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My listening room is 26' long, 13' wide, and 12' high, with a semi-cathedral ceiling. The back of the room opens into a 25' by 15' kitchen through an 8' by 4' doorway. The Charios were set up 3' from the rear wall (faced with framed watercolors 8' from the floor) and approximately 30" from the side walls (which have sliding equipment shelves).

For most of my listening I sat 8' away. I also tried my favorite listening distance (for larger loudspeakers) of 18', but found it less satisfactory. My chair places my ears 37" from the floor. The Academy Ones were…

I found the Chario Academy One to be a little more sensitive than specified, at an estimated 85.5dB/2.83V/m (B-weighted). Its impedance, which remains above 10 ohms over the entire band except for regions in the lower midrange and bass (fig.1), suggests that it is a very easy load for an amplifier to drive. I'm not sure, therefore, why Larry Greenhill found it to work best with high-powered amplifiers.

Fig.1 Chario Academy One, electrical impedance (solid) and phase (dashed) (2 ohms/vertical div.).

The magnitude plot in fig.1 suggests that…

The platter is of solid aluminum, without the usual hollowed-out…

If you're as tired of audio cultism as I am, you'll love the latest version of Harry Weisfeld's VPI HW19 turntable, the Mark II: no tricks, no mysticism, no bulishit physics, just a straightforward turntable that offers a solid middle ground between the SOTA and the Oracle, with many of the Goidmund's vir tues as well.

The HW19-II looks like a well-styled turntable; you can even use it without religious rituals in the setup. Not only that, once set-up it stays set-up. Only the SOTA exceeds it in terms of…

I'm not quite sure why turntables inspire more passion than electronics or speakers, but somehow they do. Perhaps it's the Hiberian-Slavonic legacy of Ivor the Tempestinateapottenbottom, or the Sicilian heritage of Robert the Irascible, but many audiophiles find ranking turntables more important than listening to them. The status of owning the best seems more important than the music.

Several Important Caveats:
• First, and most important: while some of the sonic differences between the best turntables…

Editor: We find it interesting that Tony Cordesman deems it desirable to open his review of the Improved SOTA Star Sapphire, VPI HW-19, and Oracle Delphi Mark II turntables with a shot at Linn Products, particularly given his subsequent dismissal of the Linn Sondek as a second-rate turntable. Mr. Cordesman states, "The fact that Linn Sondek's advertising has made a British cult out of buying a comparatively high-priced Linn turntable—even for comparatively low grade components—has no justification other than profits for Linn." We are certain that Mr. Cordesman…

In spite of its weight, the box sitting in Stereophile's receiving room seemed innocent enough. Little did I know its contents would add immeasurably to my enjoyment of analog playback and send me scurrying to Nicholas Potter's (footnote 1) in search of fresh vinyl. I've owned a VPI HW19 Mk.III for several years now and, in addition to the fine job it does as a record player, I've always been impressed by how easy it is to retrofit with the latest Mk.IV improvements sent from Cliffwood, each upgrade resulting in…

Description: Four-point suspension belt-drive turntable. Walnut base standard, oak available. Speeds: 33 and 45 rpm. Synchronous, "instrument quality, medium-differential" synchronous AC motor. Wow & flutter: 0.04%. Speed accuracy: 0.01%.
Dimensions: 21.25" W by 17.5" D by 7.25" H.
Price: $730 (Mk.I, 1984); $885 (Mk.II, 1985&3150;1986); $1800 (Mk.III, 1990–1992); Platter, bearing, suspension assemblies, belt, and mounting hardware for Mk.IV modification to VPI HW19 M.III, $700. Acrylic armboard for Eminent Technology Two tonearm: $100. TNT Mk.II…

Listening to Glenn Gould's masterful Meistersinger and Götterdämmerung piano transcriptions again for the first time…