Description: All-tube stereo amplifier. Power output: 240W below 1% THD from 20Hz to 20kHz into 16 ohms; clipping point 250W. Power bandwidth: -3dB at 12Hz and 60kHz. IM distortion: below 0.1% at 1dB below rated output. Sensitivity: 800mV for rated output. Input impedance: 75k ohms. Damping factor: approx 20. Hum and noise: 90dB below rated output. Power consumption: 450W in Standby mode, 900W at idle, 2kW at rated output.
Dimensions: 19" W by 10½" H by 203/4" D. Weight: 138 lbs.
Price: $6500.
Manufacturer: Audio Research Corporation, 3900 Annapolis…
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Sidebar 1: Specifications
BILLY BRAGG & WILCO: Mermaid Avenue
Elektra 62204-2 (CD). 1998. Billy Bragg, Wilco, Grant Showbiz, prods.; Jerry Boys, eng.; Nora Guthrie, exec. prod. AAD? TT: 49:42
Performance ****?
Sonics ****
Elektra 62204-2 (CD). 1998. Billy Bragg, Wilco, Grant Showbiz, prods.; Jerry Boys, eng.; Nora Guthrie, exec. prod. AAD? TT: 49:42
Performance ****?
Sonics ****
You gotta give Billy Bragg and Wilco credit. Not only did they interrupt their respective careers for this admittedly intriguing side project, they also dissected and shoved their hands deep into the guts of one of this country's more contradictory musical personalities: Woody Guthrie. The idea was to hit a horribly difficult trifecta: pay homage to Guthrie's spirit, create their…
I first met Tony Federici at a 1986 high-end show in Lucerne, Switzerland. He was at that time distributing Perreaux amplifiers in the US; the dem room Perreaux shared with KEF and McIntosh overlooked Lake Lucerne and Wagner's villa at Tribschen, perhaps the most idyllic setting for Show sound I have ever experienced. Tony was educated as a philosopher: In the 10 years I've known him, I have never known him at a loss for an opinion. It's all the more strange, therefore, that Stereophile has never asked him to submit to the ordeal of a formal interview.
I put this oversight right at HI-FI…
Federici: Right. And that allowed the speaker manufacturers to then create less expensive loudspeakers with a lot more freedom. About seven or eight years ago, it was only the very expensive loudspeakers that had the freedom of offering widely varying impedances because you needed very expensive amplifiers to drive them. We fed on the market and the market fed on us. And changed it radically, I think.
Atkinson: What was the stimulus for your Acurus line?
Federici: We brought out Acurus because, according to the dealers, there was a need for a lower-priced, US-made, properly made—…
So what's happened is that people no longer know what the live event sounds like. That's a serious problem, whether it's Home Theater or audio. That's in the US. In other countries, I still think that there is more knowledge of what the actual instruments sound like. But this country thinks if they go to a Broadway show and they hear all that noise and distortion coming out of loudspeakers that are cranked up like crazy with microphones right down the performer's throats, that's the live event.
Any good home audio system sounds better than that. So we've come around full circle where it…
Atkinson: There's always the danger that, in an industry driven by the image, audio will take a back seat. "Well, we only need so much data space for the audio...it's only audio, who cares?" But when you experience a good Home Theater setup, what impresses you is not the picture, it's the way the sound drags you into the experience.
Federici: I've always been disturbed by the poor marketing that we've all done of audio. We've allowed "virtual reality" to be defined as something that isn't even close. The closest thing to a virtual-reality industry is the audio industry...We come closer…
Federici: Okay, I'm going to ask you a question: Do you agree that, in the overwhelming majority of cases, the components that this end of the audio industry produces are clearly superior to what the mass-market companies make?
Atkinson: Yes.
Federici: I wish Stereophile would get that message out more. Because this industry is kept small by reviews in magazines like yours, where this level of product is compared with this level of product. You forget that all the products that are being compared are of high level. When was the last time that Stereophile actually put in print…
I think we need to try to communicate that message more. That it really doesn't matter whether you buy X product or Y product—as long as you're not buying Z, which is basically an appliance, you're way ahead of the game. Even on cost. Products in this end of the industry have genuine resale value. When somebody buys a mass-market product, that money's gone. The product has no intrinsic value at that point. The customer may have laid out $2000 on an audio system, but that $2000 is gone. They lay out $5000 on an Aragon system and it costs them less than the $2000 they laid out on the other…
In debates about audio, philosophy, literature, fine art, or whatever, people often adhere to either absolutism or relativism. Absolutism supposes, for example, that either analog or digital is superior and that whichever is better holds for all parties concerned. Michael Fremer, for instance, is not just advertising his opinion about the superiority of analog; he believes that everyone would acknowledge it if they paid attention to the evidence. Relativism, on the other hand, teaches that no such absolute and univocal consensus can be reached. In the end, we all have our own subjective…
My opinions keep changing—more evidence of life before death, I suppose—including my thoughts on audio-system hierarchies. I used to think that preamps were among the most sonically influential components, certainly more so than power amplifiers. I'm not so sure anymore (footnote 1).
That doesn't leave much to write about whenever a new preamplifier does come my way, so I'm filling the void with my expanding concern for creature comforts: More than anything else, the preamplifier is the ergonomic focus of any decent music system, so I'm here to praise it for that. Now I've got…