Description: Belt-driven turntable with integral record clamp, filament-bearing, viscous-damped tonearm, and standalone AC synchronous motor assembly. Adjustments: speed selection (331/3 or 45rpm), alignment, tracking force, VTA, azimuth, damping, and antiskating.
Dimensions: Turntable/tonearm: 19" W (430mm) by 7" H (130mm) by 15.25" (390mm) D. Motor assembly: 5" (130mm) diameter by 4.5" (115mm) H, fits into cutout in turntable base. Net weight: 57 lbs turntable, 7 lbs motor assembly.
Serial number of unit reviewed: 0446.
Price: $5495 (1999); no longer…
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Sidebar 1: Specifications
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog front-ends: VPI TNT IV turntable with JMW Memorial 12" tonearm; Immedia RPM-2 turntable and tonearm; Grado The Reference, Micro-Benz LO4, Clearaudio Gamma Gold cartridges.
Digital front-ends: Ultech UCD-100, CAL CL-15 CD players; Denon DVD-3000 DVD player.
Preamplification: Sonic Frontiers Phono 1 phono stage and Line 3 preamplifier, VAC CPA1 Mk.II preamplifier.
Power amplifiers: Sonic Frontiers Power 3, Mark Levinson No.20.6, and VTL Ichiban monoblocks, VAC Renaissance 70/70.
Loudspeakers: Thiel CS7.2, Genesis 200, Magnepan 1.6 Q/R,…
Just after I agreed to review the Accuphase M-2000 monoblocks, importer Arturo Manzano began urging me to take the Accuphase PS-1200 Clean Power Supply as well.
"Arturo, who's gonna pay $27k for a pair of monoblocks, then another $8200 for a power conditioner?"
He looked at me as if I was making a bad joke. I often do.
"That's a trick question, right, J-10? Uh...all of them?"
That gave me something to think about. If occasionally you wonder just who in the world is buying this ultra-ultra stuff, consider that there must be enough of them to keep these…
So—getting beyond the lighter, slightly less punchy bass that my spoiled self has become accustomed to, I nevertheless found much to enjoy in "Use Me" 's superb acoustic bass intro. It was rich, deep, satisfying, and involving, the full harmonics not sounding so vibrant as to muddy the waters. In general, with a wide variety of material, the basso profundo always sounded under control, finely turned and intricate, never bloated or excessive: not bombastic, but subtle.
The profile of the typical M-2000 owner will likely include an appreciation of nuance, elegance, and style—most…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Solid-state monoblock power amplifier with analog output level meter featuring logarithmic scale (–60dB to 3dB and directly in watts). Continuous average output power, 20Hz–20kHz: 250W into 8 ohms (24dBW), 500W into 4 ohms (24dBW), 1000W into 2 ohms (24dBW). THD: 0.05% with 2 ohm load, 0.03% with 4–16 ohm load. Intermodulation distortion: 0.003%. Frequency response: at rated continuous average output, 20Hz–20kHz, +0/–0.2dB; at 1W output, 0.5Hz–160kHz, +0/–30dB. Voltage gain: 28.0dB. Damping factor: 400. Input impedance, balanced: 40k ohms unbalanced…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog source: La Luce turntable with SpJ tonearm; Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum, Forsell Air Force One, van den Hul Grasshopper IV Gold, Clearaudio Insider phono cartridges.
Digital sources: dCS 972 D/D converter, dCS Elgar DAC at 24-bit/192kHz; Burmester 969, Forsell Air Reference CD transports.
Preamplification: Mark Levinson No.32, BAT VK50SE, Burmester 808 Mk.V.
Power amplifiers: Linn Klimax Solo 500, Forsell Statement, McIntosh M2000.
Loudspeakers: JMlab Utopia.
Cables: Interconnects: Cardas Golden Reference. Speaker cables:…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
A full set of measurements was taken in the Accuphase M-2000's balanced mode, with selected measurements repeated in the unbalanced configuration. Unless otherwise noted, the measurements presented here are of balanced operation.
Following the M-2000's 1/3-power, one-hour preconditioning test, its heatsinks were merely warm. The input impedance measured 49.4k ohms (24.4k ohms unbalanced). The output impedance was a extremely low 0.035 ohm at 1kHz, increasing to a measured maximum of 0.038 ohm at 20Hz into an 8 ohm load, and 0.063 ohm at 20kHz into 4 ohms.…
July came in this year like September: cool, crisp night air and bright, clear days. The humidity and temperature remained low throughout the week I spent setting up the Denon AVR-4800 surround A/V receiver. So, crouched down behind its crowded rear panel, wiring up eight loudspeakers and multiple inputs, I wasn't sweating from the temperature. Launching the new multichannel Denon AVR-4800's surround audio-visual system required hard work, trial and error, and an emergency trip to the UPS terminal in the Bronx. While there were great musical pleasures ahead, the path to music-surround…
I learned how important this control was one day when I had inadvertently switched it to PCM. I couldn't get any sound from my DTS 5.1 music or video DVDs, no matter what other switches I tried. After two hours of fiddling, I finally read the manual. Only then did I learn to toggle the deceptively simple Input button on the remote. Voil;ga—the bright red DTS flag appeared on the AVR-4800's display panel, and music played.
If the AVR-4800 is correctly set on Auto, then it independently sends the signals to its THX Surround EX processors when The Haunting DVD is put in the player. The THX…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way, reflex-loaded, floorstanding loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" (25mm) soft-dome tweeter, 5" (130mm) plastic-cone midrange unit, two 8" (200mm) plastic-cone woofers. Crossover frequencies: 200Hz, 2.25kHz. Frequency response: 30Hz–20kHz ±2dB, –3dB at 27Hz and 22kHz. Sensitivity: 89dB/W/m (2.83V). Nominal impedance: 4 ohms (3 ohms minimum). Amplifier requirements: 50–300W.
Dimensions: 42" (1065mm) H by 15.75" (400mm) W by 23.4" (593mm) D. Weight: 145 lbs (65.8kg) each.
Serial numbers of review samples: 8000034/35.
Price: $3500/pair (1996…