Budget Component Reviews
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Mission Cyrus 782 loudspeaker
Budget Component Reviews, Stand Loudspeaker Reviews
Robert Harley • Jan 02, 2011 • Published: Oct 02, 1990 • 2 comments
Cyrus is the name given to the higher-priced line of loudspeakers made by England's Mission Electronics. The entire Mission loudspeaker line includes six products under the Mission label and three under Cyrus. Mission also manufactures a wide range of electronics and CD players. The company has a long history of audio innovations, both in loudspeaker and electronic design. Among Mission's claimed "firsts" are the first polypropylene-cone drive-unit used in a product (1978), first widespread use of MDF loudspeaker enclosures (1981), and first CD player from a specialist manufacturer. Interestingly, Mission also makes IBM-compatible personal computers.

The $900/pair Cyrus 782 is a two-way design employing dual 7" (175mm) polypropylene-cone woofers and a single ¾" (19mm) fabric-dome tweeter. The drivers are arranged in a D'Appolito configuration to simulate point-source radiation characteristics. Both woofer and tweeter were designed from scratch by Mission. The polypropylene woofer cones include a "mineral loading" that reportedly increases cone rigidity, thus decreasing cone breakup. Additional woofer design features include a shaped pole piece to increase linearity during high cone excursions, rigid steel chassis to reduce driver resonances, and a tight tolerance between the voice-coil and magnet to increase sensitivity.

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Meridian 203 D/A processor
Budget Component Reviews, Digital Processor Reviews
Sam Tellig, Robert Harley • Jul 09, 2006 • Published: Sep 09, 1990 • 0 comments
Gotta get this one written up right away—you never know with digital products. Always something new.
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Cambridge SoundWorks Ambiance loudspeaker
Budget Component Reviews, Stand Loudspeaker Reviews
John Atkinson • Feb 29, 2008 • Published: Mar 29, 1990 • 0 comments
According to the conventional wisdom, companies selling consumer products fall into two categories: those whose sales are "marketing-led" and those whose sales are "product-led." Marketing-led companies tend to sell mature products into a mature market where there are no real differences between competing products—soap powder, mass-market beer, or cigarettes, for example—whereas product-led companies tend to sell new technologies, such as personal computers and high-end hi-fi components. In the audio separates market, conventional wisdom would have a hard time categorizing any individual company: no matter which you choose, it would be simplistic to say that it is either product- or marketing-led. No matter how good the product, without good marketing the manufacturer stands little chance of success; a poor product superbly marketed may make a company successful overnight, but that success will have hit the end stops by the following night.
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Adcom GFP-565 preamplifier
Budget Component Reviews, Solid State Preamp Reviews
Gary A. Galo • Nov 21, 2011 • Published: Feb 01, 1990 • 2 comments
In recent years, Adcom has carved an enviable niche for themselves in the entry-level category of high-end audio. Their excellent GTP-400 tuner/preamplifier, which I reviewed in September 1989 (Vol.12 No.9), has further enhanced their reputation for musically satisfying sound at affordable prices. The GFP-565 is Adcom's newest preamplifier and their most expensive to date. The GFP-565 was designed to offer more than simply excellent performance for the price asked. This new arrival is Adcom's attempt at manufacturing a preamplifier which can compare favorably to the most expensive state-of-the-art products offered by other high-end manufacturers. As such, its $798 price tag is still reasonable, especially when the 565 is compared with other preamps in the under-$1000 price range.
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Monitor Audio Monitor 7 loudspeaker
Budget Component Reviews, Stand Loudspeaker Reviews
Sam Tellig, John Atkinson • Jul 06, 2009 • Published: Jan 06, 1990 • 0 comments
And now for something completely different.
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Image Concept 200 loudspeaker
Budget Component Reviews, Floor Loudspeaker Reviews
John Atkinson • Sep 07, 2010 • Published: Aug 07, 1988 • 0 comments
I like reviewing loudspeakers. The more you become familiar with the art, the greater the sense of anticipation as you open up a pair of cartons. A visual inspection of the speaker always reveals a challenging mixture of the familiar and the new. The size of the cabinet is always the first clue—has sensitivity been a design priority or was low-frequency extension uppermost in the designer's thoughts? You espy a known drive-unit—has this tweeter's propensity for upper-presence sizzle been tamed? You find a reflex port on the rear panel—has the temptation to go for a "commercial," under-damped bass alignment been successfully resisted? You spot factors which intuitively seem wrong for precise stereo—a wide baffle lacking any kind of absorbent covering for diffraction control; a grille frame which puts acoustic obstacles in the way of the wavefront emerging from the tweeter.
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Plateau Camber 3.5 loudspeaker
Budget Component Reviews, Stand Loudspeaker Reviews
John Atkinson, Robert Harley • Nov 07, 2010 • Published: Aug 07, 1988 • 0 comments
The loudspeaker coming under the microscope this month emanates from north of the border. The Canadian loudspeaker industry has benefited enormously in the last few years from having the measurement, testing, and listening facilities of Canada's National Research Council in Ottawa made available to it on a commercial basis. Unlike the US or even the UK, where a new speaker designer has pretty much to rely on his own resources, having to invent his own test procedure as well as design the product, the Canadian equivalent can have his loudspeaker tested under standard conditions, quickly indicating whether he is on the right track or not. (He still, of course, has to rely on his own talent to get on the right track in the first place or to get back on it if it appears that something is amiss.)
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Adcom GFA-535 power amplifier
Budget Component Reviews, Solid State Power Amp Reviews
Sam Tellig, Corey Greenberg • Aug 31, 2009 • Published: Dec 31, 1987 • 0 comments
Sometimes products are too cheap for their own good, and people don't take them seriously: the Superphon Revelation Basic Dual Mono preamp, Rega RB300 arm, AR ES-1 turntable, Shure V15-V MR cartridge, and the B&K ST-140 power amp. They can't be any good because they cost so little, right?
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Hafler XL-280 power amplifier
Budget Component Reviews, J. Gordon Holt, Solid State Power Amp Reviews
J. Gordon Holt • Mar 03, 2010 • Published: Jan 03, 1987 • 0 comments
Some time ago in these pages, Anthony H. Cordesman observed rather ungraciously that the whole line of Hafler electronics "could do with reworking." This was interpreted by many readers—including the good people at the David Hafler Company—as meaning that AHC felt the entire Hafler line to be mediocre. In fact, he does not. (He had given a Hafler product a positive review a few issues previously.) Tony's comment, however, did express a sentiment that most of us at Stereophile have shared for some time: a feeling that Hafler products had slipped from the position of sonic preeminence which they enjoyed during the 1960s and '70s to one of mere excellence in a field where only preeminence is acclaimed.
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Altec Lansing 301 loudspeaker
Budget Component Reviews, Historical, J. Gordon Holt, Stand Loudspeaker Reviews
J. Gordon Holt • May 14, 2013 • Published: Nov 01, 1986 • 2 comments
One of the oldest names in US audio, Altec Lansing was building speakers for theaters and recording studios long before the introduction of the microgroove LP in 1948 (which date many see as marking the inception of high fidelity). Started in 1931 under the name All-Technical Services ~Corp., the firm later purchased another audio firm called Lansing Engineering, and merged the names. Altec's Model 604, one of the first true coaxial speakers, was adopted for home use by many early hi-fi buffs and, several permutations later, is still widely used for monitoring in disc-cutting rooms.
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Naim NAIT integrated amplifier
Budget Component Reviews, Historical, Integrated Amp Reviews
Robert Harley, Sam Tellig • Aug 08, 1995 • Published: Aug 08, 1985 • 0 comments
The $395 NAIT, rated at 20Wpc, is a good-sounding little amp. It's very open and spacious-sounding, but, like the $250 Rotel RA-820BX, sometimes sounds a little hard in the upper registers.
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Siefert Maxim III loudspeaker
Budget Component Reviews, J. Gordon Holt, Stand Loudspeaker Reviews
J. Gordon Holt, Thomas J. Norton • Sep 18, 2012 • Published: Jul 01, 1985 • 0 comments
While it is not quite accurate to say that $500/pair loudspeakers are a dime a dozen, they are by no means unusual. And since this is a price area where major design compromises are mandatory (footnote 1), the sound of such loudspeakers tends to vary all over the map, from pretty good to godawful—depending on what performance areas the designer chose to compromise and by how much.

I approached this latest half-grander with little enthusiasm, despite Siefert's persuasive literature, I have, after all, been reading such self-congratulatory hype abiout new products for longer than most Stereophile readers have been counting birthdays. This, I must admit, was ho-humsville.

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Boston Acoustics A40 loudspeaker
Budget Component Reviews, Stand Loudspeaker Reviews
Sam Tellig, Alvin Gold • May 14, 2013 • Published: Jan 01, 1985 • 3 comments
The Boston Acoustics A40 loudspeaker ($150/pair) has become "legendary" (ie, it's stayed around for a while), probably because a pair of them images as well as Rogers LS3/5As. Unfortunately, it is no match for the LS3/5A in terms of smooth midrange response. Of course, at $150/pair, it shouldn't be.

I was originally going to do a review comparing the Spectrum 108A ($200/pair) and the Boston Acoustics A40. On first listen, I was mightily impressed by the A40. But after Stereophile's Larry Archibald schlepped me out a pair of the 108As, I didn't much want to listen to the A40s.

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Fourier 6 loudspeaker
Budget Component Reviews, Stand Loudspeaker Reviews
Larry Greenhill, Dick Olsher • Jun 17, 2008 • Published: Mar 18, 1984 • 0 comments
The Fourier 6 has the special ability to generate large coherent sonic fields, from a box small enough to slip into an ordinary shopping bag. At $499/pair, the 6 competes directly with another remarkable-imaging, compact American speaker, the Spica TC-50 ($420/pair).
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Spica TC-50 loudspeaker
Budget Component Reviews, Historical, Stand Loudspeaker Reviews
Anthony H. Cordesman, Various • Mar 11, 1998 • Published: Feb 11, 1984 • 0 comments
High-quality, low-cost loudspeaker systems are not an everyday blessing. The Rogers LS3/5a has survived for more than a decade precisely because so few US manufacturers sought musical accuracy as distinguished from high output and powerful bass. The economics of loudspeaker manufacture also don't lend themselves to economy. The cost of woodwork is driving the price of speakers up almost as fast as the cost of sheet-metal work is escalating the price of electronics.
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