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Feb 2006 issue - Electra
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1. The one area that could criticize is its ap pearance but won t Either you love the way something looks or you hate it The visual aes thetic evokes a strong reaction sometimes stronger than the rest of the characteristics combined Personally like it Even though it is a physically small piece it is obviously built solidly and feels the part as well Obviously Affordable Audio is about afford able high performing audio and so will con centrate on how things sound primarily But if an object promises something it should de liver And if it doesn t will consider that dis honesty If an object makes no promises based on price apparently poor materials etc but does deliver in performance when it looks like it shouldn t consider the very cheesy Sonic Impact 5066 T amp for exam ple will consider it a bargain or a hidden treasure instead of dishonesty The exception may make is the typical British component syndrome the boxes are often well built but are usually an afterthought at Affordable Audio least in most of the components have had the pleasure of being exposed to I ll attempt to stick to it re garding these truths in any reviews or comments make If don t feel free to rep rimand me W HEIFFR INTERNAT www heifer org What if we ended world hunger ae Auc Electra Print 300DRD by John Hoffman Electra Print Audio 4117 Roxanne Dri
2. THE E ZINE FOR FRUGAL AUDIO ENTHUSIASTS Affordable Audio Issue Number 2 February 2006 From The Pulpit Infinity Kappa 200 AudioLab 8000A Writer Stew Nelless This isn t the typical Amplifier lays out his Infinity speaker Vintage Integrated responsibilities in Page 8 Amplifier oe equipment Page 14 age ElectriPrint 300DRD DIY for the Margin Paradigm Titan V vs Amplifier ally Competent mes Advent SET tube amplifier at Self Cleaning and a fine ra a an affordable price other fun activities PEO TOS Page 10 bookshelf speakers Page 4 Page 17 In Pursuit of a Passion By Mark Marcantonio Publisher It is the just the second day of 2006 and am once again humbled by the effect of the Internet on our lives Just twenty seven hours ago published online the first issue of Affordable Audio In that time over a thou sand of you downloaded the first issue What began as a fun Christmas vacation project honey do list avoidance is now a full fledged part time operation have read every chatroom post and email and am overwhelmed with the positive It seems as though Affordable Audio reso nated beyond my own dura matter awoke this morning and after reading the responses the hard truth hit me in the face how do match the energy and enthusiasm and im prove on the quality The first step is to develop a proper scheduling process With the first issue it was comparable to watching Robin Williams doing an impr
3. right Does it look good An argument can be made for any object but will use my McCormack Microline Drive pre amplifier as an example Questions one and two can be addressed in the same breath that is the object is a preamplifier with both active and passive stages It has three inputs and a tape monitor switch and the means to control balance and volume believe it functions well as a preamplifier It has what consider to be little or no sonic signature that is it imparts little or no sound to the music played through it This is purely a subjective judgment based on my experiences with this and other pieces of audio equipment One thing about this little preamplifier is the obvious attention to detail robust materials and relatively high quality of fit and finish have never lifted the hood on it so cannot comment on my own direct observations of the insides but there have been enough re views of McCormack equipment to indicate that they are built to a reasonably high degree To me this little piece feels right the switches work and have a nice definite quality to them when they come to hand The tape monitor switch goes clunk with authority when it makes contact The source select has definite stops and positive positioning The volume attenuation controls are smooth and the control knobs themselves ooze quality with no sharp edges To me it just feels right No obvious cheapness is apparent
4. all cassette decks A piece of equipment so universally admired and desired that it retired with the crown of Ultimate Cassette Deck Luckily for us Nakamichi made other products as well One of their finer receivers was the SR 4A A seemingly average looking piece of audio with a bundle of fine touches under its hood that separated itself from much of the competition True to the styling of the time the Nakamichi SR 4A exterior came in a satin black finish Knobs and buttons both push and solenoid ran across the face plate Unlike the Technics and Sony faceplates the SR 4A didn t resem ble the cockpit of the space shuttle LED dis plays are visible yet simple leaving the im pression that this is a piece of equipment rather than a souped up Hasbro Lite Bright Having been a fan of Harman Kardon s face plates instantly liked what was working with in the Nakamichi The front panel is layed out on two levels with the upper taking up 2 3rds of the overall heighth From left to right run the Power But ton Tape VCR monitor knob Input Selector knob Tuner display sec tion and remote sensor on top and the Memory AM FM Tuning Mode Up and Down tuning buttons The bottom row consist of the sta tion memory buttons Finally along the upper right is a recessed outer ring for balance and a large volume knob Tucked in between the tuner display and the volume knob is a small Audio Mute button The
5. ble of reproducing all of the midrange detail in a recording but do it in such an easy and re laxed manner It can be a bit of a mind altering experience when you first encounter a good SET amp and experience this dichotomy of detail and smoothness A 1994 recording re leased by John Gorka entitled Out of the Val ley is an excellent disc for illustrating this point Gorka has a distinctive baritone voice that is capable of being rich and resonant and at other times has a surprising ability to con vey the emotional content of a ballad A good amplifier will highlight his vocal abilities while an average one will lose the little details and smooth the sound over Well the Electra Prints are good amplifiers matter of fact they are one of the most capable amplifiers have heard for reproducing a performers voice The title track Out of the Valley is an emotional ballad that portrays the struggle of young peo ple living in a small town and attempting to leave it for a better life It is a song that con tains poignant lyrics expressive guitar playing and a vocal performance that lets all the emo tion of the writer flow through The 300 DRD amps let you experience this in a manner that few traditional amplifiers are capable of This is the primary strength of a single ended triode amplifier its unique ability to portray all of the mu sic in a manner that lets the listener experience a performance and not just a
6. CDP Amplifier Listening Spot 11ft 2ft 2ft Music Choice Track1 Eric Clapton Unplugged Old Love Track2 USACi test disc Sweet Georgia brown Track3 USACi test disc Fever Track4 Keb Mo Soon as get paid Track5 Lenny Kravitz Thinking of you Review With everything set up and my first track ready to play sat back on the couch and closed my eyes to block out anything that may distract me from using my hearing sense to its full capability With the press of Left f COP Right Speaker Amiblitier Speaker Listening Snot Soot the play button on my DVD player was ready to listen to what the Advents could do Right off the bat the Advents were warm and color ful with loads of character These are the types of speakers that you can listen too all day without fatigue They were well balanced in the upper and lower registers and the tweeter did a good job of pronouncing the strings of the guitar and rasp of the trumpets Affordable Audio in a few of the tracks The sealed cabinet al lowed the small 6 5 driver to travel fairly low in the frequency range but not enough to provide a chest pounding impact like a larger driver would typically do also found that on some tracks the mid bass sounded a bit muf fled as if were listening to the speakers with a cover over top of them Removing the grills on both didn t help remedy the situation that much Further lis tening of the Advents pro vi
7. Sowter and Tamura Electra Print Audio was founded by Jack Elliano and over the years has gained a reputation of being one of the premier winders of transformers Appar ently this is not a well kept secret because companies such as DeHavilland Wellborne Labs Cyrus Brennan and Modwright use Jack s transformers in their products But Electra Print produces more than transform ers They offer custom built amps that are based on Elliano s Direct Reactance Drive cir cuit For the last few months have been lis tening to a pair of Jacks 300DRD amplifiers and want to relay to you my experiences with these amps The 300DRD amplifiers occupy a good deal of real estate in my listening room Each amplifier has an 18 inch by 12 inch footprint and weighs approximately 40 pounds The up side of having such a large chassis is the amount of room the designer has to lay out parts and minimize electrical interactions The frames are built out of solid black walnut and the steel top plate transformers and capacitor are finished in gloss black There are only 2 tubes in each amplifier Output duties are handled by a TJ 300B Meshplate and the pre driver tube is a Sylvania 6AN4 The overall appearance of the 300DRD is very pleasing with a classical look to them that all tube afi cionados would appreciate asked Jack Elli Affordable Audio ano to give me a simple explanation of the benefits of the design choices he made in this am
8. any perceived bass response issues could be minimized At the end of the day it is time to tally up the scorecard for the Electra Prints and de termine if they are worth your hard earned money With a retail of 2500 these amps are not inexpensive by any stretch of the imagina tion Although this pair of amps were acquired from the used market for approximately 1100 Objectively speaking these amps have an excellent tonal balance the ability to ex tract large amounts of inner detail and throw a wide and deep soundstage But there is more to the single ended triode experience The 300DRD amps allow the emotional experience of the music to flow through your speakers and take up residence in the listening room When people encounter a properly matched SET system for the first time quite often they are literally blown away by intense connection they get to the music And that is what these amps are capable of The Electra Print 300DRD amps are inherently musical and can be the cornerstone to a very satisfying audio system Infinity Kappa 200 Loudspeakers By Mark Marcantonio 2 way Bookshelf Loudspeaker 1 6 5 inch CMMD Driver 1 1inch CMMD Tweeter Rear Ported Gold Plated Posts Bi wiring Necessary 50 27Khz Frequency Response 14 5 8 high by 8 7 8 wide by 14 1 2 deep New 599 each Used 199 250 each Infinity speakers have a love hate relationship with audio fans The IRS and Intermezzo series have had a treme
9. be really appreciated Because of its neutrality it would probably lose out in A B comparisons because people tend to pick what stands out the most The C 9 really needs some power to reach their potential would recommend 200 watts or more My amp pushes about 215 per chan nel They like to be cranked and because of their laid back nature most will push them a bit harder than a more forward biased speaker You ve got to give them time to really appre ciate the tonal balance and accuracy they bring to the table Like said earlier the C 9 is not a good demo room speaker their magic is sneaky and subtle Much like the aforemen tioned AR9Lsi and the NHT 2 9 Associated Equipment C E C CD 3300 CD transport AES EBU dig tal output Benchmark DAC1 DAC Musical Fidelity A3CR Preamp Parasound HCA 1500A Power amp Kimber PBJ Interconnects Signal Cable AES EBU digital cable Kimber 8TC speaker cable A Affordable Audio Nakamichi Stasis SR 4A Receiver By Mark Marcantonio Made from 1987 1989 regulated power sup ply extensive video switching 60 wpc cont retail 1 000 Used Features Nak s Inherently Stable Uniform Impedance Amplifier Remote capable not included Pre out Main in jacks for easy system expan sion use as a pre tuna Normally when an audio enthusiast sees or hears the word Nakamichi the first image that comes to mind is the Dragon the king of
10. better probably due to the smaller 6 5 driver and a touch more neu trality The AS F2 has very good bass but just doesn t dig quite as deep with as much ease as the C 9 The big difference was clear when pushing the speakers hard The Athena s would tend to unravel a bit at high volume be coming a little unsorted The C 9 just kept sounding better and better the harder it was pushed almost like it was saying to me that all you got punk Again and again while listening to the C 9 s kept thinking of how much their tonal charac ter reminded me of my early 1980 s ARQLsi speakers even mentioned it to my wife twice The entire time was writing notes for this review was looking for the right word then it finally hit me alluring The Energy Connoisseur C 9 is alluring It drags you into 20 the performance and makes you want to listen to every track just to see how it s going to in terpret the next note They scared me a little at first Initially they sounded pretty dark but after listening for awhile realized that it wasn t that the En ergy s were dark it was that the Athena s were too bright The tonal balance is superb and they love to be pushed hard What really amazes me is the ability to energize the room with bass even at whisper quiet levels couldn t be happier This is not a good showroom speaker It needs to be listened to for a longer period of time to
11. bottom third of the front panel distin guished by a horizontal groove sits the Head phone input A and B speaker selectors Bass control tone Off On button Treble Subsonic filter then a flat ex panse containing only the STASIS label Di rectly under the volume knob is a smaller Variable Loudness knob instead of the typical loudness gain button The backside is thoughtfully laid out placing RCA inputs in a logical sequence and the speaker connection posts in my personally 21 preferred arrangement of speaker A across the top and B below The FM antennae con nection is limited to a coax connection under standable but personally frustrating Firing up the SA 4A the power button made a significant clunk sound as it engaged The bass and treble knobs have a medium weight feel to them with a much appreciated groove as it passes the center point In my younger days this was not as big of a deal as seeing the notch line was quite easy However my now bifocaled eyes find black fronts more frus trating Inside the key component to the SR 4A is Nelson Pass STASIS circuitry Below is the explanation as given in the patent A transistor amplifier in which collector to emitter voltages and currents are kept constant particu larly in the power output stages of the amplifying devices for minimizing distortion due to changes in the transistor beta the essential form of distortion in amplifiers High fidelity l
12. d like to welcome some new people Matt Poisson John Hoffman and Stew Nelles to the writers coral Matt is in charge of the youth movement John will take us through the more affordable estoric equip ment Stew will bring his knowledge of audio and his wonderful Queens English to our de cidedly American prose hope these steps will improve your enjoyment of Affordable Audio A 2 Affordable Audio _ From The Pulpit The Ramblings of a not self Proclaimed Audio Preacher By Stew Nelless Recently my kids have been begun calling me the preacher not because I m religious or spiritual in any way but rather because spew comments regarding lots of things and per sonal peeves One of my biggest peeves is dis honesty It s not dishonesty in speech or in life or in claims made in ads neces sarily that peeve me ok they peeve me and liars and snake oil salesmen too Rather the dishones ties of objects or things make or more correctly the crea tors of these things concern ing materials and implementa tion of the design and build of the object That is the implied promises are what am considering here have developed a hierarchy for these expec tations which can be broken down into parts What is the Object Does it function as that object Does it function well as that object Are apparently suitable quality materials and construction methods used Does it feel
13. full rangers and Seas tweeters and the cheap and cheerful Athena AS B1 bookshelfs Both were connected to the amp via Cat 5 cable Sources used were the Sony CDP 990 the modded Sony Playstation and the Oracle Alex SME 309 Grado Sig 8 Music picked for use were my standards Mary Black s the collection Grapevine GRACD 010 John Lee Hooker s The Best of Friends pointblank 7243 8 48424 26 Naim s Hi Fi Collection 2 HFC259 10 04 a free cd w Hi Fl Choice Oct 04 James Taylor Greatest Hits Warner Brothers Ip version BS2979 Mozart Req uiem KV 626 William Christie and Les Arts Florissants Erato630 10697 2 and John Wil liams and the Boston Pops Out of this World Philips 411 185 2 the cd version number misplaced my record before quoting it here Affordable Audio first tried the Audiolab with the Sony CDP 990 and the open baffles Regardless of which music put on there was always an aggres sive quality to the sound to the sound Inter connects were the Audioquest Rubys as per usual and are not a zippy cable by any stretch The music had everything one would expect appropriate sound stage height and width but an irritating top end that stayed with all selections played then tried it with a Marantz CD5000 that was here at the house for a little while Much better Substituting out the Marantz for the Playstation better yet again Don t be fooled Sony
14. had one hell of a cd player in the PSX original A few minor mods improves it immensely It was in this in carnation of the system that completed my listening and where my caveats come from Please put a source that is extended but not too bright in front of this amplifier With that caveat taken into account the Audiolab will drive most speakers have ever tried with it well With the Athenas the sound was bigger than one would imagine but veiled There was a slight tendency to a cupped or canned sound This is simply a function of box type loudspeakers I have never had any great boxed loudspeakers although my little Castles are pretty well made boxes Switching to something like DCM TF250 loudspeakers a veiled but boxless sounding speaker re moves the canned sound have had the same experience every time that have lis tened to a boxed loudspeaker and then re turned to the OBs or other boxless types there is simply no comparison Ask anyone who has experienced Magneplanar Martin Logan Quad ESLs or very good small moni tors such as Pro Ac Tablettes or the high end Celestions of yore SL6s SL7s SL700s or the recently heard by me Basszilla s It s SO hard to go back But now the great news The AUDIOLAB LOVES TO PLAY MUSIC It is perhaps the closest thing that have found to an audio ap Affordable Audio pliance plugged it in the first day owned it and didn t chang
15. know which ones A probably Philips screwdriver for re moving the amp s cover Some amps make you remove the faceplate to get at the switches A small common screwdriver for adjust ing pots The Poor Man s Variac PMV This photo is not of my PMV which is too ugly for public viewing This PMV belongs to the gentleman known at Audio Karma org as Mor den2004 who graciously granted permission for the use of the photo here Photo 1 Morden2004 s PMV How to make your own Materials A ceramic receptacle for standard base incandescent light bulbs and a junction box to mount it on Apower strip preferably with switch Surge suppressor not required A length of 2x4 to use as a chassis Needs to be long enough to mount both junction box and power strip Affordable Audio Light bulbs 25 40 60 75 and 100 watt incandescent 1 Mount the junction box on one end of the 2x4 Open holes at both ends 2 Cut the power cord in two about 4 from the power strip Remove about 2 of the outer covering from each end of the cord ex posing the insulated conduc tors Strip about 1 2 of insulation from each conductor 3 Bring the cord ends into the junction box Reconnect the ground green and white con ductors and tape the connec tions 4 Connect the black wires to the terminals of the receptacle and mount the receptacle to the junc tion box The light bul
16. leads to the test points for the right channel When you have that one set power down remove the leads and replace the amp cover A You re done amp 13 My Old Friend The Audiolab 8000A first se ries Integrated Amplifier By Stew Nelless The Audiolab 8000A inte grated amplifier is an old friend have listened to this amplifier for the better part of fifteen years To me it feels like coming home It is a full functioning inte grated amplifier including a MC and MM phono stage Well built chassis terrible sheet metal The front panel is well built and simplicity itself All controls are well laid out have a reasonable feel to them and are easy to discern Finished in a dark grey it is hand some in the utilitarian sense of the word No Tag McLaren made the electronics high style but the basic Audiolab is not ugly Typically British with cheesy sheet metal Knock on the top or sides and it rattles like a 30 year old Datsun 510 I owned one of these great cars too got rid of it because at that time was a young idiot I simply didn t appreciate what had No engineering degree or the ability to contort one s body is required to operate it Connections are RCA connectors for all inputs including 2 phono inputs one for MC and an other for MM cartridges The amp has a push in switch to set which phono stage is be ing used Two sets of small binding post suit able for spad
17. single ended triodes or by the acronym of SET Eventually through the efforts of fanatics such as Harvey Gizmo Rosenburg SET am plifiers came out of the shadows and have taken their place in the audio landscape Be cause of this audio renaissance we have seen many older tube types come back into produc tion For example today we can purchase 300B 2A3 and PX 25 output tubes from a wide variety of manufacturers The strength of SET amplifiers comes from the simplicity of the circuit design These amps contain fewer parts have a shorter sig nal path and are quite often hand built with point to point wiring Since fewer parts are used each one will have a significant input on the overall sound of the amplifier It is gener ally agreed upon that the most important parts in a tube amplifier are the output and power transformers These transformers are literally the foundation for everything that will occur in a tube amplifier If you are lucky enough to be around a grizzled veteran of tube amplifier construction you will have to listen to him go on and on about how important good iron is for an amplifier Over the years the have been several companies that have excelled at the black art of winding transformers If you get a group of amplifier builders together can guarantee you they will go on all night discussing the merits of transformers from companies such as Hammond Magnequest Electra Print
18. song Another cut Flying Red Horse features Mary Chapin Carpen ter as a guest vocalist Her dark and smokey vocal style is an excellent addition to Johns and their individual styles highlight and compliment each other s strengths The 300DRD amp does a stunning job of letting each vocalist s performance stand on its own merit The amps have the rare ability to present the individuality of both vocalists and to contrast their different vocal gifts At the same time these amps can show how smoothly their voices blend together and har monize creating a unique auditory experience This level of vocal real ism is very difficult to achieve and is what makes these amps worth own ing Single ended triodes have the ability to create the illusion of acoustic space in a man ner that few solid state or conven tional tube amplifiers are capable of In more than one instance have heard various SET amps coupled with high quality horn speaker sys tems that had all the speed and trans parency of electrostatic or ribbon speakers And they had dynamic range and extended bass response that dipole speaker could only dream of The Electra Print amps have this ability to create a believable soundstage and to properly place the performers within it These amplifiers are present a wide stable soundstage and have very good front to back depth On Ellis Paul s release Say Some thing the track Thin Man high
19. the expertise of the marginally compe tent You ll need to go to someone who s bet ter than marginal 3 4 operation checking setting DC offset This amp has no DC offset pots and yours may not but you still ought to check the offset It should be within a few millivolts of zero Sensitive ears will detect sonic degradation at 15 or 20 mV offset my ears aren t sensitive I m going by expert opinion here Anyway even if your ears aren t sensitive you could consider corrective action desirable if the off set is more than 20 mV as a matter of pride The deteriorated component is probably a regulating resistor or cap figuring out which one is the problem and can t help you there If your amp has DC offset pots locate them on the circuit board by referring to the service manual With the volume pot set at zero turn on the amp and let it warm up for at least 20 minutes Then turn on your VOM selector set at the 300 mV DC position and the red probe lead in the Volts Ohms jack Connect the probes to the speaker terminals of the left channel positive to positive You should see a reading on the meter either negative or positive no sign The service manual will probably tell you to set the offset to zero mV 1 mV If the read ing is negative turn the left channel pot clockwise in small increments to bring the reading to zero You may find zero hard to get to but don t give up until you are at le
20. too bright not too laid back crystalline and airy without being prominent or etched The crossover must be very well engineered as can t detect any transition from the mids There is a very smooth tonal neutrality about these speakers that almost sounds like a single full range cone kept thinking to myself these remind me of my ARQLsi s in a BIG way The easy going extremely listenable sound has you running through your CD library as if someone is going to take your system away tomorrow What s really sort of a paradox is that although they sound a touch laid back they are at the same time quick and articulate very nice blend Comparing these to the V 2 Paradigm Refer ence Studio 60 1600 pr and 100 2300 pr the Studio 60 is simply out classed It just isn t capable of the deep cleanly rendered bass lines and the C 9 gives nothing away in the midrange treble The Studio100 is a more apples to apples comparison Though the Studio 100 has a touch deeper bass the C 9 s smoother upper midrange and linearity in the extreme treble gets the nod will say the Stu dio 100 s mid and lower midrange is impecca ble and the overall tonal balance top to bottom leans ever so slightly in the Para digm s corner for 1000 more it better Comparing to my Athena AS F2 s 600 pr the C 9 is less bright and in your face Treble is sweet without being over bearing The mid range sound staging is
21. ally reduces distortion The pair reviewed had only a few hours of activity on them so a thorough break in period was needed A combination of music and white noise was played thru them constantly for the better part of two weeks The rather stiff cones fi nally did loosen up somewhat but not to level I ve experi enced with other speakers Even at moderate to higher volumes the driver cone barely moved This was my first indication that either the Kappa 200 s craved power be yond the listed 100 wpc maximum or the CMMD cone de sign was a very stiff composite True to Infinity s word the CMMD cones do reduce distortion The music coming forth was Clean What distortion did hear came from the sources was using not the speak ers themselves True to it s old world birth the Kappa 200 s do not sound like a typical Infin ity or American speaker for that matter The sound is very European laid back with em phasis on neutrality With certain music this can be quite pleasant such as light sympho nies and the infamous office music The Kappa 200 s were setup in my living room approximately 18 x 12 The speakers were placed on 24 inch metal stands approximately twenty four inches from both the side and back walls after much shuffling Connection was the poor man s bi wiring It should be noted that the Kappa s binding posts are ar Affordable Audio ranged in a four across pattern
22. ast within 2 mV If the pot acts squirrelly i e the meter reading jumps around when you move the pot setting you may need to power down the amp and clean the pots again clean both of them while you re at it Affordable Audio would tell you to check set the right channel when you re done with the left one but you knew that already 4th operation checking setting bias cur rent Here s what the Sansui service manual has to offer From the manual a photocopy and a table 5 1 F 3336 Driver Circuit Adjustment 4 9 7 s MEASURE ADJUST STEP SUBJECT OUTPUT ADJUST FOR Bias current Between Point A kVR DC 2 6mV Adj Lch Point B L ch ni Bias current Between Point kVRI D bm y Adj R lt Point D Rch Here s the real thing e m vee s i E xp ao T E e waa annann L aa Photo 4 Sansui bias pots The pots are pretty easy to find the aluminum looking things with screwdriver slots about in the middle of Photo 4 the test points aren t so easy The white rectangles below the pots are the resis tors referred to points A and B are the outer legs on the left resistor points C and D are the outer legs of the right resistor The probes on your VOM leads won t do for this and alligator clips aren t much better you need clip leads like this one Photo 5 IC clip leads Affordable Audio Some amps bring the test points to the top of the circuit boa
23. bronze strings plucked with human fingers Listening to Tupelo heard John Lee s breathing the result of close miking his voice and got the sense of feeling what and why he was singing and the richness that his voice provided The acoustic guitar seemed right A sense of space was evident on the Steamroller track on James Taylor s album Clapping sounded like clapping the crowd s hecklers actually encouragers were distinct and easy to hear There was no hi fi illusion Just the great sound of JT rockin out to a great old song As far as phono performance and listening The John Williams album remember those boys and girls was big spacious and involving and quiet So how can summarize the Audiolab Critical of source components Nicely constructed in the over used British cheesy sort of way Not ugly but not great industrial design Useable connectors but not great Good facilities Great sound Now as a used component be aware that there are areas of concern The RCA inputs are of the PC board mounted type and are made of some sort of plastic or thermal set Over time they do fatigue and crack The ones on this amp need to be changed or a whole sale upgrade to proper panel mount types is needed The speaker binding posts are of perhaps the minimal quality permitted If ya have a few dollars and are handy or know someone who is spend it on some respect ab
24. bs provide the settings for your variac We need an amp to use as an example here s my Sansui A 7 in its unopened state onan Photo 2 Sansui integrated amp model A 7 1st operation cleaning The majority of integrated amps and tuners have top covers that are also side covers they are fastened with two screws on each side of the amp The Sansui A 7 is different just two Affordable Audio screws in the back When it s off you can see into the Area of Operations EETA WED kerse Photo 3 The Sansui A 7 cover off These innards are clean Your amp may be clean too depending on where it was used and stored If things are dusty or worse start with the can of compressed air You may wish to remove the amp s bottom cover now to give the dust an open way to the egress sorry blame this on P T Barnum If there s significant dirt left see what the small paint brush can loosen up then use the com pressed air again If there is still a layer of crud maybe yellowish from tobacco smoke you can resort to isopropyl alcohol and cotton swabs Don t use any more alcohol than nec essary One reason for this seemingly compulsive fussiness is that as you are cleaning you will hopefully not see any evidence that electro lytic caps have been leaking If you find any leakers you need to replace them before power up Now you can clean switches using the electri cal contac
25. ce of the record ing It still remains obvious that this is a com mercial recording and it has a distinctive sound that is often associated with pop music Bass performance and dynamic range are the two main areas that people find fault with single ended triode amps This is quite under standable since the majority of SET amps bring less than 15 watts to the table The 300DRD has competent but not exceptional performance in the lower registers These amps have quick and tuneful bass that never gives the impression of being bloated or euphonic But the champion of deep bass re sponse in the 13 wpc weight class is the Art Audio Diavolo The Diavolo has an iron fisted control over a speaker s woofer and is capa ble of creating bass that drive other SET amps green with envy Quite simply the Electra Print cannot match the Diavolo in this category But that s understandable because have yet to hear another amp based on 300B tubes that could found that acoustical bass instru ments such as cellos tubas or kettledrums were reproduced with plenty of weight and ex tension On Aaron Copeland s Fanfare for the Common Man the opening percussion lines had substantial weight and authority But when you changed genres to modern electronic mu sic such as techno or trance the 300 DRD tended to run out of steam before the music Affordable Audio could reach dance club levels Although with careful selection of speakers
26. d Celestion SL6si s This is not to say the music produced by the Kappa 200 s was bad Acoustic guitars had a Affordable Audio smooth quality with a slight warmness Piano music came across with a natural decay of key strikes What was fascinating was how the foot petal was placed low and to the left of center yet the vocals placed themselves ac tually back from the speakers a good foot and a half This reverse soundstage beckoned me to lean forward in my chair and walk between the speakers The result was both confusing and pleasant in that there were no dead zones If this were a workout room with a number of machines the Kappa s might have worked quite well The Kappa 200 s perform ance for me may explain why this model is such a rare find in the US and Canada It s characteristics bet left many potential cus tomers confused Longtime Infinity Kappa fans must have felt puzzled if not abandoned by the drastic change in sound It is so very very different If you are interested in this series of speakers the Kappa s also come in a 400 and 600 models make sure to audi tion them in your own home didn t before buying Now they inhabit the list of equipment used to own A a DIY By and for the Marginally Competent By Bob Lombard This article and any that may follow it is not intended to educate experienced audio Do It Yourselfers If you are one of those feel fre
27. ded some really nice detail in the program ma terial Sitting back with my eyes closed these speakers really brought to life the wide variety of instruments used from the plucking of the acoustic guitars to the trumpets in the jazz tracks it all seemed very realistic One of the downsides to the Advents was the lack of soundstage While found both the Advent and Paradigm to be lacking in this depart ment more so found the Advent at times to be very precise where the vocals were com ing from and instead of being an open and airy soundstage felt you could too easily pinpoint exactly where the voice was coming from which was somewhat of a disappoint ment Once the first round of listening was com plete swapped out the Advents for the Paradigms and placed them in the exact same location and wired them up The first thing noticed is these speakers were a fairly bit more sensitive as had the gain set a bit lower for the same desired output with the Advents After listening to the first few tracks quickly noticed that the soundstage on these little monsters was a lot wider and more transparent than the Advents While sat back on my couch with my eyes closed could hear the different instruments being played in different spots and the voice was more cen tral instead of coming directly from the speakers like it was with the advents The highs were very smooth and the blend from the lower and high
28. e to read on and send critical letters to the edi tor Just be aware that for some editors any feedback is good feedback The intent is to help make the use of vintage i e affordable equipment more practical for the common man That new to you but vintage integrated amplifier Getting it ready It s setting there on your workbench looking good You don t know anything about its his tory for sure and it may not have been pow ered up for a long time So before you power it up there are some things you ought to do cleaning preconditioning adjusting things know the temptation is great to fire it up but if you do there is a small but real possibility of seeing smoke Equipment required The service manual for this model Without this you won t know which pots do what or what their settings should be A variac either a real one or a PMV Poor Man s Variac using light bulbs You use this to wake up the amp gently after its presumably long sleep A VOM aka DMM Used when checking setting DC offset and idle bias current A small paintbrush of the type used to apply varnish You use this as a duster A can of compressed air the sort used to clean computer keyboards Electrical contact cleaner Deoxit or Permatex item 24379 in case there are others recommended can t rec ommend anything else because some of them leave residue and don t
29. e it for over 12 years With soft slightly dark sounding speakers the amp drives and the sound perks up It does well with revealing loudspeakers It portrays the Music in a toe tappin let s dance sort of way Not in the Flat Earth style but it moves along just the same can say that in my time as an owner of this amp had never forced the amp into clipping You ll want to leave the room well before this happens never felt the desire to change the amp unless direct com parisons were made against much more costly amplifiers My critical test for top end performance is Mary Black s most excellent Song for Ire land During one of the crescendoes her voice can screech and become very unpleas ant to listen to have only hear it reproduced in a very controlled and smooth manner on perhaps one or two systems that utilized separate transport Illuminati D60 DACs sys tems am not saying others can t do it just that have no first hand experience with other players that don t She simply belted out her voice in a sweet beautifully portrayed manner Ditto for her duet with Eleanor McEvoy Only a Woman s Heart on the same disc Voices were distinct but harmonious There is a rea son why these two performed this song to gether Bass was powerful and authoritive On John Lee Hooker s duet with Bonnie Rait I m in the Mood for Love the electric bass seemed real Not overpowering but
30. er frequencies was very well done Detail in the music was very pro nounced and could hear little things in the music couldn t pick out as well with the Advents One downfall with the Paradigms that heard was the bass output In my opinion didn t find it as musical as the Advents The ported cabinet could cause this but found that not as much detail was prevalent in the lower registers as it was with the Advents although both speakers had solid bottom end for their respectable sizes After the listening test was left with a good feeling that these speakers gave me Being enveloped in the sound and for it to sound really lifelike is a nice quality to have in such a small speaker A rundown of both speakers revealed Baby Advent II Pros Smooth bass response with nice low extension Warm mids and highs Cons Lacking in wide soundstage Paradigm Titan Pros Low bass extension with powerful impact for its size Warm mids detail highs Very open soundstage with life like realism Cons Bass can sound a little boomy at times Both are real winners in their own way The cons weren t great enough to make me put these speakers away as found a style of music each one was better at reproducing that the other If you get a chance to try out a pair of either suggest you do so and will not be disappointed in the performance these lit tle contenders pack Related Equipment Samson Servo 260 Providi
31. es or push in style banana con nectors take care of the speaker connection facilities They also accept bare wire Also present is an IEC AC input socket allowing you to change to the AC cable of your choice The stock cable is of good quality This amp was owned by me and sold last year to finance my McCormack purchase had modified it per instructions from Artech for merly the North American distributor to sepa rate the power and pre amp sections and used a short pair of Audioquest Ruby inter connects to join the pre amp out to power amp section or used a passive pre amp with Alps blue attenuator It is in this incarnation that the old amp remains Rated at 50 or 60 watts per channel depends on the magazine or year It is capable of good drive on most woof ers and therefore has the impression of muscularity Sometimes criticised for being polite it this early exam ple can be particularly revealing Intolerable of poor sources or any with a rising top end it sings with the right stuff Listening tests were conducted in the lair a 19 X 12 with an 8 X8 bump out on the back wall basement room with concrete floors and 1970 s old school panelling The floor is car peted with thin pile orange and brown carpet and has a wood mirror ceiling The end of the room opens up via 3 brick arches into another 10 X 25 opening Loudspeakers that were used JE Labs baffles with Oxford J12s
32. esides in the sunny Tri Cities of Washington state Enjoys spending his time with his lovely wife Michelle three kids two dogs and one cat Anybody need an extra cat Matt Poisson Born Jan 4th 1983 in a small town in Ontario Canada was a peculiar child taking into consideration my favorite toys to play with were ex tension cords of all lengths Stew Nelless Currently reside in southern Alberta Canada about 150 miles south east of Calgary I m in my early 40 s 2 grown kids been with the same girl for 25 years One thing have impressed upon my kids is that music is important in life and we often mark our lives by the music we hear along the way Affordable Audio Review Calendar Index Issue 1 January 2006 Adcom GFA 535 Amplifier Linn Keilidhs Speakers Outlaw RR2150 Receiver Polk Audio LSi9 Speakers Totem Dreamcatcher Speakers Issue 2 February 2006 Advent Baby II Speakers Audiolab 8000A Integrated Amplifier ElectriPrint 300DRD Amplifier Energy Connoisseur C 9 Speakers Infinity Kappa 200 Speakers Nakamichi SR4A Receiver Paradigm Titan V Speakers 24 Affordable Audio
33. f F Cork reland business office of the clutter and turn it intoa tranguil environment Organizing is all about the visual Think of Visual Calm When you I F it is my goal to find equipment and writers from pe ene ee EEE AE E around the world to write for A A Look for a review of a pair of Celestion speakers in the near future Please take a few minutes to view my website If you have any questions please call or email me today Dear A A Last Updated January 26 Why no music reviews B A Chevy Chase Maryland B A The simple reason is that don t have a writer www straightenupandfileright com wanting to focus on that area If you or anyone is interested please email me Publisher Editor I m having a hard time understanding why this maga zine would spend time reviewing equipment that is only available by chance want to read about new equipment that makes improvements on previous pieces T C Hutchinson Kansas LG I ve been buying used equipment since 1982 With the advent of the Internet the ability to market used equipment has exploded Both eBay and Audiogon have given many audio enthusiasts the opportunity to experience equipment that never would have be fore For more see my article on page 23 Affordable Audio 23 About Affordable Is a privately held venture published via the Internet the content is delivered free of charge to readers Audio Created using Apple Compu
34. instead the standard two over two Both 14 gauge and heavy original Monster cable were used as interconnects No appreciable difference was heard unlike the Linn Keilidhs reviewing in the January 2006 issue To be fair tried the Kappa 200 s with both my Harman Kardon AVR 75 receiver and the Ad com GFA 535 My immediate impression was clouded by a rainstorm that masked the musi cality of the speakers tried again the next day the sound only improved slightly It seemed as though a heavy curtain was placed between the speakers and my chair The HK just didn t have the power to create any life whatso ever Even with its high current capability the per formance just didn t exist Nothing more need be written The Adcom true to its de sign did push the Kap pa s but not into being forward but a soundstage was created It went out just a few feet then up from the speaker place ment and backwards rather than toward the lis tener This come to me sound may be easy to lis ten to but left me emotionally unsatisfied However opposite of Infinity s heritage rock music lacked energy The Who s masterpiece Quadrophenia lacks the emotion that makes the recording so powerful never felt drawn into the music One could try to say that my American ear wasn t prepared for the nu ances of European sound but that isn t the case spent fifteen wonderful years savoring the sound of my truste
35. le quality ones available from several on line resellers wholesalers etc Neutriks seem good and inexpensive to me They might be worth considering without going to all out ex pensive but very good Cardas or WBT types So far no caps have been replaced on this unit but any old component can benefit from a thorough inspection by a good tech whether a backyard type many know are superior to some of their professional coun terparts or a shop employed one Allow some dollars for that Perhaps a 100 investment in time and a few high value parts as upgrades and say 200 300 for the amp doubt any will consider it a poor buy Newer versions come up on ebay etc One is being offered at 355 bid as of this writing think it may go to 500 If bidding on UK or other world market pieces know that to get it here and run it in North America a 120V to 220V power trans former is needed may cost much more than to wait until one comes up or can be located in North America think it is well worth the wait A S Affordable Audio Paradigm Titan Vs The Baby Advent Il By Matt Poisson Speakers Paradigm Titan 6 5 woofer 34 Dome tweeter Ported bass reflex design Advent Baby II 6 5 Acoustic suspension driver 2 Ferro fluid dome tweeter A rundown of the test system For this review l enlisted my newly acquired amplifier the Layout of listening test Left Speaker Right Speaker
36. lights the Electra Print amps capabilities in regards to creating a believable soundstage This is a minimalist recording that consists only of Ellis Paul his acoustic guitar and you the listener The Electra Print amps not only create the il lusion of Ellis Paul in your listening room but they also allow you to hear the acoustics of the recording venue It becomes very easy for the listener to close his eyes and imagine be ing seated in a small dark club just a few feet off of the stage When paired with the right speakers the 300DRD amps can be holo graphic in its ability to recreate performers and their instruments Affordable Audio The high frequency performance of the 300DRD amps portrays a classic tube heri tage The treble reproduction is smooth and refined without any hint of glare or harshness Although the amplifiers sound relaxed in the upper registers they do not artificially roll off the high end frequency response Sony has released several songs on SACD by The Bangles including The Hazy Shade of Win ter The opening tambourine sequence is so clearly reproduced that felt that if tried hard enough could count the exact number of metal cymbals in the tambourine The accom panying guitar work was so quick and precise with the decay of individual notes occurring so quickly that they appeared to just vanish But most importantly the Electra Prints did not al ter or cover up the tonal balan
37. mazed at the bass these narrow column type speakers reproduce it s almost like an optical illusion You see this tall skinny thing reproducing incredible bass and you know there is a sub hidden somewhere The C 9 has 2 bass ports one in the front near the bot tom and a second port on the back about 3 4 up would imagine the combination of the tuned ports and the 18 depth of the cabinets explains the room energizing bass And these Affordable Audio pups dish out some serious tight bass They plunge 6Hz lower than my previous dual 8 towers noticed in the Soundstage review of the C 9 they had to push the speaker much farther than they typically do to get any read ing of distortion in the lower bass impressive and exactly what experienced deep clean well articulated bass have to take a second to mention the bind ing post These are very impressive they look like WBT binders with a large heavy grade clear plastic knob surrounding the gold plated screw down It makes tightening a tool less proposition as you can really get some torque on the posts Very Cool BTW the C 9 is not bi wireable Also quick mention of the grilles they are magnetized no posts to break off or wear out easy on easy off The magnets are also damped to eliminate vibration Again very cool did all of my listening with the grilles in place The tweeter is nothing short of magnificent It does everything right Not
38. nd that you set the top cover back on the amp No need to install the screws the thing is that there is a small chance that one of those electrolytic caps will pop Connect your variac to power with its power switch off Connect the amp to the variac power switch off volume knob at 0 for luck If you are using a PMV screw in the 25 watt bulb if a real variac set it at 45 volts Turn on the amp s power switch then the variac watch for smoke ready to turn off the variac The amp s speaker protection if it has such will likely stay active but the caps will charge The bulb in the PMV will dim as the caps charge If no smoke is rising leave the setup going for about 20 minutes If you are using a PMV and nothing bad has happened turn its power off replace the 25 watt bulb with the 40 watt bulb and turn on power again With a real variac turn the volt age up to 60 Repeat the 20 minute wait Repeat the procedure 60 watts 75 watts 100 watts or 75 volts 90 volts 105 volts If the amp passes the procedure is finished The amp should handle full power OK Turn the amp off Somewhere during the process the protection circuit should deactivate a few seconds after power up If it hasn t done that by the last step cross your fingers and plug the amp into a regular receptacle no variac and turn the amp on Ifthe protection circuit stays in in definitely there is a problem that is probably beyond
39. ndous amount of critical success over the years The original Kap pa s have a loyal and dedicated fan base This is due to the higher quality of engineering and an honest desire to improve upon previous perform ance standards A few years back Infinity decided to reintroduce the Kappa line with a whole new lineage The speakers would be born and bred of Danish design with simple rounded lines meshed with a pewter colored plastic front panel The look is different yet clean and pleasant to most eyes The form actually makes the speakers look bigger than they ac tually are This is from the rounded almost bullet like shape of the box The build quality is exceptional and the real cherry veneer on the models reviewed were impeccable Infinity says the following about their drivers Working collaboration with metallurgy special ists the resourceful Infinity transducers engi neers identified a special combination of mate rials that exhibit a remarkably useful set of mechanical properties Infinity s new Ceramic Metal Matrix Diaphragms are much stiffer than standard metal diaphragms moving the natu ral resonances upwards in frequency At the same time CMMD cones have more damping than metal cones making this an excellent cone material for all transducers woofers midranges and tweeters What all this means is that an aluminum center has a specialized ceramic metal covering creating a driver the dramatic
40. ng 130WPC 4ohms and 85WPC 8Ohms 20 Hz To 50 kHz frequency range Low THD of 0 03 CDP Apex Progressive Scan DVD Player Cables 15 awg OFC speaker wires e Custom 3ft interconnects with gold plated connectors No preamp was used in this test The CDP was fed directly into the Sam son Servo and the adjustable gain was used on the amp to eliminate any possibilities of coloring the sound or adding any more quali ties that might not be desirable for the test www echohifi com Affordable Audio Review of Energy Connoisseur C 9 By Steveinaz Polk Club member Editors note This review originally ap peared in Polk Audio discussion board be fore the review standards were setup for this e zine The author has given permis sion for it to be published here Specifications Freq Resp 31 23kHz 3dB 10dB 26Hz Power handling 250 watts per channel Efficiency 91dB 1watt 1mtr Woofers 2 x 6 5 Homopolymer w rubber bu tyl surround Mid Woofer 1 x 6 5 Homopolymer w rubber butyl surround Tweeter 1 x 1 chambered alumi num dome Binding post 1 set of 5 way Dimensions 45 x 7 75 x 18 HxWxD Weight 62lbs each Retail 1300 00 pr Listening As with most speak ers give these a good 30 hrs of run in before listening criti cally Initially they will come off as some what dry and dark give it time and you ll be rewarded with some seriously smooth music First of all I m still a
41. ove routine This issue is different soft and hard dates were engraved Secondly a proper editing for grammar process was put into place So hopefully the unfortunate errors will be first issue lore and nothing more Secondly need to learn more about the publishing program Pages as upon further review font sizes varied and italics were not Energy Connoisseur Letters to the Editor C 9 Tower Tell us how we are A satisfying mini doing What you tower want to see read Page 19 and review Page 23 Nakamichi SR4A Publication Info Receiver Stuff Understated quality All the info you could and smooth sound ever want to know Page 21 Page 24 consistent am pleased with the readability of the Ariel font in pdf document format am still on the fence regarding the font size of 12 for the articles Third more graphics are incorporated the first issue was too black and white You will notice more advertisements for independ ent audio shops as time goes on This was always in the plan as am the child of a former small business owner am a firm believer in supporting local audio shops against the soulless big boxes If the little guys disappear so will many fine affordable small audio manufacturers You will also notice some ads for a few out standing charities Originally was going to put in some color boxes to take up dead space between articles Instead decided to put it to better use Finally I
42. ow power output current from a cascoded transistor amplifier is fed through a load to a second high power amplifier having constant current and less than unity gain with an output summed with the output of the first ampli fier such that the output of the first low power am plifier is the signal bearing portion and the output of the second amplifier serves as a current boot strap increasing the effective impedance of the load as seen by the first amplifier Nelson Pass Patent 4 107 619 My first listening session took place in my living room using an HK PL 8450 cd player and a pair of 4 Ohm Totem Dream catcher speakers The sound was very even al most too much so Bass exten sion or the lack of it perceived as the culprit came up with this explanation after listening to some acoustic guitar music as the notes gave a gentle pleasant rig until some bass strings were played At those points the music lost it s liveli ness the receiver seemed to pull back rather than push thru the passage True to Nakamichi s receiver reputation the overall sound was slightly warm personally quite pleasant The SR 4A played cleanly without distortion up to my limits of volume toleration Playing the Dreamcatchers that loud did heat the top of the chasis but not un bearably so My second listening session took place in my family room using the same cd player but with a pair of 8 Ohm Polk RTi 35 speakers In playing
43. p Jack touted the benefits of direct cou pling of the output tube Also that solid state rectification in the power supply results in the lowest amount of voltage variation during bass notes Finally the Ultrapath circuit eliminates any audio path through the power supply and is responsible of the amplifiers ability to repro duce a high level of musical detail Since have an extremely limited knowledge of elec trical design believe it is safe to say that could not recognize a DRD or Ultrapath circuit if it bit me on the leg But can judge an ampli fiers overall performance and will take Jacks word on why his amplifiers sound the way they do Now that the preliminaries are out of the way it is time for the main event The Electra Print amplifiers are fed from an Electra Print PVA pre amp Source duties are taken care of by a Sony SCD CE595 which has been modi fied by Tube Research Labs A pair of Cain amp Cain Abbey s fills the speaker slot Finally Tara Labs Air 3 and Master cables connect everything together As a general rule single ended triodes are known to excel in the areas of midrange re production and the ability to put performers in a believable acoustic space can tell you that the Electra Print amps have the magical ability to create the illusion of a musical perform ance Most importantly these amps also have a very even tonal balance that has just a hint of extra warmth to it The 300DRD are capa
44. rd clip leads work best there too Some amps don t provide test points but have you remove a fuse and read milliamps across the fuse holder small insulated alliga tor clips are handier for connecting to a fuse holder With the amp turned off and volume control set to zero attach the leads to the test points for the left channel Don t turn on the VOM yet or connect the leads to it Make sure that the leads are where they should be and nothing is getting shorted Turn on the amp and let it warm up for at least 10 minutes Then turn on the VOM set it up to Volts Ohms and 300 mV DC amps and 300 mA if your are checking across a fuse holder and connect the leads to it Let the meter reading settle It can be 10 or so higher than what the manual calls for they tend to be conservative but shouldn t be lower If the reading is unacceptable and you cleaned these pots while doing the other cleaning Use a small insulated screwdriver both handle and shaft insulated to move the adjustment a small amount If you see the meter reading go to zero and then return to a different number as you turn the pot is skipping and still dirty or corroded You may not be able to get to the setting you want because it s in a skip area You should power down and try cleaning it again Sometimes especially with older pots cleaning isn t enough and the pots will have to be replaced If things go well turn power off and move the
45. t cleaner In this amp the switches are accessible after the top cover is removed in some amps you have to take the faceplate off too Give each switch both rotary and pushbutton a good dose of cleaner operating each one several times as you proceed The cleaner will evaporate quickly If your amp has DC offset pots it makes sense to clean them now in the same fashion carefully note the pot s current position so you can return to it Just spraying the pot with cleaner won t accomplish much you have to turn it through its travel a few times Some 11 folks advocate cleaning the bias pots during this operation If that s your plan make very sure to return the pot positions to where they were Folks who are not the above some folks prefer to leave the pots as they are in the expectation hope that the settings will be good when checked or that they will function correctly if they have to be adjusted This marginally competent remember writer takes the second choice modified don t mess with those pots now but if find that they need adjustment when get to that step go back a step and clean them before moving them with power on A jumpy bias pot can make for fried components downstream from it This amp doesn t have DC offset pots you can see the bias pots in photo 3 about in the middle of the picture 2d operation the slow wake up For this step recomme
46. ter s Pages software program and translated into pdf document format Writing Opportunities If you have an interest in audio equipment especially quality affordable or vintage gear please contact the publisher for guidelines Specific areas of interest being looked for are vintage wood sided equipment and tube fanatics Advertising Retail shops dealing in both new and used audio equipment are highly encouraged to advertise as this e zine was created specifically to support your busi ness For rates please contact the publisher at affordableaudio verizon net Affordable Audio is now accepting manufacturers advertising You ll find our monthly rates very ap pealing Please contact the publisher for an advertis ing packet affordableaudio verizon net Copyright Notice All articles are the property of Affordable Audio Manufacturers need only to ask permission to reprint or post a link to the web page Staff Biographies Mark Marcantonio Editor Owner Publisher Is a school teacher in the Portland Oregon metro area Audio has been a fascination budget drain since his early teenage years Steve Eddy 57 is a longtime journalist and jazz writer currently doing freelance writing He lives in Southern California with his wife Diana and son Brian Bob Lombard Was a field service technician manual writer for a machine tool company Now retired tripping along through The Golden Years John Hoffman R
47. the same music the SR 4A seemed much happier with the easier load The Polk s played significantly louder at the same volume points Bass extension proved not to be a problem Donald Fagan s skippy vocals in The Goodbye Look gave every bit of the airy presentation that I ve heard previously on several thousand dollar systems If you re in the market for a quality used re ceiver that can pick up FM stations and play cd s without distorting the Nakamichi SR 4A would be a strong contender It s warm mel low output creates a pleasant sound that al lows the listener to concentrate on the music or other activities instead of the harsh per formance of entry level receivers Keeping in mind its preference for easier 8 Ohm loads for an office the SR 4A is a solid choice 22 Affordable Audio Letters to the Editor Dear A A Thanks for bringing audio reviews back from the mil lionaire clubs to the rest of us really appreciate that you place value in used equipment Please don t change M R Boise Idaho really enjoyed the article on the Linn Keilidh s lts All Aboa speakers hope you plan on reviewing more Euro pean equipment in the near future North America shone need S to hea ra bout the ma ny wond erful bra nd S that Is disorder controlling your life My name is Christine Marcantonio can be owned by a nybody and asa Professional Organizer I can help you rid your home and
48. ve Las Vegas NV 89108 USA Phone 702 396 4909 Fax 702 396 4910 Specifications 13 wpc at full output 1 4 volts for full output freq response 10hz to 40khz distortion 5 at mid power Output tube 300B Driver tube 6an4 In 1906 American physi cist Lee DeForest invents the audio tube which is a three electrode version of John A Fleming s elec tronic valve The audio tube was often referred to as the DeForest valve but today is known to audio enthusiasts as the triode The patent for the audion tube was sold to AT amp T and in 1907 DeForest founded the DeForest Radio Telephone Company In the years that followed Lee DeForest broad cast radio events from exotic venues such as the Eiffel tower and the New York Metropoli tan Opera House By the 1920 s audio tubes had made the transmitting of radio signals and home radio receivers a common item in the American household The very first tube amplifier designs were quite simple and used a single output tube to amplify the input signal This circuit design was the mainstay of home electronics for many years In 1947 the Williamson circuit was invented and became the dominant cir cuit for commercial and home audio amplifi ers But in the 1990 s an interesting event happened A small group of tube enthusiasts rediscovered this early amplifier circuit and started to tout the benefits of this design Am plifiers based on this circuit are now known as
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