Stand Loudspeaker Reviews

Source components consisted of a Revox A77 to play my own and others' 15ips master tapes, a Linn Sondek/Ekos/Troika setup sitting on a Sound Organisation table to play LPs, and Kinergetics KCD-40 and Meridian 206 CD players. (The latter also drove the $12,000 Stax DAC-X1t tube processor for some of the auditioning, used direct into the Classic 60.) Amplification consisted of either a Mark Levinson No.25/26 preamplifier combination driving a pair of Mark Levinson No.20.5 monoblocks via 15' lengths of AudioQuest LiveWire Lapis balanced interconnect, or an Audio Research SP14 preamp driving an Audio Research Classic 60 via 12' lengths of Audio Research interconnect. Speaker cable was 5' bi-wire lengths of AudioQuest Clear Hyperlitz with the Levinsons, 5' bi-wire lengths of Audio Research speaker cable with the Classic 60 (which was used from its 4 ohm output-transformer taps).

Other loudspeakers used during the review period included Celestion SL700s, Thiel CS5s, Rogers LS3/5as, Dahlquist DQ12s, Polk RTA 11ts, Celestion 3s, Monitor Audio Monitor 7s, and Cambridge SoundWorks Ambiances.—John Atkinson