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The Fifth Element #85 Sealed Boxes

Sidebar: Sealed Boxes

I'm convinced that Villchur's acoustic-suspension "bookshelf" loudspeakers, beginning with the Acoustic Research AR-1 of 1955, were the key innovation that opened up hi-fi to apartment dwellers and to buyers of suburban tract houses who lacked the floor space required by the previous, larger mechanical-suspension loudspeaker designs. That floor-space factor became even more important with the widespread acceptance of stereo after 1956.

There being no free lunch, the tradeoff inherent in acoustic-suspension loudspeakers was and is low efficiency. Getting deep…

Magico Event in Santa Monica, Saturday June 14

Magico's Alon Wolf will be appearing in person at The Audio Salon, Saturday June 14, from 3pm until 8pm. Alon's presentation will feature Magico's newest S-Series speaker, the S3 (above), which costs $22,600/pair, and a discussion about the technology behind the 10th Anniversary M Project.

The Audio Salon, 2525 Michigan Avenue, Unit F1, Santa Monica, CA 90404. For more information, call (310) 863-0863.

Recording of January 1985: Works for Piano

Debussy: Reflets dans l'eau;
Stravinsky: Sonata, 1924;
Schoenberg: Six Little Piano Pieces;
Ravel: Sonatina
James Boyk, piano
Performance Recording PR-4 (LP). James Boyk, prod., eng. AAA.

Performance Recordings is the closest thing to a one-man label. James Boyk is president, A&R director, musical director, recording engineer, production manager, jacket notes author, and the star performer. He is also Artist in Residence and lecturer in music and engineering (specifically sound recording and reproduction) at Cal Tech. And he happens to be one of digital's most…

Hill Plasmatronics Type 1 loudspeaker

Dr. Alan Hill, president of Plasmatronics Inc., was previously employed by the US Government in laser research. His assignment: To increase the efficiency of lasers so that they could do something more impressive than produce holograms, mend leaky retinal blood vessels, and punch pinholes in steel blocks. Dr. Hill earned his keep, thus advancing laser technology a giant step closer to Star Wars, and then retired from government service to design. . . a loudspeaker?!!!?

How could laser research qualify someone to design a loudspeaker? The connection is really much more direct than it seems…

Hill Plasmatronics Type 1 loudspeaker Page 2

Sonic details are reproduced with clinical clarity, which is dandy with superb source material but a liability with the majority of recordings. Bass is deep, tight, and gut-shaking, and the seams between the drivers are virtually imperceptible—quite an accomplishment in view of the fact that two of them are cones, with appreciable inertial mass, while the other, widest-range one is completely massless (footnote 3). Without running any curves, we would guess the low end to be effectively flat to around 35Hz in a room of adequate proportions. (The one we listened in was not. The tightest,…

Hill Plasmatronics Type 1 loudspeaker Manufacturer's Comment

Manufacturer's Comment

Thank you for a very fine report on the Type 1. Other listeners, too, have commented on the impression of brightness that the system gives with some program material, so we are making available as an optional factory add-on a switch such as JGH proposed. It still bothers me to have to do this, though, for the system is flat in response according to every measurement one can make, and it seems almost criminal to equip a high-accuracy reproducer with what amounts to a fidelity killer.—Alan Hill PhD

Reviewer's addendum:
Our own experience, through all…

Hill Plasmatronics Type 1 loudspeaker Specifications

Sidebar: Specifications

Description: Three-way, floorstanding loudspeaker with integral amplification for ionic tweeter. Drive-units: massless, ionic tweeter, 5" cone midrange unit, 12" cone woofer. Crossover frequencies: 100Hz, 700Hz. Maximum output level: 107dB. Requires a supply of helium gas (not provided).
Dimensions: 57.5" (1460mm) H by 24.5" (622mm) W by 18.5" (470mm) D. Weight: 300 lbs (136.4kg) each.
Price: $7000/pair (1979); no longer available (2014).
Manufacturer: Plasmatronics, Inc., Albuquerque, NM 87106 (1979). Company no longer in existence (2014). Web:…

Remembering Armstrong

The combination of piracy, streaming, and the accompanying devaluation of music these days has forced musicians back to the stage to make their daily bread. If you can’t tour today, you don’t have a career. Even more interesting are the musicians who cannot possibly reproduce live the studio trickery heard on their recordings, and so are trapped in a way by their records, but that’s a subject for another time.

The pressure to tour has led some musicians to give full reign to the entertainer side of their personality, as I witnessed this week at B.B. Kings in NYC when I caught a set by…

Stacey KentWho Knew?

I guess I'm going to have to start listening to Stacey Kent. At her early set at Birdland in midtown Manhattan Wednesday night, I sat down a skeptic and came away charmed.

Until recently, I'd heard Kent only a few times, on NPR's Sunday standards show, and she didn't make much of an impression. When it comes to balladeers of the American songbook, my taste leans to Sarah Vaughn, mid-period Ella Fitzgerald, June Christy, Shirley Horn—chesty singers with a sultry, sensuous edge. In no way does that describe Stacey Kent. Her voice was soft, kittenish. Not my type.

Then two things…

Adcom GCD-575 CD player

I once told Larry Archibald it might be worth, say, a 10% loss in sound quality with CD not to have to jump up and turn over the damned record. Sometimes a CD saves you from popping up twice—Mahler's Fifth or Bruckner's Seventh on a single disc instead of three LP sides—or three times—Mozart's Magic Flute on three CDs instead of 6 LP sides. That might be worth a 15% sacrifice.

I don't know that you will need to lose even 10%. Unless, of course, you have a turntable like a Versa Dynamics 2.0 or a Goldmund Reference.

Now, if only the cost of CDs would come down.

That may…