I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system with a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Acelec Model One's behavior in the farfield and an Earthworks QTC-40 mike for the nearfield responses. I measured the speaker's impedance magnitude and phase with Dayton Audio's DATS V2 system.
The Model One's specified sensitivity is 84dB/W/m; my B-weighted estimate was within experimental error of that figure, at 84.1dB(B)/2.83V/m. The Model One's nominal impedance…
After entering the music scene with Lionel Hampton's late-era big band as a trumpet player and arranger, Q moved to New York City and landed gigs arranging for Ray Charles, his childhood friend and surrogate big brother, and other jazz and pop artists including Dinah Washington. His work with Washington brought him to the attention of Mercury/…
In just a few days, Audio Advice will be hosting its 2nd Audio Advice Live, a three-day home theater and hi-fi show showcasing equipment from almost a hundred brands. Participants will have the opportunity to experience the launch of a host of new products from brands including Bowers & Wilkins, JBL, and Monitor Audio.
Audio Advice Live has a focus on both two-channel audio and home theater. Visitors will also see and hear a large variety of affordable gear plus some of the best flagship products in audio and home theater. The Audio Advice install teams are even retrofitting…
Audio engineers never get the credit they deserve. The same is true for music arrangers, who are also an unheralded but hugely fundamental part of any musical success. As a composer, conductor, and inventive arranger of popular music, the modest but multitalented Vince Mendoza says he's most focused on enhancing the song he is arranging and the story it is trying to tell.
"Young arrangers are very concerned with their own voice and spinning their own melodies and turning things upside down and backwards, and they forget what a song really is about," he told me…
HiFiMan's wood-cup mania
I've been using two very different HiFiMan headphones: the newer, $1999 Audivina, which was released in March 2023, and the older HE-R10P, which costs $5499 and was released in spring 2021. Both are wood-cupped closed backs with "Supernano" planar-magnetic diaphragms. Each time I use one of them, I pause, surprised again by how just right it sounds. ("Just right" is an audio descriptor that needs no explanation. You'll know it when you hear it, I promise.)…
The vectors of tradition, originality, and talent came together in Jones to produce a strange and unlikely gift. His music can make you feel things as suddenly and deeply as just about anyone's, but on top of this Jones had the greatest…
My initial impressions of the review unit weren't encouraging. The company's website shows two integrated amplifier models named the Silver Luna Prestige that appear to be largely identical except for the casework: the one from the Evolution line looks natty and modern, with rounded corners and clean lines. I saw several of these Fezz Audio amps at this year's High End Munich and found them to be downright lovely. I'd like to say that the unit I received, from the (ostensibly older) Legacy line, looks industrial, but that's a kinder word than the one that popped into my head.…
Description: Push-pull, class-AB1, autobias, tubed stereo integrated amplifier with tetrode/pentode mode switch and two sets of outputs for compatibility with 4 ohm– and 8 ohm–rated speakers. Tube complement: 4 EL34 (power output), 2 ECC83/6N2P (preamp and driver). Inputs: 3 single-ended on RCA. Max output power: 35Wpc (15.44dBW into 8 ohms, 12.44dBW into 4 ohms). THD: <0.35%. Frequency response: 15Hz–77kHz, –3dB. Power consumption: 170W. Available accessories: Remote control, tube cage.
Dimensions: 16.1" (410mm) × 6.5" (165mm) × 12.6" (320mm). Weight: 33.…
Analog sources: Garrard 301 turntable in a Box Furniture Co. plinth; TW-Acustic Raven GT2 turntable and Raven 12" tonearm; Thomas Schick 12" tonearm and headshell; Dynavector Te Kaitora Rua, Miyajima Shilabe, Hana Umami Red, Ortofon Cadenza Bronze, Ortofon SPU Classic G, and Zu/Denon 103 cartridges.
Digital sources: Sonnet Pasithea and Morpheus DACs; Lejonklou Källa streamer/DAC; Sonore ultraRendu streamer; Denafrips Iris digital-to-digital converter; Small Green Computer sonicTransporter i5 server running Roon Core.
Preamplification: Prima Luna EVO…