As with some other monster speakers—the JMlab Grande Utopia in May '96, for example, and the Jadis Eurythmie II in March—the SC-VI's size and weight precluded measuring it in Stereophile's listening room, where I routinely perform speaker measurements. (Generally speaking, to perform an acoustic measurement in a room requires the room to be very much larger than the loudspeaker.) But in the case of the big Dunlavy, the fact that the company is based in Colorado Springs—a mere six-hour hop by car over the Raton Pass from Stereophile World HQ in Santa Fe, New Mexico…
search
The bulk of the loudspeaker, coupled with the lack of any turntable facilities in the DAL anechoic chamber, made it impossible to examine the SC-VI's off-axis behavior. However, during my own auditioning, I did the usual stand-up/sit-down test as well as listening critically at various off-axis angles. The speaker's dispersion does appear to be well-behaved.
In the time domain, the Dunlavy's impulse response can be seen in fig.3. It has an excellent, time-coherent shape, though with some slight HF ringing evident. A reflection can also be seen about 2.5ms after the main pulse, which…
I dig tube amps. When all's said and done, good tube amps seem to sound more like real life than most solid-state gear; even after listening to and enjoying the hell out of musical solid-state designs like the Audio Research D-240 II and the Muse Model One Hundred, once I hook up the big VTL Deluxe 225s again it's just like going home. I could go on about timbral accuracy and clearer midrange textures, but the bottom line is, music just plain sounds better when you shoot it through good tubes, and once most people experience that magic, they're hooked.
Only problem is, that ol' valve…
Aside from the changes detailed above, the new Panor/Dynaco amp is clearly a Stereo 70 clone; the two pairs of EL34 output tubes driven in Ultralinear mode, centrally mounted power transformer flanked by the two smaller output transformers, and front-mounted input RCA jacks all duplicate the classic Dyna look. Located on the rear of the 70 II are four single 5-way binding posts per channel for ground, plus 4-, 8-, and 16-ohm output transformer taps. Potential modifiers take note: while the original Dyna's entire audio circuit was exposed on the top of the chassis for easy access, the Panor…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Rated power: 35Wpc (15.44dBW/8 ohms), 20-20kHz, at less than 0.25% THD. IM distortion: less than 1% up to 30W. Frequency response: 20-20kHz ±0.5dB at rated power. Input sensitivity: 1.3V.
Dimensions: 13" W by 9.5" D by 7" H. Weight: 35 lbs.
Price: $995 with standard black finish, $1095 with chrome chassis (1992); no longer available (2004). Approximate number of dealers: 220.
Manufacturer: Panor Corp., 125 Cabot Court, Hauppage, NY 11788. Tel: (631) 434-1200. Web: www.dynaco.com.
Review system
I hooked the amps up to my hi-fi rig: Aunt Corey's Homemade Buffered Passive Preamp, Audio Research SP-14 phono stage, Well-Tempered Record Player fitted with the Sumiko Blue Point cartridge and Analog Survival Arm Wrap, the Proceed CD Library 100-disc multi-player, Theta DS Pro Basic II processor driven via Theta's excellent digital cable by either a JVC XL-Z1050 CD player or the dig-out jack of the CD Library, and ProAc Response Two speakers seated on the back-breakin' heavy-metal Target RS2 stands. Interconnects were Kimber KCAG except for Straight Wire Maestro between…
Measurements
The ST70 Series II, like most tube amplifiers, ran quite warm after its preconditioning test and in normal operation. It was noninverting, and though the measured DC offset was generally below 10mV, it was also unstable, as it was with the Nobis. The unweighted wide-band S/N ratio of the ST70 II measured 60dB, referenced to 1W into 8 ohms.
The input impedance of the ST70 II was quite high—over 330k ohms—which is typical of many tube amplifiers. Matching to the output of any reasonably designed preamplifier should present no problem. Its output impedance from the 8…
Manufacturer's Comment
Editor: My response to Corey's incompetent review of the Stereo 70/II should be just that—a letter to Corey:
Point/Counterpoint: Corey. You incredibly misguided wordmeister. If, as you say, you want to find the best-sounding affordable tube gear, the new Stereo 70/II should have lit your fire. After all, every major audiophile publication in the world has rated the ST-70 as a great value, with The Abso!ute Sound concluding that its "clarity and detail are nothing less than stunning."
First of all, using a ProAc Response Two with a sensitivity of 86dB…
Lera Auerbach is an important new classical composer.
Stop!!! Freeze!!! Do not run from the room in search of silver bullets, wooden stakes, garlic, or a crucifix. Defenses, supernatural or otherwise, will not be necessary. For two reasons.
First, Ms. Auerbach's music, at least as represented on her new BIS CD, 24 Preludes for Violin and Piano (BIS CD 1242), is tonal and melodic. While they exhibit touches of modernism in their nods in the directions of Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Schnittke, and Messaien, on the whole Auerbach's 24 Preludes hark back to the 19th-century tradition of…
A different-drummer loudspeaker
To judge from his Arpeggione loudspeaker, Jean-Marie Reynaud (footnote 3) is an individualistic and perhaps even idiosyncratic loudspeaker designer in the mold of Paul Klipsch, Amar Bose, Irving M. "Bud" Fried, and Dick Shahinian. The Arpeggione is the floorstanding version of the Twin Mk.3 bookshelf speaker, having the same 6.5" mid-woofer and 1.5" soft-dome tweeter. The differences being cabinet volume and woofer loading, the Arpeggione has more bass extension and volume than the Twin. Its price increment over the Twin ($1200 vs $895) seems quite…
To judge from his Arpeggione loudspeaker, Jean-Marie Reynaud (footnote 3) is an individualistic and perhaps even idiosyncratic loudspeaker designer in the mold of Paul Klipsch, Amar Bose, Irving M. "Bud" Fried, and Dick Shahinian. The Arpeggione is the floorstanding version of the Twin Mk.3 bookshelf speaker, having the same 6.5" mid-woofer and 1.5" soft-dome tweeter. The differences being cabinet volume and woofer loading, the Arpeggione has more bass extension and volume than the Twin. Its price increment over the Twin ($1200 vs $895) seems quite…