Persistent fellow that he is, David came up with the proper link.
Thank you, David! The problem is partly that HMC Electronics is a bit persnickety. When you hit their homepage, they redirect your browser and check which it is…
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I have to remember how seriously audiophiles follow Stereophile. Reader David Zappardon's (davida@gscyclone.com) e-mail to me began with "Hello, my friend." But I have to admit to feeling some guilt when he yowled that he'd wasted two fruitless hours of his time looking for the silver-bearing conductive grease I'd mentioned in the October 2000 "Fine Tunes."
I'm a big believer in the notion that if you can't hear a difference, why pay for it? I also believe that the ultimate goal of any high-end system should be to simply disappear and leave the listener immersed in the presence of the music. System synergy is paramount, and how you spread your compromises around and make your tradeoffs work for you is generally more significant than how expensive the final tab is. Thank God there are still plenty of companies out there dedicated to the proposition that ultimate resolution and build quality are anything but antithetical to real-world value.…
Then Kevin Deal, of Upscale Audio, sent me a pair of early-1980s Mullard CV4004 tubes (in their own little Royal Air Force box) to replace the Alpha's two stock 12AX7s. Talk about a dramatic, cost-effective tweak. Not only did the Mullards enhance the focus, accuracy, and nuance of the Alpha's bass, but the harmonic detailing, layering, dimensionality, and clarity they elicited from the upper-midrange/lower-treble region was so magical that the CALs' resolution now approached the Sony's. The Delta-Alpha's performance is now so musical and involving that I remain mystified why this classic…
Tradeoffs? When I listened to bassist Christian McBride and the late, great Billy Higgins set the groove on John Scofield's "Heel to Toe" (from Scofield's Works for Me, Verve 314 549 281-2), the sheer physical presence that ultralinear mode imparted to McBride's bass was intoxicating, as was the brilliance of Higgins' cymbals. All was conveyed in natural scale, never larger than life—a believable acoustic. However, while there were plenty of soundstaging cues and small details in ultralinear, listening to the same track in triode mode gave me a more palpable sense of air and transparency—…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Push-pull vacuum-tube monoblock power amplifier. Tube complement: four 6550 (or KT88 or EL34), two 12AU7, one 12AX7. Output transformer taps: 8 ohms, 4 ohms. Output power at <1% distortion: 120W in ultralinear mode (20.8dBW), 60W in triode mode (17.8dBW). Single RCA input. Input impedance: not specified. Input sensitivity: 700mV for full output. Signal/noise ratio: not specified. Frequency response: 10Hz-50kHz, ±1dB.
Dimensions: 14.5" W by 7" H by 19" D. Weight: 55 lbs each.
Serial numbers of units reviewed: M120-0532 and '0533.
Price: $…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog sources: Rega Planar 25 turntable, Rega RB600 tonearm, Grado Statement Master cartridge, Marantz PMD430 portable cassette recorder.
Digital sources: California Audio Labs: Delta CD transport, Alpha 24-bit/96kHz tubed DAC, CL-20 DVD/CD player; Sony SCD-777ES SACD/CD player.
Preamplification: Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista, VTL TL5.5, Rogue Audio Magnum Ninety-Nine line preamplifiers; Rogue Audio Stealth phono preamplifier.
Power amplifiers: Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 300, Mesa Baron, VTL MB-450.
Loudspeakers: , Meadowlark Hot Rod Shearwater.…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
Due to a miscommunication, I didn't measure the Rogue Audio Magnum M-120's performance with its output stage set to ultralinear mode. However, my experience with other tube amplifiers that can be switched between ultralinear and triode operation is that the higher power available from ultralinear is associated with a higher source impedance and higher levels of distortion. So please note that all of the following measurements relate to the M-120 run in triode mode.
The Rogue's input impedance was commendably high, approaching 1 megohm over most of the…
"Most people really don't like music—they just like the way it sounds"
At first blush, the above statement might strike one as the verbal equivalent of a fur-lined teacup. Its capacity to startle and amuse derives from its nonsensical, even absurd, nature.
However, on closer examination, this bon mot carries within it an important truth that perhaps can shed light on the current state of melancholy and angst among those who make and sell equipment dedicated to re-creating music—and music alone—in the home.
Years ago, it was said that anyone who knew enough to be a good…
Over the past year or so, a parade of expensive loudspeakers has passed through my listening room (footnote 1), each claimed by its manufacturer to deliver the real musical deal. Like the people who designed them, these speakers have come in all shapes, sizes, and personalities. While the designer of every one of these speakers has claimed "accuracy" and "transparency" as his goal, the truth is, any concoction of pulsing cones, ribbons, sheets of Mylar, or whatever that's bolted into or on top of a box makes music because it is a musical instrument. How could it be otherwise, when all of…
Verity claims that facing the woofer to the rear offers a number of significant performance enhancements, including lower distortion because of what they claim is an increased air-load resistance and a commensurate decrease in cone displacement. Verity uses a Bessel fourth-order filter alignment for the woofer tuning, which operates in-room as a "quasi-third order (18dB/octave) smooth-slope bass generator" to roll off the lower-bass output as the boundary reinforcement increases it.
Verity uses a shorter (2" tall) variation of the Raven aluminum-ribbon tweeter used in Aerial's 20T,…