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2013 Recommended Components Miscellaneous

Accessories

Audio Research Tube Damping Rings: $4 each ✩
Damping rings for all AR products are now available to the public at large. They're made of a proprietary polymer material that converts kinetic energy to heat, and their improvements are not subtle, exclaims BJR: tighter, cleaner, deeper, more dynamic bass; more coherent transient attacks; crisper, more extended highs; plus "improvements in the reproduction of subtle gradations of low-level dynamics." Give "em a whirl—the cost is minimal. (Vol.23 No.2, Vol.26 No.8 Read Review Online) Audioengine AW3: $149…

2013 Recommended Components Cables

Loudspeaker Cables & Interconnects

Editor’s Note: Rather than place cables in the usual “Recommended Components” classes, we’ve just listed those cables that members of the magazine’s review team either have chosen to use on a long-term basis or have found to offer good value for money. They are therefore implicitly recommended. Where a cable has been found to have specific matching requirements or an identifiable sonic signature, it is noted in the text. “Try before you buy” is mandatory with cables; many dealers have a loaner stock to make this easier.

Interconnects…

Atlantic Technology System 250 home theater loudspeaker system

When something called "high fidelity" assumed fad status during the 1950s, many manufacturers climbed on board by the simple expedient of adorning their last year's product with a high fidelity label. The Home Theater bandwagon is a little harder to jump on, because loudspeakers for use with television sets require something "ordinary" stereo speakers don't: magnetic shielding (or, more accurately, magnetic cancellation). Without it, placing the speakers within a few feet of a large-screen set does psychedelic-type things to the color (footnote 1). However, adding magnetic shielding, usually…

Atlantic Technology System 250 home theater loudspeaker system Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

251LR stereo/front-channel speakers: two 4" polypropylene-cone woofers, one ¾" dome tweeter. Frequency response: 80Hz–20kHz ±3dB. Impedance: 8 ohms. Sensitivity: 90dB/W/m. Recommended power: 10–150W.
Dimensions: 13" H by 6" W by 8.5" D. Weight: 9.1 lbs.
Serial numbers of units reviewed: 251LR10902/03.
Price: $299/pair; optional stands, $99/pair (1995); no longer available (2013).

253C center-channel speaker: two 4" polypropylene-cone woofers, one ¾" dome tweeter, midrange and treble tone controls. Frequency response: 80Hz–20kHz. Impedance: 8…

Atlantic Technology System 250 home theater loudspeaker system Review System

Sidebar 2: Review System

All of the speakers except the subwoofers were driven by a Parasound HCA-1206 six-channel amplifier and the latest "Plus" version of the Lexicon CP-3 surround decoder I reviewed in December 1992 (Vol.15 No.12). Other equipment included a Pioneer LDS-97 combination laserdisc/CD player, a Sony DTC-2000ES DAT recorder, a SOTA Cosmos turntable with vacuum hold-down, The Well Tempered Arm, and an Ortofon MC-3000 cartridge and step-up transformer.

Software included recent laserdisc releases, several of the incredible Classic Audio RCA Living Stereo LPs, some…

Atlantic Technology System 250 home theater loudspeaker system Measurements

Sidebar: Measurements

The Atlantic center and left/right speakers have similar B-weighted sensitivities at 88dB/2.83V/m and 90dB/2.83V/m, respectively. This is usefully high for such small loudspeakers, but has been achieved by restricting their low-frequency responses. As shown in the impedance plots of the loudspeakers (figs.1, 2, and 3), the enclosures are tuned to frequencies at the top of the upper-bass range—around 140Hz for the 251LR and 253C, and 108Hz for the 254S. These plots also show that the three speakers seriously depart from the specified 8 ohms. They are, in fact,…

Sound-Lab A-1 electrostatic loudspeaker

Designer Dr. Roger West got his first taste of electrostatic transducers many years ago during a stint with Janszen (remember the Janszen tweeter?). To realize the potential of the full-range electrostatic loudspeaker (ESL), he and Dr. Dale Ream formed a new company dedicated to ESL research and development. West describes this company, Sound-Lab Corp., as "the electrostatic speaker specialists."

The Model A-1 represents Sound-Lab's best effort at designing a system that appears to have a curved diaphragm. A truly curved diaphragm (à la MartinLogan) can have wide horizontal sound…

Sound-Lab A-1 electrostatic loudspeaker Page 2

The A-1's radiating surface area is 2200 square inches—a full 30% greater than the Model A-3's. When sound is radiated from such a large, tall surface in close proximity to both floor and ceiling, the vertical dispersion of the sound follows that of a line source. That is, a plane wave is launched from the surface for those frequencies whose wavelength is small compared to the length of the line source. Hence, all large panel radiators are generically referred to as planar speakers. In the nearfield of a line source there is no vertical dispersion of energy. Energy radiates in a figure-…

Sound-Lab A-1 electrostatic loudspeaker Page 3

The main purpose of the panels is to enlarge the effective area of the speaker's baffle. As is well known, dipole radiators with a finite baffle size lose radiation output below a critical frequency due to front-to-back cancellation of sound energy. This critical frequency is determined by the average baffle dimension. Cancellation (at the rate of 6dB/octave) is effective for frequencies whose half-wavelength is larger than the average baffle dimension. At 50Hz, the half-wavelength is 11', so that dipole radiators must be large in size to maintain decent bass efficiency.

If the dipole…

Sound-Lab A-1 electrostatic loudspeaker Page 4

With the A-1, not only the midrange but the bass and treble are covered by a single driver driven uniformly over its entire area. The resultant cohesiveness is most persuasive. The best way to appreciate this is to keep the music simple and focus on a solo voice or instrument.

Let's start with the lower octaves. Gary Karr's rendition of the Adagio d'Albinoni (King K33Y 236) on double bass, while technically imperfect in spots [Mr. Karr manages to play out of tune, is what DO is trying to say here.—Ed.] is blessed with an astonishingly sympathetic acoustic space. The grandeur of the…