Description: Two-way stand-mounted, rear ported loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1.1" (28mm) soft-dome tweeter, 6.7" (170mm) magnesium silicate polymer-cone (MSP) /woofer. Frequency response: 40Hz–35kHz, ±3dB. Sensitivity: 86dB/2.83V/m. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms.
Dimensions: 13.8" (350mm) H by 7.9" (202mm) W by 11.6" (294mm) D.
Finishes: Walnut, black ash, rosewood, maple, and black or white gloss lacquer.
Price: $2900/pair.
Manufacturer: Dynaudio International GmbH, Ohepark 2, 21224 Rosengarten, Germany. Tel: (49) (0)4108-4180-0. Fax: (49) (0)4108-4180…
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Sidebar: Specifications
Even casual music fans know the story: rock ‘n’ roll as “invented” by Elvis Presley and was just African American blues music set to a faster beat and in some cases with less salacious lyrics.
Yet as in most things musical, it’s not quite that simple. Many writers such as Nick Tosches (Unsung Heroes of Rock and Roll) and Robert Palmer (Rock & Roll: An Unruly History) have over the years attempted to explain the origins of one of America’s greatest home grown art forms. But Stereophile Contributing Editor Larry Birnbaum has found previous accounts to be lacking and so has devoted…
Wednesday, July 23, and Thursday, July 24, 6–9pm: Hosted by North Carolina’s Audio Advice, Digital Living 2014 will take place on Wednesday, July 23, in Raleigh (8621 Glenwood Avenue), and again on Thursday, July 24, in Charlotte (11409 Carolina Place Parkway, near Carolina Place Mall). Representatives from Sony, Sonance, Savant, Lutron, Classé, Bowers & Wilkins, and AudioQuest will present their latest products, all with the goal of simplifying, improving, and creating a more enjoyable modern digital home. AudioQuest’s Steve Silberman and Jett Logan will share the significant impact high…
$13,000! You could buy two Hyundai Excels for that kind of money. Or one 5-liter Ford Mustang. Or two-thirds of a Saab 900 Turbo. How could the purchase of this Accuphase two-box CD player be justified on any rational grounds? What if it did offer state-of-the-art sound quality? Would it really be 50 times better than a humble Magnavox? Would it even be 4.3 times better than the California Audio Labs Tempest II CD player? And would it approach the sound quality routinely offered from LP by the similarly priced Versa Dynamics 2.0 turntable?
Before turning to the answers to those questions…
But looking at the more fundamental aspects of reproduction, there are three main areas where, historically, CD sound has fallen down. First, and foremost, is the ability routinely offered by even modest LP players to communicate the musical values of a recording. CD playback too often leaves the listener sitting isolated from any feeling of "event" or performance. The music may be there but it is rendered, to an extent that differs widely from individual to individual, inaccessible. The sound is cold, the presentation soulless. The second aspect concerns the inability of many players to…
Sidebar 1: Review System
You might well feel that the system in which the Accuphase was auditioned was a little unbalanced in that its total cost was less than that of the player. Yet it is capable of giving a considerable degree of musical pleasure with high-quality sources and I had every confidence that its resolving power would prove equal to the task set it. Celestion SL700 loudspeakers, sitting on their own spiked stands well away from room boundaries, are driven by a pair of VTL 100W Compact monoblock amplifiers (each sitting on a Mission Isoplat and plugged into one half of an…
Sidebar 2: Measurements
The output impedance of the Accuphase DC-81L's unbalanced outputs was right on spec at 50 ohms, as was the maximum output level at 2.5V. Looking at the frequency response gave a lower limit of –0.7dB at 4Hz and an upper limit of –0.25dB at 20kHz, with no discernible ripples in the top octave. Unusually, and irritatingly, investigating the output polarity with a raised-cosine pulse track revealed that the decoder output was inverting, something that should be taken into consideration when comparing the Accuphase with other machines in a dealer's listening room.…
Sidebar 3: Specifications
Description: Two-box remote-control CD player/processor connected by either optical or coaxial standard EIA serial data link. Unique processor features: 8x oversampling digital filter with discrete 20-bit DACs; de-emphasis operating in digital domain; remote-control level control operating in the digital domain, offering 0–40dB attenuation in 1dB steps. Specifications: Frequency response: 4Hz–20kHz ±0.3dB. THD: 0.0016% (1kHz), 0.002% (20Hz–20kHz). S/N ratio: 120dB. Channel separation: 112dB. Maximum output voltage (DC-81L): 2.5V balanced/unbalanced. Output…
They can't sound very good—they're not big enough. As we all know, in hi-fi, big products mean big performance. Musical Fidelity's V90 series can't be any good. They don't cost enough. With your golden ears, you must pay through the nose.
The V90 components turn all this around. They are tiny. Inexpensive. Beautifully built.
Your friends will laugh when you turn on your DAC. Or phono preamp. Or Bluetooth receiver (the V90 series now includes the V90-BLU). But, of course, audiophiles must forgo the pleasures of Bluetooth. Too easy. Too simple. Too much free music from thousands of…
John Atkinson reviewed the V90-DAC in August 2014 (Vol.37 No.8):
When I e-mailed Stereophile's writers in January 2014 for their suggested ratings for the latest edition of the magazine's "Recommended Components," also in the April issue, ST recommended a Class A rating for the $299 V90-DAC. But, he added, with perhaps a twinkle in his eye, that this was the best DAC he had heard. I therefore provisionally placed the V90-DAC in Class A+, deciding that I needed to listen to it myself before the next "Recommended Components" appears, in our October 2014 issue.
I auditioned the V90-…