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Deeper Meanings Letters part 5

What is good!
Editor: In Vol.13 No.7, Robert Harley wrote a scathing rejection of those who do not share his particular view of audio evaluation. In his closing paragraph he wrote, "now to get back to Dr. [Stanley] Lipshitz's question that prompted this essay: 'Ah, but how do you know what is good?' The question was clearly not meant to be answered."

I have heard the description "warm" approvingly used when the sound was the result of the obvious nonlinear distortions produced by vacuum tubes. Furthermore, I am totally repulsed by what members of the German SS regarded as "good."—…

Deeper Meanings Letters part 6

What is good?
Editor: Robert Harley's article relating Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance to the objectivist/subjectivist controversy was very appropriate. It seems to me, though, that he copped out by not answering the question, "What is good?" in more concrete terms.

One useful definition of "good" in audio equipment would be the ability of a reproduction chain to replicate the sound of the original musical event at the position of the microphones. Only the people who made the recording know what that might sound like, so this definition is of limited value to most of us,…

Deeper Meanings Letters part 7

Nevertheless, I regard Harley's argument—that blind tests are "worthless" because they change more than one variable at a time—to be entirely specious. His alternative is to change all possible variables and then assert that component "A" is more musical than "B." Given the nature of the procedure and its reliance on phenomena that cannot be measured or quantified, if another evaluator reached the opposite conclusion would it not be equally valid? If several evaluators reached the same conclusion and most others found no differences, then I can confidently assert that a simple blind test…

Deeper Meanings Letters part 8

Scientists were faced with such a dilemma in the 1930s because one form of radioactivity (beta decay) appeared to violate conservation of energy. The situation had reached a point that the idea of abandoning conservation of energy was discussed. But it was too sacred a cow to kill and Enrico Fermi devised a clever theory that was mathematically neat although it involved a ghostly particle named the neutrino. The neutrino was discovered some 20 years later. Scientists will not abandon fundamental principles even when faced with apparently overwhelming evidence (footnote 8). To abandon a…

Black Diamond Racing The Shelf

At the 1994 Summer CES, I was sitting in ProAc's room listening to Vangelis's Blade Runner score, when a couple of guys walked in carrying a shiny black board. "This is pretty interesting stuff," one of them said. "Want to hear it?"

Oh, why the hell not? I thought, jaded and tired from new product overload. One of them hit pause on the Audio Research CD-1 and lifted it off its shelf, while the other substituted his board for the one on the rack. Setting the CD player back down, the first chap hit play.

Everyone in the room sat bolt upright in disbelief.

"Do that again…

Black Diamond Racing The Shelf Specifications

Sidebar: Specifications

Description: Carbon-fiber component support.
Dimensions: 18" W by 14" D. Weight: 11 lbs.
Price: $450.
Manufacturer: D.J. Kasser Enterprises Inc., 125 South Greeley Street, Milwaukee, WI 53201. Tel: (414) 747-8733. Fax: (414) 747-8734. No website.

MartinLogan SL3 loudspeaker

"Wow! What's that?" asked the pizza delivery boy, peering over my shoulder at the slender, 5'-tall Martin-Logan SL3 visible behind me.

"It's a new loudspeaker."

"No way! It's bee-you-tee-full."

I nodded, but this was old news. For weeks, everyone new to the household had been pointing out that these lean speakers, with their nearly transparent panels flanked by blond oak rails, were gorgeous, striking, sculptural, far and away too handsome to be practical...in short, nothing at all like any hi-fi gear they'd ever seen.

The SL3's smooth wood finish seems to invite…

MartinLogan SL3 loudspeaker Page 2

The electrostatic element is curved in order to minimize the treble lobing that plagues the horizontal dispersion of panel speakers, where the transducer is larger than the wavelength it is producing. This beaminess created the notorious "one-person sweet spot" or "headphones effect" of older electrostatic designs. A large diaphragm projects a great deal of its HF energy at right angles to its surface; curving the surface in the horizontal dimension greatly facilitates treble dispersion—this was one of Martin-Logan's biggest innovations in electrostatic technology (see sidebar: "Controlling…

MartinLogan SL3 loudspeaker Page 3

Since electrostatic drive elements must be energized, the rear panel also sports an IEC-type mains plug; this allows you to choose your preferred AC cord (the transformer is housed within the bass bin). I tried several different high-end power cords and didn't notice much, if any, difference, so I reckon you might as well use the ones that come with the speakers. On the advice of Les Edelberg, however, I plugged the speakers into an API Power Wedge 112. That lowered the noise floor, further increasing low-level detail.

The SL3 comes with two sets of feet, one with metal "glider" pads.…

MartinLogan SL3 loudspeaker Page 4

Bob Harley is fond of citing Frank Zappa's "The Ocean is the Ultimate Solution" (from Sleep Dirt, Rykodisc RCD 10527, CD) as an acid test of bass resolution, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. Bob's right. Not only does the sound of Patrick O'Hearn's acoustic bass require an uncolored transducer capable of deep, deep response, it also serves as the propulsive agent of the piece. If your system isn't capable of passing on to you a recording's pace and swing, then "The Ocean" just lies there. With the SL3, the bass was punchy, well-defined, and propulsive, while Zappa's guitar and Terry Bozzio'…