Martin Colloms
LAURIE ANDERSON: Strange Angels
Warner Bros. 25900-2 (CD). Eric Liljestrand, eng.; Laurie Anderson, Rona Baran, prods. ADD. TT: 46:03
Point One, I just like it; it grows on you. Point Two, it has great range and variety. Point Three, it has humor and life. Confident and expressive, Anderson's creative quality stands out from the crowd. As regards fidelity, that is also very good, with a wide frequency and dynamic range, excellent transients and localization, and fine timing. It is a valuable tool for testing equipment, yet still gives great pleasure after…
Arnis Balgalvis
SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON: Keep It To Ourselves
Alligator AL4787 (LP), ALCD 4878 (CD). Ivar Rosenberg, eng.; Karl Emil Knudsen, prod. AAA/A?D. TT: 51:36
This is a U-R-There recording if ever there was one. I don't know what rivets me more: the absolutely compelling performance or the outstanding sonic presentation. If this doesn't transport Sonny Boy into your listening room and give you frequent glimpses of reality, I don't know what will. The harmonica is simply a part of this remarkable artist, and you are sure to be part of the rapt audience. Despite some…
Twelve years ago, loudspeaker manufacturer NHT launched its model 3.3, a floorstanding, full-range design that Corey Greenberg summed up in the March 1994 Stereophile as doing "everything I want a He-Man reference loudspeaker to do...I find myself without a single area of performance I've heard bettered by any other speaker." The NHT 3.3 basically combined a high-performance monitor with a sideways-firing subwoofer in the same enclosure, and when I first saw NHT's Evolution T6 system at the 2002 CEDIA convention, I was reminded of the classic 3.3, but a 3.3 updated for the needs of home…
Both dual-mono pink noise and the bass guitar track on Editor's Choice were appropriately reproduced as narrow, stable, centrally placed images. The speaker displayed only slight changes in treble balance with changes in listener ear height. However, on pink noise, sideways head movements off the tweeter axis in both directions resulted in the accentuation of some mid-treble frequencies (more so on the midrange side). This speaker will have problems with hard, reflective sidewalls.
Even with the slight mid-treble emphasis, string tone was smooth and extended at both extremes on the T6,…
Postscript from May 2005 (Vol.28 No.5):
When I reviewed NHT's Evolution T6 loudspeaker system in April, I ran out of time and space before I could explore the possibility of running the system "commando" style; ie, with the X1 electronic crossover bypassed for the M6 satellites. While the satellites would no longer benefit from the filter's high-pass function, thus reducing their ultimate dynamic-range capability, I wondered if the elimination of the filter, which is constructed to utilitarian rather than high-end electronic standards, would get the ultimate sound quality from these…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Tower loudspeaker system comprising two M6 monitors, two B6 bass modules (mirror-imaged pair), two A1 amplifiers, and X1 active crossover (mounting brackets, hardware, aluminum stabilizer bars, and wire-management system included). Frequency response: 26Hz–30kHz, ±3dB. Peak acoustic output at 1m: >120dB SPL.
Dimensions: 47.1" H (1197mm) by 13.25" W (336mm), including stabilizer bars, by 24" D (610mm). Weight: 103 lbs (47kg) per channel.
Finish: Anthracite matte lacquer.
Price: $4000/system. Approximate number of dealers: 200.
NHT…
Sidebar 2: Review System
Digital sources: Mark Levinson No.31.5 CD transport; Mark Levinson No.30.6, Benchmark DAC 1, and Musical Fidelity X-DACV3 D/A processors; dCS Verdi SACD/CD transport, dCS Purcell upsampler, dCS Elgar Plus DAC, dCS Verona master clock; Esoteric X-01 SACD player; Technics DVD-A10 DVD-Audio player; Ayre CX-7 and Simaudio Moon Equinox CD players.
Preamplification: Mark Levinson No.380S.
Power amplifiers: Mark Levinson No.33H monoblocks.
Cables: Datalinks: Kimber Illuminations Orchid AES/EBU, AudioQuest SVD-4 and Stereovox hdxv S/PDIF. Interconnect: Madrigal…
Sidebar 3: Amplifier/Subwoofer Measurements
The Evolution T6's A1 monoblock amplifier doesn't have enough heatsink area to enable it to run at high power for long periods of time. It shut itself down after driving 70W into 8 ohms for 15 minutes, the top of its chassis too hot to keep my hand on. The amp worked fine after cooling down, so owners should make sure they keep the A1 well ventilated. It ran warm during my auditioning but never shut down. The A1's input impedance was 14k ohms unbalanced and 26k ohms balanced, and it didn't invert signal polarity. The unbalanced voltage gain was…
Sidebar 4: Loudspeaker Measurements
My estimate of the M6 satellite's sensitivity was to specification at 86dB(B)/2.83V/m. Its impedance plot (fig.13) featured the single bass peak typical of a sealed-box design, this placed at 66Hz, suggesting modest LF extension. Other than minor excursions below 6 ohms in the upper bass and the middle of the midrange, the M6's impedance suggests it is an easy load for an amplifier to drive. The graph is also free of the small wrinkles that would suggest the presence of cabinet resonances. While an investigation of the panels' vibrational behavior…
Although I retain a firm hold on the established audio world, and recognize and value all that it has achieved, I feel inexorably driven to make some space in my life for single-ended amplifiers—more especially, those that eschew negative feedback (footnote 1). A classic if costly example of the art is the Cary CAD-805C, which, to my ears, has earned the right to teach audiophiles what negative feedback really sounds like, and what damage it can do to the musical message when poorly handled. This shouldn't be taken as an out-of-hand dismissal of those many great pieces of electronics and…
