Hint - they are also the most critical in determining what is often called a players individual 'tone', (as in "Backhaus' tone was utterly unlike X's"), PLUS  expression (excl. vibrato),  ensemble, rhythm, timing and ensemble etc, ie the music.

i would like Roy Harris to respond to my Quiz. like his writing.

Timbo in Oz

(Timothy Bailey, Australia)

I have sent your quiz, as directed, to Roy Harris. You Aussies should stick to trying to beat England in cricket!

Concentric Circles

Editor,

I enjoyed your review of the Concentra integrated and I have a few questions.

I am currently using B&W N803 speakers, BAT VK-30 pre and VK-200 amp, Electrocompaniet EMC-1UP CD player.  I have my speakers for sale and Magnepan 3.6 speakers are at the front of my list; at the same point I have thought about selling the BAT gear as the Concentra II intrigues me.  In your opinion do you think the Concentra II would mate well with the Maggie 3.6's?

Thank you,

Brian Miller
Michigan

I reviewed the original Concentra, rated at 100 watts. The II's power is boosted to 150. As such, and remembering that Maggies love the juice, I think the II may do the job. The original would be a little shy, I would think. Let us know how they sound -- two superb examples of American ingenuity!

Editor

Loving Roy

Editor:

The Jan.2003 article on the subjective evaluation of musical and neutral systems, is without exception one of the best, if not the Best analysis, I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Congratulations Mr. Roy Harris, you are henceforth elevated to the status of guru in my musical pantheon.

Actually the article is ground breaking in it's refreshingly different approach to the audiophile dilemma.

Best regards,

T. Phalieros

Money and Subjectivity!

The subjectivity and hyperbole in audio reviews is frustrating.  It's amazing how often I've read a review on a particular item of audio equipment and come across some sort of statement about how similar this item is in quality compared to other items costing much more.  This type of comparison is done often enough that it seems like there shouldn't be any audio equipment left to compare to in that same price bracket.  Just once I'd like to come across a $1000 item that is only as good as a $500 item.  It makes me wonder if the reviewer is trying to find the truth about the audio product's quality, or simply producing advertising for the company of the product being reviewed.

There are a lot of items in the audio world that don't even make sense to me. For instance, so much concern is made over cables (some costing thousands of dollars for a small length) when all the wiring and welds within a particular audio product are seemingly ignored.  How could one cable with two connectors make any noticeable difference when connected between products that consist of dozens and dozens of wires and welds along that same signal path?  It just doesn't make sense.

I was once in a listening room of Paradigm speakers consisting of about ten pairs ranging from the lowest Cinema speaker to the upper mid-level Monitor 9 speaker.  They were all connected to the same CD player via a switch that allowed me to instantly listen to any pair of speakers.  I listened to several different types of classical music, including vocals, and was prepared (and expecting) to hear significant differences.  I was shocked at how little the differences were.  In fact, if I had to value the differences between speaker pairs, each better pair might receive a higher score of about 1 point on a total scale of about 50.  What was most shocking was that when I switched between the Cinema and Monitor 9 I didn't get the 10 point jump that logic would tell me, but rather more like about 3.  This comparison opened my eyes (and ears) to the subtleties of the audio world.

What annoys me is that the reviews often use words like "shocking" and "drastic" to describe the differences between lesser and better products, giving me the impression that colour is being seen for the first time in a world of black and white.  However, a Fisher-Price toy is not being compared to a high-end audio product.

Why can't audio equipment be compared in a way that is much more scientific and objective?  Why aren't actual measurements of the sound made?  If our ears can hear a difference, then certainly a device can detect that difference and plot it out to prove it.  Frequency response graphs are made for speakers, so wouldn't this data also show the difference among audio products?

I  wish that a reviewer was given a 10 or 20 second piece of music to review, not knowing what he was reviewing (players, cable, speaker, etc.).  He would listen to the piece over and over again for about 20 sessions in order to evaluate it for tonality, bass, resolution, etc..  Then he would listen to the same 10 or 20 second piece over again for another 20 sessions, not knowing what or if anything had been changed.  He would go through this procedure about 10 times to test 3 or 4 products.  Then another reviewer would be subjected to the same analysis.  Ultimately, we would discover if there would be consistency in the reviews, especially when the reviewers don't know what audio equipment combination they are listening to.  For example, you could review 3 CD players in random order for 10 times so that some players might be played in repeated succession.  Then the review would be valid because it would eliminate subjectivity and bias.  You would then have a review that would produce the truth of the audio equipment's quality, and not what the company wants you to tell your audience.  People buying audio equipment that was favourable by this review method would be able to have confidence that their money has made a good purchase, because most audio equipment cannot be properly auditioned.

Michael

Many thanks for your thoughtful letter, Michael. Sad, but true, there are audio folks who's opinion has a price. Happily, Audiophilia's folks are not among them. We also do not have a 'no negative review' policy. Others state publicly that they do not publish negative reviews. We are more than able to stand behind every word that appears herein, positive or critical.

As to blind listening tests, etc, well, subjectivity is a part of the 'opinion equation'. Take this equation into account, and you'll accept *all* written opinion as just that, opinion. Enjoy it as just that. I enjoy participating in blind tests. I think that a review should encompass more, though. A lot more. If truth be told, the subjective nature of opinion is much of the juice that powers an Audiophilia review. Hope we keep you reading and asking great questions.

Editor

Martin, reclocked!

Editor:

Martin mentioned that he would be doing a follow up of this DAC with the reclocker upgrade. Any idea when it might appear?

Mike

Here you go, Mike Birdland review

Sinatra

Dear Harry,

I was delighted to read your exceptional review of our box set, "Frank Sinatra in Hollywood" in the January 2003 online edition of Audiophilia.  It was a wonderfully balanced portrait of a true "labor of love."  I wanted to take a moment to thank you, and to help answer a few excellent questions you raised.

Your idea to include the MGM film clip of "Farewell Amanda" from Adam's Rib was excellent, and I had indeed thought of it.  Although I lobbied to include this small snippet (oh, how we searched for a copy of the complete recording), some of my colleagues didn't agree that Sinatra's vocal portion was substantial enough to merit its inclusion. 

By the way, something regarding "Farewell Amanda" occurred at the very last moment - so late that I wasn't able to document it in my liner notes.  Several days before the masters went to the pressing plant for final production, I received a call from the Sinatra office.  Charles Pignone, their assistant, was rummaging through some boxes of paperwork in a storage facility.  The boxes had been taken from Frank's office in Burbank, and were not known to contain any sound recordings.  Lo and behold, he found an MGM acetate marked "Farewell Amanda."  I was thrilled to receive that call - and they shipped the disc to me overnight.  The mastering work was halted, and studio time booked for the following week.  When I received the disc, I placed it on my turntable, expecting to hear Frank's vocal recording.  Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that the disc contained - on both sides - the piano only recording that Frank likely practiced to.  Had it been the vocal recording, we would have included it at the end of Disc #3, and slipped a note explaining the whole thing into the book.  As far as we can tell, the recording simply does not exist.

You are correct in asserting that Fox was uncooperative with us.  I cannot tell you how hard I tried to convince everyone involved that "If I Loved You" was ESSENTIAL to this package.  The folks at Fox are just too young and too ignorant to understand the historic importance of what we were trying to do.

We fleetingly toyed with including the Sinatra In Israel tracks on the box set, but the general consensus was that it was a film that was originally conceived for television, and as such should be excluded.  The Capitol tracks were a bonus, as was the brief segment of "From here To Eternity," which we included because of the film's importance in resurrecting Sinatra's film career.  

Thanks again for the kind words for our efforts.  I hope this note helps explain some of the questions you so knowledgeably raised!

Always,

Chuck Granata
Producer, "Frank Sinatra in Hollywood"

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