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Chicago dealer Musical Artisans will host their winter open-house event on Saturday, November 14, from 6:30–9:30pm, featuring the North American premiere of four exciting products. Ulrik Madsen, President and lead engineer at Argento Audio and Organic Audio will present the official introduction of the new Organic Reference cable line, and the world premiere of the FMR Extreme Edition interconnects. Irv Gross, Vice President of Sales at Constellation Audio will present the Virgo III preamplifier and all-new Centaur II amplifier in their first appearance at a US dealer. Allan Moulton, US…
When we first heard rumors that Shure Brothers was about to unleash something called "trackability" on the audio world, our reaction was mainly one of indifference. We already had loudspeakers with listenability, tape recorders with portability, and amplifiers with stability and dependability. Trackability, we figured, was just another clever sales gimmick; a catchy word that the advertising department had thought up to describe what everyone wanted in a pickup.
How wrong we were! Trackability is a catchy word, but it also describes the most meaningful pickup measurement that's come along…
Let's go back a few years. Well, more than a few, actually. The electronics end of high-end audio consisted of two companies—Marantz and McIntosh. If you were not up to shopping at their stratospheric price level—even though the industry hadn't yet invented components priced to compete with automobiles—you could always fall back on Dynaco, the poor man's high end in kit form. You hooked all this together with two-dollar connecting cables and 16-gauge zip cord purchased from the local electrical supply house, or—if you felt particularly flush—you'd spend a few (very few) bucks more at Fred's…
Sam Tellig reviewed the Marantz CD-94 in September 1988 (Vol.11 No.9):
In the rest of the Free World, outside North America, Marantz International is part of Philips. Under product manager Ken Ishiwata and his team—Ken being a Japanese who has resided for some years in Belgium—International has made an audiophile name for itself. The best Marantz products (seldom seen on this side of the Atlantic until now) combine European sound quality with Japanese build quality.
Now under new ownership, Marantz Company, Inc. (USA) is bringing in some of these products: the upmarket "94" series…
Sidebar: Specifications
CD-94: Solid-state compact disc player. Frequency response: 4Hz–20kHz –0.5dB. Dynamic range: 96dB. S/N ratio: 96dB. Total harmonic distortion: 0.003% (1kHz). D/A conversion: 16-bit 4x oversampling. Audio output level: 2V RMS.
Dimensions: 3.5" H by 18.125" W by 13.125" D. Weight: 27.5 lbs.
Price: $1800; no longer available.
CDA-94: Outboard digital/analog converter. Sampling rate: Compatible with 32kHz, 44.1kHz, and 48kHz (automatic selection). Frequency response (44.1kHz rate): 2Hz–10kHz –0.1dB (fixed outputs and variable outputs at max level); 20Hz…
Saturday, November 14, 1–6pm: VPI Industries (10 Riverside Lane, Holmdel) will host an Open House/Listening Party. Guests will be able to enjoy four rooms, each furnished with a system that has been carefully optimized for the specific listening environment. The event will highlight two new pieces of electronics: the Luminous Audio Arion Phonostage (above) and the Fern & Roby Integrated Amplifier, both engineered by Mike Bettinger of Bettinger Audio. Manufacturer representatives from all three companies will be on hand to answer questions and demonstrate the products.
Other featured…
"Is the Artist in the Room?" is the title of two recorded-music seminars being presented November 14 by Philip O’Hanlon of high-end audio distributor On A Higher Note at Florida dealer Audio Elegance (3435 Galt Ocean Drive, Fort Lauderdale) from 1pm–6pm. Philip will be presenting a live demonstration of high-resolution digital formats vs analog recordings.
There are two sessions: 1pm–3pm and 4pm–6pm. For more information click here.
Tricker tweets? I know, Halloween has already come and gone, but I just had to use that because this little speaker has a trick about its tweeter. The Spectrum Audio 108cd is constructed of ¾" MDF for the baffle and ½" MDF for the sides, with a very–high-quality black ash vinyl covering all the way around. (A brown ash finish is also available.) Rapping on the cabinet results in a hollow bonk, rather than a solid thud. All the corners are squared—no radiused edges, which is probably one of the things that helps them keep the price down. The quality of workmanship isn't up to the fine…
Sidebar 1: Review System
"Lonnie, how'd you like to review some speakers?" It was John Atkinson.
"Sure, but send me some stands, too, would you? I don't have any."
"Not a problem."
Stands and speakers showed up together in one massive display of sticking-together-thru-UPS solidarity. The stands were from Lovan, with four spiked feet and a column you can fill with sand, which I did. Without sand, they rang like bells when tapped; though the sound was lovely, it probably wasn't conducive to good performance. Once sandbagged, they just went thunk when rapped.
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The EAD DSP-1000 III is housed in a 2.5" high, U-shaped chassis with a brushed-aluminum front panel. The cover is made of solid, 1/10"-thick steel with a nice "powder" finish, giving the unit an expensive feel. A pushbutton standby switch sitting below a green LED indicator sits at the panel's left. Even when set to Off, power is maintained for the decoder's circuits, but the digital inputs and analog outputs are muted. To the right, three pushbuttons allow selection of one of the three digital input sources (TosLink, 750 ohm coaxial, or glass optical interface). Like the EAD DSP-7000 unit…