SpeCS & prICIng - My Hiend

STEREO • MULTICHANNEL AUDIO • MUSIC 

Focal’s 

$180k 

Flagship 

GOLDEN EAR 

AWARDS 2009 

iller! 

EUREKA! 

High-Res 

Music 

Server 

Under $2k 

ELECTRONICS 

FROM: 

Krell, Sony, 

Primare, 

Bel Canto, 

Conrad-Johnson, 

Goldenote, & 

Wyred 4 Sound

Contents 

GOLDEN EAR 

AWARDS 2009 

104 

Cover Story 

Focal grande 

Utopia eM 

loudspeaker 

roy gregory reports on 

a $180,000 contender 

for world’s best 

speaker. 

2 June/July 2009 The Absolute Sound 

eqUIpMent reportS 

18 

Start Me Up 

primare DVDI10 CD/DVD 

receiver 

Neil Gader on this affordable all-in-one 

package from Sweden’s Primare. 

20 

abSolUte analog 

tW acustic raven one 

turntable 

Is the Raven One the best value in midpriced 

turntables? Wayne Garcia weighs in. 

24 

DaVinci audio labs 

reference grandezza phono 

Cartridge 

Jonathan Valin listens to a world-class 

cartridge from Switzerland. 

28 

MaInStreaM 

MUltIChannel 

Sony Str-Da6400eS 

receiver and bDp- 

S5000eS blu-ray Disc 

player 

Sony puts the emphasis on sound quality in 

its new AVR and Blu-ray player. Neil Gader 

reports. 

41 

our writers pick 

the crème de la 

crème of highperformance 

audio. 

114 

hp’s 2009 golden 

ear award winners. 

32 

next-gen DIgItal 

logitech transporter 

network 

Music player and Sound 

Science Music Vault II 

Steven Stone on a high-def music server 

for under $2k, plus the Fort Knox of 

networked hard drives. 

58 

goldenote S-1 Signature 

Integrated amplifier and 

Koala CD player 

Robert Harley on a superb sub-$2k 

integrated amp and a tube CD player from 

Italy’s Goldenote. 

60 

harbeth hlp-3eS2 

loudspeaker 

Paul Seydor on his reference in small 

monitors, plus an interview with its 

designer, Alan Shaw. 

66 

argentum acoustics 

aureus-2 Speaker Cable and 

Mythos Interconnect 

Neil Gader discovers a bargain in midpriced 

cables.

Contents 

70 

Wyred 4 Sound Sx-1000 & 

bel Canto ref 1000 Mk II 

Monoblock power amps 

Are Class D amplifiers ready for prime 

time? Steven Stone reports on two new 

examples. 

76 

Krell S-300i Integrated 

amplifier 

Thought you couldn’t afford a Krell? 

Think again. Neil Gader on this bigbang-for-the-buck 

integrated. 

80 

Conrad-Johnson et2 

preamplifier and lp66S 

power amplifier 

Dick Olsher finds much to like in this 

entry-level tube gear from one of the 

most venerable marques in high-end 

audio. 

86 

running Springs audio 

Dmitri aC power 

Conditioner 

Robert Harley discovers a new reference 

in AC power conditioning. 

92 

tascam DV-ra1000hD 

high-resolution Digital 

recorder 

Make your own high-res recordings 

(or LP archives) with this nifty and 

affordable unit. Steven Stone reports. 

98 

loiminchay Chagall 

loudspeaker 

With a stunning—and stunningly 

different—enclosure, the Chagall 

makes a highly favorable impression on 

Anthony H. Cordesman. 

8 

letters 

Praise for our analog-focus issue, reaction 

to the Spectral review and interview, a 

musical bargain, powered loudspeakers, 

counterfeit Koetsu cartridges, and that ol’ 

analog-versus-digital debate again. 


12 

From the editor 

14 

FuturetaS 

16 

Industry news 

110 

Manufacturer Comments 

MUSIC 

124 

Feature 

Impulse and Blue Note Reissues 

from Acoustic Sounds 

Wayne Garcia on a new bunch of jazz 

classics reborn on 45rpm vinyl. 

126 

rock 

New releases from Antony and the 

Johnsons, Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks, 

and Joan Baez, along with the Band’s 

classic second album reissued on LP, and 

a collection of 40-year-old Willie Nelson 

recordings re-produced “naked.” 

130 

Classical 

Diva Cecilia Bartoli shines in Bellini’s La 

sonnambula, Rudolf Kempe in Strauss, 

and guitarist Jason Vieaux in Bach. Plus 

new recordings of Shostakovich and 

Mozart in multichannel. 

134 

Jazz 

Recent offerings from Mark O’Connor’s 

Hot Swing Trio, Branford Marsalis, 

Benny Golson, John Scofield, and Joe 

Lovano. 

137 

top ten Greg Cahill selects ten great 

Gypsy-jazz CDs. 

144 

taS back page 

An interview with Parasound founder 

Richard Schram. 

www.theabsolutesound.com 

founder; chairman, 

editorial advisory board 

editor-in-chief 

executive editor 

acquisitions manager 

and associate editor 

music editor 

and proofreader 

creative director 

art director 

senior writers 

Anthony H. Cordesman, Wayne Garcia, 

Robert E. Greene, Chris Martens, Tom Martin, 

Dick Olsher, Andrew Quint, 

Paul Seydor, Alan Taffel 

reviewers and 

contributing writers 

Soren Baker, Greg Cahill, 

Dan Davis, Andy Downing, Roy Gregory, 

Jim Hannon, Jacob Heilbrunn, Sue Kraft, 

Mark Lehman, Ted Libbey, David McGee, 

Bill Milkowski, Derk Richardson, 

Don Saltzman, Steven Stone 

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The Absolute Sound June/July 2009 5

Letters 

e-mail us: rharley@nextscreen.com 

or write us a letter: The Absolute Sound, 4544 S. Lamar, G-300, Austin, TX 78745 

Double Wow 

Let me say just one word about your 

March 2009 Analog Edition: “Wow.” No, 

make that two words: “Double wow!” I 

haven’t enjoyed an issue this much in a 

long time. I read it through once and am 

now doing it again to make sure I didn’t 

miss anything. 

I recommitted to vinyl about two years 

ago and haven’t had this much fun in a 

long time. One thing that I’ve come to 

realize over the past 50 odd years of being 

involved in this hobby is that vinyl and 

tubes get me closer to the real thing than 

any CD-and-solid-state-based system I 

have ever heard, and I have heard some 

very good and expensive ones. Anyway, 

thanks again for a great issue from all of 

us analog-loving fanatics. 

Raven Ellis 

role Models for 

the Industry 

In more than 38 years in this hobby/ 

calling, I don’t think I have ever read 

such a magnificent interview as the one 

you had with Spectral’s Richard Fryer and 

Keith Johnson. The insight into their 

passion, their skills, their art, and their 

business perspective was an absolute revelation. 

What tremendous role models for the 

industry they are. Even though I wholeheartedly 

agree that their products are 

priced most fairly, unfortunately they 

remain beyond my meager purse so I am 

looking forward to listening to them at 

length at next year’s Rocky Mountain Audio 

Fest. Thank you for the opportunity to 

get inside two phenomenal minds. 

David S. Dodd 

a true bargain 

By now you have probably received your 

fair share of complaints, whines, “cancel- 


my-subscription” letters for your coverage 

of the $200k MBL X-Treme speakers 

in the January issue. [Actually, we haven’t 

received any.—Ed.] And I’m sure you’ve 

been given all kinds of reasons why it’s 

evil, preposterous, insane, and ridiculous 

to review such a speaker. For those who 

found such a review upsetting I would 

like to point out that in the same issue on 

page 166 there was a wonderful review/ 

recommendation for a real bargain— 

David Oistrakh: The Complete EMI Recordings 

box set. I purchased that set based on that 

review. Total cost: $40. That’s 17 discs of 

music for $40! A true bargain of some 

truly outstanding music played by a true 

master of his instrument. Thanks to Dan 

Davis for the review. 

John Valvano 

a trip Down 

Memory lane 

Your article on the new JansZen Model 

One [Issue 191] with mentions and photo 

of a multiple KLH 9 setup brought back 

old memories. I owned a pair of 9s from 

1970 until 1991 and thoroughly enjoyed 

them. I installed them in a small den/ 

office and drove them with McIntosh 

electronics. The sound was wonderful, 

and because of the smaller room and onelistener 

setup, most of their deficiencies 

disappeared. The only real problem was 

their lack of deep bass, but since I was listening 

to vocals, jazz, and folk music primarily, 

it wasn’t much of a problem. Even 

with the occasional rock album, I could 

run them at fairly high levels without 

blowing fuses. During that entire period I 

only had to return them once to KLH for 

replacement of a buzzing panel. Most of 

my friends were amazed by their sound. 

I thought you would be interested to 

know that the friend who introduced me 

to the 9s was able to afford 4 pairs of 9s 

driven by top-of-the-line McIntosh electronics. 

He had them set up in a medium- 

to-large music room parallel to one of 

the long walls. Four panels were used for 

each stereo channel and were arranged 

in a slightly convex pattern, with overlapping 

edges. To say they threw a huge 

sound stage is an understatement, and 

the arrangement eliminated the beamy 

high frequencies. Of course, that many 

panels could be played close to reference 

levels, and although they were lacking in 

very low bass, one hardly noticed because 

most of the recordings of the day did not 

contain much low bass. The only instance 

I can recall of hearing sound like that was 

this past fall at the Rocky Mountain Audio 

Fest in the Kimber suite [where Sound Lab 

electrostats arranged in convex sets were playing 

back Ray Kimber’s surround recordings—Ed.]. 

I’m sure the audio frequency range and 

dynamics in the Kimber suite were superior, 

but the envelopment of the music 

was comparable. What a trip! Thanks for 

the memories. 

Nicholas (last name 

withheld by request) 

powered 

Speakers Über 

Alles 

I was pleased to (finally) see a review of 

a powered monitor speaker, the KRK 

Rokit 6, in the March issue. Hopefully it 

won’t be the last such review, especially 

since the Rokit 6 is an entry-level product. 

Even at that, however, the review did not 

adequately stress the fact that the $398 

retail price of a pair of Rokit 6s won’t 

buy much in the way of a stereo amp, 

a pair of passive speakers, and speaker 

cables. And the Rokit 6’s $200 street price 

won’t buy a Bose table radio! Now how 

about reviewing a pair of high-quality 

powered monitors, like the Genelec 

8050s, that are actually used by major recording 

studios to mix and record much 

of the music sold today? I’d put my own

Letters 

pair of 8050s plus 7070 subwoofer ($8595 

full-range system) up against any passive 

speaker/amp/cable system costing three 

to four times as much. After forty years 

of spending untold amounts of money 

on high-end audio, I particularly like 

avoiding the need to “roll” amps, speakers, 

and cables in an effort to find a combination 

that works. The Genelec system 

comes already optimized, and it works. I 

no longer “play” with equipment; I just 

listen to music. 

Bruce C. Grunsten 

Koetsu buyers 

beware 

Recently, Koetsu has received numerous 

inquiries about so-called “new” and 

“cheap” Koetsu phono cartridges being 

offered from Web sites in Hong Kong, 

Florida, and places in between. Even 

some audiophile forums carry information 

about such dealers. It is time to 

debunk these fraudulent dealers for the 

benefit of the public. 

A dealer from Hong Kong, for 

example, is advertising a new Koetsu 

Signature Platinum cartridge for $3750, 

including shipping. An authentic Signature 

Platinum cartridge lists for $5900. 

Upon communicating with the seller and 

checking the serial number we obtained, 

we found the number corresponds to a 

cartridge manufactured in 2004 that was 

originally sold to a dealer in Tokyo four 

and a half years ago. At best this is a used 

cartridge; at worst, a rebuilt Black Market 

unit that is not even a genuine Koetsu. 

I am concerned that our customers 

are being cheated, and will unfairly judge 

true Koetsu products based on counterfeits 

of unknown origin. On the surface, 

most buyers can’t readily tell the difference 

between a genuine and a counterfeit 

Koetsu. In fact, only a qualified Koetsu 

technician can truly tell them apart. The 

main issue is whether customers are 

getting what they pay for, not the ease of 

the sale (a point some Koetsu consumers 

buying from fraudulent sources have 

mentioned on audiophile forums). Customers 

shouldn’t judge dealers and the 

products they buy by the smoothness of 

their transactions. 


Koetsu takes great pride in offering 

its products only through a very few extremely 

professional distributors. We give 

our customers every guarantee they will 

not find bona-fide Koetsu products at 

“too good to be true prices” in China or 

anywhere in the world. Buyers beware. 

Hiram Toro 

Managing Director 

Koetsu USA 

opinon vs. Fact 

In an excerpt from his book [The Complete 

Guide to High-End Audio] reprinted 

in the March, 2009 TAS, Robert Harley 

writes, “When done right, LP playback 

has an openness, transparency, dynamic 

expression, and musicality not matched 

by CD.” 

This appears to be presented as fact, 

not a personal opinion (albeit one shared 

by others, even some recording professionals). 

Most folks with advanced electronics 

engineering degrees do not share 

Harley’s view. They state that openness 

and musicality are functions of the software, 

and that transparency and dynamics 

are demonstrably superior with digital 

formats. Although they concede that the 

shortcomings of the analog format may 

complement the shortcomings of other 

products in the playback chain, if absolute 

fidelity to the original signal is the 

goal, digital formats are far superior. 

As a service to new and impressionable 

audiophiles (rather than advertisers) 

this should have been clarified in Harley’s 

article. 

Dr. B. J. Montana 

RH replies: I think that readers assume 

what they read in any magazine is a mix of fact 

and opinion. Identifying each within the text is 

awkward and unnecessary. 

As to your premise of CD’s superiority, 

“most folks with advanced engineering degrees” 

who rank CD-quality digital audio above analog 

playback probably base their conclusion on the 

theoretical advantages of digital and have not 

taken the time to listen and compare first-rate 

digital with first-rate analog. I explored this fundamental 

fallacy in my editorial in the December 

2008 issue (“The Arm Chair vs. The Listening 

Chair”). 

I suspect that “most folks with advanced engi- 

neering degrees” have concluded that MP3 coding 

is sonically transparent because it can be “proved” 

(in theory) that the distortion created by low-bitrate 

coding falls beneath the masking threshold 

of human hearing and is thus inaudible. When 

low-bit-rate coding (MP3) was being developed, I 

attended nearly every domestic and international 

Audio Engineering Society convention where 

a parade of “folks with advanced engineering 

degrees” declared that low-bit-rate coding was, 

based on models of human hearing, sonically 

transparent. We all know how that worked out. 

I’ll rely on a good pair of ears to judge the quality 

of reproduced sound rather than theoretical arguments 

from non-listeners. 

Finally, your suggestion that my opinion regarding 

the merits of analog and digital is merely 

a cynical contrivance to mislead readers and 

pander to advertisers is both bizarre and repugnant. 

taS 

UPCOMING IN 

ISSUE 194 

• Special Digital Focus 

• Meridian 808.2 CD player 

and DSp7200 active digital 

loudspeaker 

• DaCs from audio research, 

bryston, and bel Canto 

• USb DaC survey 

• Feature article on USb 

connection 

• Digital buyer’s guide 

• Wilson audio Maxx 3 

loudspeaker 

• Vienna acoustics “the 

Music” loudspeaker 

• budget high-end from China: 

audio Space, Dussen, and 

Vincent integrated amps 

• Chord SpM 1050 power 

amplifier 

• naim Superline phonostage 

Now on AVguide 

taS editors blogs: get the 

inside scoop from robert 

harley, Jonathan Valin, neil 

gader, and all your favorite 

taS writers.

GUEST 

Editorial 

Space—the Final (Sonic) Frontier 

CES provides an annual microcosm of the state of the audio art. This year, I heard a profusion of systems 

exhibiting audiophile virtues such as midrange purity, high- and low-frequency extension, finely gauged 

dynamics, holographic soundstaging, and precise imaging. Yet while I was deeply impressed with the 

timbral veracity and dynamic dexterity of these systems, I was surprised to find myself unconvinced when it 

came to their spatial accuracy. 

“Accuracy” is the operative word here. To be sure, we in the 

high end have established a set of spatial ideals to which 

most manufacturers aspire—and regularly achieve. The only 

problem is that these ideals do not reflect reality. 

For example, many CES systems summoned admirably 

wide, deep soundstages right before my eyes. Unfortunately, 

in a live musical event, the soundstage (or better, the 

“soundspace”) is not exclusively in front of us; rather, a lot 

of it is around us. Only one room delivered this higher level 

of realism: the Kimber IsoMike room. Not coincidentally, it 

was the only multichannel music exhibit at the show. There, 

top-drawer software (by Ray Kimber) and hardware (from 

EMM Labs, Pass Labs, and four TAD speakers) delivered 

a far more accurate recreation of the recording venue than 

any stereo system could pull off. At one point, a brass band 

recording so thoroughly transported me to the performance 

site I could almost smell the stadium grass. 

Similarly, in the area of imaging, most systems adhered to 

a false ideal. Sure, they were able to accurately pinpoint the 

location of a centered vocalist, which is considered audio 

Holy Grail. But the phantom singer’s radiation pattern bore 

no resemblance to that of a live singer, thus making for an 

imperfect illusion. Indeed, the most natural and convincing 

vocals I heard at the show—such that I could easily imagine 

a singer standing before me—were in rooms utilizing TAD 

speakers specifically designed to deliver a coherent radiation 

pattern. Both the TAD Reference One and the new 

Compact employ a midrange cone and tweeter dome that 

are configured concentrically (think coax), a rare approach 

that, like the IsoMike multichannel setup, delivered one of 

the show’s few glimpses of progress in spatial accuracy. 

All these observations were validated at VMPS’ 

courageous, edifying “live versus recorded” demonstration. 

A jazz quartet—piano, upright bass, flute, and percussion— 

accompanied by vocalist Leslie Olsher (our own DO’s 

wife) constituted the live element. The recording chain was 

purity itself: no mixing board, EQ, compression, or spot 

miking between the Sennheiser mics and the Sony Sonoma 

DSD recorder. Playback was equally straightforward, 


with a modest component chain terminating in a pair of 

VMPS’s mid-line RMV6V planar speakers ($8900/pr.) 

and four VSS subs ($1650 each). Listeners were treated to 

a live performance, which was recorded in real time, then 

immediately played back. 

The results illustrated how far the high end has 

progressed—and where it still needs work. Overall, the 

recorded version of each performance was impressively 

similar to the original. Timbres were faithful, and dynamics 

were virtually indistinguishable from the live event. There 

was a mild loss of warmth on the bass and the piano, but 

I’d attribute this to the room. Without question the most 

significant differences I heard between the live and recorded 

performances were spatial. The recorded vocalist was more 

narrowly focused than the real one (she was too pinpoint), 

and sounded flattened rather than three-dimensional. 

However, instruments located to the sides of the stage, 

where no phantom imaging was required, did not similarly 

suffer. Another spatial disparity I noted was the sound 

between instruments. Live, all the musicians clearly occupied 

the same air “cloud,” with no continuity gaps. On playback, 

the cloud was no longer contiguous; there were dead zones 

that separated and isolated instruments from each other. 

Audiophiles can be thankful that meeting many of our 

most challenging goals has become commonplace. But when 

it comes to spatial accuracy, the industry has adopted—and 

perfected—a false ideal. To progress, it must strive to achieve 

a more rigorous, realistic standard. CES demonstrated both 

that need, and the potential to succeed. 

Alan Taffel 

I’m pleased to announce that Mark Lehman has assumed the 

duties of Music Editor, starting with this issue. Mark has been 

a long-time contributor to the music section as well as the 

magazine’s proofreader. In addition to his editorial skills (he’s a 

former English professor), Mark is an expert in twentieth-century 

classical music, and has had his compositions recorded by a major 

orchestra. Welcome aboard, Mark. —robert harley


Future TAS 

neil gader 

a Statement Worth listening to 

Spendor developed all new drivers for its latest 2.5-way bass-reflex 

floorstander, the ST (Statement). They include the 7" Kevlar-compositecone 

bass driver, 7" polymer-cone mid/bass driver, and a wide-surround 

29mm tweeter with bi-elliptical acoustic front plate and damped rear 

acoustic chambers. Collectively the result is traditional Spendor sonics 

matched with high sensitivity and high power-handling. The crossover 

network has been refined as well, and WBT Next-Gen terminals provide 

a good connection. The bass loading of the slender understated cabinet 

is a development of the proven Spendor S Series linear-flow system, said 

to ensure consistency and well-controlled bass. For mechanical stability, 

the base of each ST cabinet carries a set of four machined-steel stabilizer 

discs that are attached deep into the core structure of the cabinet. 

price: $8995/pr. bluebirdmusic.com 

hiato—another name for 

harmony, Mate 

In the language of the Maori, Hiato means 

harmony, but Plinius intends that and a lot more 

in its latest and largest integrated. Designed 

to challenge the finest separates, it outputs a 

whopping 300Wpc while retaining the elegant 

ergonomics of Plinius’ unique wrap-around 

case design. Hiato features four line-level 

inputs with WBT RCA connectors, an optional 

all-new phono input (derived from the highperformance 

Koru and adjustable for gain and 

loading), and balanced line inputs for CD and 

line. There’s also a home-theater bypass, remote 

IR output, 12V triggers, and a 3.5mm frontpanel 

jack for portable media. In a harmonious 

nod to going green, the Hiato also adheres to 

the latest international standards to eliminate 

substances harmful to the environment. 

Includes a full-function remote control. 

price: $8900 ($10,175 w/phonostage). 

eliteavdist.com 


reaching the Summit of 

Flagship affordability 

Summit X represents the first 

MartinLogan speaker to implement key 

innovations developed for the CLX 

full-range electrostatic loudspeaker. 

These include a high-resolution 

XStat electrostatic transducer, lowdistortion 

Controlled Dispersion 

PoweredForce woofers, and CLXinspired 

Vojtko crossover-engineering. 

Summit X’s Controlled Dispersion 

PoweredForce woofers tailor output 

to provide a radiation pattern and 

uniform wave launch at the crossover 

point comparable to MartinLogan’s 

electrostatic transducers, while retaining 

the sensitivity and dynamics of cone 

woofers. The 25Hz and 50Hz level 

controls in Summit X’s Controlled 

Dispersion PoweredForce active 

woofer system permit fine-tuning of 

the speaker’s output in the frequency 

ranges most commonly affected by 

room acoustics. A modular-spike-foot 

design allows the listener to optimize 

the speaker’s rake for ideal vertical 

dispersion at the listening position, 

while minimizing floor and ceiling 

reflections. 

base price: $13,995/pr. (custom 

finish and design options available). 

martinlogan.com


Industry NEWS 

JUNE/JULy 2009 

Shaken 

and Stirred 

Two days with the Aston Martin DBS and Bang & Olufsen Sound System 

It’s not easy upstaging a car with the star-power of 

the Aston Martin DBS. Better known as the “James 

Bond car” and the co-star of the movie Quantum of 

Solace, the DBS is by any standard an object of electrifying 

beauty, a hand-finished marvel of aluminum/carbon-fiber 

technology. The rapturous exhaust note produced from 

its V-12 is a high-rev bark so fierce that even Cesar Millan 

would likely take a cautious step back. Actually with a sticker 

of $272,000 pretty much everyone takes a step back. But 

I had the Bang & Olufsen audio system to assess, so no 

sooner did the media representative hand me the transceiver 

“key” than I was off. 

B&O, the Danish audio conglomerate, knows this terrain 

well. The premium automotive audio systems it’s been 

developing for Audi and AMG Mercedes vehicles have 

given it a wealth of experience in grafting high-end audio 

onto unwieldy automotive platforms. For a supercar like the 

DBS B&O responded with a thirteen-speaker (in custom 

enclosures in ten interior positions), 13-channel, DSPcontrolled 

setup with 1000 watts of Class D ICE power 

and a feature called Dynamic Tuning which (via rearviewmirror–mounted 

microphone) continually tracks interior 

noise levels and equalizes accordingly. Included are B&O’s 

proprietary Acoustic Lens tweeters at the right and left front 

positions. They control horizontal dispersion across a wide 

area while limiting diffraction effects and reflections in the 

lateral and vertical domains. Controls are basic, restricted to 

a minimalist series of buttons and the small display menus 

of the six-CD changer. Once you master the system’s logic, 

uaing the controls becomes second nature. 

Sonically, the performance of the Bang & Olufsen system 

takes on a completely different dimension in the tight 

confines of the DBS compared to the voluminous cabin 


in a luxe sedan like the Audi A8L W12—another B&O 

partner. The sound was warm with a unified soundstage 

running along the horizon of the waterfall-style dash— 

images were focused at driver/passenger ear levels rather 

than resting in one’s lap as most car stereos do. Midrange 

tonality was full, natural, and a bit forward. A smidgen 

of added lower treble presence made up for the lack of 

perceived upper-octave extension (even at idle, engine noise 

is omnipresent). Curiously the sonics were more typically 

British in the sense of being posh and well padded, and to 

their credit lacked some of the sibilance I encountered in 

the A8L. The Acoustic Lens tweeters were sweeter in the 

DBS and a better match with the center and side midrange 

channels than in the Audi. 

The less said about the timbre-challenged bass the better, 

although in its defense overcoming engine and tire noise 

at the levels produced by the DBS would be hard for any 

system. And whereas Audi’s über-sedan gives you a greater 

sense of dimensional space, rear-channel specifics, and 

some added soundstage depth, the B&O/Aston system in 

surround mode is more cocoon-like and concentrates on 

reducing localization artifacts—providing an immersive 

almost seamless experience, while keeping the driver’s focus 

centered on the road ahead, where it should be. In fact, 

listening in stereo mode was markedly inferior, unbalanced, 

and less continuous. 

As well intentioned as B&O’s efforts are here, unleash 

your inner-James Bond and even the finest audio plays 

second fiddle to the mechanical symphony going on beneath 

the Aston’s long hood. On the other hand, since the real 

James Bond doesn’t get stuck in traffic, you’ll be all the more 

appreciative that B&O came along for the ride. 

Neil Gader

overture a/V hosts World 

premier of the Magico M5 

loudspeaker 

overture Ultimate Audio/Video in Wilmington, Delaware, 

will host the world consumer premier of the 

Magico M5 loudspeaker on Saturday, May 16, from 

11am to 4pm. Magico founder and designer Alon Wolf will 

demonstrate the M5 and answer your questions. The playback 

system will include the Spectral SDR-4000 Professional 

CD player, DMC-30SS preamplifier, and DMA-360 power 

amplifiers, all connected with MIT’s top-of-the-line Oracle 

MA interconnects and loudspeaker cables. 

TAS Editor-in-Chief Robert Harley will be on hand 

to talk with attendees and sign copies of his books 

The Complete Guide to High-End Audio, Introductory Guide 

to High-Performance Audio Systems, and Home Theater for 

Everyone. 

Complimentary food and beverages will be served 

during the event. RSVP to (800) 838-1812. 

Industry NEWS 

JUNE/JULy 2009 

Digital Subscriptions to taS and 

Hi-Fi Plus now available 

We’re pleased to announce that The Absolute Sound and our 

sister magazines, Hi-Fi Plus and Playback, are now available 

for instant download at our new digital store, NextNewsStand. 

com. 

The digital editions are in PDF format and are exact reproductions 

of the print magazine, complete with advertising. Once 

downloaded, you can read the magazine off-line at your leisure 

or print it. Best of all for international subscribers, the digital 

editions will be available simultaneously with the print edition— 

no more waiting for the mail carrier to finally deliver your copy. 

Previous issues of TAS are available going back to 1999. 

Digital subscriptions are available worldwide for $19.95 per 

year for TAS ($4.99 for individual copies), $24.95 per year for 

Hi-Fi Plus ($5.99 for individual copies), and $8.95 for Playback 

($1.49 for individual copies). 

you can see the entire range of digital download offerings at 

NextNewsStand.com. 


Start ME UP 

primare DVDI10 

DVD/CD receiver 

A Combi for Grown-Ups 

neil gader 

For those of us living with limited shelf space and evertightening 

budgets there is no more egalitarian audio 

component than the DVD/CD receiver. It offers a 

multitude of features, sufficient power, and construction quality 

consistent with prices that are often heavily discounted. Valueladen? 

You bet. Goosebump-inducing? Umm, not so much. But 

since nature abhors a vacuum, Primare of Sweden has seized the 

opportunity to fill that void with the DVDI10—a DVD-receiver 

that bridges the gap between a work-ethic blue-collar component 

and a hot-rodded high-end one. 

Every square inch of the DVDI10 bespeaks class and quality, 

from the understated brushed aluminum casework to the discrete 

top-mount controls to the trio of isolation footers to the nicely 

laid-out remote control. However, beneath the handsome look 

is a multi-tasker of substance. Power output is rated at 75Wpc, 

thanks to cool-running, space-saving Class D amplifier topology. 

The audio section provides three analog audio inputs, a pre-out, 

and a Low-Frequency Effects (LFE) jack for driving a subwoofer. 

There’s an onboard A/D converter that allows all line-level sources 

to be outputted via the optical or coax digital outputs to a digital 

recorder or an external surround processor. The back panel also 

houses a fifteen-pin connector for iPod use and for exporting 

all of the player’s metadata to the Primare’s front panel via the 


remote control. In the video department, there are component, 

composite, and S-video outputs. The HDMI output features an 

Analog Devices video DAC and 1080p upscaling from a Genesis 

FLI2300 video processor. While I don’t have the facilities to 

measure DVD video performance, HDMI connectivity went 

without a hitch and to these eyes rendered images that were 

smoothly film-like and free from obvious video artifacts. 

Functionally the Primare sometimes speaks its own language. 

And using it is a bit like adventuring abroad where you adapt to that 

country’s rhythms by immersing yourself in its world. For example, 

to mute the volume you press the Volume Up/Down buttons 

on the front panel simultaneously. Weirdly, you can’t mute from 

the remote control. Other remote logical oddities include a Play 

button that piggybacks with Pause, and a Stop button that doubles 

up with Open/Close. The monochromatic on-screen display is old 

school graphically, but functional. Time to bring on the vivid fullcolor 

graphics of today’s current GUIs. But competitors should 

take note of the front-panel display that enlarges the size of the 

volume indicator each time the volume button is pushed. Once set 

it returns to its original size—a boon for middle-age peepers. Aside 

from source switching that’s on the sluggish side, the Primare has 

functioned flawlessly over the last few months—important when 

one box is juggling all these apples.

The sonic performance of the DVDI10 is easily at the upper 

limits of this product type. Its pace and timing were appealing. 

The DVDI10’s midrange tonal balance was neutral, veering 

neither towards the warmly romantic nor the coolly clinical. Its 

treble is relaxed, growing slightly shaded and opaque as it ascends. 

Transient speed is natural, neither strident nor subdued. One 

of the Primare’s strongest points is the attention it pays to the 

more delicate low-level textural and timbral aspects of acoustic 

music. Joan Baez’s latest album Day After Tomorrow [Razor & 

Tie] is filled with the rich resonances of guitar, acoustic bass, 

mandolin, and mandola. During songs like “Rose of Sharon” or 

“The Lower Road,” the Primare sensitively reproduces some of 

the subtlest details and defines each instrument’s unique timbre 

and character. 

The Primare’s balance and dynamic envelope is decidedly 

midrange-accented, which is probably fitting for its moderate 

power output and the fact that many users will take advantage 

of the LFE output and let a powered subwoofer do the deepbass 

power-lifting. There’s also a slight truncation of upper 

treble air that leaves the impression of a lowered acoustic ceiling 

—an almost subliminal feeling that your room’s boundaries have 

closed in somewhat, losing some height. 

It’s not dinging the Primare unfairly when I add that speaker 

matching is of greater consequence with combi-integrateds in 

general. Rather I’m making the larger point that amp/speaker 

matchups are just like engines and cars. When you take a perky but 

tiny engine and slip it into an Escalade it’ll barely get that behemoth 

off the line. But put that same engine in a Ford Fiesta and you’ll 

have it chirping its tires in every gear. So 

many fine speaker choices are available 

from various companies that there really is 

no need to unduly challenge the Primare’s 

innards by asking it to drive a speaker of 

less than average sensitivity. And to that 

end when I used the Paradigm Monitor 9, 

a four-transducer floorstander with frisky 

96dB sensitivity, the Primare exploded to 

life. The percussive and rhythmic fireworks 

of Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al” 

[Columbia] created electric bass guitar 

pulses that vibrated floorboards, and the 

energy of the brass section as it jumped 

an octave seemed to rise in the room like 

a sudden tide. 

In order to isolate the quality of the 

DVD/CD player’s audio performance I 

kept a couple of other line-level sources 

on hand including the superior Esoteric 

X-05 CD/SACD player—a recipient of a 

Golden Ear Award in this issue. What this 

comparison revealed was that the Primare 

CD section was sweet, dynamically 

engaging, but not quite a match for the 

standard of resolution set by the amplifier. 

The soundstage could be more open and 

dimensional in my opinion. There’s a 

subtractive quality in the reproduction 

of the ambient complexities in acoustic 

venues. For example, during Ann Sophie 

START ME UP 

Mutter’s performance of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto [DG] 

there was less reverberation from the boundaries of the hall. 

Also, Mutter’s violin was not as warmly resonant and its upper 

register introduced a light glaze that diminished resolution in the 

violin’s top register—an issue raised in TAS’s Class D amplifier 

survey a few years ago. 

In a segment not always taken especially seriously by audiophiles 

the Primare DVDI10 offers a superior single-box solution that’s 

elegant, understated, and versatile. Given appropriate speaker 

matching (and a vivid 1080p display) it will perform at levels 

certain to raise a few eyebrows among audiophiles and videophiles 

alike. Come to think of it, about the only thing this multi-tasking 

Swede won’t do is supply the meatballs. taS 

SpeCS & prICIng 

Power output: 75Wpc 

Inputs: Three RCA, one iPod 

control 

Video outputs: One HDMI, one 

component, one S-Video, one 

composite 

Audio outputs: One optical, one 

coaxial, one stereo preamp, 

one LFE 

Dimensions: 17.5" x 13.75" x 4" 

Weight: 17 lbs. 

Price: $2495 

SoUnD organIzatIon 

(972) 234-0182 

thesoundorg.com 

primare.net 


Absolute ANALOG 

tW acustic 

raven one turntable 

The ultimate in no-fuss high-performance analog performance 

as with many things seen from afar, an audio critic’s life 

appears enviable, even romantic. All we do is sit back, 

wait for FedEx or UPS to drop off the next cool toy, sit 

back again to do some more listening to favorite tunes, scribble 

a few lines, sit back some more, and admire the room full of 

goodies that people have sent us—on loan, no less. 

Well, ’t’aint exactly like that. First, the job itself is tougher 

than it might appear. It comes with a huge responsibility to both 

manufacturer and reader alike to “get it right”—meaning, to 

try to convey not only the sound of the product but also the 

nuts-and-bolts of its design and build, and the intent of the 

designer and builder. Second, there’s no way one is going to like, 

let alone enjoy, every piece of gear assigned for review. While 

one is obliged to “tell it like it is” to readers, one also needs to 

be sensitive to the manufacturer. Because more than bruised 


Wayne garcia 

egos are at stake here—livelihoods, reputations, and careers 

are on the line. And though few of them would care to admit 

it, most audio manufacturers are satisfied with little short of a 

rave write-up. Added to this comes the challenge of remaining 

fresh and unjaded as a listener and writer—describing, with the 

tools at our disposal, the actual sound of a component in a way 

that doesn’t leave the reader feeling like he’s chewing on dayold 

bread. In a final irony, because most of us who write about 

this stuff can’t actually afford to purchase it (even at industryaccommodation 

prices), the day must inevitably come when that 

reference component one can’t imagine living without is called 

back to its maker. 

This recently happened to me with Redpoint Audio when, 

after a generous loan period, the company could no longer afford 

to let me keep the Model D turntable that had been my reference


ABSOLUTE ANALOG 

noW eVen better 

Shortly before this deadline, Jeff Catalano asked if I’d like to 

try a trio of updates that are now standard with Raven One: 

new Stillpoints-designed feet, a new power supply/controller, 

and a new arm “board” (the $6500 price—up from $6000— 

reflects these changes). I tackled them separately to hear 

how each affected the sound, beginning with the feet. 

I swapped them out while in the process of reviewing Music 

Matters’ release of Art Blakey’s A Night in Tunisia, figuring 

I’d hear some difference. And so I did. What I wasn’t prepared 

for was how dramatic the difference would be. What had 

sounded pretty wonderful before now exhibited significantly 

more air around the instruments, studio ambience, dynamic 

pop, tonal complexity, and simply more musicality with less 

noise. Very cool. 

The latest power supply and speed control box is smaller 

and slightly simpler to operate than the original. And offering 

further evidence of designer Woschnick’s perfectionism, 

this box was originally an upgrade to the AC-3. As Catalano 

explained it, once Woschnick heard the improvement and 

insisted that the same technology also grace the Raven One. 

Although the difference may not be quite as dramatic as the 

feet are, the new power supply reduces noise to even lower 

levels, while improving dynamic nuance and headroom. 

Finally, the new arm mount, rather than being machined 

from a solid-brass billet, is a combination of solid brass and 

stainless steel (a “doughnut” that decouples the arm from 

the brass platform). And while I may sound like the proverbial 

needle stuck in a groove, this new decoupled arm mount also 

brought easily heard audible improvements along the same 

lines described above. (Now anodized black, it also looks 

better than the old naked brass.) 

In short, each of these seemingly small (but not) changes 

makes listening to LPs more involving and satisfying, and 

brings us that much closer to the music. Wayne garcia 

for the past year. But sometimes you get lucky. And in one of 

those delightful bits of serendipity that life sometimes brings 

us, no sooner had I received news of the Redpoint’s imminent 

departure than a series of events led to the arrival of the turntable 

I’m reporting on today—the TW Acustic Raven One. 

I’d been hearing good things about the ’tables being made by 

this German company, most recently from my colleague Jonathan 

Valin, whose review of the top-of-the-line Raven AC-3 appeared 

in Issue 180. As open-minded and eager as I was to hear 

the Raven One, it was, after all, the company’s entry-level model. 

Surely, I thought, it would prove to be a disappointment after 

I’d lived with the nearly four times as costly Redpoint Model 

D (reviewed by me in Issue 175); surely I’d quickly pine for the 

departed Redpoint; surely the Raven would be good…but not 

great. 

Well, surely I was wrong. In no time at all the Raven One 

shattered every one of these preconceptions. And after living with 

it for many months, I have no qualms stating that the TW Acustic 

Raven One is one hell of a fine record player—even a great one. 

And at a price of $6500, though it may not be inexpensive, it 


is also an exceptionally fine value compared to some of its far 

pricier competition. Not to mince words, I’m referring here to 

the Redpoint Model D, which remains a superb product, but, as 

Bogart’s Rick Blaine said in Casablanca, at a price. 

Essentially a simplified, lower-mass version of the AC-3, the 

Raven One uses exactly the same high-torque, microprocessorcontrolled, 

quartz-referenced DC motor from Germany’s Pabst 

(in this case, one motor as opposed to the AC-3’s three, and 

set into the plinth rather than freestanding like the AC-3), a 

similar motor controller, the same belt material, and the same 

composite plinth material (a blend of Delrin, copper powder, 

and two proprietary substances). The Raven One has a similar 

stainless steel sub-platter (but rather than sitting atop the plinth 

it is set into it), the bearing uses the same materials (Teflon and 

stainless) but in a slightly smaller assembly, and identical armmounting 

units (a solid bar of machined bronze with a decoupled 

stainless-steel “doughnut” arm mount). This, the feet, and motor 

controller were updated shortly before press time. See the sidebar 

for details. 

The biggest difference between the AC-3 and the Raven One, 

and the place where designer Thomas Woschnick was able to 

save mass and therefore money, is the platter. Whereas the AC- 

3’s proprietary composite platter, which took some five years to 

develop, is hollowed out, filled with some sort of mystery fluid, 

and capped with a copper plate, the One’s far lighter platter is 

made of TW’s composite material only. Finishing things off, 

the Raven One sits on a trio of adjustable feet and is topped 

by Millennium Audio’s carbon-fiber record mat. Although TW 

Acustic’s Web site offers a democratic view of record clamps, 

TW’s turntables are not supplied with one, and both Jonathan and 

I prefer the sound without—what I hear with a clamp or weight 

is a somewhat tighter, drier, and less natural presentation. 

“The ’tables are almost totally interchangeable,” according to 

U.S. importer Jeffrey Catalano of New York’s High Water Sound, 

“except for the base and plinth. We also offer the Raven Two, which 

is a two-arm version of the One with a stand-alone motor.” 


Type: Belt-drive, unsuspended 

turntable 

Speeds: 33.3 and 45 rpm 

Dimensions: 17" x 5.25" x 13" 


Price: $6500 

hIgh Water SoUnD 

274 Water Street, 2F 

New york, Ny10038 

(212) 608-8841 

highwatersound@earthlink.net 

ASSoCIATeD equIPmenT 

Tri-Planar Ultimate VII 

tonearm; Transfiguration 

Orpheus and Axia cartridges; 

Artemis Labs LA-1 linestage 

and PL-1 phonostage; Naim 

Superline phonostage; Kharma 

MP150 monoblock amplifiers; 

Kharma Mini Exquisite 

loudspeakers; Tara Labs Zero 

interconnect and digital cables, 

Omega speaker cables, The 

One power cords, and AD-10B 

Power Screen; Audience Adept 

Response Power Conditioner; 

Finite Elemente Spider 

equipment racks; Clearaudio 

Speed Strobe test LP; 

Feickert Universal protractor; 

AcousTech stylus force gauge 

COMMENT ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE FORUM AT aVgUIDe.CoM

Catalano also told me how easy the Raven was to set up. 

Oh, yeah, I thought, having heard such assurances plenty of 

times before only to find patience wearing thin and profanities 

flying thick. But in this case, Catalano wasn’t blowing smoke. 

The Raven One is, in fact, unusually easy to set up. Sure, the 

cartridge and arm adjustments require the usual meticulous care, 

but the turntable itself requires little more than fifteen minutes 

of attention: Remove it from the box, screw in the three feet, 

affix the bearing/platter assembly/belt, hook up the outboard 

supply, level, and set speeds. And because of the Raven’s highprecision 

build and superb motor/power-supply design—you set 

each speed with a strobe and then “lock” it into a solid-state 

memory—the speed remains accurate, without drift. For those 

who love to play records but who lack the skills and/or desire to 

fuss with the hardware, TW Acustic turntables may represent the 

ultimate in no-fuss high-performance analog performance. 

And just what is that performance like? 

As JV pointed out in his review of the AC-3, Woschnick’s goal 

was to marry the speed accuracy and dynamic range associated 

with the best direct-drive designs with the low noise, harmonic 

complexity, and transient speed of belt drives. The man has met 

his goals. 

One of the first things I repeatedly noticed with the Raven 

One actually occurred before a single note had been played—this 

is an exceptionally “silent” turntable. Meaning that the electromechanical 

noise we normally hear as a stylus hits the lead-in 

grooves is unusually low in level here. At first this is almost 

disconcerting, especially if you were playing the previous LP 

at a fairly high volume level. But once 

you’re used to it, what you appreciate is 

something that JV hailed in his review, 

which is that the TW Acustic turntables 

seemingly allow for notes to linger longer 

than most other designs do. (I haven’t 

heard the AC-3, but I’m willing to bet 

that it does this to degrees greater than 

the Raven One. I’d also bet that as you 

add motors and mass this quality ramps 

up incrementally.) You’ll hear this with all 

kinds of music. Take Jeff Beck’s brilliant 

rendition of Charles Mingus’ “Goodbye 

Pork Pie Hat,” from Wired [Epic], where, 

as the song’s slow intro unfolds against a 

very large acoustic space, the Raven One 

unfurls ribbons of complex tone colors 

from Beck’s electric guitar, along with 

the splashy liquidity of a Fender Rhodes 

electric piano, and brightly shimmering 

cymbals. 

The Raven One’s ability to allow notes 

to fully and completely blossom and 

slowly fade, with ghost trails lingering 

like shooting stars, was fully evident 

with Luigi Nono’s hauntingly beautiful 

A Carlo Scarpia [Edition RZ], which was 

composed around the lengthy decay of 

sounds punctuated by abrupt dynamic 

outbursts. Scored for a large orchestra 

(10 winds, 11 brass, 24 strings, harp, 


celeste, bells, triangle, and timpani), A Carlo Scarpia displayed 

another Raven One hallmark—its sheer beauty of sound. (If you 

go back, and you should, and re-read Jonathan’s review, you’ll 

note that he and I come to essentially the same conclusions on 

Woschnick’s designs, although we made a point of not discussing 

details of our opinions until I had lived with the Raven One 

for awhile.) Whatever music you play on the Raven One sounds 

simply and utterly gorgeous. But not in the way a highly colored 

tube component does, but in a way that sounds musically natural 

and always “right.” In a way that brings you that much closer to 

the musical event. 

And it’s not because the Raven One is fattening things up, 

rounding edges, or softening transients. Check out the Horace 

Parlan Quintet’s Speakin’ My Piece [Music Matters/Blue Note 

45rpm], and note the almost violent transient attack of Tommy 

Turrentine’s piercing trumpet, which is also very extended and 

airy up top, or the rich, woody percussiveness of Parlan’s piano, 

the complex harmonics of the Turrentine brothers unison 

playing of the theme (with Stanley on tenor sax), and the rich 

pluck of George Tucker’s upright bass. All are reproduced with 

a spot-on pitch accuracy and a rhythmic stability I’ve never quite 

experienced in this way before. 

While the Redpoint Model D is ultimately even more explosively 

dynamic, possibly more detailed, and its bottom end has 

greater “slam,” the Raven One delivers equally as much musical 

pleasure. Given that it’s a fraction of the price and hails from 

Europe, no less, I’d call the Raven One the best value I know of 

in high-end analog playback. taS 


Absolute ANALOG 

DaVinci audio labs reference 

grandezza phono Cartridge 

Making Transparent Musical Sense 

Just a couple of issues ago I reviewed the AAS Gabriel/ 

DaVinci turntable with DaVinci’s Grandezza tonearm 

(which, out of pure sloth, I’ve been persistently misspelling 

as “Grandeeza”). Part of that package included the moving-coil 

cartridge I’m about to talk about—the $7300 Reference 

Grandezza. 

Designed (like the ’table and arm) by DaVinci’s Peter Brem, the 

Reference Grandezza is a very-low-output (0.17mV), very-lowinternal-impedance 

(


26 June/July 2009 The Absolute Sound

here is one that, for the most part, doesn’t. A cartridge that just 

doesn’t seem to be “there” in the way cartridges, particularly 

moving-coil cartridges, always are. 

What this clear-as-glass vanishing act buys you is: 1) higherfidelity 

timbres (with little to no color cast or warmth or 

coolness being added by the transducer itself, instruments 

sound more like themselves in tone color, assuming, of course, 

that they were recorded with high fidelity); 2) higher resolution 

(with no audible grain, darkness, or brightness obscuring or 

selectively exaggerating low-level detail, usually-hard-to-discern 

pitches, timbres, durations, and intensities are reproduced with 

extraordinary clarity); and 3) higher transparency to sources 

(records sound the way they were recorded). 

In practice, this last may be a mixed blessing because poorly 

engineered or heavily multimiked recordings will sound poorly 

engineered or heavily multimiked (although thanks to the 

Type: Low-output movingcoil 

cartridge 

output: 0.17mV 

Coil impedance: 3 ohms 

matching impedance: 3 ohms 

Recommended stylus force: 

2—2.2 grams 

Weight: 20 grams 

Price: $7300 

DaVInCIaUDIo labS 

gMbh 

Derrière les Maisons 

2716 Sornetan BE 

Switzerland 

+41 (0) 32 484 01 75 

da-vinci-audio.com 


JV’s Reference System 

Loudspeakers: Magico M5, 

MartinLogan CLX 

Full-function and linestage 

preamps: Soulution 720, 

Audio Research Reference 

3, Audio Space Reference 2, 

Parasound JC-1 

Phonostage preamps: Audio 

Research PH-7, Lamm Industries 

LP-2 Deluxe, Audio 

Tekne TEA-2000 

Power amplifiers: Soulution 

700, Audio Research Reference 

610T, Lamm ML-2 

Analog source: Walker Audio 

Proscenium Black Diamond, 

AAS Gabriel/DaVinci with 

DaVinci Grandezza tonearm 

Phono cartridges: DaVinci 

Reference Cartridge 

Grandezza, Air Tight PC-1 

Supreme, Clearaudio Goldfinger 

v2 

Digital source: dCS Scarlatti, 

dCS Puccini, Soulution 740, 

ARC Reference CD8 

Cable and interconnect: Tara 

Labs “Zero” Gold interconnect, 

Tara Labs “Omega” 

Gold speaker cable, Tara 

Labs “The One” Cobalt 

power cords, Synergistic 

Research Absolute Reference 

speakers cables and 

interconnects 

Accessories: A/V Room- 

Service “Metu” Wall Panels 

and Corner traps, Shakti 

Hallographs (6), Symposium 

Acoustics Isis stand 

and Ultra platforms, Walker 

Prologue Reference stand, 

Walker Prologue amp stands, 

Shunyata Research Hydra 

V-Ray power distributor and 

Anaconda Helix Alpha/VX 

power cables, Shunyata Research 

Dark Field Cable Elevators, 

Walker Valid Points 

and Resonance Control discs, 

Odyssey RCM Mk V record 

cleaner, Clearaudio Double 

Matrix record cleaner, HiFi- 

Tuning silver/gold fuses 

COMMENT ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE FORUM AT aVgUIDe.CoM 


Grandezza’s sweetness they won’t sound outright terrible). Yes, 

you will hear every overdub of Joni Mitchell’s voice on, oh, Blue 

[Warner], but you will also hear the entire overdub sound (as I 

noted in my reviews of the MartinLogan CLXes and the Da Vinci 

record player) the way a photographic double or triple exposure 

looks—the spot at centerstage where Joni’s overdubbed voice 

has been potted in will pop up distinctly, as if an oval window 

looking out on a different time and space has been installed in 

the middle of the soundstage, as, in fact, it has. (You will hear this 

same effect on overdubbed instrumentalists.) You will hear every 

lyric (or at least every lyric that can be heard) with newfound 

clarity. On a grumbly, mumbly, previously indecipherably foghornish 

Leon Redbone album like Branch to Branch [Warner], what 

this will buy you is the clear articulation of delightfully sardonic 

lines like this one from “Sweet Mama, Papa’s Getting Mad”: 

You flirted with the butcher, 

You flirted with the baker, 

Now, you’re flirting with the undertaker. 

But you will also hear Redbone or his instrumentalists produce 

a cracking sound on several tracks that I used to think was 

mistracking but which turns out, in fact, to be the microphone 

preamp clipping. You will hear low notes like the plucked 

doublebasses that announce the rush to the finish of the last 

movement of Bartók’s Divertimento for String Orchestra 

[Decca] as if they are in the room with you, but you will also hear 

the cavernous chamber in which the doublebasses were plucked 

sound as if it’s in the room with you too, adding volume and 

reverberation to the pizzicato and shrill brightness to the strings. 

In short, you may not want a cartridge that is this scrupulous. 

On the other hand, if you want to hear a well-recorded piece 

like Bruno Maderna’s Serenata No. 2 [Hungaroton] make not just 

transparent sound but transparent musical sense, then the Reference 

Grandezza is your ticket to bliss. In the first section of the Serenata, 

Maderna lets the freshly sounded timbre of one instrument (like 

a flute) harmonize with the decaying overtones of the previously 

sounded timbre of another instrument (like a violin) making a kind 

of a gentle, magical, melting sound world in which eleven disparate 

instruments seemingly “complete” each other’s utterances in almost 

the same voice. To appreciate this serenade-like effect, you need to 

be able to hear the partials of the first instrument clearly enough 

to appreciate that the pitches and intensities of the subsequent 

instrument have been carefully and deliberately set to harmonize 

with these overtones. The Reference Grandezza does this— 

beautifully. BTW, if you think that the DaVinci’s transparency 

to sources (and musical meanings) makes it more an “analytical” 

than a “musical” cartridge, let me repeat: The old dichotomies just 

don’t apply here. The Reference Grandezza sounds voluptuously 

beautiful on great recordings like the Maderna, and not so hot 

(albeit a touch forgiving) on poor ones. 

Though you can’t go wrong with the somewhat darker and 

richer Air Tight PC-1 Supreme or the more spacious, electrifying, 

but somewhat brighter and grainier Goldfinger v2 or the 

uniformly gemütlich, never-less-than-gorgeous-sounding Koetsu 

Onyx Platinum, if you prefer to hear what’s actually on your 

records rather than a more bespoke version of same this may 

be the cartridge for you. It is for me. The DaVinci Reference 

Grandezza is my new reference. taS 


Mainstream 

MULTICHANNEL 

Sony STR-DA6400ES Multichannel Receiver and 

BDP-S5000ES Blu-ray Player 

neil gader 

Sony Electronics’ ES (Elevated Standard) products are the 

crème de la crème of its line—a showcase for high-quality 

construction, premium parts, and Sony’s razzle-dazzle 

features and technologies. Sharing space at the summit of the ES 

universe is the STR-DA6400ES 7.1-channel A/V receiver and 

the BDP-S5000ES Blu-ray disc player. 

eS-oterica 

Describing the Sony STR-DA6400ES as a mere 120Wpc audio/ 

video receiver (AVR) doesn’t do it justice. Sure it counts among its 

A/V highlights dual Faroudja DCDi Cinema chips for upscaling 

standard-def content to 1080p in the main room and 1080i in the 

second room. And naturally it reproduces the latest audio formats, 

including Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. But that’s 

not all by a long shot. It’s a network receiver with capability more 

akin to mission control in Houston than the average AVR. The 

6400ES is designed to be the system hub, routing and directing 

the action to and from a labyrinth of electronics, a computer, 

and its peripherals. For example, you can stream music, photos, 

and videos stored on a PC over a home network via Ethernet 

or a wireless router. Likewise you can access your music from 

an iPod or Walkman, as well as SHOUTcast, the Internet radio 

directory service, or Rhapsody Music Service. XM/Sirius ready? 

Are you sirious? And, it’s got the connectivity to spread the 

entertainment around the house, including high-def to a second 

room via CAT5e cable or three-zone audio. Sony even tosses in 

an extra full-function remote control. Also bundled is ES Utility 

software, which adjusts set-up parameters and enables upgrades 

via the user’s computer. (It’s Windows XP-or-Vista-compliant 

only, however. Does Steve Jobs know this?) 

The BDP-S5000ES Blu-ray player displays video in full 

1080p/24fps resolution and upscales DVDs to 1080p resolution. 

Unique to the player is a new 14-bit HD video processor that 

operates in tandem with Sony’s HD Reality Enhancer and Super 

Bit Mapping technologies. Together these systems analyze each 

pixel of a disc and automatically adjust the picture quality. The 

player will also decode surround formats internally, allowing the 

user to stream multichannel audio through its analog 7.1-channel 

outputs and making the player compatible with late-model 

AVRs not equipped with today’s advanced audio formats. With 

its Ethernet connection and a memory card it’s also BD-Livecapable. 

The S5000ES continues a tradition of ruggedly built 

players with a rigid beam chassis and dual-shield construction 

for increased solidity and isolation from resonances, and uses 

Sony’s R-Core transformer, a design Sony feels has an inherently 



Str-6400eS 

Power output: 120Wpc (8 

ohms, 20Hz-20kHz, two 

channels driven) 

Video Inputs: Six HDMI, 

three component, five 

composite 

Video outputs: Two HDMI, 

two component, three 

composite 

Audio Inputs: Five optical, 

three coaxial, four analog 

audio, one eight-channel 

discrete 

Audio outputs: Two optical, 

one analog audio, one sixchannel 

discrete 

Control: RS232C, 12V, IR 

inputs 

Dimensions: 16.9" x 6.75" x 

16.9" 

Weight: 34.5 lbs. 

Price: $2500 

bDp-S5000eS 

Video outputs: One HDMI, 

one component, one 

S-video, and one composite 

Audio outputs: One optical, 

one coaxial, one analog, one 

eight-channel discrete 

Control: RS232C, IR input 

Dimensions: 17" x 4.92" x 

14.37" 


Price: $1999 

Sony eleCtronICS 

16530 Via Esprillo 

San Diego, CA 92127 

(858) 942-2230 

sony.com 




lower radiated hum and noise than comparable transformers. 

Importantly, the audio circuit board is isolated from all video 

circuitry, but unlike its stereo SACD forbear, the DVP-9000ES, 

the video circuits cannot be manually turned off. 

When it comes to setup, don’t be cowed by the scope of the 

STR. It’s surprisingly easy to get up and running, from speaker 

settings to networking. Using Ethernet I was able to log on to the 

Rhapsody site without a hitch or any reconfiguration. However, 

you might want to avert your eyes before checking out the 

crowded back panel stuffed with grandpa’s old component and 

composite video inputs. With HDMI’s ascendency, it’ll soon be 

the dustbin for these relics. Fortunately, the STR offers a generous 

six HDMI inputs and two HDMI outputs. The on-screen display 

is excellent, vivid, and exhaustive, and geared to tap content on 

a networked PC. There’s auto-calibration for speaker setups, 

although this rewarded the surround channels with too much 

output for my tastes. 

Purist stereo playback may be of secondary importance to 

many home-theater fans, but it remains the ultimate shakedown 

test for system transparency. I experienced the best results 

by running through the analog inputs and hitting the Audio 

Direct button—an all-analog circuit that bypasses processing 

and tone controls. The difference is telling. Except for some 

minor reservations—softness at the frequency extremes and soso 

imaging—I was impressed by the Sony ES tag-team. With 

my usual playlist of pop, rock, and symphonic at the ready, I 

immediately felt the full weight of the receiver’s 120Wpc even 

at cinema levels. The low-frequency material of Dire Straits’ 

“Telegraph Road” had bloom and solid 

pitch-definition. There was an overall 

warmth to the system’s audio personality 

and a smoothness in the treble that ran 

counter to my experience of many AVRs 

and DVD-based players, which often 

have a scratchy, dry treble and a flat 

presentation. To maximize performance 

and improve imaging and soundstaging 

be sure to turn off all digital-component 

switching (DVR, flat panel) through the 

receiver’s video section. 

But these are secondary considerations 

to the true mission of the ES receiver and 

player, which is to transform your system 

into a high-resolution A/V wonderland. 

Among the Blu-ray discs I played were 

titles like Tropic Thunder (Dolby TrueHD), 

WALL-E, and Pan’s Labyrinth (DTS-HD 

Master Audio). The one common sonic 

ingredient is the way these formats bring 

musicality back to the soundtrack. Whereas 

the early compressed surround formats 

sounded relatively edgy and ultimately 

synthetic, the Sony combination outputs 

movie audio with complex multi-layered 

conviction. It’s a more elegant kind of 

immersion—as if music’s fabric had been 

changed from burlap to silk. It envelops 

the room with a dimensionality and image 

specificity that make the average movie 

MAINSTREAM MULTICHANNEL 

soundtrack sound, well, symphonic. Surround effects are similarly 

enhanced. During the opening desert ambush sequence in Ironman, 

the steering precision of the system was tested by a deadly buffet 

of small arms fire and diagonally cross-panned explosions and 

ricochets. Each cue was discretely imparted with its own specific 

timbre. Meanwhile, midway between the front speakers and the 

surround speakers, helicopters hovered in a specific airspace. My 

ears could track the movement of these images seemingly within 

inches—a task earlier surround formats could never accomplish in 

my room. Note: The one downside is that with higher resolution 

and dynamics comes the need for speakers that can match fullrange 

demands. Begin with a great pair of front L/Rs and a strong, 

timbre-matched center channel—something along the lines of 

Paradigm’s Monitor 9s (Issue 192) and its CC-290 center channel 

(a fabulous system and a great value). 

the essence of eS 

By any standard the Sony STR-6400ES and BDP-S5000ES are 

impressive. Only you can decide, however, whether you’ll need all 

the network firepower and connectivity these flagships provide. 

And there’s a final issue I haven’t touched upon. A large part of 

the draw for these bespoke ES designs has to do with the Sony’s 

product line integration. From its VAIO media PC, Walkman 

personal player, PS3, and flat-panel displays, each element is 

designed to form a seamless familial whole. Sony’s wagering that 

this calling card will prove irresistible. After luxuriating with the 

STR-6400ES and BDP-S5000ES for a few months, you won’t 

find me betting against it. taS 


NEXT-GEN 

logitech transporter network 

Music player 

A High-Def Music Server for Under $2k 

The Logitech/Slim Devices Transporter is the Grand 

Pooh-Bah of the Squeezebox line. Slim Devices 

claims it’s “designed to appeal to the most discerning 

audiophiles and music lovers…as a no-compromise attitude 

to component selection and electronic design.” 

One major advantage the Transporter has over other 

Squeezeboxes as well as Apple TV and Sonos is that it can 

handle any digital signal up to and including 96kHz/24bit. 

The Transporter is the first true high-definition digital 

music server available for under $2000. If you want to play 

high-definition digital music anywhere in your home, the 

Transporter is the box for you. 

Where will a Transporter transport you? Like other 

Squeezebox units it gives you access to your own music 

library through Logitech’s SqueezeCenter software. 

The Transporter can also connect with Logitech’s 

SqueezeNetwork via an Internet connection. This opens 

up a plethora of music services including Rhapsody, 

Pandora, Last FM, Slacker, Deezer, Live Music Archive, 

and, of course, all of Internet Radio. You can also buy and 

download CDs from Amazon’s music store through your 

personal SqueezeNetwork account. 

the technical tour 

The Transporter certainly has the high-end look. With its prostyle 

mini-rack handles, big and bright simulated VU meters 

that go to +3 (the audiophile equivalent of going to 11 à la 

Spinal Tap), the choice of a silver or black front faceplate, 

and a centrally located big black knob, the Transporter has 

all the visual presence of a real top-shelf audio component. 


Digital 

Steven Stone 

But as we all know, looks aren’t everything. It’s what’s inside 

that counts. 

The Transporter utilizes three separate power supplies 

based on a Walter Jung design—one for the positive analog, 

one for the negative analog, and one for the digital circuitry. 

Although the Transporter uses an AKM AK4396 multi-bit 

Sigma-Delta reference DAC, the Transporter’s carefully 

configured parts-integration techniques results in 8dB 

quieter measurements than a stock AKM. Special attention 

was put into the design of the digital circuitry so it can 

deliver maximum clock-signal integrity. To handle different 

clock rates the Transporter employs multiple crystal clocks 

so it doesn’t resort to re-sampling or PLL devices. The 

Transporter’s digital circuit also re-clocks all incoming 

signals to reduce jitter. 

Because the Transporter is more than just a networked 

music player it has inputs for “legacy” digital sources. It 

has one TosLink, one coaxial S/PDIF, one BNC S/PDIF, 

and one balanced AES/EBU as well as a digital word-clock 

input. The only thing it lacks is a USB input. 

For outputs the Transporter sports one pair of unbalanced 

single-ended analog RCA outputs, one pair of balanced 

XLR analog connections, and matching digital outputs for 

each of its digital inputs. These digital outputs are not “passthrough” 

connectors because they are only active if you are 

using the Transporter as a source. So the Transporter is not 

a digital switcher, but a DAC that accepts multiple sources. 

The rear panel also has two WiFi antenna connectors, 

an Ethernet connector, a RS232 serial connector, and a 

standard IEC AC jack.


NEXT-GEN DIGITAL 

The Transporter’s front panel features a big bright vacuum 

fluorescent display (VFD) on the right side that can be configured 

to show VU meters, EQ volume bars, song title information, or 

nothing at all. The left half of the front panel has another VFD 

that keeps track of what’s playing when you’re not navigating 

through the Transporter’s many menus. In the center of the 

Transporter’s front panel is a large circular knob. In addition 

to serving as a volume control, it’s also a navigation knob that 

moves you from one menu choice to another. If you use the 

remote to operate the Transporter, you’ll never touch the front 

panel except to clean off accumulated dust. 

The remote that comes with the Transporter is almost the 

same remote that you get with the basic model Squeezebox. 

The only difference is that the Transporter’s remote lights up 

when you push any of its buttons. However it doesn’t supply 

any feedback about whether your keypunch selection has had the 

desired effect. You have to look at the Transporter’s front-panel 

display to ascertain the remote’s efficacy. For the added cost of 

$299 you can buy the Logitech Duet’s remote and use it with 

the Transporter. The Duet remote does all the things a good 

remote control should do—lights up, has a color display, and, 

most importantly, tells you where you are in the Transporter’s 

multi-tiered menu system. Frankly I’m disappointed that the 

Transporter lacks the far superior Duet remote, but since the 

Transporter came to market over a year before the Duet, it’s 

not surprising that it doesn’t. Fortunately many Logitech dealers 

will sell you a Transporter bundled with the Duet remote if you 

wish. 

With four digital inputs a Transporter should be able to 

support and control a fairly complete digital-only music system. 

I appreciate that it includes a pro-standard AES/EBU digital 

input. But some prospective users may not be as pleased by the 

Transporter’s analog output choices. 

With only two pair of analog outputs, both tethered to a digital 

domain volume control, anyone in need of a fixed-level analog 

output has limited options. Sure, he can set the Transporter’s 

volume level at 0dB to get a fixed line-level out at 2.0 volts 

unbalanced or 3.0 volts balanced, but this effectively bypasses 

the Transporter’s volume adjustments. While many users who 

incorporate a Transporter into an existing multichannel system 

set up the Transporter in this manner, if your inclination is 

toward a more minimalist system with the Transporter as your 

sole preamp you may have to do without a fixed line-level analog 

output. 

A possibly more problematic shortcoming is that while the 

Transporter has three jumper switches located inside its chassis 

to attenuate the analog output level by 10, 20, or 30dB, this 

attenuator only works on the unbalanced RCA outputs, not the 

balanced XLR connections! Why is this an issue? 

To get the best sound out of a digital volume control that 

truncates bits at lower volume levels (digital volume controls throw 

away one bit of resolution per 6dB of attenuation—Ed.) you should set 

up your system so that the volume control is nearly all the way up 

for critical listening. If you use the unbalanced outputs you can 

take advantage of the Transporter’s built-in attenuators. But if 

you want to run balanced interconnects between the Transporter 

and your power amplifier you’ll need to insert a fixed attenuator. 

Otherwise the signal level could be excessively high. But what if 

you need to use that balanced output for a subwoofer? You’re 


going to have a devil of a time getting the levels between the two 

outputs to match up precisely. That 30dB difference will require 

your subwoofer input level to be set so low that it may not track 

accurately. It’s really a shame that Logitech didn’t see fit to make 

the internal attenuators for both analog outputs. 

Since I wanted to hear how the Transporter sounded at its best, 

I kept it installed in my desktop system for a good part of the 

review period. There I mated it with my vintage but completely 

refurbished Accuphase P-300 power amplifier. The P-300 has 

variable volume attenuators located on its front panel, so I used 

the Transporter’s outputs at full level and adjusted listening levels 

with the Accuphase’s input controls. While this method worked 

well for me, it doesn’t solve the problem for most prospective 

users whose power amplifiers lack volume adjustments. 

Up, Up, and away 

Setting up the Transporter is easier than setting up a Squeezebox 

Duet. That’s because the Transporter has a built-in expert system 

that leads you through the initial installation. To access your 

music library the Transporter requires a computer or server with 

Slim Devices’ SqueezeCenter software installed on it. I mated the 

Transporter with a Music Vault II (reviewed in this issue) preloaded 

with SqueezeCenter, so the Transporter would have its 

own unique wireless network courtesy of the Music Vault. Once 

set up the Transporter recognized the Music Vault’s installed 

music library as well as my Internet radio station favorites. 

During the review period the Transporter occasionally 

dropped the wireless feed from the MusicVault, but in every 

case after ten seconds it began playing the tracks again with no 

further issues. I was a bit surprised that the Transporter had any 

connection issues since my Duet, Apple TV, and Sonos systems 

are farther from their wireless hubs and have never had any 

dropouts. One of Logitech’s technical experts suggested that the 

problem may not have been the wireless network interface, but 


Type: WiFi (802.11g) and/ 

or Ethernet-connected D/A 

processor with digital-domain 

volume control (range-adjusted 

with resistor jumpers) 

Digital inputs: TosLink, coaxial, 

BNC, AES/EBU, word-clock 

(BNC) 

Digital outputs: TosLink, 

coaxial, BNC, AES/EBU 

Analog outputs: One pair RCA, 

one pair balanced XLR 

operating systems supported: 

Mac OS X 10.3 or later, 733MHz 

Pentium running Windows 

NT/2000/XP, Linux/BSD/ 

Solaris/Perl 5.8.3 or later 

Sample rates supported: 

44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, and 

96kHz 

Audio formats supported: 

linear PCM, 16 or 24 bits/ 

sample 

maximum output levels: 2V 

RMS, single-ended; 3V RMS, 

balanced 

Dimensions: 17" x 3" x 12.25" 

Shipping weight: 11 lbs. 

Price: $1999 

logIteCh 

455 National Avenue 

Mountain View, CA 94043 

(650) 210-9400 

slimdevices.com 


the SqueezeCenter’s inability to decode Apple Lossless files fast 

enough. Only Apple Lossless music files had this problem, so I 

suspect this guess was correct. 

Stock transportation 

Given Logitech’s goal of “no compromise” sonics how does the 

Transporter actually sound? While certainly competitive with 

other similarly priced DACs, it’s not about to push any stateof-the-art 

price-is-no-object $20k DACs off your component 

shelf. 

The Transporter’s analog stage is exceedingly quiet. Even at 

maximum output, which is how I listened to it most of the time, 

I detected no hiss or hum even when I pressed my ear close to 

the speaker driver. 

The Transporter’s resolution abilities were excellent, easily 

matching that of my reference Bel Canto DAC-3. Lateral imaging 

was especially precise, and depth was certainly on a par with other 

solid-state DACs I’ve heard recently. However the Transporter’s 

depth recreation wasn’t quite as fleshed out as that of the tubeoutput 

Wavelength Brick USB DAC, whose circuit manages to 

add three-dimensionality to even the flattest commercial digital 

recordings. 

Although I wouldn’t characterize the Transporter’s overall 

harmonic balance as harsh or bright, it does have a slightly more 

mechanical presentation than the Bel Canto DAC-3 on coaxial 

and TosLink digital sources. The Transporter’s overall rendition 

was more left-brained and matter-of-fact, emphasizing the details 

without drawing the listener into the music as completely as the 

Bel Canto. Both produced excellent bass 

fundamentals, but at higher output levels 

the Bel Canto’s more robust active output 

stage seemed to generate more visceral 

low bass and dynamic contrasts. 

When I compared the Transporter 

to the Meridian 568.2/518 combo, I 

noticed the Transporter’s more open and 

extended top end. Every musical selection 

had additional air and extra shimmer 

on flutes, cymbals, and even female 

vocals. Although the Meridian combo 

was more musical primarily due to its 

richer midrange, it was also harmonically 

warmer and darker and rhythmically 

slower. Think fudge compared to white 

chocolate. 

On my own 96/24 music files taken 

from live concert recordings made 

on a Marantz PMD-671 recorder the 

Transporter sonically outdistanced every 

other source in my system by a substantial 

margin. As Gordon Holt often told me, 

“Software always trumps hardware.” 

Being able to play higher-resolution 

music files catapults the Transporter to 

the top of the wireless music server (and 

DAC) heap. Even the Bel Canto DAC-3 

sounded inferior when it played the same 

recordings down-sampled to 44.1kHz. 

Through the Transporter the higher- 


resolution versions of the same music had more life, better 

micro-dynamics, and greater dimensionality. 

the best Way to get From here to there 

The Transporter strikes me as a versatile product whose flexibility 

may be its best and worst trait. Since it can be used in more than 

one way—as a music server, DAC, or stand-alone digital preamp, 

many users may employ it in a way that prevents it from sounding 

its best. Although the Transporter has a volume control that 

allows it to be used as a stand-alone digital preamp, this digital 

volume control can and will decrease the Transporter’s fidelity 

if it’s used for more than 10dB of attenuation. Audiophiles 

who want to extract maximum performance from a Transporter 

should use it in conjunction with an analog preamp to control 

its output levels. Although you can use a Transporter as a standalone 

digital preamp, that doesn’t mean you should. 

I think the ideal prospective owner of a Transporter would be 

someone who’s been using a $4k-to-$5k DAC that he purchased 

five or more years ago, and who is ready for a step up in both 

fidelity and ergonomic flexibility. Combined with a Music Vault 

II the Transporter can form an ergonomically elegant portal 

into the world of digital music. The Transporter can handle all 

your legacy digital sources, give you access to Internet music 

and radio, perform as a wireless music server, and let you enjoy 

higher-definition 96kHz/24-bit music files. It is the only highend 

two-channel DAC that can do so much for so little money. 

If you are thinking of buying any $2000+ DAC you absolutely 

must consider a Transporter. It’s simply that good. taS 


NEXT-GEN 

Sound Science 

Music Vault II 

The Fort Knox of NAS Drives 

Steven Stone 

the words Music Vault conjure up the image of a 

stainless-steel safe full of CDs. That’s what the 

Music Vault is—almost. Except that the CDs are 

virtual and the vault is made of silicon. The Music Vault 

II is a custom-configured NAS (network-attached storage) 

hard drive/network server that has been designed to work 

seamlessly with any Logitech Squeezebox, Sonos, Denon, 

or other networked music server. But wait, as they say on all 

those late-night infomercials, there’s more. The Music Vault 

II also allows you to connect a Squeezebox to your music 

library without having to keep your computer constantly 

on. 

While this may not sound like a big deal, being able to turn 

your computer off while still maintaining access to all your 

music files is difficult to do with a Logitech Squeezebox system. 

Setting up a NAS drive so you can access your music library 

while your computer is off requires at least a network administrator’s 

level of computer skill. Even if you do have “the skills,” 

only a few NAS drives have the right interior topology to support 

all the software and hardware needed to host Logitech’s 

SqueezeCenter software and ancillary programs. 

What the Music Vault promises is a pain-free way to 


Digital 

liberate your Logitech Squeezebox music system from the 

tyranny of an always-running computer. Does it deliver the 

goods? Yes, it does. 

Installing the Music Vault 

Sound Science’s Neal Van Berg lives about 40 miles away 

from me in Castle Rock, Colorado. So instead of shipping a 

unit he delivered it in person. But to demonstrate how easy 

it is to set up a Music Vault he unboxed the unit and said, 

“Now you install it.” 

Installation proved to be almost glitch-free. All I had to 

do was hook up the Music Vault to my home network via an 

Ethernet cable, attach its AC cable, turn it on, and wait for 

the Music Vault to appear on my main computer desktop as 

a network hard drive. Everything went almost as planned. 

This is a good time to explain that the Music Vault is really 

nothing more than a dedicated PC/server with a big honking 

hard drive. It runs a version of Windows called “Windows 

Home Server” that hosts Logitech’s SqueezeCenter software. 

If you have a PC-based home network, the Music Vault will 

appear in your networked workgroup as another PC. 

But if you are an Apple guy like I am, setting up the 

Music Vault will be a bit more involved. While it appears 

on a home network as a hard drive once you click on your 

Mac’s network globe, you will not have access to any of the 

Windows-based .exe programs (including SqueezeCenter). 

This makes configuring Squeeze Center from your Mac 

difficult. You can load a special Microsoft program that’s 

supposed to let you run a PC remotely, but many Mac users 

will balk at adding it to their system. A better solution is 

to access the Music Vault via Safari’s Web browser, since 

the Music Vault has its own HTTP address. But the address 

information in the Music Vault’s instruction book didn’t 

work on my review sample, so I had to play detective to 

find its address. Eventually I was able to access it from my 

Mac. For immediate gratification I resorted to another way 

to configure SqueezeCenter. I simply hooked up a monitor, 

keyboard, and mouse to the Music Vault. As long as you 

have an extra monitor with an RGB input, a USB mouse, 

and a USB keyboard, this solution works fine. 

The next step when setting up the Music Vault, regardless 

of whether you’re a PC or Mac person, is to transfer all your 

music files onto it. My library, which is approximately 80GB, 

took almost four hours to move via an Ethernet hardwired 

connection. A wireless connection would have taken even 

longer, though a USB 2.0 connection would have been 

slightly quicker. Regardless of what kind of connection you 

use to do the file transfer, the bigger your music library is, 

the longer it will take to transfer it to the Music Vault. 

Once your library has been placed into the Music Vault 

you must run SqueezeCenter’s music scan to update its 

database. This initial scan can take several minutes, but 

subsequent scans are very rapid—usually under a minute.



After the library is scanned you can turn off the monitor and 

disconnect the keyboard and mouse, because you shouldn’t need 

them any more except when you want to make some changes to 

your SqueezeCenter settings. 

The final step to completing a wireless music server system is 

to link it to your Logitech units. With the Duet you merely look 

in the remote’s menu for the Music Vault under “music sources,” 

select it, and you’re done. With Logitech’s Transporter you have 

to go through a few more steps, but the Transporter’s built-in 

expert system leads you quickly through the process. If you have 

a Sonos system you can also access the Music Vault. It will appear 

in the Sonos’ list of available music libraries. Select “MusicVault,” 

and the Sonos is connected. 

The Music Vault has its own CD drive, so you can add new 

music directly rather than sending music files by way of an Ethernet 

connection. Sound Science can configure the Music Vault’s internal 

ripper for either iTunes or Windows Media Server. Windows 

Media Server encodes files in MP3, WMA, or WMA lossless. This 

last format is not compatible with iTunes, so files ripped in WMA 

lossless can’t be shared by iTunes. Also, if you rip your music in 

WMA lossless format, Sonos players will not be able to play these 

files since they don’t currently support WMA lossless files. Therefore 

if you use Sonos or iTunes, I recommend using iTunes and 

Apple Lossless format for your Music Vault ripping chores. 

With the Windows Media Server, the ripping process takes 

about five minutes per disc and you must have an Internet 

connection to obtain a CD’s meta-data. The default meta-data 

database is very good for most popular music, but does have 

problems finding info on classical music, especially older or 

specialist labels. This is a universal problem with the Gracenote 

database and not a shortcoming specific to Music Vault. 

When and if you need or want to add more storage to the 

Music Vault, you can easily add a USB drive. You can also hook 

up a USB drive to back up your music files. The Music Vault’s 

instruction book supplies detailed instructions, and Sound 

Science customer support is only an e-mail or phone call away. 

Sound off 

I spent close to a month listening to and comparing music files 

from the Music Vault with the exact same files coming directly 

from my computer. My verdict: The Music Vault doesn’t introduce 

any audible effects. I also compared music files coming from 

the Music Vault via SqueezeCenter with the same files played by 

iTunes connected to a Logitech Transporter via the Mac Pro’s optical 

digital connection. Once more the differences between these 

two connections were so slight that I could not reliably tell any 

differences. With a different computer, such as an entry-level Mac 

Portable, Mac Mini, or Windows portable, the machines’ own digital 

conversion abilities may introduce some sonic degradations (I 

see complaints from owners of entry-level portables regularly on 

Internet forums), but the Mac Pro appears to be the Music Vault’s 

sonic equal in its ability to not audibly degrade digital music files. 

As with most digital-music-file storage systems, the primary 

fidelity-limiting factor will probably not be the Music Vault itself, 

but your D/A’s ability to receive and accurately decode digital 

music files. The Music Vault uses a built-in, proprietary, closed 

wireless network to connect with Logitech Squeezeboxes. So if 

your home is populated by teens playing Xbox Live or streaming 

U-Tube videos, the Music Vault’s separate wireless network 


should ensure that your music won’t develop a terminal case 

of the stutters during moments of heavy traffic. Music Vault’s 

robust dedicated wireless connection should also substantially 

reduce other causes of transmission errors such as distance 

from transmitter to receiver, but if you want to make sure that a 

wireless connection won’t degrade your music, you can bypass it 

by using an Ethernet hardwired connection between the Music 

Vault and your Squeezebox or Sonos devices. Of course, if you 

do hardwire connections they will no longer be wireless devices. 

Regardless of what format your music files are stored in—WAV, 

AIFF, Apple Lossless, or MP3—SqueezeCenter either sends 

them directly to a Squeezebox or, in the case of the unprotected 

ACC and Apple Lossless formats, decodes them into FLAC 

files before it sends them out to a Logitech unit. Sonos units 

work differently; they access music files directly from the Music 

Vault, bypassing the SqueezeCenter program. The native format 

of your music files is directly transmitted to the Sonos. Neither 

system is inherently superior to the other, merely different. The 

Music Vault is designed to work seamlessly with either one. 

Value on 

If you peruse the Internet you will discover that NAS hard 

drives can be had for as little as $100 for a 500GB unit. If you 

buy the right one (which may well cost substantially more than 

$100) and have the skills, you can conceivably cobble together 

a device that has nearly all the capabilities of a Music Vault II. 

But regardless of your skill level, one thing your home-brew unit 

will not have is the same degree of customer service and ease of 

use as the Music Vault. Sound Science configures every Music 

Vault specifically for each customer. If you’re a Mac guy, it will 

be Mac-and-iTunes-friendly. If you use a Windows system, it will 

be set up to integrate smoothly with Windows. Sound Science 

also supplies as much after-sale assistance as needed to make the 

Music Vault work smoothly and integrate seamlessly with your 

existing wireless music system. Since Sound Science is a Logitech 

dealer, it often bundles Music Vaults with complete multi-room 

Squeezebox systems. Naturally, when Sound Science creates the 

entire system, it can troubleshoot to make sure the installation 

is bulletproof. So while a Music Vault is certainly not the least 

expensive NAS solution you’ll find, it may well be the best value. 

It’s the missing link for Logitech Squeezebox systems, unfettering 

them from your computer and making any Squeezebox system 

more robust and reliable, and far more enjoyable. taS 


Capacity: MusicVault 500, 

1600 CDs; MusicVault 1000, 

3200 CDs (or 1600 with 

backup); MusicVault 1500, 

4800 CDs (or 2400 with 

backup); MusicVault 2000, 

6400 CDs (or 3200 with 

backup) 

Warranty: One year parts and 

labor 

Price: MusicVault 500, $1485; 

MusicVault 1000, $1585; 

MusicVault 1500, $1685; 

MusicVault 2000, $1785 

SoUnD SCIenCe 

1767 Rose Petal Lane 

Castle Rock, CO 80109 

(720) 308-4000 

soundsciencecat.com 




GOLDEN 

EAR 

AWARDS 2009 

The Absolute Sound’s Golden Ear Awards is the annual 

feature in which our staff and freelance writers choose those 

components that stand out from the competition. Some 

of these components are long-time references that have 

withstood the test of time. Others are newfound favorites that 

are destined to become classics. In either case, the products 

selected for a Golden Ear Award are special, indeed. 

Unlike our Editors’ Choice Awards—a compendium of 

every product we recommend, agreed upon by the senior 

editorial staff—Golden Ear Awards allow writers to express their 

individual views on which components they think are truly 

great, and why. The diversity of products selected here not 

only reflects the industry at large, but also each writer’s quest 

for the absolute sound. —Robert Harley 




Anthony H. Cordesman 

Thiel CS3.7 Loudspeaker 

$12,900 

The Thiel CS3.7 delivers an extraordinarily 

advanced set of new driver technologies integrated 

into what is about as close to a “point source” as a 

full-range dynamic speaker system has yet come. 

It is a remarkably coherent speaker in any halfwayrealistic 

listening position, and one that offers truly 

exceptional detail and resolution. This is more 

than a truly good product; it is an important one. 

It makes advances in coherence, transparency, and 

sonic detail—and in providing the advantages of 

a true point-source soundstage—that I have not 

heard at anything like its price. You may well prefer 

other sonic qualities in your own search for the 

absolute sound, but you owe it yourself to audition 

this speaker with your music and learn just what it 

can do. Highly recommended and a real challenge 

to other designers and manufacturers. (Reviewed in 

Issue 186) 

Pass XP20 Preamp and XA160.5 Monoblock 

Amplifier 

$8600/$22,000 

The new Pass XP20 preamp and the XA160.5 Class 

A power amp are an incredible combination and 

one I’ve used to update my reference system. 

Remarkable for its clarity, dynamics, and life, the 

XP20 is as uncolored and noise-free as any design 

I’ve heard at any price, and the XP160.5 comes as 

close to providing the best of tube and solid-state 

designs as I’ve heard. Today’s choices, however, 

are so good and so competitive that it is much 

more a matter of system synergy and personal taste 

than being able to rank components. I reviewed 

the Boulder 1010 and 1050 as well this year and 

could have chosen them, and then there were 

the...and the .... As with great wines, if you’re too 

lazy to seriously try different brands and choose 

for yourself, you simply don’t deserve the best. 

(Reviewed in Issue 192) 

44 June/July 44 June/July 2009 2009 The Absolute The Absolute Sound Sound 

GOLDEN EAR 

AWARDS 2009 

Neil Gader 

Esoteric X-05 CD/SACD Player 

$5995 

It would be easy to be seduced by the superb build-quality of 

the Esoteric X-05 and just leave it at that. Like Superman’s 

Fortress of Solitude the chassis is unmatched—not to mention 

the precision action of its VRDS-Neo disc-drive clamping 

mechanism, and the vibration-free, all-aluminum turntable 

that’s been optimized for SACD’s high-speed rotation. Here are 

quality control and attention to detail bordering on fanaticism. 

But none of these features would mean a thing if the X-05 

were merely a great CD player. It’s much more than that. The 

X-05 is, in its own soulful way, the anti-digital disc player. With 

the Esoteric’s silky upper octaves and airy effortless transients, 

music emerges freed of the glassy haze that overlays most 

digital playback—the very artifacts that have mostly prevented 

me from embracing ones and zeros in the way I’ve been 

drawn to analog. Gone are the unapproachable coolness, the 

tight-fisted bass, the flat images, and the failure to reproduce 

a believable soundstage. They simply aren’t part of the X-05’s 

resume. 

And for those still adding SACD discs to their collection (as 

I am) the X-05 represents the full realization of that highresolution 

format’s potential. It can be heard in the saturation 

of timbre, low-level textural details, micro-dynamic cues, and 

dynamic jump of SACD playback. Suddenly the familiar sonic 

chasm between digital and analog no longer exists. The X-05 

happily bridges the gap between them. 

One goal of The Absolute Sound, at least as I see it, is 

promoting sound reproduction that mirrors the live event—an 

imitation of reality. I’ve occasionally glimpsed it with analog 

playback and now, again, with the Esoteric X-05. In my book, 

that’s worthy of a Golden Ear. (Reviewed in Issue 190)


GOLDEN EAR 

AWARDS 2009 

Wayne Garcia 

Transfiguration Orpheus L Cartridge 

$6000 

I’m going to stick my neck out just a wee bit with this one, because as of 

this writing I’ve only had the latest version of Transfiguration’s top-ofthe-line 

coil in my system for a month. I don’t even think the thing is fully 

broken-in—no, I know it isn’t—and yet, even at this early stage it’s obvious 

that something special is at work here. While Transfiguration designs are 

known for being quite neutral, they don’t razzle-dazzle listeners the way 

most moving coils do. Instead they seduce over the long term with their 

purity of tone, lack of artificial top-end embellishment, and inherent 

musicality. The new low-output version of the Orpheus does these things, 

too, but to degrees that take the breath away. Even as it continues to 

blossom, I’m repeatedly floored by the Orpheus’ ability to be ultra-revealing 

while remaining at all times musical, making me feel as if I’m “looking in” 

on the recording process as never before. (Not yet reviewed) 

Robert E. Greene 

Well Tempered Amadeus Turntable and Tonearm 

$2850 

William Firebaugh set the world of turntables and tonearms on its ear twenty-five 

years ago with his first Well Tempered turntable/arm combination, which achieved 

remarkable performance through a variety of wildly ingenious ideas that were relatively 

inexpensive to execute: a bearing design that all but eliminated noise, and a tonearm 

restrained by damping alone so that bearing chatter was nonexistent. The master has 

not lost his touch. His new Amadeus design again reaches stratospheric heights of 

performance at a moderate price. In a world of turntables that cost as much as luxury 

automobiles, the Amadeus seems simultaneously a bargain and something of a miracle. 

Some additional acoustic isolation may be needed (easily arranged as an add-on from 

Brightstar, Townshend, etc.). Outside of that, it is hard to fault the smooth, silent, 

dynamically linear, undistorted, speed-stable, vinyl-damped sound of this turntable/arm 

combination, with outstanding bass performance in particular. (Reviewed in Issue 191) 


Totem Acoustic 

The One Loudspeaker 

$3595 

For more than two decades 

Vince Bruzzese and his team 

at Totem Acoustic have been 

building some of the most 

musically satisfying, handsome, 

and fairly priced speakers on 

the market. Last year’s release 

of The One mini-monitor surely 

stands as one of the company’s 

crowning glories. A limitededition, 

20 th Anniversary release, 

The One packs all that Totem 

has learned about speaker 

design over two decades into a 

supremely elegant and sonically 

magical little package. While 

it’s not for those who prize deep 

bass and power above all else, 

The (exceptionally well made) 

One is for those seeking a 

remarkably open, seamless, and 

natural-sounding loudspeaker— 

and, above all else, one that is 

so emotionally and intellectually 

satisfying that you’ll never 

want to shut off your stereo. 


Benchmark DAC1Pre Digitalto-Analog 

Converter and 

Preamplifier 

$1595 

The Benchmark DAC1 D-to-A converter 

was one of my Golden Ear Award 

winners for 2007. However, there is 

really no option but to honor this related 

device. The Benchmark DAC1Pre adds to 

the unexcelled D-to-A conversion of its 

predecessor both computer compatibility 

(via a USB input that will accept high-bitrate 

PCM inputs) and a linestage preamp 

circuit with line-level analog input. What’s 

so impressive is that this linestage attains 

the state of the art, belying the modest 

size of the box that houses both it and the 

D-to-A (and the modest price, as well). 

Measured performance shows all artifacts, 

digital or analog, to be miles down from 

signal level, and the sound lives up to 

corresponding expectations. Completely 

quiet, absolutely clean, and uncluttered 

by any electronic detritus, the DAC1Pre 

gives the sensation of listening directly 

to whatever is coming in, be it digital or 

analog. (Reviewed in Issue 183)



Vienna Acoustics “The 

Music” Loudspeaker 

$27,000 

Beautiful to behold, the 

Vienna Acoustics “The Music” 

loudspeaker is a fullrange, 

multi-driver Jim Hannon 

unit that offers a level 

of coherence that I have come 

to expect only from electrostatic 

speakers. (It is certainly more 

coherent than any ’stat and 

subwoofer combo I’ve heard.) 

“The Music” is equally at home 

with power music and smallscale 

works, and its ability to 

reproduce the soundstage without 

truncating the rear of the stage is 

reference quality. This is a thrilling, 

accurate, musical speaker with 

fast transients, precise layered 

imaging, and articulate, extended 

bass. The heart of “The Music” 

is a remarkable proprietary planar 

midrange unit with a coincident 

soft-dome tweeter that covers 

seven octaves. It takes several 

weeks to break in and requires 

careful setup, but the reward is 

seamless integration with three 

10" (sub)woofers and a Murata 

super-tweeter. (Review pending) 

GOLDEN EAR 

AWARDS 2009 

Helius Omega Silver Ruby Tonearm 

$4750 

Two outstanding products shook my audio world during the past 

year, and made a particularly synergistic combination—the Helius 

Omega tonearm and Vienna Acoustics’ “The Music” loudspeaker. 

While the Omega is not the last word in ease of 

setup and micro-adjustment, it provides, with its 

superb ruby bearing design, a very stable mechanical 

platform for a wide range of cartridges without adding its own 

coloration, resulting in exceptional tonal neutrality, clarity, and 

articulate, extended bass. Helius has effectively eliminated the 

“tone” from the “arm.” Bravo! (Review pending) 

Berkeley Audio Design Alpha DAC 

Wilson Audio Specialties Alexandria X-2 Series 

$5000 

2 Loudspeaker 

The Alpha DAC digital-to-analog converter sounds $148,000 

so good that it would have earned an enthusiastic 

The Alexandria X-2 Series 2 is one of those products that 

recommendation if all it did was play back CD-resolution continues to astound, even after nearly a year of daily 

digital audio. But the Alpha DAC is so much more—it can listening. Smaller-scale speakers with limited bass exten- 

decode any PCM format as well as drive a power amplifier sion, dynamics, and loudness capability can be beautiful, 

directly courtesy of its variable output. This 

but there’s nothing like the whole-body vis- 

versatility makes the Alpha DAC the ideal solution Robert Harley ceral thrill of unlimited dynamics, center- 

for music servers, whether standard-resolution or 

of-the-earth bass solidity and power, and 

high-res. The Alpha DAC also happens to deliver world- complete sense of composure on even the most demandclass 

sound quality from CD and high-res sources. CDs ing passages. The X-2 combines these “macro” qualities 

no longer sound hard, flat, glassy, and brittle; instead with extraordinary “micro” qualities. These include the 

they take on many qualities that I associate with high- ability to portray deeply saturated tone colors, resolution 

resolution digital audio. But feed 176.4kHz/24-bit signals of fine textural and spatial detail, and a tremendous sense 

into the Alpha DAC and prepare to be blown away. 

of space. The X-2 truly disappears, whether reproducing 

The Alpha DAC combines ultra-high-resolution with a simple guitar and vocal or an orchestra in full stride. 

tremendous musicality. It’s also extremely dynamic, with This loudspeaker also has a top-to-bottom dynamic 

gorgeous rendering of timbre. Its $5000 price makes it coherence—over a very wide bandwidth—that puts it in 

one of the greatest bargains in high-end audio. (Reviewed a class by itself. It all adds up to one of the world’s great 

in Issue 189) 

loudspeakers. (Reviewed in Issue 186)


Classé Omega Monoblock Amplifiers 

$35,000 

Weighing in at a hefty 192 pounds each, the Omegas provide the 

best solid-state amplification I have ever heard. One big reason for 

their musical prowess is that they come close to being a true voltage 

source. These marvelous beasts are rated at 500 watts each into an 8-ohm load and 

increase their power to 4000 watts into a 1-ohm load. This sheer power endows them 

with a silky smooth and effortless sound with vanishingly low distortion levels. The 

treble has none of the rebarbative characteristics that audiophiles sometimes associate 

with solid-state equipment. Perhaps, then, the most striking thing about the Omega 

is its purity and finesse. Decays vanish into black space with spine-tingling clarity. It 

also creates an immense soundstage and palette of tonal colors. If you crave the best 

sound possible, the Omega will provide it—in spades. (Not reviewed) 

Harmonic Technology Magic Reference II 

Special Edition Power Cord 

$1499/1 meter, $100 per additional half meter 

Harmonic Technology has long been on my short list 

of favorite audio/video cables, dating back to shortly 

after the company’s inception in 1998. I guess you could 

Sue Kraft 


call them my “go to” wires. So when 

President and CEO Jim Wang called to 

say he had just re-introduced his Magic 

Reference Series power cord, I was all ears. 

Designed for use with front-end components primarily, 

the Magic Reference II Special Edition power cord 

impressed straight away with substantially improved 

clarity, smoothness, and definition that stretched up and 

down the frequency spectrum and everywhere in-between. 

Credit the less than subtle enhancements to an in-line 

“Pure AC module” containing integrated circuits that act 

as a full-band noise filter. In other words, the Magic II is a 

power cord that doubles as a high-quality line conditioner. 

I paid special attention during my auditioning to 

dynamics and possible high-frequency roll-off, as those 

seem to be the two most common less-than-desirable 

trade-offs in the quest for cleaner sound. I perceived no 

issues in either regard with the Magic II. This cutting- 

Jacob Heilbrunn 

Air Tight PC-1 Supreme 

Cartridge 

$9000 

No other moving-coil design that I’ve 

heard boasts the refinement, punch, 

and detail of the Air Tight. Encased in 

a gold body, it represents the state of 

the art. On LP after LP, the Air Tight 

excavated a wealth of information in 

LPs that had previously been obscured 

by noise or distortion. The sheer 

vividness and speed of the cartridge is 

overwhelming. Guitar plucks and voices, 

for example, emerge with startling 

precision and force. But it isn’t speed 

harnessed to abrasiveness. The Air- 

Tight sounds beautifully bloomy and 

natural and LPs that you might have 

thought were compressed turn out to 

be quite enjoyable. The single, most 

impressive feat of the Air Tight is its 

ability to emancipate the music from the 

loudspeakers by producing the 

biggest, airiest soundstage that 

I’ve ever heard billowing out 

of a pair of Magnepan 20.1s. In sum, a 

colossal achievement. (Reviewed by JV 

in Issue 190) 

GOLDEN EAR 

AWARDS 2009 

edge “computerized” cord won’t put its own stamp or 

sonic signature on your system. It will simply peel away 

the AC line impurities and replace them with heavenly 

neutrality. 

Within its load limitations (maximum 800W constant 

draw from the wall) the Magic II power cord is an 

outstanding new offering from the Golden Ear-worthy 

folks at Harmonic Tech. (Not reviewed)


Chris Martens 

Shelter Harmony MC Phono Cartridge 

$5300 

As an audiophile, I find myself bowled over by the 

sheer prowess of today’s best phono cartridges. These 

highly refined devices trace the serpentine grooves 

on vinyl discs so responsively and convert their 

movements into analog signals so faithfully that, at 

the end of the reproduction chain, we’re able to enjoy 

sounds very much like those emanating from real 

instruments and human voices. 

Speaking as a music lover, though, I must confess 

that some of today’s most critically acclaimed 

cartridges leave me cold. True, modern wündercarts can 

deliver “audiophile virtues” in spades and they do get 

the individual elements of sound mostly right, but the 

problem is that they don’t always put those elements 

together in a cohesive way to convey the overall sense, 

sensibility, and “feel” of live music. What’s missing, 

to borrow a term made popular by the late Bruce Lee 

in Enter the Dragon, is ”emotional content.” 

Happily, I’ve recently found an impressively 

versatile phono cartridge that lives right at the 

intersection of Audiophile Avenue and Musicality 

Way and that marries accuracy and emotion in a 

delicious way. It’s Shelter’s flagship low-output 

moving coil, the Harmony MC. 

The Harmony MC features a body made of 

solid, carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic—a material 

said to combine extreme rigidity with terrific 

internal damping. In contrast to 5000/7000/9000 

Series Shelters, the Harmony MC incorporates 

a comparatively short rigid cantilever made of 

aluminum. 

The result is a cartridge that sounds exceedingly 

detailed and nuanced, yet not at all “analytical,” and 

that offers expressive, explosive dynamics. What is 

more, the Harmony MC is also one of the quietest 

cartridges I’ve heard, providing an underlying quality 

of “stillness” that encourages you to ignore the 

transducer and focus instead on where the musical 

signal may take you. And that’s the whole point. (Not 

reviewed) 


GOLDEN EAR 

AWARDS 2009 

Dick Olsher 

TEAC Esoteric A-100 Stereo Power Amplifier 

$19,000 

Ostensibly, the A-100 is yet another push-pull amplifier 

extracting 45Wpc from two pairs of KT-88 beam tetrodes 

in ultra-linear connection. But in reality it represents an epic 

endeavor to make the venerated KT-88 sing like never before. 

Functionally, the A-100 may be configured as either an 

integrated amplifier for line-level inputs or as a basic stereo 

power amplifier. There are only a handful of amplifiers on this 

planet that are as revealing of a recording’s origin and acoustic 

signature. If you crave tube magic—vivid harmonic colors, 

palpable image outlines, and a spacious soundstage—rest assured 

that the A-100 delivers the goodies. Yet it goes further than any 

other medium- or high-powered tube amplifier I’ve auditioned to 

date. The A-100 amplifier breaks through the traditional barriers 

of tube amplification; low-distortion harmonic textures, transient 

speed, and resolution are integral to its reproduction of music. 

It’s as good as it gets! (Reviewed in Issue 191) 

LAMM Industries M1.2 Reference Monoblock 

Power Amplifier 

$21,690 

The M1.2 combines large peak-current delivery and low output 

impedance for minimal load interaction. Because it includes a 

tube in the signal path it’s a breeze to integrate into a system. 

Bass control and pitch definition are exceptional, but it goes 

well beyond traditional solid-state virtues. Its sonic character 

is warmer and more liquid. Harmonic colors are reproduced 

with convincing fidelity, including soprano voice and violin. 

Its transient speed of attack and sublime control of transient 

decay, which account for its capacity to dig deep into a 

recording’s noise floor to elucidate reverberant information, are 

impressive. This is a superbly engineered real-world product 

that is a pleasure to use. Its siren song of suave harmonic 

textures, tight bass control, articulate transients, kinetic drive, 

and essential tonal neutrality is musically most persuasive. I 

find its performance-level clearly worthy of the Reference 

appellation. A sonic masterpiece! (Reviewed in Issue 188)


GOLDEN EAR 

AWARDS 2009 

High Resolution Technologies Music Streamer 

$89 

What if I told you that for $89 you could have a USB DAC that delivers 

true high-end sound? After living with the HRT Music Streamer for over a 

month and comparing it with the Bel Canto DAC 3 and April Music Stello 

DA100 in matched-level A/B tests I’ve concluded that it delivers sonics so 

darn close to these two DACs that’s it’s almost a dead heat. If you don’t 

believe me, try comparing it with your favorite high-priced USB DAC. 

After all, for $89 you can afford to be daring. For more information contact 

hirestech.com. (Review forthcoming) 

McIntosh MC402 Stereo Power Amplifier 

$7000 

I am always amazed by how often high-end manufacturers change their 

so-called state-of-the-art products, sometimes with the regularity 

of carmakers. An honorable exception is McIntosh, whose 

MC402 power amplifier has been my reference since I reviewed 

it in 2004. Unchanged since its introduction, it continues to hold its own 

against newcomers, often as not besting them. With huge reserves of 

power, it’s got all the muscle you’d ever want for the big stuff, yet can 

be as delicate and nuanced as the most gossamer impressionist. Call this 

(second) Golden Ear a tribute both to its intrinsic excellences and to 

McIntosh’s policy of getting a design right before selling it. (Reviewed in 

Issue 157) 


Steven Stone 

Reference Line Preeminence One 

Passive Preamp 

Reference Line products were designed 

and manufactured by Ralph Catino 

from 1990 until 1998 when he sold the 

business to Scott Nixon, who continues to 

service and occasionally build Reference 

Line components. The Preeminence 

One passive preamp featured variableoutput 

shunt attenuation coupled with 

discrete fixed-value attenuation which 

created a non-reactive impedance circuit 

that maximized current transfer and 

minimized impedance mismatches 

between components. In layman’s terms 

this ultra-transparent “preamp” (actually 

it’s an attenuator circuit since it’s totally 

passive) maintains a source’s contrast, 

frequency response, and overall musical 

character regardless of its output level. 

I reviewed the Preeminence One B 

(the balanced line version) in 1996, and 

it opened my ears to the unassailable 

sonic virtues of a well-designed passive 

preamplifier. Two months ago I acquired 

a used Preeminence One for my desktop 

system. Its remarkable transparency has 

made reviewing USB DACs far easier. 

If you ever have a chance to acquire a 

Reference Line Preeminence preamp, 

do it. You won’t be disappointed. For 

additional info contact Scott Nixon at 

referenceline@hotmail.com. 

Harbeth Monitor 40.1 Loudspeaker 

$12,500 

Sometimes, of course, a manufacturer is forced 

into a change, even when the product demonstrably 

leads the field in its type and class. I’m sure the 

last thing in the world Alan Shaw wanted was to 

change his Harbeth Monitor 40, the best full-range, 

three-way studio reference in existence, if not the 

best ever. But when VIFA, sans announcement, ceased 

manufacturing the woofer, Shaw had no choice. 

Eventually he designed a woofer of his own, which 

necessitated some other changes. Sonic differences 

between the 40.1 and the 40 are quite subtle, as Robert 

E. Greene documented in his February 

Paul Seydor 2009 review. If anything, I find the 

tonal balance of the 40.1 even more to 

my taste for ultimate neutrality. In other words, the 

best is still the best and better than ever. If I weren’t 

so hopelessly hung up on Quad ESLs, the Monitor 

40.1 is the speaker I would own for my personal use 

(and if I had the space to accommodate another large 

speaker, I would buy a pair tomorrow). (Reviewed by 

REG in Issue 190)


Alan Taffel 

Bryston BDA-1 DAC 

$1995 

Medicine’s Hippocratic oath, “First, do no harm,” 

has long been applied to audio. Amplifier designers 

strive to build a “straight wire with gain,” and modern 

speaker manufacturers go to extraordinary lengths to 

ensure that cabinets add no sound of their own. Yet 

with its blossoming new line of digital components, 

Bryston appears to have adopted an even more exalted 

credo: “First, make music.” 

That mentality was certainly evident in the 

company’s maiden journey into digital sources, last 

year’s Golden Ear Award-winning BCD-1 CD player. I 

found that unit to be a landmark in CD playback—not 

to mention an unbelievable value—and so it remains. 

Now comes the much-anticipated follow-up, the 

BDA-1 stand-alone DAC, and it clearly benefits from 

the same philosophy. This DAC makes compelling 

music indeed—music with the color spectrum of 

a painter, the dynamic nuances of a poet, and a 

dancer’s sense of timing. 

Internally, the BDA-1 is a pumped up version of the 

BCD-1’s DAC module, including the discrete Class 

A output stage. But the BDA-1 is also noteworthy for 

its functional utility and flexibility. Niceties include 

switchable upsampling, a front-panel display of 

both the incoming data rate (up to 192kHz) and the 

upsampled rate, a BNC input (vastly superior for S/ 

PDIF connections), and USB support (though limited 

to 48kHz). Furthermore, Bryston’s jitter-reduction 

scheme is astoundingly effective. The BDA-1 makes 

even a budget CD player’s coax output sound very 

nearly as good as a reference transport. 

With its two new digital products and a resurgent 

line of power amps, capped by the outstanding 28B- 

SST monoblock, Bryston clearly is on a roll. The 

BDA-1, at just $1995, represents yet another great 

audio value from Canada. More importantly, this 

DAC epitomizes Bryston’s commitment to getting the 

music right. (Review pending) 


GOLDEN EAR 

AWARDS 2009 

Jonathan Valin 

MartinLogan 

CLX Electrostatic 

Loudspeaker 

$22,699 

The CLX—the successor 

to the long-defunct CLS, 

MartinLogan’s one and only 

full-range electrostat—proved 

to be worth waiting for. The most colorlessly neutral, 

transparent-to-sources speaker I’ve heard, the CLX is not only 

extraordinarily realistic-sounding with top-flight recordings; it is 

also extraordinarily revealing, telling you things about how each 

and every disc in your collection was performed, recorded, and 

mastered that you’ve simply never heard before. A supremely 

honest transducer, the CLX seemingly lowers noise and raises 

resolution, reproducing pianissimos not just clearly but softly 

without desaturating tone colors or thinning out textures (like 

the lean mean CLS did). To its credit, MartinLogan is upfront 

about the speaker’s signal weakness—a roll-off in the bass 

below 56Hz. If you can live without the bottom octave-and-ahalf 

of low end (or with the addition of a subwoofer to supply 

it), you cannot find a higher-resolution transducer at any price. 


AAS Gabriel/DaVinci Record Playing System 

$60,000 

This gorgeous record player from Swiss engineer Peter Brem 

combines a world-class belt-driven turntable with a magnetically 

suspended platter (the AAS Gabriel/DaVinci), a world-class 

twelve-inch tonearm (the Grandezza), and an optional worldclass 

cartridge (the Grandezza Reference) in a package that 

is the veritable CLX of analog sources. Like the CLX, the 

DaVinci is a wonder at revealing details of timbre, texture, 

dynamic, and engineering that you’ve never heard before, and 

(again like the CLX) it is astonishingly realistic with first-rate 

LPs, lowering noise and raising resolution to new heights of 

fidelity. (Like the MartinLogan, it simply sets a new standard 

of dynamic scale on piano-to-pianississississimo passages.) Like 

all ’tables, the DaVinci is best used on an isolation stand such 

as the exemplary Symposium Acoustics Ultra and Isis. Suitably 

mounted, this is far and away the highest-resolution, most 

transparent-to-sources non-linear-tracking LP-playback device 

I’ve ever heard, rivaling my long-time reference Walker Black 

Diamond. (Reviewed in Issue 191) taS


equIPmenT RePoRT 

goldenote 

S-1 Signature 

Integrated 

amplifier and 


Hit and Miss 

robert harley 

the Italian high-end audio manufacturer Goldenote is 

based in Florence, perhaps the world’s most beautiful city 

as well as the birthplace of the Renaissance. That beauty 

and history is reflected in the company’s S-1 Signature integrated 

amplifier and Koala CD player reviewed here; both units exude 

an aesthetic consonant with their birthplace. 

The S-1 Signature is the first step-up in Goldenote’s extensive 

line of electronics and the Koala is the company’s entry-level CD 

player. Goldenote offers eight integrated amplifiers, ranging from 

the $1436 S-1 to the $28,727 Demidoff Diamond. Goldenote 

also makes an entire range of products that includes turntables, 

tonearms, cartridges, cables, and loudspeakers. 

Although budget-priced by Goldenote standards, the S-1 

Signature and Koala look anything but. The units are finished 

in beautiful high-gloss black faceplates and are solidly built, 

weighing 22 and 17 pounds respectively. Both are minimalist 

in features, with most of the parts-budget spent on the audio 

circuits, and particularly, the power supplies. This is classic highend 

design: No-frills operation and a simple signal path coupled 

with innovative circuits and generous power supplies. 

S-1 Signature Integrated amplifier 

The $1866 S-1 Signature is a higher-end version of Goldenote’s 

entry-level S-1 ($1436). Both units are functionally identical, with 

the Signature offering better sound quality. The Signature version 

increases the output power to 60Wpc (from 40Wpc) by virtue of 

a larger power supply. Other differences include hand-matched 

output transistors and upgraded parts throughout. 

Five line-level inputs are offered along with an optional phonostage, 

which can be added after the initial purchase (it’s an extra 

$200 whether purchased with the S-1 or retrofitted). The S-1 

Signature is minimalist, clean, and simple to use—only a large 

volume control and rotary input-selector switch adorn the highgloss 

front panel. A small round remote control offers volume 

up/down buttons. The unit is very nicely made inside, with a dualmono 

architecture, high-quality parts, and a hefty build. The chas- 



S-1 Signature integrated 

amplifier 

Power output: 60Wpc 

Inputs: Five line inputs on 

RCA jacks, one phono input 

(optional) 

Dimensions: 17.3" x 3.5" x 13.8" 


Price: $1866 

Koala CD player with tubed 

output stage 

outputs: Unbalanced on RCA 

jacks, balanced on XLR jacks; 

digital out on RCA jack 

Digital-to-analog conversion: 

20-bit Burr-Brown 

Dimensions: 17.3" x 3.9" x 13.4" 

Weight: 17.6 lbs. 

Price: $2296 

sis is quite sturdy and the top panel thick. The entire unit rests on 

large feet. The power supply is built around two custom toroidal 

transformers, one for each channel. A third transformer powers 

the housekeeping functions and the motorized volume control. 

The S-1 Signature’s input stage is based on a Goldenote-developed 

circuit called “Mirror Amp” which reportedly reduces distortion. 

This differential circuit is built around discrete transistors (rather 

than op-amps) and operates in pure Class A. The output stage is a 

single pair of transistors per channel, with each pair cooled by its 

own generous heat sink. The signal path is direct-coupled, with no 

filters or protection circuitry. This approach was taken to maximize 

sound quality, but you should be aware that without a protection 

circuit, shorting the speaker outputs will damage the amplifier. The 

S-1 Signature looks inside like a high-end preamplifier and power 

amplifier, but scaled down in output power. 


The $2296 Koala is Goldenote’s entry-level CD player. The unit 

features a tubed output stage and balanced as well as single-ended 

COMMENT ON THIS AT aVgUIDe.CoM

Goldenote S-1 Signature Integrated Amp & Koala CD Player - equIPmenT RePoRT 

analog outputs. A digital output on an RCA jack allows the Koala 

to function as a transport. 

The Koala is built around the ubiquitous Philips transport 

mechanism, but the motor is driven by Goldenote’s 

“Electro Power” power supply 

that reportedly reduces speed 

fluctuations to less than 0.0001%. 

The Electro Power power supply 

is said to provide absolutely stable 

and clean DC voltages to the 

player’s analog and digital circuits. 

The DAC is the new Burr-Brown 

PCM1796. 

Goldenote makes some claims 

about its “Zero-Clock” digital filter that 

I didn’t fully understand. For example, the 

company literature suggests that the “Zero- 

Clock” is part of a custom digital filter, but 

I didn’t see a DSP platform inside the player. 

I assumed from the name that “Zero-Clock” is 

Goldenote’s re-clocking circuit, but the company 

says “Zero-Clock” is the filter’s name. Answers to 

my repeated follow-up questions didn’t shed any light 

on exactly how the Koala’s filter is different, and how 

“Zero-Clock” works. (The explanation in the manufacturer 

comment on page 60 doesn’t clarify the issue, at least for me.) 

At any rate, the Koala’s power supply features three separate 

transformers, generous filtering and regulation, and a separate 

supply with its own transformer for the tubed output stage. This 

stage is based on one ECC88 dual-triode per channel. 

Although nicely built and attractive cosmetically, the Koala has 

an ergonomic quirk: The front-panel buttons are tiny points that 

require precise finger placement and are uncomfortable under 

the fingertip. 

listening 

Starting with the S-1 Signature driven by my reference sources, 

I was taken aback by the sheer musicality of this “entry-level” 

integrated amplifier. The S-1 in no way sounded like a sub-$2k 

integrated. Rather, it had the resolution, dynamics, and timbral 

liquidity of mid-priced separates. 

The S-1 Signature was extremely lively sounding (and I don’t 

mean bright). The amplifier had a natural sense of rhythmic flow 

coupled with an effortlessness on musical peaks. This was true 

over a wide variety of music, from blues to orchestral. Even 

when fed the extraordinarily wide dynamic range of Reference 

Recordings HRx 176.4kHz/24-bit files decoded by the Berkeley 

Alpha DAC, the S-1 Signature was up to the challenge, reproducing 

huge orchestral climaxes with utter grace and ease. In addition to 

correctly reproducing music’s dynamic structure, the S-1 didn’t 

collapse the soundstage during loud and complex passages. 

The S-1 Signature had a big, forceful (though not forced), and 

authoritative sound. This was remarkable performance for an 

amplifier of this power rating and price. 

The S-1 Signature’s dynamic prowess was complemented 

by the unit’s excellent bass definition, pitch resolution, weight, 

extension, and tremendous sense of heft. The bottom end was 

full and rich without sounding thick, plummy, or overly ripe. Kick 

drum had powerful impact, and bass guitar was rendered with an 

extremely satisfying “purring” quality. Moreover, the S-1 resolved 

small tonal and dynamic shadings in the bass in a way that made 

other entry-level integrated amplifiers sound a bit muddled. The 

great Abraham Laboriel’s bass lines on the Victor Feldman LP 

Secret of the Andes were rendered with a razor-sharp precision that 

highlighted his musical contribution to this disc. 

The presentation also had a wonderful transparency and 

clarity in the midband and treble. The sound was open and 

clean, with no opacity to diminish the sense of “seeing” through 

the soundstage. Similarly, this transparency contributed to the 

S-1 Signature’s excellent portrayal of timbre; tone colors were 

vibrant and deeply saturated in a way that made the presentation 

musically vivid without being sonically vivid. The S-1 Signature 

didn’t overlay timbres with a synthetic pall—a common 

characteristic of entry-level integrated amplifiers. In addition, 

instrumental textures were pure and free from grain and uppermidrange 

glare. 

With the Koala driving the S-1 Signature or at the front of 

my reference system it was apparent that these two Goldenote 

products shared some qualities but deviated on others. The 

Koala had a fairly large soundstage with good delineation 

between instrumental images. The CD player also had a sense 

of presence fostered by a somewhat forward overall perspective. 

This perspective, however, tended to highlight the midrange 

the way some tubed electronics do, with reduced resolution at 

the frequency extremes. The extreme bottom end (the realm of 

organ pedal tones and kick drum) didn’t have the extension or 

dynamic impact that would reveal the S-1 Signature’s outstanding 

performance in this area. The midbass was a bit ripe and plummy 

rather than taut and defined; you’d never know the S-1’s potential 

for rendering dynamics with such vibrant musical energy if 

you heard that integrated amplifier driven only by the Koala. 

Similarly, the top octave sounded a little closed in—that sense of 

air riding on top of cymbals was diminished. Concomitantly, the 

upper-midrange was a little bright, forward, and had a glare and 

hardness, particularly during loud passages. Instruments rich in 

upper-order harmonics such as saxophone and violin took on a 

bit of a steely character. 

Conclusion 

The Goldenote S-1 Signature integrated amplifier is a real find; 

it delivers a truly compelling musical experience at a reasonable 

price. Although not inexpensive for an “entry-level” integrated, 

the S-1 Signature nonetheless competes sonically with higherpriced 

integrated amplifiers, as well as with the benchmark in 

the category, the $1625 Naim Nait 5i. The S-1 Signature has 

an extremely compelling combination of dynamic expression, 

purity of timbre, transparency, and resolution without sounding 

analytical. Moreover, it sounds more powerful than its 60Wpc 

rating by virtue of its large power supply and generous heatsinking. 

The Koala is, in my view, a less successful product. It has a 

different set of sonic characteristics than the S-1, with less clarity 

and transparency, a softer presentation of dynamics, and less 

liquidity in its rendering of instrumental textures. 

Although I can think of several CD players at or below the 

Koala’s price that I would rather own (the $1599 Cambridge 

840C comes to mind), I’m hard pressed to name an integrated 

amplifier under $2000 I’d rather listen to on a daily basis. taS 



harbeth 

hlp-3eS2 

loudspeaker 

The Best Mini-Monitor? 

paul Seydor 

Within a few minutes of firing up Harbeth’s HLP-3ES2 

mini-monitor, I smiled and thought, “I know this sound. 

It’s every bit as good as I remember.” For several 

years in the nineties, I used a pair of the original HL-P3s in my 

film work. Replacing LS3/5as, they displayed far more neutral 

tonal balance, greater timbral accuracy, much lower coloration, 

better bass, and wider range. When I had just finished a project 

with several months to go before the next and no place for the 

speakers to go except storage, I finally gave in to a musician 

friend who, after carefully auditioning several small speakers 

(including LS3/5as), had been begging me to sell them to him. 

Come the next project, Harbeth was in the process of changing 

U.S. distribution. I never did get around to replacing the P3s. 

Meanwhile, since 1999 I’ve reviewed three Spendor minimonitors 

and Stirling Broadcast’s resurrected LS3/5a (in Issues 

119, 143, 166, and 182). As this might suggest, I’ve had something 

of a longstanding romance with mini-monitors, especially when 

used in the applications for which they were originally intended: 

high-accuracy reproducers in settings too small to accommodate 

larger speakers, spaces that typically cannot support low bass and 

where very loud playback isn’t required. But I wouldn’t choose 

them as main speakers for normal and larger listening rooms 

because their limitations become more difficult or impossible 

to overlook. And since optimal performance requires standmounting 

away from boundaries, their small size doesn’t really 

even save all that much space. Still, there’s something about the 

sheer impossibility of the problem and the ingenuity of the 

various solutions that appeals to me. 

Designed by Harbeth’s owner Alan Shaw and introduced in 

1990, the HL-P3 and its successors were by no means the first 

mini-monitors in the wake of the LS3/5a. But I believe they were 

the first to build directly upon the BBC research that went into 

the LS3/5a and upon the 3/5a itself, right down to lifting one 

of its hat-tricks, a little boost in the upper bass to suggest more 

bottom-end than is actually there. 

Slightly larger than the LS3/5a, the ES2 is otherwise similar, 

being a sealed two-way with SEAS drivers instead of KEFs. This 

is, in fact, the second revision of the original P3, the first being 

the ES, the differences mainly in the crossover, treatments for the 

cone edges, and a rounded cabinet-edge in the ES2. Impedance is 

complex, but nominally 6 ohms (treat it as 4 with tube amplifiers). 

Sensitivity remains a low 83dB, recommended minimum power 


25 watts—a mite optimistic for a normal-sized room. In my 

plus-2600-cubic-foot space, I managed to make a high-current 

110Wpc amplifier clip before the speaker gave out (this may have 

owed partly to the ES2’s complex impedance). For most of the 

evaluations I used the reference McIntosh MC-402 (400Wpc) 

and Quad 909 (140Wpc). Think a good 50 watts minimum and 

don’t be afraid to use 100. 

For this speaker’s something of a little giant when it comes 

to loudness, doing a commendable, even an impressive job 

reproducing the dynamics of Richard Goode’s Beethoven 

sonatas (Nonesuch) and placing the piano in the room. It also 

played the Kings College Advent service on Argo LP, large organ 

and all, to levels too loud to talk over. But when the big stuff, 

deep stuff, powerful stuff came along—organ, piano music in 

its lower registers—the sound was perched right on the edge of 

stress and strain, where I found it preferable to ease back. 

Yet Shaw is such a gifted designer that the ES2’s low end 

manages things none of the other minis does. For one thing, that 

upper-bass boost is to my ears subtler and better integrated than 

the LS3/5a’s, which always sounded a little coarse to me. For 

another, the ES2 is good enough to suggest a bit of the low-end 

ambience of recorded venues, more difficult than reproducing 

top-end air. Finally, it will actually reproduce bass drums and 

other low-end instruments, not room-fillingly, but with more than 

a mere suggestion that they are actually there. And string bass 

is handled convincingly, without the bloom of a larger speaker, 

but with superb articulation and harmonic integrity backed by 

surprising strength and even some power. Ray Brown on This

One’s for Blanton (45-rpm vinyl reissue) 

will show you what I’m talking about. 

So will Harmonia Mundi USA’s Eroica, 

Andrew Manze urging his medium-sized 

orchestra to play in the style of the early 

classical period, with sonorities lean and 

sec. But the Harbeths clearly reveal that 

these are modern, not period instruments, 

double-basses and cellos coming through 

with sufficient warmth and foundation to 

balance the spectrum. And the virtuoso 

timpanist has to be heard to be believed 

in the Marcia funebre, his attack reproduced 

with stunning clarity, ferocity, and even 

some size by these little buggers. 

In other words, while Shaw hasn’t 

rewritten the laws of physics when it 

comes to bass performance and loudness 

capability, the ES2 is the only minimonitor 

I could live more or less happily 

with as primary speakers if I had to. And because the bass is so 

well behaved, this is one mini-monitor that really will mate well 

with a good subwoofer (the LS3/5a has always been the very 

devil in this regard). 

The tweeter is that rarity, a metal dome that doesn’t ring or 

otherwise constantly point to itself. One of my notes reads, “The 

highs—clean, clear, pretty characterless, practically perfectly 

balanced.” This is not just because the tweeter doesn’t rise in 

the manner typical, say, of so many non-BBC-oriented British 

speakers these last twenty years, but because it is very extended 

yet of a piece with the mid/low-end driver. I am reliably informed 

that Shaw expends fanatical effort in all his designs in getting the 

drivers to dovetail coherently at their crossover points. It shows, 

but experiencing this coherence requires on-axis listening and 

stands that bring the tweeter to ear level. 

Some people find the LS3/5a’s highs more detailed. I 

disagree. They may sound more detailed because its top end has 

a few peaks that accentuate detail. Put the same peaks into the 

Harbeth with an equalizer and voila!—there’s the same detail, the 

differences being: (1) that it’s bogus, and (2) that you can switch 

it out. The ES2 reproduces details in truthful proportion to what 

else is on the recording. 

Which brings us to the midrange. I’ve already mentioned its 


Drivers: custom 4.33" polymer 

midrange/woofer, 0.75" 

aluminum-dome tweeter 

Frequency response: 75Hz– 

20kHz +/-3dB 

nominal impedance: 6 ohms 

Dimensions: 12" x 7.4" x 7.8" 


Price: $1895/pr. 

FIDelIS aV (U.S. Distributor) 

(603) 437-4769 

fidelisav.com 


Harbeth HLP-3eS2 - equIPmenT RePoRT 

neutrality and freedom from coloration, with 

timbral accuracy superb by any standard. 

But there is a small anomaly, a tiny rise in 

the 1kHz–2kHz range. With most program 

material, you might not even notice it, 

though pink noise reveals it. And unlike the 

LS3/5a’s similar but bigger rise in the same 

region, the ES2 never gets nasal. Instead, it 

provides a bit of extra presence-projection 

that makes for a very open sound. But it also 

makes the speaker sound, again in common 

with quite a number of mini-monitors, a bit 

more midrange-y than it might otherwise. 

(Spendor’s S3/5R is dead flat in the same 

region.) 

One recording that lets you hear this 

anomaly immediately is the LP of Doris 

Day’s “Over the Rainbow” from Hooray 

for Hollywood. Day’s voice is recorded with 

glorious presence, richness, and warmth, 

but on the Harbeths it can sound slightly too forward, as in a 

little bright, especially as it approaches its loudness limitations. 

Pulling back the 1.2kHz band on the McIntosh C46 preamplifier’s 

equalizer to around 10–11 o’clock makes her voice sound just 

right. On the other hand, play Shelby Lynne’s new tribute to 

Dusty Springfield, Just a Little Lovin’, and she sounds too distant 

EQ’ed this way, just right bypassed. 

In other words, I don’t want to overemphasize this anomaly; 

it’s not noxious and it truly is subtle. Moreover, from the top 

of the upper-bass through the highest octave, fewer than ten 

percent of speakers on the market, I’d guess, are as flat and thus 

as accurate in frequency-response as the ES2. It really earns its 

“monitor” moniker. 

The ES2 images more or less as all these subcompacts do: with 

near holographic precision that belies its small size, albeit with 

the usual reduction in image size and scale, less so here than with 

most. The Harbeth is more open and somewhat bigger sounding 

than the others, less boxy too. And because Shaw has paid his 

usual careful attention to reducing diffraction effects, you won’t 

hear the typical beyond-the-speaker-boundaries soundstaging 

artifacts, beloved of audiophiles but hardly accurate. 

Is there an issue of value here? Of the five mini-monitors 

I’ve reviewed, the cheapest is $1499/pair, the costliest these 

Harbeths at $1895/pr. And I don’t know of comparably priced 

larger speakers that equal the sheer accuracy of the best minimonitors 

over their admittedly restricted frequency range. But 

my colleagues have written about several quite good larger 

speakers in this price range that, in addition to playing louder 

and responding deeper, will also suggest a more life-size scale in 

their reproduction. Which matters more to you: high-accuracy, 

restricted frequency and dynamic range, reduced scale versus 

deeper bass, greater loudness, a bigger presentation at some 

sacrifice to ultimate tonal accuracy? Not a decision I can make 

for you . . . 

Meanwhile, the HLP-3ES2 sufficiently pushes the boundaries 

of mini-monitor performance, while reducing the compromises 

imposed by the small size, that I’ve made a decision of my own: I 

bought the review pair, and this time I will not make the mistake 

of selling them any time soon. taS 



pS: It’s rumored that you never really liked the 

lS3/5a and that one reason you made the hl-p3 is 

to improve upon the original design. 

aS: Before answering that, I’d like to say that I have the greatest 

respect for the LS3/5a, especially when you consider when it was 

designed. But after the euphoria of becoming a BBC-licensed 

supplier around 1988, I didn’t really listen to the 3/5a for a 

couple of years. Then I made recordings of my daughter and 

was quite disappointed how colored she sounded on it in the 

presence area. Far, far too much energy. So I designed the P3 to 

reduce that overall intensity. 

pS: one of your lS3/5a criticisms concerned its 

inability to stay in spec over time. 

aS: The performance of the LS3/5a bass unit dramatically 

changes with time, and after about twenty years a peak of 

around 5–10dB centered on 1300Hz is very typical. It’s related to 

chemical degradation in the rubber surrounds used in the original 

3/5 (PVC in the later—and all Harbeth—computer-optimized 

ones). 

pS: you seem to have used some of the lS3/5a’s 

“tricks,” however, like the upper-bass boost to 

suggest weight and warmth. 

aS: To my way of thinking this was mandatory to stand any 

chance of selling the P3. But the interesting thing about the 

bass hump is it’s a hump only to the eye on the graph. In reality, 


Interview 

with alan 

Shaw 

it’s a perfectly executed Butterworth second-order alignment. 

What’s more interesting is what follows the hump: a shallow 

contouring of the drive from 120Hz to about 1000Hz. The 

way the ear works, this 125Hz stands out against the general 

contour and this is what gives the apparent weight. The voltage 

plots on our Web site show what’s going on in detail. 

pS: I also hear a bit of a rise in the presence 

region, albeit rather more subtly applied. 

aS: Yes, a little, but that’s essential. It lifts the perceived 

loudness of the speaker, it draws attention away from the 

“sound of the cabinet,” it enhances stereo imaging, and it 

brings the soundstage forward, clear of the box as it were. 

pS: Why don’t you use your raDIal compound in 

the p3? 

aS: The P3 predates RADIAL, and tooling-up for a Radial 

driver would cost around fifteen to twenty thousand dollars. 

Since the performance of the P3 is well known and liked, 

especially in professional circles, and the speaker continues to 

sell very well, this can hardly be a priority for a company the size 

of ours. 

pS: Can you tell us something of how you go about 

designing speakers? I know you use a combination 

of exacting measurements and intensive listening. 

When you start listening, what are you adjusting? 

the crossover, the cabinet, the parts? What are you 

listening for? 

aS: This really is a first class question that I’ve not been asked 

before. I need a little time to give you an answer. 

In about a week, he wrote me the following reply: 

aS: My heroes were all at the BBC. In a quasi-government, 

engineering-based organization like the BBC, where public money 

is being spent, there is no room for pure subjectivism. There is 

a hierarchy that ensures solutions are 100% engineering-based, 

repeatable, on budget, documented, thoroughly critiqued, and 

then published. So it was with the BBC’s work on loudspeakers 

in the Sixties. The beauty of the prose, the elegance of the 

arguments, the simplicity, the logical progression of ideas and 

concepts, and perhaps above all the approachability of the subject 

to even the schoolboy gripped me then as it does now. 

So I work in a way which gives me the documentation to 




illustrate to peers the design process, 

including all the meanderings, the 

dead-ends, the time-wasting but which 

slowly builds toward the final design. I 

record my observations in meticulous 

detail in logbooks, accompanied by 

the appropriate computer graphs, 

annotated for my ongoing learning— 

very deliberate and painfully slow. 

I have these scrapbooks for every 

model. The Monitor 40.1, just finished, 

fills about 150 pages. I hope that long 

after I’ve gone, these will be of use to 

future designers. 

The very word 

“coloration” sends 

a shiver down my 

spine. It’s not a hardengineering 

word. It 

smacks of failure: of 

uncharted sonic turf 

between real science 

and emotions. 

The actual process is this: First, 

perfect the drive units. Absolutely 

mandatory. Fix all drive-unit issues at 

source, mechanically; do not rely on 

electrical fixes in the crossover, as 

they always leave a sonic signature, the 

cure often worse than the illness. 

Second, build the box to the final size. 

Third, mount drivers in the box. Once 

the drivers are mounted, take careful 

frequency-response measurements over 

a wide arc, process them, and feed them 

into HALNet, our own loudspeaker 

crossover-design simulator. 

Then, take a break for a day or 

two! I have been designing by simulator 

for nearly twenty years now, and I have 

great confidence in the model versus 

the actual, but—big but—while the built 

circuit measures exactly as the simulation 

predicts, it does not tell you anything at 

all about how it sounds. 

This is the really challenging 

part: How to balance what the simulator 

tells you is a good frequency-response 

with what measures well in-room with 

what your ears tell you sounds “right.” 

You have to work all three together and 

you have to guard against being pulled 

by your ears into something that sounds 

very seductive but measures terrible 

or—more usually—sounds terrible but 

measures great. 

It offends me if the measured 

response is not flat, or knowingly deviant 

from flat. There has to be, in my mind, 

justification for shading the system 

response, as the simulator can give you a 

dead flat response in minutes, so why not 

just use it? But this is the core of the job, 

which transforms the task from product 

design into an all-consuming 3-D chess 

challenge. 

Experience tells me that two 

sorts of audible issues loom out of 

extended listening: Those you can— 

eventually—attribute to some wiggles 

in the measurable, hence simulated, 

response, and those you can’t. Those 

we call “colorations.” The very word 

sends a shiver down my spine. It’s not 

a hard-engineering word. It smacks of 

failure: of uncharted sonic turf between 

real science and emotions. But once my 

subconscious locks onto a coloration 

(perhaps fifty-plus hours listening in 

to the design)—I dread this stage—I 

find myself going round in circles 

for weeks pushing the response here, 

pulling it there, moving the crossover 

up or down in level or frequency, 

more listening, more eureka moments 

late at night which the next day aren’t. 

Every time I swear that I’ll find a hardengineering 

path from this random 

phase to a solution, but every time I 

resort to (a) going over the notebooks 

in ever more detail hunting for clues, 

(b) slowing down, taking the pressure 

off to get a result, and (c) trusting my 

ears above the test equipment. It comes 

good eventually! I should add here that I 

have no interest in fancy components— 

standard polyester caps and wire-wound 

resistors on good quality fiberglass 

boards are all you need to get a great 

sound. 

As to what am I listening for, I’m 

listening for coloration that breaks down 

the illusion of “being there.” For me, 

speech/vocal quality is the real arbiter 

because the human voice-box just doesn’t 

produce the sort of colorations that 

speakers do. It’s soft, wet, highly damped 

tissue and it can’t produce spitty, gritty, 

beaky, wiry, quaky, hollow sound—all 

those are speaker colorations. Because 

of its emotional content, music is less 

revealing of coloration than speech and 

voice. taS 



argentum acoustics aureus-2 

Speaker Cable and Mythos Interconnect 

There’s a New Mid-Priced Cable in Town 

neil gader 

Few system upgrades are as popular and easy as a cable 

swap. And cables between $500 and $1500 are in the 

most hotly contested price range. Joining the ranks is 

Argentum Acoustics—a division of the Toronto-based cable 

giant Ultralink/XLO. The Argentum line comprises Aureus-2 

speaker wire, Mythos interconnects, and Proteus power cords. 

Aureus-2 is made of eight-conductor, 99.99998% pure, 

continuous-cast (Ohno) crystal copper in an ultra-low-capacitance 

DuPont Teflon dielectric. 1 The Mythos interconnect is essentially 

a two-conductor version of Aureus with an additional shielding 

of copper foil plus a full-coverage copper braid and mil-spec 

contacts plated in 24-karat gold. 

It only took a few minutes listening to familiar tracks from Dire 

Straits, Norah Jones, and Joan Baez’s latest Day After Tomorrow 

[Razor & Tie] to hear the “excitement factor” written all over the 

music. The Argentum was dynamic, alive with swift and spicy 

transients. It has a strong midrange flavor with the perspective 

just slightly back of the front couple of rows. In many ways the 

Argentum reminded me of the slightly darker, midrange-fueled 

nature of Tara Labs RSC Air Series 2 that I favorably reviewed a 

few years ago and still reference today. Vocals of all stripes were 

richly and continuously well defined. On the Baez, images of 

acoustic guitar, mandolin, and acoustic bass were focused and 

stable and there was a reasonable amount of air in the soundfield 

surrounding them. Orchestral works weren’t reproduced with 

quite the unbridled openness of some more expensive designs 

and the soundstage was flattened a bit, but performance was well 

within expectation in this price range. The real surprise was bass 

1 Ohno Continuous Casting (OCC) is a process of drawing copper 

ingots into wire in a way the minimizes the grain structure in the 

wire. Grain is tiny discontinuities in the copper that adversely affect 

the audio signal passing through it. OCC copper has about one grain 

in 700 feet, in contrast to about 1500 grains per foot in standard 

casting techniques.—RH 



Price: Aureus-2 speaker, 

$1500 /3m pr.; Mythos RCA, 

$400/1m pr.; Proteus power 

cord, $900/6', $1050/9' 

argentUM aCoUStICS 

1951 South Lynx Ave. 

Ontario, CA 91761 

(909) 947-6960 

argentumacoustic.com 

extension and resolution, which were flat-out state of the art— 

more than a match for comparably priced efforts like Crystal 

Cable Piccolo and Nordost Blue Heaven. 

While the Argentum wires share more similarities than 

differences with competitors, there are two sonic criteria worth 

discussing—treble resolution and low-level transient/dynamic 

gradation. A good example is solo piano. I found that during 

Evgeny Kissen’s performance of “The Lark” the harmonic 

decay of rapid-fire upper-treble arpeggios was less articulate than 

it should have been. And during BS&T’s cover of “And When I 

Die” [Columbia, SACD] I lost the puff of air hitting the reeds 

of the solo harmonica during the intro. Also, electric bass, kick 

drum, and trombone weren’t as distinctly layered as they are with 

top o’ the heap wire. What this says to me is that the cable may 

be muting microdynamics. So, yes the Argentum leaves a shred 

of transparency on the table but, brother, not much. 

At a couple grand, a basic configuration of Aureus-2 and 

Mythos isn’t chump change. But it says a lot about the sheer 

musicality and overall performance of the Argentum that it can 

proudly hold its head up against cables two or even three times 

as much. It also says something else. There’s a new midpriced 

cable in town. taS 

HAVE yOUR SAy AT aVgUIDe.CoM





Wyred 4 Sound Sx-1000 and bel 

Canto ref 1000 Mk II Monoblocks 

Green Amplifiers 

Many audiophiles aren’t crazy about Class D power 

amplifiers. I think it’s more a result of their early 

education than the innate sonic qualities of the 

amplifiers themselves. When I was in school if you got a D, you 

flunked and were considered a dunce. If you got an A, you went 

to the top of your class. Ask anyone with more than a first grade 

education whether he’d prefer something that’s Class A or Class 

D and he’ll immediately say “A.” That’s a hard bias to overcome. 

If you explain that amplifier class ratings have nothing to do 

with sonic quality but merely designate the amps’ efficiency and 

technology type, many naysayers might give Class A/B, B, C, and 

even D amplifiers a fairer chance to strut their stuff. In this brave 

new world of widely fluctuating energy costs (mostly upward) 


Steven Stone 

Class D amplifiers have a lot to offer. Unlike Class A amps which 

squander over 75% of their energy consumption as heat, Class 

D amps transfer the most of their energy into sound. Efficiency 

is a good thing. 

How much can a Class D amplifier shave off your electricity 

bill? My own experience indicates that if you leave your power 

amplifiers on continuously a Class D amplifier will save you 

at least $400 per year compared with a similarly powered twochannel 

Class A or A/B power amplifier. That’s $4000 over ten 

years, which is not an unreasonable lifespan for a top-quality 

power amplifier. You can buy a lot of music or ancillary gear 

for $4000. 

Although this is a review of two different manufacturers’

Wyred 4 Sound and Bel Canto Ref monoblocks - equIPmenT RePoRT 

monoblock Class D power amplifiers, it’s not a mano-a-mano 

between them. Instead we’ll look at two Class D amplifier 

solutions at different prices—a Wyred 4 Sound SX-1000 amplifier 

costs $1199 while a Bel Canto Ref 1000 Mk II lists for $2995. In 

the world of Class D power amplifiers, I hope we find that you 

get what you pay for. 

Wyred 4 Sound—are U ready? 

Despite the semi-literate name, Wyred 4 Sound has an impressive 

track record. Manufactured and designed by Cullen Circuits of 

California, which has been responsible for building products for 

PS Audio, Infinity, BGW, Camelot Technology, and others, the 

SX-1000 Series II features the latest generation Bang & Olufsen 

ICE Class D output devices. 

While many amplifiers use these output devices, the SX-1000 

combines them with its own proprietary direct-coupled, balanced, 

dual-FET input stage designed by Bascom King. This first stage 

does not increase gain; instead its primary function is impedance 

adjustment. According to Wyred 4 Sound, changing the front-end 

input impedance to 61.9k Ohms “allows source equipment to 

easily and accurately drive the amplifier.” Stock ICE modules have 

8k Ohms on the positive input and 10k Ohms on the negative 

input, so if you’re using an RCA single-ended input your source 

would be driving an 8000 Ohm load. Wyred 4 Sound maintains 

that “the lower impedance your source has to drive, the more you 

will experience lower volume levels, and slightly higher distortion 

going into your amplifier. This normally changes the way a preamp 

can amplify a signal, thus giving you less than optimal sound.” 

Wyred 4 Sound also performs modifications to the ICE 

modules themselves. It bypasses the input coupling caps to allow 

“audio to freely flow through while still allowing DC protection,” 

as well as beefs up the servo feedback circuit “for enhanced 

bottom-end extension.” 

The SX-1000 Series II sports both single-ended RCA and 

balanced XLR inputs. Wyred 4 Sound recommends that users 

employ the balanced inputs if possible since the amplifier is a true 

balanced differential design. With a three-conductor balanced 

XLR signal the “+” and “–” signals are created by the source 

component, and the ground is simply a shield. With a single-ended 

RCA connection the amplifier must derive the “–” signal from 

the “+” signal by inverting it 180 degrees with a phase splitter. 

According to Wyred 4 Sound’s Director of Sales EJ Sarmento, 

“We have found that XLR connections have much better sonics 

than RCAs. The most noticeable effect is that the noise level 

is reduced. With the SX-1000 Series II some of the cheapest 

balanced-connection XLR cables can sound much better than 

some of the expensive single-ended RCAs.” Because of Wyred 

4 Sound’s recommendations, most of the time I connected the 

SX-1000 Series II via its balanced XLR connections. 

Wyred 4 Sound populates the SX-1000 Series II with quality 

parts throughout, including Dale Rn55D copper-leaded resistors, 

MUSE audio-grade capacitors, a thick-traced PCB board, and 

WBT speaker binding posts. The amplifier modules are connected 

to the speaker posts with 14AWG 99.9% OFC high-strand copper 

paralleled with 14AWG high-strand pure silver wire. Obviously 

top-tier parts don’t come cheap, which raises the question of why 

the SX-1000 Series II is so relatively inexpensive. Wyred 4 Sound 

keeps the price low by using a pedestrian enclosure and by selling 

directly to end users via its Web site. 

Super Sonics 4 the Masses? 

I listened to the SX-1000 Series II in all three of my systems. 

Many reviews of ICE powered amplifiers have mentioned that 

these amps are more susceptible to frequency-balance variations 

created by difficult speaker impedance loads. I tried to verify 

these claims. Most of my listening was done through my main 

reference speakers, the Dunlavy Signature Vs and Genesis 6.1s. 

The Genesis presents a more difficult load than the Dunlavys, 

partly due to its ribbon tweeters and more complicated crossover, 

but neither is as challenging as some panel designs. On my 

desktop system I tried more than a half dozen various small 

two-way transducers. None of the speakers in my arsenal created 

any noticeable harmonic balance variations. While I wouldn’t 

completely discount the possibility of speaker mismatch issues 

with ICE amplifiers, I suspect that harmonic variations may as 

easily have been the result of input impedance phenomena as 

speaker impedance mismatches. The SX-1000’s easy-to-drive 

input impedance makes it less susceptible to timbral balance 

variations due to input mismatches than earlier ICE designs. 

I live in Boulder, Colorado, which is one of the more ecoconscious 

spots on earth. I’ve been using various incarnations 

of Class D amplifiers for more than four years and will even 

admit to a positive bias toward this energy-efficient design. 

To help maintain my neutrality I keep a Pass X150 Class AB 

amplifier around as a reference. Even though I’ve spent a lot of 

time listening to Class D amplifiers, I will be the first to admit 

that a good Class AB amplifier such as the Pass still sounds 

more like live music than any Class D amplifier I’ve heard. But 

most previous generations of ICE-powered amplifiers produced 

greater differences than the SX-1000 Series II. 

The SX-1000 Series II is a powerful amplifier. It excels at 

producing spookily realistic dynamic contrasts. Even on the most 

extreme full-scale orchestral material it never fails to replicate 

lifelike volume levels with ease. The SX-1000 Series II also serves 

up musical detail with the aplomb of a sommelier uncorking a 

prize bottle. Subtle musical cues buried deep within complex 

mixes were as easy to hear through the SX-1000 Series II as 

through any amplifier I’ve used. Even on my desktop system, 

which only required the first couple of watts of the SX-1000 

Series II’s resources, I was immediately aware of the SX-1000’s 

dynamic finesse and low-level resolution. The SX-1000’s speed 

and transparency make for arresting listening. 

On a liquid/dry, warm/cool harmonic-balance continuum, 

the SX-1000 Series II is on the cool/dry side. Its overall balance 

reminded me of one of the first great Boulder amplifiers, the 

AE-500, which had a similarly clean matter-of-fact presentation. 

Compared to the Pass X150, the SX-1000 seems more mechanical 

and less musical, especially in the lower midrange. 

Lateral imaging through the SX-1000 Series II has the precision 

of a well-rehearsed drill team at a Sunday parade. Front-to-back 

imaging does suffer from some truncation, however. While I’m 

not a huge fan of classical recordings that use omnidirectional 

microphones, I find them very handy to judge an amplifier’s 

ability to render three-dimensional space accurately. The latest 

SACD recording from Ray Kimber, Joseph Haydn’s String 

Quartets in D minor and F major performed by the Fry Street 

Quartet, is especially useful for this. If a system handles spatial 

cues correctly, as Kimber’s remarkable demo system at the most 

recent Rocky Mountain Audio Fest did, it will accurately render 




the coverage circles for each microphone. In my own system, 

even the Pass X150 doesn’t get these coverage circles completely 

right. It renders them more as ovals than circles—they have the 

correct width, but they are no longer quite as deep as they are 

wide. The SX-1000 further compresses these circles into shallow 

ellipses. 

In Robert Harley’s review of the NuForce ICE-based Class 

D amplifiers in Issue 166 he noted a “chalky coloration” to their 

rendition of upper-mid and high frequencies. At first I didn’t 

notice any electronic texture through the SX-1000 Series II 

amplifier. The little electronic grain that was present through the 

SX-1000 Series II had the consistency of finely ground espresso 

rather than chalk dust…sorry, I couldn’t resist. But, yes, there is 

something in the way of electronic grain that doesn’t exist in live 

music. It is subtle—so subtle that unless you concentrate on it 

you may not notice it at all. 

Filling In the blanks 

The alchemy of putting together an optimal system at any 

price point comes down to component-matching. Given my 

predilection for dynamic-driver-based speaker systems it should 

come as no surprise that I found the SX-1000 Series II amplifier 

to be an outstanding value with only a few sonic flaws. I suspect 

if I were more into SET amplifiers, electrostatics, horns, or fullrange 

ribbons I might be less favorably impressed, but then 

again, perhaps not. The only way to know for sure if the SX-1000 

Series II will float your boat is to try it out in your own pond. 

Since Wyred 4 Sound sells directly to end-users and expects them 

to give the SX-1000 Series II a thorough shakedown cruise, I 

encourage you to try it if you are looking for a moderately priced 

high-power high-efficiency amplifier. 

bel Canto—a beautiful Voice 

Bel Canto has been making high-end electronics for over fifteen 

years. Its first products were single-end triode tube amplifiers, 

and although he no longer offers any SETs, John Stronczer, 

Bel Canto’s principal designer, still uses single-ended tube amps 

and live music as references for his latest ICE-based switching 

amplifiers. 

Bel Canto was among the first high-end audio manufacturers 

to embrace switching amplifiers. Its original EVO series was built 

around the Tripath or Class T amplifier module. But even before 

Tripath declared bankruptcy Bel Canto had moved on to the Bang 

& Olufsen ICE amplifier module. John Stronczer told me, “I was 

concerned for the future of Tripath, and when Bang & Olufsen 

sent me its latest ICE power module I was impressed. Frankly, 

I wasn’t happy with its earlier versions, but the latest ones were 

good enough to consider building an amplifier around. It’s good 

technology, and a great part to utilize for a power amplifier.” 

The latest Ref 1000 Mk II differs from the original in several 

profound ways. The only parts it shares with the original are the 

ICE power module, the top cover, and the front panel. Stronczer 

told me, “Everything else is basically new.” Owners of the original 

version can upgrade their amplifier to the Mk II for $1000 per 

chassis, which happens to be the difference between the original 

Ref 1000’s list of $3990 and the Mk II’s list of $5990 a pair. 

When Bel Canto first announced the Ref 1000 Mk II quite a few 

pairs of the original amplifier appeared on the used marketplace 

sites I frequent. This is a common occurrence. Audiophiles are 

so used to seeing the value of a component drop like a rock 

when a newer version comes out that many savvy owners sell 

their older units upon the first rumor of a new model without 

paying a premium for the privilege. But once Ref 1000 owners 

realized they could upgrade their original version to the latest 

model, listings for used Ref 1000s vanished. 

Bel Canto changed what it considers the key pieces around 

the ICE power amplifier modules. It started with the input stage. 

With the new circuitry common-mode rejection was increased 

and input impedance was raised from 10k Ohms to 100k Ohms 

per side. This improved both the measured signal-to-noise ratio 

and distortion at higher frequencies. The input stage consists of 

only top-shelf components including Caddock resistors, solid 

electrolytic ultra-low ESR decoupling capacitors, and low-noise 

regulated power supplies. 

The Mk II amplifier also got a new power supply for the ICE 

modules. Energy storage was doubled and power rectification 

filters were added in front of the ICE module’s internal power 

supply to pre-regulate it. This new power supply has lower 

noise, reduced sensitivity to power line effects, and better power 

delivery. According to Stronczer the new high-speed rectifiers in 

the power supply “have a big effect…they changed the sound 

more than I’d expected. I like to measure what I design, and then 

I listen to the results. In this case the sonic changes were greater 

than what I assumed from the measurements.” 

the Sound of round 

I’ve been using the first generation of Bel Canto’s Ref 1000 

amplifiers for the last several years with a variety of speakers. 

None of the speakers I’ve used has exhibited any harmonic 

variations with the Bel Canto compared with more conventional 

amplifier designs. Most of these speakers have been dynamic 

driver designs, but some, such as the Final 80, were electrostatic 

speakers. Even with the electrostatics I didn’t notice any harmonic 

changes. 

During the many years that I’ve employed a triad of Bel Canto 

Ref 1000 amplifiers (one for each of my front three channels) 

I’ve never had any issues with inadequate output levels, reliability, 

or heat build-up, even when the three were stacked directly on 

top of each other. Since I’m a reviewer, these Bel Canto Ref 1000 

amps have been moved, connected, and reconnected far more 

often than they would be in most regular users’ homes. Even 

with this extra-heavy-duty use they have never failed to function 

properly. I think the Ref 1000 II’s will be equally reliable. 

Since the Bel Canto Ref 1000 Mk II uses the same output 

devices as the Wyred 4 Sound SX-1000 amplifier you would 

expect it to share many of the same sonic attributes. You would 

be largely correct in this assumption. Just like the Wyred 4 

Sound SX-1000 amplifier, the Bel Canto Ref 1000 Mk II can 

deliver copious amounts of power with ease. Dynamic contrasts, 

whether micro or macro, are recreated without any truncation or 

homogenization. 

The Ref 1000 Mk II also dredges up even the most subtle 

low-level details with aplomb. It rivals any amplifier I’ve heard 

in allowing you to easily listen into a mix so you can focus on 

whichever part or individual line catches your fancy. Even on a 

ridiculously dense mix, such as “Doris Dreams” from Orchestra 

Luna, it’s easy to hear the subtle tonal differences between the 

two female backing vocalists. 



el Canto reF1000 MKII 

MonobloCKS 

Power output: >1000W into 4 

ohms, >500W into 8 ohms 

Frequency response: 20Hz- 

20KHz +/-0.5dB 

Gain: 27dB 

Damping factor: >1000 

Dimensions: 8.5" x 3" x 12" 


Price: $2995 each 

bel Canto DeSIgn, ltD. 

221 North 1st Street 

Minneapolis, MN 55401 

belcantodesign.com 

(866) 200-7342 

WyreD 4 SoUnD Sx-1000 

Power output: 570W at 8 

ohms, 1140W at 4 ohms 

Frequency response: 20Hz- 

20kHz +/-0.4dB 

Gain: 27dB 

Damping factor: 2000 

Dimensions: 8" x 4" x 13" 

Weight: 14 lbs. each 

Price: $1199 each 

WyreD 4 SoUnD 

2323 Tuley Rd. Unit A 

Paso Robles, CA 93446 

(805) 237-2113 

wyred4sound.com 




Desktop System: EAD 8000 

Pro CD/DVD player and 

transport, MacPro Dual 

core computer with i-Tunes 

7.7.1, Trends USB Audio Dac 

UD-10, Monarchy Audio DIP, 

Meridian 518, Meridian 561 

pre/pro, Grace M902 reference 

headphone preamplifier, Bel 

Canto Dac 3, Bel Canto S-300 

stereo amplifier, Accuphase 

P-300 power amplifier, 

Earthquake Supernova Mk 

IV 10 subwoofer, Goertz M12 

Veracity speaker cables, 

Goertz TQ2 alpha-core 

interconnects 

Room System 1: CEC TL-2 CD 

transport, Sony BPS-300 Blu 

Ray Player, Apple TV, Sonos 

Z90, VPI HW-17, ClearAudio/ 

Souther TriQuartz arm, 

Denon/VanDenHul cartridge, 

Michael yee Pfe-1 phono 

preamp, Lexicon MC-12B HD 

pre/pro, Monster HTPS 7000, 

Chang Lightspeed CLS 9900 

AC conditioner, Genesis 6.1 

surround speaker system, two 

Genesis S2/12 subwoofers, 

one Genesis 4/8 subwoofer, 

two JL Audio Fathom F112 

subwoofers, Synergistic 

Research Designer’s Reference 

interconnects and speaker 

cables 

Room System 2: Sony BDP 

S-300 Blu Ray Player, Logitech 

Slim Systems Squeezebox 

Duet music server, Meridian 

598 CD/DVD player, VPI 

TNT-IV turntable, Graham 1.2 

tonearm, ClearAudio Victory 

H cartridge, Vendetta SCP-1B 

phono preamp, Meridian 

568.2 Pre/pro, Meridian 518 

Digital processor, Ps Audio 

Premier AC power regenerator, 

Chang Lightspeed CLS 9900 

AC conditioner, Dunlavy 

Signature VI main speakers, 

Dunlavy Signature IV center 

speaker, Dunlavy Signature 

IAV rear speakers, two Genesis 

G-928 subwoofers, two 

Earthquake Supernova 12 Mk 

VI subwoofers, Audio Magic 

and Synergistic Research 

interconnects, Audio Magic 

Sorcerer and Synergistic 

Research Alpha Quad X-series 

speaker cables 


The Ref 1000 Mk II’s precise lateral focus places instruments 

with exactitude across the front of soundstage. It also does a 

decent job of recreating depth. The Ref 1000 Mk II actually 

equals the Pass X150’s dimensional abilities. The Ref 1000 Mk 

II does a noticeably better job of recreating omnidirectional 

microphone pick-up patterns than the Wyred 4 Sound SX-1000 

amplifier. Although the pick-up patterns on omni microphone 

recordings are still not perfectly round through the Ref 1000 Mk 

II, the Bel Canto does make them a less extreme oval than the 

Wyred 4 Sound’s shallow ellipse. 

Harmonically the Bel Canto Ref 1000 Mk II has a slightly 

warmer, more musical presentation then the Wyred 4 Sound 

SX 1000. The Bel Canto closely approaches the warmth and 

musicality of the Pass X150, with only a smidgen less richness 

in the upper bass and lower midrange. The Bel Canto is also less 

mechanical sounding than the Wyred 4 Sound, and while the Bel 

Canto may not warm up an overly sterile-sounding front end 

or speaker like a classic tube amplifier, it certainly won’t further 

subtract from the harmonic warmth of a system. 

What makes the Bel Canto Ref 1000 Mk II worth more than 

twice as much as the Wyred 4 Sound SX-1000? It’s certainly not 

twice as good, but it does excel at recreating the musical event in 

a more natural, organic, and convincing way than the SX-1000. 

Harmonic differences between these two amplifiers were more 

obvious through the Genesis 6.1 speaker system than through 

any of the smaller two-way monitors I’ve reviewed recently. The 

Bel Canto’s midrange was more realistic with a greater sense of 

immediacy and presence. Also the upper treble had less electronic 

grain with the Bel Canto amplifier. 

Obviously the speaker used to compare any two amplifiers has 

a major influence on the perceived differences between them. 

Through the Dunlavy Signature VI speakers I was more aware of 

the depth variations between the two amps than their harmonic 

differences. On “Oh Dry the Glistening Tear” from the Charles 

Mackerras version of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance, 

the Bel Canto Ref 1000 Mk II allowed each voice in the female 

chorus to retain its individuality and location in space while still 

blending into a three-dimensional chorale. With the Wyred 4 

Sound SX-1000 the choristers were far more spatially compressed 

and less three-dimensional. Also the separation between the back 

line of choristers and the back of the stage wasn’t as well defined 

through the Wyred 4 Sound as it was with the Bel Canto. 

Class D or Class a? 

Some audiophiles will never be swayed from their Class A solidstate 

or single-ended-triode amplifiers toward Class D designs. 

Just like the owners of gas-guzzling Lamborghini or Maserati 

sport coupes, the goal of “ultimate performance” trumps any 

concessions to efficiency or green consciousness. But audiophiles 

with a more expansive worldview may find the idea of saving 

substantial quantities of energy and money by using a Class D 

amplifier more acceptable. If you like the concept of an amplifier 

that is compact, efficient, powerful, transparent, musical, and 

extremely reliable, the Bel Canto Ref 1000 Mk II amplifier could 

be the last amplifier you’ll ever want or need. Hey, it’s worked 

for me. taS 



Krell S-300i 

Integrated amplifier 

Powerhouse 

Few components strike fear in an audiophile’s lumbar 

region like the heavyweight electronics from Krell. Its 

current lineup includes the Evolution series of electronics 

and LAT speakers. And no one will forget the Master Reference 

subwoofer, an overwhelming 400-pound homage to on-demand 

seismic energy. But there’s another side to Krell, as exemplified in 

the S-300i. This integrated amplifier is little more than four inches 

high, but this powerhouse is pure Krell through and through. 

It may be modest in profile but sciatica sufferers should 

cautiously bend those knees when trying to hoist it. At 43 pounds, 

it outputs 150Wpc and doubles that rating into 4 ohms thus likely 

making the S-300i the most powerful amp in this price range. 

Whereas many integrated amp have trouble driving loudspeakers 

that drop below a nominal 8-ohm impedance, the S-300i merely 

yawns at such challenges. 

In sonic personality the S-300i could very well be the Lance 

Armstrong of integrated amplification. Like the physique of the 

Tour de France champ, the S-300i’s sonics are conveyed with 

muscular definition and not a single ounce of flab. Its sound is 

built for speed and for the critical analysis of a recording—not a 

rough translation. The result is a drier tonality that’s not exactly 

sweet but rather sweetly exacting. If your biases tend toward the 

lush, florid, romantic, or, goodness knows, euphonic, the S-300i 

may not entirely win your heart. However, if it’s precision-cut 

images and transient acceleration you’re seeking, you’ve found 

your ride. 

To that end the Krell really shines on a solo acoustic guitar 

recording like Laurence Juber’s LJ Plays The Beatles [Solid Air 

Records]. From the instant Juber began playing his transcription 

of “Yesterday,” I could hear the sound of his fingertips and nails 

striking the strings. From this slightly softened transient it was 


neil gader 

apparent that Juber wasn’t using fingerpicks which typically create 

an annoying clatter. The S-300i reproduced the full body and 

bloom of this close-miked recording in a way that was comparable 

to some of the best amps I’ve had on hand recently. Don’t look 

for it to flatter an edgy recording with a peaky hard vocal or the 

aggressive winds and strings in an orchestra. However, a highly 

naturalistic one like cellist Pieter Wispelwey’s version of Bloch’s 

Kol Nidre [Channel Classics] produced rewarding string tone and 

a full-bodied representation of acoustic space. I could hear a 

velvety midrange smoothness slipstreaming alongside the speed 

and immediacy of this marvelous recording. And the imaging on 

this track was wonderfully precise—as good as I’ve ever heard it 

and that’s saying something. The S-300i seemed to relish diving 

into the middle of the orchestra plucking out low-level details 

and timbres with ease. 

In bass response, the S-300i doesn’t have the bone-chilling 

footprint of Krell’s colossal flagships—it won’t dredge the bottom 

of the low-frequency lake and it lacks the bass bloom and decay 

that define the most elite amps in this segment. But dynamically 

it’s no shrinking violet either. Its strength is its excellent lowfrequency 

control; for example, during Paul Simon’s “You Can 

Call Me Al” it produced those popping electric bass lines with the 

kind of pitch and texture that might even redefine the integrated 

amplifier in this price range. 

It loses just a little steam and finesse at the margins. Thus 

harmonic information in the upper treble seems a little more 

earthbound, more finite. There’s a slight rigidity during the Paul 

Simon/Linda Ronstadt duet of “Under African Skies” [Graceland, 

Columbia] that I didn’t hear with mondo-integrated amps like the 

Pass INT-150 and ATC SIA2-150—both priced north of $6500, 

I should add. It also won’t plow through percussive dynamics


equIPmenT RePoRT - Krell S300i Integrated Amplifier 

Krell UnCoVereD 

The S-300i is a smooth operator from a company that knows 

the territory. Its functions and configurability illustrate 

Krell’s crossover expertise in home cinema and the high end. 

Fit and finish are stunning . Wholly designed in Orange, CT, 

and built in China to Krell’s specifications, the casework is 

seamless; edges and trim are smoothly rounded. Borrowing 

some of its styling cues and ergonomics from the S-1000 

controller, the richly polished aluminum front panel houses 

buttons with hermetically sealed push-button switches that 

engage with a reassuring click. The machined aluminum 

volume/navigation wheel generates just the right amount of 

feedback to the hand. It also accesses the S-300i’s control 

menus, which can be viewed on the unit’s front-panel display. 

The menu system controls such functions as balance, input 

trim, input naming, and muting level. Krell also gets the 

adjustably illuminated display just right —readable by human 

beings, not eagles. The rear panel includes three RCA linelevel 

inputs, a balanced XLR input, and an iPod/iPhone 

interface (a cable is supplied) that taps audio from the fully 

differential output. Unfortunately the interface does not 

export the iPod’s metadata to the front-panel display—an 

oversight in my view. Naturally there’s a theater passthrough 

mode. External control systems such as AMX and 

Crestron touchscreens haven’t been forgotten either—the 

S-300i provides 3.5mm jacks for IR input and 12-volt trigger 

input and output, as well as an RS232 connector. Highquality 

speaker cable terminals complete this well-equipped 

package. A full-function remote is provided. 

No shortage of clout in the power department, either. 

The S-300i combines a fully balanced discrete Class A 

preamplifier circuit controlled by an R-2R resistor-ladder 

volume control and a discrete output stage rated rated 

at 150 watts per channel into 8 ohms and 300 watts per 

channel into 4 ohms. Its circuit borrows the Current Mode 

technology used in Krell’s top-of-the-line Evolution amps and 

preamps. Krell touts its massive 750VA toroidal transformer 

and 38,000 microfarads of capacitance as among the more 

potent ever incorporated into an integrated amplifier. 


with quite the energy of these well-regarded amps or duplicate 

the scale or weight they impart to a symphony orchestra. Finally, 

there’s a modest reduction of depth and soundstage width—an 

example would be the background voices on Simon’s Graceland 

album, which should be located at the furthest extremes of the 

speakers’ side panels. 

Krell is a company I don’t ordinarily associate with blue-plate 

audio values. I had to continually remind myself that the S-300i 

is only a $2500 amp; yet I was comparing it to amps twice the 

price and more. What blew me away was the balance Krell has 

struck between the sonic expectations of traditional audiophiles 

and a new generation of hobbyists whose priorities also include 

modern functionality and features. Choosing an integrated amp 

just got a whole lot more complicated. But remember to bend 

your knees. taS 


Power output: 150Wpc into 8 

ohms, 300Wpc into 4 ohms 

Inputs: Three RCA, one XLR (all 

line inputs) 

Dimensions: 17.25” x 4.20” x 

17.50” 


Price: $2500 

Krell InDUStrIeS, InC. 

45 Connair Road 

Orange, CT 06477 

(203) 799-9954 

krellonline.com 


Sota Cosmos Series III 

turntable; SME V pick-up arm; 

Ortofon 2M Black, Benz Glider 

Wood cartridge; JR Transrotor 

Phono II; Esoteric X-05, Sony 

DVP-9000ES; ATC SCM20-2, 

Sonics Amerigo, Paradigm 

Monitor 9, Tara Labs Omega, 

Synergistic Tesla Apex, 

Nordost Baldur, Kimber Kable 

BiFocal XL; Synergistic Tesla, 

Wireworld Silver Electra & 

Kimber Palladian power cords; 

Synergistic Tesla Power Cell 




Conrad-Johnson et2 

preamplifier and lp66S 

Stereo power amplifier 

entry-level may mean different things to different 

manufacturers, but at C-J it definitely does not denote a 

major sonic penalty relative to its ultra-high-end products. Cost 

containment may be implemented through circuit simplification, 

judicious passive part substitutions, or watered-down cosmetics. 

Well, since C-J’s design philosophy already emphasizes simplicity— 

“circuits should be kept as simple as possible”—that mostly leaves the 

other two cost-cutting avenues open. The ET2 with its acrylic tube 

cage is surprisingly far more upscale-looking than one would expect 

from its price tag. The LP66S power amp, on the other hand, does 

project a Spartan appearance, especially with its tube cage off. But as 


Entry-Level Magic 

Dick olsher 

you will soon discover, component quality—a major factor in any C-J 

product—is still extremely high. 

A major part-selection decision was necessary in the case of 

the ET2’s volume control. According to C-J’s Lew Johnson, a 

discrete stepped attenuator would have ideally been the top choice 

in a pecking order in which a standard potentiometer defines 

the lowest step on the totem pole. He opted for the middle 

ground, a high-performance Burr-Brown volume-control-chip. 

One advantage this chip affords is the ability to remotely control 

volume without the need for an on-board motor. Another is 

the ability to adjust volume in 0.5dB steps, while most discrete


equIPmenT RePoRT - Conrad-Johnson Preamplifier and Stereo Power Amp 

stepped attenuators can only do 1dB steps. Because this is a stereo 

control, it is possible to adjust left and right channel volume 

independently to obtain balance control. The preamp’s sensible 

front-panel layout displays volume settings with sufficient size to 

be easily discernible (at least with my glasses on) from across the 

room. I found the modest-looking remote control to be perfectly 

adequate. Two external processor loops are provided, one of 

which is designed expressly for the addition of a surround-sound 

processor to a two-channel system. The other is conventional 

and allows the connection of a tape deck or equalizer. 

Lew Johnson was kind enough to describe for me the basic 

circuit topology for both products under review, and what follows 

is based on this information. The ET2 linestage features a single 

gain stage. Following the volume control, the signal is applied 

to the grid of a Mullard M8080 medium-mu triode, which was 

billed by Mullard as a reliable RF power triode. The gain stage 

is direct-coupled to a high-current MOSFET buffer circuit to 

achieve low output impedance, and this arrangement comprises 

C-J’s Enhanced Triode (ET) circuit. 

The optional phonostage’s input is a 12AX7 dual triode 

operated in parallel for reduced noise. It is coupled through a 

passive RIAA equalization network to a second gain stage which 

deploys a single section of either a 12AX7 (high-gain version) 

or a 12AU7 (low-gain version). As with the linestage, the signal 

is direct-coupled to a MOSFET buffer stage for low output 

impedance. The high-gain phonostage is best suited for low-tomedium-output 

moving-coil cartridges with a rated output of 

1.0mV or less. The low-gain phonostage is recommended for 

cartridges with a nominal output above 1.0mV. No global loop 

feedback is used in this product. Due to the linestage’s single gain 

stage, the ET2 inverts signal polarity on all of its outputs. 

Separate discrete regulated power supplies are used for the 

linestage and phonostage plate circuits. It’s worth emphasizing 

that resistor and capacitor choices are top-notch—no skimping 

here! A peek inside the chassis is worth a thousand words! Plate 

resistors for all stages are large Vishay metal-foil resistors, while 

all other resistors are precision metal-film types. Plate power 

supplies use polypropylene capacitors with Teflon bypasses 

(0.15uF) exclusively. Output coupling capacitors are a composite 

of polypropylene and Teflon, while the RIAA network capacitors 

are polystyrene types. 

The LP66S is rated at 60Wpc into 4 ohms, and the output 

transformer is wired that way by default. There is only a single 

set of binding posts, so there’s no selection of impedance taps 

for a particular speaker load. However, the amp may also be 

ordered with 8- or 16-ohm load connections. This amplifier’s 

circuit is also about as simple as can be. The input voltage gain 

stage (half of a 6922) is direct-coupled to another 6922 which is 

configured as a coupled-cathode phase splitter and also provides 

the drive voltage for two pairs of Russian 6550 beam power tubes 

operated push-pull. The output stage is connected in ultralinear 

(UL) mode to the output transformer. Even over 50 years after 

its invention, UL remains a popular alternative to pure pentode 

mode, and that’s what the LP prefix in the model name refers to: 

Linear Pentode. A limited amount of loop feedback is used to 

obtain a reasonable damping factor and to minimize distortion 

levels. Plate supply voltages for both the input and phase-splitter 

circuits are regulated. You won’t find electrolytic caps anywhere 

in this amplifier. This is most unusual (and an added expense) 


for any amplifier, let alone an entry-level product. All caps are 

polypropylene and polystyrene types, including the main powersupply 

storage reservoir, which is polypropylene. All resistors 

are metal film. The output transformers are the same widebandwidth 

designs used in the more expensive LP70S amplifier. 

Bias adjustment is a piece of cake due to built-in LED bias 

indicators which allow the user to properly set the bias using 

only a supplied screwdriver. 

Initial listening tests were conducted with both amp and 

preamp in the system. Later, they were auditioned separately to 

assess their individual performance attributes. It didn’t take me 

long to determine that the sonic character of the duo was being 

dominated by the power amp. Therefore, let me start with the 

ET2 preamp and give it its moment in the sun before returning 


et2 line preamplifier 

Gain: 28.5dB 

maximum output: 5.5Vrms 

Distortion: Less than 0.1% THD 

Frequency response: 2Hz to 

100kHz, +0/-1dB 

Phase: Phase-inverting 


Dimensions: 13.75” x 19” x 

3.315” 

Price: $3800 

et2 optional phonostage 

Gain: 54 dB (high-gain option); 

40 dB (low-gain option) 

RIAA equalization: +/-.5dB, 

20Hz to 20kHz 

Phase: Phase-correct 

Price: $1250 

lp66S power amplifier 

Power output: 60Wpc, 

30Hz–15kHz at no more 

than 1.5 % THD or IMD, both 

channels driven into 4 ohms 

(also available connected for 8 

or 16 ohm loads) 

Sensitivity: 0.5V to rated power 

Frequency response (at 10 

watts): 20Hz to 20kHz, 

+/-0.25dB 

Hum and noise: 102dB below 

rated power 

Input impedance: 100k Ohm 

Tube complement: 3 x 6922, 4 

x 6550 


Dimensions: 16” x 19” x 6.38” 

Price: $4300 

ConraD-JohnSon 

DeSIgn, InC. 

2733 Merrilee Drive 

Fairfax, VA 22031 

(703) 698-8581 

conradjohnson.com 


Final Sound 1000i 

electrostatics, Esoteric MG-20, 

Venture Audio Excellence 

III Signature, and Basszilla 

Platinum Edition Mk2 DIy 

speakers; Kuzma Stabi 

Reference turntable outfitted 

with Graham Engineering 

model 2.5 tonearm and Grado 

Reference cartridge; Air Tight 

ATE-2 phono preamplifier; 

PrimaLuna Eight CD player, 

Weiss Engineering Jason 

Transport and Medea DAC, 

Altmann Micro Machines 

Attraction DAC; Concert 

Fidelity CF-080 line 

preamplifier, Spread Spectrum 

Technologies Ambrosia 

preamplifier, First Watt B1 

buffer preamplifier; Esoteric 

A-100 and Audio Space Ref. 

3.1 (300B) amplifiers; Bybee 

Speaker Bullets; FMS Nexus-2, 

Acrotec 6N and 8N copper, 

Kimber Select KS-1030, 

Kimber KCAG interconnects; 

FMS Nexus speaker cable 



equIPmenT RePoRT - Conrad-Johnson Preamplifier and Stereo Power Amp 

to the power amp. Used as a linestage, the ET2 won me over 

pretty dang quickly, garnering excellent marks in several key 

areas. I’m not going to mince words when it comes to the bass 

range; pitch definition was remarkable, and bass lines in general 

were resolved with a precision rivaling that of any linestage I’ve 

auditioned to date, regardless of cost. The treble range, while fully 

under control, sounded a tad laid-back and short of air. There 

was never a hint of brightness or upper-register bite. Transients 

unfolded with plenty of speed and were allowed to decay 

delicately into a recording’s noise floor. The overall presentation 

was clean, smooth, and highly detailed, with an emphasis on 

harmonic accuracy. The ET2 was capable of revealing low-level 

nuances without sounding analytical. But it refused to add fat 

to the midrange, and harmonic textures were free of euphonic 

upper-midrange coloration. As a result, timbres were allowed to 

bloom without any sonic makeup. The truth and nothing but 

the musical truth is what the ET2 is all about. For me it was a 

joy of discovery, as the ET2 was able to zoom in on a particular 

voice or instrument and nail its timbre with authenticity. On the 

other hand, if you’re looking for a linestage to spice up or glorify 

your system, then the ET2 is probably not for you. It is not a 

romantic, lush, or assertive preamp. It’s not overtly tubey, but 

then it was not meant to be. 

Please don’t misunderstand me. The ET-2 is an engaging 

linestage with plenty of kinetic energy and rhythmic drive. It has 

all the tools, the technique if you will, but it can also dish out the 

music’s passion and drama. It’s just that it does not sound like 

a vintage tube preamp. Going back as far as the 80s, I have yet 

to audition a C-J preamp that did not excel in imaging, and the 

ET2 was no exception. It erected a soundstage with a convincing 

depth perspective and fleshed out image outlines with almost 


palpable presence. The gift of 

imaging seems to be a family trait 

of the C-J preamp line. 

My sample of the ET2 was 

outfitted with the optional lowgain 

phonostage—a good match 

for my Grado Reference movingiron 

cartridge. My conclusion was 

that the phonostage, with only 

a couple of minor exceptions, 

complemented the ET2’s strong 

sonic suites. Its solid imaging, 

very good detail retrieval, bass 

definition, and low noise floor 

made for a pleasurable vinyl 

playback experience. The only 

negatives noted were a touch of 

textural grain, which may be a 

function of the Russian 12AX7s, 

and a slight dynamic reticence in 

scaling loud passages. Nothing 

serious, in hindsight, and the 

optional phonostage strikes me as 

a cost effective way to expand the 

functionality of the ET2. 

In contrast with the ET2, which 

could best be described as intent 

on accuracy, the LP66S came across sonically as a swashbuckling 

romantic. Tonal emphasis was squarely on the lower midrange. 

It painted a much more convincing vintage tube impression. 

Harmonic textures were slightly liquid and warm, complimentary 

to violin tone, not excessively lush, but just enough to let you 

know that you’re listening to a tube amplifier. The treble range 

was laid-back, and in general, the overall presentation lost a bit of 

transient speed and tension. Despite dishing out 60Wpc from a 

pair of 6550s, there was no gratuitous upper-octave brightness and 

very little evidence of odd-order harmonic distortion products. 

The combination of these factors resulted in a mellow, relaxed 

presentation. Although the amp came across as somewhat broadbrush 

in character, there was still an abundance of low-level 

detail. The lack of multiple impedance taps made it impossible to 

experiment with optimizing bass damping. Bass definition was just 

OK with the Esoteric MG-20 loudspeaker, but improved to decent 

while driving the Basszilla Platinum Edition DIY speaker. These 

findings suggest the need for a careful audition in the context of 

your own system. When it comes to imaging, the LP66S evinced 

plenty of tube magic. Image outlines were solidly anchored within 

the soundstage. When partnering the ET2, it easily kept pace in 

this respect, giving full scope to a deep and spacious soundstage. 

Entry-level? I don’t think so! Sonic compromise? Not so 

much. Despite its entry-level label, the ET-2 is a low-distortion, 

high-resolution device that delivers timbral accuracy on top of 

phenomenal bass control. It can certainly hold its own in elitist 

company. The optional phonostage can also be confidently 

recommended. If you’re in the mood for mellow tube sound with 

an exceptionally low listener-fatigue factor and plenty of imaging 

magic, be sure to give the LP66S an audition. It would make the 

perfect partner for a bright-sounding loudspeaker taS



running Springs audio Dmitri 

aC power Conditioner 

No Tradeoffs 

aC power-conditioning specialist Running Springs 

Audio has quietly established itself in many firstrate 

retailers and upper-end systems over the past 

eight years. Although it has not received as much attention 

as some others in the category, the company behind Running 

Springs Audio has long been a pillar of the high end. There’s 

a good chance that some of the capacitors, transformers, or 

inductors in your preamplifier, power amplifier, phonostage, 

AC conditioner, or digital source were made by RTI Electronics, 

the parent company of Running Springs Audio. In addition 

to manufacturing transformers and inductors, RTI makes the 

Teflon, Mylar, metalized polypropylene, and oil capacitors found 

in some extremely prestigious components. 

Running Springs Audio was established to bring finished 

products to the market, specifically AC-power-conditioning 

devices. The company enjoys several advantages by virtue of 


robert harley 

its association with the large parent electronics-manufacturing 

company. First, RSA has the resources to develop proprietary 

capacitor and inductor designs specifically for audio-system 

power conditioning. More than 90% of the parts inside the RSA 

conditioners are made in house. Second, RSA has access to a 

highly advanced technical laboratory that’s focused on capacitor 

and inductor development and testing. Third, the assemblers 

building RSA conditioners routinely work on electronics that go 

into NASA, military, and medical applications; the factory is ISO 

9001:2000 certified. Fourth, building the components in house 

allows RSA tighter control over component quality. Finally, RSA 

claims that in-house component-manufacturing allows it to use 

a quality of parts that would be prohibitive in other similarly 

priced products. 

The company makes five AC conditioners ranging from the 

$1699 1800W Haley to the ten-outlet, 2400W, $4499 Dmitri


equIPmenT RePoRT - Running Springs Audio Dmitri AC Power Conditioner 

reviewed here. (The conditioners are named after musicians— 

Jaco and Duke for examples. I presume the Dimitri is named for 

Shostakovich.) Each of the Dmitri’s outlets is individually isolated 

from the others, and all are identical—there are no “amplifier” 

or “digital” blocks of outlets. All the products in the line feature 

the same parts quality, including platinum-foil capacitors handtrimmed 

to achieve 1% tolerances. They also share a proprietary 

inductor developed specifically for audio-system AC conditioning. 

This inductor features a special synthetic matrix, around which 

the coil is hand-wound. This synthetic compound reportedly 

provides better performance than iron- or air-core inductors. 

The internal wiring is Cardas. Incidentally, the conditioners work 

with 110V or 220V AC power without reconfiguring. 

The Dmitri is available with a stock AC cord (20-amp 

connector) for $4495; the Dmitri and a Running Springs Audio 

Mongoose AC cord are $4999; the top-of-the-line HZ (for 

“High-Zoot”) cord bumps the price to $5999. The Mongoose 



Power rating: 2400W 

number of outlets: 10 

Dimensions: 14.75" x 6" x 

10.75" 


Price: $4499 (with standard 

AC cord); $4999 (with RSA 

Mongoose AC cord); $5999 

(with RSA HZ AC cord) 

rUnnIng SprIngS aUDIo 

1800 E. Via Burton 

Anaheim, CA 92806 

(714) 765-8200 

runningspringsaudio.com 

ASSoCIATeD ComPonenTS 

Wilson Alexandria X-2 Series 

2 loudspeakers; Basis 2800 

Signature turntable with 

Basis Vector 4 tonearm, 

Dynavector XV-1S cartridge, 

Aesthetix Rhea phonostage; 

PC-based music server (built 

by Goodwin’s High-End), 

Spectral SDR-4000 Pro CD 

player, Classé CDP-502 CD/ 

DVD-A player, Sony SCD- 

9000ES SACD player; Spectral 

DMC-30SS and Pass Labs 

XP20 preamplifier; Spectral 

DMA-360 and Pass Labs 

XA100.5 power amplifiers; MIT 

Oracle MA interconnects; MIT 

Oracle MA loudspeaker cables; 

Shunyata Hydra-8, Hydra-2, 

and V-Ray AC conditioners, 

Shunyata Anaconda and 

Python AC cables; Shunyata 

Dark Field cable elevators; 

room custom designed 

and built, acoustic design 

and computer modeling by 

Norm Varney of AV Room 

Service, acoustic treatment 

and installation by Acoustic 

Room Systems (now part of 

CinemaTech) 



equIPmenT RePoRT - Running Springs Audio Dmitri AC Power Conditioner 

is made by Cardas to RSA’s spec; the HZ is designed and built 

by RSA. The conditioners are sold by forty-five U.S. retailers 

and on four continents. The company plans to introduce a line 

of interconnects and loudspeaker cable at the Rocky Mountain 

Audio Fest this October. 

The Dmitri is an extremely solid product; lifting it feels like 

lifting a solid block of metal (it weighs 67 pounds). In fact, the 

chassis is non-ferrous, and the front panel is pure carbon-fiber. 

Additional carbon-fiber inside the unit damps vibration. The unit 

has no switches, lights, or adjustments (except a rear-panel circuit 

breaker). 

listening 

Over the past fifteen years AC conditioners have gone from 

marginal accessories to essential components of an audio 

system. During that time we’ve seen a wide range of designs 

and capabilities. As much as AC conditioning has improved 

the sound of audio systems on an overall basis, most of them 

exact some sonic tradeoffs. The typical conditioner renders a 

blacker background, increased transparency, cleaner timbres, and 

greater dimensionality, but often at the expense of compressed 

dynamics. The sound becomes more polite and refined, but less 

viscerally and emotionally involving. The better conditioners 

provide the traditional benefits of AC conditioning without the 

dynamic constriction. 

The Dmitri is unique in my experience in that it not only 

doesn’t compress dynamics, but actually expands them. I heard 


this with the Dmitri powering just my front-end components, 

with the power amplifiers plugged into the wall outlets. (The 

equipment racks are at the back of the room connected to power 

amplifiers at the front of the room next to the loudspeakers, 

making it impossible to hear the entire system powered from the 

Dmitri.) Nonetheless, the Dmitri noticeably expanded dynamic 

scale and increased the sense of bottom-end heft and impact. 

Kick drum had more weight, body, and slam, and orchestral 

climaxes were more powerful. In addition to these sonically 

identifiable changes, music just seemed to have greater rhythmic 

coherence and flow with the Dmitri. 

Despite the increased heft in the bottom end, the presentation 

was faster and “lighter.” By lighter, I don’t mean less midbass 

warmth or weight, but rather greater emphasis on the midrange 

and upper-midrange, along with greater transient agility. A car 

analogy comes to mind; powering my system’s front end from 

the Dmitri was like shaving a few hundred pounds off a sports 

car driven spiritedly on a twisting mountain road. The system 

started and stopped faster which made the music sound more 

lively and energetic. 

The impression that the Dmitri made the system sound “lighter” 

extended to a significant increase in soundstage transparency, 

dimensionality, and clarity. I was reminded of Jonathan Valin’s 

evocative description of the soundstage being “illuminated from 

within” in reference to Audio Research electronics. This was 

the effect the Dimiti had—a bigger and more open quality that 

did indeed remind me of that special quality of Audio Research

Running Springs Audio Dmitri AC Power Conditioner - equIPmenT RePoRT 

electronics. Instrumental textures were more vivid and detailed, 

sounding simultaneously more palpable yet slightly farther back 

in the soundstage. The sound was cleaner, more transparent, and 

paradoxically, more vivid and relaxed. These impressions were 

consistent with two completely different front ends: the Spectral 

DMC-30SS preamp/SDR-4000 Pro CD player combination, and 

the Pass Labs XP20 preamp/Berkeley Alpha DAC pair. 

Another salient characteristic was a smoother and more gentle 

treble; the Dmitri took off some edge in the top end, making the 

presentation more refined. The reduction in glare and concomitant 

softening of top-octave timbres made the presentation more 

realistic. The tambourine in Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Dance of the 

Tumblers” from Exotic Dances on Reference Recordings HRx, for 

example, sounded a bit like chunks of metal clanging together 

without the Dmitri. With the Dmitri in the system, I could hear 

the tambourine’s individual zils vibrating with a delicacy that was 

astounding. By reducing treble glare and hardness, the Dmitri 

allowed more of the instrument’s fine inner detail to emerge. 

Similarly, the Dmitri made strings more silken in texture, but not 

overly so. This improvement in the treble would alone be worth 

the price of admission. 

Moving the Dmitri to the power amplifiers produced an even 

greater increase in dynamic contrasts, particularly transient bass 

impacts. In fact, I’d have to say that the difference was startling. 

Again, this was true with two very different amplifier designs, 

the Spectral DMA-360 and the Pass Labs XA100.5. The midbass 

was tighter and better defined, and the extreme bottom-end had 

much greater depth and authority. Adding the Dmitri was like 

removing a ceiling that had previously set a limit on the system’s 

dynamic contrasts. With the Dmitri powering the amplifiers, I also 

heard the same improvements in dimensionality, transparency, 

and timbre I heard when the unit was feeding the front-end 

components, particularly the increased treble smoothness. I was 

left to imagine what the entire system powered from the Dmitri 

would sound like, but I suspect that the unit’s positive effects 

would be cumulative. 

Conclusion 

The Running Springs Audio Dmitri delivers world-class sonic 

improvements in the areas in which AC power conditioners have 

traditionally excelled—smoother textures, greater dimensionality, 

and increased transparency. But the Dmitri takes this performance 

to another level with a wholesale increase in dynamics, bottomend 

weight and impact, and overall transient quickness. Adding 

the Dmitri to my system took what was a great sound and made 

it even better in every respect. 

At $5999 with the optional but worthwhile HZ AC cord, the 

Dmitri is priced at the upper end of the power-conditioning 

spectrum. But considering the significant sonic improvements 

it rendered, I would consider it money well spent. This is one 

AC conditioner that doesn’t ask you to make any sonic tradeoffs. 

After living with the Dmitri in my system and then taking it out, 

it was immediately apparent that the Dmitri was an essential 

component—and my new reference in AC conditioners. taS 



taSCaM DV-ra1000hD 

high-resolution Digital recorder 

In the old days the mark of a true audiophile was owning 

a reel-to-reel tape recorder. Anyone who was serious about 

audio had at least one, and many music-lovers had two or 

more 10-inch-reel behemoths. Nowadays reel-to-reel recorders 

are largely objects of curiosity relegated to yard sales. Most upto-date 

audiophiles do their recording via their computer’s discburners. 

But for those select few who still want to record analog 

sources or capture on-location live concerts, TASCAM has a 

new recorder that carries on its tradition of making top-shelf 

recording devices. 

What It Is 

The $2500 TASCAM DV-RA1000HD is a two-track digital 

recorder that uses a built-in hard-drive and a DVD ±RW burner. 

It can record in 44.1, 48, 88, 96, 176.4, and 192kHz PCM or 

2.8224MHz DSD formats. The internal 60GB hard drive holds 

as much as 62.9 hours of 44.1kHz PCM and as little as 14.4 

hours of 192kHz PCM material. Recordings can be archived 

onto DVDs via the internal DVD burner. These archived DVDs 

can also be copied into the hard drive for further editing in the 

DV-RA1000HD or transferred to a computer by way of its USB 

interface. 

Along with analog XLR balanced and RCA single-ended 

inputs and outputs the DV-RA1000HD has two stereo AES/ 

EBU digital inputs, two stereo AES/EBU digital outputs, one 

coaxial S/PDIF digital input, one coaxial S/PDIF digital output, 

two SDIF 3/DSD RAW inputs, two SDIF 3/DSD RAW outputs 

on BNC jacks, a RS232 connector for device control, BNC wordsynch 

input and out/thru with auto terminations, and a USB 

2.0 interface for computer connection. Unlike most consumer 

recorders, which have a wireless remote control, the TASCAM 

has a wired remote. This is so that engineers sitting at a console 

can control the TASCAM without turning around to point a 

remote control. The TASCAM also allows a PS/2 keyboard to 


DSD Lives! 

Steven Stone 

be attached so file names can be added or changed more easily 

than relying on the TASCAM onboard jog/shuttle’s hunt-andpeck 

method. 

The TASCAM comes with a 67-page owner’s manual that is a 

model of obscurantism. While it contains answers and directions 

for the recorder’s functions, the information is so badly arranged 

that even after multiple readings it’s difficult to fully grasp all the 

recorder’s functions and features. Among the more arcane are 

the built-in oscillator to set reference analog recording levels, the 

on/off dithering for down-converting from a 24-bit recording 

to 16-bit, and the various built-in effects. These effects, which 

include three bands of adjustable EQ, a three-band compressor, 

three-band expander, a single-band compressor, a single-band 

expander, and the ability to save and recall your custom-configured 

effect settings, are available for all recording sample rates except 

176.4kHz, 192kHz, and DSD. Some of these effects, such as the 

dynamic-processor band settings, are sufficiently complex that 

they deserve a far more detailed explanation. Without guidance 

you can really screw up a recording if such things are used 

improperly. Since TASCAM offers no suggestions as to how to 

best employ these powerful effects, caveat emptor. 

For my recordings I kept things simple—no effects, no EQ, 

and no expanding or contracting of dynamics. Since I principally 

use recorders in a live concert situation with no opportunity for 

retakes if I mess up, recording devices sporting overly complex 

or feature-laden interfaces aren’t high on my list of positive 

life-enriching devices. If the primary use for a recorder will be 

transferring LPs into digital files you may find the EQ, expander, 

and compressor features more useful. 

The TASCAM DV-RA1000HD’s front-panel display has a 

logical layout that can be mostly deciphered even without the 

assistance of the owner’s manual. Only when confronted by such 

labels as “IN.SEL,” “REF.CLK,” “PREFER,” and UDFMI” will 

most users be forced to resort to pawing through their manuals.


equIPmenT RePoRT - TASCAm DV-RA1000HD High-Resolution Digital Recorder 

The more computer-like functions of the DV-RA1000HD are 

accessed through a menu controlled by its jog-shuttle dial. As 

you might expect from a complex device, the TASCAM employs 

nested multi-level menus to control most of its functions. Again 

multiple viewings of the manual will be de rigueur to fully grasp 

the subtleties of TASCAM’s menu maze. 

Once a recording has been made it can be played back through 

the DV-RA1000HD’s analog or digital outputs. Recordings 

can also be transferred via USB 2.0 to a computer for further 

processing, archiving, and playback. The TASCAM comes 

bundled with Minnetonka Audio’s discWelder Bronze software 

package. This software is designed for sample-rate converting, 

and burning CDs and DVDs. If you need to do any amount 

of editing you must acquire another software program. I 

successfully used the AudioGate program that came with the 

Korg MR-1000 to resample and play the DSD music files made 

with the TASCAM. I also used the free-ware program Audacity 

for editing 44.1, 48, 88, and 96kHz PCM files. For anything with 

a bit–rate higher than 96kHz you’ll have to ante up for a pro-level 

editing program such as Cubase or Sonic Solutions. 

What It Does 

The TASCAM DV-RA1000HD makes recordings in almost every 

lossless two-channel format currently available. During my onlocation 

recording sessions the TASCAM never failed or issued 

error messages in lieu of recordings. Although the TASCAM has 

both an optical drive and a hard drive, you can’t record onto both 

simultaneously. This is unfortunate since it would be delightful 

to have some degree of recording redundancy built into a 

single recorder. I mention redundancy because no recording 

engineer would dream of making a live recording with only one 

recorder. Murphy’s law is always alive and well in a live-recording 

situation. 

I made all my test recordings with the TASCAM DV- 

RA1000HD using its DSD sampling rate. Since DSD can be 

down-sampled cleanly without requiring difficult interpolation 

into any PCM format, I saw no reason to use anything else 

for my live recordings. And while the TASCAM’s optical drive 

allows you to archive DSD recordings on DVD, I transferred 

my DSD recordings directly to my computer where I do all my 

editing and archiving. For most owners the optical recorder will 

be a relatively useless feature. Sure, you can make on-the-fly Red 

Book CDs from your higher-bit-rate recordings, but very few 

recording engineers I know want to release unedited versions of 

their work. 

When it’s time to listen to your recordings you have several 

options. If you want to hear unadulterated DSD you can listen 

directly from the TASCAM’s analog outputs. If you are fortunate 

enough to own a Meitner DSD processor you can send a DSD 


signal to the Meitner via the SDIF/DSD-RAW outputs. Once 

you transfer DSD files to your computer they must be converted 

into PCM files before you can send them to a conventional 

DAC. 

Compared to What? 

Since I’ve previously reviewed the Korg MR-1000 [Issue 180], 

which also records in DSD format, I can compare it with the 

TASCAM DV-RA1000HD. The Korg is less than half the price 

and half the size of the TASCAM. It offers fewer internal 

editing features, but does include stereo microphone preamps 

and internal battery-power options, making it more suitable as 

a one-box on-location recording device. Theoretically the most 

important advantage of the Korg is that it can record at double 

the DSD bit rate of the TASCAM. However, I couldn’t hear 

any audible differences on simultaneous parallel recordings made 

with both devices played back through these very same recorders. 

This doesn’t mean that the double-bit-rate Korg recordings 


Type: Hard-drive-based highresolution 

digital recorder 

Analog I/O 

Balanced inputs: 3-pin XLR 

female x 2 

unbalanced inputs: RCA jacks 

x 2 

outputs: 2, XLR balanced 

analog line outputs 

2 RCA unbalanced analog line 

outputs 

Phones output: (stereo) 

Connector: 1/4" stereo jack 

Digital I/O 

Connector: Two 3-pin XLR 

female (AES/EBU, S/PDIF, 

SDIF3, DSD-RAW) 

Input frequencies: 44.1/48, 

88.2/96kHz (double-speed 

or double-wire), 176.4/192kHz 

(double-speed + double-wire) 

all +/-6% 

Data format: 16-bit 

(44.1kHz, CD-DA), 24-bit 

(44.1kHz/48kHz, 88.2/96kHz 

to DVD±RW or HD) 

Audio Performance 

Frequency response: All modes 

20Hz-20kHz (+/-0.5dB) 

Signal-to-noise ratio: ADC 

110dB (A-weighting, AES-17LPF, 

DVD recording); DAC 120dB 

(A-weighting, AES-17LPF, DVD 

recording) 

Dimensions: 19” x 3.75” x 14.1” 

Weight: 15 lbs., excluding 

remote control unit 

Price: $2500 

teaC aMerICa, InC. 

TASCAM Division 

7733 Telegraph Road 

Montebello, California 90640 

(323) 726-0303 

www.tascam.com 


TASCAm DV-RA1000HD High-Resolution Digital Recorder - equIPmenT RePoRT 

aren’t better sounding, merely that I have no way of telling since 

once they’re decoded through the Korg’s own playback circuitry 

the sonic advantages are lost. If I had a complete Meitner DSD 

playback system, differences between the two units might be 

more apparent. 

The TASCAM DV-RA1000HD is a fairly bulletproof machine. 

My review sample had a rough initial trip via UPS. The box showed 

signs of abuse and since the recorder wasn’t double-boxed, the 

shipping hardships were borne by the unit itself. The chassis was 

slightly creased on one side and something was rattling about inside. 

I opened the TASCAM’s top cover and removed a screw-mounted 

cable tie-down. Despite the physical abuse the DV-RA1000HD 

performed without a single glitch during the review period. In 

comparison my Korg MR-1000, which hasn’t had anywhere near 

this level of physical mistreatment, often has disk-write errors 

during recording sessions. Ray Kimber, who uses two Korg MR- 

1000s for his on-location sessions, hasn’t had similar issues with his 

units, so my unit’s problems may be an isolated case. But I wouldn’t 

trust a live recording session to a single Korg MR-1000 based on 

the performance of my review unit. 

So how do TASCAM DV-RA1000HD recordings sound? They 

sound like whatever is the weakest link in your recording chain, 

be it your microphones, microphone placement, mic preamp, 

or the doofus who’s trying to use them. While I wouldn’t be so 

foolish as to insist the TASCAM DV-RA1000HD is perfect and 

without any sonic signature, I will go out on a limb and state that 

if you assemble a recording and playback system that is good 

enough to make the TASCAM the weakest link you are a better 

engineer than I am, and probably better than the other 99.99% 

of recording engineers on earth. The TASCAM is that good. 

DIy perfection? 

For $2500 you can buy a portable PC, an outboard recording 

interface such as a Mark of The Unicorn Ultralite Mk3, and 

professional audio editing software capable of producing at least 

96/24 multi-track professional-quality digital recordings. Why 

would you want to spend the same amount on a stand-alone 

two-channel recorder that will still require a PC and software? 

The simple answer is that the TASCAM DV-RA1000HD will 

do DSD format recordings. By recording in DSD the TASCAM 

is one of the few recording devices that is truly future-proof, 

since DSD recordings can be re-sampled cleanly into any PCM 

format. For many recording projects this capability alone makes 

the TASCAM worth its weight in gold. 

During my review the TASCAM DV-RA1000HD performed 

without a single glitch or malfunction. Although it may be laden 

with some features of dubious value to most users, the basic 

functions are well-laid out and most prospective owners with 

even a modicum of recording experience should be able to 

operate the TASCAM DV-RA1000HD without any problems 

despite the woefully inadequate owner’s manual. If you want 

to make top-quality future-proof two-channel recordings the 

TASCAM DV-RA1000HD must be on your short list of devices 

that will do the job beautifully. taS 





loiminchay 

Chagall 

loudspeaker 

An Act of Passion 

anthony h. Cordesman 

even in the best of times emotion plays a major part in 

five-figure buying decisions; in today’s economy passion 

ultimately has to rule. If you are a genuine audiophile, 

you buy because what you buy strikes an emotional chord that 

resonates far more deeply than any combination of status, 

technology, reviews, and dealer recommendations. 

a passion for Speakers 

Passion, however, goes beyond the buyer. No rational businessperson 

remains a high-end-audio dealer because of a narrow 

focus on cost effectiveness, and the same is true of manufacturers. 

Even in boom times, the high end is a high-risk business, 

with uncertain volumes, margins, and fashions. I occasionally 

review business models for friends, and my advice always has to 

be the same. As a reviewer and audiophile, invest. As an investor, 

walk away. If you don’t have a real passion for the high end, 

it does not make sense as a business—dealer, manufacturer, or, 

for that matter, magazine owner. And yet, to plagiarize a phrase 

in praise of poets, it is a “fine madness.” Civilizations are often 

measured by their aesthetic extremes, and the best of the high 

end is definitely one of ours. 

The Loiminchay line of speakers is a case in point. Why 

should a pen manufacturer like Patrick Chu get into the speaker 

business? It is obvious that only an obsessed audiophile would 

take a successful company into another high-risk luxury field. 

Even then, why build your own if you can afford any other 

product on the market? Why, for a parallel example, did a 

perfectly good tractor company like Lamborghini get into the 

sports car business? 

Patrick Chu states his motives this way: “I’m a passionate guy, 

totally into whatever I do. I love bringing fine old techniques and 

lost arts to bear on modern products. Loiminchay pens put me in 

touch with master lacquering techniques from Japan, built up one 

painstaking layer at a time, just like you’ll find on our speakers. 

I work with rare woods, precious metals, jade. (Loiminchay was 

the Official Pen of the Beijing Olympics!) I make pens I’d like to 

own, and it’s exactly the same with my speakers! Plus I didn’t like 

anyone else’s speakers! Artists express their own rationale in their 

work. They are challenged, of course, as I expect to be, but that’s 

okay. I blend art and science with my work. We begin with careful 

measurement, but end with listening tests to extract the fragrance 

of sound in motion. Measurements are very important, but here’s 


a great irony: Many reviewers use classical music in their reviews, 

and that may include original instruments, in the best case, let’s 

say a Stradivarius. No one was around to ‘test’ that violin when it 

was made, but everyone knows it sounds just right! It’s all about 

sight and touch, sight and sound, senses and passion!” 

That same philosophy extends to all of the company’s activities. 

If you log on to Loiminchay.com, you are going to find a series of 

miniature art works. The two-pen Kama Sutra set, for example, is 

a production run of exactly 18 sets of gold pens. I suppose they 

write as well as serve as art, but the advertising doesn’t mention 

that fact. They are advertised to help teach “the enjoyment of 

appropriate objects by the five senses of hearing, feeling, seeing, 

tasting, and smelling, assisted by the mind together with the soul.

The ingredient in this is a peculiar contact between the organ of 

the senses and the consciousness of pleasure that arises from 

that contact.” 

For inexplicable reasons, Robert Harley left this statement 

out of his otherwise excellent book on high-end audio, but it 

could apply to why you should buy any serious piece of highend 

gear—and especially speakers. With the possible exception 

of a phono cartridge, no other piece of audio equipment offers 

so many trade-offs in sound quality or requires more personal 

involvement in making a selection. 

the price of passion 

Passion, as noted, is also an issue for the audiophile as well as the 

manufacturer, particularly at the prices of today’s top speakers. A 

pair of Loiminchay Chagall speakers is a case in point: The price 

varies from $35,000 to $65,000 a pair, depending on your choice 

of finish and whether you want the regular or the diamond 

tweeter. If you are wealthy enough in today’s economy that these 

prices don’t make you blink, please send me your e-mail address. 

I may have to hit you for a grant to keep updating my reference 

system. 

I don’t know the exact price point where you have to love a 

speaker to own it, but it certainly is far lower than the cost of 

the particular configuration of the Chagall that I’m reviewing. It 

has the diamond tweeter and a multiclear lacquer finish and sells 

for $48,500 (and this is the less expensive finish—cherry, piano 

black, and custom finishes sell for thousands more) Passion is the 

only excuse for possessing it. 

the product passion buys 

There are reasons, however, why you may develop such feelings 

about the Chagalls. The visual aesthetic is striking, which means 


Driver complement: 30mm 

diamond tweeter; 173mm 

ceramic midrange, 220mm 

ceramic mid/bass 

Loading: Ported 


35kHz (diamond tweeter 

version) 

Sensitivity: 89dB/2 meters 

Impedance: 8 ohms 

Dimensions: 14" x 51" x 18" 

Weight: approx. 150 lbs. each 

Price: $35,000–$65,000 

(depending on drivers and 

finish; $48,500 as reviewed) 

loIMInChay aUDIo 

4639 Parsons Blvd. 

Flushing, Queens, Ny 11355 

(212) 941-7488 

loiminchayaudio.com 

Loiminchay Chagall Loudspeaker - equIPmenT RePoRT 


Dynavector 20X, Sumiko 

Celebration, and Koetsu 

Onyx cartridges; VPI TNT 

HRX turntable and JMW 12.7 

tone arm; Tact 2.2X digital 

preamp-room correction- 

equalizer-D/A converter; 

EMM Labs SACD/CD player; 

Pass Xono phono preamp; 

Pass XP.10 stereo preamp; 

Pass XA160.5, X600.5; Prima 

Luna Pro Logue Seven power 

amplifiers; Vandersteen 5A 

speaker; Audioquest Niagara 

and K2, Kimber Select, and 

Stealth interconnects, speaker 

and digital cables; PS Audio 

Premier AC power conditioner 


it is not an anonymous box and you actually have to think about 

its visual impact. I would note, however, that it looks better in 

your room than in the photos, and the photos are striking. [AHC 

is correct that photos don’t do justice to this loudspeaker. I was quite taken 

by the Chagall’s beauty and exquisite finish when I first saw it for myself. 

—RH] 

What a photo will not show you is that the Chagalls have a 

more modest visual profile than most speakers in their price 

range: 14" wide by 51" high by 18" deep. They are very heavy for 

their size: 150 pounds each. This weight reflects the fact that the 

wood parts of the “voluptuously-shaped” enclosure are made of 

exceptionally strong and resonance-resistant 30mm birch multiply, 

that the box has extremely good internal bracing, that the 

woofer plinth is made out of concrete, and that the speaker has 

a solid aluminum base. 

The speaker is said to be hand-built in China. Loiminchay 

says: “The enclosures are bored out then finished inside and out 

with fully sixteen coats of the finest hand-polished lacquer for 

a lustrous cabinet so finely sealed that no air bubbles remain to 

leak internal pressurized air. Loiminchay employs three people 

just to route the interior and driver holes, and even the baffles are 

hand-shaped in the laminate during fabrication. We go a few steps 

beyond with luxurious hand-built, hand-lacquered cabinets and 

really high-quality drivers. We buy wood by the batch and store 

it in a temperature and humidity-controlled warehouse. One lot 

makes five pairs of speakers, so they’re all perfectly consistent, all 

hand-sanded and polished between their sixteen coats.” 

You can see some aspects of this quality simply by looking at the 

Chagalls and touching them. No one does this kind of woodwork 

and assembly any other way. Patrick Chu also claims that this kind 

of work affects the speakers’ sound. “Measurements are very 

important but only part of the story,” he explains. “Everything 

makes a difference in the sound: the choice of drivers, the shape 

and density of the cabinet, how well it’s braced, the quality and 

quantity of the lamb’s wool stuffing, and especially how the 

sound waves flow around the cabinet’s exterior surfaces, and 

even which lacquer finish you choose! That’s right, the Chagall 

in high gloss black piano-lacquer sounds slightly different than 

one in multi-clear lacquer. That’s why every pair’s crossover is 

optimized for the best possible overall sound.” 

The cost and sound quality of the Chagalls is shaped by a 

lot more than their enclosures. While a given design choice is 

ultimately only justified by how the speaker sounds, not by what 

goes into it, it is important to know what the design intention is 

behind a given speaker and the reasons for its cost. 

The diamond tweeter in my review pair of the Chagalls is 

clearly a key feature shaping their sound quality. It also sharply 

raises their price. The driver manufacturer sells a custom version 

of this tweeter to Loiminchay for $7000, and Loiminchay makes 

the following case for using it: 

• Diamond is the hardest natural substance on the planet. 

It’s at the top of the Mohs scale of mineral hardness at 10. 

That’s about 5 times harder than Accuton’s extremely hard 

ceramic membrane, which in fact consists of corundum, i.e., 

opalescent sapphire, number 9 on the Mohs scale. 

• The internal sound velocity of diamond is faster than in any 

other natural substance, one of the main features that makes 

a diamond membrane so desirable for audio transducers. 

• Diamond conducts heat better than any other material in the 


equIPmenT RePoRT - Loiminchay Chagall Loudspeaker 

world, five times better than silver, which is the second best. 

It’s the best conceivable sink for the typical heat generated by 

a voice coil. The result is the voice coil always operates under 

the same stable conditions without variation. 

• The carbon atoms in a diamond lattice are packed closer 

together than any other atoms or molecules in any other 

material. This makes material bonding stronger than anything 

else and yields unsurpassed transient response. 

• Diamond resists wear and has the highest melting point of 

all natural substances. 

The Chagall is available with a ceramic tweeter, at lower 

cost, but the diamond tweeter increases the upper limits of the 

response from 28kHz to a measured response in my room that 

was well above 35kHz. Obviously, no one can hear frequencies 

this high and the ability to sense them in ways that are relevant 

to musical listening is extremely debatable. What you can hear is 

an extremely smooth, resonance-and-peak-free treble, with no 

roughness or hardness at audible frequencies, but excellent detail, 

low-and-high-level dynamics, life, and air. 

The other drivers include a 6.8” ceramic driver and 8.6” ceramic 

woofer. This woofer is small for a speaker in this price category, 

but it seems to be an excellent driver for its size and is mounted 

on a one-inch-thick concrete plinth, which Loiminchay says is 

“wrapped with high-quality leather for a remarkably nonresonant 

driver platform with response down to a Stygian 28Hz.” 

Once again, these drivers are unconventional in design and, 

while I have no way to validate Loiminchay’s claims, are chosen to 

have a major impact on sound quality. Their ceramic membranes 

are exceptionally hard and rigid, “enhancing speed and delivering 

an accurate impulse response.” They have a stiffness/weight ratio 

which is only surpassed by diamond materials, and they have 

very high “internal sound velocity,” important in pushing up the 

breakup frequency and extending the driver’s linear range. 

The drivers also have a concave shape designed to yield a wide 

and uniform energy distribution, which the driver manufacturer 

feels is far more important than high on-axis sound pressure 

levels. The small “ears” on the tweeter and midrange drivers— 

costly to make—are intended to damp driver resonances. The 

front plate is heavy acoustically inert zinc, rather than plastic or 

aluminum. 

The speaker is designed to be bi-wired and has silver internal 

wiring. Overall response is stated to be 28Hz–35kHz with a 

nominal impedance of 8 ohms and sensitivity of 89dB. (My 

guess is that it is less sensitive than this, but a high-current amp 

with power levels of 100 watts or more should be adequate to 

produce loudness levels that will drive sane audiophiles out of any 

reasonably sized listening room.) The crossover uses Mundorf 

capacitors from Germany, Clarity capacitors from North Wales 

in the U.K., and custom-specified vdH silver conductors. The 

crossover frequencies are 700Hz for the woofer, and 2.5kHz for 

the midrange, which should ensure that none of the drivers is 

strained by trying to overextend its frequency range. 

Two other key features are separate rear controls that allow the 

user to adjust midrange and bass response. These controls change 

the drivers’ output from -2dB to +2dB (in 1dB steps) for a tonal 

balance that best suits the room and listening position. I would 

strongly recommend you pay attention to their setting if you 

audition the Chagalls, and get the dealer to demonstrate what they 

can do. The ability to compensate for room/speaker interaction 


is critical. Having the dealer demonstrate them will be even more 

important if you buy the speakers. Loiminchay provides some 

of the best, real-world speaker placement instructions I’ve seen. 

The speaker instruction manual, however, is barebones to the 

point of being useless. It does not even mention these controls. 

the Sound of passion 

Now we come to the sound, and I should begin with a mild 

confession. I did not know whether to take this speaker seriously 

before I actually listened to it. An exotic pen manufacturer 

makes speakers? A manufacturer ego trip? This is a price tag 

commensurate with that of Wilson, Magico, and Hansen. I 

thought I might have an opportunity to go back to the halcyon 

days of reviewing when it was possible to honestly and objectively 

trash a product because so many components were so eccentric 

and set such uncertain standards. 

There is a lot of excellent competition at lower prices, and 

superb competition at the price of the Chagalls. The fact is, 

however, that the Chagalls are good enough to be taken very 

seriously. They provide a unique mix of sound qualities at a time 

when the normal bias in speaker design tends towards the lean 

and detailed. If you want the natural warmth of music—to feel its 

soul rather than analyze its parts—all of my previous comments 

about passion may well become more relevant. 

The Chagalls provide an excellent mix of midrange and treble 

detail and resolution with a slightly warm lower midrange and 

high levels of bass energy. The emphasis is on “slight.” This is not 

a “colored” speaker and its timbre depends on room placement 

and how you set its controls. To the extent it has a coloration, it 

is like listening to music mid-hall in an older and warmer room 

(at a time when far too many speakers have a coloration that tilts 

towards a forward sound in a bright hall that emphasizes the 

upper octaves). 

With good recordings, the Chagalls produce an exceptional 

illusion that you are listening to a live performance. You do not 

have the feeling that the sound is colored, but you know where 

you are and what your listening position is. In short, if you like 

audio “detail,” close-in listening, and lots of treble energy, this 

is not the speaker for you. If you care about timbre, musical 

coherence and “smoothness,” and lower midrange warmth, but 

you want them without sacrificing natural musical detail and 

energy from the middle of the midrange up, the Chagalls do very 

well indeed. 

Moreover, several hundred hours of listening to jazz, classics, 

and occasional rock/country never revealed a problem with 

hardness in the strings, upper-register piano, upper-register 

woodwinds, female voice, or percussion that wasn’t on the 

recording. I don’t know if this really is a product of the diamond 

tweeter. 

I have mixed feelings about the exotic tweeter-materials craze. 

Far too often, diamond and beryllium tweeters are spotlighted 

in ways that provide upper-octave energy that does not occur in 

live music and push the treble and upper midrange of borderline 

recordings to a point that actually becomes irritating. The Chagalls 

don’t do this. Some audiophiles may find their overall balance a bit 

warm, but their upper octaves provide the kind of life, air, and 

energy I hear in live performances and the rear controls allow a 

lot of fine-tuning of the speaker’s overall balance and timbre to


equIPmenT RePoRT - Loiminchay Chagall Loudspeaker 

get things right in a given room and system. 

Most important, the upper octaves are properly integrated with 

the midrange and bass in ways that bring out the true character 

of instruments and types of voice. Most of my listening is 

to acoustic classical music, and much of it to recordings that 

use the original instruments or instruments whose individual 

character is carefully chosen by the musician and is important 

to the performance. I am all too conscious of any departure 

from realistic recordings of solo piano, strings, and woodwinds. 

These departures are common with grand piano, clarinet, and 

violin. It is hard to get the lower midrange right and still preserve 

the upper midrange and treble. Most speakers are either a touch 

too warm and lacking detail, air, and life, or—more commonly 

in recent years—have too much upper-midrange energy and 

sound a bit bright or hard. The Chagalls have character but they 

produce a consistently realistic illusion of live music in timbre, 

detail, transient response, and the ability to make acoustic music 

seem real. They may depart from measured accuracy in timbre, 

but if you want the illusion of live music, they err on the side of 

realism. 

I worked my way through a wide range of CDs, SACDs, and 

LPs in auditioning the Chagalls, including a number where I have 

heard the same performers in the same venues and know the 

genesis of the recording. I also listened to some test CDs of 

solo instruments that friends made of their own performances 

while I was present. No one recording is revealed truth, and there 

are reasons that we rely on sound engineers rather than rolling 

our own, but the Chagalls got things right time after time. The 

same was true of voice, with particularly good baritone voice 

reproduction and a natural lack of hardness in soprano voice— 

even with some close-miked tracks on older Judy Collins CDs. 

Let me give you a few examples. I won’t describe the David 

Russel recording Art of the Guitar as a guilty pleasure [Telarc 

SACD]. He is too good a musician, the music is well chosen, and 

the recording is exceptional. The Chagalls, however, can make 

this compulsive listening when you want to really enjoy the guitar 

or simply step back from the pressures of life. The Kuijken String 

Quartet has done a superb chamber music version of Mozart’s 

Requiem [Challenge]. The warmth and full range of the cello and 

viola are extremely natural and the violin is sweet and musical 

without losing treble energy and detail. Sharon Bezaly’s recording 

of the Mozart Flute Concertos [BIS SACD] has the slightly too 

bright character of a number of otherwise good BIS recordings, 

and the solo flute can sound hard in a number of passages if the 

speaker is too bright. It is very realistic with the Chagalls. 

The Chagalls also perform well at the frequency extremes. 

The upper treble extends smoothly to the point where you can 

just detect a presence without really hearing a tone and does so 

without any evident peaks in reproducing both music and highfrequency 

test tones. The deep bass is very good for a speaker 

this size, and fortunately you can forget the advertising. The bass 

it is not “Stygian,” but very realistic within the limits imposed by 

the driver and cabinet size. 

The Chagalls can’t defy the laws of physics. The woofer is a 

moderately sized driver in a moderately sized enclosure. At the 

same time, I was more than a little surprised when I tried out 

three bass spectaculars. I have always regarded the “big drum” 

track (Track 2) from the Kodo drum CD [Sheffield] as a good test 

of both percussion energy and detail. As music, it comes close to 


sounding like a Spike Jones attempt at revenge for Pearl Harbor. 

As a test, it is extremely demanding, particularly if you push peak 

listening levels above 100dB. The Chagalls were outstanding not 

only in handling truly loud bass peaks, but also in preserving 

midrange percussion detail and transient information. 

The Chagalls could not provide ultimate deep bass performance 

with the extremely deep bass on the “SoMA” track (Track 8) of 

the TAS recording of Hearts of Space [Hearts of Space], but they 

came close and, again, did well at peak levels above 100dB. This 

kind of bass, again, has more aesthetic value as test material than 

anything most audiophiles would want to listen to as music. 

What was really striking from a musical viewpoint, was how 

well the Chagalls could cope with the “Catacombae,” “Baba 

Yaga,” and “Great Gate at Kiev” tracks on the Jean Gillou organ 

transcription of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition [Dorian]. 

This is as good a test of deep bass performance in real music and 

of overall musical dynamics as you’ll find. Detail and transients 

were excellent, and with peak average levels well above 100dB. 

And yes, the same was true in reproducing bass guitar, power 

rock like Pink Floyd, and deep organ mixed with full-blown 

symphonic music like Saint-Saëns’ Third Symphony. 

The imaging and soundstage are very good, but these are not 

speakers that will exaggerate soundstage width. You also need to 

be careful about listening distances and toe-in, and this requires 

experimentation. A dealer can help, but, like virtually every 

speaker, the Chagalls only produce the best soundstage if you 

really work at fine-tuning them to suit your listening room. If you 

want plug-and-play, get an iPod. 

I would strongly recommend that you read the speaker set-up 

instructions that come with the Chagalls and try room placement 

based on the rule of thirds rather than the rule of fifths. Both 

setups worked well, as did my usual setup along the long wall, 

but the timbre and soundstage locked in best using the rule of 

thirds. 

With good recordings and proper setup, you get a very realistic 

soundstage with depth matching width and a lot of natural detail 

(if the miking permits). This shows up even on relatively ordinary 

recordings. I was struck by this when listening to older LPs 

like the Juilliard Quartet version of the Haydn String Quartets 

[Columbia]. The same was true of some older Smithsonian 

classical recordings of Beethoven’s string quartets (now sadly 

discontinued), although these were CDs dating back to 1988. 

As for system set-up issues, I did not find power problems 

with either a Pass XA160.5 or a pair of PrimaLuna 70-watt tubed 

amps. The Chagalls do, however, provide better bass with an amp 

with a lot of current and a high damping factor. I’d also use the 

4-ohm tap on a vacuum tube amplifier, rather than the 8-ohm 

tap that might seem to be indicated. You will get better control 

and damping. The Chagalls are not particularly cable-sensitive, 

although they clearly revealed the differences between the 

Audioquest and Kimber interconnects and the various speaker 

cables I use as references. 

In summary, the Loiminchay Chagalls are very serious, highquality 

speakers—priced at the premium end of the scale. What 

counts from a reviewing viewpoint, is that is the kind of speaker 

that can ignite the personal passion that makes an audiophile 

pay such prices. It does offer a unique mix of sonic choices and 

trade-offs that makes recorded music sound realistic and give 

lasting pleasure. taS

Focal Grande Utopia EM Loudspeaker 

tanding t 

Roy Gregory 

The third family of products to carry 

Focal’s flagship Utopia designation, this 

latest iteration represents not just an evolution 

of the technology and thinking 

behind these speakers, but a ground-up 

reassessment of its implementation. So 

while there are clear common factors that bind these new 

Utopia models to their predecessors (driver technology, 

build-quality, and materials), there isn’t a single element 

that hasn’t been modified or changed, wholly or in part. 

In fact, the developments are so comprehensive and their 

implications so far reaching that they are beyond the scope of a 

single review. Which is why we started by looking at the simplest 

speaker in the line, the two-way stand-mounted Diablo (reviewed 

in Issue 63 of Hi-Fi Plus, available on-line at avguide.com), a 

model that incorporates the advances made to the established 

beryllium tweeter and W Cone driver technologies, as well as 

touching on the sophisticated cabinet-mapping technique that has 

been applied to the design and construction of the enclosure. 


The Grande Utopia EM embodies all those advances and 

adds a few twists to the mix that only become possible when 

development budgets and product pricing become truly elastic. 

As such, this review constitutes Part II, a second installment of 

the story that started with the Diablo review, in which we noted 

significant advances made by Focal in the areas of driver performance 

and cabinet design. Refinements in the beryllium tweeter 

and the development of a new motor assembly, shaped to maximize 

venting and minimize reflections, have resulted in a lower

a l 



resonant frequency, a 1.5dB increase in sensitivity, a 40 per cent reduction 

in distortion, increased thermal efficiency, greater dynamics, 

and reduced compression. Laser-cutting of the W sandwich 

cones used in the mid and bass drivers has improved sonic consistency 

and pair-matching, while the sophisticated new cabinetmapping 

technology has allowed the creation of more efficient 

and rigid cabinet structures, shorn of the excess weight that stores 

mechanical energy, smearing musical information and anchoring 

the sound to the speakers, identifying them as its source. 

The Grande Utopia EM matches those advances in midrange 

and high-frequency driver performance and enclosure design, 

with equivalent advances at low frequencies, in extending the 

Focus Time concept that governs the larger Utopia’s curved 

baffle arrangement and in crossover developments to actually 

deliver the increased musical potential. Confronted with a 

structure as strikingly different as the latest Grande, it’s easy 

to assume that it’s an exercise in ostentatious aesthetics (at the 

possible expense of performance)—especially when it’s this 

big and this red! (Well, the speaker comes in black and a subtle 

pale grey too—while anything, as they say, is possible.) What’s 

more, by presenting such a striking and well rounded form, the 

speakers make a statement, rather than trying to hide or slip into 

the background—never a possibility with something this large! 

Besides the superb standard of finish, the key factor in 

this success is the Bauhaus discipline to the design, its form 

absolutely dictated by function. But its revolutionary appearance 

pales into insignificance against the mechanical and technological 

developments that lurk beneath its skin, so let’s examine each 

developmental aspect in turn. 

Adjustable cabinet geometry 

Separate, stacked enclosure modules are nothing new in 

loudspeaker design, with many companies relying on the 

approach to fine-tune arrival times and driver placement relative 

to the listening position—often in conjunction with a complex 

set of tables or formulae to calculate proper placement. Indeed, 

the first and second series Utopias used both separate cabinets 

and a curved displacement of the drivers to arrange them relative 

to the listening position. 

However, despite a fair degree of cleverness in the actual 

placement and alignment of the drivers there was no escaping 

the inherent compromise of a one-size-fits-all approach. With 

the latest Grande, the speaker with the longest baffle and most 

drivers, Focal was determined to overcome that limitation. 

The problem, clearly, was how to make the individual modules 

movable relative to the listening position; the solution is both 

mechanically impressive and wonderfully elegant. 

The Grande Utopia EM actually consists of a plinth and five 

cabinets, but is physically divided into three separate elements: the 

tweeter enclosure, the two boxes above it, and the two boxes below 

that sit on the plinth. The top and bottom pairs are actually fixed 

assemblies, their boxes physically fixed together. The clever bit is 

that the tweeter cabinet moves relative to the bass and midrange 

below it, as does the midrange and mid/bass unit pairing above 

it, thus allowing the listener to tighten or loosen the baffle curve 

depending on listening distance. But with a speaker system that 

weighs around 572 pounds, the notion of adjusting these elements 


and then holding them stable while fixing them was clearly out 

of the question. Instead, Focal has implemented a mechanical 

arrangement of moving wedges that is simple, precise and 

repeatable. A drop down flap on the rear of the lower midrange 

cabinet contains (amongst other things) a beautifully machined 

crank handle. Fit it into the socket in the back of the tweeter 

cabinet and each turn raises or lowers the upper elements, the top 

two cabinets by exactly twice as much as the tweeter enclosure, 

thus preserving the correct arc. A mechanical/numerical counter 

allows you to set the angles precisely and the whole exercise will 

take one person a matter of moments. 

The end result contributes not only to the striking appearance 

of the Grande EM, but also to the easy optimization of its sound, 

with quite small adjustments in tilt having a profound effect on 

the presentation and balance of the sound. 

Electromagnetic Bass Driver 

Virtually all loudspeakers employ what are now considered 

conventional bass units, using permanent magnets in their motor 

systems. These are generally driven passively, but increasingly, 

in search of greater level, extension and control, designers are 

resorting to active drive at low frequencies. It’s an undeniably 

attractive option, offering far greater extension and weight from 

smaller cabinet volumes, as well as a degree of tuning adjustment 

to match room conditions. 

However, it is not without its own set of compromises, with 

complexity, cost, amplifier quality, and system integration all 

posing significant issues. After all, the inside of a speaker cabinet 

can best be described as a hostile environment for vibrationsensitive 

electronics, and active crossovers need to match the 

quality of the preamp used in the system, not too much of a 

challenge in an AV setup, but really hard to achieve in a high-end 

rig. And that’s before we even get to the question of amplifier 

quality and top-to-bottom continuity. 

For a speaker like the Grande, where size and cost were 

largely irrelevant and quality of performance is everything, 

another solution needed to be found. Perhaps typically, it came 

from combining forward thinking and new technology with 

a concept that, in hi-fi terms at least, could be described as 

positively ancient: the electromagnetic drive-unit. In the days 

before powerful amps and high-quality, high-power permanent 

magnets, speaker manufacturers resorted to electromagnets to 

energize their drivers. You want more bass, more efficiency? Just 

turn up the power fed to the coil. Of course, it’s not quite that 

simple, especially when applied to a driver and system with the 

power demands and bandwidth of the big Utopia, as Robert 

Harley explains in his sidebar. But the attraction of a driver with 

not just significantly greater power, but also an inbuilt level of 

adjustability was just too attractive to pass over, and Focal poured 

massive effort and resources into achieving its goal. The results 

are impressive, even from a purely numerical standpoint. 

Compared to the driver in the previous Grande, the 400mm EM 

driver offers an 80 per cent increase in available magnetic field (from 

0.93 Tesla to 1.75 Tesla), an 88 per cent increase in the force applied 

to accelerate the cone, increased sensitivity (92.7dB to 98.6dB), a 

lower resonant frequency, and an overall reduction in distortion by 

a factor of almost four—and all down to the nearly 7kg of copper

wire used in place of the magnets. Add in an adjustable-output 

power supply, housed in a small separate enclosure and with six 

discrete steps from 1W to 75W, and you have the equivalent of 6dB 

in level adjustment, as well as an “overdrive” setting! 

The other big change in bass implementation is the move to a 

flow-port arrangement, which feeds the output of the downwardfacing 

port through a wide, forward-facing slot between the 

bottom of the cabinet and the plinth. This improves the port’s 

interface with the room and also keeps it more consistent when it 

comes to boundary conditions. 

Adjustable Crossover 

Like everything else in loudspeaker design, making the most of 

the advances made with the bass unit was a question of balance, 

weighing up how much of the benefit to spend on overall system 

sensitivity, how much on adjustability. Setting the range of 

adjustment at ±3dB allows an overall system sensitivity of 94dB. 

As well as significant level-compensation at low frequencies, this 

allows the elimination of subtractive components in the mid 

and treble crossovers, components that limit transparency and 

dynamic response. 

But Focal wanted to further increase user optimization, and 

settled on a set of high-quality jumpers to give three-step settings 

that enable users to tweak crossover slopes between mid and 

treble, as well as tweeter and midbass levels and sub-bass Q. Add 

in the level control on the bass PSU and that’s 1458 permutations. 

Thankfully, the discrete and repeatable nature of each step makes 

the process simple to execute and easy to navigate. The upper range 

adjustments give a tilt and “smoothness” function to compensate 

for the liveliness or balance of the room, but it’s the ability to 

balance midbass and sub-bass levels against low-bass Q that is 

critical to achieving the scale, presence, and coherent dynamic 

range of which the Grande is capable, and which represents one 

of the key breakthrough developments. 

However, one unforeseen effect of the elimination of subtractive 

elements as well as the increase in bass transparency and lower 

levels of low-frequency distortion was increased audibility of crossover 

component quality, necessitating in turn, a complete overhaul 

of crossover components (including the development of dedicated 

designs) and the selection (by blind listening) of new internal 

wiring. Only with these developments in place was it possible to 

fully realize the potential of all the other advances, finally delivering 

the kind of step-change in low-frequency performance that 

characterized the impact of the beryllium tweeter on the upper 

reaches of the second-generation Utopia Bes. 

Feeding The Beast 

Installing any speaker that weighs 572 pounds is 

always going to be an issue, but the Grandes 

proved easier than most. The fact that the 

top cabinet element is removable helps 

reduce the weight a little and the height to 

manageable proportions, while the integral 

casters allow you to roll the speakers straight 

out of its crate and into place—as well as 

helping with fine-tuning once they’re up 

and running and before installation of the 

Standing Ta l 



(necessarily) substantial spikes. Once the speakers are in situ, the 

top box needs to be lifted into place (a two-person job) and the 

power supplies connected. Then, you can finally start thinking 

about all those adjustments. I opted to position the speakers 

for optimum performance with the controls set flat before any 

further refinement, finally settling on a combination of 1.5dB 

mid and sub-bass cut with a notch increase in Q. 

Two other points need to be made about the feeding of the 

Grandes: Despite a 94dB sensitivity, small amps are out; and it 

matters how you feed the power supplies. On the latter point, 

don’t skimp on the AC power cords—you will hear the difference. 

And on the former, even the impressively linear, tactile, and wellcontrolled 

20W output of the Vacuum State monoblocks didn’t do 

justice to this speaker’s frequency extremes. Around ten times that 

is a more sensible target, with the Levinson 383 and both the Ayre 

and Berning monoblocks all putting in sterling service. Power and 

load tolerance is definitely the order of the day. 

And, finally... the sound! 

The latest generation of speaker designs, notably the Avalons 

and Spendors among others, exhibit a level of sonic invisibility, 

an ability to stand aside from the music without leaving their 

mark on it that is quite unprecedented. This is not a coincidence. 

Advances in driver design have in turn placed considerably 

greater demands on crossover configuration and component 

quality, revealing previously unsuspected levels of damage to the 

overall performance (and the root of the somewhat simplistic 

notion that the simpler a crossover the better—well yes, but not 

quite for the reasons we thought). 

It’s a development that Focal has matched with the Diablo, and 

even more impressively, with the Grande EM. To make a speaker 

that is this large, this complex, and this adjustable—but is also the 

nearest thing to sonically invisible—is impressive indeed. That the 

Grande can do the small things so brilliantly and intimately, do 

poise and delicacy with a natural independence to the sound that 

mini-monitors can only dream about is even more so. And while 

it’s difficult to ignore anything this large and visually striking, shut 

your eyes or better still, turn out the lights, and the music will hang 

in its own acoustic, free of the speakers and their location, the 

scale matched to the venue and musical forces involved—small 

when it should be, effortlessly huge when it’s called for. 

Even early stereo mixes with their hard left/right placement 

don’t betray the position of the Grandes, the instruments 

placed separate from and just behind the speakers themselves. 

Soundstages grow and shrink or simply evaporate according 

to the recordings themselves, but the signal and the picture the 

Grandes paint is always separate from the speakers holding the 

brush. 

This ability to allow the music to exist independently of 

the system producing it speaks volumes about the quality of 

the speakers involved. It’s a feat impossible to achieve without 

exceptional linearity from lowest bass to highest treble, without 

dynamic coherence that projects energy equally across that entire 

spectrum. Finally, you need tonal consistency too, a quality made 

easier to achieve with consistent driver materials across the range. 

Ironic then, that so much of the performance achievable from 

this boldly charismatic design is delivered by its least visible 


eleCtroMagnetIC DrIVe In 

the granDe UtopIa eM 

The “EM” in the Grande Utopia EM’s name stands for “electromagnetic,” 

the drive principle employed in the woofer. 

Before looking at how this works, let’s review the operating 

principle of a conventional moving-coil driver. 

The power amplifier drives alternating current (the audio 

signal) through the voice coil, generating a varying magnetic 

field around the coil that is an analog of the audio signal. 

The varying magnetic field changes its north-south orientation 

at the audio signal frequency because the audio signal 

is alternating current—the current flow reverses direction at 

the frequency of the audio signal. Send 1000Hz to the driver 

and the current flow through the voice coil reverses direction 

1000 times per second. This reversing magnetic field 

created by current flow through the voice coil alternately 

pushes and pulls against the fixed magnetic field generated 

by the driver’s permanent magnet, causing the voice coil to 

be pulled back and forth, and with it, the cone. 

This approach, used in virtually all modern moving-coil 

loudspeaker drivers, runs up against the laws of physics. 

Specifically, the magnetic field strength generated by the 

fixed magnets is limited, which in turn places restrictions on 

the cone weight, how low in frequency the driver will play, 

and how sensitive the driver is. A heavy cone goes lower 

in frequency (all other factors being equal), but requires 

greater magnetic-field strength surrounding the voice coil 

to drive it. 

Focal’s solution to this physics problem is to replace the 

driver’s fixed magnets with a large coil that functions as an 

electromagnet. The coil is driven with direct current from 

an outboard power supply that plugs into an AC outlet. 

This current flow through the coil creates the magnetic 

field against which the voice-coil–generated magnetic field 

pushes and pulls. The electro-magnet produces a magnetic 

field strength in the gap (the area in which the voice coil 

sits) nearly double that of a conventionally driven woofer. 

Consequently, the EM’s woofer can be heavier (giving it a 

lower resonant frequency) yet simultaneously more efficient. 

Moreover, the woofer’s bass output can be adjusted by 

varying the current through the electromagnetic coil. This is 

accomplished in the EM via a rotary switch on the outboard 

supply that drives current through the electromagnetic coil. 

One can thus adjust the EM’s bass output to better integrate 

the system into a variety of listening rooms. 

The result of electromagnetic drive is a woofer with very 

high sensitivity (97dB for 1W) but very low resonance (24Hz). 

In other words, the woofer delivers lots of very low bass with 

very little input power. The price of this performance is the 

need for the outboard supply that has to be plugged into an 

AC outlet, along with the sheer weight of the woofer. The 

EM’s 16" woofer weighs 63 pounds, 48 of which is the electromagnetic 

coil. robert harley

element, the crossover that hones and actually delivers the 

potential benefits of all those technological advances in driver 

and cabinet design. 

It’s hard to overstate just how crucial the configurable nature 

of both the cabinet and crossover are to the final results achieved. 

Sit and listen as a knowledgeable practitioner goes about the finetuning 

and you’ll be astounded at the degree of difference even 

tiny changes make to the presentation and arrival of the music. 

This isn’t a case of bending it into the shape you want—more 

a case of arriving at the shape it needs, because what happens 

is that the music becomes more and more integrated, moves 

further and further from the plane and influence of the speakers, 

deeper and deeper into the realm of the natural and believable. 

It’s almost trite to suggest that you’ll know when it’s right, but use 

acoustic music, especially with players or voices that you know 

and it really is that simple. 

Time then, for an example of the Grande speaking in anger. 

Having composers conduct their own works is seldom a recipe for 

success, but Polski Radio’s live concert SACD of Gorecki leading 

the National Polish Rado S.O. in his own Third Symphony is a 

stunning exception to that rule. It’s a vast and stentorian work of 

three slow movements that might easily become sprawling and 

ponderous. Indeed, on many a system and despite the perfectly 

poised performance with its incredible control of tension 

through tempo, the sheer weight of low-frequency information 

simply overloads the speakers’ ability to resolve and differentiate 

pitch, pace, and texture. 

Never on the Grandes! Even the slow and low bowed entry 

is picked out perfectly, the individual bars and phrases distinct, 

the measured increase in intensity and tension, the resulting 

anticipation of the cello entry, the inevitable arrival of the rest 

of the orchestra, building and building to the shattering climax 

built around the solo soprano part—it lives, it pulses, it breathes, 

drawing you into, immersing you in the sheer majesty of the 

music and the playing. But a 33-minute slow movement, even if 

you can’t tear yourself away, is a long way round when it comes 


Type: 4-way floorstanding 

reflex-loaded loudspeaker 

Driver complement: One IAL2 

25mm inverted beryllium 

dome, two 165mm W cone 

midrange, one 270mm W cone 

mid/bass, one 400mm W cone 

electro-magnetic sub-bass 


40kHz +/-3dB 

Sensitivity: 94dB 

nominal impedance: 8 ohms (3 

ohms minimum) 

Crossover frequencies: 80Hz, 

220Hz, 2.2kHz 

Finishes: Black, red, grey, 

others to order 

Dimensions: 25.74" x 79.2" x 

34.6" 

Weight: 572 lbs. each 

Price: $180,000/pair 

aUDIo plUS SerVICeS (U.S. 

DIStrIbUtor) 

156 Lawrence Paquette 

Industrial Drive 

Champlain, Ny 12919 

(800) 633-9352 

audioplusservices.com 

focal-fr.com 


Standing Ta l 

to making the point. That’s made before a single note is played. 

Just listen to the opening, the eruption of applause, first from the 

choir stalls and then spreading around and across the auditorium 

as the conductor comes into view. Feel its warmth, its length, the 

explosive enthusiasm of a home crowd greeting a home-town 

hero, the way it reaches out and includes you. And as it settles, 

hear the sounds of the orchestra taking their seats, the shuffling 

of feet and setting of instruments and music stands. No random 

events these; instead you can hear the height and breadth of the 

stage, the gently terraced risers on which the orchestra is arranged, 

each incidental noise a part of a single organic whole. And as 

the hush descends with those deep, opening notes, the sense 

of presence, of human activity and attention is heightened by a 

sudden, stifled cough, just in front and to the left of you. Never 

have I had such a sense of palpable presence, of attendance at a 

musical event. The Isis set new standards in this regard, but the 

Grande EM matches it and adds effortless scale and genuinely 

unfettered dynamics to the proceedings. 

It’s also a chameleon, the same ease with which it reveals changes 

in its own state of tune effortlessly exposing shortcomings in 

system setup and partnering equipment. The contrasting virtues 

of different front-ends, their behavior under warm up, and the 

importance of carefully considered support have all rarely been 

clearer. A speaker like this attracts audiophiles like bees round a 

honey pot. I’ve been beating them off with a stick, but none of 

those who have slipped under the guard have gone away anything 

other than bowled over: Something else this Grande shares with 

the Isis—the ability to readjust a listener’s notions of what is 

possible. Seldom has a speaker looked so striking and sounded 

so unlike it looks. 

For many (most?), the cost of the Grandes and the space 

required to accommodate them will mean they remain a pipedream, 

but their tonal, spatial and temporal coherence, their 

extended bandwidth, and their truly astonishing dynamic 

capabilities (at both ends of the spectrum) put them in a very 

select category indeed. They rub shoulders with the Isis—and 

probably Wilson’s X2, although that’s one speaker that I haven’t 

had at home. This select group really are do-it-all speakers, whose 

weaknesses and shortcomings have more to do with practicality 

and matching than gross failings in performance. Indeed, they do 

less damage to the signal than a lot of matching electronics. 

From a company’s point of view there are many different 

reasons to build a flagship speaker, from attention seeking to 

trickle down. But confronted by a $180,000 product, reviewers and 

potential purchasers need ask only one question: Does this speaker 

go straight to the top of my “if I won the lottery” list? Well, as far 

as I’m concerned the Grand Utopia EM is firmly ensconced atop 

that pile, waiting to be shot at. Bring on the competition. 

Conclusion 

With the Grande Utopia EM, Focal has made a serious statement 

of intent, one that challenges the boundaries of speaker 

performance. That makes it worthy of more attention than we 

can give it here, and attention from more than one reviewer too. 

This is one that will run and run, in the sense of other views 

and also other products, as much for what they say about the 

Grande as vice versa. taS 


MANUFACTURER 

Comments 

Focal grande Utopia eM 

It was in August, 2006 that Focal’s managing director, 

Gérard Chrétien, looked on the full-sized prototype of the 

six-hundred-pound Grande Utopia EM and said, “This is it! 

But I want it to move!” Apparently, project engineer Raphael 

Triomphe collected his jaw off the ground and replied: 

“You have got to be joking!” But Gerard wasn’t. Not only 

did he want the best speaker in the world, he especially 

wanted an arc-shaped design for the purest coherency as 

well as infinite adjustability to suit any listening position—a 

technology that Focal called Focus Time. 

This is the spirit of the Grande Utopia EM project; it 

is all about achieving what seems impossible, from an 

electromagnetic woofer with twice the power and torque of 

any other woofer ever made, to a pure beryllium tweeter 

from which Focal removed the traditional magnetic 

structure so that the diaphragm would not suffer from any 

air compression. And on and on and on. 

One of the most frequently asked questions is: “How can 

you justify it? Why do it at all?” Simply put, real progress is 

only achieved when you set yourself to do the impossible. For 

those who are curious to read about the step-by-step creation 

of this fantastic, four-year R&D project, we invite you to visit: 

focal-fr.com/catalogue-docs/EN/32/files/1913.pdf 

In the meantime, many thanks to The Absolute Sound and 

Roy Gregory for having clearly exposed the essence of 

Focal’s “The Spirit of Sound.” 

Daniel Jacques 

President 

Audio Plus Services 

loiminchay Chagall 

loudspeaker 

As a designer, I found myself constantly seeking new ideas, 

inspirations, and challenges—of something better suited to 

my preferences and the preferences of many others like me. 

To satisfy a longtime fascination with music, designing the 

Loiminchay speakers is the only and natural progression for 

me. 

The Chagall speakers were designed from the inside out. 

The form took shape after function. Wood was chosen for the 

cabinet because of its aesthetic beauty and its performance 

after many tests against various modern materials. 

The Chagall offers great craftsmanship, sound quality, 

and tonal balance. It is priced to suit the needs of those 

who understand the details and principles of an art and are 


competent to be a critical judge of them—a connoisseur’s 

choice of speakers. Only 50 pairs are produced in a year. 

The 8.6-inch ceramic woofer was chosen for Chagall 

for the right balance. The rear controls of the speakers are 

important features for those who like to modify equalization 

of the crossovers. They are quite helpful for consumers who 

really understand their own needs. 

Loiminchay appreciates Mr. Cordesman’s in-depth 

knowledge of audio design and music appreciation. His 

review exactly illustrates our point of view about the 

philosophy of speaker designs with the objective of 

presenting a live-sounding musical experience—which is 

the spirit of the Loiminchay Chagall experience. 

Patrick Chu 

President and Chief Designer of Loiminchay Audio 

goldenote S-1 Signature 

and Koala CD player 

Sirs, 

Thank you for your excellent review of the S-1 Signature 

Integrated Amplifier, and your second look at the Koala 

Tube player. We would like to comment on some of the 

technical issues: 

1. The small front-panel buttons are aluminum microswitches 

by American ITT/Cannon. They were selected 

for their superb quality, reliability and compatibility with 

Goldenote’s distinctive design requirements. 

2. We are very proud of our state-of-the-art digital design, 

especially the trademarked Zero-Clock digital filter. Zero 

Clock uses a design totally different from any employed 

by other manufacturers using DSP microcontrollers to 

process this complex operation. Since a “digital filter” 

is nothing more than a mathematical or numerical data 

manager, we designed it as a Finite-Impulse-Response 

(FIR) Digital Filter using ADuM isolators from Analog 

Devices’ 1400 series. Situated between the CD Transport 

and the DAC, the FIR serves as an ‘ideal’ isolator forming 

the transmission channel. This short, direct audio signal 

path avoids the usual need to re-clock the audio signal. 

3. Your review characterizes the Koala as a slightly tubeycolored 

unit, which is how it sounds when the player 

has not been completely broken-in. The Koalas need an 

unusually long, 300-hour break-in period to achieve peak 

performance due to linear power supplies consisting of 

three massive toroidal/E core transformers—a feature 

rarely seen on reasonably priced players like the Koalas. 

We prefer customers experience the long break-in for

themselves to better appreciate the Koala’s special qualities 

— and hope reviewers similarly undergo the process as a 

realistic way of evaluating the Koala in the same manner as 

a consumer. Also, the factory does not maintain broken-in 

units for immediate delivery, as TAS required for its review. 

4. Regarding the Koalas’ tubes: We install tubes that are 

dependable and readily available. However, we also suggest 

to customers that they eventually select tubes consistent 

with their tastes or preferences. 

Thank you again for your review. 

Maurizio Aterini 

C.M. & Chief Engineer 

Goldenote 

Wyred 4 Sound Sx-1000 

Mk.II amplifiers 

Thank you for the wonderful review on our SX-1000 MK II 

amps. To be compared to the far more expensive Bel Cantos 

at our selling price of 60% less shows the compelling value 

that our products offer. We also make a dual-mono stereo 

version for $400 less for those not needing two-box monos. 

For those audiophiles looking for the ultimate in sonics, our 

new Reference Series will be released soon. Products in this 

series will offer further refinements to our discrete input stage, 

improved ICE modules modifications, along with extensive 

upgrades to the ICE module power supply. This series will 

also embrace alluring cosmetics improvements. The Reference 

Series products will still be approximately 50% less than 

competitive models. Check our Web site (wyred4sound.com) 

for updates on the Reference Series as they become available. 

Rick Cullen 

Wyred 4 Sound 

tW acustic raven one 

Thomas Woschnick and I would like to thank Wayne Garcia 

for his outstanding review of the TW Acustic Raven One. 

Needless to say, we are extremely pleased and honored. 

We would also like to thank TAS for its continued support 

of TW Acustic and High Water Sound. 

When the idea for the Raven One first was first discussed, 

we were very much of the mind to make an affordable table 

which would be more accessible to most than the AC. By the 

time the design was realized and put to the test, we were both 

stunned by the One’s performance and were left wondering, in 

the real world, why anyone would need more than the One. 

Every time I play a record on the One, I smile. I am thankful. 

And most importantly, I am transported to that other world where 

great art and spirituality come together and the music just flows. 

Yes, Wayne, very cool, very cool indeed. 

Jeffrey Catalano 

High Water Sound 


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HP’s 

GOLDEN EAR 

AWARDS 2009 

My Sonic Labs Hyper Eminent 

Moving-Coil Cartridge 

This may just be the best, the finest, movingcoil 

cartridge on the market today. It is 

nearly ideal in all the important parameters, 

including one that no other cartridge (I’ve 

heard) can match. Improvements, I’d 

imagine, may come harder after a design 

of this excellence. Moving-coil technology 

will surely be subject to further refinements, and it will be a 

fascination to see if and when that occurs, particularly if the 

technology can be incorporated at a real-world price point, not 

one bordering on the orbits of the outer planets. 

Looking back to the early days of the moving coil ought to 

illustrate a bit of the distance we have come. By early days in this 

case, I mean the first days of the stereo disc, which dealt a body 

blow to the mc design. At the time, the reigning prince among 

mc designers was none other than Joe Grado, with his Master and 

Senator models. 

On monophonic (that is, single groove LPs) the Master had no 

peer. But the dual grooves of the stereo disc—cut at an awkward 

45 degree angle to one another—meant less than adequate 

separation (the end-all and be-all of early stereo) But worse, the 

signal level in the grooves was, at best, cut in half. Add to this the 

fact that moving-coil designs themselves had much less output 

than competitive moving-magnet designs (and the variations 

thereof). 

Put at its simplest, a moving-magnet cartridge has a small magnet 

attached to the cantilever, whose motion induces electric current in 

the fixed-position coils encircling it. The moving coil is, in a way, the 

reverse. The coils encircle the cantilever, and both are suspended in 

a magnetic field that moves not. In an effort to achieve an output 

sufficient to drive the phonostage of then-tubed-preamplifiers, 

Grado, for one, increased the coil windings and found them failing. 

Burning out. The other open course was to cut the extremely low 

output even further, and open the signal to all sorts of noise (tubes 

then were much noisier affairs than those of today). 


The result: the rise, and for a long while, predominance of 

moving-magnet designs, all, of course, with higher outputs and 

(arguably) flatter frequency response (i.e., Stanton), with there 

being no small benefit from user-replaceable stylus assemblies, 

not possible with moving coils. The moving magnets just did 

not have the resolution, in virtually all instances, of the moving 

coils, nor the kind of translucency of which coils were capable. 

On the other hand, when the moving coils did make their 

comeback, one fueled mostly by Japanese designers, 1 they came 

with higher output and consequent resonant peaks in the upper 

parts of the audible range—peaks that bled even further down 

the frequency scale—showing up as a brightness that revealed all 

sorts of distortions in the LP and other associated gear. Plus they 

required both a higher-mass arm and higher tracking forces, in 

contrast with the moving magnets, where the trend was toward 

lighter-tracking-force/higher-compliance versions best used in 

low-mass arms. 

The My Sonic Labs Hyper Eminent, as we found out, sounds 

better in an arm with more mass, where the lowest bass notes 

begin to expand in the way they do in the hall. 

The cartridge also tracks better in a heavier arm 

(we wound up mostly using a new stainless-steel 

version of VPI’s JMW 10.5i arm), and this it 

does without a discernable peak in the topmost 

octave. More than that, the Eminent does things 

that only its closest competitor, the Clearaudio 

Goldfinger, can do, which is to track a very low 

frequency transient pulse (in the 16-to-20Hz 

range) in a way that will scare you—if your 

woofer system can reach that low in relatively flat 

fashion. Like the Goldfinger, the Hyper Eminent 

can reproduce that most delicate aura of threedimensional 

space that envelops percussive and string overtones. 

Its amazing to hear the Hyper Eminent reproduce the decay of the 

cymbal burst against the back wall of a hall—vide, on the London 

Stereo Treasury recording of Grieg’s Peer Gynt suite, notably on the 

“Arab Dance.” The Goldfinger is, to my ears, more colored in that 

range and especially so (by comparison) in the upper midrange (a 

design choice to add liveliness?) but the degree of these particular 

colorations depends on whether it is used in Clearaudio’s straightline 

tracking arm or on one of pivoted design. Obviously, the 

Goldfinger sounds its best used with its own arm. 

But where the Hyper Eminent wins hands down over every 

moving coil I have evaluated lies in its reproduction of vocal 

sounds, of the human voice. Words previously inaudible in 

playback (and on a variety of systems) are all of a sudden clearly 

and cleanly articulated. And not at a price. You might suppose, as 

I was wont to, that the clarity and transient accuracy in the middle 

frequencies was the result of some jiggering of colorations or 

resonances, but, this is not so. It’s just able to resolve information 

further down into the noise floor than we knew was possible. 

It is there a reason for this? Well, the cartridge’s designer, Mr. Y. 

Matsudaira (the MY of Sonic Labs), believes that two things are 

at play here: The unprecedentedly low internal impedance of the 

1 I am not forgetting Ortofon’s role in this. But the Ortofon solution to 

certain moving-coil problems was not one wildly popular in the U.S., 

since Ortofon went the route of very, very low-output designs that 

often required a step-up transformer (itself in those days, a coloringbook 

kind of device) before there was enough useable signal to feed 

a tubed phonostage.

Now Featuring Wilson Audio 


HP’s 

cartridge (1.8 ohms) and the reduction 

of the amount of coil wire in his design 

provide that breakthrough low-level 

resolution. (High impedance, he believes, 

blocks the flow of the electrical signal.) 

A not unintended benefit of the design 

is a relatively high output 0.5mV at 

1kHz. The magnet itself is a neodymium 

50. Of course, we experimented and did some things our way, 

including selected an impedance load of 47k Ohm in the Zanden 

1200 phonostage, instead of the 400-ohm load the designer 

recommends. Matsudaira suggests a tracking pressure between 

1.9 and 2.2 grams. We tried pressures up to 2.5 grams with no 

GOLDEN EAR 

AWARDS 2009 

VPI Classic Turntable System 

What has Harry Weisfeld been up to of late? Well, he 

is up to the creation of yet another new turntable. This 

time, with a vengeance. He has created a turntable he 

calls The Classic, one that, in my opinion, exceeds the 

performance of his Scoutmaster series—yes, even the 

recent rim-drive update version—and breaks new sonic 

ground. And, all this, at a breathtakingly low price, some 

$5000 or so below the cost of the best SuperScoutmaster. 

That new ground is the result of his continuing 

analyses of the best designs of yesteryear, dating back 

to the dawning days of the stereo age. He used eBay 

to acquire some of the ’tables, then took them apart to 

find what makes the best features of their world turn. 

(Their number, by the way, includes several vintage 

Empires, which he thinks one of the best buys on the 

used market.) 

The Classic costs $2500 with the JMW 10.5i pickup 

arm and $200 more with his new stainless-steel arm 

tube. And he is now, for the first time, using a 600-rpm 

motor as opposed to the 300-rpm versions he has always 

relied upon before. Sounds better that way, he says. No 

added cost. But if it’s extras you want, you can purchase 

for $900 his VTA Tower Hat allows you to adjust the 

cartridges’ vertical tracking angle as the disc is playing. 

Another thousand will get you the SDS speed control 

unit, which he says is not essential since the speed 

control on the Classic is superior to any of his previous 

designs. But you will hear a small improvement, says he, 

if you have the SDS. The version we used had all these 

doodads, with the stainless-steel arm coming in at the 

last minute. It added a bit of mass that brought out the 

best in the Hyper Eminent cartridge, and flattened out 

its audible response. I did compare it with the standard 

arm, and it was no contest. 

What I particularly liked about the ’table, aside from 

its excellent immunity from feedback, was its character, 

or rather its lack of an easily identifiable one. Instead of 

the sound of the older VPI tables, a dark (yin) character, 

we now have something approaching the completely 

neutral. I haven’t yet been able to put my finger on 

its specific character, that is, if it has any. But it has 

allowed a kind of freedom in the sound of LPs being 


ill effects, indeed, with seemingly deeper extension and a more 

natural sound below 30Hz. As I said at the beginning of this 

evaluation, if there is a better moving coil on the market, I have 

yet to hear it. But I do understand that Matsudaira has designed 

the Air Tight line of cartridges, imported by Axiss Audio and 

Arturo Manzano, and, over the years has authored many another 

moving coil, including some of the earliest Koetsus. 

Price: $6000 (the price may vary depending on 

where you are). yamasinc.com 

played back on it, one that closely resembles one aspect 

of the Clearaudio Statement. 

Weisfeld’s notes about the ’table reveal much more. 

He was aiming for a totally rigid system and writes: 

“Back in the old days, the Linn and the AR made the 

arm and platter a rigid system, but left the motor—the 

third part of the puzzle—in limbo.” They settled for 

a variety of isolation devices which “added random 

motion to the drive system.” Instead, his Classic has 

motor, platter, and pickup arm on the same wooden 

chassis, “mass damped by two separate pieces of metal, 

but all mechanically and electrically grounded together. 

Noise can be further lowered if you use the SDS power 

supply.” [It doesn’t come with the package.] “Then I 

made the belt as short as possible…the shorter the belt 

the faster and cleaner the table sounds.” 

And one more thing: He used in the drive shaft 

“an inverted bearing which has zero teeter-totter 

effects.” He’s used this before, but not at the level of 

sophistication here. He says: “On most ’tables the 

bearing assembly has the shaft coming down from the 

platter into a well, and the ball is below. On the Classic, 

the well is inverted and placed in the platter, the shaft 

is rigidly mounted to the chassis and the platter simply 

spins on the ball and Teflon thrust disc—the belt is 

pulling the platter through the center of the bearing, 

therefore no teeter-totter effect.” 

As I said at the outset, I think this is Weisfeld’s best 

(meaning least) sounding design. It does not have a 

magnetic drive nor magnetic bearings, but in direct 

comparison with the fabulous Clearaudio Statement, it 

holds its own, despite the occasional noises all nonmagnetic 

drive ’tables suffer from. If ever there were a 

best buy in ’tables, this is it. 

Price: $2700–$4600. vpiindustries.com


HP’s 

GOLDEN EAR 

AWARDS 2009 


EMM Labs TSD-1 and DAC-2 digital playback system 

Just briefly here: Ed Meitner isn’t the only designer who has 

been busy improving the design of his products. He has gone 

through several upgrades to his basic CD playback systems 

recently. And the latest one is significant since it incorporates 

a breakthrough in the reproduction of Red Book CDs. 

In the new TSD/DAC combo Meitner says he has been 

able to remove all the “jitter” from CD playback. This 

allows us, or rather allowed me, to hear what jitter does to 

digital sound. Given the ubiquity of jitter in all CD players, 

it is impossible to isolate its contribution in playback. But, 

after long listening I see/hear that jitter contributes a haze 

composed of high-frequency grain (a subtle sandy textured 

noise), and there is a concurrent reduction of ambient 

information, especially that surrounding the very highest 

transient overtones of stringed and percussive instruments. 

You might hear this as opening up the top octaves, and, upon 

longer listens, an added dimensionality further down the 

frequency spectrum. 

He also has a new drive mechanism for the TSD 

player section of the system, made in Austria by DAIsy 

Corporation, replacing the breakdown-prone Philips that 

caused him and the company so much grief. Nowadays, if 

you put a CD or SACD into the player, it stays in the tray and 

doesn’t jam the mechanism. The whole thing looks better, 

sounds better, and is better. 

Price: TSD drive, $11,000; DAC-2 converter, $9599. 

emmlabs.com

Bryston 28B Monoblock Amplifier 

In Issue 189 [January 2009], I discussed these mighty monoblocks 

in detail. The new technology that Bryston has incorporated here 

has been such a success, in terms of a true high-end sound, that 

the company has now outfitted all of its amps with the updates. 

The 28Bs go for $8000 each. They produce 1000 watts into eight 

ohms, and an incredible 1800 into four. They are, believe this or 

not, guaranteed for 20 years, unheard of in the high-end community. 

This kind of reserve power might be likened, by analogy, to the feel 

of driving a superb sports car in that it allows an ease at normal 

listening levels, a freedom from some underlying sense of strain 

(barely audible), that the little brothers of such amps cannot achieve. 

In less-powerful amps there is, lying well below the audible signal, 

something that gives you the sense that the going will be rough when 

all hell breaks loose dynamically. And further, the lowest-level nuances 

are not as delicately rendered in terms of dynamic contrast. 

In the case of the Bryston, there is no downside, as there is 

with many another powerhouse big amp, which will show some 

discomfort when facing a roaring, raging orchestral fortissimo. 

The sense of ease in the face of the complexities is the same as 

that during the softer passage, during which you get insights into 

the complexity of the scoring partially because the 28B is lower 

in distortion, particularly at the frequency extremes, than any 

other solid-state amp of my experience. With this low distortion 

comes a grainlessness, you might call it a purity, that allows you 

to hear past the amp and into and through the soundfield. The 

amp doesn’t sound “white” as some of the most highly-touted 

transistor designs do or dark like some of the others. That means, 

there is neither too much yang or too much yin. I am not saying 

HP’s 

that that it is perfectly neutral in terms 

of a lack of character, any more than 

there is a perfectly neutral concert hall 

in that regard. But I am saying that its 

overall coloration or “character” is so 

much reduced that you can hear right 

through it, without having any kind of 

veil superimposed between you and the recorded sound. 

I could go on—especially about the unprecedented revelation 

of the bottom octaves, where the amp can and will reveal layering 

(the kind that you can hear into at a concert) that comes as a result 

of enhanced retrieval of ambient information. And, surprise of 

surprises, it sound pretty good right out of the box, and at its 

best after an hour of warm-up. That it came from a company 

that, hithertofore, had the respect of the engineering/professional 

community (for getting all the tech things and a foolproof design 

that works reliably, no matter what) but not high-end aficionados 

is an unexpected and delicious reversal. 

Price: $16,000 the pair. bryston.com 

GOLDEN EAR 

AWARDS 2009 


HP’s 

GOLDEN EAR 

AWARDS 2009 

Scaena 1.4 Speaker 

System (Revised) 

The review of the improved Scaena 

was published in the last issue [192] 

and to get the full flavor of the 

improvements that made what was 

already an intriguing high-resolution 

speaker system into a classic, you 

should read it. The technical details 

of the Scaenas system are also 

outlined there. 

But here is a brief capsule of why 

it is now like a different speaker: 

The addition of a new Teflon-based 

crossover network allows the high 

frequencies to bloom with the speed, 

ambience retrieval, and definition 

of the speaker’s already-highresolution 

midrange and uppermidbass 

drivers. Truly dramatic 

improvements occur at the opposite 

end of the spectrum, thanks to 

a new crossover and computercontrolled 

method for adjusting the 

woofers to mate with your room 

and the Scaenas’ tall and elegant 

towers. These two things brought 

the bottom octave to life, providing 

dimensional focus, definition, and 

resolution, and by bottom I mean 

down to 16Hz. Now the Scaenas are 

a full-range system to be reckoned 

with, just maybe the best thing of 

their kind on the market. 

Price: $99,600. scaena. com 


McIntosh 2300 Tube Preamplifier and 2301 Tube 

Monoblock Amplifier 

I shall not go into detail here, since this is an award for a system 

with which I have become quite familiar over the past several 

months, and which I shall review, in some depth, in my next 

outing in these pages. So this is a bit of a sneak preview. 

The sound of these units is quite unlike the sound of the 

other major tube-based electronics on the market. It is the 

quietest-sounding combination of preamplifier—yes, it even 

contains phonostages for both moving-coil and moving-magnet 

cartridges—and amplifier in my experience with tube units. And 

I can hear no distortions of any kind, nor detect much in the 

way of a character: There seems to be no yin nor yang. The 

McIntoshes do have a kind of liquid sweetness that is consonant 

with that same quality in live music, sufficient power to 

encompass with sublime ease any massive recorded peaks (vide, 

the DG Prokofiev below), and delicacy at low levels—thanks 

to the very low distortion—that I have found seductive, but 

seductive because it is a kind of truth-spoken-here resolution of 

the quietest pianissimos. 

Price: 2300 preamplifier, $6000; 2301 amplifier, 

$22,000 the pair. mcintoshlabs.com



Two Golden Ear Discs 

beethoven: Symphonies no. 5 and 1. 

Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. Paavo Järvi 

(cond). PhilipTraugott (producer); Everett Porter 

(engineer). Recorded at Funkhaus Koepnick, Berlin. 

(RCA/SMG 88697-33835) 

It isn’t often that a reading of one of the “warhorses” of the 

repertoire, especially those of the most popular Beethoven 

symphonies, can stand me on my head. But this recording of the 

Fifth, by Paavo Järvi and the German Chamber Orchestra, did 

just that. I sat through the four movements without interruption, 

transfixed, and with the hairs on the nape of my neck and along 

my arms rising. It’s that kind of thrill. 

It’s also one of the best SACD recordings of those in my 

now-vast collection, completely musical and without any of the 

quirks that sometimes can pop up in a multichannel recording. 

With engineer Everett Porter at the helm, I shouldn’t have been 

surprised, but I was, and even more so with Järvi’s brilliant 

Beethoven. I mean, his work in Cincinnati and on Telarc is quite, 

quite good, but at best on the outside border of greatness. With 

this small ensemble—I counted some 48 players listed on the 

Web site, perhaps there were more in the sessions—he gets us a 

Beethoven that must have some of the same effects it had on the 

audiences of the composer’s time. The reading is quick, perfectly 

executed, and you can hear every detail of the scoring and see/ 

hear why the Fifth is the Fifth. 

It is a recording made for the multichannel medium. Heard 

that way, the sound is rich, even lustrous, though clearly that of 

a smaller, more lithe ensemble. (I added a bit of back-channel 

signal for a more three-dimensional presentation of the orchestra 

confined to the front three channels.) Heard in its two-channel 

DSD layer, the sound is distant and a little edgy—I was taken 

aback by the difference. Inexplicable. 

It turns out that this is a series (one that has drawn wide critical 

acclaim) and there are two other discs already issued, readings of 

the Eroica (No. 3) and the Eighth, and on the other disc, the Fourth 

and the glorious Seventh. These came in so close to deadline I 

haven’t had a chance to absorb them, but you’ll be hearing from 

me. And in one of those odd examples of synchronicity, as I sat 

down to write this, learned that Järvi and the musicians will be 

at the new refurbished and improved Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln 

Center for an evening of Beethoven Symphonies. Guess who is 

determined to be there. Oh yes, they’re playing the Eroica and 

the Eighth. 

HP’s 

GOLDEN EAR 

AWARDS 2009 

prokofiev: Second piano Concerto. ravel: piano 

Concerto in g. 

yundi Li, (piano), Ozawa (cond.), Berlin Philharmonie. 

Christopher Alder and Matthais Spindler (producers); 

Klaus Hiemann (eng.). Recorded at Grosser Saal, 

Philharmonie Hall. (Deutsche Grammaphon DG CD 

477-6593) 

I’ve moaned loud and long about the sound quality of DG 

recordings. One of the few I thought sonically outstanding was 

the Leonard Bernstein Carmen set. And still, when DG gave 

Bernstein a chance to re-do the Mahler symphonies—he had 

made musical history with these early in his career—the sound 

was odious, as usual. That is to say, typical DG multimiking, the 

one-mike to one-player engineering that was, as I understand it, 

a company requirement. 

Well, just imagine: This DG recording of the Prokofiev Second 

Piano Concerto and the Ravel concerto is a knockout. It has wide 

dynamics, thunderous lows (when the music calls for it), and tonal 

truthfulness. It also has a stunning performance by Yundi Li, a 

musician who is everything that Lang Lang hasn’t been so far— 

that is to say an artist of class, perception, and above all musical 

power, who lets the music do the talking, without feeling a need 

for useless embellishments. The cadenza in the first movement 

of the Prokofiev is breathtaking, and illustrates all the virtues of 

Li’s approach. And if the Prokofiev doesn’t do it for you, Li’s 

approach to the very different Ravel work will, because he is all 

grace, dexterity, and songfulness. (And he looks in photographs 

almost frail.) Ozawa can be, when the spirit moves him, a great 

conductor, which the spirit didn’t do all that often in Boston, but 

here with Li he catches fire and gives the kind of interpretations 

that might well polish up his conductorial halo. 

One of the most remarkable moments, and one that will 

prompt you to acquire the recording, comes as that first 

movement cadenza ends. The brass enters fortissimo, over an 

already forte set of keyboard chords, and the effect, without any 

audible compression and as clean as can be, shakes the listening 

room, and perhaps you as well. I hope this portends future sonic 

masterpieces from DG, which will justify the many stars signed 

up with them. taS 


Music Feature 

the FIrSt IMpUlSe 

45s FroM aCoUStIC 

SoUnDS 

and a Slew of blue notes, too! 

Wayne garcia 

not since the golden years of Mosaic Records has there been so much great (and 

great sounding) jazz to be excited about. Of course, given that the many recent two- 

LP, 180-gram 45rpm LP sets cost $50 apiece—which suddenly seems like a lot of 

money—most of us will have to ponder carefully which to choose. 

Acoustic Sounds started the craze with its 45rpm Fantasy Jazz series. We now have Music 

Matters following suit with a string of superb and in some cases lesser-known Blue Note 

titles (see our feature article in Issue 180), ORG is getting into the game with its Bernie 

Grundman-mastered Impulse titles (see last issue), Verve and Chess reissues are on the 

horizon, and Acoustic Sounds is not only releasing its own Blue Notes, it, too, has just begun 

an Impulse series. Many of these titles, despite the price, are enticing indeed. 

Impulse 

Acoustic Sounds’ first two Impulse titles 

are evergreen classics: Gil Evans’ Out 

of the Cool, and Charles Mingus’ Mingus 

Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus—hereafter 

identified by just one “Mingus.” 

Recorded by Rudy Van Gelder in December 

1960, Out of the Cool, perhaps 

even more than his collaborations with 

Miles Davis, spotlights Gil Evans’ bril- 


liance as a writer and arranger. Leading 

a 16-man band from the piano, and anchored 

by Ron Carter (bass), Elvin Jones 

(drums), Jimmy Knepper (trombone), 

and Ray Crawford (guitar), Evans, like a 

sort of jazz-minded Mahler, weaves together 

sparsely populated chamber-like 

interludes with dramatic, large-scaled 

orchestration. The guitar-spiced “La 

Nevada,” the pretty blues of “Where 

Flamingos Fly,” the exotically flavored 

“Bilbo Song,” and George Russell’s aptlynamed 

“Stratusphunk” exhibit Evans’ 

love for clusters of high-sighing horns, 

gently shaken tambourines, brightly lit 

guitar runs, snarling trombones, and explosive 

dynamic punctuation. 

The results are lovely, sometimes cerebral 

jazz meditations, and the soundstage 

is expansive, with soloists firmly rooted

within; the musicians unfurl ribbons of 

fabulously layered tone colors, and the 

recording captures the orchestra’s terrific 

dynamic range. 

From 1963, Mingus is also all about 

the ensemble. But if Evans and his band 

are “cool,” then Mingus and his 10-piece 

group are “hot,” and certainly funkier. 

Surrounded by the likes of Eric Dolphy 

(alto sax, flute), Booker Ervin (tenor sax), 

Jaki Byard (piano), and Dannie Richmond 

(drums), Mingus breathes fresh life 

into several of his finest compositions— 

“Haitian Fight Song” becomes “II B.S.” 

and “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” is recast as 

“Theme for Lester Young”—while also 

delivering a sultry, midnight-summer’s 

take on Ellington’s “Mood Indigo.” 

The LP offers generously rich tonality, 

especially with the horns, but suffers 

from a lack of deep bass weight, a touch 

of dryness, and a stage that tends to push 

instruments to the forefront. That said, 

this reissue has a life and immediacy I’ve 

not heard before with this title, whose 

stunning music overwhelms any flaws of 

the recording. 

blue note 

What better place to begin listening to 

Acoustic Sounds’ latest Blue Notes than 

with John Coltrane’s first and only title as 

a leader for the label? Recorded by Rudy 

Van Gelder on a single September day in 

1957, Blue Train remains a superb achievement 

both musically and sonically, and 

Acoustic Sounds’ pressing knocks off all 

other reissues. 

With a dream-team consisting of Paul 

Chambers (bass), “Philly” Joe Jones 

(drums), Kenny Drew on piano, and 

Lee Morgan (trumpet) and Curtis Fuller 

(trombone) joining Coltrane’s tenor sax, 

Blue Train bristles with creative brilliance 

from start to finish. The four hard-hitting 

blues themes are by Coltrane—while a 

gentle rendition of “I’m Old Fashioned” 

displays each player’s feeling for classic 

balladry, and points towards Coltrane’s 

own Ballads LP from 1962. 

The sound is immediate, with superb 

instrumental balance, and a big, airy, coherent 

soundstage. The bass and drums 

are well captured, serving as deep anchors 

that allow the horn players to blow away 

with a sense of controlled yet still astonishing 

freedom. 

Recorded in 1958, and (again) featuring 

Lee Morgan (trumpet), Benny Golson 

(tenor sax), Bobby Timmons (piano), and 

Jymie Merritt (bass), Art Blakey & The Jazz 

Messengers (later known as Moanin’) is among 

several terrific albums Blakey and Co. laid 

down for Blue Note. The tunes range from 

the funk-blues meditation, “Moanin’,” with 

its gospel-like call and response, to the 

straight-ahead “Are You Real” to the sultry 

“Along Came Betty.” “The Drum Thunder 

(Miniature) Suite” finds Blakey working 

the skins over with mallets, while his mates 

trade back-and-forth with a series of Latin- 

and blues-tinged themes. 

The recoding is upfront and more distinctly 

left/right than usual. Stereophonic 

subtlety aside, this set has outstanding 

clarity, a fine feeling of breadth, rich tonality, 

and a visceral sense of life. 

Though Kenny Dorham was a fine 

trumpeter and composer, 1960’s Whistle 

Stop never really catches fire. Highlights 

are the rhythmically shifting title track, the 

slightly prancing “Buffalo,” with Mob- 

ley’s bluesy solo, and the modal “Sunset,” 

which, given the rhythm section and Dorham’s 

muted trumpet, has a strong Kind 

of Blue feeling. 

Sonics are a bit tighter and less open 

than others from this series. They’re not 

bad, but like the music on this reissue 

don’t quite stand with best Blue Notes. 

There’s no lack of fire in Jackie McLean’s 

Jackie’s Bag, also from 1960. Splitting the 

record’s six tracks between two different 

groups, excepting Paul Chambers on 

bass, McLean shows exceptional talents as 

composer, arranger, and soloist in a series 

of rhythmically complex tunes that leave 

you just enough off guard. “Quadrangle” 

reflects the influence of Ornette 

Coleman, with Donald Byrd’s rapid-fire 

trumpet solo, Sonny Clark’s 

single-note piano riffs, McLean in 

a somewhat more Bird-like mode 

than normal, and the tireless Philly 

Joe Jones on drums. He’s effectively 

replaced by Art Taylor for the remainder 

of the set, and joined by the 

somewhat more traditionally minded 

Blue Mitchell (trumpet), Tina Brooks 

(tenor sax), and Kenny Drew (piano). 

The sound is open and holographic; 

drums and bass are very well captured, 

and the horns balance sweetness 

and bite. 

Hootin’ ’n Tootin’ (1962) finds tenor saxophonist 

Fred Jackson leading a quartet 

with organ, guitar, and drums through 

seven of his “soul-jazz” numbers. Though 

not one of the better-known Blue Notes, 

this album really cooks, and is sonically 

quite fine. The stage is wide, allowing the 

natural warmth and weight of the organ, 

tenor, and electric guitar to bloom. 

A classic Blue Note, guitarist Kenny 

Burrell’s Midnight Blue (1963) oozes with all 

that title suggests. From the Latin-spiced 

“Chitlins Con Carne” to the almost sleepy 

“Mule” to the gorgeous “Soul Lament” to 

the funky title track and beyond, Burrell 

conveys a deep feeling for the blues, as 

well as a relaxed technique that makes it 

all sound “easy.” The sound is famously 

great: wide open, natural, warm, and 

simply “there.” Burrell’s electric guitar 

has superb tone and articulation, Stanley 

Turrentine’s tenor sax a creamy, brassy 

bite, Major Holley Jr.’s bass a fat sense of 

weight, and the drums and conga realistic 

snap and texture. 


Rock Music Reviews 

recording 

of the Issue 

music Sonics 

the band: The Band. 

Capitol STAo-132 (180-gram LP 

reissue). 

Originally released in September of 1969, 

The Band’s self-titled second album— 

along with its astonishing debut, Music 

From Big Pink—remains atop the group’s 

finest achievements, and continues to rank 

as one of rock’s great LPs. 

As Bob Dylan had a few years earlier 

with John Wesley Harding, The Band tipped 

its musical hat by depicting itself on the 

cover in a grainy black and white photograph 

that might have been found in 

grandma’s old knitting box. Looking at 

it now, it’s hard to believe the photo was 

snapped the same year the hippie-era 

peaked at the Woodstock Festival, before 

crashing down four months later as the 

Stones played against mayhem at the Altamont 

Speedway. Consciously or not, 

records such as this, John Wesley Harding, 

The Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo, and the 

Grateful Dead’s Workingman’s Dead seemed 

to foreshadow the end of the psychedelic era. 

Almost unfairly talented, The Band’s 

original five-man lineup didn’t guarantee 

greatness, but it surely didn’t hurt either. In 

the studio, bassist Rick Danko, drummer 

Levon Helm, organist Garth Hudson, 

pianist Richard Manuel, and guitarist 

Robbie Robertson traded among their 

main instruments, while adding mandolin, 

accordion, various saxophones, and seemingly 

whatever else happened to be within 

reach. Add a trio of first-rate voices, 

Manuel, Helm, and Danko, a combined 

musical taste and experience as eclectic as 

they come, and some serious songwriting 

chops, and it isn’t hard to envision how The 


Band’s brilliant collection of ragtag tunes 

came to such vivid life. 

At the time Robertson was the main 

songwriter, and The Band’s roots-flavored 

musical tales firmly inhabit the distinctly 

American landscapes he was absorbing 

via travels through the Mississippi Delta 

and by reading Tennessee Williams. As 

writer and photographer Mick Gold once 

said, “‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie 

Down’ is not a song about the Confederacy, 

it is a song of the Confederacy.” The irony 

that four Canadians and one American 

(Helm) created one of the most distinctly 

“American” of musical statements has not 

gone unnoticed. 

On Side One alone the songs traverse 

from the knock-kneed, moonshine jug 

band style of “Across the Great Divide,” 

to the jittery honky-tonk of “Rag Mama 

Rag,” to the now-classic Civil War anthem 

“The Night They Drove Old Dixie 

Down,” to the infectious hillbilly-funk 

of “Up on Cripple Creek,” to the wistful 

ballad “Whispering Pines,” which features 

Richard Manuel’s unforgettable falsetto. 

Flipping sides, “Jemima Surrender” 

is the record’s most straight ahead rock 

number, and one of its lighter moments; 

“Rockin’ Chair” relates the desires of a 

weary seadog; the dire warnings of “Look 

Out Cleveland” conjure 1950’s rockabilly; 

the weird and wonderful “Jawbone” speaks 

to a none too successful thief; while “The 

Unfaithful Servant” sketches two sides of 

the lost American South and features Rick 

Danko’s finest vocal performance. The LP 

finishes with the gorgeous “King Harvest 

(Has Surely Come).” 

Compared to an original vinyl pressing, 

the sound of Capitol’s 180-gram reissue 

LP is good but not quite there. This comes 

as no surprise given reports that the original 

master tape has been lost. What you’ll 

hear with this new edition is a decent semblance 

of air and depth, but the immediacy, 

transparency, and organic nature of the 

original, which was essentially recorded 

in one room, are audibly diminished. The 

bass instruments here do have weight and 

pack some wallop, but they’re also rather 

thick and lumpy next to the original’s superior 

tone, texture, and clarity of lines. 

Wayne garcia 

Further Listening: Bob Dylan and The 

Band: The Basement Tapes; The Band: 

Music From Big Pink 

music Sonics 

Willie nelson: Naked Willie. 

RCA nashville Legacy 7201112. 

If you didn’t know better when listening to 

Naked Willie, you’d think you were hearing 

a brand-new album, not a collection of 

songs some of which were recorded as 

far back as 40 years ago. That’s testimony 

in part to the painstaking efforts of 

“unproducer” Mickey Raphael—a fine 

musician who’s provided the expressive 

harmonica shadowing of Willie’s vocals 

for three decades, and who for this 

revamped and reconstituted assemblage 

has exquisitely pared away the strings 

(except for the discreet ones on “I Let 

My Mind Wander,” which could not be 

extricated from the mix), horns, and pop 

backing choruses that were often at odds 

with Willie when (most of) these original 

recordings were released on various RCA 

albums between 1966 and 1970. 

Now Willie’s backed by the tasty, 

economical precision of the great A-team 

session players of the day, but Raphael’s 

boosted Willie’s vocals in the mix so it 

puts the singer in musical high relief over 

the small combo, giving the whole affair 

an immediacy and intimacy akin to his 

most polished demos. More to the point, 

the result reveals Willie working at a 

transcendent level of structure, style, and 

soul as both writer and singer, the artistic 

emancipation of 1973’s Shotgun Willie 

so close you can sense him feeling it in 

these now-unembroidered performances. 

David Mcgee 

Further Listening: Willie Nelson: Crazy: 

The Demo Sessions; Willie Nelson: 54 

Songs: Songwriter Sessions


Rock Music Reviews 

music Sonics 

antony and the Johnsons: The 

Crying Light. 

Secretly Canadian SC194 (CD and 

LP). 

Antony Hegarty owns the most distinctive 

voice in contemporary pop. And while 

comparisons to Björk, Nina Simone, and 

Bryan Ferry are inevitable, Antony’s rich, 

intensely expressive alto is at once like 

and not like any of theirs. It’s something 

altogether its own, with an ethereal sound 

that seems not quite of this world. Inviting 

yet haunting, Antony summons mysterious 

places that may or may not be entirely safe. 

On The Crying Light, the band’s third 

full-length release, Antony’s songwriting 

is as beautifully melodic as ever. While 

most of the tunes move at a ballad’s pace, 

“Epilepsy is Dancing” floats to a gentle 

waltz rhythm, “Kiss My Name” maintains 

a jagged pop edge, and “Aeon” unleashes 

thickets of distorted electric guitar chords. 

And though Hagerty’s vague, surrealistic 

lyrics evoke unfulfilled longings, remembrances 

of things past, and frequently 

touch death, and this music could never be 

called “upbeat,” it has a strange lightness 

to it, along with a mesmerizing power that 

keeps you playing it again and again. 

The recording is remarkably good: airy, 

open, and relatively natural sounding, with 

Hegarty’s voice occupying pride of place 

within a minimal yet lush orchestral backdrop. 

The piano and bass have a physically 

satisfying feeling of weight and texture, 

and the few tracks with drums deliver a 

realistic snap and crackle. Wg 

Further Listening: Antony and the 

Johnsons: I Am A Bird Now; Nina 

Simone: After Hours 


music Sonics 

Dan hicks and the hot licks: 

Tangled Tales. 

Surfdog 2-517618. 

Back in the 1970’s, singer and songwriter 

Dan Hicks crafted a folksy blend of 

cowboy jazz, pop, old-timey country, jug 

band, and ’40s scat vocals. “Folk swing,” 

he called it. His wry tales boasted clever 

wordplay, sly vocals, cunningly blended 

harmonies, cowboy fiddle, and upright 

acoustic bass. He sang about diners, donut 

shops, casual lusts, inattentive wives, and 

various other temptations, tribulations, 

and fantasies of ordinary working stiffs. 

After 1974, Hicks modified that 

formula. But Tangled Tales, his first studio 

album in nine years, is a return to the 

signature Hot Licks sound. And it’s a real 

charmer. This is a front-row seat in one 

of the year’s standout pickin’ parlours, 

thanks to a world-class collection of 

instrumentalists that includes mandolin 

virtuoso David Grisman, slide-guitarist 

Roy Rogers, and blues harpist Charlie 

Musselwhite. The propulsive swing of the 

Hicks original “Blues My Naughty Baby,” 

fueled by Grisman’s mondo-mando, 

sets the mood. Even the jazz standard 

“Song for My Father” gets Hicks’ hipster 

treatment. Sonically, the wide, uncluttered 

soundstage lets the upright bass, acoustic 

guitars, mandolin, and fiddle ring out, and 

there’s a comforting warmth throughout 

this production. This updated old-fangled 

sound is the perfect antidote to our cold 

digital age. greg Cahill 

Further Listening: Dan Hicks and His 

Hot Licks: Where’s the Money; The 

Christmas Jug band (with Dan Hicks): 

Rhythm on the Roof 

music Sonics 

Joan baez: Day After Tomorrow. 

Razor & Tie 7930183002 (180-gram 

LP). 

Joan Baez’s crystalline soprano and 

hummingbird vibrato no longer reach the 

highest notes as they did so effortlessly on 

her best-selling 1975 effort Diamonds and 

Rust. But time hasn’t dulled the sixty-eightyear-old 

singer/social activist’s compelling 

message and radiant interpretive powers 

on her latest release, Day After Tomorrow. 

Produced by indie-country maverick Steve 

Earle (who penned three songs), Day After 

Tomorrow is an intimate, acoustic appraisal 

of an America at a crossroads, a prayer for 

a world fallen from grace. 

The album starts off with Earle’s “God 

Is God,” an ode to life in the here and now. 

Nine other tracks play out with gentle 

conviction, touching universal themes of 

social justice, faith, and peace. Tracks like 

Elvis Costello’s anthemic “Scarlet Tide” 

challenge our misplaced priorities, and the 

title song by Tom Waits reveals a soldier’s 

doubts and loneliness. But hope is at this 

disc’s core—the spiritual “Jericho Road” 

suggesting that somehow, one day we’ll 

get there. The musicianship is consistently 

stellar, with accenting instrumentation that 

often captures the flavor of world music, 

appropriate for the songs’ universal themes. 

Sonics are warmly understated and natural 

thanks to the Greg Calbi mastering, and 

at 36 minutes Day is tailor-made for LP. 

Despite 180-gram vinyl, however, Razor 

& Tie’s quality control needs work: the 

surfaces are shamefully noisy. neil gader 

Further Listening: Odetta: Odetta 

Sings Folk Songs; Judy Collins: 

Wildflowers

Classical Music Reviews 

recording 

of the Issue 

bellini: La sonnambula. Cecilia 

Bartoli (Amina); Juan Diego Flórez 

(elvino); Ildebrando D’Arcangelo 

(Count Rodolpho); Chorus of the 

Zurich opera House; orchestra La 

Scintilla, Alessandro De marchi, 

conductor. 

Decca 478 1084 (2 CDs). 

From our cynical 21 st century vantage point, 

the story lines of bel canto operas can seem 

improbable at best, laughable at worst. A 

bride who goes murderously berserk on 

her wedding night, Puritans who sing in 

Italian, a high-strung Druid princess—and 

a sweet young thing who sleepwalks into a 

compromising situation: we’re expected to 

identify with these unlikely characters and 

plot contrivances, and many others that are 

equally preposterous. To bring off such 

creations to a contemporary sensibility 

requires not only a steadfast dramatic 

commitment but also stylistic rigor and 

technical brilliance—that is, great singing. 

This new Decca release meets all these 

requirements. 

La sonnambula’s narrative, basically, goes 

like this. Amina, an orphan and the village 

beauty, is engaged to Elvino, a prosperous 

farmer. Lisa, the town’s innkeeper, has the 

hots for Elvino and gets a chance to derail 

the youngsters’ nuptials when Amina, who 

has the unfortunate habit of sleepwalking, 

wanders one night into the bedroom 

of Count Rodolfo, a guest at Lisa’s 

establishment. Nothing untoward has 

transpired but, presented with this news, 

the excitable Elvino decides immediately 

that he should marry Lisa instead. In the 

nick of time, Amina is spotted sleepwalking 

again, this time on the roof of the town’s 


mill, proclaiming in her sleep her devotion 

to Elvino. Amina’s innocence is apparent 

to everyone, the young man’s faith in his 

(again) beloved is restored, and all ends 

happily ever after. 

Even if one doesn’t buy into the premise 

offered in Decca’s extensive liner notes 

that, in nineteenth century literature, odd 

mental states and behaviors provided “a 

metaphor for female sexuality,” one can 

accept them without smirking when presented 

in a performance as accomplished 

as this one. Remarkably, Cecilia Bartoli is 

the first mezzo-soprano ever to record 

the role of Amina—though clearly she 

music Sonics music Sonics 

epitomizes a voice type that the composer 

approved of for the part. Her creamy, 

superbly controlled, and subtly inflected 

singing seems more miraculous than ever. 

The way Bartoli dreamily softens her voice 

for the two scenes when she’s asleep on 

her feet, turning it into a sort of entranced 

monotone, is magical. Juan Diego Flórez 

is unsurpassed in this kind of repertoire 

and performs with an unfailingly appealing 

vocal timbre, power, and great sensitivity to 

the texts. Elvino’s easily aroused jealousy is 

palpable when he assumes his somnambulistic 

girlfriend has been fooling around with 

an out-of-stater at the local Motel 6. Bassbaritone 

Ildebrando D’Arcangelo renders 

the role of the benignly mysterious Count 

artfully, and the other smaller roles—especially 

Gemma Bertagnoli as the conniving 

innkeeper—are covered well. Orchestra La 

Scintilla is billed as a “period instrument” 

group, but its sonority is robust and richly 

colored. The important role of the chorus 

is expertly executed, helping to propel the 

action forward. 

This is a major label studio recording 

of a full-length opera—something we 

weren’t sure we’d ever see again. The vocal 

character of two of the world’s greatest 

practitioners of “beautiful singing” is 

faithfully represented here. Balances 

between orchestra and singers are 

exemplary, and the spatial differentiation 

of off-stage instrumentalists and the main 

orchestra at the outset of Act I is nicely 

done. Decca’s two-disc production of 

Bellini’s classic is a worthy addition to even 

the most select opera collection. Andrew 

Quint 

Further Listening: Gluck: Italian Arias 

(Bartoli) (SACD); Rossini: The Barber 

of Seville (Flórez) (Blu-ray) 

Strauss: eine alpensinfonie; horn 

Concerto no. 1. Alan Civil, horn; 

Royal Philharmonic orchestra, 

Rudolf Kempe, conductor. 

Testament SBT 1428. 

This is the first stereo recording of Richard 

Strauss’s majestic and sumptuously scored 

Alpine Symphony, and it caused a sensation, 

both musically and sonically, when it was 

released on an RCA Red Seal LP in 1967. 

Produced by Charles Gerhardt and engineered 

to perfection by Kenneth Wilkinson, 

it captured in what was then state-ofthe-art 

sound an incredibly noble, vibrant 

realization in which everybody was “in the 

moment.” The full complement called for 

by Strauss—130 musicians—was mustered 

in Kingsway Hall for the recording, 

which presents a soundstage so detailed 

you can distinguish the first violins from 

the seconds even when they are playing in 

unison. Testament has delivered a superior 

CD remastering. The thunder machine 

has real resonance, the organ real bass, 

and the cymbals, especially when rolled, 

produce an unmistakably metallic ring, 

rather than a splash of white noise. 

The coupling is Alan Civil’s magisterial 

account of Strauss’ Horn Concerto No. 

1, recorded with Kempe and the RPO 

for Reader’s Digest a year after the Alpine 

Symphony. Excellent sound, but in the third 

movement one notices crackle and hiss 

not evident in the first two movements, 

suggesting a problem with the original 

tape. Ted Libbey 

Further Listening: Strauss: Orchestral 

Works (Kempe/Dresden, EMI); Horn 

Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 (Tuckwell; 

Kertész/LSO, Decca)


Classical Music Reviews 

music Sonics 

Shostakovich: String quartets 

nos. 10, 12, and 14. 

mandelring quartet. Audite 92.529 

(Hybrid multichannel SACD). 

The Mandelring Quartet, comprising 

three siblings plus a sympathetic violist, 

presents Volume IV of the group’s 

planned survey of Shostakovich’s fifteen 

essays in the genre. One more SACD and 

we should have an all-multichannel cycle 

worthy of comparison to the sets by the 

Fitzwilliam and Emerson Quartets. 

Key to interpreting Shostakovich is getting 

at the emotional core of each work, 

both when the affect is overtly dramatic 

and when the turmoil is hidden beneath a 

falsely cheery exterior, and the Mandelring 

excels at this, perfectly capturing the nervous 

energy and edginess of these oftentroubled 

quartets. It can also sing, as with 

the sorrowful third movement of No. 10, 

or where the first violin does a remarkable 

job of sustaining the line of the long, expansive 

melody of No. 14’s Adagio. The 

quartet maintains the focus and polish of 

its ensemble sound whether playing loud 

or soft; whatever the demands, its technique 

is always fluent and assured. 

Twenty years ago, many wondered if 

digital recording techniques could ever get 

string sound right. Here, the tonal qualities 

of the four instruments are beautifully 

characterized in airy, dimensional sound 

recorded in a German church. Spatial 

specificity is excellent. AQ 

Further Listening: Shostakovich: 

Quartets 3, 6, and 8. (Mandelring) 

(SACD), Schubert: Death and the 

Maiden. (Mandelring) (SACD) 


music Sonics 

bach: lute Suites in g Minor, 

e Minor, and C Minor. prelude, 

Fugue, and allegro in e Flat. 

Jason Vieaux, guitar. Azica ACD- 

71250. 

With every new recording he makes, 

Jason Vieaux confirms what the fortunate 

among us already sensed fifteen years ago, 

when he was still in his teens: that he would 

become the leading classical guitarist of 

his generation. Yet every time I hear his 

playing, I’m amazed all over again by his 

exquisite musicianship—by the sensitivity 

of his address, the profundity of his emotional 

insight, and the sheer beauty (and 

variety) of tone he produces on an instrument 

not at all forgiving of slips. When 

much is expected, to always give more… 

isn’t that the definition of great artistry? 

In this new release devoted to Bach’s 

Lute Suites in G minor, E minor, and C 

minor, BWV 995-97, and the Prelude, 

Fugue and Allegro in E flat, BWV 998— 

the first in a series devoted to the music 

of Bach—Vieaux once again delivers 

more than even an old fan like me could 

have hoped for. The arrangements are his 

own, and they are superbly fashioned and 

idiomatic. The playing is suave and stylish, 

technically immaculate, full of that elusive 

inner rhythmic life that always distinguishes 

great Bach playing on any instrument. 

Azica’s founder Bruce Egre engineered 

this masterpiece of a CD, capturing all 

the depth and bloom of Vieaux’s sound 

in a recording of exceptional purity and 

immediacy. TL 

Further Listening: Ponce: Guitar 

Sonatas (Azica); Jason Vieaux (Naxos) 

music Sonics 

Mozart: Clarinet Concerto; 

Clarinet quintet. paul Dean, 

clarinet; the queensland 

orchestra, guillaume tourniaire, 

conductor; grainger quartet. 

melba mR 301122 (Hybrid 

multichannel SACD). 

This SACD is fittingly titled “Sublime 

Mozart” and offers the pair of late masterpieces 

that the composer crafted for 

his friend Anton Stadler, clarinetist in the 

Vienna court orchestra. Paul Dean shapes 

the lovely melodic arches in both works 

with a sure musical instinct, producing a 

rich, mellow tone and manifesting exceptional 

control—the softest notes always 

speak without a hint of breathiness. These 

are relaxed, untroubled readings that 

aren’t obsessed with historical authenticity, 

though there’s certainly no egregious 

nineteenth century Romantic overlay in 

evidence. Both the Concerto’s and Quintet’s 

slow middle movements are indeed 

“sublime.” The players of the youthful yet 

experienced Grainger Quartet are sympathetic 

collaborators in the chamber piece: 

In phrasing, dynamic contour, and attack, 

the five musicians are of one mind. 

The 31 musicians of The Queensland 

Orchestra include three string basses, and 

their support in the Clarinet Concerto 

is satisfyingly weighty. The recording’s 

easy-going sonics match the sunny 

performances. The sonic perspective is 

that of sitting close up in a moderately 

reverberant hall. As is typical for this 

label, the packaging is lavish. AQ 

Further Listening: Mozart: Flute 

Concertos (Zoon) (SACD) Mozart: 

Violin Concertos (Manze) (SACD)


Jazz Music Reviews 

recording 

of the Issue 

Mark o’Connor’s hot Swing trio: 

Live in New York. 

omac 9. 

Virtuoso violinist O’Connor is a musical 

chameleon who is equally adept at classical, 

Appalachian, country, fusion, and straightahead 

jazz. He has toured and recorded in 

all of those settings over the past 30 years, 

but it is hard to imagine him having more 

fun than he does here, delving into the 

irrepressibly carefree music of the Swing 

Era. On this bouyant and appealing outing 

with guitarist Frank Vignola and bassist 

Jon Burr, recorded before a live audience at 

Merkin Hall in New York City, O’Connor 

pays tribute to the infectiously swinging 

sound of the Stephane Grappelli-Django 

Reinhardt Hot Club of France Quintet 

from the 1930s. 

O’Connor’s skills are duly shown off 

throughout this engaging set, but his prodigious 

chops are perhaps best displayed 

on a blazing rendition of Ray Noble’s 

“Cherokee.” The violinist’s sheer burn, 

along with his pristine articulation, flood 

of ideas, and flawless technique, on this 

longstanding bebop jam vehicle is simply 

jaw-dropping. And guitarist Vignola, one 

of the great living exponents of Reinhardt’s 

Gypsy-jazz legacy, follows the 

violinist’s incendiary work with some solo 

fireworks of his own. The two chopsmeisters 

also exchange exhilarating licks on 

O’Connor’s Hot Club-inspired scorcher, 

“Gypsy Fantastic.” 

Burr, a Grappelli sideman for 12 years 

and member of O’Connor’s Hot Swing 

Trio since its inception in 2000, contributes 

a superb, old school arco solo in the tradition 

of Major Holley on a breezy reading of 


George Gershwin’s “Fascinating Rhythm” 

before offering a loping, deep-toned 

pizzicato solo on a genial rendition of 

Duke Ellington’s “Don’t Get Around 

Much Anymore.” The trio also turns in a 

delightful version of Fats Waller’s “Ain’t 

Misbehavin’,” which shifts gears midway 

through from a coy, laid-back stroll in the 

park to a chugging midtempo dash, with 

the violinist wailing over the top in typically 

nonchalant fashion. And they close out 

the program with a positively pyrotechnic, 

pulse-quickening rendition of the earlyjazz-era 

staple, “Tiger Rag,” which opens 

with O’Connor and Vignola going toe- 

music Sonics music Sonics 

to-toe before bassist Burr enters with 

frantic walking up and down the strings to 

match the breakneck pace. The fireworks 

generated on this no-holds-barred showstopper 

elicit a wild ovation from the 

Swing Era faithful at Merkin Hall. 

O’Connor’s considerable compositional 

skills are exhibited on his bluesy, 11minute 

meditation “Anniversary” (more 

Stuff Smith than Stephane Grappelli), 

the delicate, turn-of-the-century-inspired 

chamber piece “M & W Rag,” and the 

aptly-named “Funky Swing,” a dramatic, 

minor-key romp that incorporates some 

odd harmonies and intricate stop-time 

phrases, and features the violinist blowing 

aggressively over a myriad of changes. 

The beautiful and poignant waltz “Fiddler 

Going Home” carries particular emotional 

depth, considering that it was written for the 

late Swing Era violinist Claude “Fiddler” 

Williams, who made an appearance at 

O’Connor’s String Conference in 2003 (at 

age 85) shortly before his death. 

The mix on this third in a triology of 

Hot Swing Trio recordings is brilliant. 

O’Connor’s rich, woody tones ring out 

with uncommon clarity and resonance 

in the wonderfully intimate chamber 

music venue (which has been notoriously 

problematic for electric instruments). 

Vignola’s acoustic guitar blends beautifully 

with Burr’s upright bass in conveying swift 

forward momentum behind O’Connor’s 

singing, surging violin on these ten tracks. 

Bill Milkowski 

Further Listening: Mark O’Connor’s 

Appalachian Waltz Trio: Crossing 

Bridges; Stephane Grappelli: Live at 

the Blue Note 

branford Marsalis quartet. 

Metamorphosen. 

marsalis music 74946. 

Nearly 30 years ago, when he and his 

younger brother Wynton broke onto the 

scene in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, 

saxophonist Branford Marsalis already 

showed signs of becoming one of 

the most interesting of Louisianabred 

soloists. While Wynton became 

the anointed avatar of the mainstream 

jazz renaissance of the 1980s and ’90s, 

Branford diversified—touring and 

recording with Sting, leading the Tonight 

Show band, and experimenting with 

hip-hop and classical idioms. But the 

metamorphosis referred to in the title 

of this nine-track hour-long recording 

by Marsalis’ longstanding quartet has 

been deeper into, rather than further 

away from, jazz. On three saxophones— 

tenor, alto, and soprano—Marsalis spins 

out linear, storytelling improvisations, 

absorbing from beginning to end on tunes 

contributed mostly by his band mates, 

plus a dynamic version of Thelonoious 

Monk’s “Rhythm-a-ning” and his own 

lively “Jabberwocky.” 

Whether riffing hard bop or exploring 

tender ballads, Marsalis’ tone, on every 

horn, is ripe and refined, reproduced in 

the same warm, even, well-spaced sonics 

that accurately capture Erick Revis’ 

pulsating bass playing, Joey Calderazzo’s 

crisp piano work, and Jeff “Tain” Watts’ 

rhythmically astounding drumming. Derk 

Richardson 

Further listening: Branford Marsalis: 

Footsteps of Our Fathers; Art Blakey 

and the Jazz Messengers: Keystone 3


Jazz Music Reviews 

music Sonics 

benny golson: New Time, New ’Tet. 

Concord 312102. 

Here’s something for those who think they 

don’t make ’em like that anymore. Veteran 

saxophonist Benny Golson, a youthful 

80 years old, joins a list of seasoned jazz 

players—including Jimmy Cobb, Marian 

McPartland, and Donald Bailey—who are 

creating some of their best work in their 

golden years. This recording, beautifully 

produced by Golson, harks back to 

the swinging, bluesy post-bop Jazztet 

of the early ’60s that teamed Golson 

and Art Farmer. Golson’s new jazztet 

features Eddie Henderson (trumpet and 

flugelhorn), Steve Davis (trombone), Mike 

Ledonne (piano), Buster Williams (bass), 

and Carl Allen (drums). The woefully 

underrated Henderson and Davis serve up 

a righteous helping of soulful solos. 

Golson is also a gifted songwriter who 

penned such standards as “I Remember 

Clifford,” “Blues March,” and “Killer Joe.” 

Vocalist Al Jarreau appears on “Whisper 

Not,” one of four Golson originals and 

one of Jarreau’s best performances. The 

lyrical original “From Dream to Dream” is 

another strong addition to Golson’s songbook 

while his “Gypsy Jingle-Jangle” and 

“Uptown Afterburn” echo the veteran’s 

hard-bop roots. Covers range from Monk’s 

“Epistrophy” to El DeBarge’s “Love Me 

in a Special Way” to Chopin’s “L’Adieu.” 

Concord’s full, immediate, punchy 

sonics complete the picture. This is a 

richly rewarding disc by a true master. 

GC 

Further Listening: The Jazztet: Real 

Time; Steve Davis: Alone Together 


music Sonics 

John Scofield: Piety Street. 

emArcy 1791136. 

Not since Eric Gale covered “Oh Mary 

Don’t You Weep” back in 1978 has a 

popular American jazz guitarist dipped so 

deeply into the gospel pool as Scofield does 

on Piety Street. Recorded in New Orleans 

with a cast of local all-stars including The 

Meters’ bassist George Porter, Jr., pianistorganist 

Jon Cleary, drummer Ricky 

Fataar, and the incredibly soulful vocalist 

John Boutté, this gospel-themed project 

has the jazz guitar great going all the way 

back to his blues roots in dealing with 

urgent, bent-string, B.B. King-inspired 

testifying on old-time gospel classics like 

Dorothy Love Coates’ “That’s Enough” 

and Thomas A. Dorsey’s “The Old Ship 

Of Zion” as well as traditional numbers 

like “Ninety Nine and a Half ” and “His 

Eye Is On The Sparrow.” They turn in 

a menacing rendition of “Motherless 

Child” with a reggaefied tag, then rock 

the congregation on “It’s A Big Army.” 

And the perennial poll-winning guitarist 

unleashes some nasty wah-wah licks on 

an infectious rendition of “Something’s 

Got A Hold On Me.” 

A bona fide fusion guitar hero in the 

’70s with Billy Cobham and ’80s with 

Miles Davis, a respected jazzbo with his 

own stellar quartet through the ’90s and a 

godfather of the jam band scene since his 

1997 collaboration with Medeski, Martin 

& Wood, Scofield has reinvented himself 

here as pastor of the New Church of The 

Sanctified Groove. BM 

Further Listening: Swan Silvertones: 

Great Camp Meeting; The 

Spiritualaires: Singing Songs of Praise 

music Sonics 

Joe lovano Us Five: Folk Art. 

Blue note 3915282. 

A highly versatile wind player, Joe 

Lovano—whose main axe is tenor 

saxophone but who also plays straight alto, 

alto clarinet, taragato (a Hungarian reed), 

and Aulochrome (a twin soprano sax)— 

has become a critics’ and fan favorite 

by virtue less of innovation than soulful 

exuberance, matched by monstrous but 

audience-friendly chops. Tributes to Sinatra 

and Caruso, as well as collaborations with 

Gunther Schuller, Hank Jones, and the 

WDR Orchestra have demonstrated his 

adaptability and resourcefulness. 

On this new and especially satisfying 

outing, Folk Art, the 56-year-old Cleveland 

native assumes the role of veteran leader 

á la Art Blakey, bringing players from a 

younger generation into the fold. Across 

nine diverse pieces that allow quite a bit 

of free play inside distinct structures, 

Lovano bounces fresh ideas off pianist 

James Weidman (a fellow Ohioan who has 

played with TK Blue and Steve Coleman), 

bassist Esperanza Spalding (one of the 

hottest new voices in jazz), and drummer/ 

percussionists Otis Brown III and Franciso 

Mela. The players find their footing easily 

both as a group and as distinct musical 

personalities, teasing out intriguing pan- 

African nuances. In a mix that slightly 

muffles the bottom end and loses a bit 

of snap at the top, it’s Lovano’s timbre— 

robust, full-throated, and burnished—and 

rhythmically unpredictable phrasing that 

enthrall most consistently. DR 

Further Listening: Joe Lovano 

Quartets: Live at the Village Vanguard; 

Joe Lovano: Joyous Encounter

1. Django Reinhardt: 

The Classic Early Recordings 

(JSP 90012). 

This five-CD box set bristles 

with remastered gems from the 

heyday of the original Parisian 

Hot Club. 

2. The Hot Club of San Francisco, 

Bohemian Maestro, 

Django Reinhardt & the 

Impressionists (Azica 

72241). 

Violinist Evan Price of the 

Turtle Island Quartet and pianist 

Jeffrey Kahane team up. 

3. Hot Club of Detroit, Night 

Town (Mack Avenue 1041). 

Manush Gypsy-jazz meets 

Motor City R&B, replete with 

fleet-fingered solos, Miles Davis 

covers, and whiffs of Klezmer. 

4. Hot Club of New Orleans, 

Heavy Artillery (independent 

release). 

Dixieland clarinets and driving 

Gypsy rhythms. 

5. Mark O’Connor, Hot Swing! 

(OMAC 4). 

The country fiddler and classical 

Top Ten List 

Jazz took an interesting turn in 1935 when gypsy-jazz guitarist Django reinhardt hooked up with 

parisian violinist Stephane grappelli to found the influential quintette du hot Club de France. nearly 

75 years later, that unique sound is still inspiring a global movement. here are 10 notable examples. 

crossover violinist recorded 

this red-hot 2001 homage to 

Grappelli with guitarist Frank 

Vignola and ex-Grappelli bassist 

John Burr. 

6. John Jorgenson, 

Franco-American Swing 

(Pharoah/J2 700922). 

Jorgenson played in the 2004 

film Head in the Clouds, inking 

these tunes for the soundtrack. 

7. John Jorgensen, 

Ultraspontane (Pharoah/J2 

7050). 

Jorgenson on this sensational 

2007 CD with violist Stephan 

Dudash and the Nashville String 

Quartet. 

8. Hot Club of Cowtown, 

Tall Tales (Hightone 8104). 

Austin, Texas, retro outfit delivers 

blistering guitar-and-fiddle 

exchanges Western-swing style. 

9. Connie Evingson & the Hot 

Club of Sweden, Stockholm 

Sweetnin’ (Minnehaha 

62108). 

Chanteuse Connie Evingson 

sizzles with a violin-less hot club. 

10. The Triplets of Belleville 

(Higher Octave 68112). 

The hot-club sound is 

reinvented for this droll 2003 

animated film. 

—Greg Cahill 



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INDEX TO ADVERTISERS 

Acoustic Sounds ..........................96, 97 

acousticsounds.com 

Atma-Sphere Music Systems.................. 95 

atma-sphere.com 

Audio Classics, Ltd............................133 

audioclassics.com 

Audio Plus Services .....................Cover III 

cambridgeaudio.com 

Audio Unlimited..............................103 

audiounlimiteddenver.com 

AudioQuest.............................Cover IV 

audioquest.com 

AVguide.com.................................138 

avguide.com 

Axiss Audio..................................6, 7 

axissaudio.com 

Bel Canto Design..............................53 

belcantodesign.com 

Benchmark Media Systems ....................17 

benchmarkmedia.com 

Bryston ..................................... 29 

bryston.ca 

Burmester Audiosysteme GmbH ..............40 

burmester.de 

Cable Company ...............................74 

fatwyre.com 

Cable Research Lab ...........................81 

cableresearchlab.com 

Cardas Audio, Ltd...............................3 

cardas.com 

Coincident Speaker Technology ............... 113 

coincidentspeaker.com 

Crystal Cables ................................15 

crystalcable-usa.com 

Definitive Technology .............Cover II, page 1 

definitivetech.com/tas 

Elite AV Distribution...........................87 

hirestech.com 

Elusive Disc...........................64, 118, 119 

elusivedisc.com 

Enjoy the Music .............................. 112 

enjoythemusic.com 

Esoteric ......................................57 

teac.com/esoteric 

Fidelis A/V....................................81 

fidelisav.com 

Front Row Theater ........................... 131 

frontrowtheater.com 

Furutech..................................... 83 

furutech.com 

Goodwin’s High End ...........................117 

goodwinshighend.com 


GTT Audio and Video ..........................93 

gttgroup.com 

Harmonic Technology ........................ 45 

harmonictech.com 

Introductory Guide to High-Performance Audio 

Systems ........................................ 

101 ................................hifibooks.com 

Lamm Industries, Inc.......................... 30 

lammindustries.com 

Laufer Teknik .................................79 

lauferteknik.com 

Lominchay....................................77 

lominchayaudio.com 

Magico ........................................5 

magico.net 

ModWright Instruments ...................... 85 

modwright.com 

Music Direct ...........................47, 90, 91 

musicdirect.com 

Musical Surroundings...................23, 31, 65 

musicalsurroundings.com 

Naim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 

naimusa.com 

Needle Doctor ...........................26, 122 

needledoctor.com 

Nuforce ......................................72 

nuforce.com 

OPPO Digital, Inc. ............................ 85 

oppodigital.com 

Ovation Ultimate LLC.........................127 

ovation-av.com 

Overture Audio Video ......................39, 51 

overtureav.com 

Palmetto Audio .............................. 113 

sanibelhifi.com 

Pass Laboratories..............................11 

passlabs.com 

Reference 3A .................................72 

reference3A.com 

Reference Recordings .........................111 

referencerecordings.com 

Reno HiFi.................................... 121 

renohifi.com 

Rhino Records ................................57 

rhino.com 

Running Springs Audio ........................33 

runningspringsaudio.com 

Shunyata Research............................13 

shunyata.com 

Sound Experience............................ 115 

thesndexp.com 

Sound Organisation ...........................67 

soundorg.com 

Sumiko .......................................21 

sumikoaudio.net 

Symposium Acoustics .........................19 

symposiumusa.com 

Synergistic Research ......................42, 43 

synergisticresearch.com 

Tangram......................................35 

tangramaudio.com 

Thiel Audio Products ..........................37 

thielaudio.com 

Upscale Audio .......................25, 129, 135 

upscaleaudio.com 

Vandersteen Audio ........................... 83 

vandersteen.com 

Verity Audio ..................................53 

verityaudio.com 

Vibrapod Co. .................................137 

vibrapod.com 

Vincent Audio.................................87 

wsdistributing.com 

Von Schweikert Audio ........................ 113 

vspeakers.com 

Walker Audio................................. 62 

walkeraudio.com 

Weinhart Design, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 

weinhartdesign.com 

Wilson Audio...................................9 

wilsonaudio.com 

Wright’s Reprints............................. 113 

wrightsreprints.com 

XLO Argentum............................... 49 

argentumacoustics.com 

yG Acoustics .............................68, 69 

yg-acoustics.com

iNtroduciNG the New 

theabsolutesound.com 

the premier destination for those interested 

in high end audio and music 

Updated and 

redesigned 

for easier 

browsing, 

sharing and 

shopping! 

New features 

iNclude: 

• taS editor’s blogs 

• More product reviews 

• the latest audio news 

• expanded forums with taS 

reviewers 

... and more. 

WANTED 

Classifieds 

USEDCABLE.COM 

We buy used cables. We sell used 

cables. Good advice. 

Hi Fi Stereo Gear, old/new, amps, 

preamps, turntables, speakers, 

tuners, tubes, parts. Quality Brands 

considered, working or not. 

850 314 0321, Cell 850 543 7025, 

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Back Page 

neil gader 

Six Questions for Richard Schram, 

President and Founder, Parasound 

Do you recall your first high-end audio experience? 

I think I had a high-end audio experience years before I even 

understood the term. I went to a grammar school in a northern 

suburb of Chicago. A block away was a Masonic temple, and I 

was walking by one day and heard music coming out of it. What 

I stumbled onto was one of the world’s first live-versus-recorded 

demos. (This would have been 1955.) The Fine Arts Quartet, 

a Chicago-based group, was being recorded, and then during 

playback they would mime their playing. The audience was pretty 

well convinced there was no difference. By today’s standards the 

fidelity would be crude—much like the early Caruso recordings. 

But it was a life-changing experience for me as a nine-year-old. 

how did you make that leap into high-end design and 

manufacture? 

Parasound is actually my second career. While I was at U.C. 

Berkeley I stumbled into a little hole-in-the-wall that was 

just beginning to sell audio equipment and got a job there as 

a stock boy for a $1.75 an hour. To make a long story short 

I was fortunate enough to become a minority owner in the 

company in 1969. We had five or six stores in the Bay Area. 

Then CBS bought the company in 1970, so at the age of 24 I 

found myself a VP of CBS by association. It became the largest 

audio retailer in the world. It was the Pacific Stereo chain. Talk 

about the right place at the right time. Developing electronics 

was really a wonderful challenge for a young kid, and because 

of the Sony/CBS relationship I was getting access to executive 

levels in Japanese companies that would have taken decades to 

secure otherwise. Those lessons put me in training for what I do 

today at Parasound. 

are you disappointed that after thirty years we aren’t 

further along with digital? 

My greater concern isn’t whether something is digital, but how 

poorly so many things are recorded and how many recordings 

pander to a very low common denominator. Look, a true 16-bit 

digital recording can sound fantastic. But I also get concerned 

that if people haven’t heard great sound, how are they going to 

know it? If they don’t go to concerts, what’s their benchmark? 

Music used to be a destination, but I would challenge you to tell 

me if you have friends who come home from work, pour a glass 

of wine, and listen to an entire symphony uninterrupted—and 

when was the last time you did? 

are you surprised at the resiliency of analog? 

I’m not surprised that analog is so successful, but I view it a 

little bit in the same way I view vacuum tube equipment. I love 

listening to analog, but I have a little difficulty listening through 


some of the inner groove distortion or the fact that the speed is 

not as stable as it is with digital. But the ritual of playing a record 

gives people something more personalized that they can involve 

themselves in. Engaging in that ritual predisposes you to have a 

better experience. 

a lot of great designers and innovators are nearing 

retirement age. Do you have a sense that there’s a new 

generation waiting in the wings? 

I think it’s always a temptation for old-timers to look back 

in dismay and say the youngsters don’t have it—they lack 

perspective and so forth. No one wants to see this thing die 

out, but probably when Saul Marantz passed on people had the 

same concerns. Undoubtedly as long as there’s music, even if 

it’s a smaller audience, there’s always going to be people who 

will show up at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest and have the 

wherewithal and the courage to make a company out of their 

ideas. Or some bright engineer from Apple who’s seen the big 

picture and decides what he really wants to do is great audio. 

What still inspires you to go to work each morning? 

A mountain of debt (laughing)! For me, personally, this company 

is my alter ego. It’s also a venue where I probably get the most 

recognition and praise from my peers, which I eat up, so it’s 

really a very big part of my life. More than anything else it’s my 

way of expressing myself creatively. taS

SpeCS & prICIng - My Hiend

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