Setup
Careful placement is key to achieving sonic satisfaction with any high-…
search
A specially designed Vibration Control Terminal, floating on a Neoprene frame, contains a single pair of WBT five-way binding posts. Like all of Audio Physic's floorstanding models, the Caldera sits on two heavy, smoothly machined cross-pieces of aluminum screwed into the cabinet bottom. Set into circular endcaps are the floor spikes, which are conveniently adjustable from above. A top plate covers each spike to give the footing a neatly finished appearance that goes with the handsome overall design.
The same basic tweeter (with a custom rear chamber designed by Franco Serblin) also produced gorgeous highs in the Sonus Faber Stradivari Homage, so I'm at a loss to explain this seemingly bad behavior, or why designer Diestertich appears to have changed what sounded like the ideal voicing I'd heard at CES. Even novice and casual listeners visiting my listening room described the Caldera's sound as "bright"—regardless of which amps, two solid-state and two tubed, I had in the system at the time (though I don't think "bright" is the word an experienced listener would use). I doubt Diestertich…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-and-a-half-way loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" ring-radiator tweeter, 7" ceramic-coated aluminum-cone upper midrange unit, 7" ceramic-coated aluminum-cone lower midrange unit, two 10.6" ceramic-coated aluminum-cone woofers, two 10.6" Nomex-cone passive radiators. Frequency range: 22Hz–40kHz. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms. Sensitivity: 89dB/2.83V/m.
Dimensions: 46.9" (1200mm) H by 11.2" (290mm) W by 19.5" (500mm) D. Weight: 132 lbs (60kg).
Finishes: Light and dark maple, black ash, cherry, makassar ebony, rosenut.
Serial numbers of units…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Simon Yorke S7 turntable; Immedia RPM-2, Graham 2.2 & Phantom tonearms; Lyra Titan, Graham Nightingale, Grado Statement Reference cartridges.
Digital Sources: Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista SACD player and kW SACD player, Alesis Masterlink CD-R recorder.
Preamplification: Musical Fidelity kW & kWP preamplifiers, Manley Steelhead phono preamplifier.
Power Amplifiers: Musical Fidelity kW & kW750, Music Reference RM-200 (tubed), Audio Valve Baldur 70 (tubed).
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties MAXX2.
Cables: Phono:…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
Like the Peak Consult Empress reviewed last month, the Audio Physic Caldera was too bulky to lift on to a high stand for the acoustic measurements. The farfield measurements therefore inevitably suffer from a limited midrange resolution.
My estimate of the Caldera's voltage sensitivity was slightly higher than specified, at 90dB(B)/2.83V/m. This is also a useful 3dB higher than the average of the more than 500 speakers I have measured over the past 15 years. The Caldera's impedance (fig.1) varied between 3.5 and 6 ohms between the upper bass and upper…
Manufacturer's Comment
Editor: We would like to thank Michel Fremer and Stereophile for having the time to audition our Audio Physic Caldera speaker.
We have looked at the measurements and read Michael's review and have compared both with our laboratory tests. From the reports we get from our customers, our experiences at the High End Show in Munich (see show report by Markus Sauer in Stereophile, August 2005), and the very positive reviews in other magazines, the differences are more than obvious. Considering all of this, there is no doubt that Caldera serial number 002 had…
Sorry to empty your wallet this month, but here's a must-have if you want to get the most from your upsampling MSB Link DAC III: Monarchy Audio's Digital Interface Processor 24/96 (DIP for short).
Remember my writeup of the original DIP, back in June 1997 (Vol.20 No.6)? No? C.C. Poon? Monkey-picked tea? Go read it, if you have the back issue. I fell for the "monkey-picked" business hook, line, and sinker, and then learned from several readers that tea-picking monkeys is a good story. Good tea, though, and I wish I spoke Chinese—I haven't been able to find any more.
What…
Poetry, painting, and sculpture must lie, but they should lie with grandeur, charm, and splendor.—Napoléon I
Napoléon seems to be saying that lying—or, to use another word, distortion—is necessary for art. Indeed, he might even be saying that the act of telling intentional and crafty lies is, in itself, that which makes art art. I am certain that, had sound recording been invented in his time (footnote 1), Napoléon would have been fascinated by its potential political and social uses, and perhaps even included it in his list of arts that must tell lies.
After all, just as the…
Second, becoming better-educated listeners will help us become more astute equipment buyers. Once we learn to recognize the sound of equalization or dynamic compression being applied to a recording, we have a better chance of recognizing, as examples, that a certain loudspeaker may emphasize certain frequencies in order to enhance imaging, or that it trades off dynamic linearity in its quest for high efficiency.
Here's an example of what I mean by becoming more educated. If one were to ask you to guess the frequency of the violin's highest open string, what would you say? 4kHz? 3kHz?…
One reason I think we tend to play things too loudly (guilty as charged here, at least for Mahler, and Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius) is to make up for the lack of the sense of envelopment we get in a performance space. Another reason is that many home systems can't do justice to bass fundamentals, so we turn up the volume to try to compensate. I've found that with speakers that are full-range or almost full-range, I tend to listen at lower average levels. Really.
Anyway, even in the absence of hard data about SPL levels at the recording session (information I have included in the…