Output is about normal for a low-output 'coil (around 0.2mV at 5cm/s), and the tubed SP-10 had no noise problems. With the downforce set at 1.7gm, the Troika just failed the 70µm lateral modulation cut on the Ortofon Test Record at 78°F (it was a hot day); with the downforce increased to 1.8gm, it managed to clear the 70µm cut, but 2.1gm was needed for the maximum 80µm cut. It cleared the 50µm vertical cut at 1.7gm downforce. While not quite as surefooted as the Shure V15 V MR (others report that the Troika is less secure at lower temperatures), this is pretty…
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I've been tweaking my weekend multichannel system for years, but with my city system I've kinda faked it. I now realize that I listen more actively to the weekend system, and not only because that's when I have the time for it—the sound of that system is simply more engaging and psychologically immersive. So, with the growth of my library of SACD and DVD-Audio recordings to almost half the size of my CD collection, I told my wife that it was time to transform of "our" city stereo rig into a full-blown multichannel system.
I added a third B&W 802D loudspeaker for the center channel…
Since then, from the home-built Altec A-7s of grad-school days, through homemade transmission lines, and on to the B&W 802Ds I now enjoy, almost all of my speakers have been full-size floorstanders. Somewhere in there I had a lingering affair with a pair of Stax ELS-F81s; they were beguiling, but drove me in desperation toward the bottom end, and to one ill-mated subwoofer after another. Nothing worked right—not until the rise of home theater and multichannel sound did the science of subwoofing flower.
Here's why. Multichannel sound means multiple speakers, and few domestic living…
Sidebar: Recordings In The Round
PENDERECKI: Credo
Harasimowicz-Haas, Pasiecznik, sopranos; Rehlis, alto; Zdunikowski, tenor; Tesarowicz, bass; Polish Radio & National Philharmonic Choirs, Cracow Philharmonic Boys Choir, National Polish Radio Symphony; Krzysztof Penderecki, conductor
Polskie Radio PR SACD 1 (SACD). Available from www.lipinskirecords.com.
This is a major recent work composed and conducted by a living master. Krzysztof Penderecki's music is dramatic, engaging, and accomplished with a mix of tonalities and melody that is both modern yet immediately…
As Hans Christian Oersted, the Danish physicist and founder of electrodynamics, discovered in 1819, an electric current passed through a wire generates a magnetic field. Place that wire close to a permanent magnet and the interaction of the two fields will generate a force. That, in two sentences, summarizes the operating principle of the motor that energizes every moving-coil drive-unit in millions of loudspeakers worldwide. It sounds simple, but—like everything in audio—it isn't.
To generate sufficient force, the wire in a moving-coil driver must be many meters long and so is…
A current source, by contrast, has an output impedance that is large compared to the load impedance, so that now its output current is largely unaffected by fluctuations in load impedance. This is significant in the context of thermal compression because it is the current through the voice-coil that generates the driver's motive force. If this is unaffected by changes in voice-coil resistance, then thermal compression cannot occur.
The trouble is, you can't simply substitute a current-source amplifier for a voltage-source amplifier when the loudspeaker expects to see a voltage source.…
Sidebar: Making The Measurements
The simplest way to determine a device's electrical resistance is to pass a known DC current through it, measure the voltage developed across it, and use Ohm's Law (voltage equals current times resistance; ie, resistance equals voltage divided by current) to calculate the required result. This is essentially the method used here and previously employed by others (footnotes 1, 2), although it is complicated somewhat by the need to perform the measurement in the presence of a large AC signal driving the loudspeaker. Key issues are: 1) isolating the DC-…
We were driving to a friend's house to celebrate her dad's 92nd birthday. Halfway there, a bright yellow, ground-hugging insect pulled in front of my car from across street. "Wow, that's a Lamborghini Countach!" I exclaimed. You don't often see one of those in my neighborhood—or in any neighborhood.
"What is?" my mother-in-law responded without irony. "That car!" I squeaked, staring transfixed at the car's least dramatic angle. My childlike tone had my wife and mother-in-law chortling until, still mesmerized, I missed a familiar turn and began involuntarily following the…
However, switching the Zanden DAC to the I2S input took the sound to an exalted level of clarity, suppleness, transparency, and precision. Now the CD-R recorded from analog sounded almost as good as analog, and certainly better than any digital I've heard here.
At the 2005 Hi-Fi News show in London, the Audiofreaks room featured an all-Zanden system driving Avalon speakers. Compared to most of what I heard that weekend, that room was an oasis of smooth, musical flow and utter ease and grace. I lingered there a long time listening to CD-Rs I'd recorded from analog and brought along. The…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Four-box, 16-bit/44.1kHz CD player with separate transport and DAC, each with separate power supply. DAC power-supply tube complement: two 6CA4, one 6X4. Formats supported: CD, CD-R, CD-RW. Transport output: 16-bit/44.1kHz via S/PDIF, AES/EBU, I2S; word clock. Transport output jacks: S/PDIF BNC, AES/EBU XLR, I2S; word clock BNC. DAC input jacks: S/PDIF (RCA and BNC), AES/EBU (XLR), I2S. DAC input frequency: 44.1kHz. Total harmonic distortion: not specified.
Dimensions: Transport: 15.6" (400mm) W by 5.4" (140mm) H by 15.6" (400mm) D. Power supply…