LP playback: Rega Planar 2 turntable, Rega Bias and Sumiko Blue Point Special phono cartridges.
CD playback: Arcam Alpha 9, Audio Research CD2.
Integrated amplifier: Creek 4330R.
Loudspeakers: B&W DM 302, B&W Silver Signature, KEF RDM-2, Polk RT-5, Paradigm Reference Studio/20.
Cables: Siltech interconnects, WireWorld Gold Eclipse III speaker cables.
Accessories: CinePro PowerPro 20 AC line conditioner, Salamander Synergy Stand, Sound Organisation two-tier equipment rack.
Room treatment: ASC Tube Traps, Studio Traps, Bass Traps…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 2: Measurements
All of the following measurements, except as noted, were taken with the level control set to a position at which an input of 100mV results in an output of 1W (approximately 2:00 o'clock). The overall gain at this position is 29.2dB; the Brio's gain with the level control full up is 40dB.
The Rega Brio was warm, but not hot, following its 1-hour, 1/3-power preconditioning test. Its line input impedance measured 65.5k ohms at 1kHz, a comfortably high value. At lower and higher settings of the level control this value increased marginally to 69.6k ohms at 9:…
Sam Tellig wrote about the Rega Brio 3 in March 2007 (Vol.30 No.3):
Nearly 25 years ago, when I began reviewing audio gear, you could find a small, basic, unobtrusive British integrated amplifier for between $300 and $500. All included phono stages. Those were kinder, gentler times.
Those itty-bitty, 'umble-pie British integrateds flaunted few features. Avoiding "features"—balance and tone controls, speaker-selection switches, headphone jacks—was the whole idea. All of these can clutter up and possibly degrade the signal path.
Reviewers for the then-mainstream US hi-fi…
Editor's Note: Those of us who cut our engineering teeth on tubes still remember the advent of the solid-state amplifier with mixed feelings. Yes, they were lighter and cheaper per watt than the thermionic hulks we loved so much, but they broke all the time (thanks to the germanium transistor) and sounded like—well, let J. Gordon Holt tell us what they sounded like in an "As We See It" article from Vol.1 No.10, first published in May 1965. We also develop the theme with a JGH review of an early transistorized amp, as well as a selection of readers' letters from the early days of Stereophile.…
Sidebar 1: KLH Model 16 amplifier (from Vol.1 No.11, September 1965):
Specifications (furnished by manufacturer): Outputs: tape, speaker (8 ohms). Inputs (per channel): Mag phono; tape amp; 2 aux; tuner. Controls: Input (Phono, Aux 1, Aux 2, Tuner); ganged volume/loudness 1/loudness 2 switch; tape monitor switch; stereo/mono switch; filter switch; AC power. Power output: 35Wpc continuous, both channels operating. Harmonic distortion: <2%, 25Hz–20kHz at 35W, 8 ohm load. Frequency response: 25Hz–Hz +0, –1dB. Power bandwidth: 25Hz–20kHz. Hum and noise: 80dB below 35W output. Sensitivity…
Sidebar 2: Readers' Letters
Solid-state rebuttal
Editor: I must take very strong exception to your article condemning solid-state amplifiers in general and stating that the best of them sound like the best of the vacuum-tube amplifiers.
I built, along lines used by Acoustech, a 3-channel solid-state amp that makes my Citation tube amp sound sick. There is more apparent bass (although there is no measurable difference), the damping is much better, and triangular waveforms show no sign of the crossover distortion you described. This transistor amp doesn't add any glitches…
It used to be that, when I sat down to write the introduction to Stereophile's ever-popular annual "Records To Die For" feature, it quickly became an exercise in racking my meager brain for jokes about "dying for" records. But being funny, in print or otherwise, is tremendously difficult. I'm sure Groucho had a much more apropos, not to mention funny, quip about the trials of being humorous—but, as with the aforementioned jokes, I can't seem to think of it right now.
Complicating matters is the fact that this year's feature—unlike those, in retrospect, halcyon R2D4s of the past—comes at…
JOHN ATKINSON
GEOFF MULDAUR'S FUTURISTIC ENSEMBLE: Private Astronomy: A Vision of the Music of Bix Beiderbecke
DG Edge 028947458326 (CD). 2003. Dick Connette, prod.; Joe Boyd, exec. prod.; Eve Seltzer, Gary Carroll, Tristan Leral, Scott Lehrer, Dave Winslow, Mark Linett, Keith Weschler, Neil Couser, engs. AAD? TT: 42:18 Popular music is ephemeral by definition, anchored in the cultural and social values from which it emerged. Without reference to those values, it can be hard to understand what the fuss was about—unless the man or woman behind the music was a genius. Such was the case…
GEOFF MULDAUR'S FUTURISTIC ENSEMBLE: Private Astronomy: A Vision of the Music of Bix Beiderbecke
DG Edge 028947458326 (CD). 2003. Dick Connette, prod.; Joe Boyd, exec. prod.; Eve Seltzer, Gary Carroll, Tristan Leral, Scott Lehrer, Dave Winslow, Mark Linett, Keith Weschler, Neil Couser, engs. AAD? TT: 42:18 Popular music is ephemeral by definition, anchored in the cultural and social values from which it emerged. Without reference to those values, it can be hard to understand what the fuss was about—unless the man or woman behind the music was a genius. Such was the case…
PAUL BOLIN
BEETHOVEN: Symphonies 8, 9
Bruno Walter, Columbia Symphony Orchestra
Columbia M2S 608 (2 LPs). 1960. John McClure, prod. AAA. TT: 97:37 In my unabashedly biased opinion, nobody but nobody has ever surpassed the great Bruno Walter in the core German symphonic repertoire. Walter's fuller textures and gemütlich but highly disciplined approach to Beethoven are somewhat out of fashion in this age of instrumental originalism, but these interpretations sing with nobility and the sensibilities of a conductor whose life overlapped that of Johannes Brahms and whose mentor was…
BEETHOVEN: Symphonies 8, 9
Bruno Walter, Columbia Symphony Orchestra
Columbia M2S 608 (2 LPs). 1960. John McClure, prod. AAA. TT: 97:37 In my unabashedly biased opinion, nobody but nobody has ever surpassed the great Bruno Walter in the core German symphonic repertoire. Walter's fuller textures and gemütlich but highly disciplined approach to Beethoven are somewhat out of fashion in this age of instrumental originalism, but these interpretations sing with nobility and the sensibilities of a conductor whose life overlapped that of Johannes Brahms and whose mentor was…
ART DUDLEY
THE MOVE: Message from the Country
Harvest/EMI SHSP 4013 (LP). 1971. Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne, prods. AAA. TT: 39:20 Before the Electric Light Orchestra there was the Move, a pop group from Birmingham that had a solid string of UK hits in the mid- to late 1960s, despite their propensity for stylistic hopscotching. But when group leader Roy Wood brought in fellow Brummie Jeff Lynne, their sound snapped into focus.
THE MOVE: Message from the Country
Harvest/EMI SHSP 4013 (LP). 1971. Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne, prods. AAA. TT: 39:20 Before the Electric Light Orchestra there was the Move, a pop group from Birmingham that had a solid string of UK hits in the mid- to late 1960s, despite their propensity for stylistic hopscotching. But when group leader Roy Wood brought in fellow Brummie Jeff Lynne, their sound snapped into focus.
Message from the Country was their last album as the Move (and before Wood's eventual departure), and while it's very much a studio album—cellos, recorders, and…