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Binding posts of Wilson Benesch's own design, at the lower rear, provide for biwiring. Jumpers are provided for single-wiring, and high-quality wrenches for the spike nuts and binding posts. The spikes, nuts, wrenches, owner's manual, and jumpers come packed in a small plastic attaché case. The A.C.T.s' shipping cartons, by the way, are exemplary. Three large quarter-turn latches on an overlapping flap make them the first loudspeaker cartons I have ever seen that are reusable without packing tape. (Engineering elegance aside, I assume that having a carton that can be easily opened and…
Okay, let's return to the power grid. In the February installment of "Fine Tunes", we learned that typical domestic 110V AC supplies are derived from that 220V transformer out on the pole. The center-tap 110V supply is unbalanced, but if you take 220V service, you're getting balanced power. One thing you can do is take 220V down to 110V with a step-down transformer. George Cardas swears by it. He's also experimenting with a Statpower Technologies Prosine 1000 Full Square Wave Converter hooked to a big mutha battery to power his front-end components.
"Yep, it sounds great! It's enough to…
FAIRFIELD FOUR: Standing in the Safety Zone
The Fairfield Four: Isaac Freeman, bass, musical director; James Hill, baritone, group manager; W. L. Richardson, lead, chaplain; Walter Settler, utility lead; Wilson Waters, tenor, treasurer
Warner Bros. 26945-2 (CD only). Lee Olsen, prod. ADD. TT: 38:13
The Fairfield Four: Isaac Freeman, bass, musical director; James Hill, baritone, group manager; W. L. Richardson, lead, chaplain; Walter Settler, utility lead; Wilson Waters, tenor, treasurer
Warner Bros. 26945-2 (CD only). Lee Olsen, prod. ADD. TT: 38:13
Here's the deal: I tell you that this is not only a fantastic feel-good gospel disc, but one of the best-sounding CDs I've ever heard from any label including the Audiophile-Approved littlies; you rush out and get it, hurry home to cue it up, then curse my name in big scary capitals when…
We are now well past the era in which every review of digital playback equipment had to begin with an apology for the medium. CD replay performance may, in fact, now be bumping up against a glass ceiling. But that doesn't discourage high-end audio manufacturers from trying to advance the art, and tempt audiophiles (at least those among us who are not hopeless digiphobes) out of our minds.
Take Madrigal Audio Laboratories, maker of Mark Levinson audio gear. First, they come out with the reference standard No.30 D/A converter. Then came the much less expensive No.36. Pretty good piece. (I…
The No.36S
The Levinson No.36S D/A converter is based, as noted above, on the No.36, and its external and operating features are virtually identical. (For more details on the common features than I present here, I refer the reader to our review of the No.36 in Vol.18 No.11, or to Levinson's own very thorough, product information.) The No.36S has the same full complement of digital inputs, with the same ability to designate a user name for each input on the front-panel LED window. It has the "Master Communications Ports" to link it to other Levinson 30-series components—like the No.37—…
The Levinson No.36S D/A converter is based, as noted above, on the No.36, and its external and operating features are virtually identical. (For more details on the common features than I present here, I refer the reader to our review of the No.36 in Vol.18 No.11, or to Levinson's own very thorough, product information.) The No.36S has the same full complement of digital inputs, with the same ability to designate a user name for each input on the front-panel LED window. It has the "Master Communications Ports" to link it to other Levinson 30-series components—like the No.37—…
Details? That resolution I mentioned gives the feeling of listening into the program. Saint-Saëns's Oratorio de Noël (Proprius PRCD 9057) displayed a striking sense of depth. The soloists were firmly anchored in space, laterally and from front to back. On Good Vibrations (RCA 60938-2) The King's Singers could be individually differentiated. And on Standing in the Safety Zone (Warner Bros. 26945-2) the Fairfield Four have never sounded more like a group of separate singers.
The top end of the 37/36S is as airy and extended as you could hope for from CD. (I'm beginning to wonder how much…
Comparisons
I didn't have a comparably priced D/A converter/transport available for a direct comparison, but I'm not certain what that would prove. No comparison would be likely to change my opinion of the 37/36S. Of more interest to me (and, I trust, to most of our readers) was how the Mark Levinson combination would stack up against more-affordable competition. Specifically, I compared it with two high-end, single-piece players.
I didn't have a comparably priced D/A converter/transport available for a direct comparison, but I'm not certain what that would prove. No comparison would be likely to change my opinion of the 37/36S. Of more interest to me (and, I trust, to most of our readers) was how the Mark Levinson combination would stack up against more-affordable competition. Specifically, I compared it with two high-end, single-piece players.
I began with the $2995 Audio Research CD1. My prior experience with this machine suggested that its sonic timbre is fairly similar to that of the Levinson…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
No.37 Description: CD transport with four digital outputs: AES/EBU on XLR, S/PDIF on BNC, S/PDIF on RCA, ST optical.
Dimensions: 15.75" W by 3.76" H by 14.3" D. Weight: 34 lbs (shipping).
Serial number of unit reviewed: 2311 (second sample).
Price: $3995. Approximate number of dealers: 76.
No.36S Description: Digital-to-Analog converter with HDCD decoding and 20-bit resolution. Digital inputs: two AES/EBU on XLRs, two S/PDIF coaxial (one RCA, one BNC), one ST optical, one TosLink optical. Outputs: L&R balanced (XLR) and unbalanced (RCA) (…
Sidebar 2: System
The No.36S and No.37 were evaluated in a system consisting of the Rowland Consummate preamplifier, Aragon 8008 power amplifier, and either the Energy Veritas v2.8 or the Sony ES SS-M9 loudspeakers. (Much of the final listening, including the comparisons, was done through the Sonys, which proved fully up to the task.) I used primarily a coaxial digital link via Kimber AGDL. Interconnects were (except as noted) TARA Labs RSC Master Gen.2 unbalanced (converter to preamp), and Cardas Hexlink unbalanced from preamp to power amp. Loudspeaker cables were a bi-wire set of…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
Checking the error-correction performance of the Mark Levinson No.37 transport with the Pierre Verany test disc indicated no problems through track 34, where it began to mistrack. This is a very good though not exceptional result. Track 27 is the required minimum CD standard.
The rest of the measurements presented are for the No.36S. Unless otherwise noted, all of the results are for the unbalanced output mode. (Selected measurements were repeated from the balanced output and were not significantly different from the results shown here.)
The…