Indholdsfortegnelse for January 2021 i Stereophile

When it comes to headphones, you might say I’m behind the times. Sennheiser’s HD 650 remain my reference ’ phones and have been since back when ~$ 500 was a lot to pay for a pair of headphones. Today, Sennheiser sells far more expensive ’ phones, including the vanity-priced HE 1, 1 the successor to the legendary Orpheus, so it’s likely that my HD 650s are no longer state of the art. Nevertheless, the HD 650 is still, I’m convinced, a very good value. Value is the point of Sennheiser’s new HD 560S, a sort of little brother (or sister) to the HD 650 — or to the HD 660S, a successor to the HD 650. The HD 560S is priced at just $ 199.95 but claims some hi-fi bona…

I used DRA Labs’ MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Acora SRB’s frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 mike for the nearfield and in-room responses. My initial measurements were performed on one of the original samples auditioned by Julie Mullins, serial number TIB0010. After Acora found out that the first samples had been incorrectly assembled with the tweeters wired in the wrong polarity, which resulted in a massive suckout in the crossover region, they submitted new samples. I performed a complete set of measurements on serial number TIB0021. Except where noted, all the following comments apply to the new sample. Acora specifies the SRB’s sensitivity as 86.5dB/W/m; my estimate was within experimental error of this, at 85.9dB(B)/2.83V/m. Although the SRB’s impedance is…

During my tenure as a Stereophile writer, I’ve reviewed a lot of integrated amplifiers. The mostly moderately priced integrated machines I’ve reviewed have included the Heed Audio Elixir ($1195), Luxman SQ-N150 ($2795) and L-509X ($9495), NAD C 328 Hybrid Digital ($549), Octave Audio V 80 SE ($10,500), Rega Brio ($995), and Schiit Ragnarok 2 ($1799 as equipped). Regardless of price, all these integrated amplifiers engaged my senses and made engaging, dynamic, colorful music from LP grooves and ones and zeros. Decades ago, integrated amplifiers were full-featured beasts—and then there was a move toward minimalism, at least at the higher end. Today, things have swung back again: With some exceptions, today’s integrated amplifiers once again offer myriad extras. Today there’s more to offer. In addition to the traditional phono stage and…

I used DRA Labs’ MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the KEF LS50’s frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 for the nearfield and spatially averaged room responses. My estimate of the LS50 Meta’s voltage sensitivity was 84.5dB(B)/2.83V/m, which is the same as that of the original and within experimental error of the specified 85dB. The solid trace in fig.1 shows how the Meta’s impedance magnitude varies with frequency. Below 200Hz, it is almost identical to that of the 2012 LS50 (fig.2, solid trace), but at higher frequencies the impedance traces are quite different. The Meta remains closer to 4 ohms for longer in the midrange but has a considerably higher magnitude in the crossover region. The new speaker’s electrical phase angle (fig.1, dashed…

If Ron Miles lived in New York instead of Denver, he would have become a jazz star long ago. With Rainbow Sign, his 12th album as a leader but his debut on a major label (at age 57), now’s his time—or should be anyway. Miles led the same stellar quintet on his last record, I Am a Man, in 2017, and he has played with these musicians several times, in different combinations, as a leader or a sideman. The results have always been at least intriguing and at times inspiring. (I particularly like Bangs, the curiously littleknown 2017 trio album with Jason Moran and guitarist Mary Halvorson.) On Rainbow Sign, the quintet hits a level of supreme ensemble prowess. The epically long opening track, “Like Those Who Dream,” is basic…

Dirty Hit (16-bit/44.1kHz streaming on Qobuz). 2020. Pete Robertson and Joseph Rodgers, prods.; Joseph Rodgers, eng. In 2017, Filipino-British songwriter Bea Kristi wrote a love song called “Coffee” and sang it into her phone, accompanying herself on acoustic guitar. She added simple backing vocals and posted it on YouTube, calling herself Beabadoobee. 300,000 views later, she signed with indie label Dirty Hit. She has since delivered several EPs, each more techno than the last. Her lo-fi roots dissolved, but Fake It Flowers, her first full-length album, leaps a few decades back in musical time. Although grunge and emo flourished before the 20-year-old was born, Kristi takes to these 1990s genres like they’re her birthright. There’s even a track called “Emo Song,” with the circumscribed pitch range and rhythmic perpetual motion…

Steven Isserlis, cello; Matthew Rose, bass; Abi Sampa, vocals; Trinity Boys Choir; Philharmonia Orchestra, Omer Meir Wellber, cond. Hyperíon CDA68246 (CD, auditioned in 24/96 WAV). 2020. Mark Brown, prod.; Simon Eadon, eng. This recording is profoundly personal, the fulfillment of a promise Isserlis made to Tavener shortly before the composer’s death. It collects five of Tavener’s most inspired late pieces, two of which—“Preces and Responses” (2013) and “No longer mourn for me” (2010)—Isserlis arranged, à la Villa-Lobos, for an orchestra of eight cellos. Isserlis, who premiered Tavener’s The Protecting Veil (1988), centered the recording around the thorny, Tolstoyinspired The death of Ivan Ilyich and the revised version of Mahámátar (2000). Ivan Ilyich is rendered forbidding by the dry voice of Matthew Rose, whose instrument cannot compare to that of the…

Matthew Shipp, piano; Michael Bisio, bass; Newman Taylor Baker, drums. ESP 5039 (CD). 2020. Steve Holtje, prod.; Jim Clouse, eng. A veteran free-jazz pianist, Shipp adds to his prolific recorded output this fourth album by his current trio. His idiosyncratic style is difficult to pin down—dissonant but not prickly, cerebral but accessible—and while his inspirations range from Bud Powell to Sun Ra, he remains distinctive. Conventional melody is virtually absent, yet traditional influences such as bebop and Latin jazz are apparent. The group is preternaturally tight, communicating as if by clairvoyance, and the sound quality is as good as one can expect for a contemporary piano trio recording. The moods expressed here vary from raucous to romantic, beginning with the tender, classical-sounding “Blue Transport System,” which gives way, after a…

Silver, piano; Clifford Jordan, tenor sax; Art Farmer, trumpet; Teddy Kotick, bass; Louis Hayes, drums. (LP). Blue Note. Alfred Lion, prod.; Rudy Van Gelder, Kevin Gray, engs.; Joe Harley, reissue supervisor. Further Explorations isn’t the best-known Horace Silver album (that would be Song for My Father), but it is one of the best, certainly the most intriguing. Silver gained fame in the mid-1950s as co-founder, along with drummer Art Blakey, of the Jazz Messengers, the embodiment of hard bop, a soulful strand of Charlie Parker’s bebop with a backbeat. This album, recorded in 1958, 2 years after he left the Mes-sengers, was a departure in another way: as an experiment in rhythm. The opener, “The Outlaw,” is built on a 13- bar line with 10- and 16-line intervals. “Melancholy Mood”…

At a recent virtual press event presented via YouTube, Mark Levinson, a marque of Harman International Industries (itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung), presented four product additions to its 5000 Series: the flagship No.5302 amplifier and No.5206 preamplifier and the recently introduced No.5105 turntable and No.5101 streaming CD player. The new No.5302 amp and No.5206 preamp “repurpose” modules from the 5000 Series integrated amplifiers while adding power and functionality. The No.5302 is a bridgeable stereo power amplifier based on the No.5805 integrated’s class-AB amplification module, with a larger power supply and external heatsinks. Its output stage was designed to handle a wide range of speaker impedance variations, Director of Engineering Todd Eichenbaum explained in the video. In stereo mode, the No.5302 is capable of 135Wpc into 8 ohms and…

Someone once asked me, “If I buy your $90,000, 25W amplifier, what will I get that I am not getting with my $2000, 200W amplifier?” My answer was simple: “Goosebumps, tears, and smirking.” Great, well-tuned audio systems, at all price levels, give their owners less of the annoying and distracting stuff and more of the exciting and engaging stuff. Great systems offer more opportunities for smirking pridefully while listening to great recordings. Sanford Gross, co-founder of Polk Audio and former CEO of GoldenEar Audio, has said that “in general, the best audio systems will sound more lifelike and will bring the listener closer to the performers and the performers will seem more alive in the room.” A few weeks ago, I was playing Stravinsky Conducts Histoire Du Soldat Suite (LP,…

I tested the Marantz Model 30 with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 “As We See It”1). I looked first at its behavior via its line inputs, mostly with the volume control set to its maximum of “0.0,” then at lower settings. (The volume control operates in accurate 0.5dB steps.) As the Model 30’s power inlet lacks a ground connection, I connected a wire from the analyzer ground to the ground terminal on the amplifier’s rear panel, to minimize power supply noise, which would otherwise be a problem with the phono input. Because the Model 30 features class-D output stages based on Hypex modules, all the measurements other than the frequency-response tests were taken with Audio Precision’s AUX-0025 passive low-pass filter, which eliminates the ultrasonic noise that…

Talk about a Scarlet Letter. The term class-D amplification, which describes PS Audio’s new M1200 monoblocks, exists only because another amplifier innovation had already parked in the “C” space. Soon after appearing in high-performance audio gear, class-D became synonymous with “digital amplification” in part because, like early CDs, many listeners found the sound glary, hard, and unpleasant. Besides, class-D is related to “pulse width modulation” and requires a low-pass filter to block high-frequency pulses—that sure sounds digital. But they’re not (see sidebar, p.85). To this day, many audio enthusiasts remain unconvinced by class-D technology. Why? According to Bruno Putzeys, one of the format’s leading innovators, “a high-performance class-D amplifier contradicts every single item of audiophile superstition. Designing one is the ultimate test to see if you’ve got your head screwed…

Recently, I received an email from Editor Jim Austin. “Larry, do you still use your Day Sequerra FM Reference tuner to listen to FM radio?” he asked.1 “Jim, yes, I still listen to FM classical music in the Bay area. Why?” “I had kind of a crazy idea. McIntosh has lots of good new stuff coming out now, but I want you to review the MAC7200 receiver, which isn’t new. I like FM radio. I’d listen to FM a lot more, except that I’m stuck on the first floor in a neighborhood full of very tall brick and stone buildings. I am literally a 3-minute walk from Columbia, but I cannot receive Columbia’s powerful radio station—WKCR—in decent quality due to multipath. So, unless we move up in the world, literally,…

I tested the Cambridge Audio CXA81 with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 “As We See It”1). I first preconditioned the amplifier by following the CEA’s recommendation of operating it at one-eighth the specified power into 8 ohms for 30 minutes. At the end of that time, the top panel was warm, at 98°F (36.7°C), with the grille over the heatsinks and transformer hotter, at 133.1°F (56.2°C). I then performed my usual thermal stress test by running the amplifier at one-third power into 8 ohms for an hour. After 30 minutes, the grille’s temperature in places was 147.1°F (63.4°C). Although this is a little too hot to keep your hand on, the Cambridge amplifier does have enough thermal capacity for its power rating, despite its relatively affordable…

Warner Records R2 628756 (CD/DVD). 2020. Prince, Michael Howe, prods.; Coke Johnson, Susan Rogers, engs. Warner Records and The Prince Estate have been doing an unexpectedly tasteful job of reissuing the pop master’s work. There’s an eye on profits to be sure: The expanded reissues since Prince’s death have clearly been aimed at a broad audience but with enough additional material and shelf-candy packaging to satisfy fanatics. But there’s substance, too. This eight-CD reissue of 1987’s Sign o’ the Times (also available as an LP-DVD set) is easily the poshest set they’ve put out yet. Remastering provides a new clarity, even if the tracks don’t all leap from the speakers as one might hope. Sonically, it’s an uneven album and always will be. But a great album sounding better is…

Rolling Stones Records/Polydor 00602508850325 (3 CDs, 1 BRD). 1973/2020. Jimmy Miller, original prod.; Giles Martin, Craig Silvey, remix engs.; Emily Lazar, Greg Calbi, mastering engs. (5 STARS FOR THE LIVE CD) For this mediocre 1973 album, the Rolling Stones have released perhaps their most deluxe reissue packages. Under review is the version with four shiny 5" discs (three CDs and a Bluray disc with surround/Dolby Atmos mixes plus 24/96 2-channel audio plus three videos). There is also a 4-LP version (mastered from digital sources), a less-deluxe 2-CD set, a 2-LP version, and, exclusively at the Rolling Stones store, a single-LP-plus-7"-single issue. There’s even a cassette reissue for those who like to play in the brackish end of the fidelity pool. Goats Head Soup is not a worthy successor to the…

Elsa Dreisig, soprano (Seraph); Pavel Breslík, tenor (Christus); David Soar, bass (Petrus); London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Sir Simon Rattle, cond. LSO Live LSO0862 (CD). 2020. Andrew Cornall, prod.; Jonathan Stokes, Neil Hutchinson, engs. Christus am Ölberge, a sacred oratorio, is a Beethovenian anomaly. It eschews storming the heavens, balancing dramatic passages against gentler lyric episodes. Most of its vocal solos would fit easily into a Haydn oratorio. Sir Simon Rattle conducts firmly and forthrightly, without his tendency toward spinelessness. The dramatic passages are taut and driving, although some of the tremolos could use more rhythmic point, and the quieter bits move with purpose. Some soft string chorales remain pallid and under-energized. Rattle conjures buzzing anticipation at the start of the tenor aria, precisely gauges the interplay of chorus and…

Juliet Kurtzman, violin; Pete Malinverni, piano Saranac Records SR1020 (CD, also available as download). 2020. Juliet Kurtzman, Pete Malinverni, prods.; Chris Sulit, eng. W. H. Auden famously wrote that “poetry makes nothing happen,” but the global pandemic has brought forth an outpouring of music offered as a healing force. Pete Malinverni sees his new album as “art in service to human connection … in this time of distress.” Candlelight is unusual in format and repertoire. It presents a classical violinist and a jazz pianist in a program heavy on tangos and Bix Beiderbecke piano pieces. It is also beautiful. Candlelight is more a juxtaposition than a blend. Kurtzman portrays melodies in a violin sound of surpassing purity. Malinverni creates spontaneous embellishments and rhythmic sparks and displacements that could only come…

It was only recently that I’d heard of MayFly Audio Systems, a new Canadian speaker company launched in 2020 (of all years). The founder, Trevor May, is an electrical engineer who has designed and built hi-fi and pro-audio gear. He’s also a professional musician versed in mechanical design and acoustics. Both of those disciplines contributed to his hand-built “MF” (“MayFly”) loudspeaker lineup. The concept is interesting: skyline diffusors built into a speaker cabinet. “I was inspired to start MayFly Audio Systems after reading the BBC paper on skyline diffusers and later visiting a local CNC woodworking shop,” May said in a recent press release. “Putting the two together, I wondered what the benefits of putting a diffuser inside a loudspeaker cabinet would be. The prototypes measured great, sounded great.” Two…

I must begin by saying that Thomas Schick is a friend of mine. I know him because we share a love for schnitzel, drinking songs, and playing records through ancient horn speakers. Art Dudley reviewed his 12" tonearm in Listening #87, and it was a core component in that Salt Cellar System I described in GD34. Now, a $1995, 10.5" Schick tonearm (plus Schick’s $295 graphite headshell) has replaced the now-discontinued 12" Jelco TK-850L on my Dr. Feickert Blackbird turntable. This upgrade improves the sound quality of my system while keeping my turntable and tonearm in current production. Both the tonearm and the headshell are hand-made in Germany and distributed in the United States by MoFi Distribution. Being a gearhead, I am really into bearings, and the Schick’s bearings are…

I performed a full suite of measurements on one of the PS Audio Stellar M1200s (serial no. 12-A1-0G0033), using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 “As We See It”1). Because the Stellar M1200 features a class-D output stage, all the measurements other than the frequency response tests and one of the squarewave tests were taken with Audio Precision’s AUX-0025 auxiliary passive low-pass filter, which eliminates much of the ultrasonic noise that might otherwise drive the analyzer’s input into slew-rate limiting. Without the filter, 373mV of ultrasonic noise was present at the amplifier output terminals. The Stellar M1200’s voltage gain at 1kHz into 8 ohms was a little higher than usual, at 30.5dB with both balanced and unbalanced input signals. (This was also the case with PS Audio’s…

I tested the McIntosh MAC7200 with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 “As We See It”1). I looked first at its behavior via its balanced and single-ended line inputs, mostly with the volume control set to its maximum, “100%,” then at lower settings. I performed a complete set of tests from the receiver’s 8 ohm output transformer tap, then repeated several tests from the 4 ohm and 2 ohm taps. I preconditioned the receiver by following the CEA’s recommendation of operating it at one-eighth the specified power into 8 ohms for 30 minutes. At the end of that time, the heatsinks were very hot, at 151.8°F (66.6°C). After letting the MAC7200 cool down, I continued the testing. For the balanced input, the maximum gain at the loudspeaker…

KEF’s LS50 loudspeaker was introduced in 2012 to celebrate the English manufacturer’s 50th anniversary. Usually, anniversary models are large, floorstanding “statement” designs with a price to match, but the LS50 was a minimonitor, priced at $1500/pair. I reviewed the Anniversary Edition LS50 in December 2012,1 writing that it was rare to find a loudspeaker that offers this combination of clarity and neutrality and concluding that within its limits of dynamic range and bass extension, the KEF LS50 “will provide Class A sound for those with small rooms.” The Metas painted a transparent window into the recorded soundstage, not just with this recording but with everything I played. Sam Tellig agreed with me, commenting in May 2014 that he found the LS50’s tonality “spot-on, more neutral than sweet. Soundstaging and imaging…

For jazz fans, a new batch of releases in Blue Note’s Tone Poet series—vinyl reissues remastered with care and cut from the original analog tapes—is reason for celebration. Fortunately, the batches come frequently. The latest releases, as I write in late October 2020, are very solid, musically and sonically. Herbie Hancock’s reputation, at least with me and I think generally, is as a pianist of great versatility, which is to say, he is all over the place stylistically. That’s true on My Point of View, Hancock’s second record as leader, which veers from soul jazz (with Grant Green on guitar on several tracks, including “Blind Man, Blind Man” and the final track, “And What If I Don’t”), to modal jazz (at least it sounds modal to me; I’m thinking of…

4AD 4AD0302CD (Auditioned as 16/44.1 stream on Qobuz; also available on LP). 2020. Adrianne Lenker and Philip Weinrobe, prods.; Philip Weinrobe, eng. Songs and Instrumentals are a pair of solo albums, sold as a set, by Adrianne Lenker, singer and guitarist with indie folk-rock group Big Thief. Although she has been making solo recordings since she was 13, in 2004 this release shows she has developed into a songwriter of intense emotional power and poetic insight, even, or perhaps especially, via the bare-essentials combination of one voice with acoustic guitar. That voice is thin yet incisive and as dexterous as a scalpel; it digs into melodies, cutting them open and laying bare her reactions to relationships. Like many gifted songwriters, she uses her most personal experiences and observations to reveal…

Jakob Bangsø, guitar; Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Kaisa Roose, cond. Orchid Classics ORC100142 (CD, auditioned in 24/44.1 WAV). 2020. Pouya Hamidi, et al., engs. Danish guitarist Jakob Bangsø, 32, may not be widely known in the US, but he has already commissioned seven works. This generous recital includes premiere recordings of Constantine Caravassilis’s beautiful, must-hear Saudade: Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra (2018) and Wayne Siegel’s more derivative Chaconne: Concerto for Guitar and Chamber Orchestra (2016). Both were inspired by the one modern classic on this generously timed recording, Corigliano’s Troubadours: Variations for Guitar and Chamber Orchestra (1993). Troubadours, composed for Sharon Isbin, features a beguiling Spanish melody, eerie accompaniment, original language, and a pervasive sense of nostalgia. Hence Caravassilis’s title, Saudade, which in Portuguese evokes bittersweet memory. I can’t get enough…

Philharmonia Orchestra, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, cond. Signum SIGCD648 (CD). Jennifer Howells, prod.; Mike Hatch, James Waterhouse, et al., engs. Any Swan Lake suite is “conductor’s choice,” but this sequence, from a November 2019 concert, is quixotic. Bypassing the Introduction entirely, the Act I Waltz makes a lovely but tepid start. The Act III Scène, unresolved, jumps to the middle of the Pas de six. We get two “characteristic dances” instead of, say, more of the glorious waltzes. The Finale starts, unprepared, on the big tutti. Even a timpani roll would have helped. Rouvali, the Philharmonia’s incoming director, plays the Waltz buoyantly. The clarinet in the Pas de trois is cheerful and insouciant; the middle section of the cygnets’ dance strolls easily. The Pas de six chunk has a nice uplift. The…

Fred Hersch, piano Palmetto PM2197 (CD, also available as download). 2020. Fred Hersch, prod., eng. Many jazz musicians have responded to the global pandemic by creating music of hope and solidarity. Songs from Home is a shining example. Fred Hersch recorded it himself. He used the Logic program on his MacBook Air, four microphones, and a Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 audio interface. The sound is acceptable. That Hersch has become one of our most renowned pianists proves that jazz is a meritocracy. He is neither musically flamboyant nor personally charismatic. All he does is play masterful, advanced, accessible, modern jazz. Hersch calls this “kind of a comfort food album,” but he is too deep an artist to make easy-listening music. In an atmosphere of quietude, his literal interpretations creatively wander. The…