Analog sources: Heybrook TT2 turntable, SME III tonearm, Ortofon SME30H cartridge.
Digital sources: California Audio Labs CL-20 DVD player, Meridian 508.24 and Sony CDP-XA777ES CD and SACD players, Mark Levinson No.360 D/A converter.
Preamplification: Simaudio Moon P-5 and Sonic Frontiers Line-3 preamplifiers, Audiolab 8000PPA phono stage.
Power amplifiers: Bel Canto eVo 200.2 and Classé CAM-350 monoblocks, Sonic Frontiers Power-3, McCormack DNA-1 Rev.A, Theta Digital Intrepid, Rotel RB-1080.
Loudspeakers: Revel Ultima Studio.
Cables:…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 3: Measurements
As with some other massive speakers I've measured of late, it was not possible to move the B&W Signature 800 off the dolly onto which I'd had it unpacked and onto my Outline speaker turntable, let alone lift it far off the floor for the acoustic measurements. As a result, there was an unavoidable "floor bounce" of the speaker's output that contributed some visible roughness to some of the frequency-response graphs.
The Signature 800 had a very high sensitivity, my estimate coming in at 92.5dB(B)/2.83V/m, slightly higher than the specified 91dB. I was…
However, he did note the Signature 800's revealing nature, and there is a small peak apparent in fig.4 in the upper crossover region. It is possible that this was emphasizing detail to a slight degree, something I'm familiar with from my years with B&W's Silver Signature, whose Kevlar-coned midrange unit has a similar slight peak at the top of its passband. The tweeter's dome resonance results in a very high peak at 31kHz. However, this should have no audible consequences.
As I explained earlier, the Signature 800's bulk meant I couldn't use my remote-controlled speaker turntable. It…
What is the angular separation of your loudspeakers as viewed from your favorite chair? Whatever your answer, it's wrong. Of course I don't mean that it's a factually incorrect answer, just that any single value of subtended angle cannot be ideal for all recordings.
Classical stereo theory, applicable to recordings made with crossed-pair coincident microphones, suggests that for optimal playback the speakers should be placed 45 degrees to the left and right of the stereo centerline, subtending a total angle of 90 degrees. But in many living rooms (and dealer showrooms as well), the total…
There is a large demand today for processors that can make simulated stereo out of a mono source. The money that is driving this technology comes not from the music industry but from Turner TV and Hollywood, where producers who are colorizing old black-and-white movies for video sale would also like to enhance their mono soundtracks so they will sound good in a home video theater. Of course film purists kvetch about colorization, and audio critics have always complained about fake stereo, especially since most early examples of each were awful. But some colorized movies actually are more…
All the world, even you
Should learn to love the way I do—Bryan Ferry, "Take a Chance with Me"
Should learn to love the way I do—Bryan Ferry, "Take a Chance with Me"
My daughter, who's just turned six, surprised me by asking to have a radio in her room. I was happy to oblige, so I stopped what I was doing and went straight upstairs to the guest room to fetch the Tivoli Audio Henry Kloss Model One [reviewed by Sam Tellig in March 2001—Ed.] I'd bought a few years ago. I dusted it off, shook a few dead ladybugs out of the recess on its back panel—they pry their way into our house by the thousands before the weather goes cold—and brought it down to Julia's…
The beguilingly named model 15-2163 ($23.99 in the Shack's current catalog) is designed to be installed on a rooftop or chimney, but having it in an attic is almost as good. In fact, to someone like me, who's pathologically afraid of heights, having it in the attic is vastly better. I lifted the antenna into the space above my listening room, carefully unfolded it, and cobbled together a mounting arrangement that allowed all six elements to function more or less unimpeded, with enough access that I can manually change its direction whenever I feel like it.
Now, for its part, the Tivoli…
Sometimes it all comes down to the shape of the side panels. I was smitten by the gentle curves of the Burmester B99 loudspeaker's aluminum side grilles, which have uncommon grace. A love affair with an enclosure? Well, yes. After all, beauty is an intensely personal matter. In the words of Burmester's motto: "Art for the ear."
The B99's shape is slightly reminiscent of an airfoil and with an aluminum veneer modeled on the riveted wings of turboprop aircraft. It is a three-way, full-range, floorstanding loudspeaker whose midrange and high-frequency drivers are installed in a D'Appolito…
The B99 comes in three standard finishes: elsberry/aluminum laminate, maple/aluminum, and silver/aluminum. The veneer panels can be changed, thus making it possible to alter the enclosure's color. The fit'n'finish of the cabinetry, hardware, and drivers is superb—as you should expect of a speaker costing $47,000/pair.
Setup
The pair of Burmester B99s, enclosed in their 6'-high cardboard and foam shipping cartons, arrived at my house by rental van. Udo Besser, then Burmester's marketing manager, was there to help me unload, move, and set them up for the review. He immediately…
Bells, chimes, and triangles shimmered with cascades of clearly defined harmonics. Don Dorsey's "Ascent," from Telarc's Time Warp, played with a mixture of dense bass pulses and chimes that were sweet, translucent, and clean. The leading edges of transients were razor-sharp without being irritating. Dorsey's synthesizer exploded out of black silence with a stream of pulses, beeps, bell-like sounds, and high-pitched squeaks that moved back and forth across the soundstage. The piece's end—an explosive shot followed immediately by sullen, massive rumbling—was full of angst and foreboding.
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