The setup saga began when Moon co-owner Costa Koulisakis traveled to Port Townsend from Quebec to help remove two 861 amplifiers from their sturdy flight cases and set them up. (We also set up the Moon 891 Network Player/DAC, which I'll review next month, with and without the 861s.) First, he noted that Moon designed the 861s to rest on amp stands, supported by the amps' specially designed feet, which contain a suspension system composed of O-rings, a poron damping pad of specific density, and a contact point composed of dense ABS (like Legos). "Besides absorbing some external and internal vibration, these new footers also help level the amplifier when it is placed on an uneven surface," he said. "Each foot will compress a different amount to prevent the amplifier from rocking in any direction."
Koulisakis explained that Moon voiced the 861 three different ways: on HRS amp stands, on a granite surface, and directly on the floor of their main listening room, which has very low-pile carpet glued directly to a concrete floor. "The HRS stand works best, but the 861's elaborate footing system already does a portion of the work that a good amp stand will do."
Koulisakis lamented that my Grand Prix Monza amp stands were too small to accommodate the 861s. Not because the 861 is gargantuan; far from it. Rather, my amp stands are smaller than the norm to enable them to fit in tight spaces. In addition, each stand's four support pillars extend higher than their bamboo shelves and are situated more or less where the Moon 861's support feet would make contact. No way, José.
Bu hikaye Stereophile dergisinin December 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye Stereophile dergisinin December 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
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German kitchens, Japanese amps, and Afropop gems
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The record business was awash in money and power. Vinyl LPs were still five bucks, and while the pressings could be suspect, the music-buying public still snapped them up en masse.
The Butthole Surfers wipe out
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You're only lonely
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In Gramophone Dreams #88, I described the sound of TEAC's VRDS-701T CD transport as \"dense and precise in a way I had never previously heard from digital.\" I went on to explain, \"by dense, I mean there was a tangible corporeality effected by seemingly infinite quantities of small, tightly packed molecules of musical information.\"
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Here's a hard truth: A written review of a full-sized speaker any speaker, really-is, at best, semi-useful. We all listen differently, we have different musical tastes, our system electronics are different, and our listening rooms vary a lot. You will gain a general picture of a speaker's capabilities and foibles from John Atkinson's measurements, and I can tell you how the speakers sound to me, in my room. But that's it. You need to hear them for yourself before making a buying decision. The best I can do is tell you how my music brain felt when the speakers were in my house and making music.
STEREOPHILE'S 33RD ANNUAL - PRODUCT OF THE YEAR AWARD 2024
When Stereophile's Product of the Year Awards were first published, in 1992, we decided that unlike some other publications and their awards schemes, we would keep the number of categories to a minimum. That way, we would avoid what the late Art Dudley once described as the \"every child in the class gets a prize\" syndrome.
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Mobile Fidelity, PrimaLuna, and First Watt redux
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