When, in 1994, Sonus Faber introduced the limited-edition Guarneri Homage loudspeaker (footnote 1) to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the death of master violin maker…
search
Audiophile eyes usually roll when a manufacturer describes a loudspeaker as a "genuine musical instrument." Musical instruments have specific characteristics of pitch and timbre. Ideally, a loudspeaker should be a portal to the music; the speaker itself should be neutral in pitch and timbre—in other words, the opposite of a musical instrument. That the sound produced should be "musical" is a different argument.
Experienced speaker designers working from exemplary measurements made under controlled conditions can usually allow for low-frequency "room bump," off-axis absorptive energy loss (or additive reflective gain), and other predictable conditions typically found in the imperfect listening rooms of most audio enthusiasts, in the full knowledge that the speaker's anechoic and quasi-anechoic measurements will then no longer be accurate. And while the intelligent use of computers has made the measuring of speakers far more sophisticated and accurate, measurements still don't reflect all of the…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-way, stand-mounted, reflex-loaded loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" (25mm) ring-radiator tweeter with dual toroidal waveguide, 6" (150mm) polypropylene-cone woofer. Crossover frequency: 2.5kHz. Crossover slopes: 6dB/octave. Frequency range: 39Hz–30kHz. Sensitivity: 88dB SPL (2.83V at 1m). Nominal impedance: 4 ohms. Power handling: 30–200W without clipping. Dimensions: Speaker: 15" (380mm) H by 8.25" (210mm) W by 15.25" (390mm) D. Weight: 93.75 lbs (42.6kg). Column stand: 48.5" (1230mm) H by 12" (305mm) W by 15.75" (390mm) D. Weight: not specified.…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn, Grand Prix Audio Monaco turntables; Graham Phantom, Continuum Audio Labs Cobra tonearms; Lyra Titan i, Air Tight PC-1 cartridges.
Digital Sources: Musical Fidelity kW DM25 transport-DAC, Esoteric SA-60 universal player, BPT-modified Alesis Masterlink hard-disk recorder.
Preamplification: Manley Steelhead phono preamplifier, darTZeel NHB-18NS preamplifier.
Power Amplifiers: Musical Fidelity kW monoblocks, Music Reference RM-200.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties MAXX 2.
Cables: Phono:…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
The Sonus Faber Guarneri memento's voltage sensitivity was a little below average, at an estimated 86dB(B)/2.83V/m. However, its plot of impedance magnitude and electrical phase against frequency (fig.1) indicates that it is not too demanding an amplifier load, though a minimum value of 4.35 ohms at 197Hz and a combination of 5.7 ohms and –38° phase at 124Hz suggest that tube amplifiers be used from their 4 ohm taps.
Fig.1 Sonus Faber Guarneri memento, electrical impedance (solid) and phase (dashed). (2 ohms/vertical div.)
Though difficult…
I was stumbling through the Denver Convention Center at CEDIA 2006 when I spotted John Franks, of Chord Electronics, and Jay Rein, of Chord's US importer, Bluebird Music, stranded in the basement purgatory for "niche" products. I couldn't resist asking, "What sin relegated you guys to this little hell?"
"Practicing two-channel without a license," riposted Rein, before going on to describe Chord's new 6TB Media Engine music server. "But we didn't bring it. We brought—this."
He'd been blocking my view of Chord's table. Now he moved aside and made a flourish toward the Blu,…
"We'll get to the buffer, but first I need to expand upon that 64-bit DAC environment," Franks said. "A 16-bit input multiplied by a 16-bit coefficient gives you a 32-bit output. By using a 64-bit filter and architecture we avoid having to throw away information by truncating the output—something that becomes important if a digital volume control is used.
"Now we get to that buffer. Because we use all-digital data extraction, we can employ a RAM buffer to sequentially accept all the data, re-time it, and then output it. It gives us a jitter-free local clock, without requiring us to send a…
. . . yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.
I think I need a cigarette.
Tierney Sutton's "Sometimes I'm Happy," from her On the Other Side (SACD, Telarc 63650), is far more closely miked than either of the other discs, but engineer Robert Friedrich…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Choral Blu: Digital transport with upsampling. Digital outputs: 1 coaxial BNC, 1 Dual Data 176.4kHz twin coaxial BNC, 1 optical TosLink, 2 AES/EBU XLR or 1 Dual Data AES twin XLR. Wordclock input: 1 coaxial BNC, 44.1kHz. Dithers: 16 or 24 bits. Sampling frequencies: 44.1kHz, 88.2kHz, Dual Data 176.4kHz.
Dimensions: 13.1" (335mm) W by 4.1" (105mm) H by 6.6" (170mm) D. Weight: 15.4 lbs (7kg).
Serial Number Of Unit Reviewed: 9933.
Price: $10,400.
Choral DAC64: Multi-input digital-to-analog converter with 64-bit filter. DAC chips: Chord-specified Gate…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Ayre C-5xe universal player, Nagra CDP CD player, Logitech (Slim Devices) Transporter network player.
Preamplifiers: Ayre K-1xe, Krell Evolution 202.
Power Amplifiers: Ayre MX-R and Krell Evolution 600 monoblocks, HeadRoom Max Balanced headphone amplifier.
Loudspeakers: Dynaudio Confidence C4, AKG K 701 headphones.
Cables: Interconnect: Kimber KCAG, Krell CAST, Shunyata Research Altair Helix, Aries & Antares. Speaker: Shunyata Research Lyra, HeadRoom balanced headphone cable.
Accessories: Ayre L-5xe line filter; Furutech…