Digital Source: Ayre C-5xe universal player, Krell Evolution 505 SACD/CD player.
Preamplifiers: Krell Evolution 202, Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista.
Power Amplifiers: Ayre MX-R, Krell Evolution 600.
Loudspeakers: Dynaudio Confidence C4, Vandersteen Quatro Wood, Wilson Audio Specialties WATT/Puppy 8.
Cables: Interconnect: Shunyata Research Aries & Antares. Speaker: Shunyata Research Lyra.
Accessories: Ayre L-5xe line filter; Furutech eTP-609 distribution box, FP-20A(R) duplex outlets, RDP panels; OSAR Selway/Magruder equipment racks;…
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Sidebar: WP's 2007 Associated Equipment
What did you on your wedding night? I know what I did. All three times. But Casey McKee? He spent his wedding night at the end of October installing the new Lingo power supply on his Linn LP12. I know. I was there.
You remember Casey. You met him in my September 1990 review of the ArchiDee turntable table. Casey works at Brooklyn dealer Innovative Audio (footnote 1); he and wife Angela live in Austin. No, not Austin, NY. Austin, TX! Yup. A long commute. (Buy American Airlines stock. Casey flies American.)
It wasn't as bad a case of Audiophilia nervosa as it sounds. Car-racing…
As my sample Lingo was too early in production to be supplied with a manual and I was on vacation when Audiophile Systems' Steve Daniels installed it, I had to work out for myself how it works. Here's what this tired old brain gathered: A brief push on the LP12's new push-switch results in the red LED lighting and the platter starting to rotate (with a bit of judder). When the platter reaches speed, the LED dims slightly as the Lingo output changes from high-torque mode to speed-maintenance mode. A second brief push cuts off power to the motor, though the LED doesn't extinguish until after…
Truly valid comparisons would involve swapping the arm and cartridge from a Linn/Valhalla to the Linn/Lingo. I own up. I didn't do that. There is a Linn/Valhalla fitted with an Ittok and a Denon DL103D in my wife's listening room, but I disturb her system at my peril! My impressions are therefore gleaned from "before and after" testing.
Not that that's something to be worried about. As good as I feel the basic Linn sound to be, the difference between the pre- and post-Lingo LP12s is anything but subtle.
Specifically, the new power supply adds an octave of low-bass extension to…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-speed (33.33 and 45rpm), belt-drive transcription LP turntable with sprung subchassis and separate power supply. Specifications: none given, but the performance is pretty damn good if you ask me.
Dimensions (including plugs): 17.5" W by 6" H by 14" D (turntable), 6.5" W by 3.5" H by 14.5" D (Lingo power supply).
Serial number of unit tested: 068210 (turntable), 5 (power supply).
Price: $1495 (LP12 Valhalla), $2690 (LP12 with Lingo), $1295 (Lingo upgrade for LP12 Valhalla). Approximate number of dealers: 100.
Manufacturer: Linn…
Sidebar 2: Measurements
I hadn't intended to do any measurements. But I couldn't resist it. That ol' left-brain insisted on having its way (footnote 1). So I put on Denon's XL7007A test LP, cued up the 3kHz track, plugged in the frequency meter—3000Hz, right on the button at 33.3rpm; 4049.5Hz at 45rpm. (These were the mean values; as with every other turntable I've measured with a digital meter, the indicated value bobbled a little.)
To look at the speed stability in more detail, I captured a 1kHz tone (actually 1003Hz on the Denon LP) with DRA Labs' MLSSA system (footnote 2) set…
There's this really awful joke:
After another long day in the city, recording jingles and soundtracks, a viola player is driving his car back home from the train station when he sees that his street has been blocked off by police cars, their lights flashing. He pulls over, gets out of his car, and walks to the top of his street.
To his horror, he sees fire personnel and EMTs going in and out of his house. The police have already put up barriers of yellow "Crime Scene" tape. He gets the attention of the two policemen who are keeping the gawkers at bay by blurting out, "I live there…
You might recall that ditty from childhood about the little engine that could (I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...). It's an apt metaphor for high-end audio. In traversing the aural sepulchers of last winter's Consumer Electronics Show and the summer's HI-FI Show, I routinely encountered one divine sound system after another. Yet while I never tire of transcendent sonics, eventually I become inured to the procession of celestial, cost-no-object speakers. It's like having a white-light experience, then returning to the gritty reality of life on earth, where for most of us cost is…
The RM22si presents a small, elegant footprint, and is intended to combine the spatial coherence and room-friendly coupling of a two-way minimonitor with the bass extension of a larger box. The cabinet itself is constructed of ?" MDF and is 36" high, with the two drivers occupying the top third of the enclosure. (The pair I auditioned featured a deeply faceted, dark rosewood veneer in a high-gloss finish.) The speaker is only 8.5" wide and 10.5" deep; its rear back quarter functions as the bass port, a cavity going up about 2' into the cabinet. There's a rectangular hole at the base of the…
As a result, the RM22si excelled at reproducing complex dynamics while articulating the smallest details with pinpoint resolution. In the Allegro molto of Beethoven's A-flat Piano Sonata, Op.110 (MusicMasters 67183-2), despite the crushing fury with which pianist Charles Rosen essays the composer's dynamic extremes, I never lost the distinctions between each note within a chord. Fundamentals and overtones remained distinct, yet I could discern their organic connection—I heard the totality of complex new harmonics and overtones, not the blurred products of cone break-ups, resonances,…