INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER
After playing the speakers for me, he began removing his zip-cord speaker cables and paused to show me how, at the amplifier end, his red-plastic Pomona Electronics banana plugs had partially melted from the Al's heat. We both laughed.
After it first appeared in 1985, the AI quickly became famous for its hot top plate. The top plate got as hot as it did because it was used as a heatsink for the output transistors, which were biased highly into class-A. The Al's hot top made tabloid headlines, but for me it was its bold, sinewy, un-transistory sound and timeless, sharply drawn styling that distinguished it from cooler running Brit-fi competitors such as Audiolab's 8000A, Creek's 4040, A&R Cambridge's A60, and NAD's 3020.
Despite the Daily Mirror headlines, it was the Al's all-natural sonics-not its top-plate temperature-that made it an instant classic.
Now it's back, looking and feeling cooler than before.
As I type this, it is 85°F in my room, and I just held my palm 1" from the Al's chassis-top heatsink and could barely feel heat rising up-maybe none at all. Using a digital oven thermometer, I measured the chassis-top temperature at 140.1°F (60°C): too warm for toddler fingers but 5° cooler than the original's design-specified heatsink temperature of 65°Celsius.
History
My introduction to Musical Fidelity's tuneful aesthetic began in the late 1970s, when Anthony Michaelson ran a company called Michaelson & Austin, which was selling EL34 tube amplifiers designed by the first audio designer I christened a "Tall Wizard," my soon-to-be friend and Triode Mafia brother Tim de Paravicini. Tim's design for the TVA-10 was a testament to our shared belief that in any properly designed audio amplifier, tubes and transistors sound alike. I believe Tim's design for Musical Fidelity's Al proved that point.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 2024 من Stereophile.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 2024 من Stereophile.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
The Beatles in Mono according to Kevin
It's almost too easy to make Dave Dexter Jr. the villain in the story of the Beatles' fumbled introduction to America.
Stromtank S-4000 ProPower MK-II XT
COMPUTER-CONTROLLED BATTERY POWER SOURCE
Aurorasound HFSA-01
INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER
Transforming the music
One of my favorite things about this pastime is the modesty of its aims.
Lou Donaldson
Years ago, at one of the milestone NYC anniversary parties for Blue Note Records, a piercing voice burst out above the clinking glasses and chattering tongues, loudly declaiming (quoted here with several profanities omitted), \"Blue Note never gave me a dime!\"
EMM Labs DA2i
Among the many reasons to be grateful for audio shows,' one stands out: They allow me to set reasonable expectations of what components and whole audio systems can or cannot achieve. They have helped me set standards.
POLICED
THAT'S PRETTY ODIOUS,\" ANDY SUMMERS SAYS TO ME. \"AN ODIOUS COMPARISON.\" HIS BLUEISH EYES DARKEN. ROUGHLY AN HOUR INTO OUR 90-MINUTE FACE-TO-FACE INTERVIEW, I'D ASKED IF IT BOTHERS HIM THAT IN TERMS OF REACH AND STAYING POWER, HIS SOLO OEUVRE WILL NEVER MATCH HIS WORK WITH THE POLICE.
Focal Diva Utopia
WIRELESS STREAMING ACTIVE LOUDSPEAKER SYSTEM
An ultrasonic bargain
The first album I ever bought with my own money-cash earned mowing neighbors' lawns-was a British plum-label pressing of Led Zeppelin II.
MoFi Electronics Source Point 888
A recent high point in my career as a reviewer was writing about the MoFi Electronics SourcePoint 10 standmount loudspeaker for the February 2023 issue of Stereophile.'
