Sidebar 3: Comparisons with the Alón Circe
From Stereophile, May 1999, Vol.22 No.5 The B&W Nautilus 801's $11,000/pair price is quite close to the Circe's $12,000/pair. Both speakers are quite sensitive to the ancillary components that must be used with them. But the two speakers sound quite different from one another, and I don't imagine they'll appeal to the same listeners. The B&W is dynamic as all get out, and can play loud enough to cause structural damage. The Alón did a superb job of presenting dynamic contrasts and shadings, and played plenty loud enough for me---even…
Sidebar 4: Associated Equipment LP playback: Linn LP12/Lingo/Cirkus/Ekos/Arkiv.
CD playback: Linn CD12 Sondek, Sonic Frontiers Iris 3 Transport/DAC 3.
DVD player: Denon DVD-3000.
Preamplification: Linn Linto phono section, Conrad-Johnson ART, Mark Levinson No.380S.
Power amplifiers: two Mark Levinson No.332s.
Cables: Madrigal CZ-Gel 1, Kimber Black Pearl, Straight Wire Crescendo.
Accessories: API Power Wedge Ultra, Cinepro PowerPRO 20 Professional Series AC Line Balancer, OSAR equipment and amplifier racks.
Room treatment: ASC Tube Traps, Studio Traps, Bass Traps;…
Sidebar 5: Measurements The big B&W's sensitivity was basically to specification, at an estimated 90dB(B)/2.83V/m. However, the plot of its impedance magnitude and phase (fig.1) reveals that it is a demanding load, dropping to 3 ohms through the midrange and to 4 ohms in the high treble. In addition, a punishingly high capacitive phase angle in the midbass, coupled with a low magnitude, will demand a good, current-worthy amplifier. It's no surprise that WP found biamping the 801s with two Levinson No.332s to be a worthwhile exercise. The saddle in the impedance magnitude curve…
From right to left, fig.4 shows the responses of the midrange/tweeter, the woofer, and the port. The latter covers the narrow bandpass centered on 20Hz, confirming the Nautilus' excellent bass extension. While some peakiness can be seen in its output at 300Hz, this is well down in level and will also be suppressed by the fact that the port faces downward. As expected, the woofer's minimum-motion point lies at 21Hz, with its output starting to roll off above 100Hz. The acoustic crossover to the midrange unit appears to be set at 250Hz, a little lower than specified. The slopes also seem…
The Nautilus 801's tweeter is 43" from the floor, which is a little high for a person of normal height sitting in a sofa. (A survey performed some years ago by Stereophile's Tom Norton revealed a remarkable uniformity of ear height. Short or tall people sitting on typical domestic sofas had an ear height of 33"-39".) Fig.7, which shows the changes in the B&W's response in the vertical plane, normalized to the tweeter-axis curve, reveals that as long as the listener sits with his or her ears between the tweeter axis and the midrange axis, the perceived balance will not change too much.…
Following my favorable experience with Epos Ltd.'s entry-level loudspeaker, the ELS-3 ($329/pair; see my January 2004 review), Roy Hall, of importer Music Hall, called me with some excitement about the new Epos M5 ($650/pair). In a crowded room at the Home Entertainment 2004 show in New York, I did a quick comparison of the M5 and ELS-3 under suboptimal conditions of multiple speakers in the room and Roy answering consumers' questions while pouring scotch for his dealers. Still, I was able to hear enough from the M5 to intrigue me, and with high expectations, I asked for a pair for review…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-way shielded, biwirable, reflex-loaded, stand-mounted loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" (25mm) dome tweeter with gold-anodized aluminum-alloy diaphragm, 5.4" (137.5mm) mineral-loaded polymer-cone woofer. Frequency range: 60Hz–20kHz. Impedance: 4 ohm nominal. Sensitivity: 87dB/W/m. Power handling: 100W. Recommended amplification: 25–100W.
Dimensions: 12.7" (325mm) H by 6.8" (174mm) W by 8.2" (210mm) D. Weight: 12.3 lbs (5.6kg).
Finishes: black; light cherry wood veneer.
Serial numbers of units reviewed: M5-0302-0260a/b.
Price: $650/pair.…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: VPI TNT IV turntable, Immedia RPM tonearm, Koetsu Urushi cartridge; Rega Planar 3 turntable, Syrinx PU-3 tonearm, Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood & Aurum Beta S cartridges.
Digital Sources: California Audio Labs Icon Mk.II Power Boss, Creek CD53 Mk.II CD players; Pioneer DV-333 DVD player.
Preamplification: Vendetta Research SCP-2D phono stage, Audio Valve Eklipse line stage.
Power Amplifier: Audio Research VT100 Mk.II.
Integrated Amplifier: Creek 5350SE.
Loudspeakers: Epos ELS-3, NHT SB3, Nóla Rascal Mk.II.
Cables:…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
The nicely finished Epos M5 offered just-above-average voltage sensitivity, at an estimated 88dB(B)/2.83V/m. Its impedance magnitude remained above 4 ohms over most of the audioband, dropping to minima of 3.6 ohms at 250Hz and 6.5kHz (fig.1). The electrical phase angle is generally moderate, though there is a somewhat demanding combination of 5 ohms impedance and –45º phase at 4kHz. Even so, a 4-ohm–rated amplifier will have no problem driving this speaker.
Fig.1 Epos M5, electrical impedance (solid) and phase (dashed). (2 ohms/vertical div.)…
Andy Payor hurls a briefcase full of engineering and scientific mumbo-jumbo at in an attempt to justify the $73,750 price of the latest and greatest edition of his Rockport Technologies turntable, but really—isn't this all-air-driven design a case of analog overkill? After all, defining a turntable's job seems rather easy: rotate the record at an exact and constant speed, and, for a linear tracker, put the stylus in play across the record surface so that it maintains precise tangency to a radius described across the groove surface. By definition, a pivoted arm can't do that, so the goal…
