But then on May 17, 1985, the CD's savior arrived: Brothers in Arms, the fifth studio album release by British rock stalwarts Dire Straits. Trumpeted as one of the first "full digital recordings" in the pop/rock oeuvre, Brothers in Arms was an undeniable smash international hit from a band that had struck it big already. Exactly 40…
search
The Compact Disc needed a big win—and fast. During its first few years in the marketplace (footnote 1), the format wasn't living up to lofty expectations. Part of the problem maybe was that most of the CDs released up to that time came from analog sources.
On the mantel sat a stuffed Culo snake from Nuevo Laredo, with a red rubber tongue in freeze-frame flick. Above the bookcase hung the mounted head of a wild poi dog, killed in self-defense in Sri Lanka with only a Phillips-head screwdriver. A table-lamp made from a shellac'd, puffed-up frog wearing a sombrero and playing the contrabassoon bathed the room in a soft cream glow.
But the only living thing in this pack of once-proud beasts was the young man sitting at the kitchen table, slowly pecking at the keys of a rundown Bondwell laptop and blowing soap bubbles out of the antique ivory…
I was just about to wrap up my British Invasion Tour of affordable speakers when I got a call from Fearless Leader John Atkinson.
"I have this very interesting speaker from English company Monitor Audio I'd like you to audition."
Sounds good, JA. At Stereophile's Home Entertainment shows, I've been favorably impressed every time I've heard a Monitor Audio speaker, whether expensive, affordable, two-channel, or home theater.
Nor are Monitor speakers all that expensive. In addition to a number of home-theater speaker models, the company currently makes 19 different two-…
The No.431's dual-mono design means that the amp has a separate power supply for each channel. Each power supply
includes a low-noise, 660VA toroidal transformer and two triple-bypassed, low-equivalent-series-resistance 24,000µF, electrolytic capacitors. Heavy bus bars of oxygen-free copper and high-frequency power-supply bypass components are used to lower the No.431's power-supply impedance. The amplifier can draw 15 amperes at 120V from the mains when driving a 4 ohm load to its full power rating of 400Wpc.
A turn-on circuit prevents sudden thumps and damage to components from the…
Among British turntables, there is the Rega Planar 3, which sells here for $550 (approximately double the UK price). I've owned a Rega for three years and know it well.
The Rega is a good-sounding turntable and a good value—at the UK price. Someone once said that the Rega, which has no suspension, is a triumph of engineering over the laws of physics. There is little isolation from acoustical feedback—some Rega owners have gone to the extreme of mounting their turntables on flimsy shelves, the flimse serving as isolation of sorts.
That's not all that's wrong with the Rega…
This midrange neutrality and detail resolution went hand in hand with the 109's superb ability to render subtle low-level dynamic inflections. In the tango collection Serà Una Noche (CD, MA Recordings M052A), Gabriel Rivan's subtle midrange phrasings on bandonán breathed in and out in uncolored fashion, as if he were in my listening room. The 109 also liked well-recorded piano performances. Listening to Robert Silverman's reading of Rachmaninoff's Sonata 1 in D Minor (CD, Stereophile STPH019-2), I found it easy to follow the subtle phrasings emerging from the rich lower midrange of his…
Robert Harley
STEPS AHEAD: Steps Ahead
Michael Brecker, tenor sax; Eliane Elias, piano; Eddie Gomez, bass; Mike Mainieri, vibes, synthivibe, marimba; Peter Erskine, drums
Elektra Musician 60168-1/2 (LP/CD). Steps Ahead, prods.; James Farber, eng. AAA/AAD. TT: 47:07 Since its 1983 release, Steps Ahead's eponymous first record hasn't been far from my turntable, CD transport, or car stereo. This group of extraordinarily talented players brings a modern touch to straight-ahead acoustic jazz that carries the music forward from where they found it.
STEPS AHEAD: Steps Ahead
Michael Brecker, tenor sax; Eliane Elias, piano; Eddie Gomez, bass; Mike Mainieri, vibes, synthivibe, marimba; Peter Erskine, drums
Elektra Musician 60168-1/2 (LP/CD). Steps Ahead, prods.; James Farber, eng. AAA/AAD. TT: 47:07 Since its 1983 release, Steps Ahead's eponymous first record hasn't been far from my turntable, CD transport, or car stereo. This group of extraordinarily talented players brings a modern touch to straight-ahead acoustic jazz that carries the music forward from where they found it.
Steps Ahead played live together…
Shannon Dickson reviewed the Gen.V Theta in July 1995 (Vol.18 No.7):
Much has been written about the Theta DS Pro Generation V, which I still consider among the best D/A processors available. I level-matched the Muse Model Two and my Gen.V to within 0.04dB (with the help of the two remote-controlled Rowland preamps) and drove them both with, in turn, the Theta Data II, the excellent Theta Data Basic (which I like even better than the recently discontinued Data II), and the Micromega T-Drive transport.
Qualitatively, the two processors were surprisingly close. They sounded…
For reasons that have as much to do with why the creek does or doesn't rise as anything, almost all the UK-manufactured electronics I've reviewed over the years were from dCS of Cambridge. Through 2023, no electronics from Linn or a host of other UK-based companies have crossed the threshold of my music room.
That situation changed when, soon after New Year's, a pair of Linn's 60lb Klimax Solo 800 monoblock amplifiers ($90,000/pair) arrived from Scotland. Right away, they delighted me with their ease of maneuverability, handsome, uncluttered look, and relative compactness. Given their…
Setup
We set up the complete system as a connected, synchronized unit. Thus the NSC 222 was powered by the NPX 300 supply upgrade, the NAP 250 was installed and the Naim rack was leveled and locked. The supplied Powerline Lite mains cables were connected, with 6m NAC A5 speaker cables and the included Naim interconnects. These components had all been used previously in demo systems; still, a couple of weeks of use as a background music source served to clear the cobwebs. My highly specified Linn LP12 was engaged with the installation of a high-output Hana MH moving coil cartridge.…