Some 30 years ago (yikes! has it been that long?), the late J. Gordon Holt, founder of Stereophile, wrote an "As We See It" column titled "Down With Flat!." It raised some hackles. Gordon, of course, didn't intend it to mean that smooth response (not necessarily the same thing as flat) wasn't desirable, and he was clearly speaking of a speaker's in-room response. In any case, I was reminded of the piece as I was evaluating the Vienna Acoustics speakers. Why? Because I've read many reviews of Vienna models (not necessarily this one) that included…
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Sidebar 3: What's Up with Flat?
Sidebar 4: Measurements
I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Vienna Acoustics Beethoven Baby Grand SE's frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 for the nearfield responses. Vienna Acoustics specifies the Baby Grand's sensitivity as a very high 91dB. My estimate was significantly lower, at 86.5dB(B)/2.83V/m. The impedance is specified as 4 ohms, and while the average magnitude in the midrange and below is indeed 4 ohms, the impedance drops to 2.3 ohms at 90Hz (fig.1, solid trace), a frequency where music has high energy.…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Monitor Audio Silver 8's farfield frequency response using DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone. I used an Earthworks QTC-40 microphone for the nearfield responses, its small, ¼"-diameter capsule offering no significant barrier to the free flow of air through the speaker's ports. The Silver 8 is specified as having a sensitivity of 90dB/W/m; my estimate of its voltage sensitivity was 88.5dB(B)/2.83V/m, which is slightly lower. Though the Silver 8's impedance is specified as 4 ohms, its measured impedance magnitude (fig.1, solid…
It’s the day after the office Christmas party and yet Bloodshot Records founder Rob Miller gamely agreed to have a chat.
“Our party’s been at the same Mexican restaurant for the past 19 years and I have an incredible superstition that if the bar tab is not bigger than the food tab then we’ve had a bad year.”
Admitting that the Bloodshot offices in Chicago that afternoon are not “a buzzing little hive,” but resemble something more akin to a “slothful, shambling kind of thing,” Miller roused himself long enough to discuss Bloodshot’s 20th anniversary and While No One Was Looking,…
A comment by "cgh" in an online reprint of a Stereophile review caught my attention: "The [1990s] were probably the last real decade that we could reasonably bend the truth. Everything since is verifiable electronically."
Everything? After a quarter century of measuring the performance of audio components for this magazine, I'm not so sure that we have a firm handle on what makes audio products sound different from one another. Even when it comes to measuring loudspeakers, it can be difficult to characterize their performance in an objective manner. For a case in point, see my review of…
As an audiophile, I've come to associate the size, weight, and price of a subwoofer as quick'n'dirty indicators of its quality. The subwoofers that have worked best in my large listening room—the Velodyne ULD-18 and DD-18+, Muse Model 18, REL Studio III, JL Audio Fathom f113, and Revel Sub30—each weigh more than 130 lbs and cost more than $2500. With some of my reference recordings, all of them have achieved what Robert Harley described in the April 1991 issue of Stereophile as the goals of a quality subwoofer: "seamless integration, quickness, no bloat, and unbelievable bass extension." Yet…
Sidebar: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP universal player; Apple 2.7GHz i7 Mac mini running OS10.9.3, iTunes 11, Pure Music 2.0, Audirvana Plus 1.5.10; PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream D/A processor; dCS Vivaldi upsampling D/A system.
Preamplification: Ayre Acoustics KX-R Twenty line preamplifier.
Power Amplifiers: Pass Labs XA60.5 monoblocks.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Coffee, Belkin Gold USB, Kubala-Sosna Elation! AES/EBU, Transparent USB (with dCS Vivaldi). FireWire: AudioQuest FireWire 400 (prototype). Interconnect (balanced): AudioQuest Wild…
For final tuning, I played Stevie Nicks's smoky rendition of "Silver Springs," from Fleetwood Mac's The Dance (CD, Reprise 46702-2). Surprisingly, her voice was thicker, with a chestier timbre, than when played through the Quads alone. Resetting the crossover-filter corner frequencies to 40Hz didn't help.
I turned to SVS's Merlin. When the setup advisor asked for my satellite speakers, I typed in "Quad ESL-989." It recommended running the Quads full range and setting the SB13-Ultra's low-pass corner frequency to 40Hz, 24dB/octave.
Voilà! Nicks's voice lost the coloration, and…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Front-firing, sealed-box, powered subwoofer. Drive-unit: 13.5" Rohacell composite cone with 3", bifilar-wound aluminum voice-coil and underhung motor structure. Inputs: balanced (XLR) and unbalanced (RCA) for two channels, trigger. Outputs: balanced (XLR) for each channel to additional subwoofer. Controls: input level (High/Low); Power; Integrated Function Controller (IFC) knob with 2-line display to control volume level, high- and low-pass filter (Enable, Slope, Frequency), phase, high-pass delay (milliseconds), room gain compensation (Enable, 40,…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Linn Sondek turntable with Lingo power supply, Linn Ittok tonearm; Spectral MC cartridge; Day-Sequerra 25 Year Reference FM tuner.
Digital Sources: Bryston BCD-1 CD player & BDP-2 media player & BDA-1 DAC.
Preamplifier: Bryston BP-26.
Power Amplifiers: Theta Digital Prometheus monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Quad ESL-989; JL Audio Fathom f113, Velodyne DD-18+, B&W DB1, Revel Rhythm2 subwoofers.
Cables: Digital: WireWorld Starlight Coaxial. Interconnect: Mark Levinson Silver, Red Rose Silver One, Totem Acoustic Sinew…