Tabla de contenidos para April 2020 en Stereophile

THIS ISSUE: Every sin is the result of collaboration. —Seneca Some Stereophile readers will surely remember—some may even have in their collections—Christian Marclay’s 1985 vinyl release Record Without a Cover, surely one of the oddest records ever, right up there with the dying-rabbit record and the seven-inch single that’s tinted yellow by the band’s actual urine. I had filed away my memory of Record Without a Cover in a brain-slot adjacent to Gary Dahl’s pet rock and The Nothing Book, the wordless bestseller from 1974. But then I read an interview between Marclay and musician/scholar David Toop,1 published in a book I recommend: Arcana III: Musicians on Music (Hips Road, 2008). It’s part of the Arcana series, edited by John Zorn, which is now up to its eighth (VIIIth?) volume.…

Designing and building a turntable isn’t all that difficult. All that matters is in plain sight: Start with a base of wood, MDF, or acrylic; add some isolation “feet” for it to rest upon, and a spindle bearing such as any competent machine shop can fabricate, topped by a platter of acrylic or aluminum or suchlike. The motor can be an off-the-shelf AC synchronous type, fed directly by the electricity from a wall socket. Machining a correctly sized pulley and driving the platter with a belt requires minimal math skills to achieve the correct speeds. Build the motor into the base, or put it in an outboard pod—either way, you’re in business. Now, just bolt an arm to the base at the correct distance, set up a cartridge, and enjoy!…

As with the Roon Nucleus+ that I reviewed in the August 2018 issue, it’s difficult to determine what measurements would be meaningful with a product like the Innuos Statement. However, when I examined the analog output of an Ayre Acoustics QX-5 Twenty D/A processor with the Roon server, I did find that sourcing J-Test data via USB from the Nucleus+ gave a slightly cleaner spectrum than when the same data was sourced from my MacBook Pro laptop.1 The Ayre DAC has long since been returned to the manufacturer, but I did have three D/A processors with USB inputs that I could use to investigate what the effect was of sourcing data from the Innuos server rather than the laptop: an original Mytek Brooklyn, an AudioQuest DragonFly Red, and an AudioQuest…

I used DRA Labs’ MLSSA system to measure the ProAc Response D2R, using a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone for the farfield behavior and an Earthworks QTC-40 mike for the nearfield responses. Though ProAc specifies the Response D2R’s sensitivity as 88.5dB, presumably for 1W at 1m, my estimate was somewhat lower, at 85dB(B)/2.83V/m. The ProAc’s specified impedance is 8 ohms; the solid trace in fig.1 reveals that, other than two regions in the midbass and lower midrange, the impedance remains above 8 ohms for the entire audioband. The minimum value is 6.22 ohms between 170Hz and 180Hz, and while the electrical phase angle (dashed trace) is high at some frequencies, the impedance magnitude is also high at those frequencies. The Response D2R will therefore be a very easy load for the…

I measured the Jadis Orchestra Black using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 “As We See It”1). The Orchestra Black appears to be very similar to the Orchestra Reference Mk.II that Art Dudley reviewed in December 2015. I had various issues measuring the earlier amplifier,2 including a broken tube, and the fact that as the Orchestra Reference is a fixed-bias design meant I needed to reset the bias for each of the four new output tubes when I installed them. The Black also uses fixed bias for its output EL34s, but this time there were no problems. As the THD+noise at 1Wpc into 8 ohms after I installed the tubes, each in its correct socket, was very similar to that of the Reference Mk.II, I didn’t need…

When he reviewed Channel D’s Lino C 2.0 phono preamplifier in his June 2019 Analog Corner column, Michael Fremer wrote, “My ears instantly accepted its combination of drop-dead, noise-free backgrounds and lack of obvious colorations or sonic personality.” He concluded, “After a few months of listening, my initial enthusiasm and appreciation for the Lino C 2.0 continues.” I had been impressed when I performed the measurements to accompany MF’s review of Channel D’s earlier Seta L phono preamplifier in August 2010,1 so I asked for a sample of the Lino C 2.0 to measure.2 Like the Seta L, the Lino C 2.0 is powered by a rechargeable battery. However, that’s where the resemblance ends. Whereas the Seta L used conventional voltage-mode circuitry, the Lino operates in current mode, amplifying the…

COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS listed here have been formally reviewed in Stereophile, and we have determined them to be among the finest available in each of four or five quality classes: Whether a component is listed in Class A or Class D (or E), we consider it to be a genuinely recommendable product. Each listing, in alphabetical order within classes, is followed by a brief description of its performance characteristics and a note indicating the issue of Stereophile in which its review, and in some cases Follow-Up reports, appeared—ie, “Vol.42 No.6” indicates our June 2019 issue. And so forth. A relatively small number of products listed here have not yet been reviewed but have been suggested by one or more of our writers as deserving of consideration. Those products are rated with…

I used DRA Labs’ MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Vimberg Mino’s frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 mike for the nearfield and in-room responses. The 159lb loudspeaker was too bulky for me to move it outside for the testing. I therefore had to do the quasi-anechoic measurements in my listening room, where the proximity of room boundaries necessarily led to aggressive windowing of the time-domain data, which reduced the graphs’ resolution in the midrange. Vimberg specifies the Mino’s sensitivity as 89dB/W/m; my estimate was within experimental error, at 88.6dB(B)/2.83V/m. The Mino’s impedance is specified as 4 ohms, with a minimum value of 3.8 ohms at 100Hz. The solid trace in fig.1 shows the impedance magnitude with the upper port blocked, which…

I REMEMBER THE ONLY TIME I EVER SAW CHET BAKER. IT WAS AT PARNELL’S, A JAZZ CLUB IN PIONEER SQUARE IN SEATTLE, LONG SINCE DEFUNCT. IT WAS A FEW YEARS BEFORE BAKER DIED UNDER MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES, IN AMSTERDAM IN 1988, AFTER A LIFE OF CREATIVITY, NOTORIOUS DISSIPATION, AND ADDICTION. Emaciated, with a caved-in face, he already looked near death. He played like an angel. I remember something that happened to me toward the end of the night. Sometimes last sets in jazz clubs, when the crowd has thinned, seem to exist outside of time. There came a moment when, almost alone with Baker’s soft trumpet glow, in the presence of a lyricism ethereal as mist, I suddenly felt like I had been taken out of my body. It was a…

THIS ISSUE: New LP reissues from Sundazed Music/Modern Harmonic and Speakers Corner Singer/actress Nancy Priddy’s sole commercial recording, a 1968 album titled You’ve Come This Way Before—originally issued on Dot Records and now reissued by Sundazed Music/Modern Harmonic (Dot/Modern Harmonic MH-8044)—is a period piece. The arrangements, in which strings, flutes, Herb Alpert–esque trumpets, a harpsichord, a Vox Continental organ, and New Christy Minstrel–style backing singers all appear, are somewhat dated. (Indeed, the opening bars of the title song sound like the sort of cheesy electric pop that the producers of This American Life use as incidental music, apparently to express their limitless stockpiles of irony.) And some of Priddy’s lyrics make the listener thankful for her poor enunciation. But with the exception of the Side Two opener, “My Friend Frank”—which…

THIS ISSUE: Representatives from Channel D, ProAc, ZMF, and Hagerman respond to our reviews of their products. Channel D Lino C 2.0 I would like to express my deep appreciation to Stereophile and John Atkinson for their interest in following up on Michael Fremer’s review of our Lino C 2.0 current-mode phono stage. Accounting for differences in test signal level and output load, JA’s results correspond closely with our own tests. Regarding JA’s statement that the RIAA accuracy was “the best I have measured,” typical production units actually exceed the accuracy of Stereophile’s sample. That might seem to be splitting hairs, but engineering something “better” is gratifying when it’s feasible. It makes me very happy to design a product and find that its listening and measured performance both exceed expectations.…

SUBMISSIONS: Those promoting audio-related seminars, shows, and meetings should email the when, where, and who to stletters@stereophile.com at least eight weeks before the month of the event. The deadline for the July 2020 issue is April 20, 2020. US: NEW YORK, NY Jim Austin In his review, in the January 2020 Stereophile, of Remember Me, My Dear, by Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble, Jason Victor Serinus wrote, “John Potter often sounds covered and bottled up.” In fact, Potter left the ensemble in 2001 and so is not on the recording. We regret the error. US: LOS ANGELES, CA Jim Austin Is this the coolest name ever for a hi-fi company? Norway’s Ø Audio and High End by Oz—the US importer of Vitus Audio electronics—have announced a distribution agreement. Ø…

THIS ISSUE: Art shares some recent gems from the Stereophile mail bag and tries yet another new BBC-licensed minimonitor. In my January 2020 Listening1 column, I wrote about a place where three things overlap: the joys (and benefits) of being a record collector, the natural tendency to grow and challenge ourselves as listeners, and the need to forgive ourselves for the shortcomings of our youth. The hook was the story of how I started out disliking the music of guitarist John Fahey (1939–2001) and ended up loving it. But it could just as easily have been about cooking or hiking or Jethro Tull or any of a number of other things. At the end of that bit, I invited readers to send in their own such stories, and I’m happy…

We carry within us the wonders we seek outside us.—Rumi There are plenty of difficult obstacles in your path. Don’t allow yourself to become one of them.—Ralph Marston, The Daily Motivator Put these two quotes together, shake vigorously, and you’ve got the essence of a music server. Unless your container isn’t tightly sealed, in which case you’ve got a mess. A dedicated streaming music server has but one overriding purpose: to enable the discovery and delivery of digitally encoded music—and then get out of the way. Ideally, it performs like the best of servants, keeping everything in order, noting items worthy of attention, doing exactly as its master wishes, and then bowing out without drawing attention to itself. For probably the majority of music-lovers, an all-purpose computer, used for pretty…

I am the world’s worst consumer. Not only have I made more than my share of disastrous purchase decisions, I’m also inexplicably luckless: If there’s one defective sample or repack in an inventory, it will find me. I’m also a deceit magnet, and I’m spineless: More than once in my life, I have made abominable purchase decisions solely to please a manipulative salesman or a disinterested third party (read: girlfriend). There is abundant photographic evidence that I don’t know how to shop for clothes, my glasses are wrong for my face because I trust the advice of opticians with bad or no taste, and the less competent/more antagonistic the barber, the likelier I am to say “Great job, I love it” and tip them 50%. If I were smarter, I…

If an orchestra is going to wait more than a decade before releasing its first record, it had better go big when it finally does—which is what the String Orchestra of Brooklyn has done. Afterimage includes compositions by Paganini (1720-1840) and Pergolesi (1710-1736) alongside works by Rome Prize winner Christopher Cerrone (b.1984) and the less wellknown Jacob Cooper (b.1980). The String Orchestra of Brooklyn knows of going big; its 32 musicians worked with composers John Cale and Tony Conrad in a six-hour installation work at the 2015 opening of the Whitney Museum’s new location in lower Manhattan. It has given premiere performances of works by Anthony Coleman, Catherine Lamb, and Alex Mincek. The centerpiece of Afterimage—occupying more than half of its 49 minutes—is Cooper’s astonishing Stabat Mater Dolorosa, composed in…

From 78 to 24/384 When I was 11, my father brought home the voice of tenor Enrico Caruso (1873–1921) in a three-LP box set whose faux leather cover and sepia-tinted photos I admired over and over. When he put on the Sextet from Lucia di Lammermoor, I exclaimed, “Daddy, I’ve heard that before!” “Yeah, you broke it when you were 2,” he replied. I was weaned on opera. With all that Italianate passion bubbling in my blood, reconnecting with the voices of Caruso and Galli-Curci felt like coming home. While Elvis, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, and then Donovan soon joined them—I used to blast Little Richard at a high enough volume to drive my mother out of the house—it was with Caruso, and then Joan Sutherland and…