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"You certainly love weird music!" my wife yelled from the kitchen. This just reconfirmed my suspicion that reviewing subwoofers is a lonely job that brings no respect. What's so weird about the droning of Tibetan temple horns accompanied by the chants of Tibetan Gyuto monks, all framed by a powerful synthesizer in Philip Glass's soundtrack to Kundun (CD, Nonesuch 79460-2)? What's so strange about the karate-like cries of the drummers in the Kromata Percussion ensemble as they smash away at their timpani and gongs in Yoshihisa Taira's Hierophonie V (CD, BIS CD-232)? What's so odd about the…
Music
Once level-matched and equalized, the MartinLogan Depth moved lots of air, generated clean, powerful subwoofer bass with extremely deep extension, and blended with my Quad speakers (footnote 2). More important, it did not change the pitch, timbre, or quality of midrange and upper-midrange musical tones. Its servo suppressed any upper harmonics, something that power-packed baby subs without servo control have been unable to do in my huge listening room.
Once level-matched and equalized, the MartinLogan Depth moved lots of air, generated clean, powerful subwoofer bass with extremely deep extension, and blended with my Quad speakers (footnote 2). More important, it did not change the pitch, timbre, or quality of midrange and upper-midrange musical tones. Its servo suppressed any upper harmonics, something that power-packed baby subs without servo control have been unable to do in my huge listening room.
Furthermore, the Depth passed my most stringent torture test, "Assault on Ryan's House," from the Patriot Games soundtrack (…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Powered, servo-controlled subwoofer using "BalancedForce Technology," in sealed enclosure. Drive-units: three 8" high-excursion aluminum-cone woofers with 1.5" push-pull voice-coils Frequency response: 20-150Hz, ±3dB. Crossover: low-pass filter: 30, 35, 45, 55, 65, 80Hz (switched, defeatable), 18dB/octave slope; high-pass filter: 40Hz, 70Hz (defeatable). Built-in amplifier: Signal-Sensing Auto on/off. 300W RMS (500W peak), class-D. Inputs: 2 line-level (RCA), 1 LFE (RCA), 1 high-level pair per channel (4 speaker terminals: bare wire, banana plugs,…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog source: Linn Sondek LP12-Lingo turntable, Linn Ittok tonearm, Spectral moving-coil cartridge.
Digital sources: Krell KPS-28 CD player, Sony SCD-C555ES multichannel SACD player.
FM tuners: Day-Sequerra Classic, McIntosh MR-78, Sony ST-5000.
Preamplification: Mark Levinson ML-7 preamplifier with L3A moving-coil phono cards, Duntech MX-10 head amplifier, Margulis phono section, Krell KCT preamplifier.
Power amplifiers: Mark Levinson ML-2 monoblocks, Krell FPB600c, Mark Levinson No.334.
Loudspeakers: Quad ESL-989.
Cables: Interconnect…
J.S. BACH: Morimur
Partita No.2 in d for Solo Violin, BWV 1004; 11 Chorales; Chaconne from BWV 1004 and "Auf meinen lieben Gott" realized by Helga Thoene for solo violin & four voices
Christoph Poppen, baroque violin. The Hilliard Ensemble: Monika Mauch, soprano; David James, countertenor; John Potter, tenor; Gordon Jones, baritone
ECM New Series 1765 (CD). 2001. Manfred Eicher, prod.; Peter Laenger, eng. DDD. TT: 61:42
Performance *****
Sonics *****
Partita No.2 in d for Solo Violin, BWV 1004; 11 Chorales; Chaconne from BWV 1004 and "Auf meinen lieben Gott" realized by Helga Thoene for solo violin & four voices
Christoph Poppen, baroque violin. The Hilliard Ensemble: Monika Mauch, soprano; David James, countertenor; John Potter, tenor; Gordon Jones, baritone
ECM New Series 1765 (CD). 2001. Manfred Eicher, prod.; Peter Laenger, eng. DDD. TT: 61:42
Performance *****
Sonics *****
In 1994, Bach scholar Helga Thoene published a paper arguing that a number of the chorales Bach had written for his…
ROBERT WALTER'S 20TH CONGRESS: Money Shot
Fog City FCCD 004 (CD). 2000. Dan Prothero, prod., eng.; Kevin Ink, asst. eng. AAD? TT: 59:24
Performance ****?
Sonics ****?
Fog City FCCD 004 (CD). 2000. Dan Prothero, prod., eng.; Kevin Ink, asst. eng. AAD? TT: 59:24
Performance ****?
Sonics ****?
While all music is hard to describe in words, some genres, like Funk, are impossible. In his book Funk (St. Martin's Griffin, 1996), Rickey Vincent wrestles with this problem on the first page: "Funk is a many-splendored thing. Funk is a nasty vibe, and a sweet, sexy feeling; funk is a high, but it is also down at the bottom, the low-down earthy essence, the bass elements. Funk is at the extreme of everything…
When Bob Graham introduced his 1.5 tonearm at the end of the 1980s, many thought he was dreaming: Vinyl was going the way of the console radio—who would invest two-grand-plus in a tonearm? But there was a method to Graham's madness—he'd designed his arm to be a drop-in replacement for more than 20 years' worth of SME arms, all of which shared the same mounting platform. Perhaps, in his wildest dreams, Graham had already envisioned the current "analog revival"—but even without it, he figured there'd be a robust replacement market, and he was poised to exploit it with what he thought was a…
Mechanical comparisons
Worried about a unipivot's behavior on warped records? Graham's tungsten "outriggers," angled at 23 degrees—the same as the headshell offset—stabilize the arm much like a high-wire walker's pole. And since the azimuth is adjusted by screwing the two tungsten weights in and out, the adjustment is keyed to the offset angle (Graham has a patent on this); thus, the cartridge moves in the desired plane.
Worried about a unipivot's behavior on warped records? Graham's tungsten "outriggers," angled at 23 degrees—the same as the headshell offset—stabilize the arm much like a high-wire walker's pole. And since the azimuth is adjusted by screwing the two tungsten weights in and out, the adjustment is keyed to the offset angle (Graham has a patent on this); thus, the cartridge moves in the desired plane.
The Graham's tracking ability and stability are superb by any standard. The new locking-collet system is a major improvement over the old design, and the new…
But the Graham 2.0's bass response was, in every way, the equal of the Immedia's—meaning that the 2.0's new mounting platform and VTA shaft-locking system were doing their jobs as planned. As before, the Graham's other strong suits remained superb image focus, detail, depth, dimensionality, transient speed, dynamics, and stability. On live recordings like Belafonte at Carnegie Hall, Belafonte's voice maintained a holographic presence that was eerie. When the audience applauds, Carnegie Hall's U-shaped seating arrangement spread before me with a thrilling, convincing three-dimensionality. If…
That's not hyperbole. I did the switch without comment for many listeners, and all reacted the same: "It sounds so much quieter and more luxurious [or equivalent adjective]." Probably not to Bob Graham's taste, but more to mine.
With the Hovland cable in the system, the Graham took on a relaxed, warm, more physical feel—yet all of the detail, depth, dynamic authority, and three-dimensionality remained. I like the Graham "sound" out of the box, wired with his choice of interconnect; I like it even more with the Hovland cable inserted.
The Precision Interface Technology cable—even…