"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…
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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.
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…
In addition, the midrange and tweeter are isolated in their own specially damped triangular chamber via a wooden member angled from right below the midrange unit to the rear upper corner of the cabinet.
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…
Those who suggest that the reflection off the rear wall will confuse imaging are incorrect, according to the Haas primacy effect, which demonstrates that the ear prefers the direct wave over the reflected and can only process the time delay between the direct and reflected sound when the distance is greater than the circumference of your head, which is about 2'.
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…
How hard was it to get this setup to "gel"? Very. As with any high-performance product—I don't care if it's a camera, a car, or a loudspeaker—the greater the precision, the more of a pain in the butt it is to get it to work right. You notice tiny imperfections in what it's doing—or not doing. I found myself making ridiculously small placement adjustments as I listened, moving my head side to side, shifting my body front to back as I worked to get the center image correct from my seated "comfort zone." Using my usual reference recordings—I can't say I play them for pleasure—I had a great deal…
Even while I acknowledge hearing that sonic signature—the sound of the stand-up bass, electric bass, kickdrum, timpani, and all of the other instruments in that region sounded so musically right, so convincing—I still wasn't quite certain what was going on. Perhaps measurements will help explain.
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…
The Virgo, although less than 4' tall, generated a gigantic soundstage, with particularly impressive image height all the way across it. Rather than generating their own stage, into which a recording must be made to fit either by stretching or compression, the Virgos created a picture commensurate with the recording.
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…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
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:…
Sidebar 2: Associated equipment
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…
Sidebar 3: Who the heck is Audio Physic?
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…