If you're going to Germany to immerse yourself in big-city excitement—churning dance clubs, matterful contemporary art, visitors and food from around the world, and street life that goes on all night—you'll probably find it in Berlin. Though rents have been climbing and there's no shortage of dirty sidewalks and petty crime, the German capital remains one of the most youthful and vibrant cities in Europe, an art and culture center with large expatriate communities and endless…
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Alex Halberstadt (front) listens to the BAACH-SP Adio system at High End Munich. (Photo: Jason Victor Serinus)
In the hallway, I ran into composer, pianist, and HDtracks impresario David Chesky, who led me into the decidedly spare environs of the Theoretica Applied Physics room. Inside, a short, jovial man eagerly shook my hand. In case you ever feel like trash-talking Dr. Edgar Choueiri, you should know that he's the head of both the Electric Propulsion and Plasma Dynamics Laboratory and the 3D Audio and Applied Acoustics Lab at Princeton. He was in Munich to demonstrate a product called the BACCH-SP Adio. (For those playing along at home, "BACCH" stands for Band-Assembled Crosstalk Cancellation…
I'm going to tell a story about blind listening, because it illustrates what I consider the most important issue in today's audiophile environment. I'm going to skip the names of the participants because you probably know them. And I'm not going to name the components, because their role in this story is merely as symbols of their type. Here is what I'll reveal: We were playing LPs through an expertly curated, six-figure–priced sound system in a largish room that suited the large speakers perfectly.
The occasion was a "listening party" at a friend's apartment. The guest list included me…
Fun and danger: The Benz Gullwing SLR arrived in a swanky hardwood box with gold-plated screws securing a clear plexiglass top where, when I looked in, I could see no stylus guard protecting the SLR's exposed cantilever. This didn't scare me; I've installed more than a few cartridges without stylus protection, and I have never broken any. I have of course broken a few cantilevers by dropping tonearms, but those "droppings" happened long ago. My most recent cantilever mishaps resulted from removing recalcitrant stylus guards. I fear stylus guards.
The best thing about the Gullwing…
What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits—the 1974 album by those San Jose yacht-rock sages the Doobie Brothers—could also describe an audiophile's life.
The journey begins with booze and bong money spent instead on an entry-level turntable and cartridge; it did for me anyway. Then starts the churn, through many components and configurations seeking that elusive, blissful audio fix until finally we find our audio oasis, our own sonic peace, our gearhead nirvana. We achieve a system that satisfies our listening indulgences, whether it be based on streaming or spinning, class-D or tubes, with…
Setup
"Overall response is optimized for use away from walls," states a document on the Harbeth website. I followed that direction, assisting Swanbon, who visited for setup. We ultimately positioned the speakers roughly 3' from the front wall, 5' apart, and 4' from sidewalls.
I began my evaluation with vinyl but soon jumped to digital, including the over-performing HoloAudio May DAC fed data from a Roon Nucleus+ powered by Andrew Gillis's excellent Small Green Computer power supply, via a Sonore OpticalRendu and a TRENDnet switch. I controlled Roon with my Apple iPad mini. A…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way, reflex-loaded, standmount loudspeaker. Drive units: 0.787" (20mm) aluminum dome super tweeter, 0.984" (25mm) ferrofluid-cooled aluminum tweeter; 7.87" (200mm) Harbeth RADIAL2 polymeric composite-cone bass/mid driver. Frequency response: 40Hz–20kHz, ±3dB. Impedance: 6 ohms. Sensitivity: 86dB/2.83V/m.
Dimensions: 28" (711.2mm) H × 13" (330.2mm) W × 12" (304.8mm) D. Weight: 40lb (15.8kg) each.
Finishes: cherry, rosewood, walnut, okoume.
Serial number of units reviewed: 1759L, 1759R. Designed and manufactured in the UK.
Price…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog sources: VPI Avenger Direct turntable, VPI Fatboy tonearm, VPI Shyla MC cartridge.
Digital sources: HoloAudio May DAC, Sonore opticalRendu, Roon Nucleus+, Small Green Computer power supply, TRENDnet switch, Apple iPad mini.
Integrated amplifier: PrimaLuna EVO 400.
Preamplifier: Sugden LA-4.
Power amplifiers: Ayre VX-8, LKV Research PWR-3.
Loudspeakers: Spendor BC-1.
Cables: Interconnects: AudioQuest Pegasus, Triode Wire Labs Spirit II. Speaker: Analysis Plus Silver Apex Speaker. AC: Triode Wire Labs Obsession NCF.
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Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system with a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Harbeth Super HL5plus XD's behavior in the farfield and an Earthworks QTC-40 mike for the nearfield responses. I measured the speaker without the aluminum-frame grille and performed the primary response measurements on the super-tweeter axis. I measured the speaker's impedance magnitude and phase with Dayton Audio's DATS V2 system, but for consistency with Stereophile's presentation of impedance graphs, I plotted the impedance measurement with the Audio Precision System One software…
Something has happened in jazz culture in the new millennium. There is more emphasis on original composition than ever before. There has been remarkably little discussion and analysis of this phenomenon, perhaps because many assume it is a positive development. Jazz, after all, prioritizes originality.
There is a counterargument. It goes like this: Jazz today is vital and dynamic because great players keep popping up, all over the world. Very few of those great players are also great composers. Yet they apparently feel obliged to be. A large proportion of new jazz albums contain all or…