (musical) veggies better? are no cheap substitutes for adequate trans-
Once we induce arecurrence of its "digital formers, adequate isolation and filter caps, etc
indigestion," we'll be much closer to under- We're also happy to see the DX-G10 helping

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198 Mcreophile, March 1989

lay waste to the baseless myth that disc players couldn't get out of the phono stage would be
are incapable of proper soundstap,ing. Circuit corictttd for in the high level. The only sources
topology and vibration damping (read "chassis going directly through the high-level stage
design") contribute here. would be tuner and tape, and these weren't
As you know, we feel that "shifting bit" deemed to be important sources. As you have
architectures have deleterious effects on musi- noted, the very best of the most recent gener-
cal reproduction. Actually, it isn't the bit shifting ation of preamplifiers' high-level stages are
itself but the consequent analog-domain gain sufficiently good that they help rather than hurt
riding that results in Sam's well-described the sound of the DS Pre. We recommend the
unease at hearing "something going on" DS Pre to owners of all but the latest, most
behind the music. That's why we chose linear advanced preamps; for those who already own
processing for the DX-G10—simpler is better. astate-of-the-art preamp, we recommend the
There are two final points. DS Pro.
While we agree with Stereophile that any You pointed out that we have not fitted an
manufacturer who addresses the high end has optical digital in or out device to the DS Pre. We
an obligation to provide products whose unit- feel that the standard fiberoptical transmit-
to-unit performance satisfies that market, we ter/receiver adopted by the major Japanese
are somewhat suspicious of what some readers manufacturers (made by Tbshiba) is insufficient
may latch on to as the "universal measurement in bandwidth for a 1.8MHz Manchester-en-
of the month." Measurements by themselves coded squarewave. In fact, our experiments
may be misleading; the positive correlation have found that the sound of the optical input
between measurement and auditory percep- changes as one moves or bends the fiberoptic
tion is of real value. We are also concerned, as link. Arecent Japanese-language paper authored
we know you are, that what comes home from by one of Pioneer's engineers noted this prob-
adealer's stockroom bears more than apass- lem and suggested aduty-cycle correction cir-
ing resemblance to the unit that prompted cuit as asolution. We have found that this cir-
either praise or criticism in the pages of amag- cuit does indeed handle 90% of the problem.
azine. Thank you. Unfortunately, the 10% of the problem that
Len Schneider remains is clearly audible. The best solution is
National Product/Advertising Mgr., Onkyo to use fiberoptics of sufficient bandwidth to
Theta DS Pre properly pass the digital signal, such as those
DIA preamplifier made by Hewlett-Packard or AT&T. Since there
Editor: is no agreed standard to use these, we choose
Thank you! to ignore aless-than-optimal input.
We appreciate the tremendous amount of Regarding pre-emphasized CDs: We admit
time and attention you have lavished on the to an oversight in earlier units in the de-empha-
Theta DS Pre. As well as coming to understand sis circuit. Aresistor value was off by 200 ohms.
Theta's sonic advantages and varied applica- Since very few of the discs we were using (5 out
tions, you have helped us realize some things of 1500) during design were pre-emphasized,
we weren't aware of before. the original error was not detected until re-
The mysterious "ticking" sound you experi- cently, as only an emphasized disc activates the
enced has only been found to occur very near circuit where the error lay. This has been cor-
government installations. RF filtering in all but rected as of serial number 885101. Naturally,
the earliest units eliminates that problem. (We anyone owning an earlier unit is welcome to
did not set out to build adetection device for send it in for updating, free of charge. Likewise,
top-secret military installations. As it is, the gov- of course, units that tick.
ernment won't let us sell to Russia or Cuba Lastly, we are glad you brought up the need
because of the Theta's computing capability, for agood AID converter. We are at work on an
so thanks for the tip!)
AID converter and digital signal processor con-
Also, regarding preamps: When we first taining the same technology as the DS Pre/Pro.
designed the DS Pre, the high-level stages of We hope to be out with it by summer for the
even the best analog preamps were quite col- professional audio market.
ored, as they were designed to be symbiotic Neil Sinclair, Mike Moffat
with their phono stages. Flaws that the designer Theta Digital

e-Sensible Hi-End Audio b.
If You Are Sensible About Your Audio Needs

A well matched $2500-$7500 system can render a magic
sense of music very similar to a $24,000 system.
Call Us! In MA 800-422-4939 — Others (508) 996-5454
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Inouye line conditioner selves. The reactance of the inductors used
Editor: produces less than 0.6V at 15A. Each 0.01µF
Thank you for JA's detailed appraisal of the capacitor has areactance that produces acur-
SPLC. Ironically, our development of the SPLC rent of less than 0.5mA at 120V.
dates back to 1984. At that time our feelings We would like to mention that, similar to the
were that there would not be aconsumer appli- burn-in period necessary for speaker/inter-
cation for such adevice. Perhaps power-line connect cable, so, too, the SPLC requires afew
conditioning has now come of age. hours of operation to fully benefit from its
Due to the close proximity of apower sub- design. Brian'. Inouye
station and airfield to our engineering facility, President, Artech Electronics, Ltd.
an elaborate power-line conditioner was an
absolute necessity. Our SPLC is acompilation Audioquest 404i-L cartridge
of various noise- and transient-suppression Editor:
techniques. Thank you for TJN's consideration of the AQ
Power lines act as transmission lines, not 404i-L cartridge. Ijust warn to add alittle back-
only carrying the 60Hz power that they were ground.
designed for, but also noise in the form of RE As of November 1988, both output levels
Like an antenna, apower line has the ability to (404i-MH/1.4mV and 404i-L/0.5mV) use an
radiate and absorb EMI, distributing it through FPC (Functionally Perfect Copper) coil. This
the power grid. highly refined copper has single crystals over
All noise that is generated by synchronous amile long in this size strand. This means the
devices is harmonically related to the line fre- coils are only one crystal long. The FPC re-
quency and can easily extend through the spec- places the LC-OFC that was in the sample
trum to many Megahertz. Even line voltage that reviewed. This does not make it adifferent car-
appears to be clean on an oscilloscope may tridge. It is the same cartridge with alittle more
contain harmonics if the sinewave has been information, alittle more separation, and a
smoothly distorted in shape. smoother, silkier top end. In the "L" model it
Conventional filters such as Chebyshev or is simply awelcome refinement; in the "MH"
Butterworth are designed to give significant model the FPC replaces an OFHC coil. This is
attenuation at frequencies close to those which amajor difference that brings the absolute per-
are least attenuated. These produce optimum formance of the "MH" to within a hair's
performance when their ports are terminated breadth of the "12: Ibelieve that today's "MH"
at aspecific impedance. Any deviation from will yield better results than the "L" used
this will cause adegradation in the phase and through any pre-preamp, especially aseparate
amplitude response of the filter. The SPLC was unit, but also abuilt-in unit. However, apre-
designed to accept avariety of load imped- amp that has sufficient gain in its phono stage
ances without adversely affecting its sonic to accommodate 0.5mV (many pre-amps today)
virtues. should be used with the "L" version of the 404i.
In order to halt the propagation of high- The AQ 404i requires an average of 10 hours'
frequency interference, abalanced low-pass playing to be broken in. The effect of this
filter is used in the line between the power break-in can be very dramatic. Anyone pur-
source and the equipment being powered. The chasing a404 should not listen seriously until
SPLC's ability to attenuate signals above its cut- after this break-in period.
off frequency makes it useful in reducing the William E. Low
transfer of noise from the source to the load, Audioquest
as well as from the load back into the lines. This
was the rationale behind the dual power-line Airtangent tonearm
conditioner configuration, insuring absolute Editor:
isolation between each pair of outlets. Thanks, Amis Balgalvis and Stereophile, for an
Since the SPLC does not begin to show any excellent review of the Airtangent tonearm in
significant attenuation until the multi-kilohertz the February issue. The review is indeed
range, there is virtually no reactance at line fre- detailed, and covers every aspect of the arm,
quencies. The only loss exhibited at 60Hz leaving me with little to clarify.
would be the windage of the inductors them- The difficulty with connecting the wires in

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202 tereophile, March 1989

the termination box is now well-known. The increase its voltage output from 20W to 100W
following changes have been made to solve operation. Also, by delaying the signal in the
that: digital domain, there is no loss of signal in-
•The silver signal-wires from the armbase to tegrity.
the termination box have been increased in Ibelieve that you will agree that this is more
length, from 14" to 24". These wires are now than just the refinement of putting the DAC fur-
pre-soldered to the Tiffany connectors. ther down the line. This truly represents a
• The six wires for the armlift are now breakthrough in amplification design.
equipped with miniature connectors. And this is just the beginning ...
•Azimuth adjustment should be done with the Karl Bearnarth
armtube locking-screw "half open" so that the Assistant General Manager
friction of the clamp enables the user to fine- JVC High Fidelity Division
adjust.
•The special Litz wire referred to is Teflon - DNM Solid -Core speaker cable
coated, multi-strand silver wire made for us by Editor:
Siltech in Holland. Many different wires were Iwould like to reply to Dick Olsher's review of
tested during the years of the Airtangent's loudspeaker cables in the July 1988 issue of Ste-
development, and these proved the most reopbile (Vol.11 No.7). Iregret that Iam behind
enjoyable. all the other replies, but your advance copy
Leif Haggmark inviting comment was not passed on to me and
Airtangent/Audionord, Sweden so my first reading of the review was on receipt
of the magazine.
JVC TD -V711 cassette deck Some of the explanatory background given
Editor: in the review is informative, and Iimagine it
In reading "Pure Gold" in the November 1988 will be of interest to those of your readers who
issue, Iwas pleased to see the well-deserved have not delved deeply into cables before.
praise given to the JVC TD-V711 rucsente deck. However, as afull-blown cable review it disap-
However, Iwas somewhat disconcerted with pointed me because it did not cover the sub-
the comment that our digital amplifier (AX-Z911) jective descriptions as well as earlier Martin
simply had aD/A converter "stuffed" in it. I Colloms writings in Hi-Fi News, and the cre-
believe that there is amisunderstanding here dence given to the subject of cable-stranding
that deserves some explanation on our part. golden ratios was extraordinary. By compar-
Although the AX-Z911 does have aD/A con- ison, these theories make the solid-core and
verter built in, it is done so with apurpose—to Peter Belt controversies seem like established,
operate in class-A up to 100Wpc! That's cor- scientific fact.
rect, 100W of class-A power in an $1100, 44- The review comments on the DNM Solid
lb box. Here's how it works. Core Cable show areal lack of understanding
When utilizing any of the digital inputs on about the cable's characteristics and construc-
the AX-Z911, the digital signal is split into two tion. Despite his comments about the spacing
signals identical to the original. The first sig- of the send and return conductors, Dick has
nal, called the prediction signal, is forwarded not noted that the constancy of this spacing
to alogic circuit which compares the input along the cable length might be important. He
level and volume setting. If it determines that mentions that conductor cross-section, strand-
the output will require more than 20W, asig- ing, and the conductor spacing could all have
nal is sent to the variable voltage power sup- eddy-current implications, but his imagination
ply to increase its voltage to the amplification does not go beyond the resistance conse-
block (at idle, the amp operates at 20W class-A, quences of this. If eddy currents only caused
but when the source demands, it can operate resistance problems, things would be so much
at 100W class-A). The other digital signal is for- simpler and your review of cables probably
warded to adigital storage circuit which delays would not be necessary!
the signal 150ms. It is then sent to aD/A con- Isaw aspark of light in the review when Dick
verter, and finally to the amplifying stage. talked about fat cables and their sonic charac-
By delaying the signal 150ms, the variable teristics, but this did not last long. The prob-
voltage power supply has ample time to lems he encountered probably come from the

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partnering equipment he used. For example, sive production processes. Our choice of wire
he noticed the "nice sense of focus and the is high-purity, oxygen-free annealed copper—
grainy and coarse treble." This is exactly what the same as that used in some of the cables that
afield-correct cable shows in asystem where Dick liked. He suggests variation in copper
everything else has been assembled with atotal cross-section, but how much scope can there
disregard for field principles. be for any variation in the cross-section of asin-
We have carried out trials on twisted, insu- gle 22-gauge round conductor in comparison,
lated, multiple solid cores of the type liked in for example, with the inevitable variation in a
Dick's review. There is nothing special about stranded cable cross-section? Does Dick seri-
how they perform—in fact, quite the reverse: ously think we would market acable without
they all show the same tendency to soften and checking the effect of different surface finishes
round. The lack of defined spacing between on the copper?
the send and return conductors gives afalse DNM solid-core cable has now been avail-
bass warmth to the program signal which may able for nearly three years. Even before this,
be liked in the short term, but is ultimately DNM Design began examining the implications
fatiguing and devoid of vibrancy. These defi- of "the field-effect" approach on all parts of
ciencies stand out like sore thumbs on field- the audio system, including the amplifiers. It
corrected amplifiers. On signal like massed is therefore alittle ridiculous for Dick to dis-
voice there is an intriguing but unnatural miss our product as if the basic idea was right
enlarging and spreading of the image. but we missed out on the details.
The electronics are like the cables—the Even the results with the two different types
heavier they are constructed, the harder they of speaker suggest that Dick's conclusions
will fall. Smaller, lighter, and simpler amplifiers about the cable are, at best, unreliable. The
—even budget ones—generally perform well recommendation to use only short runs con-
with solid-core cable. In other words, the cable flicts totally with our general recommendation
is behaving in what we would describe as acor- to use 3meters or more There is agood reason
rect way. for this too—if only Dick had asked!
DNM cable is produced from the finest. Denis Morecroft
quality materials using one of the most expen- DNM Design, England
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Musical Images of Kentucky Almas HiFi Stereo
6700 Sycamore Woods Dr Millburn Lake Grove 236 E Post Rd
395 E Maple
Professional Audio Audio Den Ltd Lyric Hi Fi
Sound Gallery Dearborn
Consultants Smith Haven Plaza 146 E Post Rd
9916 Linn Station Rd Almas HiFi Stereo 182 Essex St 2021 Nesconset Hwy
15031 Michigan Ave Woodbury
LOUISIANA Morristown Latham Audio Breakthroughs
East Lansing Sight and Sound Auto-Sound Plus
Baton Rouge Jemstone Turnberry Commons
Art Colleys 60 Speedwell Ave 947-949 Troy-Schenecta
325 Grove Street 'Y Woodside
Audio Specialties South Street Stereo Clark Music in Albany
Farmington Hills Leonard Audio
711 Jefferson Hwy 20 South St 1075 Troy-Schenectady 69-34 51st Ave
Almas HiFi Stereo
Metairie 29401 Orchard Lake Rd Northfield Liverpool
Audio Resource Sound Inc Audio Excellence
3133 Edenborn Ave Ferndale 900 Tilton Rd 4974 Alexis Dr
JAM Hi -Fi Specialists NORTH CAROLINA
New Orleans N. Plainfield Lynbrook
22346 Woodward Ave
Oliver's Stereo City American Audiophile Cary
112 University PI Grand Rapids 950 Highway 22E 373 Sunrise Hwy Advanced Audio
Spectrum Electronics 1263 Kildaire Farm Rd
Tower Records Paramus Mamaroneck
2019 Eastern Ave SE
408 N Peters St Leonard Radio Definitive Hi Fi Charlotte
Lansing 160 Route 17 N 154 E Boston Post Rd Higher Fidelity
Wilson Audio Great Lakes Audio
8001 Maple St Ridgewood Manhasset 1620 S Boulevard
502 N Harrison
Sounding Board Audio Breakthrough Sound Systems
MARYLAND Muskegon 75 Franklin Ave 1534 Northern BI 3748 E Independence
Stereo Showcase
Baltimore Sea Girt Merrick Durham
3100 Hensy
Soundscape Monmouth Stereo Performance Audio Audio Visions
406 W Cold Spring Ln Royal Oak 2133 Hwy 35 2064 Sunrise Hwy 4600 Chapel Hill Rd
Audio Dimensions
Ellicott City Shrewsbury Mount Kisco Hendersonville
4128 N Woodward Ave
Gramaphone Ltd Monmouth Stereo Fox and Sutherland Pro Sound
9005 Chevrolet Saginaw 450 Hwy 35 15 S Mogen Ave 1322 Asheville
The Listening Room
Frederick Tom's River Manuel Raleigh
1305 Court S'
Audio Ceu Rands Camera and Hi Fi Eardrum Audio Video Audio Advice
180 Stoneybrook CI MINNESOTA 1841 Hooper Ave 148 E Route 59 3532 Wade Ave
Laurel Minneapolis Trenton New York City Wilmington
Needle in aHaystack Audio Perfection Hais Stereo Audio Breakthroughs Atlantic Audio
14270 Baltimore Ave 7401 Lyndale Ave S Lake Lawrence Plaza 199 Amsterdam Ave 4127 Oleander Dr
Stereophile, March 1989 20r)

OHIO Selinsgrove VERMONT ALBERTA Great American Sound
Stereo Shoppe Burlington Calgary 402 Queen St W
Cincinnati
Pete's News Shop 19 N Market St City Stereo KW Audio Great National Sound
308 Ludlow Ave South Hampton 207 College St 344 17th Ave SW 615 Queen St W
Stereo Lab Classic Car- Tunes S. Burlington Loyagy Sound High End Audio
11419 Princeton Rd 1029 Street Rd Audio Den 1107 8th St SW 22158 Queen St E
4582 Montgomery PUERTO RICO 100 Dorset St Edmonton Ring Audio
Columbus Rio Piedras Audio Ark 553 Queen St W
VIRGINIA
Custom Stereo Electronics On Top Audio 10746A 124th St Toronto Home
Alexandria
1391 S Hamilton Rd 332-B Ave Jesus 1Pinern Excalibur Harold's Stereo of Audiophile
Needle in aHaystack 323 S Washington 16612 109th Ave 150 Dundas St W
RHODE ISLAND 9024 5101 Ave
2384 Wellesley Ln Bailey's Crossroads Waterloo
Providence
Progressive Audio Audio Buys Sound Stage
Ocean State Audio BRITISH COLUMBIA
1764 N High St 5177 Leesburg Pike 56 Regina St N
304 Thayer St Vancouver
Dublin Skyline Mall Whitby
Audio Encounters SOUTH CAROLINA Big Bird Audio Visual Whitby Audio
Charlottesville 740 Marine Dr
4271 W Dublin Columbia Preferred Sound 223 Brock St S
Granville Rd Sound Advice Music Works Windsor
309 E Water St
Camelot Music 2821 Ashland Rd 4740 Main St
Danville Better Audio
6313 Sawmill Rd Greenville Straight Gain Electronics 106 Eugenie St W
Aeolian Products &Svcs
Fairborn American Audio 2220 W Broadway Essex Audio Consultants
215 Main St
Audio Etcetera 597 Haywood Rd The Sound Room 322 Pelissier
Fredericksburg
2626 Col Glen Hwy Operation Audio 2803 W Broadway
Contemporary Sounds QUEBEC
Findlay 437 N Pleasantburg Dr 1236 Jefferson Davis Hwy Victoria
Sweet Thunder Records Ste-Foy
House of Hindenach Sound Source Richmond
575 Johnson St Rotac Electronics
229 N Main St 2516 E North St Audio Ad 2873 Ch Ste-Foy
Heath West Columbia 2215 Broad St MANITOBA
Threshold Audio Upstairs Audio Virginia Audio
409 S 22nd St 746 Harden St Winnipeg AUSTRALIA
7801 West Broad St Creative Aoqio
Lakewood TENNESSEE Roanoke National Distributor
214 Osborne St S
Play It Again Sam Audiotronics Thornbury, Victoria
Memphis
12611 Madison Ave 4235 Electric Rd NEW BRUNSWICK Audio OImports
Underground Sound
Miamisburg 2125 Central Ave Springfield Fredricton 649 Burwood Rd
Stereo Showcase Needle in aHaystack Hawthorn 3122
Nashville Magic Forest Music Store
Prestige Plaza 5 Springrieid Mall 546 Queen St
Cumberland Audio
Sandusky 4013 Hillsboro Rd Virginia Beach DENMARK
Audio Force Digital Sound. Inc ONTARIO National Distributor
Nicholson's Stereo
521 E Perkins Ave 6519 College Park SO Brampton
115 19th Ave S Graestad
Toledo Eastmen Audio Matrix
Tower Books WASHINGTON
Audio Center 2958 Queen St E Bylyngen 4. Blistrup
2400 West End Ave Bellingham
1546 Alexis Rd Chatham
Landing Discs 8Tapes Copenhagen
Jamsesons Stereo TEXAS Absolute Sound
1307 Ilth St Fona
5431 Monroe Amarillo 425 Clair St Ostergade 47
Sound Systems Ltd Bellevue
University Heights Guelph Hi -Fi Entusiasten
2502 Paramount Hawthorne Stereo
Atlantis Home Guelph Hi Fi Tagensvei 162
13107 Northup Way
Entertainment Systems Austin 5Speedvale Ave E
Kennewick KT Radio
2220 Warrensville Rd Audio File Hamilton
3918 W. Clearwater Vesterbrogade 179- 181
9041 Research BI Globe Audio
OKLAHOMA Viborg
Beaumont Seattle 552 1
/ Upper James St
2
Tulsa Definitive Audio Frydendahl Hi -Fi
John Goodyear Audio Globe Discount
K- Labs Audio 6017 Roosevelt Way NE Sot Mathiasgade 72
229 Dowlen 217 King St E
2806 S Harvard Spokane KT Radio
Dallas Kingston Norregade 19-21
OREGON Crystal Clear Audio Hals Stereo
House of Sounds Aarhus
Portland 5330 Longview W 313 Sprague Ave
277 Princess St Cilia Hi- Fi
Hawthorne Stereo Omni Sound Tacoma
Vern Napier Camera Ny Munkegade 65
1428 SE 36th St 4833 Keller Springs Stereo Shoppe 02
333 Princess St KT Radio
11007 Bridgeport Way SW
PENNSYLVANIA Preston Trail Audio
Milton M P Bruunsgade 36
17390 Preston Rd 0320 Walla Walla
Butler Sound Man
El Paso Tiger Todd Productions
Audiophile Accessories 629 Main SI E
Soundquest Inc 1509 E Isaacs FINLAND
119 E Wayne S1 Ottawa
6800 Gateway E 1D WEST VIRGINIA National Distributor
Camp Hill Distinctive Audio
Garland Morgantown 903 Carling Ave Oslo 1, Norway
3300 Simpson Ferry Rd
MJM Audio Sound Investments Inc Audio Import
Harrisburg Euphonies
4125 Broadway 467 High St Box 9193 Vaterland
HI-FI House 687 Bank St
3352 Paxton St Houston Saros
WISCONSIN HONG KONG
Esoteric Ear 132 Bank St
Hermitage Eau Claire
4230 Glenchase Lane Aeroplax Limited
Sounds Good To Me Elite Audio Stereo Trading Post Am 201 Canton House
2481 E State St Odessa 242' Bank St
1498 S Hastings Way 54-56 Queen's Rd Central
Harold's Electronics
Hershey Glendale Peterborough The Sound Chamber
2809 Andrews Hwy
Stereo Barn Sound Investments Ltd The Audio Room
San Antonio Suite 1001. Dina House
251 W Chocolate Ave 2500 W Silver Spring Dr 300 George St N 11 Duddell St
Bill Case Sound
Philadelphia Wisconsin Rapids Richmond Hill
4319 Medical Dr 0106
All That Jazz Salon IAudio Linear Sound
617 S 24th SI Concert Sound 10176 Yonge St ICELAND
2551 8th St S
71034 Blanco Rd National Distributor
Chestnut Hill Audio Thornhill
149 N 3rd UTAH Stereo Factory 125 Reykjavik
Discovery Discs Ogden 7616 Yonge St Stews HF. S Danielsson
3417 Spruce St The Hi Fi Shop Toronto Skulagata 61
Tower Records 2236 Washington BI Audio Empire
Classical Annex Salt Lake City CANADA 1011 Albion Rd ITALY
537 South St Audition Audio National Distributor Classic Audio Nat onal Distributor
Pittsburgh 2144 Highland Dr Fenwick, Ontario 1894 Lawrence Ave E Lucca. 55100
Monks Audio Le Disque Ruehle Marketing Executive Stereo Sound and Music
2883 W Liberty Ave 2146 S Highland Dr 850 Roland Rd 896 Queen StW Via Mazzarosa 125

JAPAN Lugano
National Distributor Musicdoor
Suma-Ku, Kobe
Write
Ouarhere Maghetti
Thun
AUDIOPHILE PRODUCTS
3-6-1 Sekimon-Cho Aucholechnik Lulu
Frutigenstrase 61b
BY A&R CAMBRIDGE
RCAM
NETHERLANDS
Zurich
National Distributor Audio Designer
2611 RV Delft 8424 Embrach
Tannoy Netherlands
Ezelsveldlaan 52 TAIWAN
Amsterdam
RAF W IStereo
National Distributor Bringing music to your ear
Taipei
Riinstraat 142-150 Tartu Electronics
Shmmgabel— H Ineichen Chung Ching S Rd
um "City Mart .'
THAILAND
NEW ZEALAND
National Distributor Bangkok
Focal (Thailand)
Retone, Wellington
388 U Chareon Village
DR Bunton Ltd Rachada Rd
3Sydney St Huay•Kwang UK 10310
NORWAY
National Distributor UNITED KINGDOM
Oslo National Distributor
Area Import Ltd Wilstead, Bedford
Box 9193 Vaterland Moth Marketing
10 Dane Lane
SINGAPORE Newstand Distributor
National Distributor Periodicals in Particular
Flair System 1Prince of Wales Passage
B1-03,04 Katong Peoples Hampstead Rd Integrated Amplifiers
Complex
112 E Coast Rd
Glasgow G2 •Tuners •Compact Disc
Music Room
221 St Vincent St Players •Outboard Dto A
SPAIN
National Distributor
London
Audio T
Converters •Phono
Valencia 190 West End Ln Cartridges •Loudspeakers.
Sure Audio Elite Douglas Brady hir Fi
Padre Julie. 22 18 Monmouth St Cad or write for your nearest dealer
Covent Garden
SWEDEN
Leisuresound Ltd
26 New Cavendish St
Oslo 1. Norway
Sound Information
Audio Import
13 St John's Hill
Box 9193 Vaterlann
Manchester
SWITZERLAND
Basel
Music Room
50 Bridge St
Reading Berks
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im City Mart' . Dealers, customers, reviewers and
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Bern Audio International manufacturers have all been raving about
Klingler Hi-Fr Gonzenheimer Str 2b the new Kimber Silver cables. We can
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Dateline Equipment Musical •Accurate •Dynamic •Flexible •Statile
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Cost effective cables
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Interconnect Cables
KC-1 Venn, meter pair
The original specialists in repair/re- KCAG $350/ meter pair
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Stercophilc. March 1989

'USED EQUIPMENT
SOUNDS BETTER!
Many experts agree that components sound better after they are "broken in."
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See Our Equipment List at the Beginning of Audio Magazine's Classifieds.
Arrogance
Pays.
See, nothing we sell has aplace on our shelves just because the designer
is apal of ours. Manufacturers know our attitude is "we don't need anybody
more than they need us". Why? Because if what they make can't earn your
business, we're out of business! So, when you see equipment in our store,
you can be sure we believe in its intrinsic value and musical fidelity.
Otherwise, it'd be gone! For you, we're tough bananas. Visit soon.
AUD
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Everybody's favorite rogue hi-fi store.
IO
- - - - - 1060 Massachusetts Avenue

Arlington, MA 02174 617/648-4434

212
AUDIO MART
RATES: Private, $.60 per word, $10 minimum on phone-in ads; Commercial, $1.75 per word, $70 minimum
on all commercial ads. PAYMENT: All classified ads must be prepaid with order. Phone-in ads are credit card
only: Master Charge, VISA, American Express. MAIL TO: Stereophile, Classified Ad Department, P.O. Box
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FOR SALE GRADO 112, new purchase Dec 23 '88, less than half
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Motif MS100, $2300; MC7, $2500; few hours use. chase receipt, 5330. (813)988-3399.
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SAN DIEGO AREA: Merlin Signature speakers (Cardas -
(501)32/ -1190.
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Audio Archly«, (619)455-6326. improvements and have been well-accepted by serious
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5200(N); Kindel PLS-A/pr, $1745(D), +Purist LT/pr, $3 shipping. Discount on additional pairs. Other
5555(D); MFA Systems Magus-A, 5625(D); Spica Ange- lengths available. Stewart G. Grand, 3808 Westview
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Sumiko HS-I2 Headshells, 520(N). Greenfield Equip-
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AUDIO BEST: LA, ORANGE, SAN BERNARDINO,
California. Hot components: Celestion SL700, TARA SPECTRAL DMA50, factory checked, $2100. Maranta
Lab, Counterpoint SA3000, PS4.6, Audible Illusions 94 CD player, $1200. Superphon Dual Mono Revela-
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Acoustat Spectra, Spica Angelus, Beyer, Well- ES1, Merrill mod. PT5 Audioquest arm, Grado TLZ,
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B&K, Superphon, Music Reference, Palantir, Spectrum, height, $400. Crosby grilles, 5150. 10' piece Shotgun
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SPACE AND TIME PHASE II speaker cable, DNM solid- FOR SALE: COMMCT DISC PLAYERS-Yamaha 18-bit
cote interconnects, custom terminations. Superphon CDX-1100, $550. Nakamichi OMS-7/d1, $900. CR-7 Cas-
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215
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211
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Stereophile. March 1989

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in Central Indiana, it's. WHAT PRICE
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LONG ISLAND: Aural Symphonies, B&K, Audible Illusion ELECTRON TUBE SALE Matched pain, 12AX7. I2BH7,
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HEAR YOUR SYSTEM SOUND OFT, 12" single imports.
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All the best.

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201 744 0600 401 N. Michigan
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HIGH END AUDIO

IN CENTRAL PA
entrai PA's high end audio shop
for the discriminating listener. — DB SYSTEMS
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Manufacturers of precision audio
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CIC PO. Box 460, Rindge Center,
SHOPPE New Hampshire 03461. Telephone
(603) 899-5121, Fax (603) 899-6415.
21 N Merkel St. Sehnuenor. PA •717 374 0150
220 Stereophilc. March 1989

HYBRID 70 FET DRIVER BOARD updates Dv naco KLYNE SK4 with line amps, $1500; VP1 Mk.11/SME "B-pe
Stereo 70 to latest audiophile standards. Delivers the IV, $1500; B&K mono amps with Sound Unlimited
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competitive prices. Serving mid-north Indiana and artas
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without representation. Stereo Consultants Lafqveng
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IN. Phone bows 3-10pm ESE Mon.-Sat. (317)474-9004
ATTENTION AUDIOPHILES! A wide variety of audi- or (317)447-0782.
ophile products are available to Michigan residents
ARC D160 with Gold Arro tubes, $2100; Celestion SL600
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MICHIGAN RESIDENTS TAKE NCITE! Ut cam: Thresh- '*ruas cartridge, $995. Denon DL305 cartridge, $185.
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Upstate New York's Exclusive

MARK LEVINSON DEALER
PHONE
Choose from completely developed
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IN
YOUR
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(716) 442-6050
Mon-Fri Noon-9
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Sat. 10-5 MCNISA/AMEX/DIS (505) 982-2366
Stereephile, March 1989

Bring the Symphony Home
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Reterence Recordings * Audiophile
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Mon Iue% Wed thur Fri Sat Sun /0001 CUSTI11111

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RCA LSC SHADED DOGS, Mercuries 90,000, New WANTED
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07110. CASH PAID FOR USED AUDIO EQl'IPMENT. We buy
and sell by phone, paying over blue book prices. The
TEST YOUR CD PLAYER with the criticrdly acclaimed Stereo eading Outlet, 320 Old }Grit Rd...Jenkintown,
Pierre Verany test dies: Compact Test (one disc), 817; PA 19046. Call for highest quote. (215)886-1650.
Digital Test (two discs), 834. Details and cata-
log of audio equipment and accessories: DB Systems, WANTED: ABSOLUTELY MINT CONDITION LUXMAN
T-110 FM tuner. Contact Frank after 5pm ASA!?
Main Street, Rindge, NH 03461. (603)899-5121.
(2151855-4181. Will pay top dollar!
JOIN THE BOSTON AUDIO SOCIETY, receive the
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after Gpm CS7:
APOGEE CALIPERS, 2years old, like-new condition,

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B&K, CRAMOLIN, KIMBER Kahle, Audiolab, Kevek,

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INTRODUCING
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Dept S. 1925 SAassachusatla Avenue.
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P.O. Box 330101, San Francisco, CA 94133
M usical Marvels The SME V has established a worldwide reputation as the

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Stercophile. March 1989

223
°ago evancements
P.O. Box 15, Verona, NJ 07044
Tel: 201-857-1422
FAX: 201-633-0172
Rare Records Ltd.
OUT OF EUROPE
We buy and sell
Denmark
MORCH tonearms
LP vinyl records
France
LECTRON vacuum tube electronics
Collections from 10-100,000 wanted
Switzerland
Mail orders accepted SRT BOLERO loudspeakers
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G&A Rare Records, Ltd. KLIMO vacuum tube electronics
139 West 72nd Street LPs S CDs
New York, NY 10023 Audio/Stereoplay. Charlin. Edition Open Window.
Kiku. Odin, das Ohr
(Between Broadway and
Columbus Ave.)
212 877-5020 extending the frontiers of audio

Dealer inquiries invited ,
N. Illinois and S. Wisconsin's

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•
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TO THE DISCERNING LISTENER: Boston Acoustics •Carver
• State of the Art room Counterpoint •Denon
• State of the Wallet room Dual •Kyocera •Lazarus
Linn •Magnasphere
Mission •Monster •NAD
THRESHOLD MIRAGE FORTE
APOGEE VTL SYSTEMDEK Onkyo •Paradigm
ROTEL BRASFIELD PARADOX Soundstream
CARDAS GRADO WTT •
In House Service of all Brands
1937 W 111h Street, Suite G Custom Home & Auto Installation

Upland, California 91786
ABSOLUTE AUDIO
714) 982-8110 4227 MARAY DRIVE
ROCKFORD. IL 61107
Oft ttie O Frwy where Los Angeles
and San Bernaro,no courtes meet 815-395-1000
Stcreophi1e, March 1989

THE STEREOPHILE ADVERTISING STANDARDS
Advertising published in Stereophile is accepted on the premise that the merchandise and services as
offered are accurately described, and are available to customers at the advertised price Advertising that
does not conform to these standards or that is deceptive or misleading is never knowingly accepted.
If any Stereophile reader encounters noncompliance with these standards please write: Nelson &
Associates, 62 Wendover Rd., Yonkers, NY 10705.
ADVERTISER INDEX
Absolute Audio 224 Hi Fi Answers 182
Absolute Audio Video 202 Hi Fi Show 50. 51
Access To Music 215 John Garland Audio 194
Acoustat 194 Kimber Kable 211
Acoustic Energy 36, 37 Lantana, Ltd. 218
Adcom 48 Lyle Cartridges 144
Allison Acoustics 6 Lyric HiFi 152
American International Audio/Video 72 M & Y Company 202
Amrita 56 Madrigal Audio Laboratories 18, 20
Aragon 33 Magnepan 76
Artech Electronics 80 Magnum Dynalab 188
Audio Advancements 224 Martin Logan 58
Audio Advisor 166, 167, 168, 172 May Audio Marketing Inc 192
Audio Breakthroughs 198 McIntosh 44
Audio Classics 212 Mission Electronics 228
Audio Den 214 Mitek Group 60
Audio Enjoyment 214 Mobile Fidelity 16
Audio Haven 224 Mod Squad 68
Audio Influx 211 Monster Cable 46
Audio Nexus 182 Morel 74
Audio Outlet 217 Music By The Sea 204
Audio Prism 86 Musical Concepts 206
Audio Research Corporation 8 Naim 88
Audio Resource 208 Natural Sound 178
Audio Specialists 219 New England Audio Resource 37
Audio Stream 61 Ohm Acoustics 54
Audio Unlimited 217 Onkyo 14
Audio Vision 212 Optimal Enchantment 146
Audio Workshop 218 Per Madsen Design 223
Audiophile Systems, Ltd. 92 Phantom Acoustics 158
Audioquest 27 Polk Audio 2
Aural Symphonics 184 Rotel 26
B & KComponents 227 Sound & Music 220
B & W Loudspeakers 12 Sound Advice 196
Boffi Vidikron 70 Sound By Singer 148 162
CE -EX Inc 155 Sound Factor 208
CSA Audio 219 Sound Goods 206
Carver Corporation 62, 63 Sound II 200
Chadwick Modifications 223 Sounds Alive 222
Chesky Records 216 Speaker Builder 218
Chicago Speakerworks 222 Stax 94
Clarity Audio Systems 165 Stereo Exchange 150
Classic Stereo and Video 180 Stereo Shoppe 220
Conrad-Johnson 13 Stereo Unlimited 216
Custom Electronics 222 Stereo/Video Designs 160
D'Ascanio Audio 188 Stereophile 221
DB Systems 220 Straight Wire 186
dbx 102 Sumiko 84
Definitive Hi -Fi 164 Systemdek 190
Denon 96 Taddeo Loudspeaker Company 158
Energy 34 Take 5Audio 204
Esoteric Audio 38 Tera 24,25
Esoteric Ear 222 The Music Box 196
Euphonic Technology 155 The Sound Concept 221
G & A Rare Records 224 Theta Corp 190
Galen Carol Audio 223 Threshold 42
Gasworks 211 Transparent Audio Marketing 192
Golden Stereo 198 Underground Sound 220
HCM Audio 156 Upscale Audio 174
Hansen Ltd. Christopher 176 Vampire 186
Havens & Hardesty 200 Vandersteen Audio 184
Stereophile, March 1989 22 s

THE FINAL WORD
Commended Recomponents
Here we went again! Main guns JA, RL, and I in fact, approach audio nirvana.
have just waved good-bye to faithful contribu- One suggestion that reared its head at our
tors (a mini-group this time, consisting of sen- mini-conference was an "Editor's Choice" that
ior main gun JGH flown in from Boulder, CO, featured adifferent contributing editor in every
and our Senior Contributing Editors: ST, DO, other issue. (This is not entirely novel, it must
TJN) assembled to praise and damn in the form be confessed: HP of TAS originated this format,
of "Recommended Components." and without adoubt it makes up for its lack of
The small size of the group (smaller, that is, encyclopaedicity with intensity and person-
than our free-for-all last August) meant less total ality. Other TAS editors are not, however,
dispute, but no less virulence JGH is in despair accorded the privilege—or onerous burden,
at the number of products we include (espe- as JA would surely affirm.)
daily those he can't abide), ST seems to feel that Through such an Editor's Choice you could
the mere fact of agood review six months ago see, at the very least, particular combinations
is no reason to keep recommending it—I which work. At most, you would begin to
mean, after all, this is 180 days later! Things divine the secrets of discovering where to look
change. TJN and DO essay stability (though to get components to work well together as sys-
DO's can be abit acerbic), while JA and Istrive tems. What complementary interconnect
to keep heads above water. might alleviate that persistent hardness; what
You may rest assured that the "Recom- cartridge will pull some life from your sluggish
mended Components" you see next month tweeters; what amp will control your under-
will have sufficient variety, but that we have damped woofer's tendency to whump; which
been strict. If there are doubts, or any weak- type of component might solve particular
ness in the defense, out it goes. This should not problems. In our listings we try to suggest what
be interpreted to mean that the rejected or types of combinations to avoid, but much of
deleted product is bad, or that we scorn its pur- it begins with your personal taste, perception
chase; only that we cannot be confident in its of musical reality, what you like to listen to.
recommendation. The preferable alternative is to find atrust-
How, then, can we be confident in recom- worthy dealer that you make familiar enough
mending so many products, and with such with your system that he or she can guide you
diversity? The answer is system matching. through the treacherous slopes of equipment
Once upon atime, back in the dim 1970s, purchase Idon't know enough about the audio
JGH had the courage to publish alist of recom- world out there to affirm that such dealers are
mended systems. What agreat idea! What a almost impossible to come by, but Ican cer-
huge uproar! The immediate response was tainly say that system-matching is an art of
outrage—JGH recommended not only scrap- which there can't be an adequate supply. And
ping your current faithful preamp for the Aural my experience talking to subscribers on the
Opulescence A0-13ai, but the whole shebang. phone, listening to demos at CES and at reputa-
It's hard enough to come up with the $2-4000 ble dealers—not to mention the odd off night
for one major component update, but impos- at acontributor's house—bears out this dearth
sible to redo the whole thing at once. of knowledge. Perhaps an Editor's Choice
Predictably, once the stink died down, we could give you something approaching aregu-
started to receive asteady trickle of requests lar session at the feet of—well, maybe not
for arepeat. (It's sort of like the mix of critical masters—but at least people who do this all
letters we get: one half say we're bleep-bleep the time and are quite good at it. After all,
snobs for reviewing all the megabuck gear, the "Recommended Components" is there not just
other half say we're trying to out-Julian Hirsch for feathers in people's hats, or to augment
Stereo Review with all the "mid-fl" gear we manufacturers' sales, but to allow you to better
review) As JGH kept crying out, the idea of sys- make music in your home.
tem recommendation is anoble one: it is only
through excellent system matching that you do,
ji_,Ju-b_e_(0
"A runaway bargain
and astellar performer"
I
"B8i.K products are among the finest values on the market today"
"...one of the most musical power amps on the market...sounds better
than many other amps selling for twice the price."
STEREOPHILE
VOL 8, NO 8, JAN'86
Be)
PRE-AMPLIFIERS AND
POWER AMPLIFIERS
COMPONENTS, LTD.
POWER AIIPLIFIR ST492
Available from selected dealers

Write or call for complete specifications•
B& KComponents, Ltd., 1971 Abbott Road Lackawanna, NY 14218 .1-800-543-5252 (NY: 1-716-822-8488)
ainissigin
CLECTRIMICr
gow no, olp...14 YCP rr,7 eAft mono dre. 1Ia)

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