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At first glance, this active, DSP-controlled loudspeaker system, with dynamic drivers firing to front and rear, may seem an alien invader from the world of recording and mastering monitors made by such brands as Neumann and Genelec. I wouldn't dispute that perception, but I offer another perspective: The engineering that has gone into the Dutch & Dutch 8c ($12,500/pair) is an all-out attempt to meet the goals that all designers of high-end speakers hope to attain: wide, smooth frequency response; sufficient and linear dynamic performance; crossover management; a cabinet free of audible…
I placed the 8c's some 15" from the front wall (which isn't a wall but a triple-glazed, heavy-duty city window with a 4"-thick slab of fiberglass on the inside ledge). Using lanspeaker.com, one can make all sorts of adjustments in real time. Setting the front-wall distance to 15.75" (40cm) and side-wall distance to 23.6"–27.6" (60–70cm), the bass was strong— almost too strong.
Measurements
I took using Dayton Audio's OmniMic microphone and XTZ's Room Analyzer Pro software defined two significant bass peaks, at 33Hz and 66Hz for the left speaker and 35Hz and 75Hz for the right. I…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Stand-mounted, three-way, DSP-controlled, powered loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" (25mm) aluminum- magnesium–alloy dome tweeter with 8" (200mm) acoustic waveguide, 8" (200mm) aluminum-cone midrange, two 8" (200mm) aluminum-cone woofers with cast frames. Crossover frequencies: 100Hz, 1250Hz (fourth-order, Linkwitz-Riley, linear phase). Power amplifiers (all class-D): 250W (HF), 250W (MF), 500W (LF). Audio inputs: analog (XLR), AES3 (XLR), Ethernet (RJ45). Audio output: subwoofer (XLR). Control I/O: Ethernet (RJ45). Maximum linear SPL: 106dB continuous…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Oppo Digital UDP-105 universal BD player, Baetis Prodigy-X music server running JRiver Media Center 24, exaSound e38 D/A processor, miniDSP U-DIO8miniDSP U-DIO8, QNAP TVS-873 NAS.
Preamplifier: Audio Research MP1.
Power Amplifiers: Benchmark AHB2, Classé Sigma Mono, Hegel Music Systems B53, Parasound Halo A 31.
Loudspeakers: Bang & Olufsen Beolab 90, Kii Audio Three, JL Audio Fathom f113 subwoofer.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Coffee (USB). Interconnect: AudioQuest Earth/DBS balanced, Kubala-Sosna Anticipation (RCA).…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Dutch & Dutch 8c's frequency response in the farfield and an Earthworks QTC40 mike for the nearfield responses. Before I took the measurements, I connected the speaker (serial no. 8c-515) to my network and accessed the control app at www.lanspeaker.com in order to defeat the settings Kal Rubinson had used during his auditioning. These were compensation for the distances to the room's front and side walls; the levels of treble and bass; and the two parametric filters he'd used to…
Products come and go. Some impress more than others, and in our little world, the ones that impress the most wind up in Class A of our semiannual "Recommended Components" feature.
After a product makes it to that list, if Stereophile's reviewers go more than a few years without hearing it again—in a home system or a dealer's showroom or even at an audio show—that product falls off the list, usually quietly. Thus, if a reviewer is maximally knocked out by a piece of playback gear, yet the fates allow neither a purchase nor an extended loan, he or she or someone else on staff must endeavor…
Before the CV 391 went back to Connecticut, I sated my curiosity by once again removing its bottom cover, this time for a close look at the hookup scheme used for its off-the-shelf Hammond output transformers, whose multiple windings can be combined in different ways to create 4, 8, and 16 ohm taps. They were wired for 8 ohms. While it may be tempting to assume that's why the CV 391 locked in especially well with the DeVores, any number of other things could have played a role—and I hesitate to give the impression that such specs can be relied upon to predict synergy. Like all of the Shindo…
Czech composer Leoš Janáček was already in his 60s and married when, in 1917, he fell hopelessly in love with Kamila Stösslová, a married woman 38 years his junior. Although it wasn’t the first time that Janáček had fallen in love with an “unobtainable,” his passion for Kamila was all-consuming. During the final 11 years of his life, while he lived under the same roof with a wife whom he had informally divorced, he sent Stösslová almost 730 letters and was inspired by his love for her to compose many of his greatest works.
Among the masterpieces spawned by Janáček’s unconsummated love was…
We were playing some old, cherished black discs when my partner, bb (the 6'-tall Aries artist), declared, "With records you hear touch, and you are not alone." Long pause. "Just holding the cover brings back memories—that's their humanity."
At the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in 2017, I walked into the Believe Fidelity room and, just inside the door, I stopped, closed my eyes, and examined the sound with my mind. What I heard was glowing and tactile—and occupied the room in an attention-grabbing way. I asked Believe HiFi’s principal “believer,” Joshua Masongsong, “What’s going on here?” He…
The 1:10 version of EMIA's Phono step-up transformer ($2400) was a Goldilocks-caliber "just right" match, combining punch and excitement with ease and refinement in ways the others didn't quite equal. I'm certain that part of its ability to excite came from its 80% nickel core; I'm just as sure its refinement came from its just-right damping. With the Etsuro Urushi, the EMIA transformer presented a festival of subtle dynamic inflections and transient nuance I had never noticed, on records I've heard countless times. Piano became the fiercest and, simultaneously, the most delicate of…