About 15 years ago, there was an explosion of new cable companies, each of which appeared to be boasting that its innovative designs were right and everyone else's were wrong. Some of these cables were interesting, but many seemed to be nothing…
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These are the first interconnects and speaker cables I have reviewed for Stereophile. Each of us has his little niche, and editor John Atkinson likes us to play in the sandboxes we most enjoy. For me, that has usually meant inexpensive speakers and expensive tube electronics. But there's another reason I've tended to shy away from cables.
It's common for audio reviewers to hear new things in familiar recordings, but with the MIT speaker cable, I was noticing new things on my own recording! Near the beginning of "Mansour's Gift," drummer Mark Flynn does some delicate, rapid-fire, upper-register background fills that I had been unaware of before using the MITs. For the life of me, I couldn't tell what percussion instrument he was playing, even though its sound was so arresting. I finally had to call Mark to ask what he'd been playing. (His answer: "Cup chimes hit with the back end of a set of brushes.") The CVT 2s reproduced…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Single-ended interconnects; single- and biwire speaker cable.
Serial Numbers Of Units Reviewed: Interconnect: 22934, 4. Speaker cable: 23033. Biwire speaker cable: 22930.
Prices: Interconnect: $499/1m pair. Speaker cable: $999/8' pair. Biwire speaker cable: $1299/8' pair. Approximate number of dealers: 212.
Manufacturer: MIT Cables, 4130 Citrus Avenue, Suite 9, Rocklin, CA 95677. Tel: (916) 625-0129. Fax: (916) 625-0149. Web: www.mitcables.com.
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Source: Rega Planar 3 turntable, Syrinx PU-3 tonearm, Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood & Aurum Beta S cartridges.
Digital Source: Creek Destiny CD player.
Integrated Amplifier: Creek Destiny.
Loudspeakers: Nola Mini, Monitor Audio Silver RS6.
Cables: Interconnect (all MIT): Magnum M3, MI-350 CVTwin Terminator, MI-330SG, Terminator. Speaker: Acarian Systems Black Orpheus.
Accessories: Various by ASC, Bright Star, Celestion, Echo Busters, Salamander Designs, Simply Physics, Sound Anchor, VPI.—Robert J. Reina
The best, most enduring audio products have in their favor more than great sound: They have some sense of history as well. Particularly good examples abound from the British companies Spendor, Rogers, and Harbeth, some of whose products were actually commissioned into being by the British Broadcasting Corporation. Better that, I suppose, than existing to fill a price point.
Spendor is probably the best known of the three, and theirs is the typical story: In the 1960s, the BBC's engineering department declared that monitor-loudspeaker technology could not continue to improve without some…
In one respect, the M40.1 actually was unsurpassed: I've never heard a speaker reproduce the sounds of voices and acoustic instruments with less timbral distortion or more textural realism. Brass instruments had almost shockingly believable color, and just the right balance of bite and natural decay. The sounds of fretted instruments such as guitar, mandolin, and banjo—things I hear almost every day in real life—were convincingly real and consistently enjoyable. Violins, solo or massed, never sounded righter to me than through the M40.1.
But the Harbeth delivered more than…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way, reflex-loaded stand-mounted loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" fabric-dome tweeter, 8" plastic-cone midrange unit, 12" polypropylene-cone woofer. Impedance: 6 ohms nominal. Sensitivity: 85dB/W/m. Frequency response: 38Hz–20kHz, ±3dB. Suggested amplification: >50W.
Dimensions: 29.5" (750mm) H by 17.25" (432mm) W by 15.75" (400mm) D. Weight: 75 lbs (34kg).
Finishes: cherry; add $1000/pair for eucalyptus.
Serial Numbers Of Units Reviewed: 0000L, 0000R.
Price: $12,995/pair. Stands: $595/pair. Approximate number of dealers: 20.
…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Linn LP12 (with Linn Basik power supply), Thorens TD-124 Mk.II turntables; Naim Aro, EMT 997 tonearms; Miyabi 47, EMT OFD 25 & OFD 65, Shindo SPU, Ortofon SPU Synergy A cartridges; Auditorium 23 Hommage T1 step-up transformer.
Digital Sources: Sony SCD-777ES SACD/CD player; Sony PlayStation 1 CD player.
Preamplifiers: Shindo Masseto, DNM 3D.
Power Amplifiers: Shindo Cortese, DNM PA3ΔS; Shindo Corton-Charlemagne, Quad II monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Audio Note AN-E/SPe HE, Quad ESL.
Cables: Interconnect: Audio Note AN-vx, DNM…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
My estimate of the big Harbeth's voltage sensitivity on its tweeter axis was 84.5dB(B)/2.83V/m, which is within experimental error of the specified 85dB/2.83V/m. This is lower than average, and suggests that a goodly powerful amplifier will be needed to achieve high playback levels. (I note that AD's 10W Shindo amplifier didn't cut it.) However, the M40.1's plot of impedance magnitude and phase angle (fig.1) suggests that the Harbeth is easy to drive in terms of its demand for current. The impedance drops below 6 ohms only in the middle of the midrange, and then…
Manufacturer's Comment
Editor: Many thanks to Art Dudley for an excellent review of the Harbeth M40.1. Perhaps I could comment on the differences between the frequency-response measurements we made days ago at the BBC's anechoic chamber in London, the in-room listener-at-home curves, and those made by Stereophile.
Making high-quality loudspeaker measurements that can be confidently repeated by other researchers is not easy, and is far more difficult now that big, expensive anechoic chambers with controlled, reflection-free environments are rare—and expensive and inconvenient to…