A Christmas Audio Shopping List
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In _this issue: a Christmas audio shopping list THE MAGAZINE FOR MUSIC LISTENERS 60 CENTS 4 50% mere retailing time per reel 'nsFa..arera."?t AUDIO DFVi(ES.1,< 4 S PER THIN.aLLape dw,o :,... one eeslsís. 5 NOW... a truly professional quality for EVERY sound recording need and EVERY recording budget! -PLASTIC -BASE AUDIOTAPE, 11/2-mil on cellulose acetate, SUPER -THIN AUDIOTAPE on 1/2 -mil "Mylar" gives you twice meets the most exacting requirements of the professional, as much recording time per reel as standard plastic base educational and home recordist to excellent advantage, providing tape. 1200 ft on a 5" reel, 2400 ft on a 7" reel. Suitable for extended unsurpassed recording quality at minimum cost. This is the standard play applications where tape tension is not excessive. Series 31, in Audiotape, which has already been sold in billions of feet. Series 51, the yellow box. in the red and black box. * * * These five types of Audiotape differ only. in base material, tape AUDIOTAPE ON 11/2 -MIL MYLAR* is a premium -quality thickness and footage per reel. Whatever type best meets your tape that provides the utmost in mechanical strength and particular immunity to extremes of temperature and humidity. Assures freedom requirements, you can be sure that there's no finer from breaking or stretching under stresses of super -fast rewind, recording tape made anywhere, at any price. That's because instant stops and starts or poorly adjusted clutches. Will not dry there's only one Audiotape quality - the very finest that can out or embrittle with age, even under unfavorable storage conditions. be produced. Its fidelity of reproduction and consistent, uni- Series 71, in the De Pont reed. green box. Me,t re, ee,r.".' rem form quality have made it the first choice of critical professiona I recordists the world over. Now amateur and home recordists TYPE LR AUDIOTAPE on 1 -mil "Mylar" gives you 50% more can get this same professional -quality Audiotape at no extra recording and playback time - eliminates reel changes and cost. There's no need to go elsewhere or accept substitutes. You permits uninterrupted recording of program material that exceeds can meet all your requirements with genuine Audiotape. For conventional reel capacity by up to 50%. The 1 -mil "Mylar" base the complete story on all 5 types, ask your Dealer for a copy is actually stronger at high humidity than the standard 11/2-mil of the new, 5 -color Audiotape Bulletin No. 250. write to plastic base, assuring long tape life even under unfavorable condi- Or Audio Devices, Inc., Dept. H tions of use or storage. Series 61, in the black and red box. PLASTIC -BASE LR AUDIOTAPE provides 50% more recording and playback time per reel, on a low -cost 1 -mil cellulose AUDIO DEVICES, Inc. acetate base. Hence it affords maximum economy for -play extended 444 MADISON AVE., NEW YORK 22, N. Y. applications where high mechanical strength is not required. Series IN HOLLYWOOD: 1006 N. Fairfax Ave. IN CHICAGO: 6571 N. Olmsted Ave. 41, in the blue box. Export Dept.: 13 East 40th St., New York 16, N. Y, Cables "ARLAB" High Jidelitq T H E M A G A Z I N E F O R M U S I C L I S T E N E R S This Issue. This magazine is now five Volume 6 Number 12 December i 956 years old going on six (our birthday comes in midsummer, when no one notices insti- tutional birthdays), and has grown rather Noted With Interest 4 fantastically, along with the public, the art, and the industry it serves. Change On The Counter 14 is not to be regretted (and it cannot be fought), but it poses editorial problems. Letters 21 Record reviewers nowadays, for instance, take note of a record's sound chiefly when it is not good. Sonic merit is almost uni- AUTHORitatively Speaking 37 form today; most of 1956's LPs would have seemed aural marvels in 1951. Audio Books in Review 39 equipment, too, has changed for the better, however gradually, and the criteria whereby Editorial: The Mozart Year, by C. G. Burke 53 it is judged - by customer as well as by professional tester - have altered also. Opera Taped Where It Grew, by Max de Schauensee 54 When HIGH FIDELITY, Vol. 1, No. s, came Bohème in Milan; The Barber in Florence. out, at least one major audio distributor still was offering "complete high fidelity" A Jewel In A Plastic Trough, by J. Gordon Holt 58 rigs, including tuners, for less than $150. First in a series reconsidering high -fidelity criteria. The dollar was worth more then than now, of course, but not that much more. The The First - Stereophonic - Noel 6o fact is, what was considered adequate "be- A photographic feature. ginner's fi" then would not now be thought acceptable at all. The equipment consisted He Who Lathes Best, by Fritz A. Kuttner 62 largely of modified public address com- in Scully. ponents, and sounded like it. Adequacy, Adventurers Sound: Lawrence J. 1956, comes higher in price. But it comes For Fi -Man's Christmas Stocking . 65 also lower in distortion. And even the The untutored now have become particular on A Yuletide list of presents for audiophiles. this score. Hence a series we begin this 69 issue, which could have been titled (but Music Makers, by Roland Gelatt isn't) How to Take a New Look at High Fidelity. It starts on page 58. Record Section 73 -119 Records in Review; Dialing Your Disks; Building Your Record Library. CHARLES FOWLER, Publisher R. D. 121 JOHN M. CONLY, Editor Tape Deck, by Darrell ROLAND GELATT, New York Editor Tested in the Home 131 J. GORDON HOLT, Technical Editor Altec 9oiB reproducer and 7ooB, 824A, and 826A speaker sys- ROY LINDSTROM, Art Director tems; Components Professional Junior turntable; RCA SorSr Biaxial speaker; Fisher transistor preamplifier; Gibson Girl Assistant Editors Semi -Pro tape splicer; Heath SS -rB range extending speaker kit; MIRIAM D. MANNING; JOAN GRIFFITHS Fisher 2oA amplifier; General Apparatus Van -Amp crossover. Manager, Book Division FRANCES A. NEWBURY Tested -in- the -Home Index 140 Contributing Editors Trader's Marketplace 151 C. G. BURKE R. D. DARRELL Audio Forum JAMES HINTON, JR. 153 MARSH ROBERT CHARLES General Index of HIGH FIDELITY Magazine, 1956 158 WARREN B. SYER, Business Manager ARTHUR J. GRIFFIN, Circulation Professional Directory 16o Manager Advertising Index 163 Advertising Main Office - Claire Eddings, The Publish- High Fidelity Magazine is published monthly by Audiocom. Inc., at Great Barrington, Mass. ing House, Great Barrington, Mass. Tele- Telephone: Great Barrington 1300. Editorial, publication, and circulation offices at: The Publish- phone: Great Barrington 1300. ing House, Great Barrington, Mass. Subscriptions: $6:00 per year in the United States and Michalove, Room 600, Canada. Single copies: 60 cents each. Editorial contributions will be welcomed by the editor. New York - Fred C. will be arranged prior to publication. Unsolicited manuscripts 6 East 39th St. Telephone: MUrray Hill 5 -6332. Payment for articles accepted should be accompanied by return postage. Entered as second -class matter April 27, 1951 at the Chicago --John R. Rutherford & Associates, post office at Great Barrington, Mass., under the act of March 3, 1879. Additional entry at the Inc.. 230 East Ohio St. Telephone: Whitehall post office, Pittsfield, Mass. Member Audit Bureau of Circulation. Printed in the U. S. A. by 4 -6715. the Ben Franklin Press, Pittsfield, Mass. Copyright 1956 by Audiocom, Inc. The cover design magazine are fully protected by copyrights and must not be repro- Los Angeles - Brand & Brand, Inc., 6314 and contents of High Fidelity San Vicente Blvd. Telephone: Webster 8 -3971. duced In any manner. DECEMBER 1956 3 Briggs at Carnegie *Listening Quality As he did in 1955, G. A. Briggs of Wharfedale Loudspeakers gave a con- cert on October 3 of "live and re- GRAY opens new frontiers in SOUND with corded music" in Carnegie Hall. Ir was a well -worthwhile evening for the 2,500 enthusiasts who attended and The DYNAMIC RANGE AMPLIFIER though some may have been uncertain as to how well recorded sound fared in the tests, no one could help ad- Here is an Ampli- miring Mr. Briggs for his courage in fier that REALLY undertaking again so sizable a proj- ect. Mr. Briggs was assisted by sun- passes the LC) TEST dry recordings and by live perform- ances by E. Power Biggs, ' LISTENING QUALITY Morton Gould with a percussion ensemble Like the American cars which included the tap dancer Danny of 1956 the Gray Dy- Daniels, and Teicher and Ferrante, namic Range Amplifi- duo -pianists. er has reserve power It is perhaps unfortunate that a when you need it. good many people in the audience Make sure your Sys- came with the expectation that they tem has "AUDORAM- would hear, for example, Haydn's IC SOUND ". Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra so reproduced that they could close their eyes and be unable to tell if 1. 50 Watts of Power with less than 1% I.M. distortion. it were reproduced or live. The pos- sibility of such an achievement is, as 2. Exceptional Stability for both High and Low frequency a matter of fact, remotely conceivable operation is assured through use of a newly created circuit and a Dynaco output transformer. -but to expect it of the equipment used by Mr. Briggs, and in Carnegie 3. Transients controlled through critical damping prevent Hall, is little short of ridiculous. oscillatory surges from pulse type signals. What is remarkable about the demon- 4. Full frequency fidelity from 6 to 100,000 cycles, response stration is that it came as close as it outside audio band is smooth and controlled.