Specs & Pricing

HP’s Workshop
Because of the intensity of the sessions, I
used fewer CDs than I normally would, and
no LPs, since there is no operating turntable in
Room 2, nor has there been in many a moon.
But the CDs I did use are those I always begin
my sessions with, CDs whose sound allows me
to get a fix and reference on the other gear I
am testing. This means I used the quite stunning
XRCD transfer of Zubin Mehta’s reading
of The Planets (especially Mercury, Saturn and
Uranus), the second cut of Hearts of Space’s
The Lost World (a mind-boggler of a sonic
storm), the Mercury recording of The Composer
and His Orchestra (the first section), Mercury and
Fennell’s reading of Grainger’s Lincolnshire Posy
(cuts 1 and 6), Holly Cole’s version of “I Can
See Clearly Now,” and the two-channel layer
of the SACD I produced for Telarc Records
(the two cuts from Carmina Burana). If you
know these discs, or some of them, you can
appreciate that they will test the mettle of any
gear, from the amplifier to the speakers. (The
Premier 350, to my surprise, actually sounded
stressed on some of the most massive peaks
on a few of these recordings. Lest it seem I
am picking on this amp, which was one of my
Editor’s Choices in Issue 165, keep in mind
that it is reasonably priced at circa $7000 and
more than a bargain, given its many strengths.
The Burmester combo comes out at $44,000,
roughly six times the price, and certainly not a
“measurable” six times the better.)
And so, how did THE KINGs really
sound
For the answer to this, you’ll have to read Part
II, next time out.
I know, such a tease.
Part Two:
HP’s LOG—The Perils
of Reviewing
I guess you might call this a blog, without the
“b” and without the word cyberspace. But I’d
rather call it my personal log, at least for now
and the time being.
I felt compelled to write these nearly random
notes to bring you up to date on some of the
workings behind the scenes here.
One of the projects I had planned to do
over a six-month period, thus six issues of the
magazine, was to review a half-dozen large,
fairly ambitious speaker systems.
And I began this survey with the provocative
new Burmester B-100 three-way system, whose
crowning glory was an updated modified
version of the legendary Heil tweeter, which
was/is capable of quite high playback levels
and wide dynamic swings, with exceptionally
low coloration and distortion. The system had
120 December 2006 The Absolute Sound
Robert Harley comments
on the Memory Player
The Memory Player (see p. 120) might, indeed, produce a sonic improvement, but that improvement is
certainly not attributable to the mechanism claimed by the manufacturer.
First, uncorrected errors on CD playback are rare. The datastream read from a disc is rife with bit
errors, but those errors are instantly corrected and replaced with the identical original data. Corrected
bit errors result in absolutely no loss of information or change in sound quality. The CD’s CIRC (Cross-
Interleaved Reed-Solomon Code) error-correction scheme is remarkably robust, allowing burst errors of
up to 4000 consecutive bits (equivalent to 2.5mm of track length on a CD) to be reconstructed with the
identical missing data. This is not interpolation or error concealment, but perfect bit-for-bit correction.
This powerful error correction is what allows CD-ROM to work so well. Missing or interpolated data in
audio data could introduce a momentary glitch; errors in computer code could cause a program to crash.
Granted, CD-ROM has an extra layer of error detection and correction above and beyond that of CD, but
that extra safeguard is rarely invoked.
Second, if uncorrectable errors do occur (primarily because of disc scratches or dirt), error-concealment
circuits replace the missing data with a best-guess interpolation based on the waveform’s values before
and after the missing data. Error concealment is rarely audible. In some instances, concealment can be
heard as a low-level tick sound. The manufacturer’s assertion that error concealment is commonplace,
and results in “a congestion and harsh odd (order) harmonics borne of a synthetic tone” is simply false.
Uncorrected errors, at worst, introduce momentary ticks, not a global change in sound quality. If the error
is too great for concealment (12,300 consecutive bits, or 7.7mm of track length), the player momentarily
mutes the signal. Furthermore, these interpolated data are not “called ECC (error correction codes)” in
any of the technical literature.
I must repeat that an uncorrectable error is a rare event on a CD that has not been abused. In fact, the
uncorrected error rate for a reasonably well-made CD that has not been abused is roughly 10 –10 , or one
error in every 10 billion bits.
This isn’t to say that the Memory Player doesn’t improve the sound. There are many instances in highend
audio where an audible change exists that cannot be explained by our limited understanding of the
science. Indeed, other mechanisms might be at work. But “a congestion and harsh odd (order) harmonics
borne of a synthetic tone” is not one of them.
I have some familiarity with this subject: I worked in a CD mastering lab where my job duties included
modifying CD players to extract the various error-correction flags from the decoding chips for input to
custom error-analyzers, performing bit-for-bit comparisons between the data on CD mastertapes and
CDs replicated from those masters, examining CD pit structures with a scanning electron microscope,
and correlating error rates on replicated CDs with mastering parameters (see my Audio Engineering
Society paper, co-written with Ray Keating, “CD-V Signal Optimization,” presented at the 1989 Hamburg
convention).
a remarkable integration of its drivers, although
the side-firing woofer setup could be tricky
to place, since one would run the risk of a
spatial discontinuity. I wanted more time with
these, especially to use them with components
other than Burmester’s most impressive new
electronics (the latest version of the 04 preamp
and the 911 Mk III amplifier) but found, to
my consternation, that Burmester had already
promised the B-100s to Sound By Singer of
Manhattan—already sold, I was told—and that
it wouldn’t be until October that another pair
would find its way to my doorstep.
Next in line were the Marten Coltranes,
which I made mention of in Issue 165, and
which I found bewitching once they were finetuned
with a vengeance (in terms of placement).
Since then, I have found even more to like in
the Coltranes, and was looking forward to an
in-depth shot at them. Why Because, there was
something about their “sweetness” that made
me wonder if the ceramic drivers might not
be adding a particularly glorious and musically
consonant coloration to the sound. Then, there
was that diamond tweeter, which struck me as
some kind of breakthrough, in terms of purity
and a seeming absence of an all-too-common
high-frequency resonance in the audible range.
The next speaker on the schedule was the
top-of-the-line Usher from Taiwan a beautifully
crafted and luxurious looking three-speaker
system for an extravagantly reasonable price
(just over $16k.) Turns out, the designer
had decided to “tune” the speakers for the
American market, which, in this case, meant
a tweeter level that sounded audibly louder in
volume than the other drivers in the cabinet,
and this, to these ears, meant these were not