Analog Source: Linn Sondek LP12 turntable with Linn Lingo power supply, Linn Ittok tonearm, Spectral moving-coil cartridge.
Digital Sources: Krell KRC-28 CD player, Sony SCD-C555ES SACD/CD multichannel player.
FM Tuners: Day-Sequerra Classic, McIntosh MR-78, Sony ST-5000.
Preamplification: Krell KCT preamplifier, Bryston 10B-SUB electronic crossover.
Power Amplifiers: Mark Levinson No.431, Krell FPB-600c.
Loudspeakers: Quad ESL-989; Velodyne DD-18, REL Studio III subwoofers.
Cables: Interconnect: Red Rose Silver Ones, Krell CAST, Levinson…
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Sidebar 1: Associated Equipment
In last month's edition of this new column, I wrote about those of us whose systems are out in the breeze in the Family Room, at the mercy of wives, Significant Others, curious children, cats'n'dogs, and nonaudiophiles who, for the life of them, can't figure out what it's all about. I met a chap the other day whose wife said to me, "Oh, you suffer from the same audiophile disease." I hastened to inform her that I am the disease, and suggested that her husband was pursuing a noble path for the love of music—no bad thing, in my view. She remained unconvinced.
While I suspect a majority of…
"To determine initial speaker placement, multiply ceiling height by 0.618 (10' * 0.618 = 6.18') to determine the distance from the rear wall to the center of the woofer (or the acoustic center of a panel). Then multiply the room width by 0.276 (width * 5 ÷ 18) to determine the distance from the side wall to the center of the speaker (16' * 5 ÷ 18 = 4.4'). I have run into times when the geometry of the situation makes this setup less than favorable. So I've derived a simple plan 'B' that inevitably works if plan 'A' doesn't. In plan 'B' the speaker side-to-side placement is the same (room…
A Letter in response to Fine Tunes #2 appeared in November 1998:
Editor: Jonathan Scull's "Fine Tunes" column in the August issue of Stereophile (p.63) contains a reference to an Audio Engineering Society (AES) standard listening room. The reference is incorrect in attributing such a room to the AES. The error appears to have come from the website of a manufacturer, who has since corrected his error.
AES has, at this time, only one standards publication showing a listening room. AES20-1996, "AES Recommended Practice for Professional Audio—Subjective Evaluation of Loudspeakers,"…
Pollock, Rothko, Amperex, and Sylvania? Last spring I went to a contemporary art show out on Chicago's Navy Pier. I wanted to get away from things with wires and knobs—you know, rub elbows with Chicago's better-dressed, sip some wine, maybe practice talking about artistic creations that I usually don't understand ("It's so brutally honest...yet, somehow, still deceptive"). But there's no rest for the weary, confused audiophile. Along with artists, paintings, and sculptures from all over the world, thousands of vacuum tubes had descended on the Pier.
I was so surprised when I first saw…
Maybe this is what Dieter meant about ambivalenz. On the one hand, tubes represent a kinder, gentler technology. Looking so fragile and delicate, they're the technological emblem of better, simpler days: Norman Rockwell paintings, evenings spent around the old radio. In fact, not too far from Navy Pier, this very idea was at work in the display case of Chicago's Hammacher Schlemmer store on Michigan Avenue. They were selling a transistor radio inside a nice wooden case with analog dials and a row of faux tubes on top—just like Grandma and Grandpa's!
Tubes are relatively brain-friendly.…
As a piece of art, the Krell looks appropriately threatening. Hollywood has been cultivating this big, dark, take-no-prisoners look for a while now. First there was the mysterious monolith in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Then came the dusty, post-apocalyptic look of things in Road Warrior. The KSA-250 would be right at home on those sets. In fact, Krell takes its name from the advanced race of creatures in the old sci-fi movie Forbidden Planet.
But the real analogy here is to Star Trek. If my chromed and twinkling Mark IIIs are a couple of Federation starships bringing justice and…
Stereophile is devoted to getting the best sound from a home audio system. But as I have written before, audiophiles don't have access to an absolute sound, only to what has been captured in the pits or grooves of their discs, which is itself the result of a creative process. The playing back and the making of recordings are therefore two sides of the same coin. This is why I get actively involved in recording projects and why I publish articles about those projects, the most recent of which appears on p.50. "Project K622" describes the making of a new recording of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto…
"All of them?!"
I had just agreed to record Robert Silverman, who is featured on three of the Stereophile CDs (footnote 1) performing Beethoven piano sonatas, and, naturally, had asked which of these 32 masterworks he would be playing.
"All of them."
I blanched. This was an enormous task: 32 sonatas; 103 individual movements; more than 11 hours of music—11 hours, 26 minutes, and 25 seconds, as it turned out—a good 10 CDs' worth. I was also puzzled.
"How long did you say we had the hall booked for?"
"A long weekend. If you can arrive on Friday, we can start…
Gremlins & Formats
So we had an agreement. Once Bob and Jim had prepared the masters for all 32 sonatas, I would drive out with my recording gear to the Maestro Foundation's recital hall in Santa Monica. Bob would bite his nails, Jim would feed the Bösendorfer's control PC with floppies, I would feed my Nagra and Tascam recorders with tape, and, other than retakes to cover takes spoiled by that bane of classical location recording, traffic and airplane noise, we would capture all of Beethoven's piano masterpieces in as best a sound quality as I could manage in as short a time as…
So we had an agreement. Once Bob and Jim had prepared the masters for all 32 sonatas, I would drive out with my recording gear to the Maestro Foundation's recital hall in Santa Monica. Bob would bite his nails, Jim would feed the Bösendorfer's control PC with floppies, I would feed my Nagra and Tascam recorders with tape, and, other than retakes to cover takes spoiled by that bane of classical location recording, traffic and airplane noise, we would capture all of Beethoven's piano masterpieces in as best a sound quality as I could manage in as short a time as…