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Recording of August 2007: Beethoven Piano Concertos 1 & 4

BEETHOVEN Piano Concertos 1 & 4
Lang Lang, piano; Christoph Eschenbach, Orchestre de Paris
Deutsche Grammophon B0008725-02 (CD). 2007. Arend Prohmann, prod.; Jrgen Bulgrin, eng. DDD. TT: 74:30
Performance ****
Sonics ****

The pianist Lang Lang, now 25 years old, spent his fifth through sixteenth years winning competitions and giving remarkable recitals (the complete Chopin Études, for example) in Germany, Japan, and his native China. At 17, he dazzled the classical-music world by substituting at the last minute for Andr Watts at the Ravinia Festival's wildly…

What it is we do when we do this thing we do

Back on April 13, Stereophile assistant editor Stephen Mejias posted the following thought on his "Elements of Our Enthusiasm" blog: "Is it possible to listen to music and listen to the hi-fi? Or are they two entirely different activities, incomparable and incompatible? Right now, for me, they seem to have nothing in common, whatsoever."

Oh Stephen, Stephen, Stephen, I thought. What a simple question. How easy it is to answer.

Until you actually attempt to do so.

Is audiophilia about the gear or the music? All audiophiles think they know the answer—just as all non-…

Sonus Faber Guarneri memento loudspeaker

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.

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…

Sonus Faber Guarneri memento loudspeaker Page 2

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…

Sonus Faber Guarneri memento loudspeaker Specifications

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.…

Sonus Faber Guarneri memento loudspeaker Associated Equipment

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:…

Sonus Faber Guarneri memento loudspeaker Measurements

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…

Chord Choral Blu CD transport & Choral DAC64 digital audio converter

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,…

Chord Choral Blu CD transport & Choral DAC64 digital audio converter Page 2

"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…

Chord Choral Blu CD transport & Choral DAC64 digital audio converter Page 3

. . . 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…