With that in mind, here…
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These days, there's a hi-fi show taking place somewhere on the planet pretty much every weekend, but for me, spring is show season. First, in April, comes AXPONA, which is held near Chicago. AXPONA is the largest North American high-end audio show, making it pretty much impossible for one person to see everything during the three-day event. Even with my focus on record-playing gear, I found myself skipping some rooms, telling myself that I could catch them a month later at High End Munich. Munich is even bigger than AXPONA, so we'll have to see how that plays out.
Photo: John Atkinson
If buying a hi-fi product from an internet retailer is like an arranged marriage, a hi-fi show is like speed dating. Not everyone, I realize, approaches hi-fi shows (or speed dating, for that matter) the same way, and anyway, the analogy between hi-fi and dating is far from perfect. Speed dating is how this year's AXPONA, America's biggest hi-fi show, held at the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel & Convention Center (above) near Chicago in April, often felt to me as I moved from room to room. Every new system I heard had the potential to become a long-term relationship…
Cannonball Adderley: Somethin' Else
Julian "Cannonball" Adderley (alto saxophone), Miles Davis (trumpet), Hank Jones (piano), Sam Jones (bass), Art Blakey (drums)
Mobile Fidelity UD15 2-022 (2 45rpm "Ultradisc One-Step" LPs). 2024. Alfred Lion, prod.; Rudy Van Gelder, eng.; Krieg Wunderlich, Shawn R. Britton, mastering engs.
Performance *****
Sonics *****
Julian "Cannonball" Adderley (alto saxophone), Miles Davis (trumpet), Hank Jones (piano), Sam Jones (bass), Art Blakey (drums)
Mobile Fidelity UD15 2-022 (2 45rpm "Ultradisc One-Step" LPs). 2024. Alfred Lion, prod.; Rudy Van Gelder, eng.; Krieg Wunderlich, Shawn R. Britton, mastering engs.
Performance *****
Sonics *****
For those who care about sonics, the current wave of expensive 45rpm vinyl reissues has made one question urgently relevant: Does convenience trump better sound? Put differently, does the ease of not getting up every 10…
It has been more than a decade since 2012, when Lyra launched the original Atlas moving coil cartridge as the company's flagship, but in the intervening years, there have been a few updates. First, in 2016, Lyra introduced what they call the SL versions of the Atlas and also the Etna. These cartridges were designed to take advantage of a new crop of transimpedance phono preamps like the CH Precision P1 and the Sutherland Phono Loco, which boast exceptionally low noise levels but work best with cartridges that have very low impedance. Cutting the number of turns on each of the cartridge's two…
Tiptoe through the 'tables—or, how to stop your record from skipping
One of the most common turntable-related problems I get asked to solve is footfalls. People with squishy floors must tiptoe gingerly back to the listening seat lest they send the stylus skipping across the record—no fun! Good music should make you want to get up and dance; that's not exactly in the cards if doing so sends the needle flying.
This topic reminds me of a school ski trip I took to Austria in the mid-1970s. I was a teenager, and the jukebox in the dorm we stayed in turned out to be unskippable. That…
What was old is new again. McIntosh Laboratories has been in business long enough that they are able to bring new design thinking, materials, and construction methods to products from their extensive back catalog. Example: McIntosh's first successful loudspeaker, the ML1. The venerable Binghamton, New York, hi-fi company recently released a redesigned "Mk II" version ($12,000/pair, stands included).
In this, McIntosh is not unique; KLH, JBL, Klipsch, and other companies have rethought and reworked vintage products for the current marketplace, employing new approaches and technologies.…
The ML1 Mk II's came to me new from the McIntosh plant in nearby Binghamton. When I first fired up the ML1 Mk II's, I picked something to play at random. I don't even recall what the recording was. My initial reaction: The upper-mids seemed a bit harsh and busy, very different than the two-way stand-mounted Harbeth C7's that usually occupy this space. Following my new resolution to be patient, I kept playing recordings without sitting in the sweet spot or taking notes. I did not fool around yet with placement or toe-in, and I left the handsome substantial grilles in place. My idea was to…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Four-way acoustic suspension, floorstanding speaker system. Drive units: One 12" polypropylene-cone woofer; two 4" polypropylene-cone lower midrange drivers; one 2" soft-cloth–dome upper-midrange driver, and one ¾" (20mm) treated titanium-dome tweeter. Crossover frequencies: 180Hz, 500Hz, 4.5kHz. Frequency range: 27Hz– 45kHz. Sensitivity: 85dB/2.83V/m. Nominal impedance: 8 ohms. Max. power handling: 600Wpc.
Dimensions: 26 1/8" (664mm) H × 15" (381mm) W × 13 3/8" (340mm) D. Weight: 66lb (30kg). Stands: 19lb (8.6kg).
Serial numbers of units…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog sources: VPI HW-40 turntable, VPI 12" Fatboy tonearm, Pro-Ject Classic EVO turntable, Lyra Etna λ Lambda cartridge, Ortofon Bronze Cadenza cartridge, Sumiko Amethyst cartridge.
Digital sources: MacBook Air running Tidal, Roon, Qobuz. Bricasti M1 Series II DAC, Musical Fidelity M1 CDT transport, ProJect CD Box RS 2 T.
Preamplification: McIntosh C12000.
Integrated Amplifier: McIntosh MA252.
Power Amplifier: McIntosh MC462.
Loudspeakers: Harbeth C7ES-3XD, Wilson Audio Specialties Sasha V.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Diamond AES,…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system, a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone, and an Earthworks microphone preamplifier to measure the quasi-anechoic frequency- and time-domain behavior of one of the McIntosh ML1 Mk IIs—serial number BBB1256—in the farfield. The manual doesn't mention the preferred listening axis. However, although the tweeter is a low 31.75" from the floor with the loudspeaker sitting on its stand, the stand's slight tiltback will aim the tweeter at the ears of a typical seated listener. I therefore performed the farfield measurements on the tweeter axis. I…