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Richard Vandersteen doesn't look like a typical loudspeaker designer. True, he wears glasses, but his presence suggests a longshoreman or somebody who'd be played by Gene Hackman. And sure enough, he tells you in a quasi-Dukes of Hazzard drawl that he's been a construction worker, plumber, truckdriver, and electrician. Electronics had always been a hobby, but Vandersteen formalized his understanding by working in electronics during his stint in the Air Force. Back in civilian life, Vandersteen entered into speaker manufacture, producing the "baffleless" range, at least regarding the midrange…
It turns out that the internal diffraction problems of dynamic drivers are far greater or as great a problem as the problems with the baffle, because there's as much energy coming off the rear of the cone as the front of the cone, and here you have a big magnet and a basket and everything, with all of this crap delayed only two inches—in time a few milliseconds—before the sound is reflected back. We probably pioneered minimizing the external diffraction problems involving time and phase—people have said that they enjoy what it does for us, and I think it's real—so the natural extension was…
We have to talk. Are you sitting comfortably? Is the reading light okay? Have a little something to drink at hand? (Audio is thirsty business.) The audio world is abuzz over the reintroduction of the single-ended triode amplifier. This is the first of three reviews of such amplifiers I'll be bringing you, along with two speaker systems with which to play them.
Like most audiophiles, I've been peripherally aware of single-ended amplifiers and the high-efficiency speaker systems required to play them as an alternative to the more familiar high-power push-pull setups. (Except in Japan and…
There's also an argument to be made that the dynamic power of SETs is better than push-pull. I too cocked an eyebrow when I first heard this one, but Gordon explained: "In push-pull you've got the transformer's core magnetizing, collapsing the field, then magnetizing in the opposite phase, for one thing. And then the core of a single-ended amp has large amounts of DC current in it, and the inductance actually seems to create more power. In a sense, you not only have storage in the power supply, but also instantaneous power stores in the output transformer itself!"
And last, how close can…
Conclusions
There is no question that the Meridian Digital Theatre system auditioned here performed admirably, and that its individual components were equal to the best obtainable conventional devices. The system was beyond significant reproach in its reproduction of two-channel discs, and the realization of multichannel material was limited only by the source. As an obsessive audiophile, I'd be very happy with the Meridian system, but wonder if another amplifier might have made the speakers sound warmer, or if I could somehow pipe my LPs to the speakers' amps without intervening A/D…
There is no question that the Meridian Digital Theatre system auditioned here performed admirably, and that its individual components were equal to the best obtainable conventional devices. The system was beyond significant reproach in its reproduction of two-channel discs, and the realization of multichannel material was limited only by the source. As an obsessive audiophile, I'd be very happy with the Meridian system, but wonder if another amplifier might have made the speakers sound warmer, or if I could somehow pipe my LPs to the speakers' amps without intervening A/D…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Reference 800 DVD/CD player: Internal ATAPI/IDE DVD drive. Sampling rates: 32-96kHz, up to 24-bit resolution. DSP-based processing for up/downsampling, error correction, resolution enhancement, gain control (with 72-bit resolution). Configuration as tested: 5 RCA, 2 TosLink, tape monitor digital I/O (ID16); component, composite, and S-video video I/O (VE00); coax and XLR analog outputs with 24/96 D/A conversion (OA20), 2 AES/ EBU & 2 RCA digital outputs (OA20), DVD-Video region decoder (DV10), RS-232 controller (DV00), RS-232 & comm links (C000).
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Because, most of the time, I used the Meridian gear as a complete system, only limited comparisons were made to specific reference equipment. However, the resident system at the time of the Meridian auditions was as follows:
Digital sources: California Audio Labs CL20 DVD/CD player, Meridian 508-24 CD player, Mark Levinson No.360 D/A converter.
Preamplifiers: Klyne 6L3.3P, Sonic Frontiers Line 3.
Power amplifiers: McCormack DNA-1 (with Rev.A modifications), Sonic Frontiers Power 2.
Loudspeakers: PSB Gold-i.
Cables: Interconnects: Cardas…
Sidebar 3: Measurements Meridian 800
Looking at the Meridian 800's performance as a CD player from its OA20 digital/analog card, its output impedance was a low 47.5 ohms from the single-ended outputs, and almost twice that figure at 94.8 ohms from the balanced XLR jacks. The player didn't invert absolute polarity with the absolute phase set to "+," and the XLRs were wired with pin 2 positive. Although the volume control operates in 1dB steps up to an indicated "99," the analog output stage clipped with a full-scale digital signal when set to "88." All subsequent measurements were…
But the upper trace shows what happened when I increased the level to "87." The top of the wave in each cycle hard-clips, I assume in the digital filter (a sinewave at the same peak level is reproduced without problem), followed by some full-level RF oscillation. It is extremely unlikely that the Meridian will ever display this tweeter-destroying behavior on 96kHz-sampled music, but perhaps it would be a good idea to keep the volume control below "87."
Channel separation revealed the usual 6dB/octave decrease with frequency, due to capacitive coupling between the channels, but was still…
Sidebar 4: Measurements Meridian DSP5000
Although Kal used the DSP5000s as rear-channel speakers, they are respectable full-range speakers in their own right. I thus performed a complete set of measurements using the DRA Labs MLSSA system, a calibrated B&K microphone, and a dCS 904 A/D converter running at 96kHz sampling to convert the analog test signal to digital.
As a digital-input active speaker, the DSP5000 doesn't have a meaningful voltage-sensitivity rating. However, driving it with a noise signal at -12dBFS and with its volume control set to "70" (out of a possible "99…