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I was curious about how deep these puppies would go. Kraftwerk's "Man Machine," from Minimum/Maximum (CD, EMI ASW 60611), had plenty of dynamic slam at the bottom end, and the bass-drum synths shook the room a bit at higher volumes. There was plenty of bloom to spare from Timothy Seelig and the Turtle Creek Chorale's recording of John Rutter's Requiem (CD, Reference RR-57CD). I fully expected this disc's organ-pedal notes to go missing in action, as they have with every other $350/pair bookshelf speaker I've heard—but there they were, sounding surprisingly realistic through the Polks. Where'…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-way, magnetically shielded, reflex-loaded stand-mounted loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" silk/polymer-composite dome tweeter, 5¼" polymer/mineral-composite woofer. Crossover: 1.9kHz, 12dB/octave. Frequency range: 50Hz–27kHz. Nominal impedance: 8 ohms. Sensitivity: 89dB/2.83V/m. Recommended amplification: 20–125Wpc.
Dimensions: 12" (305mm) H by 73/8" (187mm) W by 11½" (292mm) D. Weight: 12 lbs (5.5kg).
Finishes: Natural Cherry, Black Oak real-wood veneer.
Serial Numbers Of Units Reviewed: AM117202668/9.
Price: $349.95/pair. Approximate…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: VPI TNT IV turntable, Immedia RPM tonearm, Koetsu Urushi cartridge; Rega Planar 3 turntable, Syrinx PU-3 tonearm, Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood & Aurum Beta S cartridges.
Digital Sources: Lector CDP-7T, Creek Destiny CD players; Pioneer DV-333 DVD player.
Preamplification: Vendetta Research SCP-2D phono stage, Audio Valve Eklipse line stage.
Power Amplifier: Audio Research Reference 110 II.
Integrated Amplifiers: Creek Destiny & Creek 5350SE.
Loudspeakers: Epos ELS 3, Infinity Primus 150, Paradigm Atom v.4.
Cables:…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
My estimate of the Polk RTi A1's voltage sensitivity on its tweeter axis was 90dB(B)/2.83V/m—slightly higher than the specified 89dB, and significantly higher than average. This speaker will work well with low-powered amplifiers. It is also a fairly easy load for the amplifier to drive. Though there is a combination of 5.3 ohms magnitude and –45° capacitive phase angle at 130Hz, and a minimum value of 3.8 ohms at 225Hz, the impedance remains above 6 ohms for much of the audioband (fig.1).
Fig.1 Polk RTi A1, electrical impedance (solid) and phase (…
Earlier this year, in an online poll, we asked the magazine's readers if they were ready for a music server. The response was startling: 32% of you had already set one up, and 44% were ready to. Only 7% responded "probably not" or "never." In the polls we conduct online, we rarely get this kind of positive consensus about anything audio.
The computer industry and the Internet have already eaten the music business for lunch, and now they look ready to have consumer-electronics hardware manufacturers for dessert: For the last few years, the computer folk have led innovations in…
The first thing I noticed on opening the boxes was the complete absence of instruction manuals. They've been replaced by a single, folded sheet of paper with pictures of how the components are to be connected to each other. Also included in each box is an Ethernet cable fitted with XLR jacks on each end (Sooloos uses RJ-45 or Neutrik Ethercon connectors), and, with the Store, a power supply.
To hook everything up, you network all components with the Ethernet cables, then plug them into the AC. That's it. The Source:One has a built-in Ethernet switch and multiple Ethernet jacks on the…
If Sooloos comes up with new software for your system, the Store-Twinstore automatically downloads it. First it waits for four consecutive hours of downtime, after which the Store grabs the new files and distributes them to each Sooloos device, which then automatically reboots itself. I was awake one night when this happened (we'd been watching a long movie); it was a bit unnerving to see the bright screen come alive in the dark and reboot on its own.
Source:One
For this review, I used the single-zone Source:One. The company also makes the Source:Five, a five-zone version for…
ControlPC is not just for editing metadata; it's also handy for exporting parts of your library to another hard drive, an iPod, or a mix CD, as well as for controlling the Sooloos system and setting up playlists in multiple zones, if you have them. But it turns out there's an even better way to remote control a Sooloos system, and you don't even need Microsoft.
One drawback of the Sooloos system as delivered that struck me right away was its lack of a remote control. It has no IR or RF capability, though you can network Sooloos gear with home automation systems such as AMX. But adding…
If you hit Home at the bottom right of the screen, you can then tap Settings. That's where you name your zones and set such things as the crossfade time between tracks, volume levels, sleep mode, etc. If you get stumped, you can hit Help at any point; a contextual screen comes up with details about your current settings and what you might want to try.
I've only scratched the surface of how you can find and sort albums within the Sooloos system. At first, without a manual, I was a little mystified about how it all worked—but within a few days I'd created strategies to deal with…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Hard-drive–based networked music system. Source:One: system controller with 24-bit/192kHz converters, two-channel analog and digital outputs, 4-port Ethernet switch. Store: Twinstore hard-drive, mirrored storage for contents of +2000 CDs. Control:One: 17" LCD touchscreen display/interface and CD drive.
Dimensions: Control:One: 18" (460mm) W by 13.6" (350mm) H by 7.3" (185mm) D. Weight: 23.6 lbs (10.7kg). Source:One, Store (each): 17" (435mm) W by 2.75" (70mm) H by 14.6" (375mm) D. Weight: 12.8 lbs (5.8kg).
Serial Numbers Of Units Reviewed: Not…