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Issue No. 19 The pros love it. The tweaks tried Retail price: $7.50 to kill it. (See the loudspeaker reviews.) In this issue: We review nine loudspeaker systems from $829 to $8400 the pair, mostly very good and all very different, plus an amazing low-priced subwoofer. The promised guest article on very high-efficiency speaker systems makes its belated appearance. David Rich does his professorial number on still more preamps and several new D/A processors. The David Ranada interviews with major thinkers in audio bring new insights in Part II of the series. Plus delectable exposés of audio bull, tons of short CD reviews, letters to the Editor, and an entirely new column. pdf 1 Issue No. 19 Spring 1993 Editor and Publisher Peter Aczel Contributing Technical Editor David Rich Contributing Editor at Large David Ranada Technical Consultant Steven Norsworthy Columnist Tom Nousaine Cartoonist and Illustrator Tom Aczel Business Manager Bodil Aczel The Audio Critic® (ISSN 0146-4701) is published quarterly for $24 per year by Critic Publications, Inc., 1380 Masi Road, Quakertown, PA 18951-5221. Second-class postage paid at Quakertown, PA. Postmaster: Send address changes to The Audio Critic, P.O. Box 978, Quakertown, PA 18951-0978. The Audio Critic is an advisory service and technical review for consumers of sophisticated audio equipment. Any conclusion, rating, recommendation, criticism, or caveat published by The Audio Critic represents the personal findings and judgments of the Editor and the Staff, based only on the equipment available to their scrutiny and on their knowledge of the subject, and is therefore not offered to the reader as an infallible truth nor as an irreversible opinion applying to all extant and forthcoming samples of a particular product. Address all editorial correspondence to The Editor, The Audio Critic, P.O. Box 978, Quakertown, PA 18951-0978. Contents of this issue copyright © 1993 by Critic Publications, Inc. All rights reserved under international and Pan-American copyright conventions. Repro­ duction in whole or in part is prohibited without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Paraphrasing of product reviews for advertising or commercial purposes is also prohibited without prior written permission. The Audio Critic will use all available means to prevent or prosecute any such unauthorized use of its material or its name. For subscription information and rates, see inside back cover. pdf 2 Contents 11 Divergent Design Philosophies: Nine Speaker Systems and a Subwoofer By Peter Aczel, Editor and Publisher 12 ACI (Audio Concepts, Inc.) G3 12 ACI Sapphire IIti (Reviewed by David Rich) 13 MACH 1 Acoustics DM-10 15 Monitor Audio Studio 10 (Reviewed by David Rich) 16 Tannoy 615 17 Thiel CS2.2 18 Waveform Mach 7 19 Westlake Audio BBSM-8VF 20 Win SM-10 (follow-up) 21 Subwoofer: Hsu Research HRSW10 24 Nostalgia and Loudspeakers My response to a hundred requests for the lost sound of yesteryear. By Drew Daniels 35 Miscellaneous Electronics for Audio and Video By Peter Aczel, Editor and Publisher & David A. Rich, Ph.D., Contributing Technical Editor 35 Full-Function Preamplifier: Bryston 11B 36 Cable Enhancer: Duo-Tech Model CE-1000 37 52 " Rear-Projection TV with Surround Sound: Magnavox RM8564A 38 Line-Level Preamplifier: Monarchy Audio Model 10 39 Full-Function Preamplifier: Rotel RC-980BX 42 Another Look at Outboard D/A Converters By David A. Rich, Ph.D., Contributing Technical Editor (with an interruption by Peter Aczel) 42 Audio Alchemy DTI/XDP/PS2 44 EAD DSP-7000 (follow-up by the original reviewer, Peter Aczel) 49 Monarchy Audio Model 22A 50 UltrAmp D/A Converter 52 From Tweak to Geek or Satanic Realism By Tom Nousaine 55 Interviewing the Best Interviewees in Audio: Part II By David Ranada, Contributing Editor at Large 55 5. Interview with Mark F. Davis, Audio Designer 62 6. Interview with Bob Carver, Manufacturer and Audio Designer 66 Hip Boots Wading through the Mire of Misinformation in the Audio Press 66 Gerard Rejskind in The Absolute Sound 67 Robert Harley in Stereophile 68 Recorded Music Catching Up on the New and Not-So-New CDs By Peter Aczel, Editor and Publisher 3 Box 978: Letters to the Editor ISSUE NO. 19 • SPRING 1993 1 pdf 3 From the Editor/Publisher: Whatever Happened to Fall 1992 and Winter 1992-93? No, your mail didn't go astray. No, we haven't skipped two issues. This is Issue No. 19. The last one you received was No. 18. Only the dates are a little strange. Here's what happened: Issue No. 18 was dated Spring/Summer 1992; however, it was delivered to our subscribers at the end of summer, in mid-September, very close to the beginning of fall. It would have been unrealistic to date the next issue Fall 1992 and the one after that Winter 1992-93 because even in the ideal case (meaning: without our usual delays) we would have been stuck in an almost-next-season pattern forever. We were therefore going to call No. 19 the Fall/Winter 1992-93 issue and try to publish it at the beginning of winter, still not much more than a 3-month interval after No. 18, but that didn't quite work out, either. Further delays were caused by a number of desirable but time-consuming new developments. We had to organize our distribution at newsdealers, bookstores, audio stores, and other retail outlets, this being our first issue with coast-to-coast retail distribution. On the advice of our distributors we made some changes in the appearance of our cover pages for greater recognizability and sales appeal on magazine shelves with overlapping rows of publications. In consequence of our larger print run, we had to make small changes in our page dimensions and other specifications in order to permit printing on a web press. Finally, we had to get ready for second-class mailing for the first time in our history; on top of it, our authorization to mail at second-class postage rates was delayed way past all deadlines. Doing things differently for the first time always takes longer than expected; add to that our old—should I say traditional?—lateness problems due to the lack of a full-time staff, and here we are again—late winter as I write these lines. So, for the reasons already given, Fall/Winter 1992-93 is out and Spring 1993 is the only realistic designation. That at least shifts us to the beginning of the season and gives us a fighting chance to have Summer 1993, Fall 1993, etc., issues whose publication actually corresponds to those dates. As I told you last time in this same space, I have given up making promises; all I'm willing to say is that I don't expect the nonrecurrent problems discussed above to cause new delays. 2 THE AUDIO CRITIC pdf 4 Box 978 Letters to the Editor We get quite a few intelligent, well-informed, and well-written letters that should never have been sent and will never be published in this column. Why not? Because they ask questions and bring up arguments that have already been answered in our pages, usually in the very article or review that elicited the letter. It's amazing how many people would rather write than read. Halfway through the article they get excited and rush to their typewriter or word processor. Please read what we have to say, every word of it, before attempting reciprocal punditry. Letters printed here may or may not be excerpted at the discretion of the Editor. Ellipsis (...) indicates omission. Address all editorial correspondence to the Editor, The Audio Critic, P.O. Box 978, Quakertown, PA 18951. The Audio Critic: where Φ is magnetic flux, F is magneto- field, extraneous currents are induced We were amused by the letter on motive force (remember also that mag- within that conductor! These currents add page 8 of Issue No. 18, in which the ridic- netomotive force = 0.4πNI, where N = to or subtract from the audio signal. ulous suggestion was made that neither number of turns and I = current), and R is At each end of your most basic au- magnetic fields nor vibration have any ef- reluctance (magnetic resistance). dio system are clear examples of the role fect on the performance of an audio sys- One cannot help but see that changes of vibration and magnetic fields in play- tem. [That is indeed ridiculous but very in magnetic flux will change magneto- ing back and generating sound. Within an far from what the letter actually said. See motive force, and on the other hand audio component, such as a CD player, my reply below.—Ed.] This type of mis- changes in current will change magneto- are many interesting sources of magnetic understanding is to be expected from a motive force and thus magnetic flux. The fields, including transformers, drive mo- nontechnical reader, but we found it sur- principle is the basis for power genera- tors, and servos. Many of theses sources prising that the Editor agreed with him. tion, motors, and of course all speakers. change dramatically during playback, The letter must have been a last-minute In ribbon speakers, for example, as the while others are more predictable. Ampli- insertion. [A sarcastic reference to my current changes in a film conductor with- fiers have very large transformers and lame excuse for letting a tweako ad slip in a magnetic field, the conductor moves, fields. Fields are even created around in- through.—Ed.] creating sound. So current in a conductor dividual wires and components. If anyone We at MSB Technology have de- in a magnetic field can cause the con- is interested in a detailed characterization signed all of our products on the basis of ductor to move.

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