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X-Men in High Fidelity #1: Obsolete

The Entry Level #23

It was around 7pm on Tuesday evening when I bumped into Nicole and Ms. Little on Newark Avenue, in downtown Jersey City. The girls were on their way to Kristen's shop, Kanibal Home, for their weekly book-club meeting. (Or was it Writing Club? Knitting? Screen printing? Butterfly pinning? I can never keep track.) I was on my way home, not to read, write, or listen to music, but . . .

"Hi, honey," Ms. Little said. "Going home to play with your cartridge?"

I made a face, nodded, sighed. Sensing some sharp-witted remark forming in Nicole's filthy mind, I beat her to the punch: "Yup,…

The Entry Level #23 Page 2

The very first 10X was released in 1978. (JA used to own one.) Over the years, improvements have been made to the cartridge's magnet material, coil design, and structure. Today's DV 10X5 weighs 7.3gm, and has an elliptical stylus tip and an aluminum cantilever. The recommended load impedance is anything greater than 1000 ohms, meaning the standard 47k ohm load will work just fine. Recommended tracking force is 1.8–2.2gm. For use on my Rega P3-24, Pranka suggested I set the tracking force at 1.9–2.0gm; for use on the VPI Traveler, VPI's Harry Weisfeld recommended a tracking force of 2.2gm. I…

The Entry Level #23 Contacts

Sidebar Contacts

Dynavector Systems, Ltd., 2-16-15 Iwamoto-cho Chiyoda-ku. Tokyo, Japan 101-0032. Tel: 81 (0)3-3861-4341. Fax: 81 (0)3-3862-1650. Web: www.dynavector.co.jp.

US distributor: Dynavector USA, 8116 Gravois Road, St. Louis, MO 63123. Tel: (314) 454-9966. Web: www.dynavector-usa.com.

Music Direct, 318 N. Laflin Street, Chicago, IL 60607. Tel: (312) 433-0200. Fax: (312) 433-0011. Web: www.musicdirect.com

The British Invasion v.2: The Beatles Tour the US<i>on LP</i>

Over at AnalogPlanet, Michael Fremer has kept us up to date on the highly anticipated remastered Beatles LPs. While the reemergence of the Beatles catalog on vinyl is exciting news for many music lovers, audiophiles are most curious about how these new editions will sound.

Get ready to find out.

Beginning Monday, November 19, and continuing through Friday, December 7, Capitol Records/Apple Corps will host in-store listening events at high-end audio retailers in 10 major US markets. As if that wasn’t cool enough, each event will feature a guest speaker involved in the remastering…

Definitive Technology StudioMonitor 55 loudspeaker

Recently, I thought about all the audio shows I've attended over the last 27 years, looking for any pattern that all of them might have shared. I came up with a handful of audio manufacturers that have earned at shows a reputation for getting, year after year, consistently good sound—rooms in which I could reliably depend on being able to chill out and enjoy music in good, involving sound. Those companies include Audio Research, Music Hall (distributor of Creek and Epos), Vandersteen Audio—and Definitive Technology. Since their founding, in 1990, Maryland-based DefTech has been a major…

Definitive Technology StudioMonitor 55 loudspeaker Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Two-way, biwirable, stand-mounted loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" aluminum-dome tweeter, 6.5" BDSS cast-basket mid/woofer reflex loaded by a 6"-by-10" passive radiator. Frequency range: 32Hz–30kHz. Nominal impedance: 8 ohms. Sensitivity: 90dB/w/m. Recommended amplification: 20–225W.
Dimensions: 13" (329mm) H by 77/8" (200mm) W by 123/8" (310mm) D. Weight: 15.5 lbs (7kg).
Finish: Matte-black wood-grain vinyl.
Serial numbers of units reviewed: Mgba0112ta00281, '499.
Price: $598/pair. Approximate number of dealers: 150.
Manufacturer:…

Definitive Technology StudioMonitor 55 loudspeaker Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Analog Sources: VPI TNT IV, Rega Planar 3 turntables; Immedia, Syrinx PU-3 tonearms; Koetsu Urushi, Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood cartridges.
Digital Sources: Lector CDP-7T, Creek Destiny CD players.
Preamplification: Vendetta Research SCP-2D, Creek Destiny phono stages; Audio Valve Eclipse line stage.
Power Amplifier: Audio Research Reference 110.
Integrated Amplifier: Creek Destiny.
Loudspeakers: Epos ELS3 & M5i, Wharfedale Diamond 10.1.
Cables: Interconnect (all MIT): Magnum M3, MI-350 CVTwin Terminator, MI-330SG Terminator.…

Definitive Technology StudioMonitor 55 loudspeaker Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

I measured the Definitive Technology StudioMonitor 55 with DRA Labs' MLSSA system, a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone for the speaker's frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 mike for the nearfield responses. I estimated the SM55's voltage sensitivity at 87.6dB(B)/2.83V/m, which is reasonably high but significantly below the specified 90dB. The SM55's impedance is specified as 8 ohms; my plot of its impedance magnitude (fig.1, solid trace) remained above 6 ohms for most of the audioband. Though there are minimum values of 3.8 ohms at 205Hz and…

The Great Les

Going to see Les Paul during his final years, playing every Monday night at the Iridium club just north of Times Square in NYC was always a good time, not only for the music—and to be truthful, by then Les’ arthritis had robbed him of his best chops—but also for his playful, well–meaning, semi–lecherous sense of humor. It’s a point made by many of the interview subjects in Thank You Les, a new CD/DVD package that celebrates not only Paul who died in 2009 at age 94, but also his longtime sideman, guitarist Lou Pallo. Keith Richards, Billy F. Gibbons, Slash and Steve Miller are the more famous…