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Why, in loudspeaker reviews, is impedance measured (assuming that the magazine in question bothers to measure anything)? Generally, for one principal reason only: to establish whether the speaker presents an "easy" or a "difficult" load to its partnering amplifier. In the design context, much more information can be extracted from a graph of speaker impedance vs frequency—such as details of the bass alignment, and indications of internal or structural resonances that can be difficult to identify by acoustical measurements. But for a magazine audience, the principal interest in a loudspeaker's…
All this was clear from Eric Benjamin's aforementioned AES article, but the message seems not to have filtered through in the 13 years since (footnote 5). Loudspeaker impedance continues to be assessed by considering modulus and phase separately when, as Benjamin showed, there is a much better way to reflect the load's severity from the amplifier's viewpoint. What he did—as Douglas Self did later (footnote 6), though by the less elegant means of SPICE circuit simulation rather than mathematical analysis—was to plot peak output-stage power dissipation vs frequency with respect to a stated…
So is this the real Otala effect we are looking at here? Do some speakers present more difficult loads than their impedance measurements suggest, not because of a failure of conventional measurement but simply because the data are not interpreted properly? To be certain about this, we must do what Otala and his coworkers failed to do: put the idea to the test using representative music signals. Eric Benjamin performed this crucial reality check and concluded that the dissipation behavior depicted in figs.5–10 is relevant to music signals. Let's see if we achieve a similar result using a…
Nirvana: Nevermind
Geffen/Sub Pop DGCD-24425 (CD only). Butch Vig, Nirvana, prods. AAD. TT: 59:22
Geffen/Sub Pop DGCD-24425 (CD only). Butch Vig, Nirvana, prods. AAD. TT: 59:22
I was driving home from work the other day when I saw a group of three boys, all around 13, sauntering down Guadalupe all attitude, wearing ratty skateboard chic and holding their skinny-ass arms out away from their sides like they were too muscular to swing freely. Nothing very extraordinary as far as 13-year-old boys go. But just as they got to the corner, one of the boys took a running leap and karate-kicked the massive steel signal-light pole. I mean, he whaled that sucker. It being…
If you think I burned out cartridge-wise at the end of my and JE's It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World cartridge survey at the beginning of the year (Vol.18 Nos.1 & 2), you're wrong. If you think I ought to burn out and give it a rest, you'll be disappointed. If you think analog doesn't matter anymore, you have my semi-sincere condolences. But if you think, as I do, that analog is enjoying a resurgence of epic proportions (twilight or no), and that LP playback has reached a new zenith of musical wonder, then hang on—here I go again!
As mentioned in the Survey wrap-up, my high-rez, high-…
There's a certain synergy you're looking for when setting up a cartridge. After initial adjustment, place an LP on the spinning platter, lower the cartridge slowly into the groove, squint madly, and try to see how the diamond sets-in to the groove. A light magnifying tube can help here. You want the diamond fairly vertical and "straight in" under its VTF loading. Generally with the van den Huls, the stylus should emerge from the center of the hole in the pole piece and appear from a side view as if the stylus emerges more or less "straight" out of the generator—or a bit more deflected than…
The UK re-release of Island Records' Limited Edition Resurrection Series on 160gm virgin vinyl of Marianne Faithfull's Broken English (M1) finally brings the recording quality this favored artist of ours deserves. We own all her albums, including a desirable Quiex II of Strange Weather, but they all suffer from a blistering, grainy presence region, murky soundstage, and woolly bass. The re-release was extremely well-mastered, Marianne's voice breaking free of the recording to take shape before me. (Watch for other Island re-releases of the B-52's, Free, Cat Stevens, and Tom Waits—if they…
Sidebar 1: System chez Scull 1995
Amplifiers in play during this period were my reference Jadis JA 200s and Forsell's The Statement, which I reviewed last month (Vol.18 No.6). The Statement continued to amaze with its spectacular dynamics and huge, sweet soundstage; the 200s, for their part, never lost their wonderfully elegant musical presentation. Preamp was the CAT SL-1 Signature, clamped and Cable Jacketed on its Marigo power cord and umbilical. Tubes in the CAT were a gracefully aging set provided by Ken Stevens, including a mix of German and Yugo 12AX7s, 12AU7s, and a quartet of…
Sidebar 2: Specifications
Description: Moving-coil phono cartridge. Specifications: Output: 0.55mV at 5cm/s. Recommended load impedance: 200 ohms–47k ohms. Stylus: vdH tip-type 1S on a boron cantilever.
Serial number of unit reviewed: UF4J180.
Price: $5000 (1995); no longer available (2007). Approximate number of dealers: 35.
US distributor: Vanguard Distributing, a division of McCormack Audio Corporation, Encinitas, CA (1995); Stanalog Audio Imports, Hagaman, NY (1999); Bluebird Music Ltd., 620 Wilson Avenue, Suite 360, Toronto, Ontario M3K 1Z3, Canada (2007). Tel: (416) 638-…
"They're cuuuute!" Not a very professional reaction, but what can I say? When the Monster Cable folks pulled out their new Entech Number Crunchers during a recent visit to Santa Fe, I couldn't help myself. I was edging John Atkinson and Wes Phillips out of the way, using my long arms to reach over...gotta get one! There would be time later for the critical evaluation and cool, detached objectivity—first, I had to get one. The Entechs are the Beanie Babies of the audio world
Sure, I was interested in the Monster Cable/Entech story (see Sidebar), and impressed by the reasonable…