search

Sophia Knapp: <i>Into the Waves</i>

It’s one of those things. I can still clearly remember the moment I first set eyes on Sophia Knapp. She was strolling through the back room of Maxwell’s in Hoboken, NJ, with a confidence, flair, and singularity that left no room for questions: She was in the band.

I was there with Omar and Monica, and we had never heard of Sophia Knapp or that band, then called Lights. We were there to see Dengue Fever, and they were good, but it was Lights that won our hearts.

Lights exhibited a compelling combination of sophistication and naivety. They played their instruments&#151guitar,…

Julia Holter at Other Music

Last night, before heading over to Other Music for Julia Holter’s in-store performance, I stopped by In Living Stereo and had a nice conversation with sales manager Steve Cohen. I got to hear a few of Steve’s own recordings through a system made of Dynaudio loudspeakers and Rega electronics, including the new, slick-looking Apollo CD player ($1095). Though the recordings were made using simple keyboards and sent straight to 4-track, the richness of the music and balance of the system far overshadowed any sonic limitations. It sounded great.

I was also pleased to see that In Living…

AXPONA Jacksonville Gets Ready

It's the afternoon before AXPONA Jacksonville opens, and Carmen Davis is getting prepared. Badges are ready, and welcome smiles and hugs are plentiful. But it's not until after 5 that the show guide arrives from the printer. There were, it seems, so many last minute cancelations and room changes that what only a few weeks before had been announced as 40 exhibit rooms has instead been consolidated into 28.

As Carmen and I chat, she thanks me for pointing out, in Stereophile's Show preview the vital importance of the AXPONA/live symphonic nexus. Some people, she had discovered, just don't…

AXPONA's Two Bs

Bliss and Beethoven: That's AXPONA founder Steve A. Davis' promise to show attendees. The bliss comes in the form of several show seminars centering around Transcendental Meditation, which he and his wife Carmen have practiced for many decades. Beethoven is served up across the street, Thursday through Saturday nights, courtesy of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra under guest conductor Mei Ann Chen. Further bliss hopefully comes as attendees experience audio nirvana, or at least cumulative sonic epiphany, in AXPONA's 28 exhibit rooms.

AXPONA hosted a lively mixer for exhibitors…

Nite Jewel: <i>One Second of Love</i>

The first time I heard “One Second of Love,” the title track from Nite Jewel’s new album (released earlier this week on Secretly Canadian), I didn’t think much of it. It was another pop song from another young, indie artist, recalling the late 1980s and early 1990s&#151enjoyable, but unimaginative.

I was crazy. My initial reaction was wrong: The more I listened, the more I enjoyed the song’s motoric drive, insistent, each cold verse followed by seductive chorus, its gentle harmonies contributed by fellow LA-based artist, Julia Holter, its insolent snarl and alluring coo. I can’t get…

Aerial Acoustics Model 7T loudspeaker

It's hard to believe that it's been 20 years since Michael Kelly formed Aerial Acoustics, introduced the Model 10T loudspeaker, and I wandered into his demo room at a New York audio show and was smitten. That speaker did everything right and seemed to do nothing wrong. Disc after disc was played as I imposed my impression on the listening chair (I recall there being only one). At the time, the 10T was only a bit out of my price range, so for many years it was what I aspired to have. Kelly and I repeated this little play over the years as his speaker line grew, and he always was patient as he…

Aerial Acoustics Model 7T loudspeaker Page 2

At the upper end, the 7T was deliciously detailed and transparent and, as in the bass, continually surprised me by imposing absolutely no hint of brightness on midrange sounds. Cymbals, softly brushed or smartly struck, came through with sheen from an otherwise silent space. My longtime reference for this is Oscar Peterson Meets Roy Hargrove and Ralph Moore (CD, Telarc CD-83399); the 7T exquisitely delineated Lewis Nash's crisp drumming.

The 7Ts' imaging was as pinpoint and consistent as that of any speaker I've heard; individual voices and instruments were arrayed on a very deep stage…

Aerial Acoustics Model 7T loudspeaker Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Three-way, floorstanding loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" (25mm) soft ring-radiator tweeter with dual magnets and machined waveguide; 5.9" (150mm) papyrus-blend midrange cone with 1.25" (32mm) voice-coil, dual magnets, and cast magnesium frame; two 7.1" (180mm) bilaminate-cone woofers with 1.5" (39mm) voice-coils and cast magnesium frames. Crossover: 400 and 3000Hz, both four-order Linkwitz-Riley. Frequency response: 28Hz–25kHz, ±2dB; –6dB at 23Hz. Dispersion: 30Hz–15kHz, +0/–3dB from axial response over 45° horizontal window. Impedance: 4 ohms nominal…

Aerial Acoustics Model 7T loudspeaker Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Digital Sources: Sony XA-5400ES SACD/CD player, Oppo BDP-95 universal Blu-ray player, Logitech Squeezebox Touch networked music player.
Preamplification: Parasound Halo JC 2 BP preamplifier, Meridian HD621 HDMI audio processor & 861 Reference V6 preamp-processor.
Power Amplifiers: McIntosh MC303 (three-channel), Bel Canto Design REF1000 Mk.II (monoblocks).
Loudspeakers: B&W 800 Diamond, Sony SS-AR1, JL Audio Fathom f113 subwoofer.
Cables: Digital: Black Cat Veloce. Interconnect: van den Hul Flat 180, AudioQuest Vodka HDMI &…

Aerial Acoustics Model 7T loudspeaker Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

My estimate of the Aerial Acoustics Model 7T's B-weighted sensitivity on its tweeter axis was 86.6dB/2.83V/m—significantly lower than the specified 89dB. The electrical impedance remains between 4 and 8 ohms over much of the audioband (fig.1), but drops to 3.5 ohms in the upper bass and low treble, and to 3 ohms in the low bass. Although the electrical phase angle remains low at almost all frequencies, this speaker will work best with a good amplifier rated at 4 ohms.

Fig.1 Aerial Acoustics Model 7T, electrical impedance (solid) and phase (…