As the Aida weighs a backbreaking 364 lb, I drove my test gear to Mikey Fremer's place to measure the speakers in situ. After I'd done the in-room measurements, my plan was to perform the quasi-anechoic measurements in Mikey's driveway. Sonus Faber's reps had placed one of the speakers on a wheeled dolly and rolled it from the listening room to the garage. However, for the first day in weeks, it was raining, and with no end to the downpour in sight, I ended up measuring the Aida in the garage with the door open. I could position the speaker well away from the…
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Saturday, September 22: Alma Music and Audio (7847 Convoy Ct. #101, San Diego, CA 92111) is hosting an Audio Research event; the Pacific Northwest Audio Society and J-Corder custom Reel to Reels are holding a Technics turntable event at the Congregational Church
(4545 Island Crest Way, Mercer Island, WA 98040); and Excel Audio (4678 Campus Drive, Newport Beach, CA 92660) is holding its first Annual Open House and Customer Appreciation Night.
Alma Music and Audio is introducing the Audio Research Reference 160M monoblock power amplifiers that are on the cover of our October issue. There…
Since its founding in 1982, Paradigm has developed and sold high-value loudspeakers. When my wife and I acquired our weekend house in 1992, I selected a pair of Paradigm Esprit/BP speakers for our audio system there. Shortly thereafter, however, I wanted to take my big step into multichannel, and it seemed that the Esprits' bipolar radiation would present problems for multichannel sound in my relatively small room. Back then, Manhattan still had many audio salons; after shopping around, I replaced the Esprit/BPs with Paradigm's Reference Studio/60 v.2s, and in 2004 stepped up to the Studio/…
Male voices, too, were excellent across the range, even though, at the lower end, their reproduction is a function of room interaction as much as of the speakers and the voices themselves. Given that my room acoustics have not changed over the years nor have the positions where I have placed most loudspeakers, the Persona 5Fs' midbass and bass were as clean and defined as those of any conventional speaker I've used. Consequently, Hans Theesink on "Late Last Night" (from Call Me, CD, Blue Groove BG-4020) sounded warmly gruff, but a bit less weighty than through some speakers. However, I…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way, floorstanding, bass-reflex loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" (25mm) beryllium-dome tweeter, 7" (178mm) beryllium-cone midrange, three 7" (178mm) X-PAL-cone woofers. Crossover frequencies: 450Hz, 2.4kHz. Frequency response: 45Hz–45kHz, ±2dB (on axis); 45Hz–20kHz, ±2dB (30° off axis). Low-frequency extension: 23Hz. Impedance: "compatible with 8 ohms." Sensitivity: 93dB (in room), 90dB (anechoic). Maximum input power: 300W. Recommended amplification: 15–500W.
Finishes: Carbon Black, Vanta Black, Harmony White (high gloss); Aria Blue, Sonic…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Oppo Digital UDP-105 universal BD player, Baetis Prodigy-X PC-based music server running JRiver Media Center 24, exaSound e38 D/A processor, QNAP TVS-873 NAS.
Preamplifiers: Audio Research MP1, Parasound Halo P 7, SPL SMC 7.1.
Power Amplifiers: Benchmark AHB2, Classé Sigma Mono monoblocks, Parasound Halo A 31.
Loudspeakers: Bowers & Wilkins 802 D3.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Coffee (USB). Interconnect: AudioQuest Earth/DBS (balanced), Kubala-Sosna Anticipation (RCA), VoVox Sonorus Muco (XLR-DB25). Speaker: AudioQuest…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Paradigm Persona 5F's frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 for the nearfield responses. Paradigm specifies the Persona 5F's anechoic voltage sensitivity as 90dB/2.83V/m. My estimate was slightly lower, at 88.7dB(B)/2.83V/m, but this is still higher than average. The Paradigm's impedance is specified as "compatible with 8 ohms." The impedance drops below 6 ohms between 70Hz and 1kHz, and reaches a minimum magnitude of 2.85 ohms just below 20kHz (fig.1). There…
At a recent dealer event in Seattle, after being impressed by the musical rightness of an Audio Research Corp. LS28 preamplifier and VT80SE power amplifier driving a pair of Sonus Faber Guarneri loudspeakers, I spoke with ARC's Dave Gordon about reviewing one of the company's new amplifiers. Less than a month later, two ARC Reference 160M tubed monoblock amplifiers ($30,000/pair) were headed my way.
Soon thereafter I received a huge, pallet-bound stack of boxes as tall as my neck: the two monoblocks, plus one ARC preamp—their hefty, one-piece Reference 6 (REF 6) line preamplifier ($14,000…
One very cool feature is the 160M's tube-hours counter, just below the three toggles. I checked it frequently while completing the 400–600 hour break-in process that ARC had begun. Many makers of tube amps caution against turning on their amps when they're not connected to speakers. Although Dave Gordon had told me that I could break in the 160Ms' tubes without connecting the amps to my speakers, ARC later sent me two huge, heavy brass resistors. I connected these to the 160Ms' speaker terminals, to ensure that break-in would occur evenly.
Setup
I positioned the 160Ms on Grand Prix…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Fully balanced, class-AB tubed monoblock power amplifier. Tube complement: four KT150 (output), two 6H30 (gain stage). Inputs: unbalanced (RCA), balanced (XLR). Three sets of speaker output taps: 4, 8, 16 ohms. Output power: 140W continuous, 20Hz–20kHz (21.5dBW). Frequency response: 0.5Hz–110kHz, –3dB at 1W. Power bandwidth: 5Hz–70kHz, –3dB. Input sensitivity: 2.4V RMS balanced for rated output (25.5dB gain into 8 ohms). Input impedance: 300k ohms balanced, 100k ohms single-ended. Output regulation: ca 0.6dB into 16 ohm load to open circuit (damping…