jamo speakers, audio-technica cartridge, more... - world

MADE IN JAPAN THE NEW CD CHANGERS

TESTED: MITSUBISHI AIV RECEIVER, TECHNICS CD PLAYER,JAMO SPEAKERS, AUDIO-TECHNICA CARTRIDGE, MORE...

© 1988 Philips Consumer Electronics Company A ON.sfon of North Amer cao Phoos Coroof af.or,

Philips superiority is clear, from this graph showing deviationfrom ideal linearity (dB) vs. recorded level (dB).

IDEAL LINEARITY

PHILIPS SELECT GRADE

CONVENTIONAL 0 A CONVERTER

THE PHILIPS CD960.CLOSE TOLERANCE COMPONENTS

FOR PEOPLE WITH NoTOLERANCE FOR IMPERFECTION.

The CD960 compact disc player incorporates onlythe most uncompromising components because it hasbeen designed by the world's most uncompromisingaudiophiles: Philips engineers. The same engineeringexperts who invented compact disc technology.

Superior digital -to -analogue conversion. It comesas no surprise that the heart of the CD960 is the Philipsdual 16 -bit D/A converter chip. The TD -1541 selectversion. A chip so refined it substantially improveslow-level linearity, flawlessly reproducing even thequietest passages with a clarity never before achieved.

This exceptional D/A converter is mated to aPhilips 4X oversampling digital filter for superior per-formance. Philips pioneered 4X oversampling and ourexperience with digital filtering is unequalled.

PHILIPS

Broadcast standard "Radialinear" transport. Philipscommitment to exacting specifications is also evidentin the CD960's mechanical construction. It features ahigh-grade cast alloy chassis. A linear -design motor waschosen to drive the radial pivoting arm for fast trackaccess and exceptional resistance to external vibrations.

Multiple power supplies. To eliminate cross talk,the CD960 incorporates no less than four separate powersupply sections. And the 100 -watt main transformer ispartitioned to further shield against magnetic and powerline interference.

From the company that created the compact disc,Philips proudly offers the CD960 for those who won't toler-ate anything less than perfection. To audition the CD960, call1-800-223-7772 for your nearest Philips audio specialist.

WORLD -CLASS TECHNOLOGY. EUROPEAN EXCELLENCE.

PHILIPS

Adcom announcesthe cure for the

common receiver.

oday, there is no reason to compromise your1 favorite music by listening to a common

receiver. Because the Adcom GTP-400 tuner/preamplifier with GFA-535 (60 watts per channel)*amplifier gives you all the benefits of Adcom'slegendary clear, dynamic sound for a price closeto that of an ordinary receiver.

Why Separates?The limited space in receivers prevents the use

of heavy duty, high -current, high -voltage powersupplies found in the best separate components.Consequently, the performance of receivers iscompromised for their questionable advantage ofall -in -one convenience.

By dividing the tuner/preamplifier from thepower amplifier, Adcom isolates low -current,low -voltage circuits from high -current,high -voltage elements ensuring sonic purity anddemonstrably superior performance.

More Sound-Less MoneyMany of Adcom's components have been

favorably compared to other components costingtwo and three times more. The GTP-400 withGFA-535 is a combination that promises to keepfaith with this tradition of offering superbperformance at a reasonable cost.

The price of these Adcom separates is close tothat of an ordinary receiver. But no receiver willdeliver the wide dynamic range and musicalsatisfaction of an Adcom system.

Ask your Adcom dealer for a demonstration ofthese affordable separates. You'll never listen to acommon receiver again.*Power output, watts/channel, continuous both channels driveninto 8 ohms, 20 Hz - 20 kHz <o.09% THD.

ADCOMdetails you can hear

8

.0

11 Elkins Road, East Brunswick, NJ 08816 U.S.A. (201) 390-1130 Distributed in Canada by PRO ACOUSTICS INC. Pointe Claire, Quebec H9R 4X5

CIRCLE NO 60 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Stereo ReviewLETTERS 10 SYSTEMS 56NEW PRODUCTS 12 POPULAR MUSIC 73RODRIGUES CONTEST 18 CLASSICAL MUSIC 88TECHNICAL TALK 20 THE HIGH END 104

EQUIPMENTHIRSCH-HOUCK LABS EQUIPMENT TEST REPORTSTechnics SL -P1300 Compact Disc Player, page 23Jamo Concert II Speaker System, page 28Audio-Technica AT-ML170 Phono Cartridge, page 29Mitsubishi M -AV 1 Audio/Video Receiver, page 32Paradigm Export Monitor Speaker System, page 38EASTERN STANDARDSWorld -class audio equipment from across the Pacificincreases choices for U.S. consumers by Michael SmolenMADE IN JAPANSophisticated engineering and methodical constructiongo into a Yamaha receiver by Bryan HarrellCD CHANGERSLet the music play, and play .. . by Ian G. Masters

MUSIC

23

42

49

58

ANNE-SOPHIE MUTTER"You have to develop your musical personality, evenif it means playing music you don't understandimmediately" by Herbert KupferbergBEST RECORDINGS OF THE MONTHMadonna, Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, MarcusRoberts, and Debussy's Preludes, Book II

63

67

Cover: The Technics SL-PC20 carousel compact disc changerwill be in U.S. stores this summer (see page 42).

Design by Sue Llewellyn, photo by Roberto Brosan.

STEREO REVIEW BUYER POLL, SEE PAGE 77Please fill in if you bought equipment in the past thirty days.

READER SERVICE INFORMATION CARD, FACING PAGE 77Circle the items you want to know about.

COPYRIGHT 0 1989 BY DIAMANDIS COMMUNICATIONS INC. All rights reserved. Stereo Review, July 1989, Volume 54, Number 7. Stereo Review (ISSN0039-1220) is published monthly by Diamandis Communications Inc. at 1515 Broadway. New York, NY 10036: telephone (212) 719-6000. Also publishers of CarStereo Review, Stereo Buyers' Guide, Compact Disc Buyers' Guide, and Video Buyers' Guide. One-year subscription rate for Ilse United States and its possessions,$13.94: Canada, $18.94; all other countries, $21.94, cash orders only, payable in U.S. currency. Second-class postage paid at New York, NY 10001, and at additionalmailing offices. Printed in the U.S.A. Authorized as second-class mail by the Post Office Department, Ottawa, Canada, and for payment of postage in cash. POST-MASTER/SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE: Please send change -of -address forms and all subscription correspondence to Stereo Review, P.O. Box 55627, Boulder, CO80322-5627. Please allow at least eight weeks for the change of address to become effective. Include both your old and your new address, enclosing, if possible, anaddress label from a recent issue. If you have a subscription problem, write to the above address or call (800) 876-9011. PERMISSIONS: Material in this publicationmay not be reproduced in any form without permission. Requests for permission should be directed to: The Editor, Stereo Review. Diamandis Communications Inc.,1515 Broadway, New York, NY 10036. EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTIONS must be accompanied by return postage and will be handled with reasonable care, bi..t thepublisher assumes no responsibility for return or safety of unsolicited art, photos, or manuscripts.

VOL. 54 No. 7 STEREO REVIEW JULY 1989 3

ES

The Sony CDP-Rl.

Its very existence tells

you why our other CD playershave an un_air advantage.

*Quoted with permission from Nereophile. Volume II. Number 12. December. 1988 n,.n, and The I read n. nitration of Amt.,. a

The unchallenged leadership of ourreference standard CD player brings extraordinary

technological advantages to the entire ES line.Start with the world's most accomplished digital

audio engineers-the ones who invented the CompactDisc format itself. Free them from the usual budget-ary constraints. And challenge them to surpass theirbest efforts in transport design, servo circuitry, digitalfiltering, and system architecture.

The result is the Sony CDP-R1/DAS-R1CompactDisc Reference System.This remarkable componentcompelled Stereophile's J.Gordon Holt to hail it as "...thebest CD player I have heard at the time of writing."'

And in Japan and Europe, the RI has likewisedriven the leading audiophile critics to unstintingadmiration. But at a suggested retail price of $8,000,it has been an experience reserved for the uncompro-mising few. Until now.

Now the Sony ES engineers have applied theinvaluable lessons learned in the CDP-R1 to our otherES Series Compact Disc players.Which means nowyou can enjoy many of the benefits of an $8,000 mas-terpiece without spending $8,000.

Noise Shaping with 45 -bit Processing.The accumulation of fractional errors in conven-

tional digital filters can result in less than full 16 -bitdecoding accuracy.That's why the Sony CXD-1144digital filter IC of the CDP-R1 calculates to an unprec-edented precision of 45 bits,while operating at an 8Xoversampling rate. And it's this advanced technologythat has been incorporated in our new CDP-508ESD,608ESD, and X7ESD players.

To convey this superlative accuracy to the digital -

to -analog converter, these players also incorporateSony Noise Shaping technology. Noise Shapingreduces requantization noise and allows the 18 -bitlinear converters to extract more musical detail thanever before. In particular, bass fundamentals arereproduced with a strength and clarity that leavesconventional CD players far behind.

Digital Sync for jitter -free performance.In designing the CDP-R1, Sony ES engineers

recognized a critical obstacle to improving CD play-back quality: time -base errors known as "jitter." Whenjitter is present at the input to the D/A converter, theseerrors cause modulation in the analog signal,veilingthe music and deforming the soundstage.

Our investigations led to the development of theSony CXD-8003 Digital Sync IC. Incorporated intothree new ES Series players, it maintains time -base

accuracy within millionths of a second, correctingerrors long before they can affect the music.

Low -Noise Servo Stabilizer Circuit

For the CDP-R1, Sony ES engineers even exam-ined the conventional assumptions about the mostbasic of CD functions: disc tracking.The result isSony's Servo Stabilizer Circuit, a trailblazing designwe've carried over to our other models.This stabilizernot only improves tracking on badly scratched discs,but reduces radiated servo noise by as much as 10 dB.

A performance sustained.With a technical heritage such as this, it's no

wonder the new ES Series CD players and CD chang-ers perform so much better than so many others. Butthen, it's a superiority we really shouldn't flaunt.After all,we did start with an unfair advantage.

The excellence of Sony's ES Series is alsoreflected in the three-year limited parts and laborwarranty (see your authorized Sony ES dealer fordetails). For more information on where you canaudition the full line of Sony ES components, call201-930-7156 (Monday -Friday, 9:OOam-5:OOpm EST).

ES SONYTHE LEADER iN DIGITAL AUDIOCIRCLE NO. 106 ON READER SERVICE CARD

TOUCH-TONE ACCESS.The direct connection

to the equipmentyou want to buy.

1 - 800 - 888 - 8237

Stereo Review is proud to offer the Touch Tone Accessservice for a select group of advertisers showcasing their

products in the July 1989 issue.

Touch Tone Access lets you instantly act upon yourequipment interests. All you do is call the Touch Tone tollfree number, then enter the appropriate advertisers' code.You'll be told facts about the equipment, the name andaddress of the dealer nearest you by entering your zip code,

how to get additional information, and more.

You can recognize our Touch Tone Access advertisersby checking for the symbol above which appears in the ads.

LUXMAN ONKYO

Stereo Review

Stereo ReviewLOUISE BOUNDAS

Editor in ChiefMICHAEL SMOLEN

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Art DirectorWILLIAM WOLFETechnical Editor

CHRISTIE BARTERMusic Editor

DAVID STEINManaging Editor

REBECCA DAY, WILLIAM GOLDMANROBERT ANKOSKO

Senior EditorsLOREN FALLS

Associate Art DirectorCATHERINE. FLEMINGAssistant Art Director

BARBARA AIKF.N, ROCCO MATFERAMARYANN SALTSER

Editorial AssistantsWILLIAM LIVINGS -TONE.

Editor at LargeContributing Editors: Robert Ackart,Chris Albertson, Richard Freed, Phyl

Garland, David Hall, Ron Givens,Bryan Harrell (Tokyo), Roy Hemming,Julian Hirsch, Ralph Hodges, StoddardLincoln, Ian Masters, Louis Meredith,

Alanna Nash, Mark Peel, HenryPleasants (London), Ken Pohlmann,

Parke Puterbaugh, Charles Rodrigues,Eric Salzman, Steve Simels, Craig

Stark, David Patrick StearnsProduction Director: Karen L. Rosen

Production Manager: Michele Lee

WINSTON A. JOHNSONVice President and Publisher

ADVERTISINGAdvertising Director: Nick Matarazzo

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311ASTEREO REVIEW is published by DiamandisCommunications Inc.. a wholly owned subsidiary ofHachette Publications, Inc.President & CEO: Peter G. DiamandisExecutive Vice President: Robert F. SpillaneSenior Vice President, Finance, & CFO: Arthur SukelSenior Vice President. Manufacturing & Distribution:

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The world's largest and most influential hi-fi magazine

COMPROMISING WITH YOUR TAPE IS LIKE COMPROMISINGWITH ANY OTHER COMPONENT IN YOUR SYSTEM.

Even the most advanced system is only as good as the apeyou put into it. That's why Maxell has created XLII-S.

Its unique Epitaxial formula combines gammaferric oxideand cobalt ferrite for superior response at all frequency levels.The resulting superfine particles offer unprecedented clarityand brilliance. And make XLII-S the perfect tape for record-ing your most demanding sources.

So match your tape to the other components in your sys-tem and use only XLII-S from Maxell. Anything less is justkid stuff.

The lape that DeliversHigher Performance.

19M Maxell Corporat ton of America. 22.08 Nowt. 211$. Fair Lawn. NJ (174111 CIRCLE NO 25 ON READER SERVICE CARD

The NA Series

"They provide smooth, fast and incredibly well detailed sound"

"Polk's RTA Tower Loudspeakers CombineLegendary Polk Performance with Contemporary Style."Big speaker performance with an efficient use of space.

RTA litThe RTA Ili is the finest conventional (non-SDA) speaker

that Polk Audio manufacturers. Its extremely high powerhandling 1250 sans) and high efficiency (90dB) prmideremarkable dynamic range from both large and smallamplifiers. The RTA Ilt utilizes the same technologicallyadvanced fluid -coupled subwoofer design found in Polkisflagship model. Dual II sub -bass radiators are coupled totwo 6t2" mid bass drivers, resulting in a fast, powerful,deep, and ultra -accurate bass response, without the boomy,

undetailed sound of large woofer systems.

RTA 8tIn a slightly smaller package. the RTA Mt offers the samedriver complement as the larger. more expensive RTA lit,and thus shares its benefits of superior imaging, musi-cality. and detail.

ME PRINCIPLES OF COINCIDENT RADIATION

The perceived source of soundof two identical drivers is centeredin the area between them.

Both Polk RTA series loudspeakers achieve the extremely rare combination of good looks and state-

of-the-art performance. The tall, elegantly slender, and deep "tower" design cabinets allow for

substantial internal volume for high efficiency and powerful bass, while requiring less than onesquare foot of floor space. The small baffle surface area around each driver minimizes diffraction

(sonic reflections), thereby insuring outstanding imaging and low coloration.

Positioning the I" silver -coil dome tweeter between the two 6V" trilaminate polymer bass/midrange

drivers achieves what is called "coincident radiation." This means that both the mid- and high-

frequencies appear to radiate from the same place on the baffle resulting in perfect blending at thecritical crossover point. (See illustration, below).

Polk RTA speakers have an uncanny ability to perfectly reproduce the human voice, pianos, guitars,

and every other instrument whose faithful reproduction demands superlative midrange and high-

frequency performance. Bass and percussion instruments are accurately reproduced with fullvisceral power and realism, without the heaviness, boominess, or lack of detail that plaguelesser designs.

The discriminating listener who seeks state-

of-the-art performance and design will find

the quintessential combination of both inPolk's RTA series loudspeakers.

In the Polk RR loudspeaker.the tweeter is positioned atthe acoustic center of thedrivers.

polk audioThe Speaker Specialists e

Polk Atdio's RD Mt and RIX I It High PeriormanceTower Speakers

The benefit of coincident waveformpropagation resulting in preciseimaging, uniform vertical dispersionand startling midrange accuracy.

5601 Metro Drive, Baltimore, Md. 21215 Where to buy Polk Speakers? For your nearest dealer, see page 98.

CIRCLE NO 9D ON READER SERVICE CARD

LETTERS

Home Theater Soundon pages 62-63. I think it is a Technics.but I don't know the model. FMX Mg

In his April article on Shure's Home HERIBERTO PEREZ If M.I.T.'s radio station still broad -Theater Sound system, "The Best Seat Passaic, NJ casts from Cambridge, Julian Hirsch'sin the House," William Livingstone criticism of the FMX system (and thatmentions that he asked Robert Schu- The record shelves, called the Omni Sys- of Dr. Bose and Dr. Short) in the Aprillein, the general manager of Shure's tem, were purchased from the Shelf Shop "Technical Talk" is a bit unfair. ThereHTS division, why the system was so at 1295 First Ave., New York, NY 10021; are few broadcast locations oriented soexpensive. Mr. Schulein explained that (212) 988-7246. The turntable is a Tech- perfectly for creating transmission ha -when you consider there are six speak- nics SL -1500, now discontinued. voc as the amphitheater created byers and three amplifiers, you are actual- Boston's skyscrapers combined withly paying for the equivalent of three the reflecting pool that is the Charlesstereo systems. Akai Serowe' River.

It seems a little steep to me to pay I was surprised to find that products BILL LARSEN

$9,600 for nine pieces of equipment. from Akai were not listed in the "Tape Hellertown, PAWhen you throw in the surround -sound Deck Buying Guide" in May. Is Akaidecoder, that's still almost $1,000 per out of business? I purchased an Akai Julian Hirsch replies: First of all, I waspiece. Now, I don't doubt the superior cassette deck recently. If it needs servic- merely reporting criticism by Dr. Amarquality of Shure's surround -sound sys- ing, what can I do? Bose and his colleague, since 1 have notern, but at $9,600, in my opinion, it is DAVE VANDER ARB personal experience of FMX perform -not a bargain! Hanford, CA ance in the field. Although Boston prob-

RAYMOND BUCHANAN ably has plenty of multipath problems.Phoenix, AZ As we reported in the March "Bulletin." the same can be said of almost every

Akai products have been pulled off the urban area. As I understand it. Dr.William Livingstone's "The Best Seat U.S. market by Akai's parent company. Bose's analysis of FM showed that the

in the House" in April was very inter- Mitsubishi. but Mitsubishi will neverthe- FMX system will exacerbate the effectsesting but left me wanting to know less honor Akai warranties and supply of multipath reception, not create them.more about the nice record -storage sys- replacement parts for the next seven The field tests with the M.I.T. stationtern and the turntable in the photograph years through its U.S. service centers. apparently confirmed this analysis.

Th. .PlayMusic And Make It Sound Like Music...

Unobtrusively ..AtABargainPrice:'=sept 88

Cambridge SoundWorks has createdEnsemble a speaker system that can providethe sound once reserved for the best speakersunder laboratory conditions. It illy dis-

in your room. And because we marketEnsemble costs hundreds less than it

would in stores.

ap

it C

Heruy Moss. creator of the dominant speaker modelsof the'50s (Acousti c Reseamh), '605(7CW, and '70s(Advent), britigsyou Ensemble, a genuine new kind ofTeakrrystemfor the '90s, avai onlyfactory difectfromC Soundilbrks.

bum put Ensemble's lowfirquency units auctb, where they should go forsuperb bass. Ibu can't do this with conwntimalspeakers becauseyou have to be concerned about the upper firquencies comirig,firm the same enclasums as the low ones.

The best sound comes in foursmall packages.

Ensemble consists of four speaker units. 1Wocompact low -frequency speakers reproduce thedeep bass, while two small sateffite units repro-duce the rest of the music, making it possibleto reproduce just the right amount of energy ineach part of the musical rang without aimingyour listening room into a stereo showroom.

Your listening room works withEnsemble, not against it.

No matter how well a speaker performs, athome the listening room takes over. If you put aconventional speaker where the room can help

the low bass, it may hinder the upper ranges, orvice -versa.

Ensemble, on the other hand, takes advan-we of your room's acoustics. The ear can't tellwhere bass comes from, which is why Ensemble's

What Henry Kloss tells his friends:Every time I came out with a new speaker at AR.

or Advent, my friends would ask me. "Henry, is it voththe extra money for me to trade up?" And every timeI would answer. "No, what you've already got is still

good enough:.

But today with the introduction of Ensemble, I te0them. "Perhaps now is the time to give your old speakers

to the children:.

10 STEREO RFAriEwjuLv 1989

LETTERS

Bruckner's Wagner Tubas million people own record players; 11million own CD players. Though people

and LP's. From the moment I heard thefirst notes from my very first CD, the

In his April review of Giuseppe Sino-poli's Deutsche Grammophon record-ing of Bruckner's Romantic Symphony

are buying CD'S at a phenomenal rate,LP's are still selling well. I don't want tobe forced to buy a technology that is

difference in sound quality between itand my vinyl records was discernible,and I have been hooked on digital

(No. 4), David Hall states that the con-ductor "exploits the resplendent Dres-den horns and Wagner tubas to produce

arguing over format size (5 or 3 inches,or perhaps they'll be 1 I/2 inches soon),and really isn't perfect. We'll all have to

sound ever since. Investing in a CDplayer for its analog sound just doesn'tmake sense.

a sure-fire scherzo." In fact, only go out and spend hundreds of dollars on LINDA ANDREWSBruckner's last three symphonies, Nos. new systems when LP's are totally ade- Canterbury, CT7-9, call for Wagner tubas as well as the quate for all but the perfectionist.usual horns.

ROBERT BERGERANN M. M. PLICQUE

New Orleans, LA Cdar ChoiCeSLevittown, NY I would like to challenge the audio

I am writing in response to what I equipment manufacturers to offer silverYou're right. Bruckner did add a bass thought was a rather curious letter from or some other light color for the fronttuba to the brass section for his Sympho- Mr. Thomas 0. Eliason in the May panels and the backs of their compo-ny No. 4 (and that is what Mr. Hall was issue in response to the CD listening nents. Light-colored panels are muchreferring to), but he did not call for the tests in December. Among other things, more legible than black ones, especiallyWagner tuba, a special kind of tuba he stated that "... the new [McIntosh] in dim light, and they look better too.created by Wagner for use in the Ring Model 7007 is the most analog -sound- G. LOBDELLcycle, until he came to write No. 7. And ing player" he'd ever heard. Apparently Waterloo, IAthen he called for four of them, retaining this was a rave review from him.them in Nos. 8 and 9 as well. Analog sound? I've always been un-

der the impression that the reason one Correction

AID Conversion' bought a CD player and compact discswas digital sound. If you want analog

Infinity has informed us that the pricefor the Infinity IRS Beta speaker sys-

Is the impending phase -out of LP's sound, you could easily, and more inex- tem, shown on page 70 in the Junereally necessary? The simple fact is, 80 pensively, stick to your trusty turntable issue, is now $11,950. CD

bass units can be tucked out of the way-on theflax atop bookshelves, or under furniture. Thesateffites can be hung directly on the well, orplaced on windowsills or shelves. No bulkyspeakers dominate your living space, yetEnsemble reproduces the deep bass that nomini speakers can.

Not all the differences are as obviousas our two subwoofers .

Unhlce seemingly similar three-piece systems,Ensemble uses premium quality components for

Unlike seernaigt 'similar satellite systemswhich use a single large sulmofer Dnsembkuses two separate, compact bass units. They

fit more gracefully Mtoyour envi-ronment, and 1141 matanize the effectsof thelistenirtgmomsstanding waves.

Ensemble is a ItademarIcof Cambridge SoundWarks. Inc.

maximum power handling, individual crossoversthat allow several wiring options and cabinetsniggedly constructed for proper acoustical per-formance. ink even gold-plate all connectors toprevent corrosion. An even bigger difference ishow we sell it...

Thousands agree: the bestshowroom is your living room.Mk make it possible to audition aisemble the

rot way-in your own home. In fact, Ensembleis sold only by Cambridge Soundinbrics directly

from the factory. Listen for hours without a sales-man howling nearby. If after 30 days you're notham return Ensemble for a full refund.

At only $4 )9-complete with all hardware

and 100' of speaker cable-Ensemble is thevalue on today's speaker market.

Call 1-800-AKA-H1F1*(1-800-252-4434)

Our number w1fi connect you to aCambridge SoundMics audio expert. He or shewill answer all your questions, take your order andarrange surface shipment via UPS. Your CambridgeSoundWrks audio expert will continue as yourpersonal contact with us. Mt' think you'll tile thisnew way of doing business.

*In Canada, call 1-800-525-4434. Audio expertsare on duty Mon. -Sat., 9AM-10PM, Sun., 9AM-6PM Eastern Time. Fax #: 617-332-9229.

r CAMBRIDGE SOUNDWORKS 1Suite 102UL. 154 California St Newton. MA 02158

0 Send more information and test reports.

0 Send Ensemble risk -free for 30 days, for $499'0 Send an Ensemble Gift Certificate for $499'I'm paying by Check LI MC 0 Visa 0 AmEx

Acct. Number ExP

Signature

Name

Address

City State Zip

Phone (Area Code) Number

FOR IMMEDIATE SERVICE: I-800-AKA-HIFI.V* ship worldwide including APO and FPO.Delivery time usually 2-7 days (in USA).

L MA residents add 5% sales tax. *Plus freight ($7-$24).


STEREO REVIEW JULY 1989 11

NEW PRODUCTS

PANASONICThe tuner/tape section of Panasonic's

CQ-G27 cassette receiver is removableto deter theft, leaving only the amplifiermounted in the dashboard. A front -pan-el jack allows connection of a portableCD player. Maximum output power israted as 25 watts into four channels.The Hypertuner FM tuning system issaid to reduce noise and interference.

The auto -blend circuitry graduallyswitches between stereo and monowithout any audible click. There areeighteen FM and six AM presets. Theautoreverse tape section plays all tapetypes and has Dolby B noise reduction.Price: $400. Panasonic, Dept. SR, OnePanasonic Way, Secaucus, NJ 07094.Circle 120 on reader service card

Panasonic HYPER %Nen

- AUTO REVERSE EffLiiL

win FIA0133 P SET TPS D JUNE U

PIONEERPioneer's flagship CD player is the

Elite PD -7l, which uses a "multifloat-ing" suspension system to isolate thepickup mechanism and all electronicsfrom the chassis in order to eliminatevibrations that can degrade sound qual-ity. It uses dual "true" 18 -bit converterswith eight -times oversampling and di-rect wire connections that are said toreduce the chance of interference. Oper-

CONRAD-JOHNSONThe Conrad -Johnson PV 10 pream-

plifier, the least expensive in the com-pany's line, features zero -feedback cir-cuits in both the line and phono stagesplus passive RIAA equalization in thephono stage. The PV 10 has five vacu-um tubes and a low -impedance, dis-crete, regulated power supply using onlypolypropylene and polystyrene capaci-tors. Inputs and outputs are gold-plated.A phono input and five line -level in-puts, including one tape loop, are stan-dard. Price: $995. Conrad -Johnson De-sign, Inc., Dept. SR, 2800R Dorr Ave.,Fairfax, VA 22031.Circle 124 on reader service card

ating features include twenty -four -trackprogramming and random play. Likeother Elite Series components, the PD -71 is finished in black lacquer with rose-wood side panels and comes with a Pio-neer SR remote control. Price: $850.Pioneer Electronics, Dept. SR, 2265 E.220th St., P.O. Box 1720, Long Beach,CA 90801-1720.Circle 122 on reader service card

SMESME's Model 309 tonearm has a pres-

sure die-cast magnesium headshell thatcan be detached and replaced withoutdisturbing the cartridge or wiring. Theunderslung counterweight housing issaid to correct the center of gravity andprovide nonreflective tonearm termina-tion. The swiveling, damped outputsocket is intended to reduce vibrationtransmission to the subchassis. Price:$995. Distributed by Sumiko, Dept. SR,P.O. Box 5046, Berkeley, CA 94705.Circle 121 on reader service card

JENSENThe Jensen JSM401 is a surface -

mount car speaker system with two 4 -inch woofers, a 2 -inch midrange, and a1 -inch piezoelectric tweeter. Its peakpower -handling capacity is rated as 120watts. Frequency response is rated as 80to 20,000 Hz, sensitivity as 90 dB with a1 -watt input. Nominal impedance is 4ohms. Price: $179.95. InternationalJensen, Dept. SR, 4136 N. UnitedPkwy., Schiller Park, IL 60176.Circle 123 on reader service card

12 STEREO REVIEW JULY 1989

New.More amazmg thanever

Introducing the new Silver Edition Amazing Loudspeaker withSonic Holography® Generator and Electronic Control System.

By looks alone you know this is no ordinary

speaker. The Silver Edition trades a bulky, boxy

cabinet for unfettered musical freedom. Its full -

range ribbon transducer is open to the room, pro-jecting seamless 25 Hz to 40,000 Hz sound both

forward and back, creating near -photographic

imaging and realistic spatial ambience. Its three

enclosureless, twelve -inch subwoofers deliver bassthat's tactilely tight and deep.

And each fifty -four -inch, piano -lacquered panel looks as good as it sounds.

While occupying less than two square feet of floor space.

Up to this point we've described a brilliant, unconventional and yet prcven

dipole speaker design. One which offers openness, detail and sonic impact Ear in

excess of its modest price. And which solves inherent problems plaguing farmore expensive ribbon transducer designs.

But in order to fully earn the title "Amazing Loudspeaker," Bob Carver

has endowed the new Silver Edition with even more technology.

At its heart is an Electronic Control System. Not an "equalizer" to

compensate for shortcomings, but three dramatic sound enhancement cir-

cuits, plus bass "Q" and high frequency trim adjustments in a single com-pact component.

Select Sonic Holography' for the spectacular, 3 -dimensional imaging

High Fidelity described as seem-ing to "open a curtain and reveal

... musical forces extendingbehind, between and beyond thespeakers: With any CD, record,

tape or video sound source.

Add ultra -low fundamen-

tals below 20 Hz with a Sub Bass

generator that detects andenhances existing low levelinformation. On bass -shy record-

ings, it takes advantage of the

Silver Edition's long -throw free -

air subwoofer system to restore

bone- shaking musical reality.

There's even a unique circuit

CARVER

that psychoacoustically "zooms" you back from the speakers. Called the Gundry

Perspective, this effect creates the illusicn of concert hall depth ahead of you

without disturbing overall frequency balance. Combine it with Sonic Hologra-phy? Sub Bass generation and the Silver Edition's own innate ability to create a

vast, open listening space, and you have a truly amazing aural phenomenon.

More than just a reproducer of music, the Amazing Loudspeaker Silver

Edition becomes a restorer of sonic reality. In its most minute, organic detail.

Finally, there is one more very realistic thing about this new Amazing Loudspeaker

model. Its price. Far less than you might pay for conventional loudspeaker designs

which can't begin to match the Silver Edition's warmth, vitality and spaciousness.

Reawaken your sense of amazement with an audition atyour neares- Carver dealer s)on.

POWERFUL MUSICAL

Carver Corporation, P.O. Box 1237, Lynnwood, WA 98046For more information or the dealer nearest you, call 1-800-443-CAVR

ACCURATE

Distributed in Canada by EVOLUTION 3. AUDIO INC.

cisely located dialogue from a center -front speaker. The DSM-3610 also hasremote control, A/V switching, and high -separation operating modes for DolbySurround, stereo, and mono programsources. Price: $1,429. Fosgate, Inc.,Dept. SR, P.O. Box 70, Heber City, UT84032.Circle 125 on reader service card

NEW PRODUCTS

FOSGATE-AUDIONICSThe DSM-3610 Pro -Plus surround -

sound processor from Fosgate-Audion-ics has Pro -Plus logic steering, whichuses variable, digitally generated timeconstants instead of the fixed- or nar-row -range attack and release times ofother logic steering circuits. This designapproach is said to maintain a widestereo sound stage while providing pre-

f9P9114,7. 360' DIGITAL SPACE EUITAix

DENONDenon's DT -400 is a two-piece ta-

bletop hi-fi system designed for second-ary listening environments. An AM/FMstereo tuner, a preamplifier, a poweramplifier, and a two-way speaker are inone module, a second two-way speakerin the other. Total width is under 2 feet.The 25 -watt -per -channel system hasauxiliary stereo inputs for connecting a

tape deck or CD player and a mini -jackfor connecting a pocket CD or tapeplayer. The tuner has five AM and fiveFM station presets and a rated captureratio of 1.5 dB. The system includes adigital alarm clock. Price: $399. DenonAmerica, Dept. SR, 222 New Rd., Par-sippany, NJ 07054.Circle 126 on reader service card

fl

INFINITYThe Infinity RS 6001 is the top model

in the company's new RS line of speak-ers, all of which feature proprietaryinjection -molded graphite woofer conesand composite graphite -and -polypropy-lene dome drivers. The three-way RS6001 has two 8 -inch woofers mountedin separate, tuned enclosures. The mid-range driver is a 2 -inch Polyspheritedome, and the EMIT k tweeter has afast -acting protection circuit. Frequencyresponse is rated as 42 to 45,000 Hz ± 3dB, sensitivity as 89 dB. The speaker isavailable finished in natural or blackoak -grain vinyl. Dimensions are 31 x111/2 x 91/2 inches. Price: $529 each.Infinity Systems, Dept. SR, 9409Owensmouth Ave., Chatsworth, CA91311.Circle 127 on reader service card

KMD LABSKMD Pro -Wipes CD cleaners, made

of a combination of paper and polyes-ter, are lint -free and will not scratchdiscs, the company says. Designed toremove fingerprints and other oily de-posits, the round Pro -Wipes are sold inpackages of twelve. Price: $5. KMDLabs, Dept. SR, 1212 N. San FernandoBlvd., Suite 226, Burbank, CA 91504.Circle 128 on reader service card

I----P,E-0-itiiiiRrEm.

All the information in the "NewProducts" section was provided bythe manufacturers and does notrepresent the results of tests bySTEREO REVIEW. Prices given aresuggested retail ("list') prices as ofpress time. For more information,write the manufacturers or circlethe corresponding numbers on thereader service card facing page 77.

14 STEREO REVIEW JULY 1989 sitaglia

JUST ANOTHER SPEAKERLIKE LAMBORGHINI ISJUST ANOTHER CAR.

If you listen to music on just anyspeakers, all you'll hear is music.

If you listen to music on Alpine speak-ers, you'll hear kick drums that kick back,synths that could singe your eyebrows, andhorns so powerful they ought to belicensed.

You don't just hear music, you feel it.You react emotionally to it.

And you only feel more intense aboutit as you crank up the volume.

That's the way we build Alpine highperformance speakers, to perform toexcess. The way we build everythingnamed Alpine.

Of course, if you happen to own aLamborghini Countach, you alreadyknow that.

Ara poster the 1989 Lamborghini. take this ad and $2.00 to your Alpine dealer. 01989 Alpine Electronics of America. Inc.. parentcorporation of Alpine mobile electronics and Lannon home audio products 1 -800 -ALPINE -1

ALPINECAR AUDIO SYSTEMS CIRCLE NO 9 ON READER SERVICE CARD

R.E.M. Greer). :r..)rnerBross 375162

The TravelingWilburys-Volume One(Wilbur 9) 375089

Elvis Costello -:Dp*,,Sarver Brost 378190

Enya-Watermarkion) 379925

Debbie Gibson-ElectricYouth (Atlantic) 377275

Tone-Loc-Loced AfterDark (Delicious Viii v1)

379875

Paula Abdul-ForeverYour Girl (Virgin) 374637

TAKE YOUR PICK OF ANY 8Skid Row (Marls 37960?

Dave Grusin Collection(GRP) 378398Joe Sample-Spellbound(Warner Bros) 378224

Dingo Boingo-SkeletonsIn The Closet (A8M) 378125Bob Dylan & GratefulDead (Columba) 378117

Jessye Norman SingsWagner-Tnston UndIsolde; Tannhauser; etc.(Angel) 378075

The Pursuit OfHappiness-Love Junk(Chrysalis) 377994

Tesla-The Great RadioControversy (Geffen)377986The Fantasy Strings-The Greatest Love 01 AllConducted By Ettore Stratta(Realm) 377978

Charlie Sexton (MCA)379230

Tequila Sunrise-OriginalSound Track (Capitol)

379180

Paul Dean-Hard Core(Columbia) 379164

Simply Red-A NewFlame (Flektra) 378943

Lyle Lovett-Lyle Lovettand His Large Band (MCA)

378935

The Replacements-Don't Tell A Soul(Sire/Reprise) 378927The Go-Betweens-16Lovers Lane (Captor)

378810Midge Ure-Answers ToNothing (Chrysalis) 378786They Might Be Giants-Lincoln (Rest) 378778New Order-Technique(Owest) 378760Poison-Open Up AndSay...Ahhl (Capitol/Enigma)

368688

Fine Young Cannibals-The Raw 8 The CookedORSI 379214

The Mantovani Orchestra-A Night In Vienna(Bainbridge) 378737Jean-Pierre Rampal-Portrait Of Rampal(CBS Master ) 372383Portrait Of VladimirHorowitz-Music OfBeethoven: Chopin. etc(CBS Masterworks) 378604Duran Duran-Big Thing(Capitol) 378521

Lou Reed-New York (Sire)378216

Vladimir Feltsman-Prokofiev: Piano Concerto 18 2 (CBS Masterworks)

377390Tom Scott-Flashpoint(GRP) 377044

Eighth Wonder-Fearless(WTG) 376988Boys Club (MCA) 376970Murray Perahia-Mozart:Piano Concertos Nos. 9 821 (CBS Masterworks)

376822

Michael Tilson Thomas-Revel: Bolero(CBS Masterworks) 376772When In Rome (Virgin)

376749Neil Diamond-The BestYears Of Our Lives(Columbia) 376541

Crosby, Stills, Nash AndYoung-American Dream(Atlantic) 376533Will To Power (Epic)

376483Julian Cope-My NationUnderground (Island)

376475The Boys-MessagesFrom The Boys (Motown)

376368

Lee Ritenour-Festival(GRP) 376301Fattburger-Living InParadise (Intima) 376277

e4Madonna-Like A Prayer(Sire) 379594

Tiffany-Hold An OldFriends Hand (MCA(

376236

Dokken-Beast From TheEast (Elektra) 376228

The Best Of Earth, Wind& Fire-Vol 2(Columba) 376160

Best 01 Berlin -1979-1988(Geffen) 376145

Sheens Easton-TheLover In Me (MCA) 376095Andre Watts At CarnegieHall (Angel) 376053

Nadja SalernoSonnenberg / CecileLicad.-Franck. Sonata InA Brahms. Sonata No 2 InA. Sonatensatz In C Minor(Angel) 376038

Gipsy Kings(Elektra/Mus(eran) 377812

Andres Segovia-TheBaroque Guitar SegoviaCollection. Vol 4(MCA Classics) 375998Fishbone-Truth And Soul(Columba) 375865

Was (Not Was)-What'sUp Dog? (Chrysalis) 375857Kim Wilde-Close (MCA)

375816

Fleetwood Mac'sGreatest Hits(Warner Bros) 375782

Chaka Khan-C.K.(Warner Bros ) 375774

Jane's Addiction-Nothing's Shocking(Warner Bros I 375741

Samantha Fox-lWannaHave Some Fun (Jive/RCA)

375725

John Hiatt-Slow Turning375717

The Human League'sGreatest Hits (A&M)

375709

Weird Al YankovicGreatest Hits(Rock N Roil) 375642

Pet Shop Boys-Introspective(EMI) 375592Karyn White (Warner Bros )

375394

John Adams-"Nixon InChina- ( Nor iesuch) 375345

Beaches-OriginalSoundtrack ( Avant c)

379669

.38 Special-Rock 8 RollStrategy (A8M) 375139

Levert-Just Coolin'(Atlantic) 375105

Ran-Reach For The Sky(Atlantic) 375071

Barbra Streisand-Till ILoved You (Columba)

374884

R.E.M.-Eponymous. E . . -Eponymous374777

Michael Brecker-Don'tTry This At Home(MCA/Impulse) 374769

Blues For Coltrane-Various Artists(MCAiffroulse) 374744

Bulletboys (Warner Bros I374702

Winger (Atlantic) 374652

Al Jarreau-Heart'sHonzi i 376186

The Smiths-Rank (Sire)374397

Robbie Nevil-A PlaceLike This (EMI) 374348

Diane Schuur-Talion''Bout You (GRP) 374298

Eddie Money-Nothing ToLose (Columbia) 374223

Ready For The World-Ruff 'N' Ready (MCA)

374124

Vixen (EMI) 374108

Johnny Clegg & Savuka-Shadow Man (Capitol)

374025

Kronos Quartet-WinterWas Hard (Nonesuch)

373993London Classical Players- Roger Norrington.

(Angell)ven Symphony

373985

Stanley Jordan-FlyingHome (EMI) 373860

Joan Armatrading-TheShouting Stage (t,AM)

373837Escape Club-Wild WildWest (Atlantic) 373787

Cocktail-Original SoundTrack (Elektra) 373779

Feat-Let It Roll(Warner BroS 373720

Yes-Big Generator361170

Richard Marx-RepeatOffender (EMI) 380915

Guy (MCA) 373415

Luther Vandross-AnyLove (Epic) 373399

Bird-Original MotionPicture Soundtrack(Columbia) 373332

Ozzy Osbourne-No RestFor The Wicked (E L',.

373308

A Tribute To WoodyGuthrie And Leadbelly-Various Artists Corombial

372995Metallica-And Justice For

372805

Canadian Brass-TheMozart Album (CBS Master

374561Najee-Day By Day(E MI Manhattan) 371856

Melissa Etheridge (Island)371468

Journey-Greatest Hits(Columba) 375279

Ramones-RamonesMania (Sire) 371450

Breathe-All That Jazz(ABM( 371427

Huey Lewis And TheNews-Small World(Chrysalis) 371419

Toni Childs-Union (A8M)371351

Bruce Cockburn-WaitingFor A Miracle (Gold Castle)

371278

Steve Winwood-RollWith It CVagmi 371211

The Bernstein Songbook-selections from WestSide Story. On The Town,etc Bernstein cond (CBS)

371088

New Edition-Heart Break(MCA) 370882

Spyro Gyre-Rites ofSummer (MCA) 370767Randy Travis-Old 8 x 10(Warner Rrns) 370643

Elton John-Reg StrikesBack (MCA) 370536

Patti Smith Group-Dream Of Life (Arista)

370478

Robert Palmer-HeavyNova (F MI) 370395

David Sanborn-Close Up(Warrior Bros r 370304

Wynton Marsalis Quartet-Live At Blues Alley(Coiurnba) 370080-390088

Guns N' Roses-GN'RLies (Geffen) 376087

Tracy Chapman. (Eleklra)369892

Al B. Sure-In Effect Mode(Warner Bros( 369637

Ziggy Marley & TheMelody Makers-Conscious Party

369512

Joe Jackson-Live 1980/1986 (A8M) 369504-399501

Van Halen-OU812(Warner Bros ) 369371

Bobby McFerrin-SimplePleasures (EMI) 369306

DJ Jazzy Jeff & FreshPrince-He's the D.J., I'mThe Rapper (Jive/RCA)

369264

Anita Baker-Giving YouThe Best That I Got (Eleloral

374058The Clash-The Story OfThe Clash Vol I (Epic)

368597-398594Michael Feinstein-Isn't ItRomantic (Eiektra) 368399Basia-Time And Tide(Epic) 368043

Sade-Stronger ThanPride (Epic) 368027Orchestral ManoeuvresIn The Dark-Best Of0 M D iA&M) 367755

REO Speedwagon-Greatest Hits if ) 367672

Sinead O'Connor-TheLion and The Cobra(Chrysalis) 367086

Tina Turner-Live InEurope(Capitol) 366898-396895Robert Plant-Now andZen (Es Paranza) 366716

Carty Simon-GreatestHits Live (Arista) 365874

The Manhattan Transfer-Brasil (Atlantic) 363648

Linda Ronstadt-Canciones De Mi Padre(Asylum) 362640

Pretenders-The Singles(Sire) 362541

Steve Winwood-Chronicles (Isla,) 362525

Robbie Robertson(Geffen) 362152

Michael Jackson-Bad362079

Sting- Nothing Like TheSun ;OW) 361675

Introducing The HardlineAccording To TerenceTrent D'Arby

361618

Edie Brickell & NewBohemians-ShootingRubberbands At The Stars

374835

Guns N' Roses-AppetiteFor Destruction (Geffen)

359984

Bruce Springsteen-Tunnel Of Love (Columbia)

360115

Billy Idol-Vital Idol(Chrysalis) 360107

Jethro Tull-Crest Of AKnave (Chrysalis) 360040

Living Colour-Vivid370833

Bobby Brown Don t BeCruel 4 372045

The Movies Go To The OperaVarious Ar. 372342

CDs FOR ONLY A PENNY plus shipping handlingwith membershipDetails below

U2-Rattle And Hum374017

Aerosmith-PermanentVacation (Geffen) 359075

Bruce Springsteen-BornIn The USA

326629

Bangles-EverythingII 1) 373829

Duke Ellington Orch.-Digital Duke iGRP( 357350

The Police-Every BreathYou Take The SinglesARM) 348318

Portrait of WyntonMarsalisCHS

373555Best Of The Kinks -1977-1986 .Anstal 345314Kin Te Kanawa-VerdiPuccini Arias (CBS Master )

343269

Luciano Pavarotti-InConcert

373548

The Cars-Greatest Hits339903

Best Of J. Geils Band-Flashbaci. 339424

New Kids On The Block-Hangin' Tough

368423

U2-The Unforgettable Fire(Island) 337659

Dire Straits-Brothers InArms (Warner Bros I 336222

W rule Lion-Pride359471

Squeeze-Singles-45'sAnd Under A..1.11 317974

Barry Manilow-GreatestHits 288670

Classic Rock from the 50's, 60's & 70'sCrosby. Stills. Nash andYoung-Su Far, (A...ir.T.

378745Grateful Dead-SkeletonsFrom The Closet

378406Rockpile-Seconds 01Pleasure 377846

Jerry Lee Lewis -18Original Sun Greatest Hits

369108Joni Mitchell-Court andSpark (Asyriin3 367102The Who-Greatest Hits(MCA, 365361Little Feat-Feats Don'tFail Me Now (1A. chi, B(33

363523Grateful Dead-Workingman's Dead(Warner Bros) 358887

Best 01 The Doors357616-397612

Jimi Hendrix-Are YouExperienced? i1(13.3ei

353102

Yes-Fragile I Atiai T3351957

Eagles-Greatest Hits Vol317768

The age of CD sound is here-and youhave o pr.: '3 al new way to find the CDs youwant. As your introduction to the CBS Com-pact Disc Club, you can choose any 8 CDslisted in this ad for lc. Fill in and moil theapplication --we'll send your CDs and billyou for lc plus shipping and handling Yousimply agree to buy 6 more CDs at regularClub prices) in the next three years- and youmay then cancel your membership anytimeafter doing soHow the Club works: About every fourweeks 113 times a year) you'll receive theClubs music magazine, which describes theSelection of the Month ... plus new hits andold favorites from every field of music. Inaddition. up to six times a year, you mayreceive offers of Special Selections, usuallyat a discount off regular Club prices, for atotal of up to 19 buying opportunities

If you wish to receive the Selection of theMonth, you need do nothing -it will beshipped automatically If you prefer an alternate selection, or none at all, fill in theresponse card always provided and mail itby the dote specified. You will always have atSelections with iwo numbers contain ?CDs end, dent di .

'tie hitTiu (ic:n+I live A( )

Roy Orbuson-i ho AllTime Hits. Vols 1 8 2

377945

Traffic-The Low Spark 01High Heeled Boys

351924

Rolling Stones-StickyFingers iR,Iiir-,yStor ie., Hoc I 350645

The Beach Boys-MadeIn The U SA

346445

Buddy Holly-From TheOng Master Tapes Mt_ AI

348110

Chuck Berry-The GreatTwenty.Eight (C. ,

343657

least 10 days in which -a make your decisionIf you ever receive any Selection without hav-ing 10 days to decide, you may return it atour expense.

The CDs you order during your membership will be billed at regular Club prices,which currently are $12.98 to $1598 --plusshipping and handling (Multiple -unit setsmay be somewhat higher.) After completingyour enrollment agreement you may cancelmembership at any time, if you decide tOcontinue as a member, you'll be eligible forour money -saving bonus plan. It lets you buyone CD at half price for each CD you buy atregular Club prices10 -Day Free Trial: We'll send details of theClubs operation with your introductory ship-ment. If you are not satisfied fOr any reasonwhatsoever, lust returr everything within 10days and you will have no further obligationSo why not choose 8 CDs for lc right now?ADVANCE BONUS OFFER: As a specialoffer to new members, take one additionalCompact Disc right now and pay only$695 It's a chance to get a ninth selectionat a super low ph( el

C 1989 CBS Records Inc

A Decade OfSteely Dan' 341073Motown s 25 Al Hits-Various Artiste

319996 399998Cref dence OearwaterRevrval-20 Creates! Hits

308049

Woodstock -Soundtrack

Anal

Led Zeppelin299966

Harry Chapin --GreatestStories Live

296939Joe Jackson-Look Sharp

294421

James Taylor-GreatestHits '91302Best Of The Band

269365Chicago -Greatest Hits

260638Simon 8 Garfunkel-Gealo,1 Hits

219477

Bob Dylan-Greatest Hits138586

The Byrds-Greatest Hits862 342501

FCBS COMPACT DISC CLUB, 1400 N. Fruitridge 91/E119

P.O. Box 1129, Terre Haute, Indiana 47811-1129Please accept my membership application under the terms outlined in thisadvertisement Send me the 8 Compact Discs listed here and bill me Is plusshipping and handling lot all eight I agree to buy sir more selections or regularClub prices in the coming three years and may cancel my membership at anytime of ler doing so

SEND ME THESE8 CDs TORN

My mein musical interest is (check anal: n . i...i Hard Rock vi Soft Rock Li lossVan Nolen Debbie Gibson, Kenny C.,U? f leerwood M. Al larreou

Li Easy Listening/Pop U Classical'Neil Chonlond Bo, bro Sr, eisond, Vlod.m.r Hof o. it(.Johnny moth's, Roy Conniff lut lanoPuvorott:

MrMrsMiss Illr,ro I valor,

Address Apt

City

State Zip _ ______ . . _Do you have a VCRs 1041 0 Yes li NoDo you have a credit car ST1031 LT Yes U NoADVANCE BONUS OffER: Also send me

L I

One more CD right now or the super low priceof lust 5695. which wili be billed to ten

CVD/F6 CVE/F7

Note raw rarer.e the no., re ,e,eci one oppl, °bon or "Intel one rnernarrorba Ihnsr oiler,nor,°wadable in APO FPO Alo,Sc. Harrod Pierre Rd nore 10t dP10111 al (Ater MO, wr EMI erden ve,..ced born Toronto Aped, °bre rmles tr. ocirlerl lo all order, (10S),, (II rnernbr sset ..,ed be °P. CBS ClcortrrolCBS rf DISC (1A B: librre I laule, I \ 17811

The Wznner of

THE RODRIGUES CAPTION CONTESTCONGRATULATIONS to MarcC. Welenteychik, of Rich-mond, Virginia, the winnerof the fifth annual Rodri-

gues Cartoon Caption Contest! Hiswinning entry is now printed underthe cartoon.

As we did in previous years, inour issue of January 1989 we pub-lished a drawing by our cartoonistCharles Rodrigues and invited read-ers to submit proposed captions forit. The prize for the one the judgesconsidered to be the funniest is$100 and the original Rodriguesdrawing.

The editors of STEREO REVIEWthank the thousands of contestantsfor their entries, which came fromall over North America and fromsuch faraway places as Pietermaritz-burg, South Africa. We also thankthe previous winners-ThomasBriggle, of Wadsworth, Ohio, Mi-

chael Binyon, of San Luis Obispo,California, Bruce Barstow, of Phila-delphia, Pennsylvania, and Mat-thew Mirapaul, of Chicago, Illi-nois-who served on the panel ofjudges.

A very large number of this year'sentries were about the interaction ofpigeons with statues. Other favoritesubjects were long -throw woofersand the Father of Audio. JulianHirsch was the person who figuredmost prominently in the captions,and the list of famous people in-cludes Amar Bose, Bob Carver,Grover Cleveland, Thomas Edison,Avery Fisher, Horace Greeley, Pat-rick Henry, and Crazy Eddie.

Popular musicians referred toranged from Helen Reddy to BoyGeorge, from Barry Manilow to theSex Pistols. Classical music was rep-resented by references to such com-posers as Beethoven, Mozart, and

"It depicts an early stage in the development of high-fidelityportable stereos. The amplifier shoe was especially cumbersome."

Wagner. As usual, the most fre-quently mentioned classical compo-sition was Tchaikovsky's 1812Overture, with Pachelbel's Canonclose behind.

Unlike the previous winners ofthis contest, Mr. Welenteychik isnot professionally involved withcomputers. Since graduating fromVirginia Tech in 1985, he has beenemployed in sales of heating, venti-lating, and air-conditioning equip-ment. His tastes in music are suffi-ciently comprehensive to includerock, jazz, and opera.

The runners-up are printed be-low, in no particular order. If youare a typical reader, you will findone of them funnier than the win-ner. You now have six months tohone your sense of humor beforeentering next year's contest, whichwe expect to announce in January.

William Livingstone

RUNNERS-UP

"After that, kidney stones were a thing ofthe past. "-Craig M. Miller, Las Vegas,NV

"Thanks to that man we have the oldestboom -box laws in the tri-state area. "-Tom Roch, Philadelphia, PA"Someday statues like this will point theway to fine audio suppliers everv-where. "-David Tymn, San Jose, CA"Him? Well, he discovered the last audi-ble distortion: Transient MammalianEpidural Follicular Deterioration Dis-tortion . . . cat fur on the speakercone. "-Lynn Gahagan, San Jose, CA"Let this be a lesson to you, youngman-always keep your equipment'soriginal shipping cartons. "-Jay Kenik,Bellevue, NE"It's getting near noon. I suggest wemove before it goes off "-Bob Drake,Annandale, NY"This is only the right channel. On theother side of the park, there's a mermaidwith a CD player and a subwoofer. "-Joseph F. Stafford, Manchester, NH"Found him just like that at Hirsch -Houck Labs replacing a fuse with a pen-ny."-Richard J. Greene, New York,NY"Of course, others later miniaturized thehearing aid he invented."-Layman J.Potter, Jr., Kettering, OH

18 STEREO REvIEW JULY 1989

a- esm,

Frankl7, a lot of stereo specs are more confusing than informaive.

But the benefits of increased digital oversampling rates are tangible and audible.

Introducing theTL-3300 At least when they're incorporated in a player as advanced as the TL -3300.

It literally extracts eight times more information from a CD than

18-Bit/8X Oversampling CD Player conventional players can. Combined with its ability to resolve

with Digital Time Lens andamplitude information 400% better than a 16 -bit player, the

TL -3300 dramatically reduces noise levels and distortion while enhanc-

22-function Remote Control ing musical detail and faithfully reproducing CDs' full dynamic range.Add dual D/A converters for improved phase linearity, meticulously

designed analog output circuitry and Carver's unique Digital Time Lens feature you

have a player that can re -define the Compact Disc experience. High -end harshness

melts away to reveal the intimate details of the performance and the space in which itwas recorded.

Naturally, the TL -3300 is as easy to use as it is easy to listen to. All major transport

and programming functions (plus the Digital Time Lens) are at your fingertips on the

33 -key wireless remote control. Program up to 22 random tracks, repeat any segment,

individual song or programmed sequence, or access selections backwards or forwardsby track or in real time with audible cueing.

Whether you're looking for a CD payer with leading edge technology or simply

desire the finest overall quality component possible, you owe it to yourself to discoverjust how much more the TL -3300 can offer.

Hear it at your Carver Dealer today.

CARVERPOWERFUL MUSICAL

CARVER CORPORATION, P O. Box 1237, Lynnwood, WA 98046

For more information or the dealer nearest you, call 1-800-443-CAVR

ACCURATE

Distributed in Canada by EVOLUTION ® AUDIO INC. 1-(416) 847-8888

TECHNICAL TALK

byJulian Hirsch

Hi -Fl AM RADIO

SINCE 1980, the National Ra-dio Systems Committee(NRSC), a joint venture ofthe Electronic Industries As-

sociation's Consumer ElectronicsGroup (EIA/CEG) and the NationalAssociation of Broadcasters (NAB),has been studying methods of im-proving the technical quality of AMradio. The NRSC eventually en-dorsed two groups of technical im-provements, which were proposedto the FCC as standards.

The first standard, NRSC-I, wasissued by the FCC in January 1987.Its aim was, for the first time, todefine the audio -modulation fre-quency response of AM transmittersand the probable audio response ofAM receivers. Frequency -responsestandards have been a feature of FMbroadcasting and reception since itsinception, but AM radio has experi-enced only enough regulation tominimize interference between sta-tions. Overall AM sound quality, es-pecially as affected by receiver per-formance, was not a major issue.

The FCC initially made com-pliance with the new standard vol-

untary on the part of the AM broad-casters, and 20 to 25 percent of AMstations have already adopted it. Es-sentially, NRSC-1 (now issued asEIA-549) calls for AM transmittersto use a 75 -microsecond high -fre-quency pre -emphasis characteristic,similar to FM broadcast practice,but only effective up to 10,000 Hz(the effective upper limit for FMaudio response is 15,000 Hz). Ideal-ly, a "wide -band" AM receiverwould have a complementary de -emphasis characteristic (includingthe effects of its IF and RF selectivi-ty), resulting in an overall transmit/receive frequency response that isessentially flat up to 10,000 Hz.

The development of compatiblewide -band AM receivers was recom-mended to manufacturers, but ap-parently none have reached themarket yet. Fortunately, a pre -emphasized AM transmission is per-fectly satisfactory when heardthrough a conventional "narrow"receiver. Receivers in general havea very limited AM high -frequencyresponse, and there is little chanceof the received audio sounding too"bright" through any presentlyavailable receiver.

The bandwidth and modulationcharacteristics of radio transmis-sions must be restricted to preventinterference between adjacent chan-nels. The minimal 10 -kHz spacingof AM stations now used in NorthAmerica allows the possibility ofinterference from adjacent -channelmodulation sidebands more than 5kHz removed from the carrier fre-quency, corresponding to audio fre-quencies of 5 kHz or higher. Al -

Tested This Month

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Jamo Concert HSpeaker System

A zo-TechnwaAT -ML 170 Cartridge

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though channel assignments havegenerally provided a sufficient geo-graphical spacing between adjacent -channel stations to avoid seriousdaytime interference problems,nighttime changes in AM propaga-tion characteristics can seriously al-ter the situation. FCC regulationshave limited the amplitude of AMhigh -frequency sidebands to mini-mize adjacent -channel interference,and the other new FCC standard(NRSC-2), which becomes effectiveon June 30, 1990, further seeks tolimit the transmitted RF bandwidthto conform to the audio band-width-that is, to cut off signalsmore than 10 kHz from the carrierfrequency-by RF filtering of thetransmitter output.

The NRSC has also developed aprototype table -model "Super Ra-dio" to illustrate the potential of thenew AM broadcast standards. It in-cludes such features as continuousAM/FM tuning with automatic bandswitching and coverage of the pro-posed enlarged AM spectrum, from530 to 1,710 kHz instead of the pre-vious 530 to 1,600 kHz. The radiohas an AM noise blanker, an AMstereo decoder, and a rotatableshielded -loop AM antenna system.The FM tuner section has a stereodecoder and an FMX decoder.

While this radio merely showswhat is feasible, the pertinent tech-nical information is available tomanufacturers, and we can expectfuture component hi-fi tuners andreceivers to include wide -band AM.The NRSC is developing a certifica-tion mark like the "HQ" mark usedto identify a VCR incorporating spe-cific hi-fi features, and the EIA/CEG is recommending that itsmembers use this mark whereverapplicable once it is developed.

I have not heard a demonstrationof improved -quality AM, but I imag-ine that it will make a considerabledifference in the public enjoymentof AM broadcasting. The new 10 -kHz audio bandwidth, though notquite the equal of Fm's 15 -kHz band-width, should come very close tomatching FM sound, especially in atable radio or a car radio. Wide -band AM is not likely to do as well interms of noise level, but it shouldnevertheless help to narrow thequality gap between AM and FM. Li

20 STEREO REvimirjui.v 1989

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Pioneer's VSX-9300S A/V receiver. There is PIONEER'simply no better way to get it all out of your system.

c 1988 Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc.. Long Beach, CA. For more information, call 1-800-421-1404. Dolby Pro -Logic is a trademark of Dolby Labs, Inc.

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In all, the R-117 receiver provides the purity andmusical warmth of the original source, plus the highdynamic power output necessary to ensure total sonicin:egrity at all volume levels.

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TEST REPORTS

TECHNICS SL -P1300COMPACT DISC PLAYER

Julian Hirsch, Hirsch Hauck Laboratories

THE Technics SL -P1300, oneof the few top -loading CDplayers manufactured today(except for portables), looks

almost identical to the SL -P I 200, itspredecessor, which was originallydesigned for use by disc jockeys andother professionals who need veryaccurate cueing and mixing control.The SL -P1300 carries over most ofthe special operating features andthe rugged mechanical constructionof the SL -P1200 while adding sev-eral advanced circuit features.

For a CD player, the SL -P I 300 israther large and heavy, measuring17 inches wide, 15 inches deep, and65/8 inches high and weighing a solid

351/4 pounds. All of its operatingcontrols are on the slightly slopingtop panel, and the display panel atthe rear is tilted back a bit forimproved visibility. The front edgeof the cabinet contains a headphonejack and its horizontal -slider vol-ume control. On the rear apron arethe conventional phono-jack lineoutputs, a pair of XLR connectorscarrying balanced line outputs, forminimum noise pickup in profes-sional applications, and coaxial andoptical digital outputs for connec-tion to an external D/A converter.

Perhaps the most distinctive ex-ternal feature of the SL -P1300 isits 2I/4 -inch -diameter search knob,

whic:1 turns with a feather touchand will spin for several revolutionsafter a flick of the finger. When theSEARCH button on the panel is en-gaged, this knob shifts the positionof the laser pickup forward or back-ward across the disc, providing ex-ceptionally easy and precise cueing.A fast or slow search rate can beselec:ed by a button on the panel.Slow search changes the cueing po-sition in increments of 0.1 secondof playing time; in fast search theincrements are roughly I second.

Another useful feature is Auto -Cue. When this button is engaged,the player automatically goes intopause at the end of each track andpositions the laser at the actualstarting point of the following track.Since CD tracks are often separatedby a silent interval, this featuremakes it easy to begin play preciselyon the first note of a track when thestart button is pressed.

Most of the other control buttons

SITAR) REVIEW JULY 1989 23

TEST REPORTS

on the panel will be familiar to usersof conventional CD players. A nu-merical keypad provides direct ac-cess to any track or, with the indexbutton, any indexed point within aselected track. It can also be used toprogram up to twenty tracks forplayback in any sequence. The key-pad also permits access to any por-tion of a disc by its elapsed -timeposition, and a time cue can bestored during play by pressing a sin-gle button. Later, pressing TIME RE-CALL begins playback from thatpoint.

The entire disc, a programmedsequence, or any selected portion ofa track can be repeated, and thereare the usual forward and reversetrack -skip and track -search buttons.The search buttons are designed toshift the laser by one track width(approximately 0.1 second of play-ing time) with each momentarytouch, so that a user can synchro-nize two CD players for smooth in/out fades. Although the SL -P1300 isnot unusual in having a music -scan

feature that plays a few seconds ofeach track before proceeding to thenext one, its version of the feature isunique in that the duration of thesample, normally 10 seconds, canbe varied between 1 and 59 secondswith the keypad on the suppliedremote control.

Finally, another unique feature ofthe SL -P1300 is its pitch control.When activated by a button, thisslider control varies the speed of theplayback (and thereby the pitch ofthe music) over a nominal ± 8 -per-cent range. This feature is useful tohome tapists or broadcasters whomay need to adjust the length of aselection to fit an available time slotor to match the pitch or tempo ofone recording to that of another.

The display window is conven-tional, with large numerals showingthe track and index numbers andelapsed or remaining time in min-utes, seconds, and tenths of a sec-ond. A "music calendar" grid showsthe numbers of all unplayed tracksup to a maximum of twenty. Dis-

FEATURFS

Eight-times-oversampling digitalfilter (352.8 kHz)

O Four 18 -bit D/A converters (twoper channel)

O Programmable to play up totwenty tracks in any order

Cueing knob with two searchspeeds, rocker control forprecise mixing and editing

O Direct keypad access by tracknumber, index number, orelapsed -time position

O Pitch adjustable over ±8% rangeO Auto -Cue for exact start of each

trackO Memory for instant recall of any

cued point

O Accepts CD -3's without anadaptor

O Separate power supplies foranalog and digital circuits

O Optical and coaxial digitaloutputs

O Balanced X LR audio outputs aswell as standard line outputs

O Headphone jack with volumecontrolVibration -isolated, antiresonantcabinet with double isolation ofoptical mechanism

O Wireless remote control of mostpanel functions as well as musicscan (with adjustable sampleduration) and index skipping

LABORATORY MEASUREMENTS

Maximum output level: 2.49 voltsTotal harmonic distortion at

1,000 Hz: less than 0.0016%from 0 to -80 dB except for0.005% maximum at -20 dB

Signal-to-noise ratio (A -weighted):114 dB

Channel separation: 130 dB at 100Hz, 122 dB at 1,000 Hz, 97 dB at20,000 Hz

Maximum phase shift (from 5,000to 20,000 Hz): -1.2 degrees at20,000 Hz

Frequency response: ±0.04 dBfrom 15 to 20,000 Hz

Speed -adjustment range: +9.49%,-7.4116

Low-level linearity error: less than0.5 dB down to -100 dB

Cueing time: 1.5 secondsCueing accuracy: AImpact resistance: top and sides,

A+Defect tracking: tracked

1,500 -micrometer defects onPierre Verany #2 test disc

played symbols and words indicatethe status of the various operatingcontrols of the player.

Like the earlier SL -P1200, the SL -P1300 makes extensive use of mul-tilayer damping materials within itszinc die-cast case. The entire playeris supported on four large, rubber -damped spring feet, and the opticalassembly and power transformers(separate for analog and digital cir-cuits) inside the case are individu-ally isolated from the base to mini-mize vibration effects. The wirelessremote control operates all main -panel functions except power on/off, disc compartment open/close.Time Recall, dial search, Auto -Cue,and pitch control. The music -scanand index -skipping functions can beperformed only from the remotecontrol.

Advanced circuit features of theSL -P1300 include an eight-times-oversampling (352.8 -kHz) digital fil-ter and an 18 -bit, high -resolutionD/A converter system using dualconverters for each channel (one forthe positive half and the other forthe negative half of the analogwaveform). A comparison of tech-nical specifications indicates thatthe SL-P1300's ratings are about 6dB better than the SL-P1200's inrespect to noise and channel separa-tion. The new player is also de-signed to accept 3 -inch as well asstandard CD's. Price: $1,599. Tech-nics, Dept. SR, One PanasonicWay, Secaucus, NJ 07094.

Lab Tests.Meaningful performance meas-

urements on the Technics SL -P1300would be impossible (or at leastimpractical) without the very latestin test equipment, which we have inthe Audio Precision System One.For example, the player's frequencyresponse varied only ± 0.04 dBfrom 15 to 20,000 Hz. The equaliza-tion of the de -emphasis circuit wasaccurate within 0.02 dB from 125 to1,000 Hz in one channel and withinabout 0.003 dB in the other. Itsnoise -spectrum level when playingthe "signal -zero" portion of a testdisc was -120 dB at 20,000 Hz andfell to -145 dB at 30 Hz (except for60- and 180 -Hz hum components inone channel at -116 dB).

Low-level spectrum analysis of


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TEST REPORTS

the output from test tones between- 70 and -100 dB showed a strik-ing absence of resolvable harmon-ics, which are usually present at lev-els of -15 to -30 dB in other CDplayers. This result was a first in ourexperience testing CD players withthe Audio Precision instrument.The level of the 1,000 -Hz test tonewas within a fraction of a decibel ofthe correct value even at -100 dB,another indication of the low-levellinearity of the D/A converter. Thelinearity of the playback from thesweeping tone (with dither) of theCBS CD -I disc was excellent from-60 dB until it disappeared in thenoise level at about -116 dB.

The Technics SL-P1300'sdefect -tracking ability wasexcellent, and its impactresistance was the best we haveseen in a home CD player.

The channel separation, almostidentical on both channels, wasabout 130 dB at 100 Hz and about100 dB at 20,000 Hz. The total har-monic distortion (THD) plus noise at1,000 Hz was -96 dB (0.0016 per-cent) at 0 dB and -98 da (0.0013percent) from -40 to -80 dB. Forreasons that are not clear, the distor-tion rose abruptly to -86 dB (0.005percent) at -20 dB, but from a lis-tening standpoint, of course, thatlevel is as insignificant as the otherdistortion measurements. Inter -channel phase shift varied smoothlyfrom -0.2 degree at 5,000 Hz to-1.2 degrees at 20,000 Hz.

The A -weighted wide -band noisewas -114 dB, and quantizationnoise (with the D/A converters oper-ating) was -95 dB. The dynamicrange (EIAJ) was 97.5 dB. The fre-quency error was +0.0018 percent,and the pitch control had a range of+9.49 percent to -7.41 percent.The 0 -dB output level into an EIAload was 2.49 volts, with a channelimbalance of 0.05 dB.

The defect -tracking ability of theSL -P1300 was excellent, reachingbeyond the 1,500 -micrometer levelof the Pierre Verany #2 test discbefore audible dropouts occurred,and its impact resistance was the

Ali of these measurable differ-ences really have little to do withthe sound of the player, however,since we are dealing with infinitesi-mal performance aberrations. Theprincipal significance, as we see it, isthat Technics has made a number ofrefinements that, in the aggregate,make an excellent product even bet-ter. One of the most striking char-acteristics of our measurements ofthe SL -P1300 is their symmetry.Measurements on the two channelsof a CD player almost always differ,often by a substantial amount. Eventhough the differences are not likelyto have an audible effect, their pres-ence suggests a degree of uncertain-ty that seems out of place in such asophisticated component as a CDplayer. The fact that the two chan-nels of the SL -P1300 measured somuch more alike than those of otherCD players suggests that its makersreally had a handle on what theywere doing, from the conception tothe manufacture of the finishedproduct.

The SL -P1300 is a most im-pressively engineered component.While I cannot say that it soundedbetter than other top -of -the -line CDplayers, or even different fromtheir, I can say that I have not seenanother CD player combining such ahigh level of performance and ver-satility with such an overall feelingof ruggedness, quality, and precision.Circle 140 on reader service card

best we have seen in a home CDplayer. Only with the most extraor-dinary pounding on its case (morepainful to the perpetrator than tothe victim) could we cause briefdropouts. The cueing time of 1.5seconds ranks with many of the fast-er CD players made today. Finally,the headphone volume was excel-lent, about 3.5 to 4 volts into typicalheadphone impedance loads beforeclipping occurred.

CommentsThe Technics SL -P1300 is one of

the most advanced CD players wehave seen to date. While a few ofits individual measurements havebeen equaled or slightly surpassedby some other top units, its overallperformance places it at the head ofits class in our experience.

We have been using an SL -P1200for some time as a reference CDplayer, so we were naturally curiousto compare it with its successor.Making the same measurements onboth units with the same discs andtest equipment, we verified that thenewer circuits of the SL -P1300 do infact produce measurable benefits.Compared with the SL -P1200, itswide -band noise level was 7 dB low-er, its quantization noise was 3 dBlower, and its dynamic range was 2dB greater. Its low-level linearitycurve was visibly superior, andchannel separation was about 10 to20 dB greater.

Cl

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THECD

For most people, buying a CD player is a lot like taking a

short stroll along the Amazon. And forgetting your map.

Sooner or later, you're going to get lost.

That's because the "jungle of misinformation" about CDplayers makes it difficult to know what's really important.And what isn't.

Take a quick look at some of the claims-digital bitstructures (what are they, anyway?) ranging from 1 to 45.Oversampling rates from 2x to (quick, who's got thelatest?) 16x. All this for the sake of a numbers race. Andnot necessarily for the sake of the music.

Well, Onkyo offers you a real way through this under-growth.

Of course, we have an impressive variety of both single-

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Most of our models alsobenefit from Opto-Coup-ling, an Onkyo-developedtechnology that trans-mits data optically ratherthan through conven-tional wiring for moreaccurate CD sound.

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But for Onkyo, outstanding products are just the begin-ning. We'll make your journey through the CD jungle eveneasier with two indispensable guides.

The first is an in-depth explanation of digital bit structuresand how they affect musical performance. The second isa down-to-earth journeythrough all the claimsyou're likely to run into,as well as the hard fadsyou'll need to master theCD jungle. And they'reavailable at your Onkyodealer now.

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TEST REPORT'S

JAMO CONCERT II SPEAKERJulian Hirsch, Hirsch Houck Laboratories

THE Danish -made JamoConcert II speaker is a fairlyconventional two-way sys-tem with a 61/2 -inch woofer

operating in a bass -reflex enclosure.The cabinet, suitable for shelf orstand placement, measures 161/s

inches high, 9 inches wide, and 97/8inches deep, and each speaker unitweighs about 20 pounds. The cross-over, at a nominal frequency of2,000 Hz, is to a I -inch soft -dometweeter. The rated system imped-ance is 8 ohms, and the system hasno controls or adjustments.

The cabinet of the Jamo ConcertII is finished in mahogany orstained black ash. Gold-plated bind-ing posts, recessed into the rear ofthe cabinet, accept stripped wireends or banana plugs, but arespaced too widely for dual banana -plug connectors. The woofer port isin the rear of the cabinet. The blackperforated -metal grille is retained

magnetically, with its edges fittinginto slots along the sides of thespeaker panel. The unusual designallows the grille to be removed andreplaced with exceptional ease, andthe absence of protrusions on thesculptured panel makes the ConcertII much more attractive than mostspeakers are when operated withouta grille.

Beyond the Concert II's physicalspecifications, crossover frequency,and impedance, the only ratingsprovided in the owner's manual areits frequency range, given as 40 to20,000 Hz, and three distinct powerratings: "Operating Power 6.3 watts,IEC Input Power 40 watts, andRated Power 80 watts (120 wattsmusic)." These numbers, like allspeaker power ratings, derive fromnonstandard measurement meth-ods and are not easily correlatedwith real -world operation. Price:$798 a pair. Jamo Hi-Fi U.S.A.,

Dept. SR, 425 Huehl Rd., North-brook, IL 60062.

Lab TestsFor our measurements and listen-

ing tests, we installed the Jamo Con-cert II speakers on 26 -inch standsand placed them about 2 feet fromthe wall behind them. The room -response measurements indicated anotably flat and smooth response,with the usual floor -reflection peakand dip between 250 and 500 Hz,and a strong output between 50 Hzand our 20,000 -Hz measurementlimit. The close-miked woofer andport response curves combined foran unusually flat response fromabout 35 to 200 Hz, falling gently athigher frequencies to -10 dB at2,000 Hz. When this was combinedwith the room curve, the result wasa composite frequency response of-± 3 dB from 25 to 20,000 Hz.

Although the composite curveseems to suggest a remarkable bassextension for a 61/2 -inch woofer, the25 -Hz figure should not be taken tooliterally. The actual low -frequencylimits of the speaker are defined byits power -handling and distortioncharacteristics rather than by an ar-tificial low-level measurement.

The system's sensitivity was 88.5dB sound -pressure level (sPL) at 1

meter with a standard input of 2.83volts of pink noise. Our referencelevel for the distortion measure-ments was 3.36 volts, correspondingto a 90 -dB SPL. The woofer distor-tion was about 1 percent at 100 Hz,2 percent at 80 Hz, and 7 percent at50 Hz. The effective crossover be-tween the cone and port radiationwas at about 75 Hz, and between 20and 50 Hz the system's actual distor-tion with a 3.36 -volt input was inthe 10- to 30 -percent range.

The impedance of the system was7 to 7.5 ohms at 43 and 180 Hz, withanother dip to 5 ohms at 3,500 Hz.There were impedance peaks of 21ohms at 27 Hz, 27 ohms at 80 Hz,and 30 ohms at 1,000 Hz. The hori-zontal dispersion was good, with lit-tle divergence between the responsemeasured on -axis and 45 degreesoff -axis below 8,500 Hz and onlyabout 6 dB difference at 12,000 Hz.Quasi-anechoic FFT response meas-urements with our IQS signal -analy-sis system confirmed the smooth -

28 STEREO REvieWilax 1989

TEST REPORTS

ness and uniformity of the system inthe audible range, showing only± 1.5 dB variation from 180 to16,000 Hz. The overall group -delayvariation of 0.2 millisecond from3,000 to 20,000 Hz was consistentwith our other measurements.

High -power tests with one -cycletone bursts showed that the ConcertII was no midget in its power -handling abilities. Our amplifierclipped before the speaker rattled,reaching inputs of 490 watts at 100Hz (into 14 ohms), 250 watts at1,000 Hz (30 ohms), and 790 wattsat 10,000 Hz (8 ohms).

CommentsThe measured performance of the

Jamo Concert II indicated that itshould be a very listenable smallspeaker, but we knew that before wemade any measurements. The Con-cert II had a balanced spectral re-sponse and unmistakable smooth-ness that were instantly apparent. InA/B comparisons it showed itself tobe in the same class as some highly

size but much higher price. It wasnot even badly outclassed by somemuch larger, as well as more expen-sive, systems. There are no miraclesin audio, however, and although the

The jamo Concert II had abalanced spectral responseand a smoothness thatwere instantly apparentin our listening tests.

Concert II had a pleasing frequencybalance, its bass output could notcompete with that of systems usinglarger drivers in larger enclosures.

Of course, each speaker has spe-cial characteristics that make itmore or less attractive to any givenlistener, and no two speakers (in-cluding pairs of the same model) aretruly identical. I would not presumeto rank one speaker above or belowanother merely because their indi-vidual colorations differ slightly,but I have no hesitation in rankingthe Jamo Concert II as one of thebetter contenders in the under -$1,000 -a -pair price class.Circle 141 on reader service card

AUDIO -TECHNICA AT-ML170PHONO CARTRIDGE

*Julian Hirsch, Hirsch -Hauck Laboratories

/N recent months, it has become

and universal acceptance of thecompact disc medium, the de-

velopment of new and improvedphono cartridges (and tonearms andturntables) has not ceased. The re-cent announcement of the cancella-tion of marketing plans for the Fin-ial laser record player suggests, how-ever, that future major advances inanalog recording and playback tech-nology are unlikely in view of thedeclining market for LP'S. Rather,what we have seen, and may contin-ue to see for a while, is a process ofrefinement, especially in phono-car-tridge design, that will enable thephonophile to extract the last bit ofperformance and useful life fromhis valued disc collection.

The latest example of this trend tocome to our attention is the newflagship cartridge from Audio-Tech-nica, the ML170. This moving -mag-net cartridge is based on the dual -magnet design used throughout thecompany's line. The dual magnets,mounted on a boron cantileverthat's gold plated to damp reso-nances, form a "V" that matchesthe geometry of the recording pro-cess. As the stylus traces a recordgroove, the magnets' movementgenerates voltages in the indepen-

dent left- and right -channel coils.Like earlier Audio-Technica car-tridges, the M LI70 features a nude-

mounted MicroLine diamond sty-lus whose shape closely resemblesthat of a cutting stylus, which is saidto result in low playback distortionand high channel separation.

A number of high -end Japaneseaudio manufacturers (and some inother countries as well) believe thatusing certain exotic materials canhave a positive effect on the soundof a product. The ML170 cartridge'scoils are wound with "Pure Copperby Ohno Continuous Casting" (Pc-occ). It is claimed that this specialhigh -temperature extruded copperhas "virtually no transverse crystalbarriers to ... color sound." Eventhe connecting pins of the cartridgeare made of PC-OCC. The benefit issaid to be "greater resolution andsignal clarity."

The body and mounting base ofthe ML 170 are formed of nonreso-nant ceramic. The magnetic por-tions of the cartridge are shieldedagainst hum pickup, and the remov-able stylus assembly is user -replace-able. The cartridge weighs 7 gramsand mounts on standard '/.-inchcenters. It has a relatively high out-put, rated as 4 millivolts per chan-nel for a lateral velocity of 5 centi-

S I ERE° REVIIWJULY 1989 29

TEST REPORTS

meters per second (equivalent to3.54 cm/s in each channel). The rec-ommended vertical tracking force is1.25 grams ±0.3 gram, and thetracking ability is rated as 90 mi-crometers (Am) at the center value,100 Am at the maximum trackingforce.

Channel separation is rated as 31dB at 1,000 Hz and 21 dB at 10,000Hz, with a channel imbalance of lessthan 0.5 dB. The vertical trackingangle of the stylus is 20 degrees. Therecommended cartridge load is47,000 ohms in parallel with a ca-pacitance of 100 to 200 picofarads(pF). Price: $345. Audio-Technica,Dept. SR, 1221 Commerce Dr.,Stow, OH 44224.

Lab TestsWe installed the Audio-Technica

ML170 in a medium -mass tonearmloaded with 47,000 ohms and 100pF for our measurements. Thetracking force was set to 1.25 grams.Playing a 3.54-cm/s, 1,000 -Hz testband, the cartridge's output was3.75 my, with a channel imbalanceof 0.7 dB. The vertical trackingangle was 16 degrees.

The frequency response and chan-nel separation were measured usingboth the CBS STR 100 and CTC300 test records. The results differedonly slightly, with the flattest re-sponse being obtained with the STR100. In fact, the ML170 producedone of the flattest frequency -response curves we have seen froma phono cartridge-it varied only±0.5 dB from 40 to 20,000 Hz. Asoften happens, the two channels didnot have the same separation char-acteristics. The left -channel separa-tion was about 30 dB in the mid-range, but the right -channel separa-tion was about 22 dB. The separa-tion was 30 dB in both channels at10,000 Hz, however, and it was stilla strong 20 dB at 20,000 Hz.

In most respects, the trackingability of the ML170 was outstand-ing, setting new records in our expe-rience with cartridges. With theDIN 45549 test record, it trackedthe 100 -micrometer level at 1.25grams and almost handled 110 Amat 1.55 grams (a slight mistrackingdistortion was audible). Very fewcartridges we have tested have beenable to track 100 Am at any force.

The 30-cm/s 1,000 -Hz tones of theFairchild 101 record were playedwithout mistracking at only 0.5gram, another measurement first.

Only the low -frequency trackingability of the cartridge failed tomatch its other achievements. The32 -Hz tones of the Cook 60 recordmistracked at any force within thecartridge's design range. This resultdoes not mean that the cartridge isinadequate at typical low frequen-cies, however, since the Cook 60's32 -Hz tone is recorded at a very highlevel, about 56 cm/s, with a groove -modulation amplitude that is easilyvisible to the unaided eye at a dis-tance of 2 feet or more.

The frequency response of theML170 obviously extended wellbeyond the audio range (it is ratedas 5 to 40,000 Hz, with no tolerancespecified). Its response to a 1,000 -Hzsquare wave was nearly perfect,showing only a low-level dampedringing at about 40,000 Hz, whichappeared to be the stylus resonancefrequency.

CommentsThe measurement data on the Au-

dio-Technica ML170 clearly place itamong the elite of phono cartridges.If it had tracked our low -frequencytest bands as well as the higher fre-quencies, we would have no hesi-tancy in giving it a 100 -percent per-formance rating. In our view, nocartridge needs to be better than thisone, whose playing capabilities are

more than sufficient to deal with themost demanding discs.

The final question is, "How doesit sound?" Frankly, we heard nospecial or unique qualities in theML170's performance playing anassortment of the better discs onhand. It would take an impracticallylong search to find recorded musicalpassages, rather than test signals,that might stress the abilities of thiscartridge to their limits (if any suchactually exist). When componentsattain the degree of refinement evi-dent in this cartridge, it is unreason-able to expect to find meaningfulsonic differences between them.

From a listening standpoint, then,I suspect that this cartridge hasreached a level of performance thatis sufficient to extract all the usefulsound from any analog record withinsignificant distortion. No, it is not"perfect," but neither is a digitalcompact disc or a CD player, yettheir performance is generally morethan adequate for even critical lis-teners. I doubt that any future de-velopments in cartridges will evereclipse one of the caliber of theML170, nor is there any need forsuch an achievement other than toprovide equivalent performance atlower prices. It does not matter (tome, anyway) what exotic materialsor methods are used in a product-what counts is how well it performs.In that respect, this one will be hardto beat.Circle 142 on reader service card

". . . l71 try 'Slew Factors of Japanese Amplifiers' for $1,000, Ted."

SO STEREO REVIEW JULY 1989

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TEST REPORTS

MITSUBISHI M -AV 1AUDIO/VIDEO RECEIVERJulian Hirsch, Hirsch Houck Laboratories

ITSUBISHI'S M-AV1 au-dio/video receiver,4de-signed as the controlcenter for a group of

compatible components that form acomplete and highly versatile A/Vsystem, includes four channels ofamplification. The front channelsare rated for 125 watts each into 8ohms from 20 to 20,000 Hz with lessthan 0.05 percent total harmonicdistortion, the rear channels for 25watts each into 8 ohms from 50 to10,000 Hz with less than 0.5 percentdistortion. The surround -sound de-coder is compatible with Dolby -encoded video sources and has amatrix mode for adding ambienceto any stereo program.

Although the M -AV 1 is fairlylarge, it has perhaps the simplest -looking front panel we have seen ona component of this type. Only thelarge volume knob, a few pushbut-tons, and the approximately 2 x 3 -inch illuminated display are nor-mally visible. Next to the display

are two pairs of buttons with up/down arrow indicators, one markedSCAN and the other INPUT. Theinput buttons are used to select themain program source for listeningor viewing, and the scan buttonsstep through the tuner's sixteen AMor FM presets. The selected sourceor preset station appears in largecharacters on the display, alongwith such other status indications asTUNED, STEREO, MUTE, and CLIP-PING. The receiver has input con-nections for a turntable, a CD or vid-eodisc player (identified as CD -N), aTV monitor/receiver, two vCR's,and digital and analog tape decks.

The remaining always -visiblecontrols are the power switch at thelower left and a small, round push-button marked PUSH OPEN. Pressingthis button causes the bottom of thepanel to swing down, revealingmore buttons, a few knobs, and aheadphone jack.

The tuning buttons operate in aconventional manner except that

there is no band selector as such.The up and down buttons step thetuned frequency by 200 kHz for FM

and 10 kHz for AM; when the end ofthe band is reached, the receiverautomatically switches to the otherband. The PRESET MEMORY buttonis used with the tuning buttons tostore selected frequencies. Thespeaker -selector button is used todrive either one or two pairs ofspeakers from the front channels.When the surround mode is select-ed, the second pair of speakers isautomatically driven by the rear(surround) channels. The conven-tional balance knob is supple-mented by an INPUT BALANCE knobto minimize leakage of the frontchannels into the rear ones duringsurround operation.

The other operations of the M -AV 1 are handled in a rather uncon-ventional manner. There are twopairs of AUDIO FUNCTION buttonswith up/down arrows behind thehinged panel, one pair marked SE-

LECT and the other ADJUST. Theselect buttons step through FM

mode (mono, stereo, and high -blend), surround mode (off, matrix,and Dolby), surround volume, bass,treble, tone defeat, loudness, sub-sonic filter, high -cut filter, and re-cord monitor. For each selected

32 STF.RFO RF:VIEW JULY 1989

Introducing theDelco/Bose Gold Series Music System.By now you know that the Delco/Bose music system is themost widely reviewed, and highly acclaimed, automotivemusic system available. For those who can truly appreciatethe quality of Cadillac and the experience of superb music,we invite you to audition the new Delco/Bose Gold SeriesMusic System.

The first Delco/Bose music systems earned their acclaimbecause they represented a bold newapproach to automotive musical repro-duction, made possible by the mostintensive research effort ever made inthis field. The new Gold Series MusicSystem builds upon this technologicalfoundation by incorporating the resultsof six years of additional research anddevelopment.

H11Better sound through research.

Every critical system component is completely new:amplifiers, equalization circuitry, speakers, digital soundsource-even the wire that harnesses them together. Indeveloping them. we made lull use of the latest advancesin electronic and acoustical technology, materials anddesign. The result: an automotive music system witheven more clarity, power anc accuracy-one capable of

br ng ng you even closer to therealism of live music while sittinginside your car.

We submit that you simply mustexperience this new music system tobelieve it. The Delco/Bose Gold Seriesis an available option in Sevilles,Eldorados, Fleetwoods and DeVilles atyour Cadillac dealer.

Delcs1lectronicISubsdary of GM Hughes Erec:roncs

Voje

TEST REPORTS

function, the adjust buttons stepthrough the available range of val-ues or switch the function on or off.

Perhaps the most unusual controlon this receiver is its DISPLAY AN-GLE adjustment. The M -AV I uses aliquid -crystal display (LCD) withgreen, yellow, and white letters andnumerals on a dark background. AnLCD normally has a narrow viewingangle; contrast and legibility arebest when it is viewed head on andfall off rapidly as the angle changes.The M-AVI's DISPLAY ANGLE knobelectronically "steers" the optimumviewing angle up or down for easier

viewing when the user's eyes are noton the same level as the display.

The M -AV I has separate record -selector buttons for audio and videoprograms, and either type of record-ing can be made independently ofthe program being heard throughthe speakers. There are direct videoconnections for dubbing betweentwo VCR'S as well as S -VHS inputsand an S -VHS output. The S -typeinputs and output are not switchedby the receiver's dubbing controls.requiring a direct S -cable connec-tion between video components.

The rear apron of the receiver

FEATURES

O Integrated front -panel andremote control for completeaudio/video system

O Four amplifier channelsO Drives one or two speaker pairs

in stereo or surround modeO AM/FM tuner with sixteen

presetsO Inputs for phono, CD or

videodisc player, two tape decks,two 'Cles, monitor/receiver

O Outputs and switching for tapedecks, VCR's, monitor/receiver

O External -processor loopO Independent selection of

listening and recording sourcesfor audio and video

O Surround -sound decoderO LCD panel with adjustable

viewing angleO Headphone jackO Audio mute on remote controlO Volume control motor driven in

remote operationO Audio menu and status display

on video monitor

LABORATORY MEASUREMENTS

0 Tuner Section (all figures for FMonly except frequency response;measurements in microvolts, orµv, referred to 300 -ohm input)

Usable sensitivity (mono): 15.5 dBf(3.1 µV)

50 -dB quieting sensitivity: mono,19 dBf (5 µV): stereo, 44 dBf(87 µv)

Signal-to-noise ratio at 65 di&mono, 76 dB; stereo, 69.5 dBf

Harmonic distortion (THU +noise) at 65 dBf: mono, 0.4%;stereo, 1.35%

Capture ratio at 65 dBf: 1.5 dBAM rejection: 72 dBSelectivity: alternate -channel, 58

dB; adjacent -channel, 0 dBStereo threshold: 15 dBf (3 µV)Pilot -carrier leakage: 19 kHz,

- 37 dBHum: -78 dBStereo channel separation at 100,

1,000 and 10,000 Hz; stereomode, 24, 41, and 40 dB:high -blend mode, 20, 10, and0.2 dB

Frequency response: FM (stereomode), 30 to 15,000 Hz +1.5,-2 dB; FM (high -blend mode),30 to 15,000 Hz +0, -6.3 dB;AM, 75 to 2,600 Hz +1, -6 dB

0 Amplifier Section1,000 -Hz output power at clipping:

front, 147 watts into 8 ohms,195 watts into 4 ohms, 218 wattsinto 2 ohms; rear, 31.5 wattsinto 8 ohms

Clipping headroom (relative torated output): 0.7 dB

Dynamic power output: 202 wattsinto 8 ohms, 338 watts into 4ohms, 400 watts into 2 ohms

Dynamic headroom: 2.1 dBMaximum distortion (20 to 20,000

Hz into 8 ohms): 0.045% at20,000 Hz at 125 watts, 0.019%at 62.5 and 12.5 watts

Sensitivity, (for a 1 -watt output into8 ohms); CD, 14 mV; phono,0.22 my

A -weighted noise (referred to a1 -watt output): CD, -77.5 dB:phono, -72 dB

Phono-input overload: 84 to 92my from 20 to 20,000 Hz

Phono-input impedance: 48,000ohms in parallel with 90 pF

RIAA equalization error: +0, -1dB from 20 to 20,000 Hz

Tone -control range: 100 Hz, +9.- 10 dB; 10,000 Hz, +12.5,- 8.5 dB

contains all of the audio and videoinput and output jacks, a 75 -ohmcoaxial FM antenna input, terminalsfor an AM wire antenna or the sup-plied loop antenna, input/outputjacks for an audio -processor loop(normally joined by jumpers), andheavy-duty binding posts for twopairs of speakers. A small slideswitch bypasses the front -panelspeaker selector and drives the rearspeakers only from the rear -channelamplifiers in a surround mode.There are five AC outlets, three ofthem switched. A multipin jack isprovided for direct connection tocompatible Mitsubishi componentsfor total system control through thereceiver's remote unit. A video out-put supplies signals to an externalmonitor (or a receiver with a directvideo input).

The remote control is a key partof a total system based on the M -AV I . It is quite large, about 914inches long, and is covered in asuede -like gray flocking. It can beswitched by its own SELECT buttonto operate the audio, TV, or VCRportions of the system. Pressing thisbutton also lights the correspondingletters in the remote's small displaywindow for a few seconds.

Sliding out the bottom part of thecontrol unit's cover an inch or soexposes the audio and video but-tons, which select various functionsof those portions of the system (theaudio button duplicates the SELECTbutton on the receiver's subpanel).The ADJUST button between themvaries the selected function. Slidingthe cover back further reveals anumber of additional buttons re-lated to TV and VCR operation andprogramming. Fully opened, the re-mote unit is an impressive 13inches long, but for most purposes itcan be used fully closed.

The M-AV1 can supply an on-screen audio menu to a video mon-itor, which is a convenient way toset or review the preset tuner fre-quencies. The numerical keypad onthe remote unit can be used fordirect access to any preset station orfor setting the preset memories. Theon -screen menu also duplicates thestatus indications of the front -paneldisplay.

The Mitsubishi M-AV1 measures16.3/4 inches wide, 61/4 inches high,

34 SITREO REVIENJULY1989

ENOUGH

To MAKE A

Twisr

Go STRAIGHT

REFRESHING

SEAGRAM'S

GIN.

7j---.AMERICAS No .l- SELLING GIN

TEST REPORTS

and 153/4 inches deep, and it weighs261/2 pounds. Price: $1,000. Mitsubi-shi Electric Sales America, Dept.SR, 5757 Plaza Dr., P.O. Box 6007,Cypress, CA 90630-0007.

Lab TestsWith both front channels driven

at 1,000 Hz into 8 -ohm loads, theMitsubishi M-AV1 clipped at 147watts per channel. Into 4 ohms, theclipping level was 195 watts. To pre-vent damage to the receiver, wedrove a 2 -ohm load with only onechannel, loading the other with 4ohms. The 2 -ohm clipping level was218 watts. The surround (rear)channels delivered 31.5 watts to an8 -ohm load. The dynamic poweroutput was 202 watts into 8 ohms,338 watts into 4 ohms, and 400watts into 2 ohms.

The input sensitivity for a 1 -wattoutput was 14 millivolts (my)through a high-level input and 0.22my through the phono input, withrespective A -weighted signal-to-noise ratios of 77.5 and 72 dB. Thephono input overloaded at inputsbetween 84 and 92 my from 20 to20,000 Hz. Its impedance was48,000 ohms in parallel with 90picofarads. The RIAA equalizationerror was +0, -1 dB from 20 to20,000 Hz.

At its rated 125 watts output into8 ohms, the receiver's total har-monic distortion (THD) plus noisewas about 0.04 percent from 20 to20,000 Hz. At half -power and less,the distortion was 0.02 percent overthat range. The 4- and 8 -ohm distor-tion readings were similar. At 1,000Hz, the THD plus noise varied from0.08 percent at 1 watt to a minimumof 0.015 percent at about 60 watts.Into 4 and 2 ohms, the readingswere similar except that the mini-mum of 0.012 percent was reachedat 100 and 170 watts, respectively.The distortion in the rear surroundoutputs (1,000 Hz into 8 ohms) was0.9 to I percent at power outputsfrom 10 to 30 watts, reaching 1.8percent at 1 watt.

The frequency response with thetone controls defeated was +0,-0.5 dB from 20 to 20,000 Hz. Thebass tone control had a shelvedresponse, with a turnover frequencyshifting between 300 and 700 Hzand a maximum range of +10, - 12

dB. The treble control had a fixedturnover frequency of 1,500 Hz anda maximum range of +14, -10 dB.The loudness -compensation circuitboosted both low and high frequen-cies moderately. With the subsonicfilter, the response was down 3 dB at50 Hz and 6 dB at 30 Hz, and withthe high -cut filter the response wasdown 3 dB at 6,500 Hz and 6 dB at11,000 Hz.

The response of the surround(rear) channels in the matrix modewas flat from 200 to 2,000 Hz, -7dB at 20 Hz, and -3 dB at 7,000 Hz.There was a 25 -dB notch in theresponse at about 12,000 Hz, andthe output returned to a - 5-ds lev-el at 20,000 Hz.

The FM tuner section's usable sen-sitivity was 15.5 dBf in mono and21.5 dBf in stereo. The 50 -dB quiet-ing sensitivity was 19 dBf in monoand 44 dBf in stereo. With a 65-dBfinput, the S/N was 76 dB in mono,69.5 dB in stereo; distortion was 0.4percent in mono, 1.35 percent instereo. The distortion was not at aminimum when the tuner and oursignal generator were set to the samefrequency, but the offset requiredfor a minimum reading varied from35 to 55 kHz as the signal level wasadjusted.

The FM frequency response variedover a +1.5- to -2-ds range in thestereo mode. The channel separa-tion was 40 to 42 dB between 1,000and 10,000 Hz and 37.5 dB at 15,000Hz. Below 1,000 Hz, the separationdecreased linearly to 13 dB at 30 Hz.In the high -blend mode, the maxi-mum separation was 20 dB in the100- to 200 -Hz range, falling to 10dB at 1,000 Hz and 0 dB at 6,000 Hzand above. The high -frequency re-sponse was also slightly rolled offabove 5,000 Hz, to -6 dB at 15,000Hz. Although the AM rejection andthe capture ratio were very good,the image rejection was only passa-ble, and adjacent -channel selectivi-ty was nonexistent. The AM tuner'sfrequency response, relative to its1,000 -Hz level, was +1, -6 dB from75 to 2,200 Hz.

CommentsOur initial attempts to use the

Mitsubishi M-AV1 were frustrating,but after following our own oft -giv-en advice, "When all else fails, read

the instructions," we began to ap-preciate its extraordinary versatili-ty. We can only guess how thisreceiver would perform in a com-plete Mitsubishi A/V system, but aspart of a conventional audio systemit was quite satisfactory.

Although the M-AV1 has a verypowerful amplifier section, its FMtuner section was less distinguished.Some of its measured characteris-tics-such as the channel blending,which almost eliminated stereo re-ception without quite being puremono, and the relatively high stereodistortion-were reminiscent of carradios and not at all typical oftoday's home tuners. Also, this isthe first FM tuner we can recall test-ing that had zero adjacent -channelselectivity (fortunately that's not acritical matter in most locations).The ingenious DISPLAY ANGLE con-trol worked more or less as claimed,but the range over which the displaywas legible remained very limited,± 30 degrees at most.

We used the surround portion ofthe receiver in its matrix mode toenhance stereo reception. The effectwas comparable to other basic (non -logic) matrix systems we have used,with some sibilant spillover into thesurround channels, but it providedgood front -rear separation nonethe-less. Although Mitsubishi refers toDolby Surround in its literature, itsdecoder is not licensed by Dolbyand the receiver carries no Dolbylogo on its panel (the logo doesappear on the display when DolbySurround is selected). Instead of us-ing Dolby B noise reduction, thereceiver apparently uses a Mitsubi-shi -developed compander circuitthat is claimed to provide a widerdynamic range than the Dolby sys-tem does.

Mitsubishi's ergonomic approachin the M-AV1 makes good sense fora product designed as a control cen-ter for a complete A/V system, foruse by people who prefer to enjoylistening or watching with a mini-mum of involvement in operatingdetails. After all, what could besimpler than a receiver with onlyone knob and almost no buttons?Especially when it works smoothly,sounds good, and does a lot morethan most receivers.Circle 143 on reader service card

36 STFREO REVIEW JULY 1989

Old Records,New Life

Iwanted a better cassette deck.So one Saturday I dropped by ahi-fi store. The salesman took meinto one of the sound rooms for ademonstration. Racks of equipmentwere everywhere. He started tomake a recording and I immediatelyfell in love with the music. It wasso clean, so rich, so dynamic.

"What CD is that?" I asked.He didn't hear me over the

music but it didn't matter because Iquickly saw that I wasn't listeningto a CD at all. It was a record.

I made quick mental notesof the system I was hearing. I walkedover to the wall of speakers anddiscovered that KLIPSCH® kg4s®were playing. That was the first timeI had truly heard wide dynamicrange.

I didn't buy a cassette deckthat day. I spent less money andbought a new pair of kg4s. They'veput new life in my old recordcollection. My CDs sound simplyawesome. I never heard music soclearly.

For your nearest KLIPSCH dealer,look in the Yellow Pages or call tollfree, 1-800-223-3527.

kIipESIN SOUND:

P.O. BOX 688 HOPE, ARKANSAS USA 71801CIRCLE NO. 2 ON READER SERVICE CARD

TEST REPORTS

PARADIGM EXPORT MONITORSPEAKER SYSTEMJulian Hirsch, Hirsch -Houck Laboratories

THE Canadian -made Para-digm Export Monitor is amoderately sized two-wayspeaker system with an 8 -

inch woofer and a 1 -inch soft -dometweeter. The woofer, which operatesin a vented enclosure, is assembledon a die-cast aluminum chassis andhas a mineral -filled copolymer poly-propylene cone, a Kapton high-tern-

perature plastic voice -coil former,and a butyl surround.

The tweeter, which takes over at2,000 Hz, has a laminated -textiledome and a high -temperature ferro-fluid-cooled voice coil on an alumi-num former. The crossover fromthe woofer is a fourth -order (24 -dB -per -octave) quasi -Butterworth type,using the natural rolloff of the woof-

er's response to augment the induc-tive and capacitive elements of thecrossover network.

According to the manufacturer,every production unit of the ExportMonitor is matched to a referencesystem within 0.25 da (it is not clearwhether this figure refers to the sys-tem's frequency response or its sen-sitivity). The cabinet is made ofcomposite fiberboard with Meditefront and rear baffles for improvedoverall damping and higher stiff-ness. The woofer is located at thecenter of the front baffle, with itsport below and the tweeter above.The black cloth grille is retained byplastic snaps. The cabinet is coveredwith oak, walnut, or black -ash ve-neer on all surfaces except the frontspeaker board.

The multiway binding -post con-nectors, separate for the tweeter andwoofer, are recessed into the rearpanel of the cabinet. The two sets ofterminals are normally joined byjumpers, but the Export Monitorcan be operated as a biwired orbiamplified system by removing thejumpers. In any case, the individualcrossovers (for tweeter and woofer)are always present between the am-plifier and the drivers.

The system's specifications in-clude an on -axis frequency responseof 55 to 20,000 Hz ± 2 dB, sensitivi-ty of 88.5 dB, and a nominal imped-ance of 8 ohms. The cabinet meas-ures 24 inches high, 103/4 incheswide, and 14 inches deep, and eachspeaker weighs 33 pounds. The Ex-port Monitor is designed to be oper-ated on matching stands, away fromany room walls, and for best resultsthe tweeters should be approxi-mately at the listener's ear level.Price: $790 a pair; stands, $120 apair. Paradigm, Dept. SR, P.O. Box2410, Niagara Falls, NY 14302.

Lab TestsLacking the matching Paradigm

stands, we used other availablespeaker stands to bring the tweetersnearly to the ear height of a seatedlistener. The room response of thespeakers was impressively flat,within ± 2 dB from 200 to 20,000Hz. The output rose slightly at lowerfrequencies to a maximum of about5 dB between 50 and 70 Hz in thecomposite curve, which was con -

38 STEREO REVIEWPLY 1989

"'".*.

p

15 mg. "tar".1.0 mg. nicohneTd. per cigarette by FTC method.

SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: SmokingCauses Lung Cancer, Heart Disease,Emphysema, And May Complicate Pregnarcy.

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'3ZdAPplIEST/C

TEST REPORTS

structed by joining a close-mikedwoofer measurement to the aver-aged room response of the twospeakers, corrected at high frequen-cies for the room -absorption char-acteristics. The overall compositeresponse was an excellent ±4 dBfrom 20 to 20,000 Hz (the uppermeasurement limit in this test).

The Paradigm ExportMonitor sounded distinctlydifferentfrom some of our

reviouslyfavored speakers,but at least as enjoyable, witha slOit crispness in the uppermidrange and treble.

OPM11111111111111416A111111'

The quasi-anechoic FFT responseplots from our IQS analysis systemconfirmed the uniformity of theoutput of the Paradigm speaker.On -axis, the output was flat within± 3 dB from 180 to 30,000 Hz. Theresponse measured 45 degrees off -axis did not diverge significantlyfrom the on -axis curve at frequen-cies below 8,000 to 10,000 Hz, indi-cating good horizontal dispersion.

The success of Paradigm's effortsto preserve phak coherence overthe audio range was demonstratedby the system's group -delay varia-tion, which was less than ± 0.2 mil-lisecond in the overall tweeter rangefrom 2,000 to 28,000 Hz and muchbetter than that, about ± 0.02 ms,from 10,000 to 20,000 Hz.

The system's impedance reachedits minimum of 6.2 ohms from 110to 140 Hz and its maximum of 35ohms at 1,200 Hz. The sensitivitywas 88 dB sound -pressure level(sPL) at I meter with a pink -noiseinput of 2.83 volts. With a drive lev-el of 3.5 volts (equivalent to a 90 -dBSPL), the woofer distortion was 3 to4 percent from 60 to 100 Hz. Theeffective crossover to the port wasat about 50 Hz, where the distortionwas 2 percent, increasing to 5 per-cent at 30 Hz.

The Export Monitor was able tohandle very large peak inputs with-out distortion or damage. At 100Hz, the woofer cone began to rattlewith a single -cycle input of 500

judged as soft sounding or perhapssomewhat lacking in high -frequencyoutput.

This situation points up the vir-tually unsolvable problem of deter-mining objectively what is the idealspeaker response. We found the Pa-radigm's sound to be distinctly dif-ferent from that of some of our pre-viously favored speakers, though itwas at least as enjoyable, and after abrief period of listening to it, theother speakers seemed a trifle dullsounding! This dichotomy betweenthe perceived sound characters oftwo different speakers is one of themore fascinating aspects of loud-speaker performance, and since ei-ther type of response may be pre-ferred by different listeners, or bythe same listener for different pro-gram material, it is not advisable tobe too dogmatic about the "correct-ness" of one or the other.

The Paradigm Export Monitorwas a very smooth, natural -sound-ing speaker with good, if not excep-tional, imaging properties. Its low -bass performance was at least ade-quate, and the middle and highranges were exceptionally smoothand extended. Its overall well-bal-anced, unified sound was what wewould expect, but do not alwayshear, from any speaker in this pricerange.Circle 144 on reader service card

watts into its 6.5 -ohm impedance.At 1,000 Hz, still in the woofer'soperating range, the amplifierclipped at 242 watts into its 31 -ohmimpedance before any distortionwas audible.

CommentsThe overall sound quality of the

Paradigm Export Monitor speakerwas characterized by balance andclarity. The common speaker aber-ration of an emphasized upper -bassresponse, which gives male voices atubby, unnatural quality, was nota-bly absent, and there was no ob-vious sign of an emphasis or lack ofresponse in any other part of theaudible range.

Comparisons with other speakerson hand revealed what appeared tobe a slight crispness in the ExportMonitor's upper -midrange and tre-ble output. When we checked ourresponse measurements on the oth-er speakers, it was apparent thattheir high -frequency output eithersloped off gently or was shelved at alower level than the woofers' maxi-mum output. If the overall responseof the other speakers was assumedto be "correct," the Paradigm'ssound could be considered slightlybright. But it would be equally justi-fiable to accept the response of theExport Monitor as "flat," in whichcase the other speakers could be

OMEGAHEADPHONE

RESEARCHDEPT

". . Of course, there are still a few bugs to work out, but Dr. Epstein.here. feels that the 'moving -head' concept will produce greater bass

response than the conventional 'moving -coil' principle."

40 STERFoRF.viEwiuts 1989

"McIntosh . . . no other transistor amis capable .of reproducing as well.""All the sounds, even those different one fromanother, remain separated and distinctive. Thereresults a sensation of contrast, precision, and un-common clarity.

. A close analysis of different frequenciesreveals an extremely deep bass, very rich inspatial detail ... The upper bass region is verylinear testifying to an extraordinary richness ofinformation. The very structured mid -range con-tributes enormously to listening pleasure.The feeling of power is never refuted and insteadof stunning the listener, the 7270 recreates anaudio environment of a majesty that no othertransistor amplifier is capable of reproducing aswell." Need we say more?

-ReV1411041 SON. foremost trench stereo magazine.

For a copy of the RUE DU SONand information on thle,McIntosh MC 7270Amplifier and other Mclnt s products write:McINTOSH LABORATORY INC.P.O. Box 96 EAST SIDE STATION, T. A47BINGHAMTON, NY 13904-0096

Mtiniosh

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METER RiORT,MONO GAIN

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( NI' I ( 1-17111ISS al :11 ( :1'1 'DIM ()SS thP

hether you areWlooking for anew CD player,

I) 'VI 11'11111'1 I 1 1( )I(' I 1

a sleek tuner/tape player for yourPorsche, a digitally controlled preamplifier, oreven a digital audio tape (DAT) deck, odds are youwill consider equipment designed and built some-where across the Pacific. Provocative new audioand video components as well as modern twists onold themes are coming from Japan, Taiwan, andKorea to make your choices harder than ever.

Digitally driven components appear to be thebiggest news. The first preamplifier and receiver todo the bulk of their processing in the digitaldomain are due to arrive on these shores this fall.New CD players utilizing "true" 18 -bit linear digi-tal -to -analog (D/A) conversion and I -bit converters

combined with multistagenoise shaping (MASH) will setthe stage for truly spectacu-

lar living -room listening sessions.Multiroom systems that let users control audio

and video sources independently for every roomin the house will capture the eyes and ears of musiclovers. It's getting easier to have music anywherein your home that you want it.

Other areas of interest include sophisticated sur-round -sound processors, large -screen improved -definition television sets, loudspeakers, and auto-motive products that rival the construction andsound quality of home audio equipment. Thecomponents shown on these pages are just a sam-ple of what you can get your hands on right now orin the next few months.

42 SiEREO REvww JULY 1989

NaIcamichi has aModel 1000again, only thistime it's a two -

p ece reference -standarddgital audio taperecorder. The UnitedStates version willpermit recording at asampling frequency of44.1 kHz through itsdigital inputs. But don'trush too quickly to thestore-the Model 1000costs $10,000!

orrowing a bitBof styling fromthe turntable.the top -loading

Technics SL-PC20 offersthe flexibility of a five-cHcarousel changer. Itfeatures a four-times-oversampling digital

4 filter and dual DMA

converters, all at agreat price: $330.

clarion's 720EQelectronicequalizer andspectrum

analyzer includes abuilt-in digital surround -sound circuit thatcombines with a digitaldelay to create a 360 -degree sound stage in thecar. It also has five EQpresets with audible andvisual preset scan.

_Audio-Technica'sAT-MLI70phono cartridge

' uses dualmagnets mounted on agold-plated boroncantilever to dampresonances. Thenude -mounted Micro -Line diamond stylus isshaped like a cuttingstylus, which is said toresult in low playbackdistortion and highchannel separation.

S FERE° REviEwjut,' 1989 43

onkyo's GrandIntegra DX -G10CD player featureslinear 18 -bit

iicircuitry with an eight-times-oversampling digitalfilter, dual D/A converters,five -element Opto-Coupling,and variable shuttle search.

As the center of acompleteaudio/videosystem, Toshiba's

125 -watt XB-1000integrated amp can switchup to ten audio and fourvideo inputs. It also hasDolby Surround and eightfactory -preset and four user -adjustable surround modes.

TP-I 17tuner/preamplifierlooks deceptivelysimple. It actually

has two preamp sectionsand can be the heart of amultiroom system offeringseparate audio and videosource control for everyroom in the house.

itsubishi's CS -3504R is a 35-inch direct -viewTV set with a

full range of digital specialeffects, MTS decoding, andS -VHS inputs.

-y amaha'sAST -C10 Unitysystem makes useof the company's

Active Servo Technology,which provides impressivedeep bass without largespeakers. The completesystem sells for $999.

DIGITPL PROCES5T.1,-,

71: -

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-....~41,111111111WME=mmom

he RX-801 V fromJVC, a 100 -wattreceiver, featuresthe Compu Link

remote system, which allowsyou to preset every variable

parameter (volume, bass,surround sound, equalizer.

etc.) for any sourcehooked up to the receiver.

111

vam eon. ON!.41. ..

ony's D-555Discman is thefirst portableCD player to

use an eight-times-oversampling digitalfilter with noise -shaping circuitry anddual D/A converters. Itis also the first portableto use digital signalprocessing (DSP).

rxrfr,".

pioneer's new ElitePD -71 CD playerboasts dual "true"18 -bit linear D/A

converters with eight-times-oversampling, 18 -bit digitalfilters. Its disc tray isengraved, "Dedicated to thetrue music lover.'

Kenwood's premierA/V receiver, theKR -V9010, has130 watts per

channel and Dolby ProLogic surround -soundcircuitry. Other featuresinclude a 20 -watt rear -channel amplifier andS -VHS inputs and outputs.

STEREO REVIEW Juts 1989 45

sansurs newCD-X7I I isthe firstcompact disc

player to use a 1 -bitD/A converter incombination withMatsushita'smultistage noise -shaping digital filter(MASH). Sansui callsthe whole process LCDS,for "linear directconverter system."

AIwa s XC-005CD player hasan eight-times-oversampling

digital filter and dual18 -bit linear D/Aconverters. Its uniquerecording -calibrationsystem allows you tooptimize your tapedeck for recording CD'S.

, .

he EclipseEST -240 carDAT playerhas three

volume presets, thirty -track programmability,and electronic volume.tone, balance, andfader controls.

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reemIPPS ....LIU cootie

NEC's newRenaissanceSeriesCD -830

CD player uses asixteen-times-oversampling digitalfilter that's said toimprove soundreproduction over theaudible range.

PRIG

PPLIV 1"IP1 I n n .1-1 n

11111111111111 IMO 1 / 1li1.f 011

DIGITAL AutTO TACT DECK (3(440

he PanasonicPV -S4990 VCR isa videophile'sdream come

true. It offers digitalspecial effects, VHS Hi-Fisound, S -VHScompatibility, and bar-code programming.

46 STEREO REVIEW Juts 1989

FThe Alpine

first car CD7909 is the

player thathas 18 -bit processing,

eight -timesoversampling, and dualD/A converters. It's also

the first in -dash CDplayer to control a

trunk -mounted changer.

harp'sDX -R830 CDplayer hasdual D/A

converters, eight -timesoversampling, and athree -beam pickup.

itachi'sI DA70haschanger

twin six -discmagaz nes that allowyou to load andprogram six co's whilelistening to six others.

I1

7 !7.1. Piga tot

.7rJL C ri rD:I TAIIIta:1/PACT OW. PLAY VI ALFINE ,909 INS. I I

Fisher1 name returns

to hi-fi- prominence

min the 150 -watt RS -Z1.441 receiver. It has built-in

DM processing and canaccept digital inputsfrom a CD player, a DATdeck, or a satellitebroadcast receiver. -, , ......

r-- --i- he Denon' A VC -2000

integratedamp features

Dolby Pro Logicdecoding, fourteen

4 audio inputs and nineoutputs, and facilitiesfor video display of itsoperating status.

sherwood's AM -7040 poweramplifier, ratedfor 200 watts

per channel with 0.008percent distortion from20 to 20,000 Hz, hasindependent powertransformers for eachchannel.

The Marantz CD -94 r -s a 16 -bit,foutimes-oversampling CD

player with a die-castaluminum transportmechanism that'smounted on a floatingsubchassis for optimumisolation from vibration.

--proton's AI -3000,"The System"

from Taiwan,includes a

22 -watt amplifier, anAM/FM tuner, a CD player,a cassette deck, speakers,and a remote control.

DK's line ofTaudio cassettesfeatures twonew high-

-performance, normal -bias tapes and newformulations for sevenexisting grades of tape.

elebrating itsC twentiethanniversary in Athe United

States, Maxell introduceda new audio cassetteline-up including the UR,UD, XL, XLS, and MXseries.

I

I

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to

1111 11 JAPANSophisticated engineering and methodical construction go intoa Yamaha receiver on its way to American audio consumers.

BY BRYAN HARRELL

PHOTOGRAPHS BY AKIRA KOBAYASHI

OVER a century ago, in 1887, Torakusu Yama-ha, a medical -equipment technician, built thefirst reed organ in Japan. Just five years later,he exported eighty-seven Yamaha reed organsto countries in Asia. In another five years,Nippon Gakki Co., Ltd., was established withMr. Yamaha as president.

Nippon Gakki ("musical instrument") setup for business in Hamamatsu, today still asmall city by Japanese standards, located on aplain at the mouth of the Tenryu river, whichoriginates high in the Japan Alps. In earlytimes, lumber from Japan's mountainous in-terior was floated down the Tenryu to thePacific Ocean, making the area a major centerof Japan's lumber and woodworking indus-tries. The location was a natural; Yamaha pro-duced its first upright piano in 1900 and itsfirst grand piano two years later.

Interestingly, Hamamatsu's location abouthalfway between Japan's two largest cities,Tokyo and Osaka, is somewhat symbolic ofYamaha itself. Tokyo is home to Sony, a rela-tively new company that cuts a dynamic fig-ure. Osaka's Matsushita (Technics, Pana-sonic), on the other hand, is an older companywith a more conservative presence. Yamaha issquarely in between in character, earning itthe distinction of being perhaps the most typ-ical of Japan's consumer -electronics leaders. Itis also the oldest, and considered by many oneof the best managed.

We recently toured Yamaha's audio pro-duction facilities in Hamamatsu. Since Yama-ha makes so many different products in sev-eral facilities in and around Hamamatsu, wedecided to focus on one product-a typical receiver. The receiver isperhaps Yamaha's most "Ameri-can" product, in that almost all itmakes are sold in North America.Hardly any are sold in Japan, andin Europe there is demand only forlower -price models.

We chose the RX-530 receiver, a

medium -price model that will hit the U.S.market early this summer. The RX-530 ismade in large quantities, and compared withYamaha's higher -price receivers, it isn't par-ticularly "high tech" in outward appearance.

In a talk before our tour, the Yamaha prod-uct -planning staff emphasized that the compa-ny's line of receivers is continually evolving,albeit slowly, to reflect the demands of con-sumers. Generally, more and more Yamahareceivers are "A/V," or video compatible, withmore video terminals and circuits to switchthem.

Since the receivers are primarily destinedfor North America, I asked the planning staffwhat sort of consideration is given to Ameri-can preferences. One unanimous reply was,"the volume control." Though electronic up/down rocker switches are now less expensivethan conventional volume controls, easier tobuild into receivers, and quite compatiblewith remote -control systems, Americans over-whelmingly still prefer the familiar round vol-ume knob-the bigger and heavier, the better.Apparently this preference was particularlypuzzling to Yamaha's parts suppliers, whohad a hard time understanding why the up/down switches, which are often superior toconventional knobs in many respects, weren'tgood enough. Nevertheless, Yamaha spurredthe development of a conventional -lookingvolume knob that can also be motor drivenfor operation by remote control.

The Yamaha engineers also pointed out thatAmericans don't share the Japanese fondnessfor rows of tiny buttons. So how small is too

small? Engineer Kenji Yokoyamasmiled and gave me the thumbs -up sign. "We just think of ourthumb when judging the size ofAmerican fingers," he explained.A rule of thumb indeed.

I asked the planning engineersabout the "titanium color" incomponents, first introduced in

Yamaha's 10,000 series two years ago.Since then, other manufacturers havereleased components in similar colors.One engineer explained that Yamahawas the first major manufacturer to offerblack components, a little over ten yearsago, and that black became the trend.Will the new titanium -color front panelssoon become the rage? Nobody wouldanswer directly, but to a man their facesread, "Definitely."

First on our tour agenda was Yama-ha's large-scale integrated circuit (Ls°factory in the village of Toyo-oka, about18 miles northeast of Hamamatsu city. Iwas told that this was where the "heart"of the RX-530 receiver was designed,but since a handful of different Lsi's aremounted on the RX-530's circuitboards, we might as well think of themas internal organs.

The master for each LSI must becreated in extremely clean surroundings;a speck of dust smaller than the eye cansee could foul up the micrometer -orderelectronic pathways that allow the inte-grated circuit to function. The "cleanrooms" at Toyo-oka have a rating ofClass 10, a standard specifying less thanten dust particles of 0.1 micrometer orlarger per cubic foot of air.

The Lsi's themselves are manufac-tured at Yamaha's own semiconductorfactory in Kagoshima prefecture on thesouthern island of Kyushu. Both the airand water are extremely clean in thisrelatively remote location, a distinct ad-vantage in production.

AFTER leaving Toyo-oka, we headedabout 10 miles southeast to thetown of Fukuroi, where the Yama-ha Lsi's are mounted onto the RX-530 circuit boards along with tran-sistors, resistors, capacitors, and

other electronic parts. At the Fukuroiplant, one might expect to see rows ofrobots banging out stacks of circuitboards. In reality, there are several rowsof insertion machines that automaticallyinsert transistors, resistors, and otherparts into the circuit boards, but thesemachines are tended to by a fairly largestaff of factory workers, who keep a closewatch on how everything is going to-gether and often lend a hand.

When a blank circuit board is fed intothe machine, each mounting "hand"(the number of these vary) picks a singleelectronic part and mounts it in a speci-fied location on the board. Another"hand" underneath bends the pins ofeach part to hold it in place. The elec-tronic parts are supplied to the machineon large rolls of paper tape fed into theback. We saw parts for the RX-530 thatbore the names of virtually every majorJapanese manufacturer.

After a trip through several insertionmachines, the circuit board is still notfinished. The machines have placed ap-proximately 560 electronic parts on theRX-530's circuit board. Another ninetyor so will be added by hand after theboards are sent to another assembly linein an adjoining building. There they arechecked and soldered, and larger partsand terminals are added.

ON completion, the boards are sub-ject to electrical checks by a com-puter, which performs a sequenceof 616 tests in a matter of seconds.The computer identifies any faultyconnections by an "address" on

the circuit board so that a worker canreplace the improperly positioned partby hand. After the electrical check, eachboard is sent to another computer sta-tion for a software -driven functioncheck. Boards that pass inspection arestacked in special boxes and trucked the20 miles to Hamamatsu for final assem-bly into the RX-530 receiver.

Our last stop was the receiver assem-bly line in Hamamatsu. This time, it wasall human workers, with nothing evenresembling a robot. The finished circuitboards from the Fukuroi factory areunpacked, and each one is placed on achassis along with displays and subas-semblies. The front panel and someknobs are added in stages, the circuitboard is screwed onto the chassis, thepower cord is connected, and the al-most -completed RX-530 rolls into atesting station where a computer per-forms a 49 -step function check in a mat-ter of seconds. The remaining knobs areadded, and the RX-530 heads aroundthe corner of the line to another testingbench where audio parameters arechecked. If it passes, the top cover is fit-ted and all final screws are inserted.

The RX-530 travels its last few yardsdown the line toward a worker whocarefully wraps it in plastic and boxes ittogether with a packet of accessories andanother packet containing the owner'smanual and other printed material. Thepackaged receiver is then sent by truckto one of several ports for shipment.Most RX-530's leave through Hama-matsu port or nearby Shimizu.

Few Americans will ever look insidean RX-530 receiver. But looking at thesepictures from our factory tour will giveyou an idea of the sophisticated engi-neering and methodical constructionthat go into making a receiver users cantake for granted.

Bryan Harrell is Tokyo correspondent forSTEREO REVIEW. Akira Kobayashi is one ofJapan's leading commercial photographers.

3

I. Inside one of the "cleanrooms" at Yamaha'sToyo-oka LSI research lab.The location has a rating ofClass 10, meaning thatthere are less than tencontaminant particles of 0.1micrometer or larger percubic foot of air.

2. The main corridorlinking the various cleanrooms. The light is speciallyfiltered to reduce theharmful effects of ultravioletradiation on the circuitdesign and etchingprocesses.

3. A completed silicon wafercontaining numerousidentical 1..s! chips. Betweenone-third and one-half arenormally judged to bedefective. Those deemedperfect are precision cut andmounted. Below the wafer isa completed 1...si with itsinternal chip exposed.

50 STEREO REvIEw Jun, 1989

0

H,

4. The wiring diagram for the RX-530's circuitboard shows the routing of "cable jumpers."

5. An insertion machine at the Fukuroifactory. The circuit board is moved aroundwhile each of the vertical, cylindrical devicesmounts a specific type of electronic part in theblink of an eye.

6. The insertion machine mounting pushbuttonswitches (they look like little white dots) on apart of the circuit board that will be separatedand placed just behind the receiver's frontpanel.

7. The partially completed circuit board,containing Lst's, capacitors, resistors,transistors, and other electronic parts, is sent tothis automatic soldering machine, where it is'floated" through a bath of molten solder to

fix the pins of the components to the contactson the board.


8. After the solder bath,workers visually check allconnections and add moreelectronic components andother, larger parts notmounted by the insertionmachines.

9-10. Any abnormalitiesfound on the circuit boardsare corrected andhand -finished byexperienced line personnel.Most of the internal cablesused are installed at thisstage.

11. Slow and careful visualinspection is followed bysolder touch-ups wherenecessary.

12. A surprising amount oftime is spent pushing,poking, and prodding eachcircuit board to make sureevery piece is perfectlyplaced.


1413. Running productiontotals are displayed on eachassembly line.

14. After completion, thereceiver's circuit board ischecked electrically bycomputer. The board is heldin the checking machinewhile the long, white probesmake connections for thecomputer, which performs asequence of 616 tests in amatter of seconds.

15-17. Various stages ofcompletion of the RX-530'scircuit board at the Fukuroifactory.


2318. At the Hamamatsuassembly factory, the circuitboards from the Fukuroifactory are unpacked andplaced on chassis, and rearpanels are fitted.

19. The receiver heads downthe final assembly line,where larger parts areadded in stages.

20. The front panel andknobs are positioned.

21. Final soldering of thelast internal cables.

22-23. The performance ofthe receiver's amplifiersection is tested at one workstation, the tuner section atthe adjoining station.


20

26

24. Part of Yamaha'sextensive testing facility. Asample RX-530 receiverundergoes a shock andvibration test while atechnician makes note ofeach mode of the testperformed.

25. The finished receiver iswrapped in plastic andboxed with accessories, theowner's manual, and otherdocuments.

26. Newly hired employeesreturn from a lunch breakat the Hamamatsu factory.

!!!


SYSTEMSOut of siskt in La -La Land

by Rchecca Day

THEY'RE familiar words to collectors: A fed -upspouse, feeling crowded out by stereo componentsor recordings, issues the ultimatum-"Either theygo or I go." For Leo Gutman, it meant finding a

new home for the 150 Metropolitan Opera broadcastshe had recorded onto 7- and 101/2 -inch reels. It alsomeant devising a way to hide his huge array ofequipment.

Gutman shares his wife's love for music and distastefor exposed electronics, however, so when he drew uppreconstruction plans for their Los Angelescondominium he provided for tucking his equipmentaway in a cabinet and connecting it through the wallswith 12 -gauge cable to floor -level speaker outlets in fiverooms. He set up pairs of JS Engineering Infinite SlopeModel 1 speakers in the living room, dining room, andden and pairs of KEF C30 speakers in both bedrooms.He has another pair of KEF C30's in the den "just forfiddling around" so that no one is disturbed when he istuning in a radio station or sampling a tape.

Gutman also designed the mirrored Formica cabinetand the acrylic shelves inside, which he had made toorder. Below the equipment are different -size drawersfor different kinds of recordings and accessories. Insidethe cabinet is the comprehensive collection of tapinggear that Gutman, a movie and Tv -show syndicator,uses for recording broadcasts and dubbing and editinghis tapes. There are two Technics RS -1700 open -reeldecks, a Technics RS -B905 cassette deck, SonyEV-S800 and 5700 8mm VCR's, and PanasonicPV -S4864 and PV -S4880 S -VHS vcR's. Gutmanrecently started using his 8mm VCR's for audio -onlyrecording, transferring his open -reel tapes to thesmaller format.

The rest of the system consists of a TechnicsSE-A3MK2 300 -watt -per -channel power amplifier, aSony TA-E77ESD preamplifier, a Technics ST -S8tuner, a Sony CDP-650ESD CD player, a SonyCDP-C15ESD Co changer, a Pioneer LD-838Dvideodisc player, and a Panasonic CTK-2073S 20 -inchmonitor/receiver with S -VHS inputs. To select all thedifferent source and speaker combinations, there's alsoa Russound SD -8 sound -distribution system and aRussound AV -4 audio/video patch bay.

Gutman, a twenty -five-year patron of theMetropolitan Opera in New York, where he also has aresidence, is still trying to find a permanent home forhis Met broadcast recordings.

CI FIANEEII3Eel the music plat and play... BY IAN G. MASHIE

OST people who have beenbuying recorded music for awhile have become resignedto the notion that building acollection is hardly cost-effec-tive; the number of recordingsthat we always want to listento in their entirety is typicallysmall. Classical recordings

may be an exception, as many ofthem contain a single work, or atleast related items, but when itcomes to popular music most of usend up with a large number of discsor tapes, each containing only twoor three selections of interest.

That being so, the compact disc isan ideal format, as it allows a listen-er to delete tracks with ease. Theresult, however, is often a fairlyshort playing time for any one disc.Usually that is no problem, butthere are times when it would bepreferable not to have to changediscs every few minutes-when en-tertaining, say, or simply spending aquiet evening with a good book.

In predigital days, it was possibleto achieve long playing times in acouple of ways. For some years,many North American audio buyerschose record changers, whichplayed up to six records in succes-sion. There was no ability to chooseparticular cuts, of course, or to mixselections from different recordingsat random, but there was still thepossibility of hands-off listening forreasonable stretches of time. Therecord changer did involve sometechnical compromises, however,

so it eventually fell out of favor.The other method of gaimng long

playing times has usually been totransfer favorite selections to tape.This has the advantage of weedingout unwanted music, certainly, butit also commits a listener to onegroup of tracks in a particular order.And while it is possible to makesuch compilation tapes from com-pact discs, this tends to offset someof the sonic advantage of the digitalformat.

Increasingly, therefore, listenershave been turning to CD changers:players that hold from five to twelvediscs and allow random selectionfrom tracks on any of them. Whilethe CD changer is still a relativelynew product category, the numberof models available has mcre thandoubled in the past year, now stand-ing at about fifty. Prices start ataround $300 and go up to severalthousand dollars for the most elabo-rate versions.

One form of changer, availablefrom Sony and Technics, is the car-ousel. Instead of the famikar discdrawer, a carousel machine has amuch larger drawer that can accom-modate up to five discs, which arearranged in a circle on a platter thatrotates to bring each disc into posi-tion as required. You can play fivediscs nonstop or choose a selectionof tracks from among them. And bysimply loading a single disc, you canuse this type of changer as a conven-tional CD player as well.

The first carousel changers were

Sony's CDP-C7ESDuses the companysproprietary five -disccarousel format.Priced at $480, itfeatures four -limesoversampling, dualD/4 converters,Custom File, variableline output, and

Ilittale play.

58 STEREo REVIEM JULY 1989

Equipped with twosix -disc magazines,Hitachi 's DA -C70change- allows you toplay one magazinewhile adding orremoviag discs from 1

another. Randomplay is possible usingone disc, all iwelvediscs, or a se! of up tothirty-two selectionsfrom several discs.Price: $550.

'WMSansui's CD-X5I0M

changer has ivy°six -disc magazines. Itcomes with a remotecontrol, a single -disc -

magazine, and a3 -inch -disc adaptor.Miro scan previewsthe beginning ofeactrack. Price: $630.

The lite I'D-MS.00($82.5) is Pioneer's topchanger. It featuresan eigat-times-oversa.npling diedfilter, dual t/.4conveners, and adisc-s:abll.'zer systemsaid ti; eliminatevibratiln during play.

S l'EREO REviEwfuLY 1989 59

z

8

CV CAGES

somewhat awkward to program andwere plagued by long pauses be-tween selections if those selectionswere on different discs, but the cur-rent models from Sony have solvedthese problems for the most part.The primary appeal of this configu-ration is the simplicity with whichthe changer is loaded: Simply inserta disc, rotate the platter, put inanother disc, and so on. It is alsopossible to program the units whileactually reading the discs' labels.Sony has five carousel changersavailable, with varying degrees ofprogramming flexibility, with andwithout remote control, and withdiffering levels of sophistication indigital -to -analog (D/A) conversion.

Virtually all other changers em-ploy multidisc magazines that mustbe loaded with the desired discs andthen inserted into the player. Themajority accommodate six discs at atime, although models from bothMitsubishi and Fisher take five, andchangers from Sanyo, Yamaha, andSony employ ten -disc magazines(the Sony models use the same load-ing magazines as Sony's automotiveCD changers). Scott, Sansui, and Hi-tachi all offer changers that will holdtwo six -disc magazines each, allow-ing the user either to program fromthe contents of the twelve discs or toprogram one magazine while theother is playing.

Although the magazine approachdoes allow for a considerable reduc-tion in space compared with thecarousel, and discs can be stored inthe magazines rather than their ownjewel boxes, any time you want tolisten to a different selection of discsyou'll have to unload and reload amagazine. Also, in most cases, lis-tening to a single disc requires plac-ing it in a magazine first and thenloading the magazine in the player,a process somewhat more awkwardthan loading a conventional single -disc player. To get around that, sev-eral companies offer changers thatcombine magazine capability with aconventional one -disc tray.

The NAD 5170, for instance, willtake a six -disc magazine plus anextra disc in its own drawer, and itlets you select tracks from all sevendiscs or use the two sections sepa-rately. A different approach is takenin the Philips CD 875, which ac-commodates a magazine of six full-size cD's and also provides a single -disc tray for the smaller 3 -inch cD's.

Sharp's SA-CD800 uses five -discmagazines, with an extra single -discdrawer for six-cD capacity. Whatsets this unit apart, however, is thatit also contains a complete stereoreceiver-it's what the companyhas dubbed a "CDver"-all for$899.95. Another unusual combina-tion is the VCD-650CX from Vec-tor Research, which contains both asix -disc changer and a full -featuredautoreverse cassette deck, lockedinto the CD player for easier dub-bing. It lists for $599.

While the magazine configurationis the most common, standardiza-tion has only recently gotten started.Not only are there five-, six-, andten -disc magazines, but each typehas variations. Pioneer and elevenother manufacturers-includingDenon, Hitachi, Kenwood, Ma-rantz, Nakamichi, Philips, and San-sui, among others-have now set-tled on the same six -disc magazinefor at least some of their changers,but JVC, NAD, and Toshiba hadadopted a different type for theirsix -disc models. When in doubtabout compatibility, check withyour dealer.

All changers are supplied with atleast one magazine, and several in-clude a single -disc magazine as wellfor those occasions when multidisccapability is not required. Many us-ers find, however, that having extramagazines is useful for setting upseparate "standard" programs. Insuch cases, the cost of extra maga-zines must be taken into account,and this may turn out to be fairlyexpensive in the long run: Extramagazines sell for between $15 and$29 each.

How useful the ability to choosemusic from several discs will bedepends on how many selectionscan be programmed. The minimumnumber of tracks that can be select-ed is Mitsubishi's twenty, but mostmodels offer thirty-two, and theMatsushita brands (Technics, Pana-sonic, Quasar) give you thirty-six.In most cases, individual tracks canbe programmed from anywhere onthe discs inserted, for somethinglike two hours of uninterrupted mu-sic. In some cases, though, there iseven more flexibility. With theSharp changer, for instance, any oneof the selections can be a singletrack, a group of continuous tracks,or a complete disc, which can ex-tend the playing time considerably.

The Philips CDC -875six -disc changer($469) has a digitaloutput jack, awireless remotecontrol, aquadruple-oversampling digitalfilter, thirty -trackprogramming, andshuffle play.

Kenwood'sDP-M107R ($399)has a six -discmagazine and asingle -disc drawer. Upto thirty-two trackscan be programmedfrom any of the sevenCD's. Random play isalso provided. A"music calendar"shows the programorder and how manydiscs are loaded.


Denor 's DCM-555 changer ($550)uses a six-d:sc loading magazine. Itfeatures three modes of randomplayback, a quadruple-oversamplingdigital filter a vibration -resistantpickup mechanism, and a remotecontrol

Yamaha'sCDC -610U, with aten -disc magazinehas a quadruple-oversampling digi alfilter ana twin D/4converters. Random -play and repeat -play°pitons are offered.The changer's listprice is1599.

onloo's DX -C400 magazine -loading six -disc charger ($430) hasan Ofno-Coupling system to separalethe digita: cnd analog sectionselectricak4 It uses doubleoversampits and has a 16 -bit D/Aconverter.

STEREO REviF.wf uLY 1989 61

CD C AGE

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tag

Teac's six -disc PD -700M changer($499) has a quadruple-oversamplingdigital filter. It allows up to thirty-twotracks to be programmed in anyorder.

The NAD Model 5170 has a six -taias well as a single -dm

drawer. It uses a quadruple-oversampling digital filter and afour -pole analog filter. Price: $6963.:

Mitsubishi's M -C4100 ($449) has afive -disc magazine. It featurestwenty -track programmability, introscan, audible scan, and index search.It can play 3 -inch discs without anadaptor.

The Panasonic SL-P3800C uses asix -disc magazine and features atwo-color display. Priced at $380, ithas a quadruple-oversampling digitalfilter and offers random play.

62 S FERE° R vi vwf uLy 1989

Pioneer's top changers containmemory for some 256 programsteps from a number of differentmagazines, allowing for very longprograms (but ones that requireswitching magazines every so of-ten). This feature's greatest benefitis the ability to set up a number ofseparate standard programs fromdiscs stored permanently in theirown magazines. Several of Sony'schangers have a Custom File fea-ture, which stores user -programmedinformation about some 226 discs,including track preferences for eachdisc.

In terms of capacity and selection,two changers stand out. The NikkoNCD-600 stores sixty discs at once,allowing selection of any track fromany disc. "Unlimited programma-bility" is possible by means of thecompany's computer interface,which allows the changer to be con-trolled by any IBM-compatiblecomputer. The changer alone car-ries a $3,999 price tag; the interfacemodule costs an additional $4,599.And for sheer outrageous flexibility,there's the Audio Access PX-240, a$5,000 changer that holds up to 240discs. Its programming features al-low the selection of some ten "play -lists" of up to ninety-nine trackseach as well as eighty-one random -playback combinations. Programscan even be automatically selectedby musical type.

All the flexibility of the new gen-eration of CD changers would be oflittle worth if they were inferior asdigital playback devices, but themanufacturers have been careful toinclude the latest technological de-velopments in virtually all of thesemachines. Onkyo features its Opto-Coupling system, for example, toseparate the digital and analog cir-cuits. Sony offers an 18 -bit digital -to -analog converter with eight -times oversampling. Technics hasbuilt a floating isolation system intoits changers. And nearly everychanger comes with a full -featuredwireless remote control.

Only a couple of years ago, theidea of a cD changer seemed tomany observers like a curiousthrowback to record players of theSixties. But the many advantagesthey offer, without any sacrifice inaudio quality, have earned CDchangers a legitimate place in theaudio arsenal of even the most dis-criminating hi-fi enthusiast.

1 1 I ?II 1 11 11 I I

INNE-SOPHIE MUTTER is aviolinist who has a powerfuleffect upon people who en-counter her for the first time.When she played Bach forviolinist Henryk Szeryng (shewas nine years old at thetime), be forthwith told her to

call him "Uncle Henryk." WhenHerbert von Karajan heard her (bynow she was thirteen), he invitedher to play a Mozart concerto withhim and the Berlin Philharmonic atthe Salzburg Festival. And when she

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met cellist -conductor Mstislav Ros-tropovich a few years ago, he pro-posed that she form a string triowith himself and the violist BrunoGiuranna.

With such endorsements behindher, it's no wonder that Mutter, nowbarely twenty-six, is one of the mostsought-after young violinists in theworld today. She plays 120 concertsa year, travels the globe, and recordscopiously, mainly for DeutscheGrammophon, with whom she nowhas an exclusive contract. She's

SI ERE° REVIEW JULY 1989 63

made seven American tours al-ready, and in 1990 she will observethe tenth anniversary of her U.S.debut. Her concert engagementsand recording dates stretch far intothe future, yet she makes it clearthat she has by no means exhaustedher ambitions or her enthusiasm.

"My main desire is to enlarge myrepertctire," she told me in a recentinterview, "and I am doing itthrough contemporary music. Youhave to push yourself further andfurther. You have to develop yourmusical personality, even if itmeans playing music you don't un-derstand immediately."

Mutter has been praised by criticsfor her assured technique, rich tone,and general command of her instru-ment. And her career has certainlynot been harmed by the striking pic-ture she presents on stage-a hand-some young woman who invariablywears low-cut, strapless, form -fit-ting, split -skirt gowns expressly de-signed for her in Paris. To many inher audiences she is a feast for theeyes no less than the ears as shepresses her Stradivarius against herbare shoulder and sweeps her rightarm smoothly and gracefully intothe music.

11

UTTER insists that her décol-leté gowns are as practical asthey are decorative. Holdingthe violin directly againstthe skin produces a bettersound, she said, pointingout, inarguably, that "thereis nothing to dampen the vi-

brations." Also, she added, perspi-ration is less troublesome. She'srather amused, in fact, by the Amer-ican preoccupation with her concertgarb.

"In Europe, nobody cares," shesaid. "Even in Paris, I'm just anoth-er woman in a nice dress. I usuallytravel with four or five of the gowns,but, like all concert dresses, theydon't last very long-maybe tenconcerts a year, with all that dry-cleaning. How do I pick the one I'llwear on any particular night? That'seasy. It really depends on how muchI eat, and I love to eat. The dress Ican get into is the one I take."

Mutter didn't have to worryabout such details when she firsttook up the violin at the age of five.Her father edited a newspaper in thesmall city of Rheinfelden in Germa-ny's Black Forest; neither of her par-ents was particularly musical, butthey wanted Anne -Sophie and hertwo older brothers to take up instru-

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ments. She started with the piano,which she still plays, but suddenlydecided that she wanted violin les-sons "for my fifth birthday."

"I don't remember exactly why,"she said. "It was just an urge. Mybrother Andreas, who was nine,says that I had heard YehudiMenuhin play Mozart's A MajorConcerto on the radio, and thatpushed me into it. Maybe he re-members better than I."

Her first teacher, Erna Honigber-ger, was an excellent pedagogue whofound time to walk the dog and per-form other household chores whilegiving lessons to her young pupil."It was concentrated, yet relaxing,"Mutter recalled. Whatever theformula, it worked, for after lessthan a year she entered a Germanyouth competition, Jugend Musi-ziert, for contestants six to twenty-four, and walked off with first prize.When Honigberger died, Muttermoved on to the Swiss violinistAida Stucki (some of whose Mozartrecordings appeared in the U.S. onthe old Period label in the early daysof the LP).

Mutter's audition for Karajanwas, of course, the turning point ofher young life. He proclaimed herone of the three top violinists in theworld and gave regular concerts

with her. His support, she acknowl-edges, obviated any need to enterfurther competitions or take othertraditional steps to advancement.She was sixteen when Zubin Mehtainvited her to make her U.S. debutwith the New York Philharmonic,an event whose tenth anniversaryshe'll celebrate next February whenshe plays the Bruch G Minor Con-certo and Witold Lutoslawski'sChain 2 with the orchestra.

It was her introduction to Luto-slawski's difficult score that gotMutter started on contemporarymusic, she says. Paul Sacher, theveteran Swiss conductor who com-missioned the piece and to whom itis dedicated, asked her to give itsworld premiere in Zurich in 1986.Some twenty minutes in duration, itderives its name, according to Lu-toslawski, from "two structurallyindependent strands," with an im-provisational section for the soloist.Whatever else it offers, it demands ahigh level of intensity and almostcontinual playing from the violinist.Mutter has played it in Germanythirty-two times, she told me, "andnow all Germany loves it." Nextyear she'll offer America the sameopportunity, for she plans to play itnot only in New York but also inLos Angeles and perhaps in one ortwo other cities.

Lutoslawski has also written forher an orchestral version of his Par-tita, originally scored for violin andpiano. She seems to have an affinityfor Polish composers, for KrzysztofPenderecki is writing a concertothat she commissioned. "I shouldhave it by the end of 1991." Muttersaid. "It's practically impossible toget a great composer to write quick-ly, and Penderecki is the kind whorushes up at the last minute withfive more pages. So I'm giving himplenty of time."

Her recordings offer as good anindex as anything of her mastery ofthe standard repertoire. For DG,she's done the Beethoven, Brahms,Bruch, and Mendelssohn concertos,all with Karajan and the Berlin Phil-harmonic, as well as Mozart's Con-certos Nos. 3 and 5, Beethoven'sTriple Concerto, and Brahms'sDouble Concerto. Just out from DGare the Tchaikovsky concerto, in alive performance with Karajan andthe Vienna Philharmonic, and theStravinsky concerto on a disc thatincludes "her" two Lutoslawskipieces, Chain 2 and Partita. Nextyear her plans include recordings of


the Berg concerto and Bart6k's Sec-ond Concerto with Seiji Ozawa andthe Boston Symphony.

For EMI/Angel she has recordedBach's Violin Concertos Nos. 1 and2 and the Double Concerto, sonatasby Brahms and Franck with pianistAlexis Weissenberg, Lalo's Sym-phonie espagnole, and Mozart'sConcertos Nos. 2 and 4. And Eratohas just released her versions of theProkofiev First Concerto and theGlazunov A Minor Concerto withthe National Symphony under Ros-tropovich.

ISKED if she ever envies pianiststheir more extensive repertoire,she answered, in effect, yes andno. "Sure, I envy them theirChopin, their five Beethovenconcertos, that great Schu-mann Piano Concerto, whichhas more genius than his Vio-

lin Concerto," she said. "But on theother side, having a string instru-ment in your hand is so much moresatisfying than sitting down at akeyboard. Just think of the phrasingopportunities you have with a vio-lin, the sounds you can bring forth.You can do so much inside of justone note when you put a bow on astring. I don't think you can do thatwith a piano."

Mutter currently is the owner ofnot one but two Stradivarius instru-ments. "If I could afford it, I'd havethree," she declared. The instru-ment she prefers is the "Lord Dun -raven" (named after a previousowner), which she has had for fiveyears. She likes it for its superiorsound and projection and what shecalls its "palette of colors." Her oth-er Strad she keeps locked up in asafe as a back-up should anythinghappen to the Dunraven.

She acknowledged that she is nota fanatical practicer, working on herinstrument principally when she islearning a new piece. "I do most ofmy practicing in my head," she con-fessed. "Interpretation only growsin your head. I'm not saying it hap-pens just like that, but that's whereit takes place."

Since 1986 Mutter, who speaksEnglish fluently though with amarked accent, has been on the fac-ulty of the Royal Academy of Musicin London, where she holds the firstInternational Chair of Violin Stud-ies. She conducts master classesthere twice a year, one week at atime. She ruffled some feathers atthe staid institution when she askedher students to give up their cus-

tomary lunch and tea breaks to keepworking-a request that some re-garded as presumptuous, coming asit did from a twenty -two -year -old"professor." But she has had no lackof pupils. "Since I've been doingthis in London I realize the impactthat teaching has, especially on themid -level pupil," she said. "Agreatly gifted talent will survive badteaching, but a mid -level talentmight not."

Mutter has been known to presenther musical views forcefully outsidethe classroom as well. She expects tobe treated as an equal by the con-ductors with whom she plays andhas reportedly even had several dis-agreements with Karajan. Her onlyknown serious dispute, however, in-volved the Romanian -born conduc-tor Sergiu Celibidache and had todo with the tempos of the Sibeliusconcerto at a concert in Munich. "Ilistened to everything he had to say,but he wouldn't listen to anything Ihad to say," she recalled. "So afterthree rehearsals we decided to calloff the concert. The announcementsaid it was a question of 'artisticresponsibility.' "

For all the intensity Mutter bringsto her violin playing, it by no meansrepresents her sole interest in life.Like Karajan, she is addicted to fastdriving, and she likes to streak alongthe German autobahns in her whitePorsche. She enjoys American jazzand movies and once, at a party,indulged in an impromptu sessionwith trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. Sheswims and does yoga as antidotes toindulging in her favorite dish, whichhappens to be pasta.

Last January, she was married toDetlef Wunderlich, a lawyer shemet while negotiating her contractswith recording and film companies."He loves music," she said, "espe-cially Italian opera." One changebrought about by her marriage isthat she will henceforth make herhome in Munich rather than inMonte Carlo, where she has beenresiding for the last six years.

She foresees no change in hermusic making, however. She ex-pects to continue both her soloappearances and her work with theMutter - Giuranna - RostropovichTrio, which, she said, she finds par-ticularly stimulating. (When she ap-pears with the trio, incidentally, sheis clad more sedately than at hersolo concerts.) Deutsche Grammo-phon has just released their record-ing of the complete Beethoven trios.

Mutter noted that the trio is addingpianist Lambert Orkis to its ranks,thus expanding its repertoire. "Iwould like to play some piano quar-tets," she said. "I want to play morechamber music and to vary it asmuch as possible."

And then, in words that apply notonly to chamber music but to thewhole range of her art, Mutter ex-claimed: "There is so much timeahead to do so many things!"

Herbert Kupferberg is a senior editorof Parade magazine. His most recentbook is The Book of Classical MusicLists, published by Penguin.

STEREO REviEw jun' 1989 65

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BEST RECORDINGS OF THE MONTH

Stereo Review'scritics choose the outstandingcurrent releases

MADONNA'S"LIKE APRAYER"

you can't judge a record byits cover. On the jacket ofher new album, "Like aPrayer," Madonna bares

her midriff; in the music inside, shebares her soul. It is easily her mostserious work, and if you can clearyour mind of any preconceptions ofMadonna as disco diva, it is wellworth taking seriously. The conclu-sions are as inescapable as theimages are penetrating: of a tempes-tuous marriage to Sean Penn thatdidn't work; of a childhood wrackedby an angry union that didn't work;of a defiant independence maskinga vulnerability confessed in lineslike, "When I get lonely . . . I needto be/Loved for who I am, not whatthey want to see."

While Madonna still makes syn-thesized music that doesn't miss atechnological trick, "Like a Prayer"is humanized by the openness andwarmth in her voice. This isn't real-ly an album to dance to at the club;rather, it's meant to be listened to insolitude after the club has closedand you've gone home alone. With-out being maudlin or bitter, Madon-na announces that the party's overand it's time to look into the mirrorand commit to the things that havelasting value in this life: honoringfamily ties, pursuing a higher idealof love, possibly even placing faithin a higher power.

Regarding that higher power, sheappears to be following Prince'slead. In the title song-despite theill-fated Pepsi tie-in and the misbe-gotten video-the act of love be-comes a sacrament, something holy,vital, and exultant. Prince himselfturns up in Love Song, a fragmentedtrack in which mistrustful loversask each other questions against aslowly oozing scratch -funk back-ground. An insistence on honesty

and commitment is one of thethemes developed in this song aswell as in Cherish and ExpressYourself; the latter a rousing exhor-tation for women to bail out of arelationship if they're not gettingrespect from a mate who can't "ex-press himself."

It's tempting to suppose that thisbit of advice is one of the lessons ofMadonna's recently dissolved mar-riage, a subject broached with dis-arming candor in Till Death Do UsPart. It's a powerful song, as confes-sional as any artist is likely to get inpublic. Over a skittering pop -funktrack, Madonna sings ethereally oflove's waning, her voice ominouslymatter-of-fact as she ticks off a listof horrors that ensue when thingsturn ugly: "He takes a drink, shegoes inside/He starts to scream, thevases fly." The sudden crash ofbreaking glass at the end may be oneof the most chillingly evocative mo-ments on record.

As the album is structured, hermarriage's undoing leads into a pairof songs that find her reflecting ontroubled ties to her mother (Prom-ise to Try) and father (Oh Father)and arriving at an inner peace withboth of them. Musically, both songsare adventurous and imaginative-a far cry from cookie -cutter dancemusic. Promise to Try is a balladsung to the accompaniment of pi-ano and strings, and Oh Father isladen with a deep emotionality, therhythms liquid and slow as Madon-na sings, "You can't hurt me now/Igot away from you."

Dear Jessie, on the other hand, isa whimsical, Lewis Carroll -type taleabout an idealized childhood in afantasy world of "Pink elephantsand lemonade .../Running throughthe love parade." Her inventivepop-psychedelia flows mesmeriz-ingly while smart, unconventionalpercussion from the Brian Wilsonschool tethers it to a recognizablebeat. Finally, the message of thesemeditations is tied together, in KeepIt Together, with a simple statementof belief: "Don't forget that yourfamily is gold." Madonna, who hasthe whole world at her feet, soundsas if she'd trade it all for the uncon-ditional love of a family. In otherwords, the Material Girl has justgotten spiritual, and I didn't doubt

her sincerity-or her pain-for asecond of this remarkable album.

Parke Puterbaugh

MADONNA: Like a Prayer. Madonna(vocals); vocal and instrumental accom-paniment. Like a Prayer; Express Your-self Love Song; Till Death Do Us Part;Promise to Try; Cherish; Dear Jessie;Oh Father; Keep It Together; SpanishEyes; Act of Contrition. SIRE 25844-1, C)25844-4, © 25844-2 (51 min).


BEST RECORDINGS OF THE MONTH

N

NORRINGTONCONDUCTSBERLIOZ

0 NE of conductor RogerNorrington's first record-ings-perhaps the first-was a collection of Berlioz

choral songs that he made for Argowith the Heinrich-Schiitz Choir ofLondon more than twenty yearsago. With that early juxtaposition ofhis name and Berlioz's in mind. per -

Roger Norrington: revelatory

haps it ought not to be all that sur-prising that he turned to Berliozto follow up his "original -instru-ments" cycle of the Beethoven sym-phonies with his current group, theLondon Classical Players. But thenew Berlioz release is nothing lessthan the Symphonie fantastique, thevery work that is regarded as thefirst grand showpiece for the mod-ern orchestra. Why on earth wouldanyone want to consider a period -instruments approach to such awork?

Well, Berlioz may have come upwith a new way of writing for theorchestra, but it was based entirelyon possibilities that presentedthemselves at the time (1830), justafter the deaths of Beethoven andSchubert in 1827 and 1828. There'sno need to debate whether Berliozwas actually the first great Romanti-cist or the last great Classicist. Thepoint is that no one understood theorchestra and its instruments betterthan he did, and it was that pro-found understanding that enabled


him to exploit orchestral color withsuch unprecedented imaginative-ness. That, in brief, would seem tobe the basis for Norrington's under-taking-an approach to Berlioz, asto Beethoven, on the composer'sown terms-and it turns out to beproductive beyond imagining, evenmore revelatory than his Beethovenperformances.

Again, as in the Beethoven, thisapproach involves an awareness ofthe composer's performing practiceas well as of the instruments heused-and, again, some of the tem-pos are a good deal brisker than theones to which tradition has accus-tomed us. All repeats are taken, butthe total playing time is no longerthan in most performances in whichthey are not. The waltz goes with awonderful dash, and the middlemovement, taken at a pace thatshows its clear relationship to whatH. C. Robbins Landon character-izes as "the non -slow slow move-ments" of Haydn's symphonies,gains immeasurably in terms ofconvincing dramatic narrative.Both the "March to the Scaffold"and the finale, on the other hand,are taken more deliberately than to-day's norm-the march particularlyso-and again the musical and dra-matic gains are pronounced.

The instruments are tuned not totoday's A = 440 but to Berlioz's pre-ferred pitch, A=435, and the or-chestra seating for the recording fol-lowed the highly effective (and clar-ifying) plan he devised for his ownperformances. The instrumentalbalance is magical, permitting oneto hear, for example, little mutedasides from the horn in the firstmovement that hitherto have goneunnoticed. There's a voluptuous-ness evoked by the fairy-tale promi-nence of the four little harps in thewaltz and a picture of credible terrorin the implacable tread of themarch, with its raspy, narrow -boretrombones and ophicleides, and thebell strokes in the "Witches' Sab-bath" go right to the marrow.

EMI has come through with theonly sort of sonics that would do inthis case-a recording of outstand-ing excellence in its own right thatallows all the performance's won-derful points to be made most clear-ly and directly. When I began listen-

ing to this recording my feeling wasthat it would make an intriguingback-up, a novelty for alternatingwith the two or three favoritesamong the conventional modernversions. Before I got to the end Iknew that this was the Fantastiquethat will be the "basic" recordingfrom now on, and the others will bethe alternates. Richard Freed

BERLIOZ: Symphonie fantastique, Op.14. London Classical Players, RogerNorrington cond. EMI/ANGEL 0 CDC49541 (53 min).

JAZZ PIANISTMARCUS

ROBERTS

pIANIST Marcus Roberts ispart of that refreshing breezeof young jazz talent that hasblown onto the jazz scene in

recent years and raised the con-sciousness of many who had takenthe soul train to more lucrative ter-ritory. It was in 1985 that Robertsanswered the call of Pied PiperWynton Marsalis to join his group,but "The Truth Is Spoken Here" isRoberts's first album as a leader.And what an impressive debut it is!That should come as no surprise toanyone who has heard Roberts withthe Marsalis group, but if youthought he was impressive as a side-man, wait until you hear him here.Produced by Wynton's brother,Delfeayo Marsalis, this is one of thebest jazz albums I have heard in avery long time. Roberts is decidedlystar material; his solos and compo-sitions (of which the album containsfive) are like perfectly composedpictures, so full of delicate details

Marcus Roberts: star material

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BFST RECORDINGS OF THE MONTH

that you discover something neweach time you listen.

Convinced that current musicmust respectfully acknowledge thepast, Roberts has honed his work onthis album accordingly. He is adevoted admirer of TheloniousMonk and teams up with the latepianist's long-time associate, tenorsaxophonist Charlie Rouse, forthree Monk -tinged Roberts origi-nals. (Sadly, these turned out to beRouse's last recordings.) Also in-cluded is a stunning solo renditionof Monk's Blue Monk. Not surpris-ingly, Wynton Marsalis, himself awell-known keeper of the flame, ison hand for the proceedings, play-ing superbly, and so is former JohnColtrane drummer Elvin Jones,providing a link to another Robertsidol. The performances here ofDuke Ellington's In a Mellow Toneand his lesser -known Single Petal ofa Rose reflect the young pianist'sadmiration for Duke's music, butthe real tribute to those who camebefore him lies in the purity of Mar-

own music. A beauti-ful album. Chris Albertson

MARCUS ROBERTS: The Truth IsSpoken Here. Marcus Roberts (piano);Wynton Marsalis (trumpet); CharlesRouse (tenor saxophone); ReginaldVeal (bass); Elvin Jones (drums). TheArrival; Blue Monk; Maurella; SinglePetal of a Rose: Country by Choice; TheTruth Is Spoken Here; In a MellowTone; Nothin' But the Blues. Novus/RCA 3051-1-N, 0 3051-4-N, © 3051-2-N (53 min).

MICHELANGELIPLAYSDEBUSSY

RTURO BENEDETTI MICHEL-ANGELI'S remarkable record-ing of the first book of De-

bussy's Preludes was is-sued on LP more than ten years agoand has been available on CD fornearly five years. It has taken a longtime for the other shoe to drop, butall expectations are abundantly ful-filled in the recording of Book IIissued recently by Deutsche Gram-mophon. Once again, Michelangeliis entirely absorbed in what Debus-

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli

sy set down, with every emphasis onprecision, refinement, and sublety,so that any programmatic or evoca-tive impressions seem generated bythe music itself rather than by aninterpretive overlay. No other pian-ist who has recorded this music hasso successfully clarified Debussy'stextures-or gone about it less os-tentatiously.

The realization of the specified"brusques oppositions d'extremeviolence et de passionnee douceur"in La Puerta del Vino is perhaps themost striking single example of theelemental impact Michelangeliachieves here by simply (or not sosimply) taking Debussy at his word,but the chaste understatement ofCanope and the exalted sobriety inFeuilles mortes are hardly less re-markable. Indeed, every one of thetwelve pieces reaches a level thatmay be called "exalted." The pianosound itself is the most lifelike I

have heard in any of this pianist'srecordings, focused just right to con-vey a shimmering, "liquid" qualitythat never turns soupy or brittle.

Thirty-nine minutes is not verygenerous for a full -price CD, but irithe face of this recording's musicalvalues such a consideration is ratherbeside the point. Richard Freed

DEBUSSY: Preludes, Book H. ArturoBenedetti Michelangeli (piano). DEUT-SCHE GRAMMOPHON 427 391-2 (39min).

NOW ON CDCompact Discs ofpreviously released LP's

POPULARO CHRIS CONNOR: Sings theGeorge Gershwin Almanac of Song.ATLANTIC 601-2 (two crfs). Thirty-fourtracks dating from the late Fifties andearly Sixties.O THE CURE: Japanese Whispers.SIRE 25076-2. The Top. 25086-2.Albums by the British rockers originallyreleased over there on the Fiction labelin 1984.O BENNY GOODMAN: Big Band inEurope. MUSICMASTERS CIJ 60157X.Previously unreleased recordings madeat the Brussels World's Fair in 1958,featuring Jimmy Rushing, Zoot Sims,and Roland Hanna.O CHARLIE HADEN: The GoldenNumber. A&M CD -0825. "Inspired"duets with Don Cherry, OrnetteColeman, Hampton Hawes, and ArchieShepp (May 1978).O MEL LEWIS: And Friends. A&MCD -0823. "Light 'n' lively" (June 1977).O ROY ORBISON: The Classic RoyOrbison (1965-1968). RHINO R2 70711.An eighteen -track compilation coveringthe late artist's first four years withMGM Records.O REO SPEEDWAGON: GoodTrouble. EPIC EK 38100. Nine Lives.EK 35988. Hard rock played with"disarming exuberance" (November1982).

CLASSICAL BEETHOVEN: Symphonies Nos. 1and 2. Thomas. CBS MDK 44905."Elegant" (September 1986).O GERSHWIN: Porgy and Bess.Warfield, L. Price; Henderson. RCA5234-2-RG. Highlights from thememorable revival of 1963.O GOTTSCHALK: A Night in theTropics; Grand Tarantelle. List,Abravanel. VANGUARD VCD 72026."Spectacular" (November 1968).O MOZART: Andante in C Major.ROSSINI: Theme and Variations.WEBER: Clarinet Concerto No. 1.Stoltzman, Schneider. RCA60035-2-RG. Performances of"brilliance and passion" (September1983).

O ROSSINI: William Tell. Bacquier,Caballe, Gedda; Gardelli. ANGELCDMD 69951 (four CD's). "Uniformlyfirst-rate" (Best of Month, December1973).

O WAGNER: Die WalkOre, Act II.Flagstad, Lehmann, Melchior, Schorr;Reiner. LEGATO LCD 133-1. Recordedlive at the San Francisco Opera in 1936.


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POPULAR MUSIC

Discs and tapes reviewed byChris Albertson, Phyl Garland,Ron Givens, Roy Hemming,Alanna Nash, Mark Peel,and Steve Simels

BIG BAM BOO: Fun, Faith & Fair -play. Shark (vocals, guitar); SimonTedd (vocals, guitar, keyboards, pro-gramming); vocal and instrumental ac-companiment. Fell Off a Mountain;Shooting from My Heart; If You CouldSee Me Now; What's Bigger Than LifeJustice; and five others. UNI/MCAUNI-8, 0 UNIC-8, 0 UNID-8 (42min).

Performance: Fresh -faced popRecording: Good

Two guitars, two voices, and two na-tionalities-Canadian and British-give this duo the flavor of an interna-tionalized Everly Brothers or a late -model Peter and Gordon. Like theirpopabilly forebears, Big Barn Boo'sShark and Simon Tedd sing in closeharmony and accompany themselveson guitar. They write all their ownmaterial, half of which is very good, therest just okay. But when they hit themark, the songs take off like long -lostpop nuggets whose date of origin couldbe the Sixties or Eighties (but definitelynot the Seventies) and actually soundlike a hybrid of the best parts of bothdecades. Fell Off a Mountain boasts apoppish underpinning not unlike theEasybeats' Friday on My Mind, and theguitars in What's Bigger Than Liferecall the twangy tone of Duane Eddy'sbig rig. Meanwhile, the roller -coastervocals in Wicked Love could pass mus-ter in a Timbuk 3 album. If Big BarnBoo's mission is to put fun, faith, andfair play back into pop music, they'reoff to an encouraging start. P.P.

E.U.: Livin' Large. E.U. (vocals andinstrumentals); instrumental accom-paniment. Buck Wild; Livin' Large;Shake Your Thong; Taste of Your Love;Shako Zulu; and five others. VIRGIN91021-1, 0 91021-4, 0 91021-2 (49min).

Performance: Hot funRecording: Very good

This is a great party record, one of thebest I've ever heard. That comes as nosurprise, for E.U. is the group that

EXPLANATION OF SYMBOLS:

= DIGITALLY RECORDED LP TAPE CASSETTE = COMPACT DISC (TIMINGS ARE

TO NEAREST MINUTE.)

TOM PETTY ON HIS OWNTom Perry's "Full Moon Fe-

ver," his first album withoutthe Heartbreakers (actually, allof them except drummer Stan

Lynch show up in cameo roles), is notonly the finest thing he's done in agesbut a truly glorious throwback. And Idon't mean musically, although there'salmost nothing here that-stylistical-ty-would have been out of place in1969. Rather, it's a throwback to an erawhen superstar albums weren't years(and millions of dollars) in the making,to that long -vanished time when rockmusicians simply wrote a bunch of newsongs and got them out to the public asquickly as they could, to the days whencommercial pop music was exciting be-cause it had something in common withjournalism-topical immediacy. And,most important, it's a throwback to anage that now seems as remote as thePleistocene, when musical and artisticdecisions were made more on the basisof gut instinct than market research.

In other words, "Full Moon Fever" isan album of short, catchy songs, coolriffs, seemingly tossed off but oftenamusing lyrics, and brilliant studiotouches, all of which seem to exist solelybecause the participants believed inwhat they were doing. The music, notsurprisingly, is Petty's trademark mix ofthe Byrds, the Rolling Stones, and a cer-tain kind of Southern soul, but it'sunencumbered here by the need tomake Big Statements or (on the auralevidence) by any sort of self-imposedpressure beyond the desire to have fun.It has a good beat, too, and you candance to it. It is, in short, a thoroughlyentertaining record.

Although the basic sound will comeas no shock to anybody who's heard theTraveling Wilburys album (also co -pro-duced by Jeff Lynne), "Full Moon Fe-ver" is hardly the Wilburys, Part Two,or any kind of star -on -a -lark indul-gence. Taken on their own, simply assongs, the new tunes here are uniformlystrong, and several of them-particu-larly the wonderfully ominous Won'tBack Down-will doubtless sound ter-rific when Petty gets around to perform-ing them with the Heartbreakers. Forthat matter, Zombie Zoo, which nodsslightly to the Cars, provides the bestoutsider's take on alienated youth thathas been heard this decade.

But what's ultimately most rewardingabout the album is that none of its craftor playfulness seems calculated: It's asspontaneous sounding as a 3 a.m. jamsession. While you're listening to it, youdon't have time to ponder what Pettywas thinking. Instead, you can onlymarvel at the way A Mind with a Heart

of Its Own, with its Bo Diddley beat andprimitive slide guitar, suggests someunutterably cool band you missed at theWhisky a Go Go in 1966, or at howDepending on You makes such effectiveand subtle use of a supposedly obsoleteeffect (like a tremolo amplifier), or athow Runnin' Down a Dream managesto be part car song, part homage toDave Edmunds. And all that's withouteven considering the long -overdue re-make of the Byrds' great Feel a WholeLot Better, which manages the neat trickof sounding thoroughly authentic andthoroughly personal at the same time.

Of course, given the debased times inwhich we live, it is tempting to oversell"Full Moon Fever" as some sort ofmasterpiece, which it isn't. Modest, un-assuming, recherché, it breaks no newground and has little of importance tosay. Nevertheless, it is smart, tuneful,and witty rock-and-roll, a commoditynever to be sneezed at. If it's commer-cially successful, it can only encouragesimilar efforts and, consequently,should be purchased by anyone whosesensibilities are even remotely screwedon right. Steve Simels

TOM PETTY: Full Moon Fever. TomPetty (vocals, guitar, keyboards, tam-bourine); Mike Campbell (guitar, man-dolin, keyboards); Jeff Lynne (guitar,keyboards, vocals); Phil Jones (drums,percussion); George Harrison (guitar,vocals); other musicians. Free Fallin; IWon't Back Down; Love Is a LongRoad; A Face in the Crowd; Runnin'Down a Dream; Feel a Whole Lot Bet-ter; Yer So Bad; Depending on You; TheApartment Song; Alright for Now; AMind with a Heart of Its Own; ZombieZoo. MCA MCA -6253, Q MCAC-6253,0 MCAD-6253 (40 min).


brought an incendiary surge to SpikeLee's movie School Daze with the au-thentically funky rhythms of Da Butt. Itis reprised here in an updated versionalong with several other selections set tomoderately paced rhythms that are per-fect for marathon dancing. E.U.'s musicharks back to early rhythm-and-blues,layered over with a playful, homespunkind of rap. The combination is all butirresistible. Occasionally the groupshifts to a quieter mood, proving thatthere's more than one level to their tal-ent, as in Taste of Your Love, an evoca-tive piece suited to dim lights, closemovement, and sensual thoughts. E.U.is already immensely popular in Wash-ington, D.C., its home town, and its fol-lowing is sure to grow with the release of"Livin' Large." P.G.

TIM FINN. Tim Finn (vocals, guitar,keyboards); vocal and instrumental ac-companiment. Young Mountain; NotEven Close; How'm I Gonna Sleep; Par-ihaka; Tears Inside; and five others.CAPITOL C1-48735, Co C4-48735, © C2-48735 (40 min).

Performance: Emotionally candidRecording: Very good

Baring your soul in public is a risky ven-ture in the superficial world of contem-

porary pop, where artifice is more high-ly compensated than art. Tim Finn,however, doesn't back down from histrue feelings, which run the gamut fromheart-rending disillusionment to thehopeful stirrings of a new beginning.The result is an album that will touch aresonant chord within anyone who'sever been troubled and confused atsome point in his life and found thefaith and will to surmount his prob-lems. (Hey, is there anyone who has notfelt that way?)

Tim Finn, brother of CrowdedHouse's Neil Finn and one-time leaderof Australia's beloved Split Enz, is bold-ly confessional and brilliantly percep-tive in this, his third solo album. Hisdistinctive, bittersweet voice conveysemotions with sureness and power, andhe never allows bathos to get the betterof him. As with Phil Collins in his firstsolo album, "Face Value," you get thesense here of a man carrying himselfthrough an episode of depression to amore cheerful place, using work as ther-apy. Finn examines his life with candidobjectivity, drolly portraying himself asa former pop star currently out of publicfavor in Been There Done That. Suchsongs as Tears Inside, Not Even Close,and How'm I Gonna Sleep are achinglypersonal, the feeling of loss starkly driv-

en home by lines like, "Weave me arope that will pull me through/Theseimpossible times."

On the brighter side, Finn turns forinspiration to the life of Te Whiti, aMaori prophet of nonviolence, in theprayerful and pulsating Parihaka, andhe looks beyond his own suffering to tellthe story of one Derek Bainbridge inSuicide on Downing St., a portrait ofincurable despair whose moral is, "Youcannot call us civilized/As long as onelife is denied." There's an eloquent met-aphor for renewal in Young Mountainand some wonderful lines in BirdsSwim Fish Fly about the changeableand fickle nature of emotional states ("Iturn one way and the wind blows meover/I turn another way and it's holdingme up"). The latter song is also musical-ly irresistible, a solid rocker reminiscentof Split Enz at peak power.

Producer Mitchell Froom allows Finnthe room to express himself, leaving themusical quirks and emotional opennessintact but applying just enough polishto make Finn accessible to more than acult following. Froom was able to workmuch the same magic with CrowdedHouse, so who knows? In any case, analbum as courageous and creative asthis one deserves to be heard by morethan just the cognoscenti. P.P.

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SUZY BoGGuss

0NE of the joys of writing rec-ord reviews is the knowledgethat one of the thousand al-bums that stumble across the

threshold each year will deliver thethrill of discovering an immensely tal-ented new artist. Occasionally, a smartrecord executive will pair such an artistwith an equally rare find-a producerwho understands what the artist is try-ing to do and surrounds him or her withthe kind of tasteful, creative backingthat helps make the record a classic, likethe debut discs of Emmylou Harris andRodney Crowell, both produced byBrian Ahern in the mid -Seventies, and,more recently, those of Lyle Lovett andSteve Earle, with Tony Brown at thehelm.

As these examples might hint, thatkind of thing doesn't happen in countrymusic all that often. Amazingly, howev-er, another startling debut effort hasfloated to the top, this one from a youngwoman with the unlikely name of SuzyBogguss and with the unlikelier back-ground of having worked as one of thehouse acts at Dollywood, Dolly Par -ton's theme park in Pigeon Forge, Ten-nessee. Bogguss's new record for Capi-tol, "Somewhere Between," was pro-duced by Wendy Waldman, who hasnever appeared so in command of theessence of both traditional and progres-sive country music.

Bogguss comes as a surprise for sev-eral reasons. Her debut album seemsanything but a freshman effort. Rather,like Emmylou Harris's "Luxury Liner"of over a decade ago, it seems to reflectyears of working out the kinks and try-ing on styles to achieve a certain refine-ment. In other words, Bogguss's "Some-where Between," with its exceptionallypoised and polished vocals and inspiredsong selection, bypasses those awkward

rites of passage that most new recordingartists experience. The songs succeedbecause of their inherent character andfunctional beauty, and because of thekind of honesty that transcends studio -made technique. There's not a jive lickfrom start to finish.

Described by her press material as a"second -generation revivalist," Boggussnonetheless steps forward as a full-blown artist. She dusts off three ofcountry's most tenacious numbers-Merle Haggard's title song, Hank Wil-liams, Sr.'s My Sweet Love Ain'tAround, and Patsy Montana's campy IWant to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart-and approaches them with a fresh per-spective and eager passion. She can alsosegue convincingly from the Texasswing of Handyman's Dream to theurban angst of Guilty As They Come.Bogguss is nothing if not versatile.

"Somewhere Between," then, es-chews all the easy formulas-of song -writing, of sequencing, of mindless ses-sion picking, and of the normal star -building procedure. It heralds the arriv-al both of a serious new country talentand of a producer finally coming intoher own. And, most of all, it adds a newname to that short list of artists knownas Nashville's New Integrity. Dolly -wood's loss, it happily appears, is every-one else's gain. A lanna Nash

SUZY BOGGUSS: Somewhere Be-tween. Suzy Bogguss (vocals); vocal andinstrumental accompaniment. Some-where Between; I'm at Home on theRange; My Sweet Love Ain't Around;Guilty As They Come; Handyman'sDream; I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweet-heart; Cross My Broken Heart; Take ItLike a Man; Hopeless Romantic; NightRider's Lament. CAPITOL C1-90237, ©C4-90237, C2-90237 (35 min).

FOSTER AND LLOYD: Faster andLlouder. Radney Foster (vocals); BillLloyd (vocals, guitar, mandolin, tam-bourine, piano); vocal and instrumentalaccompaniment. Faster and Louder;Fair Shake; She Knows What SheWants; Happy for a While; Fat LadySings; and four others (five others onCD). RCA 9587-1-R, 0 9587-4-R,9587-2-R (36 min).

Performance: Amalgamated stealRecording: Crisp

You could argue from now untildoomsday about whether Radney Fos-ter and Bill Lloyd are rock musicianswho mix it up with a country twang orcountry musicians who cut their teethon rock-and-roll. Either way, Foster andLloyd have kicked up a dust storm ofexcitement around Nashville, whereone journalist quipped, "If the Byrdsand the Beatles were to have lunch atthe Everly Brothers' house and listen toHank Williams, Sr., records, the musicwould sound like Foster and Lloyd."

For me, at least, that's the rub.Despite a multitude of catchy hooks,sparkling instrumentals, and oftenthrilling vocal harmonies, the bottomline is that Foster and Lloyd are moreexquisite mimics than true creators.Their various influences include all ofthe above along with Chuck Berry,Buck Owens, Poco, the Flying BurritoBrothers, the Band, Roy Orbison, BruceHornsby, and even Velvet Under-ground, and the all -too -obvious allu-sions to these artists' work run rampantthrough the F&L song catalog. That wasthe problem in their debut album, too,but now, in "Faster and Llouder," theirsecond effort, the approach seems evenmore like a pose than a commitment, acalculated attempt to evoke some of thebest -loved music in country -rock. Still,if none of that bothers you, "Faster andLlouder" offers high energy, sure-firepicking, singable lyrics, an instantlynostalgic groove, and plenty of attitude.Make that plenty of attitude. A.N.

INDIGO GIRLS. Amy Ray, Emily Sal-iers (vocals, acoustic guitars); vocal andinstrumental accompaniment. Closer toFine; Secure Yourself Kid Fears; Princeof Darkness; Blood and Fire; and fiveothers. EPIC FE 45044, © FET 45044,EK 45044 (44 min).

Performance: UnrestrainedRecording: Good

The two women of Indigo Girls, AmyRay and Emily Saliers, make musicwith great passion. I imagine themstanding upright, lifting their chins, andsinging to the rafters, strumming might-ily at their acoustic guitars all the while.Their husky altos threaten to shatterour feeble resistance as they belt outstrong words and stronger feelings. Thisis red-blooded folk music with no holdsbarred.

Ray and Saliers are Romantic roman-tics, and their solipsistic lyrics are


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"poetic" in a variety of ways. Saliersstitches metaphors together in Closer toFine when she writes, "I wrap my feararound me like a blanket/I sailed myship of safety till I sank it." SecureYourself, written by Ray, is a clot of dis-parate images: "In the ink of an eye Isaw you bleed/through the thunder Icould hear you scream/solid to the air Ibreathe/open-eyed and fast asleep."And Ray's Blood and Fire boils longingdown to its brutal essence with a versethat repeats, four times, "I am intense, Iam in need, I am in pain, I am inlove."

Producer Scott Litt knew enough toget out of the way of Indigo Girls. Theaccompaniment is dominated by theduo's pounding guitar work, augmentedby occasional rock touches. Members ofHothouse Flowers and R.E.M. providesupport, but without obscuring thetwo headstrong lead voices. Recom-mended. R.G.

CAROLE KING: City Streets. CaroleKing (vocals, keyboards, guitar); vocaland instrumental accompaniment. CityStreets; Sweet Life; Down to the Dark-ness; Lovelight; I Can't Stop ThinkingAbout You; and five others. CAPITOL 090885-1, © 90885-4, 0 90885-2 (43min).

Performance: StrainedRecording: Very good

Carole King has had, essentially, twocareers-the first, in the Sixties, as thebest of the Brill Building pop tune -smiths, and the second, in the Seven-ties, as the most successful of all theconfessional singer -songwriters. Criti-cally speaking, she's (justifiably) morehighly regarded for the first phase, butto give her her due, King II has been anenormous and underacknowledged vo-cal influence on a lot of recent singers.Without her nasal, conversationallyphrased suburban soul singing, for ex-ample, performers as varied as ChrissieHynde and Cowboy Junkies' MargoTimmins would be unthinkable.

"City Streets," King's first album inover five years, attempts to split the dif-ference between her two compositionalmodes, and while it would be nice to sayit shows her near the peak of her form,it would also be a colossal fib. Theidiom here, as it is for so many othernewly matured rockers (and as youshould be able to gather from the albumtitle) is sort of ersatz Springsteen-which is a bit of poetic justice sincemuch of "Born to Run" derives fromthe Sixties King. Unfortunately, Kingmostly sounds silly here nattering onabout life on the other side of the tracks,and her attempts to toughen up vocal-ly-as in a thoroughly mundane rockerlike Sweet Life-are pretty embarrass-ing. True, the album has a certain ener-gy, and in the abstract it may be morepalatable than the You've Got a Friend -style treacle she's been peddling formany years. But take away the vocals -

78 STEREO REview Juvi 1989

which, strained or not, at least bear anidentifiable personal stamp-and whatyou've got left sounds like demos by anaspiring schlock mistress. In short, un-derwhelming. S.S.

LEO KOTTKE: My Father's Face. LeoKottke (vocals, guitar); instrumental ac-companiment. Times Twelve: Every-body Lies; B.J.; Why Can't You Fix MyCar; Theme From "The Rick and BobReport"; and six others. PRIVATE MU-SIC 2050 -I -P, © 2050-4-P, 2050-2-P(39 min).

Performance: WonderfulRecording: Very good

Leo Kottke is one of those people who'sbeen good for so long that people tendto take him for granted, which is ashame since he's something of an Amer-ican natural resource. This latest effortfrom the reclusive virtuoso offers prettymuch the usual Kottke mix of reflectiveguitar instrumentals (in what used to bereferred to as a folk -music style beforethe New Age people co-opted it), leav-ened for the first time in a while with anoccasional vocal in his inimitable frog-gy baritone. There's at least one songhere (Everybody Lies) that cries out fora cover version by some college radioband, there's a delightful deadpan jape(Why Can't You Fix My Car), andthere's a superior -sounding remake of agorgeous piece Kottke originally cutback in the early Seventies (Mona Ray).The remaining tracks are never lessthan compositionally interesting, andall are impeccably played. S.S.

MADONNA: Like a Prayer (see Bestof the Month, page 67)

CHRIS REA: New Light Through OldWindows. Chris Rea (vocals, guitar,keyboards); vocal and instrumental ac-companiment. Let's Dance; Working onIt; Windy Town; Steel River; StainsbyGirls; Ace of Hearts; I Can Hear YourHeartbeat; and three others. GEFFENGHS 24232, C)M5G 24232, © 24232-2(48 min).

Performance: CaptivatingRecording: Good

Chris Rea sings with the voice of expe-rience. It's a weathered instrument,softened by disappointment and frayedby regret. Here's a man who's been inand out of love, who's been the betrayerand the betrayed, who's been taught bythe ups and downs of life that patienceis a practical, necessary virtue. Rea maybe weary to the bone of bad relation-ships, and tired of coming up short, buthe's unable to stop leading with hisheart. When opportunity knocks, as itdoes in Let's Dance, he sings: "Caughtin a world full of tears/So many sadtimes and fears/So while there's achance and you're near/Let's dance."

"New Light Through Old Windows"is a catalog of romantic joys and afflic-tions. Considering that the emphasis is

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MARC V

ARC V. is a new artist whoseems to have everything: aspirited, seamlessly polishedsinging style, a gift for writ-

ing songs with both intelligent lyricsand instantly appealing melodies, and abig enough talent to attract the sort oftop-ranking producers and back-up mu-sicians who can give him a dazzlingsend-off. His first solo outing, "TooTrue," shows that he has another im-portant attribute as well: personality, anidentifiable musical presence that setshim apart.

Marc V.'s work is wonderfully eclec-tic, drawing from the diverse strains ofhis own background. The obvious com-parison is with Sade since, like her, hehas a Nigerian father and a Britishmother. There is also a stylistic similar-ity in the minor mode of some of hissongs and the way he often employsclose harmony in the vocals. But hisapproach is much hotter than Sade's,more closely linked to current pop mu-sic, with the soul strains carefully wo-ven in.

Marc V. (his last name is Vormawan)was born in Liverpool, and, like thatcity's most famous sons, the Beatles, hewrites melodically rich songs thatwould stand up even without modernelectronic enhancements. He credits hismother for exposing him to a broadrange of American music, from Mo-town to vintage jazz-saxophonist Les-

ter Young is one of his favorites. Per-haps this knowledge of jazz gave him ataste for musical adventure and a pref-erence for substance over flash.

Yet he is a totally modern performer.Though his voice is a bit higher andsweeter, at times he resembles StevieWonder, especially in Paint the Moon-light Black, with its surprising har-monic changes and rhythmic twists.Also like Wonder, he edges into socialcommentary, as in Let Them Stare,about the public disapproval faced by aracially mixed couple, and Cops & Rob-bers, in which he muses about the waychildren are corrupted by the terribleexamples adults set for them.

Marc V. delivers all these songs-which he wrote together with ColinBrown-with an affecting energy anddirectness. They have enough drivingrhythms and vitality to infuse a party,but they also repay close listening. MarcV. has a lot to say, and he says it withadmirable authority. Phyl Garland

MARC V.: Too True. Marc V. (vocals,keyboards); vocal and instrumental ac-companiment. Cops & Robbers; HouseArrest; Let Them Stare; Something toBelieve In; Paint the Moonlight Black; IRemember; Powerful Love; When Am IGonna Learn; Can't Stop Lovin' You;You Can Turn the Lights Out. ELEKTRA60811-1, © 60811-4, 0 60811-2 (39min).

on the afflictions, it is a surprisingly cas-ual, glossy album. The instrumentalsare slick, sometimes distractingly so,and you may be reminded of MarkKnopfler or Billy Joel, not always in agood way. For the most part, however,Rea is as restrained musically as he isvocally. Melodies, countermelodies,and solos all make their emotionalpoints without being strident or pushy.Yet they linger on, like heartache. Thesame is true of Rea's lyrics. Wisps oflonging breeze by, like this memoryfrom Windy Town: "No car for kissing/Nowhere to go/Except inside each oth-er/And I loved you so."

A number of these songs have beenhits in Europe. In fact, a number ofthem have appeared, in other versions,in Rea's previous American releases,which have been little heard. The dis-crepancy between his popularity on thetwo sides of the Atlantic is hard toexplain, but it just might be eliminatedby "New Light Through Old Win-dows." R.G.

KAREN STALEY: Wildest Dreams.Karen Staley (vocals); vocal and instru-mental accompaniment. So Good to Bein Love; Tumbleweed; Give Me OneGood Reason; That's Not the Kind ofLove I Need Tonight; Now and Then;He Thinks He's James Dean; WildestDreams; Looks Like Rain; and two oth-ers. MCA 0 MCA -42112, © MCAC-42112, 0 MCAD-42112 (33 min).

Performance: Yeah!Recording: Variable

Karen Staley has been known aroundNashville for several years now both asReba McEntire's harmony singer and asthe writer of a handful of standoutsongs recorded by Patty Loveless, theDirt Band, Holly Dunn, and MichaelMartin Murphey. But probably no oneanticipated the range and power of herdebut album, "Wildest Dreams," asmart collection of original, sassy songsco -produced by Jimmy Bowen, TonyBrown, and Staley herself.

Influenced by such diverse artists asBonnie Raitt, James Taylor, and Ma-halia Jackson, Staley has a deep,throaty, and enormously expressivevoice that sometimes brings to mindTracy Nelson. But because her music isso diversified-segueing easily fromprogressive country -rock to contempo-rary western swing to wild -and -wounded ballads and even glorious gos-pel-blues-it is unfair to compare herwith anyone. Armed with a heavy back -beat, she approaches traditional countrywith due respect but adds a certain crea-tive recklessness, melding acoustic andelectric guitars, for example, in a waynot usually found in the strictly countrygenre. And if Staley, from the hard -scrabble steel -mill country of Pennsyl-vania, is still more concerned with themusic than the lyrics, she neverthelessapplies a certain lyrical inventiveness,too, titling one rocker, about a teenager

80 STEREO RF:view pit, 1989

Prism EffectWiat las prism effect, a refractive phenome-

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describe what our sophisticated XM-3* MDbileElec-sonrc Crossover does to audio signa s.

Wien an ordinary ray of white light passesthrough a prism, it is systematically separated intothe primary colors of -he spectrum-opticallymucl more aesthetic than the original ligt-1.

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Specially engineered features such as Frontand Rea Pre -Amp Inputs and Front and RearOutputs as well as a constant Sub-Woofe-Output, Asymmetrical ElectronicCrossover which has -wohigh-pass (32-400 Hzvariaole)

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crossover points for the froi- and rear outputs anda low-pass (32-400 Hz variaole) crossover pointfor the sub -woofer output, 'roofer EnclosureEqualization engineered fo- Jptimizing bassresponse. Phase Inverter allowing the sub -wooferoutput to be shifted 180 degrees out -of -phase tocompensate for in -vehicle acoustical abnormali-ties and Frequency Multiplier Switch which. bymultiplying crossover points for the front channeltransforms the XM-3 from a al -AMP SYSTEM to aTRI-AMP SYSTEM, etc.. all contributed to createthe PRISM EFFECT and make the XM-3 the mostversatile electronic crossover ever manufacturedfor automotive use.

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with an attitude problem, He ThinksHe's James Dean.

What should really win Staley legionsof fans, however, is the vocal intensitythat propels this album like an engine.Backed by some of the best female har-mony singers in the business (watch forJonelle Mosser to get her own solo con-tract), Staley soars, purrs, and growlsher way through her repertoire, pausingonly occasionally to give the listener abreather. There is some unevenness inthe production and an irritating overuseof reverb throughout. But, that aside,"Wildest Dreams" marks the arrival ofone of Nashville's brightest young per-formers. A.N.

MARTIN STEPHENSON AND THEDAINTEES: Gladsome Humour &Blue. Martin Stephenson and the Darn -tees (vocals and instrumentals); vocaland instrumental accompaniment.There Comes a Time; Slaughterman;The Wait; I Can See; The Old Church IsStill Standing; Even the Night; WhollyHumble Heart; Me & Mathew; Nancy;Goodbye John; I Pray; Crocodile Cryer;and eight others. CAPITOL C I -91751two LP's, © C4-91751 one cassette,C2-91751 one CD (76 min).

Performance: EclecticRecording: Warm

In the sepia -toned photograph of Mar-tin Stephenson that graces the frontjacket of "Gladsome Humour & Blue,"he's clutching a battered hollow -bodyand wearing a coarse workman's shirt,his derby tilted to one side as he intentlyfingers a chord. While no one will mis-take him for Woody Guthrie, his songshave an affecting, human -scaled, andfolkish dimension. He sings in a plainand honest voice with a minimum ofposturing and rather subdued back-upfrom his band, the Daintees.

Stephenson's Capitol debut is a dou-ble -length compendium of his first al-bum, 1986's "Boat to Bolivia," and1988's "Gladsome Humour & Blue,"both previously unreleased in the U.S."Bolivia" is the more frisky and extro-verted of the two, with Stephenson andthe band trying their hands at a varietyof styles-country-and-western (Candlein the Middle), unaccompanied folk(Rain), UB40-flavored pop -reggae(Boat to Bolivia), barnstorming blue-grass (Running Water), and even aspunky rock song or two.

"Gladsome Humour & Blue" findsStephenson well on his way to defininghimself as a songwriter with a literate,Joycean lyrical bent and a penchant forrestrained, intimate folk -pop settings.It's one of those curious records thatactually sounds better at low volume;it's perfect for late -night reveries whenyou don't want to worry about wakingthe neighbors. Me & Mathew is animpressionistic remembrance of sum-mer, as gushingly open as JonathanRichman. "Gladsome Humour" alsocontains a batch of modest and melan-

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THE REAL PHOEBE SNOW

FOR the past eight years, PhoebeSnow's shimmering, four -octavevoice has been confined solely tocommercial jingles, her instantly

recognizable, otherworldly alto extoll-ing the virtues of AT&T, Coca-Cola,Pillsbury, and even Exxon. But Snow,who admits that doing jingles is "nicework if you can get it," yearned forsomething else. What she wanted, shesings in her first album since 198 I 's"Rock Away," was "something real.one time, before 1 die."

Snow's new effort, "Something Real,"is her most accessible and coherentrecord since her left -field debut in 1974.It opens with that statement in the titlesong and at once recalls the finger -picked, airy folkiness of Poetry Man,reacquainting her old fans both withthat magnificent voice-which zoomsto stratospheric heights at the slightestprovocation-and with the tough emo-tionalism that always stitched her moreremarkable songs together. From thereshe moves on to explore a variety ofmusical niches, including grandiose bal-lads, kick -out rock, and, most success-fully, a bluesy, comfortable style of pop-soul. All of these, with their careful pro-duction and instrumental finesse, sether squarely in the Eighties and give hera very different kind of image-that of astrong, caring, benevolent romantic, buta romantic with her head screwed onstraight.

"Something Real" has been called apop album for grown-ups, because itexamines life in the post -twenties years,when emotional scarring or growth arelikely to have occurred as a result ofadversity and disappointment. Snow, atthirty-six, has experienced a good dealof pain-a failed marriage, the rearingof a handicapped child, the death of hermother, to whom she was exceptionallyclose, a debilitating illness, a faltering

career, unending legal hassles, and thedemise of an important romantic rela-tionship.

The songs in "Something Real" natu-rally reflect such struggles; more impor-tant, they also chronicle recovery andlessons learned. And yet none of this ispushed down the throat. Snow's enor-mously seductive music often lungesforward with intense urgency, but out ofstrength and compassion, not finger-wagging. The two most affecting origi-nal songs, in fact, are heartbreaking intheir honesty and emotional exposure:In Touch Your Soul, Snow bids an affec-tionate, if self -protecting, goodbye to alover who has little to give to himself,much less another. And in I'm YourGirl, a song she wrote for her late moth-er, she sings of a continuing, if changed,relationship, of a lifeline that has notwithered. It is a love song of a differentkind.

"Something Real" is the work of sev-eral producers-Rob Fraboni andRicky Fataar produced most of it, butRuss Titelman did three tracks and PhilRamone one. Occasionally, the patch-work shows, particularly in the moreroutine second half. When the albumreally connects, however-and connect-ing is what it is fundamentally about-Snow achieves that rarest of musicalfeats, a shortcut to the soul. "SomethingReal" turns out to be just that.

Alanna Nash

PHOEBE SNOW: Something Real.Phoebe Snow (vocals, guitar); vocal andinstrumental accompaniment. Some-thing Real; Mr. Wondering; Touch YourSoul; We Might Never Feel This WayAgain; I'm Your Girl; If I Can Just GetThrough the Night; Stay Away: Sooth-in; Best of My Love; Cardiac Arrest.ELEKTRA 60852-1, ©60852-4, ©60852-2 (41 min).

choly pop songs-Slaughterman, I CanSee, and, especially, Nancy-that arerefreshingly unforced and unhurried.While many artists are busy scratchingand clawing for some gimmick that willgain them attention, Martin Stephensonis doing it the old-fashioned way: bywriting good songs and singing as if hemeans them. P.P.

TONE-LOC: Laced After Dark. Tone-LOc (vocals); vocal and instrumentalaccompaniment. On Fire; Wild Thing;LOc-ed After Dark; I Got It Goin' On;Cutting Rhythms; Funky Cold Medina;Next Episode; Cheeba Cheeba; Don'tGet Close; LOc'in on the Shaw; TheHomies. DELICIOUS VINYL/ISLAND DV3000, © ZCD 3000, © CCD 3000 (51min).

Performance: A real hootRecording: Appropriately cheesy

To paraphrase Morrissey of the Smiths,most rap doesn't have a lot to do with alot of people's lives. But here's a raprecord that has a lot to do with a lot ofpeople's lives, hence its astonishingcommercial success, and yet it makesno concessions to pop -radio program-mers or guardians of public morals likeTipper Gore and her Parents' MusicResource Center. Basically, this is great,stupid/funny party music, rap as adirect linear descendant of all the great,stupid/funny frat-party rock and r -&-bsongs so beloved by the characters inAnimal House. What, for example, isWild Thing, the monster hit in "LOc-edAfter Dark," if not a contemporaryLouie Louie or Shout-that is, an ex-cuse to party and yell "Toga!" at topvolume? The similarities found in thisnew album are unmistakable: the greatthumping beat, the minimalist melody,the sly innuendos, and the general atti-tude of disposable silliness.

True, some of the subjects that Tone -Lac deals with so engagingly here wouldhave been taboo in the days of theKingsmen-for example, transvestism,aphrodisiacs, and marijuana (he's am-bivalent about the first, interested in thesecond, and enthusiastic about thethird). Nevertheless, the message thatlurks beneath the surface of this musicis exactly the same as that of such earlySixties classics as Double Shot of MyBaby's Love or Twist and Shout, and Isuspect that that's why so many folkswho normally rate rap right up therewith root canal have taken to this stuffso enthusiastically.

It is also worth noting, for rock criticsand other amateur musicologists, thatthis album is a veritable treasure troveof pilfered riffs. In fact, half the fun of"LOc-ed After Dark" is figuring outfrom whom the drum parts and rhythmgrooves were digitally sampled. (I'd sayit's the late John Bonham in Don't GetClose and Charlie Watts, from his Satis-faction break, and Foreigner, from Hot -Blooded, in Funky Cold Medina.) Still,all that is merely icing on the cake. The

84 STEREo REviEw juts 1989

ineluctable truth of the matter is thatTone -Lac is a very amusing fellow whohas created here one of the great, trans-cendent artifacts of the under-the-coun-ter culture. His is a profoundly demo-cratic music that says the urge to do theWild Thing knows no race, color, orcreed. S.S.

RICKY VAN SHELTON: LovingProof. Ricky Van Shelton (vocals, gui-tar); vocal and instrumental accom-paniment. Swimming Upstream; I'llLeave This World Loving You: From aJack to a King: Let Me Live with Love(and Die with You); Living Proof andfive others. COLUMBIA FC 44221, C)FC'T 44221, ©CK 44221 (29 min).

Performance: Best foot forwardRecording: Very good

When Warner Bros. turned RandyTravis into a Major Force several yearsago, Columbia went into a frothy sweatscrambling for a surrogate. What theycame up with was a soft -talking Virgin-ian named Ricky Van Shelton, whosefirst album for the label traded on hismuscular sex appeal (including a coverthat posed him in his undershirt) andsounded like the work of a manufac-tured artist. Van Shelton was probablytoo eager to succeed and too greenabout the business really to assert him-self musically, and the packagingtended to obscure the fact that he was(and is) one of the finest ballad singersever to hit Nashville, a talent that pro-ducer Steve Buckingham now show-cases to perfection in "Loving Proof."

Van Shelton mixes such contempo-rary material as Swimming Upstreamand The Picture, an affecting gem oftrue hillbilly longing he co -wrote withTroy Seals and Buckingham, with a gen-erous sampling of classic oldies. It's inthese that he really proves his mettle. InHe's Got You, for example, he breaksthe song out of its Patsy Cline moldwith the vocal leaps and turns of an ear-ly -Sixties rocker, but in others, includ-ing Hole in My Pocket, a remake of Lit-tle Jimmy Dickens's 1958 rockabillyjumper, and Somebody's Back in Town,a 1959 hit for the Wilburn Brothers,Van Shelton proves more faithful to theoriginal versions, duplicating Dickens'spowerful vocal stance and including anote -for -note emulation of Hank Gar-land's hopping guitar solo. The treat-ment of both these songs is in the natureof a salute rather than a rip-off, honor-ing a timeless subgenre of the countryidiom.

"Loving Proof" also serves up anoth-er oldie whose title just may prophesyVan Shelton's fate. In a velvety -smoothperformance of Ned Miller's From aJack to a King, Van Shelton proves thata sure baritone and a healthy Bakers-field-rockabilly approach make one hellof a strong country ticket. If he was noreal threat to Randy Travis when hestarted out, he is one now. Hats off toyou, fella. A.N.

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JAZZ

MICHEL CAMILO. Michel Camilo(piano); instrumental accompaniment.Suite Sandrine Part I; Nostalgia;Dreamlight; Crossroads; Sunset (Inter-lude/Suite Sandrine); and four others.PORTRAIT/CBS 0 OR 44482, © ORT44482, © RK 44482 (44 min).

Performance: DazzlingRecording: Excellent

It seems as if Michel Camilo came outof nowhere to dazzle us with his fierystyle and extraordinary piano tech-nique, but this young Dominican mu-sician has actually been impressing jazzfans and critics for some time. He hasroused audiences at jazz festivals onboth sides of the Atlantic, has maderecords as both a sideman (with saxo-phonist Paquito D'Rivera) and a leader,and has made his presence felt writingmusic for movies and television. Now,with his new album on the CBS Portraitlabel, he is finally stepping front andcenter, treating many people to theirfirst earful of his considerable creativeand technical skills. Indeed, "MichelCamilo" is a splendid, wholesome sam-pling of music that blends the best ofAmerican jazz traditions with south -of -the -border fire. Camilo is Jose Iturbiwith soul and substance, a breath offresh air on a musical scene that for awhile was filled with the studied key-board tinkles of McCoy Tyner clones.After you've heard Camilo's fingers raceacross the keyboard, you won't be sur-prised to learn that it was Art Tatum'smusic that inspired him to turn to jazz.And he is a gifted composer as well.There is no risk in predicting that wewill hear a lot of good music from Ca-milo in the future. I hope a good portionof it is in the jazz vein. C.A.

Michel Camilo: front and center

CHICK COREA: Akoustic Band.Chick Corea (piano); John Patitucci(bass); Dave Weckl (drums). Bessie'sBlues; My One and Only Love; Sophisti-cated Lady; Autumn Leaves; MorningSprite; and three others (five others oncD). GRP 0 GR-9582, © GRC-9582,GRD-9582 (61 min).

Performance: SplendidRecording: Excellent

When Herbie Hancock returns toacoustic jazz, which he does occasional-ly, it's not without traces of the fusionstyle that so broadened his audience.Chick Corea, on the other hand, seemsto have lost nothing to the fusion stylethat gave his career a financial, if notartistic, boost. Corea's new "AkousticBand" is a substantial trio session thatstrokes my semi -purist's ears with dis-arming charm. This is not Corea hidingbehind lumps of synthesized sound; it'sCorea as he ought to be heard, out in theopen, playing some of his most strikingcompositions, including Circles andSpain, one tune each by Duke Elling-ton, Johnny Mercer, John Coltrane, andCole Porter, and (on CD only) a fine ver-sion of Someday My Prince Come.In all, an excellent album. C.A.

MAYNARD FERGUSON: High Volt-age 2. Maynard Ferguson (trumpet, flu-gelhorn); John Toomey (keyboards);Dave Tull (drums); Michael Lufkin(bass); other musicians. Omaha; Wat-cha Thinkin; Star Eves: Till Then; andfour others. INTIMA/ENIGMA 0 73360-1, © 73360-4, © 73360-2 (43 min).

Performance: Moderate MaynardRecording: Very good

The press kit for "High Voltage 2" re-fers to Maynard Ferguson as a "legend-ary trumpeter." The tag was presum-ably attached by a well-meaning pro-moter to make us bow our heads rever-ently and perk up our ears, but it mademe wince. True, Ferguson has beenaround for a few years, but legendary heis not. If you are old enough to have fol-lowed the jazz scene in the late Fiftiesand Sixties, you probably rememberhim as a high-powered trumpeter whosebig band generated so much steam thatsome people thought it obscured themusic. It sometimes did, but there werefirst-class musicians in the band, andthat was its saving grace.

Ferguson's current band is a septetcalled High Voltage. Its members arerelatively young, and its sound is a crossbetween fusion funk and Fifties funk-nowhere near the voltage of old, I'mglad to say. Ferguson was always a goodtechnician, and that facility was fullyexploited when he rose to the top thirtyyears ago. There is still some grand-standing here, and a touch of the bal-loon -about -to -burst exhibitionism that

marked the work of Harry James, but inthe main, this second album with HighVoltage shows us a kinder, gentler,more musical Maynard Ferguson. C.A.

KEITH JARRETT: Dark Intervals.Keith Jarrett (piano). Opening; Hymn:Americana; Entrance; Fire Dance; andthree others. ECM © 837 342-2 (58min).

Performance: OkayRecording: Very good

This concert, recorded in Tokyo in thespring of 1987, marked Keith Jarrett'sreturn to solo improvisation after ex-tended work in the classical repertoireand with his jazz trio. For most of"Dark Intervals" Jarrett seems ponder-ous, slow to develop melodic fragments.The music is somber and the perform-ances painstaking. The first cut, Open-ing, lasts for nearly thirteen minutes,and the closer, Recitative, goes for morethan eleven-and in both the pianist isunable to sustain his momentumthrough to the end. This is not the lyri-cal, expansive style that characterizedmuch of Jarrett's earlier solo albums.No one can question his technical pow-er, but in this album his imaginationseems to lag a bit. R.G.

MARCUS ROBERTS: The Truth IsSpoken Here (see Best of the Month,page 68)

ROSS TRAUT AND STEVE RODBY:The Great Lawn. Ross Traut (guitar);Steve Rodby (bass). Up on the Roof;Round Midnight; The Great Lawn; TheSong Next Door; Old Folks; La LaMeans / Love You; and three others.COLUMBIA 0 FC 44472, © FCT 44472,

CK 44472 (48 min).

Performance: Quietly bracingRecording: Very good

The concept for this album was blind-ingly simple: Put an electric guitaristand an acoustic bassist-two friends-together in a room by themselves, andlet them play music they love. Theresults are superb. Of course, the twomusicians are topflight jazzmen: RossTraut has performed with the likes ofDavid Samuels and Paul McCandless,and Steve Rodby is a member of the PatMetheny Group. It also helped that theychose a nice mix of pop and jazz tunesand wrote some fine ones together aswell. Capping off the whole project arethe wonderfully empathetic perform-ances of the two men. Traut's sweet,decorative guitar is often in the lead.but Rodby's thick, strolling bass is nev-er far behind. They know what thesesongs have to offer, and together, seam-lessly, they extract it all. Traut's gotmusic, Rodby's got rhythm: who couldask for anything more? R.G.


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Discs and tapes reviewed byRobert Ackart, Richard Freed,David Hall, Stoddard Lincoln,Eric Salzman, andDavid Patrick Stearns

ALBENIZ: Cantos de Espana, Op. 232;Suite espanola, Op. 47. FALLA: TheThree -Cornered Hat, Three Dances; Elamor brujo, excerpts. Ruth Laredo (pi-ano). MCA CLASSICS © MCAC-6265, 0MCAD-6265 (65 min).

Performance: Albeniz betterRecording: Vibrant

Ruth Laredo plays Albeniz with consid-erable fluency and charm, and she ben-efits here from sonics of demonstration -class vibrancy. But there is that inescap-able Alicia de Larrocha, who alwaysmanages to bring such music to life thatmuch more convincingly and to makeeven the piano reductions of Falla's bal-let music not only charming but pianis-tically irresistible. Laredo strikes me asbeing more closely competitive with DeLarrocha in the Albeniz than in the Fal-la. The El amor brujo pieces, in particu-lar, sound like music Laredo had notquite persuaded herself she reallywanted to play, but the first bars of Gra-nada, which opens the Suite espatiola,take us at once into an atmosphere ofutter conviction and no little evocative-ness. As recorded here, that suite com-prises only the four numbers of the ear-liest version, but more of the music ofthe final version is present in the albumthan might appear to be: Among thefour additional pieces added to the suiteafter Albeniz's death were the Preludio(Asturias) and Seguidillas (Castilla),which Laredo plays here in their origi-nal positions as the first and last of thefive Cantos de Espatia. Overall, though,De Larrocha's account of the final,eight -movement version of the Op. 47suite is superior, and it's included withher stunning recent remake of the com-plete Iberia on London. R.F.

BERG: Wozzeck. Franz Grundheber(baritone), Wozzeck; Hildegard Behrens(soprano), Marie; Walter Raffeiner (ten-or), Drum Major; Heinz Zednik (tenor),Captain; Aage Haugland (baritone),Doctor; others. Vienna State OperaChorus; Vienna Boys' Choir; ViennaPhilharmonic Orchestra, Claudio Ab-

XPLANATION OF SYMBOLS:

0 = DIGITALLY RECORDED LP= TAPE CASSETTE= COMPACT DISC (TIMINGS ARE

TO NEAREST MINUTE)

bado cond. DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON0 423 587-2 two CD'S (89 min).

Performance: GrippingRecording: Excellent

Despite its increasing public accept-ance, Alban Berg's Wozzeck cannot becalled an easy opera. Its tonalities areupsetting, it boasts no "arias," its narra-tive is depressing, its language is stark.No romance touches its dramatis per-sonae. We do not attend a performanceor play a recording of it at home to betransported. Yet, by virtue of its inven-tion and intention, it is a monumentalwork, a work that becomes more imme-diate and moving with each hearing.

This new Deutsche Grammophon re-cording is first-rate. Admirably re-corded and authoritatively conductedby Claudio Abbado-who approachesmuch of it, quite rightly, as though itwere chamber music-it is a perform-ance by artists who have not only mas-tered Berg technically but have alsoimbued themselves with the spirit of hiswork.

As Wozzeck, Franz Grundheber isparticularly effective, drawing a power-ful characterization from the music andtext and, when the music permits, sing-ing lyrically. The part does not have tobe unremittingly barked or delivered ina kind of Sprechstimme. Hildegard Beh-rens, surely one of our foremost singingactresses, is undaunted by Berg's tor-tuous vocal line and creates an entirelycredible Marie-pitiable, hateful, vul-gar, weak, and vulnerable. Walter Raf-feiner's Drum Major, Heinz Zednik'sCaptain, and Aage Haugland's Doctorare on the same commendable level.Each singer is musically secure in Berg'sintricate tonal tapestry, and each evokesstrongly a character to which Wozzeck,victim both of his environment and ofhis own limitations, reacts. And theremaining members of the large castmake their contributions to the overalleffect of human desolation with similarconviction.

Most important, perhaps, is the con-tribution of Abbado, who so deftly bal-ances the orchestra and voices, text andmusical line, that the performance as-sumes the dramatic relentlessness andmusical richness intended by the com-poser. The accompanying notes are ex-cellent and will especially be of help tothe listener wanting to delve deeper intothis complex score.

Perhaps Wozzeck is not everybody'sopera, but it deserves the careful atten-tion of anyone interested in the artform. And this recording is a fine placeto start. R.A.

BERLIOZ: La Mort d'Orphee; Sceneheroique; Le Cinq mai, Op. 6;L'Imperiale, Op. 26. Soloists; DutchRadio Choir; Dutch Radio Symphony

Orchestra, Jean Fournet cond. DENON© CO -72886 (59 min).

Performance: ServiceableRecording: Partly cloudy

Although these four cantatas range fromearly to fairly late in the composer'soutput, they're unmistakably Berlioz.All of the earmarks are there-thequicksilver shifts, the vigorous basswriting, the heroic brass, the collage -likejuxtaposition of several musical ele-ments. But, surprisingly, it's the earliestthat proves the most satisfying. La Mortd'Orphee, written in 1827 for the Prixde Rome competition, is the best thinghere. The music is specifically charac-terized and deeply felt, and the lushlyscored opening monologue prefiguresthe sublime monologue that opens TheDamnation of Faust. But while it'sinteresting to hear this early work, itcannot justify buying a full -price CD allby itself. Unfortunately, it's all downhillfrom there.

It's possible to find seeds of LesTroyens in the wild choral writing of the1827 Scene herolque, written in praiseof Greek nationalism, but it stillamounts to Berlioz trying out tech-niques rather than using his rich cre-ativity with the sort of discipline andsense of purpose that mark his majorworks. The two remaining pieces aremore mature but even less interesting.The 1835 Le Cinq mai, a eulogy toNapoleon (who died on May 5), andL'Imperiale, written for the 1855 Inter-national Exposition in Paris, are his-trionic trifles full of bombast and mock-heroic gestures.

Recorded live, the performances arereasonable realizations of these Berlioz-ian curiosities. While conductor JeanFournet has a good sense of Frenchstyle, none of the soloists seems particu-larly confident or inspired. The record-ing itself has some nice resonance butlacks transparency during the key cli-maxes. D.P.S.

BERLIOZ: Symphonic hintastique. Op.14 (see Best of the Month, page 68)

BERNSTEIN: Prelude, Fugue, andRiffs (see COPLAND)

BRAHMS: Violin Concerto in D Ma-jor, Op. 77; Academic Festival Over-ture, Op. 80. Shlomo Mintz (violin);Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Clau-dio Abbado cond. DEUTSCHE GRAMMO-PHON © 423 617-4, © 423 617-2 (53min).

Performance: GlowingRecording: Demonstration class

Shlomo Mintz and Claudio Abbadohave made some fine recordings to-gether in Chicago, and they seem espe-cially well attuned to each other in this

88 STEREO ItemEw_Nix 1989

CLASSICAL MUSIC

handsome account of the Brahms Vio-lin Concerto. Certainly there is no wantof commitment here, and there's not asingle perfunctory phrase. This is mel-low, warmhearted, expansive playing. Itreaches a proper glow with the soloist'sfirst entry and maintains it throughoutthe work. Moreover, while Mintz isfocused close enough to make the verymost of his sumptuous tone, the dem-onstration -class recording does notslight the orchestra, whose playing isvery much in the same expressive vein.The opening of the slow movement isreally eloquent, and while the finale isnot allowed to run away with itself, ithas plenty of real flair. In short, whilethis recording may not displace existingfavorites, it is a profoundly satisfyingversion of the concerto. The filler is aneven more vital, assured, and smilingperformance of the Academic FestivalOverture than the one Abbado recordedwith the same orchestra more thantwenty years ago, which makes it alto-gether one of the best around. R. F.

COPLAND: Concerto for Clarinet,Strings, Harp, and Piano. CORIGLIA-NO: Clarinet Concerto. BERNSTEIN:Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs. RichardStoltzman (clarinet); London Sympho-ny Orchestra, Lawrence Leighton Smithcond. RCA 0 7762 -1 -RC, O7762 -4 -RC,0 7762 -2 -RC (56 min).

Performance: SpectacularRecording: Superb

These three contemporary Americanworks have been issued previously onCD in stunning performances derivedfrom various analog masters, but thisnewly recorded collection fully meas-ures up to those formidable predeces-sors. Richard Stoltzman plays with daz-zling agility, articulation, and colora-tion, Lawrence Leighton Smith and theLondon Symphony provide superbbacking, and the digital conics are trulystate of the art.

The John Corigliano concerto is themost spectacular item. Fashioned in aneclectic contemporary style with a senseof high drama, the work traverses Bar-tokian territory in the opening move-ment, touches on Britten in the poig-nant second movement, and in the lastmovement employs very nearly everysonic -theatrical device short of elec-tronics available to a composer today.The deployment of winds and brassaround the recording space suggestsGiovanni Gabrieli (from whom there'sa brief quotation), and the timpani onboth sides of the stage suggest CarlNielsen. As an aural experience, partic-ularly with surround -sound playbackequipment, the Corigliano is quite anearful, and the scoring for the clarinet isthe most wide-ranging in terms of itscapabilities that I have encountered to

RICHTER LIVESVIATOSLAV RICHTER'S new re-cording of Beethoven's DiabelliVariations, just issued by Phil-ips, is another strong argument

in favor of live recordings. Richter hasmade a lot of them by now but perhapsno other as compelling as this one,taped in a recital at the Concertgebouwin Amsterdam in June 1986. We candispense with most of the concernregarding the sound quality; it is fo-cused as effectively as a studio record-ing and virtually free of audience noise.I could have done without the applauseat the end, and I do think Philips couldhave eliminated it. What cannot beeliminated in a live situation, however,is the damage to the piano's tuning inthe course of a solo work that takesnearly an hour to perform. "Correc-tions" can be spliced in, of course, andapparently were in this case-smoothlyenough to keep most listeners fromnoticing the seams.

Some may prefer the more straight-faced statement of the theme and thefirst variation in Claudio Arrau's studiorecording made one year earlier, also byPhilips. But Richter's greater individu-ality in drawing out that march varia-

tion in a sly caricature is provocative inthe best sense, and in the concludingvariations his direct, even slightly un-derstated approach may he more per-suasive than Arrau's broadening of thetempo. on the one hand, a gesture in thedirection of utter simplicity, and on theother, a more overt gesture toward dis-tilling a -spiritual essence" from themusic. But a few observations on thebeginning and end of the respective per-formances cannot begin to convey thecharacer or quality of either. Both areprofound, stimulating, and richly sat-isfying explorations of a remarkablework on which no single performancecan be expected to give us the last word.Yet Richter's is one performance thatseems indispensable, projecting at thesame time a sense of individuality andof modesty in the face of the music andits creator, a sense of exploration ratherthan of manipulation, and the sort ofmomentum that comes most naturallyin the live setting, Richard Freed

BEETHOVEN: Variations in C Majoron a Waltz by Diabelli, Op. 120. Svia-toslav Richter (piano). PHILIPS 0 422416-2 (52 min).

SITREOREVIEWil 1.1'1989 89

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-4C {141I

date. How well this piece will wear overthe years compared with the beguilingCopland concerto, not to mention thoseof Mozart and Weber, remains to beseen, however.

Stoltzman's performance here of theCopland, with its mixture of tropicallanguor and sassy Stravinskian jazz,lasts about a minute longer than thecomposer's own recording with BennyGoodman, for whom it was written. Itsounds gorgeous here, though, and Iparticularly like the way the piano ob-bligato comes through in the laterpages.

For the Bernstein work, the complex-ion of the London Symphony ensemblechanges from the strings, harp, andpiano of the Copland to a hard -drivingswing band comprising reeds, brass,piano, bass, and drums-nineteenplayers in all. Stoltzman rides over andthrough the group at a pace marginallyfaster even than Goodman's in Bern -stein's own blistering performance.

I'm not about to give up my earlierrecordings of these works, but I canwholeheartedly recommend this releaseon both musical and, especially, sonicgrounds. D. H .

CORIGLIANO: Clarinet Concerto (seeCOPLAND)

F. COUPERIN: Organ Mass No. 1;Organ Mass No. 2. Anthony Newman(organ). NEWPORT CLASSIC NCD60041 (69 min).

Performance: OutgoingRecording: Fine

Nearly everything Anthony Newmandoes has a surface brilliance and anebullient spirit-sometimes to a mad-dening extent. His performances here ofCouperin's Masses for solo organ aredone in a very definite style that maynot be to everyone's taste. If you believethat solemnity is essential to this music,look elsewhere.

Newman convinces me, however,that these are the works of a decidedlyunsolemn twenty -two -year -old genius.The often cheerful spirit of his readingsis underscored by the bright, opensound of the Fisk organ at the Down-town Presbyterian Church in Roches-ter, New York. Only occasionally doeshis playing seem too relentlesslysprightly, but it's hard to fault him toomuch for that since his fast temposallow both works to fit on one generous -length CD. D. P.S.

DEBUSSY: Preludes, Book 11 (see Bestof the Month, page 70)

FALLA: The Three -Cornered Hat; Elamor brujo (see ALBENIZ)

HARRISON: Piano Concerto. KeithJarrett (piano); New Japan Philhar-monic, Naoto Otomo cond. Suite forViolin, Piano, and Small Orchestra.Lucy Stoltzman (violin); Keith Jarrett

Keith Jarrett. a match for Harrison

(piano); ensemble, Robert Hughescond. NEW WORLD() 366-1, © 366-4,366-2 (51 min).

Performance: ExcellentRecording: Superior

Lou Harrison, born in 1917, belongs tothat generation of olde American eccen-tric originals. Like John Cage, his friendand sometime collaborator, he was adisciple of composer Henry Cowell anda West Coast native who came to NewYork. Like Cowell and Cage, Harrisonwas also influenced by Eastern cultureand music.

The Suite for Violin, Piano, andSmall Orchestra, written in 1951 for theAjemian sisters, Maro and Anahid, is inno way an imitation of Oriental music,but it constantly evokes its spirit in aWestern context. This utterly delightfulwork is so unpretentious that, for all itsoriginality and charm, it has been over-looked-along with many other Harri-son works-for years.

In 1985, Harrison was commissionedto write a concerto for Keith Jarrett, apianist more closely associated withjazz than with the rarefied atmosphereof California Orientalism. Yet thematch is perfect. The way back to Har-rison has been paved, so to speak, bythe triumph of minimalism and the newinterest in world music. Along withCowell, Harrison was one of our firstmusical world travelers, and his workshave an extraordinary appeal. Fittinglyenough, the Piano Concerto was re-corded in Tokyo with the fine Western-ized musicians found there, but thesuite was recorded in New York with anexcellent group of New York studiomusicians. Altogether, a recording ofextraordinary charm and interest. E.S.

HAYDN: Symphony No. 90, in C Ma-jor; Symphony No. 93, in D Major.Orchestra of the 18th Century, FransBrfiggen cond. PHILIPS © 422 022-4, 0422 022-2 (51 min).

Performance: RuggedRecording: Excellent

Frans Bruggen's vigorous approach toHaydn fits these two particular sym-phonies perfectly. The rugged effect is

enhanced by the period instruments,which lends the woodwinds a distinc-tive timbre and brings the bold punc-tuation of the brass to the fore. Youmight, perhaps, miss the homogenoussound of the modern orchestra, but thetradeoff is that you hear the inner work-ings of the music and experience it theway Haydn intended. S. L.

MONTEVERDI: Vespers for the Feastof St. John the Baptist. Soloists; Neth-erlands Chamber Choir; MonteverdiEnsemble Amsterdam, Gustav Leon-hardt cond. PHILIPS 0422 074-4, 422074-2 (71 min).

Performance: ArticulateRecording: Very good

MONTEVERDI: Second Vespers forthe Feast of Santa Barbara. Soloists; theSixteen, Harry Christophers cond. HY-PERION CDA 66311/2 two co's (109min).

Performance: IndistinctRecording: Even worse

At first glance, these two recordingsappear to deliver major new discoveriesin Monteverdi's output. On closer ex-amination, however, the music all turnsout to be previously known-some-times well known. The St. John Vesperson Philips is musicologist Frits Noske'sreconstruction of a service referred to ina written account by a Dutch composerwho was traveling through Venice in1620, but the music mostly comes fromMonteverdi's 1641 collection, Selvamorale e spirituale. While there's reallyno harm in putting these marvelouspsalm settings in a liturgical context, itseems a bit audacious to revive the ear-lier title for what is a rather speculativeendeavor.

The music itself is considerably moreadvanced in style than the famous 1610Vespers, reflecting Monteverdi's deep-ening experience as an opera composer.There's no less dramatic contrast thanin the earlier work, but the music seemsmore integrated, less splintered, and themelodies have more character and per-sonality. Gustav Leonhardt's directionis articulate and expressive, the vocalsoloists are excellent, and the choir isfirst-rate.

The so-called Second Vespers for theFeast of Santa Barbara, on the otherhand, is the sort of thing that givesmusicology a bad name. Operating onsome sketchy evidence, Graham Dixondecided that the 1610 Vespers wereoriginally written in praise of St. Barba-ra, rather than the Virgin Mary, and hehas shuffled the pieces around in a waythat makes little dramatic sense. He hasalso cluttered up the work with variousceremonial interludes and, for a senseof liturgical continuity, interpolated amotet by Palestrina that makes no sensestylistically even in a work so diverse.

Hyperion has provided instructionsfor programming your CD player to putthe music in a more traditional order.

a

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but it's really not worth the trouble con-sidering the quality of the performance.I've enjoyed Harry Christophers's pre-vious Monteverdi outings, but his ap-proach this time seems wrong, withtempos that are too slow and ceremo-nious. Also, many details are blurred bythe distant recording perspective, whichseems to put you in the rear pew of alarge church. D.P.S.

MOZART: Clarinet Concerto in A Ma-jor (K. 622); Clarinet Quintet in AMajor (K. 581). Eric Hoeprich (clari-net); Orchestra of the Eighteenth Cen-tury, Frans Brilggen cond. PHILIPS C)420 242-4, © 420 24202 (60 min).

Performance: Well consideredRecording: Good

Although clarinetist Antony Pay andconductor Christopher Hogtwood haveproduced a revelatory recording of Mo-zart's Clarinet Concerto on original in-struments for L'Oiseau-Lyre, using anauthentic basset clarinet, which has alower register than the modern clarinet,it is superseded by this one featuringEric Hoeprich, who also plays a basset.He may lack Pay's creamy tone, but hisinterpretation is more characterizedand deeply considered, thanks in partto conductor Frans Bruggen. WhileBriiggen isn't the most exciting early -music conductor (some of his perform-ances even court blandness), he neverrecords any piece until he has touredwith it extensively and thoroughly ex-plored its inner workings. The resulthere is that even the most incidentalstrands in the orchestration are inflect-ed with an ear for the total picture.

Mozart's Clarinet Quintet-which,like the concerto, hails from the com-poser's late period-is a sensible cou-pler. It was written for the same clarine-tist, Anton Stadler, and is also in the keyof A Major. Hoeprich's limited tonequality, however, is more exposedagainst the thinner texture of the fourstring players, members of Briiggen'sOrchestra of the Eighteenth Century,and as a quartet they sound unsea-soned, lacking a sufficiently homoge-neous sound. Even so, the quintet ispreferable to the work usually coupledwith Mozart's Clarinet Concerto, hisearly Bassoon Concerto, a pathetic triflein comparison. D.P.S.

PROKOFIEV: Piano Sonata No. 7, inB -flat Major, Op. 83; Piano Sonata No.8, in B -flat Major, Op. 84. Yefim Bronf-man (piano). CBS © MT 44680, 0 MK44680 (48 min).

Performance: Very goodRecording: Warm

Yefim Bronfman has been a frequentrecital and recording partner of ShlomoMintz, and their most recent jointrelease happens to be a surpassingly fineDeutsche Grammophon recording ofthe two Prokofiev violin sonatas. Hisnew CBS record of two solo sonatas is

94 STEREO ReviewjuLv 1989

not quite so all-surpassing-not whileDG has its handsome CD transfers ofRichter's extraordinary account of No.8 and Pollini's uniquely powerful one ofNo. 7 in circulation. Both go a littledeeper below the surface than Bronf-man, both are even more dazzling withtheir faster speeds in the respectivefinales, and DG's analytically clear ana-log transfers serve the music more effec-tively than CBS's warmer, more diffusesonic focus. Still, Bronfman makes avery good showing here. He is reallyinside the music, and if the coupling ofthe two sonatas should appeal to youmore than the alternatives on DG, youcertainly won't be disappointed. In anyevent, I do hope CBS will continuethrough the Prokofiev sonatas withBronfman; right now he'd have a clearfield for No. 9 and most of the earlierones. R. F.

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Symphonies:No. 1, in E Minor, Op. 1; No. 2, Op. 9("Antar"); No. 3, in C Major, Op. 32.Russian Easter Festival Overture, Op.36; Capriccio espagnol, Op. 34. Gothen-burg Symphony Orchestra, NeemeJarvi cond. DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON© 423 604-2 two CD's (126 min).

Performance: First-rateRecording: Very good

Once again the indefatigable and versa-tile Neeme Jarvi has undertaken one ofhis all -embracing orchestral surveys-this time of the Rimsky-Korsakov sym-phonies, with a pair of his popularshorter works thrown in as a bonus.(Another bonus here, by the way, is theexcellent and highly informative anno-tation by Richard Taruskin.) The com-poser completed all three of the sym-phonies before he was thirty, but by thetime he got to No. 3 he had "gotten reli-gion," having accepted an invitation tojoin the theory and composition staff ofthe St. Petersburg Conservatory. Sinceat the time he knew considerably lessabout the craft of composition than didmost of his students, all of the sym-phonies subsequently underwent thor-ough revision. The First was redesignedas a vehicle for student ensembles, andas such it is agreeable stuff, with a touchof Schumann in the first movement anda bit of folk -derived orientalia in thesecond. The two final movements arefairly faceless, with touches of Glinkahere and there.

Rimsky's Second, or Antar, Sympho-ny is stronger, a programmatic workthat, when well performed in the rightedition, seems a worthy precursor of thecomposer's great Scheherazade. Thesymphony was overhauled no fewerthan three times, the last being a pub-lisher's compromise in 1903 betweenversions dated 1880 and 1897. Theposthumously published 1897 versionis favored and has been recorded in theU.S.S.R., but most non -Russian record-ings have used the 1903 compromise.JArvi here gives us the 1897 score in a


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definitive performance full of passionand urgency.

The Symphony No. 3, despite itspleasant folkloric overtones, is still fair-ly academic though by no means un-pleasing. It is when Jarvi and theorchestra cut loose with a resplendentRussian Easter Overture and a sizzlingCapriccio espagnol that we learn the dif-ference Between a near miss and a genu-ine masterpiece. At all events, we can begrateful to the Gothenburg Symphony,its conductor, its fine concert hall, andDeutsche Grammophon's expert pro-duction team for a fascinating packageof Russian music and history. D.H.

SCHUMANN: Waldszenen, Op. 82;Kinderszenen, Op. 15; Piano SonataNo. 1, in F -sharp Minor, Op. 11. Vla-dimir Ashkenazy (piano). LONDON 0421 290-2 (74 min).

Performance: Lovely WaldszenenRecording: A little clattery

Schumann's Waldszenen, curiously,has not been offered in stereo on CDuntil now. It is gratifying to have thatgap filled by a performance as thor-oughly satisfying as Vladimir Ashke-nazy's. This is perhaps not one of Schu-mann's absolutely greatest master-works, and there is no effort or. Ashke-nazy's part to make it into somethinggrander than it is; his straightforward.unaffected approach is just what servesthe music best. His freer, more overtlyeloquent reponse to the big Op. II sona-ta is quite in order for that work, butI'm not sure his performance here willwear as well as some others. Forinstance, Maurizio Pollini's 1973 re-cording of the sonata on DeutscheGrammophon, very handsomely trans-ferred to CD, takes an aristocratic ap-proach to the work that happens to suitit especially well.

Kinderszenen, of course, is one ofthose works one can hardly avoid dupli-cating, and just as well, for Ashkenazyseems off his form here-not technical-ly, to be sure, but interpretively. Themore animated sections struck me asdownright dull, though there is a glim-mer of poetry in some of the moreruminative ones (including a very taste-ful Trdumerei). London's piano repro-duction is generally good, though a littleclattery here and there. R.F.

SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 7,in C Major, Op. 60 ("Leningrad").Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra,Mariss Jansons cond. EMI/ANGEL

CDC 49494-2 (69 min).

Performance: StunningRecording: Excellent

Shostakovich and his music have beensubject to several episodes of condem-nation and "rehabilitation" in his owncountry and, on a less dramatic scale, inours as well. His Seventh Symphonyreceived enormous attention when itwas new, as a symbol of heroic determi-

nation on the part of an entire nationthat was then our ally, but it quicklywent out of favor. The work's rehabili-tation here began when Leonard Bern-stein performed it in New York in 1962,and now it seems to be edging its wayinto the general repertoire.

This new recording is a stunningaccount of the Leningrad Symphonyfrom the great orchestra of the "HeroCity" itself, superbly recorded by EMIin the Oslo concert hall in which MarissJansons has built so impressive a repu-tation with the Oslo Philharmonic overthe last few years. As usual with Jan -sons, the tempos are brisker than whatwe might regard as the norm, and in thissprawling work that can be a decidedplus: His reading conveys a very con-vincing urgency and tension. The slowmovement might remind us of Solo-mon Volkov's report that Shostakovichregarded his Seventh and Eighth Sym-phonies as his "requiem," but what ismost pertinent is how well this big piececan work simply as a symphony. Itworks very well indeed in this perform-ance. R.F.

COLLECTIONMONTREAL SYMPHONY: Fête a lafrancaise. Chabrier: Joyeuse marche;Espana. Dukas: The Sorcerer's Appren-tice. Satie: Two Gymnopedies. Saint-Saens: Samson et Dalila, Air and Bac-chanale. Bizet: Jeux d'enfants. Thomas:Raymond, Overture. Ibert: Divertisse-ment. Montreal Symphony Orchestra,Charles Dutoit cond. LONDON C) 421527-4,0 421 527-2 (70 min).

Performance: ClassyRecording: Luminous

Charles Dutoit is one of the few majorconductors who truly enjoys "light clas-sics" and isn't afraid to record suchmusic. This particular collection ofFrench lollipops is so suave and stylishthat it's miles above similar collections.In fact, Dutoit's performances here arequite the opposite of those by extrovertslike Arthur Fiedler. Dutoit is more likeSir Thomas Beecham, and he ap-proaches even The Sorcerer's Appren-tice as a valid piece of concert musicrather than as the soundtrack of a Dis-ney cartoon. In Dutoit's hands, nothingseems schlocky or kitschy. But whileBeecham could convince you, howevertemporarily, that this kind of music isgreat, Dutoit only convinces us that it'sengaging. There isn't quite the meticu-lousness of his other Montreal record-ings-or the heart.

In any case, these clean, beautifullyengineered performances offer much toenjoy. Chabrier's Espana is full of color-istic masterstrokes, the Bizet has a lean,tight sparkle, and the Montreal stringshave a sheen that makes the RaymondOverture seem more substantial than itis. Best of all is the Ibert Divertissement.Dutoit and company have a grand timewith this comic piece. D. P.S.


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FREE JAZZ CATALOG: CD'S, LP'S, CASSETTES, VIDEOS.SINCE 1975. WRITE TO DEPT. SR, DAYBREAK EXPRESSRECORDS, P.O. BOX 150250, VAN BRUNT STATION,BROOKLYN, NY 11215-0005.

LOW COMPACT DISC prices-Schwann CD and COLORCATALOGS $7.00 -Mini -Catalogs $2.00-DUWARS. P.O.Box 6662-D. Greenville. SC 29606.

LIKE -NEW CD'S $4.65, UP. We pay you up to $7.00! FREESTOCKLIST: CCM. 1105 Webster, Sandy, Utah 84094-3151.(801) 571-9767.

THE CD DELI. COMPACT DISCS AT COMPACT PRICES.WE CATER TO ALL STYLES OF MUSIC. WE DO MAILORDER. 5706 7TH AVE., BROOKLYN, NY 11220. (718)439-3324.

WE VE SLIPPED OUR DISC PRICES TO FIT YOUR BUDGET,PRICES START AT $8.99! WRITE: LASER LOCKER. BOX8611. SOMERVILLE. NJ 08876.

SAVE MONEY ON NEW CD's. Free Details.WILBUR TANSTAAFL COMPANY, Box 308Z,Middlefield, CT 06455-0308.CD -SINGLES. CD-EP'S CD PICTURE DISCS-EP'S ANDRARE CD'S. For catalog call (305) 594-1811, Music Service,P.O. Box 561751. Miami, FL 33256-1751.

TAPES

3.95 SHIPPING ANY SIZE ORDER. UPS 1-800.245-6000IDK

ON

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00SA. 11104110APO I SO

VISA MC1111 IHALIAR);)

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TRIAD DAT CALL

1.1001120

WORLD'S BEST PROFESSIONAL REEL TAPE AND CRS-SETTESICr02 C92s-10 AT $1.85 EACH (CASH PRICE). FREECATALOG! PRO AUDIO AND VIDEO EQUIPMENT PARTSACCESSORIES. MC VISA. CARTUNES (317) 257-6776.

DAT

The

= =AudoTape

STORE

(213) 828-6487FAX (213) 470-61769 A.M. -7 P.M. 7 DAYSSHIP VIA UPS/FED-EX

AMEX VISA MC

RECORDABLE DAT's IN STOCK NOWFULL WRITTEN WARRANTY PLUS FREE LOANERS

IMMEDIATE DELIVERY NO DEPOSITS REQUIRED

ENGLISH OWNERS MANUALSA/C ADAPTORS INCLUDED

HOME D.A.T PORTABLE D.A.TAIWA XD -999 995. SONY TCD-D10 . 2250.SONY DTC-M100 1400 In.kAST 0.1.00NSONY DTC-1000ES 1950

1750 PROFESSIONAL D.A.TDTC-500ESSONY DTC-300ESJVC XD -Z700JVC XD -Z1100JVC XD -1900 2250 SHARP SX-D100 CALLAKAI D-9000 1800 SONY PCM-2500 CALLPIONEER D.900 1800 SONY PCM-2000 CALL

BLANK TAPE- ALWAYS IN STOCKMaxell, TDK, F uk, Panasonic

COMPLETE INVENTORY OF ACCESSORIES

1650. PANASONIC SV-3500CALL.1750. PANASONIC SV-250 CALL1850 FOSTEX 0-20 CALL

2624 Wilshire Blvd. Santa Monica CA 90403

DAT REPAIRS. Performed on all SONY, TECHNICS, JVCand AIWA models. GUARANTEED WORK. FREE ESTI-MATES. FET Electronics 17718, Vanowen Street, Reseda,CA 91335. (818) 345-8565.

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

MAILORDER OPPORTUNITY! Start profitable home businesswithout experience or capital. Information Free. Mail OsierAssociates, Inc.. Dept. 458, Montvale, NJ 07645.

UNLIMITED INCOME. WORK AT HOME. MANY DIFFERENTOPPORTUNITIES. FREE DETAILS! TAG PUBLICATION'S,BOX 111-S, BARRINGTON. RI 02806.

$SMALL INVESTORS -BIG RETURNS! MUST SEND PHONENUMBER & NAME. 437 Gulfstream Rd., Palm Springs, FL33461 $.

INSTRUCTION

FREE CATALOG. Institute of Audio/Video En-gineering. 1831 Hyperion (SR), Hollywood,CA 90027. RECORDING SCHOOL. (800)551-8877, (213) 666-2380. Approved tor In-ternational Students. Member of NATTS.

FOR SALE

CASH FOR ALL TYPES of used Stereo equipment. We buy byphone. THE STEREO TRADING OUTLET, 320 Old York Rd.,Jenkintown, PA 19046. (215) 886-1650.

WE SELL SECOND HAND high quality audio -video with rson-ey back guarantee! Send your name and address for FREEmonthly inventory. Ross Stereo. 2423 Morena Blvd. San Diego.CA 92110 2(.115

ARE YOU INTERESTED in Quality Preowned Audio Equip-ment? Subscribe to "The Sound Trek." published 6 r annually,your listings of items for sale or wanted. $10,yr. Call or write:Play it Again Sam. 12611-R Madison Avenue, Lakewood. Ohio44107, (216) 228-0040. MCNISA.

ATTENTIONDENON CUSTOMERS

Not everyone offering Denonproducts for sale is an authorizedDenon dealer. This has greatsignificance to you as a potentialDenon customer.

Denon America's warranty appliesto the original purchase only. Denonproducts sold by non -authorizeddealers are not covered under ourwarranty.

Additionally, some of this equipmentmay have been designed for foreignmarkets and therefore will not meetDenon America's specifications.

So look for the Authorized DenonDealer Sticker before you buy.

DENONAUTHORIIID DEALet

To find your nearestAUTHORIZED Denon Dealer call:

1-201-575-7810 (9:00am - 5:00pm EST)

THE MINI AD WITH MAXI SAVINGS N

LII.H. ENI'liltl'ItISEN1678 - 53rd St, BKLYN, NY 11204 MON-FRI 8-7, SUN 9-6

CALL 1-800-451-5851 / IN NYC 718) 438-1027

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PROFESSIONAL EQUIPMENT FOR DJ'S AT WHOLESALEPRICES. CUSTOM SOUNDS BY GEORGE D. (DEALER#650020390). CALL (305) 378-6977.

SL 500 SILVER AUDIO CABLES, SOLID CORE WIRE. STE-REOPHILE FAVORITE. $35 1M PAIR. SUPERB LISTENINGCO ' . 28 PHILLIPS CT., NORTH ANDOVER, MA 01845.

SHUR MCV4STER

the Puad TcOA LARGE SELECTION OF:

NEEDLESCARTRIDGES

4-(800)969 M&Y CO.g

e c<-24 04ie.L us StccA.

361 N Cresent Heights Blvd

os Angeles. CA 90048

641419. ORTOFON SHURE GRADO DYNAVECTOR AUDIO TECHNICA PICKERING SIGNET NITTY GRITTY STANTON BEYERDYNAMIC AUDIOOUEST STAX CARNEOUE ONE THORENS AR MICRO SEIKI AND MANY MORE

SIGNET ORTOFONat

FOR SALE MISCELLANEOUS

CARVER, NAKAMICHI, BANG & OLUFSEN,A.D.S., CROWN, REVOX, TANDBERG, HAFL-ER, ADCOM, MISSION, N.A.D., HARMAN/KARDON, KYOCERA, YAMAHA, LUXMAN,DENON, KLIPSCH, B&W, KEF, D.C.M., E -V,J.B.L., INFINITY, D.B.X., AKG, AND OTHERQUALITY COMPONENTS. BEST PRICES -PROFESSIONAL CONSULTATION. ALL PROD-UCTS COVERED BY MANUFACTURERS'U.S.A. WARRANTY. OPEN 24 HOURS A DAY.AMERISOUND SALES, INC., EAST: (904)262-4000; WEST; (818) 243- 1168.HIGH -END, LOW PRICES. ADSBANG & OLUFSENCARVERDBXDENONH,KNAKAMICHI AND MANYMORE! FULL MANUFACTURERS WARRANTY, TECHELECTRONICS. SINCE 1981. (904) 730-3885.

FREE MAILORDER CATALOG. Mid, high -end audio. Low, lowwarehouse prices. (602) 829-6710. AUDIO ADVANTAGE.SINCE 1981.

tereo r71 Nowxpress7 (619) 578-9630

CALL FOR PRICEFAST & FRIENDLY SERVICE

Most Orders Shipped Within 48 HoursHOME AUDIO

YAMAHA. ADS, BOSE. HAFLER HARMAN KARMANINFINITY, AR. SONY, DE1X, JBL. JVC. AIWA.

TECHNICS. TEAC. SAE. ADCOM.STAX, AUDIO SOURCE,

PIONEER, MAGNAVOX AND MANY MORE

CAR AUDIOADS ALPINE BLAUPLINKT, CONCORD, SONYKENWOOD PIONEER, CLIFFORD. TECHNICS

VIDEOSONY. JVC. RCA. PANASONIC ZENITH, GE MITSUBISHI

7915 SlIvorton Ass I 300, San Dio9o, CA 92126

WANTED TO BUY

WE NEED QUALITY COLLECTIONS. "TOP DOLLAR PAID"for LP's, Compact Discs, and Cassettes: Classical, Rock,etc. USA's LARGEST USED AND COLLECTOR SHOP.PRINCETON RECORD EXCHANGE, 20 Tulane Street,Princeton, NJ 08542. (609) 921-0881.

ATTENTION OWNERS OF QUADRAFONIC 8 -TRACKS AND4 -CHANNEL OUADRADISCS! SELL TO LOVER OF OLDFORMAT. (308) 534-9091.

GOVERNMENT SURPLUS

IS IT TRUE you can buy jeeps for $44 through the USgovernment? Get the facts today! Call 1(312) 742-1142, ext.4670.

INVENTIONS WANTED

A NEW IDEA? Call NATIONAL IDEA CENTER of WashingtonD.C. FREE INFORMATION -1(800) 247-6600, Ext. 150.Come see THE INVENTION STORE!!

FOR INVENTORS

INVENTORS! Can you patent and profit from your idea? CallAMERICAN INVENTORS CORPORATION for freeinformation. Over a decade of service. 1(800) 338-5656. InCanada call (413) 568-3753.

MOVIE FILM VIDEO TAPE

CABLE TV Converters. Jerrold, Oak, Scientific Atlanta, Zenith,and many others. "New" MTS Stereo Add -On: Mute & Vol.,Ideal for 400 and 450 owners! Visa, Mastercard, AmericanExpress. B&B Inc., 4030 Beau -D -Rue Drive, Eagan, MN55122. 1(800) 826-7623.

FOREIGN VIDEO TAPES (PALSECAM) TRANSFERRED TOAMERICAN (NTSC) STANDARD OR VICE VERSA. DIGITALBROADCAST QUALITY. ALL FORMATS. SLIDES 8MM-16MMTO VIDEO. BULK DUPLICATION -DISTRIBUTION -LABELING -SHRINK WRAPPING -WORLDWIDE SHIPPING.MULTI -STANDARD VCRs AND TVs AVAILABLE. TEL: (212)268-9393 OR 1(800) 626-8776. SERVING INDUSTRY ANDCONSUMER.

YOUR CABLE TV CONVERTERS BARGAIN HEADQUAR-TERS. ZENITH, TOCOM, JERROLD, HAMLIN. OAK, ETC.VISA/MC. CALL (415) 584-1627.

SERVICES

Attention GENESIS Owners -Repairs & Upgrades arepossible!! Original Specification & Improved Parts by LRS.(603) 749-1904. (MC/VISA).

WE CAN PUT YOUR PHOTOS ON VIDEO! ALSO SLIDESAND 8MM MOVIES. FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL (312)577-7711.

REAL ESTATE

ATTENTION HOME AND CAR STEREO RE-TAILERS. Highly visible and easily accessible83,000 square foot neighborhood strip mallserving a trade area of 130,000. Located inAmherst, New York, a middle to upper incomecommunity just minutes N.W. of Buffalo. Weare seeking an aggressive audio retailer to joinour winning tenant mix. Will assist in estab-lishing new store. For further information onthis excellent location opportunity, contactHARRY T. MANTTARI AT AMHERST GENER-AL DEVELOPMENTS -PLEASE CALL COL-LECT AT (416) 929-1003.

MISCELLANEOUS

TERMPAPER assistance. 15,278 papers available! 306 -pagecatalog -rush $2.00. Research, 11322 Idaho 206SX, Los An-geles 90025. TOLL FREE HOTLINE: (800) 351-0222 (Califor-nia: (213) 477-8226)

WATCH REPLICAS! LOWEST PRICES NATIONWIDE! Sub-mariners! Exact weight & color! 18KT Goldplated! CALL (404)963-3USA.

CLASSICAL MUSIC LOVERS' EXCHANGE " . Nationwide linkbetween unattached music lovers. Write CMLE, Box 31, Pel-ham, NY 10803.

CONFISCATED CARS, trucks, boats, 4 wheelers, motor -homes, by FBI, IRS, DEA. Available in your area now. Call (805)682-7555 Ext. C-1005.

AUCTIONS! AUTOS, BOATS, JEWELRY AND MUCH MORE.LOCAL AND NATIONWIDE AUCTIONS. FOR MORE INFOR-MATION CALL (312) 577-0633.

ELECTRONIC MUSCLE STIMULATION -Home Units $229.Tone And Build Muscles Effortlessly. Proven Results! Call ForBrochure: HEALTH GROUP, (508) 465-4052.

RETAIL MART

WE HAVE THE FINEST SHOWROOM in our area with the bestselection of audio/video components available. We representAdcom, Infinity, Thorens, Dual, Jamo, Yamaha, Canton,Luxman, Klipsch, SONY ES, and more. CONTINENTALSOUND, 98-77 Queens Blvd., Forest Hills, NY 11375. (718)459-7507.

AUDIO BE ST, LA. ORANGE, SAN BERNARDINO, CALIFOR-NIA. BEST SOUNDING EQUIPMENT AND BEST PRICES.DEMONSTRATIONS. (714) 861-5413.

CAR STEREO

CAR STEREO SALE -HIGH END BRANDNAMES -LOW PRICES! CALL B J AUDIO (513)662-3351.

FOR SALE

TANDBERG/TANDBERG/TANDBERG.CLOSEOUTS/All MODELS. Lowest prices,factory authorized warranty. Call THESOUND APPROACH, 6067 Jericho Tpk.,Commack, NY 11725. 516/499-7680.

FOR ADVERTISING INFORMATION ON THE STEREOREVIEW CLASSIFIED SECTION -CALL 1400.445-6066.

STEREO REVIEWMAIL ORDER MART

FOCUS Electronics (718) 871-7600INFORATION & NY ORDERS

SUPER SPECIALS! LIMITED 4:;101L1AINTITIES!I :7 III I I r it l -1 ,,, el .r 111 11 1 .7 1244.00

7181 $2134 00 1 7901.....9445.00 AIWA 809260 183.00 I ADF-360 99400 AKA) GXA5X 1145 / AIR ST -660 SYS $350.00 I BOSE8 2 5580 00 2.2. ..$220.00 I BOSTON ACOUSTICS C700 II 1134.00 1797 '466.00 I CLARION 9425 RI 1250.00 8301 RI _..8120.00

DENON OCO 800 1278.00 i DC0-1400 $369.03 1 OCD1500 II $465.00 0001700 $565 00 H K 00491.... $689.00 1 CH140 $235.00JVC RX250 _..$155.00I RX550 3285.001 TOW110 $95.001 XLM 400...$26500 XEV.550 E223.00 KSRX-515 :moo, MAGNAVOX

COB 472 5166.00 NAD 7175 PE $650.00 1300 $355.00 16155 $328.00 NAKAMICHI OMS-28 1398.00 I OMS 3A $608.00PIONEER KEH-6C20 $203.00 1 KE3050 3188.00 E0.3000 $89.00 10E99020 $260.00 1 P0-6050 $188.00 1 VSX-4000 $283.00SPX 707 $201.00 SANSUI 031/1000 $200.00 01000 1185.00 1 03000._..$235.00 I S11,700 9195.00 AVC1 $62.00 , SONYTOW 550. 1200 00 , TCFS-150 $130.00 ; COP-9X0....$320.001STRAV.780.... 9340.00 I KR 6000 $105.001 CFO 77 $395.001 TECHNICS S1.1290II $345 00 YAMAHA AVC 30.....$320.00 I CDX-305.....$219.00 MYST. .$99.00 ! K 142.....$175.001 KX-200 8188.001 98.....9425.00 1 99.....$515.00

RX 900 $58000 005400 $259.00 I AUDIO TECHNICA AT110 ..239 95 ALL SUPER SPECIALS REFLECT CASH DISCOUNTS

MEE=Cr21=3171DOLBY LOGIC SURROUNDMUCH MORE LOWVS% 5300 010W RMT LOWVSX 3300 80W. RMT LOWVSX 2300 60W, OM LOWVSXI300 40W, Olt LOW

- NYC NEW -RX 901 DOLBY PRO LOGICAX 801 100 WATTS. RMTRX 701 80 WATTS. RMTRX 501 65 WATTS. RMT0X-401 50 WATTS, RMT6X301 40 WATTS. RMT

- PIONEER NEW -PDM 700 80, 6 OISCPDM 610 16 BIT. 6 DISCPDM 510 4%, 6 DISCPON 410 40, 6 OISCPD 7100 TOP SINGLEP01503 2 OISC RMTPOT 303 2 OISC. ODISPOIA400 6 DISC

- JVC NEW -X12 611 18 BIT, RMTXII 411 18 BIT, RMT01M 901 13 BIT, 12 DISC

LOWLOWLOWLOWLOWLOWLOW

229.91

LOWLOWLOW

LOWLOWLOWLOWLOWLOW

CASSETTE DECKS -

AOWX 806 Cal AR, PO PRO 319.93AIM% 707 DOUBLE, ASR 119.95ADWX 505 DOUBLE. BC 141.15607 780 TOP SINGLE. EliC OBX

HO PRO LOW

MIMMIM1221:11- DENON -

P1161520 62995 PAU 920 439.11PMA 720 Il1.15 PMA 520 259.93PMA 320 209.95 PMA 250 149.93P06 4400 181.15 POA WOO 569.93P776-1100 551.95 TU 550 229.95

WHEN ORDERING ASK ABOUT CASHDISCOUNT PRICING FOR ADDIT. SAVINGSXLM 101 X BIT. 6 + 1 DISC

XLM 401 4X, 6 DISC EMTXLM 301 4X. 6 DISCXLV 311 4%, 16 BIT NCXLV 211 46. 18 BIT

- MAGNAVOX -C011173 4% OS. MAT 219.15COB 472 REMOTE 115.11CDB 484 8 DISC 211.15CDR486 6 OISC RMT 257.91COB 474 LASER PLAYER LOW

- DENON -000 3520 TOPS AROUND 1191.95IMO 610 4X OS, RMT 211.11DOD 801 4X OS RMT 241.15

CARE PACKAGE SPECIALGET A DISC CLEANER, AN LLC-IDISC PLAYER CLEANER AND ALASERUNE 8 MSC STORAGECABINET REG. 72./5ALL 3 ONLY 49.13

- PIONEER -VSX 9300 TOP RECEIVER 125 WATT PRO

LOWLOWLOWLOWLOW

YAMAHA, MARANTZ, SCOTT,DENON, NIKKO, IN STOCK

INIMEIMEEMEMIll- PIONEER -

CTW 913 DUAL AIR HO PROCTW 710 DUAL A/11CTW too DUAL AIRCTW 510 NEW DUALCNN NO NEW DUALCTS,800 TOP SINGLE 3 HDCTS 600 B/C HX PRO

- JYC NEW -TOW 901 TOP DOUBLE, AIR,

RECORD. HO PRO BitTOW 801 DM AIR. EutTOW 501 co PITCH CONTROLT011301 CVO AIRTOW 201 50, Bt000411 AIR. BiC., 110 PRO

10X321 BM HK PROTOVI321 3 HO. B/C, HX PRO

LOWLOWLOWLOWLOWLOWLOW

DOUBLE

IOWLOWLOWLOWLOWLOWLOWLOW

- AIWA -ADWX 909 MP DOUBLE BtC. 116 PRO,OBX LOW

.1- NI P- PIONEER

ST100 NEW 2 WAYST 300 NEW 1 WAYST500 NEW TOP

LOWLOWLOW

HEADPHONES-AZDEN-

DM 90 (OP RATED. AMAZING 79.9105646 DIGITAL LTWT )4.93OSR BB DIGITAL EAR BUDS 24.11DSR 70 EARBUD WIVOLUME 19.93

-KOSS-JCR 2002 PIECE WIRELESS 111.91

1-800-223-3411 FORONLYORDERS

Lx 900sAT8 700

4005111000

- YAMAHA -»1.1S

LOW A%500 219.95219.95 AX 300 189.958/19.9/ MX800 629.95

CX1000 81111.9/ 01 .600 489.9501 600 519.95 DSP30001449.95059100 429.15 DSP115135 949.13

IM:11171:==.1111-A MI PIT- NEW LOW PRICES

MAESRTO LEGACY PRODIGY TOWERBABY II MINI SUBWOOFER

-PINNACLE-No 1 TINY 99.9/ PR.NI 5 I TOP RATED 119.91 PR.PN 6 EV111 BETTER 181.91 PR.NI B LANGEl 231.15 PR.MONITOR 200 3 WAY 289.95 PR

-YAMAHA-HO XII AMPLIFIED 19/.95 PR.

- CRESTION3 SMALL. OMET SOUND

- EAMO -IN STOCK

351.00

MEZIIMIUCCSPECIAL TOP RATED!

MTX.415113 WAY BOX SPKR. W 10"WOOF 10 YR. WARRANTY

ONLY 229.91 PR.-DENON-

OCR 5520 539.00 OCR 5425 17100DCR 5320 7/9.00 OCA 3400 52100DCA 3500 199.00 OCA 3150 129.00

- PIONEER NEW -DUN 300 COM I COX 3 COW 100 DU 77 001136 1E118050 (EH 600

%8 4080 ID 4010 1E116040KEN 7676TR KEH 8686 KEH 5656 AND OTHERS

IN STOCK AT PRICES TOOLOW TO PRINT

INC 1100MDOXESPCI 300 OBI CASSETTE CO PLAYERWAN SPEAKERS GRAN,: MAMASUPER BASS AMP ONLY 141.15RCM 3 OBL CASS CD PLAYER231.95PCv 77 081 CASS OE11C1 SUPERBASS AMP ONLY 211.15

FOCUS ELECTRONICS STOON 4120 I INA ATIEMLEC MIROONITILL NY 11219 MAN. ORDER: 111E EFTS STINK INMOOFIFIM NY 11211i_IS MU LEGO Ill MN ION MO ON NT NUNS CALL 4711m0 CUSTOM. SINCE CALL I NOM SOW TANI ENNIS MANI MA NC AMA A COO ACCEPTED SOME MITE CANN AN cxnusrvENATIONAL OW TEAM PARTS AM MOE MOUNT TIMM/GM EMUS ELECTRONICS OWLS CANT SIMIAN IIANUMCLINES WARRANT, FOLIOED NUMANTIS MEAN! 50611 MLOCATIO 1,001.1CTS TAKE21 MIES OF MDR Fp Damn ME AT TIME Of 11.101141 M OAT RETURN POLIO A NESTOCIONG FE MAT M CNAMFO EON TINS REMIND MINIM OAT MOM All UNITS AM SIMMO MN (TINS THAIAM ACCINEO OR MNINI MAT Of CNANGIO A RESIOCEING PACNAGNIG MOM ITEM LS NOT AS NEW MIEN mr.mrixo MN MANN & INSURANCE ANI 111.1.4 AND NON AULIAMAKE NOT INSPONSIMAION ITEOGNAMICAL EINEM MILES Ala MAILAKIET SIMULCI TO OIMIGI WITIOUT NOTICE VOCAL( MEE DOTS MUST OE INGLIISEED AT TIM Of INNOMSE ALL INNIS IN MN AO AM IOU MAR MINADINT AM AM PLACED 2 NONTIN MAO Of FINION*0 ant A 1177O EN TM TO WAWA ME 6 MICIS NAM [MIMES MN MEMO OM CONTROL

STEREI)REVIEWMAIL ORDER MART

To order -Call: 615 244-6121Audio -Video - Car Stereo

Telephone - Radar DetectorAccessory - Audio -Video Tape

At Low Discount PricesAIWA MinoltaAKGAdventBoseBlaupunktBazookaCerwin VegaCobraDenonJVCJensenKenwoodMaxon

MTX Panasonic Phase Linear Pioneer Sherwood Sony Soundstream Technics Toshiba Uniden Whistler Yamaha & More

CALL FOR PRICES & MODELSHRS Mor- Sat 9 AM 6 PM Central Prices subject to change -Prices exclJde shipping -Not responsible for typographicalerrors Visa MasterCard and COD accepted - Write DirectA&S Wholesale 808 Harpeth Trace Place Nashville TN 37221

owners!!DAMAGED CDs??

Skipping CD's are useless andexpensive to replace.

Damaged CD's are easily repaired with

digital blue®CD TREATMENT AND REPAIR KIT

digital blue' corrects skips that wiping &cleaning cannot (incl. manuf. flaws).

Repels dust & fingerprints. Guaranteed*

2 STEP PROCESS - EASY TO USEUse &Owl blue ' on all your discs to prevent future damage

A must for all serious CD collectorsOrder now!!! send U.S.$12.95 (Can.$14.95)

plus $1.50 shipping & handling to:

W.R. Marketing, P.O.Box 697Pointe Claire, Dorval (Que.) Canada H9R 4S8

. Allow 2-4 weeks for delivery.'if not satisfied. return within 30 days for a full rerund

THIS MAGAZINE ISAVAILAKE IN MICROFORM

DIRECT INQUIRIES TO:MICRO PHOTO Division

BELLE, HOWELL

Conrad Cnnone EllsCoil roll ice 18001 32' 0881

in OKo coil 12161 2646666 tokeo

ATTENTIONCLASSIFIED ADVERTISERSThe CLASSIFIED MAGNET attracts primeprospects for your mail order products andservices.

Reach the readers (proven buyers) of this andother DCI Magazine titles through low costMarketplace Classified advertising.

To place your ads, or for further information(including rates, ad styles, sizes and multi -titlediscounts), call Lois Price Toll -Free at:

(800) 445-6066

err. fl 4-'1"IIINEW YORK WHOLESALE

Prices subject tochange

Prices excludeshipping chargesNot responsible fortypographical errors

FOR FASTEST (21 2) 684-6363 Ax (212) 684-8046SERVICE CALL FAHOURS: MONDAY -FRIDAY, 9A.M-7PM EST SATURDAY 10AM-5PMor Write Direct: 2 PARK AVENUE, DEPT. 15, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10016

We sell authorized U.S. branded merchandise and parallel imports. All products covered by manufacturer's warranty or New YorkWholesaler's exclusive limited warranty. Manufacturer's rebates may not apply Ask for full details at the time of purchase.

CD PLAYERSYAMAHA

CDX1110CDX910CDX710CDC500CDX510CDC610

DENONDCM555DCD1520 NewDCM777 NewDCD810DCD610DCD1420

SONYCDP270CDP470CDP670CDP770CDP970CDP500CDP400CDP900

PIONEERCLD1030PDM710PDM610POM510POM410PD7100PDT503P04100

NAD52205240530051005170

469649649329269New

159189229289399

2gCall

639439329269239399219169

289379729479649

JVCXLM400 329XLV211 169XLV222 189XLV444 249XLZ411 229XL2555 299

MAGNAVOXCDB486 269CDB482 169CDB480 139CDB582 199

11111=1=YAMAHA

RX1130RX930RX730RX530 NewRX330 New

NAKAMICHITA1A NewTA2A NewTA3A NewTA4A

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THE HIGH END

by Ralph Hodges

SIX-INCHOVERACHIEVER

ANY audiophiles do notcare much for the com-ponent size and expenseentailed in truly big bass

response. Not a few of them havefound rationalizations for all butignoring deep low frequencies, oftenasserting that show-off sonics arenot what high fidelity-or at leasttheir high fidelity-is all about. Butbreathes there a single one of uswhose attention is not grabbedwhen something goes off with astentorian, convincingly subterra-nean boom or roar? And are we notintrigued when that somethingturns out to be itsy-bitsy, appearingto have no business hanging aroundmajor acoustical events? If you an-swered "No" and "Yes," perhaps anew Yamaha line of powered speak-er systems has something for you.

The system I have in mind here isthe diminutive AST-Sl, whichcomes in pairs with the companionAST -A 10 power amplifier for$1,200 a set. The "woofer" of the S1has an effective diameter of barely 5inches. Its vented enclosure, whichfits easily under one arm, has aprominent but very small circularport. Altogether, it hardly promisesgreat things, but it can achieve au-

thentically flabbergasting results,and the amazement doesn't wear offeven after some of its limitationshave been uncovered.

A technical description of the Ac-tive Servo Technology, or AST,concept of amplifier/speaker inter-action is available from Yamaha,but I don't find it especially illumi-nating. It has a good deal to sayabout modeling loudspeakers withelectronic circuit analogs, a tech-nique that has proven useful overthe years without quite having be-come a precise science.

In essence, what Yamaha hasaimed at is the neutralization of cer-tain components of loudspeaker im-pedance, including static voice -coilresistance and, to some degree, backelectromotive force, by applicationof what might be called a sort of"anti -drive" originating within theamplifier via feedback and servocircuits. If you find all this a littledifficult to grasp, I can sympathize.If you find it suspiciously similar tothe long -familiar motional -feedbacktechniques used in many past and afew present speaker systems, it isn'tquite. The operation of the YamahaAST system is totally electronic,with no sensing transducers em-ployed, and it attempts to go some-what beyond the mere adjustmentof amplifier gain.

Theory aside, what are the bene-fits Yamaha claims to reap? Theyall have to do with improving thedrive characteristics of the asso-ciated speaker. First, nullifying thevoice -coil resistance is said to offsetsome of the thermal and otherlosses heretofore inevitable in am-plifier -loudspeaker energy transfers.Second, it greatly increases thedamping factor of the system, allow-ing the amplifier to act as a muchmore effective electronic brake onthe voice coil.

It is the second benefit that re-ceives most of Yamaha's emphasis,and it is tied in quite interestinglywith the choice of a vented speakerdesign. The idea is that ventedspeakers have never realized theirfull potential because energy fromthe port has been deficient-defi-cient because the driver itself hasbeen lossy, passing acoustical ener-gy out through its diaphragm(which is more or less acoustically

transparent at low frequencies) be-fore the port has had a chance to getinvolved with it. With an increasein damping factor, however, the di-aphragm is commensurately stif-fened, passing less energy out pre-maturely. Yamaha states that withAST, the woofer actually ap-proaches the stiffness of the speak-er's particle -board enclosure walls.

Truly there is much to marvel athere, but words are cheap. Only per-formance counts. When I first set upthe AST system, being a thoroughlycivilized audiophile, I promptly at-tempted to break it. I almost did,but I came nearer to breaking my-self and sending my wife back tomother as well. Yet as I contem-plated various bass -drum and pipe -organ cataclysms, awaiting God'scertain punishment for this berserkbehavior, I began to feel that thespecial character of each individualinstrument was being preserved in arather distinct way and that a subtlemuddling effect was conspicuous byits relative absence. This impres-sion carried over to more reason-able sound levels, where the virile,singing thrum of string -bass choirsseemed to adhere more strictly tothe written musical lines than I wasused to, and individual beats of thetimpani were less lost in the generalacoustical clutter of crescendos.

Good news all. A few informalmeasurements made later, however,altered the picture a bit. At 30 Hz,where the output of the little AST -S1 was certainly usable, the secondharmonic was down only 6 du rela-tive to the fundamental (commend-ably, it did not appear to increase atsomewhat higher levels). In severalresponse curves the classic doublehump of a vented enclosure seemedto emerge. What did not emerge wasa fleeting coloration at a somewhathigher frequency that I had becomeconvinced was real. It may havecorresponded to the frequencies atwhich the AST process is phasedout (it only functions up to about200 Hz), or it may not have.

These slapdash tests notwith-standing, I remained generallypleased when I went back to listen-ing. The system is agreeable, ex-traordinarily potent, and probablydestined to solve many more prob-lems than it causes.

I 04 S I FRED RF.V1F.W.NLY 1989

Brilliantdeduction.

Why is Merit Ultra Lights one of today's fastest growingbrands? It is our hypothesis that it has something or other

to do with how good it tastes. What do you think?

Enriched Flavor,'" ultra low tar. A solution with Merit.

7t3W/1...

MERITUltra Lights

FILTERklatOtA LOw TAN

Merit Ultra Lights

SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: Cigarette

Smoke Contains Carbon Monoxide.0 Philip Morris Inc. 19249

Kings: 5 mg "tar,' 0.5 mg nicoti'te ay. per cigarette by FTC method.

Until now, the au,; o sectionicmcist video disc players lefta bit to be de sired.

Hi?

:::: Mi.. . MEN. MN

Most combi playerssound like this headlinelooks.

Because four times

The ultimate goal of this exclu-oversampling is the besttn,

sive Yamaha process is pure ey can do.digital sound with absolutely Yamaha thinks youno phase deviation. We comevery, very close. should hear what eighttimes oversampling sounds like.

By auditioning the phenomenally clearaudio section of our new Yamaha CDV-1600 laserdisc player.

It's the same sophisticated sound found inour finer CD players. And it fills in gaps othercombi players are content to let you hear, thanksto an exclusive Yamaha process called Hi -BitTechnology.

Hi -Bit Technology uses an 18 -bit 8 -timesoversampling digital filter to raise

If it's round, flat and shiny, thenew Yamaha CUB' -l600

plays it.

samplin: oiseso far above the

audio spectrum it's virtuallyimpossible for it to interfere with your listening.

More Hi -Bit wizardry comes from twin 18-

bit D/A converters that deliver better separationand higher dynamic sound.

Of course, the CDV-1600 is chock-full ofingenious new video improvements, too.

There's a new pickup head designed forpinpoint tracking and precision signal pickup.

A unique new high -resolution time basecorrector LSI that virtually eliminates video jitteronce and for all.

And even enhanced picture quality andcrisper detail from older,low quality or defectivevideo discs.

There are ten differ-ent forward and reversespeeds for studying keyframes and analyzingspecial effects.

And a remote withup to 15 programmablechapters and a handyone -key "Clear" command for deleting the lastcommand entered without cancelling the entireprogram.

Not to mention gold-plated, audiophile -

grade I/O jacks for no -loss, noise -free signaltransmission.

In other words, impeccable audio.And extraordinary video.Together for the first time in the new

Yamaha CDV-1600 laser disc player.It's the unsurpassed quality you've come to

expect from

Every bit of it. YAMAHAYamaha.

Simulated P.m

Accuracy and color saturationare close to perfect.line resolution. And a veryclean S" ratio of 47dB.

c 1989. Yamaha Electnmics Corporation. USA. P0. Box 6660. Buena Park. CA 90622. For the dealer nearest you. call l-800-662.6800.

jamo speakers, audio-technica cartridge, more... - world

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