Analog Sources: Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn turntable; Continuum Cobra, Graham Phantom, Kuzma Airline tonearms; Lyra Titan i, Air Tight PC-1, EMT Jubilee JSD 5, Transfiguration cartridges.
Digital Sources: Musical Fidelity kW DM25 DAC & transport, BPT-modified Alesis Masterlink hard-disk recorder.
Preamplification: Manley Steelhead, Blue Amp MC 42 phono preamplifiers; Musical Fidelity kWP, DartZeel NHB-18NS preamplifiers.
Power Amplifiers: Musical Fidelity kW monoblocks, Music Reference RM-200.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties MAXX…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 3: Measurements
Although Peak Consult claims a very high sensitivity of 94dB for the Diablo, my estimate of the speaker's sensitivity was somewhat lower, at just under 90dB(B)/2.83V/m. This is still usefully higher than average, however. Its impedance (fig.1) resembles a 4–5 ohm resistor over much of the audioband, with a very small electrical phase angle, though this is significantly lower than the 7 ohms specified. There is a combination of 3.8 ohms magnitude and –34° capacitive phase angle at 27Hz, but given the low frequency, where music will rarely have high energy, this…
When audiophiles speak of the "Golden Age" of audio components, they almost always are talking about amplifiers and preamplifiers, not loudspeakers. While a very few speaker models have stood the test of time—among them the BBC LS3/5a, the Vandersteen 2, the original Quad electrostatic and the Quad ESL-63, some of the Magnepans, and the Klipschorn—almost no one would disagree that, taken en masse, the speakers of today outperform not just those of the 1960s and 1970s but even those of the 1980s and 1990s. The advent of low-cost, computerized test equipment, high-quality, inexpensive…
I recorded Attention Screen, Bob Reina's jazz fusion group, live at Manhattan's Merkin Hall in February, and used the Alpha B1s as monitors while I prepared rough mixes of the eight improvisations for the musicians to listen to. I had used an AKG D112 mike for Mark Flynn's kick drum, which tends to accentuate the boom of the drum's sound when placed close to the front skin. Even so, with the 24-bit, 88.2kHz-sampled files played back from DVD over the PSBs, the kick drum sounded well defined while the speaker's lack of low-bass extension didn't detract from the body of the tone, which is rich…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-way, magnetically shielded, stand-mounted, reflex-loaded loudspeaker. Drive-units: 0.75" (18mm) ferrofluid-cooled, aluminum-dome tweeter; 5.25" (135mm) metalized polypropylene-cone woofer. Crossover frequency: 3kHz (3rd-order Butterworth). Frequency response: 65Hz–21kHz, ±3dB. Impedance: 6 ohms nominal, 4 ohms minimum. Sensitivity: 89dB/2.83V/m (anechoic). Recommended amplification: 15–80W, 60W program.
Dimensions: 11.75" (299mm) H by 7" (178mm) W by 9.5" (241mm) D. Cabinet volume: 8 liters (0.29 cubic foot). Weight: 8.8 lbs (4kg) each.
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Classé cdp-202 DVD/CD player, Ayre C-5xe universal player; Mark Levinson No.30.6, Benchmark DAC 1 D/A processors; Slim Devices Squeezebox WiFi music player with Apple Mac mini running OSX for media storage.
Preamplifiers: Mark Levinson No.326S, Audio Research Reference 3, Ayre K-5xe.
Power Amplifiers: Mark Levinson No.33H monoblocks, Halcro dm38.
Loudspeakers: Stirling LS3/5a V2, Harbeth HL-P3ES-2, Rogers LS3/5a.
Cables: Digital: Kimber Illuminations Orchid AES/EBU, AudioQuest OptiLink-5 S/PDIF. Interconnect (balanced):…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
All the measurements were performed with the speaker's grille in place. Despite its small size, the PSB Alpha B1 had an estimated voltage sensitivity of 87dB(B)/2.83V/m, which is right on the average of the speakers I have measured over the years. Though its impedance drops to a minimum value of 3.7 ohms at 235Hz (fig.1), the PSB will be relatively easy to drive overall, which is important given the inexpensive amplification with which it will be required to operate much of the time.
Fig.1 PSB Alpha B1, electrical impedance (solid) and phase (…
You would have thought the hardware companies who trumpeted at the January 2006 Consumer Electronics Show that their video DVD players would be in US retailers' showrooms by September 1996 would have learned an important lesson from the bungled DAT launch almost 10 years ago: Without first getting complete agreement of the software industry on substantive issues, it's foolish to announce a firm launch date for a new medium. September came and went without DVD discs or players being available in US stores. In fact, all that happened was that the bottom fell out of sales of 12" laserdiscs and…
Just about everyone knows that a new high-quality digital audio disc, called DVD, is being developed by the world's electronics giants. What few realize, however, is how politics and corporate politics influenced the format's technical specifications. The result may be unnecessary sonic degradation for millions of music listeners.
The Digital Versatile Disc was originally proposed by a consortium of Toshiba, Matsushita, and Time Warner as a carrier of digital video. Sony and Philips, co-inventors of the Compact Disc, were developing their own high-density format but eventually agreed to a…
In his impassioned "As We See It" in May (Vol.20 No.5, p.3), Robert Harley pleaded that the Compact Disc is actually quite a bit better than it sounds, and requested that audiophiles focus instead on the significant improvements wrought in digital sound since its inception. Bob's point—that picking on CD's shortcomings has become a ritual bloodsport within the High End—is well taken: witness my own catty swipe at it in the first sentence. The fact is that the glaring imperfections of the first generation of digital products are now mostly distant memories. Most of us do derive hours of…