The profile of the typical M-2000 owner will likely include an appreciation of nuance, elegance, and style—most…
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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.
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…
Sidebar 2: A Matter of Taste
My relatively small room in Santa Fe measures around 19' by 16.5', with a 9' 3" ceiling broken up by 9" vigas—raw pine logs. The room is carpeted, and there are patches of Sonex foam on the ceiling to damp primary reflections of the sound. The other wall has RPG Abffusors behind the listening seat to absorb and diffuse what would otherwise be early rear-wall reflections of the sound that might blur the stereo imaging precision. Tube Traps are used in the room corners to even out the room's bass resonances, the result being a relatively uniform reverberation…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
The SS-M9 will go quite loud with only a few amplifier watts; its B-weighted sensitivity weighed in at a calculated 89dB/2.83V/m, the same as specified. However, its impedance (fig.1) remains between 4 ohms and 6 ohms through almost all the bass and midrange, and drops to 3 ohms and below above the audioband, meaning that the matching amplifier should not be fazed by low impedances. The small rise in the magnitude trace just below 200Hz is due to the crossover between the dual woofers and the midrange unit; the slight saddle at 24Hz is a clue to the tuning of the…
Obviously, no one wants to listen to exaggerated bass, italicized highs, or colored mids. But if you (as I have in the past few months) plug in several high-quality integrated amplifiers, each designed to a different price point, into the same basic signal chain, you'll experience a wide disparity of sound signatures.
But isn't sonic neutrality supposed to represent the ultimate measure of the designer's art? Though high-end designers may, by and large, have abandoned tone controls, the manner in which each of us perceives tonal quality cuts to the heart of the issue of individual…