What of the competition for the NHT 3.3? There is no shortage of contenders in the $3000–$4000 price range, and many have passed through Stereophile's listening room. None of the latter can match the NHT 3.3 for clean, extended bass. A pair of Acarian Alón IVs—certainly a member this elite group—was conveniently available. After completing most of my listening to the NHTs, I trotted out the Acarians to do battle. While the IVs can be tri-wired, I settled on bi-wiring, due to the lack of three lengths of identical…
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Thomas J. Norton wrote about the Alón 4 in December 1993 (Vol.16 No.12):
Sidebar 4: Specifications
Description: Three-way, floorstanding loudspeaker. Drive units: 1" (25mm) metal-dome tweeter, 5" (130mm) tri-laminate cone midrange, 12" (300mm) fiber-cone woofer. Crossover frequencies: 400Hz, 3.5kHz. Anechoic frequency response: 29Hz–25kHz ±3dB. Low-frequency bandwidth (anechoic): –3dB at 29Hz, –9dB at 20Hz. Sensitivity: 87dB/W/m. Impedance: 3 ohms minimum. Amplifier requirements: 100W minimum, 200W recommended.
Dimensions: 48" H by 15" W by 18" D. Weight: 105 lbs.
Serial numbers of units tested: 40471/74.
Price: $3400/pair in natural oak or black oak…
As readers of the Stereophile eNewsletter will be aware, the twin subjects of distributing music around my home and integrating my iTunes library of recordings into my high-end system have occupied much of my attention the past year. I bought an inexpensive Mac mini to use as a music server, using an Airport Express as a WiFi hub, which worked quite well, but my big step forward was getting a Squeezebox. I described this slim device in the mid-March and mid-April eNewsletters; I urge readers to read those reports to get the full background on this impressive device. In addition, the forums…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: WiFi (802.11g)- and/or Ethernet-connected D/A processor with digital (S/PDIF electrical and optical) and analog outputs, headphone output, digital-domain volume control. Systems supported: Mac OS X 10.3 or later; 733Mhz Pentium running Windows NT/2000/XP; Linux/BSD/Solaris/Other: Perl 5.8.3 or later. Sample rates supported: 44.1kHz, 48kHz. Audio formats supported: linear PCM, 16 or 24 bits per sample. Maximum output level: 6.0V p–p (22.12V RMS). S/N Ratio: >100dB. THD: <–93.5dB (0.002%). Intrinsic jitter: <50ps (standard deviation). Minimum…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Ayre C-5xe and Pioneer DV-578A universal players; Classé cdp-202 DVD/CD player; Mark Levinson No.30.6, Benchmark DAC 1, Musical Fidelity X-DACV3 D/A processors, Apple Mac mini computer with an Apple Airport Express WiFi hub.
Preamplifier: Mark Levinson No.326S.
Power Amplifiers: Mark Levinson No.33H monoblocks, Halcro dm38.
Loudspeakers: Revel Ultima Studio, Snell LCR7 XL.
Cables: Digital: Kimber Illuminations Orchid AES/EBU, Optilink 5 Toslink S/PDIF. Interconnect: AudioQuest Cheetah, Madrigal CZ Gel-1, Ayre Signature Series,…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
While measuring the Squeezebox, I used it, powered by its switch-mode power supply, to play 16-bit test-tone files on my Mac mini via an Airport Express WiFi hub. With the SB's volume control set to its maximum ("40"), the output level from its RCA jacks with a 1kHz tone at 0dBFS was 1.845V, or 0.7dB below the CD standard's 2V RMS. The Squeezebox preserved absolute polarity— ie, was noninverting—and the output impedance was a low 223 ohms at midrange and bass frequencies, rising to 549 ohms at 20Hz. The volume control operated in accurate 1.25dB steps. All the…
My eyes were inexorably drawn to a surprising headline this morning: "New Studies Say Universe Younger than Objects In It." A study by Indiana University's Michael Pierce has just been published establishing a new value for "Hubble's Constant" (the ratio of velocity to distance for distant, receding galaxies) which suggests that the universe may be as young as 7 billion years old; at the same time, researchers at Harvard are saying that the universe is somewhere between 9 and 14 billion years old. Quite a discrepancy! (A billion here, a billion there—pretty soon you're talking real age.)
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M. WARD: Post-War
Merge MRG 280 (CD). 2006. M. Ward, Jim James, prods.; Mike Coykendall, prod., eng.; Adam Selzer, Mike Mogis, Nick Luca, engs. AAD? TT: 37:35
Performance ****½
Sonics ***½
Merge MRG 280 (CD). 2006. M. Ward, Jim James, prods.; Mike Coykendall, prod., eng.; Adam Selzer, Mike Mogis, Nick Luca, engs. AAD? TT: 37:35
Performance ****½
Sonics ***½
Walk into a record store, look at the racks, and you'll see 10 guys, 10 solo artists, whose records don't have one good song among them. The word is out: the sensitive alt-rock folkie-dude thing is way, way overdone.
Fortunately, one of the creators of that now choked and muddled genre (to nearly paraphrase the gone but still mighty Doo Rag) is still with us after more than a…
"The trouble with some reviewers..."
Brooks Berdan was on a roll. The veteran Southern California retailer, who has sold and serviced high-end equipment for more than 30 years, had seized the opportunity to voice a pet peeve.
"Some people get too hung up on the equipment they're reviewing," he proclaimed. "They spend too much time listening to the equipment and not enough time listening to the music."
Berdan's pronouncement was issued during Home Entertainment 2006, as we stood outside his excellent-sounding Jadis-VTL-Wilson-Cardas room in the Los Angeles Sheraton Gateway…
I've had the pleasure of using The Direct Line Stage Line Stage (originally called the Director) from Ron Sutherland for the past few months. This active line-stage preamp (it has no phono section) is available from Acoustic Sounds for $3000.
Ron Sutherland told me that his design brief for The Direct Line Stage was to get close to the performance of "cost-no-object" line-stage preamps at a reasonable price. Not that there's anything skimpy about the Direct Line Stage, its casework, or its faceplate. This substantial unit tips the scale at 24 lbs—three times the weight of Maxik…