To all those who ordered our Concert double-CD set and had to wait a long time to receive it: we're sorry about the delay. This project was described in the November 1994 issue of Stereophile; at the time of writing, I didn't imagine that we would have problems after the digital masters had been edited and sent off to the CD-pressing plant. Little did I know!
When I transferred the original analog tapes to digital, I used the Manley 20-bit ADC to feed our Sonic Solutions…
Here's another one: A Venetian scientist named Gianni Dotto…
In fact, in a roundabout way, I began listening two years ago, when David Blair brought a prototype Collimator to my house. He didn't tell me what it was: The thing looked like a 2'-square ceiling tile. David and I listened to some music together, then he shooed me out of the room while he brought in and fussed with the ceiling tile. Then he had me come back in and listen again. For all I know, the tweak and its position and alignment were completely irrelevant…
Because "gain" seemed to be the tricky part, and most CD players could drive an amplifier directly, some designers simplified even further…
The PLC's presence…
Description: Autotransformer-based passive line stage. Inputs: 4 unbalanced line (RCA). Outputs: 2 variable-level unbalanced (RCA), 1 fixed-level unbalanced (RCA). Balanced version adds 2 balanced inputs (XLR), replaces outputs with 3 balanced (XLR), 1 unbalanced (RCA), all variable-level. Attenuation levels: 24, 2dB each; half-step switch provides 1dB offset. Voltage gain: configurable, unity to 10dB (4dB standard).
Dimensions: 17" (435mm) W by 4" (100mm) H by 13" (330mm) D. Weight: 16–21 lbs (4.4–9.5kg), depending on configuration; add 2 lbs (1kg) for…
Analog Source: VPI HR-X turntable & tonearm, Lyra Titan cartridge.
Digital Sources: Simaudio Andromeda, Burmester 011, Cary CD303/300 CD players.
Preamplification: VTL TL-7.5, Placette Remote Volume Control line stages; Burmester 011 preamplifier; Ensemble Fonobrio, Sutherland PhD phono preamplifiers.
Power Amplifiers: VTL S-400, Simaudio Moon Rock; VTL Ichiban, Mark Levinson No.20.6 monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Thiel CS6.
Cables: Interconnects & speaker cables: Nirvana S-X Ltd., Synergistic Research Designers' Reference. Audience Au24…
When I removed the top of the Sonic Euphoria PLC so that its innards could be photographed, I couldn't help whistling. The considerable amount of hand-soldered, point-to-point wiring mandated my respect for the skill of the person who'd assembled it. Then it was back to business as I wrangled the preamp onto my test bench for measurement.
As BD explains in his review, because the PLC is based on transformer circuitry, it can actually have gain, unlike a conventional passive preamp. I measured a maximum of 3.83dB gain into 100k ohms with both balanced and…
The first time I heard the word autoformer was more than 30 years ago, when a friend bought a brand-new McIntosh 6100 amplifier, the output section of which had them in abundance. I learned then that an autoformer was a sort of a vestigial output transformer that McIntosh still used when they began making transistor amplifiers, in much the same sense that a coccyx is a vestigial tail that God still uses when he makes us—the attitude being, I suppose, It can't hurt.
Today my understanding has deepened enough to…
Mozart wrote the last three of his five violin concertos in September, October, and December of 1775, respectively; he was just short of his 20th birthday. In inspiration and accomplishment, these three are miles ahead of the first two (the earlier of which may have been composed in 1773; the second was composed in…