Historical

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Music and Recording FeaturesHistorical
Audio: The View From Outside
Lewis Lipnick  |  Nov 29, 1986  | 
I have a confession to make: I play contrabassoon . . . for a living. Now to many this may not seem like such a sin, but within the musical community my instrument is viewed with about as much regard as the common garden slug. This perception is not completely unjustified; often being relegated to roles depicting monsters and evil, along with the occasional digestive grunt, helps perpetuate the general disdain for the contra. However, playing the lowest (non-keyboard) instrument in the symphony orchestra gives me a somewhat different perspective on things, not unlike that of a dwarf in a crowded elevator: a view from the bottom up. It's amazing just how much pitch and harmonic coloration there is down in the subbasement. And shoring up the foundation of the wind section, as well as being the true bottom of the orchestral sonority, can be very satisfying. Although playing an instrument with a limited repertoire can sometimes be disconcerting, it also has its advantages. During rehearsals, if I'm not required for a certain work, I can go out into the house for my own private concert, or stay put in the orchestra and get a sonic thrill that makes the IRS and WAMM systems sound like tin cans.
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As We See ItAural RobertHistorical
Aural Robert #1
Robert Baird  |  Jun 05, 2005  |  First Published: Jan 05, 1997  | 
Please let me explain. Because I've never been especially adept at making lifelong commitments and irrevocable decisions, when it came to naming this new column, Managing Editor Debbie Starr and I decided that we would gather the passionate (and supremely efficient) minds of the Stereophile production staff, add a near–life-threatening amount of margaritas, and put the question to them.
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Solid State Power Amp ReviewsJ. Gordon HoltHistorical
B&K ST-140 power amplifier
J. Gordon Holt, Various  |  Apr 29, 1995  |  First Published: Aug 29, 1984  | 
I must admit that even before I connected up this amplifier I was put off by the accompanying literature. B&K makes some persuasive points about the validity (or rather the lack thereof) of some traditional amplifier tests, but the literature was so loaded with flagrant grammaticides, syntactical ineptitudes, and outright errors that I could not help but wonder if the same lack of concern had gone into the product itself (eg, the term "infrasonic" is used throughout to mean "ultrasonic"). Good copy editors aren't that hard to find; B&K should have found one.
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Floor Loudspeaker ReviewsHistorical
B&W Matrix 801 Series 2 loudspeaker
Lewis Lipnick  |  Dec 03, 1995  |  First Published: Dec 03, 1987  | 
Since the introduction of the original B&W 801 monitor loudspeaker in 1980, it has been adopted as a reference by several recording studios around the world, Over the past five years, I have seen 801s present in just about every recording session with which I have been artistically involved. While the original 801 monitor had its strong points, I was never satisfied with the detached and muddy-sounding bass, discontinuous driver balance, and low sensitivity. Unless this speaker was driven by an enormous solid-state power amplifier, with an elevated high-frequency response, the tubby and slow bass response often obliterated any detail in the two bottom octaves of musical material.
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Budget Component ReviewsHistoricalJ. Gordon HoltStand Loudspeaker Reviews
BBC LS3/5a loudspeaker
J. Gordon Holt, Various  |  Mar 17, 1977  |  First Published: Mar 01, 1977  | 
These diminutive little sleepers have been available in the US for quite some time but have attracted little attention because (1) they have never really been promoted and (2) they are just too small to look as if they could be worth $430 a pair.
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HistoricalJ. Gordon HoltTube Preamp Reviews
Berning TF-10 preamplifier
J. Gordon Holt  |  May 30, 1995  |  First Published: May 30, 1979  | 
Several issues back, we reviewed rather enthusiastically a pre-production prototype of this preamp. The original was an unprepossessing-looking device on two chassis, interconnected by a 3' umbilical, with a squat little preamp box and an even squatter power supply with humongous cans sticking out the top. We averred that it sounded nice. The production model is so nicely styled and functionally smooth that we wondered if it might not be another Japanese product. 'T'ain't.
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Historical
Book Review: Quad: The Closest Approach
John Marks  |  Feb 15, 2004  |  First Published: Feb 01, 2004  | 
Quad: The Closest Approach
by Ken Kessler. Cambridge, England, UK: International Audio Group Ltd., 2003. Hardcover, 12" square, 215 pp. ISBN 0 954 57420 6.
Available from: Quad dealers or IAG America, 15 Walpole Park South, Walpole, MA 02801. Tel: (508) 850-3950.
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Stand Loudspeaker ReviewsJ. Gordon HoltHistorical
Bose 901 loudspeaker
J. Gordon Holt  |  Nov 07, 1995  |  First Published: Nov 07, 1971  | 
The Bose 901 has created more of a stir in audio circles than any other loudspeaker we can think of, with the possible exception of the original Acoustic Research system. Much of the 901's popularity is attributable to Julian Hirsch's rave report in Stereo Review, and there is no doubt but that Amar Bose's compellingly convincing ads had their effect, too. But these things alone could hardly account for the 901's popularity.
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Historical
Bozak Concert Grand B-410 loudspeaker
Peter Breuninger  |  Oct 16, 2005  | 
The Bozak Concert Grand is a loudspeaker dreams are made of. I was just a boy, but I remember to this day the impressive pictures of them in Audio magazine. I thought they must be the best loudspeakers ever made because they were so big—they would let more of the music come out. I suspect the Bozaks beckoned to me in some primal way, just as those giant construction trucks do—the ones that have tires bigger than a man.
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As We See ItHistoricalJ. Gordon Holt
Bye Bye, Quadrifi?
J. Gordon Holt  |  Dec 04, 1971  |  First Published: Apr 01, 1973  | 
"As We See It" in the Stereophile issue dated Summer 1968 (actually published in 1970) noted the idealistic, glowing claims about how four-channel sound could put you right in the concert hail, but urged readers to wait before buying, to see whether quadrisound would indeed bring higher fidelity. We predicted it wouldn't—that whatever the potential of quadrisound (footnote 1), it would not be used to increase fidelity, but rather to play ring-around-the-rosy with music.
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CD Player/Transport ReviewsHistorical
California Audio Labs Tempest CD player
John Atkinson  |  Oct 01, 1995  |  First Published: Oct 01, 1986  | 
"A thing divine—for nothing natural I ever saw so noble."
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Tube Preamp ReviewsHistorical
Cary Audio Design CAD-5500 "CD Processor" preamplifier
Dick Olsher  |  Oct 30, 2005  |  First Published: Nov 30, 1990  | 
A "CD processor," is how I distinctly heard Cary Audio's Dennis Had describe it. The venue was Stereophile's High End Hi-Fi Show in New York last April. Nothing really unusual in today's digital marketplace, I thought to myself, though a bit out of character for a company dedicated to vacuum-tube technology. But wait a minute. Dennis had described it as an analog CD processor. Analog!? Well, yes, the unit processes the analog signal from a CD player.
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As We See ItThink PiecesHistorical
CD: A Lie Repeated Often Enough Becomes Truth
Larry Archibald, Doug Sax  |  Dec 23, 1997  |  First Published: Nov 23, 1983  | 
Larry Archibald on CD:
This article on Compact Discs and CD players is by Doug Sax, president of Sheffield Records and a longtime opponent of digital recording. J. Gordon Holt offers a response elsewhere in this issue, in which he advises readers to buy a Compact Disc player as soon as they can afford it. Gordon in general hails the Compact Disc as the greatest thing to hit audio since the stereophonic LP.
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HistoricalStand Loudspeaker Reviews
Celestion SL700 loudspeaker
John Atkinson  |  Sep 05, 1995  |  First Published: Sep 05, 1988  | 
"Who Stole The Bass?" asked Anthony H. Cordesman, writing about minimonitors in the April/May 1987 Stereophile (Vol.10 No.3). And for the designer of a box loudspeaker, the fundamental design decision, at any price level, is how much bass extension to aim for. It will always be possible to design a speaker with extension down to 20Hz, but will the result be musically and commercially successful? Will the designer end up with a speaker hypertrophied in that one area at the expense of every other? Will, indeed, the result be feasible technically? For example, for a given cabinet volume, gains in low-frequency extension have to be balanced against corresponding drops in sensitivity, and it is quite possible that to go for 20Hz extension will result in a 60dB/W/m sensitivity, equating with a speaker that only plays extremely quietly, and thus of no use to anyone.
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As We See ItHistoricalJ. Gordon Holt
Changes of Everything
Larry Archibald, J. Gordon Holt  |  Jan 02, 1995  |  First Published: Mar 02, 1982  | 
As of February, 1982, the ownership of this publication passed to other hands. In total despair about its precarious finances, JGH accepted with alacrity an offer by Larry Archibald (an occasional contributor in recent years) to purchase the magazine. This has now come to pass, and it is because of the resulting infusion of money that you are holding this issue in your hot little hands now instead of three months from now (and that is probably being a little optimistic about the way things were).
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