If the massive, gleaming, black NHT 3.3 is a V8-equipped American muscle-car speaker, the Virgo is a Porsche 911, I thought to myself as I secured the chromed feet to the bottoms of the cabinets. As I wrote in my review of the 3.3 a year ago (footnote 1), for this kind of money the holes should be fitted with threaded inserts (NHT now includes them).
Cinerama setup
When was…
If that seems like only watermelon heads are involved, get out your tape measure—we're all a bunch of fatheads. So as long as you sit closer than 2' from the back wall, the ear/brain will not process the reflection, giving…
Details, details...
Like every other speaker in the world, the Virgo has colorations—an audiophile stranger could come in to your house and hear them in your speakers in a second. You get used to them, overlook them, and enjoy them—or you move on.
The character we're willing to…
Music for Bang Baaroom and Harp (RCA LSP 1866), Belafonte at Carnegie Hall (RCA LSO 6006), and The Weavers Reunion at Carnegie Hall (Analogue Productions APF005)—all of which have really big stages (and none of which I ever play for musical enjoyment)—were reproduced as…
Description: Three-way, floorstanding, moving-coil loudspeaker: Drive-units: ¾" aluminum-dome tweeter, 4" treated paper-cone midrange unit, two 6" treated paper-cone, reflex-loaded woofers. Measured impedance: 4 ohms nominal. Measured sensitivity: 88.5dB/2.83V/m (B-weighted).
Dimensions: 6½" W by 16" D by 41" H.
Serial numbers of units reviewed: 800 A&B.
Price: $4995/pair. Approximate number of dealers: 13.
Manufacturer: Audio Physic, Gallbergweg 50, D-59929 Brilon, Germany. Tel: (49) 296-151-211. Fax: (49) 296-151-640. US distributor:…
For most of my listening the analog front-end consisted of a VPI TNT turntable with all the latest updates, including the Flywheel (footnote 1), fitted with either a Rockport Capella air-bearing linear tracking arm or the Graham 1.5t with ceramic armtube. The cartridge was either a Clavis DC or a Dynavector XX-1L. The 'table sat on a Bright Star Audio Big Rock TNT isolation platform, which rested on a TNT stand filled with lead shot and sand. I also listened on the Rotel RP-900 turntable/Sumiko Blue Point combo.
The digital source was an EAD T-7000…
Audio Physic President Joachim Gerhard is 38 years old and has been an audiophile for about 20 years. His hi-fi passion started out as a friendly competition with some friends about who had the best system. At the time, Gerhard had a big Tannoy horn, one friend had the Koss Model IV electrostat, and the another friend had the Ohm F.
Even then, Gerhard was struck by the basic dilemma that he's been working on ever since: how to overcome the seemingly insurmountable conflict between achieving musicality, pace, rhythm, and drive on the one…
The Audio Physic Virgo is a reasonably hard load for an amplifier to drive, as shown by its plots of impedance magnitude and phase against frequency (fig.1). Not only does the impedance drop below 4 ohms for pretty much the entire midrange, but the phase angle is also moderately high in the upper bass and low treble. The changes in impedance with frequency, however, are small. The "saddle" in the magnitude trace at 27Hz indicates a low tuning frequency for the large port. The wrinkle at 230Hz is probably due to a cabinet resonance of some kind.
Fig.1…