Description :Solid-state stereo power amplifier. Output power: 100W into 8 ohms (20dBW), 200W into 4 ohms (20dBW), 350W into 2 ohms (19.4dBW). Full power bandwidth: DC–80kHz, +0/–3dB. Distortion: <0.1%; typically <0.02%. Voltage gain: 27.4dB balanced, 28dB unbalanced. Input sensitivity: 1.21V balanced, 1.13V unbalanced to produce 100W into 8 ohms. Input impedance: 50k ohms unbalanced, 2k ohms balanced. Current consumption: 2A, idle; up to 12A full output in mono.
Dimensions: 18.25" W by 9.25" H by 16" D. Weight: 61 lb.
Serial number of unit tested…
search
Sidebar 3: Specifications
There is music so new, so original, so contemplative, and so deeply felt that it makes you want to listen, and then demands that you listen again. It's music whose layers peel back over time, as it draws you deeper into its mysteries. For premiere recordings of compositions that address time and place, and then often take you beyond them, Transcendent (DE 3555), the first offering on Delos from composer/orchestrator Chad Cannon's Asia/America New Music Institute (AANMI), earns its title.
"Beyond or above the range of normal or merely physical human experience; surpassing the ordinary":…
Few people in the high end know the difference between glorious excess and wretched folly as well as Harvey Rosenberg (footnote 1). Harvey's audio equipment always strives towards the glorious folly of providing the most romantic sound possible with modern technology. This may explain why his relatively small company, New York Audio Laboratories, can build an amplifier like the Futterman OTL-1, which costs a glorious $12,000 a stereo pair and actively competes for the title of best amplifier in the world.
At the same time, Harvey's prose always strives towards the most wretched excess…
Manufacturer's Comment
Editor: Comments on HR's Wretched Excesses: I have failed miserably trying to be tame. Meditation, yoga, psychoanalysis, group therapy, prayer, a frontal lobotomy, and jogging, have all been tried and proved ineffective. I apologize to all whom I have offended with my prose, and ask their forgiveness. No matter how hard I try, my excitement and enthusiasm overpower me. Any suggestions from physicians in the readership?
Comment on the Glorious Folly #1: To stimulate further the tube vs transistor debate, it should be noted that the Futterman OTL-1 uses a…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Four-chassis stereo output transformerless tubed amplifier. Nominal output: 150W into 16 ohms. Large-signal frequency response (–3dB down): 2Hz–40kHz. Small signal response: 1.4Hz–200kHz. Phase shift: 15° at 10kHz and 45° at 40kHz. Output impedance: 2 ohms at 10Hz, 0.15 ohms at 1kHz, and 0.3 ohms at 10kHz. Signal/noise ratio: 85dB unweighted, 92dB A-weighted. THD: less than 1% at full power from 100Hz–100kHz, dropping to less than 0.1% at lower levels. IM distortion: 1.2% at full power, dropping steadily at lower levels.
Price: $12,000 (1986);…
Music to Listen to KLH By
Excerpts from recordings by Everest and Concert-Disc.
KLH VSR-101 (LP).
Excerpts from recordings by Everest and Concert-Disc.
KLH VSR-101 (LP).
Don't be misled by the title of this. It's fine for listening to KLH by, and it is also fine for listening to any other top-notch reproducer by. It is, in fact, the best, and most musical, stereo demonstration disc that's come along to date.
The KLH demo disc offers musically complete selections (instead of fragments) and a bare minimum of hokum in the discing, and the sound is excellent: very transparent, warmly natural, with an extremely smooth, un-hyped high end. Lows are…
Introduced at the 1988 Summer CES, this preamplifier from San Francisco-based Parasound costs $395 and is manufactured in Taiwan. It does away with mechanical switching for source select and tape functions, replacing it with CMOS integrated-circuit switches similar to those used in the British Linn LK1 and Quad 34 and 44 models. Construction is to a good standard and the circuit is carried on two main pcbs and three small ones. Following a signal from the phono inputs, the MM-only RIAA amplifier is based on discrete FETs, its output joining the line-level signals at the switching ICs, these…
Sidebar 1: Review System
Putting my customary preamplifier, the Krell KRS-2, to one side, the references used for this review were the $635 Audio by Van Alstine Super PAS (reviewed in October 1998), and the $659 PS Audio 4.6 (reviewed in September 1988 by Tom Norton) used with its normal external power supply, not the $469 M-500 upgrade (footnote 1). For reference purpose, the RIAA response of the PS 4.6 is Flat through almost the entire audio band, with a well-extended bass response, though it starts to roll off at the top of the top audio octave.
Power amplification was…
Sidebar 2: Measurements
I ran a conventional set of measurements on this preamplifier. This was not so much to find a cause behind any facet of each unit's sound quality, but to see if there were any particular aspects which would lead to system incompatibility problems. At this price level, I would be surprised by any electronic component that didn't depart from neutrality, so careful system matching is even more essential with the Parasound preamplifier than with expensive models.
Fig.1 shows the overall frequency response of the third sample of the P/FET-900 measured via the…
Sidebar 3: Specifications
Description: Solid-state preamplifier with three line-level inputs, one MM phono input, two tape loops, and bass and treble controls. Specifications: Frequency response (line): 10Hz–80kHz ±0.05dB (tone defeat on). Input impedance: 47k ohms in parallel with 150pF (phono), 47k ohms (line). Measured output impedance: 700 ohms (main). Maximum output level: 10V RMS at less than 0.02% THD. Sensitivity (phono): 2.6mV RMS input at 1kHz for 1V output. Sensitivity (line): 200mV RMS input at 1kHz for 1V output. Maximum input levels at 1kHz: 220mV (phono), 2V (line). S/N…