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NOVEMBER 1989

-
· $495

Nakamichi's $11,000 DAT Recorder

Equipment Reports: Meridian, Waveform, Thiel Quicksilver, Sansui, Shure
Music Features:
A Herbert von Karajan
Erich Kunzel Interview

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CONTENTS

AS WE SEE IT

5

Thirteen of Stereophile's writers and editors discuss magazines, components, readers, reviewers, & reviewing.

LETTERS

35

INDUSTRY UPDATE

62

High-end news from the US, UK, and West Germany, including areport from the 1989 Frankfurt High-End Show and the news that Finial is to relaunch its laser LP player-- with a$32,000 price tag!

THE AUDIO ANARCHIST

84

Sam Tellig finds himself stuck on the horns of various high-end dilemmas, including when to say "enough is enough" when it comes to high-priced loudspeaker cables and interconnects.

AN AMPLIFIER LISTENING TEST

93

William P. Banks and David Krajicek run arepeat of Stereophile's blind comparison

between VTL and Adcom amplifiers, with more positive results.

A READER'S SYSTEM

103

In what we intend to be the first of aregular series, an audiophile discusses the evolution of his system.

EQUIPMENT REPORTS

Nakamichi 1000 R-DAT recorder (RH)

112

The Waveform loudspeaker (LA)

122

Quicksilver KT88 monoblock tube power amplifier (DO)

132

Meridian D600 digital-input active loudspeaker (JA)

136

Sansui AU-X911DG integrated amplifier (LG)

144

Tera 621C TV monitor (JGH)

150

Reference Recordings A Video Standard LaserVision disc (JGH)

157

Shure HTS Home Theater Reference surround-sound system (BS)

158

FOLLOW UP

Thiel CS1.2 loudspeaker (JA)

165

VPI HW-19 Ill turntable (GL)

169

Eminent Technology 2tonearm (GL)

169

HERBERT VON KARAJAN (1908-1989)

175

Denis Stevens recalls the Maestro.

ON LOCATION WITH THE CINCINNATI POPS

183

Peter W. Mitchell talks with Erich Kunzel during the making of another Monster record.

BUILDING A LIBRARY

193

Robert Levine reviews eight new vocal/recital discs.

RECORD REVIEWS

203

MANUFACTURERS' COMMENTS COMING ATTRACTIONS

225 4

WHERE TO BUY STEREOPHILE

237

AUDIO MART

242

BACK ISSUES

109

SUBSCRIPTIONS

110

FOREIGN SUBSCRIPTIONS

110

STEREOPHILE LPS

111

ADVERTISER INDEX

257

THE FINAL WORD

258

What's on publisher Larry Archibald's mind.

NOVEMBER 1989

VOL. 12 NO. 11

Stereophile, November 1989

COMING ATTRACTIONS
My wife Laura and Ispent the third weekend in September at the second annual Southwest Audio Show, promoted by Dallas high-end dealer Preston Trail Audio. Itip my hat to Del, Kurt, and Colleen Hayes for putting on awellorganized and most enjoyable event. It was good to meet so many keen and keen-eared audiophiles and talk about sound and music-- except that one topic kept rearing its ugly head: "What happened to the promised equipment report index?," Ikept hearing.
Well, Iguess Iowe y'all--three days in Texas and that's what happens-- an apology. For some months Ihave been including amention in "Coming Attractions" that the "next" issue of Stereopbile will include an index to all the components reviewed by the magazine, updated since its last appearance (in Vo1.11 No.7, July 1988) to include everything dating back to the very first issue, Von No.1, which appeared in 1962. However, as Ihave to write this page's copy before the contents of the next issue are actually finalized, my predictions can be confounded by such matters as having too much copy on hand for the next issue. Something inevitably is left out, and the long-prom-

ised index has been the optimum candidate. But no more! It will appear in our Decem-
ber issue. Ipromise. But just in case, Ihave made arrangements with computer bulletin board The Audiophile Network--(818) 988-0452 --that their subscribers will be able to access it via telephone.
This is where Iusually list next month's component reviews, but in view of the murkiness of my crystal ball, Ishall just say that currently we are working on reviews of amplifiers and preamplifiers from Counterpoint, Mark Levinson, Vendetta Research, Classé, Krell, Carver, PSE, Adcom, Forté, Music Reference, NAD, and PS Audio; loudspeakers from TDL, Rogers, Amrita, Monitor Audio, Paradigm, Carver, and Apogee; and source components from Wadia, NC, VPI, Clearaudio, AudioQuest, and Monster Cable. Some will be in the December issue.
We all hope you enjoy reading Stereopbile. But remember, the easiest and cheapest way to read Stereopbile regularly is to subscribe.
to p.110, fill out the form, send it off, and sit back to wait for the biggest, best-written, most informative, and not forgetting most entertaining high-end magazine to arrive in your mailbox at the start of every month.
--John Atkinson

STAFF

Publisher Larry Archibald

Founder and Chief Tester J. Gordon Holt

Editor John Atkinson

Assistant & Music Editor Richard Lehnert

Technical Editor Robert Harley

Senior Contributing Editors

Thomas J. Norton

Sam Tellig

Dick Olsher

Contributing Editors (hardware)

Arms Balgalvis

Guy Lemcoe

Martin Colloms

Peter W Mitchell

Gary A Galo

Bebo Moroni

Alvin Gold

Markus Sauer

Larry Greenhill

Don A. Scott

Jack Hannold

Bill Sommerwerck

Ken Kessler

Peter Van Willenswaard

Musician in Residence Lewis Lipmck

Contributing Editors (records)

Leslie S. Berkley

Barbara Jahn

Christopher Breunig

Igor Ktpnis

Kevin Conklin

Gary S Krakow

John Crabbe

Robert Levine

Robert Deutsch

Jon W Poses

Gordon Emerson

Richard Schneider

Mortimer H. Frank

Bernard Soil

Robert Hesson

Gems Stevens

Beth Jacques

Circulation Director Michael Harvey (505) 982-2366 Circulation Manager Nancy Patrick (505) 982-2366

Business Manager Gail Anderson (505) 982-2366 Advertising Representatives East of the Mississippi &Foreign: Nelson &As:striates (Ken Nelson) (914) 476-3157, FAX (914)969.2746 Yonkers, NY
West of the Mississippi &National Dealer: Nelson &Associates (Laura J. Atkinson) (505) 988-3284 Santa Fe, NM
Production Manager Rebecca Willard
Production Andrew Main, Janice St. Marie, Diane Harris, Michael Picón, Anne Peacocke
Ad Copy Manager Martha Payne Art Director Michael Motley
Cover Photograph: Ric Trombeha, Kitty Leaken
Support Staff Danny Sandoval, Georgianne MacDougal, Toni Bubick
Typesetting Copygraphics

Stereophile -- Vol. 12 No. 11, November 1989, issue Number 118. Stereophile (ISSN M0585-2544) is published monthly, $35 per year for US residents by Stereophile, 208 Delgado, Santa Fe, NM 87501. Second-class postage paid at Santa Fe, NM and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: send address changes to Stereophile, P.O. Box 364, Mount Morris, IL 61054.

Subscriptions US residents (800)435-0715, (800) 892-0753 (Illinois). Canada residents (815) 734-6309 From outside US call (505) 982-2366.

FAX: (505) 989-8791

Stereophile, November 1989

AS WE ALI SEE IT
ABABEL, ABABBLE...
·9213111,
OS 0'10
1111

Thirteen of Stereophile's writers and editors discuss magazines, components, reviewers &reviewing

Twice ayear; Stereophile brings some of its writers out to Santa Fg New Mexico to discuss the compilation of the magazine's
"Recommended Components" listing the most recent of which appeared in the October issue. Following acommentfrom Will Hammond, John Atkinson 's collaborator on the recent amplifier blind listening tests, that the magazine's readers would love to eavesdrop on the conversations that take place on these
IThe recording was made in stereo using apair of AKG D190E cardioid mics, an EAR tube microphone preamplifier, and the Nakamichi 1000 R-DAT recorder reviewed by Robert Harley elsewhere in this issue. Our thanks to Arme Peacocke for tackling the thankless task of transcribing the tape.
2A note on the editing of the transcript: Iconformed to Sterropbtle's usual style with interviews, which is to remove the "ums," "cm:* and "you knows" --all the verbal throatclearing and thinking-time noise that generally clutters and obscures spoken English--and to excise the occasional repetition and irrelevance. Idid this both in order to bring the length of the transcript down to apublishable length and to improve its intelligibility. Significant omissions (in terms of length) art indicated with ellipses ( ), and where something was not clear, the editorial interjection is contained in square brackets. Apart from such slight massaging, Iguarantee that this transcript is a true reflection of what was said by the participants.
--JA

occasions, it seemed agood idea to tape,some of the discussions and publish the transcript as this month's 'As We See It. "2 Accordingly (see drawing l-r), Lewis Lipnick, Gary A. Galo, Robert Harley, ThomasJ. Norton, Guy Lemcoe, Richard Lebnert, Dick Olsber, Peter Mitchell, Robert Deutsch, J. Gordon Holt, Larry Greenhill, John Atkinson, and Amis Balgalvis all gathered in LA's palatial listening room one August Saturday. JA set the ball rolling by asking the assembled writers where they thought Stereophile bad been, where it was, and where they thought it should be going particularly in view of Robert Harleyjoining the magazine as Technical Editor: J. Gordon Holt: Stereophile is obviously in the driver's seat as far as high-end audio is concerned. As to where it's going, I'm not at all certain about that. Ithink the magazine ought to be exercising alittle more leadership in the field rather than just taking the role of reporting what's going on--reporting every view that comes in without comment. It ought to be taking editorial stands on things. For instance, say-

Stereophile, November 1989

5

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ing "We approve of this; we disapprove of this."
If there is such athing as magazine policy on some things, you UA] should be making these statements. In "As We See It." Peter Mitchell: Ithink Stereopbile has always had aunique position in that there are two categories of magazines around it. You have the mainstream magazines which are devoted to measurements and not adequately to sound, and then you have the high-end magazines like The Absolute Sound, where the reviewers talk about what they hear and then speculate incompetently on what might cause what they hear. At Stereopbile, at least, the discussions of what you hear have generally been accompanied by atechnically competent commentary,
where there has been any. There has been no outrageous mythmaking. And Iam overjoyed at the new venture that Stereopbile is launching, essentially to really try to start nailing down some of the correlations between measurements and subjective sound. Ithink this is an area where Stereopbile's leadership will really make it the important magazine in the field in the next decade. John Atkinson: But something that awriter who isn't here, Sam Tellig, said to me acouple weeks back, should be borne in mind. "Too many graphs!" he thundered. Is this aspect of the magazine driving some readers away? Thomas J. Norton: Ithink some of our readers may take that attitude. They don't want it to become Audio--not that Ithink it ever will. But this is aperception you get when you see alot of graphs in amagazine without read-
ing the text. We do have to be very careful in that direction.
Lewis Lipnick: This is interesting. Now, I probably come to things from aslightly different viewpoint from alot of writers because I try to remain, as far as possible, totally subjective. However, Iagree with the objective point
of view also because while you can say, "I hear this, Ihear that," the reader then can say "Well, yeah, but you've got to qualify that alittle bit." Iknow acouple of reviews that I've done, where Iheard some problem which was then
correlated objectively. Now you might turn off some people, but you can't try to be something for everyone. It doesn't work that way. No mat-
ter what you do, someone's going to bitch. And if they're gonna bitch, let 'em bitch. JGH: Iwonder whether we should compartmentalize the magazine alittle bit more. Maybe

"Too many graphs!"
the main review section would be mostly subjective and so forth and so on, and then there'd be atechnical section further in the back, for people who want to pursue the reviews in greater depth. In the main report, you would say, "For instance, the harmonic distortion analysis would suggest that so and so." But you don't have to show the curves there. You just refer to them and give the information later on in aseparate section which covers all the tests. Richard Lehnert: That's sort of been happening within each review. What Robert Harley's been doing is to add aclosing paragraph of measurements after the main body of the review JGH: But the thing is, if you leaf through the review section the way it is now, you see. .. RL: ...the graphs... JGH: ...all the way through it. And as Tom said, Ihave the feeling that's probably turning off some people. PM: One of the problems of presenting technical information, especially in graphical form, is that graphs have away of taking up alot of space for the amount of information that they convey. So if you look at areview in which the text is 80% subjective and 20% technical analysis, by the time you also print the graphs on the same three or four pages, it looks like avery technically dominant review, agraph-dominated review. Although Iwould personally prefer to have the technical information integrated into the review with the graphs on the same pages, Ihave avery strong feeling that agreat many of our readers did badly in high-school science and feel very incompetent and nervous about anything like graphs or tables or numbers. I think that including the graphs, etc., in the same pages as the rest of the text tends to scare them away. It will be areal inhibitor from really appreciating what the bulk of the text says.
Iwould strongly urge you think of the possibility of organizing the review as asort of a three-part thing. You've got the subjective text, with the technical analysis integrated into it where appropriate, making references to the graphs. The second part of the review, later in the magazine, has all the graphical and numerical analysis for all the products in one section. You could call that 'Analysis and Correlation," where you do the science basically, where you investigate the relationship of the measure-

Stereophile, November 1989

7

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ments to the sound. Then, of course, you already have athird section, the manufacturer's responses--which Ifind an important part of the review. Ands Balgalvis: It's occurred to me that highend audio is very much like high-performance cars. When I've had discussions with Larry Klein 3(who happens to be apersonal friend), we're diametrically opposed in what we think about high-end equipment because he thinks it's awaste of money. However, Ialways introduce the fact that car magazines do not hesitate to write about Ferraris, Lamborghinis, etc. Their format is also similar to what Peter is talking about, the technical analysis of the car appears in aseparate section, and yes, there are some references made to it, for example that something happened in aparticular way when the car was accelerated. Iwas just thinking maybe that Bob Harley could have asidebar type of athing and say "Here is what Imeasured and so on ...," and converse with aparticular reviewer, maybe saying, "Well, what do you think? When you heard this particular thing, could it be because of the xfactor that Imeasured?" And so on. But the more Ithink about it, the technical section would have to be put in aplace that people could really skip over. Many people like to hear the words and they're willing to read about it, but if they have to look at graphs--graphs are really intimidating.
[Several minutes of discussion on the more arcane mechanical aspects of magazine production followed.] LL: Maybe you should put something in the magazine asking the readers what they would like. JGH: Ithink that's agood idea. JA: Apart from intimidating readers with graphs, by trying to introduce some kind of objective support for subjective opinions are we in danger of demystifying the subject? Of taking the romance out?
Dick Olsher: There is adanger, and Ithink the keyword here is "fun." F-U-N. The magazine should be hin to read. Granted, you want to offer music reviews, equipment reviews, opinions-- but we can't lose sight of the fact that the magazine has to remain entertaining. We have to communicate enthusiasm. Ithink that's why
3For many years 11-chnical Editor of Stereo Review, and then. until its demise. a Contributing Editor for Ill» Fidelity magazine.

Ihave never believed in the astrological approach to audio equipment reviewing
Istarted reading Stereophile. It was aprocess of self-discovery: discovering the fact that you can reproduce music fairly realistically in the home. And as you buy better equipment, try different things, the level of reproduction increases. It's an odyssey too: "Can you really achieve a semblance of live music in the home?" JGH: Why should there be any concern about "demystifying" it? Why is mystery even considered to be an asset to the magazine? DO: Because there's magic here. ..[Uproar] JGH: That's alegitimate criticism that alot of people have of our field. There's too much magic. DO: But it is magical! Gary A. Galo: Iagree with Peter. Ihave never believed in the astrological approach to audio equipment reviewing. There may even be a magazine out there that does things like that, but Ithink that the great strength of Stereopbile is that it has stood on the fence between the Stereo Review measurements crowd and the mystics on Long Island. And pulled the best from both worlds. Ithink that demystification has been one of the magazine's great strengths and Ithink that we should never steer away from that. JGH: Iagree. PM: All the way back to the very beginning of Stereopbfie, when Gordon was doing the whole job in his living room, there's been a hard core of common sense in the magazine that we don't want to lose. GAG: The big difference [between Stereophile and The Absolute Sound] is that Gordon, unlike Harry Pearson, had areally solid technical background and could speak to these things with expertise. Harry had no technical background to speak of, and would get very defensive when pressed on these issues. As far as the future is concerned, Ithink where Stereophile is going, incorporating measurements into reviews, is really astep in the right direction. Iwould not like to see the technical aspects devoted to aseparate section of the magazine. Ithink there are alot of readers who would ignore that section of the magazine completely. By bringing the technical aspects into the body

Stereophile, November 1989

9

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of each review, Ithink we're encouraging peo- things which we can't explain today, but I

ple to pursue it alittle bit farther, to see both should certainly hope that in afew years we can

sides. To educate themselves.

go ahead and say, "It sounds this way because

JGH: The only problem here, as Isee it, with of this particular measurement."

mixing these together, is the fact that it be- Robert Deutsch: Iagree with Arnie in that I

comes very difficult to decide, when you're sense that the majority of readers do not read

writing the review, wbo you're talking to. If an individual report from beginning to end.

you're trying to address the relative newcomer--I They have alook at what the product is, to see

won't even say the "average" audiophile--you whether they're interested in it. They read the

have to pause and explain alot of the terminol- introduction, and Ithink they do skip past the

ogy which you use as you go along or you'll technical part. They read the conclusion:

lose them.

"Does this person like the product?" And if the

DO: Give 'em acopy of your glossary.

reviewer does and they're interested in it, then

JGH: It doesn't exist yet.'

they might read part of the technical stuff and

TJN: The technical results are going to have to look at some of the graphs. If the reviewer basi-

be separate from the main body of the text for cally doesn't like the product, if he says, "Well,

most of us anyway because the measurements technically the product seems competent.

are going to be done here in Santa Fe. There's However, Ihave some reservations about its

no way we can mesh these two together.

sound," then the reader won't bother going

AB: I'm glad you brought that up--there are back to the technical part unless it's for the sake

three writers here who used to work with of interest.

High-Performance Review. 5Ihave to confess JGH: Ihave had the feeling from time to time, that whenever Ihad to do the technical section and right now Ithink I'm having it again, that

of areview, it was just atedious thing. The alot of the body of our equipment reviews is

graphs were there, and you tried to put them aimed not at the readers, but at manufacturers.

into in words, which was kind of nice. But I never felt that it was really contributing anything.

LL: Idon't know if Iagree with that completely, but there's something Ithink we have to keep in mind. We're in sort of an ivory tower, we deal

GAG: 1share Arnie's frustration with what we with manufacturers and we talk among our-

had to do for Higb- Performance Review. We selves. But we have to put ourselves in the boat

were sent abunch of data from their lab and we of someone who doesn't have achance to do

had to write it into our review. It was avery difficult thing to do. And it was less than satisfactory.

all this, who's just apoor consumer who reads this stuff and wants to spend money and buy equipment. They don't know from nothing,

AB: But if the person who did the measure- basically. When people read areview, they want

ments would then try to explain what's going on, and then maybe converse with the partic-

to find out, basically, what something sounds like! When they read areview, they want to find

ular reviewer of the product, it would be more effective. Ihave to say that alot of Stereopbile's reviews are already structured in a format

out what the guy likes or doesn't like. When people read the mass-market magazines, they say, "When Ifinish reading the review of a

where you can skip around the technical dis- product in atypical blah-blah-blah magazine,

cussion, either to the conclusion or to read the Idon't know what it sounds like." When Ifinish

introduction or the description of the product ...[agreement].. .But Ido think that it is important to stick some technical reasoning
behind what is being heard. It has probably something to do with the fact that Ihave an

reading areview, anyone's review, if Ifinish that review and Isay to myself, "Gee, Ireally don't know what it sounds like," it's not agood review. ..[hubbub]. ..The technical aspects are important. You can discuss technical stuff

engineering background. Ihave alittle bit of avested interest in that, yes, we hear certain

all day long! But technical stuff does not explain how it sounds. You've got to at least tell the

readers what it sounds like. Because they're

4 GOICIOn IS21 present working on aglossary of both the language of subjective reviewing and hi-fi terminology in general.

buying something to reproduce music. JA: You have ahierarchy here. You have the

conclusion: "Did the reviewer like it or not?"

5Amis Balgalvis, Larry Greenhill, and Gary A. Galo.

You have the sound: "What did it sound like?

Stereophile, November 1989

11

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Why didn't he like it, or why did he like it?" Ithink the main function of measurements

Then some measurements that say: "Well, maybe this was why it sounded like that." Then, perhaps at the very bottom, you have the

in the magazine has been to lend some credence to the reviewers observations

product description: how many knobs, where

they are, whether the power button is marked

"On" or "Power". ..You could say about Stereo text for assessing the merits of the product, but

Review that they turn that hierarchy upside- ultimately it's the opinion that counts.

down.

JGH: But if there's acontinuing conflict be-

LL: Exactly. But if the review does not tell the tween the measurements and the opinions?

reader when they're finished what this product DO: Then let's change the measurements that

sounds like, it is not agood review. Period. I are done. Your opinion shouldn't change.

mean, it just isn't. Because again, when you talk GAG: Iagree with Lew that what the product

about high-end audio you're talking about the sounds like is most important. How Isee the

minute nuances and finesse of high-performance measurements is helping both the reviewer and

audio. We're not just talking about another the reader understand why the product sounds

appliance that you're buying for your home. the way it does.

And we lose sight of that, Ithink.

JGH: But Idon't think most of our readers give

JA: The fact that you said "minute nuances and adamn as to "why." Other manufacturers do.

finesse" reminds me of something. One of the things that came out of our listening tests at the

LL: You have aresponsibility to explain your findings. The technical stuff obviously has to

show in April was that maybe some of the differences we describe in great detail are quite small to alot of people.

back up the subjective description. JGH: Ithink the main function of measurements in the magazine has been to lend some

PM: Well, well, absolutely. AB: That's very true, in many cases the nuances are subtle. Maybe they're very important to us,

credence to the reviewer's observations. JA: Particularly when it's overall anegative review, to help hold any response from the

but what Lew is saying is also my feeling: yes, you have to describe what the product sounds

manufacturer down ... Larry Greenhill: I'd just like to talk about

like But you have to describe what the feel of the equipment is, let's say the difference between aMark Levinson product and aKrell. Because people are going to go out there and
they're going to spend thousands of dollars. I feel that you have to somehow convey afeel for what they're going to get for that money in addition to the sound. JGH: Ihave the feeling, though, that these

where Ithink some of these points are headed overall. One of the strongest points in terms of
Stereopbile over the years has been that it's one of the few consumer-oriented magazines that deals with the consumer as apurchaser of very
expensive investment. If you look all over the field of things you can purchase, such as photographic equipment, computer equipment, or high-end stereo equipment, alot of what the

things that we call "minute differences," any- consumer is left with is magazines that take a

one who is into audio at all, anyone who listens, can hear these things. And probably
hear them quite well. The difference, as Isee it, between an experienced reviewer and aconsumer is that we're able to pick up on these things faster.. . AB: ...and describe them. JGH: But if the person buys the thing, and lives with it, he'll come to hear the same stuff that we're reporting.
JA: And then it will be important to him or her.

point of view that they want to explain the product to the consumer and so be another voice for the manufacturer. From the beginning, Stereopbile has really not taken that direction.
And Iwould say it's had kind of another principle behind it, which has been asomewhat laid-back, noninterfering editorial policy. That is, the editor is supportive of the writers. It's encouraged individuality. I've worked for a number of magazines where you were given

DO: I'd just like to summarize what Ithink I a cookie-cutter kind of a template--your

hear, and that is that opinions should remain dominant over measurement in the magazine. Measurement is important, it provides acon-

review has to go A-B-C-D--and if it doesn't quite fit the style or the approach, then you run into alot of friction with the editor. This is very

Stereophile, November 1989

13

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important because what's happening now in certainly do not want to restrict Stereopbile's

this discussion is aquestion about whether viewpoint just to what /think. But now Isee

more uniformity should be slowly introduced into the reviews. There are some really good

this policy actually being turned into acriticism against the magazine.

reasons for that, in terms of trying to make JGH: NXt11 the thing is, when Iwas calking about

something you read from one reviewer make leadership a while ago, about the magazine

sense in terms of another reviewer. I'd be very interested to hear how much this discussion is going in the direction of kind of formulating editorial policy about how the reviewers should think about their craft.
LL: Just as one writer, I'd like to say it's so nice to be able to write areview, submit it, and know that what comes out the other end is what I

maybe leading the issues alittle bit more, I wasn't talking about trying to force the writers
into any kind of editorial mold. What Iwas talking about was perhaps keeping more in mind
the things which are generally agreed to by everybody who is serious about this business. And pushing this stuff in the magazine all the time.

wrote. And if Iwas wrong technically, thank

Look, for instance, at the number of times that

goodness they have people here who will correct me. But Idon't know another publication

practically every reviewer who has reviewed aturntable puts it down because it hasn't done

like that where Icould send something in that's so subjective and it would just be left alone. JGH: National Review. LL: Ithink that's very important. Because that

the suspension thing properly. Yet we continue to get turntables for review from people who obviously none of this has penetrated. Imean, they should know they're going to get abad

other magazine, Iknow that if you don't toe the review from reading all of the other reviews

party line, either they won't print what you wrote, or you'll be ridiculed by the editor, in your own review.. .
GAG: .. .in afootnote...

which have picked things apart for that reason, yet they'll then send us product for review which has the same problem.
TJN: They don't read our reviews then.

LL: .. .which Ifind totally unacceptable. JGH: Iagree.
JA: Acriticism of Stereopbile that was made in The Absolute Sound acouple of issues back,
and was then also made in aletter published in our September issue, is that whereas The Absolute Sound speaks with asingle voice--

RL: Also they believe that there is no such thing as bad publicity.
JGH: Well, maybe. But this is one of the reasons why Ifeel we're not making our point in some areas here. Imean, look at that speaker system
that Dick reviewed a while ago. Kentucky Sound? Was that the name?

Harry Pearson's--we produce aBabel of dis- DO: Tennessee Sound! [laughter]

parate opinions. We don't speak with one voice; JGH: Well, I'm close! Anyway, the thing was

we don't have one mind. Iactually think this obviously flawed before we even listened to the

is aspecious criticism because Ithink the one sound. We pointed out to the manufacturer

thing that has drawn us together is that we all obvious signs of very bad design. He still in-

basically come from the same place philo- sisted that we go ahead and review it.

sophically. Nevertheless, how do we avoid this? DO: Did he ever!

RL: Why should we avoid it? It's amagazine of opinion.
JA: How can we weld disparate opinions into astrong united front?
RL: Why should we try? [hubbub] PM: That's part of the question. JA: You see, as an editor, my policy is simple.
All Iwant from my writers is: a) Is this awell-

LL: May Imake apoint about the uniformity in reviews? 'Palk about the criticism you're getting about not having auniform voice, the interesting thing Isee about Stereopbile (which
is also one reason Ilike writing for this magazine very much) is that we have amassed afairly large number of people who are very good at what they do in different ways. In other words,

formed and informed opinion? b) Has it been everyone's got alittle different expertise: you

expressed clearly? If both are the case, it appears in print. Idon't want to impose my viewpoint upon anyone else because, as you

have people who are more technically oriented;
you have me who's just basically "I'm not an engineer at all but I'm amusician"; there are

know, my particular cocktail of tastes and opin- people who do this, do that; and that way you ions is going to be different to anyone else's. I get diverse points of view which are all valid.

Stereophile, November 1989

15

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That's very important. Because if you start imposing this sort of generic approach on everything, you're going to get one person's opinion basically coming out of it. One editorial opinion. Which is not right. If you have people who are competent--and Ibelieve that this magazine has the most competent writers I've yet seen--then it works. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
Remember, we're talking about subjective things, we're talking about the emotional impact of buying equipment. People buy the stuff, not only just to listen to music, they buy it because it's emotionally impactful on them, it's an ego thing for them to buy stuff. With manufacturers, it's an ego thing for them to build it. When Iwrite about apiece, Italk about the emotional impact of being amusician. The hell with the way it's made, as far as I'm concerned. If Ican sit there and I'm really drawn into aperformance, it's great.
JGH: You're talking about the emotional impact of the sound.
LL: Of the sound, but there's also an emotional impact to buying components. ..Let's face it, that's not peanuts. This is areligious rite, going
out and buying this stuff, you know. The actual spending of the money is abig deal. And if you
start doing this one-voice kind of thing you're talking about, Ithink you'll lose alot of that. JGH: At shows I've had anumber of people come up to me and say, "Why don't you people work together on each review, so you can come up with aconsensus?" And Isaid, "Well, for one thing, it would probably take us six months to get areview done, and for another thing Idon't think our readers want aconsensus." And then the guy says, "I do." DO: Iwant to get back to this myriad of opinions: Ithink the more opinions, the more insight. Different people being able to kick products around from different angles, in different systems, fleshes out what the products can and can't do. The fact that there's disagreement is healthy. Imean, you can go to the
Pope of Seacliff--HP--or the Axeman of Bronx--Peter Aczel--or, Ihaven't come up with agood name for Moncrieff, you don't need it, it's absolute crap. It's one man's opinion in avery narrow context. If anumber of opinions all converge to say "This is agreat product in all kinds of environments," you have aclear winner. But if you have adifference of opinion, why, Ithink that's just as intriguing as agree-

There's an emotional impact to buying components This is areligious rite, going out and buying this stuff.
ment. Disagreement is what horse races are all about. It's very important to keep it that way. JGH: Well, Idon't think there's any question but what if we did do group reviews and could come to aconsensus about things, areview would have ahell of alot more credibility. TJN: Awfully difficult to do. PM: There are practical ways to doit. .. JA: The problem is, though, when we have sent some components to other writers, we often found there was almost no diversity of opinion. The second or the third person to listen to the piece of equipment actually has nothing to add to the original review but has spent alot of time listening ... PM: Ishould think hearing speakers in adifferent room would be very illuminating ... LL: ...it'd be nice to be able to send products around. You say people will basically agree on certain things, and Ithink you're right, but ... JA: They will agree over the description of the sound; the only disagreement will be whether this flaw rules it out of court for any recommendation, or whether this flaw is trivial. However, they will agree that there is aflaw in that place, in that manner. LL: But John, we have something here like a bunch of physicians who are specialists. A patient's sick and he goes to see aphysician, and gets farmed out to other people who are all specialists. They get together later and talk about it. Now true, I'm talking about asick patient, but what we've got Ithink could be interesting. For instance, I'm amusician. Some of these guys are technical. I'm not an engineer and Idon't know what they're talking about. But Ican probably tell them some musical things that maybe they don't know about. So Ithink that in some cases--maybe not every case--it might be interesting to have people who are specialists in different fields comment on certain products. Because, let's face it, if you're not an engineer you can't talk about the engineering. If you're not amusician you can still talk about music, but not in the same way amusician would talk about it. But that's the whole idea of having people who are diverse, Ithought.

Stereophile, November 1989

17

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JA: How many products are there that are this with Larry, we were all agreed that the mea-

worth that kind of intensive activity?

surements cannot be made available to the

LL: Not too many, but there are some.

reviewer while he's doing his critical listening.

JGH: Iwould say anything really expensive DO: A case in point was the Lazarus H1 -A

that gets arave review, would warrant that.

amplifier. Imean, you wouldn't think that in

LL: Or one that got dumped on by someone. this day and age asolid-state output stage

PM: Like the big Altec speakers that sounded would have an impedance of half an ohm.

lousy in Larry's room but might work in an- That's unusually high and you would expect

other room.

to have aspeaker/amplifier interaction that

TJN: Ithink we shouldn't only think about the behooves you to try anumber of different

possibility of sending equipment around, but loads to try to get around that point. But if you

simply send the review around for follow-up don't know that before the fact--people think

comments from anybody else who happens to an amplifier is easy to review, just hook it in

have heard the same piece of equipment.

your system and listen. Well, that's not the

JA: Ido think that any follow-up comments whole story--if you don't try four or five loads,

must appear after the appearance of the original you don't know what's going on.

review, otherwise the logistics would bog AB: Iagree As it happens, Ihappen to have the

down the production of the magazine.

same Lazarus amps that Dick reviewed, plus an

JGH: That's what Itold that guy, that it would additional pair that Lazarus sent me because

take six months to get areview out.

the guy felt that Ishould drive them balanced

LG: Iwonder if that would make areviewer into the Divas, two per side. Again, just to

hesitant to go to either extreme if he felt that emphasize what was heard, Ihave to say Iheard

his review was going to be second-guessed ... not much difference on the Divas from what

RD: Iremember the comment you had from Dick heard on the speakers that he used, which

areader saying that the editor putting in afoot- were the Quads. But the point is that you have

note, acomment about the sound of aproduct, to play with an amplifier with cables. And we

is undercutting the reviewer, making the reader get into an area that for me is really like asnake-

confused about what it really sounds like. If infested area and has nothing to do with what

you include comments that differ significantly Dick did with his review, which was an admira-

from what the primary reviewer found ... ble job. But an amplifier is very difficult to

JA: Except my experience with all of you is that review because you don't know what you're

you actually all do hear the same things. The going to put in front and in back of it. Imean

argument against subjective reviewing, that it's cables, speakers, etc. It becomes very very

just one man's opinion and there's no guarantee tricky, and Ithink that Iagree with Dick: if you

that it will concur with anyone else's, Ido not knew that there's ahalf-an-ohm output imped-

think is true for this group of people, because ance for an amplifier, then you can start com-

you've all spent many years learning how to lis- pensating for it, use aCelestion SL600 let's say,

ten, and learning how to describe what you which has ahigh impedance.

hear.

JA: Except in this specific case, Iasked Bob to

Ithink this is atrivial criticism of subjective measure the Lazarus's output impedance

reviewing in general. Provided that the peo- because Dick had already found by listening

ple doing the subjective reviewing have taken that the sound of the amplifier was significantly

that care. And have that experience. And these loudspeaker-dependent. Dick had discovered

people who write for Stereopbile, I'm con- without any help from measurements that the

vinced, bave and do.

amplifier did have aserious interaction prob-

ljN: lb return to measurements, apoint I'd like lem with loudspeakers, and the measurement

to make is that the measurements are going to was purely just to see if indeed it did have a

be made here in Santa Fe before the compo- high output impedance. The end result was

nent is sent out to the reviewer. In general, right. Dick heard something; Dick investigated

that's the logistics Iimagine for it. I, for one, it subjectively; Bob's measurement just said

wouldn't mind seeing the measurements but "Well, here's why."

Idon't want to see them early in the subjective JGH: What is going to be the approach if, for

evaluation process.

instance, the reviewer says "This preamp has

JA: When Bob Harley and Iwere discussing thin low end," and the measurement shows

Stereophile, November 1989

19

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that it's perfectly flat down to 5Hz. Someone should interject something in there to suggest at least apossible reason for such adiscrepancy GAG: Ithink it's necessary to go beyond the measurements into the circuitry to try to ex-
plain just what it is that's going on. If an amplifier, for example, appears to be lacking in dynamics, well, what are the output impedances of the circuitry? How is the power supply designed? JGH: How would you even define this?
AB: Having had conversations with anumber of manufacturers who said confidential things,
Itell you, there's almost aconsensus out there, they say, "We did this circuit, we do certain things, and it comes out sounding acertain way." Isay, "Well, do you know exactly why it sounds like this?" and they say "Nope."
TJN: They don't know either. AB: They don't know. The designer, in many cases, says something like "We tried this new circuit, it sounds better now, and this is how we're going to build it." It's really sometimes frightening to hear this type of honesty, but it's
out there So for us to go into acircuit that they designed and find out wby it sounds acertain way, seems to me to be avery difficult task ... It's very dangerous and we may end up in the situation where we start making comments that are not technically valid.
TJN: If we think we're going to be able to explain why the measurements, why everything sounds the way it does, in some cases, such as the Lazarus, we may be able to. But if we think we're going to be able to do it consistently, we're fooling ourselves.
JGH: Over aperiod of time I'm willing to bet alot of things are going to start falling into place.
TIN: Over the long haul, we may come up with some statistical evidence that gives us some leads on individual products. LG: There's one other element. In reviewing using measurements, agreat deal depends on the person doing the measurements. Even with asystem like the Audio Precision. Over aperiod of time, Ithink, Bob is going to have achance to learn the craft of measuring which will enable him to rapidly get to the heart of the matter. After you take every measurement exactly the same way anumber of times, you begin to look for anomalies that appear and you begin to track them down...1 think that if Bob begins to test more and more equipment, he's

Though people in general regard measurements as objective, in fact they're not
going to get afeel for when something doesn't seem to be quite right. Maybe he'll start off with ten tests of an amplifier, but as time goes on he'll have another five optional ones as the software is upgraded. He'll begin to use those other optional ones and begin to find interesting things where the component begins to stop performing well. And that's very helpful because he can then comment on what may have happened in aspecific situation. JA: There's two points raised here: Ithink the first was very important that, though people in general regard measurements as objective, in fact they're not. The whole decision on what measurements to make and how to carry them out is alearned experience Anybody doing it will go through quite along learning process about how to carry out the measurements and reject spuriae. What the instrument tells you is not necessarily the truth and you have to learn how to distinguish between the truth and something due to abug. . LG: You can't get the measurement to work, you can't get it to work, you can't get it to work, you blame your equipment, and all of asudden you realize it's the connector or something. There was one amp Ihad from avery wellknown manufacturer, the terminals were wired bacicwards! It became very clear that you couldn't get the thing to work and there was areason for it. JA: The second thing is that Isee carrying out measurements on acomponent as being analogous to chemical analysis. You have atree structure of tests, each one giving you ayes/no answer. You carry out your first test; did it do this, yes or no? And that will lead you in two paths, and then you have more tests which lead you in further bifurcations until you end up down one tiny little twig which is where the truth lies. LG: As long as you don't print all the standard things that begin at the root. Just show the reader the ones that you found significant. JA: Bob, you wrote in the September issue that because somebody carries out ameasurement it inherently implies that he feels that that measurement means something.

Stereophile, November 1989

21

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Robert Harley: And Isaid we're not going to These are people who are intelligent, but

print alaundry list of meaningless specs, only if they're relevant to the review or to the product. We're not going to print every amplifier's

when they get into audio their mind turns to tapioca pudding

THD. ..

TJN: We'll have that data available, though it

won't necessarily all be printed, right? We can

correlate it as we go along ...

GAG: You may be right, but Iwould hope that

RL: I'm going to go back to something that Gordon said quite awhile ago, wondering

one of the things that our magazine attempts to do, and Ithink does do, is to educate the

whether the magazine is written for and to the general readership or toward the manufac-
turers. Ithink it has to be both. At all times. Because the manufacturers are part of the

readers so that they are capable of making deci-
sions on their own as opposed to just accepting the word from on high, and believing everything that's said.

readership, and certainly one hopes that they're going to read and learn ...

LL: Iagree 100%. Iwish that were the case. But people come backstage after symphony con-

JA: There is athird kind of reader who is very certs and say, "You're Lewis Lipnick, you write

important, which is people who work in retail for Stereopbile, we're tourists, we came up to

stores. Iunderstand that the outcome of the Carver Challenge and the review of the production 1.0t amplifier in Vol.10 No.3 was abig drop
in sales, not because the readers lost interest
in the product but because people working in Carver dealerships decided they didn't want to sell it anymore. This is the sort of impact the magazine can have which is perhaps not suspected by many people.

Washington, can we bend your ear about equipment?" They say, "You wrote about this, it must be fantastic, you hear so much better than we do." Ilooked at one guy and said, "You've got abrain and two ears. You should use them." He says, "Yeah, but, you know so much more about this." Ianswered, "No, Ilisten to alot, maybe to alot more equipment, but it'syour money, it's not my money!" The prob-

GAG: Maybe this is alittle bit naïve, but Iwould hate for anyone to buy a product simply

lem is that we want to see it as people who will take what we say with agrain of salt, then will

because Igave it afavorable review. What I go listen to acomponent and decide for them-

would hope would happen is that apositive selves whether they want to buy it or not. It

review would give the reader some things to think about, and then the reader would go and hear the product. Maybe he would hear other things that had also been reviewed and then be able to ultimately make adecision on his own based on ...
Ralph (the dog): Wa-0000! [Larry's dog puts in bis two cents' wortb] GAG: ...what he'd learned from reading the reviews.
JGH: How many stores do you think you could
find where you would hear aproduct to advantage?
'UN: You try to find astore where you can make acomparison between cartridges, for example. JA: One of the things that retailers complain about audiophiles is that they go into their store and ask if they could listen to five $100 cartridges. If that retailer takes more than 15 minutes with that sale, then his profit is gone. GAG: Iagree that's aproblem .. ,
JGH: .and is one that Idon't see has a solution.

doesn't work that way, unfortunately. These are people who are intelligent, but when they get
into audio their mind turns to tapioca pudding. They want to be told what to buy. When these
people buy acar, they'll read areview but they'll go test-drive that car, and if they don't like it they're not going to buy it. But yet at the same time they will read areview of apiece of
audio equipment and say, "Oh wow! This has got to be the greatest thing since sliced bread!" RD: You said it was areligious experience. Religious people want to be told what the "divine truth" is rather than to find out for themselves.
LL: But it's not right. They should be aware of what they hear. When Iwrite areview, Itry to say this is what /heard, this is my opinion, but Isay it may not be your opinion, and before you go drop ten grand, you should go listen to this. And if you don't like it, for heaven's sake don't buy it! But it doesn't work that way. JA: Half the readers will say, "Hey, this guy's
copping out. He isn't sure of his own opinion." JGH: What's the alternative?

Stereophile, November 1989

23

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LL: Well, the alternative is perhaps to put an article in there talking about: "Hey, reviews are
very important, and yes, people who write reviews probably have more experience listening to this stuff than you do. However, when you read areview, you should then say to yourself, 'Well, if it's avery expensive piece maybe Ishould spend the money for an airplane ticket
to New York and spend acouple of days there listening to the stuff before Idrop 20 grand on asystem.'. ..If you're going to spend alot of money, you should spend maybe five or six hundred or athousand dollars, do alittle vacation, go listen to this stuff, really listen to it, and make sure it's what you want."
JA: Ishould point out here that Lew made himself very unpopular among the Washingtonarea retailers by advising in aWashington newspaper last F211 that people in that area should go to New York to listen to equipment. [laughter] LL: Iwrote that if you really want to find out what high end's about, you should go to New York, spend aweek up them Then you'll learn about high end. And it's true! LG: Having seen azillion reviews that end "This might be the right amp for you but you'll have to go and listen to find out for sure," your whole feeling about the review just goes zzzlit! Because the guy is copping out from taking a stand. As areviewer, if Ilike aproduct I'm going
to say, "If Iwere in aposition to buy this, this is the product !would buy" And if! don't, I'm not trying to tell other people they must do this. On the other hand, Ibelieve what I'm saying. Okay? And I'm not going to qualify it to the point where it's meaningless. LL: At the end of the Levinson 23 review, Isaid, "I'll put my money where my mouth is and buy it." And Idid.
AB: Ialways remember Gordon's comment at the end of the Paoli 60 review Quite some time back, right? Where Gordon said, "The
manufacturer/designer is afriend of mine. I'm not telling you to buy it, but Ithink this is the best there is." Which was very nice.
I'd like to agree with what Tom mentioned when it comes to cartridges--I've just spent
some time with cartridges, as has Tom--I really believe that there's almost no store where aperson can go in and get afair evaluation of what
acartridge can do. Especially when you have to compare it. Because of franchises, this guy sells, let's say aRowland, another guys sells a Reference, and etc., etc ...

The Cheapskate finally realized that most stuff is cheap because it's not very good
JGH: Acartridge audition is useless unless you audition it in the same tonearm that you use and with the same preamp. JA: The next point I'd like you all to comment on is that we seem to have asplit in our readership. Many readers appear only to want to be told about the state of the art, what designers are doing when cost is no object. However, there is also asignificant body of readers who say, "`Yle don't want to hear about that, we'd like only to read about the best equipment that we can afford." How does the magazine handle those apparently incompatible demands? TJN: What's the definition of what I, as a reader, can afford? It's going to vary dramatically.. . RD: Ithink there's room for variability. And there should be. DO: You've got to have asmithering of both. You're getting back to the comments Arnie made about the car magazines. You know, you review aFerrari, or aLamborghini, because people dream about, "Gee, what would it feel like to own one of these things? To drive it. What's the feel of sitting in one of these things?" When Iwas that poor an audiophile, Iused to dream about all this expensive stuff that Icouldn't afford to buy. It's avicarious pleasure and there is room for that. But let's not lose sight of the real world, and for most people, a$1000 amplifier is it! JA: But how would you feel as reviewers if I kept sending you acontinuous diet of $750 pre:amps, $1000 amplifiers, and $1000 speakers? Pretty soon you'd say, "Enough!" JGH: Like Sam. JA: Like Sam Tellig. We get so many letters asking what happened to the Cheapskate? And the answer is that Sam finally realized that most stuff is cheap because it's not very good. TJN: You also lose your perspective, because when you don't know what the best sniff sounds like, you don't know how good the cheap stuff really is. JGH: We are in the best position of any magazine to be evaluating mid-priced equipment, because we have the best basis of comparison. The state-of-the-art stuff.

Stereophile, November 1989

25

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JA: But Gordon, you're the one person who gets most impatient with mid-price equipment for not sounding nearly as good as the very expensive stuff! JGH: What I'm saying is, Ithink we should be definitely stressing the high-end stuff. But I think we should also be trying as best we can to at least be covering some of the lower-priced
items. Because occasionally someone will come across something that's adamn good buy. Guy Lemcoe: My feeling is that it's aquestion of affordable new entry-level high end, or used
state-of-the-art high end. Idon't know what the position of Stereophile is in recommending scouring Audiomart's pages for used components. At usually afraction of the price new. TJN: Read the old reviews. GL: Exactly, this is what Ifind myself forced to do because I'm in no position to be able to afford, you know, aVP! Mk.III new from a dealer. Ifthere was adealer in Santa Fe And this raises aproblem with the uniqueness of Santa Fe--it's very difficult here to audition anything
that you're excited about. You'd like to go hear it. And as aconsequence Ispend alot of time going through the fine print in Audiomart with my little yellow pen ...
DO: It's atreasure trove of goodies. One of the best preamps out there is the Audio Research SP-8, which can be had used for under $1000. Would you rather own an old SP-8 or anew Lazarus? GL: Or anew PS Audio? Ithink this is an issue that manufacturers probably are not going to accept. That at some point in areview we might recommend buying aused VPI Mk.II as opposed to anew VP! Junior. JA: The magazine bas totally avoided the fact that there's alarge secondhand equipment mar-
ket out there. Stereopbile's focus is exclusively on the new.
RL: But the new becomes the old at some point...
LL: You can't satisfy everyone all the time The thing is that lots of people who read the magazine are very opinionated, they're people who know what they want and don't give adamn
about what anyone else wants. Ithink the magazine does have to talk about the very best equipment. But there is other equipment out there that is good, it's not high end, but it's
worth reviewing and should be taken seriously. Of course, how much space do you have? You're the editor and Iguess it really comes

down to what profile you and Larry Archibald want this magazine to have And the readers are going to have to live with that. But you're not going to satisfy everyone Do you want to have it mainly high end or do you want to split it? JA: Iwant both. Iwant to read about the kind of equipment that Iwish Iwas able to buy. On the other hand, Ithink an important role for the magazine is to give its readers hard buying information on what most of them actually purchase. Those twin goals are to me equally important.
JGH: Ithink the stress must be on the state-ofthe-art stuff. TJN: Ithink the mix we've had over the past couple of years has been fine. JA: Peter [Mitchell] has offered to write acol-
umn on inexpensive equipment and Ithink that that's something we should definitely publish.
PM: Ido think Stereopbile needs aclearer focus on the middle of the market than it has at present. Since we lost the Audio Cheapskate column, you need to replace it with something. Because an occasional review of an Adcom preamp is not sufficiently visible emphasis on the affordable end of the range. And Ithink we should be even more aggressive in seeking it out. DO: What do you mean by "affordable?"
PM: Imean exactly in the right price range that most of our readers are buying equipment in. Which is $5000 systems ...
GAG: One of the things that Ihave areal problem with when Iread it in magazines and when Ihear it from high-end dealers is the attitude
toward people who don't have afortune to spend on hi-fi, the attitude that "Well, you can't
spend that amount of money? Sorry, you can't enjoy music. You won't be able to listen to music" Ihave areal problem with that. And I think often it's more challenging. If someone has $5000 to spend on apreamplifier--yes, there are some out there that are obviously not worth the money--the chances are pretty good that what they buy for $5000 will at least be reasonable. Ithink it's more of achallenge to help the entry-level--and Ilove Guy's term "entry-level high end," Iuse that term myself--I think it's very important to bring new people into this business by steering them in the right direction on affordable equipment.
Iagree with Tom Norton, Ithink the magazine's balance between the state of the art and the affordable is very good right now, Iwould

Stereophile, November 1989

27

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like to see it continue in that direction. It disturbs me that there are readers who are offended
by the fact that there are acouple of equipment reviews of affordable products. Iwould have aproblem with aperson like that. If you've got $10,000 to spend and you don't want to read the GTP-400 review, well, that's okay. You don't have to read that review. But gee, aren't there enough other things in the magazine to make it worthwhile to you? PM: Ithink the opposite problem is probably areal one. Imean, there are only about 10,000 audiophiles in this country who can afford $20,000 systems, doctors and lawyers mostly. If the magazine's circulation is growing, it's now 40-some thousand and probably heading, eventually, close to 100,000. JGH: What is it? JA: 45,000 this year. PM: Most of the new readers are going to be in the $5000-$10,000 system category. So you have to have agrowing emphasis in that price
range if you want to satisfy those readers. JA: However, Larry Archibald and Iboth feel that there is anatural ceiling on Stereopbile's circulation in this country of probably 60,000. To do any more than that would require such adilution of the magazine's contents that neither of us would still want to be involved in it. PM: So you don't really want to compete nose to nose with Audio magazine? JA: How could we without destroying what we feel Stereopbile's good at?
LL: Last night John and Ihad aslight disagreement during dinner about this point. Ithink that he sees Stereopbile as amagazine that should be targeted to the small number of "audiophiles" and is always therefore going to appeal to asmall number of people. That may
be the case. Maybe that's what we want. And we shouldn't sell out. Stereopbile shouldn't become Stereo Review and it never will. But Gordon had agood point when he said that
we're in the driver's seat. Ihave asmall consulting business, Ihelp people set up audio systems in the Washington area, and I've run across people who knew nothing about high-end audio at all. They just like music, and they generally don't spend afortune on equipment. I'd talk to them about audio and explain about good equipment and explain what you get for what you spend, and they were always satisfied
with the system [I recommended]. Alot of them have read Consumer Reports,

This is what Iused to call "audio-porn"
God forbid, and most of them subscribe to Stereo Review. But what Ialways do is give them acopy of Stereopbile, generally when I'd come to their homes for the first consultation. Isay, "This is the magazine that Iwrite for. You may not be buying in this price range, but Ithink you'll enjoy reading it." And almost to aperson, they say, "This is fascinating reading. Alot of the stuff is more expensive than Iwould probably buy, but it really made me think about what Iwant and what music reproduction's all about." And most of them either become subscribers or buy it from alocal shop. But over the past years, out of those people, about 30 have become lunatic audiophiles. To the point of being absurd--they go by an audio shop and their noses twitch. This magazine has turned them into audiophiles. That should tell you something. People knew from nothing about audio, and they now love this magazine. So there's something there for people who aren't originally audiophiles. RD: Ultimately it is the circulation figures that are the bottom line in terms of people's satisfaction with the magazine. JGH: And the renewal rate. GL: Ithink that Dick mentioned, the magazine should be fun to read. It should be interesting, we can't lose the entertainment value of the magazine. I'll never own a$12,000 amplifier. But Ilove to read about them. JGH: This is what Iused to call "audio-porn." [laughter]
GL: But as Lewis mentioned, to convey to the reader the thrill of discovery of a musical experience--to me that's the most important thing when Iwrite areview. Ihope I'm successful in conveying the excitement that Ifeel when Iput acomponent in asystem and it uncovers layers of music that Iwasn't aware of before. This, Ithink, is contagious. Once that bug hits you and you bear the sheen on strings, or the shimmer on massed strings, you'll never forget it. It's anirvana. Unfortunately, you'll never be satisfied with anything less from that point on, but all it takes is one experience. Apositive experience. When you hear it you're hooked. You go from being anon-audiophile listener to being an audiophile listener. But most importantly, they're listeners. And that is what is most important. Listening to music Let's not forget the musical experience. Because that's

Stereophile, November 1989

29

the end result of all of this. This is the perspective Icome from. The
hardware is fine, but it's what Ihear with my ears that's the most important determining factor for me. Again, we come back to the subjec-
tive vs the objective. It's difficult. People want to be told. "This is what you should buy" "Editor's choice: five stars, four stars, three stars. .."
--let's not fall into that trap. LL: Ithink it's important that we try to find a way how we can get more visibility for high-
end audio The average John Q. Public doesn't know that the American high-fidelity industry is the finest in the world. JGH: Or exists! LL: Exactly. Ithink what we have to do at Stereopbile is to say "There is ahigh-end community in this country. It's the best in the world. You go to Japan, what do they buy? They buy American stuff. How about that? Hmm!" People's eyes'll light up. That's the first thing Ido when Igo to aclient's home. Isay, "Japanese stuff is great, mid-fl stuff is great, but do you know who makes the finest audio equipment in the world?" They say "Who?" Isay "The United States!" And they say "What?! The US?" And they look at me like I'm ascrewball. JGH: Ihave been talking for years about the idea of trying to get together an institute or something like that which will promote highend audio. JA: Well, Harry Pearson's promoted this Association of High-End Audio Design. Ifeel they should present President Bush with an allAmerican, high-end hi-fi system.
LL: He doesn't want it. JGH: He'd never listen to it. His tubes would
last forever. JA: That would generate the kind of publicity
Lew is talking about ... LL: Itried that. It got to Mrs. Reagan, and she didn't want it. And the Bushes don't want one. Just acouple of months ago Italked with the head usher of the White House about just such aproposal about high-end. He said the Bushes are not interested. JA: But it made such an impact in the '70s when the Carter White House was presented
with an all-Japanese system. That was big news even in England. JGH: Maybe we can send one to Gorbachev, he's supposed to be an audiophile. LL: The National Symphony is going to Rus-
sia next February. Iwas thinking, what we

The average John OPublic doesn't know that the American high-fidelity industry is the finest in the world
should do is set up ahigh-end system for Gorbachey6and then in the papers in the US, you would read "Gorbachev given high-end American audio system--What does our President own? Japanese!" [laughter] JA: Would anyone care to bring the discussion to aclose? GAG: Alot of it's been alluded to, but Ithink one of the real strengths of Stereophile which continues to this day is its attitude toward its readership. Stereophile has always treated its readers as equals, like friends sharing information. Which is very, very different from our major competitor, which treats its readers with contempt. Igot an interesting reaction from the students who take my "Audio Fundamentals" course Ihave them go to the library and review the audio magazines--the college gets Stereophile, The Absolute Sound, The Sensible Sound, The Audio Amateur, Speaker Builder, Gramophone, and Stereo Review. This summer was the first time we had done this, and many of my students said The Absolute Sound is pompous, arrogant. At the same time, they said Stereophile seems on the level. RD: They should read The Audio Critic. GAG: Ithink that's very, very important and I really hope we keep in that direction. JGH: We will. JA: That whole attitude stems from Gordon. JGH: And John has not changed that at all. JA: As Isaid earlier, we're all drawn to Stereophile for similar reasons. Iwas drawn to Stereophile because when Ifirst read Gordon-- which was very hard, Gordon didn't make it easy for people to read Stereophile in England in the '70s--this was aman speaking my own language He wasn't talking down to me, he was talking straight at me. It was obvious that with his experience and with his abilities, this was somebody Icould learn from, but this man wasn't pompously standing back and saying "I know it all. Just read what Isay and believe it." He was saying "This is where I'm coming from. Think for yourself."
6Unfortunately, we were too late. According to areport in the September '89 issue of the German magazine Audio, Gorbachev was recently presented with a Restek/Backes & Alüller/Transrotor/SME/Ortofon system.

30

Stereophile, November 1989

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LETTERS

We regret that resources not permit us to reply individually to letters, particularly those requesting advice about particular equipment purchases. Were we to do this, asignificant service charge would have to be assessed--and we don't have time to do it anyway! Although all are read and noted, only those of general interest are selected for publication.

More record reviews?
Editor: Consider this avote for more record reviews (perhaps shorter) and less letters.
S. Clifton New York, NY

What the hell is soundstage?

Editor:

What the hell is soundstage? Iread about this

in Stereopbile but have never seen it defined,

along with alot of other audiophile jargon.

E B. Cannonito, Ph.D.

Irvine, CA

Soundstage (soundste, n. The illusion of a

two- or possibly three- dimensional space

created between and behind apair of loud-

speakers when a system plays back a two-

channel recording that bas been encoded so

as to contain the necessary informational rela-

tionships between those channels (by use ofan

appropriate microphone tecbniqug for exam-

ple). Sometimes referred to, less descriptively,

as the "stereo image." Ability of asystem or

component to create this illusion referred to

as soundstaging (or imaging), though the verb

"to soundstage" is not used.

--JA

An apology
Editor: Ifeel Iowe you and your staff an apology. Afew months ago, Iwrote aletter to The Absolute
Sound in which Ilikened your publication to Stereo Review. [Mr Knutson 's letter where be referred to our esteemed journal as Stereoreview- phile, appeared in TAS Issue SZ p.12.--Ed.]l had been dissatisfied with several of your issues and equipment choices, and following the tone of much underground writing, Ilet acheap shot fly. Afriend of some of your staff called me and, during our discussion, explained the dedication of you and your people.
End of cheap shots. There is nothing like seeing your remarks in print to make you wish they were more tempered.
If the truth be known, Ihave been buying

Stereophile at the stands for ayear or so now.

and! felt Ishould less up like aman and get a

subscription regardless of my remarks. Ifind

both underground mags to be indispensable,

each in its own unique manner. Ilike the way

Stereophile is published monthly and covers

alarge variety of equipment. Ireally appreciate

your coverage of digital issues, and Iread

closely anticipating the day (or year) when I

make the digital plunge.

Ireally like your explorations in the realm

of testing. Aside from the peak-current issues,

Ifeel the real difference between amps involves

multiple tones modulating each other, which

Ibelieve happens when an amplifier is non-

linear. Isuspect much of the so-called above-

hearing- range stuff modulates and creates

byproducts in the very audible range. Keep

chipping away at it.

Mark Knutson

Fridely, MN

Lifestyle mimicry?

Editor:

You now have all the toys and swelling sub-

scriptions. Please, give up the mimicry of Harry

Pearson's lifestyle. Imean, how many people

can one man's plate feed?

Marc Rechan

Audio Systems Ltd., Richmond, VA

Hub? Actually, apartfrom trying to be agood

writer and editor and listening to as much live

music as possiblg attributes which are hardly

HP'S exclusive preserve, the only part of his

lifestyle Iwould consciously mimic would be

to drive a red Corvette. A car which is de-

cidedly neato-bang, as New Yorkers would

say.

-- JA

Something missing?
Editor: Ihave enjoyed reading "my" first four issues of Stereopbile cover to cover. In that period of time Ihave upgraded my old system to B&K, Adcom, and Precise Acoustics. Your articles and reviews were very helpful in determining which direction to take. Ialso found your classical recording reviews informative, especially Breunig's "Building aLibrary."

Stereophile, November 1989

35

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Iwish, however, that Icould enjoy the publication even more. My problem, and Iassume the problem of at least asmall percent of your readership--everyone starts from the affordable to the expensive, from the simple to the complex--is that having just begun to read about and purchase hi-fi equipment, Iam at a disadvantage in understanding the underlying concepts, definitions, and standards within which manufacturers build, reviewers analyze, and trained audiophiles listen to and enjoy reproduced sound. Would it be possible for
you to start aseries of articles that addresses the needs of the audio neophyte?
Thank you for having opened the world of hi-fi to my ears. Itrust that you will continue
to do so in the future. ". ..And when she sang, the sea, Whatever self it had, became the self That was her song, for she was the maker. .." --Wallace Stevens, 1934 Edgardo Tenreiro Naples, FL

Lazarus defended

Editor:

Regarding Dick Olsher's review of the Lazarus

Hl -A amplifier in the August issue, Iwant your

readers to know that Idon't agree with his

findings.

Iwork with live, unamplified classical music

almost every day of the week. Ihave found

Lazarus amplifiers and preamps to be com-

pletely musically satisfying.

It took along time for me to find equipment

Ican live with, and now in areview Isee it

"shot down."

Iencourage any audiophile to give this gear

alisten. It is totally reliable and completely

musically satisfying. (I use single-strand solid-

core cable, maybe that makes adifference. I

haven't found amulti-strand cable Ican live

with.)

Dana Ross

Los Angeles, CA

Why no Klyne?
Editor: Iread with interest the CES reports in the August issue. ..and was amazed that all four of your reporters failed to even mention what this attendee considered to be the highlight of the SCES--the Clearaudio/Klyne exhibit. Not only did both companies have new products

on display, their live exhibit was superb--by

far the most natural and musical this listener

heard at the show. It was probably one of the

few exhibits that concentrated on producing

good sound rather than hype--was that their

failing? Or was it that they were being avoided? Whatever the case, it seems adisservice to your

readers to drone on and on and on about noth-

ing, when real news goes unreported. It's hard

to believe that afew months ago amagazine

could be ranting and raving about some flap

over the Klyne SK-6, and then not even bother

to follow up at the show! It's unfortunate,

because if you had, you would have discovered the SK-6 has evolved into aunique and deli-

ciously musical product, the System Six--an

innovative new concept in preamplifier

design--and, in this audiophile opinion, very

newsworthy. But obviously you are more con-

cerned about politics than really informing the

public. Iguess that's why I'm not asubscriber.

Iread for amusement rather than education--

the latter one gets by listening.

So pray tell, dear Editor. ..are you and your

reporters blind or just deaf? Samual Webber

Portland, OR

I'm pretty sure they're not deaf but as to blind-

ness, it is an impossible task for even four

writers to visit every booth and room at aCES

in the three and ahalfdays the show runs-1

remember LAR Hotline's J. Peter Moncrieff complaining bitterly in print some years ago

about thefrustration this engenders in respon-

sible journalists--and this has been exacer-

bated in the last twoyears by thefact that high-

end distributors at the SCES are widely spread

out, in geographical terms. It is unfortunate but inevitable, therefore, that even alengthy

show report like that which appeared in our

August issue will have some important omis-

sions. In the case of the Klyne, as with other

products that were not mentioned, this was

not deliberate; -political" bias is never afactor It's ashame that Stan Klyne didn't alert

any of the magazine's writers beforehand that

Klyne bad something bot at the show, but qat

all possible, we will give alisten to the new

preamplifier

--JA

Error at the SCES
Editor: The Summer CES article in the August issue of your fine magazine had asmall error. The Foun-

Stereophile, November 1989

37

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Corlan is an acrylic/mineral-based material; Fountainhead adds polyester to the formula to allow it to attain aglossier shine. Corian's slightly higher mineral content makes it slightly more inert. Both materials do have some fairly low-Q resonance problems, but they are easy to control with various damping techniques. Obviously an acoustically perfect material does not exist, but these products, when used correctly, are among the best choices for many applications. We have found that y4"Corlan and Fountain Head provide better results than IA".
Because of the unique acoustic and cosmetic qualities that these materials offer, they are sure to be used extensively in future upscale audio products. If the retail price 0f530-45/square foot comes down, they might even find their way into the audio mainstream.
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Little Canada, MN
Stick to hi-fi!
Editor: Ilook forward to receiving Stereophile every month. Ienjoy its editorials on hi-fi components. Ibecame extremely upset while Iwas reading Lewis Lipnick's CES report in the August issue Ibuy this magazine for its editorial comments on hi-fi equipment. Idon't buy it for comments on unions.
Lewis Lipnick can have his views on the pro/anti-union question. It bothers me when he states just surface facts. He complains about all the exhibits having to be erected by union help. Who does he want to do the work? Nonunion? The exhibitors?
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology conducted astudy on the question of union vs non-union help. They found that the union help worked at ahigher rate of speed, with better results. You get what you pay for.
In answer to the second question, would you rather have an expert perform aheart bypass, or abystander that has seen it done a couple of times?
Lipnick's next complaint, "I heard several

stories of union help charging in excess of fifty bucks just to tighten a screw, or move an exhibit table ten feet," sounds like hearsay to me. Iwonder if Mr. Lipnick would buy apair of speakers that he beard were good.
The magazine is good when it sticks to hifi equipment. The Editors should try and keep the articles and reviewers on material that is pertinent to hi-fi equipment. Otherwise I'll take my Union wages and spend them elsewhere.
A Proud, Productive Union Member James E. Berry
So. Weymouth, MA
Tramp the dirt down ...?
Editor: Brian Lynch's letter in August about left-wing drivel reminded me of some of the trash that has been appearing in Stereopbile's record-review pages in recent issues. If you're trying to one-up TAS in this regard, be assured, from this observer, that you're on your way to success.
Irefer you in the first instance to Richard Lehnert's tacit approval in May (p.155) of Elvis Costello's wish for an early death to Margaret Thatcher. Iwonder if Lehnert was as disappointed as Costello must have been when an assaçsin's bomb failed to blow her up in ahotel afew years back.
Then there's Kevin Conklin's remark about Glenn Miller feeding the fishies at the bottom of the English Channel. On the basis of that statement Iimagine he finds it just as amusing to contemplate the thousands of English and American soldiers, sailors, and aviators who fed the fishies of the oceans as aresult of WWII.
Conklin keeps up the good work by terming Hermann Scherchen a"crazy" German conductor. I've been reading record reviews for 40 years, including many that savaged aconductor's interpretation, but not one has ever used the word "crazy" to describe the conductor.
Both Conklin and Lehnert are quality writers. Unfortunately, the words taste and discretion appear to be unknown to their thinking processes. By the way, John, just what is the responsibility of the editor in these matters?
Sid Marks Brooklyn, NY Sid Marks, hub. The Sid Marks? Richard and Icertainly apologizefor unnecessarily offending the sensibilities of any reader Given the evidently aching delicacy of Mr Marks's sensibilities, Iwill gofarther and submit bimfor

Stereophile, November 1989

39

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inclusion in that benighted circle ofprotectors

of the public taste that includes Tipper Gore,

the Rev Donald Wildman, and, of course, as

its Victoria Regina, Jesse (Tbbacco is Betterfor

You than Smut) Helms. Damn, some people

want to make the world boring.

--KC

ldon't understand how anyone could have

read my Elvis Costello piece and come away

thinking Ihungeredfor or approved, tacitly or otherwise, of Thatcher 's early deatb. You

had to work pretty bardfor that one, Sid.

--FtL

Actually, Idid think KC's comment was

somewhat in bad taste but, bey, that's up to

him: these people are hired to write the mag-

azine for their experience, knowledge, and

opinions, and Itry not tofit the latter into the

straitjacket of my own tastes and opinions.

Should I, for example, have published Lewis

Lipnick's anti-union grumblings in his

Chicago report? The answer must be "Its," no

matter bow Imayfeel about union member-

ship--for a while, I was active in union

politics--on the grounds that LL made acase

for its relevance to the subject, which in this

instance was the organization of the SCES. 7b

do so, of course, may upset those who only

want to read Stereophilefor its views on music

and components, but where such amatter sig-

nificantly affects the high end, it must be

reported. "Editor as Censor" is not a role I

particularly relish nor see as desirable--see

this month's 'As Wt,See It"for alonger discussion of these very issues. In view of the next let-

ter however is it something that Ishouldper-

haps consider more seriously?

-- JA

An offensive ad
Editor: Ijust received the September issue and made it no further than p.40, the full-page advertisement for Amrita Audio.
That is the most offensive advertisement! I cannot believe it appeared in the pages of your fine magazine. Ihave subscribed throughout the 1970s and, after abrief period of military duty, Iresubscribed. However, this one advertisement is so offensive, Icannot continue to subscribe any longer.
Please cancel my subscription. Ihope that this advertisement does not portend the style of journalism you are beginning to underwrite.
BJ. McLellan & Robert McLellan Overland Park, KS

As Publisher, Larry Archibald isfundamentally responsiblefor overseeing the advertising side of the magazine. Ihave asked him, therefore to answer the point raised by the McLeltans over this Amrita ad, which Iagree is in pretty poor taste. (It's also astupid ad--maybe we should send Amrita a copy of David

Ogilvy's Confessions of an Advertising Man.) However before Ihand thefloor over to Larry

Iwould like to make the point that whether something represents adeparturefrom nor-

mal standards of taste depends on what you

call "normal." No upon reflection, Istill don't relish the idea of "Editor as Censor" Stereo-

phile is written by andfor adults. If, for whatever reason, acompany decides to run an ad

that asignificant number of readers willfind offensive, then afree and open marketplace

will respond appropriately in that that com-

pany will suffer aloss of image andperhaps even sales. lthink it more productivefor the

McLellans to actually write to Amrita to tell them that theyfind this ad offensive. --JA

Stereophile 's policies with respect to accepting advertising are quite open-ended. As our statement above the Ad Index (next to last page

in each issue) says, 'Advertising published in Stereophile is accepted on the premise that the merchandise and services are accurately

described, and are available to customers at the advertised price" We like Harry Pearson, will not accept advertising for known

carcinogens--by which is meant tobacco

products--and Iwould reject advertising that attacks or smears aparticular ethnic, reli-

gious, or racial group. We have in the past

rejected advertising employing graphic sexual depictions. Nevertheless, asJA points out,

our role is not that of censor We examine tbe

ads we publish prior to publication, but will not reject them on grounds ofpoor taste except

in the most extreme cases. Isaw the Amrita ad soon after we received it, and remarked on its

poor taste. Asidefrom the questionablejudg-

ment displayed by the advertiser in associating his product with deceased animals and their burying grounds, Idid notfind that the

ad maligned animals in any particularfash-

ion, or in away that defied the common taste to adegree strong enough to warrant rejection. We apologize to the McClellans for the

shock they experienced, but Ihave to say that

we'll run the Amrita ad again if Amrita

decides to place it again.

--LA

Stereophile, November 1989

41

TIMELESS INNOVATION
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Say what?
Editor:
It ought to be added to the letter of "our" Mr. Firmer (and the Atkinson; see Stereopbile, July 1989, etc.) from the "knowledgeable" Pearson's The Absolute Sound because "our" Fremer, etc., leave designedly unsaid the most important things.
During 30 years different American, British, German, Japanese so-called scientific audio journals, so-called Hi -Fi journals, so-called audio companies have spread the idiotic reve-
lations on transistors sound, valve sound, digital sound, TIMD, Fuzzy, etc, etc, etc However, all such chauvinistic, charlatanic and ignorant journals/companies have never known even fundamental things in real Sciences such as Kotelnikov's and correct Kharkevich's "digital" theorems, non-linearity fundamentals, dynamic range for analog and digital, real causes of transistors sound nature, Rout of transistors, etc., etc, etc
But such retarded charlatans (IAES, HFN/RR, Lipshitz, Buck, Clark, Fehr, Plunkett, so-called "presidents", s-c "papers-committees," so-
called "conventions committees," etc, etc, etc) have heard TIMD, even the couple of insidious electrons as transistors sound causes! Now such
charlatans (see the AES "tube" workshop, 85th cony, without any scientific knowledge on such subject) conspired, began to speak: --Ilansistors distortions do not exist, We do not hear, and adigital is perfect, etc."
Why do we have such ametamorphosis? Because such absolute proofs of existence of
real causes of transistors (and AES digital)sound have been furnished and such proofs show per-
fectly absolute ignorance, chauvinism, charlatanism of such charlatanic "uniques," "organizations." However, dear readers, how is it possible to admit such correct scientific denials
.from such ... American Russian for the western charlatans, chauvinists.
However, Mr. Fremer, etc have been warned (in Aug.-Sept. 1988) that the above-mentioned
AES international charlatans, thieves tried to entrap them for charlatanic purposes. But they have participated. Moreover, the real scientific, etc. proofs had been furnished in the abovementioned time. Mr. Fremer uses ironically the word "scientists," but we guess Mr. Fremer, etc have never seen real scientists in the audio.
The above-mentioned charlatans, "organizations" were and will be exposed publicly and

globally on AES conventions (New York-83rd,

Hamburg-86th, globally, completely on New

York-87th, 88th, etc). We have turned out also

AES ex-managing editor MacDonald and see

next. In the future we will give the absolute

proofs that the American, German, British, Jap-

anese charlatans, journals, companies have

never known even American fundamental

things (even American people with hearing-

aids hear some of the transistors distortions,

see the Amer. book) in the audio from even

American physical, non-charlatanic journals.

In afew, several years you will see alot of very

interesting, unusual scientific things in the

audio, new scientifically based revolutionary

designs with even American, etc components.

Now certain ...editors, charlatans, parrots

want to be clever after the facts and without

any proper, legal reference. However, all so-

called companies, editors, journals, etc will pay

for violations (we have all legal rights on many

main things and nobody can publish, use (!)

our revealed and many undisclosed materials

without our permission) and our IISC organi-

zation and lawyers are collecting cases (see also

HFN/RR May 1985, pp.21,23).

And retributions are just beginning (for the

audio duperies of audio community of many

years).

Dr. Yury Mlloslaysky

New York, NY

As Dr Afiloslaysky's letter was accompanied

by onefrom bis legal representative instruct-

ing me to print it or else, Ifelt it appropriate

not to alter one word in editing, even if intel-

ligibility tbereby suffered.

-- JA

Great British Frauds?
Editor:
Would the distastefully anglophobie Clark Johnsen ("Letters," August 1989) be so kind as to let us know who (or what) the two remain-
ing "Great British Frauds in Science" are, along with the venerable Sir Isaac?
David G. Wisker San Pedro, CA

Garbage in/garbage out
Editor:
After reading Clark Johnsen's letter in Vol.12 No.8, Ifelt compelled to again write. Even as Ienjoy basking in the warm glow of recogni-
tion afforded by Mr. Johnsen, Imust respond to his inference concerning the "current American educational system." As aformer teacher

Stereophile, November 1989

43

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and the spouse of aprofessional educator, Itake exception. Although it may be convincingly argued that this august journal is not the forum for discussing the faults and foibles of our public educational system, Iwill simply comment that there is not adamn thing wrong that cannot be immediately remedied by improving the
quality of the parents producing the students. Garbage in/garbage out. 'Nuff said. (I will, in fairness, concede that the concept of aLiberal Arts education has been lost in the technological shuffle, much to the detriment of our society.)
If! may attempt to darken the already murky
waters embarked upon by Peter Reichelt ("Letters,"passim), he is correct in the assertion that the sound of acoustic (classical) music is a known quantity. Recorded classical music is rarely subjected to overdubbing and other travesties of the modern recording studio. All of the instruments involved are apart of the same acoustic space. As aresult, reverberation times, reflected sounds, and the like sound consistent to the ear. Iam sure many of your
readers have heard for themselves examples of badly produced studio recordings in which care was not taken to acoustically match the
overdubs to the original basic track. Classical music, even that recorded from several studio "takes," does not cause the listener's ear to
become confused. It is arare live rock recording that even remotely approaches listenable, let alone any real use in detecting the nuances
differentiating sound-reproduction equipment. However, awell-recorded instrument can be useful if the listener is sufficiently familiar with its intrinsic sonic character. Regardless of the source, the fundamental question is one of timbral accuracy. Does a"Tele" sound like a"Tele"?
Musical instruments, whether they are acoustic or electric, do possess acoustic sounds of their own. Anyone who has ever played such
an instrument (electric) knows this to be true from experience. Even the brand and type of strings used on an electric guitar can dramatically affect the sound, and this can be detected without connecting the instrument to an amplifier. Then the cable and amplifier further modify the sound. Players choose amplifiers on the basis of sound as much as aviolinist chooses abow or awoodwind player chooses areed. Have you ever wondered (or cared) why such amplifiers as the Fender Win Reverb, Mar-

shall Concert Stacks, or HiWatts have lasted so long? They have sounds of their own. JA is on target with his refutation of TAS's John Nork, at least in this regard. While it may be impossible to discern on arecording the amplifier in question, Ithink Mr. Atkinson would find it rather easy to tell if the player was using adifferent amplifier from his usual choice.
Gregory Campbell Hancock, MI
Just when you thought it safe. ..
Editor: Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the "Letters" column ...
Iregret to inform you that one more on rock as an acoustic standard is warranted. As acritic who's seen over 3000 sets of live rock'n'roll in the past 13 years (by 600-700 bands in well over 100 venues) yet who has ahealthy love for symphonic music, Ithink Ihave some points worth making.
To begin with, JA's extremely interesting response to Peter Reichelt's latest letter (August, p.23): while it is of course true that electric guitars have little or no acoustic signature, they have adistinct electronic signature imparted by the pickup. There's no mystery here; the double-coil "humbucking" pickup on aGibson Les Paul is avery different beast from the single-coil pickup on aFender, and the different constructions of Telecaster and Stratocaster
pickups (or even early and late models of the Strat), and the resulting more subtle difference in sound, is well known. This is what JA is hearing.
As far as different guitar amplifiers imparting different sound, ifJA can't hear that, too, he simply lacks the proper education. Aweek at CBGB (or the Santa Fe equivalent) should suffice. Ivividly remember playing anew album for aroommate (like myself, aguitarist) to get his reaction to some particularly fine sonic-assault guitar, and his shouting "Marshall amp!" upon hearing the song's first note-- which was admittedly asqueal of feedback. (It couldn't have possibly been aMesa Boogie, the other current favorite.) While bass amps, which are more often solid-state, have less of adistinct character, there are actually guitar effects that one can spot right off--the Boss Chorus, for instance.
In his January letter, Mr. Reichelt uttered the

Stereophile, November 1989

45

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heinous and all-too-common phrase "pop and rock," which is alittle like saying "wrestling--
both pro and amateur." Idon't think he really needs to be reminded of the enormous difference between the two (despite the best efforts of the former to convince consumers that they are buying the latter). In pop music, the recording itself is the work of art (unlike traditional
music, where it is, of course, the score, or jazz, where it is each and every performance); they are essentially studio creations which do not in any way (and are not intended to) represent
alive music performance. They are thus, as many have correctly pointed out, worthless as an acoustic standard. What you hear when you see Madonna perform, for instance, is an attempt--ultimately doomed to failure--to
recreate on stage what was created in the studio: strangely, the precise reverse of the dilemma that most great rock bands face.
Because there is still such athing as genuine
rock music, which can be defined as astyle in which the musicians are granted astrictly limited degree of freedom to depart from or elaborate on the basic score, and indeed are
expected to do so to generate and communicate excitement. The work of art is thus the theoretical ideal of the score (as played by that specific group of musicians). Thus the live performance and sound are preeminent, and the recording an attempt to capture them.
Mr. Reichelt correctly points out that most
rock concert-goers hear the music through highly colored horn drivers. If his goal is to recreate the sound at the 47th row of Madison Square Garden, he may indeed be better off with Klipschorns. But there is an absolute
sound for arock band, and that is the direct, live sound from the stage, with the amplifier volumes determined by the acoustic volume of the drumkit (which can be extraordinarily loud) and only the vocals through the PA--
which then stands in the same relationship to the singers that the instrument amplifiers stand to the musicians.
That is, indeed, precisely how all rock bands rehearse whenever possible, and it is often how they hear themselves on stage in their infancy
and youth, before stages get large enough that instruments as well as vocals are needed in the monitors. It is also the sound of rock'n'roll as played in tiny, hole-in-the-wall clubs. All the elements in the signal chain, at this point, have adistinct sonic signature.

Anyone who's heard alot of rock'n'roll in small clubs thus has agood shot at using it as areference when they audition for equipment. All they need are one or two bands whose live sound they're intimately familiar with, and whose records they know were produced with faithfulness. Those lucky enough to have followed alocal scene with some fervor have a good chance of satisfying these criteria. Boston, for instance, has at least two superb local producers in Rick Harte and Lou Giordano, and most of the top homegrown bands have worked with one or the other. When Iaudition gear Iuse Mission of Burma's Rykodisc CD and the Lyres' On Fyre from New Rose.
These--especially the former--also put the lie to Mr. Reichelt's thesis that certain breeds of rock'n'roll are invariably poorly recorded, and achieve their unique effect in part because of it. Maybe badly recorded music does sound
better on lousy systems. But the Mission of Burma CD is about as visceral and powerful as rock gets--fierce, high-energy, high-entropy music--and most of it sounds glorious on a great system. Which is to say, maybe, that "the release of anger" can itself be "a sophisticated emotional and intellectual experience," rather than an alternative to it.
Indeed, the combination sounds like a description of rock at its best. Has Mr. Reichelt listened to "My Generation" or "I Can See For Miles" recently?
Which brings me to my last point. In comparing rock'n'roll and "serious" music as art forms, Mr. Reichelt is forgetting all about Stur-
geon's Law. "Ninety percent of everything is trash"; rock is no exception. The classical repertoire we all know so well is acarefully cultivated ten percent. Before he goes overboard
extolling the virtues of classical music at the expense of rock, let him try confining his listening of the former to asingle 20-year period.
Even then it would, however, be arigged game Thanks to the music and radio industries, ninety-five percent of the rock music worth cherishing simply doesn't get heard. One hopes that Jack Bruce's early '70s solo albums
and the works of Mission of Burma, Big Star, and Pere Ubu, for instance, will be well-known classics 200 years from now; in the meantime, they couldn't be more obscure., Until Mr.
IThis letter was written before Idiscovered Beth Jacques's very welcome review in the hack of the issue--a fine job, if rather too cautious in its praise

Stereophile, November 1989

47

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Reichelt has explored all this stuff, his view of

the relative merits of the two styles is necessar-

ily warped.

Eric M. Van

Brookline, MA

Richard goofs

Editor

Ienjoyed the article by Christopher Breunig on Sir Adrian Boult in your July 1989 issue.

However, Ihave two comments:

First, RL's footnote stating that most of the

recordings cited in the article are available only

in the UK is incorrect. Ido not know where Mr.

Lehnert does his shopping for recordings;

however, all of the Boult EMI recordings cited in the article are readily available on CD in the

US. The Nixa label is admittedly alittle harder

to find, but Ihave also seen it carried in some

of the better record stores in the US, and it is

advertised in some mail-order CD catalogs.

Granted, neither EMI nor Nixa is an American

label, but their CDs are most definitely avail-

able outside of the UK. (Also, some of the older

BouIt recordings were available briefly in the US on the imported PRT label.)

Second, Iwas disappointed to read in the

article that the Lyrita recordings will remain

unavailable for the foreseeable future. It is true, of course, that many of the recordings in the

Lyrita catalog have been superseded by newer

recordings of the same works on Chandos,

Nimbus, etc. However, newer is not always superior. Moreover, some of the works avail-

able on Lyrita are still unrepresented on other labels. Iwould urge that some enterprising

recording company buy the rights to the Lyrita

catalog and begin reissuing it on CD.

Richard S. Sandmeyer

Aberdeen, MD While checking the US availability of the

recordings mentioned in Christopher's arti-

cle, and in the dearth of comprehensive clas-

sical record stores in New Meziog Iconsulted

the then-current Schwann catalog and pub-

lished the results in myfootnote My apologies

for any inaccuracies.

--RL

LSB goofs
Editor:
Ithoroughly enjoyed reading Les Berkley's excellent review of two Bach harpsichord
recordings in the August issue. However, the Wildboar recording engineer's name was misspelled throughout the article. (Michael Lynn's

name was correctly spelled in the heading.) Mr. Lynn is an accomplished musician him-
self and approaches recording with asensitivity to the music that is not always present in other recordings. Perhaps it is this sensitivity which results in the more reverberant acoustical environment of the Wildboar LP.
Roger W. Sherman Seattle, WA

Gary goofs. ..
Editor:
Gary S. Krakow's review of Living Colour (August, p.191) was essentially on the money except for two aspects. First, William Calhoun
may have received the Buddy Rich Award at Berklee, but he received it because he is a drummer. This should be obvious from the name of the award. More recently, Mr. Calhoun received the "Up and Coming Drummer" award from Modern Drummer magazine. Muzz Skillings is the bassist.
Second, for Mr. Krakow to compare Living Colour to Guns 'N' Roses is absurd: Guns 'N' Roses is a fad for 16-year-old kids. Living Colour has avalid message in their music.
As for the people who cannot deal with the fact that Living Colour is ablack rock and roll band--that is their loss. Steve La Cerra
Brooklyn, NY

...but wasn't scared

Editor:

Ithoroughly enjoyed Gary S. Krakow's review

of Living Colour's new album Vivid (August

1989, Vol.12 No.8), but Mr. Krakow seems to

have some of his information mixed up.. .1 thought it was great that Mr. Krakow discussed

the White/Black issue the band has been facing

and wasn't scared to talk about it. Keep up the

good work.

Benj. Hoffman

Young musician and percussionist

Columbia, MD

Time for achange?
Editor: It's time for us to make afundamental change in the way we do things. That picture of Mr. Thiel's CS5 crossover in August should be enough to scare anybody. What do you say we get together and do something about those silly passive crossovers?
There isn't areason in the world for serious audiophiles to use single amplifiers and big,

Stereophile, November 1989

49

" What does 20 Hz. g104 dB
with less than I% T.H.D. mean?
It means the cleanest, most accurate bass reproduction system possible.
At Velodyne Acoustics, we're committed to providing our customers with unparalleled
bass reproduction.
Imaintain that the pure, undistorted bass from aVelodyne Servo Subwoofer is the single most dramatic addition you can
make to your audio/video system. yy
David Hall, President
Velodyne
Not Just ASubwoofer; The Subwoofer.
Velodyne Acoustics, Inc.
1746 Junction Ave., San Jose, CA 95112 408/436-0688 800/VELODYNE

ugly crossovers between their amps and speakers. It's just damned stupid ahundred ways. Passive crossovers ruin an amplifier's control over aspeaker, sophisticated ones are heavy and expensive, they all must be compromised to acertain degree of electrical efficiency, eat power anyway, are nonlinearly microphonic; all things considered, it's amiracle that they ever work well.
And all this because people just want to hook up one pair of wires. What ahell of aprice to pay for such atiny convenience.
Ipropose, as an audiophile standard, one conventional dual-channel amplifier for each loudspeaker system. Let the loudspeaker designers do whatever they want to do within that standard. This will be an entirely optional alternative system, to be used whenever a designer considers it appropriate.
Is this arbitrary? Yes. Is it imperfect? Yes. Is it limiting? Yes. Is it aheck of alot better than what we're doing now?
Yes. Before anybody's argument reflex kicks up, what could you possibly say against this scheme that would make it not a terrific improvement over the way things are being done now? Bi -amplification would distinctly increase efficiencies, and generally render unnecessary the hysterically overbuilt amplifiers sometimes used to force dynamic systems into obedience 2 (other technologies are another story). Intermodulations would vanish to asurprising degree. With astereo amplifier sitting behind each speaker cabinet, you wouldn't need much speaker cable, avoiding its problems, which are plenty. You could even choose appropriate high-frequency and lowfrequency cables; experimentation would be fairly cheap fun. Abi-amp system would, of course, require aspecific active crossover for the top section/bottom section splits (three-way-and-up systems will still have some crossovers aboard, but greatly simplified ones). Of course, this is an area where asloppy designer can screw up, but so what? Nobody's enough of aliberal idiot to throw out the baby for areason like that (are they?). We can expect certain individuals to emerge as quality subcontractors for the system manufacturers. It's just not aproblem
2This kills me. Its like compensating for arubber driveshaft by bolting in aHemi

unless somebody makes it aproblem.' And hold on to your hats: It will be so easy
to include application-specific tone controls in the active crossovers that their presence will become amatter of course. Compensation without degradation! Amanufacturer can have aknob for controlling the treble edge that some people like, bass alignment filters; all for free in an environment of existing filters.
None of this stuff is news. It's all so promising that it sounds like ahigh-tech dream, and it's not at all. Teenage rock bands do it, it's common in car stereo, so where the heck are we? The only reason that bi-amplified systems aren't common in home stereo is that nobody's had the nerve to say, "Let's set this arbitrary standard, work with it, and we'll get generally better results."
Well, damn it, let's do it. Let each of the better multi-driver speaker systems come with ablack box; we'll put anice little amplifier of our choice behind each cabinet. There will be immediate improvements in clarity and dynamics and efficiency. As development follows this path, we'll be far beyond anything possible with the restrictions of today's passive boat anchors.
Hilary Paprocki Rochester, NY
Whither video reviews?
Editor: Ifeel compelled to write you for the first time with one comment and one correction. My comment is on the demise of High Fidelity magazine. In the August issue, you note your astonishment at the amount of coverage devoted to video. No, Iam not going to engage in adiatribe on the increasing integration of audio and video. Iagree with your comment, but as avideophile as well as an audiophile, I lament the passing of HF, because its reviews of video equipment were vastly superior to those in either of the mass-market video magazines. For example, HF alone measured the video frequency response of tuners in monitor/receivers, and VCRs. 4After all, what good is amonitor with 700 lines of resolution, or an ED-Beta, or S-VHS, or Hi-Band 8mm VCR, if the receiver portion doesn't even come close
3Pardon the plug, but the people at Ashly are very smart and
very helpful 4This is analogous to testing areceiver and forgetting to test the tuner in addition to thc amplifier portion.

Stereophile, November 1989

51

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52

Stereophile, November 1989

to the 336 NTSC limit, but instead puts out a is availablefrom The Perfect Vision, PO. Box

measly 200 lines of resolution, which, unfor- 6384, Syracuse, NY 13217. In the meantime,

tunately, is the rule rather than the exception. the venerableJGH (in whose ears we trust) is

So!, for one, do mourn the passing of HF for publishing a videophile newsletter called

one of the very reasons you don't. (Of the two Video Theater, availablefrom 870 Crescent

"videophile" publications, Videofax, which had outstanding reviews, is down the tubes, and The Perfect Vision (sister publication of

Drive Boulder; CO 80303. (Again, this has no connection with Stereophile) The third issue of Video Theater hadjust appeared at the time

TAS) publishes very intermittently, has few reviews, and suffers from the same one-person

of writing and, according toJGH, asubscription costs "S6for 6issues in the US, 114 over-

bias that characterizes TAS.) My correction is on p.145, where the asser-
tion is made that "Shure HTS is still the only

seas (airmail), but will be going up to 112 and $20 respectively because nobody takes us seriously at our present ridiculously low rates."

major holdout in the Pro-Logic sweepstakes."

This is not true. Fosgate also uses proprietary

logic circuitry called Pro-Plus, based on the 'UN unfair to MTV?

work of Peter Scheiber and Jim Fosgate. Pro- Editor:

Plus is not similar to or based on Shure's AcraVector system; nor is it based on Dolby Pro-
Logic. (For example, Pro-Logic decoders have afixed release of one second, while Pro-Plus

Iam responding to an observation Thomas J. Norton made in the August 1989 issue of Stereopbffe, because my experience at the SCES was quite different from his.

decoders have variable release times. Further,

Ialso observed the Sony 111TV and was quite

in the Wide mode on Fosgate decoders, they alone are capable of projecting atrue stereo image to the rear channels.) While Iappreci-

impressed by its performance. Iam quite surprised by his pronouncement of expected improvements when HDTV makes its way into

ate that for avariety of reasons you may not have been able to test aFosgate decoder for

our hemisphere. Diagonally across from the Sony demonstration, Matsushita was showing

your article, it seems to me that within the con- its much heralded HDTV unit. While the wider

text of the paragraph BS could have mentioned aspect ratio of HDTV invalidates comparison

that Shure is not the only major Pro-Logic of these sets with conventional television

holdout.

Robert A. Whitehead \Xest Hartford, CT

receivers of similar diagonal measurement, the fact that the top-to-bottom picture measure-

Whither Videofax?
Editor: Iwas just going through some old magazines

ments of the Sony and the Panasonic display
units were within an inch of each other does permit afair comparison. The Sony's picture was sharper, more clear, and gave the appear-

and found acopy of Videofax #3/4. Whatever ance of greater detail. Iwent back and forth

happened to it? Do you recommend any other magazine with asimilar focus?

between the two displays anumber of times to be sure my observations were accurate.

FredJeffery When Iasked the Panasonic representative if

Saugus, MA Videofax, edited throughout its history by
Marc Wielage was briefly published by1 Gordon Holt, from 1986 to 1987 (though it bad no
connection, financial or otherwise, with Ste-

this was the quality of picture that would be available in the actual sets delivered, he proudly assured me that this was aworking prototype
of their best model scheduled for delivery. I found anumber of other visitors to the show

reophile). The last address we badfor it was PO. Box 481248, Los Angeles, CA 90048-9743,

had the same reactions to the two displays that Iwas having. So much for the greater glory of

but 1understand that it has since been merged future technology.

with the eminently readable The Perfect Vision, edited and published by Harry Pear-
son. An issue of TPV has not appearedfor a

Back at the Sony display, Ialso found a27" version of the IDTV. The picture was astounding, appearing even sharper than the larger-

while, but a recent editorial leader in The screen set. The Sony people told me that this

Absolute Sound stated that one was in preparation. A subscription to TPV costs $22 and

set was currently on the market, only the $4000 list price was adeterment. After shop-

Stereophile, November 1989

53

NEW.

I've just designed a

new solid state amplifier.

In many ways, it's my best

work and I'd like to tell you

about it

I've given my new

Bob Carver

solid state Silver Seven-t

more absolute maximum output current into low

impedance reactive loads (including 0.5 ohms) than

almost any amplifier Iknow of: 50 amperes. In fact,

Dan D'Agostino's BIG Krell is the only one that tops it

Not only that, I've also given the Silver Seven-t

more output voltage than any other amp except my

own Silver Seven Vacuum Tube Amplifier (which beats

it, but only by afew volts). Nobody else's amp that I

know of has more output voltage-- and that includes

the new OIL tube amps on the market.

Ican get all this voltage and current because I

have agreat patent, the Magnetic Field Power Supply.

In updated form with lots of energy storage, it easily

producesfive times as much current as any other

power supply of the same manufacturing cost.

But Bob, bow does it sound?

Beyond the sheer power required for explosive transients and rolling thunder, the ability of an ampli-

fier to reproduce the subtle, dimensional shadings of a delicate soundstage depends on its transfer characteristics (a scientist would say transferfitriction). I've given my new solid state amplifier atransfer function that comes as close as Ican possibly make it to my Silver Seven Vacuum Tube Amplifier.
No, they are not eraclly the same. But with production nulls at approximately 40dB, they are very, very close. So close that if Iclose my eyes and drop my concentration for amoment, the transistor version can completely fool me into thinking I'm listening to the vacuum tube Silver Seven.
Like the Silver Seven, the Silver Seven-t is a mono amp design, so you will need two for stereo; the pair costs $2,000.00.
Until my next ad, warmest regards,
4 ea., /..e/t.__
Bob Carver
P.S. If you'd like to know more about transfer functions, voltage and current, and the Silver Seven-t, please write to Carver Corporation, Literature Department, RO. Box 1237, Lynnwood, WA 98046.
CARVER

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ping around, Ifound the set at afew dealers

with an actual selling price ranging from $2500

to $3000. With amoney-back satisfaction guar-

antee from my local dealer, Ireached into many

pockets to come up with the sum. Ihave not

been disappointed.

Although a27" screen is far from huge, the

viewing experience is quite rewarding. Watch-

ing agood laser disc with the lights switched

off and the Dolby Pro-logics unit switched in,

the screen seems to grow enormously in size.

Even the smallest dot in the fine print of the

credits is clearly resolved. Since this dot is actu-

ally smaller than the fine detail normally

observable in a scene on the large movie

screen, Isuspect that HDTV may be overkill in

the resolution area, while ultimately disap-

pointing in its aspect ratio. Most proposals do

not even fill the normal wide-screen ratio, let

alone the width of blockbuster Cinemascope -

style movies still being filmed. Iexpect to be

quite content with IDTV for some time to

come.

Martin P. Neudel

Chicago, IL

What should we review?
Editor: In your August "Letters," Anthony Mattina suggests that those readers who are looking for a better selection of affordable equipment read Stereo Review. Give it abreak! Your recent reader survey (Vol.11 No.10) indicated that the majority of readers would be better served by an "enhanced" selection. It appeared that 68.3% of those responding found the Audio Cheapskate to be the most helpful and informative among all of your reviewers. It was also noted in this survey that over half of those who responded have systems valued at less than $5000. (Consider also that some of this $5k is in the form of signal processors, r2çsette decks, and even hi-fi video.) Sorry, folks, but this amount of money does not buy state-of-the-art sound reproduction. Nor does it correspond to the level of equipment most often reviewed. It is actually rather unfortunate that your editorial policy appears to parallel the thinking of people like Mr. Mattina, as eliminating columns like the Cheapskate does an obvious

disservice to most readers. It would appear that more than half of your readers should instead subscribe to Stereo Review, at least according to Mr. Mattina. The loss of these readers would probably put you out of business!
The bottom line for these readers is that Stereopbile is one of the few magazines that evaluates equipment for sound quality. Just because most audiophiles cannot afford state-of-the-art megabuck components does not mean they lack ears for accuracy. If you really want to serve what appears to be amajority of readers more effectively, your review policy should
seek abetter balance between the state of the art and what is affordable to most of those readers.
There are many good components priced between cheap mid-fl and the ultimate high end that are not being evaluated for sound quality, but Ipersonally am not offended when they do appear in your magazine. Stop catering mostly to the elitist audiophiles (they are not the bulk of your support), many of whom feel the need to ridicule others for not living up to their standards (a disturbingly common occurrence in your letters column). Most average audiophiles who read Stereopbile, at least the ones Iknow, aspire to own the ultimate in highend gear but must make compromises due to economic factors. What they do not wish to do is lower anyone else's standard.
Dennis L. Chase New Cumberland, PA
Affordable or SOTA?
Editor: My feeling is that Stereopbile should review anything that has stirred an interest in the audio community, and/or that would be of use to its readers. But as far as inexpensive gear is concerned, Ifeel that space should be allotted to only that equipment which represents exceptional value Ithink Stereophile should do more to seek out such equipment, but I--and apparently many other readers as well--am not really interested in reading about, for example inexpensive and not particularly successful loudspeakers.
Peter Aizupitis Arlington, VA

5Yes, Idid say Dolby Pro-Logic. Since almost all theaters in mthaijsorciotuyntorfythaeraeteerqsuiinptpheedawdivtahncDeodlbnyatSitoenrseoofuntihtes,woarsladr,c tthhies is the steering logic that directors and professional sound mixers will he addressing for some time to come.

See this month's 'As tit,See It"for adiscussion

of the issues raised by Mr Chase's and Mr

Aizupitis's letters.

--JA

Stereophile, November 1989

55

NOVEMBER 1989

o

Flip Side

THE NEWS-

LETTER OF AUDIOPHILE SYSTEMS

Get Organized!
New Products from Sound Organisation
Having the proper support for your equipment can actually improve its performance. When the Sound Organisation first introduced their turntable table some years ago. the critics raved. Never before had such a simple accessory made such a large improvement in the performance of a hi-fi system.
Now Sound Org introduces the new Z28 Turntable Table. This new table, designed specifically for use with turntables, features updated cosmetics (including a sculptured, black lacquer top shelf) and improved performance. In A/B tests with a variety of turntables the performance advantages of the Z28 were clearly audible. We also found that this new table (5" taller than the original) placed the turntable at a much more convenient height for normal operations like cueing and changing records. We strongly suggest you give this one an audition.
You've probably seen the SO Stackers around. With avariety of base units and add-on shelves, they allow you to customize the configuration to suit your system. Now SO introduces the Video Bridging Unit. This shelf actually bridges the gap between two sets of SO Stackers, providing a convenient shelf for your video monitor. Just the thing to house your audio/video system. And, since you can add more stackers later. you're always ready for that new piece of equipment.
Are your CD's scattered all over the floor? Ever hear one snap when you step on it? Sound Org to the rescue. The new SO CD Insert fits any of our shelving units. It just slips in from the front and holds about forty CD's. It even fits into the lower section of an SO Record Rack, allowing the record rack to provide convenient storage for both LPs and CDs.

I 1

1 I

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

Theta helps out
Editor: Following Lewis Lipnick's review of the Theta DSPre in the March issue, some of your readers may be concerned as to the quality of Theta's service. Four grand is alot to spend for apreamp from anew company. My story may be of some help.
Ipurchased aDSPre from an audio store in Akron, Ohio on December 16, 1988. Upon getting it home and in my system, there was aloud scratching sound in the left speaker when the
volume or balance was adjusted. Icalled the store and talked to the salesman who sold me
the DSPre (who also happened to be the owner of the store). I've made the drive from Pittsburgh to Akron quite afew times in the past couple years, purchasing components from this store. Ithought the salesman/owner would
want to rectify my situation quickly. Well, he said they were very busy (holidays and all), and Ishould be talking to their serviceman.
The serviceman was sure Ididn't know what Iwas doing. After playing "20 Questions" with him, he finally agreed there may be something wrong with my DSPre. He said they were very
busy (holidays and all), and Ishould wait a month to send him the DSPre. Iagreed to this. After all, if he was going to work on my $4000 preamp, 1didn't want him mad at me. Afriend who was also aDSPre owner suggested Igive Theta acall.
Mike Moffat answered the phone. Itold him of the left-channel noise. He said he had not seen this in any other DSPres and wasn't sure where the problem was coming from. He wanted me to send him my DSPre so he could duplicate the left-channel noise. He did not want the store where Ipurchased it to work on it. He said he might need afew days with my DSPre to get things right, and if he couldn't, he'd ship me anew one. He then asked if I would wait till the Las Vegas show was over because he was working to get alarge number of DSPres ready for the show. This was fine with me. Then he asked for the serial number of my DSPre --883506--and told me this is a coded number--mine was the 6th DSPre made in the 35th week of 1988. This DSPre had apparently been shipped to the store in early October, which put me off abit, because I ordered it in the beginning of October and the
salesman/owner had told me it would take two weeks to come. (I then called the store every

week till December 15. When Italked to the« salesman/owner on Dec. 15, he said my DSPre had just arrived. When Iarrived at the store to pick up my DSPre, the store no longer had a demo DSPre.)
Mr. Moffat decided to take care of my DSPre immediately and asked me to ship it to him Federal Express second-day air. He paid the freight in both directions, and asked me to call him collect if Ineeded to call again. Two days later he called to tell me aresistor had gone south.
He replaced it and did two upgrades at no charge. He said with the upgrades my DSPre sounded". ..awesome." He was right!
Mike George Pittsburgh, PA PS: Ino longer have to take three-hour drives to escape Pittsburgh's audio desert. Ifound an oasis in Better Sound Concepts. Their staff is friendly, knowledgeable, and service-oriented.

Discman disappointment

Editor:

Ibought aSony D-25 Discrnan on gerrophilès

recommendation, and while Iam certainly not

disappointed, Iam not as delighted as you

would have us readers be. (The player is aD-

25 because that has supplanted the D-15 you

recommended in Vol.11 No.9 and Vol.12 No.4,

and is 4x-oversampled rather than 2x-, thus

should sound better.) Ithought the sound was

not in any way comparable with my Mission

DAD 7000, which Ibought several years ago.

The D-25 is coarse, and sometimes tends to

shrillness. The little light on the screen does not

come on when the charger is not plugged in.

The controls have the confusion that all Jap-

anese products have because they offer things

that no one could possibly want.

Iwill use the D-25 with pleasure, but

thought that someone should express aless

enthusiastic feeling for this little machine. It will

serve nicely on vacation, which is why I

bought it.

Edward H. Bennettjr.

Lake Forest, IL

Discman repairs #1
Editor:
In January Ireplaced my first-generation Technics portable player with aSony D-15. Apart from the sound and aslight increase in tracking problems, the D-15 solved most of the inadequacies of the Technics. But after four months the D-15 started shutting off for no reason.

Stereophile, November 1989

57

_SORRY IDIDN'T CicITCM
YOU Nan

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Now it has spent more than two months at a

service center recommended by Sony (20

minutes on hold), which could not fix it. And

now it has been sent to the factory for repair.

ibmorrow Iwill be going on my vacation with-

out it. Iam told Iwill have to pay at least one-

third the original price to have it fixed. For this

Ihave paid a$25 deposit. Imust be patknt, and

understand. Denon made adjustments on my
DCM-555 in 2y2 weeks, 10 months after I

received it, for aS5 shipping fee.

Patience and understanding are necessary,

but Ihope that Sony will understand that I

don't intend to recommend their products or

buy another.

Stephen Sweigart

Cherry Hill, NJ

Discman repairs #2

Editor:

When Iread Bill Sommerwerck's review of the

Sony DT-10 (in May 1989, Vol.12 No.5), his

comments about the D-7s hit araw nerve. Ihad

the misfortune of buying first aD-5 and then

aD-7s. Also, it seems that Ihad the misfortune

of being younger than 21 and was not acon-

tributing editor to ahigh-end audio mag. To

make along story short, both the D-5 and the

D-7s were "below average quality." The D-5

lasted ayear and three months (I wrote it off

as being new technology, since it was one of

the first produced), and the D-7s, held in high

esteem by many, lasted exactly until the war-

ranty ran out and then could not be used.

When Ibrought in the D-7s to the store Ihad

purchased it from to get anew one or at least

to get it fixed, Iwas told (and Iquote), "Go to

hell, kid." When Itried to get some satisfaction

from Sony, no reply was given. It seems that

being an adult (as Iam, now) and an editor enti-

tled Mr. Sommervverck to special treatment not

given to me. Iwould be quite pleased if you

would publish this letter in Stereopbile. To say

the least, Ihave not bought athing from Sony

since.

Richard Myers

Beachwood, OH

Regarding the letterfrom Mr Bennett, thefact
that we recommended the D-15 highly cannot be taken as aguarantee that its replacement will be even better due to its use of 4x-oversampling rather than 2x. nuld that life could be that simple!
When it comes to the letters about limited lifetimes for Sony Discmans (Discmen?), I

shouldpoint out that, like Mr Sommerwerck's and Mr Myers 's, my Sony D- 7s (bought at retail) died after only 20 months' use and that rather than pay astiff repairfee, Ibought a different machine. Perhaps the issue here is that, like an inexpensive watch or camera, a portable CD player should be regarded as a disposable item--if it breaks, throw it away, buy another The cost of the skilled labor to repair the component is out ofproportion to its purchase price. However; 1forwarded copies of these letters to Mark Finer; Sony's
spokesperson: bis response appears in this month's "Manufacturers' Comments."--JA

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Stereophile, November 1989

1989 Philips Consumer Electronics Company -
Philips superiority is clear, from this graph showing deviation from ideal linearity Ic1B) vs recorded level IdEh.
IDEAL LINEARITY .PHILIPS SELECT GRADE 4
The heart of the CD960 is the Philips dual 16-bit DA converter chip, the TD-1541 select version So refined it flawlessly reproduces even the quietest passages with aclarity never before achieved This exceptional EPA converter is mated to aPhilips 4X oversampling digital filter for superior performance Philips pioneered 4X oversampling and our experience with digital filtering is unequalled

THE PHILIPS CD960. CLOSE TOLERANCE COMPONENTS
FOR PEOPLE WITH No TOLERANCE FOR IMPERFECTION.
The CD960 compact disc player incorporates only the most uncompromising components because it has been designed by the world's most uncompromising audiophiles: Philips engineers. The same engineering experts who invented compact disc technology.
·Broadcast standard "Radialinear" transport. Philips commitment to exacting specifications is also evident in the CD960's mechanical construction. It features a high-grade cast alloy chassis. Alinear-design motor was chosen to drive the radial pivoting arm for fast track access and exceptional resistance to external vibrations.
·Multiple power supplies. To eliminate cross talk, the CD960 incorporates no less than four separate power supply sections. And the 100-watt main transformer is partitioned to further shield against magnetic and power line interference.
From the company that created the compact disc, Philips proudly offers the CD960 for those who won't tolerate anything less than perfection. To audition the CD960, visit your nearest Philips audio specialist.
WORLD-CLASS TECHNOLOGY. EUROPEAN EXCELLENCE.
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USA: John Atkinson
According to areport in This Week in Consumer Electronics (7WICE)in September (Vol.4 No.36, pp.5 & 46), an American company called Finial Technology was to launch alaseroptical LP turntable at the Tokyo Audio Fair in October. "Wow!," Ithought. "That's what all of us analog addicts have been waiting for!"
But this concept seemed vaguely familiar. Hadn't someone already launched aturntable that played LPs by reading the grooves with a laser?
Why, yes. In the very first issue of Stereophile that I edited, Vol.9 No.5 (August 1986), we ran astory by). Gordon Holt on how impressed he had been by the sound of aturntable that used a laser to read the mechanical groove modulations. We even made it the cover story because the turntable was due to be launched before the end of that year. The company was called Finial Technology. Then Iturned to p.41 in the January 1989 issue of Stereopbile to read "Now that the Finial Technology laser turntable is available through at least ahandful of dealers ..." However, in the February 1989 issue of the magazine (p.46), readers were told that "Finial had decided that the player was too expensive to produce and had abandoned the project, dismissing the relevant staff." Could it be that the Finial Technology due to launch an optical turntable at the Tokyo show was the same Carillon-owned Finial Technology that confused journalists and consumers alike by holding two press conferences within aseven-week period at the end of last
Stereophile, November 1989

Finial's LT-1 Laser LP player

year, first to announce that production samples of the turntable had reached dealers, second to announce the cancellation of the whole project?
Why, yes.
Only now, it appears that the projected retail price for the optical turntable is to be "in excess of $20,000" rather than the original $3786-1 loved the confidence Finial showed by quoting an illusory price to all four significant figures-- and that it is to be manufactured in Carillon's facility in Japan rather than in the US. In addition, the TWICE article indicated that Carillon was preparing to sell the 35 production prototypes that had been made before the plug was pulled on the entire project. Stereopbile's Peter Mitchell will be reporting from the Tokyo
Audio Fair in the December issue, so we shall see how "real" aproduct the Finial turntable appears to be In the meantime, Peter offers the full story behind the Finial's revival below. Carillon's Jacques Robinson went on record in TWICE to say that the Finial turntable would be demonstrated at the January 1990 CES but "probably in aprivate hotel suite. ..to avoid distracting dealer attention from the firm's ADC hi-fi line."
In view of this product's history, Iam not going to hold my breath waiting for areview sample.

USA: Peter W. Mitchell
In this Halloween season, when ghosts arise from the g,rave and walk abroad in the land, the story of the month has to be the return to life of the on-again off-again Finial Laser lbrntable. Production plans, dealer appointments,
and retail price ($3786) were announced by Finial ayear ago, but only 35 were built and only about half of those worked correctly (The
miniature optics in the tracking head proved unexpectedly difficult to align.) Thanks to that and other problems, the company decided that the retail price would have to be doubled. Since
there "obviously" would be no consumer market for an $8000 record player, Finial canceled the turntable last January. But three years of advance publicity had built up high expectations among LP collectors, and acrash of disappointment resounded around the world.
Finial hoped to sell the design to alarger company with the financial and engineering resources to manufacture the turntable efficiently, but no attractive offer emerged. Meanwhile, requests continued to flow in from potential customers, including both well-heeled record collectors and institutions attracted by the promise of wear-free play of unreplaceable LPs. The message that Finial heard, both from eager customers and from consultants, was that this product must not be allowed to

Stereophile, November 1989

63

In Britain --home of many audio aristocrats --one name is legendary. So seminal, in fact, that several dictionaries list "Tannoy" as the synonym for "sound system."
62 years after its founding, Tannoy remains the loudspeaker of choice for audio professionals. More recording studios choose Tannoy for their monitors than all other brands combined. It is no coincidence that 98 of the 100 top-selling albums since 1983 were mastered on Tannoys. In 1988 the industry recognized Tannoy's accomplishments by making it the first loudspeaker to receive the prestigious TEC award, created "to honour the audio industry's greatest achievements."
Honed in the exacting domain of professional sound reproduction, Tannoy's Series 90 monitors bring the legend home with classic refinement. From two-way bookshelf speakers to Tannoy's famous "single point source" monitors, the pedigree is pure blue-blood, and the sound is pure magic.
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die, and some customers would pay almost any product at which the number of sales and the

price to possess it. This persistent demand, profit per unit combine to generate maximum

especially from audio professionals and insti- overall income for the company. Airlines are

tutions, convinced the company to look harder masters of elastic pricing; when you fly from

for away to produce the turntable, not as a L.A. to New York, the fellow in the next seat

mass-market consumer item but as aspecial- may be paying two or three times as much as

order industrial product. Production has been you for his ticket. The 250 seats on aplane take

moved to Japan, where aligning the optical off and land at the same time but are priced at

head shouldn't be difficult for technicians used adozen fare levels, each with different restric-

to the tiny optics in CD players. The bad news tions. It's unfair and often frustrating, but it

is that since the laser turntable will be pro- works: planes carry fewer empty seats and air-

duced in small quantities and will be sold line profits are up.

mainly to people for whom cost is no object,

With expensive products there is aprice level

the price will be acool $32,000.

above which elasticity vanishes or reverses, so

How can the price of aproduct jump by a that demand actually rises with price. This oc-

factor of eight? The answer has to do with a curs occasionally in high-end audio: a$6000

basic change in marketing philosophy, from a amplifier becomes desirable precisely because

"consumer" product to alimited-production it is so expensive. (Never mind that the selling

device for aspecial market. (Some high-end price can be totally unrelated to manufactur-

audiophile products also fall into the latter ing cost. There is also an unconscious assump-

class, for example the Wilson WAMM speakers tion that if it's that expensive it must be good.)

and Mark Levinson power amps, for which the Exotic cars like the Ferrari Testarossa have a

total market may be only afew dozen or few hundred units rather than tens of thousands.)

similar cachet; their inaccessibility to ordinary mortals makes them more desirable.

The laser turntable was planned as acon-

At $32,000, the laser turntable is now in that

sumer product, meaning that the million-dollar realm. Finial expects to sell afew dozen turn-

development cost did not have to be paid back tables to sound-archiving museums, record-

out of early production. The initial price was ing studios, radio stations, and to afew wealthy

set as low as possible in the hope that areasonably large number of audiophiles (a few thou-

LP collectors. Some of the world's wealthiest audiophiles are in Asia (notably in Japan, Hong

sand) would buy it. With the resulting cash Kong, and Singapore); so Finial is re-launching

flow the turntable then could be re-engineered the laser turntable at the Japan Audio Fair.

for efficient mass-production in Japan, cutting

The market for this luxury product may be

the manufacturing cost in half. That version, larger than Finial suspects. It probably deserves

priced under $1500, would sell in large enough aspot in this year's Neiman-Marcus Christmas

quantities to pay back the development cost catalog, next to the sable coats and jewel-

and make the company truly profitable.

encrusted cigarette lighters. The combination

But when production difficulties pushed the of its exotic price and its unique status as the

price up and undermined this plan, Finial con- world's only light-beam turntable ought to

cluded that the turntable had no future as a make it anatural for Texas millionaires, for oil

consumer product--especially since many sheiks in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and for gadget-

new recordings aren't even being issued in LP loving show-business folk from Johnny Car-

form. It is being revived for amarket of afew son to Stevie Wonder, who will also value the

hundred, perhaps only afew dozen, customers Finial turntable for its CD-like operating con-

who need to play existing libraries of unre- venience and its built-in tick-and-pop filter.

placeable LPs. Since mass-production is no

Many potential customers for the laser turn-

longer contemplated, Finial chose aprice that table don't care whether it equals aGoldmund,

will pay back the development and tooling cost or even aLinn, in sonic refinement. Neverthe-

even if only afew dozen are sold.

less, we will try to obtain one for review. If

In normal product marketing, prices are Finial sells enough turntables to non-audio-

affected by "demand elasticity": lower prices philes to pay back the development cost, per-

stimulate increased demand, which enables haps next year the price could be cut to alevel

manufacturing to become more efficient. In that mere audiophiles can afford. You won't be

theory there is an optimum price point for each able to audition it at your neighborhood audio

Stereophile, November 1989

65

salon anytime soon; but if you're seriously interpolations. So even though the digital signal

interested, you can see and hear the turntable coming off the disk is stabilized in every CD

at Finial's plant in Sunnyvale, CA. (The nearest player by acrystal-controlled buffer before it

major airport is in San Jose.) Call (408) 720 - goes to the digital filter, it may acquire new tim-

9800 to make an appointment, and bring your ing irregularities by the time it gets to the D/A

most challenging records. If you only want converter--especially if the D/A is in adifferent

background information, you can buy the box, separated by interface circuits and acoax-

owner's manual for $100.

ial or optical cable that is being vibrated by

your woofers. This may help to explain why,

Jitter correction again

in some comparisons involving theoretically

My curiosity was stimulated by Bob Harley's superior outboard D/A converters, the CD

note on JVC's K-2 digital interface (September, player's built-in DAC has sounded better.

pp.36-47) and his observation that timing jitter

One effect of timing jitter is directly observ-

can alter the decoded sound even though it able in the output waveform. If the digital code

does not introduce code errors. Searching for apure high-frequency signal (say, 20kHz)

through back issues of aJapanese trade mag- is modulated by relatively low-frequency jitter

azine, Ifound several references to this problem (500Hz, for instance), then examination of the

in recent articles about CD-player design.

decoded waveform with aspectrum analyzer

As it turns out, the Kenwood "digital pulse reveals the presence of sidebands at 20kHz plus

axis control" (DPAC) circuit that Idescribed and minus multiples of 500Hz. This is aform

here in August (and whose operation is simi- of intermodulation distortion; in fact, the mea-

lar to the K-2 interface) was not the first at- sured output looks remarkably similar to an

tempt to stabilize the time-axis of the digital analysis of the scrape flutter in an analog tape

pulse signal before decoding. The "digital deck!

sync" IC in Sony's top-of-the-line two-piece

There appears to be a broad consensus

RI CD player accomplishes the same function, among leading Japanese designers that timing

regenerating aclean pulse-code signal that is jitter is asignificant source of sonic aberration,

precisely synchronized with the decoder's although we don't fully understand why. It

master clock.

remains to be seen whether all jitter-compen-

Several manufacturers became aware of time- sating circuits are equally effective, whether

axis problems when they began using fiber- astandard test can be devised to disclose a

optic links in addition to (or in place of) copper- player's relative immunity to jitter effects, and

wire connections for the digital signal. Evi- whether CD Soundrings have any sonic effect

dently the photocouplers used in many optical (for good or ill) in ajitter-corrected CD player.

links, while fast enough to handle a44.1kHz
signal, are not fast enough to handle the 8x - DAT SCAMS?

resampled output of the digital filters in many Can the initials of the DAT one-copy scheme,

recent players. Therefore Pioneer's DAC - SCMS (Serial Copy Management System), be

equipped integrated amplifier contains both turned into apronounceable word? Asimilar

an "optical transmission distortion correction circuit" and anarrow-band PLL (phase-locked

problem arose afew years ago in the computer field, concerning the SCSI interface that pro-

loop) that stabilizes the timing of the recovered vides aconvenient plug-in connection for pulse code. Kenwood's DPAC also contains a hard-disk units and other accessories. Two

narrow-band PLL just ahead of the D-to-A con- solutions were proposed based on the inser-

verter, for the same reason. Fisher's top CD tion of avowel sound: SeCSI, pronounced

players have ajitter-rejection circuit connected "sexy" (appropriate for a connection), or

to the digital interface transmitter that drives SCuSI, pronounced "scuzzy." Oddly, the lat-

its digital outputs.

ter is more widely used, though the actual per-

Several articles noted that vibration of fiber- formance of the SCSI interface is fine.

optic cables can be asignificant source of tim-

Of several possible pronunciations for SCMS

ing jitter. Other sources include power-supply that come to mind, Ilike "scams," reflecting the

noise, ground-circuit noise, and sample-to- fact that this copy-protection system actually

sample variation in the time needed by the dig- provides very little protection against piracy--

ital filter to do its re-sampling calculations and which is appropriate since the problem that it

66

Stereophile, November 1989

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Stereophile, November 1989

was devised to solve was largely imaginary in the first place.
Incidentally, while the recording industry is withdrawing its active opposition to DAT recorders, no major record company intends to produce quantities of digital tapes for sale anytime soon. Aware that the SCMS circuit implicitly authorizes home copying of CDs, some executives don't want to support the DAT format until new laws impose royalty taxes on blank tapes--a proposition that Congress probably won't look at again for at least two years.
Shortly after the midsummer DAT compromise was announced, Tandy chairman John Roach endorsed it. In apublished interview he added "We believe it does lay the foundation for agreement on CD as well, so we are ecstatic with the progress that was made." If the RIAA's sudden acceptance of the Philips one-copy proposal after two years of stalling was motivated by adesire to establish aprecedent that could be applied to Tandy's THOR and other home-recordable CD systems, that goal may have been achieved.
Tandy's April 1988 announcement of its THOR recordable CD system suggested that the recorder and discs could be available as soon as Christmas 1989. That's not going to happen; the most likely target date is about a year away, je, before Christmas 1990. But even if all the technical details are worked out, you might not be able to buy it then. One lesson of the DAT wars is that new technologies are
governed as much by political economics as by engineering. 'Cindy may have the first homerecordable CD system, but it's not the only one in the works, and other manufacturers are unlikely to stand idly by while Tandy sells THOR to the world.
Recall that Philips first announced its Compact Disc in 1978, but discs and players didn't appear in stores until 1982-83. During that interval Philips negotiated atechnology-sharing agreement with Sony, many parameters of the system were improved, and international committees selected the CD over other proposed digital audio disc (DAD) systems as the world standard. In asimilar vein, there will be pressure on Tandy to withhold its THOR system from the market until international standards are adopted for the home-recordable CD. So while aTandy-only THOR system could be
marketed next year, we may have to wait several more years for an industry-standard system

incorporating technology from Philips and Yamaha as well.
What would people do with ahome CD recorder? The conventional assumption in the recording industry is that CD recorders, like DAT decks, would be used mainly to copy CDs. The mental image that causes bad dreams at CBS is that of ateenager (or aprofessional pirate) buying one $14 Springsteen CD and copying it onto dozens or hundreds of $5 blank discs for resale If that's what people want, they don't have to wait for THOR, or for an international standards conference. The technology exists today to produce the CD equivalent of adual-well cassette deck for copying CDs. With no need for THOR's erasability, the duplicator would simply be aCD player with its digital output connected to aTaiyo Yuden CD-R recording deck. The latter is currently being produced only for professional users, but if the THOR system doesn't appear next year aconsumer CD-R recorder might be produced to fill the gap, with aSCMS chip to limit the number of CD copies.
USA: Robert Harley
Classical music fans in Southern California were due for ashock at the time of writing: KFAC, the area's venerable all-classical-music radio station, was to stop broadcasting classical music sometime in September. Instead, the station's new owners intended to adopt a pop/rock format in the search for greater profits This move will leave Los Angeles as the only area in the US with more than amillion in population without acommercial classical radio station.
KFAC began broadcasting classical music in 1931 and has become an institution to Southern California music lovers. With over 800,000 listeners, KFAC commanded asizeable audience and, consequently, advertising revenue. In fact, the station's advertising time was nearly always booked, resulting in ahealthy operating profit of from $2-$3 million per year. With statistics like these, the inevitable question is:

Stereophile, November 1989

69

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Why must KFAC die? The answer lies in acomplex web of corporate greed, government deregulation, and the skyrocketing value of media commodities.
In 1962, KFAC was bought for $2 million by Cleveland Broadcasting. By 1986, its value had increased to $33.5 million. That was the price paid for KFAC by Edward Argow and Louise Heifetz, daughter-in-law of the famed violinist Jascha Heifetz. The new owners had no intention of selling the station, but they were made an offer they couldn't refuse. On January 18, 1989, Argow and Heifetz announced the sale of the station to the Dallas-based Evergreen Media Corp. for $55 million, anew record price for aclassical music station. With that large a cash outlay, Evergreen Media Corp. could not recoup its investment from astation earning "only" $2-$3 million per year. The company decided to scrap KFAC's format, listeners, and nearly 60 years of good will in favor of competing in the highly profitable rock radio market.
This strategy of buying astation solely for its antenna, license, and facilities is known as "buying astick." ("Stick" is radio industry jargon for astation's transmitting antenna.) "Buying astick" is analogous to arecent trend in Beverly Hills in which aperfectly good home is bought, then immediately demolished to make way for amansion. Evergreen Media Corp. was not interested in classical programming. Rather, they were willing to pay that huge price for a"stick" in Southern California.
It was apparent that the new owners had to generate more income than KFAC's classical format was earning to pay off the debt incurred by the $55 million purchase price. This huge price tag is partially aresult of the Federal Communications Commission's decision in 1982 to drop the so-called "three-year rule." This rule stated that aradio-station owner could not resell the station for at least three years, discouraging speculators from buying and reselling stations for quick profit. When this rule was abandoned, smaller stations with modest
profits became ahot commodity, driving up prices.
One beneficiary of KFAC's switch to arock format is KUSC, amostly classical public station that broadcasts from the University of Southern California. In addition to donating many rare records to KUSC, KFAC is urging its listeners to switch to KUSC. With only 318,000 listeners, KUSC could be in for awindfall. How-

ever, some industry analysts think that LA won't be without acommercial classical station for long.
Whatever the underlying forces that drove classical music from the Los Angeles airwaves, the fact remains that KFAC's demise is ablow to the cultural vitality of Los Angeles. On KFAC's last two days of classical programming, at the end of every disc jockey's shift, the program director had scheduled Haydn's Symphony 45, better known as the "Farewell."
UK: Ken Kessler
Xenophobia has nothing to do with my feelings that the two most important hi-fi launches at the 1989 Berlin show were British. With all due respect to the myriad German loudspeaker manufacturers showing wild and wonderful products, few if any are distributed beyond the country's borders. Iadmit that companies like Delec (a gorgeous full-remote-control preamp) and Einstein (the cleanest electronics ever produced) have potential beyond the Fatherland, but none of the German firms in the specialist hi-fi halls have the global recognition of Linn and Celestion. And both of these companies showed products which will "kick ass" in their respective sectors.
Linn showed (behind closed doors) apreproduction sample of the Linn Basik turntable first mentioned at the summer CES. I'd spent the intervening two months wondering what the company would produce, and they shattered my chances at becoming hi-fi's Nostrodamus by delivering something totally unlike that which Iand others had imagined.
Not that we should be adjudged fools for anticipating asuspensionless, electronics-free Axis. After all, the target price is something like 70% Of the Axis, so ditching the electronics and the subchassis architecture should be enough to produce the necessary savings. Instead, the Basik is an all-new turntable, and I'll stifle my disappointment until Ihear it playing.
Disappointment? Well, yes. What greeted me in aprivate conference room on the Linn stand looked just like the new Rotel turntable at £80 ($130) less. Only the Rotel is achunky, solid piece of equipment while the Linn can at best be described as flimsy. But first the good bits:
The Basik comes fitted with the new Akito tonearm, the replacement for the Basik Plus. Among this arm's refinements are afixed head-

Stereophile, November 1989

71

shell, fatter armtube, ballrace bearings, and what seems to be more robust construction. The Basik is supplied without acartridge The platter is aslightly thinner and therefore lighter version of the Axis platter, with the sensible cost savings of an unpolished underside. The belt and felt mat are as per the Axis and LP12, while the bearing is the same as that of the Axis. Motor is the familiar 115V device installed with adropper resistor, while the on/off switch resides under the edge of the platter.
The rest of this two-speed belt-drive deck is amix of the good and the tacky, especially when compared with the Axis itself or with the less expensive Rote!, the AR (with its true suspension), the beautifully constructed Regas and
Revolvers (the former coming supplied with one of the best arms on the market), various Thorenses, and ahost of others.
Item 1: The Basik features acast, machinedplastic stepped pulley and inner-platter/hub. (Speed change is à/a AR and Rega, by manually moving the belt.) Metal fittings at this price do not seem unreasonable, but Iawait the inevitable sonic justification.
Item 2: The turntable rests on three solidrubber, nonadjustable feet, replacing the complex ones fitted to the prototype. I'll assume that they sound better.
Item 3: The base itself is made from relatively
thin, folded Medite instead of the solid blocks
seen on other suspensionless designs. Aspoonshaped tin thing,ie covers the motor and wires under the plinth.
The end result is a lightweight product which, Iimagine, will inspire Linn to issue a missive about how wonderful featherweight technology is for budget turntable design. If Isound cynical about this, keep in mind that these feelings come only from examining rather than listening to the product. But for whatever such impressions are worth, Ihave come to expect something more substantial from specialist-sector budget turntables and from Linn themselves. ABritish dealer who examined the deck when Idid and who sells an awful lot of Linn equipment was utterly disappointed that the deck should look (I said
"look," not "sound") like such bad value next to the Rotel and Revolver. What it points to is an illustration of the UK market, wherein-- for many customers and dealers--a Linn badge is all that's needed to confer worth.
Imay be wrong, and this turntable could

perform like adream. That presupposes abelief that the bearing is everything, but nothing surprises me anymore. Ijust didn't expect that a company like Linn, so enamored with its reputation for engineering, would deliver aproduct which appears to so cynically wear its costcutting on its sleeve You can expect at least one magazine to give this product the kind of reviews clergyman will reserve for the arrival of the Messiah, while acore of dealers will be choosing the colors of the Porsches for which the Basiks will pay. Even though it could be argued that this turntable should have been released 10 years ago, it will still garner limit-
less sales throughout the CD era, because Linn, along with McIntosh and Quad, inspires the greatest brand loyalty in the business. It's just too bad that the possession of acaptive audience breeds complacency
No such feelings are inspired by the launch of Celestion's range of hybrid ribbon loudspeakers. The UK's best-kept secret of 1989, the Celestion 3000, 5000, and 7000 offer downto-900H zribbon technology at prices which will astonish those who want but cannot afford Magnepans and Apogees. Then again, the new Celestions won't compete with the all-panel types because they're box systems and cannot emulate certain panel properties. No, the Celestions are going to wreak havoc in the $800$2000 sector for box-type enclosures, because of avery simple rule of customer psychology: the customer either wants panels or boxes, and trying to convince him otherwise is awaste of effort. Idon't expect that anyone will choose these over the Magnepan MG2.5/R or Apogee Stage One. ..or vice versa.
Celestion's range of ribbon/cone hybrids consists of two models but three designations: the slightly dearer 5000 is simply awalnut-clad version of the black 3000. This system features the ribbon and an 8" bass driver in astandmounted enclosure, while the floor-standing 7000 adds asecond bass driver working up to 300Hz; the primary bass driver, as in the 3000/ 5000, operates up to 900Hz.
What Celestion has done which is so remarkable--noteworthy even at aGerman hi-fi show which played host to at least 20 ribbon hybrids from Philips and Grundlg through to adozen non-exporting specialists--is to eradicate all of the negatives associated with ribbon systems. The speakers are sensitive and easy to drive, eliminating the need for high-priced

72

Stereophile, November 1989

Celestion System 3000
amplifiers. They're small enough to slot neatly into aspot which previously held aconven-

tional system. They have no apparent hot-seat. They go loud. They look terrific without appearing too radical for the box-oriented. The transition between ribbon and cone is virtually undetectable.
Add to that bi-wire/bi-amp facility, agorgeous dedicated stand for the 3000/5000, prices (at least in the UK) way below the usual high-end tariff, and abadge which indicates permanence and wide dealer network, and you've got aformula hard to defeat.
The ribbon itself is the subject of apatent application, so I'm going to stifle my concerns about its originality and see what the patent offices decide Forgetting about that aspect for the time being, one can recognize the brilliance of the Celestion product by the delectably sensible way in which designer Graham Bank dealt with the ribbon's dipole nature by fitting it to its own separate enclosure-within-an-enclosure, in which the rear radiation drifts back harmlessly to the rear of the cavity The ribbon is mounted on the front inner corner, the speakers being supplied in mirror-imaged pairs, with their centers aimed toward the listener. The only siting restrictions involve placing the systems some 6" from the back wall.
The further apart you place the Celestions, the wider the stage. I'll find out how far you can go before creating ahole in the middle when I review them for the January issue of Hi -Fi News & Record Review.
Okay, Ishouldn't judge the sound heard at either an official demo in aterrific room with unfamiliar material, or aprivate demo in a crummy room with my own preferred listening matter. Even so, I'm prepared to dub these as the most important new British loudspeakers of 1989. (Although the nifty budget Celestion 3, also launched in 1989 and reviewed in last month's Stereopbile by JA, is turning out to be the fastest-selling budget speaker in adecade.) Having lived with Apogees for five years, Ihave some idea about the capabilities of ribbons and--though the Celestions do not offer the "disappearing" capabilities of panel systems-1 hear so much to remind me of ribbon systems that Ifind it hard to accept that the sounds issue
from boxes. As Imentioned before, the Celestions are
going to make life very difficult for companies offering similarly priced and sized conventional systems. The Celestions are so fast and (by box standards) transparent, with top-to-

Stereophile, November 1989

73

eTHE IDEAL CROSSOVER FOR MULTI-WAY
SPEAKER INSTALLATIONS
Bryston's Model 10B Electronic Crossover combines ideal signalhandling with an enormously flexible control function. Simple, direct front-panel switches allow any crossover curve to be set instantly, and the signal purity is always maintained. The Model 10B features independently selectable crossover points for high-pass and low-pass, in case the speaker installation requires slightly overlapped, (or slightly staggered), response curves for the drivers. You can also independently select crossover slope, from 6, 12, or 18dB/Oct., where one driver requires faster cutoff than another in the same system. The Bryston 10B Crossover uses NO integrated circuits in the signal path. All internal buffer and amplification stages are Bryston's exceedingly linear and superbly quiet discrete op-amp circuitry. This means the signal is always maintained as "Audiophile Quality", with stability and freedom from noise and distortion unapproached in normal equipment. From the point of view of adaptability, flexibility and signal integrity, the Bryston 10B Electronic Crossover system is the ideal choice for the widest range of multi-way speaker installations.
57 Westmore Dr., Rexdale. Ontario, Canada M9V 3Y6 Telephone: (416) 746-1800 Telex: 06-989548Fax: (416) 746-0308 Brystonverrnont Ltd., RFD#4 Berllin, Montpelier 05602 Telephone: (802)223-6159

bottom coherence of such ahigh order, that I'll be stunned if these don't win awards all over the place.
Any sighs of relief issued by me don't indicate that I'm about to change my Apogee Divas for Celestions. Rather I'm relieved because I can now report on aproduct about which I've had to keep my mouth shut for six months. And that, for me, is aHerculean task. Especially when news of the product deserves to be shouted from the rooftops.

On to the show proper. Attendance was up, demonstration quality down from last year, I felt. Nevertheless, some exhibitors managed to put together decent-sounding systems. Worthy of special mention here, Ithink, is German electronics manufacturer ()Mee: not only did they have afine system (Roksan Xerxes, SME V, vdHul MCI, phono pre "aseares," line pre "VA 602," power amp "Jubilee," TMR 1loudspeakers, and Isoda cables), but the young operator
showed real musical taste. This came as some-

thing of arelief; Ihave grown to despisefazz

at the Pawnshop, which was this year's favorite

piece of software. And to think, the organizers

had even gone to the length of recording adou-

ble album/single CD of fine acoustic music,

which could be bought in every room, espe-

cially for this show. The rationale behind this

was to provide acommon factor for the differ-

ent demonstrations. In principle, aneat idea.

Unfortunately, because of some petty disagree-

ments (too childish to relay here), very few

exhibitors actually used these discs (of course,

Omtec Jubilee power amplifier
West Germany: Markus Sauer
Ilie multi market in Germany has fallen on some hard times lately--for the same turnover, adealer has to sell four or five CD players today, as opposed to one in 1985. But judging from conversations with dealers and show exhibitors, the high-end market seems relatively unaffected. Mind you, that means the market as awhole, not individual brands. And since there are always more manufacturers trying to get aslice of amarket that is growing slowly, if at all, some of them are bound to suffer (in '88, the high-end industry as awhole had a turnover of around $55 million in Germany).
Which means Igot mixed signals at this year's High End '89 show in Frankfurt. While most dealers were reasonably optimistic, manufacturers tended to be more cautious. The buying public, however, seemed positive enough. The high end may be starting to break out of the enthusiast ghetto--more and more people seem prepared to spend large amounts of money on equipment. Isuspect CD plays a large part in this--when was the last time you were allowed feelings of superiority over the long-term enthusiast by buying something with excellent convenience features?

there may have been other reasons; some of the systems would have been shown up rather cruelly, Isuspect).
The most significant new product at the show came from anew outfit called Einstein. Ihave told you before that because of the eco-
nomics of the high end in Germany, our contributions to this noble passion tend to cluster in the very expensive end of the market. While the name chosen for the product range does
imply acertain lack of humility, the big news is that these are going to be mid-priced components; avery well-thought-out integrated amp has almost reached the shops ('89 production was sold out before the amp was officially introduced), and is scheduled to sell in the
$1200 region; aCD player and atuner will follow early next year. These will be joined by a two-way speaker of the same brand, which was designed by Christian Yvon, the man behind the outrageous Goldmund Apologue. I'll provide you with more details soon.
The second most significant product was a new turntable from Thorens, the TD 2001. This is acompletely new design which marks
Thorens's return to the analog trenches. If all goes according to plan, I'll have alot more to say about this in my next Update. US price will
be around $800, and worth it. ATL showed some intriguing new speakers
working on the line-source principle. The bass

Stereophile, November 1989

75

are designed by Walter Fuchs, one of the most

experienced designers in Germany.

TDL's German distributor, Axel Oberhage,

has created new cabinets for the big transmis-

sion lines. While the interior remains unchanged,

the looks have undergone aradical revision.

It seems the traditional TDL look, more or less

unchanged from designer John Wright's IMF

days, wasn't too popular with houseproud Ger-

·

man customers. The finish is now superb. And

while he was at it, Oberhage effected some

·

minor ameliorations in driver layout (the mid/

treble drivers are now offset to give asymmetri-

cal reflection patterns) and created asemi-

active version of the Monitor (second from the

top of the range); he worked with Helmut

Brinlcmann, one of the longest-serving design-

ers in our high-end scene, to create adual-

mono amplifierper side, meaning that the bass

driver is driven actively (with some intelligent

contour-shaping of its response) while the rest

of the chassis are driven by the second half of the amp. Oberhage says John Wright was

ATL loudspeakers
drivers are moving-coils, but the membranes are square pieces of aceramic compound, mounted in avertical line. Audio Physic and newtronics showed speakers which, although quite dissimilar overall, had one thing in common: the use of two smallish bass drivers, mounted on opposite sides of aslim column, near the bottom of the speaker. This seemed to be aworthwhile idea: opposing forces in the cabinet, and aknown loading from the floor; both speakers shared an even, quite well-extended response in the bass and good clarity and dynamics. TMR introduced anew speaker which consists of atwin-driver bass/mid module, asoft-dome tweeter, aseparate midrange enclosure, and an ionic tweeter module. You can start with just the bass/mid and dome tweeter and work your way up to the full system; prices will be between $3k and $7k. Fischer Audio, who had stolen last year's show with the introduction of the $80,000 Pegasus active speakers, seems to have evolved into amajor player: their speakers have earned some rave reviews, and their sales are quite impressive, too. The electronics of this range
76

Fischer Audio's Amthaeus Stereophile, November 1989

Peter Suchy and Martin Frobe proudly holding the tube Harmony (with its Telefunken mic triodes)

astounded to hear his babies sound this good. You can order both the new cabinets and the electronics via TDL's US agent.
Clearaudio's Peter Suchy has kept pretty busy these last few months. While his cartridges remain unchanged (he's toying with a new stylus shape, but cannot get it with the kind of finish he demands yet), the tube Harmony has been finished (it fits on top of the Souther TQI), acouple of turntables have been designed but turned out to be too expensive
for production to be worthwhile (pity; magnetic bearings and innovative features galore), so he breathed on the unique Boomerang record deck, an earlier version of which was shown at last year's SCES, took on distribution of the new Wolcott speakers from the US (which may or may not incorporate the cleverest tweeter loading ever devised), has a new RCA connector featuring 114 separate beryllium springs, and Ihope reading this sentence leaves you struggling like Iwas when presented with all this info. ..
Klimo had anew tube monoblock, the Linnet. Kebschull has done aLevinson, meaning that designer Manfred ICebschull has left the company under not entirely amicable circumstances, I'm told; production continues more

1111111i
TDL Monitor Active

Stereophile, November 1989

Top Choice of Tough Customers

FRONI STEPP-- ".

11 NO.1 (JAN 1991 ,

TOP 30 LOUDSPEAKER BRANDS
Brand name Magnepan

Percentage of Stereophile readership owning brand

Percentage of
speaker owners that would not buy the product
if they had it to do over again.

MAGNEPAN 1645 Ninth St, White Bear Lake, MN 55110

°L.

rk\

666oec000 oe

6 e

l't

Burmester 838 tuner

or less unchanged. On the accessory front, I Mission (from the UK) showed the new Cyrus

want to mention just three items: WBT intro- Signature electronics, which seem to be a

duced anew speaker-cable binding post with rather cynical attempt to sell the known amps

standard 19mm spacing, the WET 0730 (how do they come up with all those snappy refer-

at 60% higher prices for afew upgraded mechanical parts, such as sockets. Oh well, maybe

ences?), L'espace is anew cable from France; they'll surprise me by being significantly better.

it is adapted from acable developed for the Accuphase premiered the C-11/P-11 pre/power

European rocket project Ariane (1 have already combo. Royd (from the UK) showed their new,

tried this at home; in the right system it can be top-of-the-line Apex speakers which should

superb); finally, ayoung man in Germany, be asignificant event in Linn /Naim circles.

Thomas Labusga, sat down for some serious mathematics in the world of Fibonacci num-

Speaking of which, the new appearance of the Nains range raised more than afew apprecia-

bers to create new diffusors. He had anasty sur- tive eyebrows, but the long-awaited 52 preamp

prise when he discovered that RPG had already was kept in storage for the Penta show in Lon-

done something similar in the US, but reco- don, amonth later. [A report by Ken Kessler

vered from the shock when he found the exist- will appear next month --Ed.]

ing RPGs to be relatively crude (his words, not

Copland (from Denmark) showed anew

mine). Anyway, his are less aesthetically intrusive, being made of transparent acrylic.

tube integrated amp. Lectron introduced both anew hybrid integrated, the JH 30, and apair

Agold star must go to Infinity, who had by of big tube monoblocics, theJH 80 ($10,000+).

far the most professional demonstrations; not The JH stands for Jean Hiraga, the French tube

only did they present the new Kappa 5and maven. The design of the JH 30 looks extremely

-001 series, they also sold IRS pinups, Infinity interesting, and Ihope to get my hands on one

key hangers, and Infinity lighters; plus, they soon.

didn't disturb fellow exhibitors with the high

While in the UK amp manufacturers are

sound-pressure levels generated in their rooms, branching out into speakers, in Germany

but rather disturbed themselves in adjacent speaker manufacturers are branching out into

rooms. Suffering from this were the nice Plega electronics. T+A (yeah, Iknow, Iknow, they'll

speakers (from Switzerland), handled by the have to change their acronym if they want to

same distributor, which have avery good rib- trade in the US) has been particularly successful

bon tweeter as their distinguishing feature. in this; others, like Backes & Müller and

Burmester 878 power amplifier with new suspension Stereophile, November 1989

Quattro II... Numbers that count.

The STAX CDP Quattro Il 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 deficient 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 digital 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 I-V converter. The fixed direct output proceeds immediately from this I-V point--no DC-cut capacitor or DC-nulling feedback servo.
Digital audio is,
simply put, numbers into music. Whatever compact disc you choose, the STAX Quattro Il allows those numbers to count for more
--more information, more detail, to move you closer
to the original musical experience.

Pictured: CDP Quattro II high-resolution compact dix player. Photo: Ken Fahrick.
For afull-line brochure, please send $5.00 to: Stax Kogyo. Inc. 940 E. Dominguez St.. Canon. CA 90746

STAX

écouton, look set to follow suit. The problem with writing ashow report
such as this is that I'm forced to be highly superficial and brutally selective, leaving out much that might be worthy of mention. But, on the other hand, the coming year's worth of

Industry Updates is assured. All in all, the theme of this year's show was one of evolution rather than revolution. The high-end industry seems to concentrate on the refinement of the advances made through the scrutiny of "passive" components and such like. No bad thing.

USA: J. Gordon Holt
Tera 621C TV monitor--color balance (see review, p.150)

Fig.1 Black and white movie, Mr Hulot's Holiday (Criterion LV), tweaked JVC left, Tera right. (All pictures taken with daylight color transparency film.)

Fig.2 Highway scene (LaserVision Associates of Pacific, Demo 1), tweaked JVC left, Tera right--note color cast of macadam road surface and background mountain haze.

Fig.3 Raiders of the Lost Ark (Paramount LV), tweaked JVC left, Tera right--what color is his jacket? It's supposed to be gray.

Stereophile, November 1989

81

Let Aragon save you from Digital Hell. The D2A will Convert you.
An Interview with Anthony Federici, President of Mondial Designs Ltd.
G. What is "Digital Hell"? A. There are three forms of Digital Hell. 1) Having to spend thousands of dollars to
get the highest technology CD player. 2) Discovering there has been another major improvement in digital two months after purchasing a CD player. 3) Trying to decide what to do, while the recording industry is trying to decide
what to do with DAT
G.. How does the Aragon D2A save you from all this? A. Fust, the least expensive CD player using the same digital converter, over-
sampling and filtering chips is over $4,000. The D2A is even superior because of Theta Digital's reclocking circuitry, which reclocks the digital bit stream to better than one nanosecond accuracy. Second, to protect you from the rapid advancements in digital, the D2A uses a separate circuit board for the digital portion and the IC's are inserted with plug in modules. Therefore, no matter what advancements or changes occur in digital, the D2A can be easily upgraded to new technology. In other words it's a convertible converter. Third. the D2A will also convert, with the same quality and accuracy, CD's, DAT's or the audio portion of satellite transmissions or video discs. CD players with digital bit stream outputs are available for under $300.
G. What do you have to pay to get all this? A At present, you can be saved from digital hell for $995. We are struggling to
maintain the price in the future. but Icannot guarantee it.
43.. Since the D2A has Theta Digital designed circuitry, IC's found only in over $4,000 CD players and it's only $995 you must have
skimped on the analog portion? A Oh ye of little faith. When it comes to Aragon quality, Idon't compromise.
Knowledgeable audio reviewers, from around the world, have deemed Aragon components the biggest bargain in high end audio.
Q. O.K. prove to me you didn't compromise? A. O.K. try this litany. The AC power supply is in a separate chassis to eliminate
magnetic radiation and noise. It mates with the main chassis via a swiss made connector with gold plated contacts. Only fully rectified and filtered D.C. voltage enters the main chassis. 11 separately regulated D.C. power supplies are employed giving completely separate supplies and dual mono operation to the DAC's and the analog section. The unique analog section employs no op amp IC's. It is fully discrete and class A. This analog section actually utilizes Aragon phono circuit topology. The result is exceptionally musical with wide dynamic range and very low noise. The sonic integrity of the analog section is then maintained by encasing the digital circuit board in a zinc chromated metal shield to prevent RFI radiation. The input and output connectors are chassis mount gold plated, from Tiffany. The D2A accepts any combination of three digital bit stream sources, two coaxial inputs and one optical fibre input.
In addition, it has a digital tape output and the absolute phase can be inverted from the listening position via remote switch. The D2A is manufactured by a U.S. medical and military contractor to one of the most stringent standards in the world. We then take a component which sonically belongs in the world's finest audio systems and machine a 3/8 inch aluminum faceplate so that visually and aesthetically it also belongs in the world's finest systems.
MONDIAL DESIGNS LIMITED
Two Elm Street, Ardsley, New York 10502 · (914) 693-8008

ARAGON. When Price Is No Object
Sorne people buy the most expensive components to feel assured they're getting the best quality-- others can discern the highest quality independent of price... My memory of the transparency and musical instrument soundstage produced by the Cello Encore and Spectral DMA 200 is quite clear. Ican say that the 24K and the 4004 have also reached the same level. Law Kong Ink Audiophile Magazine, January 1989 ...the Aragon preamp is now my choice for under £1500 ($2,700). Ken Kessler HiFi News &Record Reviews, March 1989 That's the kind of design it is: it sounds right from the very first note. More correctly, it doesn't really sound much at all. Alvin Gold HiFi Answers, December 1988 So, you see, to purchase the highest quality amp and preamp combination you can spend well over S10,000 or well under S3,000. The choice is yours. MONDIAL DESIGNS LIMITED Two Elm Street, Ardsley, New York 10502 · (914) 693-8008

THE AUDIO ANARCHIST
Sam Tellig copes with Audio Dilemmas

Larry Archibald once told me that I managed to find myself on the horns of every hi-dilemma there is. Do Ilike electrostatic or cone speakers?
Both. Ilike the transient speed and openness of electrostatics, but with most electrostatics Iam bothered by the limited dynamic range and acertain vagueness of imaging, which I think comes along with adipole. Sometimes Iwould rather listen to agood cone speaker, especially certain models from Spica, Spendor (the LS3/52), Celestion, Monitor Audio, and Acoustic Energy, all featuring excellent, pinpoint imaging.
CD or LP?
Iflip over the convenience of CD and the fact Idon't have to flip over the disc. But Ifind, still, that LPs, at their best, sound superior. The problem, of course, is that most LPs and CDs, for that matter, do not represent the particular medium at its best. Better awell-recorded CD than amediocre LP.
Every time Imake an improvement in my CD playback system--the British Fidelity Digilog, for instance--I manage to make an even big-
ger improvement in my analog front end--for example, substituting the SME 309 arm for the Rega RB300 arm on my AR ES-1 turntable.
Igo down to Definitive Hi -Fi, in Mamaroneck, New York, and hang out with Lars, Lou, Steve, Tony, Jeff and the rest of the Thursday night 'philes. We have the Mike Moffat Theta processor to listen to, as well as the new Krell Digital. Then proprietor Rudi Kothe puts arec-
ord on the Versa 2.0 and it's all over--analog is still king, and everyone agrees, including digital-loving Lars: "The best sound Iever heard in my life," said Lars, the other night, after
WQXR disc jockey--excuse me, radio personality--Steve Sullivan had finished tweaking the VTA of the van den Hul Grasshopper on the Versa 2.0.
Iwonder how aShure V15 Type V-MR might sound in the Versa 2.0. Idon't think Ishall get the chance to find out. Ialso wonder how substituting tube amps for the Krell Reference Monos on the Wilson WAMM would affect the
sound of the system. The Krells sound cold. Maybe the Krells are too good: too much detail.

Or maybe they're just cold. Was it my friend Mario who said that an amplifier reflects its designer's personality--warm or cold, depending on whether the person was? Yes,
it was Mario, whom you'll meet again in a moment.
Before Iforget, Iwant to tell you that the British Fidelity Digilog, reviewed last month, is sounding even better after alonger burn-in. The soundstaging has improved--deep, wide, spacious, lots of "there" there. And that sibilant smear Icomplained about last month -- well, that's diminished.
Istill think the Theta and the Krell processors do better, but at 5995, the Digilog is an outstanding buy. Of course, you could wait to see how those new players and processors with single-bit conversion perform. But Iwouldn't rush to buy one of the first Bitstream units. It's
new technology--may take time to get it right. The good thing about Bitstream may be that it allows inexpensive Japanese CD players to sound okay--less chance, perhaps, of aplayer's DACs being misaligned. If you're interested in the Digilog and you like the way it sounds, go for it. Remember, though, that its improvements might be subtle and noticeable more over time--like several weeks--than they are over afew minutes in aquick A/B dealer demo.
There are other dilemmas, too. Sure enough, Larry's right. Iam caught on the horns of all of them. Moving-magnet vs moving-coil cartridges. You thought that one was settled, right--like direct-drive turntables vs belt-drive Well, the other day, Itried the Shure Ultra 500--hard to find now, but abargain if you can buy one cheap, like under S200--on my new SME 309 arm. The result? Magnificent. Maybe Ilucked out and got the VTA just right without any fooling around. Ihear asmoothness Ido not get with moving-coils. On the other hand, the moving-coils may retrieve alittle more detail. But, as JGH has asked, what do you want: detail or music? If you want music, you might opt for aShure.
Shure gets abum rap from everyone. Audiophiles are down on them because they're so cheap--the V15 Type V-MR sells for atypical street price of $129. Not that most of these

84

Stereophile, November 1989

'philes have actually heard the V. And if they have, it's probably in agrotty arm on abudget 'table in aCheapskate system. Put the V in a Rega RB300, or better yet in an SME 309, and you may be amazed at what it can do. Cheap arms can make the Shures sound hashy, harsh in the treble. It's not the cartridge; it's the arm.
High-end dealers are down on them because they would be lucky to make $10 margin selling aV15 Type V-MR; you can buy it almost as
cheaply as they can! That makes it aterrific recommendation in my book. If they carry the Vat all, which is doubtful, they are not eager to demo it against, say, a$1200 moving-coil, on which they might make up to $600 margin.
Here's another reason to go for aShure: record wear. There isn't any with aproperly maintained Shure. I've been using mostly Shures since 1958 and Ihave, in all that time, never worn out arecord. True, Ihave so many records that I'm not likely to wear out an LP with any cartridge, but my library wasn't always so large.
Last summer, Ivisited our esteemed editor JA in Santa Fe. He played some records on his Linn. They were all worn--every one. Not from neglect, but from cartridge gouging: lowcompliance moving-coils that just scraped their way through the vinyl., Now tell me: what's worse? Losing alittle detail by using a Shure, but saving your records? Or extracting alittle more detail with alow-compliance moving-coil but rendering your records so worn that you soon won't want to listen to them with any cartridge? With most of your LPs now irreplaceable, give this one some thought. Ihave, and I'm sticking with Shure.
In the September '89 issue areader wrote and asked if Ireally meant it that atypical moving-coil, in atypical audiophile's system, might last six months or so. Idid mean it. That's how long most of my tweak friends seem to keep aparticular moving-coil before replacing it with another. Some 'philes spend $2000 a year, year in and year out, on moving-coils. This is insane.
Buy aShure V15 Type V-MR and you can rejuvenate it instantly with a$79 replacement stylus (typical street selling price, again). Incidentally, the replacement stylus for the Type V-MR will fit in the Ultra 500 cartridge

ITo add just aword in my record collection's defense, alot

arm records are just plain wore out from being played a lot.

And the indefatigable Sam visited ben. Istarted the habit of

cleaning my discs with the Nitty Gritty machine.

--JA

Shure V15 Type V-MR cartridge

body and work perfectly, so far as Ican tell. What's more, because aShure tracks so lightly and so well, the stylus is usually good for at least 1000 hours vs maybe half that time for a low-compliance, poor-tracking moving-coiI. 2 At $79 for areplacement stylus, that's 8cents an hour to run your cartridge. If you buy a $1200 moving-coil and use it for, let's say, 500 hours, that's $2.40 an hour. It costs you 30 times as much!
Here's another audio dilemma: Cables and interconnects. Don't you just love it when some writer ties himself in knots by listening to ahalf dozen or so interconnects? Many of the differences are so minor and, in many cases, differences from one system to another will swamp them so as to render the writer's views virtually worthless.
Ido love the way certain audiophile cables and other accessories can muck up the sound of your system, and at considerable cost. Talk about dilemmas--spare yourself this one.
For instance, Itried aSurniko Premier Phono Interface Box on my SME 309 arm, with a Classé DR-5 preamp. What did Iget for my pains? RFI. Specifically, shortwave radio interference from Voice of America and the Christian Science Monitor World Service. Iknew something was wrong when Iheard the words "Mary Baker Eddy" between movements of a string quartet.
Iremoved the PIB and installed the cables that came with the SME 309 arm. Istill got

2This would seem like an ideal opportunity to plug Ornons

vintage DLI0313 MC, which tbelieve is still available. Irecently

set one up in my wife's system--it had been sitting in my spare

parts box for the last seven years--and was astonished to find

that it tracked better (in an Wok arm mounted on an I.P12) than

any cartridge Ihad ever owned (apart from the Shure so

beloved of Mr T). Sure, it sounds alittle polite, with its recessed

mids and rather woolly bass, hut it even handled the 80jim

tracks on the Ortofon test record with aplomb!

--JA

Stereophile, November 1989

85

Here's abook about an upgrade that's so good and costs so little, high-end autosound installers
don't want to hear it-- or even about it!

Killer Car Stereo on aBudget

Now you have asimple choice when it comes to upgrading your car stereo. Instead of paying afew thousand to agood high-end dealer, you can pay only afew hundred. With agood in-dash unit in place, you need only follow author Dan Ferguson's instructions for buying and replacing your front and main speakers, and adding the killer--a subwoofer with enclosure, power amp and crossover.
We tell you where to buy all your high quality upgrades at low cost, including afive-function crossover kit (parts less than $30) or completely assembled, tested and warranted for $70. Your total cost for the upgrade? Can be less than $500--about athird--or even less--than you'd expect to pay to have it done for you.

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r

some shortwave RFI which Ieliminated by system. This time it was Cardas Powercord

using only one of the SME cable's two ground II--the Greek Golden Mean stuff--in 6'

wires--this at the expense of some slight lengths powering the Classé DR-5 preamp and

added hum.

DR-8 power amp. 1was troubled because the

That's not all. Every cable Iused with the PIB Classé gear did not sound as good in my home

sounded worse than the supplied SME tonearm as it had, in several installations, at last sum-

cable, which was free, so to speak. The SME mer's Chicago CES.

cable was smoother by along shot. True, Ionly

Ifixed the problem by substituting plain old

tried four cables with the PIB, but none was up Belden cable for the Cardas cords. Of course,

to the subjective performance of the SME cable. you may love what the Cardas cords do in your

Adealer, though, could make some extra bucks system. One thing's for certain: apower cord

by selling you aPIB and an extra cable and hav- can change the sound of apiece of equipment.

ing you leave the excellent SME cable in its box. And for many audiophiles, any change is

Want to foul up your sound? It's often eas- immediately labeled an "improvement." But

ier to do it with expensive audiophile intercon- is it? Iwish Icould recommend agood cheap

nect or cable than with cheaper wire products. interconnect. No such luck. One guy tried that,

Do you find that MIT Shotgun speaker cable but he couldn't get any support from dealers.

rolls off the highs? Of course, if your moving- So he jacked up the price. Want to know who

coil weren't so peaky and your speakers weren't it was? Nah, Idon't want to tell you and hurt the

so hot in the treble, you wouldn't want that guy. He's asmall manufacturer, and besides, his

cable rolloff. Put apair of MIT Shotgun cables interconnects are still reasonably priced, by

on apair of Vandersteen 4A's and you may hear comparison--and quite good.

what Iheard: dullsville. But the MIT Shotgun

Actually, Ican recommend areasonably

is the so-called "industry standard"; dealers cheap interconnect. It's any reasonable-quality

love it not only because it's so profitable, but RG -59-diameter microphone cable, along

because it is pre-sold to audiophiles.

with instant gold-plated RCA plugs from Music

How about AudioQuest cable? Itried some and Sound. Best part of this is, you can cut off

AQ Clear Hyperlitz, and Ithought the cable the connectors and re-cut the cable if neces-

screwed up the sound of apair of VTL 80Wpc sary to any length. The shorter the cable, the

monoblocks driving Thiel CS1.2s: the speakers better. Any good microphone cable should

sounded grainy and gritty. The sound was ... work with these connectors and produce

well, confused. The opposite of clear. Say what acceptable results.

you will about the Thiels, the speakers are not

As far as uncheap interconnects, my current

inherently grainy, gritty, and "confused"--just favorites include AudioQuest Lapis and Cardas

the opposite. They are clean, clear, coherent. Quadlink. I'm using Lapis between my preamp

Not with the AQ garden hoses (12" lengths, and power amp, and the Cardas cable between

which was all Ineeded). Itold Jim Thiel about my Digilog and preamp. I'm not certain I

this. Ialso told him about 18-gauge Radio couldn't have done equally well for alot less

Shack solid-core, which was wonderful, again money, though.

in 12" lengths. He told me they use 18-gauge

Lars, the wire freak, has come up with a

solid-core cable to wire the interior of the recommendation for speaker cable--this is

speakers! Igot alonger sample of the AQ actually from Dave Magnan, the maker of Mag-

Hyperlitz Clear-10' lengths--and used them nan Series V--or is it VI by now? --a favorite

with the Classé Audio DR-8 power amp and a interconnect among NY-area tweaks right now.

pair of Epos ES-14s. Inever heard the Eposes The speaker cable is specially prepared Mogami

sound so bad: hashy, shrill, metallic, gnindgy, Neglex 2477. The stuff retails for under $1.50

awful. Iknew the speakers were good. Ialso afoot. You need adouble run, which brings the

knew the amp was okay.

cost up to just under $3 afoot.

What did Ido to get relief? Ichanged the

Here's what you do. Cut off about 6" of the

speaker cables, at first to Mission Cyrus solid- black outer sheath, exposing the outer wires,

core. But don't count out the AQ Hyperlitz the shield. Peel back this wire--beautiful

Clear, because as of this writing, I'm using them oxygen-free copper--and twirl it together.

again! Meanwhile, Ifound yet another expensive way to foul up the sound of my particular

Now cut off about 3" of the inner sheath, exposing the inner wire. Wrap some electrical

Stereophile, November 1989

87

tape around the bottom 3" of the outer shield. It's important to about leave 3" of the center sheath intact to help prevent the wire from shorting out when you do what I'm going to describe next.
Do what Ijust said with two runs of the Mogami. Now, carefully combine the inner core of one run with the outer shield of another, making sure that the words "Mogami Neglex" run the same way on both outer sheaths, because this stuff is highly directional.
The word "Neglex" should face the power amp; in other words, the words on the sheath should run toward the speakers. Crimp on some spade lugs and tape over any exposed wire.
Lars and Idemonstrated some of this to a third 'phile, Bill, who had just purchased-- well, had just purchased avery expensive pair of "industry standard" speaker cables. Prob-
ably cost him the better part of aweek's pay. This poor 'phile was astounded at how much better the Mogami sounded--smooth, open, airy, detailed.
The problem with the Mogami, aside from the pain in the butt of preparing it, is that the bottom end is not so good. So here's acable you can perhaps use if your system has too much bass: atone control, if you will.
Tell you the truth, I'm not using the Mogami
at the moment. Ijust received apair of Spica Angelus speakers--Quads are out, Angeli are in. The Mogamis just didn't cut it with these Spicas, ah, speakers--no bass. Itried Kimber
'Cable 8TC, and that was a considerable improvement: more bass, along with excellent smoothness and detail. Kimber makes some nice, reasonably priced 'Cables, and Inote that alot of equipment manufacturers use 'amber in their own systems. Ray is one of the few Kable manufacturers who actually makes his own stuff--most of the rest buy it and have their name put on it. Sometimes, Ihear, they buy some military surplus cable super-cheap and put their name on it. When they exhaust the supply, they buy adifferent surplus cable,
put their name on that, and then announce a dramatic product improvement.
Icould never leave well enough alone. Iwas sitting there looking at the AQ garden hoses-- you know, the Hyperlitz Clear, which had
sounded so awful on the Eposes. Idecided to try them on the Angeluses. Guess what. Iliked alot of what Iheard.

There was adramatic improvement in bass, for one thing--and this is welcome with bass. shy speakers like the Angeluses. And Iwasn't
so troubled by aharsh, hashy sound in the upper registers as Iwas when these cables were
used on the metal-dome-tweeter-equipped
Eposes. Ileft the speakers on all night to help break in the cables--allow the dielectric to form, allow the speakers and the cables to get to know one another, or whatever. And, so help
me, the next morning as Ilistened to my Haydn and read the New York Times, the cables sounded smoother than the night before. Someone once told me that it takes weeks, not hours, for the dielectric to form on some of these complex cables, like the AQ Hyperlitz Clear. I'll keep you informed.
One thing is certain about the Hyperlitz Clear: these cables do not roll off the highs. I think Ican say this, too, about them: they are better suited to speakers whose high-frequency response is not tipped up--speakers like the Spicas, for instance, or the Vandersteen 2Ci's or 4A's, or even the Quad ESL-63s, rather than speakers like the Thiel CS1.2s or the Epos ES14s, which sport metal-dome tweeters.
You can see the problems in writing about speaker cable. What will sound good--or
right, or whatever you want to call it--in one system may sound very wrong in another. To make matters worse, cables may need to take several weeks or even months to break in, and most reviewers going through awhole bunch of cables won't have the time to break them in properly.
Here's away Ithink you can save money on
speaker cables. Buy apair of mono amps and put them right behind the speakers. Then run the shortest length of speaker cable possible. Iwas able to run about 9" of wire from the VTL monos to the Thiel CS1.2s, for instance, and for
this application Radio Shack 18-gauge solidcore was fine. Ifind this cable considerably less satisfactory in longer runs-9' or 10', for example. You lose bass, you lose dynamics. But for
short runs, cheap solid-core cable can work fine. Practically speaking, short runs are only possible with monoblocks.
Now, my final audio dilemma. You guessed it. It's tubes vs solid-state. It's adebate which will never be resolved, certainly not here. There are certain solid-state preamps
and power amps which can sound tubelike-- close to tubes but not quite the same. The B&K

88

Stereophile, November 1989

ST-140 is one of them, but it's woolly in the bass and not particularly transparent: sweet and spacious as hell, though. Imean, heaven.
But none of this gear--although Ihaven't heard the Levinson stuff at length--strikes me as being as musical as, say, agood tube amp. I never hear magic with solid-state. Never. Not with Krell. Not with Rowland. Not with Classé.
It's tubes for me. Ifind that almost any tube amp will create moments where the system disappears or transcends itself and Iam made to feel apart of the music and the performance. The last time this happened to me was with a pair of VTL 80W monoblocks. True, good solid-state gear is more gutsy, has more balls, more power and more punch. But the VTLs could transcend themselves, and none of the solid-state gear could. Ugly little suckers, though, and for that reason alone Icouldn't keep them.
Another recent experience helped confirm me as atube believer. George Bischoffs Melos ST-90 tube amp--soon to be upgraded and reviewed in this column!--sounded, to me, more musical driving apair of Martin-Logan Sequel Ils than all of Dan D'Agostino's expensive solid-state Krell gear driving the Martin Logan Statement.
Well, good news. Ihave in the house at the moment four speakers which should do very well on tubes--the Spica Angeluses, the Vandersteen 2Ci's, the Epos ES-14s, and the Mon-
Spica TC-50 loudspeaker

itor Audio 7s. Ican't wait to hear what happens when Iput them on promised gear from MFA, Quicksilver, Melos, and--get this--Air Tight! Yup, Itold Larry Archibald that if Olsher gets Air Tight before Ido, Iquit. Sorry, Dick, but you do seem to get all the tube goodies. As I write this Ihave aphoto of the Air Tight ATM-2 pinned to my board--a $6000, 80Wpc beauty with KT88 output tubes. Dick, you can have the ATM-1, if you like Others lust after cars. .. or women. Ilust after tube amps.
Ifeel sorry for my friend, poor Mario, who lusts for tubes, just like me. But Mario let himself be talked into buying apair of B&W 801s, which need to be driven by solid-state. Every time he hears tubes Ithink he wishes he owned another speaker. At the moment, he's driving his 801s with apair of solid-state amps called Photons.
"How are your Protons this week, Mario?"
"Pho-tons," says Mario, hard, like he's going to place my feet in shoes of cement, something he has threatened many times to do.
"When are you going to invite me over to hear your Futon amplifiers?" Iask.
"He bought them in amattress store," lights up Lars.
"Screw you guys! You haven't even heard
these amps and you're crapping all over them. Besides, if Iinvite you guys over, you'll do what Tellig here does with Lars's ESBs." True enough, Iprobably would.
Lars, too, likes tubes, having owned Quicksilver monos and Jadis JA-30s, the latter not being up to the job of driving his powerhungry ESBs. Just as Lars has convinced himself that the ESBs are fine speakers, he has also convinced himself that Krells are king.
One day, late last summer, Lou and Iwere spending aSaturday afternoon at Lars's lair, drinking beers, and sweating as the Krells put out their awesome amount of heat. Dan should offer amod: each KMA- 160 to come equipped with its own built-in room air-conditioner.
Iwas making faces. "What are you grimacing about? The ESBs
are good speakers," chirped Lars for the twothousandth time.
Lou's face is lighting up, enjoying every minute of it, when Lars's eldest son shows up with one of his friends. What has this friend done? He has, just moments ago, purchased aB&K ST-140, on my recommendation no less, plus apair of Spica TC-50s, which Ican also recom-

Stereophile, November 1989

89

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mend to you. He has them in his car. "Hey, kids, how would you like to hear the

Iam not arguing with the premise that different interconnects and cables can alter the

Spicas on the KreIls?" "Sure," chorus the kids. "How about it ...Dad?" Lars nods his head,

sound of one's system--indeed, many equipment manufacturers talk openly about inter-

and the Spicas enter the listening room. It's connects and cables as "tone controls." My

almost six o'clock and nearly time for us to leave, so we have just afew minutes with the Spicas, which aren't even broken in and cer-

recommendation is that audiophiles fool around first with relatively inexpensive cables
and interconnects, to find those that are most

tainly not optimized in the room.

satisfactory. Just because aproduct costs more

"They sound glorious," Isay. "Boy, now I does not mean it will sound better.

know how good your Krells really are." "They

My quarrel with cable manufacturers possi-

do sound exceptionally smooth," agrees Lou. bly is about what Iconsider to be the high and

"What you and Iare hearing, Lou, is aquality sometimes exorbitant cost of certain products.

Ivalue highly in loudspeakers: it's called 'absence of wolf tone.' 3Why don't you get a
pair of these, Lars, and review them for

For instance, over $200 for apower cord that any sane person --ie, non-audiophile--might assume should cost less than atenth that much.

Sweden? Ithink the Swedes would think these swell. What do you think, Lars?" Lars is silent.

(Granted, it probably costs more than you might think to have the power cord assembled:

"I wonder how many ESBs are sold in Sweden," ponders Lou.
"Lars," Isay, leaving the house, "it's been a great afternoon. Ireally enjoyed the chance to
hear those Spica TC-50s. Those Spins are terrific speakers."

$10 to $12 labor cost is one figure that Ihear.) Why can't we have more really good, costeffective cables and interconnects?
No doubt this magazine will be hearing from the "wire group," which is so anxious not to be perceived by you and me as a"cartel." I'm

Stop Press!
Ihave just seen acopy of aSeptember 1, 1989 memo from Joe Harley, of AudioQuest, presumably circulated to at least several cable manufacturers. This is in response to two recent cable articles in Audio magazine.
The cover letter is particularly interesting--it is not intended to appear in Audio or anyplace else, for that matter. Iquote, in part: "The following is arevised letter to Audio that (we hope) all cable manufacturers will sign.
"We have decided not to use the ACMAC name or any other name for the wire group. The feeling was that it might be perceived by
the general public that aformal wire 'cartel' had been established."
Iwonder where anyone would get that idea! The letter to Audio itself is too long and, in any case, not appropriate to print here--its being addressed to them, not to us. But Ishall
quote the letter's concluding advice to consumers on cables, which is: "listen first, think second." That's exactly what I've done. Listen first, think second. Ithink that some of these

sure all of this works out to the consumer's
benefit. I'm equally sure that someone is going to write in and call me acommie or something. Wrong. I'm aregistered Republican.
Why am Iso riled up about this? Easy. Ithink of my good friend Bill, who spent $2500 on a
set of cables and now has them up for sale -- he'll be lucky to get $1000--because he is more pleased with $20 worth of Mogami Neglex.
Idon't know how much I'll be writing over the next few months. Iplan to visit the Soviet Union for part of November--as you read this, Imay be packing my bags. Maybe Ican find
some promising speaker wire over there. (Thin chance!) One reason I'm going is to check out things for my Russia Tour next spring. Meanwhile I'm getting all this tube gear together, and
with so many changes in my system, Ihave to listen first, write second.
If you'd like information about the tour, which departs on March 29 and returns April 9, please write Russia Tour, P.O. Box 1198,
Ridgefield, CT 06877. I'll let you know right away if space is still available.

expensive interconnects and cables have, at

one time or another, made my system sound worse.

3See The Audio Anarchist in the October issue, p.71.

Stereophile, November 1989

91

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,I ,,

Mabeigilg Tet

Itis always amatterofgreat interest when adifficult question, in this case the audibility of differences bet ween amplifiers, is put to an empirical test. When the question is tested by such intelligent, knowledgeable,
and unbiased investigators as John Atkinson and Will Hammond (see theJuly issue of Stereopbile, Vol.12 No.7, p.52), the interest is even
greater. Unfortunately, when the test turns out to have been flawed by errors in design and in use of statistics, as was the case here, the dis-
appointment is also even greater.In this article, we first explain the statistical errors and present areanalysis using the correct statistics. We then report astudy that corrects some of

because we usually cannot digest or remember an entire data set and thus need some smaller set of numbers that adequately characterize the important features of the set. That is why we have such things as batting averages for baseball players. A full set of data listing times at bat and hits (in what inning, against what pitcher, etc.) would tell alot more about

William P. Banks and David Krajicek run arepeat of Stereophile's blind comparson between VTL and Adcom amplifiers,' with surprising results

the flaws we find in the Stereophile study and shows that the audible differences between the two amplifiers are much greater than the original study implied. Finally, we conclude with
some brief reflections on approaches to investigating the listening qualities of amplifiers.
Two statistical problems in the Stereopbtle
listening test completely invalidate the conclusions. The first is JA's inappropriate application
of the chi-square test--but before discussing the flaws in the use of the test, we should briefly explain what this test is. In statistics
there are two kinds of data analysis: descriptive and inferential. A descriptive statistic is exactly that: anumber or set of numbers derived in some way from the data to give asuc-
cinct description of an important aspect of the data. For example, the various kinds of average, such as mean or median, are descriptive statistics that express the central tendency of the
data. Descriptive statistics are very important

the player, but that's too much to remember unless you happen to be an idiot savant or an obsessive fan. The single number, the batting average, is an adequate characterization of the batter's ability for most purposes.
An inferential statistic is fundamentally different from adescriptive statistic. It attempts to go beyond the given data to infer whether apattern of data is aresult of some underlying cause or whether the pattern is merely the result of chance. A deep insight about the nature of truth is embodied in inferential statistics. The underlying logic of inferential statis-
tics recognizes that absolute certainty can never

IThis article was originally submitted as aletter to the edi-

tor Because of its length, hmvever, and the fact that the authors

carried aconsiderable amount of additional work. Idecided

that it would best appear in its current form.

--JA

2See also "Letters: October 1989 (Nb1.12 No.10), pp.23-43.

Stereophile, November 1989 93

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be obtained; the statistics are designed only to
estimate the probability that the observed pattern is due to chance. Thus, using inferential statistics we can calculate that the probability of apattern resulting from chance is less than some amount, say, less than 1in 20 or 1in 100. What such astatement means is that, by our best estimate, chance alone would produce the pattern less than once in 20 or once in 100 tries.
The chi-square is one such inferential statistic. We cannot take the space here to describe how it works, but suffice it to say that the test depends on anumber of reasonable mathematical assumptions to estimate the probability that a pattern of data is simply a result of chance. If these assumptions are violated, the estimate is highly questionable.
One of these assumptions, and avery important one, is that observations that enter into the calculation of chi-square must be independent. This is the assumption that was violated in the Stereopbile test. It is incorrect to treat each response of asubject as aseparate, independent observation for chi-square testing of significance. Why? Because each observer's seven responses are influenced by that observer's biases, accuracy, and any other inherent characteristics he or she may have The chi-square test looks to see if the obtained results deviate from chance expectations. If the entries come in
nonindependent "clumps," then the test is likely to show that the results differ from chance
only because of the non-independence of the samples, not because of any real differences.
To put this matter in more intuitive terms, counting every observer response as an indepen dent observation is very much like letting people vote more than once in an election. If everyone votes, say, seven times, the winner will still get the same proportion of the votes, but the result will seem more impressive and contrary-to-chance than it really was. The inflation of votes creates aserious statistical problem because the inferential techniques take advantage of the fact that, as observations increase, random events tend to average out. As numbers increase, for example, flips of fair
coins tend to approach a50:50 ratio of heads and tails. In ten flips, afinding of 60% heads would not be very surprising, but if the 60% held up over 1000 flips, the probability that the coin was fair would be extremely low. Likewise, asmall percentage difference from chance is much less remarkable with 505 observations

(the actual number of listeners in the Stereopbile study) than with 3530 (the total number of responses in the study: 505 listeners times 7judgments minus five missing responses). It is 505, not 3530, that is the correct number for
estimation of randomness in this case. Consequently, the observed findings are less reliable than was thought. How much less, we will consider later.
Our point about the proper use of chi-square is, by the way, quite well established statistically and not amatter of debate. The error made in this analysis is avery common one and is frequently singled out for discussion in statistical textbooks. For example, in his authoritative
1981 statistics text, Hays warns that "caution may be required in the application of chisquare tests to data where dependency among observations may be present, as is sometimes the case in repeated observations of the same individuals." Earlier, in his classic statistics text, McNemar (1962) pointed out that the assumption of independence is "violated when the
total of the observed frequencies exceeds the total number of persons in the sample(s)." Such is the case with the data used in the Stereopbile test.'
The other error in the analysis of the Stereopbile amplifier test derives from the unequal
apriori presentation probabilities of "same" and "not same" trials. Mr. Hammond is correct
in stating that if people were guessing randomly, this should not make adifference in the results. However, they were not guessing ran-
3With respect to the authors (who, of course, have probably forgotten more about statistic,, than Iever learned). Ifind this too strict aguideline. Istrongly feel that each test should be considered independent. (My co-worker Will Hammond is adamant that the randomization of our tests would have successfully counteracted any tendency for dependency among the observations to develop.) Yes, if one person takes the test seven times, he or she doesn't change attitudes and preconceptions. But there was no causal relationship between any individual test and the ones that preceded and followed it. For example, assume that Itook the blind test 10 times and scored 10 correct identifications of "Same" or "Ilifferent." As Iunderstand Professor Banks's argument, this would count as one test for determining significance, not 10, duc to the fact that all my responses would be governed by the same factors inherent in my listening and decision making. But surely common sense would dictate that, assuming that no extraneous factor had crept into the test (such as adifference in level or audible noise between the two samples), that this 100% scoring would not have been due to chance but to areal audible difference, and that the number of tests would have to be considered as 10 rather than I. (10 out of 10 is significant; 1out of Iis not.) Certainly statistician Herman Burstein, in his analysis of the data in October ("Letters," p.37), implicitly agreed that it was the number of tests, not the number of participants, that should be considered as the total for testing significance. Regarding the use of the chi-square test, Will Hammond actually used adifferent test for significance for the bulk of the analysis. --JA

Stereophile, November 1989

95

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domly, but rather had avery strong bias to say "not same." When these two deviations from
50/50 exist, predicted performance obtained by pure chance can differ greatly from 50%.
We will use some intuitive examples to
explain how this works before we consider the amplifier test. First, let's assume that about 80% of the population is right-handed and 20% is
left-handed. Suppose you were given the telephone book for asmall city and asked to guess for each listing whether the person was right-
or left-handed. How well would you do? If you guessed "left" and "right" equally often you would categorize exactly 50% of the people correctly: 40% of the people would be correctly named as right-handers (je, half of the
80%, or 0.5 x0.8), and another 10% of the people would be correctly named as lefthanders (0.5 x0.2). If you were clever, you
could do much better by categorizing them all as right-handers. That way you would be 80% correct: All of the right-handers would be cor-
rectly categorized for ascore of 80%, and none of the left-handers would be correct, but since they make up 20% of the population, your accuracy would stand at 80%. To put it another way, without ever testing anyone for handedness you would still correctly categorize them 80% of the time. Clairvoyance? Of course not!
With probabilities as skewed as this, 80% is exactly what is predicted.
Just for one more example, let's look at an inbetween case: What would happen if you guessed 80% right-handers and 20% left-handers? This works out to be 68% "correct," not quite as good as the too-clever 80%, but much better than the mythical 50% "chance." Here is how the 68% is achieved: For the 80% of the population that is right-handed, you will guess that
80% are indeed right-handed and that 20% are left-handed, for an accuracy of 64%. For the left-handers, since you have no way of know-
ing who they are, you will also guess that 80% of them are right-handed. You will be wrong on them, but you will garner another 4% correct because you will guess that 20% of them are lefties, and 0.2 x0.2 = 0.04. Hence, the total is 68%. Clearly, if we were testing to see if your ability to classify people by handedness was better than chance, we could use 50% as chance only if your guessing probability was 0.5 for left and 0.5 for right.
In the present case, we have to consider that 30 out of 56 (or 53.6%) presentations were

different amplifiers and 26 of 56 were the same. If an observer guessed "different" on every trial without even listening, he or she would necessarily get ascore of 53.6% correct. Given that they actually guessed "different" 63.1% of the
time and "same" 36.9%, how would they do by chance? Let's figure it out. On the 53.6% of the trials in which the amplifiers were different, people would be assumed to guess that 63.1% were different, for an overall correct classification of 33.8% (0.536 x0.631 = 0.338)
of the total. On the 46.4% of trials where the two amplifiers were the same, people would be assumed to guess that 46.4% were "same" (46.4% = 100%-56.3%), and they would pick up another 17.1% (0.464 x0.369), for atotal of 50.9%.
So, if observers did not even listen to the amplifiers but simply guessed that 63.1% were different, they would get nearly 51% correct in this study. What we need to know is how much better they did by listening and whether
the improvement is more than what chance would predict. People actually got 52.3% correct. They therefore did 1.4% better than
chance expectation. Note that the reference point that corresponds to chance is 50.9%, not 50%.
To test whether the 1.4% improvement is statistically reliable, we need to use the chi-
square test correctly. The unit of analysis is the individual (of which there are 505) rather than
the response. Our test used the data in fig.2 of
the Steropbile artide, which shows the proportion of observers who got zero correct, one
correct, two correct, and so on. We converted these to frequencies and compared them with the appropriate distribution with p=0.509 rather than 0.5. (This is like assuming that we are flipping aslightly unfair coin.) When all this is done, the chi-square is equal to 4.23. For a sample this size, the result indicates that this distribution of responses falls at about the 75% probability level. To translate the exact meaning of the test into plain English, the chi-square value indicates that strictly by chance we would expect to obtain adistribution at least as extreme as this one 75% of the time. In even plainer English, this means that the results don't mean anything at all!
For another way of looking at the results, consider just what amean difference of 1.4%
means in this case. It is consistent with the hypothesis that 1.4% of the population could

Stereophile, November 1989

97

judge correctly while the remaining 98.6% auditory characteristics are difficult to remem-

could not. In other words, all we need is about ber or because of any of dozens of extraneous

seven people out of the 505 to judge correctly factors known to affect perceptual judgments

for this mean difference to be generated. The of this type. It is clear that aproblem is created

remaining 498 might as well be deaf. Given that the results came out as they did,
can we conclude that the differences between

if aselection that biases alistener to say "same" is played through two different amplifiers; the bias will cause most people to give the wrong

the amplifiers are not audible? That is, of course, one possible conclusion, but anull result such as this raises many questions and alternative hypotheses and is essentially unin-

answer, and overall accuracy will seem worse than it really is. If, on the other hand, this selection is played twice through the same amplifier, the bias will cause listeners to give an

terpretable While apositive result points to one answer that falsely inflates their accuracy. Biases

or to asmall set of conclusions, anull result tells us very little Anything that can mess up astudy

of this sort should average out over alarge set of selections, but studies of amplifier audibility

can cause anull result. It is much easier to run tend to use such asmall number of selections

aflawed study than avalid one and hence very that astrong bias for one or two selections can

easy to get anull result. (For this reason is it vir- greatly affect the results. An alternative to using

tually impossible to publish ascientific paper alarge set of selections is adesign in which

that reports anull finding.)

each selection is presented, to different

In this case some factors that could have led to anull finding can be suggested. An obvious one is the listening conditions. With over 50

listeners, in both a"same" and a"different" trial. The study we report here used such a design, which we will describe below.

listeners packed into the testing room, we

would assume that only afew were in aposi- A repeat test

tion nicely located between the speakers without ahuman body in the way. Another factor,

In order to overcome some of the flaws in the Stereopbile study, we decided to set up amore

characteristic of all the comparative listening nearly ideal testing situation. We purchased an

tests we know of, is the relatively brief 90- Adcom GFA-555 power amp and apair of VTL

second exposure each observer had. As Atkin- Monoblock 300s (both used, both checked out

son pointed out in the introduction to the Ste- as up to current specs). Testing took place in

reopbile study, it may take listening sessions aclassroom at Pomona College that had been

much longer than 90 seconds for differences outfitted for listening and recording for adiffer-

between amplifiers to be apparent. Still another ent project. This mom had nonresonant masonry

problem could result from people being walls, ceiling, and floor, as well as anonresonant

influenced, consciously or not, by the gestures, (but not very effective) dropped acoustical ceil-

body language, and possibly even by visible ing. It was carpeted, and bats of jute rug pad

response-sheet answers of others in the room. were used to reduce reflections and to cover

If people are more concerned with their neigh- the windows and stifle their resonances. The

bors' subtle cues than the sounds they are sup- signal source was aVTL- modified Magnavox

posed to be listening to, accuracy could very CD player that fed the two amplifiers in parallel

well fall to chance. Finally, we believe that through an attenuating network with film resis-

design problems similar to those found in this tors and Boums potentiometers, the pots being

study could either obscure real differences or used to equalize the effective gain for both

create artificial ones. One problem we have found in most of the

amps. Before every listening session we equalized the outputs of the amplifiers at IkHz, using

amplifier tests we have read has to do with the aFluke digital true-RMS meter accurate to three

particular selections of music used for "same" significant figures, and with the amplifiers driv-

and "different" trials. In virtually every case a ing the speakers. Mogami Neglex was used for

given selection is presented to listeners in either all interconnects, and all connections were sol-

a"same" trial or a"different" trial, but not in dered. The outputs of the amplifiers were fed

both. This procedure creates a problem through very robust 250-amp switches. The

because agiven piece may incline the listener VTLs' outputs were switched to a16 ohm load

to judge "same" or "different," whatever the when it was not driving the speaker; the

truth may be--possibly because the selection's Adcom was not loaded when it was not driv-

98

Stereophile, November 1989

Vacuum Tube Logic 300W monoblock power amplifier

Adcom GFA-555 power amplifier

ing the speaker. Cardas cable was used for all speaker cable. Several short pieces of cable were needed for the switching box, and two
18' lengths of Cardas Hodink fed the speakers, Martin-Logan CLSes. We chose the CLSes because they are uncolored and transparent speakers that seemed likely to reveal differ-
ences between the amplifiers--also because we had no access to aB&W 801 of the kind used in the Stereophile test.
The listening panel consisted of eight people. Of these, three had long-term interests in highfidelity sound and had "high-end" systems at
home. The rest were recruited from those working in the building during the Summer. These five had interests in audio and music but were not consumers of high-end equipment. People were given the test either singly or in groups of two. They were well-positioned with respect to the speakers and, when two were tested at the same time, they sat so as not to be able to observe each other's reactions or responses (the room was very dimly lit).
The test consisted of eight pairs of excerpts from the same pieces of music (we used awide variety of music--send SASE c/o Stereophile and we will provide the list or any other infor-

mation you may request). Of these eight, four pairs were played through the same amp and
four were played through different amps. To make everything nice and symmetrical, two of the four "same" pairs used the VTLs both times and two used the Adcom; for the "different" pairs, two had the VTLs first and two had the Adcom first.
Our design was intended to cope with the problem that some musical selections might
be easier to categorize than others, or that some selections would bias people to guess "different" or "same." As mentioned, such differences among the selections could spuriously inflate or deflate the accuracy of our listeners--we have no way of knowing which--and with only eight selections such effect would be
unlikely to average out. VVe therefore assigned each musical selection to all four possible different combinations of amps. Each pair of excerpts was therefore presented in four different ways (to different listeners, of course). Each listener heard all eight selections, but agiven selection was "same" with the Vils used twice for one group, "same" with two Adcoms for another, "different" with the order Adcom-
VTL for another group, and finally "different"

Stereophile, November 1989

99

with the order VTL-Adcom for the last group. Thus, there was atotal of four groups, each with two listeners in it, in avery well-balanced and controlled design, with every piece of music presented in every condition.
Results
Under these conditions, the arithmetic mean accuracy was 75%, which is 25% better than chance--considerably better than the 1.4% over chance of the Stereopbile study.
Performance for the eight listeners broke down as follows: One got them all correct, four got seven out of eight, one got six correct, one got four, and one got only two correct. Adistribution like this is probably better represented by the median than the mean. The median accuracy is 84.4%. Athird common measure of central tendency, the mode, is 87.5% correct.
Comparing this distribution to the appropriate binomial distribution (le, the prediction based on chance) using the chi-square test, we get achi-square of 90.14, which indicates that the observed distribution will be produced by atotally random process less than once in a thousand times. That is, if we repeated this study 1000 times with people who could not discriminate the amplifiers, only once would we get results this extreme. There is acaveat, however, associated with the chi-square test, and that is that it is unstable and possibly untrustworthy with avery small sample, such as the one we used. An alternative test for small samples is the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Applied to these data, this test puts the chance expectation well beyond the level of one in 100.
What accounts for the difference between our study and Stereopbile's? There were two clearly audible differences between the amplifiers in our system that may have been reduced in the Stereopbile test. The most prominent difference was in the highs. Sometimes-- especially with cymbals and brushes--the Adcom's highs sounded ragged compared to the VTLs; while on some material they simply sounded abit louder. On most but not all classical music this difference made the VTLs sound more natural, but on the popular selections it sometimes gave the Adcom alittle more excitement. The other difference, more subtle, was in imaging. The VTLs had aslightly deeper image and tended to define individual sound sources better than the Adcom. Thus,

for example, with the VTLs one had the sense that individual voices in achorus could be separately attended and placed in space, even counted, if one had the patience. The Adcom, while extremely clear and detailed, gave this sense less often.
Conclusions
These differences cause us to speculate that an important reason for the low identification accuracy in the Stereopbtle study was the crowded conditions in the listening room. Informal reports from those who participated in the study suggest that highs may have been muffled by people and couches placed very close to and in line with the tweeters. For those farther back in the room, attenuation of highs by all the bodies and tweed jackets in the way must have been severe. If the highs were significantly attenuated, important differences between the amplifiers could have been reduced to inaudibility.
The packing of the room must also have reduced the audibility of the differences between the amplifiers in imaging. Standing far off-center in our listening room caused the images to compress and rendered the already subtle imaging differences between the amplifiers impossible to detect. Many of the listeners in the Stereopbile study were non-optimally situated for good imaging, and the attenuation of highs probably also affected imaging by degrading important stereophonic cues in the high frequencies.
Despite our presentation of what may seem athoroughgoing pan of the Stereopbile study, from the way it was designed and executed to the analysis of the data, we applaud the study as an honest attempt to get an answer to avexing question. Audiophiles and high-end journals have claimed to find significant audible differences between amplifiers that have no major measurable differences in electrical characteristics and that short-term listening tests with blind or double-blind controls often cannot discriminate. The blind controls are intended to ensure that only the sound of an amplifier, not its appearance, price, or reputation, will influence the listener's judgment, and when non-blind reviews purport to find differences between amplifiers with equivalent electrical measurements, the more hardheaded among us are prone to attribute the differences to the influence of the non-audible status fac-

100

Stereophile, November 1989

tors normally unavailable in ablind test. However, there are too many nagging sug-
gestions of real amplifier differences to allow the hardheaded but open-minded observer to rest with this judgment. One of these is nicely put in John Atkinson's comments in the preface to the Stereophile report. Having been unable to distinguish an expensive amplifier from a moderately priced one in ablind test, he sold his own expensive amp and replaced it with a cheaper Quad 405. He later came to regret this decision as one of the worst he had made in audio. It seems reasonable to conclude from this and many similar accounts that long-term listening to an amplifier will reveal characteristics and annoyances that are extremely diffi-

cult to detect in abrief session. With this conclusion we would venture the further suggestion that one attribute of a"golden ears" listener is the ability to be annoyed in afew minutes by amplifier traits that take weeks to annoy most people.
How, then, is one to show differences among amplifiers without giving listeners amonth for
each comparison? We consider the Stereophile test to be an honest attempt to find areasonable way to do this. That study apparently assumed that the trick is to use alarge sample of listeners--this being acommon experimental approach to measuring small effects. Our study showed that alarge sample is not necessary, only aclean design.

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Iyear ago, following repeated suggestions from audiophiles across the country, Iinvited Stereophile readers

to share with us details of their systems and

listening rooms and to recommend dealers

they havefound to offer service and appropri-

ate guidance Not only would the information

prove fascinating in its own right--audio-

philes just love bearing about each other's

systems--but Ihoped that it would enable us

to build up an anecdotal database about what

components best work with others. So, to start

this irregular series, here is reader Stew Glick

from New Ibrk State And ifanyone else would

like to have their system featured in tbe mag-

azine, please send mefull details ofyour sys-

tem, room, musical and sonic tastes, accom-

panied (preferably) by black-and-white

photographs. Mark the envelope 'A Matter of

Taste"

--JA

Many of us who read Stereopbile appreciate the "Letters to the Editor" column as much as any other aspect of the publication; Ifor one am grateful to John Atkinson for recognizing this, and for allowing more space to be dedicated to the sharing of experiences at the consumer end of the hi-fi spectrum.
To begin, the room 1use for listening is about

10' x16' x8'; rather on the small side, to say the
least! The floor is carpeted concrete, and the front wall--the one near where the speakers reside--is also concrete for about athird of the way up. Small rugs hang on either side of a curtained window centrally located on the front wall, and there are also several area rugs on the side walls. The back wall, behind the
listening position, has acloset hidden by acurtain taking up about two thirds of it. There are three 2' x4' acoustic tiles on the ceiling just over the speaker positions. Major acoustic treatment is provided by aset of née 'flaps in each of the front wall corners, with one 11" stack between the speakers and enough 1" Sonex to cover an 8' x4' area on both side walls begin-
ning from the front wall; the cement part of the front wall is covered with four 2' x2' pieces of Sonex, combined with some straight 2" foam. The room probably sounds obscene from an aesthetic point of view, but even friends who have no idea what is going on in there find it rather neat and sort of artistic. As you can see, much attention has been given to the room acoustics. Some people believe this is about
70% of the battle for good sound. Suffice it to say, it is very, very important, and no doubt especially so in aroom as small as mine.
After my wife and Iwent our separate ways

Stereophile, November 1989

103

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Meitner STR50 power amplifier

some years ago, Ineeded to start asystem from scratch--she parted with our gear. (She loves music as much as Ido--maybe even more so.) After hearing the original Mission CD player,
Idecided to concentrate on that medium rather than try to build up anew record collection; some may still argue the point, but the writing was on the walls. (I might point out that, having owned aLinn LP12, Ittok tonearm, and various acceptable phono cartridges, Iam not totally
ignorant of what adecent analog front end is capable of.) That said, the hi-fi equipment, which resides on two Sound Organisation tables next to the listening hot seat, consists of the following: aMeitner CD3 CD player from Muscates, apair of itanslinIcs (also by Muscates), apassive volume pot from Electronic Visionary
Systems (the pot is by Penny & Giles, internal wire is Distech platinum, and connectors are Tiffanies), aSystem 6000 controller by Celes-
tion, and apair of Meitner amps, the STR55 and STR50. The speaker system is--if you haven't already guessed--a System 6000 by Celestion; the STR55 drives the SL600s, and the STR50 powers the 6000 woofers. Speaker cables and interconnects are from Museatex.
Ipurchased the amps just when they were updating the STR50. It was recommended by Kurien Jacob of Meitner that Icould use an STR50 on the woofers with no loss of quality from not updating to the STR55, since the bass in both amps is virtually identical; ademo

STR50 was available at asavings, so Ibought that instead of asecond '55. Private listening is via Stax Lambda Professional headphones driven by their dedicated class-A amp. All elec-
tronic components are plugged into an Isobar filter and spike protector by Tripplite, and four Sorbothane feet sit between the CD player and table. Most of my discs have CD rings (the orig-
inal Sims version), as my previous player--a Euphonic Technology ET650Mk.II--did not have the technology incorporated in the Meitner player for disc stabilization.
Icame upon the SL600s through Stereophile and through awonderful review by Ed Mendelson in TAS; when reviewers from two different publications could agree upon the reference quality of acomponent--and buy it--then it seemed worth looking into. Besides, remember the size of my room. Iwent through various amps (B&K ST-140, ARC D76 updated with Wonder Caps, as well as an Adcom GFA-555 to drive the woofers) before coming upon the
Meitners, again with the help of Stereophile, TAS, and the audio dealer I've been working with. The Celestion/Meitner combination
works extremely well; the Meitner really does seem to be the best of both worlds--tube and solid-state--in sound quality, and using the STR55 on the 600s with the STR50 on the woofers produces aseamless "whole" to the sonic picture. (And, yes, the Meitner produces deeper, better-defined bass than the Adcom.)

Stereophile, November 1989

105

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Just as an aside, let me say that anyone not familiar with the Meitner amplifiers should really check them out. Kurien Jacob told me that the STR55 will drive 90% of the speakers on the market, and of course the MTRIO1 would--I assume--take care of the rest. To say that these amps are the most beautiful and yet unassuming pieces of audio gear Ihave ever come across would be agross understatement; the fact that they can provide state-of-the-art sound is almost like an added bonus! (A definite Wife Acceptance Factor of 100%.)
The 6000 woofers came as an add-on when Iwas able to afford them. Much of the reason they work so well in my small room is attributable to their flexibility and control by design,
including the crossover unit. Also, Celestion will eliminate much of the guesswork in setup if you send them pertinent room dimensions. A really neat computer program spits out frequency-related graphs, with angles and distances for woofer placements to get those results. Of course, you aim for the flattest response in your room through scoping out the graphs, finding the one with the flattest, most even response, and then arranging the woofers at the angle and distances specified for that graph. The 600s, since they sit on pillars which can be turned independently from the woofers, can be rotated to optimize depth and soundstaging characteristics for one's own situation. The System 6000 is avery intelligent, well-
thought-out design which contributes enormously to the excellent results I've been able to obtain. Thanks to Martin Colloms for his thorough (as usual) review of the System 6000 in Stereophile (Vol.10 No.2), as this led me to believe that very positive results could be gotten with this woofer system.
For some time and until recently Ihad been enjoying the Euphonic Technology CD player. AMeitner CD3 player was ordered acouple of
months before production began. The Meitner Player did not come easy, to say the least. Production was very slow, as each unit is built virtually from scratch. (This player is not your usual modified Magnavox!) When aunit was finally sent to my dealer some five months after my initial order had been placed, UPS lost it in transit to me About amonth later Ireceived another unit; that one refused to play adisc, and was promptly returned to the factory. Brian Gammon of Museatex was quick to help me out, and sent me another unit as fast as he could. Whew! You

Celestion System 6000 subwoofer/speaker
must be wondering if all this aggravation--not to mention the costly phone bills--has been worth it. Well, first of all, if one thinks the Meitner amps are beauties, wait 'til you set your eyes on this baby! Anyone who is not crazy about the high-tech look of even the most costly CD players is in for quite amat. Mahogany trim and case, smoked-glass top, abrass weight which helps to gyroscopically balance the disc, etc., etc. Nice. ..but what does it sound like? The CD3 presents asoundstage that fills the room from top to bottom and side to side, as well as having great depth on recordings possessing these attributes. Bass is astonishingly deep and defined, and tonal color is as good as any fine moving-coil setup I've heard. It presents the music in such an immediate fashion (probably due to its transparency and focus) that you are instantly involved in the performance--drawn in by the sheer power of the

Stereophile, November 1989

107

music. But wait, this wasn't to be areview of the new Meitner player! Sorry; it's such anew kid on the block, Ithought Imight digress for amoment.
The best words Icould use to describe the sound of the system Ihave are coherent and seamless from top to bottom, utterly transparent, and, above all, musical, with nothing "offensive" happening at all; never any boominess in the bass or harshness in the high end--two things Ifind particularly irritating. Some may find the sonic picture, when portraying alarge bombastic orchestral work, to be on the "small" side. This tends to be true only with orchestrated works, but it gets no complaint from me since, again, the room is small and the music Itend to listen to most presents itself in quite lifelike proportions. Actually, all the equipment mentioned above seems to be present almost in spite of the musical performance; it all just fades into the background and doesn't get in the way of the music, which is, Iguess, how it should be. On to the music.
I'm pretty open to almost any kind of music. Ido find myself very sensitive to the higher frequencies though, and tend to stay away from situations where loud, distorted sounds abound. (I've had to use earplugs when exercising at the health club on several occasions. I'm not being asnob; it's painful otherwise!) Blues, R&B, jazz, solo acoustic guitar, some country, rock 'n' roll, some classical--whatever it is, if an artist is sincerely conveying something (even if it's just fun), I'll listen. Idon't have any opera, but not totally by choice; Ithink Iwould need to educate myself to really appreciate what it's about.
On the subject of recordings used for reference purposes, Iagree with both J. Gordon Holt andJohn Atkinson. Ilike putting on asimply recorded disc of piano or acoustic guitar or the like when listening seriously to acomponent. It helps to tell me what is going on in away that complex, "artificially" produced recordings just cannot convey. But if asystem cannot play music Ienjoy listening to in an
acceptable manner, what good is it? So, I'll listen to my favorite discs as well! Connecting with the spirit of the musical event is also where it's at (I hope you all agree). Here is some of the music that I've found to be particularly helpful (and fun!) when listening to components: John Williams: Portrait ofJohn Wil-
liams; Archie Shepp/Horace Parlan: Prouble in Mind; Oscar Peterson Trio: Wt,Get Requests;

LA Four: Going Home; Ray Brown: The Red

Hot Ray Brown Band; Ry Cooder: "The Thir-

teen Question Method" on Get Rhythm; The

Persuasions: No Frills; Joni Mitchell: Blue; and

check out these two cuts off of Bruce Spring-

steen's The Wild, The Innocent and the EStreet

Shuffle "Wild Billy's Circus Story" and David

Sancious's intro to "New York City Serenade"!

Iwould like to use this space to thank the

dealer who has helped me to put all this gear

together; without his sobering views, Ibelieve

money would have been wasted along the way.

Tom Busselle runs abusiness called The Audio

Doctor. Iknow this sounds weird, but this guy

not only cares about good sound, he seems to

care even more about the customer! Besides

firsthand experience over several years, I've

even had numerous friends tell me how he

advised them against apurchase (of an item

he carries!) because he felt it was not necessary

in their situation. You may not agree with him,

but he'll tell you honestly how he hears it; he's

unique among audio dealers, and Ihope you

print this; he deserves the attention. He can be

reached at: (417) 345-7245; RO. Box 380, 1518

W. Commercial, Buffalo, MO 65622.

S

"The effect of cleaning a record with the Nitty Gritty is astonishing" John Atkinson
"I reached for my British RCA pressing of Casino Royale, well-chewed by
countless cartridges and the ravages of the elements for 22 years. The background groove noise was not particularly high in level, but had agritty quality. Just one clean on the Hybrid 2 reduced this to an occasional minor tick, taking the background noise below the level of the intrinsic master tape hiss."
Please read the full review in the March issue of Stereophile (1989). Five models to choose from, starting at $270.
Nifty Gritty. 4650 Arrow Hwy. *F4, Montclair, CA 91763 714/625-5525

108

Stereophile, November 1989

VOLUME I(1962-1965), VOWME 11 (1966-1972) VOLUME 111,1972-1976
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ASONIC REF,fRENCEI

Purist miking + Analog recording + No noise reduction + All-tube electronics + Asimple signal path =
Natural instrumental timbres + Alack of compression + Areal soundstage =
Musical truth-- areference-standard recorded sound.
Tired of commercial recordings that stubbornly refused to deliver accurate sound quality and soundstaging, Stereophile's editors commissioned Water Lily Acoustics' Kavi Alexander to capture the sound of flute and piano with accuracy, honesty, and integrity. (See Stereophile, September 1989, Vol.12 No.9, p.66, for the full story.)
The result, they believe, is arecording that is true to both the original sound and the music. Pressed using afidelity-preserving one-step process and premium vinyl from an original lacquer mastered using all-tube equipment, this limited-edition LP is available only from Stereophile--order now!
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EQUIPMENT REPORTS

NAKAMICHI1000 R-DAT RECORDER
Robert Harley
Two-chassis digital audio tape recorder (R-DAT format) consisting of separate tape transport and digital processor. Digital processor specifications: D/A converter section (44.1kHz sampling frequency): 8x-oversampling digital filter with dual 20-bit calibrated DAC. Frequency response: 5Hz-22kHz +0.5dB. S/N Ratio: >106dB. Dynamic Range: >100dB. THD: 0.0005% (1kHz). THD+Noise: 0.0015% (1kHz). Channel separation: >106dB. A/D converter sections (after A/D and D/A conversion at 48kHz sampling frequency): Frequency response: 5Hz-22kHz +0.5dB. S/N Ratio: >95dB. Dynamic range: >95dB, THD: 0.001% (1kHz). THD-I-Noise: 0.003% (1kHz); Channel separation: >85dB. Digital input: 75 ohm coaxial/EIAJ optical x3 (switchable). Digital output: 75 ohm coaxial/EIAJ optical x3 (switchable). Line input (balanced): 50mV (-18dB record level max)/40k ohms; unbalanced: 50mV (-18dB record level max)/25k ohms. Line output (balanced): 2V (OdB/100ohms) fixed, 2V max (OdB/100ohms) variable; unbalanced: 2V (OdB/1k ohm) fixed, 2V max (OdB/1k ohm) variable. Sampling frequencies: 32kHz, 44.1kHz, 48kHz. Dimensions: 17 1/e" (435mm) W by 51/4"(133mm) Hby 14 9/16" (370mm) D. Weight: 38 lbs 9oz (17.5kg).

Tape transport specifications: Sampling frequencies: 32kHz, 44.1kHz, 48kHz (32kHz and 44.1kHz digital input, 48kHz analog input). Tape speed: 8.15mm/s. Digital input: 75 ohm coaxial/optical (switchable). Digital output: 75 ohm coaxial/optical (parallel). Dimensions: 17 1/43" (435mm) W by 51/4"(133) H by 14 9/16" (370mm) D. Weight: 35 lbs. 4oz (16kg).
Supplied accessories: full-function wireless remote control, aluminum transport cover, two digital coaxial cables, two digital optical cables, blank 120-minute DAT cassette, prerecorded DAT cassette, cleaning cassette, polishing cloth, batteries. Price (complete system): $11,000. Approximate number of dealers: 25. Manufacturer: Nakamichi America Corporation, 19701 South Vermont Avenue, Torrance, CA 90502. Tel: (213) 538-8150.

Think back lor amoment to 1973. Richard Nixon was President, the Vietnam War was still raging, and cassette-deck technology was primitive, offering decidedly low -fi performance. Then, in asurprising move, asmall
company that supplied tape transports on an OEM basis to many well-known Japanese manufacturers but had never made aproduct under its own name, introduced ano-compromise cassette deck that defined the state of the art in cassette decks for the next decade. The Nakamichi 1000 cassette deck was born, and with it anew chapter in the history of high
fidelity. The Nakamichi 1000 cassette deck was a
milestone in audio technology. It represented a complete rethinking of what could be achieved with anarrow tape running at TV per second. It was the first machine to use three heads, and achieved athen unheard-of frequency response of 35Hz-201cHz ±3dB. Even more surprising, however, this remarkable product was the first offering from acompany whose name was unknown to American con-

sumers. Mr. Niro Nakamichi, President, tried to sell the idea of a no-compromise tape machine to the manufacturers who used his OEM transports. When all the major companies rejected his idea, he decided to make his dream cassette deck and market it under his own name. Many industry observers thought Nakamichi was committing financial suicide:
Who would buy a$1300 cassette deck to begin with? And from an unknown company?
We all know the rest of the story. The Nalcamichi 1000 was extraordinarily successful,
both technically and commercially. It explored the upper limits both of cassette performance and of what people were willing to pay for such performance. Nalcamichi's timing couldn't have been better: the machine launched Nakamichi into the burgeoning cassette deck market just as this relatively new product category was about to explode. Suddenly, the Nakamichi name became synonymous with high-quality cassette decks. Since then, Nakamichi has expanded its product line to include CD players, amplifiers, and car stereo.

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Stereophile, November 1989

What does all this have to do with anew Digital Audio Tape recorder in 1989? Everything. The fact that Nalcamichi's new DAT machine, like its legendary predecessor, bears the model designation 1000 reflects their attitude toward
this new machine. Nakamichi feels the 1000 DAT recorder will set abenchmark of performance for many years, just as the 1000 cassette deck did over 15 years ago. The decision to invoke the 1000 moniker was not made lightly. According to Mr. Nakamichi, the 1000 name
was chosen "after long and difficult deliberation."
There are many parallels between the 1000 cassette deck and the 1000 DAT recorder. Just as the original 1000 introduced anew level of technological sophistication to cassette technology, so does the new 1000 to DAT technology. The machine is loaded with design innovations that put it decidedly ahead of other
DAT machines. Indeed, Nakamichi was the first DAT-machine manufacturer to offer for sale in the US a unit that could digitally record a 44.1kHz sampling-rate signal. There had been atacit agreement that DAT machines would not have this capability, to prevent digital-to-digital copying of CDs. Despite threats of lawsuits by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America, afervent anti-DAT group), Mr. Nakamichi felt that "intentionally crippling the capabilities of amachine like this was acompromise
Isimply couldn't make." Subsequently, however, an agreement was reached between DAT manufacturers and the record industry to allow 44.1kHz digital recording. In abreak with the established DAT standard, the 1000 does not allow four-hour recording on a120-minute
tape. This is accomplished in other machines by reducing the sampling rate to 32kHz and quantization to 12-bit. Nakamichi felt the

'1160.
Nakamichi 1000 R-DAT transport
greatly reduced performance did not justify the extended playing time. The 1000 will, however, record adigital signal at 32kHz/12- bit from DBS (Direct Broadcast Satellite).
The Nakamichi 1000 Digital Audio Recording System consists of two chassis and awireless remote control. One chassis, called the 1000p, contains the analog and digital processing circuitry, while the other houses the tape transport. Both units have identical dimensions and look very similar. Before discussing the construction and technical details, Imust comment on the 1000's styling. It is striking. Ihave never seen an audio component that attracts the eye like the 1000. Finished in brushed aluminum with soft, rounded edges, the 1000 exudes a futuristic elegance.
Digital processor
The digital processor is the control center of the 1000 and the interface between the DAT transport and preamp. During playback, the processor receives adigital input from the transport and converts the multiplexed data stream to two analog outputs. While recording, it receives an analog or digital signal and outputs adigital signal to the transport for recording on aDAT cassette.
The processor can accept up to three digital inputs, selected from the front panel. Since all inputs use the industry standard S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format), aCD player or second DAT machine with digital-out jack can be decoded by the 1000p. Adubbing switch provides copying between two of the digital inputs in either direction. This multipleinput feature with dubbing greatly increases the 1000's versatility. Owners can bypass their CD player's D/A converter and take advantage of the 1000's decoding section. In addition, it

Stereophile, November 1989

113

3,18010

MIN
Nakamichi 1000p digital processor and remote control
······
I
en·I gmo1
imminimailimmiammimme

is asimple matter to copy from CD to DAT in the digital domain and monitor the signal without constantly changing the hookup.
Just above the input selector switches are an output level control and left and right inputlevel controls. Alarge knob at the far right is the master record-level control. These recordlevel controls function only when recording an analog input signal. When making adigitalto-digital copy, the DAT tape will have the same level recorded on the CD: from CD master tape to CD to DAT copy, ones and zeros are transferred unchanged, meaning that there is no change in level. The 1000 has vertical peakreading meters toward the left side of the front panel. The meter's dynamic range is 60dB, with an overload indicator. Aswitch to the right of the meter turns the meter off, on, or selects a peak-hold function. Above the meter switch, another small switch selects emphasis on or off when recording. During playback, control bits in the DAT subcode automatically engage the de-emphasis circuitry if the recording was made with pre-emphasis. Because de-emphasis in the 1000 occurs in the digital domain, it should have better performance characteristics than analog de-emphasis circuitry Preemphasis is ahigh-frequency boost applied to the signal before the A/D converter. Areciprocal curve is introduced in playback (de-emphasis) to restore flat response. Like emphasis in analog tape recording (NAB curve) and phono playback (RIAA equalization), emphasis in a

digital system improves overall S/N ratio. The fourth and bottom switch in this row selects between the processor's analog and digital inputs.
Above this row of switches are four LEDs. One of them illuminates to indicate apreemphasised signal, the other three show sampling frequency. Aheadphone jack and headphone volume control are provided at the far left of the front panel beneath the power switch.
The 1000p features amodular design to accommodate future upgrades as A/D- and D/A-converter technology improves. The three main boards, D/A converter, A/D converter, and digital interface are easily removed from the rear of the chassis. The A/D board has balanced and unbalanced inputs, selected by aswitch located between the output jacks. Similarly, balanced and unbalanced outputs are provided on the D/A board. In addition, the D/A board has one extra set of RCA outputs to provide both fixed and variable unbalanced outputs. The digital interface board has coaxial and optical inputs and outputs labeled DAT 1 and DAT 2. Athird coaxial/optical digital input, labeled "source," is also provided. Finishing off the back panel are two unswitched AC outlets.
Construction quality is impeccable. The chassis is made from brushed aluminum as thick as Y16" in some places. Aremovable top panel is held by screws plated to match the exterior finish. Internally, solid copper and heavy copper plating are used extensively for electromag-

114

Stereophile, November 1989

netic shielding. In many products, one can get afeel for the
designer's attitude by looking at small details the consumer would never see. Often, minor aspects of construction or design are compromised in the belief that they will not significantly affect performance or sales. On the other hand, some products reflect adedication to quality and craftsmanship that extends far deeper than the consumer will ever notice. The Nalcamichi 1000 definitely falls into this latter category. Some of these touches are described later in this review.
Tape transport
The Nakamichi 1000 Digital Audio Recorder, as the transport portion of the 1000 Digital Audio Recording System is known, records a digital signal input to it, usually from the 1000p digital processor. Its back panel has one digital input and output, selectable between optical and coaxial.
Looking at the transport's front panel, one immediately notices the clear window to the left of the cassette loading door. This window exposes the rotating head and transport mechanism. Everyone who comes in the test lab/ listening room is fascinated by the tiny guides, loading arms, and head drum visible through the window. Nalcamichi couldn't resist showing off their tape mechanism, which is unlike that of any other DAT machine. Users who prefer not to witness the machinations that bring them music can install asolid aluminum door (supplied) in the window's place.
The front panel's 43 (»controls (buttons and switches, not including LED indicators) look intimidating at first glance. However, the controls are logically laid out; using them becomes second nature after ashort time. The panel's far right side contains all the subcode programming features unique to the DAT format. The 1000's subcode programming facilities are quite sophisticated. During the pause between tracks, acode, called a"Start ID," is automatically written in the DAT subcode area. The Start ID identifies the beginning of atrack for later search and random-access play. In afeature unique to the 1000, the user can select the threshold at which the Start ID is written, either -40dB or -60dB. Alternately, the automatic insertion of the start code can be turned off, allowing the user to write aStart ID code manually by pressing the "Write" button. If aStart

ID code is mistakenly written, the "Erase" but-
ton removes it. Another Start ID feature, called "Renum," allows a Start ID number to be changed. If, for example, aCD is recorded with
automatic insertion of the Start IDs but there is asegue between tracks five and six, all Start IDs after track six will be misnumbered. The
manual "Write" feature, in conjunction with "Renum," can be used to correctly identify each track's beginning and number.
Similarly, the "Skip ID" write button will identify portions of the tape to be skipped dur-
ing playback. Aswitch turns the skip function on and off. Like the Start ID code, Skip IDs can be erased and rewritten. Skip ID codes are par-
ticularly useful for playing back tapes of unattended radio broadcasts: commercials are easily identified and expunged. The Nalcamichi 1000 has one other subcode programing feature Ihave seen on no other DAT machine: an
end-of-tape marker. If an entire tape was not used in one recording session, the end-of-tape code makes finding where you left off easy. A "Search" button next to the End controls auto
matically finds the End mark on the tape. In
addition, the auto-rewind function can be triggered by an End marker. End codes can be written and erased manually. All the subcode func-
tions described are accompanied by LED indicators to show what code is written where.
Just above the subcode programming section, arow of numbered buttons selects tracks
for searching or random-access play. These buttons are very similar to a CD player's random-access controls. Anumeric LED window displays search and random program-play status. All subcode functions and indicator
LEDs are repeated on the infra-red remote control. Incidentally, the remote control is finished in the same brushed aluminum as the proces-
sor and transport, and has the same elegant feel.
The lower middle portion of the front panel houses the tape transport controls. These are
all the functions one would expect on atape machine (play, fast forward, etc), with the addition of "F. Skip" and "R. Skip." The F. Skip and R. Skip controls shuttle the tape forward or backward to the first detected Start ID. Alternately, pressing this button twice causes the transport to search for the second start ID, three times for the third start ID, and so on. A source/tape switch is conveniently located next to the transport controls. This selector

Stereophile, November 1989

115

switch is used just like asource/tape switch on athree-head analog tape machine for off- thetape monitoring.
Extensive tape-counter facilities are provided. An LED numeric display above the transport controls can be switched between four counter modes: Counter, Program Time, Absolute Time, and Time Remaining. One of four LEDs illuminates to indicate which tape counter mode is selected. Program time and absolute time are dependent on that information being written in the subcode, while counter and time remaining are not. Time remaining, an extremely useful feature, is calculated from the differential hub speeds of the DAT cassette.
Finishing off the front panel are six LEDs that indicate sampling frequency, the presence of acopy-prohibit flag, emphasis, and whether the incoming digital data is acceptable for recording. Afader up/down rocker switch is provided for smooth fade-up at the beginning of arecording and fade-down at the end. The fader operates in the digital domain.
Digital processor: technical description
Like its namesake the Naicamichi 1000 cassette deck, the 1000 DAT recorder is packed with innovative electronic and mechanical designs that set it apart from other DAT recorders. It is clear that Nalcamichi wanted to build amachine that would maintain its technological leadership for many years.
Let's start with the A/D section, amajor source of sonic degradation in any digital audio system. One problem with A/D converters is called quantization error. During A/D conversion, anumber representing the amplitude of the analog audio signal at sample time is assigned to each sample. With 16-bit linear quantization, the converter must select anumber between 0and 65,535 to represent the signal's amplitude. Aproblem arises because an audio signal's amplitude is infinitely variable and may fall between two quantization levels. The converter's digital output is thus an approximation of the actual amplitude. Further exacerbating this problem is the non-linear nature of A/D converters. The jumps between quantization steps are not evenly spaced, due to chip-manufacturing imperfections, causing further quantization error. This error is particularly noticeable at low levels as a"granulation"

Neighboring bit values we added.

Fig.1

Compare and Tom

LSB

Nakamichi, A/D converter auto

calibration

or "sandpaper" noise. Nalcatnichi has taken an interesting approach
to reducing this problem. The 2x-oversampling A/D converter has aself-calibration feature, activated every time the 1000p processor is turned on. The 1.4-second process calibrates the quantization increments between all 16 bits, resulting in reduced quantization error. The process is shown in fig.l. The values of the A/D converter's two Least Significant Bits (LSBs) are summed to produce the value of the neighboring bit. The summed reference value is then added to the value of the newly calibrated bit to produce the new reference for the neighboring bit. This process is repeated for the remaining bits. The result is uniform amplitude steps between quantization levels.

Although the A/D converter performs 16-bit quantization, the auto calibration system is said

to produce 18-bit resolution. Because A/D (and D/A) converters change
their characteristics with temperature, optimum performance is achieved only after the unit is warm and has reached thermal equilibrium. Consequently, the 1000's A/D auto calibration feature should be used after the unit has been on for at least an hour. Recalibrating the converter is accomplished simply by turning the power off, then on again. Iwas unable to see what converters were used because the chips are covered by metal shields.
The goal of reducing low-level quantization artifacts in the A/D converter is paralleled in the D/A section. All DACs have linearity errors that generally increase as signal level decreases. Linearity error is the difference between the actual amplitude of the recorded signal and the DAC output. This problem is particularly acute when the signal drops to such alow level that only the last few LSBs are toggled. Manufacturing tolerances create real performance differences, even among chips from the same batch.

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Stereophile, November 1989

To improve D/A conversion linearity, Nakamichi has come up with an interesting design. To keep low-level signals away from the LSBs on the DACs (where the greatest error is), each channel uses two D/A converters (actually, both portions of aPhilips TDA1541 SI Crown dual DAC). The first DAC receives the 14 Most Significant Bits (MSBs) from the 20-bit digital filter, while the second DAC receives the remaining 6bits. These remaining 6bits, containing low-level signal information normally subject to corruption by aDAC's linearity error, are instead input to the MSB inputs of the second DAC. This scheme keeps the signal on the upper bits of the DACs, where conversion is performed at ahigher level of precision.
It is apparent that Nakamichi places ahigh priority on conversion linearity: the 1000 uses an additional method to reduce DAC linearity
errors.
Each DAC is individually measured using a 22-bit, high-precision, scientific A/D converter. The measurements are repeated 10 times and the average linearity error values for each bit stored in aROM (Read Only Memory) chip. The ROM chips are programmed with calibration data unique to each DAC. During D/A conversion, this information compensates for the DAC's intrinsic linearity errors. The gain of the second DAC that receives the 6 LSBs is also stored in ROM to smoothly merge with the main DAC's output. In theory, the 1000's D/A converter section should provide nearly perfect conversion linearity. The dual DAC with ROM compensation scheme is shown in fig.2.
The 1000's D/A section also incorporates a glitch-cancellation circuit. This circuit generates atimed, inverted pulse to cancel each predicted glitch.
On the question of whether audible degra-

dation occurs even without achange in the digital code, Nakamichi firmly believes it does.' According to Nakamichi, jitter "can have apronounced effect on sound quality" For this reason, the 1000 incorporates acircuit they call the "High-Precision, Thin-I'LL Digital Audio Interface." According to Nakamichi, this circuit removes jitter components and controls the timing of the output signal.
On the analog side, component quality is very good, with oxygen-free polystyrene caps and metal-film resistors. The switching relays are nitrogen-filled, with two gold-plated contacts (one contact is redundant) to reduce the chance of apoor connection. In addition, the motion of the contacts wipes clean the connection every time it is engaged. This type of highgrade component is usually found in computers.
The power supply is quite hefty, with dual transformers and large filter caps. The threepin voltage regulators have unusually large heatsinks. Acopper plate that forms part of the inner chassis separates the power supply from the AID, D/A, and digital interface boards. Overall, Iwas very impressed by the parts quality and solid construction of the 1000. It is as beautiful inside as outside.
Iwas, however, concerned to find Signetics NE5532 op-amps in the input and output sections, not discrete class-A circuitry. When so much attention has been lavished on this nocompromise machine, Ithought it odd that opamps had been chosen for the critical analog section. However, my feelings about op-amps may be unfounded: in my review of four integrated amplifiers in Vol.12 No.9, Ipreferred the sound of the Creek 4140 to that of the Audi-
tSee September's, "Indwary Update."

20-bd data trom dIgItal filter

Upper 14 bris

Lower 6 bds

Upper bdimarn D/A Converter

-o

Analog Output

Upper bd Compensabon
data ROM
Lower bd Compensabon
data ROM

Upper brt compensabon and
lower brt group
D/A conveder

Fig.2 Nakamichi, block diagram, 20-bit calibrated DAC

Stereophile, November 1989

olab 8000A. The latter uses discrete class-A amplification, while the Creek uses the 5532 op-amp. Ihave heard good and bad sound from both circuit types, and am beginning to think implementation may be more significant than the amplifying device.
The 1000's meters merit discussion. The dual 32-segment LED display is excellent, with wide dynamic range and fine resolution, especially at low signal levels. The selectable peak-hold feature is especially useful when setting recording levels. The overload indicator comes on when five successive samples are at maximum modulation.
Tape transport: technical description
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the Nalcamichi 1000 is its radically different tape mechanism. Most DAT tape transports have been adapted from video-recorder technology, notably 8mm video. Nakamichi created anew transport from scratch, designed with digital audio recording in mind. This transpon, called FAST (Fast Activated Stationary tape guide Transport), represents asignificant improvement over video-based DAT tape-handling systems.
A video-based DAT transport, shown in

fig.3, relies on incline guides on either side of the rotating head drum for aligning the position of the tape against the head. These guides move back and forth each time the tape is loaded against the head, increasing the chance of reduced positional accuracy. The FAST mechanism uses two stationary head-guide blocks for tape-to-head alignment, reducing the possibility of tape misalignment. Each guide block has three guide pins to establish the correct tape slant and height, and to absorb any deviation in loading-pin position. These pins are made from aproprietary, graphiteimpregnated plastic.
The tape-loading arms differ significantly from video-based transports. In aconventional mechanism, the loading arms move at aconstant, low speed. The 1000's loading arms move with varying force and speed, set to ideal levels during the tape-loading cycle. The loading arms move slowly to remove the tape from the cassette, speed up, then slow down before the pinch roller engages and the loading arms lock into place. These tape-loading functions are under microprocessor control, and the mechanism provides feedback to the microprocessor. The 1000's tape mechanism is shown in fig.4. Because of the clear window mentioned earlier, these motions are visible.

Fig.3 Conventional DAT mechanism

Fig.4 Nakamichl F.A.ST. DAT mechanism Stereophile, November 1989

Another tape-transport feature unique to the 1000 is called the "Half Load Position." In a conventional transport, the tape is in contact with the head during fast-forward and rewind as it shuttles at 200 times normal speed. Tapeto-head contact is necessary during search functions, since the machine must read the subcode on the tape. Like all other DAT machines, the 1000 incorporates this feature, activated by pressing the fast-forward or rewind buttons. Unlike other machines, however, the 1000's Half Load Position lifts the tape away from the head drum, but does not retract fully into the cassette, during high-speed winding. If subcode searching is not needed, removing the tape from the heads makes sense since tape, head, and guide wear are reduced. Pushing the rewind or fast-forward button twice engages the half-load position. When in the half-load position, the wind time starts at 150 times normal speed, increases to nearly 600 times normal speed, then slows down to 150 times toward the end of the tape. When leader tape is detected, the reel-motor brakes are engaged to stop the tape. With the half-load feature, a two-hour DAT tape can be rewound in 19 seconds. Typically, DAT machines require between 45 and 60 seconds to fast-wind the same length of tape.
Finally, the 1000 incorporates asecond pair of heads for off-the-tape monitoring. This is analogous to athree-head analog tape machine in which the third head plays back the information just written. This feature is known in professional digital audio recorders as "ReadAfter-Write" and is considered essential in demanding applications.
General impressions
Idecided early on that putting the Nalcamichi 1000 through its paces required recording live music. For amachine of the 1000's sophistication and capabilities, nothing less would reveal its intrinsic nature, both sonically and mechanically. When using apiece of audio equipment professionally, one develops a feel for the machine very quickly when it is asked to perform to ahigher standard.
In addition to exercising the 1000 for this review, Iwanted to record some music for the upcoming Stereopbde sampler CD (probably
available in the beginning of 1990). The disc will feature test signals and naturally miked acoustic music engineered by JA, JGH, and

myself. ,Iwill prepare the CD master tape using aMacintosh computer, alarge hard disk, and adigital editing package Watch for afull report.
Fortunately, Imet alocal guitarist named Bruce Dunlap who was interested in doing aproject. Iwent to hear him play at his regular gig and knew immediately that he would make a significant musical contribution to our CD. We decided to record Bruce's original music, written for acoustic guitar and acoustic bass. Finding arecording site was achallenge. The room needed to be large enough for natural reverberation, isolated from outside noise, have periods of time when no one was using it, and have a person in charge willing to turn it over to us. After some searching, we managed to line up a140-year-old Santa Fe church, the Loretto Chapel. The Chapel is now part of the Best Western Inn at Loretto, about two blocks from the Stereophde offices. Its most interesting feature is called the "Miraculous Staircase," aspiral staircase built with no nails or supporting structure underneath it. The staircase, along with the ornate sculpture and carvings, provided a diffuse reverberation field.
The microphones were Tim de Paravicinfs EAR tube mics, amplified to line level by his EAR 824M tube mic preamp. The Blurnlein stereo microphone technique was chosen for its natural spatial perspective. This setup, also
called "crossed figure-eights," puts two bidirectional mics at 90° relative to each other.
Monitoring on location has always posed problems. During the session, countless decisions are made, based solely on what is heard through the monitoring system. It must accurately reveal what the mics are hearing. Fortunately, Iwas able to use apair of Stax Pro Lambda Signature headphones for the project. Their natural tonal balance, resolution, and portability make them ideal for remote recording.
We set up the recording system about 6pm and recorded until 2am on two successive nights. For about 12 hours of this time, Imonitored the live mic feeds through the &axes and listened to the real instruments in the room. This provided an ultimate reference when playing back the master tapes. More on the sound later.
2During the review period, Itransferred anumber of my analog recordings that may be suitable for inclusion on this CD to DAT using the Nalcarnichl 1000.1 can only agree with Rirs feelings about what ajoy the machine is to use.

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Functionally and ergonomically, the Nalcamichi 1000 was ajoy to use. Although numerous, its front panel controls are intuitive and very easy to learn. Within ashort time, Ifelt completely at home with this machine. Its extensive subcode capabilities were particularly useful for marking the beginnings of takes and searching those points for playback to the musicians. The transport is exceptionally smooth and quiet, with no clunkiness when engaging fast-wind or play modes. In addition, the machine is very quiet during recording and playback, quiet enough, in fact, that Icould sit just 15' from the mics without introducing any extraneous noise. DAT machines usually have a"whirring" sound as the rapidly spinning heads (200Orpm) beat against the tape. According to Nakamichi, the 1000's lower noise level is indicative of the gentler tape-to-head contact made possible by their superior tape-alignment system.
The 1000 did experience one glitch, however. The Read-After-Write function did not work, preventing instantaneous off-tape monitoring. Subsequent attempts in the listening room to monitor from the tape confirmed that the sample was defective in this regard.
The sound
In addition to recording live music, Irecorded some CDs on the 1000 in the digital domain. Theoretically, the recorded DAT (called a "clone" to imply its identical nature) should sound the same as the CD. Many people claim that aDAT recorded from aCD sounds different from the source. However, Icould detect no difference between them.
During the recording session, the piece just recorded was played back for musical evaluation. Icompared the sound of the 1000 (after it had been through A/D conversion, tape storage, and D/A conversion) to the sound of the microphones. Iwas surprised at how close the recorded sound was to the real thing. The primary difference was reduced reverberation, and less "air" around instruments. This phenomenon is typical of digital systems in general, and not unique to the 1000. Perhaps due to this loss of ambience, the soundstage lost some of its three-dimensionality. This reduced the palpability of the instruments and their spatial perspective in the natural reverberation of the church.
More important, however, the timbre of the

guitar did not lose its warmth and delicacy. The 1000 did not add ametallic glare commonly induced by solid-state electronics and digital processing. The soft roundness that is the essence of the instrument remained uncorrupted. Bruce, the guitarist, was particularly pleased with the reproduced guitar sound. He is very sensitive to unnatural brightness on guitar heard on so many recordings but never from the instrument. His reference of what his guitar should sound like is far better than mine: he has spend years listening to the instrument compared with my 12 hours.
Back at the listening room, Iprepared the 1000's digital decoder section for some headto-head combat with the Digilog and my reference digital processor, the Theta DSPre. The
playback system consisted of Vortex Screen loudspeakers driven by the Music Reference ILM-9 tube power amplifier with aPS Audio 5.5 preamp used in the "Straightwire mode exclusively, and Stax Lambda Professional Signature headphones.
My initial impression during the recording session of the 1000's smooth tonal balance was reinforced by extended listening. The top octaves were soft in comparison with the Digilog. Ifind that alaid-back treble presentation more accurately reflects the sound of real instruments. The Harmonia Mundi recording of Handel's Water Music is exceptionally free from glare and stridency, with totally natural timbres. If Ihear glare when playing this recording, I know it is added by something in the playback system. This recording played through the 1000 revealed atonal balance free from the
stridency added by some other processors. In fact, Ifound the 1000 to be remarkably un-
colored, especially in the midrange. In addition to the tonal balance of the guitar mentioned, vocals were particularly pleasing and unfatiguing.
The 1000's soundstage was open and detailed, with anice bloom. Instruments were well-delineated within the soundstage, with afairly good sense of depth. In this regard, however, it did not match the Digilog. The 1000 did not have the Digilog's transparent, "seethrough" quality, but aslight haze that obscured the view into the soundstage. Instru-
ments toward the rear of the soundstage tended to become homogenized, in contrast with the Digilog's ability to clearly present detail in its
correct spatial perspective. Bass reproduction tended to be richer and

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more rhythmically satisfying through the 1000 than through the Digilog. Both processors had excellent bass dynamics, but the Digilog sounded slightly leaner in the midbass.
When comparing the Theta with other processors, as I've done in other reviews, Iam always amazed by the leap in musicality offered by the Theta. This review is no exception. While the 1000's digital processor is good, it was no match for the Theta in terms of soundstaging, liquidity, and sheer enjoyment of music.
In short, the 1000 has apolite treble and neutral tonal balance, but falls short of the state of the art of digital decoding due to its lack of transparency and slight veiling. This combination of characteristics tends to reduce musical satisfaction, but does not grate on the nerves the way overly bright or tonally colored products do.

1.6dB at -90dB. Compare this with the linearity performance of the Digilog and Black Box 2 (Vol.12 No.10) which, like the 1000, use the Philips TDA1541 DAC.
The noise-spectrum graph made by playing alow-level signal was equally impressive. Fig.7 shows a 'kHz tone at -90dB, and the noise spectrum. This is the best performance Ihave measured. The -120dB level at 60Hz is particularly impressive, indicating good powersupply isolation. The small positive linearity
error indicated by the 'kHz peak crossing above the -90dB horizontal line can also be seen in fig.6.
The measured frequency response was ostensibly flat throughout the audio band apart from aslight rolloff in the top octave, being down 0.5dB at 20kHz. This conforms with the printed specifications.

Measurements Iwas particularly eager to measure the Nakamichi 1000's D/A converter linearity, since they took such great pains to reduce linearity error. Iwas not surprised, therefore, to discover that the 1000 had the lowest linearity error Ihave measured. Fig.5 shows the plot made from playing the "fade to noise with dither" track on the CBS test disc. It is as near to aperfect straight lineas! have seen. Fig.6 shows deviation in dB from perfect linearity. Looking at these data in tabular form, the 1000 had an error of 0.13dB at -70dB, 0.41dB at -80dB, and

10 PRC111111 enktrtir INCIVIII10/ 0. MCC 011.00 h70.411

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I F INA, L111/ · : .

Fig.5 Nakamichi, fade to noise with dither

1111/10 101C1411:01 ereletlt NORM /se

Car/

sli

10.000

AP

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4.0001/

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Fig.6 Nakamichi, linearity error (left channel

Conclusion
The Nakamichi 1000 Digital Audio Recording System is atechnological tour deforce and a significant milestone in home recording. Never before have home recordists had access to such asophisticated digital recording system, usually
reserved for professionals. The level of thinking that went into the 1000's design and construction puts it vastly ahead of other DAT machines. In addition, the "feel" of the 1000 is superb: it exudes asense of luxury and elegance.
Imust now deal with the 1000's $11,000 price tag. A"Buy Recommendation" in Stereo',bile implies that the reviewer not only likes the product, but feels it offers sufficient value to warrant purchasing it himself. Based on these criteria, Ican recommend the Nakamichi
1000 to anyone who takes recording seriously. Quite apart from the machine's extraordinary
construction, extensive capabilities, innovative technology, reasonably good sonics, and beautiful styling, Nakamichi has made aproduct that will undoubtedly stand the test of time.

101:111111C1110110:01-1111111171111177r, I MINIM 0/ 00 11011100 le 17 ..1 a.

[:7*

r'.iI.iel..e..·.. ---..,1/..4g,-..,-, -,----1--h1i1--t--

at
...,.

rle. elf-,

ui

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Fig.7 Nakamichi, -90dB dithered lkHz

tone with spuriae and noise

Stereophile, November 1989

121

When weighing value, longevity is surely an important factor in the equation. The highly advanced tape mechanism, futuristic styling, and modular construction of the processor and tape transport (allowing upgrades as converter technology improves) were clearly designed to keep the 1000 contemporary many years from now. In addition, the 1000's multipleinput digital processor can replace the D/A section of an existing CD player, further enhancing its value.
Potential buyers should be aware, however, that the 1000 does not represent the very best sound quality available in digital decoding. Although its sonics are above average and very listenable, the 1000 falls short of the musical performance offered by such Class Aunits as the Theta.
Questions have been raised about the viability of the DAT format. Will DAT outlive the

Nakamichi 1000? My opinion is that DAT is here to stay. Moreover, the professional recording community has embraced DAT with apassion. The format offers arelatively low-cost digital recording system with performance that equals and often excels systems costing ten times the price. The DAT format may even replace the industry-standard y," U-Matic cassette for CD mastering. 3
The Nalcamichi 1000 clearly represents the state of the art in home recording. Its innovative technology and designed-in longevity make it aworthy successor to the Nalcamichi 1000 cassette deck which inspired it, both in concept and in name.
3See AES preprint 02770(0-5), "Recording, Editing and CD Mastering Entirely in the DAT Format," by Robert Harley and Ray Keating, presented at the 86th AES convention In Hambunt, West Germany, March 1989.

THE WAVEFORM LOUDSPEAKER

Larry Archibald
Four-way, bi-amplified, moving-coil-driver loudspeaker, with electronic crossover. One 15" JBL subwoofer, two 6", long-throw, fiber/plastic-laminate woofers, one 1" textile-dome tweeter, one ribbon super-tweeter. Crossover frequencies: 150Hz, 3kHz, 9kHz. Crossover slopes (from bottom up): 18dB/octave, 18dB/octave, 12dB/octave. Sensitivity: 90dB/1W/1m. Recommended amplifier power: up to 500W, depending on room size (two stereo amps required). Maximum output: unspecified, but "110-120dB" is mentioned--which gives you an idea of what to expect. Frequency response: 28Hz-20kHz. +2dB. Dimensions: 31" W by 21" D by 47" H. Weight: approximately 180 lbs each. Price: $9800/pair. Approximate number of dealers: 2in US. 3in Canada. Manufacturer: Waveform Research, Inc., R.R. #4, Brighton, Ontario KOK 1H0, Canada. Tel: (613) 475-3633.

John Otvos, the father of Waveform Research Inc and The Waveform Loudspeaker, hesitates not at inviting ultracritical examination: "The Waveform is the most accurate, the best, forward-firing loudspeaker in the world." Period. Reviewers, of course, welcome such statements, and I'll be examining that one, but I'll also try to answer the inherent reviewing question of whether the Waveform is agood place for you to park $9800 on your way to "the highest of high-end sound" (that was our slogan for the first Santa Monica High End Hi -Fi Show).
The company
Without adoubt, one of the first questions I'd ask myself is whether the company asking for my S9800 had proved itself in the high-end

u .1 rs --what were the chances that my dealer would still be selling this expensive product two years from now, or, more ultimately, that this little-known speaker company would still exist?
Given the small number of US outlets for the Waveform (Absolute Audio in Orange County and Keith Yates Audio in Sacramento), the former question might well be answered simply by interviewing the dealers involved. Though their powers of prediction aren't perfect, I'm sure you could get an idea just by talking to Evelyn Sinclair or Keith Yates. And, of course, Stereopbile reviewers aren't given to clairvoyance as to the survival of companies, though we'd like that ability--some of the products we've rated most highly have been produced by people just starting out who've

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struggled for at least acouple of years. (Not that this is the ultimate bad sign--companies like Audio Research, Conrad-Johnson, and Thiel stayed small for significant periods of time, only to burgeon into card-carrying members of the audio establishment in later years.)
Still, Iwould want to be careful. Since 1987, when they were introduced, just 17 pairs of Waveforms have been built, and it's the only loudspeaker made by Waveform Research. Although this represents almost aquartermillion dollars at retail (many of the first ones were made of solid black cherry and sold for $17,000), Waveform's feet are just getting wet in the speaker business.
Mr. Ótviis himself is not so inexperienced. He has been a master cabinet-builder and woodworker running his own business for upward of 20 years, and self-admittedly is not the design genius behind this loudspeaker. That said, Igot the distinct impression that he is its "fattier," and in more than just acommer-
cial sense: He employed Paul Barton of PSB to design the Waveforms (see Vol.11 No.5 for JGH's review of the first PSB loudspeaker sold in the US); he determined the unusual shape of the speaker; and Iam sure he decided where the emphases should he. John Ótviis is adirect, self-assured man (see the quote that begins this review) with every intention of making it in the
ultra-high-end speaker business; Irespect his determination.
The design
But what of his speaker? All products in this price range demand that you go the extra mile in setting them up and choosing your associated components, and the Waveform is no exception. Like the IRS Betas, the Waveforms require two high-powered stereo amplifiers. Canadian loudspeaker manufacturers, who so frequently come from the discipline of NRC (National Research Council of Canada) testing --with its insistence on blind evaluation of everything--don't like to talk about the importance of amplifiers chosen for use with their loudspeakers, but Ifound both the Waveform and the Mirage (see review in Vol.12 No.6) to be significantly amplifier-sensitive. The Waveform, in addition, requires significant powerhandling capability--not so much because it's inefficient (90dB/1W/1m is awfully good for ahigh-end speaker), but because of the room you will likely want to use it in, and the volume

Waveform loudspeaker
levels you'll want to experience to take advantage of its unique capabilities. It's possible to drive the Waveforms with apair of under$1000 amplifiers, but you'll be alot happier with apair that run $6000-$10,000 each, I promise you.
In appearance, the Waveforms are at first offputting: both base and top are irregular octagons (you might think of them as rectangles with mildly truncated corners), the larger base tapering to the smaller top. The front baffle, in which all drivers are mounted, is an almost triangular trapezoid with base and top parallel (see photo). My pair was finished in black plastic not dissimilar to what Thiel used in the review pair of CS1.2s Ihad, and to what Mirage use in their M- Is. Somehow, the Waveform black plastic has more of aluster--the Thiel and Mirage plastic is mirror-like in finish, where the Waveform has avery fine "orangepeel" (to use an automotive term) texture that is more sensuous and "thick." Overall, the Waveforms cut an imposing figure: squat, heavy (though the manufacturer claims the same weight as the Mirage M-1, they were at least twice as difficult to move around), and sensuously black.

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Given this unusual design, Iwas solicitous of opinions from visitors during the Waveforms' stay chez moi, and the results were mixed. There were a few denunciations ("ugly"), quite afew noncommittal responses, and at leau one rave. Though at first repelled,
gradually came to like them, though the obligatory more-or-less comer placement left them more in the way--and it's impossible to ignore them--than Iliked. For many people the near-wall placement will be more convenient.
Part of my liking them, and part of my frustration, came from reading the owner's manual. Throughout the manual (produced, it would seem, once and for all in 1987) the speaker is referred to not as the black plastic-finished monolith described above, but as asensuous chunk of furniture made from 2"-thick black cherry--in fact, much of the manual deals with care of the wood surface! This obviously reflects John Ótviis's woodworking background, as well as his tremendous personal involvement in the product--much as if he's describing the care and handling of his child (accurate, if he's like most speaker designers)! For me, this led to frustration. Though Ótviis explained that doing the black-cherry version would cost at least $30,000 at today's wood and woodworking prices, Icouldn't help but see the Waveform as an intensely elaborated physical object whose soul (in the black plastic version) had been taken away. I'm one of those who was raised on the spiritual values of wood grains--and at $9800 this is aself-indulgence I'd like to see indulged!
It hardly needs be said that, even in black plastic, the Waveform is exquisitely crafted. These days people like to talk about how superbly Japanese automobiles are finished. And
they are, for the late 20th century. However, they still don't hold acandle, mass-produced as they are, to the interior of apre-1972 Mercedes, Jaguar, or Rolls (or, for that matter, aJapanese handmade sword or wooden comb). The Waveforms come from this latter tradition--I yearn to see apair in black cherry.
Speaking of the owner's manual, it provided me with all the detail that Mirage omitted from theirs. The speaker is thoroughly discussed technically, as are set-up possibilities for various-size rooms, frequency responses and impedances are graphed, and an elaborate table for amplifier gain-matching is there to boggle

the mind (of questionable utility, too, as we shall see). There are even the obligatory laudatory comments from other manufacturers and Digital Audio. But, though John Ótvtis obviously labors over the appearance of his loudspeakers, where is his respect for production values when it comes to the printed word? The "Owner's Manual" consists of 23 Xeroxed sheets with 8different typefaces (not counting the reprint from Digital Audio, and the graphs), many of them badly produced on a laser printer (yeccchhh). Why must "high-end" audio companies keep stubbing their toes on such simple matters as presentation? After all, you're not asking aguy to spend $400 on this product. Would he buy acar that put out an owner's manual like this? Wake up, Mr. Ótviis. Wake up, industry!
Another toe-stub came with the active equalizer used to split the signal between the 15" woofer and the rest of the system (mid-totweeter and tweeter-to-supertweeter crossovers are accomplished passively). This reasonably well-constructed 19"x10"x2" black box actually performs two functions. In addition to dividing low and high, it provides equalization (called "coupling") for the bottom octave of response (it seemed to affect the range below 35Hz). Confusingly, you choose higher numbers (greater rotation clockwise on the knob) to get less low bass.,But that wasn't the toestub; it was the fact that the holes in the back of the equalizer were too small to accommodate most high-end interconnects. (The RCA phono jacks are mounted directly to the crossover's circuit board, inside the chassis. Ergo, there have to be holes in the chassis for the interconnects to fit through.) Sears sold me a reamer adequate for making the holes bigger, but that plus the necessary dressing of the hole edges was apain and made the crossover cover significantly less attractive. Mr. Ótvtis says that all future crossover chassis will have adequately sized holes, but it's indicative of Waveform's tiny production that they've not been compelled until now to acknowledge the widespread change in the dimensions of high-end interconnect terminations (a change which, as far as Iknow, has no compelling justification other than marketing).
IThe rationale for this terminology is that the control is there to correct for excessive coupling between the unusual level of bass response the Waveform offers and the different moms in which it will be used. Higher numbers therefore indicate more coupling--which has to be diminished. Get it?

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Acrossover problem of more long-lasting significance was that various interconnects kept losing contact with their respective sockets. This was not aproblem with loose connections from socket to board, but rather alack of size compatibility between interconnect and socket. Since there are no fixed standards in this area (see Markus Sauer's "Industry Update" in the September issue), it really isn't the crossover's fault, but I've had no such problems with the various preamps and amps I've used with the same interconnects.
As mentioned before, John Ótvris hired Paul Barton of PSB to design the Waveforms. Paul is reputed to be one of Canada's best designers, and has long experience working in the NRC facilities to evaluate his designs. (The Waveforms were themselves thoroughly evaluated there, though no details were provided to me as to specifics.) Judging from the final design, I'd say that Paul's brief was to design acost-noobject direct-firing radiator with even on-axis
frequency response that went very deep in the bass and played loud with little stress. He worked on the Waveform project from 1985 through 1987.
Setup and adjustments
The system used for this review consisted of the familiar CAL Tempest Il CD player, the equally familiar Well-Tempered 'flimtable, Kimber 4AG speaker cable, AudioQuest interconnects, aMotif MS100 amp, apair of VTL 500s, the Krell KSA-200, and apair of Carver Seven T- mods. Significantly new were the ConradJohnson Premier 7preamp, aVTL Ultimate preamp, and the AudioQuest 7000 cartridge.
The Waveforms were set up in my 20'x35' living room by "Father" Ótviies himself. Ihad situated them about where Iusually put speakers (10' from the back wall and 6' from the sides), but John warned me that wouldn't be the best location. This kind of took me aback--after all, this was not adi- or bipole radiator requiring specialized back-wave cancellation (or lack of it), but adirect-firing speaker, ostensibly similar to aThiel, Spica, or Vandersteen--all of which work fine in the location I'd chosen. Well, John was right and Iwas wrong. In my familiar location, the Waveforms just didn't "click" at all. Sitting in my
familiar position about 9' from the speaker baffles, the sound was dry and uninvolving. Moving back in the room (19-22' (!) from the baf-

fles) made things better, but not ideal. Still, John, trusting in my good sense, felt
happy leaving the speakers in this setup. "Yup, that's what they sound like," pronounced he, after running a few test tones, moving the knobs on the crossover to where he wanted them, and playing one helluvan audiophile CD: the Dorian organ transcription of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (DOR-90117). That one work both demonstrated some amazing capability in the Wavefomis and left us speechless enough to want to end the listening day.
I'll have to hedge this next statement because some speakers that produce prodigious levels are outside of my experience, but I'm sure that the Waveforms play this CD at more realistic levels than almost any other home loudspeakers. The only time I've experienced organ that loud is in the sounding chamber for the pipes themselves at the church Igrew up in (First Congregational Church of Winchester, Mass.). John was claiming peaks of only 99dB at the back of the room, but we played the same CD later, at aslightly lower level, and JA measured peaks of 109dB 2m from the speaker. By comparison, the IRS Betas--no slouch in the low-end department--started experiencing severe lower midrange distress at peak overall levels of an estimated 100dB. That's abig difference, and the sound from the Waveforms was clean! 2
Obtaining some different amplification (initial auditions used the Carvers and the Motif) and settling into some room readjustment, I eventually got the Waveforms in more sympathetic circumstances (6' from the back wall and 5' from the side wall to the center of the speaker). Optimum amplification proved to be the newly arrived VTL 500s on the top end; combined with aKrell KSA-200 on the bottom. (Unfortunately, the Krell buzzed through the woofers at areadily audible level, undoubtedly an artifact of its interaction with the crossover. It does, however, the same thing through the Infinity IRS Beta crossover. The buzz is not evident while music is playing, except during
2)A, while impressed with the Waveforms' output capabilities, heard significant bass distortion at the +100dB levels we were generating. Either the music is too off-putting for me-- th= CD is the ultimar audiophile test CD, which makes it automatically anathema in my book--or I'm simply not sensitive to bass distortion, aconclusion I've reached on other occasions where people were hearing bass distortion that Imissed. (Peter Mitchell is particularly sensitive to it.) Or maybe it was that, during much of the audition, Iwas outside the house, where the sound was still really loud.

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extremely quiet passages.) The Motif was a non-starter in terms of musical involvement on these speakers, but the Carvers served well enough on the low end, though not as tight and fundamental as the Krell. For awhile! used a Krell on top, but that exacerbated an upperoctave problem which I'll get to in amoment.
Putting the speakers more in the corner-- almost always ano-no--livens up the sound of the Waveforms considerably. My normal near-field listening position (by which Imean a position where the direct sound of the speakers predominates), about 8' from the speaker baffle, still didn't work: the sound was too direct and in-your-face, but the Ótviisrecommended position 20-25' back from the speaker baffle did much better in terms of coherent sound. "The Waveform loudspeaker was expressly designed for room interaction which means bare side walls are best in the immediate vicinity of the speakers for early reflection interaction ..." --Waveform Owner's Manual. This must be what was going on here.
Though this kind of placement does work best with the Waveforms, Imust say that designing to this criterion is, in my opinion, a mistake. Among other things you may have noticed is that hardly any of you have rooms available in which it's even possible to sit 20' from the loudspeaker! I'm lucky, and to abig extent Ihave such alarge room devoted to speaker evaluation because someone at the magazine should (particularly with speakers like the IRS Betas). In addition, anticipating a significant percentage of early-reflection sound (sitting closer to the speakers yields amuch higher percentage of direct sound) simply means anticipating unknown tonal-balance colorations. My room, for instance, has alarge rug on one side wall and asimilarly sized bank of windows on the other. Inevitably, the reflections off one wall will sound different from those off the other--but this is true in virtually every room, which is why near-field listening gives you abetter feel for the particular speaker.
More important, well-recorded ambience is immediately evident in near-field listening. By contrast, the more early room reflections you hear, the more you are adding (uniformly, from record to record) the sound of your own acoustic to the recorded one. Yes, if your room is reasonably live, this will give you greater "ambience," but it will be the same ambience every time, not unique as it is in different recording

environments. All this moving around of speakers and
amplifiers required readjustment of the crossover. The factory recommendation is to set the level according to aformula, carefully detailed in the owner's manual. Doing this, with virtually all the combinations of amplifier Itried, resulted in drastically too much low end. Generally speaking, if you're aware of the low end as an identifiable entity, you've got too much. So Ibacked it off, still trying to stay fairly close to the factory recommendation, figuring Imight be "starving" the review sample of low end. This was amistake. Eventually, JA came over with his spectrum analyzer and we adjusted the Waveforms for most even measured balance between bass and midrange. The result is fully 7.9dB lower than the factory recommendation. My advice would be to always use athird-octave spectrum analyzer to make this adjustment. Not only will you be sure of the correct bass level, you can açcfm.s the effect of the Coupling control to make sure you're not getting excessive low bass.
And, although the effect of small amounts of rotation on this knob are not readily noticeable, the overall effect of getting the balance right is substantial, as you would guess. Not only do you become less aware of bass--a good sign--but instruments actually appear to have more body, Isuppose because there is abetter "fit." In addition, because recorded ambience is more believable, the recording sites come alive to agreater degree, acharacteristic most needed with this speaker.
The sound
This section of the review has been the most difficult to write, as it frequently is when the overall judgment is not terribly positive. Imake it apractice to listen to the speaker in question while Ifinish the review, pounding away at my NEC Multispeed, 3and it has only confirmed my feeling, as Isit here, that Ifrankly haven't enjoyed listening to the Waveforms during most of the review period. Certainly not compared to my most recent reference, the Mirage M-1, nor even compared to more modest speakers such as the Thiel CS1.2.
When writing areview, though, my personal
3Heavier than JA's preferred Toshiba 1200, and with much shorter battery life, but it has astandard, comfortable keyboard and areadable screen--the only two characteristics of acomputer Icare about.

126

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response takes, to some degree, second place to the product's actual performance. How will you, the prospective consumer, like the product in your home? Separating these two areas of evaluation is the hardest part of reviewing.
The adjustments described above were crucial to getting the Waveforms even into the "listen for more than one day" category. As delivered, there was just no involvement from records that normally have me wrapped up. Everything was important: the positioning, the particular amplifiers (especially the VTLs on top), the crossover adjustments, my sitting position, plus acertain amount of settling in.
Even so, for me, the Waveforms are excessively flat. Not flat in frequency response-- though they are notably that, before you get to the top octave--but flat in musical presentation. On only afew records, and with one combination of associated equipment, did I begin to be caught up in the musical performances being presented by the Waveforms. Dick Olsher said it best, during his audition of the Waveforms: "These are pretty averagesounding speakers."
This should not be interpreted to mean that the Waveforms are average speakers. There are
ways in which they're extraordinary--see how they handled the Mussorgsky organ transcription, above. And, compared to most of what's
out there, they sound coherent, well-balanced, and will play astonishingly loud, well.
Compared to the elite--which, at $9800, is
where they undoubtedly place themselves -- though, they're average-sounding. They don't pull you in, make you tap your feet, make you want to dance, or cry. It's not easy for me to assign responsibility for this averageness. The
bass is impressively deep, tight, and, within the limits of my listening room (which, despite its size, has significant room modes), smooth. This bass goes notably lower than the Mirage M- Is, and will play notably louder than even the Infinity IRS Betas. (Muth be told, the loudness limitation of the Betas is in their lower midrange panels, with energy in the 100-200Hz range, but alimitation it still is.) In the initial
Waveform setup, with the speakers out from the back wall and driven by Carver Seven Tmods and the Motif 100, there was an upperbass coloration that seemed to subtract power from male bass voice and give it akind of hollowness. Either Igot used to this, however, or it went away with different speaker positioning

and amplifier selection and crossover adjustment. GA tells me that the measurements of the woofer showed up arelatively high-Q resonance in the upper bass, which may have been what Iheard.)
If you're afan of very loud, bass-heavy music (such as the Dorian CD), the Waveforms have to be heard to be believed. They energize the whole house, and do so with no feeling of danger--to the speaker, that is (both your ears and the house may be in some danger). Not only that, the midrange and treble ranges maintain their integrity while all this bass is going
on (though this was somewhat difficult for me to evaluate since my ears were so far into overload).
Midrange and lower treble frequencies were presented with evenness and lack of undue emphasis on any particular instrument or voice characteristic. Nevertheless, Inever felt drawn into the music--the Waveforms met neither the desideratum of bringing the orchestra into the room nor that of bringing me to the orches-
tral hall (see JGH's superb definition of the goal of ahi-fi system in his review of the Denon
anechoic recording, Vol.12 No.9). There was some problem with amildly with-
drawn midrange at first--the kind that, dissatisfied, makes you want to keep turning up the
volume. Use of both the VTL 500 amplifiers and the VTL Ultimate preamp more or less cured this, though Iknow those components can perform much better with speakers like the IRS Betas. The primary problem here seemed to be inadequate definition--re-creation--of the soundstage, and Ihonestly don't know why. To some degree, Iwas warned of this pos-
sibility by John GitvÉis during his visit, though he didn't realize that's what he was doing. He told me that his speakers didn't add any false
ambience like the bipolar Mirages; instead, he preferred the honest presentation of soundstage that forward-firing-only speakers offer. Unfortunately, the Waveforms don't create the
souncistage that even modest forward-firing
speakers like the Thiel 1.2 provides, nor what you can get from the Spica Angelus. In fact, the "false" ambience provided by the Mirages is much closer to what Ijudge is really on the records (as auditioned through numerous other speakers, and compared to the sound of real acoustic spaces) than is the very minimal souncistage provided by the Waveforms.
And this is not asubtle lack. On the records

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(and afew CDs) Iown which providefabulous ambient information--where, sitting with a glass of wine and the latest Stereophile in hand late at night, you feel you're actually there--the Waveforms were able to only suggest abit of hall, with moderately believable images. Imust be the only audiophile on earth who isn't tired ofJazz at the Pawnshop, but Iactually just listened to it for the first time in the last three weeks. Honest! On the IRS Betas, you can locate the patrons of the Pawnshop--you could go over and take their drink orders, music playing or not. On the Waveforms, the patrons only appeared during breaks in the music--phantom jazz fans who somehow disappeared while the music played! Meanwhile, recordings with suggested ambience on the Waveforms simply dry up--you're aware of the instruments or voices themselves, but nothing more.
Other characteristics of the speaker don't give me ahint as to how the Waveforms "disappear" the ambience. Isuspect it has to do with crossover design, and possibly also with running a15" woofer up to 150Hz (though the crossover's low-pass rollout is steep). More responsibility, though, should probably be given the design goal of aspeaker that works best in the corners, and which has to be listened to at agreat distance. By the time the sound reaches you it's been affected so much by your own acoustic that the original can no longer be discerned. Or maybe it's just that I'm spoiled by constantly listening to the efforts of engineers who finalize their designs over a period of years--and then constantly search to better them through little tweaks and improvements.
This, unfortunately, only addresses the issue of what the Waveform omits. In terms of longterm listenability, the more serious problem is the speaker's upper-octave performance. Check JKs measurements at the end of this article for atechnical flaw that wouldn't get past Boston Acoustics, much less Thiel, Vandersteen, or Magnepan. An average 6-8dB hump between 10 and 16kHz is audible. Normally Stereophile reviewers only become aware of measurements after the listening is concluded, but in this case initial measurements were taken with John Ótviis on site, so he would be aware of the results ahead of time--in case there was anything awry. Surprisingly, Mr. Ótviis wasn't aware that his speakers had this treble peak,

even though his own measurements, as supplied in the owner's manual, show exactly the same shape of frequency response (though the absolute level of treble peak we found was greater than Waveform's own measurements show).
So Iwas aware that Imight hear an excess of treble, and hear it Idid--night after night after night. This treble boost, even with the VTL 500s in the system, was noticeable. On extremely well-recorded music, with wellbehaved microphones and no digititis (on CDs), about all Inoticed was an additional emphasis on the leading edge of transients, a bit of extra sheen to cymbals--they were more there than is normal. (Interestingly, just as I'm writing this, 1found that my sensitivity to this treble edge is drug-sensitive. I've had aheadache for the last three days--JA said that's what Iget for listening to aspeaker with a15kHz peak!--and was prescribed some Darvon for it. The edge became much more noticeable, rather than less.) Well-recorded trumpets had abit more spitty edge, record ticks were more pronounced, had more character.
That's the not-so-bad part. The really bad sounds came from any records that were less than superbly recorded. This happens to
include 95% of the music Ilike to listen to. I'm as willing to listen to superbly recorded great performances as the next audiophile--something like Reiner's rendering of the Rossini
Overtures on RCA (LSC-2318)--but there aren't nearly enough records like this to satisfy my appetites, particularly the dreck Ifind at garage sales. Yet, for me, hi-fi is about enjoying the music you like to listen to, not grimacing at it. Ifound that the Waveforms' treble peak simply exercised aveto on any musical adventurousness; you pay if you put on arecord that's even atrifle less than clean.
The treble peak also puts great strain on your associated equipment. Ididn't find asolid-state amp that could be put on the top part of the speakers--this review would have come out much worse (and much shorter) if the VTLs
hadn't shown up. Moving-coil cartridges with arising high end?--Forget it! Iwas using the AudioQuest 7000, which is a wonderfully smooth, well-balanced cartridge. And don't forget that CD was coming to me through that most forgiving of players, the CAL Tempest II. Don't talk Sony CD sound through the Waveforms.

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Musical dynamics deserve some attention, as it's the area in which the Waveforms perform best. As you might have guessed from my experience with the Dorian CD of Pictures at an Exbibition, the Waveforms will play loud. I thought that (had hit apeak with the Altec Bias 550s in this respect, but the Waveforms seem to both play louder in an absolute sense, and play loud with much greater ease. In addition, they retain their general sense of coherence and sound character even at very loud levels, something few speakers can manage. (The IRS Betas do the same thing, but to lesser levels.)
This is an area where high-end products are routinely poor. Polite music can be played at realistic overall levels (though rarely with realistic internal dynamics), but orchestral works, rock music, organ, and loud choral music are always reminding you not only that it's reproduced, but that the speaker might actually break! (In seven years I've seen probably 30 or 40 drivers broken by excessive volume level, almost never by peaks above 100dB.) This is not an area where you will ever, if you value your hearing at all, need worry with the Waveforms. They can play anything you throw at them at full frequency range, and at any volume level where you won't need hearing protection (and at many levels where you should have it). Subjectively, this gives you afreedom you just don't have with other, more modest (and more accurate, involving) products.
On the downside, Ididn't find the Waveforms tempting me to turn down the level, as Idid with the Mirage M- Is, 4where the sound was so involving that there didn't seem any need to play particularly loud. In fact, in order to offset the lack of involvement referred to above, Iended up playing the Waveforms at significantly higher volume levels than usual. The only exception was material with lots of uppertreble content, where the sound had to be turned down--or off--for reasons cited above.
Conclusion It will come as no surprise that Ididn't find the
Waveforms "the most accurate, the best, forward-firing loudspeaker in the world." Nor,
4Most live music is heard at levels substantially below what we listen to at home. The better asystem preserves low-level detail, the less distortion, noise, and discomfort the system produces, the lower the level it is possible to employ while still feeling involved with the music. So far, only the Mirage M- Is have really impressed me in this regard: I'm sure there are others, but they arc few.

with their current sonic characteristics, could Irecommend you buy them for $9800. By no means do Ithink they should be dismissed, though, as Idid the Altec 550s. The Waveforms are aserious attempt by aserious man.
Iquestion the product development process currently employed by Waveform. Work on these speakers was begun in 1985 and completed in 1987; the speaker has remained unchanged since then. Now, as pleasant as it is to see aproduct with real stability, it simply isn't possible to produce alandmark high-end speaker once and for all. Infinity, who've made tens of thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands) of speakers, can't do it, Vandersteen can't do it, Thiel can't do it, Magnepan can't do it (though they try). What makes John Ótviis think he can do it with the first product his company has made?
Perhaps, in addition to further research and testing at the NRC, Waveform could pay attention to extensive testing in the field, customer and dealer response (which surely would have shown up the horribly errant supertweeter level), research and experimentation with new materials and drivers, and just plain designer thought--on an ongoing basis, like other highend speaker companies. Though Idon't think that aBandaid approach to correcting the current speaker's problems would yield something recommendable in the $9800 range, it's certainly possible that amajor redesign, focused on the problems I've brought up as well as others that may lurk beneath them, could. The Waveform does some things extremely well, particularly in the area of coherent dynamics, and I'd hate to see those performance capabilities disappear from the home loudspeaker scene.
Postscript: measurements
As Larry said earlier, we ran acouple of FFT response measurements on the Waveforms while John Ótviis was visiting, in order to check that the speakers were working okay, and found that the speaker had an excess of energy in the top audio octave. According to John, the reason for adding the ribbon supertweeter to atweeter that is usually used alone (a version of Dynaudio's D28) is to fill in asuckout in the high treble on the intended listening axis. After Larry had completed his listening, Iran a more rigorous set of tests to investigate the Waveform's measured perfor-

Stereophile, November 1989

129

1.11d1

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mance further. First, Ilooked at the speaker's spatially averaged room response on a'4-octave basis,' fundamentally examining the Waveform's forward response in awindow centered on the listening seat (fig.!). (The match between the woofer and the upper range of the speaker was achkved with the bass level set to "-3" and the bass contour set to "4," which was how Larry had been listening using the VTLs on the top and the Krell ¡(SA-200 on the bass.) Points to note are the smoothness of the response trend from 200Hz or so to the upper presence region, around 6kHz. The crossovers between the subwoofer and midwoofers and between the latter and the dome tweeter have obviously been well-managed, and the sound should be smoother overall throughout the midrange than the Mirage M-1 which so excited LA in the June issue, which has aslight boost in the middle mids. ("Middle mids!" Oh English language, where are you when Ineed you?)
Second, the near-corner room placement excites room resonances to agreater degree than placing the speakers further out in the room. Despite the spatial averaging, which usually "smooths out" the effects of room modes in this measurement, the Waveform can be seen to boost the 32Hz and 63Hz '4-octave bands to asignificant degree. Due to the close positioning of the subwoofer to the floor and the highish crossover to the midwoofers, the normal floor dip in the 200-300Hz range has been pushed up in frequency and reduced in amplitude, there only being aslight lack of energy in the 315Hz and 400Hz yr octave bands. The LF extension in-room, however, is
good, the speaker not reaching its half-power point until alow 23Hz or so. This was con-

5See pp.166-167 in Me October 1989 issue for afull discussion

of how and why Itest loudspeakers in-room.

-- JA

Fig.2 Waveform, impulse response (5ms window)
firmed by the nearfield measurement of the woofer response, the -6dB point again lying at 23Hz (without taking the port contribution into account).
The main response anomaly, however, can be seen in the treble, where ageneral lack of energy in the upper presence region, which would contribute to Larry's feeling that the speaker lacked immediacy, is followed by asignificant energy peak in the 12.5IcHz and 16kHz bands. This peak was noticeable on all forward axes and is exacerbated both at high levels, as the region immediately beneath it then depresses even further (this also shown in Waveform's own measurements), and if the listener's ears are much above the dustcap of the upper of the two mid-woofers. This peak won't be perceived as a"brightness," being too high in frequency, but will noticeably "whiten" recorded hiss and, as Larry says above, also makes the speakers very intolerant of any source that also has problems in the treble. It could be plainly heard as adistinctly metallicsounding "whistle" on pink noise. Looking at the individual response curves taken to derive fig.1 suggests that the smoothest integration across the treble region (though still with too much HF energy audible) is with the listener's ears about 27" off the ground. This is an unrealistically low listening height, however; in my experience, 32" to 39" is more typical.
Laterally, however, the individual measurements taken for fig.1 suggest awide listening window over which the spectral balance stays quite uniform, without any "hot seat" effect.
Fig.2 shows the Waveform's response to a 25ps rectangular pulse on an axis 36" off the floor, le, level with the upper of the two

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averaged across 30° lateral window,

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woofers, which is where Larry's listening chair placed my ears. With ahorizontal scale of two large divisions equal to lms, the impulse
response is not at all time-coherent, due to the use of steep-slope crossovers. The impulse shape clearly suggests multiple arrival times for the contributions from the many drivers, which could make the optimum axis height
quite critical unless the listener sits along way back from the speakers. The impulse tail is also overlaid with adegree of HF ringing.
The speaker's anechoic response, derived by FFT analysis from five impulse measurements taken across a ±15° horizontal window, is
shown in fig.3 along with the subwoofer's nearfield measured response. The boost in the top octave is clearly visible, as is araggedshaped suckout in the octave below. The position, width, and depth of this suckout are all extremely dependent on the measuring axis; in fact, moving the microphone alittle higher
and further back than the position used to derive figs.2 and 3gave anarrow notch 16dB deep at ahair above the crossover frequency, 9kHz! This axis sensitivity of the upper treble balance is undoubtedly due to the use of two widely spaced drivers in this region, something that is rarely seen. In general, designers wanting to use asupertweeter place it very close to the main tweeter--the Spendor BC], for example--in order to minimize such problems.
Fig.3 also suggests aslight degree of midrange emphasis to the sound, agreeing with the overall in-room response trend in fig.l.
Looking at the nearfield response of the subwoofer in fig.3, you can see asmall peak at 157Hz. This was due to ahigh-Q resonance centered on this frequency and could be clearly heard as a "hoot" as the sinewave swept
through its position. Isuspect that this may have something to do with Larry's feeling that

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magnitude and phase (2 ohms/ vertical div)

there was an audible anomaly in this region,

particularly as the resonance's highish-Q

nature--its -3dB points were just 9Hz on

either side--suggests that it will not always be excited by music.
The phase and amplitude of the Waveform's

two sections are shown in figs.4 (upper range) and 5(subwoofer). The midwoofers feature a

high impedance which should not prove to be

any problem; though the dome and ribbon

tweeters do drop to 4ohms and slightly below, this is with anegligible phase angle throughout their passband. Fig.5 reveals the presence

of the woofer resonance, with small kinks in

both phase and amplitude plots at approximately 160Hz. The port tuning is revealed by

the amplitude minimum just above 20Hz, while the overall characteristic suggests that the Waveform's bass driver is an easy amplifier

load overall.

Finally, Ilooked at the Waveform's electronic

crossover characteristics. The crossover circuitry and all the in/out sockets are carried on

one large printed-circuit board, with asmall transformer supplying AC power to apair of solid-state voltage regulators. All the filter circuits are based on Signetic NE5532 dual-op-

amp ICs, and the response-shaping networks

are carried on plug-in DIL headers to allow for

easy modifications. Good-quality components

are used throughout, including Boums pots for

Stereophile, November 1989

131

the two controls, but the unit as awhole would seem alittle outclassrd by the amplification the Waveform speakers are likely to be used with, in my opinion. Yes, the sound of acircuit using op-amps will be dependent to alarge extent on the way in which the designer has implemented the power supplies and other ancillary matters, as well as by the characteristics of the particular IC used. However, it is fair to point out that the 5532 is some 10 years old and there are anumber of op-amp ICs now available that offer significant improvements in both subjective and objective performance. That LA felt the Waveforms to have overall arather noninvolving nature could well be due to the crossover circuitry, Ifeel.
Ifound that the "bass level" control altered the gain in the low-pass channels by adB amount approximately equal to the numbers engraved on the front panel, from -9dB to +15dB, while the "bass contour" control affected the amount of boost applied centered on 29Hz. In fig.6, the highest of the LF curves was taken with the control set to "0," with the other three "4," "7," and "10," the latter slightly cutting the subwoofer's overall level in the low bass. The rest of fig.6 shows the equalization

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Fig.6 Waveform electronic crossover high-
and low-pass functions (LH traces top to bottom, Bass Contour = "0," "4,""7," and "10")

applied by the crossover box to the high-pass

feeds, which consists of aslight peaking of the

midwoofer response--+1.5dB at 225Hz--

coupled with adeliberate boost applied to the

range covered by the supertweeter--+4dB at

16kHz. This goes along way toward explain-

ing the HF boost noted both in the listening

tests and in my in-room measurements. Ihave

to say that either the supertweeter or the boost

alone applied to the dome tweeter would each

have been sufficient to ensure aflat treble

response. With both, however, the result is, to

my ears, unlistenablu

--John Atkinson

QUICKSILVER KT88 MONO POWER AMPLIFIER

Dick Olsher
All-tube, monoblock power amplifier. Power output: 60Wpc into 8-, 4-, or 1-ohm loads (17.8dBW, 14.8dBW, and 8.8dBW, respectively). Power bandwidth (assumed -3dB points): 13Hz-55kHz. Input sensitivity: 1.25V. Input impedance: 100k ohms. Dimensions: 14" W by 9.25" D by 6" H. Weight: 30 pounds. Samples tested: S/Ns 2543 &2544. Price: $1850/pair. Approximate number of dealers: 40. Manufacturer: Quicksilver Audio, 3707 N. Merrimac Circle, Stockton, CA 95209. Tel: (209) 477-6428.

The recent unfolding of drama and tragedy on Tiananmen Square underscored the ruthlessness of the current Chinese regime, but apparently did nothing to undercut China's trade relations with the West. One of those relations is the export of vacuum tubes. Having obtained the M-0 Valve Company's tooling, they are cranking out copies of the fabled KT88 output tube and are presently the only source for this tube--at least in this corner of the Galaxy. As far as quality control, however, Chinese output tubes in general hold apoor reputation for reliability. None other than VTI:s David Manley

described them as "dogshit," and Quicksilver's Mike Sanders admitted that he's experiencing on the order of 20% rejects. Perhaps the fact the the Chinese are enjoying an old-fashioned capitalistic monopoly might explain this state of affairs. But not to worry. Quicksilver carefully selects their KT88s for the latest version of their bestselling power amplifier; those you'll receive with the monoblocks should last agood 2000 hours. Besides the in-house QC, another reason for this expected longevity is the fact that the Quicksilver KT88s are operated conservatively at aplate voltage of 480V.

132

Stereophile, November 1989

Quicksilver monoblock tube power amplifier

Iwould recommend, however, that you obtain replacement tubes directly from Quicksilver. They are available in matched pairs at acost of 580/pair for atotal cost of $160 for apair of amps. According to Sanders, all of the other tubes should last for many, many years.
Incidentally, the older version of this amp, the one with the 8417 output tube, has been discontinued. So if you covet apair of these, the KT88 version will have to do.
Removing the amp's bottom plate allows an unobstructed view of its innards and holds a few surprises. First of all, there aren't very many passive parts here. A few caps and resistors combine to give the appearance of alowdensity layout. Second, there are no circuit boards to be seen. Everything is hard-wired with silver solder. Parts quality and workmanship both appear to be excellent. The only complaint !could possibly lodge has to do with the size of the terminal strip provided. The size of the screws is too small, and their spacing too narrow, to give massive spade lugs, such as those on the Cardas speaker cable, any chance of mating to the terminal.
The input signal is direct-coupled to apair of 12FQ7s which in turn drive apair of KT88s in apush-pull configuration. The screen grids of the KT88s are connected in ultra-linear fashion so that the KT88s operate in apartial triode mode. The power supply features apair of 5AR4 tube rectifiers providing full-wave rectification. Fairly generous reservoir electrolytic capacitors are used, bypassed with high-quality plastic film caps. The use of vacuum-tube rectifiers ensures asoft, low-surge turn-on, and extends the useful life of the circuitry.
Output-transformer output taps are provided for 8-, 4-, and 1-ohm loads. Most of the

time, the 4- and 8-ohm taps should be used. On arare occasion when you run into what I would call ashort-circuit type of load (eg, Apogee Scintilla), you should consider the 1-ohm taps. These taps can push upwards of 18 amps peak into ayr ohm load--not bad for alittle tube amp.
The output impedance of the monoblock is around 1ohm, pretty steep even for atube amp. Even with azero-impedance speaker cable, the damping factor for this amp will be poor. In fact, Quicksilver recommends that the amp be placed directly behind the speaker to minimize the length of the speaker cable run. Iused 11' of both TARA Labs Phase Ill and Cardas He,clink speaker cable, each with atotal loop resistance of less than 0.2 ohms.
There were no changes in my front end, except for the introduction of the large e-series power supplies for the Threshold FET-10. The SOTA Star Sapphire 'table, SME -V arm, and Sumiko Virtuoso DTi analog front end provided the bulk of the listening impressions.
The sound
It is my standard practice to use avariety of speakers to assess the sound quality of aparticular amp. This is important in order to quantify an amp's load preferences and investigate any potential synergisms or antagonisms. In this case, Idiscovered the Quicksilver KT88's sonic performance to be quite load-sensitive; probably not too surprising for alow-power tube amp with ahefty output impedance.
Let me start with the Koval-modded Quad ESLs. Several of the KT88's sonic attributes really hit home The mida were consistently liquid and lush-sounding in the best tradition of classic tube sound. Textural grain and grit did

Stereophile, November 1989

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not appear to be in the KT88's sonic vocabulary. The upper mids were sugar-coated, with wondrously sweet violin overtones. There's Itzhak Perlman lapping up Bruch's romantic score as usual (Violin Concerto 1, EMI ASD2962), but the sheer sweetness of the violin's harmonics exceeded anything I'd heard before. Soundstage transparency and focus of instrumental outlines were quite convincing. Ihad no trouble fleshing out the the acoustic space of the original performance. In these respects, the KT88 amp impressed me as significantly improved over the older version, but as it's been along while since I've heard the 8417 version, Ican't really be precise or quantitative in
any such comparisons.' Bass lines, however, were soggy and more
than ashade on the muddy side. It was difficult to resolve pitch in the bass registers. The reproduction of adouble bass, whether plucked or bowed, tended to obscure detail primarily through the midbass range. The cutting bite of brass was dulled and softened, being quite abit
more polite than the real thing. In general, treble transients were subjectively slower, softer, and less defined or fuzzier when compared with our Class ARecommended tube competition.
The Celestion SL600s proved to be aless favorable match for the Quicksilvers. The upper-octave recession of the SL600s was
exacerbated by the KT88's muted presence region. The result was adiminished sense of immediacy and drama. The presentation was
less involving, requiring more effort on my part to concentrate on the music When your mind starts to drift and you have to force yourself to tune back in, it's time for acold beer. The mids
were as lush and suave as before. Spatial resolution and perceived palpability of image outlines were also very good. Bass lines were still ill-defined and lacked convincing impact. The highs were decidedly honey-coated. The dynamic range appeared to be compressed. With high-powered symphonic music, the KT88s appeared to run out of steam.
This was basically the KT88s' problem when driving the Acoustat Spectra 22 loudspeaker system--they were just working too hard. The sound got congested, strained, and unpleasant to listen to during loud passages. Being power-

hungry, the Spectras are very likely apoor choice for the KT88s. However, with more intimate music, the amp's essence managed to shine through. For example, my wife Lesley's vocal outlines (during the Lesley Test) were portrayed with aconvincing sense of palpable focus. The textural quality of the mids was as liquid as before, and the soundstage was transparent enough to penetrate deeply into the original acoustic space of the performance. On the minus side, the luster of Lesley's upper registers was noticeably diminished and the upper mids were slightly thickened. The KT88 consistently appeared to filter treble brilliance. These alterations, while euphonic in nature, nevertheless considerably modified the timbre of Lesley's voice.
At this point, the most objectionable aspect of the KT88's performance quite clearly became the bass. To be frank, Ibecame fed up with all of that mud. The low frequencies were loose and ill-defined and otherwise spoilt the nice things the KT88 was doing in the mids. It did not require achangeover to asolid-state amp to convince me of just how much the KT88 was giving up in the bass octaves. A switch to the Roger Modjeski-designed Music Reference RM-9 stereo amp (sample under review) was enough for that. The attack and definition of bass lines was altogether much more satisfying.
Finally, Itried the KT88 with the MartinLogan Sequel lis. The Ils were bi-wired to the Quicksilvers' 4-ohm taps (with great difficulty, due to the amps' small-sized terminal posts), and the stat panel and woofer were connected out-of-phase. ,Iwas expecting the KT88 to soften the treble, but the sound of the upper octaves was quite wooden and lifeless. Transients were soft all right, but much of the natural brilliance of the lower treble and presence region went missing in action. Amazing! Inever thought the Sequels could be subdued to this extent. Again, the mids were lush, and spatial resolution was quite precise, but there was some soundstage veiling and overall the presentation just failed to gel. And, of course, bass delineation was disappointing.
Summary
There is no such thing as auniversal amplifier,

IIlast listened to the Quicksilver for a"Follow-Up" review in %b1.8 No -i, p.108, following the substitution of triode driver hoards for the original pentode hoards.

2See "Follow-Up- in October, p.I74. for afull discussion of why the Sequel Ils sound better connected in this fashion.

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and the Quicksilver KT88 is aprime example
of that--an amp in search of an obliging load. The best of the above lot appeared to be the old Quad ESL. Here, the KT88 sang sweetly and romantically. The mids were lush and suave-- vintage tube sound. The imaging was convincing in its illusion of palpability and spatial resolution of soundstage information. Reproduction of the upper octaves was euphonic, overtones were consistently sugar-coated. In fact, the upper octaves were so sweet that continual exposure to this amp/speaker combination may increase your incidence of dental cavities. (Ordinarily, Iwould have at this juncture recommended periodic fluoride applications to guard against the onslaught of tooth
decay, but since Ihave no license to practice dentistry or medicine, Iwill refrain from offering any such advice.)
Even with an accommodating speaker load, you will very likely have to tweak your front end to strike adesired tonal balance. The amp is so soft and muted on top that it will obviously defy asimple substitution into the signal path. The saving grace is that you may now be able to accommodate a"hot" but fairly inexpensive MC cartridge.
As far as the bass goes, Iknow of no cures. Iadvise you to insist on an in-home audition and see just how well you tolerate the amplifier's lack of bass definition and impact.

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Fig.1 Quicksilver, response at 1W into 8ohms (S/N 2544)

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Fig.2 Quicksilver, response at 1W into 8ohms in parallel with 2.2µF

The KT88's colorations are euphonic and thus generally benign. Having the KT88 Quicksilver for ablind date, Iwould be grateful. Its sweetness and midrange seductiveness--for at least one evening--are bound to override other considerations. But as asteady date, I'm sure I'd balk. Asteady diet of loss of timbral accuracy and bass definition would be sure to weigh heavily against them when their initial charm wears off.
At S1850/pair, the Quicksilvers are no longer the bargain they used to be. And they face serious competition at this price point, especially from some of VTL's vast stable of amps. To my mind, the KT88 represents an honest attempt to capture asignificant slice of the state of the art at areasonable cost to the consumer. And if your first priority is the midrange, I'm certain you'll become atrue believer. If, however, you demand abalanced performer, you'd better look elsewhere.
Postscript: measurements
On the test bench, the Quicksilver monoblocks clipped at 56.6W into 8ohms (17.5dBW) and 54.4W into 4ohms (14.4dBW), measured at the 8and 4ohms taps respectively. The second sample showed slightly better performance, clipping at 61.3W into 8 ohms (17.8dBW) and 57.5W into 4ohms (14.6dBW). Frequency response was flat from 20Hz20kHz with aslight 0.2dB rolloff at 20kHz. Adding a2.2µF capacitor in parallel with the load resistor to simulate some reactive speaker
loads (like the Quad ESL) produced arapidly rising top end. Unlike many other amplifiers, however, the rise did not begin until nearly 30kHz, well out of the audio band. This correlates with Dick's subjective impressions: He didn't hear high-frequency hash when driving the Quads with the Quicksilvers, but did note high-frequency problems when driving Quads with the Prodigy OTL monoblocks (Vol.12 No.9). The latter amplifier had asignificant rise at the top of the audible band when driving a capacitive load.
The Quicksilver's frequency response driving apurely resistive load is shown in fig.1, while fig.2 shows the result of adding a2.2g capacitor. Output impedance was very high, measuring slightly over 1ohm. This certainly explains the Quicksilver's changing sonic character when driving avariety of loads.
--Robert Harley

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MERIDIAN D600 DIGITAL ACTIVE LOUDSPEAKER

John Atkinson
"Two-and-a-half-way,- reflex-loaded, floor-standing loudspeaker with full infra-red remote control, three integral 70W amplifiers, line-level crossover, tone controls, and 4x-oversampling digital filter with 16-bit D/A converter. Inputs: two analog (balanced/unbalanced) via phono sockets; two digital (S/PDIF standard) via coaxial cable/phono sockets, one digital input via an EIAJ optical connector. Analog sensitivity: OdBm (775mV). Analog input impedance: 10k ohms. Communications, a) with Meridian 207 CD player and 204 FM tuner, and b) with other loudspeaker of the pair, via DIN sockets. Drive-units: 1" (25mm) aluminum-dome tweeter, two 6.3" (160mm) polypropylene-cone woofers with diecast frames. Crossover frequency: 2.5kHz. Frequency range
(no limits given): 36Hz-20kHz. Maximum SPL: 110dB. Dimensions: 35.5" (900mm) H by 8.3" (210mm) W by 11.9" (295mm) D. Enclosure volume: 26 liters. Weight: 71 lbs (32kg) each. Finishes available: Black Ash, American Walnut, Rosewood veneers. Price: S5490/pair including Model 609 remote control and digital/communication cables to connect to 207 CD player or 201 preamplifier and 204 FM tuner. Approximate number of dealers: 40. Manufacturer: Meridian Audio
Ltd., Eccleston Road, Tovil, Maidstone, Kent ME15 60P, England.' US Distributor: Meridian America Inc., 14120-K Sullyfield Circle, Chantilly, VA 22021. Tel: (703) 818-3028.

In audiophile circles, it is the "Stuart" -- electronics designer Bob Stuart of the Boothroyd-Stuart collaboration--who has received most recognition. The contribution of industrial designer and stylist Allen Boothroyd has gone relatively unremarked. Yet as Iunpacked Meridian's 13600 "Digital Active" loudspeaker, Iwas struck by Boothroyd's ability to make the humdrum--a rectangular box loudspeaker-- seem more than just that. The man has one hell of an eye for proportion. From the file Orpheus loudspeaker of 1975, through the Celestion SL6 and '600 (where AB did the industrial and pack-
age design), to this latest Meridian loudspeaker design, his brainchildren look "right," to the extent of making competing designs appear at minimum over-square and clumsy, if not downright ugly.
"Digital Active?" The "active" is self-explanatory, given Bob Stuart's long history of designing loudspeakers which accept alinelevel input to feed internal and integral amplification. But "digital?" This is rather amisnomer as it suggest that the actual principle of operation of the D600 is digital; je, it directly converts binary input words into equivalent sound pressures. But no, the D600 may accept astan-

Ilithe. address strikes KEF owner, as vaguely familiar. they're

right. Although Boothnwd-Stuart continues to manufacture

Meridian products al their factory almost next door to Quad's

in the ancient market town of Huntingdon near Cambridge--

check out

Old Bridge Hotel for agreat traditional English

lunch if ever you're touring this area--since Meridian became

part of the AGI group, the company that owns KEE its mar.

lining wing was moved to Kent.

dard multiplexed-stereo serial datastream, sampled anywhere from 30-50kHz, but it converts this to analog via an internal digital- filter/DAC before driving the crossover/equalizer/amplifier electronics which in turn are connected to conventional moving-coil drive-units.
Ifirst heard apair of D600s at the 1989 Winter CES last January, and to say Iwas impressed would be an understatement. Even in the unfamiliar circumstances of a room at Las Vegas's Golden Nugget hote1, 2the sound had abreathtaking clarity to it, apparently achieved without any undue treble emphasis. The LOiseau -Lyre recording of Handel's Messiah quite frankly took my breath away, and Ilet Bob Stuart know right away that Iwanted apair for review.
Technical details
Starting at the conventional end, the D600 uses three drive- units, all sourced from SEAS. The tweeter appears to be a descendant of a ferrofluid-cooled aluminum-dome unit the Norwegian manufacturer developed for the English Monitor Audio company, which first appeared in their R652/MD model. (Thiel also uses aversion of this tweeter in their CS1.2 model.) Although the D600 uses two 6" woofers, the bottom one is rolled off above 200Hz to reduce the radiating area in the midrange and above. (Widely spaced drivers will
2One of the town's classier howls, that is darn,Las Wips hotel can be said to he "classy."

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Meridian D600 digital-input active loudspeaker
Stereophile, November 1989

produce severe beaming once the wavelength of sound drops below the distance separating their acoustic centers.) The D600's low-frequency alignment is fundamentally reflex, a 7.25"-deep, 2.5" -diameter port venting at the bottom of the speaker's rear panel. Ibelieve that additional filtering is used here, as in other Meridian active speakers, to give an overall 6thorder high-pass characteristic, though two controls on the supplied 609 handset do allow some control of the bass alignment. "Bass" provides shelving up or down of the response below 200Hz of ±2dB, while "Q" offers a choice between fiat response and aroll-off of -3dB at 50Hz, this possibly allowing anearrear-wall placement. (I suspect that the latter is actually the speaker's intrinsic response, the "fiat" position applying adegree of electronic boost to equalize the woofers' output to be flat.)
The cabinet itself Iunderstand is internally braced and constructed from Y4"plywood panels loaded with alead-loaded bituminous compound. It certainly feels extremely dead when rapped with a knuckle--what audiophile can resist that simple test? The 3 /4 "MDF baffle is recessed to allow the drivers to be flush-fitted, while the grille is constructed from black cloth stretched over what appears to be apolystyrene space frame. Agreen LED display at the speaker's top indicates volume setting and selected source (Slave), the Master also offering achoice between those and track/time information (Meridian 207 CD player) or station/frequency (204 FM tuner). A red LED glows to indicate the Master speaker.
The rear of the cabinet is recessed by some 60mm (2%"), which both adds some stiffening and leaves space for the D600 electronics. (The cabinet recess is lined with aluminum foil to provide adegree of electromagnetic screening.) Two black-painted aluminum panels enclose this tray--the bottom one is only 8" tall and carries the mains input, on/off switch, and transformer; the second runs the full height of the cabinet and carries five separate printed circuit boards. The topmost carries the digital electronics and control microprocessor, including aPhilips B-grade 4x-oversampling digital filter-- "B" stands for "Best--and is screened by a tin can, this mechanically damped by aSorbothane pad on the rear panel when the screws are tightened up. This is fed an input signal by a7-pin DIN socket, dupli-
137

cated by aphono socket. Asecond digital input is also provided via another phono socket. The DIN socket "hears" from the other Meridian components in the system what they're up to and supplies them with the control information sent by the 609 handset. A second DIN socket sends aduplicate of the input digital data to the other speaker of the pair, this, of course, extracting only the channel information rele-
vant to its own operation. Two sets of analog inputs are also provided,
both balanced and unbalanced, via phono sockets. Ifound it easy to misunderstand these: selecting "Radio," "LP," or "Tape 1" all routed
the analog input from the Al jacks to the output circuitry. Finally, Isussed what was going on,
helped by aglance at the 207 CD player control panel. Yes, it was all the same analog signal, but the different source settings affected the 207's input switching: selecting "Radio" with the remote switched whatever was plugged into the 207's "Radio" inputs to the 207's outputs, hence to the D600 output. The only exceptions are "Tape 2," which assumes that asecond digital source is plugged into the D600's second serial digital input socket, and "Video," which assumes a digital source plugged into the EIAJ-standard optical input of the D600.
The analog inputs go to CD4053BCN CMOS switching chips. These common ICs also appear to be used to activate the various switched EQ options and the approximately ldB/step 64-level volume control, all controllable from the handset. The oversampled, digitally low-pass filtered digital data are converted to single-channel analog by aselected Philips TDA-1541A SI "Crown" dual-DAC chip, this offering in my experience agenuine 153-bit resolution, and followed by what appears to be adiscrete-transistor current-voltage stage. Both low-noise bipolar NE5534 and LM351/ LF353 JFET- input op-amp ICs are then used to implement the crossover filters and equalization functions.
Aseparate 70W power amplifier is used for each drive-unit, each one being constructed from discrete transistors and using asingle complementary pair of Motorola MJ15003 & 4TO-3 devices. These are bolted to the rear panel with vibration-proof washers and use the sheet metal as aheatsink. They run fairly cool, however--they are said to operate in Meridian's "unique class-AA non-switching" mode.

Fundamental to any piece of hi-fi kit's audio performance is its power supply. The base of the rear panel carries two 10,CODAF electrolytic capacitors and the boards are literally festooned with three-terminal voltage regulator chips, both premium LM317/337 types and less-wellspecified 78/79 types being in plentiful supply. Overall, construction is to ahigh standard.
If Iwere being picky--and isn't that I'm paid for? --1 am faintly irritated that you still have to run an additional set of long interconnects to the D600s to handle the analog input signals. Iwait, therefore, for Bob and Alan to introduce their next-generation CD player/preamplifier which will undoubtedly have integral A/D converters to convert all the analog signals to serial digital datasueams to be fed to the D600s down the single datalink in place of the CD data output. (Larry Archibald thinks that this is adreadful idea, reducing the fine-quality output of, say, aLinn record player to the homogenized level of any other digital source!).
For those who prefer amore conventional active loudspeaker, Meridian's M60 ($3690/ pair) appears to be identical to the D600, apart from lacking the remote-control sensor, preamp switching facilities, and digital inputs and outputs.
Setup Any number of D600s can be set up in aparticular system, for Dolby-Surround purposes, for example, the 609 control already having buttons to set appropriate levels. Which of a pair of D600s is configured as a"Master"-- je, it controls that room's system--and which a "Slave" is set at the factory. If you need to change this choice, however, it's just amatter of telling the speakers which is which with the 609 remote.
The 609 remote has a "standby" button which puts the D600s (and a207 and 204 if connected) to sleep. Pressing any function button, or loading aCD into the player's drawer, wakes up the speakers, but Ifound that an upper-midrange hardness apparent on turnon took about 30 minutes to be sufficiently ameliorated that Icould enjoy the sound.
Source components consisted of the Linn Troika/Ekos/LP12 analog record player sitting on aSound Organisation table, aRevox A77 open-reel recorder, and aMeridian 207 CD player, the latter driving the "Master" D600 from its digital and "Comm." outputs via the

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supplied Meridian cable, with the "Slave" D600 daisychained to the first, again with Meridian's own cable. (Though the D600 has an optical input, Ididn't have long enough optical connectors to use these inputs with another CD transport; the 207 CD player, reviewed by Thomas J. Norton in Vol.11 No.11, only has a coaxial digital output.) For most of the auditioning, the analog sources fed aMark Levinson No.25/26 preamplifier combination which then drove the D600s via 15' lengths of Madrigal HPC balanced interconnect. This is fitted with XLR plugs, so short XLR/twin-phono adaptors fabricated from twisted solid-core cable had to be used to drive the D600s -- A1+" and "Al -" analog inputs, which use goldplated phono jacks. To be honest, apart from the 6dB increase in gain, Icouldn't hear any benefit from driving the speakers with a balanced signal compared with an unbalanced one. However, as the balanced cables were the only sufficiently long ones Ihad to hand during most of the review period, why not?
Iexperimented only slightly in siting the D600s. Basically, as with other designs intended for out-in-the-room placement, there are only alimited number of positions in my 20' by 16' listening room where speakers will achieve the optimum balance between precise soundstaging and aneutral transition between the upper bass and lower midrange. The D600s ended up 42" away from the (longer) rear wall (which is faced with books and records) and 6' away from the sidewalls, toed-in toward the listening seat, which is some 8' distant. The sidewalls have bookcases at the midpoint between the speakers and the listening seat, which Ibelieve disperse any strong early reflections (apart from that from the floor), and the overall room is reasonably live (though Ihave attempted to kill a strong 63Hz resonance with ASC Itibe Traps). Compared with, say, Larry Archibald's or J. Gordon Holt's rooms, the direct sound from apair of speakers predominates in my room. Though the '600s are supplied with plastic feet, these can be pulled off to reveal heightadjustable spike feet. Once Ihad determined the optimum positions, Idid all serious auditioning with the speakers coupled through the carpet to the concrete-beneath-saltillo-tile floor.
At the beginning of my listening Iwas disturbed to hear aserous rattle emanating from both cabinets, particularly on piano recordings. The culprits turned out to be the blanking

plugs for the optical inputs, which sang their hearts out at one or two midband frequencies.
Iremoved them.
The sound
Before proceeding with the auditioning, Imust first get aconfession off my chest. Although I tried hard to like earlier Meridian active loudspeakers, having a considerable degree of respect for the design talents of Bob Stuart and being covetous of aspeaker visually styled by Allen Boothroyd, Iwas never ultimately satisfied. The M2, for example, always worried me with apeculiar midrange balance that Ionly ever found really acceptable on chamber music, and the larger models, such as the M10, had what Icould only describe as an "odd" bass character. From the outset, however, Iwill say that Ienjoyed my time with the D600 immensely.
Unlike other speakers Ihave auditioned recently--the Thiel CS1.2 and Spica TC-50, which use first-order crossover filters and beam severely in the vertical plane--the D600 seems relatively uncritical regarding listening axis. My chair places my eyes and ears level with the LED displays; that seemed an appropriate listening axis, therefore. The cabinet certainly seemed dead enough despite its almost 36" sidewalls; placing my ears close failed to reveal any midrange "singing." It was adifferent story with the metal rear panel, however, this adding a(low-level) hooty quality to the sound emitted behind the speaker. Probing with a sinewave revealed this panel to go off strongly at 330Hz, though as this is the rear of the speaker, its effect on the sound is probably minimal.
With all the tone controls flat, the D600 has rather a "sweet" character, upper registers sounding slightly depressed and lending violin slightly too warm atone. Tilting up the highs with the tilt control gave the sound amore generous portion of treble, but also accentuated aslight HF "scratch," noticeable most on recorded tape hiss, which became very slightly more "fizzy" or "white." Ifound that cutting the treble sucked the sense of "air" from the recorded sound. The "flat" position of the treble control actually seemed to be the best choice in musical terms, in my quite-live room at least, not the least because the speaker's superb presentation of recorded detail to alarge extent compensated for any feelings of insuffi-

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cient treble The Harmonia Mundi Water Music, for example, was revealed as having an impressive dome of ambience gently excited by the period instruments. And the quiet key clatter on the continuo bassoon added to the sense
of realism. This degree of detail reproduction almost took on afetishist nature. 1kept reaching for such consummately perfect production jobs as Jennifer Warnes and Leonard Cohen singing the latter's loan of Arc" on the famous Famous Blue Raincoat album (Cypress 661 Ill -2) just to hear the tambourine breathed on in the second verse--" 'and who are you?' she sternly spoke. .:why, I'm fire,' "he replied-- and the gentle slap echo producing filigree reverberations of producer Roscoe Beck's guitars.
The soundstage on the Water Music recording was revealed as having arather ill-defined
center, something to do with Peter McGrath's miking Iguess. To check whether this was not being accentuated by the speakers' imaging ability, Iput on Kavi Alexander's Blumleintechnique recording of violinist Arturo Delmoni (Water Lily Acoustics WLA-WS-07-CD). At first Ithought that the sound was splashing to the right alittle as the violin played above the treble stave.
Then it splashed to the left. Icould only assume that rather than aspeaker aberration, the D600s were allowing me to hear the violinist's slight body motions as he played. Putting on dual-mono pink noise revealed the D600s to produce, if not quite apositional singularity at the center of the line joining the speakers, at least an extremely narrow image, stable with frequency. The '600s should and
do throw alaterally precise soundstage. Despite the superb retrieval of ambient
detail, however--you could "hear the walls" on my own piano recordings to an extent I
hadn't realized existed before--the soundstage lacked depth compared, for example, with that produced by the Spica TC-50. This could be due to atonal aberration in either speaker, but it also might be tied in with the fact that the Spica is time-coherent (on its optimum but critical listening axis), whereas the D600 is atypical UK design in that the tweeter leads the midrange in time but the sound is more smooth in the crossover region and the listening axis is considerably less critical.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, the 13600's bass in the flat position was generous

for what is fundamentally asmall loudspeaker. Visitors to my listening room expressed astonishment that such extended low frequencies could emanate from such visually small enclosures. While the D600s didn't shake Santa Fe with the bass pedals of the excellent new Dorian organ recording from Paris's Saint Eustache church (DOR-90134) in the manner the Waveforms reviewed by Larry Archibald had, with their 15" JBL woofers, there was still bass to burn, within the dynamic-range limitations of four 6" drive-units. That this impressive low-frequency performance is the result of artifice rather than intrinsic air-moving ability was revealed by the fact that the bass noticeably thickened up at climaxes while the rest of the speaker still seemed dynamically unrestricted. Take the recent Bernstein Mahler 5 (DG 423 608-2), for example When the music is quiet, as in the deservedly famous Adagietto, the double-basses have full power and weight. But in the tremendous opening orchestral chords after the solo trumpet fanfare (which cruises 25-30dB lower in level), there was adistinct threshold around volume-control setting 45, equivalent to a100dB spl (unweighted) inroom, where the bass and lower midrange became significantly congested.
There was also adynamic-range problem in the upper midrange. A slight nasality at low levels remained benign again until the spi reached much above 100dB, when the sound rapidly hardened. Boy soprano at high levels, for example, became suddenly quite unpleasant. Iam talking about high replay levels here, but Ithought it worth exploring because Meridian does quote amaximum spi of 110dB for the 13600. And even Martin Colloms felt that apair of D600s could reach 108dBA, which is very loud, while remaining clean-sounding. 3
One note on the D600's bass is in order. In common with other high-order-LF-alignment speakers, the body of its midbass tone seems to lag alittle behind the initial edge of the sound of double-bass and bass drum when compared with agood sealed-box design. This can be alleviated by switching the "Q" to the "Cut" position, though Ithen felt the balance to lack weight. Shelving up the "Bass" control to "+1" gave, then, abetter midbass quality in combination with the "Cut" setting, but still at the expense of ultimate low-bass weight at
3See ill-F1 News & Record Review, June 1989, pp.47-49.

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Stereophile, November 1989

normal listening levels. The exact bass balance will be very room-dependent, however, and it is atribute to the speaker that they offer such flexibility in LF tuning to best match the room.
To sum up, therefore, the 13600 in its "flat" position offers aneutral tonal balance with just atouch of nasality occasionally apparent, with musical but rather depressed extreme highs offset by aslight degree of, if not quite "fizz," a narrow-band emphasis somewhere in the top octave, an occasional degree of hardness in the upper mids, and an impressive degree of lowbass extension, provided the speaker is not asked to deliver spis higher than 100dB or sa Stereo imaging is superbly precise laterally, but despite its quite stunning retrieval of recorded detail and ambience, the illusion of reproduced image depth doesn't quite match the level of attainment reached elsewhere by this design. Overall, this is asound worthy of recommendation in Class B of Stereopbile's "Recommended Components" listing.
Digital comparisons
To assess the intrinsic performance of the D600's integral DACs, Icarried out aseries of comparisons with other familiar D/A decoders. The first, and most obvious, was to compare the sound of the D600s when fed adigital datastream by the 207 CD player with that produced by the 207 when using its integral DACs to provide the D600s with an analog signal (via lm lengths of Monster M-1000). Levels were matched at lkHz (as they were for all direct comparisons), and A/B switching.' could be implemented by toggling the remote control between "CD" and "Radio." (The only practical drawback to this is that when the speakers are set to their analog inputs, the remote cannot be used to control the CD functions.)
Imust say that differences were small. Hardly surprising, considering that the same digital filter/DAC combination is used in both products and that the analog design is from the pen of the same engineer. However, the D600 handling adigital input gave amore delicate sound
4As the switchover takes about 2-3s. this is not quite instantaneous. More disturbingly, when selecting an analog source after (:I), the music can still be heard playing at reduced level during switchover Worried that this was int.:sulk into the analog input from the IMC output, or vice versa. Idecoded the data representing aOdB ¡kHz tone with the D600 DACs while listening to the analog input at full system gain, then played the Od8 &Hz tone in the analog input while listening to asilent CD track via the speaker's (:I) input. In both cases the result was nothing--a false alarm!

overall, with less treble grain, than the 207's analog outputs. Ifelt the 207 slightly emphasized vocal sibilants; it also had awarmer balance overall, which muddied up the sounds of tenor instruments such as the cello. The soundstage appeared to be more spacious via the D600 DACs.
The second comparison was to set up the British Fidelity Digilog and feed it the digital output from the 207 via coaxial cable. The Digilog was connected to the Analog Al+ inputs of the D600s with Im lengths of Monster Cable M1000, so my description of the sound quality will also include acontribution from the interconnect as well as the effect of the RF coaxial cable carrying the digital signal. A/B comparisons were now alittle more cumbersome, due to the fact that the digital cable had to be changed each time, as well as changing the source with the D600 handset.
Now there was considerably more difference to be heard, the Digilog having adistinctly different tonal signature. Again it had awarmer balance, but the main distinguishing characteristic of the D600 referred to the Digilog was alighter, more delicate treble. The Digilog appeared to have less good midrange definition and less extended highs, though, as might be expected, the treble response measured identical to the D600's. Conversely, on some recordings, the D600 sounded rather brittle in the treble. Though the D600 excelled at presenting the ambient information on recordings--the individual echoes on the Tony Faulkner-engineered Hyperion recording of music by Sir Hubert Parry for choir and organ (CDA66273) could be clearly differentiated-- the Digilog presented the music with an overall more distant perspective, almost as if it had less upper-midrange energy. This helped such midrange-aggressive recordings as Showdown from blues axemen Albert Collins, Robert Cray, and Johnny Copeland (Alligator ALCD4743). Copeland's guitar in particular is head-splittingly bright via the D600s-- it sounds like piece of garbage--and the slight softening/distancing offered by the Digilog could only be an improvement here.
The Digilog also had afatter midbass that rendered such modern classics as Thomas Dolby's Aliens Ate My Buick5(EMI-Manhattan
5Lewis and Lynne-Jane Lipnick took me to task at the recent Stereo/Mlle reviewers' conference over my advocacy of this recording. "It's horrible!" Ithink was their succinct summing up of its musical and sonic merits. Iremain unashamed. For

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141

CDP) more viscerally satisfying than via the crossover and construction can be seen in the

D600s alone. But the D600 DAC, while being lazy manner in which the lower-frequency

less forgiving of clumsily engineered record- content of the impulse decays. (Look at the

ings, is more subtle and spacious.

impulse response of the Thiel CS1.2, which uti-

Finally, to put things into context, Isub- lizes asimilar tweeter, elsewhere in this issue

stituted for the Digilog the $4000 Sony DAS - to see how a more time-aligned design

RI decoder that had acted for awhile as my reproduces the same rectangular pulse.)

reference digital sound source earlier this year.

Performing aFast Fourier Transform calcu-

Again it drove the D600s via lm lengths of lation on the impulse response data gives the

Monster M-1000.

effective anechoic frequency response of the

No contest, I'm afraid. The big Sony both speaker on the same axis. To get an idea of the

equaled the D600's sense of space--the choir speaker's forward response characteristic and

sounded less homogeneous and more like a to eliminate the spurious effects of specific can-

collection of individual voices on the Hyperion cellations and reinforcements which will be

Parry recording--and rendered such sonic peculiar to any one microphone position, Ical-

trash as the Alligator blues recording musically culate five such FFT responses from impulse

acceptable. Copeland's guitar still sounded ple- responses taken over a±15° horizontal win-

bian, but at least its sound could now be eas- dow and take the average as being typical of the

ily distinguished from the more aristocratic balance of the direct sound to reach the

Fender Stratocaster played by Mr. Cray. The listener's ear on this particular axis. This

Sony also bested the Digilog in the weight and response for the D600, taken with all the tone

definition of its bass registers. This is the pro- controls set to "flat" and plotted with 200Hz

cessor of choice for listening to Mr. Dolby's resolution from 400Hz to 30kHz, can be seen

Aliens. ..waxing, et, polycarbonating.

in fig.2. The response is reasonably smooth,

But, hey, Icould quite happily live with any

of the sounds of these processors, the '600

most definitely being aclassy loudspeaker, and

incredibly convenient to use.

Measurement
Looking first at the D600's response on the tweeter axis to a25ps rectangular pulse (fig.1, plotted over a5ms window and slightly offset from the DC line to show its full shape), this can be seen to be overlaid with ahigh degree of ultrasonic ringing, due to the metal-dome tweeter's primary "oil-can" resonance being excited by the wide-bandwidth test signal. Of very high Q or "quality factor," this resonance is still ringing more than 2ms after the stimulus has been and gone, but whether it will produce audible effects downband on music signal is open to question. Certainly with CD replay, the band-limited nature of the analog signal will prevent this resonance's excitation unless the player itself produces asignificant level of spuriae at exactly the same frequency. The non-time-coherent nature of the speaker's
me it defines where rock music stands at the end of the '80s in the intelligence of its lyrics, the skill of the musicians, the complexity of its mix, the spaciousness of its soundmage thc awesome and monstrous power ()f its bass, and the rip-yourhead -open quality of its highs. My thanks an: due to Krells Ikmgemus Dan D'Agostino for turning me on to it at the 1988 Summer CES.

Fig.1 Meridian D600, impulse response (5ms window) 11111 1111
Il"
Id14:
Fig.2 Meridian D600, FFT anechoic response, averaged across 30° lateral window, plus nearfield LF response

142

Stereophile, November 1989

1 11I11111 1 11IMil 1 I1111111 I 1I

-3111

-am I 11111111 I 11111111 I 11111111

là:

Ills

lik

1 11-

Fig.3 Meridian D600, 1/3-octave, spatially averaged, in-room response

and an overall slight downward trend is over-
laid with adegree of boost in the presence region and at 10kHz, with slight suckouts between 4k Hz and 6kHz and at 24kHz. (Both suckouts are less evident with the mie exactly on the tweeter axis.) The B&K measuring microphone starts to roll off above 20kHz; nevertheless, apeak 10dB above the midband
level can be seen at the tweeter resonance, around 26k Hz.
Fig.2 also shows the nearfield response of
the lower of the two woofers and of the rearfiring reflex port. The woofer peaks slightly at 50Hz, then rolls out rapidly, being 6dB down at 45Hz with the port handling the bulk of the output between 30Hz and 50Hz. The port itself appears to be -6dB at 28Hz. Matching the absolute levels of these different curves for display purposes can only be approximate. Isuspect that Ihave plotted the port output alittle too high in level in fig.2, as the spatially averaged
in-room response6(fig.3) shows arather earlier rolloff in the bass, aslight peaking up at 40Hz being followed by asteep rolloff. The curve produced by this measurement, which has proved to correlate quite well with aspeaker's subjective balance, shows an overall downward tilt to the D600's in-room sound, relieved by some emphasis in the midrange, centered on the 800Hz y3-octave band (which might correlate with the "hardness" noted), and in the upper bass at 160Hz. (The depression above that region will be partly due to cancellation between the speaker's direct sound and the first
reflection of that sound from the floor between the speaker and the measuring microphone.) Looking at the individual curves taken to derive fig.3 suggests good pair-matching, as well as

6See October, p.166-167, for afull description of how this test is performed and why Ithink it useful.

reasonably wide dispersion in both horizontal and vertical planes. The D600 is certainly not a"hot-seat" loudspeaker.
Measuring the performance of the digital replay section of the D600 with any degree of confidence presented problems. However, as it uses aconventional premium Philips 16-bit chip set, Iexpect that its overall departure from linearity will be typical of the genre. (See Robert Harley's measurements on the Arcam Black Box 2and British Fidelity Digilog in the October issue.) Certainly Iwas not bothered by any noise problems. 7
Conclusion
Technically sophisticated, Meridian's D600 was one the most aesthetically desirable loudspeakers to have spent time in my listening room. It proved capable of delivering highquality, musically balanced sound with awide, deep soundstage and an astonishing degree of clarity. It also offers agenerous low-frequency performance, considering that the actual driver radiating area is limited, and it will give quite high sound levels, before increasing bass distortion and upper-midrange hardness conspire to have you reach for the volume control.
And what avolume control! Iam getting to love remote system control--even though a confirmed couch potato such as myself still has to get up from his comfy chair to turn over the LP or post another CD into the 207's gaping maw.
However. ..Stereopbile's value judgments must be based on ultimate sound quality, not on such trivialities as aesthetic appeal and ease of use How then does the D600 stand regarding value for money? The easiest way to judge is to carry out athought experiment--couch potatoes love thought experiments almost as much as they do remote controls--and put together asystem from Class Bor Cseparates that does everything apair of D600s do with asimilar overall sound quality. Remote control is mandatory, 6so we have to choose between the Hafler Iris ($8OO) and the Linn LK1 ($1160 with remote). (Yes, Iwould love to choose the fabulous remote-control Counterpoint SA-11 all-tube line section, but its $5495 price has already burst my budget!) Linn's LK280 power
7)ust as Iwrite this conclusion. Murphy strikes. The "Master" speaker has started to emit alow-pitched burp every two minutes or s,, when turned on hut not playing music.
'Si sernper potatum mclinus," appropriately states the bunt of the T-shirt Iwear while reviewing.

Stereophile, November 1989

143

amplifier ($1495) works best with the LK1, while the Hafler could be paired with the

Kimber Kable. I've allowed $100 for Linn stranded/spaced-pair speaker cable, which

Adcom GFA-555 ($700) or Counterpoint SA12 ($1195, but soon to be discontinued), the latter being my preference. As the D600s accept

comes with good soldered banana plugs. 9 This gives system totals of $5315 (British
Fidelity /Hafler /Counterpoint /Vandersteen/

adigital input, our separates system also needs agood DAC unit to accept the serial digital

Sound Anchors/Monster/Kimber) or $5150 (Arcarn/Linn/Vandersteen/Sound Anchors). Of

datastream from aCD transport. Iwould say the British Fidelity Digilog ($995) or Arcam
Black Box 2($899) would be acceptable, considering they use the same Philips digital fil-

course, you could replace the DAC unit with acomplete CD player, such as the $600 Adcom GCD-575, which will lower the overall system cost by obviating the need for aseparate dig-

ter/16-bit DAC chip set as the Meridian speakers. And $35 would need to be put aside

ital source, but even taking this into consideration, apair of Meridian D600s appears to be

for aphono-XLR adaptor lead so the DAC unit could drive the Linn preamplifier. The Linn
amplification comes complete with interconnects to join pre- and power amplifier, but the Hafler/Adcom or Hafler/Counterpoint pairings will need good-quality interconnects, $300 worth of Monster M-1000, for example. Finally, we need to choose a pair of loudspeakers broadly similar in attainment to the D600. My choice would be apair of Vandersteen 2Ci's, which will add $1195 to the budget, not counting $260 for the matching Sound Anchor stands. The Vandersteens go as low in the bass as the Meridians and are unfailingly musical, in this reviewer's opinion. Good speaker cables, of course, will be needed. Fifteen-foot runs of Kimber Kable 8TC will probably be suitable, which, at $7.80/ft., adds up to another $234, or $468 if the speakers are to be bi-wired. Alternatively, you could go for AudioQuest

reasonably good value at $5490, particularly as the owner is relieved of all system-matching
and compatibility problems, doesn't have to worry about which expensive loudspeaker cables to buy, and gets aset of sensible tone controls to boot.
The D600 is actually acost-effective and painless way for aCD enthusiast to obtain what is fundamentally asound appropriate for a
Class B ranking in Stereopbile's "Recommended Components." Add aMeridian 207Pro CD player/preamplifier at $1990 ($2240
with phono board) and aMeridian 204 FM tuner/timer ($1090), both of which can be controlled by the D600's remote unit, and remember that this system can be the basis of acomplete multi-room installation using Meridian's modular units, and you will understand why
think the D600 will turn out to be one of the best-selling loudspeaker systems in the early

Clear Hyperlitz, at $50/ft., but at $3000 for a '90s--even if it isn't "digital!"

bi- wired set, that would probably be overkill in this system. Four pairs of Monster XTerminators add another $100 to the cost of the

9Please don't write to ask what dealer would recommend or sell either of these systems. Idid say this was athought experiment!

SANSUI AU-X911DG INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER
Larry Greenhill
Solid-state integrated amplifier with one phono input (switchable MC/MM), seven analog line-level inputs (three tape decks, DAT player, CD player, video player, processor), three electrical digital inputs, and one optical digital input. Input impedance: 47k ohms (MM), 100 ohms (MC), 47k ohms (line), and 75 ohms (digital). Phono sensitivity: 2.5mV (MM), 300ÍtV (MC), 0.5V (digital). S/N ratio: phono (MM) 86dB, line 110dB. Frequency response: 20Hz-20kHz +0.2dB, (RIAA); 4Hz20kHz, +0.5dB (digital). Total Harmonic Distortion (THD): 0.003% (digital, at 1kHz). Output power: 100W continuous (20dBW), with no more than 0.02% THD. 1M distortion (60Hz/7kHz in a4:1 ratio, SMPTE method): 0.02% at rated power. Polarity: non-inverting. Dimensions: 16 15A6" (430mm) W by 67/16" (163mm) Hby 17 3/4 "(450mm) D. Weight: 40.1 lbs (18.2kg) net. Price: 51250. Approximate
Stereophile, November 1,»-N

rermouem cart, AboWURCI·

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Sansui AU- X911DG integrated amplifier
number of dealers: 60. Distributor: Sansui Electronics Corporation, 1250 Valley Brook Avenue, Lyndhurst, NJ 07071. Tel: (201) 460-9710.

For three years or so, Sansui has marketed an expensive "Vintage" line of separates. These products have featured expensive veneers, superb ergonomics, and, in the case of their top-of-the-line amplifiers, superb specifications and test-bench performance.,Their new AU-X911DG integrated amplifier continues the "Vintage" tradition, and offers something in addition to its 100Wpc of continuous power, multiplicity of inputs, and remote switching functions: an onboard Digital/Analog Converter (DAC). The unit's high power rating, an optical input, and the built-in DAC quite justify the amp's $1250 price, which is asignificant notch above the $349-$795 series of lower powered British integrated amplifiers reviewed recently in these pages by Robert Harley. Best of all, the sonics from this new integrated amp are so good that Ihad to review (for the umpteenth time!) my definition of "state-of-the-art" sonics in an audio product.
The heart of the matter: the onboard DAC
Although the AU-X911DG is not the only integrated amp with abuilt-in DAC, the Sansui DAC appears to use adifferent approach from other amps in this price range. For example, a number of present-day CD players employ 10or 20-bit DACs with 4x- or 8x-resampling or oversampling digital filters to reduce distortion (the top-of-the-line Krell converter uses 64xoversampling!). Decoding 16-bit data using 16bit DACs involves anetwork of resistors or current sources that limits the DAC's intrinsic
IThough Dick Olsher found their "Vintage" DX-90I CD player to have disappointing sonics in Vol.10 No.8. --JA

accuracy, despite the use of laser trimming of components or external trim pots to adjust the most significant bit (MSB) currents. Sansui eliminates the need for costly high-precision reference devices with their LDCS ("Linear and Direct DAC System"), which employs avery high order of oversampling and third-order noise shaping to convert the 16-bit digital input signal into aI-bit pulse stream of zeros (off)and ones (on). ,The original analog signal can then be reconstructed from what is effectively a Pulse Width Modulated (PWM) signal by passing it through alow-order, non-brick-wall type of low-pass filter.
Sansui claims that the LDCS prevents zerocross distortion, aproblem with very -lowinput signal levels. The 1-bit DAC circuit does not need to use adeglitcher, which further reduces switching noise and distortion.
The AU-X911DG's onboard DAC has another feature: its lithium-tantalate oscillation system, which couples with the amp's double phaselocked-loop circuitry to provide avery stable clock. The unit locks into the digital data stream coming in via cables and determines the clock frequency to set its own DAC. Sansui believes that the lithium-tantalate components help synchronize the DAC with the incoming signal, and reduce the noise and jitter that lead to conversion errors. The DAC can be compatible with awide range of digital hardware such as DAT, regardless of whether its sampling fre-
2"Introduction to Sansui's I-Bit D/A Conversion Technology LDCS." This white paper was distributed at an April, 1989 press conference in New lbrk. While it is quite lucid and wellwritten, one wonder, if this may he another problem which has been "discovered and then solved" by the manufacturer. Whether I-hit D/A conversion technology explains the AUX9I 1181 .Nsuperb sound. Icannot say.

Stereophile, November 1989

145

quency is 44.1, 32, or 48kHz. The unit actually has an illuminated readout of the input signal's sampling frequency.
Construction
The amplifier's chassis has an extruded aluminum front panel which is attached to steel side panels. Internally, it is built from several Usection channels running from front to back, with various sheet-metal and extruded parts attached. Sizeable heatsinks for each channel are attached parallel to the side panels, and are located internally to promote air flow through the matching slots in the top and bottom external panels. Amplifier circuit boards run parallel to the heat radiators. Output transistors are bolted to the appropriate radiator for each channel. Lots of point-to-point wiring is visible, but lead length is appropriately short.
Alarge power transformer and two 10,000g filter capacitors occupy the center portion of the amplifier. These capacitors are rated at 85°C, which is more than adequate. Vertically oriented circuit boards are situated behind the front panel, just inside the side panels and on the back panel. Circuit-board component quality is high, with 1% resistors in the preamp section. The unit has high-quality, single-sided, glass-epoxy boards, complete with component designators and solder mask. Many fewer nickel-plated, push-on connectors have been used to connect the circuit boards than in earlier Sansui "Basic Audio Legacy Vintage" designs, 3which is an improvement as far as I'm concerned. All the amp's panels are fastened with pre-threaded screws, tapped holes, and use aplastic insert around the screw head. This level of construction is often found in instrument-grade products.
The front panel's large number of controls gives the amp agreat deal of flexibility. Listing them makes the unit sound much more complicated to operate than it actually is. This is due, in part, to the ergonomically successful hand-held remote unit that comes with the amp. Rotary controls on the front panel are, from left to right, Speakers, Bass, Treble, Balance, Master Volume, Source-Direct Operation,
3See the frViCW in Audio, Vol.69 No.4, April 1985, titled 'Sansui C-2301 Preamp and 11-2301 Amp:' pp 82-98 David Clark and Idid athorough evaluation of Sansui's separates, which were priced higher than the AU- X911DG. At that time, San sui used thread-forming screws, which Iconsider to be less desirable than those used in this newer, less expensive integrated amp.

and Record Selector. Square pushbutton switches include Power, Tone (for toggling on or off the tone controls), loudness, 'Pape Selector Switches (Source, Tape-1 /DAT, Tape-2, Tape-3), MM/MC, Processor (for an external crossover or equalizer), Muting, and Subsonic (16Hz high-pass filter with I2dB/octave slope). A bank of eight pushbuttons at the panel's upper right control the amplifier inputs. These switches link to amotor-driven remote switching system near the back panel, in an effort to keep signal leads short. The eight switches are labeled Digital-1, Digital-2, Digital-3, Digital-4 (Optical), Phono, Miner, Line, and CD (using the DAC in the CD player, not the one in the Sansui).
Setup and operation
Despite the awesome number of control functions, the AU-X91IDG does not have an output for its preamp section. What about the Processor outputs? These are similar to the standard tape-outs in that the signal level cannot be controlled from the front panel. Iused two test setups for the listening, both of which required an external electronic crossover. The first system employed Quad ESL-63s and aVelodyne ULD- 18 subwoofer, which has its own electronic crossover and power amplifier. The lack of apreamp output meant that Ihad to drive the subwoofer amp from aline out, in turn meaning that the Sansui was pushing afull IV into the Velodyne. The volume controls on both the Sansui and the Velodyne had to be set separately. (Sometimes the match was accurate, sometimes not.) The second setup involved the latest incarnation of the Snell A-3 (Improved version), which Ihad biamped with an outboard dB Systems electronic crossover and two separate amplifiers. Iswitched the Snell back to its nominal non-bi-amped state for the Sansui audition. Sources included aRevox 260-S FM tuner, aLinn/Magnepan/Marovskis MIT turntable, and aPhilips 650 CD player.
The unit comes on with something of alight show, as the power-switch indicator light flashes and the transformer buzzes. One can also hear the motor used to switch the inputs, but this is not bothersome unless one is switching rapidly between sources. The protection circuit is very good, cutting on and off while the power-on light bar slowly cycles on and off. Iencountered the action of this circuit when Ifirst set up the amplifier. The speaker

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Stereophile, November 1989

terminals are so large that the connectors touched (definitely not the American 5-way standard connector!), shorting the amplifier. The X-Términator banana pins only just fit, and must have forced the body of the Monster Cable fitting to press against the body of the amp, shutting down the sound right in the middle of ahuge passage on side 3of the 45rpm Reference Recording of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique (Reference Recording RR- 11)! Ihad to pull off the Monster X-lénninators that Ilove and use the lugs at the end of the cables instead. The huge screws on the Sansui's terminals do allow for atight fit, however.
Next Ilistened to the CD inputs. Moving the Source Direct Operation rotary control, I noticed achange in the volume. The Direct setting was not as loud as the source, even though the signal was arriving at the integrated amp as digital. What was going on? Page 17 of the instruction booklet explains that with the Source setting, much of the integrated amp is bypassed. With the switch set to Source, the balance control and subsonic and muting switches do not work, and any external signal processor will be out of the circuit. This meant that the high-passed signal from the Velodyne crossover was being ignored, and the Quads were getting the full-range signal. Ichose to use the Digital Direct, which allowed the incoming digital signal to be processed, and the processor loop to include the Velodyne subwoofer.
The sound
Icarried out anumber of listening comparisons during the audition of the Sansui AU-X911DG due to the large range of options this product presents. Icompared analog vs the digital input signal from my CD player; moving-coils vs moving-magnets; driving the Quads full-range vs the bi-amplified option with the 18" Velodyne subwoofer.
Comparing the Philips's internal 16-bit DAC with the Sansui's 1-bit circuit provided the most dramatic sonic difference. With the San sui, much of the Philips's midrange harshness Ihad grown accustomed to was eliminated, and the sound was much smoother and less hashy. Imaging improved dramatically, and a number of the CDs evinced enhanced soundstage depth and width. Punch, speed, and detailing increased, and listening became ajoy! Ifound it difficult to go back to my standard system. But being an integrated amplifier, Iwas

unable to decide whether this CD "breakthrough" could be attributed to the DAC alone, but was in fact the result of asynergism of Sansui preamplifier, amplifier, and DAC.
Itried two cartridges into the Sansul's preamp section. The moving-magnet Shure V-15 Type V-MR did surprisingly well. It tends to be an accurate, beautifully tracking cartridge that is analytic but not especially dynamic or exciting when played through my normal preamp (Levinson ML-7A). My, the Sansui gave it ashot in the arm! The sound became spacious, fast, dynamic, full, and rich. In many ways, the Shure/Sansui/Quad ESL-63 system reminded me alittle of an IRS Beta system's silvery, transparent midrange, particularly when teamed with Carver's Silver Seven amplifier. While I don't mean to suggest that the Sansui/Quad/ Velodyne combination equals the Infinity/ Carver, it does remind me of this sound. It was so good that Ibegan to suspect some frequency anomalies in the lower midrange of the AUX911DG's RIAA compensation curve, but, knowing Sansui, the equalization curve is probably dead flat.
Ibegan my auditioning with the Sheffield direct-to-vinyl LP of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. The Sansui AU-X911DG proved to be very revealing, particularly of record surface problems. It also showed a considerable dynamic range, especially for the Shure V-15 Type V-MR cartridge, which has atendency to be restricted in this region. Imoved on to a recording of Bach's Trio Sonata in C, played on the organ of the Presbyterian Church, Rye, New York, by John Stansell (Classic Masters CMS 1003). The ambience of the church was absolutely wonderful. The Velodyne subwoofer teamed up with the Quads to produce awideopen, spacious sound.
Record after record was dragged out, auditioned, and enjoyed. For example, Fleetwood Mac's "Sisters of the Moon," from 714sk, played with apounding, fast, driving quality. Ibecame aware, for the first time, that Fleetwood had miked the percussion up front, and brought Stevie Nicics's vocals in slowly, panning the volume up, which made it seem as if she were miked far away, then rushed up front. 4Grace-
4This description of Stevie Nicks's %Mkt moving from the rear of the soma:taw to the front was probably achieved by having the recording consoles revert" send in the "pee-lade - position, keeping the amount of rmrrb mutant regardless of fader position. As the fader is brought up, thc ratio of reverberant

Stereophile, November 1989

147

land, one of Paul Simon's best recordings, was reproduced with just the right amount of "wetness" or reverb for his voice. On the other hand, all elements of the chorus and guitar had been recorded up-front and dry. This was very evident on "Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes": The opening chorus was just lovely, with lots of depth and reverb, Simon in the foreground, with all the voices resolved. The Quads were quick and fast, and the Velodyne had the appropriate degree of punch.
I even unearthed my full-sized 45rpm records. Imust have been inspired, for changing the speed meant stopping everything and changing the belt on my Linn turntable! I played The Tempest, aReference Recording (RR-11) featuring highlights from Paul Sieko's ballet and Keith Johnson's recording skills. The ambience, depth, and stability of image were very much improved over that heard through my Levinson/Threshold system.
The tuner also sounded more alive through the Sansui. The sound, particularly of orchestral music, was more forward, more dynamic, more exciting. Ibelieve apart of that was due to two new additions to the system this year-- Arcici stands for the Quads and the Velodyne ULD- 18--but clearly Sansui's amp helped.
The Sansui's rated power is just right for the Quads. Ihaven't had so much fun with the sonics in along time. The mix of Quad/Velodyne /Sansui had agreat deal of speed, zip, and punch. The bass transient speed and detailing were absolutely tops, easily equaling anything Ihave heard in my system. This was particularly true for such synthesizer music as the Nonesuch Records release of Morton Subotnick's /be Wild Bull (H-71208). 5It was evident also on amore recent release, James Newton Howard & Friends (Sheffield Lab CD-23). (This CD emanates from the same rock synthesizer, drums, and percussion group that created Sheffield's wonderful Pack Record.) Iwent into a"total goosebump syndrome" when Iput on Newton's "Slippin' Away II"; the soundfield was so big, so fast, Ifelt like jumping up and boogeying. Iwas bowled over by the detail and new information coming through.
The most important addition made by the Sansui was center imaging. Throwing on vocal

to dry signal decreases, giving the illusion of the image moving

forward in the soundstage.

--RH

5Ithought Iwas the only person in the world to have this

recording

-- JA

music revealed that the Quads could create a palpable, sonically three-dimensional image with the Sansui. Iheard this best on "Bridge Over Troubled Waters," from Willie Nelson's Always on My Mind CD. Itried the Sansui on afull-range dynamic system, the Snell Type IIIA, improved. Plenty of power was available, for bass drum blasts (Wilson Winds of War and Peace, "Liberty Fanfare") or for synthesizer rock (Newton and Friends, "Shufflin' Away"). The top of the chassis got quite warm. Clipping was evident in a"snap" on the peaks, but there was no static, degradation of sound, or objectionable clipping behavior. The wonderful imaging heard on the Quads also occurred on the Snells, improved over my much more expensive Levinson/Threshold system. Although the 1-bit DAC in the integrated amplifier only handles source signals in digital format, the Snell's improved center imaging and depth heard on CDs was heard from vinyl records as well, especially on the Rye organ record.
Not all the source material did well, however. The wonderful Vanguard recording of the Weavers' 1963 Carnegie Hall Reunion ("Guantanamera") was abit thin, and the usual spread of performers across my listening-room wall did not occur. David Wilson's new CD, Winds of War and Peace, which begins with the "Liberty Fanfare," was thin, and did not have the profound bass impact heard with my Levinson ML-7A (this preamp alone retails for almost three times the Sansui's price!). The Marovskis MIT- Imoving-coil cartridge, which has avan den Hul stylus, did not sound as vibrant as the Shure cartridge, suggesting perhaps some anomalies in the Sansui's MC circuitry. Bass response was reduced, dynamics were dimmed, and the sound became colored and dull. Iran the same cartridge through my Audio Standards MX-10 head amp, and reset the Sansui for moving-magnet. The sound opened up, sounding richer and more spacious. Iwould suspect that the cartridge-loading impedance on the Sansui is abit low, as the Marovskis favors ahighish impedance, like the Levinson ML-7a's 825 ohms.

Conclusion
The Sansui AU- X911DG gets my vote for the best entry-level set of electronics under $1500.6

61n view of LG's advocacy, Ifeel it fair that we submit this San -

sui to "Follow-up" scrutiny. For if it is as good as he says, we

should promote it widely. Stay tuned.

--JA

148

Stereophile, November 1989

For $1250 list, one gets avery good remotecontrol integrated amplifier, with an outstand ing integral DAC. The central imaging of the sound, the spaciousness of the soundstage, and the amp's punch and transparency make it clearly the best power amplifier I've yet heard under $2000, much less an entire preamp, amplifier, and DAC. The only drawback in my opinion is the Sansui lack of preamp outputs. The Sansui's grainless midrange comes surprisingly close to the performance of the Levinson No.20 driving the Snell A-3s, lacking only the Madrigal/Levinson's unusual deep-bass performance. Well done, Sansui!
Postscript: measured performance
After reading Larry Greenhill's review of the Sansui AU-X911DG, Iwas eager to see how it performed on the bench. My first test sample --the sample that LG actually listened to-- blew afuse with terminal consequences during the preconditioning period of one hour at 1/5 rated power. The second sample survived, however, allowing me to proceed with the bench tests.
The AU-X911DG delivered 0.7dB more than its rated power into 8ohms, clipping at 117.4W (20.7dBW). Into 4 ohms, it delivered just
150.5W (18.8d13W). This modest rise in output power into 4ohms is indicative of aless than state-of-the-art power supply. lypic-ally, amplifiers with the ability to substantially increase their output power into low impedances have
subjectively better low-frequency performances. The AU- X911DG output impedance was typical of amodern solid-state amplifier at 0.1 ohm.
Frequency response at 1W into 8ohms (Cl) input to speaker terminals) is shown in fig. I. The volume-control error, shown by the lower level of the right (dotted trace) channel, gradually decreased as power output increased. Above 75W, the error was minimal. The effect of adding 2.2µF of capacitance in parallel with the load resistor is shown in fig.2. Adding the capacitor approximates the load presented by many loudspeakers, especially the older Quad
ESL. Interestingly, the right channel's rise was 0.8dB at 20kHz, while the left channel's rise was 0.4dB at 20kHz. Even though the right channel's output was lower (due to volumecontrol inaccuracy), both channels' outputs were nearly equal at 20kHz. LG did mention

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Fig.4 Sansui, RIAA error, output from tape outputs (RH channel dotted)

that the sound of the Sansui driving the Quads had "zip." Fig.3 shows THD and Noise as a function of frequency at rated output (100W), meeting the published specification of less than 0.02%.
Moving to the phono section, R1AA equalization accuracy was reasonably flat. The right channel, shown as the dotted trace in fig.4, had agreater error than the left above IkHz. Phono overload at 'kHz was 200mV.
The AU-X911DG's digital-to-analog con-

Stereophile, November 1989

149

Fig.5 Sansui, fade to noise with dither (left channel)

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Fig.6 Sansui, linearity error (left channel)
verter showed some real surprises. Converter linearity was exceptionally accurate, among the best Ihave measured. Fig.5 shows the trace made from the "fade to noise with dither" track on the CBS test disc. It is very nearly aperfect straight line. Using the data from this track to calculate deviation from perfect linearity yields the trace in fig.6. Again, this is excellent performance.
Deemphasis error (fig.7) was negligible,

1.10.·

1211

I.
Fig.8 Sansui, -90dB dithered 1kHz tone with spuriae and noise

being 0.5dB down at 16kHz. The noise spec-

trum present at the output when playing a

dithered lkHz signal at -90dB is shown in fig.8.

This test reveals the presence of spuriae and

power-supply-related problems. The AU-

X911DG performed well, with alow level of

artifacts associated with the IkHz tone. In addi-

tion, the linearity of the DAC can be seen by the

lkHz peak just reaching the -90dB horizontal

division.

--Robert Harley

TERA 6210 VIDEO MONITOR/RECEIVER
J. Gordon Holt
20" (diagonal) video receiver/monitor with infrared remote. Inputs: VHF 75 ohms; UHF 300 ohms; Video 1, 2, 3(RCA jack, 75 ohms). Front panel controls: Master AC, Vertical Hold, Function Select, Function Adjust, Function Reset, Color-Noise Reduction On/Off, MTS On/Off, Display On/Off, channel memory Add/Erase, Manual-Fine-Tuning adjust, MFT/AFT select, RGB/Normal, VideoNoise-Reduction On/Off, 3.58 Trap On/Off, Channel Up/Down, Volume Up/Down, Antenna/Aux, TV/Video 1-4. Controls on remote: all of the above except Channel Memory, plus: Headphone, Speaker, Muting, CNR, Revert, Reset, Sleep. Specs: Manual fine tuning +2.2MHz. Outputs: 10Wpc or audio line, video. Overscan 5%. DC restoration: 95°/o. Brightness: 800+ lux. Color temperature: 9300K. Horizontal resolution: 560 lines. Dimensions: 21 5A" W by 20 5A" H by 19 3A" D. Weight: 62 lbs. Price: $1250. Approximate number of dealers: 150. Manufacturer: Tera Electronics, Inc., 89 Doug Brown Way, Holliston, MA 01746. Tel: (508) 429-7760.

Even though video-related articles are avery rare occurrence in these hallowed pages, they invariably elicit letters expressing outrage that we would so "waste" the space that could be better devoted to yet another report on another

overpriced and eminently forgettable loudspeaker.' (How many products, favorably
IIt will strike some readers as ironic that, so soon after the appearance of my comments concerning the demise of Ilgb

150

Stereophile, November 1989

Ter ',pm,

The Tera 629, which looks just like the 621c TV monitor/receiver

reviewed in these pages, ever get mentioned again?) Interestingly though, most of the vitriol in those letters seems to be aimed at TV, as though TV and video are synonymous. They aren't, exactly.
Strictly speaking, video is any picture you look at on acathode-ray tube. It does not include oscilloscope displays, but it does include TV. But when people who are "into" video speak of video, they are not talking about TV. They are talking about anything you watch on aCRT that isn't from commercially broadcast TV. Video comes instead from aVCR, a laserdisc video player, or any other source that can be watched without commercial interrup-

Fidelity being somewhat related to that magazine's coverage

of video products (Vol.12 No.8, p.41),,Stereophile should pub-

lish areport on avideo product. Those who know .)Gordon

Holt well, however, will be aware of his longstanding passion

for things televisual and should not be surprised, therefore,

to see that his first equipment review to appear in the maga-

zine for many months concern> one of the new breed of dirt-ct-

view monitors. Welcome hack, tiortkm, and rest assured, dear

readers, that this review does not displace coverage of audio

products, even of any of those "overpriced and eminently for-

gettable loudspeakers."

-- JA

tions. It can include home "movies" shot with acamcorder, how-to instructional tapes, and workout tapes featuring lean, svelte, 45-yearold women who give the impression that any fat, sweaty blimp with thighs like bolsters can
look just like them with only amodicum of perseverance. But none of these is really what video in America is about. What it's really about is movies.
Although estimates vary slightly, industry experts generally agree that about 95% of
video viewing in the US is of commercial films, mostly of the Hollywood variety. And judging from many conversations with serious audiophiles, in and out of the business, Iwould also estimate that at least 50% of them watch movies from avideo screen, and many of those are as picky about picture quality as they are about sound. They are called videophiles. (Many of the highly respected designers of high-end audio products are closet videophiles.)
The most significant difference between the

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151

ordinary audiophile who buys arack system and the so-called high-end audiophile who buys the stuff we review in these pages is that the former has never even considered the possibility that reproduced music can sound similar to "the real thing." He doesn't notice the
difference between what he hears at aconcert and what he hears at home because it has never occurred to him to compare them. The same is true of most video viewers, including alot of our readers. This is why, after nitpicking their audio system for an hour, they can contentedly watch a"color" TV picture comprised
of an infinite palette of purples. But just show one of these people avideo display in which the picture actually resembles what he saw last
month in amovie theater, and you may well convert him to videophilia.
As ahobby, perfectionist video is exactly like high-end audio except that it involves different
program material and adifferent pair of sensory receptors. In video, the program is afilm, the reference standard is agood theatrical presentation of it, and the ultimate arbiter of quality is the eye rather than the ear. The two fields have another thing in common: They are openended. Because perfection is (probably) impossible, the pursuit of it can become alifelong quest. But the thing that makes perfectionist video particularly rewarding for those who have succumbed is that so much of it is so unbelievably bad. Technologically, video is much more primitive than audio was in 1957, before stereo.
American TV, in black and white, has been around since 1939, and the last significant improvement--color--happened in 1954. Since then, there has not been asingle quantitative improvement in the technology. Even qualitative improvements--what we call evolutionary advances--were virtually nonexistent until very recently. Receiver manufacturers assumed everyone was happy with the picture,
and concentrated on making color sets more idiot-proof. Now, after 35 years of stasis, designers are starting to look for ways of improving picture quality--sharpness, color fidelity, detail, freedom from visual noise-- and some consumers, sensing which way the wind is blowing, are starting to demand even more improvements.
If you are one of those people who feel that digital audio is frozen into mediocrity by inadequate 1980 standards for sampling rate and/or

bit availability, imagine what aset of equally immutable 1930s standards is doing to our nation's video. Its 6MHz bandwidth, originally felt to be quite adequate for acceptable picture detail, became the basis for today's broadcast-
TV channel allocations in the US, thus institutionalizing itself by virtue of today's hundreds of millions of receivers that would be made instantly obsolete by awider-band system. With truly high-definition TV (HDTV) on the horizon, and calling for 14MHz bandwidth, the Federal Communications Commission recently reaffirmed the old standard, telling the industry, in effect, that it can have its HDTV if it can find
away of getting the requisite 14MHz bandwidth into a6MHz bag.
That has not necessarily quashed all prospects of improving our present system, though. In fact, amajor force behind the recent flurry of activity in video has been agrowing realization on the part of consumers that the equipment hasn't even been approaching its own performance potential. (The fact that some
manufacturers are taking steps to remedy this is why some audiophiles are heard complaining that there's more going on in video these days than in audio.)
The product which has seen the most dramatic improvement in recent years is the monitor/receiver, basically just like the oldfashioned TV except that it also has anon -RF "video" input. (Earlier TV sets were like table radios; they could receive stations, but there were no inputs for local non-broadcast signal
sources.) All domestic VCRs and laserdisc players have two outputs: the RF, for feeding to aTV set's antenna terminals, and the Video, which permits bypassing the RF processing when feeding a"monitor." The direct video connection invariably yields abetter signal.
(Remember the audiophile's dictum: "Less circuitry is always better"? It applies to video, too.) Which brings us to Tera's monitor/receiver.
At atime when most 20" sets are priced at
around $600, Tera offers the 621C for acool $1250, which makes it the most expensive 20" consumer model on the market. Now that's high-end video! Or should be.
In keeping with the true spirit of the high end, the first sample of the 621C that Ireceived malfunctioned. The tuner was inoperative right out of the box. Or, rather, out of the trunk: the Tera people drove it out to Boulder after the Chicago CES, where (I was told) it had per-

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formed flawlessly. The second sample, delivered by afreight company, also appeared at first to have some problems. Low-band TV channels had aseries of diagonal white lines moving slowly through them, and one audio channel was dead--through all left-channel outputs including the headphones. The picture interference subsequently turned out to be the fault of an interconnect cable, although why the same cable did not cause interference with my cheap JVC receiver is still apuzzle. It was not because of the Tees's superior resolution, because the interference lines were still clearly visible with the Tees's sharpness control turned all the way down, while they were not visible at all on the JVC with its turned all the way up.
The set was checked out by aTees service center in Denver, which declared the audio to be okay. But when returned to me by the local rep, the left channel was still dead (or, perhaps, it was dead again, after having temporarily cured itself). Trouble-shooting in my home failed to turn up acause for the malfunction, but it suddenly cured itself and Iwas unable to get it to recur. At this point, Ican only guess it was the result of abad soldered connection, but it has not recurred since then.
This is hardly reason enough to suspect a reliability problem with Tees's sets, but at 65 lbs weight, taking asick 621C back to your friendly dealer is not as easy as returning the typical 30-pounder, and the high price you paid for it will only add insult to potential back injury. My suggestion: If you opt for aTees,
have the dealer check it out before you drive off with it. Or, better still, have him deliver it and set it up and make sure everything is in order before he leaves. For $1250, you can expect more dealer service than just loading abox into your trunk.
Besides the usual antenna (RF) inputs, the Tees also accepts up to 3sets of A/V inputs or (allegedly) an RGB source, although there is no mention anywhere of how to connect the latter. Line outputs at the rear include one audio
pair that are controlled by the Tees's volume control, and afixed-level pair. The fixed audio
outputs and Video 3inputs are duplicated on the front panel, so you can connect your VCR to the Tees without fumbling around behind it. And you can record from its tuner while watching a different program coming in through avideo input.
Although there is abuilt-in low-powered

amplifier, there are no built-in loudspeakers. Instead, apair of small outboarders clip on to the sides of the cabinet and connect to the main outputs via supplied wires. Stereo is minimal this way, and is only channel-balanced for the person sitting square-on to the set, but the wires are long enough that you can space the speakers wider if you have enough table space.
The remote control duplicates most of the front-panel functions and adds channel callout-by-number. It also has avery clever feature that, to my knowledge, is exclusive with Tees: two-way communications. Besides the usual infrared receiver, the monitor also has a two-channel infrared transmitter which broadcasts to the remote unit. With the (supplied)stereo headphones plugged into the remote unit, you can hear the audio coming from the monitor. The sound isn't tremendous (rather dull at the top), but at least it's clean, the low end is remarkably good, and viewers who don't have surround speakers will be surprised to find that headphone listening does apassable job of decoding-out the rear information. Unfortunately, that outstanding low end becomes aliability whenever you operate the remote, because it (apparently) responds to a bounceback signal from the face of the monitor and converts the control pulses into aseries of very loud thuds.
Ifound the action of the Tees's controls rather irritating in other ways. Most of the user adjustments--bass, treble, channel balance, brightness, detail, color, hue--are accessed sequentially by pressing aSelect button, but you can't reverse the sequence. If you happen to cycle past Detail, for example, you must continue to cycle forward until Detail comes around again. Iwas also continually annoyed by the fact that, when you select afunction, the legend showing what it is and where it is set often appears right near the center of the screen, obscuring what is going on until it automatically winks out, about 5seconds after you stop adjusting it. Why couldn't these appear at the top or bottom of the picture, as with some Sony sets? In addition, many change functions--Mute/Unmute, Channel Up/Down --cause the sound to mute (which is okay), and it takes more than asecond to come on again (not so okay). Icould get used to this, but it's abit of an irk.
Audio quality through the Tees's circuitry is respectable, but in comparison with the input

Stereophile, November 1989

153

signal it is perceptibly soft and somewhat warm, rather like agood but imperfect tube preamp. (The Fixed outputs have the same qualities, but less so.) Those who insist on the least compromised sound will elect to bypass the Tera's audio section entirely whenever they can. The small speakers supplied are adequate for reproducing speech, but not much more. They are not designed to handle heavy bass, which means it is inadvisable to use the bass tone control to flesh out their somewhat thin low end. (Even so, one of the Tera's speakers that Iused for awhile started rattling on certain lower-mid tones after afew hours.)
Iwas unable to do areliable assessment of the 621C tuner's separation, because Boulder's cable service never converted to stereo, and I don't (yet) have areally good antenna set up for local reception. On stereo broadcasts, though, separation seemed disappointingly poor, at an estimated 10dB or so. It must be said that most NrIs (multi-channel television sound) receivers have abysmally poor separation, in comparison with the 404-dB of most FM tuners, so the ltra is by no means unusual in that respect. But Iexpected better from aset with the Teas quality aspirations. (Interestingly, stereo separation is the only important item missing from Tera's otherwise detailed specification list.)
An unusual feature of the Tera is its switchable manual-fine-tuning. The set's AFT (automatic, etc.) works fine for most program sources, but there are times--as when an adjacent channel interferes with the one you're trying to get--when it is ahelp to be able to shift slightly to one side of dead-center tuning. There are also rare instances when asmall amount of color phase shift (which puts a greenish edge at the left of abright red) can be corrected by slightly fudging the fine tuning.
But what about the video quality, which is (presumably) what justifies the Tera's unusually high price? Certainly, its specs are impressive enough, and it has none of the automatic picture-adjust features which are supposed to make mass-consumer sets as idiot-proof as possible. (The worst of these are those awful "auto-tint" circuits that grab hold of anything vaguely resembling aflesh tone and make it a flesh tone, whether or not it is supposed to be flesh tone.) There's alot of sophisticated signal processing in the Tera, but all of it is dedicated to improving picture quality under a wide range of signal-input conditions. Here's

rundown of the Tera's image-processing features:
Double Differential Contour Compensation: Unlike velocity modulation, available in some other Tera monitors, which actually increases the on-screen resolution of small picture details, DDCC increases the apparent sharpness of the image without increasing the resolution of fine details. What it does is look for very abrupt changes in brightness level, which represent object outlines on the screen, and then increase the rate of these changes. The result is apicture that looks crisper than detail-resolution alone would allow it to.
Dynamic Aperture Compensation: Another means of increasing apparent detail without actually improving it, this extracts the video treble content and expands it (like an audio volume expander) downward, so its peaks remain at their original level while its troughs are closer toward black. The effect of DAC is more noticeable in high-detail areas than at the edges of large, uniformly shaded areas.
Black-Level Extension: In most monitors, black level--the point where all three electron guns cut off completely--tends to "float" up and down according to the brightness range of the picture. In brightly lit scenes with deep shadows, shadow areas are pushed 'way below the cutoff point, taking alot of detail with them. In night scenes, areas that should be black float up to amedium gray. You can correct for either condition with the contrast and brightness controls, but the correct setting for one scene will be completely wrong for the other. With good black-level retention, picture blacks are anchored to afixed reference point, so that brightness and contrast adjustments stay put regardless of picture content (except when mist or fog scenes demand an overall gray). TM claims (and appears to achieve) 95% BLR, which is very good.
The effect of this, among others, is that you can go from asunlit scene with deep black shadows to anight sky with stars, and have blacks appear black in both.
Video Nonlinear Compensation: Although avideo display is capable of reproducing afull range of brightness from white to dead black, various factors conspire to obscure many of the details that would otherwise be visible in dark (shadow) areas of the picture. Tera addresses this by expanding the dark end of the

154

Stereophile, November 1989

brightness scale so that grays darken to black much more slowly than they normally would. (To compensate, the upper brightness range is compressed accordingly.) The result is anonlinear gray scale--definitely aform of distortion, but unless you are accustomed to viewing in adarkened room, the effect is beneficial rather than otherwise, for you see awidened gamut of grays.
For the purist, who usually does watch in very subdued lighting, the result may be more shadow detail than he cares to see, often revealing special-effects artifacts which would have looked quite realistic with anormal darkgray scale.
Video Noise Reduction: This works by
taking advantage of the fact that very small changes in picture brightness due to signal detail information are much less visible than those due to extraneous noise Such very small changes in the video high frequencies are filtered out when the VNR is switched On. I found, however, that the softening effect on image detail was much worse than implied by the instructions, and that the Detail control could not begin to correct for it. Tera's VNR should be used only for intolerably bad program material, if at all. (I felt the Detail control did abetter job of controlling luminance noise)
Color Noise Reduction: This works in much the same way as the VNR, but because color information has amuch narrower bandwidth than the luminance (B&W) signal, a
modicum of additional color-detail loss is less detrimental to picture quality. This CNR works acceptably well, causing appreciable detail loss in areas of uniform color but virtually none at object outlines. On the other hand, it often
doesn't seem to "take hold" fast enough, with the result that picture noise persists in small areas to the immediate right of sharp brightness
transitions. (These areas of noise look like digital sparklies, but they aren't; Tera's CNR involves no digital processing.) Incidentally, switching the CNR on appears to shift the color information to the right, but this is an optical illusion--a result of the transition from sharplooking color noise to smeared-to-the-right color-without-noise However, the smear does not cause any color bleeding beyond object outlines.

aso-called color temperature of 6500° Kelvin, which is the color of light from the sun plus a clear blue sky. Tera has chosen, instead, a 9300K "white," which is very bluish by comparison. Their reason? "To offer apicture that would be very exciting to watch, ...very natural in color, and lifelike in color balance."
Now, Iwill be the first to admit that, with a good program source, picture color from the Tera is immensely impressive. In daylit and indoor scenes alike, the colors have avividness and saturation that reminds me of the best
Technicolor films Iever saw. But once you get past that, you soon realize that everything in the picture that is trying to be ashade of gray has, instead, taken on adistinctly bluish cast. You see it in distant fog, macadam road sur-
faces, flannel business suits, the hair of gray panthers, and overcast skies. And night scenes, which are often lit or filtered for aheavy blue cast to begin with, look as if they were filmed 20' below acoral reef. 2
Skin tones, too, are often aproblem, even in sunlight. Normally apale pink with afaint brownish tint, Caucasian skin becomes dis-
tinctly brownish with Tera's extra blue content, giving the impression that everyone is sporting ahealthy Malibu tan. (And this from acompany based in Massachusetts, where the usual complexion is awaxy pallor!)
Apart from the fact that Idislike seeing everything trying to turn blue, Iam irked at the implications of this. Ihave sought endlessly in these pages to try and preserve the idea that fidelity in sound reproduction means similarity to the sound of unamplified acoustical instruments, but have lived to see that reference lose its meaning because so few people ever hear live, unamplified instruments any more. (Today, "good sound" appears to be whatever turns you on.) But objective measurements are much better able to define visual colors than sound quality, and even by 1940s standards, the correct colorimetry of video is much more stringently defined by industry-wide standards than the accuracy of sound reproduction ever was. Certainly, any manufacturer has the right
to fudge those standards as he sees fit, in order to produce what he considers a"better" picture, but to claim in the same breath that it is

Colorimetry: Here we come to my only

strong reservation about the Tera. The industry standard for avideo-picture "white" specifies

2 11-ansparencirs illustrating the lbra's color balance 2re reproduced at the end of this month's "Industry Update"
column.

Stereophile, November 1989

155

also amore "natural and lifelike" picture is to miss the whole point of fidelity.
All professional monitors are set up for 6500K, and all film transfers to video are colorbalanced relative to this reference. The only way you can recover those hues is by duplicating the original reference "white"; any other white will degrade color fidelity. Period. Just as the serious audiophile wants to hear what arecording really sounds like, whether or not he happens to like that sound, the video perfectionist wants to see the color that's on his signal source, not someone else's idea of what looks "better" than the source. That's aguiding principle of the video newsletter I've been publishing for the last 10 months, and I'm promulgating it here because Ipassionately believe in it.
Many times in Stereophile, Ihave treated audio products with what may have been unjustified harshness, for no better reason than that Iwas pissed because they did almost everything perfectly and then bombed out through one silly but fatal flaw. That is how Ifeel about the Tera 621C. All minor cavils aside, this is a stunning performer, and it left me with the impression that its picture-quality potential exceeded in most respects anything Iwas able to feed to it. Resolution was good enough that Icould view letterboxed (widescreened) laserdiscs without feeling that any visual details were being lost because of the reduced picture height. In short, the picture looked so good that it ceased to be abarrier between me and the film Iwas watching. (Does that sound familiar? "The screen seems to disappear!") But while Ihate to discount all these positive attributes in writing my conclusion to this review, Isimply cannot bring myself to recommend the Tera for anyone who values color accuracy. Not with that arctic-cold screen setup.
Now, white balance in amonitor is not something immutable; it is the result of certain internal adjustments which can be readjusted if you know what you're doing. Ido, and Iplan to try readjusting the Tera for a"warmer" white when Iget afew spare hours, just to see what happens.
Postscript:
Iwas dismayed to find that the lbra's color balance was not as readily correctible as Ihad expected. It was easy enough to obtain amore neutral setup while maintaining the same color

temperature throughout the entire brightness range, but it appears that Tera modified their blue color circuitry to compensate for the bluish B&W setup. When the amount of static blue was cut back, there was slightly inadequate blue saturation in some colored areas. In mid-level hues containing all three colors -- mostly, shades of brown--there was atendency for the browns to shift slightly toward orange. Walnut looked abit like new mahogany, and Caucasian flesh tones were abit more orangey than they should have been. These effects were slight, though, and--in my opinion at least--were much less distressing than the persistent blue cast of the original screen setup.
Ihad mentioned an inoperative left audio
channel, which mysteriously corrected itself before Iwrote my report. Afterwards, it went out again, and did not return. Istill suspect a
bad soldered joint, but will probably never know.
After writing the original report, Itried using adifferent Laserdisc player--a Pioneer PR8210--with the Tera, and saw something I don't believe Ihave encountered before. On sharp brightness transitions--white lettering against ablack background, for example-- those areas of the picture were riddled with intermittent, short black streaks. None of the controls could remove these, and it didn't matter whether Iused the set's RF or video input. With the same player, the red and magenta bars
on the standard color test pattern were afflicted with what reminded me of fat little maggots -- small, segmented, gray "objects" like elongated footballs, of which some continuously appeared and disappeared while others stayed put. Inever saw the maggots on program material, but the black flecks were often visible in B&W areas (like piano keys) as well as in bright, fully saturated reds.
Athird LV player, an LD-660, did neither of these things, so Ihesitate to blame the Tera for them. But I'm not convinced it wasn't con-
tributing to the problem, because the 8210 has never displayed those oddities from any other set, and it has been used on five.
All in all, Ihave some reservations about the Tera 621C.

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A VIDEO STANDARD

J. Gordon Holt watches Reference Recordings' new test disc

Laserdisc LD-101 (one side, CAV) containing video tests and demos. Produced and directed by
Joe Kane. Price: $59.99. Approximate number of dealers: 400. Manufacturer: Reference Recordings, PO. Box 77225-X, San Francisco, CA 94107, Tel: (415) 355-1892.

Even though the VCR has dominated the home

video scene from its outset, the reference stan-

dard for image and sound quality has always been the LaserVision video disc. Nonetheless, it's taken an absurdly long time for someone

AVIDEO STANDARD

to realize that the LV's quality is good enough

to serve as asource of test and alignment sig-

nals for critical monitor setup. (Whether all

laserdisc players are equally suitable is another

matter, which Iwon't get into now.) Lots of

video people have been talking up the idea of

an LV like this for years, so it's ironic that the

company that finally took the plunge turned

out to be not a video manufacturer, but a

perfectionist-audio record manufacturer.

Actually, Reference Recordings had little to

do with the production of this. Mainly, they provided the funding because they felt it was

Reference Recordings' A Video Standard

an idea whose time had come and they were impressed by producer/director Joe Kane's credentials. The result, however, is rather a mixed bag.
Recorded at LV's constant-angular-velocity mode, which allows for flawless stop-framing and frame-by-frame stepthroughs of lengthy sequences, A Video Standard combines motion-picture footage with still-step se-
quences of charts, diagrams, aphoto slide presentation of LV manufacture, and most of the
television industry standard test patterns used by professional video engineers for setting up their monitors. The test patterns, most of which were hitherto unavailable except from very costly test instruments, are agoldmine for the video perfectionist. And an extended group of audio pink-noise signals are extremely useful for assessing frequency response and setting channel balances in surround-sound systems. There are also comparisons between filmed sections that were transferred to video from film positives and film negatives, which
make their point (in favor of the negative chain as avideo source) as no amount of verbiage could. Nothing like this has ever before been available to the consumer, and for that, if for nothing else, we must be enormously grateful

to Mr. Kane and Reference Recordings. But when Isaid this is amixed bag, what Iwas referring to was its production, which is at times embarrassingly inept.
First, there's the humor. An opening cartoon sequence, and astudio-production bit with a painfully ersatz "Continental" accent, is toecurlingly sophomoric Then there is the video quality. Aso-called widescreen film sequence (of asmall-plane flight through what might be the Grand Canyon), done with twin cameras,
has avisible center boundary that is more conspicuous than the screen junctions in the original Cinerama. Most of the film clips showing people are slightly phase-shifted toward magenta. None of the film transfers were digitally mastered (a relatively recent breakthrough in LV sharpness), there are no Surround-Sound signals that might test adecoder's
logic action, many of the still-frame diagrams have text that is completely illegible even with
the best NTSC equipment, anumber of the monitor tests are duplicated several times during the disc (for no apparent reason), there are no encoded stop flags (which would have prevented ending film sequences from sailing
right through the ensuing still-frame segments), the instruction booklet seems to have

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no logical organization and lacks acentral index to the contents, many of the tests and adjustment procedures are not explained well
enough for the novice to use, the music (from the libraries of RR and Hearts of Space) is hope-
lessly inappropriate to the images it accompanies, and--perhaps most seriously--there is asmall but potentially serious error in one of the screen tests. The centering/overscan cross-
hatch pattern is shifted about 2% to the left. (All the other patterns are dead-on.)
In short, there are alot of minor things about A Video Standard that one can complain about, so its release should in no way deter any-
one who was planning to do something like
this but may now feel discouraged because they won't be the first. For example, welcome
additions to what's on AVS might include some state-of-the-art film transfer segments and, for comparison, some high-quality video-original footage (with an explanation of why freezeframing amoving object on the latter always causes jitter), some enclosed printed materials

for referencing aneutral gray and the video primary and secondary colors, some tests for color-signal resolution, three low-level primary-color lines for setting screen cutoffs, and some sections with surround-sound ambience from all channels and directional information from each of seven directions, to ascertain the effects (if any) of the logic on the overall stereo spread. Oh, and one other thing: adequate and adequately organized instructions.
Now that I've torn AVS to pieces, could Ipossibly recommend it to any serious videophile?
Absolutely, positively, and emphatically. If you don't already own $100,000 worth of professional test equipment, this is adisc you must buy, even if it means also having to spend 10 times as much again for alaserdisc player to use it on.
A Video Standard, according to Reference Recordings, is available from "all video stores."
Fat chance! If yours gives you the predictable blank look when you ask for it, write or phone Reference Recordings for details.

SHURE HOME THEATER REFERENCE SYSTEM
Bill Sommerwerck
Five-speaker, one-subwoofer, three-amplifier, surround-sound-decoder system for playback of conventional and encoded recordings. HTS 5300 decoder specs appear in review in Vol.12 No.8 (p.150). Price: S999.
HTS-50SPA amplifier: Frequency response (Flat mode): 20Hz-20kHz, +0.5dB. Power output: 100W minimum per channel into 8ohms at <0.1% THD. Input impedance: 100k ohms. Input sensitivity (full power, Flat mode): 1V Dynamic range (defined as noise level to clipping): >100dB, 300Hz-20kHz. Minimum load impedance: 4ohms. Dimensions: 4" (102mm) by 16 743" (429mm) by 14" (356mm). Weight: 27 lbs (12.3 kg). Price: S1125.
HTS-50LRS speaker: two-way closed-box design. Cabinet: 1" particle board with walnut veneer. Drive-units: 1" soft-dome tweeter, 6.5" polypropylene-cone woofer. Crossover: 4th-order passive. Frequency response: 80Hz-18kHz (LRS mode); 60Hz-18kHz (LRSx mode). Power handling: 200W peak. Nominal impedance: 5.6 ohms. Sensitivity: 85dB SPL at 1m on-axis, 2.83V pink noise.
Fuse: 3amp fast-blow (tweeter). Dimensions: 343mm by 254mm by 219mm (10" by 13.5" by 85A3").
Weight: 14kg (24.2 lbs). Price: S500 each.
HTS-50CF speaker: two-way closed-box design. Cabinet: 1" particle board with walnut veneer. Drive-units: 1" soft-dome tweeter, two 6.5" polypropylene-cone woofers. Crossover: 4th-order passive. Frequency response: 80Hz-18kHz (CF mode); 55Hz-18kHz (CFx mode). Power handling: 200W peak. Nominal impedance: 5.6 ohms. Sensitivity: 88dB SPL at 1m on-axis, 2.83V pink noise. Fuse: 3amp fast-blow (tweeter). Dimensions: 508mm by 343mm by 219mm (20" by 13.5" by 85/8"). Weight: 16.8 kg (37 lbs). Price: $750 each.
HTS-50SW subwoofer: 4th-order vented box with 12" paper-cone drive-unit. Frequency response:

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Stereophile, November 1989

Shure HTS surround-sound system
35-80Hz (SW mode). Sensitivity: 91dB SPL at 1m on-axis, 2.83V pink noise. Power handling: 200W peak. Impedance: 8ohms. Fuse: 10 amp fast-blow. Dimensions: 18" (457mm) by 23" (584mm) by 14" (356mm). Weight: 65 lbs (29.5kg). Price: $625.
System price: $7749. Approximate number of dealers: 150. Manufacturer: Shure HTS, 222 Hartrey Avenue, Evanston, IL 60202-3696. Tel: (312) 866-2608.

The Shure HTS Home Theater Reference System consists of five speakers, asubwoofer, and all the electronics needed for surround-sound reproduction. (Except for apreamp; but preamps are so declassé.) Although each compo-
nent can be purchased separately, Shure's recommended system contains the following items: four 50LRS speakers ($500 each); one 50CF speaker ($750); one 50SW subwoofer ($625); three 50SPA signal-processing amplifiers ($1125 each); and one 5300 Dolby MP decoder ($999). The combination totals ahefty
$7749. Neither apartridge nor apear tree is supplied, though acooperative dealer might be pressed into providing them.
Moving in the direction of electron flow, the
first component is the 5300 decoder. You can read areview of it in the August issue of Stereo/Mile. Though others may disagree, the 5300
is the best-sounding surround decoder Ihave heard (regardless of system), and is unconditionally recommended.
The 50SPA amplifiers are remarkably compact and light for their power rating. Shure

selected apremium-grade toroidal transformer and high-efficiency heatsinlcs to keep the amplifier down to amanageable size and weight. (Shure assumes the amps will be stacked, possibly on less-than-industrial-strength shelves.) Rated at 100Wpc into 8ohms, Shure says most samples put out 120W.1
Each channel has its own level control for system balance (if you're not using matched speakers). The Shure subwoofer is designed to be 6dB more sensitive than the LRS speakers, so you may need to turn down the subwoofer channel slightly. (This added output is intended
to compensate for abass-shy room without having to turn down the other channels.)

IThis review was written before Stereopbile acquired acom-

plete two-channel Audi() Precision test set-up. We shall have

to take Shure's remark on trust, therefore, though Ishould point

out that, in my opinion, an amplifier's rated power into 8ohms

means zip. Considerably more informative is the wav in which

the amplifier's output voltage changes into different loads. how

close it gets to doubling as the load halves from 8to -Iohms.

A 100W amplifier that delivers 100W into 8ohms and 120W

into 4()tuns, for eicunple, is one that is severely current-limited

and will not drive real- world speakers to very high Inels when

compared with an amplifier that puts out the same 100W into

8ohms but manages 190W into 4.

--JA

Stereophile, November 1989

159

There is also aselector switch to set the frequency contour appropriate for each Shure HTS speaker. The first position, marked "Flat," is for use with non-Shure speakers. The "CF" and "LRS" settings are for the like-named speakers when the subwoofer is used. The "CFx" and "LRSx" settings supply some compensating bass boost when the subwoofer is absent (though they cannot fully compensate, of course). Asixth "SW" position on the left channel adds low-pass filtering for the subwoofer.
The corresponding sixth position on the right channel is marked "Bridged." It converts the amplifier into asingle-channel amp of much higher power, but the minimum load impedance that can be driven is doubled; le, speakers dropping below 8ohms will not then be suitable. Shure supplies metal covers to be placed over the speaker terminals of abridged amp. M with any high-power bridged amp, the 50SPA's voltage could electrocute someone who comes into contact with the outputs during aloud, sustained passage. The odds of this happening, of course, are very low. 2
The volume and contour knobs are nearly flush with the front panel and have rounded edges, making them difficult (but not impossible) to turn with the fingers. Awide slot in the knob accepts alarge coin for easy turning. The idea of this lack of ergonomic ease is to keep the kids from messing up the settings. Each amplifier comes with abag of six plastic inserts to label each channel of the amplifier, plus a seventh marked "Bridged." You just snap the appropriate label into the groove next to the matching level control.
Each channel has two LED indicators. A green LED shows when the input signal-- following the level control--exceeds some undefined level. (The flickering of these LEDs can be irritating, though Idon't think they'll induce un grand mal.) A red LED comes on when the amplifier clips or the protective circuit is activated.
The outputs are not fused. When the amplifier is overdriven, it reduces its gain to keep its output below the clipping region. (This is not new; Crown used something like it eight years ago.) Each channel has afront-panel switch to disable this feature.
2Loral readers may remember amurder-mystery parody we published about eight years ago, in which the victim was electrocuted with avacuum-tube amplifier.

The amplifiers run cool--perhaps abit too cool for those who feel an amplifier should be heavily biased. Even astack of three gets barely warm to the touch after several hours' operation. Of course, the 50SPA is supposed to be an "install and forget" product, so acool-running design is appropriate.
The amplifiers' (and decoder's) cosmetics are distinctive. The upper section of the front panel is "pleated," with avaguely 1/n spacing. The orange-on-black coloring is initially offputting, but one grows used to it. It is at least legible, something you can't say about the alltoo-common grey -on- black lettering.
The speaker systems are hefty little buggers. Their cabinets are I" particle board, rather than the common y4". This difference is most noticeable when you rap the sides. The response is adull click, rather than the slightly resonant thud of most other systems.
The 50LRS systems (intended for left and right positions in both the front and rear) are two-way speakers. The woofer is a6.5" polypropylene-cone driver. The tweeter is amodified 1" soft-dome driver. Only the tweeter is fused, on the reasonable assumption that modern mid and bass drivers can handle alot of power before giving up.
The tweeter modification deserves some explanation. The designer felt that too many tweeters use their breakup resonance to extend their bandwidth, and consequently sound unnaturally bright. Desiring aresonance-free response, he coated the inside of the dome with adhesive to damp it. This lowered the amplitude of the most prominent resonances, but caused the tweeter to roll off prematurely: the rolloff was allowed to remain without any compensation.
Hmm. If you're really ancient (like most of the Stereopbile staff), you'll remember the heyday of KLH. KLH claimed for its speakers the optimum "octave-to-octave balance." This was their euphemistic way of saying the speakers weren't exactly fiat, but contoured to account for the high-frequency distortion in most program material, and listeners' irritation with said distortion. In other words, KLH speakers were rounded-off abit at the top to make less-thanideal program material listenable. Whether phonograph records of that era were that bad is debatable; we tend to view the high point of phonograph history through the

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rose-colored glasses of direct-disc and superanalog recording, forgetting just how mediocre the average LP was. Still, it's not good business to sell aproduct that most listeners won't enjoy with most program material.
It's probably fair to say that the superior quality of direct-disc and super-analog recordings, along with vastly improved electronics (both tube and solid-state), encouraged speaker designers to create systems that were really flat in the midrange and treble. The level controls that once were commonplace began to disappear around the same time; why let the customer screw up what you worked so hard to achieve?
The Shure Home Theater Reference System appears to signify areturn to the KLH school of thought. Damping the tweeter for smoother response produces arolled-off top end, and this slope was allowed to remain (though it could have been equalized in the amplifier), for several reasons:
1) It's more like the standard Academy curve, so movies sound more as they would in a theater.
2) Many soundtracks are too bright and toppish.
3) Most listeners fail to acoustically treat their listening rooms, which are therefore almost always too bright.
Was this awise decision? Idon't think so. The Shure HTS system is badly lacking in detail and air, partly due to the rolled-off top. Further, if alistener buys nearly $8000 worth of equipment for his A/V room and then refuses to spend afew hundred dollars for acoustical treatment, he's foolish. It's obvious that a rolled-off speaker in alive room can never sound as good as aflat speaker in aneutral-todead environment. Shure HTS should have added the needed EQ in the amplifier, plus a high-frequency contour control 3to adjust the top end to the room, program material, or taste
There is the broader question, of course, of whether the lack of midrange and treble controls on speakers is agood thing. Ithink it is. It removes failure-prone components that do nothing to improve the speaker's sound, and it guarantees that the system balance will remain as the designer intended. It also forces the serious listener to optimize the speaker's setup and the room's acoustics. Unfortunately,
3-Contour control" sounds so much less disturbing than
"tone control; ·does it not?

the near-total disappearance of tone controls from preamps removes the last avenue of correction available for overly bright recordings. (Lewis Lipnick griped about this very point in
his review of the B&W 801 Matrix Series II in Vol.10 No 9.4)
In my opinion, any good hi-fl system should have an audiophile-grade equalizer (assuming such things exist) to permit minor corrections to less-than-perfect material. There is nothing aesthetically perverted about this; why suffer abad recording when abit of EQ will fix things? 5And what, may Iask, is the difference between correcting abright or dull recording at the speaker, and doing it at the preamp?6The latter is more convenient and flexible.
In short, aloudspeaker should be designed to deliver flat response in aneutral room. It is then the listener's responsibility to provide a room with balanced acoustics and to position the speakers at the best spot in that room. 7If the manufacturer feels that contour controls on the speaker are desirable, switches are abetter choice than pots. (Previous Infinity speakers, and several current Apogee models, have electronic crossovers that include frequency contouring.)
Shure HTS's 50CF speaker is intended for the center-front (dialog) channel. It uses two of the SOULS woofers to handle the additional power required by loud dialog. Of course, you can mix 'n' match the LRS and CF systems in whatever combination suits your needs.
The 50SW subwoofer uses apaper cone with arubber surround. Loading is bass-reflex with aducted port. There is no crossover, either passive or active; the 50SW is to be driven by the suitably shaped signal provided by the 5300's subwoofer output. The claimed response is 33-80Hz when used with the 50SPA amplifier.
Although not of mini-monitor size, the Shure HTS speakers are designed to be as unobtrusively small as possible while providing ade-
One of the marvelous things about the SOI 's tweeter is the way atreble control can tame 2 hot top end, without the SOI losing any musical detail. Try Mat on alesser speaker!
5Irarely touch the tone controls--maybe one recording in 20. But Iappreciate having them when Ineed them, most recently with the London reissue of the Mehta ltdrandrd.
6The answer is that the elitist-snob audiophile can't do any. thing about the level control, which is part of the speaker, but he can refuse to install an equalizer.
7If Apogee, B&W, Fried, Infinity, and others go to the trouble of designing high-performance speakers, then tee should mipend the efft et to place than in a high-performance minimmerit. If you don't agree, buy Bose 90Is, 'cuz yer just brainless scum what don't deserve to own nice things. sed I. So there.

Stereophile, November 1989

161

quate sensitivity and high power-handling capability. All were well-shielded. Iwas able to place the 50CF on top of my NAD MR20A without inducing color impurity.
All this stuff takes up "mass quantities" of space; my living room went from "impossibly cluttered" to "impossibly cluttered squared." There are even two separate boxes for the speaker grilles, for atotal of 12 cartons.
The instruction book is comprehensive, with lots of detailed drawings showing avariety of hookups. (Except for some RCA cables in the decoder box, no wiring is supplied.) Even without the book, though, assembly is asnap. Everything goes exactly where you think it should. The only possible confusion is where to set the equalizer knobs on the power amps. Once you see that the subscript refers to "extended" equalization without the woofer, it all makes sense.
Sound quality
"Out of the box," Ihad some amplifier problems. (What else is new?) The first amplifier fried its power-supply fuse when Iturned it on. The second also destroyed its fuse and tripped my apartment's circuit breaker. Only the third amp's fuse survived turn-on.
Yikes! Icalled Shure HIS. It seems that the toroidal transformer's primary resistance is so low, the amplifier draws over 100 amperes at turn-on!
Shure says this current pulse lasts only amillisecond or so, but I'm doubtful. It's probably 0.05 to 0.10 seconds; one millisecond seems too short to blow afuse and trip abreaker. Idiscovered that if Iturned on the second or third amplifier too soon after the first, the breaker almost always tripped. 8Irecommend waiting about 15 seconds; use the time to select your program material.
The fuses blew because they didn't meet spec; their rating was correct, but many samples had too short atime constant. Shure has switched to amore reliable fuse; it looks like it came out of an arc welder! Shure sent amps with the new fuses and none of them have popped (though my circuit breakers still cringe when Iturn on the amps).
As faithful readers may know, my listening room is heavily padded with 2" type 705
8MOM circuit breakers are thermal. lithe breaker 'trIlu arm from the first current pulse, the second pulse--even though not an overload--may heat the breaker to its tripping point.

Owens-Corning fiberglass panels. My B&W 801 Matrix loudspeakers (designed for flat on-axis response and wide dispersion) sound great; the balance is perfect. Although the Shure systems are rolled off partly to compensate for bright rooms, Idid not remove the fiberglass panels. Loudspeakers that are slightly rolled-off at the top (as are many electrostatics) can still sound superb. Flat response is highly desirable, but it is not the only factor determining aspeaker's sound quality.
To get the suspense out of the way: the Shure Home Theatre Reference System, despite its high price tag and claims to "high resolution," 8 is not avery good product. Unfortunately, it is easier to describe what is wrong with the system than what is right. I'll begin by discussing its sound quality in general terms, then cover how it sounds with specific recordings.
The first thing one notices is the overall darkness and lack of air and detail. (This is not due just to the treble rolloff, as we will see in a moment.) There is atouch of boxiness as well (which may be asubjective artifact of the rolloff). This coloration seems to disappear after aminute or two of listening.
Although the midrange driver is (supposedly) polypropylene, it sounds more like Bextrene. Vocal and instrumental timbres are far too liquidly dark. They lack the vibrant detail and distinctive character of live sound.
Simply put, the midrange is highly colored. Not in the sense that there are audible response aberrations, but that timbre is altered to the soft and sweet, losing the bite and character of live sound. The Shure midrange lacks the subjective flatness and lack of coloration of the 801s (and alot of other speakers). (See the sidebar, "Lumpy. ..?".)
There is no grit or grain, but voices are decidedly hard, taking on amildly metallic edge. This combination of hardness and dullness produces the illusion of a"swaybacked" response, in which the strength of musical fundamentals seems diminished. (The hardness is in the speaker, not the amplifier, as explained later.)
Shure claims good power-handling capability and the ability to play at high volumes without strain. Not so; the sound becomes congested at high volume levels. The Shure HTS
9The boxes are labeled "High Resolution Products for the Home Theater:* Iasked Shure if this were advertising hype or if they really meant it. Shure said they meant it, and that I should review the products accordingly.

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Stereophile, November 1989

system simply cannot match the 801's ability to play loudly and delicately at the same time.
On the positive side, there is good midrange presence; dialog is far more intelligible than it is on the 801. Unfortunately, the lack of detail largely mitigates this advantage.
Let's consider some specific recordings, both audio and video:
Beetlejuice (Warner Bros. LaserDisc): Danny Elfman's music is one of the most enjoyable scores I've heard in years. The main title, with drums and heavy scoring, is arough test for any speaker. The Shure HTRS simply could not

handle the loudest passages, especially when surround material was simultaneously present, without sounding confused and congested. In scenes with both dialog and music, the HTRS had trouble revealing musical detail. The "fine structure" of the sound was muffled and covered over.
The Wizard of Oz (Criterion LaserDisc): This digital recording clearly revealed the hardness the HTRS adds to voices; music, too, sounded hard and strained. The HTRS was particularly cruel at exposing the splices, background noise, and pops of the soundtrack, despite the

"LUMPY".. .WASN'T HE A CHARACTER ON LEAVE IT 70 BEAVER?

Ioccasionally use the term "lumpy" to describe the sound of components which, though not having any obvious frequencyresponse aberrations, nevertheless sound less than flat. Perhaps aparagraph or two of explanation would be agood idea.
Have you ever looked closely at aloudspeaker's frequency-response curve? Though agood speaker may have asmooth response, free of significant peaks or dins, the response is never ruler- flat. There are always dozens of small holes and bumps. Some are caused by diffraction or interference. The rest are due to resonances, either in the cabinet or the driver.
More than any other factor, resonances are the reason speakers sound like speakers, and not like alive performance. Each resonance stores energy, then releases it afraction of asecond later, blurring and coloring the sound. Electrostatic and ribbon speakers tend to sound better than conventional speakers in part because their mass is lower than the air load they drive; the resultant heavy damping suppresses resonances. Polypropylene and other highperformance plastics can improve the

with CDs. Open-reel analog tapes (such as those from Barclay-Crocker and DTR) have asimilar advantage; they sound great even on acheap open-reel deck.
If aspeaker system were truly flat--that is, almost completely free of resonances-- you wouldn't believe how lifelike it would sound. The superior quality of the WAMM, despite the fact that it contains no exotic drivers, is largely due to David Wilson's use of adriver over only two octaves or so of its range, limiting it to the region of minimal resonances.
Two speaker systems with comparably fiat response can nevertheless sound quite different, due to the drivers' residual resonances. The more-resonant system tends toward asmoother, more liquid sound, but with less detail and aloss of the characteristic color and bite of each instrument. They simply sound more "colored," but in ways that are not obviously related to their measured response. It is this sort of thing I'm referring to when Isay aproduct sounds "lumpy." It's aconvenient catchall for a (literal) multitude of sonic aberrations.

sound of conventional drivers precisely because these materials have high internal losses, with asimilar effect on resonances.'
Mechanical resonances also wreak havoc in turntables and tonearms. A $300 CD player runs sonic circles around a$300 turntable/arm/pickup system, not because it's digital, but because it's free of the mechanical resonances that plague phono reproduction. You have to hit about the $1500 price point before LPs can compete

I*M CWe Robert Fulton is quoted as

he never heard

a plastic driver that reproduced instrumental timbre

accurately. Although this is true in an absolute serve (noth-

ing is perfect), plastic drivers are generally superior to

paper drivers, and for reasons that are well-understood.

Robert Fulton not only engineered some of the most

natural-sounding audiophile recordings ever to grace a

turntable. hut also some of the most egregiously colored

high-end speaker systems ever to disgrace ahill show-

mom. Ihas-enever understood this dichotomy. Although

Fulton was akind, good-hearted man who did much to

advance the cause of high-end audio, he also generated

more than his share of muddle-headed theories. It is pre-

cisely because someone's death lends acachet of truth

to their philosophy that lam obliged to attack some of

Robert Fulton's opinions. There is nothing personal in this

Stereophile, November 1989

163

treble rolloff. This indicates the presence of many small resonances which exaggerate noise. (It has long been known that noise is less audible on systems with wideband, truly flat response.)
Beethoven Eroica; Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra: This simply miked, natural-sounding recording was not well-served by the HTRS. The top lacked delicacy and airiness. There was atrace of boxiness and afaint honkiness. Transparency was low. If the sound had acolor, it would be brown. (The 801s are subjectively white or acool white.) The nasal quality of the period violins was somewhat lost. The bass was not muddy, but neither was it especially articulate.
On the positive side reproduction of this CD was subjectively clean, effortless, and solid. The balance was neither clinical nor warm. (Most speakers lean one way or the other.)
Mussorgsky-Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition; Muti, Philadelphia Orchestra: This recording makes astrong case for the analog mastering of CDs. It is an idealized view of the orchestra that does not sound artificial. The sound is immediate and highly realistic. Unfortunately, the HTRS lost most of the realism. Iwas all too aware that Iwas listening to arecording, not the real thing. Bass was full but not well-defined.
Perlman, Mehta, NYPO; Romantic Masterworks for Violin: This is one of those tipped-up DG recordings that came across pretty well on the HTRS, the added high-frequency energy partially compensating for the HTRS's rolledoff top. The overall sound was rich and dark, idyllically clean and sweet. Some listeners would find this the kind of idealized reproduction they are looking for, but detail was lacking, and the net effect was not especially realistic or involving.
Paganini; 24 Caprices; Perlman: Sometimes abad recording tells more about aspeaker than agood one. The analog master for this CD was never the kind of recording you'd hold up as an example of the "superiority" of analog. "Dark" and "grundgy" are the most polite adjectives 1can think of. The 801s at least don't make the sound any worse. Unfortunately, the HTRS had exactly the right colorations to render Mr. Penman's otherwise exemplary performances aquasi-excruciating listening experience.
Iran one of my own digital master tapes past the HTRS, arecording of choir, organ, and brass. The sound was dark and lacking detail,

with an acute loss of ambience. Room sound (what Icall "air hiss") was nevertheless more prominent than with the 801s. The voices-- mostly female--were hard and sibilant. Hand claps were likewise unpleasantly hard and metallic. Vocal timbres were homogenized, with the texture and character of each voice reduced to aliquid blandness. The overall sound was smooth and sweet in away that some listeners would call "musical" -- but it certainly wasn't accurate.
Ihave reviewed several fine speakers over the past few years. Although none matched the quality of my Acoustat Sixes or B&W 801s, they were all satisfying to the extent that throughout the review period, Inever had the urge to go back to my regular speakers. But the Shure system never sounded particularly realistic or even musically gratifying. There were afew recordings where Ibriefly found the dark, overly liquid midrange appealing for abrief time, but I was most often aware of the high coloration level and the occasional hardness. The moment Iturned on the HTRS, Iwanted to get back to the B&Ws as soon as possible.
Is this afair reaction? After all, the 801s are among the best speakers made Is it fair to judge the Shure HTRS against them? Are my expectations unjustified?
No, Idon't think so. I've reviewed dynamic speakers that could hold their own against electrostatics. Aspeaker doesn't have to be stateof-the-art to have low coloration, low distortion, and produce musically appealing sound.
From areviewer's perspective, one of the nice things about speakers is the fact that even the best of them are so wildly inaccurate (except, maybe, the Plasmatronics helium tweeter) that one can be reasonably certain that all (or most of!) the defects one thinks one hears are really there. So Ifelt very comfortable that my evaluation of the Shure system--far too much coloration and lack of detail (especially during complex passages) for asystem in this price ranger as well as an unacceptable amount of added hardness--was dead-on.
Comparisons
Nonetheless, Idecided to find ahigh-quality "budget" speaker for comparison. You may remember from the 1987 SCES report that Tom
10 Which, 1ought to point out, is S1000/pair for the LRS systems. The high total cost is due to the duplication required for surround sound.

164

Stereophile, November 1989

Norton and I were impressed with the 8325/pair Fried Betas. Icalled Bud Fried and he was kind enough to loan apair.
The Betas were not initially prepossessing.
Tonal balance was thin, even to the point of sounding "pinched." Unfortunately, Icould not
push the Betas against the wall and still test them properly. (Even if the Betas weren't ported at the rear, pushing them--or any other speaker--near the wall introduces midrange colorations.)
Iswitched on the Shure HTS woofer, and
that fixed things. No contest. The Frieds blew the Shure HTRS speakers right out of the water.
Istarted off with Beetlejuice. The top end now had the kind of openness and clarity one would expect from agood speaker. Considerably more detail was audible, especially during the loud passages where the Shure system gets rather congested and constricted. The Betas negotiated these passages with considerably more finesse.
Dialog had just as much presence as with the Shure, and you could hear all the musical detail easily. The Beta's balance for movies struck me as "just right."
The Frieds do have atouch of boxiness, as Inoted in my show report, but it's the sort of coloration (like the Shure's faint nasality) that one ignores after aminute or two of listening.

Itried the same choir, organ, and brass master tape I'd run past the Shure system. Again, no contest. The Betas revealed far more detail and more ambience, and more accurately preserved the timbres of voices and instruments. Although the Betas were no match for the 801s, they are much closer in sound to the 801s than they are to the HTRS.
Ilistened to the Betas with the 50SPA amplifiers set to "Flat." None of the colorations or hardness audible with the Shure speakers were apparent. Hence, the Shure amps are not the source of these subjective problems.
Icould go on, but this is not aFried review. The point is that apair of 50LRS speakers and the 50SW subwoofer cost $1625, while apair of Betas and the matching Fried subwoofer cost $655. The Frieds (which in my opinion are Class D, or even lower-Class-C speakers) are so much better-sounding, it isn't funny--and the price difference would buy 2 nice power amp.
Conclusion
The only conclusion Ican draw is that one can buy abetter amplifier/speaker system than the Shure HTRS for alot less money--or amuch better system for the same money. Although I still happily recommend the HTS 5300 surround-sound decoder, Icannot recommend the Shure HTS Reference System.

FOLLOW UP

Thiel CS1.2 loudspeaker
You will probably remember from October's "Recommended Components" that there was disagreement in Stereophile's ranks over the merits of the smallest in Thiel's range of three loudspeakers, the CS1.2. Larry Archibald had been mightily impressed with the sound of this $1090/pair floorstanding speaker last January,' feeling that it "images extremely well, has a more extended ...and more natural high end [than the similarly priced Spica Angelus]. .. plays reasonably loud easily, has satisfying lowend extension, and possesses avery neutral tonal balance with no significant aberrations." Yet in June's Audio Anarchist column, 2 although he liked the speaker's lack of tizz in the
IVol.12 No.1, pp.II3- 119. 2Vol.12 No.6, pp.77-79.

treble and its neutral tonal balance, Sam Tellig grew increasingly dissatisfied with the CS1.2, feeling that while its bass did not boom, it failed to "put afirm foundation under the music. .. The sound was thin, bass-starved." In addition,
ST felt that the imaging stayed localized within the speakers rather than allowing the soundstage to float unbound by physical constraints.
Puzzled by this conflict, we asked Sam to
send his pair of CS! .2s to Santa Fe so we could compare them with the original review pair under familiar circumstances. Before listening to each pair, Iran aseries of measurements on all four speakers to see if there was any obvious reason for the conflict of opinion: Fig.1 shows the spatially averaged in-room response
of Larry's pair, acurve that correlates quite well with the subjective tonal balance. Though a slightly overdamped alignment leads to the

Stereophile, November 1989

165

response starting to roll off below 80Hz, it still

1 1I11111 1 tIiIIII iI

111t1,1 1 1 I1

features useful bass output down to 42Hz, the Sill

frequency of the bottom Estring of the dou-

ble bass and bass guitar. While the '1.2 does not

compete with the Waveform or Infinity IRS -2848 Beta for seismic shock capability, and has per-

haps half an octave less extension than the simi- -38d8

larly priced Vandersteen 2Ci, it still has reasonable low-frequency performance for what is

r

basically asmall loudspeaker, in my opinion.

leek

1141:

181d1:

Fig.2 shows the frequency response of the four samples measured out of doors at 1m on

Fig.1 Thiel CS1.2, 1/3-octave, spatially averaged, in-room response

the tweeter axis, using pink noise and an Audio Control Industrial SA-3050A /3-octave spec-

I 11111111 I I111111i

trum analyzer. Each speaker sat on a36" stand.

From top to bottom, the traces represent serial

numbers 2010 and 2009 (ST's pair), and 0624

and 0623 (Us pair). Certainly small differences

can be seen within the 1dB resolution of the

analyzer, Sam's pair appearing to have aslightly

smoother response through the treble. But in

t 11till

the bass, all four speakers are to all intents and

liii

111811:

purposes identical, though the slightly overdamped alignment is confirmed. (As shown in

Fig.2 Thiel CS1.2, 1/3-octave response at 1m, from top to bottom samples 2010,

fig.1, this is ameliorated when the speaker is sit-

2009, 0624, 0623

ting on the floor in aroom, due to boundary

reinforcement.)

My next task was to look at the response of

each speaker to a25µ5 rectangular pulse, again

on the tweeter axis, and calculate the equiva-

lent anechoic response in the midrange and tre-

ble using FFT analysis. The impulse responses

of the speakers--that for S/N 2010 is typical

and is shown in fig.3 --were very similar, basi-

cally showing a reasonably time-coherent

reproduction of the pulse on this axis, with

both drive-units connected with the same

polarity and the impulse tail broken up by ultra-

sonic ringing from the aluminum-dome

tweeter. (Compare this impulse response with that of the Meridian D600 loudspeaker, which

Fig.3 Thiel CS1.2, impulse response (5ms window)

uses aversion of the same tweeter but which

lacks atime-coherent crossover or construc- 8.8di tion.) The results of the FFT analysis, plotted

from 400Hz to 30kHz, are shown in fig.4 with, -18d8

again, the curves from top to bottom corresponding to samples 2010, 2009, 0624, and -28d8

0623. With the exception of the exact position -38,111 and height of the tweeter resonance of each

speaker and the fact that the notch centered on -48d8

7kHz is alittle more pronounced on both of

18111

1881:

1541

118111

Larry's pair, and that Sam's pair appeared to Fig 4 Thiel CS1.2, FFT anechoic response,

have slightly less sensitive tweeters, the curve ,'

from top to bottom samples 2010,

are as alike as peas in apod. Certainly from this

2009, 0624, 0623

166

Stereophile, November 1989

ths 1 11111111 I 1111111 I 11111111 I II
If
12

4
r

11111 1 11111111 1 11111111 1 11

1@11:

1kIlt

Hot

Fig.5 Thiel CS1.2, modulus of impedance (2 ohms/vertical div)

measurement, it looks as though you could

take any two from four to make apair, suggest-

ing excellent QA on Thiel's part. (The slight

tweeter peakiness centered on 16kHz in fig.1

correlates with the "knee" in this region, the

in

response.)

Bearing in mind, however, that Sam's criti-

cisms concerned alack of bass, Ithen mea-

sured the nearfield LF extension of each, as

well as the way the impedance changed below

200Hz for each, to see if this would throw up

any clues. Fig.5 shows atypical impedance

curve for the Thiel CS1.2, revealing it to be fun-

damentally a4ohm design. The bass region

shows very little change with frequency,

though the port tuning is revealed by the dip

ashade above 40Hz and the twin peaks above

and below. None of the four showed any sig-

nificant difference in positioning of the peaks

and dips, the upper peak occurring at 63, 65,

62, and 62Hz (2010, 2009, 0624, and 0623,

respectively) and reaching values of 7.25, 7, 6.1,

and 6.7 ohms. The port tuning could be found

at 43, 42, 42, and 40Hz, respectively, with an

impedance ranging between 4.2 and 4.7 ohms,

while the lower peak occurred at 26Hz for all

four speakers, reaching heights of 6.5, 6.6, 5.7,

and 6.25 ohms, respectively. It could be argued

that the impedance in the bass shown by

Larry's pair didn't quite reach the values of

Sam's pair, but Ithink this is academic.

Regarding extension, all showed asimilar

characteristic in the bass with the measuring

mie positioned close to the woofer dustcap.

The response was ostensibly flat from 200Hz

down to 90Hz or so, with then agentle roll-out

reaching -6dB between 49Hz and 52Hz,

depending on the sample. There was aslight

difference between the two pairs here, how-

ever, in that the woofers of Sam's pair were

slightly more damped, starting to roll out alittle

earlier than those of Larry's pair, with ashallower slope. (The response was -ldB at 77Hz and 85Hz, 2010 and 2009, compared with -1dB at 66Hz and 73Hz, 0624 and 0623). In view of the fact that the reflex port is tuned to 40-43Hz and therefore contributes useful output in the octave between 36Hz and 70Hz, Istill can't see that this slight measured difference would explain the degree of the disparity between Sam's and Larry's opinions.
Finally, Isat down to some listening, starting with Larry's pair of 1.2s which Ihad used at length last December. The CS1.2 is fitted with three holes for floor-coupling spikes, which Iused (see my introduction to the review of the Spica TC-50 and Celestion 3in October, p.162, for my feelings on those who don't consider such tweaks to have any aural benefit). The rest of the system consisted of Mark Levinson No.25/26 preamplifier, Mark Levinson No.20.5 power amplifiers, connected with Madrigal CPC speaker cable and HPC balanced interconnect, Linn Troika/Ekos/LP12 record player, and aBritish Fidelity Digilog D/A processor driven by the digital output of aMeridian 207 CD player.
The first music track was the Alligator blues recording of Albert Collins, Robert Cray, and Johnny Copeland (ALCD 4743), amust-have disc for anyone into Chicago blues but one where the energy and power of the musicmaking is spoiled by aheavy hand on the treble EQ and an artificial reverberation engine that sounds peaky, resonant, and distinctly unpleasant, particularly on Robert Cray's Stratocaster, where it almost adds a"rattle" to the sound. Itend to reach for this recording when Isuspect any treble problems in aloudspeaker, as its "shouty" midrange leaves no room for additional speaker problems in this region. Both pairs of 1.2s sounded rather too aggressive on this recording, the speaker's balance being alittle unkind to the sound of recorded guitar. (Orchestral trumpet was also projected a little too forcefully at times.) Experimenting with the listening height showed very quickly that sitting significantly above the tweeter axis makes the mid-treble alittle peaky and sucks out energy between 1 and 3kHz. As with the Spica TC-50, it is essential not to sit in too high achair with the CS1.2 if the otherwise neutral treble is not to get alittle strident. If you can see the top of the 36"-tall cabinet, you are sitting too high and the sound

Stereophile, November 1989

167

will be rather thin and peaky. The sound of bass guitar and drums was pre-
sented with quite adegree of authority, if not absolute weight: certainly the speaker has enough midbass energy to play rock convincingly, provided that you keep the levels below 100dB or so. Prolonged listening suggested that the Tellig pair of speakers had just atad less authority, but not so you'd notice except in an A/B comparison. (And it could have been that Iwas just hearing what Ihad already measured.) "Enough" midbass was the verdict here, with the caveat that again the listener must be sitting; as well as amore strident tonal balance, the standing listener is presented with asignificantly shelved-down upper bass.
Now Iknow that the Alligator CD is not one to have found permanent residence in the redoubtable Sam's collection, so Ireached for one that I'm pretty sure he does have, the Blomstedt/Dresden recording of Strauss's Ein Heldenleben (Denon 33C37-7581). "Smooth treble, good string tone, apalpable presence to the presentation of the solo violin, and aprecisely defined, wide but ultimately shallow soundstage," read my listening notes. Hmm. A "shallow" soundstage was one of Mr. T's criticisms, along with the fact that he felt the Thiels to localize the image within the speakers. That they certainly did do, the Denon recording lacking centerfill and the violins, for example, sounding as though they were in aphonebooth at stage left. This could well be afunction of the recording--it's uncannily reminiscent of those outrageous spatially distorted Columbia recordings John McClure produced first for Stravinsky/Craft, then for Leonard Bernstein in the '60s and early '70s. Iput on the more recent Bernstein Mahler 5(DG 423 608-2). Again, the soundstage was shallow (though less so in the middle), but now the violin and cello sections did have rather more substance in that they stretched toward the middle of the stage. But insufficient bass? The beginning of the work's second movement--"Stürrnisch bewegt. Mit grOsster kébemenz"--where angry double basses outline the music's stormy nature, had considerable power even given the fact that it was just apair of 6" woofers being asked to provide the motive power. The effect was the same on both Larry's and Sam's speakers, there not being any appreciable difference in the low- frequency performance.
No, Sam, Ican't agree with you: the CS1.2

does not lack subjective low-frequency author-

ity in musical terms, even though it does do so

in absolute, measurement terms. But yes, the

soundslage presented by apair does appear to

somewhat lack both relative depth and center-

fill, particularly on multimiked classical record-

ings. However, Ifelt the soundstage to be more

evenly spread across the distance between the

speakers, though still somewhat shallow, when

my ears were level with the tweeters.

To confirm my opinion on the soundstage

presented by the CS1.2s, Iplayed arecording

Ihad made of pianist Anna-Maria Stanczyk

playing Chopin, the master tape being handled

by my antique (ca 1975) Revox A-77. Tonally,

the verdict was the same as with the Collins,

Cray, and Copeland recording with which Ihad

started my listening session: "enough" midbass

to be musically convincing. The work being

played was the Scherzo in b- flat, which hinges

on some thunderous left-hand B-flats, D- flats,

and even Enaturals more than an octave below

the bass staff. Without adoubt, these musical

tone-centers had sufficient weight to balance

the right-hand flurries and arpeggios higher up

the Steinway's register. The soundstage presen-

tation was accurately defined laterally, the

piano image being strongly center-dominant

with the instrument's soundboard and bass

notes stretching toward the right-hand speaker.

However, again, the image was shallower both

than it should be--remember, Imade the

recording--and than it is presented via such

time-slicing speakers as the Spica TC-50 or Van-

dersteen 2Ci. Overall, the Thiels seem to push

the image forward at the listener alittle, more

so at the extreme left and right of the sound-

stage.

Overall, this is still good performance at the

price, and the Thiel CS1.2 can be confidently

recommended. But as to why the Anarchist

was disappointed by the CS1.2's bass when LA

and Ifound it to be at minimum adequate and

mostly satisfying, Ihave no explanation. Both

measurements and listening confirmed that

Sam and Larry were essentially listening to the

same loudspeakers. Ishall retreat from the sub-

ject, therefore, muttering something along the

lines of "Perhaps the bass quality of the reflex-

loaded CS1.2 is more room-dependent than

that of the sealed-box speakers which seem

to work best in the Anarchist's listening

room ...," though Ireally don't believe that

to be the case.

--John Atkinson

168

Stereophile, November 1989

Ruminations on the back-door approach to the high end
When Itravel to larger cities, the first thing Ido after checking into my room is to consult the Yellow Pages under "Records, Tapes & Compact Discs" --for acertified vinyl junkie, discovering asource of used records in astrange city can be economically disastrous as well as socially alienating. Be upfront with your friends about your addiction, or you may find yourself returning home alone! Not empty handed, though! If you extend your search to used-bookstores (which usually have afew records stashed away somewhere), the depth of your insanity becomes even more apparent to others. Let your friends think what they may about you, though, and go about your business. Remember, you have amission to accomplish, and as we enter the age of the Great Vinyl Meltdown, that mission takes on desperate proportions.
Visiting local hi-fi salons enables me to pick up on what is currently hot or not.,Plus, most dealers have a shelf for used equipment. Examining this section of the store is the most fun for me. Here Ican find relics from the distant past (remember Collaro record players?), as well as more recently abandoned state-ofthe-art gear. The prices are generally appealing (usually afraction of what the equipment sold for new), and you can browse without being bombarded with the sales pitches and hype. Ienjoy reading about the latest "super" amps or preamps from Krell, Mark Levinson, Audio Research, etc., but financial circumstances dictate that Iam unable to buy them fresh from the factory. The same holds true for the other elements in the hi-fi chain--loudspeakers, turntables, tonearms, cartridges, and cables. Until recently, I've had to entertain myself with vicarious thoughts about the high end, through friends fortunate enough to be able to afford it, and by reading about it in the various journals. Iam, therefore, always on the lookout for agood high-end deal!
In my recent review of the AR ES-1 turntable (Vol.12 No.8), Iwas slightly apprehensive of the fact that Idid not have arecord player of "reference" quality. My Systemdek IIX with the Black Widow arm had served me well in my listening, and had enabled me to make substantive comments on the sounds of other
II believe dealers refer to this activity as "tire-kicking." --JA

components to which it was compared. However, Ifelt aneed to explore the possibilities of an upgrade in this area 1) to increase my own enjoyment of my record collection, and 2) to strengthen my credibility in the eyes of other audiophiles by installing aplayer of reference caliber in my system. Acall to an audiophile friend in Illinois confirmed my decision to look for aVPI HW-19 Mk.II set up with the ET-2 tonearm. Icould retain my l'alisman Scartridge --it was sounding just as sweet as ever. I immediately began asearch through the classified ads in both Stereophile and The Absolute Sound for dealers offering such acombination at an attractive price. After all, Iwas looking for equipment which, if new, would cost close to $2000. The audio journalist doesn't get paid that well! My search didn't pay off, and Ibegan to feel Ihad gotten the right idea at the wrong time.
Then it dawned on me that Ihad once subscribed to Audiomart, the ultimate source for used audio gear of all types. Idug through my collection of old audio literature and magazines, hoping to find aback issue so Icould call them and renew my subscription. Ifound one--a quick phone call and my MasterCard number put me back on their mailing list. Audiomart assured me that Iwould get the latest issue, which had just gone to press (they now publish every two weeks instead of monthly). Within four days of my call came ten pages of used and demo gear of all shapes, sizes, vintages, and prices. The listings included equipment ranging from the highest of the high end to replacement front panels for Eico preamps. Buried in the small print is, Iam sure, equipment which would whet the appetite of any seasoned audiophile. And the prices asked, which must be included in the ads, could not be beat. Iknew Iwas on the right track at last. Within an hour of receipt of my copy, Ihad located three people with the VP1/ET system Iwas looking for. Ikept coming back to one ad in particular, which seemed too good to be true. Not only was the seller offering the setup Iwanted, but was going to throw in an extra ET-2 arm-tube. It didn't take me long to contact this person and negotiate aprice.
My initial feeling toward the whole deal was one of reservation. Why was this guy selling this gear so cheaply? What was wrong with it? How old was it? What parts needed replacing? Had it been wrecked due to careless set-up? I

Stereophile, November 1989

169

was skeptical. My fears were put to rest, however, after having spent some time on the phone with the seller. He sounded sincere in his efforts to answer my many questions, and assured me Iwould be happy with the equip-
ment. He reminded me of Audiomares policy regarding fair dealings, and offered to have Audiomart hold my money for three days while Ihad the opportunity to inspect and try out the gear. Fair enough, Ithought, and went off to the bank. Irationalized to myself, as I dipped into my savings, that this was anecessary and prudent move. The price was right and Ireally needed to upgrade my front end. ,
When the UPS truck pulled into my driveway a few days later, Iwas nervous. The moment of truth had come. The driver asked if Iwould help her with the large box containing the VPI. (The ET-2 was packed separately.) Ilugged the VPI into the house and began unpacking it. This was done carefully--I had to be careful handling the subchassis and platter, for they were heavier than Ihad expected; the subchassis alone weighs more than my Systemdek !IX--and the seller had attached set-up notes to various parts. Ifollowed the enclosed notes and read the manufacturer's instructions slowly. Set-up presented no serious problems, for the VP1 is really quite simple in design. Satisfied, Iturned to the ET-2 arm and read the comprehensive instruction manual three times. Idid not have the set-up jig, so Icalled my friend back in Illinois to borrow his. He sent it out that same day and Ireceived it two days later. While Iwaited for the jig, Iresearched all the reviews Icould find of the VPI /ET in the various journals. The information Igleaned from these reviews proved quite helpful in my efforts to install this table and arm properly.
Jig in hand, Iwent about the task of installing the ET-2 on the VPI. This was not one of the easiest jobs I've encountered. Hard-wiring the Litz leads to the backside of the female phono
jacks was an exercise in frustration. But Ikept with it and finally succeeded. With all the wiring out of the way, Isettled down to the task of aligning the arm, hooking up the air-line and pump, leveling and realigning everything. Although the pump with my arm was extremely quiet, Iset it up in ahall closet with the

2Guy has imly been writing for the magazine for four months

and alre-ady he's treating aturntable upgrade as aNumber-One

Priority. Draw your own conclusion, all you reader. hanging

onto lechnies SP. 11h, and Kenwood KD-500s for sentimental

reasons.

--JA

air line running under the house, coming up through a small hole in the floor directly beneath my equipment stand. The prior owner of the VPI had installed an on/off switch for the pump in the table base. This was agreat convenience: Icould turn on pump and table at the same time. Asmall, red LED installed in the acrylic top-plate let me know when the pump was on. Clever!1 didn't want to risk damaging
my Talisman Sduring final alignment, so I installed my "budget" Grado in the extra armtube. If Iwas going to wreck astylus or can-
tilever in this phase of set-up, better it be a cheap one.
The precise alignment of the ET-2 arm was made easier by its thoughtful design. Each parameter of adjustment can be easily and quickly made with just asmall Allen-wrench. As Iwas making the final tweaks to the arm, I came to agree with the rave reviews and praise given this product in various journals. Ihave never had the pleasure of using such awellfinished, well-designed arm. Iwould like to mention the courtesy and helpfulness of ET's Bruce Thigpen, whom Icontacted several times. He answered my rather naïve questions patiently and advised me of future upgrade possibilities. Likewise, Harry Weisfeld, in extremely gentlemanly manner, did all he could to ensure my used VPI Mk.II was operating up to spec. Istill marvel at his record-
clamping system. It is simple and effective, turning every record into aflat one.
Needless to say, my initial fears over buying used high-end gear (especially turntables and tonearms) via mail-order were allayed. Ifelt good about my purchases and was reassured, after talking with Bruce Thigpen and Harry Weisfeld, that there still were manufacturers out there who stand behind their products. Ihave read all too often the horror stories of consumers' relations with certain manufacturers. Component reliability, customer service, and manufacturer accessibility are important issues in high-end audio. It depresses me when Ihear of the lackadaisical attitude of some manufacturers toward their customers. To my way of thinking, this is indefensible. After all, we, as music lovers, to some extent pursue the muse to escape the common and parochial attitudes we have to deal with every day. We audiophiles are astrange breed (if you don't believe me, ask anon-audiophile) and are caught up in amaniacal quest for the "perfect" sound, whatever

l'O

Stereophile, November 1989

that might be. In this quest we need all the help we can get, especially from manufacturers. We need more men like Bruce Thigpen and Harry Weisfeld in this industry.
The sound of my VPI/ET exceeded my expectations. Ihad transformed my system, in one fell swoop, from apleasant-sounding "hi-
fi" into an instrument for reproducing music. The extraneous noises and colorations Ihad previously adapted to vanished. There was
much less intrusion of extra-musical elements into the aural experience, which allowed more
of the music through. Bass went lower, with more tautness and better pitch definition. The highs were airier and extended. The midrange was brought to life, and instrumental timbres were rendered naturally. The sense of the recording venue was conveyed with solid ambient clues (if the recording had captured them in the first place), and the soundstage was broader, deeper, higher. Overall system resolution increased dramatically, and Icould "see" deeper into the music and pick out fine details of the performance heretofore obscured. One
of my favorite soundtrack albums, The Mission (Virgin 90567- I), has become amuch more intimate and involving experience for me. Ifeel

closer to the intent of the composer and performers. Irealized, shortly after making this front-end upgrade, that Ihad suddenly acquired anew record collection.°
If you, like me, cringe at the escalating prices of high-end audio, Iurge you to investigate Audiomart. You may be surprised at what you'll find. S20 gets you 12 issues, and Iam confident you will not be disappointed. Your subscription also enables you to run free personal ads so you have the opportunity to get
rid of gear you no longer want. Audiomart can be reached at PO. Box 223, Crewe, VA 23930, Tel: (804) 645-8816. Incidentally, more and more ads for records are appearing in Audi-
mart. This may be your chance to find that copy of Casino Royale you've been searching for all these years. Check it out. I'd also like to hear from our readers of their experiences in buying used, mail-order audio equipment. Now, if Ican locate my copy of issue #185 and that ad for the Monster Alpha Genesis HMO. .
--Guy Lemcoe

3YOU see, gentle reader:. all ibis was aresult of a turnta-

bleitonearm upgrade. See footnote 2. Absorb the moral of

Guy's tale. Get rid of that Kenwood: Junk that Sony: put that

Technics out of its misery!

--Ye Editor.

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HERBERT VON KARAJAN (1908-1989)

0fGreek-Slavic descent, well-established in Austria with ahereditary title ("von"
indicating that his great-grandfather had been honored by Duke Friedrich August of Saxony), Herbert von Karajan could say, with the English poet Walter de la Mare: When music sounds, all that Iwas Iam, Ere to this haunt of brooding dust Icame.
His forbears were distinguished men in scholarship and medicine, with more than a touch of music and theater in them, so that his upbringing, unusually happy for aWorld War Ichild, gave him discipline, sensitivity, and musical talent far beyond the average. What a character! To adistant streak of stoicism he owed his self-control and his fervent devotion to ademanding art; his instinctive feeling for
color and rhythm came from an old central European tradition. When he met the brooding dust of the postwar world, he rose above it, at
first hesitantly but then with determination and triumph. He believed that the Creator chose people as His instruments to produce some beauty in an all-too-ugly world, and he knew that since his gifts derived from that source his
duty was to exploit them to the fullest. That is why he was adriven man: aman with an insatiable thirst for absolute perfection, and an
inexhaustible energy to ensure that this perfection would reach as many people as possible.
Much has been made of Karajan's political sympathies in the 1930s, and of his membership in the only party open to aGerman or Austrian of that time. But there is no more evidence of his approving the misdeeds of Nazi leaders than there is of Mascagni's endorsement of Fascist ideals, or of Prokofiev's allegiance to Soviet

terrorism. Amusician in any country, especially during wartime is obliged to be part of the system; for if he declines, such prizes as are available will be withheld from him. This happened to Karajan in 1941 when he was relieved of his post as General Music Director at Aachen on the grounds of too-frequent absence. The real
Denis Stevens, who played under HvK in the Philharmonia Orchestra, recalls the Maestro
reason? He was courting aslightly Jewish lady who later became his second wife. From 1942 until 1945 he was obliged to go into hiding in Italy, where later on he gave concerts for the occupying British army at Trieste in return for safe conduct back to his parents' home in Salzburg. From then on, until officially cleared by the still squabbling Allies, he was forbidden to conduct and almost starved.
Little wonder that he then formed an ambition to achieve far more than seemed humanly possible, and to leave us alegacy of recordings ranging from shellac discs through CDs and a collection of filmed concerts and operas suffi-

Stereophile, November 1989

175

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Transcriptions

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Stereophile, November 1989

cient to satisfy the most broad-minded collector. His repertory was generally wide, embracing Bach, Handel, Corelli, and Vivaldi at one end of the spectrum, and as far as the Second Viennese School, Stravinsky, Bartók, Hoist, and Honegger. He possessed aremarkable memory, absorbing symphonic and operatic masterpieces with adetailed thoroughness that stood him in excellent stead in later years. He was never in ahurry. He refrained from performing music he had insufficiently digested, and refused appointments until ready to assume full responsibility for them. While waiting for the
Berlin Philharmonic conductorship to fall vacant, he busied himself with the Philharmo-
nia, and it was in London that he made his debut with his fledgling orchestra in April of 1948.
Walter Legge, founder of the Philharmonia, was in an excellent position to build up its strengths and assure steady recording and concert work. His German was as fluent as his English, and it was in Vienna two years before that
he had first heard Karajan and made atentative contract with him. Within ashort time Karajan became principal conductor, besides developing his contacts with Milan, Vienna, Berlin, and Salzburg. Each man needed the
other, for Legge was an extremely rude but powerful producer who stopped at nothing, while Karajan was further sharpening an
already formidable technique and pursuing perfection in an almost ruthless manner.
It was nothing for an entire session to be given up to achieving aperfect balance, or for ten sessions to be spent on aMozart Divertimento. A Tchaikovsky Fourth made at this
time owed its full-throated opening fanfare to Legge's standing the four horn players on chairs with their backs to the conductor, so that the bells would face the microphones. At aRoyal Albert Hall concert not too long afterward
Karajan faced away from the orchestra, closed his eyes, and dropped his hands very slowly for
the opening of the "Pathetique." But he was a trainer second to none. "When you have to
play apizzicato with awoodwind chord, wait until you hear it start; you will be quite soon enough," he would say; and in praising the
almost unbelievable unanimity of the "royal family" (the quartet of principal winds), he once asked them how they managed it. "We sleep together, Maestro," answered the burly bassoonist.

Berlin 1939, DG session
The often grim, craggy face slowly learned how to relax. Legge was yelling at him one afternoon through the intercom, and Karajan, undismayed, held the telephone as far away as possible, uttered three words ("His Master's Voice!"), then let it drop on the floor. On another occasion, to attract the incorrigible producer's attention, he let fly with awolfwhistle that brought him running at once. On the whole, however, it was ahappy and productive collaboration which projected Karajan's career into international orbit. The year 1955 was decisive, for he toured America twice: in the spring with the Berlin Philharmonic (when the conductorship was offered and joyfully accepted), and in the fall with the Philharmonia. He was moving into loftier spheres, but continued working with EMI and made many operatic recordings which have never been surpassed, especially Cosijan lutte, Hansel und Gretel, Ariadne au! Naxos, and Der Rosenkavalier. His sensitivity as avocal accompanist was legendary, for he breathed with his singers and molded their interpretations in his piano rehearsals, yet constantly gave them the impression that they alone were responsible for the effects they produced.
When he began to record for DG in 1959, a new era opened for him and for the orchestra. He had already initiated aprocess of gradual replacement and renewal among the personnel, which in course of time was to refine and

Stereophile, November 1989

177

redefine the color, range, and dynamics of the entire orchestra. Asubtle procedure in audi-
tions and trial periods ensured that new artists were absorbed into the ensemble in such away as to fulfill what Karajan sought most of all--a
wonderfully responsive, infinitely flexible instrument which represented asound-ideal
that had coursed through his veins for decades. The Berlin Philharmonic of the 1960s was a
spinoff from his growing personal fleet of high-
tech transportation: fast cars, yachts, and executive jets. Acasual listener might well be excused
for thinking that he had only to turn on the
automatic pilot for the orchestra to play by itself, which it undoubtedly did most of the time since he continued to conduct with
closed eyes. There was of course aprice to pay, even
though his vastly growing public cheerfully paid the price for the 150 million records he made. Perfection to some extent defeated its own end, and not afew critics and critical
listeners detected a lack of spontaneity, of differentiation, or of personality in his renderings of the great classics. His performances and records were so carefully prepared that there was no room for last-minute inspiration. The final rehearsal was better than the performance, as it was also in the case of lesser orchestras and conductors. When all tension has been removed from the interpretation of awork, it cannot be expected to engender tension
among the audience, so that what they applauded was the spectacular rather than the
spiritual. His methods are fairly well-known even
though his rehearsals were mostly closed to the general public, for DG issued records of his arduous preparation for the recording of Beethoven's Ninth in the early 1960s. Analyzing the problems of the cello-bass recitative in what sounds like an orchestral seminar, he tells his men: "Half the effect is lost if you cover it with adull grey deposit ...the most important thing is beauty...impressive but beautiful. ..once more, forte but lyrical!" He never threw tantrums, never argued. Only once did Ihear him raise his voice, and that was in 1966 when Iinterviewed him in aseries of video programs called "The Art of Conducting." We were in the Studios de Boulogne, south of Paris, and the renowned director Henri Clouzot was in charge. The entire Berlin Philharmonic had been flown over for sessions featuring Dvorák's

"New World" Symphony. At one point members of the orchestra were talking to each other,
reasonably quietly as Ithought, but suddenly there was athunderclap "Rube!" from Karajan, and in the ensuing silence you could have heard aplastic mute drop.
He was an indefatigable worker throughout his nine-times-nine years. As ayoung director at Ulm, he had the unenviable task of teaching the long and complex role of Baron Ochs to a bass who could not read music After hundreds
of hours of rehearsal, he succeeded. For the BPO's 1970 tour, he arranged weeks of rehearsal for Beethoven's Ninth alone, although it was far from being their first performance of the work. Striving for perfection and total control
came as second nature to him, for he knew at an early age that he was not here to take orders from others. In his opera productions in Milan,
Vienna, New York, and Salzburg he insisted more and more on direction, which often worked out extremely well, and on lighting (or, in the case of the Ring cycle, "darking"), on which he would spend countless hours of detailed work. Like many self-made men, his search was for ultimate independence, and he achieved this in 1967 with the Salzburg Easter Festival, which he planned and financed himself, thanks to the enormous sums he was receiving from fees, record royalties, perfor-
mances, tours, and films made by his own companies. He recorded more than 40 concert and opera programs for video, and they are either currently available or due to be released on videodisc.
It was not only the small-town German and Austrian houses where all opera was sung in German. Even Vienna followed the custom until Karajan began giving Italian operas with Italian singers, prompters, and producers, often with considerable opposition. But he knew how to get his way, and made the maximum
use of political power to achieve his aims. His fluent Italian helped agreat deal, as did the excellent French he had acquired, especially after his marriage to Eliette Mouret. He gave Vienna amemorable Pelléas et Mélisande in
the early 1960s, but held off recording the opera until he had reached his 70th year, It was the outcome of extensive thought and study, representing the culmination of his lifelong love-affair with French music.
Karajan now has many rivals in the ability to make fortunes, and as pillars in the power struc-

178

Stereophile, November 1989

ture, but as musicians they are light-years away. His memory, far greater than Toscanini's, less catholic than Beecham's, was acentral feature of his multi-faceted talents. He has probably done more for the art of music than any man before his time, and has set arecord that will not easily be equalled, let alone broken. His rugged appearance effectively hid amusically sensitive nature, and he was often kind and considerate toward his younger colleagues. A great nature lover, whether it was the warmth of an Italian spring, the purity of asnow-clad peak, or the cloudscapes familiar to jet pilots, he took his sports as seriously as his art,
although (as many have pointed out) music was for him amission rather than aprofession. He detested vulgarity, led avery private kind of life when he could, and was devoted to his wife and two daughters. He never forgot akindness shown by others, and when the city of Lucerne invited him to conduct at the international festival for the first time in 1948, he visited them annually thereafter, occasionally thrilling the inhabitants by arrival at the Festspielhaus in a police-escorted motor launch three minutes before the concert was due to begin. Ihave one photo of him sunning himself at the Strandbad,

and another (seated next to Walter Legge) applauding Dennis Brain's virtuoso performance on an alphom in 1954. He undoubtedly had his lighter side, although few caught a glimpse of it.
Among records still to be released are Verdi's Un bailo in mascbera (his first recording of the opera) and Bruckner's Seventh, both with the Vienna Opera; Bruckner's Eighth and Schumann's Fourth, with the Vienna Philharmonic; Brahms's Third and Fourth Symphonies, and the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto (Yvgeny Kissin), all with the BPO. DG's special catalog to celebrate his 80th birthday may soon become acollector's item, including as it does tributes from musicians from all over the world and a special edition of 25 CDs issued as an overview of his career.
"Agmen claudit mesocborus consummatus, Salisburgii natus ..." (A consummate conductor ends our procession, anative of Salzburg), said the Public Orator at Oxford University on June 21, 1978, when Karajan went there to receive, in his cloth-of-gold gown, the honorary degree of Doctor of Music. Rarely has so great a distinction been so well and truly earned.

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Zf(be Post Office bas done itsjob well, you will have received this issue within afew days ofHalloween, the holiday of gbosts and goblins. lb celebrate the season, Telarc has released aCincinnati Pops recording of music with demonic associations, rangingfrom Mussorgsky 's "Night on Bald Mountain" and Saint-Saüns's "Danse Macabre" to themes from films and TV shows (Frankenstein, Psycho, Poltergeist, "livilight Zone" and `A'lfred Hitchcock Presents").
7élarc's recordings oflight classical andfilm music; especially thosefeaturing Ericb Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops, have been consistent best-sellers because they combine appealing music with spacious and powerful recorded sound. They are also among the most-played (some would say overplayed) demonstration recordings at Consumer Electronics Shows, in hi -fi showrooms, and in the homes of audiophiles showing off--or testing the limits of-- newly purchased loudspeakers. The Chiller album was recorded during Halloween weekend last year Monster Cable (appropriately!), whose interlink and loudspeaker cables were being used by Telarc for the sessions, flew writers from Stereophile and two pro-audio magazines to Cincinnati to observe the pro-

cess. The Popsperformed the music in aChiller concert on Saturday night, for which both the orchestra and the audience dressed up in costumes--some appropriate to the occasion (Frankenstein masks, fright wigs, conical witches' bats)and some not (orange hair and clown suits).
As the bouse lights dimmed, apipe organ gradually became audible, sounding the ancient Dies Irae deatb anthem while ghostly imagesflitted about the darkened auditorium. Lucifer rose out ofasmoking pit, costumed in red satin with a long pointed tail, and revealed himself to be conductor Ericb Kunzel, waving the devil'sforked trident instead of a baton. Some of the music was augmented by ballet and pantomime, featuring performers from a local acting school, including one actress made up to resemble Elsa Lancbester in The Bride of Frankenstein.
On Sunday the orchestra reassembled in casual clothes to perform for Telarc's microphones. The classical repertoire was recorded on Sunday and the movie/TV music on Monday. Most of the music on the disc was recorded in just one or two complete takes. For the longest and most complex work (the Mussorgsky), two complete performances were

Stereophile, November 1989

183

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The orchestra on-stage in Cincinnati's Music Hall, ready to record.

recorded, followed by about two dozen retakes ofadifficult section near the end where the musical line is tossed back andforth among various instruments entering in groups of two of three. Slightly mismatched entrances might go unnoticed in alive concert, butfor the record, producer Robert Woods and conductor Kunzel insisted on redoing those entrances until each phrase had the correct ensemble timing rhythm, and pitch.
While the orchestra tuned upfor the Sunday session, the visiting writers spoke with Erich Kunzel in bis backstage office. Peter W. Mitchell: How many records bave you made for Telarc? Erich Kunzel: 1Wenty are out now. All except two (The Stokowski Sound and Wellington's Victory) have been on Billboard's best-seller charts. That's arecord; no other orchestra has even come close. PWM: }bu 're not likely to run out ofprogram material. .. EK: Oh no, we've got projects already outlined for the next five years. PWM: Under acontract? EK: I'm on an exclusive ten-year contract with
Telarc (until 1998), and the orchestra has a renewable five-year contract. It specifies aminimum of three recordings ayear; currently

we're doing five each year. We play every program in concert first, so that rehearsals aren't paid out of the recording budget. The Cincinnati Pops plays about 30 concerts ayear. We have to schedule recordings about ayear in advance in order to mesh them with our concert schedule and make everything come together at the right time--soloists, scores, etc. PWM: How long have you been conducting here? EK: I've been with the Cincinnati Symphony since 1965, and with the Cincinnati Pops since it was formed in 1977. They are the same orchestra; only the name and conductor are different. The Symphony, conducted by LopezCobos, also records exclusively for Telarc. PWM: You used to record for Vox/MMG as well. EK: Until about 1982. Those recordings are still available, but we're already planning to re-do some of them for Telarc. For instance, we'll do the complete Gaité Parisienne of Offenbach; the earlier recording was excerpts only. PWM: And there was awonderful Vox disc of Sousa-- EC: Peaches and Cream, which took me months of research in the Library of Congress to prepare. That was historic, because it showed the other side of Sousa--his waltzes and overtures.

Stereophile, November 1989

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The orchestra seen from the back. The infamous Telarc bass drum is not unusually large, but it is optimally placed at stage center, facing front, and is struck from the back so as to produce asolid positive-pressure 38Flz wavefront in the hall. In contrast, the Boston Symphony's bass drum is often mounted sideways on the stage; consequently, both the
compression wave off the front skin and the rarefaction wave from the rear reflect off the stage walls and propagate out into Symphony Hall together, partially cancelling each other for listeners in the center of the hall.

He wrote 13 operettas, but people only think of his marches. PWM: !low didyou choose the repertoirefor tbe Chiller concert? Was it worked out in conjunction with Telarc? EK: Sometimes it's ajoint decision, sometimes only me. In this case the classical selections
eeem0 we baue to bo a
%fume lop of everting tbde bow.
were rather obvious. We left out "Sorcerer's Apprentice" because we've already recorded it on our "Orchestral Spectaculars" disc. Of course there is alot of related repertoire among modern movie/TV stuff that we could do -- Dracula, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, and so on. PWM: Do you foresee a Volume 71vo? EK: It seems we have to do aVolume INvo of

everything these days. Pops Roundup did so
well that we're doing asecond Roundup disc. We followed Star Ti-acks with Time Warp, and Orchestral Spectaculars followed Symphonic Spectaculars. There will be asecond Strausslest, two more Hollywood albums (one of love songs and one of blockbusters), another disc of overtures, and so on. Our aim is to be as diverse as possible. We've done aTchaikovsky disc, an all-Copland record with Katherine Hepburn, aWestern album, aStrauss album, Star 7kek, Grand Canyon Suite, Porgy and
Bess, marches from Elgar to Rampart Street, Gershwin (the original version of Rhapsody in
Blue), The Sound of Music, and a Disney album.
PWM: What does this mean to you as aconductor?
EK: Work! But I've always loved making recordings. It's amatter of pride to me that what we've accomplished here in Cincinnati is preserved forever--especially with the dig-
ital process, which has been used for all of our recordings. What we're doing here will be available for generations. True, the work of earlier conductors --Toscanini, Bruno Walter, Arthur

Stereophile, November 1989

187

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Fiedler--is being re-released on CD; but if it was recorded tinny, it still sounds tinny. PWM: Many observers regarded you as the logical successor to Fiedler at the Boston Pops.
so in career terms it looked like adisappointment when you didn't get thatjob after Fiedler's death. Ironically, ifyou badgone to Boston you probably wouldn't have your present success, because you would be recordingfor Philips. Thanks to the Telarc recordings, Cincinnati bas replaced Boston as the best-selling Pops orchestra. EK: Iannounced at the time that Ididn't want the job, because !didn't want to follow Fiedler. Anybody who follows agreat person has ahard time. Sir John Barbirolli followed Toscanini at the New York Philharmonic and was aflop. Boulez followed Bernstein; he was agreat conductor but another flop. Iwanted to make my career on my own terms, without hinging it to the Boston Pops, and the opportunity existed here in Cincinnati. PWM: Asfor differences in sound, do you use different arrangementsfrom other Pops orchestras?
EK: Ido some myself, and we commission many. You'll notice, for example, that the Boston Pops doesn't use electronic instruments in its recordings; we do. In pops material we use electric piano, Fender bass, or asynthesizer where appropriate. For instance, we perform the original version of the "ltvilight Zone" theme, with two electric guitars. So we do have adifferent sound from other Pops orchestras.
PWM: What do you think of the acoustics of tbe Cincinnati Music Hall? EK: The best. This is more than half of the secret of our success. It's avery rounded, very beautiful sound, and Telarc knows how to capture it. One of our trumpet players used to be the principal trumpet of the Boston Pops; he says that it's very difficult to record Pops material in Symphony Hall. It's so live that the recordings come out too brilliant, lacking warmth. Our hall has tremendous warmth. And from our first recording with Telarc (1812 Overture), they've used those three micro-
phones out front to capture that big sound (except for special projects like the Big Band Hit Parade, where about 25 microphones were used). PWM: When the concert started last night, I immediately recognized that bottom-heavy Telarc sound, live in the ball. Even the bass

ume a60.8 player in college, anb when conbuct tthink harmonically from the haeo up.
drum bas much more punch here than, for example, in Boston's Symphony Hall. EK: We have good bass-frequency response in this hall. It brings out that warmth; but all the highs are still there, just floating. Iwas abass player in college, and when Iconduct Ithink harmonically from the bass up. For instance, in the brass Ithink of the tuba first. If you establish the sound from the bottom up, everything else falls into place. The highs--the piccolos and so on--are going to get there anyway [points to the audience]. PWM: Robert Shaw balances a chorus the same way, building on abass/baritonefoundation. You'll always bear the sopranos, regardless. EK: Yeah, no matter what. PWM: The Chiller concert, with the orchestra made up and costumed, would have been a great video presentation for PBS if only it could bave been taped. EK: Iagree. We're not equipped to do that yet, but we're getting into it. Our televised concerts won't look like the Boston Pops, though. That old-fashioned visual style--just showing the oboe player and then somebody else--was fine 25 years ago, but we're going to have alot of graphics and visuals. PWM: On another subject: one of my pet peeves about records, especially CDs, is the skimpy program notes that don't provide enough background information about the music. Marc is the great exception, with remarkably thorough booklets. When Ireviewed several recordings of Tcbaikovsky's Nutcrackeç Rlarc's booklet was miles ahead of the others; it really told what's going on in the music. The others didn't. EK: We're fussy about this. For instance, the leading authority on big-band music is George T. Simon; he wrote abook. So we got him to do the notes for our big-band album. PWM: Some ofyour recordings are now being issued on cassette tape as well as CD. EK: Eleven so far. Originally Telarc didn't want to do tape because it was inferior. They thought,

Stereophile, November 1989

189

USe bon't epot-mic tbe orcbeetra
in eectione, all tbe balancing ie
bone on fix yobium, by me.

What you hear on the record is what Iheard at

the podium. With other record companies, the conductor is not in charge. Here, once we start

recording, Jack doesn't dicker with the dials;

he could go out for abeer. We don't have anud-

nik in the control room saying, "let's have more

second violins here, and then more of some-

Gary Reber of Monster Cable (left) thanks conductor Erich Kunzel for
the Big Band Hit Parade album.

thing else. .." PWM: How were the mic positions selected? EK: For our first recording, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, Telarc experimented during the

week while we were rehearsing. The mic posi-

if somebody wants it on tape, they can copy the tions have remained essentially the same ever disc. But most people don't do that; it's a since--about adecade. For Pops repertoire

nuisance. PWM: Despite what the RIAA says. ..

with alot of brass, Jack lowers the mics afraction to enhance the strings; for classical reper-

EK: It's ironic. Now that we have our stuff on cassette, people can play it at the beach, in the

toire they go back up. PWM: )bu record alot of material that hasn't

car, whatever. All these years that we've been been in the standard Pops repertoire. Is it dif-

on the Billboard charts we were only on CD, even though we were competing with record-

ficult to get access to the scores? EK: Particularly with some of the Hollywood

ings in all three formats. We're now going back- stuff. For instance, we searched everywhere for

wards: since many music-theater (Broadway) the Poltergeist score; nobody had it, not even

buffs are sticking with the LP, we've issued The Jerry Goldsmith, the composer. Finally some-

Sound of Music on LP, and our Big-Band Hit Parade as well. But no others. PWM: Do you bave any special working

body found apiano reduction in aback room. Using that and the soundtrack record as a guide, we reconstructed the orchestral score

arrangement with Jack Renner?

ourselves. In the case of the "Krypton Fanfare"

EK: Since we don't spot-mic the orchestra in sections, we don't need anything special. All

from Superman, the original soundtrack was recorded in London, and the orchestral parts

the balancing is done on the podium, by me. were amess. Fortunately John Williams still had

For instance, for amovie theme where we aXerox copy of the score in his attic, and he

wanted the celeste to stand out, we simply moved it forward on the stage, closer to the mics. Soloists, like asinger or the pianist in a concerto, are also picked up by the main mikes. Exception: when there's an electric guitar, we

dug it up for us. The film of The Sound of Music starts with
nuns singing in an abbey and jumps to Maria
singing on ahilltop; for the record Iwanted a
sound for that transition. Ifound the original

feed it straight into the board. Jack sets his mic orchestral parts in the Library of Congress and

levels while the orchestra is warming up, so we don't need to waste the orchestra's time with

discovered that Richard Rogers had actually written eight bars of "nature music" for that

abalancing session. When we work with acho- spot! It wasn't used in the Broadway show or

rus they are in the auditorium, facing the in the film, but it's in our record.

orchestra, so that everything is picked up by those three omnidirectional mics along the front of the stage. The great thing about working with Jack Renner is that I'm in control.

PWM: Are you especiallyfond of movie music?
EK: Yes, but Ilike all types of music PWM: }burfirst three Marc recordings were ofclassical musiç but in recent years the bal-

190

Stereophile, November 1989

ance seems to be weighted heavily infavor of movie/TV music and other pop repertoire. Do you plan to continue that trend? EK: We aim for abalance. For example, twothirds of this Chiller Concert is classical, as was all of the Symphonic Spectaculars disc. We just did aMancini album, which will get us played on radio stations that specialize in the "easy listening" market. The Disney album is our first for young people, but it appeals to all ages; and we're planning our first Christmas album. We'll be working more with Doc Severinsen, but we have to be careful not to do too much jazz. We want to do aBeatles album, but in order to avoid aMuzak-ish sound we've engaged arock'n'roller to help us, Christopher Brubeck (Dave
Brubeck's son). We want to hit every possible market.
PWM: Who are your musical heroes?
EK: Pierre Monteux is my hero. He was my teacher, awonderful person and agreat humanitarian. He was awalking part of history. He was in astring quartet that played in Brahms's house
in Hamburg! He conducted the premieres of the Ravel and Stravinsky ballets in Paris in the early part of this century, was music director

Qiie're in tbie beinee to make
money! fit won't elft, tue
won't recorb it.
of the Boston Symphony in the '20s and of the London Symphony when he was 85.1 was fortunate to be his assistant in London. PWM: Do you bave any ambition to record music that is out of the mainstream--Mahler symphonies, for instancg or obscure music by avant-garde composers? EK: We're in this business to make money! If it won't sell, we won't record it. Seriously, Ilove to conduct Pops music It's avery broad field-- ballet, music from opera, big-band, Broadway, rock, jazz, they're all Pops. Remember, Pops is adiminutive of "popular." From aPachelbel canon to rock'n'roll, as aconductor of Pops repertoire Ican do anything Iwant, and Ihave alot of fun.
lbfollow: acompanion interview withJack Rennet; discussing Telarc's recording procedures and equipment.

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BUILDING ALIBRARY

a s

o

Dunn

A

Ramey

E N

and a bevy

Robert Levine reviews eight new recital discs

SIMON ESTES: Verdi Arias Simon Estes, bass; New Philharmonia Orchestra, Gaetano
Delogu
Philips 416 818-2 (CI) only). Mike Bremner, prod.: Roger de Schot, Erdo Groot, trigs. DDD. TT: 54:46
SAMUEL RAMEY: Sings Rodgers & Hammerstein Samuel Ramey, bass; National Philharmonic Orchestra,
Peter Matz
EMI CDC 749581 2(CD only). John Fraser, prod.; John Kurlander, eng. DDD. TT 51:53
SAMUEL RAMEY: Opera Arias
Samuel Ramey bass; Munich Rundfunkorchester, Jacques Delacote
EMI CDC 749582 2(CD only). John Fraser, prod.; Allons Seebacher, eng. DDD. TT: 62:59
JAMES MORRIS: Opera Arias James Morris, bass; Munich Rundfunkorchester, Ralf
Weikert
EMI CDC 749287 2(CD only). Helmut Storjohann, Theo Holzinger, prods.; Allons Secbacher, eng. DDD. TT 61:05

PLACIDO DOMINGO: Domingo at Sb. Pbilbarmonic

Placido Domingo, tenor; Adriana Morelli, soprano; NYPO, Zubin Mehta

CBS MK 44942 (CD only). Elizabeth Ostrow, prod.; Kevin Boutote, eng. DDD. TT: 5924

ELLY AMELING: Auf Flügeln des Gesanges Elly Ameling, soprano; RudolfJansen, piano

Philips 422 333-2 (CD only). Wilhelm Hollweg, prod.; Erdo Groot, eng. DDD. IT: 48:56

JESSYE NORMAN: Live Jessye Norman, soprano; Geoffrey Parsons, piano

Philips 422 235-2 (CD only). Volker Straus, prod.; Cera

Heijkoop, Martha de Francisco, trigs. DDD.

71:01

SUSAN DUNN: Beethoven, Wagner, Verdi

Susan Dunn, soprano; Orchestra del Ttatro Communale di Bologna, Riccardo Chailly

London 421 420-2 (CD only). Christopher Raeburn,

prod.; James Lock, eng. DDD. TT: 58:33

Stereophile, November 1989

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A T ENOR
BASSES
Stars, superstars, possible stars; today's favorites, tomorrow's replacements, perennial favorites. And all these on only eight CDs--a veritable world of opera. At times Igot the feeling that we were living in another Golden Age, at other times Ithought it was all too dull to bear. But, as they say, it ain't over 'tu --oh, never mind. Irealized while listening to these discs that recitals by three basses have never before come my way at the same time. Are these the "new"
Chaliapins, Kipnises, and Journets? The new Christoffs and Ghiaurovs? Hotters? The answer is adecided "I doubt it, with an exception."
Beginning with the least successful recital, we arrive at Simon Estes' tedious disc of Verdi arias. This Zurich. based American is better known as aWagnerian--I've found his Dutchman convincing, his Wotan ungodly. He sings with great regularity in most of the world's major opera houses. Listeners hearing him for the first time here would be hard pressed to figure out why. This disc makes it clear that Estes is neither at home with the Italian language nor the Italian style He exclaims, he doesn't phrase. Furthermore, although there is acertain opulence to his voice it is not particularly beautiful and its timbre is uninteresting.
He sings arias for both bass and baritone (he's normally billed as abass-baritone and it's clear he takes the appellation seriously), but lacks the weight for the bass arias and the brightness for the baritone selections. He has all the notes, but they sound the same. Count di Luna's "Il balen" is wooden and passionless, Renato's "Eni tu" is noisy and sung with generalized feeling,
and lago's "Credo" is so dull that when he says "La morte enulla," the uninitiated could mistake it to mean "This dinner's lousy" The bass selections are abit better because the voice sits more comfortably in them, but Attila's cabaletta lacks swagger, King Philip's monolog is devoid of pain and without personal feeling, and Fiesco's ravishing "Illacerato spirito" is shallow. The arias, their situations and characters might as well be interchangeable Estes also has pitch problems and conductor Delogu adds to the general lethargy with uninspired accompaniment. Abooklet with asynopsis of each

aria is included. The selections were recorded
at different recording levels, and so one must continually leap up and down to adjust the volume. There's one way to avoid this problem: Don't buy this disc.
In the opera house, Samuel Ramey, with
his dashing presence and exquisite voice rarely fails to please. I've seen him in almost every one
of his roles since the mid '70s, and am always taken by the sheer beauty of his sound, his
technique, and his intelligence. He is particularly impressive as Mozart's Figaro and Don
Giovanni, and in the florid operas of Rossini, where, for the moment, he is peerless. Iocca-
sionally find him abit soulless and generalized
in his emotions, and his two new EMI discs reaffirm all of these feelings.
The Rodgers & Hammerstein collection, which includes songs from Carousel, The King and I, South Pacific (both of de Becque's and Lt. Cable's), Pipe Dream, The Sound of Music, Oklahoma, Flower Drum Song, Cinderella,
and Allegro, is certain to enrage admirers of the American musical stage. Ramey is as American as the idiom itself (he's from Kansas), but he
makes the mistake that opera singers most often make: he over-articulates and under-emotes, and sounds anywhere but at home. José Car-
reras, on the weird CBS South Pacific (MK 42205), sounds far closer to the character of de Becque than Ramey does, even with the music transposed up athird, and Ramey inexplicably omits the rising, pianissimo conclusion to
"Some enchanted evening" on the word "go," thus flattening the song like aboard. Certainly
he has the required D-- he rises way above it elsewhere Ratney's "Younger than Springtime"
is completely unenthused and without
wonderment--just listen to Mandy Patinkin's glorious singing of it on CBS to hear how it
should sound. Ramey seems incapable of introspection--he sounds simple.
He also can't get ahandle on the "inspira-
tional" songs. "You'll never walk alone" is almost guaranteed to stir the blood, but here
it fizzles; and "Climb ev'ry mountain," in Ramey's reading, sounds like the response to arequest for directions. Bland city. Both "The surrey with the fringe on top" and "Oh, what abeautiful morniri "fare better--they're direct
and energetic--but they still sound like the singer is out of his element. "I have dreamed" is devoid of reverie; "June is bustin' out all over" should not be sung by such avoice. There are no attempts at characterization in any
of the songs; they're all out of context. Idon't object to this per se if each is treated as asmall personal drama instead, but there's none of that here either. Should Igo on? Idoubt it. I'm not denying that the vocal production and smooth-

Stereophile, November 1989

195

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ness of delivery are admirable, but there's no adventure. This is white bread slathered with
mayo, and Ramey and arranger/conductor Peter Matz should be ashamed of themselves. Asurprising failure.
Ramey's disc of opera arias is somewhat better. The program is fabulous--unhackneyed, varied, and generous. The voice rolls out like San Francisco's fog rolls in--impressive, seemingly endless, and surprising. Once again, Ifind too much of it faceless, although Ican pretty
well pin much of that on Jacques Delacote's lackluster conducting. It really isn't enough for
abass to boom out Don Basilio's words in "La calunnia" from II barbiere di Siviglia; the
orchestra must sound like it's having fun, there should be some playful conspiracy in the strings. Similarly, Mefistofeles' serenade from
Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust, no matter how well articulated the singer's attitude, can fall flat if the orchestra refuses to strut with the
singer. Delacote, Ifear, is ahack--just listen to the way he rushes through King Philip's "Elle ne m'aime pas" for real insensitivity. There's no room for sorrow.
Elsewhere, Ramey comes close to carrying the arias all by himself. Silva's aria from Ernani, atotal washout on the Estes disc is vibrant here,
and the inclusion of the cabaletta strengthens the portrait. The rarities from Rossini's Le Comte Ory and Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable are not only welcome, they're gorgeously sung, and Alfonso's aria from Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia has great energy: these are object lessons in bel canto delivery. "II lacerato spirito" finds the bass blanding out with the conductor, or rather, being defeated by him. Apity. Selections from Nabucco and Ivespri siciliani are
glossed over as well--these, like the Don Carlos, are arias on epic subjects; Ramey and Delacote underplay them.
What to say? The singing qua singing is beautiful, the artistry incontestable. Ramey
needs strong leadership; I've heard him knock the socks off an audience. Here he succeeds despite both his own and his conductor's lack
of passion, but only intermittently. Iwish the powers that be had seen fit to include some more of his coloratura, razzle-dazzle repertoire-- it never fails to pleasc The sound is rich and full
as it is on the Rodgers & Hammerstein disc, and the balances are realistic: all one could want,
sonically. The accompanying booklet (which
won't fit back in the case after it's been removed) contains an uninformed and uninformative essay on basses, Ramey, and the arias, as well as texts and translations.
Just when Ihad almost given up, bass-wise, along came the james Morris recital, and it lives up to this bass's current reputation. Mor-

ris's apprenticeship has been long and he has
learned well, having sung an enormous variety of roles, from Don Giovanni to Hoffman's four villains. Until now the most under-recorded
bass of his generation (bass soloist in the Duruflé, Mozart, and Fauré Requiems and two
brand-new Walküres), Morris's first solo disc was worth waiting for.
It contains five Verdi arias: the Ernani, Don Carlo, Boccanegra, and Vespri recorded by the
other two basses, plus Banco's aria from Macbeth. His Silva is well-defined and clearly
wounded (how Iwould have loved to hear the cabaletta here), his King Philip atowering, lonely figure (finally!), and his Fiesco finely drawn, alternating between the hatred of "0 vile seduttore" and the terrible introspection of afather's grief. His Banco and Procida are a bit all-purpose for me, but that's often the case
when these arias are performed outside their operas.
Morris's Verdi singing is impressive. He's at his best when he can give his huge voice free
rein (I recall his Claggart in Billy Budd at the Met years ago; the sheer sound was terrifying
in its size and darkness), but he also knows when to hold back. His sense of legato, the simple knowledge of how notes go together to
form amelodic, dramatic line, is just what's missing from, say, the Estes recital. In general, in this Italian repertory, Morris tends to slide into notes abit too much--it's more than portamento or legato, it's abad habit and should be checked. But the even production, like Ramey at his best, is agift, and he has the Verdi
style down pat. And this is all the more reason for the listener to be impressed by the disc's
second half hour.
After this Verdian festspiel, we suddenly come upon two excerpts by \Vagner: the Flying Dutchman's first and the Walküre Wotan's last monologs. The Dutchman's scene is moody in the extreme, with variations in dynamics during the recitative which immediately let us
know what we're dealing with: "Dein Trotz ¡st beugsam--doch ewig meine Qual!" is spooky beyond belief. The aria itself is ravishingly sung, once again with its manic-depressive moodswings in place, reminding us that there are reasons why this is rarely recorded out of
context--it's simply too difficult for most basses to become so involved in 12 minutes. There is an occasional problem with pitch (similar to the one caused by his sliding in the Italian pieces), but the singer's sustained inten-
sity more than compensates. Morris's/Dutchman's cry of "Vergeb'ne Hoffnung!" will stay in my mind for months--the tragedy is all here
Irecommend abreak of aminute or two before listening to Wotan's final 17 minutes; fol-

Stereophile, November 1989

197

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198

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lowing immediately after the Dutchman, the
two selections together are almost too much to take As Morris has proven in the opera house and on complete recordings under both Levine and Haitink, he is the Wotan of this generation. He is in Wotan's skin; he knows this character.
And dare Isay it--I somehow prefer this final scene to either of the other two. The sound of the voice remains luxurious in the extreme, but there's astillness here which moved me even
more deeply. My feeling is that Morris lacks only afew years' experience to turn him into
asinging actor on the level of Hans Hotter.
It certainly doesn't hurt that Morris has the best assistance of the three basses. How different the Munich Rundfunkorchester sounds here, under Ralf Weikert! This conductor brings out the contrasts in the different scores, and
carries the action of each piece along with great dramatic thrust, getting handsome tone from
the orchestra. Booklet with flimsy essay, texts, and translations. Sound is superb, although at slightly too low alevel at the start of the Dutchman's scene. But this is highly recommended.
Less than half of Placido Domingo's new disc is taken up by Placido Domingo, and most of his fans will feel they haven't gotten their money's worth. What they'll discover are Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espanol with an unidentified (!) violin soloist, the overture to von Reznicek's Donna Diana (just what we
were all waiting for), Johann Strauss Jr.'s coloratura ditty "Voices of Spring" transposed for orchestra (talk about boring), and "0 mio babbino caro" sung uninterestingly by soprano
Adriana Morelli. All of these feature the New York Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta at their most energetic. But where's the beef?
Well, when he's around, for the most part, the great, ubiquitous Domingo delights. He opens with arousing 'Amor ti vieta" from
Fedora, all 90 seconds of it. Has any tenor ever gone wrong with this aria? Domingo sings it wonderfully, though he's short on involvement --
but that's obviously not the purpose of this
evening's entertainment. There follows asong from Lehar's Guiditta ("Comrades, this is the life for me!"), sung with such verve and rambunctiousness that the voice fairly pops
through the speakers. Later we get the beautiful "Cherry duet" from Mascagni's L4 mico Fritz, handsomely sung by the tenor and not-sohandsomely by Morelli, all of it hardly eclipsing memories of Pavarotti and Freni, let alone Tag,liavini and Tassinari. The obligatory goofy
version of "Granada" eventually shows up, then Paviata's "De miei bollenti spiriti," which has no impact whatsoever in this free-
for-all context. Tosti's "Ideale" is beautifully intoned but spoiled by asoppy arrangement,

and the program closes with Gastaldon's "Musica Proibita," which sounds familiar even
though it isn't. This is ashiny-sounding album for those who don't want to work too hard or must have every note Domingo records. Of limited appeal otherwise, it tends toward background music Thrills are to be found elsewhere.
The Dutch soprano F.11y Ameling has rarely thrilled, but Idoubt whether anyone who has
ever heard her has not been positively affected and enriched. She is asinger of such warmth
and charm that she brings the listener close to the music with no difficulty: she never gets in the way. She also loves what she's doing and transmits that love. She sings 19 songs on her latest recital disc, ranging from Beethoven's "Ich liche dich" to "The Last Rose of Summer" (not the Flotow arrangement, the traditional one), to aRavel song in Greek and aJapanese song, and back to numbers by Brahms, Hahn,
Massenet, Chopin, and Barber, not to mention Tosti, Schubert, and afew others. It's adeli-
cious disc of encores. It would be folly to single out favorites here,
but Iknow Iwouldn't want to do without
Schubert's evocative "Wiegenlied," Mendelssohn's "Auf Flügeln des Gesanges" ("On the
Wings of Song," the disc's apt title), or Tosti's "Aprile," which Ameling returns to its proper perspective, after so many years of having
tenors over-sing it. The recital is averitable how-to of lieder singing, despite the fact that
the voice is hardly as fresh as in days gone by. But Iwon't carp--I'll merely be grateful for this
lovely disc, and grateful, too, to RudolfJansen for his accompaniments and to Philips for their usual gorgeous sound. Enchanting.
If there was any doubt as to Jessye Nor-
man's standing as asuperstar, her singing of the Marseillaise on Bastille Day in Paris for their
bicentennial, draped in amile or so of French tricolor, should put that doubt to rest. She became asuperstar when no one was watching, and, as Paul AnIca would say, she did it her
way. Her voice is uncharacterizable--it is con-
tralto, mezzo, and soprano. She may be a soprano assuluta the way some feel Maria Callas and the singers of the early 19th century were--ie, if it's written for woman's voice, she can sing it. Indeed, at the 1982 Edinburgh festival she was slated to sing the soprano part in
the Verdi Requiem, and when the mezzo took ill, she stepped in easily and with splendor, leaving the soprano line to another singer.
Norman has, for one reason or another--
probably nothing more serious than personal taste--kept away from Puccini and Verdi (the two exceptions, besides the Requiem, are the
latter's Un Giorno di Regno and I! Corsaro, recorded in the mid-'70s but never, to my

Stereophile, November 1989

199

knowledge, sung onstage), and all the bel canto composers. She has only recently begun dipping herself in Wagner--and still cautiously.
For most singers, this refusal to perform the standards would spell doom, at best asort of esoteric cultdom. But Norman's gifts are so prodigious and she is such ariveting figure onstage that she has made people listen to Berlioz,
Strauss, Mahler, Offenbach, and others whom they normally wouldn't go near. One wonders
what Tosca would sound like in her throat -- imperious, elegant, majestic, most likely--but as long as Erwartung beckons, we'll probably never know.
The items on the generous disc under con-
sideration here were recorded during November of 1987, in various European cities: Amster-
dam, Berlin, Hamburg, Paris, Munich, Milan, Brussels, and others. It's atypical Norman evening, one which could be confused with no
other singer's recital. It moves from the Baroque elegance of Handel's "Lascia ch'io ',Line from Rinaldo to the arch-Classicism of Haydn's 19minute cantata Arianna a Naxos, through Ravel and Strauss, with agenerous sprinkling of Alban Berg songs (from 1907 through '25), plenty of Mahler, and acouple of roof-raising Spirituals. One is left wondering--Is there anything this voice can't do? Is there any style alien to her? Is there no part of her voice which is insecure? The answer to each would seem to be no.
Arianna, which opens the program, is severe and doleful in its exclamation at first,
turns lyrical and imploring, then introspective and ultimately indignant and fiery. Norman fairly turns it into amini-opera, observing its rigid Classicism but infusing the words and music with utmost dramatic conviction. She
embellishes the vocal line slightly (once with an almost wayward but exciting roulade), and sells us this otherwise dreary piece wholesale. The Handel selections are handsomely ren-
dered, although each of us will have our own favorite other versions, I'm sure. All of the Mahler is stunning, particularly the tragic "Das irdische Leben," the final line of which is shattering in its brutality, and, conversely, the playful "Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht?," which is
light and lovely. The Berg fascinates, especially two versions
of the same setting composed 18 years apart (and inexplicably separated by aMahler song on the disc). Richard Strauss's "Kling" (0p.48 No.3) turns out to be avirtuoso masterpiece, with Norman's decrescendo on the final "kling" asheer delight, and the Spirituals have
to be heard to be believed: "Great Day" finds the singer flying high, ecstatically rising twice
to high C, and "He's got the whole world in his

hands" is passionate enough to make the
audience want to roll in the aisles (they sound as if they might). Ravel's "Vocalise-Etude (en forme de Habanera)" is the final encore, and
it's as odd--and successful--a choice as the rest of the program.
Irealize that I've waxed rapturous about this
disc, but it really should be experienced by anyone who loves the human voice. Norman's sound gashes forth like an oil well or ageyser-- it's close to miraculous. Geoffrey Parsons cannot be praised highly enough; nor can Philips's engineers, who take the edge off the live record-
ings and put us in the third row. There may be
too much presence for some listeners, but we're dealing here with asinger who can eclipse the French flag, so we may as well bask in it.
Last, but hardly least, is the youngest, newest of the singers: Arkansas-born Susan Dunn. The big question is, is she the Verdi soprano we've been waiting for, the one the opera world so
desperately needs? Vet, Iwouldn't be surprised, but she may also, judging from this recital, become something else as well.
Dunn is not much of an actress on stage, but neither were Milanov or Leontyne Price. Rather
like those ladies, she prefers to color her phrases in such away as to make the needed dramatic point. The voice itself is rich and fruity and capable of amyriad of colors. Her pianissimi are not quite real, they're merely gentler notes, but the effect is impressive If she has one great shortcoming at the moment it is her discomfort with languages. She has a novice's difficulty getting around Italian; her German is somewhat better, but not much. This is aproblem which can be solved; Iwon't dote on it, but the careful listener is certain to notice.
The program is ambitious--this is abrave singer Ican't recall the last time asoprano opened adebut recital with Beethoven's 'Ah! perfido;" it's too exposed for most singers to risk. Dunn's reading is asmashing success. The opening recitative is dramatic; with some interesting plunges
into chest voice (careful, but interesting), and the rondo itself is sung tenderly and with great beauty of tone. And when she lets loose in the rapid coda, she amazes with her virtuosity, righton rhythm, and accurate pitch. More tempera-
ment and we've got Norma. There follow three Wagner selections--"Dich
teure Halle" from Tannbduser, and "Der manner sippe" and "Du bist der Lenz" from Die Walküre. All are masterly. Elisabeth's invocation is bright and enthusiastic (Riccardo Chailly's leadership throughout helps make this disc asuccess), with pointed delivery and warmth. The Walküre chunks, though harder to convince with out of context, are also winning. The first is properly
moody and the second, while lacking the real

200

Stereophile, November 1989

rapture it should have, makes one want to hear this singer in more Wagner. Her Elsa would be ideal, judging from this.
This brings us to the Verdian test pieces: arias from Bailo, Ernani, Wspri, Forza, and Byvatore
The rust, "Ecco forrido campo," is fabulous, once again helped along by Chailly's surging additions of mood. Dunn's dramatic sense is sharp here, and the aria's brutalities hold no fears for her--the
voice rings out at all registers, with clarity and potency. Elvira's aria, "Emani, involami," is more of aproblem, particularly in its cabaletta, where
Dunn can't muster up the correct abandon--but what soprano since Rosa Ponselle sings this music
convincingly? "Arrigo!, ah! parli aun core" is a brute of apiece, and while Dunn hardly embar-
rasses herself, she takes the easier descending scale from high C at the aria's close and still
doesn't quite get through it with ease or grace. Her trill is vestigial as well. "Pace pace, mio Dio" is excellently rendered but needs further emo-
tional exploration, and the same can be said for Leonora's "Tacea la notte" and its cabaletta. I'm being slightly overcritical here because we are
dealing, without adoubt, with amajor singer who is flirting with greatness. She's so good, she can take the heat.
Dunn is an exciting singer with aremarkable

technique. She has to let go abit emotionally and
hurl herself into her roles before she'll begin to bowl them over in the aisles. But her attention to detail, the beauty of the sound, and the sincerity of her delivery are all to be treasured. As suggested above, Chailly and the Bologna forces offer more than assistance--they're partners, and
very good ones at that. Abooklet with an essay about Miss Dunn and texts and translations is
included, and the disc is vibrantly recorded and produced. Highly recommended. Susan Dunn has grandeur in her voice and great intelligence;
it will be apleasure to watch her develop. Quite acrop, these eight discs, and five of the
seven singers are home-grown. Ameling and Domingo are, of course, the best-known quantities, and the latter disappoints only because of the casualness--and flimsiness--of his program.
Norman is anatural resource to be treasured. Estes should, judging from his recital disc, stick to Wagner although he's hardly the end-all in that fact, either. Ramey remains problematic--a luscious voice which can do everything with such ease and class that too little thought is being put into the interpretations. Morris is adynamo who has only to check some bad habits. And Susan Dunn may just rise, albeit carefully, to the top. As Isaid, quite acrop.

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RECORAIDLREVIEWS

Classical
BACH: Orchestral Suites, BWV 1066-1069 Christopher Hogwood, The Academy of Ancient Music L'Oiseau -Lyre 417 834-2 (2 CDs only). John Dunkerley,
eng., Suites 2, 3, 4; John Pellowe, eng., Suite 1; Peter Wadland, prod. DDD. TT: 94:22
It's been quite awhile since we all came to realize that the authentic-instrument movement was more than afad. But whether you regard its seeming permanence as good news or bad, you should be glad to know that despite all the bookish research done in the name of recreating the one, true, authoritative interpretation of music from the past, differences flourish among authenticians. Score one for the rugged individualists.
Christopher Hogwood's richly diverse interpretation of Bach's four orchestral suites differs as much from those of his fellow period practitioners as it does from those of the modern school. This can only mean more fun and a greater breadth of choice for all of us.
Hogwood is not afraid, for example, to impart more lyricism--even strains of melan-
choly or grandeur--to these scores than do such counterparts as John Eliot Gardiner (English Baroque Soloists, Erato) or Sigiswald Kuijken (La Petite Band, Pro Arte). But he does so without ever losing the momentum or the Baroque buoyancy vital to the music.
The result of these confidently and carefully chosen accents is that Hogwood gives us greater contrasts within and among the suites. Afull, rewarding picture emerges--a sense that
the music is more than just the sum of its notes and that the individual still has aplace in the pursuit of historical accuracy. Suite 2, with the concertante flute beautifully played by Lisa Beznosiuk, is particularly illustrative of this eloquence and broad interpretive vocabulary.
But do not infer from this that Hogwood's versions are Romanticized, or that Gardiner's or Kuijken's are dry. Hogwood and his orchestra are still bright and lively, in the proper Baroque style. Gardiner's readings are also very spirited, and move beautifully through the varieties of the works' moods. Kuijken seems at times to be having more genuine fun than

either, though his musicians fall just short of the caliber of those under the command of the other two conductors. But it is Hogwood's recordings, in the end, that present amore comprehensive view, one that would probably hold up better to repeated listenings.
The L'Oiseau -Lyre sound quality is very good, too. It has excellent detail without losing the fullness of orchestral body. And the steely drone of the Baroque violins--which can bore through solid bone on some recordings--is very civilized here.
For an excellent alternative on modern instruments, turn perhaps to Neville Marriner's grand, stately effort with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields on Philips. But even the most vehement anti-authentic crusader would have trouble resisting the appeal of Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music.
--Robert Hesson
BEETHOVEN Piano Concertos 1-5, Choral Fantasy Vladimir Ashkenazy. piano and director; Cleveland
Orchestra Decca 421 718-2 (3 CDs only). Simon Eldon, Colin Moor-
foot, engs.; Andrew Comall. prod. DDD. TT 3:18:59
What was once considered an impossible task, that of directing all the Beethoven piano concertos from the keyboard, has not only been accomplished by Barenboim, but also now by Ashkenazy, and extremely successfully too. Ashkenazy told me that it had been Barenboim's inspired direction of Mozan's tuttis from the keyboard that had encouraged him to try those concertos--all have now been recorded with the Philharmonia -- but whether or not Barenboim has also been the influence behind the Beethoven Icannot answer. Ashkenazy shows here such anatural sense of dialog, of intuitively timed and balanced give-and-take with the Clevelanders (with whom he has often recorded), that Ifeel the decision to undertake this project was probably determined purely by the strength of their relationship.
Here the myth of soloist vs orchestra is exploded: Ashkenazy, now in dual responsibility, is spiritually of one mind with his colleagues, and the balance of piano with orchestra, of necessity a more integral feature,

Stereophile, November 1989

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heightens that impression. His control, and
coordination with the orchestra, are masterly--better, Iwould hazard, than is often achieved by the intervening, middle-man conductor. Consider the immaculately timed ritardandi of the "Emperor" and the pp leggiermente markings of the first movement observed to beautiful effect. There is agreat deal of poetry in Concerto 3, too, with some breathtaking moments in the Largo, and a delightful delicacy to the Rondo.
Yet Ifeel alack of refinement in Concerto 2, most readily displayed by aless caring approach to dynamic contrast. Aggression rather than playfulness seems to be the keynote here; nothing like the charm of Murray Perahia's view of the work (CBS MK 42177) ever surfaces. What is of interest, however, is Ashkenazy's use of his own cadenza for the first movement, already to be heard on his recording with Solti/CSO.
As for the piano, it doesn't sound in the best of condition. In fact, the way it resonates is often reminiscent of the fortepiano. But this is much less distracting than the unpleasant edits throughout the set, those in the Choral Fantasy being the most regrettable, as that work's inclu-
sion in this set should be seen as abonus. All begins well, Ashkenazy whipping up ahigh degree of tension and anticipation from the very first notes of his opening solo. The excellently balanced bank of soloists gives afine performance, too. So why has London passed tapes that show two of the soloists to have
receded so noticeably into the background by its close?
Whether or not to recommend the set is difficult. I'm happy to be able to dip into it, and
complement it with Perahia/Haitink (now also available as aboxed set, minus the Choral Fantasy, on CBS CD 44575), but I'd say adefinitive version has yet to be made. --BarbaraJahn
BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonatas
Sonatas 3, 5,8 ("Pathétique"), 13, 14 ("Moonlight"), 15 ("Pastorale"), 18, 20, 23 ("Appassionata"), 26 ("Les Adieux")
Bruno-Leonardo Gelber, piano
Denon CO-2203, CO-72539, CO-73006 (single CDs only). Peter Willimmes, mg.; Takashi Baba, prod. ODD. TTS: 68:45, 55:12, 59:21
The 48-year-old Argentina-born Gelber, who studied with Marguerite Long and now makes his home in Paris, is the latest contender in the complete recorded Beethoven Piano Sonata sweepstakes. Judging from the first issues, three separately available CDs, this performer is definitely worth hearing for his strong interpretive profile. His range of dynamics, almost always warm-toned even when dramatically explosive, is exceptionally wide, and there is

awelcome sense of forward momentum. An

ability to probe poetically, to seek and summon

up character, added to adazzling technical command, invariably reveals interpretations

that are highly assertive, even at times arrest-

ing. Perhaps one could legitimately complain

that Gelber at this point does not really distin-

guish between earlier and later Beethoven in

any stylistic sense. Indeed, what the performer

produces here is often very large-scaled, almost

larger than life--and we are not discussing any

kind of comparison with the less sonorous

kinds of pianos that Beethoven knew or, con-

versely, any abnormally high-level playback of

Gelber's modern Steinway. The results are often

fascinating, and, perhaps with only the excep-

tion of the overly deliberate variations move-

ment in the "Appassionata" or asomewhat

impatient-sounding No.18 opening, these are

startlingly attention-getting interpretations. That applies equally to those introspective

moments that are the most quiet and tender as

well as, more obviously, to those sections

where the pianist evokes the agitated, Sturm

und Drang Beethoven. The Paris-made record-

ing is remarkably vivid, clean, and full-blown,

although close enough for the listener to be

aware of the distractions of occasional light

performance noises. One important feature

particularly recommendable to music teachers

or those wishing to understand aspects of

sonata form is the indexing, with anywhere

from three to as many as eight internal sections

per movement being accessible at the push of

abutton. Those having that capability on their

CD players will surely find this amost welcome

bonus.

--Igor Kipnis

BEETHOVEN: Symphonies 1& 2 Telarc CD-80I87. TT: 58:49 BEETHOVEN: Symphonies 4& 8 Telarc CD-80I98. TT: 58:43 Both: Christoph von Dohn5nyi, Cleveland Orchestra CD only. Jack Renner, mtg.: Robert IXAmds, prod. ODD. BEETHOVEN: Symphonies I& 4 Claudio Abbado, Vienna Philharmonic
DG 427 301-2 (CD only). Werner Mayer, mg.; Günther Brent, prod. DDD. TT: 58:43
With these releases, two conductors complete traversals of the Beethoven symphonies. The Dohnányi cycle was begun about five years ago with this performance of Symphony 8(originally coupled on CD with the conductor's account of the Schubert "Unfinished"). It is a generally fine account weakened by afew shortcomings: ablended sonority that deprives the music of its piquant color and brashness, afew untoward breathpauses, and agenerally pervasive coolness. Far more disappointing is the new 4, spoiled by ludicrously fast outer movements in which Dohnányi skates across

Stereophile, November 1989

205

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the music's surface with little inflection. All one can do is marvel at the Clevelanders' virtuosity in keeping step with the jet propulsion. Lost in the rush is the first movement's requisite explosiveness and weight and the finale's bubbly waggishness.
Dohnányi does better with 1and 2, where the only unorthodox feature is the rapid tempo for both slow movements, atrait that deprives
them of their incipient atmosphere and delicacy. And the outer movements of both scores would benefit from abit more inflection and rhythmic shading in order to underscore
the music's drama and wit. One misses, for example, the joke (in the first movement of 1)
of abass line that fails to keep in step with the rest of the orchestra; similarly, the brusque humor of the finale of 2is eroded by atight-
fisted rigidity. Dohnányi observes all exposition repeats and inserts gratuitous ones in the reprise of the third movements of 1and 2.
Telarc's slightly hard-edged sound is acceptable. In short, these releases, though not with-
out virtues, cannot compete with the best available.
The Abbado release is more successful, at least in part. No.4 is one of the best Beethoven performances Ihave heard from the conduc-
tor: beautifully balanced, carefully shaped, and
with just the right suggestion of the crackling tension that is at the work's core. Note, for
instance, the superbly molded first-movement recapitulation that develops from atrip across
harmonic galaxies and explodes under Abbado like anova; note, too, the sharp etching of the
motivic profile in the work's finale that brings out the humor so conspicuously absent in Dohninyi's reading. Unfortunately, Abbado's No.1 is another matter, its rhythmic spinelessness echoing weaknesses in the conductor's
earlier Beethoven recordings. This shortcoming, let it be added, has nothing to do with tempos being too slow (although Iwould prefer greater animation in the first movement of I). Rather it is rooted in aseeming inability to generate energy and asense of thrust. Abbado
observes all exposition repeats, and DG's inconcert recording is gorgeous, with considerably warmer ambience and more judicious balances than Telarc provides.
Among currently available editions of these
warhorses, my preferences for 1remain with Wand (soon to be reissued by RCA) and Bern-
stein (DG), both boasting pointed color, humor, and swagger. Bernstein also gives agrand antic-
ipation of the "Eroica" in his DG account of 2, and Szell's fine old reading of the work -- trimmer, fleeter, and less well-recorded than
Bernstein's--has recently been reissued on a mid-priced CBS CD. No.4 received apower-

fully intense reading from Karajan in a1977 DG

version recently reissued on amid-priced DG

Galleria CD, and Bernstein's DG version of a

year later is also large-scaled and incisive.

Fleeter and abit more lightweight, but equally

commanding and gorgeously recorded, is

Kegel's superb performance on Capriccio. And

8can be heard in all its craggy brashness in fine

readings by Szell, Karajan, Bernstein, Kegel,

and Wand (see my "Building ALibrary" in the

next issue).

--Mortimer H. Frank

DVORAK: Piano Concerto, Op.33 SCHUMANN: Introduction & Allegro appassionato,
Op.92 Andras Schiff, piano; Christoph von Dohnanyi, VPO London 417 802-2 (CD only). Simon Eadon, eng.;
Christopher Raeburn, prod. DDD. TT: 5302
Andras Schiff, one of today's most sensitive interpreters and apianist Ivery much admire, performs both these works with his usual poetic understanding. At least in the case of the uncut Dvorák, however, his rhetorically understated approach (the first-movement cadenza is an exception) seems more classically conceived than as arepresentative product of the beginning of the last quarter of the 19th century. Perhaps my reaction to the performance as awhole, to is colored by the prosaic, albeit accurate, orchestral direction. Not without vigor, the accompaniment nonetheless decidedly misses romantic warmth, ardor, and sweep, as well as afirm profile. Nor is the live recorded sound of the Dvorák -- we are told only that it derives from Nov. 1986 in the Vienna Musikverein-- particularly pleasing. One has the impression of multiple miking with the palpably felt, closeup piano too forward in relation to the orchestra. The non-live Schumann, a15-minute gem, benefits from a sound picture that is much better integrated.
--Igor Kipnis

ELGAR: The Dream ofGerontius PARRY: Blest Pair ofSirens; Iwas Glad Felicity Palmer, mezzo-soprano; Arthur Davies, tenor:
Gwynne Howell, bass; Richard Hickox, LSO & Chorus Chandos DBRD-2014 (2 LPs), CHAN 8641,42 (2 CDs).
Ralph Couzens, eng.; Brian Couzens, prod. DDD. TT 15400
Richard Hickox has been Director of the London Symphony Chorus for 12 years now, and this performance of Gerontius alone would speak reams of how good he is at the job. I've never heard areading in which the chorus was so much an indispensable part of the work; it usually feels like an also-ran, left over when rehearsal time ran out! Here, its superbly attentive members sing with breath-stilling pianissimos as the assistants and the distant Voices from Earth, with great joy as the Angelicals, and, just as happily it seems, with spiteful, spine-

Stereophile, November 1989

207

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tingling venom and menace as the threatening, invisible demons. Whoever selected Arthur Davies to take the title role certainly knew what they were about too. He brings adrama to the score that lifts the notes from the page as no other has done, in my experience There is real anxiety in his voice at "Sanctus fortis," resignation at "Mary pray for me," and heart-rending supplication at "Take me away" Idefy anyone not to be moved by this, heightened as it all is by Hickox's calculated risks with dynamic and tempo gradations.
But nothing is ever perfect, and where I thought this performance's strength would lie, with the normally superb mezzo Felicity Palmer, there is not only weakness but some surprising unpleasantness. Her voice becomes harsh under pressure, high notes acquiring a desperate quality that is distinctly uncomfortable to live with. Gwynne Howell, too, while coping admirably with the different tessitura of both the Priest and Angel of the Agony, disappoints by the odd, slightly sharp note.
To say that the orchestra goes unnoticed for much of the time is acompliment; that it plays the perfect supporting role, both here and in the two excellent Parry fillers, shows how welljudged is the recorded balance of this disc. And by its unassuming stance, it points up the greatness of Gerontius which, ironically enough, for all its Catholic inspiration, represents the pinnacle of sacred choral composition in England at the turn of the century.
--BarbaraJahn
HAYDN: String Quartets, Op.54 Nos.1-3 Endellion Quartet
Virgin Classics VC 90719-2 (CD only). Mike Hatch, eng.; Andrew Keener, prod. DDA/DDD. rr: 60:16
The only competition on CD for this release is asplendid account of the three Op.54 quartets recorded alittle more than adecade ago for Hungaroton by the Tátrai Quartet. Favoring a slightly wider vibrato, marginally faster tempos in outer movements, and an equally lean sonority, the Endellion Quartet conveys this music's emotional range--its pathos, humor, and exuberance--with somewhat greater intensity than the Tátrai displays. The stuttering close of No.1 has never sounded wittier; the hilarious silent beats in the exposition of the opening movement of No.2 are superbly prepared; and the sobbing gloom of the succeeding Adagio--one of Haydn's most expressive slow movements--is italicized by clarifying all of its stark, almost modern chromaticism. And in soaringly lyric moments, as in the opening movement of No.3, the Endellion projects the music's ethos with apt, unaffected simplicity.
At times Imissed the tension suggested in

portions of these works by the Juilliard Quartet

in amagnificent, long out of print, superbly

reproduced 1964 recording that has reposed far too long in the CBS vaults. Unless it is reis-

sued, this Virgin Classics release may well be

apreferred edition, especially as it boasts far

better engineering than that of the hard-edged

Tátrai account. The Endellion plays all exposition repeats in this warmly recommended

release.

--Mortimer H. Frank

HAlfDN: Symphonies 101 & 103
Frans Brüggen, Orchestra of the 18th Century
Philips 422 240-2 (CD only). Dick van Schuppen, Eva Blankespoor, engs.; Gerd Berg, prod. DDD. TF: 60.10
This release has major shortcomings, but comprises one of the most communicative periodinstrument presentations that Ihave heard and the most commanding performances that Frans Brüggen has recorded to date. In every way, 101 is an unqualified success. Brüggen
gives us a Haydn who is the progenitor of Beethoven, aHaydn at once dramatic, brusquely surprising, and amaster of orchestral color. All of the music's wit, motivic profile, and vibrant joyfulness are conveyed, and even with the
smallish orchestra supported by but three double-basses, Brüggen projects aweight and intensity that typify Haydn. If there is aweakness in the performance, it may be the slightly exaggerated staccato execution in the slow movement, which tends to overdo the tick.
tock syndrome that has inspired the nickname "Clock." But this is aminor cavil with what is clearly amajor achievement.
Many of the same admirable traits are to be found in 103, but major problems exist here: The first movement--perhaps as aresult of Brüggen's effort to suggest weight and power-- moves too slowly to sound joyful. The contrast between the variations of the slow movement
is weakened by insertions of pointless breathpauses between them. And the finale is compromised by an egregiously ill-judged decision to employ Haydn's original, relatively unfamiliar version, which he later shortened,
thereby tightening the movement's already extraordinary terseness. Also disturbing is Brüg,gen's elongation of the horn call that introduces the movement, one of Haydn's wittiest strokes in which the horn's structurally central motif enters, in effect, one measure too early, adelightful joke whose humor is wiped out when the passage is not played in tempo. Finally, one wonders why Brüggen is inconsistent in his treatment of the first movement's
timpani roll, playing an extended crescendodiminuendo at the opening, but--when the passage recurs near the movement's close-- opting for the forte-diminuendo pattern that

Stereophile, November 1989

209

modern scholarship deems correct for both

statements. For those undisturbed by such idi-

osyncrasies, this release should prove an

unqualified success. Certainly it is worth hear-

ing for 101 alone. Brüggen observes all expo-

sition repeats. Philips' sound is close, clear, and

richly detailed.

--Mortimer H. Frank

MAHLER: Symphony I Leonard Bernstein, Concertgebouw Orchestra
IX; 427 303-2. TT: 56:05
MAHLER: Des Knaben Wunderborn Lucia Popp, soprano; Andreas Schmidt. baritone; Con-
certgebouw Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein
DG 427 302-2. TT: 5741 Born: Cl) only. Hans-Peter Schweigman, Klaus Scheibe,
engs.; Hanno Rinke, prod. DOD.
Bernstein's new Mahler 1is amassive improvement upon his 1967 NYPO recording. That earlier performance was fatally hard-driven, dominated by acold-as-steel substitution for Viennese sweetness. In contrast, the new recording breathes with alife and understanding that is unmistakably European. Thus the second-movement Landler is broad and beautifully proportioned; the movement's trio has aViennese ripeness that eluded Bernstein in the 1960s. In the first movement Bernstein takes apage out of Bruno `Valter's performance book, making the woodwind cuckoo-calls graceful and literal.
Most telling of Bernstein's encyclopedic understanding is the finale, where he leads us through alittle history of 19th-century music. In the pastoral sections there are Bohemian evocations of Dvorak which I, at least, never before detected. As in Bernstein's recent Mahler 5, the brass fanfares are given aBrucknerian grandeur, here quite incongruous with the music's overall sense of personal willfulness à la Berlioz. (Can you think of abetter derivation for Mahler's central musical crisis than the conflict between Brucknerian and Berliozian histories?)
But one wonders if the virtuosity is misplaced: whether this youthful music is probed too deeply. Where Bernstein gives the first pastoral interlude of the finale the significance of aBruckner Adagio, Andrew Litton, in his RPO reading on Virgin Classics, makes it the romantic reverie of aspring afternoon. Litton may sound alittle breathless at times, but the material can bear it: it's not subtle music. By comparison, Bernstein lumbers abit.
My first recommendation for aMahler Iis the Litton. For asuperior interpretation of the music, consult Horenstein/LSO on Unicorn. For amature, broad reading, loyalty remains with Walter, the recent Haitink/BPO being too dull.
Mahler's song-cycle Des Knaben Wun-

derhorn, or The }bulb's Magic Horn, was completed just after Symphony 1. Based upon acollection of German folk tales, this cycle is vital
to comprehending Mahler, since it provided much material for Symphonies 2-4, and some for the later symphonies. Akin to Bernstein's
revisits to the symphonies, this Concertgebouw performance is more infused with European tradition than his 1969 NYPO recording with Christa Ludwig and Walter Berry. Unlike Bernstein's new Symphony 1, this mellowing is no automatic advantage. Bernstein's treat-
ments of songs with humorous or pastoral character ("Rheinlegendchen," "Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht?," "Verlor'ne Müh") have developed agentle wit over the last 20 years. But many songs in Des Knaben Wunderhorn are polemical, bitterly satirical, and based on military themes; these tend to be the songs
reappearing in the symphonies. Bernstein's sometimes caustic and slashing NYPO manner better suits them. The anti-war song "Die Tunboursg'sell" on Bernstein/NYPO retains to this day the chill it had when first recorded during that painful Vietnam era; Berry's last exhalation of "Gute Nacht," as his drummer-boy character reaches the gallows, is breathtaking.
As in the NYPO recording, Bernstein has the singers take male and female roles in the four songs where this is appropriate.
Comparisons of singers is amixed bag. Lucia Popp is more believable in the young girl roles than Ludwig, her pronunciation more natural;
and her voice doesn't suffer from the hardness on top that sometimes afflicts Ludwig. Baritone Schmidt, though possessing afresh, controlled voice, cannot approach Berry's dramatic skill.
In the matter of sonics, there is no compar-
ison. The new DG approximates natural timbres and arealistic perspective between singers and orchestra. The CBS recording is awful, ruthlessly miked singers slapped over orchestra in aphase-scrambled manner that no good pop producer would tolerate.
Either of Bernstein's Wunderhorn recordings will provide afine introduction. Both include fine translations, though William Mann's on the new DG could stand alittle more bite. Ianxiously await CD re-release of an excellent performance, previously available on Vanguard LP, with Felix Prohaslca conducting the "Vienna Festival Orchestra." This '60s-vintage recording features Maureen Forrester, agreat Mahlerian contralto, at her prime. The baritone part is sung with consummate skill by Heinz
Rehfuss, amost underrated singer-actor. Specifically not recommended is the 1968 Angel recording with George Szell and the LSO.
Despite fine singing by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, it is sabotaged by Dietrich Fischer-Dieslcau's

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uncontrolled hamming. --Kevin Conklin
STRAUSS: Eire Heldenleben, TI! Eulenspiegel
Michael Tilson Thomas. LSO CBS MK 44817 (CD only). Mike Ross-Trevor. Bud Graham,
John Johnson, engs. David Mottle. prod. DDD. Ti' 6240 STRAUSS: Ein Heideideben, Four Last Songs Arleen Auger (Songs), André Previn, VP() lélart CD-80180 (CD only). Jack Renner. mg.; James Mal-
linson, prod. DDD. Ti' 68:30
With his appointment as Principal Conductor of the LSO, Michael Tilson Thomas has entered the heavy-duty industrial stage of his career. Except for an Ives series, CBS has been busily recording him in standard repertoire, numerous pieces of which have been downgraded in status to their midprice line. Some 20 years ago, avery different CBS recorded the orchestral music of Ruggles with Thomas at the helm of his first orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic, The Ruggles is currently unavailable. In terms
of recordings worth hearing and rehearing, Thomas's forté is 20th-century music, the more complex the better, and arare affinity for novelties. Despite the fact that his Beethoven did not survive as full-price catalog for more than a year, CBS still takes him down the well-worn paths of repertoire which can only be recorded so many times before the very ideas wear thin from overexposure.
Not that this is abad Heldenleben. Thomas is fully competent, and the LSO is aworld-class orchestra currently involved with some halfdozen other world-class London orchestras in astrenuously competitive atmosphere, vying for audiences, private and public support, and recording assignments.
The LSO appears prepared to give Thomas its all, but Thomas walks on eggs. "Let's not take anything too far out," he seems to be saying. Ti! Eulenspiegel is even worse in this regard--not bad, just dull. For 15 bucks, that could be bad. The production from Watford Town Hall is both detailed and spacious, but despite the improved clarity of the bass, it's still no match for Reiner's 1954 stereo recording on RCA.
André Previn could make the Guinness Book of World Records as the World's Most Hot and Cold Running Conductor. Ican scarcely think of aconductor from any period capable of greater extremes from excellence to mediocrity. Running hot, he was capable of abrilliant Prokofiev 6with the LAPO on Philips; the companion work on the same disc, Prokofiev's Scythian Suite, ran cold. Ifound his first Strauss
disc with the VPO for Telarc, Zarathustra, dull and pedestrian beyond belief. At least this Heldenleben has abit of life to it, some tenderness when called for, and alot of VP0 character.

Previn has the advantages of the VPO's native style with the music, and the acoustic signature of Vienna's Musikvereinsaal, captured by Jack Renner far better than he had done in the Previn/VPO Zarathustra. Since the VP0 is one of the profession's most conservative
orchestras in terms of instruments and approach, Telarc has provided an excellent modern-sounding recording of a concept which sounds "quaint" to those accustomed to the more powerful British and American orchestral performances of Heldenleben. I would be even more impressed if Previn had been more than lukewarm. Could producer James Mallinson be the culprit for these doldrums? Arleen Auger's fans may want this disc for her performance of the Four Last Songs. Her purity of timbre and identity with the texts are winning qualities, and appear to bring out the best in Previn as asensitive and professional collaborator. There's probably more compulsive duplication of vocal repertoire in the hands of serious collectors than any other type, so Iwon't even mention the Schwarzkopf/Ackermann performance on EMI midprice.
Otherwise, Icannot escape the notion that no recent Heldenleben recordings have surpassed the fascination or commitment of those made by three of the conductors who knew Strauss, studied with him, assisted him, were assigned premieres by him, and who maintained lifelong friendships with him: Mengelberg on Victrola and Teldec, Balm on DG, and Reiner on RCA. Anyone who wishes to hear how this work ought to sound should have any or all of these three Anyone who has problems with mono or 78 sound may still enjoy modern stereo with the Reiner performance.
--Richard Schneider
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony 5, Swan Lake Suite
Sir Georg Solti, Chicago Symphony
Decca 425 516-2 (CD only). James Lock, Stan (icx>dall.
engs.; Michael H22.5, prod. DDD. TT: 7151
Although both works on this disc were recorded in the CSO's own Orchestra Hall, they could not present greater contrast. Symphony 5, laid down in September'87 by James Lock, is held in soft focus, so the dark hues characteristic of this score, and Sold's encouragement of over-ripe sounds, hardly let in much light between them. It has to be said, though, that amore detailed, analytical recording would only have highlighted Solti's general disregard for musical detail: rhythms lack bite transitions are disjointed, and dynamics are lunged at rather than prepared.
His Swan Lake Suite is ahappier prospect. Recorded alittle over ayear later, by Stan Good-

Stereophile, November 1989

211

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all, it has captured SoIti's empathy for the

balletic foundation of this piece. Altogether

greater clarity makes fora more pleasing sound,

but if recording artificially is your particular

bête-noire, steer clear! Here, solos and duos are

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Approach with caution.

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Classical Collections

BARTÓK- WEINER: Two Rumanian Dances
DEBUSSY-BUSSER: Petite Suite
RAVEL: Tombeau de Couperin STRAUSS: TU Eulenspiegel
Fritz Reiner, Symphony of the Air
Music and Arts CD-292 (CD only). AAD. TT 5414
Three of the four works on this CD were recorded commercially by Reiner, although none of them are available at this time. However, Ti! Eulenspiegel, which Reiner recorded for RCA in 1956 with the VPO, along with its flip side, Death and 7kansfiguration, will probably find their way to aDecca/London budget CD in the foreseeable future.
This particular CD derives from abroadcast concert given in January, 1952, by an orchestra which did not take on the name given to it by Music and Arts' Fred Maroth until after Toscanini retired and aleading radio/TV network cast his orchestra adrift to fend for itself. Just to give you ahint as to this orchestra's true identity, Reiner made studio recordings of the Debussy and Ravel works for RCA with the NBC Symphony, in January, 1952.
Iadmit that Iam neither afan of Debussy's Petite Suite, nor of Debussy works orchestrated by Busser. Petite Suite is abit too pretty and bland for my taste, and Busser, Debussy protege though he was, could only hint at the possibilities of Debussy's own unique orchestral concepts. Reiner and the orchestra made abetter case for this work in the RCA recording by means of more sensitive dynamics.
Most of Ravel's orchestral music derives from piano originals, but Ravel orchestrated them himself. Despite its title, Tombeau is not adeep piece, but its melodies are haunting, its harmonies arresting. Reiner's French repertoire has been underrated, but it's afact that his performances of these works could stand up to the best efforts of his French contemporaries. There is little to choose between this live performance of Tombeau and the RCA studio recording, except that the former is available
now and the latter is not. The audience, which fell to vigorous applause between movements in the Debussy and Bartók works, behaves itself properly in the Ravel.

Bartók's Rumanian Dances, the orchestration of which, according to sources within the Fritz Reiner Society, is mistakenly attributed by M&A to Tibor Serly (who could have easily done it), is actually by Leo Weiner, who, along with Bartók, was one of Reiner's teachers at the Budapest Academy. Unlike Busser, who sounds almost like Debussy but not quite, Weiner makes us believe that Bartók could have orchestrated it just this way. Iam not aware that this work has been recorded before. This performance takes place well in advance of Bartók's acceptance by the middle-brow public and those who pander to its tastes, and Reiner and the orchestra play it to afare-thee-well, easily the best performance on the disc.
Ti! Eulenspiegel disappointingly lacks the drive, character, and security Reiner gave it on other occasions. Ialso feel that Reiner's VPO recording is overrated. In 1950, Reiner recorded Ti! with the RCA Symphony, and that is aTi! to write home about. An even greater Ti! exists only in the "pirate zone," aCSO concert broadcast from 1957, which deserves to be authorized for release (if by no one else, then by the CSO itself, as part of a fundraising premium).
The mono sound, as with most M&A CDs, is clean, full-bodied, and far better than the source or vintage would lead one to believe.
Nearly all M&A CDs bear disclaimers about their sound, and in most cases, the disclaimers are overstated, arefreshing if odd state of affairs. The two dropouts that this CD's disclaimer refers to are indeed there, but not so's you'd notice. For me, the Bartók alone makes the disc worth having, but Ihope that M&A will find more Reiner sources to offer us and make better performance choices in the future.
--Richard Schneider
BORODIN: Quartet 2
SMETANA: Quartet 1
Cleveland Quartet
lelarc CD-80178 (CD only). Jack Renner, trig.; Elizabeth
Ostrow, prod. DDD. TT: 56:46
This coupling of two of the most wonderfully lyrical string quartets from the last quarter of the 19th century, played with such love and intuitive musicianship, and in such excellent recorded sound, definitely has my vote for the best chamber-music issue I've heard so far this year.
The Cleveland Quartet is not afraid to wear its heart on its sleeve, developing some of the most intoxicatingly beautiful and evenly balanced sounds I've heard, thanks in part to the set of four Paganini Strads it uses, courtesy of the Corcoran Gallery, %Washington.
Although Borodin's Quartet 2is packed full with memorable melodies, it is the theme of

Stereophile, November 1989

213

the Nottumo (used as "And this is my Beloved" in the Broadway musical Kismet)that is most instantly recognizable. As David Loebel wittily points out in his insert notes, Borodin "won aTony" for it, giving "new meaning to the phrase 'awarded posthumously'."
Smetana's Quartet 1is autobiographical, a "more or less private composition," and here the Cleveland Quartet expresses its intimate statements with deep-seated sensitivity. The Medici Quartet (reviewed in June, p.14) is alittle too consistently brash by comparison. In a warm (some may consider it too warm) recording of great clarity and presence, these quartets have, to my mind, been given the best possible opportunity to prove themselves.
--BarbaraJahn
RACHMANINOV/ WILD: 12 Song Transcriptions Earl Wild, piano Dell'Arte CDDBS 7001 (CD only). Chris Rice & lbm Laza-
rus, engs.; Philip G. Moores, prod. ADD. TT: 52:22 SCHUMANN: Piano Works Sonata No.I Op. II; Papillons, Op.2; Auftchwung, Op.12
No.2; Romance, Op.28 No.2; lbgel ais Prophet, Op.82 No.7 Earl Wild, plano Dell'Arte CDDEtS 7005 (CD only). Mike Skeet, eng.; Philip G. Moores, prod. DDD. rr: 55:07
From the standpoint of Earl Wild's artistry, it is in general agood thing that these albums, made for Dell'Arte respectively in 1982 in New York and in 1984 in London, now see their CD reincarnations. lliking aleaf from Rachmaninov's own examples of songs transcribed for piano solo from their original voice-and-piano settings, Wild has expertly, as well as stylistically, fashioned works that add marvelously contrived filigrees to Rachmaninov's own ravishing vocal melodies and sensuous harmonic palette. Because the 12 songs have acertain similarity of tempo and mood, not least through their often pervading melancholy, Iwould not necessarily recommend astraight-through listening, but, sampled afew at atime, these song transcriptions ("The Muse" and "To the Children" are my own particular favorites) are impressive.
Perhaps even more auspicious is the album entitled Earl Wild's Schumann Recital, in which this distinguished American pianist reveals the surest command of style. Ifound his performance immensely stimulating, from the quirkiest of Schumann's rhythms through the poetic sensibilities of the Op.!! Sonata to the panache of Papillons, an account of the latter that deserves to stand on its own in comparison with the classic Cortot version. What I found immeasurably disappointing, however, was the shocking CD processing of both discs. In the case of the Rachmaninov, serious equali-

zation is mandatory in order to prevent the

piano from sounding paralyzingly muddy on

the bottom and stultifyingly dull in the treble;

as it is, the attenuated midrange reproduction

only succeeds in producing ear fatigue. With

the Schumann, there is an obvious imbalance,

the principal piano sound coming from the left

channel, the lower midrange and bass from the

right. The pickup of the essentially bassless

instrument itself is boxy as well as muddy,

although Ifound some improvement apparent

both in dynamic response and transparency

when Iadded aCD ring to the disc. In sum,

then, for the Wild collector but not the audio

enthusiast.

--Igor Kipols

VARIOUS: The English Lute Song Julianne Baird, soprano; Rom) McFarlane, lute
Dorian DOR 90109 (Cl) only). Craig D. Dory, prod., eng.; Douglas Brown, eng. DDD. TT: 65:11
Dorian Recordings is asmall label based in Troy, NY; if you do not read the audiophile-oriented
magazines (or Fanfare), you are unlikely to have heard of them. This recording should remove that problem permanently. On this disc, Julianne Baird, previously heard with the Waverly Consort, the English Baroque Soloists,
and elsewhere, gives the recital of her life. If you attend anumber of live concerts, you are certain to find avery few where the real magic happens. It is rare, but there are those times when performers and audience are so in accord with each other and with the music that everything falls together. As unusual as this may be in live
performance, it is even rarer in the studio. This is aremarkable and wholly beautiful example of the latter case.
Those relatively familiar with English lutesong writing may be abit surprised by the choice of material on this record. There is, for example, nothing by John Dowland and only one song by Thomas Campion. Anonymous, on the other hand, contributes eight tunes, second only to Robert Johnson, who has ten works present (mostly settings of Shakespeare's lyrics, which RJ wrote before he emigrated to the New World and created Delta blues songs). In her excellent and literate notes, Ms. Baird explains this choice as emphasizing the more florid style of writing which grew up in the first quarter of the 17th century. Once you have
heard her performance, you will have no quarrel with her choice of repertoire, although like me, you may prefer the few examples she does include from the earlier style. In particular, she gives affecting renditions of Thomas Morley's "April is in My Mistress's Face,'" and the anony-

IPlease don't ask who April was. I'D bet that joke was current when Elizabeth Iwas still alive.

214

Stereophile, November 1989

mous lament (often attributed to Anne Boleyn) "0 Death, Rock Me Asleep." Nothing here, however, is less than wonderful.
Ronn McFarlane is alutenist with whom Iam not familiar. The notes list him as astudent of Paul O'Dette, among others; this is in itself remarkable, since O'Dette himself is amere youth. (By which Imean that he is about the age of the present author.) We appear to be producing generations of lutenists at avery rapid pace indeed. I'm certain we will hear more from McFarlane, whose technique and expressive ability are far above his years. As an accompanist, Idoubt he could be bettered, and his three solos are exquisitely rendered.
In discussing sonic considerations, let us leave The Digital Question aside for the moment, and consider the matter of microphone choice and placement. Given the existing state of the art, Ihonestly believe that no better job could be done than this. The balance between singer, accompanist, and room sound are absolutely right--if there is amore believable recording of voice and solo instrument out there, Icertainly haven't heard it. This will certainly be one of the discs Itrot along to my next equipment audition; good thing CDs don't wear out, since before that listening session takes place, Iwill probably have played this a dozen times for sheer enjoyment.--Les Berkley
VARIOUS: Proensa (Songs of the Troubadours) Paul Hillier, vocals: Stephen Stubbs, lute, psaltery: Andrew
Lawrence-King, harp, psaltery: Erin Headley, virile ECM 1368 (837-360-1 Le -2 CD). Manfred Eicher, prod.
Peter Laenger, eng. DDA/DDD. TT: 70:17
This is, without question, the best Troubadour disc Ihave heard in avery long time; indeed, one of the best ever. There are, however, two vital caveats to observe when buying and listening. One: do not read ECM's hype sheet, should one be available at your record store or wherever. Record companies should save afew trees and not issue these things at all. Two: do not begin your listening with track one. I, of course, was unaware of these strictures, and so did both of the above. The hype sheet (aka "informational literature") was couched in terminology usually applied to post-modernist compositions; it may have validity in that context, but it has none here. Track one consists of Hillier reading Guilhem IX's famous "Song of Nothing" ("Farai un vers ...") while one of the instrumentalists tunes up behind him. "Et tu, Paul?" thought I. Not so. Immediately after this, Hillier sings the alba "Reis glorios," another of the most famous Troubadour songs, so beautifully it stops you cold.
Ihave heard many aTroubadour recording;

agreat number of them well-conceived and
-executed, but only Montserrat Figueras (on my beloved Cansos des 7)obairitz) equals Hillier's emotional involvement with the songs. Amore truly felt performance of this repertoire would
be difficult to imagine. Hillier has an absolutely
marvelous voice, and he has worked out aspare but moving technique of accompaniment that
his colleagues perform perfectly. If this is the influence of the minimalist school, let's have alot more of it.
For me, the highlight of this performance was Bernart da Ventadorn's oft-recorded "Can vei la lauzeta mover," supposedly written for
Eleanor of Aquitaine. Iwas fairly certain we
didn't need another one of these, the Four Seasons of Troubadour music. Paul Hillier proved me wrong with the first line. Not only is he at
one with the text in away that is almost unique, but according to my housemate, who also sings
this repertoire, his pronunciation of Old Provençal is exemplary. If there can be adefinitive performance of awork 800 years old, this is it.
Space is limited in these reviews, and this puts poor souls like me on the proverbial dilemma's horns. The above description of this disc is probably sufficient for those familiar with Troubadour performance; were it not, I could say agreat deal more. But what of those who have never heard these songs, whose notion of Troubadours is conditioned by the
Hollywood image? The following will have to suffice. About 800 years ago, in the part of France known as Languedoc, the Troubadours (trobadors, they would have said) lived, loved,
wrote, fought, and died. They were part of a brief cultural and artistic flowering sometimes
called the "Renaissance of the 12th century," and they and their society were obliterated by an act of religious and cultural genocide called the Albigensian Crusade While they lived, they revived an old notion, nearly dormant in liter-
ature since the time of Sappho--the idea of romantic love. Fifty or ahundred years or so later, someone or a few someones in the monastic community had the good sense to
write down many of the texts and some of the music they had created.
The remarkable thing to me about the Troubadour art is that it retains the power to move in an age utterly removed from that of its cre-
ation. It shares with the 16th-century art song an immediacy of emotion that is as affecting today as it must have been when it was first made. The 1960s saw the rebirth of nationalism in the Languedoc, 720 years after the fall of its last stronghold, testimony to the power of the Troubadour artistic and cultural ethos.
The selection of songs (with excellent trans-

Stereophile, November 1989

215

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lations) on this disc will serve as the best

introduction Iknow to that time and culture.

Lately, everyone has been jumping on the

bandwagon of using photographic analogies

in describing audio concerns. These analogies

have run from excellent (Peter McGrath) to

unfortunate (you can't put Kodachrome 25 in

aHasselblad-64 yes, 25 no). Never let it be

said that Imissed atrend. The photographer

Edward Weston said that his finest work con-

tained not merely arepresentation of reality,

but akind of super-reality. What Ithink he

meant by this was that the photograph, by its

ability to simplify acomplex visual structure

and to resolve it into its component shades and

textures of light and dark, sees in away that the

unaided eye cannot, and so reveals things out-

side of ordinary perception. In addition, it ena-

bles the viewer to study at leisure, and in

infinite detail, aspecific moment in time. 2The same, more or less, could be said of an audio

recording. So how, given all of this, can we

assess the work of Eicher and Laenger? This is

one of the most detailed and "informative"

recordings Ihave ever heard, and yet there is

evidence of manipulation--close miking to

emphasize detail, and added reverb and "pres-

ence." What is the end result? One of the very

finest works of craft Ihave heard. Weston and

Adams dodged and burned their printsa --

anathema to some purists--but it is the result

that counts. The same is true here.

This recording achieves something that dig-

ital had heretofore not accomplished, some-

thing better than any analog recording Ihave

heard--it captures with uncanny accuracy the

initial attack of ahammered dulcimer struck

by wooden hammers.1 have heard alot of ham-

mered dulcimers around the Philadelphia folk

conspiracy, so Iwas amazed to hear such alife-

like sound emerging from my Vandersteens.

Don't get me wrong: Iam not proclaiming the

Triumph of Digits here. Ihave heard better harp

and vielle recordings, and Hyperion's analog

LPs did as good or better at capturing Paul Hil-

lier's voice. (The latter may have as much to do

with the difference between natural and artifi-

cial reverberation as with that between the two

media.) The CD was abit better than the LP (35

minutes per side) at getting the transients right

and keeping the not unpleasant edge on Hil-

lier's voice (which is also present on the

Hyperion LP, and not adigital artifact). Before

the editorial axe descends--highly recom-

mended.

--Les Berkley

2Look, if Modern Pbotograpby really is dead, somebody's got to fill the gap.
3Adams referred to the printing oía negative as ·'performing the score" Beston said. When Ican feel aBach fugue in my work, Iknow that Ihave arrived."

Show Musk
EILEEN FARRELL Sings Harold Arlen Eileen Farrell; Loonis McGlohon, piano & arrangements;
Joe Wilder, special guest artist Reference Recordings RR-30 (LP), RR-30CD (CD). Keith
O. Johnson, eng.; J. Tarnblyn Henderson, Jr., prod. AAA /DDD. TT: 4736
In an interview with JA in the June 1989 issue, Reference Recordings' Tam Henderson describes working with Eileen Farrell as "more than adream come true." Endowed with one of the glorious soprano voices of our time, Farrell is best known for her concert and operatic repertoire, but she did record an album of popular songs in the early '60s (I've Got ARight 7b Sing The Blues, now available as CBS Special Products ACS 8256). She has retired from an active career, but her contribution to the recent Telarc Sound of Music (CD-80162) showed that, even after 40-odd years of singing, she still has much to offer. Henderson says he was so pleased with the results of her return to the recording studio that they recorded material for two albums, with two more in the offing. The present recording is the first in this series, and, to my ears at least, is not entirely successful.
It's true that, as Henderson points out, Farrell approaches popular music on its own terms, so that she does not end up sounding like a slumming opera singer. The voice remains an attractive instrument, and although she no longer has--or essays--the soaring high notes of yore, this is compensated for by acreamy low register. At her best, such as in "A Woman's Prerogative," with its deliciously risqué lyrics, she proves she can sing and swing with the best of them. The problem (and there's no polite way of saying this) is that she does not always sing in tune Unfortunately, this problem is particularly apparent in the first two numbers, so that for the rest of the record Ifound that Iwas wary, not quite trusting her to maintain proper pitch. Perhaps the worst example is "Out of This World," where she has the additional handicap of singing against (I use the word advisedly) an extremely "busy" arrangement. In fairness to her, Imust point out that stronger guidance from musical director Loonis McGlohon and/or producer Tam Henderson probably would have resulted in singing
that is more consistently in tune. Also, heretical as this notion might seem in an audiophile context, the major recording companies routinely deal with singers' intonation problems by having alarge number of vocal takes in a multitrack format, takes that are then edited down into amore nearly perfect composite Of

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217

course, there's asonic penalty for this tech-

nique, but it does allow much greater control

over the results.

Having thus made an argument for mul-

Wracking (never thought you'd read this in Ste-

reopbile, did you?), let me acknowledge that

sound quality on this recording is superb --

all right, much better than if they had used multi-

tracking. Since I've updated my Arcam Black Box

with the latest TDA1541A-S1 and SAA7220P/B

chips, I've heard fewer differences between LP

and CD formats, and, in this case, they amount

to aslightly warmer tonal balance and abit

more depth on LP.

--Robert Deutsch

BERNSTEIN: West Side Story, Symphonic Dances
& Songs Katia & Marlene Laheque, pianos; Jean-Pierre Drouet, Syl-
vioGualdo, percussion: Thiok Gurtu, jazz drums & per-
cussion CBS MK 45531 (CD only). John McLaughlin, prod.; JeanLouis Bizet, mg. ODD. TT: 48:52
Arranging orchestral and vocal music for piano tends to be atask that don't get no respect. If the arrangement is astraight note-for-note transcription, it's likely to be regarded as unimagina cive; if the arranger deviates from the original harmonically or rhythmically, the result will be criticized for lack of stylistic authenticity.
Irwin Kostal's arrangements of West Side Story for two pianos and two-pianos-plus-percussion somehow preempt both kinds of criticisms: they are at once fresh and authentic. When the rhythms do deviate from what Bernstein originally envisaged (eg, the boogie-woogie "Jet Song"), this does not come across as acapricious change but as one that just allows us to hear the music in aslightly different context. 4 The Labeque sisters and, in the Symphonic Dances, percussionists Jean-Pierre Drouet, Sylvio Gualdo, and Trilok Gurtu play with great panache, Elan, and all those other wonderful French qualities. This recording is, of course, no substitute for hearing West Side Story in the format in which God and Lenny intended it to be heard (the CBS Original Broadway Cast has not been superseded by more recent recordings, least of all the Te Kanawa/Carreras on DG), but Isuspect that Lenny, at least, is very pleased with it.
Sonically, the general impression is that of awide, deep soundstage, with powerful dynamics and realistic piano/percussion timbres. There is, however, one significant anomaly: many of the piano passages are accompanied

4 The Laheques' Gershwin album (EMI CDC 7-49752 2)
manages a similarly succexsful balance between firshnes..s and stylistic authenticity, but. berne, their Gladrags (EMI CDC , .4 -7D93 2) often seems too idiosyncratic.

by arattling/rasping noise The problem is con-

fined to the left piano/left channel and is

noticeable mostly in the numbers for two

pianos only. (The first minute of track 12 shows

the effect quite clearly.) Ihad several people lis-

ten to the recording in three different systems;

the consensus was that the noise represents

some sort of electronic artifact (malfunctioning microphone or badly adjusted A/D converter?)

rather than amechanical resonance. (Thanks

to the folks at Audio One and Stereo Factory for

lending their ears and systems.) Ilove the music

and the performances, so this sonic blemish

would not put me off buying the recording, but

Ido wish the recording team had managed to

identify and correct the problem prior to

release.

--Robert Deutsch

Jazz

CHET BAKER: Let's get Lost
Chet Baker, vocal & trumpet; Frank Strazzeri, piano;,john Leftwich, bass; Ralph Penland, drums & percussion;
Nicola Stilo, guitar & Bute Novus/RCA 3054- I-N (LP), 3054-2-N (CD'). Many
engineers & producers. TB: 47:43, 62:56'
The year was 1960. Iwas 16. A baritone sax player in my high school stage5band brought me an album by Gerry Mulligan featuring Chet Baker on trumpet. From that day on, my perspective on the art of jazz trumpet changed. Chet Baker's playing epitomized what was to be called the "West Coast" sound--sparse, highly contrapuntal, quiet, lyrical--the antithesis of "East Coast" hard bop. Chet used no vibrato in either his playing or his singing, consistently producing one of the purest sounds Ihave ever heard. It sounded as if the edge of the tone had been carefully filed off. Iswitched mouthpieces to get his sound, but it didn't work.
Having recently seen the Bruce Weber film
profile of Baker, Let's Get Lost, I'm glad my destiny took another path. Though the film did not stress the importance of Baker's musical legacy, it showed, in stark black and white, the toll that years of substance and other abuse take on ahuman being. My memories of the youthful Chet, with his Elvis Presley pout and glamor-boy persona, were shattered by the images of the frail, insecure, emaciated Baker of later years.
This soundtrack album from that film is a must purchase for any jazz fan. Chet plays and sings as well as he ever did, perhaps alittle less confidently than before, but always with an emotional depth rarely heard these days. This

5In Houston, Texas, the idea ola "jazz" hand did not meet with the appnwal of the school administrators.

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Stereophile, November 1989

man has lived hard, and it shows all too clearly in this music. The songs are melancholic, slowpaced ballads, voice and trumpet "just there," making his classic Chet Baker Sings (Pacific Jazz 1222) seem animated! In some respects, the record makes for perfect cozy, shared, latenight listening; in others, it represents apoignant, swan-song album by one of the most important white jazz trumpeters.
The accompanying musicians were well chosen, Frank Strazzeri being especially complimentary to Chet's style. John Leftwich adds ideal support, and Ralph Penland, featured on only five songs, does not intrude. Over half of the cuts feature Chet backed by only piano and bass, these trio selections standing out as some of the most moving on the album. Listen to "Imagination," "Blame it on My Youth," or "My One and Only Love" for glimpses into the most personal side of this most vulnerable man.
The sound does not detract from the music, though there is little air around the performers (a digital recording? The notes don't say). CD and LP sound quite similar; however, Iperceived abit more "presence" on vinyl. Chet's horn and voice are closely miked, the other instruments portrayed in abelievable soundstage.
Don't hesitate to get this recording if you care
at all about music aimed at the soul. Chet's voice and horn are silent now; we are left only with his recordings and some film footage. To my knowledge, the only source for Chet's early Pacific Jazz and World Pacific sessions is Mosaic Records, which is now reissuing much of his work. For now we have this session, which embodies Herbie Hancock's eloquent liner notes--"The notes became pivots connecting the chords. His intuition was flawless, his musical choices were perfect." Go for the CD: it contains over 15 minutes more of Chet Baker's music, and archival photos absent from the LP.
--Guy Lemcoe
QUEST: Natural Selection Dave Liebman. soprano sax; Richie Beirach, piano; Ron
McClure, acoustic & Fender fretless basses; Billy Hart, drums. With: Tom Beyer, percussion; Caris Visentin, oboe; Mitch Forman, keyboard synthesizers Pathfinder PTFCD 8839 (CD), PTF 8839 (LP). David Baker, cng.; Quest & David Baker, prods. Ti': 54:36
At many junctures, Quest has been, and continues to be, afree-floating cooperative effort whose members--soprano saxophonist Dave Liebman, pianist Richie Beirach, bassist Ron McClure, and drummer Billy Hart--periodically come together to share musical experiences and compositions.
The quartet's latest effort, on Pathfinde though steeped in jazz modes and meter, again defies categorization. The Beirach-composed title

track moves at points in classic straight-ahead form. McClure's electric-bass-aided, synthesized-assisted, percussion-heavy "Michiyo" entertains Metheny- like thoughts. And, while Beirach's "Nocturnal," with added percussion from Tim Beyer and oboe from Caris Visentin, sounds as if it could be performed by Oregon, Hart's nine-minute 'Amethyst Suite/Fahamivu," with its difficult, opaque rhythms, conjures Eastern and latter 20th-century, contemporary and/or "new music" styles. Liebman's "A Moody Time" (on CD only), shedding light on possible interplay between soprano sax and oboe, is quite reminiscent of the World Saxophone Quartet while simultaneously demonstrating Hart's skill as percussionist. These last two pieces are difficult, indeed.
Quest, aserious musical entity, is not for the lay person, the passing listener. Their compositions, even the more accessible ones, such as "Nighty- Nite," McClure's other borderline fusion contribution here, may confound, seeming to border the avant-garde. While never formulaic, most of Quest's compositions seem to require heavy listener input. It's as close as jazz comes to possessing alaissez-faire attitude
--Jon W. Poses
THE ZAWINUL SYNDICATE: Black Water Columbia FC 44316 (LP), CK 44316 (CD). Josef Zawinul,
George Butler, prods.; Paul Erickson, Ivan Zawinul, cngs. AAA/AAD. TT: 40:02
When was the last time you actually had fun listening to aZawinul or Weather Report album? Domino Theory? 8:30? Well, try this one: it's alot better than Immigrants, last year's dry exercise. Starting off with "Carnivalito," from 1986's Dialects, Zawinul's band picks up the energy where the earlier version left off, in a live recording so slick you'd swear it was studio. The rest of the album is studio, and the best thing Zawinul's done in agood while.
"Familial," asetting ofJacque Prevert's poem, is amodal chant, vocals heavily processed, about ason going off to war while mother knits and father wheels and deals. It's haunting, and very successful; Zawinul seems finally to have learned to handle vocals on his own heavily processed terms. "Medicine Man" has been getting some airplay--a joyful, New Orleans-style one-step celebration with Zawinul on his boyhood accordian and bassist Gerald Veasley interjecting hoodoo trickster jive throughout. "In the Same Boat" meshes African singing and Zawinul's linear Korg Pepe solos in the same style; irresistible rhythms, afast four against a waltz. (The Korg Pepe is an electronic reed instrument invented by Zawinul.)
Then, amazingly, two Thelonius Sphere Monk covers: abrief "Monk's Mood," with

Stereophile, November 1989

219

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Veasley's narration, àla Mingus's "Scenes in

the City," over asynthesized brass chart. Fol-

lowed by "Little Rootie Tootie," astraight-

ahead quintet setting with pretty convincing

swinging by guitarist Scott Henderson and half

adozen solos by Zawinul in as many electronic

voices, this continued in "They Had ADream,"

aslow jungle vamp overlaid by more synthe-

sized soloing, but adding up to less than the

sum of its parts. The master tapes are analog,

and the LP sounds deeper, smoother, mellower,

while the CD is flat.

With black American and Brazilian jazz,

music from India and North Africa, and his

own Austrian roots, Joe Zawinul has been

inventing his own World Music for nearly 20

years. With the powerful, flexible band of

Black Water, no longer an immigrant to his own

musical land, he speaks without dialect

Recommended.

--Richard Lehnert

Rock
THE BODEANS: Home Reprise 25876- I(LP), -2 (CD)Jim Scott, "He and He,"
prods. AAA/AAD. TT: 57:09
There's something about the American heartland: Minnesota bred The Replacements, Wisconsin is home to the Bodeans, and Michigan claims The Romantics. John Cougar Mellencamp, of course, rarely leaves Indiana, and Bruce Springsteen taps avein so direct to the heart he's clearly an honorary sodbuster. What does this convocation of auteurs have in common? Seemingly, afondness for aback-beat and acollective vision of hard-won personal values, honestly and plainly spoken, give or take alittle lyricism.
Often the point of view is expressed in stories about third parties, or in the third person: Springsteen's vignettes, for example, or Mellencamp's Jack and Diane, the Bodeans' affecting love song "Brand New" Perpetually hung over and born too late for punk, even The Replacements establish adirect connection with their material, and the audience relates to the honesty. "You be me for awhile and I'll be you," they sing, in atwisted paean to empathy.
More sophisticated than some, the Bodeans fit the loose pattern of heartland rock: the material is strong, spare, well-observed, and hardly arty. Like Mellencamp's, it's surprisingly moral, supporting "traditional values" defined by a liberal, tempered by experience. If any of these more personal Midwest rockers ever listened to the self-conscious moral tales of Harry Chapin et al, thank God it doesn't show.
Home is the Bodeans' third album. Outside Looking In, the second, broke them to awide,

pop-oriented audience thanks to atour with

U2 and aspot on Letterman. While that album

moved them away from their early "roots-

rock" (read "real fun beer-soaked bar band

with lots of blues licks") image, Home, in a

sense, digs down to the original ground. Many

of the songs were written at home (or in hotel

rooms waiting to go on and then go home:

"Worlds Away," "Far Far Away from My Heart,"

"Red River"). The album itself was recorded

with the Metro Mobile remote truck at the

band's "rehearsal home," an old warehouse

space in Milwaukee, WI. The tracks were cut

with the musicians, amps, and drums in the

same room, all played at maximum volume.

The album rocks, and it's great to dance to:

the downside is that many of the tunes and a

lot of the styles sound like somebody else.

Everybody else. "Beaujolais" is acajun-zydeco

stew ca Little Feat nouveau; the "Killer" rock-

'n'roll tribute "Good Work" should be part of

the Huey Lewis songbook, "Red River"

reprises Mellencamp's "Paper and Fire," and

"Far Par Away from My Heart," to pick one out,

sounds like just about any track on Born in the

USA. That said, the album sounds full and

sassy, the rhythms just kick, and the whole

affair is washed in harder-edged blues than any of the groups above.

Lyrically, The Bodeans is aband which has

found its voice, its eye, and its heart. Founders

Sam Lianas and Kurt Neumann also work adis-

tinctive sound: the cherished "a- ronk" they

develop playing live. Unless this album is meant

to be amélange of all the different musical

styles people call home, however, Sam and Kurt

might benefit from turning the car radio off and

working up more of their own arrangements.

Nevertheless, the album is apleasure, and full

of surprises. Play the CD straight through and

see if you can spot the track recorded on a4-

track cassette deck with two mics from Radio

Shack.

--BethJacques

ZVUKI MU: Rogan Mu Opal/Warner Bros. 25916-1 (LP), -2 (CD). Brian Eno,
prod. AAA/AAD. TT: 38:53 BORIS GREBENSHIKOV: Radio Silence Columbia FC-44364 (LP), CK-44364 (CD). David A.
Stewart, prod. AAA/AAD. TT: 47:22 PAUL McCARTNEY: Owes aCCCP Melodiya USSR A6000415 006 (LP only). Paul McCart-
ney, prod. AAA/AAD. TT: ca 52:00
PAUL McCARTNEY: Flowers in tbe Dirt Capitol CIIH-91653 (LP), C21S-91653 (CD). Paul McCart-
ney, prod. ??A/??D. TT: 42:18
Things are turning upside down. It used to be that the US and Britain sent their rock'n'roll to Russia, and the powers there tried to ban it. The only way Soviet youth could hear rock music was via records hand-carried into the country,

Stereophile, November 1989

221

or black-market second-to-tenth-generation
tapes of those records. Now it's barely 10 years before the year 2000.
What with Gorbachev, detente, and glasnost,
Soviet kids are getting to hear the real thing. Big American rock stars like Billy Joel and Bon Jovi are performing for thousands in Moscow. Even an ex-Beatle (a black-market favorite) has released agovernment-sanctioned album. So now the Russians are trying to return the favor.
Enter the debut album from the six-man group Zvuki Mu. The album contains ten selfproclaimed "modern songs from Russia" from one of that country's premiere once-under-
ground/now-above-ground rock bands. Some of the titles: "The Source of Infection," "Forgotten Sex," "Zero Minus One," "Leave-me-
alone," and "Traffic Policeman." It was recorded in Moscow back in November, 1988, and mixed in London. Producer Brian Eno needs little introduction. The songs are wellrecorded. There is professional artwork on the covers, and English lyrics for everyone to fol-
low along with the tunes. You may have noticed I've avoided com-
menting on the music. That's because I'm not normally afan of run-of-the-mill Eurodisco music, and one might understand how Icould be especially bored with such music sung entirely in Russian. Without trying to insult anyone involved, listening to this album reminds me of the house band I've heard in a Russian nightclub in New York doing their disco version of "Livink een aMahterial Vorld."
There must be better. Enter Boris Grebenshikov. His album was
recorded in London and New York by David A. Stewart of Eurythmics fame. They used
"western" musicians and some famous "western" female back-up singers (Annie Lenox plus Bananarama/David's wife Siobhan Stewart) and wound up with avery "western"-sounding album. There are 12 cuts. Some titles: "The
Postcard," "The Wind," "The Time," "Winter," and "Fields of my Love." All songs are sung in English.
The music is still Eurodisco-based, but the title cut, about the Soviet government's new policies, is worth the price of admission. And, with its strong folk-rock rhythm guitar throughout, "Radio Silence" makes for good listening (and apretty good video too!). The rest of the album, though, is forgettable, even
Grebenshikov's ode to his oppressed communist brethren in "China," but there's hope for more top-quality rock from the USSR in the future, maybe even with Soviet producers in
charge. We shall see. That brings us to CHOU sCCCP (Back in the
USSR). Everything on this LP is written in Rus-

sian. That's because this is arelease for the Soviet Union only, on the government label,
Melodiya. But the music is in English. That's because the album is by Paul McCartney, recorded about two years ago, with friends, in Britain, just for the Russian market. Part of the proceeds go to help victims of the Armenian earthquake.
The songs were remakes of some early rock-
'n'roll and early Beatles favorites: "Kansas City," "Lucille," "Ain't That aShame," and "Lawdy Miss Clawdy." Paul even did an Elvis ditty ("That's Alright Mama").
Originally, EMI said Melodiya could press a maximum of 40,000 copies, none for export. Instead, 50,000 copies of the 11-song collec-
tion were pressed. They sold out immediately. Second pressing included an additional cut, Gershwin's "Summertime."
When word of this album reached the West, demand was high, to say the least. Smuggled copies went from the suggested 4-ruble price in Moscow ($6.60) to $100-250 in London and New York. By the time my copy reached the underground specialty stores, it was selling for $25. It must be the third pressing because it contains 13 cuts, including "I'm Gonna Be A Wheel Someday." Rumor has it that 20 cuts were recorded at the session, and that someone has released them all on abootleg CD.
Despite the interest (and recently the airing of some cuts on one of the local FM stations), there are no plans to release the album here.
Ain't that ashame! This is really McCartney's best effort in years. A lot of years. That's because he wasn't trying to make this better than his previous work. He wasn't trying to prove anything. It seems he was trying to have fun, and it shows. Recorded quality is good: no overdubbing, no post-production work. Just aglimpse of McCartney live, having agreat time doing some old favorites. If you can, try to pick up acopy of Cuosa aCCCP--it will reinforce the reasons why the Beatles were as huge as they were.
And finally, that brings us to the album that McCartney wants us to hear, Flowers in (be Dirt. Twelve cuts. All new stuff. Nicely produced. Well-recorded (CD and LP). Opening cut, "My Brave Face," one of two McCartney/Costello collaborations, is pretty good (nice video too!), but forgettable Even taking into account pleasant cuts such as "We Got Married" and "Figure of Eight," Ithink the entire album is forgettable.
The problem is that this time around our hero seems to be trying to prove something-- probably that he's capable of recording agood new album! He's worked very hard to do so. I think he worked too hard on mediocre-to-

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good material, and the results are just okay. Others argue that Flowers in the Dirt is his best

Beads of Sweat. Another six years of silence, then 1984's much better (though no match for

album in 8years or so. No way--it's just the best album Paul has made available to us in 8 years or so. Isay save your money--wait for
what is now called "The Russian Album" to be
released in this country. Better yet, if you're

any of her '60s records) Mother's Spiritual, which CBS released unpromoted, then let die aquick death. (None of the last four albums are
now in print.) Five more years passed, labelless, and Nyro finally left her house to tour the

lucky enough to see Paul on tour this year, ask country last year to great notices, the result Live

him to do "Midnight Special" or "Don't Get at the Bottom Line.

Around Much Anymore." You can't go wrong.

Considering the times, it's avery good album.

--Gary S. Krakow If Nyro no longer has her head in '60s

LAURA NYRO: Live at the Bottom Line Cypoess YL6430 (2 LPs), YD6430 (CD). Mark Linen, mg.;
Laura Nyro, prod. AAA/AAD. TT: 6200

apocalyptic clouds, she has managed to pull it
out of '70s softrock sand. She offers new tunes, talks seductively to the audience ("you're my
prisoners," she breathes huskily), and recreates

Back in the early '70s, every one of my female friends (though none of the men) owned at
least two well-worn Laura Nyro albums--Eli

some of her old songs. "And When IDie" is no
longer the halleluja hit single BS&T took to MOR fame, but adark, slow, minor-tinged

and the 13th Confession and New York Tendaberry. Nyro proved, to an entire generation
of coeds who were just alittle scared ofJanis
Joplin, that awhite girl could have soul (even

meditation by awoman more than 20 years
older. "Wedding Bell Blues" is here too, as are
"The Confession," "Stoned Soul Picnic," and "Emmie." The new songs can't match them,

if asense of humor sorta went missing). The though they have their moments. "Roll of the

ultimate New York singer/songwriter, Nyro took Brill Building pop and soul, mixed in

Ocean" starts out rapwise, then rolls out into the classic Nyro piano groove that has never

some Phil Spector and Motown girl groups, and really left her, even in her worst work, and that

raised it all to the level of histrionic spiritual has always made it apleasure for me to listen

apotheosis. Laura Nyro concerts of the late '60s to three or four of her albums right in arow.

were seances, this intensely shy, brilliant teen- "The Japanese Restaurant Song" starts out tell-

ager lost in her own long, black hair, pound- ing of Nyro's dining out with her own unruly

ing the piano, her big, womanly voice rising and falling in cries of orgasmic joy and anguish

children, but quickly lifts into her fantasy of becoming ageisha with "a radical feminist

so close you couldn't tell 'em apart. You loved bent" (applause from the delirious audience).

her or you hated her.
Though I'm no '60s chauvinist--well, maybe just alittle--sometimes it's hard to

The poetry is as succulent as ever, though her tendency toward opaquely personal pastel metaphors has always bordered on the cloying.

remember just how good and exciting her --

No, there's nothing here as good as any song

everyone's--music was back then. This new on her first three records, but that was the time-

Laura Nyro album sounded great to me until Idug out my 20-year-old copy of Eli and picked myself up off the floor 46 minutes later.

less American pop of the gods; Laura Nyro got to write more of those songs than almost anyone except the Beatles, and most of them

Now Live at the Bottom Line sounds no more before she was 20. But she's fronting the best

than pretty good. But maybe record reviewers band she's ever had, built around apair of the

should declare amoratorium on comparing the New York Italian rock musicians in the Rascals

current work of surviving '60s pop musicians with what they achieved back then. After all, this is the best Laura Nyro album since 1971, and that is 18 years.
Bottom Line is Nyro's thind comeback album. The first, 1976's Smile, ended the five-year
silence that followed /t 's Gonna Take aMira-

mold she's always cultivated (Felix Cavaliere produced Christmas, Charlie Calello--where are you now'--produced Eli). The arrangements are uncluttered, the playing clean, always interesting, and Nyro gives her band room to stretch their axehands a bit. And Cypress's analog sound, in the tradition of their

cle, her last record as apop star. Smile was com- Jennifer Warnes release Famous Blue Rain-

fortable, but comfort was not what anyone listened to Laura Nyro for; you could fall asleep to it, and many did. The unmemorable, softcentered Season of Lights (her other live
album) and Nested followed in quick succession, as CBS took abath on the five-album,

coat, is warm, full, rich, and sounds very live. The CD is abit glarey on vocals, the LP abit deeper in soundstage.
This is the rea/ Laura Nyro comeback album.
If you haven't heard any of her records since 1971, and if you loved her then, this might be

million-bucks-apiece deal they'd signed with Nyro right after 1970's Christmas and the

the one. If you hated her, it might be time for

second thoughts.

--Richard Lehnert

Stereophile, November 1989

223

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MANUFACTURERS' COMMENTS

Sony Discman complaints
Editor: Thank you for bringing to our attention your
readers' comments regarding service for Sony Discman products.
We were quite dismayed to read the comments of both Stephen Sweigart and Richard Myers in your current issue. Consequently, we contacted both of these gentlemen, to learn firsthand more details about their individual experiences.
While Mr. Myers and Mr. Sweigart each experienced different types of problems, both of their concerns seem to center upon the operating procedures of the independent service stations involved. Unfortunately, Mr. Myers discarded his Discman some time ago, so there was little that we could do at this time. However, Mr. Sweigart told us that his final service bill came to about S75 and his D-15 is now working as well as when the problem first occurred.
Needless to say, any incident that causes frustration to our customers is, of course, regrettable. That's why Sony works diligently to resolve all problems that we become aware of
as soon as they occur. Fortunately, even though Sony sells tens of thousands of Discman products each month, these types of repair
problems are not the rule but the exception. As to the repairability of Discman products,
please understand that Sony does not regard .them as "a disposable item." However, the cost of skilled labor today makes almost any type of extensive consumer electronics repair relatively expensive. Complicating matters even more is that, unlike the typical home component CD player, aSony Discman has been optimally designed for not only home, but portable and car use as well. Therefore, it tends to be more susceptible to problems created by music enthusiasts who occasionally subject it to rather vigorous use.
It is this versatility aspect of the Discman concept that is the most important reason why it enjoys such incredible popularity today. And with more than 25 factory service centers and 1500 independent service stations located nationwide, Sony Corporation of America

remains committed to insuring our customers' enjoyment of all of our Discman products.
Kathryn O'Brien Director, Sony National Customer Relations
Amrita Audio ads
Editor: At the outset, we give thanks for the bold and forward-looking editorial policies of this magazine, which make it the excellent forum that it is.
We deeply regret any negative feelings or impressions which this ad might have caused anyone. That was not our intent!
May we direct the readers to the Mondial ad which appears in the same September issue: "The better the advertisement, the worse the product." Tony and Bill of Mondial are very creative people. Humor is always an attractive thing, provided (of course) that it doesn't take from anyone's dignity. We at Amrita Audio are happy to be apart of the fresh wave of humor in high-end audio. And yes, everyone has their own brand of humor. Thank God there is still aFirst Amendment.
As LA said: The ad did not malign animals. Nor, for that matter, did it malign anyone or anything! Our desire was to give folks agood laugh--and, for many, that is exactly what it did. Isn't it neat to live in acountry where each one of us can have his or her own opinion, and feel free to state it with as much vigor as we feel? Finally, only amasochist would cancel her or his subscription to Stereophile.
John D. Andre President, Amrita Audio
UltraAnalog & dbx
Editor: In the September 1989 issue of Stereophile (p.26), Peter Mitchell incorrectly reported that the "rights to raw dbx circuits, such as the highresolution A/D converter designed by Bob Adams, have reverted to the former dbx engineering group." It is true that anew company, THAT Corp., has been formed and has rights to certain dbx products. These products do not include the dbx A/D converter.
Recently, UltraAnalog, Inc., entered into an

Stereophile, November 1989

225

from NAD and Adcom... to Audio Research, Mark Levinson, and VTL!

Theta DS Pie/Pro-- Digital excellence. $4000/3295. Mirage M-1-- Superb, full range loudspeaker. $4500 pr.
Also Mirage 460-- First rate medium price speaker. $600 pr. Goldmund Cones-- Isolation devices extraordinaire. $180/3 ARC SP9A update and new triode ARC Classic 30 and Classic 60. Linn Nexus loudspeakers-- You'll be surprised. $1095 pr. NAD MR13 television-- Highest resolution TV. $429.

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agreement with Carillon Technology, Inc., par-

ent of dbx, that gives UltraAnalog, Inc. the

exclusive marketing and distribution rights in

North America and Europe to the dbx A/D con-

verter.

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President, UltraAnalog, Inc.

Sansui AU-X911DG integrated amplifier
Editor: Thank you for the draft of the Sansui AUX911DG review. We are grateful to Stereopbile for the efforts extended in reviewing one of our products.
We do, however, feel that the reference to our
power supply as not being state-of-the-art is somewhat subjective The quality of the power supply is totally consistent with the product's performance objective. We are not in ahorsepower race and don't need to make extravagant claims for power increase into low-impedance loads. Even at low impedance, the AU-X911DG delivers more than adequate power for highquality performance.
We also feel that if the blown fuse is to be mentioned, it deserves more explanation than was given. The fuse in question was not part of the user-accessible protection circuits. It was within the transformer itself and should have reacted only under the most dire threat to the integrity of the unit. So far as we know, we have never had asimilar failure. Since examining the sample (which LG used for several months), we have subjected random pieces from inventory to the same EIA standard conditioning without arepeat of the failure.
Deborah Hefferan Advertising Manager, Sansui Electronics Corp.

Quicksilver KT88 monoblock amplifier
Editor:
Thank you very much for requesting Quicksilver Audio's comments on your review of the KT88 Mono amplifiers.
We choose to use the KT88 tube for its sonic performance. We have tested the best of the 6550s, and even though some manufacturers use them (a 6550 costs less than one-half of a KT88), our commitment to quality demands the extra investment in KT88s. All the tubes that come from China are subjected to individual burn-in and AC- and DC-matching. Eighty percent of the KT88s meet our rigid

specifications. The other 20%, while still operational, are rejected.
In your testing procedure you noted that you used 11' of speaker cable, contrary to our recommended 3to 5' maximum. Irealize you were simply plugging in the amplifiers to your preset ideas; however, individual owners will be able to make minor changes to their systems to realize the maximum sonic benefits of the amplifiers. To allow the amplifiers to be that close to the speakers, lengths of up to 100' of interconnect cable can be used with many preamps, including the Quicksilver preamp.
At least 30% of Quicksilver Mono amplifier owners use non-modified Quad speakers. 1 have never had any of these owners mention muddy or soggy bass while using the KT88 amps. Modification of any product immediately makes that product suspect. For two years Ihave had apair of Quad speakers in the Quicksilver lab, which Ifind to be an exceptional match to the KT88 amp.
The Celestion SL600s, the Acoustat Spectra 22s, and the Martin-Logan Sequel Hs all have been tested in our lab and measure at least 6dB under our minimum recommended level of 88dB 1W/ lm efficiency, which makes our KT88 Mono amp totally unsuitable for use with any of these three speakers.
Ithoroughly encourage "in-home auditions." As we do no advertising, our product is sold by word of mouth and most of our sales result from in-home demonstrations.
Mike Sanders Quicksilver Audio
Tera 621C TV monitor/receiver
Editor: Fust, may I[Lunn Gordon Holt for his thoroughness and courtesy in the review of Tern's model 621C.
Any such review is, of course, highly subjective, particularly so in regard to avideo product, and while we respect Gordon's personal opinions, they in no way alter our fundamental belief that what we are doing with our approach to picture interpretation offers the consumer the most vibrant, exciting televisions on the market today.
Gordon refers to the 621C as "a stunning performer," and, "in short, the picture looked so good that it ceased to be abarrier between me and the film Iwas watching." To achieve these reactions, yes, we have adopted adifferent

Stereophile, November 1989

227

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approach, and yes, there are some inevitable tradeoffs: yes, our picture does (at times) take
on ablueish hue, but time and time again we at Tera are told the same thing that Gordon
noted: le, "the color has avividness and saturation that remind me of the best Technicolor films."
Surely, the ultimate goal of all manufacturers of consumer electronic products is to give the consumer the most entertaining and exciting
performance possible. One company's interpretation of this criterion is not necessarily the
same as another's, but if new interpretations
of existing technology can heighten the consumer's enjoyment, then we believe the exercise is justified.
In conclusion, may Isay that in giving one of our products (for review) to someone as passionate and intense in his views as Gordon, we knew from the outset that we would be challenged. But we felt ready to face up to such
achallenge. We hope that, as the worlds of high-end audio and video move closer to-
gether, Stereophile will allow us and other video manufacturers to offer products for critical review so that your readers can benefit from
your tough but fair reviewing standards.
Ron W. Fone President, Tera Electronics, Inc.

is commonly available.
In the Electronic Field Production chapter of the disc, two video signals were brought together to form an 8:3 aspect ratio. The line down the center is ageometry problem between the two cameras. The right edge of the left image does not exactly match the left edge
of the right image. Lens and electronic scanning errors, in combination, cause the line. From the album cover: "This video is ademonstration of our field production crew being creative, not of anew format in the early stages of evolution."
The film segment of the program has been displayed, directly from the disc, at several major professional conventions, on properly calibrated monitors, before film-to-tape colorists, television engineers, and film professionals. There have been positive comments about the quality of the transfer, and no negative comments. The calibration of the monitor being used to view this program by the reviewer, the gray scale in particular, is probably not correct. The wrong "color" of gray would account for the color shift noted. The film print and negative were transferred on a 4:2:2 Rank-Cintel Film chain directly to Dl, the
very best that can be done in our 525-line television system.

Reference Recordings A Video Standard
Editor:
Reference Recordings did not provide the funding for the actual production of the program. They did contribute their considerable audio expertise in the production process. RR's well-known attention to detail and noted audio capability are the major reasons why this program is on that label.
Consumers and professionals are seeing many of the test patterns in this program for the first time. They were first brought to the attention of the video professional by my research in monitor calibration, through SMPTE (Soci-
ety of Motion Picture and Television Engineers). If you study the film section very carefully,
acase is made for both print and negative transfer. The choice depends on the "look" the producer wants. Until the introduction of the new Rank Transfer in June 1989, the choice had to be made for each program being transferred to video. We will probably see more release print material being transferred once the new Rank

Afew of our customers have called to report problems with audio not being properly encoded for surround sound. First of all, two of Dolby's best people were present during the
final audio edit session to insure proper surround-sound encoding. Second, acopy of the disc was taken to aprofessional audio studio to check the audio encoding. Yes, the audio is properly encoded; and yes, the disc has uncovered some equipment problems in the playback path. It is doing its job.
Mention was made of difficulty in reading some of the text on amonitor. The graphically generated text is from a Dubner character
generator, specifically designed for proper character display in the NTSC format. The disc signal, fed as an RF channel even to an older, 1980 Sylvania receiver, is quite readable. Dis-
playing the video from the disc on aprofessional monitor shows no hint of legibility problem in any of the text. There are several slides in the monitor calibration and video recording equipment sections that could create achallenge to some consumer products. That is one of the purposes of this disc. They rep-

Stereophile, November 1989

229

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resent valid NTSC information and are all readable on industrial-grade monitors. (Industrial grade is below broadcast grade.)
Chapters 4and 5do not contain picture stops, places where the disc will come to an automatic freeze frame. The reason for this is that there are three different programs going on at once in these two chapters. Placing pic-
ture stops for one of the three programs would interrupt the use of the other two. Picture stops are used in nine places in Chapter 6, with three others in the rest of the program.
Video test patterns have been placed in three
sections of this disc: just after the beginning, toward the middle, and near the end. There are several technical and some program reasons for doing this. In the CAV disc format, video signal-
to- noise and resolution improve from the beginning to the end of the program. Test sig-
nals allow that improvement to be quantified. The book that comes with the disc really
shouldn't be abook, it should be acomputer data base. As you go through the program in detail you'll realize that most topics in video are dependent on other topics. As an example, the subject of color quality of apicture is dependent on gray scale. The "color" of gray is covered before the color section. The use of abook with ahighly interactive program and subject material is alimitation in itself.
The SMPTE Resolution chart is properly centered in the video. The Indian Head test pattern is missing about 2% on all of its edges. The Indian Head chart has not been available for many years. The only copy we managed to find in usable condition was altered in the Quantel
Paint Box/Harry combination. There were things at the edges we did not wish to display. It is displayed in the program for archival rea-
sons, and is one of the best representations of the pattern currently available.
The opening studio sequence contains "state-of-the-art" video directly from the RGB output of the BTS solid-state LDK-90 camera. The film transferred to video in this program was done on the best equipment available prior to June of this year. The subject material in the film was designed to show the latitude of film for production and the potential problems of transferring film to video. It was also the best
technical demonstration material available to the project at the time of the production.
The request for three low-level lines for setting the initial cutoff points of the screen con-

trols has no validity as an NTSC signal. This is aCRT RGB-domain function, independent of scanning and/or the NTSC-to-RGB decoder. In most sets, both the incoming signal and vertical scanning are turned off when the screen controls are initially set.
Providing print material for comparison to the video has validity only if the primaries used to print the material exactly match the primaries of the television system. The light source used to illuminate the print material has to be 6500° Kelvin with aColor Rendering Index (CRI) of 95 or better. Most printing primaries are completely different from video primaries, areal problem in desktop publishing. A6500°K bulb of aCRI of 95 or better will increase the cost of alight by afactor of 20 to 40 times. The correct bulb is something most consumers just do not have.
This disc is interactive. It will require many hours of actual use before the viewer will begin to realize just how much information is there.
This disc does point out both audio and video equipment problems. Most people jump to the conclusion that the disc is at fault because these problems have never been seen or heard before. The disc is not perfect. It does, however, have the capability of challenging most consumer audio and video equipment.
Josephj. Kane, Sr. Producer of A Video Standard
AudioQuest
Editor: It is enlightening to witness the audio wanderings of aconsummate professional like Sam Telhg (alca Audio Anarchist). Sam is certainly not the first person to be hopelessly confused while trying to evaluate what agiven product does or does not do right or wrong in an audio system.
Icertainly appreciate that at the end of this journey Sam finds himself using the AudioQuest Clear speaker cable and AudioQuest Lapis interconnect. If Sam had followed our (almost always ignored) advice to all reviewers to conduct bypass testing of cables, he might have found the route to enlightenment much more direct.
The awkwardness of misevaluating aproduct's quality because of other flaws in an audio system is aproblem all of us professionals and consumers face all the time. This often leads to our opinion-leaders hiding behind ashield

Stereophile, November 1989

231

labeled "compatibility." Bypass testing can
quickly eliminate this confusion by showing what the actual character of acable really is. This allows for the accurate predicting of per-
formance in almost all audio systems. There are very few exceptions where aparticular brand of amplifier is marginally unstable and requires afilter between it and the speaker; this is liter-
ally aone-in-a-thousand problem. It is somewhat unfortunate that the best
cables don't cost 10 cents/foot, that the best amplifiers aren't $10, that abeachfront lot in California isn't $100. It is also unfortunate that
some cables, some amplifiers, and some real estate cost more than they are worth. Luckily
this is afree country where the consumer is free to vote with his/her wallet. In fact, it is in large measure the consumer's responsibility to vote carefully, to reward those manufacturers
and dealers that are deserving. If this responsibility was taken more seriously there would be less variation in the quality of comparably
priced products. There would be more competition in the area of quality instead of marketing.
Imake no apologies for the fact that AudioQuest Clear Hyperlitz costs S50 /foot. While this cable is very simple in philosophy, it is very expensive to construct and uses very expensive materials. On the other end of our line is aspeaker cable called F-14, which costs 79 cents/foot. Imight even suggest that Sam would have preferred F-14 on the system with which he initially did not like the Clear. It is extremely clean but not as revealing as the Clear. F-14 also clearly demonstrates an absence of any plot to rob helpless consumers. We have given an entire spool of F-14 to Stereopbile so hopefully as many people as possible can decide for themselves what acable is worth.
Sam's heavy-duty investigating has apparently turned up acable with afancy name on it that really is just ageneric product. Iam sure we would all like to learn what this cable is rather than enduring aslanderous attack on all cable companies as aresult of Sam's inside information. Idesign every AudioQuest cable from the strand up. There has never been a
generic AQ cable. For that matter, hardly any specialty cable made in the US is generic If Sam knows of any such cable, then please stick to
the facts! As to record wear, Ihave 3500 records in per-
fect condition. All have been played with avari-

ety of MC cartridges over the years. Some of the demonstration/testing collection have had cer-
tain songs played over athousand times. The wear after athousand playings is surprisingly subtle on awell-maintained record. Ihope Sam will both learn about record care and the dynamics of record wear before playing any more of his precious records. Has he heard of
tip mass, stylus shape, proper tracking force, arm resonances, and feedback? Does he know not to use blank records to set anti-skating?
Sam sets an example for all of us about just how easy it is to fall into potholes on the road to audio nirvana. Iknow my trip isn't over yet, and Igather Sam's isn't either. Isure hope he can avoid getting lost like Pooh and Piglet, who circled the same group of trees how many times?
William E. Low AudioQuest
AudioQuest
Editor: "Stop Press!" indeed. Wow! Is Sam Tellig an ace investigative reporter or what? You really nailed us on this one, Sam. Since you already have in your possession my "smoking gun" memo of September 1, Iguess Ishould come clean and
let the truth out. Recently, Audio magazine published an arti-
cle by R.A. Greiner (written in 1980!) that, in essence, states that sonic differences reported in specialty speaker cables are nonexistent and are aresult of fantasy on the part of the listener. It does not appear that Mr. Greiner actually listened to any of the cables under test. In any case, none of the cables mentioned in the article are available today.
In the following issue of Audio, Ivan Bergers column contained an attack on the specialty cable industry by Frank Van Alstine, who accused all cable manufacturers of knowingly selling goods without any merit, in other words, accused the cable industry as agroup of com-
mitting fraud. Not surprisingly, audio cable manufacturers
were upset by these articles. Sam, I'm sure you
can understand why. Imean, how would you feel if someone questioned your journalistic integrity by accusing you of having working relationships with audio manufacturers and distributors outside of your involvement with
Stereophile? Over the close to seven-year period of time
that Ihave been with AudioQuest Ihave had nodding acquaintances with two or three other

232

Stereophile, November 1989

wire manufacturers. This has consisted exclusively of hallway CES show greetings of the

By the way, if you want to sink your teeth into some real investigative reporting, why not

"how's everything going" variety. After these articles appeared, Iheard from these manufacturers and from some others that Ihave never had the occasion to meet or speak with. There was (and is) aconsensus that because the credi-

look into Audio's motivation for publishing these articles in the first place? Very interesting.
Joe Harley AudioQuest

bility of all wire manufacturers had been ques- Wildboar Records

tioned, and because Audio has indicated a Editor:

reluctance to give the matter further press, alet- Thank you for the kind review in your August

ter to Audio setting forth generalized feelings issue of our first LP, Bach & Bohm: Extrava-

and attitudes in response, signed by all wire manufacturers, would have abetter chance of getting published than abarrage of individual

gant Harpsicbord Music (WLBR 8101), with Edward Parmentier. This disc has been on the market for more than five years, and continues

letters from cable companies.

to attract afollowing.

Inote that you did not feel it appropriate to quote from the letter to Audio because it was not addressed to you. Neither was my cover letter, but what the hell, in the name of better investigative reporting let's take asneak look at the concluding paragraph of the Audio letter.
"This is not acase where afew cultists have banded together to pull something over on the reasonable majority. This is asituation where
the vast majority hear differences, differences that affect the performance and value of an entire audio system. American high-end cable manufacturers have become among the world leaders in the cable industry, but it did not start here. The big Japanese companies, the ones

Wildboar recordings are distributed by Harmonia Mundi USA, or at least they were until that fine company decided to stop distribution of black vinyl. The address you published is accurate, but dealers and readers desiring to
obtain Wildboar LPs (there are five titles) would do better to contact The Musical Offering, 2430
Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA 94704, Tel: (415) 849-0211. Wildboar CDs continue to be distributed by Harmonia Mundi USA.
A brief note about unequal temperaments: Meantone temperaments were almost universally employed in the early 17th century, and as the century wore on composers began pushing at the harmonic limitations imposed by

whose products often get the US reviews that say 'everything sounds more-or-less the same so you should judge by features and price,' these same companies are the ones who

such tunings. The dissonance which Mr. Berkeley describes as "downright out-of-tune" is intentionally grating to the ear, but by defini-
tion perfectly in tune. It is difficult for the mod-

pioneered the cable industry 15 years ago. Sony, JVC, Denon, Hitachi, Pioneer, Kenwood and Nakamichi are just afew of the betterknown companies who have sold specialty

ern ear to let go the idea that there is some sort
of God-given "in-tuneness" which is unchanging from century to century. Many people will tell you in all seriousness that they or their

cable and/or are very careful about the cable inside their products. Audio Research, Madrigal, Krell, Apogee, and Threshold are just afew of the world-class US manufacturers who sup-

friends were born with "perfect pitch," as if A=440 is anatural phenomenon, engraved upon our genes. Pitches and concepts of intonation change. Ifind it intensely interesting to

ply their own lines of specialty cables, in large explore the ramifications of tuning systems

part because they are concerned about the used centuries ago. Mr. Berkeley and Icould

proper presentation of their primary products. have aprotracted discussion on this topic, and

Consumers, reviewers and manufacturers all it would be atime-honored debate: musical

know what Mr. Greiner doesn't know; listen first, think second."

journals of the 17th and 18th centuries are filled with arguments on the same topic.

Sam, Ihope this sheds alittle light on your

Edward Parmentier is featured on anew

quote of my cover letter. I'm afraid that I'm not Wildboar CD to appear this fall, Seventeenth

professionally qualified to comment on your apparent fear that there is something sinister

Century French Harpsichord Music, which employs atuning that can only be described

about wire manufacturers signing acommon letter.

as extreme. When we were recording certain passages by Froberger Mr. Parmentier exclaimed

Stereophile, November 1989

233

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New England's Oldest Audio Dealer Talks Turkey
While turkeys may be good to eat they are terrible to listen to. We have found over the 60 odd years of doing business, that even our favorite manufacturers have gobbled abit. For that reason we do not carry anyone's complete line. There are only two kinds of products, those made to be sold and those made to be owned. We try to carry only the latter. We hope you find this approach sensible. This way the turkeys will be for your mouth, not for your ears.
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FREE 30 DAY HOME TRIAL Buy any VTL product. Listen and compare for 30 full days. If you don't think its the finest amplifier you've ever heard -- just return it to Sound Goods for acheerful refund.

234

Stereophile, November 1989

that the dissonance caused the hair on his arms to stand. Precisely the appropriate response. Mr. Berkeley will probably hate it. 1love it.
Joseph Spencer \Wildboar Records
Symdex loudspeakers
Editor: We would like to thank Lewis Lipnick for his kind words regarding our loudspeakers (CES show report Vol.12 No.8) and say that it was a pleasure discussing music with him. As well as the new Epsilon Signature speakers that Mr. Lipnick commented on, Symdex introduced a new two-way floor-standing model, the Gamma Signature, that incorporates many of the same features as the larger Epsilon for $1600 the pair. Finally, Symdex has recently moved to anew location. The new address is: Symdex Audio, Box 7096, Gonic, NH 03867. Phone: (603)335-2549.
Elsa and Leland Wallace Symdex Audio, Gonic, NH
EAR recording equipment
Editor: Iwas certainly pleased to read your positive

comments about Tim de Paravicini's EAR recording equipment. [In -Stereophik Cuts An Le" Vol.12 No.9 p.66--Ect] There is only one thing that I'd like to add: the equipment is distributed in the US, and readers who want dealer information may contact the distributor: Audio Consulting & Engineering, 1909 Judah Street, San Francisco, CA 94122, Tel: (415)661-4143.
Paul Stubbleblne Audio Consulting Engineering Services
San Francisco, CA
Martin -Logan Sequel II
Editor: Thank you for bringing to light some of the virtues of the Sequel and the real strengths it brings to the marketplace [in October's "Follow-up" review by Dick Olsher, Vol.12 No.101.
Gayle Martin Sanders President, Martin-Logan, Ltd.
The Waveform loudspeaker
received a response to LA's review from Waveform 's John Ótm5s which was unfortunately too late and too long (more than 4000 words) to be included in this issue. It will be published in the December issue

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Technology Celestion Rogers Polk Audio Paradigm Entec Acoustic
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236

Stereophile, November 1989

WHERE TO BUY STEREOPHILE

Dealers interested in selling Stereophile call (505) 982-2366.

ALABAMA

Encinitas

Auburn Accurate Audio

North County Stereo Vision 131 N El Camino

110 E Samford Ave

Encino

Huntsville Campbell Stereo

Sound Factor West 17265 Ventura Blvd

1?16 N Memorial Pkwy

Fair Oaks

ALASKA
Anchorage Shimeks 405 E. Northern Lights Blvd
ARIZONA

Pinkerton Audio 6716 Madison Ave. Ste 8 Fairfield CAM Stereo Unlimited 2020 N Texas Gardena

Mesa

Reference Audio Systems

Mesa Audio

18214 Dalton Ave

456 W Main St. Ste M

Grass Valley

Phoenix

Alta Buena Stereo

Tower Records

214 E Main St

3949 E. Thomas Rd

Hollywood

Scottsdale

World Book &News

Esoteric Audio

1652 Cahuenga Blvd

4120 N Marshall Way. Ste 1 Irvine

Tucson

Soundquest

Wilson Audio Ltd

4255 Campus Dr #116

2900 E Broadway

Lancaster

ARKANSAS

Soundworks

Little Rock Creative Sight &Sound 400 N Bowman, Ste B-3
CALIFORNIA
Benicia Benicia Audio/Video 810 Southampton Rd Berkeley DB Audio 2573 Shattuck Honkers 2440 Shattuck Ave Music Lovers 1510 AWalnut St Tower Records
Classical Annex 2585 Telegraph Ave Burlingame Future Sound 1118 Burlingame Ave

737 W Lancaster Blvd Leucadia Music by the Sea 542 N. Hwy 101
Los Angeles Christopher Hansen Ltd 646 N. Robertson Paris Audio 12401 Wilshire Blvd Western &Olympic
Audio Video 998 S Western Ave
Mission Viejo Home Technology Systems 28251 Marguerite Pkwy #C Videolaser 28451 Marguerite Pkwy Mountain View Sound Goods 391 San Antonio Rd

Campbell Sound Goods 2627 S. Bascom Ave

Newport Beach Audio by Design 1000 Bristol St N

Canoga Park The Laser's Edge 22021 Sherman Way

Oakland Pro Audio 383 40th St

Shelley's Stereo 6836 De Soto Ave Upscale Audio

Orange Absolute Audio 1232 N Tustin

8381 Canoga Ave Capitola Cymbaline Records 1475 41s1 Ave Carmichael Deetes Sound Room 5825 Manzanita Ave #4

Palm Springs David Rutledge Audio 675 N Palm Canyon Dr Palo Alto Western Audio Imports 4191 El Camino Real
Pasadena

Claremont Audio Basics

GNP Showcase 1244 E Colorado Blvd

976 W Foothill #139

Riverside

Colma Serra Stereo

SpeakerCratt 3627 Merrill Ave

4947 Junipero Serra

Sacramento

Concord

Keith Yates Audio

CAM Stereo Unlimited

3019 DSt

2151G Sabio

Neal 's Speakers &Stereo

Cupertino

1728 Fulton Ave

Elite Electronics

Paradyme Audio/Video

20149A Stevens Creek Blvd 1720 Fulton Ave

El Toro

San Diego

Tower Records

Stereo Design

23811 El Toro Rd

9353 Claremont Mesa Blvd

Stereo Unlimited 3191 Sports Arena Blvd San Francisco Harmony Audio Video 2238 Fillmore Performance Audio 816 Mission St Sounds Alive 731 Florida St Tower Records 2525 Jones St Ultimate Sound 141 Kearny St
San Jose Paradise Sound 860 S Winchester Presto Audio 2667 Cropley Ave #128 San Luis Obispo Audio Ecstasy 786 Higuera
San Mateo Mateo Hi Fidelity Inc 2199 S El Camino Real Santa Barbara Audio Vision 612 N Milpas Santa Maria Jett Lynn Audio 5455 Esplanada Ave Santa Monica Acoustic Art 320 W Almeria Audio Shoppe 1322 2nd St. Ste 228 Jonas Miller Sound 2828 Wilshire Blvd Optimal Enchantment 522 Santa Monica (by appt Shelley's Stereo 2212 Wilshire Blvd
Sausalito Music by Design 107 Caledonia St Sherman Oaks Tower Records
Classical Annex 14623 Ventura Blvd
Simi Valley House of Audio/Video 1970-4 Sequoia Stockton Private Line
Home Entertainment 88 W. Castle St Torrance Stereo Hi Fi Center 22926 Hawthorne Blvd
Upland Audio Haven 1937 W. 11th St Van Nuys Audio Den 15600 Roscoe Blvd Venice Armadillo ACompany 928 California Ave
Walnut Audio Best 2411 S Joel Dr West Covina Protech Audio 1312 E Partner St West Hollywood Tower Records
Classical Annex 8840 W. Sunset Blvd

Westminster Audio Today 14306 Beach Blvd Woodland Hills Paris Audio 20037 Ventura Blvd Wilson Audio Video
Entertainment 20044 Ventura Blvd
COLORADO
Boulder ADSystems Ltd 2525 Arapahoe Ave Listen Up 2034 E Arapahoe Cherry Creek US Tech 248 Detroit St Colorado Springs The Sound Shop 528 S Tejon Denver Excalibur Sound 326 S. Broadway Listen Up 999 S. Logan Sound Hounds 1575 S Pearl Fort Collins Sound Hounds 646 S College Westminster Westminster Newsstand 5088 W 92nd Ave
CONNECTICUT
Bristol Sound Unlimited 169 Church St New Haven Take 5Audio 105 Whitney Ave New London Roberts 90 Bank St Stereo Lab 140 Bank St
01ST. OF COLUMBIA
Needle in aHaystack 1990 KSt Serenade Records 1800 M St NW
FLORIDA
Boca Raton Vern's Electronics 3259 N Federal Hwy Clearwater Rising Sounds 3135 US 19 N Fort Lauderdale Audio Center 4134 N Federal Hwy Select Audio Design 2740 E Oakland Park
Blvd. Ste 100 Fort Pierce Sound Shack 2302 S US 1 Fort Walton Beach Stereo Images 11 Eglin Pkwy SE #6 Jacksonville House of Stereo 3505 Southside Blvd #10 Lake Worth Audio Advisor 928 N. Dixie Hwy

Largo Sound Creations 3690 E Bay Dr. Ste E Melbourne Sound Gallery 912-B E New Haven Miami Audio by Caruso 13831 S Dixie Hwy Audio Plus 6214 S Dixie Hwy Sound Components 1536 S Dixie Hwy Tampa Audio Visions 14733 N Dale Maybry Audio Visions 3953 W Kennedy Blvd
GEORGIA
Atlanta Music Audio 2100 Roswell Rd NE Music. Music. Music Buckhead and
N Lake Tower Festival Sounds of Distinction 3231 Paces Ferry PI Stereo Shop 2774 Hargrove Rd Stereo Video Designs 6300 Powers Ferry
Landing Ulbum Musical Designs Inc 4462 Burns Rd Martinez The Stereo Shop 104 Chamilla Dr Tucker MG Audio 4880 Lawrenceville Hwy
HAWAII
Honolulu The Audio Shoppe 300 S Beretania #207 Sounds 502 Kaaahi St Tower Records 611 Keeaumoku St 20/20 Stereo 660 Ala Moana Blvd
ILLINOIS
Barrington Take One Audio Video 203-0 W NW Hwy Champaign August Systems 901 N Prospect Ave Glenn Pours Audio Video 114 W Church Chicago Absolute Audio 5211 S Harper Chicago Speakerworks 5700 N Western Ave Clark St Midwest Stereo 2806 Clark Street Superior Audio Systems 833 N Milwaukee Victor's Stereo 8E Ene St Chicago Heights Audio Enterprises 202 Halsted

Stereophile, November 1989

237

electronics AUDIO RESEARCH BRYSTON ·DENON KLYNE ·MAGNUM N.A.O. ·THRESHOLD

loudspeakers INFINITY ·M &K
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other good stuff A.S.C. Tube Traps C.W.O. furniture The PHANTOM Shadow
a Fine Collection of real records ·c.d. discs

Over the past eight years, we've been chosen by these eight manufacturers to be their exclusive dealer for all Long Island: Audio Research Bryston ·Klyne Martin Logan Oracle ·Proceed Thiel ·Threshold
Visit us...We'll become YOUR choice, too!
4 Large Music Rooms · Private Demos by Appointment Delivery and Expert Installation throughout Metro New York "Nothing matters but the music!" Lermontov, The Red Shoes (1947)
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Stereophile, November 1989

DeKalb Audio Plus 866 W Lincoln Hwy Lansing Audio Clinic 2River PI Lisle Sound Choice 5328 At 53 Murphysboro Sabin Audio 1313 South St Naperville Quintessence Audio Ltd. 20 W. Jefferson St Normal Glenn Poor's Audio Video 106 E. Beaufort Peoria Sound of Peoria 105 E. Arcadia Rockford Absolute Audio 4227 Maray Dr Skokie Rosine Audio 4525 Oakton St Springfield The King's Stereo 1275 W Wabash. Ste S
INDIANA Indianapolis Audio Workshop 5357 N. Keystone Tone Studio 820 E. 64th St Ye Olde Hi Fi Shoppe 824 E. 64th St
IOWA Davenport Audio Odyssey 1718 E Kimberly Rd Iowa City Hawkeye Audio 401 S Gilbert Marion The Audio Room Ltd 1426 Twixt Town Rd
KANSAS Lawrence University Audio 2319 Louisiana St Wichita Music. Inc, 3203 E. Douglas Golden Stereo 5337 W 94th Terrace
KENTUCKY Louisville Musical Images
of Kentucky 6700 Sycamore Woods Dr
LOUISIANA Baton Rouge Art Colleys
Audio Specialties 711 Jefferson Hwy Metairie Audio Resource 3133 Edenborn Ave New Orleans Octave's 112 University PI Tower Records 408 N. Peters St Wilson Audio 8001 Maple St
MARYLAND Baltimore Soundscape 406 W. Cold Spring Lane

Ellicott City Gramophone Ltd 9005 Chevrolet Frederick Audio Ces 180 Stoneybrook Cl Laurel Needle in aHaystack 14270 Baltimore Ave Lutherville Gramaphone Ltd 10801 Tony Dr Rockville Needle in aHaystack 785 Rockville Pike Absolutely Sound' 833 E Rockville Pike Silver Spring OEM Audio 9330 Georgie Ave
MASSACHUSETTS Arlington Audio Vision 1060 Massachusetts Ave Boston Audio Studio 303 Newbury St Listening Studio 23 Stillings St Looney Tunes Records 1106 Boylston St Tower Records 360 Newbury St Brookline Audio Studio 414 Harvard St Cambridge QAudio 95 Vassar St Dartmouth Sound II 576 State Rd Framingham Natural Sound 401 Worcester Rd Northampton Sound and Music 351 Pleasant St Peabody Clearly Audible 255 Andover St Pittsfield HBS Stereo Systems 237 First St
MICHIGAN Ann Arbor SKR Classical 539 E Liberty School Kids Records 523 E. Liberty Bad Axe Grume Systems. Ltd 112 S Port Crescent Birmingham Almas HiFi Stereo 395 E Maple Dearborn Almas HiFi Stereo 15031 Michigan Ave East Lansing Jemstone 325 Grove Street Farmington Hills Almas HiFi Stereo 29401 Orchard Lake Rd Ferndale JAM Hi -Fi Specialists 22346 Woodward Ave Grand Rapids Spectrum Electronics 2019 Eastern Ave SE

Mount Pleasant Dr Goodyear's
Audio Parlor 100 Hiawatha Dr Muskegon Stereo Showcase 3100 Hensy Rochester Audio Video System 3250 Rochester Rd Royal Oak Audio Dimensions 4128 N Woodward Ave Saginaw The Listening Room 1305 Court St
MINNESOTA Hopkins Audio Video Dimensions 1011 E Excelsior Blvd Minneapolis Audio Perfection 7401 Lyndale Ave S Hi End Audio 4959 Penn Ave S HiFi Sound Electronics 1226 Harmon Pl St. Paul House of High Fidelity 157 N. Snelling Ave

Northfield Sound Inc 900 Tilton Rd N. Plainfield Stereo City 950 Highway 22E Paramus Leonard Radio 160 RI 17 N. Ridgewood Sounding Board 75 Franklin Ave
Sea Girt Monmouth Stereo 2133 Hwy 35 Shrewsbury Monmouth Stereo 450 Hwy 35
Tom's River Rands Camera and Hi Fi 1841 Hooper Ave Trenton Haro Stereo Lake Lawrence Plaza
Verona Audio Connection 615 Bloomfield Ave Westfield Stuart's Audio 544 North Ave E

MISSOURI St. Louis Best Sound Inc 1131 S. Brentwood Blvd Flip's Stereo Place 9556 Watson Rd Great St Louis Sound Co 1341 S Lindbergh, Ste 1
NEVADA Las Vegas Tower Records 4700 S Maryland Pkwy Union Premiums 1325 E. Flamingo Reno Audio Alternatives 26 Hillcrest Dr

NEW MEXICO Albuquerque Hudson's Audio Center 7611 Menaul NE Page One Newsstand 11200 Montgomery NE Santa Fe The Candyman 851 St. Michaels Dr Downtown Subscription 130 W. Palace Galisteo News 201 Galisteo St
Santa Fe Sight ASound 500 Montezuma, Ste 109 West Coast Sound 2412 Corrillos Rd.

High End Stereo 959 W Moana Lane
NEW HAMPSHIRE Hanover Hanover Audio 47-51 S Main St
NEW JERSEY Chester Professional Audio
Consultants 57 E Main St Deptford Hi Fi Connection 136 Rt 41 East Brunswick Atlantic Stereo 636 RI 18 Englewood Stuart's Audio 3Grand Ave Hackettstown Marcel Associates 57 Wood Duck Cl Maillon Hi Fi Connection RD 1, RI 73 Millburn Professional Audio
Consultants 182 Essex St Monistown Sight and Sound 60 Speedwell Ave South Street Stereo 20 South St

NEW YORK Albany Altair Audio 1980 Central Ave
Batavia Unicorn Audio 206 E Main St Binghamton JSG Audio 1437 Front St Buffalo Speaker Shop 3604 Main St
Stereo Emporium 3407 Delaware Ave
Colonie Mom's Music Systems 1593 Central Ave Canandaigua Audio Nouveaux 71-73 South Main St East Northport Total Media Systems 192 Laurel Road
Huntington Station Audio Breakthrough 129 RI110
Lake Grove Audio Den Ltd. Smith Haven Plan 2021 Nesconset Hwy Latham Auto-Sound Plus 947-949 Troy-Schenectady Clark Music in Albany 1075 Troy-Schenectady

Liverpool Audio Excellence 4974 Alexis Dr Lynbrook American Audiophile 373 Sunrise Hwy Mamaroneck Definitive Hi Fi 154 E. Boston Post Rd Manhasset Audio Breakthrough 1534 Northern Blvd Merrick Performance Audio 2064 Sunrise Hwy Mount Kisco Fox and Sutherland 15 S. Moger Ave Nanuet Eardrum Audio Video 148 E. Fit 59 New York City Audio Breakthroughs 199 Amsterdam Ave Electronic Workshop 10 E. 8th St
Leonard Radio 55 W. 44th St Lyric Hi -Fi Inc. 1221 Lexington Ave 2005 Broadway Stereo Exchange 687 Broadway Sound by Singer 165 E. 33rd St Tower Records 692 Broadway Tower Records 1961 Broadway Patchogue Square Deal Radio
and Television 456 Waverly Ave Pleasantville Audio Excellence 343 Manville Rd
Rochester Interior Images 317 S. Broadway Paul Heath Audio 217 Alexander Rowe Audio 1737 MI. Hope Sound Concepts 2314 Monroe Ave Scarsdale The Listening Room Inc 590 Central Park Ave Smithtown Audio Enioyment 11 Caroline Ave Stonybrook Esoteric Sound Systems Coventry Commons, Rt 347 Syracuse Gordon Electronics 2739 Erie Blvd E.
Superior Sight and Sound 2780 Erie Blvd E. West Babylon Audio Visions 1067 Montauk Hwy White Plains Harvey Electronics 236 E. Post Rd Lyric Hi Fi 146 E. Post Rd Woodbury Audio Breakthroughs Turnberry Commons
NORTH CAROLINA Cary Advanced Audio 1263 Kildaire Farm Rd

Stereophile, November 1989

239

Charlotte Higher Fidelity 1620 South Blvd Sound Systems 3748 E Independence Blvd Durham Audio Visions 4600 Chapel Hill Rd Raleigh Audio Advice 3532 Wade Ave
OHIO
Centerville Stereo Showcase 1516 State RI 725 Cincinnati Stereo Lab 11419 Princeton Rd 4582 Montgomery Columbus Custom Stereo Electronics 1391 S Hamilton Rd Needle in aHaystack 2384 Wellesley Lane Progressive Audio 1764 N High St Dublin Audio Encounters 4271 W Dublin Granville Rd Fairbom Audio Etcetera 2626 Col Glen Hwy Findlay House of Hindenach 229 N Main Sr Heath Threshold Audio 605 Hebron Rd Lakewood Play It Again Sam 12611 Madison Ave Miamisburg Stereo Showcase Prestige Plaza 5 North Olmsted Maximum Compact 28883 Lorain Act Sandusky Audio Force 521 E Perkins Ave Toledo Audio Center
1546 Alexis Rd Jamiesons Stereo 5431 Monroe University Heights Atlantis Home
Entertainment Systems 2220 Warrensville Rd
OKLAHOMA
Oklahoma City Audio Dimensions 10407 N. May Ave Tulsa K-Labs Audio 2806 S Harvard
OREGON
Portland Hawthorne Stereo 1428 SE 36th St
PENNSYLVANIA
Berwyn Soundex 747 Berwyn Ave Camp Hill Hi -Fi House 3300 Simpson Ferry Rd Erie Custom Audio 1550 W 26th Street

Harrisburg HI-FI House 3352 Paxton St

Dallas Krystal Clear Audio 5330 Longview

Spokane Hais Stereo 313 W Sprague Ave

I.PD. Distributors 2323 Woodlawn St Hermitage

Omni Sound 4833 Keller Springs Preston Trail Audio

Tacoma Stereo Shoppe #2 11007 Bridgeport Way SW

Sounds Good To Me

17390 Preston Rd #320

WEST VIRGINIA

2481 E State St Hershey Stereo Barn

El Paso Soundquest Inc 6800 Gateway E to

Beckley Hi Fi Farm Rt 3. Bon 20-A

251 W. Chocolate Ave Philadelphia All That Jazz 617 S 24th St Chestnut Hill Audio 149 N 3rd Discovery Discs 3417 Spruce St Tower Records
Classical Annex 537 South St Pittsburgh Mook's Audio 2883 W Liberty Ave

Garland MJM Audio 4125 Broadway Houston Audio Concepts 2200 Southwest Fwy Esoteric Ear 4230 Glenchase Lane Odessa Harold's Electronics 2809 Andrews Hwy
San Antonio Bill Case Sound 4319 Medical Dr #106

Morgantown Sound Investments Inc 467 High St
WISCONSIN
Eau Claire Elite Audio 1498 S Hastings Way Glendale Sound Investments Ltd. 2500 W. Silver Spring Dr Wisconsin Rapids Salon IAudio 2551 8th St S

Selinsgrove Stereo Shoppe 19 N Market St

Concert Sound 7103A Blanco Rd

South Hampton Classic Car-Tunes 1029 Street Rd Willow Grove Soundex 1100 Easton Rd

UTAH
Ogden The Hi Fi Shop 2236 Washington Blvd Salt Lake City Audition Audio

CANADA
National Distributor DeWinton, Alberta Ruehle Marketing Bon 24, Site One. RR1

PUERTO RICO
Rio Piedras On Top Audio 332-6 Ave Jesus TPinero
RHODE ISLAND

2144 Highland Dr Le Disque 2146 S Highland Dr
VERMONT
Burlington

ALBERTA
Calgary KW Audio 344 17th Ave SW
Loyalty Sound 1107 8th St SW

Middletown Soundings 700 Aquidneck Ave

City Stereo 207 College St S. Burlington

Edmonton Audio Ark 10746A 124th St

Providence

Audio Den

Ocean State Audio

100 Dorset St

304 Thayer St

SOUTH CAROLINA
Columbia Sound Advice 2821 Ashland Rd Greenville American Audio 597 Haywood Rd Sound Source 2516 E. North St West Columbia Upstairs Audio 746 Harden St

VIRGINIA
Alexandria Excalibur 323 S. Washington Bailey's Crossroads Audio Buys 5177 Leesburg Pike Skyline Mall Centerville Gibed Listener 5866 Old Centerville Rd Charlottesville Preferred Sound

TENNESSEE

309 E Water St

Knoxville

Danville

Hi Fi House

Aeolian Products &Svcs

8373 Kingston Park Ste 900 215 Main St

Memphis

Fredericksburg

Underground Sound 2125 Central Ave

Contemporary Sounds 1236 Jefferson Davis Hwy

Nashville

Richmond

Cumberland Audio 4013 Hillsboro Rd

Audio Art 2215 Broad St

Audio Plus 9934 82nd St Harold's Stereo 16612 109th Ave 9024 51st Ave Medicine Hat Sounds Fantastic 3192 Dunmore Rd SE
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Coquitlam Austin Books 1105 Austin Ave Kelowna KM Audio 1561 Pandosy St Vancouver Book Warehouse 632 W. Broadway Music Works 4740 Main St The Sound Room 2803 W. Broadway Victoria Sweet Thunder Records 575 Johnson St

Nicholson's Stereo 115 19th Ave S. Tower Books 2400 West End Ave
TEXAS
Amarillo Sound Systems Ltd. 2502 Paramount Austin Audio Systems

Roanoke Audiotronics 4235 Electric Rd Springfield Needle in aHaystack Spnngfield Mall Virginia Beach Digital Sound. Inc. 6519 College Park Sq
WASHINGTON

MANITOBA
Winnipeg Creative Audio 214 Osborne St S. Timothy Molyneux 1853 Grant St
ONTARIO
Brampton Audio Concepts 8Strathearn Ave

3800 N Lamar

Bellevue

Chatham

Cochran Corp

Hawthorne Stereo

Absolute Sound

2830 Real St

13107 Northup Way

425 Clair St

Beaumont John Goodyear Audio 229 Dowlen

Seattle Definitive Audio 6017 Roosevelt Way NE

Hamilton Globe Audio 552 1/, Upper James St

McMaster University Bookstore
280 Main St W Same Day TV-Audioland 217 King St E. Thompsons Select Audio 610 Upper James St Kingston House of Sounds 277 Princess St Vern Napier Camera 333 Princess St London Multimag 150 Dundas St #3 Milton Sound Man 629 Main SI E. Oakville Oakville Audio 2347 Lakeshore Rd W. #3 Oshawa Mike's Place 17 King St W. Ottawa Distinctive Audio 903 Carling Ave Euphonics 687 Bank St Stereo Trading Post 242 1/2 Bank St Peterborough The Audio Room 300 George St N. Rexdale Audio Empire 1011 Albion Rd Richmond Hill Linear Sound 10176 Yonge St Thornhill Stereo Factory 7616 Yonge St Toronto American Sound 315 Spadina Ave Classic Audio
1894 Lawrence Ave E. Executive Stereo 896 Queen St W. Great National Sound 615 Queen St W. High End Audio 2216A Queen St E. Ring Audio 553 Queen St W. Straight Gain Electronics 354A Yonge St Toronto Home of
Audiophile 150 Dundas St W. Waterloo Sound Stage 56 Regina St N. Whitby Whitby Audio 223 Brock St S Windsor Audio Two 324 Pelissier Better Audio 106 Eugenie St W
QUEBEC
Anjou Son-Or 7339 St Zotique Quebec CORA 131- 18 Rue E Ste-Foy Rotac Electronics 2873 Ch Ste-Foy

2 ill

Stereophile, November 1989

PROMISE
OF THE
OMPACT DISC
FULFILLED
AT LAST.
"...the new label whose first fruits attest to the founders' first principles: state-of-the-art digital
sound and distinctive repertory." -- The New lOrk Times
"...a new company whose attractions feature outstanding digital sound and imaginative programming..." -- The Washington Past
"The recordings are of the highest quality..." -- Musical America/Opus
"...splendidly meaty and mordant sound...recorded with exceptional fidelity."
-- (iramophone "...an exciting new label."
-- Me Washington Times "...sets anew standard, ...simply the best ever issued." "...a laudable case of technology
in the service of art." -- Fanfare
Perfect 10/10 ratings in performance and sound quality for six debut releases.
-- Cl) Review
DORIAN
RECORDINGS
Dealer inquiries invited.
U SA Tel (518) 274-5475 Fax (518) 274-4276
EUROPE
Bruxelles, Belgium Tel 02/731.66.71
Stereophile, November 1989

AUSTRALIA
National Distributor Thornbury. Victoria Audio 0Imports 649 Burwood Rd Hawthorn 3122
DENMARK
National Distributor Graestad Matrix Bylyngen 4 Blistrup Copenhagen Fona Ostergade 47 Hi -Fi Entusiasten Tagensvei 162 KT Radio Vesterbrogade 179-181 Viborg Frydendahl Hi -Fi Sot. Mathiasgade 72 KT Radio Norregade 19-21 Aarhus Cilia Hi -Fi Ny Munkegade 65 KT Radio M.P Bruunsgade 36
HONG KONG
Aeroplax Limited Rm 201 Canton House 54-56 Queen's Rd Central The Sound Chamber Suite 1001, Dina House 11 Duddell St
ICELAND
National Distributor 125Reylnavik Steini HF, S Danielsson Skulagata 61
ITALY National Distributor Lucca. 55100 Sound and Music Via Mazzarosa 125
MEXICO
Mexico D. F., 06600 Auchorama SA Marsella 71
NETHERLANDS National Distributor 2611 RV Delft Tannoy Netherlands Ezelsveldlaan 52 Amsterdam RAF HiFi Stereo Ronstraat 142-150
NEW ZEALAND National Distributor Petone. Wellington
R Britton Ltd 3Sydney St
SINGAPORE National Distributor Audio Suite-Flair System 06-02 Da Jin Factory Bldg 362 Upper Paya Lebar Rd
Complex 112 E Coast Rd
SPAIN
National Distributor
Valencia
Sarte Audio Elite Padre Jofre, 22

SWEDEN National Distributor Oslo 1, Norway Audio Import Box 9193 Vaterland
SWITZERLAND
National Distributor Basel Ensemble AG SA Ltd H Annoni Strasse 23 CH-4132 Mottent Aarau Stimmgabel-- H Ineichen im "City Mart" Bern Klingler Hi- Fi 3072 Ostermundigen Hi -Fi Technik K Butter Effingerstrasse 29 Lugano ABAudio Byte 6942 Savosa Musicdoor Ouartiere Magheni Thun Audiotechnik Luthi Frutigenstrasse 61b Zürich HIFI-Forum Stamplenbachstrasse 15
THAILAND
Bangkok Focal (Thailand) 207 Bangkok Bazaar Raidamri Rd Future Land Amarin Plaza, 3rd Floor Pleonchit Rd Pathumwan. Rumpinee
UNITED KINGDOM National Distributor Wilstead, Bedford Moth Marketing 10 Dane Lane Glasgow G2 Music Room 221 St Vincent St London Audio T 190 West End Lane Douglas Brady Hi Fi 18 Monmouth St Covent Garden KJ Leisuresound Ltd. 26 New Cavendish St Sound Information 13 St. John's Hill Manchester Music Room 50 Bndge St Reading Belts Reading Hi Fi Harris Arcade, Friar St
WEST GERMANY
National Distributor 6Frankturt/M, 56 Audio International Gonzenheimer Strasse 2b
WEST INDIES
Jamaica Kingston Dataline Equipment
& Systems 25 Waterworks Circuit

AUDIO MART

RATES: Private, eso 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 5529, Santa Fe, NM 87502, or CALL: (505)982-2366. DEADLINE: Ads are due on the first working day of the month, two months in advance of the issue in which your ad will appear.

For Sale
QUICKSILVER KT88 MONO AMPS, custom factory bronze plated, one of akind, $1795; ADSIO surround sound w/built-in 200W high-definition amplifier factory refurbished, 8/89, with factory warranty, $395; Integra DX-7500 CD player, linear 18-bit, 8x-oversampling, $495. Call Ernie, (916)922-2391 or (916) 324-7118.
FORT WAYNE, IN--QUALITY HI-FI: B&K Components, Ariston, Rotel, B&W loudspeakers, Spectrum, Onkyo, Mod Squad Line Drive and Prism, Chicago Speaker Stands, 'Umber Kahle, and custom, hand-built equipment racks. Fair prices and consultation. Three Rivers Audio, (219)422-5460.
MICHIGAN RESIDENTS TAKE NOTE! We carry: Threshold, Conrad-Johnson, ProAc, SOTA, TDL Speakers, KEF, Polk, Energy, Monster, Straight Wire, Stax, Nakamidti, NAD, Niles, Ora:éon, Stuniko, Grace, VPI, CWD, and more. Professional consultation and installation. The Listening Room, 1305 Court Street, Saginaw, MI 48602. (517)792-3816. No mail orders. please.
VTL SUPER DELUXE/MC. Switchable gain for MC/MM. Perfect condition, less than 100 hrs. Mans ferable manufacturer's lifetime warranty. Superb sound. $2250 list, $1500. (206) 542-6166.
SOTA COSMOS, THRESHOLD, MARTIN-LOGAN, Quicksilver, Sumiko, Klyne, MFA, Linaeum, SME, Superphon, Anna-Sphere, Spica, Forte, Philips, Rotel, and more. Corner Audio, 1204 NIVGlisan, Portland, OR 97209. (503)227-1943.
INFINITY KAPPA NINES (mint), $2000 plus shipping. Rich, (415) 456-1775 after 5pm PST Anytime weekends.
LINN LPI2, BASIK PLUS, Grado MIX like new, $1000 or best offer. Call 7bny, (508)478-0426, MA.
DON'T UPGRADE THAT COMPONENT! Unlock its sonic potential with Component Silencer Lower overall noise floor, improve detail and dynamics, and achieve greater transparency. The most cost-effective ($30 average) enhancement for amplifiers, preamplifiers, CD players, tuners, outboard power supplies, and vacuum pumps. Call or write: Acoustic Technologies, Box 2, Blauvelt, NY 10913, (914)352-8810. All inquiries returned.
BERNING TF-10HA, $700; Entec SW-1/pair, $2250; Kindel PLS- /pair $1250; MM Systems M-200/pair and Luminescence, $5035. (312)771-4660.
A WIDE VARIETY OF AUDIOPHILE EQUIPMENT is available from Audio by Gil Morrison! Many satisfied customers! Too many product lines to list! Free shipping! Call (313)342-2475 for inquiries and prices!

FOR SALE: Celestion SL-700 speakers w/stands, mint, under warranty, must sell, serious inquiries only, $2000. PA (717) 379-2622 after 1lam or (717) 752-1616.
60 YEARS IN BUSINESS--WE MUST be doing something right. If it's amuch-in-demand audiophile product, we're likely to have it for immediate shipment. Consult with one of our quiet experts or just order US-warranteed components directly. Visa/MC. Ask for Steve K. or Dan W, Square Deal, 456 Waverly Ave, Patcbogue, NY 11772. (516)475-1857.
AUDIOPHILE ALBUMS AT WHOLESALE! Mobile Fidelity, Nautilus, Sweet Thunder, Century, Japanese; also Reference, Sheffield, Chesky, Proprius, M&K, Crystal Clear, Umbrella, Super Disk, Wilson, Lyrita, EMI, Decca, Opus III, RCA Living Stereo, Mercury Living Presence, Casino Royale, Linn, Odin, North Star, Super Analog, Concord Jazz, Three Blind Mice CD, Ultradisc 24K Gold CD. Dealer inquiries invited. Onestop distributor prices for audio stores. Accessories by AudioQuest, record-cleaning machine by Nitty Gritty, and Last record-care products. Chad Kassem, RO. Box 2043, Salina, KS 67402-2043. (913) 825-8609.
CONRAD-JOHNSON PV8, $1349; Sony E5650, $599; Fosgate 360211, $749; Counterpoint SA2, $699; SA3.1, $729; Grado 8MX, $99; Celestion SL600, $1199; MIT Shotgun, 2meters, $399; 15', $875; Thie104A, $599. (714)861-4830.
AUDIO BEST: LA, ORANGE, SAN BERNARDINO, California. Hot components: Celestion SL700, TARA Labs, Counterpoint SA3000, PS 4.6, Audible Illusions Modulus 3, Conrad-Johnson PV8, Mod Squad, Acoustat Spectra, Spica Angelus, Beyer Well-Tempered, Wktdyne, Magnum, Fosgate, MIT, Adcom, B&K, Superphon, Music Reference, Palantir, Spectrum, Rauna, Sound-Lab, VPI, Maplenoll, Systemdek, Grado, Alphason, Garrott, vdHul, Monster, Straight Wire, (714) 861-5413, appointment.
VANDERSTEEN 2C, $850; Superphon dual/mono Revelation, $295; VP! 16.5, $295; Wright Audio tube
amp (sweet), $495; Kimber et, 10' pair, $50; 7' pair,
$35; Watkins Echo Muffs, $95; Maplenoll clamp, $25; MIT MI/330 1m, $85. (814)237-3292.
NEW ANTI-PLATTER ANALOG DECOUPLER MAT. Revolutionary design, decouples record from center spindle and motor vibrations. Incredible sonic improvement! For further information, contact Caplan/Martin Audio, (212)219- 1544, or hear it at the new Stereo Exchange, NYC. Dealer inquiries invited.
ACOUSTAT 44, $2700; out of production Watkins WEI, $2500. Callfim, (501)935-0364 after 6pm CST

242

Stereophile, November 1989

"In fact, the Parasound C/HD-350 combines everything which the demanding enthusiast could wish for: power reserve, dynamics, good solid bass, detailed and airy mids and fine, expressive highs. One is quickly seduced by this
integrated amp which disappears through the music it reproduces, the kind of music you write with acapital M."
Revue du Son (France) June/July,1989
Y.: · ". ·

Parasound
800 822-8802; in CA 415 397-7100 950 Battery Street, San Francisco, CA 941 11

electronics COUNTERPOINT NAO · DENON
MOO SQUAD REVOX · McINTOSH PROTON ·TANDBERG
ROWLAND DESIGN loudspeakers M&K ·MIRAGE BOSTON ACOUSTICS B&W ·SONANCE VANOERSTEEN MONITOR AUDIO
turntables WELL TEMPERED
SOTA THORENS
DENON
video FOSGATE SHURE HTS PIONEER PROTON
accessories AUOIOQUEST KIMBER KABLE SIGNET ·MONSTER CWO FURNITURE

In Southern California
l'IMLÉOMILJO LiC11\i-1
SERVICE SUPPORTING SALES
15600 ROSCOE BLVD. VAN NUYS, CA 91406
(818)781-4700
Audio Den offers quality Equipment and Professional guidance to the Music Lover.
For those who seek Excellence in the reproduction of Music -- We offer Custom Home Installation and Personal Service.
Your Happiness and Satisfaction is our Primary Goal

Stereophile, November 1989

2 *;

SOPHISTICATION IN SOUND AND DESIGN

AMUR
The nev) naine nprecisum audio `..able ,

KEBSCHULL Amplifier. 70 W Tube Mono Amplifier $2375. 800 W Tube Mono Amplifier $8995. Tube Preamplifier $1975 & $3775. Other Outstanding German Products: SYRINX PU3 G (Germany) -A legend AUDIO SELECTION ·Accessories, cones AUDIO EXCLUSIV -The Electrostatic and solid state
amplifier system DANHOLT BOOMERANG Design turntable AUDIODATA "BIJOU" -2-Way loudspeaker GERMAN ACOUSTICS ·Speaker cables. intercon-
nects &connectors DEALER INOUIRIES WELCOME
german acoustics
3558 R49...0 Avenue 1.440 ,son W.scons.n 53704 Twephono 1608) 246 8559

The Disc-Ade
Mailing 125 Warner St Shipping 224 Poquonnock Rd
Groton CT 06340

MMMMGOOD!
Magnum FM Tuners Mirage Loudspeakers
MIT Cables
Mod Squad Products Music Reference Tube Electronics
Music
ea 1,\ iIIc
542 North Highway 101 Leucadia. CA 92024 (619) 436-7692
11 am-6 pm Tuesday-Saturday Wednesday evenings until 8pm
2 I

ARCAM
AUDIOPHILE PRODUCTS BY A&R CAMBRIDGE
Br'flying music to your ears
Integrated Amplifiers ·Tuners ·Compact Disc Players ·Outboard Dto A Converters ·Phono Cartridges ·Loudspeakers. Call or write for your nearest dealer
Stereophile, November 1989

INFINITY RSII-B, LATEST, $2200; ARC SP-9, Gold Aero tubes, $1200; ARC D115 Mk.11, II months old, $2000; SOTA Star with SOTA clamp, aluminum armboard, Syrinx PU3 arm; Grado TLZ and Grado 8MR, $1200, complete or separately; Monster Alpha Genesis 1000, 3months old, $400. Everything absolutely mint. Walt, (215) 368-8981.
CAL SPECIAL EDITION TEMPEST II CD player mint, warranty, $2600. Call Sue, (414)494-4304.
AUDIO RESEARCH SP-9, 11100; Interlink Ref A, lm pair $50; 6pair, $250; Powerline 2(w/spades), 6' pair, $35; 4' pair, $25. Offers? (505) 281 -3095.
IS LISTENING TO YOUR CD player apainful experience? If you do not find yourself emotionally involved in the performance, you should consider CDplayer modifications. We have circuits and accessories that will transform your player into aliquid, dulcet, tonally accurate source. Products include select D/A converters, digital filters, FET op-amps, damping, isolation devices, and more. Call (800)648-6637 for details and catalog. Soloist Audio, 348 7katle, S.A., TX 78209.
SONY ES CDP-508, 8x-oversampling, I8-bit, digital output. Three-year faaory warranty, in box, cost new $550, sell for $400. (213)874-1657.
ROBERTSON 4010 AMP, $450; Superphon Revelation preamp, $250; Magnepan SMGa speakers, $375; AR 'table w /arm, $275; Nak 70011 cassette, $400; AudioQuest Ruby MC cartridge, $120. Various cables: AQ, Monster, and Straight Wire. Contact Ed, (616) 392 8236 ext. 468 dais, (616)335-S761 evenings

MUSIC REFERENCE, THE MAGIC NAME in tube amplifiers, is available in the San Francisco Bay area. Also available are Epos ES-14 speakers, the Cheapskate's favorite; specialized, adjustable record cabinets; custom speaker stands; and isolation platforms. Call Audiocraft today(415)235-9317, and ask about our home demonstrations.
HERE'S AN OPPORTUNITY to experience moderately priced quality interconnects to upgrade your sound, risk-free. Order aset of Solid Core itchnology Cables and, if not delighted with the improvement, return them within 45 days for refund including shipping both ways. Cables are s.o.t.a. solid-core, shielded,
balanced, and optimized for realistic musicality. Cormorant (SCT-04), $119/1m pair; SCT-03, $89/1m pair Air shipping, $3. More information available. Solid Core Technology, 3808 Westview Ave., 17est Palm Beach FL 33407. (407)842-7316.
HOUSTON, TEXAS, AND BEYOND! Stereoworks offers Alchemist, Aural Symphonics, Cambridge, Celestion, Eminent Technology speakers, Euphonic itchnology, Forte, Kiseki, MIT lItlisman, Target, TARA Labs, Threshold, VMPS, van den Hul, Well-R-mperecl, Audiophile LPs and CDs, and more! By appt., free newsletter. Stereowonts, (n3) 497-1114
ANNOUNCING MODIFICATIONS TO B&K AMPS and preamps: most sonic improvement for 1$ invested! Improved detailing, depth of soundstage, increased transparency, deeper, tighter bass! State-of-the-art technology!! Sound Unlimited, 169 Church St., Bristol, CT 06010. Est. 1959. We pay shipping and accept credit cards. (203)584-013/.

Come and Relax at SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA'S Newest High-End Audio Store
Audio Haven Fine Audio Components

TWO LIVING ROOMS DEDICATED TO THE DISCERNING LISTENER
· State of the Art room · State of the Wallet room

THRESHOLD MIRAGE

APOGEE

VTL

ROTEL

BRASFIELD

CARDAS

GRADO

EUPHONIC TECHNOLOGY

VERSA DYNAMICS

FORTE SYSTEMDEK PARADOX WTT VORTEX

1937 W. 11th Street, Suite G Upland, California 91786 (714) 982-8110
Oil the 10 Frey where Los Angeles
and San Bernardino counties meet

Northern Indiana's Oldest High-end Audio Dealer
Sota ·VMPS ·STAX Counterpoint ·Kyocera Bang 8r Olufsen ·Carver
Nakamichi ·Onkyo ·DBX ·Spica ·Fried Last ·AKG ·Monster Denon Professional
Warranted Pre-owned Equipment Available!
the electronics store!
(..4..01 N. Michigan ·South Bend, IN 46601 (219)234-5001

Stereophile, November 1989

215

Audipmmi Cdnnection
BELLES RESEARCH great power amps -sound value
BOLERO for those with asmall room, but very high expectations
BRITISH FIDELITY The A-1 any 1can afford
CELESTION tells you like it is
COUNTERPOINT electronics that speak for themselves
MAGNUM DYNALAB FM at its best
MEWS CD sound musically involving
MERRILL aturntable engineered right!
NESTOROVIC full range speaker, the last you'll buy
TICE Powerblock & Titan, both a"must"
VANDERSTEEN alegend indeed 201-238-1799 615 Bloomfield Ave., Verona, NJ 07044
Trade-ins welcome, used equipment, in-home consultations available.

CHICAGO r SPEAKERWORKS
designs & builds LIMITED PRODUCTION
LOUDSPEAKERS
· World Class Performance · Factory to You Pricing · Save 30% to 40%
Counterpoint VTL B& K
Musical Concepts
Acoustat · Convergent Audio Rogers · Fostex · VP! PS Audio · Proton & much more
5700 N. Western, Chgo 60659
312 -769-5640

All the best.
Krell Audio Research CAL B&W ProAc Thiel
Cello Koetsu Meitner SOTA Versa-Dynamics TDL
Well-Tempered Duntech Aragon PS Audio VP!
Dahlquist Wadia Digital ...and many more!
ADO
193 Bellevue Ave. Upper Montclair, NJ
201 744 0600

4

0-

in

Jeeit tti

Our lowest priced record system only $1429!

· Magnavox CD Player · Superphon CD Max · II&K ST-140 Amplifier · Celestion Model 3 · MIT ZAPchord Cables

731 FLORIDA SAN FRANCISCO 94110 550-1699

246

Stereophile, November 1989

ABSOLUTE POLARITY/LEVEL/BALANCE infiniteresolution remote controller for virtual direct-wire auditioning by the serious Audiophile. Change polarity instantly, select alternate inputs, make precision level/balance adjustments from your favorite listening position. The Thornton Controller Model 100, $985 from TBG Productions, PO. Box 347010, San Francisco, CA 94134. FAX (415)468-5481. Phone (415) 467-5697.
BRITISH FIDELITY SPECIALS--show stock. Save up to 50% on show stock units, shipped in their original cartons. These units are performance-perfect, with full 2/yr. warranty, but have minor cosmetic flaws. They can be seen and heard in our showroom in VYashington, DC, or write for more information. RCS Audio International, Inc., 1055 TbomasJefferson St. NW Washington, DC 20007. (202)342-0400.
STEREO CONSULTANTS PROUDLY REPRESEN'TS the best values in audio: B&K, Superphon, Distech, Magnum Dynalab, Audible Illusions, Lazarus, Melos, Thorens, Systemdek, Angstrom, ProAc, JSE, Fanfare, Ryan, Vortex Acoustics, Musical Concepts, Precision Audio, AudioQuest, more. Competitively priced in Lafayette IN. Phone: 3-10pm, ESE Mon.-Sat., (317) 474-9004.
W MUSIC REALLY MATTERS--ELECTROCOMPANIET! Amplifiers, preamplifiers, and pre-preamplifiers of the very finest quality in music-reproduction equipment. Authorized dealer, five listening rooms. Sound Unlimited, 169 Church St., Bristol, CT 06010. (203) 584-0131. Est. 1959. We pay shipping and accept credit cards.

ALWAYS THE BEST! Barclay Bordeaux, Voyd turntables, B&K (including Sonata Series), Rega, Muse, Celef, ViiN, Merlin (including Signature Series wired with Cardas cable), Musical Concepts, Philips, Magnavox, Esoteric, Chicago, TARA Labs (Space & Time), Target. Many accessories, including Audio Claws (acrylic & aluminum decoupling isolators). Free catalog, write
KrelIfield Audio, Fa Box 8, Endicott, NY 13760 or
call (607)797-1829. Visa/MC.
ARIZONA AUDIOPHILES--DEMO CLEARANCE: Versa Dynamics Model 2.0 turntable, w/mahogany enclosure, $10,625; Rowland amplifiers: Model 7B, $8329/pair; Model 5B, $4675; Model 3B, $3867.50/ pair. Used specials: Carver ML5T, $325; Nakamichi OMS-7All CD, $499.95. Arizona's only high 'end specialist. Custom installations/commercial sound available. Scottsdale's definitive audio salon, Esoteric Audio, 4120 North Marshall Way, Scottsdale. AZ 85251, (602)946-8128.
AUDIOPHILE, MERCURY, RCA, and BLUEBACK LPs,
)" and y," TX tapes. Send SASE toJeff Van Asscbg 103
W Silver Meadow, Midwest City, OK 73110. (405) 732-5747.
PHONO -ONLY PREAMP, highly reviewed, factory direct, $149, for literature and review, write or call.
Dept. 2825, Rt.1 Box 264A. Hendersonville, TN
37075. Phone (615)822-2737 ext. 2825.
CALIFORNIA AUDIO LABS TERCET CD Player, Mark III, 18-bit fix, new, perfect. Sell for best offer over $980. Retails for $1295. Call (300 667-9697eves., EST leave message.

Audio Unlimited

FOR SPECIALS LIST ONLY CALL 1-800-233-8375

AUTHORIZED DEALER FOR:

·AR

·Hafler

·Altec

·JVC

·Audio Control

·Monster Cable

·Audio Dynamics ·Pioneer Elite

·Audioquest

· Proton

· B & K

·Sony-Car

·dbx

·Stax

·Fried

·Superphon

·Grado

·Thorens

AND MORE'

503-963-5731
1203 Adams Ave. La Grande, OR 97850

10:00-5:30 M-Thurs 10:00-3:00 Fri Pacific Time

in Central Indiana, it's...
i okh
HIGH PERFORMANCE AUDIO NEW 8c USED
Adcom ·California Audio Labs ·Counterpoint ·Dual
·Eminent Technology ·Energy ·Janis ·Monster ·NHT
·Proton ·Onkyo ·Proton ·Sennheiser ·Sumiko ·VPI ·
We have the best selection of audiophile recordings.
5357 N. Keystone Ave. Indianapolis, Indiana 46220
(317) 253-5260

Stereophile, November 1989

247

No. 1 U.S. Designer
Ce o

Adcom B&K McIntosh conrad-johnson
Motif Philips
P.S. Audio Threshold Theta

Sumo Dahlquist Fried Martin-Logan
Mirage Rogers
Spica Synthesis Koetsu

M&K Sota VPI Well Tempered
Micro Mega Thorens
SME Carnegie II Benz

audio resource

3133 Edenbom Ave ·504-885·69118 ·Meterle. LA 70002

Altùio
The Most In Musical Enjoyment For The Novice & Connoisseur
Apogee ·Arcici ·Alma-Sphere Audio Prism ·Audioquest ·Basis Benz ·Cardas ·Cello ·Chesky Chicago Speaker Stand ·Classe' Clearaudio ·Cogan Hall ·Creek
Distech ·Electron Kinetics Eminent Technology ·Garrott Lantana ·Last ·Magnan ·Merrill Mod Squad ·Morch ·Nestororic Pro Ac ·Rega ·Reference Recordings Sequerra ·Sheffield Lab ·Souther Superphon ·Tara Labs ·Tice Audio Vendetta Research · VMPS· VPI
Wadia · Yankee ·& More
287 Clarksville Road Princeton Jct., N.J. 08550
(609) 799-9664

If You Purchased Any High End Audio Component Without Calling Us We Have aCap For You.
AUDIO OUTLET
The High End Mail Order Store PO Box 673 Bedford Hills, NY 10507
(914) 666-0550
218

LISTEN UP!
We have developed amodification that dramatically improves the sound of all compact disc players at aprice that is atrue bargain ...
only IOU° u.s. Money Back Guarantee For information and review about this procedure, please send aselfaddressed envelope to the address below or feel free to call us.
Executive Stereo 896 Queen Street West Toronto Ontario M6J 106 Canada 14161 538-4000
Stereophile. November 1989

THE AUDIO ENTHUSIAST specializes in complete high-end systems. We offer Nestorovic speaker SySKIM and tube electronics, Essence and ProAc speakers, Berning tube electronics, PSE solid-state electronics. Merrill turntables, Clearaudio arms and cartridges, Brasfield and Kinergetics CD players, various interconnects and speaker cables, and much more. In Los Angeles, (213)541-8177.
AUDIOPHILE WAREHOUSE LIQUIDATION! Directto-disc, halfspeed, Quiex Il recordings. 2000 available. Great prices--example: Donald Fagen, Nighey (sealed). $30. now $14! Elusive Disc 233 N. Rampart, Los Angeles, CA 90026. (213)388-7176.
FREE HIGH-END KIT CATALOG. Power amplifiers, preamps (tubc/ic/JFET), active crossovers (tubefic). Resista ±1% MF Resistors, Gold RCA connectors, Mogami cables. Old Colony Sound, Box 243S, Peterborough, NH 03458.
RCA LIVING STEREO LPs: Write EJaeger 129 Barrington Dr, Oak Ridge, TN 37830.
JANSZEN 960 ELECTROSTATICS. 800Hz crossover. Very clean, transparent sound. Three, $1050; two, $850. (415)341-0835 evenings. SF Bay area.
RICHMOND AUDIO PRESENTS WADIA DIGITAL, Wingate, Taddeo, Clarity Audio, Hills Products CD boxes, Barclay CD players, and Tice Audio. Also, factory-authorized WonderCap upgrades for your Wadia power supplies. Magnovox CD player upgrades available also. Call for information. Richmond Audio Video, PO. Box 1111, Staten Island, NY 10314. (718)
370- 1916.

ACOUSTIC ENERGY AEII SPEAKERS, $1600, mint;
AudioQuest Green 5' bi-wired cable, $200. Plus ship-
ping. (415)383-3751.
THRESHOLD S200, $1200 OBO (new, $2000); also Audio Research interconnects 1.0m, $120 (cost $190) and 15m, $130 (cost $200); 4pairs Monster X-ltrminators, 815/pair. All like new. Call Tim at (915) 856-4425 before lOpm, CST
COST-EFFECTIVE MODIFICATIONS to Magnavox CDB-series players: dramatic sonic improvement starting at $150. We now feature our CDB582B at $425 and CDB582P at $600. Both include one-year war-
ranty and two-week trial period. Contact Expert
Modifications, 14 Starlight Ave., Chelmsford, MA 01824. Days, (617)863-5500 and 855-5925 .
BOUND FOR SOUND NEWSLETTER is bound to please with upcoming evaluations of affordable products from 3A Design, Precise, Onkyo, Advent, AVA, & Reel to Real. Start with the June '89 CES issue or go back to Jan. '89 and learn about "hot wilt's," the Magnavox CDB582, Vandermecn IB, and more. We want your product reviews. 'Weise months for $12. 220N. Main, Kewanee, IL 61443.
ROWLAND MODEL 7s, series 2monoblocks, $5000/
pair firm; Benchmark MIA-4X4+mic mixer, 3months
old. This is for the pum-st, 4in 2out, transfomerless, balanced lines, no eq. $1000. (70 -1)964-9044.
QUAD 306 AMPLIFIER, $485; McIntosh MR-74 tuner, $485. Kyocera DA -410 CD player, $260. Excellent. one owner, shipping extra. (S00846-2'06.

Houslo

end audio dealer

13 94 VETERANS MEMORIAL DRIVE HOUSTON, TEXAS 77014
* "Home-Style" Soundrooms * Expert Consultation * Relaxed Atmosphere * ONLY Hi End!

featuring the finest .. Rote! * Philips * Counterpoint * Mclos Magnum * VPI * Sota * SimplyPhysics
M FA * Vandersteen * Rauna * Audioquest Talisman * Mod Squad * Premier Eminent Technology *Vendetta
Research * Prodigy Audio Laboratories Apogee * Krell * Martin Logan.... & more!

Free Newsletters * Expert Advice

Mon Tues Wed bY aPPI.

Thur/ Fri 12 -

Sail Sun 10-6

(713) 537-8108

2CUMBERLAND AUDIO GROUP

Representing:

Apogee

B&K Audio

Bang & Olufsen

California Audio Labs Celestion

conrad-johnson Entec Forte'

Infinity Reference

Linn

Martin-Logan Mirage MIT Cable

Jeff Rowland Design Group

SME Shure Home Theatre

Sota Theta Digital Threshold

Vandersteen

Wadia

Wilson Audio plus CD's and LP's

By Appointment Credit Cards Financing Delivery Set Up

Closed Sun -Mon 11-6 Tues -Wed

11-9 Thursday

11-5 Fri-Sat

4119 Hillsboro Pike Nashville, TN
615/297-4700

Stereophile, November 1989

249

L id «)e,etrte

Acoustat ·Apogee ·Aragon ·Boston/Acoustics ·B&W · Celestion ·CWD· Audio Quest ·Energy .·Fried ·Hafler·Precise Infinity·JSE· JVC Video. Dual ·Koetsu ·Krell ·Magnum ·Meitner ·Lexicon ·MIT · Mod Squad ·Monster ·NAD ·Onkyo ·Ortofon ·Rotel · Shure ·SME ·Snell ·Sony ES ·SOTA ·Stax ·Sumiko · Velodyne · Well Tempered
Sound L. Music
Sales & Service ·351 Pleasant Street Northampton, MA 01060 ·(413)584-9547

Upstate New York's Exclusive MARK LEVINSON DEALER
Aragon /Arcam /Denon Linn /Madrigal /Magnepan Mirage M1 /Mission /NAD Nakamichl /Soundstream
Thiel /Velodyne
Home trial program for Monster Sigma
Nakamichl 1000 DAT/Processor on display.

THE SOUND CONCEPT "Don't /1/14q, The Performance"

2314 Monroe Ave., Rochester, NY

(716) 442-6050

Mon-Fri Noon-9

Sat. 10-5

MC/VISA/AMEX/DIS

HIGH END AUDIO IN CENTRAL PA

"Central PA's high end audio shop for the discriminating listener."

VANDERSTEEN ramiu. MARTI() Locce ET
COUNTERPOINT Well Tempered Lab

Threshold MIT SOW

PJ-JCII0

InfnitY audio research IRS Series

FHE

SIOPPE
21 N. Market St., Selinsgrove. PA ·717-374.0150

250

NEW AND IMPROVED EARS BY
SERIOUSiden,A4--e-

ouo 'V ¡coiner

Bes, e.ev?s
CAN BUY

IMPR°VfS CLARITY FOCUS cceostiitl'Rrl·eC-t'1

S

$24. ,!9DO

sei eee.

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AT HOME ·CONCERTS ·THEATER ·LECTURES

THE ORIGINAL USTENING ENHANCEMENT TOOL We guarantee you will hear the difference!
Send check or money order tor $24.95 to: Serious Listeners P.O. Box 565 Burlingame, CA 94011 Phone Orders: 800-326-1201 Dealer inquiries welcome

Stereophile, November 1989

INFINITY RS1B SPEAKERS in black finish, excellent condition, $2500; Mark Levinson MLIO preamplifier in excellent condition, $1300. Call Ken, (212) 691-2641.
REVIEWER CLEANS OUT HIS CLOSET Acoustat TNP preamplifier, excellent condition, $300; Maranta 4140 integrated 4-channel amp, good condition, $150; complete set Absolute Sound issues 1-51, original printing, good condition, $250; Franklin Mint One Hundred Cavatest Recordings OfAU Time, $1200. Prices include UPS shipping. Write to Bill Sommerwerck, c/o Stereophile, 208 Delgado St., Santa Fe, NM 87501.
PS AUDIO 200CX AMPLIFIER, $1300 firm, will pay shipping. Ref. A interconnect also available Evenings, (317)844-9474.
AUDIO RESEARCH SP9 PREAMR New, never used, $1550; dbx 400X route selector, $125; dbx 224X noise reduction, $130; Yamaha A-1000 integrated amp, $375; Aiwa AD-F990U cassette deck, $350. (717) 655-3930 after 4pm EST
AUDIO RESEARCH D-75 TUBE AMPLIFIER, $700; Dynaco Mk.III mono tube amps, $300/pair; Dynaco Pas 3X tube preamp, $125; Nalcamichi BX-300 cassette deck, $450. Barry Adams, PO, Box 240, Collegedale, TN 37315. (615)396-3630.
AUDIO RESEARCH M-300 MK.II power amplifiers (pair), only 3months old, like new w /original boxes, $6850. Larry, (516)482-6528.
VP! HW19 'TABLE, oak, tall dustcover, motor update, pristine, low hours, boxed, $415. (605)342-4360.

INFINITY RS- lBs, $4000. (216)548-7231.
BRYSTON 4B AMP, outstanding imaging, 400 RMS, list $1600, sell $975/offer; ADS 10 digital delay. list $695, sell $375/offer. (916)346-2028 after 6pm PST or weekends.
PRECISION AUDIO DIVC series of CD players. Heavyweight performance at a lightweight price! The Philips-based DIVC 880/DIVC 80 and various Japanese machines provide amazing musical perfomunce at equally amazing prices. If you already own aPhilips CD 880, 680, Magnavox 582,471, 472, 473, etc., Pioneer PD71 Elite (yes, Pioneer!!), take the low toll to the high road. Call or write Precision Audicy 223-47 65tb Ave., Bayside, NY 11364. (718)631-4669. P.S. our digital processor is still upcoming.
SURROUND-SOUND DECODER, highly reviewed, factory direct, $299, for literature and review, write or call, Dept. 2833, R11 Box 264A, Hendersonville TN 37075. Pbone (615)822-2737 Ext. 2833.
CARVER, NAKAMICHI, BANG & OLUFSEN, ADS, Crown, Revox, Tandberg, Hafier. Adcom, Mission, NAD, Harman/Kardon, Kyocera, Yamaha, Luxman, Denon, Klipsch, B&W, KEF, DCM, E-V, JBL, Infinity, dbx, AKG, and other quality components. Best prices--professional consultation. All products covered by manufacturers' USA warranty. Amerisound Sales, Inc., Jacksonville, FL 32241. East: (904) 262-4000. West: (818)243-1168.
YAMAHA DSP- 100U SURROUND PROCESSOR, ESB 7/06 Italian speakers. PA, (215)567-4626.

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251

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Fumphwerks"" is afull-spectrum audio service (CD, cassette. LP) for the music aficionado. Based on your wishes, we establish your file (Fumph u¡le) automatically dispatching your favorite artists' releases when they occur, OR immediately notifying you of the release and standing by to complete the order given your approval. We
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Stereophile, November 1989

MUSIC AND TECHNOLOGY IN HARMONY
ADS · ALCHEMIST · BANG & OLUFSEN B&K · BOSTON ACOUSTICS · DENON CANNON VIDEO · CONRAD JOHNSON CWD · EPOS · KEF · KLIPSCH · LEXICON MADRIGAL · MARK LEVINSON · MEITNER MONSTER CABLE/SIGMA · MERIDIAN MARTIN LOGAN · MOTIF · NAKAMICHI PHASE TECH · PHILIPS · PROTON ·SOTA ROTEL ·SONOGRAPHE ·STAX ·SUMIKO SYSTEMDEK · TERK · TARGET · THIEL
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Ariston, and more.
1510A Walnut Street Berkeley, CA 94709
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THE ULTIMATE IN CD STORAGE--architecturally
designed, classical style cabinets. Hand-made of solid oak. Free brochure and color photo. Write to Zeal Hardwood Design Company, Dept. SD, 4Benjamin
Rd., Lexington, MA 02173. Or call (617)861-1705.

13&K ST-202 $499, Kimber, Synergistic, Kinergetics, Audiolab, Merlin, Thbell-ap, Fluxbuster $139, Puget, CD Saver $9, Cramolin, l&ck S15, AudioQuest, Chinese 12AX7 $10, Dynalab, AudioPrism. I.P/CDs: Basbo's Pond $10, Athena, Al R, Connoisseur Society, Chesky, DMP, Dorian, East-Wind, Harmonia Mundi, Nightinee, Mobile Fidelity, Opus3, Proprius, Reference, Sheffield, Three Blind Mice, Water Lily, Wrany, Wilson. Wt-tor Ekemnics, Box 82404, Portland, OR 97282-0404. (503) 233-2603. Visa/MC/Amex/ COD.
AUDIOPHILE ALBUMS!! 6TH ANNUAL CHRISTMAS SALE! Get Mobile Fidelity's new releases (if they're still available): Pink Floyd--Meddle, Jethro 11111-- Mick As A Brick, Blind Faith, and all other MFSL, Reference Recordings, Nautilus, Chesky. Also one complete Audiophile Album collection (1000 LPs). Sound Advice, 8215 Grand Ave., Kansas City, MO 64114. (816)361-2713. Visa and MasterCard accepted. Show Mobile Fidelity support--Purchase new releases!

SAN DIEGO AREA: Merlin Signature speakers (Cardas. wired). Cardas cables, Convergent Audio tube preamp (the SL- IReference), Wingate class-A amps, Sound Anchor equipment stands. Benz cartridges, other highend items. Demo units and trade-ins, occasionally. .111dio Archives. (619)455-6326.

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254

Stereophile, November 1989

LPs SOUND GREAT when treated with Gruv-Glide. Enhance fidelity, reduce wear and static, improve tracking, excellent cleaning. See Stereopbile review, December 1986, p.41. $21.95 per kit. Check/MO to Rozoil Lubricant Co., Box 19003, Las Vegas, NV 89132.
SPENDOR SPI MONITORS, mint, 1745; Spectrum Dynamic speakers, S700/pair; MIT 330 interconnects, 4m/pair. $50; Silver/Teflon interconnects, $115 per meter pair. (916)756-0524.
McINTOSH MC-2505, $275; C-26, $240; C-28, $380; MR-74, $370; MR-77, $625. %1Vood cabinet with pan. loe. $50. Chris Stratmeyee 1041 Nord; Clay E3, St. Louis, MO 63122, (314)965-0652.
CASH PAID for all types used audio equipment. We buy and sell by phone, top dollar paid. Best prices to authorized dealers on B&K, Ariston, AR, Celestion, Parasound, Counterpoint, etc. The Stereo 7heing Outlet, 320 Oki York Rd., Jenkintown, PA 19046. (215) 886- 1650.
GENESIS and EPI OWNERS: Upgrade your tweeters with aluminum domes! New woofers, original specifications. Build your own monitors--inquire about our affordable driver packages. Write: LRS Electronics, Box 1256, Doyen NH 03820for information, or call (603)749-1904. MC/Visa accepted gladly.

AVA MOSFET 100C, 200W per channel, 9400; JSE 1.8 Infinite Slope speakers, light oak with brown grilles. good condition, $900; AR ES- Iturntable with Stax arm and custom acrylic platter, $350. Call Chuck, eves/weekends. (713) 496-6445.
ADCOM GFA-555 AMPLIFIER, 1987 model, $500; Infinity Model 9Kappa speakers, I400/pair or best offers on either. Call (312)481-3389.
PS AUDIO 200CX AMPLIFIER, mint, 2 years old, $1300 firm. Includes shipping. (914)753-2832, 4-7pm EST
NEW! AUDIOPHILE LP/CD CATALOG--many, many Stereopbile/TAS--recommended recordings. Standards: Chesky, Sheffield, Reference Recordings, Wilson, Mobile Fidelity, Dorian, Tclarc, Water lily, M&K, Concord Jazz. Also, best of Rhino, Three Blind Mice, DMP, GRP, Rykodisc, Alligator, and more. Monarch Music; (800) '33-88(,l. 10-8 CST
Wanted
SPICA ANGELUS OR BMX D51-1600, new or demo, attractively discounted, sought by rural audiophile from authorized dealer. Walnut preferred. (501) 846-2706.
WANTED: MERIDIAN 201 PREAMP. Bill, Box 3482, Shawnee KS 66203.

Audioquest B&K JSE Counterpoint

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"Established Since 1959"

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·Room acoustics & acoustical treatment
·A/C power line conditioning &power cords

·Connectors &connections ·Speaker cable
& nterconnects

·CD stabilizer rings ·Isolation bases. spikes, etc.

·Equipment racks & speaker stands
·Future: 'fully balanced system .

everything matters &makes adifference--

Hatter

,s, IS pre amp {

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--'SE series-- l00 pre amp 120 amp · 130 MA-FM

Hafler speakers ·Audio Pro subwoofers Sonrise audio cabinets ·Xylophile
audio cabinets ·Sound Anchors speaker stands ·Target ·van den Hut ·Distech
Straightwire ·Aural Symphonies Audioquest ·Sound Connectors ·WBT Tiffany ·ZSE speakers ·ATC speakers
Tice Audio, Power Block & Titan Nelson-Reed ·Audiophile, Analog &CO's

'watch for our continuing Informative bulletins!

an FM Tuner tor tse 'audio elite

6 :Yaffer 411A9/0
DR-5pre amp OR-8 amp DR-6 pre amp DR-9 amp

Legacy Legacy 2Plus

Class AOR-3B amp DR-3-VHC amp OR-7 pre amp ·

Stereophile, November 1989

255

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WANTED: CLASSICAL LPs. Cash paid for RCA Living Stereo LSC 1800/2600. Mercury Living Presence Stereo SR 90,000/90,500, years 1958-1965. Also London blucback, Mercury Golden imports, English Deccas and EMIs. Call or send list to Cbad Kassem, PO. Box 2043, Salina, KS 67402-2043. (913)825-8609.
CASH FOR USED POWER/PREAMP--ARC, Levinson, Krell, Threshold, and Conrad-Johnson, in good condition. Pick up amps from your home or just ship UPS/COD. Call CA, (209)298-7931, Sennle, or FAX (209)297-0359.
WANTED: HITACHI DE-7 3-head cassette deck in good condition. Clem, (914)895-8029.
WANTED: BEVERIDGE SPEAKER transducer panels. Call Jobn Robles, (800)876-1277.

41111Meoe 1..,....,.. .UiM

It ACKIrm System For records, tapes and CDs.

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CS HALLS AUDIO -) 43272 Christy St, Fremont, CA 94538 Tel (415) 623-0790 Fax (415) 623-0797

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25O

Stereophile, November 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

A/D Systems, Ltd Absolute Audio Acoustat Acoustic Research Acoustic Sciences Acoustics Sounds Adcom Altair Amrita Apature Apogee ARS Electronics Artech Electronics Audio Advisor Audio Amateur Audio Breakthroughs Audio Connection Audio Control Audio Den Audio Enjoyment Audio Etc Audio Haven Audio Influx
Audio Insight Audio Nexus Audio Nouveau Audio Outlet Audio Research Audio Resource Audio Specialists Audio Systems Audio Unlimited Audio Visions Audio Workshop Audiophile Systems Audioquest AudioStream Aural Symphonics
B&K B&W Loudspeakers Berns, M. Inc Bryston Manufacturing CSA Audio Cardas Audio Carver Chadwick Modifications Chicago Speakerworks Clearaudio Conrad Johnson Counterpoint Cumberland Audio Group Custom Electronics D'Ascanio Audio
Dahlquist Definitive Hi Fi Donan Recordings Esoteric Audio Esoteric Ear Euphonic Technology Executive Stereo Forte Fumphwerks G&A Rare Records German Acoustics Gifted Listener Audio Hal's Stereo Hales Audio

255 253 212
42 212 90 68 236 208 244 44 192 220 172-174,180-181,188 86 228 246 204 243 235 252 245 244
254 230 254 248
20 248 245 226 247 238 247
56 12 101 208
259 18
179 74
246 226
54 59 246 201 216 67 249 251 198
70 106 241
10 249 198 248 171 252 252 244 224 253 256

Hansen, Christopher Infinity J&R Music World JS Audio JS Engineering Kevro International, Inc Kimber Kable Kinergetics Koetsu Landes Audio Lyle Cartridges M &YCompany Madrigal Audio Magnepan Magnum Dynalab Martin Logan May Audio Marketing McIntosh Mirage Mod Squad Mondial Monster Cable Music Box
Music By The Sea Music Hall Music Lovers Naim Audio Nitty Gritty Ocean State Omni Sound Onkyo Optimal Enchantment Oracle Parasound Per Madsen Design Philips Plateau Camber Polk Audio
Precision Audio Preston Trail Savant Audio &Video Serious Listeners Soloist Audio Sony Sound &Music Sound By Singer Sound Factor Sound Goods Sound II Sound Unlimited Sounds Alive Soundwave Fidelity Stax Kogyo
Stereo Exchange Stereo Sh op Stereo Shoppe Straight Wire Tannoy The Sound Concept Theta Digital Threshold Upscale Audio Vandersteen Velodyne Versa Dynamics Vortex Acoustical Engineering WeberWire

Stereophile, November 1989

194 46 176 252 220 38 59 40 191 251 186 228 6,14 78 204 224 202 22 24 52 82-83 8 234 244 202 253 58 108 238 254 260 184 16 243 256 60-61 36 2 102 254 248 250 48 16,31-34 250 104 230 234 236 255 246 206 80 94,96 92 250 206 64 250 28 26 182 216 50 48 256 196
257

THE FINAL WORD

WA1UMs--Second Time Around
Ireviewed the WAMM Series III loudspeaker back in 1983 (Vol.6 No.3). At the end of September Iinvited myself to the house of Wilson once again, and Sheryl Lee and David were kind enough to accept. They treated me royally, arranging for avisit to George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch in nearby Marin County. The occasion was Harmonia Mundi's first recording at Lucasfilm's scoring stage, designed for use in recording soundtracks for films (which are projected on a44' x22' screen during recording so conductor and musicians can be perfectly in synch). On hand were many familiar faces: the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Peter McGrath manning his Stellavox(es), Nicholas McGegan conducting and accompanying on harpsichord, and Robina Young running the whole show.
This scoring stage presents an ideally adaptive acoustic environment, with an area of 5000 ft. ,,30'-high ceilings, and movable absorptive panels to vary reverb time from 700ms to 3.5s. Peter, Nicholas, and Robina were delighted. The acoustically isolated control room overlooks the stage and has lots of space for recorders, producers, recordists, and kibitzers (me).
Sheryl Lee and David had brought me along to show off the Wilson WATTs in acontrol room, their designed-for environment. The WATTs are, in fact, very good in this application. Though the sound from microphones through the WATTs didn't exactly duplicate what Iheard sticking my head in the scoring room (it couldn't have--the mics were about 45' away), the WATTs were impressive in their ability to give you the feel of the live music.
And they were all too good at revealing differences among the various recording media Peter McGrath had on hand: aSony 2500 DAT recorder whose digital section was fed by aproprietary 128x-oversampling AID converter, the Stellavox used for all of HM's US recordings, and an identically set-up Stellavox (loaned to Peter by Michel Reverchon) with Dolby SR noise reduction in and out. For those who love the convenience of DAT or the noise-reduction capabilities of SR, the results were discouraging: both simply removed the reason for Peter's being there He'd captured awonderful ambient sense of the hall on the Stellavox, and 80% of

that was sheared off by digital encoding or

Dolby SR. There were tonal-balance differ-

ences as well; the "naked" Stellavox sounded

the most real. The digital did nose out Stella-

vox+Dolby SR by ahair, but neither represented

an acceptable system. The difference between

live mic feed and off-tape from the basic Stel-

lavox, on the other hand, was so minuscule I

couldn't reliably detect anything. Impressive.

My experience this time of the WAMMs,

again in Dave and Sheryl Lee's home (different

address), was even shorter than my visit in '83,

but enough to get an initial feel for the capabil-

ities of the system. The primary ingredients

have changed: the Crown equalizer included

in the system now has discrete op-amps rather

than ICs, and the midrange units, which used

to be modified Brauns, are now wholly made

by Wilson along the lines of the WATT.

The system, driven by the massive Krell

Reference amps and asingle KMA-200 on the

bottom end, had the same ease and size as

before. As Itold Dave, though, Ithink the sys-

tem has shifted somewhat away from the roman-

tic and toward the analytical. Now differences

between different records were more startling;

comparisons between master tape and LP were

much more conclusively in favor of tape; re-

corded annoyances were more annoying. Super-

bly recorded sources came off superbly, but-

in the pair of WAMMs I'll never be able to

own--I would probably choose to have Dave

introduce agentle rolloff above 8kHz. These

WAMMs were also set up in amuch smaller

room than before, with aminimum of space

behind the speakers, which tends to yield a

sound that puts me off.

But this is nitpicking. The WAMM is aheroic

endeavor, appreciated by its purchasers as

such. No one with this kind of money to spend

on reproduced sound should pass up the oppor-

tunity to audition it, either at alocal dealer

(there aren't many) or at Dave's home We at Ste-

reopbile would welcome achance to spend

more time with the WAMM under more familiar

circumstances. Unfortunately, Wilson Audio's

budget for review samples would have to be

downright extravagant to afford us this oppor-

tunity. Sigh.

--Larry Archibald

258

Stereophile, November 1989

"Quite Simply, the MC-101 is asuperb preamplifier."
lot
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Be) Sonata Series Music brought to you by B&K
B&K COMPONENTS, LTD. 1971 Abbott Road, Lackawanna, New York14218
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·Reprinted from HIFI Heretic, Summer 1989

THE GRAND INTEGRA A-G10 Control/Power Amplifier
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Since the introduction of the M-150 amplifier, the name Grand Integra has been acknowledged by the high end community as the benchmark of Japanese audio technology. We are pleased to continue this tradition with the A-G10 and other limited-production components for your pursuit of the elusive musical ideal.
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