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Larry Archibald once told me that I managed to find myself on the horns of every hi-dilemma there is: CD or LP?

I flip over the convenience of CD and the fact I don't have to flip over the disc. But I find, still, that LPs, at their best, sound superior. The problem, of course, is that most LPs and CDs, for that matter, do not represent the particular medium at its best. Better a well-recorded CD than a mediocre LP.

Every time I make an improvement in my CD playback system—the Musical Fidelity Digilog,…

Older analog fans fondly recall the introduction of Shure's M3D back in 1959—that black blob of a device was the first stereo moving-magnet cartridge. A few years later it was followed by another black blob, the M7/N21D, which tracked at a lower downforce. Put either in a Garrard Type A turntable and you were cruising down the vinyl highway in "state-of-the-art" transportation. Anti-skating? Azimuth? VTA? Are you kidding? You couldn't even adjust overhang on that setup. But you could stack records!

In 1964…

Description: Moving-magnet cartridge with (V15VxMR) Microwall/Be hollow, beryllium cantilever and Micro-Ridge MASAR polished stylus tip (0.015" by 0.003"), Dynamic Stabilizer/Destaticizer, Side Guard Stylus Protection System. Source resistance (typical): 1000 ohms. Source inductance (typical): 425mH at 1kHz. Recommended stylus downforce: 1.0gm (1.5gm with Stabilizer). Channel separation: 25dB or better at 1kHz; 18dB or better at 10kHz. Frequency range: 10Hz–25kHz. Output: 3mV RMS (5cm/s peak velocity, 1kHz). Recommended load: 47k ohms in parallel with 250pF.
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A well-worn, if unproven, audiophile rule of thumb says that a small, quick amplifier will sound better than a very powerful one (footnote 1). Among low-powered amps, those that operate in "pure" class-A are thought to be sonically superior. Pure class-A means the amplifier must run a constant high bias (more than one ampere), so the output devices never turn off (footnote 2). This high bias current means the amplifier…

The amplifier is bridgeable into mono, for…

David Reich loaned two DR-3s to the New York-based Audiophile Society for demonstration when he came to visit us, and these were briefly available for review. My reference Snell Type A/III loudspeakers were configured in a biamplified mode, so each stereo DR-3 was set up to drive one speaker. I found that my recently updated Levinson ML-7 and older ML-6A preamps developed a very low-level buzz when connected to DR-3s (footnote 1), so I used Luxman C-03 and Tandberg 3008A preamplifiers for most of my critical listening.

Shure V-15MR and Accuphase AC-2 cartridges…

Description: Solid-state, class-A stereo amplifier. Rated Power: 25Wpc into 8 ohms. Power bandwidth, 1W output: 0.3Hz–80kHz, +0, –3dB. Dynamic Headroom: 7dB. Polarity: non-inverting.
Dimensions: 17" W by 10.5" H by 14" D. Weight: 70lb.
Price: $2895 (1985); no longer available (2020). Optional silicon-steel Magnetic Flux Enhancer MFE-1, $279 (heavier), or MFE-0.5, $219 (lighter) (1985).
Manufacturer: Classé Audio, Pointe Claire, Quebec, Canada H9R 4X5 (1985). Classé Audio LLC, a division of Sound United, 380, rue McArthur Saint-Laurent, Quebec H4T 1X8…

Unfortunately, this enthusiasm is tempered by the realization that being a brilliant designer and a shrewd businessman are often mutually exclusive talents. As a result, these components are…

The Sound
The first time I heard the Screens, I was immediately taken with their open, uncolored, and punchy sound. They exhibited an unboxy transparency that made them seem to disappear into the soundstage. This quality gave them a "big" sound that transcended the boundaries of the speakers. In addition to this wide lateral soundstage, front-to-rear definition was superb, the orchestra taking on a three-dimensional representation.…

Description: Three-way loudspeaker system. Drive units: 1" soft-dome tweeter, 5" cone midrange, 9" plastic-cone woofer. Crossover frequencies: 150Hz, 3kHz. Frequency response: 27–150Hz ±3dB, 150Hz–16kHz ±1.5dB, 16kHz–21.5kHz ±2dB. Sensitivity: 87dB/W/m. Nominal impedance: 8 ohms. Amplifier requirements: 50–300W.
Dimensions: 48" H by 24" W by 9" D. Weight: 95lb each.
Price: $1500/pair, also available for $750/pair directly from the manufacturer (1989); no longer available (2020). Approximate number of dealers: 2 (1989).
Manufacturer: Vortex Acoustical…