By transparency I mean the ability of a component to let me "see" into the music, so that it is obscured as little as possible by the technology involved in reproducing it. Not having JA's experience in engineering recordings, I can't say to what extent the reproduction matches what was heard in the recording session, but I can tell when it sounds more like live music and less like a reproduction. (Strangely enough, this is the case even when…
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If I had to use just three words to name the attributes that made the Renaissance special, they would be transparency, resolution, and dynamics.
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-channel tube preamplifier. Tube complment: six 6922s and four 12AX7s. Maximum gain at 1kHz: 25.8dB (High, line), 15.2dB (Low, line), 47dB (MM phono), 58dB (MC phono). Gain tracking: 0.05dB (line, phono). Frequency responses: 0.1Hz–800kHz, +0/–3dB (line); 20Hz–20kHz, ±0.1dB (RIAA phono, MC & MM). Harmonic distortion at 1V: <0.0005% (line), <0.001% (phono). Slew rates: 15V/µs (line), 10V/µs (phono). Maximum output at 1kHz: 50V RMS (line, phono). Input overload (at 1kHz): 100V RMS (line), 250mV RMS (MM phono), 70mV RMS (MC phono). S.N…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Ayre Acoustics CX-7e & CX-7eMP CD players.
Analog Source: Linn Sondek LP12 turntable with Lingo power supply, Ittok tonearm, AudioQuest AQ7000nsx cartridge.
Preamplifier: Convergent Audio Technology SL1 Ultimate.
Power Amplifier: Audiopax Model 88 Mk.II monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Avantgarde Acoustic Uno Nano.
Cables: Interconnect: Nordost Quattro Fil. Speaker: Nordost Valhalla. AC: PS Audio xStream Power, TARA Labs Decade.
Accessories: PS Audio Power Plant Premier power conditioner; Arcici Suspense Rack, PolyCrystal…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
To examine the Convergent Audio Technology SL1 Renaissance preamplifier's measured performance, I primarily used Stereophile's loaner sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It" and www.ap.com).
Looking first at the SL1 Renaissance's phono stage, this offers 46.6dB gain in moving-magnet mode and 57.2dB gain in moving-coil mode, both figures assessed at the Tape outputs. The former is higher than the norm, the latter lower. Both phono stages preserved absolute polarity; ie, were non-inverting. The input…
It began when my oldest brother, 13 years my senior, returned from military service and told me about "hi-fi." Until then, all I'd known was our ancient tabletop radio-phonograph with its insatiable appetite for osmium styli. Back then, in the early 1950s, audio componentry was scrappy, still evolving from World War II military electronics and public-address systems. I began reading the electronics magazines and learned that, to get started, I needed a record player connected to an amplifier and a speaker. I toured the shops and stalls on old Cortlandt Street, before the building of the…
The AV888 menu system is decidedly different in navigation from those of the Denon and Integra preamp-processors but relatively easy to manage: all page titles are listed in the left panel of the Arcam's display, the current page occupies the large window, and help texts are displayed below as you scroll from option to option. Setting up each input is independent and logical, and in most ways the AV888 is far more flexible than the Integra DTC-9.8 or Cary Cinema 11 pre-pros. An exception is that there is only one choice of bass-management crossover frequency for all speakers designated as…
DELBERT McCLINTON: I'm With You
Curb D2-77252 (CD only). Justin Niebank, Carry Summers, engs.; Delbert McClinton, Barry Beckett, prods. DDD? TT: 34:11
Curb D2-77252 (CD only). Justin Niebank, Carry Summers, engs.; Delbert McClinton, Barry Beckett, prods. DDD? TT: 34:11
It's 1975, Saturday night. Disco is still a phenomenon of big-city gay bars. Punk? The Ramones, man. You're way off in the hinties of Northern New Mexico, at the Line Camp, a huge barn of a roadhouse on the edge of Pojoaque, lurch-dancing in post-hippie beer/grass style with hundreds of first-generation freaks turned carpenters and adobe makers, Hispanic Vietnam vets looking permanently spooked and moving quietly, ranchers and their…
Every once in a while, and particularly around the first of the year, news writers (of which I am one) get the urge to play oracle, laying our credibilities on the line by attempting to divine what the coming year will bring. Since I am writing this at the end of January, the chances of my miscalling my shots have already been reduced by a factor of 0.083. But there are still 11 months to go, and some possibility that a prediction or two may be wrong. Nonetheless, I shall intrepidly grab the bull by the horns, the crystal by the ball, and the opportunity of the moment to take an educated…
The face was different, but the look was familiar. It should have been. The $2395 Aria Mk.III is a close cousin to the Aria II that I'd hung around with for about two years. Same sense of style, same heart of tubes. CAL Audio apparently made it what it is today, from the ground up. They even designed its transport and transport-drive circuitry in-house (footnote 1). In a high-end world which has gone increasingly to separate digital processors, CAL has been, up till now, a conspicuous holdout. They've only recently introduced their first outboard converter, and have in the past argued in…
And voices! I make no secret of the fact that I consider vocal reproduction of paramount importance (footnore 3). A heavy percentage of my listening is done to vocal music of one sort or another. And while the Aria Mk.III was not the only player in this group to present the human voice in a convincing fashion, it managed, somehow, to reproduce it with a combination of natural warmth and tactile presence which wasn't quite matched by the others. Eileen Farrell Sings Harold Arlen (Reference Recordings RR-30CD) is not, in many ways, my favorite vocal recording. But over the Aria Mk.III it…