Fraser also wrote two of my favorite movies: The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers, as well as a…
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For many years one of my most beloved guilty pleasures has been reading George MacDonald Frasier's books. Not just the Flashman Papers, which I have found delightful and from which I have learned a lot of 19th century history, but also his McAusland novels, his Mr. American,his spirited adventure novel Candlemass Road (which, at a taut 181 pages, is one of the finest examples of economical action writing ever), and his masterful history of the Scottish boarder wars, The Steel Bonnets.
On my travel day to Vegas, I awoke at 3am and flew six hours to the desert city. When I checked into my hotel, I stripped off my outerwear and napped.
When I awoke, I wandered bleary-eyed into the suite's living room and saw what I took to be Bagheera sleeping on the sofa. "Did she hide in my suitcase last night?" I briefly wondered.
Nope. Time to hang up some clothes.
Sidebar 2: Measurements
As I was due to drive up to Colorado with my daughter for the 1991 Denver Grand Prix (footnote 1) when JGH told me about the bass problem he was having with the Nelson-Reeds, I dragged along the MLSSA measurement setup to his new home in Boulder. My room measurements confirmed the presence of the midbass suckout when the speakers were set up symmetrically, though they also showed that JGH's room has a nicely controlled and even reverberant characteristic, ranging from 0.3s at 250Hz to 0.2s at 8kHz.
Fig.1 shows the spatially averaged in-room response from…
Sidebar 3: How to Calculate Maximum SPL
If you have a scientific calculator (or a slide rule, or a set of log tables), it is easy to calculate, from a loudspeaker's sensitivity rating, how much Sound Pressure Level it will put out with a given amount of available amplifier power.
Since a sensitivity rating is a statement of SPL of acoustic output with 1W of signal input (at 400 or 1000Hz), it will be increased according to the difference in deciBels between the amplifier's rated maximum output and that 1W reference level. To calculate this, take the amplifier's rated output,…
Sidebar 4: Specifications
Description: Floor-standing, three-way, dynamic loudspeaker reflex woofer loading (system Q = 0.7, optimal damping). Drive-units: two 8" cone woofers, one 3" doped-linen dome midrange, one ¾" soft-dome tweeter (B), 1" metal-dome tweeter (CM). Crossover frequencies: 300Hz, 6kHz (B); 320Hz, 4.2kHz (CM). Nominal impedance: 8 ohms, 6 minimum. Frequency response: 32Hz–20kHz ±3dB, . Sensitivity: 92dB. Maximum acoustic output: 120dB SPL at 500W RMS in. Linear continuous output (3dB compression): 114dB at 320W RMS. THD at 1kHz: 0.15% at 100dB, 0.35% at 110dB SPL.
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The Jadis Eurythmie speakers ($37,000/pair) arrived in a multitude of oversized boxes. Importer Northstar Leading the Way's Frank Garbie dragged them into our downstairs lobby and broke them open, elevatoring the individual modules up to our door. This happened on one of my office days, but Kathleen pushed me out the door in the morning with a "Don't worry cherie, I can handle it..." She phoned in periodic updates on Garbie's progress. Remember that old Stan Freberg routine? "I got it, I got it...I don't got it!" I arrived home just in time to hook up the amps.
Frank had set down the…
"A horn speaker's design is based upon calculations that determine the correct shape to amplify a certain range of frequencies. Hence our optimized four-driver system: Bass, Mid-Low, Mid-High, and Treble." See, it's Franglais, but it gets the point across. "With the Eurythmies, the bass crossover frequency of 180Hz allows a maximum of fundamental tones to be reproduced by the horn transducers—the pitch, the treble clef, and the bass clef are present in frequencies from 180 to 800Hz. We have therefore prioritized this range and kept the advantages of a drum..." (that's a dynamic moving-coil…
The lobe of sound the Eurythmies threw seemed pear-shaped, with the bulbous end acoustically circumambient to the listener. I know about pear-shaped—that's what Kathleen says I am! That may account for the sense that I was sitting a few aisles removed to the middle of the concert hall when taking the rear seat. In fact, you're at the rear of the lobe, looking into, rather than being immersed by, the energy of the soundfield.
While pear-shaped is what I've used to describe the lobe of sound, it should be understood that sitting within that fruity lobe, the apparent soundstage for the…
Sidebar 1: Measurements
My apologies but there are no measurements of this intriguing speaker's performance. Logistical problems, a winter storm, and sheer lack of time to make the trip to Durango, CO, prevented me from measuring the Eurythmie II in time to accompany this review. However, the horn speaker had a even-balanced power response, based on my experience at J-10's, where it sounded less-colored/more-neutral the farther away I listened to it.—John Atkinson
Sidebar 2: Specifications
Description: 4-way hybrid horn/dynamic-driver loudspeaker system. Crossover frequencies: 180Hz, 700Hz, 7kHz. Peak power handling: 70W. Sensitivity: 103dB/W/m with bi-amplification, above 180Hz, 96dB/W/m with mono-amplification.
Dimensions: 59" (1500mm) H by 27.5" (700mm) W by 27.5" (700mm) D. Weight: 176 lbs (80kg).
Price: $37,000/pair (1996); no longer available (2012).
Manufacturer: Jadis S.A.R.L., Villedubert, France. US Distributor: Northstar Leading the Way, Durango, CO 81302 (1996); Bluebird Music Ltd., 310 Rosewell Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M4R…