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Fig.4 shows the B&W's overall response, averaged across a 30-degree lateral window on the tweeter axis, spliced to the complex sum (amplitude and phase) of the nearfield woofer and port outputs. The shape of the curve is astonishingly similar to that of the $8000/pair B&W Silver Signature I reviewed back in June 1994: a flat midrange and treble, with a slight boost in the upper bass. Although this will be mainly due to the nearfield measurement technique, it will satisfyingly add to the illusion of the speaker being larger than it really is. The useful bass output extends down to…
Despite the setback of the tweeter, the Nautilus 805 is not time-aligned, as can be seen from its step response on the HF axis (fig.7). The tweeter output leads that of the woofer by an inconsequential fraction of a millisecond. Finally, apart from the resonant ridge associated with the tweeter's "oil-can" resonance just below 26kHz, the 805's waterfall plot (fig.8) is superbly clean, implying freedom from grain (as long as it is not driven too hard).
Fig.7 B&W Nautilus 805, step response on tweeter axis at 50" (5ms time window, 30kHz bandwidth).
Fig.8 B…
"Cool bag! Can I see it?"
"No problem. Here ya go."
Thud. "What have you got in this thing?"
I'm so glad you asked: HeadRoom Supreme amplifier, Optimus CD-3400, Etymotic 4S in-the-ear headphones, CaseLogic 12-CD Wallet (filled with cool tunes, natch), four D-cell power supplies for both the CD-3400 and the Supreme, and four extra D cells—my bare minimum for travel, about 10 lbs' worth. And the bag that holds it all, HeadRoom's Traveler Bag, is pretty cool. At $129, it ain't cheap—but it's designed to cosset your portable CD player between layers of foam and to hold…
I still haven't mentioned the pen pockets or the cool slide pockets on the battery holder pockets (as in "just slide even more stuff in them"), or the comfortable 2" shoulder strap with a rubber shoulder piece. Everything, as they say, has a place, and there are a couple of places that I couldn't even find an everything to put into.
Flummoxing the editor
When I told JA that I intended to review this bag, he hastily admonished me not to consider it the equal to, say, a Class A amplifier in terms of the attention I lavished on it. I see his point: it's a bag, dammit—you put stuff in…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: Accessory bag designed to hold a portable, headphone-based sound system and associated components.
Dimensions: 10" W by 5" D by 10.5" H.
Price: $129.
Four D-cell Battery Holder
Dimensions: 3" W by 5.75" D by 1.5" H.
Price: $24.95, HeadRoom Supreme; $29.95, Optimus CD-3400.
Common to both: Approximate number of dealers: factory-direct only.
Manufacturer: HeadRoom Corp., 521 Peach St., Bozeman, MT 59715. Tel: (800) 828-8184, (406) 587-9466. Fax: (406) 587-9484. Web: www.headphone.com.
Maybe Dan D'Agostino was destined to develop and build a line of products distinguished by their sheer might. After all, he grew up just blocks from a natural phenomenon synonymous with power: Niagara Falls. Even today, when the 56-year-old D'Agostino returns to his boyhood home to visit his parents, he enjoys pulling on a pair of shorts and going for a long run in the adjacent park, which resounds with the Falls' unrelenting thunder.
D'Agostino's father, Frank, a machinist by training, owned and operated an appliance store, where Dan worked as a boy, repairing the electric timers in…
Lander: You've also become known for current-mode designs.
D'Agostino: All of our products for the last 10 years have been really serious current-mode designs. Other companies have it, but we specialize in it. It allows us to get wider bandwidth through the signal path, even though the circuits themselves are a little more complicated and require more parts. Current mode is a domain of current gain as opposed to voltage gain. Obviously, you have to go to voltage gain at some point, but we have as much current gain as we possibly can before we get into voltage-gain stages, which reduces…
Sidebar 3: Robert Deutsch wrote again about the VK-60 amplifier in April 2000 (Vol.23 No.4):
Time sure flies when you're having fun. Seems like yesterday, but it was actually more than four years ago (December 1995, to be precise) that I reviewed a preamplifier and power amplifier—the VK-5 and VK-60, respectively—from a promising new manufacturer, Balanced Audio Technology. But the design and manufacture of high-end audio equipment is not a guaranteed path to fame and fortune, and, looking at the table of contents of the December 1995 Stereophile, I note that four of the companies whose…
Sidebar 4: 2000 Associated Equipment
Analog source: Linn LP12 turntable (fully updated), Ittok tonearm, AudioQuest AQ-7000nsx cartridge.
Digital source: PS Audio Lambda II transport, Muse Two Ninety-Six digital processor.
Preamplifier: Convergent Audio Technology SL-1 Ultimate.
Loudspeakers: Dunlavy SC-IV/A.
Cables: Digital link: Illuminati Orchid. Interconnects: Nordost Quattro Fil, TARA Labs The Two. Speaker cables: Nordost S.P.M. Reference, TARA Labs The Two. AC cords: TARA Labs Decade.
Accessories: Argent RoomLenses (5), PS Audio P300 AC synthesizer (used with…
Sidebar 5: The BAT VK-75 and VK-75SE power amplifiers, July 2001 (Vol.24 No.7)
The original VK-60 was already an excellent power amplifier when it was introduced in 1995, and BAT has continued to improve it in a variety of ways technical and sonic (see my Follow-Up in the April 2000 issue). The VK-75 continues on this evolutionary path, with a re-engineering of the power supply, power-supply transformer, and circuit design. It's still a fully balanced, all-triode, bridged single-ended amplifier, now with power increased from 60Wpc to 75Wpc. And the price is up, from $4950 (unchanged…