Sound Bites: 50 Years of Hi-Fi News
By Ken Kessler and Steve Harris. London, IPC Media, 2005; paperback, 224 pages, 8.25" by 5.75", indexed. $29.95. Available in the US from Music Direct, www.musicdirect.com, (800) 449-8333.
David A. Wilson, of Wilson Audio Specialties, must have an even better ear than I have given him credit for, or at least he has an enviable ear for language. On p.214 of Ken Kessler and Steve Harris' Sound Bites: 50 Years of Hi-Fi News, Wilson coins one of the most striking onomatopoeias that I have read in a dog's age: "Foink, foink. " In that terse spondee,…
The Graham Engineering 1.5 tonearm, originally introduced in 1990, was a thoughtfully executed design that logically addressed all of the basics of good tonearm performance—geometry, resonance control, rigidity, dynamic stability—with effective, sometimes ingenious ideas, while providing exceptional ease and flexibility of setup. Over time, designer Bob Graham came up with ways to significantly improve the 1.5's performance, including the replacement of its brass side weights with heavier ones of tungsten, an improved bearing with a more massive cap, various changes in internal wiring, a far…
Unfortunately, neutral balance works both vertically and laterally, meaning that the arm would list one way or the other and then remain there, depending on its lateral weight distribution—not good. Graham's new Magneglide system solves the problem while providing an easy means of adjusting both azimuth angle and antiskating force.
The Magneglide system consists of an ABEC-7 grade horizontal bearing assembly—the same as SME uses for the main bearing of its V arm—of very low mass. The bearing's actual mass is 10gm, but since a large percentage of this mass, including the ball-bearing…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Magnetically stabilized, fluid-damped unipivot tonearm. Mounting profiles: standard Graham Custom Mount and SME mount.
Price: $4275. Approximate number of dealers: Not disclosed.
Manufacturer: Graham Engineering, 25M Olympia Avenue, Woburn, MA 01801. Tel: (781)-932-8777 (Tuesday through Thursday only). Fax: (781) 932-8782. Web: www.graham-engineering.com.
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Simon Yorke S7, Nottingham Audio Deco turntables; Immedia RPM-2, Graham 2.2, Nottingham Ace-Anna tonearms; Lyra Titan, Lyra Helikon, Lyra Dorian mono, London Jubilee cartridges.
Digital Sources: Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista SACD player; Alesis Masterlink CD-R/HD recorder.
Preamplification: Manley Steelhead, Aesthetix Rhea, Musical Fidelity kW phono preamplifiers; Musical Fidelity kWp, Aesthetix Calypso preamplifiers.
Power amplifiers: Musical Fidelity kW, Audio Valve Baldur.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties MAXX2, Cabasse…
Michael Fremer returned to the Phantom in January 2006 (Vol.29 No.1):
In order to let me evaluate the Continuum Caliburn independent of the Cobra, Continuum made an adapter plate that allowed Graham Engineering's Phantom B-44 tonearm to be mounted opposite the Cobra. Continuum has the utmost respect for Bob Graham and his arm, considering it among the best out there.
Direct comparisons using the same cartridge told me that these are two of the finest tonearms I have ever heard. The Graham was slightly more reserved and grounded, the Cobra a bit more airy and effusive.
…
Michael Fremer wrote about the Phantom B-44 II in October 2009 (Vol. 32 No.10):
Bob Graham has been refining his tonearm since it first appeared in prototype form as the McIntosh Excalibur, back in the 1980s. As reported by Ken Kessler in his terrific book McIntosh "...for the love of music...," Graham, then at MIT and independently developing his tonearm, was introduced to McIntosh's Gordon Gow, who was in Massachusetts visiting area audio retailers. Gow was sufficiently impressed to fund further development and help Graham patent his design. However, a hitch in the accompanying McIntosh…
"Happy is he who gets to know the reasons for things."
—Virgil
In February 2000, a physicist at Bell Labs announced that he had succeeded in creating molecular-scale transistors. Imagine!
The researcher in question, one Jan Hendrik Schön, produced hundreds of pages of graphs and other data that appeared to support his claim, some of which were submitted for publication in Science. Virtually overnight, as these things go, Science's readers hailed the work as a genuine breakthrough in the field of nanophysics.
But there was a problem: When fellow researchers…
Listen twice, boast once
Granted, this isn't Psychology Today, and I haven't the remotest idea why some people (footnote 3) are driven to prevent others from enjoying audio in their own harmless ways, any more than I can explain why some people bring the same crusader fixation to such disparate fields as dietary supplements, tropical fish, and religion. It simply appears that, no matter how socially inert the sin, there will never be a shortage of people whose sole pleasure is in haranguing the sinners. Not punishing, mind you. Not rehabilitating. Just amusing themselves with public…
Still burning in my bank of childhood memories are misty images of the glowing green lettering on the McIntosh tube preamps and tuners that populated the windows of the audio stores that once lined lower Manhattan's Cortlandt Street. Leonard's and most of those other retailers are long gone—as are most of the audio brands that shared their windows with McIntosh, and that once symbolized the might of American innovation and manufacturing. Even the World Trade Center, the controversial complex that replaced Cortlandt Street's "Radio Row," where the hi-fi industry was born, is tragically gone…
