Sidebar 3: Measurements
With its two drive-units in parallel, the SW-57's impedance (fig.1) drops to 3.75 ohms in the upper bass. However, this shouldn't present the amplifier with any problems, since the phase angle is benign in this frequency region. The 16 ohm peak at 32Hz indicates the drive-units' resonant frequency, below which their output will roll off. The wrinkle in both magnitude and phase traces at 320Hz indicates some sort of resonant problem at this frequency.
Fig.1 Gradient SW-57, electrical impedance (solid) and phase (dashed) (2 ohms/vertical div.).…
If you've followed their story here and elsewhere, you probably know that Tokyo's Shindo Laboratory (footnote 1) has a reputation for defying the two most monolithic of all high-end audio commandments.
First, designer and builder Ken Shindo isn't willing to tailor his amps, preamps, loudspeakers, and other playback gear to produce only those sounds that might be heard from a single, mythically perfect concert-hall seat, or to highlight spatial effects for the entertainment of those who know much about sound but little or nothing about music. (Some day, listeners who respond to…
At the other end of the chassis, short pieces of Shindo's own silver interconnect take the signal from a 250k ohm Cosmos volume pot to the signal grid of a Telefunken EF800: an industrial-grade pentode tube that's operated here as a triode, with its secondary and tertiary grids bridged to the plate. The Vosne-Romanee uses just one EF800 per channel, both tubes mounted in spring-loaded sockets to help resist vibrations.
The output of that Telefunken tube is capacitively coupled—through a Sprague Vitamin Q cap—to a Siemens C3m pentode. The C3m is a metal-can tube designed for the German…
Have you outgrown your doctor?
Speaking of noise, when I first installed the Shindo Vosne-Romanee preamplifier in my system—alongside my Thorens TD-124 turntable, EMT 997 tonearm, various EMT and Ortofon pickup heads, Shindo Corton-Charlemagne amplifiers, and Audio Note AN-E/Spe H/E loudspeakers—the most remarkable thing I heard was: nothing. I nonetheless left the volume control turned up about a quarter of the way, and went ahead and put a record on the Thorens. When I lowered the needle to the groove, the sound it made startled the hell out of me. I put the tonearm back in its…
It doesn't take a moroon to appreciate the audacity of naming a company after Albert Einstein, the iconic science and math whiz. Clearly, company founder and owner Volker Bohlmeier knew what he was doing—this German brand of boutique electronics has enjoyed worldwide critical and marketplace success since its founding more than 20 years ago.
In fact, Bohlmeier has done far better than Albert Einstein's father. In the late 19th century, when Hermann Einstein opened an electronics company in Munich, he bet on direct current. Fourteen years later, by which time alternating current…
However, The Tube Mk.II's unique circuitry makes hearing the effects of different input tubes incredibly easy. Change the stock pair of tubes associated with a given input to some pricey new-old stock (NOS)—for example, the gold-pinned Telefunkens I tried (supplied by Einstein importer Brian Ackerman)—and, by switching a particular component between two inputs, you can easily hear the differences, although another idiosyncrasy of The Tube's circuitry makes instantaneous A/B comparisons impossible. All five inputs are always "live" and in-circuit. Rather than routing the input to a common…
A spectacular new three-disc reissue of Elvis Presley's 24 Karat Hits! (45rpm LPs, RCA Victor Living Stereo/Analogue Productions AAPP 2040) was made for the Telefunken tubes. Although Elvis, backup singers the Jordanaires, and guitarist Scotty Moore, et al, sounded eerily in the building through the NOS tubes, and the black backdrops were dead quiet, I thought the intensification of instrumental textures and physical touch were more the pleasing artifacts of even-order harmonic distortion than a greater level of transparency. While switching back to the input with the stock tubes reduced…
The sound of the Einstein's top end through the stock tubes was slightly forward, though it still lacked the darTZeel's air and resolution; if your system is already bright, don't expect The Tube to complement it. It might even make the sound worse, though in that case, replacing some tubes might be the solution.
Against the MF Primo
The Tube Mk.II reminded me most of the Musical Fidelity Primo. It costs $6400 more, not including The Remote, but for that money you get another level of sonic refinement: a step up in transparency, and a more appropriately compact, solid, and densely…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Tubed, two-channel line preamplifier. Tube complement: (18) E88CC/6922, (1) ECC82/12AU7. Frequency range: 2Hz–300kHz. Maximum output: N/A. Output impedance: 50 ohms. Input impedance: not given. Distortion: <0.05% at 1kHz, 1.5V output; <0.1% at 1kHz, 1.5V output, 100 ohm load. Signal/noise: >95dB (no reference level quoted). Input sensitivity for full output: not given. Overload margin: 7V. Channel separation: not given.
Dimensions: 16.8" (431mm) W by 6.2" (158mm) H by 15.3" (393mm) D. Weight: 33 lbs (15kg).
Finish: Black and chrome.…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn, Cobra, and Castellon turntable, tonearm, and stand; Audiostone Pythagoras turntable; Graham Engineering Phantom II, HiFiction Thales AV tonearms; Ortofon A90, Lyra Titan i, Miyajima Premium BE (mono) cartridges.
Digital Sources: Playback Designs MPS-5 SACD/CD player-DAC, Camelot Roundtable Anagram Technologies DAC, BPT-modified Alesis Masterlink hard-disk recorder, Benchmark ADC1 A/D converter, Meridian Sooloos music server.
Preamplification: Einstein The Turntable's Choice, Boulder 2008, Esoteric E-03…
