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Yesterday morning, John Atkinson and I drove out to Mikey Fremer’s place to perform a set of test measurements on the <a href="http://www.magico.net/magicoq/index.php">Magico Q5</a> (review scheduled for our November issue). While JA set up his gear for the in-room measurements, I got to listen to music. Mikey was my personal DJ. He played some sultry Julie London, some angry Gil Scott-Heron, and some soothing Nat “King” Cole. All three, thanks to the outstanding recordings and thanks to the outstanding system, sounded very much <i>alive</i>.
"I love hard work," John Atkinson had said earlier. "I can watch it all day long."
Speaking of upgrades, this just arrived in the mail. Rega’s drive belt upgrade ($59) is supposed to do something good for my P3. It has something to do with tolerances and stuff.
Rega’s <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/turntables/708rega/">outstanding P3-24 turntable</a> is available in lots of fun colors, and even though I do love my white P3, I still suffer from color envy. I want a green one, a blue one, an orange one, <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/ssi2010/regas_p3-24_is_pretty_in_pink/">a pink one</a>. I would like a different P3 for every day of the week, a P3 for my every mood. I wonder if the different colors have different sonic properties. For instance, does my white P3 sound <i>purer</i> than a black P3? Are certain colors better suited to certain types of music? Blue for the blues?
<i>So easy to look at, so hard to define.</i>
This is the Ion TW1S tweeter module found in the Acapella High Violoncello II loudspeaker ($80,000/pair). As you can see from this picture, taken in JA’s listening room, the tweeter module rests beneath the Acapella’s midrange enclosure. (That big, purple bell—the color is actually Porsche Amethyst—has a diameter of 18.5”.) Housed in a perforated metal box and powered with its own AC cord, the tweeter module is a completely self-contained unit; it accepts a line-level input from an RCA jack and amplifies the signal with a class-A amplifier.
Good thing I bought all those records.
It’s inevitable: Working on “Recommended Components,” as I am now, leads to fantasies of new gear, new systems, <i>outstanding new heights of recorded playback!</i> I have to restrain myself, focus. Focus, Daniel-san, focus.
In <a href="http://www.electronichouse.com/article/sharing_in_the_vinyl_groove/">th… nice piece</a>, Arlen Schweiger, managing editor of <i>Electronic House</i>, describes the great amount of fun he’s enjoyed while getting back into vinyl. Even on a modest analog rig ($50 Technics turntable and $100 Cambridge Audio phono preamp), Arlen has had no trouble noting vinyl’s virtues, which in his experience include wider soundstages, better focused images, and tighter bass. Most of all, it seems, Arlen is enjoying hunting for outstanding bargains on used LPs and sharing his discoveries with friends and family. Be sure to check out the slideshow.