Report By Rick Becker
Page 8
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The most unusual, and the finest headphone rig had a Sophia SET
Music EL-34 Tube Amplifier with four EL-34 tubes ($1600) driving an AKG
K1000 SP headphone set ($1048). What these headphones lack in visual
appeal, they make up for in sound quality. Designed to stand away from
your ears, they can be pivoted to adjust the frequency response your ear picks
up. And while they put out sound directly into the air around your head,
it doesn't carry very far, as my friend Mark Katz pointed out.
Frequency response was rated as 30 Hz to 25 kHz, and the music sounded like a
cross between an electrostatic loudspeaker and an electrostatic headphone
because of the offset. As for Wife Acceptance Factor, who cares?!
(Unless perhaps you wear them to bed). This was probably the finest
sounding headphone rig I've heard since the gorgeous old Sennheiser Orpheus
headphone and amplifier ($15K) was on display at a few shows…not that I'm
a headphone geek, but I've heard a few.
Speaking of Sennheiser, I saw their compact foldable models which
are used by Mercedes Benz with slightly different cosmetics. Of
particular interest, and a model that has sold “thousands”, was the noise
cancellation model that many travelers prefer. In the noisy showroom
environment, with an MP3 source, I wouldn't exactly call it high-end, but
the noise cancellation system provided substantial improvement.
For the person who cannot stand the sight of a contemporary plasma TV on
his (or probably her) wall, VisionArt produces a frame with roll-down
art work to cover it up. (Look at the image in the frame closely). With a
choice of frames and art work, this might be just the answer for the
subscriber to Architectural Digest. Interestingly, I learned recently,
that more men than women read that journal.
VisionArt: Covering your plasma screen with art
And finally, here's one for your mother! How about an innocent
black box that sits UNDER your TV set and creates a spacious virtual
surround sound that gets way outside the box? With its own built
in amplifiers, drivers and circuitry to blend in-phase and out-of-phase
signals, the ZVOX does just that, with no home theater clutter or
pretense at all. Just way-better sound than your TV is likely to give
you, and all for only $199, with NO owners manual! What more
could your mother want?
By five o'clock, I figured it was time to take some advice from Bob Seger
and "Get Out of Denver."
Private Eyes Gentlmen's Club
Thank you, Steve. Thank you, Primedia. I leave you, dear
readers, with a reminder that one man's high-end rig is another man's
Harley Davidson.
Listen to music with a passion.
And as I crossed through Jersey I reflected on these few words from Mr.
Springsteen:
Now, some guys, they just give up living
And start dying, little by little, piece by piece,
Some guys come home from work and wash up
And go racing in the streets.
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High-Performance Audio Reviews
