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Another thing, after astonishingly high musicianship around every corner, that New Orleans has is record stores, none better nor better run than Euclid Records in the Bywater neighborhood. The second location of a store based in St Louis, NOLA’s Euclid has an entire first floor of LPs, a performance space for in-store concerts and an upstairs filled with 45s. Stereophile contributing editor John Swenson and I had the good fortune to stumble upon an LP collection the store had purchased and put out in the “new arrivals” section. While he scored a sealed copy of Tony Williams Foreign Intrigue…
Despite Katrina, which forced a lot of musicians out of town permanently, New Orleans still has a core of great musicians. On a Thursday night out at Chickie Wah Wah on Canal Street, we found Ed Volker, keyboardist from The Radiators fronting a band that contained guitarist Camile Baudoin also from the Rads, baritone saxophone player Joe Cabral from The Iguanas and drummer Michael Skinkus. Without any rehearsal they came on and within two songs had the groove and never let go. As Mac (Dr. John) has been known to exclaim in song, “Such A Night!”
In their seminal work on the subject of audio "Bluff your Way in Hi-Fi" (1987), Sue Hudson and John Crabbe stated that "the perfect speaker would have no mass and no dimensions. The perfect speaker does not exist, and if it did, it still wouldn't." One might add, as a corollary, that a speaker with zero dimensions would also have infinite cost. At least there seems to be a trend in that direction. The Wilson WATT and Celestion SL700—to use today's two most visible examples—may have attracted considerable attention because of their exceptional performance, but they have also attracted at least…
At last I arrived at a sound I felt represented the Panorama at its best in my room, and with my system—though to misquote a famous seer, there are always other possibilities. First, to the good stuff. Set up optimally, the Panoramas live up to their name in producing as focused and precise a soundstage as I have ever heard. Lateral definition was spot-on. Depth was nearly as good, though a bit short of the near-holographic quality of the left-to-right placement. On Rickie Lee Jones's "The Moon is Made of Gold" from Rob Wasserman's Duets (MCA 42131), the solo voice and guitar popped up at…
Sidebar 1: Review System
Associated equipment used for this review included the SOTA Cosmos turntable and SME V tonearm, Krell KC-100, Clearaudio Gamma, and Benz-Micro MC-3 cartridges, California Audio Labs Aria II CD player, Klyne SK-5a preamplifier, and Mark Levinson No.23, Forté 1a, and VTL 90/90 power amplifiers.
Interconnects were the Monster M-1000 (CD to preamp) and AudioQuest Lapis (early version) (preamp to power amp). Speaker cables were AudioQuest Green (bass) and Green Hyperlitz (treble) (bi-wire mode) and Monster M-1 (intermittently, single wire mode).
Before…
Sidebar 2: Measurements
Though SOTA specifies the Panorama as being an 8-ohm load, the speaker can be seen from fig.1 actually to drop somewhat lower than that, reaching a minimum value of 5.1 ohms at 135Hz and averaging 4.4 ohms in the top octave. This should not present amplifiers with problems unless, like the B&K ST-140, they have problems driving loads much below 8 ohms. That the damped slot on the speaker's base does not act as a reflex port can be shown by the fact that the impedance in the bass features the single peak typical of a sealed-box alignment.
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Manufacturer's Comment
Editor: There are comments in this review, both positive and negative, that are right on target. We have only a couple of major bones to pick with Tom Norton's subjective review, but we have many comments about John Atkinson's test methodology and interpretation of the measurements.
Tom Norton's taste in previous loudspeaker reviews has seemed to gravitate heavily toward systems that can deliver extended and generous bass, such as the B&W 801s he refers to at the beginning of the review. When compared to such systems, the Panoramas will admittedly be shy…
Sidebar 3: Specifications
Description: Two-way, stand-mounted loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" concave-dome tweeter; 7" woofer. Frequency response: 45Hz–22kHz ±3dB. Sensitivity: 87dB/W/m. Nominal impedance: 8 ohms (6 ohms min.). Amplifier requirements: 25W minimum. Power handling: 150W.
Dimensions: 16.5" H by 12" W by 11.5" D. Weight: 35 lbs each.
Price: $1595/pair in oak ($1795 in Black, $1895 in Ebony, Cocobola, and Brazilian Rosewood) (1990); no longer available (2015). Dedicated Sound Anchor stands: $350/pair. Approximate number of dealers: 50.
Manufacturer: SOTA Industries…
In a recent trip to New Orleans, my wife and I found that Bourbon Street, once the capital of genuinely wonderful smarm in the deep south, this place where dudes went to get away from their wives, has, despite this classic old sign, become a version of Times Square lite. What was once so flavorful about this liquor mall has been swept away. In its place are crowds unsteady from too many Hand Grenades, whose major ingredient is Everclear 100 proof alcohol. What was once low down has become low rent. Admittedly, Bourbon was never a cultural mecca unless you consider going blind from booze to be…
On Thursday December 3, In Living Stereo, the high-end audio store in Manhattan's East Village, hosted a party to celebrate the arrival of the Gibbon X, a new floorstanding, three-way loudspeaker from Brooklyn-based DeVore Fidelity. The event attracted a crowd of Manhattan-based audiophiles—among them Andre Phills (below) and Paul Baldasare, with whom I had the pleasure of speaking—and audio luminaries Herb Reichert, Ken Micallef, and Steve Guttenberg. Also in the house was tall person and loudspeaker designer John DeVore, who is known for naming his speakers after apes: gibbons, gorillas ("…