The NRC, financed by the Canadian government, does basic research in many technological areas and makes its findings available to any firm wishing to use them. (Most other countries provide or encourage this kind of government/business cooperation. It is against the law in the US, to our great disadvantage.) The NRC's audio division, headed by physicist Dr. Floyd E. Toole, has devoted the…
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PSB is a small, Toronto-based manufacturer that has been collaborating with Canada's National Research Council to try and take some of the guesswork, some would say magic, out of loudspeaker design.
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-way, reflex-loaded, dynamic floor-standing loudspeaker system. Drivers: one 8" long-throw woofer with 3-lb magnet; one 1" treated-textile dome, ferrofluid-cooled. Crossover frequency: 1800Hz. System Q: 0.7 at 35Hz. Frequency range: 26Hz-21kHz. Frequency response: –1.5dB, 40Hz–20kHz. Sensitivity: 86dB/W/m; 88dB in typical listening room. Maximum program input: 150W. Maximum amplifier power: 200W, clipping less than 10% of time. Impedance: 6.5 ohms rated, 6 ohms minimum.
Dimensions: 38¼" H by 11" W by 13½" D.
Price: $1400/pair.…
Sidebar 2: Review System
Equipment used for my tests included the Ortofon MC-3000 cartridge with its T-3000 stepup transformer, the Well-Tempered Arm in a SOTA Star Sapphire turntable, Sony CDP-705ESD CD player, PCM-F1 digital tape system, the Threshold FET-10 preamp and line controller, and Threshold SA-1 power amplifiers.
Audio interconnects were Monster M1000s, and speaker cables were the aforementioned Straight Wire Ribbons. My 24'x19'x9' listening room is extensively treated with ASC Tube Traps. Program material was live-performance PCM tapes, and CDs and analog discs from…
The all-FET, class-A, B2B-1 phono preamplifier ($1749), made in the US by Liberty Audio, is beautifully built inside and out, and comes in a heavy-duty aluminum chassis with a baked-on crackle finish and a 3/8"-thick, black-anodized faceplate. The overall build quality and physical appearance suggest something that costs more than $3000, which is probably what it would cost were it sold through retailers and not factory direct. It comes with a two-week return policy.
The RCA input and output jacks are chassis-mounted, as you'd expect to find in products costing far more. There are also…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Solid-state phono preamplifier with unbalanced inputs and outputs (balanced inputs optional). RIAA accuracy 0.1%. Overall voltage gain: 44dB or 64dB, depending on internal setting. Equivalent short-circuit input noise: 100nV. Maximum output voltage: 12V. Risetime: 300ns.
Dimensions: 17" W by 10.5" D by 3.25" H. Weight: 11 lbs net.
Price: $1749. Approximate number of dealers: sold direct with a two-week return policy.
Manufacturer: Liberty Audio, 380 Vernon Way, Suites I–J, El Cajon, CA 92020. Tel: (619) 579-6450. Web: www.libertyaudio.…
Sidebar 2: Measurements
I measured a second sample of the Liberty B2B-1 (serial no. 1004), using Stereophile's loan sample of the Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It" and www.ap.com). The voltage gain of the Liberty set to its moving-magnet mode with its internal jumpers was 44.5dB; set to moving-coil, it was 64.2dB—both a little higher than usual, but still appropriate. The B2B-1 preserved absolute polarity (ie, was non-inverting) in both modes. The output impedance was a low 47 ohms across the audioband; the input impedance depended on the settings of the…
Dope Body’s Drag City debut, Natural History, was released earlier this week. It kills. You’ll read (I hope) in my July, August, and September “Entry Level” columns that I use the album to evaluate the rocking capabilities of the PSB Alpha B1, Polk RTi A3, Definitive Audio SM 45, and Tannoy Mercury V1 loudspeakers—all worthwhile choices.
But back to the awesome music: I’ve grown tired of guitars, but Dope Body is the rare modern guitar-driven rock band that gets me truly excited. These guys aren’t screwing around. They’re not trying to be clever or cute. They’re just rocking…
"Bigger, bigger, bigger...more, more, more!" That's how Richard Beers, President of The Home Entertainment Show Newport Beach, aka T.H.E. Show Newport Beach, describes the second installment of what he and co-conspirator Bob Levi, President of the Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society (LA&OC Audio Society), wryly call "An Audio Tradition...Since Last Year."
Scheduled for Friday June 1–Sunday June 3 in sunny Orange County, California's red state within a blue state, the second annual T.H.E. Show Newport Beach has already expanded from the Hilton Hotel, right across the street…
Krzysztof Penderecki/Jonny Greenwood
Threnody for the victims of Hiroshima, Popcorn Superhet Receiver, Polymorphia, 48 Responses to Polymorphia
Aukso Orchestra, Penderecki, Marek Mos, conductors
Nonesuch 530223-2 (CD) Filip Berkowicz, Michal Merczynski, prods. Barbara Orzechowska, associate prod. Ewa Guziotek-Tubelewicz, Pitor Witkowski, engs. Performance ***** Sonics *****
Threnody for the victims of Hiroshima, Popcorn Superhet Receiver, Polymorphia, 48 Responses to Polymorphia
Aukso Orchestra, Penderecki, Marek Mos, conductors
Nonesuch 530223-2 (CD) Filip Berkowicz, Michal Merczynski, prods. Barbara Orzechowska, associate prod. Ewa Guziotek-Tubelewicz, Pitor Witkowski, engs. Performance ***** Sonics *****
For the past two decades, the "C" word in classical music— crossover—has been a bone of both hope and contention. Lured by the supposed riches that lurk amongst classical fans who want to slum it and…
Portland, Maine, my hometown for the better part of two decades, is a pretty hip place. We are not, for the most part, innovators in fashion, but we are early adopters of the more interesting latest styles.
For years now, what I take to be a Brooklyn style has been prevalent among the local twentysomething crowd. The hipper restaurants are full of pretty young women and bearded men in plaid shirts who, on the one hand, seem ready for the woodlot but who, on the other hand, seem too skinny to lift a decent-size chainsaw. Likely as not, they arrived on single-speed racing bikes converted…