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I shall always recall fondly the hours I spent shopping for used vinyl at my "local," my favorite Portland, Maine, used record store. If you wanted great-sounding records of great music in very good condition, for just a few bucks, this was the place. My local did not carry much collectible vinyl, but that was okay: I was never really interested in the high-dollar stuff. It wasn't until I moved to New York City that I started to wonder where it had all gone. The proprietor, I knew, traveled the country buying up collections. It was the '00s; he would have encountered many valuable records—so…
Sound Quality
Generally speaking the ZMF Eikon has a smooth, warm sound overall. Bass is slightly emphasized and well extended. I wouldn't say the bass bleeds into the mids so much as there is just an overall mild warm tilt on this headphone overall making them a relaxed listen. Bass has a slightly gruff distorted sound and doesn't hit quite as hard as the best headphones, but remains a solid performer and a pleasant listening experience. Response bass through mids is quite even, though the presence region is a little more relaxed than the rest of the spectrum giving the headphones a…
Measurements
Click on graphs image to download .pdf for closer inspection.
Click on graphs image to download .pdf for closer inspection.
Raw frequency response plots show mild changes in level with movement, but very little change in tonality. Raw frequency response is essentially linear with a warm tilt to the notch at 16kHz. The neutral target would have it gently rising from 600Hz to 1.5kHz. The concha peak at 3-4kHz is about the right height and frequency, subsequent response about right on average, but quite rough. In listening, the peak at 6kHz seemed to annoy only occasionally, but the notch from 7-9kHz did seem to reliably remove some…
In the introduction to "Recommended Components" in the final issue in Volume One of what was then called The Stereophile, published in May 1966, founder J. Gordon Holt briefly described his Top-Rated Loudspeaker Systems.
Altec A-7
A highly efficient horn-loaded system for use in large to very large listening rooms (at least 15' from the listening area), or for very high-volume "Row-A" listening. Excellent woofer-tweeter blending, moderately deep (useful 45Hz limit in most rooms) and very taut, well-defined low end. Highs smooth and slightly soft, yielding most natural high-end quality…
For a phono cartridge to generate current and voltage, something must move: a coil of wire (as in a moving-coil cartridge), or a magnet (as in a moving-magnet type), or a tiny piece of iron (a moving-iron type). In those rare cartridges that depart from the electricity-generating principle of the ones described above, it can be a displacement-measuring device in which a moving shutter modulates a light source to vary a supplied voltage (as in an optical cartridge), or one in which voltage is modulated when a tiny chip of silicon crystal is squeezed by a moving element, which varies the chip's…
The Red Sparrow's design is apparently unique, and so was its sound, in a very good way: smooth, airy, velvety, and vivid, with a particularly rich midrange that I wanted to sink my ears into. It was only the second cartridge of my experience to produce this much harmonic and textural generosity, in combination with exceptional transparency, quiet groove tracing, and a secure sense that all of this was being produced at the expense of very little or nothing elsewhere in the sound. That other cartridge was Grado Labs' Lineage Epoch, which costs $12,000, and which I wrote about in my December…
You think Watergate was a momentous break-in? You should hear what a good electronic Rolfing does to the sound of this meticulously built, full-sized, full-featured, and full-priced ($3495) phono section imported from New Zealand by Fanfare International. Out of the box, the Plinius M14 sounds like what it looks like: all silvery, hard, and steely. Just leaving it powered up doesn't do the trick, nor does playing music through it—unless you're prepared for endless hours of truly bad sound before the sonic clouds begin to break.
No, getting good sound out of this baby requires a major-…
I've heard systems whose iciness drove me up the wall, but which pleased their owners no end. Some would find my system too bright and etched, but I'd probably find theirs syrupy and suffocating. That's the way this game is played, and that's part of the fun and fascination of having high-end audio as a hobby—or as a job, for that matter.
But back to the M14's creamy, rich palette: cymbals, bells, celeste, harpsichords, snare drums, and other instruments with sharp percussive edges came through with their initial transients intact, but with a rounded, sculpted aftertaste that extended…
Sidebar 1: Associated Equipment
Turntables: VPI TNT Mk.3, Rega Planar 9, Clearaudio Reference.
Tonearms: Souther TQ-1, Immedia RPM-2, Graham 2.0.
Phono Cartridges: Transfiguration Temper, Lyra Parnassus D.C., AudioQuest 7000 Fe-5, Clearaudio Accurate (gold coils), Rega Exact, Grado Reference.
Preamplifier: Audible Illusions Modulus 3A.
Power Amplifiers: VTL Signature 175, Muse 160, Adcom 5802.
Loudspeakers: Audio Physic Virgo, Aerial Model 8; Audio Physic Terra subwoofer.
Cables: Yamamura Millennium 6000 and Quantum AC. Discovery Plus Four, Precision Interface…
Sidebar 2: Measurements
While the Plinius 14 has both low- and high-gain settings, the low-gain setting is really too high for most moving-magnet cartridges, and appears instead designed for medium-gain moving-coils. Unless otherwise noted, the results are for the high-gain setting with unbalanced outputs.
The Plinius 14's output impedance was 170 ohms (right channel; slightly lower, at 163 ohms, in the left). At its balanced outputs, the output impedance measured 354 ohms. Its input impedance measured 47k ohms (L) and 45.6k ohms (R) at the 47k ohm setting of the input impedance…