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NAD 5000 CD player Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

I checked the AC voltage from chassis ground to main (house) ground to determine the correct line-cord orientation. The NAD measured just over 10V (vs just under 19V the "wrong" way—and the plug is not "keyed," footnote 1); this voltage will be shunted to ground when the player is connected to a properly grounded preamplifier.

In order to determine the cause of the slight tracking problems encountered with the player, I checked it with the dropout tests on the Pierre Verany Digital Test CD. The results were perhaps indicative of the problem but not…

Ray Davies & The Kinks

1996 was a banner year for Ray Davies—one of the most talented writers and conceptualists rock has ever produced. After more than 30 years with The Kinks, the group he has led off and on along with his younger brother Dave, Ray was enjoying a new career as a solo artist. His keen wit and storytelling ability enabled him to take his remarkable one-man play, 20th Century Man, to packed houses and critical acclaim all over the United States. The play, based loosely on his equally remarkable fictionalized autobiography, X-Ray, provided a unique insight into the forces that have shaped Ray…

Ray Davies & The Kinks Page 2

Sadly, Face to Face is simply impossible to come by, leaving a cavernous gap in material between Kontroversy and the extraordinarily quirky albums that followed: Something Else, The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, and Arthur (Or The Decline and Fall of the British Empire).

Something Else is the last of the Talmy-produced albums, but it's evident that Ray was already calling most of the shots, writing intensely personal songs based on memories from childhood—like "Harry Rag," a title inspired by his father's slang phrase for cigarettes; "End of the Season," with its…

Kenny Dorham: <I>Quiet Kenny</I>

The critic Gary Giddins once wrote that Kenny Dorham is "practically synonymous with underrated," so don't feel ashamed if you've never heard of this golden-toned trumpeter, who came up in the 1940s alongside the bebop giants, toiling for a decade as a sideman—to Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Art Blakey, and Max Roach—before leading his own group and, even then, rarely on the front line alone.

Quiet Kenny, a 1960 album on the New Jazz label (the precursor to Prestige Records), is the only Dorham album that features no other horn player. It's just his…

Leon's Legacy

Live records are for playing the hits. And studio records are the place for experimentations (and a hit or two). Or at least that's what the late Leon Russell believed. The man was an oft-unacknowledged master of the live record, having made many that are a pleasant if sonically variable listen. But Carney, produced by Denny Cordell, is Russell's best studio album until his final closing statement, 2014's Life Journey, though 1975's Will O' The Wisp also has its charms.

Carney contains Russell's biggest hit single, "Tight Rope" but Side Two opens with the very short all-instrumental…

Dealer Events Saturday in Chicago, Falls Church, Phoenix, La Jolla

Saturday February 11, 1–7pm, Kyomi Audio (Itasca, IL) is presenting the debut of Vivid's new flagship speaker, the G1 Spirit, at a private location. Hosted by concert pianist Professor George Vatchnadze, the event will feature guest speakers including Vivid's designer Laurence Dickie and Stereophile editor John Atkinson. Space is limited. Please RSVP here or call (312) 513-2759.

From noon to 5pm, Command Performance AV (115 Park Avenue, Suite 2, Falls Church, VA 22046) is holding a Rogue Audio Event. Rogue's Mark O'Brian and Bill Magerman will demonstrate Rogue's highly…

Stereophile's Products of 1993

There is a tendency in magazine publishing to concentrate on the present. Writers generally downplay what happened in the irretrievable past as being of lesser importance compared with the new and exciting, their enthusiasm pretty much tied to the ever-in-motion time-line. I instituted Stereophile's annual "Products of the Year" feature, therefore, to give recognition to those components that had proved capable of giving pleasure beyond the formal review period. To confound confusion, there are just five individual categories: "Loudspeakers" (including subwoofers); "Amplification Components…

Products of the Year 1993 Loudspeaker of 1993

Loudspeaker of 1993

Thiel CS3.6 ($3990/pair; reviewed by Robert Harley, Vol.16 No.5, May 1993 review)

There were 56 loudspeakers and subwoofers eligible for "Loudspeaker of 1993." From this intense competition, a winner quickly emerged: six of the 15 writers—twice as many as favored the other leading contender—gave it their three votes. In some ways, the Thiel CS3.6 is the best loudspeaker yet to come from designer Jim Thiel. Its dual-membrane midrange and bass units and metal-dome tweeter are joined in musical harmony with a first-order acoustic-slope crossover, which, in…

Products of the Year 1993 Amplification Component of 1993

Amplification Component of 1993

Convergent Audio Technology SL-1 Signature preamplifier ($4950; reviewed by Jack English, Vol.15 No.12, December 1992 Review)

The mighty C.A.T. preamplifier typifies all that is good about the High End: inspired design, attention to detail, tube circuitry, and magnificent sound. It also, perhaps, typifies some of the problems of the High End: limited production, limited availability, tube circuitry, and a high price. But it's the sound that matters; in Jack English's words, "stunning timbral realism...superb rendition of dynamic shadings...[low]…

Products of the Year 1993 Joint Digital Sources of 1993

Joint Digital Sources of 1993

C.E.C. TL 1 CD transport ($4650; reviewed by Robert Harley, Vol.16 No.7, July 1993 Review)
Mark Levinson No.31 CD transport ($8495; reviewed by Robert Harley, Vol.16 No.6, June 1993 Review)

I had reorganized the voting strategy this year to minimize the possibility of a tie. Yet in this category, the Mark Levinson and C.E.C. transports remained continually nose-to-nose as the ballots trickled back from the writers. But with hindsight, how could it have been any different? Though each transport sounds quite different from the other, both stand…