Feature Articles

: Written by: Peter Roth; Category: General Interest & Interviews; Created: 01 March 2013

Based on what I saw and heard last January at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show, powered or active loudspeakers seem to be a growing trend, especially at the cutting edge. Long a staple of the professional audio world, active speakers haven’t fared all that well among audiophiles. One might think that with the proliferation of multi-box digital playback systems and complex analog front-ends -- with their turntables, tonearms, cartridges, phono stages, disc cleaners, anti-static guns, electron-microscope-grade support systems, etc. -- audiophiles might have widely embraced the potential of active speakers. Perhaps they soon will.

Gryphon Audio Designs, Rockport Technologies, Vandersteen Audio, and YG Acoustic have now topped out their speaker lines with active or semi-active speakers. In Vivid Audio’s suite at the Mirage, I spent the better part of a morning with the company’s designer extraordinaire, Laurence Dickie, discussing the nuances of the active crossover modules he is preparing to offer as an option for Vivid’s Giya range of loudspeakers, which are already world-class transducers using passive crossover networks. While Dickie indicated that Vivid plans to offer an active quad-amplified, four-driver, line-level digital crossover network, all of the other examples (including what Dickie realizes will likely be the more popular choice Vivid will also offer) combine active and passive crossovers within a biamplified, multi-driver loudspeaker. In such a hybrid design, the active portion of the crossover feeds one amplifier specific to the low-frequency (LF) drivers, while the passive section of the crossover is connected to the other amp, which powers the rest of the drivers. Vandersteen, YGA, and Gryphon include amplification for the LF side of the split (Vandersteen also includes LF analog room correction), while Rockport and Vivid let the customer select amplification top and bottom.

: Written by: S. Andrea Sundaram; Category: General Interest & Interviews; Created: 01 February 2013

Chicago Transit Authority Minimum resolution for digitizing vinyl

I received a number of e-mails following my April 2012 SoundStage! Hi-Fi editorial, “Why in the World Are Audiophiles Digitizing Vinyl?” Most of the letter writers expressed general interest in what sort of equipment would be best suited for the task, and a few wanted to see reviews of specific components. For our GoodSound! publication, Ron Doering reviewed the Parasound Zphono USB and I wrote about the Furutech Alpha Design labs GT40 -- both devices combine a phono preamplifier and USB-connected analog-to-digital converter (ADC) in a single box. Reviews of other relevant products are in the works.

One reader had a much more specific question:

Your articles have strongly suggested that higher-than-CD resolutions result in better audible quality than the ordinary CD can provide. If one digitizes from sources that do have such high quality (e.g., the new audiophile vinyl), then one might anticipate your recommendation: “buy an A/D converter that can do at least 24-bit/96kHz; don’t settle for the 16/44.1 that populates the budget market.”

Wouldn’t the same logic also suggest that digitizing older LPs does not need more than 16/44.1, since the masters did not contain information above what 16/44.1 can adequately capture? I may be a good representative of a subclass of readers: those who want to turn the page on the old LPs, cassettes, and CDs, only to adopt computer files as the future music medium, whatever the resolution of those files. For such people, would a good 16/44.1-only ADC still be a mistake? Key to answering this question is one’s knowledge of the masters used for LPs as late as the 1980s -- when CDs took over the market.

Thanks for providing food for thought. -- SC

Food for thought indeed . . .

: Written by: S. Andrea Sundaram; Category: General Interest & Interviews; Created: 01 December 2012

Digital volume controls Many audiophiles have systems comprising only digital sources. That may be a CD player or, increasingly, a computer connected to a DAC. More complex systems have multiple means -- e.g., disc transport, computer, and network streamer -- of feeding digital data to a single box for converting all those ones and zeros into the analog waveform required by the amplifier. In such cases, a new type of component has come to the fore: the digital preamplifier. These devices are not actually preamplifiers, in that they’re not providing an amplification stage. Instead, they offer source selection and volume control, so that they can be connected directly to a power amplifier with no need for the traditional analog preamp. Often, but not always, the volume control is implemented in the digital domain, which is what gives some audiophiles pause in using these devices as intended by their designers. Does a digital volume control really represent a sacrifice in performance?

: Written by: Simeon Sandiford; Category: General Interest & Interviews; Created: 01 August 2012

Sowing the seed

Nakamichi ad During TWBAS 2012, in a short, soul-searching sojourn on the boardwalk outside Jeff Fritz’s home, near Wilmington, North Carolina, the entire three decades of my professional career flashed across my mind as I contemplated an approach to writing the final article about The World’s Best Audio System 2012, "Quo Vadis TWBAS?" I remembered the introductory McIntosh story I’d written for Ultra Audio in September 2008, and thought it would be appropriate to continue documenting my other significant adventures.

: Written by: Peter Roth; Category: General Interest & Interviews; Created: 01 July 2012

In Part One of this feature interview with Laurence Dickie, loudspeaker designer for Vivid Audio, we explored his foundational experiences and the gestation of his philosophy of sound reproduction by high-performance audio products. In Part Two we turn to Vivid Audio specifically, and to Dickie’s challenges and achievements in the past decade. Philip Guttentag (cofounder of Vivid Audio) and Philip O’Hanlon (US distributor), also present, each occasionally joined in.

Peter Roth: Let’s turn to the present, and Vivid Audio’s Giya line of loudspeakers. I’m interested in the differences between the C125 bass driver used in the Oval series and the C125S midbass driver used in the Giyas.

Laurence Dickie: They are distinct, different drivers. Giya-series loudspeakers are true four-ways. That means that the C125S, which some would call a 6.5" driver, has to operate only from 220 to 880Hz. Accordingly, the excursion requirements are far smaller than for the standard C125, which functions deep into the bass with a diaphragm travel of +/-10mm. In the C125S application, only a couple of millimeters of driver travel are needed to give us 120dB at crossover. This means we can concentrate the magnetic flux into a smaller zone -- a smaller gap length -- and so we’ve also taken the opportunity to reduce the gap clearances. With tighter tolerances, the driver assembly is little bit fussier, and of course is more susceptible to contamination, but that is just a little reality of manufacturing -- which is fine, and in fact we have had no difficulty with it. We gain 3dB efficiency in the main passband. You wouldn’t be able to use the S driver in a full-range system because it wouldn’t plumb the depths. The excursion limit, the X-max (the length of the magnetic gap), is too small for a reasonable amount of sound output in the bass.

: Written by: Garrett Hongo; Category: General Interest & Interviews; Created: 01 June 2012

This is a continuation of my discussion with Albert Von Schweikert of Von Schweikert Audio. Part One covered Von Schweikert’s history as a speaker designer and how he broke into the business. Part Two, below, discusses his present and future products as well as his current thinking on all things loudspeakers.

Garrett Hongo: What about your new VR-44 speaker?

Albert Von Schweikert: The VR-44 is different. It comes in either an Aktive ($20,000 USD per pair) or Passive ($17,000/pair) version. The Aktive is able to perform either close to the wall or out in the room, due to controls that adjust the bass level. The VR-44 Aktive might be seen as a full-range speaker with a built-in powered woofer system, but we also offer a Passive version that does not have the amplifier on board to drive the twin 8.8" woofers. The powered woofer system does not alter the sound of the main amplifier. The onboard amplifier takes the sound of the main amplifier and boosts it up to 300W to drive the woofers below 100Hz. It’s basically just a power booster. In effect, this design enables you to biamp without having to worry about outboard electronic crossovers, and will increase the dynamic range. If the customer owns a small tube amp but does not like the sound or large size of horn speakers, the VR-44 Aktive is their speaker. If the customer has a large amplifier with 100W or more and does not need biamp capability, the VR-44 Passive might be the better choice.

: Written by: Peter Roth; Category: General Interest & Interviews; Created: 01 May 2012

From the invention of Bowers & Wilkins’ famous Matrix enclosure system to the development and design of the British company's inspiring Nautilus loudspeaker -- a groundbreaking icon of industrial design that looks as fresh today as it did nearly 20 years ago -- loudspeaker designer Laurence Dickie has assembled an enviable portfolio of innovation, and established a reputation for pushing the performance envelope with creative solutions. In 2001, following an introduction by Robert Trunz, former president of B&W, Dickie joined forces with Philip Guttentag to form Vivid Audio. The first Vivid loudspeaker models, the B1 and K1, were introduced in 2004, and continue to form the core of the company’s Oval series. These and all subsequent Vivid Audio speakers are notable in part for having been designed, from drivers to enclosures, entirely in-house, and manufactured at Vivid Audio’s factory in South Africa.

: Written by: Garrett Hongo; Category: General Interest & Interviews; Created: 01 April 2012

Speaker manufacturer and designer Albert Von Schweikert has been a respected name in high-end audio for over 30 years. Starting with the legendary Vortex Screen in the late '70s, Von Schweikert has designed numerous speaker lines, for his own company and for many others, including the famous dual-box Von Schweikert Audio Virtual Reality series and the current UniField 1, 2, and 3 speakers. This past year, he launched a completely new speaker -- the VR-44 -- and has plans for a statement model called the VR-77. This past February, over lunch with Albert at a sushi restaurant in Covina, California, I began an extensive interview. Over the next two days, we continued the conversation at a listening session at a nearby dealer, then through a tour of the Von Schweikert Audio headquarters in Riverside, California.

Garrett Hongo: Where did you grow up, and what was it like growing up there?

Albert Von Schweikert: I was born in Panama. My father was German, my mother Spanish. My maternal grandfather, from Barcelona, was one of the engineers on the Panama Canal. My father, whose parents were German, had emigrated to the United States to avoid WWII. He ended up joining the US army as an officer. After being stationed in Panama, he got sent back to Germany to work as a translator. So I grew up in Heidelberg, where the great university is, and, until I was 16, attended German schools and had private music lessons at the conservatory. Music was all around us -- opera, brass bands, and street musicians with accordions, clarinets, trumpets, and a bucket for change.

: Written by: Garrett Hongo; Category: General Interest & Interviews; Created: 01 March 2012

Colleen Cards and Marc Phillips This past November, in Texas to promote a new book, I found myself in Austin, which is famous for its live-music scene. It’s also the home of Colleen Cardas Imports, a new audio-distribution venture for Colleen Cardas, the vivacious and caring woman who for 20 years was president of Cardas Audio. She has now partnered, in business and in life, with Marc Phillips, editor of The Vinyl Anachronist and former contributing writer to Tone Audio. Together, they now represent only two major lines -- Unison Research and Opera Loudspeakers, based in Treviso, Italy -- and what great equipment it is. (I featured Opera/Unison in the column "The Traveler," in 2008.) Once firmly established, Cardas and Phillips plan to add other lines.

: Written by: Garrett Hongo; Category: General Interest & Interviews; Created: 15 January 2012

Garrett Hongo Whenever I travel, I try to drop in on manufacturers, distributors, or dealers and check out what they have to offer, not only in terms of equipment, but also for their approach to audio. This past October, in New York City for a week of literary events of my own, I peeled off a couple afternoons to visit Jeffrey Catalano, owner of High Water Sound, and Wes Bender, of Wes Bender Studio NYC. Both are amiable acquaintances I’d met in demo rooms at the annual Rocky Mountain Audio Fest over the years, and I’d been increasingly curious about the lines they represent and their overall takes on our pastime.

High Water Sound is a distributor of very special audio gear, mainly imports from Europe: from Germany, the TW-Acustic 10.5 tonearm and line of turntables, Cessaro Horn Acoustics speakers, Thöress Systems electronics, and WSS-Kabel wires; from England, Aspara Acoustics speakers and Tron Electric electronics; from Denmark, Hørning Hybrid System speakers and electronics; and the Thales tonearms from Switzerland. High Water’s domestic brands include Audience, Tri-Planar, Graham Engineering, Silent Running Audio, and Purist Audio Design. Jeffrey Catalano’s specialty is analog, analog, analog -- and then some more analog. His demo rooms at RMAF feature sensitive speakers, superb tube electronics, and some of the most eye-catching turntables and tonearms around. I’d briefly visited him in New York just a month before. This time around I wanted a longer session.