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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…
TAKE 6: He Is Christmas
Reprise 26665-2 (CD only). Take 6, prods.; Robert Charles, Mike McCarthy, Warren Peterson, engs. DDD. TT: 35:34
Reprise 26665-2 (CD only). Take 6, prods.; Robert Charles, Mike McCarthy, Warren Peterson, engs. DDD. TT: 35:34
What do you say about an all-black a cappella contemporary gospel group (they call themselves "contemporary Christian a cappella pop jazz") that prominently displays a laudatory quote by Brian Wilson, of all people, whitest of white (Beach) boys, on the cover of its very first album? Well, first you listen.
To call Take 6 an a cappella gospel sextet is to almost entirely miss the point. Take 6 is to a group like the Persuasions or the Five…
Back in the Spring of 1988, I was sent a pair of diminutive two-way speakers that totally redefined for me what miniature loudspeakers were supposed to be about. That model, Acoustic Energy's AE1, may have offered short measure in the low-bass department, but its apparently effortless dynamics, musically natural balance, and tangible imaging made it a winner. It also broke the mold of modern audiophile speaker design by featuring a 4.5" woofer with a metal cone just 3.5" in diameter. (Various companies have experimented with metal-cone drive-units in the past, only Ohm and pro-sound company…
Sidebar 1: Review System
Equipment used during the preparation of this review included a Mark Levinson No.23.5 power amplifier, the French YBA 2 preamplifier or the Mod Squad Line Drive Deluxe passive control unit, the former feeding the power amplifier via 15' lengths of AudioQuest Lapis unbalanced interconnect, the latter via 1m lengths of AudioQuest Diamond.
Source components included a Linn Sondek/Lingo/Ekos/Troika setup sitting on an ArchiDee table to play LPs, an Aiwa portable DAT recorder and a Revox PR99 to play master tapes, and the VTL D/A processor driven by a Meridian…
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 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.
Looking first at the manner in which the…
Sidebar 3: Specifications
Description: Three-way, reflex-loaded, stand-mounted loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" (25mm) metal-dome tweeter, 4.5" (118mm) metal-cone midrange unit, 7.5" (190mm) metal-cone woofer. Crossover frequencies: 300Hz, 3kHz. Crossover slopes: 18dB/octave low-pass at 300Hz, then 24dB/octave at 900Hz low-pass (woofer); 18dB/octave high-pass, 24dB/octave low-pass (midrange); 18dB/octave high-pass (tweeter). Frequency response: 50Hz–18kHz ±2.5dB. Sensitivity: 86–87dB/W/m (2.83V). Nominal impedance: 6 ohms (minimum 4 ohms). Amplifier requirements: up to 250W.
Dimensions: 24…