Bowie: Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
Parlophone DBZS50 (LP). 2020/1972. David Bowie and Ken Scott, prods.; Ken Scott, John Webber, engs.
Performance *****
Sonics *****
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was one of the first albums I ever purchased. A week before, an uncle had given me his old red Dansette record player; I used collected pocket money to christen it. After just one play, the 10-year-old me was blown away. But it wasn't just elementary school kids who loved this album, causing it to break into the top 30 US and UK album charts. This was the…
It seems as if I have been waiting for these all my life. Not in any existential sense, but in a literal, practical way: The arrival of the Blade Two Meta is the culmination of a lifelong fascination with KEF. As a teenager, I was introduced to founder Raymond Cooke and his innovative "race-track" woofer, Mylar tweeter dome, and Bextrene cones in Bud Fried's IMF Newsletter. Shortly thereafter, I commenced decades of building loudspeakers, mostly with KEF drivers, and, beginning with the 104 in 1973, pining for their Reference speakers. They always seemed to strike the right balance of…
Sure, these are foxtrots, most of them suitable for dancing, but they are sophisticated and fascinating. Each disc covers a different geographical area: Austria and the Czech lands; Germany; Central and Eastern Europe; France and Belgium. The composers and arrangers include many great names from the first half of the 20th century—Krenek, Martinu, Hindemith, Gieseking, Weill, Shostakovich, Saint-Saëns, Satie, Milhaud, Ravel, Ibert—and many of the pieces are adaptations of music from opera, concert, stage, and film. I loved them so much that I made them the playlist for a recent birthday party…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way "Single Apparent Source" loudspeaker in a bass-reflex enclosure. Drive units: one 5" Uni-Q (coaxial) driver with 1" aluminum dome with MAT HF, two 6.5" aluminum-cone bass drivers in force-canceling configuration. Crossover frequencies: 450Hz, 2.2kHz. Frequency response: 30Hz–45kHz (–6dB) free field, 33Hz– 35kHz (±3dB). Typical in-room bass response: 25Hz (–6dB). Impedance: 4 ohms (3.2 ohms minimum). Sensitivity: 86dB/2.83V/m. Recommended amplifier power: 50–400W RMS. Maximum output: 116dB (peak SPL @ 1m with pink noise). Harmonic…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: Oppo Digital UDP-105 universal disc player, Custom Intel/Win11 music server running JRiver Media Center v29 and Roon, exaSound s88 Mark II, and Okto DAC8 PRO D/A processors. QNAP TVS-873 NAS.
Preamplifiers: 3 Topping Pre90 preamps for buffer/line drivers.
Power amplifiers: Benchmark AHB2, NAD C 298.
Loudspeakers: Revel Ultima2 Studio with IsoAcoustics Gaia I isolation feet. SVS SB-3000 subwoofer.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Coffee (USB). Analog interconnects: Benchmark Studio&Stage XLR-XLR, Kubala-Sosna Anticipation (…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system, a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone, and an Earthworks microphone preamplifier to measure the KEF Blade Two Meta's frequency response in the farfield. I used an Earthworks QTC-40 mike for the nearfield measurements. Because I perform the quasi-anechoic response measurements in-room, I usually place a loudspeaker's tweeter midway between the floor and ceiling, which equalizes the timing of the reflections from those boundaries. But because of the speaker's bulk, I wasn't able to lift it as high as I prefer. The presence of an early…
The AXIOM tonearm from acoustical systems (footnote 1)—the company prefers lowercase—has been on my To-Review list since I spotted it at Munich High End more than a few years ago, but for one reason or another, that never happened. Until now.
The understated, "lab-grade" AXIOM holds its own visually even when paired with designer D.D. Brakemeier's enormous and equally lab-looking APOLYT turntable. You can take the turntable tour on AnalogPlanet or on Brakemeier's website. That turntable's scale makes even the TechDAS Air Force Zero appear diminutive.
Brakemeier, who describes…
The AXIOM's signal interface is a straight DIN jack within a sturdy metal tube set parallel to the platter. There's no need to dress wires through a mounting hole. I used a Stealth Helios miniDin to RCA cable (footnote 3) after first trying an older, budget cable I had on hand. You can read about Helios cable on the Stealth Cables website; a full description of the technology would take up too much of this column.
Even hard-core "cable deniers" must admit that an ultralow voltage connected to a transformer or phono preamplifier requires careful handling. And yes, along with Helios…
Although Danish company Audiovector was founded in 1979, I had very little experience of its loudspeakers, other than at audio shows (footnote 1), until I measured the Audiovector R 8 Arreté that Jim Austin reviewed in May 2021. Jim nominated the R 8 as his "Editor's Choice" for 2021, writing that "The gorgeous-looking Audiovector took me by surprise, doing things with imaging that I've never heard another loudspeaker do (like hearing a bass note directly behind another bass note)." Jim concluded that the R 8 "is a complicated speaker that sounds simple, sweet, and coherent."
At $75,000…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way, reflex-loaded, floorstanding loudspeaker. Drive units: two 8" (203mm) "Pure Piston" aluminum-sandwich woofers; one 6" (152mm) "Pure Piston" aluminum-sandwich midrange; 1.3" (33mm) × 2.4" (61mm) Air Motion Transformer (AMT) tweeter. Crossover frequencies: 425Hz, 3kHz. Frequency range: 28Hz–52kHz. Nominal impedance: 6 ohms. Sensitivity: 90.5dB/W/m. Power handling: 300W. Supplied accessories: carpet-piercing spikes.
Dimensions: 44.9" (1140mm) H × 9.85" (250mm) W × 15.75" (400mm) D. Weight: 79.65lb (36.2kg) each.
Finish: Dark Walnut,…
