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Music in the Round #84: Multichannel MQA Multichannel MQA Again

Multichannel MQA again, from April 2018 (Vol.41 No.4):

"Not MQA again!" I'm sure some of you will say, regardless of where you stand on it. The loud debate is often less about how MQA actually sounds and works than about opinions and, to an alarming degree, charges of dishonesty and bias. While Stereophile's John Atkinson and Jim Austin continue to strive to rise above all that, all I want to know is what value MQA might have for my own enjoyment of music.

This is not my first stab at this: In the May 2017 Stereophile I both recounted my long-ago first exposure to MQA, which…

Audiophile Bonanza: Melnikov's <I>Four Pieces  Four Pianos</I>

It is doubtful that pianist Alexander Melnikov had audiophiles in mind when he decided to record great works by Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, and Stravinsky on pianos the composers were accustomed to hearing and playing at the time of composition. Melnikov is, after all, an early music specialist who, like András Schiff, has a number of impeccably restored historic instruments in his personal collection. Nonetheless, given that Harmonia Mundi has recorded him in high resolution (24/96), seemingly without compression, in the fine acoustic of Teldex Studio Berlin, and that each instrument has a…

A Visit to Focal in France

"When good Americans die, they go to Paris."—Oscar Wilde

There is a particular art that many Americans have mastered, involving the collective lamentation of the unwelcoming nature of the French towards American tourists—whether this has been experienced firsthand or not is irrelevant—coupled with inexplicable, unwavering desire for all that the French stand for. The art, the wine, the cheese, the architecture, the haute couture—it is all of these, yes, but it is (I believe) the all-encompassing French vibe that we are drawn to.

Naturally, I was a Francophile before I ever was an…

Museatex Hybrid 6 loudspeaker

I find quite appealing the image invoked by Museatex to describe its Real Time Ripple Effect (RTRE) loudspeaker line: a stone rippling the surface of a "still pond on a warm summer afternoon." Replace the stone with a voice-coil attached to the center of a stretched Mylar diaphragm and you begin to get a glimpse of the RTRE technology's conceptual beauty and promise. The idea of cohesively covering at least the midrange and treble with a single driver, without crossover filters, quickens my audio pulse.

Technology
It has been less than three years since Paul Burton and Highwood Audio…

Museatex Hybrid 6 loudspeaker Page 2

Massed strings fared no better. String tone on Chesky's reissue of the Beethoven Ninth with René Leibowitz (CD66) has been tonic to my ears through many a speaker. Here, massed strings were decimated, taking on an irritatingly threadbare texture. Nor did Midori's violin (on Midori Live at Carnegie Hall, Sony SK 46742) receive preferential treatment: The loss of overtone sheen and sweetness were quite apparent.

The upper registers of soprano voice consistently sounded somewhat coarse. Kathleen Battle's Baroque Duet album with Wynton Marsalis (Sony SK 46672) is a perfect example of what…

Museatex Hybrid 6 loudspeaker Measurements

Sidebar 1: Measurements

The impedance magnitude and phase for the Hybrid 6 are shown in fig.1. (Both channels were essentially identical.) The impedance never dropped below 4.2 ohms (the cursor position). This, in conjunction with the low phase angle over nearly all the audio band, means that the Museatex represents quite an easy amplifier load, much like a 5 ohm resistor. In the bass, the valley between the twin impedance humps defines a port tuning frequency of 44Hz. Normally these low-frequency impedance peaks are much larger in magnitude, suggesting that the '6's bass-reflex…

Museatex Hybrid 6 loudspeaker Specifications

Sidebar 2: Specifications

Description :Two-way, floorstanding loudspeaker. Drive-units: a 16" by 10" RTRE (Real Time Ripple Effect) panel transducer and a 5.25" cone woofer. Woofer alignment: bass-reflex (ported). Crossover frequency: 450Hz, with first-order slopes. Frequency response: 55Hz–20kHz, ±3&dB.Nominal impedance: 6.5 ohms. Sensitivity: 86dB/W/m (2.83V).
Dimensions: 45.5" H by 14.5" W by 12" D.
Serial numbers of samples tested: 503 & 504.
Price: $1299/pair (1993); no longer available (2018).
Manufacturer: Museatex Audio Inc., Calgary, Alberta T2B 1N5,…

Recording of October 1972: <I>Lincoln Mayorga & Distinguished Colleagues Vol.II</I>

Lincoln Mayorga: Lincoln Mayorga & Distinguished Colleagues Vol.II
Lincoln Mayorga, arranger, harpsichord, piano.
Lincoln Mayorga, Doug Sax, prods.; Bill Schnee, eng.; Sherwood Sax, design engineer.
Sheffield Lab S-10 (LP).

Ever wonder just how much sound quality is lost by recording stuff on tape before making a disc? Here's your answer. This program of soft rock and cool jazz arrangements was recorded straight from studio to disc, and the sound is incredible! Suddenly, a veil that we never realized was there has been lifted, and we had the feeling we were listening…

SOTA Vanguard II CD player

The Greek myth of Odysseus has always been a favorite of mine. For an audiophile looking for a CD transcription system under $2500, it seems to be an especially appropriate metaphor. Almost all the units I've heard since CD's inception fall into one of two camps: the Sirens or the Rocks.

For those of you not up on your Greek mythology, the Sirens were the archetypal seductresses whose sweet songs lured sailors to drive their ships upon the rocks. Siren CD players are those that soften and sweeten the sound. Their primary purpose is to seduce, to give a false sense of comfort to their…

SOTA Vanguard II CD player Page 2

Compared with my analog sources, the Vanguard's soundstage was a bit forward. Rather than starting behind the speakers, the front of the soundstage began right at the speakers. Nothing wrong with that—just different from most analog sources in my systems. Soundstage width was as good as any CD player I've ever heard—that is, some analog sources seem wider, but whether that's a coloration or "the way it is" is debatable. Soundstage depth was quite decent, but not mind-boggling—slightly better than most CD players I've heard in my own systems. Unfortunately, all CD players I've heard seem…