Sam Tellig
FRANK SINATRA: The Columbia Years, 1943-1952: The Complete Recordings
Frank Sinatra, The Voice; orchestras under the direction of Axel Stordhal, Percy Faith, Harry James, Mitch Miller, Xavier Cugat, Sy Oliver, Hugo Winterhalter, Morris Stoloff, George Siravo, Jeff Alexander, Mitchell Ayres; With: Phil Moore Four, Tony Mottola Trio, Page Cavanaugh Trio, Metronome All-Stars, Alvy West & the Little Band; Additional vocals by Rosemary Clooney, Doris Day, Dinah Shore, Mitch Miller Singers, Modernaires, Charioteers
Columbia CXK 48673 (12 CDs only). Joe Higgins, Morty…
search
While large, floorstanding speakers appear to offer the most material for the buck, I feel that small stand-mounted speakers both offer the best value in sound quality, as well as standing the best chance of sounding good in moderate-sized listening rooms. In recent months Stereophile has reviewed a varied group of such speakers. In order of descending price, these include the Acoustic Energy AE2 Signature ($5495/pair, November '95); Dzurko Acoustics Jaguar ($4500/pair, reviewed elsewhere in this issue); Totem Mani-2 ($3995/pair, February '96); Platinum Audio Solo ($2498/pair, November '95…
The CDM 1's tonal balance was fundamentally neutral. Voices were reproduced without any lispiness or chesty boom, two colorations endemic among affordable loudspeakers. While the CDM 1's bass didn't go as low as that of the Silver Signature, which has a significantly larger cabinet as well as a larger-diameter woofer, it was quite impressive for what is still a small speaker. There was some slight exaggeration of the upper bass; not enough to be annoying, but sufficient to make me feel the speaker was a little larger than it really is. On classical music, this added a satisfying bloom to the…
Sidebar 1: Description
Specifications: two-way, reflex-loaded, stand-mounted loudspeaker. Drive-units: 0.75" (18mm) metal-dome tweeter, 6.5" (165mm) Kevlar-cone woofer. Crossover frequency: 3kHz. Frequency response: 64Hz-20kHz ±2dB. Sensitivity: 88dB/W/m (2.83V). Nominal impedance: 8 ohms. Amplifier requirements: 30W minimum.
Dimensions: 15" (381mm) H by 9" (229mm) W by 11" (280mm) D. Weight: 18 lbs each.
Serial numbers of review samples: 008013/14.
Price: $1100/pair. Approximate number of dealers: 247.
Manufacturer: B&W Loudspeakers, Ltd., Meadow Road, Worthing, West…
Sidebar 2: Review Context
My relatively small room measures around 19' by 16.5' with a 9' ceiling. Each of the loudspeakers was positioned for the best sound (with only one pair of loudspeakers in the listening room at a time), generally some 3' from the rear wall (which is faced with books and LPs) and approximately 5' from the side walls (which also have bookshelves covering some of their surfaces). Each pair of speakers sat on 24" Celestion Si stands, these filled with lead shot and spiked to the concrete floor beneath the rug/pad. Although none of the speakers had major cabinet…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I estimated the CDM 1's B-weighted sensitivity to be around 86dB/2.83V/m, a typical figure for a smallish speaker. Its impedance traces (fig.1) revealed it to be a relatively undemanding load for an amplifier, with minimum values around 5 ohms in the lower midrange and high treble. The reflex port tuning is indicated by the "saddle" in the magnitude trace at 40Hz. Note the slight glitch in both magnitude and phase traces between 900Hz and 1kHz, this a clue to the presence of some kind of resonance.
Fig.1 B&W CDM 1, electrical impedance (solid…
In the time domain, the speaker's step response (fig.7) reveals that despite the offset of the tweeter, the CDM 1 is still not time-coherent on the HF axis, the tweeter's output arriving at the microphone a small fraction of a millisecond before that of the woofer. Both are connected with positive acoustic polarity, however. The associated cumulative spectral-decay or waterfall plot (fig.8) reveals a very clean decay, with only a small low-level mode apparent in the mid-treble, this presumably a well-suppressed woofer-cone mode.
Fig.7 B&W CDM 1, step response on tweeter axis…
Sam Tellig wrote about the CDM1 Special Edition in December 1998 (Vol.21 No.21):
Even Lars was impressed with the Puccini when he stopped by. (You remember my Swedish friend Lars. He's back. Long story.)
"I was in this neck of the wood and I thought I'd stop by," said Lars.
"Woods."
"Woods?"
"The expression is 'neck of the woods,' Lars."
Lars said he would "poculate"—his word—on why the Audio Analogue Puccini SE amplifier sounds so lusciously tubey. I think "poculate" is a Swedish word. I'll have to ask him next time.
Lars was impoculated,…
Whenever I think of cone speaker systems, I think of three brand names: Snell, Thiel, and Vandersteen. There are many good loudspeakers and many good designers and manufacturers, but it is these three who, in my opinion, consistently produce the best cone loudspeaker systems. All three companies produce full-range systems, transparent systems, and systems which mate well with a wide range of equipment. Their systems can be owned and enjoyed for years. Long after some fad or special feature has given a competing designer brief notoriety, these are the products you turn back to for music.
…
The Vandersteen 2C has a slightly warmer balance and timbre than the Snells and Thiels, although you can come close to the latter by boosting the 2C's treble adjustment. (Calibrated rear controls adjust treble and midrange levels.) The extreme highs are a real delight. Electrostatics and ribbons may be faster, but no electrostatic or ribbon I have ever heard is as smooth and coherent in radiation and overall integration.
As mentioned before, the bass is exceptional: extended and very well controlled over the entire bass spectrum, though the relatively small cabinet size means that bass…