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Spiral Groove's new Centroid tonearm ($6000) arrived just a few days before press time, so it would be risky to say anything definitive about it. But I will take that risk: using the system described in my review of the SG2 turntable, this may be the best tonearm I've heard. Its sound is different in ways that will open people's ears, and I predict that it will affect the design of every tonearm from now on. The Centroid's design deserves and will await full coverage in its own review, but here are the basics: It's a fluid-damped unipivot design unlike any other that gives the user fine…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Pivoted tonearm
Serial Number Of Unit Reviewed: Not noted.
Price: $6000. Approximate number of dealers: 7.
Manufacturer: Spiral Groove, 1516 Fifth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710. Tel: (510) 559-2050. Fax: (510) 559-1855. Web: www.spiral-groove.com, www.immediasound.com.
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Spiral Groove SG2 turntable, VPI HR-X turntable & tonearm; Tri-Planar tonearm; Lyra Titan i, Grado Signature Reference cartridges.
Digital Source: Primare CD 31 CD player.
Preamplification: Sutherland PhD phono preamplifier; Sutherland Direct, Placette Active line stages.
Power Amplifiers: VTL MB750 Signature monoblocks, Pass Labs XA-30.5.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties Sophia II.
Cables: Stereovox, Audience Au-24, Nordost Valhalla, Nirvana SL. AC: Audience PowerChord, Synergistic Research Designer's Reference…
Readers frequently ask me how Stereophile's writers select equipment for review. More often than not, a writer comes up with a review candidate because he's heard it or heard about it, and then suggests it to editor John Atkinson for possible review. JA encourages this behavior—a writer excited about reviewing a component is more likely to produce an article that's interesting and informative. That said, occasionally a review candidate surfaces at Stereophile HQ; in such cases, JA assigns it to one of us.
Thrice in the past, JA has asked me to review loudspeakers from Canadian…
I found the high frequencies of the B6 to be fairly detailed, extended, and colorless for such an inexpensive speaker, regardless of musical genre. Thurston Moore's and Lee Ranaldo's shimmering just-intonation guitars in "The Diamond Sea," from Sonic Youth's Washing Machine (CD, Geffen DGCD-24825), were extended and bell-like without a trace of harshness. In the classical chamber vein, both David Shively's assorted percussion and Stephen Gosling's rapid-fire harpsichord passages in Orphée, from John Zorn's Mysterium (CD, Tzadik TZ8018), were reproduced with delicacy and no trace of smear. On…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-way, port-loaded, stand-mounted loudspeaker. Drive-units: ferrofluid-cooled, 1" (25mm) titanium-dome tweeter with neodymium magnet, 6.5" (165mm) clay/ceramic-filled polypropylene-cone woofer with rubber surround. Crossover Type: 4th-order Linkwitz-Riley. Crossover frequency: 1.8kHz. Frequency response: 59Hz–20kHz, ±1.5dB (on axis at 0°); 45Hz–23kHz, ±3dB (on axis at 0°); 59Hz–10kHz, ±3dB (off axis at 30°). Low-frequency cutoff: –10dB, 40Hz. Sensitivity (2.83V/W/m, IEC-filtered pink noise, C-weighted): 89dB in anechoic chamber, 90dB in typical…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: VPI TNT IV turntable, Immedia tonearm, Koetsu Urushi cartridge; Rega Planar 3 turntable, Syrinx PU-3 tonearm, Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood cartridge.
Digital Sources: Lector CDP-7T, Creek Destiny CD players.
Preamplification: Vendetta Research SCP-2D phono stage; Audio Valve Conductor & Eklipse line stages.
Power Amplifiers: Audio Research Reference 110, Creek Destiny.
Loudspeakers: Epos M5 & ELS3, Nola Mini.
Cables: Interconnect (all MIT): Magnum, MI-350 CVTwin Terminator, CVT Terminator 2. Speaker: MIT CVT Terminator 2…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I performed the quasi-anechoic measurements of the PSB Image B6 with DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone. The speaker's grille was left off for the measurements. The Image B6's specified voltage sensitivity is 89dB/2.83V/m; my estimate was slightly lower, at 88dB(B)/2.83V/m, but this is close to being within experimental error of the specified figure. The PSB is specified as having an impedance of 6 ohms with a minimum of 4 ohms; fig.1 shows that the impedance magnitude stays above 6 ohms for the upper midrange and treble regions, but does…
ProAc's Response D Two is a stand-mounted, two-way, ported loudspeaker with a a proprietary 1" silk-dome tweeter and woofer using a proprietary 6.5" cone of glass-fiber with a copper phase plug. At 17" high by 8" wide by 10.25" deep, the cabinet is taller and narrower than usual, owing to the fact that the port is centered below its mid/woofer.
The D Two is built in mirror-imaged pairs, with the tweeters offset to the inside edges. The cabinet is claimed to be made of thin-wall birch plywood with rigid damping. The speaker is available in standard real-wood veneers of black ash…
I found similar results in experimenting with sources. I borrowed an Oppo BDP-83SE universal Blu-ray player (Kalman Rubinson wrote about it in his column in the March issue). My first impression was that it was shockingly close in sound to Luxman's far more expensive DU-50. However, extensive listening, mostly to "Red Book" CDs vs "Red Book" CDs, but also to some SACDs, showed that the Luxman had greater weight in the bass and a slightly more cohesive sound. Interestingly enough, what clarified this for me was one of my rare listen-from-another-room experiences. While I was busy in the…