High .Fidelity
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High .fidelity SEPTEMBER THE CHAMBER MUSIC OF BRAHMS P ON RECORDS PAUL AFFELDER www.americanradiohistory.com polyester film offers you these important new advantages 1. many times stronger 2. withstands extreme temperatures 3. impervious to moisture 4. maximum storage life most permanent magnetic recording medium ever developed Audiotapc on "Mylar" polyester film provides a degree of permanence and durability unattainable with any other base material. Its exceptional mechanical strength makes it practically unbreakable in normal use. Polyester remains stable over a temperature range from 58° below zero to 302° Fahren- heit. It is virtually immune to humidity or moisture in any concentration - can be stored for long periods of time without embrittling of the base material. The new polyester Audiotape has exactly the same mag- PHYSICAL PROPERTIES netic characteristics as the standard plastic -base Audiotape "Mytar" polyester film compared to ordinary plastic base material - assures the same BALANCED PERFORMANCE and (cellulose acetate) faithful reproduction that have made it first choice with so many professional recordists all over the world. 1 Mil 1.5 Mil 2 Mil 1.5 Mil PROPERTY "MYLAR" "MYLAR" "MYLAR" Acetate If you have been troubled with tape breakage, high humidity or dryness, Audiotape on "Mylar" will prove well Tensile Strength, psi 25,000 25,000 25,000 11,000 worth the somewhat higher price. In standard thickness Impact Strength, kg-cm 90 170 200 10 (11/2 mil), for example, the cost is only 50% more than Tear Strength, grams 22 35 75 5 regular plastic base tape. Break Elongation, % 80 95 105 20 Ask your dealer for our new folder describing Audiotape Softening Point, °F 464 -473 464 -473 464 -473 149-230 on "Mylar ". Or write to Audio Devices, Inc. Moisture Absorption, % (at 100% RH) 0.3 0.3 0.3 9.0 Bending Modulus,. psi 500,000 500,000 500,000 350,000 Flex Life, cycles at 0° F 20,000 500 audiatape audiodises AUDIO DEVICES, Inc. audiop.oints 444 Madison Ave., New York, 22, N. Y. audi,otftiin, Export Dept., 13 East 40th St., New York 16, N. Y., Cables "ARLAB" www.americanradiohistory.com A C H I E V E M E N T O F A For those who pursue the ultimate -the rediscovery of perspective in music... The stiinulat on and pleasure gained by listening to a live per- formance is the result of much more than frequency range con- siderations. Here is a revolution -the use of true proportions of sound in authentic reproduction including smooth coverage of the complete useful frequency range and thus recreating the fine performance with the greatest possible degree of accuracy. Voices come to life and there's a new almost geometrical separation of instruments. A three -way system with 1 -f unit loaded by a new- design reactance -annuling trilateral -mouth horn for bass; selected compression- driver horn -loaded mid channel with intrarange equalizer for a final touch to precise balance and coloration elimination; and superlatively smooth, space-blended supertweeter top. Each instrument is indi- vidually serial numbered and accompanied with a signed certificate certifying that the reproducer fully meets the ex- acting performance standards set for it. (Components and performance are the same as for RS -100 Laboratory Reference Standard Reproducer.) PR -100 "IMPERIAL" REPRODUCER ST -919. Selected Mahogany. Net Price $525.00 ST -918. Satin Korina. Net Price 535.00 LABORATORY STANDARD Built for research comparison The Imperial was designed by the Jensen engineering staff for their own use as a reference standard of the highest quality of high -fidelity reproduction. In this original laboratory version the RS -100 Laboratory Ref- erence Standard Reproducer is a new and important tool for sound, recording and broadcast engineers, workers in psy- choacoustics and music critics who require an unusually high quality of reproduction. Some music lovers and audio- philes will undoubtedly want to own an RS -100. Cabinet is plywood attractively two -toned in blue gray. RS -100 LABORATORY REFERENCE STANDARD REPRODUCER ST -920. Net Price $468.00 ensen Jensen -world's quality standard for more than a quarter century. Division of the Muter Co. elMANUFACTURING COMPANY 6601 S. Laramie, Chicago 38, Illinois www.americanradiohistory.com N OW . the first and only complete R -J unit ... the definitive combination among compact, B.1. C. high performance speakers ... ready for use ... a brilliant pairing of two great names. ENDORSEDOuu $ 50 Model SSMC ...Mahogany V net COMPLETE (Speaker. Enclosure, jand Grillet Model S8BC ...Blonde $57.50 n, t ditrt 01"" V- II" high 10" deep 28%" long. Vi. -a Wharfedale, de- .°74 is the orig- signed and constructed under personal super- inal, authentic R -J Single Shelf vision of G. A. Briggs, specifically to match model... the revolutionary idea this R -J Enclosure ! This 8" speaker incorpo- which literally "established" to- rates all the advanced Wharfedale elements day's trend to small speaker en- aluminum voice coil ; cast chassis; a felt closures. Expertly built of heavy, "buffer" between the speaker cone and frame. top quality genuine Mahogany or Demand for Wharfedales has always ex- Korina veneers, in hand rubbed ceeded supply- making them highly valued as dark or blonde finish. components. Now pre -package, this great speaker lends its brilliance to the first and /I.4%..ex (Cgs?eepdscrced only R -J combination. "Maximum Bass ... Minimum Space!" ( Use with any loudspeaker) Full efficiency at normal room listening levels! With any well- designed speaker, FLUX DENSITY: 10,000 lines each R -J unit offers thrilling per- IMPEDANCE: 10 ohms I11I111IIIIIMIIIIIIIMEENIMMIN formance ... smooth bass funda- TOTAL FLUX: 39,500 lines, with IIIIIIIIuuMMuuIM1111111I1r.=1111M1111111===MMEI mentals, without peaks, down to ample power handling cooacity I I,:!R11111111MIIII.117MMIrlliregRell111MRlMIPP11 01 MMUIPt.. \:..7. MtA!!Mb. low organ pedal notes ... unob- FREQUENCY RESPONSE: iNEMouun.uMIIININ «tM structed "highs ". 50- 16,000 cycles iee .MIIN MMIMtt I i Floor models (for 12" or 15" speakers) 20" high x 20" long x .g4 fs1d1 a is formed of British "Ex- 16" deep, plus legs. pamet" . expanded golden aluminum ... a Mali., Blonde or unptd. product relatively new to the popular Ameri- Single Bookshelf Model can market, but used throughout the world (for 8" speakers) 11" in the most expensive loudspeaker combi- high x 10" deep x nations. There are good reasons for this. 23%" long. Sanded. unpainted. Expamet is more than a speaker covering . adds its own fine performance to that of Double Bookshelf the R-J Enclosure. This permanently beau- Model (for 12" speak- tiful metal is accoustically "perfect ", will ers) 24" high x 21" never cause distortion, and transmits the long x 10" deep. Sanded, unpainted. entire sound of the speaker, uninhibited. R -.I AUDIO PRODUCTS. INC.. Dept. t1 F -9 ICI Duane Street. New York 13, N. Y. Anil coupon today for n compliment nr3 Please send "Sound Craftsmanship" to: copy of "Sound Craftsmanship ". 16 R -J AUDIO PRODUCTS, INC. pages illustrating and describing R -.1 Name Enclosures and the other products of the New York 13, N. Y. Street__ British Industries Group. 164 Duane Street, fit> _State www.americanradiohistory.com High Jidrlilq T H E M A G A Z I F O R M U S I C L I S T E N E R S Volume 4 Number 7 September 1954 This Issue. The first AUTHORitatively Speaking 4 time a news- column- ist lampooned the Noted With Interest 6 high -fidelity "mani- ac" we thought it Letters 19 oo,o / was funny. The As The Editors See It j second time, it was 33 still good for a In Defense of the Faithful, by C. G. Burke 34 chuckle. The fifteenth time, it occurred to To be caricatured in the press is a mark of success, and the us that potential new recruits might be high-fidelity following need not resent it. But let us keep getting the wrong impression of the whole the facts straight. art, so we asked C. G. Burke if he would care to criticize the critics. He would, and Scala's New Queen, by Martin Mayer i7 he does, on page 34. Pretty well, we think. Birthplace: New York. Hair: red. Figure: slim. Voice: superb. Latest conquest: the world's most knowledgeable opera The Cover. The two bearded gentlemen on audience. Who is she? the cover are, of course, Johannes Brahms (piano) and his violinist friend Joseph Adventurers in Sound, by Frederic Grunfeld 39 Joachim, redrawn from well-known carica- The Well- Tempered Ionizer. tures and considerately furnished with a mi- crophone by art director Roy Lindstrom. To Custom Installations 42 learn more about them, read the introduction to Paul Affelder's discography of Brahms Jazz in Mid -passage, by Nat Hentoff 44 chamber music, which begins this month. European music - lovers long have accepted jazz as a major American contribution to Western culture. Now, are we Next Issue. In October look for a report going to, too? on Adventurer -in -Sound Emory Cook; a piece by Peter Bartok on aesthetic factors In One Ear, by James Hinton, Jr 47 in recording and Part II of J. F. Indcox's Tchaikovsky Discography. Records in Review 49 You Can Take It With You, by Harry L. Wynn 87 Car radios may never become super-fi reproducers, but they needn't be squawk- boxes, either. Tested in the Home 93 CHARLES FOWLER, Publisher Brociner Transcendent JOHN M. CONLY, Editor GE Hi Fi Components Crestwood 313 Tape Recorder ROY H. HOOPES, JR., Managing Editor Acoustical Quad II Amplifier System ROY F. ALLISON, Associate Editor James B. Lansing Model 34 Speaker System ROY LINDSTROM, Art Director Telefunken Orchestra Receiver Editorial Assistants Wilcox -Gay 4A Io Recorder Miriam D.