The focus in equipment reports this month is on affordable products, with Dynaudio’s superb-sounding Excite 14 loudspeaker and…
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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.)
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…
Sidebar 1: Review System
My system remains basically unchanged from that described in my review of the Ensemble B-50 Tiger in the May 1991 issue (Vol.14 No.5). The manifold in the ET2 arm has been replaced with one specially designed to complement the higher pressure of the Wisa air pump. A Monster Genesis 2000 cartridge has replaced the 1000. Navcom "pucks" have replaced the springs in the VPI HW19. These upgrades and changes to my analog front end have noticeably improved its ability to provide authoritative and captivating sound.
When I play CDs (and I must honestly say that…
Sidebar 2: Measurements
The measured sensitivity (for an octave-wide band centered at 1kHz) was on the low side, being some 6dB below the Snell Type K dynamic speaker at 84dB/W/m. Impedance-wise (fig.1), the Spectra 1100 offers no surprises. The sealed-box woofer is tuned to a low 27Hz. The HF contour switch was set to Medium for this graph; switching it to "High" drops the top-octave impedance to an amplifier-punishing 1.1 ohms at 20kHz. The upper bass impedance minimum is a still-demanding 3.6 ohms at 200Hz. Coupled with the low sensitivity, this implies that Spectra 1100 owners should…
Sidebar 3: Specifications
Description: Two-way loudspeaker with 8" dynamic woofer in a sealed cabinet, and 48" electrostatic midrange/tweeter. Crossover frequency: 250Hz. Frequency response: 30Hz–19kHz, ±3dB. Minimum recommended power: 75W. Impedance: 6 ohms nominal, 2 ohms minimum. Sensitivity: 88dB (400Hz, 1W into 8 ohms equivalent at 1m).
Dimensions: 67.5" H by 16" W by 16.75" D. Weight: unspecified, but estimated 65–75 lbs each.
Serial numbers tested: 36100061 Right, 36100062 Left.
Price: $1599/pair, $1699/pair in charcoal or light-grey sock & black oak base. (1991);…
Once upon a time, SME made "the best tonearm in the world." That claim may have been justifiable through the 1960s and early '70s, but then something happened—SME failed to keep pace with their competition in coping with the increasing popularity of low- to medium-compliance, highish-mass, moving-coil cartridges. I had just about written SME off as a serious high-end company when, at the 1984 Summer CES, I saw the first prototype of the Series V.
It wasn't being played, there was no way to tell how it sounded, but it certainly looked the business. Delays due, among other things, to…
Anthony H. Cordesman also reviewed the SME V in September 1986:
I get quite a number of excellent products to review, but I only want to steal a few of them. This list, naturally enough, includes those items where performance has been the design goal regardless of price, or which have superb performance but also some minor quirk that limit their value as references to a reviewer (footnote 1). It is, in many ways, an honor roll of the high-end, including such items as the Koetsu Signature Red, Audio Research SP-11, New York Audio Laboratories OTL-1, Apogee Scintilla, and so on.
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