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…
Sound
Getting down to the nitty-gritty—not that there was anything gritty about these speakers—the 2.5s were superb in their rendering of voices and solo instruments. Renée Fleming singing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," from her Dark Hope (CD, Decca 80014186-2), sounded as creamy-rich as I have heard her through speakers costing several times as much as these—and Marianne Beate Kielland's voice in her Come Away, Death (in a free 24-bit/192kHz PCM download; SACD/CD, 2L 2L-064-SACD) seemed to be suspended in the space above my center speaker—which, of course, was not even connected. Deeper…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Floorstanding, 2.5-way, reflex-loaded loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1.1" (29mm) fabric-dome tweeter, 7" (180mm) Curv-cone mid/woofer, 7" (180mm) Curv-cone woofer. Crossover frequencies: 250Hz, 2.5kHz. Frequency response on reference axis: 40Hz–25kHz, ±3dB. Sensitivity: 89dB/2.83V/m. Nominal impedance: 6 ohms. Recommended amplification: 40–250W into 8 ohms on unclipped program. Long-term maximum input voltage (IEC-268-5): 22V RMS.
Dimensions: 43.2" (1107mm) H by 13.3" (340mm) W by 17" (437mm) D. Weight: 42.8 lbs (19.45kg).
Finishes: Black or…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Oppo BDP-103 universal BD player & modified DV-980 universal DVD player, Trinnov MC processor.
Preamplification: Marantz AV-8801 preamplifier-processor.
Power Amplifier: Bryston 9B-STT.
Loudspeakers: Paradigm Studio/60 v3, Paradigm Reference Servo-15 & Studio Sub 15 subwoofers.
Cables: HDMI: AudioQuest Vodka. Interconnect: Kubala-Sosna Fascination balanced. Speaker: Kubala-Sosna Fascination. AC: Kubala-Sosna Emotion.
Accessories: APC S-15 power conditioner.—Kalman Rubinson
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Sonus Faber Venere 2.5's frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 for the nearfield responses. The Sonus Faber's voltage sensitivity is specified as 89dB/2.83V/m; my estimate was a little lower than that, at 87.7dB(B)/2.83V/m. The impedance is specified as 6 ohms; the Venere 2.5's impedance magnitude and electrical phase, plotted against frequency, are shown in fig.1. There is quite a large variation of impedance with frequency, the magnitude remaining below 6…
No, you're not accidentally visiting www.motorcyclistonline.com. With some out-of-the-box thinking, Suave Kajko, President of the Toronto Audio Video Entertainment Show (TAVES), and Simon Au, Vice-President Sales of TAVES, approached Harley Davidson Canada about exhibiting at TAVES 2013 this past weekend, and the HD people agreed to participate.
What does this have to do with audio or video? Well, the top-of-the-line Ultra Limited Harley ($30,000) includes an "infotainment system," with all kinds of audio/video goodies, including surround sound. Here it is, with Suave looking suitably...…
Turntables were much in evidence at TAVES, perhaps the most impressive being the TechDAS Air Force One, which had two versions of the famed Graham Phantom Elite arm mounted. Bob Graham himself was on hand, and can be seen in the photo. Bob demonstrated the vacuum hold-down of the turntable, the audible resonance of the LP when tapped being silenced when the vacuum was turned on. Impressive. The worldwide standard price of the Air Force One is $100,000, and the Phantom Elite arm is $15,000, but Bob said that since he's also the distributor of the AirForce One, he can offer a "deal" on the…
The design and manufacturing of loudspeakers can be described as falling on a continuum. At one end, we have speakers that use off-the-shelf drivers purchased from driver manufacturers, combined with crossovers based on information in standard loudspeaker design cookbooks and/or loudspeaker design software (perhaps with "voicing" that conforms to the designer's preference). In the hands of a skilled designer, this approach can produce good results—but they can't claim any originality.
At the other end of the continuum are speakers that are designed and built from the ground up,, using…
The long-anticipated opening of Brian Berdan’s high-performance audio store, Audio Element, took place on November 1 and 2 in Pasadena, CA. The store’s prime location in the heart of Pasadena’s retail- and restaurant-rich Oldtown helped sweeten the unveiling of America’s newest high-end emporium.
Signaling the start of a new era for high-end dealerships in Southern California, Friday night’s catered “soft” opening for existing clients and Saturday’s six-hour public open house were attended by enough major manufacturers, designers and distributors to have made possible a mini-…
