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Lamm Industries ML1 monoblock power amplifier Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

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…

Lamm Industries ML1 monoblock power amplifier Measurements part 2

Fig.6 shows the spectrum of a 1kHz tone under roughly the same test conditions used to take fig.5. Again, the third harmonic is the highest in level, with the low odd orders predominant. However, if you look at fig.7, which was taken at a significantly higher power level, higher powers and lower load impedances both raise the level of the odd harmonics and introduce even-order distortion. The same is true at lower frequencies (fig.8), which I am sure correlates with J-10's noting that the amplifier had a "plummy"-sounding bass.

Fig.6 Lamm ML1, spectrum of 1kHz sinewave, DC-20kHz…

Lamm Industries ML1 monoblock power amplifier Paul Bolin January 2004

Paul Bolin wrote about the Lamm ML1.1 in January 1004 (Vol.27 No.1)

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…

Recording of August 1993: Mahler: Symphony 10

MAHLER: Symphony 10 First Performing Version by Deryck Cooke
Eliahu Inbal, Frankfurt RSO
Denon CO-75129 (CD only). Yoshiharu Kawaguchi, Richard Hauck, prods.; Detlev Kittler, eng. DDD. TT: 70:59

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…

The Unmaking of Elvis Presley: New Reissues 1960-1972

No artist in the history of sound recordings has a more confused recorded legacy than Elvis Presley. Thanks to several generations' worth of ruthless avarice by his label, the constant machinations and eventual fire sale by his manager, Col. Tom Parker, and his own pathetic sloth, due in part by a 20-year addiction to prescription drugs, Elvis's recorded catalog is an absolute disaster: cut and pasted, issued and reissued as both budget and full-priced collections, exploited beyond all recognition. Keeping track of Elvis's catalog is one of, if not the most, labyrinthine discography in rock…

The Unmaking of Elvis Presley: New Reissues 1960-1972 Page 2

Four new Jorgensen/Semon-produced Elvis reissues—Elvis is Back, Such a Night, Tomorrow is a Long Time, and Burning Love—attempt, to varying degrees, to be "albums that never were." All of the songs on each album, including singles, were recorded around the same time, usually in the same studio with the same musicians; had the recording philosophy then been what it is today, these tracks would probably have ended up on the same album anyway.

Assembling tracks cut at the same time was a relatively easy decision. Deciding on the mix was another story.

"In the first three cases […

The Unmaking of Elvis Presley: New Reissues 1960-1972 Page 3

In compiling this Elvis disc that never was, Ernst Jorgensen's aim with Such a Night was to provide a window on what went on during one of Elvis's legendary all-night recording sessions. The opening track is a good example. Although it became the master take of the title tune, the producers of this compilation left in two false starts, with the engineer calling out the master and take numbers. Other than "Such A Night" itself, this 20-track CD consists only of alternate takes, none of them previously released. (A 1991 disc, The Lost Album, collected tracks cut in Nashville between 1963 and…

The Unmaking of Elvis Presley: New Reissues 1960-1972 Page 4

"Tiger Man was a very unbalanced mono recording," Jorgensen says. "At the time the TV producers didn't care about the sound. It was just a necessary evil to go with the picture. [In remastering] we didn't interfere with the high end because that's where the fragile echo of the guitar strings is hanging. We did re-EQ to get more bottom end and try to remove some of the alarming sensation of the tambourine that runs through it."

Energized by the success of the TV special and the fact that he "still had it" in front of a live audience, Elvis then fell into one of those great bits of…

The Unmaking of Elvis Presley: New Reissues 1960-1972 Page 5

But Jorgensen, Semon, and the other RCA participants did at least compress history a bit when compiling Burning Love. This collection includes the title cut (Elvis's last Top Ten single), six other studio tracks from the same 1972 session, nine live songs from his 1972 stand in Vegas, and a pair of studio tracks from 1971. The recordings date from May 1971 to March 1972—a reasonable stretch for an "album that never was" that groups cuts indicative of Elvis's emotional tenor and singing during a certain period. Jorgensen freely admits that Burning Love is an adventurous packaging job, but he…

The Unmaking of Elvis Presley: New Reissues 1960-1972 The Elvis Reissues

Sidebar: The Elvis Reissues

Elvis Presley: The Home Recordings
RCA 67676-2 (CD). 1999. Dennis Ferrante, Lene Reidel, dig. engs. AAD? TT: 49:22

Elvis is Back!
RCA 67737-2 (CD). 1960/1999. Bill Porter, orig. eng. AAD? TT: 48:12

Such a Night: Essential Elvis, Vol.6
RCA 67840-2 (CD). 2000. Bill Porter, orig. eng. AAD? TT: 53:24

Tiger Man
RCA 67611-2 (CD). 1999. Dennis Ferrante, mix, mastering; Al Pachucki, Mike Moran, Dick Baxter, Tom Brown, Ron Olson, orig. engs. AAD? TT: 50:09

Tomorrow is a Long Time
RCA 67740-2 (CD). 1999. Felton Jarvis, orig. prod…