Both Robert Harley and Corey Greenberg had raved about the Muse Model 18, a slot-loaded mono active subwoofer. Small plug-in circuit boards ("Personality Cards") allow the Muse to be customized to different satellite loudspeakers. This customization, and the Muse's very restricted frequency response (17Hz–100Hz), allow it to play with dynamic agility and a lack of plodding slowness. The Muse has become one of this magazine's top-rated subwoofers at a price competitive with the Velodyne ULD-18 and somewhat less imposing…
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Larry Greenhill wrote about the Muse 18 in March 1993 (Vol.16 No.3):
Thomas J. Norton wrote about the Muse 18 in May 1993 (Vol.16 No.5):
The subwoofer to beat, of course, would appear to be the Muse Model 18. My experience with this woofer had been limited to shows and the occasional visit to Robert Harley's listening room, where the Muses are a regular fixture. Since Bob was occupied reviewing two large, full-range loudspeakers and not currently using the Muse, I took the opportunity to snatch (footnote 1) his sample away for a listen in my own system. Muse was kind enough to send along several personality cards for the Model 18. I inserted the card for…
Sidebar 3: Specifications
Description: Powered monophonic slot-loaded subwoofer. Drivers: two 10" long-throw woofers. Alignment: 6th-order. Internal amplifier power: 225W. High-pass filter type: 4th-order passive with active buffers. High-pass gain: unity, with 100 ohm output impedance. Maximum high-pass output level: 10V RMS. High-pass –3dB point: default at 50Hz, selectable with different "personality cards." Low-pass –3dB point: default of 50Hz, selectable with different "personality cards." Controls: 3: level, damping, and delay. System –3dB point: 18–25Hz depending on damping…
On Friday, October 21, Stereophile editor John Atkinson presented the Richard Heyser Memorial Lecture at the 131st Audio Engineering Society Convention, held at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan. A couple of days later, JA spoke with Home Theater’s Scott Wilkinson about some of the points he made during the event.
From the safety of your own home or office (without the threat of JA throwing a baseball at you or pouring a glass of water on your laptop), you can tune in to Scott’s podcast and enjoy much of what JA covered in his fascinating lecture, titled “Where Did the Negative…
Photo: Dino Perrucci/Blue Note Jazz Club
Chick Corea is at the Blue Note in New York City all for the entire month, celebrating his 70th birthday by riffling through all the chapters of his wildly eclectic career, playing different music with different bands, shifting casts and moods each week, sometimes from night to night.
I caught the early set Thursday, a trio with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Brian Blade, and it was a thorough delight. Last time Corea played the club, in May of last year, with Eddie Gomez and Paul Motian, in a set he titled “Further Explorations of Bill…
Tomorrow night, from 7 to 8pm, in the Rare Book Room of Manhattan’s wonderful Strand Bookstore (828 Broadway), author Kevin Avery will sign copies of his new book, Everything is An Afterthought: The Life and Writings of Paul Nelson.
Who was Paul Nelson?
From the Strand:
In the '60s, he pioneered rock & roll criticism with a first-person style of writing that would later be popularized by the likes of Tom Wolfe and Norman Mailer as "New Journalism." During a five-year detour at Mercury Records in the early 1970s, Nelson signed the New York Dolls to their…
The Leben RS-30EQ phono preamplifier ($2695) incorporates a pair of common dual-triode tubes (12AT7) for phono gain, but breaks with tradition by using a CR-type equalization circuit rather than the more common negative-feedback type. Total gain is specified as 23.5dB, which is sufficient for moving-magnet pickups; an external transformer is recommended for use with moving-coil types. A silicon full-wave rectifier supplies heater voltage, while the rail is supplied by a 6X5GT rectifier tube.
The RS-30EQ is just as well built as Leben's CS300 integrated amplifier, with which I auditioned…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Tubed phono preamplifier. Tube complement: two JAN 12AT7A (GE), one 6X5GT (GE).Phono inputs: 1 (MM). Voltage gain: 23.5dB. Input impedance: 47k ohms. Output voltage: 175mV.
Dimensions: 13.3" (340mm) W by 5.5" (140mm) H by 9.4" (240mm) D. Weight: 13.2 lbs (6kg).
Serial Number Of Unit Reviewed: 960120.
Price: $2695. Approximate number of dealers: 11.
Manufacturer: Leben Hi-Fi Stereo Company, 3-22-2 Nishikoya, Amagasaki City, Hyogo 661-0047, Japan. Tel: (81) 06-6433-4054. Web: lebenhifi.com. US distributor: Tone Imports. Web: www.…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Garrard 301, Thorens TD 124 turntables; EMT 997, Schick tonearms; Ortofon SPU, EMT OFD 25 & OFD 65 pickup heads.
Digital Sources: Wavelength Proton USB D/A converter; Apple iMac G5 computer running Apple iTunes V.10.2.2, Decibel V.1.0.2 playback software; Sony SCD-777ES SACD/CD player; Sony PlayStation 1 (as CD player).
Preamplification: Auditorium 23 Standard (SPU version), Silvercore One-to-Ten step-up transformers; Shindo Masseto preamplifier.
Power Amplifiers: Shindo Corton-Charlemagne monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Audio…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
To measure the Leben, I used Stereophile's loaner Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and the January 2008 "As We See It").
The RS-30EQ phono preamplifier offered a voltage gain of 37.1dB, which is very much higher than the specified 23.5dB but is appropriate for moving-magnet cartridges. The preamp preserved absolute polarity (ie, was non-inverting), and its input impedance was 46k ohms at 1kHz, this dropping slightly, to 41k ohms, at the frequency extremes. The low-frequency output impedance was ridiculously high, at 28k ohms at 20Hz, and was…