Classic Records recently reissued a great recording of a minor but…
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But once my ears had gotten a grip, the Titan treated me to effortless transparency and palpable images free of even the suggestion of etch or edginess. There was nothing crispy in the Titan's playbook, yet the amp rendered transients precisely and cleanly, without boredom-inducing softening. While I would never mistake the Titan's sound for that of a romantic-sounding tube amp—or any tube amp—it produced a tube-like musical flow and textural suppleness completely free of clichés of solid-state hardness or starch.
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Solid-state, two-channel, fully balanced power amplifier with standalone power supply. Maximum power output: 1kWpc into 8 ohms (30dBW), 2kWpc into 4 ohms (30dBW), "just short of" 4kWpc into 2 ohms (30dBW). THD+noise:<0.008%, 20Hz–20kHz. Signal/noise:>126dB, A-weighted (no reference level quoted). Intermodulation distortion: not specified. Maximum output voltage: 90V RMS, 20Hz–20kHz; 254 peak–peak. Peak output current: limited to 100A peak–peak. Frequency response: 20Hz–40kHz,–0.5dB. Input impedance: 100k ohms (balanced, unbalanced). Input…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn, Cobra, & Castellon turntable, tonearm, and stand; Graham Phantom tonearm; SME 20/12 turntable & 312S tonearm; Lyra Titan i, MySonic Hyper Eminent, Transfiguration Phoenix, Benz Micro ACE LS, Sumiko Palo Santos Presentation cartridges.
Digital Sources: Musical Fidelity kW DM 25 CD transport & DAC; dCS Scarlatti SACD transport, word clock, DAC, upsampler; BPT-modified Alesis Masterlink hard-disk recorder; Sooloos music server.
Preamplification: Manley Steelhead, Audio Research PH7, Nagra BPS…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Musical Fidelity Titan using mainly Stereophile's loaner sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It" and www.ap.com); for some tests, I also used my vintage Audio Precision System One Dual Domain.
Before performing any tests on an amplifier, I run it for 60 minutes at one-third its specified power into 8 ohms, which is thermally the worst case for an amplifier with a class-B or -AB output stage. For the Titan, this meant operating at 300Wpc into 8 ohms, which was about the limit of my…
Sound Reproduction: Loudspeakers and Rooms
By Floyd E. Toole. Focal Press (Oxford, England, UK, www.elsevier.com, footnote 1), 2008. Paperback, 550 pages, ISBN 978-0240520094. $49.95.
By Floyd E. Toole. Focal Press (Oxford, England, UK, www.elsevier.com, footnote 1), 2008. Paperback, 550 pages, ISBN 978-0240520094. $49.95.
The author of this book, Dr. Floyd E. Toole, is one of the most influential scientists in modern audio. After studying electrical engineering at the University of New Brunswick and receiving a PhD from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London, in 1965 Toole joined Canada's National Research Council (NRC), in Ottawa, Ontario, where he attained the position of Senior Research…
My topic today is not the hardware that we use to reproduce sound, but the delicate precision instruments we use to detect it: our ears. Our enjoyment of musical sound is important enough to justify spending thousands of dollars on recordings, electronics, loudspeakers, and concert tickets. What is it worth to preserve your hearing so that you can continue enjoying great sound 10 or 20 years from now? I've been conducting an experiment for the last 30 years, at a cost of less than a penny a day. It began when I was 17.
In the New Hampshire countryside where I grew up, the loudest noises…
But the example of the Peruvian Indians, if true, is suggestive. So is the well-known gender difference. The numbers cited above were only for males. Adult women apparently hear high frequencies more acutely than most men do. Is this due to genetic factors? Or is it actually an effect of long-term noise exposure? On the average, men spend much more time in noisy environments than women do. Whether inborn or due to socialization, this disparity begins in childhood. Boys are more likely to engage in active games involving a lot of shouting and screaming, while girls play quietly with dolls.…
Stereophile's seventh CD of Minnesotan male choir Cantus, called with delightful originality Cantus (CTS1207) and recorded at 88.2kHz with 24-bit resolution, is now available from our e-commerce page, for $16.95 plus S&H.
Update 12-11-07: Cantus was listed at No.9 in the list of Top Next-Generation Classical CDs of 2007 compiled by Cincinnati-based NPR radio station WGUC. You can audition the hymn "Salvation is Created" on the station's website.
Cantus's concert programming represents a great mix of styles and influences, and on Cantus, producer Erick Lichte decided to…
WAGNER: Siegfried
Reiner Goldberg, Siegfried; Heinz Zednik, Mime; James Morris, Wanderer; Hildegard Behrens, Brünnhilde; Ekkehard Wlaschiha, Alberich; Kurt Moll, Fafner; Birgitta Svendén, Erda; Kathleen Battle, Forest Bird; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, James Levine
Deutsche Grammophon 429 407-2 (4 CDs only). Cord Garben, Claudia Hamann, prods.; Wolfgang Mitlehner, eng. DDD. TT: 4:10:29
Deutsche Grammophon 429 407-2 (4 CDs only). Cord Garben, Claudia Hamann, prods.; Wolfgang Mitlehner, eng. DDD. TT: 4:10:29
Götterdämmerung's orchestral textures may be heavier, but Siegfried's are thicker, harder to pierce, even though, on average, the actual number of instruments scored for is considerably lower. Though…
I don't remember the year, but I remember the moment when I first became intensely curious about Roy DuNann. It must have been about 1975, right after I moved to Seattle. I bought a Sonny Rollins LP called Way Out West, took it home, cued it up on my Thorens turntable, dropped the tonearm, and suddenly I was in a room with Rollins and Shelly Manne and Ray Brown. It was a shipping room with records stacked on shelves all around the musicians, but I wouldn't know that until many years later.
The song was, improbably, "I'm an Old Cowhand," and it began with Shelly Manne striking a woodblock…