How SACD won the war. We review two SACD players … · BEYOND THE CD: How SACD won the war. We review two SACD players and adopt one of them. And we dare to pit SACD against analog!

BEYOND THE CD: How SACD won the war. We review two SACD players and adopt one of them. And we dare to pit SACD against analog!OTHER REVIEWS: Loudspeakers from Equation, Reference 3a, Wilson Benesch and muRata. Plus a limited edition amp from Simaudio.AS WELL AS: Using an iPod as a full-fidelity music source, the video screens of tomorrow, and Montréal 2004.

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Winner WHAT HI-FI SUPERTEST October 2003

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CinemaFuture screens 19

Can you buy the perfect video screen? Perhaps not yet, but UHF looks at what’s here…and what’s coming.

Features

How SACD Won the War 22Or, to put it another way, how DVD-Audio blew it big time

Montreal 2004 26by Gerard RejskindUHF exhibits, and we take a look around too

Touring with Witnesses 28by Albert SimonAlbert plays sherpa to a couple of audiophiles at this biggest of electronics shows for consumers

The Listening RoomLinn Unidisk 1.1 31

Is this the source component audiophiles have been waiting for all this time? It looks that way!

Shanling SCD-T200 36It plays SACDs. It plays CDs too. It could even be the player you’ve saved up for.

Equation 25 Speakers 39They’re good enough to have been contenders as a reference, and you know what? They very nearly made it.

Reference 3a Royal Virtuoso 42A renewed version of an old favorite. And we do mean favorite!

Wilson Benesch Curve 45Diamonds are made from carbon. So are humans if you add water. And so are the cabinets of these speakers.

muRata Super Tweeters 49Speakers that take up where your ears leave off

Simaudio Moon W-5LE Power Amp 50Specially built for you and 249 other lucky people

Goldring GR1 Turntable 52It’s hard to fi nd a good phono cartridge at this price. This one comes with a turntable and arm.

Apple iPod 54Can it also be a poor man’s music server?

SoftwareGershwin Forever! 56

by Reine LessardLife is short, art is long. Gershwin’s life and legacy are the proof

Record Reviews 62by Reine Lessard and Gerard Rejskind

DepartmentsEditorial 2Feedback 5Free Advice 7Classifi ed Ads 66Gossip & News 69State of the Art 72

Issue No. 70

Cover story: The ultimate SACD (and everything else) player, the Linn Unidisk 1.1. Behind it is the very bright Rho Ophiuchi star (the blue one), and the M4 global cluster (purplish, at lower right).

2 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

UHF Magazine No. 70 was published in July, 2004. All contents are copyright 2004 by Broadcast Canada. They may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

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Ultra High Fidelity Magazine is completely independent of all companies in the electronics industry, as are all of its contributors, unless explcitly specified otherwise.

Changes to the reference systems I suppose every magazine talks about “reference systems,” though in many cases the role of such a system is a mystery, since it isn’t really used for most reviews. In our case, all reviews are done using one of the reference systems. And we change them as little as we can get away with, because a reference that changes all the time is scarcely a reference at all. As of this issue we have several changes, more than we had had for a long time, and indeed more than we had intended. First, we have finally selected a new reference loudspeaker for our Alpha system. The decision was a long time coming, yet the final choice was swift and unanimous. The new reference is the Living Voice Avatar OBX-R, which we had reviewed in issue No. 67. It has the ingredients we had sought: reasonable size, very extended and clean response, very high resolution, high efficiency, and electrical characteristics that won't assassinate small amplifiers. It will be an excellent working tool, and incidentally it will be a lot of fun to listen to. We knew the speaker change was coming, but the reviews in our last issue pretty much mandated another change. The Audiomat Phono-1.5 is so good that we decided to acquire it. We still use vinyl for a number of our reviews, and the superb resolution of the Phono-1.5 will enable us to do our job better. There is more. For a number of months we have been telling readers that the war between DVD-Audio and SACD is headed for a final conclusion, with SACD the almost certain winner (see How SACD Won the War in this issue). Didn’t that mean we would finally need an SACD player ourselves? Sure, but the acquisitions budget was a little lean, and we wondered whether we could economize a bit. Perhaps we could say that whatever we bought was an interim reference, with a definitive one to come later as the state of the art advances. We had done that nearly two decades ago with Compact Disc (a Teac was our first purchase, with a Spectral player arriving later). Hah! Linn’s Unidisk 1.1 player was scheduled for this issue, and just over 24 hours after we unpacked our sample, we knew we could make no other choice. Some manufacturers will say we were wrong not to wait, and we should have bought their player. They will have their chance to demonstrate what chumps we are, because we now have a great point of comparison. And there’s one more change. We have long used a Simaudio Moon W-5 amplifier in our Omega system. We’ve heard for ourselves the improvements Simaudio has made to its flagship amp, and we were thinking that possibly we should get one of the new ones, perhaps not right away, but… Then came an opportunity. Simaudio announced the W-5LE, a premium “limited edition” version numbered from 001 to 250. We will be using number 016 in all future tests. It’s reviewed in this issue. By the way, our colleague Albert has long used a W-5 that was among the first ones made. He now listens through number 024.

Finally…a price rise I may as well let you know in advance. A single issue of UHF has cost $4.99 for a long time (and for years before that it was $4.95…don’t ask!). In early 2005, the price will rise. That means the price of a subscription will go up too. But with the cost of both paper and postage rising soi sharply, there’s no choice. All I can promise you is value. I hope you’ll agree.

Editorial

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Feedback

I have been an avid subscriber to UHF since 1993 (the issue had a review of the Castle Chester and Totem Model One), and I have enjoyed every bit of your magazine. Now that you have a home theatre setup, why not review more home the-atre speakers, specifi cally those offered by Axiom Audio? Your readers might benefi t from such a review of this Cana-dian speaker company for two reasons: 1) They are a Canadian company, eh! 2) Being mail order, if the sound of these speakers are any good, readers who have limited budget but would like to go home theatre can get there without breaking the bank.

Renante BarrogaST-LAURENT, QC

I was hoping, and I am sure many readers are as well, that when you test the iPod in the next issue, that you will also try out the new “lossless compression” offered by iTunes version 4.5. Sounds interesting. Just a thought.

Paul HirvinenTHUNDER BAY, ON

Apple lent us an iPod for only one month, and it was shipped back two days before Apple announced its lossless compression. That would double the iPod’s capacity.

I just bought an iPod and have been extremely impressed by its ease of opera-tion and versatility. I haven’t assessed its overall sound quality yet, and I will be very interested in your coming review from that perspective. The one thing that really infuriates me, though, is that we Canadians can’t download from the iTunes music store. Can you address in your article when (if?) we will ever be able to use the iTunes download facility? Are there other alternatives, with a broad sampling of artists, that are legal in Canada?

If not, perhaps you could provide a CRTC contact address so we can all send letters asking why Americans can download songs from Canadian artists, who permit their music to be down-loaded, but we cannot. I just can’t believe the CRTC can be so pig-headed about universal access to music. (Perhaps you could offer advice on the best way to secure a US credit card and mailing address!)

Craig McDougallCALGARY, AB

The CRTC has no jurisdiction in this, Craig. The problem seems to be getting the many worldwide divisions of the big record companies, many of which appear to have a pathological death wish, on side. We would add that we have trouble getting excited over the possibility of paying a buck for a single song with nine tenths of the information missing. We would like to see Apple offering the alternative of full-resolution download-ing. One record company, Magnatunes (www.magnatunes.com) already does.

I eagerly await your review of the Apple iPod. I have been looking in various stores for a chance to audition one myself, but only computer stores seem to carry them. They escort you to their iPod display and allow you to listen to their MP3 files through powered computer speakers — no thanks! I need to listen to WAV fi les that are well done through a good audio system. I produce a lot of WAV fi les from LPs and tapes, which I usually edit with small amount of EQ, band extrapolation and/or normalizing before burning them to CD. Rather than run 40 feet of interconnect from my computer to the main listening room for auditioning, I have been burning “trial and error” CDs in order to come up with my fi nal mix. I know for certain that over the last two years I have scrapped over 50

such CDs. The iPod seems to be a good alternative to this wasteful method, and even though it may not pay for itself in saved CD blanks it should be a lot more convenient. But like you, I need to know what it sounds like before I decide. Feeding the analog signal through a mini jack is one of my concerns. Another is the quality of its analog playback circuit. I imagine that it is just fi ne for background music, but most of my music from LPs will be for dedicated listening and I want to make sure I get it right. The iPod has to give me the same quality I get from my main CD playback system. Perhaps I am expecting too much.

Lloyd MarshallEDSON, AB

Well, you can check our fi ndings in this issue, Lloyd. The quality of what you hear will depend not only on the iPod but also on the quality of the A/D converter in your computer. In some cases it can be surpris-ingly good.

I have been reading your magazine for about two years now, and have yet to see a better one. I live in the US, and sadly there is no stereo magazine here (or even in the UK, for I do read some of them) that can even come close to yours. 1) In UHF No. 68, you wrote an arti-cle on testing several different speaker cables, and I think you mentioned something like the Nordost Valhalla is close to the Wireworld Eclipse. Is this correct? This cable costs around fi ve times the price of the Eclipse, but on the other hand I believe in your judgement. Does this mean Nordost spend too much on advertising? 2) Have you, or will you ever, review the following components: Simaudio Moon I-5 Limited Edition, JMLab Micro Utopia BE, YBA Intégré Passion, Naim CDS3, and NAIT5i/CD5i? 3) Will you ever compile all the tech-nical articles (like the ones about power, acoustics, stereo sound, etc), and also all the music articles by Reine? These would be an excellent addition to your collection of highly valuable books you have published so far.

Ernes HoSAN JOSE, CA

FeedbackBox 65085, Place Longueuil

Longueuil, Québec, Canada J4K [email protected]


Feed

back

Note that our evaluation was based on Wireworld’s own Comparator Disc, not on a side-by-side comparison. The YBA Intégré Passion was on the cover of issue No. 64. As for the books, Reine says she appreci-ates the request!

Even if I hadn’t been trying to make myself useful in the Charisma room much of the time this year, I would still have missed a lot of the Montreal show. You fi lled it in for me. Thanks a million for the terrifi c online report. Bravo for doing it in the fi rst place, bravo for posting PDQ, bravo for the great pics, bravo for making it all read-able and accessible even for relative audio novices. Another triumph.

Toby EarpMONTRÉAL, QC

A f ter read i ng t he Mont rea l Show report, I would like to clarify information concerning Synthesis products (page http://www.uhfmag.com/Montreal2004/day3.html ) I believe it’s an Italian company rather than a German one.

Jacek RymutPoland

Quite right. Glad you’re keeping an eye on us!

Please fi nd my renewal cheque for 13 more issues. While other magazines are interesting in their own particular ways, yours is the one that never ceases to entertain. Even my wife (who loves her music too) is getting into it: “Anything from those guys in Montreal today?” is a familiar refrain around our house after checking the mailbox every day. While I understand their angst, I have to chuckle over the legion of readers who would gladly sacrifi ce some of your precious sleep for more frequent issues. That would remove one of the things that make you who you are (and, I feel, one aspect of your success). Different doesn’t quite explain it, and I hesitate to use the word quirky, but there’s some-thing to be said for a little…all right, unpredictable quirkiness. The anticipa-tion of an upcoming issue’s arrival is similar in some ways to the search for a new equipment upgrade, the hunting and

waiting is sometimes just as rewarding as the getting. Regular monthly publishing would remove some of that quirkiness and hence, some of the fun of your magazine. And isn’t it supposed to be fun?

Keith FergusonVICTORIA, BC

I don’t understand your frequency response graphs for speakers. They seem very strange to me in that the fl uctua-tions are tremendous. For example the Reference 3A De Capo-i: according to your plot, there is a 5 dB dip around 70 Hz and another 5 dB dip at approxi-mately. 5000 Hz. These plots do not at all correspond to what I am used to seeing in other publications. I am assuming that your test condi-tions differ form other testers. However, the results plotted on your frequency response graphs are so “jagged” that I do not see how one could learn much about the speaker’s quality. I should point out that my technical knowledge of audio phenomena and elec-tronics is very limited. I am stating this from the strict point of view of an audio consumer (defi nition of an audiophile?) who is accustomed to looking at graphs without understanding the underlying concepts.

André NickellBEACONSFIELD, QC

We have some misgivings about them too, André. At one time we stuck to text descriptions of frequency response. Later, we began using graphed versions of the results, and just recently we have been using actual instruments graphs. These graphs are the literal truth, and in a real room a speaker really will have these variations. Earlier graphs may have been more helpful, however, because each frequency point showed the aver-age response over a third of an octave, thus smoothing out the chaotic variations. There is no standardized method for measuring speaker response, and manufac-turers mostly select a method that will show speakers in their best light. That’s not what we do, but we have perhaps gone too far the other way.

After years of reading UHF, and being an octogenarian (with hearing

better than that of most 35-year olds) I had better speak up before it is too late! Reine, your contributions to UHF add a touch of class and humanity to a fi ne technical (though at times occult) periodical. I particularly enjoy your articles on various humanistic subjects. The Music Critics (UHF No. 69) brought to mind a couple of my favorite critical jibes. Referring to a rather heavy-duty Mimi, Shaw remarked that Mimi appeared to suffer not so much from consumption as from overconsump-tion. After the fi rst performance of the brahms Fourth, a critic (his name escapes me) remarked, “It is certainly no joke that this dead tired symphony should have to run the gauntlet of four move-ments.” I wonder why I tend to associate Brahms — is it his distinctively close string harmony? — with Victorian drawing rooms cloaked in heavy, deep brown velvet drapes, aspidistras and mantelpieces edged with hanging (again, brown velvet) bobbles. Maybe I once saw a picture of him in such a setting. Tell the boys I can explain electrical phenomena, but I never had much faith in the occult. Keep them earthbound.

Roy A. WoodlandBARRIE, ON

P.S. You will note that this comes to you by e-mail (envelope mail, that is).

Some 15 years after giving them up, I recently renewed my subscription to Car and Driver. To my amazement, I found their test drives now include a very short summary which takes the form of “Highs,” “Lows” and “Verdict,” besides a separate column called “Counterpoint”!! The latter presents the alternate opinion of …three columnists! Say, who started it f irst, you or them?

J-P LétourneauCAP ROUGE, QC

Them. We have yet to borrow an idea from another audio magazine, but we do steal regularly from other magazines past and present that we consider outstanding in their respective fi elds. Car and Driver is one of them.

13 more issues. While other magazines are interesting in their own particular ways, yours is the one that never ceases to entertain. Even my wife (who loves her music too) is getting into it: “Anything from those guys in Montreal today?” is a familiar refrain around our house after checking the mailbox every day. While I understand their angst, I have to chuckle over the legion of readers who would gladly sacrifi ce some of your precious sleep for more frequent issues. That would remove one of the things that make you who you are (and, I feel, one aspect of your success). Different doesn’t quite explain it, and I hesitate to use the word quirky, but there’s some-

We have some misgivings about them We have some misgivings about them too, André. At one time we stuck to text too, André. At one time we stuck to text descriptions of frequency response. Later, we began using graphed versions of the results, and just recently we have been using actual instruments graphs. These graphs are the literal truth, and in a real room a speaker really will have these variations. Earlier graphs may have been more helpful, however, because each frequency point showed the aver-age response over a third of an octave, thus smoothing out the chaotic variations. There is no standardized method for measuring speaker response, and manufac-turers mostly select a method that will show speakers in their best light. That’s not what

by e-mail (envelope mail, that is).

Some 15 years after giving them up, I recently renewed my subscription to Car and Driver. To my amazement, I found their test drives now include a very short summary which takes the form of “Highs,” “Lows” and “Verdict,” besides a separate column called “Counterpoint”!! The latter presents the alternate opinion of …three columnists! Say, who started it f irst, you or them?

J-P LétourneauCAP ROUGE, QC

Them. We have yet to borrow an idea Them. We have yet to borrow an idea

There’s a copy waiting for you…

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by ordering on line: https://www.uhfmag.com/Order.html.


Free Advice

I am having a hard time getting an unbiased and straight answer and hope you can help. I am searching for a new CD player, and I am still on the fence about SACD. Currently I have the MSB Link III DAC and will be getting the upsampling board. What will I get by spending more money on a CD player that the DAC does not correct or improve? The rest of my system is the Jolida 502a integrated amp and Triangle Titus 202 speakers. So you can tell I am on a budget and would really like to save on the CD player.

Jerry KottomGARVIN, MN

It sounds to us as though you’ll really want to plan ahead, Jerry. We’ve also been on the fence about SACD, because the war of standards reminded us and everyone else of the battle between Beta and VHS. But we now think SACD is the “VHS” of the new drama, and if that’s so you’ll want an SACD player sooner or later. We can say right off that we are not sold on upsampling, which can’t truly add to the resolution of a record-ing, though it can easily muck up what is already there. You didn’t mention what transport you are using with your MSB converter, but if the combination is working quite well you may want to take the money for the upsampling card and put it into an SACD fund. There are SACD players that can do wonders with conventional CDs as well (see our review of the Shanling player in this issue), but they are not legion, and they are not cheap. Our advice on this may yet change (and we hope it does), but it’s possible that you’ll want to make room for your CD player even after the new super player arrives.

I realize I have written to you guys recently, but I don’t know who else can

answer my question reliably. My system consists of a Linn Sondek/Syrinx/Supex 900 Super and an Alchemist Nexus (brought to my attention thanks to your review) into a Rotel 980BX preampli-fi er. My amplifi er is by a local manufacturer, an EL34-based amp I consider to be a good value at $1300. My speakers are heavily-modifi ed Mission 770’s. The places I feel my system is lacking are bass extension (it bothers me but I live in a basement apartment, so I can’t go nuts), imaging ( I believe my room is at fault, as I’ve heard these speakers throw up a nice image in a different room and system), and, most troubling, the fact that while most music sounds satisfying, massed violins sound shrill and “dry,” especially from the turntable. I suspect the main culprits to be the cartridge and preamplifi er, so I’ve purchased a Benz Micro MC Gold, but haven’t yet installed it. (I am thinking of reselling it to buy something with a line contact stylus.) 1) Do you think the Benz Micro is a step in the right direction? 2) Where should my next thousand bucks go? These problems are quite troubling for me, and have usurped my signifi cant other as my primary focus in life. Please help me with my troubles and let me go back to being the happy-go-lucky gent milady was so taken with all those years ago!!

Perry HowellTHORNHILL, ON

We rush to the rescue, Perry! The Benz Micro may be a good choice, though as you note it doesn’t have a line contact stylus. Certainly your Supex is old enough to tell stories of days gone by to its grandchildren. However the symptoms you’ve noted — insuf-fi cient bass and shrill, dry top end — are the typical result of an arm that is adjusted too high, so that the vertical tracking angle of the cartridge is exces-

sive. That means the cartridge is canted forward too much. It should be canted forward slightly, because most LPs are cut at an angle of 20 to 22 degrees, not the 15 degrees they’re supposed to be cut at. Too small an angle makes the bass loose and tubby, and the treble murky. An error in either direction mucks up the focus, too. We recommend setting this up by ear, using a pure stereo audiophile LP, such as those of Opus 3 or Proprius. Go for best focus on one of these, and you’ll have a good average setting for all LPs. Your other problems will be solved at the same time. Our compliments to milady. May your castle be fi lled with good music.

I am new to high end hi-fi and would like to buy a tube amplifi er. I have listened to the Jadis Orchestra Reference integrated tube amplifi er with Jadis Orchestra speakers. I would like to receive your advice for matching speakers to the Jadis Orchestra Reference, and if you have any comments on the Jadis speakers also. Please also comment about the tone controls in the amplif ier. As you may know, now they have the Lux version of the same amplifi er in Canada without the tone controls. Which one would you suggest?

Semih AlsaidISTANBUL, Turkey

We are not fond of tone controls. We all have recordings that can use a little tonal adjustment, but the chances that the “correction” from tone controls will exactly compensate for a recording problem are remote indeed. What’s more, tone controls take away from performance even when they are set to neutral. An amplifi er without them is to be preferred. Jadis loudspeakers are not distributed in North America, and we have never heard them. The Jadis amplifi er, which we reviewed in UHF No. 58, will work well with most loudspeakers of reason-able sensitivity, say 89 dB or more. We don’t know what speakers are available in Istanbul, of course. Among possible brands you could listen to are Epos, Linn, Spendor, Naim, Ruark, Thiel, Vandersteen, Piega, Epos and Totem. Those are only a start.

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From your experience with CDs, is there a particular label (FIM, Audioquest, Chesky, etc.) or CD format ( XRCD, XRCD2, HDCD, SACD, Hybrid SACD, DVD-A) that excels from the Red Book CD or LP records? Do CDs recorded in digital (DDD) sound better than those recorded in analog (ADD or AAD), or are these a matter of quality in the mastering process? If a disc has been transferred to SACD from an analog recording, how is this superior to an LP?

Jerome ChiongloMARKHAM, ON

SACD is defi nitely more than a mar-keting tool, Jerome. Or at least it is when the original recording was made with something more than 16 bits and 44,100 samples per second. We mention this because some mainstream labels have re-released Red Book CDs as SACDs by the simple expedient of upsampling…making up new data and charging you extra for it. And we thought Enron and Worldcom were isolated instances! Though DVD-A is also way superior

to Red Book CD, we believe that SACD has won the war. Pretty much all recent SACDs are hybrid, with a Red Book layer readable by conventional CD players. The presence of that layer doesn’t seem to harm anything. Any SACD player will let you hear the increased dynamics and “liveliness” of well-recorded discs, but getting full musical satisfaction means picking your player carefully…and, alas, paying way more than the minimum cost. It is a (fairly) well kept secret that a lot of music producers long ago returned to analog recording for their masters, believing that analog, at the very least, wouldn’t leave them with a pounding headache after a long day’s work. An SACD made from an analog original can sound better than the LP because it won’t have the well-known (and acknowledged) defects inherent in cutting and playing back an analog record. Which leaves the question of what we call “transitional technologies,” such as HDCD and XRCD. Both were

intended to tide us over the sometimes painful age of CD by maximizing the medium, and in the former case sneak-ing extra information past the medium’s limited resolution. We like them both, and we are especially fond of HDCD. However that technology now belongs to Microsoft, not traditionally known as a high end audio champion. The future is spelled S-A-C-D.

Here is one that I am sure you’ve been asked before: the lifespan of a laser. We know that a cartridge’s stylus can last for a very long time if it is properly aligned and kept free of debris. The trouble with cartridges is that the metal ( forgot the term) where the stylus is mounted can become weak with time. I need to know the approximate lifes-pan of a laser on a good quality machine like a Karrik. In the past we kept hearing numbers like typically 1000 hours, but shouldn’t the same principle from cartridges apply to lasers as well?

Nick LakoumentasMONTRÉAL, QC

Yes, we’ve been asked that before, Nick, but it was a long time ago, and the answer has changed. In the early days of digital, the esti-mate was that a laser pickup might have a life of 2000 hours, which meant an expensive repair after playing less than a couple of thousand discs. In slightly later mass market machines it could mean a new player, since pickup were often glued in place permanently. We don’t know whether that was a good estimate, since in many a player the mechanism will fail before the laser does. We’ve seen estimates of as much as 20,000 hours, which we presume is a guess (though it sounds more convincing than saying “really, really, really long”). In practice, the lifespan may depend in part on how “hot” the laser is run. The laser in a car player may run quite hot, since it must perform under diffi cult conditions, whereas a high end player may have its pickup set up for longer life. Phono pickups also used to be rated at an estimated lifespan of 2000 hours, meaning that it would take that much play to cause perceptible wear of the diamond stylus. Modern stylii have a


much longer life. The resilient mount of the cantilever, which may be rubber or some synthetic material, can harden with age, however. Metal fatigue (the word you were searching for) can cause the cantilever to break, too, but in practice most stylii are wiped out by accidents long before they can wear out.

As you know computers can record music on “data” CDs, though in my experience even recent high-quality burners don’t give good results, and their copies are very easy to distinguish from the originals. That’s why an audiophile friend and I have acquired audio recorders. Mine is a simple one-drawer Pioneer that works only with special “music” CDs, but my friend has an Alexis Master-link with hard disc, which can also use data CDs. We’ve been looking for CD blanks that can give superior sound, and the results were a surprise. First, the quality differences among brands is huge. Any computer experts who can explain this are welcome! But the greatest surprise is that data CDs in general give better results than music CDs on either recorder (the single exception is the Pioneer high end music CD). Can you explain why? We’ll accept paying more for music CDs because sonic quality is important for us, but what we get is inferior quality. If the music industry is faced with piracy, I’m starting to think it’s not entirely undeserved. I was also surprised to discover that, on my Pioneer, the only way I can make a truly identical copy is to copy it…in the analog domain!!! I attribute this anomaly to the fact that the digital coaxial link between my Audio Research transport and my Pioneer recorder must introduce some audible jitter. The quality of my tube DAC may also be a factor, and it seems to indicate that the Pioneer’s analog-to-digital converter must be of good quality. Could you give me some advice on the way to improve domestic production of Compact Discs? My Pioneer was purchased used, and the dealer refuses to deactivate the protection against data CDs.

Jean-Pierre LétourneauQUEBEC CITY, QC

Theoretically at least, he could be held legally responsible for having bypassed an “anti-piracy” measure. We use quotation marks, because, though

the law on this matter is clear in such countries as the United States, it isn’t in Canada. The Canadian government has signed the international treaty on intel-lectual property, but it has not ratifi ed it, much less changed its copyright laws accordingly. Unfortunately we don’t have a defi ni-tive conclusion to offer. Our experiences with our own computers (three Macs: a G4, a G5 and an iBook) yielded excel-lent results, with copies we could not distinguish from the originals even on

our reference systems. However some of our readers have reported much less happy results with Windows PCs, as did another reader with a Macintosh G4 substantially identical to one of our machines. Jitter is certainly a factor, as is prob-ably your digital cable, but there is more. The characteristics of different CD-R brands can affect jitter. Specifi cally, with certain discs the data “pits” burned into the substrate won’t be precise, which means the player will have diffi culty

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determining the exact start of the pit. Some players, indeed, may do better than others. Some players can’t read CD-Rs at all, and it is easy to suppose that some others will do so less than perfectly.

We ourselves had had excellent results with both TDK and Maxell discs. The worst are CD-RWs. If it’s any consolation, commercial pressing of CDs is not problem-free either. Ask any music producer whether the CD he gets back from the plant sounds exactly like the original master tape. He’ll laugh. Or perhaps not.

I have loved music since I can remember. I have subscribed to UHF almost since its inception, and I am trying to put together a music system. My modest budget and gear currently consists of: SOTA Sapphire turntable, Syrinx PU3 tone arm (with upgraded wiring), Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood MM cartridge, Rega EOS phono stage, Vecteur Club 10 amp, Totem Tabu speakers, Wireworld Atlantis speaker cable and Eclipse 3 intercon-nects, Inouye powerline conditioner, and a Gutwire cord for the phono stage. I listen to a lot of live music at work, and I have spent quite a bit of time trying to put together a system which will let me enjoy this kind of faithful reproduction at home. I purchased the amp, speakers, and phono stage used without hearing them, trusting to favorable reviews by you. Don’t get me wrong, I have all the faith in the world in your opinions; after all, believable music reproduction is what you’ve always been about. I believe the fault obviously

lies somewhere within (my system, not my head). I have continuously read in your maga-zine that this ideal is defi nitely possible, but so far the experience has eluded me. I listen to the electronic signals, and they sound reason-ably detailed, semi-rhythmic, and somewhat dynamic, but, unfortunately, not believable. I’m at a loss! Please tell me the most logical way to determine what the problem is. I thought that, with this caliber of equipment, I would be able to recreate a reasonably good facsimile of real instruments and voice. I close my eyes, listen, wish really hard, but all I get is major disappointment and more spam. Do you sell anti-depressants and/or ghetto blasters at the Audiophile Store? Both are becoming more and more attractive alternatives.

Clay PalfenierBURNABY, BC

Oh, we think we can suggest consid-erably better than either boomboxes or Prozac, Clay, which doesn’t necessarily mean we can give you a quick answer on something obvious you may have overlooked. Our fi rst observation is that at least you’re working from the right point of comparison: live music. That’s better than any “reference system,” but the down side is that you’re difficult to please, and you won’t easily settle for a poor imitation. We suggest fi rst looking at the source, not because your source is poor, but because you have only a single one. If you also had a quality CD player or a good tuner, we would ask whether alternative sources also fail to please. What we would do first, then, is double-check every possible turntable-related setting: suspension tuning (a little time-consuming on the SOTA), lubrication, belt condition, leveling, lateral cartridge alignment, correct arm height (this is often way wrong) and anti-skating setting. We ourselves go down this check list once a year…more often if we hear anything we don’t like. Some of this sounds like spring cleaning, and in fact some years ago we published an article on spring cleaning for music sys-tems. It included cleaning and tightening all of the connections, and straightening out the rat’s nest that the back of a system can quickly become.

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We would then attack the other end. No, not the speakers but the acoustics. Most rooms are nowhere near optimized for music, of course, and that’s a major barrier to the enjoyment of what should sound like live music. What we usually suggest is to start with different speaker placements, remembering that even small changes can make surprisingly large sonic differences. To this we will add a tip we may never have given before. You can minimize the infl uence of the room boundaries on the sound of your system by sitting close to the speakers. Of course that will mean doing more than merely sliding your chair forward. You’ll need to place the speakers closer together, toed-in slightly, as far as possible from any room bound-aries, and sit close. Sound engineers call this “nearfi eld” listening, and even studio control rooms with supposedly optimized acoustics mostly have a pair of small speakers placed right on the mixing console for exactly that reason. We don’t mean to suggest that this is how you should run your system from now on, though really toxic acoustics

might require it. For one thing, nearfi eld listening is not quite natural, more like listening through headphones. It will, however, allow you to hear what your system sounds like when the room is not serving as the principal intermediary. If a serious system-based problem remains, you’ll actually hear it more clearly than ever, and you can then go about solving it. If you fi nd yourself wishing the system sounded like that all the time, you will then have a point of comparison as you search for a definitive placement, or you make other changes to the room acoustics.

My present system consists of the Marantz CD17KIS, Krell KAV400xi amplifi er and the Thiel CS1.5 speakers. I think the weak-est link is the CD player, which I intend to replace sometime soon. I fi nd that the sound-stage images it projects are not palpable and precise enough. I am looking in the direction of the new Meridian G08 or G07. I have also read that a good CD player with a rich tonality gives more palpable imaging. Any advice or suggestions would

be appreciated. John Tiong

SIBU, SARAWAK, Malaysia

You’re absolutely right that you can get better imaging with a superior CD player, John, and you can get a lot more besides. If you choose right, you’ll also get smoother highs, more solid lows, better transparency (in the sense that you can hear soft sounds even when louder ones are playing), and a better rendition of both rhythm and melody. Those last two surprise many people, who assume that rhythm and melody are so basic that any player can get them right. We wish that were true. There are a number of relatively affordable players today which can deliver what you’re looking for. One of the Meridians may be the right choice. The G07 and G08, neither of which we have heard, appear to be substan-tially identical except that the G08 has the ability to “upsample” CDs to 24 bit/96 kHz resolution. We wouldn’t pay a lot extra for that feature.

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I am new to hi-fi , and some help in choosing an integrated amp will be helpful. I’m planning on purchasing a pair of Totem Forest speakers, but I don’t know what amp will go well with them. I can only spend about $4500, and I’m willing to buy a used amp.

Paul BrookbanksBOWMANVILLE, ON

Paul, the Forests are not as effi cient as many speakers of recent vintage, because Totem doesn’t follow marketing trends much, but nor are they diffi cult to drive. A well-designed amplifi er with at least 50 watts per channel can handle them just fi ne. On the other hand the Totems are revealing, and you’ll want an amp that doesn’t make you cringe on diffi cult passages. We’ve reviewed a number of quality integrated amplifi ers in your price range in the last while. You might want to listen to the Vecteur I-6.2, the Simaudio Moon I-3, the Roksan Caspian and the YBA Intégré DT, to mention only a few. You may want to check out tube amps too.

I am ready to start upgrading my system, and I will be starting at the source (that

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much I know). I would like to spend no more than C$1000 on a CD player. I know you recommend the Cambridge D500 player as the best low-cost unit, followed by Rotels and Regas higher up the price scale. My short list includes the Cambridge D500SE and the Azur 640C, the Rotel RCD-02 and the new RCD-1072. I am also interested in the Shanling CD-S100 MkII. The Rega Planet 2000 is a possibility, but I believe it is out of my price range. I like the fact that both the Rotels have HDCD decoding, but since most of my discs are not HDCD-encoded, would an upsampling player be more benefi cial? Some of the above players tote a 24 bit Delta-Sigma DAC. Does this mean that they upsample to 96/192 kHz?

Tim LeeneyGEORGETOWN, ON

They may be upsampling to 24 bits and 96 kHz, Tim, and a number of new players offer such upsampling as a feature. It is just that — a feature, not a promise of better quality. The presence of a 24-bit chip makes such upsampling possible, of course,

but it’s there in the main because that’s the size chip the big manufacturers are making now. And if you had one in a player you built, you wouldn’t be shy about saying so, would you? Nor would we. Now to specifi c advice, or at least as specifi c as we can get under the circum-stances. We haven’t seen or heard the Shanling you mention, though we have heard more expensive Shanlings. Nor have we heard the Azur player, which comes from Cambridge’s new series, though we’ve had a look inside one. It looks promising, and we hope to get our hands on one soon. Perhaps you can ask a dealer to let you hear one alongside the D500. Pick some recordings you know and love, take notes, and be sure to listen to the music and not just the sound.

With my Bryston 3BSST/BP-25P and B&W Nautilus 803 system, I am using: an Oracle Delphi MkIV with MkV Record Clamp and MkV Turbo Power Supply with Cardas Golden Reference cord; Alphason Xenon MCS arm with Ortofon 540. I want to upgrade arm/cartridge to

something more wholesome, but accurate, nothing strident. I was considering a new Rega RB700 (maybe an RB1000, but that’s overkill) with a Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood MM cartridge. What do you think?

David ChirkoSUDBURY, ON

We would hesitate to change the arm, David, unless we were going for…well, perhaps overkill is the right word. The Alphason Xenon was a somewhat simpli-fi ed version of the celebrated HR-100S we still use in one of our reference systems. On the other hand, replacing the Ortofon is certainly a good plan. Is the Clearaudio the right choice? Though we admire what Clearaudio does in its top products, including its MC pickups, its moving magnet pickups have very high inductance if we go by the spec sheet. We would look elsewhere: Shure, Benz Micro, Grado, etc.

I have put together a pretty good sounding system using material from your magazine as reference. I was wondering if you would

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be doing another affordable phono stage (in the <$200-$1000CDN range). I currently have a Rega Fono, which sounded great in my system. I’ve had it for three years now and noticed a few months ago that the left channel was dropping off in volume intermittently. One day I was listening to some music and the whole thing went dead. I checked and noticed the power light on my YBA Intégré DT amplifi er was off. I had blown a fuse. I replaced the fuse, and when I turned it back on I initially got a bit of a loud hum, but after about two

seconds everything seemed fi ne. I played a couple of CDs and then decided to play LPs. As soon as I switched the selector to phono, the fuse went again. I replaced the fuse and then turned on the amp (phono stage was on), and got a loud hum and the fuse went again. I unplugged the phono stage and the fuse on the amp went again. Darn, I’ve infl icted permanent damage on the amp. I’ve sent in the amp for repairs. I have a choice now, to fi x the Rega Fono or replace it. My confi dence in the long-term

reliability of the Fono has been shattered. I noticed Antique Sound Labs has come out with a new phono stage called the Mini Phono. As the Rega is going to cost me some money to fi x, as it is past warranty, I was wondering if maybe I should consider a tube phono preamp.

Ken So,DELTA, BC

Ken, if your Rega Fono is the same as the current version, we would get it fi xed. We haven’t heard the Antique Sound Lab phono stage, but we are not aware of any phono preamp anywhere near the price of the Fono that can match it for sheer musicality. Of course, you mention a budget that goes up to $1000, well beyond the price of the Fono, so there may be some possibilities there. We presume that, when your Fono went, it fed a large amount of direct cur-rent to your amplifi er. That can happen, and it’s the reason product warranties include that obscure clause disclaim-ing responsibility for “consequential damage.” (Translation: if we lay waste to your system, your house or your car to the tune of $100,000, deal with it.) Over the years, we’ve had one preamp and one power amplifi er fail. In both cases they took out speakers. Ouch!

In reading over back issues of UHF, I have found nothing that addresses what size of subwoofer I should consider for my system. For example, companies offer 10, 12 and 15 inch subwoofers that appear to be the same except for size. My room is 22’ long and 11’ wide with a 7’ high ceiling. Which size do I need to consider?

Estes MoustacalisOAKVILLE, ON

There’s no simple answer to that, Estes. Subwoofer designers can make tradeoffs among: 1) size, 2) dynamic capacity, and 3) low-end extension. Effi -ciency used to be an important factor, but since nearly all modern subwoofers are self-powered, nobody worries much about it.

Read more in our print issue, or online at www.uhfmag.com/FreeAdvice.html.

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llaortio doluptat lut luptat utat non vulput dolenit prate eugue dionsed tatet do exero consenim zzrit, sum er il iriure ming et, si tie magnis er susto odolent ea alit nulputat, commy nim iriure conum zzrillutat, consequat. Ercidunt velit pratem num am, quamcom modolenisi eum am, commy nibh essed dignisi.Et accum quam iniam, volorper sit ulputpat lore do con ulla feugue con-sequipsum ing ent ut iusci tie tem vent autpat. Dui tatet lore consed magna faciliq uisisis nisl dolore faci blan henim in velesse quisit iure core dunt praeseq uatuero er si. Mincidui tem quis dolutpate min veliquate tat nibh essecte dui tin venit iniatue voloree tumsan vendre tisci ex ercilit praesto dolore dit nim euguer sequipit nostin ut ero enibh eugiametue min ver sisit, sit alit irilism odolore feum dunt aut nis alit dunt autat. Duisci esequat nonsequ ipsuscidunt la conseq-uisim vel erit praesent inis augiat, quam, commodit adipiscilisl diam acilluptatio enit utpate feu feu faci tem nos dolenis niat la alisim volobor incip et wisi blaore

estrud dolore feugait ute feum duis aliqui blan ute minissi tet vullam veliquipit nostio odit dit ero od el eugiam, consecte magna commy nostrud eugait ad tem init, volore feugue do dolore vullaor per-ciniamet veraesed tat wis nulla faci eugue min ex ex ex eu feu faciliquat. Ex eugiam, quat alisim er susci tat nonse doloreetue facilit essecte molor accum dolore dipit ut am, consecte tat. Met pratie dit il dionsequis nulput aliquat acing ex et lore duisi blaor am vullandre dolorting ex exerat, cor init iriureet vel et, suscil dip et nim ilit lam, quis aut vel esed dolor sit nit del il dunt am am zzrillandre ent alisim veniam quis do doloreetue vul-lute magna feugait ad doloreet, con erit aliqui tem inim dolorti onullam coreros do conse min utat ad te faciliquipit autem alit autem ip ex ea facipit volenit ad magniate exer susto dipsustio eugait utpat, volore consequat. Del iurem vel incing eu feugait, quipsusto et, quisl ilit dunt do eugait aci tem dolore consecte tat, volorem zzriliquam, summodiam, consenit lortion hendio odolupt atetuer si.

Nullam diat. Ipit pratet, sed tat vercin hent dolor iriustrud magnit prat. Gue mod tie eu facincil ent ad et wisis at alis alit wis ex eummod esto el eum quiscil dunt ipit, quisi. Ud tetum venis aut aut ad tem eugait iniat nulputatet, consequis ad ea feuguer-aessi exer ing etum duisit lumsandreet pratiscing esto eu faccccummod magnim zzrit lore eum zzrilla faccumm odigna feugiam, vel er sit autpat. Dui bla faccum do euismodolore magna faciduisl utat wis autpat, quat el dit wisit, sequat am iusci tionsequi tat, si. Ut wiscin henis eum irit, velessis adit ad et in exerilis augue modoloboreet wisi. Irit lum nulla feugiamcore minis alit lorerci llaore doleniam, vercilit il ut luptat la consed dipisi tio odionsequis exeraesed magna feuis adiam, conulla metuer inis dit velit, cor il utet, commy nosto coreet lor sustrud duissismod tate-tummy nulla facin etum verosto odignis acipsusto odolorper si. Mincillandre vel ipismod min eugiam volestis nos nim esto dit laor sim ad tat, cor in ut irit adit in vulla feummod olorem aut at. Putat nis augiat. Ugait nos augait velestie faciduis nummy nonsed del il enisisi sciduipsum alit atumsandit vullaor eratummy nim volessectet num el ut dolorero conullaore diatum iurem alit lumsan exerci blam, vercipisi blamet nummy nullut venis numsan henim doloreet nos ea adio ea aut ilis elit, sed erit praesto od tatinci tio eliqui tat. Aci elenim zzrit lorperat. Wis accummod doloreriure tat. Borem zzriuscipsum dionsenim zzriliq uamconulla consed dolor send-reros nostrud tet alis augiam dolummy nostrud mod modo exerius cillut vel duismod ming eros nullupt atismoleniam iusto consenisl dunt ullandre tat prat, quat. Henissi smoloboreet, sequatet lore core facilla ndiatum quatie vullutpatum alit ea corem doloreet laor sed tat in velit la core verat niam vulla faccum eros ent autat. Adigna facidunt nullamet, se delesti ncidunt prat, veliquis at. Ute digna augue delis nim volore tat. Ure corem velis adiam, sequisl euis augiam, quat non henim vel ullaorem er am nos nonsenis at aliquatuero.


Cinema

Has the cathode ray tube fi nally earned the right to a comfy retirement? In the

world of computers the answer is pretty much yes. Except for economy machines, or high end machines for graphics artists, new computers mostly come with liquid crys-tal displays. As the price of LCDs drops, its v i c -tory is l i k e l y to be complete. But video is another matter. Though most computer users favor bright-ness and (apparent) sharpness over all else, owners of home theatre systems are looking for much more. And new technologies — some already here and others on the horizon — will make the home theatre experience much more like watching a “real” movie. The cathode ray tube is a diffi cult act to follow, though.

The CRT: still alive? It’s a vacuum tube, of course, one of the very last ones to survive in mass-market consumer products. It still works very well because it is a mature technol-ogy. The CRT has been refi ned to the point where it has been able to fend off a number of competitors. And fi rst in its list of advantages is price. Price is important, because TV sets have become a commodity. What we mean is that the choice is dictated far more by price and (to a lesser extent) features than by great technological advantages. However, the CRT has more than mere low cost to offer.

The most important of these is the range of brightness it can offer. If it were an audio com-ponent, we would call it dynamic range. A CRT can be very bright, but it must get very bright before it overloads and treats all brightness values the same. Of course the tube itself is not the only factor

determining the range of tones, but at its best it can

make more expen-s ive d i splay s

look washed out. A l o n g

with the wide brightness range comes a vast range of colors, and it’s easy to see why. If a display doesn’t wash out in the bright scenes and doesn’t get murky in dark scenes, it can present a wider gamut of colors. That means a CRT-equipped TV set has less need to “translate” a color it can’t reproduce into one within its range. We don’t want to overstate this point, because no display can come close to matching the range of colors visible to the human eye…or even to photographic fi lm. If the CRT is so good, why would we want to replace it? Unfortunately the CRT also has a long list of drawbacks. The tube is large, and especially deep, it is fragile, it is heavy, and — like other vacuum tubes — it eats up energy. It is ill-suited to TV sets bigger than 36 inches (mea-sured diagonally, about 91 cm). It is also

ill-suited to the widescreen sets that are now the norm in home theatre. Let’s see why. A CRT is a big glass bottle, with an emitter of electrons in the “neck” at the rear. The face is coated with colored phosphor dots which glow when an elec-tron beam strikes them. A complex set of magnetic control devices sweeps the electron beam across the face, making the appropriate dots glow to make up the image.

The illustration shows an early CRT, with a neck much longer than the width of the screen. Those early CRTs were round, to avoid light falloff in the cor-ners, and even many modern CRTs have rather rounded corners. As manufactur-ers began making larger screens (a 21” tube used to be the “big screen” norm), they were reluctant to increase the tube depth in proportion. The short-neck tube was born, and as tubes got even wider, the necks got proportionately shorter yet. The modern CRT is likely to be something like this.

Notice that the electron beam going to the extreme edge of the screen is traveling a lot farther than the one

Can you buy the perfect video screen? Perhaps not yet…

FutureScreens


Cine

ma

going dead centre. Worse, it strikes the screen surface at a angle, projecting an oval onto the screen surface rather than a circle. That means poor focus at the edges, worse in the corners. That’s why most TV screens have rounded surfaces. Expensive flat screens use electronic compensation to minimize problems. Even so, the CRT has a practical size limit. Its size was once adequate even for large rooms, because scanning lines looked crude on a bigger screen. As line doublers and sophisticated video proces-sors became common, screens grew. Not that the CRT has vanished from home theatre. Most rear projection sets still use a CRT…three of them in fact, one for each of the colors used for the image. Those tubes are turned up very bright, and projected onto the screen. They work well, though an RPTV needs careful alignment to make the three images converge exactly on the screen. Even so, they may not stay converged.

Plasma…the imperfect miracle Huge fl at screens that could be hung on the wall were a staple of science fi ction

years before they appeared. You may recall the wall TV sets in Fahrenheit 451, based on the Ray Bradbury novel. The plasma screen appeared to be the realiza-tion of that long-predicted technology. Indeed, its futurist look drew a lot of early adopters, at least ones with deep pockets. Prices have dropped dramati-cally, but they are still not cheap. Nor are they perfect. The plasma display is inherently fl at, because there is no scanning, as there is with CRTs. Each tiny module of the unit contains an inert gas trapped between two glass plates. At the rear is an electromagnetic exciter, which heats the gas so it emits ultraviolet energy. A phosphor coating on the front plate glows in the appropriate color. A plasma screen throws off a lot of light, and it is an eye magnet in high end stores. The drawbacks? There’s more than just the price. The gas takes a short but fi nite time to heat enough to glow, and some screens have diffi culty following movement, which is why demos are mostly done with landscapes. Contrast ratios are poor, making for punchy images but little nuance. The screen may be thin, but it is heavy, fragile and energy-hungry, and hot… And, oh yes, it has a fi nite life. So do CRTs, but they don’t cost as much. Tossing out a burned out plasma screen can make you cry, and you may replace it long before it goes dark, because it is prone to burn-in: the pixels most used will darken fi rst. Ouch!

Liquid crystals The fi rst LCDs showed up over a quarter century ago in pocket calcula-tors. An LCD is a diode with an intrigu-ing property: apply a voltage to it, and it will darken. That’s how LCD elements can form the digits on your calculator or your watch. On a video or computer screen they are used differently. Tiny LCDs are placed behind a colored fi lter, and depending on its voltage state it will be transparent, letting light through, or opaque. A large fl uorescent bulb and diffuser behind the LCD lattice light up the resulting image. LCD screens are turning up on a lot of computers, as already noted, but also

on TV sets. They are costly, but they are light and they use little energy, which is perfect for laptop computers. They require no convergence adjustments There is no burn-in effect, and changing a bulb is potentially cheap, though some displays have bulbs that are astoundingly expensive. Check before buying. You should know that LCDs have their own problems. You can pay $700 for a display not much larger than a magazine cover. Like plasmas they can be slow to react. They can suffer from “stuck” pixels, jammed either on or off, and that may not be covered by the warranty unless there are lots of them. Colors shift as you move off axis. LCD images can look crude at close or medium quarters, because the individual crystals are clearly visible. And the LCD panel has one other drawback seldom mentioned: the range of colors is narrow. The color gamut chart is misleading, even so, because the fl uorescent bulb used as backlighting does not emit a continuous spectrum. Use a prism to see the fl uorescent spec-trum, and you’ll see a series of discrete lines rather than a full rainbow. Add to that the fact that LCDs have trouble with deep blacks. Note that some manufacturers, notably Sony, now make rear projection TVs using LCDs rather than CRTs. Our judgement stands.

Digital Light Processing The DLP is an invention of Texas Instruments, a one-time electronics powerhouse that hadn’t done anything this original in years. The heart of the DLP is a tiny mirror controlled electronically so it either refl ects light toward the lens, or else into a “light sink,” a black absorbent surface. Early DLP projectors had blacks that were closer to grey, but the rest of the spectrum was superb, with bright,natural colors, no burn-in, and a long lifespan. Replacement bulbs are inexpensive and are user-installable. Perfection? As with plasma, the cost was some-thing of an obstacle, running into the tens of thousands of dollars. The tiny DLP modules would surely come down in cost, but in the meantime there was a trick that could drop the cost by two-

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thirds: use one module for all three colors. This is done by placing a colored wheel in front of the light source, with movements perfectly synchronized with the electronic circuits. As the wheel rotates, it projects a red image, then a green image, then a blue image. Thanks to the eye’s persistence of vision — the same phenomenon that lets us see a 24 frame per second fi lm as a continuous moving picture — the three colored images blend into a single color image. But not for everyone. Some people have poor persistence of vision (it is they who gave movies their British nickname, “fl icks”), and indeed we all have poor persistence of vision near the outer edges of the retina. Fortunately, the DLP has been improving. The colored wheel now turns much faster than it once did, as fast as 9000 rpm. And the color chips are repeated twice, thus doubling the rate of change. The eliminates the color fl icker for nearly everyone, though you should check for yourself before buying. Early DLPs were found in front projectors, the fi rst to be compact and lightweight, except for the crude LCD projectors. The DLP has now found its way into rear projection sets. They are already excellent, and there is reason to hope this still-young technology will continue to evolve.

D-ILA This largely unfamiliar acronym stands for Digital Direct Drive Image Light Amplifi er. This is JVC’s variant on LCOS, which stands for Liquid Crystal on Silicon. You may already have seen such a display, because D-ILA is used in giant high-res screens at such venues as sports stadiums. That gives you a clue as to its major drawback: only Major League Baseball can afford one. The “silicon” referred to is the mate-rial used for the substrates of transistors and diodes. Each LCOS module — the size of a single pixel — has its own driver circuitry behind it, where it is out of the way. It is then possible to bounce the light off the crystal instead of through it. LCOS pixels have extremely high refl ectivity, and the brightness of the screen is then dependent on the size of the bulb. Powerful xenon bulbs can

throw a lot of light even into a stadium, a large convention centre, or a Vegas casino sign. Brightness is not the whole advan-tage, we should add. We’ve mentioned that conventional LCD screens have pixels that are all too visible. An LCOS screen has a much fi ner grid, and looks to the human eye like a continuous seam-less fi lmlike image. The D-ILA response curve is not truly linear, but its natural shape makes it possible to get blacks that are very dark. You cannot for the moment buy an LCOS for your home theatre system, JVC will shortly release home-sized D-ILA screens We rather expect that they will be expensive enough that Bill Gates and Warren Buffett will be the major customers, but there is reason to think prices will drop quickly.

Organic Light Emitting Diodes It’s no secret that Kodak is fi nding the 21st Century rough, as more consumers and even pros shelve fi lm cameras in favor of digital. Kodak didn’t see that coming and came late to the party, but the company showed lack of vision another way. It was in 1979 that Kodak engineers discovered a tiny but interesting semi-conductor that emitted an extraordi-narily bright light when an electrical voltage was applied to it. Unlike the familiar LED used as a power indicator on nearly all electronic equipment, the OLED is not a crystal, and therefore it can be made both small and inexpensive.It wasn’t until eight years later that Kodak fi nally patented the device, and a dozen years after that it realized this might have an application. The OLED has a long list of advan-tages. It is simple to implement, because the driver circuit is built right into each diode. Despite the brightness, the screen draws little current, making it a natural for digital cameras (Kodak already offers one), mobile phones and laptop or handheld computers. The diode reacts extremely quickly, making it suitable for following action. Viewing angle is wide. The color range is excellent. Could it work for a video display? Though it is now used to make very tiny screens, Kodak has given us a

demonstration of a fi lm on a prototype 15-inch screen. The quality was extraor-dinary. It will be a couple of years before screens like the one we saw appear on the market, and longer yet before TV-sized panels are made commercially. Both Sanyo and Sony are working on these products, however. Between now and then, Kodak will need to get caught up on its research. Like the LCD, the OLED does not have the blackest of blacks. Worse, the screen life may be adequate for a camera, but possibly not for a video screen. We’ve seen widely contradictory reports on this, we should add. The OLED is exciting enough to have triggered some blue-sky specula-tion. Because these organic diodes can be laid down onto any sort of substrate, including metal foil or textile, it may be possible to have a big-screen TV that rolls up, like a projection screen. Or a tee shirt with a video display right on the sleeve. Let’s hope the possibilities compen-sate the company for declining sales of Kodacolor!


Nu

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Bolt

s

Don’t you love technology bat-tles? Should you buy a Palm handheld or a PocketPC? Should you pick a PC or a

Mac? Should you go for Beta or VHS? In the latter case, of course, even technophobes know the answer. We also know the outcome of the cassette vs 8-track rivalry, not that it matters so much anymore. And we know that consumers who guessed wrong got little sympathy from the merchandisers of failed standards. Of course, there have always been alternatives to the clear knockout of the Beta/VHS battle. Half a cen-tury ago, when RCA launched its 45 rpm discs against Columbia’s microgroove LP, both standards won, and they stayed around for decades. On the other hand, when Philips’ DCC digital cas-sette went up against Sony’s MiniDisc, there were two ways you could lose. So what about DVD-Audio versus SACD? Despite claims by numerous audio mavens, including a majority of specialty magazines, we have long known that the CD Red Book standard of 16 bits and a 44.1 kHz sampling rate wasn’t even giving us what the LP had offered, never mind the “perfect sound” that digital promised. Over the years crack designers have found ways to optimize the imperfect standard: better fi lters, mapping systems that minimized (or at least optimized) mathematical rounding errors in the digital bitstream, and even HDCD encoding, a way of giving 16 bits the performance of 20 bits or more. Of course, we all suspected there was a better standard in our future…but what? And when?

A disc that holds more The emergence of the DVD gave us hope. The new medium was conceived primarily for movies, to be sure — the

“V” stood initially for “video.” Still, a storage medium was a storage medium. The new disc would have nearly seven times the storage space of a conventional CD, more than enough for a superior digital music system. Doubling the sam-pling rate to 96 kHz* would of course take twice the data space, and bumping the 16 bits up to 24 bits would increase size by another 50%. That would be easy to handle, and in fact we could

even double the sampling rate again to 192 kHz. Perfect sound would fi nally arrive. But of course movies was where the money was, and it was on movies that the DVD Consortium (later renamed the DVD Forum) concentrated. There was plenty to concentrate on, because the DVD was an amalgam of two incompat-ible technologies, and the consortium had to listen to many dissenting voices. The result was that the audio-only disc became an afterthought. Indeed, it nearly got derailed. As

members of the consortium tested dif-ferent film sound systems on human subjects, they became convinced that one of the eventual winners, Dolby Digi-tal (then called AC-3) was to all intents and purposes perfect. Then why not use a similar system for DVD-Audio? Even though the DVD had huge stor-age capacity, it wasn’t quite enough. If we wanted to add surround sound, with 5.1 channels, we would need to increase space by another 275%, taking us to nine times the CD’s storage space. Too much. Compression was inevitable.

For some time it looked as though the new medium would be crippled

by the same compromises that affected DVD-Video, and there were letter-writing campaigns by audiophiles, arguing for a lossless system. Finally, one was proposed, Meridian’s MLP (Meridian Lossless Packing)

compressed the signal by as much as half but could reconstitute the

original signal bit for bit. With its adop-tion in late 1998, DVD-A seemed to be on its way. There were more than 160

member companies, many of them eagerly wait ing to release

DVD-A discs…or so we were told. In the meantime, there was action elsewhere.

The “other” superdisc The original CD standard had been developed by Sony and Philips, which had made a good deal of money over

*Obviously, 96 kHz is more than double 44.1 kHz. It is in fact double the 48 kHz sam-pling rate that most first-generation digital masters were recorded at. The master would then be downsampled to the CD standard. That required an unwelcome transforma-tion. Most DVD-A mastering is today done at 96 kHz. Some producers argued for 88.2 kHz, which would downsample nicely for CD. That rate was adopted as a DVD-A option, though it is seldom used.

How SACD Won the War

Or, to put it another way, how DVD-Audio blew it big time.


digital promised. Over the years crack designers have found ways to optimize the imperfect standard: better fi lters, mapping systems that minimized (or at least optimized) mathematical rounding errors in the digital bitstream, and even HDCD encoding, a way of giving 16 bits the performance of 20 bits or more. Of course, we all suspected there was a better standard in our future…but what?

The emergence of the DVD gave us hope. The new medium was conceived primarily for movies, to be sure — the

money was, and it was on movies that the DVD Consortium (later renamed the DVD Forum) concentrated. There was plenty to concentrate on, because the DVD was an amalgam of two incompat-ible technologies, and the consortium had to listen to many dissenting voices. The result was that the audio-only disc became an afterthought. Indeed, it nearly got derailed. As

The “other” superdisc The original CD standard had been developed by Sony and Philips, which had made a good deal of money over

*Obviously, 96 kHz is more than double 44.1 kHz. It is in fact double the 48 kHz sam-pling rate that most first-generation digital masters were recorded at. The master would then be downsampled to the CD standard. That required an unwelcome transforma-tion. Most DVD-A mastering is today done at 96 kHz. Some producers argued for 88.2 kHz, which would downsample nicely for CD. That rate was adopted as a DVD-A option, though it is seldom used.

Or, to put it another way, how DVD-Audio blew it big time.

The truth about the new formats

This has always been true of UHF: what you read in its pages is not what the

best-known audio (and home theatre!) magazines tell you. This is even more

true when it comes to the new media, such as SACD and DVD-A. Our goal is,

and has always been, to help you make the choices best for you. Oh…by the way,

the subscription information is on page 3…page 5 of the PDF.


Nu

ts&Bolts

the years by receiving a small royalty on every CD made. If a new proprietary standard could replace the CD, the rev-enue stream would continue. It seemed unimaginable that just two companies could be successful against a consortium of well over a hundred competitors, but these were no ordinary companies. And it so happened that one of them, Sony, had a high-resolution standard waiting in the wings. For some time, Sony Music had been recording its masters with a system known as Direct Stream Digital. UHF discussed the system extensively in issue No. 55. DSD, unlike the DVD-A and CD standards, does not use the familiar pulse code modulation, and does not store actual signal values. Rather it uses what is known as Delta Sigma modulation to track changes in the signal. It works this way. The initial signal value is stored in a temporary memory register (but not in the recording) for reference. If the next sample is higher than the stored value, DSD records a one, and if it is lower it records a zero. During silence the signal doesn’t change, and so DSD records alternating ones and zeroes. Sony says that the density of bits is analog-like, and indeed that if you run the bitstream through a simple fi lter, you will actually hear the signal. DSD is inherently rather noisy, and noise-shaping is used to shift the noise into upper frequencies where it cannot be heard. A DSD channel takes up exactly four times the space of a CD channel. A 5.1 channel version would be too big for a DVD, but then Sony and Philips are not using the DVD as a storage medium. Interestingly enough, the DVD Forum included DSD as one of the standards of DVD-A, but that did not prevent Sony and Philips from launching its own disc, known as the Super Audio Compact Disc. It looks just like a DVD, and like a CD too for that matter. SACD was actually launched before DVD-Audio, in late 2000. The very expensive (C$8000) Sony SCD-1 player sounded excellent, but the DVD-A crowd was optimistic: unlike DVD-Audio, the SCD-1 was strictly a two-channel player. That was a temporary victory. Prices

of SACD players came down, slowly at fi rst, and then much faster. What’s more, second generation players had surround sound, just as DVD-A did.

The rivalry Nullam diat. Ipit pratet, sed tat vercin hent dolor iriustrud magnit prat. Gue mod tie eu facincil ent ad et wisis at alis alit wis ex eummod esto el eum quiscil dunt ipit, quisi. Ud tetum venis aut aut ad tem eugait iniat nulputatet, consequis ad ea feuguer-aessi exer ing etum duisit lumsandreet pratiscing esto eu faccccummod magnim zzrit lore eum zzrilla faccumm odigna feugiam, vel er sit autpat. Dui bla faccum do euismodolore magna faciduisl utat wis autpat, quat el dit wisit, sequat am iusci tionsequi tat, si. Ut wiscin henis eum irit, velessis adit ad et in exerilis augue modoloboreet wisi. Irit lum nulla feugiamcore minis alit lorerci llaore doleniam, vercilit il ut luptat la consed dipisi tio odionsequis exeraesed magna feuis adiam, conulla metuer inis dit velit, cor il utet, commy nosto coreet lor sustrud duissismod tate-tummy nulla facin etum verosto odignis acipsusto odolorper si. Mincillandre vel ipismod min eugiam volestis nos nim esto dit laor sim ad tat, cor in ut irit adit in vulla feummod olorem aut at. Putat nis augiat. Ugait nos augait velestie faciduis nummy nonsed del il enisisi sciduipsum alit atumsandit vullaor eratummy nim volessectet num el ut dolorero conullaore diatum iurem alit lumsan exerci blam, vercipisi blamet nummy nullut venis numsan henim doloreet nos ea adio ea aut ilis elit, sed erit praesto od tatinci tio eliqui tat. Aci elenim zzrit lorperat. Wis accummod doloreriure tat. Borem zzriuscipsum dionsenim zzriliq uamconulla consed dolor send-reros nostrud tet alis augiam dolummy nostrud mod modo exerius cillut vel duismod ming eros nullupt atismoleniam iusto consenisl dunt ullandre tat prat, quat. Henissi smoloboreet, sequatet lore core facilla ndiatum quatie vullutpatum alit ea corem doloreet laor sed tat in velit la core verat niam vulla faccum eros ent autat.

DVD-Audio stumbles Nullam diat. Ipit pratet, sed tat vercin hent dolor iriustrud magnit prat. Gue mod tie eu facincil ent ad et wisis at alis alit wis ex eummod esto el eum quiscil dunt ipit, quisi. Ud tetum venis aut aut ad tem eugait iniat nulputatet, consequis ad ea feuguer-aessi exer ing etum duisit lumsandreet pratiscing esto eu faccccummod magnim zzrit lore eum zzrilla faccumm odigna feugiam, vel er sit autpat. Dui bla faccum do euismodolore magna faciduisl utat wis autpat, quat el dit wisit, sequat am iusci tionsequi tat, si. Ut wiscin henis eum irit, velessis adit ad et in exerilis augue modoloboreet wisi. Irit lum nulla feugiamcore minis alit lorerci llaore doleniam, vercilit il ut luptat la consed dipisi tio odionsequis exeraesed magna feuis adiam, conulla metuer inis dit velit, cor il utet, commy nosto coreet lor sustrud duissismod tate-tummy nulla facin etum verosto odignis acipsusto odolorper si. Mincillandre vel ipismod min eugiam

How SACD Won the War


Feat

ure

volestis nos nim esto dit laor sim ad tat, cor in ut irit adit in vulla feummod olorem aut at. Putat nis augiat. Ugait nos augait velestie faciduis nummy nonsed del il enisisi sciduipsum alit atumsandit vullaor eratummy nim volessectet num el ut dolorero conullaore diatum iurem alit lumsan exerci blam, vercipisi blamet nummy nullut venis numsan henim doloreet nos ea adio ea aut ilis elit, sed erit praesto od tatinci tio eliqui tat. Aci elenim zzrit lorperat. Wis accummod doloreriure tat. Borem zzriuscipsum dionsenim zzriliq uamconulla consed dolor send-reros nostrud tet alis augiam dolummy nostrud mod modo exerius cillut vel duismod ming eros nullupt atismoleniam iusto consenisl dunt ullandre tat prat, quat. Henissi smoloboreet, sequatet lore core facilla ndiatum quatie vullutpatum alit ea corem doloreet laor sed tat in velit la core verat niam vulla faccum eros ent autat. Adigna facidunt nullamet, se delesti ncidunt prat, veliquis at. Ute digna augue delis nim volore tat. Ure corem velis adiam, sequisl euis augiam, quat non henim vel ullaorem er am nos nonsenis at aliquatuero.

Getting the standard wrong It was only thanks to Meridian that Nullam diat. Ipit pratet, sed tat vercin hent dolor iriustrud magnit prat. Gue mod tie eu facincil ent ad et wisis at alis alit wis ex eummod esto el eum quiscil dunt ipit, quisi. Ud tetum venis aut aut ad tem eugait iniat nulputatet, consequis ad ea feuguer-aessi exer ing etum duisit lumsandreet pratiscing esto eu faccccummod magnim zzrit lore eum zzrilla faccumm odigna feugiam, vel er sit autpat. Dui bla faccum do euismodolore magna faciduisl utat wis autpat, quat el dit wisit, sequat am iusci tionsequi tat, si. Ut wiscin henis eum irit, velessis adit ad et in exerilis augue modoloboreet wisi. Irit lum nulla feugiamcore minis alit lorerci llaore doleniam, vercilit il ut luptat la consed dipisi tio odionsequis exeraesed magna feuis adiam, conulla metuer inis dit velit, cor il utet, commy nosto coreet lor sustrud duissismod tate-

tummy nulla facin etum verosto odignis acipsusto odolorper si. Mincillandre vel ipismod min eugiam volestis nos nim esto dit laor sim ad tat, cor in ut irit adit in vulla feummod olorem aut at. Putat nis augiat. Ugait nos augait velestie faciduis nummy nonsed del il enisisi sciduipsum alit atumsandit vullaor eratummy nim volessectet num el ut dolorero conullaore diatum iurem alit lumsan exerci blam, vercipisi blamet nummy nullut venis numsan henim doloreet nos ea adio ea aut ilis elit, sed erit praesto od tatinci tio eliqui tat. Aci elenim zzrit lorperat. Wis accummod doloreriure tat. Borem zzriuscipsum dionsenim zzriliq uamconulla consed dolor send-reros nostrud tet alis augiam dolummy nostrud mod modo exerius cillut vel duismod ming eros nullupt atismoleniam iusto consenisl dunt ullandre tat prat, quat. Henissi smoloboreet, sequatet lore core facilla ndiatum quatie vullutpatum alit ea corem doloreet laor sed tat in velit la core verat niam vulla faccum eros ent autat. Adigna facidunt nullamet, se delesti ncidunt prat, veliquis at. Ute digna augue delis nim volore tat. Ure corem velis adiam, sequisl euis augiam, quat non henim vel ullaorem er am nos nonsenis at aliquatuero.

What now for SACD? Nullam diat. Ipit pratet, sed tat vercin hent dolor iriustrud magnit prat. Gue mod tie eu facincil ent ad et wisis at alis alit wis ex eummod esto el eum quiscil dunt ipit, quisi. Ud tetum venis aut aut ad tem eugait iniat nulputatet, consequis ad ea feuguer-aessi exer ing etum duisit lumsandreet pratiscing esto eu faccccummod magnim zzrit lore eum zzrilla faccumm odigna feugiam, vel er sit autpat. Dui bla faccum do euismodolore magna faciduisl utat wis autpat, quat el dit wisit, sequat am iusci tionsequi tat, si. Ut wiscin henis eum irit, velessis adit ad et in exerilis augue modoloboreet wisi. Irit lum nulla feugiamcore minis alit lorerci llaore doleniam, vercilit il ut luptat la consed dipisi tio odionsequis exeraesed magna feuis adiam, conulla

metuer inis dit velit, cor il utet, commy nosto coreet lor sustrud duissismod tate-tummy nulla facin etum verosto odignis acipsusto odolorper si. Mincillandre vel ipismod min eugiam volestis nos nim esto dit laor sim ad tat, cor in ut irit adit in vulla feummod olorem aut at. Putat nis augiat. Ugait nos augait velestie faciduis nummy nonsed del il enisisi sciduipsum alit atumsandit vullaor eratummy nim volessectet num el ut dolorero conullaore diatum iurem alit lumsan exerci blam, vercipisi blamet nummy nullut venis numsan henim doloreet nos ea adio ea aut ilis elit, sed erit praesto od tatinci tio eliqui tat. Aci elenim zzrit lorperat. Wis accummod doloreriure tat. Borem zzriuscipsum dionsenim zzriliq uamconulla consed dolor send-reros nostrud tet alis augiam dolummy nostrud mod modo exerius cillut vel duismod ming eros nullupt atismoleniam iusto consenisl dunt ullandre tat prat, quat. Henissi smoloboreet, sequatet lore core facilla ndiatum quatie vullutpatum alit ea corem doloreet laor sed tat in velit la core verat niam vulla faccum eros ent autat. Adigna facidunt nullamet, se delesti ncidunt prat, veliquis at. Ute digna augue delis nim volore tat. Ure corem velis adiam, sequisl euis augiam, quat non henim vel ullaorem er am nos nonsenis at aliquatuero. Irit lum nulla feugiamcore minis alit lorerci llaore doleniam, vercilit il ut luptat la consed dipisi tio odionsequis exeraesed magna feuis adiam, conulla metuer inis dit velit, cor il utet, commy nosto coreet lor sustrud duissismod tate-tummy nulla facin etum verosto odignis acipsusto odolorper si. Mincillandre vel ipismod min eugiam volestis nos nim esto dit laor sim ad tat, cor in ut irit adit in vulla feummod olorem aut at. Putat nis augiat. Ugait nos augait velestie faciduis nummy nonsed del il enisisi sciduipsum alit atumsandit vullaor eratummy nim volessectet num el ut dolorero conullaore diatum iurem alit lumsan exerci blam, vercipisi blamet nummy nullut venis numsan henim doloreet nos ea adio ea aut ilis elit, sed erit praesto od tatinci tio eliqui tat. Aci elenim zzrit lorperat. Wis accummod doloreriure tat.

EACH ISSUE costs $4.99 (in Canada) plus tax (15.03% in Québec, 15% in NB, NS and NF, 7% in other Provinces), US$4.99 in the USA, CAN$7.50 elsewhere (surface) or $8.60 (air mail). THE ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION (issues 7-19 except 11, 15, 17 and 18) includes 9 issues but costs like 5. For VISA or MasterCard, include your number, expiry date and signature. UHF Magazine, Box 65085, Place Longueuil, Longueuil, Qué., Canada J4K 5J4. Tel.: (450) 651-5720 FAX: (450) 651-3383. Order on line at www.uhfmag.com

THE ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION:Issues No.7-19 (except 11, 15, 17 and 18, out of print): nine issues available for the price of five (see below). A piece of audio history. Available separately at the regular price.

No.69: Tube Electronics: Audiomat Opéra , Connoisseur SE-2 and Copland CSA29 inte-grated amps, and Shanling SP-80 monoblocks. Also: Audiomat's Phono-1.5, Creek CD50, as well as a great new remote control, GutWire's NotePad antivibration device, and a music-related computer game that had us laughing out loud. And there’s more: Paul Bergman on the return of the vacuum tube, the Vegas 2004 report, and the story of how music critics did their best to kill the world’s greatest music.

No.68: Loudspeakers: Thiel CS2.4, Focus Audio FS688, Iliad B1. Electronics:Vecteur I-6.2 and Audiomat Arpège integrated ampli-fiers, Copland 306 multichannel tube preamp, Rega Fono MC. Also: Audio Note and Copland CD players, GutWire MaxCon power filter. And there’s more: all about power supplies, what’s coming beyond DVD, and a chat with YBA’s Yves-Bernard André.

No.67: Loudspeakers: A new, improved Reference 3a MM de Capo, and the awesome Living Voice Avatar OBX-R. Centre speakers for surround from Castle, JMLab, ProAc, Thiel, Totem and Vandersteen. One of them joins our Kappa system. Two multichannel amps from Copland and Vecteur. Plus: plans for a DIY platform for placing a centre speaker atop any TV set, Paul Bergman on the elements of acoustics, and women in country music.

No.66: Reviews: the Jadis DA-30 amplifier, the Copland 305 tube preamp and 520 solid state amp. Plus: the amazing Shanling CD player, Castle Stirling speakers, and a remote control that tells you what to watch. Also: Bergman on biwiring and biamplification, singer Janis Ian’s alternative take on music downloading, and a chat with Opus 3’s Jan-Eric Persson.

No.65: Back to Vinyl: setting up an analog system, reviews of Rega P9 turntable, and phono preamps from Rega, Musical Fidelity and Lehmann. The Kappa reference system for home theatre: how we selected our HDTV monitor, plus a review of the Moon Stellar DVD player. Anti-vibration: Atacama, Symposium, Golden Sound, Solid-Tech, Audioprism, Tenderfeet. Plus an interview with Rega’s turntable designer, and a look back at what UHF was like 20 years ago.

No.64: Speakers: Totem M1 Signature and Hawk, Visonik E352. YBA Passion Intégré amp, Cambridge IsoMagic (followup), better batteries for audio-to-go. Plus: the truth about upsampling, an improvement to our LP clean-ing machine, an interview with Ray Kimber..No.63: Tube amps: ASL Leyla & Passion A11. Vecteur Espace speakers, 2 intercon-nects (Harmonic Technology Eichmann), 5 speaker cables (Pierre Gabriel, vdH , Harmonic Technology, Eichmann), 4 power cords (Wireworld, Harmonic Technology, Eichmann, ESP). Plus: Paul Bergman on soundproofing, how to compare components in the store, big-screen TV’s to stay away from, a look back at the Beatles revolution.

No.62: Amplif iers: Vecteur I -4, Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista M3, Antique Sound Lab MG-S11DT. Passive preamps from Creek and Antique Sound Lab. Vecteur L-4 CD player. Interconnects: VdH Integration and Wireworld Soltice. Plus: the right to copy music, and how it may be vanishing. Choosing a DVD player by

features. And all about music for the movies.

No.61: Digital: Audiomat Tempo and Cambridge Isomagic DACs, Vecteur D-2 transpor t. Speakers: Osborn Mini Tower and Mirage OM-9. Soundcare Superspikes. And: new surround formats, dezoning DVD players.

No.60: Speakers: Monitor Audio Silver 9, Reference 3a MM De Capo, Klipsch RB-5, Coincident Triumph Signature. Plus: a Mirage subwoofer and the Audiomat Solfège amp. Paul Bergman on reproducing extreme lows.

No.59: CD players: Moon Eclipse, Linn Ikemi and Genki, Rega Jupiter/Io, Cambridge D500. Plus: Oskar Kithara speaker, with Heil tweeter. And: transferring LP to CD, the truth on digital radio, digital cinema vs MaxiVision 48.

No.58: Amplifiers: ASL AQ1003, Passion I10 & I11, Rogue 88, Jadis Orchestra Reference, Linar 250. Headphone amps: Creek, Antique Sound Lab, NVA, Audio Valve. Plus: Foundation Research LC-2 line filter, Gutwire power cord, Pierre Gabriel ML-1 2000 cable. And: building your own machine to clean LP’s.

No.57: Speakers: Dynaudio Contour 1.3, Gershman X-1/SW-1, Coincident Super Triumph Signature, Castle Inversion 15, Oskar Aulos. PLUS: KR 18 tube amp. Music Revolution: the next 5 years. Give your Hi-Fi a Fall Tune-Up.

No.56: Integrated amps: Simaudio I-3, Roksan Caspian, Myryad MI120, Vecteur Club 10, NVA AP10 Also: Cambridge T500 tuner, Totem Forest. Phono stages: Creek, Lehmann, Audiomat. Interconnects: Actinote, Van den Hul, Pierre Gabriel. Plus: Paul Bergman on power and current…why you need both

No.55: CD players: Linn CD12, Copland CDA-289, Roksan Caspian, AMC CD8a. Other reviews: Enigma Oremus speaker, Magenta ADE-24 black box. Plus: the DSD challenge for the next audio disc, pirate music on the Net, the explosion of off-air video choices.

No.54: Electronics: Creek A52se, Simaudio W-3 and W-5 amps. Copland CSA-303, Sima P-400 and F.T. Audio preamps (the latter two passive). Musical Fidelity X-DAC revisited, Ergo AMT phones, 4 line filters, 2 intercon-nects. Plus: Making your own CD’s.

No.53: Loudspeakers:Reference 3a Intégrale, Energy Veritas v2.8, Epos ES30, Totem Shaman, Mirage 390is, Castle Eden. Plus: Paul Bergman on understanding biamping, biwiring, balanced lines, and more.

No.52: CD players: A lchemist Nexus, Cambridge CD6, YBA Intégré, Musical Fidelity X-DAC, Assemblage DAC-2. Subwoofers: Energy ES-8 and NHT PS-8. Plus: Paul Bergman on reproducing deep bass, Vegas report, and the story behind digital television.

No.51: Integrated amps: YBA Intégré DT, Alchemist Forseti, Primare A-20, NVA AP50 Cambridge A1. CD players: Adcom GCD-750, Rega Planet. An economy system to recom-mend to friends, ATI 1505 5-channel amp, Bergman on impedance, why connectors matter, making your own power bars.

No.50: CD: Cambridge DiscMagic/DACMagic, Primare D-20, Dynaco CDV Pro. Analog: Rega Planar 9 , the Linn LP12 after 25 years. Also: Moon preamp, Linn Linto phono stage, Ergo and Grado headphones. Speaker cables: Linn K-400, Sheffield, MIT 750 Also: a look back at 15 years of UHF.

No.49: Power amps: Simaudio Moon, Bryston 3B ST, N.E.W. DCA-33, plus the Alchemist Forseti amp and preamp, and the McCormack Micro components. Also: our new Reference 3a Suprema II reference speakers, and a followup on the Copland 277 CD player. Plus: how HDCD really works.

No.48: Loudspeakers: JMLabs Daline 3.1, Vandersteen 3a, Totem Tabù, Royd Minstrel. CD: Cambridge CD4, Copland CDA-277. Also: An interview with the founder of a Canadian audiophile record label.

No.47: FM tuners: Magnum Dynalab MD-108, Audiolab 8000T, Fanfare FT-1. Speaker cables: QED Qudos, Wireworld Equinox and Eclipse, MIT MH-750. Parasound C/BD-2000 transport and D/AC-2000 converter. And: Upgrading your system for next to nothing.

No.46: Electronics: Simaudio 4070SE amp & P-4002 preamp, Copland CTA-301 & CTA-505, N.E.W. P-3 preamp. Digital cables: Wireworld, Audiostream, MIT, XLO, Audioprism, and Wireworld’s box for comparing interconnects. Also: YBA CD-1 and Spécial CD players. Yves-Bernard André talks about about his blue diode CD improvement.

No.45: Integrated amps: Copland CTA-401, Simaudio 4070i, Sugden Optima 140. CD: Adcom GDA-700 HDCD DAC, Sonic Frontiers SFD-1 MkII. Interconnects: Straight Wire Maestro, 3 versions of Wireworld Equinox. Plus: Yamamura Q15 CD oil, and “Hi-Fi for the Financially Challenged”.

No.44: CD players: Rotel RCD970BX, Counterpoint DA-10A DAC. Speakers: Apogee Ribbon Monitor, Totem Mite, more on the Gershman Avant Garde. Also: Laser-Link cable, “The Solution” CD treatment, AudioQuest sorbothane feet, Tenderfeet, Isobearings. Plus: Inside Subwoofers, and the castrati, the singers who gave their all for music.

No.43: The first HDCD converter: the EAD DSP-1000 MkII. Speakers: Gershman Avant Garde, Totem Mani-2 and Rokk, Quad ESL-63 with Gradient subwoofer. Plus: Keith O. Johnson explains the road to HDCD, and our editor joins those of other magazines to discuss what’s hot in audio.

No.42: Electronics: Spectral DMC-12 and Celeste P-4001 preamplif iers, amps and preamps from Duson. Also: Sonic Frontiers SFD-1 converter, power line f ilters from Audioprism, Chang, and YBA. Plus: Inside the preamplifier, and how the tango became the first “dirty” dance.

No.41: Digital: Roksan DA-2, EAD DSP-7000, McCormack DAC-1, QED Ref. Digit. Cables: Straight Wire LSI Encore & Virtuoso, Wireworld Equinox, van den Hul The 2nd & Revelation, Cardas Cross & Hexlink Golden, Transparent Music-Link Super & Music-Wave Super. Plus: Bergman on recording stereo.

No.40: Integrated amps: YBA Intégré, Rotel 960, Sugden A-25B, Sima PW-3000, Linn Majik, Naim NAIT 3, AMC CVT3030, Duson PA-75. Stereo: what it is, how it works, why it’s disappearing from records.

No. 39: Speakers: KEF Q50, Martin-Logan Aerius, Castle Howard, NEAR 40M, Klipsch Kg4.2. Plus: QED passive preamps, followup on the Linn Mimik CD player.

No. 38: CD players: Roksan Attessa, Naim CDS, Linn Mimik, Quad 67, Rotel 945,

Micromega Model “T”. Plus: How the record industry will wipe out hi-fi, and why women have been erased from music history.

No.37: Electronics: Celeste 4070 and McIntosh 7150 amps, Linn Kairn and Klout. Plus: RoomTunes acoustic treatment, why all amps don’t sound alike, and how Pro Logic really works.

No.36: CD players: YBA CD-2, Linn Karik/Numerik, Sugden SDT-1, Mission DAD5 and DAC5, Audiolab 8000DAC, QED Digit, Nitty Gritty LP cleaner, Plus: an interview with Linn’s Ivor Tiefenbrun, and part 7 of Bergman on acoustics: building your own acoustical panels.

No.35: Speakers: Castle Chester, Mirage M-7si, Totem Model 1, Tannoy 6.1, NHT 2.3, 3a Micro Monitor, Rogers LS2a/2. Plus: Tests of high end video recorders, hi-fi stereo record-ings of piano performances of 75 years ago. Acoustics part 6: Conceiving the room.

No.34: Cables: MIT ZapChord & PC2, Monster PowerLine 2+, M1, M2 Sigma, Reference 2, Interlink 400 & MSK2, Straight Wire Maestro, Isoda HA-08-PSR, Audioquest Ruby & Emerald, AudioStream Twinax, FMS Gold & Black, NBS Mini Serpent. Acoustics 5: Diffusing sound. “The Plot to Kill Hi-Fi,” the much-reprinted article on audio retailing.

No.33: CD players: Spectral SDR-1000SL, Esoteric P-2/D-2, Micromega Duo.BS, Proceed PDT2/PDP2 and PCD2, MSB Silver, Esoteric CD-Z5000, Carver SD/A-490t. The future of audio, according to Linn’s Ivor Tiefenbrun. Acoustics part 4: Absorbing low frequencies.

No.32: The Audio Dream Book: Our 152-page guide to what’s out there. Acoustics part 3: Taming reverberation.

No.31: Amplifiers: Counterpoint SA-100 and SA-1000, Audio Research Classic 30, QED C300 and P300, Sugden Au-41, Audiolab 8000P, Carver C-19, Arcam Delta 110 and 120. Why balanced lines? Buying audio by mail. Acoustics part 2: Predicting standing waves.

No.30: Speakers: Castle Winchester, Energy 22.2, P-E Léon Trilogue,NHT 1.3, Celef CF1, Polk RM3000, Response II by Clements. Acoustics part 1: Room size and acoustics.

No.29: Turntables: Linn Basik & LP12 with Lingo. Oracle Delphi MkIV, Oracle Paris. Pickups: Goldr ing Excel, 1022 & 1042, Revolver Bullet, Talisman Virtuoso DTi, Sumiko Blue Point, Roksan Shiraz. Test CD’s. Dorian’s Craig Dory.

No.28: Integrated amps: Linn Intek, Naim NAIT 2, Arcam Alpha II, Audio Innovations 500 II, Mission Cyrus Two, Creek 4141, Sugden A-21. Plus: an Aiwa cassette deck, and a guide to distortion.

No.27: Cables: Prisma SC-9 and Cable 10, MIT MH-750, MH-750 CVT MI-330SG, and MI-330SG CVT, Supershield. Cassettes: We compare Maxell, Fuji, Sony, etc.. The Esoteric V9000 cassette deck. Choosing a VCR.

No.26: CD players: Spectral SDR-1000, Kinergetics KCD-40, Micromega CDF 1, Arcam Delta 70 and Black Box, Mission PCM II, Quad 66. A panel compares CD and LP, and Keith Johnson talks about rethinking audio.Paul Bergman on amplifier design.

To see a list of older issues:http://www.uhfmag.com/Individualissue.html

Back IssuesNo.49: Power amps: Simaudio Moon, Bryston 3B ST, N.E.W. DCA-33, plus the Alchemist

Micromega Model “T”. Plus: How the record industry will wipe out hi-fi, and why women

NOTE: Price rising in early 2005!


This is no small show. See the crowd in the picture above? No, those aren’t the visitors to the Festival du Son et de

l’Image, Montreal’s immensely successful annual show. Those are the exhibitors, milling about at the official cocktail party at the end of Day 2. Of course we were exhibiting as well as fi nding a few minutes to run about and cover the rest of the show. On the page across is our own system over in Delta 317. It was composed of our new Linn Unidisk player, Van den Hul Array

preamplifi er and monoblocks borrowed from our Audiophile Boutique (audio-phileboutique.com), and the Reference

3a Royal Virtuoso speakers reviewed in this issue, sitting on Foundation stands. At right you can see Reine, faithfully taking orders for books, magazines, recordings and accessories. Despite the usual dense crowds in our own room, I did take advantage of some breaks in the fl ow to check out other rooms at the Delta, and also the larger halls in the Four Points across the street. What you see below left is the dramatically-styled Chord CD player, though I should add that its innova-

tion doesn’t stop at its looks. Notice the two loops of cable at the rear? The Chord Blue transport actually passes on an incredible 64 bits of data…which means 32 bits per cable! With a pair of Chord 500 watt monoblocks and large Neat MF7 speakers, it sounded superb. I made a note to ask for the long-awaited McCormack UDP-1 universal player. It sounded very good with SACD when I heard it, and it was no slouch with conven-tional CD either. I listened

to it with McCormack electronics (of

course), and a pair of speakers that were new to me: ASW, which stands for “Accurate Sound Wave.” Among other large speakers I heard and appreciated was the Focus Audio FS 888 (shown below), much larger than the (also excellent) FS 688 that was on the cover of UHF No. 68. Then there was the Rega R9, dramatically styled (not unusual with Rega) but well-engineered as well. And over at Pierre Gabriel, I got to hear the new Master Series speaker, which I had seen in prototype form, but not heard until now. Also large was the Verity Audio Lohengrin, a four-way speaker of most impressive performance. The Lohengrin consists of a three-way module which includes a ribbon tweeter, plus a tall base that contains a potent 38 cm polypro-pylene woofer. Now here’s the amazing part: the woofer and enclosure together

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Montreal 2004

by Gerard Rejskind


have a resonance of 19 Hz. This is of more than casual interest, because the resonant frequency is also the frequency below which response drops like a stone. Indeed, Verity claims response down to 15 Hz. It couldn’t do that in a hotel room (nor in most rooms), to be sure, but I can testify it doesn’t get timid as the music reaches for the lower octaves! The oddest speaker display was that of Totem, which had used lights, cloth, and silhouettes to create a forest. Hidden behind one of the cloths was a pair of…Forest speakers. A small video setup was at one end. You can see it on page 30. Five stars for imagination, but just half a star for catering to visitors curious about Totem’s new products. Over at the Cyrus room, I had a good look at the new Cyruslink system, meant to store all your music and make it available throughout the house. Its heart is the C$9500 Linkserver, which looks like a CD player, but contains a huge hard disc (up to 250 Gb). I was surprised to see Bösendorfer exhibiting at the Festival for the fi rst time. Yes, the legendary piano maker. It’s not so well known that the company also makes loudspeakers. The demonstration was done with a video system, using the D-VHS high defi nition system. Both the video and the audio rather disappointed me, though that may refl ect more on the people who had set up the room than on the actual performance of the Bösendorfer speakers. I didn’t have time to brave the long lineups for the demo of the Sensio 3-D video system, whose latest incarnation I had seen in Vegas. But the Montreal demo included one more key product: D-Box’s Odyssée motion simulator chairs. Albert did get to see (and feel!) it, and reports that the combination was a memorable one. I got to hear an exceptional demon-stration of the Linn Unidisk player…not that I needed one, since by the time the Festival opened UHF had its own Unidisk. Past Linn rooms were rather reverberant, with too much surface and not enough furnishings. This time wrap-around curtains tamed the nasties. The Unidisk fed a Klimax Kontrol preamp, three Klimax amps (two monoblocks and a stereo amp, driving Akurate 242

speakers. An SACD version of one of the familiar Patricia Barber recordings sounded sumptuous. The small Newfoundland company Aurum was back, with a more mature version of its unusual system: four single-ended tube amps for the midrange and tweeter, Bryston solid state modules for the bass, and electronic crossovers all around. Very nice. For good measure, Aurum had brought its own Integris CD player. I wouldn’t be surprised if we

heard more from Aurum. A lot of turntables were playing at the show, including ones from Clearaudio, DPS, Roksan, and Pro-Ject, among others. Is vinyl dead? Sure…like tubes are dead! Want more about the show? You’ll fi nd plenty of text and pictures on our site: www.uhfmag.com/Montreal2004. By any standard, this was a superb show. Will we be back next year? Just try to keep us away!

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In the words of psychologist Dennis Waitley, “It’s not what you are that holds you back, it’s what you think that you are not.” I was reminded

of that statement when I heard Gaetan’s first comments as we

started on our tour. “I don’t think my ear s a re t ra ined enough for this,” he said, sounding almost apologetic. And yet, Gaetan is, among many other things, a guitarist who remembers car-rying his instrument along as reference, when he bought his first pair of speak-ers (and what did he settle for, you may ask? Magnepans!).

“But that was a long time ago,” he adds. Strange, how many people underestimate their ability to simply

appreciate music when faced with an array of sophisticated equipment. I don’t know much about this, some would say, dismissing the idea altogether, or I’m not an expert. Yet they go to concerts, they talk about what they heard, and they know what they enjoyed and what they didn’t. This year I toured the Montreal show twice with two very different companions, and I thought I’d share their impressions with you as if you were here with us. I let them guide me

through the different rooms (well, okay, I also suggested a few I thought should be on our list), and I often asked them to go in fi rst and let me know if I should come in too. Interesting. This won’t be an actual review, just impressions, comments, a lot of nods, raised eyebrows and silent wows. “Look at this, a Thorens turntable, I didn’t know they still made them,” said Gaetan as we listened to a clear rendi-tion of Muddy Waters playing through a Unico integrated amp and Opera speak-ers, handcrafted in Italy. He didn’t say much else, but I liked the presence and the immediacy of the music. He didn’t say much in the next room either, and yet we were both impressed by the sound of the blue and silver Shanling equipment, glowing quietly. We took the time to listen to Jheena Lodwick singing Get-ting to Know You through a pair of ALI Acoustics speakers. We had an interesting experience in another room, where a Krell SACD player was hooked to professional-look-ing Nagra amplifi ers playing through a pair of Parsifal speakers by Verity Audio. A track of Fidelio’s SACD Via Crucis by Liszt was on: beautiful choral voices rose airily, firmly supported by low organ notes. And then the same track was repeated in multichannel, using an additional pair of similar speakers behind us. We looked at each other with raised eyebrows, the music fi lling the air and seeming to transport us. As we left, the same procedure was repeated with Nicolas Major on solo guitar. Gaetan had doubts written on his face. “My ears are not yet accustomed to surround sound,” he explained. He smiled broadly as we entered the next room, staring at the pair of B&W 805 Signature speakers, “I should be able to recognize their sound, I have a small pair of B&W speakers at home.” Their music was fi nely produced by an all-Classé system with the CAP-2100 integrated amp and CDP-100 player. Later, as we listened to the Naim and

Spendor combination in another set-ting, Gaetan pulled out one of his CDs and asked to listen to it. It was a Frank Martin composition played by guitarist Jürgen Ruck. “Remarkable neutrality,” he exclaimed. “There, that’s what a guitar sounds like,” he added, looking at the Naim CD5 player, NAC 112 preamp, NAP 150 power amp and the Spendor Classic SP3/1P speakers. As we were leaving, I glanced at the Nottingham Horizon turntable. “They’re back,” I said. I don’t think he believed me. Gaetan was now leading the way, from one room to the next; his doubts about his discerning ability had dimin-ished, and when we had listened for a bit in some rooms, and he shrugged with an apologetic smile, and I knew it was time to explore some more. Facing the large Martin-Logan Ascent speakers he became very still, totally concentrated, and asked to listen to the same Frank Martin guitar piece. The Wadia (Series 3) 302 player played it through the Blue Circle BC3 Galactica MKII (a dual mono linestage preamp) and the BC28 hybrid power amp. Gaetan didn’t say a word. He slowly sat down and asked to listen to another of his CDs, featuring the Hilliard Ensemble of male voices. “Voices are the ultimate test for me,” he whispered. He left the room reluctantly, lost in his thoughts. (He would often refer to this moving experience after the end of his tour.) Another memorable experience he had was with the Living Voice Avatar

Touring With Witnessesby Albert Simon

Illustrations:Above: the unusual Wilson Benesch Dis-covery speaker, with its external woofer. Lower right: Musicians from a local high school playing live in the Delta lobby (perhaps to show us all up). On the next page: two turntables. At top, the afford-able Pro-Ject RPM9 with carbon fi bre arm and electronic speed control. Below, the eye-catching Clearaudio Master Reference.


Feature

OBX speakers with Conrad-Johnson amplifi cation (ACT2 preamp and Pre-mier 140 power amp), with Chord’s BLU transport and DAC 64 converter. “You can even hear the guitar’s woody resonance,” he exclaimed, “and the low notes are superb.” When the Hilliard Ensemble sang, he noticed the defi nition in the voices and the clear separation, and he smiled broadly. “I never knew the tenor was that good.” Gaetan seemed transformed now, walking confi dently toward each new experience, his remaining doubts dis-solving in a newfound assertiveness. “This system is defi nitely one of the top four,” he stated unequivocally in the Linn room. The Unidisk 1.1 was matched to a Klimax Kontrol preamp, a set of three power amps (one Klimax Solo mono amp and two Klimax Twin-stereo amps) feeding a pair of Akurate 242 speakers. “The brass sound great,” said Gaetan, after listening to Blood, Sweat and Tears’ Spinning Wheel. Then he became fascinated with the com-parison done with a different source, the Kivor server, containing multiple CD selections stored without compression. An interesting comparison Gaetan did was with the two Pierre Gabriel sys-tems. He asked to listen to Charles Ives’ Piano Sonata No. 2 played by Marc-André Hamelin (a fellow music student of his, at the U of M), fi rst with the Gryphon Mikado player, Callisto integrated amp and the Master speakers by Pierre Gabriel…and then, in the other room, with a Jadis JD3 player, DA60 integrated amp and the impressive Master Refer-ence speakers. He seemed to like both versions but then added with a puzzled look “They’re completely different.” And we concluded our tour with the Quad ESL speakers, playing the same piano piece with an Arcam CD 33 player and Conrad Johnson’s Premier 17 LS preamp and MV60 power amp. “The sound is crystalline, so clear in the highs,” he noted. “There are more harmonics,” he added, and when he listened to the Hilliard Ensemble he pointed to the stage and said “I can see exactly where the singers are standing”. I smiled because I knew exactly what he meant and I agreed with all that he heard, here and in all the other rooms.

I smiled because I also witnessed quite a change in Gaetan’s attitude, from an uncertain and unsure initial approach to the seasoned and confi dent apprecia-tion of music that all audiophiles reach once they stop thinking and talking about specs, and discover beauty.

* * * The next day, I welcomed Michael, a young and enthusiastic new audiophile who had thoroughly enjoyed the Mon-treal Sound Festival last year for the fi rst time. He had already been around this year’s with his friend Jimmy, a more experienced audiophile and reader of UHF Magazine. They were both eager to share the tour with me and, pulling out his notepad, Michael said “Naim”. We went straight to the entrance level all-Naim room — and I mean all Naim. “Why leave it to chance?” said the representative, a touch of humour in his eyes, pointing to the Naim cables. A CD5 player was linked to the NAIT 5i integrated amp, featuring DIN and RCA connectors (and an optional silver-colored front adapter plate, for those who might tire of an all-black system). The speakers were the two-and-a-half-way Ariva. Michael remarked on the sound of the trumpet, and found great clarity in the percussion. From entry level to dreamland. Michael wanted to hear one of his CDs in the two Pierre Gabriel rooms. It was the final track of the Gladiator score by Hans Zimmer, We Live Forever, sung by Lisa Gerrard. “I heard sounds I

hadn’t noticed before,” he said, after we emerged from the Jadis room. Then, emerging from the Gryphon room, he seemed surprised. “I heard other sounds in this room, some instruments appeared more clearly.” (Welcome to the club, I thought to myself.) “This is therapy,” Michael said with a longing sigh, and Jimmy nodded. We were listening to Georgia On My Mind by Mari Nakamoto, followed by Sunfl ower on the Three Blind Mice label. The CD was played by Audio Aero, amplifi ed by a Tenor Audio amplifi er and came out of a pair of Lamhorn speakers. In the Linn room, we arrived just in time to hear the spectacular soundtrack of Don Juan de Marco by composer Michael Kamen. “It’s quite something,” said Michael, looking for words. “The soundfi eld is so vast,” he decided. “And it’s so airy,” added Jimmy. As we then listened to Neville Marriner conducting Rossini’s overture to The Barber of Seville, Jimmy noted that we were sitting right in front of the

Solo mono amp and two Klimax Twin-stereo amps) feeding a pair of Akurate 242 speakers. “The brass sound great,” said Gaetan, after listening to Blood, Sweat and Tears’ Spinning Wheel. Then he became fascinated with the com-parison done with a different source, the Kivor server, containing multiple CD selections stored without compression. An interesting comparison Gaetan did was with the two Pierre Gabriel sys-tems. He asked to listen to Charles Ives’ Piano Sonata No. 2 played by Marc-André

(a fellow music student of his, at the U of M), fi rst with the Gryphon

* * * The next day, I welcomed Michael, a young and enthusiastic new audiophile who had thoroughly enjoyed the Mon-treal Sound Festival last year for the fi rst time. He had already been around this year’s with his friend Jimmy, a more experienced audiophile and reader of UHF Magazine. They were both eager to share the tour with me and, pulling out his notepad, Michael said “Naim”. We went straight to the entrance level all-Naim room — and I mean allNaim. “Why leave it to chance?” said the representative, a touch of humour

“This is therapy,” Michael said with a longing sigh, and Jimmy nodded. We were listening to Georgia On My MindMari Nakamoto, followed by on the Three Blind Mice label. The CD was played by Audio Aero, amplifi ed by a Tenor Audio amplifi er and came out of a pair of Lamhorn speakers. In the Linn room, we arrived just in time to hear the spectacular soundtrack of de Marco by composer Michael Kamen. “It’s quite something,” said Michael, looking for words. “The soundfi eld is so vast,” he decided. “And it’s so airy,” added Jimmy. As we then listened to Neville

By the way…

You can read lots more about the Montreal show (and the Vegas show as well) on

our Web site: www.uhfmag.com.


orchestra. “The sound is dynamic, but without fatigue,” he explained. We entered another large room featuring the YBA CD player and amplifi ers, and massive JMLab speakers. “I don’t hear the speakers,” whispered Michael. I was startled. “It’s as if the music is right there, as if the speakers have disappeared”. I got it. We played the final song on the Gladiator soundtrack with the Living Voice OBX speakers, the Chord front end, amplifi ed by Conrad-Johnson, and the music suddenly fi lled the large room. “These speakers are not too big,” he said, “Yet they create a very wide image.” We spent a long time listening to different selections through the newly-introduced Aurum Acoustics Integris 300B active speaker system (including a stereo tube triamplifi er with six-channel output), with an Integris CDP player-preamplifi er. Michael asked to listen to Sirens, a track on another of his CDs, called Mythos. Both Jimmy and Michael were impressed with the abundance of detail, the extended dynamic range and

the rock-solid impact. Jimmy was then particularly drawn to another room where the Creek CD player reached us through Epos speakers. “One of the best systems for the price,” he asserted. We listened to the haunting music of The Sea, the fi rst track on the Trio Morcheeba’s Big Calm CD. Both were speechless at the end. “We’ll wait here,” said Michael. Another one of his favor-ites was the Chord array of sculptured components, from the DAC 64 to the 500 watts monoblocs and high f re-quency power supplies, play-ing through Neat speakers. As Lisa Gerrard’s mournful voice rose in the quiet background, I could tell Michael was moved. “You can just close your eyes and…” He didn’t fi nish. We then had a superb example of quality LP repro-duction with the Clearaudio turntable, playing Funkjazztical Tricknology through an Accus-tic Arts integrated amp and the stunning Acapella speak-ers. “Wow, that sounds great, we’re right here with them,” said both of my companions. “Turntables are back,” I said to them, echoing what I had suggested to Gaetan earlier.

They looked around the room at the numerous turntable creations, including the sophisticated Clearaudio Master Reference. As though to confi rm that, we ended the audio tour with Austria’s Pro-Ject Audio Systems turntables for all budgets. Eric Clapton Unplugged was on and we sat quietly, facing the large Magneplanars 1.6 QR panels. The sound was natural yet not spectacular, and my companions said nothing. The source was a Pro-Ject RPM9 turntable with its own carbon fi bre arm and an acrylic platter. Added to it, for precision, was a Pro-ject Speed Box SE (a high precision, quartz-generated electronic speed regulator), a Pro-Ject Tube Box (phono stage and voltage regulator) and Exposure preamp and power amp. “You know who are our best customers in Europe?” asked the representative as we prepared to leave. “They're 16-year olds.” As I’ve said, there was nothing in the sound that shouted “Here I am, look at what I can do, aren’t you impressed?” Nothing, except the music. And the fact that we could just reach out and touch Eric Clapton if we wanted.

Feat

ure

Illustrations:Above: The Totem “forest,” hiding an actual pair of Forest speakers. At right: The gorgeous Song Audio display, including the SA-1 line level preamp and the SA-300 MB single-ended tube monoblocks.


If there’s one philosophical point that Scotland’s Linn Products is associated with, it is the impor-tance of the source in a music

reproduction system. Linn’s original product, still made after three decades, was the Linn LP12 turntable. Though it had precursors, Linn did the opposite of what nearly all its competitors were then doing. Today, Linn’s new fl agship is also a source component, and it may be every bit as revolutionary as the LP12. Linn has had other top source components in the intervening years. Its astonishing CD12 player was on the cover of UHF No. 56, in which we praised it as the very best CD player known to us. The same player was heard by the people at Sony Corporation, who came to the obvious conclusion: not even the vaunted Sony engineers could have built such a machine. The realization led to an unexpected collaboration. Sony invited the (compar-atively tiny) Linn Products to collabo-rate on the development of a new player. It would have to play SACD, but also DVD-Audio, in order to end the format war. It would have to be a DVD video player as well, and of course it would have to be an exceptional CD player besides. Sony gave Linn full access to its proprietary technology. In return, it reserved the right to license the resulting technology to other companies. The collaboration was successful. We usually reserve our conclusions for the end of a review, but this is no ordinary product. Listening to it came as a shock, and less than 48 hours after it arrived we purchased it. Yes, it’s expensive. Yes, we had hoped to adopt a more afford-

able SACD player. But what was almost instantly clear was that never, but never, had we heard any source component sound like this one. Does that include turntables? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Though the Unidisk is about the size of the CD12, it doesn’t look as massive, and it is surprisingly light, especially for a product costing over C$16,000. Like the CD12 (and the Ikemi player as well), it is built around Linn’s proprietary transport. On its densely-packed surface-mount circuit board are distinct electronic sections for all of the Unidisk’s functions: SACD, CD, DVD, and DVD-A. The machine plays ’em all, right down to Kodak Picture CDs. When we fi rst got our test machine (with a clear warning that the distribu-tor would need it back in time for the Montreal show in early April), we fi rst tried it with our collection of SACDs, and specifi cally Eric Bibb’s Needed Time, familiar to us from countless listening sessions. Reine was stunned. “The last time I felt a shock like that,” she said, “was many years ago, when I fi rst logged on to a server with my computer, and it greeted me by name!” The next day we put on some conven-tional CDs, and that tipped us over the edge. We had known that we couldn’t go on using other people’s SACD play-

ers, and that we needed to get our own, but which one? It didn’t take much to convince us: our choice couldn’t possibly be any player but this one. We called the distributor, and asked for extra quick shipment, so that we ourselves could use a Unidisk at the Montreal show. This is an expensive product, of course, but Linn has two other Unidisk “play everything” models. The Unidisk 2.1, around C$10K (US$7500), is opti-mized for movies, and the even cheaper Unidisk SC includes what amounts to a multichannel preamplifi er. Though the player is not outlandishly sized, Linn has found a way to squeeze in a lot of jacks. There are several video outputs: composite, S-video, SCART (used in Europe), interlaced component, progressive component, and the new HDMI as well. The six audio outputs are phono jacks (of doubtful quality, alas), and the two main channels are available balanced as well. The transport is mechanically slick, the drawer sliding in and out with a velvety purr that reminds you this isn’t some rebadged mass-market player. However we wish the drawer were deeper. It’s all too easy to put in the disc slightly askew, which results in an “unknown disc” warning on the screen, or an actual jam. On two occasions we had to free a stuck disc by gently prying the drawer open with a paper clip…a sweat-inducing operation when one recalls what this device costs! Because the Unidisk has separate sections for different formats, it take the player more than a few seconds to determine what sort of disc you’ve put in, and therefore what circuits it should fi re up. That gets old real fast. There are other operational oddities too. Fast forwarding doesn’t work the way you expect. Instead of just whiz-zing forward, the Linn advances by six-second segments, pausing between each. Pushing the “previous selection” button really takes you to the start of the selection before, not to the start of the current one, as in other players. Push “play” to go to the start of the current track. It’s well-known that it’s impossible to play most DVD-A discs unless you have a video display connected to the player.

Listening Room

Linn Unidisk 1.1

Is this the source component audiophiles have been waiting for?


T h a t i s o f course the case with the Unidisk, but setting up initial preferences also requires a video display. Our solution: a tiny monochrome TV with a video input, C$14.97 at Wal-Mart. Visitors look quizzically at the tiny set, and we tell them they’re looking at our new home theatre setup. Long silences! Because the Unidisk is so many play-ers in one, the test turned, inevitably, into several tests.

The Unidisk as CD player We began with a disc that is new to us, a collection of wind band music by contemporary composer Norman Dello Joio (Klavier K11138), specifi cally his Fantasia on a Theme of Haydn. It opens with considerable percussive action, which shook the Alpha room when we heard it with our reference player. With the Linn, to our surprise, it was even more solid and powerful. “That tym-pani sure gets the job done!” remarked Albert. But there’s much more to this fasci-nating music than percussion, and the Linn made it all glow. The woodwinds were smooth and realistic, the bassoons particularly enthralling. The brass was bright in the right way, without a trace of annoying shrillness. All of the instru-ments were easier to identify within a space that seemed to acquire an extra dimension. Our favorite choral recording, Now the Green Blade Riseth, can sound superb, but we have heard certain players — not to mention some amplifi ers and speakers —

turn it into an ear-shattering mess.

Of course we knew the Unidisk wouldn’t do that, but

it delivered rather more than we had expected. The challenge in reproducing choral voices is to keep them separately identifiable, and at the same time to meld them together into a whole as the conductor intends. The Linn handled the voices perfectly, and the music was so well served that we didn’t fi nd ourselves writing much. This is how the piece should sound. We continued with a Gospel blues piece, Ain’t No Grave f rom Doug McLeod’s Come to Find (Audioquest AQCD1027). Before McLeod begins to sing, there is an introduction by his guitar and various percussion instru-ments, and we were surprised to discover how much more we could hear with the Linn player. This wasn’t a matter of hearing some of the percussion more clearly, but of hearing it at all. “Come to fi nd” indeed! The rest of the song? It seemed to go by rather quickly, an impression we’d had with the previous two pieces as well. “McLeod’s voice seemed a little hoarse with our old player,” commented Gerard, “but not with the Unidisk.” The voices of the choral backup singers were clear but nicely velvety. We wound up this part of the test with Margie Gibson singing Soft Lights and Sweet Music, from her Irving Berlin album Say It With Music (Sheffield CD-36). The song exudes such magic you’d think no player could possibly get it wrong, but we have enough experience to know better. The Linn Unidisk made it sound better than we had ever heard it before, and indeed this had been the CD that had convinced us to clear all the

other candidates off our shopping list. What adjectives to use? Magical? Sensuous? Voluptuous? “Listening to it made me wish I were a man,” said Reine, “if it would mean being sung to by a woman like that.” If Gibson’s voice was perfect, with no trace of the hardness it sometimes acquires, we were equally impressed with the eerily realistic sound of the piano, cello and double bass that accompany her. Is this the world’s best CD player? In any case, it can do much, much more than whatever is in second place.

SACD takes on the CD We live in an age of conspiracy theo-ries. Not only are there dark theories about the JFK assassination and the Apollo moon landings, but there is a current belief that companies making hybrid SACDs deliberately sabotage the CD Red Book layer to make the SACD layer sound better by comparison. Fortu-nately, it’s possible to compare an SACD with the same release on a conventional Compact Disc. And that was how we began our com-parison. One of our favorite test pieces is Eric Bibb’s Needed Time Gospel song, found on his Spirit and the Blues album. We played the CD version (Opus 3 CD19401) and then the SACD version (CD19411). The CD sounds excellent, as we have long known. What could SACD add? Lots, it turned out. The guitar licks in the opening fi lled a three-dimensional space most effectively. Bibb’s voice had a certain softness, and even a sweet-ness, that it lacked on the CD version, but the player certainly didn’t hide anything from us. The harmonica solo was gorgeous, and the second guitar, a bottleneck, was downright spectacular. “Musicians work so hard to give us these pleasing effects,” said Reine, “and I’ll bet they don’t suspect that it’s actually possible for us to hear them.” The Unidisk can be set to play the Red Book layer of an SACD, as can some other players. We pulled out Opus 3’s Showcase SACD (CD21000), and ran a comparison on the jazz number Comes Love. We should mention that this piece is also available on conventional CD, but that CD is processed in HDCD; unlike

List

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most other Linn players, the Unidisk has no HDCD decoder. Indeed, because we are used to hearing the properly-decoded HDCD version, we thought the CD layer of the hybrid disc sounded a touch fl at, and Reine found the usually humor-ous sousaphone raspy and incoherent. Changing to the SACD layer brought a spectacular improvement, with the instruments moving apart in space. Despite the separation, the counter-points — especially that between the clarinet and the saxophone — were considerably enhanced. The sound was warm, lyrical and detailed, and indeed the piece sounded better than we had ever heard it before. We continued with a classical record-ing, Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (Pentatone 5186 114). This 1974 Philips recording was copied directly from one of the original analog recorders into the Digital Sound Stream encoder. Even the CD layer was excel-lent, with none of the all-too-frequent Compact Disc nasties. The SACD layer, on the other hand, was… Well, here we go lapsing into impen-etrable Latin again. But the entire report is available in the print issue. Mincidui tem quis dolutpate min veliquate tat nibh essecte dui tin venit iniatue voloree tumsan vendre tisci ex ercilit praesto dolore dit nim euguer sequipit nostin ut ero enibh eugiametue min ver sisit, sit alit irilism odolore feum dunt aut nis alit dunt autat. Duisci esequat nonsequ ipsuscidunt la conseq-uisim vel erit praesent inis augiat, quam, commodit adipiscilisl diam acilluptatio enit utpate feu feu faci tem nos dolenis niat la alisim volobor incip et wisi blaore estrud dolore feugait ute feum duis aliqui blan ute minissi tet vullam veliquipit nostio odit dit ero od el eugiam, consecte magna commy nostrud eugait ad tem init, volore feugue do dolore vullaor per-ciniamet veraesed tat wis nulla faci eugue min ex ex ex eu feu faciliquat. Ex eugiam, quat alisim er susci tat nonse doloreetue facilit essecte molor accum dolore dipit ut am, consecte tat. Met pratie dit il dionsequis nulput aliquat acing ex et lore duisi blaor am vullandre dolorting ex exerat, cor init iriureet vel et, suscil

dip et nim ilit lam, quis aut vel esed dolor sit nit del il dunt am am zzrillandre ent alisim veniam quis do doloreetue vul-lute magna feugait ad doloreet, con erit aliqui tem inim dolorti onullam coreros do conse min utat ad te faciliquipit autem alit autem ip ex ea facipit volenit ad magniate exer susto dipsustio eugait utpat, volore consequat. Del iurem vel incing eu feugait, quipsusto et, quisl ilit dunt do eugait aci tem dolore consecte tat, volorem zzriliquam, summodiam, consenit lortion hendio odolupt atetuer si. Nullam diat. Ipit pratet, sed tat vercin hent dolor iriustrud magnit prat. Gue mod tie eu facincil ent ad et wisis at alis alit wis ex eummod esto el eum quiscil dunt ipit, quisi. Ud tetum venis aut aut ad tem eugait iniat nulputatet, consequis ad ea feuguer-aessi exer ing etum duisit lumsandreet pratiscing esto eu faccccummod magnim zzrit lore eum zzrilla faccumm odigna feugiam, vel er sit autpat. Dui bla faccum do euismodolore magna faciduisl utat wis autpat, quat el dit wisit, sequat am iusci tionsequi tat, si. Ut wiscin henis eum irit, velessis adit ad et in exerilis augue modoloboreet wisi. Irit lum nulla feugiamcore minis alit lorerci llaore doleniam, vercilit il ut luptat la consed dipisi tio odionsequis exeraesed magna feuis adiam, conulla metuer inis dit velit, cor il utet, commy nosto coreet lor sustrud duissismod tate-tummy nulla facin etum verosto odignis acipsusto odolorper si. Mincillandre vel ipismod min eugiam volestis nos nim esto dit laor sim ad tat, cor in ut irit adit in vulla feummod olorem aut at. Putat nis augiat. Ugait nos augait velestie faciduis nummy nonsed del il enisisi sciduipsum alit atumsandit vullaor eratummy nim volessectet num el ut dolorero conullaore diatum iurem alit lumsan exerci blam, vercipisi blamet nummy nullut venis numsan henim doloreet nos ea adio ea aut ilis elit, sed erit praesto od tatinci tio eliqui tat. Aci elenim zzrit lorperat. Wis accummod doloreriure tat. Borem zzriuscipsum dionsenim zzriliq uamconulla consed dolor send-reros nostrud tet alis augiam dolummy

nostrud mod modo exerius cillut vel duismod ming eros nullupt atismoleniam iusto consenisl dunt ullandre tat prat, quat. Henissi smoloboreet, sequatet lore core facilla ndiatum quatie vullutpatum alit ea corem doloreet laor sed tat in velit la core verat niam vulla faccum eros ent autat. Adigna facidunt nullamet, se delesti ncidunt prat, veliquis at. Ute digna augue delis nim volore tat. Ure corem velis adiam, sequisl euis augiam, quat non henim vel ullaorem er am nos nonsenis at aliquatuero. Mincidui tem quis dolutpate min veliquate tat nibh essecte dui tin venit iniatue voloree tumsan vendre tisci ex ercilit praesto dolore dit nim euguer sequipit nostin ut ero enibh eugiametue min ver sisit, sit alit irilism odolore feum dunt aut nis alit dunt autat. Duisci esequat nonsequ ipsuscidunt la conseq-uisim vel erit praesent inis augiat, quam, commodit adipiscilisl diam acilluptatio enit utpate feu feu faci tem nos dolenis niat la alisim volobor incip et wisi blaore estrud dolore feugait ute feum duis aliqui blan ute minissi tet vullam veliquipit nostio odit dit ero od el eugiam, consecte magna commy nostrud eugait ad tem init, volore feugue do dolore vullaor per-ciniamet veraesed tat wis nulla faci eugue min ex ex ex eu feu faciliquat. Ex eugiam, quat alisim er susci tat nonse doloreetue facilit essecte molor accum dolore dipit ut am, consecte tat. Met pratie dit il dionsequis nulput aliquat acing ex et lore duisi blaor am vullandre dolorting ex exerat, cor init iriureet vel et, suscil dip et nim ilit lam, quis aut vel esed dolor sit nit del il dunt am am zzrillandre ent alisim veniam quis do doloreetue vul-lute magna feugait ad doloreet, con erit aliqui tem inim dolorti onullam coreros do conse min utat ad te faciliquipit autem alit autem ip ex ea facipit volenit ad magniate exer susto dipsustio eugait utpat, volore consequat. Del iurem vel incing eu feugait, quipsusto et, quisl ilit dunt do eugait aci tem dolore consecte tat, volorem zzriliquam, summodiam, consenit lortion hendio odolupt atetuer si. Nullam diat. Ipit pratet, sed tat vercin hent dolor iriustrud magnit prat. Gue mod tie eu facincil ent ad et wisis at alis alit wis ex eummod esto el eum quiscil

Listening Room


dunt ipit, quisi. Ud tetum venis aut aut ad tem eugait iniat nulputatet, consequis ad ea feuguer-aessi exer ing etum duisit lumsandreet pratiscing esto eu faccccummod magnim zzrit lore eum zzrilla faccumm odigna feugiam, vel er sit autpat. Dui bla faccum do euismodolore magna faciduisl utat wis autpat, quat el dit wisit, sequat am iusci tionsequi tat, si. Ut wiscin henis eum irit, velessis adit ad et in exerilis augue modoloboreet wisi. Irit lum nulla feugiamcore minis alit lorerci llaore doleniam, vercilit il ut luptat la consed dipisi tio odionsequis exeraesed magna feuis adiam, conulla metuer inis dit velit, cor il utet, commy nosto coreet lor sustrud duissismod tate-tummy nulla facin etum verosto odignis acipsusto odolorper si. Mincillandre vel ipismod min eugiam volestis nos nim esto dit laor sim ad tat, cor in ut irit adit in vulla feummod olorem aut at. Putat nis augiat. Ugait nos augait velestie faciduis nummy nonsed del il enisisi sciduipsum alit atumsandit vullaor eratummy nim volessectet num el ut dolorero conullaore diatum iurem alit lumsan exerci blam, vercipisi blamet nummy nullut venis numsan henim doloreet nos ea adio ea aut ilis elit, sed erit praesto od tatinci tio eliqui tat. Aci elenim zzrit lorperat. Wis accummod doloreriure tat. Adigna facidunt nullamet, se delesti ncidunt prat, veliquis at. Ute digna augue delis nim volore tat. Ure corem velis adiam, sequisl euis augiam, quat non henim vel ullaorem er am nos nonsenis at aliquatuero. Mincidui tem quis dolutpate min veliquate tat nibh essecte dui tin venit iniatue voloree tumsan vendre tisci ex ercilit praesto dolore dit nim euguer

sequipit nostin ut ero enibh eugiametue min ver sisit, sit alit iril-ism odolore feum dunt aut nis alit dunt autat. Duisci esequat nonsequ ipsuscidunt la conseq-uisim vel erit praesent inis augiat, quam, com-modit adipiscilisl diam acilluptatio enit utpate

feu feu faci tem nos dolenis niat la alisim volobor incip et wisi blaore estrud dolore feugait ute feum duis aliqui blan ute minissi tet vullam veliquipit nostio odit dit ero od el eugiam, consecte magna commy nostrud eugait ad tem init, volore feugue do dolore vullaor perciniamet veraesed tat wis nulla faci eugue min ex ex ex eu feu faciliquat. Ex eugiam, quat alisim er susci tat nonse doloreetue facilit essecte molor accum dolore dipit ut am, consecte tat. Met pratie dit il dionsequis nulput aliquat acing ex et lore duisi blaor am vullandre dolorting ex exerat, cor init iriureet vel et, suscil dip et nim ilit lam, quis aut vel esed dolor sit nit del il dunt am am zzrillandre ent alisim veniam quis do doloreetue vullute magna feugait ad doloreet, con erit aliqui tem inim dolorti onullam coreros do conse min utat ad te faciliquipit autem alit autem ip ex ea facipit volenit ad magniate exer susto dipsustio eugait utpat, volore consequat. Del iurem vel incing eu feugait, quip-susto et, quisl ilit dunt do eugait aci tem dolore consecte tat, volorem zzriliquam, summodiam, consenit lortion hendio odolupt atetuer si. Nullam diat. Ipit pratet, sed tat vercin hent dolor iriustrud magnit prat. Gue mod tie eu facincil ent ad et wisis at alis alit wis ex eummod esto el eum quiscil

dunt ipit, quisi. Ud tetum venis aut aut ad tem eugait iniat nulputatet, consequis ad ea feuguer-aessi exer ing etum duisit lumsandreet pratiscing esto eu faccccummod magnim zzrit lore eum zzrilla faccumm odigna feugiam, vel er sit autpat. Dui bla faccum do euismodolore magna faciduisl utat wis autpat, quat el dit wisit, sequat am iusci tionsequi tat, si. Ut wiscin henis eum irit, velessis adit ad et in exerilis augue modoloboreet wisi. Irit lum nulla feugiamcore minis alit lorerci llaore doleniam, vercilit il ut luptat la consed dipisi tio odionsequis exeraesed magna feuis adiam, conulla metuer inis dit velit, cor il utet, commy nosto coreet lor sustrud duissismod tate-tummy nulla facin etum verosto odignis acipsusto odolorper si. Mincillandre vel ipismod min eugiam volestis nos nim esto dit laor sim ad tat, cor in ut irit adit in vulla feummod olorem aut at. Putat nis augiat. Ugait nos augait velestie faciduis nummy nonsed del il enisisi sciduipsum alit atumsandit vullaor eratummy nim volessectet num el ut dolorero conullaore diatum iurem alit lumsan exerci blam, vercipisi blamet nummy nullut venis numsan henim doloreet nos ea adio ea aut ilis elit, sed erit praesto od tatinci tio eliqui tat. Aci elenim zzrit lorperat. Wis accummod doloreriure tat. Borem zzriuscipsum dionsenim zzriliq uamconulla consed dolor send-reros nostrud tet alis augiam dolummy nostrud mod modo exerius cillut vel duismod ming eros nullupt atismoleniam iusto consenisl dunt ullandre tat prat, quat. Henissi smoloboreet, sequatet lore core facilla ndiatum quatie vullutpatum alit ea corem doloreet laor sed tat in velit la core verat niam vulla faccum eros ent autat. Adigna facidunt nullamet, se delesti ncidunt prat, veliquis at. Ute digna augue delis nim volore tat. Ure corem velis adiam, sequisl euis augiam, quat non henim vel ullaorem er am nos nonsenis at aliquatuero. Adigna facidunt nullamet, se delesti ncidunt prat, veliquis at. Ute digna augue delis nim volore tat. Ure corem velis adiam, sequisl euis augiam, quat non

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Brand/model: Linn Unidisk 1.1Price: C$16,750/US$10,995Dimensions: 38 x 36 x 8 cmMost liked: Awesome performance with any disc that will fitLeast liked: Slow reflexes, some operational rough edgesVerdict: The Linn Sondek of the digital age

Summing it up…


henim vel ullaorem er am nos nonsenis at aliquatuero.

On the test bench At the moment we have no appropri-ate tools for testing SACD players, and so we had to settle for some measure-ments on the CD section of the Unidisk. The results were decent, certainly, but they did not even hint at the player’s remarkable sound. The 100 square wave on the previous page is far from the best we’ve seen, with considerable undamped ringing. The tilted top could suggest a misbehav-ing anti-aliasing fi lter. We say “could” because the way the music comes out contradicts the reading. Who we gonna believe? The low-level (-60 dB) sine wave, shown on this page, is pretty much perfect. Jitter was low, though we could see a bit of extremely low frequency noise

of the sort we associ-ate with tube gear. It was in no way audible, fortunately. The trans-port did not take well to CDs that were not perfect. It could play track 31 on our Pierre Verany test CD, the one with a 1 mm slice through it. The next track (1.25 mm) triggered intermittent muting. Unlike the bulletproof CD-12, the Unidisk is sensitive to vibration, and striking it even gently causes the laser to mistrack. Well over a quarter of a century ago, Linn earned fame and a permanent niche in the audiophile pantheon with the Linn Sondek turntable. It was expensive by the standards of that day, and yet it didn’t look expensive, with a plain wood plinth and a rather wobbly suspension. It had but one speed at a time many

turntables boasted four. Its arm didn’t even have a detachable headshell. What it could do, however, was play music in a more emotionally satisfying fashion than any turntable had done before. There is not a quality turntable made today whose designer does not owe thanks to Linn and the Linn Sondek. But we are in the digital age today. Amazingly enough, the little Scottish company that revolutionized the record player three decades ago has just done the same thing with digital.

I was thinking about the days when I was experimenting with my very first hi-fi system. I would make a major upgrade — or as major as one could make on a teenager’s allowance — and I’d want to listen to every one of my records over again. Of course it's been a long time since I've owned so few recordings this could possi-bly be an option, but listening to the Linn Unidisk reminded me of that era. For the first time in memory, I can pick any CD in my collection, and I feel excited about hearing it again. The Linn Unidisk is that good. Of course, SACD is another matter en-tirely. With the best ones, I can finally for-get that I’m listening to a digital reproduc-tion. Producing this astonishing machine really does propel Linn back where it once was: making the source component that can light the way for everyone else. Incidentally, Linn claims that the Unidisk does not sound as good with CDs as its CD12 player does. I’ve looked over my notes from our issue No. 56 listening ses-sion with the CD12, and you know what? I’m not sure Linn is right.

—Gerard Rejskind

What is high fidelity? What is the meaning of those two words juxtaposed? It should mean fidelity to the highest level…or, if you prefer, truth. In our tireless efforts to find that longed-for fidelity, that truth, we go through nu-merous hours of listening to components for quality systems. Oh, there are plenty of impressive products out there, CD players, turntables, and all the other parts that make up a serious audiophile’s music system, but this one sets itself totally apart. So here I am, once again forced to search for new words, adjectives I haven’t yet used to express my sentiments as pre-cisely as possible. Loquacious, sensitive and emotional as I am by nature, I shouldn’t be surprised to find that I’ve pretty well ex-hausted the list. There is but one adjective I had never yet dared to use: perfect! There it is. Unless and until someone shows me a player superior to this one, the Unidisk 1.1 is perfect. It is, I believe, the quintessence of high fidelity.

—Reine Lessard

When can you really say “This is it, I

shall look no further, I’m calling off the search, I’m just going to settle down and enjoy the music”? Well, I felt like saying that after the listening session with the Linn Unidisk 1.1. The constant improvement in players I’ve witnessed over the years has brought us to levels I could scarcely have imagined when those first CD players offered a silent background but steely-sounding strings. I never expected such transparency and sheer presence, such immediate contact with the musicians, as I’ve felt here. Barriers I never suspected fell between me and the music. A haze lifted where no haze had been — and that was just with CDs! With SACDs, words falter, impressions are hard to render. What sounded so rich became…well, richer, fuller with even more detail and sweet refinement. The sound didn’t appear to come just from the speak-ers, it enveloped them and filled the air ef-fortlessly. You haven’t heard what I heard, but you know how that feels with live mu-sic. With a player like the Unidisk, one could live happily ever after. (Or, until…)

—Albert Simon

CROSSTALK

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allowance — and I’d want to listen to every one of my records over again. Of course it's been a long time since I've owned so few recordings this could possi-bly be an option, but listening to the Linn Unidisk reminded me of that era. For the first time in memory, I can pick any CD in my collection, and I feel excited about hearing it again. The Linn Unidisk is that

Of course, SACD is another matter en-tirely. With the best ones, I can finally for-get that I’m listening to a digital reproduc-tion. Producing this astonishing machine really does propel Linn back where it once

the source component that can light the way for everyone else. Incidentally, Linn claims that the Unidisk does not sound as good with CDs as its CD12 player does. I’ve looked over my notes from our issue No. 56 listening ses-sion with the CD12, and you know what?

In our tireless efforts to find that longed-for fidelity, that truth, we go through nu-merous hours of listening to components for quality systems. Oh, there are plenty of impressive products out there, CD players, turntables, and all the other parts that make up a serious audiophile’s music system, but this one sets itself totally apart. So here I am, once again forced to search for new words, adjectives I haven’t yet used to express my sentiments as pre-cisely as possible. Loquacious, sensitive and emotional as I am by nature, I shouldn’t be surprised to find that I’ve pretty well ex-hausted the list. There is but one adjective I had never yet dared to use: perfect! There it is. Unless and until someone shows me a player superior to this one, the Unidisk 1.1 is perfect. It is, I believe, the quintessence of high fidelity.

—Reine Lessard

Linn Unidisk 1.1. The constant improvement in players I’ve witnessed over the years has brought us to levels I could scarcely have imagined when those first CD players offered a silent background but steely-sounding strings. I never expected such transparency and sheer presence, such immediate contact with the musicians, as I’ve felt here. Barriers I never suspected fell between me and the music. A haze lifted where no haze had been — that was just with CDs! With SACDs, words falter, impressions are hard to render. What sounded so rich became…well, richer, fuller with even more detail and sweet refinement. The sound didn’t appear to come just from the speak-ers, it enveloped them and filled the air ef-fortlessly. You haven’t heard what I heard, but you know how that feels with live mu-sic. With a player like the Unidisk, one

The truth about the Linn Unidisk

Is this the only review available of this new “everything” player? Hardly. But we

dare to think that it offers more real-life information than those of…well, you

know who.

And when you’re even thinking of dropping this much money on a player, you

want to get the best advice you can. Find out what we thought of the Unidisk as

a CD player, as an SACD player, as a DVD-A player, and of course as a movie

player.

Oh yes…and can it take on a top-grade analog system? The truth in UHF.


It can hardly help looking familiar. It is a near lookalike of the Shan-ling CD-T100 that turned heads on our issue No. 66 cover. We fi gured

you could have bought it for looks alone, though in fact there were other reasons to consider it. The SCD-T200 is of course an SACD player as well as a CD deck. That extra functionality aside, the similarities are striking. The analog gain stage also uses four tubes, though with direct-output jacks allowing you to bypass the tubes if you want them just for show. The headphone jack is still there, and the build quality is still of a level that must give the competition nightmares. An electronic volume control is still included, allowing direct connection to a power amplifi er. This player still comes with an upscale power cord which includes a Schurter IEC connector and a Hubbell hospital-grade AC plug. Oh yes…and the jacks are st ill marked “made in USA.” We love the irony! There are some styling differences if you look closely. The rings around the tubes are now acrylic rather than resonance-prone sheet metal, and there

are only two of them per tube, making them more easily removable for tube swaps. Though the metal fi nish of our player recalled that of the CD player, the distributor tells us more recent produc-tion models have an all-stainless fi nish, without those warm copper and brass accents. Shanling has recycled some aging Sony technology, including the trans-port Sony used in its original C$8000 SACD player. Anything wrong with that? Just one thing: the Shanling is strictly a two-channel machine. Forget surround sound. When you read that, one of two things probably happened: either your turned the page, or you shrugged. For our part, we’re with the shruggers. The SACD standard, like the DVD-A stan-dard for that matter, has made surround sound extraordinarily inaccessible. The

digital output will feed you a Red Book data stream, but it will not give you access to the SACD info, which means you can’t have surround sound unless you own a preamplifi er, integrated amplifi er or receiver with at least one six-channel input. Yes, they make such things now, and some of them are even quite good. A lot of audiophiles, however, have been known to express the view that if God had mean us to have 5.1 channels, He would have given us more ears. Forgive us if we choose to avoid getting into theological arguments. By the way, the demo disc included with the Shanling does have several multichannel tracks. Go fi gure. The SCD-T200 has several options besides the ones already mentioned. It can upsample CD sound into SACD ter-ritory, for one thing. The older machine also did that, and we disagreed as to the value, if any, added by such juggling. And it has buttons on both the top panel and the remote that allow you to play the CD layer on a hybrid SACD. Unfortunately, on some discs the Shanling went right to the CD layer instead of the higher resolution layer. There are front panel lights showing which layer is being

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Shanling SCD-T200

It plays SACD. It plays CD too. It could even be the player you’ve been waiting for.


played, and we wished they weren’t the same color. By the way, you can’t change between CD and SACD on the fl y. The player has to stop, get its bearings, and relaunch the track. This is true of all SACD players. Our machine was brand new, and we gave it about 100 hours of run-in time before installing it in our Alpha system, alongside our reference, the much more expensive Linn Unidisk 1.1 also reviewed in this issue. We then began the session with a set of regular Red Book CDs. The reason: we think most audiophiles will be reluctant to spend the money for this player unless it can do itself credit with the discs that make up the bulk of their collections. So how good a CD player is it? The first selection was Norman Dello Joio’s Fantasy on a Theme of Haydn (Klavier K11138), an unusually well-recorded CD with impressive brass and percussive effects. The opening tympani salvo didn’t quite push us back in our chairs the way it did on the Linn player, but it had plenty of power all the same. Everything was a bit reduced, with the woodwinds less realistic, and notably with less energy in the lower midrange. On the other hand we heard neither shrillness nor confusion. “This wouldn’t be too different from what our old reference player would have done,” said Gerard. We continued with an old favorite, Now the Green Blade Riseth (Proprius PRCD9093), an exceptional choral recording that can turn nasty in the wrong hands. It didn’t. It began well, with the solo fl ute especially attractive. The female choral voices were smooth and attractive as well, with the single exception of rather prominent (but happily undistorted) “S” sounds. We had some doubts about the bottom end. Certainly it wasn’t thin, as it often is with inadequate CD players, but male voices had somewhat less body. Both the string bass and the organ in the fi nale suffered somewhat as well. Despite that, we were willing to give the Shanling good marks, aware as we were that our Linn player is a tough act to follow. “It’s an honorable result” said Albert. Our third and fi nal CD selection

was Soft Lights and Sweet Music from Margie Gibson’s Say It With Music disc. The song opens with an introduction by the piano, which sounded very good, if not quite as subtle and refined as with the Linn. Gibson’s voice still gave us goosebumps as she slid among the notes. She was very much present in the room with us. Most players give her “S” sounds a little too much emphasis, and the Shanling did that too. Still, we were pleased with what we heard. “It’s honorable,” suggested Gerard, smiling, and we all laughed. So far so good. Now for its talents as an SACD player. Sorry, but here comes the Latin again. Check out the complete print issue, which can be ordered on line. Gerard was a little less pleased, findi Adigna facidunt nullamet, se delesti ncidunt prat, veliquis at. Ute digna augue delis nim volore tat. Ure corem velis adiam, sequisl euis augiam, quat non henim vel ullaorem er am nos nonsenis at aliquatuero. Mincidui tem quis dolutpate min veliquate tat nibh essecte dui tin venit iniatue voloree tumsan vendre tisci ex ercilit praesto dolore dit nim euguer sequipit nostin ut ero enibh eugiametue min ver sisit, sit alit irilism odolore feum dunt aut nis alit dunt autat. Duisci esequat nonsequ ipsuscidunt la conseq-uisim vel erit praesent inis augiat, quam, commodit adipiscilisl diam acilluptatio enit utpate feu feu faci tem nos dolenis niat la alisim volobor incip et wisi blaore estrud dolore feugait ute feum duis aliqui

blan ute minissi tet vullam veliquipit nostio odit dit ero od el eugiam, consecte magna commy nostrud eugait ad tem init, volore feugue do dolore vullaor per-ciniamet veraesed tat wis nulla faci eugue min ex ex ex eu feu faciliquat. Ex eugiam, quat alisim er susci tat nonse doloreetue facilit essecte molor accum dolore dipit ut am, consecte tat. Met pratie dit il dionsequis nulput aliquat acing ex et lore duisi blaor am vullandre dolorting ex exerat, cor init iriureet vel et, suscil dip et nim ilit lam, quis aut vel esed dolor sit nit del il dunt am am zzrillandre ent alisim veniam quis do doloreetue vul-lute magna feugait ad doloreet, con erit aliqui tem inim dolorti onullam coreros do conse min utat ad te faciliquipit autem alit autem ip ex ea facipit volenit ad magniate exer susto dipsustio eugait utpat, volore consequat. Del iurem vel incing eu feugait, quipsusto et, quisl ilit dunt do eugait aci tem dolore consecte tat, volorem zzriliquam, summodiam, consenit lortion hendio odolupt atetuer si. Nullam diat. Ipit pratet, sed tat vercin hent dolor iriustrud magnit prat. Gue mod tie eu facincil ent ad et wisis at alis alit wis ex eummod esto el eum quiscil dunt ipit, quisi. Ud tetum venis aut aut ad tem eugait iniat nulputatet, consequis ad ea feuguer-aessi exer ing etum duisit lumsandreet pratiscing esto eu faccccummod magnim zzrit lore eum zzrilla faccumm odigna feugiam, vel er sit autpat. Dui bla faccum do euismodolore magna faciduisl utat wis autpat, quat el

Listening Room


dit wisit, sequat am iusci tionsequi tat, si. Ut wiscin henis eum irit, velessis adit ad et in exerilis augue modoloboreet wisi. Irit lum nulla feugiamcore minis alit lorerci llaore doleniam, vercilit il ut luptat la consed dipisi tio odionsequis exeraesed magna feuis adiam, conulla metuer inis dit velit, cor il utet, commy nosto coreet lor sustrud duissismod tate-tummy nulla facin etum verosto odignis acipsusto odolorper si. Mincillandre vel ipismod min eugiam volestis nos nim esto dit laor sim ad tat, cor in ut irit adit in vulla feummod olorem aut at. Putat nis augiat. Ugait nos augait velestie faciduis nummy nonsed del il enisisi sciduipsum alit atumsandit vullaor eratummy nim volessectet num el ut dolorero conullaore diatum iurem alit lumsan exerci blam, vercipisi blamet

nummy nullut venis numsan henim doloreet nos ea adio ea aut ilis elit, sed erit praesto od tatinci tio eliqui tat. Aci elenim zzrit lorperat. Wis accummod doloreriure tat. Borem zzriuscipsum dionsenim zzriliq uamconulla consed dolor send-reros nostrud tet alis augiam dolummy nostrud mod modo exerius cillut vel

duismod ming eros nullupt atismoleniam iusto consenisl dunt ullandre tat prat, quat. Henissi smoloboreet, sequatet lore core facilla ndiatum quatie vullutpatum alit ea corem doloreet laor sed tat in velit la core verat niam vulla faccum eros ent autat. Adigna facidunt nullamet, se delesti ncidunt prat, veliquis at. Ute digna augue delis nim volore tat. Ure corem velis adiam, sequisl euis augiam, quat non henim vel ullaorem er am nos nonsenis at aliquatuero. Irit lum nulla feugiamcore minis alit lorerci llaore doleniam, vercilit il ut luptat la consed dipisi tio odionsequis exeraesed magna feuis adiam, conulla metuer inis dit velit, cor il utet, commy nosto coreet lor sustrud duissismod tate-tummy nulla facin etum verosto odignis acipsusto odolorper si. Ut wiscin henis eum.

This Shanling can be a terrific deal, or a really poor buy, depending on your situa-tions. If you want surround sound, or if you think you may want surround sound in the next few years, you might as well scratch this unit off your list right now. And if you also need to have it play movies, this is not the player for you either. But there’s another possibility. Perhaps you’re looking for a reasonably good mod-ern player for your (possibly) vast CD col-lection, and yet you’re thinking that you want to be ready for any future deluge of Super Audio recordings. Here’s a player that will do justice to those superior discs, and will possibly play CDs better than your present player can. As if that weren’t enough, it can look

great doing it. Of course, its looks is not a factor…or is it?

—Gerard Rejskind

It’s comforting to know that you can have a grasp on the future, that you can en-joy your CD collection with a marked im-provement over previous generation play-ers, while already nibbling at the edges of the coming SACD harvest. You can probably find other CD players with that special definition and excellent rendition of voices, with bass as solid and midrange as sweet, but with this one you can just replace your CD that just played with an SACD, and without a blink this player will leap forward in quality and let you hear the wonderful sound of things to come.

You’ll probably find it hard to wait for more SACD selections to appear, but you’ll be ready.

—Albert Simon

Comparing this player to our reference, I certainly noted some imperfections, but they are slight enough not to affect musi-cality. There is a bit of restraint in the lower frequencies, and also a touch of sibilance in vocal passages. On the other hand, I can talk about a good image, interesting depth, and an ex-cellent dynamic range. What I think makes it especially appealing is its ability to repro-duce a multitude of details and the remark-able energy with all music. It got me totally involved.

—Reine Lessard

CROSSTALK

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Brand/model: Shanling SCD-T200Price: C$3499/US$2695Dimensions: 43 x 30 x14.5 cm Most liked: Very good performance on both kinds of discsLeast liked: No provision for multichannelVerdict: Take away the SACD capability, and it’s still a contender

Summing it up…

augait velestie faciduis nummy nonsed del il enisisi sciduipsum alit atumsandit vullaor eratummy nim volessectet num el ut dolorero conullaore diatum iurem alit lumsan exerci blam, vercipisi blamet

metuer inis dit velit, cor il utet, commy nosto coreet lor sustrud duissismod tate-tummy nulla facin etum verosto odignis acipsusto odolorper si. Ut wiscin henis eum.

This Shanling can be a terrific deal, or a really poor buy, depending on your situa-

If you want surround sound, or if you want surround sound in the

next few years, you might as well scratch this unit off your list right now. And if you also need to have it play movies, this is not

But there’s another possibility. Perhaps you’re looking for a reasonably good mod-

great doing it. Of course, its looks is not a factor…or is it?

—Gerard Rejskind

It’s comforting to know that you can have a grasp on the future, that you can en-joy your CD collection with a marked im-provement over previous generation play-ers, while already nibbling at the edges of the coming SACD harvest. You can probably find other CD players

You’ll probably find it hard to wait for more SACD selections to appear, but you’ll be ready.

—Albert Simon

Comparing this player to our reference, I certainly noted some imperfections, but they are slight enough not to affect musi-cality. There is a bit of restraint in the lower frequencies, and also a touch of sibilance in vocal passages.

CROSSTALK

Least liked: No provision for multichannelVerdict: Take away the SACD capability, and it’s still a contenderstill a contenderstill

Looking at SACD? Need advice?You probably do, as did we until we adopted a reference player and began ex-

ploring for ourselves.This is the fi rst of the SACD and universal players to be wrung out by UHF,

with advice of the sort we would give to our best friends. With technology

changing so fast, this would be a terrifi c time to pick up a subscription to UHF.

The information is one page 3 (page 5 of the PDF), and you can order on line

for faster delivery.


S mall speakers are often better than big speakers, but what you should know about this tall loudspeaker from the Bel-

gian company Equation is that this is its small speaker. Actually, there is a slightly smaller one (the model 7) but even it’s tall. Want a mini-monitor? See somebody else. However the imposing cabinet can’t hide the fact that it is not one of those huge speakers that could fi ll a meet-ing hall. It is a two-way speaker, with an 18 cm woofer cone, not enough to

give you bragging rights in the locker room. The cone’s grey color suggests polyethylene, though in fact it is an alloy of magnesium and titanium. The highs are provided by a German-made ceramic

tweeter. The series crossover requires only a single pair of binding posts, which are from WBT. If the components suggest luxury, so does the cabinetry. No lightweight stuff here. Each speaker weighs close to 50 kg, though it is considerably lighter once you remove the grille unit (the speakers is designed to sound best with it in place, however). The remarkable fi nish on ours was what is described as “pinched maple,” whose distinctive dots are the result of an insect parasite. The Equations arrived at a propitious time: we were searching for a speaker to replace our long-time Alpha refer-ence, the 3a MS5. The sheer size of the speakers gave us pause, but even a casual listen revealed that there was magic coming from those big boxes. We knew what we wanted from our new reference speakers, and we knew we were hearing it. Perhaps… But a lot of listening was needed before we could arrive at what would have to be an anonymous decision. We had been warned that the ceramic tweeter would require a lot of breakin time. We interpreted that to mean some 200 hours, and then we proceeded to our fi rst listening session. We started with the LP version of Façade, William Walton’s remarkable tone poem, which has so many solo instruments that it could serve as a test all by itself. We listened eagerly for the piccolo in the opening tableau, since it sounds shrill on all but a very few speak-ers, and it is very shrill on our reference. Alas, it was sharper than it should be on the Equations too, with the soloist seeming to take fi ve giant steps toward us as he moved up the scale. But there was good news to report as well. After its solo trills, the piccolo continues to play behind the clarinet, where it is completely hidden on nearly all speakers. Not on the Equations. “There’s more of the piccolo," said Reine, “There’s more of the bassoon too.” Indeed, nearly all of the instruments were admirably rendered, but it was the interplay of them all that was especially thrilling. This highly accessible but modern musical suite is full of surprising dissonances, complex counterpoints and

Listening RoomEquation 25 MkII

A contender for one of our reference systems, and you know what? It nearly made it.


ironic twists. The Equations seemed to understand it all. The music was helped by the fi ne detail emerging from the Equations. We could hear way, way back to the rear of the hall, and the fi nesse of the reproduction also gave plausibility to the instrumental timbres. “Even the snare drum manages to sound lyrical,” said Gerard. We continued with Gossamer from Amanda McBroom’s West of Oz direct-cut album. “It’s just as you said about the snare drum,” said Albert. “Even the percussion is musical” As for the singer, she was like a spectre emerging from the shadows and walking toward us. Eerie…and wonderful at the same time. Another of our recordings dem-onstrates dramatically how much raw acoustic energy can be produced by a single grand piano. Chopin’s Scherzo No. 2 (on an RCA Japan direct-cut LP) can sound startlingly realistic, and that’s how the Equations made it sound. “You can follow all those tiny little notes in among the powerful chords,” said Reine, who plays Chopin herself and knows this piece well. “If he were here in the room, this is exactly what you’d hear.” The others two nodded in agreement. We know that what most people identify as “clarity” can actually be an artifi cial hardness, but that wasn’t the case here. Can the Equations rock? In a room like the one our Alpha system is in, they sure can. We slipped the original pressing of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon onto our Audiomeca J-1 turntable, to determine how the speakers handle power. You may recall that using this record-ing has in the past shown up limitations in our previous reference speakers, the 3a MS5’s. Though the 3a’s are matchless in reproducing deep bass and impact, they are less convincing in the midrange, where the top layer of music hides the

other layers…and Lord knows there are lots of layers on that famous recording! We had heard how the Living Voice speakers could “peel back” the layers so we could hear what was underneath. The Equations are good at this too. A lot happens back there, and not much of it remained a mystery. This recording also contains plenty of powerful bass, some (though not all) of it from synthetizers. It’s easy for that stuff to take on an artifi cial “hi-fi ” char-acter, or even to boom like an empty beer barrel. The percussion did not have the sheet impact it had with the 3a speakers, but it certainly wasn’t thin, nor was it anemic. The sound was spacious, full, and even vast, seeming to extend way beyond the room’s physical boundar-ies. Reine appreciated the voice effects for their clarity. Gerard found the voices a little too bright, and even surprisingly sibilant, but the overall effect was…well, impressive! Switching from the turntable to our CD player, we listened to the cel-ebrated Stravinsky Firebird on Reference Recordings. We fi gured the Equations would handle the fi nale all right, includ-ing that now legendary bass drum, but what we wondered was whether it could render the ethereal magic of the soft passages. It could, and it did. We held our

breaths during the sequence that sees the Firebird rise up from its ashes. “You can see the bird,” said Reine. We ended the session with Karina Gauvin’s astonishing Alleluia from her Analekta CD of Vivaldi motets (FL 2 3099). There wasn’t much to say, beyond the long-known fact that Gauvin has an awesome voice (in the true sense of that overused word). The Tafelmusik orchestra sounded majestic. Albert thought that the height of the speakers helped Gauvin sound as though she were in the room rather than shut into a little box. By now you know that fi nally we did not select the Equations as a new refer-ence. They are, fi nally, too large for our room. What’s more, this is a room with a dormer window, which means the top part of the outer wall is canted. The ceramic tweeter in the tall Equation was rather close to that canted wall. Indeed, the height of the speakers kept us from placing them the way we would have liked. We brought back the Living Voice speakers, and we were unanimous: the Equations are very good, but they weren’t quite right for the room. But how would they do in a larger room? “You know,” said Albert, “if we hadn’t been considering them as a pos-sible Alpha reference, we never would have brought them into this room. We really need to listen to them in the Omega room. They’ll be more at ease there.” Not quite, as it turned out. If the Alpha room is small for them, the Omega room is a little on the large side (about 4.9 x 10 meters, with 3 m ceil-ing). For the fi nal session we pulled out three SACDs, which we ran through our Linn Unidisk player. The fi rst selection was Needed Time from Eric Bibb’s Spirit and the Blues (Opus 3 CD19411). The Equations did well, though with a bit less bottom end than our Reference 3a

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Brand/model: Equation 25 MkIIPrice: C$9790/US$7390Dimensions: 151 x 30 x 26 cmSensitivity: 89 dBImpedance: 7.2 ohmsMost liked: Clarity and magicLeast liked: Dynamic limits greater than the size would suggestVerdict: Give it the right-sized room, and expect great things

Summing it up…


Listening Room

Suprema speakers. “These are tough speakers to beat,” mused Reine. Still, the Equations, at about half the price, did not disgrace themselves. They did less well with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 (Pentatone 5186 102). Through our own speakers this disc came awesomely close to yielding the impression we had bought expensive seats in a good hall. We were surprised to hear the Equations straining to fi ll the space. Yet the reason was clear: despite their generous cabinet size, these are two-way speakers, better suited to rooms perhaps half the size of ours. Or perhaps to more reasonable levels. Or perhaps to sources with less energy. We ended with a jazz piece, Comes Love, from the SACD version of Opus 3’s Showcase (CD21000). This is a number that stops conversations whenever we play it for visitors. How would the Equa-tions handle it?

Not perfectly in fact. Once again we could hear that the speakers would have preferred a smaller room. What’s more, the clarinet in the left channel didn’t sound like the real thing. “Is there a phase error?” Gerard wondered. “Let’s get a look at the results of the technical tests.” Sure enough, the 100 Hz square wave (shown in the middle graph on the previous page) didn’t look quite right, with a doubling of the vertical riser that suggests that the signals from the woofer and tweeter are not arriving together. But if that’s the case, why did we not hear the effect in the Alpha room? Could it be that the superior resolution of our SACD player (which we had not used in the earlier test) was showing up artifacts that had not been evident before? Yet, the earlier test had been done in part with LPs, not exactly a slam dunk either. The Equations did well on the other

tests. The trace at the extreme left shows a 37 Hz sine wave, looking much cleaner than we are used to seeing at this very low frequency. Overall response (shown at right) is generally excellent, with only two notable dips, one at 600 Hz, and the other an octave up at 1200 Hz. Clearly, these speakers are made by people who don’t follow the usual rules. Speakers this big, the rules say, have to be able to play loud enough to fi ll an amphitheatre. They need more drivers. They need to accommodate biwiring. They have to be made to sound best with the grilles off. That’s not the way the Equation designers see things. To tell you the truth, we never cared much for those rules either. But what we heard from these unusual speakers was very good at worst, thrilling at best. Though they didn’t make it into our reference system, it would be easy to rate them as reference quality.

The first time I heard music through these speakers, one word came to my mind: refinement. I think it was the wealth of details that appeared, or it could have been the delicate treatment each sound seemed to receive — including the numerous non-musical sounds which helped locate the performers in space. There was depth well beyond what I had expected. I have since discovered they are finicky too. Expecting the best, I was surprised to hear them treat some voices and large orchestral textures with a certain amount of hardness, especially when they reached a higher pitch. And then, unexpectedly, the next piece sounded just fine, and I was impressed again with their ability to reveal the finest details, creating a firm image and uncovering the depth of the stage on which the recording took place. Their height is a definite advantage, especially if you prefer to hear singers and musicians standing tall and proud. My feeling is that they seem to be extremely sensitive to the rest of the audio components they are linked to. They have the potential to be truly great speakers but you’ll have to hear them with audio equip-ment that closely matches yours before you

can form an opinion, and with your music too. The key words, in this case, are: you’ll have to hear them. They do possess a unique personality worth discovering.

—Albert Simon

Before me is a pair of tall, svelte, elegant speakers. Impressive, in short. The first sounds to reach my ears charm me by their exemplary clarity, the way sound spreads out in every dimension. But my plea-sure doesn’t stop there. I feel as though the musicians and singers are right there, before me. On every recording, impact is striking, and rhythm is flawless. A thousand modula-tions and inflections take me by surprise, as does a bevy of other, subtle, effects that lesser speakers could never reproduce. On human voice, to select an example, you don’t just divine a musician’s sensitivity, you can actually feel it. Timbres are so gor-geous they make your spine tingle. Percus-sion is incisive, and that is especially true of the snare drum, which came and touched me with a power that is all too rare. I must also praise the exceptional mid-range. These advantages help compensate a hint of brightness on a violin or a piccolo that has wandered into the upper registers. Too

bad for them! I must admit my ear is rather sensitive to those high notes, but it isn’t on all recordings that the problem even exists. I’d have to add that, following the ses-sions in two different rooms, it seems evident that they would be at their peak performance in an average-sized room.

—Reine Lessard

I suppose I need hardly mention that these speakers are not for everyone, or rather not for every room. Small rooms will make them sound overly bright. Very big rooms will make them work harder than they really want to. But oh, the way they could sound in those in-between rooms, the sort most people have! The bottom end is clean and full, drawing maximum advantage of that large cabinet. The top end can be sweet and limpid, and the midrange can delight you with its transparency. Lots of speakers can do that, of course. What makes a great speaker is what appears to be magic: music that somehow seems greater than the sonic elements that make it up. In the right room, the Equations have it.

—Gerard Rejskind

CROSSTALK


We just look at this speaker, and already it seems familiar. Our Omega reference system uses

Reference 3a’s Suprema speakers. This new model looks for all the world like the top part of the Suprema, lacking only the subwoofer base. On the other hand, it also looks like the company’s MM De Capo (see UHF No, 67), which costs about half the price. The natural question for a wary shopper to ask is whether the extra money is just for the fancy Corian fi nish, and possibly for the chromed road cases the speakers come in? The answer to that question, we may as well tell you right off, is no. Despite the evident similarities, this is a different speaker, and its performance is pretty much in line with its price. But let’s begin at the beginning. The fi rst version of this speaker was developed some 15 years ago in France by Daniel Dehay for a then-inexpensive

model known as the MM (which stood for Mini Monitor). Simplicity was its hallmark. The cabinet was small — though not as small as it looked in pictures — and could therefore be made rigid. The front was canted forward, partly to reduce the formation of internal standing waves, and partly to compen-sate for time differences between the two drivers. The woofer was relatively large and therefore robust, but its cone was made from light materials (namely carbon fi bre) so that it could move and stop fast. The crossover network was reduced to the absolute basics: a single series capacitor (split into two capacitors in the modern version) to keep low-fre-quency signals from blowing the tweeter. The woofer was direct-coupled to the

amplifi er, with nothing in between but cable. The original MM had astonishing performance, with dynamic and even explosive performance, and bottom-end fl owthrough that actually caused some show visitors to accuse Dehay of having concealed a subwoofer behind a curtain. Years passed. Dehay’s company was sold to Spanish interests, which didn’t make a go of it. He started his new com-pany (actually his third), Reference 3a, in Switzerland. It was there he designed the Suprema speaker we use in our Omega system. The top part of the Suprema looked rather like the MM, though its performance was in a totally different category. Looks ain’t everything. When Dehay retired, the company became Canadian. It relaunched the Mini Monitor as the MM De Capo. And now the Royal Virtuoso appears to be a resurrection of the Suprema…less its subwoofer base.

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Reference 3a Royal Virtuoso

A renewed version of an old favorite. And we do mean favorite!


What determines the price of a speaker? The two major factors are the materials and the labor. The Refer-ence 3a’s distinctive (and once unique) carbon woofer is hand-built. The central “phase plug” (which reduces cancellation of signals from different sides of the cone) is also hand-crafted. The tweeter is individually matched to the woofer after each has had 72 hours of burn-in. The cabinet is even more rigid than the origi-nal, with Dupont’s synthetic marble-like Corian all around (our Supremas had Corian sides). The internals have been further braced, with a damper called a Vibra-Puck behind the woofer. Internal wiring is from Van den Hul. The Cardas connectors work well only if your cables have spades. The instruction manual refers to “binding posts,” and the company’s Web site shows the speaker with what resemble WBT posts. Because our cables have bananas, we used a set of Prisma gold-plated spades as adapters. Not ideal. The company recommends not toeing in the speakers. In a departure from common practice, the Royal Vir-tuosos are meant to be placed with the tweeters displaced toward the outside, rather than the inside as one would assume. Despite the claim of 72 hours of burn-in at the factory, we gave our speakers as much time again, before placing them on our Foundation stands and listen-ing to them in our Alpha system. The 61 cm (24") height of the stands is about right for the Royal Virtuosos, which are slanted up toward the listener. We opened the session with some LPs, starting with a frequent favorite, William Walton’s Façade (RR-16). Not only do its shifting tableaux include a lot of different solo instruments, but its explosive introduction, which includes a cymbal, snare drum and pic-colo, is enough to make most speakers stumble.

The Royal Virtuosos…well, we’d like to tell you how they did, and if you check out our print issue we will. We now return to our regular Latin text! Mincidui tem quis dolutpate min veliquate tat nibh essecte dui tin venit iniatue voloree tumsan vendre tisci ex ercilit praesto dolore dit nim euguer sequipit nostin ut ero enibh eugiametue min ver sisit, sit alit irilism odolore feum dunt aut nis alit dunt autat. Duisci esequat nonsequ ipsuscidunt la conseq-uisim vel erit praesent inis augiat, quam, commodit adipiscilisl diam acilluptatio enit utpate feu feu faci tem nos dolenis niat la alisim volobor incip et wisi blaore estrud dolore feugait ute feum duis aliqui blan ute minissi tet vullam veliquipit nostio odit dit ero od el eugiam, consecte magna commy nostrud eugait ad tem init, volore feugue do dolore vullaor per-ciniamet veraesed tat wis nulla faci eugue min ex ex ex eu feu faciliquat. Ex eugiam, quat alisim er susci tat nonse doloreetue facilit essecte molor accum dolore dipit ut am, consecte tat. Met pratie dit il dionsequis nulput aliquat acing ex et lore duisi blaor am vullandre dolorting

ex exerat, cor init iriureet vel et, suscil dip et nim ilit lam, quis aut vel esed dolor sit nit del il dunt am am zzrillandre ent alisim veniam quis do doloreetue vul-lute magna feugait ad doloreet, con erit aliqui tem inim dolorti onullam coreros do conse min utat ad te faciliquipit autem alit autem ip ex ea facipit volenit ad magniate exer susto dipsustio eugait utpat, volore consequat. Del iurem vel incing eu feugait, quipsusto et, quisl ilit dunt do eugait aci tem dolore consecte tat, volorem zzriliquam, summodiam, consenit lortion hendio odolupt atetuer si. Nullam diat. Ipit pratet, sed tat vercin hent dolor iriustrud magnit prat. Gue mod tie eu facincil ent ad et wisis at alis alit wis ex eummod esto el eum quiscil dunt ipit, quisi. Ud tetum venis aut aut ad tem eugait iniat nulputatet, consequis ad ea feuguer-aessi exer ing etum duisit lumsandreet pratiscing esto eu faccccummod magnim zzrit lore eum zzrilla faccumm odigna feugiam, vel er sit autpat. Dui bla faccum do euismodolore magna faciduisl utat wis autpat, quat el dit wisit, sequat am iusci tionsequi tat, si. Ut wiscin henis eum irit, velessis adit ad et in exerilis augue modoloboreet wisi. Irit lum nulla feugiamcore minis alit lorerci llaore doleniam, vercilit il ut luptat la consed dipisi tio odionsequis exeraesed magna feuis adiam, conulla metuer inis dit velit, cor il utet, commy nosto coreet lor sustrud duissismod tate-tummy nulla facin etum verosto odignis acipsusto odolorper si. Mincillandre vel ipismod min eugiam volestis nos nim esto dit laor sim ad tat, cor in ut irit adit in vulla feummod olorem aut at. Putat nis augiat. Ugait nos augait velestie faciduis nummy nonsed del il enisisi sciduipsum alit atumsandit vullaor eratummy nim volessectet num el ut dolorero conullaore diatum iurem

Listening Room

Reference 3a Royal Virtuoso


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alit lumsan exerci blam, vercipisi blamet nummy nullut venis numsan henim doloreet nos ea adio ea aut ilis elit, sed erit praesto od tatinci tio eliqui tat. Aci elenim zzrit lorperat. Wis accummod doloreriure tat. Borem zzriuscipsum dionsenim zzriliq uamconulla consed dolor send-reros nostrud tet alis augiam dolummy nostrud mod modo exerius cillut vel duismod ming eros nullupt atismoleniam iusto consenisl dunt ullandre tat prat, quat. Henissi smoloboreet, sequatet lore core facilla ndiatum quatie vullutpatum alit ea corem doloreet laor sed tat in velit la core verat niam vulla faccum eros ent autat. Adigna facidunt nullamet, se delesti ncidunt prat, veliquis at. Ute digna augue delis nim volore tat. Ure corem velis adiam, sequisl euis augiam, quat non henim vel ullaorem er am nos nonsenis at aliquatuero. Borem zzriuscipsum dionsenim zzriliq uamconulla consed dolor send-reros nostrud tet alis augiam dolummy

nostrud mod modo exerius cillut vel duismod ming eros nullupt atismoleniam iusto consenisl dunt ullandre tat prat, quat. Henissi smoloboreet, sequatet lore core facilla ndiatum quatie vullutpatum alit ea corem doloreet laor sed tat in velit la core verat niam vulla faccum eros ent autat. Adigna facidunt nullamet, se delesti ncidunt prat, veliquis at. Ute digna augue

delis nim volore tat. Ure corem velis adiam, sequisl euis augiam, quat non henim vel ullaorem er am nos nonsenis at aliquatuero. Borem zzriuscipsum dionsenim zzriliq uamconulla consed dolor send-reros nostrud tet alis augiam dolummy nostrud mod modo exerius cillut vel duismod ming eros nullupt atismoleniam iusto consenisl dunt ullandre tat prat, quat. Henissi smoloboreet, sequatet lore core facilla ndiatum quatie vullutpatum alit ea corem doloreet laor sed tat in velit la core verat niam vulla faccum eros ent autat. Adigna facidunt nullamet, se delesti ncidunt prat, veliquis at. Ute digna augue delis nim volore tat. Ure corem velis adiam, sequisl euis augiam, quat non henim vel ullaorem er am nos nonsenis at aliquatuero. Borem zzriuscipsum dionsenim zzriliq uamconulla consed dolor send-reros nostrud tet alis augiam dolummy nostrud mod modo exerius cillut vel duismod ming eros.

Faccum eugiat, voloborero eugue vel-iqui tet, sim velendreet loborem dolortis dunt laor inis digna feugiat. Em ad molore dolorem velit wisl dolese do exeriustrud eros ea commodit ip eugait luptat nibh endre do conullaore estie magniat. Adio od tem del dio dit ad eu faciduipit adiamet dolesequat lor sit ad dolorpe rostie mod dio odiamet umsandre tem dolorer susci blandrem iril utet et velenim nonsectet, verit laor sustrud dolorero duis accumsan vel utat, venit lan-dips ustrud eu feuisci blan ulput velit luptatet aute del ea feum vel utpat. Ut lore commy nulla faciduisi.

Patue euismolorem ad te consequat lumsan vulla at lor se feum il etum iusci blaore modolenim dolor ad dolutpat, com-modolorem quatum zzrit wis nim at alit at adiamco nulluptat. Ut lore do enisl exeros del esto ex ea core tisit vel dolese faciliquate veliquisci tion ea cor autatem dipit aute feum aut ad tincipit utat luptat illuptat, qui te tatinci psummy nulputatio ex et iriurero core velisse quiscidunt am quipit vulla facilit landre consed magna augue molor il ero del utpat utpat la feugait lutet niamet wisi.

Wis eu feu faccum zzrillaore do dolent aciduipit lobore commolut augue magnis-mod modolen.

—Reine Lessard

Faccum eugiat, voloborero eugue vel-iqui tet, sim velendreet loborem dolortis dunt laor inis digna feugiat. Em ad molore dolorem velit wisl dolese do exeriustrud eros ea commodit ip eugait luptat nibh endre do conullaore estie magniat. Adio od tem del dio dit ad eu faciduipit adiamet dolesequat lor sit ad dolorpe rostie mod dio odiamet umsandre tem dolorer susci blandrem iril utet et velenim nonsectet, verit laor sustrud dolorero duis accumsan vel utat, venit lan-dips ustrud eu feuisci blan ulput velit luptatet aute del ea feum vel utpat. Ut lore commy nulla faciduisi.

Patue euismolorem ad te consequat lumsan vulla at lor se feum il etum iusci blaore modolenim dolor ad dolutpat, com-modolorem quatum zzrit wis nim at alit at adiamco nulluptat. Ut lore do enisl exeros del esto ex ea core tisit vel dolese faciliquate vel-iquisci tion ea cor autatem dipit aute feum aut

ad tincipit utat luptat illuptat, qui te tatinci psummy nulputatio ex et iriurero core velisse quiscidunt am quipit vulla facilit.

—Albert Simon

Wis eu feu faccum zzrillaore do dolent aciduipit lobore commolut augue magn-ismod modolen iamconsed eniatumsan hendreet nulla feummod dolorer sit in utpat lum dolessed te tat, sequat lortis dolorper in hendrem nos at vulputpatem alit lutatie magnisl dolore te do eum volestin hendipi smolutatum veliquisl ullamet volore tis et nulla faccum venis adit, sequipis at, sim volorer augiam.

Erillam, velenit nim eugiat, con eraesse te conummy nosto et, qui tat prat ip el el do do doloborem zzrilis dolobore vel il ullumsan eu facil enisi.

Aliquam etuerit ulla faccumsan elestrud minci blandre miniamconse vulla adit at irit acilit diam ipis dit, consequ ismolobortio consequipit vero commy nullamet pratie volore feu feugait. non henibh etuero consed dionse

—Gerard Rejskind

CROSSTALK

Brand/model: Reference 3a Royal VirtuosoPrice: C$5600/US$4000Dimensions: 40 x 30 x 33 cmSensitivity: 92 dBImpedance: 8 ohmsMost liked: Borem zzriuscipsum dionsenim zzriliq uamconulla consed dolor sendreros nostrud tet alis augiam dolummy nostrud mod modo exerius cillut vel duismod ming eros nullupt.

Summing it up…


Listening Room

We recall hearing a pair of Wilson Benesch speak-ers some years ago at the Montreal show, and it

was the sort of experience that one talks about after: “Have you heard the…” This British company was originally known for turntables, not speakers. One aspect of its turntables that had grabbed everyone’s attention was the tone arm. It wasn’t steel, or aluminum, or even titanium, it was made from carbon fi bre. Truth to tell, Wilson Benesch was not alone in having fi gured out the advan-tages of carbon. Carbon is of course the building block of terrestrial life. It can also take on other forms, from coal to diamonds. It offers a rich portfolio of attractive qualities. It is light (in the sense that for a given volume it has low mass), it can be made very rigid despite its low mass,

and it is self-damping (it will not store energy for a long period, nor release it at audible frequencies). And carbon fi bre is fi nding its way into a lot of modern products. Race cars use carbon fi bre parts, as do some road cars, notably the Jaguar XKR. Motor-cycle panels and entire bicycle frames can be made of carbon. So are photo tripods, fishing rods, sailing masts, f lutes, violin bows, pens and battery plates. The tail of the Airbus A380 is made from carbon fi bre, and there is a radar-proof carbon stealth yacht on the drawing boards. Rumors have it Apple will make the next Mac PowerBook from

the stuff. Architect Peter Testa even wants to build an entire skyscraper from carbon fi bre. Of course the material has been incorporated into high end audio prod-ucts too. Tone arms aside, a number of manufacturers use woofer cones of woven carbon fi bres, including another speaker reviewed in this issue. And you’ll recall that Van den Hul brought out an entire line or audio cables using carbon fi bre instead of metal. The Wilson Benesch Curve uses this miracle material in two ways. Both its midrange driver and its woofer have cones made of woven carbon fi bre. The two drivers are the same diameter, 17 mm, but the weave is coarser on the woofer than on the midrange. And then the cabinet’s structure is shaped from a carbon fi bre matrix imbedded in epoxy. In this composite form, it is fi ve times stronger than steel, weight for weight. The Curve’s tweeter uses a silk dome, with a 2nd order crossover between it and the midrange. A gentler fi rst-order crossover separates woofer and mid-range. Crossover frequencies are not stated. The crossover uses polypropylene capacitors, and air-core inductors that are not prone to saturation. The speaker is certainly handsome. It might be easy to tip over were it not for the cast aluminum base which is per-manently fastened to the speaker body. The spikes themselves are gorgeously machined, with knurled knobs to make them easy to adjust from the top. The locking nuts can then be tightened with the supplied wrench. Because the Curves are of manage-able size, it seemed possible to try them within the reduced confi nes of our Alpha room, and that’s what we did fi rst. We began with one of our favorite test LPs, William Walton’s Façade, and we wondered whether we might have made a mistake bringing the Curves here. The piccolo in the introduction was shrill, but we’ve learned to tolerate that, at least if what follows is worth waiting for. And it was…to an extent. The amount of detail the Curves dug out was impressive, and Walton’s intricate counterpoints came out beautifully. So why weren’t we happy? “The impression it leaves me,” said Albert, “was that they

Wilson Benesch Curve

Diamonds are made from carbon. So are these loudspeakers.


have a certain liveliness, but a total lack of warmth.” We moved to a second LP, with a female voice, Mary Black’s No Frontiers. Something still wasn’t right. The rich-ness of detail was breathtaking, and the song’s message came through well, but Black’s voice was hard and cold. Yes, the bongos and the other percussion instruments were gratifyingly lifelike, but there had to be more. Should we change the speaker placement? We tried, but the dimensions and shape of the room don’t give us a lot of possibilities, and nothing we tried helped. We gave up, and decided to schedule another session with the Curves…in the much larger Omega room this time. And we quickly concluded that this was where these speakers belonged. For

one thing, they have the dynamic capa-bility even for this very large room, and at no time did we hear the Curves sound as though they were straining. They had clean and nearly endless punch. They still didn’t sound right when we positioned them the way we run our Suprema reference speaker, but a little experimentation allowed us to fi nd the sweet spot, nearer the wall. We pulled out some LPs and other recordings, and listened again. We began with The Song of Bernadette from Jennifer Warnes’ celebrated LP of Leonard Cohen songs, Famous Blue Raincoat. This wonderful recording can easily turn shrill, and that was what it did. Warnes’ voice was hard, the highs rather too prominent. One good mark came from Reine, who preferred the way that the Curves reproduced the piano.

We then returned to the Façade recording that had largely disappointed us in the smaller Alpha room. It was still brighter than we would have liked, but both Reine and Gerard found positive aspects. The counterpoint between the fl ute and the clarinet was breathtaking, and the recording’s sly humor came through unimpeded. “I got right into the music,” said Reine. Albert was less happy. “It’s like reading a book in which somebody has underlined all the inter-esting passages.” We turned to our SACD player, and slipped on the second last movement of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 (Penta-tone 5186 107). We quickly realized we had been wrong to suppose, after the brief session in the Alpha room, that the Curve might be weak in the extreme bass. On the contrary, the lower strings and the tympany were startlingly realis-tic even at very loud level. There was not a trace of the annoying low-end “bloom” we often hear, the result of cabinets storing energy and smearing what comes after. One result was that the rhythm of this agitated symphonic movement was quick and unimpeded. Nor were we able to venture anywhere near the speakers’ dynamic limits, short of risking struc-tural damage to the building. Yet the lower midrange remained too discreet, we judged, robbing the music of its warmth. The brass was impressive in its power, though with some sharp edges. We would have liked more substantial lower midrange, if we could have had it without also getting the opaque muck that speakers with lesser enclosures contribute. We were nervous about trying our

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female voice, Mary Black’s No Frontiers.Something still wasn’t right. The rich-ness of detail was breathtaking, and the song’s message came through well, but Black’s voice was hard and cold. Yes, the bongos and the other percussion instruments were gratifyingly lifelike, but there had to be more. Should we change the speaker placement? We tried, but the dimensions and shape of the room don’t give us a lot of possibilities, and nothing we tried helped. We gave up, and decided to schedule another session with the Curves…in the much larger Omega room this time.

as though they were straining. They had clean and nearly endless punch. They still didn’t sound right when we positioned them the way we run our Suprema reference speaker, but a little experimentation allowed us to fi nd the sweet spot, nearer the wall. We pulled out some LPs and other recordings, and listened again. We began with The Song of Bernadettefrom Jennifer Warnes’ celebrated LP of Leonard Cohen songs, Famous Blue Raincoat. This wonderful recording can easily turn shrill, and that was what it did. Warnes’ voice was hard, the highs rather too prominent. One good mark

We then returned to the recording that had largely disappointed us in the smaller Alpha room. It was still brighter than we would have liked, but both Reine and Gerard found positive aspects. The counterpoint between the fl ute and the clarinet was breathtaking, and the recording’s sly humor came through unimpeded. “I got right into the music,” said Reine. Albert was less

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ries, it has a difference.

Everything in it comes recommended. If we wouldn’t suggest it to our best

friends, we won’t suggest it to you.

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choral recording, Now the Green Blade Riseth (Proprius PRCD9093), but we need not have been. The fl ute in the opening passage was somewhat shriller than with our reference speakers, but the female and male voices were a revelation. We have heard this fi ne recording turn to annoying mush with some surpris-ingly expensive systems (“I’m going to start taking it with me to shows,” said Gerard), probably because so many speakers and amplifi ers can’t handle its quick dynamic peaks. Once again, the Curves showed that powerful signals are no challenge at all. We had little diffi culty distinguishing the individual voices, always a good sign. Only the fi nal crescendo was…well, hard. It often is, to be fair. Back to the turntable for The Secret of the Andes, whose dazzling succession of exotic percussion instruments is a tough test of the rigidity of a speaker enclosure. Would the Curves pass the test? Well of course they would, but we were pleasantly surprised to note that their competence extended to far more than just the percussion. Everything at the very bottom end, including the left hand piano chords, was superb, with power, control and quickness. There

was little sign of distortion. Individual sounds were pure and gorgeous. “It was worth listening this far,” commented Reine. We ended the session by returning to our SACD player, and Eric Bibb’s Needed Time (Opus 3 CD19411). We were happy with what we heard. The high resolution version of this recording is loaded with fi ne details, and the Curves reproduced them meticulously. The clarity made the song’s text all but telepathic. Of course, the recording didn’t really sound the way it did with our reference speakers. Bibb’s voice was a little brighter, and a little thinner too,

despite the quick and deep bottom end. The bottleneck guitar sounded changed, as well, but there was nothing going on that escaped our ears! Then it was off to the lab. We won-dered whether the frequency response curve, measured in our Alpha room, would show an imbalance. It didn’t, though curiously Wilson Benesch’s own graph (the blue one below ours) does show lower midrange rather below the top end. On the other hand, we did confirm that the speaker can handle lows with little effort. The photo at left on page 46, shows a 40 Hz tone at our reference level! Then again, the second photo on the same page shows a 220 Hz tone. The roughness, which was intermittent, is probably caused by a problem with an internal connection. The square wave (the third photo) is not bad, though the phase doesn’t look quite spot on. Wilson Benesch has gone to a good deal of trouble and expense to slay the age-old dragon of cabinet resonance. It has been successful, too, and we were left with the feeling that a little more tweaking would have brought up some real magic.

I’ll tell you what. Take the time to lis-ten to your music through these speakers. Carefully. Use most of your other compo-nents, if at all possible. If your music im-proves (compared to live, of course), and you discover real tight bass, a wealth of ad-ditional details and an impeccable rhythm, then get them. You need them, your system needs them. Ours didn’t. I noticed all the qualities I mentioned above, but they brought along other less desirable traits. “It’s a matter of taste,” an audiophile once said to me, about some other speakers. I don’t think so. Check what your system needs, not your taste.

—Albert Simon

I found some excellent qualities in these elegant speakers. The image is good, the lateral space generous, the depth excellent. The bottom end is at once solid and ample.

The speakers have an exemplary clarity that can no doubt be attributed to the carbon fibre cabinet’s anti-resonant properties. They can manage an exceptionally good separation of timbres. They’ve got impact, energy, flawless rhythm. Even in very fast music filled with varied and plentiful in-struments, I heard no confusion. They can do justice to complex counterpoints. So, with such a long list of qualities, why am I still unsatisfied? How can they let through such searing highs? The spectral balance is imperiled, with a lower midrange that seems nearly absent. It’s really too bad, and I’m convinced the designer could fix this. That would be enough to tip the Curves from their nearly perfect score to outright perfection.

—Reine Lessard

I’m perplexed by these speakers. I lis-

tened to them casually during their break-in period, and I heard what seemed like good reason to look forward to the review. And that’s despite the fact that we don’t use our best source to do equipment run-ins. There was such a sweetness to the music, and such control of the bottom end. This was going to be great! But in the end I wasn’t satisfied. Yes, the carbon fibre cabinets are wonderful, producing a sound that is tightly controlled without going all the way over to consti-pated, as with some other speakers I could name. The detail is superb. Only I always had the feeling the speakers were never quite placed right, or that they weren’t suit-ed to the room. We tried. Perhaps they’ll deliver their exciting promise in your room. We couldn’t get what we wanted in either of ours.

—Gerard Rejskind

CROSSTALK

Brand/model: Wilson Benesch CurvePrice: C$11,000Dimensions: 91 x 23 x 37 cmSensitivity: 88 dBImpedance: 6 ohms, 4 ohms mini-mumMost liked: Brilliant design, brilliant resultsLeast liked: Perhaps a tad too brilliantVerdict: A potential giant-killer, still in training

Summing it up…

test of the rigidity of a speaker enclosure. Would the Curves pass the test? Well of course they would, but we were pleasantly surprised to note that their competence extended to far more than just the percussion. Everything at the very bottom end, including the left hand piano chords, was superb, with power, control and quickness. There

not bad, though the phase doesn’t look quite spot on. Wilson Benesch has gone to a good deal of trouble and expense to slay the age-old dragon of cabinet resonance. It has been successful, too, and we were left with the feeling that a little more tweaking would have brought up some real magic.

I’ll tell you what. Take the time to lis-ten to your music through these speakers. Carefully. Use most of your other compo-nents, if at all possible. If your music im-proves (compared to live, of course), and you discover real tight bass, a wealth of ad-ditional details and an impeccable rhythm, then get them. You need them, your system

Ours didn’t. I noticed all the qualities I mentioned above, but they brought along other less desirable traits. “It’s a matter of taste,” an audiophile once said to me, about some other speakers. I don’t think so. Check what your system needs, not your taste.

—Albert Simon

The speakers have an exemplary clarity that can no doubt be attributed to the carbon fibre cabinet’s anti-resonant properties. They can manage an exceptionally good separation of timbres. They’ve got impact, energy, flawless rhythm. Even in very fast music filled with varied and plentiful in-struments, I heard no confusion. They can do justice to complex counterpoints. So, with such a long list of qualities, why am I still unsatisfied? How can they let through such searing highs? The spectral balance is imperiled, with a lower midrange that seems nearly absent. It’s really too bad, and I’m convinced the designer could fix this. That would be enough to tip the Curves from their nearly perfect score to

tened to them casually during their break-in period, and I heard what seemed like good reason to look forward to the review. And that’s despite the fact that we don’t use our best source to do equipment run-ins. There was such a sweetness to the music, and such control of the bottom end. This was going to be great! But in the end I wasn’t satisfied. Yes, the carbon fibre cabinets are wonderful, producing a sound that is tightly controlled without going all the way over to consti-pated, as with some other speakers I could name. The detail is superb. Only I always had the feeling the speakers were never quite placed right, or that they weren’t suit-ed to the room.

CROSSTALK

Dimensions: 91 x 23 x 37 cmSensitivity: 88 dBImpedance: 6 ohms, 4 ohms mini-mumMost liked: Brilliant design, brilliant resultsLeast liked: Perhaps a tad too brilliantVerdict: A potential giant-killer, still in training

Why UHF reviews are different

Let us count the ways.

1) UHF maintains high quality reference systems, chosen for their exceptional

transparency. They are used for all of the reviews, not some, but all.

2) UHF uses three reviewers, not just one. You get more than one point of view.

3) Each review includes a section in which the three reviewers can provide their

own point of view. Do we disagree? Not often, but there is no pressure to con-

form, and an occasional disagreement can shed new light on what we’ve heard.

4) UHF makes a signifi cant amount of its revenue by recommending and of-

fering recordings and accessories through The Audiophile Store. That means

we can say no to an advertiser who theatens us. This hardly ever happens…any

more.

So our reviews are highly useful to audiophiles. And they are useful to manufac-

turers and distributors as well, because audiophiles believe what we say.


Listening Room

Does frequency response matter, even if we’re talking about response above and beyond where your ears

leave off? That question has been dis-cussed a lot. It was back in the 50’s that a study was done with subjects unable to hear above 18 kHz, seeming to show that they could sense if frequencies above 20 kHz were fi ltered out. Of course, we know fi lters are never inaudible, so… But interestingly enough, CD players do fi lter out everything beyond 20 kHz. Of course, SACD and DVD-A players don’t (and neither do turntables for that matter). Is there something up there to reproduce? The muRata company thinks the answer is yes. These gorgeous ES103 piezoelectric ceramic super tweeters, which look as though they’ve just been unbolted from the wing of a jumbo jet, are meant to start where many an ear leaves off, namely at 15 kHz. No cross-over network needed, just plug them across the regular speakers, and go. We had some serious doubts about this. For one thing, how can you build such a tweeter without knowing the effi ciency of the main speakers? Aren’t add-on tweeters bound to add noise or distortion? Well, it wouldn’t hurt to give them a few minutes, would it? We put them atop our Suprema speakers in

our Omega system and dug out some SACDs. What we heard left us with our mouths agape! We began with a selection we had used several times in the current tests, Needed Time from Eric Bibb’s Spirit and the Blues (Opus 3 CD19411). At fi rst all three of us wondered whether we were letting our imaginations run away with us…had we really heard more things with the muRatas connected? We listened again, without and with. No, there really was a change, and it was neither noise nor distortion. So what was it? “A little something extra,” was all Gerard could come up with. Reine and Albert pointed to extra little guitar notes and percussive effects that were all but hidden until we con-nected the tweeters. We’re not talking major transformation, but perhaps a pleasant addition to an already outstand-ing system. We continued with another piece we had heard several times lately, Comes Love from Opus 3’s Showcase SACD (CD21000). All three of us noted — still

with some surprise — the enhancement of several instruments. The clarinet, already beautifully reproduced had superior articulation. The piano, nota-bly, no longer sounded quite the same, and detached itself more clearly from the foundation laid down by the sax, the banjo and the sousaphone. Yes, the effect was subtle, not the sort of thing you would notice in a noisy setting such as an audio show (where we had heard the muRatas more than once). What’s more, we hadn’t yet spotted any down side to using these tweeters. “But I want to hear them with a female voice,” said Albert. “If it adds any screechiness or unnatural sibilance, that’s where we’ll hear it.” Well, we did have a sealed copy on hand of FIM’s SACD ver-sion of Cantate Domino (PRSACD7762). We selected the Christmas Song (aka O Holy Night), with its wonderful solo by soprano Marianne Mellnäs. By the way, we had actually never heard the CD, contenting ourselves with the LP. The SACD transfer compared well. No, the tweeters added no harsh-ness or noise. Indeed, Albert and Reine thought they added little to this record-ing. Gerard disagreed. He thought Mellnäs’ voice had more of a sheen to it, though by no means an unpleasant one, and a superior articulation of the smaller (and higher) pipes of the organ. Our conclusion is that we were wrong to be so offhanded about this product, relegating it to a brief and fi nal listening session. But we had no more time before we put the magazine to bed, and no more space for a longer report if we had chosen to prepare one. Which means the muRata super tweeters will return in our next issue, this time with a full-f ledged report. We will try them with a wider variety of SACDs, and in both of our reference systems. We will try them with analog as well, since our high performance moving coil pickups can easily extend to 65 kHz or more. And we will make some measurements. We will need to revert to analog instruments, since our digital instrument suite stops dead at 20 kHz. For most systems, this add-on makes no sense at all. But if your system already works outstanding well, what then? More to come…

sealed copy on hand of FIM’s SACD ver-sion of We selected the muRata Super Tweeters

Speakers that take up where your ears leave off.


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The “LE” designation stands for Limited Edition, an indica-tion that, after the 250 units have been built, there won’t

be any more. You might wonder why we’d bother reviewing an amplifi er that will be built in such small numbers. The truth is that a lot of high end products are built in tiny quantities…even if that’s not the company’s hope. For some high end manufacturers, making 250 of an expensive product would indicate noth-ing less than dangerous overoptimism. Simaudio, on the other hand, probably will sell that many. We are fully familiar with the W-5, since we have been using one in our Omega reference system since 1998 (it was reviewed in UHF No. 49). We have long considered it to be among the world’s very best high-powered solid state amplifiers. Still, we knew that Simaudio had made a lot of upgrades to it, and we had been thinking it as time we listened to a newer one. When this Limited Edition came out, we jumped at the chance to hear for ourselves what the Simaudio gang could do with its original fl agship technology. It looks not unlike our original. It’s the same size, with the same framelike handles, though there are no longer dimples atop to allow stacking. The front panel is actually thinner, but still solid.

The rear panel is identical to that of the original, but for one welcome change: the “on” button has been moved around to the front. The numbered name plate aside, the LE version uses some exotic (read: more expensive) parts, with one effect being that the claimed power output now reaches 200 watts per channel. Even the power cord is better than the usual molded cord set. Simaudio supplies a Cardas cord. Curiously, it’s a 16 gauge cord, one that Cardas itself recommends for low-current gear, not power amps. Our amplifi er was fresh from the assembly bench, and though we would give it plenty of burn-in time before the review, we couldn’t resist a quick listen. It sounded superb, with only a minor etch-ing of high end sounds. Within 15 hours, even that was gone. We pushed on to an estimated 100 hours before reinstalling our own W-5 so we could compare. We pulled out three SACDs, plus an LP. The fi rst selection was Rachmani-nov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 (Pentatone 5186 114). We weren’t quite happy with its sound using the older W-5. The piano was somewhat less than natural, espe-cially in the powerful left-hand chords

at the beginning. The strings had an attractive sheen, but they didn’t sound the way they would in a real concert hall. But that couldn’t be the fault of the amplifi er, could it? Well…it could, and it was. The new amplifi er lifted a veil from the music, one we hadn’t really been aware of, we should stress. The piano took on a far more natural tone, and it no longer got lost even during busier orchestral passages. Not only were the piano chords clearer, but a number of quick notes from the right hand emerged for the fi rst time. The sheen on the strings? Gone. That much was enough to surprise us, though we suspect that the differences would be less dramatic on lesser systems than our Omega reference. The W-5LE is very much of a muscle amplifi er, more so than the usual top-rated audiophile amplif iers. Organ music, if it is well recorded, is a challenge for a power amplifi er, and especially for the capacity of its power supply. We turned next to Bach’s most famous organ work, the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, found on Opus 3’s Organ Treasures (CD22031). The older W-5 rendered this excep-tional recording with clarity and brio, but it was simply outmatched by its younger descendent. The very low-pitched notes from the big pipes seemed even deeper, and leaner too, but it was the higher notes that surprised us. “With the older amplifi er you could distinguish the dif-ferent small pipe sets by their position in the sound fi eld,” said Gerard, “but with this one you hear all the harmonic differences among the different sets. And they’re very melodic even in those top octave passages.” Actually, we judged that all aspects of the music were superior. The increased clarity let us hear “the notes between the notes,” as Reine put it. We could also hear more clearly the space in which this excellent recording was made. We wanted to hear a human voice, and we selected Eric Bibb’s Gospel Blues song Needed Time (from Spirit and the Blues, CD19411). The SACD version of this favorite is eerily natural, but with the W-5LE it is even more so. It made the old amplifi er sound electronic, and quite honestly we didn’t think that was

Moon W-5LE

Built for you and 249 lucky others.


Listening Room

possible. Our W-5 was, after all, one of the world’s great amplifi ers. Yet we could hear more detail, without the addition of any unnatural brightness. The lowest guitar notes were well fi lled out, which didn’t slow the rhythm any. Although a good image can be pretty much taken for granted in any Opus 3 recording, the W-5LE added both breadth and depth to what was before us. “It sounds almost like a tube amplifi er,” commented Albert. Our fourth and fi nal recording was an LP: the Chorus Line suite from the Dallas Wind Symphony’s impressive Beachcomber double album (Reference Recordings RR-62). This is a busy record-ing, with an endless profusion of brass, woodwinds, and heavy-duty percussion. It sounded wonderful with our W-5, and with the W-5LE, it was… “It’s as though the clouds have parted and the sun has come out,” said Albert. “Listen to the way the brass shines.” Once again, though, the shine did not come at the expense of natural-ness. Smaller woodwind instruments, which can easily be buried under the rest, emerged intact, a testament to the

amplifi er’s true transparency. “It doesn’t leave anything trailing in its wake,” said Reine. The tympany solo was breathtak-ing, with the tubular bells especially impressive. We then put the W-5LE through our technical evaluation, and discovered

that you can blow the amplifi er’s easily-accessible 6 ampere fuse…if you make a wrong move with the volume control. It isn’t easy, though, and we can’t imagine doing it in a real-life listening situation. There’s no spare fuse packed with the amplifi er, though you can fi nd a fuse that size nearly anywhere, including garages. An electronic protection circuit shuts down the amplifi er if there is direct current at the input. Though the W-5LE can easily be driven to 200 watts and beyond, ours clipped around 187 watts over much of the range. At very low level, where some gear does nasty stuff, the Simaudio behaved fl awlessly, which made us sus-pect the limit is the driver stage, not the output. An occasional noise spike came from our own test setup. With just the spectral analyzer connected, the amp’s noise was down where the trolls live. The W-5 was an astonishing product when its trek began. As for W-5LE amplifi er No. 16, it has taken the place of the original W-5 in our Omega system. Which leaves you another 249 chances to get your own. We’d hurry if we were you.

Compare the second-generation Moon W-5 to its latest incarnation? Some chal-lenge! Well, I was stunned by the differences in performance. With the new version, everything is cleaner and clearer. An abun-dance of detail emerges, and at the risk of repeating myself I can say that I heard ele-ments I had never noticed before. I can’t say I had been missing anything, since I hadn’t known those sounds were there, but after comparing this amplifier to its ancestor I can’t settle for less. It’s at moments like this I realize how our hearing can refine itself with time, making us more demanding, to make us seek ever greater joys. To add another word would be redun-dant.

—Reine Lessard

I never thought a power amplifier could make such a difference in such unexpect-

ed areas. I knew this amp was better than our reference, and I expected more of the same quality I have been used to, with some subtle improvements here and there. More of an appreciation of refinement, say. I was not prepared for this level of life and presence. It seemed as if I had moved to much better seats in a much better hall. No loss of trailing sounds, no vagueness, no blur whatsoever. Everything was precise, clearly defined in width, height and depth. It reminded me more of the differences I’ve noticed with excellent preamps than with power amps. There was a natural feel to the music that is hard to describe, where I found myself thinking less about ampli-fication and more about the beauty of the music itself. How do you explain hearing better con-trast? I don’t know, but I did. And I don’t know how I could have heard more sun-shine, but it was there.

—Albert Simon

I have no choice but to acknowledge that Simaudio’s “Renaissance” circuit was a brilliant innovation. What’s significant is not just that it produced a wonderful first amplifier (the W4070, originally reviewed in UHF No. 37 a dozen years ago), but that it continues to be used in what may be the world’s best high-powered solid state am-plifier in 2004. What’s truly significant about the W-5LE is this. In the case of nearly all solid state amplifier lines, the small amps sound better than the big ones. Cascading extra transistors means making the sound opaque and a little heavy, not quite natural. That is not true of the Moon amps, and it never has been. The W-5 has always sounded supe-rior to the smaller W-3. Even the first W-5 was one of the world’s best big amps. That Simaudio has found this much room to improve it is nothing short of astonishing.

—Gerard Rejskind

CROSSTALK

Brand/model: Simaudio Moon W-5LEPrice: C$7800/US$6000Dimensions: 49 x 48 x 16.5 cmPower: 200 W/channel into 8 ohmsMost liked: Astonishing clarity, no “solid state” characterLeast liked: Is the “better” power cord superior enough?Verdict: In every sense a reference

Summing it up…


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We know better than to dismiss what this British company does. Years ago, we tested

Goldring’s top phono cartridge, and we liked it so much we bought it. Today we own two of them, the now-discontinued Goldring Excel. Still, building a turn-table is a long way from just making a cartridge. The turntable looks oddly familiar, too. Change a few minor details, and it could be a Rega P2. There’s a reason for it. Both the table and the arm really are made by Rega. That makes the eye-pop-ping price seem even more astonishing. To put it into perspective, last time we looked the P2 cost some $200 more…and it comes without a pickup. The GR1’s plinth is different from that of the P2, though it is also a solid block, with rubber feet. Rega’s approach is not to keep vibration out of the plinth, but to make the plinth rigid yet too light to store energy for long. The mount under the arm, which looks like a Rega RB250, is also different, made of some sort of composite rather than steel. The motor is the same single-speed synchro-nous model used in the P2 (you play 45’s by moving the belt to a different pulley step). The subplatter appears to be fi ber-glass, while the platter is machined high density fi berboard covered by a black felt

mat. Tap it, and you don’t hear much of anything. The hinged polystyrene cover is not shown, because we removed it before lis-tening, and we suggest you do the same. No one needs a hunk of vibrating plastic feeding energy right into the plinth. The Elektra pickup supplied with the GR1 is from Goldring’s own lineup. It is of course a moving magnet cartridge, equipped with an elliptical stylus. You can’t get a line contact stylus at anywhere close to this price. The one really cheap detail is the ratty output cable, a dead ringer for the free wires you get with Asian-made mini-component systems. The con-nectors are dreadful, and the shielding (loosely-wrapped spiral strands, if we are right about which wire this is) isn’t very effective either, and unless we placed it very carefully we got a nasty buzz. The cable is captive, though anyone who can

solder and owns a set of screwdrivers could no doubt swap this glorifi ed string for something better. Setting up the GR1 is not a major job. Remove the cardboard wedge from under the subplatter, cut off the tape that holds the tone arm in place for shipping, and adjust the stylus pressure (which can be done with no gauge, though we did use our gauge…which by the way bears the Goldring name). We began the listening session with the Moorside Suite from one of the Dallas Wind Symphony’s LPs of music by Gustav Holst (RR-39). This is a high-energy recording with more than generous bass, and we expected it to be both thinner and lower key with the Goldring. To some extent we were right, but a lot of the energy remained, and that included power at the bottom end. “This is a surprise,” said Albert. “Sure, there’s some loss of richness and depth, but listen to the textures of those brass instruments!” Reine was less enthusiastic, disappointed by the loss of presence and especially impact. We continued with a well known segment from Act One of the original cast version of The Phantom of the Opera, the one in which Christine takes over Carlotta’s role. Now this is defi nitely not an audiophile recording. Indeed, with our reference turntable an occasional

Goldring GR1 Turntable

It’s hard to find a good phono cartridge at this price. This one comes with a turntable and tone arm thrown in


Listening Room

sibilant would sound more like a police whistle. The piece has great dramatic impact, however, and we wondered how much of it would survive. Quite a lot of it, in fact, and sibilance was even improved somewhat, as was Christine’s voice in general. Dynam-ics were less impressive, of course, and surface noise was increased. This is to be expected with a cartridge with no line-contact stylus. Reine found the piano rather dis-pleasing too. That would put us on the track of a quick improvement we could make before the session was over. The GR1 did a surprisingly good job with Limehouse Blues from the celebrated Jazz at the Pawnshop LP. The ambient sound fi eld was well recreated, though Reine complained that some distant sounds, such as that of the cash register, were buried. The clarinet solo was espe-cially excellent, as was the vibraphone. The percussion was altered , with a rather hollow sound (“pots and pans," sniffed Reine), and the snare drum was not quite natural. But the ensemble sound was very good, and even the applause was natural, something we might not expect with a low-cost turntable.

We ended with another audiophile classic LP, Amanda McBroom’s Gossamer from West of Oz. Once again the piano sounded way wrong. We liked Amanda’s voice, though. But for an occasional wayward sibilant, it was quite natural. But what about that piano? “I’ll bet I know why it’s not right,” said Gerard. He got out a product we use on our own turntables, and which we now stock on the shelves of our Audiophile Store. It’s a treatment for rubber surfaces called Rubber Renue. Unlike those sticky fl uids that can be used to resurrect a dying belt, this one is a cleaner, removing oil and oxidized rubber. It was disconcerting to see how much black gunk came off the Goldring’s little belt. We let it dry for 30 seconds and then reinstalled it and listened to Gossamer again. It worked. The piano tones at the start of the song were now dead steady, and McBroom’s voice was even more natural. The piano at the start of Phantom was vastly improved too. The veiling we had noted vanished along with the wavering. The GR1’s rating rose by several points! Indeed, Reine, who had been ready to warn you off this turntable, changed her mind completely.

The Elektra pickup appears to be well matched to the Rega arm. On the Shure Obstacle Course disc, we had diffi culty judging the resonant point: it may have been around 11 Hz, which would be a good indication, but it was so well damped we weren’t sure. The GR1 did surprisingly well on our M&K recording of very low end material. The signal was clean and full, and the cartridge even tracked the organ track, which includes a 16 Hz continuo pipe. Some expensive cartridges will click or even derail on this track, but not this one. We did note some warbling of the midtones, the result of modulation by the big pipe, but that actually came from our speakers, not the turntable. It vanished when we turned the volume down a few decibels. There are a lot of reasons to like this Goldring, even aside from its eye-catch-ing price of C$499 (about US$375 at current exchange rate). It sounds musical in a way that mass-market turntables cannot. It is as close as a turntable can get to plug’n’play. And — heads up CD fans — the bazaars are fi lled with great LPs that are barely more expensive than Internet downloads. It’s a no-brainer.

Some years ago, I brought a Revolver turntable, not wildly different from this one, to the home of a friend who owned a Pioneer table. She was happy with her turntable and saw no reason to change. We listened to an entire LP by a then-popular singer. When we were through, I plugged her old turntable back in and played the LP at the same volume. And she realized she could no longer understand the words! What this Rega-built Goldring can do is let you understand the words, and also the other elements that make up music. In short, it can do what most of those $5 turn-tables in the garage sales cannot hope to do. The cartridge surprised me too, be-cause it doesn’t massacre the highs, as too many economy pickups can and do. The bargain price is an important ele-ment, because it can convince some young-er audiophiles who have never known vinyl

that perhaps there’s something to all this LP talk, and it might be worthwhile having a non-digital source as a backup. The GR1 is good enough to keep them interested.

—Gerard Rejskind

What a refreshing surprise! I’ve now found a way to recommend LPs to many audiophiles who bypassed that stage altogether. Get them to discover some of the hidden treasures recorded in the 60’s and 70’s while listening to them on a bet-ter turntable than the average table avail-able during those years. Not everything was good within those grooves, of course, but some remain masterpieces of skilful re-cording techniques and — with this turnta-ble — you’ll be able to experience the best and the worst, and hear the difference. You might end up doing what you never imagined, ordering brand new LPs, or for-aging through countless piles of used ones

for that “special” version. Yet all of that, in-cluding the turntable, might cost less than what you might spend for a pair of intercon-nects (which you’ll end up doing anyway).

—Albert Simon

It’s a real tour de force to expect a piece of equipment to compete with a reference component whose price tag is in four digits if not five. That said, I expected to find this inexpensive turntable pretty shabby. In fact, despite a less than solid bottom end and impact that was less striking, I was struck by the multitude of details it could dig out. The human voice is well repro-duced, without hardness, sibilance is natu-ral, and indeed varied sounds are pleasant to listen to. Reason enough to consider this turntable by an audiophile on a budget. It goes to show that it’s not nice to have prejudices.

—Reine Lessard

CROSSTALK

Goldring GR1 Turntablehollow sound (“pots and pans," sniffed Reine), and the snare drum was not quite natural. But the ensemble sound was very good, and even the applause was natural, something we might not expect with a

vastly improved too. The veiling we had noted vanished along with the wavering. The GR1’s rating rose by several points! Indeed, Reine, who had been ready to warn you off this turntable, changed her mind completely.

get to plug’n’play. And — heads up CD fans — the bazaars are fi lled with great LPs that are barely more expensive than Internet are barely more expensive than Internet downloads. It’s a no-brainer.

Some years ago, I brought a Revolver turntable, not wildly different from this one, to the home of a friend who owned a Pioneer table. She was happy with her turntable and saw no reason to change. We listened to an entire LP by a then-popular singer. When we were through, I plugged her old turntable back in and played the LP

that perhaps there’s something to all this LP talk, and it might be worthwhile having a non-digital source as a backup. The GR1 is good enough to keep them interested.

—Gerard Rejskind

What a refreshing surprise! I’ve now found a way to recommend

for that “special” version. Yet all of that, in-cluding the turntable, might cost less than what you might spend for a pair of intercon-nects (which you’ll end up doing anyway).

—Albert Simon

It’s a real tour de force to expect a piece of equipment to compete with a reference

CROSSTALKYes, we still review analog

The fact is that we still maintain two superb turntables. We use them to review

other turntables, we we have here. And we often do other equipment reviews

with vinyl, because…

Well, keep reading us and you’ll see.


List

enin

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om

Apple’s ubiquitous iPod sca rcely needs a n introduction. There used to be a million

portable music players out there. Now there’s the iPod, with some 35% of the market (Apple is only getting used to this), and…oh, a few others you probably can’t name. Because we’re audiophiles we don’t usually go around with headphones welded to our ears. Apple wasn’t thinking of us — or you possibly — in coming up with either the iPod or its now famous music store. Like all other online stores, Apple sells music in compressed form. True, it uses Dolby’s AAC (Advanced Audio Codec) instead of MP3, but a quick comparison confi rms what we expected. Neither is meant for music lovers. Fortunately there’s more to the iPod. Unlike most such players, the iPod is format agnos-tic. For all it cares you c a n lo ad it up with your photos, your address book or your doctoral thesis. You can also load it with uncompressed music, in either WAV or AIFF formats, which are the audio formats of Windows and Macintosh respectively. What’s more, it has gotten big! The top model now has a whop-ping 40 gigabytes of space, with 60 Gb rumored to be on the way. The average CD contains about 600 Mb of data, which means about 67 of them can be loaded onto a 40 Gb iPod. Better yet, in late April Apple announced a new lossless codec, possibly based on the open source FLAC format. That doubles the capacity again. Not bad for a battery-operated unit that weighs under 200 grams. The software is as important as the hardware, though. The iPod was originally made to operate with iTunes, a program that comes free with the Mac’s OS X operating system. A Windows ver-sion also exists, and can be downloaded from the Apple Web site. Both work the

same way. You import music from CD to iTunes, organizing it among folders as you see fi t. A preference window lets you pick a compression method…or no compression at all. You can then arrange your music into playlists, and ask iTunes to play the pieces you’ve chosen either in sequence or randomly. Note that this is enough to turn your computer into a digital jukebox.

You don’t need to own an iPod to use iTunes, though if you do things get interesting. Each time you plug the iPod into your computer (with FireWire on a Mac, FireWire or USB on a PC), iTunes synchronizes the iPod with your computer. Imagine having 67 CDs in your pocket. Imagine hearing them through headphones, or (with the little Griffi n FM transmitter) through your car radio. And now imagine this. Some people are spending thousands of dollars, or even tens of thou-sands, on music servers that can stock music from hundreds of discs and produce them on demand. Can the iPod serve some 70 discs on demand…for well under a thousand? The answer is yes. What we set out to discover is whether it can do that with what an audiophile would consider adequate quality. The picture, by the way,

was supplied by Apple. Our iPod had been t h rough the hands (and

perhaps the claws) of several reviewers, of which

the National Post was the latest, and was too scratched to

photograph. For this test we loaded three selections into iTunes running on a Macintosh iBook: 1) Bist du bein mir, from The Little Note-book of Anna Magdalena Bach (Analekta FL 2 3064). Properly reproduced, this is a fi ve-goosebumps recording. 2) Now the Green Blade Riseth (Proprius PRCD9093), a delightful or hideous choral recording, depending on what you play it on. 3) The Master’s Plan from Doug McLeod's blues recording Come to Find (Audioquest AQCD1017). We synchronized the iPod, and then listened to the three selections through our Linn Unidisk reference player, before plugging in the iPod. The player has a standard minijack, to which we connected an adapter, and a pair of Atlas Navigator All-Cu interconnects.

iPod: a Poor Man’s

Server?


We won’t keep you in suspense. From the fi rst sounds of soprano Karina Gauvin’s voice, we knew we were on to something. Gauvin’s voice is naturally smooth and controlled, though it’s more than a lot of digital players can handle without getting downright unpleasant. The iPod mostly made her sound right, with only an occasional high note seem-ing out of place. The articulation of the German text, which gives Gauvin little

trouble, didn’t give this player much trouble either. Oh, there were things missing, to be sure. Some of the subtle cues that reveal depth and make the stereo image explicit had become less distinct. The bottom end had diminished impact — we could just make that out on the harpsichord passages. Rhythm was not quite as quick. “But we’ve heard a lot worse than this,” said Reine.

The choral recording, which we heard sound hideous in some rooms at the Montreal show, was more than sat-isfactory coming through the iPod. The fl ute solo was attractive, though we lost track of it once the singers came in. The plucked bass had considerable weight, though less than Reine would have liked. The high notes of the sopranos were a little shriller and more grainy than with our player, but there was nothing radi-

This little box is good. It is, in fact dis-concertingly good. Why can it reproduce music this well when so many “real” CD players sound thin and screechy and down-right boring? It isn’t quite audiophile qual-ity, though even so it could be. The iPod of course wasn’t designed to be a high end component. But good design doesn’t happen by accident.

—Gerard Rejskind

“You remember the time when we lis-tened to music through CD players?” I can just hear an audiophile saying just that, someday, after pocketing an iPod and preparing to leave his or her friend’s place. Some day. Soon.

We’ll need to adapt, yes. It will take some getting used to, some humility too, but don’t underestimate this trend. We’re on our way to new and amazing sources — full of promises. I kept looking at the little iPod, dwarfed by its connecting cables, producing such surprisingly good music, and I realized the truth: we’re on our way…

—Albert Simon

I’m not in the habit of hiding my feel-ings when I write for you. So I have to tell you that I wasn’t even lukewarm about re-viewing this tiny portable gadget that can fit in your palm. What, yet another gadget that will become “essential”?

And then I started listening, and I was so charmed by the results, even alongside our reference, that I figured I ought to give some thought to the usefulness of this gim-mick. Once I had done that, I could think of a thousand occasions on which I’d be happy to have one. It’s an attractive object, easy to pack away because it’s so small, that can ware-house a lot of your favorite music, to be lis-tened to in public places without disturbing your neighbors, but also capable of throw-ing up a terrific musical backdrop when you’ve got work to do. As for its audiophile qualities, let me just say that they deserve to be underlined.

—Reine Lessard

CROSSTALK

Brand/model: Apple iPodPrice: C$699/US$499 (40 Gb version; Canadian price includes a $25 “piracy” levy)Dimensions: 6.1 x 10 x 1.7 cmMass: 176 gMost liked: Compact, versatile, astonishing soundLeast liked: No digital outVerdict: Sure it’s cool, but that’s not the half of it.

Summing it up…

Listening Room

I can just hear an audiophile saying just that, someday, after pocketing an iPod and

you that I wasn’t even lukewarm about re-viewing this tiny portable gadget that can

you’ve got work to do. As for its audiophile qualities, let me

Listening Room

I can just hear an audiophile saying just you that I wasn’t even lukewarm about re- you’ve got work to do.

UHF maintains three reference systems. All equipment reviews are done on at least one of these systems, which are selected to be working tools. Their elements are changed only after long consideration, because a system that changes is not a reference.

The Alpha system Our original reference is installed in a room with extraordinary acoustics (originally designed as a recording studio). The acoustics allow us to hear what we couldn’t hear elsewhere, but there’s a down side. Not only is the room too small for large speakers, but it is also at the top of a particularly unaccommodating stairwell.

CD Transport: Parasound C/BD2000 (belt-driven transport designed by CEC).Digital-to-analog converter: Coun-terpoint DA-10A, with HDCD card.Turntable: Audiomeca J-1Tone arm: Audiomeca SL-5Phono preamp: Audiomat Phono-1.5Pickup: Goldring ExcelPreamplifi er: Copland CTA-305 tube preamp Power amplifi er: YBA One HC Loudspeakers: Living Voice Avatar OBX-R Interconnects: Pierre Gabriel ML-1, Equinox/WBT Loudspeaker cables: Eclipse II with WBT bananas

Power cords: Gutwire, StratusAC fi lters: Foundation Research LC-2 (power amp), Inouye SPLC.

The Omega system It serves for reviews of gear that cannot easily fi t into the Alpha system, with its small room. We didn’t set out to make an “A” (best system) and a “B” (economy) system, and we didn’t want to imply that one of the two systems is somehow better than the other. Hence the names, which don’t invite comparisons. Unless you’re Greek of course.

CD player: shared with the Alpha systemTurntable: Alphason SonataTone arm: Alphason HR-100S MCSPhono preamp: Audiomat Phono-1.5Pickup: Goldring ExcelPreamplifi er: Copland CTA-305 tube preamp Power amplifi er: Simaudio Moon W-5 Loudspeakers: Reference 3a Suprema II Interconnects: Pierre Gabriel ML-1. Wireworld EquinoxLoudspeaker cables: Pierre Gabriel ML-1 (formerly L3), for most of the range, Wireworld Polaris for the twin subwoofers.Power cords: Wireworld AuroraAC fi lters: Foundation Research LC-1

The Kappa system This is our home theatre system. As with the Alpha system, we had limited space for the Kappa system, and that pretty much ruled out huge projectors and two-meter screens. We did, however, fi nally come up with a system whose performance gladdens both eye and ear, and which has the needed resolution to serve for reviews.

HDTV monitor: Hitachi 43UWX10B CRT-based rear projector DVD player: Simaudio Moon Stellar with Faroudja Stingray video processorPreamplifi er/processor: Simaudio Moon Attraction, 5.1 channel versionPower amplifi ers: Simaudio Moon W-3 (main speakers), Celeste 4070se (centre speaker), Robertson 4010 (rear) Main speakers: Energy Reference Connoisseur Centre speaker: Thiel MCS1, on UHF’s own TV-top platform Rear speakers: Elipson 1400 Subwoofer: 3a Design Acoustics Cables: Equinox and Atlantis, Star-light video cablesPower cables and line fi lters: Gut-wire cables, Inouye SPLC fi lter All three of the systems now have their own dedicated power lines, with Hubbell hospital grade outlets. All extensions and power bars used are also equipped with hospital-grade connectors.

The UHF Reference Systems

We won’t keep you in suspense. From the fi rst sounds of soprano Karina Gauvin’s voice, we knew we were on to something. Gauvin’s voice is naturally smooth and controlled, though it’s more than a lot of digital players can handle without getting downright unpleasant. The iPod mostly made her sound right, with only an occasional high note seem-ing out of place. The articulation of the German text, which gives Gauvin little

trouble, didn’t give this player much trouble either. Oh, there were things missing, to be sure. Some of the subtle cues that reveal depth and make the stereo image explicit had become less distinct. The bottom end had diminished impact — we could just make that out on the harpsichord passages. Rhythm was not quite as quick. “But we’ve heard a lot worse than this,” said Reine.

The choral recording, which we heard sound hideous in some rooms at the Montreal show, was more than sat-isfactory coming through the iPod. The fl ute solo was attractive, though we lost track of it once the singers came in. The plucked bass had considerable weight, though less than Reine would have liked. The high notes of the sopranos were a little shriller and more grainy than with our player, but there was nothing radi-

The UHF Reference Systems

Yes we know…Fact: the Apple iPod is the hot electronic product. It’s of no interest to audiophiles, though, unless…

Well, unless it is. We know you’ll want to read this audiophile-oriented review of the Apple iPod, the

very fi rst as far as we know.


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A destiny cut short by a prema-ture death that strikes at the heart of the musical world, and indeed of America itself.

His America, which he made talk, sing and dance, and fi nally weep as he left the dance fl oor too young. What was so exceptional about this composer who, almost 70 years after his death, remains alive in the collective memory, his melo-dies still so new and so poignant?

A child in the crowd New York is a stimulating milieu

in which to grow up, when George Gershwin is born on September 26, 1898. The city already carries the seeds of the gigantism that will soon make it a vertical community. Its fi rst multi-storey constructions hint at the skyscrapers to come. New York is Brooklyn. It is the Bronx. It is Harlem. It is the Bohemian Greenwich Village. It is Manhattan, temple of success and money. It is Broad-way and its theatres and concert halls that communicate the stuff of dreams to the avid crowds that frequent them. For

Broadway is the meeting place for count-less musicians, artists and composers who have come to search for inspiration and hope to fi nd glory. It is the musical capital of the New World. They come from the four corners of the planet to produce their shows, or to applaud the most prodigious composers, artists and musicians. For millions, New York is the city of magic. At the end of the 19th Century, an unequalled wave of immigration brings some two million Jews from eastern Europe to the US. Moshe Gershovitz is part of that enormous contingent elect-ing domicile in New York, where Liberty lighting the world holds high her torch. Immigration authorities Americanize his name to “Morris Gershwin.” Both determined and courageous, Morris easily fi nds work in a shoe factory in his adopted city. As soon as he has built a small nest egg, he proposes to a young woman he had known in Russia, Rose Brushkin. She bears him four children, of which two — the eldest, Ira, and the second, George — will become famous. High fashion shoes sell well in New York, and Morris prospers. Having overcome the language barrier, he goes into the restaurant business, buying a restaurant chain that is soon bankrupt. His optimism is not affected, and he undertakes other projects in different fi elds, in which he scores uneven success. The Gershwins move often, for Morris always insists on living close to his cur-rent business. Never will the family be poorly housed and fed. Rose will later confi rm that her husband made a good living, and that his family never wanted. The family homes, kept up by domestics, are further confi rmation. This runs counter to the legend of George Gershwin’s birth in poor cir-cumstances and his miserable childhood. If little George grows up largely in the street, it is by choice. That is where he is happy. He is an urchin, unruly and undisciplined, quick with his fi sts, who spends a lot of time on roller skates with his Black friends, begging for change and stealing an occasional candy. He cannot guess his destiny awaits him on one of those streets. One day the lad of six hears a sound

Gershwin Forever!by Reine Lessard


that stops him in his tracks. Entering the building from which the sound comes, he fi nds himself before a player piano. He listens, delighted, until the mysteri-ous machine abruptly stops playing. He leaves, disappointed, but he is forever changed by what he has heard…Anton Rubinstein’s Melody in F, as he will later learn. It has been written that this incident is but a prelude to another momentous event. One day he plays hooky, prefer-ring playing ball to school, when his ear is attracted by a delicious melody on the violin, Dvorak’s Humoresque. He melts before the beauty of the music. Having discovered that the violinist is one of his own schoolmates, Maxie Rosenzweig (who will later become famous under the name Maxie Rosen), George rushes to the school exit, hoping to congratulate him. Alas, Maxie has gone out the other door. George gets his home address, but his idol has already left. However the Rosenzweigs are charmed by the unusual initiative of this young boy, and they arrange a meeting that will be decisive for George’s future career. The two youths become fast friends. As often as he can, Maxie talks to George about music, composition and musical technique. He tells him tales of famous composers and their masterpieces. He introduces George to a friend whose parents own a piano, which he is allowed to play. The need is created. George must have a keyboard. It so happens that the Gershwins have already decided to buy a piano, with Ira in mind. Yet destiny loves irony. No

sooner is the instrument delivered than George plays with the greatest assur-ance popular tunes he has memorized. Stunned by his musical aptitude, his parents send him for piano lessons with Miss Green, next door. George is 12. He spends hours at the piano, improvising and even composing. Astonished by her pupil’s remarkable pianistic ability, she sends him to a Hungarian pianist, who in turn introduces him to another pianist, Charles Hambitzer. Now, Hambitzer is much more than an ordinary music teacher. He learned the piano, the violin and the cello from his father, who owned a music store. He taught at the University of Wisconsin before settling in New York, where he has become a prestigious professor. He knows the difference between a merely talented pupil and a prodigy.

Classics or jazz? Though the fi rst music to conquer Gershwin was classical, he has an uncon-ditional love of jazz, which he has heard, also by chance, coming from a club near which he would spend long hours. Ham-bitzer understands his passion for jazz, but puts the accent on classical music. “If there is someone who is capable of making his mark in music,” writes Hambitzer to his sister, “it is surely this child. He is crazy about music, and he can hardly wait for his next lesson. He wants to study it all, popular music and jazz included, but he must fi rst learn the principles of classical music.” Hambitzer teaches Gershwin the technique of the piano, putting him

through long hours of exercises and scales. He initiates him into a veritable musical culture, still unusual in early 20th Century America. Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Debussy and Ravel are on his curriculum, as are the study of harmony and instrumentation. He encourages George to go to concerts, and Gershwin does not resist, especially when the concert features a pianist. At home he attempts to play the pieces he has heard, transforming them with improvised variations. In 1913 he writes his fi rst two songs, Since I Found You and Ragging the Trau-merei. The latter is a natural choice, given his enthusiasm for songs, ragtime and jazz, overheard outside that club in Harlem. They will not be great suc-cesses, but they are already marked by his strong personality.

At the crossroads In his free moments George reluc-tantly helps his father in one of his restaurants, but he is happier playing the piano in hotels for small pay. His mother has higher ambitions for her son than that of an artist, and to please her he enrolls at the High School of Commerce, but he cuts classes to play the piano. How happy he is in those days on 28th Street between Broadway and 5th Avenue, visiting the music publishers who have set up next to the new music hall theatres. He passes hours listening to “song pluggers” playing the latest tunes on the often tinny pianos that give the area the nickname of “Tin Pan Alley.” So impassioned is he by all

Listening Room


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he hears that his professor insists with severity on keeping him on the track of classical music. Hambitzer is convinced that, without a classical base, Gershwin’s talent cannot fully develop. One day George, weary of lying to his mother and dabbling in activities he detests, whips up his courage to tell her he is quitting school. Hambitzer introduces George to Edward Kilenyi, who will teach him harmony and com-position. The two professors encourage George in his musical experiments. An agent of the Jerome H. Remick & Company publishing house, Moses Gumble, hears Gershwin playing and is delighted. Especially astonished by George’s ability to sight-read, Gumble hires him as a song plugger. George is only 15. The salary is meagre, but he must accept it if he wants to succeed. In any case he knows that both Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern did the same work before becoming known. There is still no radio and no juke-boxes, and even home phonographs are rare. To get songs noticed, publishers must hire pianists to get them heard. It should be added that song plugging will continue long after more modern meth-ods emerge. These musicians must be able to sight read in order to accompany singers trying a new song. George is perfect for this work, adding to his sight-reading skill the ability to transpose a score to the key chosen by the singer. It gives him a major advantage. The work is not truly stimulating, but it makes him familiar with all the new music. It is at the Remick offi ce that he meets Fred Astaire and his sister Adele, who will become faithful friends. Each day George is in contact with music by composers of many different styles and origins. In the evening, he frequently tours cabarets and theatres with Gumble to play newly-published music and check its popularity with artists looking for songs. Contacts with journalists and artists of different disciplines come natu-rally. Gershwin is now in a privileged position to observe the world of music. Despite his long hours at the key-board, the money rolls in slowly. To get enough money to abandon song-plug-ging, Gershwin agrees to record Edison cylinders, precursors to records, for $5

apiece. Perhaps wanting to make it seem as though the cylinders were made by an entire stable of musicians, he uses several pseudonyms for the recordings.

The composer emerges The more he plays the better he becomes. Even other pianists are daz-zled. “He was in a musical world totally different from the rest of us,” will later say Harry Ruby, who is also destined for fame. “I think we were all a little jeal-ous.” Ruby will remain a close friend. Gershwin’s daily successes cannot make him deviate from his ultimate dream: to write songs for Broadway. Yet he is every bit as certain that he will someday write symphonies and even operas. A magic fusion of jazz and clas-sical music…such is his dream. In 1914, at a wedding, he is astonished to hear two songs by Jerome Kern. He has found his model, and he will analyze all of Kern’s songs. He will even imitate them, as he will never deny. George quickly becomes Remick’s top pianist, but he wants to get his own songs known, and Gumble turns them down one after the other. “We’re paying you to play, not write songs,” he says. In 1916 he signs a contract with the Harry von Tilzer Publishing Company. He gets fi ve dollars for When You Want ’em, you Can’t Get ’em, When You’ve Got ’em, You Don’t Want ’em, with words by a friend, Murray Roth. For the fi rst time, George Gershwin’s name is on a pub-lished score. Doors have begun to open for him, and they will never close. He meets Sigmund Romberg, com-poser of such already famous operettas as The Student Prince. Impressed by Gershwin’s virtuosity, Romberg invites him to contribute songs to some new productions at the Winter Garden. In fact Romberg uses only one of his songs, and without credit even so, but what does it matter? George has been paid a sumptuous $7 for it, and he knows he now has one foot in the stirrup. All the while he pursues his les-sons with Hambitzer, continuing until

Hambitzer’s death in 1918, and also with Kilenyi, who gives him two lessons a week. To complement his brilliant pupil’s musical education, Kilenyi invites a variety of orchestral musicians, that Gershwin might learn the rudiments of each instrument. During rare free moments at Remick, George studies Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier. His popularity grows without inter-ruption. In 1917 he meets his idol, Jerome Kern, who hires him as rehearsal pianist for his production Miss 1917. He is eventually introduced to Max Dreyfus, editor of Harms, Tin Pan Alley’s top publisher, who has attracted numerous hot composers to its stable. He offers Gershwin $35 a week against the option on all his future songs. Songs that are actually published will earn a 3% royalty. It is an honorable contract, and it elevates Gershwin to the top ranks of the trade.

At the heart of the industry This young pianist-composer will henceforth be a force to be reckoned with, placed as he is at the centre of Broadway, mixing with celebrities and the money men who control music publishing in the United States. Jerome Kern appreciated Gershwin’s work as a rehearsal pianist, and hires him again for his new show Rockabye Baby. George doesn’t turn down work, but he always fi nds time for his favorite occupation, writing songs. In October of 1914, at the Broadhurst Theater, the premiere of Ladies First includes two Gershwin songs: Some Wonderful Sort of Someone and The Real American Folk Song. Sung by the show’s star, Nora Bayes, the songs are warmly received, but the public recalls only the main composer’s name. Disappointed, Gershwin has learned his lesson. From now on he will write entire shows, and the name on everyone’s lips will be his. The year 1919 announces a rich period in his life. On May 26th, the Henry Miller Theater premieres Ger-shwin’s La La Lucille, with lyrics by Irving Caesar. It’s a success, with such memorable songs as Nobody But You and There’s More to the Kiss Than the Sound. Thus encouraged, Caesar and Gershwin compose a song destined for the top of the hit parade, Swanee. That autumn, the

“Music must refl ect the thouhts and aspirations of the people and the time. My people are American. My time is today.”

George Gershwin


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already-famous Al Jolson sings it in his Capitol Revue. The song is recorded by Columbia the following year and will sell a million copies in its fi rst year. Its success sweeps the planet, and it is played on the radio, on the stage, in the music hall, and even in the living room. At any family or friendly get-together, there is always someone with a fi ne voice ready to imitate the popular singer: the lights are turned down low, he smears his face with bootblack, and he goes into Swanee. In the half light you see only the white gloves and the roll of the eyes. The effect never misses. In his early twenties, George Gershwin earns $10,000 in the fi rst year for that song alone. The appearance of the phonograph and the radio revolutionizes the music industry in the early 20’s, as will the talking pictures not long after. Gershwin meets the dance producer, George White, known for his fl air for fi nding talent. He includes six Gershwin songs in George White’s Scandal of 1920. It is only the beginning. Two years later White includes eight Gershwin songs in the new version of his show. Among them: I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise. The song will be reused in the 1951 fi lm An American in Paris, where it is sung by Georges Guétary. On the same evening as the premiere of the 1922 show, Gershwin presents a mini-opera, Blue Monday, a slice of American life set to jazz-inspired music with a touch of ragtime. The audience is lukewarm, though the next day one critic calls it “the fi rst glow of a new American musical art form.” The elite crowd gravitates about Greenwich, and the East Side beckons. There Gershwin meets Charlie Chaplin, Jascha Heifetz, Groucho Marx, the Astaires and Douglas Fairbanks. George seems unmannered in this tony com-pany. He boasts of frequenting brothels

and he greets ladies with a cigar clenched between his teeth. His social shortcom-ings are noted by one of his admirers, jeweler Jules Glaenzer, who undertakes to show George more worldly ways. Gershwin takes note of the comments of this person who clearly admires him and considers him a friend. He is soon elegant in both speech and dress.

Sophisticated jazz Gershwin’s muse is tireless. He turns out six songs a day “to get them out of my system,” as he says. In April 1923 in London, he launches his musical comedy The Rainbow. In November, he accompanies at the piano the Canadian mezzo-soprano and much admired clas-sical recitalist, Éva Gauthier. An apostle of Poulenc, Milhaud, Stravinsky and Bartok, she is a friend of Ravel, to whom she introduces Gershwin. Eclectic and bold, she champions the cause of modern music, as she will do until her death in 1958. At New York’s Aeolian Hall, she is accompanied by Gershwin as she sings Purcell, Bellini, Bartok and Schoenberg, to which she adds songs by Gershwin and Kern. She is the fi rst classical singer to

incorporate jazz in a classical recital. The audience, taken aback at fi rst, applauds warmly at the end. Which brings us to the Rhapsody in Blue. It is a smash hit at its pre-miere on February 12, 1924 in that same Aeolian Hall. The evening, organized by famed bandleader Paul Whiteman, is billed as “an experiment in modern music.” In White-man’s mind it is the realiza-tion of a dream to which he is convinced Gershwin holds the key: giving jazz the status of serious music. Whiteman has not only commissioned the work, but also pays Hugh C. Ernst a goodly sum to write a text for the program on the necessity of proper instrumen-tation to improve American music. In the audience on that evening are a number of sophisticated music luminaries and composers, such as Rach-

maninov, Heifetz, Efrem Zimbalist and Leopold Stokowski. The program is long, with Gershwin’s piece at the very end. Before the concert is over some audience members grow restless and start to leave, when the long and troubling clarinet glissando literally freezes them in their tracks. On stage there is tension. Gershwin has not had time to complete the work, and he has left blank the solo piano parts. He has simply told Whiteman that he will nod when it is time for the orchestra to come in again. One can imagine the exaltation of the composer, not to men-tion the bandleader, and to understand their relief when the piece ends and they are rewarded by an ovation. The Rhapsody in Blue has been consecrated, and Gershwin has become legend. It is only a few days later that he will fi ll in the missing piano part on his score. The following summer he will “record” the Rhapsody on a reproducing piano (see Record Reviews in this issue). It is bold and full of energy, with a blues fl avor and a clear jazz infl uence, written in a single movement for piano and orchestra, orchestrated by Ferde

Gershwin (at the piano) rehearsing for Rosalie, with fellow composer Sigmund Romberg (behind him), and performers Jack Donahue and Marilyn Miller.


Grofé at Whiteman’s request. It will become a cornerstone of the American musical heritage. It will be played at the 1984 Olympics on 84 white pianos, to extraordinary acclaim, and in 1990 Warner will spend a small fortune to purchase the rights to it. By the way…about the famous clarinet introduction that continues to astound audiences, it was actually improvised by Whiteman’s clarinetist, Ross Gorman. It was a happy fi nd, for no matter how many times we hear it, it remains most impressive. It is at about the same time that the conductor of the New York Symphony, Walter Damrosch, commissions a con-certo from Gershwin. That same year, George and Ira collaborate for the fi rst time on a musical, Lady Be Good, marking the start of a durable partnership. In September Gershwin leaves for Europe. Disappointed by the tepid success of The Rainbow, he returns to London with Primrose, with his own orchestration. The new show is greeted warmly. On December 1st of the same year comes the New York premiere of Lady Be Good, starring Fred and Adele Astaire, with extraordinarily novel jazz numbers, hailed by the critics as “the best musical in town.” One of the original songs from the show is dropped, judged too intimate for a large venue. As fate would have it,

the song becomes a Transatlantic hit! It is The Man I Love. It is only the following July that he will fi nally begin the concerto Damrosch has requested.

What about the ladies? Handsome, bril l iant in sports, wealthy, with the halo of the successful composer, an amateur painter, a collector of art objects, Gershwin has a retinue of women about him. He is not ashamed to say that he would happily maintain a mistress if the practice were not so expensive. Though he is not interested in marriage, we do know he had an affair with the ravishing Kay Swift, herself a talented pianist and composer for Broadway, one of the fi rst women to attack this hitherto masculine domain. The affair will lead to Swift’s divorce from composer James P. Warburg. After Gershwin’s death, she and Ira will fl esh out some of his fi nal sketches to create a score for the 1947 fi lm The Shocking Miss Pilgrim, which will feature Betty Grable and the warm voice of Dick Haymes. The songs refl ect Gershwin at his best: For You, For Me, Forever More, and Aren’t You Glad We Did. The name of Gertrude Lawrence, screen star and fi rst lady of the musi-cal comedy in both New York and London, is inextricably linked with that of Gershwin. She stars in Oh Kay!,

a musical dedicated to Kay Swift. In it, Lawrence sings Maybe, Do-Do-Do, and Someone to Watch Over Me.

Exterior Signs of Fame The Gershwin family has moved into a luxurious fi ve-storey house on 103rd Street near Riverside Drive. It has space for his parents, and his siblings Arthur and Frances. The great living room serves for family meals and for Rosie and Morris’s passion, poker. There is a gymnasium, and a top fl oor that is entirely George’s. It is his kingdom. The period from 1925 to 1931 will be en exceptional one for the Gershwin brothers. December 3, 1925 sees the Carnegie Hall premiere of the New York Concerto, which George has himself orchestrated. Music lovers wait in a downpour for the doors to open. The program includes Glazunov’s Symphony No. 5, Henri Rabaud’s Suite anglaise, and the New York Concerto, later more commonly called the Concerto in F. Gershwin has rehearsed the concerto numerous times, even with orchestra the week before, recording it so he could make corrections. Yet he struggles to conceal his nervousness. The moment has arrived. An elegant George Gershwin prepares to show-case his music. Barely has he touched the keyboard that already the audi-ence is mesmerized. The work itself is not immediately acclaimed by critics, perhaps put off by its very American character. It will, however, eventually earn praise from many of the greatest composers of the age, and it will enter the standard concerto repertoire. It will even twice be reworked into ballets, in Vienna in 1969 and at the New York City Ballet in 1982. At the end of 1925, the music of Tip Toes is applauded by the critics, and it launches the career of one of its youngest performers, Jeanette MacDonald, who will become a major fi lm star. Two days later, the 44th Street Theater sees the premiere of Song of the Flame, considered either an operetta or a romantic opera. A year later, Gershwin is accompanist at a recital at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York, and ends with a premiere of his Preludes for Solo Piano. He steals the spotlight from the soloist of the evening,

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Marguerite d’Alvarez. In 1927 the premiere of Strike Up the Band at Philadelphia’s Shubert Theater, is but a modest success, though its title song becomes a hit. Based on a book by Morrie Ryskind, it is the fi rst collabora-tion of George S. Kaufman with the Gershwins. The show will be revived at the Times Square Theater in 1930. January of 1928 sees the premiere of Rosalie, produced by Florenz Ziegfeld, a huge hit. It includes seven Gershwin songs, including How Long Has This Been Going On? The following March George begins a three-month visit to Europe, accom-panied by his sister Frances, a singer, his brother Ira and his wife Leonora. They are in the spotlight as soon as they arrive in London, thanks to a revival of Oh Kay! Gershwin revisits Ravel, Milhaud, Poulenc and Prokofiev in Paris, and Alban Berg in Vienna. The Rhapsody in Blue is played by the Pasdeloup Orches-tra, and in April a ballet based on it is performed. He returns from Europe with enough material to compose an orchestral work inspired by his stay in Paris. An American in Paris is premiered in December in Carnegie Hall, with Walter Damrosch conducting the New York Philharmonic. The gulf between the classics and jazz has fi nally been fi lled. Gershwin will reuse the music for a ballet scene in Show Girl, at the Ziegfeld Theatre in 1929. It will later be performed integrally in the 1952 fi lm bearing the ballet’s title. The economic crash of 1929 shakes both Europe and America. Banks close their doors and worldwide unemploy-ment soars. During this dark period, Gershwin begins composing Of Thee I Sing. Girl Crazy, the following year, will be one of Gershwin’s best musicals. What makes it memorable, despite its idiotic script, is a series of remarkable songs from the Gershwin brothers, including Singin’ in the Rain, Embraceable You and I Got Rhythm. Like so many other artists, actors and musicians, George Gershwin cannot resist the allure of the West Coast, taking Ira with him. They leave New York in November of 1930. The fi lm Delicious, with their songs, opens just

over a year later. The same month, back in New York, Of Thee I Sing opens. It is a brilliant satire by three lyricists on Gershwin’s superb music. The follow-ing year the show is accorded a Pulitzer Prize. Because the Pulitzer has no cat-egory for musical comedies, the prize is given the lyricists…who publicly deplore the injustice. In January 1932 in Boston he pre-mieres his Second Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra, with Koussevitsky conducting the Boston Symphony. During a short stay in Havana, he is inspired by the rhythm and percussion of the island, and he writes a Cuban Overture (originally titled Rumba). The New York Phil-harmonic premieres it. A month later, Simon and Schuster publishes The George Gershwin Song Book. October 1933 sees the premiere of Let ’em Eat Cake, a logical successor to Of Thee I Sing, confi rming Ira Gershwin’s taste for satire. In 1934 Gershwin plays the solo part in his I Got Rhythm Variations. You have to hear these variations on a familiar

melody to appreciate fully the genius of Gershwin. When the time came to improvise, his prodigious imagination, so well served by the agility of his fi n-gers, knew no bounds. But the Great Depression is showing no signs of ending, and its effects on Broadway are disastrous. The theatres and music halls are empty. A long list of artists must fight against despair, for so many are without work. And yet, on October 10, 1935, Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess opens on Broadway. It is Gershwin’s longest work, though it is staged in abbreviated form. To soothe music lovers not yet used to his innovative style, Gershwin avoids the word opera altogether. The libretto is by DuBose Heyward, with lyrics by Heyward and Ira Gershwin. This Afri-can-American story is set on Catfi sh Row in Charleston, SC. Later considered a masterpiece, Porgy and Bess is not an immediate success, though strangely some of its songs will become immensely popular even among people who had not yet seen the show. The song lineup

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includes the deathless lullaby, Summer-time. Much can be said about Porgy and Bess, whose music will be reused in a symphonic suite orchestrated by Gershwin, and in the instrumental suite Catfi sh Row. For a long time the opera will be performed more frequently in Western Europe and in Russia than in the United States. It will be the fi rst American opera to be staged in La Scala in Milan. It will be made into a fi lm, whose music will win an Oscar. It will take 50 years for Porgy and Bess to be staged by the Metropolitan Opera.

Hollywood calls The Talkies have swept Hollywood. Music is now an integral part of a fi lm, to the detriment of the pianists who used to play while silent pictures rolled, but offering new opportunities for compos-ers. Gershwin anticipates the riches that will surely fl ow for himself and for Ira from a second trip to Hollywood. RKO Pictures is growing rapidly, and offers the Gershwin brothers $55,000 to work on the fi lm Watch Your Step, which will be rebaptized with the name of a Gershwin song, Shall We Dance. George and Ira move into a Beverley Hills man-sion complete with tennis court, pool and billiard room. George writes music worthy of Ira’s lyrics: Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off, and They Can’t Take That Away From Me, which gets an Oscar nomina-tion. Yet George is not happy. He misses the contact with his audience, and in late 1936 he undertakes a concert tour. For some time he has not been at his best. He suffers from frequent headaches, and seems to be running out of energy. During his fi nal concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, in the midst of playing the Concerto in F he is surprised to smell what seems to be burning rubber, before passing out. His doctor can fi nd nothing wrong. Still with Ira at his side, he returns to his writing, composing music for A Damsel in Distress, a vehicle for his old friend Fred Astaire, dancing this time with Joan Fontaine. Then there is a new fi lm which promises to be a blockbuster hit, the Goldwyn Follies. Gershwin calls on the talents of the famed Russian

choreographer George Balanchine. But the headaches are getting worse, accompanied by dizziness and percep-tion of strange odors. Consultations with top specialists bring no defi nite diagnosis. In June he undergoes a com-plete checkup: blood and urine tests, electrocardiogram, and a neurological exam. They turn up nothing. George is impatient as his condition worsens. Increasingly weak, he naps often and can no longer stand bright light. He cannot walk without aid. Worried but powerless, Ira and his wife place George at the home of a friend with a nurse to care for him. On July 9, 1937, he falls into a coma. Rushed to hospital, he is examined by a neurosurgeon. It is only the next day that doctors discover what they had suspected for some time: a brain tumor. He goes into the operating room at the Cedars Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles on July 11th, but he does not survive the operation. He dies without regaining consciousness.

The man behind the artist Gershwin’s rise was not without detours. It was because he was well ahead of his time in his attempt to create a fusion of jazz and the classics, because he was a school dropout in a country where diplomas had replaced titles, because it seemed impossible to reach the top echelons as a composer without a solid classical background — and Gershwin had studied at no university, and with no European master. He was also hampered by his very fame, for he was more popular than many a composer supposedly better schooled in harmony and composition. On top of it all, he was Jewish. Cer-tain articles in contemporary musical journals by supposedly broadminded critics have an anti-Semitic tone whose virulence is downright disconcerting. There was, around George Gershwin, an impressive cohort of women, admirers or potential lovers of whom we know little. A few names are mentioned here and there: Kay Swift, Paulette Goddard, Julie Adams. But what good would it do us to know the intimate details of the great? I can say only that Gershwin was courted by the great of this world, who

hoped to have him at their table, as well as by women who hoped to receive him in their beds. “Why should I limit myself to one woman,” he is purported to have said, “when I can have as many women as I want?”

In praise of Gershwin George Gershwin was a phenomenal melodist and a composer of genius, the most illustrious of the New World, and — one can affi rm without fear of contradiction — the creator of a dis-tinctively American music. He leaves a priceless heritage of fusion, classic jazz, and eternal melodies that have entered the American soul, with works such as the Concerto in F and Rhapsody in Blue. As for opera, his arias are recognizable even to those who don’t know who wrote them. We have all been exposed to these sublime melodies, immortalized by their spontaneity, their enthusiasm, their freshness, their passion, and their deeply human qualities. As a pianist he was prodigious. It was at the keyboard he was happiest, spinning melodies or variations on those melodies. Ira, his brother and collabora-tor, wrote that he had been especially astonished by his brother’s left hand. We might regret that he left us only three works for piano, but such works! They are the Three Preludes of 1926. Very much inf luenced by Afro-American music, he was also an admirer of Rachmaninoff, Schoenberg, Poulenc and others. They in turn much admired him and sometimes quoted his music. Ravel became close to Gershwin, and the two exercised a mutual infl uence. Gershwin’s orchestrations became more refi ned, while Ravel became infl uenced by the Gershwin manner. Traces of Gershwin can be heard in his Sonata for Violin, his Concerto in G for Extroverted Piano, and the Concerto for the Left Hand, composed for a friend who had lost an arm in the war. Darius Milhaud, for his part, was the fi rst composer to sign a major classical work in the jazz idiom. It was La creation du monde of 1923. But why ma ke compar i sons ? Gershwin was Gershwin. There will never be another.


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Mendelssohn: Complete Works for Cello and PianoElizabeth Dolin/Bernadene BlahaAnalekta FL 2 3166Lessard: Felix Mendolssohn occupies a considerable place on the musical scene of 19th Century Germany. He was a pianist, organist, violinist, recitalist, conductor, composer, pedagogue, and co-founder, with Schumann, of a music conservatory of enviable reputation. And he left a large number of admirable works, such as the ones included on this CD. To put them on show, here are extraordinarily talented cellist and pia-nist, possessing a perfect understanding of the master’s very soul. From the fi rst notes of the Allegro vivace of the Sonata No. 2 in D Major, op. 58, from 1843, we are overcome by the sheer beauty of the melody and the energetic rhythm of the musicians. After an Allegretto scherzando, the Adagio opens with a series of piano arpeggios, to which the cello adds its warm but troubling tone, giving way to the piano which picks up the melody. The sonata ends with a lively Moto allegro e vivace, whose cello ostinato made me think of The Flight of the Bumblebee. Further along we come to the Variations concertantes, op. 17, which Mendelssohn composed when he was 20. It contains nine themes, in which cello and piano alternate in the spotlight, ending in an Assai tranquillo. Next there is a Lied of rare tenderness in a somewhat melancholic vein…just the thing to listen to at the end of the day when you and a

loved one exchange whispers rather than words. A second sonata, the Opus 45, in B Flat Major this time, ends this musical session of exceptional quality. I always like to recall that it is to Mendelssohn that we owe the rediscov-ery of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, whose reputation as an organist had so eclipsed Bach the composer that his works were hardly ever played.

Nota del SolSimiliaAnalekta AN 2 9817Lessard: From their fi rst album, Can-tabile (UHF No. 64), the twin Labrie sisters, fl utist Nadia and guitarist Annie, won over their audience. The pieces on this, their second CD, includes some of the most beautiful music from the contemporary composers of South America. From the celebrated Argentine guitarist and composer Maximo Diego Pujol come two selections, the Suite Buenos Aires and Dos aires candombreros. The opening section, the first four tracks, brings us to various picturesque corners of the city, each with its local color and special accent. The Palermo section takes us into a romantic dream with a heady tune. We would stay there gladly, but we take a detour into the old San Telmo quarter, with its cafés and

public markets, where we are engulfed by the exuberant joie de vivre well evoked by a short but astonishing percussion passage. In Microcentro, our next listen-ing point, an exquisite duo recreates the atmosphere of downtown. There is no better music to appreciate the virtuosity of the two musicians, and the perfect osmosis that unites them. The suite ends with a reprise of Palermo and a frantic fi nale. The second Pujol piece opens with Nubes de Buenos. Brought to Argentina by Black slaves from Africa, the candombe is a dance with rapid tempo and a well-syncopated rhythm, with highly romantic fl ute passages. The playing is fi ery. There are excerpts from Celso Mach-ado’s Musiques populaires brésiliennes, with delicious rhythms and melodies. Between then comes a lascivious Tango by Eric Marchelie, which opens with an air on the fl ute that develops with fervor and passion to the energetic accompani-ment of the guitar. But without a doubt the pièce de résistance is Histoire du Tango, with four pieces by Astor Piazzola: Bordel 1900, gay, catching, almost insolent, a touch disreputable; Café 1930, dreamy and tender; Night Club 1950, recalling the rise of the tango to ballroom status; and Concert d’aujourd’hui, a hybrid product of two infl uences elevating the tango to the classical level. A guitar that goes to our head by its formidable sound and virtuosity, subtle rubato full of tenderness to touch our senses, melodies that run through our minds despite us, and two accomplished musicians playing with matchless virtu-osity and sensitivity, as well as a verve which plunges us into a joyous session, from which we emerge all too soon to a duller reality. The recording was done in the old Saint-Augustin de Mirabel stone church, north of Montreal, which for several years has been used by Analekta for some of its best recordings. The sound, from Analekta’s usual engineer. Carl Talbot, is impeccable.

Record Reviews

by Reine Lessard,and Gerard Rejskind


Bells for StokowskiJunkin & Univ. of Texas Wind Ens.Reference Recordings RR-104CDRejskind: The title puzzled me right off. Famed conductor Leopold Stokowski has been dead for nearly 30 years, even though he lives on through his count-less recordings. Actually the album title is drawn from its fi nal piece, that of Michael Daugherty. Daugherty’s forte is commissioned music suites. He has written evocative music in praise of Baltimore, Detroit, Los Angeles, and even places that don’t exist, such as Superman’s home town of Metropolis. The subject in this case is Philadelphia, and it is one of three commissioned pieces in honor of that city. It’s got bells, as the title promises: two large bells on either side of the stage, plus a variety of other bells and bell-like percussion instruments. The result is most attractive and even refreshing, but…why? Daugherty explains that he has imag-ined Stokowski — one-time conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra as of so many others — “visiting the Liberty Bell at sunrise, and listening to all the bells of the city resonate.” He includes various bell sounds throughout the piece, including occasional tolling by the two big bells, and his multilayered orchestration is also meant to evoke the variety of music Stokowski conducted, from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier and Goldberg Variations (which he quotes) to 20th Century atonal music, and ending with a full-orchestra roar Stokowski loved. I do think Stokowski would have enjoyed conducting this. The other works are unrelated. They include an English folk song suite by

Ralph Vaughan Williams. It seems odd to hear his music played by a wind band, since he himself very much favored lush strings, but this suite really was com-posed for band. I have reservations about his rather amorphous, rambling music, but he had a talent for arranging good melodies in a new setting: his Fantasia on Greensleeves remains, deservedly, his best-known work. Vaughan Williams collected many folk songs to keep them from being forgotten, and this suite contains several. The first and third selections are surprisingly bold and brassy. The middle one, an arrangement of My Bonny Boy, is quieter, more introspective, but with a strong architecture. Most unusual is a suite of old music from 16th Century Belgian composer Tielman Susato. I had never heard of him, nor have most people. One of his few pieces that have survived is a collection of songs and dances called The Danserye, originally composed for the instruments of the time —sackbut, krumhorn and the like — and adapted for modern wind band by Patrick Dunni-gan. Jerry Junkin’s excellent University of Texas Wind Ensemble is much larger than any orchestra of fi ve centuries ago would have been, with the result that, not withstanding the period dance rhythms, with their symmetrical development and characteristic repetitions, the suite has a decidedly modern sound. This is by no means a bad thing, and I enjoyed it immensely. The collection, finally, includes a highly contemporary work by David Del Tredici, titled In Wartime. Del Tredici completed it while he sat in front of the TV, watching the US “shock and awe” invasion of Iraq. Many composers have written music on the theme of war. It is generally joyous and bombastic if it is written early in the war, sad and tragic if written after. This piece was written before, but was fi nished in front of the TV images. Would Del Tredici have a point of view? In Wartime begins with a hymn, the part most war requiems end with. It then continues with a Battlemarch, well-crafted but whose sense I strove to discern. Perhaps the war is still too close, and I was working too hard to

make intellectual sense of it, though I was somewhat shaken by the ending, whose sound suggests an air raid siren. I wondered whether Del Tredici will ultimately feel compelled to add a third movement to his suite. It is too soon to guess what its title will be. The sound, as usual with this com-pany, was done by Keith O. Johnson, and is mostly outstanding, but for some rather shrill peaks on trumpets and fl utes. It sounds especially good if you have a player with an HDCD decoder. Proper decoding adds explosive dynam-ics, a bottom end that borders on scary and great depth to what is already a pretty good recording.

CelebrationLes violons du roy/Gauvin/RoschmannDorian DOR-90024Lessard: The reputation of this ensem-ble long ago overfl owed local frontiers to emerge in only a few years as one of the world’s most appreciated chamber orchestras. Its founder and conductor has found a way to be respected rather than feared. Much as he is appreciated by the public, he shows surprising modesty before the ovations at his concerts. As for the 15 musicians he leads, they are vir-tuosos of their respective instruments. Bernard Labadie has a particular penchant for Handel, Bach, Vivaldi and Mozart. Handel’s Concerto Grosso op. 6 No. 5 in D Major opens this 78 minute CD of musical and auditory joy. The Allegro assai from the Sinfonia in D Major is from J.C.F. Bach, possibly the least-known member of the celebrated dynasty, though that should not be taken to imply a lack of talent. In fact his output, nearly all composed at the court

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Bells for StokowskiJunkin & Univ. of Texas Wind Ens.Reference Recordings RR-104CDReference Recordings RR-104CDReference RecordingsRejskind: The title puzzled me right off. Famed conductor Leopold Stokowski has been dead for nearly 30 years, even though he lives on through his count-less recordings. Actually the album title is drawn from its fi nal piece, that of Michael Daugherty. Daugherty’s forte is commissioned music suites. He

best-known work. Vaughan Williams collected many folk songs to keep them from being forgotten, and this suite contains several. The first and third selections are surprisingly bold and brassy. The middle one, an arrangement of My Bonny Boy, is quieter, more introspective, but with a strong architecture. Most unusual is a suite of old music from 16th Century Belgian composer Tielman Susato. I had never heard of him, nor have most people. One of his few pieces that have survived is a collection of songs and dances called The Danserye, originally composed for

and is mostly outstanding, but for some rather shrill peaks on trumpets and fl utes. It sounds especially good if you have a player with an HDCD decoder. Proper decoding adds explosive dynam-ics, a bottom end that borders on scary and great depth to what is already a pretty good recording.

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of Bückenburg, is immense. There is a superb arrangement by Labadie of a part of J.S. Bach’s Art of the Fugue, in which he doses the harpsichord and the organ with remarkable discern-ment. On track 12 there is the gift of a sublime aria drawn from Handel’s Dafné, sung by the divine soprano Karina Gauvin. When her voice rises, no matter what you’re doing she will command your attention. Indeed, all of the voices on the recording — not only Gauvin but also Dorothea Roschmann and Russell Braun — are magnifi cent, and they touch us to our very hearts in pieces by Handel and Bach. After that come two remarkable con-certos by Vivaldi, rendered in dazzling fashion. In the midst of it, a fi rst violin enthralls us with the utter beauty of a Largo e spiccato. Bach’s Goldberg Variations follow, in an orchestral arrangement by Labadie, and f inally three movements from Mozart’s deathless Requiem, with a con-tribution from the choir and soloists of the Chapelle de Québec. I feel it would be redundant for me to say much about these works so well-loved for centuries. Except for the J.C.F. Bach piece, they are staples of both recordings and concert halls, all for our greater pleasure. I’d rather praise the dynamic playing of the musicians, always perfectly coordinated, but whose discipline in no way banishes a healthy dose of sensitivity. The sound? Dorian at its best.

ObseciónTrio AmadéKlavier K11134Rejskind: The meaning of the title is

evident, though not why the Amadé Trio chose it. The music is eclectic, covering Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Astor Piazzola and Emilio Colón. I’ve run across Colón’s music on several recordings in the last short while, but this recording is signifi cant for a particu-lar reason: the cellist of this superb piano trio is none other than Colón himself. So let me begin by his own contribu-tion, a tango with the enigmatic title N. Written specially for this ensemble, it opens with a gentle piano solo, followed by a ravishingly beautiful violin passage that is well supported by the graver tones of the cello. It is in the second half of the piece, running six minutes, that you recognize that yes, this is indeed a tango. This worthy piece is followed by a suite from the late Argentinian tango master, Astor Piazzola, titled Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas, a clear reference to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. One doesn’t expect to be able to dance to Piazzola’s tangos, of course, though one almost could to the Verano Porteño, the Summer sequence. It alternates between fiery brio and heartrending nostalgia. Spring is deliciously melodic, while Autumn is lyrical and hints tantalizingly at the tango rhythm, which then bursts out in full fl ame. Winter is another delight, whose mood changes blindingly fast, revealing its dance nature. It can be surprisingly easy to make Piazzola sound dull and confused, but even he didn’t often make his music sound as delightful as it does on this recording. The other half of the CD is more dif-fi cult to recommend. Copland’s Vitebsk (Study on a Jewish Theme) is inspired by a folk song Copland heard during a New York performance of The Dybbuk by the Moscow Arts Theater. It is angular and austere, not at all like Copland’s best-known works, which often themselves sound like folk music. It seemes dated today. And I was left cold by a 1937 trio composed by Leonard Bernstein when he was 19. The Amadé Trio, in case I haven’t already made it clear, is absolutely fi rst-class. Violinist Felicia Moye in particular has a penchant for lyricism that can bring you close to tears, as she does on both the Piazzola and the Colón. Pianist

Heather Coltman is excellent, and I need hardly add that the group’s composer-cellist understands this music perfectly. Best of all, the whole adds up to even more than the sum of its parts. The microphones were placed close to the instruments, and so the actual sound you hear will depend in large part on the acoustics of your own room. Yet it never sounds unpleasantly forward, or shrill and edgy. The transfer to CD is spot on.

Norman Dello JoioStamp & Keystone Wind Ens.Klavier K11138Rejskind: My first reaction: I was delighted to learn that Norman Dello Joio was still alive. Indeed, the last cut on this disc is a 23 minute interview with him, part of Klavier’s The Composer’s Voice series. I became a fan of his orchestral and choral music many years ago. Not only is he a master melodist, but he has a natural understanding of how to use variations on a theme to surprise and delight the ear. Clearly, he himself delights in the sheer sound of the orches-tra. And I must add that this delight has never been more evident than in this stunning recording, a topic I shall return to in a moment. Dello Joio is musically eclectic. He studied composition with Hindemith, but he also spent part of his youth playing jazz, and he acknowledges Fats Waller as one of his infl uences. It seems to me he was always drawn to the use of percussion and brass to fi ll the space of a hall, and it appears natural for him to compose for wind band, as he has in all of these pieces. I was surprised to hear that he wrote his fi rst work for wind band

CASTLE WINCHESTERSCastle Winchester speakers, excellent condition, gently used for two years. Mahogony finish. Boxes. $2400 or best offer. [email protected].

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REGA PLANETRega Planet 2000 CD Player, black with Solar remote, good condition, original packaging, $900. Prefer to sell directly in Toronto area. Peter, (416)445-4997, [email protected].

LUMLEY, ANTHEM, DYNACORay Lumley M-100 Mono blocks, very good condition $1800. Anthem preamp 1 with separate power supply, very good $800. Dynaco Mk III, modified by Lee Pratt, sounds great, $800. Will, [email protected].

MOON W-5 AMPLIFIERUHF is selling a Simaudio Moon W-5 power amplifier. We have long considered the W-5 one of the world’s best high-powered (185 wpc) solid state amps (the notable exception is the newer W-5 we have picked up). It is in mint condition, with box and manual. It is the original version, with the “Celeste” name, serial number 970503. Original price C$5200, for C$2850 plus shipping. Contact UHF at [email protected], or call during EDT business hours, (450)651-5720.PREAMP BY DE PARAVICINIUpscale preamplifier from Alchemist, the Forseti Signature version designed by E.A.R.’s Tim de

Paravicini. Spectacular styling, large outboard power supply. See it online at the Alchemist site. Was originally US$2000 without phono stage. This one includes the MM phono stage and is in mint condition. $1325 (Canadian) plus shipping. Contact UHF at [email protected], or call during EDT business hours, (450)651-5720.

MUSE, EADMuse Model 2 DAC (HDCD); Enlightened Audio Designs Universal Transport (T-7000); Excellent Condition; $500.00 for the pair. Gary (905)937-0460 (St.Catharines). [email protected].

AUDIOMAT, VECTEURAudiomat Solfege integrated amp, Audiomat Tempo 2 D/A, Vecteur Tierce walnut speakers. As new, played so little they are barely burned in. Sold as system only, $17,000CAN value, asking $8000CAN. Hefty items, shipping costs will depend on destination. Jean, (418)522-2620, [email protected].

REFERENCE 3AReference 3a MM De Capo speakers. 2 years old and in excellent condition. Original boxes and manuals.Asking $1800. E-mail me at [email protected] or phone 519-322-4059.

ENERGY/QUADEnergy Reference Connoisseur walnut (see issue No. 9 HiFi and No. 69 Kappa system, UHF), no orig boxes, will crate to ship. asking $1,000 o.b.o. 1 pair vintage Quad electrostatics crated ready to go $750 o.b.o (905) 937-4100.

BRYSTONBryston BP-25 preamp, 2 years old, with remote Rotel RQ-970BX phono preamp, 6 months old. Both mint, $1700 for both. Mike, (705)268-7399 weekdays. (April 21/04)

INTERCONNECTSTired of paying high-end price for interconnects?! Amazing high quality trouble free interconnects. OXYGEN FREE COPPER OR SILVER WIRE. Best quality gold plugs or NEW REVOLUTIONARY BULLET PLUGS. RCA-to-RCA or RCA-to-DIN (for Quad, Naim, etc). No more adapters. Silver soldering. Exceptional workmanship. Standard or custom orders. From $75. BIS AUDIO, (450)663-6137.

MUSEATEX REPAIRSMuseatex/MeitnerAudio factory service and updates. Please check our web-site at www.museatex.com. E-mail me at [email protected] or phone (403)284-0723.

MAGNUM DYNALABMagnum Dynalab 101A “Etude” tuner, $600 firm. Magnum Dynalab Signal Sleuth 205, $200 firm. Complete with manuals. Little used, and mint. (705)726-0519.

WIREWORLD, PIERRE GABRIEL, NAIMWireworld Eclipse III+ speaker cables (3 meter, new, still in sealed plastic) list $2560, sell $1650. Pierre Gabriel ML1 interconnects (1 meter, new) list $1160, sell $800. Pierre Gabriel L1 interconnects (1.5 meter, mint) list $800, sell $450. Naim nait5/flatcapII/stageline phono stage (mint) list $4450, sell $3500. Chord 2 interconnects (mint, 2 pairs RCA-DIN ) sell $160. Teac/Primare ABX10 integrated amp (excellent, 100 watts, balanced inputs) sell $1100. Email address [email protected].

NAIM NAITFor sale: Naim NAIT 3 (with MC phono board) plus 10 ft pair Naim speaker cables and high quality 5-pin DIN cable terminated with 4 RCA male connectors. Plus Naim MM phonoboard = C$1200. [email protected]. (March 22/04)

MONITOR AUDIOMonitor Audio MA1200 Gold MkII two-way with rear port. Black ash veneer. 87 dB/1W/1m. 30 Hz-20 kHz +/- 3 dB. Bi-wireable. Binding posts upgraded to Cardas Rhodium. Internal wire upgraded to Cardas. Capacitor upgrade to Hovland. DeFlex port damping. Mass loadable to 80 lb each. Spikes and Michell Tenderfeet included. Grills, original boxes, manual. Mint Condition. Orion Blue Book value: US$700 without upgrades. $950 CDN. [email protected].

TOTEMTotem Hawks, cherry finished, with boxes, packing, $1800. Bryston interconnects, 2 strands, 5 m each with Neutrik RCA’s, $200. Nordost Red Dawn interconnects, 1 m, balanced, $400. Buyer pays delivery. Call (613)748-1950.

AUDIOMAT - VECTEURCreekside Audio for all your stereo/theatre needs. Audiomat, Vecteur, Atlantis Acoustique, Gershman and lots more! Discover the magic in music with our fine products. (250)-878-6252, Kelowna, BC. www.creeksideaudio.net.

THE UHF CLASSIFIEDSRun your own ad in the print issue, and on our World Wide Web site for two months

NON-COMMERCIAL: $12 per slice of 40 words or less. COMMERCIAL: $24 per slice of 40 words or less.TAXES: In most of Canada, add 7% GST. NS, NB, NF, add 15% HST. In Québec, add another 7.5% TVQ. No taxes for advertisers outside Canada. Payment may be made by cheque, money order, or VISA or MasterCard (include number, expiry date and signature). NOTE: Because classified ad prices are kept so low, we cannot engage in correspondence concerning ads. Fee must be paid a second time if a correction is required, unless the fault is ours. Prices shown in Canadian dollars. THE UHF CLASSIFIEDS, Box 65085, Place Longueuil, LONGUEUIL, Qué., Canada J4K 5J4PHONE: (450) 651-5720 FAX: (450) 651-3383. E-MAIL: [email protected]

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only in 1963, when he was 50. That work, Variants on a Medieval Tune, is the very fi rst piece on the CD. The medieval tune in question will be familiar to most listeners as In Dulci Jubilo, the tune to the Christmas carol Good Christian Men Rejoice. Dello Joio exposes it undisguised in the fi rst of six movements, and then starts work to reuse it in ever more inventive forms, played fi rst by the bassoon, then the clarinet, and later the brass, then different mixes of brass and woodwinds: fl ute, French horn, and so on. The percussion is used as tasty condiment. He adds a number of original melodies to the cauldron, some of them unrelated to the main theme, though sometimes more closely related than one might guess. Also on the CD is another set of vari-ations, the Fantasies on a Theme by Haydn. The theme is drawn from Haydn’s String Quartet No. 2, op. 76. Dello Joio had borrowed the theme once before, for his orchestral Homage to Haydn of 1969, premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra no less! He later reworked it as this wind band piece, and it sounds as though it was originally written that way. There are four movements, which have their own track numbers on the CD, but are played without pause. This suite alone is worth ordering the record for. The other pieces are less familiar, but are worth discovering. City Profi les is a wind band adaptation of his New York Profi les of 1949, with constantly shift-ing moods in which he uses the band to excellent advantage. From Every Horizon is also for New York, adapted from his score for a fi lm about the 1964 World’s Fair. The members of the Keystone Wind Ensemble are drawn from faculty, students and administration of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, which barely hints at what an outstanding ensemble this is. The playing is f lawless, very much together, and it is full of life and enthusiasm. They play with obvious and communicative pleasure that does justice to the music. Bruce Leek’s engineering is entirely up to the task, and indeed appears to push the envelope of what can be put onto a Red Book CD. The clarity is wonderfully satisfying, and the per-cussion rings with a power that is often

startling. Dello Joio loves the sound of the orchestra, and Leek has captured it. This is a truly great recording. Note to the competition: before you do your next 24-bit recording, have a listen what Leek does with only 16.

Kickin’ the Clouds AwayGeorge GershwinKlavier K77031Lessard: At this moment I am hear-ing George Gershwin at the piano. Gershwin himself! After hearing his music interpreted by so many other pia-nists, by so many singers, by orchestras large and small, by so many bands, after having read thousands of comments on his dazzling piano performances, I have Gershwin himself in my Linn player, nearly 70 years after his death. Such emotion! That pleasure alone is enough to justify getting this recording. But that’s not all. It’s a chance to hear once again his many moving melodies: I Was So Young, You Were So Beautiful, a gorgeous love song, Drifting Along With the Tide, and So Am I. Better yet, I was able to gauge for myself his inimitable virtuosity, his brilliant playing. On this CD he plays not only his own works but also those of other composers he admires: Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin and others. I can’t believe it! And whence comes this magic? Starting in his twenties, Gershwin played a number of compositions on a reproducing piano, a more sophisticated version of the player piano once common in bars and saloons. Popular from 1903 to 1930, it could record on a paper roll not only the actual notes played, but also the dynamics and the pedal posi-tion. The makers of these machines

were willing to pay good money to sign up the fi nest pianists of their time. To make this recording, a reproducing piano was placed in a concert hall, stereo microphones were suspended over it, and Gershwin’s piano rolls were played. Gershwin…in modern stereo! But I won’t reveal all of the secrets of this fabulous machine, since you’ll fi nd them explained in detail in the booklet accompanying the CD. I can add only that this recording is a must in any serious eclectic record collection, and that you’ll listen with renewed pleasure to Swanee, Shilkret’s Make Believe, Donaldson’s Rockabye, Lullaby Mammy, Rhapsody in Blue, and of course Kickin’ the Clouds Away.

Piano RagsRichard DowlingKlavier K77035Lessard: Like many a new music form, the rag was initially condemned by the Establishment and considered suit-able for clubs and brothels. Its rapid spread and huge popularity indicate that, notwithstanding the disapproval, it captivated music lovers everywhere, and composers as well. Among those who wrote ragtime music were John Philip Sousa, the king of band marches and inventor of the sousaphone, George Gershwin, Sigmund Romberg, Jerome Kern and Irving Berlin. You can also fi nd ragtime in the music of Dvorak, Debussy and others. Though ragtime was shouldered aside by jazz in the 1920’s, it was never totally eclipsed, and there was renewed inter-est, starting in the 60’s, in this music, originated by itinerant pianists, mostly Afro-Americans and mostly from the US


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south. In 1973, the hit movie The Sting won awards not only for best picture but also for best musical score…for the rag The Entertainer. Do I like rags? Yes I do, for one of the benefi ts of being eclectic is the ability to fi nd happiness with many different musi-cal styles. I envy the composers, who can express so many fi ne sentiments using this very complex music that merely sounds easy, if only because it is played by pianists with astonishing talent. The originators of ragtime were all magicians of the keyboard. The present recording features Rich-ard Dowling and his Steinway, playing rags by such celebrities as Joseph C. Northup, Artie Matthews, James Scott, Joseph F. Lamb, Gershwin, and Scott Joplin — dubbed the king of ragtime. Included are Joplin’s Bethena, Maple Leaf Rag and A Mexican Serenade. This last is as sentimental as you could wish, with rubato, pregnant pauses…the works. Except for William Bolcom, who was younger, the others were born before the turn of the century.

The CD opens with Bolcom’s The Cannon Ball of 1905, a highly original blend of classics and ragtime. The booklet says that it recalls (What? Did I read right!) Franz Liszt. Begging your pardon, I don’t agree. And yet… Listen to those rapid cascades of arpeggios, staccatos and clever repetitions, blended with the syncopated rhythm typical of ragtime, and tell me this is not a virtuoso piece! What we call light music is not necessarily music that is easy to play, as this disc demonstrates. Dowling has the knack for broad chords, thirds and octave jumps, delivered with remarkable precision, without ever breaking the luminous rhythm that make the hours seem short. Then come two rags by arranger Artie Matthews, believed to have also written the fi rst blues, Baby Seal Blues, in 1915. Joseph E. Lamb’s American Beauty Rag is especially attractive and a bit sen-timental, though without sacrifi cing the joyousness of the genre. Lamb’s Ragtime Nightingale has touches of rubato here and there. James Scott’s tongue-in-cheek

Hilarity Rag is irresistible. Jay Roberts’ Entertainment Rag is full of contagious humor, and contains some easily-spotted quotations. Kitten on the Keys is absolutely divine, and represents very well a cat choosing to dance on the black and white notes. The list could go on. In short all of the pieces on this CD are dazzling, both by their style and by the pianist’s exciting play. I recommend it warmly.

One LifeKatinka WilsonOpus 3 CD22032Rejskind: It seems you can’t go to an audio show without fi nding a new CD by a new female jazz singer. Most would sound fi ne if you ran across them in a smoky club late at night, but buying the CD is another matter. A number of these singers come from the Far East, particu-larly Hong Kong. Do they understand what they are singing? On the primary level, sure, but… Now and again you get a hit. Shef-fi eld’s Margie Gibson is such a prize. And remember Thérèse Juel, who sang so gorgeously in Swedish on the Opus 3’s original demo disc? Katinka Wilson is also from Opus 3, and I’m sorry to say I can’t put her in the hit category. Despite her un-Swed-ish last name and her fl awless English phrasing, she was born near Stockholm. She is multitalented, not only singing but playing guitar, and writing her own music and lyrics. She has good backup, which includes Janne Petersson, one of Eric Bibb’s people. I tried to get into this music, I really did, but neither the melodies nor the words kept me from thinking about things other than music. Wilson has studied some pretty good singers, and she has learned all the tricks well, but really good singing is not a trick. It is an art, or should be. Even the sound left me cold, some-thing I don’t often say about Opus 3 recordings. It is a hybrid SACD, yet its sound is oddly fl at and one-dimensional. Perhaps it’s the fact that this is a multi-track mix, as given away by the fact that Wilson sometimes adds in overdubbed choral effects. I can’t think of a reason to recommend it.

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Though Blue Circle was originally known for tube gear, it has been moving extensively into solid state…including its new BC27pi phono stage.

The unit has been made slim so it can be tucked behind the turntable or preamp, to keep cables short. The second chassis is the power supply, which includes a whopping 200,000 mF of fi lter capacitors…enough for a pretty good power amp. The BC27pi costs US$1395. The BC27, which has a more conventional power supply, is US$595, and is upgradable to the “pi” version.

* We reviewed the Creek CD50 player just in time…before Creek replaced it with the Mark II version. It looks the same, and reportedly sounds similar too, but it is radically different. Instead of using the usual upscale Philips transport favored by most manu-facturers, Creek uses an inexpensive computer-grade CD-R drive, which loads data into a block of computer memory. The memory buffer then plays the data, with what we can assume is minimum jitter. There are potential problems: Euro-pean record stores are full of discs mucked up with copy protection schemes aimed at foiling their use in computers. Creek claims the CD50 MkII will play all current discs, and that the player’s fi rmware is on an easily-changed plug-in device.

* Among new products from Benz Micro is a line of new titanium watches. Says the company: “Swiss precision, style and it’s analog!”

Swedish radio has gone to 5.1 chan-nels. No, not on the air, but on the Internet. The experimental service offers surround sound music concerts you can download, burn to CD, and then play through a home theatre system. Both DTS and Dolby Digital versions are included. This is not for dialup connections: fi les run up to 729 Mb! Try them at http://www.sr.se/multikanal/english/e_index.stm.

* The upsampling stakes keep being raised. Numerous CD and DVD/SACD players now offer upsampling of CDs from the usual 44.1 kHz to 96 kHz. Now MSB goes one better: 192 kHz. That’s available in the company’s new Super DVD player.

This is another in the growing category of “play anything” machines, handling DVD, DVD-A, SACD, etc. It costs US$7995. An add-on for some earlier MSB players adds the upsampling capability for US$699.

* Naim will soon release its new DVD5 player, which will include an onboard Faroudja video processor.

The DVD5 has been designed for use with very large displays, and can upscale images to 1080 lines…the video counterpart to audio upsampling. The new player, whose price has not yet been announced, will play DVD-Audio, but not SACD.

In late June there was a f lurry of angry Internet postings about the new CD by The Beastie Boys. Not only was it copy-protected, but if you inserted it into your computer drive, it would automati-cally install a “worm,” a malicious piece of software that would prevent you from copying the contents. The postings got rather vicious, with some Beastie Boys fans (oh, they’ve got them) calling for lawyers, or even a mob with torches. We couldn’t check this out, because copies made in the US or the UK don’t contain the virus, if indeed that’s what it is. But this may turn out to be be much ado about nothing…or at least nothing we haven’t seen before. The Beastie Boys themselves blame

their record company, EMI, for impos-ing the protection, but deny that the CD contains either a virus or spyware. Rather, they say, it is the same Macrovi-sion CDS-200 copy protection system used on numerous European discs. If that’s true, what the disc does is bypass the normal music player built into Windows or the Macintosh OS, and install its own music player instead. So the music will play, but it can’t be copied in the usual way. Of course that doesn’t really mean it can’t be copied. Our view: any executive who thinks gadgets like this will protect his company from the 21st Century should be checked for transplantable organs.

Gossip&NewsNews From the Trenches

Beastly CDs

which includes a whopping 200,000 mF of fi lter capacitors…enough for a pretty good power amp. The BC27pi costs US$1395. The BC27, which has a more conventional power supply, is US$595, and is upgradable to the “pi” version.

* We reviewed the Creek CD50 player just in time…before Creek replaced it with the Mark II version. It looks the same, and reportedly sounds similar too, but it is radically different. Instead of using the usual upscale Philips transport favored by most manu-facturers, Creek uses an inexpensive computer-grade CD-R drive, which loads data into a block of computer memory. The memory buffer then plays the data, with what we can assume is minimum jitter. There are potential problems: Euro-pean record stores are full of discs mucked up with copy protection schemes

from the usual 44.1 kHz to 96 kHz. Now MSB goes one better: 192 kHz. That’s available in the company’s new Super DVD player. The DVD5 has been designed for

use with very large displays, and can upscale images to 1080 lines…the video counterpart to audio upsampling. The new player, whose price has not yet been announced, will play DVD-Audio, but not SACD.

In late June there was a f lurry of angry Internet postings about the new CD by The Beastie Boys. Not only was it copy-protected, but if you inserted it into your computer drive, it would automati-cally install a “worm,” a malicious piece of software that would prevent you from copying the contents. The postings got

their record company, EMI, for impos-ing the protection, but deny that the CD contains either a virus or spyware. Rather, they say, it is the same Macrovi-sion CDS-200 copy protection system used on numerous European discs. If that’s true, what the disc does is bypass the normal music player built

Beastly CDsBeastly CDsGossip that is more than gossip

Even before the Internet, gossip was easy to come by. But you don’t have to have

sent your bank account number to a former Nigerian dictator to know that a lot

of information fl oating around is of little value.

What’s different about the gossip you’ll fi nd in the pages of UHF is that it

comes with comment. In short, it’s not just cut and pasted, it’s also thought

about.

Is it still just gossip? Perhaps we should come up with some other term.


Goss

ip&

New

s

It’s Latin for “errors,” and this is where we make corrections to items in issue No. 69 of UHF Magazine. First the title (page 34) of the Creek CD player: the one reviewed is not the MkII version, unlike what we wrote. The text made it plain that the forthcoming MkII will be quite different from the player we reviewed, using a computer ATA drive and reading the music from memory. In the review of the Audiomat Opéra integrated amplifi er (page 40), we said that one of the two toggle switches on the front panel is for the tape loop. It is in fact a muting switch…as we would have realized had we looked more attentively at our own cover photo! The same review suggested some-what ambiguously that the Opéra is supplied either with an Actinote power cord, or with “the usual junk power cord.” Though our test unit did have an Actinote in the box, neither is standard issue with the Opéra, which comes with a Belden cord fi tted with a Hubbell wall plug.

It’s one of those brand names you don’t have to be an audiophile to know. Do you follow Formula 1 racing? Then you’ll spot the McLaren name right away. What’s the connection with Tag McLaren’s audio products? It’s hard to say. McLaren cars sometimes win, whereas Tag McLaren can’t win for losing. One of the company’s exploits, when it started up in 1998, was purchas-ing Audiolab, and then dumping the company’s products in favor of a new line that — according to a distributor who said thanks but no thanks — cost double. In July of last year, company CEO Udo Zucker announced that TMA would cease all development of new

products…not the sort of event that brings dealers rushing to your door. Indeed, the company added that it would henceforth concentrate on home theatre, not audio. Good move? Or perhaps not. Here’s the bright side: Tag McLaren has found a buyer. It is now owned by a Chinese firm, International Audio Group, which also owns Quad and Wharfedale. The new company Web site does show audio products as well as the home theatre stuff, but there’s no indication what the new management’s tilt will be. The international Audio Group, by the way, has not purchased the F1 racing company, one of whose major sharehold-ers is DaimlerChrysler.

For years record companies have wrung their hands over music download-ing, but not all their artists are singing from the same hymn book. Courtney Love and Janis Ian have been extensively quoted on the subject in UHF. Now add David Crosby, of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, who in March opened up to PBS about the record busi-ness. There’s a lot of cheating and lying and stealing that goes on in any major business, and the music business is no exception. I don’t think that there’s much we can do about it. They built their business model in an era when they could make, I don’t know, on a million-selling album, they’re making 10 million bucks or something, and they do eight of those in a year. That’s what they built their business model on. And it seemed reasonable to build huge buildings and hire hundreds of people…and get a corporate jet or two. What a very grandiose idea of how to go about things. Now they’re going in the tank, because the world has changed, and they did not change with it. They bit the poison pill, without realizing it, when they went digital. Once a thing is in the digital domain, it can be copied as many times as you want. And there is no system that can keep it from being

copied. You can devise the most clever one you want, and I will bring some little geek with a pen protector in his pocket into the room and he will fi x it in a minute. Crosby told PBS he and his former band members would never have made it under today’s system. And there’s more. I think one of the most glaring examples of what they do wrong is they cheat as a matter of policy on paying, because they know that you’ll have to hire an accountant and audit them. Then, when you get the audit figure and they owe you $486,000, they’ll offer you 30% in settlement, knowing full well you’ll ask for 100% and that you’ll settle somewhere around 50. The other 50% is free money. They knew it going in. They intended to do it from the beginning, so that they could get the other 50% for free. Hence, just a little bonus thing, thank you very much, and it’s from heaven. And they all do it as a matter of policy. They know they’re going to cheat, going in. Crosby has praise for Apple iTunes Music Store, which he says is selling lots of his music…with no expenses. You can view the full program, The Way the Music Died, at:http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/music/

In the US, more than in any other country, content providers (i.e. makers of recordings and movies) are aggres-sively fi ghting “pirates,” meaning anyone making a copy of protected material. Here’s the next round. A bill now before the US Senate would make it legally actionable to encourage people to “steal” copyrighted material. What this means, as bill sponsor Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) explains, is that copyright owners could sue not only those who steal music or fi lms, but also “parties who intend to induce others to infringe copyright.” Note the word intend. The main target is clearly the fi le sharing networks such as Grokster and KaZaa. Critics, however, claim that Hatch wants to reverse the Betamax decision of two decades ago, and that the measure could be used against such devices as the iPod

Do Record Companies Cheat?

Tag McLaren Goes East

Errata

“Piracy”

It’s one of those brand names you don’t have to be an audiophile to know. Do you follow Formula 1 racing? Then you’ll spot the McLaren name right away. What’s the connection with Tag McLaren’s audio products? It’s hard to say. McLaren cars sometimes win, whereas Tag McLaren can’t win for losing. One of the company’s exploits, when it started up in 1998, was purchas-ing Audiolab, and then dumping the company’s products in favor of a new line that — according to a distributor who said thanks but no thanks — cost

products…not the sort of event that brings dealers rushing to your door. Indeed, the company added that it would henceforth concentrate on home theatre, not audio. Good move? Or perhaps not. Here’s the bright side: Tag McLaren has found a buyer. It is now owned by a Chinese firm, International Audio Group, which also owns Quad and Wharfedale. The new company Web site does show audio products as well as the home theatre stuff, but there’s no indication what the new management’s tilt will be.

be copied as many times as you want. And there is no system that can keep it from being

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/music/

In the US, more than in any other country, content providers (i.e. makers of recordings and movies) are aggres-sively fi ghting “pirates,” meaning anyone making a copy of protected material. Here’s the next round. A bill now before the US Senate would make it legally actionable to encourage people to “steal” copyrighted material. What this means, as bill sponsor Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) explains, is that copyright owners could sue not only those who steal music or fi lms, but also “parties who intend to induce others to infringe copyright.” Note the word intend. The main target is clearly the fi le sharing networks such as Grokster and KaZaa. Critics, however, claim that

Tag McLaren Goes East“Piracy”

Last chances to get a subscription…

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If you’re reading this after Fabruary 1, 2005…we hope you agree that UHF is still worth

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That makes good information even more valuable!


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Aldburn Electronics . . . . . . . .47Almarro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24Artech Electronics . . . . . . .12, 16Audiomat . . . . . . . . . . .Cover 3Audiophileboutique.com . . . . . .60Audio Room . . . . . . . . . . . .68Bluebird Music . . . . . . . . . . .46Blue Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . .10Boyz on a Wire . . . . . . . . . . .20CEC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57Charisma Audio . . . . . . . . . .17Daruma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21Diamond Groove . . . . . . . . . .10Divergent Technologies . . . . . .47Eichmann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Entre’Acte Audio . . . . . . . . . .10Europroducts Internat. . 9, 14, 20, 66Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46Fab Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13Focus Audio . . . . . . . . . .Couv. 3Griffi n Audio . . . . . . . . . . . .16Gryphon . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16Hi Fi Fo Fum . . . . . . . . . . . .66Home Theater Cruise . . . . . . .15The House of Sound . . . . . . . .18Jadis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16Justice Audio . . . . . . . . .Cover 2Just May Audio . . . . . . . .Cover 2Linn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47Marchand Electronics . . . . . . .11Michell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12Moon . . . . . . . . . . . . .Cover 4Murata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12Mutine . . . . . . . . . . 57, Cover 3Pierre Gabriel . . . . . . . . . . . .16ProAc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16Reference 3a . . . . . . . . . . . .47Roksan . . . . . . . . . . . .Cover 2Shanling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17Simaudio . . . . . . . . . . .Cover 4Signature Audio . . . . . . . . . .11Soundstage . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Spendor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61Totem Acoustic . . . . . . . .Cover 4UHF Back Issues . . . . . . . . . .25UHF Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Venus Hi-Fi . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

It’s no secret that CD sales are down worldwide. But while record compa-nies blame fi le sharing, there may be another culprit: the DVD. CD and DVD purchases come from the same family budget, and it seems natural that the rise in one would be accompanied by a drop in the other. And the DVD is booming. One of the world’s major producers of both DVDs and CDs is Cinram, based in Toronto, with plants worldwide. Cinram distributes what it makes, too. It got the distribution rights to Warner products last year and Universal this year, with BMG (RCA Victor, etc.) coming aboard shortly. No wonder Cinram’s profits in the fi rst quarter of this year jumped 105%. That should have made the stock price soar.

But in fact Cinram stock bled 10% of its value since the start of the year, because some analysts are nervous. Sure, DVD is big right now, but what if there’s something else that will replace it? Like what? Well, several technology companies have been showing possible successors to the current DVD. A high defi nition disc using a blue laser is one possible replacement, though for the moment there are two incompatible systems on the table. And Microsoft fi gures you’ll be watching movies on your computer. That was enough for Cannacord Capital to put Cinram shares under review “with negative bias.” Hmm, let’s see now. Cinram started out making CDs, but transited seamlessly to DVD. If there’s something beyond DVD, won’t someone have to make it?

How did we miss this one? We were in Vegas, and so was the JVC EX-A1, a “desktop entertainment system that includes a DVD player, and these intriguing speakers, with woofer cones that seem to be made of… Yes, they’re wood. Perhaps that’s not as outlandish as it sounds. Lots of speakers use paper cones, and what is paper but wood that has been chewed or something? But JVC hasn’t chewed the birch that is used for its new speakers. The cones are made of actual birch layers. W hy? Because it “brings out the natural beauty of music by pro-viding the ideal com-bination of high sound propagation speed and high internal loss.” We ourselves would prob-ably have gone for low internal loss (or a good proofreader), but JVC is a lot bigger than our

company, so perhaps they know some-thing we don’t. Wood can crack, of course, but JVC says its woofer cones are specially treated to be at once strong and resilient. To accomplish this, JVC soaks the cones in Japanese sake. You can’t make up stuff like this. Who says audio design isn’t art?

ADVERTISERSDo Record Companies Cheat? Does DVD Have a Future?

Tag McLaren Goes East

We Wood, Wood You?


Large record producers are crying the blues, and their sobbing is so loud hardly anyone on the planet can

sleep through it. The executive résumé: pirates (i.e. music lovers who own com-puters) are taking the bread from the mouths of the creators (A&R people, record company vice-presidents and indie fl acks). Curiously, not even the recent upswing in CD sales has stemmed the fl ow of tears. Or the threat of law-suits for that matter. It’s really too bad that the large companies whose continued hegemony depends on people buying recordings have ignored what could have helped them immensely: hi-fi . Let’s see how. The problems of the recording industry with “piracy” are not new. More than 20 years ago, in our pages, a record industry spokesman was crying about the record world being threatened by copying on cassette (curiously, the same spokesman is still around, and guess what he’s crying about now). That situation brings smiles today, because cassette copies seem so primitive by today’s standards. But are they? I seem to recall that tapes made from our reference system using our Nakamichi deck sounded pretty good, better indeed than the typical MP3 download fi le…including the MP3’s that actually cost money. Of course few non-audiophiles had decks like that. Back then, cassettes were made either on boomboxes, aka “ghetto blast-ers,” or on minisystems. Few of those systems used Dolby noise reduction. Copies were run off for friends using the unit’s high-speed tape copier, which also didn’t use noise reduction. Ugly! Today these systems feature CD players rather than cassette decks, prominently labelled as compatible with CD-R and CD-RW. But that isn’t all that’s changed. Not so many years back a minisystem was actually composed of separate components, albeit not very good ones. It then cost perhaps $700. But notice what happened next. The “components” became a solid box styled

to look like a stack of components. That allowed manufacturers to reduce the price, as did a million shortcuts. The $700 mini became a $500 mini, which made it impossible to sell the $700 system. Then it dropped to $300, and $100, and to $89.97 at Wal-Mart. That much is known to everyone, but consider this. The mainstream audio manufacturers, such as Sony and Philips, coinventors of the Compact Disc, set out to convince the public that you could greatly reduce the quality of the music source, and it wouldn’t matter. They launched new digital systems, respectively MiniDisc and the DCC digital cassette, which discarded more than 80% of data, yet were referred to as “near-CD quality.” Tech journalists, many of whom appear to have slept through high school physics, quickly shortened that to “CD-quality.” Interestingly enough, Sony and Philips were then two of the world’s largest record companies! Did they not understand what they were doing, telling people the source quality didn’t matter? They

were preparing the way for the success of MP3, which typically contain as little as 8% of the original digital data. And the popularity of the increas-ingly cheaper and trashier minisystems did the rest. When the CD player, ampli-fi er and speakers are so poor, do you need more than 8% of the data? And note the brand names on those systems. Sony is a major record company. Philips was Polygram until it (wisely) sold its stake in an industry it was helping to strangle. Panasonic owned MCA Records during those critical years. Why were they doing this? While the typical system was sink-ing well below mediocrity, some record producers were actually helping make it the norm, by mixing their albums so that they would be optimized for what among themselves they refer to as “shitboxes.” Listen to a well-made CD on a good modern system, or even on the $700 minisystem of a decade ago, and you’ll perceive MP3 as what it is: no more than a low-quality teaser for the real thing. The development of SACD makes the difference even more obvious. If Sony and its competitors were smart — and there is room for doubt — they would bring out all future releases as hybrid SACDs, and they would trumpet the sonic superiority of their discs, using MP3 in the same way they use radio airplay: free promotion. And since some of these companies are still well-connected with hardware manufacturers, they should start making affordable little systems with SACD players built-in. They wouldn’t cost $89.97 and that’s for sure, but not all buyers of cheap systems choose them because they can’t afford better. They choose them because no one has told them it makes any difference. Want to snare younger music lovers? Bring out more portable players that can carry uncompressed music. The iPod can, though Apple doesn’t bother pointing it out. Nobody with any of these products is going to think KaZaA downloads are good enough anymore.

STATE OF THE ART:THE BOOK

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State of the Artby Gerard Rejskind

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Documents

How SACD won the war. We review two SACD players … · BEYOND THE CD: How SACD won the war. We review two SACD players and adopt one of them. And we dare to pit SACD against analog!