In a recent e-mail, Faulkner elaborated on the benefits of two-way speakers in general and the Duette in particular, saying that most three-…
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I had had it in the back of my mind for some time to try to hear the Wilson Duette, if only because celebrated classical recording engineer Tony Faulkner had, some time ago, shared with me his opinion that the Duette's simpler crossover made it the most coherent speaker in Wilson's line. Faulkner told me that when a cramped recording venue makes it impossible for him to use his favorite Quad electrostatic speakers for monitoring, he uses Duettes.
Like all Wilson speakers, the Duette is available only in spray-painted automotive finishes—no wood veneers. The standard colors are nonmetallic black and three metallic shades: a very dark gray, silver, and what I call champagne. Wilson calls these: Diamond Black, Dark Titanium, Desert Silver, and Argento Silver Twelve. "Upgrade Colors" are available by special order. Four of these are what I call Rich Guy Famous Italian Car Colors (nonmetallic red, yellow, blue, and white), but I think the others look much better. I've seen Macadamia, a rich brown with gold metallic flecks, on a pair of…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Specifications: Two-way, reflex-loaded bookshelf loudspeaker with separate crossover enclosure. Drive-units: 8" cone woofer, 1" silk-dome tweeter. Sensitivity: 90dB/W/m/kHz. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms. Minimum impedance: 3.96 ohms at 3.1kHz. Recommended amplifier power: >20W.
Dimensions: 18.4" H by 9.4" W by 13.75" D. Weight: 39 lbs.
Finish: Automotive paints in non-metallic black, Diamond Black, Dark Titanium, Desert Silver, and Argento Silver Twelve.
Price: $13,900/pair plus $1795/pair for matching stands. Approximate number of dealers: 50.…
Sidebar 2: Review System
The associated equipment was primarily Luxman's C-600f solid-state preamplifier, MQ-88 tubed power amplifier, and D-05 SACD/CD player, with Bricasti Design's M1 DAC D/A converter. The Bricasti was fed a digital signal either from my Apple iMac running Amarra's music-server software via a Musical Fidelity V-Link, or a Denon DN-961-FA CD player (retired from a radio station) as an AES/EBU transport, later replaced by a Musical Fidelity CDT transport. I also used Parasound's Halo JC 2 preamplifier and Halo JC 1 solid-state, 400W monoblocks. Connecting it all were…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
A mid-March visit John Marks and I made to Derry, New Hampshire, retailer Fidelis provided an opportunity for me to give the Wilson Audio Duettes a listen in John's Rhode Island room on my way back to New York. As I'd taken along my portable speaker-measuring gear—Earthworks QTC-40 microphone, Metric Halo ULN-2 FireWire audio interface, and MacBook laptop running SMUG Software's FuzzMeasure program—I also examined the Duettes' in-room response. The speakers were driven by the Parasound Halo JC 1 monoblocks, as they had been for some of JM's auditioning.
I…
Oswalds Mill Audio, the Pennsylvania-based company that designs, manufactures, imports, and sells a range of vintage-inspired and mostly bespoke domestic playback gear, has opened a showroom in New York City. OMA Dumbo, named for its historic neighborhood (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), now occupies the entire top floor of an industrial building at 110 Bridge Street in Brooklyn, walkable from either the Brooklyn or Manhattan Bridge.
Jonathan Weiss, the founder of Oswalds Mill Audio and pictured above, first used this industrial loft space as a film studio, most…
Teen is Teeny Lieberson (guitars, keys, vox), Lizzie Lieberson (key and vox), Jane Herships (bass and vox), and Katherine Lieberson (drums and vox). The band's debut full-length, In Limbo, will be released on August 28th by Carpark Records.
The video for "Better" uses footage from that 1986 classic Quicksilver, featuring Kevin Bacon, of course. I'd almost completely forgotten about that weird bicycle/ballet scene. Children all over the US tried, unsuccessfully, to recreate this scene in their parents' living rooms. (Or maybe that was just me.)
Can anyone identify the big…
Arthel "Doc" Watson, one of America's greatest musical treasures, has died in Winston-Salem, North Carolina at the age of 89. A seven-time Grammy Award winner, Watson was known for his rich, unaffected singing voice, his apparently limitless repertoire of Appalachian folk songs, and a flatpicking guitar style that influenced a great many of his peers and inspired countless others to take up the instrument.
Born to a farming family in Wilkes County, North Carolina, Watson was blinded by an eye infection during his infancy, and later attended the Morehead School for the Blind in Raleigh,…
Bob's Devices CineMag 1131 phono transformer, May 2012 (Vol.35 No.5):
Two years ago, in an e-mail with the subject line "Stop the Nonsense Please," a reader from Altadena, California, decreed that Stereophile's writers should immediately cease writing about phono transformers. Perversely, we have carried on nevertheless.
"You are doing a horrible disservice to your readers," this gentleman wrote in his concluding paragraph, "and creating confusion with reviews touting the use of separate devices like 'step-up transformers' not readily available from any reputable dealer I know in…
Keith Pray, Publisher of the Source Interlink Home Tech Network, is delighted to announce the launch of the newest Home Tech Group website AnalogPlanet.com, edited by the world’s foremost proponent of analog technology, Michael Fremer.
Michael Fremer’s AnalogPlanet will be the premier source for information and reviews of new analog products including turntables, cartridges and phono preamps as well as accessories and set-up tips. Michael’s more than 200 "Analog Corner" Stereophile columns will eventually be posted to AnalogPlanet, as will select analog product reviews originally…