I measured the Rogue Audio Sphinx using my top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com, and the January 2008 "As We See It"). Before performing any measurements, I ran the Sphinx for an hour at one-third its specified maximum power of 100Wpc into 8 ohms. Thermally, this is the worst case for an amplifier with a class-B or -AB output stage, but it's irrelevant with an efficient class-D amplifier like the Rogue, which uses the well-regarded Hypex modules. By the end of that period the Sphinx's chassis was only mildly warm, but at least I could be…
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I've long been impressed by the design, construction, and sound of the tubed electronics produced by Vladimir Lamm, but I'd never had a Lamm Industries product in my house. So I asked for a review sample of Lamm's flagship line-stage preamplifier, the LL1 Signature.
When it arrived, I realized I'd never asked about the price. When, in response to an e-mail, Lamm told me it cost $42,790/pair, I blinked. What kind of person spends that much on a preamp? (footnote 1) I thought about three friends, each of whom has a net worth in nine figures. Two aren't into audio, and while the third's…
Notwithstanding my earlier comments about the importance of equipment reviewers making subjective evaluations of components regardless of price, very early in my process of reviewing the Lamm LL1 Signature I decided that, to truly impress me, any $42,790 line stage would have to clear three hurdles:
1) The quality of its parts and construction would need to be consistent with its price: in other words, as high and as good as possible.
2) There could be no sonic flaws.
3) In at least one aspect of its sound, it would have to exceed in quality every other tubed line stage…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Dual-mono, four-chassis line stage with outboard power supplies. Tube complement: four 6N30P-DR (each preamplifier), two 6X4 (each power supply). Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz, –0.1dB; 5Hz–140kHz, –3dB. Maximum voltage gain: 7.43x, 17.4dB, ±2%. Additional attenuation: 3.98x, 12dB, ±0.17dB. Slew rate: 47V/µs. Rise time: 0.61µs. Total harmonic distortion: <0.03% at 1V RMS into 41k ohms); <1% at 50V RMS into 41k ohms. IM distortion: <0.09% at 1V RMS into 41k ohms; <1% at 10V RMS into 41k ohms. Input sensitivity: 135mV RMS, ±2%. Input…
Sidebar 2: Associated Components
Analog Sources: Rega Planar 3, VPI TNT IV turntables; Immedia, Syrinx PU-3 tonearms; Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood, Koetsu Urushi cartridges.
Digital Sources: Creek Destiny, Lector CDP-7T CD players.
Preamplification: Vendetta Research SCP-2D phono stage; Audio Valve Eclipse, Zesto Leto line stages; Audio Research SP20 preamplifier.
Power Amplifier: Audio Research Reference 75.
Loudspeakers: Epos M16i, Monitor Audio Silver RS6, Nola Viper Reference III.
Cables: Interconnect (all MIT): Magnum M3, MI-350 CVTwin Terminator, MI-330SG Terminator…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used my top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and the January 2008 "As We See It") to measure the Lamm LL1 Signature preamplifier. With its four chassis, the LL1 occupies a lot of real estate; I placed the two signal-handling chassis on the rack next to the test system, with the umbilical cables long enough to allow me to place the two power-supply chassis on the floor.
Although the LL1 offers XLR jacks for input and output, Lamm refers to these as "pseudo-balanced," meaning that they are actually single-ended. I measured the…
Manufacturer's Comment
Editor: We offer our appreciation to the LL1 Signature review team: to Robert J. Reina for effectively revealing and focusing on the main sonic qualities of the LL1, and to John Atkinson for his interpretation of the measurement results, which are, as always, without peer.
From the start, Mr. Reina set out to clear specific hurdles in a product of the level of the LL1 Signature, in order to be truly impressed with the preamp, and he thoroughly covered the entire ground by dealing with those issues. He ended up being surprised by finding "three areas in…
It’s clearly time for a complete rethink of the music biopic format. When a cherubic, large eyed child appears early on in Get On Up, I let out an involuntary groan. It was Ray all over again. But actually it wasn’t because the new James Brown biopic has none of the resonance of that fine film which admittedly is one of the icons of the music biopic genre along with Great Balls of Fire and Walk The Line.
Let’s start with what works. Chadwick Boseman, who played Jackie Robinson in 42 does an admirable job with Brown’s electrifying stage presence. He’s got the splits, the shuffles and that…
Call it the Robert Louis Stevenson Syndrome. In the June issue of Stereophile in my feature on the band Hospitality, I made the fairly grievous error of calling Matt Boynton’s studio in Brooklyn, Treasure Island not Vacation Island. In my defense, just before I wrote the piece I had been looking at the plates that N.C. Wyeth did for the famous print edition of Treasure Island. Nevertheless, to make amends I decided to make the trek to Brooklyn to Matt’s studio to check it out and have a chat.
Established seven years ago, Vacation Island Recording is in a block building in South…
Saint-Saëns: Carnival of the Animals
Ravel: Mother Goose Suite
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, André Previn, cond.
Philips CD 400-016 2 (CD).
Ravel: Mother Goose Suite
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, André Previn, cond.
Philips CD 400-016 2 (CD).
The whimsical Carnival, with its nose-thumbing at Saint-Saëns' contemporaries (eg a lugubrious "Can-Can" and a stately cello rendition of Berlioz's Dance of the Sylphs, from The Damnation of Faust), is given a delightful treatment here, and put on one of the best-sounding CDs I've heard to date from a major record company.
Philips has been less up-front about the roots of its CDs than most other record manufacturers, If fact, they…