home entertainment 2007

MANUFACTURERS’ COMMENTS MANUFACTURERS’ COMMENTS
MANUFACTURERS’ COMMENTS
to mind that wonderful icon of audio,
Harvey Rosenberg, who gave me, at a
Consumer Electronics Show years back,
a free copy of his book, which was
loaded with insight into our chosen avocation.
Art’s recounting of the birth and
development of the OTL is worth reading
on it own account. We are fortunate
that it included a review of our smallest
OTL, the VZN-80.
Art heard just what my friend Carter
Asbill and others heard as we were
developing the VZN series of OTLs and
the LA preamps. Timbral bouquet to
flesh out the music and provide the
dimension of reality to electrons in a
vacuum—that is difficult to do. Art mentions
that there might be “a little too
much texture” at times, and we acknowledge
that, though we do like tactility to
our music. Our larger amps, for better
or worse, tend to minimize this effect.
All in all, we are loath to add anything to
Art’s observations, and wish to thank the
editors of Stereophile and Art Dudley for
making us a part of this event. Jud Barber
President, Joule Electra
Rega P1
Editor:
[Essex Boys, with translations]
Having a natter with Phil Freeman of
Rega one day, I mentioned the idea of
them building a record player that they
would put their moniker on, rather than
the OEM stuff built to just a strict price
that they had done before.
“I am talking quality kit [really good
stereo equipment].”
“Oh yeah,” says Phil. “And how much
would this have to sell for?”
“350,” I retort. “We want to make this
the best entry player out there.”
“That is the Queen’s folding [pounds
sterling]?” asks Phil.
“No, dollars.” A long silence ensues,
during which I think I catch the words
“The boy hasn’t been right since he left
these shores,” but I could be imagining
that.
“Anything else?” asks Phil.
“Yep, must be made in the UK, mate,
you know how we are here, and bung
on a cartridge, all ready to go.”
“Like the Rega logo in gold leaf?”
quips Phil.
“You are going to have to pull out a
wedge [large sum] of wonga [money] from
your strides [trousers], mate, to get some
volume going on this one,” says Phil.
Hence, several months later, a large
lorry [container truck] pulls up full of these
beauties—more record players than you
can imagine. As Art says, a truly affordable
way to start getting going on vinyl.
If you want to improve the P1, don’t
have a Starbucks and muffin for a few
days, and treat yourself to the P1
upgrade kit: glass platter and thicker mat
for $69. Get one for each of your 100
friends you just bought P1s for. (You did
follow Art’s advice—didn’t you?)
Cheers. Steve Daniels
The Sound Organisation
Peak Consult El Diablo
Editor:
All the people from Peak Consult would
like to thank Stereophile for the good and
thorough review of our loudspeaker, El
Diablo.
Thanks to Michael Fremer for
describing the speakers and the sound
that Peak Consult wishes to be known
for. He perfectly described our product
with understandable language for nonand
audiophile persons.
Thanks also to John Atkinson for
making the measurements of our speakers
and ending up with the conclusion
that the Peaks had respectable measured
performance, and still mention that we
made El Diablo to achieve what we do
and believe in. We have our sound and
are very proud of that. Per Kristoffersen
Peak Consult Int’l.
Peak Consult El Diablo
Editor:
We would like to thank Michael Fremer
and John Atkinson for taking the time to
review and measure Peak Consult’s El
Diablo loudspeaker.
“…like stepping out of a Ferrari and
into a high-performance Bentley coupe.”
With this one phrase, Michael Fremer
demonstrated that he very aptly understands
the Peak Consult approach. El
Diablo is both a fairly conservative and a
precision, high- performance design
meant to be a complete performer. This
required a very well-considered and
meticulously derived balancing act. It
needed to perform at a true reference
level in a real-world acoustic space, and
it needed to have a small footprint so as
not to overwhelm the elegant spaces in
which it would be installed. As a fullrange
loudspeaker, it needed to sonically
disappear, project lifelike images into a
vast soundfield, and still deliver a complete
reference-level performance.
Michael quite keenly noticed that
“The Diablo was extended and supple at
both frequency extremes, providing
exceptionally natural instrumental textures
that were free of edge, brightness,
or grain on top without sounding dull or
uninvolving,” and that “instrumental and
harmonic structures, and especially the
human voice, were exceptionally lifelike
and coherent.” Here Michael discovers
what is at the heart of the Peak Consult
“house sound,” and what makes El Dia-
blo so very seductive.
El Diablo is designed to be used in a
home environment and will “blend in like
the finely finished piece of furniture that
it is, and its size and footprint would seem
to make it an ideal candidate for the city
sophisticate’s drawing room.” The performance
of Peak Consult loudspeakers is
tailored to be correct without the need for
much (if any) acoustic treatment to the
room, allowing the owner to display them
with pride in a house’s main living space
without being penalized when the stylus
is finally dropped in the groove.
John Atkinson opined quite expertly
that “The Peak Consult El Diablo’s measured
performance is very respectable,”
and that “its balance appears to have
been tailored to achieve a specific end
result.” That specific end result is, as
Michael observed, to be able “to provide
long evenings’ worth of entertainment
without producing boredom or fatigue”
in real-world living environments.
Michael concludes, “I spent three
months with the Diablos and found
them to be among the most capable and
musically engaging speakers I’ve yet
auditioned.”
We’re delighted that you enjoyed the
El Diablo loudspeaker. It is certainly a
point of pride and a source of tremendous
enjoyment in our collection.
Chris Sommovigo
Signals SuperFi, LLC
VTL TL-7.5 Reference Series II
Editor:
Bea and I would like to sincerely thank
Brian Damkroger for his comments
about the differences between the original
and Series II incarnations of our TL-
7.5 Reference Linestage Preamplifier.
Building upon the widely acknowledged
solid foundation of the original
version, the many sonic improvements
of the Series II and its greatly enhanced
ability to portray tonal colors, timbre of
instruments, and its ability to resolve
micro-level details are much prized by
customers who have heard both versions.
Part of this is due to the use of a
12AU7 in the amplifying stage, which
lowers the overall gain (and with it the
background noise), revealing even more
of the musical picture, and making the
TL-7.5 Series II an excellent match in an
even wider variety of systems.
The superior ability of the Series II to
portray tonal coloring (as distinct from
intrinsic coloration) is much prized by
true music lovers, and we believe that at
the Reference level enhancements in
these critical listening attributes is what
helps to bring reproduced music that
much closer to the live experience.
Luke Manley & Bea Lam
www.Stereophile.com, May 2007 131