AcroLink 7N-DA2090 Speciale: $2375/1.5m pair
The less-than-snappily named 7N-DA2090 Speciale is technically laudable; commendably, AcroLink publishes the specs for this product's resistance (18milliohm/meter) and electrostatic capacitance (56pF/meter). It's made of 99.99999% pure multistrand copper, arranged in what AcroLink calls a "balanced twin core structure." According to MF, substituting the AcroLink interconnect for his TARA Zero Evolution "produced sharper but not unnaturally defined transients, shorter sustain and decay, and an overall well-detailed and more…
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Interconnects
In late August, I attended the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion and Car Week at Weathertech Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California. Porsche sponsored its own "Porsche Werks Reunion" at the nearby Corral De Tierra Country Club.
Walking around the golf course, I stumbled on a pair of KEF Blade Two speakers in the middle of a field of rare Porsche 911s, from the earliest 1965 model 356 to the latest 2018 GT-3RS. Anthony Hrehowsik, KEF USA's Operations Manager, explained that the company partnered with Porsche to offer both the Blade ($32,999/pair) and the Blade Two ($24,999/pair)…
After umpteen serious reviews, penned in serious and somber times, it's high time to lighten up. Hence to Leonard Bernstein's Wonderful Town we go, and to Sir Simon Rattle's new SACD of the musical, recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra and a stellar cast that includes Danielle de Niese (Eileen), Alysha Umphress (Ruth), and Nathan Gunn (Bob).
Wonderful Town, whose music Bernstein composed to lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, grabbed five Tony Awards when it opened on Broadway in 1953 with Rosalind Russell as Ruth Sherwood. Whether the reason that none of its songs has…
I attend at least a couple of dozen classical-music performances each year. I also read reviews of recordings and live performances, and have even dabbled in writing them. Why, then, do I find classical music reviews so frequently annoying?
It's the vocabulary. In these reviews I often see words that I rarely see used elsewhere: scintillating, irresistible, delightful. One venerable reviewer for Gramophone magazine has used the word "beguiling" 100 times in some 900 reviews. When I read such words, I envision the poor music critic writhing in his (occasionally her) listening chair,…
In 1959, in their musical revue At the Drop of a Hat, the British musical-comedy team of Flanders and Swann sang their "Song of Reproduction." It's not about sex. The song mocks audiophiles (you thought this was something recent?) for how we spend "all of that money to get the exact effect of an orchestra actually playing in their sitting room." Before launching into the song, Flanders quips, "Personally, I can't think of anything I should hate more than having an orchestra playing in my sitting room!"
I'm here to tell you that there's nothing I love more than having the sensation of an…
In addition to the Sound Field Shaper MTM array, the Aida II's rear panel includes three potentiometers for adjusting the output levels of various drivers: High for the front tweeter, Low Damp for the subwoofer, and Depth for the Sound Field Shaper.
Each Aida II has three pairs of binding posts and is thus tri-ampable, but I used the included jumpers and single pairs of TARA Labs Omega Evolution SP speaker cables.
There's more to this complex design, and especially to the design and construction of the drivers, but that's enough for the purposes of this review, other than Sonus…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: "Three-and-two-thirds-way" reflex-loaded, floorstanding loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1.1" (28mm) damped-apex silk-dome tweeter, 7.1" (180mm) natural fiber, viscous-damped midrange driver, two 8.7" (220mm) sandwich-cone woofers, 12.6" (320mm) Nano Carbon Fiber/foam core Infra (sub)woofer; rear-firing Sound Field Shaper comprises 1.1" (29mm) damped-apex silk-dome tweeter and two 3.15" (80mm) midrange drivers. Crossover frequencies: 55, 150, 200, 3000Hz. Frequency range: 18Hz–35kHz. Sensitivity: 92dB/2.83V/m. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms. Recommended…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Turntables: Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn (with Castellon stand), Technics SL-1000R, VPI Avenger. Tonearms: Swedish Analog Technologies SAT & SAT LM-09, Kuzma 4Point. Cartridges: DS Audio Master 1 (plus equalizer); Grado Epoch (mono); Lyra Atlas, Atlas SL, Atlas SL Mono, Etna, Etna SL; Miyajima Laboratory Zero (mono); Ortofon MC Century Anna A95.
Digital Sources: dCS Rossini CD Player, AVM 8.2 preamplifier-DAC, Lynx Hilo A/D-D/A converter, Meridian Digital Media System, Pure Vinyl & Vinyl Studio software.
Preamplification:…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
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…
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…