When Classé released its SSP-800 surround-sound processor, I was offered a review sample but decided to wait for the promised expansion of the DSP engine to permit decoding of the high-definition audio codecs from Dolby and DTS. Little did I suspect that that would take so long, or that the SSP-800 would then prove so popular that review samples would be scarce. So when Classé's Dave Nauber offered to send me a CT-SSP ($9000), I happily accepted. I'd waited a long time for this one. Under its skin, the CT-SSP is a sister to the SSP-800. That…
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Sidebar 1: Contacts
Cambridge Audio, Audio Partnership Plc, Gallery Court, Hankey Place, London SE1 4BB, England, UK. Web: www.cambridgeaudio.com. US distributor: Audio Plus Services, 156 Lawrence Paquette Industrial Drive, Champlain, NY 12919. Tel: (800) 663-9352. Fax: (866) 656-0686. Web: www.audioplusservices.com.
Classé Audio, 5070 FranÁois Cusson, Lachine, Quebec H8T 1B3, Canada. Tel: (514) 636-6384. Fax: (514) 636-1428. Web: www.classeaudio.com.
Sidebar 2: Cambridge & Mediatek
The Azur 650BD looks very similar to the Oppo BDP-80 universal Blu-ray player ($289). Since I have not received a BDP-80 for review, I can't make detailed comparisons of the two players' appearance or performance, but I do note that the layouts of their front panels are different.
Cambridge says the Azur 650BD "is based on the Mediatek MTK8520/MTK8575 chipset," and that they "have a long relationship with Mediatek having based our DVD89/99, DV30 and 540D V1 and V2 DVD players on various Mediatek platforms. . . . In terms of what Mediatek offer…
Sidebar 3: Recordings In The Round
STRAVINSKY: Le Sacre du Printemps, The Firebird
Valery Gergiev, St. Petersburg Mariinsky Theater Orchestra & Ballet
BelAir Classiques BAC441 (BD)
Finally—completely satisfying performances of two of Stravinsky's three great ballets on Blu-ray! Captured during performances at the Mariinsky Theater in dts HD Master Audio, the sound is powerful and detailed, and despite the orchestra being situated in the pit, there is more than ample shimmer and space. Gergiev is at his best here, standing toe-to-toe with the best available on SACD.…
A very popular myth among the audio unwashed—and one still perpetuated by the pop hi-fi writers—is that nothing is to be gained by paying more than $1000 for a stereo system (footnote 1). Members of the general public, including masses of people who enjoy live, unamplified music, have the impression that more money simply buys one wider and wider frequency range, and defend their $500 "compact" systems with the lame excuse that their ears aren't all that good, and who needs to hear what bats hear anyway? This is no doubt a soothing emollient for one's disinclination to invest more money in…
According to the conventional wisdom, companies selling consumer products fall into two categories: those whose sales are "marketing-led" and those whose sales are "product-led." Marketing-led companies tend to sell mature products into a mature market where there are no real differences between competing products—soap powder, mass-market beer, or cigarettes, for example—whereas product-led companies tend to sell new technologies, such as personal computers and high-end hi-fi components. In the audio separates market, conventional wisdom would have a hard time categorizing any individual…
The crossover circuitry is mainly carried on a printed circuit board attached to the rear of the terminal panel, with the exception of the series air-cored inductor in the woofer feed, which is wound on a circular molding integral with the panel. The low-pass filter for the woofer is second-order, a polarized electrolytic capacitor shunting the drivers, while the tweeter high-pass also appears to be basically second-order. However, a resistor in series with the shunt air-cored inductor and another in parallel with one of two series capacitors give a hybrid response, where the filter's…
The one thing the Polks did well was to achieve good levels of low bass. Bass drum had satisfactory weight. Double basses may have been too boomy in their upper registers, but their sound was sufficiently nourished lower down in frequency. Organ recordings came over well as a result, and as the transient-free sound typical of the organ is only slightly affected by midrange colorations, the music communicated more successfully than with voice, piano, or orchestral program material.
Listening to the Peter Mitchell organ recording on the Stereophile Test CD, however, which was recorded in…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-way, floor-standing loudspeaker with two passive bass radiators. Drive-units: 1" "silver-coil" soft-dome (polyamide) tweeter, two 6.5" doped-pulp—"Trilaminate Polymer"—cone woofers with butyl surrounds, two 8" passive bass radiators ("fluid-coupled subwoofers"). Crossover frequency: 3kHz. Crossover slopes: 12dB/octave (low-pass), 6dB/octave (high-pass) but see text. Frequency response: 29Hz–20kHz ±3dB. Sensitivity: 90dB/W/m. Nominal impedance: 6 ohms. Amplifier requirements: 30–250W.
Dimensions: 39" H by 10.5" W by 14.5" D. Weight: 58 lbs…
Sidebar 2: Review Context
The speakers were positioned for the best sound (with only one pair of loudspeakers in the listening room at a time). Source components consisted of a Revox A77 to play my own and others' 15ips master tapes, a Linn Sondek/Ekos/Troika setup sitting on a Sound Organisation table to play LPs, and Kinergetics KCD-40 and Meridian 206 CD players. Amplification consisted of a Mark Levinson No.26/25 preamplifier combination driving a pair of Mark Levinson No.20.5 monoblocks via 15' lengths of AudioQuest LiveWire Lapis balanced interconnect. Speaker cable was 5' lengths…