White Chalk contains no trace of the blues-drenched rock of Polly Jean Harvey's first four astonishing albums, or the lean, restrained, almost dignified (in comparison) pop of the three that followed—which, for all their taste and craft, somehow never sounded as necessary as Dry, Rid of Me, 4-Track Demos, and To Bring You My Love. Instead, with her eighth album, PJ Harvey has started over. Which is not to say that White Chalk…
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PJ HARVEY: White Chalk
Island B0009972-02 (CD). 2007. PJ Harvey, John Parish, prods., mix; Flood, prod., eng., mix. ADD? TT: 33:34
Performance *****
Sonics ***1/2
After reviewing a long series of minimonitors, I am now working on what may well be an equally varied selection of large floorstanding loudspeakers. This trend began with my review of the Sonus Faber Cremona Elipsa in the December 2007 issue, and continues this month with the Series 2 version of the KEF Reference 207, until recently the flagship model from this English manufacturer (footnote 1). I reviewed the original Reference 207 in February 2003, and was very impressed by what I heard.
"Midrange to die for!" I concluded in that review, deciding that the big, beautiful-…
With big speakers, it's fair to demand big-hearted bass, and the KEFs weren't lacking in this regard. The low-frequency warble tones on Editor's Choice (CD, Stereophile STPH016-2) were reproduced in full measure down to the 25Hz 1/3-octave band, and there was still some useful output at 20Hz. The half-step–spaced tonebursts on this CD were reproduced evenly, with minimal spurious tones but with good rather than great leading-edge definition in the crossover region between the woofers and the lower-midrange unit.
On organ recordings the 207/2s effortlessly loaded up the room at low…
Sidebar 2: Measurements
I use a mixture of nearfield, in-room, and quasi-anechoic FFT measurement techniques (using primarily DRA Labs' MLSSA system with a B&K 4006 microphone calibrated to be flat (footnote 1) when used on-axis up to 30kHz—see "Follow-Up," October 1991, Vol.14 No.10—plus an Audio Control Industrial SA-3050A 1/3-octave spectrum analyzer with its own microphone) to investigate factors that might explain the sound heard. The impedance phase and amplitude of the speakers were measured using the magazine's Audio Precision System One.
The Westlake's impedance…
JENNY SCHEINMAN: Jenny Scheinman
Koch KOC-AD-4483 (CD). 2008. Jenny Scheinman, Tony Scherr, prods.; Scherr, eng. AAD? TT: 53:26
Performance ****
Sonics ****
Koch KOC-AD-4483 (CD). 2008. Jenny Scheinman, Tony Scherr, prods.; Scherr, eng. AAD? TT: 53:26
Performance ****
Sonics ****
Out in Brooklyn, New York, the place where all of New York's musicians not named Marsalis or Hewson now live, and the up-and-coming band capital of the western world, there's a little hole-in-the wall club called Barbès. Depending on your need for space, Barbès is either a cramped dump with low ceilings that has no business hosting live music, or a dauntless melting pot where the skills of players from different genres…
As the May issue was being put to bed, the Internet was all aflutter over a proposal by digital strategy consultant Jim Griffin to have Internet Service Providers (ISPs) levy a $5 surcharge—a "network licensing model"—on all broadband users. Under this model, Griffin proposes that ISPs collect the fee, which would then be paid into a pool to "compensate music-copyright holders." Griffin says that consumers who do not download digital music files would not be forced to pay the surcharge, but that he anticipates "70–80% would pay" for all the content they could download.
Griffin doesn't…
Thiel is one of those loudspeaker manufacturers, like Spica and Dahiquist, among others, that pay close attention to detail.
The CS3 is time-aligned, phase-coherent (footnote 1), actively equalized to extend the low-end response, and designed for an unusually uniform impedance characteristic. As can be seen from the photograph, the enclosure is tapered and the edges rounded off. The taper provides the back-to-front offset for the drivers (to accomplish the time-alignment), and the rounding-off minimizes the effects of cabinet edge diffraction.
Also worthy of note is the…
Thiel claims response out to 35kHz (–10dB) for its 28mm tweeter, and it shows. The CS3 seems subjectively to have almost no high-end limit. Brushed cymbals are crisp and brassy, vocal sibilants contain the upper FFFF component which is so often missing, and triangles and harpsichords cut effortlessly through the most turgid textures of full-orchestral passages. I don't know what alchemy is at work here, because the system's upper range drivers look ordinary enough, and the tweeter is a 1" dome, which I know for sure is incapable of that kind of high end.
The CS3 has quite remarkable…
Sidebar 1: Larry Archibald Comments on the Thiel CS3
JGH has not discussed the question of equipment compatibility, which is particularly important with the CS3s. I had a bit of experience in this area.
The CS3 goes both lower and higher than most other speaker systems, and will show up problems in those areas (eg, below 40Hz and above 16kHz) that aren't apparent on other systems. A tube preamp, for instance, that worked very well with the Spica TC-50 sounded terrible with the CS3; low bass such as kickdrum was simply unlistenable. Another place to watch out for is the high end.…
Sidebar 2: Specifications
Description: Three-way, floorstanding loudspeaker with active low-frequency equalization. Frequency response: 24Hz–20kHz ±1.5dB. Power bandwidth: 22Hz–22kHz, –3dB. Sensitivity: 89dB/w/m. Impedance: 4 ohms ±10% above 70Hz; below 70Hz there is a gradual rise to 7 ohms. Recommended amplifier power: 40–250W.
Dimensions: 13" W by 13" D by 41" H. Weight: 75 lbs.
Price: $1950/pair (1984); no longer available (2008).
Manufacturer: Thiel Audio Products Company, 1026 Nandino Boulevard, Lexington, KY 40511. Tel: (859) 254-9427. Fax: (859) 254-0075. Web: www.…