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Back in the summer of 1968, I bought a secondhand pre-CBS Fender Precision Bass guitar for the grand sum of £35 (then about $75) (footnote 1). It was so cheap because the previous owner had pretty much scratched the sunburst finish to ribbons. The P-Bass may have looked like roadkill but it played like a dream, so I decided to refinish its body. Paint stripper removed the remains of the original nitrocelloluse lacquer, leaving me with a white wood body—ash, I understand—which I carefully sanded and stained. Contrary to what you might expect, the finish of an electric guitar does have an…
The nasal coloration noted on the very revealing pink-noise signal could be heard as a slight "clankiness" to the sound of recorded piano. Emanuel Ax's 1992 Liszt recital (Sony Classical SK 48484), recorded by Bud Graham using just a pair of B&K omni mikes fed via Jensen preamps straight to 20-bit Sony A/D converters, sounded more forward, with more midrange character, than I'm used to on the Thiel CS 2 2s.
The low frequencies extended subjectively down to 40Hz, below which the rollout seemed very quick, even for a reflex speaker. The organ pedal on my recording of Elgar's Dream of…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-way, stand-mounted, reflex-loaded loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" (25mm) ferrofluid-cooled, anodized metal-dome tweeter, 6.5" (165mm) anodized aluminum-cone woofer with a nitrile-rubber surround. Crossover frequency: 3.2kHz. Crossover slopes: first-order, 6dB/octave. Frequency response: 40Hz-30kHz ±3dB. Sensitivity: 88.5dB/W/m (2.83V). Nominal impedance: 8 ohms. Amplifier requirements: 20-200W.
Dimensions: 13.8" (350mm) H by 8.5" (216mm) W by 10" (254mm) D. Weight: 22 lbs (10kg) each.
Finishes available: American walnut, black ash, Santos…
Sidebar 2: Review context
Power amplifiers were either a pair of Mark Levinson No.20.6 monoblocks or a YBA 2 HC, while the preamplifier was variously the Melos SHA-1 headphone amplifier used as a line-stage, the YBA 2, or the new remote-controlled Mark Levinson No.38. A Mod Squad Phono Drive EPS amplified LP signals from a Linn Sondek/Cirkus/Trampolin/Lingo/Ekos/Arkiv setup sitting on an ArchiDee table. Digital source was either a Mark Levinson No.30 or a Krell Reference 64, both driven by a Mark Levinson No.31 transport via AudioQuest Pro 2 ST-optical (Krell) or Madrigal AES/EBU (No.30…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
The Studio 6's impedance magnitude and phase, measured using the magazine's Audio Precision System One, are shown in fig.1. Dropping below 6 ohms only in the lower midrange—the minimum value is 5.55 ohms at 243Hz—and remaining above 8 ohms for much of the time, this graph implies that the Studio 6 should work well even with current-starved tube amplifiers. The port is tuned to 45Hz, the impedance magnitude featuring a saddle centered on that frequency.
Fig.1 Monitor Audio Studio 6, electrical impedance (solid) and phase (dashed) (2 ohms/vertical…
The Monitor Audio's impulse response on the tweeter axis (fig.7) is dominated by ringing from the tweeter's ultrasonic resonance. The corresponding step response (fig.8) reveals that both tweeter and woofer are connected with the same polarity, but that, as expected from a design with a flat baffle, the tweeter leads the woofer by a few fractions of a millisecond, meaning that this is not a time-coherent design.
Fig.7 Monitor Audio Studio 6, impulse response on tweeter axis at 45" (5ms time window, 30kHz bandwidth).
Fig.8 Monitor Audio Studio 6, step response on…
The Richard Gray's Power Company 400S arrived on the audiophile scene last year with a bang. Weighing in at a hefty 20 lbs and at $700 a pop, this four-outlet power conditioner, according to the paperwork, "effectively 'positions' audio, video, and home theater equipment 'electronically closer' to your utility company transformer, without introducing any type of series electronic 'traps' or capacitors into the circuit, which we feel degrade the performance of certain equipment, and severely limit the amount of current they can handle."
They go on: "Richard Gray's Power Company increases…
Gray's Anatomy
In the "Gray Paper," which "contains some technical Information, some not!," Richard Gray, "Partner and Inventor," describes how he "re-invented" power. Ahem. He points accusingly (and correctly) at the rumba line of modern devices hung on the AC line these days, to mix metaphors! The problem is the rabid, high-reactance load of modern electronics, which top up their capacitors at the top and bottom of the 120V, 60Hz AC sinewave, but only there (footnote 1). Like little starving piranha, the sudden multiple reactive loads create a sort of fizz at the top and bottom of the…
In the "Gray Paper," which "contains some technical Information, some not!," Richard Gray, "Partner and Inventor," describes how he "re-invented" power. Ahem. He points accusingly (and correctly) at the rumba line of modern devices hung on the AC line these days, to mix metaphors! The problem is the rabid, high-reactance load of modern electronics, which top up their capacitors at the top and bottom of the 120V, 60Hz AC sinewave, but only there (footnote 1). Like little starving piranha, the sudden multiple reactive loads create a sort of fizz at the top and bottom of the…
On the front-end, I tried the 400S on the high-current BAT VK-50SE preamplifier and the Accuphase DP-75V 24-bit/192kHz upsampling CD player, which was used almost exclusively for front-end evaluation. (The Mark Levinson No.32 Reference preamplifier regenerates its own AC, so it wasn't a good used for this review.) I tried the 400S straight into the dual-quad 20-amp lines that serve our front-end components, and plugged into the "pass-through" amp sockets of the Audio Power Industries Ultra Wedge our front-end components are normally run through. I also tried the Accuphase player directly…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Inductor-based AC line conditioner working on 100-135V AC at 60Hz, 14-gauge internal wiring, 15 amp IEC connector and plug. Detachable power cord.
Dimensions: 5.5" W by 9" H by 4.75" D. Weight: 20.5 lbs.
Serial numbers of units reviewed: None found.
Price: $700. Approximate number of dealers: undisclosed.
Manufacturer: Audio Line Source LLP, 2727 Prytania Street #6, New Orleans, LA 70130. Tel: (800) 880-3474, (504) 897-6688. Fax: (504) 891-0102. E-mail: info@audiolinesource.com. Web: www.audiolinesource.com.