I had that experience recently—only it didn't happen in an audio store, it was a wine shop. Just before the holidays, I walked into a store on Seventh Avenue in Brooklyn and looked over the Bordeaux selection, half listening to the clerk browbeat another customer for not knowing precisely what he wanted. After intimidating the…
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These days, too many audio stores are like hushed mausoleums. Audio gear is displayed like dead art, and the sales staff, unless you're known as a regular customer, either greets you with a predatory gleam or, certain that you've wandered in by mistake, ignores you.
I had been with Stereophile only six months and feared my tenure was over—I thought I was losing my hearing. There was pain, ringing, and stuffiness. I couldn't listen to anything.
With great fear, I submitted to a full ear/nose/throat workup, part of which was a test of my hearing by an audiologist. I sat in a soundproof booth wearing a pair of ancient Koss Stereophones, indicating with a wave of my hand when I heard a sound. With an inferred pat on the back, the audiologist told me that my hearing was normal and advised that I take sinus meds as needed.
But a glance at the…
Unpublished Letters #1
Editor: I find Michael Fremer's Review of Harmonic Technology Interconnects to be a quintessential example of a significant dysfunction in the audio press, or at least in Stereophile.
Unless I missed something along the way, a widely accepted criteria for electronic audio equipment is to add nothing to the audio signal except gain or transmit signal without altering it. This product, however, adds a great deal according to your own measurements, so much so that it might better be described as a signal "enhancing" processing device. Mr. Fremer finds the…
Unpublished Letters #2
Editor: As a publisher myself, a number of thoughts occurred to me after Michael Fremer's review of the Cyberlight interconnects in the August issue.
This is not the first time there has been a remarkable difference between Mr. Frember's observations and JA's measurements. I recall a similar situation when Mr. Fremer also gave a rave review to a KR amplifier, which was found to be practically defective when measured. You ran the review at that time along with your measurements. As before, Mr. Fremer gave unconditional rave and recommendation to a product…
Unpublished Letters #3
Editor: I was not surprised that Mr. Fremer expressed a strong preference for some "interconnects" that almost surely have audible linear and nonlinear distortions. Any dyed in the wool vinylphile clearly prefers music playback containing audible distortions. The same can be said of those who wax poetic about SET amplifiers.
There have been many instances of equipment reviews in your magazine wherein the equipment measured poorly but got a rave review. This just goes to show that listener preference (even a highly skilled professional listener) and high…
Unpublished Letters #4
Editor: I had to rub my eyes. There it was, in glorious print, "I really don't see how the Cyberlight P2A and wave cables can be recommended. I am puzzled that Harmonic Technology, which makes good sounding, reasonably priced conventional cables, would risk their reputation with something as technically flawed as the Cyberlight."
Finally, a review with some backbone and truth!!! Or should I say, a reviewer with some backbone and truth. Well done, JA.
Now lets turn our attention to Michael Fremer. I give him high marks for integrity and standing on…
"So what kind of music do you listen to?" I heard myself asking Leif Mårten Olofsson, designer of the Coltrane, Coltrane Alto, Duke, Miles II, Mingus III, and Monk loudspeakers, before I could take it back. The small company, headquartered in Göteborg, Sweden, where Volvos are made, has been building and marketing loudspeakers for the past six years, though Olofsson confesses he's been building them for 30 years, ever since he was 12.
The Coltrane is the company's "statement" product, and at $50,000/pair, you expect more than a short riff improvised on a familiar theme. Olofsson…
With the Jorma Design #1s in place, the overall balance was now satiny-smooth and close to ideal with all three power amplifiers I used. For $50,000/pair, that's the least you should expect! Getting the Coltrane there wasn't easy; when it wasn't there, the speaker was unforgiving in letting me know that something wasn't right.
Impressions
There's a brassy-sounding big-band album by Ella Fitzgerald, arranged and conducted by Bill Doggett, called Rhythm Is My Business (LP, Verve V6-4056)—a great title, and a perfect description of one of the Mårten Coltrane's strongest suits. Get it…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way, reflex-loaded floorstanding loudspeaker. Drive-units: ¾" inverted diamond-dome tweeter, 3.5" ceramic-cone midrange unit, two 9" ceramic-cone woofers. Crossover frequencies: 300Hz, 4kHz. Frequency response: 20Hz–100kHz, ±2dB. Sensitivity: 89dB/W/m. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms. Supplied accessories: polished-steel stands with Black Diamond Racing cones and pucks.
Dimensions: 44.5" (1130mm) H by 12.3" (313mm) W by 24" (610mm) D. Weight: 104 lbs (47kg).
Finishes: High-gloss black with wood front panel in maple, cherry, oak, or walnut.…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Simon Yorke S7, T+A G10 turntables; Immedia RPM-2, Graham 2.2, SME M2 tonearms; Lyra Titan & Helikon mono, Shelter 301, 501, 901 & 90x, T+A C 10 cartridges.
Digital Sources: Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista, Krell SACD Standard SACD players; Alesis Masterlink CD recorder.
Preamplification: Manley Steelhead, BAT VK-P10SE phono preamplifiers; Musical Fidelity kWP preamplifiers.
Power Amplifiers: Musical Fidelity kW, Yamaha MX-D1, Music Reference RM-200.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio WATT/Puppy 7, Sonus Faber Stradivari Homage,…