I rushed up to the Venetian's…
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It is the audio writer's nightmare that the combination of the large number of exhibitors at a Consumer Electronics Show and the very limited amount of time the Show's doors are open will lead him to miss the event's biggest story. I came close to living that nightmare last January, at the 2007 CES, when I realized that I had missed an entire floor of Las Vegas's Venetian Hotel. And it was, of course, the floor where, among other high-profile high-end companies, Sumiko was debuting the Cremona Elipsa from Italian speaker manufacturer Sonus Faber.
It's fair to say that the lows didn't have the tight slam of, say, the Wilson Audio Sophia, or the ultimate weight of the Dynaudio C4's lows, though the Sonus Faber also never sounded anything less than tuneful in this frequency region —just a bit of upper-bass character, was all. But there was no coloration —pink noise on the optimal axis sounded continuous, without any frequency bands jumping forward at me, and instrumental tonal qualities sounded superbly natural. Throughout my auditioning, I continued to be impressed by the Elipsa's smooth, grain-free treble and its articulate, smooth,…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way, floorstanding, reflex-loaded loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" (25mm) ring-radiator tweeter; 6" (150mm) wood-fiber –cone midrange unit; 10.25" (260mm) aluminum/magnesium alloy-cone woofer. Crossover frequencies: 250Hz, 2.3kHz. Crossover slopes: second-order. Frequency range: 35Hz –30kHz. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms. Sensitivity: 91dB/2.83V/m. Recommended amplification: 50 –250W (without clipping).
Dimensions: 49" (1245mm) H by 21.7" (550mm) W by 17.9" (455mm) D. Weight: 107 lbs (48.5kg) each, net; 250 lbs/pair (113.5kg), shipping.
Finishes…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Ayre C-5xe, Pioneer DV-578A universal players; Mark Levinson No.30.6, Benchmark DAC 1usb, Bel Canto e.one DAC 3, Musical Fidelity X-DACV8 D/A processors; Logitech (Slim Devices) Transporter WiFi music player with Apple Mac mini running OSX for media storage.
Preamplifiers: Parasound Halo JC 2, Ayre K-5xe, Mark Levinson No.380S.
Power Amplifiers: Parasound Halo JC 1 & Mark Levinson No.33H monoblocks; Boulder 860.
Loudspeakers: Monitor Audio Gold Signature GS10.
Cables: Digital: Kimber Illuminations Orchid AES/EBU, AudioQuest…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
The Cremona Elipsa has a usefully higher voltage sensitivity than average, at an estimated 90dB(B)/2.83V/m. Though this is slightly lower than the specified 91dB, the shortfall is not important. While it will therefore require less of a voltage swing to play loud, the speaker is still a demanding load for the partnering amplifier, with an impedance magnitude that drops to 2.5 ohms throughout the upper bass (fig.1). There is also a punishing combination of 4 ohms magnitude and –50 ° electrical phase angle at 70Hz that will suck gobs of current from the amplifier…
In 1962, when tennis rackets were made of wood, newspeople were known for challenging the government, and the off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks was in its second year (the show closed in 2002), Nippon Columbia's Denki Onkyo (or Den-On) division introduced to the professional audio world a brand-new moving-coil phono cartridge. Developed in cooperation with the Japan Broadcasting Corporation, the DL-103 was one of the first attempts at making a truly wide-bandwidth stereo cartridge that nonetheless could withstand the rigors of back-cueing. The DL-103 was a nearly instant success with…
In my Naim Aro tonearm, a stock Denon DL-103 requires no fiddling whatsoever to achieve accurate van Baerwald alignment, measured with a Dennessen protractor. Significantly, the Zu DL-103 also exhibited literally perfect overhang and offset in the Naim, indicating that Zu Audio has been careful to retain all of Denon's original mounting dimensions in the design and manufacture of their cartridge body. (Used with the Dennessen and similar gauges, the very square-sided Zu makes it a breeze to judge offset angle in particular.)
For those reasons alone, most of my listening to the Zu DL-103…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Low-output, moving-coil cartridge. Frequency range: 20Hz–45kHz. Output: 0.3mV. Compliance: 5x 10–6 cm/dyne. Channel separation: >25dB at 1kHz. Channel balance: 1dB. Cantilever: two-piece aluminum tube. Stylus tip: spherical. Internal impedance: 40 ohms. Recommended active load: >100 ohms. Recommended transformer load: unspecified. Recommended downforce: 2.5gm.
Weight: 14gm.
Serial Number Of Unit Reviewed: 0001.
Price: $399. Approximate number of dealers: Sold direct only.
Manufacturer: Zu Audio, Ogden Commercial Industrial Park,…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Linn LP12 turntable with Linn Basik power supply; Naim Aro and Rega RB300 tonearms; Miyabi 47, Koetsu Black, EMT JSD 5, Denon DL-103 cartridges.
Digital Source: Sony SCD-777ES SACD/CD player.
Preamplification: Auditorium 23 Standard, K&K Audio step-up transformers; Shindo Masseto, DNM 3D preamplifiers.
Power Amplifiers: Quad II monoblocks, Shindo Cortese, DNM PA3S.
Loudspeakers: Quad ESL, DeVore Fidelity Nine, Audio Note AN-E/SPe HE.
Cables: Interconnect: Audio Note AN-Vx, Shindo Silver, DNM. Speaker: Auditorium 23, DNM (…
Simon Yorke is an artist, a machinist, an electronics wiz, and a political idealist. He's also an analog enthusiast who melds aesthetic and technical considerations into eye-catching, densely packed, compact record-playing devices that are ruggedly built and functionally elegant. His turntables' smooth, matte-gray, metallic finishes and efficient lines make them among the most visually pleasing ever made.
But while Yorke plays up the "artisan/hand-built" aspect of his products, ir should be noted that he's also supplied the National Archives with exceedingly flexible,…