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-…
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Sidebar 1: Specifications
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Garrard 301 turntable; EMT 997 tonearm; EMT OFD 25 and TSD 15 70th Anniversary pickup heads; Denon 103, Ortofon Cadenza Red, Miyajima Premium BE mono cartridges.
Digital Sources: AudioQuest DragonFly, Meridian Explorer, Wavelength Proton USB DACs; Apple iMac G5 computer running Apple iTunes v.11.0, Decibel v.1.2.11; Sony SCD-777ES SACD/CD player.
Preamplification: Hommage T2 step-up transformer, Shindo Masseto preamplifier.
Power Amplifiers: Shindo Corton-Charlemagne, Fi 421A.
Loudspeakers: Altec Valencia, DeVore Fidelity…
I was introduced to audiophilia by my friend Gary Gustavsen. Although I'd known Gary since I was 13, I didn't discover his passion for music until that day in high school physics lab when I blurted out an obscure line from the Doors' "The Soft Parade," and Gary bounced back immediately with the next line. It turns out I shared my friend's passions for the Doors and Frank Zappa, but not for Mahler. Before long, Gary was dragging me to every audio store in our area to listen to potential speakers for his first high-end audio system. At the beginning of each trip he'd say, "Right now I'm partial…
When I listened to well-recorded singers, the Aon 2's lower midrange had a warm richness that made it sound like a much larger speaker. Melody Gardot has a somewhat thick, husky voice to begin with, and on The Absence (CD, Decca B0016816) she uses a microphone that tends to emphasize the lower region of her voice. Through the GoldenEars she sounded rich, holographic, and silky throughout her range on all tracks.
The Aon 2's low-end extension and naturalness through the midbass also suggested a larger, more expensive speaker. I always enjoy listening to bassist Chuck Israels's many solos…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-way, stand-mounted loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1.06" by 1.31" High-Velocity Folded Ribbon (HVFR) tweeter, 6" polypropylene-cone woofer, two 6.5" side-mounted planar passive radiators. Measured crossover frequency: 3.5kHz. Frequency range: 42Hz–35kHz. Sensitivity: 89dB. Nominal impedance: compatible with 8 ohms. Recommended amplification: 10-200Wpc.
Dimensions: 8" (205mm) W by 12" (310mm) H by 10" (255mm) D. Weight: 12 lbs (5.5kg) net, 14 lbs (6.4kg) shipping.
Finishes: Wraparound black grillecloth and piano-gloss black endcap.
Serial…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: VPI TNT IV, Rega Planar 3 turntables; Immedia, Syrinx PU-3 tonearms; Koetsu Urushi, Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood cartridges.
Digital Sources: Lector CDP-7T, Creek Destiny CD players.
Preamplification: Vendetta Research SCP-2D, Creek Destiny phono stages; Audio Valve Eclipse line stage.
Power Amplifier: Audio Research Reference 75.
Integrated Amplifier: Creek Destiny.
Loudspeakers: Dynaudio Excite X12, Epos M5i, Monitor Silver RX6.
Cables: Interconnect (all MIT): Magnum M3, MI-350 CVTwin Terminator, MI-330SG Terminator.…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system (www.mlssa.com) and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the GoldenEar Aon 2's frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 for the nearfield responses. The Aon 2's voltage sensitivity is specified as an above-average 89dB; my estimate was significantly lower, at 86.2dB(B)/2.83V. The speaker's impedance dips below 6 ohms in the mid-treble and midrange, reaching a minimum value of 3.5 ohms at 190Hz (fig.1). There are also combinations of a lowish magnitude and highish electrical phase angle in two regions: 100–…
Register to win a Audioquest Dragonfly DAC and Grado SR80i Headphones (MSRP $298) from Needle Doctor we are giving away.
According to Needle Doctor:
Whether you are a budding audiophile or a serious enthusiast in need of a mobile solution, the following package is for you. The Audioquest Dragonfly and Grado SR80s are not only Needle Doctor staff favorites individually, but they work great as a pair.
The versatile Audioquest Dragonfly is first a high quality USB DAC capable of decoding up to 24bit/96kHz digital files of any format. It is also an adept headphone amplifier…
I would never have placed Marc Cary and Matthew Shipp in the same category of jazz pianists, but their superb new solo discs—Cary’s For the Love of Abbey (Motema) and Shipp’s Piano Sutras (Thirsty Ear)—find them converging toward close points from different angles.
They’ve risen out of different influences: Cary, 47, shaped by his stints with the singers Betty Carter and Abbey Lincoln; Shipp, 53, more in the school of Cecil Taylor and Ran Blake, racking up years with Roscoe Mitchell and David S. Ware.
On his latest, though, Cary clangs the piano’s lower registers and flits…
Sonus Faber is an iconic Italian high-end company whose loudspeakers have always evinced innovative technical design, superb construction, spectacular appearance, and great sound. I was intrigued with the design and performance of their stand-mounted Extrema (reviewed by Martin Colloms in the June 1992 Stereophile, Vol.15 No.6), which combined a proprietary soft-dome tweeter and a mineral-loaded polypropylene-cone woofer with an electrodynamically damped but passive KEF B139 driver that occupied the entire rear panel. I was fascinated by their Homage models, named for the Cremona violin…