Description: Two-way, floorstanding loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" soft-dome tweeter, 10" paper-cone woofer. Frequency range: 30Hz–31kHz. Impedance: 10 ohms. Sensitivity: 93dB/W/m.
Dimensions: 35.5" (902mm) H by 15" (381mm) W by 10" (254mm) D.
Finish: Veneered front baffle; high-gloss, piano-black lacquer, sides, back, and top.
Price: $8400/pair.
Manufacturer: DeVore Fidelity, Brooklyn Navy Yard, 63 Flushing Avenue, Unit 259, Brooklyn, NY 11205. Tel: (718) 855-9999. Fax: (718) 855-9998. Web: www.devorefidelity.com.
search
Sidebar: Specifications
Saturday April 8, 1–4pm, Californian loudspeaker manufacturer Magico will be holding an event at Suncoast Audio (7353 International Place, Unit 309, Sarasota FL 34240) to launch the new S3 Mk.2. Peter MacKay from Magico will discuss the technology in the S3 Mk.2 and there will be extensive listening.
Space is limited, so please RSVP here.
New York-based Chesky Records has just announced its first two MQA-encoded CDs. On May 19, both Camille Thurman's new Inside the Moment and Rebecca Pidgeon's classic The Raven will hit the streets, as it were, with a list price of $18.98. Music lovers with MQA-enabled DACs will be able to experience the full benefits of MQA-encoding/unfolding, while others will enjoy Red Book quality sound.
"The decision to issue these titles as MQA CDs was decided quickly, just 10 days ago, as we were exploring the possibility of working with MQA in our studio," David Chesky explained by phone. "After…
It is almost ten years since I last heard a pair of DCM loudspeakers, the Time Windows made famous by writer Peter Aczel in the first incarnation of his magazine The Audio Critic (foonote 1). The "Time" nomenclature traditionally used by DCM in their models refers to the fact that for any hi-fi component, its performance in the frequency domain is related to, and implicit in, that in the time domain, the two being connected by the mathematics of the Fourier Transform. To put it in simplistic language, a speaker's impulse response can be translated directly into its frequency response: all the…
Sidebar 1: Review System
The test procedure followed, with minor changes, that established for my previous loudspeaker reviews: each pair was used with a Mark Levinson No.26/No.20 combination—amplification unlikely to be used with any of these speakers but which would undoubtedly get the best from them—a Marantz CD94 CD player used via its optical digital output to feed a Marantz CDA94 outboard DAC unit, and a 1987 Linn Sondek/Ittok/Troika combination sitting on a Sound Organization table.
Interconnect was Madrigal HPC, speaker cable was also from Madrigal. The loudspeakers were…
The last few years have seen a flood of new integrated amplifiers in an audiophile market traditionally wedded to separate preamps and power amps. That might reflect the fact that integrated amps make a lot of sense, and not only because they usually cost less than equivalent separates. The latter gained a foothold in audio's Paleolithic era, when tubes were the only game in town. Tubes generate lots of heat—an enemy of electronics—and separating the preamp stages from the output devices kept this under control. Yes, there were integrated amplifiers back then, but they were generally of very…
Sidebar 2: Measurements
The frequency response the speaker was measured in the listening window—spatially averaged to minimize room standing-wave problems—using a 1/3-octave warble-tone generator, which is said to be a little more analytical than the filtered pink-noise signal I have used in the past; in addition, the nearfield low-frequency response of each speaker was measured with a sinewave sweep to get an idea of the true bass extension relative to the level at 100Hz. The change of impedance with frequency and the voltage sensitivity (using 1/3-octave pink noise centered on 1kHz)…
Sidebar 3: Specifications
Description: Three-way, transmission-line, floor-standing loudspeaker. Drive-units: ¾" (19mm) soft-plastic-dome tweeter, 4" (102mm) cone midrange driver, 8" (203mm) cone woofer. Crossover frequencies: not specified. Frequency range: 26Hz–20kHz. Sensitivity: 91dB/W/m. Nominal impedance: 8 ohms. Amplifier requirements: 50W max. (RMS, pink noise continuous), 300W peak program.
Dimensions: 49" (1245mm) H by 19.5" (495mm) W by 8" (203mm) D. Weight: 49 lbs (22.3kg).
Price: $1099/pair (1988); no longer available (2017). Approximate number of dealers: 200 (1988…
The 2200i's remote control is small enough to sneak behind the seat cushions if you're not watching carefully. It has buttons for power, input, mute, and navigation, plus three function buttons that can be programmed to access various features. I set up F1 to access the configuration menu (for choosing subwoofer on or off), and F2 to access the PEQ menu (to turn it on or off rapidly to quickly sample its effect). Once in the selected menu, you can use the navigation controls to move around within that menu or return to the home menu, though from the listening seat it's not easy to see, on…
Sidebar 1: Equalization Setup
To set the Classé's parametric equalization filters, I used the Dayton Audio OmniMic measurement system. While less sophisticated than the setup John Atkinson uses for his in-room measurements, this relatively affordable device ($298 list) is a way for the tech-savvy audiophile to make good use of the PEQ offered in the Sigma 2200i.
The measurements I made were performed at the listening seat, with 1?6-octave smoothing. I made only single-point (not position-averaged) readings, as that was the only way to ensure consistent microphone positions pre-…