Two other points before we get going: All of the speakers I am investigating for this project are stand-mounted. I believe (and I believe that John Atkinson agrees with me) that in this price tier,…
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As one example, I think that Renaissance Audio's MLP-403.5 at $1090/pair is a screaming bargain that punches far above its price class. I just love it. You (or someone you live with), however, might think its looks, its bulk, or both instantly and totally disqualify it, and might by far prefer DALI's Ikon 2, despite its bass not having the heft or punch of the Renaissance. Horses for courses.
Sidebar: 2.5 Cheers For Standmounted Speakers!
Despite the obvious advantage of floorstanding loudspeakers—you don't need stands—as well as the generally held perception that floorstanders fit more easily into a wider range of home decorating styles, many experienced critical listeners aver that, between otherwise similar floorstanders and stand-mounts, the latter usually sound better. Or, to put it another way, many critical listeners believe that below some threshold (such as $5000/pair), floorstanders are often compromised designs, and that a similarly priced stand-mount will usually…
Determined to find out more about Revel's Ultima Salon2, I tracked down designer Kevin Voecks late on the second day of the 2008 Consumer Electronic Show. I persuaded him to step outside the demonstration suite of Harman International Industries, Revel's owner, high atop the Las Vegas Hilton. We spent an hour chatting about Voecks's design goals for Revel's new flagship. I asked Kevin what had led his team at Revel to develop a new Ultima Salon loudspeaker after 10 years?
Kevin Voecks: In other words, why did it take so long? We didn't bring out a new Salon right away because we didn't…
Whenever an audio high-ender thinks about tubes, he usually thinks about Audio Research. This is only natural, because Audio Research Corporation was almost single-handedly responsible for saving tubes from oblivion in the early '70s when everyone else switched to solid-state. But ARC was soon joined in its heroic endeavor by an upstart company called Conrad-Johnson, which entered the fray in 1977 with its PV-1 preamp, priced at an affordable (even then) $500.
Today, Conrad-Johnson is firmly established as the second most highly regarded manufacturer of tubed audio products. (In…
There is no negative loop feedback anywhere in the Seven; just the local feedback which occurs "naturally" in all cathode follower circuits. All stages but one are resistance/capacitance coupled, via fat (1½" diameter) 2µF/250V polystyrene caps, custom-made for C-J, and the associated resistors are large noninductive metal-foil types. Even in the power supply, there are no electrolytic capacitors in audio-rated circuits; the B+ filter caps are polystyrenes and polypropylenes. (B+ power-supply capacitors aren't exactly in the signal path, but they are in the circuit which supplies the…
The lack of a mono A+B operating mode is, I feel, a significant shortcoming (albeit not a serious one); without it, the playback of mono recordings is compromised. (Mono A+B blending suppresses the distortion and surface noise arising from spurious vertical motions of the stylus.) I suppose the reasoning here is that no one who cares enough about sound to spend $8000 for a preamp is ever going to play old mono recordings, but most serious music lovers know that many definitive performances were recorded in mono, and they doggedly persist in listening to them occasionally. The Premier Seven…
Sidebar 1: Tape Loops
Conrad-Johnson's tape-input and tape-recorder circuitry is shown in fig.1, with heavy lines tracing one of the two signal routes by which a tape recorder's output can get back to its input.
Fig.2 is an alternative switching method, which would require only one additional set of ganged contacts on the Record switch. This would offer all the flexibility of C-J's present configuration, without the risk of potentially destructive oscillation. Its only limitation would be the inability to record from other sources (CD, Tuner) onto Tape 2.—J. Gordon Holt…
Sidebar 2: Specifications
Description: All-tube dual mono preamplifier. Controls: Source (Phono, Tuner, CD, Tape 1 & 2), Record (Phono Tuner, CD, Tape 1 & 2), Level, AC Power. Inputs: Phono (MC or MM), Tuner, CD. Outputs: Main 1 & 2. Gain: 40dB phono, 29dB line. Phono load resistances: 70, 100, 150, 250, 470, 1k, 2k, 5k, 10k, and 47k ohms. Phono overload: 150mV at 1kHz. Max output: 20V RMS. Frequency range: 2Hz to more than 100kHz (bandpass). RIAA EQ accuracy: ±0.25dB, 20Hz–20kHz. Hum & noise: –80dB ref. 10mV input (phono), –88dB ref. 2.5V out (line). Output impedance:…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I only carried out a couple of measurements on the Premier Seven, more to satisfy my curiosity over its tonal balance than to give it a complete bill of health. Despite my feeling that the line stage was slightly bass-heavy, and Gordon's that it was slightly bass-light, it measured flat throughout the audio range, within ±0.05dB, being just –0.2dB at 20Hz. Likewise, the phono section was commendably flat within the tolerance of my inverse-RIAA network, being 0.2dB down at 12.5Hz and 25kHz.
The only other factor that could significantly affect tonal…
John Atkinson wrote about the Premier Seven in August 1989 (Vol.12 No.8):
This very expensive, two-chassis, dual-mono, all-tube preamplifier was formally reviewed by J. Gordon Holt last November (Vol.11 No.11). While bothered by the dual volume controls with their too-large steps, the clumsy tape-loop arrangement, and the high line-stage gain, Gordon felt that it came as close as any tube preamp he had heard to being perfectly neutral, with a line stage that was "effortlessly sweet, open and airy, yet immensely detailed." However, he felt that the line stage, and to a lesser extent, the…