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AUGUST 1994

THE EQUIPMENT AUTHORITY

departmentsFAST FORE -WORD Eugene Pitts Ell . . . . 4SIGNALS & NOISE 6WHAT'S NEW 10AUDIO ETC Edward Tatnall Canby.. . . 14CURRENTS John Eargle 17SPECTRUM Ivan Berger 20AUDIOCLINIC Joseph Giovanelli 24

reCOrdnig.s'CLASSICAL 66ROCK/POP 70JAZZ & BLUES 74

The Cover Photographer: John Wilkes StudioThe Cover Equipment: Acoustic Research LimitedModel 2 preamp

Audio Publishing, Editorial, and Advertising Offices,1633 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10019

Subscription Inquiries, (303) 447-9330

TheAultBurEau

Bob Weinstock,page 30

THE AUDIO INTERVIEW: BOB WEINSTOCK James Rozzi 30THE BEST PLACE FOR YOUR SPEAKERS?

YOUR COMPUTER KNOWS! Roy Allison 36

equipment prattlesACOUSTIC RESEARCH LIMITED

MODEL 2 PREAMP Bascom H. King 42EPOS ES1 1 SPEAKER D. B. Keele, Jr 48AUDIOCONTROL C-101 SERIES III

EQUALIZER/ANALyZER Edward J. Foster 54

SONANCE 2120 AMPLIFIER Edward J. Foster 60ALPHA -CORE GOERTZ MI 1 & MI 2

SPEAKER CABLES I -red E. Davis 64TERK LEAPFROG REMOTE -CONTROL

EXTENDER Anthony H. Cordesman 65

What's New,page 1u

Spectrum,page 20

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ONCE YOU'VE GOT APAIR OF OUR SPEAKERS,THIS W LL BE THE ONLY

TIME YOU'LL HAVE A BADLISTENING EXPERIENCE

IN YOUR CAR.

1ene./.41

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.0.When you pull up to a fast food drive-thru, the speaker outside your car shouldn't remind you of the ones in it. But if it

does, it's time you retrofit your ride with some Pioneers. Our speakers are crafted from a unique blend of materials designed

to give you lower distortion. Higher sensitivity. And plenty of pavement shaking bass. So give us a call at 1 -800 -Pioneer,

ext. 301. W Il make sure you never have to listen to bad sound in your car again. Except, perhaps, when you're hungry.

0,0 PIONEERThe Art of Entertainment

Enter No. 15 on Reader Service Card

M

FAST

ost magazines do research ontheir readers' opinions aboutmagazine contents on a fairlyregular basis. We are noexception. We do this to keeptrack of what you really want us

to do between the covers and not justdepend on editorial intuition or letters andphone calls. Several sorts of research can bedone; we've just done two studies-oneusing focus groups on subscribers versusformer subscribers and the other a mailsurvey. Since we learned and relearnedsome things that were important to me, Ithought they might be interesting to you.

Our two focus groups each had 10people in a room with a moderator whoasked questions and kept a discussiongoing. The survey was an nth -name typeperformed by an outside specialist and itgot what I'm told is a "fine" response rate.

The biggest "fact" to come out of thestudies was that you readers want lots ofequipment coverage, even more if we canfind ways to put more "EquipmentProfiles" into the magazine. (We'reworking on that, not incidentally.) Thissection of the magazine was rankedNumber 1. While it was not a surprise tome that all other columns 'and sectionswere in second place, it both surprised andpleased me how strongly our "Profiles"dominated the rankings. It might be saidthat nothing else did better than thirdplace. The reason I am happy with this isthat I have long been convinced that our"Profiles" are the heart of this magazineand are the basic reason you buy Audio.

OR'E-WOR'D

There are three sorts of equipment youmost want reviewed and you are prettydefinite about their relative importance-speakers are by far the most important,with amps second, and preamps trailing.

Second on the list of editorial favoriteswas the "Audioclinic" column, whichplaced higher up than I had anticipated.Even though the "Auricles" column doescover equipment, its rank was essentiallyequaled by our letters column, "Signals &Noise"; Edward Tatnall Canby's opinioncolumn, "Audio ETC," and our pop/rockrecord column.

On the survey, the popular types offeature articles were ones on newtechnologies, basic electronic and soundtheory, hints and tips for better sound,listening room design, and the history ofhigh fidelity. Some in the focus groupsexpressed an almost nostalgic desire to seeus return to publishing big constructionarticles. While quality you -build -it articles

have been tough to get, we are working onan amplifier construction piece that shouldrun shortly. Let me know how you like it.

Herewith is the first entry in Dr. Pitts'Fractured Dictionary: Alternative Physics,that branch of non -science wherein magicis performed with much arm waving infront of lots of mirrors in the midst ofmany clouds of blown smoke for thesatisfaction of the electronicallydisadvantaged from whom pieces of greenpaper are extracted; said to take place inother universes; no feat of alternativephysics has yet been verified by blindtesting in this universe; greatness of thefeats in direct ratio to the number ofextracted pieces of green paper; termed"alternative" because its principles, whenknown and not "proprietary," do notmatch those of other practioners ofalternatiye physics or those of standardscience in this universe.

AUDIOV.P./EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Eugene Pitts III

ART DIRECTORCathy Cacchione

ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTORLinda Zerella

TECHNICAL EDITORIvan Berger

MANAGING EDITORKay Blumenthal

ASSOCIATE MANAGING EDITORTeresa Monge

ASSOCIATE MANAGING EDITORDouglas Hyde

DIRECTORY EDITORKen Richardson

ASSISTANT EDITOR/MUSICMichael Bieber

ASSISTANT EDITORGerald F. McCarthy

ASSOCIATE EDITOREdward Tamil Canby

SENIOR EDITORSD. B. Keele, Jr., David Lander

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS/ARTISTMichael Aldred, David L Clark,

Anthony H. Cordesman, Ted Costa,John Diliberto, Frank Driggs, John Eargle,

Susan Elliott, Edward J. Foster,Joseph Giovanelli, Bascom H. King,Edward M. Long, Robert D. Long,

Frank Lovece, Paul Moor, Jon W. Poses,Jon R. Sank, John Sunier, Michael Tearson,

Jon 6. Sally Tiven, Michael Wright

AUDIO, August 1994, Volume 78, Number 8. AUDIO(ISSN 0004-752X, Dewey Decimal Number 621.381or 778.5) is published monthly by Hachette FilipacchiMagazines, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Ha-chette Filipacchi USA, Inc., at 1633 Broadway, NewYork, N.Y. 10019. Printed in U.S.A. at Dyersburg,Tenn. Distributed by Warner Publisher Services Inc.Second class postage paid at New York, N.Y. 10019and additional mailing offices. Subscriptions in theUnited States, $24.00 for one year, $42.00 for twoyears, $58.00 for three years; other countries exceptCanada, add $8.00 per year; in Canada, $32.00 forone year (includes 7% GST; Canadian GST registra-tion number 126018209).AUDIO is a registered trademark of Hachette Fili-pacchi Magazines, Inc. 01994, Hachette FilipacchiMagazines, Inc. All rights reserved. The Editor as-sumes no responsibility for manuscripts, photos, orartwork. The Publisher, at his sole discretion, reservesthe right to reject any ad copy he deems inappropriate.Subscription Service: Postmaster, please send changeof address to AUDIO, P.O. Box 52548, Boulder, Colo.80321-2548. Allow eight weeks for change of address.Include both old and new address and a recent ad-dress label. If you have a subscription problem, pleasewrite to the above address or call (303) 447-9330. Back Issues: For information, write to P.O. Box7085, Brick, N.J. 0023.

AUDIO/AUGUST 19944

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the tifMichat 4:'glassteristi.or 26.1 kcism,the GE/

If I hilikenin:I'd corGenesterrificand st.dynunihas mucsion, tig

Fig. Adcom GDA-600, fry.(top); de -emphasis errchannel dashed, 0.5dB,

11.11111. 1100.10 *soma/MO

4110

411

411.

41114

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411/1

FIg.2 Adcom GDA-600, crcdashed. IOdB/vertica

Fig.3 Adcom GDA-60'kHz tone at -9spuriae (%-octavedashed).

5.y

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a-

Fig.4 Adcom GDA-600, cislinearity (right chew'2dB/vertical div.).

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More Reflections on Mr. Hi-FiDear Editor:

I read of Leonard Feldman's death withgreat sadness. I met him on two differentoccasions in Washington and heard himspeak with great passion on audio andvideo topics. His passion mirrored my own.

I first met him at Audio Associates in1986, at a seminar he gave on digital audio.After lecturing and answering questions,he reached into his jacket pocket with atwinkle in his eye and produced whatlooked like a miniature video cassette. Itwas a DAT and pretty much took everyoneby surprise since DAT was not on the frontburner of the audio world at that time. Lenwas genuinely excited about the prospectof a new digital tape technology.

When it was time for the door prize, loand behold, my name was called out, and Iwent up to receive my prize and shookLen's hand. It was a very enjoyable evening.

The second, and last time, I saw LenFeldman was at an audio show in a hotel inthe Tysons Corner area of Virginia. Theshow was wonderful, but what really tookthe cake was the debate and discussion be-tween various speaker manufacturers, me-diated by Len.

He was a great speaker who could reallyhold an audience's attention. He loved au-dio and it showed. I will miss him and hislectures. Len, may you live, forever in "Au-dio Heaven." We will never forget you.

Claude A. Whiting

Centreville, Va.

Dear Editor:I have always admired Leonard Feldman.

My admiration only increased when he tes-tified to Congress about the shortcomingsof the CBS "notch" encoding technique forrecords. That took guts, especially since hewas writing for Audio when it was ownedby CBS.

I also admired the way he kept up on ad-vances in technology and learned the nu-ances in such great depth. He was able toexplain them in a way that was always veryeasy to understand.

Anyone who writes well soon realizeshow difficult it is. To maintain a high levelof integrity, honesty, and technical preci-sion the way he did is truly amazing. I haveread many technical articles in my life andhave learned to interpret what is said and,even more important, what is not said.When I read Leonard Feldman's writing, Ididn't strain to find out what I wanted toknow. His writing was obviously not in-tended to be flashy or controversial, but toconvey information. Most writers don't re-alize the constraints of editorial space limi-tations and therefore will never completelyrealize how much information he was ableto pack into so few words.

I thank him for the wealth of informa-tion that I took from his writings.

Ed Long

Oakland, CaL

Editor's Note: Mr. Long is a ContributingEditor to Audio.

Dear Editor,I just heard, from Ken Pohlmann, the

sad news of Len Feldman's recent death. Itis a true loss to your fine publication andthe fraternity of audio journalists.

I first met Len while I was at Clarion andcame to appreciate his expertise and per-spective. But most significantly, he gainedmy respect for the wonderful way in whichhe conducted himself.

The last time I saw him was the summerof 1989, when he represented Audio at theLexus LS400 long -lead press conferenceheld for audio publications. I felt a greatdeal of pride for the job we had done withthe Nakamichi and Pioneer audio systemswhen Len paid his very high complements.

Best wishes for your magazine. It is aninteresting and valuable reference on all as-pects of "enthusiast -level" audio. Also, wewere very pleased with Ivan Berger's"Roadsigns" column (February 1994) onthe new Lexus GS 300.

Fred M. Deutsch

Audio ler Electronics Planning Mgr./Toyota

Torrance, CaL

AUDIO/AUGUST 19946

AUDIOTHE EQUIPMENT AUTHORITY

V.P./GROUP PUBLISHERThomas Ph. Witschi

(212) 767-6269V.P./ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

Tony Catalano(212) 767-6061

GENERAL MANAGERGreg Roperti

BUSINESS MANAGERChristine Z. Maillet

PRODUCTION DIRECTORSilvia Coppola

PRODUCTION MANAGERKerry Tonning

PROMOTIONS COORDINATORElizabeth R O'Keefe

RESEARCH MANAGERDru Ann Love

OFFICE MANAGERAline J. Pulley

OPERATIONS MANAGERSylvia Correa

AD COORDINATORLinda Neuweiler

ADVERTISINGREGIONAL V.P./AD DIRECTOR, EAST COAST

Charles L. R Watson (212) 767-6038REGIONAL ACCOUNT MANAGER

Christine B. Forhez (212) 767-6025REGIONAL V.P./AD DIRECTOR, MIDWEST

R. Scott Constantine (212) 767-6346REGIONAL V.P./AD DIRECTOR, WEST COAST

Bob Meth (213) 954-4831WESTERN MANAGER

Paula Mayeri (213) 954-4830NATIONAL RECORD LABEL SALES

MAG Inc. Mitch Herskowitz (212) 490-1715Steve Gross (212) 490-1895

CHAIRMAN Daniel FilipacchiPRESIDENT, CEO, AND COO

David J. PeckerEXEC. V.P. AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Jean-Louis GinibreSR. V.P./GLOBAL ADVERTISING

Paul DuCharmeSR. V.P./DIR., CORPORATE SALES

Nicholas MatarazzoSR. V.P./CFO & NEW BUSINESSDEVELOPMENT Paul DeBenedictis

V.P./DIR. OF STRATEGIC PLANNING,ADV. & CIRC. Patrice ListfieldV.P., GENERAL COUNSEL

Catherine FlickingerV.P., MFG. & DISTRIBUTION

Anthony RomanoV.P., CIRCULATION David W. Leckey

V.P., RESEARCH & MKTG. SERVICESSusan Smollens

V.P., COMMUNICATIONS & SPECIALPROJECTS Keith Estabrook

V.P., MAGAZINE DEVELOPMENTMarcia Sachar

V.P., HACHETTE FILIPACCHIMULTIMEDIA Mario Cooper

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Ageless and Priceless "RealityLessens"Dear Editor:

I just read Edward Tatnall Canby's "Audio

ETC" (December 1993) and want to sharea couple of thoughts. In 1957 when I was astudent newly bitten by the audio bug, Iopened a hi-fi store that I operated part-time while in graduate school. It was theonly hi-fi shop within a hundred mile ra-dius of our town in the Missouri Ozarks.

At one point I wrote a letter to Mr. Canbywho I imagined as an ancient, wizened Au-

dio Master. I probably sought his opinionon the purity of my Marantz Model 9 am-plifiers; whether I should get a secondCapps condenser microphone to makestereo recordings on the Concertone taperecorder; did he think the new AR speakersbeat the Bozaks; the Scott tuner, etc. I amembarrassed to remember the beseechingtone of all this but it was true.

Mr. Canby graciously answered my letterwith no less than two pages of handwrittencomments addressing my many questions.I was honored and re -read the letter many

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times. It was saved in an old trunk in thebasement until destroyed by water from aleaking faucet some 10 years ago. The letteris gone but I remember Mr. Canby's clos-ing comment exactly: "Each man mustsearch for his Holy Grail; for some of us,High Fidelity provides a vulgar substitute."

You see, Mr. Canby was giving "RealityLessens" back in 1957 too! It is marvelousthat he continues to produce articles thatinform, entertain, and instruct. And how isit that I have progressed from a callowyouth to the edge of old farthood and Ed-ward Tatnall Canby has apparently notaged?

Charless W. Fowlkes

Bozeman, Mont.

Coverlines or Coverlies?Dear Editor:

On the cover of the December, 1993 is-sue, it says in quotes, "I'd sell my Mercedesto buy Quicksilver's M135 tube amp." Bas-com H. King did not say that.

A fellow reviewer said (as a suggestion toMr. King) and I am taking the quote frompage 64, "'Sell the Mercedes and the wife'smink coat...: go out and buy yourself a pairof M135s, forget about amplifiers, andsimply enjoy the music."

Mr. Pitts, the quote you printed on thecover is not true. Besides, your editorialphilosophy has been that all amps soundthe same, or else so much alike that no onecan pass a double blind listening test.

Not only have you been printing falseinformation, but now you are printing un-truths on the cover. What next? (You havemy permission to print this letter if youhave the courage.)

Tony Mauldin

Lewisville, Tex.

The Editor -in -Chief replies: Ever hear thephrase-close enough for governmentwork?


AUDIO/AUGUST 19948

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AVS-777Accommodates 3 2 " TV

AVS-767Accommodates 32" IV

WJ-850

AVS-707Accommodates 30" TV

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NY, NJ SOUND CITY, KINNELON, NJ . STEREO EXCHANGE, NY . BRYN MAWR STEREO, PA, DE MD, NJ . HI Fl HOUSE, PA, DE PRO VIDEO, MD, DC HI TECH

ELECTRONICS, ANNAPOLIS, MD NEW IMAGE, CLEVELAND, OH STEREOVISIONS, COLUMBUS, OH ALAMO ELECTRONICS, CINCINNATI, OH HI Fl BUYS, GA .MUNDY'S A/V, GAINESVILLE, GA . SOUND ADVICE, FL . COLUMBIA A/V, HIGHLAND PARK, IL . A13.1- TV, MORTON GROVE, IL . O'REILLY'S LIBERTYVILLE, IL . MILLS A/V,

CHICAGO, IL . MUSICRAIT, PALATINE, IL . DOUGLAS TV, CHICAGO, IL GOOD VIBES, CHAMPAIGN, IL HI Fl FO FUM, ST. LOUIS, MO KIEF"S GRAMAPHONE,LAWRENCE, KA SOUND CENTER, MINNETONKA, MN MAURY S TV, E. GRAND FORKS, MN HOME ENTERTAINMENT, DALLAS, HOUSTON, TX CONSUMER

ELECTRONICS, ARLINGTON, TX DON'S HI -FIDELITY, LUBBOCK, AMARILLO, TX . WRIGHT'S SOUND GALLERY, SHREVEPORT LA . ALTERMAN AUDIO, NEW ORLEANS, LAAUDIO DIMENSIONS. OKLAHOMA CITY, OK . McLELLAND'S TV, HATTIESBURG, MS . GOOD GU'S, CA. HOLLYTRON, LOS ANGELES, CA . ANDERSON'S TV,

REDWOOD CITY, CA . SOUND COMPANY, SAN DIEGO, CA . CENTURY STEREO, SAN JOSE, CA .IC -N CRANES, SO CA URNER'S, BAKERSFIELD, CA . EBER, NO CA .BONNIN, SANTURCE, PR GRUPO K2, VAILE6, MEXCOI Enter No. 2 on Reader Service Card40.

WHAT'S

'AudioAdvancementHeadphone Amp

This miniature headph(ine

amp not only uses tubes but has

a transformerless, Class -A output

ir Chase Surround Decoder

Completely passive, the Chase

HTS-1 decoder has no built-in

amplifiers but redistributes the

power from your system's amps.

Its switching and inputs allow it

Koss Noise -CancellingHeadphones

Active noise -cancellationtechnologies in the Koss QuietZone headphones reduces themasking effect of noise below1,400 Hz. The earphones,whose diaphragms are coatedwith titanium nitride for moreupper -frequency detail, have a

rated frequencyresponse of

15 Hz

stage. The Audio Advancements

EarMax runs on a 12-V

rechargeable battery or from a

car battery via an adaptor. The

entire amp fits in a 3.35 -inch

cube, weighs 13 ounces, and

comes in gray, blue/green, or

purple. Price, including power

supply: $489.

For literature, circle No. 100

to be used with systems having

anywhere from two to five

channels of amplification, and it

can derive surround ambience

from most surround formats.

Price: $99.95


to 20 kHz. Tiny microphonesin the headset sense ambientlow -frequency noise andtransmit it to a pocket -sizedcontroller, the controller feedsequivalent noise signals, inopposite phase, to theearphones, where the twonoises cancel. A two -pinadapter is included for airlineuse. Price: $299.99.For literature,. 'rule No. 102

N EW

134.0 Home TheaterCabinet and Speakers

Spaces are prov_ded in the

13IC AV -2 cabinet for all the

components of a home theaterexcept the speakers-andmost of those are built in. The

built-inspeakers

include all

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other A/V

components;

the side compartments can

hold video or audio discs ortapes. Dimensions are 57% in.

H x 52%in. W x 19% in. D.

Price: $999.


B & 0 CompactMusic System

So highly automated that its

doors open when a hand

approaches them, Bang &

Olufsen's Beosound 2000 is only

four inches thick and can be

wall -mounted. Other automaticfunctions include synchronous

recording from CDs, automatic

record level, 30 AM and FM

station presets, and a "Start/Go"

button to rewind and play a tape

AUDIO/AUGUST 199410

in one action. All active buttons

are illuminated in each operating

mode. The system's handle

doubles as an active FM antenna.

The speakers are self -amplified,

with electronic crossovers and

Adaptive Bass Linearization;

grilles are available in four colors.

Prices: $1,595, including remote

control and table stand; wall

bracket, $25.


[No compromise in a GM: Truck. Industrial strength or

handy take-home size, you get full strength. As t has

been through nearly a century: GMC Truck, delivering

the strengths of trucks.

[What have we done for you lately? The 1994 GMC

Sierra. It's got something you probably don't expect

from a truck-refined road manners.

[Skeptical? Understood. But put Sierra through its paces.

*--==, C)All }tights Heserwd HackleHackle up. Amer 11.1,

al

thetakehomesize."

A vibration -eating balance shaft in Sierra's standard

engine quiets you- fears.

[Independent front suspension smothers road shock

before it can reach you. While a commanding view of the

road makes Sierra decidedly uncar-like.

[When you look ir to your next truck, look into luxuri-

ous, take -home -sized industrial strength. To learn more

about GMC Sierra, call I-800-GMC TRUCK.

0)1994 GM Corp., GM. GMC, GMC Truck Sierra and the GMC Truck logo arc registered trademarks of General Motors Corporation.

Eater No 8 on Reader Service Card

Avalon Speake

Avalon's Monitor two-way

system has a front baffle 3 inches

thick, to minimize vibration.

The 1 -inch tweeter has a

titanium dome, while the 7 -inch,

long -throw woofer's cone is a

Nomex/Kevlar composite. Rated

anechoic response is 60 Hz to 24

kHz, ±1.5 dB; in rooms, its -3 dB

point is below 48 Hz. The

speaker is 18 inches tall (42

inches, with optional stand), 81/2

inches wide and 101/2 inches deep,

and weighs 31 lbs. (53 lbs. with

stand). Prices: Speakers, $2,695

per pair; stands, $340 per pair.


AT'S

Hubbell Speaker

The aspect of the HS542 that

Hubbell Sound Systems talks

most about is its crossover. Its

tweeter and mid -bass crossover

components are physically

separated to prevent crosstalkor other interactions, and onlysuch parts as poly capacitors,

non -inductive resistors, air -cored

inductors, and Straight Wire

cabling are used. The crossover

and the drivers' roll -offs combine

to produce a third -order

Butterworth characteristic with acrossover point of 3 kHz.

Price: $799 per pair.


FIN

DCM SubwooferThe DCM Sub -710 is a

compact subwoofer with 50 watts

ofamplification built in. The

drivers are two 6h -inch woofers,

and frequency range is rated as 32

to 80 Hz. Price: $399.


RCA Video AcousticsIn -Wall Surround Speaker

The Video Acoustics

VA -2200, from RCA, is one

of the few in -wall speakers

with the image diffraction

recommended for surroundchannels. Each system's5'A -inch woofer fires directly

into the room, while its3w -inch midrange and 1 -inch

tweeter fire into an

angled reflector.

Power handlir.g is

120 watts. The

molded enclosure

can be mounted towall studs to

reduce wall

vibrations. Prce:$549/pair.

For literature,

circle No. 108

AUDIO/AUGUST 199412

Hoffman Classic AudioLoudspeaker

This loudspeaker looks like a

violin because it is one,

transformed by Hoffman Classic

Audio into the Violin Speaker.

The 1 -inch, fabric -dome tweeter

and 41/2 -inch, polymer -cone

woofer give it a rated frequency

response of 60 Hz to 20 kHz, ±2

dB. Sensitivity is 88 dB, and

impedance is 6 ohms. Price:

$1,800.


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Enter No 6 on Reader Se -vice Card

AUDIO ETCEDWARD TATNALL CANBY

BOULEVARD OFBROKEN BRAHMS

hat ever happened tothe search for that elu-sive 1889 Edison cylin-der of Johannes Brahmsplaying his own musicand (perhaps) speaking

his own name? Since the Februaryissue, my last mention of it, a prodi-gious amount of information hasindeed come my way concerningthis minute bit of ancient audio.Progress has gone on apace -

by which I mean, unfortunately, at asnail's pace. We have been the victimof a common disease today calledAnti -Communication, much likeantimatter: Those noxious segmentsof the Information Superhighwaythat inspire near -total bottlenecks inrapid data transmission! A vast spateof letters, for instance, mailed to meafter the February issue, reached memore than eight weeks later. Say nomore. You get me. My snails havebeen unusually slow this year. Prob-ably the weather.

And yet this little one -minutesonic episode, the oldest pianorecording extant today and the onlyone by the famous composer, is ofconsiderable historic importance,the more so because in its existingforms it is almost unintelligible. For

that very reason its history, in thisage of advanced digital restorations,is far from over.

It has been a fascinating explo-ration for me during these numer-ous months. The more informationthat comes in, the more astonishing

are the ramifications, the contradic-tions, the unanswered questions, the"clamshell" silences (often under-standable)-allof which min-gle inextricablywith the liltsnails. Seafoodgalore!

Remarkably,at this pointthe recording,after more than a hundred years, isactively "under development" viathe latest state-of-the-art digitalanalysis, and this is not the first suchtreatment. Another was published inVienna, in 1983, in the form of a 45 -rpm EP disc. The 1994 treatment, asyou may guess, is using the new ap-proach of Yale math Prof. Ronald

Coifman and other Yale Universityspecialists. (See September 1993.)This enterprise is not yet definitive,and so I will be a clam myself untilmore news comes in.

I have also heard of assortedrestorations on LP (always with oth-er material, necessarily), but theoutstanding U.S. source for most ofthe "sightings" and hearings report-ed to us was released in 1977, non -digital, by the International PianoArchive (IPA) in New York. Thisrestoration-the sound still mostlyunintelligible-is likely to be foundin many archives, libraries, and ra-dio stations and is surely our majorsource in this country.

All of these, alas, stem not fromthe original cylinder but from a setof archival acetate -disc copies madefrom the cylinder in 1935 in Berlin,including a long -missing limitedpressing. There were evidentlynumerous trial attempts at that

time, with considerable well -meantdoctoring of the sound after-

wards-hence, almost certainly,some of the distortions

now heard by listeners.

There is astonish-ing confusion overthe details of that1935 operation.(There may or

may not have been the broadcastoften mentioned.) But it is known

were produced byplaying thecylinder on anold acousticmachine andthen recordingthe resultingsound via mi-crophone!Shades of a re-

cent similar operation by an EnglishCD label.

Then there are the London discs,apparently from the same source,discovered not far back in an Eng-lish archive, wholly unidentified.(The English, I might observe, arewell known for not cataloging theircollections.) These were left in the

that the copies

THIS SONIC EPISODE

IS OF CONSIDERABLE

IMPORTANCE, THE MORE

SO BECAUSE IT IS

ALMOST UNINTELLIGIBLE.

AUDIO/AUGUST 199414

(airbag control)

You don't have time to brace yourself, much less think.Meanwhile, it's thought of everything.

It happens sc fast. How can an airbag trigger sc suddenly? Let's just saw it'sthe moment our little black boxes have been waiting for all taeir lives. Delco Electronics

ON Mt Cirava.lerprat.

will of the man who put out the pressingfrom the 1935 copies-he was president ofthe company, Lindstrom, and probably wason hand for the actual Berlin procedure.He later moved to England; speculationsays these might be trial runs for the Berlincopying, carried away by him at the time.Were they? Nobody knows.

All of today's available versions of therecording come from one or another ofthese London discoveries, if I am right, andthat includes specifically the 1983 Vienna45 release. However, few of the other exist-ing versions indicate a source, and herecome the clams. The IPA LP made in NewYork says it is derived from "a tape." Tapeof what? This is an old clam; there aremuch newer ones too. (IPA is now relocat-ed as IPAM at the University of Maryland.)

But what of the cylinder itself, the Edi-son original? It has never been lost. It isalive, though not well, in Berlin today,where it has remained since it arrived therein 1935-assuming it is indeed the samecylinder! More on that later.

Something went wrong at the actualrecording session in 1889 at the home ofthe Fellingers, Viennese friends of Brahms.The composer, several accounts agree, wasvery nervous about the whole thing andapparently started playing before the ma-chine was ready-it was "misaligned,"whatever that might mean. He would notmake a second recording with the machinecorrectly set up (this poses some nice me-chanical mysteries), and so the Edison op-erator, one Theo Wangemann, left thecylinder with the family. (Interim mystery:If Brahms started playing too soon, why isthere an announcement on the cylinderthat was apparently made by the very manwho did the setting up, Theo Wange-mann?) The Fellingers kept the cylinder formany years and often played it (i.e., it mayhave been faulty, but it did play).

There is a large blur in the cylinder's his-tory at this point, almost 40 years, until itwas somehow taken to the Berlin archive in1935. The disc copies were made at thattime as an archival precaution and as a gal-lant attempt at state-of-the-art (!) 1935restoration. A man named Fritz Bose,probably not related to our Amar Bose, wasthe expert in charge. It was he who decidedto use an old acoustic player rather than amodern pickup.

In all I have read so far, there is no clari-fication as to how the famous cylinder gotto Berlin, though there may be informationin a book (German) written by one of theFellinger family. This is curious-anythingcould have happened, once the Fellingersrelinquished what wemight call control. Itwould have been easyenough for someone inpossession of the cylin-der, between Viennaand Berlin, to make areasonably good copyand secrete the preciousoriginal for himself;who indeed wouldknow the difference'Enough to say that I wa.wrong in my account(in February) of thatso-called pantographcopying. The panto-graph was not at allwhat I thought but,rather, a tight, tinymetal connector thattied an Edison player toanother's recordinghead to make a singlereal-time copy thatclosely matched theoriginal. One of my correspondents has ac-tually seen one of these in operation andheard the result, indistinguishable from theoriginal, he says. I'll take his word for it.

As for the present state of the cylinder inBerlin (the archive was in the East zone andthus out of touch with the West until therecent reunification), it is in sad disrepair.At some time an operator evidently activat-ed a cylinder scraper, probably by accident.This was attached to an Edison player toremove a layer of grooves to make a newrecording, much as we erase a tape. Thescraping was stopped in time, but thegrooves are very shallow, which makes forimmense difficulty in the copying. As I getit, this occurred after the 1935 copies weremade-hence the repeated choice of thosediscs for later restorations, right up to thepresent. In addition (perhaps at the sametime) a piece was broken off at the begin-ning, making it impossible to play all of thespoken introduction, though the nameBrahms-Johannes Brahms-is clear

enough, at least to my ears. Yes, I haveheard the 1983 version-or, rather, a copyon tape, which I trust to be authentic. Inthe alternative "original" on this 45-thatis, the unchanged sound of the 1935 disc-the name seems to be something like

"Robert Brahms,"but in the restora-tion it is quitegrandly "JohannesBrrrahms," with agreatly rolled "r."

Even worse, thecylinder's structureis weakened andcracked. And theAustrian engineersin 1983, who madearrangements withBerlin to have thecylinder on loanfor several days, hadto wrap tight rub-ber banding aroundeach end beforethey dared put it ona machine. Thiscovered up a seg-ment of the music,as well as the open-ing spoken words.They tried six

times, using variable styli and point pres-sures, all to no avail (it says in a 1984 arti-cle by the engineers, translated into Eng-lish). So in the end they decided to use the1935 disc copy. Better sound. Without adoubt, however, those six attempts still ex-ist on 15 -inch tape in Vienna, though neverused. That's a challenge! They may be thelast copies ever to be made of this cylinder.Unless some ingenious soul fills it with re-inforcing plastic or such to strengthen thestructure enough to play, or at least turn atspeed. A tracing of the grooves by laser?That is bound to come up sooner or lateras well. It might make a crucial difference.

There is much, much more to tell, no-tably about events in this country (all ofthe above is strictly European). Note that Ihave omitted most names and sources ofinformation in this month's account. Giveyou the (relatively) big picture first. Allthose names will come forth eventually,clams and snails allowing. The best is yet tocome! A

BRAHMS' CYLINDER IS

ALIVE, BUT NOT WELL,

IN BERLIN, WHERE IT

HAS BEEN SINCE 1935.

AUDIO/AUGUST 199416

N. Assa.

I Ps

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Smaller PARADIGM speakers (Micros, Atoms,Titans, Minis, etc.) integrate seamlessly with asingle SB-80 or SB-100. Use the SB-120 withlarger PARADIGM speakers or for greater bassoutput. SB-Series Subwoofers create a variety ofoutstanding "3 -piece" systems - all able toprovide stunning performance!

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For more than a decade PARADIGM has earned asolid reputation for superb musical performanceand unparalleled value! Built on this tradition,the SB-Series sets an entirely new valuestandard... until now this quality of bassperformance was simply not available in thisprice class!

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> Highly flexible:A single SB-Series Subwoofer can be configured to operate in stereo or in mono(when using two subwoofers).

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> All four sides and the top are finished allowing SB-Series Subwoofers to fiteasily and elegantly anywhere in your room.

Enter No 14 on Reader Service Card

Paradigm Electronics Inc. resertrs the right to change specificationsand features without notice as design improvements are incorporated.Paradigm is a registered trademark of Paradigm Electronics Inc.Copyright C Paradigm Electronics Inc,Batran Corporation.All rights reserved. 5130894.1 Printed in USA

For distribution informationoutside the U.S. and

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SB-120:BASS/MIDRANGE DRIVER310mm (121,7 vc4ce-cod. aluminum formerLOW FREQUENCY EXTENSION'26Hz (DIN)*

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SENSITIVITY- ROOM/ANECHOIC95dB/92dBSUITABLE AMPLIFIER POWER RANGE15 -250 watts

MAXIMUM INPUT POWERt150 wattstNOMINAL/MINIMUM IMPEDANCEBohms/6ohmsINTERNAL VOLUME103 Ittres/3.62cuf

HEIGHT, WIDTH, DEPTH43cm x 49cm x 72cm/163/4 In x 191n x 28 in

WEIGHT26kg/57Ibs each

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BASS/MIDRANGE DRIVER255mm (Kr), lire voice -coil, kapton former.LOW FREQUENCY EXTENSION'36Hz (DIN)*


SENSITIVITY- ROOM/ANECHOIC94dB/91dB

SUITABLE AMPLIFIER POWER RANGE15-2(X) watts

MAXIMUM INPUT POWER?100 wattstNOMINAL/MINIMUM IMPEDANCE8ohms/6ohmsINTERNAL VOLUME60 Iltres/2.1cuf

HEIGHT. WIDTH. DEPTH43cm x 44cm x 49cm/163/4in x 17 in x 19inWEIGHT19kg/42Ibs each

58-80:BASS/MIDRANGE DRIVER210mm (8'), 11/2' voice -coil, kapton former.LOW FREQUENCY EXTENSION'40Hz (DIN)*


SENSITIVITY- ROOM/ANECHOIC93dB/90dBSUITABLE AMPLIFIER POWER RANGE15-150 watts

MAXIMUM INPUT POWERt80 wattstNOMINAL/MINIMUM IMPEDANCEElohms/6ohrns

INTERNAL VOLUME35 Iltres/1.23cuf

HEIGHT. WIDTH, DEPTH43cm x 27cm x 49cm/163/41n x 101,21nx 19In

WEIGHT15kg/33Ibs each

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Block Ash(al models)

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DIN 45.509 Listening rooms reinforce bass. This reasonablyindicates the audible (approximately -3d81 low frequencyperformance that can be achieved in most rooms.

t Maximum Input Power indicated is with typical programsource, providing the amplifier is clipping no more than10% of the time.

ike the Compact Disc, theLaserDisc was designed pri-marily to deliver a continuousstream of serial data. In thecase of CD, that data is digital,and the data rate was originally

based on the requirements of twochannels of 16 -bit audio at a sam-pling rate of 44.1 kHz. WithLaserDisc, the data is often a mix-ture of analog and digital, and theprimary function is as a video stor-age medium. In their original in-tended applications, both mediawere normally asked to play contin-uously from beginning to end, butthey have the added capability of di-rectly accessing specific bands,tracks, or "chapters."

The CD and the LaserDisc havebeen adapted to alternative uses.The Compact Disc, for example,does duty as a read-only memory(ROM), as a storage medium forhigh -resolution photographs, and asthe storage medium for a number ofuser -interactive systems. Both mediahave reasonable access times to any"address" on the disc, on the orderof a handful of seconds. As long asthe alternative use does not de-mand too rapid a movement fromone point on thedisc to another, thedisc functions wellas a read-only mem-ory. (The real secretto programming forthese alternativeuses is to reduce thefrustration of wait-ing during look -upperiod by havingsome relevant activ-ity take place on thescreen while the disc is beingscanned for new data.)

The ability to work interactively isnot built into conventional CD andLaserDisc players. Instead, it is pro-vided by additional processing capa-bility, which may be either externalor internal. In some cases, the me-chanical performance of the trans-ports may be upgraded for the greaterload that will be placed on them.

CURRENTSJOHN EARGLE

PYRAMIDINGPLATFORMS

1 recently tried out Pioneer'sModel CLD-A100, a combinationLaserDisc and CD player (with sepa-rate drawers for each) that acceptsplug-in modules for LaserActive ap-plications. As supplied, the standardunit will play only ordinaryLaserDiscs and CDs; for interactivepurposes it is necessary to plug in a"control pack," a small box thatslides into the front of the chassis

and has input jacks for handheldcontrollers. The cor_trol pack func-tions as a co-npute and generateson -screen menus, translating userinput from the controller unit. Twocontrol packs were included withthe system I nceivec, one for educa-tional discs and for NEC Turbochipand TurboGrafX-1.46 software, theother for Sega Getesis cartridgesand discs. (Only one control pack isincluded in the system price ofabout $1,000. The player costs $735alone; additional control packs cost$485 each for games and $350 forkaraoke.) I evaluated a variety ofLaserDiscs, both standard and inter-active, but did not evaluate any CDsor interactive movies.

Because it's also a CD player, theCLD-A100 can read digital as well as

LaserActivegame module

in Pioneer's

CLD-A100

LaserDisc play-

er (right) andin use (above).

AUDIO/AUGUST 199417

A stereo system

doesn't have to

be complex.

A stereo system

can be simple

and approachable.

Uncomplicated

and true.

(The same

can be said

for relationships.,

Festival from

the legendary

Harman Kardon.

You'll know itwhen you

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For a retailer near you, call 1-800-422-8027 Festival Intelligent Music System. under $2.000 by Harman Kardon H A Harman International Company

harman / kardon

ego control pack andcontroller (left), pack andcontroller for educationaldiscs and NEC games(right), plus remote controland software.

analog LaserDiscs sound-tracks. Most recent music -oriented LaserDiscs, such asoperas and concerts, nowinclude digital sound, and the combinationof crisp, stable color images and digitalstereo is a joy to behold.

Those of you familiar with CD -basedinteractive programs may have, at leastsometimes, been frustrated by sluggishperformance and clumsy graphics. There isa limit to how quickly data can be takenfrom the CD to feed a hungry processor.With the LaserDisc as a source, the datarate is far more rapid, and programs can

LASERDISC'S CRISP,

STABLE COLOR IMAGES

AND DIGITAL STEREO

ARE A JOY TO BEHOLD.

be updated more quickly. As a result, thesystem is often well ahead of the user; it iswaiting for you to make an entry.

Programming for interactive video isstill in its early stages, and, it would seem,so are some of its conceptual aspects. Forexample, a disc given over largely to a tourand study of the Egyptian pyramids letsyou browse through a wide range of directand peripheral topics related to pyramidsand the Pharaohs. Then, in the midst of allthis informative stuff, you come across avideo game.

Still other programs are basically videogames and, as such, are the most interac-tive of all; your own commands at the con-troller determine what happens directly onscreen. Some of these games tax the systemto the limit. Graphics may be jerky and oflimited resolution, presumably becausethey are being generated on a real-time ba-sis. The control unit itself may get in theway; obviously, a joystick would be a more

natural Nt t)1 trying to avoid an enemymissile than trying to coordinate yourthumbs and the controls!

A further comment on the quality of thegraphics is implied by the warning that ap-pears on all interactive LaserDiscs. Sum-marized, it states that a very few individu-als may be subject to seizures upon viewinginteractive video and that care should betaken. The pronounced flicker in the dis-play is apparently the cause.

For the most part, interactive LaserDiscsare handsomely packaged, with generousinformation on how to work each pro-gram. You are told which button on thecontrol unit does what, and a detailed hier-archy of menus is given.

Overall, it is easy to walk away over-whelmed by the simple-mindedness ofmuch of the programming. On the otherhand, much progress is being made, espe-cially in educational areas. Many conceptsin physics and mathematics may be eluci-dated if a student can sit in front of a com-puter with the appropriate interactivevideodisc, which is being done every dayon college campuses.

Is this a good time to buy an interactiveLaserDisc system? It depends on your, andyour family's, needs and tastes. The basicunit can function as a LaserDisc player andprovide movie and music entertainment ofthe highest technical order. While discs arerelatively expensive, they can be rented fornext to nothing. The choice of a platformfor the interactive portion is more complexand should be made only after you havesurveyed the available software. All of thesemay be obsolete sometime in the relativelynear future. but I would hazard a guessthat any investment you might make in aLaserDisc library would still benefit frombackward compatibility of any new play-back hardware. A

Farman Kardan's Festival 500 Inteih. .,stem

Music is in our soul.

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Festival is one such product.

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AUDIO/AUGUST199319 harman international

IBM researcherKurt Rubin holding

two -layer optical

discs that can besandwiched togeth-er as shown below.

SPECTRUMIVAN BERCER

SONGS ON ASANDWICH

he guy wearing the gloves,Kurt Rubin of IBM's Al-maden Research Center,seems to be holding fivediscs. But you could, say he'sholding 10-or one; it all de-

pends on how you look at it.Each of the discs in Mr. Rubin's

hand is a two -layer optical record-ing, and these recordings are de-

signed to be sandwiched togetherinto a disc with up to 10 recordinglayers and a corresponding increasein information -storage capacity.Such a sandwich disc would be quitefat (about a half -inch thick, in IBM'sinitial mockup) because it would in-clude not only the five two -layerdata carriers but spacers betweencarrier discs and a rigid plastic sub-strate like that on today's CDs. Inpractice, says IBM, discs with fouror more layers will be made of thin-ner materials.

The experimental disc system re-lies on optical disc equipment's ex-tremely shallow depth of focus. To-day's optical drives focus so finely,IBM says, that "light focused on any

layer is 10,000 to 100,000 timesmore intense than that hitting anyadjacent layer."

The reflective backings used ontoday's CDs and LaserDiscs cannotbe used on a multi -layer disc, as theywould block the passage of light toother layers. Instead, the system re-lies on a balance between trans-parency of the layers and reflectivityof the surfaces and requires higherpowered lasers than today's CDplayers do. The number of surfacesin a disc stack is limited by laserpower, layer transparency, and cost.Prerecorded discs could have morelayers than recordable ones, sincerecordable discs must be able to ab-sorb some of the laser light duringrecording. However, players built tohandle multi -layer discs would stillbe able to play today's single -layeraudio, video, and data discs.

This experimental IBM system isalso compatible with systems thatraise data capacity by using shorterwavelength (blue) lasers or lenseswith high numerical apertures formore precise focus. Such systems arebeing worked on by 3M, Sony, IBM,and many others.

It's unlikely that 10 -layer audioCDs will ever appear, for the samereason 10 -CD albums aren't aroundnow-too little material whoselength would justify this. But CDswith two to four layers would makesense, and adapting today's playerdesigns to handle them might not bedifficult. (Retrofitting existing play-ers might not be cost-effective,though.) Today's players alreadyhave movable lenses to maintain fo-cus even on warped discs. The Ala-maden researchers have found thatit took only "relatively minor modi-fications" to adapt an existing CD-ROM drive to play audio and videotracks on two -layer, read-only discs.

CD Wins-At Last?

If trends continue, 1994 will bethe first year that CD became theworld's most popular recordedsound carrier. In 1993, according to

AUDIO/AUGUST 199420

WHERE DOES THE TWEETEROF A HIGH FIDELITY

LOUDSPEAKER BELONG?

Q -S ER I ESThis question may confuse those who believe that the measure of a loudspeaker is the number of its

drivers. It will also elude those who have never bothered to question conventional driver placement,

which always separates the woofer from the tweeter.

In fact, the most acoustically correct location for the tweeter is precisely at the center of the woofer.

This strategic placement creates a single sound source, allowing high and low frequencies to reach your

ears at the proper time, regardless of where the speakers are placed or where you are sitting. (No wonder

KEF's patented Uni-Q' is the techrology of choice for advanced Home Theater applications.)

Perhaps the greatest benefit of the KEF Q Series speakers is that they sound as good in your home

as they do in the showroom.

KEF Electronics of America. Inc 89 Doug Brown Way, Holliston, MA 01746 Tel 508 429,S00 Fax 50134293699

Distributed in Canada by Pro -Acoustics Canada Ltd Tel 514 344-1126 Fax 514 344.4760 Enter No. 9 on Reader Service Card

Nautilus

Emphasis

House Pod

Spker5 From voce

at all British design is as tradi-

: onal as Rolls-Royces (remem-

aer the lapin XKE?), as these

:hree new Br tish speakers show.

All three use B St mir drivers. trc are from B & W

itself.

The four dynaric drivers the Nautilus have

independent, exponen:ially ta?ered "lossy wave -

guide" (transmissim-line) enclosures. The 12 -inch

woofer's enclosive-s ociled like the shell of the sea

creature from v-Fich the speaker gets its name.

Billed as "B & Ws test loudspeaker ever," the Nau-

tilus has rated bancwisith of ICI Hz to 25 kHz, +0,

-6 dB, with response flat within ±0.5 dB from

25 Hz to 20 kHz_ lie price is SF5,000 per pair.

The trumpet -Ilk B & W Emphasis is a two-way

system with a 6I/z-incli woofer. Its fourth -order

vented woofer enziosure uses quarter -wave bass

loading and a f a:ed reflex pert. The tweeter is

mounted on a sta. for optintm dispersion. Fre-

quency response is 45 Hz to 25 kHz, ±3 dB, and

the price is $9,000 'per pair.

The Blue Roo -n.7 -louse Pod uses similar B & W

drivers. This is ro. surprise, as is designer, Simon

Darwood Ghahary, first taugit himself speaker

design by making systenis out of cast-off compo-

nents from B & IAA Stiyning, Sussex, plant. (The

plant's rubbish heaps a -_-e so well gleaned by local

schoolboys, reprrs New Scietrist magazine, that

they need to be e-nctied only twice a year.) Like the

Emphasis, the House Pod has a fourth -order vent-

ed cabinet. Resporse is rated ae 45 Hz to 20 kHz,

±2 dB, and the s)sterns cost $1,900 per pair.

While the swoopy, futurist c shapes of thesethree speakers make a design s-atement, they also

add rigidity and ruce. internal standing waves.

The time may come when the term "speaker box"

refers only to the Titzkake a system like one of these

came in.

the International Federation of the Phono-graph Industry (IFPI), cassette salesdropped for the first time. The drop was amere 2%, but combined with a 19.4% risein CD sales from 1992 to 1993, it wasenough to bring CD sales to more than96% of cassette sales figures.

Cassettes continue to be the dominantmedium in developing countries, butCompact Discs are the largest sellers innine of the 10 countries that buy the mostrecorded music. And in the 10th suchcountry, Mexico, cassette sales for 1993dropped 19% while CD sales rose by 39.3%.

Hearing About Hearing

A workshop on "What We Know AboutHearing" will be presented from Thursday,August 18 to Saturday, August 20, at theIndiana University School of Music, inBloomington, Ind. The workshop is pre-sented by Synergetic Audio Concepts (Syn-Aud-Con), a group which has long beenengaged in additional education for soundprofessionals.

The workshop staff will consist of Dr.Jont Allen of Bell Laboratories, Dr. LarryHumes of the Indiana University Speechand Hearing Department, and Dr. MeadKillion of Etymotic, Inc. The conferencewill cover the ways listener physiology affects

the sound reaching the eardrum, and howsound technology can exploit these factors.

For more information, contact Syn-Aud-Con at 12370 W. Co. Rd., 100 N, Nor-man, Ind. 47264. Telephone number is812-995-8212, fax is 812-995-2110.

AR Heads West

The centers of the U.S. speaker industryhave long been California (where themovie industry is) and the Boston/Cam-bridge area (where Acoustic Research wasfounded, in the 1950s). The presence ofAR, which once dominated the speaker in-dustry, built up a rich stock of speaker -building expertise, and a proliferation ofspeaker companies. Such companies as Ad-vent, Allison, Boston Acoustics, CambridgeSoundWorks, KLH, RDL, Snell, and otherscan trace their ancestry back to AR. Today,even such British companies as Celestionand KEF are headquartered in the area.

So it came as something of a shock tolearn that, after 40 years or so in Massa-chusetts, AR was moving to Benicia, Cal.There, it will be part of the new SpecialtyAudio Group of International Jensen, AR'sowner for the past four years.

The AR Powered Partners' line of small,self -powered speakers will now be handledby Advent, another Jensen -owned compa-ny founded in the Boston area, which alsoonce dominated the loudspeaker field.

Even AR's new location has some histor-ical resonance: A plaque in the nearbytown of Napa honors a speaker pioneerwho long preceded that company: PeterJensen.

AUDIO/AUGUST 199322

eon ...a. mi. el. Me ON -01

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The CT -27v pairs flawless sound with excep-tional Dolby processing, including a generousselection of DSP effects (wait lit you experiencean old movie like Casablanca on our -Matrix"

mode), yet without the extraneous gimmicksthat undermine aural integrity.

When matched with a Carver amplifier(models from basic stereo to multi -channel),the CT -27v lets you direct power to any array ofspeaker combinations -a task for which a merereceiver is woefully undermanned. So you'llachieve wider frequency response and have thedynamic headroom necessary for those explo-sive moments in great movie soundtracks.

In sum: the CT -27v is the heart (and soul) ofthe most uncompromising home theater system.For more of the story, contact Carver today for afeature length brochure.

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AUDIO CLINICJOSEPH CIOVANELLI

But It Looked Okayon the Meter

QI was doing a charity recording of a"live" rock -club date, featuring

musicians who seldom are in a position toplay together. The recording was a unique,

never -to -be -repeated event. I decided to use

my Tascam 38 half -inch eight -channel open -

reel recorder. I meticulously aligned it for 3M

996 tape.

At the session I bridged into the vocal mike

circuits, premixed stereo vocals to two tracks,

and premixed stereo drums to two othertracks. The remaining four channels wereused for two lead guitars, bass guitar, and,on the last channel, harmonica and acoustic

guitar solos. This was intended to give me a

chance to optimize the balance when the ses-

sion was done.

At the sound check, all levels were adjust-

ed for the proper mix and recording level was

checked, using the VU meters on the Tascam.

The rest of the night proceeded without ahitch. Three sets and seven reels of tape later,

I came away with a certain euphoria fromhaving captured this rare event for history.

A day later, I set up the deck for playback

and mounted reel 3. Reel 3 was the first half

of the second set-the best of the evening.I found that nothing was on the tape! Aquick review of the other six reels confirmed

my worst nightmare. Nothing on any ofthem either.

I immediately descended into analysismode, fighting off anger as I did so. The deck

must have broken down, I told myself This

excuse quickly evaporated as I confirmedwith scratch tape and an FM tuner that thedeck was fine and recorded perfectly.

I went over each detail of mixer and mike

preamplifier connections, yielding nothingobvious. I went into hypothesis mode: Per-

haps the reels of tape were wound such that

the backing was against the heads. Nothing

doing!

It finally dawned on me. Perhaps, in asurge of overconfidence, I had plugged the

mixer into the deck's outputs. That couldn't

be! How could I have gotten such perfect lev-

els even when the deck was in "reproduce"?

I quickly pulled out the maintenancemanual and reviewed the wiring. The VUmeter circuits in my deck are resistively cou-

pled directly to the output jacks, with no in-

tervening buffer amplifier! The mixer drove

the meters directly, making for the perfect il-

lusion of a "perfect recording."

Needless to say, I have burned into my

mind a valuable and painfully learned les-

son, which I share with any of you who may

own similarly configured equipment.-T.Burkhard, New York, N.Y.

ArI've owned at least two other makes ofecorder wired like that Tascam-

Magnecord and Ampex. The only reason Inever made the same mistake was that theconnectors for the output were differentfrom those used at the inputs.

If it makes you feel any better, Mr.Burkhard, any of us who have been in thesound recording field for more than 40years can tell his own horror stories. Hereis one of my modern highlights of record-ing horror: I own a portable audio/videorecorder that has the interesting ability tohandle six (count 'em, six) stereo trackpairs on a single tape. This is true only ifthe machine is switched to the "audio"mode.

Like you, I was making a recording thatcould not be made again. Sound was finein my headphones. But when I got home,the playback was erratic. Worse, I lost mynew recording as well as the other record-ings on that tape. Leaving the machine inthe "video" mode not only results in arecording made with no sync but also inthe destruction of data on all of the stereochannels.

Welcome to the club!

Load vs. Tubeand Solid -State Power

QMany solid-state amplifiers' poweroutput ratings almost double as the

impedance of the load decreases by half Yet

tube amplifiers, even the best ones, seem to

be rated at a more or less constant power

regardless of the impedance connected to

them. Please explain this difference and any

impact it has on matching amplifiers toloudspeakers.-Tom MacGregor, Barre, Vt.AaThe power output of a solid-state

mplifier would not increase when theimpedance of its load decreased, if we trulymatched impedances between the amplifierand its load. But the solid-state amplifier'soutput impedance is far lower than theload impedance (the amplifier's dampingfactor is the ratio between these twoimpedances), so the lower the loadimpedance becomes, the closer itapproaches an impedance match with theamp's output.

We can never obtain a true impedancematch, and we don't even want to. If wemanaged to match these impedances, theoutput stage would be destroyed as it triedto supply a huge amount of current to theload. This is much like attempting tomatch the impedance of a home applianceto that of the power line-simply a practi-cal impossibility.

Tube equipment behaves differently, be-cause the load is not connected directly tothe output devices as it is in solid-stateequipment. Most tube amps have outputtransformers whose primary winding isconnected to the tube plates. The sec-ondary winding is tapped in various places,and the speaker is connected between oneend of the secondary and one of the inter-mediate taps. The tap chosen dependsupon the impedance of the load. The high-est load impedance (typically 16 ohms) isusually connected to both ends of the sec-ondary winding, with 8- and 4 -ohm taps atintermediate points.

This maintains a constant load on theoutput tubes regardless of the load imped-ance being driven. Because the match tothe tubes does not change, the amount ofpower delivered to the load will be more orless constant, regardless of the load. If thesecondary of the output transformer wasnot tapped, all loads would be connectedacross the full winding. We would then ob-serve a significant decrease in output forlower load impedances.

If you have a problem or question about audio,write to Mr. Joseph Giovanelli at AUDIO Maga-zine, 1633 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10019. Allletters are answered. In the event that your let-ter is chosen by Mr. Giovanelli to appear in Au-dioclinic, please indicate if your name and/oraddress should be withheld. Please enclose astamped, self-addressed envelope.

AUDIO/AUGUST 199424

PUT US ON THE STAND filig WE'LL TELL THE WHOLE TRUTH.

Ask any other company what they'redoing about loudspeaker distortion andthey'll take the fifth. But we object.

That's why Velodyne'sengineered the new DF-661,a remarkable loudspeakerthat reduces distortion by afactor of ten.

So what's reproduced ispurely music, with all theintegrity and beauty the

artists intended you to hear.Check out the evidence. Audition a pair

today. Call 800-VELODYNE for thelocation of a convenient Velodyne dealer.

Designed fromthe ground up. Velodyne's

66 I drivers eliminatemany of the sources

of unwanted distortion.

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For over 16 years, Dogs For The Deaf has been rescuing unwanteddogs from shelters and training them to become the ears for deaf andhearing impaired people across the country.

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Building and Equippinga Small Recording Studio

QWhat equipment would you rec-ommend for use in a small recording

studio intended mainly for recordingvocals? The dimensions of the area I haveto work with are about 5 feet x 5 feet. I needto eliminate any undesired sounds. Whatkinds of materials would be required to build

this type of room?-George Marrow, Jr.,Washington, D.C.

A., is difficult for a performer to workin a room as small as the one you are

planning. I have to hope that the singerswon't be sharing space with the recordingequipment and the engineer. If nothingelse, the equipment is bound to add someundesired noise that will be picked up bythe microphones.

Although I understand that this roomwill be used for vocals, what about the mu-sic behind the singers? How is that to begenerated? If it is supplied by synthesizers,MIDI sequencers, or multitrack tape over-dubs, fine.

At the least, you must use very heavycarpeting on the floor and really goodacoustic tile on the ceiling and probablythe walls. Don't forget to linethe tile.

External sound often enters a room be-cause the walls are set to vibrating. If this isyour problem, you will have to make thesewalls as massive as you can. The stiffer theyare, the less they will vibrate.

I have obtained excellent results by lin-ing all walls and the ceiling with thick,dense fiberglass, held in place with chickenwire. (No, it is not pretty to look at, andsome people feel very closed in whenworking in this environment. But if thiscan be overcome, it works well.) Theboominess often associated with smallspaces is very much reduced. You may finda need to add more highs because of thelack of reflection from room surfaces. Youwill also want to add reverb, because thesound is very dead.

In order to determine the equipmentyou will need, you must list what work youplan to do. Obviously you will need somekind of a mixer. It doesn't need to be anelaborate one, with "track solo" and"monitor sends" and the like. You may wellwant the opportunity to place some special -effects processors between each mixer

AUDIO/AUGUST 199426

Movie Theatre Performance with FlexibilityThe Bryston 8B THX® Amplifier

B ryston is pleased to announce our new 8B THX

four channel audio power amplifier. With today's interest in

quality home theatre the 8B THX amplifier provides state-of-the-art performance with the

unquestioned quality, value and Reliability for which Bryston has gained an international

reputation. All Lucasfilm Home THX certification parameters are easily met for its'

intended use within a multi -channel audio/video installation. The 8B THX is an extreme-

ly versatile and flexible amplifier designed for all Your THX theatre installations. The

amplifier can be instantly connected to provide 2 channel, (400 watt output), 3 channel,

(two @ 120W plus 1 @ 400W), or 4 channels at 120 watts output. This provides extreme

ease in integrating the power requirements for any THX Home Theatre syStem. The THX

stipulation for separate center channel, left and right main speakers, decorrolated dipole

surround channels and one or two subwoofers, is provided in a Simple elegant package.

Among the 8B's notable features is the use of four independent power supplies, one for

each channel, to prevent any signal interaction among the individual channels. This pro-

vides a sonic soundstage with images locked in position with an almost holographic effect.

Other features include both balanced XLR, 1/4" and unbalanced RCA input connectors to

allow for flexibility in a wide variety of installations. All connectors throughout the ampli-

fier are gold plated to provide freedom from corrosion, assuring perfect signal integrity for

many years to come. Tri-colored LEDs glow green for power -on, yellow for short-term

transient clipping and red to indicate continuous overload or any departure from linearity

including shortened -output or strong out -of -band information like RF or DC.

Obviously, the goal of all this technology is to transport you to the scene of the movie.

Experiencing all the drama, excitement and emotions as if you were right there in the

show. We feel we have accomplished this with all the New Bryston THX amplifiers.

Experience the movie as intended and audition the Bryston 8B THX today.

AlaFor more information contact:57 Westmore Dr., Rexdale, Ontario, Canada M9V 3Y6Tel: (416) 746-1800 Fax: (416) 746-0308


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lygA_Ck_LOUDSPEAKER SYSTEMS

SINCE 1983

position and the mixer bus for that stereochannel. Chances are that you only needtwo outputs.

The recorder can be a very good cassettemachine, although I would choose anopen -reel, VHS Hi-Fi, or DAT recorder.Chances are that you will want to copyyour masters onto cassettes, so the cassetterecorder still has a place in your studio.

If you only plan to use a sequencer, youwon't need a multitrack recorder. If, how-ever, you need to sweeten the music withinstruments not available in your soundmodules, then you will need a multitracktape recorder of some kind-digital oropen -reel.

The choice of microphones is a very sub-jective one. Many sound technicians usedynamic mikes. They're great when asinger really shouts it out and runs the riskof overloading a condenser mike or over-loading the input the mike is feeding. Ipersonally use some ribbon mikes madejust for vocals, because I like a natural -sounding voice, free from peaks. But manyfind such peaks exciting and enhancing tothe performance.

Negative Feedback,Pro and Con

QNegative feedback is considered toimprove amplifier performance. Why,

then, do some high -end audio equipmentmakers avoid using it?-Ray Segura, NewOrleans, La.

AdNegative feedback definitely lowers

istortion, but too much of it reducessound quality. Years ago, a leading makerof audio gear introduced a high -qualityline of preamps that used a tremendousamount of negative feedback, not onlyaround the circuit as a whole but alsoaround individual stages. To me, thepreamps sounded mushy, as if the signalhad to be pushed through them. When Iremoved some of the feedback from one ofthese units its sound improved remarkably.

However, preamps and power amps havedifferent properties. Many power ampli-fiers, for example, employ Class -B outputstages because Class -B circuits have goodelectrical efficiency and run cooler thanother biasing arrangements would allow.This means lower costs for power suppliesand cooling facilities.

However, Class -B circuits have inherent-ly high distortion-especially at low poweroutput levels, where they're operating in amore nonlinear portion of their input/out-put curve. Adding negative feedback tosuch a stage dramatically reduces the dis-tortion. Class -B or even Class -AB circuitswould be virtually unusable for high-fideli-ty applications without negative feedback.

A high -end manufacturer, less con-cerned with cost, can lower distortion inother ways. He can, for example, use anoutput stage with inherently lower distor-tion (such as one using triodes instead ofpentodes) and can also bias it for Class -A op-

eration, despite much lower electrical effi-ciency than Class B. Even at low power lev-

els, the input/output curve is always linear.Measures like these allow a manufactur-

er to eliminate feedback or drastically re-duce it. (For example, some amplifiershave no overall loop feedback but do uselocal feedback on early stages.) Yet I can'thelp wondering if the sonic performance ofamplifiers that used no negative feedback atall couldn't be improved by using at least abit of it. A

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J3 013 The Audio Infer -view

WEINSTO1withstanding the sands of time

ithout the Pres-

tige label, the jazz

record industry

TAM ES ROZZI

196Cs dealt with such diverse art forms as

inte-natioral music, folklore, and the

blues, Weir.stock's jazz vision as put to

have achieved proper docu-his true claim to

mentation of an art form based on the

otherwise fleeting sounds of improvisa-

tion. Many hundreds of recording ses-

sions, done by a virtual Who's Who of

American jazz, took place in the decades

following founder/producer Bob Wein-

stock's first record date in January of

1949. While Prestige's subsidiaries of the

pared to Blue Note Records, a company

unquestionably responsible for further

developing jazz with its encouragement

of original compositions, Prestige differs

by assuming the role of a veritable time

capsule, capturing the standard reper-

toire of jazz's finest as perfected night af-

ter night in the clubs of New York. J.R.

AUDIO/AUGUST 199430

By the time

the musicians

had unpacked,

Rudy Van Gelder

was ready.

When people thinkof Prestige Records,

The Modern Jazz

Quartet comes

to mind.

When people think of Pres-

tige Records, names likeMiles Davis, Sonny Rollins,

Eric Dolphy, The ModernJazz Quartet, and JohnColtrane immediately cometo mind, and yet you grewup during the big -band era.Do you recall your musicaltastes making the transi-tion from swing music tomodern jazz?

I had a record store beforeI started recording, and Icarried every jazz artist youcould think of. One day,Alfred Lion, who ran BlueNote Records, came in andsaid, "I have somethingnew: Thelonious Monk." Isaid, "What the hell's that?"Alfred said, "It's be -bop?' Ilistened

and themore I listened, I realized it had acharm to it. It was interesting. Iwas strictly into swing at the time.Be-boppers were calling peoplelike us "moldy figs." The nextthing I knew, I became obsessedwith be -bop. I was attracted like amagnet down to the Royal Roostand Birdland. This was somethingthat was unbelievable. The onlyother time I was so moved by mu-sic was when I saw the BunkJohnson band that came from New Orleans.How did you decide which musicians to record atyour first sessions?

My first choice, naturally, would have been CharlieParker and Dizzy Gillespie, but they were under con-tract to various companies. In fact, Bird wouldrecord for both Savoy and Dial, and they were alwayshaving contract disputes. I just went one jump for-ward into music more modern than that.You were still in your teens at the time. With your first

session comprising seasoned musicians like LennieTristano and Lee Konitz, how did they take to yourpresence in the studio?

I got a very rude awakening about the recording in-dustry when I did my first session. Tristano was theleader of this "cult," the Tristano school. It was sup-posed to be Lee Konitz's session, but the cult decidedthat Lennie should be leader because he had a biggername. Anyway, there they were, and they played itright down, a song called "Subconscious -Lee". I said,"That's good. Boy, that's good." Tristano said, "No.We didn't get it right." So, over and over, the sameshit, and it all sounded good, man! Konitz blew hisass off. Well, we finished and I put the first two sidesout. I went to put the second two out, and I called

Tristano on the phone.He said, "Don't put thosesides out. They're notquite good enough." Isaid, "They're good;they're good!" He said,"If you put them out, I'llput a curse on you andthat will be the end ofyour record company." Isaid the hell with it.What's he going to tellme about curses? I've gota Jewish mother. I put

them out, and the critics gave them five stars.It's no secret that the jazz record industry had a num-ber of tough, almost gangster types at that period.How did they react to your emergence on the scene?

This is funny. One day, I was walking up Broadway,away from the Roost, when a big Cadillac pulled up.The door swung open and Teddy Reig [of SavoyRecords) yelled, "Get in!" I was a good athlete andafraid of no one, so I got in the car. Teddy was ahuge, gruff man who must have weighed 400pounds. He said to me, "You-you're upsetting thejazz world! You're paying too much money to theseguys, and you need to start squeezing extra sides outof them." I had often wondered why Savoy would is-sue two different sessions on opposite sides of onerecord, and there was my answer.You mentioned Alfred Lion of Blue Note Records.Many people see Prestige as being Blue Note's only se-rious competition of the day. How do you comparethe two companies?

JAZZ 57-101,1LD

BE TREE AND LOOSE,

AND SHOULD SWING-

THAT'S T7 -I E

AT OSP7-IE. RE

I WANTED.

AUDIO/AUGUST 199432

I loved those Blue Note records. Even before I was inthe business, Alfred Lion was my hero. The man wasa giant. He had integrity. He made a tine product andrecorded everybody from Sidney Bechet right up toOrnette Coleman. But aside from us using the sameengineer in Rudy Van Gelder, we handled things dif-ferently. Blue Note's sessions were always prefaced byrehearsals with written arrangements. I found charts

.stress

rehearsals were the kiss o: death. I believe jazzshould be free and loose, and should swing. That'sthe atmosphere I always wanted to create, not the,stress and strain of trying to work out some chart.Why are charts necessary when the musicians are socreative?Did the musicians appreciate the lack of structure in

the studio?

They liked it; they had a good time. They'd kidaround and laugh it up. We had fun, but if it got great. Despite the clinkers, trey all knew, lust like I

rough, it I could sec the guys were down, it they wereup late or something, I'dsay, "Okay, let's play somefunky blues," and I'd letthem go for 20 minutes.It must have made life inthe studio a bit easier when

you eventually hooked upwith Rudy Van Gelder.

I was having terrible prob-lems with my studios. I wasvery annoyed with them.Sometimes they would runsound tests for an hour.From the very first session,when Rudy used his parents' living room, to the veryend, I never said a word about recording to Rudy. Bythe time the musicians had unpacked, he was ready.He did not have to take tests. That was the beauty ofrecording with Dr. Rudy Van Gelder. He was a genius

at sound recording.When did you record your first bona fide bop session?

Looking at the discography, I see it was in May of myfirst year, 1949: Kenny Dorham, J.J. Johnson, SonnyRollins, John Lewis, Leonard Gaskin, and Max Roach

were on the session.Kenny Dorham was a very underrated player. Even

when he was with Bird, he still didn't get enoughrecognition. J.J. was so far ahead, it was ridiculous.The way the man played...and he's one of the finestpeople you could ever meet, a wonderful person anda good family man. Sonny Rollins was too much! Atthat time, Sonny Rollins was a joke to all of the musi-cians. They loved him because he was a be-bopperand he knew everybody-played with everybody inthe neighborhood group up in Harlem. But he hit somany clinkers that they would crack up when heplayed. They would tease him. but his ideas were so

knew-because I signed him to a contract-that he'dbe a force someday. And sureenough, he was.When do you feel Rollins came

into his own as a player?

Everyone wanted to see SonnyRollins succeed, and the sessionwhen he really hit was the onethat produced Saxophone Colos-

sus. That day, the man showed agiant was emerging. I hadknown Sonny's playing for yearsprior to this date, but I sat thereand couldn't believe what I washear -

SONNY ROLLINS

7-IAD SOME CLINKERS,

BUT EVERYONE -KNEW

7--IEID M A -FORCE

SOM EDAY.

ing. It was incredible! Son-ny is a wonderful person,one of the most unpreten-tious, laid-back peopl: youcould ever meet.Prestige had a great deal of

commercial success withStan Getz.

When I recorded StanGetz, I did not do it withcommercialism in mind,but I had a tiger by the tail,as they say. I was confused,actually. He kept recordingall these simple tunes,playing the melody, like aformula. I didn't under-stand it, but you don't ar-gue with success. Sympho-ny Sid was the one whostarted Getz selling. Hehad a jazz radio show thataired in 30 states east of

-11,11

played the shit out

of Stan Getz.

Sonny is a

wonderful person,one of the most

unpretentious,

laid-back people

you could ever meet.

Miles Davis

disappearedafter his Capitol

sides, but I

tracked himdown and

recorded him.

ri

Most of our

the Mississippi. Hemade Stan Getz. Heplayed the shit out ofStan Getz.

Help us remembersome of your othermore commerciallysuccessful artists?

Our first real hit camein the form of"Moody's Mood forLove." It was originally

an instrumental ofsaxophonist JamesMoody improvisingover the changes of"I'm in the Mood forLove", but Eddie Jef-ferson put words to it.When King Pleasurerecorded it for us, thattune took right off.

best-sellers were vocalists: H -BombFurgeson, King Pleasure, the Cabineers, Mose Alli-son, Etta Jones. Instrumental sellers were the "souljazz." Miles Davis also sold very well.

Tenor saxophonist Gene Ammons must have had animpact on the soul jazz market.Gene Ammons was the father of soulstarted that music in 1950. Iliked R&B. I heard a lot ofbands play, and I knew therehad to be room for an update,a modernization of rhythmand blues with a jazz flavor.The black people neededsomething to relate to besidesall the singers and vocalgroups. Everything we didhad a good rhythm sectionand swung. Nothing was ever

and funk He

Ammons did "Canadian Sunset"; Groove Holmesplayed "Misty." These were big hits for us. Miles evenhad a hit with Blue Haze. In the end, nobody everknew if you were going to have a hit, but that was theprize. That's what paid the bills and paid for otherprojects.What were the circumstances that led to your record-ing Miles Davis?

Miles had vanished after he did those Capitol sideswith the [Birth of the Cool] nonet; nobody knewwhere he was. Somebody had said that he might be athome in East St. Louis, so while I was in Chicago onbusiness, I tracked him down. His father was a den-tist, so I knew that his number would be in thephone book. I had met Miles at a Dial session wherehe recorded with Bird, but he didn't remember me.Anyway, he said if I'd send him money to get to NewYork, he'd be happy to record. I said that I was inter-ested in doing a series of recordings, and that I want-ed to sign him to a contract. He said all right, just gethim to New York and we'd talk about it then.

So, our basic idea was just to make records withdifferent people, to record with the best peoplearound. That's what we did until the end, when hehad the quintet with John Coltrane, Red Garland,Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones. But everythingup to that point developed from where we would sitdown and talk about it. Miles would mention whowas in town, who he would like to record with. I'd

say who I'd like to hear him

01.1 R BASIC IDEA WAS

TO 7vIAKE RECORD"

WITH DIFFERENT

PEOPLE, TO RECORD

WITH THE BEST

PEOPLE AROUND

record with. We'd kick ideasaround.Was Miles ever difficult todeal with?No, not really. We'd get intothese staring sessions. He'dask for more money, and Iwouldn't answer. Then I'dlook at him and he'd look atme; we'd just stand there. Wewent through this a lot. I'd

phony, just to make sales.Even when we got heavy intothe funk, with organ groups and guitar and all ofthat, they were like the blowing sessions we did be-fore, but with a different groove. They cooked.Blue Note started producing soul jazz and funkas well.Somewhere along the line, Alfred Lion got the tastefor the big seller. Maybe it was The Sidewinder by LeeMorgan or a Jimmy Smith Record. I felt the mainreason he would have rehearsals at that point in timewas to be sure the guys would know funky bluestunes like those to record. See, I was willing to gam-ble on standards done in a commercial vein, as Lionwas willing to go with arranged funk tunes. Gene

give him the money, but I'dalways say, "Okay, that means

we have to do another album." He'd say, "I don'twant to do another album:' I'd say, "And I want bet-ter people than the last!" So, that's how those sessionswith Milt Jackson and Monk came about. Those weresome of our best sessions, because before he'd get themoney-this was part of the game-I'd make himthink real hard about who he was going to get. Every-body wanted to play with Miles. One of the greatestcompliments I ever received came from Miles. Henever listened to a playback. He'd just ask me, "Do Iwant another take?" If I said, "No, it's good," he'd say,"Okay, let's do the next tune." He respected my judg-ment, as most of the musicians did.

AUDIO/AUGUST 199434

Were you introduced to John Coltrane's playing priorJo his sideman role with Miles?No. In November of 1955, Miles brought his quintetinto the studio, and that's when I first heardColtrane. Bird had just died a few months earlier, butwhen I heard Coltrane, even though he played tenor,I couldn't help but think, "Here's the new Bird." Hisstyle and ideas were raw, but it was obvious that hevas heading in an exciting, new direction. I ap-

. proached him at that sessionto sign a contract. When hesigned, I figured the usualthree or four LPs a year, thentake it from there, but twofeelings about him surfacedthe more I heard him play:First, I realized just how im-portant he was and how quick-ly things were coming togetherfor him, and second, I was tak-

Another thing that bugged me-really bugged me-was if Prestige or Blue Note discovered a musicianand recorded him, bigger companies like Atlanticand CBS were waiting in the wings and would grabhim away by offering more money than we evercould. I became totally disillusioned.

Fantasy has done a very nice job of keeping myproduct on the market. It makes me feel good toknow that anybody who wants a Prestige record with

half a merit will find it avail -

SURE, I TNINK NICE

SOUND IS GOOD, BUT

GOOD T'E RTC R-MANC E

IS BETTER.

en by his demeanor. He was such a great person.How did Coltrane end up on so many sessions?The company was doing well, so for a certain periodof time while I was supervising sessions, I had everyFriday booked at Van Gelder's studio, often withoutanything in particular in mind. I had stopped goingto clubs because I wasn't hearing what I wanted tohear. So, for my own gratification, I'd set up sessionpersonnel for the enjoyment of hearing certain musi-cians stretch out together. Most recordings were justloosely organized jam sessions. That's why most ofthe tunes are standards-and blues, which sold therecords. Our profits from big sellers like Miles andGene Ammons subsidized the recording of not -so -well -known people. That's how Coltrane was able torecord so much, with everyone from PaulQuinichette to Idrees Sulieman to Ray Draper to hismany sessions as a leader. But really, he was a beauti-ful person. That was the underlying thing-he was abeautiful person.What led to the sale of Prestige to Fantasy in 1971?It was obvious by that point that good records didn'tmean anything. Good jazz just stopped selling. Peo-ple lost interest in Monk and Miles and musicianslike that. All that was selling was the soul jazz. Wewere selling more records than at any time in the his-tory of the company, but it had become more of amerchandising business than anything. One of themain reasons I sold Prestige was in disgust at three-quarters of the records I was making at that time. Iwas pissed, man! We also had a problem with distrib-

ution. A lot of the independents were being consoli-dated into the bigger labels, which had their own dis-tribution. Our distributors were going bankrupt leftand right, and these people were the backbone of theindustry for us.

able through Fantasy.How do you feel about cur-rent trends in digital record-ing and remastering?Well, I think nice sound isgood, but good peiformanceis better. What did it matterthat all of these old recordshad a horrible sound? Doyou have to hear some fu-

sion with tremendous sound, with all kinds of crapgoing on, and eight mikes on the drums? Just give meMax Roach, when you can hardly hear the drums,but you hear the cymbal going shhhhh. That othercrap is all meaningless. Man, I don't care whether it'son sandpaper or toilet paper! The important ques-tion is, is the music really there at all? If it's there, digit, listen to it, and be thankful it's been preserved. A

Our first real hit

came in the form o'

Moody's Mood iorLove, originally 3n

instrumental by

saxophonist.

James Moody.

AVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVA'

LLUSTRATION: LLEN WEINSTEIN

VATAVAVAVAVATATAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVI

VAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAT

ii

ROY ALLISON

nyone who is familiar with mywork knows that I've spent a lot oftime on the problem of the waysspeakers interact with roomboundaries (walls, ceiling, floor)and how this affects sound. This

work has led my current company, RDLAcoustics, to develop a simple, inexpensive($5!) program, Bestplace, for Windows orMacintosh computers; it can tell you a great deal about how yourspeakers will interact with your listening room.

Bestplace can tell you just where to place your speakers in yourroom to achieve the optimal interaction with room boundaries.You only need to enter three simple measurements; the rest ispretty much a matter of clicking on an on -screen "button" orpressing your computer's "Enter" key.

Let's look briefly at why and how the interaction betweenspeakers and room boundaries occurs. The movement of thecone in a direct -radiator loudspeaker is determined almost com-pletely by its own internal construction and its enclosure, not by

0 U K

( DMPUTER

KNOWS

any external forces. However, the soundpower the cone motion produces is verymuch dependent on the cone's acousticload-the radiation resistance, specifically.Throughout the lower half of the audiblefrequency range, nearly five octaves, a loud-speaker's ability to radiate sound power issensitive to its nearby environment. There-fore, its power response is affected by its lo-

cation in a room. The changes in response with location can belarge, both additions to and subtractions from the loudspeaker'sfree -space power output. The variations with location are not in-tuitively obvious; they are calculable, but the math is quite te-dious to perform without the aid of a computer. That is why we

Roy Allison, founder of Allison Acoustics, joined with Edgar

Villchur and others to form RDL Acoustics, in Bellingham, Mass.,

in 1992.

IAVAVAVAVAVATAVAVAVAVATAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAAUDIO/AUGUST 1994

37

AVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVA+10

0

- 10

- 200.02 0.05 01 0.2 0.5 I.0

BOUNDARY DISTANCE - WAVELENGTHS

FIG 1 AUGMENTATION OF THREE ROOM

BOUNDARIES WHEN THE SPEAKER IS

EOUIDISTANT FROM ALL THREE NEARBY IN

TERSECTING BOUNDARIES.

+10

20

- 100.02 0.05 0.1 02 05 10


FIG. 1 AUGMENTATION OF TWO EOUIDIS

TANT INTERSECTING BOUNDARIES. WITH

THIRD BOUNDARY REMOVED.

+101

_J1.1

_1 0

1-7

_J-10

Cr 0.02

20

02 05 I.0


005 01

FIG. 3 AUGMENTATION OF A SINGLE NEAR

BY ROOM BOUNDARY: OTHER BOUNDARIES

ARE FAR AWAY.

have developed Bestplace, a computer pro-gram to calculate and plot a room's aug-mentation to a speaker's anechoic powerresponse. The only data you must enter inthe program are the distances from thecenter of the woofer cone to the threenearest room boundaries. These numbersdetermine how the speaker's output willbe changed by its environment.

20

TAMSuspended centrally, equidistant

from opposite pairs of boundaries ina room, a loudspeaker system's pow-er response is, for practical purposes,the same as it would be in an ane-choic chamber. If it is moved downso that the woofer is very close to thecenter of the floor, low -frequencypower output increases 3 dB becausethe reflected pressure, in phase withthe direct output from the cone,doubles the radiation resistance.Moving the speaker again, so that thewoofer is brought very close to theintersection of the floor and onewall, doubles the radiation resistanceagain, with another 3 -dB increase inpower output. If we next move thewoofer very close to a three -bound-ary intersection-i.e., the floor andtwo walls-we would once again in-crease the output by 3 dB. Not bad:An eightfold increase in efficiencyjust by changing the location of thespeaker!

But wait. You knew there had tobe a catch,in this case means at a very smallfraction of a wavelength. This is easyto manage at low frequencies butrapidly gets more difficult as the fre-quency rises and the wavelength be-comes shorter. The formula forwavelength (in inches) is 13,560 di-vided by the frequency; a 10th of a30 -Hz wavelength is 45 inches, but a10th of a 300 -Hz wavelength is only41/2 inches. It wouldn't be easy to de-sign an enclosure that would put thecenter of a 10 -inch woofer just 41/2inches from each of three intersect-ing room boundaries.

It is interesting to see the changingeffects of boundary reflections on speakeroutput as the reproduced frequency rises.Waterhouse [1, 2] and Waterhouse andCook [3] investigated the matter quantita-tively, developing the formula described inthe sidebar "The Waterhouse Equation." Iconfirmed their findings experimentally[4, 5] as they apply to loudspeakers in lis-tening room environments, and pointed

THE WATERHaterhouse developedan expression for theratio of power radiat-ed by a small sound

source, located near three mutuallyperpendicular room surfaces, relativeto the power that would be radiatedby that same source in free space-that is, with no boundaries nearby.("Small" in this context means smallin comparison with the wavelength ofthe frequency radiated. The usual di-rect -radiator woofer becomes progres-sively "smaller" as the frequency de-creases below about 500 Hz.)

This ratio may be either a positiveor negative number and is the sum of

out the design consequences. Ballagh [6]and Adams [7] have also made significantcontributions.

Figure 1 shows what happens when the

three boundaries. At 0.1 wavelength, thepower response has fallen nearly 2 dBfrom its maximum of 9 dB; at 0.2 wave-length, it reaches 0 dB, the free -space val-ue, and at 0.28 wavelength, it has plum-meted to 11.3 dB below its anechoic value!The power response then rises and ripplesa dB or so above and below 0 -dB augmen-tation. For perspective: If the woofer is 24inches from each boundary, this distanceis 0.1 wavelength of 56.5 Hz, 0.2 wave-length of 113 Hz, and 0.28 wavelength ofthe notch frequency, 160 Hz. The notch iscreated because the strong reflectionscombine at the woofer cone's surface inphase opposition to the direct output, re-ducing the radiation resistance at that fre-quency far below its free -space value.Above 0.5 wavelength (282 Hz in our ex-ample), the perturbations are minor.

Figure 1 shows the worst -case condi-tion-fortunately. Suppose we have a largedistance from one boundary, effectivelyputting the woofer equidistant to only twointersecting boundaries. The resulting

VAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVATAVAVAVAVAV

VAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAV

eight parts. The first part is the originalfree -space power, which is augmented(or diminished) by the sum of sevenreflected impedances: Three from theindividual boundary surfaces, anotherthree from the two -boundary intersec-tions, and a seventh one from thethree -boundary intersection. The max-imum possible output occurs whenthe source is at zero distance from thecorner, in which case Waterhouse'sformula has a value of 1 for each term.The total is then 8, for a gain of 9 dB.Of course. zero distance is not possiblein the real world, and the gain dropsrapidly as the distance between thesource and the corner increases.

We can make that influence a goodone, or at least a fairly neutral one, bytaking advantage of the fact that thenotch from a single boundary is mild.This can be done by making thewoofer's distances to the three nearestboundaries as different as is practical,so that-rather than suffering the sin-gle crevasse in power output when allthe distances are nearly the same-there are several much smaller dipsand a smoother curve overall.

In most loudspeaker systems ofmedium to large size, the woofer is lo-cated not far from the center of thefront panel, which limits the maxi-mum value attainable for the distanceratio. If the woofer is on the top panel(or, in a floor -standing system, close to

the bottom of the front or side panel),the minimum distance between thecenter of the woofer and one roomsurface can be as little as 6 or 7 inches.

augmentation curve then looks like that in (Three of the four mid -size speakersFig. 2, where the maximum gain is 6 dB I've recently designed are like this; the

but the notch depth is reduced to 3 dB. other is a bookshelf model.) Even with

Carrying the process one step further, by this advantage, however, performancehaving only one nearby boundary, pro- should be optimized by evaluating theduces the curve in Fig. 3, which shows 3- impact of the other room boundaries.

dB maximum gain and only a 1 -dB notch. The Bestplace program (based onThere is a linear increase of 3 dB each time the Waterhouse formula) was devel-we bring the woofer close to another oped to aid in this process, by allowing

boundary but a decidedly nonlinear in- you to see in advance the effect of pos-

crease in the notch depth. Bible changes in speaker location. Theprogram plots, in addition to the

SMOOTIIING Till AUGMINTATION (111111 room augmentation curve for the dis-The problem of uneven augmentation tances entered, a power output curve

would obviously be minimized if we could for my company's speakers in that lo -

neutralize one room boundary. There are a cation. However, it is made more gen-

few ways this can be done. One way is to erally useful by a "Not an RDL speak -

mount the speakers in the wall, flush with er" option in the curve menu; only theits surface. Another way, feasible with true augmentation curve is plotted withbookshelf -size speakers, is to place them in this selection. Figure 4 is a Bestplacebookshelves surrounded by books. A third augmentation curve corresponding toway, possible only in very large rooms, is to the curve in Fig. 1, obtained when 24place them far from a third boundary. This inches is entered for each of the threewould have to be at least 12 feet from one boundary distances. In Fig. 5, the dis-

wall in order to limit the boundary's effect tances are 10, 36, and 60 inches, yield -

to below 50 Hz. ing a much smoother curve.

For one reason or another, none of these If you know the anechoic poweroptions is available to most of us. We must output of your speaker (not the on -axis

deal with three room surfaces close enough anechoic frequency response), youto our speakers to influence their behavior. can add it to the augmentation curve

+15

+10V

+510

0

17 5

-J

CC 10

15

20 50 100 200

FREQUENCY - Hz

500

FIG. 4 AUGMENTATION. IN THIRD OCTAVES.

FOR A WOOFER 24 INCHES AWAY FROM

EACH OF TIREE MUTUALLY INTERSECTING

BOUNDARIES: PLOT HAS BEEN REDRAWN

FROM BESTPLACE OUTPUT.

+15

15

1k

20 50 100 200

FREQUENCY - Hz

500

FIG. 5- AUGMENTATION. IN THIRD OCTAVES.

FOR A WOOFER SPACED 10. 36. AND 60

INCHES FROM NEAREST ROOM BOUNDARIES:

PLOT HAS BEEN REDRAWN FROM BESTPLACE

OUTPUT.

15

10

5

0

-5

10

-15

200 31 25 500 Boo 1250 200 0 5 T5 SOO 0 BOO 0

250 400 625 100 0 160 0 250 0 400 0 625 0 1000 0KM( 1

Side 413Frequency, Hz

neer AA

- Augmentel,on CurveO - So.& et Curvy

1k

ROL 81 On bookcase Uh books)

FIG. 6 BESTPLACE PRINTOUT. MACINTOSH

VERSION. FOR RDL ACOUSTICS BOOKSHELF

SPEAKER SURROUNDED BY BOOKS.

FAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAAUDIO/AUGUST 1994

39

AVATATAVAVAVAVAVATAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVATA

PROGRAMNOT ES

I) 11 he PC verii o Bestplace, callous

i_unbe-s or the free ivory division verti

:al) .intN are not czatered under the linesbe3i just to the r t.ht of their. The

3-ograw just couldnt seem to unde-stand.hat wt.; really wanted

;2, All models ys cal processes rely

assit-Inions whidh may not be full),:arid: tbz-nodel is not the process. One as

iumpti.)t- made here is tau the roon- wallsrig d and perfectly reflecting. Unless

:au live k a brick creltNa- re, this astunip-

7bu d( eset complete y cold true a: verycw frequencies. ThLref:i e, the rise you'll)ter see n a spea<efs augmented power-esponse Lt the low ere' 3f its range is no-eascin ci' alarm urlest it is more that sev-.nal dB Imre than lic.1), this rise will help:ompersce for the bars rut leaks th soughte wal s.

t3i The IBM verii is described runs_mier Ott the tame disk, hr PC17.ers who don't have or zan't tolerate Win-

dows, it w alternative weion that rums un-der Lo-ui 1-2-3. Its fie name is Bound-as3WK1

As stated, the i_noothest augrr enta-

-im ocer-s when the cistances to roomi.mund min are dis_ine ly differer t. Torelieve make tle latgrst distance call itAl as la-g_a multiple >f th.2. shortest (C) as is

lirccticil. -hen a gcod starting number forintermediate disttrce (B) is the square

-rot of :he -product A'. multiplied byC.

15: The Editor of tub/shad the pre gram"pixk up cm his PC .3eclute it did not havecrone memory; this was cured wkh anerpaesinas.

Bestplace gives you to obtain your speaker's

power output in that location. Note that anear -field woofer measurement is not thesame as a full -space (or anechoic) totalpower measurement, on which the Water-house formula is based. To convert a near -

field measurement to a rough equivalent of

full -space power, you must subtract 3 dBbelow the frequency at which the cabinet's

front panel becomes a half -space baffle.The region of the transition frequency de-

pends on the size of the baffle, but if yougradually phase in the change in level from

300 to 600 Hz, you probably won't begrossly off. As a corollary, if you are mak-ing calculations based on flush -mountingyour speaker, you can use a near -fieldwoofer measurement directly and not haW

to make the conversion. Flush mounting(or bookshelf mounting with surroundingbooks) is essentially a half -space environ-

ment to start with, which is what a near -field measurement simulates.

USI110111 P110011101

When Bestplace is loaded in Windows,the welcome screen offers two choices. One

button generates a help menu; the other,labelled "OK," clears the screen except for a

three -choice menu bar at the top. Thesechoices are "File," "Run Program," and"Help." "Help" brings down the samemenu as can be accessed from the welcome

screen.

"Run Program" drops a single -itemmenu labelled "Create graph." Pressing that

button brings up a screen headed "InputGraph Parameters." The first selection, "Se-

lect a speaker type," scrolls a list of RDLAcoustics models and then the choice of"Not an RDL speaker," the general -use se-

lection. Following the window for speakerchoice is one with boxes for entering dis-tances from the center of the woofer to thethree closest room boundaries. Once these

are entered, you are offered a choice of"Cancel" or "Graph" buttons to press. Ifyou choose "Graph," a graph of boundaryaugmentation versus frequency will be dis-

played, based on the distances you have en-

tered. If you selected an RDL model to in-

vestigate, its power output in that locationwill also be shown. (Figure 6 shows such a

graph, from the Macintosh version of theprogram.)

When the graph has been plotted, youcan plot a new one for a different combina-

tion of distances by clicking on the "RunProgram" menu again. The menu bar re-mains on screen with the graph. You mayalso press "Help." Or, if you press "File," a

drop -down menu offers three choices:"Copy to Clipboard," "Print; or "Exit."

Bestplace is available on diskette in both

IBM and Macintosh versions; in the case of

IBM, on either 31/2- or 5% -inch diskette.The cost is a nominal $5, postage included.

You may place an order by writing to RDL

Acoustics (26 Pearl St., No. 15, Bellingham,

Mass. 02019) or, if you want to use a credit

card, by phone (800-227-0390). Be sure to

specify which version you want. Both ver-sions of the program can be downloadedfree of charge from the RDL Bulletin Board

(800-227-0391). If you'd like technical pa-pers on room boundary effects, includingthe Waterhouse formulas and verificationmeasurements, they are available free ofcharge from the same source. A

.-F1-1/111(ii

1. Waterhouse, R. V., "InterferencePatterns in Reverberant Sound Fields,"

Journal of the Acoustical Society ofAmerica, Vol. 27, No. 2 (March 1955).

2. Waterhouse, R. V., "Output of aSound Source in a ReverberationChamber and Other Reflecting Envi-ronments,"JASA, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Janu-ary 1958).

3. Waterhouse, R. V. and R. K.Cook, "Interference Patterns in Rever-

berant Sound Fields, II," JASA, Vol. 37,

No. 3 (March 1965).

4. Allison, R. F., "The Influence ofRoom Boundaries on LoudspeakerPower Output," Journal of the AudioEngineering Society, Vol. 22, No. 5(June 1974).

5. Allison, R. F., "The Sound Fieldin Home Listening Rooms, II," JAES,

Vol. 24, No. 1 (January/February1976).

6. Ballagh, K. 0., "Optimum Loud-speaker Placement Near ReflectingPlanes," JAES, Vol. 31, No. 12 (Decem-

ber 1983).

7. Adams, G., "Time Dependence ofLoudspeaker Power Output in SmallRooms," JAES, Vol. 37, No. 4 (April1989).

VAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAUDIO/AUGUST' 1994

40

Mb...WNW

Imagine having a future that comes

It can happen. Simply qualify for the Army's Delayed Entry Program, and trainingin one of over 250 different skills will be waiting for you when you graduate from

high school.Best of all, that training is

with a guarantee. guaranteed in writing up to ayear in advance.

So, whether \ ,,ur dream is to do police work or drive tanks, direct aircraft orwork in a lab, the Army can help to make it a part of your future. And that's notjust a promise-it's a guarantee. For additional information, please see your ArmyRecruiter or call 1 -800 -USA -ARMY. ARMY. BE ALL YOU CAN BE.

EQUIPMENT PROFILE

ACOUSTIC RESEARCHLIMITED MODEL 2

PREAMP

T

he Limited Model 2 preamplifier isone of several components designedby some of the audio industry's topdesigners for Acoustic Research, acompany best known for its pio-neering development of acoustic -

suspension speakers. An interesting dis-course on the ARLimited engineeringphilosophy in the ex-cellent and informa-tive owner's manualstates: "It has longbeen recognized thathi-fi systems, even thevery best, are some-what lacking whencompared to live music." Despite improve-ments in source material, loudspeakers,and electronics, "Live music still reigns,and audio systems are still second." (I'lldrink to that!) Although the Limited series

designs were optimized to play music, ARadmits that they do have some slight per-sonality but feels that it isn't imposed onthe music.

In the numerous areas still open to au-dio designers, AR focused the developmentof the Limited series on two major points:

Signal equalization(which is handled in avery nice Limited se-ries equalizer, theModel 6) and signaltransmission. In or-der to optimize signaltransmission, theLimited series' engi-neers decided that

balanced operation was to be used wherev-er possible. Accordingly, the Model 2 is ba-sically a balanced design, from input tooutput. Two balanced and three unbal-anced inputs are provided, but the unbal-

TO OPTIMIZE SIGNAL

TRANSMISSION,

THE LIMITED MODEL 2

IS BALANCED

FROM INPUT TO OUTPUT.

anced inputs are converted to balanced byan input op -amp. Each unbalanced inputcircuit's gain can be adjusted in three stepsby moving jumpers on the main board,yielding overall gain of 0, +6, or +14 dB.This feature helps to equalize the outputlevels of various unbalanced sources. Withthe balanced inputs, the overall gain isfixed at about 0 dB.

The four front -panel rotary controls arearranged in two pairs, one pair at the left ofthe front panel and the other at the right.The functions of these knobs, from left toright, are signal selection, output polarityand muting, balance, and volume. A smallred LED at the top center of the panel tellswhen power is on. On the rear panel arethe signal input and output connectors, aground post, an IEC a.c. power -cord sock-et, and the a.c. power switch.

Within the Model 2, a large p.c. boardtakes up the whole internal area. All com-ponents-except the four -gang output -lev-el attenuator, the a.c. power switch, and theRCA unbalanced input/output connec-tors-are mounted on the p.c. board. Pow-er -supply components occupy about one-third of the board area, with the remainderdevoted to signal circuitry. High -quality

-o

-o

SPECSGain: Balanced main input to line

output, 0 dB; single -ended maininput to line output (variable), 20dB max.

Input Impedance: Balanced, 24kilohms; single -ended, 50 kilohms.

Output Impedance: Balanced, 100ohms; main single -ended, 50ohms; tape, 1 kilohm.

Maximum Input and Output:Balanced, 20 V rms; single -ended,10 V rms.

THD and IM Distortion at RatedOutput: 0.002%.

S/N: 110 dB, A -weighted, re: 1 V.

Slew Rate: 20 V/µS.

Dimensions: 19 in. W x 4 in. H x 13in. D (48.3 cm x 10.2 cm x 33 cm).

Weight: 15 lbs. (6.8 kg).

Price: $2,200.

Company Address: 535 Getty Court.Bldg. A, Benicia, Cal. 94510.


AUDIO/AUGUST 199442

parts are in abundant evidence here, andthe build quality of this preamp is first-rate.

Circuit DescriptionI was unable to obtain a schematic dia-

gram of the Model 2 from AR, so the fol-lowing is not as complete as I would nor-mally report.

Unbalanced inputs are converted to bal-anced by two PMI OP275 dual op -ampsper input pair. With all input signals inhigh-level balanced form, they are then fedto the input selector. This is a four -section,fully enclosed, and environment -proofswitch with silver-plated brass contacts.The selected input is routed to the polari-ty/muting switch and also to the tape -outbuffer. (Another OP275, along with a pairof discrete TO -5transistors as out-put devices, is usedfor each channel'stape output). Sig-nal out of the po-larity/mutingswitch is passed onto the balance andvolume controls.

The volume -control attenuator in theModel 2 is something to drool over. It con-sists of a four -deck, 59 -position switch.Each deck is a p.c. board, with Dale minia-ture metal -film attenuator resistors mount-ed on it. Each attenuator divider point ispicked up by a wiper contact that is, inturn, connected to a circular track thattakes the attenuated signal out to the wiperterminal of the deck. An elegant detentmechanism completes the picture. Theseattenuators look very much like my memo-ry of units used in the Cello Audio Palette,a totally beautiful piece of gear if there everwas one. I would surely like to have a cou-ple of these attenuators to put in some ofmy own preamp designs!

Output amplifier circuitry consists offour unity -gain buffers that present highimpedance to the output of the volume -control sections and present low imped-ance and current -driving ability to themain signal outputs. A number of TO -5metal -can discrete transistors, along with acomplementary pair of TO -220 outputtransistors mounted on heat -sinks, areused in each of the four output sections. In

my opinion, a topological flaw existsin the Model 2's unbalanced output:The two input phases of a channelare not combined, as they would bein an amplifier with differential in-puts and outputs; instead, eachphase is passed straight on to thecorresponding output phase. Thismeans that both phases of a bal-anced input are not represented ineach output phase. This matters be-cause some signal sources (such asthe Sonic Frontiers SFD-2 hybridD/A converter, which I have heardbut not reviewed) deliver bettersound from their balanced outputsthan from their unbalanced output.

Power -supply circuitry starts outwith a generously sized toroidal

transformerfeeding full -

wave -rectifiedsecondary out-put into a pairof 8,200-g, 44-V filter capaci-tors. A pair ofhigh -current in-tegrated -circuit

regulators are used in an unusualconfiguration that employs anexternal low -noise reference voltage.Four power -supply isolation buffersfollow the main voltage regulators.One pair supplies the single -endedinput stages; the other pair suppliesthe four active output -stage circuits.Final delivered supply to the circuit-ry is +15 and -15 V.

THE OUTPUT SECTION

IS FAST, AS SHOWN BY

THE SQUARE -WAVE TEST

AT 100 kHz.

MeasurementsGain and sensitivity data for the

Model 2 is enumerated in Tables Iand II, respectively.

Frequency response with unbal-anced input and output is shown inFig. 1 for instrument, IHF, and 600 -ohm loads. Data shown is for S2(single -ended input 2) configuredfor +14 dB gain. Output level wasset at maximum. Response in theunbalanced mode was essentiallythe same for the three input -ampli-fier gain settings. Further, responsein the balanced -in and balanced -outmode was essentially like that

tzuz.(dAti nom.)

INSTR IMENT

I

OAD

10 100

tNP LARD

111111'600 OHMS

ot lilt

1k 10k

FREQUENCY - Hz

Fig. 1-Frecuency response.

NS t 11411.614) w requi.)0

10

-20

-30

200k

10 100 lk 10k

FREQUENCY - Hz

Fig. 2-Frequencyresponse will variousvolume -control seftings.

Fig. 3-Square-wave responsesfor 100 1(1-13 with output polarityat zero (top and at 180(middle), and for 20 Hz (bottom).

I LAE 111041.4) .11 ...rod =LW,

a

1

0.01

0.001

(wool

200k

IHF OR INSTR. LOADI ;

; yl

J

I kHz, INSTR. LOAD

0.1

OUTPUT -V

Fig. 4-THD + N vs. level andload. All curves are for 20 kHzexcept where noted.

10

AUDIOAUGUST 199443

LIM 10 010

0.001

0.0001

.000010 4k Bk 12k

FREQUENCY - Hz

Fig. 5 -Spectrum analysis ofharmonic -distortion residue;see text.

MN LAM IITALII tdir I I LIVILIdlr) w F7010.

- 70I

!

1

- 80

- 100

-110 .

- 120 .CENTER/

- 130\/1

/'20 100 16

FREQUENCY - Hz

Fig. 6 -Crosstalk, left -to -rightdirection, for various settingsof balance control.

16k

4p1

1

'120k

10k 20k

shown in Fig. 1, except that the out-put drop with IHF and 600 -ohmloads was twice as great because thebalanced outputs' impedance istwice as high.

High -frequency response doesvary with the setting of the volumecontrol, as shown in Fig. 2 for un-balanced input/output. Worst -caseroll -off looks to be about -2.5 dB at200 kHz.

Square -wave response for unbal-anced input and output in the leftchannel is shown in Fig. 3. As canbe seen, this output amplifier is fast.The top and middle traces are for100 kHz, and the bottom trace is for20 Hz. The top trace is with outputpolarity set to "0°," and the middletrace was made at "180°". The faster,larger traces are for volume at maxi-mum; the smaller, slower traces arewith volume attenuated 6 dB. Re-sults shown are for my instrumentload; IHF loading didn't changemuch except to reduce the over-

shoot slightly. Slew-

ing can be seen inthe photo. At thehigher output level,10 V peak to peak,three edges are slew-

ing at about 26 V/µS,

and the positive -going edge for the"0°" polarity settingis slewing at a faster

rate of 50 V/µS. Atthe reduced level,2.5 V peak to peak,rise- and fall -timesare close to 100 nSfor the "0°" settingand more like 120nS for "180°".

Total harmonic distortion versusoutput level for a number of fre-quencies and load conditions isshown in Fig. 4. These conditionsare: 1 kHz with instrument load and20 kHz with instrument or IHF load(the two curves are identical), withthe IHF load paralleled with 600ohms, and finally, with a 100 -ohmload. I'd say the Model 2 woulddrive about anything!

TABLE I -Gain, in dB, with various inputs (S1, S2, and B1).

Unbalanced In,Unbalanced Out

LEFTINSTR. IHFLOAD LOAD

Si, at IX, to Main Out -0.9 -0.13S2, at 2X, to Main Out 5.9 5.86S2, at 5X, to Main Out 13.88 13.84SI, at IX, to Tape Out 5.94 5.11S2, at 2X, to Tape Out 11.93 11.11S2, at 5X, to Tape Out 19.99 19.08Balanced InB1 to Balanced Main Out -0.14 -0.22BI to Unbalanced

Main Out -5.02 -5.09B1 to Tape Out -0.14 -0.97

RIGHTINSTR. IHFLOAD LOAD

-0.9 -0.135.89 5.84

13.86 13.82

5.93 5.11

11.91 11.09

19.88 19.05

-0.14 -0.22

-5.02 -5.06-0.14 -0.97

A spectrum of harmonic -distortionresidue for a 1 -kHz signal at 5 V out withunbalanced input/output, IHF load, and+14 dB gain is shown in Fig. 5.

I noticed in my pushing and pokingabout that the tape output buffers wouldoscillate on the positive peaks when drivento clipping. This also occurred with the in-put amplifiers when they were driven intoclipping. Since the op -amps are the same

EVEN WITH HIGH -GAIN

AMPS AND HORN

SPEAKERS, HUM AND

HISS WILL LIKELY BE

INAUDIBLE.

for both functions, this would seem to bean attribute of the op -amps and/or theparticular way they are used in the ARLimited Model 2.

Crosstalk between channels was mea-sured in both balanced and unbalancedmodes. In all measurements, the crosstalkwas essentially a rising 6-dB/octave func-tion, indicating capacitive coupling be-tween the channels. Figure 6 shows thecrosstalk in the poorer (left -to -right) direc-tion, using the unbalanced output and un-balanced input Si configured for unitygain, and with volume at maximum. Thenumbers on the curves indicate the balancecontrol's setting as the number of clicks tothe right of center. As can be seen, all of thecontrol's positions to the right of centerdegrade the crosstalk except for the one atthe extreme right ("5"), which infinitely at-tenuates output from the left channel. Re-sults in the right -to -left direction weresome 5 to 8 dB better than those in Fig. 6.Results in the balanced mode were similarto those shown for unbalanced signals.

Output noise for unbalanced and bal-anced modes, and the three unbalanced in-put -amplifier gains (IX, 2X, and 5X), arelisted in Table III. As can be seen, the Mod-el 2 has very low output noise and will like-

ly have inaudible hum and hiss, even withhigh -gain power amplifiers and hornspeaker systems. The IHF signal-to-noiseratios are listed in Table IV.

A few final measurements: The a.c. pow-er -line draw was about 220 mA. Output

AUDIOAUGUST 199444

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impedance at the unbalanced outputs wasabout 43 ohms and was double that at thebalanced XLR outputs. Input impedancefor the balanced inputs was about 35 kilo-hms with volume at maximum and 38kilohms with the volume set for about -20dB. Input impedance for unbalanced in-puts was about 50 kilohms and was con-stant with volume -control setting.

Use and Listening TestsEquipment in my system during the re-

view period included an Oracle turntablefitted with a Well Tempered Arm and Spec-tral Audio MCR-1 Select moving -coil pick-up used with a Vendetta Research SCP-2Cpre-preamp. Krell MD -10 and PS AudioLambda CD transports fed Sonic Frontiers'SFD-2, Sentec's DiAna, and other (experi-mental) D/A converters. Other signalsources included a Nakamichi ST -7 tuner, a

Nakamichi 250 cassette deck, and a Tech-nics 1500 open -reel recorder. Preamplifiersused included a Forssell line driver, a FirstSound Reference II, and a unit fromQuicksilver Audio -as well as no pream-plifier at all. Power amplifiers on handwere a Crown Macro Reference and apair of Quicksilver M135s. Loudspeakersused were B & W 801 Matrix Series 3saugmented with a Klipsch SW15 poweredsubwoofer.

As is frequently the case when I receive anew piece of gear, I loaned the Model 2 to afriend to try out for a while and get somehours on the unit. He reported favorablyon the Limited Model 2's build quality andsound.

When I started formally evaluating thesonics of the Model 2, I had been using theexcellent Sonic Frontiers SFD-2 D/A con-verter feeding balanced outputs into aForssell tube line -stage preamp modified tohave balanced inputs. This combination,driving either my Quicksilver M135s or theCrown Macro Reference, had been deliver-ing extremely good sound with CDs. Bestsound from the SFD-2 definitely comesfrom the balanced outputs, so when I start-ed evaluating the Model 2, I used the bal-anced inputs for the SFD-2. Because I haddetermined during measurements that theModel 2 does not combine both inputphases of a balanced input into the unbal-anced outputs, I coupled the balanced out-puts into the Macro Reference, with its in-

puts configured for balanced. Wow!This combination sounded exceed-ingly good. Definition and detailwere of a high order, soundstagingwas excellent, and there was anoverall sense of musical believabili-ty. Although bass quality and defini-tion were very good, bass extensionand impact were not quite as goodas when using the Forssell line unitdriving the Crown in unbalancedinput mode. All in all, the Model 2is an excellent sonic performer. Op-eration was flawless, and there wereno unexpected noises.

TABLE II -Sensitivity, in mV, with various inputs(SI, S2, and BI), for IHF load.

Unbalanced In,Unbalanced Out

LEFT RIGHT

Si, at IX, to Main Out 507.4 507.4S2, at 2X, to Main Out 254.6 254.8S2, at 5X, to Main Out 101.6 101.9

Si, at 1X, to Tape Out 277.6 277.8S2, at 2X, to Tape Out 139.2 139.5

S2, at 5X, to Tape Out 55.6 55.8

Balanced InB1 to Balanced Main Out 512.6 512.6B1 to Unbalanced Main Out 895.1 895.1B1 to Tape Out 558.8 559.3

TABLE Ill -Output noise levels, in µV, with various inputs (SI, S2, 53, andvolume -control positions (counterclockwise, worst case, and clockwise), and bandwidths.

LEFTCCW WC

Unbalanced In,Balanced OutS 1 , at 1X

RIGHTCW CCW WC ( \ \

Wideband 25.3 56.1 21.2 21.2 57.5 19.3

22 Hz to 22 kHz 4.0 12.4 3.9 3.5 12.6 5.0

400 Hz to 22 kHz 3.3 11.6 3.4 3.3 12.0 3.5

A -Weighted 2.5 9.2 2.7 2.6 9.5 2.8

S2, at 2XWideband 25.3 55.5 26.1 21.0 56.9 25.4

22 Hz to 22 kHz 4.0 12.7 5.5 3.5 12.7 5.5

400 Hz to 22 kHz 3.3 11.7 4.1 3.3 12.0 4.1

A -Weighted 2.6 9.2 3.2 2.6 9.5 3.3

S3, at 5XWideband 25.3 55.2 54.1 21.1 56.7 54.1

22 Hz to 22 kHz 4.0 13.0 7.4 3.5 13.0 8.1

400 Hz to 22 kHz 3.3 12.0 7.0 3.2 12.4 7.1

A -Weighted 2.6 9.4 5.5 2.6 9.8 5.5

Balanced In,Balanced OutBlWideband 22.3 63.5 26.4 22.6 59.6 26.7

22 Hz to 22 kHz 4.6 17.5 5.7 4.7 18.2 5.8

400 Hz to 22 kHz 4.4 16.7 5.4 4.5 17.2 5.6

A -Weighted 3.4 13.2 4.2 3.6 13.5 4.3

I do have a few nits, however.First is the aforementioned lack ofdifferential -amplifier action in theoutput amplifier. Second, in thissample, the otherwise incrediblevolume attenuator had more ro-tary -shaft backlash in the middle ofits rotation than at the ends.

In conclusion, the AR LimitedModel 2 line preamp is a clear win-ner. Do go out and audition thisone. Bascom H. King

TABLE S/N, in dB, with various inputs (SI,S2, S3, and B1), for worst -case position of volume -control.

LEFT RIGHTUnbalanced In,Balanced OutSl, at IX 105.0 105.0

S2, at 2X 94.6 94.2S3, at 5X 96.9 96.7Balanced In,Balanced OutB1 101.2 101.0

AUDIO/AUGUST 199446

The new Standard

MO.ELECTRIC..

XLO ELECTRIC COMPANY

9480 Utica Street, Suite 612

Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730

Phone (909) 466-0382

Fax (909) 466-3662

EQUIPMENT PROFILE

EPOSES11 SPEAKER

pos Acoustics, a small loudspeakercompany owned by the larger Britishfirm Mordaunt-Short (which in turnis a member of the much larger TGIgroup of companies that includesTannoy, Goodmans, and KEF), was

founded by designerRobin Marshall in1983. Epos (a Latinnoun from theGreek, meaning anepic poem) currentlyhas two speakers inits line, the compactES11 and the larger,8 -inch two-way ES14, which has been thevery successful, principal system of Epossince 1986. These two systems are to be

joined shortly by the ES25, a full -rangefloor -standing model.

The ES11, which was added to the Eposline in 1990, is a small two-way vented sys-tem utilizing a 61/2 -inch woofer and a 1 -inch dome tweeter. Both drivers are cus-

tom designed andmanufactured byEpos, whose goalswere to create an af-fordable, well-bal-anced design withhigh -end aspirations.Among the ES11'snovel design features,

the bass driver's frame,

THE SIMPLICITY OF THE

ES1 1'S CROSSOVER

IS SAID TO ENHANCE

DETAIL RESOLUTION

AND WOOFER CONTROL.

the most novel iswhich is an integral part of the loudspeak-er's front panel. Other features include an

unusual cabinet assembly, an extremelysimple crossover network (two parts!), anda bass driver that has a phase plug insteadof a dust cap.

The frame of the ES11 woofer is, as I'vejust noted, an integral part of the frontpanel and is injection -molded in one piece.According to Epos, "This insures that thecoupling between the bass driver and thebaffle is precisely and consistently defined,unlike conventional systems where thecoupling is influenced by the varying tight-ness of fixing screws." The molding is verystiff and inert, minimizing vibrations ofthe front panel. Presumably, replacing thewoofer requires changing the whole frontpanel. The tweeter is separately mountedto the front panel. The rear panel, whichcontains the input terminals, crossover,and reflex port, is also an injection -moldedpart.

The front and rear panels are held inplace by four long hex -head bolts, locatednear the cabinet's corners, which pass

SPECSType: Two-way, vented -box, compact

system.

Drivers: 61/2 -in. cone woofer and 1 -in.dome tweeter.

Frequency Response: 60 Hz to 20kHz (tolerance not stated).

Sensitivity: 87 dB at 1 meter, 2.83 Vrms applied.

Crossover: 6-dB/octave high-passon tweeter only (frequency notstated).

Impedance: 8 ohms nominal.

Recommended Amplifier Power: 25to 75 watts per channel.

Dimensions: 1434 in. H x 8% in. W x97/ii in. D (37.5 cm x 22 cm x 25cm).

Weight 17.6 lbs. (8 kg) each.Price: $895 per pair; available in

black ash, walnut, or mahogany;foam grilles for earlier models, $50per pair; speaker stands, $200 perpair.

Company Address: c/o Music Hall,108 Station Rd., Great Neck, NewYork, 11023.


AUDIO/AUGUST 199448

through the front panel and engage thread-ed inserts in the rear panel. Wood bracingis used internally for added strength. Whenassembled, and all four bolts tightened, thecabinet's 1 -inch -thick medium -densityfiberboard walls are sandwiched betweenthe front and rear panels, forming a verystrong and vi-bration -freestructure.

The woofer'scone is thermo-formed from apolymer mater-ial and shapedto optimize on -and off -axis re-sponse. The surround is a synthetic high -loss rubber that minimizes mechanicaltravelling waves on the cone's surface. TheES I I's woofer has a phase plug protrudingfrom the center of the cone rather than themore usual dust cap. The phase plug is sta-tionary and is attached to the woofer's polepiece. The voice -coil and attached conemove fore and aft around the plug. Thebullet -shaped phase plug is said to providebetter polar response than is possible witha dust cap. The roll -off of the woofer's up-per frequency has been carefully tailored sothat the use of a low-pass crossover filter is

not required.The ES11 tweeter dome is fabricated

from an aluminum alloy and is suspendedby a polyamide material. The dome isacoustically loaded by a separate rear airchamber, while the voice -coil utilizes amagnetic fluid said to improve reliabilityand reduce dynamic compression.

The crossover of the ES11 is a "minimal-ist" design. It contains only two compo-nents, a high -quality series capacitor and aparallel resistor, which form the high-passfilter driving the tweeter. The simplicity ofthe crossover is said to enhance the loud-speaker's ability to resolve fine detail, andthe absence of a low-pass filter on thewoofer allows better control of its motionby the power amplifier.

The ES1 l's input connections, whichcan be bi-wired, do not use the conven-tional double set of dual five -way bindingposts with jumpers. The back panel con-tains only two sets of flush -mounted dou-ble -banana input holes. Single (i.e., not bi-wire) connections are accommodated by

the inclusion of two short banana -plug adaptor links, one for posi-tive and the other for negative.Each link has a single banana plugon each end, one plain and theother containing a piggyback ba-

In either configura-tion, bare wireconnection capa-bility is not sup-ported; bananaplugs must beused! However,Epos does providean extra set of dou-ble -banana plugsthat can be at-

tached to bare wires and then usedto connect to the loudspeakers.

nana socket.

THE EPOS ES11 IS ONE

OF THE FEW SPEAKERS

WHOSE GRILLE DOESN'T

COMPROMISE ITS SOUND.

MeasurementsThe on -axis anechoic frequency

response of the ES11 is shown inFig. 1. Measurements were takenat 2 meters, halfway between thewoofer and tweeter. With 5.66 Vrms applied, the result was refer-enced back to 1 meter. A combina-tion of elevated free -field andground -plane measurements wasused to derive the curve.

The overall curve in Fig. 1 is

quite smooth, fitting a fairly tight4.7 -dB window (+1, -3.7 dB refer-enced to 1 kHz) from 100 Hz to 20kHz. The bass response is down 3dB (from the 100 -Hz level) at 56Hz and down 6 dB at 47 Hz. Be-low 50 Hz, the response rolls off at24 dB/octave, as is typical of vent-ed boxes. There is a mild butbroad peak centered at 800 Hz anda slight, downward shelf at highfrequencies. Except for slight ir-regularities, the curve is quitesmooth. The speaker's foam grilledoes not affect the response muchat all. This system is one of fewthat will not be sonically compro-mised if listened to with the grilleon. Averaged over the range from250 Hz to 4 kHz, the sensitivity ofthe EP11 was 85.5 dB, 1.5 dB be-low the 87 -dB rating. The rightand left speakers were matchedwithin a close ±0.5 dB.

100

90

80

70

6020 100 1k

FREQUENCY - Hz

Fig. 1-One-meter, on -axis

frequency response.

ra

N -160

-360

540

-72020 100 1k

FREQUENCY - Hz

Fig. 2-On-axis phaseresponse ani groupdelay.

90

80

70

60

10k

TEF

10k 20k

1.0

0.5v

0.00

1.020k

2 4 6 8 10

TIME - mS

Fig. 3-Energy/timeresponse.

5 00

0

AUDIO/AUGUST 199449

200 2k

FREOUENCY - Hz

'9N hi/4'1

OS0 FRONT

4, OFF90 SIDE AXIS -

135 DEGREES

180 REAR

Fig. 4-Horizontal off -axisfrequency responses.

a, 10 dB

20k

r -r200 2k 20k

FREQUENCY - Hz

Fig. 5-Vertical off -axisfrequency responses.

100

1`.1 10z

0.

-90 BELOW-45

OFF0 FRONT AXIS -

45 DEGREES

90 ABOVE

TEF

12 0 1 0 0

Fig. 6-Impedance.

+j15

+j10

+j5

0

-j5

-j10

-j150

1k

FREQUENCY - Hz

TEF

10k 20k

10 20 30

RESISTANCE - OHMS

Fig. 7-Complex impedance.

The phase and group -delay re-sponses of the ES11, referenced to

the tweeter's arrival time, areshown in Fig. 2. The phase curve is

well behaved and rotates an addi-tional 240° between 1 and 20 kHz.

The group -delay curve shows afairly low offset of about 0.15 mSbetween the midrange and treble.

The deviations between 100 and200 Hz are due to minimum -phase

variations in the amplitude re-sponse and would disappear if theresponse were flat through thisrange.

The ES11's energy/time re-sponse is shown in Fig. 3. The test

parameters accentuate the speak-

er's response between 1 and 10kHz, which includes the crossover

region. The main arrival, at 3 mS,is very compact but is followed by

minor delayed responses, about 23

dB down from the main peak andextending 1.5 mS after the mainarrival.

Figure 4 reveals the horizontaloff -axis frequency responses; thebold curve at the rear of the graph

is the on -axis response. The off -

axis horizontal response is veryuniform. In the primary (±15°)listening window, the response isextremely uniform, staying within±1 dB of the on -axis curve all theway to 20 kHz.

The vertical off -axis frequencyresponses are displayed in Fig. 5;the bold curve in the center of thegraph (front to rear) is on axis.The aberrations in the range from5 to 7 kHz indicate that thecrossover frequency is at a high 6kHz. Because the woofer andtweeter are separated by 5% inches

(center to center), a significant 2.3

wavelengths at crossover, the verti-

cal off -axis response in thecrossover range is quite rough and

narrow. The curves in Fig. 5 verify

the narrowness of the vertical re-sponse at crossover and show that

the response is significantly irregu-

lar at angles of only ±5°.

In Fig. 6, the ES11's impedance

magnitude, a high minimum im-

pedance of 7.2 ohms occurs at 250 Hz and

a high maximum of about 29 ohms occursat 85 Hz. The curve's maximum -to -mini-

mum variation is about 4 to 1 (28.6 divid-ed by 7.2). Even though this variation isfairly large, the high minimum impedanceof the ES11 ensures that the speaker willnot be very sensitive to cable resistance.Cable series resistance should be limited to

a maximum of about 0.11 ohm to keep ca-ble -drop effects from causing response

STRONG MAXIMUM OUTPUT

ABOVE 60 Hz ALLOWS

THE ES1 is TO BE USED

BY THEMSELVES OR

WITH A SUBWOOFER.

peaks and dips greater than

typical run of about 10 feet, you can uselow -inductance cable of 16 or 18 gauge.

The complex impedance, plotted from 5Hz to 30 kHz in Fig. 7, is well behaved and

exhibits no extraneous resonances. The im-

pedance phase (not shown) reached a max-

imum angle of +45° (inductive) at 64 Hzand a minimum angle of -40° (capacitive)at 112 Hz. Even though these angles arefairly large, the ES11 will not be a problem

for any amplifier (even for two in parallel),because the minimum impedance is quitehigh.

When subjected to a high-level sine -wave sweep, the cabinet of the ES 11 was

mostly vibration -free. There were someminor wall resonances of the top and sidepanels in the 370 to 390 Hz range, andslight activity of the rear panel from 460 to

480 Hz. The linear travel of the woofer wasabout 0.4 inch, peak to peak, with reason-

able distortion; maximum travel wassomewhat longer. The woofer overloadedquite gracefully. No dynamic offset wasnoted.

Minimum excursion occurred at 55 Hz,the frequency of the ES11's vented -box res-

onance. Cone displacement was reduced by

about 50% after the port was closed. Ventnoise at and near the box resonance wasfairly low.

Figure 8 shows the three -meter room re-

sponse, with both raw and sixth -octavesmoothed data. The ES11 speaker was in

0.1 dB. For a

AUDIO/AUGUST 199450

the right-hand stereo position, aimed to-ward the main listening position, and thetest microphone was at ear height (36 inch-es), at the listener's spot on the sofa. Thesystem was driven with a swept sine -wavesignal of 2.83 V rms (corresponding to 1watt into the rated 8 -ohm impedance). Thedirect sound and 13 mS of the room's re-verberation are included. If you excluderoom -effect dips at 325 and 425 Hz, the av-eraged curve fits a tight, 7.5 -dB window.Above 2.1 kHz, it fits an even tighter win-dow of about 4 dB.

Figure 9 shows the E1 (41.2 -Hz) bassharmonic distortion with input powerranging from 0.05 to 50 watts (note that 20V rms generates 50 watts into the rated 8 -ohm load). The second harmonic reaches amoderate level of 10.6%, while the third at-tains a very high 51%. Higher harmonicsinclude an 8.1% fourth, a high 22% fifth,and a 3% sixth. With a 50 -watt input, theESI1 reaches a marginally usable 1 -meterSPL of 90 dB at 41.2 Hz.

Because the E1 distortion was very high,a result of being significantly below theES11's passband, the harmonic distortionof a higher frequency, B1 (61.5 Hz), wasmeasured and is shown in Fig. 10. As be -

THE SOUND WAS SMOOTH

AND WELL BALANCED,

WITH A TOUCH

OF FORWARDNESS.

fore, the third harmonic predominates butonly reaches a moderate 7% at full power.Other harmonics are all low, 0.6% or less.The second harmonic, which reaches only0.4%, is hidden behind the 61.5 -Hz funda-mental's bleed -through ridge at the left ofthe graph. With 50 watts in, the Eposreached a fairly usable 1 -meter SPL of 98dB at 61.5 Hz.

In Fig. 11, the bass harmonic distortionfor A2 (110 Hz), the predominant distor-tion is a low 1.9% second harmonic and2.4% third. Higher harmonics are quitelow, 0.7% or less.

The A4 (440 -Hz) distortion (not shown)rose only to the low level of 3% secondharmonic. Higher harmonics were below

the noise floor of my measuringgear.

Figure 12 displays the IM distor-tion versus power, created by tonesof 440 Hz (A4) and 41.2 Hz (E1) ofequal level. The IM distortion risesto the fairly high level of nearly19% at full power. The wooferhandles both tones of this IM test,which contributes to this speaker'shigh level of intermodulation.

The ES11's short-term peak -power input and output capabili-ties are shown in Fig. 13. The peakinput power was calculated by as-suming that the measured peakvoltage was applied across the rat-ed 8 -ohm impedance.

The peak input power risesfrom 10 watts at 20 Hz and, afterminor undulations at 80 and 120Hz, reaches a local maximum ofabout 1,500 watts at 250 Hz. Afterfalling to 830 watts at 400 Hz(where the woofer exhibited aharsh buzzing sound), the peak in-put power rises smoothly to ahealthy 6,000 peak watts at fre-quencies above

As can be seen in Fig. 13, theES1 l's maximum peak output SPLwith room gain rises very rapidlyfrom an unusable 71 dB at 20 Hzto reach a very usable 107 to 110dB between 65 and 160 Hz. Afterreaching a peak of 116.5 dB at 250Hz and falling slightly to 115 dB at400 Hz, the output rises into thehealthy range of 120 to 123 dBabove 600 Hz. A pair of ES1 Is, op-erating in unison in a typical lis-tening room, can attain even high-er levels in the bass range. Thestrong maximum output above 60Hz suggests that these speakers canbe used either by themselves or assatellite systems with a subwoofer.

Use and Listening TestsAfter working with some large

systems recently, it was nice tohandle a pair of speakers that Icould hold under each arm at thesame time. The ESI is were sup-plied to me with sturdy metalstands, which are optional and

90

80

700.(4

60

5020 100

1

1k

TEF

FREQUENCY - Hz

Fig. 8 -Three -meter roomresponse.

100 - ad, 81%

1

2nd, 10.8%

- 1. *5

E,

100

50, _5A - 4

4777POWER-

0-5 - A,v)4 N

0.0550 100 150 200 250

10k 20k

MAXIMUM POWER: 50 WATTS

OM, 3-0%

5111, 21.9%

4111, 8.1%

FREQUENCY -Hz

Fig. 9 -Harmonic distortion forE1 (41.2 Hz.

100

1ZI 10 -,

2nd. 0.4

2-0. 1.0 j

50

3rd, 7,0%

so-POWER -WATTS 0.5 -

0.05


ah, 0.6%511% 0.5%

100 150 200 250

FREQUENCY -Hz

Fig. 10 -Harmonic distortionfor B (61.7 Hz).

100

o

O

1.0-o

2nd, 1.9 %

5.0 -POWER -WATTS 0.5 -

0.05

3rd, 2.4%

300

12 dB

1

12 dB

350


4th, 0.7%51h, 0.3%

150

12 dB

T

250 350 450 550 650

FREQUENCY -Hz

Fig. 11 -Harmonic distortion forA2 (110 Hz.

AUDIO/AUGUST 199451

20

15

10

5

0

0.1 1 10POWER -WATTS

Fig. 1 2-IM distortion for A4(440 Hz) and E, (41.2 Hz).

130

120

110

100

90

80

7020

WITHOUTROOMGAIN

PEAK ACOUSTIC OUTPUT

PEAK INPUT POWER

TEF

100 1k

FREQUENCY - Hz

Fig. 13-Maximum peak inputpower and sound output.

10k

10k

1k

100

10

1

20k

have to be assembled. I chose to use myown metal stands, which are only about 1inch taller and have spikes on the bottom.

The operating manual is brief but thor-ough and consists of four 41/4 x 51/2 -inchpages. Topics include power requirements,stands, positioning, connections, breakingin, and warranty. Epos points out that theES 11 was designed to be placed fairly closeto the rear wall, within 20 to 30 cm (about8 to 12 inches), for proper bass weight anddefinition. For some listening, I set the

100

ESIls closer to the rear wall than Iusually do, about a foot in front ofthe bookshelves which line the rearof my listening room. I did most ofmy listening, however, with thespeakers in my customary posi-tions, well away from the rearwalls.

My review systems were sup-plied in a very attractive walnutfinish. Although Epos specifiesthat the finish is a veneer, it lookedlike solid wood; with the frontpanel removed, I could see whatappeared to be unfinished walnutinside the cabinet. Constructionand appearance were excellent.When first received, one systemhad a slight air leak at a point onthe front panel's periphery. Tight-ening the four long bolts that holdthe front panel to the cabinetsealed the leak.

My listening equipment consist-ed of the Krell KRC preamp andKSA-250 amp driving the ESI Isthrough Straight Wire Maestro ca-bling. My reference speakers wereB & W 801 Matrix Series 3s, while

Onkyo and Rotel CD players providedsource material. Listening was done in theregular (not bi-wired) configuration.

First listening revealed the ES11s to havea well-balanced, smooth sound, with atouch of forwardness, and significantly lessbass than the reference B & Ws. Sensitivitywas essentially the same as that of the refer-ences, and the two systems produced asimilar overall balance and tone (excludingthe low bass).

Female vocals, such as Clair Marlo onLet It Go (Sheffield Lab CD -29) and TrishaYearwood on The Song Remembers When(MCA MCAD-I0911), were very natural.There was no harshness, glare, or unduehigh -frequency emphasis. In fact, the over-all high -frequency reproduction of theES11 was quite similar to the 801's in level,smoothness, and extension.

On more dynamic material such as BobMintzer's jazz on One Music (dmp CD -488), the ES1ls did quite well in handlinghigh-level percussion transients and com-plex passages. The low -end kick and basspunch of the 801s was completely missing,however. Even though the low bass was

AUDIO/AUGUST 199452

quite attenuated, the ES11s still hadenough bass to be satisfying. At very highlevels on this disc, the ES1 Is did startsounding somewhat congested; some audi-ble modulation of the mids could be heardwhen high-level bass was present.

I also did some listening using Velo-dyne's F1500R subwoofer as an adjunct tothe ES11s. (The F1500R replaced myF1500; the "R" version includes a remote.Having remote control of level and of bass

THESE SMALL,

HIGH-PERFORMANCE

SPEAKERS ARE SMOOTH,

GOOD-LOOKING,AND ACCURATE.

on/off is a super addition!) The ESI Isworked extremely well as satellites. Withlow bass added, the overall sound compet-ed quite well with the 801s.

On the pink -noise stand-up/sit-downtest, the ES11s exhibited significant tonalchanges in the upper midrange when Istood up. Their spectral balance on pinknoise was quite good but sounded slightlymore forward than the 801s did and hadsignificantly less bass. Smoothness, al-though not quite up to the B & Ws' stan-dards, was nevertheless quite good. Onthird -octave band -limited pink noise, theESI Is did not have any usable output inthe 20-, 25-, and 31.5 -Hz bands. Althoughthe output was just barely usable at 40 Hz,it was quite usable at 50 Hz. At 63 Hz andabove, the ESI is could generate sufficientlevels of clean bass.

On relatively sedate classical music, suchas Boccherini's Cello Concertos performedon period instruments (Sony Classical SK53121), the ESIIs were quite open sound-ing, albeit a shade forward in the presencerange. Stereo focus and lateral imagingwere exemplary. Coloration was quite low,maybe due in part to the rigidness of theenclosure.

In summary, the ESI Is demonstratedquite good performance for their size andprice. They should be seriously consideredby anyone who desires small, high-perfor-mance loudspeakers that are also accurate,smooth, and good looking. D. B. Keele, Jr.

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EQUIPMENT PROFILE

AUDIOCONTROLC -1O1 SERIES III

EQUALIZER/ANALYZER

Equalizers and analyzers are Audio -Control's stock in trade. The venera-ble C-101, now in its third (Series III)incarnation, combines both in a rela-tively small, tasteful package. Moreimportant, it offers exceptionally

good performance for the genre, especiallyvis-a-vis noise and distortion, a graphicequalizer's twin Achilles' heels. Considerits competitive price, five-year warranty,and inclusion of an excellent infrasonic fil-ter, and you'll findthat the C-101 SeriesIII is a big winner inthe cost/performancederby.

The C-101 SeriesIII integrates a 10 -band graphic equaliz-er and a defeatableinfrasonic (a.k.a."subsonic") filter with a 10 -band real-timeanalyzer and pink -noise generator. Thesystem includes a "lab grade" microphonematched to the analyzer. (AudioControladvises that the microphone be used onlywith the C-101 and that no other micro-phone be substituted for it.) The mike is

on a 20 -foot cable that terminates in aphone plug and fits into a jack at the frontpanel's lower left corner. Above the jack isa "Display Level" control that adjusts theanalyzer gain to utilize the display range toits fullest.

At the top left corner is a "Power"switch, but since the C-101 consumes only10 watts, it can be left on and plugged intoa switched outlet of an amplifier or receiv-er. An unswitched outlet (200 -watt maxi-

mum rating) on theC -101's back panel re-places the switchedoutlet you've used forthe equalizer and isthen switched on andoff by your amplifieror receiver.

Four pushbuttonsto the left of the dis-

play operate the analyzer; a bank on theright controls the equalizer. The top leftbutton ("Display") quenches the dancinglights when you tire of their antics. "PinkNoise" activates an internal pink -noisegenerator and automatically substitutes thetest signal for the normal feed to your amp.

THE SLIDER SETUP

HELPS YOU EQUALIZE

BOTH CHANNELS ALIKE

OR EACH DIFFERENTLY.

The "2dB/4dB" button controls the analyz-er display range, 2 dB per LED for a 16 -dBtotal range or 4 dB per LED for a 32 -dBrange. "Slow/Fast" adjusts the analyzer re-sponse time; "Slow" gives a time -averagedreading that's useful when equalizing loud-speaker response with the pink -noise sig-nal, while "Fast" lets you watch the music'santics.

From top to bottom, on the right of thedisplay, are the four pushbuttons for the

equalizer. "Equalize" engages or bypassesthe 10 -band equalizer, "EQ Recording"routes equalized signals to the tape outputjacks so the C-101 can be used to equalize arecording, "Tape Monitor" replicates thetape monitor function of the amplifierwhen the C-101 is installed in a tape moni-tor loop, and "Subsonic Filter" engages orbypasses the internal 18-dB/octave Cheby-shev high-pass filter.

Twenty sliders occupy the right half ofthe panel. These are arranged in adjacentleft/right pairs to facilitate controlling bothchannels equally (a good idea to avoid theimage smearing that can occur when leftand right response and phase are modifieddifferently). AudioControl's arrangementprovides the best of both worlds. If you

AUDIO/AUGUST 199454

----&WE -

° ° =mar- iNlf

choose to equalize differently to correctdifferent response anomalies in the twospeakers, you can do so; if you want tocontrol both in like manner, it's also easyto ensure that you do. The 10 equalizer andanalyzer sections are spaced on octave cen-ters from 32 Hz to 16 kHz, which, consid-ering the effective range of both sectionsand of the characteristics of human hear-ing, is eminently sensible.

The back panel is simple: Maininput/output pairs for connection in a tapemonitor loop (or, if you prefer, betweenpreamp and power amp), and tapeinput/output pairs to connect with the taperecorder you wish to pre -equalize (and/orto replace the tape monitor loop lost to theequalizer when it occupies that position inthe main signal path). Between these setsof gold-plated RCA jacks is a small controlthat adjusts the pink -noise level. At the ex-treme right are the power cord, the line

SPECSRated THD: 0.005%.

Frequency Response: 10 Hz to100 kHz, ±0.75 dB.

S/N: 118 dB, re: full output.Maximum Input: 8 V rms.Maximum Output: 8 V rms.Input Impedance: 100 kilohms.Output Impedance: 100 ohms.Control Bandwidth ("Q"): 2.5.Control Center Points: 32, 60,

120, 250, and 500 Hz and 1, 2, 4, 8,and 16 kHz.

Control Range: ±15 dB.

Subsonic Filter: 20 Hz with18-dB/octave Chebyshev alignment.

Power Requirements: 120 V a.c., 60 Hz,10 watts.

Dimensions: 17 in. W x 31/2 in. H x 11in. D (43.2 cm x 8.9 cm x 27.9 cm).

Weight: 9 lbs. (4.1 kg).

Price: $459.

Company Address: 22410 70th Ave.West, MountlakeTerrace, Wash.98043.


fuse, and the unswitched conve-nience outlet mentioned above.

Recommended hookups aregiven in AudioControl's "Operat-ing & Enjoyment Manual," whichis the finest audiophile operatingmanual I've seen. Its lightheartedstyle is easy to read, and it'spacked with useful, accurate in-formation on how to use an ana-lyzer and equalizer for best re-sults. It doesn't claim that theC-101 makes a silk purse from asow's ear system (no equalizer/analyzer does that); it does en-courage you to experiment withloudspeaker placement (and sug-gests guidelines) before resortingto equalization, and it warnsagainst excessive boost. It's evenhonest enough to warn that youprobably won't like the sound ofyour system after equalizing it for"flat" response. Refreshing!

CircuitryThe C-101 Series III contains

two main circuit boards. One ex-tends across the rear of the frontpanel and supports the main con-trols, and the other carries all ac-tive circuitry and the power sup-ply except for the maintransformer. The boards inter-connect with four ribbon cables,soldered directly to the boardsand affixed with adhesive. Theboards are single -sided and uselots of jumpers but impressed meas being of good quality. With the excep-tion of some flux residue, construction ap-peared to be good.

The equalizer is designed around five4560 wideband dual op -amps for eachchannel. Each 4560 handles two non -adja-cent control bands. The circuitry is in thefront right corner, as far as possible fromthe power transformer (which is mountednear the rear of the left side wall). Solid-state switches control signal routing tominimize the length of the audio path.

MeasurementsAlthough I measured both channels, I've

based the curves and data exclusively onthe left. Right -channel characteristics

0.4.0 Cant,. C-10

0

1

3

6

CC

9

rpm.tuencv Ras ono. - IOW. vs Ft...1Hr!

111111MIIIIIIIMMIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIMINIIIIII1g1iRfiaiiiii111111111111111MINI11111111111iinkiMR IIIIIIIIIMMIIIIIIIMMIIIIIIIMIMII El FLAT 1111111111..11111111MMIIIIIMMIIIIIIIIMMIIIIIIIME1111111.1111111111M

UBSON C F LTER 1111.1.1111111.1.1111111.1IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMMIIIIIIIM

.1.11.1111...1111111=11111111MMIIIIIIIIIIMINIIIIIIIMEMIIIIIIMMIIIIIIIMMIIIIIIIMEIMIIIIIIMOIIIIIIIMMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMMINIIIIIIMMIIIIIIIME1111111=011111111.1

10 100 lk 10k

FREQUENCY - Hz

Fig. 1-Frequency response.

Ave.

ant el C 1J1 - P.tect ..... Rositans. - COSH C ...... et Ofts IC Mt

I5.10

5

0

5

10

-15

100k 200k

LIIIWIL4ILMOP uumeniar

BEIM . IJ I T20 100 lk

FREQUENCY - Hz

Fig. 2-Response of eachslide- at maximum cutand boost.

.15

.10

>I +5ti 0

5

12 10

IS

10k 20k

Ross sO 1 r Eau. ..... at tote Hors -

111111111111M1111111111111111111111111111M11111111M1111111111ilinimmouniIIIN

11111111M11111111 11111111M111111111111111111=1111111M

20 100 lk

FREQUENCY - Hz

Fig. 3-Response vs.marked setings; see text.

10k 20k

matched those of the left so closely that nopurpose would be served by presentingboth. Channel gains were close to unity(-0.20 dB) and extraordinarily well bal-anced (within ±0.02 dB).

The frequency response of the system isshown in Fig. 1 with the equalizer bypassed(±0.05 dB from 22 Hz to 105 kHz), withthe equalizer engaged and the sliders attheir detents (+0.00 dB, -0.35 dB from 10Hz to 100 kHz), and with both the equaliz-er and the infrasonic filter engaged. (Thefilter is operational even with the equalizerbypassed.) Chebyshev alignment (specifiedby AudioControl) implies some degree ofpassband ripple, but I saw no evidence of itin the data. As far as I can tell, the filter is

AUDIO/AUGUST 199455

101 Input/Output Pn fomplatue -1PM GM10 Cal

,v,.,

.45

- AMPLITUDE IIIIIIIM1111111 A. '''+I°

.5.110111011 IIIIIII

1111111 111151 111011111111111111.111111111.111111111MEIMI0

iiiiiiiiiinli1111111iMaliiiiiiiiiias M1111111 11111N11111M1111111

M111111511 1111111-5-,0M1111111

__ n1111111 1111111M 1111111 .20 100 lk

FREQUENCY - Hz

Fig. 4-Phase and amplitudeat maximum boost and cut.

z' 01

z

001

0.001

10k 20k

.12!:11111111=fflismf-iniummmumummosintim

-1:1:=EI9111==7.eag=51:::

1111111MIMMIIIIIIIME111111111111111111Maos 01 1

OUTPUT -V

Fig. 5-THD + N vs. outputvoltage.

10 20

Butterworth -aligned, which is the "0 -dBripple" Chebyshev case. The -3 dB pointoccurs at 22 Hz with a slope of 18 dB/oc-tave. Response is 5 dB down at 20 Hz and(not shown) -23.6 dB at 10 Hz.

Figure 2 is a composite of the responsecurves taken with each slider individuallyset for maximum boost and maximum cut,i.e., 20 curves in all. Band centers agreequite closely to the indicated markings,and, although the maximum boost and cutvaries with the particular control that is ex-ercised, each provides a range of at least±12.5 dB and some provide as much as±14.7 dB. Each control's boost and cut isunusually symmetric, which testifies togood design.

I also plotted equalizer response withvarious combinations of slider settings:Each alternating between maximum andminimum, alternating in pairs (two up/twodown, etc.), alternating in triplets (threeup/three down), and so forth. Althoughthe curves aren't shown, suffice it to saythat the C-101 performed pretty much asyou'd expect from the "graphic" positionof the sliders. Of course, each equalizer sec-tion affects those adjacent to it so that, ifthree are raised, more boost is given to thecenter band than would be obtained had

the adjacent ones not been boost-ed as well. But there were none ofthe anomalies I've seen with some"graphic" equalizers whose equal-izer sections interact in such a waythat the resultant frequency re-sponse doesn't correlate withequalizer positions when morethan one band is used.

Figure 3 is a composite of 10 re-sponse curves taken with the 1 -kHz slider set as close as possibleto each marked setting: ±3, ±6, ±9,±12, and ±15 dB. The actualboosts and cuts don't correspondprecisely with the markings, and atleast half the range comes betweenthe "12" and "15" marks. Howev-er, I don't recall ever measuring ananalog equalizer in which themarkings really did correspond tothe actual response modification,so I can't downgrade the C-101against its competition in this re-gard. By limiting the change thatoccurs with the sliders slightly off

center, you needn't be precisely on the de -tents to achieve "flat" response. Since theAudioControl detents are none too defi-nite, this is arguably a benefit.

Figure 4 is a composite of the responseand input/output phase shift that occurwith the 1 -kHz slider at maximum boostand maximum cut. Note the symmetry inboth the response andphase curves.

The C -101's THD +N versus output level(at 1 kHz, with allsliders at the detents)is shown in Fig. 5. Thedownward slope indi-cates that noise pre-dominates at output levels from 50 mV tosomewhat above 1 V and that the C-101can produce 7 V output with negligibledistortion (0.05%). Clipping (1% THD)occurs at 9.65 V. The THD + N at 2 V out-put (not shown) did not exceed 0.0062% atany frequency from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, andsome of this, too, was noise.

I'm impressed by how little distortionand noise the C-101 produces. Each equal-izer section requires its own operationalamplifier and associated components, andeach inevitably generates some THD and

noise. Ultimately, these contaminants com-bine in the output stage so that when youdesign a 10 -band equalizer, things can getpretty hairy. With distortion in the 0.005%range and an A -weighted noise of -93.2 dBreferenced to 0.5 V (-99.2 dBV), the C-101is outstanding in these regards. Referencingthe A -weighted noise to maximum outputlevel (9.65 V) yields a theoretical S/N of118.9 dB! Clearly, the C-101 can be used in

a variety of applications over a wide rangeof input levels without audible ill effects.Input and output impedances (100 kilohmsand 110 ohms, respectively) and a gener-ous input overload (9.9 V) further testifyto universality of application.

A noise -spectrum analysis (not shown)revealed hum -related components at 60Hz, 180 Hz, and 300 Hz of -90.1 dB, -91.8dB, and -105.5 dB (re: 0.5 V), respectively.Since these occurred at odd harmonics ofthe power line, I suspect they were causedby magnetic coupling from the trans-former. But the hum was negligible in lev-el, and no other line structure was appar-ent in the analysis. Channel separation was72 dB at 1 kHz and better than 51.5 dBfrom 20 Hz to 10 kHz.

Finally, I verified the "flatness" of theC-101 pink -noise generator by using thesweeping third -octave spectrum analyzerbuilt into my Audio Precision System Oneand a real-time third -octave analyzer (op-erating in an Apple computer) that I devel-

oped for loudspeakerevaluation. Bothmeasurements indi-cated that the pinknoise the C-101 gen-erates is more thansufficiently "flat" forits intended purposeon a third -octave ba-

sis, given the 2 -dB per LED resolution ofthe C-101 analyzer. However, the Apple -based measurement was arguably the moreaccurate, since I could use an averagingtime sufficient to integrate the level fluctu-ations that naturally occur in pink noise atlow frequencies.

THE OWNER'S MANUAL IS

THE BEST I'VE SEEN,

LIGHTHEARTED YET

COMPLETELY CANDID.

Use and Listening TestsSince AudioControl advises against us-

ing the C -101's mike other than with theanalyzer, I evaluated it (and the analyzer)in my listening room by comparing the

AUDIO/AUGUST 199456

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response curves of my loudspeaker as mea-sured by the C-101 microphone/analyzerwith a measurement made with my Apple -based setup and calibrated lab micro-phone. The two agreed within the limits ofexperimental error, which is to say, withinthe limits imposed by the C -101's resolu-tion of 2 dB per LED.

While I was at it, I equalized my listen-ing system for "flat" response. As Audio -Control warned (and which I already knewfrom past experience), with most programmaterial, the resulting sound was too harsh

and strident. This is not to say that usingthe C-101 to analyze/equalize a system isfruitless. Once you've "flattened" the sys-tem and corrected gross bumps and dips inresponse, you can modify the tonal balanceas you wish. (AudioControl offers advice inthis regard.) You're likely to want to lowerthe high -frequency sliders progressively toimpart a gradual high -frequency slope tothe overall response, and you may alsowant to add a bit of bass boost.

One word of warning and one of advice.As an octave -based analyzer, the C-101 can

WITH THE WORLDS MOST MUSICALTUBE COMPONENTS

only adjust octave -to -octave balance; itcannot correct response irregularities thatoccur over narrower bands. You will getoptimum results if you start with a goodpair of loudspeakers that have been placedin the room so as to minimize standingwaves. The C-101 can help you find thoseideal locations. Next, as AudioControlpoints out in its manual, you will find areasin which measured response seems to varywidely when you move the microphoneslightly. These are not good listening posi-tions vis-i-vis loudspeaker placement.Change one or the other until you get sta-ble measurements over a reasonable area. Iexpect that the dissatisfaction that manyexpress with analyzer/equalizers stemsfrom not appreciating the importance of

THE C-101 IS

CLEAN AND QUIET

IN THE LISTENING ROOM

AND PERFORMS SUPERBLY

ON THE TEST BENCH.

listening/microphone placement and notrealizing that you are unlikely to want trulyflat response.

A component like the AudioControlC-101 Series III is not limited to loud-speaker equalization, and many may noteven use it for this purpose. Once it's inyour system, you'll not be able to resist thetemptation to do a little creative tinkeringwith the sound balance of your record col-lection. After you've gathered some experi-ence using the equalizer, you can do quite abit to spruce up the sound of inferior LPsand CDs. And if you duplicate tapes foryour car, you'll find the C-101 extremelyhelpful in tailoring recordings so theysound almost as good on the road as theoriginals do at home.

If you are interested in a graphic equaliz-er/analyzer, the AudioControl C-101 SeriesIII should be high on your list of candi-dates. It performs outstandingly well onthe test bench and is clean and quiet in thelistening room. Of course, you can't callany equalizer "transparent," since it'smeant to alter tonal balance, but if youcould, the AudioControl C-101 would getmy vote. It does only what you ask of it.

Edward J. Foster

/00604e.'Enter No 21 on Reader Service Card

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AUDIO/AUGUST 199458

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Are you getting the most out of your speakers? Did you know thatproper mounting and room placement dramatically improves soundquality? Most major speaker manufacturers recommend loudspeakersupports for optimum performance; many of the best known brandsspecifically recommend or use Sanus Foundations®. Demand themost from your audio dollar. Give your music a Sound Foundation!

Natural Foundations

Natural Foundations are constructed of MDF and finished with threecoats of hand sanded black lacquer. MDF is quieter and stronger thanother wood products, and is the cabinet material used in the bestloudspeakers. All models feature brass speaker isolation studs, adjust-able floor spikes, neoprene isolation pads, and a concealed speakerwire path. Two models are available with solid oak or walnut pillars.

Designer Foundations

Designer Foundations are a contemporary alternative to the utilitarianlook of most steel loudspeaker supports. Performance is on par withthe finest European and domestic designs, yet the price is affordable.Designer Foundations feature Tillable steel pillars, adjustable floorspikes, HDF top plates, neoprene isolation pads, and brass speakerisolation studs.

Adjustable Floor Spikes

Enter No. 23 on Reader Service Card 1973 W. Cty. Rd. C2 Roseville MN 551'3 (800) 359-5520 (612) 636-0367 FAX

SONANCE 2120AMPLIFIER

Company Address: 961 CalleNegocio, San Clemente, Cal.92673.


M

ost of us associate So-nance with loudspeak-ers-in particular, within -wall speakers. Ar-

guably, Sonance was oneof the first to elevate in -

wall speakers from the P.A. dungeonto the high-fidelity stratum, andthey've done quite well at theirtrade. Becausespeakers mustbe driven bypower amps,it's not reallysurprising thatSonance has

branched outof its nicheinto the elec-tronics arena. But entering a newarea is easier said than done; driver

design and circuit design are quitedifferent arts. I must confess to hav-ing approached the Sonamp 2120power amplifier with somewhat of a"show me" attitude, but "show me"it did. The 2120 is really quite a nicepiece.

Clearly, the Sonamp 2120 was de-signed with an eye toward the cus-tom -installation market, the one So-nance is most familiar with. "AutoOn" circuitry brings the system tolife within 1.5 seconds after detect-ing the presence of an input, andpowers the amp down about fourminutes after the signal has disap-peared. You can defeat "Auto On"with a recessed back -panel slide

switch, in which case the 2120'sfront -panel "Power" switch func-tions as you'd expect it to. If you use"Auto On," the "Power" switchshould be left depressed.

This can be a little confusing atfirst, because the red "A.C. On" LEDilluminates whenever power is ap-plied, independent of the position ofthe "Power" switch. If the amp isplugged into a live output, the redlamp is lit; if it isn't, the line fuse hasblown. A green "Active" LED lightswhen the amplifier is really on, i.e.,when it senses the presence of a sig-nal in the "Auto On" mode or whenthe "Power" switch is depressed inthe-what shall I call it?-"Non-Auto-On" mode. (The "Active" lightwill also come on when the 2120 isfirst plugged in or after power is in-terrupted and restored. In the "AutoOn" mode, it'll turn off after a fewminutes if no signal is present.)

"Auto On" simplifies operation inmultiroom or home theater applica-

tions but is, onthe one hand,neither uniqueto the Sonance2120 amp nor,on the otherhand, the onlymultiroomnicety that theSonance offers.

On the back panel are stereo inputand output jacks so that multiple

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT

FROM THE 2120 IS

AN HONEST WORKHORSE

WITH REMARKABLY

CONSERVATIVE RATINGS.

AUDIO/AUGUST 199460

2120s can be daisy -chained ("looped") to-gether without resorting to "Y" connectors.If you use many power amps in your sys-tem and are concerned about the power -line surge that may occur when all turnon at once, Sonance has available twoline -protection sequential power switch-ers (the AC1 and AC2) that will eliminatethe problem.

Recessed screwdriver -adjustable level

controls on the 2120's front panel permityou to adjust sound pressure level in eacharea independently and ensure that youneedn't operate your preamp's volumecontrol at such a low setting that channelbalance is impaired and/or that the controlis difficult to adjust. Ilike the idea of recess-ing the gain controlsand "Auto On" slider;they're one-time se-

tups that can poten-tially be misadjustedby accident.

Sonance claims tohave designed the Son -

amp 2120 with "numerous protection cir-cuits"-including surge, overload, andthermal -protection systems-that auto-matically reset after a fault has been cor-rected. Should any of the protection cir-cuits trigger, the green "Active" LEDflashes and output may be interrupted byan internal relay. This is all well and good,but not every 2120 "protection device" re-sets automatically; three internal powerfuses and one back -panel line fuse must bemanually replaced if blown.

The 2120 uses a discrete output stage(parallel pairs of Toshiba 2SC4029s and2SA1553s in each channel) mounted totwo reasonably generous heat -sinks, oneper channel. The heat -sinks are apparentlymore than adequate, since the 2120 rancool both on the test bench and in the lis-tening room. Thermal sensors, mounted toeach sink between the complementary -symmetry pairs, track and compensate foroutput -stage temperature. The output -stage drivers are mounted on individualheat -sinks. Most of the audio circuitry ison one main board that uses fairly widetraces to carry power and audio outputcurrent. A small board near the input andlooping jacks carries a pair of op -amps andassociated input circuitry.

The power supply is on a separate board,with a good-sized heat -sink used to coolthe main bridge rectifier. A small indepen-dent bridge apparently is used to power the"Auto On" system. A rather large toroidalpower transformer (rated at 600 volt am-peres) mounts at the left rear of the chassis,near the line cord and fuse. The generouslyrated transformer should provide adequatecurrent reserves, and the toroidal construc-tion helps contain magnetic hum fields.But the filter bank used after the rectifier-a pair of 10,000-0, 65-V conventionalelectrolytics-is rather modest for a poweramplifier whose output is rated at 120watts per channel.

BECAUSE OF ITS HIGHER

THAN TYPICAL GAIN,

THE 2120'S NOISEFIGURES ARE ALL THE

MORE IMPRESSIVE.

Construction ap-

pears to be reason-ably neat. Althoughparts quality seemsadequate, it's by nomeans exotic. Inputconnectors are sol-

der -wiped, not gold-plated, and the five -way output posts

(one set, not two) are more functional thanimpressive. They are, however, mountedon 3/4 -inch centers so they will accommo-date GR-type dual banana plugs.

Those who require exotic parts and eso-teric circuitry to get their jollies will notfind either in the Sonamp 2120. I doubtthey'll find them in any $575 power amp($590 for the rack -mounted version) thatis rated at 120 watts/channel. The Sonamp2120 makes no pretense to having "dual -mono" construction, and, although I wasnot provided with a schematic, I doubtthere's anything particularly novel inthe circuit design either. What you canexpect from the Sonamp 2120 is an honestworkhorse with remarkably conservativeratings.

For example, the 2120 is rated at 120watts/channel into 8 ohms and 160

watts/channel into 4 ohms, at 0.05% and0.10% THD respectively, from 20 Hz to 20kHz. At rated output on my test bench, Imeasured a maximum THD of 0.035% onthe poorer of the two channels (0.028% onthe better one) when using 8 -ohm loadsand 0.056% (on each channel) with 4 -ohmloads. That's only half to two-thirds asmuch distortion as Sonance claims. More-over, the distortion did not rise in the bass

AUDIO/AUGUST 199461

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Solve the Mystery Sweepstakes Audio Magazine. 1633 Broadway. New York, NY 10019

Audio Magazine wit not be responsible for lost, misdirected or Ole entries. The winners

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region (as might be expected, given thesmallish filter caps). In practice, theworst case occurred at 20 kHz, and, from20 Hz to 3 kHz, THD was no more than0.010% with 8 -ohm loads and 0.018% with4 -ohm terminations. Maximum outputpower at clipping (both channels driven)was 160 watts per channel into 8 ohms andreached a whopping 250 watts per channelinto 4 ohms.

With both level controls fully advanced,channel balance was extraordinarily pre-cise-within 0.01 dB, the limit of my test

equipment. Frequency response (on thepoorer of the two channels) was within+0.00, -0.15 dB from below 10 Hz to 20kHz and down 0.5 dB at 55 kHz. The -3 dBpoint occurred at 170 kHz. Input/outputphase linearity was within +4.5°, -7.9°from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Channel separationwas 80 dB or better from 20 Hz to 3 kHzand 70 dB or better out to 16 kHz. (Manydual -mono amps don't do better, andsome do worse!)

The A -weighted noise was -93.3 dBW,which implies a signal-to-noise ratio refer-

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enced to rated power (20.8 dBW) of 114.1dB-more than 14 dB better than Sonancespecifies! The noise figures are all the moreimpressive when viewed in conjunction

FOR ITS STATED USE IN

CUSTOM INSTALLATIONS,

THE SONAMP 2120WILL BE HARD TO BEAT.

with the 2120's higher -than -typical gain.With 8 -ohm loads, it delivered rated out-put with a 1-V input (88 mV for 1 watt)rather than the more usual 1.5 V. Ofcourse, you can reduce gain by readjustingthe input level controls, so the 2120's extraamplification can only be considered anadvantage.

Damping factor was 215 at 50 Hz and190 at 1 kHz. Because the 2120 uses outputprotection coils, output impedance rises(damping factor drops) at higher frequen-cies. I measured an output impedance ofabout 100 milliohms at 5 kHz and 175 mil-liohms at 10 kHz.

Apparently someone at Sonance knowshis way around circuit design, because the2120 obviously did quite well on the testbench. It also did well in the listeningroom. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's themost pristine power amp I've ever heard,but I was surprised at how good it reallydid sound. It's quiet, bass is tight, andthere seems to be adequate current avail-able. High treble is not its strong point; it'sa trifle brittle and somewhat alters the har-monic balance between fundamental andovertones in the violin's upper register.However, the difference between the Son -amp 2120 and the best power amps on themarket is relatively slight and certainly farnarrower than is the corresponding pricedifference.

For its stated use as a power amp forcustom installations, I think you'll find theSonamp 2120 hard to beat. The same ap-plies for home theater applications. In fact,I'd have little hesitation employing the2120 in almost any audio system, especiallywhen budget is an issue. At this price,there's no cause for complaint-only ad-miration. Edward Foster

AUDIO/AUGUST 199462


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ALPHA -COREGOERTZ MI 1 8e. MI 2SPEAKER CABLES

Goertz MI speaker cablesfrom Alpha -Core have a

substantially different geom-etry from the cables I exam-ined in "Speaker Cables:

Testing for Audibility" forthe July 1993 issue. The Goertz MIcables consist of two, flat, insulatedconductors bound together by anouter insulating jacket. Alpha -Coreclaims the benefits of its design in-clude impedance matching and theelimination of distortion, high -fre-quency roll -off, crosstalk, skin effect,and emitted EMF effects. The cablesare available with copper or silverconductors, and each version comesin two widths. Heavy, gold-platedconnectors are available in bananaplug, spade, and pin styles. Otheraccessories include mounting tapeand clips. In 25 -foot lengths, copperGoertz cables cost $4.95 per foot forMI 1 and $7.90 per foot for the

heavier MI 2, while the silver ca-bles, MI AG 1 and MI AG 2,

respectively cost $49.80and $88.70 per foot.

serve

Goertz MI 1 cable is AWG #13,measures 0.4 inch wide and 0.05inch thick, and has a resistance ofabout 4 milliohms per foot (bothconductors). Goertz MI 2 cable,

AWG #10, is twice as wide, with aresistance around 2 milliohms perfoot. For 0.2 dBV of loss with 25 feet

of cable, the minimum speaker im-pedance is about 4.3 ohms withMI 1 and 2.2Conductors inboth cables are0.01 inch thick,

thus eliminat-

ing the over-rated skin ef-fect at audiofrequencies.

The flat, thin

conductors in close proximityto lower inductance while raising ca-pacitance. Goertz MI 1 has about480 pF per foot and MI 2 about1,000 pF per foot. The inductancefor the pair of conductors is quitelow, measuring less than 0.1 pH for25 feet of cable. These cables have

ohms with MI 2.

loss of about 0.5 dB for a 4 -ohmload through 10 feet.

The name "Ml" comes from"Matched Impedance," a term morecommonly associated with r.f. trans-mission lines. Like other cables

around 15 years ago (from Polk,Mogami, Discwasher, and Au-

dioSource), Goertz MI cables have alow characteristic impedance. Suchcables are typically more dispersive,though not audibly so. Since thelengths of speaker cables are verysmall fractions of an audio signal'swavelength, reflections will not be aproblem.

The measured response with aloudspeaker load is generally flat;between 2 and 20 kHz the loss in-creases to 0.2 dBV for MI 1 and to0.1 dBV for MI 2, a result of the testspeaker's impedance minimum of

about 4.5 ohms.

This indicatesessentially nohigh -frequency

roll -off with the

Goertz cables.In comparison,the loss for stan-

dard #12 AWGat 20 kHz is only about 0.8 dBV. Be-low 10 kHz, the Goertz MI cablesperform virtually the same as stan-dard #12 AWG. What frequency isnecessary to get a substantial differ-ence with 25 feet of cable and a 4 -ohm load? It took 185 kHz to get 3dBV of difference between MI 1 and

#12 AWG.

One option when orderingthe Alpha -Core cables is tohave them cut to length andready for termination. Youmay want to consider thatoption if you don't have

power tools or arms like Pop -eye's. The thin layer of insula-

tion bonded to each conductor is in-credibly tenacious and requiressubstantial effort to remove. Once

DISTINCTIVE AND

WELL MADE,

THESE CABLES

SHOULD DO FINE

WITH MOST SPEAKERS.

sufficient capacitance to maintain aflat impedance, much as ribbon ca-bles do (see my 1993 article). From20 Hz to 20 kHz, the impedance ofthe Goertz cables increases about21%. In comparison, the imped-ance of standard AWG #12 cableincreases 583%, which causes a

10/AUGUST 199464

Company Address: 915 PembrokeSt., Bridgeport, Conn. 06608.


the insulation is removed, attaching theterminals is quite simple. The bodies ofthese heavy, high -quality terminals are notinsulated, so care must be taken to preventshorts.

I found both cables to be quite stiff, es-pecially MI 2, and routing them can bechallenging. They can be folded and bent,although sharp twists and bends tended tobuckle and occasionally split the outerjacket. The inner insulation remained in-tact, and no shorts were found after thisabuse. The thin profile lends the cable toinstallation under a carpet (but be carefulto avoid tacks!).

The silver -conductor versions, MI AG 1and MI AG 2, were not tested. Except forslightly lower resistance, there should be

BLIND LISTENING TESTS

WITH 25 FEET OF GOERTZ

CABLES VERSUS #12 AWG

LAMP CORD PRODUCED

NO AUDIBLE DIFFERENCES.

little difference in their performance de-spite the substantial increase in cost.

Informal, blind listening tests compared25 feet of MI 1, MI 2, and #12 AWG cable;no audible difference could be found.Younger ears were also employed to see ifsomething in the top octave was beingmissed. The measured differences still

eluded human detection.Why weren't the cable differences more

audible? Our hearing becomes much lesssensitive above 4 kHz, falling at about 10dB per octave. Also, there isn't a lot of mu-sical energy above 10 kHz, and this is easilymasked. The result is a lack of significantaudible difference in the top octave, whilebelow 10 kHz the cables are effectively thesame.

These are distinctive, well -made cablesand terminals. Their measured perfor-mance is excellent, and they should workwell with nearly any speaker as a load. Iflong cable runs are necessary with a lowload impedance, it is possible that Alpha -Core's Goertz cables could make an audibledifference. However, shorter runs and typi-cal loads are unlikely to show much im-provement over #12 AWG. Fred E. Davis

AURICLE

TERK LEAPFROGREMOTE -CON' OL

EXTEND. RTerk Technologies' Leapfrog acts as a

radio bridge between your audiocomponents and their remotecontrols. It lets you operateyour preamp, tape deck,and CD equipment by

their remote

controlswhen you

are not in

sight of thesecomponents-

even from anotherroom. The Leapfrog should also be idealfor outdoor use, where sunlight can swampan ordinary remote's infrared beams. TheLeapfrog system costs $69.95 for the IR-5base station and one IR-4 transmitter. Ex-tra transmitters cost $19.95 each.

The IR-4 is a tiny, battery -powered, in-frared receiver and radio transmitter thatmounts on any infrared remote control. Itis small, light, and unobtrusive and is fairlyrugged. If the remote is dropped, the IR-4detaches without breaking (it's attachedwith self-adhesive hook -and -loop fasten-ers) and can easily be refitted.

The IR-5 base station is a small, incon-spicuous a.c.-powered device that receivesradio signals from IR-4 transmitters, trans-lates them into infrared signals that matchthose from the original remotes, and

broadcasts them in their infraredform. The IR-5 can pick up signals

from an IR-4 up to 150 feet away, andeasily receives these signals throughnormal home and apartment walls. TheIR-5's infrared output covers a wide arcand works at fairly long distances, which

makes it easy to position and still haveits beam reach all of the compo-

nents it controls. Because thesystem operates at 418

MHz, its signal cannotinterfere with au-

dio equipmentor FM.

What if youwant to keep

your components in acabinet or behind a door? No

problem. The IR-5 base unit has asmall jack that can be connected to a seriesof up to four small infrared Model IR-X re-peaters ($14.95 each). An IR-X can then beplaced in front of the infrared sensor oneach component.

The Leapfrog is ideal for people whokeep their components and speakers in dif-ferent rooms. It makes it remarkably easyto set the exact balance for a given record-ing without moving your head, and to ad-just volume levels to suit a given perfor-mance. The Leapfrog permits easy A/Btesting, because components do not haveto be visible and switching is so quick. Andby attaching the Leapfrog to a universal re-mote control programmed for your equip-ment, you can use one Leapfrog transmit-ter to operate your entire system. (Suchremotes are available for less than half theLeapfrog's price.) Finally-a high -end ac-cessory that is affordable and really works!

Anthony H. Cordesman

Company Address: 65 East BethpageRd., Plainview, N.Y. 11803; (800)942-8375.


AUDIO/AUGUST 199465

CLASSICALR E C O R DINGS

kraft

Percussion by William KraftBarry Silverman, Thomas Raney,

percussion soloists; Pacific

Percussion Ensemble; PercussionQuartet from Tanglewood, FrankEpstein, conductor; members Los

Angeles Philharmonic, KraftCRYSTAL CD 124, CD; 60:12

There are two excellentreasons for a CD suchas this to exist. Neither,as I see it, has much todo with music-which

doesn't really matter.First, here is a bunch of percus-

sion fiends having enormous fun,

playing theirstrenuous thing:You never heardsuch whangsand bangs androlls and whirs

and all manner of other sounds-including a few discrete pitches outof such as a marimba. (Curiouswhen that instrument has virtuallyno percussiveness at all and lots andlots of pitch!) Having spent theirvigorous lifetimes learning the in-credible art of percussion, these guyssimply rejoice in their skills.BOOM-what a whack! Brrrring-what a roll. Like kids gone berserk in

a school playroom. But with suchamazing expertise.

What astonishes me is that it allseems to be written down in millionsof notes on paper. The sounds, fivedifferent pieces, are all "by" WilliamKraft. That is, they aren't just im-provising. (Only once in a while.)

The second reason-and cause for review inthis space-is that this is,as you may guess, whatwe used to call a Test

Record. A whopper, par excellence,for those who want to show off theirgear, system, fi or whatever. Now

more than ever, asthe ads say.Remember"Death andTransfigura-tion"? Forget

it. This is whatyou need. Wow,

what sounds! Justin time for the

modest subwoofers Iinstalled (NHT) with

the thought of keepingmyself somewhat up to date.

(They are surprisingly unobtrusivein most classical music.)

Don't try the CD on a so-calledboom box; the little speakers

will probably pop rightout of their frames. And

check with family and neigh-bors before you start on your big

gear. Edward Tatnall Canby

Dario Castello:Sonate Concertante

Europa GalanteOPUS I 1 1 OPS 30-62, CD; 65:00

Here are those Italians again, op-erating from France (the label isOpus 111) but in all respects out ofthe sunny south and the city of Par-

ma-at last re-discovering theirown native mu-sic of the past inauthentic cur-rent -day terms.

AUDIO/AUGUST 199466

This composer is an Italian "unknown," notyet made the big time on Broadway-hemight as well, as far as we are concerned, bethat well-known artist, Anon. For such rea-sons he caught my eye-then my ear. Goodman, good listening!

You might call this proto-baroque. It is the

early 17th century, here, the time of Mon-teverdi, Gesualdo, the young Schutz (whospent his learning years in Italy)-these being

famous names. But Dario Castello? The notes

tell us bravely that "his life is cloaked in mys-

tery" and little is known of him. Which is tosay, nothing at all. Except the music.

It is more than worthy of the famed Anon!

The sound grew on me steadily as the hour -plus sequence of short pieces, "chamberworks" a later age would say, unreeled on atwin pair of violins and a changing accompa-

niment texture of modest variety. A very gen-

tly dramatic composer, this, in whose worksone hears nevertheless strong hints of the in-

tense dramatic innovations of that musicallyexplosive time.

Not in words. All of it is in the playing, mi-

nus any hint of "story" to explain what goeson. Pure musical drama: Sudden, startlingchanges from fast to slow, dramatic pauses,

brief passionate bursts, rushing scales-verystrange! For our ears, no apparent reason. But

some audience, some group of players, musthave been very startled and impressed in early

performances.

The very early baroque had not yet discov-

ered LENGTH-except as attached to words,sacred, in song or opera. No extended "move-

ments" here, allegro, adagio, and so on. In-stead, each piece is made up of a series ofshort sections one after the other in dramaticcontrasts, no more than a few momentsapart. This at first is confusing. Play through,

and then it becomes evident that within

Stravinsky: Ebony Concerto;Babin (arr. D. Nygren):

Hillandale Waltzes; MortonGould: Derivations for Clarinetand Band; Bernstein: Prelude,Fugue, and Riffs; Artie Shaw:

Concerto for Clarinet

John Bruce Yeh, clarinet;

DePaul University Wind and

Jazz Ensemble, Donald DeRoche

and Robet Lark, conductors

REFERENCE RECORDINGS

RR 55CD, CD; 52:17

Serious audiophiles know Ref-

erence Recordings as modest inscope but at the top of the heapwhen it come to sonics, and thisCD, focused on the brilliant clar-inetist John Bruce Yeh, reinforces

that reputation. The ChicagoSymphony signed Yeh at the age

of 19; today he also teaches atDePaul University. The music onthis CD runs quite agamut, from the excel-lent (Leonard Bernstein,Igor Stravinsky, MortonGould) through the ba-nal (Victor Babin) to thealmost rubbishy (Artie Shaw), but

performance quality redeemseverything.

During the big -band era, Ben-

ny Goodman not only held theuncontested title as King ofSwing, he also recorded a num-ber of the most important cham-ber works involving clarinet; withthe violinist Joseph Szigeti, he

even commissioned Bela Bartok's

"Contrasts," which they recordedwith Bartok at the piano. Good -man's only serious pop rival,Woody Herman, who aptlycalled his band The ThunderingHerd, struck back by commis-sioning the greatest living com-poser, Igor Stravinsky, to writethe Ebony Concerto. The record-ing they made together foundHerman and his men technicallyon top of the score, but audibly,not really at home with all thosejagged, asymmetrical, rapidlyshifting rhythms.

How times have changed inhalf a century. Everyone involved

here seems to have no moreproblem with even the most diffi-cult stretches of these works than

they might have with a Sousamarch. If from time to time one

might wish for an evensharper microtome preci-

sion of attack or synco-pation, in general the ac-

companying ensemblesmatch the soloist's securi-

ty and brilliance.

Inevitably, Stravinsky in spotssounds a bit square and alien tothe jazz idiom, but Herman gothis money's worth in an enduring

score. The agreeable but incon-sequential Babin waltz variations(for which Dennis Nygren or-chestrated the piano part) servetheir purpose largely by permit-

ting the solo clarinetist to shine.The main surprise comes withGould's Derivations for Clarinetand Band, written for, and in col-laboration with, Goodman: Sol-id, expertly crafted music, con-vincingly interpolating all sorts ofauthentic jazz elements, to strik-ing effect.

Herman also commissionedthe Bernstein work, but disband-ed his last Herd before perform-ing it; Goodman unveiled thepiece with Bernstein conducting.The movements' subtitles tell the

story: Prelude for the Brass,Fugue for the Saxes, and Riffs for

Everyone-instantly recogniz-able as Bernstein, especiallyevocative of his energy -packedtheater music.

Artie Shaw also had highermusical aspirations: At onepoint, after his recording of "Be-gin the Beguin" had made himworld-famous and rich, he sought

lessons from composer David Di-amond. This flimsy non -concerto

of his (contrived for the eminently

forgettable film Second Chorus)bears no witness to that-buthere again, as in all these works,

the excellence of John Bruce Yeh,

his colleagues, and Reference'sengineering make this disc some-thing out of the ordinary. RichardFreed's exceptionally goodnotes round off the package.

Paul Moor

AUDIO/AUGUST 199467

these, shall I say, spurts of music is much va-

riety, out of tightly limited means.

The two violins are absolutely equal. There

is no favoritism. They share their ideas liketwins with their associates in the accompani-ment. But there is a certain dreamy quality in

their playing, an occasional fading away-Itend to think is due to simply a lack of experi-ence with microphones. That's just a guess.Do they swing and sway in place as they play,

in the old traditional fiddler's style? Thatwould do it. For the mikes, you have to stand

still. Edward Tatnall Canby

Mozart: Rondo and Horn Concertos

Ab Koster, natural horn;

Tafelmusik, Bruno Weil

SONY CLASSICAL SK 53369, CD; 63:30

Some fetchingly familiar horn music hereas well as some unknown, but there is more:Old buglers, Boy Scouts, Marines, whatever,please take note. Here, in real sound, is what

can be done, and was done, in the 18th centu-

ry, on a simple horn-I mean a "Frenchhorn," entirely without valves. Just the lipsand breath, with hand held inside the bell ofthe instrument all to control the instrument'spitch and tone. Very much like a bugle.

Buglers today mostly play two well-known

tunes, the get-up one, reveille ("revalie") andthe tune for the dead, taps, always a scary or-

deal for the player. Plenty of other tunes arepossible, whether for Marines or Scouts; butevery last one, minus valves, is made up ofonly four, maybe five notes in the natural har-

monic series. In my near -Scout years (I wasedged into somethingcalled the WoodcraftLeague, non-military,lots of Indian lore) I once

got a bugle into my fasci-nated hands and tried it

out. To my immense chagrin, I couldn't pro-duce any note at all. Just a breathy hiss. Notaps for me. I was the more impressed by thegood bugler who could play those three orfour notes. On the natural horn recordedhere, I think I would produce the same un-pleasant hiss. Or maybe an unseemly blat.And so would you.

This is an all -"period" group, orchestra aswell as solo horn. The five compositions in-clude music that has re -surfaced, out of en-hanced current musicology-one whole pageof lost Mozart music turned up as recently as

1990 and was put with the rest of its musical

body, so to speak, a lot of unsuitable orches-tration and even sheer post -Mozart composi-

tion (the well-known Sussmeyer) was re-vised-all of which results in an easy naturalMozart-you may forget sequence of the mu-sicological events.

Though some of this horn music is new to

almost all of us, there are very familiar sounds

here, much beloved as played by horns withthe usual standard modern valves. If youknow what they can do you will be astonished

at how easily this horn player, operating like a

bugler, can play all the scales, arpeggios, rapid

runs, graceful melodies, trills, just as well as

the regular hornists! Some earlier players ofthis revived older horn were not entirely able

to smooth out the horn sound as betweennatural tones and those altered by the hand -in -bell technique. Not this player. The tech-nique has advanced. Listen and you will hear.

The horn tone is now even smoother, morelike the human voice, than any produced bythe modern instrument. Indeed, there is acontrolled variety of tone, soft and gentle,that I find especially impressive. Do we need

any more evidence? No-just more music,please. Edward Tatnall Canby

Cowell: Persian Set; Hymn and FuguingTune for String Orchestra; AmericanMelting Pot; Air for Solo Violin and

String Orchestra; Old American CountrySet; Adagio (from Ensemble for String

Orchestra)Manhattan Chamber Orchestra,

Richard Auldon ClarkKOCH INTERNATIONAL CLASSICS

3-7220-2H1, CD; 64:07

Cowell: Piano Music: The Tides ofManaunaun; Exultation; Harp of Life; Lilt

of the Reel; Advertisement; Antinomy;Aeolian Harp and Sinister Resonance;

Anger Dance; The Banshee; Fabric;What's This?; Amiable Conversation;

Fairy Answer; Jig; Snows of Fujiyama;Voice of Lir; Dynamic Motion; The

Trumpet of Angus 09; TigerHenry Cowell, piano

SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS 9307-40801-2,CD; 60:36

Henry Cowell's career followed a time-honored pattern: In his early years, duringthe '20s, he shocked the pants off the inter-national musical world as a wild-eyed radi-cal by the standards of that time, only towind up, well before his death in 1965,sounding downright conservative. He wentdown in musical history as the originatorof "tone -clusters" (played on the keyboardwith the fist or forearm), although SorrelHayes points out in the Smithsonian reis-sue of Folkways' 1963 recordings that theCzech composer Frantisek Koczwara usedthem (in The Battle of Prague) as early as1788. He also elicited sound from pianostrings by every conceivable direct means,

KOCN

Pcraten

1110117Cara

tom

without keyboardand hammers asintermediary. Cow-ell, born in Califor-nia of Irish her-itage, had a life fullof event but notwithout tragedy;

Dana Paul Perna's (appallingly edited)notes in the Koch set provide a slanted ac-count of the four-year San Quentin peni-tentiary term he served in the 1930s. Later,as if to make restitution, Washingtonproudly sent him around the world as a

convincing, highlyeffective musicalambassador.

For recordings 30years old, Cowell'sown piano perfor-mances (originallyproduced by Peter

Bartok, Moses Asch, Marian Distler, andhis wife Sidney Cowell) sound amazinglygood, thanks to superior electronic rejuve-nation. Cowell's informal recorded dis-course (13:18) about the individual piecesenhances this reissue's documentary value.

Koch's orchestral set shows another facetof Cowell: His enthusiastic ventures intomusical ethnology. Rarely, if ever, does heactually quote authentic folk material,but in every instance-whether African -American, Celtic, French, German, Iranian,Latin, Slavic, or whatever-he had im-mersed himself so thoroughly into that par-ticular melos that his original composi-tions sound ethnically authentic, inconvincing performances, excellentlyrecorded. Paul Moor

AUDIO/AUGUST 199468

11J.7 IL IL 19

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DreamJimmy Scott

SIRE/WARNER BROS 9 45629-2,

43:32

Sound: A, Performance: A

/ry to imagine Bette Davis doingan imitation of Ruth Brownpaying homage to Billie Holiday.

Or how about Bobby Short aftera hit of helium? That's about the

best description I can offer forthe eerily stylized, achingly sorrow-ful voice of the 68 -year -old balladeer

Jimmy Scott. On the surface, thismight seem to have the kitsch appeal

of Yma Sumac. But Scott's dramatic

delivery and intuitive genius at be-hind -the -beat phrasing make himone of the most expressive andunique interpreters of American song

since the late, great Miles Davis.

An androgynous, diminutivepresence, Scott's uncannily high -

R E C O R DINGS

my Scottpitched, piercing voice is the resultof a hormone disorder that has af-fected him since birth. After gettinghis big break in 1948 as the featured

vocalist in Lionel Hampton's band,he went on to score triumphsthrough the '50s as a solo artist forthe Roost, Savoy, and King labels.But frustration over broken promis-

es and bad business dealings caused

Scott to turn his back on the musicindustry for 20 years, during whichtime he worked as a shipping and re-

ceiving clerk at a Sheraton hotel inhis home town of Cleveland. Afterhearing him sing at the funeral of his

old friend Doc Pomus, Sire Recordsfounder Seymour Stein helped insti-

gate Scott's comeback in 1992 withthe highly acclaimed All of Me, pro-duced by Tommy LiPuma. Sincethen, he has had an avalanche ofpress and has garnered the attention

of celebrities such as directorsJonathan Demme and David Lynch,

rock 'n' rollers Bruce Springsteenand Lou Reed, and movie stars Alec

Baldwin and Kim Basinger. Clearly,it's Jimmy's time once again.

Like its predecessor, the aptlynamed Dream is awash in a roman-

tic late -night ambience that cansweep the listener away. Nearly every

track on this Mitchell Froom pro-duction is done at the kind of excru-

tiatingly slow tempos that Scott likes

to emote over, and nobody does itbetter. Using his heart -wrenchingtones, dramatic use of space, and ex-

aggerated vibrato to great effect, he

puts his eerie stamp on a collectionof mournful, hard -luck tunes aboutlost love, including late 1930s' chest-

nuts like "I'm Through With Love"and "It's the Talk of the Town." But he

saves his most impassioned reading

LATIN Pi....ysoysSLASH/WARNER BROS.

9 45543-2, 37:34

David Hidalgo and Louie Perezli are best known as the songwriting

linchpins of Los Lobos,while Mitchell Froom is thecurrent producer savant,with albums by RichardThompson, Jimmy Scott,and Elvis Costello recentlynotched on his belt. Noneof that will prepare you for theprimal roots music they've put to-gether as Latin Playboys. This ismusic born from the moment.Sounds are literally found in thekitchen and out in the streets. Struc-tures are assembled from fragile im-provisations.

R engineer Tchad Blake's meichanical filters, drum machines andguitars sound like they were salvagedfrom a futuristic junk heap.

Singing Perez's lyrics, Hidalgo isby turns beat poet, haiku artist, andthat guy mumbling over the steam

vent over there on the cor-ner. In the roots music ofLos Lobos, his guitarartistry is sometimes lost,but amid these landscapeshe creates twists and turnsthat would make Bill

Frisell do a double take.Latin Playboys traverse a some-

times nightmarish landscape, withthe footprints of Tom Waits in therubble. But it's also full of joy andirony, a celebration of life and lineage.Allen Ginsburg would love this partymusic for a gone world. John Diliberto

AUDIO/AUGUST 199470

for Lucky Thompson's earthy blues num-ber, "You Never Miss the Water."

Peyton Crossley's sensitive brushworkhelps set a dreamy tone throughout whilebassist Ron Carter and pianist JuniorMance follow along in an elegant, under-stated fashion. Modern Jazz Quartet vibistMilt Jackson swings his way through the al-bum's lone upbeat number, "I Cried forYou," and saxophonist Claston PatienceHiggins offers some smokey tenor work onthe bittersweet Ellington/Hodges ballad, "ItShouldn't Happen to a Dream:'

Jimmy Scott is an acquired taste, muchlike cognac and caviar. And equally classy.

Bill Milkowski

Last Day on EarthJohn Cale and Bob Neuwirth

MCA MCAD-11037, 68:45

On the surface, Last Day on Earth appearsto be an odd collaboration, but somehow thisdisparate pair pull things off. On what mustbe his first recording since the Velvet Under-ground reunion disc, Welshman John Calecontributes his signature vocals and violaalong with keyboard textures, while guitaristand singer/songwriter Bob Neuwirth, an oldcrony of Bob Dylan, has a rapier wit and aknack for improvisingsongs. Last Day wasoriginally a theater pieceby the two, adapted hereas a record. Part spoken(with all the necessaryFoley effects), part in-trumental, and part song, it is not a linearlyplotted piece. But the songs are surprisinglysprightly, often haunting, and fun. Thismakes Last Day a challenging piece of listen-ing that defies easy answers, but it is a mostenjoyable conundrum, too. I suspect thatThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a keyinfluence. Michael Tearson

The Mask & MirrorLoreena McKennitt

WARNER BROS. 9 45420-2, 52:49

Loreena McKennitt's music on her previ-ous album, The Visit, was primarily Celtic

with her harp playingthe key ingredient. Here,she filters her Celtic basethrough the Spanishmoors, with Spanish andArabic influences keenlyfelt. Hers is a timeless

sounding music, resonant of ages past, yet in-ventive and new. Oddly, the harp makes only

WrIlitaht

1=1

rpi I i rhsDana

IMAGO 72787-21034-2CD; 53:34

Sound: B+, Performance: A

enry Rollins is the MTV gener-ation's very own "Mr.Warmth"-an author/musi-cian/monologist with a boneto pick with everyone, h mselfincluded. If an old vaudevil-lian 'art like Don Rickle; (the

original "Mr. Warmth") is master ofthe put-cown and of obsoleteborscht -belt ethnic jibing, Rollils en-tertains by unearthing everythingyou'd like to ignore. He'sthe psychotherapist fromhell. Just an hour with anyRollins book or CD mayhave you combing the binsfor Cashman and Westrecords.

But while the Rollins Band (with gui-tarist Chris Haskett, bassist MelvinGibbs, and drummer Sim Cain) exists tocreate music, specifically a Hendrix-meets-mosh-pit juggernaut, Henry's po-etry of rage adds more than nost couldbargain for, and it's what makes thisband so powerful. That's not to say,though, that Haskett's awesome riff on"Fool," those amazing chords on "Civi-lized," or the Gibbs/Cain rhythm sec-tion doesn't make for equally potent lis-tening. This volatile band jams itsbehind oft

And while they jam, HenryRollins-a.k.a. rancor incorporat-ed-screams (almost never sings)from a shit list on which nothing issacred. To man -hating feminists:

"Sometime somewhere some man hurtyou/I'm one of them so I get stuck withthe blame." To fans who overstep theline between respect and idolatry:"You're desperate and in need/Andthen you meet me and your wholeworld changes/Everything I say iseverything you've ever wanted tohear ../I'm a Liar!" And if it's with cold,unsentimental detachment that Rollinsdistances himself from everyone, hishellhound fury locks perfectly with hisband, and that's what makes them areal deal. Mike Bieber

C-

a cameo appearance, but the richness of tex-tures and strong mysterioso of McKennitt'smusic more than compensates for this ab-sence. This is a gorgeous album that contin-ues to unfold in unexpected ways with repeat-ed listenings. Michael Tearson

Through the HillAndy Partridge cf. Harold Budd

GYROSCOPE/CAROLINE 6608, 54:31

In this meeting between effervescent witand sardonic somberness, somberness wins.Harold Budd is one of the original purveyorsof ambient music, while Andy Partridge is theguitar -playing singer/writer with XTC. Here,Partridge leaves his hook -laden melodies anddense production behind, instead bringing anaustere minimalism to this music, with

themes played out in repetitious, occasionally

off -center cycles.The sound is one of improvisation; two

musicians stuck in a room, tape constantlyrolling while they pluck and plink on percus-

sion, pianos, and synthe-sizers until they finallyhit on a pattern thatholds more than mo-mentary interest. It'sthose moments thatmake it to disc. Many of

the songs have the feel of etudes and studiesin static sound fields. Budd is renowned forhis spartan yet textured themes, but Throughthe Hill makes albums like his Plateaux ofMirror sound baroque by comparison.

These artists have clearly found a commu-nion, and if the music doesn't give that up,

44:1111-Ait.,

AUDIO/AUGUST 199471

Last of The Independents

PretendersSIRE/WARNER BR( )S.

9 45572-2, 49:17

hose first two Pretendersrecords are the result of anincredible rock 'n' roll quar-tet that can never be cap-tured again. I low many of us

need to hear the late JamesHoneyman Scott's incredibleguitar solo on "Kid" orChrissie Hynde's stark conies-sionality on "Message of Love"

on a. weekly basis? I do, but as

long as Chrissie-one of themost important women in rock 'n' rollhistory-keeps making records underthe identity of "Pretenders," it's reallytough not to at least think about thatgreat band.

On Last of The Independents, thistemptation is even more prevalent;

Chrissie reunites with original drummerMartin Chambers, reforms the band as

a quartet, and hires a Honeyman-Scotssound -alike (Adam Seymour) who, onone song, even cops vital elements ofimmy's solo from "Tattooed LoveBoys" with rote precision. But on thistune, "Money Talk," the spirit of vintage

Pretenders' guitar energy is re

united with Chrissie's signatureangst. This hasn't happened inquite some time and in fact, ithappens throughout the entirerecord, yielding the revelationthat her "new" band deserves to

be accepted as genuine heirs to thatlong -gone original one. And to hearChrissie balladeering "When I hear my

baby cry" on the beautiful "977"-aJohn Lennon inspired plea against do-mestic violence-reminds you of hergreatness. Mike Bieber

the three poems do. Budd read his poetry onhis previous album, By the Dawn's Early Light(Opal/Warner Bros.) but this time the surrealand erotic imagery comes from Andy Par-tridge. It's as if he and Budd have shared thesame life, and that link is revealed in this inte-rior music. John Diliberto

Cotton Is KingCotton Mather

ELM RECORDS ELM 9212-2, 47:46

Perhaps it's the lyrical wit and Biblical sar-casm of singer/guitarist Robert Harrison (aformer advanced theology student) that makeCotton Mather's mutated, smart -ass pop(with guitar hooks galore) so appealing.From the wild opener, "Lost My Motto," tothe end, they combine the Beatles' melodic

sensibilities with the ur-gency of XTC and vin-tage Squeeze. And they'refrom Austin, Texas, ofall places. MI British in-fluences aside, "Crossthe Rubicon" settles

neatly into a Booker T. and the MGs guitargroove, "The End of the Line" borrows stylesfrom rock 'n' roll's first decade, and the mon-strous metal riff of "Miss Information" builds

into a squally ending. Despite occasionalweak spots (first single "Payday" could easilybe a jingle for the candy bar), Cotton Is Kingcontains all the right ingredients to beamongst 1994's strongest debuts.

Tom Ferguson

David ByrneLUAKA BOP/SIRE/WARNER BROS.

9 45558-2,51:13

Darkly intimate, intelligent, lyrically enig-matic, quirky, and powerful, David Byrne'sself -titled solo album works on you in twoways. Haunting confes-sionals like "A LongTime Ago" and "Self -Made Man" subtly in-sinuate themselves onyour subconscious likesome David Lynch-iandream sequence, while tension -filled, big -beat numbers like "Back In The Box" and"Angels" (a kind of '90s sequel to "Life Dur-ing Wartime") or the irresistable soca-fla-vored "You & Eye" help shake your spineloose and guide your feet to the dance floor.

After flirting with a Latin big -band sound

on Rei Momo, Byrne has stripped thingsdown to a basic rock formula, emphasizing

daviriJri tyci

his catchy songwriting rather than elaboratearrangements. Bassist Paul Socolow anddrummer Todd Turkisher are the heart of thisnew outfit. They kick with authority on theN'awlins shuffle -funk number "Lilies of theValley" and burn down the house on "StrangeRitual," a dramatic number full of quintes-sentially Byrne-ish observations about "peo-ple in a remote village wearing digital watch-es" or "a skyscraper made out of abandonedcar parts" or "an ambulance driver whowakes up in a Dairy Queen."

Byrne also flaunts some eager guitar chopson a few numbers, including his brutal SonnySharrock-ish skronk solo on "Nothing AtAll." He sings with geeky passion on thesparse closer, "Buck Naked," and even main-tains a hint of twisted, tongue-in-cheek gleein the midst of the cloying McCartney-esqueditty "My Love is You."

This is far and away the best album thatDavid Byrne has been associated with sinceTalking Heads' Speaking -in Tongues.

Bill Milkowski

Kickin and Screamin: Allgood (A&M31454 0229 2, 39:44). This Georgiaquintet represents two distinct audiences:Fans of southern rock who acknowledgethem as contemporary torch carriers, andthe "jam band" worshipping tie-dyed fratboys who consider icons like Blues Travel-er frontman John Popper their gurus. Onthat often overlooked question of musicali-ty, however, Allgood succeeds in tappingthe vibe of Southern folklore with a soundthat moves Highway 61 right through thelive room at Muscle Shoals. This live EP isa good introduction. M.B.

After the Rain: Jack Tempchin and TheSeclusions (Night River Records, 38:20).Jack Tempchin penned some of the better,more country -flavored Eagles songs(among them "Peaceful Easy Feeling").And now, with the Eagles reunion tour infull tow, he's released his debut record-with an excellent band-which shows offhis fine tunemanship; sort of in the Eaglesvein but grittier and better. (Night RiverRecords, 103 North Highway 101, No.1013, Encinitas, Cal. 92024). M.B.

Sweetheart's Dance: Pam Tillis (Arista18758-2, 32:57). A strong set, possiblyTillis' best yet, with sure -handed produc-tion of 10 excellent songs. Pam had ahand in writing only three of them, butall-especially the Tex-Mex flavored "MiVida Loca"-are aces. Terrific cover ofJackie De Shannon's "When You Walk inthe Room." M.T.

AUDIO/AUGUST 199472

MEM

No WORDS, No BORDERSSAMPLER '94Windham Hill RecordsThe greatly anticipated new release in Windham Hill's yearlysampler series, Sampler '94 features the strongest musical programto date; balancing a lineup of emerging newcomers with someof the label's best selling, most beloved favorites.

11 1 S. 1/ 11 \I 1111 1 1( (' ORDS

AMAMI, .0;,, We'fr,//

PIANO SAMPLER IIWindham Hill RecordsThe follow-up to one of Windham Hill's most popular and timelesscompilations, Piano Sampler 11 is an expressive collection of original solopieces featuring 14 of the genre's leading contemporary pianists. Includedin this new volume are brand new compositions by Danny Wright, LizStory, Oystein Sevag, and a diverse cast of modern instrumental masters.

NIGHTNOISEShadow of TimeSteeped in traditional Irish roots, this Celtic quartet countsEnya and Clannad among its growing legend of loyal followers.Shadow of Time passionately traces a diverse musical landscapewith 12 new beautifully performed songs. Featuring Triona NiDhomhnaill, Micheal 0 Domhnaill, Brian Dunning andJohnny Cunningham.

JIM BRICKM ANNo [Fords

IGH7NOIS[

One person, one piano. Award -winningcomposer Jim Brickman makes his

Windham Hill debut with analbum of memorable, romanticmelodies. They may have"No Words," but his lyricalpieces evoke intimate feelingsand romantic images.

WINDHAM HILL

NICWA4141 NOOSE

0 1994 Windham Hill Records

To order Direct, call J & RMusic World 1-800-345-8502

JAZZ -BLUESRECOR

Fred Hersch at MaybeckCONCORD CCD-4596, 67:34

found: A, Performance: A

The Fred Hersch Trio PlaysThe Fred Hersch Trio

CHESKY JD 116, CD; 63:21

Sound: A, Performance: A -

pianist Fred Hersch released hislancing in the Dark album(Chesky) in 1993, and it wenton to earn a grammy nomina-tion. In that year he also re-leased Red Square Blue (An-

gel/EMI), dubbed "jazz impressionsof Russian composers."

This year, to date, Hersch's nameand talents (which also include pro-ducer, composer, sideman, and ben-efit organizer) are associated with six

DINGSreleases; three benefitalbums, one as a side-man, and two-TheFred Hersch Trio Playsand Live at Maybeck-as leader.

Such output wouldhave us believe Herschis a man on a mission,and he is. As an in-creasingly important

voice in AIDS aware-ness (he was diag-nosed HIV positive afew years ago) and gayissues, he's an icono-clast relative to theheterosexual machis-mo of the jazz com-munity. And being soout has, no doubt, fu-eled his creativity. Buthe's also an artist withlots of brilliant musicto share, enough to

warrant abundant releases.Live at Maybeck, Concord's 31st in

their ongoing solo piano series, isimpressive from a number of stand-points. Hersch displays articulateprowess throughout, whether inter-preting one of several popular stan-dards here (notably TheloniusMonk's "In Walked Bud") or deliver-ing his own introspective take onHerbie Hancock with "Sarabande."

Meanwhile, The Fred Hersch TrioPlays is a superbly recorded disc thathouses a series of quite divergent butalways pleasing trio works.

All but one of the dozen pieces isan interpretation of a work by agreat jazz composer. Hersch, dili-gent, intelligent, and with consistentsensitivity and modernism, enter-tains while moving deftly and subtly

through Miles Davis, Monk, Han-cock, Ellington, Coltrane, SonnyRollins, and others. The lone Herschoriginal, "Evanessence," is strategi-cally placed in the middle of the 12 -pack.

Gliding easily over and throughthe different time signatures in eachof these pieces, Hersch is capable ofstopping, starting, and pausing byturns, without missing a beat. He re-mains delicate in his approach, butis unafraid to challenge himself orhis bandmates.

Bassist Drew Gress is alwayswhere he should be in supportingHersch, but it's the pianist's excellent

rapport with drummer Tom Raineythat is most noticeable. The twoseem to viscerally know where theother is, particularly during the al-bum's many moments of quiet. AndHersch's ability to make his piano

FolkloreVincent Herring

MUSICMASTERS 65109, 57:34

Vincent Herring may have beenshot straight out of Adderly's cannon(he currently commands the altochair in Nat Adderly's band), but hehas exploded on the scene as a forceful

leader with avoice all hisown. Folklore,recorded live atthe Village Van-guard, brimswith the same

buoyant spirit that Cannonball radiat-ed and has a similar knack for memo-rable two -horn lines. Trumpeter ScottWendholt proves to be a more -than -competent foil, and, with pianistCyrus Chestnut as the anchor, Her-ring's quintet never strays too farfrom its deep -blues grounding.Herring virtually sails out of Wend-holt's "Window of Opportunity" onthe wings of his soprano saxophonefor an impressive improvisationalflight. Throughout, the young saxo-phonist displays enough confi-dence to look past his own hornand base his ideas on a groupsound. As Chestnut's two-fisted bril-liance on "Fountainhead" suggests,he's in good hands. Larry Blumenfeld

AUDIO/AUGUST 199474

breathe in an almost Debussy -like manneris matched by Rainey's tender embrace ofthe cymbals.

Perhaps the only shortcoming heremay be in the programming and sequenc-ing of selections, one too many ballads.But it's really difficult to find any heavyfault with Hersch and this fine recording.

Jon W. Pose

Turn On Your Love Light

Hobby Bland

!QUA MCAD2-10957, 2:16:35

Bobby "Blue" Bland has long had twostrikes against him in winning over new blues

fans; he doesn't play guitar, and his urbanemusic is poles apart from the more popularDelta and Chicago blues styles. Yet, as an ex-

traordinary singer with stature among hispeers, and with record sales to back him up,Bland is a giant.

This second compilation of his '60s Dukesides has more hits than the first (like thegreat gospel -flavored "You're Worth It All"and others). His "Farther Up The Road" in-

spired Eric Clapton,while the horn chartsfrom "Turn On YourLove Light" (yes, Blanddid it first) were long astaple for dozens of

lounge acts. Credit Joe Scott for timelessarrangements that threw the thundering mo-mentum of a small orchestra behind this ex-traordinary singer.

If only today's bands would study thesesides with the same devotion brought to ana-lyzing the latest guitar solo. They'd learn thatmusicians can punch out polished arrange-ments with drill -team precision without sac-rificing a performance's passion and spon-taneity. All you need is a vocalist in the same

league as Bobby Bland. Roy Greenberg

Up and DownMilcho Leviev & Dave Holland

MA RECORDINGS M002A, 66:16

These two veteran players are at turns chal-

lenging and comfortable. Dave Holland is themost gifted bassist of his generation, whileMilcho Leviev is a Bulgarian -born journey-man pianist who's been in this country sincethe early 1970s, playing with Don Ellis. Leviev

brings a classical sense of phrasing to his jazz

AT TH 1)1_,LIZ Al) INNwig wnsimpiwir-.

Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock,Paul Motian

ECM 1531 78118-215, 66:33

Sound: B+, Performance: A

kay, so the guy groans,and he requires absolute"appropriate concert -typebehavior" at his gigs: No

smoking, no coughing, and for God'ssake make sure you hit thebathroom before he starts play-ing. But eccentricities aside,Keith Jarrett, particularly in atrio setting, seems to be gettingbetter, swinging harder, andsort of coming back to the fold,as it were. Perhaps it's safe to say that hispretentious Koln Concert days are long -since over.

At least that's what this less -formallive recording seems to indicate. For cer-tain, Jarrett entered this sentimentalproject in a different frame of mind. Lo-cated in the Allentown/Bethlehem, Pa.area, The Deer Head Inn is the long-standing restaurant and music establish-ment where Allentown native Jarrettlanded his earliest professional work,gigging at times as a drummer and evenplaying guitar on one occasion for StanGetz. And this live date is perhaps a re-dedication, or even a catharsis. He re-unites with drummer Paul Motian (after

ltingisteitt.Fr16 years), and, with bassist Gary Pea-cock, the trio cuts a serious swaththrough some classic tunes.

Housed between the opener, MilesDavis' "Solar," and the closer, a greatreading of the Rodgers & Hart ballad"It's Easy to Remember," are five tracksthat demonstrate the trio's exceptionalfamiliarity and appreciation of the jazzand standards literature. "Basin StreetBlues" is basic, down, and dirty, while

Jarrett mainstay "Bye Bye BlackBird" is a standout vehicle for the

group to play its improvisational heartout with. Quite simply, there's not aweak link in this seven -song, hour -plus -long program. Jon W. Poses

improvisations that often lends a chambermood even when he's crashing the keys orpounding out Charlie Parker's "Billie'sBounce." The duomostly perform self -penned tunes, such asHolland's raucous"Jumpin' In," withLeviev moving fromCecil Taylor-ish sweeps to a splash of rag-time. But they also show a lyrical side, dip-ping into the underrated songbook of JohnAbercrombie. John Diliberto

Lunar CrushDavid Fiuczynski John Medeski

GRAMAVISION R2 79498, 57:02

Downtown N.Y.C. guitar hero Dave "Fuze"

Fiuczynski and keyboardist John Medeskipossess a more than ample supply of chops.

As served up here, they're covered for themost part by a messy but delicious layer ofsonic cheese. But, as the album's opener,"Vog," bears out, this raucous outing is more

satisfying-and more substantial-than anymanner of store-bought junk food. WithFuze's guitar alternating between angular pre-

cision and wobbly fuzz, Medeski skips fromclavinet through power organ to Fender -Rhodes; the effect is equal parts of EdgarWinter and '80s MilesDavis. Though vocals by

Michelle Johnson andGloria Tropp nudge theproject toward art -rock

pretense, the two prin-cipals bear more earthy inspirations (try"Slow Blues for Fury's Mama" as proof). As aresult, the not inconsiderable pyrotechnicsachieve a distinct brand of postmodern funk.

Larry Blumenfeld

...,..... Mon..taw a

IA 1

AUDIO/AUGUST 199475

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AM -02

MisteriosWallace Roney

WARNER BROS. 9 45641-2, 59:10

Trumpeter Wallace Roney will never fullysidestep the shadow of Miles Davis, yet hisown bristling tone and sense of harmonic in-vention nonetheless assure that his own hornshines. On his debut for Warner Bros., Roney

enjoys some Miles -like trappings-most ob-viously in the form of quirkily lush orchestral

arrangements by a man named Gil (Gold-stein, not Evans) and in the presence of pro-ducer Teo Macero. Surely, Roney shares more

than just a lonely, pierc-ing upper register withDavis: He employs no-table restraint to createwell -placed silences.Urged along here by afine group featuring pianist Geri Allen andsaxophonist Antoine Roney (Wallace's broth-

er), Roney crafts a consistent structure over a

wide range of compositions by people likeJaco Pastorius, Egberto Gismonti, MiltonNascimento, and others. He single-handedlyrevives John Lennon and Paul McCartney's"Michelle" from tired inconsequence, andrescues Dolly Parton's "I Will Always LoveYou" from Whitney Houston bombast.

Larry Blumenfeld

Catch Up With The BluesJohnny Copeland

VERVE 314 521 239-2, 54:57

It's simply unfair to rival bluesmen. Noone who plays guitar as well as JohnnyCopeland should also be that wonderful a

singer. Match Houston's

favorite son with top-notch production, as onhis latest Verve CD, and

few contemporaries can

touch him. Catch UpWith The Blues might be his best album in acareer distinguished by remarkable consisten-

cy. The songs are varied and strong, Copeland

is in typically fine form, and he trades lickswith fellow Gulf Coast guitarists LonnieBrooks, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, andJoe Hughes. Although modern in outlook,Catch Up With The Blues is blues withoutapology, built on the horn -driven shuffles atthe heart of the Texas sound. Yet Copeland is

equally at home with "Every Dog's Got His

I

AUDIO/AUGUST 199476


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Day," a soul blues with the Memphis Horns

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My Guitar and Me: Hubert Sumlin (Evi-dence ECD 26045-2, 48:28). This 1975session, one of the first for this legendaryHowlin' Wolf sideman, brims with mostlyinstrumentals with a relaxed yet stingingsound full of fancy flourishes. Sumlin's fin-gerstyle makes his guitar whine with analmost vocal presence, while four excel-lent acoustic numbers and a bonus, previ-ously unreleased jam make this reissue avery hot classic. M.W.

Urbanator (Hip Bop Records 7 38572800123, 51:34).The jazz/hip-hopthing-like Acid Jazz-is typically astatement of fashion rather than a state-ment of music. But with Urbanator, the pri-orities are straight. Here, veterans MichalUrbaniak (violin), Lenny White (drums),and Al McDowell (plus newcomer JonDryden on keys) bring musicianship andartistry to an over -hyped experiment thathas fallen flat in the hands of others. Theone and only Herbie Hancock guests on areading of his classic, "Chameleon." Ken-ny Garrett, Michael and Randy Brecker,and other notables also make contribu-tions to this recording. M.B.

The Soto Koto Band: (Higher OctaveMusic 7049, 39:24) Dynamic and so-phisticated all -instrumental Gumbay mu-sic from the world root of blues andjazz, Gambia (remember Roots?). Mostlycompositions of Paps Touray these verycontemporary African sounds mix hyp-notic, danceable guitar/synthesizersound and percussion with some NewAge guest musicians. What a delight-fully unexpected "up" sound this releaseoffers! J.H.S.

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PLEASE NOTE: It is impossible for us toverify all of the claims of advertisers, includ-ing product availability and existence ofwarranties. To confirm that an advertiser isauthorized to sell a product, we suggest youcontact the manufacturer directly. Please re-view our Tips for Mail Order Purchasers inthis section.

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FOR SALE

AUDIO CLASSICS, LTD.Buys-Sells-Trades-Repairs-Modif les.

(Al). AS IS, (D) = Demo, (EX). Excellent, (F) = Fair,(G)= Good, (M)= Mint, (N)= New Amplifiers AccuphaseP11(M) $1699, P102(M) $1899, P260(M) $995; Aragon2004-11(EX) $995; Audio Research Corp Classic 30(EX)$1499, M100(EX) $2799, ST70C3(EX) $899; 66KST120(D) $399, ST1400(M) $459, ST202 + (N) $799; Carv-er AV64(EX) $569, TFM25(D) $549, TFM35(D) $635,TFM45(D) $625; TFM55(D) $749; Chord SPM1200(D)$1999; Coda 10(D) $1995; Conrad -Johnson EV2000 (EX)$3899. MF200(N) $1749, MF2300(N) $2099, MF80(N)$1199, MVI00(EX) $1950, PREMIER -8(D) $12765; Coun-terpoint NATURAL(D) $5995, SA100(EX) $849, SAI2(EX)$699. SA20(EX) $999, SA220(EX) $2199 SOLID -2(D)$1799; Crown Macro-Ref(D) $1499, PL4(EX) $399; DenonPOA5000(N) $999; Dynaco ST400II(D) $599; Electrocom-paniet AW250(D) $1499; GAS SON-OF-AMPZILLA(EX)$399; Haller 9300S(D) $999; Jadis DEFY -7(D) $3799; Kiner-getics KBA202-G(EX) $1249; KBA75(D) $1795; KrellKSA150(EX) $3333, KSA250(EX) $4295. KSA80(EX)$1899; Levinson ML9(M) $1499, ML11(M) $1199, ManleyEURO-35(D) $1399; McIntosh MC240(EX) $1495,MC2505(EX) $499, MC3500(G) $5000; Motif MS100(EX)$1825, OCM500(D) $1916; Precision Fidelity M7A(AI) $299;SAE MKIII-CM(G) $349, P50(G) $249. Cassette Decks:Carver TD1400(D) $249, TD1440(D) $249; DenonDRM710(N) $359, DRS810(N) $449, DRW840(N) $369;Nakamichi 550(AI) $299. CD Players: Accuphase DP70(M)$2099; AMC Valve Music CD6(D) $549; Carver SDA370(D)$479, SDA450(M) $299, SDA49OT(D) $439; KinergeticsKCD40(D) $1995; Krell CD1(M) $1599, CDDSP-CUSTOM(EX) $2195, MDIO(EX) $4895, MD20C(EX)$3333, MD2AC(EX) $2099; McIntosh MCD7007(EX)$1399: Proceed PDT(M) $699, PDT2(M) $899. CD Pro-cessors: Krell SBP32X(EX) $1499, SBP64X(EX) $3395;STEALTH(EX) $1299, STUDIO(EX) $1095; ProceedPDP2(M) $499. Crossovers: Accuphase F15L(M) $1659;Levinson LNC2(M) $1250. Equalizers: Audio Control, Call.Headphones: Grado, Call; Stax LAMBDA-CLASS-MX(D)$699, LAMBDA-SIG(D) $1425, SR-SIGMA(EX) $299.SR84-PRO(D) $219. Integrated Amps: Carver CM1090(D)$544; McIntosh MA6200(EX) $1099. Line Conditioners:Counterpoint PAC1 5(D) $379, PAC5(D) $265. Pre -memos: Accuphase C17(M) $749; McIntosh MCP1(EX)$275. Preamplifiers Accuphase C11(M) $1399, C222(M)$795. C202(M) $1199; B&K PRO5(D) $355, PRO1OMC(EX)$399; Carver C11N(D) $399, C15V(D) $699, C19(D) $999,C20V(D) $849; Conrad -Johnson PF1L(N) $999; Counter-point SA1000(EX) $599, SA3000(D) $1799. SA5000(M)$3295; Jadis JPL(D) $3395; Levinson No25(M) $1199,No26(M) $2899; Krell KSP7B(EX) $1599; Marantz 7 (EX)$1999; McIntosh CI 1(G) $1695, C22(EX) $1999, C27(EX)$699. C28(G) $499, C30(EX) $1099, 032(G) $999, C37(EX)$1599. CR7(EX) $399; Rotel RC98OBX(D) $449. Pro-cessors: Carver DPL33(D) $289. H9AV(EX) $299; FosgateDSM3608(EX) $449; SAE 5000A(EX) $299; ShureHTS5000(EX) $249. Receivers: Carver HR742(D) $459,HR875(D) $849, HR895(D) $1150; Kyocera R461(D) $399;McIntosh MAC4100(EX) $1195; Philips FR920(D) $219,FR930(D) $325, FR940(D) $399; Record Cleaners: VPIHW16.5(D) $375. Remote Controls McIntosh CR7(M)$299, CR8(EX) $149. Speakers: Apogee CENTAUR(EX)$1250, STAGE-SW(EX) $1995; Audiostatic ES100(D)$2346; BIC REALTA(D) $899, V830A(D) $499; Dahlquist0016(N) $700, 0018(0) $659; JBL 4410(N) $499; LI-BRA(G) $149; JM Lab MICRON(D) $595, SYMBOL-I(D)$369; KEF 104/2(0) $1499, 105/3(D) $2999. C85(D) $639.010(D) $259, 050(D) $599; McIntosh ML1C(EX) 550,ML2C(G) $999, ML4M(G) $1500, WS200(EX) $299,XD715(M) $799, XR1052(EX) $999, XR230(M) $849,XR240(M) $1199, XR250(EX) $1699: Sound Lab PRIS-TINE(D) $3199; TDL STUDIO -3(D) $1569. Sub -WoofersKinergetics SW800(D) $3299. Systems: Denon 060(0)$885. Tape Decks: Ampex AG500(E X) $299; Crown 824(A1)$399. Test Equipment: CALL. Tonearms: KuzmaREF-A(D) $1275; SME-V(M)$1399. Tuner Preemps CarverC717(D) $499, C729V(0) $899. CT6(D)S499; Hefter 945(D)$499, 945S(D) $499; McIntosh MX110(G) $599,MX117(EX) $899. Miners B&K TS108(N) $398; CarverTX116(D) 8739; MAgnum Dynalab ETUDE(D) $1459, FT-R(D) $299, FT101AB19(D) $749, FT101AS19(D) $779;Marantz 10B(EX) $2495, 206(EX) $699; McIntosh MR65(G)$599, MR66(G) $799, MR67 $499-1199, MR71 5249-899.MR74(EX) $549, MR75(EX) $999, MR77(EX) $699. MR78$899-1399, MR80(G) $1399. Tandberg TPT3001A(EX)$995. TUrritables VPI HW19-JR-PLUS(D) $1499, PLC(D)$279, TNT-JR-(D) $2299. FREE Catalogue. 8AM-5PMEST Mon. -Fri.,

AUDIO CLASSICS, LTD.POB 176AAA, Walton, NY 13856

607-865-7200

AUDIO/AUGUST 199483

FOR SALE FOR SALE FOR SALEAUDIO BY VAN ALSTINE HAS MORE NEW MODELS!Outrageous new Omega III active feedback preamplifiers,Fet-Valve hybrid amplifiers, Omega II ultra wideband activefeedback amplifiers should be in your system for ultimatefaithfulness to the spirit of the music. AVA ruggedly efficientbig amplifiers feature striated heatsinks and no satisfactionguarantee returns or field failures so far! We engineer hybrid,tube, and solid-state preamplifiers for varied system require-ments. Big preamps support complex systems with switch -able tone controls, gold switch contacts, gold jacks handling9 sources and 5 loads. Budget priced exquisite straight-linepreamps. Complete line -only preamps, headphone amps,phase inverters and more start under $300. Complete kitsavailable for savings and fun. No cheap parts, no "made bymachine" layouts. Hand crafted in the USA. ATTENTIONVINTAGE DYNACO AND HAFLER OWNERS. Economi-cally recycle your eequipment for better than new perfor-mance. Eliminate old problems with durable, rugged, musi-cally convincing AVA original circuit designs. Complete PAS,PAT -4, PAT -5, and ST -70 rebuild kits from $195 include newcircuit cards and precision controls. AVA 300V/uS activefeedback amplifier circuits installed in Dyna and Hatter chas-sis set new standards for transparency, definition, dynamicrange, and liquidity. Write, call, or FAX for free illustratedcatalog. Audio by Van Alstine, 2202 River Hills Drive,Burnsville, MN 55337. (612) 890-3517, FAX: (612)894-3675.

HI Fl EXCHANGE. Large selection of quality USED highendcomponents at huge discounts. We buy, sell & trade. Call forinventory list. (718) 423-0400 or visit our showrooms at251-11 Northern Blvd, Little Neck, NY 11363.

MUSICAL DISIC.,

"The Musks) Design D -I40deserves classic status!""It doesn't sound like an

amplifier, it just soundslike musk!" "A true

classic." Isn't it timeyou auditioned theD.140?

MUSICAL DESIGN1832 Borman C1 . Suite1. St. Louis. M063146.13141275-7162

XXX-TREME DISCOUNTS!!ONKYO-DENON-CARVER-ACURUS-NAKAMICHI-NAD-PARASOUND-GRADO-APATURE-SUMIKO-KEF-SNELL-POLK-M8K-NHT-SPICA-VELODYNE-PSB-CHICAGO STANDS. U.S. products. NO GREY, Manycloseout deals! STEREO TECH. 414-836-2942.

BIG DISCOUNTS!!SAVE$$$!

NAKAMICHI, CARVER, POLK, DENON, NAD, 13&K,KEF, ONKYO, M&K, SNELL, PS AUDIO, AUDIO AL-CHEMY, PARADIGM, PARASOUND, VELODYNE plusmany more! SOUND SHOP 206-692-8201

CABLE -CABLE -CABLE SALE! SAVE UP TO 50% ON SELECT MODELS. TARA LABS QUANTUM III + $99.95 10'PAIR, QUANTUM I $59.95, PRISM 33 INTERCONNECT$30.00, STRAIGHTWIRE "MAESTRO -II" INTERCON-NECT NEW WITH SCRATCHED PLUGS $149.95, "LSI-ENCORE" INTERCONNECT $49.95, STRAIGHTWIRE"OCTAVE" GENUINE "LITZ" SPEAKER CABLE ONLY$99.95 10' PAIR. OVER 500 PAIRS AVAILABLE. CALL NOWFOR COMPLETE "SPECIALS" LISTING WEALSO CARRY EQUIPMENT FOR AUDIOPHILES WITHMORE SENSE THAN MONEY: AUDIO ALCHEMY, AUDIO -QUEST, B & K, BRIGHT STAR, COUNTERPOINT,KLIPSCH, LEXICON, NAD, POWER WEDGE, SOTA, SUM-IKO, STRAIGHTWIRE, TARGET STANDS, VMPS SPEAK-ERS, XLO. HCM AUDIO (800) 222-3465, (916) 345-1341.

CABLE DOCTOR- STOP THE BULLET & ID SIGNAL incable lines! Order your set now. Send $20.00 money order:R&R Enterprises. Dept. AU. Box 3532. Easton, PA 18043.

NO BLACK MAGIC! We manufacture & sell direct: non -reactive cables. passive pre -amps, real world accessories, atnon -audiophile prices. VIRTUAL MODE (203) 929-0876.

CABLE T.V. CONVERTERS. DESCRAMBLERS. Scien-tific Atlanta. Zenith, Jerrold, Pioneer, Oak. Replace-ments for most models. Duality, Price & Service. Amex.Disc Visa MC. Dealer inquiries invited. EAGLE Electron-ics Inc., 1-800-259-1187, #1, 1301 Railhead Blvd., Na-ples, FL 33963.

ABARGAIN: STAX SIGN/LAMBDA $1,150; SIGN/SRM1-II$799, PRO,LAMBDA(#1) $459, SIGN/LAMBDA SRD/7$599; ED -1 $550, ALL UNUSED (212) 966-1355.

Hardbound AUDIO, annual bound volume editions, lustlike the ones in the Editor -in -Chiefs office. Various yearsavailable in limited quantities, $40.00 each. Also available:Hardbound October Annual Equipment Directories. Years1992, 1991, 1990, & 1987 $15.95 each, and hardbound MayCar Stereo Directories for years 1991. 1990,1989 and 1985.$8.00 each. All prices include postage and handling Allorders postpaid. Check or money order only (no credit cardorders) payable to AUDIO MAGAZINE. Send orders to AU-DIO, 1633 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10019. Attn: MichaelBieber, Or call 212/767-6301 for further information.

STOP! LOOK!! SAVE$$$!!CARVER, DENON, POLK, NAKAMICHI, B&K, NAD,ONKYO, KEF, SNELL, PS AUDIO, PARASOUND, M&K,VELODYNE, SPICA, plus much morel Sound Shop206-692-8201.

High -end audio components. The best se-lection. Featuring Forsell Digital, Krell,Mark Levinson, Spectral, Theta, AerialAcoustics, Dunlavy, Wilson Audio, andmuch, much more. The best prices.Friendly service and advice. AUDIO AMER-ICA (Virginia). 1-703-745-2223.

B&W, CELESTION, DEFINITIVE TECHNOLO-GY, KEF, MIRAGE, VELODYNE, ADCOM,B&O, CARVER, DENON, HARMANKARDON, NAKAMICHI, ONKYO, YAMAHA,AND OTHERS. S.T.I. 1-800-380-5111.THE FIRST JITTER -FREE TRANSPORT IS AVAILABLENOW! AT $649, THE REFERENCE ONE TRANSPORTREPRESENTS A BREAKTHROUGH IN TECHNOLOGYAND PRICE. ISOLATED STABLE CLOCK MODULE ANDOTL TRANSPORT DRIVER BOARD ALSO AVAILABLETURN YOUR CDS INTO MUSIC. G & D TRANSFORMS,(602) 954-0155.

HYPE! HYPE! HYPE!You get enough elsewhere! We've delivered somethingdifferent for 14 years -natural, musical results! MUSI-CAL CONCEPTS, "most recommended and re-spected" Adcom, B&KandHafler modifiers. MC -3T(Teflon.) phono line preamplifier board. PA -1 driverboards for HAFLER amps -budget bliss! NEW LOW-ER PRICES on most products! DIGITALPLAYBACK -ENIGMA 7 and EPOCH 7 CD players,CDT -4 Transport on "Elite" chassis with Stable PlatterTransport! New, affordable ENTRE CD player andCDT -5 transport. both at $495. We modify Philips -based or Pioneer CD Laserdisc players and AudioAlchemy DDE DITB $14911. MUSICAL CONCEPTS,1832 Borman Court, Suite One, St. Louis, MO 63146.(314) 275-4925.

CABLE T.V. CONVERTERS. Jerrold', Zenith, Pioneer,Oak, Scientific Atlanta, And Many More! 12 Years Expe-rience Gives Us The ADVANTAGE. Visa MC, Amex, COD.ADVANTAGE ELECTRONICS INC.; 1-800-952-3916: 1125RIVERWOOD DR., BURNSVILLE, MN 55337. Void whereprohibited.

KEF, MIRAGE, B&W, HARMAN KARDON,NAKAMICHI, CARVER, DENON, VE-LODYNE, CELESTION. ADCOM, ONKYO,YAMAHA, KLIPSCH, FOSGATE, CROWN &OTHERS, BEST PRICES & GOOD ADVICE.U.S. ASSOCIATES: 1-800-380-5111.

AUDIO INTERFACING ACCESSORIES (over 300) forbroadcasting, recording, sound reinforcement and live enter-tainment. Free catalog. SESCOM, INC. 1-800-634-3457.

FREE SHIPPING! PLUS-EXPERIENCED, FRIENDLY ADVICE! MIRAGE, PS, CWD,CARY, KINERGETICS, KEF, PHILIPS, AUDIOQUEST,FRIED, MONSTER, KIMBER KABLE, SPICA, STRAIGHT -WIRE, QUAD, MORE! READ BROTHERS, 593 KING,CHARLESTON, SC 29403. (803) 723-7276.

BEST $1,500 LOUDSPEAKERSTHX HOME THEATER

Alon - B&W - VMPS - Bang & Olufsen -Adcom - KEF - Harman 'Kardon - Mirage -Crown - Celestion - Eminent Technology -McCormick - VTL - Parasound - Denon -Triad - Polk - Velodyne - Fosgate - Signet -Audible Illusions - Snell - NHT - Carver -B&K - Quad - Alchemy 25 More Brands.Honest Advice! TECH ELECTRONICS (904)376-8080. Not affiliated with Amerisoundor STI.

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TIPS FOR MAIL ORDERPURCHASERS

It is impossible for us to verify allof the claims of advertisers,including product availability andexistence of warranties. Therefore,the following information is pro-vided for your protection.

1. Confirm price and merchan-dise information with the seller,including brand, model, color or fin-ish, accessories and rebates includ-ed in the price.2. Understand the seller's returnand refund -policy, including theallowable return period, who paysthe postage for returned merchan-dise, and whether there is any"restocking" charge.3. Understand the product's war-ranty. Is there a manufacturer'swarranty, and if so, is it from a U.S.or foreign manufacturer? Note thatmany manufacturers assert that,even if the product comes with aU.S. manufacturers warrantycard, if you purchase from anunauthorized dealer, you are notcovered by the manufacturer'swarranty. If in doubt, contact themanufacturer directly. In additionto. or instead of, the manufacturer'swarranty, the seller may offer itsown warranty. In either case, whatis covered by warranty, how long isthe warranty period, where will theproduct be serviced, what do youhave to do, and will the product berepaired or replaced? You maywant to receive a copy of the writtenwarranty before placing your order.4. Keep a copy of all transac-tions, including cancelled checks,receipts and correspondance. Forphone orders, make a note of theorder including merchandiseordered, price, order date, expecteddelivery date and salesperson'sname.5. If the merchandise is notshipped within the promised timeor if no time was promised, 30 daysof receipt of the order, you general-ly have the right to cancel the orderand get a refund.6. Merchandise substitution with-out your express prior consent isnot allowed.7. If you have a problem withyour order or the merchandise,write a letter to the seller with all thepertinent information and keep acopy.8. If you are unable to obtain sat-isfaction from the seller, contactthe consumer protection agency inthe seller's state or your local PostOffice.

If, after following the above guide-lines, you experience a problemwith a mail order advertiser thatyou are unable to resolve, pleaselet us know. Write to the AssociatePublisher of AUDIO Magazine, TonyCatalano. Be sure to include copiesof all correspondence.

FOR SALE

Greencorp USA. Inc.Montan? quality cassettes

at 1,1'holesale prices Made in Au.tralia

( 'all I -800-972-0707

B&O B&W CARVER DENON FOSGATE H/K KEF LEXICON NAD NAKAMICHI ONKYO POLK VELODYNE 24 HOURAUTOMATED PRICING MANUFACTURERSWARRANTIES COURTEOUS ASSISTANCE AMERICAN THEATER SYSTEMS (904)321-0100.

Hi46e, HartePerformance Audio Cables

CALIBRE INTERCONNECTSTransparent, Neutral, Bala iced

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CALIBRE SPEAKER CABLESA new standard for its class

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Information and reviews available249 N. Brand #701, Glendale, CA 91203

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AUDIO CABLES & MOREDON'T PAY EXORBITANT PRICES FOR TOP QUALITY.WE HAVE YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN WIRE MANUFAC-TURING AND HAVE SIMULATED THE HIGH PRICEDBRANDS. HIGH PRICED EQUIVALENTS AS LOW AS .74FT. WE DEMYSTIFY WIRE TECHNOLOGY, SEND FOREXPLANATION LITERATURE WHICH ALSO INCLUDESALL OUR AUDIO PRODUCTS PRICE LIST OR CALL OURLITERATURE REQUEST (800) 321-2108 24 HRS DAY.FAX (609) 428-1832 L A T INTERNATIONAL. DEPT A.317 PROVINCETOWN RD., CHERRY HILL. NJ 08034

FOR TWENTY YEARS WE HAVE BEEN SHE SOURCEFOR ALL OF YOUR BLANK AUDIO VIDEO TAPES ANDACCESSORIES. EVEN REEL-TO-REEL TARES FOR STU-DIOS. AT DISCOUNTED PRICES. CATALOG AVAILABLE.SOUND INVESTMENT CORPORATION. 3586 PIERCEDRIVE, CHAMBLEE. GA 30341. (800) 659 -TAPE (8273), INGA (404) 458-1679. FAX: (404) 458-0276

STEVE'S CONSIGNMENTSHOPHi F, Farm and Steve s Audio athice now offers

consignment opoortunities for the used Audio market. TopDollar Offered. Call for Information. New Equipment also.Call 1-800-752-4018

FOR SALELARGE INVENTORY CLEARANCE ON HIGH END AUDIOEQUIPMENT 50% OFF RETAIL. CALL FOR LISTING704-889-5223 OR FAX 704-889-4540

AUDIO SOLUTIONS is Atlanta's Hi -Endsource for Audio Research, Theta, McCor-mack, Wire World, Cary Audio, Vanders-teen, CODA, Straightwire, Acurus, Snell,Sumikc, SOTA, NHT, Kimber Kable, Mag-num Dynalab, Audible Illusions, Rotel,VPI, Paradigm, Dunlavy, Sony ES, SonyVideo. 5576 Chamblee Dunwoody Rd.(404)804-8977.

LOUDSPEAKERSLOUDSPEAKER COMPONENTS -KITS. Dynaudio. Morel.Eclipse, Focal. Peerless, Eton. Vila, more, Crossover parts,Foam Speaker Grilles-design books also. Catalog $2.MENISCL S, 2575 28th St., Unit 2, Wyoming, MI 49509(616) 534-9121.

CUSTOM ACTIVE ELECTRONIC CROSSOVERS. 6 to 36dB Oct Also Snell. Magnepan versions. DB SYSTEMS.POB 460. RINDGE. NH 03461 (603) 899-5121

VMPS factory assembled speakers. Low Prices, shippeddirect to 7ou Free Price sheet. Arthur Morgan, 886 EastCharing Cross CR.. Lake Mary, FL 32746.

SPEAKERCATALOG

Parts Ermess is a full -line dis-tributor d electronic parts andaccessor es geared toward theconsumer electronics industryand the technical hobbyist.We stoct an extensive line ofspeaker drivers and accesso-ries for borne and car. Sendfor your .FIEE 188 page cata-log toda

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SAVE OF T075%1 Highend speakers, stands, cables, etc.Kits Assembled. FREE Literature. Hubbell Sound Systems,Box 30136-A, Des Moines, IA 50310 (515) 277-1446.

ROTTEN FOAM EDGES?SIMPLY SPEAKERSdoes professional foam replace-ments any size brand. 7 Year Warranty. We sell DIYFoam Surround Kits for less, Speaker reconing. MCIVISA DISCOVER 1-800-767-4041

DARE TO BE DIGITAL!!Finally a DAC designed to do digital right, DAC 's$695-$2295, Speakers $995-$24995. Room AcousticsHandbooK $14.95.MACH 1 Acoustics, fax phone (603)654-9826

WATERPROOF SPEAKERS. The industry's finestsounding waterproof speakers bring true high fidelitysound to your outdoor patio, pool, or spa. Call now foryour FREE color brochure. BOYNE AUDIO, INC.1-800-625-6551.

AUDIO/AUGUST 199485

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NEW 1994 CATALOG

LOUDSPEAKER SALE! Acoustat 3300-$700; Acoustat2.2-5650; Acoustat 1.1-$600; Apogee Centaur -$850;B&W 640-5900; Boston Acoustics T1030-$450; CantonFonum 604275; Canton Karat 920-5500; Celestion100-$600; DCM Time Window 3-5700; Energy Ref. Con.22-5600; Genesis 3-52500; JBL LX55-$550; KlIpschSW10-$500; Linn isobaric -52150; infinity Ref. 6-5550;Infinity Kappa 8.1-$950; Infinity Ref.1-5125; Infinity Vid-eo 1-5160; Magy MG3A-$850; MB Quart 990 MCS-51300;Martin Logan CLS1-51200; McIntosh XR16-51000; Mer-lin Sig. 3-51350; Nestorovic AS -$2800; Polk S50 -S400;Polk Monitor 10-$450; Pinacie PN5-S125; Proac Tablene2-5600; Thiel 2.2-51600; Unity Audio Sig. -51100;Velodyne F1000-5450; Velodyne ULD 15-5700. Call: (217)544-5252.

REPAIR FOAM ROTFOR YOURSELF!

SAT will save you hundreds of dollars, Allsizes including AR. Advent. BOSE. JBL.Surrounds, adhesive 8 instructions$27.95/pr BOSE 901's 567 95/pr (IndS/H, No COD's) Do 8 yourseff with SAT!

800-747-3692 MC/VISASTEPP AUDIO TECHNOLOGIES 704.697-9001 24 HrPO Bo. 1088, Flat Rock. NC 28731 Inca make & model w /order

Upgrades and Drivers plus Systems from$200 to $7000 per pair. Ohm AcousticsCorp. 241 Taaffe Pl., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11205

TRUE SUBWOOFERWith phenomenaltrue deep bassextending below20Hz with lowdistortion at a veryaffordable price.

The HRSW1Oswill extend bass ofyour stereo orvideo system forthat "air shaking allaround you" effect. HSU Research HRS,A1,0

Here's what the experts are saying:'Once you have heard what they can add to your system. yo.,won't want to part with them. Ecstatically recommended,

Gerald D. Bun. Sensible Sound, Issue No 49, Fall 1993'II you have a listening room of reasonable sue. nothing can improve ycstereo system as dramatically for $750 as the Hsu Research HRSWIO'

Pete Aczel. The Audio Critic, Issue No. 19, Spring 1993'I guarantee you this much. once you hear good, clean bass.you'll be hooked lot life. Highly recommended'

Dick Olsher, Slereophile. Vol 16 No 3, March 1993'Truly awesome room shaking bass .0. -3 dB 14.3 to 40itz'

Don Keels, Audio II/92"Mast effective subwoofer we have tested Best Buy'

Julian Hirsch. Stereo Renew 492'Bass extension was truly remarkable'

Robert Deutsch. Stereophtle Vol 15 No 4. April 1992'Delivered clean low bass at high levels work lust splendidly'

David Moran. Speaker Builder 3'92'Some of the most impressive subwoofer systems I've heard"

Peter Michell. Sterpophole Vol 14 NO. 3. March 1991

Send for comp ete information and critics' review reprints.

Write or call:HSU RESEARCH20013 Rainbow Way, Cerritos, CA 907011-800-554.0150 (Voice)1-310-924.7550 (Voice/Fax)

HSU

Sold factory direct with a 30 day trial - money backguarantee. 5 year manufacturers defect warranty.

A & S SPEAKERS Imports the world's finest speakercomponents, crossovers, & kits: Dynaudio. Scan Speak,VIFA, Ceratec, Focal, Morel, MB Electronics, Peerless, Poly-dax, SEAS, LPG, Eton, Versa-Tronics, VMPS systems &kits.Free literature. 3170 23rd Street, San Francisco, CA94110. (415) 641-4573; Fax (415) 648-5306.

BETTERLOUDSPEAKERTECHNOLOGY

CD

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The VMPS bvier II Special Edition, the deluxe ver-sion of an Audio Magazine "Best Buy" system, isnow available with exclusive handbuilt, phase -pluggedwoven carbon fiber 12" woofers, the finest dynamicdrivers extant.

These high-tech cones are also now standard in ourflagship FF-1 Focused Field Array ($6800-$7200pr), four of which made up the VMPS 1994WCES Surround Sound display. After auditioningevery multichannel/Home Theater display at theShow, the editor of Widescreen Review judged theVMPS room best, and by a wide margin. Call orwrite for copies of the full editorial, or for brochuresand test reports on all VMPS systems including ourfour Subtvoof ers ($289-$649ea), the 0S0626 andDipole Surround A/V monitors ($289-$349ea),OSO Series bookshelf systems, and more. Kit ver-sions of most systems are available, and prices in-clude free shipping in 48 states.

VMPS AUDIO PRODUCTSdive (tone Audio

3429 Morningside Dr.El Sobrante, CA 94803

(510) 222-4276 Fax: (510) 232-3837

Hear VMPS at The Listening Studio, Boston. Sounds Incred-ible, Brookfield CT, Dynamic Sound. Washington DC: Hifi Farm.Roanoke VA. Home Theater Systems. Little Falls NJ. MarkCurry, Las Vegas, NV; AMUG. Phoenix AZ. Rama Audio, SunValley CA, American Audio. Greenville SC; Chattanooga ValleyAudio. Rossville GA. Tech Electronics, Gainesville FL. ArthurMorgan. Lake Mary FL, DNA Audio. Orange City FL. SoundsDeluxe. Clarendon Hills IL; Audio Exchange, Mishawaka IN,Audio Connection, Terre Haute IN: Ruth Industries, St. LouisMO, Shadow Creek Ltd. Minneapolis MN: Audio by GilMorrison. Detroit MI. Lookout Electronics, Longview WA.Affordable Audio. Fresno. CA. Exclusively Entertainment.Oceanside. CA. Hal Broda, Escondido CA; Christopher HansenLtd., Beverly Hills CA. Audio Haven. Brea CA. Sounds Unique.San Jose CA. Private Line Home Entertainment. StocktonCA. Golden Ear. Chico CA. !tone Audio. El Sobrante CA:James Romeyn. Petaluma CA. The Sound Room. VancouverBC Canada

AUDIO/AUGUST 199486

LOUDSPEAKERS WANTED TO BUY PARTS AND ACCESSORIES

SRD is dedicated to designing & building high perfor-mance, high quality speakers at affordable prices. We havea complete line of AudioNide° speaker systems. We sellfactory direct only! Speakers starting at $275/pr. 30 day trialperiod & 5yr warranty. We offer Pioneer products Call forbrochure & pricing. SRD SPEAKERS, Houston. TX.1-800-353-9899. Visa/MC/AMEX.

LOUDSPEAKER CABINETS Large selection of excellentquality loudspeaker cabinets for custom builders and deal-ers. Grenier Cabinets, 189 Jennings Road. Horseheads.N.Y. 14845 (607)594-3838.

DYNAUDIO SPEAKER KITSDiscover the SUPERIOR SOUND QUALITY of 1994DYNAUDIO SPEAKER KITS. Catalog $2.00 (Refunded).ADVANCED AKUSTIC 7627 Woodside Stockton Cali-fornia 95207 (209) 477-5045

RECORDSLV/CD/RECORD COLLECTORS SUPPUES. Jewel boxes,record jackets, sleeves, storage boxes, 78 sleeves, dividers,much more! Free brochure: CABCO PRODUCTS, ROOM663, POB 8212, COLUMBUS, OH 43201. (614) 267-8468.

PRESERVE + MAINTAIN + RESTORE "LP-78RPM-4CH Pickering Stanton Shure Nifty Gritty Vacuum Record Cleaners from $99.95 Special Brushes& Fluids 3 -Speed Turntables Signal Processors Dis-counts Free Catalog! KAB Eiectro-Acoustics, P.O. Box2922, Plainfield, N.J. 07062-0922 (908)754-1479.

LP's LP's LP LIST NO.2 LP's LP's. List available from Prairie Music! Thousands of new, sealedrecords of all categories. Most are $8 or less. Call Ted. Freelist. (913) 827-9378 24 voice/fax.

HALF MILE VINYL Quality pre -owned LP's. F/Intormation,Catalog. SASE: Box 98, East Wareham, MA 02538. (508)295-2508.

WANTED TO BUYTOP PAYING FOR MCINTOSH, MARANTZ TUBE AMPMcIntosh Solid state, Western, JBL, Altec, Tannoy, EV.Jensen, Speakers & Horn, EMT Turntable, Ortofon Arm,Temma--(516) 942-1212, (516) 496-2973.

CLASSE AUDIO DR -3. MINT CONDITION PREFERRED.USED SONY BEAM PROJECTOR (VPH 10000).718-969-1086. MR CHOI.

COLLECTING VINTAGE TUBE GEAR, Speakers, High -end. Esoterica & Beating Competition for 2 DecadesReputation, Honesty. N.Y.S.I. (718) 377-7282, 2-6P.M.,WEEKDAYS.

Since 1977 David Yo always buying: tube Marantz. McIn-tosh, ARC, Fisher, Dynaco, Quad, Leak, Western Electricequipments. others. Vintage speakers, raw units by WesternElectric, Tansy, Jensen, JBL, Altec, EV(PatriciansL RCA-LC1A. Audio tubes(KT66/77/88, 7591, 6550, etc.) by Tele-funken. Genalex, Mullard, RCA, Tungsol, etc. P.O. Box28082. Northridge, CA. 91328-0802. Tel: (818) 701-563310am-lOpm PST

WANTED: WESTERN ELECTRIC, JBL, MARANTZ OLDEQUIPMENT. SUNLIGHT ENGINEERING COMPANY:310-320-7020. 22130 SOUTH VERMONT AVENUE, #A,TORRANCE. CA 90502.

KLIPSCHORNS FACTORY BUILT 1948-1955. ESPE-CIALLY BLONDE "PRIMAVERA". ALSO OLD HERESYAND CORNWALL SINGLES, BLONDE OR MAHOGANY(708)629-7638.

TOP DOLLAR PAID FOR YOUR USED AUDIO EQUIP-MENT. HI Fl EXCHANGE (718) 423-0400.

CASH for USED AUDIO & VIDEO EQUIP.BUYING and SELLING by PHONE. CALL forHIGHEST QLOTE. (215) 886-1650 Since1984. The Stereo Trading Outlet, 320 OldYork Road, Jenkintown, PA 1904E..TUBE HIFI, COMMERCIAL AMPS, HORN SPEAKERS.McIntosh, Altec, RCA, Western Electric. Jensen, Marantz.Heath, Dynaco, Craftsman. Eico, Etc. Sonny 4C5-737-3312.

MARANTZ 510M AMPLIFIER Need unit in excellentcondition, both functionally and conditionally. Steve(404)812-4932.

AUDIO CLASSICS BUYS -SELLS -TRADES -REPAIRSHigh End Audio Components. CALL for a quote. See our adat the beginning of the classifieds. AUDIO CLASSICS, LTD.,POB 176VV13, Walton, NY 13856. 607-865-7200. BAM-5PMEST Mon. -Fri.

COLLECTOR WILL TRAVEL, to pick-up. working or not.MONO/Stereo: tube MARANTZ, McIntosh, TANNOY Spkrs,B&W, 1380, SEQUERRA Tuner, KRELL, Levinson, etc.(718)387-7316 or (718)383-3205. NEW YORK.

SERVICES

ACCUPHASEAUTHORIZED SERVICE AND PARTS for all Anaphaseproducts. Contac'. ACCUTECH, 206 E. Star of India Lane,Carson, CA 90746. TEL. (310) 324-7406, FAX (310)324-7422. Hours: 9am-4pm Pacific Time.

5000 OPERAS AND RECITALS from 1908 onwards.Available on cassettes. Stan Cory, 6032 E. Thunderbird.Scottsdale. AZ. 85254. Phone (602)443-1690 and Fax (602)596-1202.

Audio EquIpmert Built, Repaired, Modified and Restoredby Richard Modafferi, independent consultant to AudioClassics, Ltd., inventor, and former Senior Engineer at McIn-tosh. AUDIO CLASSICS, LTD. 8AM-5PM EST MON.-Fri.,POB 176RTM, Walton, NY 13856. 607-865-7200.

SPECIALIST, TUBE EQUIPMENT CUSTOMIZATIONRepair Services. Vintage military tubes & parts available.Custom and Vintage tube equipment for sale. SelectedTelefunken 12AX7's avallable.BWS Consulting, 5609 N.23rd Street, Arlington, VA 22205.(703)536-3910.

PARTS AND ACCESSORIES

CI

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WAITED QUANTITIES OF OLD SURPLUS ELECTRONTUBES. TUBE SOCKETS, PAPER/OIL CAPS.. -BLACKBEAUTIES, VIT-0. WESTCAP, ETC. KURLUFF ENTER-PRISES, P.O. BOX 2204, IRWINDALE. CA 91706.818/444-7079, FAX: 818/444-6863.

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Premium Grade PartsDon't Pay More!

Absolutely the best selection of audiophile grade partsat fair prices! Extensive deep in auk inventoryfeaturing these vendors and many more. Free catalog!MIT MUITICAP, WONDER CAP, SOLEN, SCR, REL-CAP.NICHICON MUSE, MACK GATE, CADDOCK, VISHAY, MILL,HOLCO, REsts-rA, IDK, ALPS, NOBLE, EAR, Drti PANEL,.

CARDAS, KIMBER, AC.ROTECH, & pure silver chassis wires,HEX FRED diodes, Soto foil inductors, all types of audioconnectors, silver contact toggle & rotary switches.stepped attenuator kits, hospital grade plugs, tubes,tools, IC's, super selection of damping materials & feet.IntemationaVoverseas orders are especially welcome'Phone (415) 669-7181 or fax (415) 669-7558 for a catalogMichael Percy, Box 526, Inverness, CA 94937

Achievea properbalance.

ALPS NOBLEVolume and balance pots used by the

best manufacturers.

To receive The Parts Connection 1994 Catalogand a $IO discount coupon good on your first

order over $100, send $5 along with your mailingadriress or call with credit card information.

4THE PARTS( CONNECTION 3E

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MIT MultiCap Wonder cap Kimber Kap Solo SolenSiemens Hovland Al usiCap Wima Holco Rd -CapDralnric Vishay Caddo& Mills Matsushita TKD

Noble Cardas Kimber Kable Discovery AudioquestMIT- ClearAudio Alps Rooms Shallco Attenuators

Elma Electroswitch Nichicon Gold Aero RAMMallory Ruby Tubes Edison Price Linear TechnologyMotorola Analog Devices/PMI International Rectifier

MagneQuest Sonic Frontiers Pearl Tube SocketsMIT Neutrik Curcio Audio Engineering Kits

AUDIO/AUGUST 199487

PARTS AND ACCESSORIES AUDIO VIDEO STORAGE AD INDEX250 PAGE DESIGN MANUAL AND CATALOG:CHECKOUT OUR KITS: MOSFET Power and 30013Triode Amplifiers; Passive, Buffered and Class -A Line -stages; Phonodrives and Active Crossovers. LargestSelection of Parts and Supplies including: Kimber Kap,MIT MultiCap, Solen, WIMA, Wonder Caps. RAM Labsand Golden Dragon Tubes, Kimber Kable, Vampire,Gerdes, WBT, Neutrik, Caddock, Magnequest " OutputTransformers, etc. Send $10 (U.S./Canada) or $15 (In-ternational). Or call (303) 470-6585. fax (303)791-5783.Visa/MC Accepted. WELBORNE LABS. P.O. Box260198, Littleton. CO 80126-0198.

PUBLICATIONSMOVIESOUND NEWSLETTER. The state of film audiotracks in theaters and at home. $8/year (4 -issues). Send $2for two sample issues. P.O. Box 7304. Suite269A. No.Hollywood, CA 91603.

BLANK TAPES

TAPE WORLD 1-800-245-6000 OnlyWe II bent any total price' FREE CATALOG

SONY MAXELL TDK FUJIDAT-120 7.49 XUI-90 1.79 sc74 11.49DAT-120 cup 999 XU1-590 2.29 HST120 7.891-120V 239 XU1-3100 2.69 SA -90 169 8MM-120 3.491-120VHG 3.29 DAT-120 7.99 SAX -90 2.19 JVCL-7501-IG 3.99 T120HGX 2.99 HI -8-120 599 T120SX 1.79wr-osc 74 1199 SVHST120 7.49 DAT-120 699 SVHST120 6.99

1.14 8.5 VISA MC DISC

Xualti rt sla esnirrpri ars

TYPE, Writeor RUB

CASSETTELABEL

SYSTEM

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woodelock lwHard ROC*

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TYPE, WRITE OR RUB YOUR INFORMATION ON PRO-FESSIONAL GRAPHIC ART CASSETTE LABELS. 20LABELS PER CATEGORY; EACH LABEL HAS ITS OWNORIGINAL ARTWORK! CHOOSE CATEGORY: ROCK,JAZZ, COUNTRY OR CLASSICAL. ONLY $5.75 CHECK/M.O.: LOOKINGLASS ENTERPRISES, 13782 BEARVALLEY ROAD, SUITE D, BUILDING 3-50, VICTORVILLE,CA 92392.

HELP WANTEDEASY WORK! EXCELLENT PAY! ASSEMBLE PROD-UCTS AT HOME. CALL TOLL FREE 1-800-467-5566 EXT.11325.

MOVIES FILMS VIDEOSJAZZ ON VIDEO. Over 800 titles. Concerts. Documentaries& Instructional. VHS video tape or laserdisc. Catalog $2Jazzwest. Box 3515, Ashland, OR 97520.

NEW PRODUCTS

FINALLY -VALUE REDEFINED. YOU DON'T HAVE TOSELL THE FARM FOR REAL CLASS A DESIGN PERFOR-MANCE. N.E.W. DESIGNER NELSON PASS (THRESH-OLD, FORTE, E.S.S.) PROVED IT FIRST WITH THE LEG-ENDARY CLASSIC PASS A 40 AMPLIFIER. NOW, A NEWSONIC THRESHOLD ACHEIVED - THE MORE MUSI-CALLY AMAZING N.E.W. A 20 HIGH BIAS CLASS A AMPLI-FIER. ONLY $6981 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED REVIEWSAVAILABLE. ALSO, THE ULTIMATE HOME THEATER AM-PLIFIER. 30 DAY HOME DEMO. N.E.W., BX 1148.RANCHO SANTA FE, CALIFORNIA 92067. (619) 756-9561.

THE BEST DISC, TAPE & COMPONENT STORAGE SYS-TEM IN AMERICA. Stackable, portable oak units hold allrecording formats & Audio. ideo components. FREE Mail-order Brochure (please mention Audio). Per Madsen Design:(415) 928-4509. P.O. Box 330101, San Francisco, CA94133.

CUSTOM DESIGNSAUDIO POWER AMPLIFIERS. 100-500 WRMS CH. Com-pletely assembled and tested from only $188.00 to $223.00each. Satisfaction Guaranteed. Call Electronics Hospital(407)952-3838.

TUBE COMPONENTS

NEW TUBE COMPONENTS - preamps(from $595), mono amps (from $399), FREECATALOG. Factory -direct savings to 40% onworld -class designs by Harry Klaus -formerDyna/Hafler Project Engineer. USA made.SATISFACTION GUARANTEED. SoundValues, Dept. AM01, 185 N. Yale Ave.,Columbus, OH 43222-1146. (614)279-2383, 10-4, Eastern.

COMPACT DISCSTired of your favorite CD's skipping? NEW CD Repair Kit.$10.95 -Check or Money Order to: Audio Plus. 12951 Ben-son Avenue. Suite 125. Chino, CA 91710.

This publication isavailable inmicroform from UMI.

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UMIA Bell & Howell Company300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106 USA800-521-0600 toll -free313-761-4700 collect from Alaska and Michigan800-343-5299 toll -free from Canada

Firm (Reader Service No.) Page

Adcom (1) 5

Audiophile Systems *32 a&b, 53

AudioQuest 7

Bell'Ogetti (2) 9

Brystonvermont (3) 27

Cambridge SoundWorks (4) 26

Carver (5) 23

Delco Electronics 15, 61

Digital Phase (6) 45

GE/Sanyo (7) 29

GMC Truck (8) 11

Harman Kardon 18, 19

KEF (9) 21

Linaeum (10) 76

Linn Hi-Fi 53

Martin -Logan Cover IV

MCM Electronics (11) 76

Mirage (22) 57

Mobile Fidelity (12) Cover II & 1

New West Electronics (13) 62

Onkyo 69

Paradigm (14) 16 a&b

Parasound Cover III

Pioneer (15) 3

Polyfusion Electronics (16) 13

Reel to Real (17) 28

Sanus (23) 59

Sound City (18) 77

U.S. Army 41

Vandersteen (19) 8

Velodyne (20) 25

Windham Hill 73

XLO Electric 47

Yakov Aronov (21) 58

*Regional Ad

AUDIO/AUGUST 199488

Now THAT You SEE How THEY WORK,HEAR How THEY FEEL.

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THE STYLOS

UNTIL NOW.high resolution sound repro-

duction meant sacrificing space. Untilvow, placing a speaker nea- a wallmean! sacrificing the qualiti of sound.Who else but Martin-logarr could takeelectostatic technology to a realmwhere music has never beet before?

"T he standard wall -mounting kit in-cludes brackets and a full-sizeposter of the Stylos that clearly

marks the placement of the wall anchors(stud location is not necessary). A plumbalignment tool is integrated irro theposter to ensure accurate installation.

AGAINST THE WALL

Using the optional base, the Styloscan stand against the wall, yetremain moveable. This is ideal for

apartment living and allows easy reposi-tioning as new demands arise. TheStylos is also the perfect addition to ahome theatre system.

TIhe Stylos can be built into awall requiring vertical space ofapproximately 5 feet and a width

of 14 inches. The designer scrim,which is included in the optional in-stallation package, can be painted tomatch your decor.

mnRT*-6 P 0 BOX 707. 2001 DELAWARELAWRENCE. KANSAS 66044-ELEPHONE 913-749-0133/FAX 913-749-5320

1993. Madill -Logan Ltd Ai! rights reserved

TOOTED - World Radio History

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