We've got a smattering of provocative multichannel releases trickling out on SACD and DVD-Audio, and hordes of 5.1 home-theater systems sold, but I don't remember seeing a survey anywhere, ever, that said that the greater music-buying public would purchase more discs if someone would only add surround. Nor do I remember ever seeing information anywhere that the public at…
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Having just spent the last four days at the 2004 Audio Engineering Society conference in San Francisco, I was struck by the sunny enthusiasm shared by many industry professionals for 5.1-channel surround-sound music.
It was 20 years ago that I appeared on one of the UK's equivalents of NBC's Today show to comment on the launch of CD. I wanted to talk about digital technology, but my host was more interested in the medium's lack of surface noise, which he demonstrated by showing that a disc smeared with butter and marmalade—this was breakfast television, remember—would play without skipping. (Actually, it wouldn't play; after the jammy CD was loaded, the program cut to a pretaped segment in which the player had a pristine disc inside it.)
I flashed back to this talking-head experience when I…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Remote-controlled CD player with volume and balance controls, dual-differential 24-bit DACs, unbalanced and balanced analog outputs, AES/EBU (XLR) and S/PDIF (RCA) digital outputs, and S/PDIF (TosLink and RCA) digital inputs. Maximum output level: 2.225V unbalanced, 4.45V balanced. Frequency response: 10Hz-20kHz, +0dB/-0.3dB. Channel separation: >110dB. Dynamic range: 96dB (10Hz-30kHz). Signal/noise: 105dB (10Hz-30kHz). THD: 0.002% at 1kHz, 0dBFS (10Hz-30kHz). Intermodulation: <0.005%. Linearity error: <2dB to below -90dBFS; <2dB to below…
Sidebar 2: System
Digital sources: Mark Levinson No.31.5 CD transport & No.30.6 D/A processor; dCS 972 upsampler; Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista SACD player; Technics DVD-A10 DVD-Audio player; Classé CDP-10 CD player.
Preamplification: Mark Levinson No.380S.
Power amplifiers: Mark Levinson No.33H and Musical Fidelity kW monoblocks (the latter using dual power supplies)
Loudspeakers: PSB Platinum T8 and Revel Ultima Studio.
Cables: Datalinks: Kimber Illuminations Orchid AES/EBU, AudioQuest SVD-4 S/PDIF. Interconnect: Madrigal CZ Gel-1 (No.390S and Classé, balanced), Ayre…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured sample 1671 of the No.390S, and repeated some of those tests with sample 1563. The Levinson's maximum output level was 2.18V from the unbalanced RCA jacks, this doubling to 4.36V from the balanced XLRs, as expected. The player preserved absolute polarity from both sets of outputs, the XLRs being wired with pin 2 hot. Error correction was among the best I have encountered, the Levinson coping with gaps in the CD data spiral of up to 1.75mm in length without audible glitches. The output impedance was very low, at 24 ohms unbalanced, 27 ohms balanced,…
When some unknown copywriter coined that immortal phrase to promote the worldwide launch of Compact Disc in late 1982, little did he or she foresee how quickly it would become a term of ridicule. Yes, early CDs and players offered low background noise, a flat spectral balance, and freedom from wow and flutter. But all too often, the music encoded in the "perfect-sounding" pits seemed to have taken a vacation, leading the renowned recording engineer John Eargle to offer, in the medium's defense, that if you were to hear just one CD that sounded good, digital technology would be proved to be…
ALBERT LEE: Heartbreak Hill
Sugar Hill SUG-CD-3977A (CD). 2003. Albert Lee, Steve Fishell, prods.; Dave Sinko, Larry Getz, engs. AAD? TT: 43:51
Performance ****½
Sonics ****
Sugar Hill SUG-CD-3977A (CD). 2003. Albert Lee, Steve Fishell, prods.; Dave Sinko, Larry Getz, engs. AAD? TT: 43:51
Performance ****½
Sonics ****
Back in the mid-1970s, when someone at Warner Bros. Records told Emmylou Harris to get herself a "hot band," she went out and, using her talent—prodigious even then—as bait, cajoled and, oh yeah, paid the best players she could find to join her ascent. The result was one of the most storied backup bands in country-rock history.
Nobody's fool, this girl—she went straight for Elvis' band. Let's face…
BEETHOVEN: Complete Violin Sonatas
Augustin Dumay, violin; Maria João Pires, piano
Deutsche Grammophon 471 495-2 (CD). 2002. Helmut Burk, prod.; Wolf-Dieter Karwatky, eng. DDD. TT: 3:54:01
Performance *****
Sonics ****
Augustin Dumay, violin; Maria João Pires, piano
Deutsche Grammophon 471 495-2 (CD). 2002. Helmut Burk, prod.; Wolf-Dieter Karwatky, eng. DDD. TT: 3:54:01
Performance *****
Sonics ****
For the past half century, Deutsche Grammophon has released roughly one cycle of Beethoven's violin sonatas per decade, from Wolfgang Schneiderhan's mono edition and Yehudi Menuhin's stereo remakes (both with pianist Wilhelm Kempff) to the partnership of Gidon Kremer and Martha Argerich to, most recently, Anne-Sophie Mutter's cycle with Lambert Orkis, on CD…
A.C. Wente of Bell Telephone Labs was apparently the first person to get the bright idea (in the 1930s) of measuring sound transmission in a small room. A loudspeaker at one point reproducing pure tones of constant power, and a microphone at another point measuring sound-pressure levels, gave him the means to assess the room's impact on sound quality. The measured frequency response was so ragged that I'm positive the venturesome Dr. Wente was duly shocked.
The perceptual effects of early reflections and standing waves in small rooms are still being actively investigated. For example,…
A unique feature of the Finnish Revolution is its ability to rotate the bass enclosure relative to the top enclosure. Since the cabinet's cross-section is triangular, it's possible to aim the bass enclosure at the listening seat, or toward either of the side walls—the last of which is particularly useful if you want to place the speaker against a wall. The owner's manual sufficiently describes all possible deployments. The bottom line? Greatly enhanced flexibility in the ability to control standing waves in real-world listening rooms.
Preliminaries
The stated sensitivity of the…