Enjoy the Music.com Letters To Us

Letters To Us

November 2004

Hi Steven,

It is almost one year I go round the ZERO autoformers wondering if it is the right choice for my system. Actually I own a pair of Quad 988 driven by two OTL custom made powerful monoblocks. The sound is really good but nothing is enough. Can you tell me if putting the ZEROs in my system I can have real benefits?

Best From Genoa,

Francesco Bollorino

Francesco,

Thanks for your e-mail. It would be impossible for me to truly know how it would perform in your system. Best bet would be to try it and see if you enjoy the results. It is said to be an excellent unit.

Enjoy the Music,

Steven R. Rochlin

November 2004

Dick Olsher,

Thanks for an excellent "magazine" which by now has replaced all my year-long subscriptions. Just a tip: Why not test the Acapella Ion tweeter which I have evaluated for integration with my Avantgarde Trios.

Very Best Regards,

Leif Christensen

Dear Mr. Christensen,

First of all, thank you for your support. It is gratifying to know that we are making new friends in the global audiophile arena. I will be sure look into the Acapella Ion tweeter. My major concern has to do with its rated sensitivity. Ion tweeters tend to be rather quiet; as the owner of a pair of Dukane Ionovacs I should know.

Best Regards,

Dick Olsher

November 2004

Dear Mr. Donnelly,

I had the pleasure of reading your various reviews on the Meadowlark speakers, which interested me in particular since I own a pair of Kestrel2's, with which I'm very pleased. I would like to ask you if you considered reviewing the Kestrel2's, both by their own, but also assembled with the new Blackbird subwoofer of Meadowlark, which in my opinion should be very interesting. Also, have you got any intention of reviewing the Blue Heron II's? I read your review of the Blue Heron's, but the II's are about 30% more expensive and are supposed to out perform their predecessors.

As a final note, if the answers are published somewhere in Enjoy the Music.com™ site, please just give me a hint by replying to my e-mail address.

Best Regards,

Raphy Lohev

Hi Raphy,

I have no plans at present to review either the Kestrel2 or the subwoofer, although I have heard the former and consider it a typical excellent value from Meadowlark. However, I am planning the Blue Heron2 review for November 2004. So far, my impressions of the BH2 are very favorable, and it seems to me that these loudspeakers are superior, especially in dynamics, to the excellent original Blue Herons. You'll need to see the review for the full story.

Best wishes,

Wayne Donnelly

October 2004

My congratulations on a very well written, communicative and informative source for those of us suffering from audiophilius addictiona! My system makes it very difficult to do anything but listen to it while it is playing music. I am currently breaking in a set of interconnects and speaker cables by Aruricle Audio Design, testing out a theory (my own) that it might be a good idea to try interconnects and loudspeaker cables of the same length throughout the entire system...

Your articles, reviews and comments bring me relief from the feeling I am alone in this madness of mine.

Thank You,

Ray

October 2004

Dick,

I enjoyed your tubed CD reviews on Enjoythemusic. Great website, too, thanks! The question of whether to get an Ah! or a Heart 600 tubed CD player is troubling me. What is your take on this? I'll be using a vintage Eico HF-81 integrated tube amp (early 60's) with PSB bookshelf speakers. There's also the option of getting a used Ah! 99.

Thanks for your time,

Michael

Hi Michael,

Many thanks for the nice feedback. By far the best of the Dutch CD player mods, and a current reference of mine, is the AH! Super Tjoeb with the upsampling board. The review can be seen by clicking here. This is the budget CD player to own; nothing comes even close at this price point.

Best regards,

Dick Olsher

October 2004

Steven,

I have a Sony D-15 CD player from about 1988 or so that is obviously between the D-5 model and the D-25 model that were featured in your review. Mine does not say 4x oversampling on the case, and I am curious if mine has this technology.

Regardless, it sounds fairly nice, having the same all metal case as the D-25 and a true line output as well as a headphone output (with true potentiometer volume control). Ditto the lack of bass boost, skip protection etc.

I plan to get some Shure earbuds like the ones featured in your review soon.

If you know anything about this model D-15 I would be interested in your opinion. I realize no one could possible be familiar with all or even the majority of the many portable CD players made by Sony. Anyway, I wanted you to know how much I enjoyed your review of portable music sources. I will eventually get an iPod, but I plan to get better headphones and a portable headphone amplifier first.

Russell Barr

Russell,

Thanks for your e-mail. Alas, not sure of the sampling rate of the D-15 though i do remember it also sounded quiet good. Think the D-555, the successor to the D-25, was where Sony went 'wrong' with too many digital do-dads and the seemingly lesser quality oversampling chipset for sound quality.

Enjoy the new ear bud headphones and remember that fitting them to your ears is key for best sound. Try the different sized ear inserts and use the one that sounds best. Of course in the end what really matters is that you...

Enjoy the Music,

Steven R. Rochlin

October 2004

Dick,

I have always enjoyed your writing…when I first started reading S'phile in 1993 you were there! I will never forget the line you used to describe the Jadis JA200 amp "outdistances the competition primarily in the area of soundstaging, where it unfolds a panoramic and rock solid spatial impression of the original recording venue" Anyhow, glad to know I can read your writing here.

Thanks!

Terry Hetzel
Musicdirect

Hi Terry,

It's good to meet you in cyberspace. Thanks for the feedback and be sure to check out Enjoy the Music's pages periodically.

Best regards,

Dick

October 2004

Scott,

Nice review of the X-708s. I just reviewed them for Positive Feedback Online, and found them to be like you said. I didn't see you mention bi-wiring them, however. I found them to be considerably better when bi-wired, or when using better jumpers. Without those steps, I thought the highs were a little bleached sounding, and the dynamics a bit limited. I noticed the veiling you mentioned, but the bi-wiring or better jumpers made a big improvement there, too.

Glad we were in general agreement.

Vade Forrester

Hi Vade,

Thanks for the kind words. Glad to see that I'm hearing the same thing that everybody else is. Sometimes I wonder :-)

That's a good point that you mention. The one thing I didn't do in the review process was biwire the Ushers. Playing with the wiring can definitely lead to some decent performance improvements.

Enjoy,

Scott Faller

October 2004

Scott,

A this moment, Bill Baker is modifying my 25 wpc class A SET amp, and I have inquired about purchasing the very Usher speakers that you just finished reviewing. Due to downsizing (sigh) with kids in college, I am looking to replace the Epos ESL 3's that I now use. Bill feels that 25 wpc is enough oomph for these speakers, and I believe him as he has been straight honest with me all through the modification. From what you remember, do you feel that 25 wpc, "Class A," would be enough to push them in a medium sized room? I know that you are busy, so any response would be most appreciated! Nice job on the review.

Best to you,

Thomas Portney

Hi Tom,

25wpc should push the Ushers just fine (conditionally). In a medium sized room you probably won't acheive huge SPLs unless you are sitting pretty close to the speakers but I'd hazard a guess that they will probably reach in the mid to upper 90's in a (say) 10x15 room. At those levels you may not huge amounts of headroom left in the amp.

It gets really difficult finding medium efficincy speakers (92-96db). It seems like you and I don't have many choices when we get above 88db (or so) until we reach the Lowther/Fostex/Altec/100+db territory. I really wish speaker manufacturers would sit up and pay attention to the market trends. More and more people are discovering the magic of the SET sound and low(er) output power.

Overall I think you will be happy with the Ushers. I drove them for a long time with a 300b. It was very nice sounding though 8wpc just wasn't enough for my listening pleasure. I did try them behind a 22wpc HH Scott and they did quite well.

Hope that helped.

Regards,

Scott Faller