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The Death of an Audiophile

Thanksgiving will mark two years since Charles died. I still miss him.

I first met Charles in the 1990s, around the time I began to review recordings and audio equipment. I had just left my apartment and was driving slowly down the street when I spied a somewhat bent-over, wizened-looking man carrying a copy of Stereophile under his arm. My astonishment at discovering another Stereophile reader whom, it turned out, living just two buildings away, brought my car to a sudden halt.

I opened my window. "You read Stereophile?" I exclaimed.

"Why, yes, I do," replied Charles,…

The Entry Level #35

In the mornings, just before I leave for work, I power up the system, turn the volume down low, and set the CD player to Repeat. I like to think that if I play calm, soothing music while Ms. Little and I are away, the cats will feel less alone and more relaxed. It's also nice, on returning home from work, to walk into a room filled with music. One evening a few weeks ago, I stepped into the apartment, dropped my bags to the floor, settled down into the couch with my iPhone, and began scrolling through text messages. I'd been seated for only a moment before I had to turn my attention entirely…

The Entry Level #35 Page 2

There's also a preamp/subwoofer output, for mating the D 3020 to additional amplification or connecting a powered sub. If you want even more bass, you can tap the D 3020's Bass EQ button to "boost the overall bass response by at least 6dB," according to the user manual. I didn't try this, if only because I was too preoccupied with everything else the D 3020 offers. Anyway, I didn't need more bass.

The D 3020 does not have a phono stage. To include one would have required a bigger case, some exceedingly clever design to properly shield the analog circuit from the D 3020's switch-mode power…

TAVES Toronto Starts Friday

For some, the Toronto Audio Video Entertainment Show (TAVES 2013) is the show of the future. For others, it may signal a possible decline in the supremacy of two-channel audio. Either way, just two weeks after RMAF in Denver, with hardly any space between Stereophile's comprehensive coverage of that major two-channel show, TAVES 2013 takes place November 1–3 in the classy King Edward Hotel in downtown Toronto.

"From the very beginning, we had a vision to shape TAVES as more of a Consumer Electronics Show rather than just another audio show," show co-owner and Canada HiFi publisher Suave…

Opera Callas loudspeaker

Colleen Cardas strongly urged me to try the Callas loudspeaker from Opera Loudspeakers (whose products she also distributes in the US), which she claimed was an ideal match for the Unison S6 amplifier I reviewed last August. In my experience, the stand-mounted Callas ($5000/pair) is unique among loudspeakers in being the logical contrapositive (inverted and flipped, so to speak) of the usual D'Appolito driver array of midrange-tweeter-midrange (MTM).

In the well-known D'Appolito array, one tweeter is partnered with two midrange drivers, one each above and below it. Opera's two-way Callas…

Opera Callas loudspeaker Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Two-way, reflex-loaded, stand-mounted loudspeaker. Drive-units: two 1" dome tweeters, one magnesium-cone woofer, three rear-firing dome tweeters. Crossover frequencies: "around 1500Hz," front drivers; 2kHz, rear tweeters. Frequency range: 32Hz–25kHz. Sensitivity of 86dB/W/m. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms.
Dimensions: 14.8" (376mm) H by 9" (229mm) W by 13.4" (340mm) D. Weight: about 57 lbs (26kg) each.
Serial numbers of review samples: .

Price: $5000/pair.
Manufacturer: Opera Loudspeakers, A.R.I.A. Advanced Research in Audio, via…

Opera Callas loudspeaker Measurements

Sidebar 2: Measurements

John Marks was impressed by the Callas stand-mounted loudspeaker from Italian manufacturer Opera Loudspeakers. The Callas is unusual in that it has tweeters mounted above and below its single SEAS magnesium-cone woofer. The conventional wisdom is that the higher the frequency, the closer together you need to position drive-units covering the same passband if you want to avoid unwanted off-axis lobing. Not only does the Callas break that rule, it also has three rear-firing tweeters mounted vertically in-line on its rear panel, below a pair of reflex ports.

…

Luxman PD-171 record player

Much ink has been spilled, and rightly so, on the topic of the LP's recent and apparently durable resurrection as a playback medium. The corpse may not be quite as lively after death as before, but it is nonetheless arguably more Lazarus than Lavoisier (the latter having managed nothing more than to wink at the crowd following his time on the guillotine—as he boasted, in life, that he would do).

I am no less set in my ways. After 15 years of owning and loving a Linn LP12 turntable, and thereafter hearing the unsubtle improvement in musical drive and force offered by such vintage players…

Luxman PD-171 record player Page 2

As for build quality, I could find nothing to fault and a lot to praise. The tonearm exhibited very low friction in both planes, with neither binding nor excessive play. Downforce calibration was reasonably accurate, and the required spindle-to-pivot distance was accurately set at 214mm. Even more impressive was the quality of machining evident in the turntable itself; neither the motor pulley nor the platter—which is said to be diamond-lapped—exhibited even the slightest wobble or runout error. The platter in particular was astonishingly well made: It ran so true that, when wiped clean of…

Luxman PD-171 record player Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Two-speed, belt-driven turntable with integrated tonearm. Motor: AC synchronous. Speeds: 331/3, 45rpm. Speed adjustment: ±4%. Wow and flutter: 0.04%. Tonearm effective length: 9" (229mm). Overhang: 15mm. Offset angle: 22°. Cartridge mass range: 4–12gm. Range of tonearm height adjustment: 39–60mm.
Dimensions: 18.3" (465mm) W by 7.7" (195mm) H (including dustcover) by 15.4" (390mm) D. Weight: 51 lbs (23kg).
Serial Number of Unit Reviewed: F10600089.
Price: $6400. Approximate number of dealers: 30.
Manufacturer: Luxman Corporation, 1-3-…