One of the factors allowing it to cost so little was the clever adaptation of cardboard tubes, normally used as forms for pouring concrete pillars, for use as speaker enclosures. They have a number of advantages, other than low cost: their circular form helps eliminate resonance of the back wave within the enclosure; the material is rigid because of its shape, and is non-resonant…
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This is a speaker we've been fairly intimate with over quite a period of time. Designed by John Bau, the SC-50i started out three years ago as an inexpensive speaker system ($330/pair) not sold through dealers.
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: two-way acoustic suspension speaker system with 6.5" Audax paper-cone woofer and 1" Audax soft-dome tweeter. Impedance 4 ohms.
Dimensions: 13.5" H × 9" D (circular back).
Price: $460/pair (1982); no longer available (2021).
Manufacturer: Spica, 1570 Pacheco Street, Santa Fe, NM 87501 (1980–1983); 1601 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe, NM 87501 (1984–1988); Parasound/Spica, 3425 Bryn Mawr NE, Albuquerque, NM 87107 (1989–1996). Company no longer in existence (2021). Web (2021): spicaspeakers.com
It's been a long time coming, but it is finally happening. As I write these words, T.H.E. Show (aka The Home Entertainment Show), the successor to the late Richard Beers' original T.H.E. Show that began as an alternative high-end showplace to CES, is about to begin in the Long Beach Hilton. (That's Long Beach, California, for the uninitiated.) Dealers and exhibitors have set up in 20 or so rooms and numerous marketplace booths, said their prayers, enjoyed dinner in the hotel or in downtown Long Beach, and begun to burrow in for the night. As they do, components cook, cables settle, and the…
Two rooms, side-by-side at T.H.E. Show 2021, with two entirely different but equally valid windows on sound. To the left—we are not talking politics here—the UK's ATC loudspeaker company, manufacturer of time-honored active and passive loudspeakers. Courtesy of their reps, Las Vegas-based Lone Mountain Audio, we are hearing the US show debut of SCM100ASLT Active Driver Tower loudspeaker ($41,999/pair, or $50,999/pair in this particular glossy finish; right in photograph below). This is a bigger speaker than the two other speakers that the company usually shows, and the music played via file,…
When Wayne Carter told me that his company, San Diego-based Wayne Carter Audio, designed audio systems for rock stars and also distributed Margules Audio tube products, I knew I had to pair one room with the other. The potential contrast between Carter's "vintage mastering system from 30 years ago"—assembled partly for fun and partly as a tool to help customers understand what was and is possible—and Margules's diminutive gear was too delicious to resist.
"The Lazarus H-1A and Lazarus 200/200s were the electronics of choice back in their time," Carter told me. So (at…
I mentioned this room in the opening blog from T.H.E. Show 2021, but only to point out the unusual nature of its PowerSlave Marble Mk.II power distributor ($18,500), the Stacore Roller Anti-Vibration Platform with cryo-max mass loading+bearing isolation ($4180), and the huge Stage III Poseidon AC power ($22,000) and Cerberus speaker cables ($36,200/pair). While they weren't the most expensive components in the room, their prices certainly topped that of the flagship Aurender W20SE music server/streamer ($22,000).
Despite the prices, Aaudio Imports' multicultural collection went far…
Sticking with my arsenal of past R2D4 picks, and because I knew it would make me smile, I put on Count Basie & His Atomic Band doing "Roll 'Em Pete," from the killer collection Complete Live at the Crescendo 1958 (5 CDs, Phono 870245). Joe Williams nails it to the boards: "Well, you're so beautiful, but you've got to die someday. / All I want's a little loving, just before you pass away." Now that was something to die for—I had to laugh with pleasure. Via the MC462, Basie's piano was charging hard and taking no prisoners. The saxes and brass had such wallop I felt I was being spanked—in…
Sidebar 1: An Interview with Charlie Randall
After being shown through McIntosh Laboratory's factory, in Binghamton, New York, where I saw the integration of cutting-edge and well-established technologies with outstanding quality control, I visited a bit with Charlie Randall, who first arrived at McIntosh as a college-student apprentice in 1985, and 16 years later was appointed President of the company. I first asked him how things are at McIntosh, given the ongoing parade of new formats—portable this, streaming that?
Charlie Randall: Really good. A lot of people thought that…
Sidebar 2: Specifications
Description: Solid-state, class-AB stereo power amplifier. Inputs: 1 pair single-ended (RCA), 1 pair balanced. Outputs: 1 pair single-ended, 1 pair balanced; 6 pairs five-way binding posts (2, 4, 8 ohms). Power output: 450Wpc into 2, 4, or 8 ohms (26.5dBW). Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz, ±0.25dB; 20kHz–100kHz, ±3dB. Voltage gain: 29dB, 8 ohms. Input sensitivity: 4.2V balanced, 2.1V unbalanced. Damping factor: 40. THD: 0.005% maximum, 250mW–rated power. Signal/noise, A-weighted: 95dB balanced (122dB below rated output).
Dimensions: 17.5" (445mm) W by 9.45" (…
Sidebar 3: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: VPI Aries turntable & 3D 12" tonearm with Synchronous Drive System; Lyra Etna cartridge.
Digital Sources: Apple MacBook Air computer running Pure Music, Qobuz; Bricasti M1 DAC; Musical Fidelity M1 CDT CD transport.
Preamplifiers: McIntosh Laboratory C2300, J E Sugden Masterclass LA-4.
Power Amplifier: McIntosh Laboratory MC275.
Integrated Amplifier: Peachtree Nova.
Loudspeakers: Bowers & Wilkins 702 S2, Harbeth M30.2 40th Anniversary Edition.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Diamond (AES) & Coffee (USB).…