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"I like to operate eąuipment manually, preferring a minimum of automation.''

Richard Warren:

J Working from his own audio needsasa radio producer (for WFMT in _g Chicago), he devisesa 1 low-cost system for 1 maximum realism.

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Audio c omponents somf.timhs bcconu*

an end in themsclvcs and not a means.

There arc people who*d rathcr play with

musie than play musie or watch their

stereo svstem. rathcr than listen to it.

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Thus manufacturers make their eompo-nents enticing in every way possible. I prefer to have my musie, like my whis-key. ncat: whether the system costs $6.000 or $600. I want it sini pic. (In my work as a radio produecr. the opportu-

nitv to tinker with the musie is always

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present. Although WFMT possesses ccjuipmcnt to modify musie, the prevail-ing poliey is to avoid adulteration. In faet. the tonę Controls and filters on our phono preamps activate llashing lights when not in the Hat posilion.) I like to operate equipment manually. preferring a minimum of automation. Handling records is an everyday affair for me. and I feel lost when a machinę won't lei me toueh its tonearm. The only eonvenienee ril aeeept is automalic stop.

Living in an apartment in a strong signalarea niakessophistieated metering Systems on a receiver senseless. There‘s

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no outdoor antenna to orient and liltlc I ean do about the qualily of the signal. so as long as the receiver tells me when I*m properly tuned. I m happy. Emerson. Lakę. and Palmer at eoneert volumes in my lieing room is not my idea of great stereo. Tom Paxlon or the Chicago Sym-phony at eoneert volume is ample. The only linie Tm eoneerned about wattage is when Tm replacing light bulbs. Watts per dollar is no better rating for a re-eeiver than horsepower per dollar is for an automobile.

There's only one thing that matters to me when it eomes to speakers: the sound. T he size of the box. number of drivers. grille-eloth eomposition. and whatever else a partieular manufaeturer may boast of is relevant only if it eontrib-utes to natural. realistie sound. I have an advantagc over most listeners beeause I tape much of the musie I listen to: I know what it sounds like live. and I know what it shouki sound like at home. My love of aeoustie folk musie makes ae-eurate reproduction of the human voiee very important. If voices don*t sound natural. very little else will. either.

The Sony STR-VX2 reeeiver is ap-pealing in its siniplieity. Tuning. bass. TREBLfc. BAl.ANC r. and voi.ume are the only knobs. The yolume is the most fre-quently used: it is large. easy to grip. and logicaliy placed. Four large pushbultons with LED indicators choosc the souree. A fcw elear LEDs indieate proper tuning. There’s ample power for evcn mod-erately sensitive speakers: 28 watts 114'^ dBW) perehannel eontinuous. with both ehannels driven into 8 ohms. froni 20 Hz to 20 kHz. with no morę than 0.07^ THD.

The tuner scclion's signal-to-noise ralio—78 dB in stereo—is as good as that of the best FM transmitiers. At $260 list. the STR-VX2 is solid and subtle. It passed the aeid test in my ofłTee. w here it

survived downtown ofttee-building mul-lipath with only its folded-dipole antenna: under identieal eonditions. a couple of other similarly prieed receivers gavc up in a burst of distortion.

The tonearm is morę important to me than exquisite or exotic turntable drive systems. A rcliable belt drive is worth a dozen eheap direet-drive turn- ’ tabłes. and Dual eombines beli drive with an ultralow-mass tonearm in the Model 508. at about $130. It has variable piteh. a strobe. and damped pushbutton eueing. It shuisotTautomatieally: the rest is up to you. The arm is eapable of traek-ing warped records. of which I have many. It doesn'1 seem plagued by unto-ward resonanees. and its suspension-though not great-is adequate. My expe-rienee with the reliability of Dual turn-tablcs dates baek to the time when people thought direet drive was a new football play. Since meehanical compo-nents are usually the rtrst to eause trouble in a stereo system, the simpler they are. the better. The Dual is sini pic: Ali it does is play records.

T he Dual seems to cali for one of the ultralow-mass eartridges. sueh as the Ortofon Concorde 10. which was dc-signed for it. Let me be the last to pass by an cxcellent ehoiee. but the Shure M-97HE is a parlieularly good bargain. being a scaled-down version of the V-15 Type IV. at a list of$l 12. With sonie fast talking and hard dealing. you ean prob-ably havc this eartridge. which is fitted with Shure's hyperel 1 iptieal Stylus and a built-in dynamie stabilizer. for about $60.

Finally. the speakers-the most ar-guable portion of the system. Speakers gather in my living room like soldiers in a mess hall. Fm always testing new mod-els beeause the radio station is always seeking the ultimale monitor speaker. (We’ve yet to Hnd it.) Thus I was pleas-antly surprised when I turned on my system one morningand basked in the glory of what I assumed were my $3.000 im-ported speakers—except that I had acci-dentally left a pair of Infinity RS_C speakers eonneeted sińce the night beforc. The imaging through these $l65-apiece gems is phenomenal. and the tonal balanee

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HIGH KI UF. LITY