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Anyone over 40 who's worked in a hi-fi or record store will remember the Pfanstiehl catalog, a pulpy thing that most shopkeepers chained to their counters, like a phone book. Pfanstiehl made replacement styli for virtually every record-playing device of the day, and their catalog contained page after page of tiny line drawings of nothing but phonograph needles, all lovingly rendered in three-quarter view. You couldn't browse it without being brought up short: My God, how many different needles are there? And how is it possible that a single company could tool up for so many products and still…
I only recently realized that I hear Tom Petty's "You and Me" every time I go to the local supermarket. (It's the Great American in Cooperstown, New York, which would be a nice place if not for the many doctors' wives who park in the handicapped spaces, crowd in front of people at the deli counter, and leave their baskets—just leave them there!—in the checkout lanes.) "You and Me" sounded lovely through these amps, as did the harder-edged numbers from the same album, The Last DJ (CD, Warner Bros. 48396-2). On "Have Love, Will Travel," the Explorers again showed that bit of overhang on the…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Single-ended monophonic tube amplifier (God, I enjoyed typing that). Input impedance: 100k ohms. Input sensitivity: 2V. Output power: 50Wpc into 4, 8, or 16 ohms (17dBW). Signal/noise ratio: 78dB. Frequency range at 1W: 10Hz-30kHz. THD: <0.25% at 1W, <8.0% at full power.
Dimensions: 11.5" W by 8" H by 20" D. Weight: 57 lbs.
Serial numbers of units reviewed: 0903001017242 & 43.
Price: $2995/pair. Approximate number of dealers: 32.
Manufacturer: Antique Sound Laboratory, Ltd., Room 2038, Block D, Wah Lok Industrial Centre, 31-35…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog sources: Linn LP12 turntable with Naim Armageddon power supply, Naim Aro tonearm; Rega Planar 3 turntable with Rega RB-300 tonearm; ZYX Airy S, Lyra Helikon Mono, Rega Elys cartridges.
Digital source: Sony SCD-777ES SACD/CD player.
Preamplification: Audio Note AN-S2, Tamura L2-D step-up transformers; Fi, Audio Note M3, Audio Note M2 Balanced preamplifiers.
Power amplifiers: Audio Note Kit One (300B), Fi 2A3 Stereo, EAR 890.
Loudspeakers: Quad ESL-989, Lowther PM6As (in modified Medallion horns).
Cables: Interconnect: Nordost Valhalla…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
Ah, I see Art Dudley is reviewing a single-ended tube amplifier. And he expects my measurements to trigger something along the lines of "This is the most perversely distorted amplifier I've seen in all my life, and if Art Dudley thinks it's good, he needs therapy." Okay, let's see if Mr. D. is in need of, if not therapy, then at least what professional amplifier user Keith Richard once called "heavy trank."
I ramped up the output tube bias as recommended by the Explorer 805 DT's manual, with the measurements taken at 1388mA bias current and after the…
The following letters appeared in May 2004 (Vol.27 No.5):
The Explorer amplifier
Editor: I immensely enjoyed Art Dudley's review of the ASL Explorer 805 DT monoblock amplifier in March. Extremely impressive, and tempting.
John Atkinson may not know that a parallel-fed design can tune the output capacitor and transformer to peak out in the bass exactly as his curves show. It is not necessarily a feedback phase-shift scenario. May I also suggest that JA's final footnote should have read "Compressed transient peaks relax the psychoacoustic into perceiving greater low-level…
NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS: Electric Blue Watermelon
ATO (According To Our) Records 0026 (CD). 2005. Jim Dickinson, prod.; Roland Janes, Pete Matthews, Kevin Houston, engs. AAD? TT: 49:23
Performance ****
Sonics ****
ATO (According To Our) Records 0026 (CD). 2005. Jim Dickinson, prod.; Roland Janes, Pete Matthews, Kevin Houston, engs. AAD? TT: 49:23
Performance ****
Sonics ****
To hear them—or at least guitarist-songwriter Luther Dickinson—tell it, the North Mississippi Allstars play "old-fashioned Mississippi rock and roll," a description revised a sentence later in their official bio to "loud psychedelic southern folk rock blues."
Truth is, the NMA have always done what feels right. Once they seemed to be more a Memphisized…
Surfing the Usenet newsgroups and the Web audio forums recently, it struck me that the old wisdom is correct: If you keep your mouth shut, you won't say anything with which anyone can disagree. A topic that seems to be of perennial interest is how Stereophile chooses the products it reviews. Yet the more I have explained how it's done, the greater the criticism that is heaped on the magazine.
A continuing complaint is that Stereophile favors products from established major companies rather than opening its review pages to exciting, bleeding-edge components from tiny entrepreneurial…
The Vandersteen 3A is a higher-end variation on the theme established by the company's first loudspeaker, the 2C. The latter is still available, though much updated into the current, highly popular 2Ce. A four-way design, the 3A has separate sub-enclosures for each drive unit; the whole affair is covered with a knit grille-cloth "sock" with wood trim end pieces. A rear-mounted metal brace allows the user to vary the tiltback—an important consideration for best performance with this loudspeaker.
Both the VCC-1 center channel and the thinner VSM-1 surrounds (non-dipole) use a similar…
The Cinema Sound
When I first connected the full Vandersteen surround system in my audio/video room, I was not particularly happy with the result. The sound was lean, the top end rather bright (surprisingly, considering the sound of the 3A in my listening room). Since the new additions (center, surrounds, subs) had not had any obvious break-in (though I suspect the subs had seen use prior to my receiving them), I removed the subs and center to another room where I could "burn them in"—four days straight with "pink noise" and other material. The surrounds stayed in place (they were…
When I first connected the full Vandersteen surround system in my audio/video room, I was not particularly happy with the result. The sound was lean, the top end rather bright (surprisingly, considering the sound of the 3A in my listening room). Since the new additions (center, surrounds, subs) had not had any obvious break-in (though I suspect the subs had seen use prior to my receiving them), I removed the subs and center to another room where I could "burn them in"—four days straight with "pink noise" and other material. The surrounds stayed in place (they were…