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…
Sidebar 1: Tim de Paravicini & Heavy Iron
For the past several years, rather than let an active phono preamplifier do all the work, I've preferred to use step-up transformers with low-output moving-coil cartridges. There are some good active stages out there—the Linn Linto comes to mind, as well as the Naim Prefix and the MC phono boards for the DNM 3-C preamplifier—but it's my experience that trannies let the music breathe a little better.
But because I'm not an engineer, and because the old-fashionedness of the transformer approach at times leaves me feeling somewhat…
Sidebar 2: Specifications
Description: Tubed stereo preamplifier. Tube complement: five 7DJ8/PCC88. Phono inputs: 2. Line inputs: 2 balanced, 3 unbalanced. Tape loops: 1. Outputs: 1 balanced, 1 unbalanced. Input impedances, phono: 47k ohms, moving-magnet; 3, 6, 12, or 40 ohms, moving-coil. Output impedance: 600 ohms. Line-stage gain: 14dB. Phono-stage gain: 50–80dB. Signal/noise ratio: 68dB phono (ref. 2.4mV), 90dB line (ref. 1V). Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz, –0.3dB. Distortion: <0.1% at 1kHz, 3V output. Phase-inverting: No. No, no, no.
Dimensions: 19" (485mm) W by 5.25" (135mm…
Sidebar 3: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Linn LP12 turntable, Linn Lingo power supply, Linn Ekos tonearm; Rega Planar 3 turntable, Rega RB-300 tonearm; Miyabi 47, Linn Akiva, Lyra Helikon Mono, Linn Adikt, Rega Elys cartridges; Audio Note AN-S2, Tamura TKS-83 moving-coil step-up transformers.
Digital Sources: Naim CD5x CD player, Linn Unidisk SC universal player.
Preamplifier: Fi.
Power Amplifiers: Lamm ML2.1, First Watt F2.
Loudspeakers: Quad ESL-989, Lowther PM6As in Medallion horns.
Cables: Interconnect: Audio Note AN-Vx, Nordost Valhalla. Speaker: Audio Note AN-…
Sidebar 4: Measurements
The EAR 912's phono stage offered gains of 50dB, 44dB, and 38dB in MM mode, depending on the position of the front-panel gain switch. The corresponding figures for MC operation were 19dB higher. The MM input impedance was 43k ohms at 20Hz, this increasing slightly to 50k ohms at 1kHz and 47k ohms at 20kHz. With the phono input set to MC and 40 ohms, I measured an input impedance of 422 ohms at 1kHz, this decreasing to 117 ohms at 20Hz and 378 ohms at 20kHz. The phono input preserved absolute polarity.
Fig.1 shows the 912's phono-stage frequency response,…
Within a few years of entering the US market, Australian audio manufacturer Bruce Halcro Candy cemented his place in audio history by designing a amplifier that Paul Bolin said (in the October 2002 Stereophile) "could well justify the creation of a 'Class A+' amplifier category in 'Recommended Components'," and the low distortion characteristics of which prompted editor John Atkinson, a man who has elevated the craft of understatement to a high art, to reach for the word astonishing. That was the Halcro dm58 monoblock ($29,990/pair), which has only recently been superseded by the Halcro dm78…
The Logic MC20 arrived on a disagreeable day, so I was glad to see that Halcro double-boxes their amps, and that their packing materials and other ancillaries are of apparently high quality. One curious thing I did notice during setup was that the MC20 has the most resonant enclosure of any contemporary amp I've tried. If you run your finger along the cooling vents on its top surface, the way a child might pass a stick over the tines of a wrought-iron fence, you'll hear quite a loud sound. The first time I produced the noise by accident, I thought the phone was ringing elsewhere in the…
