No. 70 $4.

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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 fullfidelity music source, the video screens of tomorrow, and Montral 2004.

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The Listening Room

Linn Unidisk 1.1 31 Is this the source component audiophiles have been waiting for all this time? It looks that way! Shanling SCD-T200 It plays SACDs. It plays CDs too. It could even be the player youve saved up for. Equation 25 Speakers Theyre good enough to have been contenders as a reference, and you know what? They very nearly made it. Reference 3a Royal Virtuoso A renewed version of an old favorite. And we do mean favorite! Wilson Benesch Curve Diamonds are made from carbon. So are humans if you add water. And so are the cabinets of these speakers. muRata Super Tweeters Speakers that take up where your ears leave off Simaudio Moon W-5LE Power Amp Specially built for you and 249 other lucky people Goldring GR1 Turntable Its hard to nd a good phono cartridge at this price. This one comes with a turntable and arm. Apple iPod Can it also be a poor mans music server? 36

Issue No. 70

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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).

Cinema
Future screens Can you buy the perfect video screen? Perhaps not yet, but UHF looks at whats hereand whats coming. 19

54

Software
Gershwin Forever! 56 by Reine Lessard Life is short, art is long. Gershwins life and legacy are the proof Record Reviews by Reine Lessard and Gerard Rejskind 62

How SACD Won the War 22 Or, to put it another way, how DVD-Audio blew it big time Montreal 2004 by Gerard Rejskind UHF exhibits, and we take a look around too 26

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Editorial Feedback Free Advice Classied Ads Gossip & News State of the Art 2 5 7 66 69 72 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 1

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

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. EDITORIAL & SUBSCRIPTION OFFICE: Broadcast Canada Box 65085, Place Longueuil LONGUEUIL, Qubec, Canada J4K 5J4 Tel.: (450) 651-5720 FAX: (450) 651-3383 E-mail: uhfmail@uhfmag.com World Wide Web: http://www.uhfmag.com PUBLISHER & EDITOR: Gerard Rejskind ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Reine Lessard EDITORIAL: Paul Bergman, Reine Lessard, Albert Simon PHOTOGRAPHY: Albert Simon ADVERTISING SALES: Qubec: Reine Lessard (450) 651-5720 Alberta & BC: Derek Coates (604) 522-6168 Other: Gerard Rejskind (450) 651-5720 NATIONAL NEWSSTAND DISTRIBUTION: Stonehouse Publications 85 Chambers Drive, Unit 2, AJAX, Ont. L1Z 1E2 Tel.: (905) 428-7541 or (800) 461-1640 SINGLE COPY PRICE: $4.99 in Canada, $4.99 (US) in the United States, $8.60 (CAN) elsewhere, including air mail. In Canada sales taxes are extra. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: CANADA: USA: ELSEWHERE (surface mail): $25 for 6 issues* US$25 for 6 issues CAN$40 for 6 issues *Applicable taxes extra Air mail outside Canada/US: an extra $1.10 per issue

Editorial
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 isnt 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 nally selected a new reference loudspeaker for our Alpha system. The decision was a long time coming, yet the nal 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 efciency, and electrical characteristics that won't assassinate small ampliers. 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 nal conclusion, with SACD the almost certain winner (see How SACD Won the War in this issue). Didnt that mean we would nally 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 denitive 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 rst purchase, with a Spectral player arriving later). Hah! Linns 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 theres one more change. We have long used a Simaudio Moon W-5 amplier in our Omega system. Weve heard for ourselves the improvements Simaudio has made to its agship 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. Its reviewed in this issue. By the way, our colleague Albert has long used a W-5 that was among the rst ones made. He now listens through number 024. Finallya 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 $4.95dont 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, theres no choice. All I can promise you is value. I hope youll agree.

PRE-PRESS SERVICES: Multi-Mdia PRINTING: Interglobe-Beauce FILED WITH The National Library of Canada and La Bibliothque Nationale du Qubec. ISSN 0847-1851 Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product No. 0611387 Ultra High Fidelity Magazine invites contributions. Though all reasonable care will be taken of materials submitted, we cannot be responsible for their damage or loss, however caused. Materials will be returned only if a stamped selfaddressed envelope is provided. Because our needs are specialized, it is advisable to query before submitting. Ultra High Fidelity Magazine is completely independent of all companies in the electronics industry, as are all of its contributors, unless explcitly specified otherwise.

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This is our original book, which has been read by thousands of audiophiles, both beginners and advanced. Its still relevant to much of what you want to This long-running best seller includes these topics: The basics of accomplish. amplifiers, preamplifiers, CD players, turntables and loudspeakers. Its a practical manual for the discovery and exploration How they work, how to choose, what to expect. The history of hiof high fidelity, which will make reading other fi. How to compare equipment thats not in the same store. What books easier. Includes in-depth coverage of how accessories work, and which ones are scams. How to tell a good the hardware works, including tubes, alternative connector from a rotten one. How to set up a home theatre system loudspeakers, subwoofers, crossover networks, that will also play music (hint: dont do any of the things the other biamplification. It explains why, not just how. It has full instructions for aligning a tone arm, and a gauge is magazines advise). How to plan for your dream system even if your accountant says you cant afford it. A precious volume with 224 pages included. A complete audio lexicon makes this book indispensable. And it costs as little as $9.95 in the US of essential information for the beginning or advanced audiophile! and Canada (see the coupon).

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Box 65085, Place Longueuil Longueuil, Qubec, Canada J4K 5J4 uhfmail@uhfmag.com
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 theatre speakers, specically those offered by Axiom Audio? Your readers might benet from such a review of this Canadian 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 Barroga ST-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 Hirvinen THUNDER 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 iPods capacity. I just bought an iPod and have been extremely impressed by its ease of operation and versatility. I havent 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 cant 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 downloaded, but we cannot. I just cant 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 McDougall CALGARY, 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 downloading. 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 les that are well done through a good audio system. I produce a lot of WAV 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 nal mix. I know for certain that over the last two years I have scrapped over 50

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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 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 Marshall EDSON, AB Well, you can check our 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 surprisingly 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 article 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 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 Intgr Passion, Naim CDS3, and NAIT5i/CD5i? 3) Will you ever compile all the technical 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 Ho SAN JOSE, CA ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 5

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Note that our evaluation was based on Wireworlds own Comparator Disc, not on a side-by-side comparison. The YBA Intgr Passion was on the cover of issue No. 64. As for the books, Reine says she appreciates the request! Even if I hadnt 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 lled it in for me. Thanks a million for the terric online report. Bravo for doing it in the rst place, bravo for posting PDQ, bravo for the great pics, bravo for making it all readable and accessible even for relative audio novices. Another triumph. Toby Earp MONTRAL, QC A f ter read i ng t he Mont rea l Show report, I would like to clarify informat ion concerning Sy nt hesis products (page http://www.uhfmag. com/Montreal2004/day3.html ) I believe its an Italian company rather than a German one. Jacek Rymut Poland Quite right. Glad youre keeping an eye on us!

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 isnt it supposed to be fun? Keith Ferguson VICTORIA, BC I dont understand your frequency response graphs for speakers. They seem very strange to me in that the uctuations 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 approximately. 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 conditions 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 speakers quality. I should point out that my technical knowledge of audio phenomena and electronics is very limited. I am stating this from the strict point of view of an audio consumer (denition of an audiophile?) who is accustomed to looking at graphs without understanding the underlying concepts. Andr Nickell BEACONSFIELD, QC

Please nd my renewal cheque for 13 more issues. While other magazines are interesting in their own particular We have some misgivings about them ways, yours is the one that never ceases too, Andr. At one time we stuck to text Some 15 years after giving them up, to entertain. Even my wife (who loves her descriptions of frequency response. Later, we I recently renewed my subscription to music too) is getting into it: Anything began using graphed versions of the results, Car and Driver. To my amazement, I you drives now include a very from those guys in Montreal today? is and just recently we have been using actual found way test etheir h t e n bly a familiar refrain around our house after instruments graphs. These graphs h takes the form of are the summary agazishort proba which e em v t u e, r o e y ut Highs, cov a speaker is issu and Verdict, besides a B checking the mailbox every day. Lows literal truth, and in H aF real h . t disroom t f e o n r U I nte a copy ers tothese While I understand their angst, I really s will variations. Earlier on t he ip on, or separate column called Counterpoint!! y cribhave i t p b o u c r s c F more helpful, w PDbeen subs however, have to chuckle over the legion of readers maye have graphs t ml.The latter presents the alternate opinion e ne d mor ing t h plete. Get a om /Order.h d a an e e r r y o c m who would gladly sacrice some of your each frequency point .showed the aver- of three columnists! M , b because is inco w w.uhf mag ht now e P DF precious sleep for more frequent response over a third of an octave, thus age Say, who started it first, you or h are rig issues. //w t t a th ht t ps: : e n icedthings i l otthe That would remove one n of smoothing out the chaotic variations. them? n o g in order that make you who you are (and, I feel, There is no standardized method for J-P Ltourneau by one aspect of your success). Different measuring speaker response, and manufacCAP ROUGE, QC doesnt quite explain it, and I hesitate to turers mostly select a method that will show use the word quirky, but theres some- speakers in their best light. Thats not what Them. We have yet to borrow an idea thing to be said for a littleall right, we do, but we have perhaps gone too far the from another audio magazine, but we do unpredictable quirkiness. The anticipa- other way. steal regularly from other magazines past tion of an upcoming issues arrival is and present that we consider outstanding similar in some ways to the search for a After years of reading UHF, and in their respective elds. Car and Driver new equipment upgrade, the hunting and being an octogenarian (with hearing is one of them.

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 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 M im i, Shaw remarked t hat M im i appeared to suffer not so much from consumption as from overconsumption. After the 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 movements. 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. Woodland BARRIE, ON P.S. You will note that this comes to you by e-mail (envelope mail, that is).

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Box 65085, Place Longueuil Longueuil, Qubec, Canada J4K 5J4 uhfmail@uhfmag.com
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 Kottom GARVIN, MN It sounds to us as though youll really want to plan ahead, Jerry. Weve 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 thats so youll want an SACD player sooner or later. We can say right off that we are not sold on upsampling, which cant truly add to the resolution of a recording, though it can easily muck up what is already there. You didnt 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 its possible that youll 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 dont 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 preamplier. My amplier is by a local manufacturer, an EL34-based amp I consider to be a good value at $1300. My speakers are heavilymodied Mission 770s. The places I feel my system is lacking are bass extension (it bothers me but I live in a basement apartment, so I cant go nuts), imaging ( I believe my room is at fault, as Ive 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 preamplier, so Ive purchased a Benz Micro MC Gold, but havent 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 signi 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 Howell THORNHILL, ON We rush to the rescue, Perry! The Benz Micro may be a good choice, though as you note it doesnt have a line contact stylus. Certainly your Supex is old enough to tell stories of days gone by to its grandchildren. However the symptoms youve noted insufcient 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 theyre 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 youll 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 lled with good music. I am new to high end hi- and would like to buy a tube amplier. I have listened to the Jadis Orchestra Reference integrated tube amplier 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 amplifier. As you may know, now they have the Lux version of the same amplier in Canada without the tone controls. Which one would you suggest? Semih Alsaid ISTANBUL, 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. Whats more, tone controls take away from performance even when they are set to neutral. An amplier without them is to be preferred. Jadis loudspeakers are not distributed in North America, and we have never heard them. The Jadis amplier, which we reviewed in UHF No. 58, will work well with most loudspeakers of reasonable sensitivity, say 89 dB or more. We dont 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. ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 7

Free Advice

intended to tide us over the sometimes painful age of CD by maximizing the medium, and in the former case sneaking extra information past the mediums 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 youve been asked before: the lifespan of a laser. We know that a cartridges 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 lifespan of a laser on a good quality machine like a Karrik. In the past we kept hearing numbers like typically 1000 hours, but shouldnt the same principle from cartridges apply to lasers as well? Nick Lakoumentas MONTRAL, QC Yes, weve been asked that before, Nick, but it was a long time ago, and the answer has changed. In the early days of digital, the estimate 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 dont know whether that was a good estimate, since in many a player the mechanism will fail before the laser does. Weve 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 difcult 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

From your experience with CDs, is there a particular label (FIM, Audioquest, Chesky, etc.) or CD format ( X RCD, 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 Chionglo MARKHAM, ON SACD is de nitely more than a marketing 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 8 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

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 doesnt 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 carefullyand, 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, wouldnt leave them with a pounding headache after a long days work. An SACD made from an analog original can sound better than the LP because it wont 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

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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 dont give good results, and their copies are very easy to distinguish from the originals. Thats 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 Masterlink with hard disc, which can also use data CDs. Weve 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? Well 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, Im starting to think its 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 itin 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 Pioneers 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 Ltourneau QUEBEC CITY, QC Theoretically at least, he could be held legally responsible for having bypassed an anti-piracy measure. We use quotation marks, because, though

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the law on this matter is clear in such countries as the United States, it isnt in Canada. The Canadian government has signed the international treaty on intellectual property, but it has not ratied it, much less changed its copyright laws accordingly. Unfortunately we dont have a denitive conclusion to offer. Our experiences with our own computers (three Macs: a G4, a G5 and an iBook) yielded excellent 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 probably your digital cable, but there is more. The characteristics of different CD-R brands can affect jitter. Specically, with certain discs the data pits burned into the substrate wont be precise, which means the player will have difculty ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 9

lies somewhere within (my system, not my head). I have continuously read in your magazine that this ideal is denitely possible, but so far the experience has eluded me. I listen to the electronic signals, and they sound reasonably detailed, semi-rhythmic, and somewhat dynamic, but, unfortunately, not believable. Im 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 Palfenier BURNABY, BC determining the exact start of the pit. Some players, indeed, may do better than others. Some players cant 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 its 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. Hell 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 interconnects, 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. Dont get me wrong, I have all the faith in the world in your opinions; after all, believable music reproduction is what youve always been about. I believe the fault obviously Oh, we think we can suggest considerably better than either boomboxes or Prozac, Clay, which doesnt necessarily mean we can give you a quick answer on something obvious you may have overlooked. Our rst observation is that at least youre working from the right point of comparison: live music. Thats better than any reference system, but the down side is that youre difficult to please, and you wont easily settle for a poor imitation. We suggest 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 turntablerelated 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 antiskating setting. We ourselves go down this check list once a yearmore often if we hear anything we dont like. Some of this sounds like spring cleaning, and in fact some years ago we published an article on spring cleaning for music systems. It included cleaning and tightening all of the connections, and straightening out the rats 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 thats 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 inuence 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. Youll need to place the speakers closer together, toed-in slightly, as far as possible from any room boundaries, and sit close. Sound engineers call this neareld 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 dont 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, neareld 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, youll actually hear it more clearly than ever, and you can then go about solving it. If you 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 amplier and the Thiel CS1.5 speakers. I think the weakest link is the CD player, which I intend to replace sometime soon. I nd that the soundstage 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.

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Youre 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, youll 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 youre looking for. One of the Meridians may be the right choice. The G07 and G08, neither of which we have heard, appear to be substantially identical except that the G08 has the ability to upsample CDs to 24 bit/96 kHz resolution. We wouldnt pay a lot extra for that feature. ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 11

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I am new to hi- , and some help in choosing an integrated amp will be helpful. Im planning on purchasing a pair of Totem Forest speakers, but I dont know what amp will go well with them. I can only spend about $4500, and Im willing to buy a used amp. Paul Brookbanks BOWMANVILLE, ON
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Paul, the Forests are not as efcient as many speakers of recent vintage, because Totem doesnt follow marketing trends much, but nor are they difcult to drive. A well-designed amplier with at least 50 watts per channel can handle them just ne. On the other hand the Totems are revealing, and youll want an amp that doesnt make you cringe on difcult passages. Weve reviewed a number of quality integrated ampliers 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 Intgr 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 12 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

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 bene cial? Some of the above players tote a 24 bit Delta-Sigma DAC. Does this mean that they upsample to 96/192 kHz? Tim Leeney GEORGETOWN, 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 its there in the main because thats the size chip the big manufacturers are making now. And if you had one in a player you built, you wouldnt be shy about saying so, would you? Nor would we. Now to specic advice, or at least as specic as we can get under the circumstances. We havent seen or heard the Shanling you mention, though we have heard more expensive Shanlings. Nor have we heard the Azur player, which comes from Cambridges new series, though weve 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 thats overkill) with a Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood MM cartridge. What do you think? David Chirko SUDBURY, ON
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We would hesitate to change the arm, David, unless we were going forwell, perhaps overkill is the right word. The Alphason Xenon was a somewhat simplied 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 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 13

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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 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 xed. We havent 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 current to your amplier. That can happen, and its the reason product warranties include that obscure clause disclaiming 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, weve had one preamp and one power amplier 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 Moustacalis OAKVILLE, ON Theres no simple answer to that, Estes. Subwoofer designers can make tradeoffs among: 1) size, 2) dynamic capacity, and 3) low-end extension. Efciency 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. Niscin hent wis augueri uscilis augue

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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. Ive 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 Intgr DT amplier 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 14 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine seconds everything seemed 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, Ive inicted permanent damage on the amp. Ive sent in the amp for repairs. I have a choice now, to x the Rega Fono or replace it. My con dence in the long-term

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dunt la facipsu mmolortisi. Nissenim zzriureril er sumsandiat, commodipit dion utet vel dolorer ipisit lum iusto eugait nim nisim quatinciduis nostio del dipsustrud min et, vent wis dolor senim velit velestie magna facin eum augiam zzrillummod tatin ex ex eugueros delessis dolor sisl dolese vullam ex etum nonsecte volobore tie veniat aciduis enis aliquat. Oboreros nullaore mincilit wis exeros am ad magna con henisl exero el utatetummy nulla augue tio consequis digniam consequamcon ex et, si. Raesectem verostis accumsan ut adip enit, commodolobor at ad dolestie dolore mod endigniat, sis numsandre tisi. Dolorting esto ex euguero odolorem dolore tion utet landips uscipit landipisse do con eum doluptat. In volore tatisis etum vendrem nibh ea augiam dignim del eugait diamet la faciliquamet num del il dipsuscipit adip et, quatini amcortie estie minit lobor sum dolenim velisl dolorem zzriurerat. Andigna feu feu facidunt vullaor sit iriusci bla autet adigna am, volese tat etuer illamcon utet at. Alisl in hent vel irilit ad tat, quat alit augait, quat. Duis nit amet

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ipsuscidunt ilit, quat. Andiam veliquat wis erci blandia mconsed eugue modipsum zzriurem dolorperil dunt volenit, sum volent nit in hent ut nos atumsan eu facidui psumsan elestissed dolore dipis amet prat ip esecte magna facil eum dolorper adiam, vel iure te magnis dolortin ullamco nsenim quissectem ver sum iure facidui ea feuisis eu faci ex et ing esenit lummodolorem dit atum verci tatet ver iustisciduip elisis doluptatet autatum zzrilit am venissectem dolore velit ad modo con hent aute te tionsed ex euguercidui blamcore magnit augue magnim doloree tuerci tatet, vel iriustie tio odipis aliquipisim ip et am in ut nim aliscip exerate conulla commy num zzrit doluptat. Rud tion vullandre dolesent eugueratum zzriure consectem quametum in hendrer aessi. Iduisi. Rat. Lum delessecte tis aliquip etue minci bla aliquipismod tat. Feum vendre dolorpe rciduiscip esto delisl et lutat. Duisi. Et diamet am, commodit ullaortin eum iusto deliquis diam dolore del ut prat. Essed modipsum quipsum dolesto odolestis ese do deliquatin vel erostrud ex ea feum del utpat. Duisit veriure diamet ut lutet vullaortinit in henismo lobortis nonulputpat atis non henim velisi. Num zzriusto corem ing eu faci ea faccum ea acilis dionsenim do ent ex eugait, quisi elit nonsendigna accummy nostion senit, core feugue tionsed tat ulla feum iuscipis nos nonse veriure dignim in ulputem velenim in et, quismod iamet, velit landio corperos dipis niatincin henim ex et, vel elent eugait atue vulputpat exeriure dio od tat ut alis nonsecte magnisc ipsusci ncincid uismolut ad eum nim quat prat. Ut utpat utpatis nullaore tat ullaor sequipit alit lorper iure velis diam quipit acilit lor sim del do exerit la faccum inis etum zzril enim zzriure et ut euipisci er iusto et ad tet nullaorem eui essenim diam velisl illum zzriliq uationsent vullan henim alit accum del eugait, vel delit lum iureros tinisl ullaore conse feuguer iriurercil ex et, volesequat ut euguer si esectet, si. Od dipit, volobor suscillan velit augait lorem amet praesequat. Ese feugue doloreet, v ullaoreet autatie dolobore tinibh estinci ncinismolor alissi

exeros ad modigniam veliquat praessit iusto odigniat laore magna am, velit venit praesequam zzrit la facilit wismolu ptatin ulput iliquat. Ut utatie feum volore feu feuguer illandit ing ex eros dit alis dolorem quatet, seniat ipsum dolor si. At nit, sed ea facidunt ip ercillaore er sum adit, si blan henibh eum aut lore vulputem volortie tet wisi tisl ullam, conum amet digna consed tat lobore faccummy numsan ut luptatum ex elesequatue tate mod erat lore magnim zzrit aliquis nonsed do ercinci ea commoloreet, quam zzrilla ndigna am, quisi. Luptatet inim volorem ipsumsandip ea facidunt ad magnim velenia mcommodolore miniam nummy nos nonulla alis amcor si. Ibh et nonse exer augait praesed elisit ipit auguer suscini smoloborem ad magna faccumm olutat, vel utem ipsum aliquamcorem il iriuscillaor at. Ut lorpercil utpatum ing eraesequat. Nibh ex enibh et pratum quam dip exer sum am, volobore facipsu scidunt ing exercip sumsan veratum sandreet nulput ing erostisisi. Im dolesse quatisi tio erciduissim nonsequis nulluptat num exeriuscinim alissent luptationsed ex exer sequat iuscilit laor sum in vel ulluptat lummod tisi. Dipit ad ming eugait wisit velestrud tat, quat. Unt wis nos at inim ilit wis nis nisi.

Uptat vullum delis accum aut prat autet nit, quat dolorper ipit lum adio consequipis nim irit lumsandrer sectem zzrit lobor ad dip esequam, quatueros aute magna corperos eugait dolorem iustrud eniam, consequi blaor suscilit prate el iureet veliquis at auguer adip ercinia mconse et, quat, quipisi. Estionsecte enit eumsandreet adipsusto er irit lore corerillaor sustinc iliquat alis doluptat autet, sequat lor am nos nisit ut lum etum at ad magna core core faccum niat enisl ea consequisit, quamconsecte modolessim del dolorperci estions equat. Elit lorperi liquis nit alisi tisi eliquat veros non utat lorpercip exero duis alismod do diam vel utat lamcons equatum ipiscidunt lor sequips ustrud magniam dunt nulputpat luptatum nibh el ut praeseq uismodignit doloreet lan ulput alisim vercipis nostrud doluptatum quis augiam zzriliquipit autem ver ad dit do commy nonullaorem ipit, con vullam veliquate vulla consequipit nulputatum adiam, vullamet exerit alis ad ex et ut lam do ex esto con eugiam vullummolum dolor in vullan elit utat eugue dolenit ilisi. Et er si. Pis et lore feuis nos euipsum at. Ut ut la faccummy nisim vel endrercil ullum vent eriurer iuscidunt nonulla consenis adio et, conum diamcom molorperit dolorperil utatum deliqui scipit laore dolobore dolenis modiam aliquip er at wisit veliquam eugueri ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 17

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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 consequipsum 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 consequisim 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 18 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

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, 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 feugueraessi 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 tatetummy 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 sendreros 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.

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Future Screens
as the cathode ray tube 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 crystal displays. As the price of LCDs drops, its victory is l i k e l y to be complete. But video is another matter. Though most computer users favor brightness 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 difcult act to follow, though. The CRT: still alive? Its a vacuum tube, of course, one of the very last ones to survive in massmarket consumer products. It still works very well because it is a mature technology. The CRT has been re ned to the point where it has been able to fend off a number of competitors. And 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.

ill-suited to the widescreen sets that are now the norm in home theatre. Lets 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 electron 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 most important of these is the range of brightness it can offer. If it were an audio component, 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 expens i v e d i s pl a y s look washed out. A long with the wide brightness range comes a vast range of colors, and its easy to see why. If a display doesnt wash out in the bright scenes and doesnt 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 cant reproduce into one within its range. We dont want to overstate this point, because no display can come close to matching the range of colors visible to the human eyeor even to photographic 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 (measured diagonally, about 91 cm). It is also

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 corners, and even many modern CRTs have rather rounded corners. As manufacturers 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.
Cinema

Can you buy the perfect video screen? Perhaps not yet

Notice that the electron beam going to the extreme edge of the screen is traveling a lot farther than the one ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 19

WE HAVE MOVED TO A NEW LARGER LOCATION!

But, for

Creek Cyrus Eichmann Epos Visonik

in Winnipeg, it still has to be

BOYZ ON A WIRE 956 PORTAGE AVENUE WINNIPEG, MB, R3G 0R1 TEL: 204-256-0462 www.boyzonawire.com 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. Thats 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 processors became common, screens grew. Not that the CRT has vanished from home theatre. Most rear projection sets still use a CRTthree 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. Plasmathe imperfect miracle Huge at screens that could be hung on the wall were a staple of science ction 20 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

Cinema

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 realization of that long-predicted technology. Indeed, its futurist look drew a lot of early adopters, at least ones with deep pockets. Prices have dropped dramatically, but they are still not cheap. Nor are they perfect. The plasma display is inherently 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? Theres more than just the price. The gas takes a short but nite time to heat enough to glow, and some screens have difculty 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 nite life. So do CRTs, but they dont 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 rst. Ouch! Liquid crystals The rst LCDs showed up over a quarter century ago in pocket calculators. An LCD is a diode with an intriguing property: apply a voltage to it, and it will darken. Thats 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 lter, and depending on its voltage state it will be transparent, letting light through, or opaque. A large 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 uorescent bulb used as backlighting does not emit a continuous spectrum. Use a prism to see the uorescent spectrum, and youll 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 hadnt done anything this original in years. The heart of the DLP is a tiny mirror controlled electronically so it either reects 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 something 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-

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 eyes persistence of vision the same phenomenon that lets us see a 24 frame per second 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, 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 icker for nearly everyone, though you should check for yourself before buying. Early DLPs were found in front projectors, the 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 Amplier. This is JVCs 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 material 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 reectivity, 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 advantage, we should add. Weve mentioned that conventional LCD screens have pixels that are all too visible. An LCOS screen has a much ner grid, and looks to the human eye like a continuous seamless 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 Its no secret that Kodak is nding the 21st Century rough, as more consumers and even pros shelve lm cameras in favor of digital. Kodak didnt 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 semiconductor that emitted an extraordinarily 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 wasnt until eight years later that Kodak nally patented the device, and a dozen years after that it realized this might have an application. The OLED has a long list of advantages. 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 lm on a prototype 15-inch screen. The quality was extraordinary. 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. Weve seen widely contradictory reports on this, we should add. The OLED is exciting enough to have triggered some blue-sky speculation. 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. Lets hope the possibilities compensate the company for declining sales of Kodacolor! ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 21

Nuts&Bolts

How SACD Won the War

ont you love technology bat- V stood initially for video. Still, a members of the consortium tested diftles? Should you buy a Palm storage medium was a storage medium. ferent film sound systems on human handheld or a PocketPC? The new disc would have nearly seven subjects, they became convinced that Should you pick a PC or a times the storage space of a conventional one of the eventual winners, Dolby DigiMac? Should you go for Beta or VHS? CD, more than enough for a superior tal (then called AC-3) was to all intents In the latter case, of course, even digital music system. Doubling the sam- and purposes perfect. Then why not technophobes know the answer. We pling rate to 96 kHz* would of course use a similar system for DVD-Audio? also know the outcome of the cassette take twice the data space, and bumping Even though the DVD had huge storvs 8-track rivalry, not that it matters the 16 bits up to 24 bits would increase age capacity, it wasnt quite enough. If so much anymore. And we know that size by another 50%. That would be we wanted to add surround sound, with consumers who guessed wrong got little easy to handle, and in fact we could 5.1 channels, we would need to increase space by another 275%, taking us to nine sympathy from the merchandisers of times the CDs storage space. Too much. failed standards. Compression was inevitable. Of course, there have always been For some time it looked as though alternatives to the clear knockout of the new medium would be crippled the Beta/VHS battle. Half a cenby the same compromises that tury ago, when RCA launched its affected DVD-Video, and there 45 rpm discs against Columbias were letter-writing campaigns microgroove LP, both standards by audiophiles, arguing for a won, and they stayed around lossless system. Finally, one for decades. On the other hand, was proposed, Meridians MLP when Philips DCC digital cas(Meridian Lossless Pack ing) sette went up against Sonys compressed the signal by as much MiniDisc, there were two ways you as half but could reconstitute the could lose. original signal bit for bit. With its adopSo what about DVD-Audio versus tion in late 1998, DVD-A seemed to be SACD? on its way. There were more than 160 Despite claims by numerous audio member companies, mavens, including a many of them eagerly majority of specialty wait ing to release magazines, we have DVD-A discsor so long known that the even double the sampling rate again to we were told. CD Red Book standard of 16 bits and In the meantime, there was action a 44.1 kHz sampling rate wasnt even 192 kHz. Perfect sound would nally arrive. elsewhere. giving us what the LP had offered, But of course movies was where the never mind the perfect sound that money was, and it was on movies that The other superdisc digital promised. Over the years crack The original CD standard had been the DVD Consortium (later renamed designers have found ways to optimize developed by Sony and Philips, which the DVD Forum) concentrated. There the imperfect standard: better lters, had made a good deal of money over was plenty to concentrate on, because the mapping systems that minimized (or at DVD was an amalgam of two incompatleast optimized) mathematical rounding errors in the digital bitstream, and even ible technologies, and the consortium he tt 96 kHz is more than double t wh a o n HDCD encoding, a way of giving 16 had to listen to many dissenting voices. *Obviously, is s e g pa It is in fact morethe 48 kHz samits kHz. double 44.1 even ad in is e disc bits the performance of 20 bits or more. The result was that the audio-only r is , u h o T y . that mostu at r goal is rate digital pling ll you . O first-generation H F: wh gazines te A Of course, we all suspected there was a became an afterthought. U f D ay, o w V e a u e D r h m t d t n were recorded at. The master would masters n !) y a e e b r eat derailed. ays be it nearly Indeed, got better standard in our futurebut what? SACD you. Oh s alw ome t h h asAs a h r c h o u d f downsampled to the CD standard. then be s n is t , a s h ( ia e T io ed sb And when? ow n aud s to t he new m ake t he choice That e PDF. an unwelcome transformae best-k n of t hrequired m m 5 u o e o c y g it a p lp n e e h Most DV D-A mastering is today tion. h 3 , to ag e t r ue w ays been mat ion is on p A disc that holds more lw a at 96 kHz. Some producers argued for done s a h for and The emergence of the DVD gave ussubscript ion in 88.2 kHz, which would downsample nicely t he hope. The new medium was conceived for CD. That rate was adopted as a DVD-A option, though it is seldom used. primarily for movies, to be sure the

Nuts&Bolts

mats r o f new e h t t bou a h t u T he t r

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

22

ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

the years by receiving a small royalty on every CD made. If a new proprietary standard could replace the CD, the revenue 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 doesnt 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 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 DV D 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 DVDAudio, 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 t wo-channel player. That was a temporary victory. Prices

of SACD players came down, slowly at rst, and then much faster. Whats 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 feugueraessi 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 tatetummy 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 sendreros 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 feugueraessi 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 tatetummy nulla facin etum verosto odignis acipsusto odolorper si. Mincillandre vel ipismod min eugiam ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 23

Nuts&Bolts

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 sendreros 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 feugueraessi 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 tate24 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

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 sendreros 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 feugueraessi 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 tatetummy 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 sendreros 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 tatetummy 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.

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Back Issues
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 Opra , Connoisseur SE-2 and Copland CSA29 integrated 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 musicrelated computer game that had us laughing out loud. And theres 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 worlds greatest music. No.68: Loudspeakers: Thiel CS2.4, Focus Audio FS688, Iliad B1. Electronics:Vecteur I-6.2 and Audiomat Arpge integrated amplifiers, Copland 306 multichannel tube preamp, Rega Fono MC. Also: Audio Note and Copland CD players, GutWire MaxCon power filter. And theres more: all about power supplies, whats coming beyond DVD, and a chat with YBAs Yves-Bernard Andr. 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 Ians alternative take on music downloading, and a chat with Opus 3s 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 Regas 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 Intgr amp, Cambridge IsoMagic (followup), better batteries for audio-to-go. Plus: the truth about upsampling, an improvement to our LP cleaning machine, an interview with Ray Kimber. . No.63: Tube amps: ASL Leyla & Passion A11. Vecteur Espace speakers, 2 interconnects (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 TVs to stay away from, a look back at the Beatles revolution. No.62: Amplifiers: 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 transport. Speakers: Osborn Mini Tower and Mirage OM9. 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 Solfge 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 LPs. 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 currentwhy 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 interconnects. Plus: Making your own CDs. No.53: Loudspeakers:Reference 3a Intgrale, 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: Alchemist Nexus, Cambridge CD6, YBA Intgr, 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 Intgr DT, Alchemist Forseti, Primare A-20, NVA AP50 Cambridge A1. CD players: Adcom GCD-750, Rega Planet. An economy system to recommend 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.

ce NOTE : Pri

rising in

early 20

05!

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 Tab, 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 Wireworlds box for comparing interconnects. Also: YBA CD-1 and Spcial CD players. YvesBernard Andr 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.4 4: CD players: Rotel RCD970BX, Counterpoint DA-10A DAC. Speakers: Apogee Ribbon Monitor, Totem Mite, more on the Gershman Avant Garde. Also: LaserLink 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 ESL63 with Gradient subwoofer. Plus: Keith O. Johnson explains the road to HDCD, and our editor joins those of other magazines to discuss whats hot in audio. No.42: Electronics: Spectral DMC-12 and Celeste P-4001 preamplifiers, amps and preamps from Duson. Also: Sonic Frontiers SFD-1 converter, power line filters 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 Intgr, 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 its 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 dont 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 Linns Ivor Tiefenbrun, and part 7 of Bergman on acoustics: building your own acoustical panels. No.35: Speakers: Castle Chester, Mirage M7si, 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 recordings 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 Linns Ivor Tiefenbrun. Acoustics part 4: Absorbing low frequencies. No.32: The Audio Dream Book: Our 152-page guide to whats 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 Lon 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: Goldring Excel, 1022 & 1042, Revolver Bullet, Talisman Virtuoso DTi, Sumiko Blue Point, Roksan Shiraz. Test CDs. Dorians 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

EACH ISSUE costs $4.99 (in Canada) plus tax (15.03% in Qubec, 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, Qu., Canada J4K 5J4. Tel.: (450) 651-5720 FAX: (450) 651-3383. Order on line at www.uhfmag.com

his is no small show. See the crowd in the picture above? No, those arent the visitors to the Festival du Son et de lImage, Montreals 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 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
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Montreal 2004

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 polypropylene woofer. Now heres the amazing part: the woofer and enclosure together

preamplier and monoblocks borrowed from our Audiophile Boutique (audiophileboutique.com), and the Reference 26 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

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 ow to check out other rooms at the Delta, and also the larger halls in the Four Points across the street. W hat you see below left is the dramatically-styled Chord CD player, though I should add that its innovation doesnt stop at its looks. Notice the two loops of cable at the rear? The Chord Blue transport act ually passes on an incredible 64 bits of datawhich 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 sou nded ver y good w it h SACD when I heard it, and it was no slouch with conventional CD either. I listened to it with McCormack electronics (of

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 couldnt do that in a hotel room (nor in most rooms), to be sure, but I can testify it doesnt 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 ofForest 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 Totems 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 Bsendorfer exhibiting at the Festival for the rst time. Yes, the legendary piano maker. Its not so well known that the company also makes loudspeakers. The demonstration was done with a video system, using the D-VHS high denition system. Both the video and the audio rather disappointed me, though that may reect more on the people who had set up the room than on the actual performance of the Bsendorfer speakers. I didnt 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-Boxs Odysse 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 demonstration of the Linn Unidisk playernot 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 wraparound 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 singleended 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 wouldnt 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? Surelike tubes are dead! Want more about the show? Youll 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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ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

27

n the words of psychologist Dennis Waitley, Its not what you are that holds you back, its what you think that you are not. I was reminded of that statement when I heard Gaetans first comments as we started on our tour. I dont think my e a r s a r e t r a i ne d enough for t h is, he said, sounding almost apologetic. And yet, Gaetan is, among many other things, a guitarist who remembers carrying his instrument along as reference, when he bought his first pair of speakers (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 dont know much about this, some would say, dismissing the idea altogether, or Im not an expert. Yet they go to concerts, they talk about what they heard, and they know what they enjoyed and what they didnt. This year I toured the Montreal show twice with two very different companions, and I thought Id share their impressions with you as if you were here with us. I let them guide me Illustrations: Above: the unusual Wilson Benesch Discovery 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 affordable Pro-Ject RPM9 with carbon bre arm and electronic speed control. Below, the eye-catching Clearaudio Master Reference. 28 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

Touring With Witnesses

by Albert Simon
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 rst and let me know if I should come in too. Interesting. This wont be an actual review, just impressions, comments, a lot of nods, raised eyebrows and silent wows. Look at this, a Thorens turntable, I didnt know they still made them, said Gaetan as we listened to a clear rendition of Muddy Waters playing through a Unico integrated amp and Opera speakers, handcrafted in Italy. He didnt say much else, but I liked the presence and the immediacy of the music. He didnt 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 Getting 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-looking Nagra ampliers playing through a pair of Parsifal speakers by Verity Audio. A track of Fidelios 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 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 nely produced by an all-Class system with the CAP-2100 integrated amp and CDP-100 player. Later, as we listened to the Naim and Spendor combination in another setting, Gaetan pulled out one of his CDs and asked to listen to it. It was a Frank Martin composition played by guitarist Jrgen Ruck. Remarkable neutrality, he exclaimed. There, thats 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. Theyre back, I said. I dont think he believed me. Gaetan was now leading the way, from one room to the next; his doubts about his discerning ability had diminished, 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 didnt 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

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OBX speakers with Conrad-Johnson amplication (ACT2 preamp and Premier 140 power amp), with Chords BLU transport and DAC 64 converter. You can even hear the guitars woody resonance, he exclaimed, and the low notes are superb. When the Hilliard Ensemble sang, he noticed the denition in the voices and the clear separation, and he smiled broadly. I never knew the tenor was that good. Gaetan seemed transformed now, walking condently toward each new I smiled because I also witnessed hadnt noticed before, he said, after we experience, his remaining doubts disquite a change in Gaetans attitude, from emerged from the Jadis room. Then, solving in a newfound assertiveness. an uncertain and unsure initial approach emerging from the Gryphon room, he This system is de nitely one of the to the seasoned and condent apprecia- seemed surprised. I heard other sounds top four, he stated unequivocally in tion of music that all audiophiles reach in this room, some instruments appeared the Linn room. The Unidisk 1.1 was once they stop thinking and talking more clearly. (Welcome to the club, I matched to a Klimax Kontrol preamp, about specs, and discover beauty. thought to myself.) a set of three power amps (one Klimax This is therapy, Michael said with Solo mono amp and two Klimax Twin*** a longing sigh, and Jimmy nodded. We stereo amps) feeding a pair of Akurate The next day, I welcomed Michael, a were listening to Georgia On My Mind by 242 speakers. The brass sound great, young and enthusiastic new audiophile said Gaetan, after listening to Blood, who had thoroughly enjoyed the Mon- Mari Nakamoto, followed by Sunower Sweat and Tears Spinning Wheel. Then treal Sound Festival last year for the on the Three Blind Mice label. The CD he became fascinated with the com- rst time. He had already been around was played by Audio Aero, amplied by ell) onamplier and came out of parison done with a different source, the this years with his friend Jimmy, a more h aoTenor w as wAudio s s a g t he Ve of a pair of Lamhorn speakers. In the Linn Kivor server, containing multiple CD experienced audiophile and nd reader l show (a a e r t n o selections stored without compression. UHF Magazine. They were both eager room, we arrived just in time to hear eM about t h ts more to share An interesting comparison Gaetan the tour with me and, pulling the spectacular soundtrack of Don Juan lo . d m a o e r mag.c u can Gabriel Yo w.uhfout w did was with the two Pierre syshis notepad, Michael said Naim. de Marco by composer Michael Kamen. w : e it s eb our W We went straight to the entrance Its quite something, said Michael, tems. He asked to listen to Charles Ives Piano Sonata No. 2 played by Marc-Andr level all-Naim room and I mean all looking for words. The soundeld is so Hamelin (a fellow music student of his, Naim. Why leave it to chance? said vast, he decided. And its so airy, added at the U of M), rst with the Gryphon the representative, a touch of humour Jimmy. As we then listened to Neville Mikado player, Callisto integrated in his eyes, pointing to the Naim cables. Marriner conducting Rossinis overture amp and the Master speakers by Pierre A CD5 player was linked to the NAIT to The Barber of Seville, Jimmy noted Gabrieland then, in the other room, 5i integrated amp, featuring DIN and that we were sitting right in front of the with a Jadis JD3 player, DA60 integrated RCA connectors (and an optional silveramp and the impressive Master Refer- colored front adapter plate, for those who ence speakers. He seemed to like both might tire of an all-black system). The versions but then added with a puzzled speakers were the two-and-a-half-way look Theyre completely different. Ariva. Michael remarked on the And we concluded our tour with sound of the trumpet, and found the Quad ESL speakers, playing the great clarity in the percussion. same piano piece with an Arcam CD 33 From entry level to player and Conrad Johnsons Premier dreamland. Michael 17 LS preamp and MV60 power amp. wanted to hear one The sound is crystalline, so clear in of his CDs in the the highs, he noted. There are more two Pierre Gabriel harmonics, he added, and when he rooms. It was t he listened to the Hilliard Ensemble he final track of the pointed to the stage and said I can see Gladiator score by exactly where the singers are standing. Hans Zimmer, We I smiled because I knew exactly what Live Forever, sung he meant and I agreed with all that he by Lisa Gerrard. heard, here and in all the other rooms. I heard sounds I

way e h t y B

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orchestra. The sound is dynamic, but without fatigue, he explained. We entered another large room featuring the Y BA CD player and ampliers, and massive JMLab speakers. I dont hear the speakers, whispered Michael. I was startled. Its 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, amplied by Conrad-Johnson, and the music suddenly 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 newlyintroduced Aurum Acoustics Integris 300B active speaker system (including a stereo tube triamplier with six-channel output), with an Integris CDP playerpreamplier. 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 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. 30 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

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 rst track on the Trio Morcheebas Big Calm CD. Both were speechless at the end. Well wait here, said Michael. Another one of his favorites was the Chord array of sculptured components, from the DAC 64 to the 500 watts monoblocs a nd h igh f requency power supplies, playing through Neat speakers. As Lisa Gerrards mournful voice rose in the quiet background, I could tell Michael was moved. You can just close your eyes and He didnt nish. We t hen had a superb example of quality LP reproduction with the Clearaudio turntable, playing Funkjazztical Tricknology through an Accustic Arts integrated amp and the stunning Acapella speakers. Wow, that sounds great, were 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 conrm that, we ended the audio tour with Austrias 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 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 Ive said, there was nothing in the sound that shouted Here I am, look at what I can do, arent you impressed? Nothing, except the music. A nd the fact that we could just reach out and touch Eric Clapton if we wanted.

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Linn Unidisk 1.1

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? Lets not get ahead of ourselves. Though the Unidisk is about the size of the CD12, it doesnt 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 Linns proprietary transport. On its denselypacked surface-mount circuit board are distinct electronic sections for all of the Unidisks functions: SACD, CD, DVD, and DVD-A. The machine plays em all, right down to Kodak Picture CDs. When we rst got our test machine (with a clear warning that the distributor would need it back in time for the Montreal show in early April), we rst tried it with our collection of SACDs, and specically Eric Bibbs 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 rst logged on to a server with my computer, and it greeted me by name! The next day we put on some conventional CDs, and that tipped us over the edge. We had known that we couldnt go on using other peoples SACD play-

f theres one philosophical point that Scotlands Linn Products is associated with, it is the importance of the source in a music reproduction system. Linns 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, Linns new agship is also a source component, and it may be every bit as revolutionary as the LP12. Linn has had ot her 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 (comparatively tiny) Linn Products to collaborate 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, its expensive. Yes, we had hoped to adopt a more afford-

Is this the source component audiophiles have been waiting for?

ers, and that we needed to get our own, but which one? It didnt take much to convince us: our choice couldnt 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 optimized for movies, and the even cheaper Unidisk SC includes what amounts to a multichannel preamplier. 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 isnt some rebadged mass-market player. However we wish the drawer were deeper. Its 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 clipa 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 youve put in, and therefore what circuits it should re up. That gets old real fast. There are other operational oddities too. Fast forwarding doesnt work the way you expect. Instead of just whizzing 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. Its well-known that its impossible to play most DVD-A discs unless you have a video display connected to the player. ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 31

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That is of 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 theyre looking at our new home theatre setup. Long silences! Because the Unidisk is so many players 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), specically 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 tympani sure gets the job done! remarked Albert. But theres much more to this fascinating 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 instruments 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 ampliers and speakers 32 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

turn it into an ear-shattering mess. Of course we k new the Unidisk wouldnt 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 didnt nd ourselves writing much. This is how the piece should sound. We continued with a Gospel blues piece, Aint No Grave f rom Doug McLeods Come to Find (Audioquest AQCD1027). Before McLeod begins to sing, there is an introduction by his guitar and various percussion instruments, and we were surprised to discover how much more we could hear with the Linn player. This wasnt a matter of hearing some of the percussion more clearly, but of hearing it at all. Come to nd indeed! The rest of the song? It seemed to go by rather quickly, an impression wed had with the previous two pieces as well. McLeods 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 youd 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 Gibsons 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 worlds 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 theories. 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. Fortunately, its possible to compare an SACD with the same release on a conventional Compact Disc. And that was how we began our comparison. One of our favorite test pieces is Eric Bibbs 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 lled a three-dimensional space most effectively. Bibbs voice had a certain softness, and even a sweetness, that it lacked on the CD version, but the player certainly didnt 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 Ill bet they dont suspect that its 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 3s 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

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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 at, and Reine found the usually humorous sousaphone raspy and incoherent. Changing to the SACD layer brought a spectacular improvement, with the instruments moving apart in space. Despite the separation, the counterpoints 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 recording, Rachmaninovs 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 excellent, with none of the all-too-frequent Compact Disc nasties. The SACD layer, on the other hand, was Well, here we go lapsing into impenetrable 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 consequisim 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 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, 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 feugueraessi 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 tatetummy 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 sendreros 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 consequisim 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 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, 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 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 33

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dunt ipit, quisi. Ud tetum venis aut aut ad tem eugait iniat nulputatet, consequis ad ea feugueraessi 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 tatetummy 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 34 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

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 consequisim 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 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, 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

Summing it up
Brand/model: Linn Unidisk 1.1 Price: C$16,750/US$10,995 Dimensions: 38 x 36 x 8 cm Most liked: Awesome performance with any disc that will fit Least liked: Slow reflexes, some operational rough edges Verdict: The Linn Sondek of the digital age

dunt ipit, quisi. Ud tetum venis aut aut ad tem eugait iniat nulputatet, consequis ad ea feugueraessi 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 tatetummy 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 sendreros 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

Listening Room

henim vel ullaorem er am nos nonsenis at aliquatuero. On the test bench At the moment we have no appropriate tools for testing SACD players, and so we had to settle for some measurements on the CD section of the Unidisk. The results were decent, certainly, but they did not even hint at the players remarkable sound. The 100 square wave on the previous page is far from the best weve seen, with considerable undamped ringing. The tilted top could suggest a misbehaving anti-aliasing 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 associate with tube gear. It was in no way audible, fortunately. The transport did not take well to CDs that were not perfect. It could play track 31 on our Pierre Verany test CD, t he 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 didnt 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 didnt 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.

CROSSTALK
What is high fidelity? What is the shall look no further, Im calling off the I was thinking about the days when I was experimenting with my very first hi-fi meaning of those two words juxtaposed? It search, Im just going to settle down and system. I would make a major upgrade or should mean fidelity to the highest levelor, if enjoy the music? Well, I felt like saying that after the listening session with the as major as one could make on a teenagers you prefer, truth. allowance and Id want to listen to every In our tireless efforts to find that longed- Linn Unidisk 1.1. one of my records over again. The constant improvement in players for fidelity, that truth, we go through nuOf course it's been a long time since I've merous hours of listening to components Ive witnessed over the years has brought owned so few recordings this could possi- for quality systems. Oh, there are plenty of us to levels I could scarcely have imagined bly be an option, but listening to the Linn impressive products out there, CD players, when those first CD players offered a silent but steely-sounding strings. I Unidisk reminded me of that era. For the turntables, and all the other parts that make background But we rdly. expected r? Ha never first time in memory, I can pick any CD up a serious audiophiles music system, but e y la p g u such transparency and sheer y thin well, yosuch everapart. of ew n se in my collection, and I feel excited about this one totally sets itself presence, immediate contact with the o is th th n f a o th ble on rmati iew availaSo vthat info re fe musicians, Ive felt here. Barriers I never hearing it again. The Linn Unidisk is here I am, once again forced to as li ly ln a o re e th more Is this at it offers between me and the music. A good. search for new words, adjectives I havent suspected fell th k in th u er, yo dare to play Of course, SACD is another where no haze had been and haze lifted k matter en- yet used to express my sentiments ey on a onpremas h c u is as m now who. n is k U e wasid ing th of th pp t tirely. With the best ones, I can finally for- cisely as possible. Loquacious, sensitive and that just with CDs! h ro g d u f o o th g we ink in a mov ie t what I ou dby e even th urse as o r in With SACDs, words falter, impressions reproducemotional as IF am be get that Im listening to a digital nature, shouldnt c u f o . o y n a d n c e n a h u ice yo A nd w player, D-A e best advsurprised tion. Producing this astonishing that Ive pretty well ex- are hard to render. What sounded so rich machine a DV t th as find er,to y la p D want to ge C n SA hausted the list. sa really does propel Linn back where once becamewell, richer, fuller with even more er, ait H F. a CD play in Uand uth tr sweet refinement. The sound was: making the source component is but one adjective I that can There had never detail e h T ? m e st sy player. g e analo d light the way for everyone else. didnt appear to come just from the speakyet dared to use: perfect! ra -g p to na it take oThere Incidentally, Linn claims that the it is. Unless and until someone ers, it enveloped them and filled the air efd ca n n Oh yesa Unidisk does not sound as good with CDs shows me a player superior to this one, the fortlessly. You havent heard what I heard, as its CD12 player does. Ive looked over my Unidisk 1.1 is perfect. It is, I believe, the but you know how that feels with live munotes from our issue No. 56 listening ses- quintessence of high fidelity. sic. Reine Lessard With a player like the Unidisk, one sion with the CD12, and you know what? could live happily ever after. (Or, until) Im not sure Linn is right. Albert Simon When can you really say This is it, I Gerard Rejskind

nidisk U n n i L u t t he o b a h t The tru

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I
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Shanling SCD-T200
are only two of them per tube, making them more easily removable for tube swaps. Though the metal nish of our player recalled that of the CD player, the distributor tells us more recent production models have an all-stainless nish, without those warm copper and brass accents. Shanling has recycled some aging Sony technology, including the transport 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, were with the shruggers. The SACD standard, like the DVD-A standard 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 cant have surround sound unless you own a preamplier, integrated amplier 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 gure. The SCD-T200 has several options besides the ones already mentioned. It can upsample CD sound into SACD territory, 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

t can hardly help looking familiar. It is a near lookalike of the Shanling CD-T100 that turned heads on our issue No. 66 cover. We 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 directoutput 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 amplier. This player still comes with an upscale power cord which includes a Schurter IEC connector and a Hubbell hospital-grade AC plug. Oh yesand the jacks are still 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 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

It plays SACD. It plays CD too. It could even be the player youve been waiting for.

36

played, and we wished they werent the same color. By the way, you cant change between CD and SACD on the 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 Joios Fantasy on a Theme of Haydn (Klavier K11138), an unusually wellrecorded CD with impressive brass and percussive effects. The opening tympani salvo didnt 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 wouldnt 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 didnt. It began well, with the solo 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 wasnt 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 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. Its an honorable result said Albert. Our third and nal CD selection

was Soft Lights and Sweet Music from Margie Gibsons 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. Gibsons 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. Its 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 consequisim 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 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, 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 feugueraessi 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 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 37

Listening Room

dit wisit, sequat am iusci tionsequi tat, nummy nullut venis numsan henim duismod ming eros nullupt atismoleniam doloreet nos ea adio ea aut ilis elit, sed iusto consenisl dunt ullandre tat prat, si. Ut wiscin henis eum irit, velessis adit erit praesto od tatinci tio eliqui tat. Aci quat. Henissi smoloboreet, sequatet lore ad et in exerilis augue modoloboreet elenim zzrit lorperat. Wis accummod core facilla ndiatum quatie vullutpatum alit ea corem doloreet laor sed tat in velit doloreriure tat. wisi. Borem zzriuscipsum dionsenim la core verat niam vulla faccum eros ent Irit lum nulla feugiamcore minis alit lorerci llaore doleniam, vercilit il ut zzriliq uamconulla consed dolor send- autat. Adigna facidunt nullamet, se delesti luptat la consed dipisi tio odionsequis reros nostrud tet alis augiam dolummy exeraesed magna feuis adiam, conulla nostrud mod modo exerius cillut vel ncidunt prat, veliquis at. Ute digna augue delis nim volore tat. Ure corem velis metuer inis dit velit, cor il utet, commy adiam, sequisl euis augiam, quat non nosto coreet lor sustrud duissismod tateSumming it up henim vel ullaorem er am nos nonsenis tummy nulla facin etum verosto odignis at aliquatuero. acipsusto odolorper si. Brand/model: Shanling SCD-T200 Irit lum nulla feugiamcore minis Mincillandre vel ipismod min eugiam Price: C$3499/US$2695 alit lorerci llaore doleniam, vercilit il ut volestis nos nim esto dit laor sim ad Dimensions: 43 x 30 x14.5 cm luptat la consed dipisi tio odionsequis tat, cor in ut irit adit in vulla feummod Most liked: Very good performance exeraesed magna feuis adiam, conulla olorem aut at. Putat nis augiat. Ugait nos on both kinds of discs augait velestie faciduis nummy nonsed Least liked: No provision for metuer inis dit velit, cor il utet, commy del il enisisi sciduipsum alit atumsandit multichannel nosto coreet lor sustrud duissismod tatevullaor eratummy nim volessectet num Verdict: Take away the SACD tummy nulla facin etum verosto odignis el ut dolorero conullaore diatum iurem capability, and its still a contender acipsusto odolorper si. alit lumsan exerci blam, vercipisi Ut wiscin henis eum. blamet You p robably do, as did ploring we u nt il for ours we adop elves. ted a refe rence pla This is t yer and he rst o began ex f t he SA w it h adv C D ic e a o n f d t This Shanling can be a terrific deal, or h great doing it. Of course, its looks is not a Youll probably find it hard to wait for u n e sort iv changin e r sal playe we w uld g so fast factoror rs to be more SACD selections to appear, but youll it? g ive to o a really poor buy, depending on your situa, t his wo is o w r u ng out u r b e st f uld be a by U riends. W terricGerard tions. Rejskind be ready. The info t it im h techno H F, e t r o m p a ic t io k log n If you want surround sound, if you is one Albert Simon up a sub for fastor page 3 (p script ion y er delive a to U H F g r think you may want surround sound in the y. Its comforting eto know you can 5o f t he that . PDF ), a nennext few years, you might as well scratch have a grasp on the future, that you can d you ca Comparing this player to our reference, n order on line this unit off your list right now. And if you joy your CD collection with a marked im- I certainly noted some imperfections, but

Listening Room

Lookin g at SA CD? Ne ed adv ice? CROSSTALK

also need to have it play movies, this is not the player for you either. But theres another possibility. Perhaps youre looking for a reasonably good modern player for your (possibly) vast CD collection, and yet youre thinking that you want to be ready for any future deluge of Super Audio recordings. Heres a player that will do justice to those superior discs, and will possibly play CDs better than your present player can. As if that werent enough, it can look

provement over previous generation players, 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.

they are slight enough not to affect musicality. 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 excellent dynamic range. What I think makes it especially appealing is its ability to reproduce a multitude of details and the remarkable energy with all music. It got me totally involved. Reine Lessard

38

ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

mall speakers are often better than big speakers, but what you should know about this tall loudspeaker from the Belgian company Equation is that this is its small speaker. Actually, there is a slightly smaller one (the model 7) but even its tall. Want a mini-monitor? See somebody else. However the imposing cabinet cant hide the fact that it is not one of those huge speakers that could ll a meeting hall. It is a two-way speaker, with an 18 cm woofer cone, not enough to

Equation 25 MkII
give you bragging rights in the locker room. The cones grey color suggests polyethylene, though in fact it is an alloy of magnesium and titanium. The highs are provided by a German-made ceramic

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

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 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 reference, 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 rst listening session. We started with the LP version of Faade, William Waltons 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 speakers, 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 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. Theres more of the piccolo," said Reine, Theres 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 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 39

Listening Room

ironic twists. The Equations seemed to understand it all. The music was helped by the ne detail emerging from the Equations. We could hear way, way back to the rear of the hall, and the 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 McBrooms West of Oz directcut album. Its 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. Eerieand wonderful at the same time. Another of our recordings demonstrates dramatically how much raw acoustic energy can be produced by a single grand piano. Chopins Scherzo No. 2 (on an RCA Japan direct-cut LP) can sound startlingly realistic, and thats 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 youd hear. The others two nodded in agreement. We know that what most people identify as clarity can actually be an articial hardness, but that wasnt 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 Floyds Dark Side of the Moon onto our Audiomeca J-1 turntable, to determine how the speakers handle power. You may recall that using this recording has in the past shown up limitations in our previous reference speakers, the 3a MS5s. Though the 3as are matchless in reproducing deep bass and impact, they are less convincing in the midrange, where the top layer of music hides the 40 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

other layersand 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. Its easy for that stuff to take on an articial hi- character, 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 wasnt thin, nor was it anemic. The sound was spacious, full, and even vast, seeming to extend way beyond the rooms physical boundaries. Reine appreciated the voice effects for their clarity. Gerard found the voices a little too bright, and even surprisingly sibilant, but the overall effect waswell, impressive! Switching from the turntable to our CD player, we listened to the celebrated Stravinsky Firebird on Reference Recordings. We gured the Equations would handle the nale all right, including 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

Summing it up
Brand/model: Equation 25 MkII Price: C$9790/US$7390 Dimensions: 151 x 30 x 26 cm Sensitivity: 89 dB Impedance: 7.2 ohms Most liked: Clarity and magic Least liked: Dynamic limits greater than the size would suggest Verdict: Give it the right-sized room, and expect great things

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 Gauvins astonishing Alleluia from her Analekta CD of Vivaldi motets (FL 2 3099). There wasnt 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. A lbert 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 nally we did not select the Equations as a new reference. They are, nally, too large for our room. Whats 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 werent quite right for the room. But how would they do in a larger room? You know, said Albert, if we hadnt been considering them as a possible Alpha reference, we never would have brought them into this room. We really need to listen to them in the Omega room. Theyll be more at ease there. Not quite, as it turned out. If the A lpha room is small for them, the Omega room is a little on the large side (about 4.9 x 10 meters, with 3 m ceiling). For the nal session we pulled out three SACDs, which we ran through our Linn Unidisk player. The rst selection was Needed Time from Eric Bibbs Spirit and the Blues (Opus 3 CD19411). The Equations did well, though with a bit less bottom end than our Reference 3a

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 Beethovens 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 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 3s Showcase (CD21000). This is a number that stops conversations whenever we play it for visitors. How would the Equations handle it?

Not perfectly in fact. Once again we could hear that the speakers would have preferred a smaller room. Whats more, the clarinet in the left channel didnt sound like the real thing. Is there a phase error? Gerard wondered. Lets 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) didnt 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 thats 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 dont follow the usual rules. Speakers this big, the rules say, have to be able to play loud enough to ll an amphitheatre. They need more drivers. They need to accommodate biwiring. They have to be made to sound best with the grilles off. Thats 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 didnt make it into our reference system, it would be easy to rate them as reference quality.

CROSSTALK
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 nonmusical 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 youll have to hear them with audio equipment that closely matches yours before you can form an opinion, and with your music too. The key words, in this case, are: youll 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 pleasure doesnt 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 modulations 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 dont just divine a musicians sensitivity, you can actually feel it. Timbres are so gorgeous they make your spine tingle. Percussion 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 midrange. 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 isnt on all recordings that the problem even exists. Id have to add that, following the sessions in two different rooms, it seems evident that they would be at their peak performance in an average-sized room. Reine Lessard

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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

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e just look at this speaker, and already it seems familiar. Our Omega reference system uses Reference 3as 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 companys 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 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 lets begin at the beginning. The rst version of this speaker was developed some 15 years ago in France by Daniel Dehay for a then-inexpensive 42 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

Listening Room

Reference 3a Royal Virtuoso

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 compensate 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 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-frequency signals from blowing the tweeter. The woofer was direct-coupled to the amplier, with nothing in between but cable. The original MM had astonishing performance, with dynamic and even explosive performance, and bottomend owthrough that actually caused some show visitors to accuse Dehay of having concealed a subwoofer behind a curtain. Years passed. Dehays company was sold to Spanish interests, which didnt make a go of it. He started his new company (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 aint 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 Supremaless its subwoofer base.

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

W hat determines the price of a speaker? The two major factors are the materials and the labor. The Reference 3as 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 original, with Duponts 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 companys Web site shows the speaker with what resemble WBT posts. Because our cables have bananas, we used a set of Prisma goldplated spades as adapters. Not ideal. The company recommends not toeing in the speakers. In a departure from common practice, the Royal Virtuosos 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 burnin at the factory, we gave our speakers as much time again, before placing them on our Foundation stands and listening 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 Waltons Faade (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 piccolo, is enough to make most speakers stumble.

The Royal Virtuososwell, wed 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 consequisim 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 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, 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 feugueraessi 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 tatetummy 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 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 43

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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 sendreros 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 sendreros 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

Summing it up
Brand/model: Reference 3a Royal Virtuoso Price: C$5600/US$4000 Dimensions: 40 x 30 x 33 cm Sensitivity: 92 dB Impedance: 8 ohms Most liked: Borem zzriuscipsum dionsenim zzriliq uamconulla consed dolor sendreros nostrud tet alis augiam dolummy nostrud mod modo exerius cillut vel duismod ming eros nullupt.

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 sendreros 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 sendreros nostrud tet alis augiam dolummy nostrud mod modo exerius cillut vel duismod ming eros.

CROSSTALK
Faccum eugiat, voloborero eugue veliqui 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 landips 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, commodolorem 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 magnismod modolen. Reine Lessard Faccum eugiat, voloborero eugue veliqui 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 landips 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, commodolorem 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. Albert Simon Wis eu feu faccum zzrillaore do dolent aciduipit lobore commolut augue magnismod 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

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ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

Wilson Benesch Curve

e recall hearing a pair of Wilson Benesch speakers 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 everyones attention was the tone arm. It wasnt steel, or aluminum, or even titanium, it was made from carbon bre. Truth to tell, Wilson Benesch was not alone in having gured out the advantages 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 bre is nding its way into a lot of modern products. Race cars use carbon bre parts, as do some road cars, notably the Jaguar XKR. Motorcycle panels and entire bicycle frames can be made of carbon. So are photo tripods, fishing rods, sailing masts, flutes, violin bows, pens and battery plates. The tail of the Airbus A380 is made from carbon 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

Diamonds are made from carbon. So are these loudspeakers.

the stuff. Architect Peter Testa even wants to build an entire skyscraper from carbon bre. Of course the material has been incorporated into high end audio products too. Tone arms aside, a number of manufacturers use woofer cones of woven carbon bres, including another speaker reviewed in this issue. And youll recall that Van den Hul brought out an entire line or audio cables using carbon 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 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 cabinets structure is shaped from a carbon bre matrix imbedded in epoxy. In this composite form, it is ve times stronger than steel, weight for weight. The Curves tweeter uses a silk dome, with a 2nd order crossover between it and the midrange. A gentler rst-order crossover separates woofer and midrange. 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 permanently 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 manageable size, it seemed possible to try them within the reduced connes of our Alpha room, and thats what we did rst. We began with one of our favorite test LPs, William Waltons Faade, and we wondered whether we might have made a mistake bringing the Curves here. The piccolo in the introduction was shrill, but weve learned to tolerate that, at least if what follows is worth waiting for. And it wasto an extent. The amount of detail the Curves dug out was impressive, and Waltons intricate counterpoints came out beautifully. So why werent we happy? The impression it leaves me, said Albert, was that they ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 45

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have a certain liveliness, but a total lack one thing, they have the dynamic capaof warmth. bility even for this very large room, and We moved to a second LP, with a at no time did we hear the Curves sound female voice, Mary Blacks No Frontiers. as though they were straining. They Something still wasnt right. The rich- had clean and nearly endless punch. ness of detail was breathtaking, and the They still didnt sound right when we songs message came through well, but positioned them the way we run our Blacks voice was hard and cold. Yes, Suprema reference speaker, but a little e s so the bongos and the other percussion experimentation allowed us to nd and acc sthe g n i d r o pulled instruments were gratifyingly lifelike, sweet spot, nearerfthe wall. We then returned to the Faade g recWe o ferin s e r o t s t but there had to be more. Should we out some LPs and other recordings, and recording that had largely disappointed s o m l i ke e st r bin and u n change the speaker placement? listened again. us the smaller Alpha room. It was still u , o F o t H gest it ice of U nc ug s rv . e brighter would have liked, but We began with The Song of Bernadette We tried, but the dimensions and than we e t s n a ld e s r u t I d i f fe e wo . If w has agive from Jennifer Warnes celebrated LP both shape of the room dont us a lot Reine and Gerard found positive d it e , d s n e ie r m om s recof e Leonard Cohen songs, Famous Blue aspects. counterpoint of possibilities, and nothing we tried The between the m . o u c o n it to y i ng i h est it t g Raincoat. This wonderful recording can ute helped. We gave up, and decided to and the clarinet was breathtaking, y g r u e s v t E won schedule another session ds, we with the easily turn shrill, and that was what it and the recordings sly humor came f rien Curvesin the much larger Omega did. Warnes voice was hard, the highs through unimpeded. I got right into rather too prominent. One good mark the music, said Reine. Albert was less room this time. And we quickly concluded that this came from Reine, who preferred the way happy. Its like reading a book in which was where these speakers belonged. For that the Curves reproduced the piano. somebody has underlined all the interesting passages. We turned to our SACD player, and slipped on the second last movement of Tchaikovskys Symphony No. 6 (Pentatone 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 realistic 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 structural 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

ore t S e l iophi d u A T he y b p Dro

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INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED
AUSTRALIA AUSTRIA BELGIUM CANADA CHINA CROATIA FRANCE GREECE HOLLAND HONG KONG ITALY INDONESIA LATVIA LUXEMBOURG NORWAY SWEDEN SWITZERLAND TAIWAN THAILAND UKRAINE UNITED KINGDOM GERMANY RUSSIA USA

choral recording, Now the Green Blade was little sign of distortion. Individual despite the quick and deep bottom end. Riseth (Proprius PRCD9093), but we sounds were pure and gorgeous. It was The bottleneck guitar sounded changed, need not have been. The ute in the worth listening this far, commented as well, but there was nothing going on opening passage was somewhat shriller Reine. that escaped our ears! than with our reference speakers, but the We ended the session by returning to Then it was off to the lab. We wonfemale and male voices were a revelation. our SACD player, and Eric Bibbs Needed dered whether the frequency response We have heard this ne recording turn Time (Opus 3 CD19411). We were happy curve, measured in our Alpha room, to annoying mush with some surpris- with what we heard. The high resolution would show an imbalance. It didnt, ingly expensive systems (Im going to version of this recording is loaded with though curiously Wilson Beneschs start taking it with me to shows, said ne details, and the Curves reproduced own graph (the blue one below ours) Gerard), probably because so many them meticulously. The clarity made the does show lower midrange rather below speakers and ampliers cant handle its songs text all but telepathic. the top end. On the other hand, we did quick dynamic peaks. Once again, the Of course, the recording didnt confirm that the speaker can handle Curves showed that powerful signals really sound the way it did with our lows with little effort. The photo at left are no challenge at all. We had little reference speakers. Bibbs voice was a on page 46, shows a 40 Hz tone at our difculty distinguishing the individual little brighter, and a little thinner too, reference level! Then again, the second photo on the voices, always a good sign. Only the nal same page shows a 220 Hz tone. The crescendo waswell, hard. It often is, to Summing it up roughness, which was intermittent, is be fair. probably caused by a problem with an Back to the turntable for The Secret of the Andes, whose dazzling succession of Brand/model: Wilson Benesch Curve internal connection. exotic percussion instruments is a tough Price: C$11,000 The square wave (the third photo) is test of the rigidity of a speaker enclosure. Dimensions: 91 x 23 x 37 cm not bad, though the phase doesnt look Would the Curves pass the test? Sensitivity: 88 dB quite spot on. Well of course they would, but we Impedance: 6 ohms, 4 ohms miniWilson Benesch has gone to a good were pleasantly surprised to note that mum deal of trouble and expense to slay the their competence extended to far more Most liked: Brilliant design, brilliant age-old dragon of cabinet resonance. It than just the percussion. Everything at results has been successful, too, and we were the very bottom end, including the left Least liked: Perhaps a tad too brilliant left with the feeling that a little more hand piano chords, was superb, with Verdict: A potential giant-killer, still tweaking would have brought up some e ways. in training cept ional power, control andLquickness. There real magic. r ex et us cou nt th ei th r fo chosen s, em st sy e nc it y refere some, but all. ains high qual e reviews, not th of l al 1) U H F maint r fo They are used view. transparency. an one point of th e or m t ge t just one. You reviewers, no e re eir th es us ide th F ovthem Ill tell you what. Take that tened casually during their breakH time to lis- The speakers have an exemplary clarity n prto 2) Uthe s ca er ew vi re e re contoand hich the th re doubt attributed in I heard what seemed like ten to your music through these speakers. can no bew to the carbon period, su in es n pr io ct no se es a t there is ew includ ard. h revi ve heto Carefully. Use most of 3) your other compofibree di cabinets anti-resonant good reason look forward to the review. e Not of ten, bu properties. ? w Eac ee at h gr w sa on t ow ew. D shed new ligh t of vi nexceptionally ca t poin nents, if at all possible.ow If n your music imThey can manage an good And thats despite the fact that we dont use en m ee gr sa al di casion d of- to do equipment run-ins. an and an oc of, course), and separation of timbres. Theyve got impact, our best source proves (compared to live, ng di form en m m reco e by venuin eansa sweetness to the music, at m of its re you discover real tight bass, a wealth of ad- energy, flawless rhythm. Even very fast There h was such amou nt nt ca phile Store. T i io gn ud si A a es he any T ak h s m n F ug pe H ro ditional details and an impeccable rhythm, music filled with in- and h such of the bottom end. This ap control s th varied and plentiful 4) U and accessorie his hardly ever T gs . in us s rd n co te re ea I heard no confusion. They can was going to be great! then get them. You need fe them, th ringyour system struments, ho w er is advert to ando needs them. justice to complex counterpoints. But in the end I wasnt satisfied. Yes, we can say no anufac Ours didnt. I noticed So, with such a long list of qualities, the qualities the carbon fibre cabinets are wonderful, ul to m ore. ef mall us e ar ey th nd A . iles can they let producing a sound that is tightly controlled I mentioned above, but they brought along why am I still unsatisfied? How we say. l to audioph e highly usef u es believe what il ar h s op ew di vi au re e r us such searing highs? The spectral without all the way over to constiother less desirable traits.SIts going ca o oua matter of through be l, el w tors as dist ribu and about rs me, taste, an audiophile once tu said balance is imperiled, with a lower midrange pated, as with some other speakers I could reto

fer en t f i d e r a s e v iew Why UHF r

CROSSTALK

Listening Room

some other speakers. I dont 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.

that seems nearly absent. Its really too bad, and Im convinced the designer could fix this. That would be enough to tip the Curves from their nearly perfect score to outright perfection. Reine Lessard Im perplexed by these speakers. I lis-

name. The detail is superb. Only I always had the feeling the speakers were never quite placed right, or that they werent suited to the room. We tried. Perhaps theyll deliver their exciting promise in your room. We couldnt get what we wanted in either of ours. Gerard Rejskind

48

ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

muRata Super Tweeters

oes f requenc y response matter, even if were talking about response above and beyond where your ears leave off? That question has been discussed a lot. It was back in the 50s 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 ltered out. Of course, we know lters are never inaudible, so But interestingly enough, CD players do lter out everything beyond 20 kHz. Of course, SACD and DVD-A players dont (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 theyve 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 crossover 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 efciency of the main speakers? Arent add-on tweeters bound to add noise or distortion? Well, it wouldnt 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 Bibbs Spirit and the Blues (Opus 3 CD19411). At rst all three of us wondered whether we were letting our imaginations run away with ushad 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 connected the tweeters. Were not talking major transformation, but perhaps a pleasant addition to an already outstanding system. We continued with another piece we had heard several times lately, Comes Love from Opus 3s Showcase SACD (CD21000). All three of us noted still

Speakers that take up where your ears leave off.

with some surprise the enhancement of several instruments. The clarinet, already beautifully reproduced had superior articulation. The piano, notably, 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). Whats more, we hadnt 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, thats where well hear it. Well, we did have a sealed copy on hand of FIMs SACD version of Cantate Domino (PRSACD7762). We selected the Christmas Song (aka O Holy Night), with its wonderful solo by soprano Marianne Mellns. 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 harshness or noise. Indeed, Albert and Reine thought they added little to this recording. Gerard disagreed. He thought Mellns 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 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-fledged 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 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 49

Listening Room

he LE designation stands for Limited Edition, an indication that, after the 250 units have been built, there wont be any more. You might wonder why wed bother reviewing an amplier that will be built in such small numbers. The truth is that a lot of high end products are built in tiny quantitieseven if thats not the companys hope. For some high end manufacturers, making 250 of an expensive product would indicate nothing 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 worlds 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 agship technology. It looks not unlike our original. Its 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. 50 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

Moon W-5LE
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, its a 16 gauge cord, one that Cardas itself recommends for low-current gear, not power amps. Our amplier was fresh from the assembly bench, and though we would give it plenty of burn-in time before the review, we couldnt resist a quick listen. It sounded superb, with only a minor etching 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 rst selection was Rachmaninovs Piano Concerto No. 2 (Pentatone 5186 114). We werent quite happy with its sound using the older W-5. The piano was somewhat less than natural, especially in the powerful left-hand chords

Built for you and 249 lucky others.

at the beginning. The strings had an attractive sheen, but they didnt sound the way they would in a real concert hall. But that couldnt be the fault of the amplier, could it? Wellit could, and it was. The new amplier lifted a veil from the music, one we hadnt 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 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 amplier, more so than the usual toprated audiophile amplifiers. Organ music, if it is well recorded, is a challenge for a power amplier, and especially for the capacity of its power supply. We turned next to Bachs most famous organ work, the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, found on Opus 3s Organ Treasures (CD22031). The older W-5 rendered this exceptional 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 amplier you could distinguish the different small pipe sets by their position in the sound eld, said Gerard, but with this one you hear all the harmonic differences among the different sets. And theyre 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 Bibbs 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 amplier sound electronic, and quite honestly we didnt think that was

Listening Room

possible. Our W-5 was, after all, one of the worlds great ampliers. Yet we could hear more detail, without the addition of any unnatural brightness. The lowest guitar notes were well lled out, which didnt 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 amplier, commented Albert. Our fourth and nal recording was an LP: the Chorus Line suite from the Dallas Wind Symphonys impressive Beachcomber double album (Reference Recordings RR-62). This is a busy recording, 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 Its 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 naturalness. Smaller woodwind instruments, which can easily be buried under the rest, emerged intact, a testament to the

ampliers true transparency. It doesnt leave anything trailing in its wake, said Reine. The tympany solo was breathtaking, with the tubular bells especially impressive. We then put the W-5LE through our technical evaluation, and discovered

Summing it up
Brand/model: Simaudio Moon W-5LE Price: C$7800/US$6000 Dimensions: 49 x 48 x 16.5 cm Power: 200 W/channel into 8 ohms Most liked: Astonishing clarity, no solid state character Least liked: Is the better power cord superior enough? Verdict: In every sense a reference

that you can blow the ampliers easilyaccessible 6 ampere fuseif you make a wrong move with the volume control. It isnt easy, though, and we cant imagine doing it in a real-life listening situation. Theres no spare fuse packed with the amplier, though you can nd a fuse that size nearly anywhere, including garages. An electronic protection circuit shuts down the amplier 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 awlessly, which made us suspect 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 amps noise was down where the trolls live. The W-5 was an astonishing product when its trek began. As for W-5LE amplier 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. Wed hurry if we were you.

CROSSTALK
Compare the second-generation Moon W-5 to its latest incarnation? Some challenge! Well, I was stunned by the differences in performance. With the new version, everything is cleaner and clearer. An abundance of detail emerges, and at the risk of repeating myself I can say that I heard elements I had never noticed before. I cant say I had been missing anything, since I hadnt known those sounds were there, but after comparing this amplifier to its ancestor I cant settle for less. Its 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 redundant. Reine Lessard I never thought a power amplifier could make such a difference in such unexpected 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 Ive 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 amplification and more about the beauty of the music itself. How do you explain hearing better contrast? I dont know, but I did. And I dont know how I could have heard more sunshine, but it was there. Albert Simon I have no choice but to acknowledge that Simaudios Renaissance circuit was a brilliant innovation. Whats 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 worlds best high-powered solid state amplifier in 2004. Whats 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 superior to the smaller W-3. Even the first W-5 was one of the worlds best big amps. That Simaudio has found this much room to improve it is nothing short of astonishing. Gerard Rejskind

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51

e k now bet ter t ha n to dismiss what this British company does. Years ago, we tested Goldrings 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 turntable 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. Theres a reason for it. Both the table and the arm really are made by Rega. That makes the eye-popping price seem even more astonishing. To put it into perspective, last time we looked the P2 cost some $200 moreand it comes without a pickup. The GR1s plinth is different from that of the P2, though it is also a solid block, with rubber feet. Regas 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 synchronous model used in the P2 (you play 45s by moving the belt to a different pulley step). The subplatter appears to be berglass, while the platter is machined high density berboard covered by a black felt 52 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

Goldring GR1 Turntable

mat. Tap it, and you dont hear much of anything. The hinged polystyrene cover is not shown, because we removed it before listening, 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 Goldrings own lineup. It is of course a moving magnet cartridge, equipped with an elliptical stylus. You cant 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 connectors are dreadful, and the shielding (loosely-wrapped spiral strands, if we are right about which wire this is) isnt 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 gloried 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 gaugewhich by the way bears the Goldring name). We began the listening session with the Moorside Suite from one of the Dallas Wind Symphonys 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, theres 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 Carlottas role. Now this is denitely not an audiophile recording. Indeed, with our reference turntable an occasional

Listening Room

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

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 Christines voice in general. Dynamics 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 displeasing 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 eld was well recreated, though Reine complained that some distant sounds, such as that of the cash register, were buried. The clarinet solo was especially 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.

that A nd The fact is have here. e w e w s, le Some years ago, I brought a Revolverr tu that perhaps theres something to all this b rnta othe useit ca LP talk, and might be worthwhile having turntable, not wildly different from this v in e b l, y w it h one, to the home of a friend who owned a non-digital source as a u backup. e. The GR1 nd yo ll se s akeep ding uto a a Pioneer table. She was happy with her , k isegood enough them interested. re p e Well
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 turntables in the garage sales cannot hope to do. The cartridge surprised me too, because it doesnt massacre the highs, as too many economy pickups can and do. The bargain price is an important element, because it can convince some younger audiophiles who have never known vinyl Gerard Rejskind What a refreshing surprise! Ive 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 60s and 70s while listening to them on a better turntable than the average table available during those years. Not everything was good within those grooves, of course, but some remain masterpieces of skilful recording techniques and with this turntable youll 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 foraging through countless piles of used ones

alog n a w e i w ll r e v i t s em to rev ie e w We use th , s. le s b w ta ie Yes v rn superb tu uipment re CROSSTALK intain two o other eq we st ill ma we often d

We ended with another audiophile classic LP, Amanda McBrooms Gossamer from West of Oz. Once again the piano sounded way wrong. We liked Amandas voice, though. But for an occasional wayward sibilant, it was quite natural. But what about that piano? Ill bet I know why its 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. Its a treatment for rubber surfaces called Rubber Renue. Unlike those sticky 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 Goldrings 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 McBrooms 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 GR1s 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 difculty judging the resonant point: it may have been around 11 Hz, which would be a good indication, but it was so well damped we werent 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-catching 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 plugnplay. And heads up CD fans the bazaars are lled with great LPs that are barely more expensive than Internet downloads. Its a no-brainer.

for that special version. Yet all of that, including the turntable, might cost less than what you might spend for a pair of interconnects (which youll end up doing anyway). Albert Simon Its 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 reproduced, without hardness, sibilance is natural, 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 its not nice to have prejudices. Reine Lessard

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53

pples ubiquitous iPod s c a r c e l y ne e d s a n introduction. There used to be a million portable music players out there. Now theres the iPod, with some 35% of the market (Apple is only getting used to this), andoh, a few others you probably cant name. Because were audiophiles we dont usually go around with headphones welded to our ears. Apple wasnt 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 Dolbys AAC (Advanced Audio Codec) instead of MP3, but a quick comparison conrms what we expected. Neither is meant for music lovers. Fortunately theres more to the iPod. Unlike most such players, the iPod is format agnostic. For all it cares you can load it up w it h 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. Whats more, it has gotten big! The top model now has a whopping 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 Macs OS X operating system. A Windows version also exists, and can be downloaded from the Apple Web site. Both work the 54 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

same way. You import music from CD to iTunes, organizing it among folders as you see t. A preference window lets you pick a compression methodor no compression at all. You can then arrange your music into playlists, and ask iTunes to play the pieces youve chosen either in sequence or randomly. Note that this is enough to turn your computer into a digital jukebox.

iPod: a Poor Mans Server?

You dont 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 Grifn FM transmitter) through your car radio. And now imagine this. Some people are spending thousands of dollars, or even tens of thousands, on music servers that can stock music from hundreds of discs and produce them on demand. Can the iPod serve some 70 discs on demandfor 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 pict ure, by t he way, was supplied by Apple. O u r i Pod had b e e n t h r ou g h 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 Notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach (Analekta FL 2 3064). Properly reproduced, this is a 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 Masters 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.

Listening Room

We wont keep you in suspense. trouble, didnt give this player much The choral recording, which we From the rst sounds of soprano Karina trouble either. heard sound hideous in some rooms at Gauvins voice, we knew we were on to Oh, there were things missing, to be the Montreal show, was more than satsomething. Gauvins voice is naturally sure. Some of the subtle cues that reveal isfactory coming through the iPod. The smooth and controlled, though its more depth and make the stereo image explicit ute solo was attractive, though we lost hiles, though, unless st to audiop intere Its of noThe t. distinct. duc than a lot of digital players can handle had become less bottom track of it once the singers came in. The pro ic on ctr ele hot the Apple iPod is Fact: the without getting downright unpleasant. end had diminished impact we could plucked bass had considerable weight, iew of the Apple iPod, the e-oriented rev iophil audthe s on d thi rea The iPod mostly made her sound right, just make that out harpsichord though less than Reine would have liked. to nt wa ll you w kno is. We ll, unless it We with only an occasional high note seempassages. Rhythm was not quite as quick. The high notes of the sopranos were a w. kno rst as far as we ver y ing out of place. The articulation of the But weve heard a lot worse than this, little shriller and more grainy than with German text, which gives Gauvin little said Reine. our player, but there was nothing radi-

Yes we know

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 couldnt hear elsewhere, but theres 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: Counterpoint DA-10A, with HDCD card. Turntable: Audiomeca J-1 Tone SL-5 Thisarm: little Audiomeca box is good. It is, in fact disPhono preamp: Audiomat concertingly good. Why can itPhono-1.5 reproduce music this Goldring well when Excel so many real CD Pickup: players sound er: thin and screechy and downPreampli Copland CTA-305 tube right boring? It isnt quite audiophile qualpreamp ity, though even so it could be. Power amplier: YBA One HC The iPod of course wasnt designed to Loudspeakers: Living Voice Avatar be a high end component. But good design OBX-R doesnt happen by accident. Interconnects: Pierre GabrielRejskind ML-1, Gerard Equinox/WBT Loudspeaker cables: Eclipse IIwe with You remember the time when listened to bananas music through CD players? WBT
I can just hear an audiophile saying just that, someday, after pocketing an iPod and preparing to leave his or her friends place. Some day. Soon.

The UHF Reference Systems

Power cords: Gutwire, Stratus AC lters: Foundation Research LC-2 (power amp), Inouye SPLC. The Omega system It serves for reviews of gear that cannot easily t into the Alpha system, with its Summing up small room. We didnt it set out to make an A (best system) and a B (economy) Brand/model: Apple want iPodto imply that system, and we didnt Price: C$699/US$499 (40 Gb better one of the two systems is somehow version; Canadian price includes a $25 than the other. Hence the names, which piracy levy) dont invite comparisons. Unless youre Dimensions: 6.1 x 10 x 1.7 cm Greek of course. Mass: 176 g Most liked: Compact, versatile, CD player: shared with the Alpha astonishing sound system Least liked: No digital out Turntable: Alphason Sonata Verdict: Sure its cool, but thats not Tone arm: Alphason HR-100S MCS the half of it. Phono preamp: Audiomat Phono-1.5 Pickup: Goldring Excel Preamplier: Copland CTA-305 tube preamp Power Simaudio Well ampli need toer: adapt, yes. ItMoon will take W-5getting used to, some humility too, some but dont underestimate this trend. Loudspeakers: Reference 3a Were on our way to Suprema II new and amazing sources full of promises. Pierre Gabriel ML-1. Interconnects: I kept looking at the little iPod, dwarfed Wireworld Equinox by its connecting cables, producing such Loudspeaker cables: Pierre Gabriel surprisingly good music, and I realized the ML-1 (formerly L3), for most of the truth: were on our way range, Wireworld Polaris for theSimon twin Albert subwoofers. Power cords: Aurora Im not in theWireworld habit of hiding my feelings I write for you. So I have to tell ACwhen 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 twometer screens. We did, however, nally come up with a system whose performance gladdens both eye and ear, and which has the needed resolution to serve for reviews.

CROSSTALK

HDTV monitor: Hitachi 43UWX10B CRT-based rear projector DVD player: Simaudio Moon Stellar with Faroudja Stingray video processor Preamplier/processor: Simaudio Moon Attraction, 5.1 channel version Power ampliers: Simaudio Moon W-3 (main speakers), Celeste 4070se (centre speaker), Robertson 4010 (rear) Main speakers: Energy Reference Connoisseur Centre speaker: Thiel MCS1, on UHFs own TV-top platform Rear Elipson 1400 And speakers: then I started listening, and I was soSubwoofer: charmed by 3a theDesign results, Acoustics even alongside our reference, that I figured I ought Starto give Cables: Equinox and Atlantis, some thought to the usefulness of this gimlight video cables mick. Once I had done Power cables and that, line I could lters:think Gut-of a thousand occasions on which Id be happy wire cables, Inouye SPLC lter to have one. All three of the systems now have their Its an attractive object, easy to pack own dedicated power lines, that withcan Hubbell away because its so small, warehospital grade outlets. All extensions and house a lot of your favorite music, to be lispower used places are also equipped with tened to bars in public without disturbing hospital-grade connectors. your neighbors, but also capable of throwing up a terrific musical backdrop when youve got work to do. As for its audiophile qualities, let me just say that they deserve to be underlined. Reine Lessard

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you that I wasnt even lukewarm about reviewing this tiny portable gadget that can fit in your palm. What, yet another gadget that will become essential?

ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

55

Gershwin Forever!

A
56

by Reine Lessard

destiny cut short by a premature 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 nally weep as he left the dance oor too young. What was so exceptional about this composer who, almost 70 years after his death, remains alive in the collective memory, his melodies still so new and so poignant? A child in the crowd New York is a stimulating milieu ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

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 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 Broadway 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 countless musicians, artists and composers who have come to search for inspiration and hope to 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 electing 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 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 elds, in which he scores uneven success. The Gershwins move often, for Morris always insists on living close to his current business. Never will the family be poorly housed and fed. Rose will later conrm that her husband made a good living, and that his family never wanted. The family homes, kept up by domestics, are further conrmation. This runs counter to the legend of George Gershwins birth in poor circumstances 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 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

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that stops him in his tracks. Entering the building from which the sound comes, he nds himself before a player piano. He listens, delighted, until the mysterious machine abruptly stops playing. He leaves, disappointed, but he is forever changed by what he has heardAnton Rubinsteins 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, preferring playing ball to school, when his ear is attracted by a delicious melody on the violin, Dvoraks 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 Georges 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 assurance 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 pupils 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 rst music to conquer Gershwin was classical, he has an unconditional love of jazz, which he has heard, also by chance, coming from a club near which he would spend long hours. Hambitzer 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 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 rst two songs, Since I Found You and Ragging the Traumerei. 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 successes, but they are already marked by his strong personality. At the crossroads In his free moments George reluctantly 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 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 57

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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, Gershwins 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 composition. 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 Georges 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 jukeboxes, 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 methods 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 sightreading 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 ofce 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 naturally. Gershwin is now in a privileged position to observe the world of music. Despite his long hours at the keyboard, the money rolls in slowly. To get enough money to abandon song-plugging, Gershwin agrees to record Edison cylinders, precursors to records, for $5 58 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

Music must reect the thouhts and aspirations of the people and the time. My people are American. My time is today. George Gershwin 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 dazzled. 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 jealous. Ruby will remain a close friend. Gershwins 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 classical musicsuch 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 Kerns songs. He will even imitate them, as he will never deny. George quickly becomes Remicks top pianist, but he wants to get his own songs known, and Gumble turns them down one after the other. Were paying you to play, not write songs, he says. In 1916 he signs a contract with the Harry von Tilzer Publishing Company. He gets ve dollars for When You Want em, you Cant Get em, When Youve Got em, You Dont Want em, with words by a friend, Murray Roth. For the rst time, George Gershwins name is on a published score. Doors have begun to open for him, and they will never close. He meets Sigmund Romberg, composer of such already famous operettas as The Student Prince. Impressed by Gershwins 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 lessons with Hambitzer, continuing until

Hambitzers death in 1918, and also with Kilenyi, who gives him two lessons a week. To complement his brilliant pupils 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 Bachs Well Tempered Clavier. His popularity grows without interruption. 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 Alleys 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 Gershwins work as a rehearsal pianist, and hires him again for his new show Rockabye Baby. George doesnt turn down work, but he always 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 shows star, Nora Bayes, the songs are warmly received, but the public recalls only the main composers name. Disappointed, Gershwin has learned his lesson. From now on he will write entire shows, and the name on everyones lips will be his. The year 1919 announces a rich period in his life. On May 26 th , the Henry Miller Theater premieres Gershwins La La Lucille, with lyrics by Irving Caesar. Its a success, with such memorable songs as Nobody But You and Theres 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

Software

incorporate jazz in a classical already-famous Al Jolson recital. The audience, taken sings it in his Capitol Revue. aback at rst, applauds warmly The song is recorded by at the end. Columbia the following year and will sell a million Which brings us to the copies in its rst year. Its Rhapsody in Blue. success sweeps the planet, It is a smash hit at its preand it is played on the miere on February 12, 1924 in radio, on the stage, in the that same Aeolian Hall. The music hall, and even in the evening, organized by famed living room. At any family bandleader Paul Whiteman, or friendly get-together, is billed as an experiment in there is always someone modern music. In Whitewith a ne voice ready to mans mind it is the realizaimitate the popular singer: tion of a dream to which he the lights are turned down is convinced Gershwin holds low, he smears his face the key: giving jazz the status with bootblack, and he of serious music. Whiteman goes into Swanee. In the has not only commissioned half light you see only the the work, but also pays Hugh white gloves and the roll of C. Ernst a goodly sum to write the eyes. The effect never a text for the program on the misses. necessity of proper instrumenIn his early twenties, tation to improve American George Gershwin earns Gershwin (at the piano) rehearsing for Rosalie, with fellow music. In the audience on $10,000 in the rst year for composer Sigmund Romberg (behind him), and performers that evening are a number of that song alone. sophisticated music luminaries Jack Donahue and Marilyn Miller. The appearance of the and composers, such as Rachphonograph and the radio revolutionizes and he greets ladies with a cigar clenched maninov, Heifetz, Efrem Zimbalist and the music industry in the early 20s, as between his teeth. His social shortcom- Leopold Stokowski. The program is long, with Gershwins will the talking pictures not long after. ings are noted by one of his admirers, Gershwin meets the dance producer, jeweler Jules Glaenzer, who undertakes piece at the very end. Before the concert George White, known for his air for to show George more worldly ways. is over some audience members grow nding talent. He includes six Gershwin Gershwin takes note of the comments restless and start to leave, when the long songs in George Whites Scandal of 1920. of this person who clearly admires him and troubling clarinet glissando literally It is only the beginning. Two years later and considers him a friend. He is soon freezes them in their tracks. White includes eight Gershwin songs elegant in both speech and dress. On stage there is tension. Gershwin in the new version of his show. Among has not had time to complete the work, them: Ill Build a Stairway to Paradise. Sophisticated jazz and he has left blank the solo piano parts. Gershwins muse is tireless. He turns He has simply told Whiteman that he The song will be reused in the 1951 lm An American in Paris, where it is sung by out six songs a day to get them out of will nod when it is time for the orchestra my system, as he says. In April 1923 to come in again. One can imagine the Georges Gutary. On the same evening as the premiere in London, he launches his musical exaltation of the composer, not to menof the 1922 show, Gershwin presents comedy The Rainbow. In November, he tion the bandleader, and to understand a mini-opera, Blue Monday, a slice of accompanies at the piano the Canadian their relief when the piece ends and American life set to jazz-inspired music mezzo-soprano and much admired clas- they are rewarded by an ovation. The with a touch of ragtime. The audience is sical recitalist, va Gauthier. An apostle Rhapsody in Blue has been consecrated, lukewarm, though the next day one critic of Poulenc, Milhaud, Stravinsky and and Gershwin has become legend. calls it the rst glow of a new American Bartok, she is a friend of Ravel, to whom It is only a few days later that he will she introduces Gershwin. Eclectic and ll in the missing piano part on his score. musical art form. The elite crowd gravitates about bold, she champions the cause of modern The following summer he will record Greenwich, and the East Side beckons. music, as she will do until her death in the Rhapsody on a reproducing piano (see There Gershwin meets Charlie Chaplin, 1958. At New Yorks Aeolian Hall, she is Record Reviews in this issue). Jascha Heifetz, Groucho Marx, the accompanied by Gershwin as she sings It is bold and full of energy, with a Astaires and Douglas Fairbanks. George Purcell, Bellini, Bartok and Schoenberg, blues avor and a clear jazz inuence, seems unmannered in this tony com- to which she adds songs by Gershwin and written in a single movement for piano pany. He boasts of frequenting brothels Kern. She is the rst classical singer to and orchestra, orchestrated by Ferde ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 59

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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 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 Morriss passion, poker. There is a gymnasium, and a top oor that is entirely Georges. 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 Glazunovs Symphony No. 5, Henri Rabauds 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 showcase his music. Barely has he touched the keyboard that already the audience 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 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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Grof at Whitemans 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 t he wayabout t he famous clarinet introduction that continues to astound audiences, it was actually improvised by Whitemans clarinetist, Ross Gorman. It was a happy 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 concerto from Gershwin. That same year, George and Ira collaborate for the 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, 60 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

the song becomes a Transatlantic hit! It is The Man I Love. It is only the following July that he will nally begin the concerto Damrosch has requested. What about the ladies? Handsome, brilliant 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 rst women to attack this hitherto masculine domain. The affair will lead to Swifts divorce from composer James P. Warburg. After Gershwins death, she and Ira will esh out some of his nal sketches to create a score for the 1947 lm The Shocking Miss Pilgrim, which will feature Betty Grable and the warm voice of Dick Haymes. The songs reect Gershwin at his best: For You, For Me, Forever More, and Arent You Glad We Did. The name of Gertrude Lawrence, screen star and rst lady of the musical comedy in both New York and London, is inextricably linked with that of Gershwin. She stars in Oh Kay!,

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Marguerite dAlvarez. In 1927 the premiere of Strike Up the Band at Philadelphias Shubert Theater, is but a modest success, though its title song becomes a hit. Based on a book by Morrie Ryskind, it is the rst collaboration 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, accompanied 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 Orchestra, 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 nally been 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 lm bearing the ballets title. The economic crash of 1929 shakes both Europe and America. Banks close their doors and worldwide unemployment soars. During this dark period, Gershwin begins composing Of Thee I Sing. Girl Crazy, the following year, will be one of Gershwins 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 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 Gershwins superb music. The following year the show is accorded a Pulitzer Prize. Because the Pulitzer has no category for musical comedies, the prize is given the lyricistswho publicly deplore the injustice. In January 1932 in Boston he premieres 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 Philharmonic 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, conrming Ira Gershwins 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 ngers, 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, Gershwins opera Porgy and Bess opens on Broadway. It is Gershwins 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 African-American story is set on Cat 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 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 61

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includes the deathless lullaby, Summertime. 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 Cat 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 rst American opera to be staged in La Scala in Milan. It will be made into a 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 lm, to the detriment of the pianists who used to play while silent pictures rolled, but offering new opportunities for composers. Gershwin anticipates the riches that will surely 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 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 mansion complete with tennis court, pool and billiard room. George writes music worthy of Iras lyrics: Lets Call the Whole Thing Off, and They Cant Take That Away From Me, which gets an Oscar nomination. 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 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 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 lm which promises to be a blockbuster hit, the Goldwyn Follies. Gershwin calls on the talents of the famed Russian 62 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

choreographer George Balanchine. But the headaches are getting worse, accompanied by dizziness and perception of strange odors. Consultations with top specialists bring no de nite diagnosis. In June he undergoes a complete 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 Gershwins 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. Certain 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 af rm without fear of contradiction the creator of a distinctively 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 dont 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 collaborator, wrote that he had been especially astonished by his brothers 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 AfroAmerican 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 inuence. Gershwins orchestrations became more rened, while Ravel became inuenced 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 rst composer to sign a major classical work in the jazz idiom. It was La creation du monde of 1923. But w h y m a k e c o m p a r i s o n s ? Gershwin was Gershwin. There will never be another.

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Record Reviews
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 rediscovery 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. 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 listening 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 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 ute passages. The playing is ery. There are excerpts from Celso Machados Musiques populaires brsiliennes, with delicious rhythms and melodies. Between then comes a lascivious Tango by Eric Marchelie, which opens with an air on the ute that develops with fervor and passion to the energetic accompaniment of the guitar. But without a doubt the pice de rsistance is Histoire du Tango, with four pieces by Astor Piazzola: Bordel 1900, gay, catching, almost insolent, a touch disreputable; Caf 1930, dreamy and tender; Night Club 1950, recalling the rise of the tango to ballroom status; and Concert daujourdhui, a hybrid product of two inuences 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 virtuosity 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 Analektas usual engineer. Carl Talbot, is impeccable. ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 63

Mendelssohn: Complete Works for Cello and Piano Elizabeth Dolin/Bernadene Blaha Analekta FL 2 3166 Lessard: Felix Mendolssohn occupies a considerable place on the musical scene of 19 th 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 pianist, possessing a perfect understanding of the masters very soul. From the 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 veinjust the thing to listen to at the end of the day when you and a

Nota del Sol Similia Analekta AN 2 9817 Lessard: From their rst album, Cantabile (UHF No. 64), the twin Labrie sisters, 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 contemporar y composers of South America. From t he celebrated A rgent ine 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 cafs and

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by Reine Lessard, and Gerard Rejskind

Ralph Vaughan Williams. It seems odd make intellectual sense of it, though I to hear his music played by a wind band, was somewhat shaken by the ending, since he himself very much favored lush whose sound suggests an air raid siren. strings, but this suite really was com- I wondered whether Del Tredici will posed for band. I have reservations about ultimately feel compelled to add a third his rather amorphous, rambling music, movement to his suite. It is too soon to but he had a talent for arranging good guess what its title will be. melodies in a new setting: his Fantasia The sound, as usual with this comon Greensleeves remains, deservedly, his pany, was done by Keith O. Johnson, best-known work. Vaughan Williams and is mostly outstanding, but for some collected many folk songs to keep them rather shrill peaks on trumpets and from being forgotten, and this suite utes. It sounds especially good if you contains several. have a player with an HDCD decoder. The first and third selections are Proper decoding adds explosive dynamBells for Stokowski surprisingly bold and brassy. The middle ics, a bottom utend that borders on scary tore. B ile Sgreat h Junkin & Univ. of Texas Wind Ens. one, an arrangement of My Bonny Boy, depth is and to what is already a p io d u A fe w our only agood f rom e Reference Recordings RR-104CD quieter, more introspective, but with a pretty recording. r le a b a le il b a av aila ages are t recordings av Rejskind: The title puzzled me right off. strong hese parchitecture. t s e in b d e e f th rev iew Famed conductor Leopold Stokowski Most is a suite of old music me ounusual gs cause so ecordin e r b th e , e h t it s f o has been dead for nearly 30 years, even from Century Belgian composer 16 b e ll a W t r o N k ou hec .C e though he lives on through his countTielman Susato. I had never heard of r a e m so ay. Actually the album him, nor have most people. One of w less recordings. a s k c cli title is drawn from its nal piece, that his few pieces that have survived is a of Michael Daugherty. Daughertys collection of songs and dances called forte is commissioned music suites. He The Danserye, originally composed for has written evocative music in praise the instruments of the time sackbut, of Baltimore, Detroit, Los Angeles, krumhorn and the like and adapted and even places that dont exist, such as for modern wind band by Patrick DunniSupermans home town of Metropolis. gan. Jerry Junkins excellent University The subject in this case is Philadelphia, of Texas Wind Ensemble is much larger and it is one of three commissioned than any orchestra of ve centuries ago pieces in honor of that city. would have been, with the result that, not Its got bells, as the title promises: withstanding the period dance rhythms, Celebration two large bells on either side of the stage, with their symmetrical development and Les violons du roy/Gauvin/Roschmann plus a variety of other bells and bell-like characteristic repetitions, the suite has Dorian DOR-90024 percussion instruments. The result is a decidedly modern sound. This is by Lessard: The reputation of this ensemmost attractive and even refreshing, no means a bad thing, and I enjoyed it ble long ago overowed local frontiers butwhy? immensely. to emerge in only a few years as one of Daugherty explains that he has imagThe collection, finally, includes a the worlds most appreciated chamber ined Stokowski one-time conductor highly contemporary work by David Del orchestras. Its founder and conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra as of so Tredici, titled In Wartime. Del Tredici has found a way to be respected rather many others visiting the Liberty completed it while he sat in front of the than feared. Much as he is appreciated by Bell at sunrise, and listening to all the TV, watching the US shock and awe the public, he shows surprising modesty bells of the city resonate. He includes invasion of Iraq. Many composers have before the ovations at his concerts. As for various bell sounds throughout the written music on the theme of war. It is the 15 musicians he leads, they are virpiece, including occasional tolling by generally joyous and bombastic if it is tuosos of their respective instruments. the two big bells, and his multilayered written early in the war, sad and tragic Bernard Labadie has a particular orchestration is also meant to evoke the if written after. This piece was written penchant for Handel, Bach, Vivaldi and variety of music Stokowski conducted, before, but was nished in front of the Mozart. Handels Concerto Grosso op. 6 from Bachs Well-Tempered Clavier and TV images. Would Del Tredici have a No. 5 in D Major opens this 78 minute Goldberg Variations (which he quotes) to point of view? CD of musical and auditory joy. In Wartime begins with a hymn, 20th Century atonal music, and ending The Allegro assai from the Sinfonia in with a full-orchestra roar Stokowski the part most war requiems end with. D Major is from J.C.F. Bach, possibly the loved. I do think Stokowski would have It then continues with a Battlemarch, least-known member of the celebrated enjoyed conducting this. well-crafted but whose sense I strove dynasty, though that should not be The other works are unrelated. They to discern. Perhaps the war is still too taken to imply a lack of talent. In fact his include an English folk song suite by close, and I was working too hard to output, nearly all composed at the court

ek ta l a n A a nd r e i v a or Kl f e c r ou Your s

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of Bckenburg, is immense. There is a superb arrangement by Labadie of a part of J.S. Bachs Art of the Fugue, in which he doses the harpsichord and the organ with remarkable discernment. On track 12 there is the gift of a sublime aria drawn from Handels Dafn, sung by the divine soprano Karina Gauvin. When her voice rises, no matter what youre 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 magnicent, and they touch us to our very hearts in pieces by Handel and Bach. After that come two remarkable concertos by Vivaldi, rendered in dazzling fashion. In the midst of it, a rst violin enthralls us with the utter beauty of a Largo e spiccato. Bachs Goldberg Variations follow, in an orchestral arrangement by Labadie, and finally three movements from Mozarts deathless Requiem, with a contribution from the choir and soloists of the Chapelle de Qubec. 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. Id 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.

Obsecin Trio Amad Klavier K11134 Rejskind: The meaning of the title is

evident, though not why the Amad Trio chose it. The music is eclectic, covering Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Astor Piazzola and Emilio Coln. Ive run across Colns music on several recordings in the last short while, but this recording is signicant for a particular reason: the cellist of this superb piano trio is none other than Coln himself. So let me begin by his own contribution, 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 Porteas, a clear reference to Vivaldis Four Seasons. One doesnt expect to be able to dance to Piazzolas tangos, of course, though one almost could to the Verano Porteo, 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 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 didnt often make his music sound as delightful as it does on this recording. The other half of the CD is more difcult to recommend. Coplands 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 Coplands bestknown 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 Amad Trio, in case I havent already made it clear, is absolutely rstclass. 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 Coln. Pianist

Heather Coltman is excellent, and I need hardly add that the groups composercellist 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 Joio Stamp & Keystone Wind Ens. Klavier K11138 Rejskind: 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 Klaviers The Composers 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 orchestra. 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 inuences. It seems to me he was always drawn to the use of percussion and brass to 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 rst work for wind band ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 65

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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 Qubec, 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, Qu., Canada J4K 5J4 PHONE: (450) 651-5720 FAX: (450) 651-3383. E-MAIL: uhfmail@uhfmag.com CASTLE WINCHESTERS Castle Winchester speakers, excellent condition, gently used for two years. Mahogony finish. Boxes. $2400 or best offer. docted@rogers.com. SUGDEN WANTED Will pay top dollar for used Sugden Audiotion power amplifier. 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PREAMP BY DE PARAVICINI Upscale 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 uhfmail@uhfmag.com, or call during EDT business hours, (450)651-5720. MUSE, EAD Muse Model 2 DAC (HDCD); Enlightened Audio Designs Universal Transport (T-7000); Excellent Condition; $500.00 for the pair. Gary (905)937-0460 (St. Catharines). garymus@cogeco.ca. AUDIOMAT, VECTEUR Audiomat 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, orley_tom@yahoo.ca. REFERENCE 3A Reference 3a MM De Capo speakers. 2 years old and in excellent condition. Original boxes and manuals.Asking $1800. E-mail me at tom.ingram@hjheinz.com or phone 519-322-4059. ENERGY/QUAD Energy 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. BRYSTON Bryston 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) INTERCONNECTS Tired 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 REPAIRS Museatex/MeitnerAudio factory service and updates. Please check our web-site at www.museatex.com. E-mail me at john@museatex.com or phone (403)2840723. MAGNUM DYNALAB Magnum Dynalab 101A Etude tuner, $600 firm. Magnum Dynalab Signal Sleuth 205, $200 firm. Complete with manuals. Little used, and mint. (705)7260519. WIREWORLD, PIERRE GABRIEL, NAIM Wireworld 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 tal1911@sympatico.ca. NAIM NAIT For 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. iandidave@hotmail. com. (March 22/04) MONITOR AUDIO Monitor 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. dcastle@uoguelph.ca. TOTEM Totem Hawks, cherry finished, with boxes, packing, $1800. Bryston interconnects, 2 strands, 5 m each with Neutrik RCAs, $200. Nordost Red Dawn interconnects, 1 m, balanced, $400. Buyer pays delivery. Call (613)7481950. AUDIOMAT - VECTEUR Creekside Audio for all your stereo/theatre needs. 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only in 1963, when he was 50. That work, Variants on a Medieval Tune, is the very 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 rst of six movements, and then starts work to reuse it in ever more inventive forms, played rst by the bassoon, then the clarinet, and later the brass, then different mixes of brass and woodwinds: 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 variations, the Fantasies on a Theme by Haydn. The theme is drawn from Haydns 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 Proles is a wind band adaptation of his New York Proles of 1949, with constantly shifting moods in which he uses the band to excellent advantage. From Every Horizon is also for New York, adapted from his score for a lm about the 1964 Worlds Fair. The members of the Keystone Wind Ensemble are drawn from facult y, students and administration of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, which barely hints at what an outstanding ensemble this is. The playing is flawless, 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 Leeks 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 percussion 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.

were willing to pay good money to sign up the 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 Gershwins piano rolls were played. Gershwinin modern stereo! But I wont reveal all of the secrets of this fabulous machine, since youll 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 youll listen with renewed pleasure to Swanee, Shilkrets Make Believe, Donaldsons Rockabye, Lullaby Mammy, Rhapsody in Blue, and of course Kickin the Clouds Away.

Kickin the Clouds Away George Gershwin Klavier K77031 Lessard: At this moment I am hearing George Gershwin at the piano. Gershwin himself! After hearing his music interpreted by so many other pianists, 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 thats not all. Its 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 cant 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 position. The makers of these machines

Piano Rags Richard Dowling Klavier K77035 Lessard: Like many a new music form, the rag was initially condemned by the Establishment and considered suitable 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 nd ragtime in the music of Dvorak, Debussy and others. Though ragtime was shouldered aside by jazz in the 1920s, it was never totally eclipsed, and there was renewed interest, starting in the 60s, in this music, originated by itinerant pianists, mostly Afro-Americans and mostly from the US ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 67

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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 pianists exciting play. I recommend it warmly. One Life Katinka Wilson Opus 3 CD22032 Rejskind: It seems you cant go to an audio show without nding a new CD by a new female jazz singer. Most would sound 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, particularly Hong Kong. Do they understand what they are singing? On the primary level, sure, but Now and again you get a hit. Shefelds Margie Gibson is such a prize. And remember Thrse Juel, who sang so gorgeously in Swedish on the Opus 3s original demo disc? Katinka Wilson is also from Opus 3, and Im sorry to say I cant put her in the hit category. Despite her un-Swedish last name and her 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 Bibbs 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, something I dont often say about Opus 3 recordings. It is a hybrid SACD, yet its sound is oddly at and one-dimensional. Perhaps its the fact that this is a multitrack mix, as given away by the fact that Wilson sometimes adds in overdubbed choral effects. I cant think of a reason to recommend it.

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south. In 1973, the hit movie The Sting won awards not only for best picture but also for best musical scorefor the rag The Entertainer. Do I like rags? Yes I do, for one of the benets of being eclectic is the ability to nd happiness with many different musical styles. I envy the composers, who can express so many 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 Richard 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 Joplins Bethena, Maple Leaf Rag and A Mexican Serenade. This last is as sentimental as you could wish, with rubato, pregnant pausesthe works. Except for William Bolcom, who was younger, the others were born before the turn of the century. 68 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

Tel: (403) 228-1103

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The CD opens with Bolcoms 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 dont 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 rst blues, Baby Seal Blues, in 1915. Joseph E. Lambs American Beauty Rag is especially attractive and a bit sentimental, though without sacricing the joyousness of the genre. Lambs Ragtime Nightingale has touches of rubato here and there. James Scotts tongue-in-cheek

Software

News From the Trenches

Though Blue Circle was originally known for tube gear, it has been moving extensively into solid stateincluding its new BC27pi phono stage. Swedish radio has gone to 5.1 channels. 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: 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. Thats available in the companys 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.

Gossip&News

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 lter capacitorsenough for a pretty good power amp. The BC27pi costs US$1395. The BC27, which has a more The DVD5 has been designed for conventional power supply, is US$595, use with very large displays, and can and is upgradable to the pi version. upscale images to 1080 linesthe video e to hav * to audio upsampling. t have t a lcounterpart t n o o d ou ha . But y r to k now t We reviewed the Creek CD50 player The new player, whose price has not y b e om to just in timebefore Creek replaced it as easy to c gerian dicta yet been announced, will play DVDi w p N i s osthe mer g with the Mark II version. It looks r , o t f e a n r it Audio, but not SACD. ber to lit t le value. e I nte similar is t hat t mtoo, th same, and reportedly sounds u F e n r H t o f f n U h accou nd is o ven be different. t houg ges of but it is E radically r bank oat ing arou t he pa ed, its also u n o i y d t n usual upscale sen of using Instead the t io d pa st ull n forma sip yo just cut an s n i o f g o e t Philips transport favored by most manuh bout t hort, its no nt a term. rean e facturers, Creek uses inexpensive f ns f I i . d t ot her n s e e t a m m h o W it h s computer-grade CD-R drive, which In late June there was a flurry of their record company, EMI, for imposh com e up w es w it m m o o c c d l loads data into . a block of computer angry Internet postings about the new ing the protection, but deny that the u o h s ut we abo rhaps CD by The Beastie Boys. Not only was it CD contains either a virus or spyware. memory. The memory buffer then plays Pe ? p i s s o assume is copy-protected, but if you inserted it into Rather, they say, it is the same Macrovithe data, with what can u st g jwe it st ill s I minimum jitter. your computer drive, it would automati- sion CDS-200 copy protection system There are potential problems: Euro- cally install a worm, a malicious piece used on numerous European discs. pean record stores are full of discs of software that would prevent you from If thats true, what the disc does is mucked up with copy protection schemes copying the contents. The postings got bypass the normal music player built aimed at foiling their use in computers. rather vicious, with some Beastie Boys into Windows or the Macintosh OS, and Creek claims the CD50 MkII will play fans (oh, theyve got them) calling for install its own music player instead. So all current discs, and that the players lawyers, or even a mob with torches. the music will play, but it cant be copied rmware is on an easily-changed plug-in We couldnt check this out, because in the usual way. device. copies made in the US or the UK dont Of course that doesnt really mean it contain the virus, if indeed thats what it cant be copied. Our view: any executive * Among new products from Benz is. But this may turn out to be be much who thinks gadgets like this will protect Micro is a line of new titanium watches. ado about nothingor at least nothing his company from the 21st Century Says the company: Swiss precision, style we havent seen before. should be checked for transplantable The Beastie Boys themselves blame organs. and its analog!

sip s o g han t e r mo s i t tha p i s s Go

Beastly CDs

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ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

69

Errata
Its 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 Opra integrated amplier (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 switchas we would have realized had we looked more attentively at our own cover photo! The same review suggested somewhat ambiguously that the Opra 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 Opra, which comes with a Belden cord tted with a Hubbell wall plug.

Do Record Companies Cheat?

For years record companies have wrung their hands over music downloading, 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 business. Theres a lot of cheating and lying and stealing that goes on in any major business, and the music business is no exception. I dont think that theres much we can do about it. They built their business model in an era when they could make, I dont know, on a million-selling album, theyre making 10 million bucks or something, and they do eight of those in a year. Thats what they built their business model on. And it seemed reasonable to build huge buildings and hire hundreds of peopleand get a corporate jet or two. What a very grandiose idea of how to go about things. Now theyre 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 x it in a minute. Crosby told PBS he and his former band members would never have made it under todays system. And theres 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 youll have to hire an accountant and audit them. Then, when you get the audit figure and they owe you $486,000, theyll offer you 30% in settlement, knowing full well youll ask for 100% and that youll 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 its from heaven. And they all do it as a matter of policy. They know theyre going to cheat, going in. Crosby has praise for Apple iTunes Music Store, which he says is selling lots of his musicwith 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) at t h are aggrese old p rice. C sively ghting pirates, Its one of those brand names you productsnot the sort of event that pricmeaning e. On anyone heck o F e uhave b t p to be an audiophile to know. brings dealers rushing to your door. r making a copy of protected material. uar y 1 dont st 2005 age 3 of t hi s is s u t hfollow Heres the next 1 Ifround. e price Formula youre A bill now Do you e racing? (page 5 Then Indeed, the company added that it would r r e i s a e d s o i n f t h henceforth concentrate on home theatre, s e make before the US Senate it youll spot the McLaren right h g ver y would a t r h p i ly.name s af ter penny. A nd so e PDF ), for F W a b legally actionable to encourage people the connection with Tag t e live i away. Whats w ill tbnot audio. r e price he current n wo uar y 1, 2005 rld of t audio products? That m we h o material. What a Its hard Good to steal copyrighted McLarens f move? back is Or perhaps not. oo mu ope yo a k go suesside: ccars ua h i n fo . odOrrin Sen. Heres the bright Tag McLaren this means, as bill sponsores sometimes win, g inform to say. McLaren r e e r mat ion t hat U at ion e , H b F u Tag McLaren cant win tfor a buyer. owned by has found It is now Hatch (R-UT) explains, is that copyright whereas ven m i s y o s t u ill wor ore val k now w th uable! hat? firm, a Chinese International Audio owners could sue not only those who losing. steal music or lms, but also parties One of the companys exploits, when Group, which also owns Quad and who intend to induce others to infringe it started up in 1998, was purchas- Wharfedale. The new company Web copyright. Note the word intend. ing Audiolab, and then dumping the site does show audio products as well as The main target is clearly the le companys products in favor of a new the home theatre stuff, but theres no sharing networks such as Grokster and line that according to a distributor indication what the new managements KaZaa. Critics, however, claim that who said thanks but no thanks cost tilt will be. Hatch wants to reverse the Betamax double. The international Audio Group, by decision of two decades ago, and that In July of last year, company CEO the way, has not purchased the F1 racing the measure could be used against such Udo Zucker announced that TM A company, one of whose major shareholddevices as the iPod would cease all development of new ers is DaimlerChrysler. 70 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

Piracy
Last

ch a n Tag McLaren Goes East ce s to ge t a subsc r ip t i on

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Does DVD Have a Future?

Its no secret that CD sales are down worldwide. But while record companies blame 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 worlds 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 Cinrams profits in the 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 theres something else that will replace it? Like what? Well, several technology companies have been showing possible successors to the current DVD. A high de nition disc using a blue laser is one possible replacement, though for the moment there are two incompatible systems on the table. And Microsoft gures youll be watching movies on your computer. That was enough for Cannacord Capital to put Cinram shares under review with negative bias. Hmm, lets see now. Cinram started out making CDs, but transited seamlessly to DVD. If theres something beyond DVD, wont someone have to make it?

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We Wood, Wood You?

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, theyre wood. Perhaps thats 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 hasnt chewed the birch that is used for its new speakers. The cones are made of actual birch layers. W hy? Bec au se it brings out the natural beauty of music by providing the ideal combination of high sound propagation speed and high internal loss. We ourselves would probably have gone for low internal loss (or a good proofreader), but JVC is a lot bigger than our company, so perhaps they know something we dont. 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 cant make up stuff like this. Who says audio design isnt art?

Gossip&News

ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

arge record producers are crying the blues, and their sobbing is so loud hardly anyone on t he planet can sleep through it. The executive rsum: pirates (i.e. music lovers who own computers) are taking the bread from the mouths of the creators (A&R people, record company vice-presidents and indie acks). Curiously, not even the recent upswing in CD sales has stemmed the ow of tears. Or the threat of lawsuits for that matter. Its really too bad that the large companies whose continued hegemony depends on people buying recordings have ignored what could have helped them immensely: hi-. Lets 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 hes crying about now). That situation brings smiles today, because cassette copies seem so primitive by todays 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 leincluding the MP3s that actually cost money. Of course few non-audiophiles had decks like that. Back then, cassettes were made either on boomboxes, aka ghetto blasters, or on minisystems. Few of those systems used Dolby noise reduction. Copies were run off for friends using the units high-speed tape copier, which also didnt 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 isnt all thats 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 72 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

State of the Art

by Gerard Rejskind
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 increasingly cheaper and trashier minisystems did the rest. When the CD player, amplier 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 sinking 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 youll 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 wouldnt cost $89.97 and thats for sure, but not all buyers of cheap systems choose them because they cant 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 doesnt bother pointing it out. Nobody with any of these products is going to think KaZaA downloads are good enough anymore.

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 wouldnt 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 worlds largest record companies! Did they not understand what they were doing, telling people the source quality didnt matter? They

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