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For Jason Victor Serinus, one of the highlights of the 2013 T.H.E. Show in Newport Beach, California, was the public debut of the Sopranino—a horn-loaded, self-polarized, electrostatic supertweeter from EnigmAcoustics. In his report, Jason wrote about the sound of a pair of Sopraninos used atop Magico V3 speakers: "only folks with severe hearing loss would have missed how the sound opened up when the Sopranino was switched in." Well, as you can read later, I don't have hearing loss, and I did also hear an improvement with the Sopranino. So when I visited the Californian company's dem room…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Horn-loaded, self-energized electrostatic supertweeter. Drive-unit: 3.5" (90mm) by 4.75" (120mm), permanently charged PTFE diaphragm. Crossover frequency (selectable): 8kHz, 10kHz, 12kHz. High-pass crossover slope: 12dB/octave. Frequency response: 8–40kHz, ±3dB. Sensitivity: 90dB/2.83V/m or 87dB/2.83V/m (switch selectable). Nominal impedance: 4 ohms. Power handling: 50W.
Dimensions: 7.13" (181mm) W by 7.60" (193mm) H by 8.15" (207mm) D. Weight: 6 lbs (2.7kg) net each; 27 lbs (12.3 kg) shipping/pair.
Serial numbers of units reviewed:…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Linn Sondek LP12 turntable with Lingo power supply, Linn Ekos tonearm, Linn Arkiv B cartridge.
Digital Sources: Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP universal player; Apple 2.7GHz i7 Mac mini running OS10.7, iTunes 10, Pure Music 1.89; Auralic Vega, NAD M51 D/A converters; Ayre Acoustics QA-9 USB A/D converter.
Preamplification: Channel D Seta L phono preamplifier, Pass Labs XP-30 line preamplifier.
Power Amplifiers: MBL Corona C15, Pass Labs XA60.5 (both monoblocks).
Loudspeakers: Joseph Audio Perspective, Rogers BBC LS3/5A.
Cables:…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the EnigmAcoustics (Enigma from now on) Sopranino's frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 for the spatially averaged room responses. It was difficult to estimate the Sopranino's voltage sensitivity, as I usually calculate this with a 20kHz bandwidth and, as you will see, the Enigma supertweeter's output is mainly higher than that frequency. But the sensitivity below 20kHz appears to be 87dB/2.83V/m, with the switch reducing this by the specified 3dB.
Fig.1…
Before there were jam bands, before the term even existed in fact, there was a fabulous, funky assemblage called Little Feat. Led by keyboardist Bill Payne, drummer Richie Hayward and the band’s resident genius guitarist/singer/songwriter, the late Lowell George, the band was completed by guitarist Paul Barrere, percussionist Sam Clayton, and bassist Kenny Gradney, all of whom joined after the Dixie Chicken record. Their live shows and studio records are, along with The Allman’s and The Dead, the rock upon which today’s overripe jam movement was built. One look at the video or a listen to…
Paul Bley's Play Blue: Oslo Concert (on the ECM label) is a bracing solo piano album. Think Keith Jarrett, with less Rachmaninoff and more Monk, but the distinctions sway on the margins. Bley too is a romantic improviser, immersed in jazz idiom but classically trained (and he lets it show, though less showily than Jarrett).
Another difference: Bley recorded this in 2008, when he was 75, and he sounds just as energetic as when he was 20, back in 1953, on his debut LP, Introducing Paul Bley, with Charles Mingus and Max Roach as sidemen. (He also recorded in the '50s with Charlie Parker,…
Audiophiles spend a lot of time thinking about the law of diminishing returns. We'd all agree that spending $1000 to replace an iPhone and generic earbuds with one of Stephen Mejias's "Entry Level" systems is in the early, steep part of the curve: a huge jump in performance for relatively small investment. We'd also agree, or at least suspect, that after you've spent that $1000, the curve gets a lot flatter. What we don't agree on is the shape of the curve between these points. The ideal situation is to find the knee: the point at which the curve's slope changes dramatically. At the knee, we…
The CD32 still added a bit of extra body and warmth, but much less than the CD31. This, too, seemed less a frequency-response variation than a slight difference in the level of focus and clarity. When I listened very carefully, the CD32 was a little more detailed and transparent through the midrange than above or below it. In the Brahms, for example, the violins were right there. They had a stunning amount of inner detail, and their images were sharply bounded in three dimensions. The cellos, in contrast, were gorgeously warm and rich but not quite as detailed.
Again, when I listened…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Single-box CD player. Analog outputs: 1 pair unbalanced (RCA), 1 pair balanced (XLR). Digital outputs: 75 ohm S/PDIF (RCA), 110 ohm AES/EBU (XLR), optical (TosLink). Inputs: USB, RS-232, IR input (3.5mm), trigger in/out (3.5mm). Maximum output level (fixed): 2.1V unbalanced, 4.1V balanced. THD+noise: <0.01%, 20Hz–20kHz. Output impedance: 390 ohms unbalanced, 47 ohms balanced. Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz, +0/–0.5dB. Signal/noise ratio (20Hz–20kHz): 100dB, unweighted. Power consumption: 0.5W standby, 25V operation.
Dimensions: 17" (430mm) W…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Spiral Groove SG-2, VPI HR-X turntable-tonearm combinations; Lyra Titan i, Grado Signature Reference phono cartridges.
Digital Sources: Primare CD31 CD player.
Preamplification: Sutherland Engineering Phono Blocks & Duo phono preamplifiers; Sutherland Engineering Line Blocks, Simaudio Moon Evolution 850P, Placette Active, Primare Pre32 line stages.
Power Amplifiers: Simaudio Moon Evolution 880M monoblocks, Primare A34.2, VTL Ichiban (MB750 Signature) monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties Sophia 2.
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