Whether the mounting pins on that Altec had always been a little bit off, or whether one or both had become…
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I decided to rule out the gap once and for all by taking the original diaphragm, now presumed useless, and drilling out the offending alignment hole, apparently 1/8" in diameter, to 9/64", after which I carefully and slightly countersunk it. That provided just the slight amount of slop I needed—and what I now realized was a perfectly round former and coil of consistent and correct thickness dropped neatly into what I also now realized was a perfectly made voice-coil gap.
The Audiophiliac, Steve Guttenberg, is a long time industry heavyweight, a prolific audio journalist, and a wild "As We See It" contributor to Stereophile. He's also been a crucial mentor of mine since we first met in early 2015, during my pre-Stereophile days.
In this video, Steve shares his personal background and offers his perspective on a variety of audio-related topics. He defines the term "audiophile" while questioning the evasiveness surrounding the term, discusses affordable audio, and describes his method for reviewing. Think of this as an "As We See It"—video edition.
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The M15 Super is the first high-output pickup to come from Ortofon. Previous ones required either step-up transformers or a booster preamp, and it is only fairly recently that either kind of step-up device was available with high-enough quality to avoid a noticeable degradation of the sound. Early step-up transformers muddied the bass, and previously-available booster preamps added noise or hardness or both to the sound. Now that there are excellent transformers available from Ortofon and other sources, and at least one extraordinarily good booster preamp (the Mark Levinson, at an…
Manufacturer's Comment
Editor: We do not agree with your subjective evaluation of the M-15 Super's sound, but since there is no disputing personal taste, we are not going to argue the point.
There are however some misleading statements in the report that we must, in the interests of accuracy, take issue with.
You stated that it is likely that production quality control will be better (than it was for your sample) by the time this report gets into print, but expressed no such qualification for the rather poor response and separation curves you show. In fact, the deviations…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: Moving-magnet phono cartridge with 0.6 mil spherical stylus (M-15) or 0.7 by 0.3 mil elliptical stylus (M15E). Recommended tracking force: 1 gram. Output: 4mV.
Cartridge weight: 5 grams.
Price: $79.95 (elliptical) or $69.95 (spherical) (1974); no longer available (2017).
Manufacturer: Ortofon A/S, Stavangervej 9, DK-4900 Nakskov, Denmark, US Distributor: Ortofon US, New York, NY 10016 (1974); Ortofon Inc., 500 Executive Blvd, Suite 102, Ossining, NY 10562 (2017). Tel: (914) 762-8646. Fax: (914) 762-8649. Web: www.ortofon.com.
Stereophile seldom reviews A/V receivers. We made an exception for Arcam's FMJ SR250 ($3600) because it's that unusual two-channel device: one that includes room-correction software, in this case Dirac Live. Many of us who listen in multichannel are comfortable with room correction, but a week doesn't pass without my hearing or reading someone say that they bypass room correction when listening to music in stereo. Spock-like, I find that illogical and, from experience, pointless.
If one accepts that, just like careful speaker positioning and acoustic treatments, room equalization exists…
Taking over in Connecticut
The Arcam FMJ SR250 served as the hub of my New England system, replacing my Marantz AV8802a preamplifier-processor and Bryston 9BST power amp, and fed source signals via HDMI, analog, Ethernet, and S/PDIF. The speaker terminals were cabled to my Monitor Silver 8s, and the two subwoofer outputs to my pair of JL Audio E-Sub e110 subs. A HDMI TV monitor is required for initial setup of the SR250 and Dirac Live, but not for daily use—the SR250's front-panel display is clear and communicative. Setup was relatively easy.
The Arcam FMJ SR250 served as the hub of my New England system, replacing my Marantz AV8802a preamplifier-processor and Bryston 9BST power amp, and fed source signals via HDMI, analog, Ethernet, and S/PDIF. The speaker terminals were cabled to my Monitor Silver 8s, and the two subwoofer outputs to my pair of JL Audio E-Sub e110 subs. A HDMI TV monitor is required for initial setup of the SR250 and Dirac Live, but not for daily use—the SR250's front-panel display is clear and communicative. Setup was relatively easy.
Arcam's remote control is illuminated and…
Sidebar 1: A Fly in the Ointment?
I decided to use the same music files to compare the sound of the Arcam FMJ SR250 with Dirac Live room correction to the Dirac Live filtering in my server. It was a fair fight, as long as I set the server to downsample to 24/96 and used the same target curves for both implementations. In this face-off, the Dirac Suite on my server seemed marginally but consistently more successful than did the Arcam implementation. Yeah, the microphone positions couldn't possibly have been exactly the same, but the purpose of the multiple positions is to create a…
Sidebar 2: Specifications
Description: Solid-state, class-G integrated audio-visual receiver with FM/DAB tuner, analog & digital inputs, Dirac Live room correction. Analog audio inputs: 6 unbalanced (RCA), 1 auxiliary (3.5mm). Digital audio inputs: 7 HDMI, 4 S/PDIF (RCA), 2 S/PDIF (TosLink), USB, Ethernet (RJ-45). Preamplifier outputs: 2.1-channel unbalanced Left/Right/SW1/SW2, Zone 2 Left/Right (RCA). Communication: Ethernet RJ-45 control interface; Spotify, vTuner enabled. Digital input sample rates: USB & Ethernet, 24-bit/48kHz; HDMI & S/PDIF, up to 24/192. DACs: Cirrus…
Sidebar 3: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Oppo BDP-103 universal BD player, Apple Mac mini running BootCamp, Windows 7, JRiver Music.
Preamplifier: Marantz AV8802a.
Power Amplifiers: Bryston 9BST, Classé Sigma Mono (2).
Loudspeakers: Bowers & Wilkins 802 D3, Monitor Audio Silver 8, JL Audio E-Sub e110 subwoofers (2).
Cables: Interconnect: AudioQuest Vodka (HDMI), Kubala-Sosna Anticipation (RCA) & Fascination (XLR). Speaker: Kubala-Sosna Anticipation & Fascination. AC: Kubala-Sosna Emotion.
Accessory: BrickWall 8RAUD power conditioner.—Kalman…