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We are aware that much of what we have to say about reproduced sound in these pages goes completely over the heads of a lot of our readers, simply because they have not heard live, un-amplified music recently enough (if ever) to relate their own listening experiences to our observations. These are the people who tend to have developed a strong mental image of what hi-fi ought to sound like, and it is not surprising that that image should bear little if any resemblance to reality. In most cases, this image of hypothetical perfection involves a broadly sweeping sense of spaciousness, awesome…
Musicians whose careers were derailed by personal demons is a very old tale. Write about music and after a couple decades they all begin to have a similar ring: someone got addicted to something and began blowing off gigs, trashing friendships, and generally lying to themselves and everyone close to them. It usually doesn’t end well. And after they’re gone, “far too soon” (to use the usual bromide), everyone thinks about their own issues while tsk tsk’ing about what could have been done and how awash in self-loathing and focused on ending it all the deceased had eventually become.
Every…
With quiet elegance, the Sentec EQ11 phono stage and equalizer entered my expanding world of gramophone dreams. The EQ11 ($2500) is a modestly sized, tubed phono stage with the industry-standard RIAA phono equalization and five other EQ curves. These additional curves are for records pressed by companies that did not fully or promptly comply with the new, supposedly global industry standard introduced by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 1954.
Before 1955, every record company chose and applied its own version of recording equalization; there were over 100…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Low-gain, tubed moving-magnet phono premplifier with multiple equalization settings and wall-wart power supply. Tube complement: 2 JAN G.E. 5751 (special 12AX7), 2 JAN Philips 6189W tubes. Measured voltage gain at 1kHz: 29.5–30.6dB, depending on EQ. Measured input impedance at 1kHz: 45k ohms. Measured output impedance at 1kHz: 2k ohms. Measured S/N ratio: 72.6dB (A-weighted) ref. 1kHz at 5mV.
Serial number of review sample: "Made in Sweden."
Price: $2500.
Manufacturer: Sentec, Sweden. US distributor: Tone Imports. Web: www.toneimports.…
Sidebar 2: Measurements
I measured the Sentec EQ11 using my top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com, and the January 2008 "As We See It."). With all settings of its front-panel knob, the EQ11 preserved absolute polarity (ie, was non-inverting). Its input impedance was 45k ohms at low and middle frequencies, dropping to 33k ohms at the top of the audioband. The treble and midrange output impedances were high, at 2k ohms, rising to 5k ohms in the low bass.
As well as RIAA phono equalization, labeled "RIAA, New Ortho" on the Sentec's front panel, the EQ11…
New location, new features, and a more inclusive, consumer electronics-orientated approach: that's the word on the fourth annual Toronto Audio Video Entertainment Show (TAVES). Now ensconced in the Sheraton Centre Hotel in downtown Toronto, which offers far more large exhibit rooms than did TAVES' former venue, the three-day show opens on Friday, October 31 with four floors' worth of audio, video and consumer electronics-oriented exhibits.
"I am even more excited about this edition of the show than I was for our first year," show co-founder and publisher of Canada Hi-Fi writer Suave Kajko…
Henry Mancini: Music for Peter Gunn
Steven Richman, Harmonie Ensemble/New York (22-piece orchestra)
Harmonia Mundi HMU907624 (CD). 2014. Steven Richman, prod.; Adam Abeshouse, prod., eng., mastering; Bill Siegmund, asst. prod., ed.; Andy Rider, eng. DDD? TT: 51:04
Performance ****½
Sonics ****
Steven Richman, Harmonie Ensemble/New York (22-piece orchestra)
Harmonia Mundi HMU907624 (CD). 2014. Steven Richman, prod.; Adam Abeshouse, prod., eng., mastering; Bill Siegmund, asst. prod., ed.; Andy Rider, eng. DDD? TT: 51:04
Performance ****½
Sonics ****
To get the full benefit of this album, you must be old enough to remember 1959. Detective shows were the rage. Your parents let you stay up for Richard Diamond, Private Detective, starring David Janssen, and Peter Gunn, starring Craig Stevens. They were the first TV dramas with their…
Classical and jazz notwithstanding, an awful lot of new music is highly compressed, processed, and harsh, and it's about time we got used to it. Musicians, producers, and engineers are, in large part, on board with the sound, and any suggestion of making less-compressed recordings, with a wider dynamic range, is met with confused stares, or worse. One superstar producer didn't take kindly to my suggestion that he make two mixes for his new project: the standard compressed one, and another, less-crushed version. That didn't fly; he said there could be only one, the mix approved by him and the…
Editor: I just wanted to add a brief comment to Steve Guttenberg's editorial in the November issue of Stereophile. I think he misunderstood Bob Katz, or maybe Bob and I didn't get it across well enough: Nobody will prevent you from squashing or clipping the sound. The only thing loudness-normalization does is to take away any loudness "advantage" you typically also get from applying such processing. Therefore, compression, limiting, clipping etc. still should and will remain an artistic decision.
Today, the guy applying such processing just ought to compare results loudness-normalized, ie…
Do you travel? Commute, perhaps? Just like to listen to music privately around the house? No matter—the Astell&Kern AK240 is the luxury choice in high-resolution portable music players (footnote 1). It even comes with a lovely leather case that beautifully cradles its angular beauty. The AK240 can play all of your PCM files, up to a resolution of 24-bit/192kHz, as well as DXD and single- and double-rate DSD, natively, and can do so from its internal storage, from a microSD card, or from your computer via WiFi or a wired connection. It can also function as a DAC or USB-to-TosLink…