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MQA Tested, Part 1 Manufacturers' Comment

Manufacturers' Comment

Editor: Thanks for the Follow-up and the chance to comment on Jim Austin's discussion of MQA's time-domain performance.

The graph in Jim's fig.4 shows the result of converting the MQA file directly to analog without a decoder. The text describes it as ". . . mostly linear-phase, though the asymmetry suggests some nonlinearity in the phase response. . ."

If we look at the 48kHz MQA test signal waveform (fig.1 in this comment), there is no pre-response. It is elegant that the decoder "unfolds" it back to a perfect impulse as we can infer from Jim's…

Kuzma Stabi turntable & Stogi tonearm

I first learned of the Kuzma Stogi at the 1993 Winter CES in Las Vegas. In VPI's room at the Sahara, a portly, black tonearm was sitting proudly atop the new VPI TNT Series 3 turntable. Pointing straight at me from the center of its massive, exceptionally stout frame was a tapered armtube the diameter of a swollen thumb. The fact that this unknown (to me) tonearm was chosen to sit atop a turntable as respected as the TNT told me I was looking at a serious new product. VPI's Harry Weisfeld was standing nearby, beaming as usual, to answer the barrage of questions that sprang from my lips as I…

Kuzma Stabi turntable & Stogi tonearm Page 2

The Stabi's substantial dustcover is easily removed, though after playing records with and without it and hearing no appreciable difference in sound, I left it on and down for all subsequent listening sessions.

Sound
I was totally unprepared for the magnitude of difference I heard between my longstanding reference WTT and the newly installed Kuzma. Every sonic parameter that I placed stock in in assessing the performance of the WTT was redefined by the Kuzma. To say I was astounded would be an understatement. By the end of the first day of listening, I also felt the early tinges of…

Kuzma Stabi turntable & Stogi tonearm Guy Lemcoe's System

Sidebar 1: Guy Lemcoe's System

Before the Kuzma arrived, my analog reference was a fully tweaked Well Tempered Turntable and the superlative Roksan Shiraz MC cartridge. In the course of this review, I also had occasion to listen to two new entries in the under-$1000 MC cartridge sweepstakes: the Dynavector Karat 17D2 Mk.II and the Benz-Micro Glider. Since I'm currently in the middle of a survey of phono preamps, I had a variety on hand from which to choose: Ensemble's Phonomaster, Rotel's RHQ10, Sonic Frontiers' SFP-1 Signature, and, most recently, Michael Yee Audio's PFE-1. I relied…

Kuzma Stabi turntable & Stogi tonearm Kuzma's "S" upgrades

Michael Fremer auditioned Kuzma's "S" upgrades in July 1999 (Vol.22 No.7):

The Kuzma Stabi S turntable originally caught my eye at the 1998 Heathrow Hi-Fi Show. My experience with the Simon Yorke Designs Series 7 turntable has convinced me of the potential of a plinthless 'table, and the Stabi S confirms it. The platter-bearing assembly is sunk into a heavy, solid brass tube that also holds the arm. A smaller, stabilizing hunk of solid brass tubing with O-ringed training wheels (just being colorful; these wheels don't turn) is affixed at a 90° angle. A nicely machined aluminum…

Kuzma Stabi turntable & Stogi tonearm Specifications

Sidebar 2: Specifications

Kuzma Stabi: suspended subchassis, belt-drive LP turntable. Speeds: 33.33rpm, 45rpm. Plinth: solid oak. Subchassis: Medite. Platter: 9 lbs. mass, precision-machined solid aluminum. Removable dustcover: smoked glass in solid-oak frame. Resonance of subchassis: 4.7Hz. Motors: one, 24-pole synchronous, 110V, 50Hz. Speed adjustment: ±0.5%. Power supply: external, quartz-controlled.
Dimensions: 7¼" H (with dustcover closed) by 201/8" W by 161/8" D. Weight: 46 lbs.
Price: $2200 (1995); $1200 (1999).

Kuzma Stogi tonearm: Construction: main assembly and…

Recording of August 1975: The Complete Firesign Theater Recordings

You have probably read speaker reports that suggested that you audition with natural sounds like clanking chains, storms, animals and other things that give an easy reference to live experience. The problem is that most sound-effects albums are a real bore, dominated by reject Walt Disney announcers with adenoid problems.

Firesign Theater uses sound effects, but in a way that has to be heard to be believed. Firesign creates worlds based on sound; detailed and realistic sound. Where you are and what you perceive is based on puns, plays on words, free association, and subtle aural clues.…

My Top 10 Jazz Albums of 2017

It's that time of the year when I shift away from the world's calamities to some of its finest achievements (for a minute anyway), which is to say, here is my list of the best jazz albums of 2017. Elaborations, with sound clips (often links to entire tracks) can be found in the version that I've written of this for my main gig at Slate, though followers of this blog will note—and will be reminded in some of the links below—that I've covered some of these albums in this space over the year. Also, below the list, I've jotted down a few things of interest for Stereophile readers.

The best (…

Seattle and Dausgaard Welcome Us to Nielsen's World

For those unfamiliar with the symphonies of Danish composer Carl Nielsen (1865–1931)—that includes me—the startling opening of his Third Symphony, "Sinfonia espansiva," will undoubtedly come as a shock. Its relentless pounding chords, played at an accelerating pace by the entire orchestra on the same pitch, may owe more than a little to Beethoven's Third Symphony, "Eroica," but their language is far more modern, and reflective of an era profoundly unsettled. Heard in high-resolution stereo (24/96 WAV) in the new live recording of Nielsen's Symphonies No. 3 and 4 from the Seattle Symphony,…

ELO Vinyl Set Sweepstakes

According to the company:

One of the indisputable masterpieces--and most commercially successful titles--in the ELO canon, Out of the Blue, the group's seventh studio album, was originally released in October 1977. The musical and conceptual brainchild of Jeff Lynne, who wrote and produced the entire album, Out of the Blue is among the most ambitious double albums in classic rock history, a complex and visionary work that included, as the album's complete Side 3, Lynne's "…