Jonathan Scull

Pass Labs X1000 monoblock power amplifier
Solid State Power Amp Reviews
Jonathan Scull  |  Jun 06, 2004  |  First Published: Jun 01, 1999  |  0 comments
Pass Laboratories' X amplifier series represents the efforts of designer Nelson Pass to prove that simple linear amplifier topologies can be scaled to provide high-quality audio performance at very high power levels. The handsome X1000 monoblock under scrutiny here, the largest and most powerful amp in the Pass stable, makes 1000W into 8 ohms and a mighty 2000W into 4 ohms. The amplifier has no global negative feedback, and only two gain stages: the front-end provides all the voltage gain and feeds a high-current follower stage.
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Gordon Rankin, Wavelength's Single-Ended Man
Interviews
Jonathan Scull  |  Apr 04, 2004  |  First Published: Jan 01, 1996  |  0 comments
Jonathan Scull: Gordon, please tell us what you see as the basic difference between single-ended and push-pull.
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Wavelength Audio Cardinal XS monoblock amplifier
Tube Power Amp Reviews
Jonathan Scull  |  Apr 04, 2004  |  First Published: Jan 01, 1996  |  0 comments
We have to talk. Are you sitting comfortably? Is the reading light okay? Have a little something to drink at hand? (Audio is thirsty business.) The audio world is abuzz over the reintroduction of the single-ended triode amplifier. This is the first of three reviews of such amplifiers I'll be bringing you, along with two speaker systems with which to play them.
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Acoustic Sciences Corporation Studio Traps
Room Treatment Reviews
Jonathan Scull  |  Mar 07, 2004  |  First Published: Dec 01, 1998  |  0 comments
Over time I've successfully used a variety of tuning devices to refine the acoustics in Kathleen's and my listening room. But I've always suspected that Acoustic Science's Tube Traps might be a good way to finish it off. I've occasionally asked visitors to stand in one spot or another behind the speakers as I listened for tergiversation (ie, "to change one's tune"; Hoo-hah!). I found several locations where a nice, dense audiophile body made an improvement to the sound.
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Cary CAD-280SA V12 power amplifier
Tube Power Amp Reviews
Jonathan Scull  |  Feb 22, 2004  |  First Published: Jun 01, 2001  |  0 comments
According to Cary Audio designer Dennis Had in this amplifier's documentation, "Countless hours were spent designing and voicing the CAD-280SA V12 stereo amplifier...It delivers high performance in a combination of class-A single-ended triode and true balanced push-pull technology."
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HeadRoom BlockHead headphone amplifier
Solid State Preamp ReviewsHeadphone Reviews
Jonathan Scull  |  Jul 07, 2002  |  0 comments
With whom are you most intimate? Your wife? Husband? Your modern-times Significant Other? Your pet? Or, like a lot of audiophiles, is it your audio system? Do you nitpick and tweak it as if it were your pet?
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Fine Tunes #48
Fine Tunes
Jonathan Scull  |  Jun 13, 2002  |  0 comments
In his first e-mail to "Fine Tunes," Rafael Teodoro (RBT@wolfenet.com) addressed a subject that Mark Gdovin, that faithful frequenter of the Stereophile soapbox, had already brought up. Mark had gone so far as to give readers sage advice from his brother, a materials engineer, regarding the dangers of applying Armor All to speaker cones and surrounds.
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Fine Tunes #47
Fine Tunes
Jonathan Scull  |  May 19, 2002  |  0 comments
Sometimes tweaks take on a life of their own. Take the one of using Armor All to keep speaker surrounds from drying out, which you can read all about in the November 2001 "Fine Tunes No.41" I recently got another e-mail on the subject from Dan Mazza at Arizona Hi-Fi, who agrees with Mark Gdovin's objections to using Armor All. (Read Mark's comments on the entire issue in the readers' letters linked to "Fine Tunes No.41.").)
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Theta Digital Citadel monoblock amplifier
Solid State Power Amp Reviews
Jonathan Scull  |  May 12, 2002  |  0 comments
As we all know, it's the sound that counts. However, good looks enhance pride of ownership, and Theta Digital's class-AB, 400W Citadel is as handsome a monoblock as these jaded eyes have laid eyes on.
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Fine Tunes #46
Fine Tunes
Jonathan Scull  |  Apr 14, 2002  |  0 comments
"Hi, Jonathan," Bob Matthews began his e-mail to "Fine Tunes" (matthewsr@hqamc-exchg.army.mil). "I enjoy reading your column every month, and enjoy hearing from other people about some of their cheap tweaks!"
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