The rear panel includes an IEC AC jack, a pair of speaker protection fuses, five-way binding posts, an AC input fuse, bridging and ground-lift switches, gold-plated RCA input jacks, and two volume pots. The 2X150VT's home-theater pedigree is apparent in its labeling: Input 1 and Input 2, as opposed to the retro (art deco?) Left and Right found on most audiophile gear. Up front are the On…
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The input stage of the "VT" version of the 2X150 uses a single, dual-triode Sovtek 6922 placed somewhat gaudily in a window cut out of the front of the stainless-steel cover, so you can bask in its glow.
I recently found a mint original Capitol pressing of Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely (SW-1053), and the recording of Nelson Riddle's desolate arrangements—redolent with such "soft" instruments as French horns, trombones, oboes, and bassoons—is appropriately distant and "back-of-the-studio." Compared to my reference Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 300, the 2X150VT tended to obscure the sensation of the short reflection time off the studio back wall while, for example, smoothing over the timbral distinction between the four trombones and the single "lonely" trumpet on "What's New." But…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Hybrid vacuum-tube/MOSFET power amplifier. Output power (20Hz-20kHz): 150Wpc into 8 ohms (21.8dBW), 240W into 4 ohms (20.8dBW); 500W into 8 ohms (27dBW), bridged. Frequency response: 2Hz-160kHz, -3dB, at 1W; 6Hz-100kHz, -3dB, at 100W. THD: <0.9%, 20Hz-20kHz, both channels driven. Input impedance: 50k ohms. Input sensitivity: 1.95V RMS for 150W into 8 ohms. Voltage gain: 25dB. Slew rate (10kHz, 60V p-p squarewave): 30V/µs. S/N ratio: unweighted, exceeds 100dB referenced to full output into 8 ohms.
Dimensions: 15.8" W by 5.8" H by 10.1" D.…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog sources: Simon Yorke turntable; Graham 2.2, Immedia RPM2 tonearms; Lyra Helikon LE, Helikon mono, Benz Glider L2 cartridges.
Digital sources: Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 3D CD player, Marantz SA14 SACD player.
Preamplification: Hovland HP-100 preamplifier; Pass Xono, Manley Steelhead, Musical Surroundings Phonomena, Camelot Technology Lancelot Pro phono stages.
Power amplifier: Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 300.
Loudspeakers: Audio Physic Avanti III.
Cables: DIN/RCA and RCA/RCA phono: Hovland Music Groove. Interconnect: Harmonic Technology…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
When I opened up the chassis of the Smart Devices 2X150VT—the input tube had come loose in transit—I flashed back to the early 1980s. Other than Sovtek 6922 tube mounted behind the window in the front panel, I appeared to be holding in my hands a Hafler DH-200, right down to the bird's nest of components wired to the output MOSFETs. Ivor Humphreys, my friend and colleague at Hi-Fi News back in the early '80s, had built and modified many DH-200s, and I had got well familiar with this high-value design.
Following about 30 minutes of preconditioning at one-…
Fig.6 confirms the almost pure second-harmonic nature of the 2X150VT's distortion signature—at -63dB (0.07%), this won't be heard by anyone—and intermodulation distortion was also low in level (fig.7). The graph in fig.7 was taken into 8 ohms; halving the load and keeping the output voltage the same didn't result in the 1kHz difference component rising above -66dB (0.05%), but some 60Hz sidebands did appear around the intermod products, suggesting that at the measured power level with this demanding signal (close to clipping at 163W into 4 ohms), the Smart amplifier was starting to break a…
As noted in the March installment of "Music in the Round," there are so many new multichannel hardware goodies to talk about that we need this bonus appearance of the column just to keep up. Nor do I expect the rush of gear to stop—I've just returned from CES in Las Vegas, where there was lots of new multichannel hardware and software that I will report on in June, including a luscious all-tube analog multichannel preamp. This month I report on a universal disc player, a comparison of Sony's top-of-the-line SCD-XA9000ES multichannel SACD player with its respected predecessor, and a…
In neither machine can the bass-management facility be used in the two-channel direct or multichannel direct modes, but the XA9000ES's distance compensation does operate in these modes. This means that you can bypass the signal processing used for the crossover, bass redirection, and channel amplitude balance, but still adjust for a listening position at unequal distances from the speakers. In addition, the Tri-Powered D/A mode is available only in two-channel direct mode.
I connected both Sonys to the two multichannel inputs of the McIntosh C45 preamplifier via identical Harmonic…
The Sears guy came to our basement the other day to check out the water heater. Staring at the walls of LPs and tiptoeing through the piles of CDs strewn on the floor, he exclaimed, "What the heck are you? A disc jockey?" So I told him.
"Yeah, I finally broke down and bought a CD player a coupla weeks ago," he continued, completely forgetting about the water heater. "But I think something's wrong with it." "Why?" I asked. "Well, I'm a big Roy Orbison fan, and so the first thing I bought was a Roy CD and it don't sound like Roy. I know Roy's voice. I seen him a million times—and it don't…
Virgo
At just under $5000/pair, the Virgos will also make a healthy chunk of your bank account disappear. At first glance this German-made speaker doesn't look like it could be worth that kind of money. It's a skinny runt, narrow and tall—like a minimonitor with a pituitary problem. In fact, the Avanti ($7500/pair), the next speaker up in the Audio Physic line, is a minimonitor, inserted into a square hole in a tall skinny box—a box with two small, side-mounted, floor-level woofers built in.
At just under $5000/pair, the Virgos will also make a healthy chunk of your bank account disappear. At first glance this German-made speaker doesn't look like it could be worth that kind of money. It's a skinny runt, narrow and tall—like a minimonitor with a pituitary problem. In fact, the Avanti ($7500/pair), the next speaker up in the Audio Physic line, is a minimonitor, inserted into a square hole in a tall skinny box—a box with two small, side-mounted, floor-level woofers built in.
The Virgo is of one piece: while the two sets of binding posts on the Avantis are separated…