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It's a simple premise: power corrupts. You can buy the finest audio components in the world, but if the foundation of your aural house is rotten, you won't get anything vaguely resembling the level of performance your gear was designed to provide. Over time, I've come to realize just how fragile the audio signal chain is, dependent as it is on electrical sources fatally compromised by all manner of aural schmutz pouring through the local grid. I've become obsessed with figuring out how to liberate my system from the line noise, reactive loads, and voltage anomalies that veil the presentation…
The AVS 2000's rear panel features a massive, hardwired, 8' Monster PowerLine 300 AC cable, four switched and two unswitched outlets, and a sequential turn-on feature (which I never used). Other than the Power button, all you need be concerned with on the stylish front panel are the three digital meters, which allow you to monitor (from left to right) the incoming voltage, the degree of voltage correction, and the amperage draw. That middle meter provided me with plenty of thrills and chills concerning the wonderful world of voltage fluctuation in my Washington Heights 'hood—it varied…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: Digitally generated CD for testing hearing in the 20Hz–20kHz frequency range.
Price: $39.95. Approximate number of catalog dealers: 4.
Manufacturer: Digital Recordings—Advanced R&D, 5959 Spring Garden Road, Suite 1103, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 1Y5, Canada. Tel./Fax: (902) 429-9622, (902) 425-1154. Web: www.digital-recordings.com.
BEETHOVEN: Symphonies 1 & 3 ("Eroica")
Wolfgang Sawallisch, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
EMI 54501 2 (CD only). John Fraser, prod.; Michael Sheady, eng. DDD. TT: 77:15
Wolfgang Sawallisch, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
EMI 54501 2 (CD only). John Fraser, prod.; Michael Sheady, eng. DDD. TT: 77:15
Despite the supersaturated Beethoven-symphony market, these performances offer a new and highly relevant view. I can't recall a finer Symphony 1. Everything about it is superb: the care with voicing and phrasing of the opening; the buoyant sauciness of the fast movements; the delicacy of the slow movement; and—throughout—exemplary balances that keep winds and brass well forward, illustrating how a modern-…
When I was visiting Santa Fe last Easter (footnote 1), one of the subjects I raised with JA was Naim's ARO tonearm. This unique unipivot design has languished in Class K of Stereophile's "Recommended Components" listing for far too long. JA explained that the regular reviewers have quite enough to do, thank you, just keeping up with speakers, electronics, and especially digital. The esteemed Martin Colloms is happily using an ARO on his Linn Sondek, and wrote a review for the English magazine Hi-Fi News & Record Review in May 1991, but since there is a very small but nevertheless…
With the ARO, azimuth adjustment is supremely easy. There is a small outrigger weight mounted on the metal cup that holds the armtube and counterweight. This can be shifted to and fro to change lateral balance, and thus azimuth. A practiced dealer should be able to do it in less than five minutes.
System context
In the over two years that I've had an ARO on loan, my system has evolved quite dramatically. The turntable is a Platine Verdier. This French design, weighing about 45kg (99 lbs), is very well suited to tonearm reviews because the arms are mounted on outrigger armboards;…
The ARO's handlings of small- and large-scale dynamics were also excellent. On "The Rhythm of the Heat," the first track of Peter Gabriel's 1983 Plays Live (Charisma/Virgin 302 529-420), the sound is faded up with an insistent conga-drum pattern and some friendly applause from the audience, which is glad the concert has finally started. The audience then gets reasonably excited as the rest of the band walks onstage; things slow down a bit, then the audience goes wild as Gabriel himself arrives. With the ARO, I could hear deep into the applause, making out individual handclaps. I also heard…
Compatibility
As mentioned above, I've heard the ARO in a number of systems—and a friend has been using it on a Roksan Xerxes. In almost all systems, the ARO fit in without problems. The one exception was on the VPI HW19. Whether it was that turntable's acrylic mounting base, a setup error, or some other as yet undiscovered factor, the ARO was excruciatingly bad on the HW19. Bloated bass with no real extension, highly colored midrange, shrill highs, and no dynamics at all suggested a marriage made on one of the lowest levels of hell.
As mentioned above, I've heard the ARO in a number of systems—and a friend has been using it on a Roksan Xerxes. In almost all systems, the ARO fit in without problems. The one exception was on the VPI HW19. Whether it was that turntable's acrylic mounting base, a setup error, or some other as yet undiscovered factor, the ARO was excruciatingly bad on the HW19. Bloated bass with no real extension, highly colored midrange, shrill highs, and no dynamics at all suggested a marriage made on one of the lowest levels of hell.
With all other turntables (Linn Sondek,…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: Unipivot tonearm. Overall length: 11.42" (290mm). Effective length: 9.055" (230mm). Pivot center to platter center: 8.37" (212.5mm). Overhang: 0.75" (18mm). Effective mass: 11gm. Optimal cartridge weight: 5.5-12gm (standard counterweight; other versions available). Cartridge mounting height: 1.6-2.2" (40-55mm).
Price: $2350 (extra arm tops are $1350). Approximate number of dealers: 20.
Manufacturer: Naim Audio Ltd., Southampton Road, Salisbury, Wilts. SP1 2LN, England, UK. Tel: (0722) 332266. US distributor: Naim Audio North America Inc., 2702 W…
MOZART: Così fan tutte
Véronique Gens, Fiordiligi; Bernarda Fink, Dorabella; Werner Güra, Ferrando; Marcel Boone, Guglielmo; Pietro Spagnoli; Graciela Oddone, Despina; Kölner Kammerchor, Concerto Köln, René Jacobs
Harmonia Mundi 951663.65 (3 CDs). 1999. Barbara Valentin, artistic dir.; Mark Hohn, eng. DDD. TT: 3:21:09
Performance *****
Sonics *****
Véronique Gens, Fiordiligi; Bernarda Fink, Dorabella; Werner Güra, Ferrando; Marcel Boone, Guglielmo; Pietro Spagnoli; Graciela Oddone, Despina; Kölner Kammerchor, Concerto Köln, René Jacobs
Harmonia Mundi 951663.65 (3 CDs). 1999. Barbara Valentin, artistic dir.; Mark Hohn, eng. DDD. TT: 3:21:09
Performance *****
Sonics *****
Each of the great Mozart/da Ponte collaborations is comic in some ways, and not in others. While Don Giovanni makes us laugh with the Don's brazen behavior, Leporello's clowning, and its sheer swagger, it examines the very…