Actually, the ULD-18's 5.7-cubic-foot enclosure would have been larger, but the technology involved has kept the size down. Its legs have rollers that allow a normal mortal to move it around without scratching the floor. There are the single pair of 5-way binding posts and a…
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Just the act of adding one more huge box to a room already crowded with two large planar speakers can precipitate a decorating crisis and serious domestic friction. Like it or not, the ULD-18's WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) may be lower than its sonics deserve. After all, the ULD-18 is as big as a small freezer!
Over the next few weeks, I trotted out all the "deep bass" warhorses I had collected over the years. I did all the usual subwoofer tricks—rattled objects in the room, flapped pants legs, heard the air shudder with 20Hz organ-pedal notes. And yes, I listened to diesel-engine track noise and cannon blasts. But I soon used this new system to listen to music, returning to my favorite pipe-organ music, long ago relegated to the upper shelves. It was a pleasure to finally enjoy these records. I started with the white vinyl, direct-to-disc Virgil Fox recordings of the Fratelli-Rufatti organ in the…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Velodyne ULD-18 subwoofer system: Down-firing, floor-standing, dynamic, sealed-box, self-powered subwoofer with separate electronic crossover and servo-controlled power amplifier system. Driver: one 18" cone, ¾" linear travel, with accelerometer and preamp. Nominal input impedance: 20k ohms. Amplifier power: 400W continuous. Input sensitivity: 300mV for maximum output. Crossover: Independently selectable high-pass (36–212Hz), low-pass (60–193Hz) frequencies and phase (0 or 180° phase) via changing soldered-in resistors on a plug-in seven-terminal "header" socket…
Sidebar 2: System
My listening area is a 5500-cubic-foot living room that opens into the upstairs and to a bigger kitchen area. This open space, comprising the entire first floor and upstairs, has the volume to challenge the performance of a large subwoofer. The floor is wooden, which means it can flex and enhance the subwoofer's action on 25–40Hz notes. The room has two large rugs, five chairs, and a sofa. Tonal balance of the room leans toward brightness.
Monster Cable interconnects were run from the tape outputs of a Mark Levinson ML-7A preamplifier to the Velodyne Remote…
Keith Jarrett/Charlie Haden: Jasmine
Keith Jarrett, piano; Charlie Haden, double bass
ECM 2165 (CD). 2010. Manfred Eicher, exec. prod.; Keith Jarrett, prod.; Martin Pearson, eng. DDD. TT: 62:54
Performance *****
Sonics *****
Keith Jarrett, piano; Charlie Haden, double bass
ECM 2165 (CD). 2010. Manfred Eicher, exec. prod.; Keith Jarrett, prod.; Martin Pearson, eng. DDD. TT: 62:54
Performance *****
Sonics *****
While critics routinely lavish endless praise on the writers of standards, it's the rare instrumentalist who can, with only his hands, his audible humming, and his fertile mind, transform an iconic song like "Body and Soul" into a work of art that can almost be labeled an "original." The great Keith Jarrett's ballad playing, perhaps the most…
Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898), the Prime Minister of Prussia who brought about the unification of Germany, was not a nice man. But he was no dummy, either. One of his most prophetic remarks was in response to a journalist's question about what Bismarck thought to be the single most decisive factor in modern history: "The fact that the North Americans speak English."
If Bismarck were alive today and a savvy audiophile, and if a journalist were to ask him what would be the most decisive factor in the future of high-performance audio from here on out, I think he would unhesitatingly answer…
A clever engineer with an interest in home audio says that the real obstacle to high-fidelity sound is the adverse and unpredictable way in which speakers interact with most domestic rooms. To address that need, he brings to market a loudspeaker that disperses sound in a new and original way. Controversy ensues. Controversy endures.
So it was with Amar Bose, of Bose Corporation, in 1965. So it is with Jorma Salmi, of Gradient Ltd., in 2010.
For all that, Amar Bose's model 901 loudspeaker and Jorma Salmi's Helsinki 1.5 ($6500/pair) are as different as night and day.…
While examining the Helsinki 1.5's drivers and their baffles, and while poking around behind its connector plate, I never found a crossover. But I assume there is one.
Installation and setup
The Helsinki 1.5's installation guide, available as a .pdf document from the Gradient website, suggests starting with the Helsinkis toed-in about 45°, and with the woofer magnets facing each other. SimpliFi Audio's own installation guide, provided to me by Tim Ryan, agrees with the 45° angle and goes further, saying each speaker should be no more than a foot away from either its respective…
I'd never before heard anything like it. Over the years, the spatial performance of my favorite speakers has been such that a very good sense of scale is implied, but that has always required either a physically large speaker or some assistance from room boundaries—either of which produces the sorts of reflections and delays that help one believe one is hearing something big. The Gradient Helsinkis approached scale in a different and remarkable way. Examples abounded, but my favorite was while listening to the Andante of Mozart's Symphony 38, K.504 ("Prague"), played by Colin Davis and the…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way floorstanding loudspeaker. Drive-units: 0.75" aluminum-dome tweeter, 5" paper-cone midrange, 12" paper-cone woofer. Sensitivity: 85dB/W/m. Impedance: 6 ohms nominal, >4 ohms minimum. Recommended amplification: 25–250W.
Dimensions: 36" (920mm) H by 14" (360mm) W by 19.75" (505mm) D (sort of). Weight: 50.6 lbs (23kg).
Finishes: Birch, Walnut (oiled), Oak (oiled), Black, White; metallic paint on driver enclosures, add $750/pair.
Serial Numbers Of Units Reviewed: 00376, 00377.
Price: $6500/pair. Approximate number of dealers: 5…