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…
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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.
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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 (…
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,…
Register to win a copy of ELO's 2LP collector's picture disc edition of Out of the Blue we are giving away.
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 "…
Every year from 1963 to 1969 the Beatles recorded and released a Christmas single on flexi discs to be mailed free to members of their UK fan club. These singles have now been collected and reissued on vinyl in a singles boxed set by Universal Music, The Christmas Records. All seven are now in a different color of vinyl, from green to orange, and other than 1965, which is at 45rpm, the rest spin at 331/3rpm. As the liner notes in the 16-page booklet frankly state about the original flexi disc format: "This was not hi-fi." While the fidelity is still fairly rough, this is the Beatles being…
It's been more than seven years since the late Wes Phillips reviewed Vivid Audio's top-of-the-line loudspeaker, the Giya G1, for Stereophile, and since then the speaker has been seriously revised. At first glance you still notice the sui generis form; closer inspection reveals fundamental changes that make it, in most respects, an entirely new speaker.
The Giya G1 Spirit is slightly shorter and wider than the Giya G1—as if the latter's top had been gently pushed down a few inches and bulged out its bottom half. This change in shape was needed to accommodate the entirely new and larger…