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Poland's Audio Video Show, held in Warsaw each November and now firmly established as Europe's No.2 hi-fi event, has a very different feel from Event No.1: High End, held each May in Munich, Germany. Unlike High End's business-to-business approach, the Audio Video Show is very much for regular consumers, of whom more than 14,000 attended over the show's three days, November 17–19. Boosted by a modest "Smart Home" presence, that was an increase of nearly 18% over last year's show, alongside more modest growth in the numbers of exhibitors and exhibit rooms.
One of the joys of reviewing loudspeakers is that there are always intriguing aspects of any particular design. The problems involved in producing a speaker that has an even tonal balance, well-controlled directivity, good bass extension, and a smooth integration of the outputs from often widely disparate drive-units have what appears to be an infinite number of solutions. The result is often a speaker so different from the norm that it just cries out to be auditioned.
Such was the case with the Delaware Acoustics DELAC S10, which costs $629/pair. Only sold factory-direct, this would…
Sidebar 1: System Details
The review procedure followed, with minor changes, that established for my previous loudspeaker reviews: Each pair was used with a pair of VTL 100W Compact monoblocks, connected with Monster M1 speaker cable, while the preamplifier was a combination of the Mod Squad Line Drive Deluxe AGT and Vendetta Research SCP2 phono preamp. Source components consisted of a Marantz CD-94 CD player used to drive a Sony DAS-R1 D/A converter, a 1975-vintage Revox A77 to play my own 15ips master tapes, and a Linn Sondek/Ekos/Troika setup sitting on a Sound Organisation table to…
Sidebar 2: Measurements
The higher-than-usual source and load impedances presented by the Mod Squad Line Drive and VTL 100W power amplifier (more than 2000 ohms including source, and 130k ohms, respectively) mandated my using the "H" version of the E10. I assessed its effect on the signal by measuring the voltage at the VTL's output terminals while the amps were connected to the speakers. (It will therefore include the interaction between the power amp's 1 ohm output impedance and the impedance curve of the speaker. I thought this valid as it actually will relate to what I heard.)
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Sidebar 3: Specifications
Description:> Two-way, sealed-box, floor-standing loudspeaker with passive, line-level LF equalization. Drive-units: 0.75" plastic-dome tweeter, two 4.5" doped paper-cone woofers. Crossover frequency: 4.5kHz. Frequency range: 50Hz–20kHz. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms (minimum 3.5 ohms). Sensitivity: 85dB/W/m. Amplifier requirements: 15–100W.
Dimensions: 40" H by 5" W by 3.5" D (loudspeakers); 10" square (bases); 2.5" H by 5.2" W by 6.5" D (equalizer). Shipping weight: 50 lbs/pair.
Standard finishes: teak and walnut veneer; black gloss and white gloss…
While it hasn't always made money or hit records, the music business has never been short on ideas. Most are nonsense, but every once in a while—the gramophone, onstage monitors, Les Paul's overdubbing—the biz comes up with a winner.
Many of the craziest ideas I've heard in 30 years of writing about music have been expounded on at the South by Southwest Music Festival, held each year in Austin, Texas. At SXSW, hope springs eternal. Secrets are whispered. Buzz bands gain momentum. Rumors ripple through crowds. Everyone has visions of morphing into a mogul. There's an intoxicating energy…
"When you're doing it, you're basically looking under the hood of the song," Ambel says. "It does really make you look at the essence of a song and what you wanna pick. Then you're working with the limitations of the instrument, to try to give it a little more of an arrangement. Some stuff lends it itself better to this than others. For instance, we haven't done any Bob Dylan. He rarely has a bridge in a song, and without the lyrics, it's hard. One of my favorite records of all time is the Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid soundtrack, but that has instrumentals on it. When it's one instrument…
Saturday December 9, from 12pm to 4pm, Suncoast Audio (7353 International Place, Unit 309, Sarasota, FL, 34240) says they are sending 2017 out with a bang! They are hosting a year-ending event with Vivid loudspeakers, Gryphon electronics, and Shunyata cabling.
Philip O'Hanlon from On A Higher Note will be demonstrating the new Series 2 Vivid G2 speakers and Gryphon electronics, including the Colosseum amplifier, Pandora preamplifier, Diablo 300 integrated amplifier, and Mojo S speakers. Grant Samuelsen from Shunyata will be on hand to discuss the importance of electrical grounding, as…
I've always been a fan of Christmas music because musicians of every stripe, and singers in particular, are magically drawn to the stuff. From Otis Redding belting out "White Christmas," to The Sonics banging on "Santa Claus," to the immortal Charles Brown crooning his "Please Come Home for Christmas," to Francis Albert Sinatra applying his pipes to any holiday number he took a liking to, Christmas music has teased out a lot of memorable performances. Could it be that singing about happiness, snowflakes and Rudolph is a refreshing change from love, loss and all the other usual subjects of…
Few violinists would consider saddling a recording with a title as grand and potentially pretentious as Grandissima Gravita. But not only is Rachel Podger's latest Channel Classics hybrid SACD with her ensemble, Brecon Baroque, grandly played—Podger is brilliant as always—but its title also serves as an apt descriptor of the emotional tenor of most of the works on the program.
The choice of contents is explained in one of the cleverest introductory essays I've ever encountered in a recording. Commentator Mark Seow stages a scene in heaven in which the album's four contributors—the 18th…