How to Keep Your Stereo Soundin Like
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e.:1113Roberta Flack * New Waves Going down the Tube? HIGH MAY 1978 $1.25 F EBEL C D a 08398 How to Keep Your Stereo Soundinlike New Easy Home Upkeep nen Pinpointing Trouble Step S-ep Getting the Most for Your Service Dollar Irving Berlin Qiwinnin) Amps =Ow Xl= .1111temps sr- 41=Pr- am a- sr. C=. fib 011 r011 24;2m. g=p = //0 = 40.O i 5 Lab/Listening Reports A.pt/Holman preamp Kenwood KX-1030 cassette deck 0 Keith Monks M9BA Mk.3 Improved tone arm Marantz 940 speaker system Realistic LAB -400 turntable Tandberg TR-2075 Mk.II receiver /4 008398 to let you get everithirg out of your tuner. Perfectly. Obviously, both the SA9500ll and the Our output stage, for example, features a new D(950011are very sophisticated pieces of parallel push-pull circuit that reduces total harmonic equipment. But all of the engineering skill that distortion to less than 0.1%. Again, well below any- went into making them has also gone into every thing you can possibly hear. other tuner and amplifier in our new series II. To all but el imi iatecross-talk, the SA95001I No matter what the price, no matter what the comes with a separate power transformer for each specifications. channel, instead of the usual single transformer And that's something you don't have to be for both. an expert to appreciate. And where some amps give you two, or three SA950011 SA850011 sA75008 SA65001I SA550011 tone controls, t he SAC50011 gives you four. Two for TX950011 TX850011 TX650011 TX550011 POWER MIN. RMS, 80 60 45 30 15 regular treble and bass, and two for extended treble 20 113120.000 HZ and bass. They're calibrated in 2 decibel click stops, TOTAL HARMONIC ai% 0 I% 0.1% 0.1% 0.5% which means you have a virtually endless variety of DISTORTION PHONOOVERIOAD 300mV 250,nV 200rrAT 200nAT 130mV ways to get the most cut of your music. LEVEL INPUT PHONOALTX/ 2/1!2 1/1/2 1/1/2 1/1/1 But that's only :he beginning. To get the most out TAPE of your cartridge, -he 950011 has a switch that lets SIGNAL TO NOISE 95dB 95dB 95dB 93dB 87dB you "tune" the amplifier to the cartridge manufac- RATIO EM SENSITIVITY I .5uV I .&Al dcorkx,...,14. 1. 9uV I .9uV turer's optimum capacitance. And to get the most 1 1HF '581 (wide) 35dB I wide) 35d8 not 60dB 60dB out of your recorcs, our three -stage phono equalizer SELECTIVITY Inarrowl 85dB Inarron4 80dB applkable features an incredibly high phono overload level of Wide) 0.8dB Iwidei 0.8dB not 300 millivolts. With no more than 0.2 dB variation CAPTURE RATIO 1nam.m4 2.0dB I narrow.) 2.0dB apc4iusble I 'Cida l'CklB from the RI AA curve. So even the most complicated U S Pioneer Electronics Corp., 75 Oxford Drive, Moonachie, New Jersey 07074 passage on one cy today's highly engineered records Minimum RMS continuous power out- will sound exactly the way it was recorded in the put at 8 ohms, from 20 to 20,0X00Hz, with no studio. more than 0.1% total harmonic distortion. TX950011 SA950011 NEW PIONEER PS AND TUNERS. SA750011 CIRCLE 290N READER -SERVICE CAF D Better stereo records are the result of better playback pick-ups Scanning Electron Beam Microscope photo of Stereohedron Stylus; 2000 times magnification. Brackets point out wider contact area. Enter the New Professional Calibration Standard,Stanton's 8815 The recording engineer can only produce a product as good as his ability to analyze it. Such analysis is best accomplished through the use of a playback pick-up. Hence, better records are the result of better playback pick-up. Naturally, a calibrated pick-up is essential. There is an additional dimension to Stanton's new Professional Cal- ibration Standard cartridges. They are designed for maximum record protection. This requires a brand new tip shape, the Stereohedron®, which was developed for not only better sound characteristics but also the gentlest possible treatment of the record groove. This cartridge pos- sesses a revolutionary new magnet made of an exotic rare earth com- pound which, because of its enormous power, is far smaller than ordinary magnets. Stanton guarantees each 881S to meet the specifications within exacting limits. The most meaningful warranty possible, individual calibra- tion test results, come packed with each unit. Mike Reese of the famoLs Mastering Lab in Los Angeles Whether your usage involves recording, broad- says: "While maintaining the Calibration Standard, the 881S sets new levels for traccing and high Irecuency response. It's castingor home entertainment, your choice an audible improvement. We use the 881S exclusively for should be the choice of the professionals ... the calibration and evaluat on in our operation" STANTON 881S. graNTon For further information write to Stanton Magnetics, Terminal Drive, Plainview, New York 11803 CEICLE 37 ON READER -SERVICE CARD 2 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE PIONEER P WE STARTED WITH THE B Last year, the experts paid Pioreer's integrated witn five ceramic tilte-s :o remove all the interfere amps and tuners some of the highest con-oliments and noise from weaker ones. (Distortion measured ever. stereo at one kilohertz s an .ncredibly low 0.07% i The challenge -.vas obvious: to build even betterthe wide oand; and 0.25% in the narrow band. Bot amps and tuners Amps and tuners that would notwe I oelow the threshold of iuman hearing.) only surpass anything wec ever built before, but Where conventional multiplex circuits cut out anything anyone ever built before. some of the frequencies that add depth and prese Here's how we d d it. to music, the multiplex :ircuit in tie TX950011 THE NEW 'ION EERTX950011 TUNER: doesn't. It -eatures ar exclusive integrated circuit EVEN CLOSERTO PERFECT that's far more accurate that anything else around. When Popular Electronics said our TX9500 Plus a multipath swit2h t nal lets you align your tuner was as "near to perfect" as they'd en- an-.enna perfectly without an oscilloscope. countered, they obviously hadn't encountered And wiere you simply have to guess about the our TX950011. It features technology so ad- proper recording evel s off most tuners, t he TX95 vanced, some of it wasn't even perfected until provides you witi a tore generator that lets you pr this year. set the recording levels on your tape deck before t Our front end, for example, featu-es three broadcast starts. newly developed MOS FETs that wo-k with So your tapes can sound just as dear and our 5 -gang variable capactor to give the beautiful as your tuner. TX950011 an incredible FM sensitiv ty of THE NEW SA950011 AMPLIFIER 8.8dBt. In mono. In English, this means you HOW TO GE- TI, E MOST OUT OF THE BEST. can p...111 in bealitiful FM reception no matter After building one of the world's best tuners, w how far you live from the transmitter. had no choice but to crate an amplifier that could Where most tuners give you one band match it. width for all FM stations, the TX95001I The result is tie new SA950011. An 80* gives you two. A wide band with a surface watt integrated amp that was designed acoustic wave filter to take advantage of strong stations, and a narrow band THE TX85001I 1A8 50011 TYPE 11 st) S MONIER 1110110113 COP. 19.7 LAST YEARS REVIEWS PRESENTED US WITH ATOUGH ACT TO FOLLOW "IT CANNOT BE FAULTED:' SA9500 - Stereo Review `AS NEAR TO PERFECT AS WE'VE ENCOUNTERED:' TX9500 - Popular Electronics "CERTAINLY ONE OF THE BEST.. AT ANY PRICE:' TX9500 - Modern Hi Ft 7 IL/ Al I 1 II t1_11.1_11_1_11 ; « *4- i-44.41 -% HIGH FIDELITY MAY 1978 VOLUME 28, NUMBER 5 MUSIC AND MUSICIANS REVIEWS 16 Music U.S.A.: England's Music-Doing Without 83 Featured Recordings Gene Lees La Clemenza di Tito 0 Budapest Quartet 0 65 Behind the Scenes Konigskinder 76 Irving Berlin Joshua Logan A 90th -birthday salute to the American master 93 Classical Records Adriana Lecouvreur 0 Bach cantatas 0 83 Mozart's Tito: A Masterpiece Andrew Porter Solti's Pathetique 85 The Budapest Quartet in England Harris Goldsmith 94 Critics' Choice 88 Humperdinck but Not HanselDavid Hamilton 118 The Tape Deck R. D. Darrell AUDIO AND VIDEO BACKBEAT 4 Video-The Second Wave Leonard Marcus 121 Roberta Flack: Survivor Leida Snow 25 News and Views 125 Harry Fox and the RIAA Harvey Rachlin 26 Equipment in the News Watchdogs of the industry 32 Too Hot to Handle 128 1978 NAMM Western Market Fred Miller 36 Video Topics 130 Input Output Akai's portables 0 The cost of color 131 Records 47 Equipment Reports Steeleye Span 0 Loretta Lynn 0 Manhattans Apt/Holman preamplifier 140 New Wave, Second Surge Keith Monks M9BA Mk. 3 Improved tone arm Toby Goldstein Kenwood Model KX-1030 cassette deck Tandberg Model 2075 Mk. II receiver Marantz Model 940 speaker ET CETERA Realistic LAB -400 turntable 68 Keeping Your Stereo System Sounding like New 6 Letters Howard Roberson 40 HiFi-Crostic William Petersen 74 New Math vs. Old MythRobert Long 97 Reader -Service Cards New approaches to quantifying how an amp sounds 99 Advertising Index High Fidelity is published monthly at The Publishing House Great Barrington. Mass 0123) by ABC Leisure Magazines. In,:. a subsidiary of AmericanBroad. casting Companies. Inc Copyright1970 by ABC Leisure Magazines. Inc The design and contents are fully protected by copyright and must not be repro- duced in any manner Second-class postage paid at New York.