Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner conducting.
RCA ".5 Series" ARP1-W27 (LP).
In case you didn't already know, ".5" is RCA's name for their half-speed-–mastered line of audiophile LPs, whose releases to date have included many recordings, as well as some real gems, from their archive of older stereo recordings.
Their choice of old recordings is interesting to say the least, as it shows a side of RCA's classical division that we thought had atrophied and blown away many years ago: musical judgment. Instead of going for their most…
No, we made no typos in the specifications sidebar. The weight of the Wilson Audio Modular Monitor (WAMM) speaker system is enough to make you consult a structural engineer before dropping it on your living room floor—fragile, 300-year old New England frame houses are probably out. And the recent price increase from $32,000 to $35,000 is enough by itself to buy a pair of Quad ESL-63s—which is not a bad speaker system. The WAMM represents an all-out assault on both the state of the art in speaker systems and on the limits to which wealthy audiophiles will go in order to have the best (footnote…
It is this acceleration of aural intensity which produces a kind of rapture in the music-lover—Do I wax too poetic? Are you checking the cover of your magazine to see if it's really Stereophile?—that the WAMMs do uniquely well. As you can see, I was bowled over. As an equipment reviewer I would like the WAMMs for their cleanness of presentation, their tonal neutrality; as a sensual human being I would like the WAMMs for their ability to present realistic orchestral dynamics.
It's hard to assign one specific cause to above effect. I suspect that the key decision was to use $8000 worth of…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: Four-way, unusually full-range loudspeaker system. Drive-unit: 18" subwoofer; 7" by 9" mid-bass drivers (KEF B139); 4" midrange drivers; 1" dome mid- treble; Janzsen electrostatic array. Separate equalizer, electronic crossover, and passive crossovers included. Crossovers at 50, 500, and 3500Hz. Frequency response: 17Hz–30kHz ±3dB. Recommended amplifier power: 100 watts minimum (biamplification necessary).
Dimensions: 78" H by 24" W by 27½" D; weight: 450 lbs (subwoofer); 78" H by 19" W by 32" D; Weight: 500 lbs (full-range array).
Price: $35,…
Jim Austin wrote about the AX-5 in October 2014 (Vol.37 No.10):
These days, many audiophiles seem to prefer tube amplification to transistors. That was my impression as I prepared to write this review, and some informal research confirmed it: Most of the audiophiles I asked, in person and online, believe that music reproduced by a good tube amp has more heft, more texture, more blood. Transistors may amplify with less distortion, reproducing what's on the recording with greater fidelity, but tubes seem to more consistently facilitate an emotional connection with the music.
Why,…
Hitting newsstands on Monday and already in some subscribers’ hands, the October issue of Stereophile features the second installment of our 2014 “Recommended Components” feature. Completely updated since the last edition appeared in April, there are more than 500 components described and rated. (Because this is the largest-ever listing, several product categories had to be omitted from the print edition; these will be published on this website early next week.)
The focus in equipment reports this month is on affordable products, with Dynaudio’s superb-sounding Excite 14 loudspeaker and…
For the musically literate it’s an old story but one that I never tire of telling. It was the scruffy, outlaw country singer warbling Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington and the Gershwins? He wasn’t singer enough to carry it, they all said. And even if by some miracle he did, his label was convinced it would never find an audience, it would never sell. When Booker T. Jones of Stax Records fame signed on as producer, heads were scratched, skeptical eyes rolled northward and virtually everyone had their doubts.
And yet it was a triumph. A crossover record in the very best sense of the word,…
Acoustat Model Twos have been my reference loudspeakers for almost five years. I remember, on first hearing them in a high-end store in Illinois, how they let the music through in a way new and important to me. I knew I must own them! They seemed, despite their imposing appearance, to step aside when the music came on. The effect was akin to having a door opened onto the performance. One became privy to intimate details captured in recordings which are rarely heard outside the concert hall. Not veils, but flannel sheets were lifted from the sound! If one fussed around enough with placement,…
And that instrument sounded oh-so-good on the Spectras. The slight thinness I heard on the solid-state amps disappeared, replaced by an overwhelmingly liquid, rich, euphonic sound. The cello's timbre was captured beautifully, the instrument singing sweetly in the upper registers and "growling" appropriately in the lower ones. Fine details of the performance were retrieved effortlessly and were well integrated into the presentation. There was an excellent sense of "air" surrounding the soloist, his image slightly recessed but well focused between the speakers. My listening notes say, "This…
JA Takes a Listen, August 1991 (Vol.14 No.8):
Not emphasized by GL is the fact that these speakers are no wimpy audiophile electrostatics: they kick butt! After I'd finished measuring the review pair in my room, I put on some Stevie Winwood for light relief, the Acoustats being driven by the Goldmund Mimesis 8 that I'm currently reviewing. The 1100's bass may be exaggerated in level, but it's tight as a nut and it goes low—this from an 8" woofer! (It is not irrelevant that the Spectra 1100's design places the woofer in close proximity to the floor, where it will be given a helping hand…
