All of which makes, The Wonderful Sounds of Christmas, Acoustic Sounds fabulous new Christmas music double LP set—pressed on separate red and green 180 gram vinyl LPs—such a pleasure to listen to. I have never heard Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas…
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Christmas music can often be a sonic challenge. Endless reissues of popular tunes, Bobby Helms, “Jingle Bell Rock,” comes to mind, have produced endless tape copies that degrade sonically the further they get from the master—if one even still exists. I’m fairly sure a lot of Christmas music compilations—yes, I’m a fan—have tracks cut from CDs.
The Tannoy E11 ($349/pair) is the company's least-expensive model in a wide range of consumer loudspeakers. Tannoy is most often known for its professional models, especially their nearfield, dual-concentric monitors that have become de rigueur on the top of recording consoles. The E11 is a two-way, ported design with a 6.5" woofer and 1" dome tweeter. Both drivers are manufactured by Tannoy, instead of being sourced from a driver manufacturer. The woofer is made from a polyolefin co-polymer, a plastic material with high rigidity and good self-damping properties. To improve power handling and…
Sidebar 2: Measurements
Driving the E11s with a sinewave oscillator revealed minor cabinet resonances at 30Hz and 90Hz. At 200Hz, the cabinet started to vibrate and take on a buzzing sound. At 220Hz, the buzzing produced by the cabinet was louder than the tone produced by the woofer. This will certainly be audible as an inability to distinguish the pitch of notes near this area. Another lower-amplitude resonance was heard at 380Hz.
Fig.1 shows the E11's impedance magnitude and phase angle. The impedance is quite high, dropping to 6 ohms in the lower treble only over a narrow…
In 1995, as the compact disc enters its second decade of commercial reality, it's fair to say that the associated hardware has come of age, exorcising at last the digital gremlins of time-base jitter and quantization noise. Digital-processor maturation is particularly evident in the design of the all-critical D/A processor. The simplistic digital circuitry of yesterday has given way to considerable design sophistication that deals directly with jitter and low-level nonlinearities.
It should be realized that no DAC is perfect. The conversion process from the digital to the analog domain…
Sidebar 2: Specifications
Description: Two-way, stand-mounted loudspeaker with 6½" woofer and 25mm aluminum-dome tweeter. Bass alignment: reflex (rear-firing port). Crossover frequency: 3kHz. Crossover type: first-order low-pass, overdamped second-order high-pass. Frequency response: 55Hz–20kHz ±3dB. Recommended amplifier power: 10–90W. Nominal impedance: 8 ohms. Minimum impedance: 6 ohms. Sensitivity: 88dB (2.83V at 1m).
Dimensions: 8¼" W by 15¼" H by 8" D. Weight: 11.4 lbs. each (5.2kg). Internal volume: 11 liters.
Price: $349/pair (1990); no longer available (2015). Approximate…
The trumpet and harpsichord are two instruments that are often treated unkindly by CD players. On Kathleen Battle's and Wynton Marsalis's Baroque Duet (Sony Classical SK 46672), both Wynton's up-front trumpet and Anthony Newman's background harpsichord popped into space with immaculate timing with the DP-90. The flow of transient attack and decay were closer to the real thing than I've ever experienced from CD. The bouncy, rhythmic pluck that underscores harpsichord timbre was readily resolved—in fact, for the first time I was able to precisely discern its exact phrasing. I simply felt…
Sidebar 1: Measurements
The Accuphase DC-91 had a maximum output level of 2.64V from the balanced outputs, 2.54V from the single-ended outputs. The output impedance measured a low 49 ohms (balanced) and 52 ohms (unbalanced) at any audio frequency. These low output impedances suggest that the DC-91 will drive any preamplifier and cable with ease, and will not be loaded down by low input impedances. The DC-91 doesn't invert absolute polarity from the single-ended outputs, but the XLR connectors are wired with pin 3 hot—contrary to the AES standard of pin 2 hot. This will cause the DC-91 to…
Sidebar 2: Specifications
DP-90 CD transport: Digital outputs: ST-type connector with Hewlett-Packard optical link; AES/EBU balanced XLR; EIAJ-standard optical TosLink; S/PDIF coaxial. Power consumption: 12W.
Dimensions: 18.75" W by 5.875" H by 14.625" D. Weight: 45.2 lbs.
Serial number of unit reviewed: E3Y570.
Price: $7595 (1995); no longer available (2015).
DC-91 digital processor: Multiple Multi-Bit, 20-bit resolution D/A converter. Digital filter: 20-bit, 8x-oversampling. Frequency response: 4Hz–20kHz ±0.3dB. THD: 0.002% (20Hz–20kHz, no level specified). S/N…
In a typical phono cartridge, the stylus is at one end of an oversize cantilever (oversize in comparison with the cartridge's other moving parts), the fulcrum of which is nearer the cantilever's other end. That design makes possible a certain amount of mechanical compliance that, when the cartridge is lowered to the record surface, helps the stylus seat itself in the groove rather than bounce or skip all over the place. Without at least a modicum of springiness, cueing up a record would be more difficult, and jukeboxes and automatic record changers might never have been possible. Imagine!…
The first of the new DST 62-inspired cartridges was a one-off, made for Schröder's personal use. But as he explained to me, "It became clear that [the cartridge] was way too good to just leave it at that." So Schröder suggested to the builder some changes, and eventually partnered with Robin Wyatt, who came up with the name Tzar DST.
According to Schröder, the Tzar DST's compliance is "very low," and the cartridge performs best in a tonearm with an effective mass of 25gm or more. (He's also designing a new tonearm of his own that will suit the Tzar and various vintage cartridges from…