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…
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…
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…
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…
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:…
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;…
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…
(Ugh.)
Bvvvzzzssst.
(Where am I? Oh. Bed.)
BVVVZZZSST!
“Alright, alright! I’ll get up!” I yelled at my phone. Slowly, I pulled myself out of bed on an early Saturday morning after a long night out. How did I get home? Something was needed in order to wake me up. Zeppelin’s Presence was on the Rega P1. Perfect.
I slogged over to the P1 and noticed some dust under the needle. Normally at this moment, I would give the Ortofon OM5 cartridge a little whistle to blow off the dust and then apply some LAST Stylus cleaner, but my brain wasn’t…