In a dark, smoky office, a desk lamp beams a cone of light onto papers, books, pipes, and notepads. A theoretical physicist hunches over his desk, half-illuminated, visualizing the world inside his equations. Masses move silently through space-time, through lines of force and gravitational fields. Energies expend and absorb. Symmetries couple and uncouple in an abstract, mathematical dance. But something isn't right—some hands aren't joining, some quantities need balance. This world is stilted. "What if....?"
He starts, grabs an eraser, and rubs away the symbol "+" in his fourth…
Metaphysics to the rescue? Maybe. One way to avoid Popper's roadblock is to base your new law on a metaphysical intuition—something like, "God is subtle, but He insists that snaws be white." In that case, your observations of these birds don't have to support any logical leaps. They simply count as evidence that your law, now resting on your metaphysical convictions, is true. It makes a big difference whether or not you reach for metaphysics. Suppose that, while you're at the podium in Sweden thanking the Nobel Foundation for recognizing your pathbreaking research, there's a commotion in the…
Astute readers will note that although my name appears under the "hardware" heading of Stereophile's masthead, I have rarely written about specific products, and, apart from secondary comments or Follow-Ups, have never written a formal equipment report. For years I resisted reviewing because I was usually connected in some way to audio manufacturers and/or retailers, and felt very uncomfortable with the conflict of interest. The other reason I was disinclined to review is that the critical listening required of reviewers is work, and after a long day or week of working on, or with, audio…
The SP's crossover point is 2.7kHz, 18dB/octave on the top and 6dB/octave on the bottom. PBN crossover networks are available in either standard grade, with Kimber Kaps, or premium, with Hovland MusicCaps, which add $190 to the retail price. The review pair was fitted with the premium crossover. Preliminaries
PBN suggests 100 hours of break-in time before serious listening. This pair had only two hours on them, so I set them up face-to-face, wired out-of-phase, and broke them in at a moderate level with an NAD 7225PE receiver for 10 days before attempting any serious listening.…
One of my favorite jazz recordings is Darn That Dream (Realtime RT 3009), featuring Art Pepper, Joe Farrell, George Cables, John Dentz, and Tony Dumas. In the many times I'd listened to it, I was never able to follow all the players simultaneously during their extended group improv in "Someday My Prince Will Come"—until I heard it through the Montanas. I had the sensation of watching a flock of birds take off together, flying in all directions but somehow communicating with me, the observer, and each other, and all returning to their perch at the same instant. How do they know? Details,…
They also excelled at conveying the proper sense of threat, an essential ingredient in so much current music: The Cranberries' droning guitars in "Zombie" on No Need to Argue (Island 314-525 050-2), Radiohead's delightfully disturbing "Creep" on Pablo Honey (Capitol CDP 7 81409 2), "The Unforgiven" from Metallica's self-titled "black album" (Elektra 61113-2), and the title cut from Kool Moe Dee's Knowledge is King (Jive JS-1182-2-J). Now a bit long in the tooth, "Knowledge is King" is perhaps the best-ever rap song—an uplifting, enlightening, empowering message forcefully delivered, with…
Sidebar 1: Specifications Description: Floorstanding, two-way, reflex-loaded dynamic loudspeaker. Drive-units: two 6" doped-paper midrange/woofers, 1.25" fabric-dome tweeter. Connections: two pairs of gold-plated five-way binding posts for bi-wiring (jumpers for single wiring not included with review pair). Frequency response: 35Hz-30kHz, ±3dB. Nominal impedance: 6 ohms. Sensitivity: 90dB/1W/1m. Power handling: 160W continuous, 400W peak.
Dimensions: 9.125" W by 11.75" D by 46.25" H with spike feet installed. Weight: 80 lbs (36.4kg).
Finishes available: piano-black lacquer,…
Sidebar 2: Measurements I estimated the Montana SP's B-weighted sensitivity at 89dB/W/m, almost exactly to specification. As BW noted, it doesn't take many amplifier watts to drive this speaker to satisfying levels. Its impedance (fig.1) is moderately demanding, dropping to 4 ohms through the lower midrange. It remains above 8 ohms for almost all frequencies above 800Hz, however. In the bass, the saddle in the magnitude curve centered on 30Hz reveals the tuning of the large 2" port.
Fig.1 PBN Montana SP, electrical impedance (solid) and phase (dashed) (2 ohms/vertical…
Barry Willis wrote about the Montana SP Series 2 in June 1997 (Vol.20 No.6): PBN engineer and chief executive Peter Noerbaek has made some improvements to the design of his model SP loudspeaker, reviewed by me in the January 1997 issue (p.225). The new production model, designated the Series 2, retains the same drivers, crossover network, and front-baffle dimensions, but differs from the original in that its cabinet is 2" deeper, increasing its internal volume by 844 cubic inches, or 17%. A foam pad added inside the cabinet just below the lower woofer is said to act as an acoustic low-…
Barry Willis wrote about the Montana SP Series III in August 2003 (Vol.26 No.8): It's astonishing to realize that it's been more than six years since I reviewed PBN Audio's original Montana SP loudspeaker, for the January and June 1997 issues of Stereophile. The march of progress has been generally beneficial—for me, for Stereophile (whose website nears its own sixth anniversary), and for PBN founder and chief engineer Peter Noerbaek, whose product line in that period has grown from three speaker models to eight. Corporate PBN now includes Sierra Electronics, manufacturer of three…
