Tabla de contenidos para July 2020 en Stereophile

THIS ISSUE: Mikey tries something totally new, gets grounded, and then, with the help of a new watchdog, manages to avoid charges. Lately, current amplification–based moving coil phono preamplifiers have gotten a great deal of well-deserved press. For years, Haniwa’s Dr. Kubo has been designing and selling super–low-internal-impedance cartridges because such cartridges work best with such devices. He has also been designing and selling his own current-amplification phono preamplifier; I recently reviewed one of each as part of Haniwa’s Vinyl Playback System, which consists of ThePlayer—a modified Transrotor supplied turntable—the HTAM01 tonearm, a modified ViV Lab Rigid Float tonearm; the HTCR-CO phono cartridge; and the HEQ-A03-C1 current-mode phono stage. Here’s something new to Haniwa’s range and to hi-fi: the $6000 HCVC01 passive current-to-voltage converter. It’s analogous to a step-up transformer…

Because of the Von Schweikert Ultra 55’s bulk and weight, I drove my measurement gear to Michael Fremer’s place in deepest, darkest New Jersey to perform the measurements. I chose a day that was forecast to be sunny with minimal wind, because I was going to measure the speaker in his driveway, so that the only source of reflections would be the ground. (Even so, the proximity of the ground necessarily led to aggressive windowing of the time-domain data, which reduced the measurements’ midrange resolution.) I first measured the speaker’s spatially averaged response in Mikey’s listening room, then we maneuvered one of the speakers onto a small dolly—easier to write than do, given the Ultra 55’s 190lb weight and its spikes—and wheeled it outside. To avoid heating up the drive-units,…

Canadian audio manufacturer Classé Audio was founded in 1980 by engineer Dave Reich and entrepreneur/audiophile Mike Viglas. The name “Classé” was a pun on the fact that Reich was a firm believer in an amplifier’s output stage operating in class-A, where the output devices never turn off (see sidebar). Though the brand was established with the 25Wpc DR-2, the first review of a Classé amplifier to appear in Stereophile, by Larry Greenhill, was of the later DR-3, in December 1985. This review had not yet been reprinted on the magazine’s website at the time of writing this report, but no fewer than 21 reviews of Classé products are available in our free online archive. These include the CAM-350 monoblock amplifier, which was reviewed by Brian Damkroger in January 20011 and…

I measured the MBL Noble Line N11’s performance with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 “As We See It”1), repeating some of the tests with a loan sample of Audio Precision’s morerecent, higher-performance APx555 system.2 As advised in the manual, using the front-panel menu, I deactivated all the N11’s inputs other than one of the balanced inputs and the unbalanced CD1 input for the measurements. I performed all the testing with the N11 set to its recommended Unity Gain mode and its volume control set to its maximum in that mode, “70.” I then repeated some of the tests with the preamp set to apply its maximum gain with the volume control set to “100.” In Unity Gain mode, the maximum gain for the balanced input to…

THIS ISSUE: A pristine Tone Poet Blue Note record of a very fine hard bop session. Jazz collecting has an archaeological aspect to it; it’s one of my favorite aspects of the hobby. Far more than most other genres, jazz evolved over its first several decades, and it did so on record. Every musician was distinctive, changed from session to session, and interacted with other musicians in ways specific to the ensemble, the time, the place, and the mood. Every record, live or from a studio, is a snapshot of where jazz was precisely then and there. You can get to know musicians’ styles, and with practice, you can really hear what’s going on. I called it “archaeological,” but most archaeology is dry, dusty stuff, at least compared to jazz.…

THIS ISSUE: Herb auditions HEDD Audio’s HEDDphones and Schiit’s Jotunheim and Jotunheim R amplifiers—the latter intended specifically for use with Herb’s favorite ‘phones, the RAAL-requisite SR1a. Today is March 22, 2020. Outside my door, the plague is gaining intensity. People are wearing masks and rubber gloves. But outside the window by my desk, there is a Callery pear tree, and every day its blossoms are becoming more intensely white. Each day its brightness (measured in units of luminous flux) increases noticeably. The optical radiance of its zillionpetal whiteness illuminates the whole garden. Looking out that desk window, I notice also the spring-warmed radiance of the sun, the racing shadows of ravenous sparrows, and daffodils. Each one of those things, in its way, affects my thoughts about what matters in life:…

I tested the Classé Delta Mono with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 “As We See It”1). I preconditioned the amplifier by operating it at one-third the specified power into 8 ohms for an hour. At the end of that time, the chassis was cool, at 76.9°F (24.9°C), though the grille over the rear-mounted fan vent was warmer, at 105.0°F (40.6°C). The Classé’s voltage gain into 8 ohms measured 28.7dB from both the balanced and unbalanced inputs and the amplifier preserved absolute polarity (ie, was noninverting) with both input signals. At 86k ohms at 20Hz and 1kHz, the balanced input impedance was both usefully high and slightly higher than the specified value of 82k ohms. Though the impedance dropped to 70k ohms at 20kHz, this is still…

Calling himself EOB, songwriter/singer/guitarist Ed O’Brien has released his first solo album after 35 years with Radiohead. Over the decades, bandmates have branched out for high-profile projects—Jonny Greenwood writes film scores and Thom Yorke has several solo recordings—but O’Brien has stayed mostly in the background. Earth pushes him to the forefront, revealing a knack for collaborative creativity. From the first moments of the album’s opening song, “Shangri-La,” it’s apparent that O’Brien is steeped in Radiohead’s musical language—but also that it’s not his only language. The opening percussive riff has a bright-edged coyness that evokes Peter Gabriel more than O’Brien’s usual band, but the falsetto vocal floating over it might call Yorke to mind. The sonic spectrum ranges from crisp maracas at the top to thudding bass at the low end.…

THIS ISSUE: A copy can be more meaningful than the copied thing, but some things—and some people—can never be copied. I met Art twice, and in both instances, he was exceedingly humble and gracious with his time. The first time, I thanked him for hosting the Virtues of Vintage panel at DC’s Capital Audiofest, just moments after he was verbally accosted by an unwell man seated in front of me—something about audiojournalism lingo and abstract phrases like “midrange bloom.” Art wrote about this experience for Stereophile several times, in a show report and also, anecdotally, in Listening. Recently, actually. After the panel, I waited for the adoring throng to subside then adoringly thanked Art for his presence, for simply being. Sometime before, Art had written about restoring his vintage Altec…

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 October 2020 issue is July 20, 2020. UK: CAMBRIDGE Jason Victor Serinus Cambridge-based digital audio specialist dCS (Data Conversion Systems Ltd.) is in the midst of its Legends Award program. Conceived to honor 12 Grammy Award–winning recording, mixing, and mastering engineers whose work supports “studio quality” high-resolution downloads and streams, the yearlong campaign was launched on October 16, 2019, at the 147th Audio Engineering Society (AES) Convention in New York City. Each award recipient receives a limited-edition, commemorative version of dCS’s Bartók digital-to-analog converter. The first award, presented by dCS and the Producers & Engineers wing of the Recording…

I measured the Tannoy Revolution XT 6’s farfield behavior with DRA Labs’ MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone. I used an Earthworks QTC-40 mike for the speaker’s nearfield responses. Tannoy specifies the Revolution XT 6’s sensitivity as “89dB,” which I assume is for 1W at 1m. My estimate was 88.8dB(B)/2.83V/m, which is both within the margin of error and a little higher than average. Props to Tannoy for an honest sensitivity specification. Although the Revolution XT 6’s nominal impedance is specified as 8 ohms, the magnitude (fig.1, solid trace) is greater than 8 ohms throughout the treble. The impedance magnitude drops below 8 ohms in the midrange, with a minimum value of 5 ohms between 185Hz and 230Hz. The electrical phase angle (dashed trace) is generally benign, as…

During the four years that I’ve reviewed for Stereophile, I’ve had the privilege of evaluating products from some of the world’s best-known audiophile companies: Audio Research, Bel Canto, CH Precision, dCS, D’Agostino, Dynaudio, EMM Labs, Jadis, Krell, Nordost, and Wilson, among others. But one long-standing manufacturer whose exhibits at audio shows invariably inspire ecstatic reports, Germany’s MBL, has remained outside my purview. It thus came as a delightful surprise when MBL North America’s Jeremy Bryan informed Jim Austin and me that the MBL N11 solid-state line preamplifier ($14,600) was available for review. Part of the company’s middle-level Noble Line of electronics, the N11 differs from the Reference Line’s 6010 preamp in one key respect: the notion—specifically, designer Jürgen Reis’s notion—of how it should sound. In a series of Skype interviews,…

THIS ISSUE: Representatives of Haniwa, Schiit, Tannoy, and Classe respond to our reviews of their products. Haniwa HCVC01 phono current-to-voltage converter and HCTR-CO phono cartridge Thank you, Stereophile and Michael Fremer, for reviewing Haniwa’s new HCVC01 current-to-voltage converter in this month’s Analog Corner. We agree, it’s a breakthrough product! Dr. Kubo always appreciates Michael’s comments and continues to make significant improvements based on his feedback. The philosophy of Haniwa is to question everything in audio reproduction. That’s why we are always developing new theories and corresponding products based on those theories. As Michael states, the 0.2 ohm Haniwa HCTR-CO cartridge and CVC form a high-output, current-loop circuit, which is balanced with the dynamic, high-compliance mechanical system of the cartridge. The light force (less than 0.5gm) on the cantilever allows the…