tas Sept08, The Absolute Sound
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S T E R E O • M U LT I C H A N N E L A U D I O • M U S I C
$65k CD Player
Burmester’s
HIGH-eND sOuND - at a PrICe
INteGrateD amP
mOtHer OF all
suBwOOFers
Jl auDIO’s mIGHty
GOtHam
15 PaGes OF
New musIC revIews
ultImate
mINI-mONItOr?
tOtem’s 20tH aNNIversary
tHe ONe
Burmester’s
Burmester’s
$65k CD Player
$65k CD Player
HIGH-eND sOuND - at a PrICe
HIGH-eND sOuND - at a PrICe
HIGH-eND sOuND - at a PrICe
Pass laBs’
FIrst
Pass laBs’
FIrst
Pass laBs’
FIrst
INteGrateD amP
INteGrateD amP
mOtHer OF all
mOtHer OF all
suBwOOFers
suBwOOFers
Jl auDIO’s mIGHty
Jl auDIO’s mIGHty
GOtHam
GOtHam
15 PaGes OF
15 PaGes OF
New musIC revIews
New musIC revIews
ultImate
ultImate
ultImate
mINI-mONItOr?
mINI-mONItOr?
mINI-mONItOr?
tOtem’s 20tH aNNIversary
tOtem’s 20tH aNNIversary
tOtem’s 20tH aNNIversary
tHe ONe
tHe ONe
tHe ONe
Contents
47
Seven Complete
Budget Systems
Recommended
We assemble seven terriic-sounding systems
to it any budget.
72
Paradigm Reference Signature Series S1
Mini-monitor
This $1500 mini-monitor’s advanced technology and
pure beryllium tweeter pay off in the listening room,
says Steven Stone.
78
Atma-Sphere M-60 Mk III OTL Ampliier and
MP-3 Preampliier
What’s all this fuss about output-transformerless
ampliiers? Sue Kraft auditions a pair of OTLs from
that stalwart proponent of OTL amps, Atma-Sphere
Music Systems.
24
Start Me Up
The stereo receiver comes of age in the Maven from Music
Hall. Neil Gader reports.
28
Absolute Analog
Anthony H. Cordesman evaluates the VPI Typhoon
record-cleaning machine.
82
Pass Labs INT-150 Integrated Ampliier
Pass Labs hits one out of the park with its irst
integrated ampliier, says Neil Gader.
30
TAS Interview
Lyric HiFi’s Mike Kay talks with HP about the early days
of American high-end audio.
86
The Cutting Edge
86
JL Audio Gotham Subwoofer
Alan Taffel on one of the most ambitious subwoofers
ever made.
60
Equipment Reports
94
Burmester 069 CD Player
This gorgeous two-box CD player from Germany’s
Burmester pushes more than a few boundaries.
Anthony H. Cordesman reports.
60
Totem Acoustic The One Loudspeaker
Totem pulled out all the stops on this limited-
edition speaker commemorating the company’s 20
th
anniversary. Wayne Garcia has the details.
104
HP’s Workshop
HP auditions the Zanden 1200mk2 phonostage
68
Gershman Acoustics Sonogram Loudspeaker
Neil Gader listens to the newest and most affordable
speaker from Canada’s Gershman Acoustics.
and considers the problem of differing LP
equalization curves.
September 2008
The Absolute Sound
Contents
6
Letters
www.theabsolutesound.com
Baseball Project, Danny Paisley,
Nachtmystium, and Gates of
Slumber. Plus new archival releases
from Billy Joel and Black Sabbath,
and high-grade LPs from Fleet Foxes,
Shearwater, and Neil Young.
founder; chairman,
editorial advisory board
editor-in-chief
executive editor
acquisitions manager
and associate editor
music editor
proofreader
art director
Harry Pearson
Robert Harley
Jonathan Valin
Neil Gader
Bob Gendron
Mark Lehman
Torquil Dewar
12
From the Editor
15
Future TAS
New products on the horizon.
senior writers
128
Jazz
New discs from Willie Nelson and
Wynton Marsalis, Bill Frisell, Wayne
Horvitz, John Beasley, Mike Garson,
Todd Sickafoose, and Joe Wilder-
Marshall Royal Quintet. Plus, two more
Music Matters 45rpm LP reissues.
Anthony H. Cordesman, Wayne Garcia, Robert E.
Greene, Chris Martens, Tom Martin,
Dick Olsher, Andrew Quint,
Paul Seydor, Alan Taffel
18
Industry News
Classical music is alive and well, as
evidenced by Harmonia Mundi’s
50
th
anniversary celebration. Andrew
Quint brings you the inside story of
this venerable record label.
reviewers and
contributing writers
Soren Baker, Greg Cahill, Guido Corona,
Dan Davis, Andy Downing, Jim Hannon,
Jacob Heilbrunn, Sue Kraft, Mark Lehman,
Ted Libbey, David McGee, Bill Milkowski,
Derk Richardson, Don Saltzman,
Steven Stone
136
Classical
Two recordings of the music of
Einojuhani Rautavaara, Wheeler’s
The Construction of Boston
, Anne Soie
Von Otter performing Swedish songs,
Sibelius’
Kullervo
Symphony, Lord’s
Boom of the Tingling Strings
, a glorious
Bach Motets, Jordi Savall’s
Estampies
& Danses Royales
, and the Zuckerman
ChamberPlayers’ take on Schubert
and Mozart.
113
Manufacturer Comments
AVguide.com
Managing Editor
web producer
MUSIC
137
RECORDING OF THE
ISSUE
Schmidt:
Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln
.
Monica Williams
Suzanne Mahadeo
NextScreen, LLC, Inc.
chairman and ceo
vice president/publisher
advertising reps
Thomas B. Martin, Jr.
Mark Fisher
Cheryl Smith
(512) 891-7775
Marvin Lewis
MTM Sales
(718) 225-8803
116
Rock
We interview genre-blurring rock
artist Alejandro Escovedo. Plus,
new albums from The Hold
Steady, Coldplay, Wolf Parade, The
Fiery Furnaces, Supergrass, The
144
TAS Back Page
Totem Acoustic’s Vince Bruzzese.
Jennifer Martin, Wrights Reprints
(877) 652-5295,
:
(281) 419-5725
,
jmartin@wrightsreprints.com
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©2008 Absolute Multimedia, Inc., September 2008.
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September 2008
The Absolute Sound
Letters
e-mail us:
rharley@nextscreen.com
or write us a letter:
The Absolute Sound
, PO Box 1768, Tijeras, New Mexico 87059
Dodos Lost in the
Past
Three cheers for the great Anthony
Cordesman! But what a pity so many
of the TAS editors are dodos lost in
the past; they clearly would not join
him in his praise for SACDs and the
companies which continue to support the
superior technology with their marvelous
recordings.
I promised myself I would not say
another word to you about SACDs,
but Cordesman’s praise and reader
John Lipani’s far more reasoned and
understanding letter [TAS 182] prompted
me to write (not that I forgive the
condescending “nice little niche” remark).
But all in all, as Stephen Colbert would
say, “I accept your apology, Mr. Lipani.”
Christopher Mankiewicz
gospel of music servers and lightning fast
download speeds, offering the prospect
of convenient perfect sound (
forever
?), but
hold on a minute—haven’t we been along
this road before?
Right now, it seems dificult enough
to move digital bits along a few inches
of S/PDIF cable without inducing cata-
strophic timing errors requiring an atomic
clock to make sense of them. Fat chance,
then, of moving them through a few dozen
telephone exchanges and several thousand
miles of phone lines, or half-a-planet’s
worth of RF-saturated ether without inhi-
bition. As the old melody goes: “There may
be troubles ahead
.
” There sure will be!
SACD is a technology that should not
be so easily cast aside. There are, after all,
huge advantages in storing digits safely
on little silver discs and transmitting them
through the mail. Convenience is only one
small aspect of consumer satisfaction.
Not only do you get a perceivable asset
and ready-made archive, but also timing
delays created by the postal services have
no affect whatsoever on replay quality!
It took the clued-up bofins of the hi-
i industry about twenty years to realize
they had thrown the vinyl baby out with
the digital bathwater, so let’s hope that
this lesson of history is not forgotten in
the stampede to lush SACD embryos
down the waste disposer.
you were one of those misguided people
who think LPs sound better than CDs,
you should go away and never come back.
I sent the owner a polite e-mail stating
that if he were to take the time to listen
to a good vinyl setup he might change his
mind. He sent me back a rather rude reply
stating that he was mixing and producing
analog back in the 70s, and he knew that
72dB-limited (his words) analog was not up
to scratch. I didn’t have the knowledge or
the inclination to argue with this dogmatic
person, but it really made my blood boil.
Before CD I had a Technics SLQ2
turntable, Sansui receiver, and Sennheiser
HD430 headphones. I was happy. When
CD came out I thought, ‘‘this is the best
thing since sliced bread.” I started buying
CDs before I even had (cheap) CD player.
I was sucked right in. These were my salad
days, when I was green in judgment.
Later on, when I had some money,
I spent a lot of it pursuing “analog” sound
through CDs. After reading about real
analog for years, I decided to get back into
LPs. I got a Rega P5 and started to listen.
When I heard the Cisco LP of Jennifer
Warnes’
The Well
, I was blown away. I had
goose-bumps the size of golf balls.
Since then I’ve been buying LPs and
have updated my turntable to a 1996
model Simon Yorke S7 (soon to be
matched to Herron electronics). This
machine is a work of art. Just looking
at it makes me feel good. Also, without
spending a huge amount of money, it
sounds just great.
The point is this: I still listen to CDs and
some of them sound really good. However,
the “goose-bump factor” with good vinyl
is far greater in the analog domain, but I
suppose you already know that.
Ross Peterson
Throwing the
Vinyl Baby out
with the Digital
Bathwater
It is nonsense to suggest that the sound
quality of well-executed CD can match or
surpass that of SACD, although one can
see why more than a few vested interests
would have us believe so.
An inconvenient truth for many is that
there is a wholeness and integrity to SACD
sound even in two-channel mode that ut-
terly eludes the mechanistic and etched
nature of CD playback, irrespective of the
reinement and costliness of the equip-
ment used. Why, even store assistants are
conditioned to tell us that with the latest
recording techniques, modern CDs sound
better than SACD; ergo, “We no longer
stock them.”
Now the nay-sayers preach a new
John Luke
Robert Harley replies:
I’m not sure to
what you’re referring in your irst sentence, Mr.
Luke, but it isn’t a position proffered by anyone
on the TAS editorial staff. We enthusiastically
support SACD, and hope that the stream of
new titles continues.
The Goose-Bump
Factor
The Web site of a local dealer (Eastwood
HiFi in Sydney, Australia) stated that if
RH replies:
Mr. Peterson’s phrase “the
goose-bump factor” encapsulates perfectly why
vinyl playback is justly enjoying a massive surge
in popularity.
September 2008
The Absolute Sound
Letters
rate of change of the waveform—in
other words, a function of frequency.
The higher the frequency, the greater the
degree of amplitude error must be, given
any particular clock. Am I thinking about
this correctly?
If so, the implications for CD playback
are that there is a multiple-whammy of
sorts: On the one hand, we have a band-
limiting phenomenon due to the anti-
aliasing ilter required in the ADC, then
within that truncated bandwidth, you
have phase-error due to the anti-imaging/
reconstruction ilter, compounded by
amplitude distortion that affects the top
octave more so than the lower octaves. It
is, therefore, no wonder that, despite our
limited hearing range, higher-bandwidth
digital brings with it real-world sonic
improvements.
when the limited edition 45rpm disc-
box showed up. In Andy Downing’s
review there wasn’t any mention of the
double vinyl mastered at 45rpm. Not an
insigniicant detail! What emerged from
the dead quiet vinyl surfaces was a huge,
physical soundstage that literally illed my
listening room. When compared to the
regular release, pretty much every sonic
parameter was signiicantly superior.
Engaging, uncompromising and beautiful;
it isn’t the absolute sound, but boy what
a ride! While the domestic LP release
is satisfactory, the 45rpm vinyl edition
is the only way to listen to
In Rainbows
.
And let’s not forget about the superlative
packaging—a true labor of love.
If you are an audiophile, music lover,
or both, consider yourself lucky. In 2008
we are in the midst of a vinyl renaissance.
I tip my hat to the creative forces and the
entrepreneurs who go out on a creative
and inancial limb to provide us, the
listeners, with the most engaging music
mastered in the most uncompromising
way. Does it get any better than this?
Derwyn Goodall
“Eastwood HiFi caters for the ‘realistic’
Audiophile - i.e. ones [sic] who have a
modicum of intelligence when it comes
to the physics and chemistry involved in
the reproduction of music via electronic
means. Those of you who still believe
that the Turntable and Record with it’s
[sic] clicks, pop’s [sic], hisses and lack of
dynamic range still offers [sic] a better
sound than modern day 24 bit CD’s,
DVD-A or SACD’s should click here and
never return!”
And just when did CD become a 24-bit
medium?
The Anti-Goose-
Bump Factor(s)
I have read your technical sidebar
explanation of jitter in the March issue
of TAS, and have to commend you on
providing such a crisp and clear explanation
of a topic that tends to be impenetrable to
most of the audiophile community. I think
I shall save it and refer to it often when I
am discussing the topic with other people
interested in our hobby.
Particularly interesting is the notion
that the timing errors actually result
in amplitude errors in the inal analog
waveform. When I thought about
this further, it seemed to me that the
corollary to this concept is that those
amplitude errors are a function of the
Agim Perolli
RH replies:
You are, indeed, correct that the
waveform distortion introduced by clock jitter
in D/A conversion has a greater magnitude on
high frequencies. One can intuitively see how this
would affect high-frequency timbres (cymbals
that sound like spray cans, for example),
but jitter also makes the bass sound soft and
less dynamic. Keith Johnson provides some
interesting insight into correlating jitter with
sonic characteristics on the Forum at avguide.
com under “D/A Converters” and the thread
“Jitter Audibility.”
Bob Gendron replies:
Andy Downing’s
review in Issue 178 stated that it covered only
the download, and noted that the LP and disc-
box had yet to be released. Andy did, indeed,
review the disc-box, which he awarded a 4 1/2-
star sonic rating, in Issue 180.
Vinyl
Renaissance
While I wholeheartedly agree with
Andy Downing’s musical evaluation of
Radiohead’s new release
In Rainbows
in
Issue 178, I cannot disagree more with
his sonic assessment.
As a long-time Radiohead fan, I
couldn’t help notice the attention the
band received for its new album’s
unorthodox distribution approach. I was
not surprised—pay what you want, sure,
go for it! Creative, risky, challenging—it
was pure Radiohead. While I didn’t make
a play for MP3 download option, I did
snap up the domestic LP as soon as it
became available.
While the inexpensive vinyl edition
was good, things really got interesting
Dream SACD
I would ask you to review the new
Prokoiev Symphony No. 5 on Telarc
with Paavo Jarvi and the Cincinnati
Symphony. It makes, once again, an
excellent statement about the wonderful
possibilities of multichannel SACD.
Prokoiev’s orchestration, with great
percussion, and absolutely terriic
sound, make this the dream SACD. Not
to mention an excellent understanding
and interpretation of the music by
conductor and musicians. The orchestra’s
performance is truly beyond words.
I want to thank you for the wide and
varied number of components at all price
levels that your magazine reviews. It has
enabled me to purchase equipment that I
would have otherwise never been aware
was available to me as a consumer. This
UPCOMING IN
ISSUE 185
• 2008 Editors’ Choice
Awards!
• Hansen Audio’s The
Prince loudspeaker
• New budget gear from
Simaudio
• ProAc’s new D2
loudspeaker
• Pass Labs’ XA-100.5
Class-A monoblock
ampliiers
September 2008
The Absolute Sound
I went to Eastwood HiFi’s Web site to see for
myself and discovered this:
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