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The final configuration David chose for the Puppy was to use two 7.5" Dynaudio woofers—units with large magnets and large-diameter voice-coils—in a ported enclosure, the small, 2.75"-deep, oval vent being on the unit's rear. Like the WATT, the Puppy's front baffle is covered with a rubber blanket, to minimize reflections of the drive-unit outputs from the cabinet edges, with a cellular-foam grille held on by Velcro. The cabinet is made from fiberboard, with a complex internal construction using multiple crossbraces to maximize rigidity in the Puppy's intended passband. The 24" height of…
The soundstage presented by the WATTs and Puppies was big, relatively deep (though not as deep as that thrown by the KEF 107s I reviewed in May), and sharply defined. Just before the Gerontius passage mentioned earlier, for example, an unaccompanied double choir antiphonally requests God to be merciful and to spare Gerontius's soul. The WATT/Puppy soundstage is of such delicacy that you can hear each of the eight voices as they enter, superbly delineated in the recorded acoustic.
The imaging tests on the Chesky Test CD (JD37) confirmed the imaging excellence of the Wilson system, though…
Sidebar 1: Review System
The main system with which the WATTs and Puppies were auditioned consisted of a Linn/Ekos/Troika setup sitting on an ArchiDee table to play LPs, a Revox PR99 to play 15ips master tapes, and the Stax DAC-X1t processor driven by Meridian 602 and Wadia WT-3200 transports to play CDs.
Preamplification first consisted of the Expressive Technologies transformer hooked into a Mod Squad Phono Drive EPS and a Threshold FET ten/e line stage, this combination then replaced by the French YBA 2 preamplifier.
The power amplifier used was almost exclusively the…
Sidebar 2: Measurements
The majority of the measurements were performed with a DRA Labs MLSSA acoustic analysis system, with a B&K/DPA 4006 ½" microphone. Looking first at the Series 3 WATT's impedance with the Puppy, the tuning of the WATT's reflex port lies at 36Hz; without the Puppy, the WATT 3's impedance peaks at 21.6 ohms at 74Hz (not shown). With the Puppy, this peak disappears, to be replaced by the Puppy's two bass peaks, the minimum between them at 27Hz indicating the Puppy's port tuning frequency. The slight impedance peak centered on 17.5kHz, just above a typical adult's…
Sidebar 3: Specifications
WATT 3: Two-way, stand-mounted loudspeaker with reflex bass loading (QB3, quasi third-order Butterworth alignment fitted with 1"-diameter, 1.75"-deep port suitable for amplifiers with damping factors (DF) of 100 to 400; alternative port supplied for amplifiers with DF between 20 and 80). Drive-units: 1" inverted-dome tweeter, 6.5" doped-pulp–cone midrange/woofer unit. Estimated crossover frequency: 3.7kHz. Frequency response: 58Hz–18kHz +1, –3dB. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms (measured minimum 1.7 ohms at 2.4kHz). Sensitivity: 91dBA/W/m. Amplifier requirements: 30W…
Nite Jewel’s glittery, slinky sound recalls the pop and R&B of the late 80s and early 90s—stuff that you might have heard on Hot 97 or Z100 when you were 12 years old, searching for an identity, a groove, or simply for something good on the radio.
I can't help it: I like it.
While previous Nite Jewel releases have appeared on Mexican Summer, Italians Do It Better, and Gloriette Records, the band recently signed to the excellent Bloomington label, Secretly Canadian, home to Antony and the Johnsons, Damien Jurado, and The War On Drugs, among other fine acts. Nite Jewel’s…
Several weeks ago, a dear friend reminded me of the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs on June 12, 2005, at Stanford University. The entire speech heaves with wisdom, hope, and love, and I tend to come back to it every now and then, just as I do Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass—for comfort, compassion, direction, perspective. I meant to write something about it then, but things got in the way.
Here’s a pertinent excerpt:
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because…
All photos: Kristen Somody Whalen.
On the evening of Tuesday, September 27, KEF dealers, friends, and associates celebrated the British loudspeaker company’s 50th anniversary. The event was held in the impressive penthouse residence of British Consul-General, Danny Lopez, where guests were treated to tall glasses of Pimm’s, delicious hors d’oeuvres, and electric views of Midtown Manhattan and Long Island City.
Of course, there was also music—both live, thanks to Nate Buccieri on piano, and reproduced, thanks to a system comprising Parasound JC 1 monoblock…
Tom Harrell: The Time of the Sun
Tom Harrell, trumpet, flugelhorn; Wayne Escoffery, tenor saxophone; Danny Grissett, piano, Fender Rhodes; Ugonna Okegwo, bass; Johnathan Blake, drums
High Note HCD7222 (CD). 2011. Tom Harrell, Wayne Escoffery, Angela Harrell, prods.; Joe Fields, exec. prod.; Mike Marciano, eng. AAD? TT: 62:12
Performance ****½
Sonics ****½
Tom Harrell, trumpet, flugelhorn; Wayne Escoffery, tenor saxophone; Danny Grissett, piano, Fender Rhodes; Ugonna Okegwo, bass; Johnathan Blake, drums
High Note HCD7222 (CD). 2011. Tom Harrell, Wayne Escoffery, Angela Harrell, prods.; Joe Fields, exec. prod.; Mike Marciano, eng. AAD? TT: 62:12
Performance ****½
Sonics ****½
Trumpeters use their horns to search for truth. At least that's the folk tale. Somehow, that pure, ringing tone that most strive for at some point in their career—think Louis Armstrong, Clifford Brown, Miles Davis—…
When I was a young music lover, I'd often listen to Simon and Garfunkel's Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme LP, specifically the song "Scarborough Fair/Canticle."
Are you goin' to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.
Remember me to one who lives there,
She once was a true love of mine.
That memory came back during the e-mail exchanges I had with John Atkinson and Stephen Mejias about the positives and negatives of the proliferation of regional audio shows. (JA's reflections on these shows were the subject of last month's "As We See It.")
Annual…