Analog Source: VPI TNT IV turntable, Immedia tonearm, Koetsu Urushi cartridge.
Digital Source: Lector CDP-7T, Creek Destiny CD players.
Preamplification: Vendetta Research SCP-2D phono stage, AudioValve Eclipse line stage.
Integrated amplifier: Creek Destiny.
Power Amplifier: Audio Research Reference 110.
Loudspeakers: Alón Circe.
Cables: Interconnect: MIT Magnum M3 & MI-350 CVTwin Terminator. Speaker: Acarian Systems Black Orpheus.
Accessories: Various by ASC, Bright Star, Simply Physics, Sound Anchor, VPI.—Robert J. Reina
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I examined the Audio Research VSi60's measured performance with Stereophile's loan sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It" and www.ap.com); for some tests, I also used my vintage Audio Precision System One Dual Domain. I checked the bias of each output tube after letting the amplifier warm up for an hour and before I did any testing. All the tubes had exactly 60mV of bias, as specified, and didn't need adjustment with the top-panel potentiometers, which suggests good stability.
I had one mishap…
One of my favorite parental duties is dispensing advice that's calculated to make me sound wiser than I am. Among those pearls: Every so often you should change your point of view—your philosophies—just to see if your opinions can stand the strain. In doing so, you may discover a few things that are better than you expected them to be!
I admit that, when I made up that nonsense, I had certain vegetables in mind. But late one night, when an unpleasant bout of thinking kept me awake, I realized that there are a great many older people, such as myself, whose belief systems could…
I discussed that with Peder Beckman, CEO of Electrocompaniet North America, who offered the additional loan of an Electrocompaniet EC 4.8 preamplifier. Thus I allowed myself an extra couple of weeks to absorb the sound of only the fully balanced EC 4.8 in my system, accomplished with the help of some Shindo XLR-to-RCA interconnects borrowed from Tone Imports. After that, I moved the Electrocompaniet EC 4.8 to my (Quad ESL–based) living-room system; the AW400 amplifiers spent several weeks being driven in single-ended mode, by my Shindo preamp in my main system, before resuming balanced…
But I'm getting ahead of myself: The first song I actually listened to through the AW400s was Procol Harum's "Strangers in Space," from the newly reissued (and exceptionally well done) Something Magic (CD, Salvo SALVOCD029). Unrepentant tube snob and digiphobe that I am, I listened through the opening bars of Pete Solley's analog synth sounds, bracing myself for steely highs that didn't come. But I was still unprepared when Gary Brooker's voice entered, dead-center and sounding more whole than I'd ever heard it in my room. I listened on: His breathing was apparent, but neither that nor the…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Push-pull, solid-state, monoblock amplifier. Output power: 400Wpc into 8 ohms (26dBW), 765Wpc into 4 ohms (25.2dBW), 1010Wpc into 2 ohms (24dBW). Frequency response: DC–65kHz, –3dB. Input impedance: 330k ohms. Input sensitivity: 1.6V (adjustable). Output impedance: <0.01 ohm, 20Hz–20kHz. Signal/noise: >84dB unweighted. Total harmonic distortion, 1kHz, –1dB, 8 ohms: <0.007%.
Dimensions: 14.1" (358mm) W by 10.2" (261mm) H by 18.5" (470mm) D. Weight: 55 lbs (25kg).
Serial Numbers Of Units Reviewed: 37090007, 37090011.
Price: $12,…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Thorens TD-124 Mk.II turntable; EMT 997, Thomas Schick tonearms; Shindo SPU, EMT OFD 25 & OFD 65, Miyajima Shilabe cartridges.
Digital Source: Ayre Acoustics QB-9 USB DAC (with Apple iTunes), Sony SCD-777 SACD/CD player.
Preamplification: Auditorium 23 Hommage T1 step-up transformer; Shindo Masseto, Electrocompaniet EC 4.8 preamplifiers.
Power Amplifiers: Shindo Corton-Charlemagne monoblocks, Shindo Haut-Brion, Fi 2A3 Stereo.
Loudspeakers: Audio Note AN-E/SPe HE, Wilson Audio Specialties Sophia 2, Quad ESL.
Cables: USB:…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
To perform the measurements on the Electrocompaniet AW400, I mostly used Stereophile's loan sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It" and www.ap.com); for some tests, I also used my vintage Audio Precision System One Dual Domain.
Electrocompaniet refers to the AW400 as a "Class A" amplifier, but the heat signature and the idling power consumption suggests that it uses a conventional class-AB output stage. I preconditioned the Electrocompaniet by running it at one-third power into 8 ohms for 60 minutes…
One more word for unhappy consumers, in any marketplace, who confuse praise for the new with rebuke for the old: 20 years on, I continue to admire the best qualities of my Linn Sondek LP12 turntable (itself not the first LP12 I've owned). I smile to think of all the records I enjoyed during those two decades.
But singing in church is one thing, and burning heretics is quite another: From time to time I'm troubled to wonder if an even greater degree of enjoyment could have been mine, if not for my slavish devotion to the indestructible beat of the flat-Earth doctrine, with its…
That said, I suspect that even the finest platter bearings—a category that includes the ones in both the Garrard 301 and the Thorens TD 124—are the source of at least some noise, given that none are perfectly concentric or perfectly frictionless. And because the metal bearing housings of all such turntables I've seen are directly and rigidly fastened to a metal chassis or frame, then it's a no-brainer: Noise is efficiently conducted throughout the whole of the thing. Thus, to cradle such a turntable in a large and massive but neither lossy nor mechanically lively structure is to give those…