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DSPECIAL ISSUE AIRTIGHT: TUBES IN THE JAPANESE TRADITION

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HI F1 AUGUST 1989

RECOR VOL 34 No 8

EV IEW

COVER

An exquisite audiophile tube amp, firmly in the tradition of the classic Lux designs, themselves inspired by 'Golden Age' US models (photo by Tony Petch). Can AirTight turn back the clock? See page 41 Heading this month's music section, cellist Steven Isserlis talks to Sorrel Breunig: page 83. ( Photo: Roy Carnegie. I

R EGULARS

5 COMMENT by Christopher Breunig

7 VIEWS letters to the Editor

11 NEWS

17 TECHNOLOGY by Barry Fox

21 RADIO by Trevor Butler

23 HEADROOM by Ken Kessler

33 ACCESSORIES CLUB

41 BOOKS

116 REGIONAL DEALER GUIDE

109 ADVERTISERS' INDEX

120 CLASSIFIED ADS

FEATURES

25 THE WAY THE WIND BLOWS: the Summer Consumer Electronics Show, Chicago. With news and pictures of a host of new products, plus some predictions for the coming season, K9i Kessler reports from what is the largest and most influential hi-fi trade show in the world: starting with the Quad CD player!

34 'AUDIO IN DIGITAL TIMES' was the theme of the Toronto Audio Engineering Society convention, with a number of researchers presenting new findings on several important aspects of digital audio. Timothy Palmer-Benson reports

37 VOICE OF VERSA: John Bicht, former racing driver, designer of the milestone Mission 774 tonearnt in the 1970s, and the man behind the Versa Dynamics turntable, talks to Laura Dearborn about his sometimes offbeat approach

83 STEVEN ISSERLIS talks to Sorrel Breunig

87 THE HA GEN QUARTET;

talk to David Nice

89 SORABJI SESSIONS Richard Black reports

91 RECORD REVIEW INDEX

93 RECORD OF THE MONTH

93 CLASSICAL REVIEWS The BeecharniTortelier Don

Quixote; Kleiber's New year's Day Concert; Weller's Beethoven

105 REFLECTIONS

classical reissues

107 ROCK/POP/JAZZ REVIEWS

McCartney Bowie, Lou Rawls

113 CAPSULES

115 REISSUES

• 122 BACKDOOR

the work of Bernie Taupin

EQUIPMENT

END 43 VACUUM PACKED: The Air'Fight ATC1 pre- and ATM1 tube amplifier combination reviewed by Ken Kessler

47 ORACLE ALEXANDRIA III/SME 309 turntable and arm reviewed by Steve Harris

49 DAX VOSISCUM: Ken Kessler on Apogee's extraordinary £4500 Dedicated Active Crossover, known to Apogee fans as the DAX

50 CONRAD JOHNSON DF1 CD player: a technical and subjective review by Martin Colloms

52 CARTRIDGES: The top flight. Summary reviews on 15 quality moving-coil designs

55 MIDDLE-GROUND SPEAKERS: Acoustic Research AR142, Monitor Audio R300MD and Rogers IS4a speakers tested and compared by Martin Colloms

61 TWOS TO THE POWER OF THREE: 'Mark II' Arcam Alpha, Marantz PM64 and Naim NAIT tested by Chris Bryant

New-style Noun NAÎT: page 6!

67 BATTLE OF THE BITS: Aiwa XC-004, Alcai CD-62 and Technics SL-P555 CD players. By Martin Colloms

74 TECHNICS SE-M100 'digital direct drive' power amp tested by Chris Bryant

77 SONY TA-F630ESD: a PDM preview. Paul Miller tests the BitStream Sony amp

80 POT POURRI: Castle Warwick speaker; Harman/Kardon PM635i amp; Audiolab 8000P update; Musical Fidelity A370; Rolcsan Shiraz lab results

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I II-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989 3

Everyone but Mrs Rodie is delighted with our latest

batch of awards.

It's enough to make us blush. Ti) win one What Hi-Fi? Award is a very gratifying

achievement ... to win two is positively heartwarming... but to win three (including the

universally coveted Grand Prix Award) in one year!. . we really don't know what to say.

Admittedly the Arcam mantelpiece is by no means a stranger to the odd trophy or two, but

never before has it groaned under such an embarrassment of riches.

First in our 1989 haul is the Best Budget Amplifier Award ...for our Arcam

Alpha Plus. A previous winner in 1987, the Alpha Plus moved the 1989 What Hi-Fi?

judges to declare: "The Alpha Plus rightly deserves the Best Budget Amplifier tag.

Though undergoing some improvements, it is now in its third year — and still selling for the

original price. It is truly a budget hi-fi amplifier, setting excellent standards for design,

input flexibility and, of course, sound quality" Never ones to rest on our laurels, we've already made a few small adjustments and

improvements to the Alpha since the Awards; it's now the Alpha 2 ... Best Budget Amp of

1990 peut-être? Our second Award was for the Best Loudspeaker under £300: the Arcam Two Plus.

Apparently "there was little disagreement among the judges that the Plus revision has

pushed this worthy speaker far ahead of the competition". Cripes! "The overall picture is

of a generous, warm-sounding loudspeaker with an above average bass pesformance ... a

delight to live with in the long term ... very communicative ... with quality where it counts':

Without wishing to sound immodest, we couldn't agree more.

Last, but by no stretch of the imagination least, our Arcam Delta Black Box

" won unanimous acclaim" and scooped the 1989 Grand Prix Award ... the highest honour

What Hi-Fi? can bestow. Linked to any CD player with a digital output, the Black Box

dramatically improves its sound. Or to use What Hi-Fi?'s words: Ms ever, our ultimate

accolade goes to a product able to bring superior sound quality to a wider audience at an

affordable price... the first UK designed and built out-board digital to analogue converter ... it is able to inject grace and space into the sound of many an older generation CD player

... offers stunning upgrade potential." Naturally, everyone here at Aram is delighted to have received such a welter

of commendations. So when you're listening to your Award-winning Arcam components,

spare a thought for our cleaning lady. We may have swept the board, but it's Mrs Rodie

who dusts the mantelpiece.

A RCAM audiophile products

from .4&R Cambridge

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•

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND DETAILS OF YOUR NEAREST ARCAM DEALER PLEASE TELEPHONE OR WRITE

A&R CAMBRIDGE LIMITED, DENNY INDUSTRIAL CENTRE WATERBEACH, CAMBRIDGE CB5 9PB, ENGLAND, TELEPHONE (0223) 861550 (24 HOURS)

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+

Editor Steve Harris

Music Editor Christopher Breunig ,

Editorial Assistant Trevor Butler

Sub-Editor Karen Douthwaite

Contributing Editor Ken Kessler

Consulting Editors John Crabbe

Donald Aldous

1 Technical Advisers Angus McKenzie MBE Martin Colloms Stanley Kelly Malcolm Hawksford Rex Baldock

Design Consultant Flick Elcins

Design Assistant Sue Daniels

Editorial Secretary Clare Furey

Advertisement Simon Taylor ' Manager

' Advertisement Beverley Simpkins Sales Executives Sophia Meliniotis

Ad Copy Manager Tim Daly

Ad Sales Secretary Carol Walker

Publisher Colin Gamm

Editorial and Advertising offices: Link Flouse. Dingwall Avenue. Croydon CR9 2TA. Telephone: 01-686 2599. Fax: 01-760 0973. Telex: 947709.

Hi-fi News & Record Review incorporates: Stereo, Tape & Tape Recorders, Audio News, Record News, Audio Record Review, The Gra-

mophone Record. Member of tbeAudit Bureau of Circulations

Microfilms & Indexing Microfilm and microfiche copies of HEN/RR or articles therefrom arc available commercially from University Microfilms International. North American applications to: 300 N. Z,eeb Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106, USA; UK and rest of world: White Swan House, 60 High Street, GocLstone, Surrey 1019 8LW. Technical articles of full page length or over appearing in Hi-Fi News & Record Review are detailed in the Current Technology Index.

Binders Loose-leaf binders for annual volumes of HEN/RR are available from Binders. 78 Whalley Road, Wilps. hire. Blackburn. Lancs. BB I 2LE 1971 to 1982 are covered by two binders ( Jan-June/July-Dec ); subsequent years required one binder each. Price £4 50 each ( post paid). For earlier years, please ask for quotation.

Hi-Fi News Cr Record Review is published monthly on the third Friday of the month preceding cover date by Link House Magazines Ltd, Dingwall Avenue, Croydon CR9 2TA UK. Lid: House Magazines is a member of the United Newspapers Group. (g Link House Magazines Ltd 1989, all rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or par! u forbidden, save with the pennieion, in writing, of the publishers. Distributed by tVewstrade Link, 1 Benwell Road, Holloway, London N7 74X. Tel: 01-607 7374. Typeset by Marlin Graphics, Sidcup, Kent. Printed by Passniore International, Tovil, Maidstone, Kent. ISSN 0142-6230.

Subscriptions HFN1RR Subscriptions, 1201126 Lavender Avenue, Mitcham, Surrey CR4 3HP. Annual surface mail subscription rates £19.20 ( UK) and £27.80 (overseas), except USA which is 545. Overseas airmail: £46.00 USA Postmaster please send address corrections to US mailing agent: Expediters of the Printed Word Ltd, 11-35 45th Avenue, Long Island City, NY 11101. Second-class postage paid at New York, NY or additional entry.

COM f it were feasible to 'New Noise' a recent historic CD transfer — that is, to refurbish the sound making it indisting-

uishable from a 1989 digital orchestral recording — and to issue it under a pseudonym, then I suspect that the per-formance would receive a critical maul-ing, for the arbitrariness and wilfulness of expressive effects applied, and inorganic tempo changes made. The CD I have in mind is of Brahms's Fourth Symphony in a pre-war concert performance under Tos-canini ( for it is He!). The point here is that the performance by no means conforms to the 'image'. And image has become paramount in selling records. It also has a preconditioning effect on the listener.

In the early days of LP, the sleeves tended to be rather drab abstracts (eg, some Decca LXTs from the '50s) or, with HMV, there was just a 'classical' lettering design around the dog and trumpet motif. Later on, of course, artist portraits became predominant (some performers insisting that they figure on sleeves, however ill-advised). Ancillary to that are the promotional brochures, which project and glamorize the image of players, old and new. Indeed, I can think of two new young violinists so lacking in — for want of a better word — charisma that one won-ders how their careers can prosper at all; talent doesn't come into it.

This is not a puritanical swipe at the record companies: although they, perhaps, should be thinking more along the lines of looking after their protégés when it comes to public exposure. Image and selling have become twinned in political, sporting and artistic ventures.

Recently, much has been made of the 'power shifts' in the classical recording industry, with speculation on the long-term effects of, say, the redistribution of catalogues like the Erato, Deutsche Har-monia Mundi, and Teldec, and the move-ments of key figures Günther Breest, now with CBS/Sony, or Michael Emmerson, who set up a massive programme for BMG then suddenly left 'to pursue other interests'. And, after years at EMI, Peter Andry has gone not into retirement but to WEA, where he has become Repertoire Senior Vice-president. One doubts whether these appointments will prove all that momentous for the collector ( though the fate of the Berlin Philharmonic is another — if related — matter). You would judge from the listings that

historic transfers were all the rage with today's classical collector. Such CDs are now more sensibly priced than, say, the early Ansermet/Deccas or Furtwangler/ EMIs (you can still pay through the nose for Japanese or American imports, of course). Whilst there are even better bargains to be found in EMI's 'Laser', RCA's 'Papillon' series, or by shrewd examination of PolyGram reissue labels, the restoration of material on DG 'Dokumente' or EMI Références ( where you will find the 1935 BBC SO/Toscanini

Z" t

CHRISTOPHER BREUNIG

MENT •

e •

Brahms Fourth) is a matter for jubilation. One of the pleasures of historic record-ings on CD is that you don't have to worry about the nature of the imperfections heard, le you don't sit anxiously trying to decide if the clicks and distortions come, not from the original, but from the condi-tion of either your LP copy or stylus.

There's always the possibility that pur-chasers will get side-tracked into a 'histor-ical cul-de-sac', feeling that artists today cannot possibly match their pre-war equivalents. But standards of orchestral performance have certainly risen since the '50s, and with pianists like Ovchinikov emerging, or cellists like Isserlis [ inter-view p831, there's much in prospect to get excited about. Along with such artists, there's a new generation of record critics, too, less willing to become a part of the promotional and selling machinery. +

Next month: Hi-Fi Show Guide Free with the September issue ( UK copies) will be the complete catalogue and guide to The Hi-Fi Show, which is sponsored by HFNIRR and will be held at the Heathrow Penta Hotel on 14-17 September (around 90 companies repre-sented). Note that the first two days are for Trade visitors: the show opens to the public at 4-8pm on Friday 15th and 10am-6pm on the Saturday and Sunday. September issue equipment reviews

will cover two technically-intriguing CD players, Denon's flagship 3520 and the new TF.AC 470 (with UK design input). Further reviews of affordable speakers will cover KEF. Wharfedale and Energy. British-made amplification features in several reviews. Technical articles include a definitive explanation of the new PDM 'BitStream' ( one-bit) and MASH D/A con-verter technology for CD. September's music section will include an interview with Mitsuko Uchida, and of course, more CD and LP reviews than any comparable publication. The September issue is out on Friday, 18 August.

Note: overseas readers who would like a copy of The

Hi-Fi Show Guide should send £2.00 to the editorial

office, and the guide will be sent airmail by return.

hIFI NEWS & RECORD RES. I FA\ Al lit ST I 989 5

AUDIO RESEARCH a true classic

High on any list of all-time amplifier greats is the original Audio Research 150, a legendary device much sought after by music lovers around the globe. Designer William Z Johnson has returned to this exceptional product for inspiration, the result being a new line of all-triode

amplifiers headed by the Classic 150. Already recognised for setting new standards in transparency and the retrieval of inner detail, the Classic 150 lifts valve technology to a higher

plane. To complete the range, Johnson has introduced — to come alongside the already legendary D125 — two lower-power versions, the Classic 30 and Classic 60, for

less-demanding applications.

Such amplification warrants a new level of preamplifier performance. To meet these needs, Audio Research is proud to announce the SP-9 and SP-I4, the first beneficiary of the technology

introduced in the SP-11 and SP-15 — the world's reference preamplifiers. Audio Research: the only choice for the connoisseur.

Write or phone for perceptive advice and details of nearest dealer.

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'I have the simplest of tastes... 1 am always satisfied with the best'

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VIEWS Sound advice Dear Sir, I'm surprised that you're still publishing articles denigrating CD in spite of its critical and popular success.

Like many other readers of your magazine I enjoy listening to CD and therefore I resented the article about Mr Moffat. It was patronising and pompous because it implied that Mr Moffat is the only one who can put CD right and no questions about whether it's wrong in the first place. It also implies that Philips, Sony and all the other manufacturers of hardware and discs are grossly incompetent — an argument which is patently absurd. Anybody who uses music as some sort

of aural wallpaper as does Mr Moffat ('I require it probably six hours a day in the background') must be suspect. I believe that music should get your full attention whether it's live or recorded. If recorded music doesn't demand that degree of attention then there is something wrong with the system.

But I don't think Mr Moffat is making a proper criticism of CD. Like all its other critics he is saying it is 'different' from analogue. Regardless of whether one system or the other is demonstrably better they argue that because it is different from the one they like, it must be worse. To put it another way, CD critics have grown up with, and very obviously like, analogue sound with all its faults and because CD sounds very different from analogue it is wrong. None of these critics has, so far as I

know, compared CD or analogue recordings with the original sound. This is probably impossible with modern 'pop' recordings because it is difficult to know what the original sound was supposed to be. (And that is no criticism of 'pop' music which is carefully put together with all sorts of recording techniques.)

Wouldn't it be possible to engage a pianist or guitarist or flautist and sit him, or her, between two loudspeakers and then listen to successive versions of the

same piece of music — CD, vinyl disc and a live performance? This at least would give a more objective view of the ro systems. Come to think of it, wouldn't this be a

good method of reviewing all equipment? Instead of comparing the sound of one piece of equipment with another why not compare it with the original sound? E T Gascoigne, London W2

Anarchy rules! Dear Sir, I would like to correct some

misunderstandings that were expressed in A Fiddian-Green's letter published in May. The digital signal processing ( DSP) chips produced by Sony and Philips represent a considerable amount of computing power. These digital filters do not reconstruct the analogue waveform by straight-line interpolation. That would be quite simple, but would not be very good at attenuating the high frequency 'images' produced in the oversampling process. A

Fiddian-Green suggests that a more sophisticated 'curve fitting' technique be employed. Unfortunately, any such second-order interpolation would introduce distortion because of its non-linearity. A better approach ( the one used by Philips and Sony) is to use a finite impulse response filter, with linear coefficients. Within the constraints of the CD sampling rate this technique reproduces the input signal to an accuracy limited only by the length of the filter and its resolution. While the general purpose 32-bit chips

mentioned have not got the processing power to cope with digital audio filtering (perhaps twenty million 16-bit by 16-bit multiplications per second for a stereo oversampling filter), there are many specialist DSP chips that could be used to explore more advanced algorithms. However, to do this, the 'high end' manufacturers would need to employ unfamiliar design techniques — something they show little sign of doing. The investment would not have to be enormous (there are commercial units that can be used to develop the appropriate techniques for under £2000) and I would join A Fiddian-Green in urging some of our high end companies to take a more adventurous (anarchic?) approach. Julian Dunn, Cambridge

Another Marlene Dear Sir, While agreeing with most of Robin Moss's remarks (HFN/RR May 1989) about Susannah McCorkle, Lucy Ann Polk and, especially, Marlene Ver Planck, I suggest that the lack of reviews is not necessarily the fault only of magazines. I don't know the policy of

HRR/RR butJazz Journal International, for instance, generally offers to review only those records which companies decide to send them.

In Marlene Ver Planck's case, although she's had 10 LPs and a CD released, she received her first-ever review in Jazz Journal only last January and then another in April, because, as far as I know, they had been supplied witft the records by Audiophile, at last. Along with an increasing number of

enthusiasts I regard her as today's finest interpreter of the popular song and worthy of far greater recognition.

Lastly please note that her name, which is of Dutch origin, should include a 'c' but was printed incorrectly. Keith Prior, Sheffield

Gaelic pushover Dear Sir, It was nice to have a radio section in HFN/RR again. I was particularly interested in your item 'BBC pushes FM'. In this part of the country we receive Radio Scotland from the Sandale FM transmitter which is actually located in England on the other side of the River Solway. We have a local BBC station in Dumfries which inputs for two 30m in

sessions on weekdays. However Radio Scotland uses FM only for Gaelic broadcasts in the evenings from 18.30 until about 20.00 and reverts to medium wave for English language broadcasts. There is a very low power MW transmitter in Dumfries.

In this area medium wave reception is bad normally, but impossible after dark. I cannot imagine there is much of an audience ( any?) in the Sandale reception area of the South of Scotland/North of England for the Gaelic programmes but in spite of the fact that the English broadcasts could be routed to Sandale through Dumfries nothing is done. So much for pushing FM.

Ian Hamilton, Dalbeattie, Kirkcudbrightshire

The BBC replies: The current policy of BBC Scotland is that the portion of Radio nan Gaidhears output that is broadcast at these times is done on a national basis. The remainder of the output is broadcast during the rest of the day only in the highlands, although there is a constant demand from Gaelic listeners elsewhere. Whereas medium wave reception,

particularly after dark, can be difficult. those in the service area of the Sandale transmitter currently have Radio Scotland, Radio 2, Radio 3 and Radio 4 available on FM, and will, from early next year, also have Radio 1 as an FM service. Despite the fact that it is not possible to reconcile totally the requirements of all of Radio Scotland's listeners throughout the day, the BBC does provide a wide range of programmes from which FM listeners in the South West of Scotland can choose. BBC Engineering Information

Factual errors Dear Sir, With reference to Arthur Jacobs' review of our Cabaret Songs CD with Sarah Walker and Roger Vignoles ( CDE 84167), can I please point out that it contains some factual errors. Mr Jacobs states that only some of the songs were recorded live, and that the majority of them were recorded to a live London audience. The statement in our booklet

1.11.F1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW Al GIST 1989 7

DAX FANTASTIC! There has never been a crossover like the Apogee DAX. Far more than just an elegant way to sculpt the perfect tonal balance, this extraordinary device imparts a transparency and naturalness to the Apogee ribbon loudspeakers that is marvellous to hear.

Designed as a dedicated active crossover for the Divas, Duetta Signature and Caliper Signature, the DAX gives you control down to 0.2db, yet achieving the right balance for your room and system is quick and easy. A beautifully crafted piece of equipment, from its separate power supply to a really sexy six-window Hewlett-Packard display, the DAX realises the full and awesome potential of the Apogees.

It is expensive, and you need to bi-amp — but the DAX is so flexible that you can mix amplifiers, match their sensitivities and employ balanced or single ended operation. And because it imparts an extra 3db sensitivity to the speakers, you can achieve wonderful results on comparatively modest amplifiers.

Apogee Acoustics took two years to develop the DAX — a tribute to the already very fine passive crossovers in their speakers. But the DAX's superiority is immediate in a quite stunning way — even with the controls set for a flat balance. And its inclusion in your system will allow you to obtain fantastic results in a small room — even from the Diva.

If you own Apogees you must hear this lovely device as soon as possible. It is without doubt one of the most exciting additions to the high end for many years. Telephone Brian Rivas for a demonstration.

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VIEWS

that five of the songs were recorded live at the Blackheath Concert Halls in 1988 and the remaining twenty-two were recorded live at Dartington in 1982 is correct.

Issuing a CD of live performances is a risky business, particularly if there is only one performance to record, as there is no chance to re-record and correct mistakes. It is only with artists of the calibre of Sarah Walker and Roger Vignoles that such a project is feasible. One still has the problem that there is no way of trying out a recording balance before the concert, as the acoustics in an empty hall are so completely different from those in the same hall with a packed audience, as was the case in both these concerts. One can only make an intelligent guess as to the difference between the two, and hope for the best. Neither did we have any choice in the pianos used, as we had to accept the ones chosen for the concerts without consideration being given to their suitability for recording. As far as audience reaction is

concerned, the recording engineer has to put up with what he gets at the time, and the only alteration he can make after the concert is either to add canned laughter and applause — thus reducing the whole thing to the artistic merit of a television situation comedy — or, when the audience do not start to applaud until the end of the die-away of any particular item, some applause can he edited out. In both these concerts the packed audinece applauded vigorously between each item or group of items, and we decided to eliminate some of the applause where possible, as otherwise we felt that the listener would find the ratio of applause to music too great.

Apart from this, we had no chance to correct verbal or musical faults, and we feel that the fact that there are so few is a great tribute to the professionalism and artistry of the two performers. John Shuttleworth, Meridian Records, London SE9

Manic compression Dear Sir, Trevor Butler's 'Radio' page (May 1989) dealing with dynapic compression of Radio 3 programmes during commuter times has clarified something that had puzzled me for some time. On the occasions when I had switched on to those programmes I had wondered if it was just a coincidence that so many of the recordings were so chronically compressed. Sadly, most recording companies employ a degree of compression, usually in the form of manual gain riding and BBC concerts are treated the same way, but this was much more severe. The question was, were these just bad recordings or was the BBC messing about with them? Well, now we know the truth of the matter! The degree of compression used by the

BBC for commuter time broadcasts is obviously decided by the dynamic range suited to in-car listening, which is very narrow — really too narrow for classical

music listening. The result is music robbed of all vitality. I very much doubt if commercial recording companies are happy to hear their products treated this way. Instead of listeners seeking out the recording they enjoyed when they hear it on the radio, they may wish to buy a different recording of the same music, in the hope that some other recording will not be so gutless as the offering which had been broadcast. Let us hope that all the recording companies will recognise this danger and take a very strong line on this.

Last year the BBC went to a great deal of trouble to reasssure us that they do not intend to lower standards for Radio 3. If this is not lowering standards, then what is? The thinking seems identical to that which has caused all radio information in the new-look Radio Times to be tucked away separately where it can be forgotten. The compression at the moment is for

car radios but your readers, with or without car radios, should recognise the danger. If compression is good for car radios, so it must also be for trannies. Just think of all those millions of small, simple radios all over the country which would give better results from compressed broadcasts. The owners of such radios will be writing to the BBC saying how commuter time reception is so good that they want it like that all day long. Of course it will sound a complete mess on good audio systems but some would say that it is numbers that matter. It is a slippery slope. The silliest example that I have noticed

to date was in a This Week's Composer programme of music by Ravel. Before playing the Bolero, the announcer told us how it was a study in crescendo. It started fairly quietly. Then it was turned up a few notches and the electronic compression ensured that never mind what instruments were playing, or how loudly, the music never got any louder. It just went though all the repeats at the same level. The music was not only robbed of life but also its very purpose. I hope that the BBC will get a great many letters asking for normal service to be resumed. Charles Cater, East Grinstead

Recording from the radio From: Peter Williams, Essex Dear Sir, I have been a regular reader of Hi-Fi News, and Record Review, since before amalgamation and I have frequently purchased other magazines. In all those years, I have never once read any comment upon the merits or otherwise of recording radio broadcasts. What is the explanation? Is it bias; do the magazine editors genuinely believe that radio broadcasts are not sufficiently to warrant their attention or worth recording, and if so, what is their criteria? Or is this silence due to fear of the law? If radio broadcasts are not worth listening to or recording, why do editors imagine that enthusiasts pay mre than £ 1000 for a tuner and almost twice that sum for a cassette tape deck? The truth, as everyone with any sense

should know, but no-one seems willing to admit, is that enthusiasts buy expensive tuners and cassette recorders for recording radio broadcasts, live or otherwise. And in my opinion, if so-called experts were willing to listen and put aside their prejudices and hi-fi snobbery, and judge the sound from their speakers on its 'music' as distinct from its snob value, they would agree that live music broadcasts are immeasurably more musically satisfying than the contrived stuff on records and the synthetic, unmusical muck on CD.

But what of the law? The law of copyright, so far as it relates to records and CD, is no less potent when copying for use in cars, which everyone knows is practised widely and no-one seems to fear talking about, than when copying from radio, which is taboo. The recording of live, or studio recordings of live broadcasts presumably presents different legal considerations. For example, do foreign broadcasters have the same protection from British recording enthusiasts as that given to the BBC? Does the possession of a radio licence entitle the holder only to 'listen' but not to copy? However, these complications are all entirely academic. Everyone knows that copying of records, CDs, radio and TV broadcasts is rampant and illegal, and that

the remedy in law rests with the copyright owner, upon whom the law places the impractical onus of identifying each and every offender and offence and requiring him to institute civil proceedings for the recovery of damages for financial loss which would be virtually unquantifiable. So why all the fuss? The quality of the BBC's reproduction

and broadcasting equipment far transcends anything to which the most dedicated amateur could aspire, and there is a variety of quality tuners and recorders which enable that original signal quality to be captured faithfully. By that means, I have acquired a library of music, much of which I would not have bought on records, which has given me far more pleasure than I ever attained through an expensive turntable combination. The total absence of irritating surface noises is a revelation, and the freedom from the constant problems of static and dust associated with records is a bonus worth some sacrifice, though I do not believe I had to make one.

Therefore, in gratitude to the BBC, I would happily pay a special licence fee which would enable me, legally ( although I do not now lose any sleep), to record broadcasts of every description. Peter Williams, Essex

Readers' Letters Letters for publication should be addressed to the Elitor and must contain no other material or enquiries. Letters seeking advice on technical matters will be answered, resources permitting, at our discretion but we regret that we are unable to answer questions on buying specific items of Hi-fi equipment.

111-11 NEWS & RECORD REVIDX AUGUST 1989 9

ARO

WE ESTIMATE THAT THERE i,tt\RE OVER 500 MILLION \'41,NYL RECORDS IN USE;: KOW FIND OP ,TYCI.Yi FIRST TIMEII

ncm (Jucio SALISBURY, ENGLAND SP1 2LN TEL (0722) 332266

NEWS CEC NIKKO FIND UK DISTRIBUTION

After a false start two years ago, Nikko has found a UK distributor

for its extensive range of hi-fi components. Zenonlec will be

handling the line and has announced a range of products for the

UK market including four power amplifiers rated between 140

and 330W/channel at £299 to £999, two pre-amplifiers at £225 and

£299, four integrated amplifiers between 30 and 120W,ch at £129

to £399 and an A/V integrated amplifier for £349. The company

also offers AM-FM tuners ranging in price from £139 to £299, two

AM/FM receivers at £239 and £299, a two-head cassette deck for

£239 and a three-head model at £299 (both with HX Pro), a 16-bit,

2-times oversampling Cl) player with remote control for £179 and

three graphic equalizers. Of particular interest is the flagship

Alpha 2000 power amplifier rated at 330W/channel and deemed by

one French reviewer to be the best amplifier in the world'. In

bridged mode, the Alpha 2000 produces 650W.

GEC's range consists entirely of CD players and turntables,

including the 540CD basic CD player (£139) and the 640CD with

remote control (£159). Both are full-sized and finished in black.

The company offers four turntables, including the ST310 semi-

automatic belt-drive deck with T4P cartridge (£69), the ST730

fully automatic belt-drive with '/ in mount cartridge (£109) and

the ST930 flagship model supplied without arm but with SME

cutout (£599 plus £35 for dust cover). The latter offers 78rpm

playback in addition to 33 and 45 and uses a brushless FG servo

motor with outboard power supply. Also available is the D4000

disco model, a direct-drive design with instant start-up, calibrated

pitch control, stylus illumination and two headshells but no

cartridge (£199). For further details, contact Zenonlec Ltd, 10A

The Broadway, Newbury, Berkshire RG13 IBA. Tel (0635) 528636.

HIGH END GETS AHEAD A high end audio industry group

consisting of leading members of

the American hi-fi community

has organized to form the

Academy of High End Audio

Design (AHEAD). Its purpose is

to recognize exceptional

achievement in the field of sound

reproduction. The steering

committee, which was appointed

by Harry Pearson of The

Absolute Sound, includes

Wendell Diller (Magnepan),

Joyce Fleming (Mod Squad),

Kathy Gornik (Thiel) and Karen

Sumner (Transparent Audio

Marketing). Following the

committee's meeting asthe

Summer CES in Chicago,

information about the

organization is being sent to

prospective members. For further

details, interested parties should

contact Kathy Gornik on (0101)

606-254-9427.

SONY STORMS AHEAD WITH DAT Despite growing fears that DAT is not suitable as a professional recording format (News, July), Sony's pro division is launching new digital audio tape hardware. Its TCD-D10 is a low-cost portable DAT recorder and was shown officially for the first time in the

ILK at the Al'RS trade exhibition. Weighing 1.8kg, the design complements Sony's existing DAT line-up, and boasts functions not seen on 'consumer' versions. (The TCD-D10, then independently imported, was reviewed by Tony Faulkner in HFN/RR,July 1988.)

TANNOY IMPROVES SOUND AND ADDS NEW MODEL

Responding to constructive

suggestions and criticisms voiced

by the consumer press and from

customers, Tannoy has

incorporated various refinements

(gold plated terminals, finely

tuned crossover, improved

surround to the LF drive unit,

extended horizontal bracing) into

its DC1000 and DC2000 speakers

with no price increase.

The company is also launching

a new model — the floor-standing

DC3000, available in black ash

SONANCE FLUSH-MOUNT SPEAKERS REACH THE UK

The originators of the modern flush-mount loudspeaker, Sonance of California, can now offer their extensive line-up of full-range and sub-woofer speakers to UK con-sumers. Designed to provide high-quality sound without robbing the user of precious floor or shelf space, the Sonance systems are mounted in the wall or ceiling and can be decorated to match their surroundings. All Sonance speak-ers are offered with a choice of removable cloth or metal grilles. Sonance speakers require a wall cavity depth of only 3.5M for flush-mount installation. Models available in the UK include the Sonance M30, a two-way design featuring a 1 in polycarlxmate tweeter and 4in polypropylene-coned woofer. Weatherproofed, the M30 can be installed in bath-rooms, saunas and exterior environments. Dimensions are 9x6.5in. Recently added to the line is the SDS4 Speaker Distribu-tion System, a compact switching network which allows the user to connect as many as four pairs of

speakers to a single amplifier, guaranteeing a safe 4ohm impe-dance when used with four pairs of Bohm speakers. Sonance speak-ers can be installed in both new and existing homes through the use of frames which are included in the purchase price. Prices on application. Sound Ideas, Unit 1, Briar Close, Wye ( nr Ashford), Kent TN25 5HB. Tel (0233) 813246.

veneer at £599.90 and in

rosewood for £699.90. The design

includes an 8in dual concentric

DMT driver supplemented by an

8in bass unit driven below 400Hz

venting through a slotted port

system. Tannoy Ltd, The Bilton

Centre, Coronation Road,

Cressex Industrial Estate, High

Wycombe, Bucks HP12 3SE. Tel

(0494)450606.

111.Ft NEWS & RECORD REVIEW' •citsT 1989

THE NATURAL CHOICE

Rogers Manufactured by Swisstone Electronics Limited, 310 Commonside East, Mitcham, Surrey CR4 1HX, Tel No: 01 640 2172, Fax No: 01 685 9496, Telex: 893980 Rogers.

Distributed by Audio Influx Corp. N.J. USA, Plurison PO. Canada, Audio 2000 NSW Australia, Excel Hi Fi Hong Kong, Denco Audio New Zealand, Atlas Hi Fi Singarme.

XERXES • ARTEMIZ • SHIRAZ NOW YOU HAVE READ THE REVIEW . . . .

RING US AND COME FOR A LISTEN

qdst • d RO/t- q..ts1 • Ro,... - 611 o4- ..q

0 CI) ci) W- ch Cl) 0 0 .r. .b. d cr. 2

I-

OU • tse Od • WI '

sound advice ROK SA N

SOUND ADVICE, DUKE ST, LOUGHBOROUGH, LE11 lED

TELEPHONE: ( 0509) 218254

NEWS

MUSICAL FIDELITY LAUNCHES B1 INTEGRATED Musical Fidelity has launched an under-£200 integrated amplifier,

said to continue the company's tradition of exceptional sound

quality while offering good build quality, styling and finish at a

popular price. Rated at a nominal 32W/channel but with a much

higher peak output capability, the £199 B1 uses quasi-com-

plementary circuitry developed by Tim de Paravicini and Musical

Fidelity's managing director Antony Michaelson. Facilities

include switchable moving-coil and moving-magnet inputs. The

high-precision metal casework for the B1 is sourced from

Germany. Musical Fidelity Ltd, 15-16 Olympic Trading Estate,

Fulton Road, Wembley HA9 OTF. Tel 01-900 2866.

MANA STANDS Mana Acoustics' glass Sound

Table (f175) will enable a far

superior sound quality to be

obtained, it is claimed, than

other types. Adjustable spikes

support the smoked glass top-

plate. The glass is equipped, on

its under-surface, with locating

rings in order that the spikes will

contact the glass within the rings.

These rings also to retain the

glass on the frame in case it is

accidentally knocked. Mana

Acoustics, 59 Jubilee Close,

Pinner, Middlesex HAS 3TB. Tel

01429 0118.

INFINITY NEW RS SERIES Infinity has a new generation of its RS series loudspeakers comprising six models from the bookshelf RSI001 at £ 119.90 to the floor standing RS6001 at £749.90. The designs are based on the recent development of the company's state-of-the-art IRS Series.

Special attention has been paid to the bass driver, polyspherite dome midrange and tweeters, the crossover and cabinet construc-tion. To match the speed of the new 'curvilinear' injection-

moulded bass driver cones new dome midrange and tweeter units {have been developed. l'he diaphragm of these polyspherite drivers consists of an ultra-thin skin of polypropylene reinforced by a bonded coat of hollow graphite spheres. The material gives the diaphragm damping whilst the graphite spheres pro-. vide superior stiffness. Gamepath Ltd, 25 Heathfield, Stacey Bushes, Milton Keynes MK I 2 (HR. Tel (0908) 317707.

BRIEFING

ALLISON ACOUSTICS' correct

address is 20 Cleveland Way,

Shelley, Huddersfield, West

Yorkshire HD8 8NQ.

The BSI has made available the

following standards paper: BS

4584: Part 4: 198911EC 249-2-2:

1985 Metal-clad base materials for

printed wiring boards Part 4:

Specification for economic quality

phenolic cellulose paper copper-

clad laminated sheet. Available

from BSI Sales, Linford Wood,

Milton Keynes MKI4 6LE. Price

£18.20.

BCP is a new company offering a

service to CD users. In the belief

that listeners are easily confused by

the various ways of titling CD

spines record companies have

adopted Alan Russell is able to

supply printed labels in a uniform

format for ease of reading, thereby

making identification simpler. A

large, Dutch typeface printed on

white card has been adopted, and

complete replacement inlay cards

are supplied. BCP, 33a Shepherds

Green Rd, Erdington, Birmingham

B24 8EX. Tel 021-350 2193. THE FBTR

(FEDERATION OF

BRITISH TAPE

RECORDISTS) amateur

tape recording contest is now

open. The closing date for

entries is August 15th. Further

details and application forms

from: BATRC, 193 Ashdown

Creasent, Cheshunt, Waltham

Cross, Hens EN8 ORL and

from Playback Studios, Music

Labs and Raper& Wayman in

London.

KOSS has increased its range of

headphones with new models. The

TD60 at £20 is a lightweight,

closed design featuring Pneumalite

ear cushions for deep bass.

Additions to the Pro range are the

Pro75 at £75 and the £99 Pro99

with large single diaphragm

element and high energy anisotropic

ferrite magnet for deep bass and

extended high end. HW

International, 3-5 Eden Grove,

London N7 8EQ. Tel 01-607

2717.

NIMBUS has won two of the •

awards given by the Music

Retailers Association; they are

Category 1: Symphony for

Beethoven Symphonies 1-9, the

Hanover Band directed by Roy

Goodman and Monica Huggett

and Category 13: MOR Non-

Vocal for Sousa Marches and

Incidental Music/The Wallace

Collection._ PHILIPS will be visiting .55 towns

with its Sound in Motion '89

promotion aimed at the 8-10 age

group, where the company is

anxious to consolidate its position.

PROTON now offers a three-year

parts and labour guarantee on all

amplifiers, tuners and CD players.

QED has announced a new range

of `active' accessories entitled mini-

amps. Each unit — microphone,

headphone and RI AA disc pre-

amp — is a small stereo amplifier

module. Average price is £49 and

the designs require an outboard

12-24V power supply. QED

Audio Products Ltd, Unit 12,

Ashford Industrial Estate, Shield

Road, Ashford, Middlesex TW IS

¡AU. Tel (0784)24636.

ROSS has announced the

availability, of the world's first

clock radio/cassette recorder/CD

combination giving convenience

and musical clarity at the the

bedside. The R1 Anthem will cost

around £200. Ross has also made

available a personal CD player for

under £100. This special

promotional launch of the RCD-

2000 player brings together a pair

of RE-2.560CD stereo headphones

in a package canying a

recommended retail price of £120.

The portable player operates on

rechargeable batteries and is

111-11 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW ACCI ST 1989

supplied with an AC mains

adapter. The fully featured design

measures 161x 134 x37mm and

weights 496g. Ross Consumer

International Ltd., Silver Road,

Wood Lane, London W12 7SG.

Tel 01-740 5252 TDK has announced the

availability of a new MA Metal

Tape with a magnetic energy four

times greater than that of TDK

SA. This has been possible with

major improvements to the

company's unique Finavinix metal

magnetic particles and their higher

packing density. An excellent low

frequency response is claimed:

(315kHz)MOL of + 6dB, an

improvement over previous MA,

with low bias noise. The 90 minute

version will cost £2.99 while the

C60 will be £2.39. TDK UK Ltd,

TDK House, 5-7 Queenrway,

Redhill, Surrey RH1 lYB. Tel

(0737)773773.

IS MUSICAL FIDELITY THE BEST KEPT SECRET

IN BRITISH HI-fl? prtalrLplillel Jt,age is

The MC-2 is an exceptional and painstaking design which offers liveliness, clarity and articulation along with very fine LF resolution in the context of a slightly bright, light-weight presentation - clear Best Buy material.

Hi-Fi Choke

• • Os'

The MA-50 has a sound quality rating in the very top class. Like the other A-series products there is a degree of idiosyncracy about this design, while the remarkable subjective performance demands strong Recommendation.

Hi-Fi Choke

The Al can now be regarded sonically as a class leader in its price group, well settled in production and benefiting from the advances also apparent in the rest of the Musical Fidelity range.

Hi-Fi Choke

LEIG U. pre._ L„. „ Superb sound and highly recommended . . .

The MC-4 is fast, assured and refined. nefitin e 1 9dvarnes ils •

Hi-Fi Choice

n' eValblf

A consistent factor was the seemingly effortless power delivery - it sounded like a big amplifier...

Priced at the quality end of the budget sector, the B200 provided a musical standard of sound quality rather beyond the asking price. It could easily form the basis of a fine audio system, and handsomely qualifies for Best Buy rating.

•

Hi-Fi Choke

stagt. _ The Al and Reference 2 are literally

made for one another. The sweet music that results is a real eye opener for the money freaks who feel they must spend lashings of cash on state-of-the-art hi-fi before they can enjoy music. The lucidity of the Al is matched ideally by the crisp, efficient ways of the Reference 2. Can now b^—^,•ded -,n;e211v

Hi-Fi Answers

a. •• ...6a lit...

The Digilog is nothing less than remarkable...

Hi-Fi News & Record Review

b

The A370 is the best solid-state British amplifier I've ever heard. -•&-t-zerAtiza.ead.1..apreefLand..,2429.. (WI aiele-: (1 J leiedsii.;11411/4 1 2.041

Hi-Fi News & Record Review

Now its no secret that the Musical

Fidelity range offers great sound and great

value for money. Hear it for yourself at a

hi-fi shop near you.

MUSICAL FIDELITY

Al • 4100 • B200 • PREAMP 3 • P100 - P172 MVT • MVX • P140. P170 - P270 • A370 • SA470. MA50 - MA100 • DIGILOG EYELINE • MC- 2 • MC- 4 • REFERENCE 2 . REFERENCE 4 • LIFELINE

MUSICAL FIDELITY, 15/16 OLYMPIC TRADING ESTATE, FULTON ROAD, WEMBLEY HA9 OTF. TELEPHONE: 01-900 2866.

NEWS

GOLDMUND'S HEAVY METAL

TRUE CLASS A FROM KELVIN Southampton-based Kelvin Labs

is to unveil a true Class A

integrated amplifier, which offers

20W per channel with claimed

exceptional load tolerance and

high current delivery. Both

moving-coil and moving-magnets

are catered for. Price is £350.

Kelvin Laboratories Ltd, 6

Shanklin Crescent, Upper

Shirley, Southampton SOI 2RB.

Tel (0703)785123.

Goldmund of Switzerland has introduced what the company

believes to be the heaviest amplifier ever built. The Mimesis 9, which weighs 100kg, is rated at 200W/channel and was developed

especially for low sensitivity speakers. The Mimesis 9 incorporates

ultra-fast circuitry (1MHz at 200W) and features mechanical

construction based on the company's 'Mechanical Grounding'

techniques. Chassis details include transformers and output

stages mounted on the conical feet of the amplifier to evacuate spurious signals, input circuitry which is flexibly attached to the

output devices and chassis to avoid vibrational capture, and a case

made of 6mm steel damped by absorbing material and which is decoupled from the circuits and the three rigid feet by special

Teflon insulators. Protection circuitry includes safety from

oscillation, DC offset, overheating and short circuits. Absolute

Sounds, 318 Worple Road, London SW20. Tel 01-947 5047.

HOME AMBISONICS FROM TROY

Following the recent increase in

demand for Ambisonic surround

sound decoders, Troy has

announced its intention to launch

a domestic unit. The company has

been making in-car decoders for

some time.

Troy Ambisonic's Paul Selby

told HEN/RR that a prototype of

the new domestic design is up and

running at the company's show-

room and production is poised to

begin. Troy Ambisonics, 70

Chobham Road, Sunningdale SI.5

()PG. Tel (0990) 291150.

CD PRICE CUTS RULED OUT

Cheaper CDs in the shops have

been ruled out by the chief of a

major record company. Any

prospect of immediate price cuts

was firmly squashed by David

Fine, president of PolyGram

International. Speaking at the

group's annual managing

director's conference, Mr Fine

warned against a hasty move:

'We only have ourselves to blame

if we erode our profitability with

ill-considered price reductions'.

KESSLER WINS 'FAVOURITE WRITER' AWARD AT BADADAY Ken Kessler, who writes exclusively ( in the UK) for HEN/RR, was named Favourite HI-Fi Journalist when the British Audio Dealers Association (BADA) held its first annual awards ceremony in Birmingham on 25th June. The votes in all 15 award categories had been cast by BADA shop staff. The dealers Favourite Hi-Fi Magazine was Hi-Fi Review, with Hi-Fi News & Record Review and Hi-Fi Choice named as runners-up, while the award for best Manufacturer Advertisement went to Linn Products and Best Dealer Advertisement (sponsored by Haymarket Publishing) to AT Labs. Next came equipment awards. Favourite Source went to the Linn LP12 (no-one fell off their chair in shock) and the Arcata Alpha took the amplifier award, with Musical Fidelity's MC2 Favourite Loudspeaker and Quad being voted the Most Reliable Product Range. The BADA Chargecard Best Dealer award, sponsored by Lombard Tricity Finance, was won by Audio Excellence. The Best Marketing Back-up award to Linn Products, and Quad received their second award, for the Best Service

Department. Steve Reed of Cambridge Audio Systems was Best Company Representative, and the Industry Personality Of The Year award, this sponsored by trade magazine Private Eye-Fi, went to BADA's own Publicity Officer, Michael Lewin. BADA Trainee of the Year was Paul Oakman (previously with AT Labs, now at TRAC), while the final award was for the Most Professional Supplier, taken by Linn Products, with a large majority over runners-up Yamaha, Quad and Naim. After the Awards ceremony, a cheque for £1000 (first instalment from BADA's profits-to-charity scheme) was presented to Miss Ruby Turner for the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Centre, a cheque for £1500 going to Malcolm Allison, a young violinist from the Yehudi Menuhin School, to help him continue his studies. Accompanied by his mother on piano, Malcolm played Wieniawski's Polonaise in A and commanded an attentive audience, unusual at hi-fi functions. Later the disco was courtesy of Acoustic Research, and later still the Steve Gibbons Band played. John Seabuty

PARTNERS, THEMES & VARIATIONS WINNERS

A near-record number of entries was received for the Swing Your Partners competition featured in the May issue. The correct answers were: 1.C; 2.A; 3.B; 4.D and 5.B.

First prize of the AV-1 powered partners goes to Michael Bruce of Glasgow. Mr J MacLean of London NW wins the AV-5 Party Partners while the third prize of the AV-3 Environmental Partners goes to David Punshon of Surrey. The eleven runners up in this Acoustic Research competition receive a pair of AV-6 Active Partners. Six prize-winners tied in our May

CD Supplement competition. Sixteen Deutsche Grammophon compact discs of their choice went to Ms Williams, London 5E3; D de Camp, NW7; W Cole, Winchester; P Well, EC4; R Sears, Southampton: I) Walkerley, Leigh-on-Sea. Answers were 1(a) 80, 1(b) Eliette von Karajan. 2 (Maazel) Romeo &Juliet. 3 Stroboscope (but 78rpm!). 4 Mekher/ Voss (players' names). 5(a) Stravinsky, (b) (Les Noces) English Bach Festival Chorus, (c) Petrushka's (pianists in DG recordings). 6 Resonance/ Collection/Privilege/Favorit/ Accord. (Debut was not a reissue label!) 7 Harpsichord continuo (Don Giovanni).

EVENTS

25 AUGUST-3 SEPTEMBER

1989 International Audio and

Video Fair, Berlin. Contact: (030)

30 38-22 74. Technical and

scientific programme now finalized

and covers current technological

developments.

27-29 AUGUST 1989 East Coast

Electronics Expo, Jacob Kjavits

Convention Centre, New York

Cie, USA. Contact Larkin-

Pluznick-Larkin, 100 Wells Ave,

PO Box 9103, Newton, MA

02159-9103 USA.

7 SEPTEMBER Arcam Roadshow

at Audio Counsel, 12 Shaw Road,

Oldham OU 1 3LQ. Tel 061-633

2602 for tickets.

14 SEPTEMBER Naim Audio

Evening at Audio Counsel, 12

Shaw Road, Oldham OUI 3LQ.

Call 061-633 2602 for details.

8-17 SEPTEMBER 1989

Montreal International Music

Festival, Montreal, Quebec,

Canada.

20 SEPTEMBER Linn Products

evening in Oldham at Audio

Counsel. For information call 061-

633 2602.

14-17 SEPTEMBER 1989 The

Hi-Fi Show, sponsored by HFN/

RR. Heathrow Penta Hotel.

Trade only 14-15 September. 01-

686 2599.

14-18 SEPTEMBER 1989 22nd

Sim-Hi.Fi Ives audio fair, Milan,

Italy.

18-21 SEPTEMBER 1989

MediaVisie, audio-visual media

trade fair. RAI International

Exhibition Centre, Amsterdam,

Holland. For information, phone

Yjjoustra on (0)20-549 12 12.

3-9 OCTOBER 1989 Hi-Fi

Cologne. KolnMesse, Meseplatz 1,

Postfach 21 07 60, D-5000 Koln

21 (Deutz), W Germany. Tel

(0221)821-0.

6-8 OCTOBER 1989 National

Sound& Vision Show, sponsored

by Clearione Hi-Fi. Last Drop

Village Inn, Bolton.

7-12 OCTOBER 1989 Korea

Electronics Show, Korea

Exhibition Centre, Seoul.

25-28 OCTOBER 1989

Broadcast 89, Frankfurt

Fairground, Frankfurt, W

Germany. For details contact

Wilhelm P Hosenseidl on (069)

7575-6452.

2-5 NOVEMBER 1989

Reproduced Sound Conference,

Hydro Hotel, Windermere. Fifth

annual week-end conference in

collaboration with the AES,

EMAS, APRS, SCIF and

ABTT. For details contact Ian H

Flindell, The Universiry,

Southampton SO9 5N H . Tel

(0703)595000.

3-5 NOVEMBER 1989 Zeus Hi-

F i Show, Stormont Hotel, Belfast.

Tel (0232)332522.

111-11 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW' (.1 'T 1989 I 5

SICOMIN Ultra low mass Kevlar/Carbon Fibre, spiked

isolation platforms, and composite CD dampers. for the ultimate in resolution.

Send SAE for catalogue and list of dealers.

ABSOLUTE SOUNDS

318 WORPLE RD. LONDON, SW20 8OU.

TEL: 01 947 5047

TELEX: 894800 Absol G.

EXPENSIVE TUNER?? THEN HAVE THE AERIAL IT DESERVES

You spend many hours and quite a lot of money choosing that new tuner, so don't ruin the whole effect by fiddling with bits of wire or old aerials. Have the full benefit of the multipath free, clean signal which only a well designed and properly installed unit can achieve. If D.X. is your scene, then go for the ultimate in rotatin9 high gain narrow beam systems like our G.23. with 19dB forward gain, 38dB F. to B. and Acc. Ang. down to 15 Degrees or have a "one off" special built, up to 32 elements. GALAXIE CIRCULAR 17 ELEMENT STEREO

GAIN 15 9dB F to B 33 7dB L 24"

WE DESIGN, MANUFACTURE, SUPPLY AND FIT

* FM. arrays from 4 to 23 Element. TV from 10 to 136 element. * British built and designed to withstand our weather for 5 guaranteed

years. * Interested D.I.Y. advice freely given, backed by our complete range

of masts, brackets, rotors, cables, and aerials. Systems available for chimney, loft, wall, or through roof mounting.

* Professional installation service available within a nominal 150 mile radius of LUTON. Full details of this service available on receipt of a large S.A.E. which will bring you our complete "Aerial Guide" which is much more than just a list of our products and prices, and carries details of all our services, including MAIL ORDER and site surveys.

SEE THE REST, THEN FOR THE BEST, CALL RON SMITH

AERIALS 98 ASH ROAD LUTON BEDS.

Day - - Luton 36561 9.0 to 6 0 Eve - Luton 29560 after 7.30 pm

Shop Hours: 9.0 to 6.0. Closed Wednesday

5 Minutes from M1 Motorway Turnoff No. 11

See us at the Heathrow Penta Hi-Fi Show September 89 Today most of the known loudspeakers have no problems with power handling when operated under normal conditions.Yet little attention has been paid to the dynamic response of speaker drivers. Even if the stated power handling of a driver is several hundred watts peak, the acoustic power is not increasing at the same rate as the increased input power. Many tweeters, for example, can convert only about 50 watts into their maximum SPL. When they receive higher levels, more and more of the power is converted into heat, and more distortion is produced. The tweeter is now

COMPRESSING. Midranges and woofers start compressing at a later stage. The frequency response now is dependent on input power level. The DYNAMIC RESPONSE of a standard DYNAUDIO tweeter shows no compression even at 1000 watt peak: the frequency response is exactly the same at any power level.

Shown curves are measured with TONE BURSTS, signal/break ratio is 1/10 O.

DYNAMIC RESPONSE.

DYNAUDIO

Br uel 50,7

Measurong Ob,ect de:,, tri inyy lone Burst 401, liurst/Palts00.-1 1/1,11

vgAr

Poto•nt.orneter Range. 50 c1F1 ¿MS

DYNAUDIO. Manufacturer of dynamic speakers.

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TECHNOLOGY 1 t looks as if the record industry has finally killed digital audio tape as a domestic format. Broadcasters and

professional users are likely to be the long-term winners. With the exception of the Nakamichi deck, all the 'pro' DAT units now being sold through selected outlets are firmly based on the unsold domestic designs. After the initial eu-

phoria, there is mounting awareness of the limitations inherent in the domestic designs, particularly the tape transport mechanisms. The format now looks likely to evolve with genuinely professional

models, still at relatively low cost. DAT may never become a replacement for formats with fully professional pedigree, but it will make digital recording available to film, radio, TV and record producers

who could not normally afford it. Despite rumours of 'continuing talks',

the Japanese now seem to have lost interest in persuading the record industry to bless DAT. Their Government, always under attack for trade imbalance, sees DAT as a minor issue. The electronics industry is happy to go along with Gov-ernment policy, and not rock the boat by pushing DAT, because there is another, far more important battle to be fought.

All the major electronics companies have, for at least ten years, been working on erasable optical disc. The technology is on sale as a computer data store but has so far been too expensive to offer as a domestic product. Now the record indus-

try, along with Tandy in the US, has changed the rules of the game.

Last year, in an extraordinarily inept move Tandy promised that Thor, a low cost erasable CD, would be available by the end of this year. Although few people believe that Tandy will deliver the goods

(and the company is now in a silly sulk as a result of criticism), Tandy's announce-ment on Thor convinced the Japanese that they could no longer afford to coast on erasable CD technology. So they are now beavering away at erasable CD sys-tems which will do everything that Tandy promised, plus a lot more besides.

At the same time electronics companies round the world are working on data

compression techniques which will let CDs store digital video. Although this is very tricky technology, complexity is cheap in the electronics industry once it has been built into a silicon chip. When a CD can store a reasonable

duration of video pictures in digital code, in a natural progression from CD audio and CD ROM, the idea of CD Video (digital sound but analogue video) starts

to look wholly pointless. This is why Philips had to get the analogue CDV format on the market as soon as possible. Although Philips still makes brave noises about CD Video being a viable pro-position, sales of players have been piti-fully small, mainly because the choice of software has been even more pitiful and most shops are not interested. By the

beginning of May the main HMV store near Oxford Circus had stopped stocking CDV. Promised feature film discs have never materialized. It looks as if some of the new CDV players will not play old Laservision discs with analogue sound tracks. They will only play CDV discs with digital tracks. The high irony of the situation is that

while Philips has taken the side of the record companies against DAT, and recordable CD, those same record com-panies have shafted Philips by failing to support CDV with software as they loudly promised when the format was first an-nounced. These days it pays to know who you are bedding down with. With DAT dead for domestic use the

Japanese are already turning their atten-tion back to the analogue cassette. For a while there was a shortage of high quality three-gap heads, because the manufactur-ers had run down production in anticipa-tion of a digital take-over. Now head production is back on stream and we can expect to see new developments — per-haps at long last a decent FM stereo radio cassette recorder that works in the same way as a video recorder, with built-in tuner, timer and auto-reverse.

Also now that the Philips patents on the musicassette are long since dead and the royalty-free licences on them no longer enforceable, companies are free to modify the cassette format if they wish to do so. Remember that although metal tape for

audio cassettes has never really caught on as a consumer product, recorders now have heads which can record and play back at much higher levels without satura-tion of whatever tape type is used. With DAT out of the way, it was an

odds-on certainty that Dolby Labs would cook up a domestic version of the profes-sional SR ( Spectral Recording) system. SR was developed for studio use, as a direct alternative to digital recording. So far no-one has talked seriously about using SR as a domestic format, but this has been largely because the advent of DAT seemed a foregone conclusion. The SR system compresses — and then

expands — the signal by 24dB, to give a dynamic range similar to CD. This could give the analogue cassette a new lease of life, and make half-speed recording a practical possibility. The key question, of course, is compatibility. How would an SR-encoded tape sound when played back without an SR decoder? The answer is, very compressed. Low

level background noises, like the sound of a musician breathing into a flute, are boosted unnaturally. Ambience is ex-

aggerated, and reverberation prolonged. But because SR works by processing the signal flexibly, across a wide frequency

range, the effect is nowhere near as bad as you get from DBX recordings — which the system designers have to their credit

never suggested was in any way compat-ible with non-DBX equipment. The point

BARRY FOX

being made by Dolby a year ago, perhaps to sound out reaction, was this. Although the highly compressed SR signal can never be described as 'compatible', the com-pression effect created by non-SR replay may be an advantage in cars where wide dynamic range is just what the listener does not want.

And, even as I write, news comes through the industry grapevine that Dolby is now offering the industry S-type — a domestic variation of SR.

The main difference between SR and S-type is the latter's partial compatibility with Dolby B. Dolby will formally an-nounce S-type any day, and expects to have the first samples of integrated cir-cuits available by September. Cassette recorders with the new system, and pre-recorded cassettes, will be made available first in the United States, probably in 1990, and later in Japan and Europe. Whereas Dolby B reduces the level of

unwanted RF noise by around 10dB (a subjective halving of noise level), S-type reduces RF noise by up to 24dB. But unlike Dolby's previous domestic systems, and like the professional SR system, S-type has a bank of variable filters. These con-tinually monitor the sound and adjust the signal processing circuits so that only those parts of the music spectrum which need protection against noise are proces-sed. Stronger signals in other parts of the spectrum are left untouched. When a tape recorded in S-type is

replayed on a recorder with S-decoder, it gives the full benefit without compromise. When the tape is replayed through a cassette recorder with Dolby B-type cir-cuitry, the reproduced sound is com-pressed, with the music sounding squashed in volume range. This will often be acceptable, especially for music played in a noisy room where quiet passages are otherwise lost in the background noise. When an S-tape is replayed on a re-

corder without any Dolby circuitry at all, the result is a significantly squashed

sound. As expected, Dolby argues this may well be an advantage in some cases, for instance where tapes are played in a very noisy environment, such as a motor car. And it may very well be true. +

HI- F1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AuGusT 1989 17

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STATE OF HEART

W hen we say "State of Heart", we mean just that. Because each Gryphon product is designed to

cut right through to the heart of the musical experience, to reveal every delicate strain, to lay bare all the rythmic complexities that make music live and breathe. To achieve this high goal, Gryphon audio designs created a range of fine audio instruments incorpo-rating select premium-grade components and only the best engineering concepts.

• Uncompromising dual-mono configuration with independent power supplies, dc conditio-ning and separate ac cords for total galvanic channel separation with minimal crosstalk, maximum channel separation and improved stereo perspective, better focus and greater dynamic stability

• Zero negative feedback virtually eliminates Sid und Tim, for cleaner, faster transients and sweeter, purer high frequency response.

• No ac coupling capacitors or compensating capacitors in the signal path for superior bass performance and more airy open reproduc-tion of fine detail.

Gryphon Phonostage & Head Amp

• Pure class A mode with huge capacitor bank for smoother, more coherent reproduction, without grain or suppression of dynamics.

The Gryphon preamp The Gryphon preamp is housed in a non-magne-tic chassis and incorporates fully discrete circuitry dc coupling, 1% metal film resistors, polypropy-lene capacitors and pcb mounted WBT sockets. The Gryphon preamp has no internal wiring (fewer contacts, fewer solderings and a shorter signal path). Components specially built for the preamp include the C core transformers and the Swiss made 24 position passive resistor volume controls. The Gryphon preamp is a modular mainframe design available in a line-only version, an MM version (with the RIAA circuitry of the Gryphon phonostage) or an MC version (with RIAA circuitry and the MC stage of the Gryphon Head Amp).

"I have never been so deeply impressed before" Sonic review, Hong Kong May 89

The Gryphon phonostage This true minimalist preamplifier with no internal wiring offers a phonostage, where passive RIAA equalization does away with several gain stages and selectors, a single line-level input and a passive resistor volume control with 72 settings. A bypass switch for the volume control makes it possible to use the Gryphon phono-stage in con¡unction with another preamplifier.

"...It is, quite simply one of the finest blends of luxury and sonic excellence available today" Hi-Fi News & Record Review, March, 89

Gryphon Preamplifier

"The Musical performance is pure state of the art..." L Audiophile, France, March, 89

The Gryphon head AMP The Gryphon head AMP, with solid Silver internal wiring, incorporates the Gryphon design philo-sophy of flat megabandwidth frequency re-sponse in a low noise, high gain, active step-up device with 30 DB of gain and a signal-to-noise ratio of 80 DB unweighted.

"...The quietest, most coherent MC step-up rye used" HI-FI News & Record Reviev% UK, March, 89

"This product marks a new high, which is currently unrivalled" Suono Magazine, Italy, Oct. 88

"There is none of the unnatural characters that normally reminds you that you are listening to Hl-Fi..." Stereo Sound, Japan, August, 87

Gryphon Audio Designs APS, Hermodsvej 3A, 8230 Aabyhoej, Denmark, Phone 4586151588, Fax 4586150533

Gryphon Distributors: Nonva% Sweden, Denmark: 2R Marketing 54 8615 1588 France: Excelence Audio: 1 40470254 Italy: Esoter 2 4693849 Spain: Nova Systems 232 28 91 Saudi Arabia: Audio — Tech, 2 6656702 Hong Kong, Taiwan: Audio Supplies, 5 249377 Korea: Bando-pro 5881815 Japan: Noah Corporation, 38331721. USA: Paul Heath Marketing, 7162624310 Benelux: Rhapsody 35284644

RADIO It's official — the BBC is to end its

continuous ball-by-ball commentary of cricket matches on Radio 3 at the end

of next summer, so marking another cultural degeneracy in British broadcast-ing policy. The cessation of this landmark of English culture and of English life will be a bitter blow — whether or not one likes cricket.

That Test Match Special would be made to draw stumps has been rumoured for a while, but now it has been announced, the protests will begin in earnest. Within just a few hours of the revelation, Roy Hattersley MP announced that he would he fighting the proposal through Parlia-ment, while the veteran broadcaster, Brian Johnston ( in his 44th year as a BBC commentator), put his feeling on record. 'We'll have two lovely summers and by the time this all happens I may not still be around', he said. He is urging people to write to their MPs about the change: 'It's very sad. It will never be the same again, although the BBC is putting a very brave face on it'. The move has become necessary

because the BBC is having to relinquish two medium-wave allocations to make way for new national commercial chan-nels. Radio 1 is now largely available on FM so there should be no upset audience here; indeed I would think that most of the popular-music lovers will positively enjoy the improvement in quality — assuming their ghetto-blasters are capable of it. l'he Third Programme, on the other hand, presents more of a problem because of its split-frequency programming: the music/drama combination will continue on FM, but the separate cricket commen-taries will lose their home frequency. The BBC has already said that it will use the existing Radio 2 MF frequencies for a new service: Radio 5 — an all sport network under the direction of Pat Ewing, and due to go on air in September 1990. Radio 5 will encompass the cricket to the best of its capabilities; but since cricket is regarded as a minority interest, the BBC can be relied upon to broadcast very little of it while other major events are in progress, and once football starts again each August, that will be that. Miss Ewing has already stated that: 'there will be occasions when major sporting events will clash, although we'll do our best to maintain ball-by-ball commentary'. I must say though that the prospect of continued uninterrupted commentaries from John Johnners' Arlott, Christopher Martin-Jenkins, Sir 'Frederick' Trueman, I ienry 'Blowers' Blofeld, ' The Alderman' Don Mosey and statistics from 'Bearders' Bill Frindall, looks rather bleak. Although many regard the whole con-

cept of the programme as rather pom-pous, it has certainly become an art form, and the service is regarded with affection by many both at home, and abroad, via the World Service. As Brian Johnston admit-ted: 'We're just like schoolboys really, making jokes, eating a bit of cake, slightly

eccentric but technically expert'. On this last point there can be little doubt, as the team is the envy of commentators world-wide. Perhaps the most attention is paid when rain or other interruption has stop-ped play and the commentary turns to other entertaining details like watching umpire Dickie Bird and the people in the crowd — things which make cricket the game it is. All that will be spoilt if the proposed changes' go ahead. While one of the new commercial

channels may opt to cover cricket in a similar way to the BBC, the commercial concerns may use their benison for broad-casting pop music — and this would be an outrage. We need more broadcast pop music like we need a random nuclear strike. The present abundance of local` radio stations radiate little else day and night — even the BBC services which wen. supposedly 'speech-based' seem to Ix concentrating more and more on 'music' as they find it easier and cheaper to produce. If the shelving of Test Match Special leads to pop entrepreneurs becoming even richer it must raise some basic questions about the cultural state of the nation as perceived by the BBC and, as controllers of broadcasting, by the Gov-ernment. But whatever happens this will be a severe test for the belief that the private sector can offer a suitable alterna-tive to public service broadcasting.

Writing to one's MP may be the answer to prevent this act of cultural vandalism, although addressing the Minister responsible for Broadcasting at the Home Office, Tim Renton, or even to the Home Secretary, may prove more effective. One thing is certain — the fight ain't over yet.

IBA mourned by trade The President of BREMA, Lord Chapple, has hit out at the 'fragmented, unco-ordinated and incompatibility associated with the introduction of satellite televi-sion in Britain', and said that a similar approach to the new channels and ser-vices advocated by the Government's White Paper on Broadcasting could threaten developments like NICAM. He said his association would 'mourn

the passing of the IBA' but would 'hope to see many of our friends in the garb of the new ITC'. Lord Chapple welcomed the prospect of more broadcast channels and services, but hoped they would be 'better inaugurated than the unhappy mess which now surrounds satellite broadcast-ing, with its plethora of different stan-dards, encryption systems — and the need for planning-permission for dishes'. Lord Chapple suggested that the answer may be a competent European Broadcasting regime to ensure that Governments and others acted responsibly in future.

Archives released From Ambridge to Arkville, from Elsinore to East Cheam, the cream of more than four decades of Radio has been released from the BBC Sound Archives, which is

TREVOR BUTLER

the biggest library of its kind in the world. l'he cheering news comes from BBC Enterprises — the commercial wing of Auntie which has announced more titles in its taped Radio Collection series includ-ing A Tale of Two Cities, Emma, Wind in The Willows, and Bradman — The Don Declares. Eventually it is hoped that every area that has been illuminated by the magic of BBC Radio broadcasting will be captured on the talking tapes which make up the BBC Radio Collection. The project began late last year when

the first of the cassette twin packs were announced. Each gives two or more hours of high quality listening of the widest variety of material. Every taste seems to have been catered tor in all areas of sound broadcasting. Comedy classics like The Goon Show, Hancock's Half Hour, Round The Home, ITMA, and The Al Read Show are among the gems. Children have been catered for with 5 o'clock treats of days gone by including two Toytown plays featuring Larry the Lamb ( Derek McCul-lough) and Dennis the Dachshund ( Pre-ston Lockwood). Drama fans will be delighted with

Vintage Archers: two and a half hours of highlights from the longest running serial in the world which saw its ten-thousandth edition on 26th May, having first seen light of day on New Year's Day 1951. The tape provides a potted history of the programme and captures momentous occasions in the history of Ambridge, including the night Grace Archer died in a fire at Grey Gables, Nelson's trial and acquittal for murder, Jack's alcoholism, the shock of Jennifer's illegitimate baby and the chance to hear Pru Forrest's voice on that exceedingly rare occasion when she actually spoke. Vanished voices which can be heard include the original Dan and Doris Archer, Walter Gabriel and Jethro. Other drama highlights from the Col-

lection include King Lear starring Sir Alec Guinness, Othello with Paul Scofield and Macbeth starring Dennis Quincy and Han-nah Gordon as well as Hamlet featuring Ronald Pickup. This %enture provides us with the chance to listen to the best years of Radio and to enjoy them for keeps.+

111.1.1 NEWS & RF.( REVIEW Al 'GUST 1989 21

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HEADROOM '

lime flies when you're having fun. If that's true, then trick cables must be an absolute barrel of laughs because

— believe it or not — it's well over a decade since Saburou Egawa in Japan and Jean Hiraga in France introduced to us the wonders of wire. The impact of specialist cables has been enormous, despite the

continued presence of reactionaries who still think that it's all a big hoax. Which leads me to the current cable malaise. If any part of the market really is flooded to the point of absurdity, it has to be the cable sector. Why? Because it's the easiest sector to enter if you're a real cynic — confirming the reactionaries' thoughts. All you do is find an OEM cable, print your name on the insulation and make up some wonderful story.

Because cable reviewing is such a time-consuming and thankless task, maga-zines tend to concentrate on the main

components. And even if cables were reviewed on a truly comprehensive basis, these reviews still wouldn't help the consumer, and for two reasons: cables are

entirely system-dependent (which means that they must be auditioned as they will be used) and they're absolute hell from a retail standpoint. The latter is connected to the former, so hear me out.

In order for a retailer to sell expensive cables, he has to demonstrate and occa-sionally loan them out in the same manner as whole components. It means either stocking expensive cables in innumerable combinations of lengths and connectors, or cutting up fresh cable and preparing it

with the risk that the customer won't want it. He then has to put that odd, unsold length into stock, hoping that someone will come along needing, say, a 2.8m pair of solid silver cables terminated

in seven-pin DIN connectors. In other words, he's out a couple of hundred quid because the tailor-made pair for that home demo didn't sell. As a result, many retailers are reverting to pre-packed lengths of cable terminated in conven-tional plugs, and then only from the best-known brands. Some shops specialize in custom cable

supply, but most have been burned and are wary of exotic cables. In turn, they've either adopted a few key brands simply because they know and like them and can recommend them in all sincerity, or they

let the consumer buy on faith, je influ-enced by reviews or adverts. It may be a

bit much to expect a consumer to buy on word of mouth, but I don't think that any retailer would expect you to keep £300 interconnects which didn't suit your sys-tem. ( On the other hand you can't expect a retailer to rip apart his demo room and hand it over to you for a four-hour session

for six metres' worth of 79-strand.) Reviewers also have preferences and

unique systems, as do their readers, and they cannot expect remarks about a cer-tain cable to apply to all installations. So why even bother you with tales ot

two more cables? Because it's what I'm supposed to do. Considering that cables are such a gamble anyway, increasing the odds by 2 isn't going to make much difference, and — if you've read the pre-ceding paragraphs — you still have to make up your mind. But these cables are interesting enough and worthy enough to justify the attention.

The first is Quantum Audio's YFERE cables and YBLENT connectors, and yes, I agree with you that the names are clumsy and sound like some obscure accessories from a 1936 Leica catalogue. That's where the clumsiness ends, because these cables are slick and professional and really deliver. But let me start with the ends, if you please.

The YBLENT connector is one of the more complex phono plugs I've seen, a patented design employing symmetrical shells to form the inner body. They create a four-part earth contact collar with exceptional grip and self-cleaning action to remove, and then prevent, the build-up of oxides at the point of contact. The shells extend back over the solder area and virtually enclose the entire centre contact. The whole rear section of the plug acts as a cable clamp, gripping the wire at 18 pressure points. The YBLENT plug is machined from oxygen-free cop-per and is entirely finished in hard gold plate. Yes, it's pretty luxurious, but then what else would you expect for £52.17 for a set of four?

Between the YBLENTs are lengths of YFERE cable which consists of two pairs of colour-coded LC-OFC conductors, each made up of 20 strands plus an LC-OFC multi-strand, helically wound screen. The four conductors are laid in parallel and separated by a PTFE insulator. The cables are directional and are assembled using YBLENT silver solder. A run through the literature suggests that quiet operation and resistance to interference were high priorities and, indeed, the cables are among the 'quietest' I've ever tried. Used between CD player and pre-amp, or pre-amp and power amp, the YFERE 'Quad' leads revealed themselves to be thorough-breds easily worth the £70 for a 1m pair. Also available is a twin version and OFC leads in myriad lengths and combinations. OK, so we've another source for worthy

cables, but the real surprise in the package was a 1 m length of fibre optic 7-core cable. I'm thinking — 'How can there be differences between optical cables, work-

Quantum

19 <4. 1

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KEN KESSLER

manship aside?'. Since these were pitched to me by a known cynic rather than a starry-eyed tweak, I figured I'd give them a try. Looking exactly like the optical leads supplied with the Marantz CD- 12 save for the colour of the sleeve ( blue to the Marantz's black), the YFERE optical cables really did sound more opal and 'sweeter'. That was madness enough. Then I

received some coaxial cable from HFN/ RR's US distributor which purported to improve on other coaxial cables when used for digital transmission. And sure enough, again using the Marantz CD- 12, I was able to obtain markedly superior performance from Master Link Premium silver/Teflon interconnects over a host of other top coaxial cabks. Remember: this is while transmitting digital information, not analogue. And when the time came to compare the two — the Quantum optical versus the Master Link coaxial — the latter was so close to the former that it suggests hope and relief for those who own CD

players with coaxial-only digital outputs. In other words, don't bother upgrading a player just because the new model fea-tures optical output. Just try the Master Link. (And it's unlikely that aftermarket DIA converters will be issued with

optical-only inputs for some time). Again, the donor of this cable is a

renowned cynic. He's as staggered as I am that a coaxial lead can operate within such proximity to optical fibres. And so opens another can of worms... The Masterlink leads, used in analogue

mode, are now serving in my system between pre-amp, DAX and power amplifiers, with Mandrake still unmatched for source-to-pre-amp duties. 1 have the Quantum fibre optics in between the Marantz chassis and Lieder leads connect-ing amps to speakers. A mish-mash? No. It's simply a combination that took me a mere two years to arrive at. Now do you see why recommending

cables is such a pain?+

Quantum Audio Lre Po Bar 26, Kilmarnoc1/4 Ayrshire Scotland £A3 7RN Tel (0563) 71122 Music &Sound Imports, 30 Snouyeke Rote Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania 19006, USA Tel (0I0 1)(215) 357-7858

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AU'(.1ST 1989 23

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THE WAY THE

WIND BLOWS

The Chicago winds of change

swept through the hi-fi section of

the Consumer Electronics Show,

as manufacturers unveiled

next season's new model ranges

by Ken Kessler

1 — there is no better gauge of hi-fi trends than the Consumer Electro-nics Show. I don't mean What's the

next tweak?' or what makes are in the ascendant/descendant. What CES tells you is what the real world is or isn't buying.

That's my wordy way of saying that — sorry, fellas — analogue is dead. How do 1 come to make such a final statement at the beginning of a report? Because it just dawned on me that this is the first CES which I've attended where all of the software review samples were on CD. What's more, I can only think of a couple of analogue components launched at the show — the Rod Herman-designed Onyx turntable, the formal showing of Max Townshend's latest Rock. And when you consider that the show produced some-thing like a dozen new outboard D/A converters or 'digital' pre-amps or line-level-only pre-amps, well, you'd have to have shares in PVC to be even remotely optimistic.

Despite this and a positively evil bout of food poisoning on Day 4, I still enjoyed the 1989 Summer CES, and not just because 1 love Chicago: despite what anyone tells you about the drop in traffic or the lack of action on the part of the dealers, there were enough new products on show to fill a report three times the length of this one. The best news of all the trends revealed at CES was a move down-market by many of the high-end makes. In an industry where each new model seems to be dearer than the last one, it's a pleasure to report that some makes have decided to lower the tariff at the entry level end of the catalogue. Yet another trend deserves mention,

especially since this is a British magazine. UK manufacturers gave an incredible show of strength, with most makes repre-sented and offering not just new goodies but exciting new goodies. So 1 might as well kick off this report with an absolute earth-shaker, one which caught all of us by surprise and was important enough to compensate for the fact that the manufac-turer wasn't an 'official' exhibitor: Quad launched a new pre-amp and (sound of trumpets) the long-awaited Quad CD player. Yes, 34 and 44 owners, you can turf those ageing Mission/Philips dino-saurs because there's now a perfect match for your small, grey stack.

urremafflaggir

.eifflogiggging,

Surprue of she show, as far as UK brands were contened: the new Quad CD player and model 66 pe-ankoh) ter

1 sLI WEST »

e.1...;,./

the Quad LE) player and the matching Quad 66 pre-amp are bristling with a number of features that might even help the venerable company to steal sales away From B&O. Their facias are control-free, everything being handled by a rather nifty remote controller which looks like the handset for a state-of-the-art computer gante. Some of the touches are gimmicky, like a visual display of the volume setting in the form of a circle un the pre-amp's LCD panel, but the main intention of the design is to dispel technofear Quad main-man Ross Walker was overheard saying that his wife had it all figured out in 10 minutes while it took him only 15. All of the commands are carried by the infra-red controller, including setection of seven inputs, volume, balance, the traditional Quad tone-shaping operations and stand-by. Selecting any source automatically switches the system on from stand-by, fading the volume up to the previous setting. The volume control on the remote is an ergonomically-Familiar rotary control rather than the horrible press buttons used by others. And to show just how much Ross Walker hates nasty jolts, he's even had the unit programmed to fade down rather than cut sharply when stand-by is selected at the end of the session. UK prices and delivery are still to be

finalized and it's too early to say how the slightly unusual styling will sit with the traditionalists ( the actual dimensions will cause no upsets) but I reckon that the CD player, if not the pre .arnp, will be one of the fastest-selling products in UK hi-fi history. Quad dealers: order your Ferrais. Or should that be Aston-Martins?

HI-F1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUC.UST 1989 25

SHOW REPORT

BIT BY BIT

The breakdown is almost complete, with yet another cluster of analoguists relent-ing and admitting that, hey, maybe

digital doesn't make you break out in boils. Here are some of the purely digital highlights of the Summer Season.

Krell Digital, whose production-ver-sion CD transport and outboard D/A

Almost there: Krell showed its finalised 'CD turntable', and added a new lower-cost converter unit . . .

converter were seen at the Paris Show, unleashed a second converter dubbed the SBP-16X, for those who can't quite manage the $ 10,000 SBP-64X. As the numbers suggest, this one uses 16-times oversampling, but shares with its dearer sibling the same plug-in upgradability. Price, if my ears weren't deceiving me, is well under $3000. Theta expanded the catalogue to include (with the new facias arriving only 12 hours before the show opened) a budget version of its

. . as did Theta, with a new version of the DSPre digital:pre-amp shown here called the DSPre Basic

DSPre digital pre-amp, called the DSPre Basic, to sell for $2395. Probably of greater appeal for those who already own top-flight pre-amps is the unveiling of the DSPro Basic, a DA converter-only unit with a price tag of $1995. Wadia, too, introduced a downmarket

version of its widely-acclaimed Digital-2000 processor, the new Digital- 1000, but nothing I could find suggested that anyone in the USA is ready to match Arcam or Musical Fidelity when it comes to making truly affordable out-board decoders. However, Aragon, who

showed a Mike Moffat-designed DIA converter, the D2A (neat name, eh?) with styling to match their wedge-fronted 24K pre-amp. The price isn't

finalised yet, but it won't be expensive. Details include 8-times oversampling with I8-bit resolution, circuit upgrades (à la Krell) via replaceable ICs.

At the other end of the scale is the processor which had me in a dither ( no 'Groan' inserts please, Steve), the Stax DAC-Xlt hybrid which — YES! — adds

tubes to a D/A! The $8000 DAC-Xlt, in addition to satisfying residual valve crav-ing ( I've given up on ever seeing a valve Walkman or cassette deck), offers three coaxial and three optical inputs, polarity inversion in the digital domain, 20-bit ultralinear DACs for each channel and a whole A4 page's worth of details, but the main novelty is the — quote — 'Hybrid MOSFET+ I 2AX7 Super cathode fol-lower output for the sake of system isolation between next amplification devices...'

Players were proliferating at an alarm-ing rate, the main impression I received being that of new confidence from the specialists who base their designs on Philips transports. In addition to much better aesthetics — few now have the nerve to display Philips or Magnavox players with only a badge to show the changes — there seemed to be more confidence in the reliability of the basic mechanism. Kinergetics introduced a new upmarket model called the KCD-40 Gold Series, a $2000 machine featuring patented hysteresis distortion cancelling circuits, 8-times oversampling, volume and balance controls, high output vol-tage for superior operation when directly driving a power amplifier, four 18-bit D/A converters and enough com-pliments from their competitors to sug-gest that this one could carve out a nice chunk of the market. Meridian has at last made available a

version of its CD player without the pre-amp section, the savings equalling a couple of hundred dollars in the US; I'd guess a reduction of about £100 will be seen here. Crafty Bob Stuart — a man whose eyes have a devious twinIde even when they're closed — said that there were some circuitry tweaks as well but didn't elucidate. Meanwhile, John Daw-son of Arcam cornered me to impart the news that the company had launched the Alpha CD player, a 16-bit, 4-times oversampling machine with two trans-formen, a real metal case and a price tag of only £350. Even further down the price scale is an entry-level audiophile

player from Rotel, the £250 RCD-855. In the 'High End For Poor Folks'

category, California Audio Labs showed two new players for those who would but can't be Tempestuous. The Icon, complete with truly luscious face-plate, 18-bit Burr-Brown D/A converter, star earthing, five separate, regulated power supplies, CAL 24-bit digital filter, custom clock module and digital output (coaxial and optical) will sell for a piddling $695. That, my friends is mass-market money. Alongside it and looking just as fetching was seen the Tercet Mk HI, which features CAL's servo-control-led DC coupled output stage, all-discrete analogue section, separate 18-bit D/A converters, optically coupled analogue and digital sections, 23 separately reg-

Madrigal's CD player the Proceed, embodies much high technology and much SILAS circuit know-how

ulated power supplies and a host of other detail refinements, at $1295.

Probably the most radical player laun-

ched at CES was the Madrigal Proceed, the first product to bear that brand name, from the corporation which pro-duces Mark Levinson ( MLAS) amplifiers. For one thing, it's an upright model, a layout previously seen only on a few upmarket pro models from Japan. Using an 18-bit monolithic DAC from Burr-Brown, the Proceed featuresextra-rug-ged construction, rear-mounted audio boards to shorten the paths to the connectors, right angle mounting of boards to minimize interaction between the circuits, two master power supplies and eleven 'distributed' power supplies, cast aluminium transport baseplate, alu-minium structural members coated in gold-iridate to prevent corrosion and tripod mounting and a real marble slab under the transport to attain optimal stability. Advance whispers suggest that

Nakamichi launches its alartst-clocki radio! There is also a CD-based ' midi' estate

this machine could win a lot of friends in the high end and not just because of the sounds: the US price is a mere $ 1650, well below that of most current high-end players. This debut also signals a promising future for other Madrigal-branded components.

26 111-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989

SHOW REPORT

If that wasn't enough to rock thc Anglophiles, Rega announced its entry into the production of speakers and elec-

tronics ( signalling less than total confide-nce in the future of the LP). The speaker was seen and heard at CES, dubbed the ELA and looking not unlike a Naim IBL. A two-way, floor-standing design, it features a sloped upper baffle, mirror-imaged driv-ers and a price tag of under £.500 in the UK. The electronics aren't ready yet, but word has it that the designs are courtesy of a former Creek employee. Another British company set what must

be a record in hi-fi circles. Cambridge, now owned by Hi-Fi Markets, showed an entirely revamped line, complete with new models and a restyle, mere months after the change of ownership. Hot pro-ducts seen behind closed doors included the new P50 and P70 integrated amplifiers, the A70 stereo and A100 monoblock power amps, the C70 and

C100 preamps, the sexy new CD3 CD player with ' 16x 16' oversampling at CD2 prices, and the DAC3 outboard D/A con-verter. All of this was accomplished with the help of the recently appointed 'digital engineer' Mark Norton, whose handiwork will also be evident in two rumoured Cambridge products: a transport-only CD player (for early 1990), and a digital pre-amp, possibly ready for the Hi-Fi Show in September. And you thought that Musical Fidelity was prolific... Ariston added the next unit in their

system line-up, a £310 16-bit 4-times oversampling CD player matching the black Perspex of the existing amplifier,

while Linn demonstrated a new speaker, the 'Caber. Because speakers proliferate at CES, I find it hard to get worked up about any but the most unusual (of which there are always plenty) but the new Linn model deserves notice because it bridges the gap between the Isobarik and the more conventional, smaller models. Lin-nies who have lusted after the 'Banks will find these compact bi-/tri-wirable speak-ers a godsend. (Or should that be ivor-send?) As ever, the hottest news came in the form of rumours: Linn is said to be readying for release an integrated amplifier and a new turntable which will sell for less than the Axis. Mission, as if spoiled by the deliriously

high price tags which its computers can command, released a most un-British speaker, the 767. What other way is there to describe a floor-standing, five-driver design standing neck-high and bearing a £4000 price tag?

Lord knows where they were hiding, but I couldn't find Wharfedale in the time allotted. (Covering this show alone in four days is like trying to read War And Peace the night before the exam.) But as I wandered through the press room, a bold yellow-and-red press release with the familiar 'W' logo caught my eye. Stapled to it was a picture of the most refreshingly styled two-way boxes I'd seen in many a moon and the story that Wharfedale had released the Coleridge two-way, stand-mounted speaker and the floor-standing

We guessed is was coming: KEF applies us Unl-Q Coincident Drive Unit technique to the wall-mount situation in these two neat designs

Apogee's new baby: president Jason Bloom looks delighted with visitors' response to the new Stage 1 loudspeaker

Harewood. Both feature titanium tweeters good for 25kHz and mineral-filled homopolymer bass drivers. US prices sug-gest that these models are the new flagships of the line. I know it's crazy to get worked up over a grille-cloth, but the new Wharfedales sport the most novel covers I've seen since Gale went into the cheesegrating business. Much more conservative but just as

exciting are the new mini-monitors from ATC. The first small speaker from this

firm, the SM20 is primarily a studio monitor like its larger brethren. Although I expected an IS3/5A-sized mini. ATC opted for a slightly larger enclosure hous-ing a 6.5in woofer and 25mm tweeter in order to provide a modicum of bass for reasonable assessment of the programme material in mastering situations. The speakers are built like battleships and will probably part you from about a grand. Mordaunt-Short introduced the new 3

Series, these models running from MS3.10 to MS3.50. The wee MS3.10 was seen in gloss-white form, this mini-monitor look-ing like M-S's answer to the Wharfedale Diamond and Goodmans Maxim. The MS3.20, 3.30 and 3.40 increase in size and flip-flop the reflex port ( the even suffixes are forward firing while the odd suffixes feature rear-mounted openings), but the flagship floor-standing 3.50 is a transmis-sion line design, which should amuse TDL and Fried. The four smaller models can be supported by M-S's new 3.1S stand, a segmented adjustable design made from a dense, highly inert polymer. Other British CES-goers included

Revolver, Monitor Audio, SME, Rogers, Celestion and just about every other important make, but if I spill too much I'll only blow the whistle on some sensational scoops best saved for The Hi-Fi Show. Do I spoil the surprises and tell you now that

Audiolab showed the long-awaited FM tuner and that it's absolutely gorgeous? That Meridian introduced a new CD player and that KEF showed a wall-mount speaker with Uni-Q? How about B&W entering the wall-mount market?

But CES is an international gathering and the main reason for attending ( at least for the Press) is to discover the latest from the brands which don't live a short drive away. I don't know if the proliferation of

exotic American goodies should ease any-one's fears about the state of the market but I'm all for optimism. I mean, what other word describes McDonald's selling Chicken McNugget sandwiches with voc-als courtesy of blues giant BB King? 'Woke up this morning and found myself too

poor to eat at the Golden Arches' would make a refreshing change from Ronald McDonald.

Chicago may be the home of the blues but that didn't set the tone this year. There were prestige launches galore, the usual run of mouthwatering, mortgage-stretching audiophile fantasies, and any-one who tells you that the show lacked sparkle just didn't look in the right places. Members of the press had received

advance invitations to two showings which would introduce us to potential champions at either end of the price scale. Magnepan had a full house for the first demonstrations of the new flagship, the MG-20, which breaks new ground for the company in two areas. The first is that it's equipped with a mid-range ribbon as well as the ribbon tweeter already found in existing models. This makes the MG-20 a ribbon down to 300Hz, the bottom fre-quencies being covered by a traditional Magnepan bass panel. Also new is the look, the first Magnepan product in 20 years to depart from the wood (or brass/ chrome) frame and fabric which is so

identified with the make. To take the brand into the 21st-century, Magnepan has produced a gloriously modern gloss black panel split by two full height grey cloth sections. It's simple but elegant, and I'd be surprised if it didn't find its way down through the range. The MG-20 is still undergoing the fine-tuning process so delivery dates haven't been announced and the company would be no more specific about price than 'between $5000 and $ 10,000', which is some latitude!

Before the official start of the show, the press met to hear Acoustat's new Spectra 11 electrostatic hybrid, and I don't think anybody was blasé when the price was revealed. The Spectra 11 stands 72in tall, is only 15in wide and a mere 14in deep at the base. It's an electrostatic down to around 300Hz, where an 8in felted paper woofer takes over. The Spectra had a sweet, seamless sound, the 'hot-seat' effect was minimal, the styling decidedly mod-ern. The price: under 81000 a pair in the USA. Even with the strong dollar, this is one American electrostatic which might be able to withstand the penalties of an Atlantic crossing. And it signified the trend I mentioned earlier in this report, that certain high-end makes were doing

HI-F1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989 27

SI IOW REPORT

something at the entry-level stage. And there was more to come. Beyond any doubt, the hottest new

product at the show was Apogee's Stage 1, with which the company removes three

obstacles preventing would-he ribbon fan-ciers from acquiring its products. 1) It sells for under $2000 per pair. 2) It can he driven with any good 50-watter. And 3) the speaker barely stands waist-high. Apogee exhibited in a positively vast room, the sort you'd expect to fill with a Diva or Duetta. Visitors arrived finding this dwarf speaker in the middle of the room. Expectations were what you'd assume of too small a speaker in too large an area. I pulled out the 'biggest sounding' CD in my arsenal, 'Assassin of Love' by Willy DeVille. The 'Apogeena' rose to the occasion, handling the subterranean bass with aplomb.

Not quite so real-world hut just as

much fun were the new 'half-price' ( $25,000) Goldmund Analogues, two-enclosure versions of the heart-stopping Apologue launched last year. Like the $50k predecessor, the Analogue has aes-thetics courtesy of Claudio Rotta-Lauria and look exactly like Apologues minus the extra enclosures. Too cheap for you? Then order a pair of Immortals ( honestly) from Classical Design and Engineer-ing. These Chinese-lacquered chest-height Dalek lookalikes consist of a huge bass enclosure housing two upward-firing 10in bass drivers and 'steerahle' upper enclosures containing two Sin midrange units and one forward-firing 1 in tweeter. If ever a speaker screamed 'Japanese hi-fi casualty' it's the Immortal, reminding me of every cult classic from the Klipschorn to the mega-Bozaks of yore. Clements, now based in Canada,

demonstrated a new ribbon hybrid called the Reference RT7 in a handsome floor-standing enclosure and featuring their signature dispersion lens running the length of the ribbon. Thiel released the long-awaited CS5 flagship model, an abso-lutely beautiful floor-standing design with sloped, time-aligned front baffle ( made from a marble/polymer composite) and featuring what looked like the most com-plex crossover ever produced. Then again, it does have to control six drivers. Price is just under $ 10,000. Martin-Logan showed the awe-inspiring State-ment with Krell, Basis and Day-Sequerra, the gigantic four-part system sounding better than ever. ( Idle chatter: I met more owners of M-L Sequel Ils than any other speaker.) Nelson-Reed unveiled a sub-woofer system which included a 400W controller/amplifier/crossover ( usable with other makes of subwoofer) for $2700 complete. Other exciting speakers included a smaller Avalon, a mini-moni-tor of the truncated pyramid variety from French maker CASO called the Metro-nome (no prizes for original nomencla-ture), two handsome floor-standing sys-tems from Syndex at $ 1600 and $3000 per pair, the 'unusual' Wolcott Omnis-phere ( at $4500) featuring a distinctive big black hall on top of a pyramidal bass

IOW" '1411111111111111.'

Cambridge Audio (above) took the lid off its new electronics range; Thiel finally showed its marble-fronted flagship (left); while Clements demonstrated its stunning ribbon hybrid (right), the RT7

WHAT'S UP, DOC?

Every show throws up something so bizarre that you have to ask, 'Has it all gone too far?' This time, as if to show that the Americans could out-Belt Peter, attendees were treated to ear-extenders which accomplished the wonderful task of making any wearer look like either a rabbit or Mr Spock, depending on your preference for cartoons or sci-fi.

Called Serious Listeners, the ear extender kit consists of two nicely-made leather cutouts which you fold and snap together, hooking one over each ear. They form cups which turn your pinnae into constructs not unlike the scoops used at my local coffee bean emporium and they're said to: 1) Reduce the undesirable effects of poor room acous-tics; 2) Improve the focus of the stereo image; 3) Increase dynamic contrast. What the packaging does not tell you

is that wearing Serious Listeners will also: 1) Make you smell like a leather fetishist; 2) Add ambient effects not unlike holding a shell to the ear; 3) Make the user look like anything hut a serious listener. Selling for around $20 per pair, Serious Listeners are available from PO Box 565, Burlingame, California (where else?) 94011, USA. You can telephone the company for more information on (415) 344-1200. Tell them that Peter - Belt or Rabbit - sent 'ya.

Serious Listeners: auxiliary ear-flaps modelled here bv Tom Gillet of Stereophile. He has even wons them to a Carnegie Hall concert, which raised many eyebrows!

28 Ill FI RF( ( SRI) FtF1'IFW '( I'WI

SHOW REPORT enclosure, the updated Waveform ribbon

hybrid pyramid system for $9800, two affordable new Snell models, the FAH ( $980) and J/III ( $680), and another speaker from Hales, the company which dazzled so many at Las Vegas. Called the System Two Signature, the new model is a floor-standing beauty at $3700 or so. Another launch about which I'm not

certain I have clearance to write but frankly can't sit on is the fetching Modulus 'concept system' from Infinity. Check this out: the Infinity Modulus system consists of speakers which you build up in component form, starting with the two-way, stepped baffle, EMIT-equipped main speaker in its acoustically-inert, resin-finished enclosure. This rests on triangu-lated, spiked isolating feet which can be used with vinyl cups for table or shelf placement or on the next component in the range, the Modulus pedestal ( too much like a variant of the Celestion SL700 stand to inspire cries of 'Genius!', but it's nice to see an American giant taking notice). Also available are special fixtures for wall-mounting pivoted brackets which will allow Modulus to find space in studio conditions for near-field monitoring. Then

there's the 200W servo-amplified 12in-driver'd subwoofer.

Amplifiers: more tubes! CASO's little pyramid speakers were seen and heard on either side of the company's quite astounding monster Class-A monob-lock Atmosphere tube amplifiers, but one of a host of new, glow-in-the-dark amplifiers. VTL, which has more models than Airfix, showed the ultimate in down-sizing, pocket-sized monoblocks called the 'Tiny Triodes'. Selling for $ 1000 the pair, these babies put out about 25W each and weigh in at 9.51b per channel. At the other end of the scale, Conrad-Johnson produced a massive hybrid called the CTF200 ( $5000) with MOSFETs deliver-ing 200W/channel. Taking a page out of the Lux 'Brid Guide to Amp Aesthetics', C-J placed the two driver valves behind a window on the facia. The company also showed the all-MOSFET MF80 ( $ 1395), designed to mate with its CD/Pre-amp.

Sticking with tubes, though, Audio Research showed the SP-9 Mk II, with a host of ( retrofittable) improvements; Lazarus added two more pre-amps to its range of affordable tube designs, including the Balanced Classic and Balanced Deluxe; US company Atma-Sphere showed an impressive all-triode, 100W/ channel Class-A amplifier, the MA- 1, Melos offered the CD-T/B pre-amp and CD-T IIB tube CD player; and MFA had a line-up including the tasty two-box Luminescence pre-amp, M-120 and M-200 monoblocics and Magus pre-amp. The solid-state brigade wasn't sleeping

either, with Rowland introducing a new two-box pre-amp, the $3000 Consonance, with remote control and the Model 1 power amplifier, rated at 60W channel or 240W into 8ohms in mono form. Sumo produced a new baby called the Ulysses, also a 60-watter; Klyne uprated the SK-6

MORE EAR CANDY

Among the CD treasures I collected at the Show was an absolute gift from Mobile Fidelity, two Beach Boys titles on one gold Ultradisc. MFSL combined Surfin' USA and Surfer Girl (UDCD 521) to create a bumper display of early

Beach Boys music, a fine companion to See For Miles' recent reissue of Shut

Down Vol H. Chesky followed the universally acclaimed jazz CDs with another pair, this time opting for Latin-flavoured material. The discs are Ana Carma's Rio After Dark OD 28) and Luiz Bonfa's Non-Stop To Brazil OD 29). Again, the Cheslcys have released discs with standard-setting sonics and per-formances to match.

Reference Recordings offered two new titles, Albert Fuller on harpsichord

with Rameau's Pieces de Clavecin/Suite in A ( RR-27CD) and an absolute delight for lovers of retro-MOR, Eileen Farrell Sings Harold Arlen (RR-30CD). Sheffield Lab released Clair Marlo's sensational vocal showpiece, Let It Go (CD-29), which deserves to rank with the label's audiophile faves from Amanda McBroom. Digital-only label DMP released a pair of discs from two of its most popular charges, Bob Minzter's Urban Contours (CD-467) and Warren Bernhardt's Heat Of The Moment (CD-468) as well as a 13-track sampler dubbed A Taste of DMP (CD/466). I wish more labels would do the same, because a well-compiled taster is the

best way to introduce unfamiliar artists. The DMP disc is bound to find its way into most show-goers' Carry-Disc bags. New to me is the Californian label

Bainbridge, who have a catalogue covering everything from archive releases to new material, sound effects, train noises, classical, show tunes — you name it. A distinctive feature of the discs is that they employ the Colossus record-

ing system, promising awesome sound quality worthy of the material. Among the fistful of titles which I secured are such disparate releases as Johnny Smith and the new Ink Spots' I'll Still Be Loving You (BCD6281) — recent recordings from that legendary group. the Sonic Booms sound effects CD (BCD6276), the breathtaking quasi-New Age Fresh Out Of Nowhere by Michael Lee Thomas (BCD6281) and Percussion 90's Rhapsody In Blue & Gold (BCD2104). Bainbridge is looking for

UK distribution as I write, but I'd suggest you contact them directly for the time being. They can be reached at PO Box 8248, Van Nuys, California 91409, USA or on (01-0-1) ( 213) 476-0631. Ask them about the steam train CDs!

In case you are feeling despondent about the dea(r)th of vinyl, please noie that the analoguists have organized! Write to The Analog Society, PO Box 7028, Westlake Village, California 91359, USA to find out what you can do to help stem the digital tide.

preamplifier; YBA showed its new flagship pre-amp, the remote-controlled Signature; Ariston introduced a 100W/channel pre/ power combination ( and tuner) to match the new CD player, Creek introduced the

new 5050 integrated amplifier; Naim restyled its entire range and unveiled the NAC 72 top-of-the-line pre-amp; and Krell went into the modular field with a separate 6-input line stage pre-amp, the KBI., and matching PA phono pre-amp. Acoustic Research showed a very early prototype of its genuine Class-A 20-wat-ter, switchable to 200W A/B. Shades of the PM-4... I admit it: my heart belongs to Peinare, the Danish company which proved conclusively that aesthetic perfec-tion in hi-fi equipment is an attainable goal. After a bit of a shaky time, the company has reappeared with a new pre-amp and stereo power amplifier just

Inside the Sequerra: The classic high-end tuner is back, with a new model at under $3000! Finish matches Krells

as freshly styled as the earlier 'cubist' products, but selling for a whole lot less, the 911 pre-amp and dual mono-power amp. Also seen were an m-c step-up ( the 944, would you believe) and the 911 loudspeaker. Can we expect a 917, a 959 or — God forbid — a Carrera or Speedster? Under the 'general' heading, Sequerra

showed a new, budget version of the classic tuner, selling for $3000 but look-ing just like the legendary predecessor. The pile of literature is still two inches

thick. I could tell you about the new Monster cables (one especially for bi-wiring), the hot new Master Link mains cables, Cardas and MIT products; various damping rings; the $50,000 Sony TV, a Cellnet phone the size of a packet of Silk Cut and a thousand other products. but I'm going to relax now; I've earned it. And that means a visit to...

Hy's Society SH and I spent an evening in New York in the company of the most committed audiophiles in the USA, The Audiophile Society and its head honcho Hy Kachalslcy. This mob meets once a month

at Hy's home in Rye, Westchester, NY to share hi-fi experiences. To witness such rampant audiophilia is to learn that, yes, there are a bunch of crazies out there — Kachalsky's a shrink, no less — but their hearts are in the right place. They even made me forget my food poisoning.4-

111-F1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989 29

•<,

it^

Beethoven's greatest

masterpieces were corn-

posed after 1819 when

he was totally deaf.

His sense of isolation and a desire

to rebel against his affliction resulted

in classic symphonies.

It is therefore a sad irony that

many people who listen to these masterpieces

are also deaf to their subtleties and nuances.

Their compact disc players are simply not

sophisticated enough to process the weaker

signals from the disc.

The new Technics SL-P999 is adept at

processing these signals.

Information that most C.D. players would

turn a deaf ear to.

A conventional system uses just one DAC

(or Digital Analogue Converter) to cope with

both the positive and negative halves of both

channels.

Rather like a one - armed orchestra

conductor this creates confusion and

distortion.

The SL-P999 actually has four DAC's. Each

channel has two. One for the positive and one

for the negative half of the signal.

So that even the softest pianissimo piano

phrase can be heard.

From musical parts to bits.

The 20 Bit 8 times oversampling on our

C.D. means that the information on the disc is

t›-wies0: .

ON MOST COMPACT DISCS,

THE SUBTLETIES OF HIS MUSIC ARE

FALLING ON DEAF EARS.

actually evaluated eight times between

samples.

Ensuring that the smallest changes in the

music are faithfully reproduced.

So that the high tessitura of the chorus

sopranos in the Missa Solemnis are a joy to

listen to.

The double basses

in the fifth will take you

to seventh heaven.

At design stage, the Shuttle Search also

received a great deal of input.

It enables you to look for the piece of music

you want forwards or backwards at up to 76

times normal playing speed.

There is also a 43 key remote.

ihmehnle• •

M.. - 51"....1 III! II .

- -

.11.111131P .,

ID*

.1111.

And the thunder of the Appassionata piano

sonatas will reach your ears like lightning.

The signals from the C.D. also travel

allegro style to the amplifier.

And as there are both analogue and digital

outputs that means any amplifier.

Which is exactly

how Beethoven must

have felt in those silent,

lonely days writing.

Perhaps he would have taken solace in the

composition of our C.D. players. which enable

every note that was written to be heard.

Technics For Music Lovers

THE SL-P999 IS ONE OF THE RANGE OF TECHNICS C.D. PLAYERS.

TECHNICS WILLOUGHBY ROAD BRACKNELL BERKSHIRE FIG12 913 TEL 0344 403493

The Perfect Pitch immunimmizam 311111111111111111111111111111

11111BINUI 31111111111111/ à muummg L immum mum»V almunumm Man 11111111M11111 11111111111 11111111111111•111111111•1111 1111111M111111111111111111

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ACCESSORIES CLUB

SUMMER SPECIALS

Our Accessories Club 'catalogue' now includes a dozen

HFN/RR originated items, with more on the way, so we

thought that this would be a good time to remind you of

what our 'think tank' has produced to date

It didn't enter our heads, when we conceived the Accessories Club back in 1984 that we would end up with 'own brand' products.

After all, there's never been a shortage of accessories to choose from; we thought our task would be - simply - to find the best of each type. But the deeper we got into the subject, the more we found ourselves wishing, 'What if ....?' or 'How about a...?'

First fruit of our collective brainstorming was, of course, HFN/RR 001 - The Fluxdumper. No apologies for this one! We'd heard about the wonderful VP! Magic Bricks which American audiophiles were using to eliminate both mechanical buzzing and the sonic

effects of stray eddy currents. Unfortunately, the transatlantic journey

priced these wooden-clad lumps of laminated steel right out of the market, so we produced our own version. Results vary according to the amplifier's design, but valve gear tends to benefit spectacularly. HFN/RR 004 - Blackhead. The best bargain we've ever offered, a

fixed-value, £59.95 version of genius Tim de Paravicinfs classic m-c step-up from EAR. One of the finest and most cost-effective transformers ever realized.

HFN/RR 006 - Flutterbuster. We wanted ( roughly speaking) to do for other AC synchronous motor turntables what the Valhalla kit did for Linnies. Not only does the Flutterbuster clean up the mains

and improve stability, it also adds 33/45 rpm at the flick of a switch instead of the flick of a belt. Turn your AR Legend or similar deck into a budget high-ender.

HFN/RR 009 - Headcase. Quite simply, the solution for all of you with a desperate need to use headphones but with a pre-amp lacking the necessary socket. This 40mW Class-A headphone amplifier will also appeal to those who don't rate the sound quality of the built-in headphone amplifiers in integrated amps, CD players and cassette decks. Another de Paravicini masterpiece. HFN/RR 010 - News Stand. The answer for those with a mix of

430mm and 19M wide hardware and a penchant for changing components. The equipment rack will hold just about any component you can name bar a heavyweight (eg Krell, Rowland,

Audio Research) power amplifier. The shelves are made from Medite, the turntable shelf is high enough to ward off back problems and the styling is strictly utilitarian. KK would he lost without his. HFN/RR 012- Software Storage System. Designed by an

incurable collector (no prize for guessing who - Ed], HFN/RR 012 consists of modular, stackable units for LPs, CDs/cassettes and 7in singles/7in open reel tapes, Manufactured from black-finished Medite, the units feature dividers ( LPs, 7in singles) and two types of feet: hard

rubber cones for the floor or carpet and small white 'plugs' for positioning units on top of each other. The LP cubes will also hold

430mm hardware. Neat, rugged and wholly practical.4-

Use this form to order any of the current HFN/RR accessories.

Please indicate quantity required. All prices include post & packing.

HFN/RR 001 Fluxdumper: black-ash box £22.00 0 HFN/RR 003 Test CD: left, right, sweep, even music! £ 11.95 D HFN/RR 004 Blackhead: m-c step-up transformer; £59.95 O HFN/RR 005 spikes: timber 0 steel 0, inc fixing kit, set of 8, £ 10.00 El HFN/RR 006 Flutterbuster: 33.3/45rpm. 220/240 only, OK for most synchronous t/t ( specify type); black-ash case £79.95 HFN/RR 007 Carrydisc: 14 CD's in a 40mm travel pack! £ 11.95 D HFN/RR 009 Headcase: headphone amplifier. 40mW Class A unit allows use of headphones; black-ash case; 220/240V-only £79.95 0 HFN/RR 010 News Stand: 19in/430mm housing, 36in high, complete with 5 shelves (3 adjustable) black finish £ 139.95 O HFN/RR 011 Mushcrusher: 220/240V mains filter. 5A rating £24.95 HFN/RR 012 Software Storage System: satin black timber (Medite), stackable, supplied in kit form. LP unit ( 120 capacity) £37.50 D CD/cassette unit (40/25) £ 19.50 D singles unit (200) £29.50. 0 HFN/RR 013 Wallnut: wall mounting two-level turntable support complete with two shelves; finish, black £49.95 D HFN/RR 014 Stylus Cleaner: ultrasonic cleaner; £ 14.95 EJ Mission Isoplat: 17in x 13in Medite isolation platform; £28.00 0 Tweek: contact enhancer; clean all signal connections £15.95 Nagaoka LP inner sleeves: pack of 50 £6.95 High Performance Loudspeakers: Martin Colloms' book on the theory of speaker design £ 18.00 D Tape head de-magnetizer: electronic cassette de-magnetizer £ 12.95 D Michell Tenderfeet: aluminium cones for isolation, set of 3.Small £5.45 El Large £8.45 0 Cobra Indoor FM antenna: indoor aerial, built-in amplifier £39.95 0 Slcomin CD damper: best CD damper we have come across £27.50 0 Extra rings for Sicomin, pack of 20. £2.50 :tudioquest vacuum tube dampers: set of 4 £ 11.95 D .‘udioquest damping sheet: sorbothane, 6in x 6in self-adhesive £11.95 D Good Sound: Laura Dearborn's paperback £ 10.95 D VP! HW16.5 record cleaning machine: the ultimate record cleaning system £375.00; cleaning fluid for the VPI system, per 51: £12.50 0 HFN/RR self-build loudspeakers: details available for DC! & Bassett kits, please indicate Audiophile records: Cantate Domino £6.95 0 Jazz at the Pawnshop £13.95 0 Saint-Saëns £6.95 0 Close-ups; Kabi Laretei, piano. £6.95 El !Nibs (45rpm) £ 12.95 Chcsky Schehcrazade £ 11.950 Marni Nixon/Gershwin £13.50 0 Appalachian

Spring £ 13.50 D Beethoven Appassionata (RDCE4) £7.50 El Vintage Tenor (RDCE 11) £7.50 El Romance d'Amore ( RDCE8) £7.50 0

Aureum gold-plated mains plug/socket: twin unswitched socket, flush mounting, complete with two 13Amp plugs. £25.00 El Harrison Cassette Alignment Tape wow! or not wow? El£18.50 Last Formula 1 £ 11.95 I:Formula 2 £16.50 DFormula 3 £7.50 DStarter pack £ 12.50 D Alphason Tonearm Lifter: Yes, it really does! £ 13.95 D PAS-01: Passive control unit kit £86.50 Blacktak: £2.00 El

Recut Records: Beethoven Symphony 5 £7.99 0 Ravel & Bartok Concertos £7.99 D Beethoven Piano Concerto 1/Choral Fantasy (2LP) £ 11.99 0

Point-of-View: stylus magnifier £7.95 0

CD Feet: Audioquest Sorbothane. Pack of 4 £24.95 Michell Surelock 4mm locking speaker plugs, set of 4, £18.95 D Breakfast Plugs, phonos, pair, £5.95 O

Stax binaural CDs: The Space Sound, £15.95 D; Glenn Miller, £15.95 0

Chesky jazz CDs: one £13.45 0; two £25.90 D; three £37.80

NAME (caps please)

ADDRESS

I enclose PO/Cheque/M05 I wish to pay by AccessIVisalDinerslAmex*

My card number is

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Signature Please send orders to HFNIRR Accessories Club, PO Box 200, Bedford, MK40 1YH

Cheques should be made payable to HFN/RR Accessories Club. Delivery subject to availability. Accessories Club hotline II 0234 741152

NON UK SALES VAT FREE BUT WHERE APPLICABLE SUBJECT TO ADDITIONAL CARRIAGE CHARGES. Photo copies of this form are acceptable. E&OE 'Please delete as necessary.

Expiry date

33

TECHNICAL

AUDIO IN DIGITAL TIMES'

The merits of DACs, dither and

compression were analysed by

AES papers in Toronto . . .

by Timothy Palmer-Benson

any papers presented at the Audio Engineering Society four-day Toronto conference

expressed concern about the audible dis-tortion that digital technology can pro-duce with some types of signal processing (DSP). The quality of 16-bit and 18-bit DACs appearing in CD players was also in question. As a consequence, a number of

solutions for preventing distortion in DSP were proposed, most notably the use of dither. At the same time, it was obvious from almost 50 papers presented for 'Audio in Digital Times' that we will hear a

lot more about techniques to compress the digital signal for use in such areas as digital FM stereo broadcasting and cable

transmission. As well, there is now yet another erasable computer-style digital audio disc system possibly vying for the

market. Two papers by Stanley Lipshitz and

John Vanderkooy, (widely respected for their work on A/D and DIA conversion) were among the first to offer scientific proof that all is not quite perfect in the world of consumer digital audio.

In their paper entitled The principles of digital audio, a lecture demonstration, Lipshitz and Vanderkooy brought AES members up to date on their earlier work

by giving a graphic as well as an audible demonstration of the difference between distortion caused by aliasing, and distor-tion caused by quantization error. They showed why digital audio needs its sam-pling rate of 44.1kHz, the necessity for analogue filtering, or digital oversampling, and they explained that these methods are used to prevent distortions generated in

power amps or to prevent tweeters from self-destructing from out-of-band energy resulting from the sampling process. They showed how poor filtering can cause aliases, or mirrors, of the original to appear back in the audio band; and went on to explain how even perfectly linear A/D and D/A converters have inherent distortion. They demonstrated that b‘ adding a small amount of analogue noise, during the recording process, distortion

can be prevented, and how distortion products of quantization become broad-band noise when dithered. They

explained that such a digital audio record and play/back system is capable of the same quality of sound transparency as a super analogue system because all the digital artefacts have been eliminated. Dwarfed by a table full of equipment,

the two researchers treated their audi-ence to piano music recorded at a very low level with quantization errors due to non-dithering. A buzzing sound appeared attached to each note. Amplified so that everyone could hear it, the effect was obvious — and unpleasant. However, when a small amount of analogue white noise, (or what is called Gaussian dither) was

added to a level equivalent to I/2 a least signification bit ( LSB) rms, the buzz in the

piano notes disappeared — replaced by wideband noise. 'Undithered signals are pernicious', Lipshitz told his audience after it had endured several undithered piano excerpts from Mussorgsky's Pic-tures at an Exhibition at high level. The researchers went on to point out in

their second paper entitled Digital dither Signal processing with resolution far below the least significant bit; that recording studios had better be aware of non-dithered digital fades. 'These are equally pernicious', Lipshitz told the con-ference. The two scientists say that even if

analogue dithering has been used in recording an analogue signal, digital dithering must also be used whenever there's a level change during the proces-sing of the signal in the digital domain. 'Digital gain reduction (or fading) without

dither is highly susceptible to signal dis-tortion, noise modulation and non-uni-form signal output gain variation', say the researchers in their paper. For example, there could be changes in level while a piece of music is undergoing equalization

OUTPUT

NPUT SIGNAL

cler

90

25

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DISIORTED

r CUiRfr

41

111M101,1 10111000

FroptenCe

Figure I shows the result of a noiseless input signal which is applied to a quantizer, such as an ADC. The output of the quantizer is the distorted signal shown. The frequency spectrum of the distorted signal is shown below.

while still in the digital domain. 'Unless digital dithering is added', say Lipshitz and Vanderkooy, 'the beneficial effect of the original analogue dithering will be negated. Distortion will be re-introduced into the signal in any re-quantization process such as conversion from an 18-bit ADC to a 16-bit DAC.' The Canadian researchers were quick

to defend reduced signal-to-noise ratios saying that the slight amount of wide-band noise introduced into a recording by digital dithering (a noise penalty of approximately 3dB) is perceived by the

ear as being a benign sound. They point out that although wide-band noise has about the same total power as a —90dB signal, the high 'Q' filtering action of the ear allows it to resolve sinewaves clearly well below the noise in much the same way as a spectrum analyser can. Vanderkooy spoke extensively about a

special form of digital dithering to main-tain signal quality while it is still under-going processing. Dubbed triangular-probability density function dither, the dither toggles over more bits and helps improve DAC linearity, thus resulting in less distortion. It also eliminates the residual noise modulation which simple rectangular pdf dithering leaves behind. (Both rectangular and triangular pdf dither are small white-noise signals whose statistics are specified by the pdf.)

Also mentioned by Vanderkooy were 'dithered noise-shaping quantizers' that reduce the audible effect of digital dither-

ing by introducing feedback. Noise-shap-ing is a method of taking the digital round-off noise energy in the audio band and moving it to higher frequencies out-side the band. Noise shaping by itself in the playback domain is hardly new: it was quietly used in the early Philips players such as the CD100 in order to get 16-bit

S/N ratio performance out of a I4-bit DAC. Lipshitz and Vanderkooy's idea is to take things one step further by re-introducing

dither to the noise shaping in order to eliminate all final vestiges of distortion left over from the noise shaping circuits.

Dithering to prevent distortion assumes perfect operation of ADCs and DACs. These don't yet exist in consumer machines and to make up for converter errors, Lipshitz says one could add more dither, but this would mean unacceptable S/N ratios. More feasible alternatives included a number of improved converter systems, such as ones using built-in noise shaping filters, ones that use psycho-acoustics to fool the ear into thinking that conversion error is not there, and of

TECHNICAI

course the one-bit data stream from Phi-lips now being introduced by Sony.

Carillon Technology of Newton, Mas-sachusetts, unveiled an IC chip set for 20-bit AID conversion. It's claimed that the converter can achieve a S/N ratio of 114dB and with a 1 kl lz dithered signal shows no visible harmonics down to —70dB. Burr Brown also showed the design of its new dual monolithic, 18-hit

CS, OUT

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CUTPUT SIGN,

Prepsoncy

Figure 2 shows the result of a noisy (real) input signal which is applied to a linear (analogue)circuit whose transfer function is shown top left. The output is the undistorted but noisy signal shown right. The frequency spectrum of the undistorted signal is shown in below.

ADC that produces 1% TI1D for a 1 kHz signal down at —60dB. The converter has the familiar pot for adjustment of the MSB. Company spokesman, Jimmy Naylor, admitted that the converter does not have 18-bit accuracy, but is called 18-bit for reasons of 'specmanship'. 'Ibis prompted sessions chairman, David Haynes, to observe drily that John Vanderkooy had shown how a 16-bit converter can achieve 18-bit linearity and Naylor had shown how an 18-bit converter can be degraded to 16-bit resolution! The Philips presentation of Fist Carel

Dijkmans and Peter Naus almost seemed to say that for commercial purposes it's a waste of time trying to achieve perfect linearity with 16-bit, 18 and 20-bit DACs, and that it is time to move on to some-thing else. In their paper entitled The next step toward ideal /VD and DIA conver-ters, the two suggest that interpolative conversion or bit stream conterters ( the average of the bit stream is the informa-tion) are a better choice because they provide inherently perfect low-level linearity without the need for high preci-sion. Dijkmans, who delivered the paper, said that in theory there is no limit to the dynamic range of a one hit converter and there is no linearity problem either. Dijk-mans revealed that there is at least one potential problem with bit stream: the system produces a significant amount of noise outside the audio band because of the necessity to use dithered noise shap-ing. lie says that there could be a problem with parasitic coupling. 'When we put DC on the input of the converter and look at half the sampling frequency, distinct fre-quencies will be there', explains Dijk-mans. Ile says this doesn't affect low frequencies because the quantization

noise is shifted outside the audio band, but these distinct frequencies will fold back into the upper part of the band.

If all this seems distressing to audiophiles consider a paper from AT & T Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey. 'I'he paper says that research has proved that even 'golden cars' cannot tell the differ-ence between 'a psycho-acoustically com-pressed' digital signal based on a 4-bit system and one based on a perfectly operating 16-bit one. In a paper entitled Digital Audio: Future trends in quan-tization, storage and compression, James Johnston paints a picture of what some digital audio might be like in the future. According to Johnston, a smaller bit sys-tem is quite satisfactory if spectrum analy-sis of the ear's critical bands is used to determine what will be recorded and what will be discarded. ( This 'masking effect' relies on our hearing characteris-tics. Proponents of compression also say we don't hear distortion if it is masked or hidden by a stronger signal.) Johnston maintains that by converting to the digital domain in such a way that the signal optiminally masks the quantization distor-tion and noise, it is possible to achieve almost audible perfection with a greatly reduced number of bits. Such a system would have an audio bandwidth of 201Iz to 20kliz as well as dynamic range and separation equal to the compact disc. This was not the only pyscho-acoustic com-pression system discussed. There was also a proposal by Karlheinz Brandenburg and Dieter Seltzer from Erlangen University, FRG. They showed a number of low-bit

coding schemes and said that coding of high quality digital audio with bit rates down to 64k-bits is now possible.

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Figure 3 shows the result of applying a dithered signal to the quaruizer of Fig. 1. The input signal is the same as that of Fig. 2. The output of the quantizer is an undistorted but noisy signal which contains the sampling rate pulses. This signal is applied to a low-pass filter and the filtered output is shown bottom right. Note that it is the same as the analogue output signal of Fig. 2 with the same frequency spectrum.

A different approach for compression, along the lines of the BBC's well know NICAM, was shown by Stanley Quinn and Jeffrey Frederiksen from Frederiksen and Shu Labs in Arlington Heights, llinois. The 'SuperSound' system is based on changing the 16-bit system into a non-linear one where level changes are applied to blocks of digital words rather than individual samples. Its proponents say that the ori-ginal data is compressed by 30 per cent. SuperSound uses complicated algorithms, noise shaping and masking. Quinn says extensive listening tests have proved that people cannot hear the difference between music heard directly from a CD and music that has gone through Super-Sound compression and expansion. Then there was the special case of

Nakamichi. After deliberately irritating the RIAA with its megabuck DAT machine at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show, Nakamichi is showing a second system for direct copying of digital audio.

Pes

Figure 4a is the background noise spectrum of a digital system. Figure 4b is the background noise spectrum of a noise-shaped digital system.

Ube unit is called a 'Magneto-optical disk digital audio recorder' and it can record/ playback for up to 20 minutes using constant linear velocity ( CIN ) discs. After presenting a paper on the technology, a demonstration of the prototype was given. The Nakamichi unit resembles a large computer with a single disc-drive on the outside. Inside things are totally diffe-rent: the drive uses an 89mm, magneto-optical ( MO) disk that looks similar to the ubiquitous 3.5-inch floppy, except that it is about twice as thick. Its lifespan is said to be about ten years. The unit contains a laser that focuses from underneath the disc to a spot approximately 1 gm in size and heats up a magnetic layer of recording film sandwiched between a protective dielectric layer. Simply put, the film changes its slight reflection characteris-tics in the recording or writing process and this is detected by an optical pickup unit on playback. The magnetic layer must be erased and he in a uniform state before anything can be recorded on it: a process that also takes about 20 minutes. I was left with the impression that

digitalaudio technology is moving very rapidly to the point where almost the entire audio chain will be digital. Some audio purists will be alarmed by such news and, I suspect, particularly incensed over digital compression; but as confer-ence chirman Ken Pohlmann remarked: 'digital audio is the context in which the entire audio industry finds itself: it has become the centre of audio'.

III-FI NEWS & RE(OR1) REVIEW AUGUST 1989 35

THOROUGHBREDS Since 1962 we have received eighteen prestigious awards for our precision pick-up arms. One of the models shown here could well transform the performance of your deck and cartridge, realising, probably for the first time, the full potential of your L.P. records. Glance through one of our instruction books, sometimes 24 pages with more than 40 illustrations, to appreciate the attention to detail. Only SME arms provide the precise adjustments essential for true cartridge performance and the build quality to minimise sound colouration. Insist on SME, the thoroughbred arm, to update your present equipment.

e-e.rmeeW flagship of the range, acknowledged by leading international authorities with the Audio Component of the Year Award in Japan, the Federation of British Audio Award for Excellence and the Absolute Sound International 'Golden Ear' Award for Pick-up Arm Design in the United States.

erEcInm Ew owes much to Series V technology. Although at a lower price, it retains the unique one-piece magnesium tone arm, dual lock base and other advanced features. Selected for the Federation of British Audio Source Component of the Year Award, 1988.

oLg,,,E[go mcDp embraces three models: the 309, 310 and 312. The influence of the classic V will be clearly seen but here the aim has been to meet the needs of a broader market in which price, alternative arm lengths and an interchangeable shell facility are important considerations. The Series 300 offers performance and manufacturing excellence unmatched by many more expensive arms.

!PA 1

The best pick-up arm in the world

Write or phone for advice and descriptive leaflets. Our sales and service departments would be happy to hear from you:

SME Limited, Steyning, Sussex, BN44 3GY, England. In (0903) 814321 (0903) 814269

PROFILE

john Bicht had no formal training as an industrial engineer. While this is not suprising amongst audio designers, it

is still interesting because his engineering accomplishments to date have undoubtedly exceeded those of many other industrial engineers. His designs include the emergency doors of the Hong Kong commuter trains; an electric car which remained for ten years the most advanced of its kind; and exotic semicon-ductor assembly equipment. His formal training was a sculptor; his first love and great skill was racing (he was one of the top three racing car drivers in Nbrtheast America for formula cars). The need to build race-cars himself was the spur that gained him detailed knowledge of engineering and high performance preci-sion mechanical systems. He has continued ever since, designing

things he's never designed before — and that others often tell him cannot be done — asking questions, sticking his neck out, and refusing to let them fail. He cross-connects, seeing as an artist but focus-ing too on linear, logical design. He built the Mis-

sion arm in response to English reviewers of that time, saying it would be nice if someone sat down and designed a

Former racing driverJohn Bicht,

designer of the original Mission

774 toneann, discusses his Versa

Dynamics turntables

try Laura Dearborn

VOICE F

VERSA:_JOHN BICH

really decent, competent pickup arm. So he did. He had stopped racing, had some time and money on his hands, and had started exploring audio equipment. The Mission arm had some serious

innovations; viscous damping; a very nar-row headshell making for high contact mounting forces between headshell and cartridge; a Sorbothane decoupled coun-terweight which was its first use any-where in any engineering application; and two sets of zero-clearance bearings.

His introduction to audio beguiled him into continuing his work by designing a turntable to suit the arm, and pursue serious fundamental research.

'I hate all the mystery surrounding the design of record players. More than any other part of our industry, pseudo-science predominates the discussion of record players. I don't know if the designers are misled, or if they are consciously trying to make for clever sales jargon. Of course, I've got to point out we had to make many less dollar-value compromises than almost

everyone else (we said let's make it and see how much it costs) and the compromises end up so you can make it sound just so good, and then you have to back up, and tune it to sound musical by actually eliminating some

ten NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989

good things, that unfortunately reveal something else not so good. 'Designing record players is a piece of

cake once you decide: okay, I want the thing as still as possible. The fundamental quality of record players is stiffness, not energy transfer — as is so popular an idea nowadays — because if you make it stiff, you reduce the energy input. Of course, the problem with making things stiff is that they ring. That's the second half of the problem. You can't damp within the structure — put squishy pieces in the structure — because you've defeated the stiffness. Damping has to be done exter-nally. Half the pieces of the Versa Model 2 chassis and platter, and a number of the

pieces of the Model 1 have externally applied damping elements.

'Then the record itself is another prob-lem. All this stiffness is a waste of time if the record flops around. Essentially what happens is that the record moves — not internal wave reflections, impedance mis-matches and stuff but record flexure — it moves bigtime. And so you hear the sound of this disc of PVC sitting on whatever kind of mat; and on top of that you hear the sound of the record moving up and down, and you hear the sound of the platter. Of course, the rigidity of the mat will determine how much force is imparted to the platter causing it to ring, and likewise how much you will hear back through that mat. Put the record on the player, drop the stylus on the unmov-

ing record, turn up the sound and tap

"-MN.

BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE...

TARGETI mi

'fell PRODUCTS

THE SOUND BASE TO YOUR SYSTEM

specialist speaker stand and rack manufacturers

FOR FULL LITERATURE AND DETAILS OF YOUR LOCAL STOCKISTS PLEASE CONTACT:

Target Audio Products: Unit 38(4 Townsend Centre, Blackburn Road, Houghton Regis, Dunstable LU5 5BG, England.

Telephone (0582) 472037 Fax: (0582) 472039

PROFILE

(with something hard — use a junk record, which is not hard to find) — it's all there.

'So you have to use vacuum, and enough to pull the record down real fiat. It's the only way to get sufficient force across the recorded area. If you don't use enough force, the record is still raised on little PVC bridges sitting on a hard surface, and tapping you hear clack, not a quiet clonk.

'Of course, pulling the record down tight is a waste of time if the platter is a bell. To damp the platter, as with all the potentially noisy parts of the turntable, we use the most exotic of damping techni-ques — constrained layer damping. With this technique, you provide a second piece of structure (remote from the real structure) with a piece of high-polymer material glued between the real and the pseudo-structure. As the real structure moves, it tries to move the pseudo-structure ( through the elastic layer between them). The elastic material, which is purpose-designed, turns the motion into heat, and you can knock 15 to 20dB off resonant peaks. 'Now connect the platter to the chassis

with a bearing that is very rigid and doesn't wander around in a soup of oil or whatever. Connect the rigid chassis to the rigid arm, and then isolate all this from the outside environment.

'More obviously than all the other parts, the suspension is a low-pass filter. Actually all the parts of a record player behave like bad filters, but that's another story. Remember that a graph of the filtering section of a suspension should look like a classical resonant system. Below the resonant frequency all inputs are outputs (so as the player base moves, the chassis moves equally); at the resonant fre-quency, inputs are exaggerated ( so the amplitude of input at the base becomes greater at the chassis); and then above resonant frequency, motion at the base doesn't get through to the chassis.

'Now, any other resonances in the suspension will show up as bumps in this graph and, worse, they will tend to defeat the suspension if they are in the frequen-cies one is trying to filter out. For exam-ple, if the suspension is designed to filter 20dB out at 30Hz but there is à resonance in this frequency of say 15dB, then the effective filtering is only 5dB — not too effective. These resonances might come from spring surge — where the weight of one coil of the spring will vibrate on the compliance of the coils above and below it — to having different resonant frequen-cies in the directions of motion of the chassis.

let me explain that a bit. Where most designers err, in my opinion, is that they consider only the vertical component of the suspension. Whether attached to a wall or a floor, the player will experience both vertical, and fore and aft disturb-ances, like nodding one's head — it's going forward and down. So the suspension has to function in two planes simultaneously, both vertically and fore and aft. Lateral is not important from the point of view of

Stiffness of Me armtube is the whole rationale (Model 2.0)

floor movement but you must have the vertical, the fore and aft, and the lateral modes all at the same resonant frequency, or else what will happen is that as you excite one of the modes, the other modes will in turn be excited, and you will have essentially intermodulation distortion. Due to the non-linearities of the suspen-sion, not only will the two different frequencies show up, but also the sums and differences of all the different basic resonant frequencies of the suspension. The result can be a suspension that is not very effective to several octaves above its design frequency. So a key to good record player suspension design is realizing that these other resonances can defeat what otherwise is a good design.

'Tuning a three-point suspension, like a Linn, is in effect trying to decouple the various resonant modes of the suspension so that one mode can be excited without exciting the others. Since this is a bit of an art, we decided to design a suspension with no adjustments, and that was inherently more correct. Text book plain and simple requirements that the centre of gravity can't change (easy since we

don't have to suit more than our own arm, or you end up with lead weights that have to be tuned), four springs, once again straight textbook, and then as low a resonant frequency as possible — which in the case of compression coil springs (chosen for cost over complicated air suspension, and compression because extension springs behave like pendulums in the lateral direction and therefore are ungainly to deal with at the proportions

The new Model 1.0 with matched granite stand

necessary to have low lateral frequency) is 2.5 Hz. All quite easy — except you have to measure each spring to match them into sets, and still do some final adjust-ments. The whole thing actually drives us crazy — but it means the dealer and the user don't have to think about it.

'Okay, so all of that — stiffness, damping — is what we consider the primary things about turntables. Within all I've said, I must admit that while designing a good sounding player is easy, making it a good product is hard, but I'd rather not have to remember all that. It wouldn't have hap-

111.F1 NEWS & RECORD RINI EW AUGl'ST 1989 39

TELEPHONE:-

0902-771774

D

This year we celebrate

A DECADE

of being the ONLY

Hifi Consultants in the

whole of the Midlands

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MORCH DP-6 - UNIQUE CONCEPT OF TONE ARM The only tone arm allowing for optimum adaptation

to any standard cartridge by the use of interchangeable arm tubes.

A rm tubes of 4 different masses - from PI ultra light to extra heavy - can be supplied. The unavoidable fundamental resonance is partly determined by the compliance and the weight of the cart-ridge that is to be used and partly by the weight of the tone arm (known as the " ef-fective mass"). However, the frequency of the fundamental resonance can be moved up or down by altering the weight of the tone arm. Thus simply by choosing an arm tube out of the 4 masses available the fundamental resonance can be moved to a frequency, where it does no harm.

With the lightest of the arm tubes you get the lowest effective mass, and with this arm tube the tone arm is the

"

lightest in the world. This is important for cartridges using a low tracking force, as they have a high compliance. For cart-ridges using a high tracking force having a low compliance, one of the heavy arm tubes should be chosen. Users that own more than one cartridge can mount each of them in its own arm tube. Changing a cartridge becomes a simple swap be-tween arm tubes, and the mass of the arm is always optimized for its cartridge.

See U.S. Magazine

The Absolute Sound vol. 12, issue 49, fall 1987, p. 113/114

H. H. MORON SKOVVEJ 16

2820 GENTOFTE

DENMARK

PHONE: + 451634512

Quality Precision Reliability

• The bearings are mounted so that they are level with the record. Therefore in the case of warped records the motion of the stylus will be completely vertical when bumps are negotiated, so that no warp wow will be heard.

• Complete stability and freedom from any tendency to resonate.

• New dual bearing concept combines a silicone damped high precision ball bear-ing for the horizontal mode of motion and two precision sapphire bearings for the vertical mode of motion. Indepen-dent damping of the two modes of mo-tion is possible.

• Especially developed internal silver wir-ing for perfect transmission of the tiny signals.

• Supplied in 24 carat hard GOLD finish or in Chromium finish.

PROFILE

pened at all had it not been for Wayne

Johnson who has been of enormous help shepherding this product from the very beginning and is presently in charge of manufacturing, and Tim Wentz who was

the major visual designer and sample customer for both our products. Even closer to the core of it, none of this would have taken place if it hadn't been for Fran's ( my wife's) support over the years of all my crazy jousting at windmills and then in the last year-and-a-half her becom-ing a real mainstay of the business. By the

way, we developed most of our technol-ogy back in 1979 and '80. After leaving England, we went back to the US and did more research on why turntables and arms sound like they do, and by-the-by designed a turntable for Mission, who had bought the design for the 774 arm. The whole trick is being able to decide when you hear the effect of a change that you've done on a mechanism — because all of a sudden you can make your system sound nastier but you've actually made an improvement — you've just revealed the nastiness that was hidden — that's where you have to resort to logical thinking and scientific measurement and say, "I'm posi-tive I've made an improvement". Because otherwise you get led down the garden

path. I don't think that anyone else had had that opportunity and none of this would exist if not for all that time — which back then appeared to have been wasted since Mission didn't want my turntable design and I couldn't get anyone else interested.

"Che whole rationale for the arm on the Models 2 and I is not one of linear tracking or the lack of friction of air bearings — it's one of stiffness of the arm tube. In about 1982. I was developing another pickup arm design. I had designed an even better bearing assembly (which I had always thought to be the strong point of the 774) and finally, after a few weeks spare time, I got to work on the arm tube. What a fool I felt. All that time

about the bearings, and I finally realized

THE MUSIC LOVER'S LITERARY COM-PANION compiled by Dannie and Joan Ahse. 330pp. Hardback £ 14.95. Published by Robson Books. 28 Poland Street, London W IV 3DB. For the purposes of their wide-ranging anthology, Dannie and Joan Abse have gathered together an impressive variety of pieces ( poems, stories, factual reportage, criticism) covering the major periods in serious music development. We therefore have a large number of prose items, includ-ing Wagner's humorous though somewhat ingratiating account of his visit to Beeth-oven's house; Roald Dahl's ingenious Edward the Conquerer; Shaw's reminisc-ences about his early years as a music critic; opera pieces by Tolstoy, and Bernard Levin; and Stravinsky on Church Music. For me, though, the poetic interludes are by far the best passages in the book: Peter Porter's 'from Three Poems for Music' and DJ Enright's The Master Kung at the Keyboard'

what a disaster arm tubes are. They start to flop around in the low hundreds of hertz and there is nothing anyone can do!

'I started looking at some quite fun-damental equations and realized that within the weight constraints (due to cartridge stiffness and desired arm/car-tridge resonant frequencies), arm tube fundamental resonances could only be pushed deeper into the hundreds of hertz — where, of course, the ear is more sensitive. It was really clear, here were these equations in front of me and they said "Well if you make a tube bigger, it will be a lot stiffer", but if you look at the change in the resonant frequency (due to the mass of the cartridge at the end of that tube) you find that it had gone up very little. I was at a loss — what could one do? Well, fundamentally the job is to move a cartridge from point A to point B across the record, with very little friction — so it just sort of wants to get from one place to another. I was a stiffness freak, so to speak, and therefore this job had to be done with great rigidity in certain planes: except for sliding towards the spindle and being able to pivot up and down.

'I was at that time working for a company designing machines to make

semiconductors. One of the most amazing things that I had been introduced to there

was air bearings. Not the soggy, floating things that are commonly used on hi-fi products but enormously stiff things which are used for the most exotic equipment — in place of metal or oil bath bearings — because they are more rigid, non-resonant, and have greater accuracy of motion. The rigidity issue comes as a

great surprise to most people. After all, here is something supported on air and it's stiff! First of all, you have to remember that everything has some compliance, it doesn't matter what it is, steel, diamond, whatever, if you push on it, it will compress or deflect. Now, rolling element bearings ( like balls) have to be quite small to have low enough friction levels to pickup arms. You can use either bigger

being fine places to sample. Here one switches from one sort of music to another. I can well imagine picking the volume up just for the sake of the poems, although it's undeniably useful to have — in one volume — such invaluable documents as Beethoven's Heiligenstadt Testament and (on a different level, admittedly) Elias Canetti's wry, aphor-istic anlaysis of The Orchestral Conductor'.

This is an enjoyable volume and should pave the way for any number of similar enterprises: the potential for imaginatively juxtaposed pieces dealing with music is almost endless. Robert Cowan

THE DEATH OF RHYFIIM AND BLUES by Nelson George. 222pp plus My: photos. Hard covers. Price: £ 12.95. Published by Omnibus Press. 8/9 Frith Street, London wiv 5Tz. At last, a book telling black musicians where they've gone wrong. It would be too pre-sumptuous and in many ways racistipatronis-

bearings with little preload or little bear-ings with a lot — either way, to end up with little enough friction, the bearings

are still quite small. The functional part of these bearings is the contact point between the ball and the race which is

really tiny, a minute point of contact. When you push on the bearing, the ball and the race deflect a little. The measure-ment of the stiffness is the amount of force necessary to move something a distance. 'Now, several things happen with real

air bearings. One is, the area is enor-mously larger than it is in a ball bearing,

so that although the medium is softer, there is a great deal more of it. Secondly, because of the very small clearances, the air begins to act in some strange and quite helpful ways. The wonderful result is that the bearing for the Versa arm is so stiff that it requires in excess of 5 pounds of force to move it a distance of 250 millionth of an inch. That's stiff. The icing on the cake is the bearing is non-resonant. Well designed air bearings are critically damped (a result of the thin air films )— an impossible thing to achieve with metal bearings which, because they ride on the tips of steel balls, are very resonant.

'The platter bearing for the Model 2 is a great deal stiffer than the arm bearing. It is

a much more complex device, which ends up 10 times more rigid — as it should since

it had an 11 pound platter sitting on it. 'The English way of doing things, of

design and innovative ways of thinking about things, had a big effect on my designing, and I don't think it's ever stopped.

England has more, I think, inventive designers than anywhere else in the entire world. The problem is the design is not always brought to the proper degree of finish. What would be really good is if you could combine American business with English design, have it styled in Italy and made in Japan, that'd really be the ticket. And have a Frenchman in there just twisting the design just enough to really keep the pot boiling'. +

BOOKS ing for any disgruntled white fan to tell the likes of today's triple platinum black artists that they've sold their soul(s) s ) to the corpo-rate devil, but George — Black Music Editor of Billboard — has no such restrictions. By combining what is an excellent history of black music in American with some tart criticisms, George has come down on the side of the blues and soul musicians of the past as being much truer to the racial heritage. It's arguable that George is too harsh, expecting performers to give up fame, fortune and — however shallow it may be — respect for pride, but he's got a point that anyone can understand if they play Otis Redding followed by virtually any current 'soul' crooner. Having been dubbed a 'wrinkly' because I find more of worth in Sam & Dave than Run DMC, I can only say thanks to the author for writing, Compare early Aretha Franklin to Whitney Houston'. That, soul fans, says it all. Ken Kessler

111-F1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AI '(1l 'ST 1989 41

It is no new discovery that the finest record playing system gives unrivalled musical satis-faction. If you own a Roksan or a Linn turntable, now is the time to consider your final upgrade motor/arm/pick-up cartridge. It is significant that the two lead-ers in British turntable engineering should both intro-duce thoroughbred no-com-promise tonearms which are capable of extracting the best from their respective turntables.

The Roksan Artemiz could fill a book let alone this advert, and indeed the fortunate new owner gets a full description of the philosophy of the tonearm design and the Shiraz cartridge. Typically this too is a revolu-tionary product which offers quality of sound dramatically in excess of what could be expected for the price. It is not a badgepengineered product but a small milestone in Hi-Fi his-tory. We congratulate Roksan on this definitive statement record-player. The Artemiz tonearm, underpriced at £450, and the Shiraz pick-up cartridge at £489 fulfil the Roksan pledge not to sell for the price the market would pay to equate demand and supply. Hence a waiting list. We now admit to being much

more enthusiastic CD stockists: let's face it, the value and qual-ity available are far superior to the early products. But vinyl sales are holding up thanks to its true merits and resilience. The Music Room still offers the greatest experience and choice as specialists in the world's best turntables, arms and cartridges at all price points from the Ans-ton 0-Deck, through System-deks, Michell Synchro and Gyro-deks, SME, Audio-Tech-nica, the Avalon and the amaz-ing new Rock Reference at

er •

teif NEWSLETTER

£1,800 a bargain from Town-shend right up to the Gold-munds for those who wish to commit their full allegiance to the Long-playing record. The world's best sounding

tonearm (the most dynamic, detailed, open and natural sound) is the elegant and fabu-lous original hand-made Triple-nar II. We still have one demon-strator available for only £ 1,200 (saving £795). Write or tele-phone for details of this lifetime investment. We also have for sale a Koetsu Gold Signature with guaranteed less-than-run-ning-in hours: listed at £2,038, we will let it go for £896, the price of the plain " Red". Do not hesitate for too long here; this is a real and unique oppor-tunity.

AMPLIFIERS The British have for long been acclaimed for economic but thoroughbred amplifiers and we offer what we believe must be the widest choice of the most highly acclaimed. ITL is a new company and their MA80 is an outstanding integrated ampli-fier which costs £169. It is a mosFET design with MC/MM inputs. ITL has been taken over by Nakamichi-B&W Ltd. So expect some stylish advertis-ing! The strong competition includes the scarce-as- hens' teeth Cyrus One, now manufac-tured in the Far East to Mis-sion's high specification, and the new B- at £ 199 from Musical

Fidelity. Under one roof, The Music

Room gives you comparison of all the best from East and West! For the best value we have ARCAM, ALJDIOLAB, CYRUS, QUAD, CAMBRIDGE and MUSICAL FIDELITY but we are also experienced dealers in the uncompromising reproduction of music. Here we have the best

August 1989.

from America, notably Audio

Research and Krell and we have come to the conclusion that substitutes can be false eco-nomy. We are selling on behalf of a friend a Threshold Stasis Ill £895! This is a classic amplifier at an attractive price.

Especially for users of Audio Research, the MIT music lines are the ultimate loudspeaker cables, but this technology of Bruce Brisson design does not come cheaply. They are not discontinued, but we must turn over our demonstrators at under half-price: £250 for the MIT and £500 for the Shotgun version; both 8-feet optimal pairs designed for the power-amplifiers to be close to the loudspeakers. Home-approval is available on receipt of a ten-day post-dated cheque plus £5 to cover costs of carriage. Our home loans have increasingly been treated as library services, or worse! But when you hear what the MIT cables reveal, you will not doubt their value for money.

ACCESSORIES Better plugs and cables remove opaque veils. The new Scottish company QUANTUM manufac-ture state-of-the-art at very low prices, notably the finest set of four precision gold-plated speaker plugs we've seen yet:

at only £9.95 for a set of two red and two black, money-back if not delighted! They also make sets of four neat brass tiptoes for £ 12.95 and an interconnect which features the finest cable and phono-plugs ever made; the price is again, very reason-able, at £79.00 for a stereo metre pair. Finally, from the Quantum range we mention their digital optic link at £ 130. If you won't believe that this, too, can give a definite and vast sonic improvement then please

."4...oserwm.

The Music Room, 50 Bridge Street t - I The Music Room, 221 St. Vincent Street Manchester M3 3BN, 061-835 1366 * Glasgow G2 5QY, 041-248 7221

•e.-4 accept the assurance of a skep-tic converted. Compared to

another expensive and touted optic Iink, the improvement was huge. CD has taken a major jump closer to musical authen-ticity. The LAST range of record

cleaners and preservatives which we import from America also tends to arouse skepticism until people either read up on the technical side, or try them. The starter kits at £12.95 are now back in stock, and we apologise for the shortage. The demand for LAST is enormous now that many records re-appear, if at all, on CD or soni-cally inferior re-issues. LAST removes dirt and grime and hardens the LP surface against elastic deformation. STYLAST coats the stylus tip and substan-tially reduces friction, heat gen-eration and stylus wear; we emphasise substantially and could also add audibly. •

- *Li

SON AtrIeroliamis /988

figneirvirw 8161011AL WINIf d t •

COMPACT DISC Musical transparency is avail-able only from the best CD players which are carefully designed using discrete compo-nents. We have in our summer sale one Kinergetics KCD-30, a bargain at its List Price of £1,695 but our demonstrator is barely run-in and yet costing £1,150 is the best proposition a CD audiophile could consider. Once again the pattern is Amer-ica designs the ultimate, but Britain dominates the more affordable market. This month we focus on news from ARCAM: hot on the heels of their Delta 170 CD transport and their Black Box (£249/299 with optical link) comes a Music Room Newsletter 'scoop': the Arcam Alpha CD Player; at £350; we anticipate a waiting list, so don't delay! l ome

e

"TENTH ANNIVERSARY"

.101,

-A--

!EH END

Never, if you value your sanity, thumb through a Japanese hi-fi magazine. If you're an inveterate

hi-fi casualty, the pictures you'll see will haunt you the way a girlie mag tortures Adrian Mole. I never take my own advice, so I pore over these exotic journals whenever they come my way ( hi-fi and girlie). And for the past four years, I've been waiting impatiently for a stab at the electronics from Air Tight. I admit that the charm of the name, the

absolute perfection of that moniker for a brand of valve amplifiers, caught my attention as much as did the obviously exquisite manufacture. The price, too, appealed, considering that these ampli-fiers promised peerless construction and attention to detail you just don't find this side west of a Jadis. At last, there's a UK importer, so my wait is over.

Air Tight has produced what has to be the audio equivalent of a Fabergé Egg. The ATC- 1 Valve Control Amplifier and ATM-1 Valve Power Amplifier contain all of the right ingredients for rampant audio delirium. Common to both units are PCB-free circuits, with everything hard-wired à la Golden Age hardware or our own Croft products. The valve bases are ceramic, with gold-plated sockets. The chassis are copper plated and the gorgeous, grey 'almite treatment' face-plates are machined from 8mm alumi-nium. All of the valves are genuine brand-name items, like Siemens and Pentalab rather than whatever-you-can-get throw-aways from China. They're the closest things to jewellery that this industry has produced, in terms of finish, appearance and attention to detail. In other words, they've been assembled with the kind of fanaticism you find only in Tokyo or Teheran. The pre-amp is deceptive because

it's so petite, measuring only 430x90x325mm (whd). As with Counter-point and other makers of slimline valve pre-amps, Air Tight mounts the five 12AX7s ( ECC83s) horizontally. And as with Lux, which couldn't resist mounting the valves on the front of its hybrid 'Brid series integrateds, Air Tight mounts three of the little beauties so that they can be seen from the left-hand side of the case. The gorgeous front panel provides source select for phono (m-m only), tape moni-tor, mono/stereo select, attenuate (full muting), balance, volume and on/off, plus an orange tell-tale. The controls are

Few specialist Japanese valve

amplifiers ever leave Honshu; we

try the long-awaited Air Tight

by Ken Kessler

among the smoothest, most luxurious I've experienced, but I must resist the sala-cious adjectives which come to mind. At the back, all is gold-plated, with

inputs and outputs corresponding to the front controls, but with two extras. In addition to the main outputs there's a

spare set for feeding a second power amp and a pair of sockets tagged 'EQ out'. The latter takes the phono signal from input through RIAA circuitry and straight out again, for feeding directly into the ATM- 1, bypassing every unnecessary switch and stage in the pre-amp. This can be used in tandem with the standard outputs for some curious purist combinations. The circuit itself is based on vintage

concepts, just like the PCB-free construc-tion, and consists of a three-stage low-impedance equalizer described as 'once employed by the Marantz 7'; this is the stage fed straight to the EQ Out sockets. The single stage line amp is devoid of tone

VACITUM=PAC K hD TE ART G I"

AMPLIF ER HI.F1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989 43

elf( rà

KRELLS are more than lust amplifiers — they are a statement of excellence. With metalwork that looks as though it's about to go to war, these massive but elegant creations are capable of unrivalled power coupled with a delicacy, precision and muscianship that is quite heavenly.

The present range was introduced last year and quickly became established as Pinewood's best-selling amplifiers, popularity being shared between the stereo KSA-80 and KSA-200, with a lucky few opting for the KMA mono versions with doubled power and current output.

For those seeking the absolute ultimate, there are the extraordinary Krell Reference Series of balanced monoblocs. They are vast, with a build quality and musical capability that is out of this world.

For those with Apogees, there is no better power source than a Krell — but many have found there is no better amplifier anyway, whatever their speakers.

Remember: Krells are creatures of unlimited power — they can do anything. If you would like to hear them doing anything, telephone Brian Rivas at Pinewood Music.

'Martins', Church Lane. Goodworth Clatford. Andover, Hampshire SP11 7HL Telephone Andover (0264) 57536

Seven days a week service

Agents for: Air Tangent, Apogee, Audio Research, California Audio Labs, Counterpoint,

Dun tech Audio, Goldmund, Jadis, Koetsu, Krell, Madrigal, Magneplanar, Mandrake, Martin-Logan, Micro Seiki, MIT, PS Audio, Randall Research, Sicomin, Somis Faber„Symo, Well Tempered, WBT

Pinewood Music is a specialist dealer for ABSOLUTE SOUNDS Ltd

HUI END controls or filter circuits and features low-impedance cathode follower output. The power supply employs a solid-state ripple filter circuit for suppressing mains hum and noises. Despite the size of the enclosure, which would suggest the use of a compact toroidal transformer, Air Tight opted for an El core type because it provides 'sharper attack of sounds'. The cores are wrapped in silicon steel plate and copper plate to ensure perfect shield-ing. The power supply, phono and line stages are totally independent and the latter two are fully shielded. The chassis was made deliberately heavy to help minimise vibration and component interaction. All tubes are pre-aged and fitted to the aforementioned gold-plated sockets in ceramic bases. The ATM-1 power amplifier is based on

Mullard research and employs four 6CA7 output valves from Siemens for a rated output of 36W/channel. For protection to the output tubes, Air Tight uses 5AR4 in parallel at the rectifying stage instead of a diode, to better cope with large current. (I don't have my RCA or Babani guides handy, but I think they're equivalents to the GZ34 in my cherished Dynaco...) The output transformers, deemed by many current amp builders as harder to find than good tubes, are the highly-rated Tamuras, used in the Japanese broadcast-

ing industry. Air Tight operate the amplifiers for 100

hours before they're 'retuned' and dis-patched. Aside from a valve cracked in transit, these pieces have proved the most

trouble-free and ghostly silent tube pro-ducts I've used in recent memory. It also explains why Air Tight insisted on air-mailing to me a selected 12AU7 rather than risk any sonic compromises from my iffy stock of mystery-brand tubes. The amplifier features a bit more than

the minimum socketry and on/off switch. Across the front are two sockets and three rotary controls in addition to an on/off button and tell-tale to match the pre-amp. These sockets accept a CD player straight in, while the first rotary chooses between the front panel inputs and the main inputs at the rear. The other rotaries are left and right volume controls for the source fed in via the front sockets. These sockets, by the way, bypass certain parts of the amplifier's circuitry, connecting the input directly to the first stage valve.

At the back are the main inputs and the speaker terminals; the arrangement with the front panel 'front/rear' selector allows purists to feed the CD player into the front sockets, with the pre-amp and there-fore the other sources are left per-manently installed at the back. Naturally, using the pre-amp in its EQ Out mode for optimum phono playback would require the use of the front sockets and hence the volume controls. My only complaint about the presenta-

tion involves the diabolical speaker ter-minals, those daft constructs which only accept bare wire. Considering the prices of these units, I would imagine that importers could specify something a bit

more practical for the models they're importing, like Michell or Monster multi-way binding posts. Anyway, there are three terminals per channel rather than two, which allow for the selection of either four or eight ohm operation. (A couple of other details of the review

samples will probably be changed when regular stocks start arriving. These include three-core, blue/brown/green-yel-low mains wiring, the blocking off of the extra two-pin mains outlet and the provi-sion of a grill or cage to cover the valves and protect them from prying brats.) I used the Air Tight combination with

the Oracle Delphi Ill turntable, SME V tonearm and Audio-Technica ART-1 car-tridge, the Marantz CD- 12 CD player and the Sonus Faber Electa Amator and Celes-tion SL700 loudspeakers, with a variety of wires including Master Link, Mandrake, Lieder, Sony LC-OFC and Monster MI. And I immediately hit on two mismatches. Trying to think like the kind of

anachrophile who would have designed these items, I'm assuming that the com-pany anticipated use with high-output vintage cartridges like Deccas or m-cs like Ortofon SPUs with onboard transformers. Sure, I could get some sounds, but head-room and maximum level were in short supply, so I did my 'quiet' listening with the ART-1 fed straight in and my head-banging with the Glassic step-up in place. The other mismatch was the Celestion SL700, which needs more juice than this baby can muster. Again, I could get some positively dandy sounds out of the '700s, but no way would it cope with the odd crescendo. But because the sound — if not the levels — was so enticing, I spent as much time driving the '700s with the ATM- 1 as I did the easier Sonus Fabers. Thinking like the Japanese, though, would lead to most of these ending up driving some hyper-sensitive classics like Lowther horn systems. Mind you, I had so many combinations to try out, what with the bypass mode and the CD Direct inputs, that I stopped worrying about it and treated the reconnections like a daily chore. Like shaving.

Fortunately, the long build-up between the time I first learned of the Air Tight and the first listen was rewarded with some of the most gloriously lush and musical sounds I've heard since running an SPU into elderly Marantz and Dynaco tube electronics through the AR 2AXes. Talk about a blast from the past... Actually, that's unfair, because the pre-amp sounds 'younger' than the power amplifier. As I tried the pre-amp with the Aragons into the Divas and drove the amplifier both directly from CD and with the Audio Research SP-9, it was easy to attribute characteristics to the pair's respective halves. What both share sonically, are ghostly

silences by both valve and solid-state standards, phenomenally wide and open sound stages and absolute freedom from edginess. But while the pre-amplifier is detailed and precise enough to be regarded as modern, the power amp has a

softness — however enticing — that might be too romantic for those weaned on transistor equipment or current era valve powerhouses like the big EAR, Audio Research or Beard amplifiers. But I'll be damned if I'm going to apologise for the Air Tight because I loved the lushness. It reminded me again and again of a descrip-tion John Atkinson gave me of the smaller Sonus Faber speaker. 'Ken', he said, 'it definitely has its flaws, but it's just so damned musical.'

Playing both modern, glassy recordings and sonic masterpieces of the era of the Air Tight's inspiration, I noted an unerring facility these products have for sweeten-ing whatever sounds they are fed. Is it accurate? Hell, no. But neither is it offen-sive in the way that identifiable distor-tions or wild colorations are. The Air Tight amplifier doesn't really add anything which would annoy; it merely shaves off the edges which could become nasty. This was identifiable whether I used the front sockets with a direct-injected line level source or via the pre-amp through the rear sockets. Despite my description of the ATM-1 as some kind of lavender-scented granny of an amp, it remained transparent and coherent enough to reveal the benefits of the various bypass modes. And then it hit me. Although I didn't

have the gear to hand, I'm absolutely certain that if these items were used with the kind of audiophilia which is so cher-ished in Japan, the sweetness would offset the sharpness which I attribute to Decca cartridges and horn-type loudspeakers. As the ATM-1 can be modified for

monophonic 80W, 2ohm operation, the power shortage is not a problem. ( Indeed, the company already manufactures a beast called the ATM-2 which uses four KT88s for 80W/channel from one chassis.) But £2059 is a fair chunk of cash for what is the audio equivalent of a rebuilt-from-the-ground-up Jag Mk II. The pre-amp, at £1769, has to compete with the better-equipped, far more precise Audio Research SP-9, among others. But that's missing the point. With that attitude, there'd be no more Leica rangefinder cameras, only Canon EOS auto-every-things. There'd be no more mechanical Rolexes, only throwaway Swatches. No, ownership of the Air Tights requires a bit more than money. It requires a weird and wonderful blend of nostalgia, an apprecia-tion for hand-crafted mavericks, a sense of aesthetics which deems a Bristol more righteous than a Porsche, tastebuds which prefer Nova Scotia salmon to that stuff from Scotland. The Air Tights are to me simply the nicest products around for powering classy little boxes like the Sonus Fabers, for satisfying a craving for the past without the risk of running elderly com-ponents. The ATC-1 and ATM- 1 aren't really hi-fi products after all. They're the stuff which dreams are made of. -IL

Supplier: Audio Concepts Ltd, Unit 9, Belfont Trading Estate, Mucklcrw Hill, Haksowen, West Midlands B62 8DR. Tel 021-550 7387.

111-F1 NEWS & REcoRD REVIEW AUGUST 1989 45

aragon

When the impossible becomes reality, history is made. The Aragon 24K preamplifier don't take our word for it - try it for yourself.

ISTODIC PRE

PATH GROUP PLC

UNIT 2, DESBOROUGH INDUSTRIAL PARK, DESBOROUGH PARK ROAD. HIGH WYCOMBE, BUCKS. HP12 3BG.TEL: 0494 459981/2/3 FAX: 0494 461209

HUI ENDInenerl

Say 'Oracle' and most people will take it that you are referring to the Oracle Delphi. Although the much-

revised Delphi is still essentially the Cana-dian company's original design, and as such dates back to the end of the 1970s, there are other models in the range. Oracle's flagship is the Premiere, listed at £2750 and so somewhat rare, while the least expensive model in the line is the Alexandria, which we chose to partner with the SME 309. As it happens, we had just got the 309 installed when we learned that SME would in future be supplying arms to Oracle; according to Oracle's UK importer Gamepath Ltd, these 'OEM' arms be not be identical to any existing SME arm but will combine elements of the 300 series, Series IV and Series V designs. The Alexandria has been around for

more than five years, but like the other models is now in Mk III form. There has been significant evolution since the ear-liest version, which was offered primarily as a package with the Oracle Prelude arm, the most obvious outward change being the move from metal top-plate with wood trim to solid acrylic-finish plinth.

Like other Oracle designs, the Alexan-dria is a belt-driven subchassis turntable in which the subchassis is suspended from three long springs in tension. Although the subchassis is concealed, it is very similar in shape to that used in the Delphi, being a very strong webbed alloy casting; 'arms' extend from the centre 'body', which is the foundation for the turntable's main bearing, to provide mounting points for the springs. The subchassis extension which supports the tonearm ends in a cast ring to which a turned wood adaptor is bolted: this arrangement provides a rigid but versatile mounting which follows the visual design theme of the whole. A cut-out in the underside of the main plinth closely follows the shape of the subchassis while allowing clearance for suspension movement. The three spring assemblies are con-

structed within the housings which also form the turntable's feet ( the feet them-selves have screw adjusters for overall levelling): essentially, each foot consists of a strong metal inverted-cone cup which

A natural partnership: the newest

SME tonearm with the classically-

named, classically-styled Oracle

Alexandria turntable

by Steve Harris

contains a pillar, surrounding and attached to the top of which is the conical suspension spring. While the plinth is supported by the three underside cups, each arm of the subchassis is supported on the skirt of a spring by means of a polyethylene adaptor ring and a decou-piing ring of 'tacky' rubber. As supplied, the three springs are of different strengths to compensate for the greater load on the one nearest the tonearm, but each spring can be adjusted by screwing it in or out of the polyethylene ring around its base, thus reducing or increasing its effective number of turns. This adjustment techni-que is rather more fiddly than it sounds (you would normally expect your dealer to set the turntable up for you) but is clearly much less cumbersome than the old Oracle practice of supplying a whole range of interchangeable springs.

Earlier Alexandrias had a cast metal platter with a rubber `wave-trap' damping ring at the periphery; in the Mk III this has been replaced by a one-piece platter (with integral drive-belt hub underneath) in a very 'dead' material. The usual Oracle 'tacky' rubber mat has been replaced a rather thick felt one, made from two grades of felt laminated together. The well-established Oracle record-clamp sys-tem is used; a small washer around the spindle raises the centre of the record from the mat, so that when the screw-on clamp brings pressure further out (around the edge of the label), the playing surface of the disc is forced flat against the mat. I must say that with some very thin discs, this did not seem as effective as expected, perhaps because the clamping was no

longer assisted by the adhesion of a 'tacky' rubber mat. The motor is the usual Oracle 12V DC type, fed by a small outboard power supply. Switch-on is by touching the neat '33' or '45' buttons, while the middle '0' button switches off. Start-up was always quick and smooth.

Visually, the SME V proved to be the perfect partner for the Delphi, and the SME 309 looks just as much at home on the Alexandria. The judicious mixture of black and silver parts seems just right here. This new SME arm (which will receive a kill review in a future issue) is related to the Series IV and V but with the convenience of a detachable headshell. It lacks the ultimate luxury of the Series V: counterweight setting and locking is by hex-key adjusters rather than by the incredible thumbwheel and lever of the Series V, and the option of spring-applied tracking force is omitted.

Sound quality Tried with a number of cartridges (pri-marily Ortofon MC3000, Denon and Audio Technica moving-coils) in the SME arm, the Oracle certainly maintained the brand's reputation for neutrality and free-dom from all the usual 'turntable colora-tions'. Any initial prejudices against the combination of felt mat and clamping were dispelled by listening; the bass seemed solid and tuneful, while the mid-range had the clarity and depth you should expect at this price. Although there may be some sonic penalty to be paid for the 309's detachable headshell, the effect must be pretty slight, since the sound still has the transparency and ambi-ence-recovery which speaks of low-level detail resolution.

If the Alexandria, at £950 without arm, still seems expensive in terms of its material content, the price penalty is not exceptional among imports, and home-grown models are not getting any cheaper. Sonically, this 'entry-level' Ora-cle does deliver the goods: Perhaps the Alexandria does not 'boogie' the way a Roksan does but it certainly plays music. It may not be a Delphi, but it is recogniz-ably, even triumphantly, an Oracle. 4-

RACLE ALEXANDR A /

SME 309

Suppliers: Gamepath Ltd, 25 Heathfield, Stacey Bushes, Milton Keynes MK12 6HR. Tel (0908) 317707. SME Ltd, Steyning, Sussex BN4 3GY. Tel (0903) 814231

111-F1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989

The Dynamic Duo "Holy headphones! These Prolites are the work of a brilliant but fiendish mind."

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The word on everyone's ears I1W International Ltd, 3-5 Eden Grove, London, N7 SEQ. Tel: 01-607 2717

Please send me full details of the Koss headphone range, plus the address of my nearest dealer:

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Chesky Records & other well known reference recordings.

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128 Cordy Lane, Underwood,

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flIGn END

DAX VO Ad Ithough a number of companies,

like Audio Reseach and Krell, pro-uce active outboard crossovers

of a 'universal' nature, the design team at Apogee accepted the premise that the best crossover is dedicated to the speaker with which it will be used. In addition to offering attenuation of up to 6dB in ldB steps for the woofer and the mid/tweeter, the DAX (Dedicated Active Crossover) allows the user to adjust the balance between woofer and mid/tweeter in 0.2dB steps and to adjust the 'rake angle', a sort of 'hinge' in the tonal balance which tips the midrange above 1 kHz in Q/-0.5dB steps at around 5kHz. The DAX also provides facilities to match the crossover to the amplifiers for input impedance loading, gain characteristics (for using different amplifiers top and bottom) and for using single-ended or balanced opera-tion. Because of the way the various DAX controls interact, the unit can vary the group delay, important when sculpturing the gain vs phase relationship — so one aspect of DAX-equipped Apogees is near-perfect phase response.

By addressing both the requirements of only three specific loudspeakers (you order your DAX preset for Caliper Signa-ture, Duetta Signature or Diva) and allow-ing for matching to any amplifier, the DAX provides what amounts to total control for bi-amplifying these speakers. In the case of the Diva, the DAX takes over from the passive box with its four toggles for boost or attenuation at four frequencies, but the switch for the tweeter on the passive box remains operable. This is because the DAX is a two-way crossover while the Diva is a three-way system. The DAX sees the tweeter and midrange as one section. The Diva's passive box therefore takes

on a different role and no less than three-and-a-half pages of the owner's manual deal with converting it for use between the DAX and the Diva. You don't have to worry about this because your dealer will undertake the conversion. Still, if you enjoy spending a couple of hours inside a nest of wires, be my guest. With the Duetta, instructions are also supplied for user conversion, but the Caliper must be modified by the dealer. The DAX itself is one of the most

attractive pieces of high-tech hardware I've ever seen. Left-to-right, the groups of knobs include woofer attenuation, woofer-mid/tweeter balance, mid-tweeter attenuation and rake, with separate knobs for each channel. With this bank of controls and the display confirmation, it's possible to set up the system for sonically asymmetric rooms using test tone gener-ators and spectrum analyzers. Apogee presupposes that its customers

know what they want to hear, so instruc-

SC U

Apogee's latest is a dedicated

active crossover for the Caliper,

Duena and Diva. Is it the ultimate

Apogee upgrade?

by Ken Kessler

tions for setting the controls amount to little more than doing it by ear. I did manage to find out the order in which Apogee's Jason Bloom approaches the problem each time he sets up a DAX and his advice means less to-ing and fro-ing. Future DAX owners, take note:

1) Adjust the mid/tweeter attenuator, which is an aother way of asking yourself, `Do I need to cut the upper frequencies?'

2) Adjust the balance between the woofer and the mid/tweeter. This man-oeuvre attenuates either portion in 0.2dB steps. You won't believe it until you hear it, but this operation is audible enough to change the character of the system from forward-sounding to muted.

3) Adjust rake angle. By tipping the response up or down in 0.5dB steps, it's possible to compensate for brightness or dullness without any loss of information. I've a feeling that owners of Quad electro-nics will find this not a little familiar. 4) Adjust woofer attenuation. This is

especially useful for those who would have Apogees in small rooms. (No, there's no woofer boost because it's unlikely that anyone would ever need it. And if they do, they can always go back to steps 2 and 3).

But here's where it gets bizarre. Word had reached me that the DAX, even with everything at '0', improved the perform-ance of the Divas beyond the gains that you'd expect from mere bi-amping. That struck me as odd until I accepted that the DAX — two amplifiers instead of one notwithstanding — is a vastly more soph-isticated crossover than the passive box supplied as standard. But the reason it bothered me is because I preferred the DAX at '0' on four out of five recordings.

Listen: When I set up the DAX, I was also playing host to somebody who has no reasons for wishing success on this pro-

duct. I won't embarrass him by revealing his name; all I'll say is that he's from the

competition. Anyway, we put on some serious music — Billy Cotton's Wakey Wakey Show and George Melly on C5 Records — and he just looked at me, uttering a British expletive which rhymes with `buckshee' and grinning from ear toear. We fiddled with the knobs, cranked up the volume, dug out some naff mono CDs of ultra-thin-sounding British pop from the 1960s. We rocked. And we heard the Kinks' Waterloo Sunset' like it's never been heard before. The most blatant manifestation of the

DAX is the way it allows the Diva to present deep bass notes. I admit that, on occasion, the Diva can sound a bit over-whelming, with bass which thunders and roars. DAX'd, the Diva's extension remains constant but the bottom octaves acquire a sensation of greater control. Equally chilling are the gains in sound-stage creation, image placement and spe-cificity. The Diva, sans DAX, is simply one of the best imagemakers I've used; the DAX opens the sound and removes and last vestiges of texture to the silences between instruments and players. What the controls do is allow you to dial in the most realistic stage depth in a manner not unlike that of the control unit for the Infinity IRS Betas. And the more you learn about the controls and their capabilities, the more they take on the nature of a focusing ring on a camera lens.

But here's where I find myself at cross purposes with the whole concept of active crossovers. Until the DAX arrived, I though of trick crossovers as a way of optimising the speaker, something to set once and leave alone. I found myself using the DAX to compensate for the recordings rather than the hardware or the room. I don't want to give the impression that the DAX works like a dream-world equalizer or even like the rather splendid Cello Palette. The adjustments to the sound are too subtle and too precise to suggest any gross tampering. What it becomes, then, for an Apogee owner is the ultimate surgical instrument.

In the year I've been using the Divas, I've tried them with single amplifiers ( in bi-wired mode) running to over £ 10,000 per pair. The DAX offers such a trans-formation with even the affordable Ara-gons that two Aragons plus DAX at a grand total of £8100 is preferable to any other non-DAX combo I can name. As it stands, the DAX is nothing less than the most exciting development yet for Apogee owners, a device so clever that I wish other manufacturers would offer similar units for their bi-ampable speakers. £4.5k for a black box? Yes. And it's worth every single penny. 'id'

Supplier: Absolute Sounds, 318 Wort)le Road, London SW20. 01-947 5047.

111-F1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989 -49

HUI END

CONRADIOTINSON DE CD PLAYER

he Conrad Johnson range of pro-ducts are newly distributed in the UK by Audiofreaks, and following

something of a head-on clash with Audio Research in the early days of UK availabil-ity, Audiofreaks director Branco Bozic is now taking a phlegmatic view and letting CJ components speak for themselves. This long-awaited CD player comes finished in classic CJ champagne gold, with a black enamel case. In fact, the first Conrad Johnson design was the Sonographe, which established a good reputation for musicality. It was based on a reworked Philips CD player chassis — a version of the CD350 — but this new model contains a much higher original design content, including the all-metal case.

This well-trimmed player has the poten-tial for rack mounting, and carries an array of push-buttons for all the usual facilities, including 'open-close', pause, play, stop and on/off. The latter deserves a mention since it controls only the CD section while leaving the pre-amp permanently engergised ( less than 5 watts are con-sumed in this 'standby' mode). Further buttons cover forward and reverse audi-ble music-search, track-skip ('next' and 'previous' ) and 'prog' for programming up to 20 tracks. The small display will show times or track numbers, one or the other selected via the time button. These facili-ties are also present on the simple remote hand-set, which has one additional fea-ture; a repeat button, controlling the whole disc or a programmed section.

l'he pre-amp controls include tape-monitor/aux-2 selection, CD or aux-1 selection, and volume. Thus this line

Following the early acceptance of

the Sonographe, Conrad Johnson

has finally brought out its 'own'

CD player, the DF1

by Martin Colloms

pre-amp has three effective inputs: CD-internal, aux-1, and tape/aux-2. Sensitivity is sufficient for even the lowest-output tuners.

Sound quality Installed as part of the Krell Apogee Duetta Signature system, reference play-ers included the Marantz CD12 and CD85, these themselves referenced to the Accuphase DP8O/DC81. When first switched on, the results

were not particularly impressive. Over a period of minutes, it was clear that the sound was improving in clarity and sweet-ness; accordingly it was put aside for several hours to warm up properly. Then, when conditioned, some hint of the Sonographe sound was present, but the DF1 showed improved definition, with more speed and slam in the bass as well as a more open, more transparent treble. The mid-range had a clear, projected character that somehow enhanced the quality of singing voice. Via the fixed output, a creditable rating of 71% was achieved — with the Accuphase as a notional reference.

In context, it is fair to point out that this

was below the rating for a Marantz CD85, and that although the DF1 was entertain-ing, it fell a little short on bass speed and extension, as well as stereo focus and depth. It was therefore surprising to find that the sound was improved via the main or line output, despite the interposition of another amplifier and a volume control (yes we did correct for phase-inversion via this output). l'he explanation must lie in the improved matching obtained between the high-impedance 'CD direct' output and the line buffer stage. In any event, the perceived soundstage was broader and deeper, while the bass acquired more extension and power and the treble and mid were both more dynamic and better focused. In fact, the rating improved to an audiophile grade of 88% and with direct coupling to the power amplifiers ( bypassing the test-sta-tion pre-amplifier) it went up to 92% — in CAL Tempest territory. Where the Tempest was laid-back and

spaciously ambient, the cj DF1 was more immediate, with a faster pace, though the tonal quality was not without flaw. Throughout the auditioning there was a mild mid-range emphasis, slight glare and some thinning of vocal weight, with a touch of brittleness and wiriness in the lower treble apparent, for example, on strings. This touch of'character' indicated that the DF1 should be auditioned care-fully before purchase, and cannot be regarded as entirely neutral.

Design and technology In opening up this model I could not at first work it out, since it was a couple of

50 111.11 NEWS & RECORD RINIEVI. AuGusT 1989

L HIGH DiD years since I had last seen the digital IC chips which it uses. But at last the penny dropped with recollection of the earlier CJ Sonographe CD player. This model is based on the Philips CD350, with its original 4-times oversampled 14-bit con-version, and low-level resolution enhanced by noise shaping.

Considerable development has taken place at cj, and the two TDA 1540 DACs are now allotted a separate PCB sur-rounded by an array of huge polystyrene capacitors for decoupling the chain of bit-weighting current sources. Digital filtering is accomplished by the usual SAA 7030. The transport is the CDM2 mechan-ism, not noted for its long-term reliability; it comprises a drawer-load design which requires an adaptor for 8cm single discs.

Lab report With CJ's their valve ( tube) background it was not too surprising to find many of the measurements looking more like those for a traditional valve pre-amp. For example, via fixed CD outputs the channel separa-tion never bettered 62dB, and fell to 50dB by 20kHz. In truth these results were satisfactory, but far below what is possi-ble, typically 100dB. However, channel balance was fine and the frequency response was typical of the earlier genera-tion Philips digital filters ( Graph 1). No phase-difference was present between channels, and the output was polarity-correct at the fixed output but inverted by the line amplifier feeding the ( vari-able) output.

At full-level, the total harmonic distor-tion was pretty mediocre at a typical 0.3% mid-band ( — 50dB), and a little better than 0.1% at 20k1 lz, remembering that these results refer to noise products in the audible range, ie, below 20kHz. With the

signal-level reduced by 10 dB, the distor-tion improved by 10dB, showing the effect to be in the low-feedback analogue electronics and not in the digital or convertor section. The I-IF twin-tone intermodulation results were a little bet-ter, though some imbalance in distortion between channels. For — 10dB modula-tion the average difference-tone level was —68dB, considered just satisfactory from a subjective viewpoint. The correspond-ing — 10dB spectrogram is shown in Graph 2, where the difference products are clearly evident.

Via the fixed output the level was rather lower than usual at 1.12V, sourced from a high 820-ohm impedance. Via the main output, up to 10Vrms was available from a more robust 390-ohm source. De-emph-asis correction was accurate, while the transport returned the established, mod-erate access-rate of 4 seconds, with fairly good error-correction — but somewhat below modern players which can cover 2 or even 4mm gaps. Mechanical noise rated as average; the mechanism 'chirps' a little more than recent designs. Signal-to-noise ratios were satisfactory, but like the other results remained unexceptional. Taken overall, 86dB was a typical figure for the DFI; 118dB is possible.

Interestingly, the —90dB resolution error was reasonable at an average of —2,2db, andwhile the specification is only 14-bit, the linearity graph shows a sub-stantially good performance down to —100dB with a dithered test signal (Graph 3). Below —90dB some regular ripple appears on the slope, but this is very unlikely to be audible, and was probably a function of the noise-shaping process. Here is modern proof of the inherently good ' 16-bit' linearity of the original Philips technology, although the

wave form at — 90dB shows some trian-gulation visible through the noise ( this can be seen in Graph 4).

Little difference was observed between the test results via the line buffer and the direct output, and this section gets a clean bill of health. The resemblance to the Motif FET pre-amplifier is not accidential! Sufficient gain and output is provided to drive most cable runs and combinations of power amplifiers, and this would be the preferred mode of use. Line-gain was close to 26dB (or 20 times), with a typical 'A' weighted signal-to-noise ratio of 80dB referred to a nominal 0.5V output.

Conclusion On the face of it, this is an interesting audiophile contender. With this good sounding CD player, from a respected US source, you also get a neat straight-line FET pre-amplifier of known pedigree, which allows for direct connection to power amplifier( s ). Compared with the CAL Tempest II it looked good value, and although the much cheaper Marantz CD85 offers a similar standard, it requires

an additional pre-amplifier. The nearest equivalent is the Meridian 207 pro, which now attains a similar standard — plus the advantage of a full remote control on the pre-amp section, optional disc inputs, and a more advanced CD transport. On its home market the CJ is the better buy,

while in the UK it looks rather expensive. Neither the technology nor the build

quality are particularly impressive, and I expected a little more than this from CJ in 1989, after waiting so long for the CD 'statement.' In a well-matched system the DF I can give fine results, but in my opinion this design is not sufficiently

up-to-date to hold a competitive position for very long. It-

CONR A I) JOHNSON

ree,_

Graph I. Conrad Johnson DF I : Frequency response, where vertical divisions represent 0.5dB

AIRG 'Joe, RANGE: i4 410, STRTUB, 111-1051 40BR Rm5t50

P.U5CD

al:tCoo II

\

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i

1

1

Seeil See But 3.5 5,5 ,4 :BO 500 42

Graph 2. Conrad Johnson DF!: Intermodulation spurwe from ¡9/20kHz tones at — 10dB, log scale 500Hz — 100.5kHz

R it

.1 e

Graph 3. Conrad Johnson DF I : Linearity plot below —60dB

Bs 4,0•51/ R IBC, 1 B ii.BuS. Bou5B4

DRIO0- 4 1

I

i

5

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R.:j0,10 IT , V.,. 5,01, 4 454,

Graph 4. Conrad Johnson DF!: Waveform from dithered IkHz smewave at — 90dB

Test results 20Hz

Channel balance Channel separation (dB) Channel phase difference (*) Total harmonic distortion Cinc noise) 0(111 Fixed oip ( 20k1 lz bandwidth ) — I dithered — 70d11 Intermodulation ( dB) L+R OdB; 19, 20Idlz

L+R — 10dli; 19, 201illz L+R 04113; IS, 16kIlz Frequency response ( dB) I. 0 0 — 1.07 2011z-201dIz R 0 0 — 1.14 Output level, OdB, ( V) L12V fixed, up to 10V variable Output impedance ( ohms) 820 fixed 390 variable De-emphasis error ( DB) 'kHz 51cliz 161(Hz

0 0 —0.57 Yrack access time ( secs) [Track I 5 YEDS2 j -Is Mechanical noise average Error correction ( am) to: gap: > i MM

Signal to noise ratio with without (no emphasis) emphasisemphasis a) 2011z-20kHz unwtd ( dB) 85/86 85 hi CUR ARM ( MHz ref) ( dB) 86/91 86/90 Spuriae ( to 100k11z) ( dB) >-60 ( refilalli) Resolution ( dB) at —90dB [linearity! L=-2.6 R-= — 1.8 headphone socket no Price typical inc VAT £1900

0.13 62 o

1{,11, 201.11/

0 Ut 1121 61 SO 0

—50 —51 —62 —60

— 35tYP

—50/57 (- 50/54) variable

—62/74

Supplier: Audio Freaks, 15 Link Way, Ham Middlesex. Tel 01-948 4153

111-F1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW .(11 .1.1. 1989 51

III

_C R TITE TOP

DGES: FL GIIT

ver the past twelve months, HRN/ RR has reviewed a number of moving-coil cartridge models

which can justify high-end status. For this third edition of The High End, we bring readers up to date with summaries of these reviews, which cover models over £200...

Audio Technica AT-0C9 A company which has perhaps had greater impact recently than ever before, AT has ensured high-end credibility with its 0C9 and PC-OCC wiring. Rivalling the famous four-figure and more models, this costs just £300. 'On paper a refined 007' wrote Ken Kessler in his appraisal (Analogue Supplement, November 1988), 'enabling a far greater number of audiophiles to approach true top end performance with-out breaking the bank'. At home on an SME V or Air Tangent with a Goldmund, Oracle or a Roksan, its sonic character was said to be: 'of a piece from the lowest registers to the middle of the treble region.' Supplier: Audio Technica, 11 Lockwood Close, Leeds LS11 5111. Tel (0532) 771441

Clearaudio Signature The £995 Signature is the 'budget' version of the acclaimed Accurate. Attached to the minimalist frame is a hollow boron tube cantilever which carries a uniquely-profiled stylus. Ken Kessler found (High End December 1988) that the design requires a substantial run-in period; after which it proved to be a delight to use. It was clear-sounding, aided by an output high enough to use into 47k-ohm without background noise or dynamic compress-ion. Superb tracking kept distortion at bay. The only noted spatial weakness was an inability to reveal maximum stage width, but the depth almost made up for this. Vocals were found to be life- like with

detail, body and richness. For further information, contact: Clearaudio Electro-nic GmbH, Weberâckerweg 10, 8520 Erlangen, Germany. Tel. 09131/59595

Dynavector XX-1 Coming from a low profile, Dynavector bounced back with a whole range of new cartridges last year including a model of an all-new concept. While the company led the charge towards higher outputs for m-c designs its XX-1 cartridge includes a virtual switched flux-dumper through a front-mounted switch which activates a shorting wire mounted on the front yoke. Ken Kessler found (Analogue Supple-

ment November 1988) that bass-heavy recordings were made tighter, or 'drier' sounding, using the facility; although the ability to switch the sound character according to the music was a benefit. At its £399 price point, the XX-1 was thought to be a fine performer, working well into 47k-ohm inputs. Tracking was considered exceptional while being easy-on-the-ears. Supplier: Dynavector Sys-tems, 32 Reading Road, Woodley, Read-ing, Berks RG5 3DB. Tel (0734) 699159

Goldring Excel This £500 design was tested by Ken Kessler in February 1989. The Excel employs two gold-tinted aluminium side pieces bolted together to form the body, while the frontpiece is made of rosewood. The fiat top is solid with threaded mount-

ing holes and easily identifiable rear pins. Neodymium magnets are used and the output is high at 0.5mV. KK found it one of the least fussy types he'd tried, and the

weight of 8.5g and low to medium com-pliance made system matching easy. The Excel worked to spec. straight out of the box and delivered an unusual mix of strengths and weaknesses. One of the widest and most consistent soundstage spreads without compromising depth was accompanied by an inability to handle 'wall-of-sound' material, which became muddled. In conclusion: ideal for classical and country material but out if you want to boogie. Supplier: Goldring Products, 8 Greyfriars Road, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP32 7DX Tel (0284) 701101.

Kiseki Purpleheart Sapphire The alloy structured Sapphire, a develop-ment of the Purple, has its suffix attributed to the cantilever — the design with its dyed hardwood sides is now priced at £699. A flat metal mounting base is threaded to take bolts. Test results were mixed; the response showed a treble lift and separation was only just satisfactory. The unit was well made and fitted with a fine, predominantly elliptical stylus. On the listening tests, conducted in Decem-ber 1986 by Martin Colloms, the Sapphire scored better. It was worthy of recom-mendation and had a high standard of stereo focus, good bass, well-maintained performance down to the lowest register

52 I NEWS & RECOR1) REVIEW AUGUST 1989

and it excelled in the treble: vocal sibi-lants were pure and well defined. Avail-able from: Presence Audio, The Old Post-house, Plummers Plain, West Sussex RH13 6NU. Tel ( 0403) 891777

Koetsu Black K This was the first 'budget' all-metal bodied Koetsu, although it sells for £577. The moving-coil was found to be excellently wound when the unit came under scru-tiny from Martin Colloms in December 1986. This well-built and well-aligned design gave a good performance in the lab with a well-controlled frequency response backed by excellent channel uniformity. Fine channel separation was obtained, with good tracking. The sound quality rating was substantially good, thought to suit 'laid back' speakers.

Koetsu Red Signature This £1298 model is still seen by audiophiles as something of a flagship. No commercial release challenged its track-ing ability, no large work proved too majestic, no small work too subtle. From top to bottom this Koetsu is seamless and betrays no part of the spectrum. KK wrote in April 1986, 'the Koetsu will astound you in its ability to convince you that the event is occurring in that space around your speakers'. Supplier: Absolute Sounds, 318 Worple Road, London SW20 8QU. Tel 01-947 5047

Krell KC-100 This is a chunky cylindrical design which comes in a machined brass box — all included for £700. The tapered cantilever sports a special elliptical diamond of semi-line contact profile with a lowish compliance and high ( 13.5g) mass. Ken Kessler found that a run-in of an hour was sufficient in his review (High End Decem-ber 1988). The output was sufficient to negate the need for a step-up, although it was thought that the sensitivity to temper-ature was greater than other designs. The uppercmidband to top end was 'shimmer-ing' — being 'fast' like a ribbon tweeter. It was described as powerful, able to deliver slam and handle dynamics well, with excellent sound staging. Supplier: Abso-lute Sounds, 318 Worpole Road, London SW20 8QU. Tel 01-947 5047

London Super Gold Reviewed under its Decca name, the cartridge now costs £279; little else has changed since the July 1986 appraisal by Decca freak Ken Kessler. The big differ-ence noted when compared with early Deccas was the replacement of the ori-ginal elliptical stylus with a van den Hul variety. Entering the high-end category on subjective test, its information retrieval

1E11 END 117 and detail were evident at once. It was palpable, coherent and convincing. Avail-able from: Presence Audio, The Old Post-house, Plummers Plain, West Sussex RH13 6NU. Tel (0403) 891777

Milltek Aurora A Kiseki under another name, the Aurora was examined by Paul Miller in January 1988. Its £ 11 price increase since, to £209, just qualifies it for this survey. Output is enough to avoid the use of a step-up. Channel balance and distortion lab tests were satisfactory while a lively overall balance was found in listening. The very lowest frequencies were con-trolled well, rhythms accurately painted, without any unnecessary bloom. Vocal reproduction was withheld, maintaining a laid-back and relaxing presentation. The full feeling of ambient space was not conveyed but the design breathed life into most recordings with a buoyant sparkle. A detailed and likeable rendition of music from vinyl was achieved.

Milltek Olympia This model was reviewed in January 1988 by Paul Miller and has risen only margi-nally in price since, to £299. Multiple windings with beefy samarium-cobalt magnets maintain a high-ish output. After run-in the Olympia afforded a consistent but not entirely neutral tonal balance. There was a beguiling richness about the upper bass and midrange, encouraging an unusual transparency. It tracked well enough. A fine sense of ambient detailed extended from the deep bass extension, successfully re-creating the sensation of space. There was a wealth of subtle 11F detail, precisely focused and easy to locate. Supplier: Presence Audio, The Old Posthouse, Plummers Plain, West Sussex RH13 6NU. Tel (0403) 891777

Ortofon MC3000 This is a high-output version of the original MC2000 moving-coil; it arrives complete with straw packing, gold-plated screws and stylus balance plus screw-

driver in return for the £800 outlay. Ken Kessler tested the MC3000 in February 1988 when he found reproduction pro-duced with near-mastertape accuracy. The design has greater consistency across the board than most and overall a high rating was given to the unit. Supplier: Ortofon UK Ltd, Chiltern Hill, Chalfont St Peter, Bucks SL9 9UG. Tel (0753) 889949.

Roksan Shiraz One of the latest designs to come under HFN/RR's scrutiny, the Shiraz was

reviewed by Alvin Gold in June 1989. Based around the heart of an EMT, the exotic and prestigious Swiss-made low output m-c, the cantilever is fitted with a `micro linear' stylus. This is sourced from Fritz Gyger and its shape is related to the van den Hul 1. The body clamps the generator in position using three spikes. Tracking at 2.2g, output was found to be on the high side for a low-output cartridge and loading of 100ohms is recommended. 'A lot of bottle and class', summed up the auditioning, while the unit worked well on Rega arms and Rolcsan's Artemiz. Sup-plier: Roksan Engineering Limited, 21 Ddole Road, Llandrindod Wells, Powys. Tel (0597) 4911

Rowland Complement Not a new design as such, the Comple-ment was conceived in 1985 by Mr Ikeda who was briefed to ignore cost con-straints. His £2250 design was examined

in October 1988 by Ken Kessler. As there is no cantilever, a rod protrudes from the bottom of the body at an angle with the stylus pointing straight downward in 'Decca style' and aiding VTA/SRA adjust-ment. With a cartridge weighing 15.5g, tonearm matching could be restrictive, although the Rowland was used success-fully with the Alphason HR-100-MCS. Described by KK as having the best of both worlds, the Complement was adjudged to have impact, sparkle, attack and control: shining in its portrayal of ambience and soundstage. In conclusion KK felt the model would suit Decca refugees rather than m-c users looking for an upgrade, since some may find it aggres-sive on first hearing. Supplier: Gamepath Ltd, 25 Heathfield, Stacey Bushes, Milton Keynes MK12 6HR. Tel (0908) 317707

Spectral Moving-Coil Reference Not available in the UK this model has to be ordered from abroad. This didn't stop Ken Kessler testing it for The High End in December 1988. Made for a Californian amplifier manufacturer, the Spectral would cost around £650. The cantilever is aluminium, fitted with a 'super-polished' Line Contact diamond. Compliance was found to be lowish, at 8cu, and the weight is 9.5g. Because of its 0.21mV output a pre-amp with high-gain input is required. Thought to be almost immune to the vagaries of system matching the MCR had exceptional coherence, blinding trans-parency — rich without being sluggish, detailed not clinical and fast without sounding breathless. In conclusion accu-rate and musical. Manufacturer: Spectral Audio Associates, PO Box 4475, Mountain View, California 94042, USA. ,44-

111-F1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989 53

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LOUDSPEAKERS

MIDDLE GROUND SPEAKERS

These three loudspeakers have been drawn from a much larger HFN/RR group test, employing a more com-

pact format than previously to allow a substantial number of models to be covered in depth. The scheme uses full laboratory test evaluation as well as exten-sive, unsighted panel auditioning. Further groups of speakers from the survey will be included in the coming months covering a wide variety of models, from large panel designs to small, compact bookshelf cabinets. The median price for models in the overall survey is £350, so the three here sit below the group average. The AR142 is the most expensive at £300. comprising a three-unit design, while the others are both two-way models, £200 for the Monitor Audio and £220 for the Rogers LS4a, manufactured by Swisstone Electronics. Auditioned in test sessions which span-

ned some 65 speaker models, a varied programme was employed, from rock to classical, choral works to orchestral pieces, and over a range of volume levels. The main drive system was rather heavyweight, with its Krell amplification and Goldmund turntable, but back-up tests were made using a Cyrus One amplifier and a Philips CD 582 player. Some experiment was also undertaken to determine the best stands and room positioning for each model.

ACOUSTIC RESEARCH AR142

With the model 132 undergoing revision, the 142 is presently the contender at the larger end of the new Acoustic Research "Spirit' range. This is a three-way model, with a stocking type integrated fabric grille and a low-diffraction drive baffle. Glued-in trim rings are used to addi-tionally smooth the contour from friver mounting to baffle, an idea first seen in this form on the B&W Matrix series.

Subscribing to a minimalist crossover approach, the drivers are direct-coupled to the speaker terminals as far as is practicable in a system of this type. The design also aims for a high sensitivity, partly achieved at the expense of amplifier loading, the 142s being nominally 4-ohm types. Finish is a vinyl print, and connec-tions are made via 3-way binding-posts. The proportions are slim, the suggested position for use being free-space on a matching stand, clear of the back wall.

Sound quality Scoring below average, this speaker was

Medium-sized loudspeakers from

three well-known names: the

Acoustic Research AR142, Monitor

Audio R300MD and Rogers LS4a

by Martin Calkins

described as uneven in frequency response, with noticeable colorations and unexceptional stereo. In the bass it pro-duced a mixed reaction, at times sounding untidy and yet in the main quite well balanced. With the bass and mid units working together at LF, they appeared to trip each other up. The mid was unexcep-tional, showing some hardness on piano, while moderate box coloration was also heard. The treble from this model rated below

average and was generally, considered to have dull 'presence', while the high treble came 'forward' with grain and breathiness. Violins were thought to be wiry and nasal in presentation.

Despite its part 'direct-coupled' design, the panel did not rate this speaker highly

on either clarity or transparency, and found the dynamics rather ordinary. Stereo images were satisfactory in terms of width and focus, but showed little depth. Perspective was not well handled, but on the plus side it remained fairly tidy at higher listening levels. The overall score was 44%.

Design and technology Nominally a three-way model, the 210mm bass and 170mm bass-mid units work in parallel up into the midrange, coupled to a sealed-box of 30 litres. The effective diameters are 165 and 130mm respec-tively, with the flared diaphragms employing a stiff, graphite-loaded polyp-ropylene cone material. The tweeter is a 25mm plastic diaphragmed dome unit, ferro-fluid damped/cooled.

l*he Acoustic Research AR142 is built of the usual 15mm chipboard, while the speaker's enclosure is enhanced by a double thickness laminated driver baffle, considerably helping to reduce traces of unwanted driver/chassis vibrations which may be generated. The few crossover parts in evidence are of normal commer-cial quality, and the final slope measured is 6-12dB octave, this depending on the particular transition.

Lab report Measuring a high 90dB/watt sensitivity, but with a low 4-5ohm impedance loading (Graph lc), the 142 reference response (Graph la) shows a mild bass rise, with a fairly even frequency response to the upper crossover. This is followed by a sharp phasing notch and an excess of upper treble, + 3dB or so referred to 1 kHz. The grille had very little effect, as largely expected, but the pair-matching was nothing special at ± 1 dB. The —6dB point was 4911z, with the response extending to 30Hz in-room.

With 'à-octave help at 2 metres (Graph lb), the forward energy response looks more respectable — a touch of 'boom and tizz' but well integrated, particularly on the lateral axes. Some response promin-ence is seen in the 1-2k1 iz range, and this is also apparent in the room-averaged response as outlined in Graph 1 f, where the curve also suggests a fairly good overall balance. This agreed with the listening results we obtained, while the presence dullness and subsequent treble recovery reported subjectively was also apparent.

At 96dB the distortion was pretty aver-age: Shown clearly on Graph le, though the rise at 11F doesn't look very impress-

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989 55

ive. However, at the lower 86dB sound level ( Graph Id) matters are much improved to a 'good' level throughout. With a 100W maximum input, up to 105dBA should be possible in an average room — a decently high sound level and sufficient for most environments.

Conclusion At this price level, one is entitled to expect more in terms of clarity, stereo depth and dynamics. Here, the direct-coupled principle alone is not sufficient to deliver the required standard. The 142 can play to loud levels, but it did so at the expense of heavier-than-average amplifier loading and could sound a bit harsh when driven hard.

Stereo images lacked sufficient depth and transparency, and while the general sound was quite well balanced and inter-faced cleanly with the listening room, elements of mid hardness and treble grain were not appreciated. The bass did not come together as a unified whole, lacking real slam and speed. On axis, the refer-

ence frequency response looked lumpy, with the phase problem at 6kHz leading to some audible variation of sound quality on the vertical axis. To summarize, neither the results of the

listening audition nor the lab tests were

very promising. While the 142 perform-

ance was no disaster, it was not recom-mendable.

MONITOR AUDIO R300MD

With several successful speaker systems in its range, all using metal-dome tweeters, Monitor Audio's designer has fought hard to deliver this lower cost model which nonetheless retains the metal-dome con-cept. A sealed-box system which can tolerate a position nearer to the back wall than most designs, its placement on a good stand is worthwhile, one 45-50cm high. Uncritical of position, it is likewise uncritical of amplifier type owing to its easy loading, while a good working sensi-tivity also helps in the wider choice of amplifier.

Typical of the Monitor Audio line, the finish is in a fine grade of real-wood veneer, while the cabinet design is com-pleted by a properly rebated, detachable grille. Electrical connection is made via normal 3-way combined binding-post/ 4mm sockets to the speaker's rear.

Sound quality While the results from the listening panel agreed closely on this model and awarded

ACOUSTIC RESEARCH AR142

F CO..Ec T106,

Graph Ja . AR 142. on-axu response at Im

45 LATERAL

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Graph lb. AR 142 one-thud octave response family

at 2m

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Graph If. AR 142: room-averaged response• (RAR)

Test results

Size ( height x widt h x depth, cm) Recommended amplifier power per channel Recommended placement

Frequency response within ±-313(2m)

rolloff ( — 6d8) at I m bass frequency extension ( typical in-room ) Voltage sensitivity ( ref 2.83V• at I m ) Approximate maximum sound level ( pair at 2m ) Impedance characteristics ( ease of drive) Forwanl response uniformity Typical price per pair ( inc VAT)

'le, IW Into &ems

AR 142

65X23x28 10-100W

On matching stand, free-space

5511z-20fillz

4911z 3011z

90dWiV

10SdBA

Average.

Fairly good £:100

Supplier: Teledyne Acoustic Research, High Street, Houghton Regis, Dunstable, Bedfordshire LUS SO. Tel (0582) 867777

it an above-average score of 54%, they had mixed feelings about this design, finding in it a blend of virtues and flaws. But the flaws were not all that serious. Concerning tonal balance, the sound

was mid centred, but so broadly that it was more of a character effect than a specific narrow-band prominence. By comparison, both bass and treble seemed mildly depressed, but not enough to draw serious criticism.

In the bass the 300MD was dry and fast, not extended to the lowest register but respectably tuneful and, if driven hard, capable of delivering good slam. The mid showed mild coloration, some 'wooden' and 'cone' sounds plus a mild 'nasality'. Its

strength lay in a pleasing level of clarity as well as an ability to portray musical dynamics in an interesting manner. The treble was not particularly even,

suggesting exaggeration in the upper range, and a touch of 'grain' and 'breathi-ness' on vocals. But the main treble range sounded clear and musical.

Stereo soundstages were well focused, showing good width. Depth was not very good, but the 300MD's innate clarity gave a good impression of the recorded acous-tic, lending a proper sense of space and ambience.

Design and technology With the cabinet produced by Monitor Audio themselves, the 28 litre carcase is made from high-density 15mm chipboard and, encompasses longitudinal bracing on each side panel for extra rigidity. The driver baffle thickness has been increased to 19mm to reduce vibration. A sealed-box design using an acoustic foam lining, the bass/mid-range in the Monitor Audio R300MD is supplied by a 220mm steel-frame driver, custom-made, and fitted with a 160mm paper-pulp cone with a flared contour and coated with a damping

Sc- Ill- Fl NEWS & RECORD REVIEW Al'GUST 1989

LOUDSPEAKERS

layer. The treble is produced by a 19mm SEAS unit, an aluminium version of the popular soft polyamide model, and is ferro-fluid damped. The normal-quality crossover is 1st-

order electrical for the bass and 2nd-order for the treble or high-pass section. The system is hard-wired and employs multi-strand cable throughout the design.

Lab report From the standard reference measure-ment, the sensitivity was near the average at 88dB/W, and in practice is aided by the very kind amplifier loading this speaker presents. With an impedance minimum of 8ohms, and a rating of ' 12', it was easy to drive (Graph 2e). Under anechoic condi-tions the bass extended to 60Hz for —6dB, an early rolloff, byt the room measured response indicated a practical extension to a frequency of 40Hz.

Reference response data showed very good pair-matching to ±0.4dB, plus a respectably fiat response (Graph 2a), though with mild lift in the final treble octave. The grille imposed some minor disturbance. At 2 metres the 15° vertical resposne shows more loss in the cros-sover range than usual (Graph 2b), but the lateral off-axis responses are rather better, the 45° output being most interest-

ing. Signs of a mild mid plateau are apparent, and were confirmed by the room average response (Graph 2f), which is nonetheless seen to be fairly well balanced overall.

Distortion, especially the more critical 3rd-harmonic, was particularly good with this speaker (Graph 2d and e), and it also handled power well. With up to 100W peak allowed, it could produce up to 103dBA from a stereo pair.

Conclusion Mildly mid-dominant, a trend seen in different measurements and confirmed by the listening, the 300MD survived this imbalance by delivering a lively, informa-tive sound containing considerable musical detail, and a degree of pace and natural dynamics which held the listening panel's attention. Coloration was not par-ticularly low, yet it did not get in the way of the music; but it is fair to say that this speaker was liked more on rock then on classical material.

Technically, the low distortion levels were exceptional for a speaker of this type, and reflected the special high-linear-ity motor design employed in the MA-designed bass-mid unit. Its healthy sensi-tivity was worth more by virtue of the easy loading imparted by the impedance.

MONITOR AUDIO R300MD

100B

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Graph 2a MA R300MD: on-axis' response at 1m

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Graph 21. MA R300MD: room-averaged response

(RAR)

Test results MA 300MD

Size ( height x width x depth, cm) Recommended amplifier power per channel Recommended placement Frequency response within ±.313(2m) LF rolloff ( — 6dB ) at I m Bass frequency extension ( typical in ) Voltage sensitivity ( ref 2.83V* at im Approximate maximum sound level ( pair at 2m) Impedance characteristics ( ease of drive) Forward response uniformity Very good Typical price per pair ( inc VAT ) £220

lc, I W Into 8ohms

43x 25.5 x 24 5 15.100W

On 50cm stand, free-space 65Hz.20kliz

54Hz 33Hz

88dWN

103dBA

Supplier:

Monttor Audio Ltd, Unit 34, Clifton Road, Cambridge, CBI 4ZW. Tel (0223) 242898

Good

characteristic. Thus the 300MD will not unduly stress any amplifier.

Build quality and finish was very good — and the overall performance prompts a recommendation.

ROGERS LS4a

This could well be one of those rare 'natural' designs where everything falls neatly into place: specification, perform-ance and price. This compact example of British loudspeaker design uses up-to-date drive-units including a metal-dome twee-ter in a high-quality sealed-box enclosure. Standing at a height of 43crri, the recom-mended placement is on 50-55cm high stands in free-space, with the speakers arranged so that their axes cross just in front of the listener.

Electrical connection is via 4mm socket/binding-posts and the grille is designed to stay in place ( it is pretty hard to remove in any case). Amplifiers in the 15-100W range are suitable, and it should be both easy to drive and offer a healthy sensitivity.

Sound quality Scoring an almost immediate hit with the members on the listening panel, the LS4a jumped straight into the 'good' class with a rating of 61%. Possessing an audible BBC 'monitor' pedigree, the LS4a quickly demonstrated an excellent tonal balance coupled with a wide frequency range. Coloration was controlled to the point that it attracted very little attention, and in audition most programme was repro-duced with a natural sense of weight; however, it did not fall into the trap of sounding too thick or chesty as can sometimes be the case. The bass was fine, even and tuneful,

with quite good extension to the lowest register, though rock fans might note a mild slowness in the bass and wish for a touch more dynamic slam. Little can be said about the mid-register, so unobtru-sive was its working. It showed good levels of musical detail in the midrange, blending smoothly with the treble, which was nicely balanced and again held no nasty surprises.

Stereo images from the Rogers LS4a were presented with good depth, stable, confident focus, and good width. Ambi-ence was nicely captured, and the general scale of the soundstage was decently large, in fact rather better than usual for this class of speaker. Despite its 'classical' tonal quality the LS4a was considered even-handed in its replay of both rock and classical material played through it, indicating a generally fine balance of subjective quality factors and with good life and pace shown on all material.

Design and technology Evolved from the earlier LS4 design, the 'a' version denotes an improvement in the tweeter type; a pure piston is now fitted, a 19mm aluminium-dome model from SEAS. The bass unit is a Rogers 210mm

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989 57

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re-prz_- .7minum Bran milleflre011111111MMELIP1

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ARCAM ALPHA II

NAIM NAIT II

SONY PM630 73

ALL ON PERMANENT DEMONSTRATION: A & R, ACOUSTIC ENERGY, CREEK, DENON, DEPOS, HEYBROOK, ION SYSTEMS, LINN PRODUCTS, MARANTZ,

MISSION CYRUS, NAIM, NAKAMICHI, ONKYO, REGA, REVOX, ROTEL, ROYD, SME.

158 Ombersley Rd., Worcester, WR3 7HA Tel: WORCESTER (0905) 58046 Demonstrations by appointment

OPEN MONDAY-FRIDAY 9.30 to 8.30 — SATURDAY 9.30-5.30

LOUDSPEAKERS

steel-frame with a strong, flared polyp-ropylene cone of 170mm active diameter and a surprisingly compliant surround termination. A complex 8-element cros-sover is employed and this blends the driver outputs at 31cHz, with approxima-tion to a 4th-order acoustic rolloff. A sealed-box 20 litre enclosure, the

15mm thick carcase is unbraced but has panel damping together with an acoustic foam lining. The interior is hard-wired and, given the high performance seen in this review, perhaps designer Ross would also consider bi-wiring for the LS4a? We await with baited breath.

Lab report Checking out at a healthy 88dB/W, the

reference response was at its best with the grille left in place in accordance with Rogers' own recommendation. The plot in Graph 3a reveals the whole story. With only a minor fall-away of impedance in the high treble (Graph 3c), the amplifier load

rating was 'good' for this nominally 8ohm model. Fine power-handling allowed for up to 103dBA from a stereo pair under normal conditions, and the distortion results were also most respectable, parti-cularly at the 'cruising' 86dB sound level (Graph 3d). At 96dB the 2nd-harmonic predominated, which was as it should be (Graph 3e). The reference response is nicely uni-

form, with a —6dB point at 54Hz and a slow rolloff below. In-room this translated to 33Hz, and the speaker interfaced well with my room, resulting in a tidy, well-balanced response strongly confirming the panel opinion (Graph 3f). At 2 metres, the output near crossover dipped as usual on the 15° vertical axis (Graph 3b), but taken overall the off-axis responses showed good consistency, with the main trend also in agreement with subjective panel data which was derived from the listening test sessions.

Conclusion Nearly every speaker designer has experi-enced the phenomenon. Years of study and careful work produce range after range of dependable models, and then occasionally a star is born — a model where everything in the design quite simply falls into place. The new Rogers LS4a is such a speaker. The panel agreed closely on its merits —

this speaker's watchword was balance. Not just tonal balance, which was one of its trump cards, but also a total balance of all the key subjective parameters. Nothing sticks out, nothing was missing. It could play to decent volume levels, and it coped with all classes of programme. The amplifier loading was also straightforward, while sensitivity was good, with moderate distortion. The LS4a was a genuine all-rounder,

uncritical in so many respects that it may be expected to deliver a good perform-ance under a wide range of conditions, from a variety of sources. A strong recom-mendation was assured for this model.

GROUP CONCLUSION Of the three models, included in this small test group, the Rogers was clearly out-standing. Indeed, the indications were that this compact model would be a

strong performer on comparison tests in any company at anywhere near the price. Successfully exploiting metal-dome twee-ter technology, it offered a fine balance of technical performance and sound quality factors, with high build quality; in conclu-sion, the value rating must be 'very good'.

In the case of the Acoustic Research AR142, its heart was quite clearly in the right place, but the design was not in our view well enough balanced or sufficiently refined for it to overcome some basic flaws. The listening panel was pretty tough in its assessment, however, and in truth the end score for the listening tests was not all that far below the group average; the group including very much more expensive speakers as well as many cheaper ones.

Monitor Audio's 300MD must be rated a success. It has some 'character' — a degree of midrange projection and for-wardness — but otherwise it proved lively and dynamic, achieving an above-average score at a well-below-average price. The bass response was found to be rather limited, but it was fast and articulate in this range, and a firm recommendation is appropriate. -0-

Next month: three more moderately-priced models come under scrutiny.

ROGERS I.S.4 a

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Graph 3d. Rogers LS4a: distortion at 86dB spl

25 HARMONIC

3R5 HARMON

250 HARMON

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Graph 3f. Rogers LS4a: room-averaged response

Test results LS4a Size ( height x width X depth, cm) Recommended amplifier power per channel Recommended placement Frequency response within ±-313(2m) LF mlloff ( —6dB)at 1m Bass frequency extension (typical in-room) Voltage sensitivity ( ref 2.83V* at 1m) Approximate maximum sound level ( pair at 2m) Impedance characteristics (ease of drive) Forward response uniformity Typical price per pair ( inc VAT)

9e, /W into 8ohnts

47X25x 30.5 13-100W

Not critical 80Hz-201cHz

60Hz 40Hz

88dWN

103dBA

Easy

Good £200

Supplier: Swisstone Electronics Ltd, 310 Commonstile East, Mitcham, Surrey CR4 1HX. Tel 01-640 2172

59

7

Rupert maintains that holidays are

all very well, but to ensure that

you really enjoy yourself, endeavour

to bring your Chew & Osborne

equipment with you.

C-40 Chew & Osborne \ HI-FI - TELEVISION • VIDEO

COMPACT DISCS • CASSETTES

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ST5 Holds 120 records price £50 00

ST2 Holds 480 records price £ 162.00

ST4 Holds 240 records price £97.00

All prices are ex-works and inclusive of VAT.

ST1 Holds 600 records price £ 192 00

ST3 Holds 360 records price £ 131.00

The Professional Sound Storage System Direct from the Manufacturer

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AMPLIFIERS

Twos TO THE POWER OF

THREE

Affordable British and Japanese

integrateds, all 'Mark H' models,

from Arcam, Naim and Marantz

are put through their paces

by Chris Bryant

mplifiers are the heart of a good hi-fi system, the control and inter-

...face centre for everything. It's irrelevant how good your ancillary equip-ment is if the amplifier doesn't measure up, as the rest of the system can then never realize its full potential. When choosing an amplifier it is also important to make sure that it is compatible with the rest of your system in terms of input and matching requirements, and that it has a power output which will attain the volume levels you desire with your chosen speakers. Then it only remains to choose one with the sound you like!

This month we have found three afford-able models covering a spread of tech-nologies and a range of prices stretching from £160 up to £350 — two British and one Japanese. Marantz has been doing well with its CD players recently, so it's time to put one of its amps through its paces, Arcam has provided a little budget Alpha box, and after a long absence from these pages Naim makes a showing with the Nait II. The reference system and ancillary

equipment were chosen from compo-nents suited to this price band. I used Goodmans Maxims, Celestion SL6S and, ultimately, the price-mismatched Celes-tion SL700 loudspeakers. LP sources were served by Rega Planar 2 with A&R P77

cartridge, and Linn Sondek/RB300NDH MC10, while CD signals came from Phi-lips CD582, a Marantz CD85, and a Meridian 207.

ARCAM ALPHA II

While the Black Box digital processor has been gathering attention, Arcam has been busy redesigning its range of amplifiers. The Alpha II is the latest upgrade from the established range, and retains much of its earlier aesthetics and a reasonable price. The alloy case is finished in matt-black, with white decals, a green 'on' LED, and blue highlighting for the control positions and Alpha insignia. The facia is divided

into two, the top being devoid of controls; these are left to fill the lower section. There are full bass, treble and balance facilities ( not defeatable), tape monitor, a rotary source selector, and a headphone output. The finish and workmanship are to a high standard inside and out, with commendable panel fit. The disc stage is based on a single

low-noise NE5532N op-amp which sets the gain for moving-magnet cartridges, with a plug-in module available to cater for moving-coils. The tone controls use the ubiquitous NE5534 op-amp, with ± 15V supplies coming from 78/79 chip regulators. The power amp employs dis-crete transistors, with TIP output devices conforming to the usual complementary pattern. The power-supply is based on a substantial toroidal transformer, with split rails used via 6800µ,F 35V Rubycon elec-trolytics. Protection involves 2x2A fuses. The whole is mounted on a large single

PCB, while the case forms the heatsink with the output transistors screwed on aluminium mounts. The transformer is at the right-hand end and the disc input stage at the left. Thus hum problems may arise if the unit is stacked with a CD player. The inputs available ( via phono-sock-

ets) are disc, CD, aux and tape, with the speaker outputs available from six 4mm plugs. This allows either direct or switched speaker connection, with the common terminals shared by both.

Sound quality The Alpha is a competent amp in most

respects. It doesn't mind being driven hard, and at 30W per channel it gets fairly loud. At this price it is hard not to make comparisons with the slightly more expensive and less versatile Mission Cyrus I, which has been grabbing a lot of attention of late. In comparison, the Alpha lacks a bit of drive, the bass is a little soft and it doesn't focus as well. It may lack some of the depth, width and ambience, but in tonality terms ifs more relaxed than the Cyrus. The 'rhythmic quality could also be better: bass notes lack impact. The treble shows a touch of grain and there is a general lack of air. On LP the story is much the same — if anything the bass loses control to the extent that there is some perceived overhang. The Alpha is never hard or aggressive,

111-F1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989 61

AMPLIFIERS

but it lacks the life and pace of the best designs. Still, it's very competent for the price, and in its latest guise the Alpha maintains a competitive edge in compari-son with similarly priced products. Given £160, there is little around that I would rather have.

Lab report Though showing band-limited character-

istics, the frequency response of the phono stage was accurate through the

ARCAM ALPHA II

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Test results

Power output Rated power into 8ohms ('pee) 30W ( 14.75dBW )

20Hz HcHz 20kHz One chnl 8ohms (dBW) 14.2 14.8 14.5 Both chnl 4ohms ( dBW ) 10.8 11.8 11.6 One chnl 2ohms pulsed (WAX' ) - 14.7 - Instantaneous peak current +7.7A - 7.7A Distortion -nii) 20Hz 'MHz 20kHz

at rated power, aux/CD, dB -60 -67 -60 Intermod

1°)i2OkIlz, rated power, aux -79d11 10/20kliz. at OdBW, non -79dB 1°)/20kIlz. at OdBW, m-c -82dlt

Noise Disc ( m-m ) input ( 11IG C(:1R w'ted ) -72dB

Aux/CI) input ( 11IF, C(:IR ',Vied) -77dB Residual, unwIed ( min vol) -80dB IX: output offset L -6mV; II - 5mV Input overload 20Hz MHz 20kHz Disc ( mm ) input ( 111F)d0 29.9 27.3 27.0 Aux 'Cl) input ( 111F)dB >28 >28 >28 Stereo Separation Disc input ( m-m ) dB 60 68 60 Aux2C1) input dB 84 80 60 Output impedance ( damping) 0 10ohm 0.11ohm O. 16ohm Volume/balance tracking OdB -20dB -60dB Aux/CD input dit 0.37 0.07 0.26 Input data sensitivity loading Disc ( m-m) input 0.44mV 46k-ohms

140pF Aux/CD input 65mV 22k-ohms

430pF Output, pre-amp ( tape) 14.2Vmax Disc el error 3011 z-15kHz +0.3dB - I.9dB Typical price, including VAT £160

Supplier:

A&R Cambridge Ltd, Pembroke Avenue, Denny Industrial Centre, Waterbeach CR5 9PB. Tel (0223) 861550

midrange, with very slight treble lift. Likewise, the line/CD response was band-limited ( less at LF, more at HF), with -3dB points at 10Hz and 46kHz (Graph 1). Power output held up across the normal 20Hz-20kHz limits, with 14.8dBW achieved at ' kHz ( 30W into 8ohms). This fell by almost 3dB when both channels were applied to a 4ohm load, but with a peak current capability of ±7.7A and 14.7dBW available with a burst signal into a 2ohm load, it shows decent load toler-ance for a little amp.

Total harmonic distortion at rated power output was a respectable -67dB in the midband (0.04%), rising slightly to 0.1% at the band limits. Intermodulation was well suppressed on both the line and phono inputs, while the supply modula-tion test is relatively free of artefacts, with the 100Hz component 74dB down (Graph 2). The signal-to-noise ratio on the disc

input was an honourable 72dB, but that of

the line input improved on this by only 5dB, and could have been better. The output impedance rose slightly with fre-quency, but with a maximum of only 0.16ohms it's fine. The DC-offset was low on the speaker terminals and non-existent on tape, which would give an astonishing 14.2V output before clipping, enough for any domestic requirement.

Overload margins were fine on all inputs, and volume balance tracking was very good for a budget amplifier. Stereo separation was good on the line input, falling from 84dB in the bass to 60dB at 20kHz, and was only a little worse via the phono stage. Input sensitivity and loading of the disc stage were judged to be sensible, and will match most m-m car-tridges well; but the line inputs were only moderately sensitive and may require the volume to be tweaked a little high with some sources.

Conclusion A&R Cambridge continues to offer well-made, sensibly priced equipment which should give a long service life. While they are not making any great leaps in sound quality, the amps are improving. Whether this is enough in an ever-more-competi-tive market will be decided by you and the competition.

MARANTZ PM64 II

Although Marantz's amplifiers have gener-ally been slightly less well received than its CD players, this does not mean that they're uncompetitive. They are just not the sonic bargains that their digital part-ners are. The PM64 II is called a digital monitoring amplifier, but there isn't any-thing remotely digital inside; the aim is obviously to bring attention to bear on Marantz's heavy CD player involvement.

In contrast with the two British amplifiers in this review, the Japanese Marantz is adorned with an abundance of knobs and facilities. It is also the most powerful of the three, with a DIN rating of I 15W per channel into 8ohms and 170W

into 4ohms. Thus it should drive most speakers without difficulty.

Conventionally finished in satin-black, with gold lettering used throughout, it sits on the ever-present large round feet. Front-panel advertising is limited to Linear-drive power-supply and Quarter-A, indicating design aspects of the power

amp section. Control knobs cover sepa-rate bass and treble adjustment for each channel, plus volume, balance, and source and tape record/out selectors. These are arranged in two square blocks of four at either end of the front panel. A vertical row of LEDs behind a Perspex panel

indicate operational status. Push-buttons are arranged along the base of the panel, covering power, speaker switching, tone-defeat, tape copy, tape monitor, disc gain, loudness, mono, and CD/phono direct. The latter doesn't by-pass the tone con-trols, which must be switched out separ-

ately. All back-panel inputs are RCA phono-

sockets, with those for gram and CD being gold-plated. Other inputs are available for tuner, TV/aux 1 and video/aux 2. Two tape recorders are also provided for. The two sets of speaker outputs comprise large plastic binding-posts, and there is a headphone socket on the front panel. When using both sets of terminals at the same time the speakers should be limited to those of the 8ohm variety, unless of course you are bi-wiring and the extra set of terminals comes in handy for connec-tion to the other set of leads. The interior is typically Japanese. No

fewer than 14 separate PCBs are employed, and it looks as if the layout has been dictated by stylists rather than engineers. A large transformer is used to feed 63V 12,0001e capacitors for the power amp supply, with a separate wind-ing for the lower voltage supplies required by the preamp circuitry. A sub-

stantial finned extruded alloy heatsink ( to which the power transistors are mounted) divides the power amp from the low-level stages. The 64 ll's 'Quarter-A' circuitry is based

on paralleled fast bipolar transistors. This is designed so that the amplifier is running in Class-A for the majority of listening, only switching into the Class-AB mode for high-level peaks. Copper-plating is used on many of the components to eliminate electro-magnetic distortion - including the screws which hold it all together! The disc stage consists of a couple of

low-noise FETs and a dual op-amp, with some decent Cerefine electrolytics in coupling and decoupling roles. Input switching is remote on this board, and a complex wiring harness (which gets a little messy in parts) links it all together. A good-quality Alps volume control is used, but the rest of the potentiometers are pretty ordinary. The power amplifier is complex, reflecting the Quarter-A design, and is based on a mixture of IC, hybrid, and discrete transistor circuitry.

Sound quality During listening, the amplifier was

62 Ill- F1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989

AMPLIFIERS

allowed to warm up for a few hours before it was put to the test, and warm up it did, with the Quarter-A output circuitry giving off a considerable amount of heat. It was first auditioned though the CD input on 'CD-direct', with the tone con-trols defeated, and I admit to being just a little disappointed in its performance. The treble was rather obvious, with grain and a consequent lack of detail. It didn't focus too well, somewhat smearing what had been pin-point on some of the better reference amps into amorphous areas of

considerably larger dimensions. The mid sounded strangely coloured, a little larger than life but lacking some detail and pace. Strings could be a little sour on occasion, with an overall hardening of the sound. The voices of sopranos in particular could become a mite hard and forced. The low frequencies were similarly

unspectacular. There was a distinct lack of speed and slam, bass notes tending to slur into one another, muddying and thicken-ing the sound. Although the amplifier has prodigious power and is capable of going very loud, it tends to clog-up when driven hard and was always preferred at lower volume settings - even though there was a tendency to turn it up louder to regain the lost detail. The soundstage was wide, but rather

restricted in depth. It isn't particularly transparent either. As noted earlier, the stereo focus also was rather ordinary, and this is on loudspeakers which focus parti-cularly well. With the tone controls switched in, things got even worse, and stereo focus all hut vanished when these were altered. Taken off CD-direct, the bass got boomier, the treble grainier and the mid thicker, shedding more detail. The disc input was tried on m-m from

the Rega/A&R P77 ( disc-direct, with tone controls defeated), and much of the char-acter found on the CD input was still present. Stage-width was good, but depth all but disappeared. The bass didn't show good control and the treble was splashy

and imprecise. Driven into the moving-coil input from my Linn Sondek/Rega

RB300NDH MC 10 combination, things improved a little, but presentation of the sound stage wasn't good enough to show off the superior front-end.

Lab report Total harmonic distortion on the line inputs was low, with a worst figure of -76dB (0.015%) recorded at 20kHz. Full-power HF intermodulation distortion was exceptionally good at - 100dB, and likewise the IM on the disc input at both gain settings. Disc signal-to-noise ratio on the m-m setting was a competent 71dB, but that of the m-c input was only just about acceptable at 64dB. The Aux/CD inputs were only a few decibels better than for the m-m disc stage, and should have been a little quieter. DC output offset was identical on both channels at a low 10mV, while a maximum of 9V signal was available from a 300ohm source for recording.

The input overload margins show no

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Test results

Power output Rated power into 8ohms ( spec )

One chnl 8ohms (dBW ) Both chnl 4ohms ( dBW ) One chnl 2ohms pulsed ( dBW ) Instantaneous peak current Distortion 1111)

at rated power, aux/CD, dB lntermod

19/20kIlz, rated power, aux 19/201d1z, at 0(113W, m-m 19/20kHz, at OdBW, m-c

Noise Disc ( m-m ) input ( 11-1F CCIR wled

Disc ( m-c) input ( IHF, CCIR Wted )

Aux/CD input ( IHF, CCIR wiled Residual, unw'ted ( min sol) DC output offset Input overload Disc ( I input ( 111F)dB Disc ( m-c ) input ( 111F) dB Aux/CD input ( 111F)dB Stereo Separation Disc input ( m-m ) dB Aux/CD input dB Output impedance ( damping) Channel balance disc at ' kHz Volume/balance tracking Aux/CD input dB Input data Disc ( m-m I input

Disc ( m-c ) input Aux/CD input

Output, pre-amp ( tape )

Disc eg error 3011z-I5kliz Typical price, including VAT

115W ( 20.5dBW 20Hz 1kHz 20kHz 21.7 21.7 2t.7 19.4 19.9 1975 - 22.5 -

+19A - I9A

20Hz lkHz 20kHz -82 -81 - 76

-100dB -82dB -83(1B

-71dB

-64i1B -75dB -82dB

l. 10mV; R: 20Hz lkilz 20kHz 28.0 29.0 28.0 33.6 33.0 32.6 >28 >28 >28

54 65 43 78 72 65

0.15olun 0.14ohm 0.14ohm 0.23dB

OdB -20dB -60dB 0.17 0.21 (I 34

»diet sensitivity loading phono 0.220mV 55k ohms

phono 164nV 120ohnin phono 15mV -' 4k-ohms

Hopi: phono 95 max

50( k Amt. +0.4dB -0.25dfl

£350

Supplier: Marants Audio UK Limited, 15116 Saxon Way Indistrial Estate, Moor Lane, Harmondsworth, West Drayton UB7 OLW. Tel 01-897 6633

cause for concern, with good figures returned everywhere. Stereo separation on the disc input was a respectable 65dB in the midband, but fell at the frequency extremes; on aux input the story is rather better. The sensitivities and input impe-dances of all the inputs are sensibly chosen and will mate with most equip-ment well.

With a single channel driven, the power output into 8ohms easily exceeded its rating, with 21.7dBW ( 150W) recorded from 20Hz to 20kHz. into 4ohms (both channels) the output stood up well, with almost 20dBW (200W) achieved at IkElz. The one-channel pulse output into 2ohms was 22.5dBW, and 19A is available for current peaks. The supply modulation spectogram is particularly clean ( Graph 3), with only a slight 50Hz artefact seen some 104dB down. The frequency response of the line

stage showed some slight tailoring, with mild roll-offs in both directions but within -0.5dB limits over 20Hz-40kHz and -0.2dB 40Hz-20kHz. The m-m response (Graph 4) shows a slight bass boost (+0.4dB) and an ultrasonic rise ( + 1dB) after a minute treble trough, but the important midband is almost flat. No ultrasonic rise or appreciable bass lift was seen on moving-coil, but this had a more severe subsonic roll-off and a slight treble recess to -0.25dB above 4kHz.

Conclusion Good lab performance, clever circuitry

and a healthy power output aren't enough to rescue this design. The separate tone controls for each channel are a marketing indulgence rather than an aid to serious listening, while with all those facilities available the PM64 Il will surely appeal to people who like tinkering with the sound rather than hi-fi fundamentalists. I'm sure that a less elaborate form of construction would bring benefits in sonic perform-ance. With the simplest signal-path employed ( CD-direct and tone controls defeated) the sound just about survives; but with plenty of stiff competition in this price range I feel that - given its track record with CD - Marantz is capable of better.

NAI1VI NAIT II

Naim is a highly respected British manu-facture with a firm following. It originally specialized in amplification, but in recent years has expanded the product line-up to cover speakers and tone-arms. However, following a policy of evolution rather than revolution in circuit design has provided steady progress for the mainstay line, wherein the Nait represents the Naim approach to a budget amplifier. Launched some four years ago as an inexpensive integrated model with low output power and a minimum of facilities, the Nait's

basic recipe remains the same. The styling has been reworked to resemble the expensive NAC32 pre-amp, but inside the design philosophy is still a straightfor-

111-F1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989 63

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AMPLIFIERS ward, no-nonsense one. The regular Naim extruded alloy case

with a black textured finish and satin front panel are used, with the Naim logo now back-lit green to denote operation. The front-panel push-buttons have been replaced by rotary selectors. The large volume and selector knobs, traditional Naim and taken straight from the 32, are

joined by small balance, power on/off and mute/normal/monitor controls. Inputs are 5-pin DIN, except LP disc which uses gold-plated phono-sockets ( m-m only).

Other inputs are aux, tape and tuner. The speaker outlets are 4mm sockets. The interior is exceptionally neat and

well laid-out. The output stage is of the direct-coupled complementary bipolar variety, while the pre-amp uses Naim's discrete transistor single-rail capacitor-coupled stages.

Sound quality When fed from either CD or LP sources the Nait delighted with an easy, tuneful flow of music. Rhythmically coherent at all times, the perceived integration of bass, mid and treble was excellent. It has an easy, musical way about it, interesting and strong. The bass drove tunefully along, underpinning the rest of the amp's able performance. In its best areas the Nait II puts many a more expensive product to shame. Up through the midband there was

plenty of air, with reasonable levels of revealed detail. Stage width and depth were both very good. It drew listeners' attention in a way hard to credit at this price. Indeed, it goes some way to achiev-ing high-end status in specific areas, for while it doesn't have the nth degree of detail or extended bass, it presents the

information it gives in a convincing, if somewhat individualistic fashion. It will not suit everybody. Power output is low, but it clips well and goes louder than its measurements might suggest, and would obviously suit speakers of high sensitivity.

All music benefits from the Nait's behaviour. It has drive, integrity, coher-ence, and a measure of space and ambi-ence. Have I perhaps gone over the top about it? Well, why not? This is the first reasonably priced amp I have had this year which kept me listening. In a small room it worked exceedingly well with my 700s, as long as I didn't ask too much of it in terms of level.

It's not all perfect. The bass is slightly

odd, a little over-emphasized at times and somewhat coloured, even boxy in its

upper regions — probably the effect of LF band-limiting. But I always found it interesting and lively, with fine differentia-tion. The treble has more than just a hint of grain, and it throws away some of the inner detail available from more transpa-rent amps. Focus wasn't one of its strong features either. Nevertheless, in its own way it is currently the best sounding amp in its price range. What more can I say?

Lab report The power into 8ohms was 13.5dBW in

the midband ( 22.5W against the specified I 5W ) with the output falling slightly at the frequency extremes. Into 4ohms with both channels driven the output went down by only 2dB, suggesting fair load tolerance. The peak current delivery is perfectly adequate for the power avail-able, substantiated by the 2ohm pulsed output test. Harmonic distortion was little more than adequate at the frequency extremes ( — 50dB = 0.3% ), but the mid-band figure of — 73dB is respectable. IIF intermodulation was adequate on the aux input at full power, but on gram the IkHz difference-tone rose to — 46dB ( 0.5%). Noise performance was passable, with the disc input returning —67dB and the aux —71dB, with no benefit gained by reduc-ing the volume control to minimum. DC output offset was 17mV on the left

and 10mV on the right channel. Input overload margins were merely adequate for the disc stage, whereas the aux over-

load figures were excellent over the whole frequency range. Stereo separation fell as the frequency increased, but the worst figures returned at 20kHz are still decent, with aux slightly better than disc.

Output impedance was fairly low throughout. The volume/balance tracking must be considered good, with just over 1dB aberration at 60dB below maximum level. However, sensitivity is fairly high, which means that when listening to CD the lower end of the volume control range is important, hut a balance control is provided anyway.

The disc input sensitivity is sensible and the amp should mate with most moving-

magnet cartridges. Frequency response measurements showed both the line and disc stages to he carefully tailored, with —3dB points at 33Hz and 28kHz, and steep roll-offs at either end ( Graph 5). The gram response differed from aux by a mere 0.2dB in the 3-10kHz region. The supply modulation test ( Graph 6) shows a fairly strong 10011z artefact at only 56dB down, and in essence the lab performance is only fair.

Conclusion The Nait II is small in more ways than one. Its size and its power output are both diminutive, while the minimalist design and lack of a moving-coil input restrict its application. It is quite expensive in terms of available watts, and the lab perform-

ance hardly suggests state-of-the-art, although construction is to a high stan-

dard. It has good load tolerance, even if it does require fairly sensitive speakers. For all this, in some respects the Nait cur-rently defines the sound quality possible

from small amplifiers, and as such it earns my respect and recommendation.

GROUP CONCLUSION Although the Marantz is similarly priced to the Naim, the approach adopted by the

two firms is conspicuously different. The Marantz is much bigger, offers plenty of power, lots of controls and a fine labora-tory performance. The Naim is small, has

NAIM NAIT II

Level

-bee

10e9 100ele * NE

Frequency

Graph 5. Naim Not: LI: frequency responses aux input

Graph 6. Naim Nait power-supply modulation spuriae frorn 35Hz test-tone

Test results

11:10•He

Power output Rated power into Hohms ( spec ) IS ( I 1.7ScRiVr )

20Hz MHz 20kHz Onc chnl tiohms(dBW ) 13.2 13.5 1 i.3 Both chnl cohms ( dBW ) 10.2 11.5 11.3 One chnl 2ohms pulsed (dBW ) — 13.1 — Instantaneous peak current +8 OA - 7.5A Distortion DID 20Hz MHz 20kHz

at rated power, aux/C1), dB -50 -73 -St Intermod

19,20kHz, rated power, aux -64tIB 19/20kHz, at OdBW. m-m -46dB

Noise Disc 1m-m) input ( IH() CC1R eted ) -6-c18

Aux]CD input ( Ii-IF, CCIR w'ted ) - - 1c111 Residual, untv'ted ( min vol ) -- - 1 dli 1X:output offset la - 17mV; R: - HMO' Input overload 20Hz 'kHz 20ItHz. Disc ( m-m) input ( IIIF)dB 230 26 7 2-1.6 Aux/CD input ( 111F)d8 >28 >28 >28 Stereo Separation Disc input ( nott ) dB 58 50 it) Aux/C:I) input dB 90 57 33 Output impedance ( damping) 0 12ohm 0.1ohm (Il ohm Channel balance disc at I Ma 0.3dH Volume/balance tracking OdB -20dB -60d13 Aux CD input dB 0 ( 19 (III I 2 Input data socket sensitivity loading Disc ( m-m) input phono 0 6 LnO. L-1,ohms

I SOpr Aux/CD input Spin 26 8mV 61k-ohms

DIN —pi' Output. pre-amp ( tape ) Villas

ohms Disc ey error 3011r-151dt, +1511t - 3.2dB Typical price, including VAT £320

Supplier: Nairn Audio Limited, Southampton Road, Salisbury SP 1 2LN. Tel (0722) 332266

low power output. few controls and only just about passes muster in the lab However, within the constraints of its operating capability the Nait is the clear winner where sound quality is concerned. and it deserves recommendation. Ile Arcam Alpha continues to improve, and although outclassed by the Naim it must

he remembered that it is only half the price. Currently, for integrated amplifiers at under £200, the Arcan Alpha is most definitely up among the leaders. +

NEVI'S & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989 65

GLASGOW Glasgow's newest hifi store can be found at 145, Bath St., Glasgow (Diag-onally opposite the entrance to the Sauchiehall St Centre).

DON'T MISS OUT

We are taking orders on Quad's new compact disc player as well as offering Interest Free Credit on selected systems for a limited period only. (0% APR, licensed Credit Broker — written details on request). Our reputation for straightforward advice is growing daily and when you see the package that we can offer you it's hard to imagine that anyone can beat us. * Superb choice of selected products

from: Quad, Cyrus, Mission, Revolver, Yamaha, Denon, Rotel, Allison, Ruark, Wharfedale, Celestion, and more.

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Write or telephone for appointments or our comprehensive information pack

Three mid-priced CD players:

Aiwa XC-004, Akai CD62 and

Technics SL-P555

by Martin Collons

These three machines are all com-petitive products, sufficiently dis-tanced from the budget region to

offer further improvements in build qual-ity, finish, facilities and technology. All are full-width machines with drawer loading, remote control, and a headphone socket complete with its own level control. Unusually, the Aiwa has no digital output facility, optical or wired, but the Alcai has both and the Technics an optical output only. The Aiwa is built in Singapore, while the other two are made in Japan.

All three sport comprehensive front panels with a daunting array of control buttons. The pricing puts them in the same class as the Maranta CD 65SE and 75SE, current performance leaders which are proving hard to beat. Standards are however continuing to rise, and some designers are seeking a competitive edge via the exploitation of modern micropro-cessor technology, this being implemented with the aim of providing as

many user operation facilities as possible.

AIWA XC-004

There is not much to distinguish the XC-004 from other similar players. Up to 20 tracks can be programmed in any chosen order, with buttons for tracks 1-10 available on both the player and the hand-held remote control panels. Index points may be accessed, while functions such as random- or shuffle-play, and full-track or programmed A—B phrase repeat are provided. To aid cassette recording, a

peak search facility finds the loudest portion on the disc and holds it on repeat to give record-level calibration; and if a matching Aiwa cassette recorder is used, a connection is provided to link it to the CD player. The fluorescent display offers the usual information, with simultaneous

readout of track number, index, and the various available timings ( remaining, elapsed, total and track) all accessed via the time button. The XC-004 has no digital output. In this test the Aiwa is the lowest priced at £229.

Sound quality Following comparisons with the Maranta CD85 and several other references, the XC-004 emerged as pretty average these days for a better example, but in truth, quite a good sound at 60%. It possessed a good level of clarity, revealing instrumental lines well. Complex material

was handled without significant confusion or congestion, and clarity was maintained down to low volume and modulation levels. Stereo images were well focused, and both stage width and depth were above average, even if that last touch of transparency was absent.

Some of the impression of good mid definition was associated with a trace of hardness noted on piano, while the rendi-tion of musical transients as a whole was poorer than for other machines in its class. Edges were dulled and slowed, while the feeling of rhythm and bass was downbeat — the general effect somewhat closed-in and lacking air. Conversely, the player did demonstrate good control throughout the frequency range, and no single area could be singled out for criticism. In this respect it remained easy

to listen to, with a low incidence of listener fatigue.

Technical details The inside of this machine is straightfor-ward, comprising a single PCB with little evidence of audiophile grade compon-ents. Dual 16-bit DACs are used, with the ubiquitous Burr Brown PCM 56s serially driven, while the panel logo refers to 18-bit conversion at a 4-times resample rate, with digital filtering. The extra 2-bit resolution is achieved by digital ranging at the filter stage, followed by variable ana-

HI-F1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989 67

AIWA XC-004

OILY I I.

;eV I 7 It I II

I It

nu r•• mri

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Graph 1. Aiwa XG-004: Spuriae up to 10kHz associated with a ¡kHz tone at OdB (plus some minor

print-out errors, for which we apologise) MEASURED 1.101/ -8083

70811

-810411

100411

-MCI -OW

Graph

- 70d9 - We - 80dB - 100811 - 11001 - 11,0dB REQUIRID UM

2. Aiwa XC-004: Linearity below -60dB

.. s roots MR A eel°94088". q8i74 "..

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le

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Graph 3. Aiwa XC-004: Dithered ¡kHz sinewave at -90dB, waveform below, distortion spectrum above

Test results 2» Iltat 201diz

Channel balance (dB) 0.07 0.04 0.08 Channel separation (dB) 99 93 70 Channel phase difference(*) 0.5 0.3 0.9 Total harmonic distortion

( • inc noise) OdB -22/17 -23/18 -46/44 ( 20kliz bandwidth) -10dB -91/47

-50dB -35 Intermodulat ion distortion (dB) L+R Od13; 19, 201d1z -26/18 L+R - 10d13; 19, 201cHz -91/47

Frequency response ( dB) I. -0.09 0 -1.94 2011z-201d1z R -0.03 0 -1.99

Output level. OdB (V) 2.0 Output impedance (ohms) 220

&Hz 5Idh 161d1z De-emphasis +0.05 +0.44 +0.60 Track access time (secs)1Tr15 YEDS21 4 secs Mechanical noise low Error correction to gap: >0.5mm Signal to noise ratio sib without ( no emphasis) emphasis emph.b a) 2011z-20kIlz unwtd (dB) 106 10) b)CCIR ARM ( IkHz ref) 100 96

(dB) Spuriae ( to 1001c111)(0B) relOdB - I15 Resolution (dB) at -90dB L.= -88.85 R= -90.6 Headphone socket Yes, variable Dimensions (wdh ) 43a34a11.6an T)pical price inc VAT £229

Supplier: Aiwa (UK) Ltd., Unit 5, Heathrow Summit Centre, Skyport Drive, West Drayton, Middx. UB7 OLY. Tel: 01-897 7000

logue gain-switching and D/A conversion. Thus the louder modulations carry 16 bits, while quieter signals have the equi-valent of 18-bit resolution. Pre-set resis-tors at the DACs allow for offset and linearity trimming. A chain of dual ICs come next (JRC

NJM 20821s), while de-emphasis and mut-ing are accomplished by solid-state cir-cuitry. The main microprocessors are predictably supplied by Sony, and include the established CXA 1082B and CXA 1081 control chip. Power-supplies are quite limited and the tri-beam transport has only mild suspension decoupling. Mains supply is via 2-core, with exposed live terminals inside the casing.

Lab report Although many results were more than satisfactory, this player suffered from a silly design fault: it just entered clipping at MSB or full modulation. Fortunately this was not so serious as to affect listening-test results significantly, due to the rarity of true peak-level modulation on music discs. Flat-out, the distortion averaged -20dB or 10%, the resulting spectrum showing a full quota of harmonics (Graph 1). The two-tone intermodulation test signals also clipped, giving an average difference-tone distortion of - 22dB. Upon reducing the test level by 10dB these problems were removed, and the better (LH) channel then scored -91dB (0.003%) for midband distortion. But a UR discrepancy still gave -47dB (0.44%) on the other channel. Good results were obtained at lower

modulation levels; for example, - 35dB distortion at -70dB ( lIcHz dithered). The corresponding spectrogram was decently clean right up to 100kHz, with spuriae in this region rejected by 1I5dB down to approximately 4µY. Further up the fre-quency range things were not so good, as this player delivered an excessive 20mV peak to peak in the 40MHz range even into a 75-ohm termination. In the audio band, however, signal-to-noise ratios were fine, with accurate channel balance, while stereo separation was more than satisfac-tory. The frequency response was very flat almost right up to 20IcHz, at which point it dipped sharply to - 2dB. Error-correction was unimpressive at a maximum gap of 0.5mm; some players get up to 4.0mm these days.

Tested for linearity, the result for the left channel (Graph 2) shows a mild slope shift below -80dB, but is otherwise well controlled down to - 110dB. Less than ldB of resolution error was noted for the average of the two channels at 90dB, and

the corresponding sinewave and spectro-gram (Graph 3) confirms the good behaviour at low levels.

Conclusion Aiwa has produced a machine which offers a good presentation, but has fewer facilities than many. In the lab, the ultraso-nic interference level, and some other aspects could be improved. On sound

quality, it achieved a competent standard, and although the player is not outstand-ing, it is good enough for a recommenda-tion due to its competitive price: one of the best Aiwa players to date.

AKAI CD62

Alcai is taking a serious interest in the budget-end of the CD market and making an impression in the UK by leading on the essential requirement: high sound quality.

Like its competitors, the Akai CD62 is well finished in the usual satin-black, and carries a good array of features. Some cassette dubbing facilities are provided - a fashionable move these days - for example, 'auto-space' to apply a 4-second pause between tracks to aid track-seeking cassette players, and a timed-programme feature. In this mode the tape playing time can be entered into the CD player and it will adjust its replay for a best fit in the tape running time, pausing when it is time to turn over or reverse.

Billed as an 8-times oversampled 18-bit player, the Alcai employed a quick-operat-ing transport mechanism using a linear-motor drive, an indication of the impro-ving level of technology used by the independents. Up to 20 tracks may be programmed in any chosen order, via a numeric array on the front panel or a key-pad on the infra-red remote control. The latter has the usual facilities, includ-ing A-B music phrase repeat and full programming. On the display there is a track programme calendar, with both track numbers and timings presented. CD singles (8cm discs) can be played without an adaptor, and the CD62's price is £325.

Sound quality The sound of this player was a touch untidy, but it nevertheless manages a sufficient degree of dynamic life and pace to help lift it above the ordinary. This, together with a well-balanced perform-ance, resulted in a strong sonic score of 71%. Compared to many of its compat-riots, the Alcai CD62 generated interest among the listeners - it sounded faster and livelier, more open and more involv-ing. These benefits easily outweighed minor objections concerning a mild loss of focal precision in the treble, with a touch of 'zing' and forwardness also appar-ent at this end of the spectrum. The bass showed good slam and arti-

culation, while mid definition was also well above the usual standard. Perform-ance was also enhanced by impressive recovery of the natural acoustic ambience present in many good recordings, helping

68 HI-F1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989

CD PLAYERS

to give a good impression of depth and space to the stereo soundstage. Good levels of detail were maintained over a wide dynamic range, regardless of the complexity of the material, and the over-all impression was one of an effusive, confident approach to digital replay.

Technical details Using 8-times oversampling technology, via a digital filter clocked at a rate of 342.81c.Hz, the two 16-bit Burr Brown PCM 56P D/A converters are worked pretty hard in this player, and are unlikely to deliver full resolution at and below —90dB. Following the 56Ps, the circuitry looks rather like that in one of the Marantz 'SE' series, with those green `Cerafine' electrolytic capacitors of selected audio quality, plus a sprinkling of copper-foil polystyrene filter capacitors. Many aspects of the mechanical

engineering show that attention has been paid to detail, even though the case lid is undamped. Specific points include strong mountings for the main PCBs, and separ-ate fixings for the mains transformer to reduce transmitted frame vibration. The transport is a high-quality linear-motor type, well mounted on a damped, high-compliance, coil-spring suspension. Good disc clamping has been provided, and live mains connections are properly shrouded. A separate headphone amplifier is fitted.

Lab report The Alcai's near-flawless channel balance and flat mid-range was slightly marred by a trace of treble lift, although +0.2dB at 20kHz is unlikely to have any audible consequences. Channel separation was 112dB at midband, declining to a still superior 88dB at 20kHz, while with dual DA converters no inter-channel time-delay was observed. Despite a high over-sampling rate, the DACs produced good

results for HF intermodulation, with an average of —96dB at peak level and —98dB at — 10dB modulation. Measuring close to —90dB at full level

over the 20Hz to 20kHz frequency range, the peak-level harmonic distortion results were very good, and there was no indica-tion of compression. The —78dB distor-tion result (0.012%) at — 10dB modula-tion suggested that some tiny linearity errors were present, while the results for —70dB dithered 1 kHz tones confirmed this with a linearity difference between the channels and a mean distortion level of — 29dB. Graph 4 is for the better channel, while Graph 5 shows the full spectrum out to 100kHz, including a burst

of spuriae at 881cHz — twice the sampling rate but at a low peak amplitude of —95dB relative to full level. Down at —90dB modulation ( I kHz

dithered) the analysis shows a high level of 2nd and 3rd harmonic distortion as well as an irregular sinewave shape (Graph 6). At —90dB the output level was 6dB below par (well matched between channels), while the linearity plot (Graph 7) shows a slope error between — 75 and —95dB. It then attempts some corrective action, and the result is considered not too bad down to — 110dB.

De-emphasis was respectably accurate, while the output was 2.24V from a 600-ohm impedance. Error-correction was not outstanding, passing only a 0.5mm gap; this is adequate, but more reserve would be to this player's advantage. Signal-to-noise ratios were fine at typically 100dB. Some 7mV p—p of RF was present at the output; considering the prime frequency of 50MHz, such outputs should be better filtered.

Conclusion While some aspects of its lab-measured performance could be improved, this

player provides good build quality, a comprehensive specification, versatile digital outputs, and a lively, up-to-date sound quality. Akai has tried for a good sound with this design, and has suc-ceeded. Strongly recommended.

TECHNICS SL-P555

An impressive-looking machine, the 555 is presented in Technics' usual high-quality charcoal gunmetal finish complete with a solid aluminium front panel. It is disting-uished by a large display accompanied by a sizeable control knob derived from the SL-P999 design. Comprehensive tape-edit facilities are also provided to aid dubbing to tape, including a peak search meter to aid setting the maximum recording level. A 10-key array plus ' 10' multiplier is present on the conveniently angled fascia, while this is also duplicated as a numeric keypad on the remote. The latter has superior ergonomics,

achieved by its neat differentiation of functions using clear labelling, colour differences and button size. A full facility design, the remote transmitter also in-cludes control of the output level over a 0 to — 12dB range: helpful for fine tuning of volume level but of no great use other-wise. This is a traditional Technics feature

and is accomplished in the digital domain. All the usual facilities are provided,

AKAI CD62

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Graph associated channel)

4. Akai CD62: Spuriae up to 10kils with a ¡kHz tone at -70dB (better

mrbiCbire%i1: 1 ""ele% " U"'

,

b;otel tom. ell 375 Kr SiOP , MI 000 Ms

Graph associated channel)

S. Akai CD62: Smaiae up to 100kHz with a lkFly tone at - 70dB (worse

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s , ,e,,

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Graph 6. Akai CD62: Dithered ¡kHz sinewave at -90dB, waveform below, distortion spectrum above

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Graph 7. Akai 01)62: Linearity plot below - 60dB

Test results 20111 Ildiz /Nab

(lame! balance (dB) 0.01 0.00 0.01 Channel separation ( dB) 125 112 88 Channel phase difference (°) 0 o 0 Total harmonic distort ion , (' inc noise) Odll -90 -89 -90

(20kIlz bandwidth ) -10dB -78 -70dB - 33/24

Intennodulation distortion (dB) L+R 04111; 19, 20IdIz -102/91 L+R - 10dB; 19, 2Ndlz -98

Frequency response ( dB ) L +0.06 o +an 2011z-20kHz R +0.07 0 +0.19

Output level, OdB (V) 2.24 Output impedance ( ohms) 600

Ildlz 51tilz 161dit 1k-emphasis +0.09 +0.10 to.» Track access time ( secs) ITr15 YEDS2I 3 secs Mechanical noise low Error correction to gap: >0.imm Signal to noise ratio with without (no emphasis) emphasis emphasis a ) 2011z-201/Hz unwtd (dB) 98 103 b)CCIR ARM ( lilts ref)(dB) 102 98

Spuriae ( to 1(t0kIlz)(dB) ref OdB -95 Resolution ( dB ) at -90dB 1=-96 R-% Ileadphone socket Yes, variable Dimensions ( wdh ) 42.5s 34.5X 11. Ian Typical price inc VAT £325

Supplier: Akai (UK) Ltd., Haslemere Heathrow Estate, Parkway, Howtslow, Middx TP74 6NQ. Tel: 01-897 6388

HI-H NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AuGus-r 1989 69

Made to measure Hi-Fi To get the perfect suit, you wouldn't walk into the first shop you see

and buy the first one you saw. And if you were discerning, and required a suit to fit you perfectly

you'd probably try made to measure. Just as every human body is different, so is every human ear. That's why we believe the closest thing possible to Made to Measure Hi Fi is the Hi Fi Experience.

An incredible selection of the finest systems. We've the greatest selection of the very best systems technology has

to offer. To measure you up for one, we'll sit you in one of our demonstration

rooms where you can hear a system or any combination of separate pieces of equipment in private.

Free Fitting. Most retailers will deliver a pile of cardboard boxes to your home.

we won't! We have a team of trained installers who will not only deliver your system. they will also install it to your satisfaction before they go.

Mel LONDON Tottenham Court Road, London W1 Lion House. 227 Tottenham Court Road Tel: 01 580 3535

Open as usual during refurbishment.

Our Lion House branch is currently being extensively refurbished to be the hi'fi store for the nineties. Don't be put off by the scaffolding. most of the new stock is already in. and we're open for business as usual.

Alfred Place. London WC1 32/34 Alfred Place. Store Street Tel: 01 631 4917

Camden. London NW1 2./4 Camden high Street Tel: 01 388 1300 (round corner form Mornington Crescent tube)

14 day exchange period. We are 100% confident that you will be absolutely delighted with

your system. so much so, that we promise you can exchange it without quibble. within 14 days if this shouldn't be the case.

2 year guarantee. Finally, in addition to your statutory rights, well give you a full

comprehensive two year guarantee regardless of any manufacturers guarantee. We think you'll now agree, were a very different type of hi-fi

company. So if you have good vision, an ear for music and a nose for good value, call in imb to see us for the most sound advice.

o

THE ULTIMATE IN SOUND ADVICE

NC E godlike Me gomild

YORKSHIRE Bradford Rawson Square ( near John St Market)

Tel: 0274 309266

MIDLANDS Birmingham Superfi. 67 Smallbrook Tel: 021 631 2675 Leamington Spa 49 Park Street Tel: 0926 881500

SCOTLAND Glasgow 145 Bath Street Tel: 041 226 4268

CD PLAYERS including A-B phrase repeat, random- or shuffle-play, and programming for up to 32 tracks in any desired order. And 3m. (8cm) discs can be played. The large fluorescent display deserves special men-tion. It signals when emphasis is present, indicates the various edit modes, shows whether the digital output is operative, and varies the other settings. In addition to the track programming section, it also has a signal line-level indicator, to aid programme assessment prior to recording.

Sound quality Scoring an above-average 64%, the SL-P555 presented an interesting blend of qualities. There was no question concern-ing the excellent treble, which sounded pure and grainless - airy, delicate and informative. No blurring of treble focus was evident, a common fault with CD replay. Vocal sibilants were accurate and clearly defined. The bass was good, clean and well extended, sounding generally tidy. Through the mid-range the sound was consistently neutral, while stereo focus was very good. Transparency rated a little above average. The 555 tended to sound polite and rather too even-tem-pered, although it was classed as offering very good 'high fidelity'. More brio would have helped raise listener interest, and the reproduction was considered to lack suf-ficient drive and life to match its good performance in other areas.

Technical details A remarkably small PCB and relatively few visible components have been fitted. 'The reason is simple: the ICs are all surface mounted directly on the underside of the board. As regards decode technology, Technics is suffering from a marketing problem here. Having led the research field with the low-bit, high-oversampling MASH system, it was decided to conceal it in domestic players because of the minor shortfall in measured signal-to-noise ratio. The first domestic player, the SL-P200, therefore concealed its true identity, and now we have the same state of affairs. The front panel says '4 DAC linear

18-bit', but this is not the case. The 555 is a MASH technology player, using pulse-width modulation to decode a high over-sampled, digitally filtered signal at a 64-times rate. The DAC is single- bit, augmented by a second bit to improve accuracy, and in theory at least it should deliver near-perfect monotonicity and linearity. In this player the MASH chip is time-shared between the two channels, so only one DAC is present rather than the four proclaimed on the panel! The trans-port is an excellent Technics design, with a fast-response linear-motor drive plus fine suspension and good disc clamping. The base-plate chassis is a heavy mineral-loaded anti-resonant moulding.

Lab report The 555 has superb channel-balance and a decent if not perfectly flat frequency response, the latter unusual these days in

registering an extended ( if very slight) shelving ( Graph 8). Note that there is a minor phase difference between the two channels at 20kHz due to the use of the time-shared DAC. At a normal code rate, 90° is the resulting shift for a time-shared design, but the raw 64-times oversam-pling produced a value here of 2.4° - too small to be of any significance.

Full-level harmonic distortion was fine. The figure of -86dB distortion at - 10dB modulation was state-of-the-art, and pointed to mild peak-level compression. Indeed, no distortion harmonics as such were visible on a wide-band display, just a slightly coloured noise spectrum. No specific spuriae were evident up to 100kHz and down to - 120dB, while RF analysis showed only lmV p-p at around 1.2MHz, which the 75-ohm load sup-pressed.

Investigating linearity, the one-on-one perfection of Technics' low-bit conver-sion was clearly seen, and taking into account some noise contribution below

-110dB, the transfer-function looks pretty good down to the - 120dB test limit. Each intersection meets perfectly (Graph 9), while the single measured figures tallied exactly, showing negligible resolution errors at -90dB. In further confirmation, the double plot for a low-level sinewave and its spectrum (Graph 10) shows a textbook result. The performance was also impressive at

high frequencies. 11F intermodulation was also excellent. Peak white-noise was hand-led without clipping and error-correction was very good, while both shock and vibration were handled well.

Conclusion While MASH hasn't resulted in a startling uplift in subjective sound quality, the sonics were nonetheless very presentable. The SL-P555 is an excellent example of a mainstream player offering fine build and finish, with a very good lab performance. Every facility worked well, and the player is undoubtedly good value. +

TECHNICS SL- P555

- [mods 10001 CMOKS

101.4 100.12 000 10002 MI«

Graph 8. Technics SL-P55.5: Frequency response

-7043

-11043

-0049

10043

11048

ItEASURED LEVEL

- 7043 - 0043 - 00•10 - 10040 - 11043

1323.01,311 LEVEL

Graph 9. Technics SL-P555: Linearity plot below - 60dB

- 12060

Supplier: Panasonic Consumer Electronics UK, Willoughby Road, Bracknell, Berks, RGI2 4FP. Tel: (0344)862 444

.....01V.. 020

datu

_14. ST00, 0 214. 03.40S STOP , 10 0•• .

1.1.

20 e\ ;\itirjr147.

r ST00/1 0 Sec S,OFt • ..S•c

Graph 10. Technics SL-P555: Dithered 1 kHz sinewave at - 90dB, waveform below, distortion spectrum above

Test results 2011z Iltflz 201d1z

Channel balance (dB) 0.01 0.03 0.07 Channel separation ( dB ) 110 98 75 Channel phase difference (') 0 0.3 2.4 Total harmonic distortion

(' inc noise ) OdB -90 -84 -90 ( 20Idlz bandwidth) - 10dB -86

-70dB -44 Intermodulation distortion ( dB ) L+ R OdB; 19, 20kIlz L+ R - 10dB; 19, 20kIlz

Frequency response (dB) L +0.03 20Hz-201(11z R +0.05

Output level. OdB (V ) Output impedance (ohms)

Ildtz De emphasis +0.15 Track access time ( secs ) ITr15 YEDS21 Mechanical noise Ernie correction to Signal to noise ratio with (no emphasis) trig:basis a ) 2011z-20k1iz unwtd (dB) 99 b)CCIR ALM ( ' kHz ref) 96 96

(dB) Spuriag ( to 100kHz )( dB ) ref OdB - 104 Resolution ( dB ) at -90dB L=-90.l R-90.25 Headphone socket Yes, variable Ihmensions ( wdh ) 438338 11.4cm Typical price inc VAT £290

-100 -100 o -0.28 O -0.24

2.26 660 5kHz 161dtt +0.23 -0.13 2.5 secs low

gap: >2.4mm without emphasis 98

111.FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW Al 'GUST 1989 71

TECHNICS SE MOO 'DIGITAL DIRECT DRIVE'

The race to produce new and interesting products is hotting up. Technics' engineers have

developed a digital power amplifier which is something more than a standard power amp with an on-board processor. The first striking feature takes the form

of a large, semi-shrouded volume control set in the centre of the front panel. Below this are four digital input selector buttons, covering two optical sources, one coaxial, and a DAT coaxial input. To the left is the operation mode selector: digital, variable analogue, and a fixed analogue input which allows the device to be used as a normal power amplifier. On the right is the speaker switching: off ( useful for headphone listening), set A, set B, or both together — handy for bi-wiring.

Gold-plated RCA phonos are used for all inputs with the exception of the opticals, which employ Toslink fixing. The speaker outlets are binding-posts only, and case-work is up to the normal Technics stan-dard. The case panels are made from steel and, continuing the fashion, large feet are employed.

Technics is claiming some innovative technology for this amp. Borrowing from the long-running Class-AA system, it has taken an interesting route in the search for improved signal-to-noise ratios. The output stage is a unity-gain current ampli-fier fed from a voltage which must obviously be the same as that appearing at the speaker terminals. Where Technics

Following a spate of amplifiers

with on-board digital processors,

variations on a theme are arriving

for the new season . . .

by Chris Bryant

claims innovation is that this signal is provided by employing a high-voltage current-to-voltage converter at the DAC's output stage. By making this converter a

variable-gain device, the volume control is kept out of the direct signal path, being in the feedback loop of the converter instead. In this way the signal-to-noise ratio is increased to that inherent in the amplifier and is independent of volume control setting. Technics claims a S/N ratio of 112dB, providing a very large dynamic range. The D/A converter uses four DACs to

provide 20-bit resolution in conjunction with an 8-times oversampling digital filter. This eliminates zero-cross distortion as in Technics current CD players. The Yamaha ADIC is used for digital acquisition, fol-lowed by a Technics digital filter and Burr Brown PCM56P 16-bit DACs.

Internal construction is complex. The converter sits in its own screened box above the main body of the power ampli-fier. Remove this, and the power amp is laid out beneath, using double-mono con-

struction with independent heatsinIcs at either side. The two transformers have oxygen-free copper windings, and special high-speed supply capacitors are used. Also, OCC wire is used in critical applica-tions. A further PCB is located vertically behind the front panel, taking care of switching, volume control, and line ampli-fication. For analogue inputs a stage with 45dB of gain is employed after the volume control to feed the unit-gain current amp.

Sound quality Equipment used for listening tests com-prised Celestion SL700 loudspeakers and Meridian 207, with a Marantz CD85 CD. Through its internal digital processor

the SE-M100 delivered a very detailed sound. The bass was fairly extended but a shade heavy, and given the right (wrong) material it became a touch boomy. The mid-range was thinned on voice and had traces of exaggerated sibilance. Strings could sound squeaky, with some glare: slightly thin without enough body and texture. The treble was precise, with images well constructed and exhibiting fine focus. The amp does have some measure of transparency and the stage width was good; but it was a touch

'mechanical' in its rendering, unable to preserve fully the intricate relationships between various strands of the music, especially when things became complex. Fed through the analogue circuits from

a normal CD player, the sound produced

AMPLIFIERS

was decidedly different. From the Meri-dian and the Marantz the treble was somewhat lazier - it lost that precise imaging and huge stage width, but at the same time it became easier to live with and to my mind more musically enjoy-able. Rhythm seemed improved to some extent, and although things weren't all sweetness and light, it made a very brave effort. Strings could still turn a bit acid at times, a trace of glare persisted, and the bass remained a mite ploddy. But the sound was still reasonably detailed and

lively, gaining more natural dynamics, while retaining ambience depth, space and transparency. The top has some grain and tizz, and as this appeared irrespective of source it must be attributed to the power amplifier proper.

Lab report The power amplifier part can obviously be treated as a normal PA, but there is a line-amp as well. The digital processor was tested like any other, but with the audio output taken from the speaker terminals.

Power amp section The specified 100W output was easily achieved into an 8ohrn load, and with just one channel driven over 135W was attained before programme clip. Into

4ohms the power limited at 20dBW (200W), but this time both channels were working. Burst signal into 2ohms with a 20% duty-cycle saw 22.5dBW, with ± 19A of current available. DC-offset was negligi-ble on both channels.

Total harmonic distortion was very low at all frequencies, while HF intermodula-tion products at rated power measured -96dB - a fine result. The line-input, referenced to 0.5V for OdBW output, had an 84dB signal-to-noise ratio, and -92dB of residual hum and noise with the volume set to zero. Input overload was greater than 28dB ( ref. 0.5V), stereo separation was maintained at better than 80dB across the audio range, and the low output impedance increased slightly with frequency from 0.18ohms at 20Hz to 0.23ohms at 20kHz. Volume balance tracking strayed a little at low levels, with 2dB of error at -60dB. Both the fixed and variable inputs had a similar sensitivity at approx 105mV, which may be a little insensitive for some products - perhaps making a separate pre-amplifier necessary. The loading of 20k-ohms and 250pF is reasonable, and 1.22V for clip. The frequency response was slightly

rolled-off in the extreme treble, actually down 0.3dB at 20kHz, but extended fiat to below 20Hz in the bass. A supply modulation spectogram taken at two-thirds power level with both channels driven into a 4ohm load was very clean, with only a slight 50Hz residual some 82dB down.

Processor section The channel balance was dependent on volume setting, but for 2.83V output (=OdBW ref) it was only 0.68dB out and

well preserved up to 20kHz. Channel separation was slightly better at low and mid frequencies than on the line input, but worse by 5dB at 20kHz. Harmonic distortion was low, with about -90dB recorded for a full-level signal right up to 20kHz, while the -43dB THD measured at -70dB level was particularly praise-worthy for a digital device. HF intermo-dulation was as clean as a whistle. The frequency response was fiat from

the bass through the midrange, but shows some asymmetric roll-off in the high treble (Graph 1). The signal-to-noise ratio (ref. OdBW) was better than 100dB under all measurement conditions, fulfilling Technics' claims. Turning the output up to 20V for a OdB reference revealed the ultrasonic spuriae for a -70dB level of IkHz tone to be 125dB down, and Graph 2 shows this clean behaviour. The low-

level linearity test ciemonstratcs almost perfect resolution down to - 110dB (Graph 3), the - 90dB sinewave is well constructed ( Graph 4), with a corres-ponding resolution error of only 0.3dB, and dynamic range, as claimed, is large.

Conclusion Technics has a habit of making amplifiers which measure exceeding well and have a touch of novel circuit design. To this end it has produced a more than interesting product. At £560 it offers reasonable power output, a good lab performance and excellent build quality. Sound quality makes this one of the best Technics power amplifiers ever, with or without the digital converter in use. In compari-son with its competitors it is better than average, but it does fall a little short of the best available in this price range. +

TECHNICS SE- M 100

2.111

Ide

Ode

IdE1

2d0

'dB

.1d0

10113

- tin Mu». • puma

t199 10911. 201..

Graph I. Technics SE-M100: frequency response of digital processor •

Graph 2. Technics SE-M100: spuriae up to lOOkHz associated with a ¡kHz tone at - 70cU3, measured via the digital processor

1.12ASURID LiVEL -00.10

-70d1

-80d9

-90dB

100dB

120dB

- 70d9 - flOde - 90dB - 1000

REQUIBED LEVEL

- 110dB - 120.111

Graph 3. Technics SE-M100: linearity plot below - 60dB

OJO

-lee

191,9r,d, STOP, . wr

1 0 , 4 oSec

Graph 4. Technics SE-Ml00: dithered ¡kHz sinewave at -90dB, waveform below, distortion spectrum above.

Test results

Manufacture's Rated Power output into litatims Power Output One Channel, Bohm load Both channels, 4ohms load One channel, 2ohm, burst Instantaneous peak current

Distortion Total harmonic distortion at rated power, aux/CD input Intermodulation, I 9/201d1z,

20Hz 2I.3dbW 19.8dBW

+I9A

20.6-dBw IkHz 201(Hz

2I.5dBW 21 3dBW 20.0dBW 20 (kIBW

22.5 - I9A

20Hz ikliz 201tHz -81 dB -85dB -82dB

rated power, aux input - 9641B

Noise Aux/CI) input ( IHF, CC1R wtd) -84dB Residual, inroad ( vol control at min) -92dB DC output offset LOmV R.OmV Input overload 20Hz IkHz 20kHz Aux/CD input (IIIF) >28dB >28dB >28dB

Stereo Separation AWL/Cl) input 83dB 83d 80dB Output impedance 0.18olun 0.17olun 0.23olun (damping) Volume/balance tracking OdB -20dB -60dB Atuc/CD input 0.04dB 0.7IdB 2.00dB Input Data Socket type sensitivity loading Aux/CD input phono104mV 20kohms 2.50p( Power amp phono 104m1l 20K.ohms 240pf

Test results digital processor

Channel balance ( dB) Channel separation ( dB) Channel phase difference TIM

OdB -10dB -70dB

Intermoduiation distortion OdB, 19/20kIlz -10dB: 19/20kHz

De-emphasis error

Signal to noise ratio

22Hz - 22kilz unwtd CUR ARM ( IkHz rd) Ultrasonic spuriae to (ref OdB)

-70dB signal Resolution ( dB)) at at - 90dB

L-90.30dB R -90.27dB White noise ( full level ) Size ( width X depth x Met )mm Typical price inc. VAT

20Hz 0.68 86

-89dB

lkilz +0.09 with

emphasis 106dB 104dB

100kilz

(kHz 0.68 85 00

-90dB -82dB -45dB

51cliz +0.06

-I25dB

20kHz 0.71 75

-90dB

-10IdB -94dB 16kHz

-0.20dB without emphasis 100,10 102tlit

Slight clip 430 x 161 X 380

£560.00

Supplier: Panasonic Consumer Electronics, Willoughby Road, Bracknell, Berkshire. Tel: (0344) 862444

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGIIST 1989 75

"AWARD WINNING HI-FI AWARD WINNING DEALER"

usson ELECTROrlID

'It was years ago but, I can still remember buying my first real hi-fi turntable. I was a student working weekends in the local take-away, it took about six months to save the money for that turntable. You see, I'd set my sights on one of those reviewer legend beasts, carved out of the living rock. Geez, it looked and sounded pretty. I hopped the train to Cardiff. It was one of those drizzly, grey days

that Cardiff wears so well. Panic, I couldn't find the shop. A cute blonde with drop-dead looks set me straight. It was a tiny, cramped affair jammed full with real hi-fi. I met the owner, "Tall Tony", he was busy but, not too busy to help. Well, the Living Legend sounded right, looked right and I parted with the cash. But, how was I gonna get it back home. It weighed in like Orson Welles in leg-irons. Tony had an idea, he's deliver it, set it up and check it over before leaving me to it. Man! That guy was a Saint. A couple of days later there we were in my sleazy room, Billie

singing the Blues and Tony doing the fine tuning. Well, I've gotten out of the take-away business and Tony's got

Audio Excellence into three new shops and the Blues, well, the Blues plays on:

134/6 CRWYS RD, CARDIFF (0222) 228565

9 HIGH ST, SWANSEA (0792) 474608

58 BRISTOL RD, GLOUCESTER (0452) 300046

audio eXcellencc

AMPLIFIER

Nestled amongst a new range of Sony ES products is the TA-F630ESD amplifier. Modelled on

the cheaper TA-F530ES, but equipped with a proprietary 1-bit D/A converter it is the first product to employ the fruits of Philips' BitStream PDM technology. Aside from the converter, this amplifier

is exceptionally well built for the price and offers a total of four standard line inputs ( including two tape) in addition to both m-m and m-c disc stages. Bass, treble and balance knobs are com-plemented by a huge rotary volume control and peripheral features such as source direct, —20dB mute, mono/stereo mode, and full rec-out switching.

Separate optical digital inputs (plus one output) are provided for CD and DAT sources as an alternative to the standard 75ohm coaxial input. Each of the appropriate 32kHz, 44kHz and 48kHz sampling frequencies is indicated by a row of LEDs mounted on the top of the black anodised facia.

Technology At the heart of this outboard D/A conver-ter lies Philips' new PDM CMOS IC, the SAA 7320, which effectively replaces the established SAA7220/TDA1541 chip-set at a lower cost using new technology. Sony has also elected to use the reliable YM3623B digital interface IC from Yamaha which provides a separate output for subcode data (de-emphasis switching, etc). 16-bit serial data is addressed by the SAA7320 IC via a delay-line RAM and subject to 4-times oversampling using an integral FIR transversal filter. The gain of this filter is modified to redress the 0.5dB loss (at 20kHz) encountered using the subsequent 32-times interpolation filter.

Having increased the oversampled fre-quency to 5.6448 MHz a very high level dither signal ( 352kHz at — 20dB) is intro-duced and is accounted for by the addi-tion of a further MSB. The clock frequency of the 17-bit data is further doubled to 11.2896 MHz by a 2-times sample and hold filter before being addressed to the noise shaper/quantizer.

Noise shaping is pivotal to the success of the PDM system and is used to redistri-bute the mounting quantization noise produced by the truncation of these 17-bit words to a 1-bit data stream. Each error incurred as a by-product of the truncation of a bit-word is fed back to the next, thereby averaging the error between the two. In fact Philips reintro-duces double the original quantization error so that the time-averaging or noise-shaping process takes on a 2nd-order characteristic.

Theoretically the accumulated error is reduced to zero by this time-averaging, a process that is complete before the signal has reached the 0-20kHz passband. As a result the quantization noise (produced by truncating each 17-bit word to a 1-bit word) reaches a maximum at the 11.2896

11141101111r — •

SONY 630ESD: A PDM PREVIEW

While PDM 'BitStream' CD players

are still in the pipeline, Sony

has become the first to offer the

one-bit technology

by Paul Miller

MHz sampling frequency but is reduced by around 102dB throughout the audio band.

Finally the 1-bit data stream is output to the integral PDM DAC. This is a switched capacitor device that responds to each logic signal ( either a '0' or a ' 1') by producing a fixed-width, fixed-height ana-logue pulse. These + 1/-1 pulses emerge as a continuous variation in signal density: any variation in signal density between the 'upper' and 'lower' pulses therefore represents both a change in amplitude and frequency of the reconstructed wave-form.

Peak output waveforms are represented by a succession of full scale density pulse trains occupying the + 1 and — 1 transi-tions in succession. An internal integrat-ing op-amp time-averages this stream of analogue pulses and restores the original passband waveform intact. Therefore an equal density of + 1 and — 1 pulses repre-sents no net output after filtering.

Philips' BitStream or PDM system should not be confused with Technics' MASH/PWM scheme. MASH is a parallel technology but utilizes a composite of 1st and 2nd order integral noise shapers together with a restricted 32-times over-sampling to effect much the same improvement in passband S/N ratio. The process is aided, furthermore, by the constraints of the Pulse Width Modulation DAC which requires a minimum of 11 residual quantization values at the input to generate 11 different pulse widths at the output. These pulses are of a fixed height (cf

PDM) but are analogue and so cannot strictly be called 1-bit; they are in fact 1 level. So, in the MASH system, the 18-bit

words output by the 4-times FIR filter are only truncated to 3.46 bits, this satisfying the 11 quantization levels (0, ± 1, ±2... ± 5).

Lab report Viewed as a conventional amplifier the Sony TA-F630ESD offered a full 128W into 8ohms with an increase of + 1.8dB into 4ohms. TFID rose to a maximum of 0.0089% but, as shown by the ultrasonic distortion plot, was principally odd-order in nature. Noise was low, stereo separa-tion poor via m-c ( — 40dB to — 50dB) and the output impedance a trifle high at 0.215ohm. Sony's TA-F630ESD also dis-played a fair sensitivity to the AM RF test, demodulating IM RF signals in the 1-4 MHz and 22-35 MHz regions. The fun-damental resonance of the input RC net-work was put at 28 MHz, resulting in some + 22dB peak noise modulation — clearly audible as a roughness and mud-dling via the line input. The PDM D/A converter offered a

linearity of some 15.3 bits but, though this is exceeded by many multi-bit DACs, the PDM converter remains fundamentally monotonic to this level. Passband ripples peaked at around 0.08dB while ripples in the stopband amounted to 12dB, both functions of the aperture effect in the FIR filter. The latter is visible on the 3D spurious output plot which demonstrates the 2nd-order stopband images typical of a Philips oversampling filter despite this integrated FIR filter offering an improved stopband rejection of 54dB. THD reached a minimum of 0.0034% at peak level but its odd-order characteristic appeared more to do with the integrating op-amp than the DAC itself. Not shown is the peculiar elevation of the noise floor around the base of peak-level, high fre-quency signals — this appears to be a peculiarity of the PDM system.

Sound quality Listening fairly briefly via the disc phono inputs I felt that deep bass notes were restricted both in extension and impact, just as a trace of sibilance was introduced

NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989 77

Turntable

Dual CS430 Dual CS430 Dual CS430 Dual CS430 Dual C5430 Dual C5430 Dual CS430 Dual CS430 Dual CS430 Dual CS430 Dual C5430 Dual CS430 Dual CS430 Dual CS430 Dual CS430 DuctICS430 Yamaha AX300 Dual CS430 Yamaha AX400

Bartlett mane savm • recommended s stems s. eokers

AR A03 AR A0.5 11+ ARCAM Al a Denon PMA 250 Marantz PM 35 Marantz PM 45 NAD 3020E NAD 3130 NAD 3240PE NAD 3225 Rotel RA810A RoteIRA820A Rotel RA8208X3 Rate! RA8408X3 Rote! RA8708X

Wharfedale Delta 30 Goodmans Maxin

279.95 314.95 288.95 249.95 271.95 314 95 246.95 288.95 356.95 271.95 254.95 279.95 322.95 419.95 229.95

271.95 305.95 331.95 347.95 373.95 398.95 3/4.95 348.95 373.95 390.95 416.95 441.95

Heybrook Point 5 Tannoy Ell AR 112 Mission 761 314.95 348.95 322.95 284.95 305.95 348.95 280.95 322.95 390.95 305.95 288.95 322.95 356.95 454.95 263.95

Speakers AR 122 - 8&W DM550 Gale GS210

339.95 373.95 348. 95 348.95 331.95 373.95 305.95 348.95 475.95 331.95 314. 95 348.95 382.95 479.95 288.95

356.95 390.95 364.95 326.95 447.95 390.95 322.95 364.95 432.95 447.95 330.95 364.95 398.95 496.95 305.95

Heybrook H81 AR 132

382.95 416.95 391.95 352.95 373.95 416 95 348.95 389.95 458.95 373.95 356.95 391.95 424.95 522.95 331.95

Tanna)' M208

407.95 44l.95 416.95 377.95 398.95 441.95 373.95 414.95 483.95 398.95 381.95 416.95 449.95 567.95 356.95

BARTLETTS 175 HOLLOWAY ROAD, LONDON N7. TEL:01-607 2296/2148 Access, Visa cards accepted

Free cartridge, cable, 2-year guarantee, carriage • All systems supplied with cartridge, speaker cable and 2-Year Parts and Labour Guarantee. Carriage is FREE For UK Mainland *. Please 'phone for competitive carriage rates overseas.

Price guarantee li you can buy cheaper - including leads, carriage and 2-Year Guarantee - we will match it.

Prices correct for the life of this magazine, but ore subject to change.

Stockists of A & R, AR, Ariston, Audiolab, 8 & VV, Denon, Dual, Exposure, Gale, Heybrook, Inca Tech, KEF, Linn, Marantz, Musical Fidelity, Mission, NAD, Nakamichi, Quad, Revolver, Ratel, Tannay, Wharfedale, Yamaha.

Improved turntables (inc. cart) Dual CS 505-1 Extra £21.00 Dual CS 505-3 extra £42.00 Ariston Q Deck Extra £50.00 Ariston Icon/Epic etra £124.00 AR E8101 Extra £119.00 Revolver Rebel extra £60.00 Revolver extra £93.00

CD instead of turntable front end AR CD06 extra £246.00 Denon DCD 610 Extra £93.00 Denon DCD 810 extra £136.00 Denon DCD 910 extra £179.00 Denon DCD 1520/2 extra £348.00 Marantz CD 583 extra £52.00 Marantz CD 65/2 extra £136.00 Marantz CD 65/2 SE extra £179.00 Marantz CD 75/2 extra £175.00 Marantz CD 75/2 SE extra £221.00 NAD 5220 extra £119.00 NAD 5240 extra £162.00 NAD 5320 extra £68.00 Ratel RCD 8208 extra £102.00 Rotel RCD 8208 x 2 extra £136.00 Yamaha CD x 630 extra £136.00 Yamaha CDX 710 extra £153.00 Yamaha CDX 810 extra £179.00

i\NIPLIFIER

with most vocals. Its presentation was gentle, subtle rather than brash or forward and in this respect very listenable. Never-theless those who have a desire for an immediate or hard-hitting sound from disc will be disappointed.

Via the conventional analogue CD input (using a Musical Fidelity Digilog), this amplifier sounded notably rough through-out the upper octaves while also slightly leaden in the lower registers. However, using the digital input with an Arcam D170 transport mechanism brought about a welcome improvement in both the delicacy and poise of subtle treble details. Odd as it seemed, the 630's analogue

input actually sounded more 'digital' than the digital (PDM) input! For instance, this quality was highlighted by the improve-ment in timbrai definition of the solo clarinet from the gold CD of Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers' I Want to Talk About You. Through the analogue input, the light texture of this instrument appeared slightly rough and flat, despite sounding fuller and more natural via the PDM converter. Nevertheless these compari-sons served to reveal no profound differ-ence between either analogue or digital input, implying that the subsequent ampli-fier section was acting as an effective mask.

Consequently the reconstructed PDM signal was routed via the tape output of the '630 and into my usual reference system comprising PIP pre-amp, Deltec DPA5OS power amp, and Magneplanar 2.5R loudspeakers. Listening tests were also performed with an experimental, outboard, version of the PDM converter, removed completely from the influence of the Sony amplifier. The amplifier itself warmed up fairly quickly; however, the PDM converter optimizes only after a couple of hours of actual use.

Via this 'isolated' PDM converter the powerful, dynamic sound of Yello's Race was portrayed as never before. Bass of exceptional extension and power ripped from the loudspeakers as stereo images of startling clarity sprang to life tens of feet behind and to the sides of the 'expected' soundstage. Percussive sounds were parti-cularly realistic, the clack of wood blocks and the metallic ring of cymbals were projected with incredible purity and real-ism. All who heard it thought the MF Digilog sounded dull and compressed by comparison: lacking both the extension and profound spaciousness revealed by this 'primitive' PDM converter.

Similarly, the timbrai purity and stereo focus of the trumpet from Freddie Hub-bard's Hub Tones was equally startling in its conviction. I thought the track sounded both impressive and detailed via the Digilog, but this PDM converter hauled the recording to new heights. In many respects it seemed that the PDM converter was able to reveal the ambient and emotional charge that had been cap-tured on tape and finally transferred to CD some 28 years later! The instances of hearing music 'anew'

with this PDM DAC were almost count-

less. Incredible as it may seem, CD could have sounded like this from the very beginning.

Conclusion I would scarcely have thought it possible but, assuming this PDM D/A converter is at least partially representative of the breed, all multiple-bit CD players, high-end or otherwise, are likely to become obsolete over a very short period. A bold statement, perhaps, but all who have heard the potential of PDM will not easily forget its subjective prowess. Clearly Sony is less convinced of the potency of this conversion system, otherwise they would surely not have hidden it away in an integrated amplifier!

Today's PDM is rock-bottom technol-

ogy, cost-effective CMOS chips designed to run with cheap crystal oscillators on an equally basic 5V supply. Limited only by the speed of commercial CMOS chips it is conceivable that the current 11.2896 MHz sampling rate may be elevated by increasing the degree of oversampling. If, at the same time, the order of the noise shaping was also increased (say from 2nd, 3rd to 4th order) then the potential resolution of such a converter could easily exceed 20-bits or more. All this while still retaining the undoubted benefits of a monotonic 1-bit converter. At £350 Sony's TA-F630ESD is a gift.

Think of it as quite the best outboard D/A converter yet built but accompanied with a free integrated amplifier, and few listen-ers could fail to be delighted.

o • so • o ..... OUTPUT FREQUENCY QrSel

Graph l . Sony F630 ESD ultrasonic distortion

--

-

10 100

FREQUENCY (Hz)

Graph 3. Sony F630 ESD disc equalisation graph

Test results

SOS

Maximum Continuous Power Output, 8 ohms 4 ohms

Dynamic Headroom ( IHF) Output Impedance Damping Factor

Stereo separation (20Hz) ( IkHz)

(20kHz) Channel Balance ( IkHz)

( -20dBV) ( -60dBV)

THD(OdBW ) ( 43 power)

CCIR Intermod. Dist. (OdBW) CCIR IM Dist. ( 24 power) Rise Time Power bandwidth (< 1% THD) Squarewave linearity Phase shift (20Hz)

(MHz) (20kHz)

Noise (A wtd, OdBW ) (4,3 power)

Residual noise (unwtd) Input Sensitivity ( for OdBW )

(for full output) Disc Overload (20Hz)

('kHz) (201diz) ( 50kHz)

Tape Output/Impedance Input loading

DC offset, left/right Typical price ( incl VAT)

20Hz Ildiz 20kHz

119.5W 128.3W 1217W I75.9W 194.1W 180.9W

+I.26dB ( 171.7W ) 0215011m 0.2I2ohm 0.25Iohm

37.1 37.8 31.8 CD/Aux m-m 76.5dB 58.3dB 52.6dB 64.5dB 53.9dB 51.7dB 39.3dB 40.0dB 39.8dB

1.34dB I.12dB 0.84dB 0.34dB 0.28dB 0.23dB -89.4dB -93.7dB -95.1dB -8I.2dB -84.6dB -85.1 dB -90.5dB - 72.6d13 - 73.4dB -89.4dB - 74.1dB - 74.3dB

2.3µsecs 5Hz-451cHz - I05.6dB

10°5' 352°5' 352°0' 0* 309'36' 309°36'

348°28' 277'12' 270°0' -81.3dB -80.1dB - 71.9dB -94.7dB -88.4dB - 72.8dB -77.7dB -77.5dB - 77.8dB I8.65mV 309.9µV 18.75µV 2I3.2mV 3.485mV 212.7µV

17.64mV I.123mV I41.4mV 9.880mV I235mV 88.I6mV 845.8mV 121.7mV

8.928V ( disc )/2.00kohm 35.5kohnV 32.3kohnt/ 102.8olun/ 1.W 19.6pF 1.4nf -25.6mV/-22.8rnV

£350

Graph 2. Sorry F630 ESD RF noise floor modulation

-

AmPL I TUOE

„ r 1 0' 10 00 30 40 30 00 1 0 01

OUTPUT FREQUENCY (kHZ ) ISO

Graph 4. Sony F630 ESD PDM spurious output plot

Test results: D/A section Channel Balance 20Hz

IkHz 20kHz

Channel Separation 100Hz I kHz

20kHz UR Phase Error at lOidiz

at 20kHz De-emphasis Accuracy IkHz

5Idiz 16kliz

S/N Ratio (A-wtd) w/o emp w emp

THD (at ' kHz, I/R) OdB -10dB - 30dB -60dB -90dB

Dithered -90dB CCIR IMO, OdB SMYTE IMD 50Hz/7kHz

400Hz/7kHz Suppression of stop-band IMD Resolution at - 30dB

-40dB -50d0 -60dB -70dB -80dB

L/R - 90dB Peak Output Level

Output Impedance

0.04dB 0.06dB 0.07dB 82.IdB 86.6dB 82.9dB

0'

+0.14dB +0.I8dB +0.24dB 96.7dB I00.7dB -89.4dB -87.5dB -70.9dB -39.1dB - 6.95dB -7.91dB - 83.3dB -90.6dB -88.4dB -54.2dB -0.01dB -0.015dB -0.05dB -0.I7dB -0.85dB -3.48d11 -5.85dB 1.899V 1.911\

2.00kohm

Supplier: Sony (UK) Ltd, Sony House, South Street, Staines, Middx. TW18 4PF. (0784)467000

Ill-F1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989 79

CASTLE WARWICK LOUDSPEAKER

How much loudspeaker do you expect to get for £ 169? At 465x250x230mm (hwd), the Warwick is a somewhat bigger box than is currently fashionable at the price; and once the neat, wooden-framed grille has been removed, the speaker looks very much the traditional Castle product, due to the company's continued use of its own drive units. Behind the gauze-like cover, the tweeter has a dome element of around 17mm active diameter, while the bass/mid (a new soft rubber surround replacing the old Castle plastic foam type), has an effective cone diameter of about 110mm. The enclosure is reflex loaded by a 55mm diameter port posi-tioned on the front panel immediately below the bass/mid driver, while the enclosure is lined with slabs of acoustic foam. Cabinet work is up to Castle's usual very high standard, and the rear terminals are solid-looking 4mm socket/binding posts. No provision is made for bi-wiring but (with export markets in mind, perhaps) the connnectors are spaced at 19mm to accept paired 4mm plugs. On listening, it was immediately

obvious that the overall balance was a little on the lean side, but it was not over-bright. The speakers proved quite good at resolving clues to the size of a recorded acoustic, and, on reasonably reverberant recordings, conveying the sense of space around solo instruments reasonably well too. On a BBC Radio 3 male spoken voice, though, the Castles made the presenter sound lightweight and slightly thin-toned, failing to provide all

the ambient information necessary to bring him to life. By this test, the mid-range was thought reasonably neutral if lacking ultimate lucidity, but there were signs of some 'reedy' and hollow-sounding colorations and there was clearly a limit to the amount of low-level detail that the speakers could produce.

Inevitably, the Castle Warwick has to be compared with the Wharfedale 505.2, which offers a little less box if rather more technology for the same money. Only marginally less sensitive (86dB/W as against Castle's 88dB/VV), the Wharfedale offers good dynamics and a generally punchier sound, which, combined with its neutral and detailed midband, make it the better all-rounder. But the Warwick's dry and even 'polite' quality did suit most classical programme material, refusing to get too muddled or harsh with large orchestral forces. Apart from this, the Warwick offers a light-footed rhythmic clarity which made chamber music and solo piano very enjoyable too. In fact, the freedom from sluggishness in the lower

registers means that the Castles will help almost any music will bounce along happily. The exceptions are the categories of rock which rely on the visceral impact of heavy bass. That neat gold Castle badge is hardly going to be gothic enough for Metallica fans anyway; those with less wild inclinations should be satisfied.

Steve Harris

Supplier: Castle Acoustics Ltd, Skipton, North Yorkshire BD23 27'7'. Tel (0756) 5333

AUDIOLAB 8000P POWER AMPLIFIER: AN UPDATE

Following my recent study of Audio Fre-quency/Radio Frequency Intermodula-tion, Audiolab the quickly confirmed RF resonance, centred on 117MHz, which I had noted (HFNIRR June '89) by plotting the line input impedance vs frequency across the UHF region. The inherent series inductance of the twisted-pair input cabling plus the inductance of the capaci-tor in the input RC network was found to be responsible for an RF bandpass of 80-170MHz, resulting in a noise-floor modulation of +22dB (max) between 2-201cHz. This breach of the input filter has been

closed with a further RC network, com-prising a very low value polystyrene cap and Roederstein metal film resistor, mounted at the very input to the 8000P amplifier. This is a 1st-order filter with a —3dB point set at 6MHz! My initial listening tests indicate that

the revised 8000P benefits from a swee-ter, smoother treble that is both less grainy and less fatiguing while also appearing to offer a greater detail resolu-tion throughout the upper octaves. The sensation of stereo depth and musical

'warmth' is also somewhat improved. There is absolutely no discernible dif-

ference in the conventional closed-loop measurements between original and mod-ified 8000P amplifiers. Nevertheless there is a considerable subjective difference between the Id and the new 8000Ps, a difference that correlates firmly with a change in the RF noise-modulation plot first published last month. This second plot highlights Audiolab's excellent sup-pression of the original 117MHz reso-nance while still betraying some 2-3dB of the earlier 70MHz breakthrough (note that the z-axis should be calibrated in divisions of 20MHz from 0-200MHz). The upshot is that Audiolab's highly-

respected 8000P now sounds even better; existing owners can also benefit from this very simple but effective upgrade: contact Audiolab for details.

Paul Miller

Supplier: Audiolab, Cambridge Systems Technology Ltd, 26 Roman Way Industrial Estate, Godmanchester, Hunt-ingdon PE18 8LN. Tel: (0480) 52521

ledi Redeliver now door

Ode

Audiolab 8000P power amplifier (earlier production): RF noise floor modulation

log Fneduancy0tO

node door

Od

Same test on current-production 800P, showing suppression of noise-floor modulation effects

80 111-F1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AuGusr 1989

SHORT REVIEWS

MUSICAL FIDELITY A370 REVISITED .

The A370 has enjoyed several years pro-duction, with the serial numbers approaching 450 at the time of writing — a pretty successful run for an amplifier in this price and power class (£2250, 185W/ channel). Fully reviewed in HFN/RR in Sept '86, it was reassessed in Jan '88, and design improvements through 1988 have lead to this reappraisal for the '89 series Some basic power checks have been carried out, but the bulk of the assessment concerns new listening tests and a check on the standing output-stage current.

Originally and erroneously presented as a Class-A 185W/channel power amplifier, this description has been amended, and a fairer one would be 'enriched Class-A/W, implying a higher-than-usual level of Class-A bias for low-level signals. A check on an output device showed a 60mV drop across the 0.47ohm sensing resistor, rep-resenting a current of 128mA. Given the push-pull 'totem' configuration, with five output MOSFETs per phase, this allows for an equivalent standing-current reserve of 0.9A RMS, or 6.5W into 8ohms. The A370 in consequence runs a little cooler than before, but 6W or so is still quite a lot of Class-A power. Typical MOSFET amplifiers with a paralleled pair of output devices run to 0.25W of Class-A, thus legitimizing the label 'enriched' for the A370. Power checks on this heavyweight

showed excellent power-bandwidths at a generous 250W per channel into 8oluns. Some 400+400W was delivered into 2x4-ohm loadings, with 760W on pulsed programme into 2ohms, and 1250W into 1 olun. Although not quite in the Krell class, this was a genuine, heavy-duty performance. The peak-current capability was fine, measuring a generous ± 34A, and the unit was clearly load-tolerant. Checks on the interior revealed

improvements to wiring, plus employ-ment of a superior grade of op-amp in the input circuitry, augmented by a discrete differential input used in a novel con-figuration. A double-mono design, two massive toroidal transformers are fitted, which accounted for much of the weight! Build quality and finish were really good, both inside and out, though the blue switch-on button did glow a dirty off-white when illuminated. Perhaps a few of those exotic blue LEDs would help. On listening tests, the previous A370

would grade at 57% using our revised 1989 scale (see Krell review, March), while the current version was unmistak-ably improved at 63%, this equalled at a lower power level, and with a far poorer load-tolerance, by MF's own MA50. Perhaps MF should not have thrown in the A370 for review with the MA100 (covered in June), since it could well have looked better in isolation! Pre-MA100, D125, new KSA's etc, the '89 version A370 would actually be a class winner and can take on the likes of the Goldmund Mimesis Three. Recognizably

an A370, the sound of the latest model was forthright; by comparison, the MA50 sounded laid-back The 370 was strong, forceful, confident and dynamic. The char-acteristically generous headroom gave a sense of unbounded peak sound levels, while it could deliver high levels into loads unacceptable to the MA100. The bass was high-class, with real slam

and depth, a sound which comes from a massive power-supply properly exploited. Articulate and tuneful, the bass was also correctly dry and controlled. The tonal quality was improved through the mid, with string-tone increased in sweetness and definition. Overall tonal balance remains slightly thin and forward — an aspect clearly illustrated by MF's own MA100. The treble was also considered to be of equally high quality, with very good detail resolution, a low incidence of grain, edge, or sibilance, and only a mild loss of precise registration and focus with the matching formant sounds. Compared with the new top references, the treble was considered slightly 'lazy'. Stereo sound-stages had very good width, fine depth, and pretty good perspectives. The whole presentation was imbued with a sense of driving power and good instrumental definition. As an example of a mainstream

amplifier, the current A370 is admirable. Competitively priced for its considerable power output and dynamic range, it con-tinues to set an enviable standard which suits all kinds of programme, and has the ability to maintain this performance over a wide range of loadings. Martin Colloms

Supplier: Musical Fidelity Ltd, 15-16 Obenspic Trading Estate, Fulton Road, Wembley HA9 OTF. Tel 01-900 2866

HARMAN/KARDON PM635i AMPLIFIER

'High Instantaneous Current Capability' (HCC) remains the byword for Harman/ Kardon's amplifier range, in which, after some small but possibly significant design changes, the popular PM635 was replaced by the PM635i. High current capability is said to allow

for the instantaneous changes of impe-dance in a loudspeaker during music reproduction, which (according to the results of research carried out some years ago by Matti Otala) can result in a demand for three to six times more current than that needed to drive the nominal 8olun

resistive load. If the amplifier cannot deliver this, dynamic range will be reduced and distortion increased. It has to be said that most manufacturers now do not boast of high-current capability, con-sidering it intrinsic in their designs.

H-K's quoted 18A instantaneous cur-rent for the 635 is presumably now seen as overkill, since the figure is reduced to 15A for the 635i. Outward changes affect the control knobs, now of a 'squashed' design, and the use of rotary selector switches instead of push buttons. There are new input/output facilities,

including tape dubbing and a sparate video input: a pity H-K could not have added a moving-coil phono at the same time. Smoothing capacitors have been increased from 6800 to 8200µ.F, and other components have been uprated.

In terms of sound quality, the old PM635 was very good, with an 'accurate' sound that seemed to encompass the whole musical spectrum wihout strain; however, it could sound slightly hard for some tastes. Turning to the new 635i, the differences were small and not immediately obvious. It has a slightly brighter quality; when pressed to the limit, the new model seems slightly more 'composed' than the older. Very high instruments (such as triangle) sounded cleaner, but the effect was regarded as slight. However, the PM635i's new facili-ties are useful enough to make it a thoroughly good replacement for what was already a very reasonable product.

Michael Powell

Supplier: Harman (Audio) UK Ltd, Mill Street, Slough, Berks. Tel (0753) 76911.

ROKSAN SHIRAZ LAB MEASUREMENTS

Following the review by Alvin Gold of Roksan's Shiraz Cartridge (HFN/RR, June 1989: see also the summary on page 53 of this issue) which included Chris Bryant's measurements on a current Artemiz arm, we are now able to complete the picture by including Chris's measurements on the Shiraz itself.

RESPONSE SEPARATION

-MS 4000

2014: 10011: IAN: SONNa

Roksan Shiraz cartridge: frequency response and stereo separation

008

1008

20dI3

30d8

— —0eueretN.

1.1.111 I I 111111 I I 1111.1

Cartridge test: Roksan Shiraz Output L 5 cm/sec Output R 5 cm/sec Channel balance Channel separation L Channel separation R Tracking ability L Tracking ability R LF resonance Wad Operating temperature

0.7mV 0.7mV OdB

28.2dB >30dB 75µm >80µm 12Hz

400pF, 0.1k-ohm 22 degrees C

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989 81

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We stock selected items for: Aloi, Audiolab, A&R, Audio Technica, B&W, Celef, Celestion, Cliff Stone, Creek, Cyrus, Denon, Dual, Gale, Glanz, Goldring, Grado, Gyrodek, Heybrook, Hunt, Infinity, Jordan, KEF, Koetsu, Linn, Marantz, Mark Levinson, Maxell, Meridian, Michell, Mission, Monitor Audio, Musical Fidelity, Nagaoka, Nakamichi, Ortofon, Perreaux, ProAc, QED, Quad, RATA, Revolver, Revox, Rogers, Rotel, Sennheiser, Stanton, Supex, Tannoy, Wharfedale, and others. Active systems on demonstration.

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MUSIC

Cellist Steven Isserlis is the grandson of Julius lsserlis the distinguished Russian pianist and composer, who, born in Moldavia came with his wife and son from Vienna to settle in England in 1938; he was ten years old when his grandfather died in 1968. Growing up in a musical family — both bis sisters Annette and Rachae4 are professional string p1ayers his father an enthusiastic amateur— nurtured his love of chamber music and this has led to his reputation as a brilliant soloist with a particularly fine gift too, for ensemble work allowing him to express his wide-ranging musical interests.

STEVEN ISSERLIS Gut reactions, keeping things

fresh, and spruced Boccherini,

by Sorrel Breunig

It is impossible to categorize Steven Isser-lis, and that pleases him. (Attempts have been made, of course, ranging from 'a

cellist's cellist', to 'the Rupert Everett of the cello!) The natural exuberance and quiet reflectiveness of his personality combine to make him an artist of great diversity. He made his recording debut in 1985 with

the two Brahms Cello Sonatas for Hyperion. The signing of an exclusive international contract with Virgin Classics last year means that he now has a busy schedule — with the possibility of three or four recordings a year — bringing his work to a much wider audience but with it, publicity. He has particularly strong views about that, and is reluctant to become involved in the current trend for marketing artists.

'I think people can be marketed. Obviously, you need people to know about you, to know your records are being made. You need a certain amount of publicity — how it's done is the main thing. I think artists ought to be careful. I don't want to sound self-righteous, and then for an awful adver-tisement to appear of me! But I think one should make sure that all publicity is some-thing to do with what one is. It is possible to write interestingly for everybody about music, but clothes and that sort of thing have got nothing to do with music. A person I refer to, who has an almost ideal career, is

Andras Schiff Or, for instance, Murray Pera-hia, somebody who's respected by all musi-cians: there's a lot of publicity about him, but it refers to the music.. Both of the have a special understanding of certain sorts of music and it's all to do with that.'

Beginning his recording career compara-tively late has meant that he did not have the pressure of being 'hyped' when very young, and for that he is grateful.

'I suppose the pressure was on me more to play a different way. I got a bit labelled, when the Brahms Sonatas came out, with the gut-strings thing. I got a bt of flack about it. Well: I had some good and some bad reactions and, again, it was pigeon-holing me so I made sure it wasn't mentioned again. Nobody can criticize me now for that, because nobody knows what strings I play on. No critic ever mentions it.' About not recording earlier in your career

— did you deliberately hold back from it? 'No — it just didn't happen really. It wasn't

for a long time that I was thinking about recordings. Well — I was very nervous about it for a long time, I suppose. But then when I recorded the Brahms Sonatas, it was with Andrew Keener producing, which was very nice [a collaboration, which happily, was able to continue with later Hyperion record-ings, and on EMI: the Britten Cello Sym-phony with Bridge's Oration] and I suppose I've relaxed a bit after that and each time it becomes easier. Basically, I enjoy it now. If it goes well, very much! I used to be very scared of microphones for a long time. Still scared of cameras; maybe I'll get used to them, but of course I don't face them as often. I sort of freeze up with cameras, and I used to be a bit like that with microphones. I

used to think "God, I mustn't make a mistake". That's the point of a good pro-ducer, it sort of frees you, and you don't have to think about that. He notices the mistakes, you just think about the music. So I do as many complete takes, big chunks, as I can — most people hate patching. I'm just trying to give performances.' You chose the Elgar Concerto for your

first recording with Virgin. It is, presumably, a work you were very familiar with from your concert performances?

`Yes. It was an obvious first choice for Virgin. We planned it together, I can't remember whether I or they suggested it.' How do you decide when you are ready to

record a work like that? 'I suppose when you don't come off the

concert platform seething with frustration everytime you play it! Its original coupling was going to be the Schumann: that was my idea, which Virgin talked me out of; they didn't think it was a good coupling. I'm still not sure that it isn't a good coupling, but I am very glad that they talked me out of it, because I don't think that I am ready just yet to record the Schumann. I certainly don't feel ready to record the Bach Suites or Beethoven Sonatas. But Elgar, I suppose I just felt that I had something to say about it, that I wanted to say.' You had very specific ideas about it? `Yes — very specific. In the score and the

piano reduction, which I actually prefer to the score — I prefer the markings — there's just a lot of tenuti and largamentes. People have mostly ignored them or taken them with a large pinch of salt. But within the last five years or so, I was working on the piece and I just decided to try taking them very

IR-F1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989 83

Kim Walker — Bd Canto Bassoon

'Bel canto' literally 'beautiful singing', is the Italian vocal art characterised by beauty of tone, lyrical and graceful phrasing, and a seemingly effortless technique. The bassoon, with its kaleidoscopic palette of tone-

colour, ranging from rich and vibrant to expressively plaintive, together with its large compass, have made it one of the most versatile of instruments, and one of the most appropriate for the realization of bel canto ideals in an instrumental guise. This collection of nineteenth and twentieth century works, brings together both original bassoon pieces and sympathetic arrangements, to reveal the instrument's unique singing qualities, together with its underestimated capabilities as a virtuoso performer in brilliant showpieces. The ever-popular Saint-Saëns Sonata and Elgar

Romance are joined by six original works receiving their first recording, and four transcriptions including a stunning 'Flight of the Bumble Bee'.

Just a few of the critical plaudits showered on Kim Walker's performances and recordings: '... in smoothness of line and seductive tonal plangency she outclassed many an operatic rival!' The Times 'Kim Walker is a superb modern bassoonist. .. her tone is so sweet and refined . . . beguilingly expressive' Qramophone

. . . the performances are quite delightful — play them once and you're hooked!' Classical Music

Recent releases

POULENC in tour i,ona

POULENC: MASS IN G, FOUR CHRISTMAS MOTETS

LANGLAIS: MESSE SOLENNELLE

Regent Chamber Choir, Adrian Lucas (organ), Gary Cole

REGCD101 (CD) REG101 (MC)

A unique coupling of the two greatest French Masses of the twentieth century.

BBC Radio Three Record Review 1st choice recommendation for Poulenc Mass

' . . . their recording of the Poulenc would certainly be my choice' (Organists' Review)

THE BEL CANTO BASSOON Kim Walker — bassoon Julius Drake — piano REGCD104 (CD) REG104 (MC)

THE VIRTUOSO HARP — Rachel Masters —

REGCD102 (CD) REG102 (MC)

This brilliant début recital recording by one of the most accomplished and well-known of the younger generation of British harpists, presents a breathtaking new account of the Britten Suite, and major works by Handel, Pierné and Salzedo new to the catalogue.

KODÁLY: MISSA BREVIS PANGE LINGUA, LAUDES ORGAN!

Regent Chamber Choir, John Scott (organ), Gary Cole

REGCD103 (CD) REG103 (MC)

The Regent Chamber Choir had a great success with Poulenc and Langlais. This new disc confirms and extends that artistic promise. Fine singing in an excellent church acoustic make this a highly attractive offering. Recommended' (Classical Express)

UK distribution: Target Tel: 01-686 3322 Fax: 01-681 6523 France: Cybeha Tel: 35.29.04.67 Fax: 35.27.89.33 Singapore: Absolute Sound Tel: 3390330 Fax: 3396539 USA: Allegro Tel: ( 503) 232-4213 All other export enquiries: Thames Tel: 441-979 9033 Fax: 441-979 5055

REGENT RECORDS LIMITED PO BOX 524 LONDON SE25 6AN TELEPHONE: 01-771 5552 FAX: 01-653 9734

MUSIC

seriously, and doing them all. And, it just worked — for me. That's not to say it's wrong not to do them as much as I do them but ... I was recently listening to a very famous musician talking on television, saying that to observe all the markings in an Elgar score — he was especially talking about the Cello Concerto — is ridiculous, they were just a guide. I agree that with some composers...

'And there are recordings. With Beatrice Harrison. Elgar did actually take a lot of notice of his own markings; but of course a lot of them are in the cello part and he wasn't playing the cello, I doubt that he would have decided every inflection. But I do hope that I took everything that I did from the text; every mark in it somehow affected every phrase.'

Because Elgar is an essentially English composer, does that influence the way you approached the work?

`No, not really. It's the piece. The piece is English, therefore it calls for a different sort of playing. But I wouldn't approach it differently because it was English; it's just that it needs a different interpretation.'

Is it possible to put into words what that interpretation is?

'I'm not sure. But I must say that the one word that always comes into my mind when I play it is ... regret. Regret of its time — all that was lost in war. I'm not thinking "regret" every time I look at any bar in the piece.' There is a connection there of course,

with the Britten and Bridge you recorded. 'Well, in fact, those three works — and I

wouldn't normally bring such extra-musical associations to works necessarily — are all elegies for war, I think. But that's coinci-dence. I really don't think that of a lot of music. The Poulenc Sonata, for instance; that was was written in the middle of the war, but it's certainly not a war-like piece at all. It's wonderful, but not elegiac!

'It's silly to say there's no English School, because there obviously is. But it's not something I'd apply to the piece; it is something the piece would call forth for me. That those particular harmonies, combina-tions of notes, produce certain set sounds, which could sound English ... it's like the Bloch Schelomo on the other side could sound Jewish. But again, I didn't go in thinking "I must sound Jewish".'

For his second recording for Virgin, he asked to do works by Boccherini. 'The orchestra's unknown. The music — well, he's not exactly a household name — that is a risk. But it was something I felt very strongly about. The chance to share your enthusiasm with more people. So, Virgin let me do it. It's just another interest I have: earlier music. I just love Boccherini! He is very underrated. I think people don't know him because he has been in such bad editions. His most famous cello piece, the concerto in B-flat, is abso-lutely unrecognizable from the original, like a lot of his work. Grützmacher came and did the 19th-century version. It should not go under Boccherini at all. The notes, keys, the tempi have been changed. I mean, it's just different music!

'For this record I played two concertos with the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra — my friends from Finland — and three sonatas with Maggie Cole. We had good editions for the concertos. I was given by a friend some photocopies of contemporary copies of the manuscript, of the sonatas in particular. I started looking at these and thinking these are not the pieces I know, the impression is completely different. The more you get to know them, the more subtle

and beautiful they are, incredibly beautiful. I have played them in concert with harp-sichord. The concertos, but particularly the sonatas, are my cause. The lovely sonatas.' You then went from Boccherini to record?

'Kabalevsky! I'm just scared of being pigeonholed — I just never want to be in one sort of music. I'm not a particular Kabalevsky freak, I just loved that piece [Cello Concerto 2] and the Prokofiev on the other side [Concertino Op.132]. It's his last work, which was actually completed by Rostropo-vich and orchestrated by Kabalevsky. That seemed a nice tie-in. But I decided I hated the orchestration. The piece is tuneful, simple. It's very accessible; it's certainly not grand — there's something intimate about it. Kabalevsky came along and looked at his Concerto: it's razzmatazz, full of excitement and colour, which is great for him. But then he tried to apply this to his orchestration of the Prokofiev Concertino: it just doesn't work, it smothers it. It wasn't possible to do another complete orchestration for copyr-ight reasons, but we did change quite a bit and I hope it has improved it. I have since met (since I did the recording) Oleg Pro-kofiev. He said, I wish you had come and spoken to me. He was very interested, because I played at Madame Prokofiev's funeral at the beginning of the year — the filler on the record. It is something I don't think has ever been recorded: a movement from an unaccompanied cello sonata, which he was writing when he died. He had written most of it, and it was completed very well by somebody. Oleg Prokofiev had never heard it. Strange circumstance for him to hear a new piece by his father.

'I love all 19th-century Russian music too. I have a project with Virgin to do quite a lot of that. Again, it's unknown stuff. It's not great music, but music that gives pleasure, wonderful music in its way.

'I suppose my enthusiasms spread! I also love contemporary music. John Tavener has written a piece for me — The Protecting Veil — it's a gorgeous piece, stunning music.' That work will be given its first concert perform-ance at the Proms on September 4th with Oliver Knussen conducting. And there is always time for chamber

music. He is a familiar figure at the Wigmore Hall; during András Schiff's Haydn Festival there last September he performed in eight consecutive recitals. 'I played 20 Haydn trios, not one of which I had done before. Hard work! But Haydn I find a total genius. Those piano trios! He [András Schiff] said they were wonderful, and I believed him; but I thought it would be mixed and some of them conventional. But they were totally wonderful. Not so much the trios with flute — I still like them — but violin, piano and cello, there's some amazing things in them.'

It must widen your horizons as a musician. 'At least about Haydn in particular it did,

yes. Well — that's why I play chamber music, it expands one's repertoire. The cello reper-toire, much as I love it, it does get stale after a bit.' Is there much adjusting to do after doing solo works? ' It's not so different. The volume might be, or the actual finger-work. You have to keep in trim practicing concer-tos. I mean, I don't just accommodate other people. I listen. I respond. But it would be the same in a concerto: you listen to what's going on in an orchestra, what the conduc-tors bring out — it's all chamber music.'

'Yet, I do love chamber music. Well, sometimes I hate it! You know, I go to lots of chamber music festivals these days, and every time there is a moment when I say I

am never going to do another music festival! And then of course, at any of the ones I have been back to, there is always a moment of elation, it's great. I just click with somebody, it's really something very special.' There was a splendid example of this at

the Wigmore Hall in June. The young American violinist Joshua Bell's highly suc-cessful debut there was enhanced by Steven Isserlis's presence, together with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet in a superb perform-ance of the Ravel Piano Trio. [ Immediately recorded for Decca, at Abbey Road.]

'Josh and I met at one of these festivals and it so happened we got on — it's a festival which is very nice, Spoleto (South Carolina), a nice atmosphere — so we decided to do things outside of the Festival. There was no pressure on us, we just decided because we got on wee

In a year .that is not yet over, and already with many high spots, there must be two things which stand out as being particularly special for Steven lsserlis: in April, a recital tour of the USSR ( his third visit there); and in May, his chamber-music festival, 'Schu-mann and his Circle' where he organized sixteen programmes, bringing together more than 30 musicians, and resulting in packed houses. 'Two years ago, I did the normal Goscon-

cert State Agency tour. This time I went through an agency in Armenia, a new co-operative. I invited Levon Chilingirian, who is Armenian; I suppose that I am closer to Armenia because of him. He is a good friend of mine. He and his wife spent about two weeks working in the aircraft hangar [ at Heathrow] so it was great to be out there. Basically, we were giving concerts because of all the troubles there. Not for money, just to go and play for them. It was very exciting.' Did you notice a change there? 'In the Soviet Union? I wouldn't say

dramatically, but it has definitely changed, the openness. But whether that's going to change our basic problems, I don't know.' Would you describe yourself as political? 'I don't judge. I just play the cello, just

shut up and play my cello. I wouldn't go to a place where I felt I was playing for the wrong sort of audience. It's difficult in Armenia, there are lots of different prob-lems. At the moment, they are looking for morale boosts, people from outside coming and playing, and showing that they care. The concerts I did were televised there and I did television interviews, where they asked me what the British people thought of Armenia. But that's not being political: 1e-

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MUSIC

HAGEN QUARTET C

hanges of personnel within a string quartet can be traumatic — especially, you might think, when the new-

comer faces two brothers and a sister who have been making music together since childhood. Offset that, though, against youth and the vicissitudes the Hagens have already encountered — not least the contrast between a happy Salzburg upbringing and the dynamic interchanges they encountered at Gidon Kremer's Lockenhaus Festival — and this fresh encounter seems only part of the developing process. Rainer Schmidt, the Quartet's new second violin, has been through a refining fire of quite a different sort in his year at Cincinnati, and that has evidently kindled new sparks in the way the four now play together. The Quartet began life as a kind of

string-playing edition of the Von Trapp Family Singers; all its members were chil-dren of Oskar Hagen, principal viola in the Salzburg Mozarteum. Angelika Hagen soon left to follow a separate career as a solo violinist, her place taken by Annette Bik (Schmidt's predecessor) who has featured on all the DG recordings until now. In 1981 the Hagens won the quartet competition at the first Lockenhaus Festival, and returned over the next few years as guests. Did Lockenhaus, governed by the pioneering communal spirit of Gidon Kremer, change their outlook? They seemed reluctant to admit it at first. Veronika poined out that they had already explored some of the byways of the 20th-century quartet reper-toire at Salzburg in their performances of works by Apostel, Lutoslawski and Ligeti. `To look at the concert programmes, you'd think that Salzburg means only Mozart. After all, there are 15 ensembles which only play his music. But it's like every city, there's room for the less familiar and we had plenty of encouragement in that direction. Lock-enhaus didn't change us. The great joy for me was the way they accepted us there and liked the way we played.'

Later, though, the brothers concurred when Rainer suggested that the influence must have been enormous, even if only on an unconscious level. Clemens noticed the change suddenly. 'I didn't see it at the time. But after three or four years of having played at Lockenhaus, I realized that my technique had altered completely. I didn't change it consciously. But there came a point when I knew it had happened.' Lukas: 'It was impor-tant for me to listen to such a lot of music-making, watching how the other artists rehearsed and working with them sometimes, seeing how the performance gradually takes shape and how the prog-ramme fits together.' Although Clemens had already given solo recitals at the Salzburg Mozarteum, Lockenhaus provided a signi-ficant opportunity for the Hagens and Bik to step out of their corporate identity and perform in other combinations.

Ftainer's Cincinnati experience has given him an added perspective which means a change in outlook for the Quartet. Privately, he expressed some doubts over the previous team's Mozart — 'rather ordinary; I could not always tell what they were trying to say'. Veronika points out that he has 'a better schooling in looking at the scores than we

Playing second fiddle to

the Salzburg family ensemble . . .

by David Nice

had in Salzburg. He tends to lead the discussions and make us think more about the music.' Rainer adds: 'Cincinnati changed my outlook completely. It wasn't just a matter of studying the score. Walter Levine [formerly a member of the LaSalle Quartet ] was so special because for him music-making was a matter of ethics, a philo-sophical problem. What he has left me with is a feeling that I can never spend enough time looking at the music we play. Some-times I feel sick because I can't always know exactly what it is about. But trying to understand is so important. It doesn't mean that we always have to discuss before we rehearse. Often it's just by playing that you can begin to tell the direction the music must take. That's the most effective way. Because sometimes discussion just makes matters worse.'

Putting the music first means that the four had no time to waste worrying about 'the Hagen sound'. Rainer: 'I think this "corporate style" business is overrated. After all, we are four people who have our own views, and it's only when we work together that we begin to form some clear idea of what we are playing. Perhaps four people who come from completely different backgrounds may have to work on their technique to form a "style", a sound of their own, but we don't.' Veronika puts it differently: 'Maybe one of us is suffering badly from nerves, or someone is playing not so well, but after a while you realize that it's all on the side of the music and you come together again'. That means, too, that the Quartet can veer

easily from Haydn to Schoenberg. After a cautious start, Deutsche Grammophon is happy to indulge their range: a complete cycle of the early Mozart quartets is to be offset by Ligeti and Lutoslawski. The hori-zons seem boundless, but they have to look very carefully at everything they do. 'We have no time for Shostakovich at the moment,' says Lukas, 'but that's not because we're afraid of him, it's just that we need to work intensively on the quartets — which we will do, eventually.' The late Beethovens? Rainer: 'There is this terrible preciousness about late Beethoven. Of course, it's incred-ibly mature and "difficult" music, and so on. But if you don't start to work on these quartets now, how will your view on them have matured by the time you are sixty? Of course, if we play them now, they will be very different when we play them in middle age, and there will be another big difference when we are old. But you must begin early and grow with the music, like Beethoven grew as a composer.

'Once again, I don't see the problem if you look carefully at the scores. In Beethoven, everything is so clearly marked; just take your time and look at it. If you don't, it will be really bad and unconvincing. It's the same with Webern and Schoenberg: with the same amount of thinking about the music, and also

rehearsing it intensively, you can come to convincing results.' He thinks this has been a conspicuous problem with some of the older quartets. 'I've heard some who spent 20, 30 years together and never came to anything which you thought they under-stood. Sometimes it's lack of examination, sometimes a quartet imposing itself too much on the work in question. You can't have the same approach to modern music that you have to Mozart, because the aesthe-tics are completely different. And that's where many string quartets fail in my opinion in modern music: because they have the wrong approach. As soon as you form a clear vision of the piece, it doesn't hurt the listener so much. Schoenberg needn't be difficult — there's no sound that wasn't thought of before Beethoven, it's simply put another way. And perhaps if you talk a little about it, as I did with the Second Quartet in Salzburg, then the audience will come to it afresh too, and will hear the commitment in your performance.' Once again, it's a matter of preparation.

Veronika admits stupefaction at tales from her orchestral colleagues. 'They have at the most three rehearsals — for modern music! It's incredible! And perhaps because they are good sight-readers they get by. But they just play the notes and complain that they can't understand it.' Which is why Rainer is happy to settle into a quartet. He relished his time with the COE, where he feels there is an atmosphere of music-making quite different from most other orchestras. But he says he has no longing for a solo career. 'Quartet playing comes first. The repertoire, for a start, is by far the best. And you can keep the freshness. Orchestral players get over-tired, the rehearsal time is poor. Here we can have as much preparation as we want. The con-cert managements are much happier now about letting us play what we want to play. And so long as we have respect for each other, we can reach an agreement on just about anything.'+

HI.F1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989 87

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MUSIC

SORABJI SESSIONS

If music is, as most people would agree, an art based on communication, the case of Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji is indeed a

strange one. He had never actively sought performance of his works, and in 1936 forbade any performance without his express permission. Until his death in 1988, that permission was granted to only ten pianists — two of whom (Petri and Cortot) never played any of his music in public — three organists and three singers. Yet his music has aroused the highest admiration in many musicians who have read the scores, and in the few people who, to date, have heard any of it. So why the silence?

Sorabji was born in 1892 in Chingford, Essex. Privately educated, he began piano lessons with his mother at the age of six and was mostly self-taught from his mid-teens on. His musical tastes were broad, and he was familiar with much new music of the early 20th-century long before it became widely known. He began composing around 1914, and his early works were influenced by (among others) Scriabin, Szymanowski, Godowsky, and Busoni. Performances of these, mostly by himself, were rare, but many commentators were much impressed by his compositions.

In June 1930 he completed Opus Cia-vicembalisticum, 252 pages in manuscript of some of the most extraordinary piano music ever written. The composer himself said of the final sections 'The harmony bites like nitric acid and the counterpoint grinds like the mills of God'. Four fugues, a theme and 49 variations, a passacaglia and 81 variations, a chorale prelude, a fantasia and two cadenzas, framed by an introit and a coda stretta, make up the work, in a structure not unlike Busoni's Fantasia Con-trappuntistica. Playing for some hours, it is not to be taken lightly, but what really sets OC apart is the perfectly unique sound world it occupies.

In 1957, while at the Royal Northern College of Music, John Ogdon was given a score of OC by Peter Maxwell Davies, then a fellow student. Ogdon's phenomenal techni-que and musical vision soon absorbed the work, and in 1959 he played it to its dedicatee, the great Scots poet Hugh Mac-Diarmid. Twenty-five years later, Chris Rice of Altarus Records came across OC and, much impressed, asked composer Ronald Stevenson if he would record it. Stevenson did not have the time to learn the work for performance (although he has studied the score and written a detailed analysis of it), but suggested Ogdon instead. In three ses-sions in 1985 and 1986, possibly the single most remarkable piano recording ever made was completed.

It was necessary to record the work in three blocks to give Ogdon time to study each section thoroughly; not, however, to limit the amount of work he had to do at each session. I was privileged to attend those recordings, and I think the most astonishing aspect of them was Ogdon's sheer energy. The fourth fugue and coda stretta comprise some 50 minutes of music, fantastically difficult. At the third session, he played this

section straight through four times in suc-cession, with hardly a pause. The listeners appeared to have reached exhaustion; Ogdon might just have played a Clementi Sonatina. Never have I felt so strongly that the piano had become a part of the pianist. The sessions were a low-key affair, involv-

ing only Ogdon, Rice (engineer and pro-ducer), longtime Sorabji devotee and advo-cate Alistair Hinton (executive producer) and me (page-turner). Work was intense, and included as 'light relief' recordings of other works; a recital disc of Liszt, Chopin, Busoni, Dohnanyi and Balakirev (AIR-2-9073, praised in HFATIRR) and Busoni's Fantasia Contrappuntistica. Recording equipment was two microphones, two mic-rophone amplifiers (custom), and a recor-der. The piano was a Büsendorfer Imperial, and the location a large church in North London. Work proceeded with hardly a hitch; on one occasion the piano was deli-vered to Cornwall by mistake, and one day was disrupted by a police search for armed robbers, but the schedule was maintained. Much tricky editing later, the recording is at last available. I asked Ogdon if he felt particularly drawn

to large works. He did, he said. 'I like the large scale of the argument in OC, although it is certainly hard to grasp at first, particu-larly in the fourth fugue. I had to add interpretation marks throughout that sec-tion, to remind myself of the structure. I have tried to find a musical architecture in the work; the way the fugues get progres-sively longer suggests building.'

Interpretation of OC is in fact left very much to the performer; indications in the score are rare. Hinton commented 'Sorabji did not find it necessary to put many markings in his scores. He felt that anyone who understood the music would know what to do with it'. Perhaps in two hundred years, we imagined, 'authenticity' experts would declare that Sorabji's music should be

John Ogdon records

one of the most

complex works in

20th-century piano literature

by Richard Black

played without dynamic inflection. Rice pointed to the way Ogdon shapes the fugues as an example of the clear implications of the score. No words are necessary to direct this long-term flow of the ideas. The sonorities of OC are its most striking

and memorable feature. They operate in a similar way to those of Messiaen, and have a comparable transcendental quality. Ogdon finds them particularly interesting; 'In work-ing on OC, I have tried to develop a more incisive sound to deal with the complex chords and make the counterpoint work. Use of the pedals is very important, too. I use as little as possible in the fugues, to keep the textures clear. Some of the textures remind me of Brahms, in fact.' Brahms? 'There are also echoes of Hindemith in places, which is probably coincidence.' Why did Sorabji not wish his works to be

performed? Hinton knew Sorabji well for many years, and found that 'He didn't seem very interested in performance, and although he helped those who wished to play his music and whom he thought cap-able of doing so, he had no wish to attend their performances and risk "making a spectacle of himself'. I once commented that one of his works would fit well in a concert programme, and he merely said, "Oh, I suppose it would." He was just indifferent to the idea.' Rice found this hard to accept; 'I don't believe that he was never interested in performances. He was princi-pally concerned about bad performances giving people the wrong idea of the music.' Indeed, Sorabji wrote about his music being 'unsuitable for performance under present, or indeed any forseeable future, conditions. No performance at all is preferable to an obscene travesty: And when faced with performers capable of meeting the chal-lenges of the music, he readily gave consent to performances — as to John Ogdon. The conversation turned to the general

issue of unfamiliar music. Ogdon is a noted champion of new music, but, he said, 'If you programme an unfamiliar modern work in a London recital, it does tend to reduce the audience. Because of this, concert agents are less keen to promote it ...' A vicious circle, in many ways. But surely, 20th-century music should be thé most vital to 20th-century ears. Why not approach the music of the past through that of the present? Hinton cited the case of Kevin Bowyer, the brilliant young organist who has recently recorded Sorabji's First Organ Symphony for Con-tinuum. When Bowyer first met Sorabji, he said he had the feeling he had just met JS Bach. And interestingly, since studying the Sorabji he has started playing Bach, which previously he did not perform.' A case of Sorabji's profound understanding being communicated through his own music? Let us hope that the miracle will spread.+

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989 89

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RECORD REVIEWS CLASSICAL

BALAKIREV 94 Sonata I Smith I

BARTOK 93 Siring Quartets 3-5 ( hilingirian Qt 1

BEETHOVEN 93 Si inphonies 1.11/. etc ( Weller) 'Il Piano ( Oncertos Opp.3 I 53 -9 81a

( Pollini

BERLIOZ 9. Funeral & Triumphal Si mph, my

( Wallace)

BRITTEN 9 I Simple Symphony ( Warchal ) 95 Alberi I lerring ( Britien ) 95 Billy Budd. etc ( Britten)

95 Prince id the Pagodas etc ( Britten ) 95 lesIlluminat ions. etc ( 'toxin 1

CHERUBINI it Victor, I I ymm ( Wallace )

COPLAND

96 Appalachian Spring. etc I Orpheus) 96 Clarinet I omen, eic ( S)ien, st 116 arz )

99 Clarinet Coneerio ( I It6tord Vise Berl DOIINANYI

96 ham, Qui met. etc ( Manz Gahrieli Qt

DVORAK 96 Symphi in y 8. eh: (fell )

ELGAR 90 Violin ( ego Concertos ( Menuhin

Elgar I 96 Violin ( cll. Concertos ( Simmons

Wi squirellarty GERSHWIN

96 Pore. & Bess ( Rattle 1

GOSSEC Militari. Symphoni . etc I Wallace HANDEL

9- Messiah ( Scherchen 9- Carmelite Vespers ( Parrott I

HAYDN 9- string (Nang:v.0pp. I to I I ( I lawn Qt

FILNDEMITH lit. Nush-Niechi ( Alisen)

911 Cardillac ( Aillen 1

JANACEK 98 Ear. Botha. etc ( Nazareth)

98 Diary of One Who Disappeared. tic ( Abbado)

91 Nolte ( Warchal JARDIN

9 # Overture in 1r( Wallace ) LEFEVRE

Agricultural Hymn ( Wallace) LEIGHTON

Piani. nuMe ( Parkin

MARTINI:

98 t elk) Sonatas( Isserlis Evans) MEDTNER

98 Fairy laic, eic ( Milne) 98 Sonatas ( Milne I 98 Ti #rgi men Melodies. vie ( Wild)

MOZART Clarinet Concerto ( Ilosford Schneider )

100 Fine Kleine Nachtmusik ( Stamp ) 90 Opera & Ciincen Aria. ( Bar Sunk 1

MUSSORGSKY 93 Pictures at an Exhibition ( Smith)

ORFF 99 ( arnutna Burma ( I Wu. /

PROKOFIEV 99 Piano Concertos 1 & etc ( Feltsman

Tihani llnimas)

100 Peter & the Wolf (( iielgud Mamp ) 1 02 Violin Sonaia 2 I Zukerman Neikrug)

RACHIMANINOV

Piano (.ontent, 3. etc ( Iclisman Mehl. ) REIMANN

I o I Michelangelo Poems ( lischer•Dieskau Heimann 1

ROSENBERG

I 10 Siring Quartets I 6 I 2 I variou, 1011 String Quartet. f & ( various)

ROUGET de LISLE 9 f la Marscillaise ( Wallace)

SAINT-SAENS loi Carnival tit Animals 1 Stamp)

SATIE

11111 Pianti pieces ( Quefife)ec 1 SCARIAITI

loie Sella)

SCIII:MANN 100 Cantaval. etc ( d'Ascoli ) 1(11 Carnaval. etc ( Larrocha /

SCRULISIN

93 Sonata 9 Smith )

SHOSTAKOVICH

101 Nymph( my ( ravinsky ) 1(11 Mring Quartets # /1. II ( Conn Qt 1

9,

98

1110

Janacek's Taras Bulba

1111 Suite on Michelangelo Pi ients

( Eischer•Dieskau Reimann I

SORANI 93 Opus ( laticemba)isticurn ( Ogdon 1

R STRAUSS

I 02 I Sin Quixote. etc ( Beecham) 99 Duet ( lc incen im ( Frit her )

102 Violin Sonata ( Zukerman Neik rug 1

SUCHON

Serenade ( W archal TCHAIKOVSICY

I 02 Symphony-i. etc ( Ahhado

VIVALDI 102 Reoirder Concertos ( lolstag H oltman 1

COLLECTIONS 103 NEW YEARS CONCERT 1989

( Strauss family 1

103 GUILDILUL STRINGS ( Britten TippettWalton 1

103 JAMES BOWMAN ( composers) 1113 JOSEF LIIEVLNNE ( 1 920 30t.

recordings I

105 HERMANN SCHERCHEN ( Tchaikovsky Rintsky • Korsaki iv )

REFLECTIONS

BAR 1115 Piani I(loncerto 3. ear ( Kocsis isc her 1

BEETHOVEN 11)5 Symphonic, & ( Furtm angler I

BERLIOZ 105 Beatrice & Benedict Overture I Munch)

DRAMS 105 Serenades I & 2 ( Kcrit.,)

CHOPIN 105 Piano mod:, ( Ashkenazi . I 3( 1). 1

DEBUSSY

105 La Mer ( Tiecanini 1 D'LNDY

105 Symphony (m French Mountain Air

( Munch )

ELGAR 11)5 Enigma Variations ) 1.• eseanini 1

FRANCK 1115 Symphony in 1).minor ( Monti:us

HAYDN Ills Symphi inns 6.8 (

MENDELSSOHN 105 Si mphonies & -1( Mani

105 Symphonies # & ) Sanallisch

NIELSEN 105 Symphony 5. etc ( orenstein

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV 105 Scheherazade. etc ( Amernirt 1 105 Antar. etc ( Scherchen

SCIIUBERT 105 Symphonies 3 6 ( Beecham)

TCILUKOVSKY 105 Symphony 6 etc Giulini

1(15 Rom., & Juliet. etc ( Scherchen

ROCK/POP/JAZZ JOHN ABERCROMBIE

10- John Abercrombie Marc Johnson 0cter Erskine

ARTHUR ALEYANDER

I I S Arthur Alexander

CHRIS BARBER & DRJOHN IlS March Gres At The Marquee

111E BEACH BOYS I 15 shut D4PA II VOI 2

BLUE MURDER

114 Blue Murder

BLUE RODEO 1 I Diamond Mine

HARIPRA.SAD CHAURASIA &

ANINDO CHATTERIEE Rag Lalit

NENEH CHEIHIY 10- Raw lake Sushi

CLANNAD 115 Peen-sent

NATALIE COLE 113 Good To Be Back

CONCRETE BLONDE tir Eree

COOKIE CREW I I 3 Born 'Ibis Way

DALIK i 115 Compass Kiimpas

VIC DAMONE I 15 "Ehe BCM (W The 1:apito)

THE DICKIES 113 Second Coining

DILLARD & CLUJ( I I S The Ilinta‘tit. Expedition If Dillard &

( larkIhri nigh lute Niorning Through

lite Night DEAN DILLON

1 1 3 Slick Nickel DESPERATE DANZ BAND

I I 3 Send Unix And Emirpence... We're (Ming To A Dance

DESTROY ALL MONSTERS 113 Live

CIIAMPIONJACK DUPREE 115 And 116 Blues Band

RAMBLIN'JACK ELLIOTT I 15 Talking Dusi Bowl

MARIANE FAITHFUL 115 Marianne Faithful'

TENNESSEE ERNIE FORD 115 Farmyard Hi logic

FRIENDS AGAIN 115 'trapped And inn rapped

BILLY FURY I IS Billy

JEAN PAUL GAULTIER 1 I 4 Aim. Tou Don lai

ROBERT GORDON 0- 1 live At Lone Star

DENNIS GRFAVES & 111E TRI ill

113 Jump

BORIS GREBENSIIIKOV - 10 Radio Silence

THE GR(11 .NDHOGS I 15 110›,,,1•11

(it "i

10-' T th aking in e World

HELLOWEEN 113 live In The 1%

THEJACKSONS 1)-• 2300 Jackson ',greet

DRJOHN

In A Sentimental Mood JUNKYARD

iir Junkyard ERNIE K-DOE

I 15 Burn., K.Doe. Burn SALIF KEITA

111- Ko-Van

T LAvrrz AND THE BAI) HABITZ I 13 T tacit, And Bad I lahits

LIVED AND nie BLUES IMPERIALS 11 3 Chicken, ( Wavy &

LISA LISA & Cl'LTJAM 11r Straight To The Si)

LIL1LU 115 Something To SIM Mx 111(

MAN

I 15 Maximum Darkness

!MANFRED MANN 115 Ep Collection

PAUL McCARTNEY

109 Flowers In The Dirt

DELBERT McCLINTON II 3 lave From Ausiin

SUSANNAH McCORKLE 109 No More Blue.

BEST OF THE MONTH

Britten song-cycles 95

98 Gielgud narrates Peter and the Wolf 100

de Larrocha's Schuman recital 101

Vivaldi Recorder Concertos 102

COUNTRYJOE McDALNALD 113 Viet Nam Experience

BARRY MANILOW 109 Barry Aland( ne

RICHARD MARX 1111 Repeat 1lffcndcr

KATHY MATIRA 10-. Willem- in The ind

JOHN COUGAR MELLEN(:AMP 110 Big Daddy

THREE Mt STAPHAS THREE 113 Heart Of Uncle

LITTLE NEMO 109 Sounds in The Attic

PHILL OCHS I 15 Gunfighi Ai Carnegie Hall

TILE 03AYS 113 Serious

ONSLAUGHT 113 In Search Of Sanity

OS.T. 113 Chimes ... 'the Cavil ILead

0.S.T

113 1969 PERE [ BU

110 Climell.d

TOM PETTY 110 1611 Moon Fever

POP WILL EAT ITSELF 11(1 This 1,111e Day ... liti. Is lhellour

Th ThiN'

PREFAB SPROUT 11 o Prinesi Songs

QUEEN III Elie Miracle

(jt EST

Ili Natural Selection

llIIE IDLE RACE 115 l'he Birthdai Parti

LOU RAWLS 1 lo Si Iasi

111E REMAINS

115 ille Remains

KID RENA/BI'NKJOHNMES/OSCAR CELESTLN

l 1 Down (M lhe Delta STAN RIDGWAY

III Nlivatuitoek

TILEY,CASTRONARI/MAR.511

Ill leather,

TOM ROBINSON II I Iasi Tango

SIDO ROMANO III Ritual

ILIANA ROSS III Workire Overtinle

TODD RUNDGREN ill Nearly Human

DINO SAI.1721 112 Andina

DEL SHANNON I 15 tile 1Km Shannon 1.ollet

SHADES OF KENTON

112 'Round Midnight Concert

GEORGE SHEARING and HANK JONES

112 'the Spirit 1/1: I -6 SHEELEYANN ORPHAN

112 ( Flour,

PHOEBE SNOW

t il Something Real THE STRANGLERS

113 Radio ( Sessions

SWING 01.:T SISTER

112 Kaleidoscope World

TIN MACHINE I 12 l'in Machine

TRANSVLSION VAMP 113 Velveleen

THE TROGGS 115 Villd Thing,

VARIOUS

115 Country Music / lootenanni-

VARIOUS 113 Jazz Today Vol. 1

VARIOUS 115 The Original Nlemphis Mlues Brothers

VARIOUS I 13 Nile Elite 2

VARIOUS 113 Night Of The ( initar - Live

VOW WOW I 13 Helier Milieu.

JOE WILLIAMS

115 Having The Mues I Oder European Ski LORI YATES

113 CanT Stop 'lite

ZEPHYR 115 Zephyr

INFORMATION

CLASSICAL REVIEWS arc based on the Compact Disc, unless indicated • (LP). The catalogue number is followed by total playing time, and equivalent LP/MC (Musicassette) numbers. eîe = monophonic recording. (a) indicates date of first UK release, cg. on LP — now CD, or LP reissue. ROCK/POP/JAZZ REVIEWS arc based on the LP, unless shown: CD. Equivalent MC number is given in brackets. (NB. Musicassettes arc not reviewed in HFNIRR.) RATINGS Recording and Performance are separately graded as a summary of each review. In Rock/Pop/Jazz the numerical rating also reflects musical content. An additional star — A* or 1* — denotes outstanding quality. C) Hi-Fi News & Record Review

Recording: Performance

A I Very Good 2 (Mini

C 3 Moderate I) 4 Poor H H Historical

111-F1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989

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reviews CLASSICAL

SORAMI: Opus Clavicembalisticum John Ogdon (pno) Altarus AIR-CD9075 (4CDs, 284m 39s)

This is spoken of as Sorabji's masterpiece, which seems rather glib considering how little of his music we know and how much he wrote after it. Sheer size is no criterion, of course, yet one does wonder about, say, the 1000-page lane Symphony or the Symphonic Variations for piano, said to last for six hours. Actually, the first idea to be et rid of is that Opus Clavicembalisti-cum is an unending orgy of post-Romantic hyper-virtuosity. In view of Allcan's Etudes Op.39, or the 1838 version of Liszt's Etudes d'Exécution Transcendante, it cannot be said that the executive demands it makes are quite without pre-cedent — although length is indeed another factor. Something approaching five hours (with intervals) is not consi-dered excessive by listeners to certain operas, but an immense strain is here imposed on a lone pianist ( even with intervals). Whether we are thinking of Ogdon's concert performance in London last year, or the above recording, done in only three sessions, this is one of the great pianistic feats of our time.

But it is important to grasp that it is far from being a pianistic triumph only. OC is an exceedingly difficult work not just to play but also to understand as a whole, and if there is something more astonishing here than Ogdon's performance it is his musical insight, sustained over vast stretches of terrain. True, he has been playing OC for a large part of his life, and the admirable ( also sizeable) booklet included with this boxed set has photo-graphs taken at a private performance that he gave 30 years ago for, among others, the work's dedicatee, Hugh McDiarmid. Some passages, such as the second

section of the fourth Fugue, are storms,

one might say hurricanes, of notes, yet although OC is tightly packed with inci-dent it contains passages of the most striking simplicity, such as Variations 60 or 74 of the Passacaglia. There are others again, like Variation 63, which are not simple but are completely unadorned. In fact virtuosity in any ordinary sense is not an issue in OC's four Fugues, which include what are, musically speaking, this work's most difficult-to-comprehend pages yet also finally its most rewarding. Fugue III, nearly the longest movement, is particularly demanding and I had to go back to it repeatedly in the course of preparing this review. Though scarcely providing the score's most spectacular moments, these fugues contain Sorabji's most original thinking here, and, while each Etas a character of its own, each rises to great intensity. Ogdon's projection of the form of these pieces, especially Fugues III and IV, is probably the most remark-able single aspect of his interpretation of this often sparsely marked score.

If OC is anything to go by, Sorabji's fugues are very much a question of counterpoint first, and harmony second. At the opposite pole to them are the two huge variation movements, which at the deepest level arise out of harmonic con-siderations. Although the Adagio which forms the second part of the second Interlude contains what is perhaps, in any conventional sense, the work's most beautiful music, newcomers to OC — which means practically all of us — would do best to start by repeatedly listening to the twin sets of variations. One, a theme with 49 variations, makes up the first Interlude, while the Passacag,lia, which has 81 variations (cf the first movement of Organ Symphony No.1, reviewed here in May), follows the Adagio. With great immediacy they present very many aspects of Sorabji's composing, not least

RECORD OF THE MONTH

the seemingly inexhaustible invention of his piano writing. Even when we have made progress in

absorbing the sometimes densely concen-trated and original contrapuntal thinking of the fugues, and the bewildering diversity of the variations, problems remain both for listeners and for this composer's as yet few interpreters. These arise from OCs (and his other works') lack of an evident background. In part this is a matter of our ignorance of Sorabji's output as a whole, but also of our lack of knowledge of the origins of his style and methods. No.18 in the first variation set always reminds me of one aspect of the music of Bernard van Dieren, yet such echoes from elsewhere are precious few in these 252 pages. Except for Busoni.

It would not apply, 1 think, to Sorabji's other pieces, but if one crucial work provides a background to OC it is Busoni's Fantasia Contrappuntistica. Certainly important aspects of OC are missed if one is unacquainted with that earlier work Even if oblique, Sorabji's repeated refer-ences to it are significant and clearly deliberate — comparable in fact to the allusions to Beethoven's Hammerklavier in Barraqué's Piano Sonata and Brahms's Sonata Op.1. As traced by Ronald Stevenson's helpful analysis of OC in the accompanying booklet, Sorabji's refer ences go beyond the Fantasia to Doktor Faust and Violin Sonata 2. I find myself reminded of Busoni's Elegies at some points also. Whether Sorabji had these other Busoni pieces consciously in mind, as he unquestionably did the Fantasia, is, of course, another matter. But he in no sense worked in Busoni's shadow, for one can hardly imagine a score of more disconcertingly complete originality than OC. The need to know other major compositions of his becomes urgent. [A*:11 Max Harrison

BALAKIREV: Sonata/MUSSORGSKY: Pic-tures at an Exhibition/SCRIABIN: Sonata 9 Ronald Smith (pno) Nimbus NI 5187 (65m 58s)

The Ninth is the most concentrated of Scriabin's sonatas and as such it remains beyond the grasp of many pianists. While producing a beautiful sound, as in the molto meno vivo section, Smith is sometimes just a bit too literal. Yet it is enlightening to hear such an exact account of Scriabin's very original, complex and volatile textures, and to have the continuity of innovatory con-structive thinking that lies behind this music's outward diversity demonstrated so decisively. There are no such reservations about this

version of Balakirev's splendid Sonata, Smith's performance identifying completely with the spirit of this music — whose mode of expression and formal organization are admittedly far less recondite than Scriabin's. A substantial four-movement work lasting over 25 minutes, Balalcirev's Sonata ought to be in the regular repertoire. Far more familiar are Mussorgsky's Pictures, which, like the Balakirev Sonata, Smith has recorded before. The initial Promenade' catches

exactly the right mood of bold directness, and most of the pieces are vividly characte-rised, good examples being 'Gnomus' and 'Bydlo'. There is very fine piano playing throughout, as in 'Limoges' or 'The Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks', but it is the ferocity of 'Baba-Yaga' or the weight and dignity of `The Great Gate of Kiev' that create the strongest impression. IA:11 Max Harrison

BARTOK: String Quartets 3-5 Cbilingirian Qt Chandos CHAN 8634 (67m 40s) (also LP/MC)

The Chilingirian's Bartok series is being released in sequence — Quartets 1 and 2 were reviewed last August, Six is promised with the unpublished 1904 Piano Quintet. Meanwhile the three central pillars of the canon, and the toughest, incidentally, are here in very persuasive performances, clearly if somewhat forwardly recorded in surroundings that give the string sound pungency and an acceptable vibrancy. The technical challenges posed by these quartets are less fearsome to players nowadays, it seems, and here for the most part they are admirably met — though it cannot be said that the Chilingirians are wholly successful

in persuading us that these are not difficult works, as, for example, the Emersons did. Perhaps we should be more aware of the technical problems; they may well reflect the stresses inherent in Bartok's music. Certainly, one does get a feeling of struggle, especially at the outset of 4 and during the imitative exchanges that occupy much of 5. Occasionally, too, the near-perfect unani-mity of the four players falters at the fastest speeds — and some are very fast indeed. With the recent reappearance on CD of the I.indsay recording, and existing sets by the Takacs and Alban Berg, lovers of these quartets are well catered for. These C.hilingi-rian performances stand very high on the list though still surpassed in all-round brilliance by the Emersons. [A:1] Kenneth Dommett

BEETHOVEN: Symphonies 1-9 0 Sym-phony 10, 1st movement D Overtures — Prometheus & Coriolan D Rehearsals — Symphonies 6 & 10 Josephine Barstow (sop)/Linda Finnie (con)/David Rendall (ten)/John Tomlinson (bass)/CBSO & Chi Weller Chandos CHAN 8712/17 (6CDs, 413m 43s) (also 6LP/6MC)

My very first experience of Walter Weller as

111-1,1 NEWS & RE(;oRI) REVIEW AUGUST 1989 93

CLASSICAL reviews a conductor involved Beethoven. That was at an LSO performance of the Eroica in the Royal Albert Hall, heard from the front row, an occasion which prompted some editorial musings on preferred listening perspectives (HhN/RR, June '73 p1109). But, spatial considerations apart, I remember being impressed by Weller's powerful enthusiasm for Beethoven's heroic music, by a fiery and thrusting involvement which now seems to have subsided. In these readings, consuming passion has largely given way to loving affection. But of course this great corpus of music is full of beauty and interest, sadness and joy, quite apart from Beethoven's fun and fury, and listeners without a special attachment to the defiant turbulence which I so admire in the composer should not be too biased by my disappointment.

For a start, I found very few oddities of the sort which can seem immediately wrong'. A little slow or fast ( more often the latter) in this or that movement, an occasional unex-pected touch of rubato, but nothing very radical. Except, that is, in the Allegretto of 7, where I was not convinced by a change of tempo towards the end. Dynamics receive much careful attention, especially those pianissimo passages which build anticipa-tory tension — as just before the great trombone outburst in 5( iv ). I also particu-larly noted the opening of 4(i), the reverently hushed start to 7( ii ), and the Coriolan Overture's very quiet ending.

Most of the performances are well shaped, but otherwise fairly conventional in a mod-ern 'big' Beethoven manner, with some repeats honoured, some not, while the Birmingham players are superb throughout. Symphonies I & 6 evoked no special posi-tive or negative reactions, 9 followed style in failing to overwhelm, 3 is perhaps granted rather more stature than the other odd-numbered works, and a superb opening movement for 2 provides in my view quite the best Beethoven in the whole set — once the Allegro starts up. There is a disappoin-tingly 'steady' and undefiant 5(i), much liveliness but little fire in the potentially exciting 4, a lot of energy but again no real zest in 7(iv ), but some real assertiveness (though not for long) at the start of 8, which also receives a lively finale.

Regarding the Barry Cooper realization of 1001 in the absence of a performing tradi-tion one can only compare this with the Wyn Morris version. Weller is generally brisker, less expansively 'earnest' than Mor-ris — which makes the opening Andante seem structurally more convincing. But I miss the powerful angularity of Morris's Allegro, and also note that despite Weller's penchant for pianissimo effects, he fails to give anything like as hushed a lead-in to the central recapitulation.

This 'No.10' is joined on Disc 6 by the two Overtures and some 33m of rehearsal ses-sions. The latter are of only slight interest, and it strikes me that the spare time could well have been used for some further Overtures. Indeed, if Disc l's 761/2 m is taken as a reference, I calculate that Chandos's package could have accommodated at least eight of the eleven Beethoven Overtures, which would have made a very fulsome collection. What about the recording? The Birming-

ham Town Hall provides a reasonably spa-cious orchestral setting, but I felt that the chorus in 9 would have benefited from more reverberance — although the vocal quartet is nicely presented. However, the hall seems not to have a very lively ambience at high

frequencies, while the mid-bass is somewhat emphasized, which tends to thicken the texture right across the right-hand half of the orchestra. This is especially noticeable on sustained tutti fortissimos — eg, in 6(iv) — which need to be played quite loud if one is to accommodate all of Weller's pianissimos without volume adjustments. I kept feeling that the violins were under-represented, not allowed to contribute their full quota of brilliance to the tonal picture. Note their relative 'distance', for instance, when singing the Hymn of Thanksgiving in 6. But having said that, the sound is often very fine, and to sample it at its best I would suggest the Allegro parts of 10. The sonics there plus the music in 2(i) might well convince anyone that this whole review is unreasonably negative. One final point. The extra brightness and

analysis provided by headphones seems to suit these CDs very well, imparting some sonic bite to offset the slightly dim balance, and also perhaps to compensate a little for Weller's lack of Beethovenian assertiveness. And the soundstage is opened out as prop-osed in that 1973 Editorial. [A/11:3/11

John Crabbe

BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonatas — in d, Op.31:2 'Tempest' D Waldstein D Les Adieux 0 in G, Op.79 Maurizio Pollini (pno) DG 427 642-2 (72m 03s) ( also LP/MC)

A thicket in the path of the analyst, this disc offers sonatas we know and love in perform-ances where the pianist's rationalization of every aspect of the music ( most notably, perhaps, its translation into terms of the modern instrument) turns them into pieces which we find we don't know, after all, and which emerge as unloved, in a conventional sense. There is a hint of the analogy of the Grand Prix driver pitting his skills against a familiar course, driving the most up-to-date machine available. Areas like the octave theme passing from I/R with triplet semi-quavers, or the page leading to the Prestis-simo in the Waldstein finale, excite by the sheet infallibility of Pollini's execution. And his fastidious care for, and discrimination between sonorities in the 'Tempest' and Waldstein slow movements suggest that only by thinking for years has he arrived at these performances. The CD may last 72m, but since it reflects hours of searching preparation it's too much to take in at a sitting; although, paradoxically, the longer one listens the more Pollini's performances communicate.

Pollini has discarded accretions of senti-ment in Beethoven performance; yet what remains tends to leave an empty feeling — especially those slow movements, and the quite joyless Les Adieux finale. There, the Poco Andante is the most questionable thing on this CD; it sounds like a musical box. I think the beginning of the little Sonata Op.79 will shock; it is brusquer even than Bacichaus's Beethoven. And yet the reading as a whole is a revelation. Some details I disliked, subjectively: the

treatment of all the turns in the slow movement of the D-minor. These make me think of carpet unrolling: surely the slight stress/elongation on the last semitone rise is preferable (eg, as Kempff takes it)? And there's a persistent drop to a piano dynamic which, for me, introduces a caesura in the argument. Indeed, Pollini's fragmentation of Adagios, whilst sharply delineating the com-ponent motifs, lacks that necessary flow

which takes the listener on a comprehend-ing journey. And only the ending of the very last recitative in Op.31:1 ( i) [ 155-81 really 'speaks'. Someone defined architecture as 'frozen music'. Here, we seem to have 'frozen music'. Whatever the misgivings, an important release must be acknowledged — one with magnificent sound, though Pollini's occasional exhalations may disturb. [A*:1(*)] Christopher Breunig

BERLIOZ: Symphonie Funèbre et Triomphale/GOSSEC: Symphonie Mill-taire El Marche LugubreCARDIN: Over-ture in F/CHERUBINI: Hymne à la Vic-toire/LEFEVRE: Hymne à l'Agriculture/ ROUGET DE LISLE: Hymne à la Liberté (La Marseillaise, arr. Gossec) The Wallace Collection/Leeds Festival Ch/ Wallace Nimbus NI 5175 (57m 16s)

The Davis and Dutoit recordings of Berlioz's Funeral & Triumphal Symphony are fillers on 2CD sets, while Dondeyne's single-disc Paris performance (without chorus) is unconvincing. So, knowing of the Wallace Collection's rising reputation in the brass/ wind/percussion field, my hopes ran high for this Nimbus version. However, while John Wallace's team play with more professional aplomb than their French counterparts, and devote as much attention to the work's instrumental detail as to its mighty climaxes, their brisk overall manner is disappointing. The opening March takes 4m less than Davis/Dutoit and 8m less than Dondeyne, thereby abandoning all funereal dignity; and despite Dudley Bright's fine trombone play-ing the Oration is also rather hasty. As for the Apotheosis, while its choral ending is asser-tively triumphant, the movement's jaunty pace suggests more jollity than majesty. A newcomer to the work might well be impressed, but the general mood suggested here is hardly one of ceremonial homage to the revolutionary dead of 1830.

That was a minor revolution, but over half of this CD's time is devoted to an intriguing collection of music associated with the great 1789 event. The six pieces employ similar 'open-air' instrumentation, but feature a mixture of styles stretching back to the Mozartian wind serenade. All are played with conviction and precision, plus fine contributions from the Leeds chorus in the three celebratory 'Hymnes'.

Sonically, the All Saints Tooting setting adds a spacious envelope of stony brightness which may incline some listeners to tilt down the treble when the trumpets play fortissimo. But instrumental balance is con-vincing, the huge percussive outbursts are handled well, and the chorus is positioned to give real impact — with a striking division of parts in the final Marseillaise. [A:3/11]

John Crabbe

BRITTEN: Simple SymphonyjANACEK: Suite/SUCHON: Serenade Slovak CO/Warchal Opus 9350 1773 (46m 5s) ( Rare Records)

An attractive programme, a bit short on time perhaps, but imaginatively put together and very well recorded. Opus is the Slovak record outlet based in Bratislava and is quite independent of Supraphon/Panton which is centred in Prague. Their set of Schmidt symphonies some while back alerted collec-tors to a largely untapped source of potential quality. These performances under Bohdan Warchal confirm expectations, and are

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further evidence of the excellence of Czechoslovak string playing. Britten's little frolic is a great favourite there, and this is a shapely and engaging account of it. Janacek being a Moldavian is claimed by both sides, but his sympathies lay closer to the Slovaks than to the more Westernised Bohemian Czechs, and this early Suite, not too often heard because it lacks much of the indi-viduality of the later music, is both attractive and skilfully set out. So is Eugen Suchon's Serenade. Suchon, together with his contem-porary Cilcker, is among the few Slovak composers to have penetrated far beyond the borders of the state. He used to be represented on record by his opera Svato-pluk but this Serenade is now his only showing on British lists. Opus have several important examples on record so perhaps the distributor can persuade them to release a representative sample. [A:11

Kenneth Dommett

BRITTEN: Albert Herring Pears/Fisher/Cantelo/Peters/Brannigan/ Ward/Wilson/ECO/Britten Decca 421 849-2 (2CDs, 137m 56s) C) 1964

BRITTEN: Billy Budd El The Holy Son-nets of John Donne El Songs and Proverbs of William Blake' Pears/Glossop/Langdon/*Fischer-Dieskau/ Ambrosian Opera Ch/LSO/Britten Decca 421 428-2 (3CDs, 204m 55s) C) 1967, * 1965

BRITTEN: The Prince of the Pagodas D Diversions for piano and orchestra* Royal Opera House Orch/Britteni•Julius Katchen (prto)/LSO/Britten Decca 421 855-2 (2CDs, 124m 45s)* Q C) 1957, • 1954

CD transfer for Decca's Britten discography seems like a slow process, but at least it ought to be a complete one. That much is clear when The Prince of the Pagodas is part of the latest batch. It was the first of Britten's recordings to be made in stereo ( the Diver-sions, recorded in 1954, are in plain sturdy mono, without electronic trimmings, though that isn't made clear anywhere in the notes) and sets an honourable precedent for the Culshaw delights to come. Only the string sound and tape hiss give any hint of its vintage, and the bass is fuller now that I remember it on the Ace of Diamonds reis-sue. The performance — energetic, sharp-edged and not without a certain wide-eyed magic for the Salamander's mysterious man-ifestations — belies the composer's poor opinion of his ballet, and it's probably the nearest we shall come to a full assessment now that Michael Lankester's substantial selection has established itself outside the concert hall ( there are a few cuts here). Your response will depend upon how authentic a 'Britten experience' you demand from the score. I don't recognize his per-sonal stamp on much of the music, but it is fascinating to hear brilliantly orchestrated pastiche which takes into account early as well as late Prokofiev, Bartok's Wooden Prince as well as his Miraculous Mandarin, the Stravinsky of the Rite, Apollo and Agon. The Four Kings' dances show the collage-method at its most dazzling; exuberance has run decidedly thin, though, in the tepid parody of the Act 3 Pas de Six. The dramatic scenes offer instrumental colour without much substance ( the elements of Act Two, Scene One), or inspired tributes to

Tchaikovsky's skill at effecting transforma-tions with simple means. A curate's egg, in short — and that doesn't even begin to take account of the gamelan music, which is on another level altogether, and cunningly fused with the action. [A/(B):1] The two operas show Britten's conducting

respectively at its incisive peak and ( under-standably) reticent second-best, which is still very good indeed. One marvels afresh at the rich textures of the chamber forces in Albert, with never an accent missed or a punch pulled. The lad's apronstring angst becomes something to take seriously: Pears is at his fullest in the expansive longings of 1 (ii), and when his disgust after the fete seems almost too clean-as-a-whistle still, the instrumentalists powerfully urge his busting-out. Little wonder, perhaps, that Britten the conductor shirks the murky depths and shining peaks of Billy Budd as if he were almost afraid of what his unconscious has brought forth. The hint of reserve in the disturbing twilight of Herring 2 ( ii) is extended here to the first E-flat clearing of the clouds in 'Blow her away' and Vere's delusive confidence before Claggart's accusation of Billy. Even so, the unerringly precise writing for woodwind and brass is clearly etched and remains in the mind long after the immediate impact of the perform-ance.

Pears, sounding much less secure in the upper reaches now, rises to Vere's crisis with a memorable fluctuation between rep-ression, dark authority and anguish; Glossop, too, reserves the gamut of his tonal palette for Billy-as-redeemer. Michael Langdon's bass may be the colour of Claggart to the life, but at neither dynamic end of the scale does he manage to suggest Forster's poisoned sexual discharge. Perhaps, in a clearer-speaking age, we have been spoilt for more powerfully explicit characterizations. The supporting casts for both operas reinforce Britten's skilful characterisations — espe-cially Robert Tear, fresh-voiced in the Novice's music (haunting, all of it) and John Shirley-Quirk's First Lieutenant on HMS Indomitable, Sylvia Fisher and Owen Branni-gan combining humour and menace in equal measure as Loxford busybodies, set against the flexible lovers of Catherine Wilson and Joseph Ward. There is the chilling presence, too, of Fischer-Dieskau in the Blake settings,

providing a malignant counterpoint to Clag-gart in the awesome climax of 'A Poison Tree'. [A:11 Herring,1A111:112] Budd.

David Nice

BRITTEN: Les Illuminations D 4 Chan-sons Françaises D Serenade for tenor, horn & strings Felicity Lott (sop)/Anthony Rolfe Johnson (ten)/Michael Thompson (hrn)ISNOI Thomson Chandos CHAN 8657 (58m 55s) ( also LP/MC)

Beautiful, stunningly accomplished perform-ances are combined here with a subtly-balanced recording which conveys just the right degree of nearness to voices and orchestra. The result is an outstanding disc, one of the best ever made of Britten's music. Never since Peter Pears and Dennis Brain have any pair of artists, in my experience, imparted such magic as do Anthony Rolfe Johnson and Michael Thompson to the most celebrated of all Britten's smaller-scaled works, the Serenade for tenor, horn and strings. Indeed I am not sure if Pears himself ever ventured the subtlety of inflexion which Rolfe Johnson lavishes on Tennyson's echoes, 'dying, dying, dying'.

Felicity Lott takes on the French song-cycle Les Illuminations, to poetry by Rim-baud, with its sinewy and brilliant accom-paniment for string orchestra. From her initial entry with its marvellously ringing attack (as the poet proclaims his ownership of the key to the 'savage parade' which he describes), she maintains a closely control-led yet thrilling artistry. The composer's optional low notes, reckoned too perilous for some sopranos, are confidently taken. As a bonus, Felicity Lott adds the four unfamil-iar French songs with orchestral accompani-ment which Britten composed before he was 15 ( but which have only recently been published). They have an almost cloying richness which the composer discarded later, but who would wish to sacrifice them now? Dryden Thomson is not the first name I

would have mentioned among Britten con-ductors, but no one could outrank him in his sensitivity here, nor in the response which he gets from the Scottish National Orchestra. [A*:11 Arthurjacobs

HI.FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989 95

CLASSICAL reviews COPLAND: Appalachian Spring D Short Symphony D Quiet City D 3 Latin Amer-ican Sketches Orpheus CO DG 427 335-2 (61m 27s) ( also MC)

This is the suite Copland made in 1958 from his original 'pit orchestra' version of Appa-lachian Spring written for 13 players and designed to fit comfortably into a theatre. Its advantages over the more familiar orchestral version are evident in the genuinely vernal luminosity of the music and its touching intimacy, much of which is distanced by large orchestras. The Symphony, with its heavy complement of winds, would seem to call for weightier strings than an orchestra of the size of Orpheus could supply, but in the event the mix is remarkably effective, and conforms to the composer's idea of it having the sound 'of an enlarged chamber ensem-ble'. Quiet City is more poised and atmos-pheric than in the St Luke's version recently on ASV; and the soloists, especially the trumpeter, are more secure and better placed. It is also marginally preferable to the new Schwarz performance on EMI, again primarily because it has a stronger sense of atmosphere. 'Ibe Latin American Sketches, Copland in a sombrero, are, however, more substantial than El Salon Mexico or Danzon Cubano, and less familiar. An admirably played and recorded programme. [A:1]

Kenneth Dommett

COPLAND: Clarinet Concerto 0 Music for the Theatre D Quiet City O Dance Panels David Shifrin (c11)1NY Chamber Symphony/ Schwarz EMI CDC 749 0952 ( 71m 41s)

'I'he first three works seem to he undergoing an unprecedented revival. Presumably with the composer's 90th birthday in the offing they present typical and readily assimilable examples of his work. Their proliferation, however, makes choice difficult — particu-larly where the Concerto is concerned. Shifrin's is yet another good, idiomatic per-formance to set against three of the most recent: Stoltzman's glowing RCA version, Janet Hilton's sharply focused Chandos recording, and Richard Hosford's attrac-tively scaled performance on ASV. Shifrin's strength lies in the astringency of his attack on the second, jazz-inspired movement where the staccato phrases have a sharp cutting edge. The lyric first movement finds more persuasive advocates in Hilton or Stoltzman, who both have the added advan-tage of warmer orchestral sound. Program-mes too must affect choice. This one has a good mix of the witty, the spiky, and the lyrical Copland, and the bonus of Dance Panels, a neglected example of his later, still highly personal music. Music for the Theatre is duplicated on the ASV release, but this performance with its bright, rather edgy sound has a touch more bite and sparkle; the nocturnal Quiet City is less crepuscular than Orpheus's on DG, whose programme, if you don't specially want the concerto, arguably has the greatest musical value of all. [A:1]

Kenneth Dommett

DOHNANYI: Piano Quintet Op,1 String Quartet 2 Wolfgang Manz (pno)/Gabrieli Qt Chandos CHAN 8718 (61m 125) (also LP/M(: )

Dohnanyi's star is clearly in the ascendant

again. This is the second account of his youthful and very impressive quintet to appear in the last six months ( Schiff/Talcac's Decca version was reviewed in April). What-ever the influences operating on the com-poser — and Brahms's was a strong one — the individuality and power of the work are undeniable. Decca's team, being Hungarian, brought a certain Lisztian dash to the piece, which the British team translates into a more generalised though no less persuasive pas-sion. The Quartet, in the uncomfortable key of D-flat, is another early work — dating from 1906 — and a more typical example of Dohnanyi's work than the Sextet which Decca offers. It is an impressive and large-scale piece in the Brahmsian tradition, full of surprises and unexpected touches of a kind that make Bartok's admiration for Dohnanyi's music, as well of his organizing abilities, perfectly understandable. There is listed an alternative LP version by the Vienna Arts Qt on Schwann coupled with the first Quartet which has not come my way. Few, however, need be disappointed by this present generously rich interpretation and recording from the Gabrieli-Chandos part-nership. [A:11 Kenneth Dommett

DVORAK: Symphony 8 1:1 The Wood Dove SNO/Jdrvi Chandos CHAN 8666 ( 56m 36s) ( also I.P/MC)

This brings to a conclusion Járvi's series devoted to the symphonies, tone-poems, and some overtures, a series distinguished by some memorable performances and fine recordings. Not all the CD versions have reached me, but those in that format have shown up a wealth of detail enhanced by the conductor's generally well thought-out tempi and his always sensitive approach. All these qualities are to be found in the symphony, Dvorak's sunniest and most Czech in feeling. There have been many excellent accounts of this, but Jârvi's is a very serious contender for a place among the finest. To some ears maybe it is a 'careful' reading, sounding just a bit too precise. However in sum it captures most of the atmosphere and spirit, and everything is securely cemented together. It may not be the ultimate interpretation for the Desert Island, but which is? There is a beautiful clarity and immediacy to the sound which in itself is exciting. The Wood Dove, the most pastoral of the tone poems, receives a surprisingly subdued performance, and is not quite as transparently recorded. It is very poetic, but perhaps here one would still go for Kertesz's extra sense of drama. Gre-gor's Supraphon versioa is also worth con-sidering. Altogether a memorable achieve-ment for both the SNO and Chandos. [A/A*:1] Kenneth Dommett

ELGAR: Violin Concerto III Cello Con-certo Yehudi Menuhin (vin)ILSO/Beatrice Harri-son (vlc)/New SO/Elgar EMI CDH 769 7862 (75m Ils) 03 record-ings from 1932, '28

Albert Sammons (vin)/Queen's Hall Orchl WoodIWH Squire (vlc)/Hallé/Harty Novell() NVLCD 901 (74m 51s) (g, record-ings from 1929, '28

Ideally, one would like a cross-coupling from these two CDs. There can be no recording more famous than the first Menu-

hin Elgar Concerto, with the composer conducting: it's been fairly constantly avail-able. The Sammons and Harrison sets have also been transferred to LP ( by EMI). At this stage, it is difficult to say anything fresh about the Menuhin; but I do find Sammons's account with Henry Wood even finer. It is quicker in all three movements than the Menuhin and, whilst unsentimental, the soloist's lofty manner and wonderful techni-que enthral the listener.

It is a pity that Squire seems utterly to miss the nature of the Cello Concerto — treating it as a routine virtuoso piece, and phrasing narcissistically. His distortion of pitch is hardly convincing today. Beatrice Harrison was the composer's favourite inter-preter; she is far subtler than Squire, and ( for the period) her use of portamento is unusually discreet. Apparently she was not satisfied with some of the first 78 sides, and

(iii) were redone later that Spring — something of a precedent for what was to become a common technique. So, the EMI disc must have prior claim; but Sammons's, though the most dimly reproduced in these four recordings, I think remains unsurpas-sed. 1H:1(H)1 1H:! */3/4J

Christopher Breunig

GERSHWIN: Porgy and Bess Soloists1Glyndebourne Ch/LPO/Rattle EMI CDS 749 5682 ( 3CDs, 189m 32s) ( also 3I.P/3MC)

Here the listener is confronted by two shibboleths, the presumed perfection of Gershwin's opera, and, critically speaking, the infallibility of Simon Rattle. That both are open to question may be argued from the present recording, which is a studio re-enactment of the Glyndebourne stage per-formance. There, this Porgy was apparently a success, but embalmed on record, it is only intermittently so. Rattle has fashioned a performance of indulgence, designed, one feels, as much to reflect his own preoccupa-tion with certain aspects of Gershwin's score as to present to us a cosmic view of it. His singers, led by Willard White (who now surely is the artistic personification of the titular hero), Cynthia Hayman, a capable if not wholly ingratiating Bess, with Damon Evans as an invigorating Sportin' Life, carry out their conductor's commands, even where, as in several of the more lyrical passages — 'Summertime' is a specially apt example where Hayman labours to support the sagging tempo — one imagines their sympathies lie in generating some of that zipp which, pace those operatic assump-tions, Gershwin's music always demands. Here such music is set to make its point so deliberately as to fail almost to make it at all.

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On the other hand, the more 'show-y' side gets the full Rattle razz-a-ma-tazz, and the music picks up accordingly — though the chorus is not especially well focused.

This brings one to the question of Ger-shwin's equivocal score. If, like Maazel, one goes for the full operatic treatment, one can be easily convinced that the piece really has pretensions to 'grand' opera; whereas if one listens to the equally authoritative RCA version by DeMain, one is quite happy to settle for 'Super-Broadway' status. His is a view favoured by many Americans, and it certainly has its advantages, not least because it persuades us to overlook DuBose Heyward's sadly dated dialogue. Rattle seems to see it as America's Carmen but would like it to become Glyndebourne's Show Boat — the cynical might say musical comedy trying to become musical tragi-comedy. Had he opted wholly for one or the other, preferably the latter, he might have been more successful. As it is, either of the alternative versions seems preferable, and dependent on where in the scale you place Porgy and Bess. [A:2] Kenneth Dommett

HANDEL: Messiah Ritchie/Shacklock/Herbert/Standen/ ISO/London Phil Ch/Scherchen Nbm NDCCD 1003 ( 3CDs, 171m 72s) (I.4 ® 1954

I was incredulous. What point, I thought, in reissuing — in these days of intensified Handel scholarship and the cultivation of early instruments — a performance of 35 years ago under a conductor remembered mainly for the 20th-century repertory? And a mono recording at that! Low expectations were accented by the wretched CD packag-ing: the items are not even listed, so that the provision of tracks is almost useless.

But not at all! Unless you reject mono absolutely, here is a recording which deserves a place at least as the 'other' Messiah on an enthusiast's shelf It shows a fine musical mind guiding a performance with four of the best soloists of the time and a chorus of whizzing accomplishment: try 'And he shall purify', as stunningly fast as the final 'Amen' is curiously ( but not heavily) slow. The score is real Handel, unmodified

by Mozart's or Prout's additions; it is abso-lutely complete; and the sound, with prom-inent harpsichord throughout, is excellently balanced.

In 1954 it could not be expected to have today's fashionable restoration of Handelian practices: double-dotting to make sharper rhythms, appoggiatura to avoid note-repeti-tion, elaboration of melodic lines with trills and cadenzas, etc. Though I personally miss these, and find the recitatives slightly dull in consequence, I revel in much of this per-formance with its keen edge of sensitivity. 'And there were shepherds ...', slow and meditative, is followed by a huge excitement at 'And suddenly there was with the angel'. Margaret Ritchie fairly bubbles with enthu-siasm at 'Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem'. Classification is hard: it would have been [A:1] in the 1950s, but ... [perhaps B/C then? — Mus EcIJ Arthurfacobs

HANDEL: Carmelite Vespers Jill Feldman, Emma Kirkby, Emily Van Evera (sops)/Margaret Cable, Mary Nichols (con)Joseph Cornwell (ten) /David Thomas

1111111.111111111111Mr.

(bass)/Taverner Ch & Players/Parrott EMI CDS 749 7492 (2CDs, 121m 43s)

The young Handel in Rome set quite a few Catholic church texts including the Dixit dominus — a substantial psalm-setting for soloists, chorus and orchestra which fairly blazes with musical exuberance, and which has been several times recorded. Collectors will differ on whether to have that standing on its own, or to have it incorporated (along with other Handel works and passages of plainsong) into a supposed Vesper Service for a Carmelite church — which may or may not have been the original context. Oh well, if you are of my mind you can always de-programme the plainsong tracks, or treat them like commercial breaks on TV and rush for coffee. The other Handel contributions, including

the Laudate pueri, admirably support the Dixit dominus: the religious words are no bar to operatic pathos or dance-like lilt. It is all brilliantly brought off by Andrew Parrott, with notable agility in fast tempos but with sensitivity throughout. Emma Kirkby and

her fellow-soprano soloists ( I do not so much care for Jill Feldman's tone) find their highest notes marginally eased by the fact that low baroque pitch is used, while Mar-garet Cable's confident contralto is outstand-ing: yes, females replace choirboys as well as castrato, with complete musical justification. The choral singing hardly ever fails the daunting test of instrumental-style virtuos-ity, and the performance on 'authentic' orchestral instruments is lithe but never scrawny. The recording in a London church, pro-

fiting by the experience of a previous performance at the 1987 Bath Festival, suits the music marvellously with a resonant but never cloudy sound, and picks up solo instruments particularly well. I set liturgical speculations aside and happily award an [A*:1]. Arthurfacobs

HAYDN: String Quartets in B Op.!:! D In D, Op.64:5 'Lark' 0 in g, Op.74:3 'Rider' Hagen Qt DG 423 622-2 (54m 41s)

The Hagen Quartet have been criticised for playing that is considered almost too refined. I can only say that I am impressed and delighted by their performances here of three nicely contrasted works. The earliest dates from Haydn's twenties; it is a five-movement divertimento ( with two minuets), and the players neatly combine liveliness and high spirits with the elegance needed for the central Adagio. 'The Lark' and 'The Rider' precede the composer's first and second visits to London. Here the playing takes on due weight and depth, though without sacrifice of the marvellously assured poise and precision. The leader relishes the challenge to his virtuosity posed by the D-major work; the G-minor one very prop-erly brings out the individual qualities as well as the corporate excellence of the team. The recording, resonant yet not lacking intimacy, is natural in sound, allowing a wide range of tonal nuances to make their due effect. IA:11 Peter Branscombe

HINDEMITH: Das Nusch-Nusciii Soloists/Berlin RSO/Albert Wergo WER 60146-50 (59m 50s)

Das Nusch-Nuschi is the second of the trilogy of sexually-motivated operas Hinde-mith wrote immediately after the first World War. The other two, Murder, Hope of Women and Sancta Susanna have already appeared in this Wergo series devoted to Hindemith, and were reviewed earlier in the year. Gerd Albert has given ample evidence in previous Hindemith recordings of an uncommon sympathy with the composer's work, especially that of this early period. Das Nusch-Nuschi, a marionette play set in Burma, involves the seduction of the King's wives by his general and that luckless Lothario's subsequent castration. For it Hin-demith provided a score of, for him, unsur-passed opulence and diversity, full of colour and spectacular displays of compositional techniques. This recording, the first of the complete work, allows us to relish its youthful precosity. It amply realises the promise of the Matisse odalisque who deco-rates the box cover, and though the cast is not uniformly excellent, the principal roles are well cast and characterised. The piece caused a storm of protest at its first produc-tion under Fritz Busch in Stuttgart in July 1921 because of a quote from Tristan in a

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context which made it seem derogatory to champions of the 'purity' of German Art. The producers have provided an English transla-tion of an informative note on the genesis of the opera, but, surprisingly, no synopsis or translation of the libretto. IA:11

Kenneth Dommett

HINDEMITH: Cardlllac Soloists/Berlin RSOIAlbert Wergo WER 60148/9-50 (2CDs, 88m 30s)

Das Nusch-Nuschi may be Hindemith's most opulently scored opera, but Cardillac (1926) is possibly his most intellectually satisfying, the later philosophical dramas Mathis der Maier and Die Harmonie der Welt, or the serio-comic Wilder piece The Long Christmas Dinner notwithstanding. This tale of the goldsmith, so besotted by his love of the material of his craft that he murders because of it, has echoes of a fictional Cellini, but Ferdinand Lion's lib-retto is more intense and more concentrated than that which De Waily and Barbier provided for Berlioz's opera on a similar theme. Cardillac was recorded several years ago by DG with a distinguished cast headed by Fischer-Dieskau. This new recording, part of Wergo's Hindemith Edition, can boast no star names — Siegmund Nimsgern, the Cardil-lac, comes closest to being one — but the cast generally acquit themselves well, extracting from the composer's often angu-lar vocal lines passion as well as anguish. Some of the women, Gabriele Schnaut is one, can be squally, but on the plus side is Albert's ardent direction which draws excel-lent playing from the orchestra, and record-ing which puts everything in realistic pers-pective without sacrifice of colour or detail. The absence of an English translation of the libretto is a drawback common to this series which could easily have been avoided. IA:11

Kenneth Dommett

JANACEK: Taras Bulba D Sinfonietta Slovak PO/Nazareth Opus 9350 2013 (47m 55s)

Daniel Nazareth is an Indian conductor who graduated from the RCM, but I am ashamed to say that I had not previously heard of him. After listening to this record though I shall be on the look out for him, for these two Janacek staples, ideal companion pieces, have seldom sounded so thrilling, even at the hands of Mackerras or Rattle, or so grandiloquently recorded. The sound, engineered in Bratislava and polished in Austria, is extraordinarily vivid, as befits the most lavish of Janacek's scores. As it happens we also have a new Sinfonietta from DG with Abbado this month, but on pretty well all counts this more modestly packaged version wins hands down, though of the two pieces it is perhaps Taras Bulba which makes the greater impact. The ingenuity of Janacek's orchestration seldom has a chance to reveal itself so completely as here, where its carefully chosen grotesqueries are able to make their point in glorious Technicolour, so to speak. [A*:11 Kenneth Dommett

JANACEK: Diary of One Who Dis-appeared D Sinfonietta Philip Langridge ( ten)/Brigitte Baileys (sop)/BPOIAbbado DG 427 313-2 (58m I6s)

This version of the Diary is a curiosity. Janacek apparently considered staging the work, and such a performance was given in

Ljubljana in 1926. In 1943 Ota Zitak and Vaclav Sedlacek, two people closely associ-ated with Janacek, contrived an orchestral transcription of the composer's piano score which keeps unusually close to the original and retains much of the original flavour without trying to ape the individuality of its style. Zitek was the orchestrator and Sed-lacek, who was Janacek's copyist, helped. The transcription was made for another stage performance given in Pilzn but it has not to my knowledge been recorded before. Despite having been modified by Janacek, the solo tenor line remains fiercely deman-ding and Langridge sounds under strain at times but his performance has style. The Sinfonietta makes an odd coupling really, though it is hard to see what else of Janacek's would have made a better. It receives a good, straightforward, though not especially inspired reading from Abbado, but perhaps listening to it after Nazareth's splendid Opus recording worked against it. IA:1/21

Kenneth Dommett

LEIGHTON: Sonatina 1 , D Conflicts, Op.51 D Five Studies, Op.22 D House-hold Pets, Op.86 D Fantasia Contrap-puntistica, Op.24 Eric Parkin (pno) Abacus ABA 402-2 (65m 07s) (Harmonia Mundi)

That I knew none of Kenneth Leighton's output before receiving this disc was clearly very much my loss. There is some fine music presented here, music at once tough, attrac-tive, and pianistic ( in the sense of suiting the piano from all points of view), in which a distinct flavour of Bartók, a healthy admix-ture of other influences and a strong indi-viduality are all evident. Leighton (who died in 1988) was a pianist himself who was not afraid to present technical challenges to the player or to exploit the piano's virtuosic and sonorous possibilities. On this disc we have a well balanced selection of works, from the charming miniatures in the 'Household Pets' suite to the large-scale 'Conflicts', subtitled 'Fantasy on Two Themes'. Pianists take note: this is good concert material!

Eric Parkin is a devoted and respected English music advocate, and his work in bringing this music to our attention should not be undervalued. On the other hand, I do not always feel that his performances bring out the most in Leighton's writing. Parkin is generally technically secure and accurate' (barring the odd misreading), but manages to sound less than fully involved. Rhythmic drive, essential to much of the music, is sometimes allowed to slip, and dynamics, both long- and short-term, become a little blurred with piano tending to mezzo-forte and fortissimo lacking power. The central climax in Conflicts, for example, is not frenetico— Il più forte possible, as marked, and the third of the 'Five Studies' could do with being a lot more delicate. Some pieces work better than others; the Sonatina comes over very well. The recording has a dull 'thud' accom-

panying every note, and this and the close balance do not help maintain dynamic range. Overall, strongly recommended for the music, with slight reservations about per-formance. 111:21 Richard Black

MARTINU: Cello Sonatas Steven Isserlis (vlc)/Peter Evans (pno) Hyperion CDA 66296 (55m 25s)

The third of Martinu's three cello sonatas is

by far the most popular and most frequently heard, but the other two, dating from 1939 and 1941 respectively, are equally interest-ing and representative. The First is a particu-larly powerful and emotional work, compa-rable with the Fourth quartet. They are currently represented only by one other CD recording, by Chuchro and Hala on Sup-raphon — apparently no longer easy to come by. However this new duo have done all three justice in performances rich in tone, full of fire and lyric expansiveness. Hyperion seem to be about the only company pre-pared to sponsor Martinu at the moment. This is the third record of his chamber music they have so far released, and like its predecessors, is admirably recorded. The two instruments are nicely spaced and sufficiently forward to give the perform-ances natural presence. [A:11

Kenneth Dommett

MEDTNER: Fairy Tale Op.9:3 D Dithyr-amb Op.10:2 ID Fairy Tales Op.14:1, 2 D Fairy Tale Op.26:2 D Fairy Tale Op.35:4 D Forgotten Melodies Op.39:1, 3 D 3 Hymns in Praise of Toil OpA9 D Elegy Op.59:2 D Fairy Tale in d (1915)

MEDTNER: Sonata Triad Op.!! D Sonata Op.25:2 'Night Wind' Hamish Milne (pno) CRD CRD 3338 (54m 56s) CRD 3339 (60m 22s)

MEDTNER: Forgotten Melodies Op.39 2nd Improvisation, in the Form of Varia-tions Op.47 ID Sonata-Idylle Op.56 Earl Wild (pno) Chesky AD! (66m 29s)

Medtner's is not music for pianists who seek facile success, least of all the Op.25 Sonata (1911), one of the outstanding sonatas from the early years of the century and among his greatest achievements. Grove's mention of 'overladen' textures applies only to the earliest works and to almost nothing here. Indeed, the links with Brahms and Schu-mann have also been exaggerated and, despite an occasional hint of Medtner's friend Rachmaninov, as in Op 11:2, all this music has a personal tone. His is a highly disciplined art yet one prolific in imaginative fantasy and, again with the Sonata Op.25 as an excellent illustration, some of its singular force, its feeling of constant growth, its

98 III-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989

CLASSICAL strong sense of direction, arise from the tension between these two. Given that his style is admittedly a conservative one, it is possible to miss the very high rate of musical and pianistic invention, which is a constant factor. Yet in performances like these by Wild and Milne, which are at once dedicated and virtuosic, one can scarcely be unaware of the full-blooded and Romantic character of these pieces, their vitality and rhythmic variety — not least in the matters of syncopa-tion and cross-rhythms — or of the contra-puntal skill which shapes the rich textures. The range is from Ophelia's despairing,

dislocated lament Op.14:1, with its harmo-nic strangeness, to furious outbursts like Op.35:4. Again, in either Milne's or Wild's interpretation Op.39:3 surges like a spring tide, as does Op.26:2, while Op.39:1 is introverted like Busoni or late Liszt. Medt-ner's Sonata Op.25 is the main exhibit, however, making great interpretative and technical demands and lasting 35 minutes. Milne surpasses himself, and one can only regret that he had not had the career to which his gifts entitle him. The phenomenal Wild has not exactly been greeted with open arms by the major companies either, but, with his vast technique and sensitive range of colours, he is ideally suited to Medtner. This is most apparent in Op.47, which though described as an improvisation is another major piece, lasting 26 kaleidosco-pic minutes. Indeed the Sonata Op.56 and the particularly fierce Sonata Tragica, last of the Op. 39 set, are also of notable weight and substance. I would not be without any of these CDs,

but recommend CRD 3339 first, because of Op.25:2, then the Chesky because of Op.47. [A:1] Max Harrison

MOZART: Clarinet Concerte/COPLAND: Clarinet Concerto/STRAUSS: Duet Con-certino Richard Hosforti (clL b ce)/Matthew Wil-kie (bsn)/COE/Schneider*/Fischer ASV CD COE 811 (66m 19s)

A most effective piece of programming into which Copland's concerto fits surprisingly well. Its reflective opening blends nicely with Mozart, and its angular finale makes a good foil for Strauss's creamy harmonies. For Mozart Hosford takes up the basset-clarinet and gives a performance of style, less intro-verted than some but with a poised slow movement and a bright finale. Schneider is the conductor here, and a very sympathetic one, with the C()E in excellent form. The rest of the programme is conducted by Thierry Fischer. Copland receives similar treatment, luminous and intimate to begin with, the cadanza flowering convincingly into the 'crudity' of the finale. Balance between soloist and orchestra is particularly good here, where the edgy tone demanded of the soloist tends to throw him into high relief. Strauss's intimate little Concertino is mellow and restrained, with some lovely playing by Wilkie. This kind of Strauss is not to all tastes, but the assertion that his late work tended to be a tired attempt to recreate past glories is scarcely borne out by this delightful music. [A:1]

Kenneth Dommett

MOZART: Opera and Concert Arias Olaf Bdr/Dresden Staatskapelle/Vonk EMI CDC 749 5652 (54m 25s)

A well-balanced recital of 14 baritone arias, from La finta giardiniera, Figaro, Don

Giovanni, Zaide, Cosi and Zauberfliite, plus two interpolation arias 'Mentre ti lascio' (K5 13) and 'Un bacio di mano' ( K541), show off the talents of this accomplished singer admirably. His characterizations — Figaro, the Count, Giovanni, Guglielmo, Papageno and the rest — are varied and well thought-out. He manages the upsurges of Almaviva's frustration and Papageno's vola-tility very cleverly, and gets a real snarl into Figaro's bitter resentments. Hans Vonk is not a conductor one automatically thinks of in the context of Mozart, but his contribution here is generally positive and shapely. Good spacious sound with lots of presence. (A:1]

Kenneth Dommett

ORFF: Carmina Burana Edita Gruberova (sop)john Ater (ten)/ Thomas Hampson (bar)/BP0 & Ch/Ozawa Philips 422 363-2 (60m 33s)

A perennial favourite, Orff's spectacular set-ting of Medieval lyrics in praise of wine, women and song has received many record-ings over the years. The problem with this one is that it sounds as if some of the participants are past this sort of thing and ready for a more sedate life. Perhaps sensing this, Ozawa responds by setting some fastish tempos; but this only partially compensates for a general lack of youthful spring and bounce, particularly in the choir. The opening sets the tone of the record-

ing. Ozawa positively attacks the poco stringendo in bars three and four, and then sets a breakneck tempo — at least twenty beats a minute too fast — for the famous `semper cresis' section. Inevitably the results sound rushed. The problems are not only of tempo,

however. There is some wayward orchestral tuning in 'Omnia Sol temperat' and 'Amor volat undique' and the sound of distinctly matronly women in 'Floret silva'. The news is not all bad of course. Thomas Hampson's drunken abbot is a joy, and Edita Grubero-va's 'In trutina' is deliciously sexy. Apart from a few uncertain moments in 'Veni, veni, venias' the choir improve as they go along,

and the brazen, Stravinskian splendour ()I 'Ave formoissima' is spectacularly realised. But in the long run the performance is too uneven to bare repeated hearings; and mat-ters are not helped by what sounds like some blatent knob-twiddling three bars before fig.139. [B/C:2] Simon Cargill

PROKOFIEV: Piano Concertos 1 & 2 111 Romeo & Juliet — excerpt Vladimir Feltsman (pno)/LSO/Tilson Thomas CBS CD 44818 (54m 185) (also LP/MC)

Prokofiev's acid wit in his First Piano Con-certo suits Feltsman's lean, whip-lash sonor-ity ideally, and here this currently much-celebrated Russian virtuoso is in his ele-ment. There are none of those tiny casings of tempi that betray insecurity, and the mix of high-speed whimsy and athleticism is stun-ningly impressive. Feltsman's rubato, too, in the meno mosso is a bold and idiomatic reflection of both 'blue' rhapsodizing and pulverizing chordal virtuosity. The record-ing is finely balanced, and in the monstrously demanding Second Concerto Feltsman again meets every technical demand with alpine ease. His performance may be less memor-able or monolithic than Jacob Zalc's, in his old MK recording, largely because his cool and sardonic view of Prokofiev's punch-drunk brilliance ( in the first-movement cadenza/development, for instance) reduces the full impact of such writing. But the modern CD format allows us to hear every facet of the composer's malignant humour in both these wildly nonconformist Concertos with crystal clarity. Michael Tilson Thomas provides a suave and exemplary partnership, and Feltsman's encore ('Romeo bids Juliet farewell') is magnificently played. Readers curious about this pianist should also investi-gate a 2CD set ( also on CBS) of his New York debut recital, a daunting occasion that mirrors some hyper-tense but hauntingly individual performances. A record of Schubert's Wanderer Fantasie and six Moments Musicaux is also available in the States. IA:!] Bryce Morrison

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PROKOFIEV: Peter and the Wolf/SAINT-SAENS: Carnival of the Animals/ MOZART: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik Sir John Gielgud (nar)/Acactemy of Lond/ Stamp Virgin Classics VC 790 7862 (66m 55s) (also 12/MC )

You may think the Mozart sits oddly with Prokofiev/Saint-Saens ( it once backed &ohm's VPO Carnival, on DG) but the thought occurs only because I suspect most listeners will tend to play this CD from beginning to end, so pleasing is it. With Sir John engaged for Peter, I suppose the sheer charm of the enterprise might have been anticipated ( he 'ties' with his old friend Ralph Richardson as the most engaging narrator on records). You just snuggle into a comfy chair and become a child once more. But, the telling of the story is in the music too. And Richard Stamp, with his orchestra largely comprising American-trained musi-cians, directs three winning performances in a row, the Prokofiev making you realize anew just what a little masterpiece it is. (Tellingly, Stamp seems to bring into focus all the Prokofievian fingermarks — like the ice-cracking Nevsky reminder, just before the duck goes for 'a nice swim'.) Any drama student will, however, be envying the aplomb with which Gielgud modulates the ends of his interjections so that we are eager to hear the following musical episode. There is no speech with the Saint-Saens:

an excellent performance which matches the high standard of the fascinating Kremer/ Argerich ( Philips), yet is less intellectually contrived. The soloists are not so well known here, but that proves meaningless. Arguably Stamp tries to do a little too much with the Mozart Serenade, although I enjoyed his account. The Academy strings aren't in the Vienna or Berlin class for the sound that they make, but the most striking feature of this disc is that there's a complete absence of that routine, or rushed, feeling of a record being completed to a deadline. Everyone seems to have time and feeling for the pieces. And the sound-quality in this Abbey Road studio production Oohn West/ Mark Vigars) is exceptionally good. Giel-gud's part blends well with the hall acoustic, and one can imagine the spot in which each instrumentalist sits, spread in the hall. There is a deep, and precise image.

Finally: sales royalties are for the Chailey Heritage, a centre for disabled children. Sir John waived his fee, and he sounds as if he had fun — 'clarion« indeed! (A*:11

Christopher Breunig

RACHMANINOV: Piano Concerto 3 D Paganini Rhapsody Vladimir Feltsman (pno)/Israel PO/ Mehta CBS Cl) 44761 (64m 54s) (also LP/MC)

In 1987 Valdimir Feltsman arrived in Amer-ica to a hail of publicity after years of oppression and neglect in his native Russia. But I doubt whether this recording will do much to enhance an already uncertain repu-tation. The Third Concerto is taken from a 'live' concert ( no details on CBS's unin-formative sleeve) and, from time to time, is flecked with the sort of idiosyncrasy that tends to get ironed out in the studio. It is less easy, however, to feel gratitude for Felts-man's monochrome sonority, a sound lack-ing the fullness and colour of a truly great Rachmaninov pianist. Proficient rather than inspired, this performance is disfigured in

the finale by a cut that is — thank goodness — no longer fashionable, by a lacklustre accom-paniment and indifferent engineering. Felts-man chooses the less elaborate and arguably better of the two cadenzas; but there is little here to rival legendary recordings by Rach-maninov himself, Horowitz ( his first two discs, with Coates and Reiner, at any rate), Gilels and Cliburn ( now on CD in America). The Paganini Rhapsody, a studio per-

formance this time, is also — most oddly — cut. A tame unfocused start to Variations 7 and 8 in particular, and a lack of character in general hardly encourages comparison with other recordings, most notably by Earl Wild, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Julius Katchen. [B:3] Bryce Morrison

ROSENBERG: String Quartets 1, 6 8c 12 Kyndel/Gotland/Copenhagen Qts Caprice CAP 21352 (69m 35s) 0 1956, '75, '80

ROSENBERG: String Quartets 4' and 7 I=1 6 Moments musicaux FresklBerwald/Golland Qts Caprice CAP 21353 (69m 32s) s® 1973

These two discs, largely comprising reissues of historical importance, are part of a series of four CDs containing all Hilding Rosen-berg's quartets. The wide exposure of Shos-takovich's contribution to the genre earned him a reputation which, had his work received equal recognition, Rosenberg might well have shared. Indeed, as the six works represented demonstrate, his range is quite as wide as Shostalcovich's, wider in certain respects since he possessed a vein of humour unvitiated by the sardonic strain that colours that of the Soviet composer. Rosenberg does not perhaps plumb the depths of despair which inform Shostako-vich's most personal quartets, but then Rosenberg was spared the rigours of the Russian artistic climate. Nor does he go in for the faux-naif manner into which Shosta-kovich lapsed from time to time. That said, however, the energy of the First Quartet (1920 rev 1955), the ethereal character of No.12 ( 1957), a tautly conceived two-part work subtitled Quartetto riepilogo, and the largely reflective Seventh ( 1956) ought to suffice to confirm Rosenberg's claims to wider exposure. The notes are most informative and the

transfers to CD have been extremely well done, especially that of the genuinely his-toric Kyndel Quartet recording for Swedish Radio of No.1 in 1956 which shows almost no sign of age. Mostly [A/B:1].

Kenneth Dommett

SATIE: 6 Gnossiennes D Véritables Pré-ludes flasques D Vieux sequins et vielles cuirasses D Chapitres tournés en tous sens D Trois GymnopédiesElEmbryons desséchés CI Je te veux D Sonatine bureaucratique D Heures séculaires et Instantanées I=1 Le Piccadilly D Avant-dernières pensées 1=1 Sports et Diver-tissements Anne Queffelec (pno) Virgin VC 790 7542 (76m 14s) ( also LP/MC)

Satie's insistence that he wrote furniture music suitable only for idle background chatter receives short shrift from Anne Queffelec. Her imaginative brio confounds all expectations, ruffles all possible com-placency and, unlike so many of her rivals on record, she is intent on every whimsical

note. Her Gnossiennes are as hypnotic as her Gymnopédies, elegant and indolent evocations of a timeless past. Her Le Picca-dilly struts and cavorts with the masterly aplomb of a true Paris, rather than London, roué. And she is a most seductive chanteuse in Je te veux, an amusing exercise in vaudeville nostalgia. Sports et divertisse-ments is given complete, and is most delicately and acutely characterized; so all these performances give one food for thought. If Anne Queffelec is so successful in Satie, what of her Debussy, Ravel and Fauré, her Poulenc and Chabrier? These are, of course, composers of another order and ambition, but Miss Queffelec's individuality certainly raises a question. The recordings are of demonstration quality and the sleeve design, of a painting by Paul Gildea, is more than eye-catching. [A*:1] Bryce Morrison

SCARLATTI: 15 Sonatas Andras Schiff (pno) Decca 421 422-2 (73m 14s) (also MC)

Did Scarlatti ever write a dull Sonata? Listen-ing to Andras Schiffs enterprising selection it is difficult to imagine music of a more concentrated essence, quirkiness and the strangest prophecy. Alive with the sort of harmonic and rhythmic ambiguity that can throw all expectations, there are even fore-tastes of Bartok. (The crunching dissonances and ornamentation of K175 in A-minor look forward to the 'Musettes' of the Out of Doors Suite.) In K513 in C whimsical pastoralism dissolves in a burst of laughter, K115 is boldly declamatory and, all in all, it is hard to choose from this cornucopia of treasures and musical surprises. With outstanding advocacy from Horo-

witz, Dubravka Tomsic, and Maria Tipo (of whom more next month) on record we are hardly short of quality, but Andras Schiff's is surely the equal of any. Many performances reduce Scarlatti's daring to little more than a resounding tinkle, but Schiff is wonderfully alive to the composer's range, his sheer fullness of expression, to the most far-reaching romantic and modern implications. And of course, his legendary lightness and articulacy make you thankful rather than ungrateful for his modern instrument. (A:1]

Bryce Morrison

SCHUMANN: Carnaval D Papillons Fantasiestücke, Op.111 Bernard d'Ascoli (pno) Nimbus NI 5170 (56m 18s)

Shortly after his triumph as a finalist in the 1981 Leeds piano competition Bernard d'As-coli recorded an absorbing Liszt and Franck album for Classics for Pleasure. Eight years later his Nimbus debut is no less thought-provoking, though not in any obvious sense. His Carnaval is sensitive and robust, essen-tially individual rather than self-serving. In 'Eusebius' his move from sotto voce to molto teneramente suffuses the music's character with a varied and distinctive emotional life, and in 'Coquette' his dancers leap upwards before landing firmly on their feet (p<ff). 'Replique' is haunted by scur-rying footsteps as well as ardent reflection and in 'Chopin' Schumann's prescribed agita-tion is beautifully caught in the undertow of arpeggios. 'Paganini' is launched at a spark-ling presto and if there are more resilient, dextrous 'Reconaissances' that may well be the fault of the recording which surrounds the piano sound in an unflattering and opaque haze. 'Sphinxes', as in Alicia de

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coli

(photo: Cli

ve Barda)

11111

Larrocha's new Decca recording, is omitted. Papillons, with its subsequent cross-pol-

lination of ideas, makes an apt companion for Carnaval. In the presto of 4 d'Ascok is a little lacking in lightness and fantasy, and in the Op.111 Fantasiestücke he is surely 100 plain and simple in the Eusebian intimacy of 2 - a gallic over-reaction to possible sen-timentality? Overall these are endearingly honest performances and, more successfully recorded [ these are productions in Nimbus's controversially resonant house-style for pianoforte - Mus Ed], they could be wel-comed with open arms. A second Nimbus record will be devoted to Chopin, a d'Ascoli speciality, and this will be awaited with keen interest. IC:1/2] Bryce Morrison

SCHUMANN: Carnaval El Fasching-sschwank aus Wien D Allegro in b, Op.8 Alicia de Larrocha (pno) Decca 421 525-2 (64m 55s)

Criticism falls silent when faced with pian-ism and musicianship of this order; one can only sit back and marvel. This is Alicia de Larrocha's second, and far more successful, Carnaval for Decca, a performance of rare musical wisdom and maturity, serenely purged of all fuss or mannerism. There is, above all, a sense of nostalgia for youthful gaiety and introspection recollected, not in tranquillity, but in pain and happiness. In other words Miss de Larrocha's performance is quintessentially Schumannesque with 'Florestan' and 'Eusebius' - Schumann's two most dearly cherished fictions - characte-rized with the greatest insight and lucidity. 'Pierrot' moves with unusual stealth, the un poco maestoso of the Valse noble is given with a caressing tonal warmth, ease and flexibility and, moving to the other 'Carnival' (the Faschingsschwank aus Wien, this time a first recording for Alicia de larrocha). it would be hard to imagine playing of a greater authority, of a more lavish coloration or ultra-precise articulacy. Rarely can the Romanze have emerged with such glowing eloquence, the Scherzino with more springy rhythm; and in the final pages Miss de Larrocha's virtuosity is overwhelming as she carries all before her.

Finally the B-minor Allegm: like Carnaval previously recorded by this artist but once more excelled in a performance of the greatest imaginative daring and vividness.

The recordings, when you bother to notice them, faithfully capture an immense range of sonority. Piano records of this calibre are a rare event. Even in her matchless perform-ances of the Spanish repertoire Alicia de Larrocha has seldom confirmed her status more magisterially as one of the world's greatest virtuosi. [A:11 Bryce Morrison

SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony 8 Leningrad PO/Mravinsky Philips 422 442-2 ( 59m 35s) Recorded live 1982

Authenticity, as such, can be overrated. The importance of this issue is not that Mra-vinsky conducted the work's première but that he was a great musician who, in the 36 years between that première and the per-formance presented here, clearly developed the sort of kinship with it that minor talents never achieve, and major talents, only some-times. And what better instrument for Mra-vinsIcy's genius that the Leningrad Philhar-monic, which he conducted for over 40 years and brought into the top handful of world-class orchestras?

Shostakovich's 8th is not an 'easy' work. On the contrary, it is foreboding and unset-tling. From the very first notes, the dark orchestral colours at which these perfor-mers excel show strongly that this is no light entertainment. But even in the most catac-lysmic climaxes, here taken to what must surely be the limit of orchestral power, pessimism never takes over; for all its trauma, this symphony is ultimately the victory of the 'still, small voice' and Mravins-ky's achievement is in presenting the full scale of the conflicts in the music in its incredibly short space of one hour. ( Long? The symphony is a miracle of compression.) Playing is everywhere utterly beyond reproach, and I must single out the hair-raisingly apocalyptic trumpet solo in the 3rd movement for especial praise.

In the light of the above comments, it is a pity I cannot recommend this CD. The original tape was obviously recorded on a slow-running tape recorder, and since Phi-lips did not check speeds when they trans-ferred to digital tape the performance sounds about 3% fast (half a semitone sharp). This alters the whole character of the sound and performance - I copied the disc to a variable speed cassette deck for review-ing purposes. MK's sound is a little coarse but quite passable, but speed error is some-thing one cannot compensate for mentally, and until Philips reissue the performance at the correct speed ratings must be [D:11.

Richard Black

SHOSTAKOVICH: String Quartets 8 in c, Op.110 CI 4 in D, Op.83 0 11 in f, Op.122 Coull Qt ASV CD DCA 631 (63m 41s)

Every so often recordings come along which, through no fault of their own, prompt a reconsideration of a composer. On the surface the Coull's account of these three works is eminently commendable and would disgrace no record collection. Yet comparisons with, say, the Borodin on EMI, beg questions about just what sort of com-poser Shostakovich was. From the Borodin, and indeed most quar-

tets which tackle the famous Eighth, he is a man of big gestures and deep passions. Beside them the Coull's account seems curiously underplayed. Their opening is smooth and controlled, sparing in vibrato

yet resonant in tone. They are eloquent and restrained; but there is something missing. Just what this is becomes apparent in the stormy second movement. The resonant acoustic throws a sonorous veil over the sound, taming the sfff chords and robbing the viola of its bite. Combined with the Coull's reluctance to submit to the music's almost hysterical depth of feeling, the result is a curious remoteness, a detachment from harsh reality. Yet as one listens to the Fourth and

Eleventh quartets which follow, it becomes obvious that this reticence is not an affecta-tion or a consequence of a lack of commit-ment, but a considered philosophy. For the Coull, Shostakovich is a man of perpetual ambiguity. Thus, while one could argue that they fail to make the most of the sardonic Jewish wit in the Fourth's finale or the ecstasy in its slow movement, their reading remains so integrated, so consistent that it forces you to re-examine your presupposi-tions. Any lingering doubts are displaced by

their performance of the enigmatic Eleventh. To begin with, it is brilliantly played. The Coull capture perfectly the mood of vague foreboding in the brief Scherzo and Etude, while avoiding injecting into the music a sense of inevitability it does not have. This is odd, sometimes grotesque music, and the Coull's unassuming literal-ness drives home its ambiguity. This will not suit all tastes. If you are looking primarily for a recording of the Eighth, you may be safer with the Borodin or Fitzwilliam. But if it's the others you require, the Coull have much to offer. [A/B:1/2] Simon Cargill

SHOSTAKOVICH: Suite on Poems by Michelangelo/REIMANN: Tre Poemi di Michelangelo Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (bar)/Aribert Reimann (pno) Teldec 8.44138 (59m 02s)

Magnificent, indefatigable, Fischer-Dieskau at the age of 64 is still recording new repertory and, as in this case, bringing to it both richness of tone and intensity of feeling. The 11 Shostakovich settings, desig-nated for bass voice, now suit him admir-ably. They are almost the composer's last work, and deal with such subjects as parting, night, death and immortality: the musical treatment is stark, often with only a single melodic line of accompaniment against words declaimed one-syllable-to-one-note. There is no song-form in the sense of pleasantly recognizable stanza-patterns, but it is a work of power. The matter of language, however, makes

me uneasy. Shostakovich set Michelangelo's Italian verse in fairly free Russian translation. Though the titles on the CD package are given in German, the performance is in Italian, with an attempt to fit Michelangelo's original text to the music. Musical changes must inevitably be made, mostly repetitions of notes and filling-in of rests. More impor-tantly, the stresses come out wrongly. In the composer's setting, Not eta noch' ('Here is the night') naturally stresses the last syllable. Fischer-Dieskau sings `La notte, che' ('The night, which') and the stress cannot help coming on the 'which' no matter how carefully the singer tries to smoothe it over. I would understand entirely if Fischer-Dies-kau had chosen to sing in German, to a text written to fit the composer's metre; but this procedure seems quite wrong.

Aribert Reimann, the composer of the

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Lear seen earlier this year at the English National Opera, has dedicated to Fischer-Dieskau three further Michelangelo settings ( in this case actually composed to the Italian words!) in the same starkly declamatory style — the second song 10 minutes long. I found them wearisome. But Reimann is an excellent accompanist. Occasionally the placing of the microphone in relation to the piano picks up some unwanted harmonics in the loudest passages, but the sound is otherwise highly acceptable. [B:1]

Arthurfambs

R STRAUSS: Don Quixote D Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme — excerpts Paul 7Ortelier ( v1c)/PRO/Beecham EMI CDH 763 1062 (66m 23s) @) record-ings from 1947-8

It was this 1947 recording of Don Quixote which launched his solo career, Tortelier avers. At the time of the Beecham centenary (when the seven movements from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme Suite chosen by Sir Thomas reappeared on LP) it was passed over by EMI in favour of a 1932 Don Quixote Beecham made with Wallenstein/ NYPSO. I cannot imagine anyone who ( as I did ) came to know this work through either of Tortelier's later versions with Kempe would think any other cellist so well matched temperamentally to the role.

This 1947 version is — typically — less drawn out than Strauss performances are today. The Karajan 1976, for instance, is overall 10.5% longer; only in the Battle with the Sheep is Beecham markedly slower. But Beecham's swifter Knight's vigil, and Don Quixote's Death are no less moving ( though Tortelier's ' last breath' became more affect-ing in his Kempe recordings). In fact, there is some stray intonation and ensemble which contemporary record-producers would not have let pass, but what matters more is Beecham's acute perception of the scoring: his is a far lighter, sharper colour palette than post-Karajan conductors use.

But whilst this historic Don Quixote is complementary to more modern versions, Gentilhomme is simply unsurpassed: for style, for the sheer wholeheartedness of it, for the way in which it flows. Just listen to the glorious vulgarity of the rasping brass attack in 'The Fencing Master', the hilarity that ensues. Or the sweetness of Oscar lampes violin solos in 'Dance of the Tailors'. Lyndon Jenkins's note gives the fascinat-

ing background to these characterful and significant reissues. Keith Hardwick has done a fine job on the preparation and digital remastering. [H:1/11 Christopher Breu mg

R STFtAUSS: Violin Sonata Op.18/PRO-KOFIEV: Violin Sonata 2, Op.94 Pinchas Zukerman ( 110/Marc Neikrug (/no) Philips 420 944-2 ( 55m 285)

I was ever so slightly disappointed by this disc. The combination of ' rarity' and old favourite. played by Zukerman, seemed auspicious, hut the performances never quite convinced me. For one thing, both pieces are taken a hit on the slow and heavy side for my liking, hut this is a matter of taste and mine could be wrong. Rather more palpably. Zukerman's intonation is not all it might be in places, and the Prokofiev in particular is full of exposed places where this tends to show up. Neikrug produces a rather monochrome sound, not much varied in dynamics and sometimes too loud

(although the recording is so close that il impossible to tell whether this is Neikrug's dynamic or the balance engineer's), and he uses some questionable rubato. On the other hand, there are certainly

things to admire in both pieces, and the duo make a persuasive case for the worth of the Strauss sonata. The third movement in par-ticular works well, and the balance between instruments seems better there too. The Prokofiev is played very lyrically, which I like, despite its slow tempi, and in the fourth movement Zukerman makes an excellent job of the many fast arpeggiated figures; I have never before been so easily able to distinguish the notes and hear their exact pitch. Zukerman's tone is kept lyrical, never aggressive. An interesting comparison with many another interpretation of the piece. Sound is fine except for the balance,

which is close and therefore vague as to instrument position. [11:21 Richard Black

TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony 4 D Romeo and Juliet Chicago SO/Abbado CBS CD 44911 (65m 09s) ( also MC)

The Tchaikovslcy Fourth has always been one of Abbado's most charismatic interpreta-tions, and comparisons both with his Vienna recording on DG and subsequent live per-formances in his early days at the helm of the ISO show how seriously he now takes it — though not with any undue exaggeration in tempi or dynamics. This is high tragedy, not self-pitying melodrama. The first subject of (i) reaches a muscular, vigorously sprung climax, offset by unexpected subticies in the lugubrious waltz ( strings treading in pianissimo thirds over thin ice) and tremendous breadth for both development battle and the final devastating statement in the coda. Abbado plumbs the depths, too, in an awesome manifestation of the brass 'motto' in the finale, augured by full melan-choly potential in the 'birch tree' melody. After that, the return of the dance is no facile final optimism; rather an ugly echo of

ticrlioz's 'Witches' Sabbath', or a premoni-tion of manic Russian finales to come in the symphonies of Prokofiev and Shostakovich. The symphonic rhetoric is unusually

clear, too, in this Romeo and Juliet. Once again, detailed dynamics and careful phras-ing freshen familiar themes, and the keen forward impetus of the development leaves me in no doubt that this is as remarkable an exercise in form as anything in the Fourth or Sixth Symphonies. CBS's sound is dry but by no means as coarse-cut as it was for Abbado's recording of the Second. [A/B:1/11

David Nice

VIVALDI: Recorder Concertos — in c, RV441 DInC,RV444Dina,RV108Dln a, RV445 D in F, RV442 D in C, RV443 Peter Holstag (recs)/Parley of Instr/Holman Hyperion CDA 66328 (59m 59s)

These performances use sopranino or treble recorders, with single period strings, ie quartet plus contrabasx viol, and organ or harpsichord continuo. Player/director Peter Holman explains this in his exemplary note. I suppose that, after the pleasure of

encountering again the delightful concerto for sopranino recorder RV443/P79, which I first heard in I.inde's old Archly recording, and finding that 442, with its Siciliano middle movement, is the original of the Fifth of the Op. I() Flute Concertos ( timings here very consistent with those of the English Concert recording), then two aspects of this new disc struck me most. One was the incredibly seamless breathing of the agile Amsterdam soloist; second the richness of sound in this Mowatt/Faulkner production. The venue is not stated, and there is quite a level of ambient noise, but the sound does have that full-bodied glow suggesting Faulk-ner's predilection for valves somewhere in the chain. In sum, this is a release which, whilst conforming to authenticist require-ments, must appeal equally to the general collector with its crisp but warmly express-ive playing, and attractive programme-con-tent. [A*:1*1 Christopher Breunig

111.11 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AI la•sor 1989

reviews CLASSICAL.

NEW YEAR'S CONCERT 1989 J STRAUSS (jnr/snr")JOSEF STRAUSS*: Accelerationen D Bauern-Polka D Bei uns z'Haus D *Die LiebeIle El Die Fledermaus — overture D Künstkrleben

*Moulinet D Ellen a Magyar D Im Krapfenwald! D Frühlingsstimmen El Pizzicato-Polka D Ritter Pazman — Csar-das D *Plappermáulchen Ill 'Jokey-Polka El An der schnnen blauen Donau

"Radetzky-Marsch VPO/Kleiber CBS CD 45564 (2CDs, 86m I Is) (also 2LP/MC)

Oddly, the sound in this Unitel production comes closer to the Decca 1979 Concert with Boskovsky (their first digital release), having a similar dryness, than to the DG/ Unitel 1987 Karajan, with its honeyed sweet-ness. Comparing the three shows just how much a conductor puts his stamp on the orchestra — even in repertoire which you might think they could play perfectly well standing on their heads. Carlos Kleiber is best in fast pieces like the Csardas, or the 'Jockey' Polka. Even without making com-parisons, the rather chilly character of the music-making stands out. There's something faintly obsessional about Kleiber's conduct-ing; he drives the music hard, creates a lot of tension. And he seems compelled to draw attention all the while to what he is doing with the orchestra and the pieces. With the traditional side-drum volleys cut, Radetzky-March is distinctly Prussian — with none of Karajan's easy way of letting everything speak for itself. Boskovsky cuts from a coarser cloth ( compare 'At Home with us' ), but if he doesn't match Kleiber's precision at the beginning of the piece he beguiles — as he does in the polka Moulinet — in a way that is foreign to Kleiber's nature.

Predictably !Gelber is quicker than Kara-jan in the Fledermaus Overture, and at first his reading excites. Yet I am afraid that 'diminishing returns' has to be the conclu-sion here (for this whole set). Take the Ritter Pazman item, recorded in 1967 by Boskovsky (with solo violin and cimbalom in the introduction, not done in the CBS). For all the energy and whiplash excitement

of this 1989 version, it is Boskovsky who, when the tempo hots up, really conjures up the wild rhythms and exhilaration of this character piece.

Listening to the Vienna Philharmonic under these interpreters, and to Böhm, sedate but nonetheless relaxed even under studio recording conditions, is rather like sampling expensive chocolate from different confectioners. Kleiber's tastes highly indi-vidual, but his recipe lacks the 'glow', the chocolatey, creamy richness. The know-how ingredient. If you want live atmosphere, orchestral virtuosity and conducting bra-vura, then this special-price set will certainly satisfy. Strauss connoisseurs will be critical of it. Incidentally, no descriptive notes are included in the leaflet. [A:1*/211

Christopher Breunig

GUILDHALL STRINGS BRITTEN: Simple Symphony/TIPPEIT: Little Music/6 Variations on an Eli-zabethan Theme (Sellenger's Round)/ WALTON: Sonata for String Orchestra Guildhall String Ens RCA RD 87846 (69m 18s)

To paraphrase Cardus on Sibelius, glasses of pure cold water rather than cocktails are the order of the day here. The forces have something to do with it ( six violins, two each of violas and cellos, and a double bass), but so has the approach, sparing on vibrato and (dare one say it) very British in its reticence, with only a handful of rich cli-maxes to show what this group can manage when it chooses. Slow movements are subtly done — wonderful Elgarian introspection in the middle section of Britten's 'Sentimental Saraband', cool control for the two Tippett Andantes — while their faster counterparts are clean and airy, a little light on bass perhaps, but that too seems to be a con-scious decision. Some perplexing questions hover over the Walton, since it is a straight-forward reworking of the 1947 Quartet, and excellent work from solo forces at the start makes you wonder whether anything is gained from just a couple more instruments per part [ the first recording was from ASM/ Marriner — Mus Ed]; the first movement Fugue and the subsequent Presto are cases in point. But there are crackling ricochets in the finale, the slow movement is once again searchingly done, and the dark undertow of melancholy is skilfully suggested. I'm not sure that I would have guessed Walton's hand in his contribution to the six 'Sellen-gees Round' Variations — Oldham/Tippett/ Berkeley/Britten/Searle/Walton — save perhaps for five bars, but neat distinction is made between the offerings, with a good gutty sound for the Elizabethan theme. Recording is appropriately clean and full of presence. [A*/1] David Nice

JAMES BOWMAN Songs by Vaughan Williams, Howells, Warlock, Ridout & Steptoe James Bowman (c-ten)/Paul Goodwin (ob d'amore)/Tina Gruenberg ( vin)/Lionel Handy (v1c)/Downshire Players/Ash Meridian CDE 84158 (70m 34s)

From an artist with such a distinguished career, a recital of English song might well earn praise, particularly one which has the courage to embrace two little-known living composers. Alas, the lack of clarity in the words torpedoes it — worst of all in Vaughan Williams's famous Linden Lea. I do not ask that modern singers imitate John McCor-

mack's manner in that song, but at least his recording tells you what it's about! Bow-man's distorted vowels (especially a as in 'hath' and 'valley') and smudged consonants prevail, and in another Vaughan Williams song the line 'Is this a life? Nay, death you may it call' loses its structure altogether. Everything is presumably sacrified to keep-ing a homogeneous, instrumental-type tone.

In songs specially written for Bowman by Alan Ridout and Roger Steptoe, a little more care is taken of the words, but the musical quality of these songs is disappointing. Two of them are elegies — believe it or not, Steptoe asks us to listen seriously to 'Who killed Cock Robin?' — and the total sequence of 26 items is almost unrelievedly slow. Even so, Vaughan Williams's Twelve Blake Songs for voice and oboe prove worth rediscover-ing (here transposed downward, with an oboe d'amore as accompanist). The various composers' piano-accompanied songs are subjected to a re-scoring for string orches-tra, the point of which escapes me. The recording is agreeably managed, except momentarily for a too-close-miked violin, but it will take a particularly uncritical fan of James Bowman's to accept these perform-ances. [B:3] Arthurfacobs

JOSEF LHÉVINNE: Complete recordings Piano music by Mozart', Schumann, Chopinj Strauss, Debussy*, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov Josef Lhévinne, *Rosina Lhévinne (pnos) Novell° NVLCD 902 (71m 03s) recordings from the 1920s/1930s

Essential listening for anyone interested in fine piano playing. Lhévinne was one of the giants of the 'golden age of pianism', for reasons which are here made obvious. An astonishing finger dexterity — not merely the ability to get from one note to the next quickly, but to give each note exactly the right force at exactly the right time — coupled with a high degree of musical sensibility accounts for the ravishing tone and sheer lyrical beauty of the playing, unmarred by even the smallest technical slip. Not quite as billed, this CD contains all the

issued disc recordings Lhévinne made in the 1920s and 1930s; he also made many piano-roll recordings. Included are the Mozart 2-piano sonata and Ravel's 2-piano version of Debussy's 'Fêtes', both with Rosina Lhé-vinne, Josefs wife. These are perhaps less successful than other pieces, though not as far as I can tell due to any inequality between the players; they seem to be less Lhévinne's type of music. Most powerful for me are the four Chopin

studies, in performances which uniquely reveal the logic, magnificence and beauty of Chopin's conception. The full extent of Lhévinne's technique is shown in these, as in Anatoly Shulz-Evler's breathtaking transcrip-tion of the 'Blue Danube' waltz with its technical difficulties not only mastered but played sempre cantabile, and in the Schu-mann Toccata in which the sudden dynamic contrasts are for once not smudged over. Liszt's transcription of Schumann's 'Frühling-snacht' is a model of song transcription performance. Ward Marston's transfers from 78s are

excellent. Only the presentation warrants criticism; there is no information on record-ing dates and little background detail. Other-wise, full marks to Novello — can we have the Lhévinne piano-rolls now please? [H:1*]

Richard Black

HI-F1 NEWS & RECORD RE\ AUGUST 1989 103

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BARTOK: Piano Concerto 3 12 Scherzo (1904) Zoltan Kocsis (pno)1Budapest Fest Orcb/Ivan Fischer Philips 416 835-2 ( 53m 04s) ® 1988 The Scherzo is scarcely recognizable as Bartok, but strongly influenced by Strauss. A powerful, confident performance, supersed-ing the earlier, dimly-recorded Tusa/Hungar-oton version (Bartok Edition). Musical clar-ity is explicit, but atmosphere in Concerto 3 is vitiated by some shallow Biisendorfer piano-tone and shifting balances. [B:1]

BEETHOVEN: Symphony 6 `Pastoral' D Symphony 8 VPO/Stockholm P0/Fun-wangler EMI CDH 763 0342 (70m 50s) Qi recordings from 1952, '48 Furtwangler conducts a veritable blitzkrieg on the Eighth, in this 1948 concert perform-ance. It is coupled with the later studio 'Pastoral' ( not the one transferred to LP in June '86). I have to confess, this time, to reacting against the very drawn-out, rather laboured first movement. The Eighth is very crumbly, with heavy surface noise, clicks and 'explosive' fortes. A compact disc recou-piing only for the devoted. It certainly illustrates the contrasts between his studio and live recordings! 1C/H:H]

BRAHMS: Serenades 1 & 2 LSO/Kertesz Decca 421 628-2 (76m 10s) ® 1968 Compared with Cantelli, Kertesz was widely recorded before his accidental death. These two Serenades were highlights, and, if they make an unexpected choice as 'Weekend Classics' one can but revel in the bargain. A pity there are no programme notes. (These are Brahms's first published orchestral works — 2 scored without violins. Joachim com-mented on the 'symphonic' nature of 1.) In both the ISO sounds fully at home with the music, with marvellous wind parts, spirited rhythms. The remastered coupling is a little dim and enclosed, although one soon adjusts to this. [B:11

CHOPIN: Piano Works — Ballades D Études D Impromptus D Mazurkas D Nocturnes D Polonaises D Preludes D Scherzos D Sonatas 0 Waltzes D Barcar-olle D Berceuse III Fantasy in f D Varia-tions and miscellaneous pieces Vladimir Askhenazy ( pno) Decca 421 185-2 ( 13CDs, special price) ® 1977-85 No other artist of comparable international standing has recorded so much of Chopin's music for solo pianoforte ( there's also the piano duet Variations, with Vovka Ashke-nazy, here). The cycle began on LPs prog-ramming the music chronologically; but the CD remasterings — five single discs and four 2CD packs, each available separately — brought together the genres in the conven-tional way. Roger Bowen and I welcomed with enthusiasm some of these in Dec '86, Feb '87. The recordings, some ADRM, come from half-a-dozen locations. Clearly, such a project can only form the basis of a Chopin collection: one would want to hear some Arrau, Cortot, Lipatti, Pollini, Rubinstein, Zimerman and others, besides. However, surpassing Magaloffs earlier 16LP traversal, Ashkenazy's set is enormously satisfying. His playing is occasionally strenuous, in the heat of the moment, but ranges to the meltingly tender; and when Chopin's pieces require the greatest imagination — for example the Fantasy Op.49, or the Op.61 Polonaise-Fantasy — then AsIchenazy meets those challenges. The litmus test here is, perhaps, that the more you dip in, the more you are encouraged to explore further. [A*/B:1*/2]

ELGAR: Enigma Variations/DEBUSSY: La Mer BBC SO/Toscanini EMI CDH 769 7842 (51m 21s) €1) live recordings from 1935 These Queen's Hall concert performances were caught on 78rpm cutting machines in relay — but Toscanini refused even to listen to the results. First published on LP/MC in 1987, Keith Hardwick's transfers rightly caused a sensation then. Levels matched, CD and dmm LP prove indistinguishable: it's the usual factors here of price, vs. access and durability over the years (and of individual responses to the two media). IH:11

FRANCK: Symphony in cis/BERLIOZ: Beatrice and Benedict Overture/D'Indy: Symphony on a French Mountain Air Nicole Henriot-Schweitzer (pno)/Boston SO/Munch/Chicago SO/Monteux RCA GD 86805 ( 71m 30s) recordings from • 1961, '58 The Chicago Franck Symphony was one of RCA's technically (and musically) outstand-ing productions; it was half-speed mastered — not very convincingly — for the '0.5' audiophile LP series. On CD it re-emerges as a recording of majestic weight and marvel-lous transparency. The fillers come from Munch's classic Berlioz overtures disc, with the D'Indy a rare three-movement work with an important role for pianoforte. (This 'Papillon' CD does have programme notes.) These vintage Boston recordings have come up well too, although there is a hint of coarseness in the Berlioz climaxes. Exem-plary conducting. [A/B/C:1*/11

HAYDN: Symphonies 6-8, `Le Matin', Midi', le Soir' Philh Hungarica/Dorati Decca 421 627-2 (71m 25s) 0 1973 Another unexpected reissue on 'Weekend Classics'. Weightier in manner than Pinnock [Archiv], whose textures are delicate, Dorati keeps a rather tight hold on these works: he doesn't let them smile, or surprise, as Risten-part did in his old Nonesuch LP coupling. Slow movements and trios seem to have engaged Dorati most. There's a nimble, uncredited, flautist, and harpsichord con-tinuo is present. A generous hall sound; solo strings rather edgy. [A/B:2]

1WENDELSSOHN: Symphonies 3 & 4 NPO/ Muti EMI CDM 769 6602 (73m 35s) ® 1976-7 Muti's spacious and serious account of 3(i) — with repeat, and a very steady pacing of the Allegro — commands attention. The 'Scottish' is indeed one of his most successful sympho-nic recordings; the coupled 'Italian', though, is a flashy affair — good for a showy start to a concert, perhaps, but not for records. Poor-ish sound too. [B/C:1*/11[C:3]

MENDELSSOHN: Symphonies 4 & 5 NPO/ Sawallisch Philips 422 470-2 (59m 34s) 1968 Excellent sampling from Sawallisch's sensi-tive and exhilarating 1968 Mendelssohn cycle — still unsurpassed. Sound now a little dated: excellent brass and winds, but strings a little muzzy and, with full orchestra, mufti-mie. techniques ruthlessly exposed by CD. [B/C:11

NIELSEN: Symphony 5 D Saga Drom, Op.39 NPO/Horenstein Unicorn-Kan-c.hana UKCD 2023 (44m 57s) 0 1969 Horenstein's masterly performance of this great symphony more than holds its own against later versions — I like the way the lyrical lines run free over the rigidly held ostinato figure in ( i) and, at the climax,

Horenstein preserves the assurance of order, snare-drum notwithstanding. Fine, transpa-rent sound (Barking Assembly Hall; Hodg-son/Auger) helps. The tone-poem is similarly impressive. [A/A*:1*]

RIMSICY-KORSAKOV: Scheherazade* Sadko D May Night — overture LSO/ Monteux/Suisse Romande/Ansermet Decca 421 400-2 (59m 20s) (g) 1959-60 Listening objectively, one wonders now at the acclaim for Monteux's Scheherazade when first issued (on RCA). As a piece of history it's interesting: Hugh Maguire (uncredited) was the likeable soloist; but the orchestral playing sounds uncoordin-ated, scrappy. Ansermet's conducting is not at all laissez-faire — but all this material has dated chronically. For those with a will to persevere [D:2]

SCHUBERT: Symphonies 3, 5 & 6 RPO/ Beecham EMI CDM 769 7502 (78m 18s) 1960, '56 Few Schubertians will not have owned the delectable Beecham Third/Fifth coupling in one form or another: but the CD brings a surprise by disclosing that both recordings were from sessions spread over a whole year and held in two different halls, each with its own balance engineer (Salle Wagram/Abbey Road). The earlier production of the weaker Symphony 6, with its Beethoven-ish Scherzo, was first coupled with Grieg, on Columbia. This tape is dim, with some feeling of congestion, and tape-coloration; the later pair are cleaner, brighter — though not as engaging as the old mono LP [ALP 17431. Beecham's performances are weighty and dramatic, with nuances and sometimes a gait that simply make you smile. In Schubert he succeeds just where Barenboim (seemingly striking for similar effect) failed. 1C/D:1 1

TCHAIICOVSKY: Symphony 6 'Pathéti-que' D Francesca da Rhnini* Philharmo-nialGiulini/WPOIBarbirolli EMI CDZ 762 6032 (71m 30s) (D 1961, '71 Apart from the question: why not Giulini's own Francesca as coupling? this recoupling of a classic Sixth and a characteristic Barbir-olli interpretation can only be acclaimed. Especially at budget price. The Sixth finale is all the more moving because of Giulini's restraint and the orchestral refinement he seeks; the earthier, more sombre Barbirolli reading confirms an equally valid but con-strasting approach to Tchaikovsky's music. [B/A:1/1*]

HERMANN SCHERCHEN RIMSICY-KORSAKOV: Antar El Russian Easter Festival Overture D Capriccio Espagnol/TCHAIKOVSKY: Romeo & Juliet D Marche Slave D Capriccio Italien D 1812 LSO/Scherchen Nixa NIXCD 6021 (66m 06s) and 6022 (65m 29s) €410 1954 Two uncommonly interesting reminders of a German conductor who tended to specialize in contemporary music. (He also devised a Stereophonee, an electronic two-channel simulation device, in the late '50s.) 1812 includes the Band of the Irish Guards — the original Nixa/Westminster label was prized for its engineering, and these remastered Tchaikovsky tapes are quite impressive for pre-stereo material. Scherchen obviously favoured extremes of speeds within a piece; but even where the tempi are very deliber-ate, eg Marche Slave, opening of R &f, the phrasing always compels close attention. I wonder if PRT can get their hands on the Beethoven symphony tapes! [C:H]

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989 105

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KATHY MATTEA: WILLOW IN THE WIND Mercury 836 950-1 K.D. LANG: ABSOLUTE TORCH AND TWANG Sire WX 259 GEORGEJONES: ONE WOMAN MAN Epic 465186-1

Not for Kathy Mattea the glitzy, synth-swathed trappings of modern-day Nashville. She elects instead to dress her songs Best Western style though there's none of the syrupy, pedal-steel sodden set-tings that make some other old-style country records so indigestable. True, there are reasons to put handerchieves to use — 'She Came From Fort Worth', a song about a fading rose given more hope in life than merely years in a roadside diner, is the best of its genre since Dan Loggins tender 'Mag-gie's Dream', while Wendy Waldman's 'True North' again expresses hope to come, despite a love affair that evolves around calls and cards from cities far away. But there is always this element of expectancy, of dreams being fulfilled, in Mattea's world. No-one is down forever. And when she wends a western swing way through 'Burnin' Old Memories' or harks back to the back-porch happy hour, as she does on the dobro-lifted title track, then it's evident that there's not much wrong with Kathy Mattea's world or the people who inhabit it. [A:1] Surprisingly, KD. Lang's fourth album is even better than Mat-tea's offering. Now reunited with her Reclines after that trip to Nashville to work with the

MEMORIES OF THE OLD COUNTRY

Music City pickers, the Canuck has fashioned yet another album that crosses borderlines and blends various aspects of country music with the sounds stemming from a late night, 40's jukebox. Her bout of Western Swing comes via a sprightly picked versions of Leroy Preston's 'Full Moon Of Love' and Willie Nelson-Faron Young's Three Days', the for-mer featuring the drumming of redoubtable jazzman Ed Thig-pen, 'Pulling Back The Reins' once more demonstrates her mastery of the Peggy I.ee 'Black

Coffee' idiom and Walkin' In And Out Of Your Arms' pro-vides Lang with an opportunity to work with yet another legendary act in The Five Blind Boys Of Alabama. Not that the such name support is required. The Reclines sound as vital as any existing Nashville hit squad, with guitarist Gordie Matthews catching the ear on virtually every track. And if one searches for a fault it can only lay in Lang's tendency to slightly oversell on occasion. Even so, [A*:11 without a doubt. George Jones' latest offering isn't so wonderful. With only eight out of ten new tracks, it forms a doubt that the one-time undisputed king of country, who has so many problems with live appear-ances these days, can actually get it together in the studio anymore. Not that he sings badly on this Billy Sherrill pro-duced set. But the old accepted formula of mainly routine goodbye songs made magical by that crying voice, has lost the charm it once possessed. But 'Just Out Of Reach' acts as a reminder that composer Pappy Dailey is no longer with us. And if the line The milkman whistles softly as he comes up to my door', causes a chuckle amid 'My Baby's Gone', then 'Ira Ba Da Ba Do (So Are You y should prom-ote a laugh-in, linking George's drinking, Elvis and Graceland, and Fred Flintstone. A track fit for instant reprise. But I could have done with more of the same. [A:2] Fred Dellar

JOHN ABERCROMBIE: JOHN ABERCROMBIE/MARC JOHNSON/PETER ERSKINE ECM 1390

Of all the jazz guitar bands on the go at the moment, Aber-crombie's is perhaps the most integrated and dedicated to the sublety of tune-dissection. They play with something much more than good taste, although there's no denying the classy side to their playing. There is so much space in this trio. Bassist Johnson plays with economy, and drummer Erslcine's style has developed over the past couple of years or so, arriving at a jazzy looseness which is at its best on this album. What Abercrombie does is interesting and absorb-ing, but where many other guitarists have jacked in the guitar synthesiser, he perse-veres. The synthesized instru-ment strikes me as distant and dehumanized. As a band, they achieve the rare distinction of making jazz standards sound fresh and new. [A*:1]

Ken Hyder

HARIPRASAD CHAURASIA & ANINDO CHATTERIEE: RAG LALIT Nimbus NI 5132 (69m 02s) CD

There are other ways to relax and become transported, but Chaurasia works for me every time. He's a virtuoso on the simple bamboo flute, but in keeping with the Indian clas-sical tradition, he's a virtuoso with soul. This early morning raga teases gently with a lazily stretching beginning. About half way through, the tabla enters with the early morning alarm call. Then both musicians hit the groove, building on it until they shift a gear to an up tempo workout of dazzling interplay. The sound quality is what you'd expect from Nimbus, but the only problem is that the room does not smile on percussion. [A:11 Ken Hyder

NENEH CHERRY: RAW LIKE SUSHI Circa 8 KIRSTY MACCOLL: KITE Virgin KMLP 1

Two contrasting ladies in popu-lar music, but two records well worth your time. If you remem-ber Kirsty's 'There's A Guy Works Down The Chipshop Swears He's Elvis', then you'll have a fairly good idea of what to expect here. Miss MacColl is a mistress of all forms of popular music, investing them with the kind of sharp wit which is scarcely an overabundant com-modity. Apart from a so-so cover of Ray Davies"Days', the material here is all original, written by the lady herself or

AI ST 1989 111-11 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW 107

together with Johnny Marr (who also guitars) and Pete Glenister. It's all produced by Mr MacColl, superstar producer Steve Lillywhite, and while he doesn't exactly stretch the mis-sus, there's plenty to get worked up about. [A:1] Neneh Cherry is the wild-

child stepdaughter of Don of that surname, and while her music shares nothing with his in form, it is illuminated by a jazzy delight in non-conformity. This is best shown by the two sing-les, Buffalo Stance' and 'Man-child', chalk and cheese but both effortlessly memorable. Elsewhere, Cherry has fun nob-bling the icons of pop/rap/hip-hop, while working firmly within that territory. [A:21

Pete Clark

CONCRETE BLONDE: FREE IRS Records CDP 241003 2 (33m 25s)

Promising a little more than they can actually deliver Con-crete Blonde seem to fall just short of exciting. I know I should feel more of a buzz than I do because the songs build up so well, but sadly I am left frustrated. The production, by the band, tries to break the indie mould a little but leaves the music without a strong foundation. I'm not seeking the commercial smothering of raw music, just straining for some satisfaction which I feel sure this group can offer. America is producing more interesting music than it has in years and IRS has released much of it, but I don't think these California musos will stun like REM yet. They're also unlikely to endear themselves to people for only recording just over half an hour. So near and yet so far. [B:2]

Neville Farmer

DRJOHN: INA SENTIMENTAL MOOD Warner Bros 925889-2 (40m 38s)CD

Incomparable stuff. The gris gris gumbo era is now long gone and the good doctor has mellowed into a provider of elegant evergreens, songs by Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer, Vincent Youmans, Duke Elling-ton and others who turned Tin Pan Alley pure platinum. But Mac Rebbenack's way remains pure New Oreleans. His singing is gritty and nearer Waits than weight-watchers, his piano play-ing still the stuff that keeps visions of Professor Longhair ever in mind. No-one's skimped on the support either. The arrangements are by Ralph Burns and Marty Paich, pastmas-ters both in the art of the chart, the musicians include Abe laboriel, Marcus Miller, Fathead Newman, Hugh McCracken and

Jeff Pocaro, and the production credits are ace right down to the mastering chores, which were, thankfully, placed in the capable hands of Doug Sax. Flaws? None really. I'll admit that John's duet with Rickie Lee Jones on 'Makin' Whoopee' is not as slyly wonderful as Ray Charles classic rendition. But 'Candy' possesses an abrasive beauty right from Paich's 'Cher-okee'-borrowed intro, while John's tumble- rumble instrumental version of 'Love For Sale' is guaranteed even to make cats smile, if only for Paich's employment of a string section keen on playing a back-drop for Mission Impossible. Hip cats? Well, of course. What other sort would be seen hang-ing around a Dr John album? [A*:1*] Fred Dellar

ROBERT GORDON: LIVE AT LONE STAR New Rose ROSE 173 New Rose ROSE 173CD (39m 48s) CD

Gordon was the oddball spinout of New York's 1976 new wave scene. For he wasn't really new wave at all but merely a rock-abilly rebel, out of time but well ready to make the most of his seeming misfortune. A draft dodger with a failing marriage and a couple of kids to support, he was a beautiful loser. He teamed with guitar legend Link Wray and was promptly hailed as the man who would make the sounds of Sun as trendy as those of the New York Dolls. Bruce Springsteen wrote 'Fire' for him and it seemed that no-one would ever step on his blue suede shoes. But he proved to be yet another flavour to savour momentarily. As the '80s moved in, Robert Gordon moved out. And, this, his first record for seven years, perhaps indicates why his star shone so briefly. For, though he obviously believes that Elvis lives and Eddie Cochran is his next door neighbour, he sounds too man-nered, too reverent, lacking in true rockabilly inhibition. So, though he knows a songbook that includes 'Twenty Flight Rock', `Lonesome Train', 'Rock-abilly Boogie', 'Black Slacks' and, of course 'Fire', he lacks the conviction of a Carl Perkins or, come to that, even a Shalcin' Stevens. Consequently, this live shot, recorded at New York's Lone Star Cafe in the company of Chris Spedding, proves to be one of New Rose's less reward-ing releases. [B:3] Fred Dellar

BORIS GREBENSHIKOV: RADIO SILENCE • CBS 465083-1

Or Glasnost rocks. Yeah, I, too, expected some klutzy bohunk peasant sounding 30 years out

of whack with the West, a vodka-swilling approximation of a rocker who learned his chops from smuggled Presley platters. Wrong. Grebenshilcov, in the capable hands of Euryth-mic Dave Stewart, comes off more like a Russki who has a good line in contraband indie 45s. Maybe the foreknowledge of Grebenshikov's struggle to produce pop behind the Iron Curtain has softened my atti-tude and maybe I'm hearing as much of Stewart as I am of Boris, but the material tears through the speakers, posses-sing an energy coupled with intelligence which I haven't sensed since the last time Pete Townshend got angry. Don't you dare regard this guy as a novelty. [A:1] Ken Kessler

GUN: TAKING ON THE WORLD A&M AMA 7007 JUNKYARD:JUNKYARD Geffen WX 266 924 227-1

Boys do love to play with their guitars ... Gun are first timers from Scotland, Junkyard from the States. Taken as a pair, these two records are a graphic Mus-t rat toil of the differences between Brithardrock and its American cousin. Gun take themselves pretty seriously (just have another look at the LP title) and their taut and satisfying guitar attack is over-laid with the sort of lyrics which can't accept the concept of get-ting raucous as an end in itself, but havé to introduce a bum note of hoggish spirituality to the proceedings. [B:2] Junkyard have no truck with

whatever molecules make up a thought process. From the opening and entirely derivative 'Blooze', the group blast away at anything that moves, motivated purely by a desire to make a joyous racket. There's even the obligatory soul barer, 'Simple Man', which spells it out. I'm stupid as a pot plant, but my guitar's loud as a bitch. The only caveat here is a surprisingly muted production job by Tom Werman, who should know bet-ter. IC:21 Pete Clark

SAUF KEITA: KO-YAN Island CIDM 1002 (42m 10s) CD

For those of you not familiar with Keita, the man from Mali, his music is a blend of tradi-tional West African griot praise-singing, African and Western dance music and tightly phrased brass. His Soro album was one of the classics of last year, and was so stunningly fresh that this follow-up raised a lot of hopes. In one sense the singer doesn't disappoint. His appealing declamatory voice drawing the listener into the music. And many of the production techni-ques which embellished Soro are here too. The sound, and the mixture of electric and acoustic instruments is strong and pun-

chy. But maybe the songs just aren't quite as good, and the tunes not quite as catchy. Keita's trouble is that he's set himself very high standards, and anything that falls short tends to be a disappointment. Having said that, this is still an impress-ive release, and its impact leaves most rivals standing. [A*:1]

Ken Hyder

LISA LISA & CULTJAM: STRAIGHT TO THE SKY CBS RECORDS 463446 1

A little less street than earlier work, this is probably going to be LL&CJ's best seller to date but is where they risk their cult following and go for the main-stream. Moulded into shape by composers, arrangers and pro-ducers Full Force, they risk less than most, but somehow I doubt their chances on the Brit-

108 AI (, 1 sT 1989 HI-FI NEWS S RECORD REVIEW

reviews ROCK/POP/JAZZ

SCHIZOPHRENIC WHITE BOYS, PART 97

THE FABULOUS THUNDER-BIRDS: POWERFUL STUFF Epic 463382 1 THE INMATES: FAST FOR-WARD Sonet SNTF 1016 BIG JOE LOUIS & HIS BLUES KINGS: BIG JOE LOUIS & HIS BLUES KINGS Blue Horizon/Ace BLUH 008 SAVOY BROWN: KINGS OF BOOGIE Sonet SNTF 1017

Just as fish and chips survive the burgerization/pizza-ization of the UK, so do white R&B acts continue to flourish despite the dehumanization of popular music. Foremost among these reactionaries are the Fabulous Thunderbirds, who managed to revive Texas R&B and even flirt with the charts. The dust has settled since their flurry with the sing-les market a couple of years back and it hasn't tainted the band, so it's reassuring to find that the latest LP isn't the same kind of post-celebrity release which signalled the end of theJ Geils Band. This is traditional T-Birds fare, hard, lean and serious. [Ad] A more than pleasant sur-

prise is the unexpected return of the spiritual link between Dr Feelgood and the Godfathers.

The Inmates, who had the mis-fortune of appearing during the height of New Wave, still make hard-driving British bar-band boogie, like the Thunderbirds moved 5000 miles east. With a label sympathetic to the cause, this could be more than a fluke. (A:1/21 The revived Blue Horizon

label is back in full stride now so it can do the same kind of talent scouting as experienced first time around. Big Joe Louis and the gang are yet another bunch of R&B revivalists intent of keeping the genre alive, but they do it better than most. Blue Horizon's Mike Vernon still has taste. [A/B:1]

This is Savoy Brown's 22nd LP, and they're still chooglin' along, Kim Sinunonds' band is the only one of the original blues boom bands which hasn't forgotten its gloss-free, gritty roots. And it's come full circle, because this is one bunch of brontosaurs which have just the right stuff for one of the subdivisions in today's hard rock scene. And who'd've thought we'd one day say that the world caught up with Savoy Brown? [A:1/21 How well these records sell I just don't know, but I sure am grateful for this not-quite-flood of bar-band epics. Ken Kessler

ish dance market with this, their third album. Almost everything herein misses the target and lands squarely in no man's land. The songs don't get you on your feet, other than to head for the kettle. The production does lit-tle to help and try as I might, I just can't sit and listen to it all at once without wondering whether the testcard is on BBC2. [11:31 Neville Farmer

LI1TLE NEMO: SOUNDS IN THE ATTIC LIVELY ART RECORDS ARTY 8

Blow me I thought this would be a duffer and it turns out to be pretty good. Swinging from lively guitar-based indie rock to some pretty heavily orches-trated synth ballads, there is no shortage of talent or variety from this little box of Frogs. This production is pretty cheap at times and I wouldn't expect Billboard to pick up on them this year and doubtless their Frenchness precludes any possi-bility of daytime British airplay, but I'm quite glad I've heard this. If you are looking for some-thing a little different and are willing to buy something for more than sonic perfection, check zis one out, mes enfants. [B:1/21 Neville Farmer

PAUL McCARTNEY: FLOWERS IN THE DIRT Parlophone CD PCSD 106 (53m 44s) CD

Sigh of relief: this is the firm McCartney LP in years which hasn't been preceded by nerves on the part of his fans. We'd already had a glimpse of Macca '89 through his guest appear-ances on Elvis Costello's Spike, and he sounded like he really was having fun collaborating with Elvis.

Wisely, this is repeated on Flowers In The Dirt. the Elvis connection resulting in the best songs in the pack. This shows quite clearly that McCartney is not comfortable as a loner; the sparks fly in a way I haven't witnessed in McCartney's work since late '69.

Elsewhere McCartney does some stock-taking, dipping into his bag of hooks to remind you of his facility with pop, rock and schmaltz, even returning to the mildly African sounds of Band On The Run (released a decade and a half before the roots revival). This is a man recording just for the hell of it, because whichever way you look at it, commercial pressures can hardly bother a squillionaire; then again, Paul's earned that privilege. [A:1] Ken Kessler

SUSANNAH McCORKLE: NO MORE BLUES Concord CCD 4370 ( 50m 52s) CD from New Note Distribution

Welcome return of a singer who has been too little recorded. There are star accompanists here too: Ken Peplowski, him-self recently reviewed here in a tribute to the new clarinet stars, and such guitarists as Bucicy Pizzarelli and Emily Remler. It was 12 years ago when I bought Susannah's first solo British recording of Harry Warren songs.

But then she disappeared; and now she's back with a richer voice and a more varied reper-toire. She revives neglected bal-lads such as 'PS, I Love You' (typical Mercer words) and 'Everything's Been Done Before' and she takes exciting liberties with 'Sometimes I'm Happy'. I

never thought that Armstrong's absurdly simple theme of 1936, 'Swing That Music' would be worth serious attention all these years later, but Susannah gives it more than it's worth. The sup-port includes an acoustic guitar solo by Bucicy in a style which could have been Lee Blair in the 1936 Luis Russell band that supported Satchmo. There's period piano too from Dave Frishberg, and lots of Ken Peplowski, on tenor and clar-inet — and his sax style fittingly resembles Scott Hamilton. Altogether, McCorkle's No More Blues is a record of sheer enjoyment. It sounds as if it was fun to make — and can that be equally true of records by some

of the much-praised modern fusionists and the like? [A:1*]

Denis Argent

BARRY MANILOW: BARRY MANLLOW Arista 209 927

By current standards, Barry must rank as middle-of-road rather than chart pop, and with the sort of worldwide fan club he has, he should be proof against losing ground on the strength (or weakness) of one poor record. This new issue strikes me as monotonous, all at much the same tempo, in much the same tone of voice, on much the same sort of unhappy theme, and some of the songs (not his own 'You Begin Again', and not Jimmy Webb's) sound like collections of all the clichés of modern songs, with the pre-dictable phrases and intervals. It's silly to complain about Bar-

ry's style because he isn't Tony Bennett or Vic Damone, but even putting one's preferences aside doesn't make this record one to play over and over except out of a sense of review-er's duty.

Nothing to do with the music, but why does the man have to appear on the sleeve all stubbly — especially as the list of dozens of credits on the inner sleeve includes a gentleman credited for grooming?

Perhaps one of these days there will be a record on which the star will not thank anyone. On this one, some of the under-lings give fulsome thanks to Barry! [AB:1/2]

Denis Argent

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989 109

RICHARD MARX: REPEAT OFFENDER EMI USA CDP-7-90380 (49m 26s) CD

Debut solo album from one who has sung for Lionel Richie. The album's extremely Amer-ican sentimental ballads are no surprise; and they're just beg-ging to be singles, like 'Right Here Waiting'. It's obvious though that Marx's own taste in music is for boppy, swinging, jiving rock 'Real World' style. He sings well and there's some nifty keyboards, sax and guitar thrown in, but the lyrics lack real depth. The generally quite uninspired backing means that a whole facet of the songster's craft has been left unexplored. Despite a sprinkling of good tracks, the album declines the opportunity to be remarkable and slips instead into the categ-ory of anonymous background music. 113:2/3]

Karen Douthwaite

JOHN COUGAR MELLENCAMP: BIG DADDY Mercury 838 220-1 Mercury 838 220-2 (42m 08s) CD

Though he's still afraid to drop the `Cougar' name he's alleged to hate so much, Mellencamp can now relax. The Lonesome Jubilee from 18 months back established him with such authority that he appears to have created the niche he's occupying. But Mellencamp is not so much an originator as he is a clever magpie; what he's offering yet again is simply an appealing brew of rock and country laced with enough salt-of-the-earth, Waltons shtick to suggest that Mellencamp might even be happier as Faulkner than as Guthrie. But remember: it isn't everybody who has the nerve to cover the Hombres' 'Let It All Hang Out' while not crediting it on the CD. Still, it's all good music and it bears repeated playings, especially sit-ting in a bath as you shrink your 50 I s. [A:1/21 Ken Kessler

PERE UBU: CLOUDLAND Phonogram 838 237-1 Phonogram 838 237-2 (49m 20s) CD

POP WILL EAT ITSELF: THIS IS THE DAY... THIS IS THE HOUR... THIS IS THIS! RCA PD 74106 ( 51m 30s) CD

Pere Ubu are an idea whose time has well and truly come. A little chart success has belatedly brought their godlike name before a wider public in the shape of 'Waiting For Mary', but the gems on this record will open the ears of anyone but a Flowerpot Man. Working within a fairly straightforward rock for-mat, the Ubus bring more wit and panache to the business of making music than a dozen pop lamebrains. Just glue your ears to the likes of 'Breath'. 'Bus Called Happiness' or 'Love, Love, Love' (a composition from their earliest years which shows how good they've always been) and become a blissful convert. [A:1] Pete Clark

TOM PETTY: FULL MOON FEVER MCA MCG 6034 STEVIE NICKS: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MIRROR EMI EMD 1008

The sound of Californian brains boiling in the sun. Actually, that's a bit unkind — Petty has a way with those oh-so-familiar chords which melts cynicism. He's well served here by a smooth Jeff Lynn Production (but this is a cut above any aimless Wilburying), but what stands out are the songs, rock-ing out on 'Runnin' Down A Dream' ( great guitar from Heartbreaker Mike Campbell), or waxing droll on 'Yer So Bad' or 'Zombie Zoo'. IA:1]

Stevie Nicks could never be accused of having a sense of humour, but despite her insist-ence on filling the studio with candles for the sake of atmes-phere, she's well capable of turning out the kind of mel-lifluous soft rock as evidenced on 'Rooms On Fire', the first single. For those evenings when you just have to leave your brain at the door, there are worse things that can ooze into your ears. [A:2] Pete Clark

Virtually invented by the media (their very name is derived from an article by NME scribe David Quantick) for the media, PWEI grabbed the front pages as Grebos bearing gifts. Now, with initial publicity and indic suc-cess behind them, Clint Poppie & Co have moved on — major label, major deal, major think etc. But their diet of used metal riffs, rap claptrap and sampling can prove wearisome over the long course, though I'd be almost the first to admit that their well-established `Def Con One' Big Mac monster mash is a track to relish, while 'Wise Up Suckers', with its 'she loves me' soft centre, and 'Not Now James, We're Busy', a frantic tear down a Redneck highway in pursuit of the Soul Godfather, possess their fill of energy and entertainment value. So, while I'm still not fully convinced, I'll hang onto This Is The Hour till the inevitable 'Best Of even-tually comes our way. [A:1/21

Fred Dellar

PREFAB SPROUT: PROTEST SONGS CBS/Kitchenware CBS KWLP4

What is one to make of dear old Paddy MacAloon? This record was recorded some years ago and was originally intended as a freebie for faithful fans. That never happened and it is now released as a proper record, which seems fair enough as it was recorded in a proper studio and is not some kind of live throwaway. But whatever the genesis of the record, it offers the usual Sprout conundrum — how is it possible to play it all the way through without either going to sleep or coming over nauseous? Paddy starts well, as usual, but as the tracks succeed one another, beat and bounce make way for the clever whimsy which infests all the group's activities. Feed this man some steak, now! [B:2] Pete Clark

2 QUEEN: THE MIRACLE Parlophone CDPCSD 107

é (52m 21s)CD

Queen may be unfashionable among those who always move on and up. Nevertheless, they remain a class act. The Miracle is their strongest release for many an eon and proof that, for the time being at least, Freddie Mercury has forsaken dallying with divas in order to strut and rock convincingly, while Brian May, freed from thumbs-down associations with soap stars, once more wants to be a true guitar hero. The signs are too, that more than a little thought went into the album's structure. Some of the best rhythm pat-terns in rock have been ripped off and refurbished in best Queen fashion, the mixture of chromium-plated harmony voc-als and heavy-in-a-hurry riffs proving irresistible when grafted so professionally. All right, so Queen are the Status Quo of the Filofax generation. They neglect to take things too seriously and sound as if they enjoy what they do. But if you think there's anything wrong in that, you're reading the wrong magazine. [A:11 Fred Del lar

QUEST: NATURAL SELECTION LINE RECORDS COCD 9.00748 0 ( 54m 35s) CD

Beautiful, floating jazz piano, rich warm double bass and soul-ful, soaring soprano sax and shuffling percussion open this collection of almost free jazz numbers. Dave Leibman, Richie Beirach, Ron McClure and Billy Hart can play and late at night they can transport you into a smoky New York club. They aren't afraid of the odd synth-esiser and they have enough hidden away for a fast and furious finish. But they're also self-indulgent and don't attempt to break any barriers. This is strictly for the devotee and should be avoided by the unin-itiated. Nice, but not that nice. [A:2] Neville Farmer

LOU RAWIS: AT LAST Blue Note B1 91937

How long it's been since I heard a new Lou Rawls LP I just don't know, but this more than makes up for his time away. Harking back to earlier Capitol releases rather than the more soul-oriented hit material, At Last shows us Rawls-as-jazzman/ bluesman, with delivery worthy and reminiscent of Billy Eck-stine and Joe Williams. Rawls follows Aretha in filling the disc with duets; Dianne Reeves, George Benson, Bobby Hutch-erson, Ray Charles and others feature prominently. The result

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is the classiest, sexiest release since McFerrin's last outing and easily one of the best I.Ps of the year. The performances are chilling, the material faultless — 'Room With A View' will des-troy you — and the band is the kind we only dream about. The score, therefore, is [A*:1***]. Buy or die. Ken Kessler

KID RENA/BUNK JOHNSON/ OSCAR CELESTIN: DOWN ON THE DELTA Esquire 331

Even at the height of the swing era the old jazz never com-pletely disappeared, but the eight Rena tracks date from the first time, in 1940, that anybody went to the southern states to find and record some of the early players. Yet what exactly is this relaxed, airily bouncing music? At the time it was assumed to be an exact recrea-tion of the beginnings of jazz, a message from the days of Buddy Bolden. The truth is likely to be, however, that Rena and his men were presenting New Orleans music of 1940, with lots of solos and little emphasis on the ensemble work that was sup-posed to be one of the glories of the original Crescent City jazz. Heard nearly half a century later, it still has a considerable appeal, as in the touching 'Low Down Blues'. Johnson's 1945 session has much greater intensity, though, and his music is clearly not the result of an antiquarian quest. In fact the drive and imagination of his trumpet playing are the best things on this LP. The 1950 Celestin date is dangerously close to tourist dixie, although Alphonse Picou plays far better clarinet here than he did with Rena. [H:1/2/3] Max Harrison

STAN RIDGWAY: MOSQUITOES IRS EIRSA 1010 IRS EIRSCD 1010(41m 03s) CD

It seems an age since `Camouflage', let along the balmy days of Wall Of Voodoo and 'Mexican Radio', but ol' Stan keeps plugging away with his soundtracks to some American dream gone wrong. His voice is still his calling card, a marvel-lously expressive instrument of sadness and danger — Anthony

Perkins if he could sing. The only problem with Stan is the material, which can veer dangerously away from the muted Gothic ( in the real sense) pop at which he is unpa-ralleled, to some kind of godaw-ful show music which can intro-duce the top and bottom teeth in impromptu grinding. IB:21

Pete Clark

RILEY/CASTRONARI/MARSH: FEATHERS Spodite SPJ 536 (Spotlite Records, 103 London Road, Sawbridgeworth, Herts)

It's good to receive a British jazz album and be able to rave about it without any undue chauvin-ism clouding judgment. Of the three players, Howard Riley has perhaps received the most attention to date as an innovator in the difficult field of freely improvised playing. This album shows how well he does in a variation on that approach — free playing with an ear for rhythm and structure. British players are especially strong on this, turning in spontaneous pieces you'd think were pre. composed tunes. Drummer Tony Marsh comes into his own on this album. He's a workman-like player who turns in efficient performances in a variety of settings, but his imaginative playing has been often under-rated. He manages to play with both precision and looseness, and he makes the music breathe as a consequence. It all adds up to an absorbing album, with more character than most recent British releases. LA:11

Ken Hyder

TOM ROBINSON: LAST TANGO LINE RECORDS LICD 9.00588 0(45m 30s) CD

It takes more than the inspira-tion of an emotive subject to make someone write a song like `Glad To Be Gay'. It takes an enormous amount of talent, and when the lyrics of the song can be updated regularly without losing any of the original bite that talent has to be gargantuan. Tom Robinson may not be everybody's favourite writer or campaigner, but he runs rings round most songwriters. So why has this live recording come out on a German label? Could it be that the British upper lip is even stiffer than the German? Surely the greatest music nation in Europe must recognise its sons' talent. Well not if the sales don't impress more than the music, no. Tom Robinson does not sell many records, but he makes great records, and if this live set of his greatest near-misses is anything to go by, he's pretty good on stage, too. With 2468 Motorway, War Baby and an 87

version of Glad To Be Gay, it is by no means uncommercial music. And for a live CD it is well recorded. But it's Tom Robinson so it won't sell — unless you buy it, of course. [A:1] Neville Farmer

ALDO ROMANO: RITUAL Owl OWL050CD (51m 39s) CD Distributed by Harmonia Mundi

Romano is one of those under-sung European drummers whose playing is usually spot on, without necessarily being innovative. Here, he's assem-bled an impressive quartet with Paolo Fresu, trumpet, Franco D'Andrea, piano and Furio Di Castri, bass. From the first num-ber, the band gets into a groove reminiscent of the classic Col-trane rhythm section. The trumpeter uses a studio gizmo-thing to create a dazzling, shim-mering trumpet sound which he uses effectively. But mostly the music is straightforwardly acoustic. They play a controlled kind of modern mainstream jazz which finds support among those who choose to frequent winebars at the weekends. Pass the Frascati, Jimmy. [A*:21

Ken Hyder

DIANA ROSS: WORKIN' OVERTIME EMI EMD 1009 EMI CDP 792543 2 ( 43m 22s) CD

Oh dear! Di has forsaken the Avenue ( Fifth, of course) for the streets. Which means that, these days, she comes clad in studded leather jackets and ripped jeans à la Bros moss. And, having studied the problems of the lower income world, she has all the answers. Well, one answer, actually. 'Keep on, keep on, keep on dancing, so you don't have to feel the pain', she advises in best Marie Antoinette 'let them eat cake' mode. Note the repeated phrase 'Keep on, keep on, keep on'. Obviously street-people are really into repetition. `La la la la' (ad infinitum) goes the opening to 'We Stand Together' and ' Ibis House'. `Na na na na' ( equally

ad infinitum) goes the lead-in to 'Bottom Line'. Mind you, Di, being Di, sings these things rather well. She's always sang better in her bathtub than Madonna's ever sung on record (not that I've personally ever had the pleasure of scrubbing Di's back). Also, to guarantee a fair margin of quality, the name of Nile Rodgers is appended to the production and music-shap-ing credits. Which means that the overall sound and the rhythm settings are superb. So, despite a number of basically lacklustre songs — give or take a 'This House', a Rodgers com-position which could easily have fell out of Smokey's book of wispy wonders — 'Workin' Overtime' is far from an unhappy experience. And even if you feel unhappy about mak-ing an outlay for the album, then you will still have something you can dance, dance, dance to. In the streets, of course. [A*:21

Fred Dellar

TODD RUNDGREN: NEARLY HUMAN Warner Bros 925 881-1

As apt a title as TR has ever used: Despite producing the kind of heart-wrenching pop which wouldn't be out of place on a Squeeze LP, Rundgren still possesses an other-worldliness which renders the material almost too perfect. This machine-like precision ( also common to early 1 Occ and Roy Wood) is hardly the kind of sin I can't forgive; I'd rather listen to songs crafted with the skill of a watchmaker than to indic slop. Still, it makes Nearly Human seem like an LP produced for Goldmine readers, one of those overly- eclectic releases designed as much for the brain as for the heart or feet. But I love this deliberate approach, weaned as I was on Merseybeat, so I can handle the irony of Bobby Womack, a guest on one track ('The Want Of A Nail') or a perfect Hall & Oates pastiche ('Can't Stop Running' ). But as with everything else Rundgren has issued since Nazz I, this LP is too good for mass consumption. [A/B:1] Ken Kessler

III-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989 Ill

ROCK/POP/JAZZ reviews DINO SALUZZI: ANDINA ECM 837186-2 (43m 15s) CD

Argentinian bandoneon players have an extra edge missing from most folksy accordionists. They have the knack of playing some-thing simply to catch your attention, then they pull the rug away. Anyone familiar with the work of Thelonious Monk will know the trick, and bandoneon players often do find themselves at home with jazz musicians. Saluzzi has recorded with emi-nent jazzers, but on this release he plays solo. The tango is not just the rhythm (forget Come Dancing): exponents would say it's a way of life. Undoubtedly it's the Argentinian blues. There's loneliness here, passion, and longing, and you don't have to be Argentinian to hear it. [A*:11 Ken Hyder

SHADES OF ICENTON: 'ROUND MIDNIGHT CONCE-RT Hep CD2043

A decade after his death Stan Kenton's music retains its fol-lowing, and the Shades of Ken-ton band was inevitable. This 63-minute CD is from a concert at Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, in the summer of last year, and they interpret the original Ken-ton scores with skill and sym-pathy. These are by Gerry Mulli-gan, Bill Holman, Lennie Niehaus, Bill Russo as well as Kenton himself Most of the chosen items, such as 'Painted Rhythm' or 'Intermission Riff', go back a very long way in the Kenton story, and the choice of programme is in fact rather conservative. Nothing wrong with that, but I do wonder if we shall ever hear live perform-ances of such things as the pieces written by Robert Graet-tinger for the Innovations in Modern Music edition of Ken-ton's band. Meanwhile the Shades offer devoted accounts of his more conventional reper-toire, and good luck to them. There are some attractive soloists among them, too, such as Doug Whaley (trumpet) on `Chiapas' and Ivor Deach (alto) on 'Intermission Riff' and else-where. [A:2] Max Harrison

GEORGE SHEARING AND HANKJONFS: THE SPIRIT OF 176 Concord CCD (55m 33s) CD from New Note Distribution

George was not yet an American citizen in 1948 when, on his first job in the USA, he was intermission pianist at a club where the main attraction was the Ella Fitzgerald Trio, with Hank Jones on piano. For this CD's notes, Nat Hentoff quotes George as recalling 'Hank is my mentor. I absorbed a lesson

from Hank every night'. Shear-ing style nowadays is protean, as Concord releases reviewed here in recent years have shown. Whatever the influ-ences, one on the other, the two play together here on two pianos with wonderful under-standing; it's impossible to work out who is playing the lead. The tunes are good, too, a nice mixture of standards and newer tunes, from composers as varied as Monk, Parker, Mary Lou Wil-liams and Gene de Paul — and my own favourite, the opening track written by another great pianist, Joe Bushkin — the lovely Lee Wiley hit, 'Oh, Look At Me Now'. The piano tone (Baldwin instruments credited) seems harsh and percussive, but these two pianists, both now in their 70s, are keeping the flag flying for understandable melodious jazz. [A:1] Denis Argent

SHELLEYANN ORPHAN: CENTURY FLOWER ROUTH TRADE ROUGH 137

Shelleyann Orphan are a band to know. Robert Smith of The Cure loves them and, risking sending his audience to sleep, takes them on tour. Shelleyann Orphan are strange and interest-ing. The voices sound deliber-ately slowed down, string instruments give the music a whimsical but human feel and the latest addition of electric guitar and drums almost seems like a bit of a cop out. But Shelleyann Orphans are talented and, forgoing the usual heads down no nonsense mind-less boogie, genuinely innovate without aggravating. Century Flower has taken two years to make — which is not impressive. But if you are broad-minded and enjoy something strangely soporific in between bouts of Queensr?che, relax and drift off to this. [A:2] Neville Farmer

PHOEBE SNOW: SOMETHING REAL Elektra EKT 56

Another day, another come-back. Phoebe Snow was always one of those singers who seemed on the verge of deliver-ing something terrific. She recorded some superior mate-rial, worked with all the right people and often sang in a manner more beguiling than most. Somehow or another, though, little proved entirely satisfactory. Her eight, or so, albums frequently included unforgettable moments but these were submerged amid other performances and mate-rial that mattered little. Now, after stints with Shelter, CBS and Mirage, the New York sin-ger has linked with Elektra in order to influence a whole new range of listeners. But nothing's

really changed. Her opening title track is as attractive an offering as is likely to come our way this year, a loping, jazz-tinged affair that denotes that Snow has little to learn in the art of song projection. Thereafter, the whole thing becomes just one well-worked but ultimately immemorable record, bound for the FM dumper. Perhaps its fatal, seeking new meetings with old friends. Often there's little to ta& about after the first five minutes. [A:2] Fred Dellar

SWING OUT SISTER: KALEIDOSCOPE WORLD Fontana 838 293-1 Fontana 838 293-2 (59m 40s) CD

Suddenly I feel like H.G. Wells. The Time Machine is working again and here I am dumped back in the late '60s. Burt Bacharach is writing those twisty, curled-edge songs and Hal David is snucicing lyrics into odd corners, while outfront there are singers like Dusty Springfield, Dionne Warwick and Madeline Bell, all ready to test trusty tonsils on the deli-cious results. 'Cept that this isn't '69 but '89 and the writers are not Bacharach and David but Corinne Drewery and Andy Connell. And the outfront voice is not that of Dust, Di or Maddy but rather that of the Mod-cropped Ms Drewery. Not that you'd know it. For Swing Out Sister have cloned the genre to perfection. And if they haven't

got Bacharach to add the "2 finishing touches, then at least Jimmy Webb is on hand to

0- arrange and conduct on a cou-ple of tracks. You've-doubtless heard `You On My Mind', the first blast from the past hit single from this album. And the rest, in the main, reflects that same era, when Alpertized trumpet duos flicked in and out of the vocal choruses, when arrangements closed with a nod in the direction of jazz waltzes (yes, Factory fans, that really is Vim Reilly swinging his way through 'Where In The World') and when back-up orchestras provided employment for at least 40 hungry musicians. [B:1] if you're under 35. Add a star if you're older. Fred Dellar

TIN MACHINE: TIN MACHINE EMI USA MTLS 1044 EMI USA CDP 791990-2 ( 56m 50s) CD

Tin Machine marks the much trumpeted return of David Bowie: a stripped-down rock 'n' roll band, bristling with guitars (Bowie and newboy Reeves Gabrels) and bass 'n' drums (Tony and Hunt Sales, the rhythm hurricane which fuelled Iggy Pop's Lust For Life). The opening shot, 'Heaven's In Here', tells you most of what you need to know about this outing — the ghost of a song saved by Bowie's always intri-guing vocals, which evolves/ degenerates into a massive and archaic guitar workout com-plete with stop-starts and hammy drum crescendoes. There are better songs on the LP — 'Crack City' and 'Under The God' — but the basic thrust is Bowie consciously shredding the arty cobwebs which have clogged up his latest couple. Depends on how much time you have for Bowie — if you follow his every tic, you'll lap it up. If not, you'll reach for your old meathead blues/rock records from the beginning of time. [A:2] Pete Clark

112 HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989

capsules ROCK/POP/JAZZ

BLUE MURDER: BLUE MURDER Geffen WX 245 A glimpse at the track listing and lyric sheet might put you off this HM cliché, which finds veteran Carmine Appice acting exactly like that which inspired Spinal Tap. But Blue Murder are just heavy enough to let you ignore the words to Sex Child'. [A:2]

BLUE RODEO: DIAMOND MINE Risque Disque/WEA 256268-1 Absolutely gorgeous guitar band epic which calls to mind everything jangly from Dylan to Petty to REM to the Eagles, but with a twang all its own. Here's hoping that it benefits from the success of Brickell and the rest. [A:1/1*]

NATALIE COLE: GOOD TO BE BACK EMI CDP 7 48902 2 (46m 54s) CD Nat's kid plus a load of hot producers who present her in a manner befitting Soul Train's Vocalist of the Year. This set might be just too refined for today's rappish market and she ain't no Aretha, but she's definitely her daddy's daughter. And that means [A:1].

COOKIE CREW: BORN THIS WAY ffrr/London 828134.1 The most notable aspect of this rap effort is that it's British rather than American. The usual clever lyrics and heart-stopping transients, good enough to keep a few quid on this side of the pond and maybe bring some dollars back. [A:2]

DESPERATE DANZ BAND: SEND THREE AND FOURPENCE... WERE GOING TO A DANCE Happas Records HAPPAS 1 (Happas Records, 129A Hamilton Place, Aberdeen AB2 4BD) Everything has accelerated: Only a couple of years into the roots boom and here we have retro folk/dance music. This is so creaky that it makes Morris dancers look like Yazz Wan-nabees. For traditionalists. [A:2]

DESTROY ALL MONSTERS: LIVE Fan Club/New Rose FC050CD (45m Ils)CD The antidote for those who think Iggy sold out when the Stooges split. Ron Asheton thinks it's still '69 and the Pis-tols are nothing more than a nightmare. Vicious, anarchic rock for the faithful. IC:11

THE DICKIES: SECOND COMING Enigma ENVLP 526 The original surf/punk/speed merchants return, sounding as

loopy as they did in '79 with only a slight slowing of the tempos to mark the march of time. The trademark non-sequitur covers are there, including a timely massacre of Pitney's 'Town Without Pity' and a hilarious 'Hair'. The 1980s may be ending in drag mode, but some guys just wanna have fun. [A:1*]

DEAN DILLON: SLICK NICKEL Capitol/EMI CDP 7 48920 2 (33m 35s)CD Debut from one already known for ace songwriting abilities. New Country with deep roots in the Old, worth owning for a cover of 'I Go To Pieces' and his own 'You Sure Got This 01' Redneck Feelin' Blue'. [A:1/2]

JEAN PAUL GAULTIER: AOW TOU DOU Z4T Fontana 838 271-2 ( 52m 17s) CD Yes, that JPG. And no, we can't resist pointing out that his atti-tude toward clothing is reflected in this, his version of ultra-deep, nay subterranean house music. Fashion victims: this is your anthem. [A:1/2]

DENNIS GREAVES & THE TRUTH JUMP IRS EIRSACD 1003 (44m 53s) CD Forget that Greaves has fore-saken the retro-R&B movement and that he looks like he has the worst case of attitude this side of Hue & Cry. He and his band rock hard, rock well and deserve more than four lines in the back of a hi-fi mag. [A:1]

HELLOWEEN: LIVE IN THE UK Noise International/EMI CDP 7 92371 2(47m 215) CD There's solid UK metal and then there's Eurometal as only the Germans can translate it. What it lacks in originality is compen-sated for with power and enthu-siasm. [A:2]

THEJACKSONS: 2300 JACKSON STREET Epic EPC 463352 Jacksons LPs are always slick and professional but rarely dar-ing, so is it any surprise that this one simply reflects the state of the soul ( ch)art? Actually, it says more about the influence of Bobby Brown. [A:1]

LIL'ED AND THE BLUES IMPERIALS: CHICKEN, GRAVY & BISCUITS Alligator/Sonet AL 4772 Long-awaited follow-up to the staggering Roughbousin' of a couple years back. Ill' Ed makes modern blues music with no concessions but you could almost swear this is some long-lost golden age boogie epic. As before, this was live. IA:1/11

T LAVITZ AND THE BAD HABITZ: T LAVITZ AND ME BAD HABITZ Intima/Enigma ENVLP 525 A pleasing variation on the cros-sover/fusion jazz-rock formula: lean and clean, basic and funky. No, this won't set alight a world that's been Sanborn'd to death, but it beats the hell out of Contemporary Instrumental. [A:1/2]

DELBERT McCLINTON: LIVE! FROM AUSTIN Alligator AL4773 McClinton's first live LP and his first of any sort in nearly a decade, a set of tracks defying classification. Too blues-y and soulful for New Country, too country to be mistaken for uptown R'n'B and too good to be ignored. [13:1]

COUNTRYJOE McDONALD: VIET NAM EXPERIENCE Line/TM/PRT LICD 9.00418 (73m 02s) CD Still around and singin' about 'Nam. A folkie anachronism which drifts in and out of the New Age both musically and conceptually. It was more fun when he got you to swear. [A:2]

THE 0)AYS: SERIOUS EMI-USA CDMTL 1041 ( 45m 33s) CD 30 years on and the sound still works. This is pure, high-gloss circa 1989 discofied soul, yet there's no mistaking that these guys have been around the block. Listen closely and you can still make out the smooth sensations of the original Back-stabbers. [A:1]

ONSLAUGHT: IN SEARCH OF SANITY ffrr/London 828 142-1 Bristol's Numero Uno thrash act challenging the status quo by allowing melody to creep in past the monotonous drumming and puerile posturing. The sub-title should be, of course, 'But You Won't Find It Here'. [A:2]

0.S.T.: GHOSTS... OF THE CIVIL DEAD Mute Records IONIC 3 Suitably gloomy score for a prison film. About as bleak as it gets, but Nick Cave's fans might find it just about right. [A:21

0.S.T.: 1969 Polydor 837 362-1 With a title like that, you can anticipate and do receive a package of evocative classics. Hankies out for the Thirtysome-thing brigade, with Cream, Creedence and others reelin' in the years. Collectors note: Jesse Colin Young provides a gorgeous update of 'Get Together', while the Pretenders appear to show that record companies can't even spell 'authentic'. [A/11:11

THREE MUSTAPIFIAS THREE: HEART OF UNCLE Globestyle/Ace CDORB 043 (60m 03s) CD What looked like a remarkably prescient piss-take of world music turns out to be an act with real staying power. Now offering up samples of every ethnic genre likely to be favoured by Andy Kershaw or Time Out, the Mustaphas really do live up to their slogan, 'For-ward In All Directions!'. [A*:1]

TRANSVISION VAMP: VELVETEEN MCA MCG6050 They've survived the hype, they've managed to maintain their dignity despite Wendy's penchant for saucy attire and they're making some of the best pure pop of any type in the UK today. What more do you want? [A:1] whether it's hip or not.

VARIOUS: NIGHT OF THE GUITAR — LIVE! IRS EIRSACD 1005 ( 71m 17s) CD The natural follow-up to the magnificent Guitar Speak, another showcase for some of rock's most-respected axemen. Highlights of this live version include Randy California's 'Hay Joe', Robbie Krieger reprising a Doors classic, and the all-together-now 'All Along The Watchtower'. [A/B:1/2]

VOW WOW:. HELTER SKELTER Arista 259 691 ( 51m 04s) CD Original material bar the title track, the most heavy metal'd song in the entire Beatles canon. This Japanese outfit offers a frantic version, but they sound like a slavish copy of the perfect HM band. Flawless heavy metal ... a contradiction in terms, huh? [A:2]

LORI YATES: CANT STOP THE GIRL CBS 463288-1 Divine country warbling from a Canadian Who Would Be South-ern. Rocking rather than rueful, with an appeal that should defy the country classifications. [A:1]

ALSO RECEIVED:

THE STRANGLERS: RADIO ONE SESSIONS Strange Fruit/Nighttracics SENT 620 The Stranglers heard live on the Beeb in 1982. [A/13:1]

VARIOUS: JAZZ TODAY VOL.1 BGP/Ace BGP 1026 10 tracks from the new Fantasy jazz catalogue. [A:1/2]

VARIOUS: NITE 1FLITE 2 CBS MOODCD8 (61m 41s) CD TV-advertised smoochers from Sade, Vandross, etc. [A/13:2]

HI.FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989 113

THE MUSIC SHOP

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AUGUST RELEASES

Leighton: Symphony No. 3 Laudes Musicae' 'Cello Concerto

Wallfisch cello/Neil Mackie - soloist/ Scottish National Orchestra/Thomson

CHAN 8741 CD. ABRD/ABTD 1380 LP & Cassette

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Lilian Watson soprano/BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra/ Thomson

CHAN 8762 - CD. ABRD/ABTD 1400 LP & Cassette

American 20th Century Piano Music: Barber: Sonata for Piano

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Copland: Piano Variations David Allen Wehr

CHAN 8761 CD. ABRD/ABTD 1399 LP & Cassette

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CHAN 8725 CD; ABRD/ABTD 1365 - LP & Cassette

Purcell: Sonnatas Vol. It Purcell Quartet

CHAN 8763 CD. ABRD/ABTD 1401 LP & Cassette

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CHAN 8752 - CD, ABRD/ABTD 1391 - LP & Cassette

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reissues ROCK/POP/JAZZ

ARTHUR ALEXANDER: ARTHUR ALEXANDER Ace CH 270 The soul legend's hard-to-find 1972 Warner solo plus a pair of rare tracks only available on singles. Mellower and less pained than his golden age material but still above the rest of the pack. [A/13:1/1*]

CHRIS BARBER & DR JOHN: MARDI GRAS AT THE MARQUEE Timeless Traditional TDD546/547 ( Dist by New Note) Amazing double LP with the two giants doing a New Orleans set in London in 1983. Blessed mix of Rebennack faves and trad standards. (A/A*:1]

THE BEACH BOYS: SHUT DOWN VOL 2 C5 C5-535 EMI wouldn't do it so here's See For Miles showing how you restore long-unavailable Beach Boys epics to the racks. Prime surfiedrivin' material from '64, with sound quality you will not believe. Budget-priced, no less. [A*:1/11

DALEK i: COMPASS KUMPAS Fontana 836 894-2 ( 54m 25s) CD Exceptional late 1970s Liver-pool band which would pro-duce members of the Banshees, OMD, Teardrop Explodes, etc. Groundbreaking post-punk synth pop worth more than academic acknowledgement. [A:1/11

VIC DAMONE: THE BEST OF 'THE CAPITOL YEARS' Capitol CDP 7 92449 2 (45m 33s) CD 16 wonderful tracks from a tra-ditional MOR-ist of the Old School. A reassessment is deserved; the verdict will be that Vic was much more than a Sinatra clone. All standards, with Damone revealing a deft touch with stage tunes. (A/11:1]

DILLARD & CLARK: THE FANTASTIC EXPEDITION OF DILLARD & CLARK/ THROUGH THE MORNING, THROUGH THE NIGHT Mobile Fidelity MFCD 791 (68m 12s) CD The bluegrasser Dillard and ex-Byrd Clark's late 1960s country/ rock pair on one CD. (Edsel reissued these in vinyl.) As good as anything the genre ever pro-duced, but especially one for pre-Eagles devotees. [A:11

CHAMPIONJACK DUPREE: AND HIS BLUES BAND London 820 569-2 (45m 48s) CD Another Mike Vernon-pro-duced, late 1960s set for the wizard blues pianist. Primary

collaborator here is Mickey Baker adding guitar and vocals; overall feel suggests that every-body was having a good time. Great Dupree originals plus a dandy 'Caldonia'. [A/A*1]

RAMBLINUACK ELLIOTT: TALKING DUST BOWL Big Beat/Ace WIK 86 Ace continues its run of US folkie LPs with this link between the genuine Dust Bowl singers like Woody Guthrie and the 1960s protest/coffeehouse crop. Generically a melange of country, acoustic folk and even good old Jimmie Rodgers-styled yahoo. A righte9us compilation. [A:1]

MARIANNE FAITHFULL: MARIANNE FAITHFULL London 820 630-2 ( 53m 05s) CD The superb liner notes tell the full story behind this, roughly half of her debut material from 1964/5. Historic importance aside, it's an exceptional kick-off to a patchy career, her quavery voice just fragile enough to set hearts athumpin' around the world. Eclectic mix of material makes this [A/A*:1/1*/2] and mandatory.

TENNESSEE ERNIE FORD: FARMYARD BOOGIE See For Miles SEE 262 Continuing the label's assault on the country reissue market, a revealing 20-track set which makes you wonder why the guy is only remembered for ' 16 Tons'. Brilliant vocal textures from the kind of rich voice which comes along only once in a generation, like Willie Nelson without sinus problems. [A:1/ 1*]

FRIENDS AGAIN: TRAPPED AND UNWRAPPED Fontana 836 895-2 (61m 21s) CD Puzzling failure this, another case of a band (Glaswegian) too far ahead ( 1983/4) of the trend (hyper-professional red-eyed fashion-victim soul-funk). If you like Hue & Cry, Wet, Wet, Wet or any of the other Hall & Oates Wannabees, dig in; Friends Again were better than most of the current crop. [A:2]

THE GROUNDHOGS: HOGWASH BGO BGOLP44 The band's sixth LP, circa 1972, with the blues roots struggling for dominance over the power-trio/nascent-HM mentality. Sounds less dated than it might, owing to the current domi-nance of metal over other rock forms. [B:1121

THE IDLE RACE: THE BIRTHDAY PARTY C5 C5-536 highly desirable LP for fans of

Move-era Jeff Lynne. Fairly typical late 1960s paisley pop, with no hints of future Wilbury-ness, but much better than a mere artefact. Find out why he was headhunted for Roy Wood's mob. [B:1/21

ERNIE K-DOE: BURN, K-DOE, BURN Charly CR11 1218 Desperately needed set from a New Orleans fixture oversha-dowed by the rest. Not one but two versions of `Mother-Inlaw' and 15 others, including his take of 'A Certain Girl' for all Yardbirds loonies. [A/B:1]

LULU: SOMETHING TO SHOUT ABOUT London 820 618-2 (50m 26s) CD Her debut LP beefed up with four extra tracks. It's easy to forget that Lulu was jailbait when she recorded 'Shout'; here's a reminder that she was Britain's Brenda Lee. [A/B:1]

MAN: MAXIMUM DARKNESS BG0 BGOLP 43 BGO's second Man reissue, pro-ving that 1CK isn't the only fan of the Welsh psychedelicists. This live set from 1975 finds them at their peak, with added credibil-ity in the form of guest guitarist John Cipollina of Quicksilver Messenger Service. 1A:11

PHIL OCHS: GUNFIGHT AT CARNEGIE HALL Mobile Fidelity MFCD 794 (47m 19s) CD The sharp-tongued protest sin-ger's wizard wheeze, shocking the hell out of the faithful by playing a straight rock'n'roll set. Fortunately, most of this audi-ence was hip enough to realise that, hey, the music cooks! Pre-sley and Holly medleys show where Ochs' heart was, while his `Okie From Muskogee' could be mistaken for the real McCoy. IA:1]

THE REMAINS: ME REMAINS Fan Club/New Rose FC 012 CD (70m 06s) CD An archivist's dream, 26 tracks from one of the most revered 'critics' choice' bands of the 1960s. Sharp, straightahead rock which fills the gap between garage band and pro. The most important of Boston's might-have-beens. [A/B/C:1/1*1

DEL SHANNON: THE DEL SHANNON COLLECTION Line/TM/PRT IMCD 9.00436 (34m 40s) CD Excellent 15 track collection representing one of the few shining lights of rock's gloom period ( 1959-63), with slight changes from Edsel's vinyl offer-

ing. Contains the first-ever US cover of a Beatles tune. [A/11:11

THE TROGGS: WILD THINGS See For Miles SEE 2% Absolutely hilarious package which proves that the Troggs actually were more stupid than - even Spinal Tap. 15 cover ver-sions butchered as never before, only the Troggs don't know it. A priceless party LP for the over 35s. [A:5]

VARIOUS: COUNTRY MUSIC HOOTENANNY See For Miles SEE 254 How the country crowd partied in 1963, a magical concert with the likes of Roy Clark, Merle Travis, Rose Maddox and others. Irresistable, especially the bumpkin chit-chat. [A*:1]

VARIOUS: THE ORIGINAL MEMPHIS BLUES BROTHERS Ace CHAD 265 Soulful R&B set offering a whole bunch of early Bobby Bland and Earl Forest tracks, plus some Junior Parker and — real trea-sures this — two from Johnny Ace. The usual stellar Ace Records effort with learned notes, but just wait for the consumer complaints about the Presley front cover... 1A/B:11

JOE WILLIAMS: HAVING THE BLUES UNDER EUROPEAN SKY Denon DC-8535 (45m 47s) CD The most musically rewarding set yet in Denon's series of jazz reissues, Williams working through a set of bluesy stan-dards which he interprets with absolute cool. A voice for the gods. [B/C:11

ZEPHYR: ZEPHYR BG0 BGOLP41 An absolute treasure: long-lost, major-league collectable featur-ing Tommy Bolin, later of Deep Purple. Sounds like a blissful marriage between Rough Trade and Big Brother (with Janis). Fine example of a boogie-ish band with a torch singer up front. [A/11:11

ALSO RECEIVED:

CLANNAD: PASTPRESENT RCA PD74074 (64m 58s) CD Their best, a musical and a sonic delight. [A*:1*]

BILLY FURY: BILLY London 820 625-2 (47m 18s) CD 20 more tracks in digital, including rarities. [A:1]

M.ANFRED MANN: EP COLLECTION See For Miles SEE 252 20 tracks from their now-pricey four-song 7-inchers. IA:1]

111-F1 NEWS & RE(:()R1) REVIEW Al7GINT 1989 115

SPECIALIST GUIDE BEDFORDSHIRE

SPECIALIST AUDIO EQUIPMENT BRITAIN'S PREMIER DEALER FOR

E1-OEMONSTRATION All0 SECONDHAND

• Our prices are as low as those in the private ads - but we also offer a full 12 months partsAabour guarantee, part exchange, nail order and credit facilities

• We buy all unmarked Hi Fi equipment for cash

• This is what the FINANCIAL rums said about us 'Attractive discounts are available at Sound Deals Friendly service, if you are interested in a trade-in do talk to them '

• Please phone for an appointment es we like our clients to take advantage of our demonstration facilities lit you come by train, we will arrange for you lo be collected from eiggleswade station)

• These ere a few of the reasons why in lust over three years we have built up a massive clientele of regular customers and friends

Phone for details now on (0767)312249 and ask for the secondhand sales dept.

548 SHORTIMEAD STREET, BIGGLESWADE. BEDFORDSHIRE SG18 OAP

PS M25 vm AI to our door is only 'um over 35 menu,.

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE

Aylesbury Hi-Fidelity

THE real HI-FI specialists in Buckinghamshire

Aiwa. AKG. Alphason. Audio Technica (CD Players also). ADC. AR. A&R. Beard. Boston. BLQ. Castle. Celestion. Denon. Diesis. Dual. Exposure. Gale Goldbug. Goldring. Grado. Gynxlek. Heybrook. Harmon Kardon. KEF. Logic. Linn Arms. Monitor Audio. Michell. Magnum. Manea. Musical Fidelity. Meridian. Mission. Mordaunt-

Short. Marantz. Monster. Myst. Nakamichi. Nagaoka. NAD. Ortofon. Paragon. Philips (CD only). P.S. Audio. Proton. Quad. QED. Rata

Rotel. Revox. Revolver. Roksan. Sennheiser. Something Solid. Sondi, Stand & Deliver. Spendor. Systemdek. Tannoy. Target. Teac CD. Thorens. Trio CD. Walker. Wharfedale. Yorkshire. Yamaha. Zeta

98 Cambridge Street, Aylesbury, Bucks.

0296 28790

OPEN 10am-6pm. Monday-Friday, 9.30am-5.30 Saturday redut u and au litres mailable

CHESHIRE

ASTON AUDIO THE HI-Fl CONSULTANTS

4 West Street Alderley Edge, Cheshire

Tel: 0625 - 582704

Open: Tues-Fri 10-6pm Sat: 9am-5pm

Closed: Lunch 1-2pm. sta t Kilo

DERBYSHIRE

Active Audio sound systems

ARCAM U AR1STON • CELEST1ON • DENON • HEYBROOK KEF U CYRUS U MUSICAL FIDELITY • MARANTZ

REVOX U ROTEL • ROGERS• ETC. ETC.

Demonstration And Home Trial Facilities. Account and Credit Cards. Ring For Opening Times And FREE 'FACT PACK'

Active Audio, 29, Market Street,

Tannvorth, Staffordshire 11 (0827) 53355

D E V 0 N

e DUALITY SOUNDS from ARCAM, CASTLE, DE NO N, INCATECH, QUAD,

ROKSAN, MANTICORE ETC. at

16 SILVER STREET, BARNSTAPLE, \N. DEVON EX32 8HR. Tel: 0271-46172f

DORSET

dawsons SPECIALISTS IN HOME ENTERTAINMENT

FOR OVER 60 YEARS Sony E.S. Technics, Denon, Aiwa,

LT.L., Dual, Mordaunt Short, Gale, Castle Large range of Accessores

23 Seamoor Road, Westbourne, Bournemouth. Tel: (0202) 764965

E E

CLONFY MIMI re

ri

55 Main Street, Blackrock Dublin. Tel: 0001-888477

0001-889449 Linn, Rega, Creek, Naim, Castle,

Aragon, Quad, Nakamichi, Arcam, Tannoy.

Closed all day Mon/Thur & Fri open till 9pm

Major credit cards welcome

E S S E

MUSICAL FIDELITY

COMES TO COLCHESTER

The sensational BI now avail-able. 3,000 Classical/Jazz CDs & Tapes always in stock all at Discount Prices. EG. Full Price new releases £9.99.

Your CDs taken in part exchange. Large selection of sale CDs for personal callers. Mail order service available.

THE COMPACT DISCOUNT CENTRE,

5, HEADGATE BUILDINGS,

SIR ISAACS WALK, COLCHESTER,

ESSEX C01 1JJ. (JUST OFF HEAD STREET).

TEL: 0206 — 762422.

OPEN MON-SAT (CLOSED WEDNESDAY).

E N

CANTERBURY HI-FI CENTRE

50 BUR GA TE CANTERBURY

KENT SPECIALIST GOLDRING DEALERS

TEL: 0227 — 65.315

LANCASHIRE

MONITOR SOUND

•• A & R Cambridge B&O MBE. W

Castle • Celestion II Denon U Dual • Marantz II Mission U Monitor Audio

• Mordaunt-Short U Musical Fidelity • Nakamichi II Pioneer • Philips CD

Ill Quad U Rogers IN Role) U Revox • Sony • Spendor U Tannoy U Technics • Thorens U Trio al Yamaha etc

Two-year guarantee Private listening room

Excellent comparator demonstrations

54 Chapel St., Chorley, Lancs. Telephone (02572) 71935

LONDON

ANALOG AUDIO (HI-Fi Specialists)

849 High Road, London N12

Tel: 01 445 3267

Finchley's Centre for ( (lea inn, I )nnon, Dual, Marantz ,

NAD, Onkyo, Pioneer, Proton, Rote), Yamaha.

Stockist of full range of speakers and electronics for all major manufacturers.

Please phone for details.

1111171 MARKETSJ The plar e us here pe,eple r are about hi- ii

AUDIO'," ENUE AUDIO CONSULTANTS AND RETAILERS II

24 CHURCH ROAD, CRYSTAL PALACE,

LONDON SE192ET — TEL: 01-771 7787

Stockists of: Linn Hi-Fi, Naim Audio, Creek,

Audio Tech, Epos, Denon, Dual, Revolver, BLQ,

Yamaha, Marantz etc.

2 single speaker demonstration rooms,

Instant Credit Facilities

All equipment delivered & installed.

Comprehensive turntable rebuilds etc

Interest Free Credit. 2 year warranty

Open 10-6pm. — Closed all day Wednesday

I 16 MU NEWS & RE( WI) ATTa NE 1989

SPECIALIST GUIDE L 0 N D 0 N

NEW 8. RECONDITIONED EOUIPMENT FULLY GUARANTEED COMPETITIVE PRICES TECHNICAL ADVICE GIVEN EXPORT ORDERS WELCOME FULL BACK UP AND REPAIR SERVICE FOR PERSONAL & PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

CANAL BRIDGE AUDIO VISUAL 172 CALEDONIAN ROAD

LONDON N1 08G

vevet 4' U I

STOCKISTS OF Acoustic Research. Alexander. Alphason, Ariston, Audio Technica. Beard, B & W. Carver, Castle Acoustic, Celef,

Celestion, Chord, Denon. Dual, Gale, Harman Cardon, Heybrook. Hunt. Jecklin, JPW, Kelvin Lab, Lino, Manticore, Maranta.

Musical Fidelity, Nakamichi, Preso, Proton, QED, Quad, Rotel, Ruark,

SD Acoustic. SME, Sony, Spendor. System Dek. Tannoy,

Target Audio, Orell, Technics, Thornes, Van Den Hal, Yamaha

35-37 Harshen, Street London SINIP ALA.

TN: 01-2330774 Fax: 01-2330773

ISLEOF WIGHT

11-1iFi THE ISLE OF WIGHT'S ONLY HI-Fl SPECIALIST

STOCKISTS OF: ARCAM El AUDIO INNOVATIONS

CAMBRIDGE El DENON H DUAL

MARANTZ D REVOLVER C] S.D ACOUSTICS

L SNELL El VOYD El YAMAHA + OTHERS

DELIVERY AVAILABLE

93 HIGH ST., RYDE, I.O.W. 0983 63993

LIVERPOOL * A R * DENON * REVOLVE * EPOS * HEYBROOK * LIN

BETTER HI-FI 16 COOK STREET LIVERPOOL 051 — 227 — 5007 ouAuni HI Fl SPECIALIST

e 15104 • NO11.5313D e ZINVRIEW e WHIN e *

EAST MIDLANDS

Warstones LINN PRODUCTS *CROFT ACOUSTICS • SPENDOR st MONITOR AUDIO • INCATECH HARMAN KARDON • EXPOSURE Lian ELECTRONICS. QUAD •R ATA. JPW • ION • SENNHEISER TANNOY • DENON • ORTOFON •

NAD • MORDAUNTSHORT • SYSTEMDEK • CREEK AUDIO* CELESTION •

Hours of Opening Mon Tues Wed Sat 10am-6pm

Thurs En 10an7-9pm

54a Warstones Road, Penn, Wolverhampton Tel: Wolverhampton 345114

Garrott Microscanned Deccas Garrott P77. Croft Acoustics, SD Acoustics, Klipuh

Horn Speakers and Space 50 Speakers and Space Deck, Esoteric Audio Research

Amplifiers, Mentor Turntable + Arm.

0771-76I947

WEST MIDLANDS

"Hi-Fi System Optimisation" Real time frequency analysis by computer

Send sae for details

Acoustic Response Limited 34 Francis Road, Acocks Green,

Birmingham B27 6LX. Tel: 021-708 1835

FIVE WAYS HIGH FIDELITY A&R, ADC, AKG, Alphason, Audio-Technica, B&W, Beyer, British Loudspeakers, Castle, Celestion, Creek, Denon, Dual, Dynavactor, Elite (Inc. Rock), Glanz, Goldring, Hunt-EDA KEF, Lowther, Meridian, MFSL, Michell, Monitor Audio Musical Fidelity, Nagaoka, o

Naka-michi,

Ortoton, Philips (CD. only), Quad,

Revox, Rogers, Sennheiser, Shure

Sondex, Spendor, Tannoy, TDK, TDL, Thorens, KT DC, Zenn.

Five Ways Hi-Fidelity Ltd, 12 Islington Row, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 1LD

Telephone: 021-455 0667. Dernonstrations by appointment

9.30-6.00 Tuesday-Saturday

ROYO, MORDAUNT SHORT, ARCAM. LINN. MONITOR AUDIO. EPOS. NAM. MISSION,. REGA, DUAL, ROTEL, CYRUS, CREEK. NAKAMICHI, DENON. MARANTZ,

RE VOX, QUAD

9 4 BRISTOL ST.. BIRMINGHAM 6 9 2 1359, TUE -SAT 10sm - 6pm

O X F ) 1 )

Westwood& Mason (Oxford) Ltd HI-FI SPECIALISTS

SELECTED PRODUCTS FROM: A&R CASTLE CREEK DEAN DENON DUAL HEYBROOK

KEF LINN SONDEK MISSION MONITOR AUDIO MORDAUNT-SHORT INCA TECH NAIM QUAD REGA ROTEL SPENDOR

AUDIO TECHNICA 'TANNOY WHARFEDALE YAMAHA BEYER FOUNDATION AN) TARGET STANDS NAGAOKA QED ORTOFON

HARBETH SENNHEISER MARANli LOGIC EPOS Demonstrations strictly by appointment

46 GEORGE SWEET, OXFORD Tel. Oxford (0865) 247783 Closed Thursday

STAFFORDSHIRE

Active Audio sound systems

ARCAM • ARISTON • CELES110N • DENONU HEYBROOK • KEF • CYRUS • MUSICAL RDEUTY • MARANTZ

REVOX • ROTEL • ROGERS • ETC. ETC.

Demonstration And Home Treat Facilities. Account and Credit Cards. Ring For Opening Times And FREE FACT PACK'

Active Audio, 12, Oirraston Road, The Spot, Derby e (0332) 380385

rert.ursix Sol NO MN

SUSSEX

CONSULTANTS

(32 WESTERN ROAD, IST.LE051A3UX3. (0484) 448975. )

.Selected I I i-1 from EXPOSURE, MUSICAL FIDELITY,

QUAD, NAKAMICHI, HARMAN, KARVON, MONITOR AUDIO, ROGERS, TAIYNOY, CYRUS,

NAD, REVOLVER, MANTICORE, GALE, MARANTZ, AUDIOPHILE, ELITE, TtIORENS,

CELESTION, HEYBROOK, & Many more.

II OPEN FION-SAT 9.00-6.00. • FULL DEMONSTRATIONS- IN STORE it III HOME

III II \ IN.N`,& RI( () RI) RIN II V. NI 1,1 ', I 1989 117

SPECIALIST GUIDE SUSSEX

The most respected names in hi-fi are here

BOWERS WHAMS)

WORTHING Littlehampton Road Tel Worthing 641 ,41

CI-1114CIVIESTIEU 111-114G1r1

Retailers of quality audio equipment 7 St. Pancras, Chichester, West Sussex F019 ISJ

Telephone 0243 776402 Closed Mondays

H

E

3

H

AKAI • MUSICAL FIDELITY • HITACHI

AIWA • YAMAHA • DENON • ARISTON • ITL ROTEL • QED • NAD • SONDEX • MARANTZ KEN WOOD • HARMAN KARDON • TRAC

ONKYO • PROTON • THORENS • DUAL • ¡BL KEF • TANNOY • HEYBROOK • ROGERS CELEF • WHARFEDALE • SPENDOR

MORDAUNT-SHORT • AUDIO TECHNICA • SENNHE1SER • GOLDR1NG

53 Brighton Road, Worthing, Sussex Tel: Worthing (0903) 206820

WARWICKSHIRE

etilnrs Expensiye

RING NICK ON 0788-540772

AGENTS FOR

ABM - Alphason - Audio Tech nice - Cambridge Audio - Castle - Celestion - Dual - Denon - Grado - Goldring -

Hellus - Heybrook - Maranta - Meridian - Monitor Audio - Mordaunt-Short - Musical Fidelity - Myst - Nagaoka -

Ortoton - QED - Clued - Ftbtel - Sansui - Sennheiser - SME - Sony - Spendor - Tannoy - Thorens - Trio - Yamaha. For Demonstrations, Installations and Expert Advice.

12 Regent Street, Rugby, Works.

YORKSHIRE

Audio Projects 45 Headingley Lane, Leeds LS6 1DP.

Tel. 0532 304565.

Open Tues.—Fri. 9.30-6.00. Sat 2.50 — 5.30.

HiFi SPECIALISTS.

GEle WILEY CAST LE Font) 64 8. 85 BEANCROFT ROAD

CASTLEFORD

WEST YORKSHIRE WF10 5BS

Tel (0977) 553066/556774

Stockist for All Leading

Manufacturers -- Full Demonstration Facilities

closed Wednesday

For further information on Advertising in the Specialist Guide, Call Sophia

01-686-2599 Ext. 472

ADVERTISER'S INDEX Absolute Sounds

Active Audio Ltd

Alternative Audio

Arcam

6,16

104

88

4

Arjay Interiors 60

Audio Excellence 76

Audio South 92

Bartletts Hi Fi 78

Billy Vee Sounds 106

Bose (UK) Ltd 18,19

Chandos Records Ltd IFC

Chew & Osbourne 60

Covent Garden Records 64

Datasound

Decca OBC

Dynaudio 16

Gryphon 20

Hampshire Audio Ltd 82

Heinitz T Mr 92

H.H Morch 48

Hi Fi Care Retail Ltd 92

Hi Fi Experience 70

Hi-Fi Corner 66

The Hi-Fi Show 90

Hi-Way Hi Fi (Smiths) 24

Midland Hi-Fi Studio 40

Musical Fidelity 14

Music Room, The 42

Naim 10

Nottingham Analogue Studio 48

88 Oxford Audio Consultants 66

Path Group (Aragon) 46

Paul Green Hi Fi 58

Pinewood Music 8,44

Regent Records Ltd 84

Rogers 12

Roksan Ltd IBC

Ron Smith 16

S.M.E Ltd 36

Sevenoaks Hi-Fi Centre 72,73

Sound Advice 12

Sounds Exclusive 48

Spaldings Electrical Limited 86

Target Audio Products 38

Teac 22

Technics 30,31

Virgin Records 106

West Midlands Audio 58

Wilmslow Audio 92

Woodside Electronics 54

H.W. International (Koss) 40 Radlett Audio 54

118 HI-F1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989

CLASSIFIED Advertisements for this section must be pre-paid. The rate is 46p per word (private), minimum £ 12.00 incl. of VAT. Box Nos. £3.00 extra. Trade rates 55p per word, minimum £ 15.00 incl. VAT. Copy and remittance for advertisements in October issue must reach these offices by 15th August addressed to: The Advertisement Manager, Hi-Fi News & Record Review, Link House, Dingwall Avenue, Croydon, Surrey. CR9 2TA. Please include name and address. Cheques made payable to Link House Magazines Ltd. NOTE: Advertisement copy must be clearly printed in block capitals or typewritten, illegible copy will be returned.

Classified Lineage Advertisements cannot be accepted over the telephone

Replies to Box numbers should be addressed to the Advertisement Manager, Hi-Fi News & Record Review, Link House, Dingwall Avenue, Croydon CR9 2TA, and the Box No. quoted on the outside of the envelope.

Sex Discrimination Act 1975. No job advertisement which indicates or can reasonably be understood as indicating an intention to discriminate on grounds of sex (cg. by inviting applications only from males or only from females) may be accepted unless; 1 The job is for the purpose of a private householder or 2 It is in a business employing less than six persons or 3 It is otherwise excepted from the requirements of the Sex Discrimination Act. A statement must be made at the time the advertisement is placed saying which of the exceptions in the Act is considered to apply.

FOR SALE- Private PIONEER 1,91 TUNER TOP OF THE RANGE. Less than three months old £250. 0532 442124 day. 0924 451066 evenings. (H)

MUSICAL FIDELITY MVX/A370. Less than a year old. Perfect. Any demo, given. Will split. £30(10. No offers. Tel: 0206-762422 day. 0245 381066 eve. Crom-bie. (H)

AUDIO RESEARCH. SPIO £990. D-70 £ 1390 o.n.o. Both MKII Spec. boxed, mint, superb sound. Tel: 051 924 1591 evenings. (H)

MAGNUM ASO MONOBLOCK POWER AMPS P200 PS100 Prcamp MC250 Prcamp Gyrodeck FRS64 Zeta toncarms. All in good condition. Will demonstratec. Tel: 0272 730819.(H)

DNM PREAMP (TWIN P/SUPPLY), 8 months old £750; Robertson 4010 Power Amp, 12 months old £450; Van Den Hul MC one cartridge. 1(10 hours use £4(X) Tel: (01) 672 4582 evenings ( H)

APOGEE DUETTA II RIBBON LOUDSPEAKERS (with special custom Diva stands). Immaculate condi-tion and superlative sound. Upgrading to signatures. so a genuine bargain at £995 (£3700 new, without stands!) Tel: 0727 50460 (evenings). ( H)

YAMAHA TC800 GL. Very rare cassette deck styled by Mario Bellini. Hardly ever used and absolutely as new condition. Quite possibly the finest example available. Please phone 0733 44532 evenings. ( H)

LINN LP12 (black), black look. KIN brand new, set up and installed but unused, unwanted gift, save £350 on retail. £850. Tel: 0442 50414 ( Herts) weekends. ( H)

ORACLE DELPHI MK I. Excellent condition com-plete with manual. Also Quad 33 control unit sensible offers please. 01-582-1285 Mr. Wright. ( II)

MARK LEVINSON ML1OA PRE AMP £1750. MLI2A Pre Amp £ 1000 ML9 Power Amp £2500. Pair Tresham SR402 (Tannoy) Power Amps tv1pno bridgeable 1000 WPC £1000. Oracle new Mechanic Arm Koetsu Red £1350 or split. Tel: 01 226 2359. ( H)

SONY ESPRIT TA-E901 Pre-amp and TA-N901 power amp. £950 o.n.o. Boxed Teak case 0563 33565. (H)

B & W 801 MATRIX SERIES II SPEAKERS. Cost £2500 accept £ 18(10. Revox B77 Tape Recorder. 71/2 IS ips. Only 4 hours use, £900. Nakamichi Tuner/amp £350, 0903-61213 or 0860 347718. (H)

PRO-AC EBS SPEAKERS £ 50. Audio Research Dl IS MKII £1850. Tel: 0825 3544. ask for Mike. ( H)

ONE PAIR 1ST SERIES QUAD ELECTROSTATIC SPEAKERS. Bronze Grille. £300. 0.n.O. Tel: 0590-672822. (H)

BLACK LINN ISOBARIK LOUDSPEAKERS. Six months old, latest model £ 1200. also Naim mono block amp £1000. Tel: (0865) 248755. (H)

MARANTZ CD94 CDA94 combination. 6 months old. Superb sound, mint condition £600 each or sensible offers. Tel: Thanet (0843) 584030 after 6pm. (J)

ONIX FM TUNER as new hardly used £295. Tel: Rowlands Castle (0705) 413327. ( H)

ONE PAIR 1ST SERIES QUAD ELEC-TROSTATIC SPEAKERS. Bronze Grille. £00. 0.n.O. Tel: 0590-672822. (H)

BEARD CA506 VALVE PRE-AMP. Top of the range model. £ 1,200 new, offers near £650. Celestion SL6000 Sub-Woofer Sys-tem wanted. 01-22-3604 evenings. (H)

NA.KAMICHI RX505 AUTO REVERSE £450. Counterpoint SA12 £850. P.S. Audio 4.5 £350. Magnaplanar MG2B's £950. Sony £295. Carver Tuner cost £700 sell £250. No offers 'sounds superb'. Whole System £3000. Tel: (0303) 893525.(H)

AMP-01 AUDIOPHILE VERSION - one of the world's best preamplifiers and never surpassed. Handbuilt by the designer with full magic included. Comprehensive facilities. External circumstances force sale. £850. Rauch DVT505 150 watt high specification professional power amplifier. Similar quality, same designer. £450. Tel: (0272) 874024 ( Bristol) (H)

MUSICAL FIDELITY A100 Amplifier, three months old. Guaranteed. £349.00. New £479. Audio Technica AT009 Cartridge, unused, brand new. Normally £400 only £320. Tel: (0582) 504560. (H)

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN LIVE MUSIC. Must sell quickly this superb collection of Audio Research pre amp, the amazing SPIS; the awesome Audio Research pre amp, the amasing SPIS; the awesome Audio Research M3(Xls Power Amps; Goldmund ST4 Trans-cription Turntable and Koctsu 80th Anniversary Car-tridge. Magneplaners MGM Speakers. For informa-tion Tel: 01-679 6801 evenings. ( II)

FOR SALE- Trade

NEW! QUAD 33 - ULTIMATE UPGRADE Introduced in 1983. ( tir Soundlim 58101 upgrade boards lime modernised and enhanced Quad 33s around the world. Our new 58707 plug in circuit hoards exceed the iferformance of men the tift101 especial') for distortion, freguencx response and noise performance SM) Main the full use of the tone, filter and balance enfin ils

M hen upgraded with the new 58707 the Quad 33 will challenge ans >modern design her transparencx and bass firmness

511707 C) pair - £63.00 S ST

QUAD 33 disc board u • • rode Replacing llic internal pitail disc amplilier mint stilt the ne, quino greatlx i infirm es 1.1' reproduction Ole Sliti00 C) has a more natural perspecthe and a sweeter top-end lespeciallx on strings).

SR600 C)- £38.50 + V1T

COMPACT DISC ATTENUATORS Otcrload ri -tilts Iroin IIIIS111.111 II belNI,11 plaxers 2 foltsI and txpical radiffaux .unp inputs. (100e) SL, Quads'. This glues a hard gritt) treble. a softened bass and an uncomfortabls high oil ... Our Cl) attenuators eliminate these distortions and restore the natural sound •S‘ailable In-line or as complete 13m tails, liber sensithitieWmatches mailable

$18200 (ISIS) - £15.00 $15235 C) (phone) - £17.00

$18265 (C:) pin& to phono sockets) - £20.00

Leads: $152.15 © (phono plugs.phono plugs) - £23.30

$18285 11)15 plug./ phono plugsi - L2:1.30 %LI. + 51

SOUNDBOX, 3 ENTERPRISE PARK, LINDFIELD, WEST SUSSEX, RH16 2LX.

TEL: 04447 4371

Falcon DIY SPEAKERS I-/Send for our FREE price list

PL18 & Focal data sheet, we ask for is a large S.A.E.

(26p stamp) or $2 bill (air) overseas)

HIGH TECHNOLOGY LOUDSPEAKER UNITS

a( KITS

Dome tweeters with sensitivity of 95.5dB Double voice coil units to give easier design,

lower phase shift and higher efficiency, NEW KEVLAR cones for lower colouration.

TRADE ENQUIRIES WELCOMED. FALCON ELECTRONICS

Tabor House, Norwich Road, Mulbarton, Norfolk NR14 8JT

(0508) 78272 (Proprietors. Falcon Acoustics Ltd )

CLEARANCE AUDIO RESEARCH AUDIO RESEARCH AUDIO RESEARCH AUDIO RESEARCH AIR TANGENT BEARD CELESTION COUNTERPOINT LINN LINX LYRIC MAGNEPLANAR MAGNEPLANAR MARTIN LOGAN MERIDIAN NAIM ORACLE ROGERS STUDIO SUMO

M100 MONO BLOCKS SH D70 Mk2 AMP XD D115 AMP XD SP11 Mk2 PRE-AMP XD MkI TONEARM XD CA506 PRE-AMP SH SL12si SPEAKERS XD SA 20 AMP XD KAN SPEAKERS SH STRATOSPREWOWER XD MODEL 3 SPEAKERS SH MG1C SP'KRS XD SMGA SP'KRS SH CLS SP'KRS XD £1995 M2 SPEAKERS SH £399 ALL DEMSTOCK XD P.O.A. DELPHI Mk2 1/TABLE XD £895 IA (ODD VENEERS) NEW £450 NINE PLUS AMP XD £899

£3500 £1299 £2400 £3495 £1199 £595 £479

£1750 £179 £499 £499 £799 £495

XD=Ex-dem; SH=Second Hand; NEW=New boxed.

K. J. West One 26 New Cavendish Street, London Vtillyt 7LH Telephone: 01-486 8262/8263. Fax No: 01-487 3452 Open: Monday-Saturday 10am-6pm. Thurs. until 7pm.

ItIFI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW Al 'CiUST 1989 1 19

CLASSIF ED FOR SALE- Trade

REGA RB 300 / RB 250

VAN DEN HUL

REWIRIN G If you own one of these superb arms, why not upgrade the performance by rewiring with Van

den Hul cable?

Our engineers will replace the internal wiring with VdH MSS7 and lead out cable with VdH

MC-D502.

We will fit high quality phono plugs and our work is fully guaranteed, parts & labour, for

12 months.

Our price for this skilled conversion is just £79.95. inc. p&p, and we will return your arm

within 21 days.

Details sent on request, or simply package the arm properly and send it to us by insured post.

BLACK 12mm MDF ISOLATING PLATFORMS All except ESS4 utilise 3 downward facing spokes, glued & screwed

directly into platform for best Sound Quality

ESS1 - 210mm x 300mm 1/2 Width (Cyrus 1 & 2 size) £8.95 E552 - 420mm x 300mm CD/ Amphi er size f12.95 E553 - 454mm x 355mm Turntable/ large .'.np size £14.95 ES54- 454mm o 355mm SO 81 Target TT2 replacenient £12.95

EXECUTIVE SOUND SYSTEMS INTERCONNECTS Excellent quality direction marked leads with RS nickel silver

plated plugs. These leads sound great so why pay more.

Unconditional 5year guaranteel

1.2m Phono - Phono £9.95 1.5m Din - 4 Phono £ 14.95 1.5m Din - Din £ 12.95 Other lengths built to order.

FELT MAT same size/quality as Mantra/LP12 etc. E8 95

All prices include VAT and Postage.

Access / Visa telephone orders accepted

SOUND DEALS: 52-54B SHORTMEAD ST. BIGGLESINADE BEDS SG18 OAP ENGLAND

TEL: 0767 312249 FAX: 0767315714

SUMMER SALE LOTS OF BARGAINS -

everything half price or less. Phone or write for list - but HURRY, our last Summer Sale Sold

out in 7 days!

AUDIOPHILE QUALITY COMPONENTS

•SicJerealKops The finest Polypropylene capacitors with Kimber Kable Teflon leadout. Expensive but the best. • SOLEN CHATEAUROUX Polypropylene caps. Inexpensive and only second best.

ODNM SLIT FOIL Electrolytic Capacitors-Stunning

•KIMBER KABLE'speaker cable, Interconnects. Internal wiring. Clean - open - transparent - smooth. e Learn more about these superb products. Don't

build with less than the best. • Write for NEW Price list for 1989.

0 RUSS ANDREWS TURNTABLE ACCESSORIES LTD EDGE BANK HOUSE, SKELSMERGH, KENDAL CUMBRIA LAB 9AS TEL: SELSIDE (053 983) 247

CLEARANCE BARGAINS Up to 50% off one-off ex-derr -stration/clearance bargains. Items from Albarry, mudiostatic, Decca, Glanz, Gryphon, Kiseki, Nuance, Odysset, Omega

Point, Opus 3, PhonoAmp, Vecteur and YBA. Only one of each.

Phone for more details and nearest dealer.

Presence Audio (04031 891777

HIGH QUALITY VINYL PRESSINGS WILL COMPLIMENT AND ENHANCE YOUR PLAYING

EQUIPMENT TO THE FULL! AND ARE AVAILABLE FROM:-

BECKENHAM RECORD CENTRE _ • -

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SAVE UP TO SO% - MATISSE PRE AMPLIFIER £1495, E.A.R. 549 Mono power amps £1499, Sugden AU51P power amp £450, Celestion SL600 Si (latest) £595, FORTE Model la (50 watts class A) £ 1095, Naim 110 (serviced) £185, Sumo Polaris £395, ADC 2000E CD £265 (new), Roksan (rosewood, SME board) £445, lots of cables etc at cost! Save on Demo stock from: Acoustic Energy, Audio Technica, Denon (1 only 1520 CD only £495) Deltec, Aragon, THRESHOLD (very special prices) Mark Levinson, ACCUPHASE (1 only 80/81L, Rec. Ret. $ 13,000, now £5250) Target, etc etc. Offers also on Chesky, Reference, Proprius, Sheffield Lab, Waterlilly, and more. Send for free list. PURE SOUND, the "True Fidelity" dealer! Tel: 051-645 6690. (H)

LATEST CD PLAYER UPGRADES available tor all Philips/Marantz 16-bit players. The new "Pro II" modification uses components of the highest quality plus an additional circuit board for £149. For those seeking the ultimate in quality there is the new "Reference" upgrade, available for full-width machines only. This incorporates a power supply unit of the highest quality with the above upgrade. Discrete regulators and a dedicated toroidal transformer are used to power the D/A converter and analogue stages independently. This produces a machine with the very finest sound for £250. Owners of "Pro" modified machines may upgrade to "Reference" standard for £149. Enquiries to Geoff on 01-379 7427 x 126. Covent Garden Records, 84 Charing Cross Road, London WC2.

APOGEE CALIPERS, taupe, mint condition, £ 1150; Martin-Logan CLS, £1650; Infinity IRS 2B, perfect, £1900; Krell KSA-200. perfect, four years' warrantly remaining, 0800; apogee Duetta Mk 2, mint, £2200; Magneplanar MG lb, £375; Krell PAM-7, £ 1500; PS Audio 4.6, £450; Counterpoint SA- 12, £850; Tandberg 3003 preamp, £250; Quad 606, £400; Koetsu Black K, £250; Koetsu Red, f450. All these items arc either ex-demonstrators or trade-ins. Pinewood Music, Mar-tins, Church Lane, Goodworth Clatford, Andover, Hampshire SPI I 7HL. Tel: (0264) 57536. (H)

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I 211 III-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989

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PUBLICATIONS

BERLIOZ & BEETHOVEN. Strange bed-fellows, but they were both full of ideas and opinions which influenced their music and helped to shape the Roman-tic Age. The thoughts beliefs and attitudes of each are examined in highly praised biographies-with-a-differ-ence by one-time HFNIRR editor John Crabbe. Hector Berlioz - Rational Romantic and Beethoven's Empire of the Mind are available from bookshops at f5.95 each, and if your stockist doesn't have copies on his shelves, tell him that each can be .ordered from Messrs Kahn & Averill. Or you could try your local library. Either way, they make an intriguing read. (XIS)

W A N TED

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BACK DOOR

BEN DUNCAN n July '67, two young men replied to an ad in the New Musical Express. A small record company, Liberty, had

parted from EMI, and was seeking a roster of songwriters and artistes. One of the respondents had been playing keyboards in a band called Blues°logy. They had just

split and he was desperate for work. The other, just turned 18, was occupied on a

chicken farm in a hamlet 160 miles north of London, deep in England's second largest and predominantly agricultural shire. A natural writer, he had ambition and dreams but no musical ability, no melodic accompaniment, and no previous experience. Fearing rejection, the would-be songwriter developed cold feet and stuck the letter behind the clock on the family mantlepiece. The next day, Fate pointed a finger: his mother found the letter. Twenty-one years later, the man himself wrote 'her innocent gesture ( post-ing it) both saved and changed my life'.

In the following week an encouraging reply arrived. Soon afterwards, the young Bernie Taupin was heading on a train that would lead to London and, eventually, to success. Arriving at the same audition, the

bespectacled keyboardist-composer was teamed-up: he went away with a bundle of Taupin's lyrics. Bernie returned to his parent's farmhouse, sending Elton further lyrics in the post. It was six months later that Taupin began a prolific partnership with Elton John ( ex-Bluesology) which would sell over 100 million albums in the following ten years, and which continues to this day.

Bernie's first lyrics, the ones he was faint-hearted about sending to Liberty, were 'Procul I larumish'. For a while, the duo were employed by Dick James on a £25/week retainer writing commercial trash. Their luck turned when they met

A&R man Steve Brown who introduced them to producer Gus Dudgeon, and John Reid, who became their manager. The early albums ('69 to '71) have been described as 'Scattergun psychedelia'. For most fans, these early works are crowned by a poignant song beginning with the

lines ' It's a little bit funny, this feeling inside'. In the subsequent album, the songs are country while the lyrics betray

Taupin's obsession with the true-life squalor of the 'Wild West': American frontier history. Tumbleweed Connection is where Bernie and Elton first demons-trate their adaptable, chameleon-like instincts; qualities which have helped

them weather arid periods of glitter, then soul, punk, disco, new romantics, rappers

and a million-and-one other musical (and not-so-musical) fashions. With Madman across the Water their

rate of ascent falters momentarily. Having unexpectedly taken the USA in one night at the Los Angeles Troubadour Club, the team found themselves touring US and having to write this album 'on the road', to meet their contractual obligations. It had all gelled again by the time Honky Chateau was recorded (at Chateau d'Her-ouville), with the effervescent 'Honky-Cat': 'How can you stop/when your feet

say go?' Honky Chateau contains 'Rocket Man', the nearest Elton's come to having a No.1 single in the UK. The lyrics, ostens-

ibly about the boredom and detachment of yer' nine to five astronaut, also hint at Taupin reflecting on elements of his new life in the jet-setting orbit. In 'Mona Lisa and the Mad Hatter' Taupin expresses social outrage at having first encountered downtown NYC. The butterfly electicism continues into the '72 album, Don't shoot me — I'm only the Piano player

In October 1973, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was released to universal acclaim. At the time, Bernie was shut away with his first American wife in a tiny cottage not far from the town of Market

Slaten where 6 years earlier he'd been king of the local wide-boys. Maybe the cottage is the site of 'The Roses in the window box', where 'Love lies bleeding'? For, within the year, he would be leaving to live in Los Angeles. To this day, GBYI3R remains one of a

handful of thematic double Rock albums where every song is strong and polished and independent. By now, Taupin's lyrics are flitting between the romantic vignet-

tes drawn from life in '60s rural England (Saturday Night's All Right ...), to con-trasting reflection on the sharper, wider and more harrowing experiences of life around Soho's Denmark Street; and more

songs indulging in times past of rural America, coupled with a nod or two at Hollywood. In what must be the duo's most widely admired song, Bernie lays a wreath for Marilyn Monroe (née Norma Jean) with the superb 'And it seems to me you lived your life like a candle in the wind/Never knowing who to cling to /When the rain set in'. On GBYBR there's a developing bold-

ness, as Bernie shows his defiance at the hitherto accepted scope of rock lyrics. A good number of the songs are etched by perceptive, poignant and cunningly obli-que social comment. Three songs deal with downtrodden and disadvantaged women. After the destitute and the prosti-tute, Taupin relates the tragic tale of a misfit who became a call-girl to other

women, 'Raised to be a lady by the golden rule/Alice was the spawn of a public school/With a double-barrel name in the back of her brain ...Reality it seems was just a dream ..' to which Elton composed a rhythm which builds in a series of climaxes over a marching 4/4 tempo. Caribou is widely regarded as a weak

album, its quality thinned by the strain of

shoe-horning the recording into 4 days amidst arduous touring. Still, it contains what would become one of the best-loved ballads 'Don't let the Sun go down on me'. Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy (representing EJ and BT respec-tively) chronicles more of the Wild West alongside their early adventures around Soho. The lyrics are now more focused, but also more introspective and even melancholy. By the time Blue Moves was released in 1976, the songwriting rocket had burned off its first fuel tank. Two years later, Elton 'terminated' his rela-tionship with Bernie and turned to other songwriters to produce more overtly

commercial songs. After a much needed rest, the winning partnership re-formed in

time to produce a string of classy albums spanning the 1980s. He has also written occasional songs for other artistes, not-ably (Jefferson) Starship's 'We built this city ...'.

Today, Taupin's devotees can enjoy A Cradle of Haloes, a recently published book in which Taupin relates the events and experiences of his childhood and adolescence, including his musical and literary influences. My own interest is intensified by the fact we attended schools at the opposite ends of the same

small market town. Against all the odds, he emerged from the secondary modern school ('I only farmed in schools/that were so worn and torn') and narrowly excaped following his peers into picking cauliflowers in the surrounding fields. +

From humble beginnings to

Elton John's Top 40 hits —

the story of Bernie Taupin

Pic Neal Preston Ly

rics

courtesy PolyGram ¡ni Big Pig Music

122 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AUGUST 1989

ROKSAN

ARTEMIZ

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ROKSAN ENGINEERING LIMITED. 21 DDOLE ROAD LLANDRINDOD WELLS POWYS UNITED KINGDOM TEL: (0597) 4911 FAX: (0597) 3617

To mark the forthcoming • London visit cif Sir Georg Solti . and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Decca is releasing superb recordings cf two contrasting orchestral masterpieces. Sympnony No 6 (with Leonora Overture No3) is the latest addition to Solti's new Beethoven symphony cycle while Shostakovic Ws Symphony No 8, which will be featured in

the orchestris final London concer. i 5 SOW s first recording of music by the great Soviet composer..

The standards set by Solti and by Dec ca are of the highest. These newfecordings combine insight and integrity with technical biltiance ánd are the fruits of the uncompromising commit/merit we expect of the unique partnershi of Solti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Sir Georg Soles remarkable partnership with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra has produced many outstanding Decca ,ecordings to say nothing of Sir Georg's unprecedented 29 Grammy awards! A new discographyleaturing Sir Georg's recordings with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

is aypitable from your dealer orfrom Decca Classics.

Sit Georg Sotto and the Chica Symphony Otehestra appear at Albert Hall Pion's on August 2 and at the Royal Festival Hall September 17th.