Featured Articles March 2013
Patrick Dillon takes a look at the Legacy Audio Studio HD. Offering an 8″ woofer and folded ribbon tweeter in a compact cabinet, the Studio HD is the baby of the Legacy lineup. He concludes that the Studio HDs “soundstage extremely well, offer great resolution across most of the important frequency ranges, good timbre and easy placement” but has reservations about their performance with rock: “bass can overwhelm or lag behind the nimble response of the upper frequencies…”
“I was intrigued recently to learn of a new electrostatic panel from Australian company Involve Audio,” writes John Reekie. Now available as a standalone panel together with the necessary power supplies and stepup transformer, the electrostatic panel offers interesting possibilities for the DIY speaker builder. John asks Charlie Van Dongen, chief designer of Involve Audio, and Rob Mackinlay of E R Audio, also involved in the design of the panel, for some inside info.
A relatively new entrant in the speaker market is Vapor Audio, notable for the use of top-quality drivers and an extremely solid cabinet construction method using laminated Baltic Birch ply. As a direct-sales manufacturer, their pricing also suggests outstanding value. John Reekie asks Ryan Scott, the designer and principal, if he would share his insights on loudspeaker design and his experiences on the path to become a speaker manufacturer.
John Reekie continues his quest for the perfect audio interface for acoustic measurements on a reasonable budget. He picks the MOTU MicroBook II because of its precise input gain control, but discovers that the MicroBook is useful for much more than originally anticipated. John writes: “the MicroBook II is an audio geek’s Swiss Army knife: an incredibly handy set of tools in a compact package… if you don’t mind a learning curve and have an inclination to tinker and experiment.”
“These days, DACs come in a wide variety of packages and price points, with a broad range of features and sometimes questionable benefits,” writes Oliver Masciarotte is his opening salvo in demystifying the vast range of DACs in the $500 – $2000 range now on the market. He looks at the key features that make a DAC worthy of consideration for a two-channel hifi enthusiast, and why, based on his inside knowledge of studio and mastering practices.
“I find it hard to believe that my original LP copy of Apollo (Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois and Roger Eno) will be thirty years old in 2013, but there it is – one of the great albums of the ambient music genre. When I think of Roger Eno’s music over the years, three words come to mind: thoughtful, quirky, and sometimes playful. Whether lyric or instrumental, Eno’s works tell stories that can either be tightly sewn threads or loosely knitted yarns.” Walker Burns reviews Roger Eno’s latest.
