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Call me shallow, but what first attracted me to Audience's Au24 cables when I reviewed them in August 2002 was their looks. In contrast to superstiff cables as thick as garden hoses, the Au24s were slender and elegant. They were wonderfully flexible, too, and even their custom-made RCA plugs were slim and easy to handle. Instead of having to fiddle with a system of locking collet and barrel, merely slipping them on resulted in a tight, solid connection. Compared to the Au24s, a sizable number of audiophile cables seemed excessive, even a little foolish.
It took about five seconds for the Au24e setup to completely upend my neat cataloging system of attributes and sliding scales. The "e" versions were still tonally neutral, and still hit just the right balance across all my scales, but they were revealing a much finer level of detail than had the originals. The overall sound was powerful and immediate, with dynamics and transients that were huge, fast, and clean. Most noticeably, the Au24e's were as transparent as any cable I'd heard, with nothing between images but the recording venue's ambience—or, in the case of a studio recording, crystal…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Updated versions of Au24 interconnect and speaker cable. Interconnect terminations: Audience RCA (unbalanced) or Neutrik XLR (balanced). Speaker-cable terminations: copper-rhodium–plated spades.
Serial Numbers Of Units Reviewed: N/A.
Prices: New (Upgrade): Interconnect: 1m pair, unbalanced, $877 ($195); 1m pair, balanced, $1523 ($225). Speaker: 2m pair, $1375 ($300). Approximate number of dealers: 110.
Manufacturer: Audience, LLC, 120 N. Pacific Street #K9, San Marcos, CA 92069. Tel: (800) 565-4390, (760) 471-0202. Fax: (760) 471-0282. Web…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: VPI HR-X turntable & tonearm; Lyra Titan i, Grado Signature Reference cartridges.
Digital Source: Primare CD31 CD player.
Preamplification: Sutherland Engineering PhD phono preamplifier, Placette Active Line Stage.
Power Amplifier: VTL MB750 Signature.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties Sophia II.
Cables: Stereovox, Nordost Valhalla, Nirvana SL interconnects and speaker cables. AC: Audience powerChord, Synergistic Research Designer's Reference.
Accessories: Audience adeptResponse aR-12T & aR-2T power…
LAURA NYRO: Live at the Bottom Line
Cypress YL6430 (2 LPs), YD6430 (CD). Mark Linett, eng.; Laura Nyro, prod. AAA/AAD. TT: 62:00
Cypress YL6430 (2 LPs), YD6430 (CD). Mark Linett, eng.; Laura Nyro, prod. AAA/AAD. TT: 62:00
Back in the early 1970s, every one of my female friends (though none of the men) owned at least two well-worn Laura Nyro albums—Eli and the 13th Confession and New York Tendaberry. Nyro proved, to an entire generation of coeds who were just a little scared of Janis Joplin, that a white girl could have soul (even if a sense of humor sorta went missing). The ultimate New York singer/songwriter, Nyro took Brill Building pop and soul, mixed in some Phil Spector…
Although the idea of a $1000 moving-coil cartridge no longer shocks audiophiles, it is still not exactly what I'd call "Mainstream Hi-Fi." Audio magazine's 1984 Equipment Directory—the most complete such compendium published in the US—lists only 10 models in this price range, not counting the Kiseki Lapis Lazuli at a whopping three-and-a-half grand! I have not tested most of these, nor have I tried any of the current models from the Japanese Koetsu firm, which was first with the gall to put a $1000 price tag on a cartridge. But I have tested a couple of one-granders during the past few years…
This cartridge does everything right that all the other MCs have done wrong or almost-right-but-not-quite. Its spectral balance is superb, being absolutely neutral. It is neither warm nor cool nor bright nor sweet. It images with stable, pinpoint precision, and produces a soundstage of extraordinary depth: breadth, and ambience, It can track anything you throw at it, and its bass is deep, firm and very taut. As for its high end...Aha, that rising top kills it dead, right? Wrong.
That rise doesn't hit 1dB until around 15kHz. It is not audible as an excess of high end, but merely as a very…
Larry Archibald appends a comment
I've not spent nearly the time with the MC-2000 that JGH has, but I observe generally the same sonic character. I differ, however, with his final statements. I think the MC-2000 will do splendidly in most analog systems. And, although the tonal balance similarities between good CDs and the MC-2000 were not lost on me, the actual character of the sound from the two sources was, to my ears, quite different. Most noticeable with the MC-2000 was an extraordinary naturalness. a quality that made you relax and, at the same time, perk up at the lifelike…
JGH returned to the Ortofon MC-2000 in August 1985 (Vol.8 No.4):
Other than price, hum susceptibility appears to be the only real liability of this otherwise excellent $1000 MC cartridge. Its output is so extraordinarily lo1 that even the proximity of an AC cord to either of the tonearm cables can cause severe hum,
When used with an early-model Pink Triangle turntable, whose drive motor power transformer is in the phono unit itself, the cartridge picked up hum directly even when on its rest post. This should not be a problem with the later PTs—the transformer is now physically…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: Low-output moving coil. Output: 0.05mV. Frequency response; 5Hz–50kHz, + 5/–1dB. Separation: 25dB at 1kHz, 18dB at 20kHz. Recommended stylus force: L1. grams. Compliance: 20 cu. Weight: 11 grams. Recommended load: 20–100 ohms.
Price: $1000 (1985); no longer available (2010).
Manufacturer: Ortofon A/S, Stavangervej 9, DK-4900 Nakskov, Denmark. Tel: (45) 54 91 19 15. Fax: (45) 54 91 19 11. Web: www.ortofon.dk. US Distributor: Ortofon USA, Plainview, NY 11803 (1985); Ortofon Inc., 500 Executive Boulevard, Suite 102, Ossining, NY 10562. Tel: (914)…