search

Bryston Target HR50 Loudspeaker Stands Sweepstakes

According to the company:

Target's HR50 20" tall stands are constructed entirely of steel and are ideal for even heavy bookshelf loudspeakers. Two rectangular risers bolt to thick top and bottom plates. The risers are fillable with aquarium rock or other media for even greater mass. Floor spikes, speaker pads and isolation spikes are included. The stands are made in Canada and distributed by Bryston Ltd.

Click here for more info.

To enter the sweepstakes…

MartinLogan Masterpiece Renaissance ESL 15A loudspeaker

I prefer and have owned electrostatic speakers for most of my audiophile life. Depending on your point of view, this makes me either the most qualified or the least appropriate writer to review MartinLogan's new electrostatic loudspeaker, the Masterpiece Renaissance ESL 15A.

Oh, I've flirted with dynamic speakers. I've owned and loved—and ultimately, when I was an audio retailer, sold—models from Revel, Thiel, Vandersteen, and many others, while my long-term choice has been electrostats. And while I've spent plenty of time with electrostatic speakers from Acoustat and Quad, I've ended up…

MartinLogan Masterpiece Renaissance ESL 15A loudspeaker Page 2

PoweredForce Forward Bass is what MartinLogan calls the technology used in the Renaissance, and it differs from the system used in my BalancedForce 212 subwoofers in a couple key ways. First, the ELS 15A's woofers face front and back instead of to each side, as in the BalancedForce. ML claims that using proprietary, horizontally opposed, drivers in this way "reduces the destructive reflected energy from your front wall (the wall behind your speakers), resulting in easy placement for clean, pure, powerful bass response." Second, the Renaissance's cabinet is deeper from front to back, and…

MartinLogan Masterpiece Renaissance ESL 15A loudspeaker Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Hybrid electrostatic–dynamic loudspeaker. Drive-units: 46" H by 15" W (radiating area 690 in2) XStat CLS electrostatic panel, two 12" (305mm) aluminum-cone woofers in asymmetrical chamber. Crossover frequency: 300Hz. Frequency response: 22Hz–21kHz, ±3dB. Horizontal dispersion: 30°. Vertical dispersion: 46" line source. Room correction (bass section): ready for Anthem Room Correction (ARC-2 v1.3.4351 software is a free download; the mike kit costs $100). Woofer amplifier: 2x 500W into 4 ohms, 2x 1kW peak, with 24-bit, DSP-based preamplifier.…

MartinLogan Masterpiece Renaissance ESL 15A loudspeaker Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Digital Sources: Apple MacBook Pro computer (2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD) running OS 10.11.5, Roon v.1.2 Build 142, JRiver Media Center 19, iTunes 12, Amarra Computer Music Player, VLC, Reaper 5.20.100, XLD; Western Digital 2TB NAS Device; Oppo BDP-103 universal BD player; Meridian Sooloos Digital Media System (Control 15, QNAP TS-669, Pro NAS); Apple iPad Air 2 & iPhone 6. Digital Processors: Ayre Acoustics Codex, Benchmark DAC1 USB & DAC2 HGC, Luxman DA-250, T+A Elektroakustik DAC 8 DSD.
Preamplifier: Marantz AV7005 in Pure…

MartinLogan Masterpiece Renaissance ESL 15A loudspeaker Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

As with the Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 90, reviewed elsewhere in this issue, it made more sense for me to measure MartinLogan's Masterpiece Renaissance ESL 15A at the reviewer's home than having them shipped to my Brooklyn lab. (I also wanted to take a listen to the speakers.) Also as with the BeoLab 90, I used a test setup different from my usual MLSSA software/hardware system, which is not readily transportable. (As MLSSA needs to be installed in a 1997-vintage desktop computer running MS-DOS, it isn't something I can take on a plane as carry-on baggage.)

…

Listening #169: Altec Flamenco

On a bright, warm day in September, at the memorial gathering for our colleague Wes Phillips, I overheard John Atkinson, in pre-ceremony conversation, discussing men's fashions: "What's popular these days," he said, with a degree of puzzlement that stopped short of disapproval, "is very long hair on just the top, with nothing on the sides and back." Then he added, this time with disdain, "What I don't understand is this trend where men wear dress shoes without socks—which I have actually seen!" The fact that we were in Park Slope, Brooklyn—the very jaw of the hipster possum—may have triggered…

Listening #169 Page 2

The second great discovery took longer to unfold, but began before I'd even made it all the way home with the speakers. I paused for lunch at a rest area on the New York State Thruway, where I also opened the Tiguan's hatch, photographed the Flamencos—lying face up, side by side, taking up virtually all of the car's interior, from the rear window to the backs of the front seats—and attached the photo to a text to my wife. Within seconds, she texted back:

"Holy shit—gorgeous "

Naturally, I thought she was being sarcastic. That impression persisted until the end of the day, when…

A Few More Thoughts About the Top 10 Jazz List(s)

I took another look at the blog I posted on December 21 ("The Best Jazz Albums of 2016"), a few more thoughts came to mind.

With one exception (#5, Brad Mehldau Trio, Blues and Ballads, on Nonesuch), the big labels (or even labels big by jazz standards) are absent from the list. Mainly that's because they're all but absent from jazz, or at least newly recorded jazz. Verve still has Diana Krall; Sony/Columbia has revived its Okeh' label, mainly for the likes of Bob James, but they've also signed Bill Frisell and The Bad Plus; even Nonesuch, such a thriving creative label that once recorded…

Shakespeare Tributes of Different Colors

With 2016 almost behind us, there's just enough time to speak of two of the many recordings issued this year to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare. Equally commendable, albeit radically different in the way they honor the Bard, are Shakespeare Songs (Warner Classics) from tenor Ian Bostridge and pianist Anthony Pappano (available in 24/96 from HDTracks), and Take All my Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets (Deutsche Grammophon) from Rufus Wainwright and friends (available in 24/44.1 from HDTracks).

As well you might expect, Bostridge and Pappano's is the more…