After the dinner and the speechifying, and my roast of Chad Kassem, founder of Analogue Productions, Acoustic Sounds, Quality Record Pressing, and Blue Heaven Studios. came the show's 23 Alfie awards, in three categories—…
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At audio events held by the Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society, I'm usually called on to speechify about one thing or another, or to roast an honoree at one of the Society's December Galas. But at the spring 2017 Los Angeles Audio Show, Bob Levi, the Society's president, quipped, "This is one awards dinner where you won't have to entertain—so relax and enjoy!"
Better than vindicating CD detractors, MQA provides for a way to fix more than 30 years' worth of bad digital recordings—in the time domain, at least. Yet even after the convincing demo of recordings before and after MQA encoding, Rubin remained skeptical. He heard what it did with a familiar track like Steely Dan's "Hey Nineteen": dazzling and unmistakable differences in spatiality and tonality. Yet to Rubin's ears, the MQA version sounded "processed" in some way. He also has a deep-rooted philosophical problem with "correcting" something that "was what it was"—though I don't see how that…
A new name to me, West German company MB Quart GmbH is, in fact, the reincarnation of the Peerless loudspeaker company that until 1983 used to be owned by New York–based Electro Audio Dynamics (EAD). The company has been in existence for over 20 years and under either name has an excellent reputation for its drive-unit technology, MB being one of the first manufacturers to offer an OEM metal-dome tweeter. Their 1" titanium-dome unit, for example, was featured in Dick Olsher's Dahlia-Debra DIY design (footnote 1), and I became quite enamored of the effortlessly clean nature of that speaker's…
Sidebar 1: Associated Equipment
The test procedure followed, with minor changes, that established for my previous loudspeaker reviews: the MB Quarts were used with both a Krell KSA-50 and a pair of VTL 100W Compact monoblocks, connected with Monster M1 speaker cable. Preamplifier was either a PS Audio 4.6 with its M-500 power supply or a Mod Squad Phono Drive/Deluxe Line Drive combination. Interconnects were initially Monster M1000, later replaced with MIT 330 and MIT CVT.
Source components consisted of a Marantz CD-94 CD player, which was also used to drive the Sony DAS-R1 D/A…
Sidebar 2: Measurements
The MB Quart 280 is definitely a 4 ohm design, to judge from the graph of modulus of impedance vs frequency (fig.1), measured with spot frequency tones but plotted with the Audio Precision System One software. Apart from the sealed-box resonant peak around 75Hz (of moderate height), the impedance doesn't rise above 5 ohms until 450Hz. Above the electrical crossover to the tweeter, which appears to be set to 1450Hz, the 280 presents an easy load to the driving amplifier, averaging 8 ohms between 3kHz and 20kHz. Coupled with its low sensitivity (my measurement…
Sidebar 3: Specifications
Decription: Two-way, sealed-box, stand-mounted loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" titanium-dome tweeter, 8" long-throw, pulp-cone woofer with butyl rubber surround. Crossover frequency: 1.5kHz. Crossover slopes: 12dB/octave. Frequency range: 50Hz–32kHz. Sensitivity: 88dB/W/m. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms. Amplifier requirements: 20W RMS (minimum) to 80W continuous sinewave.
Dimensions: 17.25" H by 10.5" W by 10.25" D. Weight: 22lb each.
Price: $579/pair (1989); no longer available (2022). Approximate number of dealers: 35–40.
Manufacturer: MB Quart GmbH,…
In a recent answer to a reader's letter, I somewhat bluntly stated that Stereophile's reviewers use "hi-fi" adjectives to describe loudspeaker sound because even good loudspeakers are too far removed from sounding "real" to be compared directly with live music. Upon reflection, this may have sounded too dismissive, so I will elaborate a little in this short essay.
What would be the specifications necessary for a loudspeaker to sound "real?" First, it should have a bandwidth as wide as possible; with the exception of a slight HF roll-off when you sit in the back row of the stalls at an…
Madison Cunningham: Revealer
Verve Forecast, Tyler Chester, Mike Elizondo, Tucker Martine, prods.; David Boucher, Tyler Chester, Madison Cunningham, Justin Francis, engs.
Performance ****
Sonics ****½
Verve Forecast, Tyler Chester, Mike Elizondo, Tucker Martine, prods.; David Boucher, Tyler Chester, Madison Cunningham, Justin Francis, engs.
Performance ****
Sonics ****½
This is a really good album. Only 25, Madison Cunningham is bursting with talent. Cunningham's most striking gift is as a guitarist, wielding her beloved Fender Jazzmaster, but she's an expressive singer and writes complex—and catchy—songs. She's been nominated for Best Album Grammys in both Americana and folk. I'd call her a kickass rocker at heart, though she's capable of…
Steve Cardenas/Ben Allison/Ted Nash: Healing Power: The Music of Carla Bley
Cardenas, guitar; Allison, bass; Nash, tenor & soprano saxophones, clarinet
Sunnyside SSC 1664 (CD, available as download). 2022. Allison, Cardenas, Nash, prods.; Matt Balitsaris, eng.
Performance ****
Sonics ****½
Cardenas, guitar; Allison, bass; Nash, tenor & soprano saxophones, clarinet
Sunnyside SSC 1664 (CD, available as download). 2022. Allison, Cardenas, Nash, prods.; Matt Balitsaris, eng.
Performance ****
Sonics ****½
Carla Bley, now 86, is among the very greatest living jazz composers. But her position is somewhat unusual. None of her songs has quite become a universal jazz standard. There have been fewer Bley tribute albums than you might expect. For decades, Gary Burton's Dreams So Real and…
Prism IV: Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn
Danish String Quartet
ECM 2564 (CD). 2022. Manfred Eicher, prod.; Markus Heiland, eng.
Performance *****
Sonics *****
Danish String Quartet
ECM 2564 (CD). 2022. Manfred Eicher, prod.; Markus Heiland, eng.
Performance *****
Sonics *****
The Danish String Quartet's "Prism" series pairs a Beethoven quartet with a connected Bach fugue and another, related work: The Beethoven becomes a prism to diffract the others. I couldn't tell you I heard motivic relationships among these three scores, but they constitute a pleasing program.
The firm-bowed, full-bodied rendition of Bach's G minor Fugue sets the tone for the program, marked by the Danish's…