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Russell
Lichter
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I
live in Black Point, California, forty minutes north of San
Francisco. My involvement with classical music began over
fifty years ago, and with audiophilia about three decades
later with a fortuitous spin of the FM dial one evening in
Los Angeles. I found myself listening with great interest to
a program on audio, hosted by Peter Sutheim. Peter and I
became friends, I even worked with him doing high-end
installations. One thing led to another. I began to acquire
equipment, an Advent 300 receiver, a JBL SA-600 amplifier,
KEF 104ab loudspeakers (soon after traded on a pair of KEF
101s), a Kenwood direct drive turntable (with a
massive "concrete" plinth), a Grace 707 tone arm. I built a
big subwoofer, an electronic crossover. Acquired more
equipment, an NAD 1020 preamp, a Hafler amplifier, and an
AR-XA table that I modified and fitted with a Black Widow
tone arm (a far better table than the Kenwood/Grace).
Eventually I ended with a system consisting of the
AR-XA/Black Widow, Advent 300, JBL SA-600 and KEF 101s, and
so it stood for over fifteen years.
I didn't interest myself in
CDs until five or six years ago, when buying a Marantz
CD-63SE marked the start of a new burst of audiophilia.
Again, one thing led to another. I bought a Parasound
P/HP-850 preamp and HCA-1000 power amp, then a Parasound
D/AC-1100 converter, then another HCA-1000 and ran them as
monoblocks, then a Parasound C/BD-2000 transport, and later
a Parasound P/LD-2000 preamp. I began to eye the KEFs with
some doubt. I was never going to get realistic sound levels,
or significant bass, from these little speakers, lovely as
they are. After a couple of months of auditioning, I bought
new loudspeakers and subsequently other new equipment as
well.
Having arrived at a certain
plateau of audio excellence, though improvements could be
made, particularly as regards the room, I find myself
engaged not in questions of audio, but in questions of music
and performance and aesthetics. I would describe myself as
very serious listener, about 95% classical music, most of it
solo piano, with emphasis (currently) on Beethoven, Ravel,
Debussy, Albeniz, Granados, Liszt, Scarlatti, Schumann and
Rachmaninov. The other 5% consists of mostly jazz, though I
should not fail to include Manitas de Plata's awesome genius
on flamenco guitar, the original-cast My Fair Lady, and the
Beatles White Album. I have less than two hundred LPs and
only rarely play them. I have approximately three hundred
CDs, which doesn't seem like many, but I am not really a
collector, preferring to concentrate on a limited range of
music. I've certain favorite music of which I have multiple
performances: Mussorgsky's Pictures, Bach's Goldbergs and
Art of the Fugue, Beethoven piano sonatas, Gliere's Il'ya
Muromets, Ravel's Concerto for Left Hand. And certain
favorite pianists, Michel Block, Abbey Simon, Glenn Gould,
Byron Janis. I have at times listened exclusively to a
single piece of music for a period of days, even
weeks.
Favorite Test
CDs:
- Prokofiev,
Suites from Lieutenant Kije, etc., Mogrelia,
Czecho-Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Naxos
8.550.381
- Mussorgsky,
Pictures At An Exhibition, Kubelik, Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, Mercury Living Presence 434 378-2 (monaural,
recorded 1951)
- Schubert, Trio
Op. 100, Sonatina Op. 134, Auer, Delmoni, Rosen, Clarity
CCD-1007
- Rachmaninov,
Piano Concertos No. 2 and No. 3, Janis, Dorati,
Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra/London Symphony Orchestra,
Mercury Living Presence 432 759-2
- Vine, Sonata,
et al., Sergei Babayan, piano, ProPiano
PPR224517
- J.S. Bach,
Cello Suites, Nathaniel Rosen, John Marks Records JMR
6/7
- Live At
Ethell's, Clifford Jordan Quartet, Mapleshade
56292
- Lady in Red,
The Hot Club of San Francisco, Clarity
CCD-1019
- Blue Light
Till Dawn, Cassandra Wilson, Blue Note CDP 0777 7 81357 2
2
System's Components
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Room:
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14 1/2' x 19' x 8', loudspeakers
diagonally/symmetrically positioned in corner, 6'
separation, 3 1/2' from nearest wall; no room
treatment
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Rack:
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home made, 18" x 24" x 3/4" MDF shelves, on
3/4" threaded construction rod
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Power:
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CEA high isolation transformer, 2000VA,
0.001pF coupling capacitance, isolated from source
ground; shielded 12 gauge, tinned, stranded copper
wire power output cable
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Turntable:
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Rega Planar 3 turntable, RB300 tone arm, Benz
Micro Glider 1.0mV cartridge; on 3/4" MDF platform,
suspended on 11" bicycle inner tube (suspension
tuned to approximately 4Hz); fitted with Express
Machining's "The Lift" and their proprietary,
eccentric counterweight for the RB300, "The Heavy
Weight" (a stunning improvement in tracking); stock
cables
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CD Transport:
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Parasound C/BD-2000 belt drive (manufactured
by CEC), suspended on 10" bicycle inner tube
(suspension tuned to approximately 4Hz); Nordost
"Moonglo" digital cable, proprietary RCA
terminated; stock power cord
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D/A Converter:
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Bel Canto DAC-1, Nordost Solar Wind cables,
wrapped on ferrite torroids, modified at the preamp
end with a -6db voltage divider consisting of two
1% metal film resisters per channel (to allow wider
ranger of motion and smaller increments in the
preamp volume controls); stock power cord wrapped
on ferrite torroid
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Preamp:
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Audible Illusions Modulus 3A, stock tube set
with Pearl Audio Tube Coolers; four soft sorbothane
feet; Nordost Solar Wind cables; stock power
cord
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Power Amp:
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Spectron Digital One, four medium sorbothane
feet; Nordost Flatline speaker cables, proprietary
banana plugs; stock power cord wrapped on ferrite
torroid
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Speakers:
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Newform Research R645 ribbon hybrid (each
consisting of a 45" column weighing around 20
kilograms composed of three proprietary 15" stacked
ribbon drivers, 3 1/2" wide beveled face, 3/4" wide
plastic film ribbon with printed aluminum voice
coil, 120 degree horizontal dispersion, 6db
crossover slope; pair of ScanSpeak 6 1/2"
carbon-fiber-pulp cone drivers in rear ported
baffle, 12db crossover slope; crossover point
1000Hz; ±3db 32-20,000Hz, 92db
sensitivity)
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Russell's
comments about his System:
AA: "Russell, how
would you describe your system's sound?"
RL: "Very revealing
of detail, very dynamic, extended high
end."
AA: "Do you think
there is room for improvement?"
RL: "Yes, mainly in
terms of room treatment."
AA: "Have you got
plans for upgrading?"
RL: "Possibly.
Depends on the next generation of digital-input power
amplifiers."
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"Re-Visit"
Notes (20 May 2001)
Upgrading the crossovers in my Newform Research
R645 loudspeakers was done with the blessing of the
designer, John Meyer, who lives in Ontario. All of
the original components were physically much
smaller, and although it was possible to install
the new parts inside the cabinet, it was simpler,
and (theoretically) sonically superior, to opt for
an external crossover. The proprietary Newform
ribbon, which crosses over at 1000Hz, uses a filter
consisting of a series 11uF capacitor. For my
crossover I used 5uF and 6uF Hovland Musicaps in
parallel. The low frequency filter consists of a
2.7mH Goertz Alpha-Core copper foil inductor,
French SBC 22uF capacitor, and four paralleled 10
ohm power resistors. The physical layout has the
inductor as far as practical from the ribbon
capacitors, mounted vertically to minimize magnetic
field intensity. I already had Nordost Super
Flatline biamp speaker cables, so I decided to
place the crossovers in the bottom shelf on my
equipment rack; the short run of Flatline Gold
(with Nordost's superb Z-plugs) in the photograph
connects to the amplifier. In addition to
constructing the crossovers, I added some eighteen
pounds of sheet lead and an additional cross brace
to each speaker cabinet, to further lower the
resonant point.
I was surprised to hear significant differences.
One of these differences is quantitative and would
almost certainly not disappear in a controlled
blind test: retrieval of low-level detail,
harmonics, and ambient information. I literally
heard sounds, on very familiar material, I'd not
heard previously. On a qualitative level were
greater resolution of detail and sharper imaging,
the lower octaves were more articulate and
tighter.
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"Third Visit"
Notes (09 March 2003)
The external crossover topology was changed;
the inductor orientation is now less than
theoretically ideal, but the crossover fits into a
reasonably sized wooden case. The cases were custom
made by my friend Al Dynarski of red oak and padouk
(which gets its beautiful red color from cinnabar).
Al also makes beautifully crafted custom CD
cabinets. I've already written about the bracing
and lead sheeting added to the loudspeaker
cabinets.
The loudspeakers were moved from a
diagonal orientation to square one, well into the
middle of the long dimension of the room (due to a
wood burning stove, this is only possible
orientation allowing reasonable distance between
the loudspeakers). Of the three or four
configurations I've tried over the years, I find
this the best imaging.
Sound panels were added on the wall
facing the loudspeakers. I constructed these of
double sheets of 24" x 48" x 2" bonded fiberglass,
covered with half-inch polyester batting and
loose-woven burlap, mounted on quarter-inch
plywood. I am planning of constructing smaller
triangular versions for the rear corners of the
room.
The Bel Canto DAC 1 was replaced by a DAC 1.1
and finally a DAC 2. For all the spectacular
technical improvements, new chips and a total
circuit redesign, I find the main improvement of
the DAC 2 lies in extended frequency extremes,
likely attributable to the audio output stage. It
also seems to have somewhat better retrieval of low
level detail.
Finally, since my last revisit there have been
two CD transport changes. First a PS Audio Lambda,
then very recently an Accuphase DP90, which
has provided a simply stunning improvement in
soundstage and especially image depth.
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