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And the quality of the Snell's bass was simply superb: tight, controlled, and free from the boomy upper-bass overhang that naïve listeners often mistake for "good bass." Other than lacking a bit of fundamental weight, my Fender-bass channel-check tracks on Editor's Choice had an excellent balance between the leading edges of the notes and the body of the tone. There was enough upper-bass energy present to allow Jerome Harris's rather reticently mixed Taylor acoustic bass guitar on his Rendezvous (CD, Stereophile STPH013-2) to fully support the higher-frequency instruments. And on Eric…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Stand-mounted, magnetically shielded, sealed-box, two-way loudspeaker intended for left, right, or center use. Drive-units: 1" soft-dome tweeter, two 5.25" magnesium-cone woofers. Crossover frequency: 2kHz. Frequency response: 75Hz–22kHz, ±3dB. Dispersion angle (±1dB of on-axis response): ±15° horizontal and vertical. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms. Sensitivity: 90dB/W/m. Recommended amplifier power: 50–300W. Maximum SPL (pair): 110dB.
Dimensions: 19" (483mm) H by 7" (178mm) W by 8.75" (223mm) D. Weight: 26 lbs (11.8kg).
Finishes: Cherry veneer or…
Sidebar 2: The Standard LCR7
I spent quite a lot of time auditioning a pair of the regular Snell LCR7s (serial numbers 0115 and 0116). These use less-expensive coated paper-cone woofers from SEAS's regular series rather than the magnesium-cone Excel units of the 30th Anniversary XL edition. The tweeter is now a 1" silk-dome unit, and the crossover is different because of the different drivers. The cabinet of wood and aluminum is identical, however, and the speaker seems an excellent value at $2000/pair, particularly if five are to be used for a high-quality home-theater system. (Steve…
Sidebar 3: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Ayre C-5xe universal player; dCS P8i SACD player; Mark Levinson No.31.5 CD transport; Olive Symphony, Slim Devices Squeezebox 3 media servers; Mark Levinson No.30.6, Benchmark DAC 1, Grace m902 D/A processors; Alesis MasterLink hard-drive recorder.
Preamplifiers: Mark Levinson No.380S, No.326S, No.32 Reference; NHT Passive Volume Control.
Power Amplifiers: Mark Levinson No.33H monoblocks, Musical Fidelity kW750.
Cables: Digital: Kimber Illuminations Orchid AES/EBU, AudioQuest SVD-4 S/PDIF, OptiLink 5 TosLink. Interconnect:…
Sidebar 4: Measurements
The Snell LCR7 XL was of average voltage sensitivity, at an estimated 88dB(B)/2.83V/m. Its electrical impedance drops below 4 ohms for most of the midrange, with a minimum value of 2.25 ohms at 244Hz and a combination of –45° phase angle and 5.5 ohms magnitude at 100Hz (fig.1), meaning that a good, 4-ohm–rated amplifier will be optimal for driving this speaker.
Fig.1 Snell LCR7 XL, electrical impedance (solid) and phase (dashed). (2 ohms/vertical div.)
The impedance traces are free from the discontinuities associated with cabinet…
In the past year, Stereophile has reviewed a number of cost-no-object flagship loudspeakers. B&W's Signature 800, MartinLogan's Prodigy, Burmester's B-99, Snell's XA Reference Tower, Krell's LAT-1, Linn's Komri, Dynaudio's Evidence Temptation, Sony's ES SS-M9ED, and Rockport's Antares have all passed through the review mill. Manufacturers like to submit their flagships for review for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the pride they take in showing what their engineers can do when given a blank check. However, while all these models do indeed provide great (if different)…
The 1/3-octave warble tones on Stereophile's Test CD 3 were reproduced in full measure down to the 80Hz band. The 63Hz band is always weak in my room; such was the case with the CS1.6 unless I moved my chair back against the wall behind it, but the 50Hz band was moderately high in level. It was only at 40Hz and below that the speaker was obviously rolling off rapidly. The story was the same with the series of half-step-spaced tonebursts that I included on Test CD 3 (footnote 1), the speaker's bass response falling off rapidly below G at 49Hz.
This series of tonebursts also revealed the…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-way, magnetically shielded, floorstanding loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" (25mm) aluminum-dome tweeter, 6.5" (165mm) metal-cone woofer with 3" voice-coil. Crossover frequency: 3kHz. Crossover slopes: first-order, 6dB/octave. Frequency response: 50Hz-20kHz, ±2dB. Phase response: ±10 degrees maximum. Sensitivity: 90dB/W/m. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms, 3 ohms minimum. Recommended Power: 50-300W.
Dimensions: 35.5" (902mm) H by 9" (229mm) W by 11.5" (292mm) D. Weight: 38 lbs (17.3kg) each.
Finishes: Painted black; wood veneers available at extra…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog source: Linn Sondek LP12/Cirkus/Trampolin/Lingo/Ekos/Arkiv LP player on a Sound Organisation table.
Digital sources: Mark Levinson No.31.5 CD transport; Mark Levinson No.30.6 D/A processors; dCS 972 upsampler; Accuphase DP-85 SACD player; Technics DVD-A10 DVD-Audio player; Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 3D CD player.
Preamplification: Linn Linto phono preamp, Mark Levinson No.380S line preamp, Z-Systems rdp-1 digital control center (updated to handle 96kHz sources).
Power amplifiers: Mark Levinson No.33H monoblocks.
Cables: Datalinks: Kimber…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
Thiel's literature goes into the efforts made by Jim Thiel to increase the CS1.6's sensitivity, and the speaker did indeed prove very sensitive, my estimate coming in 7dB above average, and 4dB above Thiel's own figure, at 94dB(B)/2.83V/m. This seemed unlikely, so I repeated the measurement, only to get the same result. However, the '1.6 does suck more than twice as much current as an 8 ohm speaker from the amplifier to achieve that high sensitivity, as revealed by its plot of impedance magnitude and electrical phase against frequency (fig.1). The phase angle is…