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.
…
search
Sidebar 1: Specifications
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…
Good things come in threes, they say. Well, three-channel power amps suit me just fine. My main component rack is at the back of the room, so I split power duties between a two-channel amp under the rack to drive my rear-channel B&W 804S speakers and, way at the front, either three monoblocks or a three-channel amp for the front three B&W 802Ds. I do this to ensure that the timbre of the front three channels is consistent. The outstanding performance of the Simaudio Moon W-8 dual-mono power amp (Stereophile, March 2006) almost tempted me to go with a stereo amp and a monoblock, but…
Sidebar: Recordings In The Round
SIBELIUS: Kullervo
Charlotte Hellekant, mezzo-soprano; Nathan Gunn, baritone; Men of the ASO Chorus, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; Robert Spano
Telarc SACD-60665 (SACD)
In an embarrassment of riches, this is the best of three new multichannel SACDs of Sibelius' early bardic masterwork. The competing release, with Colin Davis and the London Symphony (LSO Live LSO0574), is well played and has great soloists, but is hampered by dismembered sound and Davis' sluggish pace (it really sags in the complex meter that opens Kullervo Goes to Battle).…
Today is Monday, February 5, and it's so buttercupping cold outside that the custodian couldn't get our school's oil burner started. Consequently, my daughter is home for the day, playing on the rug in front of the fireplace. (Santa brought a wooden castle and a fine selection of medieval figurines, some of which are headed for the dungeon as we speak.) I'm at my desk in the music room, on the upwind side of the house—and the wind is murder. The west wall is cold. The north wall is cold. The floorboards are cold. But the air inside is warm as toast: I'm driving my Quad ESL speakers with a…
More or less the same mu-follower circuit—doubled up and configured as a differential amplifier—is used to drive a Circlotron output section in all Joule Electra OTL amps. Notwithstanding his admiration for Karsten's single-stage OTL, Barber opted for extra gain so that he could apply a little negative feedback—or at least give the user an option to dial it in. Even without feedback, the 80Wpc VZN-80 amplifier I've been using has a usably low output impedance of 10 ohms. This is accomplished by using multiple output tubes in parallel—in this case, the already-low-impedance 6C33C—in which…