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Music Before Numbers?

This letter from Mike Pageau appeared in the April 2001 issue, and triggered the following "As We See It" essay:

Editor: How did Kalman Rubinson arrive at such a glowing review of the Blue Circle BC22 amplifier in February, despite its barely adequate measurements?

Why are all the reviewers from other audio magazines in agreement? Because Blue Circle's Gilbert Yeung is right! Music before numbers! That's why I bought one.—Mike Pageau, mike.pageau@sympatico.ca

"As We See It"

It was the question I'd been dreading: "Yo, JA, in what 'Recommended Components' Class are…

Music Before Numbers? Letters

Letters on this subject appeared in the March and June 2001 issues:

Those measurements

Editor: I must applaud Stereophile for its determined efforts in including objective measurements in its coverage of high-end products. Although measurements often cannot discern for us the differences we do hear (I believe in mostly subjective evaluations), there comes a time when I, at least, must decide to purchase a component as a musical instrument, or one that attempts to reproduce a neutral representation of the software presented it.

The previous controversy over the "tailored"…

Russellmania: Bryston & the Brothers Russell

Although the term "professional" is often used as part of model designations in consumer electronics, the actual overlap between the audiophile consumer market and the real pro market is quite small. There are speakers in common use as studio monitors that no self-respecting audiophile would want to be caught dead listening to, and the typical audiophile loudspeaker would go up in smoke if asked to pump out the kind of volume that pro application routinely demands. To a lesser extent, the same applies to amplifiers: pro is pro and consumer is consumer, and ne'er the twain shall meet.

…

Russellmania: Bryston & the Brothers Russell Page 2

Deutsch: But you don't agree with it?

Chris Russell: Well, we can't disprove it. If we set up double-blind listening tests, we'd probably wind up with the same guesswork results as everybody else, because we're trying to respond with our conscious perceptions. The thing we find, though, is that every time we make an improvement to a product and send it out to the field with no announcement, we get feedback from the field that people are hearing the difference and are responding to it.

Deutsch: How do you define what is an improvement? Is it technical performance?

Chris…

Fine Tunes #4

In the September 1998 installment of "Fine Tunes," I wrote about the benefits of using nearfield listening to minimize your room's effect on the sound of your system. What you hear at the listening position should be first-arrival sounds from the speakers rather than chaotic reflections—in-phase and out—from the room. Allen Perkins of Immedia, importer of Audio Physic speakers, has written a white paper entitled "Principles and Techniques of Speaker Placement." It's provided to all purchasers of Audio Physic speakers. Essentially, it's a primer on nearfield loudspeaker placement (footnote 1…

Fine Tunes #4 Page 2

Next on Audio Physic's menu for good sound is room mapping. This is helpful for those without dedicated listening rooms, or with rooms of less than ideal proportions. Measure your room and draw a simple floor plan. Then divide the room into even divisions. According to the plan, the even points on the grid (fig.2) are where the bass will be reinforced.

Fig.2 ABC Grid, Even Divisions

Ideal speaker placements would be at A2 and C2, with the listening chair at B, against the wall. If you prefer the speakers on the short wall, you can get almost the same bass reinforcement by…

Fine Tunes #4 Page 3

Adjusting balance is next. If the system is set for equal output but the center image is off to one side, one speaker may be closer than the other. Compensate by moving one of them slightly forward or back. If a vocal you're familiar with should be centered but sounds slightly pulled to the right, move the right speaker back or the left one forward. Small movements can be quite audible.

Finally, focus the image. The basic technique is to rotate only one speaker baffle to change the dispersion pattern. Toe-in, as it's called, is best done with an audio bud on hand. Sit in the listening…

Fine Tunes #4 Letters

Letters in response appeared in the February and April 1999 issue.

Fine Tunes
Editor: I consider Jonathan Scull's "Fine Tunes" a great addition to Stereophile. While the speaker-placement grids (October '98, p.65) don't exactly work in my listening area "out of the box," they were a good starting point, and have resulted in better sound over time.

I wonder, though, how long this column can last without starting to repeat material. Here's a suggestion: select a few readers' systems and send someone out to tune them, reporting on what you found, what you did, and the results…

Sutherland Engineering 12dAX7 USB DAC/preamplifier

Computers and vacuum tubes go together like Trent Lott and flyaway hair, right? The last time filaments glowed in computers was during the 1960s, when a computer was a building. I remember laughing at the ponytailed computer-science dweebs back then, who spent their college days playing nursemaid to a football field's worth of electronics capable of little more than adding two plus two. Chained to a computer half the day, as most of us now are, guess who had the last laugh?

So if you're going to be plopped in front of a screen all day, the least you can do for yourself is squeeze some…

Sutherland Engineering 12dAX7 USB DAC/preamplifier Page 2

Okay Computer Sound
I've been using a pretty-good-sounding and very inexpensive (ca $200) Onkyo SE-U55 outboard USB-based converter with my Mac G4. It has optical and coaxial digital as well as analog line inputs and outputs, and built-in A/D and D/A converters so that, with the appropriate recording software (I use Peak LE 2.58 for Mac), I can feed it a cassette deck's analog output and store it digitally on the G4's hard drive. The Onkyo also has a headphone jack with volume control, which the Sutherland 12dAX7 doesn't, so for sheer versatility, the SE-U55 can't be beat. But while the…