Sidebar 3: Measurements The phone call from the shipping company was the harbinger of much sweaty work on my part: "Sorry, the local trucking company can't deliver the Calix speakers today. The four crates weight 1300 lbs and they don't have a forklift available." Neither did I! But once a forklift had been found and the crates stowed in my garage, I was impressed by the way the Phoenix's packaging had been designed for easy handling—always an issue with speakers this complex and this massive.
For obvious reasons, it wasn't possible to raise the Calix Phoenix Grand Signature off…
I've been wondering whether we who write about audio will ever agree on a sensible way to express the scale of the differences we hear. If magazines like Stereophile and The Abso!ute Sound lack credibility among the broader audience of music lovers and hi-fi shoppers—and we do—one important reason may be our habit of greatly exaggerating the importance of differences that in fact are very small. A subtle improvement, one that most people wouldn't notice except in a carefully arranged comparison, is often described by audiophile reviewers in language that makes it seem like the contrast…
Letters in response appeared in December 1990 and January 1991 A question of scale
Editor: Congratulations are due Peter Mitchell and Stereophile for his essay in the September issue (p.5), "A Question of Scale." He drives an opening wedge of sanity into Stereophile's portal. He lets in a huge breath of fresh air, a broad ray of light, a hope for increased reliance on the scientific method in making judgments. He presents a refreshing perspective on basics and tweaks, and on high-end units and those lower down. The item is required reading and re-reading.—Herman Burstein, Wantagh, NY…
Oh, I talk a good game when it comes to the whole music-lover-vs-audiophile thing. But I admit that when it comes to record players, I'm just another hardware junkie. I love turntables and tonearms for more than the musical enjoyment they give me. Turntables and tonearms are my favorite toys. I'm endlessly fascinated with the science behind them—at least partly because, as with theology and frankfurters, the real essence of the thing I'm trying to know is in fact unknowable. Given the subjectivity we bring to music appreciation and the fact that we can't see what's really going on in the…
That thick (1.5") acrylic platter is likewise well-machined, but otherwise unremarkable. VPI recommends putting records directly on the bare platter and flattening them with their standard screw-on Reflex clamp (supplied), although the perennially diplomatic Harry Weisfeld stops short of suggesting that this is the only, or even the best, way to do it. When I said that I preferred using the Scout with my own thin felt mat and without the clamp, he replied, "Arthur, I would never tell anyone not to do it that way." The thing is, I know from past conversations that Weisfeld's receptiveness to…
To check my impressions, I referred to the ever-popular Test Record, from the UK's Hi-Fi News & Record Review. Using an exemplary cartridge—the medium-compliance Miyabi 47, which nominally tracks at 2gm—I found that a small increase in downforce and just the right twist in the lead-out wire could be combined to coax a satisfactory antiskating performance from the JMW-9 tonearm. The Naim Aro and Rega RB-300 are both better in this regard: They can, with careful adjustment and a little luck, handle the tortuous track 9 (the left and right channels combined in a spirited 300Hz test tone at…
One more observation: Some hi-fi reviewers, myself included, are anxious to tell you when a product makes a musical performance sound tighter, more together, whatever. That judgment may well be true a lot of the time, but neither should you want a product to homogenize your records in that sense—to make things sound more upbeat, or even more together, than they really are. Well, don't sweat it, Harry Weisfeld: Your record player made music as interesting as it really is, but no more. The members of the Vienna State Opera Orchestra, under the otherwise beloved (by me at least) Hermann…
Sidebar 1: Specifications Description: Two-speed, belt-driven turntable with AC synchronous motor, acrylic record platter, and Delrin reflex record clamp; aluminum-alloy unipivot tonearm, height-adjustable, with interchangeable armwands. Wow & flutter: <0.02%. Rumble: below -80dB. Speed accuracy: within 0.1%. Dustcover: none. Spindle-pivot distance: 222mm. Downforce calibration: none. Antiskating: none.
Dimensions: 19" W by ca 4.5" H by 14" D (without dustcover). Weight: 37 lbs.
Finish: Black semigloss enamel (turntable), textured aluminum (tonearm).Serial numbers of units…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment Analog sources: Linn Sondek LP12 turntable with Naim Armageddon power supply and Naim Aro tonearm; Rega Planar 3 turntable; Miyabi 47, Supex 900 Super, Lyra Helikon Mono, and Rega Exact phono cartridges.
Preamplifiers: Fi, Audio Note M3, Audio Note AN-S2 moving-coil step-up transformer.
Power amplifiers: Fi 2A3 Stereo, Audio Note Kit One.
Loudspeakers: Lowther PM2A drivers (15 ohm version) in modified Medallion horn enclosures, Linn Sizmik subwoofer.
Cables: Interconnect: Audio Note AN-Vx, Nordost Valhalla, Final Laboratory Audio, plus…
ARTURO DELMONI & NATHANIEL ROSEN: Music for a Glass Bead Game
J.S. Bach: Two-Part Inventions 1, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 13. Kodály: Duo for Violin & Cello. Giordani: Duetto II. Martinu: Duo for Violin & Cello. Handel: Passacaglia
Arturo Delmoni, violin; Nathaniel Rosen, cello
John Marks Records JMR 15 (CD). John Marks, prod.; Jerry Bruck, eng. DDD. TT: 62:34 This is a stupendous recording of violin and cello in a good-sized hall—possibly the most luscious recording of acoustic music I've heard in several years.
The disc's title refers to Herman Hesse's last novel…
