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When I attended the Audio Engineering Society convention in October 1987 (my first time in over eight years; full report in this issue), I was impressed by the incredible technology now available to composers of music. I was also dismayed, however, by the extent to which so-called purist audio, as well as "acoustical" music, have been consigned to oblivion by the pro audio community. It was clear, both from the exhibits and the many conversations on which I eavesdropped, that audio professionals are no longer concerned about fidelity, in the sense of trying to reproduce sounds accurately. A…
This tiny, lightweight, battery-powered jewel is loosely based on Nagra's VPS phono stage that I reviewed in October 2008 but uses bipolar transistors instead of tubes. The bottom of the company's familiar brushed-aluminum case has a grippy rubber material die-cut to spell Nagra. It's intended to keep the preamp from sliding, but stiff cables will have the BPS hanging in the air if you're not careful. The BPS costs $2399.
The BPS provides a highish 51dB gain in moving-magnet mode and 62dB in moving-coil, which should suffice for all phono cartridges, other than those of the very…
Fred Kaplan wrote about the Nagra BPS in October 2009 (Vol.32 No.10):
Even after switching to Krell's integrated amplifier, I've hung on to my Audible Illusions Modulus 3a preamplifier so that I could keep using the latter's moving-coil phono section, designed by John Curl and long lauded as the model's strong suit. But Michael Fremer's review of Nagra's BPS battery-powered phono preamplifier ($2399), in the June 2009 "Analog Corner," stoked my curiosity, so I requested a review sample. Then, midway through listening to the Nagra, I overhauled my analog gear, and so was able to gauge…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: Battery-powered MM/MC phono preamplifier with balanced/unbalanced input options and transformer-coupled MC inputs. Gain: 51dB (MM), 62dB (MC). Loading options: 47k ohms in parallel with 150pF (MM); 100, 200, 300, 500, and 1000 ohms (MC).
Price: $2399. Approximate number of dealers: 16.
Manufacturer: Nagra-Kudelski Group, 22 route de Genéve, 1023 Cheseaux-sur Lausanne, Switzerland. Tel: (41) (021) 732-01-01. Web: www.nagra.com. US distributor: Nagra USA Inc., 180 N. Belvedere Drive, Unit 5A, Gallatin, TN 37066. Tel: (615) 451-4168. Fax: (615)…
For an artform in which sound is everything, popular music has been blessed with strangely little poetry: There may be no other genre where high-mindedness falls with such a thud. Leonard Cohen remains the most striking exception, not just for the genuine seriousness of his music or the adulation of his audience, but for the ability of the former to survive the latter.
Stranger still is the notion that such a musically timeless record as Cohen's debut could emerge in 1967, a year whose other great records now sound dated by comparison. Then again, Cohen was 33 years old by the time his…
The most powerful song on the album may be "Seems So Long Ago, Nancy," which returns to the subject of suicide, and to an acquaintance of Cohen's who was mentioned in certain earlier works, including the missing verse of "Suzanne." Here the artist's voice was recorded with a heavy layer of reverb, sounding as if he were half a house away from the microphone, and underpinning the song is an almost disturbingly simple, unornamented electric organ: not so much Farfisa as something one might hear at a low-budget funeral parlor.
And in the hollow of the night
When you are cold and numb…
Critics agreed: At the time of its release in 1974, New Skin for the Old Ceremony was hailed as Leonard Cohen's best to date: gratifying, I suppose, in light of the very mixed reception accorded his first four albums. (To see what America's leading counterculture mag had to say about Songs of Leonard Cohen, for example, plug "Leonard Cohen," "Rolling Stone," and "flaming shits" into the search engine of your choice.) That in itself is a bit of a shock, given Cohen's current status as a critics' favorite, but I suppose his fondness for the imagery of war in general and his own occasional…
We all recognize that the Super Audio Compact Disc, despite being an almost ideal format for high-resolution audio, has not replaced the "Red Book" CD. However, Sam Tellig's comments in the June and July issues of Stereophile, and Steve Guttenberg's "As We See It" in July, unleashed e-mails urging me to champion multichannel sound (don't I do this already?) and smite the unbelievers (not a chance).
I can't find fault with Steve's disparaging comments about multichannel pop and rock recordings. In fact, I share his disappointment at their failure for one self-serving reason: The success…
I figured that getting the biggest traps would reduce the number I needed, and sometime last year I came across Ready Acoustics' announcement of their Chameleon Super Sub Bass Traps. What appealed was their manageable size: 48" high by 24" wide by 6" thick. That last dimension makes the Chameleon among the thickest trap available in a cosmetically acceptable package. (Ready Acoustics offers them in eight fabric covers and four frame colors.) Now, I know some folks like patterns and pictures on their panels, but we prefer that these big guys call no more attention to themselves than is…
The AS-EQ1 software steps the user through the procedure, which includes choosing one or two subs, then balancing the sub-level settings with the main speakers. Remember that output RCA? Connect it to an unprocessed, un-bass-managed input, and the software will prompt you to balance sub and main with equal outputs at 75dB. That done, the AS-EQ1 will provide the familiar Audyssey test signals to each of the connected speakers. SVS recommends a minimum of eight microphone positions (with a maximum of 32 for very large rooms), and the subtleties of mike positioning are similar to those of other…