For that display of cynicism we were roundly scolded by many readers and a few manufacturers, some of whom accused us…
search
"As We See It" in the Stereophile issue dated Summer 1968 (actually published in 1970) noted the idealistic, glowing claims about how four-channel sound could put you right in the concert hail, but urged readers to wait before buying, to see whether quadrisound would indeed bring higher fidelity. We predicted it wouldn't—that whatever the potential of quadrisound (footnote 1), it would not be used to increase fidelity, but rather to play ring-around-the-rosy with music.
GERSHWIN: Piano Music
Rhapsody in Blue (solo piano version by Gershwin); 3 Preludes; "Sleepless Night"; Impromptu in 2 Keys; Song Transcriptions: "Sweet and Low-Down," "Maybe," "Clap Yo' hands," "So am I," "Looking for a Boy," "Someone to Watch Over Me," "That Certain Feeling"; Second Rhapsody (solo piano version by David Buechner)
David Buechner, piano
Connoisseur Society CD 4191 (CD only). Patricia A. Duciaume, eng.; E. Alan Silver, prod. D?D. TT: 59:26
Rhapsody in Blue (solo piano version by Gershwin); 3 Preludes; "Sleepless Night"; Impromptu in 2 Keys; Song Transcriptions: "Sweet and Low-Down," "Maybe," "Clap Yo' hands," "So am I," "Looking for a Boy," "Someone to Watch Over Me," "That Certain Feeling"; Second Rhapsody (solo piano version by David Buechner)
David Buechner, piano
Connoisseur Society CD 4191 (CD only). Patricia A. Duciaume, eng.; E. Alan Silver, prod. D?D. TT: 59:26
Having greatly enjoyed David Buechner's playing on two previous Connoisseur Society discs—Stravinsky's three Petrouchka…
THE WHO: Who's Next
MCA/Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab UDCD 754 (gold CD). 1971/1999. The Who, Glyn Johns, prods.; Andy MacPherson, Jon Astley, engs. AAD. TT: 77:57
Performance *****
Sonics *****
MCA/Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab UDCD 754 (gold CD). 1971/1999. The Who, Glyn Johns, prods.; Andy MacPherson, Jon Astley, engs. AAD. TT: 77:57
Performance *****
Sonics *****
THE BEATLES: Yellow Submarine Songtrack
Apple/Capitol CDP 5 21481 2 (CD). 1968/1999. George Martin, prod.; Peter Cobbin, remix eng. AAD. TT: 45:38
Performance *****
Sonics ****
The originals of these recordings document the two most influential rock groups of the 1960s just as they were transforming simple rock'n'roll into an expansive art form that anticipated just…
Imagine two people who have been audiophiles for 20 years. When they first met, Audiophile #1 had just decided that he would do his best to buy a system that he could keep for the indefinite future, without anxiety about upgrades. Let alone get off the "equipment upgrade" merry-go-round, he never wanted to get on it in the first place. Audiophile #1 also decided that having a truly great music system in his home was more important to him than buying a new car every three years. He found a dealer who sold systems based on value rather than on price. He ended up both exhilarated and…
Some recommendations
I'm running out of space, but I want to point out some products at various price tiers that, in my opinion, you can buy once and buy right.
I'm running out of space, but I want to point out some products at various price tiers that, in my opinion, you can buy once and buy right.
ESP's Concert Grand, Aerial's 20T, and Wilson Benesch's Chimera, each in its own way, can make a case that it should be your "get off the merry-go-round" loudspeaker choice. The price spread here is from the low $20k (Chimera) to the mid-$30k (Concert Grand). Careful auditioning is obviously called for.
At the next price tier down (ca $12.5k), Shahinian's Diapason is the "love at first hearing or you'll never get it…
How can a reviewer possibly put a value on a loudspeaker as costly as the Wilson Audio Specialties X-1/Grand SLAMM? When he reviewed Wilson's WATT 3/Puppy 2 system ($12,900-$16,000/pair, depending on finish) a few years back (footnote 1), John Atkinson said that it was "one of the more expensive loudspeakers around." The Grand SLAMM costs almost five times as much!
On the other hand, we've all heard about the legendary Wilson WAMM system, which costs a staggering $130,000. At a mere $65,000, the X-1 could be regarded as something of a bargain, especially as it's said to provide a…
In his previous designs, Dave Wilson has shown an uncompromising approach to enclosures and their acoustic signatures. In the case of the WATT, itself a landmark in low coloration, a cast, mineral-impregnated resin material was used. Many panel materials were researched for the X-1's bass cabinet, including everything you might have thought or heard of, and then some. Wilson especially sought to avoid the characteristic, if not necessarily unmusical, sonic signature of wood and wood-composite materials. That overlay of "panel sound" common to the construction of nearly all box loudspeakers…
The cones are made of a glass-fiber-reinforced pulp impregnated with a catalyzed resin, and are both rigid and pistonic over the required frequency range. Placed uppermost on the baffle, the 12" driver has an additional surface treatment to damp cone resonant modes, since in terms of its natural response and position in the stack, it reaches further into the low midrange than the 15" unit. The edge suspensions are foam half-roll surrounds of high mechanical "Q."
These are low-loss drivers, with high electrical damping and consequently great electromagnetic control (high Qm and low Qts, a…
The X-1 revealed such great differences between speaker cables that it was hard to be dogmatic about which product was responsible for certain sounds we heard: the X-1, or the cables themselves. At an early stage of the initial installation, the Krell KRC-2 preamp was temporarily laid on the carpet. So analytical were these speakers that the placement of coupling cones under the preamp was immediately recognized in the tighter bass and cleaner mid! The same trick was repeated, this time with the Krell KSA-200S power amp. Such transparency on the part of the X-1 promised much entertainment…
It was the kind of sound you just can't ignore—it grabbed attention and held it, so secure was its mastery of audio replay. Putting aside the wayward experiences of the setting-up period, my renewed first impressions were of a crisp, dry, and highly controlled sound. No boom or overhang was present in the bass, and yet its response extended to low frequencies. There was no obvious weakness or impairment of midrange tonal balance. The "crispness" would appear to result from genuine control and desirably fast transient decay, and not a falsified frequency response.
Stereo imaging was very…