FEBRUARY 1988 WINGATE CLASS-A AMPLIFIER TANDBERG CD PLAYER R-DAT USER REPORT APASSIVE PREAMPLIFIER SCHUBERT'S GREAT C-MAJOR INDEX TO 1987 SONOGRAPHE SYSTEMS: For Those Whose Discriminating Taste Exceeds Their Means Whether your preference is for the warm glow of astring quartet or the driving rhythm of hard rock SONOGRAPHE will recreate the mood of live performance. Conceived and engineered by conrad-johnson design to achieve sonic excellence far exceeding their moderate prices, each SONOGRAPHE component offers commendable performance in systems of the highest quality Together they constitute acomplete system of near reference quality at an affordable price—less than $3000 for cd player preamplifier amplifier and monitor speakers. the conrad-johnson group • 2800R Dorr Ave • Fairfax. VA 22031 • 703-698-8581 CONTENTS AS WE SEE IT 5 LETTERS 12 INDUSTRY UPDATE 33 High-End News from the USA and UK THE BEST SOUND IN NEW YORK 47 The results ol the Stereophile Show visitors survey AUDIO WITH ROTARY HEADS 52 George Graves lives with a Luxman R-DAT recorder INTERSTELLAR OVERDRIVE • 61 John Atkinson talks with John Bau of Spica Speakers AN ABSENCE OF GAIN? 78 Ben Duncan offers a DIY passive preamplifier design EQUIPMENT REPORTS Wilson WATTs loudspeaker (MC). 88 Spica Angelus loudspeaker (JA) . 96 Kindel Purist LT loudspeaker (TJN) 101 Castle Durham loudspeaker (TJN) 103 Audio Concepts Quartz loudspeaker (TJN) 105 AR Powered Partner loudspeaker (BS) 108 Wingate 2000A power amplifier (DO) 110 Sima W-3050 power amplifier (TJN) 114 Parasound HCA-800 power amplifier (TJN) 116 Tandbérg 3015A CD player (JGH) 118 Audio Control Phase-Coupleo Activator (BS) 121 dbx 120BX subharmonic synthesizer (BS) 121 Luxman T-117 FM tuner (DAS) 124 FOLLOW UP Bedini 150/150 Mk.II amplifier (DO) 126 Monitor Audio R952MD loudspeaker (JA) • 127 BUILDING A LIBRARY 129 Christopher Breunig looks at Schubert's Great C-Major Symphony on record RECORD REVIEWS 133 BOOK REVIEWS 169 INDEX TO STEREOPHILE VOLUME 10 174 MANUFACTURERS COMMENTS 179 COMING ATTRACTIONS 4 WHERE TO BUY STEREOPHILE 191 AUDIO MART 199 BACK ISSUES 177 SUBSCRIPTIONS 75 FOREIGN SUBSCRIPTIONS 75 ADVERTISER INDEX 209 THE FINAL WORD 210 Larry Archibald offers a publisher's point of view FEBRUARY 1988 VOL. 11 NO. 2 Stereophile, February 1988 COMING ATTRACTIONS The March issue of Stereopbile (Vol.]] No.3) the Apogee Divas; Iwill be looking at British offers much to intrigue, inform, and entertain amplification from DNM and acomplete sys- the audiophile J. Gordon Holt, as spry as ever, tem from Linn Products, as well a host of reports on what was new in high-end audio under-$1000 loudspeakers; Keith Yates has at the Las Vegas CES; Dick Olsher reports on been examining one of the most promising the state of the electrostatic art; Amis Balgalvis room-acoustic treatments, the tantalizingly kicks off his writing career for Stereopbile with named Reflection Phase Gratings; and Lewis a review of Bill Firebaugh's Well-Tempered Lipnick is putting together acomplete report Ibmtable; Bill Sommerwerck provides an in- on a classical recording session, including depth report on which surround-sound de- politics, engineering, choice of program, and coders best decode Dolby Stereo video sound- performance. tracks; Martin Colloms analyzes the perfor- And April will see afully revised edition of mance of amost unusual British loudspeaker, Stereopbile's authoritative "Recommended Mordaunt-Short's System 442; Thomas J. Nor- Components" feature. ton surveys the field of modified Philips/Mag- In the Music Section, we hope to include 20 navox CD players; and Ken Kessler talks to pages of record reviews in every issue; inter- Naim Audio's Julian Vereker. views with Michala Petri and Ofra Hamoy are Works in progress due to appear in the next in the works, as are reviews of two major new two or three issues of Stereopbile include Dick Wagner recordings; and Steréopbile's search Olsher's hopefully definitive survey of loud- for black vinyl will continue in New York, los speaker cables—if the word "definitive" should Angeles, and London. ever be used for acomponent that seems to And to those of you who buy your copy of change so often—and alook at the undersea Stereopbile from a newstand, now that the world of subwoofers, including models from magazine appears every month, why don't you Sumo, Kinergetics, Coggin-Hall, Nelson-Reed, consider subscribing? The subscription form and Entec. JGH will review cost-no-object can be found on page 75. loudspeakers, including, we hope, the Infinity IRS Beta; Amis Balp,alvis will be reporting on Aile‘41t, STAFF Publisher Larry Archibald Advertising Representatives (Domestic East Coast 8 Foreign) Founder and Chief Tester J Gordon Holt Nelson 8, Associates (Ken Nelson) Editor John Atkinson (914) 476-3157 (Domestic West Coast & National Dealer) Assistant Editor Richard Lehnert Nelson 8. Associates (Laura J. Atkinson) (505) 988-3284 Contributing Editors (hardware) Production Manager Rebecca Willard Arms Balgalv is Bebo Moroni Production Andrew Main, Janice St. Marie Martin Colloms Thomas J. Norton 8 Susan Lamden Alvin Gold Dick Oisher George M. Graves II Don A. Scott Ad Copy Manager Susan Lamden Ken Kessler Bit Sommerwerck Feature Design Michael Motley Peter Mitchell Stephen W. Watkinson Cover Design Jim Wood Typesetting Copygraphics Musician in Residence Lewis Lipnick Contributing Editors (records) Stereophile -Vol. 11 No. 2, February 1988, Issue Number g7. Stereophile (ISSN NO585-2544) is pub- David B. Allvin Robert Hesson lished monthly, $35.00 per year for U.S. residents by Leslie S. Berkley Barbara Jahn Stereophile, 208 Delgado, Santa Fe, NM 67501. James Berwin Igor Kiprus Second class postage paid at Santa Fe, NM and at Christopher Breunig Gary S. Krakow additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: send ad- Kevin Conklin Harold Lynn dress changes to Stereophile, PO. Box 364, Mount Gordon Emerson Richard Schneider Morris, IL 61054 Mortimer H. Frank Bernard Soil Subscriptions William A.C. Furtwangler U.S. residents 800-435-0715 800-892-0753 (Illinois) Business Manager Gail Anderson From outside U.S. call (505)982-2366. (505)982-2366 4 Stereophile, February 1988 ow that Sony has bought CBS's rec- and it's as easy to use as CD. DAT confers no ords division, and the infamous Copy- advantage in any of those areas. N code bill seems to be dying in Con- As for the new system's superior sound gress, the way may be clearing at last for the quality. relative to the analog cassette, I do not US introduction of the new Digital Audio Tape foresee that having any significant effect on system. This has sparked renewed speculation DAT's marketplace acceptance. In fact, the in the industry about the impact DAT will have perceived difference between DAT reproduc- on existing formats, particularly the fledgling tion and the sound from conventional cas- CD. Some are convinced DAT will kill CD, settes will, for most consumers, be quite small. because of its ability to record as well as play A good cassette copy of a CD can never be a digital recordings. Others believe DAT won't perfect replica of it, hut the differences are even gain a foothold in the market, for the slight enough that the average person will be same reason quadraphonic sound laid an egg hard put to hear them. There's a slight high - back in the '70s: The public can't handle more end softening that only trained listeners with than one "standard" format. I feel that both good equipment are likely to notice. There's views are wrong, and that—as is usually the also an increase in background hiss, which has case with extreme views—the truth lies in be- apparently never bothered the average user, tween. I believe DAT will catch on in the either. In an automobile, it's buried under the marketplace, but never in abig way, and cer- high ambient noise.' Even at home, where am- tainly not the way CD has. Here's why. bient noise is much lower, the compact cas- First, and probably most important, is that sette's gentle hiss is still usually inaudible, DAT will have little to offer the average music because most people listen to music which has listener that he cannot now get from the con- limited dynamic range to begin with, and ventional audio cassette at much lower cost. because most "stereos" won't play loudly The analog cassette is recordable, it does not enough to put a Dolby-B'ed cassette's hiss well accumulate ticks and pops with repeated play- above the ambient noise level. ings. and it wears out slowly enough with The other advantages of DAT—the ability repeated playings that few users have ever ex- hausted its life expectancy. The cassette is II am ignoring those idiots whose criterion of fi in a Cr is its ability to induce Needing from the rats Few of them have pocketable, players can he eminently portable, any hearing left ahove ikH anyway. Stereophile, February 1988 5 e iThe very essence of the Delta Mode differential topology is to intrinsically oppose 'wdistortion, yet effortlessly magnify the music while accurately preserving its harmonic phase structure to present an exquisitely detailed sonic picture of the live performance. Regardless of your level of listening experience, the Delta Mode's unique sonic capabilities will transport you to center stage. Quality and reliability by natural design. Satisfaction guaranteed! Please call or write for additional information. Don JCochran Inc. Suite 109, 1900 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto, CA 94303 USA 415-496-1900 to automatically locate different selections by But if DAT would seem to pose little threat anumerical address, and to be programmed to the compact cassette, what about its impact for playback in any desired order—will appeal on the other digital medium, CD? Ibelieve little to those people who now routinely put there might be some cause for concern here together their own programs on cassette from if the CD were not already firmly established several different source recordings.