Bass Reproduction. for Jazz Recordings That Spotlight the Dynamic and Tonal Range of the Trumpet
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
EQUIPMENT REPORT ELECTRONICALLY REPRINTED FROM SEPTEMBER 2011 Pioneer SP-BS41-LR ROBERT J. REINA LOUDSPEAKER DESCRIPTION Two-way, reflex- loaded, stand-mounted loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" soft-dome tweeter, 5.25" woofer. Crossover frequency: 2.5kHz. Frequency range: 55Hz– 20kHz. Nominal impedance: 6 ohms. Sensitivity: 85dB/2.83V/m. Maximum input power: 130W. DIMENSIONS 7.9" (200mm) W by 13.75" (350mm) H by 8.7" (220mm) D. Weight: 10.25 lbs (4.7kg). FINISHES Black vinyl. he buzz was all over the audiophile ’net. “Pioneer has a new bookshelf speaker that’s killer SERIAL NUMBERS OF UNITS for the money!” REVIEWED JFNV00015BUC (both). Hmm, I thought. Pioneer. Speakers? PRICE $149.99/pair. Approximate To be fair, I’ve had the Pioneer brand on my mind for well over 30 years. The company number of dealers: >20 (a limited set was my brand of choice for car-stereo electronics in the 1970s, for Dolby S cassette decks of overall Pioneer dealers). in the ’80s, for DVD players in the ’90s, and for plasma TVs in the ’00s and ’10s. I felt a bit MANUFACTURER Pioneer Electronics guilty that I hadn’t focused on the fact that Andrew Jones, the very same design guru who (USA) Inc., PO Box 1540, Long Beach, came up with Pioneer’s TAD Reference One loudspeaker ($70,000/pair), had had a hand in designing Ta few two-channel speaker models starting at $99.99/pair. The audio gossip was all about the second CA 90801-1540. Tel: (800) 421-1404. model from the bottom of Pioneer’s speaker line, the SP-BS41-LR ($149.99/pair). I thought I’d better Web: www.pioneerelectronics.com. get a pair and review them. www.Stereophile.com, September 2011 Pioneer SP-BS41-LR Description manufacturing process. Although he and his dynamic articulation made me want to listen This two-way, rear-ported SP-BS41-LR, a team designed the SP-BS41-LR in the US and to piano recordings. Pianist Marilyn Crispell black bookshelf model, has an attractively produced its first prototype here, he sent his uses quite a bit of silence, space, and decay in curved cabinet designed to increase stiff- team to Pioneer’s factory in China to closely her music, which fits in nicely with the am- ness and reduce internal standing waves. The supervise the first production run, to ensure bient sound Manfred Eicher likes to create in drive-units are a 1" soft-dome tweeter and a that the production units matched his final all recordings for his label, ECM. In the title 5.25" cone woofer. I discussed with Andrew prototype. track of Crispell’s Amaryllis (CD, ECM 1742), Jones what he’d tried to accomplish with the I sat the SP-BS41-LRs on my usual Celes- I could hear every little detail of her phrasing, SP-BS41-LR. He told me he’d surveyed most tion Si stands, loaded with lead shot and sand. presented cleanly and with plenty of air—the of the $150/pair speakers on the market and The speaker’s attractive grilles of metal mesh, rich sonority of her instrument shone through. had concluded that most were designed with which separately protect the tweeter and Recordings of more challenging piano works, cosmetics as a design criterion, but with little woofer, are not removable. such as the Allegro moderato of Rachmaninoff’s attention paid to sound quality. The biggest Sonata 1, in Robert Silverman’s recording (CD, shortcoming he found was in the competi- Listening Stereophile STPH019-2), were reproduced tion’s crossovers. Most had a crossover consist- I was immediately taken with the subtle with perfect clarity—Silverman’s crisp phrasing ing of either a single capacitor, or a capacitor low-level articulation and lack of midrange on his Steinway was very easy to follow. and an inductor. Jones believes that it’s impos- coloration in all recordings of voices. George John Medeski’s frantic upper-register im- sible to create a seamless integration of mid/ Harrison’s lead vocal in his “Something,” from provising on Lee Morgan’s “Afrique,” from woofer and tweeter with a crossover compris- the 2009 remastering of the Beatles’ Abbey Medeski, Martin & Wood’s Tonic (CD, Blue ing only one or two elements. He was able Road (CD, Apple 3 82468 2), was rich and Note 5 25272), was reproduced without a to design a six-element crossover using quality silky, with every subtle nuance of his phrasing trace of smearing or harshness, and the sense parts, without exceeding his considerable con- intact. Higher up the audioband, the Pioneer of air in Tonic, the large club where this album straints of low manufacturing cost. rendered Jonatha Brooke’s voice in “Linger,” was recorded, was quite evident. Before the Jones also designed the SP-BS41-LR’s drive- from her Steady Pull (CD, Bad Dog BDR SP-BS41-LRs appeared in my house, I’d never units, paying special attention to the cone pro- 60801-2), with an airy and biting but elegant heard so inexpensive a loudspeaker reproduce file, voice-coil winding, and magnet structure, quality, and perfectly captured this singer’s complex high-frequency transients with such and felt fortunate in finding a cabinet supplier tendency to develop a “howly” quality in loud- realism. I therefore began to mine my jazz who was able to execute his curved design er passages, as I’ve heard her do in concert. collection for percussion recordings, specifi- within his cost parameters. The final step was The ability of the SP-BS41-LR to reproduce cally those featuring drummer Paul Motian. the integration of Jones’s design into Pioneer’s layers of midrange detail with lifelike low-level In addition to Crispell’s Amaryllis, I cued up meASurementS measured the Pioneer SP-BS41-LR’s frequency that the specified 6 ohms figure is too pessimistic. response in the farfield with DRA Labs’ MLSSA system The impedance traces have glitches evident at 180, and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone. For the 470, and 700Hz, which implies the existence of some nearfield measurements I used an Earthworks QTC-40 kind of enclosure resonances at these frequencies. 1 Imicrophone, whose ⁄4" capsule provides only a minimal Investigating the vibrational behavior of the enclosure obstacle to the flow of air through the port. The Pioneer panels with a simple plastic-tape accelerometer revealed speaker’s B-weighted sensitivity on the tweeter axis was a rather lively cabinet. The side panels (fig.2) have 85.8dB/2.83V/m, which is within experimental error of ridges of resonant energy evident at 570Hz, as antici- the specified 85dB. The electrical impedance remained pated, but also at 470Hz; and while a lower-frequency above 6 ohms at all frequencies (fig.1, solid trace). The ridge is visible, this is just above 200Hz, rather than at average was closer to 9 ohms, which both means that the the 180Hz I had expected from the impedance plot. SP-BS41-LR—who thought of that name?—will be an easy I would expect some lower-midrange congestion to load for the partnering amplifier to drive, and suggests stem from this behavior. Fig.1 Pioneer SP-BS41-LR, electrical impedance (solid) and phase Fig.2 Pioneer SP-BS41-LR, cumulative spectral-decay plot calculated from (dashed). (2 ohms/vertical div.) output of accelerometer fastened to center of side panel (MLS driving voltage to speaker, 7.55V; measurement bandwidth, 2kHz). www.Stereophile.com, September 2011 Pioneer SP-BS41-LR Motian, Joe Lovano, and Bill Frisell’s Time and of times, I found myself ignoring Hendrix’s Requiem, with Timothy Seelig conducting the Time Again (CD, ECM 1992). In “Cambodia,” trademark rhythm guitar and being transfixed Turtle Creek Chorale and the Women’s Cho- Motian’s role is to provide largely arrhythmic by that glockenspiel melody, whose upper rus of Dallas (CD, Reference RR-57CD), the textural colors, and through the Pioneer his harmonics shimmered and decayed without pipe organ’s pedal notes never lost definition, phrasing on ride cymbal was as natural as I’d getting lost in the mix. the ensemble remained clear and crisp with heard from any budget-priced speaker. Part of the reason for the SP-BS41-LR’s transient realism was its ability to reproduce extended and uncolored high frequencies, I WAS VERY IMPRESSED WITH BOTH THE QUANTITY and the way the highs seamlessly integrated with the midrange. I found myself searching AND THE QUALITY OF THE BASS reproduCtion. for jazz recordings that spotlight the dynamic and tonal range of the trumpet. On the title track of Miles Davis’s ’Round About Midnight I was very impressed with both the quantity no loss of definition even at fairly high volume (CD, Columbia CK 40610), his horn was silky and the quality of the Pioneer’s bass reproduc- levels, and the “air” of the recording venue (a and holographic, with just the right amount of tion even in my large listening room, which church) was quite audible. metallic bite and long decay. On a mellower has proved a challenge for the smallest book- With rock music, the SP-BS41-LR was able note, in the ballad “Tristan’s Way,” from Liam shelf speakers at the low end. In “Aurora,” to produce a good sense of high-level dynamic Sillery’s Priorité (CD, OA2 Records 22082), from Jon Hassell’s Last Night the Moon Came drive and heft, especially for so small a speak- Sillery stretches out the long, slow, soulful Dropping Its Clothes in the Street (CD, ECM er. However, if I pushed the Pioneers too hard, trumpet melody before moving on to an im- 2077), there is an interlude between Peter the limitations of the laws of physics did come provisational passage.