Why has EQ become such a hot topic? No doubt it's…
search
It seems these days that everybody and his brother is doing something about room equalization. Sure, we had the old-time graphic and parametric EQs—now we're seeing much more sophisticated and dedicated devices, from the TacT and Z-Systems standalone products to the auto-setup and EQ systems found in many A/V receivers. I was impressed with the Audyssey MultEQxt in the Denon AV-4806 receiver—see my "Music in the Round" column in March, p.50—and a standalone AudysseyPro unit was demonstrated at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show.
These results were enlightening but curious. MRC indicates the current and target RT60s but not the degree of change. I couldn't help noticing that, of the 60 DSP filters available for the three modes, the system only used 10 (Music), 9 (2-Channel Movie), and 4 (Multichannel Movie). Most of the filters were in the 80–200Hz range, with the sub/LFE getting filters at 36Hz, 72Hz for music, and 69Hz for movies. The left front speaker was filtered at 87Hz and 109Hz, and the right front speaker, which is next to an open doorway, was filtered at 44, 79, and 90Hz in music and stereo modes. The rear…
Sidebar: Recordings in the Round
WIDOR: Mass, Op. 36
Daniel Roth, Mark Dwyer, Stephen Tharp, organ; Choeur Darius Milhaud, Camille Haedt-Goussu, dir.; Ensemble Dodecamen, Christopher Hyde, dir.
JAV Recordings JAV158 (SACD)
JAV Recordings is Joe Vitacco, and it is apparent from all aspects of this production, as well as from the liner notes, that it is a labor of love. Recorded at Paris's St. Sulpice, where Widor was "temporary" organist for 64 years (!), it is a re-creation of a work Widor wrote specifically for the double chorus and two organs available to him there. One…
The audio diaspora is split on the subject of bass. Some audiophiles—surely the majority—consider the reproduction of low frequencies purely in terms of the weight and drama it adds to sounds with significant bass content. Others—the generalists—take a much wider view of the significance of extended bass response, noting that an audio system's ubiquitous high-pass filters are unusual in Nature and suggesting that this is one of the factors that separate, at the fundamental level, live sound from its poorer reproduced cousin. When John Atkinson wrote on this subject more than 10 years ago (…
First, there is boundary reinforcement. This arises because, just as a bathroom mirror creates a virtual image of your face, the acoustic mirrors formed by a room's boundaries create virtual acoustic images of a sound source. If you place a loudspeaker near the corner of a room, there are actually effectively eight loudspeakers in close proximity: the real loudspeaker and seven virtual ones reflected in the walls and floor (fig.1). At low frequencies, the phase difference between these sources becomes negligible because of the long wavelength, so their outputs combine constructively. One…
The La Luce turntable's elegant form usually stops audiophiles dead in their tracks. Then comes a long, low "Wow." I'm hardly immune myself. And that's not even considering the sound, which has always been wonderful, as it was in the Joseph Audio/Cardas room at CES '98.
Wonders never ceasing, the La Luce was designed by Judy Spotheim-Koreneef, an Israeli living in Eindhoven, Holland. Spotheim is proud to explain that her turntable was designed in the manner of a precision measuring instrument and manufactured to extremely fine tolerances from materials chosen to ensure neutral and…
The SpJ's headshell has an offset angle of 22.53°, appropriate for an Effective Length (stylus tip to pivot) of 244mm. As most cartridges' stylus tips are 8–9mm in front of the mounting holes, the SpJ headshell is slotted to allow a generous 3.75mm range of adjustment. The headshell, finger holder, armtube with damping material, and signal cables and connectors weigh a total of 13gm. Though cartridges of medium-high compliance can be used, medium-, medium/low-, and low-compliance types are the most suitable. Given that, the arm can deal with cartridges weighing from 6gm to more than 18gm.…
There follows in the manual a discussion of the different thicknesses of vinyl from various labels and how best to compensate for them, and a treatise—far too detailed to go into here—on shifting between the Baerwald and Löfgren overhang values. Suffice it to say that I've never before seen the engineering bases of turntable setup explained so thoroughly. The math is clearly laid out, and the precise adjustments to compensate for the adjustments are explicated to the nines. Competence, elegance, and forethought drip from every plane of La Luce.
Installation completed, I stepped back and…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: nonsuspended turntable with dedicated pivoted SpJ tonearm and elastic-thread–driven stand-alone motor and housing. Bearing: J.C. Zwart Delrin chrome ball bearing, 55mm diameter. Bearing shaft: polished chrome-hardened steel, 15mm diameter; thin-film Teflon spray lubrication.
Dimensions: 16" W by 12" H by 11" D.
Serial number of unit reviewed: Not noted.
Price: $18,500 with tonearm. Approximate number of dealers: 71.
Manufacturer: Judith Spotheim-Koreneef, Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Web: www.tjbailey.com/spj/products.htm. US distributor…
Sidebar 2: Associated equipment
I listened to the La Luce mostly with the vdH Grasshopper IV phono cartridge, but spent some time enjoying the Cardas Heart I found installed on the arm when it arrived, George in tow. I also auditioned the Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum cartridge for two weeks. (More on that little Japanese beauty in an upcoming review.)
The La Luce played alternately into the YBA Signature 6 Chassis preamplifier and the Nagra PL-P, both with their own MC transformers and with the Expressive Technologies SU-1 step-up.
Power amplifiers were the huge…