Digital Sources: Sony XA-9000ES SACD/CD player, Bel Canto PL-1A universal player.
Preamplifier: Bel Canto Pre6.
Power Amplifiers: Bel Canto e.One REF1000 monoblock, Bel Canto e.One S300, Simaudio Moon Evolution W-8.
Loudspeakers: B&W 802D, B&W 804S, Pioneer S-1EX, JL Audio Fathom f113 subwoofer.
Cables: Digital: Stereovox HDVX. Interconnect: Crystal Cable Cinemax multichannel, AudioQuest Cheetah/DBS balanced. Speaker: AudioQuest Mont Blanc/DBS biwire. AC: JPS Aluminata.
Accessories: APC S-15, Environmental Potentials EP-2450 power…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 3: Measurements
Before performing any measurements, I preconditioned the Classé CA-3200 by running it for 60 minutes at one-third power with all three channels driven into 8 ohms. At the end of that time, the THD+noise had dropped from 0.0024% to 0.00195%, but the top panel and the heatsinks were way too hot to touch, the curved front panel was around 50°C, and a noticeable draft of hot air rose from the top-panel vents over the center channel's internal heatsink. If this amplifier is to be used in a custom installation, it should be well ventilated.
The voltage gain into…
The latest edition of Audio's annual equipment directory lists 238 speaker manufacturers. At best I can claim to have heard one product from 10–15% of the manufacturers on this list, and the top of the current product line from a far smaller percentage.
So, like every other reviewer, I cannot claim to have surveyed all of the vast assortment of speakers in a given price category. I rely on word-of-mouth to select speakers that really merit reviewing on a high-end basis. This may not be fair, but it reduces an otherwise unmanageable list of manufacturers to about 40—even allowing for the…
Larry Archibald wrote about the Thiel CS2 in January 1989 (Vol.12 No.1):
Thiel Audio, headed up by Jim Thiel (President and chief designer) and Kathy Gornik (Marketing Director), sets itself apart from other speaker manufacturers not only by making what I feel to be almost uniformly excellent products, but also by serving as a kind of hallmark for the good dealer: Although not all good dealers sell Thiel, just about every Thiel dealer is a good one. This comes about because, in spite of just about uniformly positive reviews and excellent customer relations, Thiel (primarily in the person…
On to how I think the speakers sound. Here I must review at least two speakers. I have actually auditioned three samples of the CS2. The first arrived soon after AHC's review in 1985, but was almost immediately replaced because, as I remember, the midrange drivers had something wrong with them. Then came serial numbers 2975 & 2976, the lovely rosewood speakers I've had for over two years (the ones with the readily removable grilles). They are the pair that have most formed my impression of the CS2. Then, just last Friday, arrived serial numbers 8083 & 8084, sent when Thiel heard that…
Sidebar 1: LA's Associated Components
I listen in an unusual room, 20' by 35' with an 11' ceiling—almost 8000 cubic feet. Although heavily carpeted and furnitured, the room is not at all dead—not nearly dead enough for J. Gordon Holt, who is, for my tastes, too accustomed to his Tube Traps. Amplification for this review was provided by Mark Levinson, in the form of the Nos.26 and 20. Source material was analog LP (no digital-to-analogs, thank you) played on a Well-Tempered Turntable (the best value ever in a $1000–$2000 'table-plus-tonearm, in my opinion) with a variety of cartridges,…
Sidebar 2: Measurements
Fig.1 shows the plot of impedance with frequency for the Thiel loudspeakers. It agrees with the appropriate specified impedance in the "Specifications" sidebar, but it is noteworthy how little change there is. Obvious features can be distinguished, such as the port tuning for the CS2, but I would conjecture that Jim Thiel has used some form of conjugate load system in his crossover design to give such flat curves with frequency. (This is where elements are added to the crossover to compensate for phase and impedance changes to result in a simple resistive load.) I…
Sidebar 3: Specifications
Description: Three-way, reflex-loaded loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" soft-dome tweeter, 3" paper-cone midrange unit, 8" plastic-cone woofer. Crossover frequencies: 800Hz, 3kHz. Frequency response: 38Hz–20kHz ±2dB. Phase response: ±10°. Sensitivity: 87dB/2.83V/m. Nominal impedance: 6 ohms. Minimum amplifier power: 40–250W.
Dimensions: 39" H by 12" W by 12" D. Weight: 62 lbs each.
Serial numbers of review samples: 2975 & 2976, 8083 & 8084.
Price: $1350/pair (1985); $1650/pair (1989); no longer available (2007). Approximate number of dealers:…
As far as I can tell, Santa Fe–based speaker engineer John Bau had designed but four commercial loudspeakers before the TC-60 was launched at the 1994 Winter CES: in order of appearance, they were the Spica SC50i (1980), the TC-50 (1983), the Angelus (1987), and the SC-30 (1989). None were expensive, and all garnered much praise, both in Stereophile's pages and elsewhere.
Why, then, wasn't Spica one of the most successful speaker manufacturers in the land? Partly the blame must be laid at the feet of the speakers: the one thing none of them did was rock out at party levels. But…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-way, stand-mounted, reflex-loaded (QB3 alignment) loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" (25mm) impregnated cloth-dome tweeter; 6.5" (165mm) polypropylene-cone woofer. Measured crossover frequency: 3.4kHz. Electrical crossover slopes: first-order, 6dB/octave, high-pass to tweeter; fourth-order Bessel, 24dB/octave, low-pass to woofer. Frequency response: 48Hz–20kHz, –3dB. Sensitivity: 87dB/W/m (2.83V). Nominal impedance: 8 ohms (5.6 ohms minimum at 10kHz). Power handling: 60W continuous, 120W peak.
Dimensions: 21.25" (540mm) H by 11.5" (292mm) W by 10.5…