I'm here to tell you that there's nothing I love more than having the sensation of an…
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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!"
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…
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…