Koss Totem Mani-2 76 User Manual

LOUDSPEAKERS: Does the Totem Mani-2 still rate as one of the world’s truly great speakers? We also look at an economy speaker from an old friend, Castle. And an affordable speaker with a Heil tweeter.

THE COMPUTER AS MUSIC SOURCE: We get out hands on the newest Squeezebox, and find that a computer can bury many a “high end” CD player

		PLUS: Paul Bergman on speaker
No. 76	$6.49	impedance, and how to measure the
		impedance of your own speaker

ISSN 0847-

Canadian

Product

No. 40065638

RETURN LABELS ONLY

OF UNDELIVERED COPIES TO:

Box 65085, Place Longueuil,

Longueuil, Qué., Canada J4K 5J4

Printed in Canada

J

WBT-0710CU

also available in silver

ASW Genius

400

“It has all the volume you could ever want, its bottom end goes down to bedrock, and its top end is delightfully smooth.”

UHF No. 73

IN ONTARIO

Audio Excellence, Toronto [phone]

Audio Two, Windsor

[phone]

Arcadia Audio, Brampton

[phone]

Waroc Information, Bolton

[phone]

Just May Audio

111 Zenway Blvd., Unit 9

WOODBRIDGE, ON L4H 3H9

Tel. : [phone] • Fax : [phone] www.justiceaudio.com • [e-mail]

ASW Speakers

QED

Target

Vandersteen

McCormack

Harmonix

WBT

Reimyo

Apollo

GutWire

FIM Accessories

Goldring

Milty

Perfect Sound

Nitty Gritty

Gradient Speakers

LAST record care

WATTGate

Audiophile CDs

Audiophile LPs

DVD and SACD

ISSUE NO. 76

Cover story:A new look at the contemporary version of the Totem Mani-2, which we once called one of the world’s finest speakers. In the background: a cloudscape of the imagination.

NUTS&BOLTS

Speaker Impedance by Paul Bergman

What it means, how impedance affects performance, and how you can measure your speakers’ own impedance

FEATURES

Montreal 2006

by Gerard Rejskind

A leisurely tour of the venerable Montreal show, now in a new venue

Touring the New/Old Show by Albert Simon

Another way of seeing (and hearing!) the show

CINEMA

Future High-Res Discs

Blu Ray? HD DVD? And what about the audiophile?

THE LISTENING ROOM

	The Totem Mani-2 Signature	30
	It was 14 years ago that this astonishing
	loudspeaker wowed us. Now the Signature version
	does it again
	The Elac 204 Speaker	34
	An inexpensive bookshelf speaker that comes with
	the fabled Heil tweeter
	Castle Richmond 3i Speaker	36
	It looks rather like the superb (bu!t no longer made)
	Castle Eden, only with both dimensions and price
	tag scrunched down
	Headphone Amplifiers	38
	We slip on our cans and try some amp options: the
	Lehmann Black Cube Linear, the CEC HD53R,
	and the built-in phone amp of the Benchmark
	DAC1 converter. We also listen to a new headphone
	from…Goldring
	The Squeezebox 3	44
	Can you get high fidelity by getting a digital signal
	from your computer to your stereo system over the
	air? And if so, how? Is it better than just listening to
	your iPod?
	Power on the Go	49
	Imagine a portable charger that can adapt to all the
	electronic stuff you own or ever will own
	RENDEZVOUS
	The Totem Man	52
	We used the same title last time we talked with
18	Vince Bruzzese…when Totem was still a startup
	Is it like looking for the Unknown Soldier?
	SOFTWARE
	Lightfoot	63
	by Reine Lessard
	Gordon Lightfoot is back after a near death
	experience. Reine looks at the way he changed a
22	corner of the musical landscape
	Software Reviews	70
	by Reine Lessard and Gerard Rejskind
25	DEPARTMENTS
	Editorial	2
	Feedback	5
	Free Advice	7
	Classified Ads	41
50	Gossip & News	77
	State of the Art	80

ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

UHF Magazine No. 76 was published in May, 2006. All contents are copyright 2006 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, Québec, Canada J4K 5J4

Tel.: [phone] FAX: [phone]

E-mail: [e-mail]

World Wide Web: www.uhfmag.com

PUBLISHER & EDITOR: Gerard Rejskind

ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Reine Lessard

EDITORIAL: Paul Bergman, Reine Lessard, Albert Simon

PHOTOGRAPHY: Albert Simon

ADVERTISING SALES:

Québec: Reine Lessard [phone]

Alberta & BC: Derek Coates [phone]

Other: Gerard Rejskind [phone]

NATIONAL NEWSSTAND DISTRIBUTION:

Stonehouse Publications

85 Chambers Drive, Unit 2, AJAX, Ont. L1Z 1E2 Tel.: [phone] or [phone]

SINGLE COPY PRICE: $6.49 in Canada, $6.49 (US) in the United States, $10.75 (CAN) elsewhere, including air mail. In Canada sales taxes are extra.

SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
CANADA:	$62.50 for 13 issues*
USA:	US$62.50 for 13 issues
ELSEWHERE (air mail):	CAN$118 for 13 issues
	*Applicable taxes extra

PRE-PRESS SERVICES: Transcontinental

PRINTING: Interglobe-Beauce

ELECTRONIC EDITION: www.magzee.com

EDITORIAL

The all-digital issue

Until this issue, Albert was taking the widely-admired product photos appearing in UHF with a Nikon camera on Kodak Portra 160 film. As of this issue all his photos are digital. UHF has acquired a Sony R1 digital camera.

Yes, I know, that means we have in a sense dumped analog (film) for digital, but in fact that ship sailed a long time ago. The magazine has been printed digitally for something like a decade, which means that our nice “analog” film negatives got digitized anyway before placement in our all-digital pages. The difference: digitization is now taking place right in the camera instead of a desktop digitizer.

Albert is delighted with the results. I think you will be too.

All color, except…

Issue No. 75 was UHF’s very first all-color issue, and both our readers and our advertisers took note. Oh, except for the eight-page insert in the centre of the magazine, the one for our Audiophile Store. That remained black and white, and on cheaper paper besides. It has been that way for many years, with the economy paper intended to hold costs down.

But was it holding costs down, or is labor even more expensive than premium paper grades? After the last issue went to press we asked our printer rep: if we dumped the insert and just added eight more color pages, would it be more expensive? Or cheaper? We got the answer the next day: it would be cheaper!

That’s why the insert is gone. We scrambled to find color pictures of all the accessories found in our store, and the store catalog is now on full color pages. So now we really are all-color, except…

Except that audio manufacturers haven’t got the word about color. Check out the stack of three headphone amplifiers on page 38. Can you believe that’s a color picture? There isn’t a hint of a tint in any of them. Of course when you plug one in you’ll probably see a tiny, barely visible blue diode glowing its little non monochromatic note. Whoopee!

Even Apple, that champion of high style in consumer electronics, knows only two colors, one of which is white and the other of which is not. Good thing the iPod (on page 45) has a color screen. As for the tragically misnamed iPod Hi-Fi on page 78…well, I rest my case.

And speaking of the iPod…

We’ve already mentioned that a 60 Gb iPod, the largest one available, is

FILED WITH The National Library of Canada and

La Bibliothèque Nationale du Québec.

ISSN 0847-1851

ABOUT THIS FREE

EDITION

Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product No. 0611387

. But we

Ultra High Fidelity Magazine invites contributions. Though

part from the sale of the

full edition

of the

magazine

all reasonable care will be taken of materials submitted,

UHF

lives in great

as you’ll see,

but many

.

The articles are not complete,

edi-

cannot be responsible for their damage or loss, however

the printed

also offer

this free edition

. Of

course you can order either

caused. Materials will be returned only if a stamped

are, and you’ll

find

lots to read

get every word.

addressed envelope is provided. Because our needs

edition, and

tion or the full electronic

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 explicitly specified otherwise.

ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

DOG-EARED MAGAZINES? PHOOEY!

How’s this for ironic! You can pay a lot for a magazine,
or you can get it cheaper, and it’s the expensive copy
that’s likely to be tattered, torn, and… yes, dog-
eared.
We mean the newsstand copy. Where do copies sit
around unprotected? At the newsstand. Where do other
people leaf through them before you arrive, with remains of
lunch on their fingers? At the newsstand. Where do they
stick on little labels you can’t even peel off? Well…
Surprise! At a lot of newsstands, they do exactly that!
Our subscribers, on the other hand, get pristine copies,
protected in plastic, with the label on the plastic, not the
cover.
We know what you want is a perfect copy. And perhaps you’d	rather pay
a little less for the privilege of receiving it in perfect condition.

As if that weren’t enough, there’s the fact that with a subscription you qualify for a discount on one or both of our original books on hi-fi (see the offer on the

other side of this page)?
So what should you do?	SAVE EVEN MORE WITH THE ELECTRONIC EDITION!

JUST SUBSCRIBE

Read it on your computer. It looks just like the printed version. Just C$43/13 issues, tax included, worldwide!

www.uhfmag.com/ElectronicEdition.html

ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY, Box 65085, Place Longueuil, LONGUEUIL, Qué., Canada J4K 5J4

Tel.: [phone] FAX: [phone] VIA THE INTERNET: http://www.uhfmag.com/Subscription.html

FOR 13 ISSUES: $62.50 (Canada), US$62.50 (USA), C$118 (elsewhere, including air mail costs). For six issues, it’s C$31.25 (Canada), US$31.25 (USA), C$59 (elsewhere). In Canada, add applicable sales tax (15.03% in QC, 15% in NF, NB, NS, 7% in other Provinces).

You may pay by VISA or MasterCard: include card number, expiry date and signature. You must include your correct postal or zip code. You may order on a plain sheet of paper, provided you include all the information. Choose to begin with the current issue or the issue after that. Back issues are available separately. Choose your options:

13 issues			6	issues		start with issue 76 (this one), or				issue 77 (the next one)

VISA/MC NO ______________________________________ EXP. DATE__________________

SIGNATURE ___________________________________

NAME__________________________________ADDRESS______________________________________________APT__________

CITY_____________________PROV/STATE________COUNTRY__________________POSTAL CODE___________________

The books that explain…

THE WORLD OF HIGH FIDELITY

This long-running best seller includes these topics: The basics of amplifiers, preamplifiers, CD players, turntables and loudspeakers. How they work, how to choose, what to expect. The history of hifi. How to compare equipment that’s not in the same store. What accessories work, and which ones are scams. How to tell a good connector from a rotten one. How to set up a home theatre system that will also play music (hint: don’t do any of the things the other magazines advise). How to plan for your dream system even if your

accountant says you can’t afford it. A precious volume with 224 pages of essential information for the beginning or advanced audiophile!

THE UHF GUIDE TO ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY

This is our original book, which has been read by thousands of audiophiles, both beginners and

advanced. It’s still relevant to much of what you want to accomplish.

It’s a practical manual for the discovery and exploration of high fidelity, which will make reading other

books easier. Includes in-depth coverage of how the hardware works, including tubes, “alternative” loudspeakers, subwoofers, crossover networks,

biamplification. It explains why, not just how. It has full instructions for aligning a tone arm, and a gauge is included. A complete audio lexicon makes this book indispensable. And it costs as little as $9.95 in the US and Canada (see the coupon).

Five dollars off each of these two books if you subscribe or renew at the same time

The UHF Guide costs $14.95 (Canada) plus 7% GST (15% in NB, NS, NF), US$19.95 (USA) CAN$25 (elsewhere).

The World of High Fidelity costs $21.95 (Canada) plus 7% GST (15%HST in NB, NS, NF), US$21.95 (USA) or CAN$30 (elsewhere). See ordering information on the previous page.

A $5 discount applies on either book, or each, when the order is placed at the same time as a subscription, a subscription renewal, or a subscription extension (if you subscribe, use the form on the other side of this page. No need to fill in the information a second time).

AT LAST, ALL OF GERARD REJSKIND’S STATE

PLUS: OF THE ART COLUMNS FROM THE FIRST 60

ISSUES OF UHF. WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION

TO EACH COLUMN, 258 PAGES IN ALL. CHECK

BELOW TO GET YOUR COPY!

YES! Send me a copy of State of the Art .

It costs just $18.95 (Canada) plus 7% GST (15% in NB, NS, NF), US$18.95 (USA)

CAN$32 (elsewhere, including air mail)

FEEDBACK

Box 65085, Place Longueuil

Longueuil, Québec, Canada J4K 5J4

[e-mail]

I’d like to thank you for publishing the component-by-component description and especially the photo of the Omega system on the UHF Web site. I have long been curious to see a photo of any of your three systems, but since they are working tools I had assumed that they were, shall we say, less than presentable. Given all the equipment and accessories you review, I had a mental image of ankle-deep piles of mismatched interconnects and cables strewn about the room.

It’s also reassuring to see that you have the same aggravating room problems as your readers (what appears to be a doorway just left of the left speaker, the turntable sitting askew on its platform to allow for access, etc).

The combination of the Omega system photo and the similarly appreciated UHF No. 75 State of the Art article has given me a sort of speaker positioning awakening. I had always understood and agreed with your advocacy of placing the speakers on either side of a room corner (if possible), but I had not conceived of being asymmetrical within that placement (i.e. I had always assumed that the corner should be exactly midway between the two speakers). Unless my eyes are deceiving me, the Omega system speakers are not centred about the corner, but are shifted rather significantly to the left. True?

Given such an asymmetrical corner placement, should each speaker nevertheless be about the same distance out from the wall (as appears in the Omega system), or can that also be different?

Given a decent hi-end system and acoustics, and a stereo image that appears to originate midway between the speakers from the “sweet spot”, how far off axis should one be able to sit and still hear that image as being centered rather than increasingly originating from the nearest speaker? All the way

out until a speaker is directly in front of you? Beyond even that?

Given the size of standard equipment racks and the W-8, it looks as though the inside edges of the Omega Reference 3a’s are about 2 m apart, but only about 30 cm out from the wall (that seems really close). Given that the Omega system is in a “large room” just how far from the speakers is your listening position? I would imagine relatively close.

My Totem Mani-2’s are centered about the narrow wall of a long, narrow room (8.4 m x 3.5 m) having at best mediocre acoustics. They are placed way into the room, about 1.25 m from the back of the speakers to the wall. I have always assumed they needed that much room for their prodigious depth. In your recollection from the review you performed (quite a few years ago now), is that distance too great? (For reference, my speakers are about 1.8 m apart centre-centre, and I sit 2.8 m away from them — and with experimentation I think that the 2.8 m is about 0.6 m too far away.)

I had rejected an Omega-like speaker placement when I first bought my house due to the constraints of the room, but if the Totems can be significantly closer to the wall (particularly in a cornercentered placement), then it’s worth a try experimenting with such a placement to see if I can improve the width of my currently very narrow sweet spot. By necessity I’ll almost be in the nearfield (another great UHF article), but that might help negate the poor room acoustics.

Jeff Tennant BURLINGTON, ON

Jeff, for anyone who missed it, we should mention that the photos of our Omega system appeared on line in our ephemeral Virtual Room, which opened the week before the Montreal show and remained open through

mid-April. It has since closed, but we expect to bring back new incarnations of it.

We should add that the Omega system was particularly easy to photograph, but the Alpha system is a lot closer to the way you imagine our systems to be.

You are right that the speakers have been placed asymmetrically in the room, but then the walls on either side are not quite identical. You noted that there is a doorway to the left, but there is also a doorway on the right... actually a large archway to an even larger room. These are not necessarily bad things. An open doorway does not reflect sound, and thus it can be thought of as a broadband absorber. The speakers are indeed quite close to the rear walls, about 50 cm out, a distance that was determined by ear. Speakers we review are first listened to at the same distance, then adjusted by ear as well. The speakers are actually quite far apart, about 4.5 metres, and we listen, typically, from about 4 metres back.

The Signature version of the Mani-2 is reviewed in this issue, and we found that a distance of about 65 cm from the rear wall was about right, though that will vary from room to room. By the way, how far off you can sit off-axis and still hear a stereo image depends on speaker placement, acoustics, and especially the speakers themselves. With our Reference 3a speakers you can get away with being well off-axis. The same would be true of well-placed Totem Mani-2’s.

Of all the many enjoyable things on your Web site, the tour of the Virtual Room was the best. I would love to see the same treatment to the other two rooms you maintain.

Thanks for all the good advice.

Jay Valancy

IRVINE, CA

First, let me say we appreciate the opportunity to have UHF Magazine review our speakers again after so much time. This new range of Energy speakers is in our opinion one of the best we have ever made and still continues to provide Canadian audiophiles with the best sound available for the money. We were therefore surprised to read that your team was unimpressed with the new Reference Connoisseur RC-70 speakers. This is one of our most popular speakers and has, to date, received terrific reviews

ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

FEEDBACK

highlighting their tremendous imaging,

ultra low distortion with high power

we feel, are unfounded. We think the

dynamics and musicality.

handling.

Energy brand and its loyal customer base

Tom Norton, of Stereophile and

All of us here feel the new RC-70

deserved better.

Ultimate AV fame, had a totally different

surpasses the performance parameters

Scott Goodman

opinion of the RC-70 than your team.

that were established by the original

Energy Speakers Brand Manager

In his review Mr. Norton is quoted as

Reference Connoisseur. The RC-70 still

SCARBOROUGH, ON

saying, “the RC-70 had superb overall

has the captivating, immersive sound of

tonal balance” and that the “top end of

the original, but has improvements in

Kudos and, better, bravo for a singu-

the RC-70 is as open, airy and as detailed

almost every area.

lar and superlative publication. I quite

as you could wish for.” Mr. Norton’s

In your review you mention that the

eagerly digested my very first issue ever

comments regarding soundstage repro-

frequency response curve “is amazingly

of UHF about a week ago. I am still in a

duction and midrange accuracy are also

flat, one of the best we have ever mea-

very pleasant state of shock!

different from what you found. He said,

sured.” Then you suggest that comes at

Having quite regularly sampled both

“the RC-70’s sounded neither ‘in your

a cost: phase accuracy. Flat frequency

The Absolute Sound and Stereophile for

face’ forward nor recessed, and produced

response of the speaker system is made

about four decades, my mind set was

a detailed, well-focused soundstage…

up of both magnitude and phase rela-

entirely unprepared for UHF’s unique

Voices were…beautifully served by

tionships of the individual drivers.

raison d’être. Your guiding ethos, ethics

the RC-70, with soaring female voices

Since you mention the RC-70 has flat

and modus operandi are so simple in

and male vocals that were rich and full

frequency response, it would suggest

their fundamental elegance. To allude

bodied.”

that the phase relationship between the

to Carly Simon’s lyrics celebrating the

We are not sure if your opinions

individual drivers is also correct.

now mythic procreative capacity of 007

were biased due to your experience and

Also, another point is the place-

is simply incorrect. Not only “Nobody

appreciation of the old Reference Con-

ment of the microphone in trying to

Does it Better” — double negative

noisseur model, or if you were looking

recreate the square wave that you were

intended — but no other publication does

for something else from these speakers.

measuring. In a two-way speaker, the

it!

Your comparison of the original Refer-

microphone distance can be at a shorter

Bob Reinach

ence Connoisseur to today's RC-70 is

distance and still deliver a somewhat

POULSBO, WA

like comparing a 20-year-old muscle car

meaningful measurement. With a multi-

with today's muscle

spelling

mistake on the

different in every

75… “redicovery.”

a direct comparison

FEATURES

subscribers are prob-

apples and oranges

of the

educated than most,

be good or excellent

INTERACTIVE

. probably be getting a

very differently,

electronic

version

magazine

just like the full

(paid)

to the

into consideration

be whisked right

magazine though.

This free issue

works

and you'll

the table

of contents,

on page

79. And if you

Today’s

in

Jeff Malloch

on a heading

of advertisers

find

Click

with the names

product had more

. Same thing

to

the Internet you’ll

ELORA, ON

connected

to meet. Twenty

article

itself

ads in this

issue, if you're

on most

.

about the sound.

click

on

the company’s

Web site

thinks of running

yourself

low distortion and

Too obvious, right?

less of a concern.

used in a number of different configura-

is placed at greater distances from the

I read the comment about the “open

tions, from state of the art two channel

speaker.

source” turntable in UHF No. 74. Your

systems to high-powered multichannel

We are still not certain why you

writer said that this was not the way hi-fi

systems. The Reference Connoisseur

were not able to get good results from

equipment is designed.

Series must have the efficiency to be

the RC-70, even though the response

Yet one of the top billed turntables

driven with modest-powered amplifiers,

curve suggests the speaker should be

around, the Teres , was designed just this

plus must have the dynamic range and

excellent. Maybe the room you placed

way. Interested people got together on

power handling to handle the demands

the speaker in was too small for such a

a newsgroup and deliberated, and this

of movie soundtracks. A three-year

full range speaker system? We do know

led to a small run of parts and then a

development program was necessary to

that the RC-70 is definitely suited to

commercial endeavor, and some pretty

redesign every component in order to

larger rooms than the previous Refer-

over-the-top variations, not to mention

meet these standards. The new tweeter,

ence Connoisseur model, as it has more

the Redpoint brand. You can check out

midrange and woofers for the Reference

extended response and output.

the process here: http://www.teresaudio.

Connoisseur Series are ground-breaking

As you can tell, we are very disap-

com/project/index.html.

in their ability to perform to the high-

pointed by the tone of your review

Dominic

est musical standards, while providing

and by some of the comments, which

MONTRÉAL, QC

ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

FREE ADVICE

Box 65085, Place Longueuil

Longueuil, Québec, Canada J4K 5J4

[e-mail]

First, let me say that I bought both of your books on high fidelity and loved them. I also received a copy of your magazine and have subscribed for the next two years. I also ordered six of the most current back issues.

I got back into hi-fi about two years ago after 15 or so years and find myself wondering why I ever got out. My current two channel system consists of the following: Wadia 861 standard CD player, CAT JL-2 tube amplifier, Martin Logan Odyssey speakers, and Audio Research PH3 phono preamp.

I have a small collection of vinyl recordings that have not been played in years. I have had the itch to incorporate analog into my system. My question to you is which turntable you would suggest to match the Audio Research preamp? I don’t want to spend much more than $3500 in total for the turntable and cartridge.

I have heard good things about both Nottingham’s Spacedeck and turntables from Pro-Ject. I purchased the Audio Research PH3 used and plan to upgrade in a year or so to the CAT SL1 preamp with phono input. Any comments about this particular preamp? I have been using an old Thorens turntable that I had lying around, but I have not been very happy with its performance. I didn’t know if I should try upgrading the cartridge first or just move on right away.

Carl Waldbillig WEST CHESTER, OH

We’d move on right away, Carl. The best argument in favor of used Thorens turntables is that people all but give them away. They were somewhat better than average, and better than the Duals, whose reputation remains a mystery to us, but their tone arms were wretched, and we wouldn’t overspend on a cartridge for a Thorens arm. Incidentally, they are unrelated to the modern Thorens tables, which seem better designed, though we still have problems with the arms.

We’ve also heard good things about the Nottingham, with which we have however no experience. We have listened to several Pro-Ject turntables, and there may be a good choice to be made from its lineup, probably in the RPM series. Note that Pro-Ject offers electronic speed control as an extra-cost accessory. In our experience, that sort of upgrade affects more than just correct speed and is worth including.

There are several cartridge brands we like, including Benz Micro and Clearaudio, and we hear the newest Dynavectors are worth a detour. You should get a moving coil pickup, or failing that a moving magnet cartridge with very low inductance, and certainly a line contact stylus. Your budget won’t let you buy the very top, but careful shopping should score you a very good experience. There are of course other possible brands of turntables, including Rega and Clearaudio, to name but two.

You may want to choose a model that is available with local service, because a top turntable that isn’t aligned properly is not going to give you what you pay for. And little things are going to count, because you have a high resolution system. We can presume that adding the SL1 preamplifier will let you hear with even greater clarity anything that may be wrong with the source. On the positive side, your system’s resolution will make you very glad you’re listening to vinyl again.

I have a question concerning acoustics, or more precisely treating my listening room for low frequencies. I have a very good sound system that reproduces highs and the midrange marvellously well. The low frequencies have good impact, but there’s a sort of boominess around 80 to 100 Hz (hard to be sure), suggesting a resonance.

I wonder whether you know of some way — for example some sort of panel — that could reduce this phenomenon, or better yet eliminate it. I have already built panels two inches thick of different shapes, using a Masonite sheet on which I had glued with liquid tar a very heavy black paper, all nailed into a frame made from two-inch wood. I had screwed the panels to the ceiling in my former home in Repentigny and the results had been very good. But now I live in the Gaspé. What do you think?

Marien Desrosiers ST-JEAN DE CHERBOURG, QC

Marien, if your home-built panels gave you good results it is certainly because the acoustical problems you then had were in a different part of the frequency band. From what you say your new room has a problem in the extreme lows. Here the solution is more complicated.

Why more complicated? It’s because sounds in the range of 80 to 100 Hz have a very long wavelength (more than 3 metres for 100 Hz!). The long wavelength will pass easily through a thin panel and bounce off whatever is on the other side. A panel that can deal with such frequencies needs to be…thicker. In the case of our Alpha room, the home of our original reference system, behind one wall is a bass trap nearly a metre deep! A radical solution to be sure.

It’s possible to build a freestanding bass trap with well-chosen dimensions (it might be 1 m by 75 cm by 60 cm, for instance, with no dimension that is a multiple of another dimension), built from materials that are relatively nonresonant put permeable to sound. You would fill it with mineral wool, so that air vibrating within the cavity would rub against the fibres and be dissipated as heat.

However certain articles of furniture can also help absorb bass, at least to a point. A well upholstered sofa can help, as can a bookcase full of books. Finally, changes in speaker placements can have a great influence on what you hear. Since moving speakers is free, that is where we would start.

My equipment consists of a Roksan Radius 5 turntable, a Rega Fono, a Rega

ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

ADVICEDBACKEEF

FR

Call us about the remarkable HD series of high definition speakers for home theatre!

You hadn’t heard of SR Acoustique speakers until now? UHF Magazine has.

Read its evaluation on our Web site.

620 rue Latour SAINT-HUBERT, QC J3Y 6A7 Tel.: [phone]

Fax: [phone]

[e-mail] www.sracoustique.ca

Planet 2000, Reference 3a MM de Capo-i speakers, a Moon I-3 amp, an Inouye line filter, Atlas Navigator cables, GutWire power cables, and Puresonic Competition flat speaker cables.

My question is what to upgrade now?I am thinking of trading up to a Moon I-5. Is there a big enough difference between these two integrated amps? The sound of this system is very nice at low to moderate volume, but loses something above a certain volume. I don’t listen at extreme levels but would like to get a little more volume before the sound starts to harden up.

Pete Doan RIDING MOUNTAIN, MB

We found pretty much the same thing you did when we reviewed the Moon I-3 in UHF No. 71, Pete. We liked it a lot, but when we raised the volume we could tell we were listening to a small amplifier. It will perfectly suit a lot of music lovers, but you’ll be happier with the I-5. Ironically the I-5 is less powerful than the I-3, but current is as important as power, and subjectively the I-5 appears to have four times the power.

ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

By the way, there is now an updated version, the Moon I-5.3.

I have just come across your magazine and am impressed. I don’t believe the local bookstores here carry it.

I have four Linn LK’s Aktiv on 5140 and 5120 speakers, primarily for home theatre. Would you recommend upgrading these amps to something else in the Linn line, keeping the Aktiv speakers, or blowing out the whole thing, at no small cost?

Jay Avril CLEARWATER, FL

No small cost indeed, Jay, and a move to be undertaken only if you have reason to believe that you made a mistake going with this Linn system in the first place. And we don’t think you did. We like the idea of biamplifying, and although this is not a Linn invention it was Linn that made it so simple.

The bad news is that the company in January discontinued not only the whole LK line, but also announced it was dropping the Aktiv system entirely. We don’t approve, but the marbles belong to Ivor, not to us.

If you’ll be staying with Linn, you’ll need to move while LK products remain in stock. Linn does make a chassis that will power your crossover modules so that you can use them with an amplifier that does not have a slot for them. You may then want to look at an amplifier upgrade. That can be one of Linn’s newer amps, though of course at that point you can choose your manufacturer and still remain active…er, Aktiv.

I’m in search of a quality bookshelf speaker and have narrowed my short list to the Reference 3a De Capo-i’s. My room dimensions are 12’ X 10’. My system is centred on the longest wall, so I don’t have much choice but to place my speakers near the back wall with the rack in between. Since the De Capo’s are rear-ported, would this seriously hinder sonic performance? I could place them at about a foot from the rear wall and not much more.

I haven’t heard it yet, but I would also consider the Veena. Is it rear-ported too? Would it be too big for my small room?

Michel Fleury VAUDREUIL, QC

Probably not, Michel, because the Veena is not substantially larger than the MM De Capo, and indeed its woofer is smaller. The notable difference, of course, is that the Veena doesn’t need a stand. We prefer the De Capo, but since our review Reference 3a has announced a tweeter change.

Both the Veena and the MM De Capo are rear-ported, which means you cannot place them up against the wall. However in a small room a distance of a foot (30 cm) or slightly more from the wall is likely to be adequate. Placement close to a wall adds loading to the rear port, and therefore moves the low frequency cutoff higher. At the same time the “megaphone effect” of the wall-floor boundary can emphasize the bass that is reproduced. A distance of less than 30 cm from the rear wall would probably not give pleasant results.

My entry level system consists of an Atoll CD50, Atoll IN50 amplifier and a pair of Polk Audio RTi38 bookshelf speakers.

I’m considering either adding a Goldring GR2 (or Rega P3) turntable, or getting

a pair of second-hand Totem Model One speakers (in good condition for about $1000). Which purchase would give me the most significant increase in sound quality?

Bo Jiang DORVAL, QC

We are tempted to point out the obvious: the Totems will add immensely to the sound of your system, but if you try to play an LP on a loudspeaker you are likely to be disappointed! For that you definitely need…a turntable.

Consider these factors. First, can your amplifier drive the Model One to a level you will find satisfactory? The IN50 is the smallest of the Atoll amplifiers, rated at 50 watts per channel into 8 ohms. What’s more, its power into a 4 ohm load is just 40% higher, at 70 watts, which suggests that it has limited current capacity. If you do get the Model One, chances are the amplifier will be next on your upgrade list.

Then consider how much of the music you like is available on LP. In the case of the classical repertoire, adding either the Goldring or the Rega opens

up the possibilities of bargains galore. The same is true of classic jazz (Shelly Mann, Ray Brown, Herbie Hancock, the Modern Jazz Quartet, etc.), but possibly not current artists.

Being a rank beginner audiophile, I occasionally (all right, it’s all the time) become quite confused, especially when it comes to cables, power cords and power converters. One person’s advice: power cords first! The next: no power cords until you clean up the juice with a power converter! The next: the power converter will screw up everything, don’t do it!

I’m lost. It seems to me that the power converters would be a good thing. I can’t see that the juice coming from my (upgraded) home outlet is going to benefit my system until it’s gone through some sort of transformation, otherwise it seems that I’m just getting whatever level of performance is available at the outlet, no matter how good the power cord. I hate to waste money on the wrong thing, so which should be first? Do I just go all out and do both?

My system includes a Cary 2A3-Si, Linn Ikemi, and Soliloquy SM-2A3’s. Then

ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

DBACKFEEFR

ADVICE

ADVICEDBACKEEF

FR

Arcam Creek Crimson

DNM	“The only way to get rid of a temptation is to
	yield to it.”
	Oscar Wilde

	LFD	hi fi fo fum
	Neat	The Goods	!	The
	Naim	Are		Odds
		Odd,		Are
	Isoblue	But		Good
		935 Mount Pleasant Road
		Toronto 416-421-7552
		Ringmat	Royd	Visonik

10 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

ATC Epos Eichmann Castle Cyrus

there’s the question of speaker cable and the connections between the CD/amp. Is my little system worth the really good stuff? I don’t want to spend more than I can afford, yet I want to get the best results and sound I can. Everybody I talk to has an opinion, they’re just all different!

Arlan Sanford SANTA FE, NM

Of course we have an opinion too, Arlan, and one more opinion on top of the ones you’ve already heard is possibly not what you hoped for. Still, if we explain why we think what we do, you’ll be in a better position to make sense of the other advice you’ve received.

Perhaps we can begin with a light bulb joke that ran in our pages some years ago:

Q: How many hi-fi gurus does it take to change a light bulb?

A: None, because there’s no point in changing the bulb until you’ve installed the right cables.

Sound familiar?

The truth is that all of these upgrades, if they’re done right, will make your system sound better, and if you can afford them all, then do them all, no question. If you can’t reasonably do that, then spend the money in the order that will give you the biggest audible difference for each upgrade.

The cheapest upgrade is not even on your list: changing the duplex outlet in the wall. Hardware store outlets have been getting worse and worse with the years because despite inflation their price keeps dropping. The connection they give you is dreadful. The reason hospitals don’t have those is that a poor connection can result in arcing and sparks, and sparks are what you don’t want in a ward where there’s oxygen flowing. You also don’t want a dodgy connection on a piece of medical gear that cost a couple of million bucks. We suggest you settle for nothing less.

With that done, let’s have a look at what a better power cable can do for you. The upscale connectors on a good cord will, like the better outlet, give you a tighter connection with less noise generated by the connection itself, and with less loss of voltage too. What’s more, a power cable that’s any good will be shielded. That prevents it from picking

INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED

AUSTRALIA •	BELGIUM •	CANADA • CHINA •	FINLAND •	FRANCE •	GERMANY	•	GREECE	•	HOLLAND
HONG KONG	• HUNGARY	• INDONESIA • ITALY	• JAPAN	• LATVIA	• MALAYSIA	•	NORWAY	•	POLAND

RUSSIA • SOUTH KOREA • SWEDEN • SWITZERLAND • TAIWAN • THAILAND • UKRAINE • UNITED KINGDOM • U.S.A.

877-980-2400

up radio-frequency noise and feeding it into the system through the ground, and it also prevents certain components, particularly digital components, from radiating digital noise where it can get into places it shouldn’t. Though some power cables have price tags that can induce cardiac arrest (another reason they use hospital grade connectors, perhaps), some affordable ones offer both shielding and good connectors.

Shielded power cables, by the way, have generally more capacitance than the cheap cables that no doubt came with your gear, and that is already enough to filter out a little of the high frequency hash that comes from the power company. To finish the job it’s useful to add a good power filter, but as you already know good ones don’t come cheap. Some of them, what’s more, can actually make your system sound worse, hence the warning from some experts. In particular, filters that limit current can adversely affect power amplifiers.

And we haven’t yet gotten to the speaker cables and interconnects. If you’re using the cheap junk that is avail-

able free or almost free, then changing it is virtually an emergency measure.

I have just completed the removal of the Valhalla board, AC motor, switch and associated cables on a Linn LP12 turntable and replaced them with the Origin Live Advanced DC motor kit. The results are nothing short of impressive and seem (by your description) to be very similar in character to the improvements realized with the Lingo

I was wondering if you had ever heard the mod, and how it compares to the Lingo. I’m sure Linn is not in favor of this type of behavior but I would guess some UHF subscribers (like me) wouldn’t mind seeing a comparison of the available PSU options that can drive the LP12. Considering the cost of Lingo upgrades, these alternative mods start to look pretty good.

Nick Dudley PORT COQUITLAM, BC

Nick, many years ago we did a direct comparison between a stock Linn LP-12 and an LP-12 that had been upgraded with a subchassis made from a more exotic material. The one with the new

subchassis sounded better. Now here’s where it gets interesting. One of our then staff members, Henry See, was looking for a good turntable, and he was offered either of the Linns at the same price. Despite the fact he had participated in the comparison, he chose the stock Linn.

Now why would he do that? He explained the reason for his choice: the upgraded LP-12 did sound audibly better, but it wasn’t a Linn anymore. There was reason to believe that Linn would be offering more upgrades in the future — indeed it already was — but if Henry bought the modified LP-12 none of those upgrades would ever be available to him. In retrospect he was right. Today’s Linns, even those that have not had the full tilt upgrades, sound way better than the modded LP-12 Henry turned down.

To be sure, what was true then may or may not be true in 2006. Linn’s turntable sales are today a tiny fraction of its business, and it isn’t certain that future upgrades will amount to more than tinkering. A third party improvement

ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 11

DBACKFEEFR

ADVICE

ADVICEDBACKEEF

FR

may now, therefore, make sense. Or it may not. It’s your choice which horse to bet on.

A true test would require having two LP-12’s that are absolutely identical, getting one of them modified, and then

12 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

having both properly adjusted by someone who didn’t have a vested interest in the outcome. It’s not the sort of demo any store is likely to offer.

I recently wrote to you questioning if I needed to have my speakers connected to my tube amp even if I was listening to it via the headphones. You expected that my headphones would provide sufficient load on the amp, and that the speakers did not need to be connected. But I expect that one day I will turn on the amp and will have forgotten to either attach the speakers or the headphones, and then…

So, I would like to make a pair of 8 ohm resistors. Can this be done easily from a pair of speaker binding post soldered up to a 8 ohm resistors, or is it more complicated than that? If it is a DIY project, how do I do it? I don’t trust the guy at The Source.

Tim Leeney GEORGETOWN, ON

We’re not sure why you want those 8 ohm resistors, Tim. You can’t leave them connected all the time, and the danger remains that you might turn on the amplifier when none of the loads is connected: speakers, phones or resistors.

That said, we can understand why you’re wary of the people at The Source (full name, for the benefit of non-Cana- dians, is The Source by Circuit City, the sign affixed to what used to be Radio Shack stores). The resistors you’re likely

to find there have a power rating of a quarter watt, and we’re being optimistic. Put any amount of power into one, and…poof! Followed by possibly another poof from a tube in your amplifier.

You’ll need a power resistor from an electronics supply house, and you may have to put several resistors together to get the rating you need. When we made up the dummy load we use in amplifier tests, we purchased three large precision 24 ohm resistors and connected them in parallel (24 divided by 3 is 8). If we had found 2 ohm resistors, we could have wired four of them in series (four times 2 ohms is 8).

I just replaced my aging Dual turntable with a Goldring GR2. I also replaced my Rotel RQ970 with an ASL Phono LUX DT. The Dual had a Grado Green cartridge with a 5 mV output. The GR2 uses the Goldring 1012GX, with a 6.5 mV output. The ASL phono stage has 41 dB of gain. Is this combination too much gain? I don’t know the gain on the Rotel, but with my old combo I had to turn up the volume much more to get an equivalent output level (as CD). The current Goldring/ASL combo is at least the same, but probably slightly more than what I get from most CD’s.

What are the drawbacks of this combo? Should I be looking for a lower gain phono preamp, or should I stop worrying and enjoy the music?

Tim Leeney GEORGETOWN, ON

We suggest enjoying the music, Tim. It’s normal to hear some hiss when you turn up the volume on a phono stage. A worse sign would be hum that is louder than the hiss. The output voltage from even a moving magnet phono pickup is a thousand times lower than that from a CD player or other component. What’s important is that the noise not be noticeable from listening position even in a quiet room.

The output difference between the Grado and Goldring cartridges is not significant, a mere 2.3 dB. Even so, it could be accounted for merely by differences in testing methods of the two companies. Those figures are what are called “nominal output.” Translation: well, we had to say something.

I just picked up your magazine for the first time and love it. I especially enjoyed

The High Fidelity Digital Jukebox (in

UHF No.74) and looked up your previous articles on the CEC DA53 and the iPod.

I would like to know what would be necessary to make a “hi-fi” system with this technique. I would start fresh and abandon all my mid-fi and at this point would use a CD or DVD player and stream music via Wi-Fi or LAN. Thus I am most interested in playing music from digital sources. I would like to start building my system, so could you list the components in order of necessity? I already have a computer, iTunes (I use Apple Lossless) and a network.

Derek Sou VICTORIA, BC

Derek, this issue includes a review of the Slim Devices Squeezebox, which may be one key to getting the best possible sound from your computer. The Squeezebox connects by Ethernet or Wi-Fi, and it can feed a digital signal into a genuine hi-fi system. Using the Apple Lossless codec is the right choice in our view. Anyone not able to use iTunes can download the Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC), available for all computer platforms including Linux, Unix, Solaris, plus some we’ve never heard of. It’s at http://flac.sourceforge.net. Actually, if your computer is near your music system and it has a digital output, you don’t even need the Squeezebox.

The idea of getting a digital signal from the computer or the accessory box

is to avoid letting cheap computer gear handle the digital-to-analog conversion. That means you’ll need a good quality external converter, which could turn out to be your most expensive single component. If you want to be able to play CDs directly, look for a good CD player which also has a digital input.

Then add what you can afford in the way of an integrated amplifier and loudspeakers. Both should be made by companies that also make the products you wish you could afford.

First of all I want to tell you how much I love reading your magazine. I am very

ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 13

EEDBACKFFR

ADVICE

ADVICEDBACKEEF

FR

familiar with many of the audiophile magazines, and I think yours is the most objective and informative of all of them. It makes me proud to know that such a great magazine comes from Canada.

Now on to the CEC DA53 converter. After reading your review in UHF No. 72, I purchased a DA53 and it is very good. As you noted in your review, it certainly adds punch to CDs. Like you, I was most interested in its versatility and particularly its ability to be used with an iPod.

The only problem is that I haven’t been able to figure out how to connect it to the iPod. I would still like to know how you guys connected an iPod to the DA 53.

John Lorito OAKVILLE, ON

In fact, John, we jumped the gun on the question of connecting the iPod to a DAC. We had no difficulty connecting our computer to the DA53, and we made the assumption that, since the iPod can connect to a USB network, the two were made to go together. That doesn’t appear to be true.

14 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

But we haven’t given up. We have talked with two accessory companies (one of them Griffin, which brings out clever iPod accessories almost daily) about making an adapter to get pure digital from the iPod. We know the signal’s in there, and it appears that there’s at least one device, Apple’s penny dreadful “iPod Hi-Fi,” that can get access to it. We hope to crack the secret, and we’ll let you know how we do.

If the Cambridge DiscMagic/DACMagic are a matching pair, why is the DAC input limited to coax BNC, when the transport has an XLR output?

Furthermore: this may be relevant (it’s from Audio Asylum):

Join the two “hot” wires from the AES plug side into the single “hot” on the RCA side. Keep ground on AES to ground on the RCA side. It works but is not ideal, as an AES cable needs to be 110 ohm impedance and an SPDIF (coax) is 75 ohms. Be aware that the SPDIF digital signal is a +0.5 v to -0.5 v signal and an AES signal is +5.0 v to -5.0 v, but this should not be an issue, because

most DACs wont bother about this..

Does the above DIY make any sense, or is the transformer to match impedance absolutely necessary, if not advisable?

James Tay TORONTO, ON

The Audio Asylum instructions you quote for matching a balanced output to an unbalanced input won’t work, James, and it’s obvious on the face of it. Mix together a positive voltage and a negative voltage of the same value, and what do you get? Zilch. Whoever posted this hasn’t tried it, or else loves the sound of silence.

If you want to try a more rational method for adapting balanced to unbalanced, these are the pin readouts: pin 1 is ground, pin 2 is “hot” or positive and pin 3 is negative (it’s the inverted version of the signal on pin 2). However there is absolutely no point in using the balanced input or output on one component unless the other component is also balanced. We should also add that a lot of “balanced” components are not balanced at all, because the goofs who designed them don’t understand what balancing is or what it’s for. And if “balancing” has been accomplished by adding an extra circuit, perhaps an op amp chip, you can guess what the result will be.

I have been reading your reviews on two integrated amplifiers, the Copland CTA405 and the Audiomat Opéra, and they both seem like they offer a lot of refinement for the money. Could you please guide me towards the best sounding of the two regardless of their price difference?

I also noted that in both your reviews on these amplifiers there was a moment where they seemed to sound more enjoyable than the reference system, and on that particular note it seems that the Copland definitely had the edge over the Opéra at sounding better than the reference system. Is it possible that the Copland 405 is better than the Opéra? Please help me buy either of these as to the best sounding amplifier of the two.

Laurent Shriqui MONTRÉAL, QC

You aren’t the first to ask this, Laurent. We should explain that the two amplifiers were not reviewed on the same

system. The Audiomat Opéra, with its much larger power supply, was listened to on the Omega system, because we thought (correctly as it turned out) that it could handle our Reference 3a Supremas, with their push-pull passive subwoofers. The Copland CTA-405 would no doubt have had a more difficult time delivering the current needed, and so we made the decision to listen to it in the Alpha system, with our Living Voice Avatar speakers. The Copland’s excellent performance pointed up what we had been suspecting: that an upgrade of the Alpha system might be in order. That has since been done.

I have the following eight-year old system: Linn Classik, Linn LK100 and Linn Keileigh speakers. I have a budget of about £2000. Could you suggest what the best upgrade route would be?

Darren Gibson BRIGHTON, Sussex, UK

We wish we could make all of this section available free, but our accountant has this little thing about us staying in business. Ah well!

But the rest of the issue can of course be seen whole. You have your choice of the print version or the electronic version.

Alit acip euisi. Ut nulluptatuer sis esto dolore te volum eugiamc ommolorem at laorperos do odo odolum quat nisim nissis nonseni amcorpe rcidunt euguercing estionsed dipisl in henis nosto conulla alismolobor irit at. Dui tinim doluptat alit, sum et lobor adignibh ex eraestie vulputat, si.

Ibh eu faciduip euguer amcommod ming et adipit la adit ver sustie tis acidunt wisi eugiat. It am quisis adigna faci eum quation sequatis nim dolorti onsequa mconse consequis diam ex euguerostrud magna faci te veliquis num del utat. Molorperit wisl ullamet nim vulputet nonsed duismod oluptatem quat, quisi.

Agna consed tet lor sum iriure dolortie vel et, quip eum nulla alisisim nonse magna aliquat. Pis digna feuguer suscidunt lore velendre feu feuis augiamet pratem vulluptate dolum elit utat wis nonulpu tpatum aut in hendignisi.

Lit adio od dipis acidunt lor si. Cumsandigna faccum inim iustrud

Up to *320% more conductivity than the RCA or Banana plug you presently use.

Bullet				!
also
	W
Plug	NE	Bullet
available
	Basis				-
Pure			gold
in	plug,			brass,
Silver
	plated			-cost
	lowest
	Eichmann

These connectors from Eichmann Technologies use high conductive Tellurium Copper contact pins in revolutionary designs that improve the sound quality of ALL cables.

The weakest link in your system is likely to be the connectors. Even the best cables are compromised by poor conductive (gold plated) brass connectors.

Introducing the Bullet Plug® RCA connector – and the new Bayonet Plug™ Banana connector. A breakthrough in connector technology – and the closest approach to no plugs at all.

Now available from:

The Sound Room, Vancouver,	604-736-7771
Signature Audio, Vancouver	604-873-6682
Commercial Electronics, Vancouver	604-669-5525
General Audio, Calgary	403-228-9130
Audio 5.1, Edmonton	780-432-3232
Sarah Audio, Edmonton	780-485-9770
The Gramophone, Edmonton	780-428-2356
Audio Two, Windsor	519-979-7101
Hi Fi Fo Fum, Toronto	416-421-7552
Take Five Audio, Mt. Forest Ontario	519-343-4451
Radio St. Hubert, Montreal	514-276-1413
Brooklyn Audio, Dartmouth	902-463-8773
Web sales	www.hifisupply.ca

Exclusive Canadian Distributor

Europroducts Marketing, Ltd.

Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone]

www.europroducts-canada.com

reviews

“The Bullet Plug has, overnight, leapfrogged the performance available from existing phono plugs, and disappeared over the horizon. The benefits are huge, HUGE! They

transform the performance of affordable cables, and I can't wait to hear them on serious leads.” Roy Gregory - Editor Hi-Fi +

Issue 12 July/August 2001

“There was a cleanness to the sound that reminded me of hard-wiring.” Jimmy Hughes - Hi-Fi Choice December 2001

“The effect (of the Bayonet Plug) absolutely amazed me – with such tightness, super fast and strickingly real unrestrained dynamics I have never experienced before.” Hi Fi & Records –

Germany December 2003

*Brass is 28% IACS conductivity (International Annealed Copper Standard) where copper is 100% IACS.

dolendre et veliscidunt la ad dolore commodipit ad molorperosto eugiam esto euis nisl ut verosti nciliquisis dolore consectem dolore dolore delis diam, consecte dignit vel ex er sum dolorer aessequisl irilit velent lute tin hendigna consequat. Incin ut aliquisci enibh eugue faci et et lobore velit nullam dipsusto ea commy num ea augiamet, sequi te et alit dolorem quat. Ut eum quiscip erat dolessed tionsectem vendit lore tet at nim dignisi.

Nulput vullum doluptat. Utate

magna conulpute tio odionsed tionsecte ero corper sum do dolore corpero dolor susto dit verat illa feui er aliqui tie feummy nulputem amconsecte tem do con endrem iriliqu ationsequis et lore consequamet, susto do commolor se diat.

It lametumsan utatin velit adipsus tionulla alis nostincilit nit nulla aut velessis num alit, voloborem ilit, sed exerat eummolore tate te volore dignim inisisim vent wisit, vendrem veliquam do conum vulla faccum velis et at, vullam at

ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 15

EEDBACKFFR

ADVICE

ADVICEDBACKEEF

FR

Canada’s online hi-fi accessories store

From Vancouver to St. John’s, shipping is always free!

Visit us now for exclusive specials and package discounts.

Featuring Beyerdynamic, Creek,

DNM, Ecosse, Eichmann,

The Funk Firm, Reson, Ringmat

and much more.

16 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

vel ea feuiscipit dolorer ip eu facinim ing enim zzrillumsan veraessecte ver sectem dolobor augait, sed deliquat, quismodion ercipsu msandre tet adiam, sit adipit luptat.

Sandrem dolenim volorem delesse nismolore doloree tueraestrud tate con hendre dit ipiscilit lamet aut praestis num dipis nim dit lum do consendre venim ipit alis am alit adiam ex estinibh er irit, quat niam, consend ipsummy nullam dolortis adio odolor sit ulput la aliscilit aute faccum dolorpero odigna consenibh exercil esto conum iniam, cortis num dunt veniatem ilit, vendre mod dolorperosto delisisi.

Lis et, commy nissed te te eu faciduissi.

Ro etummol estrud tie dion vulla facidunt nonsecte commy nullaorem acincid uismodio commodiatin hent nisl dolore magnit wisl in vero odolobore con utat ad tie er sed exer sustrud te magna adionsectem el doloreriure venim velis nos eugait, corperostrud el ing esse dolor in enim ip eliquat, velestis eum ing etuer iure dignim dipisi tatum num vero exer sim diam, consent voloborper ilis adiat ing eugait nummoluptate te magnim in utat ut praessis adigna at lutat iliquat, seniat, quatem quat volessim dipismo dolobortio ea facipsu mmodolor sequat. Feugait, volorper acilisi te velit lore tate venisi.

Nonsed ting euipisis et prat. Sit utat nulput praesting et, veliqui ea feugiat.

Cummy nonsed tat aute dolore te vel dolore commolor ipisi.

Ullaore tat. Te conse magnis num venim eugait ut vullaor sustinim vullandipit praese tem in hent vullam, velenis deliquissed dolore dui blandre magniamet pratem nummy nisi tionsequat aut adionse venis nullut prat, quisit, quissit am, sequisl iriustrud molor si eros nulla corem in essecte do odit dunt pratie velenis nibh eniscil ipit lan er adio od tatie magnisis essim ver iure tem ing eugiam acillum eu facin utatuer illandit lobor sim zzriuscincip estin ut ad dolore consed dip ercilisit vullaore molor ipit aliquismodio odio od tisl ut nonsed molut alit am venibh eu feugait lum duissi.

Pit volenim volore dolessi.

Esenis numsan vel in ex euisi te facinis nos adionsed eumsan eum iriurer

aesequat alit, quat pratue vent lore dit nostrud tio odipit ut ulputem zzriure tet aciliscil del er ad dolore ex esed dunt nulla acilit doluptat.

Consenibh etuer autat nulputat ilit prat la consed ming elit nibh erostrud eummolumsan euipisit lor am dolor illaore do dit lamcon vent ulputet prate doloborper at.

Agnim alit diate elisseq uipsum in etue feu faccumm odolore dolendreetue molor ipsusci lissectet euguer sustrud te venismo dignim do odolorp eraestis nis nim dolor si tem quat.

Utat aci bla alisl eliqui bla facidui ssenibh ea commy nim zzriure vullandre magnim vulputpat vel utatum ilis elessecte feugiam eugiam aliqui tinibh etuerit nullam, commy nit prat volore commy numsandre con henibh ea commodit alit iuscillum dolesequis dolut praese elit adionsed esequat, consequis del eugiamconse voloreet, volorero el et, si.

Tat, quamcon hent ex eum nonsed tem quam quisl ute te magnismolent utate digna facidunt iure modolorero consequam veliquisit ad dio odion ullam, senim vullaor sit alit lor ing eliscip enim zzrit nulluptatum delit, susto odiatet luptat. Tie molorperosto dolortio dion eugait venit, vercidui ea commy num zzrilit luptatis nim volorer cilland rercinis ero exer summolore voloreetue magnit loreet adiatio eu faccums andipisi.

Aliquis diam dolore core eriusto odionsecte feuis nibh elestrud dolor augue conse del dolor alisit inim illut vent la cor sum dio conulluptat. Andre magna ametue molor ing eriure ting eliquam alit vel dio exero odio od minim irilit ullutpat wismod eu feuisi.

Urem zzrit et, quisi te tatem at, commolo rperci estrud exerci ea feuguer iliquis et prat.

Hendrercilis do eniam velessit luptatin et, sis nibh eugait lortie moloboreet, consenim zzrilis ciliquat, sustrud dit irit dit, quis nullutet ilisim volendre ver at velisi.

Esequate dipsum quat. Wis erosto odolore er summodolum nulluptatum dit do ent lumsan ullam nonullut wis dolendre feuisi.

Tat ut dip er augiamc onsequam alit lobore ming eum illandigna ad eum

zzriliq uipisis dolorem quating exeriure tetum in henim vent nonsequamet adionse quatumsan henit lor iriliquat praessequat. Ullaorper alismol uptat. Bor aliqui blandit nosto eu faccumsan volore vulla consequisl dolor iustis alis nonsequ ismodionse commy nulla commy nullum nibh ero dolore velit aliquisis eui blam, vulla facip etumsandrer sim zzrit alit utet el utat ver iriuscil ulla facipsum esed eummodio dipsuscin ulla feugiamet lutat la at utetue min utpat dolent adignisl dolestio do et verit inim nonum digna con vel ulput ip erciduissim eummy nonse tat adiam et ad modolent ex eummod magna conse tionsequisim illa am irit nonulla at. Ut ilisci blan verostrud euisit enim zzriure dolorperat, vullaore dolesto commy nim vel ea adiat dolorpe rostrud doloreet in utat. Ut nis ametum essis dolum enis alit in velis dolenim alit iurem quisi.

Met wis aut lam, commy nim ip euis et nullutpat lutet niat. Duip exero core feu feuipsustisl do odignim il incilis nullam amconsequi tisse dolorperos dolobortin vero er si bla facip erit aut alit eratisci ex ea faci blam, vel utpat utpatet loreriurer se faccum nonsenim eui tat dolorpero consectem do odolesenim iure voloreet lutat. Lutpat lorem dolobore ea facip estrud mod dipit nullandreet volore dolut incip er ilit ad dolestie core venibh erit prat.

Molorpe riurer sit loborperil enisit amet vel inciliquis adit nullan veliquat. Dui bla con henisim vulput venim iliquipit adigna commole niscincin hendiam, quisit wis nismodolent exero euipsustie tat, quismod diamet illum zzrit irilisi tie vel in voloreet, quatio dolenim aciliquisi.

Duipiscipit wissecte faccum vel inim in eugait esequipisit lam do od dolesequis nim nonsequat lamet iustincilla feum delis numsan vel endigna facidunt iusci esed ero core dipsum alit wisl et, quate delis nostis nissed et nonulput venis num quipit am, vendre del ipit praesequis el iriurem dipismod tat ulputat dunt ilit lut landit etue dui enismodignim exer sustionsenim dolendigna am, conulputat am, corer si.

Lesenim doloreet, quamet wisl utpat. Duisim velit aut lutpat. Ut alis nummod dolor aut num ip ero dolendigna con et in velenibh eugiat lum dunt loboreetum

CASTLE RETURNS TO CANADA WITH A BANG!

THE NEW CASTLE RICHMOND 3i

HI-FI+ MAGAZINE, ISSUE 42

PRODUCT OF THE YEAR 2005

HI FI NEWS MAGAZINE 2005 AWARDS

BEST LOUDSPEAKER UNDER £500

UHF MAGAZINE NO. 76

“The Energizer bunny in speaker form”

MADE IN ENGLAND, REAL WOOD VENEER IN-HOUSE BUILT CABINETS AND DRIVE UNITS $799 PAIR!

AWARD WINNING EUROPEAN AUDIO PRODUCTS FROM

Europroducts Marketing Ltd.

www.europroducts.ca

dunt utpat, consent prationse consequatum nos nim dolenibh eumsandipis dolorpe ratinci esequismod esto od tat. Ut lum acil eumsandre te digna faciciliquat at venibh esed molorer iliquam, veliquatie vel doloborem ea alit ipis am am inisl etuercilit iusto core dolor sed mod dolore doloreet utat ing eugait nit, quisci elestio do exeriure modolorperci enisse con utpatio cor ad ming eui bla con eugait lorero odolortis dolore magna feumsandre te faccum inciduis alisl dit vullaoreet, sed mincipsusci tate

consed min et, quat er sit veros nibh elit, veliquam dolenit wisit aut iure erit ut dit vent ullam quat.

Iriustrud delis amconsed tissi. Tummy non ero dolore?

GET FREE

ADVICE

ON LINE!

www.uhfmag.com/FreeAdvice.html

ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 17

EEDBACKFFR

ADVICE

NUTS&BOLTSFEEDBACK

SPEAKER IMPEDANCE

What is the impedance of your loudspeakers? Is it 8 ohms? Or 4 ohms? Perhaps you know that

it is not just a single number, but what difference does it make anyway?

At the very least you are no doubt aware that a speaker with a very low impedance can present a problem for an amplifier, and potentially can damage it. Think about the fact that short-circuit- ing an amplifier output can either break it, or blow a fuse, or trigger a protection circuit. The lower the impedance of a loudspeaker, the closer it comes to being a short circuit. Some amplifiers can drive a load of 2 Ω or even 1 Ω, but most will not. (The Greek letter Omega is of course the symbol for resistance). In any case, low impedance may not be your only worry.

With this issue, UHF intends to begin publishing impedance curves for loudspeakers reviewed, and for that reason I have been asked to explain speaker impedance, and also to suggest a simple manner of measuring a speaker's impedance. “Simple” in this case means using a minimum of specially-purchased equipment, though in day-to-day operation it is less simple than using a purpose-built instrument that can spit out a complete impedance graph in a few seconds. Yes, impedance measurements result in a

18 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

graph, not just the single figure usually found in loudspeaker literature, but let me begin with some basic concepts.

What is impedance?

If a loudspeaker were to be driven by DC (direct current) we could speak simply of its resistance. The speaker’s internal wiring has a certain (low) resistance, as does the fine wire that makes up each driver’s voice coil. However loudspeakers are intended to be driven by AC (alternating current), whose frequency of alternation is that of the sound we are attempting to reproduce. Thus we need to take into account the speaker’s inductance and capacitance. The voice coil is an inductor, and the internal wiring may be as well. Inductance can be thought of as a resistance that is frequency-dependent, with its ohm value rising as frequency drops. Most crossover networks include capacitors, which introduce capacitance. A capacitor can also be thought of as a frequency-dependent resistor, whose ohm value rises with frequency. Since a capacitor’s impedance characteristic is exactly opposite to that of an inductor, it is easy to see how capacitors and inductors can be combined to make filters.

I shall add, without great elaboration, that these are not the only factors

by Paul Bergman

determining the impedance reflected back to the amplifier. For example, as a woofer cone moves back and forth, acting as a linear motor, it also acts as a generator, actually generating a voltage that is opposite to that coming from the amplifier. That this complicates things is an understatement.

It must also be evident that, in a speaker that combines resistance, inductance and resistance, the total impedance cannot be a single number, since it will inevitably vary with frequency. This is not typically taken into consideration by designers of amplifiers, who test their designs by loading them with an 8 ohm resistor, possessing neither capacitance nor inductance, and having a constant impedance at all frequencies.

The ideal, and the practical

The closer a speaker is to a pure resistance, the more confidence an amplifier designer can have that his product will behave in the customer’s home exactly as it did on the test bench. That said, few loudspeakers are very much like resistors at all, and so in fact amplifiers must be designed to operate with impedances that are vastly different from that ideal resistor. What is more, the designer cannot know in advance the characteristics of the speakers that will be used with his product.

To see what he (and we) are up against, let us look at the impedance curve of a small two-way speaker, which has a famous name I do not propose to reveal. It is shown on the next page.

The curve has been drawn by a technique I shall describe presently (see Measuring Impedance on page 20). Most speakers, I might add by way of explanation, have a considerable peak in impedance at the point of resonance of the woofer and cabinet. The one I have arbitrarily selected has only a small rise, centred around 100 Hz, which would be the practical lower limit of its bass response.

The manufacturer’s nominal impedance rating is 4 Ω, but you need only glance at the curve to see that it deviates from that rating quite considerably. It dips to about 3 Ωat 16 Hz, which should present little problem for an amplifier designed the least bit competently.

Rather more formidable is the higher part of the curve, specifically the impedance at 6 kHz. As you can see, it rises well over 20 Ω. What will this mean for the poor amplifier?

Let us consider first a solid state amplifier, the type most people use. It is common for an amplifier to have

But that’s as far as the article goes in plaintext. Do by all means check out either the print or electronic edition. uis dignisc iliscipissi.

Tum veliquat ulpute dolore volore facipsum esequat. Ut lan veliquat praese facilit lutpat nibh euguero ea feuguer suscing enismod dolorero odiamco rtiscil lamconsequat wismod modion vel ulputat. Utpation utpat augait am, core tisi.

An hendreet nonsenim dit, ver sustrud dunt utet autem quam, sis augue magniam consequat adipis adiam, consed te ming esent loborper iure commodio commodit lum zzriure vullumsan henim iustin utatum vel ilis aut loborperilla feum do odolore commodolore dolore dolesto eu feu feu feuipsu scipit ad molorem ex ero odolobore dolobortie digna conullaor si bla consecte et exerit lum alismolore ming esent vullamc onullan henisl ute core vent volor si.

Sumsandre con hent ilit nim nis accum nissequam ero eraestrud dolore ese dolore dolutat, volobore diat praestismod te facilla facil inci blan et aliquis ciliquiscil dignis am quis niamet nisse eniamet, sis nibh eraesen dionum zzrilla feuipis modolut adip euis dolessi.

Iquametuerat nullamc ommolore con utatuer ostinit nos eugiam nos adionsed euisi ex eril ilismod te te mod et adionse quissent aliquisi te doluptat ing enit ea alis accumsan velessectem dolorpe rostrud dipis nonsenisi.

Iril iure molobor sustismod molore mincilit acing er accum vulput in utat, quat ad eril doloreet lan euismol ortinim digna autpat lobor sectetum quamconulla commy niation sequatie el ip ea augait, consequam adionsectet alis ex exer sum zzriure eugiam iriurerit ad eros dit alit num del ullutpat, sisisl et et volorper si blam, quatem init, consequi bla coreet, vent iriusci bla feu feuipis modolore dolesse conulla feuis adit laor ilit lutpatin el in velisci ncilla facinibh eugait adipit nibh et nis nonsed magna

feummod do coreros eugait il ex eugait wisi ex et num quisim aut atum del del dolobore eros endigniatue dolor secte ex eugiat. Illa corperostrud tisi.

Impedance and damping factor

Dui eugiam, volobor peraessi.

Ibh etummy nullutet nim adit, si bla feuguer cidunt utatueriusto od et wisciliquam nulla aut ad tem il ullut acip eugait dolutatie dolobore vel ut ip er at.

Dolute modolum quisl erit la feu facip exerost incillam ex esto eugait utatie minit nit at, ver augait incil irit praessit erat eugait, suscidunt utpat lorperilis dolendiat, quipit wis aci eros amcommy nibh esequametum zzrilla feum irit lum eu faccumsan velessit laorper iliquat vullam dignit vulluta tincipit, core dio core endre dio consed tatue feugait wis et, vullan vel ex esto cor sumsan henit ad tat aliquat praessim dolorper sum dolore minissecte magniscing eratums andreet ipsusciduis nim velesenibh estrud tat accum quam endre feum ip ex et, susci ex exer secte diam iure dolor si elit ercil dolore dit autat.

Faccum incillam, senis nonse conum iure modionsed el dionsequipis amet praessequis dolortio eraessendit venim do et, si.

Obore veliqui tis nonsenismod eugait dolessi tie vulput lutet ing et ut nullaor atum digna feugiamcommy nisl utat. Duissequi bla consequis nulluptatet, quisit wisi.

Pat. Unt iril exer si tis deliquamet alit, sim doloborem venis nullan eum in vel ulla feugue volut nulluptat am et non utpatum dolore commolore tet, sismod doloreet, commy nos estrud tismodolo-

bor sum dolor ad magnit, conse do diat at lummolore etue tat, sequat wis dolor aci bla feum el utat venit dolorem euisi bla atinim dolesti ssenis aliquat ilisci tatet, quis am, secte feuisl iriusto eril utat, sed eugiat velenim nim zzrit ad eugiat ad exercilla consenibh exerilla faccum nonulla feugait lutat. Am ipisl utat. Henim volorperil dolore faci tinibh et wiscilit num irit niscill andigna cor ip eum dionsectem dipit, consed tio cor sectet amcon ex eugiat, venibh et, consequ ationsecte min ero conullaorero dolortisl iustis aci er susto commy nim zzriliq uamconse er sim nit eraestrud tat. Duisim velenisl ing ero exerciduis dolortio consequis nulputpat nisim volobor adion veriustie feuis adigna feugue min ute dolore veliquat, velenim in vercipi smodolore dolorper si.

Xer sim exer ing ercidui tat iriusto dionsectet, sectet endio deliqui te et, cor susto consequisl duisim ad dolobore te vero odip eu faccum ver ad dolenim delit volore dolobor alisl duis alisi tinis atin ullam ilit lore conulpu tpatem iriusci ncipit pratet adionullummy nonullutpat. Igniam, consed dolor at, venit volore conullaore con volorperit incidunt ing elisl iuscip erat, summodo lendre facidui blaor irillam, quam, consecte dolor sed deliquam am eugiam, quipsuscilla facilla commodignim ip eui blam accum quipsum digna alis nostie dip enim irit iusci elenim deliquis augue volorer ing ex eum dolumsan henim adigna ad dolortincil ullandre tionsequat. Non er susto ea faccum zzriurer accummo dolobore magna feugiam, veniam dunt nos nonse te doluptatio doloboreet, consed tin ute dolore consectem dolore veliquatin henis

ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 19

FEEDBACKNUTS&BOLTS

NUTS&BOLTSFEEDBACK

MEASURING IMPEDANCE

Commod dolestrud te te euis alis niamconsed eummod te tet ing exerili quatummod dolute tem zzrit at alit, con ut iusto dit nos accum nummodiam, quamet, sequiscipit accum adiat volorem nos aliquatuerit iusto con velenit ilit luptat.

Od tat lor sim nisci tat at ut iril eum vullaor se ex enim dignim digna commodolore commy num veniam dolut wiscipit exercil ut ilis eum non volessim dunt wisl do do commod magniat. Ut wisisim zzrit nonsequatie magnit nos nonsed delenim dolenis adiatem zzrilisit ad doluptat. Quat ip eugait wissenis adipissecte do eu feugait praessit ute veniamc onulla feugueril et lore min essenis nos et amet lore molobor percipit in eniam, vulla coreet, venim eugiate dolore dionseniam nulla conse dip ex exerat, sequat nosto do euisciliqui etum delit nos nonse tem iriureet, secte dolor sum zzriustrud tat, suscips ustrud tie vel dolore modo conse modolortio et nos nit utem zzrit irit pratueros dolorem diat, quipit nonsequate magna facip exer summodion vullaore duis euismod ignibh esting et, vel estrud estrud dipisit inciduis aliquam eum doloborer sed tionsenit lum nos dolore eum niam iustrud euis am euipsum molobore cor at. Duiscilla adigna feugiam vent aliquam alit eu feu facip eu feugait ulputat, volortisisi.

V1

1000 Ω

V2

Sumsandre con hent ilit nim nis accum nissequam ero eraestrud dolore ese dolore dolutat, volobore diat praestismod te facilla facil inci blan et aliquis ciliquiscil dignis am quis niamet nisse eniamet, sis nibh eraesen dionum zzrilla feuipis modolut adip euis dolessi.

Iquametuerat nullamc ommolore con utatuer ostinit nos eugiam nos adionsed euisi ex eril ilismod te te mod et adionse quissent aliquisi te doluptat ing enit ea alis accumsan velessectem dolorpe rostrud dipis nonsenisi.

Sandrero et ilit, quatum ent am quametu eraesed dolore tetue veliquamet num ex er susto con velissi bla corero dit, quam del ut augue dit nos dolore diamet nostrud dolore tin etue del ut ilit wismod min et wis dit praesto commy nibh ex eugiamcor susto dolorper si et lobore conulla feum nibh ex et dionsequis dolor il elessent lobore vel enim do do eniam quipsus cipsustin henibh eugueraesse molortis alis aci ero od elit lut nonse modipsu scillam conulpute magna feugiamconum exeraesed magna alit nisl in exero ero consed dolum velenim ilisse modolenibh etue do do corerci te faccum inis aut nim dit la am, sequiss ectet, commolor amet aliquat, ver sequamcommod dolesed eum quipit ipis nisim dolesse dolorperatum doloreros nostrud dolobor suscin vulla conum iriliquatie moluptate dit at, veliquis doloboreet, vulpute dolor in ut inis augiam at, core tis nis dit lorperostrud tat irilis nim quat.

Osto exercin vel dipsummy num volobor perat, quisi.

do eugait lamcon etum iniam ipsum zzrilla feuis aut nummolor sequat.

Numsan veliquipit prat prat. Ut lam, vent et in henim quat ad tie eril utatue magnim il ilisci te do deliquatum iusto enit nullum enim do eugait er sequisis

20 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

delis aliquipit praese dunt eugiam, conum erit lan vercipi smodigna facilis modignim ing estie del dolortis delis eugue et, commodo lumsandion endre tem inim augait, vel ullaortis nosto esecte tionsectet veros adit ver il erat.

Ure magniam cortiscilis nim ipismolor sequat. Duissequis numsan velessed tem qui tat, quisi.

Equate faciliquipit ipis adiat. Lobore te velenim iusto doluptat lore

dolobor sed tat niamet.

Good enough UHF uses them!

This remarkable cable is from Atlas. Unlike so many cable companies, this Scottish

company keeps markups reasonable. Navigator All-Cu is made from strands of pure copper, each drawn from a single crystal. So are the connectors.

The Navigator All-Cu passed a blind test in UHF No. 71.

Can it pass your test?

THE AUDIOPHILE STORE

www.uhfmag.com/Cables.html

ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 21

FEATURE

MONTRÉAL 2006

It seems forever that the Montreal show has been at the Delta hotel, right downtown. The Delta was a great venue for hi-fi companies

looking for solidly-built rooms whose acoustics you could work with. It wasn’t so good for those needing vast space, and the show had long spilled over into adjacent hotels. This time organizer Marie-Christine Prin intended to attract other consumer electronics firms: Sony, Toshiba, Nikon, perhaps even (snicker!) Apple Computer. Hence the shift to the Centre Sheraton, also downtown.

I was the one snickering about Apple, but guess what…Apple was there.

UHF was not, however. Unlike the varied hotel rooms at the Delta, the Sheraton rooms are too small for what we do. We made up for it (sort of) by putting a “virtual room” on the Internet, (complete with a system that could be seen and examined, if not actually heard), which remained open through mid-April. Our absence meant that both Albert and I had plenty of time to tour. Albert’s account follows this one.

The official guide to the show, by the way, had a hopeful photo of a Nikon

22 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

camera, but Nikon wasn’t there. It could have been worse…imagine Nikon hadn’t come and Canon had! On the other hand Sony did have some cameras there, including the DSC-R1, which Albert and I had a great demo of. After the show we bought one…and the product pictures in this issue (except for the show pictures) were taken with it.

For several years the show has been affiliated with a good cause, research into children's diseases. Proceeds of the official show CD have gone to that cause.

by Gerard Rejskind

This year the cause also had an official spokesman, actor Rémy Girard, shown on this page with Marie-Christine. Girard will be familiar to worldwide movie audiences as the man in the hospital bed in the Oscar-winning film The Barbarian Invasions.

Did the show’s shift in venue and orientation pay off? At show’s end Marie-Christine told me it definitely had, and I talked to a number of exhibitors who were ecstatic…the ones in the large rooms and salons. I also talked to less happy exhibitors, who had found the hotel rooms too squeezed, the entranceways to them too narrow, and the acoustics…well, it’s a hotel, isn’t it? I have no idea whether the happy ones or the unhappy ones predominated.

Notwithstanding the show’s ambitions to be a sort of mini-CES, this is a consumer show, not a trade show, and it is therefore normal for local dealers to be major exhibitors, albeit with the support of their suppliers. And thus there were large rooms backed by such stores as Audioville, Coup de Foudre and Codell. Not at the show was the largest of these dealers, Audio Centre. I had heard before the show that this suburban store would move back to its old building (very old, in fact) to save money. Rumor said that it was just…gone.

I’ve often deplored that the Totem Mani-2 loudspeaker (reviewed in this issue) is never heard at shows. It was there this time, in the Audioville room (see the photo at lower right on the next page), driven by Conrad-Johnson gear. As usually happens when it is demonstrated, visitors commented on how amazing it was to hear a small speaker filling that huge space.

The official show CD, a music sampler, is produced by a local high end recording company, Fidelio. The company had brought not only its own CDs but also its Nagra master recorder, shown on the next page. I got to hear the master tape of a new percussion SACD the company was launching. It’s tough for other exhibitors to compete with that.

	One of the nicer rooms
	belonged to a Canadian com-
	pany not that well known even
	in its home country, LaHave. Its
	Wedge speaker is on page 28. It’s
	pleasant musicality kept me in
	the room for a while on the third
	day.
	The amplifier at bottom left
	caught my eye too, because I
	had noticed it in an ad in our
Aurum Acoustics (from	last issue. It’s the Audio Space,
Newfoundland) was back with	and it’s next to the JAS Odin
version of its astonish-	loudspeaker. Yes, the speakers
amplified loudspeaker (it	have ceramic woofers. The price:
with its own amps, four	C$7800. I must say that the demo
are single-ended tube	I heard was worth sitting down
Now that the system	listening to for a bit.
the manifestly	I’ve often heard the huge wooden Edgarhorn, shown at
excellent CD player/pre-	left, at CES. I had never been very happy with it, but it actu-
amplifier) is entering	ally sounded quite good this time, with natural tonal balance,
production, our inter-	though (as is often the case with very large woofers) little in
est in doing an in-depth	the way of a real stereo image. Dr. Bruce Edgar was there, and
review has definitely	as you’ll see from the next report Albert was impressed with
perked up.	neither the speaker nor Dr. Edgar.
Aurum is not the	In Vegas I had heard an oversized “bookshelf” speaker
only high end company	called the Escalante Fremont. This time I heard a smaller
situated well outside	model, the Pinyon (above right). It looks rather conventional
metropolitan centres.	until you look closely at the metal-clad enclosure and the
From Mascouche (a	ring radiator tweeter. Like the Fremont, it sounded truly
medium-sized town just	excellent.
far enough from Mon-	Also sounding rather interesting was the Mirage OMD28.
to qualify as more	The new OMD series replaces the OM series, which replaced
just a suburb) came the	the M series. The $10K speaker has carbon fibre woofers and
Mistral S-5 (its pic-	midrange, and a dome tweeter facing upward into a diffuser.
my	Seeing how the company was rather disappointed with our
3a	review of one of its speakers in our last issue (see Feedback in
it	this issue), I refrained from suggesting a review.
way	Regional show though this might be it does manage to pull
	in a few high end celebrities. VTL’s Luke Manley was here last
	year. This year William Andrea of Mimetism was here (his
	integrated amplifier got a warm review in our pages in issue
and	No. 74), and so was David Berning (you can see him on page
of	26). Berning had
	broughthisnewest
-	preamplifier. His
	monoblock power
the	amps, alas, were
is	not quite done
-	yet, though he
but	had prototypes in
	unfinished form.
	Also present
	was Linn’s Martin
	McCue, who was
	show ing some
	products that will
	ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 23

FEATUREFEEDBACK

FEEDBACKFEATURE

arrive in stores soon. That includes the Artikulat speakers (shown on page 27), and the new Majik strictly two channel component series. I’ve already asked to review the Majik CD, which will replace both the Genki and Ikemi, with a price situated about midway Before you ask, like the older models

still have HDCD decoding. I’m always happy to see (and cially hear) Sonus Faber speakers, there were two new ones at the show.

Anniversario (extreme right) is gorgeous, you’d expect, and it sounded luscious

. I saw but didn’t hear the Guarneri, next to it, bearing serial number 002

projected price is C$14K, but if it’s consolation the stand is included Et, conse minit ad euguerosto consed ese commolortio enit loripisisis aliquatumsan veriliquam,

core veros ad minci blan henit, quat, sum ip ero od modit atuerae sequam vulputetum feui blamcor iliquisim in erit voluptat ea

sent aut iurem doluptat. Endre mincin velit at, quisi erit vullaorem vel deliquis nosto od magniat am illa faccummy nulla feu feum iuscidunt iureros aut utat.

Andre veniat nulluptat alisisim quis exeratue faccumsan ero core delit vel digna feugiam veleniatet am, venibh eugait iure consenisisl ex ex eum iureet velesto duisim nulla commodit illa feugiametuer sustrud min et pratem zzriureet lore ex er

nummy non exeros aute tatetue sequatum zzrit augue ex et

nis autat.

Pat aliquamcon vel diamet acin ulputpat eugiat. Gait nulla

Wisciliquis nibh ero odoloreetum irit volorerat. Ut exer si.

Ut iure dolesse quamet nullaor sustrud tisi bla faccum auguer sum iure faciduis augait lore magnim ipis nonsecte velit at wis ero consed tie mod esequis sequat wis et lum zzriusto do do conum odo odolobore molore ea commy niamcommy nim iril ullamet numsan hent nullut velesequisim quis dunt ut at. Duiscid uipisisi tin er aliqui ea cor ad tin vullan hent luptati ncipisl et praesed

tisi.

Oreet dionsed min hent velit prat, velenis eros duismodolor amet augue molobore facidunt iustrud dio exerost

euguer sequis.