Description: Dynamic, three-way, floorstanding loudspeaker with adjustable high and midrange level and low-range contour control. Drive-units: ¾" dome tweeter, 6" Kevlar-cone midrange unit, 10" Bextrene-cone woofer. Crossover frequencies: 500Hz, 5kHz. Nominal impedance: 8 ohms. Maximum amplifier power: 350W; system fused for 50W watts sinewave, tweeter fused for 72W sinewave.
Dimensions: 36.6" total H by 16.2" W'by 15" D.
Serial numbers of review samples: 3555 & 3556.
Price; $1190/pair (1977); no longer available (2015).
Manufacturer: B&W…
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Sidebar: Specifications
For many years, I've been a fan of the loudspeakers made by the British audio company Wilson Benesch. Their speakers definitely have their own personality. I first reviewed a Wilson Benesch loudspeaker while a columnist and reviewer for The Abso!ute Sound, and how that came about was amusing. As WB's then US importer was packing up his exhibit at the 1999 Consumer Electronics Show, by mistake he put labels with my address on them on the boxes containing the show samples of WB's revolutionary A.C.T. One, the first loudspeaker to have a curved carbon-fiber enclosure, a sloping top, and a…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Vented two-way stand-mounted loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" soft-dome tweeter, 7" mid/woofer, 7" Assisted Bass Radiator (ABR or passive radiator). Crossover frequency: 5kHz (first-order bass rolloff, second-order tweeter rolloff). Frequency range: 45Hz–24kHz. Voltage sensitivity: 87dB. Nominal impedance: 6 ohms. Minimum impedance: 4 ohms. Power-handling capacity: 200W, peak unclipped program. Minimum power required: 50W.
Dimensions: 12.8" high by 8" wide by 11.2" deep. Internal volume: 10 liters. Weight: 22 lbs.
Finishes: Natural Cherry Stain…
Sidebar 2: Review System
For all of my listening, the source (and volume control) was Bricasti's M1 DAC, fed either by Parasound's bombproof Halo CD 1 as a transport, or from my iMac running Audirvana Plus. Cardas Clear balanced or single-ended interconnects linked the Bricasti M1 to one of the three power amplifiers I used: Channel Islands Audio's E200S (200Wpc), and Luxman's M-600A (30Wpc, class-A only) and M-700u (120Wpc, class-A/B), all reviewed in the June "Fifth Element."—John Marks
Sidebar 3: Measurements
John Marks enthused about this elegantly finished stand-mounted speaker from England, concluding that "the Square One is a standout performer that I think absolutely deserves a very high Class B (Restricted LF) rating in our 'Recommended Components.'"
High praise indeed. I asked John to send me the review samples so I could perform my standard set of measurements. As always, I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the speaker's frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40, with its small, ¼"-diameter…
Call me naïve but I expected to arrive in the UK on a recent expedition to buy vinyl, er. . . I mean to have a relaxing vacation with my wife... and find great stuff that cannot be found in the States, not to mention tons of vintage goodies. In my fevered thirty three and a third delusions, I envisioned plum and orange-label original Led Zeppelin pressings piled high in shops; streets paved with copies of Rubber Soul and Let It Bleed, swarms of cockney street urchins hawking 45s of "Baba O'Riley."
Beautiful Edinburgh, Auld Reekie, in wonderful Scotland was the first stop and VoxBox Music…
I swear I did not plan it, and it wasn’t obvious on the Google maps I pored over before we left but the back door of the fabulous Soho Hotel spilled right out onto Wardour Street, which was a block from Berwick Street, famous for its cluster, or more like the best cluster of independent record shops in London. Not to cast aspersions on Rough Trade or Honest Jons, or even Fopp if you must—in the Covent Garden Fopp I snagged a rather nice reissue of Curtis Mayfield’s first solo record for ten quid—but it was heaven to have some great indies within an easy stroll. After devouring as much…
This year's three-day Capital Audio Fest (CAF) opens on August 28 in Rockville, MD, relatively close to the nation's capitol. In a new, unquestionably friendlier and eminently accessible location, the Hilton Rockville, the show promises, at press time, up to 39 active exhibit rooms, probably more than the 118 "officially listed" brands and exhibitors, and a potential 300+ products.
While these numbers may represent a decrease from last year, CAF will certainly offer several interesting product debuts. These include the US debut of the new Avenger turntable from VPI, a venerable brand well…
Arnie Nudell is one of a handful of designers who could justifiably be called founding members of the high-end audio industry. With Cary Christie, and John Ulrick, Arnie co-founded Infinity in his garage in 1968 and recently joined forces with Paul McGowan, the co-founder of PS Audio, to create Genesis Technologies, the Colorado-based company formed to build ultra–high-end loudspeaker systems (see my review of their $22,000 Genesis II.5 loudspeaker system elsewhere in this issue.)
I visited the Genesis factory in September 1994 and spent some time with Arnie and Paul (footnote 1)…
Not the easiest tonearm to set up (let your dealer do it if you aren't overly skilled at such things), this English-designed and Japanese-made device is the best pivoted tonearm we have tested to date, and at a very reasonable price at that. Polk Audio is importing them and distributing to dealers, most of whom sell them for around $130 to $140, and some buyers have managed to purchase them directly from stores in England for as little as $80. We received two samples of this for testing, one directly from the US distributor, Polk Audio, the other from Natural Sound, a Nebraska dealer and (…