As I almost exclusively used the RME Digi96/8's digital outputs to feed outboard digital processors, I first examined the card's jitter performance. To do this, I used CoolEdit 2000 to drive the card with an analytical 44.1kHz-sampled 16-bit WAV file. This consists of a high-level high-frequency tone at one quarter the sample rate (11.025kHz at -6dBFS), with the least significant bit toggled at 229Hz. The Digi96/8 Pro's digital outputs drove a Musical Fidelity X-24K D/A converter, and this unit's analog output was fed to a Miller Audio Research Jitter Analyzer, a…
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The jitter performance from the second sample of the Digi96/8 Pro's digital outputs was basically identical. Again the TosLink output was the cleanest, with 287ps peak-peak of jitter compared with the original's 248ps, almost all of this data-related, as expected.
The original RME's analog outputs had very high jitter—3974ps (3.97ns)— leading to an analog noise floor that on average was around 12dB higher than that of the outboard Musical Fidelity processor. However, there was a big improvement when I looked at the jitter in the second sample's analog output (fig.4). The absolute level…
The analog outputs of my 1999 sample of the RME card had featured very low levels of harmonic and intermodulation distortion, even with full-scale signals into a demanding 600 ohm load. While the 2000 sample also had low distortion into a high 100k ohms load, with the second harmonic the highest in level at -94dB (0.002%), it was less comfortable driving 600 ohms (fig.10), when a number of harmonics became apparent. While these are all below 0.1% and decrease in level with increasing order, and the intermodulation distortion is also low (fig.11), this graph does suggest that higher-impedance…
In the Beginning Was the Word...
At first blush, the sound of the Vandersteen Model 2Ce Signature transported me to a bucolic nature trail in the Berkshires on one of those high, dry August days when the amber stillness of late afternoon imparts a sense of otherness against the endless vistas of green and brown and blue. In my Wordsworthian reverie, as I made my way up the mountainside, remembrances of venerable loudspeakers past called out to me from the sturdy stands of New England foliage. Mark you the lofty maple and the supple white birch; the noble pine, the mighty oak and humble…
At first blush, the sound of the Vandersteen Model 2Ce Signature transported me to a bucolic nature trail in the Berkshires on one of those high, dry August days when the amber stillness of late afternoon imparts a sense of otherness against the endless vistas of green and brown and blue. In my Wordsworthian reverie, as I made my way up the mountainside, remembrances of venerable loudspeakers past called out to me from the sturdy stands of New England foliage. Mark you the lofty maple and the supple white birch; the noble pine, the mighty oak and humble…
"As for the Quad, it was kind of rolled on top, it wouldn't play very loud, and didn't have very good bass, but the midrange—where you have this interleaving of all the harmonics in most music where harmonics talk to one another—was so accurate. That's what the patent in our midrange was all about.
"'What is it about these electrostatics?' I wondered back then. 'They actually measure slower than a good dynamic speaker. They don't do this as well, they don't do that as well. Yet why are they so right in the midrange?'
"Well, I discovered it's because they have nothing behind them…
Comfort Food
Some time ago, in comparing the relative attributes of the Celestion A3 and the Joseph Audio RM22si, I characterized the latter as a white wine, the former as a red. At the moment I'm using as one of my primary reference sources Joseph Audio's RM7si, their front-ported, minimonitor version of the floorstanding RM22si. If the RM7si is a white wine, then the Vandersteen 2Ce Signature suggests the bloomy barley scent of sturdy Guinness Stout; the deep earth tones of heavy brown bread dipped in honey; your grandmother's meatloaf accompanied by mashed potatoes with roasted…
Some time ago, in comparing the relative attributes of the Celestion A3 and the Joseph Audio RM22si, I characterized the latter as a white wine, the former as a red. At the moment I'm using as one of my primary reference sources Joseph Audio's RM7si, their front-ported, minimonitor version of the floorstanding RM22si. If the RM7si is a white wine, then the Vandersteen 2Ce Signature suggests the bloomy barley scent of sturdy Guinness Stout; the deep earth tones of heavy brown bread dipped in honey; your grandmother's meatloaf accompanied by mashed potatoes with roasted…
This is not necessarily a bad thing. Many contemporary recordings are mastered so hot that their glare is almost unbearable on more analytical, revealing speakers such as the RM7si—for instance, the musically interesting but sonically crude "club mix" on The Charlie Watts-Jim Keltner Project (Higher Octave). On the Vandersteens I could actually "listen" to this recording at a reasonable volume level without being worn out by EQ fatigue.
John Fogerty's Blue Moon Swamp (Warner Bros. 45426-2), thought ultimately a very refined rock recording, is also mixed fairly hot and bright. On "A…
I very much enjoyed the manner in which tubes fleshed out details in the midrange, though, curiously enough, I found the Vandersteen to be less revealing of progressive enhancements in the digital front end than it was of amplification upgrades.
Making the Tradeoffs Work for You
In his exhaustive 1993 analysis of the Vandersteen 2Ce loudspeaker, Brother Tom Norton concluded that "they don't do any one thing particularly well, but spread their compromises around in an engaging manner." It seems to me that "spreading compromises around" is indeed the very essence of speaker design,…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way, floorstanding loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" dual-chamber ScanSpeak metal-alloy-dome tweeter with ferrofluid cooling, 4½" ScanSpeak polycone midrange unit with diecast basket and ferrofluid cooling, 8" Vifa polycone woofer with diecast basket and 1½" two-layer voice-coil, 10" critically damped long-fiber-cone Active Acoustic Coupler. Frequency response: 29Hz-29kHz, ±3dB, 32Hz-21kHz, ±1.5dB. Crossover frequencies: 600Hz and 5kHz, first-order, 6dB/octave. Sensitivity: 86dB/W/m. Impedance: 7 ohms nominal, 4 ohms minimum. Recommended…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog source: Rega Planar 3 turntable and tonearm, Grado Reference Master cartridge.
Digital source: Musical Fidelity A3 CD player, California Audio Labs CL-20 DVD/CD player, Sony SCD-777ES SACD/CD player.
Preamplification: Musical Fidelity X-LP2 dual-mono phono preamplifier; Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista, Musical Fidelity A3CR, Rogue Audio 66LSR.
Power amplifiers: Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 300, Musical Fidelity A3CR, Mesa Baron.
Integrated amplifiers: Mesa Tigris, Musical Fidelity A3.
Loudspeakers: Celestion A3, Joseph RM7si, Soliloquy S10…