Cable standards
Editor: Thank you for publishing a scientific study of cable performance using in-circuit measurements ("What a Difference a Wire Makes," December '95, p.95). Author Ben Duncan suggests that low inductance correlates with good measured results. The obvious deficiency is that he did not provide inductance (L), capacitance (C), and resistance (R) measurements for the eight cables he studied in the article. Would it be possible to ask him to supply such…
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Letters responding to this article were published in February, June & August 1996 (Vol.19 Nos.2, 6 & 8):
Postscript—June 2020
Made or Makes—Difference or Diff'rence . . . this article's namesake is an 86 year-old jazz standard, first encountered by many as a smouldering, LA-produced disco tour de force set alongside the maudlin dross that infested the English singles charts in the fall of 1975.
It starts with a first verse of breathy sighs: Huurh! Haarh! Not in any lyric sheet. Then "What a difference / a day makes, Twenty four / little hours." (Forward slashes are any writer's limited attempt to show phrasing—as in The Oxford Comma.) Even sheet music only shows so much.…
Photo: Sasha Matson
I met Art Dudley twice, and in both instances, he was exceedingly humble and gracious with his time. The first time, I thanked him for hosting the Virtues of Vintage panel at DC's Capital Audiofest, just moments after he was verbally accosted by an unwell man seated in front of me—something about audio-journalism lingo and abstract phrases like "midrange bloom."
Art wrote about this experience for Stereophile several times, in a show report and also, anecdotally, in Listening. Recently, actually.
After the panel, I waited for the adoring throng to…
Photo: Sasha Matson
In April 14, 1895, Mahler's Symphony No.2, "Resurrection," premiered in Berlin (footnote 1). Mahler wrote a program for this symphony prior to a performance six years later, in Dresden. Here is what he wrote about the first movement, Allegro maestoso:
"We are standing near the grave of a well-loved man. His whole life, his struggles, his sufferings and his accomplishments on earth pass before us. And now, in this solemn and deeply stirring moment, when the confusion and distractions of everyday life are lifted like a hood from our eyes, a voice of awe-inspiring…
EOB (Ed O'Brien): Earth
Capitol (24/88.2 streaming). 2020. Flood and Catherine Marks, prods.; Alan Moulder, Stephen Marcussen, engs.
Performance ****
Sonics ****
Capitol (24/88.2 streaming). 2020. Flood and Catherine Marks, prods.; Alan Moulder, Stephen Marcussen, engs.
Performance ****
Sonics ****
Calling himself EOB, songwriter/singer/guitarist Ed O'Brien has released his first solo album after 35 years with Radiohead. Over the decades, bandmates have branched out for high-profile projects—Jonny Greenwood writes film scores and Thom Yorke has several solo recordings—but O'Brien has stayed mostly in the background. Earth pushes him to the forefront, revealing a knack for collaborative creativity.
From…
Achieving room-filling, high-quality sound in a hotel room is difficult enough. Getting it in a cavernous ballroom is even more problematic. Yet, over the past few years at AXPONA, RMAF, and most recently at the February 2020 FLAX (Florida Audio Expo), Von Schweikert Audio, in association with The Audio Company of Marietta, Georgia, has managed that—and, other than the approximately 100 bodies occupying every seat in the house, they've done it without any room treatment, or without any that I could see.
At various shows, the company delivered equally impressive sonic goods with either…
Usually with new speakers there's an adjustment period: It takes time to acclimate to the different timbral and spatial perspective. But jumping into the Ultra 55s' sonics was easy. I immediately liked what they did, especially timbrally, thanks partly to flawless, seamless driver integration: The drivers sang as one, producing an agreeable picture that was rich and supple in the middle, extended, sweet, and airy on top, and assertive and full-bodied on bottom but never obtrusive.
Powered-woofer integration can be problematic. You hear assertive bass, so you turn it down. Then it's anemic…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way, reflex-loaded, floorstanding loudspeaker with 525W powered-woofer option. Drive-units: 1" (25mm) beryllium-dome tweeter, 6" (168mm) ceramic–dome midrange, two 8" (220mm) ceramic/honeycomb sandwich woofers. Crossover frequencies: 200Hz, 2kHz. Frequency range: 20Hz–40kHz. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms. Minimum impedance: Not specified. Sensitivity: 89dB/W/m.
Dimensions: 42" (1066mm) H × 13" (330mm) W × 24" (609mm) D. Weight: 190lb (86kg) each.
Finish: "Any automotive polyester color."
Serial number of units reviewed: 004. Made in…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog sources: Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn with Castellon stand; SAT CF1-09 and Kuzma 4Point tonearms; Haniwa HCTR-CO, Lyra Atlas Lambda SL, Ortofon MC Century, Anna Diamond, A95, and A90, Grado Epoch3, Miyajima Labs Infinity (mono), Grado Epoch (mono), Ortofon MC A (mono).
Digital sources: dCS Vivaldi One SACD player/DAC, Lynx Hilo AD/DA converter, Roon Nucleus server; Pure Vinyl and Vinyl Studio software.
Preamplification: darTZeel NHB-18S, Ypsilon MC-10L, MC-16L step-up transformers; Haniwa HDV01 current-to-voltage converter; Ypsilon VPS-100…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
Because of the Von Schweikert Ultra 55's bulk and weight, I drove my measurement gear to Michael Fremer's place in deepest, darkest New Jersey to perform the measurements. I chose a day that was forecast to be sunny with minimal wind, because I was going to measure the speaker in his driveway, so that the only source of reflections would be the ground. (Even so, the proximity of the ground necessarily led to aggressive windowing of the time-domain data, which reduced the measurements' midrange resolution.)
I first measured the speaker's spatially…