What about that wiry digital sound from massed violins? Now that's definitely a problem with most CDs. I have had several months now to live with a Sony CDP-101, and have run through it an estimated 50 CDs ranging from standard DG/London/CBS commercial fare to audiophile-type discs from…
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We're not speaking here of the pseudo-ambience which can be created by analog tape hiss. We have personally experienced this artificial "ambience" (augmenting the real thing), and enough others have, as well, for us to accept it as a fact. This form of ambience is of course lacking in digital recording.
Using the Acoustat 2+2s (driven by the C-J Premier One), I have found this adjustment to mean a depression of the tweeter level by about 2dB at 10kHz. Having carried out this adjustment, it then begins to become possible to judge the quality of the CD high end, not merely its quantity. Under these circumstances CD shows its potential. Of course with this system balance, analog material sounds slightly dull and veiled (as well as still suffering all the other ills of analog), which is what the people who design this stuff have been trying to tell us all along: analog has been obscuring much of…
Gordon then offered some further thoughts on CD in Vol.6 No.6, February 1984
Stereophile's attendance at the 1984 winter CES was greeted by many questions with regard to our perceived unqualified support of both Compact Disc and digital recording. We had hoped it would be clear by now that our support for Compact Disc is not unqualified but it apparently is not clear.
For the record: Stereophile has tested two digital recorders, the Sony PCM-1 and PCM-F1, and found (as have many others) that both did an extraordinary job of copying analog originals and an excellent job at live…
I saw it coming back in 1996. That was when Rega introduced their full-bore assault on the state of the art of record replay, the Planar 9 turntable. The P9 was and is a superb product, but because it sells for $3900—more than five times the price of the company's bread-and-butter model, the venerable Rega Planar 3—its introduction created an enormous price gap. And that's not to mention all the numbers between 3 and 9 that have languished for so long: How could you not expect Rega to fill in the blanks with Planars 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8?
Two of those missing links have now been released to…
The point of all that: I feel more comfortable with the Baerwald alignment, so I own and use a Rega-specific sample of the great Wallytractor alignment device. (Rega cartridges can be installed in Rega tonearms using non-Rega alignment schemes, but not with all three mounting bolts.) As with so many other things, the choice is yours, and arguing about it—as opposed to simply relaxing and enjoying one's records—is best left to small, yapping dogs.
Listening
I began my own musical relaxation with the stock P5, and found it did a fine job of sorting out notes and beats and presenting…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-speed belt-drive turntables with AC synchronous motor, pivoted tonearm with one-piece, cast-aluminum armtube, and glass (Planar 5) or ceramic (Planar 7) record platter. Wow and flutter: unspecified. Speed accuracy: unspecified. Rumble: unspecified, but probably pretty low (Planar 5) and really low (Planar 7). RB700 tonearm: 222.8mm spindle-to-pivot distance, 240mm effective length, spring-actuated downforce, sliding-magnet antiskating system.
Dimensions: 17.5" W by 4.5" H by 15" D, including dustcover.
Finish: Black or silver alloy (…
Sidebar2: Associated Equipment
Analog sources: Rega Planar 3, Planar 9 turntables; Linn LP12 turntable, Naim Armageddon power supply, Naim Aro tonearm; Rega Exact, Linn Akiva, Supex 900 Super, Dynavector DV-10X5 cartridges; Audio Note AN-S2 step-up transformer.
Preamplifier: Fi.
Power amplifiers: EAR 890, Lamm ML2.1s.
Loudspeakers: Quad ESL-989.
Cables: Interconnect: Audio Note AN-Vx, Nordost Valhalla, homemades. Speaker: Audio Note AN-SPx, Nordost Valhalla, homemades.
Accessories: Mana stands (Linn turntable, preamp); Mana stand, Rega wall mount (Rega turntables); Base…
AD returned to the Regas in March 2005 (Vol.28 No.3):
In his February 2003 "Analog Corner" column (Vol.26 No.2), Michael Fremer had some interesting things to say about speed accuracy in contemporary turntables. In particular, he observed that a goodly number of them run at least 1% fast, and he wondered if that sprang from a deliberate effort on the part of some manufacturers to create a more appealing sound. "Things sound snappy and lively" when a record is played back on a fast-running turntable, he wrote, with stereo images seeming to shift forward. "I don't know if this represents a…
"Della, it's considerably past five o'clock. Please pour me a glass of wine. Pour one for yourself, while you're at it. Don't we have some 1954 Inglenook Cabernet in one of those credenzas out there?"
Answer honestly: During your impressionable youth, didn't you wonder how Perry Mason and Della Street disported themselves after office hours? (Hint: Microsoft Word's thesaurus suggests, as synonyms for disport, "play, fool, dally, caress, toy, fondle, tease, sport, and trifle." (footnote 1)
Wilson Benesch's Discovery loudspeakers strike me as a product Perry would have enjoyed…
Case C is the Wunnerful Wunnerful Power Cord Company. Wunnerful consists of a P.O. box, some electrons on the Internet, and some braided sheath and heat-shrink tubing custom-imprinted with Wunnerful's logo. Total investment: less than $500. Wunnerful's marketing program was to hand out a dozen power cords to e-zine reviewers, winking and nudging that Wunnerful didn't need them back any time soon. Said reviewers dutifully created an Internet buzz, and (best Claude Rains voice) I am shocked, shocked to find that one or two reviewers sold the review samples at half off retail price, then kept…