Table of contents for September 2021 in Stereophile

Naim Audio One summer afternoon in Brooklyn, after a sweaty too-long day doing construction, I stumbled upon a hi-fi shop I’d never noticed before. I thought, hmmm, I bet they have air conditioning. Inside, the air was only marginally cooler, but before I could leave, an excessively happy salesman introduced himself. After a bit of low-level chit-chat, he asked me if I was into British audio. I told him I “Never heard of it.” After flashing a condescending smile, he directed me to a stark, nearly empty demonstration room (that I hoped had working AC) and showed me an unusual-looking stereo that consisted of a Linn Sondek LP12 turntable (on a funny metal wall shelf), an unusually proportioned “chrome bumper” Naim NAIT integrated amplifier, and these 12"-tall Linn Audio Kan…

The Air Force Zero turntable is very large for a turntable, but it is not as large as a house. At $450,000 for the base model, it does, however, cost as much as many houses and more than many others.1 This observation will set off howling among some audio enthusiasts of a sort that never happens in the wine world, for instance, where well-heeled oenophiles routinely spend large sums for a short-lived thrill. Yes, I know, some people are homeless. Others are hungry. Isn’t it wrong to spend the equivalent of a suburban home on a means of playing records? It’s a legitimate question, and I don’t dismiss it, but it’s not for me to say, except when it comes to my own choices. It’s a decision each of us…

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “boulder”? I think of a rugged, mountainous landscape with jagged snow-capped peaks. I see images of the last time I drove up from sunny Boulder, Colorado, to Rocky Mountain National Park and discovered so much snow coming down that if we had dared walk too far in, our trail would have been covered with snow and we’d never have been able to find our way out. But how magical it was! My first visit to the area was in late July 1972. I was fleeing New York City for the Bay Area in an old car that burned oil. The park provided welcome relief from the long, monotonous drive. The Summer of Love was long passed, but…

The Pro-Ject Phono Box RS2 phono preamplifier is a very complicated product. It has balanced and single-ended inputs; balanced and single-ended outputs; four different voltage gain settings and multiple choices for capacitive loadings in MM mode; four different gain settings and continuously variable input impedance in MC mode; and standard and upgrade linear power supply options. I performed a complete set of measurements with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 “As We See It”1), using the balanced input and output with the preamp set to MM, maximum gain, 50pF input capacitance, and powered by the hefty RS Uni linear power supply. (This was placed as far away from the preamplifier chassis as the umbilical cable would allow.) I then repeated some tests in both MM and MC…

AS SHE MOVES QUIETLY ACROSS THE HUGE SCORING STAGE AT SKYWALKER STUDIOS TOWARD THE LARGE, COMFORTABLE CONTROL ROOM THAT SITS BEHIND GLASS, IT’S OBVIOUS THAT LESLIE ANN JONES IS IN CHARGE. SHE WEARS NO BADGE THAT PROCLAIMS HER AUTHORITY, ALTHOUGH HER PROFESSIONAL TITLE IS IMPRESSIVE: “DIRECTOR OF MUSIC AND SCORING, MUSIC AND SCORING RECORDING ENGINEER AND MIXER.”1 NOR DOES SHE SPEAK IN A LARGE VOICE OR HIT YOU OVER THE HEAD WITH HER FIVE GRAMMY AWARDS AND FOUR GRAMMY NOMINATIONS. BUT WHEN SHE TURNS FROM WATCHING THE 80' × 60' × 30' SCORING STAGE, WHICH HAS THE LOWEST NOISEFLOOR OF ANY STUDIO OF ITS SIZE, TO QUESTION THE IDENTITIES OF TWO WOMEN SHE’S NEVER SEEN BEFORE, HER VOICE IS CLEAR, CALM, AND NON-THREATENING, AND SHE DISPLAYS ABSOLUTE COMFORT WITH AUTHORITY.…

The Africans brought to the Americas to be sold into slavery were denied every vestige of their past except their memories. And yet, they preserved their rituals in dances, songs, and stories, playing the sacred rhythms that accompanied those rituals on whatever found objects they could use to fashion beats. The customs of American peoples from various African regions have been traced to specific destinations in colonial outposts in research detailed by scholars such as John Storm Roberts in Black Music of Two Worlds and Ned Sublette in several of his African-diaspora studies. That music has flourished over the course of centuries into rich and varied traditions that define each region by the culture preserved by enslaved people. The cross-fertilization continues to this day as the music migrates through the…

KANSAS CITY SYMPHONY/MICHAEL STERN One-Movement Symphonies Reference Recordings RR-149. David Frost, prod.; Keith O. Johnson, rec. eng. These three symphonies, all dating from the first half of the 20th century, comprise so apt a program that I’m surprised no one did it before. The striking contrasts among them—Barber’s First unusually angular (for him), Sibelius’s Seventh rugged and forward-looking, the Poem of Ecstasy (Scriabin’s Fourth) mystical and impulsive—serve to underline their common features. Who knew, for example, that Barber could sound startlingly like Sibelius? The program demands front-line virtuoso playing, and the Kansas City Symphony proves up to the challenge. The string sections sound well-blended and beguilingly warm. The suave woodwind soloists form a velvety choir, capable of fetching light staccatos. Brasses are a firm and round presence, without overbalancing. The…

Shunyata Research: US Patents Method to reduce distortion in an audio cable using ferroelectric substances. Patent Number: US 6,545,213 Method to eliminate RFI, EMI and other interference in a power supply. Patent Number: US 7,196,892 Power conditioner that actively corrects A.C. line harmonic distortion. Patent Number: US 7,256,638 Cable elevator that neutralizes static electric interference. Patent Number: US 7,694,917 Device that reduces AC power line noise using ferroelectric substances. Patent Number: US 8,658,892 Method to reduce dielectric distortion in signal transmission cables. Patent Number: US 8,912,436 Method to improve instantaneous current delivery in an AC to DC power supply. Patent Number: 10,031,536 Shunyata Research Inc. shunyata.com…

German manufacturer Canton Elektronik has a strong presence in Europe, but distribution of its loudspeakers in the US has been sporadic. Consequently, the most recent review in Stereophile of a Canton speaker, the Reference 3.2 DC, was in 2010.1 When we heard, last December, that Bluebird Music would be bringing Canton back to North America, we were eager to review a Canton loudspeaker. Balancing performance and price, we selected the Reference 7K, which costs $6995/pair. Description The Reference 7K is a handsome three-way tower, 1m tall and finished in high-gloss lacquer—black lacquer in the case of the review samples. The enclosure is formed from several layers of wood glued together with heat and pressure to achieve a stiff, well-damped structure. The sidewalls curve gently toward the rear, and the box…

I tested the Boulder 866 with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 “As We See It”1), then repeated some tests with the magazine’s more recently acquired APx555 system. But first, I preconditioned the amplifier by following the CEA’s recommendation of operating it at one-eighth the specified power into 8 ohms for 30 minutes. At the end of that time, the top panel was very hot, at 115.5°F (44.2°C), and the heatsinks were too hot to touch, at 133.3°F (56.3°C). The Boulder amplifier’s output stages appear to be biased heavily into partial class-A operation. Owners must make sure the amplifier has sufficient ventilation. (JVS placed the 866 on the top shelf of his equipment rack.) I looked first at the Boulder’s performance via one of its three balanced…

ZESTO LETO ULTRA II LINE PREAMPLIFIER On the outside, the Zesto Leto Ultra II line preamplifier ($10,900),1 which Ken Micallef reviewed earlier this year,2 looks a bit different than most other audio components. The designs on its faceplate resemble ocean waves. Waves are also evoked by the bending mirrored plate above, which obscures transformers and other electronics and, in dim light, reflects the Leto’s gently glowing 12AU7 and 12DW7 tubes. Otherwise, the Leto’s only important features are three front-panel knobs: one for volume, one for source selection—and a third that Zesto calls its “presence control.” The presence control is a tone control with a very specific purpose: to tame the high end on especially rowdy recordings. Based on my first exposure at the Toronto Audio Fest, Ken’s listening, and JA’s…

DAVID BOWIE The Width of a Circle Parlophone 0190295082260 (CD). 2021. Bernie Andrews, others, prods.; Nick Gomm, eng. The 50th anniversary of the release of David Bowie’s The Man Who Sold the World was marked last year with a remastered reissue that restored Bowie’s desired cover art and intended title: Metrobolist. Parlophone has followed that up with a worthy two-disc set charting Bowie’s early course. The first CD contains an hour-long radio appearance from February 1970, presented by BBC legend John Peel. On four songs, Bowie plays with his acoustic guitar; on two, he’s accompanied by bassist Tony Visconti and drummer John Cambridge. Guitarist Mick Ronson joins on the rest. Bowie was just 23 at the time, unsure what he wanted to do but certain he wanted fame. A couple…

A few audio retailers have recently closed their doors due to pandemi-crelated hardship or retirement—Lyric Hi-Fi in NYC is a landmark case. So it’s refreshing to hear about a longstanding bricks-and-mortar dealership that has avoided that fate: House of Stereo in Jacksonville, Florida. Jacksonville is unusually well-served for a city its population size. It is home to three audio dealerships, all started in the 1960s: House of Stereo, Hoyt Stereo, and Behrens. The three owners “grew old together,” Joe Parvey, the business’s new owner, told me in a telephone interview. Bill Gibson founded House of Stereo in 1969 and ran it for almost 50 years. When, in 2018, he decided to retire, the store’s future was in doubt. Parvey was a local kid who grew up visiting House of Stereo…

WallyTools Thank you Michael Fremer and Stereophile for the kind attention paid to WallyTools and, more importantly, to proper analog setup! We continue to be surprised at how much more information and musical realism a line-contact stylus can extract from the grooves when it is perfectly aligned for all three angular relationships with the groove walls: rake, azimuth, and zenith. Unfortunately, most of the technical studies on the mechanical relationship between the stylus and groove that have been done and submitted for peer review were from the 1970s or earlier, and few of them were conducted with styli that have the fine and long groove-contact surface features found on today’s high-end cartridges. Ideal alignment targets for a stylus haven’t changed over the decades, but our styli have become much more…

US: LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA Jim Austin The first post-pandemic audio show was The Home Entertainment Show in Long Beach, California, which took place June 11–13. In the months leading up to this show, I wondered why they hadn’t canceled it: It seemed too soon. Then, in late spring, the pandemic was abating. More people were vaccinated. Case rates were dropping fast. I decided, yes, the time was right. I congratulated Emiko Carlin, the show’s coordinator, for her good judgment. Among the fully vaccinated was Jason Victor Serinus; he lived closest to the show and was eager to go back out into the Big World. Big world, small show: Carlin said the show counted 1416 visitors. And yet, on Saturday, most rooms were full all day; some were packed even on…

I don’t like being pigeonholed as a reviewer of exclusively expensive audio components—because I’m not, as anyone who regularly peruses Analog Planet knows. So, to ease the pain of reviewing the half-million-dollar Air Force Zero turntable—you’ll find that review on p.53 of this issue—I figured I’d cover some more reasonably priced analog gear here in Analog Corner. Plus, I need to do some spring cleaning and tidy up a few loose reviewing ends: Only products reviewed in Stereophile qualify for the Recommended Components list, so when I review something at Analog Planet that I think should be on that list, I need to cover it here, too. Take, for instance, QHW Audio’s The Vinyl MM/MC phono preamp. (QHW stands for “Quality Hi-Fi Works.”) See my full review at Analog Planet.1…

As with the Magico A5 loudspeaker that Jim Austin reviewed in the July issue,1 I drove my test gear to his apartment to perform the measurements of this large, heavy speaker. I used DRA Labs’ MLSSA system, an Earthworks microphone preamplifier, and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Audiovector R 8’s behavior in the farfield. (We maneuvered one of the speakers onto a dolly and aimed it across a room diagonal so that it was maximally distant from the sidewalls.) I used an Earthworks QTC-40 mike for the nearfield and spatially averaged inroom responses. (For the latter, the loudspeakers were in the positions where JCA had auditioned them.) The R 8’s sensitivity is specified as 92.5dB/W/m. My estimate was slightly lower, 90dB(B)/2.83V/m, but this is still usefully higher…

I used DRA Labs’ MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Canton Reference 7K’s frequency response in the farfield. My reference axis for the measurements was level with the center of the midrange unit, which is 36" from the floor, the height of my ears in my listening chair. I used an Earthworks QTC-40 mike for the nearfield and in-room responses and Dayton Audio’s DATS V2 system to measure the impedance. Canton specifies the Reference 7K’s sensitivity as 88.5dB, presumably for 2.83V at 1m, which was confirmed by my measurement. The Reference 7K’s impedance is specified as 4–8 ohms. The solid trace in fig.1 indicates that the impedance magnitude lies between 4 and 9.5 ohms over most of the audioband, with minimum values of 3.2 ohms…

Phono preamplifiers could be compared to children as viewed by a previous generation of adults: They are expected to be small in stature, and they should stay out of the way, seen but not heard and maybe not even seen. With the simpler models typically encountered at lower price points, there’s little to do except “set it and forget it.” But a phono preamplifier such as the component under review—the Pro-Ject Phono Box RS2 ($1999)—could, with its many features, keep you up all night, playing. A component like the RS2 can increase your hands-on involvement with your vinyl playback, which can be a good thing: Vinyl lovers are typically hands-on; we like to be involved in our audio systems. The RS2 is unusually full-featured, especially at its price. It’s fully…

No one taught me more about the heralded tone of Ortofon SPU cartridges, the magical pacing of idlerdrive turntables, or the dynamics and speed of horn-loaded speakers than Art Dudley, Stereophile’s late deputy editor. His equipment reviews and monthly Listening columns weren’t merely tutorials on how to review audio equipment with insight and an individual voice; they were also an entertaining, informative immersion into the kind of hi-fi he loved. We also shared many conversations, though too few. Whenever Art lacked the time or interest to review a horn-loaded speaker, I pounced. Between May 2017 and August 2019, I reviewed the Volti Audio Rival, the Burwell Mother of Burl, the Klipsch Heresy III, and the Klipsch Forte III. In my review1 of the Forte III, I praised its reproduction of…

Mingus at Carnegie Hall documents one of the most extraordinary live jazz concerts. Atlantic Records released a one-disc LP of the same title in 1975, a few months after the heady event, but it included only the second half of the show—late-career Charles Mingus’s young quintet jamming for 45 minutes with three older guest stars on Ellington standards “C Jam Blues” and “Perdido” (the latter written by Juan Tizol). Left on the cutting-room floor was the entire first half—just the quintet, stretching for 75 minutes on Mingus classics (“Peggy’s Blue Skylight,” “Celia,” and “Fables of Faubus”), and a bluesy original by pianist Don Pullen (“Big Alice”). This new “Deluxe Edition” (3 LPs on Run Out Groove; also on Rhino as a 2-CD set) presents the whole concert for the first…

ALICE COLTRANE Kirtan: Turiya Sings Alice Coltrane: vocals; organ. Impulse! B003370502 (CD). 2021. Ravi Coltrane, Ed Michel, prods.; Baker Bigsby, eng. Luaka Bop’s 2017 release of the compilation The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda renewed interest in the singular work of the harpist/pianist. Reissues of her self-produced cassettes have largely replaced the previous narrative—jazz widow who faded into irrelevance—with a new one: vital voice who followed her faith without faltering in her art. The loss of husband and collaborator John Coltrane in 1967 had a devastating impact, resulting, reportedly, in weight loss, insomnia, and hallucinations. She found solace in Indian philosophy, which found its way into her music, gradually pulling her away from the fiery jazz she’d become known for. She founded the Vedantic Center in the San Fernando…

STEP 1. When I was in my mid-20s, an older editor at the Dutch current-affairs magazine I worked for told me he wanted to write a piece about audiophiles: He had been bitten by the audio bug himself. Because I often wrote about rock and pop music, he asked if I had a quality hi-fi system, and if so, would I be willing to be interviewed for his article. I should have demurred. I owned a modest system: a Nakamichi cassette deck, a Technics turntable, a Mission Cyrus One amplifier, and Dutch-made BNS 482 speakers. But I thought it sounded fantastic together. In a fit of misplaced pride, I agreed to be quizzed for publication. Thus, one evening, my colleague ascended three narrow flights to my Amsterdam apartment. Still puffing,…