In terms of its cost, complexity, and…
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Of all the components to be seen and heard at an audio show or in a dealer's showroom, the most memorable and attention-grabbing are inevitably the super-speakers—bogglingly expensive, filled with cutting-edge engineering and exotic materials, of mammoth size and weight, with full-range reproduction that shakes building foundations and extends far enough up top to disrupt the navigation of bats. Survey the field, and the biggest Wilson, Aln, JMlab-Focal, Burmester, EgglestonWorks, and Nearfield Acoustics models, to name a few, fit that description.
The other drivers are more or less conventional in type and application. The mid-woofer and front-panel dome tweeter are both sourced from ScanSpeak, the rear-mounted supertweeter from Visaton. The massive, vented 15" woofer cone is made of glass fiber reinforced with carbon fiber, and was developed in-house by Calix. A large outboard crossover is connected to the rear of the subwoofer cabinet via cables as thick as garden hoses, these terminated with professional-grade connectors. The crossover has two sets of WBT binding posts—biwiring is mandated. All of the internal cabling was designed…
To the extent that the Calix had a weakness, it is one endemic to speakers with large bass drivers in ported enclosures: to get the deepest, best-defined bass, it's necessary to drive such a speaker with an amplifier that can control that big woofer, and that will most often mean solid-state or hybrid power, especially if big orchestral music or rock is your meat. With the Classé CAM-350, Lamm M2.1, and Plinius SA-102 power amps, the PGS' bass was taut, tuneful, and deep; the exceptional bass capability and control of the Plinius was perhaps the best match, giving a profound, superbly…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: 5-way, 5-driver reflex-loaded loudspeaker system with separate subwoofer and crossover modules. Drive-units: ¾" rear-mounted, metal-dome supertweeter; horn-loaded, 1" silk-dome tweeter; horn-loaded, 2" fabric-dome midrange; 8" carbon-fiber-cone woofer; 15" Calix damped Kevlar-and-glass-fiber-cone subwoofer. Crossover frequencies: 60Hz, 700Hz, 2kHz, 15kHz (all 12dB/octave). Frequency response: 20Hz-40kHz, ±3dB. Sensitivity: 88dB/W/m. Nominal impedance: 6 ohms. Recommended power: 100-1000W.
Dimensions: 62" H by 23" W by 39" D (plus 6" D for…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analogue sources: SOTA Cosmos & Cosmos Series III, Clearaudio Champion 2 turntables; Graham 2.2, Clearaudio Unify tonearms; Dynavector XV-1 & XV-1S, Benz L2 cartridges.
Digital sources: Classé Omega SACD/CD player, Ayre D-1x DVD-V/CD player, Esoteric DV-50 universal SACD/DVD-A player.
Preamplification: Manley Labs Steelhead, Boulder 2008, Aesthetix Io Signature phono stages; Mark Levinson No.32 Reference, Jeff Rowland Design Group Synergy IIi, Ayre K-1x line stages.
Power amplifiers: Lamm M2.1, Classé CAM-350, Manley 250 Neo-Classic…
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…