Photo: Nicholas Suttle
Electric guitarist John Scofield, winner of multiple Grammy Awards, has a knack for staying a step ahead of musical trends. In hundreds of jazz settings, "Sco" and his signature Ibanez AS200 guitar and Fender Reverb amplifier have created a unique style and sound that have earned him a popularity beyond jazz's usual audience.
"It doesn't feel like I'm ahead of the [curve] at all," Scofield told me, from his home in upstate New York. "Maybe musicians are more attuned to what's happening than the public, just because we're so obsessed with music. But I try not…
I began my Sunday morning at Capital Audiofest with a portion of one of Malcolm Arnold's jaunty overtures: not quite sacred music, but it was nonetheless magnificent in the room sponsored by Gryphon Audio and retailer 20/20 Evolution Systems. In addition to having appropriate weight and realistic die-away, the sound of mallet on bass drum had the most tonally realistic thud I recall hearing through a hi-fi. And on a CD vinyl drop of the mono version of Mal Waldron's "Warm Canto," the unison piano, cello, and double-bass notes in the opening measures had realistically tactile note attacks—…
More Manufacturer's Comments
Editor: This is very interesting. I would urge readers to read the whole of Jon Iverson's review and not just the conclusion.
The accuracy vs listenability debate has run since the beginning of audio time, and will likely outlast both BorderPatrol and Benchmark.
Given the left-brain/right-brain relationship of the BP and Benchmark DACs (as Herb Reichert would have it), alarm bells rang when I saw that John Atkinson had selected the owner of a Benchmark DAC to write the Follow-Up review.
I shouldn't have worried: Jon Iverson was more…
Saturday and Sunday, November 10–11, 9.30am –5:30pm each day: The Hi-Fi Show Live 2018, sponsored by our sister magazine Hi-Fi News, takes place within five conference centers in the grounds of the Beaumont Estate in Old Windsor (Burfield Road, Old Windsor, Windsor SL4 2JJ, Berkshire, UK). For more information click here.
Friday November 9 (2–7pm), Saturday November 10 (10am–5pm), and Sunday November 11 (10am–4pm): the Chester Group's New York Audio Show 2018 takes place at Manhattan's Park Lane Hotel (36 Central Park South, New York, NY 10019). For more information click here.
"I've got six hours to get ready for 30 hours of show time so an attendee can listen for 10 minutes." Thus did Doug White, proprietor of the Philadelphia-area dealer The Voice That Is, describe the challenge of setting up a system for a show such as Capital Audiofest. (When I asked, Do you use a spectrum analyzer?, White said Yes, and smiled and pointed to his brow.) The results of his expertise—no other word for it—were in full flower in a system that, though far from humble, featured the least expensive loudspeakers I've heard in a TVTI system: Tidal's Vimberg-series Mino ($29,000/pair).…
Japanese audiophiles venerate American high-end audio components, paying huge sums for vintage Marantz tube amplifiers, racks of Levinson ML-2s, and early Audio Research tube preamplifiers. The balance of trade, at the high end anyway, hasn't been reciprocated: Japanese high-end amplifiers and preamplifiers have not received as positive a reception in the US. Perhaps it was a matter of styling, but the sonics of the Sony Esprit line and the class-A Stax amplifiers did not receive the following they might have, had the products been American.
In the past five years, a number of Japanese…
By far the most complicated of the three preamps i review in this issue in terms of facilities offered, NAD's "Monitor Series" 1300 ($398) provides two buffered tape loops, an external processor loop (which can also be used as a third tape-recorder loop), a headphone output, a "null" switch, switchable bass equalization to extend the low-frequency range of small loudspeakers, and treble and bass controls, each with a choice of three turnover frequencies: 3kHz, 6kHz, 12kHz, and 50Hz, 125Hz, 250Hz, respectively. An 18dB/octave infrasonic filter, cutting the response below 20Hz (–3dB at 14Hz)…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: Solid-state class-A stereo amplifier. Rated power: 105W per channel, continuous (8 ohms); 210W per channel, continuous (4 ohms); 400W continuous, bridged (8 ohms). IHF Dynamic Power: Not given. THD+Noise: 0.008%, IM Distortion: 0.025%. Frequency response at 1W output: 10Hz–100kHz, +0, –1.5dB. Slew Rate: 20V/µs. Polarity: Non-inverting. Input impedance: Direct-in, 300k ohms; via attenuator, 45k ohms. Voltage gain: 32dB. S/N ratio: 120dB. Meters: dual analog, with peak-reading circuitry and peak hold functions. Switchable for stereo or bridged (BTL)…
When it came to the midrange, the NAD had a slightly "reedy" signature, most noticeable on massed strings, while high frequencies were very slightly exaggerated. The snare and hi-hat sounds on the drumkit track on the HFN/RR Test CD were just a little bit "whiter," or crisper. This wasn't nearly so extreme as to introduce any high-frequency "grain," but while the resolution of recorded depth in general was excellent, this aspect of the NAD's tonality did render the soundstage rather more shallow in the treble. While the fine detail of recorded ambience was easily to be heard via the NAD,…
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. 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 provided either by…
