Since then, Lamm has weathered the vicissitudes of the audio business and has soldiered on to produce a full range of tube and hybrid electronics. They've also coaxed very respectable sound from recalcitrant rooms at diverse audio shows—a real miracle, I can tell you. In fact, Vladimir Shushurin, Lamm's president and director of engineering, told me they'd achieved excellent results at last year's Moscow show with a pair of…
There was, however, always something subtle, gentle, and expressive to be culled from the fabric of the music. In fact…
There followed something of a…
Description: Class-A/AB tube monoblock power amplifier. Tube complement: two 6C33C-B, one 12AX7WA/7025, one 12BH7A. Two multi-function meters for bias and balance controls. Inputs: RCA/XLR. Power output: 90Wpc into 8, 4, or 2 ohms, 20Hz-20kHz, (19.5, 16.5, 13.5dBW, respectively). Frequency response at 1W: 20Hz-20kHz, -0.3dB; 4Hz-82kHz, -3dB. Total harmonic distortion: 0.1% at 1W/1kHz, 2.5% at 90W/1kHz. Maximum intermodulation distortion, 60Hz-7kHz, 4:1 SMPTE: 5% into 8, 4, or 2 ohms. Damping factor: 7 at 8 ohms. Input impedance: 41k ohms shunted by 470pF. Input…
Analog source: Forsell Air Force One turntable and tonearm, Clearaudio Insider cartridge.
Digital source: dCS 972 D/D converter and Elgar D/A processor at 24/192, Accuphase DP-75V CD player, Forsell Air Reference CD transport.
Preamplifiers: BAT VK-50SE/VK-P10, Mark Levinson No.32 Reference.
Power amplifiers: Linn Klimax Solo 500 monos, Forsell Statement, Accuphase M2000.
Loudspeakers: JMlab Utopia.
Cables: Interconnects: Synergistic Designer's Reference Active Shielding. Speaker: XLO The Limited. Digital: XLO The Limited AES/EBU. AC:…
With its twin triple-nippled power tubes, Lamm's ML1 looks both intriguing and industrial. It was also reassuring to find that, following its transcontinental trip to my lab, the meters on the sample I was measuring indicated that its operating parameters of bias, balance, and plate idle current were all healthy: no further adjustment needed. I let it cook for an hour at one-third full power into 8 ohms—the top plate and transformer covers were merely warm to the touch—before I took any measurements.
Getting the essentials out of the way: The amplifier was…
Fig.6 Lamm ML1, spectrum of 1kHz sinewave, DC-20kHz…
The original Lamm ML1 monoblock power amplifier was one of those components that seemed to bewitch everyone who heard it. It worked its spell on Jonathan Scull in the May 2000 Stereophile (Vol.23 No.5), and sent me into raptures when I reviewed it for The Abso!ute Sound in 2001. Hearing the news that it had been upgraded and renamed the ML1.1, I couldn't help but wonder just what Vladimir Lamm had found to improve.
The answers surprised me. While making access to the plate fuses easier doesn't seem like much, the…
The closing Adagio of Gustav Mahler's Ninth Symphony, with all its apparent acceptance of and glowing resignation to death, would seem to write such a perfect Fin to the composer's musical and physical lives that many conductors have been loath to even peer into the magpie's nest of the uncompleted Tenth.
I've found this outlook so seductive over the years that I've indulged in…