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Triangle Esprit Comete Ex loudspeaker Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

The Triangle Esprit Comete Ex is significantly more sensitive than the norm, my estimate of its voltage sensitivity coming in at 91dB(B)/2.83V/m. While its impedance magnitude drops below 5 ohms in the lower midrange and mid-treble (fig.1, solid trace), and the electrical phase angle is occasionally extreme, overall the speaker will be fairly easy to drive.

Fig.1 Triangle Esprit Comete Ex, electrical impedance (solid) and phase (dashed). (2 ohms/vertical div.)

There are two sharp discontinuities in the impedance traces, one at 620Hz, the…

Soundsmith SMMC1 moving-iron phono cartridge

The audio industry may have lost a legend and a prolific innovator in Henry Kloss a few years back, but it still has another affable, creative eccentric in Peter Ledermann. In the mid-1970s, Ledermann was director of engineering at Bozak, where, with Rudy Bozak, he helped develop a miniature bookshelf speaker and a miniature powered subwoofer. Before that, Ledermann was a design engineer at RAM Audio Systems, working with Richard Majestic on the designs of everything from high-power, minimal-feedback power amplifiers and preamplifiers to phono cartridge systems. He was also an award-winning…

Soundsmith SMMC1 moving-iron phono cartridge Page 2

The SMMC1's one-piece cantilever is made of ruby to which is attached a nude line-contact diamond stylus with a tip of very low effective mass (0.32mg). The compliance, 28µm/mN, is moderate to high. The SMMC1's frequency response is cited as 20Hz–20kHz, ±2.5dB, while its channel separation at 1kHz is greater than 25dB and its channel matching within 1.6dB or better. (The Voice's channel balance is specced at better than 0.5dB.) The recommended resistive loading is 47k ohms, while the recommended capacitive loading is equal to or greater than 400pF, including the capacitance of the tonearm…

Soundsmith SMMC1 moving-iron phono cartridge Page 3

You won't mistake the SMMC1's retrieval of detail, or its less-than-first-class reproduction of microdynamic gradations, for those of a premium-priced modern MC—nor did it reveal the most delicate inner musical textures, as those top-shelf transducers do. But it more than compensated with a refreshingly robust and musically convincing sound free of obvious colorations or artifacts. Its rejection of surface noise and other playback detritus was among the best I've heard at any price—and without lopping off the top-end extension.

The SMMC1's frequency balance was subjectively ultrasmooth…

Soundsmith SMMC1 moving-iron phono cartridge Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Moving-iron phono cartridge with ruby cantilever. Stylus: nude line-contact, 0.12mm2. Recommended tracking force: 1gm. Effective tip mass: 0.32mg. Compliance: 28µm/millinewton. Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz, ±2.5dB. Channel separation: >25dB at 1kHz; >20dB, 50Hz–15kHz. Channel balance: <1.6dB. Output voltage: 2.12mV, 5cm/s lateral modulation. Recommended load resistance: 47k ohms. Recommended load capacitance: 400pF or greater.
Dimensions: Weight: Cartridge alone, 1.6gm; with universal mounting adapter, 6.8gm.
Serial Number Of Unit…

Soundsmith SMMC1 moving-iron phono cartridge Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Analog Sources: Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn turntable, Cobra tonearm, Castellon stand; Graham Phantom tonearm; Ortofon Winfeld cartridge.
Digital Sources: Musical Fidelity kW SACD player, BPT-modified Alesis Masterlink hard-disk recorder.
Preamplification: Manley Steelhead, Einstein Turntable's Choice, Whest Audio whestTWO, Graham Slee Era Gold V, Camelot Technology Lancelot Pro phono preamplifiers; Musical Fidelity kWP preamplifier.
Power Amplifiers: Musical Fidelity kW monoblocks, Marantz SM-11S1.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties MAXX…

Book Review: <I>Surround Sound: Up and Running</I> (Second Edition)

Surround Sound: Up and Running (Second Edition)
by Tomlinson Holman. Published by Focal Press, an imprint of Elsevier (footnote 1) (Oxford, England, UK; www.elsevier.com). 2008. Paperback, 248 pages, ISBN 978-0240808291. $44.95.

Like the first edition of Tomlinson Holman's guide to multichannel sound, Surround Sound: Up and Running was written for an audience of industry professionals. Large portions of it are devoted to selecting microphones, setting up recording studios and monitoring rooms, optical and magnetic film audio formats, and the encoding of delivery formats. In all of…

Book Review: <I>Swiss Precision: The Story of the Thorens TD 124 and Other Classic Turntables</I>

Swiss Precision: The Story of the Thorens TD 124 and Other Classic Turntables
by Joachim Bung. Published by Joachim and Angelika Bung, Schmitten, Germany (info@td-124.de), 2008. Hardcover, 288 pages, four-color, ISBN 978-3-00-021162-1. Price: €59 plus overseas mailing.

In 1956, an engineer named Louis Thévenaz presented his employer with the prototype of a turntable of singularly high quality, aimed at broadcast professionals and the burgeoning domestic audio market alike. The employer was Thorens S.A. of Sainte-Croix, Switzerland, and one year later, the first TD 124 (a tourne-disc,…

The Fifth Element #47

US composer Morten Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna is one of the indisputable masterpieces of the 20th century. John Atkinson has recorded the male vocal group Cantus's performances of Lauridsen's O Magnum Mysterium (on Comfort and Joy: Volume One, Cantus CTS-1204) and Ave Maria Dulcissima (on Cantus, Cantus CTS-1207). (And great recordings they are—one engineer chum thinks JA's Cantus recording of OMM is the single best-engineered choral recording he's ever heard.)

In a White House ceremony on November 15, 2007, Lauridsen was awarded the National Medal of the Arts. He won that honor, according…

The Fifth Element #47 Page 2

I had never heard of Annar Follesø. The liner notes say he studied at Bloomington, Indiana. The cover photo does him no favors; he looks deranged. I was apprehensive that I was in for some scenery chewing before I consigned the SACD to the "donate" pile, but I was wrong.

Follesø's traversal of Bartók's technically and musically daunting Sonata for Solo Violin is entirely musicianly. Follesø is poised and confident but not cocky. There is no showing off, no exaggerated gestures. He plays the work as though it belongs to the great tradition that predated and encompassed Bach, while giving…