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Vienna is a beautiful city known for many things, but the design and manufacturing of audio equipment is not one of them. Waltzes and strudel, yes; loudspeakers, no. One exception is Vienna Acoustics, a company that has introduced a line of loudspeakers named after composers: Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, and Haydn. At the 1996 Las Vegas WCES, Sumiko, US distributor of Vienna Acoustics products (footnote 1), demonstrated the second-from-the-top Mozart, and Stereophile reviewers as diverse in their approaches as Jonathan Scull, Tom Norton, and Sam Tellig (as well as yours truly) were unanimous in…
The same sort of impression prevailed during the period of formal auditioning. (For that, I did remove the SC-IVs from the listening room!) I've heard other small speakers that can play loud, but they tend to sound strained, like an old Honda Civic doing 60mph in third gear. The Mozarts just took it all in stride, maintaining clarity and focus at levels that cause most speakers of their size to lose their composure. Everyone who heard the Mozarts in my system remarked on how much clean sound was being produced by these loudspeakers.
I don't mean to imply that the Mozart is the ideal…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-way dynamic loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1.1" silk-dome tweeter, two 5.5" mid/woofers. Measured crossover frequency: 2.8kHz. Crossover slopes: 9-12dB/octave, Bessel. Frequency range: 35Hz-22kHz. Sensitivity: 90dB/W/m. Nominal impedance: 6 ohms. Recommended amplifier power: 30-200W.
Dimensions: 37" H by 6.7" W by 11.6" D. Weight: 44 lbs.
Serial numbers of samples reviewed: 4792/4326.
Price: $2500/pair (1997). Warranty: 5 years, parts and labor. Approximate number of dealers: 25.
Manufacturer: Vienna Acoustics, c/o Gansterer & Haferi…
Sidebar 2: Big 'Uns & Little 'Uns
In discussing the performance of the Dunlavy SC-VI (Vol.19 No.8), SS and JA pointed out that big speakers tend to sound BIG, always reminding us that we're listening to speakers. (They then noted that the SC-VI is unusually free of this characteristic.) This is one of the reasons (space and financial considerations being others) that I wouldn't want to own monster-sized speakers. However, small speakers have the opposite problem: music reproduced by them tends to sound, well, small, as if it's emanating from a pair of small boxes (which, of course,…
Sidebar 3: System
Analog source was a fully updated Linn LP12 with an Ittok arm and AudioQuest AQ7000nsx cartridge. However, most of my listening these days is to CD (Mea culpa!); digital products used during the auditioning included the Sonic Frontiers SFCD-1 CD player, PS Audio Lambda II and Sonic Frontiers SFT-1 transports, Audio Alchemy DTI•Pro 32 anti-jitter resolution-enhancement device, Sonic Frontiers SFD-2 Mk.II digital processor, and TARA Labs Decade and Illuminati D-60/Orchid digital links.
Preamplifiers were the Balanced Audio Technology VK-5 and Convergent Audio…
Sidebar 4: Measurements
All the measurements were performed without any foam in the ports. Given the Mozart's high specified sensitivity of 90dB/W/m, I was puzzled to arrive at a low calculated figure of just over 83dB at 1m for 2.83V drive. However, the B-weighted figure we use at Stereophile will be affected by frequency-response anomalies in the upper midrange/low treble. If, for example, there was a big suckout in a speaker's crossover region, this would adversely affect the calculated sensitivity. We shall see. The speaker's impedance (fig.1) is moderately demanding in that it dips…
The standalone digital/analog converter emerged as a product category in 1987 with the appearance of the Arcam Black Box and the Marantz CDA-94, closely followed by the PS Audio Link. The idea was that putting the sensitive D/A-conversion and analog stages in a separate enclosure with its own power supply would maximize the sound quality when compared with packing these circuits in the same box as the transport. However, it turned out that the routing of the digital data between transport and processor in the form of an S/PDIF- or AES/EBU-encoded bitstream could introduce word-clock…
Introduced in early 1998, the Burr-Brown PCM1716 is one of the Tucson company's affordably priced "audio-grade" two-channel D/A converters. Featuring an "enhanced multi-level, sigma-delta architecture" (according to Burr-Brown's website), it is specified as having 24-bit resolution and offering a dynamic range of 106dB. Operating with sampling frequencies of up to 96kHz, it also incorporates an 8x-oversampling digital low-pass filter with digital domain de-emphasis and 82dB stop-band attenuation. Interestingly, this filter can operate with either a sharp or a slow rolloff, depending on the…
Perhaps the acid comparison is with the Arcam Alpha 9 CD player, enthusiastically reviewed by Kal Rubinson in January. With its implementation of the dCS "Ring-DAC," the $1500 Arcam sets the standard for affordable CD replay. I compared the X-24K driven from the Alpha 9's S/PDIF output with the Arcam's analog outputs. (Again, levels were matched to within 0.05dB at 1kHz, and interconnects were identical 6' lengths of Canare cable.) On went the AIDS Benefit centenary tribute to Gershwin, Red Hot + Rhapsody: The Gershwin Groove (Antilles 314 557 788-2)—specifically track 17, David Bowie's "A…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: D/A converter with 24-bit delta-sigma D/A chips, 8x-oversampling digital filter, two S/PDIF digital data inputs (one coaxial, one coaxial in parallel with TosLink optical), and one S/PDIF digital data output. Sampling frequencies supported: 96kHz, 88.2kHz, 48kHz, 44.1kHz, and 32kHz. Frequency response: 20Hz-20kHz, ±0.2dB. De-emphasis error: ±±0.1dB. THD: ±0.006%, 10Hz-20kHz unweighted, ±0.003%, 10Hz-20kHz A-weighted. S/N ratio: >96dB unweighted, >105dB A-weighted. Linearity: ±±0.3dB to -100dBFS.
Dimensions: 4.3" (110mm) diameter by 13" (…