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And this is not a subtle lack. On the records (and a few CDs) I own which provide fabulous ambient information—where, sitting with a glass of wine and the latest Stereophile in hand late at night, you feel you're actually there—the Waveforms were able to only suggest a bit of hall, with moderately believable images. I must be the only audiophile on earth who isn't tired of Jazz at the Pawnshop, but I actually just listened to it for the first time in the last three weeks. Honest! On the IRS Betas, you can locate the patrons of the Pawnshop—you could go over and take their drink orders,…
Sidebar 1: Measurements
As Larry said earlier, we ran a couple of FFT response measurements on the Waveforms while John Ötvös was visiting, in order to check that the speakers were working okay, and found that the speaker had an excess of energy in the top audio octave. According to John, the reason for adding the ribbon supertweeter to a tweeter that is usually used alone (a version of Dynaudio's D28) is to fill in a suckout in the high treble on the intended listening axis. After Larry had completed his listening, I ran a more rigorous set of tests to investigate the Waveform's measured…
Sidebar 2: Manufacturer's Comment, from December 1989 (Vol.12 No.12):
Editor: The refrain from Don McLean's "Vincent" of some time ago—"They're not listening still"—interesting. I suppose if I had a low enough IQ I'd be able to appreciate your sense of humor. Frankly, I don't care for your acoustic taste in reverberant rooms, Larry; however, your taste in wine is excellent—thanks for lunch. Rather interesting the comments you and John shared openly with Robert and me about the Diva and the Beta not belonging in "Recommended Components" because of the deviation so far from flat response.…
Your room will be a source of serious consternation for years to come for other pioneers in the speaker field. Both of you are well aware that most consumers don't have reverberant rooms like yours. You work hard to find compatible components. Why not exercise the same diligence in finding a compatible room? Peter Mitchell's favorite loudspeaker over $5000, as listed in "Critic's Choice," is the Altec Bias 550. He is a senior, well-respected audio journalist. Where, oh where is truth?
On being transported or having an orchestra transplanted, that is mythology. A speaker's only function…
Thomas J. Norton's Follow-up, January 1990 (Vol.13 No.1):
Moving never seems to come at a convenient time. I was originally slated to write about the Waveform loudspeaker reviewed by Larry Archibald in November 1989 and had the review pair in my home for several weeks. My listening time with them was limited, however. After the Waveforms were delivered, and briefly auditioned during and after a visit by company honcho John Ötvös, they had to be wrestled out of the way to permit completion of follow-ups on the ZSE loudspeakers and Grado cartridges. (My auditions of the initial samples of…
Sidebar 3: Specifications
Description: Four-way, bi-amplified, moving-coil–driver loudspeaker, with electronic crossover. One 15" JBL subwoofer, two 6", long-throw, fiber/plastic-laminate woofers, one 1" textile-dome tweeter, one ribbon super-tweeter. Crossover frequencies: 150Hz, 3kHz, 9kHz. Crossover slopes (from bottom up): 18dB/octave, 18dB/octave, 12dB/octave. Sensitivity: 90dB/1W/1m. Recommended amplifier power: up to 500W, depending on room size (two stereo amps required). Maximum output: unspecified, but "110–120dB" is mentioned—which gives you an idea of what to expect.…
When, at the beginning of this century, the market profile of the high-end Mark Levinson brand took a dip due to the parent company's reorganization, one of the companies that took advantage of the opportunity was Classé Audio. Founded in 1980 by engineer Dave Reich (now with Theta Digital) and run by engineer-entrepreneur Mike Viglas since the mid-1980s, the Canadian electronics manufacturer's Omega line of high-end amplifiers and preamps had universally impressed Stereophile's scribes, and its Omega SACD player (reviewed by Jonathan Scull in November 2001) was the first such product to…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Single-box, two-channel, slot-loading CD/DVD player with remote and touchscreen control, single-ended and balanced analog outputs, three digital outputs (AES3 on XLR and S/PDIF on RCA and TosLink), DC trigger inputs, bidirectional RS-232 and IR repeater ports, and two video outputs (composite and S-video). Formats supported: CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, DualDisc, MP3, WMA, AAC, Video-CD, S-VCD. Maximum output voltage: 4V balanced, 2V unbalanced. Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz, ±0.1dB. THD+noise: 0.001% (no level given). Signal/noise: 110dB…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Ayre C-5xe universal player; Mark Levinson No.30.6, Benchmark DAC 1 D/A processors; Alesis Masterlink hard-disk recorder.
Preamplifier: Mark Levinson No.326S.
Power Amplifiers: Mark Levinson No.33H monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Revel Ultima Studio, Snell LCR7 XL.
Cables: Digital: Kimber Illuminations Orchid AES/EBU, AudioQuest SVD-4 S/PDIF. Interconnect: AudioQuest Cheetah, Madrigal CZ Gel-1, Ayre Signature Series, Crystalconnect (balanced). Speaker: AudioQuest Kilimanjaro. AC: PS Audio Lab, Shunyata Anaconda Helix Alpha,…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
The Classé cdp-202's balanced jacks put out a maximum of 3.8V from both CD and DVD, the single-ended RCA jacks 1.915V, the latter 0.4dB below the CD standard's 2V RMS level. The source impedance was a low 100 ohms from the unbalanced jacks, 596 ohms from the balanced jacks. The signal polarity was noninverting from both the single-ended and the balanced outputs, suggesting that the XLRs are wired with pin 2 hot, the AES-recommended practice.
Monitoring the cdp-202's digital output with RME's DIGIcheck program running on my PC, there were no flagged errors…