The sidewalls have bookcases at the midpoint between the…
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I experimented only slightly in siting the D600s. Basically, as with other designs intended for out-in-the-room placement, there are only a limited number of positions in my 20' by 16' listening room where speakers will achieve the optimum balance between precise soundstaging and a neutral transition between the upper bass and lower midrange. The D600s ended up 42" away from the (longer) rear wall (which is faced with books and records) and 6' away from the sidewalls, toed-in toward the listening seat, which is some 8' distant.
One note on the D600's bass is in order. In common with other high-order-LF-alignment speakers, the body of its midbass tone seems to lag a little behind the initial edge of the sound of double-bass and bass drum when compared with a good sealed-box design. This can be alleviated by switching the "Q" to the "Cut" position, though I then felt the balance to lack weight. Shelving up the "Bass" control to "+1" gave, then, a better midbass quality in combination with the "Cut" setting, but still at the expense of ultimate low-bass weight at normal listening levels. The exact bass balance will be…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: "Two-and-a-half-way," reflex-loaded, floor-standing loudspeaker with full infra-red remote control, three integral 70W amplifiers, line-level crossover, tone controls, and 4x-oversampling digital filter with 16-bit D/A converter. Inputs: two analog (balanced/unbalanced) via phono sockets; two digital (S/PDIF standard) via coaxial cable/phono sockets, one digital input via an EIAJ optical connector. Analog sensitivity: 0dBm (775mV). Analog input impedance: 10k ohms. Communications, a) with Meridian 207 CD player and 204 FM tuner, and b) with other…
Sidebar 2: System Context
Source components consisted of the Linn Troika/Ekos/LP12 analog record player sitting on a Sound Organisation table, a Revox A77 open-reel recorder, and a Meridian 207 CD player, the latter driving the "Master" D600 from its digital and "Comm." outputs via the supplied Meridian cable, with the "Slave" D600 daisychained to the first, again with Meridian's own cable. (Though the D600 has an optical input, I didn't have long enough optical connectors to use these inputs with another CD transport; the 207 CD player, reviewed by Thomas J. Norton in Vol.11 No.11, only…
Sidebar 3: Measurement
Looking first at the D600's response on the tweeter axis to a 25µs rectangular pulse (fig.1, plotted over a 5ms window), this can be seen to be overlaid with a high degree of ultrasonic ringing, due to the metal-dome tweeter's primary "oil-can" resonance being excited by the wide-bandwidth test signal. Of very high Q or "quality factor," this resonance is still ringing more than 2ms after the stimulus has been and gone, but whether it will produce audible effects downband on music signal is open to question. Certainly with CD replay, the band-limited nature of the…
My first encounter with the Acarian Alón IV was at the 1992 Las Vegas WCES. I was doing the show report dealing with speakers, and there was already enough advance buzz about the Alón IV that I put it on my "Speakers I Must Listen To" list. And listen I did, at some length, and came away impressed with their open quality and well-defined soundstage. In discussing reviewing assignments with John Atkinson, I told him that the Alón IV was one of the speakers I wouldn't mind spending some time with. (The list also includes the WAMM, the MartinLogan Statement, and the Apogee Grand, but I'm not…
The "Mapping the Soundstage" track on Stereophile's Test CD 2 reproduced just the way it's pictured in the notes (but with Larry moving away from the listener, of course). While in the test-CD mood, I also tried Chesky's, and found that the Alón IVs did quite well on the LEDR, the "Up" pattern curving only slightly to the center at the top of its travel, the "Over" describing a smooth arc, and the "lateral" similarly smooth. With this test, I got quite a good "outside" image on the left, but the outside image on the right was phasey. (The right outside image is similarly phasey with the…
Sidebar 1: System
The front ends stayed much the same as in my last couple of reviews: Lingo'd Linn/Ittok/AudioQuest AQ 7000 analog, Proceed PDT-2/PS Audio UltraLink digital, with considerable use also made of a Mod Squad McCormack Signature CD player. Except for the front ends and some cables, everything else was changed for the Alón IV review. Naturally, my beloved original Quads and Cizek MG-27 subs had to be moved out of the listening room, and the amplifiers I normally use are 'way underpowered for the Alón IVs. Carl Marchisotto had brought a pair of VTL Deluxe 225s (the latest KT90…
Sidebar 2: Liar, Liar...
Most serious audiophiles know about LEDR, the Listening Environment Diagnostic Recording, but may not have heard of a test I've developed, called LIAR: Listening In Another Room. Here's what's involved: Put on a CD or LP, go into an adjoining room, and then do whatever you want to do that seems appropriate, given the room you're in—read, use the computer, play pool, have a bath, etc.
While you're engaged in one of these activities, ask yourself the following questions: Does it sound as if there could be people singing and playing musical instruments in…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
Looking first at the Alón's impedance magnitude and phase (fig.1), the minimum value agrees with the specification and is shown by the cursor position: 3.03 ohms at 70Hz. This speaker will be moderately hard to drive; although a good tube amplifier with a 4 ohm output should have no problems, a solid-state amplifier will give better control of the speaker's bass region. The sealed-box bass enclosure is tuned to a low 38Hz. The sensitivity on the tweeter axis was also to specification at around 87dB at 1m for 2.83V in.
Fig.1 Acarian Alón IV,…