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Until the quiet comes, we can enjoy Flying Lotus’s new mixtape, Lovers Melt, Pt.III. Here in the Stereophile office, it’s been blowing our minds all week, helping us get through the beast that is “Recommended Components.” We hope you enjoy it, too.
This month I am writing about five vintage loudspeakers you should hear before you die.
Why vintage? Because the best vintage gear offers an abundance of musically agreeable qualities that are missing from even the best contemporary gear.
Those qualities may or may not be crucial to your enjoyment of recorded music (the liberated male of the 21st century is free to prioritize for himself those aspects of playback fidelity that matter most, some of which aren't at all well served by antique equipment), and the difficulty and expense of going retro can prove too much for those with…
My methodology was simple: I asked each of these people to name at least five must-hear vintage loudspeakers, thinking—correctly, as it turned out—that the most frequently named products would comprise the final top five. As I wrote in my letter to all correspondents:
Complete loudspeakers and raw drivers may both be considered for this list. For obvious reasons—I hope for this piece to be genuinely helpful to the person of limited experience in the field—I would prefer to emphasize the former. But we all know examples of the latter that define a certain sound, yet which are not…
Four versions in all were made: The LC-1a, LC-1b, and LC-1c are all distinguished from their progenitor by the addition to the bass cone of seven semi-ovoid "acoustic domes" that add a bit of desired mass to the cone, in addition to deflecting the output of the high-frequency driver—the latter effect enhanced by the addition of a stationary two-lobe deflector, referred to in vintage circles as the "butterfly."
According to Early Bender, "This brainchild of RCA's brilliant and eccentric Dr. Harry Olson may be the midrange champ among 15" titans." He added that the LC-1 was…
A recent (unpublished) letter to the editor argued that the reference for audio perfection is the sound of real instruments in a real space. The writer claimed that, since the art and/or science of audio is advancing, and because it is a "scientific truth" that the closer you get to perfection, the less divergence there is components, that therefore there should be less difference in sound among the components listed in Class A of Stereophile's "Recommended Components" than among those in Class B, much less Class C. This should be true of loudspeakers, he said, but even more true of top-…
So I wondered: Compared to the competition, how would the NHB-458s sound through the MAXX 3s in my home system? On the Soulution side of fast, tight, and detailed? Or would the darTZeels be "neatly threading the needle between the Soulution [710]'s cool speediness, the VTL [MB-450 Series III Signature]'s assertive top end, and the [Musical Fidelity Titan]'s warmer if less resolving sound," as I reported the big MBL Reference 9011 first sounding? More listening with the 9011 revealed bass response that, while "complete in terms of extension, texture, and finesse," was "less than fully…
The NHB-458s nailed that record, as it did Wilkie's recording of Vladimir Ashkenazy and Georg Solti performing the Beethoven piano concertos with the Chicago Symphony (LP, Decca SXLG 6594-7)—another set that would sound good on a boom box. Through the NHB-458s, the piano's textural and tonal clarity and physical focus were a few significant steps better than what I've heard from the other amps mentioned.
Could the darTZeels rock? With that much power, you'd think their dynamic possibilities would be unlimited. You'd be correct. What's more, the more I cranked them, the better they…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Solid-state monoblock power amplifier. Inputs: unbalanced voltage-mode (RCA), unbalanced Zeel (BNC), balanced (XLR). Output power: 450W (26.5dBW) (850W peak) into 8 ohms, 800W (26dBW) (1700W peak) into 4 ohms, 1000W (24dBW) (1800W peak) into 2 ohms (software limited). Voltage gain (user selectable): 26 or 32dB into 8 ohms. Input impedance: >30k ohms, 5Hz–200kHz (RCA); 50 ohms, ±1 ohm (Zeel); 10k ohms per phase (XLR). Output impedance: <0.28 ohm, 20Hz–20kHz (into 8 ohms). Frequency response: 0.7Hz–700kHz, +0/–3dB; 20Hz–20kHz, +0/–0.2dB. THD:…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn/Cobra/Castellon turntable/tonearm/stand; Onedof turntable; Graham Engineering Phantom II, Kuzma 4Point tonearms; Lyra Atlas, Ortofon A90, Miyajima Labs Premium BE mono, Ice Blue cartridges.
Preamplification: Ypsilon VPS-100, Manley Labs Chinook phono preamplifiers; darTZeel NHB-18ns preamplifier.
Digital Sources: MSB Platinum Diamond DAC IV DAC, Platinum Studio ADC, Platinum Data CD IV CD transport; Simaudio Moon Evolution 650D DAC/CD transport; BPT-modified Alesis Masterlink hard-disk recorder;…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
To perform measurements on the darTZeel NHB-458, I used Stereophile's loan sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and the January 2008 "As We See It." Before testing one of the monoblocks (serial number TZ-UA1458-538L), I ran it at 1/3 its rated power into 8 ohms for 60 minutes, which thermally is the worst case for an amplifier with a class-A/B output stage. At the end of that period, while the shrouded heatsink on the amplifier's rear was too hot to keep my hand on, at 63.5°C/146°F, the top of the enclosure was only warm, at…