We were supposed to feel that we had just been given a friendly word of advice by exactly the sort of young woman we spent our days and nights trying to impress. "Martinis," of course, was an allusion to the James Bond novels and…
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In the 1970s, a small black-and-white ad sometimes ran in the pages of Playboy magazine. The ad pictured an attractive young woman with lots of disheveled hair and a crooked grin. There was little else to the ad other than the headline, which the reader would assume was being spoken by the model: "It takes more than Martinis to build an image, Mister!"
THE DOWLAND PROJECT: Romaria
The Dowland Project: John Potter, tenor; John Surman, tenor & bass recorder. soprano saxophone, bass clarinet; Milos Valent, violin, viola; John Stubbs, baroque guitar, vihuela
ECM New Series 1970 (CD). 2008. Manfred Eicher, prod.; Markus Heiland, eng. DDD. TT: 77:00
Performance ***½
Sonics ****
The Dowland Project: John Potter, tenor; John Surman, tenor & bass recorder. soprano saxophone, bass clarinet; Milos Valent, violin, viola; John Stubbs, baroque guitar, vihuela
ECM New Series 1970 (CD). 2008. Manfred Eicher, prod.; Markus Heiland, eng. DDD. TT: 77:00
Performance ***½
Sonics ****
Depending on how you date it, the "authentic instrument" movement is at least 30 years old. Throughout its history, there has been a certain amount of understandable backlash; from performers who insist on the evolved superiority of modern…
John Atkinson and I were in a Manhattan loft apartment that could have stood in for every sophisticated NYC loft you've ever seen in films. We were surrounded by fabulous contemporary art. Asian and South American antiquities were discreetly displayed. The furniture was sparse but choice. And, over in one corner, facing a conversation grouping of paintings, two sleek metal tower loudspeakers were making extremely convincing music. We managed to delay examination of this urban paradise long enough to drink adult beverages and inhale some music.
"That's a nice soundstage," said JA…
You'll want that chair in the sweet spot, because the Mythos will keep you there for hours. At least, that's what kept happening to me. I'd grab a CD with a reference track I've used before and cue it up—for example, "At the Café Central," from David Murray's Shakill's Warrior (CD, DIW/Columbia CK 48963)—and the next thing I knew, I'd be lost in the music, having let five or six tracks go by without taking any notes.
Damned music just wouldn't let me work.
I turned "At the Café Central" up pretty loud. The STSes could really dish it out, from Murray's big, brassy tenor sax to…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way floorstanding loudspeaker with 300W powered subwoofer. Drive-units: 1" ceramic-coated aluminum tweeter, two 345" mineral-filled monopolymer midrange cones, 5" by 10" carbon-fiber woofer cone, two 5" by 10" bass radiators. Frequency range: 16Hz–30kHz. Sensitivity: 93dB/283V/m. Nominal impedance: 4–8 ohms. Recommended amplifier power: 20–350W.
Dimensions: 47.5" (1220mm) H by 5.5" (140mm) W by 8.5" (220mm) D. Base: 10.5" (270mm) W by 14" (360mm) D. Weight: 61 lbs (27.7kg).
Finishes: Satin-finished silver, gloss-black aluminum.
…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Ayre C-5xe universal player, McIntosh MS750 media server, Bel Canto e.One CD2 CD transport & e.One DAC3 D/A processor.
Preamplifiers: Ayre K-1xe, VTL Signature TL-6.5.
Power Amplifiers: Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 300 & Musical Fidelity XA-200 monoblocks.
Integrated Amplifiers: Ayre AX-7e, Portal Panache.
Loudspeakers: Usher Be-718.
Cables: Digital: Stereovox XV2. Interconnect: Audience Conductor. Speaker: Audience Conductor.
Accessories: Furutech eTP-609 distribution box, Ayre L-5xe line filter, APC APCS15 AC line…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
The Definitive Technology Mythos STS SuperTower is specified as having a high voltage sensitivity: 93dB/2.83V/m. My estimate of its sensitivity, taken on its tweeter axis, was not quite as high, at 91.5dB(B)/2.83V/m, but this is still much higher than average. The Mythos STS will work very well with low-powered amplifiers, such as the Cayin integrated with which I auditioned the speakers at Sandy Gross's apartment. The speaker's impedance (fig.1) hardly drops below 4 ohms, but the use of a passive high-pass filter for the midrange units does lead to an awkward…
Audio shows are where reviewers search out products for possible review. We are always on the lookout—or listenout—for components that transcend the boundaries of the ordinary, that set the pulse racing a little faster. The 2007 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, held in Denver last October, was the first RMAF I had attended, and among the rooms that impressed me was one featuring components from the Japanese brand Esoteric, which was celebrating its 20th anniversary.
As I reported in my live coverage of RMAF 2007, spurred on by the performance of Esoteric's SA-60 universal player, a…
I kept returning to the Esoteric speaker's resolution and transparency. As I explained in my news article about Cantus, the latest CD I've engineered for the Minnesotan choir of that name (CD, Cantus Recordings CTS-1207), the mix of Peter Hamelin's semi-theatrical setting of Ernest Lawrence Thayer's "Casey at the Bat" was extremely complicated, involving 24 tracks of material: the full choir, a barbershop trio, crowd noises, dialog between the umpire and Casey, various baseball-related sound effects—even birds (if not a kitchen sink). Some of these sounds—the tolling bell in the coda, for…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-way, reflex-loaded, floorstanding loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" (25mm) magnesium-dome tweeter, two 6.5" (165mm) magnesium-cone woofers. Crossover frequency: 1.9kHz. Crossover slopes: second-order low-pass, third-order high-pass. Frequency response: 38Hz–48kHz, –6dB. Sensitivity: 89dB/2.83V/m. Nominal impedance: 6 ohms. Minimum impedance: 3.7 ohms. Power handling: 20–170W.
Dimensions: Speaker: 41.75" (1061mm) H by 8.5" (216mm) W by 10.7" (272mm) D. Internal volume: 21.5 liters. Weight: 33 lbs (15kg). STD-MG-20 stand: 10.2" (260mm) W by 1.4" (…