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Everyone in the room can hear the difference when I swap one phono cartridge for another. Same thing happens with loudspeakers. This is because both of these magnet-based transducer technologies are electromechanical devices, traditionally made of paper, wood, iron, and copper. (Nowadays, polymers, aluminum, and carbon composites are more typical.) Both are motor-generator mechanisms that either convert mechanical energy into electrical energy (cartridges) or vice versa (speakers). As audio devices, they are spool-and-wire simple, but even tiny changes in the materials and/or how those…
In my sophomore year of high school, one of the greatest challenges my friends and I faced was the search for the perfect after-school hangout, perfect being defined as "having the least amount of adult supervision." Some of us lived in single-parent homes, but only one had a single parent for whom weekday surprise inspections were impossible, and that was Scott. So Scott's place—a downstairs apartment in a nice older house not far from school—got the nod.
Scott's place was also where I learned to distinguish the differences between monophonic and stereophonic playback. Most of us had…
Mat Weisfeld, the President of VPI, told me, "The Scout was originally named after Sheila Weisfeld, since she was very active in the Girl Scouts. After her death, we had made the Traveler in her memory, but the Traveler was not easily upgradable and had the inboard motor. The Scout Jr. was made to replace the Traveler, and serve as a 'table to celebrate Mom's life rather than her passing."
The Scout Jr. record player ($1600) offers, at a reasonable price, the ability to play now—and then, later on, if you so desire, you can opt for a slew of upgrades, including: the 1 3/8"-thick platter…
When the MH40s arrived, I enjoyed the M&D experience as would a paying customer: The packaging and presentation were first-rate, and the headphones themselves appeared well made. The MH40s' earcups are machined from aluminum alloy, while various structural bits—most notably the pins around which the size-adjustment mechanisms pivot—are stainless steel. The earpads, made of a memory foam, are covered in soft, supple lambskin, as is the headband's underside; the headband's top is made of cowhide. (Obviously, this is not a product for vegans and/or biocentrists.) The MH40s weigh 360gm, and…
Sidebar: Contacts
Acoustic Signature, AS Distribution GmbH, Ulmer Strasse 123, 73037 Göppingen, Germany. Tel: (49) (0)7161-3898135. Fax: (49) (0)7161-3898137. Web: www.acoustic-signature.com. US distributor: Fidelis Music Systems, 460 Amherst Street, Route 101A, Nashua, NH 03063. Tel: (603) 880-4434. Fax: (603) 880-4433. Web: www.fidelisav.com.
VPI Industries, 77 Cliffwood Avenue #5D, Cliffwood, NJ 07721. Web: www.vpiindustries.com.
RTOM Corporation, 550 Industrial Road, Carlstadt, NJ 07072. Tel: (201) 507-8282. Fax: (201) 507-8890. Web: www.rtom.com.
Sidebar Contacts
Master & Dynamic, New York City, NY. Tel: (888) 814-5411. Web: www.masterdynamic.com.
The Electric Recording Company, 123 Westbourne Studios, 242 Acklam Road, London W10 5JJ, England, UK. Fax: (44) 207-575-3047 Web: www.electricrecordingco.com.
Metronome’s CD8 S, which adds digital inputs to the French company’s well-regarded CD player, graces our March issue’s cover. As is often the case these days, we loved the sound but hated the measured performance—madness indeed! Melco’s affordable server and Merging’s expensive network-connected NADAC multichannel D/A processor get our nod of approval, as do class-D amplifiers from Theta, NAD, and Spec, while Herb Reichert finds much to enjoy with Simaudio’s Moon Neo 340i integrated amp. And on the music side of things, Robert Baird praises Acoustic Sounds’ new stereo releases of classic…
While a very slow night for landings at LaGuardia Airport thanks to the icy weather in New York kept me from seeing most of the 2016 Grammy Awards, I did manage to catch the last three big numbers: the tributes to David Bowie and B.B. King and the performance by the Hollywood Vampires, a salute to Lemmy.
The 2014 duet record with Tony Bennett Cheek to Cheek clearly signaled that Lady Gaga is in the midst of a career transition from oddball pop star to something more serious and adult that I heartily applaud. The Bowie tribute, with Nile Rodgers on guitar, was fast paced, visually…
The $800 JVC XL-Z1050TN 1050 is the Bitstream successor to JVC's popular 18-bit XL-Z1010, which got an enthusiastic thumbs-up from Robert Harley in April 1990 (Vol.13 No.4). Its styling is, in my opinion, much improved over the older player's, with the distinctive brushed-bronze finish of the rest of JVC's XL-Z line. The rear panel sports fixed and variable outputs (footnote 1), as well as Toslink optical and coaxial digital outputs. As with the 1010, the JVC features their proprietary K2 Interface, a circuit that reduces jitter by resampling the pulses with a short-duration gate just ahead…
Sidebar 1: Aunt Silly Airy Gear
Just about the only change I've made to my system has been replacing VTL's Compact 160 monoblocks with their larger KT90-version Deluxe 225s; I need more juice than the 160s were able to swing, and the triode-wired Deluxe 225s are just the ticket. The new 225s extend the virtues of the Compact 160s (triode mode only for these amps) further in nearly every direction, with even clearer midrange textures and Amazing Space. And as the new VTLs are too big to fit on the books I had the 160s sitting on, I've got the 225s up on sky-blue plastic milk crates…