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The Melos's measurements presented here were taken from the front-panel headphone jack unless otherwise stated—since the SHA-Gold was reviewed primarily as a headphone amp. Selected measurements, however, were also made from the back-panel preamp outputs.

The Melos was non-inverting, both from its headphone jack and its main outputs. (Using its balanced output, pin 2 was wired to be positive, pin 3 negative.) Its input impedance was 82k ohms. Its output impedance was 0.53 ohms at the headphone jack, 21 ohms from output 2.

The S/N ratio measured…

I've recently constructed a system, based on my Dell Windows PC, for recording…

Description: Dynamic open-air headphones. Frequency range: 20Hz–20kHz. Sensitivity: 98dB SPL for 1mV input. Nominal impedance: 32 ohms.
Serial number of unit reviewed: None.
Price: $150/pair. Approximate number of dealers: 500.
Manufacturer: Grado Laboratories, 4612 Seventh Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11220. Tel: (718) 435-5340. Fax: (718) 633-6941. Web: www.GradoLabs.com.

Description: Low-output, moving-coil phono cartidge. Output voltage: 100µV (1kHz, 5 cm/s). Channel separation: 25dB at 1kHz, 15dB at 15kHz. Channel balance: within 1dB at 1kHz. Frequency range: 5Hz–90kHz. Frequency response: 5Hz–50kHz, +4, -1dB. Tracking ability: Better than 80µm at 315Hz. Lateral and vertical dynamic compliance: 18. Recommended tracking force: 2.2gm. Force range: 2–2.5gm. Tip radii: 5x100µm. Equivalent tip mass: 0.25mg. Cartridge weight: 9.5gm.
Price: $1500 (1988), no longer available (2006). T-3000 step-up transformer: $1250 (1988), no…

Equipment used for my tests included a SOTA Sapphire turntable fitted with the SME Series V tonearm and the Well-Tempered Arm (the Versa Dynamics is temporarily down; see "Follow-up" in this issue), a Stax Quattro CD player, a Revox A-77 15ips open-reel tape deck, the Threshold FET-10 line preamplifier, Threshold SA-1 power amplifiers, and Sound Lab A-3 full-range electrostatic speakers. Audio interconnects were Monster 1000s, speaker cables were Straight Wire Ribbons. The listening room is extensively damped with ASC Tube Traps. Program material was some of my…

Audio Technica isn't the only large cartridge maker in the business of showing the audiophile elite how it should be done. Ortofon has done something similar with its MC-3000. This $1000 cartridge, JGH's reference since its introduction last year, comes dangerously close to breaking my own self-imposed rule for this piece—equipment should be relatively affordable. In fact, I'll go further and suggest that Ortofon's costs being what they must be, I think it is pitched over the odds in the UK, though I'll never be…

This latest top-of-the-line cartridge from Ortofon received a generally enthusiastic review in Vol.11 No.1, but was criticized because of its reduced compliance (relative to its MC-2000 predecessor), which led to a thickening of the midbass and occasional LF mistracking when used in a low-mass arm like the Well-Tempered, and also because of questions about its absolute accuracy.

Then I tried the MC-3000 in the incredible Versa Dynamics arm/turntable, and did an about-face. Like all straight-line trackers, the…

Whether small or large, however, all the Dunlavy SC series conform to designer John Dunlavy's basic specification: a vertically symmetrical array of drive-units above and below a central…