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Thursday, December 10, from 5–10pm New York retailer In Living Stereo (2 Great Jones Street, New York City) is having a “Dynaudio Night.” Mike Manousselis from Dynaudio will be demonstrating some new Dynaudio speakers and answering questions. We will have the Confidence C1 platinum and the Contour 1.4 LE loudspeakers (above) on demonstration. We will also have Dynaudio’s new Xeo 2 wireless loudspeakers playing in the lobby. Snacks and beverages will be served.
It's easy for reviewers to become jaded by the high prices of some audio products. We get the products in our listening rooms—albeit temporarily—without having to part with our own money. Consequently, we get enthusiastic about products that offer real breakthroughs without, perhaps, fully considering their cost.
Reviewers should consciously try to avoid this tendency. Although we should report on cost-no-object components, the bulk of our readers want high musical performance at an affordable price. That's why I get most excited about reviewing sensibly priced components that offer sonic…
This is an electrostatic column speaker, 6' tall and costing $6000/pair. An integral, fan-cooled amplifier is located in the base (footnote 1). The 2SW is said to cover almost the entire frequency range and is based on a patent, number 3,668,335, issued to manufacturer/designer Harold Beveridge on June 6, 1972. Internal acoustic lenses in front of the electrostatic panels widen the speaker's dispersion: In the Beveridge literature, it says "This 6-foot high device consolidated the entire frequency range into a vertical line source, and uniformly disperses it over a horizontal pattern, 180…
Sidebar 1: Review System
I auditioned the Lambda driving PS Audio's new Reference Link digital processor and "preamp" (see review elsewhere in this issue), a Mark Levinson No.30 Reference Digital Processor, and the Meitner IDAT. Digital interconnects included an AudioQuest Optical Pro II glass fiber, and Aural Symphonics and WonderLink coaxial types. My review sample was fitted with ST-type glass fiber, but not with AES/EBU output.
An Audio Research LS2B line-stage drove VTL 225W monoblocks via a 20' run of AudioQuest Lapis. Alternately, the power amplifier was a Mark Levinson No.…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: Electrostatic line-source loudspeaker with integral tube amplifier. Drive-units: three 24"-high transducers, and three 24"-high lenses per speaker. Frequency response: 40Hz–15kHz ±2dB over 180°. Lowest useable output: 35Hz. Maximum spl in-room circa 110dB.
Dimensions: 78" H by 24" W wide by 16" D.
Price: $6000/pair (1978), $7000/pair (1979).
Manufacturer: Harold Beveridge Inc., Santa Barbara, CA 93103 (1978). Web: bevaudio.com.
Sidebar 2: Measurements
The four transports held in highest sonic regard (the Mark Levinson No.31, the C.E.C. TL 1, the PS Audio Lambda, and the Proceed PDT 3) all had low jitter. I thought the PS Audio Lambda was slightly better-sounding than the PDT 3——and the Lambda had slightly lower jitter.
Fig.1 is the PS Audio Lambda's jitter spectrum with digital silence (track 4 on the CBS Test CD), the heavy dotted trace is the jitter spectrum when the transport is transmitting a –90dB, 1kHz sinewave, and the lightest (top) trace is made with a 1kHz, 0dB sinewave. The RMS jitter level…
RH compared the Lambda with the Theta Data Basic in March 1994 (Vol.17 No.3):
A natural point of comparison for the Theta Data Basic was the similarly priced PS Audio Lambda transport. The auditioning was restricted to coaxial and AES/EBU.
I wondered just how similar—or different—the Data Basic would sound compared with the nearly identical Lambda. In my review of the Lambda last October, I concluded that it offered terrific performance for the money. From the listening, it was clear that the Lambda and Data Basic resembled each other in their musical presentations yet were…
Two letters from readers (see below) started us thinking again about something we've mulled at, off and on, for the past year or so: Does today's high-fidelity equipment, for all its vastly improved performance, actually sound that much better than the best of the early components?
Certainly, the best of today's pickups, amplifiers and loudspeakers are objectively far superior to anything available ten, or even five years ago. Pickups trace more cleanly at lower forces, amplifiers have lower distortion and higher stability, and speakers have wider range, smoother response and lower…
Sidebar 3: Specifications
Description: CD transport with one coaxial (RCA jack) output as standard. Optional outputs: AT&T ST-type optical and AES/EBU (each adds $200; both are available for an extra $400).
Dimensions: 17" W by 3.25" D by 15" H.
Price: $1695 (1993); no longer available (2015). Approximate number of dealers: 125. Warranty: 3 years parts and labor (electronics), 1 year parts and labor (drive mechanism and laser).
Manufacturer: PS Audio, Grover City, CA 93483 (1993); PS Audio, 4826 Sterling Drive, Boulder, CO 80301 (2015). Tel: (720) 406-8946. Web: www.…
Command Performance AV (115 Park Avenue, Suite 2, Falls Church, VA 22046) is holding a Clearaudio event on Saturday December 12 from noon–5pm. Clearaudio founder, Peter Suchy, will be demonstrating the one-of-kind Clearaudio Statement turntable (right) along with the Goldfinger Cartridge and Absolute Phono. This will be the first showing of the new Statement turntable on the East Coast. To highlight the capabilities of the Statement, Garth Leerer and Jesse Luna of Musical Surroundings will be demonstrating the brand-new Eclipse versions of the Aesthetix electronics.