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Virtually every new recording of Mozart's great opera, Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), is eagerly anticipated. The opera is, after all, an indisputable masterpiece, and frequently described as the most perfect opera ever written. Not only does it contain an irresistible flood of melody, with one hummable, ear worm-like tune after the other, but its music also unfailingly serves da Ponte's libretto. As the story careens from ridiculous comedy to trenchant, oft-poignant commentary on the power struggles between master and servant, and women and men, it seems as alive today as it…
Guitarist Nels Cline will make his Blue Note debut on August 5—this coming Friday as a download, with CD following on August 19 and LP on September 2—with his album Lovers. It's a beautiful, wide-ranging, 18-track, 23-person-ensemble look inside Nels's soul, and a project that's been in the making for 25 years. It contains a mix of Cline's originals as well as songs by Sonic Youth, Arto Lindsay, Jimmy Giuffre, and Great American Songbook Standards.
I've known Cline, named by Rolling Stone as one of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time," from his avantgarde ensemble the Nels Cline…
It takes a lot of courage for a new company to launch an amplifier like this at time when most manufacturers are courting the mass market with budget-priced receivers, and Marantz is pretty firmly established as the Rolls Royce of audio electronics.
The SAE Mark II has, nominally, the same performance specs as the Dynaco Stereo 120, yet it costs twice as much as a factory-wired Stereo 120, and about 2½ times as much as a Stereo 120 kit. Is the SAE really worth the difference? And how does it compare with some other $400 amplifiers? Well, it all depends.
To begin with, the SAE and…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: Solid-state stereo or mono amplifier. Power output: 60Wpc into 8 ohms, >40Wpv into 16 ohms, both channels driven, 20Hz–20kHz; in mono mode, >100W into 8 ohms, >120W into 14 ohms, 20Hz–20kHz. IM distortion: <0.2% at rated output; <0,1% at lower levels. THD: <0.2% at rated output, <0.05% at lower levels. Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz ±0.1dB; 3Hz–100kHz +0, –2dB. Power bandwidth: 8Hz–50kHz. Hum & noise: >110dB below 40 watts. Damping factor: >150. Stability: Unconditional with any type of load, or no load. Sensitivity: 1.…
In writing for magazines, there's a basic rule: Don't become the subject. And in writing about the arts, it's best to remember that you aren't in the music business or the film business: you're in the publishing business. Despite this, there are arts writers who fancy they're a part of the world they write about. All famous musicians are their "friends." The music business values their opinions. They're caught up in the delusion that the Rolling Stones sang about so deliciously in "Star Star," the closing number on Goats Head Soup.
At the risk of breaking that rule, I must note that…
Editor's Note: Approaching its ninth year of publication in 1970, the advertisement-free Stereophile was failing as a business. There was just one issue published between December 1968 and June 1970, the date when J. Gordon Holt published this plea in response to the reaction to the increased subscription price: first to $4 for four issues, equivalent to $25 in 2016, then to $5 ($31). The response from subscribers to his plea was not positive enough to enable the magazine to continue publishing—Gordon could publish just two more issues in the next two years before Stereophile had to accept…
Boy, do we ever get letters. From readers angry that we review too many expensive products. From readers depressed that we review too many affordable products. From readers bemoaning our digital coverage. From readers asking when we're going to get with the 21st century and stop gushing over analog. From readers wanting more coverage of tube products. From readers wanting more coverage of MOSFET amplifiers designed for high voltage gain on the output stage.
Well, okay, we've never received the last type of letter. But if we did, it would have to refer to Hafler's new Transnova 9500…
The brightness I noted with the WATT/Puppies was nowhere in evidence here. On Behold Man, another selection on this sampler, this time of solo chorus (from Testament, RR-49CD), the overall balance was excellent, with no sense of brightness or leanness but rather compellingly natural warmth and acoustic space. The latter is particularly notable throughout this CD, and the Hafler did an especially good job of reproducing it. Likewise in the portrayal of depth, where the front-to-back layers of the chorus were clearly audible.
Nor did the 9500 shortchange other types of program material.…
Sidebar 1: Relax and float downstream...
The Transnova idea is conceptually elegant and not dissimilar to a push-pull tube output stage. In a conventional output stage (diagram A), the "positive" or "hot" load terminal is connected to the junction between the emitters or sources of the complementary output transistors and the ground load terminal to the junction between the ±V reservoir capacitors. In general, this point defines the ground potential or 0V and is used as the amplifier's fundamental or "star" grounding reference. The output devices therefore act as emitter or source…
Sidebar 2: Associated equipment
The Hafler was auditioned with a variety of loudspeakers, but I spent most of my listening time with it in the company of the Vandersteen 2Ces. The preamp was the Rowland Consummate. Comparison amplifiers included the Aragon 4004 Mk.II, Sonic Frontiers SFS-80, and Krell KSA-250.
The CD transport was either the belt-drive C.E.C. imported by Parasound or the Pioneer Elite PD-65 used as a transport (the latter used primarily when the Wilson WATT/Puppies or the Apogee Stages were in the system), used to drive a PS Audio Ultralink via Kimber AGDL. The…