Both: Why is that? [laughter]
Johnson: Well, I guess there are two reasons: One is the availability of some premium-quality vacuum tubes that have both the performance and reasonable life expectancy; the other is that, frankly, whether we like it or not, the tube is simply a better device for audio.
I don't really believe that solid-state will ever be as good as vacuum tubes can be. I think that, with the same attention to design sophistication, vacuum tubes would always win. Unfortunately, the complexity can get out of hand.
But your question was about being perceived as…
Johnson: Actually, that isn't quite true. The final decisions are made with an analog source because, at this state of the art, analog is still better—just like the vacuum tube is still better.
I should also add that decisions about sound quality are not made by any one man—me, for example. They are made by a team of people. We are very fortunate in that our salespeople and our customer-service manager are all audiophiles and reasonably critical listeners. All those on our engineering team fall into that category as well. So we have about six to eight people who will make a final…
As one of the founders of Threshold Corporation, its present chairman, and its longtime technical head, Nelson Pass has had a hand in the design and implementation of the products to come out of that company since its inception. His SA-1 power amplifier and FET 10 preamplifier have been long-term favorites of Stereophile founder J. Gordon Holt and I reviewed the Threshold SA-12/e power amplifier a year ago (Vol.13 No.12). I cornered him on a visit to Santa Fe...
Thomas J. Norton: You began your audio career at ESS...
Nelson Pass: I was at ESS from 1972 through 1973. Actually I…
Pass: Within the context of the chassis, the original power supply, the heatsinks and so on, what we do is we replace the sonic circuitry. In the case of the older product, which was non-Stasis, and even the earlier Stasis models—the 1, 2, and 3—we replace the output stages completely with a later design. And we replace the front-end circuitry associated with the amplifier. If the power-supply capacitors have exceeded ten years of use we replace them, and the rectifier diodes, and those things which have a tendency to wear over time, so as to keep the device reliable for another 10 years or…
Pass: The delay is more associated with internal testing and documentation than supply lead time in and of itself. One of the reasons for that is that, in almost all cases, considerably before the design has been frozen and gets documented, you know what the longest-lead-time parts are going to be, and you've settled on them: heatsinks, power-supply capacitors, transformers, semiconductors. You can pick up five to ten weeks. The time for us between the finish of a design and its actual release is about four months.
Norton: Tell us a little bit about your new Forté amplifiers, the 4 and 5…
One of the most fascinating tests I ever ran was one of those "let's go see how many teeth the horse really has," as opposed to discussing it, kind of things. By the way, Peter Walker of Quad did exactly the same thing at the same time—two minds, at least, thinking alike. We decided to find out in real life what kind of slew rates were really occurring. Then, operating off that basis, you can come up with your 10:1 figure that you need to achieve. So I built a differentiating circuit—this was pre-digital--and using a very high-quality moving-coil cartridge and step-up system that was…
The accuracy of a hi-fi system's "soundstage" reproduction seems to be of paramount importance these days, just as a component must now have "transparency" to possess hi-fi righteousness. If the system in which that component is used doesn't give good soundstage, then the system's owner has definitely fallen by the wayside. But what defines a good soundstage? Stereo imaging must have something to do with it, I hear you all cry. (I would have said stereo imagery until Larry Archibald pointed out that imagery has far less to do with hi-fi than with good writing, something I'm sure we agree has…
With classical recording, we do have an original event. Composer, conductor, musicians, and even the designers of concert halls, work very hard to ensure that the listener to live classical music is presented with a real, musically balanced, image. All that is necessary, it might therefore be thought, is to record that image in such a manner that all spatial relationships are preserved as amplitude relationships between the two signal channels. Both a real stereo image and a true soundstage will be the undoubted outcome.
Yes, you're right. It hardly ever happens!
In general,…
As I wrote in this space last month, test-equipment manufacturer Audio Precision has loaned Stereophile a sample of their top-of-the-line SYS2722 system (footnote 1), which has both significantly greater resolution and greater bandwidth than the Audio Precision System One Dual Domain we have been using since 1989. The reviews you can read in this issue include the first measurements I have performed with this impressive piece of gear, though there are still a number of graphs I produced using our System One. In fact, with the equipment I tested using the SYS2722, I performed duplicate sets…
NEIL YOUNG: Chrome Dreams II
Reprise 311932-2 (CD). 2007. Neil Young, prod.; Niko Bolas, prod., eng.; John Hausmann, Rob Clark, Brent Walton, Tim McColm, Colin Suzuki, asst. engs. AAD? TT: 66:17
Performance ****
Sonics ****
Never has the in-vogue term perfect storm been better applied than to Neil Young's wonderful Chrome Dreams II, which is sure to be tagged with another worn adage: "late-period masterpiece." Here several streams of events personal and public have coalesced to make this Young's most tuneful and together mix of his pre-set songwriting modes in quite some time…
