Mclntosh's New Receivar Demon's $500 Turntable February 1979 $1.50- 4 ICD D839B IS YOUR TAPE DECK BECOMING OBSOLETE? ;Tape Tricks : 'for 7 Auto.MBetter ` $oúnd' ee I ., r; 7, Fi -' 9fr- . '. A-- e of . FY _ .> a- f.tF " -{ 24*. y. t *' " >® 0 e C 1+1: 4E» ,, . ^ Fjs r ' ' N - 1 Rli . - I ;,Z+ 1 i o 7 f_'z 1t,. ° `O I ; 1",- - .:---.:iT -4.,,,.' o.Y 't:; ó : ...,. .MN*, -s 11 AND IT'S WHAT GOES INTO HPM SPEAKERS THAT MAKES THEM SOUND GREAT ON EVERY PART OF THE MUSIC. 1 f w 11 t) 1 o . L HPM60 ° 4 HPM 150 HPM 100 HPM 40 Most speaker companies try to impress with the same materials that were being you by describing the "wonderful" sound used in 1945. that comes out of their speakers. Every woofer in the HPM series, At Pioneer, we think the most believable however, is made with a special carbon fiber way to describe how good HPM speakers blend that's allowed us to decrease the are is to tell you what went into them. weight of the cone, yet increase the strength THE HPM SUPERTWEETER: needed for clarity. So you'll hear the deepest SPEAKER TECHNOLOGY RISES TO NEW HIGHS. notes exactly the way the musician recorded In many speakers, you'll .-. them. find that the upper end of the And because every HPM audio spectrum is reproduced woofer also has an oversized by an ordinary tweeter. magnet and long throw voice In HPM speakers, you'll coil, they can handle more find that the high frequencies power without distorting. are reproduced by a unique OTHER FEATURES YOU supertweeter. RARELY HEAROF The High Polymer Molecular Superb,eeter. It works by using a So incredible, we named a iv hole line of speakers alter it. EveryHPM speaker has single piece of High cast aluminum frames, in- Polymer Molecular film, (hence the name stead of the usual flimsy stamped out metal HPM) that converts electrical impulses into kind. So that even when you push our sound waves without a magnet, speakers to their limit, you only voice coil, cone, or dome. hear the music and never the And because the HPM , a . ' frames. In fact, our competitors supertweeter doesn't need y r` were so impressed, they any of these mechanical parts, started making what look like it can reproduce highs die cast frames, but aren't. with an accuracy and HPM speaker cabinets definition that surpasses are made of specially com- even the finest conventional pressed board that has better tweeter. acoustic properties than ordi- As an added advantage, nary wood. the HPM film is curved for You'll never hea r a sound out of these Their speakers have level die cast alum( num speaker frames. maximum sound dispersion. controls that let you adjust So unlike other speakers, you don't have to the sound of the music to your living room. plant yourself in front of an HPM speaker to And these features are not just found in enjoy all the sound it can produce. our most expensive HPM speaker, MID -RANGE THAT ISN'T but in every speaker in the MUDDLED. -w PM 0 HPM series. For years, speaker man- All of which begins to ex- ufacturers have labored over ., plain why, unlike speakers mid -range driver cones that Mir) that sound great on only part are light enough to give you level controls th at let you adjust the sound of the music, HPM speakers quick response, yet rigid enough to your lis tening area. sound great on all of it. not to distort. At this point, we suggest you take your Pioneer solved this problem by creating favorite record into any Pioneer Dealer and special cones that handle more power, and audition a pair of HPM speakers in person. combine lower mass with greater rigidity. So If you think what went into them our HPM drivers provide you with cleaner, sounds impressive, wait till you hear what and crisper mid -range. Which means you'll comes out of them. hear music, and not distortion. iUD PIONEER WOOFERS THAT TOP EVERY OTHER BOTTOM. We bring it back alive. Conventional woofers are still made 01978 U.S Pioneer Electronics Corp , 85 Ostord Drive, Moonachie, N 1.07074. `s. WHAT COMES OUT OFASP A KERIS ONLY AS IMP SS AS WHAT GOES INTO IT: CIRCLE 33 ON PAGE 89 Pickering's all NEW OA-3A Open Audio Stereo Headphones... With Special Adapter for use with Portable Radios, TV Sets and Tape Recorders. , . , . TI T. S 'I'.. , and it's made in the U.S.A. a i I I ti ti Open Audio means you can enjoy the sound yet be part of what's going on around you. Just plug the special adapter into the earphone jack of any Mono Cassette Recorder, Portable Radio or TV Set and enjoy perfect sound everywhere you go. SOUND PERFECTION. You have to listen to believe. Hear them at your nearest Pickering dealer or REVOLUTIONARY. So light. So comfortable to use. for further information write to: OPEN AUDIO. Enjoy the sound. Yet, be part of what's going on around you. Pickering & Co., Inc., PREDICTION. The OA -3A will be your favorite PICKERING Dept. R 101 Sunnyside Blvd., Plainview, New York 11803 "component". Tor those who con SW' the difference" FEBRUARY 1979 VOLUME 29, NUMBER 2 MUSIC AND MUSICIANS REVIEWS 4 Bach Flipped, by Jupiter Leonard Marcus 61 Featured Recordings Otello Beethoven piano sonatas 16 The Witch of Eighth Avenue John Culshaw 67 Classical Records 53 The Broadway Voice: Part II Conrad L. Osborne Levine's Mahler Scotto's Butterfly 61 RCA's Otello: Challenging the Best 68 Critics' Choice David Hamilton 92 The Tape Deck R. D. Darrell 64 Beethoven Piano Sonatas Times Three I turris Goldsmith 94 Theater and Film Madame Bovary The Boys from Brazil BACKBEAT AUDIO AND VIDEO 101 Chick Corea's Musical Macrocosm Len Lyons 20 Too Hot to Handle 105 The Oldest Established Permanent Floating Disco William Kanner 22 News and Views 109 Input Output 24 Equipment in the News 110 Records 30 Video Topics James Brown D Kate and Anna McGarrigle 33 Equipment Reports 114 Breakaway: The Clash Toby Goldstein McIntosh Mac 4100 receiver Denon DP -2500 turntable 115 Spinoffs: Jazz Don Heckman/John S. Wilson !VC T-3030 tuner Audio International CM -301 preamp Ortofon Model MC -10 phono pickup ET CETERA Burwen THE -7000 Transient Noise Eliminator 11 Letters 44 Bits and Particles Larry Zide 58 HiFi-Crostic William Petersen Will technology make your tape deck obsolete? 89 Reader -Service Cards 49 Taped Programs for Your Car Harold A. Rodgers How to make them, how to choose them 121 Advertising Index II High Fidelity is published monthly at The Publishing House, Great Barrington. Mass. 01230 by ABC Leisure Magazines. Inc , a subsidiary of American Broad- casting Companies Inc. Copyright ' 1979 by ABC Le sure 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. New York, and at additional mailing offices. Authorized as second-class mail by the Post Office Department. Ottawa. and for payment of postage in cash Yearly subscription in U.S A and Possessions $9 95 elsewhere 512 95 Single copies 51 50. Sub- scribers. Send subscriptions, inquiries. and address changes to High Fidelity, 1 Sound Ave.. Marion, Onio a3302. Change of address' Give old and new ad- dresses, Including ZIP Code. Enclose address label from last issue and allow floe weeks for change to become effective Postmaster: Send Form 3579 to High Fidelity, 1 Sound Ave., Merlon, Ohio 43302. Postal Identification Number 24382. Bach Flipped, by Jupiter! SI» On the fifth of next month, Voyager 1 is scheduled to pass Jupiter, whose gravity will he harnessed to tlip the spacecraft toward Saturn and then out to the stars. In July, Voyager 2 (actually launched about ten days before Voyager 1 some eighteen months ago, but on a different trajectory) will also pass Jupiter before a similar cosmic journey. By the time you read this, Voyager 1 should have been sending highly pub- licized signals hack to Earth for more than a month and Voyager 2 should be adjusting itself to begin its Jovian report. What concerns me here is not the message Voyager sends back to us, ,....._ but the one we have mailed to the universe using the two vehicles as postmen. Attached to the outside of each spacecraft is a package of some 120 photos, eighteen in color, greetings in 54 languages plus whale(!), twelve minutes of sounds of the Earth, and an hour and a half of music from Chinese to Pygmy. The format to had accommodate the \irk dynamic range of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, the last 4'h minutes of which is included, and it needed a minimum lifetime of 60,000 years (to the nearest star), preferably of 100,000,000 years (to the of the Cover photo by Bob Brody; center hand -lettering Alan galaxy). by Henderson Elsewhere in this issue we discuss two recent information -storage developments: metal -particle magnetic tape and digital technology. LEONARD MARCUS But the medium chosen by NASA as optimum for both density of in- Editor formation and longevity was a stereo LP disc, recorded in the conven- ROBERT S. CLARK tional analog process (including the photos), at 162í5 rpm, the speed of Editorial Director the "talking books" for the blind. The recording has, accidents ex- KENNETH FURIE cepted, an expected lifetime in the billions of years, outlasting our sun.