When I met JA and Stirling Trayle at the local T…
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The V10 sounded somewhat brash compared to, say, the Pass Labs X-160 monoblocks, which I reviewed last November, in part due to a tonal spike right where vocal sibilants reside. This wasn't a hashy or spitty sound, nor did it make the T+A amplifier sound grainy—it was just a slight but noticeable narrow-Q peak more clearly audible on sibilants than at any other time. It gave the amp a lively, percussive snap. If you like your tube amps warm and "tubey," the V10 isn't for you—though its midrange proved to be everything a tube amp should be.
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Tubed integrated amplifier with four line-level inputs and one tape loop. Tube complement: four EL509/II pentodes, two EC99 dual-triodes, two ECL82 (6BM8) triode-pentodes, two ECC83 (12AX7) dual-triodes. Output power: 80Wpc into 4 or 8 ohms (19dBW). Frequency response: 8Hz-100kHz, -3dB. Total harmonic distortion: <0.08% at 1W, <0.5% at full modulation. IM distortion: <0.03% (no conditions stated). Input sensitivity (for full power): 250mV. Input impedance: 20k ohms. Signal/noise ratio: >100dB (no reference given).
Dimensions: 17.4" (…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog sources: Simon Yorke S7, Clearaudio Emotion turntables; Immedia RPM-2, Graham 2.2 tonearms; Lyra Titan, Red Rose Rose Petal, Graham Nightingale II, Clearaudio Aurum Classic cartridges.
Digital source: Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista SACD/CD player, Alesis Masterlink CD recorder.
Preamplification: Musical Fidelity kWP preamplifier, Manley Steelhead phono preamp.
Power amplifiers: Musical Fidelity kW monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio WATT/Puppy 7, Audio Physic Kronos, Aerial Acoustics SW12 subwoofer.
Cables: Phono: Hovland Music Groove…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
It proved a little tricky to arrange the optimal grounding between the T+A V10 and my Audio Precision test gear. However, I eventually succeeded in eliminating a residual low-level hum, and left the amplifier driving a 1kHz sinewave into 8 ohms for an hour at 30W, to get everything warmed up. I checked the bias after that period using the front-panel LCD screen. The left channel was one notch below maximum bias, the right channel smack dab in the middle of the recommended range, which the manual suggested was optimal. However, the left channel featured more than…
If you've got a thousand dollars to spend, I think asking for advice in choosing between the Coriolis Effect Deluxe Rev.3.2 power cord and the Shamelessly Hosing Neither Balanced Nor Unbalanced Tofu-Filled Mystical interconnect (footnote 1) is usually asking the wrong question.
Let's get our minds out of thinking that we're in the hobby of buying stereo equipment. If we begin thinking of ourselves as being in the hobby of working to create a feeling of connectedness with things larger than ourselves, we might be happier. Wires do fine at connecting pieces of gear, but are less proficient…
"Sponsor" a student string quartet
Colleges and universities that have music-degree programs usually have undergraduate chamber ensembles such as string quartets that study and rehearse together for the course term, and then are graded as ensembles. As they're going to have to play through the assigned pieces anyway, why shouldn't they play though them for an hour or two every other week in your living room?
Colleges and universities that have music-degree programs usually have undergraduate chamber ensembles such as string quartets that study and rehearse together for the course term, and then are graded as ensembles. As they're going to have to play through the assigned pieces anyway, why shouldn't they play though them for an hour or two every other week in your living room?
Every other week of a 16-week semester is eight sessions, and at $25 for each quartet player, that's $800. Spend the rest on a nice dinner for everybody at semester's end.…
Elemental Recordings
Continuing with the list of recordings I use to evaluate new equipment, here are the ladies—other than Ella Fitzgerald, whose previously mentioned (March 2001) "Easy to Love," from her The Cole Porter Songbook, is indispensable.
Continuing with the list of recordings I use to evaluate new equipment, here are the ladies—other than Ella Fitzgerald, whose previously mentioned (March 2001) "Easy to Love," from her The Cole Porter Songbook, is indispensable.
The following pop recordings use varying degrees of processing and are, in general, miked rather closely. But each presents a strongly distinctive, richly nuanced voice in better-than-average sound, which in my experience is much more useful than a so-what voice in superb sound.
Joni Mitchell: Court and Spark (Asylum 61001-2).…
Dating was murder, especially in the months just before I met my wife. I knew some nice women back then, many of whom were good-hearted and others of whom were beautiful. One was both, and talented, too: She gave me presents for no reason and wrote tender things in cards with pictures of sweet meadows or the sea: My love goes on and on, they said. But for whatever reason, I just couldn't love her back, and Oh! how the shit hit the fan the day I told her so. I meant it as a respectful act of honesty and forthrightness; she took it as a cowardly act of rejection, and responded in a manner that…
As I mentioned above, the Ayre AX-7 exhibited a tremendous clarity in my system: Not only did voices and instruments sound real and uncolored, but my Ayre-powered Quads seemed to float them into the room with a greater-than-usual degree of presence. About two-thirds of the way through the first movement of Mahler's Symphony 3—toward the end of the portion marked Zeit lassen, a tempo—five notes are played on the glockenspiel, spaced over a number of measures. Even on an average-sounding recording of the work, such as Barbirolli and the Hallé from 1969 (BBC 4004-7), these notes tend to stand…
The Ayre always sounded good, but the difference between sounding good and playing music is like the difference between wallpaper and a painting: Both can be colorful and detailed, but only one of them goes anywhere.
Was the AX-7 a bad mate for my Quad ESL-989s? On closer listen, the Quads' bass panels weren't as well controlled by the Ayre as they were by my older, less powerful, and altogether cheaper vintage Naim NAP110 amplifier—and since the electrostatic Quads are grounded and the Ayre has a balanced throughput...well, to borrow a sentence construction that became popular a few…