Description: Five-channel solid-state power amplifier. Line-level inputs: 1 RCA plus 1 XLR per channel. Outputs: 1 pair multiway binding posts per channel. 5-12V signal input for remote power control. RS-232 (DB9 and RJ-45) for external control and monitor. Output power: 100Wx5 continuous into 8 ohms (20dBW), 200Wx5 continuous into 4 ohms (20dBW). Input sensitivity, full output: 1.5V RMS (RCA), 750mV RMS (XLR). Voltage gain: 25.5dB (RCA), 31.5dB (XLR). Input impedance: 50k ohms, RCA, XLR each phase. THD+noise: %#60;2%. Frequency response: 0.9Hz-350kHz, +0/-0.3dB…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Two-Channel System
Analog source: Heybrook TT2 turntable, SME III tonearm, Ortofon SME30H cartridge.
Digital sources: California Audio Labs CL-20 DVD player, Meridian 508.24 CD player, Sony XA-777ES multichannel SACD player, Mark Levinson No.360 DAC.
Preamplification: Sonic Frontiers Line-3 and Simaudio Moon P-5 preamplifiers, Audiolab 8000PPA phono stage, TacT RCS 2.0 Digital EQ/Room Correction system.
Power amplifiers: Bel Canto eVo 200.2 monoblocks, Sonic Frontiers Power-3, Classé CAM-350 monoblocks, McCormack DNA-1 Rev.A.
Loudspeakers…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
Following the usual one-hour preconditioning period at one-third power into 8 ohms with all channels driven, the Theta Intrepid's casework was very warm, but not so hot that I couldn't keep my hand on it. Its input impedance was a fairly high 54k ohms via the unbalanced input, slightly less than double this figure via the balanced XLR jack. Voltage gain into 8 ohms was a slightly low 24.6dB from either input—as with the Citadel, which was reviewed in the May Stereophile, I didn't find the balanced input to offer the usual 6dB increase in gain—and the amplifier…
The Theta's A-weighted signal/noise ratio was an excellent 91dB (ref. 1W into 8 ohms), but this worsened to 67dB when the weighting filter was removed and the measurement bandwidth was set to its wide, <10Hz->500kHz setting. As Kal found, the Intrepid definitely needs to properly grounded. Small-signal distortion levels were respectably low (fig.5), but the THD+noise percentage can be seen to rise quite dramatically into 2 ohms, compared with the 4 and 8 ohm levels. The distortion spectrum was heavily third harmonic (fig.6), and as the output level increased, both the second harmonic…
"I never touch the stuff," I say, totally disassociating myself from my husband's addiction. "Well," I admit, when pushed, "I do use it sometimes---but I never do the hard stuff."
I've always been what you might call a social user of stereo. I used to spend many happy hours shopping for records, which I played on my "record player." I did have one friend who owned, and proudly showed off, her "components." I was dubious, not to say appalled. "You mean you have to shop for three or four different things, decide which are the best, and then connect them so they'll all work together?"
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Second, you must harden your heart, if you expect to have any money left for non-stereo items such as groceries. It doesn't matter that your audiophile is the world's greatest bargain-hunter, that he or she never pays retail for anything, that he or she balances your checkbook to the penny. This is an addiction we're talking about. No matter how large or small your budget, there's equipment out there to tempt any audiophile, of any income level, to overspend. And there's more coming out every day.
I was tough. When we first moved to New York, my rule was trades only, no cash spent---not…
Alright already, quit shoving. I know I don't belong here. This magazine already has a place for manufacturers---in the back, where those large egos are squeezed into small column inches so they can't hurt you. Not that I'm exactly proud of my job. On social occasions, if pressed as to my profession, I will usually admit to some honest toil such as mortician or hodcarrier. Speaker design is downright devious work. As proof, examine the specifications for the 1376 models in Audio's 1988 equipment directory. Much of this data, when compared with each described system's real-world performance,…
2) Listen with real music. A reviewer who bases his opinions of a speaker's performance on Jazz at the Pawnshop, the JVC Audio Symphony, or the Sheffield sampler CD should be tossed on the pyre incinerating all extant copies of said material. Aren't you, dear reader, more interested in how the device under review handles Mahler's 5th, "Vissi d'Arte," Woody Herman, Furtwangler, Ella, the Schumann E-flat Quintet, or Muddy Waters? I'll allow Marni Nixon, but not Amanda McBroom. You can have two Telarc bass drums and one slam of the garage door. That's it.
3) Worry about ends, not means.…
This is a somewhat different twist on other "Recommended Recordings" lists you may have read. Rather than a selection of all-time (or year's) best recorded performances---which are common enough---or a list of audiophile reference recordings---common enough in the audiophile press, at any rate, and a good thing, too---this is a list of stereo recordings that are both musically and sonically impeccable---in other words, the best, the tops, to die for---each item briefly described in a hundred or so words (except for JA, LA, and JGH, whose couplets runneth over).
Needless to say, such…
Larry Archibald
The five favorite? Out of hundreds? Even worse, superb performance and superb recordings, in clear contradiction of Holt's First Law!(Footnote 1) Worse still, no mono records? Why? What an outrage! I decided, in my choices, to modify the criteria somewhat: superb performances where the recording is good enough to not detract from the overall experience. Only one of my choices could serve as a textbook example of excellent recording, but in none will the recording keep you away from the music---which is what matters. After all, if stranded with five records on a desert…
The five favorite? Out of hundreds? Even worse, superb performance and superb recordings, in clear contradiction of Holt's First Law!(Footnote 1) Worse still, no mono records? Why? What an outrage! I decided, in my choices, to modify the criteria somewhat: superb performances where the recording is good enough to not detract from the overall experience. Only one of my choices could serve as a textbook example of excellent recording, but in none will the recording keep you away from the music---which is what matters. After all, if stranded with five records on a desert…