5196105874

AUDIO New Eguipment Reports

musie signals can amount to the equiva-lent of morę than 250 watts with this load. Notę. however. that the B-6 is not rated for4-ohm loads. so speaker imped-ance should be checked in advance of matchmaking.

Among Yamaha s claims for the X amplilier are subtle advantages— extra clarity. clean bass that is neither tight nor boomy, and so on-that are beyond the power of conventional measurements to document. Some observers seem to be-lieve that such advantages also tend to be beyond the power of unprejudiced ears to hear. In our experience. such consid-erations as the relationship between the speaker and the driving amp or between the phono cartridge and the preamp are responsible for a morę palpable influence on perceived sound than ampli-fier design is. unless it is downright bad. Yet in our listening tests we frequently had the impression that the musie was ever so slightly sweeter or cleaner or morę natural than we remembered. though short-term A/B tests with our regular amp in this power class turned up no significant difference. Thus we re-main skeptical about the claims for the B-6’s added virtues. while agreeing that we’ve never heard a better amplifier in its power rangę.

This amplifier is not at all cheap, and many readers will want to pass it by for that reason. Nobody should presume to dismiss the B-6. however; its virtues are very real. and they doubtless will ap-pear at other prices. in other power classes. and in other formats. Yamaha al-ready has madę such a beginning w ith its A-760 integrated amplifier. In energy ef-ficiency and compactness, if not in out-ward shape. this may well be the amplifier of the futurę.

Circle 135 on Reader-Senice Card

OMK>0

* *

jnr'

• f

V

AC POWER

TUNER MEMORY TUNE (DOWN. UP)

TUNER PRESELECT

6 0 O ^volume

SELECTOR: TUNER (AM/FM)/PHONO (MC/-MM") I-1- MONITOR/AUX/COPY

Solid Receiver from Onkyo

Onkyo TX-6000 AM/FM receiver, in metal case. Dimen-*ions: 21 % by 5% Inches (front panel). 14 inches deep plus clearance tor Controls and connectłons. AC con-venlence outlets: one switched (100 watts max.), one unswltched (100 watts max.). Price: $550. Warranty: "limited," three years parls and two years labor. Manu-facturer: Onkyo Corporation. Japan; U.S. distrlbutor: Onkyo U.S.A. Corporation. 42-07 20th Ave„ Long Island City. N.Y. 11105.

FM tuner section

MONO FREOUENCY RESPONSE

+ 0. -3dB. 22 Hz to 15 kHz

STEREO RESPONSE & CHANNEL SEPARATION

^DB!-1-1-1-1-1-i-

l1_I_I_I_i_J_I_I_I

HZ 20    50    100    200    500    1K    2K    SK    10K    20K

Freouency Response

- Lch    *0.-3 dB. 22 Hz to 15 kHz

-----R_Ch    +0.-3 dB. 22 Hz to 15 kHz

Channel separation £37 dB. 20 Hz to 1 kHz.

^33 dB. 20 Hz to 15 kHz

The ripuiation that Onkyo has built over the decade or so du rine which it has been oflering components—in particular. receivers and other electronics—on the American market rests almost exclu-sively on two factors: innovative Circuit features and solid construction. Though the equipment has been fairly handsome and has sometimes sported unusual flourishes. its appearance has been char-acteri/.ed by conservatism rather than flair: conservative. too. has been the price rangę, which has avoided both cor-ner-cutting budget models and unaf-fordable flights of technological fancy. The TX-6000 is very much in this trądi-tion. It is an excellent performer that limits itself to the needs of typical home systems and offers luxurious appoint-ments within its carefully chosen field of competence.

The quartz-synthesizer tuning section is easy to use because it steps a fuli channel (200 kHz in FM, as opposed to the 100-kHz half-channel inerements of some tuners) and does so rapidly and continuously when you press eilher tuning button (up or down) firmly. You can load each of the seven preselector but-tons with one station from each band (AM and FM). Two AA penlight cells. housed in a well at the bottom of the case. give the memory staying power when the receiver is switched olT—or even unplugged from the wali Socket. The signal-strength indicator is typical of those in current receivers and tuners: five LEDs whose thresholds rangę from a figurę close to the stereo threshold (l4'/4 dBf) to “fuli strength” (actually, 55 dBf) and have a sharp on/ofT switching action. Near this display are pilot LEDs for the functions that are hidden behind the flip-down panel: separate muting and mono/auto modę switches (a wel-come touch) and a 25/75-microsecond de-emphasis switch so you can feed the output from Dolby broadcasts directly to a decoder (an equally welcome touch in some areas). Best of all. the FM performance is close to champion-class throughout. by comparison to other re-ceivers anywhere near its price.

Also behind the flip-down panel are the baI-ance and quasi-stepped tonę Controls, headphone jack. speaker switching (enabling selection of either. both. or neither of two speaker pairs). a i.oudness button. separate high and Iow filters (it’s increasingly rare to get both in a receiver). and a so-called EPS switch. The łasi decouples the preamp section from the power amp and engages w hat-ever outboard equipment is connected to the pre-out and main-in jacks on the back panel. The i.oudness introduces about 8 dB of shelved bass boost and 5 dB of treble tilt at Diversified Science Laboratories’ standard test level and re-mains constant when the volume is al-tered ± 10 dB from this level. To this ex-tent. it evidently is not a classic loudness

Clrcla 14 on Raadar-Sorvlco Card ►

24