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Wynn Audio of Toronto presented a lovely demo with a couple of new products: the Swiss-made EMT STX 5/10 step-up transformer ($9280), which employs a toroidal transformer with pure silver wiring to provide output options for 14dB or 20dB of gain with a lower noise floor for higher resolution, and the Métronome DSS Streamer (DSS stands for Digital Sharing Streamer), which was released in January but seen for the first time here in the U.S. The French manufacturer’s DS (Digital Sharing) lineup was launched three years ago with a streamer/server; market demand led to the development of the DSS,…
When I heard the Stenheim Alumine 3 at AXPONA last year, I frankly wasn't impressed. The tweeter seemed a little hot, the character a little buzzy. I learned just this morning that Jean-Pascal Panchard, Stenheim's CEO and designer, wasn't happy with them, either. He didn't think they were ready, but they had committed to presenting them at AXPONA, so he kept his commitment. They only produced three pair in that configuration. After that show, changes were made.
The version being demoed here at the Florida Audio Expo—by Panchard, one of many designers and company chiefs at this small show—…
Suncoast Audio presented Fyne Audio F702 speakers ($8995/pair) in their US debut. Handmade in Scotland, the two-and-a-half-way floorstander features a concentric point-source tweeter/midrange array with a titanium center that seemed almost hornlike in its appearance and delivery.
The Suncoast folks noted that the speakers were still breaking in when I came by on Friday but the sound was still quite pleasing-some articulate upright bass, for instance, which might have been benefiting from the "secret" downward-firing port on the bottom side of the cabinet.
The F702…
In celebration of their first 10 years in business, Volti Audio unveiled a newly redesigned version of their Rival SE (Special Edition) speaker ($19,900/pair), seen here in an eye-catchingly exotic bubinga wood veneer (a rosewood option is also available). Although its side-curved form appears quite substantial, the horn-loaded hybrid floorstander can be sonically suitable for larger or smaller spaces. With its horn drivers and a sensitivity spec of 100dB, the Rival SE also makes for an easy to load-perfect for the 300B-powered BorderPatrol P20 EXD amplifier. The three-way Volti also features…
On Thursday, February 13 from 5 to 9pm, Manhattan retailer Sound By Singer will present a musical evening centered around the Gryphon Audio Designs Ethos CD player/DAC. Alongside host Andrew Singer, Philip O'Hanlon of On A Higher Note—Gryphon's North American distributor—will demonstrate the Ethos with hand-curated selections; other components in the system will include the Gryphon Diablo 300 integrated amp and a Kronos pro-LE turntable fitted with a My Sonic Labs Eminent Ex cartridge, all played through Stenheim Alumine Five loudspeakers; the system will be wired with Analysis Plus cables.…
Room 516 from A La Carte Productions rooms at the Florida Audio Expo both featured speakers from Austria's Vienna Acoustics: the North American debut of the Beethoven Baby Grand Reference ($9498/pair). Said to have been three years in the making, the new model is the younger sibling to the larger and aptly named Beethoven Concert Grand Reference tower; the two models share similar drivers and technologies. A La Carte's second room featured the Spendor 9.2. [This paragraph has been edited. - JA2]
The three-way, reflex-loaded Beethoven Baby Grand Reference incorporates a patented flat…
Author's Note: Although I started accompanying Stereophile's loudspeaker reviews with measurements soon after I joined the magazine in 1986, it wasn't until 1989, when we acquired an Audio Precision System One electronics analyzer and the then-new MLSSA speaker measurement system from DRA Labs, that I developed the standardized data presentation that is still featured in our reviews more than three decades later. In this article from October 1991, I summarize the results from the first two years of using MLSSA to test 69 loudspeakers.—John Atkinson
It was the Saturday of Stereophile's…
I have arbitrarily grouped the speaker curves into five classes of flatness. Fig.3 shows those speakers whose weighted deviations are below 2dB; fig.4 features speakers with a weighted deviation ranging from 2dB to 2.5dB; fig.5 those ranging between 2.5dB and 3dB; fig.6 those from 3.0–3.7dB; while fig.7 brings up the back markers possessing a deviation above 3.7dB. The speakers are also listed in the Table, along with their price at the time they were reviewed, what issue their review appeared in Stereophile, and whether they appeared in "Recommended Components" and in what class.
I know…
The Meridian D600 is downgraded by the standard deviation criterion due to its downward-tilted response trend, but actually sounded extremely uncolored. The absence of this digital-input speaker from "Recommended Components" is purely because we have not auditioned the latest version, which uses Bitstream oversampling and D/A conversion rather than the older Philips 16-bit, 4x-oversampling chip set.
Fig.6: Deviation 3.1–3.69: TARA Timekeeper 0.5 Mk.I (black); Fried Q4 (red); Rogers LS3/5a (1978) (green); Vieta Pro-5 (sample 2) (yellow); Snell K/II (blue); Acoustat Spectra…
Table 1: Loudspeaker reviews October 1989–November 1991
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Loudspeaker Review F-weighted Deviation (dB) Original Price/pair Stereophile Rating JBL XPL-90 July 1991 0.82 $1300 Meridian D6000 September 1991 1.3 $15,000 A Spendor S100 June 1990 1.39 $2500 B Snell C/IV April 1991 1.42 $2190 B Avalon Eclipse January 1991 1.46 $5800 B…