5196105903

seemsijuite good. I finally lcft ihe Infin-itys connected for a week. These aren’t ihe only good speakers in their price rangę, to be surę. The compact B&W DM-IO is stifT competition for many of ihe same reasons. especially imaging and voice reproduction. and l’m surę there are other equally fine speakers waiting to grace my musie.

Combining these components pro-

vides a substantial musie playback system at a reasonable price. There are few cornerscut in this system, because it*s in-tentionally stingy on frills but generous in sound.    k.w.

1,000

"Maklng and evaluating live recordlngs are the most important uses."

E. Brad Meyer:

This independent audio consultantand editorofthe Boston Audio Society Speaker *1 seeks lastingvalue in a | system designed for I live recording.

CL

According ro thf. premise on which this article is based. I*m assuming that what 1 buy with my $1.000 will be the only equipment I own for sonie time.

Making and evaluating live record-ings are the most important uses to which I would put the system. Accord-ingly. I have devotcd a large portion of my budget to a cassette deck capable of making recordings that will continue to sound good on a latcr. morę elaborale system.

The Pioneer CT-6R ($350) has a three-motor transport with very Iow flut-ter. It also has Dolby C noise reduction— and therefore Iow enough noise to en-able me to make satisfactory recordings from all but the most dynamie livc sources. And Dolby Cs e\tra high-fre-quency headroom with any type of tape. including metal, helps eliminate com-pression. one of the main causes of veil-ing in cassette recordings. This is especially important in live taping. where uncertain le\els and enthusiastic arna-teur musicians can tax the medium with-out warning.

Dolby C exacts one penalty in ex-change for ils benefits: It can almost triple any frequency response errors in the deck with which it is used. I have tested two samples of the CT-6R and found them to be both properly designed and correctly adjusted. But the CT-6R has no user-accessible bias adjustment. so you had best find a tape that works well and stay with it (I used TDK SA) or have the machinę adjusted by a service shop to the requirementsof your favorite tape.

The Superscope EC-I omnidi-rcctional electrct microphoncs (SI8 apiece) are smooth and even in their response ovcr a wide rangę of frequencies. They are absolutcly the cheapest way to make decent live recordings. The Koss

Sound Partners ($35) are the best sound-ing of the recent crop of ultracompact headphones and can be used foron-loca-tion monitoring (provided you are not in the room with the performers) and for private listening.

The heart of the playback system is the NAD 7020 receivcr (Ś348). The 7020 has a properly designed phono preamp. a tuner section that compares favorablv with ones costing morę than this entirc receiver. and a power amplitier that per-forms well into reactive loads and has high peak current capability. With the speakers I have choscn. the ⁷020 will maintain average levels of morę than 98 dB SPI. in a moderatclv Iive smali room (1.400 cubic feet) and produce peaks in excess of 110 dB without audible clip-ping.

Por a two-way speaker system to sound natural. ils woofer musi have smooth response and reasonably broad directivity in its upper rangę, and the crossovcr musi be done just right. The Boston Acoustics A-60 (S200 per pair) is unusually free of midrange colorations.

no maiter w hat kind of system it is com-pared with. lis bass extends smoothly and with good damping down almost to 40 Hz. and a pair of them will provide realistic sound levels for classical musie of all but the largest scalę if the listening room is not too large.

Recent research into the performance of record-playing Systems con-ducted by both Bruel & Kjaer and the Boston Audio Society has shown that flutter, susceptibility to extcrnal sound and vihration. and even rumbie are all strongly influenced by the frequcncy and magnitude of the arm/cartridge reso-nances. The Shure M-97HH cartridee <$l 12). with its built-in brush. minimi/es these resonances and improves the performance of any lurntable and arm. The Technics Sł.-BiOI (S100) is an inexpen-sive belt-drive unit with lotsof good fea-tures for its price. The speed is electron-ically controllcd. so changes don’t require belt-shifting. and the platter doesn‘t slow dow n w hen a tracking-type recx>rd cleaner is used. The speed is ad-justable. and there is a built-in strobe.

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DECEM BER 1^X1