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While we have not yet had the opportunity to check the sample TD-I50AB sent to The Stereophile, there is little doubt but that the tonearm on this unit was seriously damaged in transit or has a serious manufacturing defect. The 5°tilt in the head shell and the ½-gram vertical friction are completely beyond the design and quality control limits established by Thorens.

The speed accuracy tolerances of this unit are ±1% of the nominal speed, which corresponds to 1/6 of a semitone. On early units the speed was at the upper limit of these tolerances, and slight…

Description: Two-speed synchronous turntable with base and integral arm. Speeds: 33 1/3 and 45 rpm. Platter: 12", aluminum, 7.5 lb. Tonearm: tubular aluminum with perforated aluminum plug-in shell, balanced horizontally and vertically.
Dimensions: 15" W by 22" D by 5" H, overall.
Price: $99.75 (1966); no longer available (2019).
Manufacturer: Thorens, Germany. Web: thorens.com/en/. US Distributor: ELPA Marketing Industries, inc., New Hyde Park, NY (1966); American Audio & Video, A Division of JAM Industries USA, LLC, 310 West Newberry Road,…

Horn-loaded speakers achieve what few conventional cone-only speakers can: reproduce…

A drummer (in his spare time) who well understands how bass frequencies can bloat, Delgado gave me his blessing to go further. "You don't want the speaker to couple too much to the floor because it will…

Description: Three-way, horn-loaded floorstanding loudspeaker. Drive-units: High frequency driver: K-100-T1 1" (25mm) titanium diaphragm compression driver on a K-79T horn. Midrange driver: K-70 1.75" (45mm) titanium diaphragm compression driver on a K-703-M horn. Low-frequency driver: K-281 12" (305mm) fiber-composite cone woofer. KD-15 15" (381mm) passive cone radiator. Crossover frequencies: HF: 5.2kHz, MF: 650Hz. Frequency range: 38Hz–20kHz. Sensitivity: 99dB/2.83V/m. Impedance: 8 ohms nominal. Power handling: 100W/400W. Terminals: dual binding posts/biwire/…

Analog Sources: Kuzma Stabi S turntable & Stogi S tonearm; Kuzma Stabi R & Kuzma 4Point 11" tonearm; Thorens TD124 turntable & Jelco TS-350S tonearm; Denon DL-103 and Hana EL phono cartridges.
Digital Sources: Sony Vaio computer running Qobuz and Tidal; BorderPatrol DAC SE, Tascam CD-200iL CD player; Western Digital T2 Mirror Drives (2).
Preamplification: Auditorium 23 A23 moving-coil step-up transformer, Musical Surroundings Phonomena II phono stage, Shindo Laboratory Allegro preamplifier.
Power Amplifiers: Mytek Brooklyn, Shindo…

I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Forte III's frequency response in the farfield and an Earthworks QTC-40 mike for the nearfield responses.

The Klipsch's specified sensitivity is an extraordinary 99dB/2.83V/m; my estimate was lower, at 95.2dB(B)/2.83V/m, but this is still 8dB higher than the average sensitivity of the speakers I have measured over the past 30 years. This speaker will play loudly with a mere handful of watts. Klipsch specifies the Forte III's nominal impedance as "8 ohms compatible." I found…

Munich is to audiophiles—to this one at least—what New York's 5th Avenue is to Black Friday shoppers. It's the audiophile version of flying through a canyon with a wing suit on. It's a giant rush, audio cocaine.

In early May, over four days, 21,180 people visited 551 high-end exhibitors from 42 countries. According to the…

Even though Henry Brant's mind-boggling Ice Field for orchestra and organ won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2002—the year after its premiere—and years later was revisited by the San Francisco Symphony, for which it…