Description: Two-way stand-mounted, reflex-loaded loudspeaker. Drive-units: ¾" soft-dome tweeter, 5" "polyglass"-treated paper-cone woofer. Crossover frequency: 5kHz at 12dB/octave. Frequency range: 60Hz-18kHz. Impedance: 7 ohms nominal, 4 ohms minimum. Sensitivity: 86dB/2.83V/m. Power handling (per IEC 268-5 long/short): 80-200W.
Dimensions: 14" H by 6½" W by 9" D. Weight: 18 lbs.
Finishes: North American Black Walnut, maple, black.
Serial numbers of units reviewed: 349, 350.
Price: $1699/pair. Approximate number of dealers: 12. Warranty: 5 years.…
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Sidebar 1: Specifications
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog source: Simon Yorke, Music Hall MMF-7 turntables; Graham 2.2, Immedia RPM2 tonearms; Lyra Helikon, Helikon Mono, Clearaudio Insider cartridges.
Digital source: Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 3D CD player, Marantz SA-1 SACD player.
Preamplification: Hovland HP-100 preamplifier, Pass Xono phono preamplifier.
Power amplifiers: Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 300, modified Boulder.
Loudspeakers: Sonus Faber Amati Homage, Audio Physic Avanti III, Red Rose Music R3, Audio Physic Rhea subwoofer.
Cables: Phono: Hovland Music Groove DIN/RCA, RCA/RCA.…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
The little Westlake Audio Lc5.75F was of slightly-below-average sensitivity, at an estimated 84dB(B)/2.83V/m. However, its impedance magnitude (fig.1, solid trace) stayed above 6.8 ohms throughout the bass, midrange, and low-treble regions, and even when the electrical phase angle is large—as it is between 90Hz and 120Hz—the high magnitude in the same region ameliorates any problems with drive difficulty. Only in the top octave, where the impedance drops below 4 ohms, will the speaker demand more than an 8 ohm-rated amplifier—and perhaps not even then, given the…
After I had finished the measurements, I read Michael's text and realized that the Lc5.75F's design axis was actually slightly below the tweeter, between the port and the woofer. The closest response I obtained to this axis is shown in the right half of fig.4. The tweeter level is actually a little higher than in fig.3, but to be honest, the integration between the two drivers doesn't look any better. As a rule of thumb, if response peaks are balanced by response dips of around the same magnitude and width, the speaker's perceived balance might well be flat. But as Michael did comment on an…
The manufacture and marketing of so-called "universal" digital disc players should have been a no-brainer right from the start. I recall the first demo of SACD I attended, when both SACD and DVD-Audio were little more than promises and contentions. That prototype Philips player consisted of several cubic feet of hardware controlled by a computer, even though mockups of more marketable SACD players were arrayed around the room. After the demo, I asked one of the Philips engineers if it were possible to make a player that could handle CD, SACD, and DVD-A. His reply: "Sure, if they let me do it…
But only when I began to compare the stereo performance of the Unidisk with other components was I able to define the Linn's sound. On two-channel CDs and the stereo tracks of SACDs, it was as transparent as the Sony SCD-XA777ES SACD player, but soundly trumped it in high-frequency smoothness. The Sony can be slightly edgy at times; playing the same discs, the Linn never was.
A more stringent trial consisted of pitting the Unidisk on its own against the Unidisk as a transport feeding an external D/A converter. Against the Mark Levinson No.360S DAC, the Linn's sound was lighter in weight—…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Stereo/multichannel universal disc player. Formats played: CD, CD-R, CD-RW, SACD, DVD-Audio, DVD-Video, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, VCD, SVCD, data discs with MP3 and MPEG files (Left/right downmix of Dolby Digital and DTS datastreams). S/PDIF digital outputs: TosLink, BNC. Analog audio outputs: 5.1 RCA socket outputs (front L and R are double connectors), stereo XLR balanced. Control connections: RC5 I/O, RS-232 I/O (RS-232 & Flash Upload). Onscreen and front-panel text display for SACD. Video outputs, progressive-scan: RGBHV, Y-Pr-Pb (BNC). Video…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Two-Channel System
Analog source: Heybrook TT2 turntable, SME III tonearm, Ortofon SME30H cartridge.
Digital sources: California Audio Labs CL-20 DVD-V/CD player, Sony SCD-XA777ES SACD player; Mark Levinson No.360S, Theta Gen.VIII, Orpheus One, Nagra DACs.
Preamplification: Sonic Frontiers Line-3, Audiolab 8000PPA phono stage.
Power amplifiers: Sonic Frontiers Power-3, Classé CAM-350.
Loudspeakers: Revel Ultima Studio.
Cables: Digital: i2Digital X-60 BNC. Interconnect (all balanced): AudioQuest Anaconda & Python, JPS Super-Conductor 2…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
The Linn Unidisk's maximum outputs for CD replay were 2.1V unbalanced and 4.1V balanced. The figures were the same for DVD playback, but increased to 2.26V/4.41V for SACD playback. The 0.7dB difference will be audible in direct comparisons of the player's CD and SACD playback, in favor of SACD. Neither set of outputs inverted absolute polarity, and the output impedance was a low 209 ohms from the single-ended RCA jacks. This more than doubled, to 597 ohms, from the balanced XLRs, though this is still low enough not to give matching problems, particularly as the…
"Comping," they call it at Madrigal. Once a circuit and its board layout have been finalized, passive components are substituted one by one in an exhaustive series of listening tests to determine the places where use of a premium part, or one of closer tolerances, results in an audible benefit. This fine-tuning process cannot be open-ended, however, as products do have to shipped. So what happens when new parts become available, or new manufacturing processes allow a better-sounding part to be used without financial penalty?
All manufacturing companies deal with this question continually…