Volume 4 No. 3     July To September 2010

 

Reviewed In This Issue
2 THIS EDITION'S EDITORIAL

4 STAN'S SAFARI
Rummaging in his archives, Stan worries about the gulf developing between the old and new

7 EDITOR DOUBLE PLUS
An extended interview with long established Stereophile Editor John Atkinson

11 THE UPGRADEABLE SPEAKERS
Audiovector might be unique in offering loudspeaker upgrades. We check out the results

14 LETTER FROM SHENZHEN
Shenzhen resident Peter Comeau discusses the inscrutability of the Chinese

16 MAGNETS & FIELD COILS
The technology behind magnets and experiences of the field coil approach

19 PLUS CA CHANGE
Bowers & Wilkins’ new 802 and 800 Diamonds might look like their predecessors, but the sound is all new

22 THE CD COLLECTOR
Early CDs have become very collectable, and for different reasons

24 ULTIMATE PHONO PRE-AMP?
How can £79,000 possibly be justified for a phono stage?

28 THE ULTIMATE STEP-UP?
The Ultimate phono stage naturally needs the ultimate step-up. Assessing Audio Note UK’s ANS 9

29 ROCKING OUT
From behind the live performance mixing desk, Wayne Hyde explains how PA systems have evolved

33 SOPHIA THE THIRD
Martin Colloms assesses this third generation example of Wilson Audio’s floorstander

38 SUB-£1000 CARTRIDGES
Chris Bryant tries five examples, from Audio Note, Audio Technica, Linn, Ortofon and Rega

43 FLEXIBLE VALVE CDP
Abbingdon Music Research’s fascinating CD-777 is packed with features and valves Integrated Crescendo on page 45

45 INTEGRATED CRESCENDO
The inexpensive amplification partner to Audio Analogue’s fine CD player

47 THE ASYNCHRONOUS rDAC
Arcam’s inexpensive rDAC shares asynchronicity with some very exotic components

48 HIGH CLASS BABY?
Spendor’s baby SA1 has been getting plenty of attention, but how did Martin get on?

50 DC BLOCKING
So what’s a DC blocker anyway? Martin Colloms tries out ISOL-8’s Powerline Axis

51 OSIRIS ARISES
A second and more technical look at Rega’s flagship amplifier

52 TINY BOX, BIG SOUND
Paul Messenger is suitably amazed by Bowers & Wilkins’ sub-miniature MM-1 computer speaker

53 THE BEST OF CLASSICAL
Colin Anderson finds some interesting new classical discs

56 ROCK, POP & OTHER NICE MUSIC
Nigel Finn’s regular collection of interesting recent releases

58 ROCK GENRES: WEST COAST MUSIC
Paul Darwin kicks off a new series on crucial albums from Rock’s different genres

60 SUBJECTIVE SOUNDS
A skeptic is converted to Vertex AQ’s serious and costly high-end speaker cables

 

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