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There are many ways to talk about the remarkable Symphonies Nos.1 & 4 Jeux vénitiens of Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski (1913–1994). You could, for example, approach them as does Kimmo Korhonen, whose extremely detailed and well-thought-out liner notes for the recent Ondine SACD of these works from Hannu Lintu and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra examine the evolution of Lutoslawski's tonal language and explain that they basically represent the beginning (Symphony No.1, 1947), middle (Venetian Games, 1960–1961) and end (Symphony No.4, 1992) of his arc as a mature composer. Or you…
Every time I fly to California, my brain gets stuck on the lyrics of that Arlo Guthrie song: "Coming into Los Angeles / bringing in a couple of keys . . ." Even landing in San Francisco, I'm always smiling, because I've never been busted in California.
Which means that I'm a lucky guy. In this life I have acquired nothing of material value, but I did see Howlin' Wolf and Little Walter in Chicago in 1962, at Theresa's. I spent the whole Summer of Love (1967) in San Francisco listening to music. And because I lived only a few blocks away, I witnessed the Ramones' first gig at CBGB, in 1974…
One of the many pleasures of the Burning Amp Festival is that everyone goes home with free gifts worth more than the cost of admission. Pass had made up a small batch of H2 generators, stuffed and calibrated, to hand out at the Festival. He even included a wall-wart power supply. I got one for testing.
Siegfried Linkwitz
At Burning Amp, Nelson Pass and his friend Laurie Fincham delivered quiet memorials to loudspeaker designer Siegfried Linkwitz (1935–2018), who died September 11. Fincham read a poem he'd written, "Siegfried's Saga."
I'd known Linkwitz a little, and loved…
In the late 1980s, when I began reviewing high-end subwoofers, they were big and heavy, difficult to move or find space for in a room. Their controls were always on an inconveniently positioned rear panel, and there were no built-in automatic room-optimization options or parametric equalizers. Velodyne's 105-lb, downfiring ULD-18 ($2570), ca 1989, was typical: Two people were needed to unpack and move it; it was powered by an outboard 400W amplifier, connected inconveniently with a speaker cable and an RCA-terminated interconnect for its servo control; and its controls were on the bottom of…
All of this took some time, but after I'd replaced the defective wireless receiver, it went smoothly. The only inconvenience was that I had to switch one app off before running the other, so that the two apps wouldn't interfere with each other. Otherwise, the apps would inevitably fail to discover both subs.
Comparing wired vs wireless signal connection, I could hear no differences in levels of background noise or bass power, or in pace, rhythm, pitch definition, solidity, or tightness. Nor did I ever have any problems with dropouts because of interference with the wireless signal. Once…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Powered subwoofer with sealed cabinet. Drive-unit: 10" polypropylene-cone unit with 2" voice-coil. Inputs: Left- & right-channel line level and LFE (RCA); (5–24V DC) 12V trigger (3.5mm); left- & right-channel speaker-level (banana); ARC firmware update (Micro-USB); optional SWT-X wireless receiver. Internal amplifier: 120W RMS, 240W peak. Input impedance: 8.3k ohms unbalanced (RCA), 2k ohms speaker level (banana). Frequency response: 24–200Hz, ±3dB; anechoic in LFE mode. Power draw: 30W typical, 150W max, 4W idle, 0.5W standby.
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Linn Sondek LP12 turntable with Lingo power supply & Ittok tonearm, Spectral MC cartridge; Day-Sequerra 25th Anniversary FM Reference FM tuner.
Digital Sources: Bryston BCD-1 CD player, BDP-3 media player with IAD soundboard & Glider MPD Control, BDA-3 DAC, Oppo digital BPD-103 universal BD player; Lenovo P50 ThinkPad computer running Windows 10 Pro (64-bit), Bryston Windows USB driver; JRiver Media Center 23; Roon Core v.1.4 (build 300) stable (64-bit).
Preamplification: Bryston TP-2 30 step-up transformer; Sutherland…
Sidebar 3: Using the MartinLogan Dynamo 800X with an External Crossover
I used a JL Audio CR-1 external electronic crossover because its high-pass filter could be used to protect the electrostatic panels of my Quad ESL-989 speakers from deep-bass pulses. To do this, I connected the line-level output of my Bryston BP-173 preamplifier to the input of a JLA CR-1 with balanced interconnects. Additional balanced interconnects were run from the CR-1's high-pass outputs to the Mark Levinson No.534 power amplifier I used to drive the Quads.
The CR-1's high-pass filter was set to 70Hz/24dB…
Friday, February 1, 2–5pm, and Saturday, February 2, 1–5pm, Big Kids Toys AV (1413 Garland Drive, Greensboro, NC 27408) is holding listening sessions. Products being showcased will include Luxman's L-505uXii integrated amplifier and new PD-151 turntable, as well as loudspeakers from Triangle, including the Magellan Cello, and the Esprit Australe EZ and Esprit Titus EZ.
Special guests will include Jeff Sigmund of Luxman America, and Frank Gazzo, of Triangle Loudspeakers, as well as Parke Puterbaugh, former senior editor of Rolling Stone magazine, who will join the discussions and…
"The sound was to die for," I wrote shortly before my resurrection. I was taking notes about the sound of CH Precision's D1 SACD and CD Drive (now $38,000) and C1 D/A Controller (base price $32,000), in the demo room of Michael Woods's Elite Audio Systems, at the California Audio Show, just three months after the 2015 edition of the Munich High End show. CH Precision's L1 dual-mono, solid-state preamplifier (now $58,000), M1 dual-mono power amp ($104,000), and X1 external power supply ($17,000) had helped deliver "fantastic sound."
When I first encountered CH Precision gear, in Gideon…