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The Iris's build quality is very good at the price, with metal-film resistors and what appear to be polypropylene capacitors used in critical locations. The main power supply consists of an LM317/337 voltage regulator pair, following two 2200µF reservoir caps, which provides regulated and smoothed ±16V rails, though local decoupling is provided for each channel of the phono and line stage with electrolytics bypassed with plastic-film capacitors. All the integrated circuits used are socketed, for easy replacement, and, with the exception of the Tape, Mono, and EPL switching, the lack of…
Sidebar 2: Measurements
I regard the fundamental measurement for a phono preamplifier as being the flatness of its RIAA de-emphasis. As can be seen from fig.1, the Hafler Iris is excellent in this respect, being within ±0.05dB across most of the frequency band, though a slight (+0.25dB) lift appears in both the low bass and the top audio octave. The latter probably correlates with the small overshoot apparent on a 5mV 1kHz squarewave fed into the phono input via an inverse-RIAA network (fig.2), though it is hard to explain why the sound should be more HF-lifted—ie, "dry" or "whispy"—than…
Sidebar 3: Specifications
Description: Solid-state preamplifier with one phono input (MM/MC switch-selectable), seven line-level inputs, two tape loops, one external processor loop, and IR remote control. Specifications: Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz ±0.1dB (phono), 20Hz–20kHz ±0.1dB (line). Line-stage bandwidth: 6Hz–150kHz, —dB, into 10k ohms. Input impedance: user-adjustable, 47k ohms in parallel, with user-selectable capacitance, 220pF as supplied (phono MM), user-adjustable, 100 ohms as supplied (phono MC), 20–28k ohms (line). Output impedance: 316 ohms (main), 2150 ohms (tape-out…
Psst! Got a minute? I'd like to bend your ears a bit and tell you about a component that'll lift you from the doldrums of audio angst and transport you to the relaxing calm induced through the enjoyment of music. That's what it's done for me, and I'm so excited about it I can't wait to tell you.
Imagine an amplifier which will fill your room with sound yet doesn't require two people to lift and a pallet to sit on. Imagine an amplifier you don't have to sell something to own.
Imagine an amplifier which will look right at home sitting beside your treasured art objects. Imagine an…
A useful, optional accessory is a Kevlar/carbon fiber base to set the B-50 on. It is manufactured by Sicomin and is shaped the same as the B-50. It comes with three spikes to couple it and the B-50 to the shelf (or whatever) on which it sits. It raises the amp about 1½", leaving that much more room in back for hook-up handiwork.
Turning the unit upside down and removing the bottom plate reveals a neat interior with optimum use of the available space. All input connections are hard-wired directly to a glass-epoxy printed circuit board with the input selection relays located nearby. The…
This captivating ability of the Ensemble B-50 to maintain rhythmic and timbral spatial separation between diverse elements of any musical presentation forced me to open both eye and ear. Listening to music through the Ensemble became a physical event. If the music had any energy or beat at all, I found it just about impossible to sit still. My head went to bobbin' and my feet to tappin'. My system, now more than ever, was capable of passing the "Linn Test" (yes, Ivor, even with CDs as a source!). I was able to follow musical lines effortlessly in arrangements often crowded with ideas. Those…
Sidebar 1: System
This section is going to be awkward to describe; within a matter of minutes of hooking up and listening to the Ensemble "Tiger," I knew it would serve as my new reference. Up until that time I had used, and been content with, a pair of Quicksilver monoblocks fed by either the Counterpoint SA-3000 preamp or a Reference Line Model 2000 passive line-control interface (with a Vendetta Research SCP-2B supplying the phono signal). The B-50 displaced those components in one fell swoop, leaving me with my Acoustat Model 2 speakers, strategically placed RoomTunes, and source…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Decription: Hybrid integrated amplifier without phono input. Tube complement: two matched ECC 81s in preamplification stage. Inputs: CD, tape, tuner, video, aux/phono. Power output: 50Wpc (17dBW) into 8 ohms. Frequency range: 5Hz–39kHz. Rise time: 7.5µs at 10kHz. S/N ratio: 92dB. IMD: 0.03% ref 1W. THD: 0.05% ref 1W/1kHz/8 ohms. Output impedance: 0.17 ohms. Input sensitivity/impedance: 300mV/22k ohms (line), 300mV/47k ohms (tape).Dimensions: 14 11/16" (375mm) W by 4 1/8" (110mm) H by 7½" (220mm) D. Weight: 16.5 lbs (7.5kg).
Serial number of unit reviewed: T209…
Sidebar 2: Measurements
I was listening to the LP of John Cale's and Lou Reed's tribute to Andy Warhol, Songs for Drella, in Guy's listening room. There was a palpability to the sound which, in all honesty, I had not experienced from Guy's Acoustats before.
"Okay, what's changed?" I asked, after Lou Reed's New York album had finished playing. I could see that Guy's customary Quicksilvers were not powered up, but there wasn't another pair of amplifiers at the speaker end of the room.
"I've connected up the Tiger."
"What Tiger?"
"Here." Guy pointed to a…
I've been musing much of late on what enables some hi-fi components to sound natural while others always seem to add an edge of artificiality to their sound. This dichotomy was examined in last month's "As We See It," where I asked a representative group of Stereophile writers to discuss the fact that many high-end components regarded as being neutral in their sonic character, with apparently little wrong in their measured performance, can actually sound quite unmusical. This would seem to suggest that the nature of what a component does wrong is of greater importance than the level of what…