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Book Review: McIntosh: "...for the love of music..."

McIntosh: "...for the love of music..."
by Ken Kessler. McIntosh Laboratory, Inc., 2006. $150.00. Hardcover, 12" by 12" by 1.25", 315 pp. ISBN 0-9787236-0-0.
Available from McIntosh dealers and McIntosh Laboratory, Inc., 2 Chambers Street, Binghamton, NY 13903. Tel: (800) 538-6576.

When I reviewed Ken Kessler's book Quad: The Closest Approach, in Stereophile's February 2004 issue, I offered the opinion that the list of companies it might make sense to write an entire book about would be short: "Had I to make a list, it would begin with: Quad, Nakamichi, ReVox-Studer, AR, KLH,…

The Horse's Mouth (Stereo Review's 1983 cable tests)

It's not often that you get a chance to have extensive discussions with the horse's mouth, but we recently had that opportunity. Since July of this year there has been extensive discussion in the audio community, particularly the high-end segment, of Larry Greenhill's article on speaker cable listening tests in the August, 1983 issue of Stereo Review (footnote 1). From recent talks with author Greenhill we've learned that the most interesting story was not in Stereo Review; instead it can be found in the varying reactions from different quarters, and what they say about the high-end industry…

The Horse's Mouth (Stereo Review's 1983 cable tests) Page 2

"The striking outcome is that the panel accurately heard and named speaker cables in 5 out of 6 comparisons. The listeners felt pleased after this listening test battery: they had heard real differences! After the 50 hours of testing, scoring, comparing, and just plain listening, they were exhausted but felt accomplished. Both Monster Cable and 24-gauge wire could be heard reliably under double-blind conditions." (footnote 6)

Big difference, wouldn't you say? Yet Greenhill's original actually allows for two totally different interpretations of the data. One measure of the reliability of…

Bow Technologies Wazoo integrated amplifier

I hate all those automobile reviews that go on and on about a car's design aesthetics. C'mon, I can see what it looks like, even if only in the pictures. Just tell me things I can't appreciate without a run on the Autobahn.

Now, just take a look at the Bow Wazoo. Trust your eyes. Trust the fact that it won the 1998 Golden Note Award for "Most Aesthetic Audio Design." Trust the guys from The Wiz, who delivered my new TV and, seeing the amp on the rack, said, "Man, that's cool. What is it?"

Okay. Now we can put form aside and address substance. Bow calls the Wazoo a "single-chassis…

Bow Technologies Wazoo integrated amplifier Page 2

The Wazoo's low end had a distinct character that complemented most speakers. It seemed ever so slightly warm in the upper bass, ever so slightly lean in the lower bass. The effect of this was positive on every speaker I tried.

The first setup was with the Gershman GAP-20x speakers, the Wazoo behind them and the sources running through 10m of Cardas Cross interconnect. Compared with other, bigger amps, the Wazoo was their equal at all reasonable levels until this 50Wpc overachiever ran out of steam—and that was at levels sufficient to raise my neighbors and the dead (only the former…

Bow Technologies Wazoo integrated amplifier Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Solid-state integrated amplifier. Inputs: 5 pairs line-level, 1 pair single-ended and balanced. Outputs: 1 pair preamp/monitor. Binding posts: 4 multiway WBTs. Continuous power: 50Wpc into 8 ohms (17dBW), 90Wpc into 4 ohms (16.5dBW). Frequency response: 2Hz–200kHz (–3dB). S/N ratio: 110dB, A-weighted, ref. full power. Channel balance within 0.3dB. Input sensitivity: 500mV. Input impedance: 1.2k ohms. THD: <0.5%. Power consumption: 70W idle, 500W max.
Dimensions: 17.1" (434mm) W by 5.5" (140mm) H by 16" (407mm) D. Weight: 44 lbs (20kg).
…

Bow Technologies Wazoo integrated amplifier Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Components

Analog source: Heybrook TT2 turntable, Rega RB300 tonearm, Koetsu Black/Gold cartridge.
Digital sources: Audio Alchemy DDS•Pro/DTI Pro32/DDE V3 with Audio Magic I2S cables. CAL Audio CL-20 DVD/CD player, Pioneer PD-7700 with Assemblage DAC2.
Preamplifiers: Klyne 6L3.3P, Simaudio Moon P-5, Sonic Frontiers Line-3, Acoustic Research SRC controller.
Power amplifiers: Bryston 7B-ST monoblocks, McCormack DNA-1, Sonic Frontiers Power-2, Simaudio Moon W-5, Adcom GFA-555 (with regulated power supply).
Loudspeakers: Apogee Duetta II, Gershman GA-P20x,…

Bow Technologies Wazoo integrated amplifier Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

As Kal Rubinson describes, the Wazoo's input impedance was very low, with some dependence on the volume-control setting. With the control at its maximum position, the input load was just 914 ohms, which will lead to a bass-light presentation with CD players having a high source impedance at low frequencies. And some sources will have difficulty driving such a load at all. Reducing the volume control to a more realistic 12:00 position increased the load impedance slightly, to 1106 ohms—still very low. The output impedance varied from 0.68 ohms to 0.82 ohms…

Transparent, My Dear Watson

Much of the descriptive terminology used in subjective reporting describes things we hear in live music, and expect—or, rather, hope—to hear from reproduced music, too. I'm referring to terms like width, depth, perspective, spectral balance, and tonal accuracy. If you read our reports, you know these terms as well as I do, and since they are (for most people) self-explanatory, I will devote no more time to them.

Rather more difficult to grasp, though, are those terms that describe things added to the sound by the reproducing system, because understanding this terminology requires enough…

A View Into the Soundstage

Stuck out here in the desert depths of the Southwest, we look forward to visits from out-of-towners. So when David Wilson, one-time audio reviewer but now full-time high-end manufacturer, called to say he was going to be in Santa Fe, there was a flurry of activity. David had agreed to an interview, so I started going through back issues of The Absolute Sound and Stereophile for background. Vol.6 No.2 of Stereophile from 1983, with its front-cover photograph of David and Sheryl Lee Wilson with their WAMM speaker system, seemed a good place to start—except that nothing inside the magazine…