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I am biased in favor of Paradigm loudspeakers. I've used them for 10 years; they offer good sound and good value, properties they share with a number of other Canadian makes who have taken advantage of Canada's National Research Council facilities in Ottawa. In fact, the first components I bought specifically for what is now my multichannel system were Paradigm Esprit/BP speakers, which had impressed me at a Stereophile show. When I took the step into multichannel and found that there wasn't a matching center-channel speaker for the Esprits, I replaced them with Paradigm's Reference Studio/…
Where the Paradigms did not fail was in their ability to throw as big a soundstage as the Revels, and in the inaudibility of their crossover transitions. Taken by themselves, the Paradigms did an impressive and musically satisfying job. If I couldn't afford better and more costly speakers, I could live happily ever after with the 60 v.3s as the speakers in my two-channel listening system.
I then trucked the Paradigms up to Connecticut, to audition them in a different acoustic and to hear how they worked as part of a multichannel setup. Much as I like to describe a component's inherent…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: 2½-way reflex-loaded, floorstanding loudspeaker with front and rear ports. Drive-units: 1" aluminum-dome tweeter, 7" mica-polymer-cone midrange/bass unit, 7" polypropylene-cone woofer. Crossover frequencies: 500Hz (7" polypropylene cone only), 2kHz. Crossover slopes: 12dB/octave electro-acoustic network. Frequency responses: 46Hz-22kHz, ±2dB (on axis); 46Hz-20kHz, ±2dB (30 degrees off axis). Low-frequency extension (DIN 45 500): 30Hz. Noninal impedance: 8 ohms. Sensitivity: 91dB/W/m (room), 88dB/W/m (anechoic). Recommended amplification: 15-200W.…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Two-Channel System
Digital sources: Sony XA-777ES SACD/CD player, McCormack UDP-1 universal player, Theta Gen.VIII DAC.
Preamplifier: Sonic Frontiers Line-3.
Power amplifiers: Sonic Frontiers Power-3, Classé Omicron monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Revel Ultima Studio.
Cables: Digital: Stereovox HDVX. Interconnect (all balanced): AudioQuest Anaconda & Python, JPS Super-Conductor 2. Speaker: AudioQuest Granite. AC: JPS Aluminata.
Multichannel System
Digital sources: Sony SCD-XA9000ES SACD player, Denon DV-5900 universal player.
…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
The Reference Studio/60 v.3 is of above-average voltage sensitivity, at an estimated 89dB/2.83V/m. Its impedance doesn't drop below 4 ohms, and remains above 6 ohms for much of the audioband (fig.1), implying that it will work well with modestly specified amplifiers and receivers.
Fig.1 Paradigm Reference Studio/60 v.3, electrical impedance (solid) and phase (dashed). (2 ohms/vertical div.)
The traces in fig.1 are free from the midrange wrinkles and small discontinuities that would hint at the presence of panel resonances. Investigating…
If you search for "DVD-A" on this website, you can get the whole confusing story of the format, which has been the subject of one of the strangest format launches of recent years: First it's on, then it's off. The watermark is audible. No, it's not. Oops, it is—back to square one. There's software, there's no software. (There's not—only one demo disc officially available in September 2000, when I wrote this review!)
I fixed K-10 with my best whodunnit look. "So, ma chérie . . . who's on first?" She gave me one of her looks.
I should have said "Who's first?"—with machines on…
'Round back is a full array of connectors, including two pairs of audio outs on RCA plugs, six RCAs for 5.1-channel analog surround, and two digital outputs on TosLink and RCA (S/PDIF), for an external Dolby Digital/DTS decoder or external DAC. (Yes, that means the DVD-A10 can be used as a CD transport.) Next to that are a full set of video outputs. Rather than the ubiquitous IEC mains-in connector, the A10 uses one of those small-appliance AC input and cord.
The DVD-A10 is built fairly well for a mass-market item, weighing in at a hefty 19 lbs, with a multilayer honeycomb resonance-…
Re-Mastering is Technics' effort to maximize CD sound quality by upsampling. According to a graphic supplied by Technics, anything sampled at or above 88.2kHz, at whatever word length coming off a DVD, goes straight to the MASH DAC. However, 16-bit/48kHz material from DVD sources is routed through Re-Mastering DSP (digital signal processing) and upsampled to 24 bits and 96kHz. Data at 16/44.1, from DVDs or "Red Book" CDs, are Re-Mastered (upsampled) to 24/88.2. Bottom line: signals of 48kHz and below are always Re-Mastered. (You can turn Re-Mastering off, but you need a video monitor to do…
CD Sound
After more than a week in repeat mode, the DVD-A10 was nice 'n' toasty 'n' ready to go. (When idle, the unit powers down to Standby to save energy.) I started listening to a lot of familiar "Red Book" CDs on the Linn and the Accuphase, then flipped the discs into the DVD-A10.
After more than a week in repeat mode, the DVD-A10 was nice 'n' toasty 'n' ready to go. (When idle, the unit powers down to Standby to save energy.) I started listening to a lot of familiar "Red Book" CDs on the Linn and the Accuphase, then flipped the discs into the DVD-A10.
On most 16/44.1 recordings, in the default Re-Master mode (upsampling to 24/88.2k), the DVD-A10 sounded like a pleasant, smooth, inoffensive $1k CD player. Re-Mastering produced a pleasant aura around the music, especially in the midrange, that could be quite attractive. It smoothed off the rough edges…
Track 1 of the "official" sampler is the Jazz at the Movies Band (uh-oh) doing (to death) "Farewell My Lovely." A 24/96 six-channel mixdown, my notes read, "and don't let the door hit'cha on the way out!" The music was hackneyed, but I perked up at the burnish in the horn section: very soaring and attractive.
Track 2 featured Natalie Merchant, an artist I respect more than love. She was quite nicely rendered, though with some bloat in the upper-midrange/lower-treble that made her sound positively epiglottal! Swollen glands, I reckoned. Still, there was a welcome smoothness in her voice,…