And as you can see from the letters in this issue discussing the 124-page July Stereophile, it is indeed true that the magazine's covers are closer together this year. But so…
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The audiophile in the plaid shirt and gray Dockers had his hand up. Moderator Jonathan Scull handed him the roving microphone, and the Stereophile writers on the podium at HI-FI '99's Sunday afternoon "Ask the Editors" session shifted in their chairs. "This one's for John Atkinson," came the windup. The other writers relaxed; I started to sweat. Then the pitch: "How come Stereophile issues are so small these days?"
At a series of strategic planning meetings that took place in Santa Fe at the end of June, Petersen VP Jackie Augustine, who's in charge of the company's High Technology Group (of which Stereophile is part (footnote 2)), decided to increase the amount of editorial content in Stereophile when necessary, starting with our August issue. Under the guidance of our new senior editor, Jonathan Scull (again, see this issue's "Letters"), the magazine's team of reviewers will be pursuing a more proactive strategy with respect to the components we choose to review. And the year 2000 will see further…
MOZART: Piano Concertos 21 & 24, K.467 & K.491
Eugene Istomin, piano; Gerard Schwarz, Seattle Symphony Orchestra
Reference Recordings RR-68CD (CD only). Adam Stern, J. Tamblyn Henderson, Jr., prods.; Keith O. Johnson, eng. DDD. TT: 59:34
Eugene Istomin, piano; Gerard Schwarz, Seattle Symphony Orchestra
Reference Recordings RR-68CD (CD only). Adam Stern, J. Tamblyn Henderson, Jr., prods.; Keith O. Johnson, eng. DDD. TT: 59:34
Although Istomin's approach to these towering works may not please all tastes, they leave no doubt that he is a thoughtful and probing musician. Less controversial of the two readings is this superb K.491. Whereas some performers opt for conveying either the music's Sturm und Drang intensity or its otherworldly, eerie gloom exclusively,…
New experiences are some of the most pleasurable parts of being an audio reviewer. Despite being involved with the High End for longer than I care to think about, I had never had the experience of owning, living with, or reviewing a pair of electrostatic speakers, be they full-range or hybrid. I'd heard various Quads plenty of times at shows and in the homes of audio buddies, but in my own listening cave? Never.
Last May, I suspected that my lifelong electrostatic drought had come to an end when I heard the Innersound Kaya Reference system ($20,000/pair) at Home Entertainment 2004 East,…
The fine distinctions among players in string sections—the sense of many working together nearly perfectly as one—when playing John Barbirolli and the Sinfonia of London's classic performance of Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (CD, EMI 5 67264 2) were uncannily present. Logically, the less mass that has to be accelerated, the more rapidly it can be accelerated, and the Ultra Stat is about as close to having no mass as any driver can be. More intimate music, such as Bill Evans' bittersweet, endlessly inventive reharmonizations of "Suicide Is Painless," from You Must…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-way, biamplified hybrid loudspeaker with crossover-amplifier for bass drivers. Electrostatic Panel: 13" by 45". Momentary power-handling capacity: 1000W. Impedance: 4 ohms nominal, 2 ohms at 20kHz. Woofer: 10" paper-cone unit in transmission-line enclosure. Momentary power capacity: 600W. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms. Amplifier-crossover: Crossover: 350Hz, 24dB/octave. Maximum output power: 600Wpc into 4 ohms (24.8dBW). Input impedance: 47k ohms. Output impedance: 0.1 ohm. Distortion: ±0.05% at rated output. Frequency response (without crossover…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog source: SOTA Cosmos Series III turntable, Graham 2.2 tonearm, Dynavector XV-1S cartridge.
Digital source: Classé Omega SACD/CD player.
Preamplification: Manley Labs Steelhead phono stage, VTL TL-7.5 Reference line stage, McIntosh C200 preamplifier (as line stage).
Power amplifiers: Lamm ML1.2 Reference and McIntosh MC501 monoblocks.
Cables: Phono: Hovland Music Groove 2. Interconnect: Cardas Golden Reference, Nordost Valhalla, Acoustic Zen Silver Reference. Speaker: Cardas Golden Reference, Innersound. AC: Shunyata Anaconda Alpha &…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
The Innersound Kaya was more sensitive than I was expecting, at an estimated 89dB/2.83V/m. However, this is way lower than the specified 98dB. Because the woofer and the electrostatic panel are driven by separate amplifiers, I have shown the impedance graphs for each separately. Fig.1 shows that of the panel. It is generally very high, staying above 50 ohms between 225Hz and 1950Hz. However, it plummets in the high treble, reaching a minimum value of 0.5 ohm at 29kHz, which is probably the series resistance of the speaker cable and the internal wiring. There is…
Paul Bolin wrote again about the Kaya in May 2005 (Vol.28 No.5):
Toward the end of my original audition of the Kaya, John Atkinson suggested that I experiment with the polarity of the speaker's electrostatic panel. Much to my surprise (as mentioned briefly in my December 2004 review of the Kaya), inverting the polarity of the panels of both left and right speakers had a drastic impact on the speaker's sound. With both woofers and panels connected in conventional polarity, the Kaya, at least in my room, had some problems in the upper bass/lower midrange. There had been a substantial…
"The realistic reproduction of orchestral music in an average room requires peak power capabilities of the order of 15 to 20W when the electro-acoustic transducer is a baffle-loaded moving-coil loudspeaker of normal efficiency."
—Peter Walker and D.T.N. Williamson, writing in the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society in 1954
According to evolutionist Richard Dawkins, the most important variable determining a person's religion is the accident of birth. Man of faith though I am, I agree—and I'll risk further sacrilege by suggesting that Dawkins' rule can be applied with equal…