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,…
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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…
The soundstage in the early listening was veiled, almost hazy. I found it difficult to step into the original acoustic of the performance. The decay of transients was obscured, so it was tough to hear far into the soundstage. Soundstage transparency improved gradually as the Revolution continued to break-in. This speaker requires a long break-in period—on the order of 100 hours. While it never reached electrostatic-like transparency or even matched the best dynamic designs in this regard, at least with a good tube amp I did not find its level of performance here an obstacle to musical…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way dynamic loudspeaker with a dipole bass dispersion pattern and a cardioid treble and midrange pattern. Frequency response: 50Hz-20kHz ±2dB. Minimum impedance: 5 ohms. Sensitivity: 86dB/W/m. Recommended amplifier power: 50-250Wpc into 4 ohms.
Dimensions: 39" H by 18" W by 16" D. Weight: 50 lbs.
Serial numbers of units reviewed: 106/107 (1995), 108/109 (1997).
Price: $3999/pair (1995). Approximate number of dealers: 15.
Manufacturer: Gradient, Ltd., Levyspänkatu 28 FIN-04440, Järvenpää, Finland. Tel: (35) 8-0291-7875. Fax: (35) 8-…
Sidebar 2: Measurements
DO estimated the Revolution's sensitivity at 82dB/W/m (footnote 1). My B-weighted measurement was a little lower, at 81.7dB/2.83V/m. This speaker will definitely need plenty of watts to come to life—leave your low-powered single-ended tube amplifiers in their shipping cartons! The impedance curve (fig.1) will also make life hard for the accompanying amplifier, dropping to 3 ohms in the power region of the upper bass. The high range of the impedance magnitude—from 3 ohms at 60Hz to 26.5 ohms at 2.1kHz—will also make the tonal balance of the speaker very dependent…
John Atkinson wrote about the Gradient Revolution in March 1997 (Vol.20 No.3):
When listening critically to a product for review, you can spend so much time trying to detect faults that it only slowly dawns on you that not only is the product doing almost nothing wrong, it is actually performing superbly well. Such was the case when I auditioned the Gradient Revolution loudspeaker. Back in May 1995 (Vol.18 No.5), Dick Olsher raved about the performance of this unusual floorstanding loudspeaker from Finland. Combining an aperiodic mid/treble head-unit featuring a SEAS-sourced concentric…