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The e-journal of analog and digital sound. no.23 2009 Ladies and gentlemen, the Beatles. Bob Gendron Reviews the Beatles Remasters TONE A 1 NO.23 2 0 0 9 PUBLISHER Jeff Dorgay EDITOR Bob Golfen ART DIRECTOR Jean Dorgay r MUSIC EDITOR Ben Fong-Torres ASSISTANT Bob Gendron MUSIC EDITOR M USIC VISIONARY Terry Currier STYLE EDITOR Scott Tetzlaff C O N T R I B U T I N G Tom Caselli WRITERS Kurt Doslu Anne Farnsworth Joe Golfen Jesse Hamlin Rich Kent Ken Kessler Hood McTiernan Rick Moore Jerold O’Brien Michele Rundgren Todd Sageser Richard Simmons Jaan Uhelszki Randy Wells UBER CARTOONIST Liza Donnelly ADVERTISING Jeff Dorgay WEBSITE bloodymonster.com tonepublications.com Editor Questions and Comments: [email protected] 800.432.4569 © 2009 Tone MAGAZIne, LLC All rights reserved. TONE A 2 NO.23 2 0 0 9 features Old School: Love Those LED’s 10 The SAE 2200 By Jerold O’Brien Please Please Me: 21 The Beatles Remasters Reviewed By Bob Gendron 104 Simon Drake Talks About 40 Naim’s Music Label: Embracing Past and Future Technologies By Jeff Dorgay Dealers That Mean Business: 21 85 We visit Nuts About HiFi (on the cover) By Jeff Dorgay Budget Gear: 90 Rotel RA-1520 Integrated Amplifier and RDC-1520 CD Player By Mark Marcantonio A Visit to Rega: 104 Roy Gandy’s Model of Efficiency By Jeff Dorgay 7. NEW CONTRIBUTORS 8. PUBLISHER’S LETTER 9. TONE TOON By Liza Donnelly TONE A 3 NO.23 2 0 0 9 tone style An Afternoon With the Focal 67 Grande Utopia EM By Jeff Dorgay The B&W Panorama 71 The Fantastic Soundbar By Jeff Dorgay The Olympus E-P1 74 DSLR Performance, Compact Size By Jeff Dorgay TomTom for the iPhone 78 Let Your iPhone be Your Guide By Jeff Dorgay 67 The Sound of the Future 79 of Radio: WiFi Is Here By Ben Fong-Torres RedEye’s Remote System 81 Grab This All In One By Jeff Dorgay Little City Coffee: 82 Austin’s Best Roast. Eureka! By Jean Dorgay SPL Meter 83 An App to Save Your Hearing By Jeff Dorgay 74 Phish Promo Pint Glass 84 Swim in Your Beer. Oh Joy By Jeff Dorgay 84 TONE A 4 NO.23 2 0 0 9 music 12. LIVE MUsic: The TONE Staff Covers The Montreux Jazz Festival, Sunn O))) and Coldplay 29. CUrrent Releases: Fresh Releases in the Pop/Rock World By the TONE Staff 43. TOneaUdio obscUrities: Favorite Recordings from the Vault By the TONE Staff and Audio Industry Friends 61. AUdiophile Recordings: Beck, Boz Scaggs, Rickie Lee Jones, The Cars, Santana, Jefferson Airplane and More By Jeff Dorgay 12 43 TONE A 5 NO.23 2 0 0 9 previews 96. Bang & Olufsen BeoSound 5 97. Naim Uniti 98. Nagra LB Digital Recorder 99. Sennheiser HD 800 Headphones 100. Snell K7 Speakers 101. DCS Paganini Digital Player 102. Rega P5 Turntable 103. Rega ISIS CD Player reviews 110. A Year With the MartinLogan Spire 118 By Jeff Dorgay 118. Can We Talk? PrimaLuna’s DiaLogue Sevens By Hood McTiernan and Jeff Dorgay 98 125. Harbeth Monitor 40.1 Plus a Tour of the Factory with Owner Alan Shaw By Jeff Dorgay 134. Bel Canto E.One REF500 Monoblock Amps By Lawrence Devoe 140. The BAT VK-55SE: A Compact Powerhouse By Jeff Dorgay 147. Oppo BDP-83 Blu-Ray Universal Disk Player By Rich Kent 152. The Marantz SA-K1 Pearl SACD Player By Jerold O’Brien 159. Top of the SACD Food Chain: Wadia’s 781i By Jeff Dorgay 167. Trends TA10.2 Amplifier: Are We Serious? By Jeff Dorgay 170. SLUMMIN’ Classics on the cheap 171. Manufacturers Index TONE A 6 NO.23 2 0 0 9 CONTRIBUTORS new in tone this issue Lawrence DEVoe Lawrence Devoe is a native of Chicago, Illinois. He was an undergraduate at Harvard University during the Timothy Leary era and received his medical degree from the University of Chicago. Lawrence is a professional medical journal editor and has published more than 250 articles. His musical roots stem from his mother, a former concert pianist, who introduced him to the wonderment of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age seven. In college, he was a classical music announcer for a campus radio station and was a music reviewer for Ultimate Audio in the 1990’s. When not listening to music, he may be seen doing long-distance running on the Augusta canal towpath. TONE A 7 NO.23 2 0 0 9 As I’m en route to Switzerland, I’d like to We always kept in touch, even after my dedicate this issue to a friend who is no longer family moved to the Pacific Northwest. with us: David Trout of Phoenix, Arizona. You When I told Dave about TONE, he became may have seen the ads from his jewelry shop one of our first advertisers, anxious to find in our magazine since the first issue, and if the crossover between buyers of high-end you purchased something from Dave over the audio gear, fine watches and jewelry. The years, you know what a great guy he was. last time we spent time together in person, about a year ago, we talked late into the Dave and I met at Einstein Bagels in the evening about Dave getting his hands on a Ahwatukee Foothills, an outlying suburb of great audio system. “I’ve always admired Phoenix. Actually, it was our love of yellow McIntosh” he said, “Big and beefy. Those sports cars that brought us together, when blue meters really have a timeless style, just one day he parked his yellow Acura NSX like a Rolex.” I was going to fly out and help next to my yellow Porsche 914. As we were him put a system together, but we both got walking out to our cars and noticed each pretty busy at the beginning of this year. It other, we both said “nice car” at almost was a tremendous shock when I was about exactly the same moment, and a friendship to ring Dave to ask him for some sightseeing had begun. Dave always went to work in tips while in Switzerland, and saw on his a suit and I was usually wearing a concert Facebook page that he had passed away T-shirt, so our next conversation regarded recently while hiking not far from his home. what we did for a living. Turned out Dave had sold Jean and me our wedding rings about Dave was 51 years old and in excellent eight years earlier. His shop, Coffin and Trout, shape, so there’s no real rhyme or reason had grown substantially since then, and he for any of this. But the lesson I’ve learned had moved to our side of town. is that life is way too short and way too random. Count your blessings and enjoy Somewhere in the middle of our relationship, I the fruits of your labors. And if your HiFi is found out Dave was an excellent photographer sounding pretty good these days, raise a and shot all of the outstanding photos for his glass to your efforts and enjoy it. Maybe shop’s advertisements. Jewelry is probably nothing needs to change at all. one of the toughest things to get right while in a photo-studio situation, and Dave was Thanks for listening and as always, always very humble about his abilities, as he thanks for reading. was about his jewelry making. I always did my best to lend whatever technical support he needed, once he moved to the digital world of Photoshop. TONE A 8 NO.23 2 0 0 9 TONE TOON “Now that George has his upgrades, I’ll be scheduling mine.” TONE A 9 NO.23 2 0 0 9 FEATURE : Love Those LED’s The SAE 2200 By Jerold O’Brien hen I worked across However when my cha-ching moment finally came and I was ready to plunk down some cold cash on a system of my the aisle in the local mall W own, complete with a pair of Altec Lansing Model 19’s, (the same during my college years, I dreamed speakers that I made them play Dark Side of the Moon on every Friday), SAE had gone out of business, never to return. So I settled OLD SCHOOL of owning a whole stack of SAE on a Harmon/Kardon Citation amplifier, because it also had a cool LED power display and by then, a good friend was working for audio gear. Much like Wayne in TEAM’s competitor, so I was able to score an employee discount. Wayne’s World, I used to pester the But I always dreamed of that line of red LED’s bouncing back and forth while my favorite 70’s hits were playing. hell out of the “audio consultants” at TEAM Electronics to let me hear Sometimes You can Revisit the Past Successfully A very clean example turned up on eBay a while back, so it the full blown SAE system, chock was a great opportunity to relive the past, but the burning question full of giant VU meters, rows of LED would be just how good was this amplifier I lusted over for so many years? As many HiFi collectors know, digging up vintage gear is a indicators and nixie tube displays. lot like shaking a magic 8-ball; signs often point to no. (continued) TONE A 10 NO.23 2 0 0 9 FEATURE Not this time.