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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…
Blind loudspeaker listening tests are hard work, not least because usually, most of the models being auditioned fail to light any musical sparks. But back in the spring of 1991, when a small group of Stereophile writers were doing blind tests for a group speaker review, one speaker did light up smiles on the listeners' faces, including my own. (We don't talk during our blind tests, but it's more difficult to keep body language in check.) Once the results were in, we learned that the speaker that got the music right in that test was the diminutive ES11 from Epos in England (footnote 1).
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Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-way, stand-mounted, reflex-loaded box loudspeaker. Drive-units: 6.5" (165mm) mica-loaded polypropylene-cone bass/midrange with nitrile-rubber surround, 1" aluminum-alloy dome tweeter. Measured crossover frequency: 5.5kHz. Frequency response: 53Hz–22kHz, ±3dB. Sensitivity: 86.5dB/W/m. Nominal impedance: 8 ohms (5 ohms minimum at 18kHz). Amplifier requirements: 20W recommended minimum. Finishes available: black ash, walnut, mahogany.
Dimensions: 14.75" (375mm) H by 8" (203mm) W by 9.75" (248mm) D. Weight: 19.5 lbs (8.8kg) each.
Serial…
Sidebar 2: System Context
The Epos ES12s were positioned some 3' from the rear wall of my room (which is faced with books and LPs) and approximately 5' from the side walls (which also have bookshelves covering some of their surfaces). The ES12s sat on 24" Celestion Si stands filled with a mixture of lead shot and sand and spiked to the concrete floor beneath the rug/pad.
The amplifier used was primarily a solid-state Pass Labs Aleph 3, with a Mark Levinson No.333, a tube Mesa Boogie Baron, a tube Cary Audio Design CAD-300SEI integrated, and a tube Audio Research VT100 also seeing…