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The Carmen is an ebony-bodied replacement for Soundsmith's esteemed SMMC3 MI model (now discontinued, footnote 3). It is of medium mass (6.8gm), medium compliance (22µm/mN), and high output (2.2mV RMS), and features a nude elliptical stylus (6 by 17µm) and an aluminum-alloy cantilever. It should work well with most MM phono stages and tonearms of low to medium mass. I used the Carmen with a vertical tracking force (VTF) of 1.5gm into a 47k ohms/100pF load (though I recommend experimenting with capacitive loads of up to 450pF). I played it every day for almost six months, with four tonearms…
Editor's Note: In Stereophile's second decade of publication, things were starting to unravel, with long gaps between each issue. There were just seven issues published between January 1974 and January 1978. The late Harry Pearson has gone on record that he founded The Absolute Sound in 1973 part because he was tired of waiting for the next issue of Stereophile to reach his mailbox. In this "As We See It" essay from the "Surface Noise" issue in August 1976, founder J. Gordon Holt owns up to it appearing 8 months late!
It is probably unnecessary for us to point out that this issue is late…
To some, the measure of a company has less to do with the amount of money it makes than with the honesty of the things it sells: the assurance that every product in its line is designed not as a marketing exercise but as a straightforward and presumably unique answer to a real consumer need.
Consider Harbeth, founded in 1977 by ex-BBC engineer Dudley Harwood, the first syllable of whose surname is immortalized on thousands of loudspeakers whose shared heritage is unmistakable. That in itself is testament to the durability of Harwood's point of view, and to the no-less-apparent…
Thus supported, the Harbeths best suited my 19' by 12' listening room when toed-in slightly but not fully toward the center of the listening area, and when each was approximately 41" from its sidewall and 56" from the wall behind it (all dimensions measured from a central point on the front baffle). My 25Wpc Shindo Corton-Charlemagne monoblocks, their use preapproved by Harbeth's US distributor, sounded super with the Supers—but so did the 45Wpc Croft Phono Integrated, which I used to drive the Harbeths in my considerably larger living room (ca 23' by 27').
A final note: The Super…
The story's been often told: 30 years ago, British speaker manufacturer KEF was asked to design a small, spherical loudspeaker that could be used in a European project to research room acoustics. The speaker had to have wide, even dispersion, so KEF's solution was to mount the tweeter coaxially, on what would have been the woofer's dustcap. That "point source" drive-unit, called the Uni-Q, began appearing in KEF's commercial speaker models in 1989, starting with the Reference 105/3—but it wasn't until the appearance of KEF's 50th-anniversary loudspeaker, the LS50, which I reviewed in…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way, reflex-loaded, stand-mounted loudspeaker. Drive-units: 0.78" (20mm) titanium-dome and 1" (25mm) aluminum-dome tweeters; 7.8" (200mm) polymeric composite-cone mid/woofer. Frequency response: 40Hz–20kHz, ±3dB. Nominal impedance: 6 ohms. Sensitivity: 86dB/W/m.
Dimensions: 24.8" (635mm) H by 12.6" (322mm) W by 11.7" (300mm) D. Weight: 34.75 lbs (15.8kg).
Serial numbers of units reviewed: 12287L, 12287R.
Finishes: Cherry; other veneers available at additional cost.
Price: $6695/pair. Approximate number of dealers: 20.
…
In the bass, Jerome's Taylor acoustic bass guitar on Rendezvous, and my Fender bass on Editor's Choice (CD, Stereophile STPH016-2), were each reproduced with a rich, weighty bottom octave and terrific impact. The low-frequency, 1/3-octave warble tones on Editor's Choice were reproduced with full weight down to the 32Hz band, which was boosted by the lowest-frequency mode in my room. The 25Hz warble tone was still readily audible at normal listening levels, though the 20Hz tone disappeared. The half-step–spaced tonebursts on Editor's Choice were reproduced cleanly from the midbass through…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Garrard 301 turntable; EMT 997 tonearm; EMT OFD 15 & TSD 15 pickup heads.
Digital Sources: Halide Designs DAC HD USB D/A converter; Apple iMac G5 computer running Audirvana Plus 1.5.12 playback software; Sony SCD-777ES SACD/CD player.
Preamplification: Hommage T2 step-up transformer, Shindo Masseto preamplifier.
Power Amplifiers: Shindo Corton-Charlemagne monoblocks.
Integrated Amplifier: Croft Phono.
Loudspeakers: Altec Valencia, DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/96, Quad ESL.
Cables: USB: WireWorld Revelation 2.0.…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way, five-driver, floorstanding loudspeaker with vented enclosure. Drive-units: 1" (25mm) aluminum-dome tweeter and 5" (127mm) Li-Mg-Al (LCP) hybrid-cone midrange driver in coaxial Uni-Q array, four 6.5" (165mm) aluminum-cone woofers. Crossover frequencies: 320Hz, 2.4kHz. Frequency response: 40Hz–35kHz, ±3dB. Frequency range: 34Hz–45kHz, –6dB. Sensitivity: 90dB/2.83V/m. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms. Minimum impedance: 3.2 ohms. Harmonic distortion (second & third harmonics at 90dB, 1m): <0.5%, 40Hz–100kHz; <0.2%, 200Hz–10kHz. Maximum…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Harbeth Super HL5plus's frequency response in the farfield; and an Earthworks QTC-40, with its small, ¼"-diameter capsule, for the nearfield responses.
The Harbeth is specified as having a sensitivity of 86dB/W/m, and my estimate of its voltage sensitivity was the same: 86dB(B)/2.83V/m. Though this is 1dB or so below average, I commend Harbeth for not inflating this specification. Although the Super HL5plus has a specified impedance of 6 ohms, my measurement (fig.1) indicates…