Audionet SAM V2 integrated amplifier: $4400
Last time out, I profiled ESP's Concert Grand SI loudspeakers in the context of a stereo system that, all-in, came perilously close to costing $100,000. I don't apologize for that. There are people shopping for $40,000/pair loudspeakers, and I believed they would benefit from learning…
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In short, Stanhope's A Virtuoso Recital is a great pianism-showpiece album in excellent sound. The Rachmaninoff Preludes go a long way toward offsetting the "empty calories" pieces, and Stanhope's Sibelius transcription is a treasure. Highly recommended.
"A few of us felt that we were the proverbial voices in the wilderness for a long time." So writes Gary Jacobson, whose Quad ESL website, is my favorite of the many good ones out there.
Like other Quad mavens, Jacobson didn't set out to become an authority on vintage loudspeakers: He was simply captivated by the first pair of ESLs he heard, and his enthusiasm only grew over the years, bringing him to an even more serious level of involvement. Today, Jacobson's site is a clearinghouse for information on buying, maintaining, repairing, and using Quad's original electrostatic loudspeaker,…
So with a nod of thanks and admiration for the invaluable restoration information provided by Gary Jacobson—and other Quad ESL experts, such as Ken Kessler (author of Quad: The Closest Approach), Sheldon Stokes, Stewart Penketh, Andrew King, Ron Best of One Thing Audio, Wayne Picquet, Mike Grubb and Randy Stringer of QS&D, my old friend Chris Beeching, and the great Philip O'Hanlon—let's get cracking.
The Visible Quads
An important tip, for safety's sake: There are very high voltages inside any electrostatic loudspeaker, and if you spend your lunch hour poking around inside an…
Larger than a stocking stuffer, Musical Fidelity's X-Rayv3 CD player is nevertheless quite compact and would be very nice to find under the Christmas tree.
At $995, the X-Rayv3 matches Musical Fidelity's X-150 integrated amplifier in size and price. (I reviewed the X-150 back in May.) There's also an X-80 integrated amp rated at 40Wpc into 8 ohms, vs 75Wpc for the X-150. I'd have reviewed the X-80, too, but I didn't want to rattle the cages of the "inmates" on the Internet. (They know who they are.)
Audio nerds might turn up their noses at this gear because of the small size. That…
Wes Phillips wrote about the X-Ray in January 2006 (Vol.29 No.1):
I spent many hours listening intently to my favorite music on the Quad 99 CDP-2. On "I Know Love Is All I Need," from Rodney Crowell's The Houston Kid (CD, Sugar Hill 1065), Crowell's voice rides out front of the intertwined acoustic guitars and brushed drums. It's personal and natural, although you can clearly hear that the drums were slightly compressed to make 'em pop out of the mix a bit. The bass is a shade woolly, but that's the recording—for all its warmth and natural timbre, it isn't audio verité. Of course, when…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: Single-box CD player.
Dimensions: 8.5" W x 3.9" H x 13.6" D.
Price: $995. Approximate number of dealers: 70.
Manufacturer: Musical Fidelity, Ltd., 15-17 Fulton Road, Wembley, Middlesex HA9 OTF, England, UK. Web: www.musicalfidelity.com. US distributor: Signal Path Imports, 215 Lawton Road, Charlotte, NC 28216. Tel: (704) 391-9337. Fax: (704) 391-9338. Web: www.signalpath.com.
If you spotted an EICO HF-81 at the local Goodwill, you'd think nothing of this plain-Jane integrated amplifier in its nondescript gray case. But if you kept on walking, you would have passed up one of the best-kept audio secrets of all time. The HF-81 hails from hi-fi's pioneer days, before chromed chassis and slick Mac transformers. It isn't ultracool-looking, like early Marantz or McIntosh gear. It doesn't have the nostalgia factor of a Fisher. It's not a supercheap eBay steal like a Stromberg-Carlson or a Heathkit. So what's the deal?
The EICO HF-81 is simply a fantastic-…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Tubed integrated amplifier. Tube complement: four ECC83/12AX7, four EL84/6BQ5, two EZ81. Maximum output power: 14Wpc (11.5dBW) continuous into rated load. Frequency response (at 1W into 8 ohms): 10Hz–100kHz, ±0.5dB. Tone control range: ±15dB at 50Hz and 10kHz. Harmonic distortion: <1% at 8W, 30Hz–10kHz, at 10W, 50Hz–5kHz. IM distortion (60Hz and 6kHz at 4:1): 2% at 14W, 0.05% at 5W. Sensitivity (input for 14W): mag phono 4mV, tape head 2mV, Mic 5mV, Aux and tuners 500mV. Speaker connections: 4, 8, 16, 32 ohms.
Dimensions: 15" (385mm) W by 4¾…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Luxman PD-555 vacuum-holddown, Luxman PD-444 direct-drive turntables; Mayware Formula 4, Dynavector DV-505 tonearms; Koetsu Rosewood, Goldbug Mr. Brier, AudioQuest 7000, Technics 1520 cartridges; Cotter Verion step-up transformer; Otari MX 5050 4-channel, Ampex 44 open-reel tape decks.
Digital Sources: Balanced Audio Technology VK-D5 CD player, Timbre DAC, Audio Alchemy DDS•Pro transport.
Preamplification: Luxman 5C50, Convergent Audio Technology Ultimate preamplifiers; Wright Sound WPP100C, Benz-Micro Series 2 Lukaschek PP-1 phono…
Sidebar 3: Restoring Vintage Hi-Fi Equipment
The EICO HF-81 was restored by Sam Kim at Sam's Audio Labs, in Montreal, Canada. The work done included replacing the output and filtering capacitors and all out-of-tolerance resistors, rebuilding the volume control, rewiring the undercarriage, and resoldering every connection.
Sam Kim's restorations are not the drop-in-and-solder jobs I'm used to. I've replaced coupling and filter caps in many components but have never taken the time to rewire, resolder, and check out the circuit to determine which values of modern-day parts…