A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album
by Ashley Kahn; Foreword by Elvin Jones. New York, Viking Books, 2002; hardcover, 260 pages, 9" by 8". $27.95.
Writing an entire book about just one record—especially one that clocks in at just 32:47—might seem a questionable proposition at best. However, A Love Supreme, saxophonist John Coltrane's 1965 concept album with his "classic" quartet (McCoy Tyner, piano; Jimmy Garrison, bass; Elvin Jones, drums), is one of the handful of recordings important enough to merit such extensive attention.
This is the definitive…
Tetra Speakers may not be a familiar name to many US audiophiles. Based in Ottawa, Ontario, the company has been around for a decade, but has taken a slow and steady approach to building its visibility in the insanely competitive and trend-conscious world of high-end loudspeakers.
Tetra was the brainchild of cabinetmaker Wayne Prince and musician and speaker designer Adrian Butts. While Butts had determined that the standard rectangular loudspeaker cabinet was absolutely the wrong shape for minimizing internal standing waves, he had not yet been able to figure out how to solve the…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-way, reflex-loaded, floorstanding loudspeaker. Drive-units: ScanSpeak 1" fabric-dome tweeter, Morel 8" NeoLin damped polymer-composite–cone woofer. Crossover frequency: 3kHz. Frequency range: 29Hz–20kHz. Sensitivity: 91dB/2.83V/m. Impedance: 8 ohms nominal, 7 ohms minimum. Power handling: 500Wpc.
Dimensions: 43" (1090mm) H by 19" (480mm) W by 19.5" (490mm) D. Weight: 95 lbs (43.2kg).
Finishes: satin, high-gloss black; Custom solid-cherry front and rear baffles, add $3000/pair.
Serial numbers of units reviewed: 0155, 0156.
Price: $…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Source: SOTA Cosmos Series III turntable, Graham 2.2 tonearm, Dynavector XV-1S cartridge.
Digital Sources: Classé Omega SACD/CD player, Plinius CD-101 CD player.
Preamplification: Manley Labs Steelhead phono stage, VTL TL-7.5 Reference preamplifier.
Power Amplifiers: Lamm Industries M1.2 Reference & M2.1, Chord SP14000 monoblocks, Plinius SA-Reference.
Cables: Phono: Hovland Music Groove 2. Interconnect: Cardas Golden Reference, Harmonic Technology CyberLight. Speaker: Cardas Golden Reference biwire, Harmonic Technology Magic…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I performed a complete set of measurements on sample 00155 of the Tetra 505LTD, then repeated some of the measurements on the other sample, serial number 00156, to make sure that the measurements were representative.
The 505LTD is of average voltage sensitivity, at an estimated 86.9dB(B)/2.83V/m—significantly lower than the specified 91dB. However, its impedance plot (fig.1) reveals the Tetra to be a kind load for an amplifier to drive, the magnitude dropping below 8 ohms only in the lower midrange, with a minimum value of 7.1 ohms at 150Hz. The…
From the vantage point of a devout music lover, two-channel audio is more satisfying and more inclusive than ever these days. In terms of resolution, clarity, linearity, transparency, soundstaging, frequency extension, and sheer performance value, aspiring audiophiles have never had it so good.
Still, in the context of all the new emerging technologies, old-fashioned stereo is sometimes a lonely place to be. For all the enthusiasm with which many of us anticipated the rollout of advanced new hi-rez digital technologies, the initial push seems aimed primarily at the home-theater…
The SD-9200's basic layout is simple and elegant. In a configuration reminiscent of the old Luxman Servo-Face components, the SD-9200's faceplate slides down to reveal the front-mounted disc tray, which recedes into the unit when the faceplate slides back up the front panel. The display indicates Title/Group, Chapter/Track, Play mode, HDCD, disc format, operating status and messages, memory-random-repeat playback, angle indicator, and time. To the far left is a power button, to the right of the faceplate the Open/Close, Skip, Pause, Stop, and Play buttons; just above Open/Close are the Video…
After switching to track 11 of Pierre Boulez's resounding 1993 recording of Stravinsky's Firebird (Chicago Symphony, DG 437 850-2) to take in the varied percussion transients (such as the massive bass-drum stroke at 1:58), I thought the SD-9200 did an admirable job of tracking the reverb tail of the bass drum as it receded into blackness, and of capturing the dynamic range and swelling intensity of the orchestra. However, compared to the CL-20, the depth of the orchestral soundstage seemed slightly flattened, and the CAL's portrayal of ambient information seemed to convey more of the spatial…
I then tried a DVD-A of the Doors' L.A. Woman (Elektra 62612-9), one of the few titles currently available at the time of writing (February 2001). As you work through the disc's setup menu, you get a quirky little computer percussion ditty not unlike what you might get when loading a computer software program. Why is this necessary? Then there's a picture of the album cover, and after that a menu of choices: Surround Playlist, Stereo Playlist, Video, Bio, Credits. Don't, as I did, fail to peruse this, or the disc automatically goes into its default Play mode, which is surround; I was not…
Sidebar 1: Specifications Description: Multichannel-output DVD-Audio/Video player. Formats read: CD, CD-R, CD-RW, Video CD, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio. Outputs: video, S-video, component video, bitstream/PCM optical/coaxial, two-channel analog, 5.1-channel surround analog. Frequency Range/DVD Linear Sound: 48kHz sampling, 4Hz-22kHz; 96kHz sampling, 4Hz-44kHz; 192kHz sampling, 4Hz-88kHz. Harmonic distortion: <0.0006%. Dynamic range: >120dB. Signal/noise ratio: >120dB.
Dimensions: 16.75" (430mm) W by 4.6" (118mm) H by 12.25" (315mm) D. Weight: 24 lbs (11kg).
Serial number of unit…
