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Instead of re-creating a performance in my listening room, the Yvettes were transporting me to the performance. This is something that's easy to say but hard to imagine until you've heard it—and when you have, it's impossible to forget. Every pair of speakers I've spent time with has re-created a model of the performance in my listening room. With good speakers, by definition, those models were detailed and accurate. Great speakers seemed to dissolve my room's walls. The very best speakers have replaced my entire room with the model. These last few were the speakers I've most praised, and I…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way, floorstanding loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" (25mm) silk-dome tweeter (sealed), 7" (178mm) midrange unit with cellulose/paper-pulp composite cone (rear-vented), 10" (254mm) woofer with paper-pulp cone (rear-ported). Crossover frequencies: not specified. Frequency response: 20Hz–25kHz, ±3dB, Room Average Response (RAR). Sensitivity: 86dB/W/m at 1kHz. Impedance: 4 ohms nominal, 2.94 ohms minimum at 90Hz. Minimum amplification: 50Wpc.
Dimensions: 41" (1041mm) H (without spikes) by 13.25" (336.7mm) W by 20.1" (509.2mm) D. Weight: 175 lb (79…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Primare CD35 CD player, Mytek Brooklyn DAC+.
Analog Sources: Spiral Groove SG-2 turntable & Centroid tonearm, VPI HR-X turntable & tonearm; Grado Labs Epoch & Signature Reference cartridges.
Preamplification: Sutherland Engineering Phono Blocks & Phono Blocks Refined phono stages & Line Blocks line stage.
Power Amplifiers: VTL Ichiban monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties Sophia Series 2.
Cables: Nordost Valhalla 2 and Odin 2.
Accessories: Finite Nordost Powerblock AC grounding…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
For logistical reasons, the sample of the Wilson Yvette I measured—serial no. 166, kindly loaned by Manhattan retailer Innovative Audio—was not one of the pair auditioned by Brian Damkroger. I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Yvette's frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 mike for the nearfield and in-room responses.
The Wilson's specified sensitivity is 86dB/2.83V/m; my estimate was a little higher, at 87.6dB(B)/2.83V/m. Wilson specifies the Yvette's nominal impedance as 4 ohms, with a…
On Saturday, April 27, Join Wilson Audio's Peter McGrath for an evening of music at The Audio Salon, 2525 Michigan Ave (Gallery F1) Santa Monica, California, from 1-8 PM. McGrath will be presenting the WAMM Master Chronosonic loudspeakers with the WAMM Master Subsonic subwoofers.
The system will also feature: a Data Conversion Systems Ltd (dCS) Vivaldi Digital System; Dan D'Agostino/Master Audio Systems new HD Momentum Preamplifier and Relentless Monoblock Amplifiers; Transparent Audio Opus Cables; HRS VXR Audio Stands. A wide variety of music will be presented, including McGrath's very…
Jason Victor Serinus wrote about the PS Audio DirectStream Power Plant 20 in May 2019 (Vol.42 No.5):
The last thing I expected to rave about was a PS Audio Power Plant AC regenerator—not when, over a decade ago, I'd tested an early model, the Power Plant P600, and it shot 18"-high flames and acrid black smoke into my living room. And after reviewing two Power Plants for other publications, I concluded that, for all the good they did, they tended to homogenize the sound of my system.
Nonetheless, in fall 2018, after trying four power conditioners that either buzzed and hummed far…
Herb Reichert auditioned the Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 Digital in May 2019 (Vol.42 No.5):
Pro-Ject's "audiophile digital amplifier," the Pre Box S2 Digital, looks like something big that got shrunk down small enough that John Atkinson could carry one in his pocket on his way to my studio. "Herb, Ken Micallef reviewed this Pro-Ject DAC in our April issue. I'd like you to write a Follow-Up. I won't tell you what I think, but I'm curious what you'll make of it."
Then I remembered that Pro-Ject, an Austrian company, makes everything microsized—except their famous turntables, which are…
It's 150 years since that quintessential French Romantic, Louis-Hector Berlioz (1803–1869), left the planet. A near-contemporary of the equally romantic Chopin, Gounod, Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Liszt, Berlioz shared with Meyerbeer (1791–1864) and Wagner (1813–1883) a propensity to express his passions and fantasies in music that sometimes unfolded slowly as it extended drama to extraordinary lengths.
In this sesquicentennial year filled with new and reissued Berlioz recordings, the indisputable champion is a new boxed set, Hector Berlioz: The Complete Works (27 CDs,…
There's a noise I make when I'm having trouble with something inanimate: a deep, growly huff that starts in my diaphragm and comes out in one or two quick, staccato bursts. I huff this huff when I drop a tool or can't budge a seized bolt or the bottom falls out of a trash bag. It annoys my family and scares my dog.
I made that noise at least a half-dozen times while installing and setting up the Wand, a unipivot tonearm designed and manufactured by Design Build Listen Ltd., in Dunedin, New Zealand (footnote 1). That's not to say the Wand is lacking in any way: It appears both well…
First, while using the installation/alignment jig to confirm that the overhang was correct—according to the Wand's designer, Simon Brown, the Wand is made with Baerwald alignment—I found the need to loosen the mounting collet and adjust the arm's spindle-to-pivot distance, as described above. To do so requires the user to also loosen the screw that holds in place the cueing/armrest gantry—a component that will need to be repositioned after the spindle-to-pivot distance has been set. That's merely the fiddly part. The enragingly fiddly part comes if and when the mounting collet must be…