The Model 6 is a rather large four-way system employing an 18" woofer with a ½"-thick cone of light, rigid foam plastic (See "Farewell to the Paper Cone," in Vol.1 No.1 of The Stereophile), an 8" paper-cone driver for the lower-middle range, and compression-type horn units for the upper ranges. Crossovers are at 250, 800 and 3500Hz (footnote 1). A five-position rotary switch provides treble adjustments in steps of about…
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These are two of Electro-Voice's "middle-ground" speaker systems, filling the quality (and price) range between the huge Patrician 800 and the diminutive Coronet system.
Sidebar: Specifications
Model 6: Four-way system with 18" woofer, 8" cone-type midrange unit, and horn-loaded compression tweeter and supertweeter. Frequency range: 30Hz–20kHz. Nominal impedance: 8 ohms. Power capacity: 35W program, 70W peak.
Dimensions: 30" H × 32" W × 17½" D.
Price: $300 (1964); no longer available (2020).
Model 2: Two-way system with 12" woofer and horn-loaded compression tweeter. Frequency range: 30Hz–15kHz. Nominal impedance: 8 ohms. Power capacity: 30W program, 60W peak.
Dimensions: 14" H × 25 W × 13½" D.
Price: $120 (1964); no longer…
Judging by VPI's new HW-40 direct-drive turntable (footnote 1), middle age well suits the company that Harry and Sheila Weisfeld started 40 years ago in their Howard Beach, Long Island, basement.
Harry Weisfeld began his career as an audio manufacturer with the HW-9, an isolation base for Denon's DP-80 direct-drive turntable. (You could say the introduction of a VPI direct-drive 'table completes a circle.) Next came the DB-5 "Magic Brick," a wood-encased block of laminated ferrous metal said to act as a "sink" for stray electromagnetic radiation. Audiophiles around the world bought these…
One other major and unique change: Instead of the exposed tonearm wire with LIMO connector termination used exclusively for decades on VPI arms, whether unipivot or gimbaled, the wire on this Fatboy exits more traditionally at the base of the arm, routes into the plinth, and terminates with RCA jacks. The arm retains the previously used smooth-dialing–counterweight VTF-adjustment system. And yes, there's an antiskating mechanism that you are free to use (as I do) or ignore (as HW does).
One more thing: This arm is the first in my experience with VPI where the armrest lock actually locks…
Originally published May 1, 1966
One of the best pickups we've heard to date, the Grado A was introduced with some fanfare in the fall of 1964 (footnote 1) and then, for no apparent reason, was withdrawn just one year later. It is probably still available, though, either used or, discounted, as new stock at some dealers.
This is (was?) the cleanest-tracking pickup we have tested to date, by a small but perceptible margin, and unlike most ellipticals, its high end is extremely smooth, with no audible rise at all. A slight, broad response dip centered around 5kHz gives it a somewhat…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: Low-output, moving-coil phono cartridge. No specifications available.
Price: $50 (1964); no longer available (2020).
Manufacturer: Grado Labs, 4614 7th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11220. Tel: (718) 435-5340. Web: gradolabs.com.
The last time we checked in, The MBL X-Treme Roadshow was in Sarasota, Florida. It has now moved on to 3mA Audio in Houston, Texas. On active display is the MBL 101 X-Treme Loudspeaker system with a full complement of Reference Line electronics: Four 9011 mono amplifiers, the 6010 D preamp, 1611 F DAC (Roon Ready), and the 1621 A CD Transport. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, for now, the MBL folks will not be in attendance. Contact Luis Miranda at 3mA Audio (832) 530-4716 or Jeremy Bryan at MBL North America (561) 725-9300 for further information.
JA gets ready for a close encounter of the Zoom kind.
"Pints With Ayre," the series of videos produced by Colorado manufacturer Ayre Acoustics, has been regular viewing chez Atkinson during these pandemic times. Covering subjects like volume control design, amplifier gain stages, audio transformers, and listening tests, the conversations between Ayre’s sales and marketing director Brent Hefley, chief engineer Ariel Brown, and CEO Ryan Berry, and special guests like Jim White of Aesthetix and Twittering Machines’ Michael Lavorgna, present sometimes esoteric technical subjects in an easy-to…
JA returned to the MBL N31 in December 2020 (Vol.43 No.12):
In Stereophile's February 2018 issue, I reviewed the MBL Noble Line N31, a baroque-styled CD player and D/A processor from German manufacturer MBL. The N31 is expensive, at $15,400, but, as I said in my review's conclusion, digital audio engineering doesn't get any better and neither does digital sound quality. However, I also wrote that the N31's absence of a volume control might be a problem for those who've sold their preamplifiers, as will be the lack of a network port for those who've banished their noisy NAS drives from the…
Herb Reichert reviewed the GoldenEar BRX in December 2020 (Vol.43 No.12):
When I first started writing for Stereophile, John Atkinson brought me a speaker to review. The shipping box was really beat, and it had some other reviewer's name on the UPS label. After a few days of trying to get it to sound good, I speculated that John and at least one other reviewer already knew this speaker did not sound good. Flummoxed, I wrote JA a simple email (he likes simple emails), "Is this a test?" He replied, "Everything is a test."
On Tuesday, at 10am, John's well-traveled, faded-tan Land…