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…
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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.
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…
Sidebar 1: Steve Stone's System
I used the following equipment for the SOTA Vanguard CD player review: For analog source comparisons, a Thorens/Chadwick 125 Mk.2 turntable mounted with a Graham 1.5 tonearm, with armtubes fitted with Denon 103 C/van den Hul, EMT/vdH, Fidelity Research FR-1 Mk.3 vdH, and AudioQuest BH-200 cartridges. In my large-room system, I used a VPI HW-19 Mk.5 with a Bright Star TNT base and a Souther Tri-Quartz arm mounted with a vdH MC-1 cartridge.
Preamps: Denneson JC-80 Mk.2 gold, Atma-Sphere MP-1, and the Vendetta SCP-2A phono preamp. Power amplifiers:…
Sideabr 2: Measurements
The Vanguard's maximum output level when decoding a full-scale, 1kHz sinewave was 2.25V from the fixed-level outputs and 4.31V from the variable outputs at the highest volume-control setting. These values are 1dB and 6.7dB higher than the standard 2V output, respectively.
Output impedance was a low 50 ohms at any audio frequency from the fixed-level outputs. The variable outputs were similarly low, measuring 65 ohms at 20Hz and 55 ohms through the rest of the band. The combination of low output impedance and high output level suggests that the Vanguard…
Sidebar 3: Specifications
Description: One-piece CD player. Front-panel controls: Standby, CD/Line, Preset, FTS, Edit, Previous, Next, Open, Play, Pause, Stop, Phones output. Remote controls: all the above plus FTS, FTS 2, Title, Fast, Scan, A/B, Repeat, Review, Volume, and alphanumeric keyboard. Analog outputs: fixed and variable single-ended line and fixed balanced XLR line. Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz ±0.2dB. S/N ratio: 100dB (A-weighted). Channel separation: 110dB at 1kHz. THD: 0.002%. Dynamic range: 92dB. Maximum output level: 2V (into 47k ohms). Digital outputs: coaxial, RCA,…
I spent a snowy New York City evening at Rhapsody Music & Cinema, talking with the proprietor, Bob Visintainer, and watching my friend Michael Trei install a Lyra Etna SL moving-coil cartridge in a Graham Engineering Phantom III tonearm mounted on a TechDAS Air Force 3 turntable tethered to a Zesto Tessera phono stage. Every wall was lined with big, floorstanding speakers, all of them expensive. On the main stage that day were Alta Audio's Hestia Titaniums ($32,000/pair).
Installation complete, Michael put on an original pressing of Duke Ellington's Blues in Orbit (LP, Columbia CS…
Consider the majesty of the London Ambrosian Singers and the Vienna Renaissance Players, directed by John McCarthy, chanting, singing, and playing in the 13th-century Cathedral of Notre Dame in Reims, France. Imagine hearing every singer's breath and, during each pause, visually tracking the thick clouds of reverberation as they expand toward the stone walls, reflect off those walls, and describe the volume of the nave. I could occasionally sense the height of the microphones. The ability to observe these phenomena in grainless, sharp-focus 3D, is what made Guillaume de Machaut's Notre Dame…
Sidebar: Contacts
EMT Studiotechnik, Industriestrasse 25, 77972 Mahlberg, Germany. Tel: +49 (0)7825-879-47-0. Fax:: +49 (0)7825-879-47-15. Web: www.emt-international.ch. US distributor: Tone Imports. Web: www.toneimports.com
Koetsu, Japan. US distributor: MoFi Distribution, 1811 W. Bryn Mawr Avenue, Chicago, IL 60660. Tel: (312) 738-5025. Fax: (312) 433-0011. Web: www.mofidistribution.com
Miyajima Laboratory, Japan. US distributor: Robyatt Audio. Web: www.robyattaudio.com.
Sound Prints, the quintet co-led by trumpeter Dave Douglas and tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano, is one of the most exciting small jazz bands around. You wouldn't know it, necessarily, from their first, eponymously titled album, recorded live at the 2013 Monterey Jazz Festival and released on Blue Note, which has long been Lovano's label. Mediocre sound doesn't always suck the life out of a recording if the music is good, but that's what happened here.
The main problem was too much compression, of the sort that kills so many pop albums, where everything is dialed up to the same level of LOUD…
My excitement upon discovering the heretofore unavailable two-CD set, Régine Crespin: Rare Broadcast Recordings, in the catalog of historical performance specialist Norbeck Peters & Ford can only be partially conveyed through words. Crespin's London/Decca studio recordings of Berlioz's Les Nuits d'été and Ravel's Shéhérazade, accompanied by Ernest Ansermet et L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, which were captured in Victoria Hall, Geneva in September 1963, have long been coveted by audiophiles for both their sound quality and Crespin's incomparable artistry. The opportunity to hear the…