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The Elan 10's ability to render detailed, delicate transients reminded me of far more expensive speakers. With "Four," from Miles Davis's Workin' with the Miles Davis Quartet (CD, Prestige OJC-296), I followed every nuance of Philly Joe Jones's snare and cymbal technique and heard no trace of smearing or any artificial sharpness. And I loved the way the Epos presented a coherent rhythmic picture with well-recorded rock tracks. I'm normally not a fan of the Beatles' "middle" period, but with the Eposes I found myself analyzing the coherent integration of the guitars, bass, and Ringo's…
Among the people I telephoned during my first month on the job at The Absolute Sound—we're talking January of 1985—was Frank Van Alstine, the pioneering designer and builder of affordable-perfectionist electronics. Twenty-eight years and six months later I finally got to meet him—and I was happy to hear he has zero intention of retiring: good news, considering the altogether fine sound being made by the new Audio by Van Alstine Transcendence Nine vacuum tube preamp ($1395), used in concert with AVA's hybrid FET Valve 600R amplifier ($3499) and a pair of Philharmonic Audio's two-way…
Bob Deutsch wrote again about the Model 2 in December 1995 (Vol.18 No.12):
In my four years of doing equipment reviews for Stereophile, I've had in my listening room, for varying periods, tube amplifiers from Audio Research, Sonic Frontiers, Luxman, VTL, Cary, Audion, Conrad-Johnson, and Quicksilver. Some had the "magic" (tubeophiles will know what I mean) but were deficient in other ways: insufficient power to drive most speakers to realistic levels, weaknesses at the frequency extremes, etc. Others had lots of power and wideband frequency response, but were missing the magic.
…
"Guess what."
"What?"
"Chicken-butt."
"What?"
"Chicken-butt."
Here at Stereophile, we like our humor like we like our speakers: light. We got that jewel from Elizabeth's two year-old, the fabulous Morgan Jet. A few inches shorter than a Totem Arro, it's amazing how easily one falls for her. The blue eyes do it every time.
JA dropped his weary head onto a Creek integrated amplifier and moaned: "Oh, how did I grow to be this old and still fall for that joke?"
In other news, it's a glorious day in the neighborhood: sixty-six delicious degrees and not a cloud in this New York City sky.…
See update at end of article. iTunes continues to grow and Napster has been reborn, but these last few months have been a bumpy ride for MP3.com. The music site, known for its large online music library featuring unsigned independent artists, was purchased on December 14 by San Francisco-based CNET.
CNET announced it will scrub MP3.com's servers of all content at midnight December 2, stranding an estimated 250,000 independent recording artists and 40 million subscribers worldwide. The popular website was launched by Michael Robertson in 1997 and by the year 2000 had reached its peak with 1.…
The sonic effects were more subtle than the measurements would suggest, but still noticeable. The Thiels had had excellent focus and precision before; with the room treatment, they became truly extraordinary. The same was true of their pure, uncolored sound: outstanding before, truly exceptional in the treated room.
The second part of the process—expanding the soundstage's width and depth, and adding ambience by incorporating reflected information—was accomplished by a systematic process of rotating the Tube Traps to expose their reflective sides. This was done in stages—first the…
Sidebar: Previous Awards:
Stereophile's Products of 2003
Product of the Year: Quad ESL-989 loudspeaker (review)
Budget Component: Apple iPod (review)
Loudspeaker: Quad ESL-989 (review)
Joint Amplification Components:
Linn Klimax Twin power amplifier (review)
Parasound Halo JC 1 monoblock power amplifier (review)
VTL TL-7.5 Reference preamplifier (review)
Digital Source: dCS Verdi-Purcell-Elgar Plus SACD/CD playback system (review)
Analog Source: SME 30/2 turntable (review)
Joint Accessories:
Echo Busters Decorative Room Treatments (review)
Rives…
Vanatoo's two diminutive, bargain-priced self-powered speaker models were among the many excellent-sounding exhibits I encountered on the fifth floor of the Embassy Suites by Hilton Tampa Airport Westshore, during my second day at the Florida Audio Expo. Nor was I the only attendee to realize how good Vanatoo's speakers sounded: The Seattle-based company's Gary Gesellchen was DJing to a standing-room-only crowd when I arrived.
I spent most of my time revisiting the larger Vanatoo Transparent One Encore ($599/pair, on the right in the photo above, next to the $499/pair Transparent One),…
The least expensive model in Paradigm's Reference series, the Studio/20 loudspeaker is a rear-ported two-way dynamic bookshelf/satellite design, superficially identical to the powered Active/20 that JA reviewed last November. It features Paradigm's 25mm PAL pure-aluminum dome tweeter in a die-cast heatsink chassis, and a 170mm MLP mica-polymer cone in an AVS die-cast heatsink chassis with a 38mm voice coil. The crossover is third-order, quasi-Butterworth, said to be "phase-coherent." It features high-power ceramic resistors, film capacitors in all signal paths, and both air-core and steel-…
Audiophile societies are frequently sources of interesting new equipment to review. Recently, trolling New York's Audiophile Society, I discovered a tremendous buzz about the Onix Reference 1 Mk.II, an affordable bookshelf speaker from AV123. Founded by Audio Alchemy cofounder Mark Schifter, AV123 is a Colorado-based manufacturer and retailer that specializes in affordable audio gear, mostly speakers and electronics, which it sells exclusively over the Internet with a 30-day money-back guarantee. AV123's factories in China and Colombia design, manufacture, and distribute speakers under the…