Krystall is a veteran of hundreds of recording sessions, in all music genres and media types. You have heard his playing even if you don't know it; in this respect, he's typical of other world-class musicians you may not have heard of:…
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Marty Krystall is a musician's musician, highly regarded and known to his peers in the LA music world as a triple-threat wind player equally adept at jazz, classical, and in the studio. He is also an audiophile, a recording engineer, and a record company owner, having created the K2B2 label with bassist and colleague Buell Neidlinger in 1979.
Matson: With your own record label, K2B2, you've got your hands in the clay of music recording.
Krystall: We started out in 1979, and we would book four hours of studio time and record a whole album. If you could edit, you could make a record—razor blade, cut the tape. The greatest records ever made were done by people with watches. The session is called, people show up at the same time, they record it, and they leave. Everything that's done is done to the clock. When you have three hours to do it, all of a sudden you become really focused. Money is at stake, and everyone's career, so…
Sidebar 1: Marty's Kit
Krystall's home is also a studio, with a Steinway L piano and a 1964 Ludwig drum kit in the living room. The adjacent music library serves as his mastering room, recording booth, and office. There, Krystall has a pair of Klipsch RP-600M loudspeakers driven by a Schiit Vidar amplifier, his most recent hi-fi purchase. In the living room are a pair of BC Acoustique floorstanders, driven by a Counterpoint SA 220 hybrid amplifier. Preamplification is Conrad-Johnson's PV-11. For a small-speaker viewpoint during mastering, Marty uses a pair of small, self-powered PSB…
Sidebar 2: Tashi
The ensemble Tashi—later known as the Tashi Quartet—consisted of violinist Ida Kavafian, pianist Peter Serkin, cellist Fred Sherry, and clarinetist Richard Stoltzman. Krystall joined the group on tour, on tenor sax, performing Anton Webern's Op.22 Quartet for Violin, Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone, and Piano and playing contemporary compositions, including Krystall's "Igor's Blues"; those with a subscription can find a review of a performance on the New York Times website.
The group recorded the Webern on Tashi Plays Webern and Takemitsu (RCA Red Seal ARL1-…
Sidebar 3: K2B2 Records - A Baker's Half-Dozen
Big Drum, Buell Neidlinger Quartet (K2B2 3069, 1992)
Recorded live in 1990, with Vinnie Colaiuta, drums, and Hugh Schick, trumpet. Neidlinger addressed the liner notes to the departed Herbie Nichols. Compositions by Neidlinger, Krystall, and Thelonious Monk.
Blue Chopsticks, Buell Neidlinger Quintet (K2B2 3169, 1995)
A smoking, all–Herbie Nichols program. Neidlinger is on cello, his first instrument as a child prodigy. The music swings light and hard at the same time. Excellent sound.
Across the Tracks, Buellgrass (…
Few designers are drawn to create horn loudspeakers. Most people's experience of horns is based on the resonating, overdriven, often overloaded PA installations heard at rock concerts and similar events. These commonly heard unmusical noises and colorations are ever-present in designers' minds. But good-sounding horns do exist; over the years, some noteworthy commercial examples have appeared, though few have been full-range.
True full-range horns include the classic Voigt (1936) and Klipsch (1945 onward) designs, the former most famous for a corner horn that ingeniously exploited the…
Avantgarde says that current-production woofer enclosures have factory-fitted inserts for floor spikes. In addition, longer auto-switching "on" times are defined for the woofer electronics, plus a continually on switch. Future iterations of the Duo will also have an additional control providing an adjustment of +6, 0, –6dB centered on 25Hz. This will help the speaker cope with home-theater power requirements.
Sound
No one should have to make allowances for a horn design. Rather, it should be judged on its overall merit; then its balance of favorable qualities, assuming them to be…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way loudspeaker with midrange and treble horns and active, reflex-loaded woofer. Drive-units: compression-loaded 1" concave-dome tweeter, compression-loaded 5.5" Kevlar-cone midrange driver, two 7" cone woofers. Crossover frequencies: 170Hz, 2kHz. Frequency range: 170Hz–20kHz (midrange/treble), 22–200Hz (woofer). Sensitivity: 101dB/2.83V/m (midrange/treble); 95dB/2.83V/1m (woofer). Nominal impedance: 8 ohms (midrange/treble). Woofer amplifier power: 100W into 4 ohms.
Dimensions: 5.6' (1.7m) H by 2.22' (670mm) W by 2.23' (680mm) D. Internal…
Sidebar 2: System
For this review analog was sourced from a Linn LP12/Lingo turntable with Naim ARO tonearm and Koetsu Rosewood II, Linn Arkiv, and van den Hul Grasshopper GLA 1V phono cartridges. Disc equalization was by a Conrad-Johnson Premier Fifteen feeding C-J's ART control unit. Digital source was mainly a Krell KPS-20i. Cables included Siltech and Transparent.
While I had no flea-sized power amplifiers on hand, on the single-ended triode side I used a Cary CAD572 and a Bel Canto SET 40. The push-pull Conrad-Johnson CAV50 integrated amplifier also made an appearance. These…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
The importance of the Avantgarde Acoustic Duo's sensitivity result puts this parameter at the top of the list of lab tests—I measured 103dB/2.83V/m, possibly the highest yet for a Stereophile review. Moreover, the impedance rating is a genuine 8 ohms, which doesn't compromise the sensitivity value.
The implications are substantial, and in no small way help define this design's engineering value. 103dB means that a loud program level of 96dBA is attainable at the listening position with input of just 0.5W. The Duo is wholly compatible with 3W-and-up SE…