Hitachi bring you looks and logic. How? In the elegant, compact shape of

the new Midi 50, high performance hi-fi, controlled by computer

So how does it stack up?

THE AMPLIFIER. All the power you could possibly

want with 50 watts RMS per channel (at a distortion of 0.2%) coupled with all the convenience of precise touch-sensitive electronic computer controls

THE TUNER. Digital synthesised three-waveband,

tuner which can be pre-set to 16 stations with quartz accuracy so that the whole family can find their favourite programme at the touch of a button

LOGIC DEMANDS YOU LISTEN. THE CASSETTE DECK

Every facility necessary for optimum recording and playback of normal, chrome and metal tape— including auto-reverse, full editing and track search system, Dolby B and C noise reduction and full IC logic electronic controls.

THE TURNTABLE. A combination of superb audio engin-

eering with sophisticated ease-of-use facilities such as silent glide front loading drawer, random playback and automatic track search and repeat so you can play favourite tracks again and again.

THE SPEAKERS. European designed and built to provide

the vital link in this remarkable hi-fi components chain.

The Midi 50 sits at the top of a range that also includes the Midi 01, the Midi 10 and the Midi 30.Theysharethe same high degree of technical excellence.

Logic demands you buyoneof them.

HITACHI HI-FI You'll be hearing a lot more from us

etirrnc.

MIDI 50

HI NE OCTOBER 198-1

COVER

IF WE DEVOTE a seemingly disproportionate amount of space in HFN/RR to top-end,

esoteric equipment, it is simply because of our concern to keep track of the state-of-the-audio-art; indeed that pursuit is, in essence our raison d'être. That is not to say, though, that we don't have the beginner or the less mega-heeled enthusiast at heart. Our cover this month heralds the first of a series of systems reviews from Martin Colloms, starting here with a budget ceil-ing of £250. Also budget-minded, Alvin Gold looks at 'affordable' amps and tuners, and JA tries out CD and LP-based combos from Marantz and A&R Cambridge.

REGULARS 27 COMMENT by John

Atkinson 29 VIEWS — letters on Compact

Disc, Q factors, listening levels, violin sound, Gar-rotts, Gurus and Big Ben

37 NEWS 43 SUBJECTIVE SOUNDS by

Paul Messenger 50 RADIO by Angus McKenzie

MBE 49 TECHNOLOGY by Barry Fox 53 THE COMPLEAT RECORDIST

by Tony Faulkner 61 THE ANACHROPHILE by Ken

Kessler 111 NOTES Music news com-

piled by Edward Seckerson 33 BOOKS & 57 & 101 176 CLASSIFIED ADS 140 LOCAL DEALER ADS 177 ADVERTISERS' INDEX

FEATURES 55 DIRECT-DISC TO COMPACT

DISC Doug Sax, President of Sheffield Lab, talks to John Atkinson

63 THE HFN/RR ACCESSORIES CLUB Ken Kessler on Cus-tom Cable Services

65 A&R CAMBRIDGE COMPETI-TION Win the £600+ ARCAM2 system as reviewed on p95

67 AMP-01 — A STATE-OF-THE-ART PREAMP Ben Duncan

with details of the most cru-cial module in his design: the disc stage

73 AUDIOSTATIC COMPETI-TION A pair of £1400 speak-ers to be won if you can give them a name

103 THE RECOMMENDED COM-PACT DISCS

105 LA BELLE EPOQUE Kenneth Dommett looks at French music at around the turn of the century

111 NOTES Music news com-piled by Edward Seckerson

111 GIDON KREMER Star Rus-sian violinist interviewed by Edward Seckerson

115 STARS ON 45 Ken Kessler on the ultimate I?) analogue experience

117 COMPACT DISC MONITOR The latest classical silvers on parade

178 BACK DOOR Pete Clark on Nils Lofgren's Cry Tough album

EQUIPMENT STARTING POINT Martin Col-loms begins a series of reviews intended to help the first-time buyer. This month's budget is £250. 76 Dual 505;

NAD 3120; Marantz LD20

SME SERIES V — Once again 'The Best Pickup Arm in the World'?

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VOLUME 29 NUMBER 10

Martin Colloms with first impressions 79 SME Series V

AFFORDABLE AMPLIFIERS AND TUNERS Alvin Gold looks at four combinations ranging from £168 to £483. 81 Introduction 84 Akai AM-U5 amp 85 Akai AT-S7L tuner 84 Onkyo A-22 amp 85 Onkyo T-22L tuner 85 Sony TA-AX500 amp 88 Sony ST-JX500L tuner 88 Yamaha A-500 amp 88 Yamaha T-500 tuner 89 Conclusions

KARMA CHAMELEON Christ-opher Breunig on Linn's latest moving-coil 91 Linn Karma

Sony TA-AX500 amp (top left) Dual 505 (bottom left) Audiostatic speaker (above)

FOR THE PRICE OF A GOOD DIAMOND John Atkinson reviews the Marantz 'Concert' system and A&R Cambridge's Arcam 2 line-up 93 Marantz LD50 speakers 93 Marantz PM54 amplifier 94 Marantz CD-84 CD player 95 A&R Arcam two speakers 95 A&R A60 amplifier 95 Revolver turntable/AR P77

cartridge/Linn LV X tonearm 97 Conclusions

LINEAR CRYSTALS Martin Col-loms investigates the latest in cable technology — the so-called 'single crystal' interconnects 99 Hitachi LC OFC cable 99 Hitachi SSX-104 LC OFC 99 Hitachi SAX-102 LC OFC 101 Conclusion

RECORD REVIEW 123 RECORDS OF THE MONTH 123 RECORD REVIEW INDI-X 124 CLASSICAL ISSUES & FE IS-

SUES 133 CLASSICAL COLLECTIONS 137 NON-CLASSICAL ISSUES &

REISSUES by Fred Dellar, Ken Hyder, Denis Argent, and the HFN/RR team

117 COMPACT DISC MONITOR 103 THE RECOMMENDED COM-

PACT DISCS

NEXT MONTH A varied mix of equipment comes under the review microscope in November: Martin Colloms will be looking at pre/power amp combinations, including the long-awaited Audiolab and an excel-lent duo from Rotel; Ken Kessler has been trying out affordable cartridges from Goldring, Mis-sion, Shure, Grado and Ortofon; while John Atkinson reports on life with Sony's first Beta Hi-Fi video/FM audio recorder. The loudspeaker is the main

feature topic next month: Stanley Kelly starts a short history of the ribbon speaker; Wharfedale's Gareth Millward examines stereo imagery; and Paul Messenger describes KEF's crossover design_ for the new R104/2. Add to that Doug Hammond on

Schumann's chamber music, a special offer on the contact cleaner Tweek, and our regular columns, record and CD reviews, and you can see why it would be a good idea to place your order now. Or better still, take out a subscription — see the special offer on p24.

Published monthly on third Friday of the preceding month by Link House Magazines (Croydon) Ltd, Dingwall Avenue, Croydon CR9 2TA. Printed in England by Alabaster Passmore & Sons Ltd., Tovil, Maidstone, Kent. ISSN 0142-6230 SUBSCRIPTIONS All subscription enquiries to Subscriptions Department at the above address. Tel: 01-686 2599 ext. 199 Annual surface-mail subscription rates are £ 12.00 ( UKI and £ 16.70 (overseas), except, USA which is $35.00. Overseas airmail: £40.00. USA US mailing agents: Expediters of the Printed Word Ltd., 515 Madison Avenue, Suite 917, New York, N.Y. 10022. Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y.

NI- WS & RI.CORD RI \ IF‘% 0(10141 R I9S-1

"Designed by Erik Edvardsen to sound good above all other requirements — they achieve this aim

by a margin that borders on embarrassing in comparison with most of the competition"

HI-FI NEVVS Sep:errber 1983

"They dominate the budget amplifier market and rightly so"

STEREO THE MAGAZINE Oc ober 1983

"Sets the standard for budget amplifiers to beat" HI-FI NOW March 1984

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NAD 3020A critics choice backed by public worldwide!

NAD is our best selling Hi-Fi. And the NAD 3020A is without doubt the most popular budget ampl fier we have ever handled Acclaimed by Hi-Fi critics in almost every Country, the 3020A has become the world's top selling Hi-Fi Amplifier. Where other manufacturers conce-itrate on fancy knobs and flashing lights the NAD philosophy is one of uncompromising sound quality and a pursuit of audio perfection. Exclusive NAD 'Soft Clipping' enables the 3020A to be driven substantially beyond its rated

power cleanly and safely. And the high- voltage, high current output stages can deliver short-term bursts of two to five times the rated continuous power output into loudspeakers of wicely varying

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impedances. An examination of the 3020A's back oanel reveals NAD's painstaki-ig attention to deta.l. MC input. Lab input. Separable pre-amp and power amp. Come to Hi-Fi Markets and audition the

HMI MARKETS

/

NAD 3020A. We're sure ,' / it will be your

choice too. / / efie Q. 5

£125.00 rogle‘,„'eolS1c,05°\ .14 oç" a

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The place where people care about hi-fi

New NAD Digital AM/FM Stereo Receivers

Hi-Fi Markets offer two superlative new receivers - the NAD 7140 and 7155 — providing NAD's exceptional raja of performance to price. Both models feature exclusive NAD impedance selector which delivers maximum power into any spea<er impedance and bass EQ circuit, augmenting the deep- bass response of speakers while an infrasonic filter preserves maximum power from music. The 7140 and 7155 are nearly twice

as sensitive in FM stereo as other receivers. 50dB stereo quieting sensitivity is typicaily only 220V and maximum stereo quieting 80dB. A dynamic separation circuit maintains full subjective stereo separation while improving the quieting of weak stereo signals. High AM rejection and low capture ratio minimize multipath interference in both strong and weak signals. And the 7140 and 7155 offer convenient digital tuning.

" Best Buy If HI-FI CHOICE Autumn 1983

Power output conservatively rated at 40 W/ch. with + 3d8 IHF Dynamic Headroom (80 W/ch) for peaks

£339.00

NAD 7155 Receiver Power output conservatively rated at 55 W/ch. with + 3d8 IHF Dynamic Headroom (110 W/ch) for peaks. Plus independent record/listen facility.

£389.00

ner This superb AM/FM tuner incorporates the finest in analogue tuner circuitry including a dual-gate MOSFET front end system for an excellent combination of sensitivity and resistance to overload. The NAD4020A is the best sounding tuner in its class and it's at Hi-Fi Markets now!

£125.00

Deck Complementary cassette deck to the 3020A amplifier and 4020A tuner. the 6050C incorporates a host of advanced features including Dolby C. Dolby 13, direct loading with click-locked soft touch buttons and review/cue. Your local Hi-Fi Markets will be pleased to give you a demonstration.

£159.00

"Easly the most outstanting recdver I Immi!kelow £200"

Slone %cower TM

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NAD 7125 AM/FM Receiver

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The new NAD 7 125 is a compact receiver with low-profie design which is elegant and modern yet highly functional. Its advanced engineering and sophisticated circuitry mark it as a no-

liSonical

!Sim POPtJLARHl-FIep

NAD 5120 Latest vers on of the UK's leading auciophile turntable, now with tubular tonearm and cartridge. The NAD 5120 combines unique styling, superb record-playing performance and exceptional freedom from resonant colouration and

ck at an amazingly modest price. Be sure to audition the exciting NAD 5120 at your local Hi-Fi Markets.

£99.50 Complete with tonearm and cartridge. Also available with 'fine tune' flat tonearm at £99.50 excluding cartridge. Additional flat tonearms £24.50 each.

compromise product, one w ose sonic performance is audibly identical to that of separate tuners and amplifiers costing much more Outstanding features include wide-range phono preamplifier and sensitive digital tuner

£199.00

NA Deck

sset

The new NAD 61 25 cassette deck has a slimline, low wow and flutter transport mecnanism. There's an MX head for wider frequency response, superior wear characteristics and

ex • . e NAD 6125 gives first rate performance from Metal tapes. Even with low cost ferric tapes, the 61 25 gives excellent frequency response and a dynamic range comparable to the very best cassette decks on the market.

£39.00

the 5120 "The best compact disc yer we have tested"

AU DIO November 1983

NAD 5200 Compact Disc Player Compact Disc Players are not all created equal. The NAD 5200 is a second generation machine, fi,mly in the NAD no-foils, high performance, best- buy tradition. Whilst many CD players are festooned with superfluous vogramming controls and unnecessary micro processor circuitry, the NAD 5200 is

HI•FI MARKETS

designed to focus on sonic quality and genuine user convenience without gimmicks. In the final analysis what matters most in a true high fidelity component is the quality of its sound, and in this respect the NAD 5200 is at least equal or superior to any other CD player, including those selling for twice its modest price.

£399.00

The place where people care about hi-fi

way for the extraord nary SL600, providing a listening pleasure not to be missed.

“Plenty of attack and up front activnyri

HI-FI FOR PLEASURE

... recommendation still stands ee

1-1.-FI NEWS Augftst 983

Fo.- almost thirty years. the name of Acoust,c Research has been associated with many of the major advarces in loudspeaker design and development. It was AR designers who deve'oped the "acoustic suspension techniques that made high-performance bookshelf

a A great speaker, good in every way et PRACTICAL HI-FI

August 1982

"Some intelligent engineering," HI-FI FOR PLEASURE December 1983

speakers a rea'ity and who created a who'e range of speakers that have ofzen been the yardst.ck by which other products have been measured. AR8LS £79.90 AR18LS £9990 AR28LS £129.90 AR38LS £179.00 AR48LS £229.90

46 Highly recommended ri

HI- Fl FOR PLEASURE February 1984

Celestion Interrational wi:h vast experience gained through years c: intricate research at their disposal, provided the at..dio world with an astonishing new experience when they introduced their model SL6. This totally revolutionary concept in loudspeaker design paved the

Hi-Fi Markets recommend

-1111111Sra-CMIL. ilFI f for the best performance rom your speaker system MARKlials

Ditton 100 Ditton 110 Ditton 130 Ditton 250 Ditton 300 SL6 SL600

a A winner... choice for a lot Of first time buyers ee STEREO THE MAGAZINE August 1983

£79.90 £99.90

£139.90 £189.90 £239.90 £299.00 £699.00

44 Unusually consistent sound quality ee GRAMOPHONE

May 19E3

64 I am pleased to recommend it

HI-FI FOR PLEASURE J:inuiry 984

KEF is one of Britain's most prestigious designers and manufacturers of nigh quality loudspeakers, acknowledged as a world authority on advanced design and technlues. KEF incorporate the results of those techniques in a range of loudspeakers covering every requirement from domestic

66 A classically balanced speaker r, HI-FI NEWS November 1983

Hi-Fi bookshelf models to the largest professional monitoring loudspeake-s used in recording studios. Chora'e Ill £89.00 Coda Ill £109.00 Cantor Ill £129.00 Carinali £149.00 Capr.ce II £155.00 Carlton Ill £199.00

Boston Acoustics 46 Represent superb value for money ee SOUND

Dec( rp ber 1983

64 A hard speaker to surpass te

STEREO REVIEW j,fle 19132

Hi-Fi Markets are pleased to bring you Boston Acoustics Speakers. Designed to perform well, not just under laboratory condizions but in real- world situations, each Boston Acoustics Speaker boasts an ur beatable combination of range and accuracy in its particular price

The place where people care about hi-fi

64 Remarkable clarity and articulation ft ri I-:1 TODAY

pr,I1984

class. Audition the highly acclaimed Boston Acoustics Speakers at your nearest Hi-Fi Markets dealer today.

A40 £99.00 A60 £139.00 A70 £199.00

All speaker prices per pair

New Ariston 111120 a British triable with all these features

for under £1001

_ Ariston R A radically new system that gives quality at the vital source with an impressive array of upgrading accessories available. Basically the RD40 system consists of three substantial aluminium castings. These castings make up the base, the chassis and the platter which is 'dished' slightly concave. A record clamp, in conjunction with the concave platter, laminates the disc mat and platter interface, reducing

/I he Ariston philosophy has a ways been to produce turntables that retrieve the maximum amount of information from the vinyl disc without adding any colouration or distortion to the sound. Now, with the RD20, this remarkable British company has notched up a huge success by incorporating their unique isolation techniques in a turntable at only £99.50. The RD20 is a belt drive, semi automatic turntable with an extremely quiet

AUDIO REVIEW September 1983

the vinyl resonance and cri n one impedance for the entire assembly as opposed to the more common two from disc and platter. No sacrifice has been made in the precision parts such as the bearings or housings. And the RD40 retains the same successful single-point bearing common to other turntables in the range.

£139.95 Without Arm £189.95 With Opus Arm

electronic governor -nctor. It has a heavyweight die cast aluminium, suspension isolated, concave platter with integral record clamp — features unheard of at this price! But Ariston haven't stopped there. They've added a static balanced straight tone arm with a fixed headshell of only 10 grams effective nass (approx). And the RD20 comes complete with superb Goldring Astron Cartridge. The RD20 nas broken the price barrier by offering superior Ariston quality at a budget price. See the fabulous new turntable at your Hi-Fi Markets dealer today. £99.50

would not hesitate to recommend this

WHAT HI-FI November 1983

Ariston RD80 The RD80 is a two speed manual turntable with AC Synchronous Motor. There's a two piece fully machined concave platter with record clamp, and precision made single-point bearing. The RD80 also features closed transmission

Hill MARKETS The place where people care about hi-fi

te,

- - loop isolation, real wood veneered " acoustically damped board cabinet, metal base, access points for adjustment and adjustable feet. We believe this to be one of the finest sounding turntables at any price.

£239.95 With Opus Arm

HI-FI FOR PLEASURE August 1984

"exceptional sound quality HI- Fl NEWS g 98

14c1Wftlfte'sgii_scpt..AyE co- gl

Yamaha CD-Xi Compact Disc Player

Yet another Yamaha product gains a string of accolades from the Hi-Fi Press, further proof that Yamaha offers outstanding quality and performance at ar incredible price. Yamaha's long history

of manufacturing fine quality musical instruments and the unparalleled knowledge they have gained, has once more been used to good effect in producing this latest wiiner. The Yamaha CD-X1 offers sophisticated electronics at an amazingly low price. There's new improved LSI circuitry, high precision digital filter,

AtuC, 1,,pho

easy memory programming, convenient music search, versatile play mode selection, handy repeat and disc remaining time indicator. Come along to Hi-Fi Markets and see for yourself what makes the Yamaha CD-X1 a "Best Buy".

£359.00

Yamaha A-300.1 EST BUY:'

"(T- 300) Cannot be faulted ..." //HAT H - FI •

"(R-300) The Yamaha is a real gem" POPULAR 1- 1-FI

Bic repribducticin excellence without frills or fancy automated features means you'll always be sure of what every Hi-Fi enthusiast really wants rrost from his equipmeat — natural sound performance. The A-300 gives 30 watts percharnel wi:h 0.05% THD.

£99.00

Yamaha T-300 Tuner Matching AM/FM/LW tuner giving performance and features previously available only in much more expensive tuners. The outstanding specificat on includes Pilot tone PLL multiplex system.

£99.00 Yamaha K-300 Cassette Deck Dolby B and C noise reduction, backed up by superior Yamaha technology: a two-motor transport system and a newly developed Superhard Permalloy head.

£159.00

The place where people care about hi-fi

STOP

Yamaha A-500 Amp Incorporating Yamaha's Zero Distortion Rule which sets new standards in audio power amplification purity by totally eliminating amplifier introduced distortiori in the final power stage. Impressive 70 watts per channe with incredibly low 0.01% THD.

£189.00

Yamaha T-500 AM/FM/LW Tuner Outstanding feature. include: Quartz PLL Synthesizer System, 5 LW-AM/5 FM preset station tuning, auto/manual tuning, 3-segment LED signal level meter, digital frequency display, memory back-up function.

£129.00

Goldring EPIC

A new magnetic cartridge of advanced

design which delivers the performance and quality of

much more expensive models. The diamond tip bonded to a sapphire shank yields a lower tip mass for accurate high frequency tracking. £16.50

Goldring G900E Employs a bonded elliptical stylus mounted in a hard aluminium, low compliance cantilever assembly making it suitable for the widest possible range of pick up arms.£ 24.00

81 can recommend the ML140HE without reservation" GRAMOPHONE une 1984

Shure M L1401HE A new original slim line design from Shure with a high efficiency body and extremely low mass. With Shure's Beryllium MICROWALL/Be Stylus Shank and MASAR Polished Tip.

£152.50

Goldring ELECTRO Il A superb moving coil cartridge which features the famous Van den Hul stylus geometry with high-definition tip set in a short, light cantilever.

£135.00

...a long way ahead of any of the cartridges discussed solar"

AD 9200 This hig ly acclaimed cartridge has taken its place amongst our foremost budget cartridges due to its excellent performance and value for money.

£25.00

Monster Cable You can significantly improve the performance of your sound system simply by switching from conventional wire to Monster Cable. With Monster Cable the problems associated with conventional wires are eliminated by using more copper, finer strands, higher purity materials, and a unique winding configuration that directly couples your amplifier to your speakers without loss. Without distortion. The result? Music that's dynamic and powerful, open and clear. The way real music should be. Choose Monster Cable at Hi-Fi Markets and get more performance from your HI-Fi systen. 99p per foot

NAD Mat The NAD Mat is a full 5 millimetres thick, has a smooth lower surface which makes uniform contact with the entire platter area, and is made of carefully selected soft- rubber compourd with optimum density and pliancy for efficient absorption of most audio-frequency vibrations. £9.95

EXstatic Disc Cleaner A highly effective record cleaning brush consisting of one million carbon fibre filaments. These fine conductive filaments not only reduce the static charge on the disc but can penetrate deep into the groove, dislodging dirt and dust particles trapped there.

f6.00

Hi-Fi Light Beautifully styled in matt black plastic, the Hi-Fi Light is fitted with a low intensity lamp, which can be angled onto the record and is easily attached to most turntable covers. It lights up automatically when the cover is raised, providing acequate light to change records without accidentally damaging them. f14.00

IIFFI MARKETS The place where people care about hi-fi

Superflex by Monster Superflex is a high definition speaker cable which, although incorporating fewer strands than Monster Cable, uses the same high purity copper, and unique stranding configuration.

60p per foot

Lock Notch Gold Pins —« Super quality gold plated connectors for amplifiers and speakers with quick connect terminals. Outstanding value from Hi-Fi Markets £1.20 per pair

Gold-ing

Hi-Fi Markets-the largest specialist hi-fi retailer in the country

LONDON Manor Park E12 Kimberley Hi-Fi 698 Romford Road. Tel: 01-478 5137 London E17 Myers Audio 7 Central Parade, Hoe Street. Tel: 01-520 7277 London Ni Grahams Hi-Fi 88 Pentonville Road. Tel: 01-837 4416 London N7 Bartlett's Hi-Fi 175-177 Holloway Road. Tel: 01-607 2148 London N12 Analog Audio 849 High Road. Tel: 01-445 1443 London NW6 Studio 99 79-81 Fairfax Road. Tel: 01-328 6666 Audio T 190 West End Lane. Tel: 01-794 7848 London W1 K.J. Leisuresound 48 Wigmore Street. Tel: 01-486 8263 London W2 Kimberley Hi-Fi 376 Edgware Road. Tel: 01-724 0454 London W3 Acton Camera & Hi-Fi Centre 86 High Street, Acton. Tel: 01-992 4788/2305 London 5E13 Bill Vee Sound Systems 248 Lee High Road, Lewisham. Tel: 01-318 5755 London SE18 Sevenoaks Hi-Fi & Video 162 Powis Street, Woolwich. Tel: 01-855 8016 London SW7 Unilet 14 Bute Street. Tel: 01-589 2586 London SW11 Sound Information 13 St. Johns Hill. Tel: 01-223 5532 REST OF BRITAIN Aldershot Bryants Hi-Fi 81 High Street. Tel: 0252 20728 Andover Andover Audio 105 High Street. Tel: 0264 58251 Barrow In Furness Searle Audio 223-225 Rawlinson St. Tel: 0229 21233 Bath C. Milsoms 11/12 Northgate St. Tel: 0225 65975 Bedford Bedford Audio-Comm 76 Bedford Road, Kern pston. Tel: 0234 854133 Berkhamsted (Hens) Berkhamsted Photographic 48 Lower Kings Road. Tel: 04427 5943 Birkenhead Peters Hi-Fi of Chester 11 St. Werburgh Square, Grange Precinct. Tel: 051-647 5626 Birmingham Norman H. Field 35-37 Hurst Street. Tel:021-622 2323 Perfect Audio 504/516 Alum Rock Road, Alum Rock. Tel: 021-328 2103 Blackpool Practical Hi-Fi 198 Church Street. Tel: 0253 27703 Bolton Cleartone Hi-Fi & Video 156/158 Blackburn Rd. Tel: 0204 22636 Bournemouth Suttons Hi-Fi Centre 10 Gervis Place. Tel: 0202 25512 Bracknell (Barks) B & B Hi-Fi The Pavillion, Princess Square. Tel: 0344 424556 Braintree ( Essex) Beechwood Audio 6 Market Street. Tel: 0376 29060

Bridlington ( Yorks) Turners Electrical 47 King Street. Tel: 0262 74775/72274 Brighton Sevenoaks Hi-Fi 55 Preston Street. Tel: 0273 733338 Bristol Hi-Fi Markets 36 Union Street. Tel: 0272 294183 Radford Hi-Fi 52-54 Gloucester Rd. Tel: 0272 428248 Bromley Halcyon Electronics 38 Wid more Road. Tel: 01-464 2260 Cambridge Hi-Fi Markets 19-20 Market Street. Tel: 0223 312240 Canterbury Canterbury Hi-Fi Centre 21 The Burgate. Tel: 0227 65315 Castleford (Yorks) Eric Wiley 64 & 85 Beancroft Road. Tel: 0977 553066 Chatham (Kent) Sevenoaks Hi-Fi & Video 4 Railway Street. Tel: 0634 46859 Chelmsford Rush Hi-Fi & Video Centre 5-6 Cornhill. Tel: 0245 57593/64393 Cheltenham Absolute Sound & Video 42 Albion Street. Tel: 0242 583960 Chester Peters Hi-Fi of Chester 24 St. Michaels Square, Grosvenor Precinct. Tel: 0244 21568 Chichester (Sussex) Malcolm Audio & TV 12 South Street. Tel: 0243 787562 Christchurch ( Dorset) H.A.T.V. 183 Barrack Road. Te:: 0202 473901 Colchester Golding & Co 14-16 Culver Street West. Tel: 0206 48101 Coventry Frank Harvey 8 Marlborough Road, Ball Hill. Tel: 0203 458946 Croydon , Spaldings 352-354 Lower Addiscombe Road. Tel: 01-654 1231/2040 Darlington McKenna & Brown 11 Bondgate. Tel: 0325 465990 Derby Active Audio 12 Osmaston Road, The Spot. Tel: 0332 380385 Devizes (Wiltshire) Louis J. Rutter 17 The Brittox. Tel: 0380 2268 Dunstable Target Electrical 45 Katherine Drive. Tel: 0582 67750 East Grinstead John Rees Hi-Fi 2 High Street. Tel: 0342 27787 Enfield (Middlesex) A.T. Laboratories 191 Chase Side. Tel: 01-363 7981 Exeter K.J.B. Electronics 32 South Street. Tel: 0392 37888 Farnborough (Hants) Aerco 7 Queensmead. Tel: 0252 520146 Gateshead (Tyne a Wear) Lintone Audio 7-11 Park Lane. Tel: 0632 774167 Gillingham ( Dorset) Black more Vale Shops The Square. Tel: 07476 2474/2728 Gloucester Robbs of Gloucester 13-15 Worcester Street. Te:: 0452 23051/20518 Grimsby Grimsby Hi-Fi Centre 71 Carter Gate. Tel: 0472 43539 Harlow (Essex) Essex Discount 57 Harvey Centre. Tel: 0279 26155

Harpenden Studio 99 82 High Street. Tel: 05827 64246 Harrow (Middlesex) Harrow Audio 27 Springfield Road. Tel:01-863 0938 Hastings Hastings Hi-Fi 32 Western Road. Tel: 0424 442975 Haywards Heath (Sussex) Hi-Fi & Video Markets 13 South Road. Tel: 0444 450333 High Wycombe B& B Hi-Fi 4 Priory Road. Tel: 0494 35910 Hitchin The Record Shop Hermitage Road. Tel: 0462 34537 Hornchurch ( Essex) Waters & Stanton Electronics 12 North Street. Tel: 04024 44765 Huddersfield Huddersfield Hi-Fi Centre 2-4 Cross Church Street. Tel: 0484 44668 Hull Simply Hi-Fi 48 Springbank. Tel: 0482 29240 Ilford A.T. Laboratories 442-444 Cranbrook Road, Gants Hill. Tel: 01-518 0915 Ipswich Eastern Audio 41 Bramford Road. Tel: 0473 217217 Kettering Kettering Hi-Fi 68 Stamford Road. Tel: 0536 515266 Kingston upon Thames Vision Store 3 Eden Walk Precinct. Tel: 01-546 8974 Lancaster Practical Hi-Fi 84 Penny Street. Tel: 0524 39657 Leeds Super-Fi 34-36 Queen Victoria Street. Tel: 0532 449075 Image Hi-Fi 8 St. Anne's Road, Headingley. Tel: 0532 789374 Leicester Mays Hi-Fi 27 Churchgate. Tel: 0533 58662 Lincoln Lincoln Hi-Fi Centre 271a High Street. Tel: 0522 20265 Liverpool WA. Brady & Son 401 Smithdown Road. Tel: 051-733 6859 Beaver Radio 20-22 Whitechapel. Tel: 051-709 9898 Loughborough Stuart Westmoreland 33 Cattle Market. Tel: 0509 230465 Loughton (Essex) Essex Discount 152 High Road. Tel:01-508 0247 Maidenhead (Berks) Hi-Fi Market 18 King Street. Tel: 0628 73420 Manchester Shannons Sound & Video 25-29 Station Road, Urmston. Tel: 061-747 5181 Cleartone Hi-Fi & Video 62 King Street. Tel: 061-835 1156 Middlesbrough Gilson Audio 172 Borough Road. Tel: 0642 248793 Newbury B & B Hi-Fi 62 Northbrook Street. Tel: 0635 32474 Newcastle-upon-Tyne Hi-Fi Opportunities 33 Handysides Arcade. Tel: 0632 327791 New Malden Unilet 35 High Street. Tel: 01-942 9567 Northampton Listen Inn 32A Gold Street. Tel: 0604 37871

Norwich Scarfe Audio Visual 161 Unthank Road. Tel:0603 22833 Nottingham Nottingham Hi-Fi 120-122 Alfreton Rd. Tel:0602 786919 Oxford Absolute Sound & Video 19 Old High Street, Headington. Tel: 0865 65961 Absolute Sound & Video 256 Banbury Road, Summertown. Tel: 0865 53072 Peterborough The Hi-Fi People 42 Cowgate. Tel: 0733 41755 Plymouth Frampton Cameras 90/92 Cornwall St. Tel: 0752 27600 Portsmouth Hopkins Hi-Fi Centre 38-40 Fratton Road. Tel: 0705 822155 Preston Norman Audio 51 Fishergate. Tel: 0772 53057 Reading B& BHi-Fi 36 Minster Street. Tel: 0734 583730 Redcar McKenna & Brown 135/137 High Street. Tel: 0642 477356 Rochdale Cleartone Hi-Fi & Video 52 Drake Street. Tel: 0706 524652 Romford Essex Discount 8/9 Swan Walk. Tel: 0708 46600 Salisbury Blackmore Vale TV & Audio 17 Butcher Row. Tel: 0722 22746 Sevenoaks (Kent) Sevenoaks Hi-Fi & Video 118 London Road. Tel: 0732 459555 Sheffield Micron Audio 172 Baslow Rd,Totley. Tel: 0742 360295 Shrewsbury Avon Hi-Fi 12 Barker Street. Tel: 0743 55166 Southampton Sextons 37 Bedford Place. Tel: 0703 28434 Southend Soundtrack Hi-Fi Video Market 149 Leigh Road, Leigh-on-Sea. Tel: 0702 79150 Stamford Rodger & Green Hi-Fi 9 Red Lion Square. Tel: 0780 62128 Stockport Fairbotham & Co 58-62 Lower Hillgate. Tel: 061-480 4872 Stoke-on-Trent Purkiss Hi-Fi Systems 51/53 Piccadilly, Harley Tel: 0782 265010 Sunderland Saxons 20-22 Waterloo Place. Tel: 0783 657578 Swindon Absolute Sound & Video 60 Fleet Street. Tel: 0793 38222 Truro (Cornwall) E.T.S. Electricentres 25 King Street. Tel: 0872 79809 Tunbridge Wells Sevenoaks Hi-Fi & Video 34 Mount Ephraim. Tel:0892 31543 Uxbridge Uxbridge Audio 278 High Street. Tel: 0895 33474 Walsall Bridge Hi-Fi Tudor House, Bridge Street. Tel: 0922 640456 Warrington Doug Brady Hi-Fi Kingsway Studios, Kingsway North. Tel: 0925 828009 Warwick JCV Hi-Fi & Video Wharf Street. Tel:0926 493796

HMI MARKETS The place where people care about hi-fi

Watford Hi-Fi Markets 68 High Street. Tel: 0923 26169 Wednesbury Woods Audio Visual 1 Upper High Street. Tel: 021-556 0473 Weston Super Mare Paul Roberts Hi-Fi 203 Milton Road, Tel: 0934 414423 Wilmslow Swift of Wilmslow 4/8 St. Annes Parade. Tel: 0625 526213 Windsor Radford Hi-Fi 43 King Edward Court. Tel: 95 56931 Woking (Surrey) Aerco 11 The Broadway. Tel: 04862 4926 Wolverhampton Millwards (Wolverhampton) 11 Salop Street. Tel: 0902 23980 Wood Audio Visual 39 Victoria Street. Tel: 0902 772901 Worcester Johnsons Sound Service 43 Friar Street. Tel: 0905 25740 SOUTH WALES Cardiff Audio Excellence 134 Crwys Road. Tel: 0222 28565 Swansea Audio Excellence 9 High Street. Tel: 0792 474608 SCOTLAND Aberdeen Holburn Hi-Fi 441-445 Holburn Street. Tel: 0224 585713 Dundee Strathvision 51-53 Overgate. Tel: 0382 28900 Edinburgh Hi-Fi Corner 1 Haddington Place. Tel: 031-556 7901 Russ Andrews Hi-Fi 34 Northumberland Street. Tel: 031-557 1672 The Gramophone Rose Street, Pedestrian Precinct. Tel: 031-225 9535 Glasgow Maeto Musik 14 The Toll, Busby Road, Clarkston. Tel: 041-6388252 Glasgow Central Victor Morris 340 Argyle Street. Tel: 041-221 8958 Inverness Nairn Music 1 Greig Street. Tel: 0463 220440 Montrose Robert Ritchie Hi-Fi 102 Murray Street. Tel: 0674 73765 Stirling Hi-Fi Corner 73-75 Murray Place. Tel: 0786 5053 NORTHERN IRELAND Belfast Audio Times 85 Royal Avenue. Tel: 0232 229907 Audio Times Unit 12, Fountain Centre, College Street. Tel: 0232 241331 Coleraine Best Hi-Fi 21 Railway Road. Tel: 0265 52843

Head Office: Cousteau House, Greycaine Road, Watford, WD2 4SB. Tel: 0923 27737

All prices quoted in the Hi-Fi Markets advertisements are correct at time of going to press (21/8/84) but may be subject to change without notice due to fluctuations in Manufacturers' prices. All Prices include VAT @ 15% Not all the products featured in Hi-Fi Markets advertisement are available at all branches. Please check before travelling.

TOSHIBA PCG-10 )01 BY DECK WITH SOFT TOI1CH £59.95

HITACHI DE33 r

Villéibulfiv £ 69.95 F3 &

SHARP RT150 I 10111./11,1

WIT H DUI BY Er X,• £69.95

TEAC1/80 AN k xcE LEkNI HF AD DE LK WITH DOLBY BANDA UNIQUE ELECTRONIC COUNTER THAT INDICATES TAPE RUN IN MINSAND SECONDS £129.95

Hl JVCKDD55 111X1 A`,"› e DECK WITH le 129.95 1)01 FLY X.( M.

Cassette Decks H Dolby H / BC Dolby B & C M Metal Imie ST Soft Touch / SS

•••'', 3 3 Heads / AR

1 , . Li M. SI £54 95 £54 95

• • • ‘ 50 B. M. ST £59 95 Iha' t M. ST £59 95 Sans'', 059M B. M. ST £5995 Hitai Iii DE I B. M. ST £64 95 Shan/ RTI50 B, C. M. ST £69 95 Hitai hi DE 33 B.C. M. ST £69 95 Aka. HX I B M ST £69 95 1 ei hou s RS5 B. M. ST £79 95

059 B. M, ST £79 95 JVC KDV22 C, M. ST PHONE Sony TCFX44 B.C. M. ST .£89 95 TriiiKX71B M ST £89 95 Trio KV31 B. M. ST £89 95 Tus RSM216 B. M. ST £99 95 Tear V300 B. M. ST £99 95 Sony ICFX25 B. M. ST. SS £99 95 Ter him s RS5 B. M. ST £109 95 it`411 V350 B. C, M. ST £109 95 le' 1ini( s RSMO7 B. M. ST £ 109 95 Tear V66C B. C. M ST £109 95 Trio KX4 I B. C, M. ST £ 109 95 Sony ICI X66 B.C. M.ST. SS £ 119 95 lei lours M229X B. M. ST SS £119 95

JVC KDD33 B.C. M. ST. SS. AR PHONE

Ti-u RSM233 B. C. M. ST. SS £129 95

Sony ICI X44 B.C. M. ST, SS £: 29 95

JVC KDD55 B.C. M. ST. SS 3 £129 'IF

Amplifiers SANSUI A-505

J

30W AMPLIFIER WITH 2 SPEAKER £ 49.95 FACILITY

MARANTZ PM310 A RENOWNED AMPLIFIER AMONG ENTHUSIASTS THANKS TO ITS SUPERSOUNDQIIAI TV 25 WRMS X 2 ALSO AVAIL/WU MAUANT/ PM350 38 WPC

£59.95

£74.95 TRIO KA31

0 .S12.

30 WPC. minimum RMS, both channels driven at 8 ohms from 20Hz to 20.000Hz with no more than 0.09k• total barroorilc chstor lion Bass. Tre!,le control Two Speaker System £79.95

Amplifiers Sans,/ A 5i £49.95 Teletor, A390 20W £49.95 OnkyoA0520W £49.95 Marantz PM310 30W £59.95 Toshiba SBM20 30W £59.95 Onkyo A06 30W £59.95 Teleton A850 40W £69.95 Hitachi HA I 30W £69 95 Pioneer SA330 30W £69 95 Marantz PM 350 38W £74.95 Trio KA31 30W £79.95 Rotel RA700 30W £79.95 Rotel RA820 30W £79.95 Onkyo A08 40W Hitachi FIMAG2 60W ( Power Amp) £89.95

Fisher CA350 50W £99.95 NAD 3020A 20W PHONE Sanyo A35 55W £99 95 Tr.° KA 70 501(17 £99.95 Rotel RA8208 30W £99 95 Trio KA51 50W £99 95 Marantz PM330 40W £109.95 Rotel RA840 £119 95

13eceixers/ Casseivers

Teleton TA500 30W £69 95 Westsound STL80045W . £69 95 JVC RK I 1 35W PHONE Hitachi HTA400 35W £119.95 JVC RK22L 40W PHONE JVC RX60 60W PHONE Marantz SR220 L 25W PHONE Marantz SR430 35W £159 95

Sony TCE X / / El, C. M.S1. SS £129.95

Teac V80 B. C. M. ST. SS 3 £ 129 95 Yamaha K300 B. C, M, ST £ 139 95 Trio KX7I R B, C, M,ST,SSE149 95 Technics RSM235 B. C. M. ST. SS £149 95

Marantz SD430 8. C. M. ST, SS £159 95

Marantx SD630 8, C. M. ST, AR, SS. 3 £169 95

JVC KDW I 10 B. M. ST. SS Double PHONE

Sansui D99CW B. C. M. ST. SS, Double £199.95

JVC DD9 B. C. M. ST, SS. 3 PHONE JVC DDV9 B. C. M. ST. SS. AR. 3

PHONE

Tuners -FRIQ

KT33L THREE BAND ANALOGUE TUNER - MW/LWiFM &FM STEREO £39.95

10j.• SANSUIT5051-SLIMLINE ANALOGUE TUNER WITH FM STEREO LW/MW £44.95 IMMMMIMMMML o III III III

SANYO PLUS T35 ANAI 11H11 & DIGITAL TUNER WI I NI STEREO LW/MW £69.95

Tuners A Analogue Tuning / D Digital Tuning / PR: PreSets

Trio KT33L A, 3 £39.95 Toshiba STS20 A, 3 £39.95 Sansui T505L A, 3 £44.95 Hitachi FTM33 A, 3 £49.95 Sony STJX5 D PR £57.95 Technics STL3 A £59.95 Teleton1850 0, PR £59.95 Sanyo Plus 735 A. D, 3 £69.95 Trio KT31L A. 3 £69.95 Hitachi FTM70 D. PR £79.95 Onkyo 725L D. PR £79 95 Rotel RT700L D. PR £79.95 Sanyo Plus T55 ID, PR £79 95 Technics ST5L 0, PR £89.95 Akai ATS6I L D, PR £99.95 Technics ST255L D, PR £99.95 YamahaT760 D. PR £99.95 Marante ST430 D. PR £109.95

Speakers

HITACHI HS-G2 3 e AY SPEAKERS £59 95 40 WRMS

Speakers (per pair) Rotel RL820 30W £24.95 Sanyo HF220 30W £34.95 Teleton LS820 £39.95 Rotel RPM2040W £49.95 Videotone DB1312 40W £49.95 JVC S40 WE 40W £49.95 Marantz (( 0250 40W £49.95 Pioneer SX1040W £49.95 Toshiba SS20 40W £59.95 Hitachi HSG240W £59.95 Videotone DG201 60W £69.95 Hitachi SW500 45W £69.95 Marantz HD300 50W £69.95 KEE Chorale 40W PHONE KEF Coda 3 50W PHONE Marantz LD20 60W £79.95 Onkyo S15 £79.95 Videotone Minimax 50W £7995 AR I 8LS 100W £79.95 Maranti HD400 60W £79.95 Onkyo S25 45W £89.95 Marantz LD30 100W

PHONE KEE Cantor 60W Sony SSE75 80W £99.95 Hitachi SW1000 60W £99.95 Hitachi SS8500 100W £99.95 Rotel RL91560W £99.95 KEF Canna 70W PHONE NEC S527 100W £119.95 KEE Caprice 80W PHONE Hitachi HS530 120W NEC S637 I20W £149 95

Graphic Equalisers

JVC SEA33 £89 95 ADCSS115 £109.95 Pioneer SG9 £129.95 ADC SS215 . £179.95 ADC SS315 £239.95

Turntables

SONY PSLX 22

DIRECT DRIVE TURNTABLE £69.95 ALSO AVAILAEll SONY PSLX33 £79•95 CARTRIDGE V>

DUAL CS505-IMP ONE OF OUR BEST SELLING BELT DRIVE TURN

TABLES PHONE FOR PRICE

Turntables B. Belt Drive / D. Direct Drive / Q. Quartz Lock Direct Drive

Teleton TRP390 B £29.95 Sanyo TPX1 B £34.95 Teleton TRP850 D £39.95 Toshiba SRB2 B £39.95 Hitachi HT1 B £39.95 OnkyoCP1000A B £49.95 Onkyo CP1011 B £54.95 Onkyo CP1015 D £59.95 Dual CS515 B PHONE ADC TD885L B Lin (inc cart)£64.95 Sanyo Plus Q25 D,Q £69.95 Marantz TT21 D £69.95 Trio KD4OR D £69.95 Sony PLX22 D £69.95 ADC IOLT B Lin ( Inc cart) £71.95 Dual CS505 Imp 8 PHONE Sony PLX33 0 £79.95 Sanyo QD40 D, Q £79.95 JVC QLF300 Q PHONE Sony PSQ7 D. Q £89.95 Marantz TT525 D Lin ( inc cart) £99.95

Marantz 11320 D £99.95 Hitachi HTL70 D Lin (inc cart) £99.95

Marantz 11530 D Lin ( inc cart) £129.95

Personal Stereo Hitachi( PI I £39 9`> Sony WM9 £39.95 Sony WM6 £59.95 Sony WMF1 £59.95 Dual PCP] £64.95 JVC CQ22 £69.95 Sony WM20 £89 95 Sony WMDD £89 95

Noise Reduction Systems

Toshiba ADI2 LI ,• Sanyo N55 Eli

In-Car Stereo SHARP RG375GB

A superb In Car Stereo Cassette Player featuring Graphic Equaliser, Dolby B. Metal, Chrome and Normal tape selections, auto reverse, auto programme search, FM Stereo, LW. MW. with the added advantage of Traffe Information Stator, £129.95

THE

len SURPLUS STORE

62 Weymouth St W1. 01-486 9981 Access. Visa welcome M-F 9 30-6pm: Sats 9.30-5pm - now OPEN MONDAYS,

PIONEER SPEAKERS LARGE RANGE OF PIONEER IN STEREO CASSETTE/

RADIO AND SPEAKERS IN STOCK

TSI62DX £17 99 pair

ALL GOODS

BRAND NEW

BOXED AND

GUARANTEED

FOR ONE YEAR

Systems

SYSTEM DA T5OL with DP500 Turntable

Here's a beautiful, brand new system from Sansui, at a remark-able price from the HI-FI SURPLUS STORE. The amplifier has an out-put of 35wpc and tuner input signal-to-noise ratio of -90dB. 'he Tuner section covers FM - signal to- noise ratio of - 74dB and AM and features LED tuning/signal indicators. The casette deck has a Superhard Alloy Erase head. with Metal facility and Dolby. There's a semi-automatic belt-drive turn• table and a pair of DA-S500U 2-way bass reflex speakers ( 35wpc max) and X500 hi-fi cabinet mth ¡,lass top and door 12 TDK AD90 CASSETTES WORTH £20 FREE WITH

THIS SYSTEM

£269.95 ninkulltlibirli mall Ar.

MS300

£369.95

Mini-Systems Sorb, FH3 Portable £289 95 Technics 315/25 £379 95 Akai MI1 £384.95 Marantz 143 £384.95 Technics 315/35 £489.95 Marantz MX250 £499.95 JVC R22 PHONE Marantz MX500 £899.95

FREE! 1 Record or Cassette

Cleaning Kit

worth £3 with any

purchase over £20

Please ask for details of

our Mail Order service j

HEN

%.1 MIM Me

•

BEEC WOOD AUDIO 6 Market Street, Braintree,

Essex CM7 6YA. Tel: 0376 29060

A&R, QUAD, KEF, CELESTION, MISSION, HELIUS, MERIDIAN, NAD, SONDEX, PINK A, NAKAMICHI, ORACLE, ARISTON, SHURE, DUAL, SUMIKO, SYRINX, SME, SHURE, KOETSU, TALISMAN, GOLDRING, ORTOFON, MARANTZ

Relaxed demonstrations in acoustically correct rooms

Hours: 9.30-6.00 Mon—Sat and Evenings by appointment

r-RADLETT AUDIO

Why travel into town with it's bustle, traffic, parking meters and pollution, when all you need is right here in the

Hertfordshire countryside!!

Radlett is so easy to find on the AS, just south of St. Albans, east of Watford, and the parking is free!!

For sensible advice, excellent demonstrations and installation of the worlds finest audio equipment, come to the people who

care. You'll get our best attention whether you have £30,000

or only £30 to spend.

Audio Research * Krell * Linn Products * Rega *

Audio lab * Oracle * Helius * EMT * ProAc * Creek *

Musical Fidelity * Koetsu * Magnaplanar * Counterpoint *

SD Acoustics * Burmester * Pink A * A&R etc.

RADLETT AUDIO CONSULTANTS 141 Watling Street, Radlett, Herts.

Tel: 09276 6497

NOW YOU CAN ENJOY LI1 THE VERY BEST âINr 1,01

WI' FROM THE 11" Et O _DL LUJY?

* AND CEIEDRATE $911R 2.514 8/RTHOolie 1.1771 #141 OFFER OF FREE MEMERSMPI The moment you join the new WSI. Compact Disc Library you have a compact disc collection most people only dream about. Classical, Rock, Jazz, Opera, Pop - the WSI. Compact Disc Library has the lot. And when you join the entire collection is available to you.

Compact discs are expensive and if you buy and find vou don't like what you have bought. you've made an expensive mistake. Using the WSL Compact Disc Library you can try before vou buy. And if you decide to buy any on loan front us you don't pay the loan charge. Also you can buy it at a huge discount.

SAVE UP TO 20% Oh C.D., L.P. & CASSETTE PURCHASES

We can supply any recording available in the Ordering from us is very simple. Send us a list of what you want and a crossed open cheque made out to WSI. for not more than £ N. We will send the Cl) s , LP's or cassettes to you with a detailed account showing the discounts etc. Orders over £ 20 are post free in the U. K. and over f100. 00 anywhere else. You will also receive our cata:ogue of recommended recordings, free of charge, with your first order.

*WM« OFFER/ Post the coupon below and we'll send you an Enrolment Form giving you the chance of three months membership - absolutely free.

You can enjoy all the benefits of WSL immediately. Complete the coupon today.

w 0424-221028 — (24 hour service). l'or The Wilson Stereo Library Limited I 54 Sea Road, Bex h i I I, East Sussex TN40 1.11'

Please send inc:

Fr,', bookle l t he (oint,:,, t Disc Liba rrv•

catalogue of Wm. reedoomendedi c.rdings with updates tor a sear. I elicit's, iii, to cover caia;odeue. updates ami postage. I undlerstand this will be cri-hr.

to me in full should! I led-idle to become a member of my WSI. service.

Free booklet 'The Wilson Stereo Library' which gives full details of al' de.. WS!. services including records. cassettes, videos and super bargain ob

The ClYs or records and cassettes from the list I lose. I enclose an ' doe, cheque for a restricted amount and I expect to have a discount of at least iii

I also expect to receive the WM. catalogue of reromn-entled recordings. f. o. • .

Addrcss

I enclose -or an open cheque not to exceed HFN 10/84 j

mans

Not The People's Speaker!

THE DAHLQUIST DQ10 "With carefully matched electronics and an impeccable programme

source, no speaker we know of sounds more open, transparent. clearly detailed — in other words, more accurate — than the DQ-10.

Some speakers handle power more gracefully and show less distress when abused with nasty transients. But these speakers lack

the crystalline clarity of the Dahlquist. The DQ-10 can't roar and thunder, but at reasonable living-room levels it sounds more like

real music than the "roarers and thunderers".

It's mid-range may still be surpassed by the "Quad", by a narrow margin, but overall the Dahlquist lets through more information.

It's also a completely unforgiving speaker that will make mediocre power-amplifiers, preamps and cartridges sound rediculous.

Owners of such equipment will invariably hate the Dahlquist. As we said, it isn't the People's Speaker"

(The Audio Critic)

SOLE U.K. IMPORTER

STANFORD (DISTRIBUTION Parkhouse, Warren row, Wargrave, Berks,

RGIO 8QS Tel: Littlewick Green (062882) 5035.

•

Simply Hi-Fi, 48 Springbank. Hull Homesound, 36-38 Station Road, Taunton, Somerset Unilet Products, 270 High Street, Guildford W.A. Brady & Son. 401 Smithdown Road, Liverpool Audiofile, 40 Hockerill Street, Bishops Stortford, Hens The Music Room, 221 Si Vincent Street. Glasgow Midland Hi-Fi, INulfruna Street, Wolverhampton, West

Stafford Hi-Fi, 8 Lichfield Road, Stafford P.M.E.. North Down Road, Braunton, North Devon •

Tel: 0482 29240 Tel: Taunton 73321

Tel: 0483 571534 Tel: 051 733 6859

. Tel: 0279 506576 Tel: 041 221 2527

Midland., Tel: 0902 771774 Tel: 0785 51234

Tel: 0271 816210

ree6to - THE QUEEN

OF HERTS she made some . . .

beautiful music, and her customers very happy. How?

she gave them generous helpings of LINN, NAIM,

REGA, CREEK, ROTEL and lots more, and they alllived

happily ever after. A happy ending awaits you

The Audio File. Beverly Reynolds

40 HOCKERHILL STREET, BISHOPS STORTFORD, HERTS

Tel: 0279 506576

Ebon5at

Bonsai is a Japanese technique for miniaturising trees whilst preserving all their natural characteristics. This is exactly what we have done with our new British invented and manufactured loudspeaker. Based on a newly developed single full range driver the diminitive "Musician Bonsai" has all the qualities of the best, large multi way systems without some of their vices. £140 & vat a pair in standard enclosures. E210 & vat a pair in Luxury N1MS. For details please contact:

Merseyside Acoustic Developments Ltd., Merseyside Innovation Centre,

131, Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, L3 5TF. Tel. 051-709-0427

Two Hundred Year Old Bonsai Tree By Courtesy Of: TOKONOMA NURSERY.

I 4 HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER IVM

I IISSIEF1 LECTROEIICS

MISSION/CYRUS IN THE NORTH-WEST

Once upon a time there was a small loudspeaker called Mission 70 mk II — the rest of the story is now a matter of record. It became and remains one of the best selling loudspeakers of all time and a legend in its life time.

Now it seems likely that the same thing could happen to the Cyrus 1 amplifier by Mission — a product almost a legend even before it was available.

At our shops in Crewe and Preston you have the opportunity to "listen

to legends" and make comparisons with other products in the comfort of our demonstration lounges. We prefer you to make an appointment so that we can give you our full attention during the hour we expect the audition to take. We look forward to your visit.

Kind regards, Derek& Norman Pen-tam

LD. P. HI- FIDELITY LTD.

HIGHTOWN AUDIO 106 Victoria Street, Crewe, Cheshire. Tel: 0270 211091

Aktinan ihidity 1

NORMAN AUDIO 51 Fishergctte, Preston, Lancs. Tel: 0772 53057

Audition the latest LP12 + Basik plus.

Ring now to book your demonstration.

erepatikee-

£493.00 now even better value

VII Pre amp VIII Power amp Latest version must be heard

£549.00

SYSTEM SUGGESTION LP12 + Basik plus + Exposure 7 & 8 + Kans inc stands + 2 x Sm Naim cable and

installation £1,300 Home demonstrations by appointment throughout the south - the only proper way to decide.

Kevin Edwards Linn! Exposure Specialist leeriem*;,,

Tel: (0784) 37234

Pruned tte-11 Ssate

514 Holds 240 records

price £50-72

Holds 120 records pr ce £ 31.71

ST1 not illustratecil Holds 600 records price £ 120.49

Now available to the public at ex-works prices.

THE TURÍTÍPBLE erg(ID

.Ï.„.....,_ L ii

This is no hapless coffee table, hi-jacked by a hi-fi enthusiast. The Rata Stand has been designed from first principles to optimally

support the turntable.

Lightness and Rigidity are two seemingly incompatible requirements for turntable support, but Torlyte, based on light materials and

ingenious construction has brought these together to create the optimum foundation for turntables and amplifiers.

TOR LYTE©

RUSS RADREWS TURATABLE ACCESSORIES EDGE BAf1K HOUSE. 5KEL5MERGH, KEMAL, CUMBRIP LP8 ORS TELEPI-10fX: SELSIDE (053 983) 247

ST2 Holds 480 records price £101.43

513 Holds 360 records price D32-43

Why do DJs, record shops and libraries use Arjay's storage

system?

A For less than 25p a record you'll have storage safety for your

collection — no warps, crash-outs, mislaid records. Good looking, but rugged racks, that have been tested to full capacity weights. Your record shop can't afford damaged discs — nor can you. You'll be able to putyour hand on a record in seconds.

Contact Karen, 01-390 2101 or send coupon to

Arjay Interiors 54 Lower Marsh Lane, Kingston, Surrey KT1 3BJ

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16 HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW

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TEL: 01-654 1231 or 01-654 2040 P=mel Akai • AKG • ARC • ASR Cambndge • Ariston • Asak • Audio Phile • Beyer • UN/ • Celef • DCM Time Windows • Decca • Denon • Dual • Elite • Entre • Exposure • Gale • Genesis • Glanz • Goldring S Grace • Grado • Hadcock • Harbeth • IMF • Isobarrit • Ittok • JBE • JPW • JR • JVC • KEF • Koetsu • Koss • Lantek • Linn S Lux • Mayware • Meridian • Mitchell • Mission • Mordaunt Short • NAD • Nagaoka • Naim • Nakamichi • National • Nightingale • Nytech • Oracle • Ortolan • Pnilips • Pioneer • Profile • QED • Quad • Radford • Reference • Regs • Revox • Rogers • Sansui • Satin • Sennheiser • Shure • SME • Sony e Spendir • STD • Sugden • Syrinx • Systemdek • Tandberg • Tear. S Technics • Thorens • Threshold • Ultimo • Video

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THE MUSIC ROOM NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 1984

To begin with The Source, it is not surprising that many readers are anxiously awaiting their first audition. Can it really be so revolutionary just as we were about to believe that the lazer disc was the only way to obtain a quantum leap ahead in domestic reproduction from a disc? Well the exciting news is visitors to the Heathrow show will probably be able to hear one of the first production models at the Meridian/Mark Levinson exhibit. There is no substitute for a proper dem. but it may whet your appetite. You can also hear Meridian's own CD player which the Music Room is proud to endorse and congratulate this achievement by a specialist British company; showing the world that we may not be the first, but we are arguably the best! Avoid uninformed controversy by hearing it for yourself. This is very much the Music Room's philosophy: offer a wide choice of quality specialist products and let people make up their own minds. We do not believe in the prevelant 'boutique' approach in which a large number of small shops stock very limited range because they 'believe' it is the best'. This has to confuse the customer who ideally wants to compare for himself within the peace and quiet of a dem. room.

In their newsletter last month, our good friend and BADA colleague Mr Popeck of Subjective Audio claimed to be the first to demonstrate Mark Levinson. Wrong, Howard, we beat you by two years which just just proves that in more ways than .(me Glasgow is the British haven for hi-fi enthusiasts! Again, we try to be open minded ( rather than flavour of the month) and long-sighted. We sell other American, British and Euro-pean brands which are world leaders as yet undiscovered by the UK press. For example, Magneplanars we have recommended for years although all we had until recently were the odd secondhand pair; and Audiostatic which arc now also achieving their deserved acclaim. Our customers are less likely to regret purchases when another brand becomes this month's flavour. In addition to looking ahead, we do not dump last months goodies. For example we continue to obtain and supply Threshold, during the interval between distributors (and reviews) because we really admire such distinguished electro-nics. Their next distributor will be B&W Nakamichi UK Ltd. At present you can save the importers margin by purchasing the F/150 direct from our ourselves at only £ 1,000. If you have one already, quite seriously you should buy another because bridged F/150's sound not only more effortless but so much more open, spacious and so on. We also have in stock one FET II preamp, ex demonstration but mint at £695.

Predicting next months 'flavour' we opt for the Spectral DMC-10 costing £ 1,850 (gamma model, receiving rave US acclaim), or has the Krell PAM-1 been overlooked at the same price, eclipsed by the Class A range of power amps? Talking of which we have heard that Classé of Canada may be launched in the UK by a leading importer and the same is almost clinched for the Robertson amp, especially good news as it is true high end for under a grand! Couple it with a Counterpoint valve preamp and it sounds as if for around the price of a well known British pre/power amp which we cannot name for obvious reasons you can join the San Meritz set.

Now some news of our own. There are rumours that the Music Room is about to open a rather ambitious four floored specialist shop in Manchester, this month. This is Absolutely true. Just as well that someone cares for the hi-fi enthusiast now that the Manchester exhibition has been cruelly cancelled at the last minute.

CONSULTANTS AND DEALERS IN HIGH-FIDELITY

221, St. Vincent Street, Glasgow G2 5QY Telephone: 041-221 2527

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Advertisements in this publication are required to conform to the British Code of Advertising Practice. In respect of mail order advertisements where money is paid in advance, the code requires advertisers to fulfil orders within 28 days, unless a longer delivery period is stated. Where goods are returned undamaged within seven days, the purchaser's money must be refunded. Please retain proof of postage/despatch, as this may be needed.

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Please do not wait until the last moment to inform us. When you write, we will tell you how to make your claim and what evidence of payment is required.

We guarantee to meet claims from readers made in accordance with the above procedure as soon as possible after the Advertiser has been declared bankrupt or insolvent up to a limit of £5,200 per annum for any one Advertiser so affected and up to f10,000 per annum in respect of all insolvent Advertisers. Claims may be paid for higher amounts, or when the above procedure has not been complied with, at the discretion of Hi-Fi News: but we do not guarantee to do so in view of the need to set some limit to this commitment and to learn quickly of readers' difficulties.

This guarantee covers only advance payment sent in direct response to an advertisement in this magazine ( not, for example, payment made in response to catalogues etc, received as a result of answering such advertisements). Classified advertisements are excluded.

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HI-1,1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1984 21

AUDI gO) TEL "YOU COULD AFFORD THAT NEW HI-FI IF ONLY YOU COULD SELL YOUR OLD ONE"

To buy and sell or exchange your second hand, ex-demo or new audio equipment

CONTACT AUDIO TEL We can put you in touch with people BUYING what you want to SELL and SELLING what

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Audio Integrity 096213-2803 Hi-Fi 01-674-2033 Andover Andover Audio 0264-58251 London S.W.3 Chelsea Audio 01-352-2596 Banbury Blinkhorns 0295 -59859 London S.W.7 Unilet 01-589-2586 Basingstoke Audio London S

VideoTronics 0256-24311 S.W.11 Information 01-223-5532 Bath Pau1Green Hi-Fi 0225-31619/' London

. F H Moss 0225-2651? S.W16 Bath Francis Hi-Fi 01 769-0466 Bexleyheath Whomes 01- 303- 41- TB London W.1 K J Birmingham Audio Tech 021.558-14 : Leisuresound 01-486-8263 Birmingham Norman H Field 021-622-h.ci London W.2 Soney Kay Tee 01-724.1218 Bishops London W.2 Sound Sense 01-402- 2100 Stortford Photosound 0279-55780 London W.11 Soria Electronics 01-229-6411 Blackpool Practical Hi-Fi 0253-21703 London W.C.1 Holborn Audio Blofield R C Sneifing 0603-112202 Visual 01- 405• 4894 Bristol Absolute Sound 027?- 24975 Luton 8 0582-21758 Bristol Audio Bristol 0272-291931 Maidenhead 9DCB Hi-Fi &Son 0628-26155 Bristol Radford Hi-Fi 0272-40878 Malvern C & P Sound 06845-3601 Bromley Halcyon Manchester Eulipion Audio 061-225-4448

Electronics 01-464-2260 Manchester Lloyd Paton 061-747 9722 Burton-on-Trent 1413 raMailtrognate Thornton Bobby 0843-24444

Rees Electrical 0283- Bury Keynes fechnosound 0908-604949 St. Edmunds B G Audio 0284-5227 Newbury B&B Hi- Fr 0635-32474 Buxton Highfield T V 0298-3377 Newcastle-Camborne ET S Ltd 0209-71: -.- Upon-Tyne .) G Windows 063?- 321356 Cambridge Steve Boxshaii NNeewpMort Canterbury Cine Maiden Unilet 01-942 9567

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0971 5530bi, Nottingham Superti Castleford Eric Wiley L1602.412137 Chelmsford Rush Hi-Fi 0245-76439,i Orpington S M Electronics 0689.25651 Cheltenham Absolute Sound 024? 583960 Oxford Absolute Sound 0865-65961 Chippenham .1 0 Sales 0249 -654357 Paignton Upton Electronics 0803-5513'29 Christchurch H.A T V. 0202 .413901 Penzance E T S Ltd 0736-421 ,1 Colchester K A Cheeseman 0206-875828 Plymouth I- ramplons 0752-660264 Colchester Golding & Co 0206-48101 Poole Duality HI-FI 0202-742106 Colwyn Bay Liectrotrader 0492-1893? Portsmouth Hopkins Hi-Fi 0705-822155 Coventry Frank Harvey 0203-454ii.: 9 Poulton Le Crosby P & A Audio 051-924 i. - Fylde Record Centre 0253-886163 Cwmbran .+ r '.'.'-, tern 0633 , ; - • Rayleigh Vernon Collard Derby 03 .J. -- - Ltd 0268 7 76702 Devizes , .. ku;1€, 038l) .. ,,à Reading B&B Hr Fi 0134 • 58310 Dorking Dorking Audio 0306-88289/ Reigate .: L,n ! aurenson 07372-40494

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East 0342 21111 Sstt.. Albans . ,,, Co 0727 50961 Grinstead Scott Bros Edinburgh Audio Aids 031- E)67- 287i (Cornwall) ET S Ltd 3 Edinburgh Edinburgh Audio 031 229-1129 St. Neots A N Audio 00,71806 0 -1/)1210111 1 Frith Wellingtons 0322.32301 Shrewsbury Avon Hi-Fi 0743-55166 Farnborough Aerco 0252 -5201 46 Southampton Hamilton Glasgow Music Room 041-221-2527 Electronics 0703-2862? Glasgow Stereo Showcase 041-332-501? Stafford Stafford Hi-Fi 0785 5173.1 Godalming Wm Park Audio 04868-22300 Stamford Stamford HI-Fi 0780-62128 Great Stockport Fairbotham & Co 061-480-4872 Yarmouth Martins 0493• 855044 Sudbury System Sound 0181-72348 Grimsby Sound Pertection 0472 50908 Sunderland Red Radio Shop 0/83-672087 Guildford P J Eoutpment 0483-504801 Swansea Audio Excellence 0192-474608 Guildford Unilet 0483-571534 Swansea John Ham 0792-50968 Helston E T S Ltd 03265-3285 Swindon Absolute Sound 0793 3822? Herne Bay Swindon T V & Hi Fi

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High 01 683 0393 Heath 0494 35910 Truro : ,, :• U111(S Wycombe B&B Hi-Fi E i S Ltd 0812. 79809

Hitchin Spectrum 0462-52248 Tunbridge A Fanthorpe 0482.223096 Wells Hull Gordon Farrance 089?- 21069

Ipswich Eastern Audio 0473-217217 Uckfield Crannage Bros 0825 2978 Kenilworth David Buswell 0926-55686 Uxbridge Uxbridge Audio 0895-3347,1 Kings Lynn Martins 0553-61683 Wallasey Armstrong Smith 051-639-9257 Kingston- Surbiton Park Wallingford Astley Audio 0,191-39305 Upon-Thames Radio 01-546-5549 Watford Acoustic Arts 0923-33011 Lancaster Practical Hi-Fi 0524-39657 Weston-Leamington Super-Mare Paul Rogers 0934-414423 Spa C T S Audio 0926-29265 Weybridge Weybridge Audio 0932-51121 Leeds Goff Jackson 0532-781513 Winchester Whilwams Leeds tillage Hi-Fi 0962-65253 0532-789374 Windsor ASeorus Hi-Fi 07535-60716 Leeds 0532-449075 Woking 04862-4667

SLiuvPinegibesign 0538-371576 Wolver-Leek Leicester Alpha Electronics 0533-58597 hampton Midland Hi-Fi 090?-771174 Letchworth Spectrum 04626-79571 Wolver-Lichfield RTTS 05432 -22871 hampton Millwards 0902-23980 London N.7 Bartletts 01-607-2296 Worthing Phase 3 Hi-Fi 0903-206820 London N.12 Analog Audio 01-445-1443 London S.E.9 Hermlyn Hi-Fi 01-850-9548 All branches of the John Lewis Partnership

TAMIOY "I 1

1-11-11 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 198-1

...and you can clearly see the advantage that the Tannoy Titans have over other loud-

speakers.

Axially Aligned Baffles direct the sound towards you for superbly clear stereo images; while the infinite baffle cabinets remain against the wall to give an extended frequency

response.

Perhaps the best news is that a pair of Tannoy Titan loud-speakers is just

TANNEW lJc 4fInfiriiteAxially Baffle LoA1gnedudspeakers

A lot more sound for a lot less money Tannoy Ltd. àuitiari Wes:, 1\k..,1'1.-u,.)U. L,ifiLiCTI :3E27 OPW. Telephone: Oi-.6-7G 1 i31 Telex: 291065

TO Mil NEWS & RECORD REVIEW AND RECEIVE THE 1984 ANNUAL

FREE HI-FI ANNUAL OFFER

Please send me magazine for 12 issues. I enclose a cheque/ postal order/ International money Order payable to LINK HOUSE MAGAZINES for £12.00 UK or £16.70 Overseas. Airmail £40.00.

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Offer ends 31st December 1984. The annual will be sent overseas by surface mall.

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LECTR onics =-11-70

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the foundation of a good music

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Ham shire Audio Ltd

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We stock selected items for: Aloi, Audio- lab, A& R, Ariston, Audio Note, Audio Technica, B&W, Cambridge, Celestion, Creek, Cyrus, Denon, Dual, Gale, Glanz, Grado, Gyrodek, Heybrook, Hunt, Jordan, Koetsu, Lentek, Linn lsobarik, Linn Sondek, Maxell, Meridian, MFSL, Michell, Mirage, Mission, Monitor Audio, Musical Fidelity, Nagaoka, Nakamichi, Nytech, Oak, Ortofon, Perreaux, Philips CD only, QED, Quad, RCL, Revox, Rogers, Rotel, Sennheiser, Stanton, Sugden, Supex, Swallow, Technics, Yamaha, and others. Active systems by Meridian, Swallow, Linn and A & R on demonstration

with

The new G i US amps—

OPENING HOURS 10am-6pm (8pm Thursday)

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 19M 25

I/2" Mounting Bracket makes the new MMC generation a universal fit. The MMC cartridge weighs only 3.3g with the mounting bracket. Extra weight can be added depending on mounting screws, angles, weight etc.

Symmetrical Permalloy Body Shell closes the magnetic circuit of the cartridge, acting as a shield against the effect of external hum fields and makes it possible to design such a small cartridge.

Powerful Samarium Cobalt Ring Mage forms one of the poles in the air gap, allowing for total symmetry in the magnetic system and no loss of magnetic current giving high output.

Multi-radial. Contact Line Diamond Hollow The. Crystal Sapphire Cantilever (MMC 182) is ensuring you precise high (MMC 1&2). The Sapphire is 5 times stiffer frequency sound reproduction, low ETM and than alumin um aril 40% stiffer than thereby low record wear and perfect berylliun. The sapphire tube cantilever tracking. ensures ' lieu transfer of signals since

longitudiral vbrat+ons are eliminated.

Patented Computer designed Moving Micro G•oss Armature (MMC) which is x-shaped. ersures excellent channel separaton over the entire frequercy range. It is niniaturized to ensue low ETM and thereby mininal retnorri wear and internal resonamcb conlro .

High Output Low Impedance Coils make for easy matching and less critical choice of tonearm cables and preamplifier input cnaracterislics.

Specially Formulated Elastomer Snspension, together w th the precise, symmetrically mounted cantilever, ensures that he stylus has a single, accurate pivot point to obtain better stereo imaging.

The MMC Pick-up Series. Cartridges for the digital age.

Every music lover knows the excitement which comes from discovering a new hi-fi component that has suddenly made his music sound decisively better.

You will make that discovery, and experience that excitement, with Bang & Olufsen's MMC Series Cartridges. No longer will you have awareness that a cartridge has

interposed itself between the music as it was recorded, and the music you are hearing. On the contrary, you will delight in finding new depth, detail and spatial perspective in even your most familiar recordings. The cartridge as an electronic component.

The phono cartridge, of course, is by nature an electro-mechanical component. However, Bang & Olufsen has succeeded in virtually removing the performance

limitations placed on the cartridge by its mechanical design. The result is a change in cartridge performance so astounding, you might conclude that these new cartridges have become electronic components for the new age of improved software. You already have the right turntable for an MAW cartridge. The MMC Series contains a cartridge that will

match or exceed the abilities of the turntable you own. In fact, you may well find that your turntable has more potential than you imagined. A correctly matched MMC cartridge simply makes high performance possible where it wasn't before. And at prices starting from around £21, the improvement will be tar from expensive!

The use of Samarium Cobalt for the MMCS ring magnet has allowed a significant reduction in the pickup's overall size. Its extreme smallness and lightness (only 3.3g including V?" mounting) means that the advantages of the MMC technique can now be enjoyed by users of heavier arms too!

Actual size of cartridge

MMC 1 MMC 2 MMC 3 MMG 4 MMC 5

Stylus lint-amed Unframed Unframec Titarium Titanium dianiore iontact me contact doe el local Dordec bonded

elli)4ucal elliptical

Cantilever Sapphire Sapphire Tapered Tapered Straight tube tube aluminium alumni urn aluminium

tube tube tube

Effect ve a.25 mg 0.3 mg 0.35 mg 0.4 ng 0.5 mg tip mass

Comp lance :30 pm/mN 30 itm/inN 25 pm/mN 25 prri.'mN 20 pm/mN

Frequency 20-20.000 Hz 20-20.00e1 Hz 20-20,000 Hz 20-20.000 Hz 20-20,000 Hz respanIe ±1 dB ±1.5 dB ±2 dB ±2.5 bB ±3 dB

Chanel >30 dBAKHz >25 dBIKHz >25 dB/*KHz >22 r03/1KHz >20 dB/1itHz separa: ion

See and hear these amazing new cartridges at your local Bang & Olufsen dealer or send for the free Design Story to us, Bang & Olufsen UK Limited, Dept HN1, Eastbrook Road, Gloucester GL4 7DE. Telephone (0452) 21591

Bang &Olufsen

HP-Ft NEWS 10.1( :01Z t rd.\ . I \ •

Editorial and Advertising offices:

LINK HOUSE, DINGWALL AVENUE

CROYDON, CR9 2TA.

Telephone: 01-686 2599

Telex: 947709

EDITOR JOHN ATKINSON

DEPUTY EDITOR IVOR HUMPHREYS

ASSISTANT EDITOR KEN KESSLER

ART EDITOR JOHN GASH

EDITOR-AT-LARGE PAUL MESSENGER

SECRETARY JENNIFER SCOTLAND

CONSULTING EDITORS JOHN CRABBE

DONALD ALDOUS

MUSICAL ADVISER CHRISTOPHER BREUNIG

TECHNICAL ADVISERS MARTIN COLLOMS STANLEY KELLY REX BALDOCK JAMES MOIR

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SALES EXECUTIVE NICOLA DYER

ADVERTISEMENT PRODUCTION JACKIE McGRATH

PUBLISHER COLIN GAMM

We regret that technical and editorial queries cannot be answered by telephone.

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW also incorporates: Stereo,

Tape & Tape Recorders, Audio News, Record News, Audio

Record Review, The Gramophone Record.

MEMBER OF THE AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULAONS

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t. THE LINK HOUSE GROUP C) Link House Publications P.L.C., 1984. All rights reserved.

COMMENT

ONE COULD BE FORGIVEN for thinking that the 'analogue vs. digital' debate was becoming more low-key as time

passed. However, a number of features this month touch on the apparent conflict between Compact Disc and the well-established LP. ' Star' record cutting engineer Doug Sax seems to remain as unconvinced by the new medium as ever in his interview on p55, despite his company now producing CDs. The £600 system review starting on p93 opened my eyes to the fact that it is not in the highest-of-fi systems where CD's virtues might be most beneficial, while two of the readers' letters ( p29) are scornful of anyone capable of supporting black disc. The trouble is that my experience of

Compact Disc provides evidence to support al/sides of the debate. After interviewing Doug Sax I compared the CD and direct-disc versions of the James Newton Howard recording that he mentions. The much-toted advantage of Compact Disc's quieter background was not relevant in this context — background noise was inaudible in both cases. The CD has noticeably cleaner low bass than the LP played via Linn Sondek/ lttok/Koetsu Red/Audio Research SP- 10, the latter having both a higher low bass level and more low frequency coloration with less extension. The LP, though, does have very much more 'space around the drum kit, more of the ' roundness' to the instrumental images that I have been seeking with every improvement to my system, as well as a greater degree of differentiation between the layers within the overall image. The CD has more treble energy, but becomes a little relentless at high levels.

Personally I prefer '.1-re LP; the sound is that much more 'comfortable' and one has to dig less hard into the image for the fine detail. A good friend prefers the CD. His opinion on the sound character of both agreed exactly with my own; his weighting of the virtues was slightly different. The differences are not large, however, and certainly to repeat Karajan's 'All else is gaslight!' support for the digital medium misrepresents the potential of the analogue disc. (Do remember, however, that the CD is

being played on a £299 player which can be plugged into the power amplifier, while the LP is being played via a front end/preamp combination costing over £4000. Remember, also, that the LP medium is being given the best chance to give of its best: no-one would disagree that direct-cutting imposes the minimum of processing on the music signal.) On the other hand, I have taken part in

tests where I could not distinguish reliably

between a CD and the digital master tape If UIII wiiucrt II 10/élb IjUt . un Ind( Utlbe,

sound quality— or rather, the performance of the player's lowish-budget DACs and the accuracy with which the digital data have been preserved on the disc — does not come into question. On the third hand, as Editor of a magazine

which has published several hundred CD reviews since the launch, I have had a much wider experience of the medium than most. I have to admit to being disappointed too many times to have an unquestioning faith in the present state of the Compact DSc art — about one in five discs gets an A, meaning excellent, technical rating from our reviewers, and only a very much smaller number could be said to be almost beyond criticism. On a fourth hand — Editors have to have

many hands ... and hats — I have to agree totally with the point made by one of our correspondents this month concerning the silver disc's ease of use. The LP is positively Mesozoic by comparison, and I am sure that it is this aspect alone that has led to the growth of the prerecorded cassette.

So, you see why I find it less easy than some either to condemn or to embrace CD. But Ido remember, and regard almost with awe, the tremendously complicated process by which the music has been encoded as rainbow-inducing pits. Each step, however, offers opportunities for degradation. If everything were perfect, if we lived in a world where people could be trusted always to treat what they do with respect, then the theory of digital recording and CD replay — which is beyond criticism— would be practically and commercially realised. Everything else would be as gaslight! I own a CD player; I own many discs; but

my ears tell me that, as of yet, it is too rare an occurrence of everything to go right in the production of a CD. As a matter of policy, therefore, I feel HFN/RR must report any informed opinion to do with the new medium, whether it be praise or criticism. Only in that way will knowledge be increased; only in that way can performance be improved. As mentioned last month, Nimbus will

have nothing to do with us because of this policy— ' if you're not 100% with us, you're against us'. It also leads to a situation where a major US company does not supply CDs for review — 'review the music from LP and say that the sound is perfect!

If CD is a valid medium, then despite the politics it will eventually take its place as the major music storage medium. Honest comment can only speed that process up; for a magazine to pursue a 'party line' — and you don't need me to tell you who is for and who is against — must in the end be self-defeating.

Personally, it all comes down to where everyone of us draws the line, where we titrate what we are offered against what we need. One person may not care about convenience as long as the sound quality is the best that can be; another will accept a lesser sound quality as long as there is no snap, crackle and pop! And that's a unique choice for each of us. But for more on that subject, do read Ben Duncan on p67, who gives as nice a discussion of the need for ever-improving quality in hi-fi as I've ever read. If you haven't been reading his preamp series because you have been put off by the DIY aspect, then you've been missing some good background discussion to what is important in the reproduction of sound.

John Atkinson

READERS' LETTERS Letters for publication should be addressed to the Editor and must contain no other material or enquiries. Letters seeking advice on technical or equipment matters (with SAE) should be marked for the attention of Crossover woo will reply in due course. We rest rve the right to print such letters later in our Readers' Problems feature, unless otherwise instructed. MICROFILMS & INDEXING Microfilm and microfiche copies of HFN/RR or articles therefrom are available commercially from University Microfilms International. North American applications

to: 300 N. Zeeb Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106, USA, UK and rest of world: 30/32 Mortimer Street, London WIN 7RA. Technical articles of full page length or over appearing in Hi-fi News Br Record Review are detailed in the Current Technology Index. BINDERS Loose-leaf binders for annual volumes of HFN/RR are available from Modern Bookbinders Chadwick Street, Blackburn,

Lancs. The years 1971 to 1982 are each covered by two binders (January-June and July- December), while 1983/4 require one binder each. Price £3.50 each ( post paid). For earlier years, please ask for a quotation.

Ill- F I NI Vt',,\. RI ( ORD RI \ If - 0111f R 1(54 27

other bad review we no able I

" If VVhat Hi-Fi give us

save them from boss, who is

big master of Aikido— also

Jiu Jitsu.

Our cartridge allows to 's

bring sound connoisseurs the ecstasy of listening pleasure

not sooner

available from

recorded

music.

Boss start to le

(OK so far

calm down.)

Construction • • • •

Sound quality • im • •

Tracking Ability zonal

VALUE FOR MONEY Munn

Transparent sound and

least tracking distortion is by

superfine elliptical stylus, to

make less the record wear With adoption of light-

weight cantilever has enabled

sound of all note ranges to

be reproduced flat.

Also permalloy pipe vib-

rator makes develop a superb level of performance.

Now boss say not to forget

pole piece. Again is permalloy to be up to 15% thinner

than normal ones, and has

less of overcurrent loss.

50,

dB

".r-- 30

20

10,

20

MP 11

- 77: .

__—_:: : "

• .._

_ --

Hz 50 100 200 500 000 2000 5000 10000 20013.0

I'

(But then, boss always

hotfor ins and outs of technical

characterisations.)

Having been adopted for

using in magnetic circuit is

Samarium-Cobalt magnet,

which is believed to have

stronger magnetic energy

than any other substance.

This enable for music

gourmets to enjoy high out-

put, punchy sound. The body,that is to be

attached to the head shell,

is made to have the most physical strength possible,

through high-impact ABS. Every work of making

cartridges is our own,to keep

up quality. (This very import-

ant in Japan. If goodness drops, quality control officer

Mr Hito commit Hara Kin.) For end, since money

to MP-11 so small, knowing

persons find to

spend most

on best

possible

tonearm (like

Linn Ittok),

Superb sound. Excellent mount-

ing quality. X Nothing to criticise at the price.

also fine turntable. Even Chris Frankland-

san in What Hi-Fi agree to

find this most proper way,

to make sound for largest

quality.

For all this, only four squares? How we show

being better than other cart-

ridges with four squares?

Boss says, ask for five

square for future test. For salt being pushed

well into cuts, we are reading next insult. " Nothing to

criticise at the price:'

Boss sprouts

his anger

again. He

say price

nothing to

do with it." 111'

WHAT HI-FI OCT. 83.

NAGAOKA MP11 IS BEST OF JAPAN FOR SIMPLY £ I9 For further details contact Path Limited,1 Berens Road, London NVV10 5DY. Tel: 01-969 2514

. . . about liking Compact Disc From: Jonathan Bower, Kowloon, Hong Kong Dear Sir, I am the proud owner of a Philips CD100 and a few crates full of the funny silver things that whizz round inside it. I like them very much (that's me blacklisted for a start). I am now almost completely cured of analogue fatigue, but occasionally break into a cold sweat when remembering the decades of 'tsures' ( Kessler will translate) I suffered while trying to scrape a halfway decent sound out of such a basically tacky, user-unfriendly and downright silly medium as the vinyl microgroove LP. Incidentally, I think you should know that they go mouldy (literally) in the heat and humidity here, whereas my CDs remain pristine. Is this a record? A slightly more serious note: I assume that

the current, somewhat reactionary editorial posture vis à vis Compact Disc allows for the remote possibility that some of them actually contain music. If so, it would be nice if they could be reviewed accordingly — ie, like the horrible black things, every month, and with some indication as to the performance qualities enshrined within (or destroyed by) the digits. Wake up you guys, even Gramophone has got with it!

Lastly, to ensure my total ex-communication, I would like to welcome the recent limited outbreak of sacred cow bashing within your esteemed pages. I refer to:

1) Ken Kessler's description of a certain lsobarik speaker as ' mid-fi'. I know Ken gets a bit over-enthusiastic sometimes, but I think he's been a bit generous here. Still, nice one Ken! (Yes, I love pint-sized SL600s and LS3/5As too — a pair of each.)

2) The increasing realisation that, for analogue disc, the Pink Triangle actually sounds nicer than you-know-what. Also it doesn't sneer at you if you fail to connect it to the you-know-what-approved amp, speakers, coffee table, Dire Straits LP, gold cufflink set, etc, etc. I look forward to further outbreaks of

sanity in future editions. Kung Hei Fat Choy* *This is legit— it's the Chinese New Year greeting in Cantonese: 'May you become happy and prosperous'.

. . . about a myopic view of CD From: Marjorie Dudson, Kidsgrove, Staffs Dear Sir, Robert Matthew-Walker's myopic view of Compact Disc (HFN/RR, August) and its future would be no less disquieting, even if it were not from a professional musician closely connected with the recording industry. It demands some sort of response, if only to try to correct some of the curious logic in his arguments. Take, for example, the suggestion that

record buyers are interested in the content only, not in how good (or bad) the recording is technically. If my own attitude is typical, then it is partially true; but it is an odd argument to use against all technical advance, and taken to its logical conclusion, we'd all still be listening to Mr. Edison's cylinders. Why, then, did the Berliner disc supplant

what I am told was potentially a technically superior format? Easy. At the risk at making R M-W wince, it was because the disc format was ( in modern parlance) 'user friendly'. This is where the CD scores over all the competition and, I suspect, will guarantee its success. If I ask my octagenarian Auntie Mabel to find the start of the second subject

in the last movement of Beethoven's 7th, the demise of my fancy £150 m-c cartridge is a cast-iron certainty, not to mention what would happen to the LP. With even my first-generation Sony CD-P101, I can let her loose on it in the full confidence that nothing nasty will happen to either disc, player, or Auntie Mabel! Push a couple of buttons and there it'll be — right on the nose to a second. The realisation of the CD's full potential has only just begun. As far as comparisons between CD and

other media are concerned, I prefer to resist the temptation. The artifacts present in any analogue format are completely different from those in digital: the faults in analogue are all too familiar, anyway. What do I listen for in the new medium? CD has a new set of defects, most of which arise at the mastering stage, for which producer and/or balance engineer must take full responsibility. Perhaps it is this prospect that alarms Mr. Walker. I could take up many other points in his

depressing article, but I will confine myself to just one more, that of cost. Of course, CDs cost more than the equivalent LP, and some cost double! These are mostly imports from the Far East, so inevitably carry a premium — but then, look at the silly prices charged for 'custom pressings' from the USA. It is my impression that CD player prices are falling sharply, and that disc prices are sure to follow. It is a safe bet to predict parity between CD and LP/cassette price when other manufacturing sources come on stream. Remember that until very recently Polygram were covertly enforcing RRP on their CDs, but even so, the price differential between a CD and the corresponding LP was surprisingly small.

In conclusion, I am confident that the Compact Disc, as the ideal sound carrier, has an assured future and the true music lover is far less likely to be conscious of the 'wheels going round'. To suggest that a lump of crystal carbon struggling to follow the undulations in a plastic groove is even remotely capable of comparable fidelity, is quite ludicrous. Yours faithfully As Karajan said, 'All else is gaslight!'. But see p27 — Ed.

. . . about converting digits to music From: Simon Trezise, Keble College, Oxford Dear Sir, I recently invested in a CD player in spite of owning a very large record

collection. The result was the most involving and realistic sound I have ever heard on a domestic hi-fi but, inevitably, LP records sounded thin and messy by comparison. I therefore spent a vast sum obtaining a Linn with its Ittok arm and Asak cartridge— very satisfying. However, I can see no way this excellently built system can ever compete in terms of accuracy with the much cheaper CD player. My question is this: why have I encountered the view (from dealers and consumers alike) that the record is superior in sound quality? On records a digital recording is converted into a pattern on the vinyl that resembles the waveform encoded in digits on the mastertape; on CD these digits are retained and the analogue conversion occurs at the later stage when minimal degradation can occur. Surely this is a simple matter that need not

be enveloped in vague, metaphysical hi-fi jargon; if the master tape is good, the CD, correctly mastered [and there is the rub, Ed] must also be good. Where is the record likely to gain in fidelity to the original? I shall be delighted to hear a resolution of

this debate. Personally, I suspect the answer is rooted in commercial interest ( Linn, for example) and nostalgia. CDs offer such an improvement that it is sensible to buy a player immediately and to start assembling a collection of discs, accepting the fact that this is a ' B' system for some time to come, though it will eventually replace the LP. Yours faithfully

MIERSRUNNEN

1011.131Y.

. . . about under-damped resonances From: Sebastien Veyrin-Fouer, Paris, France Dear Sir, In the March issue of HFN/RR Paul Messenger stated the importance of the Q factor for the loudspeaker response in its resonance region. This parameter, which indicates how this resonance is damped, should ideally stay within 0.5 ( best transient) and 0.7 ( flattest response) and once in a given box is affected by the impedance seen by the unit crossover filter, leads, amplifier output.

Essential when concerning bass reproduction, it appears to me the Q factor shouldn't be neglected for tweeters (midrange drivers). Most of them are sealed by construction, and their Q, rarely specified by the manufacturer, seems often to be over 0.7. A passive crossover can only alter (= increase) this, even if its main aim is to reduce the drive level at resonance. But a tweeter is always positioned near a woofer, which generates a zone of alternative compressions and rarefactions. Its resonance can be excited, giving it an uncontrolled ( because undamped) displacement of its dome (or cone) from which may result intermodulation with the higher frequencies applied to it. One reason advocated for multiple-

amplification is the good damping of every unit. So what happens, as it is the most common case, when an underdamped

8 o

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1984 29

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tweeter ( 00.8-0.9 or more!) is connected to a passive crossover, which can present a fairly high impedance to the unit at its resonance frequency? Here, I can see a small advantage of the even-order crossover filter, which presents an impedance (an inductance) in parallel with the tweeter, decreasing as the frequency lowers. When designing a whole loudspeaker,

careful attention should be paid to this problem, and I hope manufacturers will more often specify the characteristics of their units! Considering subjective evaluations of

audio-systems, I would like to refer to an interesting book written by Mr Kowaliski from the Eastman-Kodak Company, Theorie Photographiqu9 Appliquée 1972, Nassen Edition France. On plates 218-219 he presents three similar colour pictures, but with tonal variations in printing: each of them could be considered as a reference. The first is made from memory; the second from reality; and the third the preferred value, this later being finally adopted. I think an analogy could be applied to

audio-reproduction where the most realistic sound is not necessarily preferred: it could explain, for instance the favour of tube amplifiers for the ears of some, in spite of the far better specifications of transistorised amps. Yours faithfully

. . . about a progressive growl From: RS Harper, Leeds, West Yorkshire Dear Sir, With all this talk for and against valve amplifiers in your journal, there is one important point that has so far escaped comment from the fanatical devotees of 'tubes'. Whereas with most solid-state stereo systems, the sound on overdrive ' barks'; with a tubed system, one gets a progressive 'growl' which really does sound less destructive. Almost any guitarist who has used valve

equipment will give a high opinion of it even though it is more expensive, heavier, and infinitely more fragile than anything using silicon 'spiders'. Yours faithfully

. . . about climbing Big Ben From: Charles M Edwards, Cherry Hill, New Jersey, USA Dear Sir, After your excellent articles on the Audio Research and other tubed (valve) amplifiers, I believe it is time to ask Mr Ted Meyer, to carry out his promise to ' ... climb Big Ben ... ?' which he made on page 59 of your April 1980 issue. Mr Meyer, you may remember, is the self

proclaimed (same letter) ' ... one of the United States' leading record reviewers ...,' expert on not only hi-fi but also on the names which items should bear when described in English. Although I have subscribed for over 15 years to 5 to 8 audio-oriented magazines, I have never heard of Mr Meyer. Returning to Big Ben, Mr Meyer noted that

he would ' ... climb Big Ben if the tubed counterpart (to a top designed transistor amplifier) even comes close to the magnificent sound, of say, a Threshold 400 A... '. Perhaps some of your chaps could give him a leg up on his climb. I have been a subscriber for some 5 years

and thoroughly enjoy the magazine. The high quality of your articles, equipment reviews and record reviews can begin to be equaled only by some of the better quality so called 'underground' audio magazines

published in the USA. The frank and candid comments of the HFN/RR's reviewers are not only a refreshing change from the diplomatic (evasive) conclusions of the typical 'big 3' US magazines eg 'one of the best units in its price class with metal knobs ... ', you give us just what we need to narrow the focus and follow the precarious path to the perfect sound ( no, not CDs). As you know, most commercial American audio magazines never address the sound of a unit under test. For example, I was somewhat startled to see Angus McKenzie's review of the NAD 4150 FM tuner find the sound to be unacceptable because it followed a rave review in Audio magazine in the USA. As far as pure enjoyment goes, the

'Anachrophile' columns by Ken Kessler are what I look for first each month. So often one is left with the feeling by other magazines that once your equipment is more than 6-12 months old, it is totally obsolete and cannot be spoken of again in polite company. Mr Kessler charges right ahead and deals with the sound, even though the equipment was assembled a decade ago. (I must admit to being the owner of AR-2ax speakers and two Decca cartridges). My wife who plays the piano and has excellent hearing will allow any part of our hi-fi system to be changed except the Decca cartridges. They are the only ones she can listen to and remain in the same room for prolonged periods of time. The Deccas nicely complement our Audio Research valve preamp, crossover and bi-amp system with the Magneplanar speakers, all circa 1972. Your magazine is definitely on the right

track. Yours faithfully

. . . about the goose/gander fallacy From: William Sommerwerk, Danbury, Connecticut, USA Dear Sir, I would like to refute John Eisenson's comments on noise reduction systems which you published in 'Comment', August. His reasoning is incorrect. It's an example of what I call the goose/gander fallacy. This occurs when you apply a line of reasoning to one situation, then fail to apply it in a comparable set of circumstances. He is right in saying that the playback

expander is sluggish in responding to transients. What he ignores is that the record compander is equally sluggish. It cannot respond instantly to the transient, so it overshoots (that is, it does not reduce the gain as much as it should). Exactly the opposite effect occurs in playback. The expander does not respond instantly to the transient, so it undershoots (does not reduce the gain as much as it should). In a well-designed NR system, these two effects will exactly cancel each other out. dbx is fairly good in this respect, since it

has the relatively long time constants required for proper operation of its RMS level sensors. As a result, dbx does not aggressively 'dig' into the waveform the way multiband systems, with their faster reaction time, can. Therefore, the overshoot and undershoot are less severe, and are spread over a rather long time interval. So, they are more likely to match up. One of the legitimate criticisms of Dolby-B

and -C is their use of clipping (!) to remove the ove i shoot, so that cassette recordings will not saturate. But overshoot is a perfectly legitimate by-product of any compander's operation. Removing these peaks may cause playback mistracking, and this could be one of the reasons Dolby NR tends to dull the

sound. I used dbx Il for over 5 years of amateur

recording, and never had reason to complain, even when, once or twice, I was forced to record full orchestra on a cassette deck! Of course, the whole question of noise reduction became superfluous when I switched over to a digital Nakamichi DMP-100/Sony SL-2000 system. Yours faithfully Of course a noise reduction system such as dbx will have complementary over- and undershoot. But the point Eisenson was emphasising I believe, was that on ' record', the uncompressed peaks that slip by the noise reduction compressor will be limited by the cassette or tape MOL problems. They will no longer be there to ' slip by' the expander on playback — Ed.

. . . about listening levels From: CH Cater, Dormans Park, East Grinstead, West Sussex Dear Sir, In 'Comment' in July, John Atkinson discussed playback level, but it seems to me that there can be no ideal volume setting if the music is compressed; very few recordings are not compressed one way or another. Some people will prefer to set their volume level so that the quiet bits sound right. Others will opt for the louder music having something like the right kind of impact, even if the quiet music is too loud as a result. Some will opt for a compromise where the quiet music is too loud and the loud music is too quiet. The ideal would be to have Compact Discs

encoded with perhaps two stages of optional compression so that a three-way switch on the player could select full natural dynamics or normal moderate compression or greater compression for use in flats ( or cars?) or any situation where dynamics could cause problems. The large living room equivalent of full

natural concert hall dyamics is not a problem if one has highly efficient robust loudspeakers which do not make great demands on amplifier power or involve heat problems etc. The most ideal speakers for wide dynamics in the home I feel to be Lowther TP1s with PM2C drivers which give marvellously natural sound with low coloration and with superb detail and attack. The speakers reproduce dynamic changes like no other speakers that I have heard and they allow normal compressed recordings to sound surprisingly dynamic. The best dynamic Compact Discs heard from these speakers are hair-raisingly natural. Their power handling is very good and their efficiency is such that small amplifiers can produce an enormous sound from them without strain. They are the natural speaker for lovers of dynamic music. I should point out that even if this sounds

like an advertisement for Lowther, I have no connection at all with that company. Yours faithfully

. . . about double-decker cassette decks From: Wemyess Craigie, Edinburgh, Scotland Dear Sir, As a long-term reader of HFN/RR I have always appreciated your usually fair-minded criticism and reviewing of equipment, but 1 must take strong exception to the views of your staff writer in a recent issue on the withdrawal of Aiwa's double-headed deck. We who use such decks are not all cassette cowboys; I am a recording engineer, brought up on Ferrograph and

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A word of advice about hi-ft:

. IO PRESS AND MCI I III 1‘, vat

Tandberg reel-to-reel machines, which I still use in the studio. But for outside location work I use a high-quality Hitachi cassette deck, and for small runs of cassettes, around 10 to 100, I used a double-speed deck to make copies for my customers (I record choirs, singers, instrumentalists and groups). The larger duplicating firms are usually not interested in such small runs. When recording I use metal tape of

course; the high-quality sound recorded thus transfers very well on my Technics double-headed copying deck, and saves me much valuable time. If I wish to get even slightly better copies— and these are only marginally better — I can use the real-time facility provided by such machines: an important point your reporter missed out.

It seems strange to me that HFN/RR has never yet reviewed in depth any of these double decks; a sister publication did so recently, and while that review did have reservations about a particular machine ( not the Technics!) one point stressed was the excellence of the dubbed sound. Your two May paragraphs can only play into the hands of the ' home-tape-killing' lobby which would impose a tape levy on those of us who do not copy commercial prerecorded cassettes. After all, who would be daft enough to pay around £250 for a machine just to copy a cassette costing around a fiver? Not this Scotsman, Sir! Yours faithfully

screech. The upper partials seemed to have been amplified to the extent that they almost obliterate the fundamental. This is very odd because later in the

record, the fine ' rustly' sound of the bass viol is caught extremely well. The Meridian disc is not alone: the Chilingirian set of the Mozart 'Haydn' quartets is rather harsh and fatiguing to listen to, but not as bad as the former disc. Soprano voices and the oboe can also be edgy. I have some records where the violin sound is absolutely natural, so what is the trouble? Yours faithfully

used a Koetsu 'Silver' in a system comprising Audio Research valve amplification and Acoustat electrostatic loudspeakers, and found the Garrott far superior in all respects, being most realistic and free of distortion. By comparison, the Koetsu sounded coloured and muddy. The Garrott Brothers neither make nor

recommend the GB Block, the initials GB being misleading. Their recommended mounting is with a small piece of Plasticene neatly wedged between the ' lid' of the cartridge and the headshell, which results in the best sound quality and makes alignment as straightforward as for any other cartridge. The balance between channels thus needs no 'fine tuning'. Tracking performance is exemplary,

coping with every record in my collection at 1 gram, whereas the Koetsu was unable to handle some passages even at 2.7 grams. Since the Garrott Decca clearly out

performs the highly regarded Koetsu, it must surely be considered one of the very best of all available cartridges. Yours faithfully

. . . about a misplaced award From: Neville Simmons, Tek Marketing Ltd, Edison Road Industrial Estate, Huntingdon, Cambs. Dear Sir, I note with anguish that you have allocated the prize of Audio Accessory of the Year in August's 'Comment' to the defunct

Timetouch. was, thatlar Yours

,

The f le I , indu s try -lobs.,

1

* Ike

I am enclosing living proof that it d T l h f in act, our much acclaimed T31

ran away with is particular prize, rt th th ll thf faiuy

. . . about good advice From: A Bell-Ashe, London N16 Dear Sir, Just a note to tell people not to dismiss all the things audiophile gurus say without listening first. I was the first to scoff when I read some years ago about 79-and-more-strand cable, but now we all know what a difference that makes. I can now verify what the gurus have been

saying for ages about another area. I was listening to the Style Council's Cafe Bleu album when it struck me that my system was not sounding as good as it used to. The bass was ill-defined, the soundstage was muddled, and the record just didn't sound right. I tried repositioning the speakers, but • that just made things worse, and then it

struck me. The screws holding down the drive-units of my DM7 Ils appeared to be a little slack; a few minutes' work with a screwdriver and the speakers sounded better than they had when new. The bass was incredibly tight and well-defined; the soundstage was remarkably wide and the total sound was more open and clear. Check your speakers and see for yourself. Now where can I buy spiked feet? Yours faithfully

. . . about recording the violin From: A H Slade, Ludlow, Shropshire Dear Sir, I am an experienced, though amateur, musician and have a fair knowledge of the art, both as a player and as a listener. I read HFN/RR's record reviews and never buy any records not recommended. My greatest interest is the string quartet and chamber music in general, and although I have very good equipment, meticulously set-up, I have to ask why record companies seem to have such difficulty in recording the violin? I have just bought Music of the Civil War (Meridian E77059) and the sound of the violin at the beginning of side one is dreadful with an edge to it like a slate pencil screech. This is at normal listening level and if one turns down the volume, the sound becomes almost toneless and pitchless, with nothing left but the

. . . about the Garrott Deccas From: Michael Scott, Thornleigh, NSW, Australia Dear Sir, The article by Christopher Breunig about the Garrott Decca cartridge (HFN/RR April) interested me greatly as I have a 'Gold' with Micro-Scanner stylus. I had previously

THE GUINNESS BOOK OF RECORDED SOUND by Robert & Celia Dearling, with Brian Rust. 217pp, plus index. Hard cov- ers. Price £9.95. Published by Guinness Superlatives Ltd, 2

Cecil Court, London Enfield, feddlesex. Road,

another. The 'expert' reader of the text will underline the truth of this approach and provide some of the corrections invited by the authors. Publishers please note for future editions, The second chapter does correctly credit

Edison as being the first man to both record and playback sound, and so has not suc- cumbed to the claims of Frenchman Charles

October 1903. An excellent index, and congratulations to

the authors for spelling PGAH Voigt correctly (p103), but surely The Gramophone Record, founded by Leonard Hibbs in the mid- 1930s, on which I collaborated for many years and which is incorporated in HFN/RR, is worth a mention, when writing about the maga-zines? The only British published book on

nee' '

ftlel f - .,p t

I Ii

\

BOOKS The story of recorded sound has been writ-

Cros. Cylinder enthusiasts may have reason to complain, as the Edison Company con-

'Direct Disc Recording' ( Bernards), which I wrote in 1943, is also omitted.

ten about and told many times since the ' Before Edison' period,

tinued to produce cylinder recordings until 1960, and the shortest cylinders were not the

Sections tackle electrical recording, tape, repertoire, LPs, the Compact Disc, and

right up to today's LP and CD era. 4in. length, but the Lioret at about 6/10in. The several pages of Personalia, with many The chroniclers of this truly exciting story largest were not the 8in. North American illustrations — some in colour — inserted

have tackled this task afresh with dedication Phonograph Co. but the massive Pathé throughout. In case readers think this review and enthusiasm. As an inveterate collector of Céleste cylinders, and the diameter of the is just a nitpicking saga, let me say that this gramphone memorabilia, archive material Edison Kinetophone cylinder used for early documentation of the recorded sound story and reference books, need I say that I seized sync. sound films was not 5.5in. diameter, is an important treatment, presented in the this book eagerly. Reviewing it presents a but 4.25in. Pathé, incidentally, produced not usual Guinness first/last, biggest/smallest challenge, because of the vast amount of just two sizes of cylinders but four, and the style. My advice is get this first edition at information it collates, and it would take as smallest Pathé disc was 6.5in. not 8.25in. once, as a gift to an audiophile or for your long to check every 'fact' as it took to On p58, the Caruso chronology needs own 'gramophone' bookshelf. My copy is compile the text. correcting, so far as his earliest recordings already well-thumbed for reference.

Sensibly, the co-authors confess that hay- are concerned: first 10 G&Ts, 11th April Donald Aldous ing consulted numerous sources, they soon 1902, next 10 G&Ts, 1st December 1902, discovered that one 'fact' and 'date' given in seven International Zonophones, 19th April one publication was flatly contradicted in 1903, and three AICC cylinders date to

III- 11 NEWS ti RLCORD REVILW oCTOBL R 1984 33

If you can't get a double bass out of a 91 By most people's definition of the word, our

new Diamond loudspeakers are not just small. They're diminutive. (Even the page you're

reading now is larger.) True, there are a few other speakers as tiny.

But when they're called upon to reproduce low

frequencies— the deep, resonant sound of a double bass for example—our rivals show their limitations only too clearly.

There's a good reason for this. The laws of physics say, all other things being equal, the bigger the speaker the more bass it can pump out.

'FBA I Ispeakcr of iht. war 19,4-1'atcgors f•ith lM

inch box, it isn't aWharfedale Diamond. The Wharfedale Diamond proves that in

practice, all other things are not equal. Scientifically speaking its surprising bass per-

formance is largely due to overdamped 5th order reflex loading, with a rear-firing port.

The result is the sort of sound quality you

get from many much larger, pricier speakers. Indeed, "Hi-Fi Now" said: 'For such a small

and inexpensive speaker to produce such a sound was quite unexpected: Who but the makers of Britain's most famous speakers could have got so much out of so little?

WHARFEDALE- LOUDSPEAKERS. HIGHFIEL D ROAD. IDL E, BRADFORD, YORKSHIRE. 1 EL (D274) 611131 11

AMONGST ALL THAT'S BEST YOU'LL DISCOVER PS AUDIO

PS Audio is a fascinating system of audio amplification. In a marketplace saturated with hyped mediocrity PS Audio products have established a unique supremacy. A legitimate claim to be the most accurate devices available in a range of truly affordable components.

Now, PS Audio makes it possible for audiophiles to include state of the art amplification in their stereo budget.

It's a system that grows with the listener's experience of music reproduction. From the low cost PSIIB phono-amplifier, a revelation of sonic definition, to the consumate authority of the world's best integrated amplifier. the PS Elite.

PS Audio demonstrates what few amplifiers have been designed to achieve — accurate musicality. Which is more than what listeners want to hear about — it's what they want to hear.

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Acoustic Arts.

New PS Audio dealers are being appointed all the time, but if you think we could be helpful please don't hesitate to call us directly,

THE SOURCE MAY BE WITH YOU SOON... The Source is an apt enough title for a new £600 state-of-the-art turntable, which originates (believe it or not) from Glasgow. And what better place to begin, bearing in mind the various locally available skills and sup-pliers.

Details are still sketchy, but designer Mike Moore has already

received an enthusiastic wel-come and unsolicited praise from experienced enthusiasts, com-ments including 'very neutral', and ' revelatory'. The Source uses very tight tolerance machining and is a suspended subchassis design of high (35-40Ibs) mass to minimise feedback, which sounds like close competition for the similarly priced SOTA. Further details from MRM Audio Products, 38 Millbrae Crescent, Langside, Glasgow G42 9UN (Tel 041-649 1705)

PROTON POWER Proton Home Audio products are to be imported to the UK by Ventura Leisure, a new tentacle in the Andy Giles Audio Conglomer-ate. Proton are linked to the NAD operation in ill-defined ways, and their most interesting product to date has been the bi-amplified Schotz circuit table radio. They

PHILIPS PRO CD Philips have announced a profes• sional CD reproduction system for production later this year. Although only of peripheral interest to the domestic con-sumer, the snappily titled LHH 0502, to be marketed by Pye TVT in the UK, will provide an impor-tant benchmark for performance and facilities.

have also pioneered component video in the US. However, to start with just

three fairly conventional separate mid-priced hi-fi components are being brought in, bearing some resemblance to slickly styled NAOS. It is hoped that other Protons will put in an appearance in the UK early next year.

No simple (or even compli-cated) player this: it comprises two disc drives, control unit, keyboard and VDU, with printer option, showing the degree to which digital audio and compu-ters are becoming convergent, at least at the professional end of things. The control system needs only 2s to search, with an accuracy of 13.3ms.

AM ACTIVITY No mere wishful thinking, this is a special mains-powered AM aerial system with strong direc-tional characteristics to improve seletivity and reduce interfer-ence, which B&O are introducing to ease the troubled lot of some of the UK's 10m+ AM listeners. The £27.50 Active Antenna 10,

to give it its full and pithless title,

is an LP-sized rotatable dish con-taining an amplifier and two fer-rite rods tuned to cover a wide bandwidth evenly, and may be used with any radio with an external AM aerial socket. Just the thing for Ball-by- ball fans who have found their frequency modulated entertainment mes-sed up by nasty squeaky violin things.

PETER PARKIN Anyone who has heard music in the Royal Festival Hall, London, since 1964 will have reason to praise — with a few dissentient voices — the work of Professor Peter Parkin. In 1949 the RFH was proposed and plans drawn up for the design by Mr. Hope Bagenal, aided by Peter Parkin and William Allen from the Building Research Station at Watford. The RFH was a pioneer project,

in this country, for a concert hall having specific musical prop-erties. Among the acoustical developments incorporated, the 'Assisted Resonance' system installed in 1964 is perhaps the best known, due to Peter Parkin and his team. Yet another development, in 1952, was an

advanced public-address system installed at St. Paul's Cathedral, and more recently a sound sys-tem for Westminster Abbey.

Latterly, he worked on acous-tical modelling techniques at Cambridge University, and became a Professor at South-ampton University, tackling prob lems of sound and vibration, as well as joining Arup Acoustics as a consultant.

Peter Parkin died on June 27, at the early age of 66. His physical sound monuments remain with us, as does his authoritative text, with colleague HR Humphreys of BAS, on musical Acoustics, Acoustics, Noise and Buildings, which captured me when I first read it in 1963 ( Faber & Faber).

Donald Aldous

MISSION IMMINENT Mission are approaching the Autumn with great optimism, fol-lowing the good reaction accorded their new range of loudspeakers. Further details are now available on their £400 DAD7000 Compact Disc Player, not to mention a variety of other exciting new developments at various stages down the pipeline. The '7000 is based upon a

presently unreleased front-load-ing Philips player, with Mission trim. Claimed to be the first 'third generation' machine, it uses 4X over-sampling at 176.4kHz, with full 16- bit resolution. Ergonomics and facilities are to a high stan-dard, with 2.5s access and 99-track programmability. Twin stereo decoders are used,

with two stages of filtering — Philips' digital transversal pre-DAC filter and Mission's own post-DAC analogue filter — not to mention some still confidential Mission digital tweaks, to ensure 'perfect audio band frequency response without phase shifts and other aberrations'. The mechanical structure uses press-ure die-casting, and the laser is a single focus design. The successful new £130 Cyrus

One integrated amplifier is shortly to be supplemented by the £230 Cyrus Two, effectively replacing the MOSFET 778 with a 50W design using the special Cyrus bipolar transistors. Cyrus Two has a ' no compromise' mov-ing-coil input, and facilities for

upgrading via an add-on out-board power supply unit. In pre-production the latter has pro-vided nearly 200W/channel (con-tinuous, both channels, into 2ohms), and is expected to cost an additional £100 or thereab-outs. New state-of-the-art cartridge

and tonearm contenders both cost £300. The Mechanic is a substantial, rigid 'heavyweight', suitable for low compliance mov-ing-coil cartridges, and bearing some resemblance to the SM and Zeta tonearms. The Rose is a rosewood-bodied low output/ compliance moving-coil car-tridge. Sourced from Dynavector in Japan, its specification is nevertheless quite distinct and unique. The loudspeaker end of the

business sees the imminent UK release of the 780 Argonaut. This £600 high efficiency flagship' model has a 94/95dB midrange sensitivity, which will bring it headlong into competition with the new KEF 104/2. There is a family resemblance with the 770 Freedom, but the Argonaut is significantly taller, has an extra bass driver, and a special 'impe-dance transformer' tweeter, which uses a short horn at the front and two rear cavities. Looking further towards the

future, Mission are bringing together the technologies of Argonaut and Cyrus in a high quality compact active speaker, designed for the professional markets, as a portable unit suited to monitoring or for PA (le disco) applications.

SHOCK HORROR! SENNHEISER 414 REPLACED! Surely no other hi-fi component can claim not only to have remained in production but to have maintained its position as a market sector leader for as many years as Sennheiser's pioneering open-backed HD414 headphone. Now nostalgia lovers may weep,

for the 414 is to be brought screaming into the '80s as the £24 414SL ( note price reduction). The SL treatment is also being meted out to the 410 and 420 models, at £18 and £32 respectively. It involves new ' high-tech' samar-ium cobalt drivers, and a flat slimline construction with more generous ear and band padding, claimed to give improved sound and comfort.

AUTUMN SYSTEMS Around the time of the year that a nip starts to hang in the evening air, when leaves are yellowing and nights are drawing in, the hi-fi and audio stores start to fill up with a new season of rack and other systems. Typical of those on the way are four 'double digit' replacements for Pioneer's X-G series, three new Sanyos at somewhat lower prioces, not to

mention a neat budget casseiver system from Panasonic. Meanwhile, down at the garage

there is a whole raft of new in-car (ICE) product, again from Pioneer and Sanyo, but also Alpine and Uher. The Pioneer stuff looks par-ticularly pretentious and hence enticing to the wielders of crow-bars, even going so far as to offer full remote control on the £600 Centrate system.

FRONT END

iii 11 \ I V.,`,t\ Ri ( () RI) RI \ 11 \\

The new Linn Karma represents a worthwhile upgrade for the well sorted Linn system. We are happy to demonstrate and can give your LP12 a free check over when we fit the new cartridge for you.

REVOLVER Recent improvements have refined the Revolver's performance. Read Hi-Fi for Pleasure (June 84) to see how well it fared os part of our chosen system — then book your demonstration to compare it with the latest models of Regar Planar*, Acoustic Research and Systemdek.

NAD 3120

The NAD 3120 is one good starting point for a budget system. Our customers, however, have the advantage of being able to compare it bere with the Rotel 8020B, Creek CAS 4040, Cyrus One by Mission, A&R A60, Nairn Nair and Sondex. Whatever your choice we will ensure the compatibility of your system and take good care of your after sales servicing.

W. A. 56) RAD

& SON

401 Smithdovvn Road, Liverpool L15 3JJ.

Tel: ( 051) 733 6859 Closed all day Wednesday

VISA

DOUG

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Kingsway Studios, Kingsway North, Warrington. Padgate 828009 Closed all day Thursday

AiL=i.CAN DCP RE 55 =n_111M1

11141 MARKETS

.Atel)00 EXCELLUCE

. . . AND NOW FOR THE GOOD NEWS.

How about a positive attitude instead of all the gloom? We sell hi-fi and we are success-ful at it — why?

We offer a range selected from the finest hi-fi equipment available. This equipment reflects all budgets, you can certainly buy modestly priced systems that sound good — our dearer ones just sound better!

We are pleasant to customers — we believe in offering helpful and informative advice and giving meaningful demonstrations. We don't rely on dogma.

When you've made your choice we set up and install equipment correctly.

We maintain a fully equipped workshop which can test, measure, service, and repair all the equipment we sell and plenty that we don't.

If you like our attitude — be positive. .

PAY US A VISIT SOON — EXPERIENCE AUDIO EXCELLENCE

FOR YOURSELF!

After extensive listening we recommend products from the following manufacturers:

Audio Lab, Audio Research, AR, Ariston, A&R, ARC, Burmester, Celestion, Counterpoint, Creek, Dual, Gale, Heybrook, KEF, Koestu, Krell, Linn, Magne planar, Marantz, Meridian, Mission, Monitor Audio, Musical Fidelity, NAD, Nakamichi, Nytech, Naim, Pink Triangle, Quad, Revox, Spendor, Syrinx, Systemdek, Tannoy, Thorens, Walker, Yamaha, Zeta.

134 CRWYS ROAD CARDIFF Tel: 0222 28565

9 HIGH STREET SWANSEA Tel: 0792 474608 TUES-SAT 9.30-5.30

CLOSED MON

38 NEWS & RECORD RE \ OCI OBER 1984

NEWS OPTICAL BREAKTHROUGH? Considered by some as an essen-tial ingredient in the eventual success of CD, record/replay laser optical systems have been announced as lab prototypes by several major companies, and are beginning to find their way into very expensive computer data storage and archive applica-tions. A Japanese magneto-optical

system places the active tellur-ium arsenide layer in an optically transparent sandwich. Problems

of variable translucency due to moisture absorption have hitherto prevented polymethy-lacrylate (videodiscs) or polycar-bonate (CDs) from being used in place of glass, whose weight and expense has been holding back developments. Now Japanese chemical com-

pany Daicel has developed improved die-casting techniques for polycarbonate, along with a special waterproofing layer, which could prove a break-through in the development of optical storage as an alternative to magnetics.

MORE NEW SUPERCABLES Current interest in high quality audio cables is bringing new examples on the market all the time. The Linear Crystal cable, praised so highly by MC on pp 99, is now available through Audio Technica's successful accessory operation, though initially only as expensive speaker cable (£6.75/ m) and cartridge connector leads (£4.95).

In view of his recent comments in these pages (HFN/RR '84), the van den Hul cables will also be of interest. These are claimed to offer performance appropriate to some rather high prices, ranging from £10-£30 per stereo metre plus connectors, and are avail-

able for pre-/power, arm/pre- and power/loudspeaker interfaces. Naim amplifier owners will be

interested in the £12 SNAIC, which takes account of those irri-tatingly unusual 4-pin DIN con-nectors, not to mention Naim's very particular earthing arrange-ments. Those in search of the ultimate

overkill should, of course, look to the US, where Spectral have announced the Music Interface Technologies ( MIT, geddit) 'music hose', a three-quarter-inch thick hawser of a 3-way speaker cable, designed by Bruce Brisson who was also responsi-ble for the Monster Interlink. This would apparently cost over £200 for two eight-foot terminated lengths.

NEW BRITISH CARTRIDGES Several new British cartridges evolving from two recent Gol-dring models may be the start of something of a revival for this sector of UK manufacturing, though a return to the heady days when the UK dominated world turntable markets and Goldring employed some 250 people is still a long way off. The new budget £16 Epic has

already caused more than its fair share of excitement, and now Russ Andrews Turntable Acces-sories ( RATA) and QED are

marketing variations to their own specifications ( stylus, compliance etc.). Rumour has it that Goldring may be assembling a forthcom-ing Rega-designed cartridge, and this is bound to be interesting. Meanwhile A&R, who have had

significant success with their spe-cially-tipped 77-series, based on Japanese moving-magnet mod-els, are to move into the middle of the moving-coil market by applying the same stylus to a Goldring Electro II. The additional marketing mus-

cle exerted by these various par-ties should have a considerable effect upon Goldring's output.

THE BBC RADIO? Following the BBC's highly suc-cessful microcomputer collabora-tion with Acorn Computers, Richard Francis, MD of BBC Fiadio, feels it is high time that advances in technology were applied to the humble radio receiver to improve both the sound quality and the ease of tuning. This would include auto-matic pushbutton tuning, with a one-line visual display giving sta-tion and programme details de-rived from digital 'signal mark-ing' — signals which are transmit-ted with the programme. The BBC would be pleased to

collaborate with a manufacturer, and are prepared to back such a

venture with their expertise. But so far British companies have shown little enthusiasm.

PIONEER As a multinational audio special-ist, Pioneer are an important barometer for the audio industry as a whole. Results for the first half-year show the company moving back into profit, with sales up 5.7%. But audio equip-ment sales were down 10% with the recovery proving sluggish in Japan and Europe. Areas of improvement were Laservision (+128% to 15%) and in-car pro-ducts (+ 5% to 34%). The com-pany anticipates a continuing recession in audio equipment.

BRIEFING SANSUI AEROSPACE? Although amongst the Japanese com-panies most loyal to audio pro-ducts, Sansui have been commis-sioned by the US McDonnell Douglas Corporation to develop a 'transmissive' film-type optical videodisc record/replay system, primarily for military and aeros-pace data storage and training applications. ITTOK IMPROVEMENTS. Though *supplies are still slow from the Japanese end, the latest Linn lttok arms show subtle but reportedly worthwhile improve-ments, with extra thickness in headshell and bearing housing, and improved bearings. AES DIGITAL AUDIO papers, some 25 in all from the special digital conference held in June '82 in New York, have been trans-cribed and edited into a 268pp A4 volume with an accompanying soundsheet disc: $40 members, $75 non-members, from Audio Engineering Society Inc., 60 East 42nd Street, New York NY10165, USA. CD PLAYER PRICES seem deter-mined to drop this Autumn, with £300 becoming the norm for marketing- led companies like Sentra and Ferguson, £400 for premium models like those from UK hi-fi specialists Mission and Meridian. In the meantime, items of 'distressed merchandise' such as the first generation Hitachi model are now being offered for below £200.

ELECTRICAL EXPANSION. An Electrical Employer's Federation survey has shown that the elec-trical sector of engineering, 20% smaller than the mechanical five years ago, is now 15% larger in output. TRANSMISSION LINE SPEAKER

building, once a popular pastime, is given extra impetus by the simple, low cost 'Waveguide' from Cambridge Acoustics, 101 Coldhams Lane, Cambridge. Rather rudimentary plans (4 x A4 sides) cost £2, post free, and the kit, using Richard Allan and Motorola drivers ( 3), is £120/pair. 'INTENSIFIED FOCUS' of magne-tic fields is claimed to give the new sapphire-cantilevered Talis-man Alchemist IIIS high output moving-coil cartridge the low-moving-mass rise-time perform-ance of most low output designs, without any need for step-up devices. Whether 47kohms load-ing is optimum for a low impe-dance generator is a moot point, and the 90ohm internal resist-ance is noticeably higher than many low output designs.

MGM CARTRIDGE MOUNTING should be within the reach of all now that Goldring are marketing a £3 kit of screws, nuts, allen key and spanner. VCR PRICES from Japan to EEC countries have been cut by 5-7% (some £16 off £220-£300 floor prices). Due to a 20% downturn in the first five months of '84, the EEC quotas are unlikely to be met, and the artificially high prices, which the quota system started, are left looking a little silly. The first to reach 'maturity', the UK market will still be 1.9m in 1984 (from 2.1m), the third largest in the world. GRAHAMS HI-FI are going further up-market by stocking and demonstrating US high end amplifiers from Mark Levinson and speakers from Snell Acous-tics. MORDAUNT-SHORT are filling an important gap in their suc-cessful MS range by introducing the MS30, which combines high sensitivity (89dBNV) with good

response (60Hz-20kHz ± 3dB) and modest price (£ 130). An MS10 also exists, but is not yet gener-ally available. GLOSSOP 67379 is the 'phone number of The Sound Exchange, an operation starting up in the North West to help people selling — or buying — good quality used hi-fi equipment. QUAD have made significant improvements to the 44, involv-ing a new tone control board and moving-coil input module. Mean-while US customers get relief from the traditional camouflage finish, with an alternative in anthracite grey. JEFFRIES will, after all, be involved in an '84 show — as part of the BADA presence at the HFN/RR Ponta event. They are not, however, planning a South Coast Show for '84. VIDEOTONE prices rose last April when the direct sale policy was abandoned. Improved distribu-tion volume has enabled cuts to be made, with the Minimax 2 and DC2016 now retailing for £70. COMPACT SIGNAL GENERATOR The opportunity to produce an excellent quality signal generator by combining CD player and appropriate test disc has been mentioned before. Now Denon have come up with a regular price (£13) CD to do just this, combining basic system checks with 20 music extracts and 79 other test signal tracks.

We are saddened to hear, as we go to press, of the death of our audio colleague and friend Donald Chave. Full obituary next month.

GREEN & TACKY stylus cleaning abrasive strips are available from Linn dealers at a nominal charge only. They are cut from a conve-

niently flexible plastic sheet with a very fine abrasive side, reportedly sourced from 3M. Rather less hazardous than book matches, it should still be used with care, though Linn stylus pro-files should create no problems. NAKAMICHI is cooperating with THRESHOLD & BGW to develop respective ranges of domestic and professional audio equip-ment. AUDIO TECHNICA are using a 'Micro Linear' stylus profile, which has a line-contact ridged appearance, in three new upmar-ket cartridges, the £257 m-c AT36ML, £190 m-c AT33ML, and the £135 mm At 160ML. TV in the United States is expected to go stereo im-mediately, with yet another incompatible system, which involves dbx noise reduction and three channels (to give second language plus stereo capability). TRIO ELECTRONIC UK LTD, a subsidiary of the Japanese com-pany, will be distributing Trio in-car, hi-fi component and high quality audio products from September 1st 1984 from Mill Street, Slough SL2 5DD, under the managing directorship of H. Sakamoto

EVENTS LONDON: 'Light & Sound', trade only for disco/PA market, 16-19 September, Bloomsbury Crest Hotel, Coram Street WC1 TOKYO: Japan Electronics Show; component, industrial and con-sumer products, 4-9 October, Harumi Trade Fair. MILTON KEYNES(!): consumer Photo/Audio fair, 6-10 November, central shopping centre. LONDON: 'Leisuretronic' show, 8-11 November, Royal Horticultu-ral Hall, Victoria.

FRONT END

MJ1\1\qtl)k (n. 11 )10 F 39

qu',;le111.111411111111''

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you've heard it, when all considerations other than its music-making become

secondary." David Prakel Hi-Fi Answer:, September 1983

". . . . the SP10 allowed me to hear through to the heart of a recording more clearly than any

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"It makes other pre--amplifiers irrelevant." David Wren Hi-r i Today August 1963

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AUDIO RESEARCH DEALERS: AUDIO T. 190 West Erd Lane, London, NW6. Tel: 01 794 7849 UNILET PRODUCTS, 35 High St, New Malden, Surrey. Tel: 01 942 9567 SUBJECTIVE AUDIO, 2-4 Camden High St, London, NW1 Tel: 01 387 8281 SIMPLY HIFI, 48 Springbank, Hull, N. Humberside. Tel: 0482 29240

AUDIO EXCELLENCE, 134 Crwys Road, Cathays, Cardiff. Tel: 0222 28565 JEFFRIES HI-FI, 69 London Road, Brighton. Tel: 609431 W.A. BRADY & SON, 401 Smithdown Rd, Liverpool 15. Tel: 051 733 6859 RADLETT AUDIO, 36 Beech Avenue, Radlett, Herts. Tel: 09276 6497 THE MUSIC ROOM, 221 St. Vincent St., Glasgow. Tel: 041 221 2527

V for Victory? There is some irony in SME being the closest hi-fi manufacturer to my home, yet one of the last that I have got around to visiting. The news of the sensational reaction to their prototype in Chicago prompted a 'phone call, which resulted in an invitation to visit, see the Series V, and hear it in Alistair Robertson-Aikman's fabled listening room. There is little point in going on at length

about the V yet awhile. It is, after all, a sole prototype, though representative in terms of the materials used. Shipping is not due to start for six months, and the US, Japanese, and German markets are expected to keep UK supplies scarce to start with. However, having seen and heard it, SME's plans to produce 5000 per annum even at a heart-stopping £800 do not seem unrealistic! More relevant to this column is a brief

update on ARA's listening room. This purpose-built room, notable for some seven(!) pairs of original Quad Electrostatics, not to mention 21/2 tons of subwoofer, has featured in the pages of this and other magazines on more than one occasion, but has recently gone through considerable equipment simplification. Gone are the massed ELSs: tucked behind

the full-width chiffon curtains, which play a vital and effective part in creating the illusion, sit a mere single pair of ESL-63s, weighted down and slightly modified, with a pair of Sony Esprit power amplifiers in close attendance. The disc playing equipment, housed in a chest by the listening seats, comprises a pair of Oracles, one for the Series V with Denon 1000A cartridge, the other fitted with a Series Ill and Ortofon MC2000, both feeding a Sony Esprit preamp.

It is dangerous to pass judgement on unfamiliar equipment with unfamiliar program in surroundings which are dauntingly generous and luxurious, so I will confine myself to three specific observations.

First, I never realised that a single par of ESL-63s could sound this good. Unaided, apart from a couple of modifications, they had no problem in filling the large room, and offered more than adequate bass extension and power. ARA commented on the impossibility of maintaining accurate phase response when adding subwoofers to the Quads. Though experiments have been carried out with a second pair, the single coherent source was preferred on balance. Future plans include trying this second pair via delay lines at the side/rear, to add a little simulated ambience. Secondly, I want to focus again on the

psychoacoustic effects which result from placing loudspeakers behind an acoustically

SUBJECTIVE

SOUNDS Paul Messenger

transparent curtain. These are subjectively very powerful, yet receive very little attention. More popular a decade or two ago when speakers were bigger and uglier, this 'tweak' seems almost to have been forgotten by the modern generation of enthusiasts. Put bluntly, no matter how well designed the loudspeakers, the very fact that one faces them while listening provides a constant reminder of the artificial source of the music. Put even a simple curtain up, and the sound sources literally disappear — no need to strain the imagination at all — leaving one somehow better able to concentrate on the message than the medium. ARA has gone one stage beyond this by

creating a curtained stage appearance, to which one's attention is invariably drawn in expectation, much as it is in cinema or theatre. I am rarely too concerned about the finer points of creating ' holographic' stereo sound stages, yet invariably find the addition of a curtain most impressive, though admit I have not yet got around to fitting one myself. The third point concerns the comparison

between the series III and series V arms. Not strictly fair because the two cartridges were different, the characteristics of the Denon and Ortofon are nevertheless quite similar, and ARA professed to liking them equally, but for slightly different reasons. But after an hour of series V, changing to series Ill gave an obvious degradation, forcing one to accept that the extra £650 could well be money well spent! Though very low effective mass endows

the ' Ill with excellent warp-riding capabilities, even with high compliance cartridges, the greater structural flexure reduces dynamic range and definition, and increases surface noise. Listening to the microphony of each in turn while at rest was further evidence of the superiority of the V.

Prematurely judged, I am inclined to believe the Series V is going to offer sound quality, standards of finish and construction, plus sheer idiot-proof useability which will justify its extravagant price, and probably create a whole new market for 'super-exotic' tonearms. What I haven't yet worked out is how to afford one!

vdH versus the Salisbury SNAIC Though I still take some pride in having unearthec and translated those influential Hiraga articles of six or seven years ago, I

have cautiously steered clear of the connecting wire saga, ever since the first set of inductance-cancelling plaited speaker cables to hit the UK tried to total the output transistors of my ( nearly) new NAP160. As far as cable sound is concerned, my

profound scepticism of the application of technology to audio reproduction is not counterbalanced by any stronger faith in the power of magic as a substitute. Cause-and-effect still rules; the problems lie in our frequently pathetic attempts to define either. And until Martin Colloms' recent survey and sequels (HFN/RR Mar, Apr, Sept, Oct 1984), connecting cable sound lacked any acceptable rationale. Now, however, my original curiosity has

again been aroused. Lacking access to the Hitachi LC cable ( MC having probably the only samples in Europe), I determined to try the new van den Hul interconnect. This seems to be based upon a similar line of thought, judging from AJ's comments in our recent interview (June'84) and a subsequent telephone conversation. Such a decision is not taken lightly by one whose word processor is undoubtedly mightier than his soldering iron; who takes at least a week to psych himself up even into opening a four-pin DIN plug, let alone trying to wire it up with two lengths of very expensive cable. The Linn/Naim tri-amp system itself is a

further major disincentive. Inherently carefully and finely balanced, it is apt to react unfavourably to any interference, and seems to emphasise the failings rather than the virtues of an interloper, to say nothing of the fact that there are no fewer than five stereo interconnects to be made between pre- and power amplifiers ... However, with gritted teeth and occasional

blasphemy I eventually concocted a connection that looked as if it might work, substituted it for my standard pre-/SNAPS link of very recent vintage, and found myself more than a little impressed by the vdH cable. Exit standard Naim interconnect, blushing. Suffused with the smug satisfaction of

sonic superiority, I sauntered into my nearest Naim dealer the next day, cable clutched in hot little hand. Tossing it nonchalantly on the counter, I suggested that they gave it a try.

'Have you tried SNAIC yet?' they inquired disarmingly, producing Naim's new £ 12 heavy interconnect and deflating me completely. We trooped into their single speaker shrine room, tried one after another, and mildly disagreed about the relative virtues, while observing the improvement that both offered over standard article.

Slipping on the silver tongue, I persuaded them to let me take SNAIC home for the evening. Alas it was their only sample, they hadn't managed to coerce it into reproduction, and the factory was on holiday. So I couldn't convert the whole system, but had endless fun(?) ringing the changes with the pre-/SNAPS and SNAPS/ NAXO leads, and getting ever so slightly confused. Using both in either order was better than one or other plus a standard lead, though the overall character depended on which was the leading lead, so as to speak.

Considering that both are obviously superior products, I was surprised at the degree of difference between them. After all, the signal was passing through the same wiring at ostensibly the same line level, with merely the order of the connecting leads reversed. The vdH revealed a tremendous amount of

high frequency detail, but also had clear,

8 o

>4

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER I9K4 43

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powerful, deep bass. Stereo and focas were exceptional, and wide bandwidth neutrality with a hint of brightness was the overall characteristic ( in this system at least). The SNAIC, remarkably, and probably

inexplicably, sounded distinctly louder and more powerful, at least in the midrange. Vocals were projected with great presence, though the sound seemed a little more coloured with less obvious bandwidth.

In a sense both sounded a little like one might expect from their stablemates. The Naim sounded distinctly Naim-like to anyone familiar with their sound over many years, while the van den Hul also seemed to reflect the desiderata of its designer, with neutral character and high frequency detail to the fore. I am sufficiently impressed by the vdH

cable to designate the making up of the other four leads as my do-it-yourself project for the current (financial) year, particularly as the SNAIC is temporarily in hibernatior (as I write). In the fullness of time I shall have a full set of each, maybe saving one for when there is an R in the month, or ( more likely) mixing and matching the two until driven crazy by indecision!

Three (more) cheap speakers After £800 super-arms and the esoteric world of high-end interconnects, what could be more appropriate than a couple of pairs of sub-£100 loudspeakers to get my teeth into. It's rather like a Niki Lauda asked to road test a pair of rollerskates; the problem lies in establishing the right context for suc' -i an assessment. This is time to start with a nicely balanced, low cost turntable and amplifier, and handily placed for drafting into service were the Cyrus One amplifier and Logic's nice Tempo/Datum/Claro Gold, whicn

together with the good value Partington stands give a little change from £500 and can make some very acceptable noises irdeed. Out of the box come the HP170s, middle

models from a range of three from Comet's Solavox brand. Visually a real snip at £50 a pair, they are obviously sourced from Wharfedale, are quite large and smartly finished, and clearly aimed at the starter system/rack market. Sonically I regret they uphold the Solavox reputation for uninspired mediocrity. The comparies concerned could surely have come up with a better mix for the price if they had laid less emphasis upon sheer size. One only has to

look at the fine quality of slightly smaller and slightly more expensive models which Comet also stock, such as the Wharfedale Diamonds, Marantz LD20, Tamon EX40, and Rotel RL850, to realise that the purpose of the HP170 has little to do with sound quality, more to do with impressing friends as you slip something gruesome into the VCR, vainly searching for the remote control unit through a Saturday night stupor.

'Tis true the least said, soonest mended, but I had better justify my dislike, nonetheless. The sound is fundamentally sluggish, and only really starts to come to

speaker can be sited properly square with the room while the tweeter axes are angled towards the listener. The sound is thoroughly competent,

difficult to fault and well balanced, but not particularly inspirational. Lively and sensitive, they are capable of surprisingly clean high levels, while also maintaining a similar quality at lower power. Stereo is good, balance quite even, treble clean and detailed, but the upper bass is a touch sluggish and the presence slightly congested. The Titan does many things well, few

badly, but alas, nothing sensationally. So, while one can confidently recommend it as widely acceptable and good value, it remains something of a 'me too' design for which my enthusiasm is a little muted. It is a thoroughly worthwhile newcomer, but perhaps tries a little too hard to be all things to all men. Whilst examining these two models, I

came across another new loudspeaker, this time from a manufacturer with no track record at all, but the temerity to call themselves British Loudspeakers ( of 23

life when the speakers are driven hard. The overall tonal balance is not too bad - a little uneven and a touch 'forward', but acceptable enough at the price. ' Hollow' coloration is quite obvious, stereo unexceptional, and the tweeter is really naff. If there is one thing that might effect a rescue, it is almost certainly a tweeter change - the little SonAudax unit used so successfully in the Diamond and Mordaunt-Short designs is cheap enough and could wreak a transformation. Efficiency (presumably they mean sensitivity, to be pedantic) is quoted at 90dB, which is unusually high, and much higher than they sound to me; however, the specification is conveniently loose.

Half the size at twice the price is a much better recipe for success, which the little Tannoy Titan probably deserves. The £ 130 Mercury has led the revival in Tannoy's fortunes at the budget end of the marketplace, and the Titan is its natural successor in the ongoing price war, with some logical constructional economies, including a sleeved enclosure not dissimilar to the Mission 70, and a paper instead of polypropylene bass/mid cone. A nice touch is the baffle set slightly angled, so the

Gilmerton Court, Cambridge, for the record). The £110 Model Gis nevertheless interesting enough to be worth more than the couple of paragraphs I can afford.

It is in fact one of those speakers one either loves or hates, which will rule it out for 90% of the readership perhaps, but send the other 10% into ecstasy. Starting point is really the controversial, though very commercial, Linn Kans, whose splendid dynamics are some compensation for a certain lack of neutrality. The BLG is the nearest thing I have heard to a 'budget Kan', or perhaps a latterday Minimax ( or Maxim, for those with long enough memories). Combining a SEAS tweeter with bass/mid

from Cambridge Loudspeakers, using a simple 4-element crossover in a small rigid enclosure, the sound is vitally exciting but 'dry' and sometimes almost piercingly bright. Careful selection of ancillary equipment is essential to avoid a fatiguing combination, but a good match should be very rewarding. For myself, I am not sure I could quite cope with the fierceness full-time, but would certainly place them near the top of any list of possible second-room speakers..vL

H1-1-1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 19114 45

118 London Road

SEVENOAKS Kent (0732) 459555

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LONDON SE18 ID (01) 855 8016

34 Mount Ephraim

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BRIGHTON Sussex e (0273) 733338 51 Beckenham Road

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ALL BRANCHES CLOSED WEDNESDAY

Dual CS514 Nad 3120 Dual CS505/1 Improved Rotel RA820 Dual C5505/1 Improved Nad 3020A Dual C5505/1 Improved + A 8. R A60 D'ual CS505/1 Improved Rotel RA8208 Dual CS505/1 Improved + Rotel RA840B Dual CS505/1 Improved Yamaha A300 Dual CS505/1 Improved + CYRUS ONE Dual CS505/1 Improved + AR THE AMP. Dual CS505/1 Improved + Rotel RA820 Dual CS505/1 Improved + Rotel RA840 Dual CS505/1 Improved + Nad 3020A Dual CS505/1 Improved + Nad 3120

SUGGESTED SYSTEMS AR8LS or Col 10011 or Chur alt. III or %timon 7011 or Le.i r f(OB ir 1)-. of Ir if,

AR8LS or Cel 10011 or Chorale Ill or Mission 7011 or Laser 90B or Diamonds AR8LS or Cel 10011 or Chorale Ill or Mission 7011 or Laser 90B or Diamonds AR18LS or Cel 10011 or Coda III or MS20 or A40 or R252v or DM110 or Laser 140 AR18LS or Cel 11011 or Coda Ill or MS20 or A40 or R252v or DM110 or Laser 140 AR18LS or Cel 11011 or Coda III or MS20 or A40 or R252v or DM110 or Laser 140 AR18LS or Cel 11011 or Coda Ill or MS20 or A40 or R252v or DM110 or Laser 140 AR18LS or Cel 11011 or Coda Ill or MS20 or A40 or R252v or DM110 or Laser 140 AR18LS or Cel 11011 or Coda Ill or MS20 or A40 or R252v or DM110 or Laser 140 AR18LS or Cel 11011 or Coda Ill or MS20 or A40 or R252v or DM110 or Laser 140 AR18LS or Cel 11011 or Coda III or MS20 or A40 or R252v or DM110 or Laser 140 AR18LS or Cel 11011 or Coda Ill or MS20 or A40 or R252v or DM110 or Laser 140 AR18LS or Cel 11011 or Coda Ill or MS20 or A40 or R252v or DM110 or Laser 140

The following turntables are available as EXTRA COST OPTIONS to the Dual CS505/1 in the above systems.

Sansui SR222IV £.00 The Rock £200.00 Mission 775LCT £ 0.00 • Cartridge supplied with above systems. Nad 5120 £15.00 Rotel RP850 £65.00 Acoustic Re/LVX £165.00 • Leads provided with above systems. Rotel RP830 £15.00 Ariston RD40/opus £75.00 AristonR080/Basik LW .£135.00 • Carriage for mail order customers Thorens TD166 £30.00 Systemdek II/774LC £ 100.00 Pink Triangle/LE1 £t15.00 on above systems.

FREE

£239.95 £239.95 £274.95

£379.95 £274.95 £299.95 £269.95 £299.95 £379.95 £254.95 £289.95 £289.95 £279.95

Amplifiers A k {160 £199.95 AR THE AMP £199.95 Lux L200 £119.95 Cyrus One £129.95 Cyrus Two £229.95 Nad 1020 preamp £64.95 Nad 3120 £109.95 Nad 30200 £124.95 Nad 2150 power amp £179.95 Nad 3150 £199.95 Pink Triangle Pip £359.95 Rot& RA820 £89.95 Roter RA8206 £99.95 Rotel RA840 £129.95 Rotel RA840B £139.95 Rotel RA860 £199.95 Flotel RA870 £249.95 San., AUDIO 1 £69.95 Sensu, AUD22 £99.95 Sensu, AUD33 £129.95 Quid 34/44/405 2 P.O.A. OED £99.95 N'arma. A300 £90.95

Also Technics. Pioneer. Sony. JVC. etc., etc.

Tuners A 8 R £21 Hitachi FT5500 Lux 12101 Nad 4155 Nad 4020.1 Pioneer £ 70

Nakarnrcho B0100E Nakamichi BX150E Nakarnichi 80202E

£199.95 Nakamichr RX303E £14995 Nakarnichi FIX505E £99.95 Nakarnrche 207

£199.95 I Nad 6125 £125.95 Nad 6050c £P.O.A 1 Yarnaha K3On

EXTRA SPECIAL OFFERS This Month Only

Yamaha K300 £139.95 Technics SUV505 £134.95 Yamaha A300 £94.95 Dual CS505/1 Imp £84.95 Thorens TD166 Mk Il £109.95 Celestion SL6 inc. "free" SL6 stands 9 cable .... £269.95

Thorens TD160 Super ... £139.95 BBC "B" Computer £369.95 JVC XLVI CD Player £219.95 Pioneer " In Car" £ P.O.A Pansonic NV850 £599.95 Pansonic NV830 £499.95 Sony SLHF 100 £549.95

Pioneer F90 P.O.A. Oued FM4 P.O.A. Yarnaha T300 £99.95 Yamaha T500 £129.95

Tuner Amps Nad 7125 £179.95 Nad 7140 £339.95 Nad 7155 £389.95

Also Technics, JVC, etc.. etc.

Cassette Decks Aiwa-Don't forge'. " If you can buy cheaper elsewhere tell us-we want to know!"

Aiwa ADF250 £99.95 Aiwa ADF330 £119.95 Aiwa ADR 550 £199.95 Aiwa ADF660 £249.95 Aiwa AOR 650 £269.95 Aiwa ADF770 £299.95 Aima ADWX220 £269.95 Aiwa ADF990 £349.95

£229.95 £299.95 £399.95 £599.95 £749.95 £1349.95 £149.95 £159.95 £139.95

Turntables Acoushc Research £ 179.95 Acoustic Research/LVX £259.95 Amical P040/opus £ 159.95 Anston RD80 £189.95 Dual CS505/1 Imp £84.95 Dual CS514 £59.95 Mission 775LCT £168.95 Nad 5120 £99.95 Pink Triangle, £398.95 Rotel RP830 £109.95 Rotel RP850 £149.95 Systerndekll . £115.49 Systerndek 110 Systemdek IIS £219.95 The Ehte Rock £279.95 Thorens TD166 £109.95 Thorens TD160 Sup. , £139.95

Arms Mission 774LC £69.95 Linn LVX £84.95 SME Ills P.O.A. Syra.), LEI £107.95 Syrinx PU3 £295.95 Audio Tech AT1120 f P.O.A.

Speakers Present this advt. to claim free stands and 6 metres 0613 Cable with an Loudspeakers usted below - valid 'till 22nd

Oct.. 1984 (except *

AR8LS £79.95 ARIUS ,,,,, £99.95

Compact Discs JVC XLVI £219.95 Marantz CD63 £279.95 Maranta CD73 £299.95 Nad 5200 £399.95 Sony CDP101 £389.95 Sony CDP501 £489.95 Technics SLP7 £349.95 Yamaha CDXI £334.95

Systems

Speakers included unless stated.

AR28LS £129.95 Rogers 153/5A £227.95 AR38LS £179.95 Rogers LS5£ f218.95 AR48LS £219.95 Rogers LS7 £287.95 AR58LS

B 8 WDMII0 ££31199...999555 : or lude

Rogers Studio 1

pennpdp, SPI £219.95 i £396.95 Boston A40 £99

48 B 8 W DM220 £199.95 Wharfedale Diamond * .££649..9955 Celeshon 10011* £69.95 Whartedale Laser 9013...£89.95 Celestino 11011 £9969.955 Wharfedale L140 £119.95 Celestion SL6 £2 9 JPW Pl £89.95 JPW AP2 £119.95 Kef Chorale III £79.95 Kef Coda Ill £99.95 Kef Cantor Ill £119.95 Kef Carina £129.95 KKeeff cCpaprice £149.95

£199.95 Kef 8103.2 Mon Ill

£299.95 Kef R104.2 £599.95 Kef 8101 £229.95 Kef R105.2 £999.95 Mission 7011 £99.95 Mission 700-2 £119.95 Mission 707 £149.95 Mission 737 R £199.95 Mar ,intz Mission 770 F £379.95 Rotel cf PP..O0.AA.

Mission 780 A £599.95 Pioneer f P.O.A. Monitor Audio R252v £99.95 Mission Cyrus one .. £399.95 Monitor Audio R352 £169.95 Mission Cyrus two £499.95 Monitor Audio R152 £199.95 Technics 215 £279.95 Mordaunt Short MS20 .. £98.95 Mordaunt Short MS30 £129.95 Mordaunt Short MS40 £159.95 ' Clearance specials generally pertect and sold with 101 warr.e.t, Osad ELS63 £ P.O.A. Rogers LSI £161.95 Puces include VAT and were correct ait me of preparation

(approximately 5 weeks bef ore publication) but are subject to

Midi Systems Aiwa V300 ex Spks £349.95 Aiwa V350 ex Spks £449.95 rima V600 es Spks £299.95 Aiwa WOO ex Spks £429.95 Aiwa MOL ex Spks £479.95 Aiwa V1100 ex Spks £749.95 Akai System 5 £439.95 Akai System 1 Akai System 3 Akai System 44 Akai System 66 JVC E22 JVC E50 Technics 315/10 Technics 315/25 Technics 315/35 Technics 315/45 Technics 315/55 Sony Compact 35 Sony Compact 04 Sony Compact 55 Sony Compact 77

£239.95 £329.95 £389.95 £459.95 £379.95 £699.95 £299.95 £379.95 £489.95 £599.95 £759.95 £339.95 £439.95 £629.95 £839.95

Speakers included unless stated.

Clearance Specials• Celeshon SL6 (ex dem) £219.95 Maranta MS300 (new) £299.95 Maranta M5350 (new) . £399.95 Techracs SLDLI (new) £129.95 Aiwa ADF660 (ex dew) £219.95 Anna ADF 770 (ex dem) £259.95 Oued 405.2(s/h) £209.95

a I change without notice E. 8 O. E

C9russ, rail order to Sevenoaks Hi-Fi, 118 London R o an MI Illin .11.1 MI IMIM

by MISSION yitern el ..2 Sevenoaks, Kent. 0732 459555

I Please Send me see and hear the labulous Cyrus Systems I enclose cheque/cash/card no. includinq p Mi p

One and Two in our new demonstration

rooms at Sevenoaks.

Cyrus System One

I25W • 25W) £399.95 Complete

Cyrus System Two

(50W • 50W) £.499.95 Complete

Name

Address

HFN 10/84 I

MM MM MM alla Mi All goods fully insured against loss or damage in transit. Please allow up to 10 deys for delivery, although il should normally be much less. Carriage and insurance £6.00 per item UK mainland.

N.B.-Mail Order Sevenoaks branch only.

118 London Road

SEVENOAKS Kent e (0732) 4 5955 5 162 Powis Street Woolwich

LONDON SE18 (01) 855 8016

SIYEAYMIt'S 1#-F/olaDEO

4 RailWayStreet

CHATHAM Kent (0634) 46859

34 Mount Ephraim

TUNBRIDGE WELLS rob (0892) 31543 Kent

If you can buy cheaper elsewhere, tellus-we want

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ALL BRANCHES CLOSED WEDNESDAY

55 Preston Street

BRIGHTON Sussex e (0273) 733338 51 Beckenham Road

BECKENHAM Kent le (00 658 3450

MISSION . . . in the service of Music 7011

£99.95 70W+70W

Compact speaker system

a" ferrofluid dome tweeter, 61/2"

plastiflexed woofer

707 770F I 737R 780A

£149.95 £379.95 £199.95 £599.95 100W+ 100W

High performance speaker system

3/4" ferrofluid dome tweeter, 8"

plastiflexed woofer

150W+ 150W Broadcast monitor

system 1" ferrofluid dome

tweeter, reinforced 8" Homopolymer

woofer

125W+125W Speaker system

3/4" ferrofluid dome tweeter, 8"

polypropylene woofer

200W • 200W 3- unit, 2 way

reference speaker system. Unique Impedance Trans-former HF, 2 x reinforced

Homopolymer 8" woofers

e, 2,64 e „eve— e5 - tsece• ee' see ,sioS ee 10‘e 'Se

Qte ps):- .4e v- deee. 9..e A Ode ,A fret> • 0-- e

ec pe.

e'ecfre'ee

See and hear the fabulous Cyrus Systems

One and Two in our new demonstration

rooms at Sevenoaks.

Cyrus System One

(25W + 25W) £399.95 Complete

Cyrus System Two

(50W sgm £499.95 Complete

r Ma Mal MI

Mail arder to Sevenoaks Hi-Fi, 118 London Roan Sevenoaks, Kent. 0732 459555

IPlease Send me I enclose cheque/cash/card no. including p & p.

Name

Address

FiF ,,1101L4

I. BM 11M1 II All goods fully insured against loss or damage in transit. Please

allow up to 10 days for delivery, although it should normally be much less. Carnage and insurance £6.00 per tom UK mainrand.

NB.—Mail Order Sevenoaks branch only.

The Dust Bugn wili pick up dust before your stylus has a chance to. And, because its bristles are actually hand-tipped, it gets right to the bottom of the groove. Which is bad news for dust. But very good

news for your ears.

The Dust Bug: Cleans records as they play.

For full details of Watts comprehensive range of record maintenance equipment write to:

Cecil E Watts Ltd., Darby House, Sunbury-on-Thames, Middlesex. Telephone: Sunbury-on-Thames 83252 or Chertsey 61465 Telex: 21879 or 25247 (Attention "WATTS")

EXPENSIVE TUNER?? THEN HAVE THE AERIAL IT DESERVES

You spend many hours and quite a lot of money choosing that new tuner, so don't ruin the whole effect by fiddling with bits of wire or old aerials. Have the full benefit of the multipath free, clean signal which only a well designed and properly installed unit can achieve. If D.X. is your scene, then go for the ultimate in rotating high gain narrow beam systems like our G.23. with 19dB forward gain, 38dB F. to B. and Acc. Ang. down to 15 Degrees or have a "one off" special built, up to 32 elements. GALAXIE CIRCULAR 17 ELEMENT STEREO

GAIN 15.9dB. F. to B. 33.7dB. L 74"

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WE DESIGN, MANUFACTURE, SUPPLY AND FIT

* FM. arrays from 4 to 23 Element. TV from 10 to 136 element. * British built and designed to withstand our weather for 5 guaranteed

years. * Interested D.I.Y. advice freely given, backed by our complete range

of masts, brackets, rotors, cables, and aerials. Systems available for chimney, loft, wall, or through roof mounting.

* Professional installation service available within a nominal 150 mile radius of LUTON. Full details of this service available on receipt of a large S.A.E. which will bring you our complete "Aerial Guide" which is much more than just a list of our products and prices, and carries details of all our services, including MAIL ORDER and site surveys.

SEE THE REST, THEN FOR THE BEST, CALL RON SMITH

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LET'S MAKE IT A

CD CHRISTMAS!

Now that CD players are available at reasonable prices and the Compact Disc repertoire is growing at a remarkable rate, this surely is the time to take the plunge and join those who are already enjoying the most significant leap forward in gramophone history. At " Music in the Home", our commitment to CD is unshakeable, and our unequalled experience in the field of recorded music enables us to regard some of the nonsense which has been written on the subject with the contempt it deserves, just as we did when LP discs and stereo were first introduced. What does sadden us, however, is the readiness of some to believe such claptrap, and among the misconceptions we frequently encounter one finds the notion that CD calls for a completely new audio system as well as the abandonment of one's existing library of mono or stereo LPs.

This is, of course, patently untrue, for any reasonable domestic system can be adapted for CD by the simple addition of a CD player at a cost of between £300 and £400, while I, for one, have every attention of listening to my 'black discs' as long as I live. The building-up of a CD collection will inevitably be gradual, but as "Music in the Home" we make it a little easier for you by offering all those who buy a CD player from us a generous 20% discount on all future purchases of Compact Discs. Above all, we provide the kind of service from which all who really love music stand to gain because we truly understand musical values, while forty years' experience as audio specialists enables us to offer the sort of advice which will genuinely benefit your future listening.

For us, Hi-Fi is not a 'hobby' to be pursued for its own sake, but simply a means to a heightened awareness and enjoyment of beautiful music. Once you share this approach, you will soon discover that fine equipment need not be all that costly, though it must be chosen with care under expert guidance. At our studio you can listen to CD via the magnificent QUAD ESL 63s but, if you cannot afford or accommodate so ambitious a pair of speakers, you will find that the small BBC-designed LS3/5A, with or without the addition of a sub-woofer, offers the perfect solution to all your problems. Indeed, most of those who visit Moscow Road for the first time only regret that they did not 'discover' us years ago, and we can claim without false modesty that, once you have 'taken the plunge', you will return to us in the future.

Thomas Heinitz

Heinitz & Kirk Ltd MUSIC IN THE HOME

35 Moscow Road Queensway London W2

Telephone: 01-229 2077 Opening hours: 9.30 to 5.30 (Thurs. 9.30 to 1; Fri. 9.30 to 7)

48 111-H NEWS & RECORD REVIEW 0(1-013ER 1954

VHS dc Beta Ili-Fi Nothing seems to have caused so much confusion in the hi-fi and video business as 'hi-fi video'. Video people have been stuck with the problem of understanding and talking hi-fi; the hi-fi fraternity have been stuck with the perhaps even more daunting problem of understanding video. In this column we have already explained the technology of depth multiplex recording, as used by both the VHS Hi-Fi and Beta Hi-Fi systems in Europe. But still the message doesn't seem to have got through. The manufacturers are still quoting garbled explanations, and these are being mis-quoted, like a whispering game, to add to the overall confusion. The basic idea is really very simple, but it obviously bears repeating. The video heads in a recorder are mounted

on a drum which rotates at 150Orpm and lays down tracks across the tape, like the helical threads of a screw. Picture quality for Beta is better than for VHS, for one reason only; the Beta drum is bigger so the head moves more rapidly across the tape and writes faster. Higher writing speed means shorter wavelength recording which in turn means crisper pictures.

For hi-fi sound, extra heads are mounted on the video drum just in front of the video heads. They are driven hard and have relatively wide gaps. So they lay down an FM audio signal deep into the tape coating. A split second later the video heads, with narrower gaps and less drive current, follow the same path and replace the top layer of audio signal with higher frequency video. To prevent crosstalk on playback, the video and audio heads have widely different azimuths.

There is inevitably some jitter on the rotating head drum, which is only a very light flywheel, as well as head-switching glitches. This translates as a degradation of signal/noise ratio when the FM signal is demodulated, so hi-fi video recorders need powerful noise reduction. Both Beta and VHS use 2:1 compansion to get 80dB dynamic range from 40dB basic. The first VHS Hi-Fi machines in Japan from Panasonic used dbx. Now the VHS manufacturers have standardized on a modified version which (they hope!) avoids the dbx patents in America. This switch caused compatibility problems with early VHS Hi-Fi machines. But the problem is now resolved.

Likewise there was a problem with recording level. The linear edge tracks (which have to be provided for compatibility with existing machines), went into overload at different levels from the FM tracks. The duplicating houses, which make pre-recorded hi-fi tapes, have now solved this. There was also another problem of

compatibility. Some early VHS Hi-Fi machines had the audio and video heads spaced at different distances on the drum. Obviously a tape recorded on one machine would not playback properly on another. Audio-video head spacing is now standardized.

In America and Japan, Beta Hi-Fi works on a different principle. There are no extra audio heads on the drum. The FM carriers are slotted into the video waveform so that the video heads record and playback a

TECHNOLOGY Barry Fox

combined audio and video signal. This would not work in Europe where the picture signals require a wider bandwidth and where video writing speed is lower. Writing is slower because the head drum is of standard size but rotates slower: 150Orpm for 25 video pictures a second in Europe compared with 180Orpm for 30 pictures a second in America and Japan.

This is why Beta Hi-Fi in Europe works in the same way as VHS Hi-Fi, with two-layer, depth multiplex recording. As mentioned above, the hi-fi formats

need linear edge tracks to preserve compatibility with existing machines. The VHS edge tracks are stereo, with Dolby-B noise reduction. This is already the agreed standard for all the stereo VHS machines already sold; they use edge tracks with Dolby. The Beta edge track stereo machines already on the market use an aggressive noise reduction system called BNR, which can create nasty pumping and breathing noises. Whereas Dolby-B VHS edge tracks are as

near as makes no difference to being compatible with mono machines (as with audio musicassettes) the BNR tracks do not always sound right on mono Beta machines. This is why the duplicators would not issue edge track stereo in the Beta format. They are now happy to use Beta Hi-Fi FM

but have to decide what to do for the edge tracks. The Sony Beta Hi-Fi duplication machines can record in mono or stereo on the edge track, with or without BNR. So far it has been left up to the duplicators to decide how to record the edge tracks. But it is surely in their interest to agree a standard approach. The most silly thing Sony ever did was to stand on false pride a few years ago and start using its own BNR system, instead of Dolby, for edge track stereo.

radio links Expect a new range of hi-fi technology, based on wireless links between hi-fi units. But bear a few things in mind before buying. The Government is pledged to cut bureau-cracy and save public money. That's com-mendable. But the latest scheme could backfire. The Department of Trade and Industry,

which is now responsible for policing the airways, is planning to scrap its licensing scheme for low power radio devices, like remote control wireless links, radio microphones and emergency transmitters. At present there are over 20,000 licences

issued for these devices. Like the old stamp duty on cheques, they cost more money to process than the fees payable. These can be as little as £3 for a five-year licence. A new Government Green Paper, or discussion document, proposes an end to licences on a whole string of lower power devices, for telemetry, telecontrol and speech communication. The latter category includes wideband radio microphones, which will legalize the use of a wireless link between a record or tape deck and amplifier. The deck has an onboard stereo transmitter and the amplifier has an onboard receiver.

All this sounds very exciting but the hidden catch is that the commercial success of any unlicensed wireless equipment is self defeating. The easier and cheaper it becomes to buy a radio transmitter, the more people use it and the greater the risk of mutual interference. Before CB radio was legalized, unauthorised users could communicate easily with each other because there were only a few of them. ( Of course they angered licensed radio operators but that's another story). Now, after legalization, CB is unuseable in most populated parts of Britain, and on the Continent. People use high powered CB transmitters to crash into each other's conversations. Exactly the same thing is happening with cordless telephones. In America the FCC now wants the manufacturers of cordless ' phones, which work on a wireless link between hand set and 'phone line, to fix warning labels. These will tell 'phone users what the shop never told them when they bought their cordless 'phone. You can be billed for calls made by anyone else in the area using a handset operating on the same frequency!

If the DTI exemptions go through, theatres which use radio microphones to let actors and singers move free across the stage, may well find them jammed. Hi-fi buffs who use radio links may well find them snagged by other users in the area. It brings to mind the story told to me by a musician who was working with singer Billy Eckstine on a British tour. The backing band's guitar amp had a dry joint which picked up any strong radio signal in the area. As Mr B got near the end of his act, on-stage electronics faithfully reproduced some colourful comments by the radio cab driver who was waiting at the stage door to collect the star of the show. The DTI says it will be glad to receive any

comments on the new proposals. Send them, for or against, to the DTI Radio Regulatory Division, Room 613, Waterloo Bridge House, Waterloo Road, London SE1. A final thought. At Harrogate a few years

ago an enterprising salesman was flogging cheap radio mics which worked on the normal VHF FM band. Some exhibitors at Harrogate bought them for use with their car radios on the motorway. If several cars are driving in convoy, they can talk to each other by tuning their car radios to the radio mic frequencies. I found another use. If you are sitting in a park or laying on a beach next to someone who is loudly playing a portable radio, all you have to do is switch on a radio mic and fiddle with the tuning pot until its frequency matches whatever station the noisy radio is receiving. As soon as there is match, the mic picks up the sound of the radio and feeds it back over the station frequency to create some truly horrid feedback. Even if you can't get enough pick-up for feedback, all you have to do is whisper 'shut up' into the radio mic and the sound comes loud and clear over the receiver. The effect in each case can be quite magical! +

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER I9M 49

THOSE WHO ARE INTERESTED in the technical side of sound radio and video broadcasting may be interested

to attend the International Broadcasting Convention in Brighton from September 21st to 25th. These conventions are held annually in the UK, and include a major exhibition of broadcasting equipment mounted by the manufacturers and broadcasting organisations. Many papers are read, and this year BBC personnel are giving no less than 19 papers.

During July I attended an important lecture organised by the Audio Engineering Society at the IEE in London, at which AH Jones, the BBC's expert on stereo sound for television, gave an extremely interesting lecture. He discussed the results of the Wenvoe digital stereo sound television transmissions, described in a recent ' Radio' column, and then released further information concerning tests carried out at the BBC's Crystal Palace transmitter. Demonstrations of stereo sound with picture were given to the audience, in which musical and sports excerpts were played back from special video tapes.

Contrasts were made between mono and stereo TV sound, and the audience were obviously most impressed with the enormous improvement with stereo. Many said it was surprising how quickly they could lock into stereo with a monoscopic colour picture. There is considerable enthusiasm in BBC TV for the realism stereo sound gives to all manner of programmes particularly sports. It was explained that BBC TV was autonomous, working totally independently from sound radio, and not much influenced by it. Indeed, the attitude of the radio side at Broadcasting House is somewhat backward compared with TV; we have had, for example, only one stereo sports replay, so far as I know, in 12 years. I introduced this point in the discussion,

together with the lack of use of stereo in the BBC's new stereo-equipped News Suite at BH. Sound radio personnel claimed that stereo radio was far more expensive for news and sports, and alleged that the use of stereo landlines would increase the expenditure unjustifiably. But now that microwave equipment with digital audio distribution is relatively inexpensive, it seems quite ridiculous that the BBC cannot use pump-up towers on mobile vans, as TV does, from sports locations near London (Wembley, Wimbledon, Lords, etc.). I have even managed a link myself, from home in Finchley to Surrey University, around 50km, using 16- bit digital audio, with no errors, and using comparatively modest equipment, including two Sony PCM-F1s. The BBC stated that specifications for their

Nicam-3 type digital audio for television system should be completed by early 1985, and if discussions with the IBA prove successful, there is no reason why we should not have stereo TV sound by late 1985 or early 1986 in an experimental service, which is quite exciting. Did no-one mention music? — Ed] Having heard the Bockmann Quartet give a

most impressive concert in the Conway Hall earlier this year, I listened with interest to their live relay from the Royal Northern College of Music on July 26th. I was very disappointed with the sound quality, and this was confirmed later when I played back the digital reading I had made. For a start, the sound was very hard and lacked openness. A member of the audience subsequently told me that the BBC had used a Neumann SM69

Angus McKenzie

stereo capacitor mic fairly close to the musicians for the pickup. I had one of these mics myself once, but sold it because of its hardness. What was more disturbing with this concert, though, was that the entire sound was grossly over-wide, with the leader also rather too far back, and the cello much too prominent. The problem could not have been due to the quartet itself, for I know that their internal balance is superb. Michal Kaznowski's cello seemed boomy, and the second violin and viola parts were far too backward. The BBC have plenty of AKGs, the Calrec Soundfield and various Schoeps mics, any of which would have been much more suitable. I have heard some magnificent BBC relays of chamber music from London, so I suggest that the balancing standards perhaps need improvement in some of the regions. A curious comment in the Shetland Times announced that the Department of Trade and Industry has now given permission for some islanders to transmit music on CB frequencies, in the absence of any local, or community, radio service. Shetland Islanders have been pressing for this, and the DTI have apparently made an exception to their normal strict rules, which does seem rather astonishing. Perhaps some readers in the Shetlands would like to write in about this; it does seem odd, and a very thin end of the wedge, which I do not entirely welcome. It would have been better if some other frequency band could have been chosen, possibly even the top end of Band 2.

Two of the BBC's large mobile studios were shipped over to the States for their Olympic Games broadcasts. The sound quality, on both radio and television, has in general been to a very high standard, and no doubt appreciably higher than that heard by US listeners. I feel that the BBC are to be congratulated for devoting so much time, energy and money to this unique occasion.

The BBC research department have now developed their own digital editing equipment, using hard Winchesters for storage. They seem to be taking digital audio very seriously, and the commissioning of the Neve digital audio control desk is still in progress, although the latest news is that it

may be October before the desk will be used, even experimentally. CTS' Neve digital desk, installed in their Wembley studios, has now had its serious bugs ironed out, but at the time of writing it is still running in parallel with analogue equipment while its reliability

is totally proven.

Many readers will have heard, at some time or another, commercial versions of the BBC's LS3/5a miniature monitoring speaker. These were used for mobile installations where space is at a premium, but now the BBC have introduced a successor, the LS5/9. The new speaker is slightly larger, and should have a smoother response. It will be interesting to see if the other manufacturers take up licenses to make the speakers for the domestic market. I hope they'll be more efficient than the 3/5s...

Although the BBC designed quieter limiters and FM transmitter driver/encoders over two years ago, with a performance significantly superior to their earlier models, these have still not been put into active service at Wrotham. Wrotham hiss levels, although not too bad, could certainly be a lot better, so I hope some action is taken soon. The old 13-bit PCM distribution system has done well for 12 years, and the BBC's intention to replace it with the new Nicam 3, with its equivalent of 14- bit resolution — as I described two years ago — should be completed by around 1990. The new system will have 24 channels, ie, 12 stereo pairs for example. This should give us an extra 6dB of signal/noise ratio as transmitted, but I have to assume that problems with finances have been the main cause of the delay.

This year's RAH 'Promenade' Concerts started with a really good kick off, with Vaughan Williams' London Symphony, Elgar's Sea Pictures with Janet Baker, and Walton's Belshazzar's Feast— BBC Singers, Chorus & Orchestra/Pritchard. How marvellous to hear this wonderful hall again, in a generally excellent and expansive balance, retaining the clarity of the best that we have heard in previous years. In the quietest passages of the symphony mic hiss was just a little high though, showing once again the need for still quieter devices. In Sea Pictures, Miss Baker produced her usual glorious tone, but I felt she was just straining slightly at her highest notes. She was balanced most realistically, and certainly not too far forward; Ido wish the record companies could take note of this type of balance, which is so relaxing. There was a warmth at LF, a natural atmosphere and a clarity and openness lacking on so many commercial products, including too many CDs. But, of course, the disadvantage is that mics used in this hall have to be at such a high gain setting, and are thus rather hissy. Walton's Belshazzar has always been very popular at the Proms, and this time it came over particularly well, with a superb choral balance. Stephen Roberts managed the solo part very well, his voice being brought forward just a little to give clarity to the words; not too far forward, but at times the result was just slightly edgy. Most of the other Proms that I have heard

have been to a high standard, and I shall be reporting again next month. How very lucky we are in the UK to have such a wonderful summer feast. I hope many people overseas will be able to hear the BBC's Transcription discs relayed from their own broadcasting stations; if they do, they are in for a treat..,t_

50 NEWS ez RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1984

GEMET]ir

111© UflirT_CW

Li5)Lr_OcW

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COMPLEAT RECORDIST

Ton Faulkner's

column for the ta e recorder enthusiast

AFEW WEEKS AGO as I write, I attended the AGM of the Federation of British

Tape Recordists and Clubs held at the beautiful Dyffryn House Conference Centre on the west side of Cardiff. Hosted by the Cardiff and District TRC the weekend included presentations by Denis Rookard, David Parry Jones ( BBC), John Willett, and a visit to the BBC Studios in Llan-daff. It was reassuring to meet so much enthusiasm for creative recording, when these days non-professional audio seems tied up

ments such as low noise, low distortion and flat response can be sacrificed. Six input channels are ideal for the amateur or semi-pro since they allow greater flex-ibility with alternative mic-rophone set-ups, or else accommodate ' spot mic-rophones, and of course the price stays within reason. A spot microphone (some-

times termed a 'touch-up' mic I is one used in addition to an overall stereo pick-up to accentuate the soloist, in a concerto for example, if the natural balance lacks suffi-cient clarity in the solo part. In my experience it is often possible to arrive at a good balance in a concerto recording using a straightforward stereo pick-up by moving the mics or choosing models of a different polar dia-gram, but there are circumst-ances where there is simply not enough ' presence' from a soloist in a less than ideal acoustic. The temptation is to use spot mics too close, to minimise pick-up of

Classic spaced, crosseddirectional mics can gibe good results

with the esoterica of differences between connecting cables and the disabling effects of digital audio. I heard some tapes, both of spoken word and of music, which would do great credit to professional recordists, let alone amateurs with their limited equipment resources. There was discussion of copyright, includ-ing some unsympathetic corres-pondence with the BPI, but it is hoped that the position of the

recordist viz copyright resolved in the near

amateur will be future.

In my last feature (HFN/RR May) I mentioned briefly the CRS (Central Recording Services) portable mixer, which has six transformerless electronically balanced microphone inputs with 48V XY phantom powering incorporated. Each input has its own treble and bass tone con-trols, a preamplifier gain control to optimise headroom, a pan- pot, and channel fader ( all rotary type, not slider). There is a stereo level control for the main outputs, making linked stereo fades easier to achieve than working with two separate ones. This little mixer has a good specification for its price and fills a ' hole' in the market: most cheaper profes-sional mixers are full of facilities irrelevant to the amateur recor-dist unless he has a fully fledged home studio, and basic require-

other instruments, but I recom mend a few feet of breathing space between soloist and spot mic. In order to locate the sound of the soloist properly in the stereo image, a pan- pot is required. This is short for panor-amic potentiometer and is a con-trol on the mixer which places the sound anywhere between extreme left (fully anti-clockwise) and extreme right (fully clock-wise), with a centre point half-way. A pair of headphones can be helpful in determining the best pan-pot setting; you should listen carefully to the stereo position of the soloist as picked up by the overall stereo mics, and then fade up the spot mic gradually to see if the soloist appears to move to left or right. Adjust the pan-pot until the instrument does not shift in position, and then set the level fader to give the required extra accentuation of the soloist. Monitoring the balance in mono can be helpful in avoiding an unrealistic perspective. Using spot mics brings its own

new problems of phasing and distorted perspective, but in the real world there are some occa-sions where sensible musical balance must take precedence over text-book ideals. With six channels, as on the CRS mixer, it is possible to use spot mics in stereo pairs, panning the outputs of the mics apart slightly, thereby

avoiding the 'cupboard-like' pin-point positioning of a single extra microphone. Once the amateur recordist has moved away from a minimal miking ideal it is like opening Pandora's Box, with new difficulties arising, so it is best to stick to a purist approach where-ver possible. The usual troubles which call for spot mics are choruses behind an orchestra, too distant from the main stereo pick-up, or else instrumental or vocal soloists.

In professional circles multi-miking is so much part of the way of life that it is nearly always necessary to put out many mic-rophones in the studio, even if you do not intend to use them. Some orchestral musicians feel neglected if they do not have their own personal microphone for their solo passage, and there have been occasions where I have put out mics without even attaching a cable, in order to pacify instrumentalists. Sensi-tively balanced multi- mic-rophone set-ups can produce satisfying sounds, but the 'seams' show more if the balance is changed during a musical pas-sage when individual instru-ments are highlighted into the foreground and then pushed back again, to 'enhance' a par-ticular section. The change in per-spective is alarming, with play-ers seeming to swing back and forth as though they were on ropes; it is curious how forgiving the ear can be when anomalies remain constant, but when they change the forgiving stops and the illusion is shattered. Coarse engineering is far less a

feature of commercial recordings than it was some years ago, for in those days it was felt necessary for the producer and engineer to 'anticipate' the inadequacies of domestic hi-fi systems and manufacturing shortcomings. The immediacy of recordings had to be exaggerated to compensate for the traumas the sound would likely go through before reaching the consumer's ears. The clarity of modern hi-fi equipment makes the exaggerations unnecessary and very apparent, and I am convinced that the digital era will do much to restate the advan-tages and range of subtleties of simpler recording methods.

In my work as a freelance engineer I am employed by quite a range of different record com-panies, each with their own par-ticular preconceptions, inflexibili-ties and eccentricities. It is fasci-nating now to observe the new-found interest in major com-panies, most notable CBS in their latest productions, towards trying to achieve natural depth of sound- stage and convincing

ambience. Ambience is a very important

part of making a good recording credible to the ear, and this should always feature high on the list of priorities since it is part of the character of the perform-ance being recorded. Musicians react a great deal to the acoustic in which they perform, and it is a nonsense to choose a fine record-ing acoustic, and then to opt for a microphone set-up calculated to minimise the unique character of the hall. Large churches and cathedrals are an obvious exam-ple where studio- trained engineers will be panicked by the unfamiliar live reverberant acoustic and move microphones close to performers in order to 'dry out' the sound. In practice it is often appropriate actually to place microphones further away than usual, if anything, in large churches because of the lack of short-term reflections other than off the hard stone floor. Close mics produce a tizzy

quality to the strings, and moving them away a few feet reduces the effect without any unpleasant loss of presence; recording in Winchester Cathedral some weeks ago ( Handel's Messiah with authentic instruments directed by Martin Neary for ASV Records) it was possible to move the mics a good five metres further back than it would have been in a hall of drier acoustic, the distance being not dissimilar to what might be appropriate for open air recording. The use of numbers of cardioid unidirectional microphones does much to strip a recording of its natural colour, for reasons which I do not fully understand, poss-ibly a compounding effect of all the bass rolloffs in most commer-cial microphone designs.

Creative recording is a field in which more hi-fi afficionados should take an interest because it represents the 'front end' of all front ends. Without some appre-ciation of how it all begins, I see little point in getting too excited about the other links in the sound reproduction chain which are far less crucial in establishing overall quality. While hi-fi enthusiasts experiment with different short interconnect cables, recording engineers attach up to 100 metres of line ( chosen usually for good anti-hum screening and flexibility) between microphones and mixer; and while the 'experts' argue over the 11.5 mic-rosecond interchannel time delay of some Compact Disc players, many engineers space mic-rophones the equivalent of tens of milliseconds apart to achieve certain spatial stereo qualities. We have a lot to learn.,,A-

III H ,1/4 RI ( ORI) RI- VI! W ocroBER 19S-I 53

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In order to give yourself adequate time, we suggest that where possible you book an appoint-ment for Room 3 on 01-607 2296. You can then be assured of the undivided attention of our resident 'guru'. Kerry Trubee ( ex. Audio T).

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FROM DIRECT DISC Sheffield Lab President Doug Sax talks to John Atkinson

TO COMPACT DISC R

EGULAR READERS OF HFN/RR will remember record cutting engineer Doug Sax, one of the founders of the

Sheffield Lab record company and responsi-ble for some superbly natural sounding direct- cut discs, as being eloquently opposed to digital recordings in general, and Compact Disc in particular. To quote Doug from our November 1983 issue: ' ... if the CD master was made from a good analogue tape, then the LP can blow the CD out of the water' and '... I am not going to waste time reciting the litany of high fidelity rules that are being broken by the Compact Disc'. Now Doug is a man with an impressive track record regarding sound quality, and his disc-cutting facility, The Mastering Lab, is in much demand from artists and producers wanting the best sound quality from LP. Some have said that this involvement repre-sents a vested interest which explains his lack of support for digital, but I have always felt that, as a man involved 24 hours a day in the assessment and production of high qual-ity sound, his views have been worth taking seriously.

It came as some surprise, therefore, while visiting the Chicago CES this June to dis-cover that Sheffield Lab were introducing a range of Compact Discs, made by JVC from the safety master tapes recorded during the direct-cut sessions for a number of their titles. I met with Doug Sax at the CES, therefore, and before talking about CD, I asked him when he had first had doubts about the digital encoding of music?

'It was at one of the first digital recordings ever made. Soundstream wanted to bring a machine down on one of Lincoln's sessions ¡Doug's Sheffield partner, the pianist Lincoln Mayorga]. It was being done with a single tube stereo mic over maybe eight strings, two oboes and everything; I had nothing to do with it except that they came into my facility to hear the digital tape against the analogue tape that was run simultaneously. We put the thing up and I heard some things that I liked, but after about 10 minutes, I

"The ear is always right!"

hea.-d things that I had never heard before — the change in hall ambience, the lack of extended top, the lack of being able to listen into the instruments.

'I didn't think anything else of it at the time, I didn't know then that this was the coming thing, that the world was going this way. I was just critical of what I heard. In a way it was a similar experience to when I heard my first solid-state amplifier back in ' 58. Those amplifiers are now legendary for how bad they were, but at the time this man in a hi-fi store was thrilled with them and asked me if I had heard anything like that before. I said "Honestly no, not live, not recorded, not in my imagination! It's terrible." He said " Oh, you've been used to the softening effects of tubes and transformers." " I play in an orchestra;" I said, "I hear violins warming up every day and that, my friend, is not a violin".

'Obviously oigital has come on since then — that early Soundstream was not a full-range machine — but in every case that I have listened to I am aware of things that I feel are

wrong. Naturally there are things wrong in analogue too, but the things wrong with digital are more of a musical nature; they get in the way of me reaching out towards the artist, towards the instruments. In prepara-tion for CD, on product which I thought would have a broad appeal, I have run a digital tape simultaneously with the ana-logue recorder and the direct disc for maybe three and a half, four years. I have been able to hear these machines under conditions where I knew what was going into them, and my misgivings about their sonic superiority

"You're gonna have to explain to me why, if it's so perfect, the

CD doesn't sound better than the LP?"

were realised. And the better the signal I could produce, the more complicated it got, the more I felt these machines suffered.

'Even on the CDs that I'm transferring from my analogue tapes, to my ear I'm getting better overall musical results than I am on the digital. Now that may go against logic, because surely a direct digital transfer is going to show up its virtues better. But I know what my ears hear, and one thing that I have learned is never to argue with them. I don't take the logic function that says " Well, this can't be happening therefore my ears must be wrong." because the ear is always right!

'As a general rule, people are too much in awe of any new technology. And the truth of the matter is that that new technology works flawlessly to a fault except when it comes to audio. For instance, if you were going to go out and buy a home computer, and a knowledgeable man said "There's one com-ing out next week that has four times the memory storage, it will handle three floppy discs rather than one, and it's £100 cheaper", you would get it and you would get exactly what you expected. In all areas except this one, it always works. Radios, toasters, micro-wave ovens, you are told that this is the "new improved model", and it turns out to be exactly that, the " new improved model".

'So with all that positive reinforcement, when it comes to audio the man is told that this is the new model, and it eliminates this and this and this, and it's better, he says "Right". But it's not so.' JA: The thing about digital is that the new

technology is assumed to work perfectly: the maths is right, therefore the machines must work without a flaw. And if you say 'Hold on, I know it should work, but I'm glad when it is turned off', you're assumed to be question-ing Nyquist and Sampling Theory, not the anonymous engineer in the depths of Philips or whoever, who put together the practical realisation of the maths...'

'This device is not supposed to be some-thing that feels good when you turn it off, it's supposed to be something that feels wonderful when you turn it on ... Time is the absolute essence of evaluation, not what you hear on an NB test. You don't listen to music on an NB switch. If something's good, I get an emotional involvement. If I find that I can't get an emotional involvement, I want to know why? How come I can't get an emo-tional involvement in this? It sounds OK.

'And when a musician comes out and says "I have nothing to base this on, no scientfic tests, but why am I not getting the thrill from this new technology that I routinely got from my old technology?", the bottom line is " Did or did it not add something meaningful to your life?". If it didn't add to your life, then you don't have to explain it. If I've been out with a beautiful girl and I introduce her to you and you go out with her and it just doesn't happen, I don't say "What do you mean it wasn't happening? The girl's bright, educated, she's her own woman — you tell me you like bright, educated women, what do you mean it didn't happen?" You don't have to explain it, you just don't buy it.

'The CD is only the film. All my efforts as an engineer have been in the camera and the lighting and hopefully where I put the actors. Now the CD's a film, I can argue, and you can test to show that this film is not as good as another format, that this new 16mm is not as good as the old 35mm. That's not the bottom line; the bottom line is that the world's great music, the world's great orchestras, and the world's great conductors, what, to someone who is into music, is the finest thing that '-ias been achieved by man, is being stored in a manner that is unacceptable, or if accept-able, only marginally so, to a substantial amount of listeners.' JA:So, how come Sheffield Lab are intro-

ducing CDs? 'The greatest virtue of Compact Disc is that

the user gets an X% level of performance all the time. 100% he may not get, but he doesn't need any operator knowledge — What turntable? What pickup? Is the over-hang OK? The convenience aspect of CD is important — switch it on and it works. I'm not going to take sides in the sense that I'm going make my product available in both formats. If you go out and buy it, you'll know that each is the best I can do in that format and you make your choice.

'I'm gonna make better sounding CDs. I'm gonna run my lathe, I'm gonna run my

"An LP record made from a digital tape is the worst of both

worlds"

analogue tapes, and I'm gonna run a digital recorder, and I'm gonna get into that digital recorder because there is much going on there that I can fix from an analogue stand-point that will make it better. 'What I would like to see done is when the

companies that have the wherewithal to record the finest sound sources in the world — the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Sym-phony — put up a simple mic, positior the damn thing, stick it on an analogue tape recorder, and transfer right from that two-track to the disc. You tweeks out there think that's the way to go. At the same time, I'll go on with my mics, I'll put it down on digital and make a Compact Disc that'll thrill the world.

'I'm gonna get two markets for the price of one, that's why I'm looking at Compact Disc. The market wants Compact Disc and they want Sheffield product in that market, and they're getting it. But there's no way that I'm gonna take my Compact Disc in to any knowledgeable listener and convince him — I

>57

NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 19114 55

How often have you experienced this response from a retailer, especially when you have dared to contradict his dogma, requested clarification on a particular statement or heresy upon heresy, dared to voice some disquiet about the system he has chosen on your behalf. . .

Judging from our customers, the answer is "all too often" and one of the sadder aspects of unprofessional retailing is the over zealous attitude of so many of the self appointed experts. This being characterised by the blinkered approach and tunnel vision that precludes anything other than a pre-determined reply, irrespective of the question posed.

This stupidity appears to be tolerated — except at S.A. and a few other like minded and imaginative retailers in the UK. After all, when you go to a doctor you would be highly sceptical if in response to your request for assistance with your ailment, he suggested a cure for dandruff — irrespective of your symptoms.

Human beings are individuals and require individual solutions and we are not of the opinion that insertion

of a Naim amp. Linn turntable or Rega is necessarily the most effective solution to all of the world's audio problems.

Space precludes us from commenting further although our free literature pack goes a long way to explaining why so many customers consider our studios and the advice of our consultants a welcome oasis. Salvation may be at hand — if you visit S.A. because we cut through the verbiage and condescention of our so called competitors and present you with the unvarnished truth.

Furthermore we give you the opportunity of choosing for yourself, with our gentle guidance the most effective solution to meet your budget and your tastes. So remember next time you visit a so called specialist and he will not demonstrate say a Pink Triangle against a Linn or a Krell against a Naim or allow you to make any other sensible comparison. There is one dealer that can; Subjective Audio — one dealer who has got absolutely nothing to hide.

SUBJECTIVE AUDIO LTD., 2-4 Camden High Street, Camden Town, London NW I OJH

walk over into the high end at this show and I am half in fear of being assaulted.

'With CD you can't get into the music. On the James Newton Howard and friends recording [CD-231, the pulse isn't right, the subtle movements aren't there on CD. And this group is the heart of Toto, they're great musicians, noted for feel. The direct disc, I'm immediately in with the music. On one track 'She', it's the piéce de résistance of the album, the ending builds and the instru- ments layer, it expands. Now this is the high level where CD is supposed to be better, but it just packs up and gets uglier sounding. On the analogue, it blooms out and justifies musically what they did, the thing opens up, it just blossoms. The direct disc eats it up. And I would love there to be nothing wrong

"I would continually he more

increasing level; the worst of both worlds, You'd just as well buy a CD.

'I know that there are LPs cut from digital tapes that sound better than the CD, but I don't think it will be that way for ever, because they are learning a lot more about transferring the information. In working with digital, I found a number of things to be true. Yes, you can't make an inaudible copy, and if you run a tape through a digital editor, the result is chop suey! Everyone uses editors so that they can make a digital fade and get out the little noise on the end; they're all con- cerned about not having the noises on their tapes, yet they never seem to be concerned about having music on them. When you go through a digital editor, even though the levels are fixed, the information has to be rewritten and the loss is traumatic. You go in apples, you come out oranges.

'You say that the advantage of digital is

same capsule powered in any way that I know of solid-state. But I don't know if I would have that perception if my power amp were solid-state.

' ... on my own records I use my mic-rophones - what's mine about them is the electronics ... I'm fortunate to have a brother who is arguably the finest tube designer in the world. The capsules are mostly the old AKG C12, though I do have some with Neumann and Schoeps capsules. What I have found since I've been working in sound - and all my efforts have been off the floor - is, forget about the storage medium, I've only got one lousy mic in here, a piece of wire and an amplifier. It should blow me away, and it doesn't; why doesn't it sound

"CD will generate enough income to enable me to . . .

record Symphony orchestras in resolution in the tube mics"

with CD. I wouldn't have to worry about LP that master tapes can be stored without analogue"

cutting problems, no returns, no defective degradation. That's theory. Now I know of any better? Well, it must be the diaphragm;

discs. I could make my mics as good as I digital masters that have been used a lot they all have a little peak around 12k, so I

could. But it's not getting the job done. which don't retrieve anymore, and we're not change that, but it still doesn't get right.

You're gonna have to explain to me why, if talking 30 years later, we're talking a year What does get it right is when you get into

it's so perfect, the CD doesn't sound better later. I'll tell you this much: if Decca would the electronics, and I continually end up with

than the LP? let me go in and grab one of their fine old these old valve microphones.

'Let me tell you something. When I was analogue masters. I'll guarantee that I can JA: it's not just the mics that are impor-growing up. I knew by ear that London cut a record from it that'll make audiophiles tant, it's how you use them. Your Michael

records were the King! Now they've sold off get on their hands and knees and thank Newman guitar record [LAB 101 .. . 'That's

their analogue machines! What I would say everybody that it exists. I get some old tapes all tube; even my cutting amp is tube!' ... I to them is don't sell them, bring them out of in, done in the late ' 50s, and I'm not saying feel to be one of the most realistic recordings

the back room, and record in parallel and get that they sound as good as they did when of a guitar in a room. an extra market. If they feel it would be too they were made, but some of them are 'I have great respect for the way things small a line for them, I'll distribute it, I'll intimidating. sound live. I sat down in front of Michael for

master it; they make the tape and I'll do the 'I mean intimidating. I've heard vocal half an hour to hear exactly what the instru-

rest. And if there's no-one left at the record reproduction, I've heard tapes where I'd be ment sounded like. I was shocked. " Boy, it's company who knows how to place a single hard put to come up with anything today that not very loud! And it's so tiny!" 12 feet back

stereo mic, then I'll come over and place the mic. I'll even provide the mid

sounds that good. I don't care if it's accurate, it's the way I like to hear it. You're hearing

and it's just this little sound source. It really sounds mono; you get a little back off the

'In other words, I'm gonna stay in busi- more than you think. You're hearing ana- walls, but it's not even loud enough to excite

ness; they're gonna stay in business; CD logue; you're hearing all tubes, in the recor- the room very much. What am I gonna do?

may or may not go - I'm gonna make money on it while it's here - but why are these

der, in the microphone; and you're hearing, in part, American tape that's been stored

Am I gonna record it the way I know most people would prefer it, a little bigger, a little

orchestras not being stored properly. That's the real crime, 'A man will say that CD is ruining classical

much better than anything we make today, analogue,

'There's no question that there's one end

wider, or am I gonna present it the way it really is? I tend to go for the honesty, the resolution, and hope that some people rec-

music. And I will say "What are you corn- of the chain which, if it isn't right, will mess ognise that. plaining about? You can't buy any kind of classical record these days that isn't made

up all your listening tests all the way back, and that's the power amp. I've gone in places

'What I hope to be doing soon is recording some major orchestras in analogue, direct to

with digital. That's the problem." In essence, an LP record made from a digital tape is the

where I couldn't tell any difference between things which I know should be dramatically

disc, and with tubes. I just haven't had the money since the first two orchestral Shef-

worst of both worlds: if there is anything wrong with the digital process as it's being

different, and I can take the same tube devices under test into my studio with my

field recordings. But with the Compact Discs, I'm gonna have the money .... That's the

used, that low level of resolution's going on amp- I've been with valves forever - and it's bottom line: CD will generate enough to tape, and in addition you have all the like night and day. income to enable me to do what I really want analogue problems - warped discs, the ticks, the flutter, and increasing distortion with

'I would continually hear more resolution in the tube mics than I could get out of the

to do, which is to record Symphony orches-tras in analogue!' ,./4-

PERCUSSION INSTR- UMENTS AND THEIR HISTORY by James Blades. Paperback, 511pp with photos, illustrations,

modern composers, Latin American percus-sion, and inventions and patents.

John Atkinson

THE KINKS by Johnny Rogan. 242pp, plus b&w

STUDIO SOUND PRO-AUDIO DIRECTORY 1984-85. 150 pp. Soft covers. Price £6. Published by Link House, Dingwall Avenue, Croydon CR9 2TA.

One more bible to put on your religious

1 -Via ----- ; ril Fi I r 1

‘\ \

indices, and appendices. illustrations. Soft covers, price £6.96; hardbound, price shelf, the Studio Sound Pro-Audio Directory i •. ' , £15, published by Faber &

Faber Ltd, 3 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AU.

£9.95. Published by Elm Tree Books, Garden House, 57-59 Long Acre, London WC2E 9JZ.

Every once in a while, a definitive book

1984-85 lists- on an international scale - just about every address you could hope to need in a professional/studio context. The cate-

BOOKS First published in 1970, this revised

comes along that makes other authors interested in the topic wish that they'd

gories covered- too numerous to list here - deal with every aspect of hardware and

edition of what is probably the most com- written it. Rogan's biography of the Kinks - services, and this could be the answer to

prehensive study of instruments that can be timed to appear as they celebrate their 20th your dreams if you're often puzzled for the

hit in some way, by one of the great anniversary - is just that sort of work. Kinks whereabouts of a given manufacturer or

percussionists, is essential reading not only fans are among the most devoted followers supplier. The work is monumental (I doubt

for composers and musicians, but also for any band could ever hope to have; they're anyone has had the time to count the

those with a more passive interest in music, well-served by this title. Worth the price of number of addresses listed) and is a 'must' if

As well as covering the field historically, country by country, individual instruments

admission is the massive appendix, listing (with few, if any, omissions) every LP, boot-

your musical interests stray even a bit out-side the bounds of domestic audio. ( Now will

are examined in depth, as is their use by leg, cover version, unreleased track, known you let go of my arm, Keith?)

composers. Every chapter has a bibliogra- concert tape, and other assorted bits of data. Ken Kessler

phy, and appendices cover percussion music This isn't essential; it's mandatory. (NOTE: Keith didn't really twist my arm; the in education, the use made of percussion by Ken Kessler publisher simply held up my P.45.1

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1984 57

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AT YOUR SERVICE

Ken Kessler on . ettin. old . ear refurbished

1 ROPI I IT'S NOT THAT I don't like talking to readers— I've

warmed the earpiece

I of my telephone many times to recount tales

of valve lore — but office time is precious. There's nothing we can do about the incessant

( ..\ titi1( :.\ I ( . 1 \ stream of calls that always end up with 'What should! buy?' but the bulk of queries concerns servicing old andlor obsolete equipment. Some of the replies are too obvious for

words; it amazes me that people have to ask where they can get their Quad or Radford amplifiers serviced when both companies are still in existence and more than willing to offer top-quality service for even the most aged of their products. And when is the last time you picked up an issue of HEN/RR that didn't have at least one or two companies advertising the servicing of old equipment in our classifieds at the back?

I've decided to make il easy for those in need by giving a detailed listing of sources for spares and servicing I'm not listing every single outlet in the world, and I've got a sneaking suspicion that I'll get a few angry letters from people asking me why I didn't list their favourite audio engineers; al I'm trying to do here is make life a bit sweeter for those of you who don't already employ the services of a good repai-man.

A word to the wise, though: always try the original source first if the company still exists. Nobody is going to do a better job on a pair of Quad valve amplifiers than Quad themselves, or do better work on a Thorens than Cambrasound, the official importers. Buy yourself a copy of the 1984 HEN/RR Annual, and keep this column close to it. The Yearbook has all of the manufacturers' addresses, and the ones here will complement it rather than replace it. And, no, I don't know who services Avantic, Pamphonic, or Chapman in Scunthorpe. (Note: always enclose an SAE with your letters to these companies, and serd an International Reply Coupon to the American sources.)

TURNTABLES, ARMS, AND CARTRIDGES Unless you're hoping to refurbish an old Rek-o-Kut or Woollett unit, you'll be pleased to know that turntables of the ancient variety are pretty well served by both the original sources and by independents. Thorens, AR, Dual, and many other greats from the past are still with us, as are manufacturers like SME, Grace, and Ortofon. Decca Special Products serviced my Mk. I International less than 18 months ago, and most of tne famous cartridge manufacturers from the past are with us and still servicing their antedeluvian pickups. However, even those of you unwilling to give up your Collaro can still get them serviced. Here's who to contact:

Technical & General 35 Marlow Road London SE20 7XX (01 778-3737) This company specialises in bits and pieces for Garrard, Connoisseur, Thorens, and Goldring-Lenco spares, and will perform complete overhauls on those brands. They also stock SME spares and various styli.

Parabolic Stylus Co. PO Box 38 Torquay Devon TQl 1BW (0803 23796) As agents for the superb Garrott Brothers modifications, Parabolic Stylus Co. is the ideal source for those of you who wish to tweak an antique. While their modifications cannot be fitted to some early cartridges, the Garrott Brothers can work wonders with any of the later Deccas and most moving-coils and moving-magnets. In addition to fitting new tips, the Garrott Brothers can upgrade most cantilevers, should you want to hear what boron can do for an old ADC or Supex

Automation Sciences Company 5B Eton Avenue London NW3 01 435 8210

As with Parabolic Stylus Co., the service offered by Automation Sciences is not so much a restoration or repair as it is a tweak. This company is the official source for the fitting of van den Hul styli, and owners of older m-c cartridges, wishing to take the transducer into the 1980s, may prefer to opt for a better tip than to simply replace the worn diamond with the original. Write or phone for details of which cartridges can be rebuilt by van den Hul.

VALVE ELECTRONICS To keep old valve units alive, you need two help-mates: a good repairman and a source for the valves themselves. As far as the passive components are concerned, a visit to the Edgware Road still pays dividends. In some cases, you'll find that the more popular valve amplifiers can be serviced by the original manufacturer, but don't expect to have your 1964 valve receiver of oriental persuasion serviced by a company that now looks no further than cleaning tape deposits in ghetto blasters. I don't want to vouch for individual servicing companies, so you'll have to try your luck with the various companies that advertise in HEN/RR, Exchange & Mart, and Wireless World. If you're having difficulty, write to:

GP Ormiston 6 Farthing Grove Netherfield Milton Keynes Bucks MK6 4HH This gentleman is an enthusiast who wants to share his interest in old equipment, and he's amassed a library of data which could help you solve a problem or two. Write to Mr. Ormiston if you're in need of an obscure circuit diagram or the odd valve or two; he may even be able to steer you towards people with spares or specialised knowledge.

The Vintage Wireless Co Tudor House Cossham Street Mangotsfield

AT YOUR SERVICE

\ RFC () RI) REVILW OCI OBLR 148-3 61

SPEAKERS OF AUTHORITY.

LD 20. "This fine value system must clearly

be strongly recommended' HI FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW. November 1983.

"This speaker ebbs 81, flows with the music, conveying dynamics as musicians use the term, the structure of a piece of music preserved'

HI FI ANSWERS. November 1983.

LD 30 IL "Strongly characterised range of

tonal colours and free expansive sounding bass performance:'

HI FI ANSWERS. May 1984.

"Bass was exceptionally tight & well controlled without coloration:'

"...better, more spacious acoustic than the other speakers in the group:'

WHAT HI FI. February 1984.

LD 50. "This model is obviously another

strong contender and carries my firm recommendation'

HI FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW. November 1983.

"This performance package is unusual in £200 speakers and almost unheard of at the asking price of the LD 507 HI FI ANSWERS. April 1983.

n To Marantz Audio (UK) Ltd, 15/16 Saxon Way Industrial Estate, Moor Lane, Harmondsworth, — I i Middlesex, UB7 OLW. Tel: 01-897 6633. Please send me details of Marantz Speakers LD20, LD30 II,

I LD50 and other hi-fi equipment and my nearest Marantz Dealer's address.

IName Address I

MIR «al lt• tUl. Ell -KZ' 1

Bristol BS17 3EN (0272 565472) Quick: Send this company £4 (£5 for overseas) for a 12 issue subscription to their news sheet. It's full of decidedly rare spares for sale, and — as with Mr. Ormiston's service — provides a good source for data. Contact them for details of their servicing facilities; I get a feeling that they could sort out anything that once glowed in the dark. By the way, the news sheet is the best reading this

parts, valves, capacitors, and kits. Do write to them, because their brochure is a gas.

Greatech Electronics Ltd. Hay Lane Braintree Essex CM7 6ST (0376 27117)

PM Components Ltd.

you've just got to look for it. Still, here's an , address that the Compleat Anachrophile must not be without:

The Audio Amateur PO Box 576 Peterborough New Hampshire 03458 USA

side of the 1956 Hi-Fi Yearbook. Selectron House UK subscriptions to:

Wrotham Road Leazings

Stereo Cost Cutters Meopham Green Leafield

PO Box 551 Meopham Oxford OX8 5PG

Dublin Kent DA13 OQY The Audio Amateur is an astounding

Ohio 43017 (0474 813225) magazine published five times a year; it's

USA aimed at the advanced hobbyist but makes

The big fat catalogue that arrived from this Langrex Supplies Ltd. good reading for even us non-handy types.

company made me $150 lighter in a matter Climax House What's relevant here is that The Audio

of moments. Not only do they sell ' close-out' Fallsbrook Road Amateur operates a service called Old

items and unusual valves, they also have a Streatham Colony Sound Lab (same address, but PO

massive stock of Dynaco spares. I don't know how many Dynaco amps were sold in

London SW16 6ED (01 677 2424)

Box 243) through which they supply parts, kits, modifications, books and data, and a

this country, but they do keep popping up; if These are but three of the many sources for host of other items useful to the restorer of

you've been resisting one because of spares, relax. (This has nothing to do with restoring

valves in the UK; I singled them out because I know they have extensive stocks. ( PM

old gear. I'd suggest you subscribe to the magazine, though, because— in addition to

old gear, but I thought I'd mention it anyway: Components actually came up with a set of their own sales service— they print adverts

SCC's catalogue is full of bargains, unfortunately at 110V, which might torment

four tubes necessary to get my old Sansui receiver going after most people just shook

for everything under the electronic sun. That's where you'll find addresses for RAM

you. I'd advise you to skip these pages.) their heads, sucked in wind, and offered their condolences.) All three companies have run

tubes and WonderCaps and rare loudspeaker drivers and metal film resistors

GSI Audio full-page ads listing valves of every and crossovers and circuit boards and a

578 Nepperhan Avenue persuasion, so don't give up when you need thousand other bits. That's New Hampshire,

Yonkers a pair of 7199s. not Croydon.

New York 10701 Not wanting to make life too easy for you, You know now as much as I do about

USA and not wishing to wipe out advertising locating parts, and you're now able to do

This is very much an American version of the revenue for ever, I'd suggest that you look to exactly what I do when some obscure piece

Vintage Wireless Co, with a similarly readable catalogue/news sheet. Naturally, the focus is on American tube amps — and

the classifieds in the various magazines, especially American underground magazines, if you need some really exotic

of equipment comes my way and it isn't quite making music. The only thing I can't help you with is financing, but then no-one

they do some outrageous modifications for items, like WonderCaps or RAM tubes or ever said hi-fi was cheap — not even

these— but they can be of assistance for fresh output transformers. The stuff is there; anachrophilial hi-fi.,/-

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AMP-01 A STATE-OF-THE-ART

PREAMPLIFIER Ben Duncan describes

the Disc Module

ltlAA and the error-budget The RIAA EQ is the heart of the preamp's DEQ module. But what sort of accuracy do we need? The error is conservatively quoted at less than 0.15dB, but making accuracy of this order meaningful is not so simple as some audiophiles would like to imagine. Provided components come from the same batch and from a reputable manufacturer with BS9000 or CECC approvals, mutual matching is generally about five times better than the indicated tolerance. For instance, 1% resistors from the same batch will nor-mally be within 0.2% relative to each ether. This is fine for inter-channel matching, because all that matters is equal:ty in the relative values — the absolute value is irrelevant. But a standard EQ curve depends on absolute component values. In this inst-ance, 0.5% tolerance is a bare minimum specification, and you certainly can't select 2% or even 1% resistors which just happen to be in range, because their stability, and thus intrinsic long-term accuracy, doesn't comply with the error- budget, let abre the likely temperature coefficient. This latter

parameter defines changes in resistance brought on by self-heating at high signal levels, the temperature rise within the enclo-sure — remember that OP37s running on ±20V rails radiate around 600mW each — and of course, the great British heatwave. For a good metal film resistor with a 5Oppm per °C temperature- coefficient (TempCo), an addi-tional 10°C over the calibration temperature will result in a ± 0.05% deviation in value. This represents a 10% variation over the nominal tolerance, but it's the best that can be done without using extraordinarily pricey non-inductive wirewounds. From the capacitor angle, matters are not

helped by the near impossibility of buying ever 1% values off-the-shelf. This is essen-tially a reflection of the intrinsically poor stability of common polyester and polycar-bonate dielectrics: it's pointless to select from a batch to within 0.5%, say, when the capacitor has a 800ppmrC tempCo, and with the nominal capacitance liable to drift by 1 or 2% over a few years! As usual, polypropy-lene comes to the rescue, with Europe's leading manufacturer, Eurofarad, offering a 160pprnrC tempCo and a meaningful 1%

tolerance. Some readers will wisely question the

need for this level of accuracy. One justifica-tion lies in the fact that RIAA errors can arise in the very sensitive midband region and are inevitably broadband; in these circumst-ances, a 0.5dB error (say) is much more significant than, say, a 5dB narrow-band error below 100Hz, arising out of a louds-peaker anomaly. Another justification stems from a perusal

of the literature on the mechanisms of human consciousness: the mind's resolving capabilities can be conjectured to expand in response to more accurate reproduction. When reproduction is inaccurate (judged against our subconscious aural references), our mind's processing capabilities are fully tied up with error-correction, and ' loop gain' for left- brain listening is in short supply. When reproduction is deadly accurate, the right brain hears much the same as usual (because its servo-system corrects the worst errors anyhow), but most of the ' loop gain' is now made available to the left- brain's holis-tic, free-space perception. Meanwhile, an unheeled right-brain acclimatises to not hav-ing to work very hard, and begins to nit-pick on the next level of finesse: 3dB, 2dB, 1dB, 0.5dB.... The pursuit of accuracy in hi-fi is therefore

a self-justifying philosophy, and the need for it is an inevitable penalty for allowing the left brain to 'get off' on music. This faculty may also be seen as a cosmic extension of Parkinson's law. To sum up; beyond a certain point accuracy does not make repro-duced music sound ' better', at least directly, but creates the conditions in which the necessary, relaxed, left- brain perception can best function. So it helps to keep your own left and right brain channels in trim, for there's an active placebo effect at work, and if your mind is at sixes and sevens, AMP-01's gestalt won't mean a thing, and neither will music, for that matter.

Loading, filtering, tweaking and clipping Fig. 28 displays the disc circuit, the develop-ment of which was discussed last month, in its entirety. Notice how the diverse topolo-gies in figs. 27a and 27e are craftily inte-grated with PCB jax, P1-P6, allowing the same circuit to cope with both m-m and m-c. From a simple objective standpoint, an

outsider would expect a good m-m cartridge to outperform a good coil, on the basis of noise performance alone. And yet most ( but by no means all) serious listeners prefer coils. One obvious drawback with magnets is the disproportionately critical role that shunt capacitance plays in determining the HF response. Without recourse to a capacitance meter, we're stuck with calculating the cable capacitance — or, worse still, guessing it — and then making up any surfeit at the input stage (CI). Even if we do this accurately, the m-m cartridge is still a high impedance source, and fussy about the overall react-ance it sees. Another factor is cable micro-phony, discussed in Part 3. The upshot of this is that we should make the connecting cables as short as feasibly possible, thereby forcing C2 into acting as the dominant reactive load. There's a hidden, double benefit here: a large C2 spells more RF rejec-tion for any given value of R4, or, if we wish, we can lower R4's value without losing out on attenuation. But best of all, a short cable equals less earial

Regarding values, 470R is the maximum allowable for R4, before the noise perform-ance is significantly degraded. Given that

HITI NEWS RECORD REVIEW OCTO3ER 19S-I 67

M92E First rate performance at budget price for standard or P-mount

M110HE With Shure's Hyperelliptical Tip it offers highly accurate tracking.

V15 Type IV From the famous V15 series with superb trackability.

V15 Type V-P The V15 Type V specially designed for P-mount tone arm.

M99E Upgrade version of the M92E with an improved stylus configuration.

M111HE Features Shure's exclusive Dynamic Stabilizer and built in Side-Guard Stylus Protection.

M104E A further upgrade with improved high frequency trackability for standard or P-mount

ML120HE A new original slim line design from Shure with a high efficiency body and extremely low mass.

M105E Fitted with Destaticizer Brush and invaluable Side-Guard Stylus Protection.

ML140HE With Shure's

Beryllium M1CROWALL/ BeTM Stylus Shank and t,4ASAJTM Polished Tip.

12 Shure ways to improve your syste

Hi-Fi systems come in all shapes and sizes — from economically priced budget systems to the ultimate in audio.

Whichever category yours comes into, Shure have a cartridge to complement it — 12 in all, each designed, developed and thoroughly quality tested (as you'd expect from Shure) to bring out the best sound in any system.

From the economical M92E, through the hi-performance Ml 05E & M111HE to the state-of-the-art ML140HE, the new generation Shure range features the very latest in computer aided cartridge design technology

Like extraordinary Micro-Ridge Tips for flawless, distortion free reproduction. Exclusive Dynamic Stabilizers, to eliminate groove skipping, 'wow' and wear. And the unique MICROWALL/BeTm Stylus Shank, for a super flat frequency response and incredibly accurate high frequency trackability.

So now when you are looking for a way to improve your system, you've got 12 choices.

The superb new generation Shure cartridges. Hear them for yourself at your nearest Shure dealer today

I-1W International 3-5 Eden Grove London N7 Tel: 01-607 2717 I Distributed in Ireland by: HW International Long Mile Road (Naas Road Junction) Dublin 12, Tel: 508337 I

V15 Type V-B The latest version

of the V15 critically acclaimed worldwide

V15 Type V-MR The finest achievement in sound reproduction: the V15 Type V-13 with the Shure exclusive Micro- Ridge Stylus Tip.

Send to: Cartridge Analysis Dept., H \lb/ International, 3-5 Eden Grove, London N7 8EQ Please send me full colour literature on the New Shure range CI Please recommend the best new generation Shure cartridge to upgrade my system. lam at present using: Amplifier Turntable Pick up Arm Cartridge Name Address HFN 10/84

FIG.28 DEO UNIVERSAL MM/ MC CIRCUITRY

Notes 1) PR4 on RH channel only 2)Component numbers refer to LH channel RH components begin at1CO, e g R1 becomes R101

3)C ircled numbers refer to edge-connector pin-outs

Hell.) WHEN BALANCED COL01-IWNEN UNBALANCED

COL01-1WHER BALANCEO ILIRl H011-1 WHEN UNBALANCED / / DIN 0611 MGM

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INPUT

I LI

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680pF is the maximum likely value for C2, his indicates a minimum —3dB breakpoint of around 500kHz. This isn't exactly ideal from the perspective of RF rejection, but as we saw last month, 0P37-family devices are less likely than most to come to grief in this department. Hybrid-grounding also helps— a ot. Failing this, you'll have to increase R4 — o 1k say — and live with the noise degrada-tion. Incidentally, the desirable Rs/20 ratio see Part 4) still holds, because the impe-dance of an m-m cartridge is at least 20k at 20kHz.

For coils, loading is less critical, but still worthy of experimentation. To maintain damping with long cablès, for example, high values are best avvided. In general, the loading should be two to five times the•èuil's DC resistance. 24 and 47 ohms are, good, general values far low output models, and note that although some high output models are specified for a 47k loading they may work better with a smaller loading value. In the unbalanced mode, loading is set by R1 (or R2, which is any alternative value), as for m-m cartridges, but when balanced, the loading function is handed over to R3. The capacitative loading of coils is thank-

fully not a problem. C1,2 and 3 act principally to reject RF nasties, their value isn't critical (and may be made considerably larger, or omitted, without ill-effect), while the use of polypropylene and polystyrene dielectrics alleviates any worries about degradation due to dielectric absorption. (The professor wearily drags a bag of ceramic capacitors from his jacket pocket, casts them to the ground, then beats them mercilessly with his lump-hammer.)

Oscillating disc front ends aren't as rare as some would like to imagine. The circuit topology and choice of op-amp help immensely, while C4,5 offer a judicious touch of lead compensation, a sensible plan with a highly reactive load being routinely hung on the input. There's a capacitor for each of the gain determining resistors, so the breakpoints can be made to remain equal — otherwise the RIAA EQ curve would go slightly askew. Therefore, if you alter the value of R9 (or R10), you must scale C4 ( or C5) pro-rata, in the opposite direction; see table 28.

LF filtration is next. Normally, C8 is linked across, and R19 omitted, for the standard, amended RIAA curve to the accuracy quoted.

FIG.29 GAIN STRUCTURE MAP BASED ON WORST CASE,SHORT -TERM RMS LEVEL (CARTRIDGE 2mV/cm/S SENSITIVITY)

ICI ICT.RIAA • •

SOcm/S I AT Wiz

GIVES X0mV

SIGNAL LEVEL -18d8D

RUMOR.

• 100cm/S Al 10klIzi 200 mV

SIGNAL LEVE

HEADROOM

G Al 100kHzIVES Amy I 3 cm/S

SIGNAL LEVEL -L20811

rrreoom 38d8

• CLIPPING LEVEL ON c 1711 RAILS

.78

• 28

• 28

I 1P 1

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ILdB

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.166W

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LP CARD PASSIVE ATTENDATER VIII

If you prefer an open bottom-end, link C9 for full direct-coupling. On the other hand, if you're troubled with rumble, you can set up C8,9, R18,19,20 and R21 for a 12dB/octave rolloff at any sensible frequency. Two earlier HFN/RR articles of mine ('A versatile active crossover', Feb-May 1982) cover the princi-ples and give suitable values. The PCB will, incidentally accommodate C8,9 values other than the standard 100nF. PR4 appears on the right hand channel

only, and allows us to trim out interchannel gain errors in AMP-01-M, up to ± 0.45dB, in the absence of a panel balance control. This range is achieved by giving IC3 ( L) a fixed gain of +. 5dB. PR4 can then swing symmet-rically, even though IC3's gain can't fall below unity. Higher gain settings at this point marginally affect the RIAA's bottom end, so don't attempt to turn IC3 into a gain stage per se unless you're able to check for this. Of course, with the 12dB/octave filtra-tion option, a gain of several dB will be needed, but then the RIAA's accuracy is already lost, by definition. Also, PR4 can't be used in this mode, and should be linked across.

Fig. 29 shows the DEQ gain structure at 3 frequencies, with worst-case velocities plug-ged-in; these can be seen in fig. 30. The input gain is set at a nominal 28dB to give a —10dBU midband output with a typical m-m cartridge. For m-c cartridges, their output is

much lower, and they track faster at HF, but the front-end gain isn't increased pro rata, so the HF overload margin is souped up by around 5 to 10dB. Now coils are the very cartridges that deserve it most — so here's a piece of the jigsaw that actually fits! Looking closely, you'll notice under worst case condi-tions, with the m-m variety, that headroom is tightest at TP.1 for high frequencies (8dB), and at TP2 in the midband (4dB). The velocities quoted are undoubtedly excep-tional, so the disc stage is just sailing close to the wind, and not getting into difficulties. To reinforce this, half-a-dozen prototypes

were listened to by independent parties in their own premises with a higher front end gain, and the top end sound was all kudos. It has been improved since then.... Having said this, if you do suspect occasional over-load on hot-cut discs (and if it matters, you'll certainly hear it), you can simply reduce the front-end gain by 6dB, and make up the difference ( if needed) on the LP card — see tables 15 and 16, Part 4. We'd also like to know what cartridge and arm you're using, because its performance will have to be rather astounding.... Theorists will of course grumble at the

passive HF EQ, which steals headroom. Nix! Nix! With ± 22 volt rails, we gain an extra 4 to 6dB in headroom over typical mains-powered designs, or 20dB in comparison to the weedy 3 volt, battery powered variety.

111-F1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1984 69

FIG.30 RECORDED VELOCITES

100

If 1 YARN • CASE VELOCITY TIM ONE

I IA)

1 eio

e

TYPICAL VELOCITY

e

e

1

à

IOC FREQUENCY

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Table 25 Unbalanced gain setting

Cartridge's Gain R52 LP gain nominal required required midband in IC1 (see table output (de 16, pi 4)

m-m 8mV 19 200R OdB 4triV 25 91R OdB 2mV 28 62R OdB m-c3 1mV 28 62R +5dB 500pV 28dB 6211 +10dB

131dB max, less 3dB = 28dB max allowing + 3dB for R10 setting. 2R6 may be used for parallel combinations if desired, but is normally ignored. 'High-output coils are recommended. (R9 , 1k0, R10 = 2k2)

linked across, or shorted in the unbalanced mode, to tie the cold side to signal ground. But with hybrid grounding (ie, using paired cable), it can be left in place, to enhance Common Mode Rejection (CMR) at HF, if desired. Gain setting is dealt with table 25 for the unbalanced mode. For m-m cartridges, we simply select the R5 value which most closely matches the cartridge's output at the usual 5cm/s velocity. The gains given assume a hypothetical 1600 ohm feedback resistor, the median of R9, R10. After assem-bly, we can then choose either R9 or R10 with the PCB jack, P5. This will swing the gain 3dB below and above the target respec-tively, and with the LP gain control set around the 7 mark, it should become appa

Table 26 Cartridge/gain adjustment

Cartridge's Total gain Typical nominal required cartridge midband (de resistance o/p (pV) (ohms)

Typical 113 IC1 gain value (de (ohms) R9 = low

R10 = high

117/9 (ohms)

118/10 (ohms)

LP gain

R1 (ohms)

100 57 3 10 31/37 430 910 +25 91 Flynn-

200 51 6 12 31/37 610 1k2 -,-20 220 theti-

400 45 12 24 25/31 1k2 2k4 +15 220 . cal

77 57 3 10 31/37 430 910 +25 91 AT37E

250 51 25 24 31/37 1k6 3k2 +20 680 vdH

360 45 5 15 25/31 430 910 +20 91 Kiseiki

RI = R9/5' R10 = 2R9 25dB = x17 R9 < 43OR R7 -- R9 R8 -- R10 31dB = x34 119 = OC1 gains (R3 + Cart. Res? 37dB = x68

1 Choose nearest standard E24 ( 1%) or E96 (0.5%) series value. 26d8 increments.

LP gain: R14 = 2k2 + 15c1B, 47011 IC1 - OP37GP + 20dB, 220R

+25dB, 13011 -R13

DEQ options, assembly and testing Looking at fig. 28, PR2 and the associated components are optional, because with IC1's gain being around 20 to 30dB, IC2's offset error is largely swamped out. But PR2 is desirable if you opt for the DC version (C9 linked). The critical front end device, IC1, is ideally

a 1037 for all versions, but an OP37 will prove satisfactory in m-m setups. IC2 is normally an OP37, but a 1037 gilds the lotus flower. Table 27 delineates the positions of the

PCB jax. There's a choice of two loading values, for CL and RL, handy if you want to arrive at the optimum by experimentation. When changing from unbalanced to the balanced mode, or vice-versa, you may need to change R7-10 (see tables 25 and 26) and the loading, R1/2, C1/2. Normally, R3 is

rent which setting is preferred, and best accommodates accumulated gain errors. If the gain is too high with R9 in circuit (or too low with R10), then you need only shift up (or down) a column in table 25, to take off (add) 6dB. For medium and high output coils operated in this mode, we need more gain than IC1 alone can provide us, given gener-ous margins, but the difference is simply made up on the LP card.

For medium and low output coils, the balanced mode offers great rewards, but components must be judiciously selected, because there are some outright devious trade-off mechanisms at large. Intrinsically, R3 defines both the cartridge loading and the gain. To simplify matters, the task of gain determination is shifted to R7/9, R8/10 (hereafter referred to as R9/10), unlike the unbalanced version, where R9/10 are allotted fixed values.

At first sight, this leaves us free to allocate any value to R3 on the basis of loading alone, but care is needed: if R3 is made too low, the cartridge's rising source impedance at HF will, in theory, be manifest as a gain reduc-tion ie, top-end loss, and may prejudice the phase margin, whereas too high a value takes out the low frequency CMR and degrades noise performance. Low output coils also make heavy demands on the gain structure: it's important to apportion enough gain at the front-end to lift the signal well above the noisefloor, whilst preserving adequate loop gain to defend against HF distortion. So here are some rules of thumb: 1) Make R equal or up to 31/2 times the

cartridge's DC resistance. If you're feeding via long cables, the resistance may be significant relative to the low impedance coils. A typical screened cable yields, for example, around 100 milliohms per metre, send and return, so a 10 metre length adds 1 ohm, raising the overall resistance of a 3 ohm coil by 33%, as seen by R3.

2) Set the gain ( G) at around x17 (25dB) for the higher output coils, or x34 (31dB) for the low output models. We can now determine R9, and hence R7 (= R9) and R8,10 (- 2R9): R9 = G x (R3 + coil resistance + cable resistance) ohms. In most instances, you can ignore the cable resistance, while the coil's resistance should be taken from manufacturer's info. Any attempt to measure the coil's resist-ance would be as heinous as running a bias current through it.

3) Then subtract IC1's gain ( taking the median of the two gain values ie, 3dB higher than R9's gain value) from the overall gain required, and round off the

Table 27 PCB jack positions

Unbalanced mode - m-m and high output m-c: P1 Select resistive loading. A or B P2 Select capacitative loading, A or B P3 Set to B P4 Set to B P5 Select gain: A = low (- 3dB)

B -- high (+ 3dB) P6 Remove plug

Balanced mode - Low & medium output m-c only: PI Select input loading P2 Select capacitative loading & RF rejection P3 Set to A P4 Remove plug P5 Select gain: A = low (- 3dB)

B = high (+3dB) P6 Sates P5, A or B

result to the nearest 5dB. This figure is the gain we need to apply in the line proces-sor. In Part 4, gains up to 10dB were given for the disc version of LP in conjunction with an NE5534. For the higher gains, + 15 to + 25dB, the appropriate resistor values are given at the bottom of table 26.

Table 26 also tabulates some possible component values based on hypothetical cartridges. Here, for simplicity, the car-tridge's resistance is presumed to rise rela-tive to its output. This isn't necessarily the case, and depending on your cartridge, you may have to amend R3 and R9,10 (etc) in turn, as described above. But that isn't its purpose: it's a dummy around which you can base your calculations. For the 100e and 200pV sensitivities, note that the max-imum front end gain is pushed by 6dB, up to 33dB, and for 100pV, loading on IC1 is apparently lower than the usual minimum. But don't panic: the signal levels in this circumstance are sufficiently diminutive for us to sail close to the wind in complete comfort, essentially because we're hugging the most linear portion of the open-loop transfer curve. If you prefer one of JA's

70 HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER I qS4

Table 28 Lead compensation values

R9 (or R10) C4 (or C5) 3k3 68pF 2k7 82 2k2 100 2k0 120 1k8 120 1k5 150 1k2 180 lkO 220 820R 270 680R 330 560R 390 470R 470 430R 470pF

But what about R1,2 - sürely these are redundant with R3 in use? In fact, R1 s essential as a tiedown resistor, so IC1 doesn't scream off at unity gain whenever the cartridge or cables are unplugged..At the same time, R1 naturally lowers th è overall cartridge termination. If fussed, you nêtd only multiply R1,3,9 and 10 by x1.1 (or by X1.2 for 4000 only) to arrive back at the originally projected loading value, rourerg up or down to the nearest E24 standard value eg, for a corrected 1OR load, R1 = TOOR, R3 = 11R, R9 = 470R, R10 = 1k0 ( etc). To clarify all this, the lower section of table

Table 29 Ma components list

Resistors Qty Value Unbalanced Balanced & tal. m-m m-c

R1 2 B 47k1 100R1 R2 2 B 7 2 NA R3 2 B link link 3

R4 2 B 100R4 link link R5 2 B 5 5 omit R6 2 B 5 5 omit R7 2 B omit omit R9 R8 2 B omit omit R10 R9 2 B lkO lkO 3

R10 2 B 2k0 2k0 3

R11 2 A, 84R5 R12,13 4 A, lkO R14 2 A, 27k4 R15 2 A, 2k0 RIAA EO R16 2 A, 2k21 R17 2 A, link R18 2 A, 105k R19 2 C, 7, normally omitted R20 2 C, lk R21-L 1 C, 16k LH ch. only' R21-R 1 C, 8k2, RH ch. only6 R22 2 C, 1OR R23,24 4 C, lk R27,28,29,308 C, 10k ( R27,28: optional, see text) PR1,3 4 10k 20 turn PR2 2 10k - optional, see text cermet PR4 1 10k trrIl pot Resistor tolerances: A = 0.5%, precision, low TempCo

metal film, E96 series. B = 1% E24 or 0.5% E96, metal

film. (0.5% recommended for AMP-01-M)

C = 1%, metal film.

3

Capacitors M-111 111-C 21/2 %

Cl 2 47pF 47pF C2 2 220pF1 lriF1 C3 2 330pF1 3n31 C4,5 2 see table 28 C6 2 68nF, 1% polypropylene C7,9 4 100nF, 1% polypropylene

polystyrene or 5% polyproplene

RIAA EO

C8 2 Link? C10,12 4 470nF, plastic film C11 2 470nF, optional; see text

2 22pF, 21/2% polystyrene (5534 only)

Semiconductors + hardware IC1 2 LT1037ACN8 iC2 2 OP37GP 4C3 2 NE5534N or OP27GP a1-6 PCB jumper plugs 112) and sockets 134) interohannel screen - 1 off 230 x 100mm PCB screen - 1 off

1pr. 2 part DIN 41612 connector plug + socket, A + B row, evens only ( Standard specification). I front panel, DEO DIS PCB pins, S/S pins (6), spacers, brackets, M3 & 8BA screws.

DE CI power supply parts (Coss referred to mix card in brackets) R31,32 4 68R, 5%, MF (R13,14) R33,34 4 LARS ( R15,16) R35,36 4 DAR' (R17,18) R37,38 4 2k2, 5%, MF ( R19,20) C13,14,17,18,21 18 470nF, plastic film . 22,25,26,27,32,33 (C5-8,11,12,15)

C• 5,16 4 470pF, 35V axial (C3,4) C1920,23,24,30,31 12 100mF, 25V, radial

IC9,10,13,141 C28,29 4 100nF, plastic film (C16) Reg 1 2 LM3177 Reg 2 2 LM337T D1-4 8 IN4002

Notes NA- Not applicable. 1 Or use manufacturers' recommended loading. 2 Any alternative loadirg, eg: 43k for MM. 3 See table 26. 4 See text. 5 See table 25. 6 Fa, gain trim, omit if rumble filter added. 7 Rumble filter option: normally omitted, see text. See June, p35 for choice of voltage setting resistors.

•

motoring analogies, driving witn 4 passen-gers in a Porsche at 150mph is perfectly safe, I providing you choose the right sor of road; to drive a 1037 into 300 ohms at +20dBU is as silly as attempting 150mph on the UK's disintegrating motorways, befouled by 'linear cone storage'. ...

26 applies the formulae to real cartridges Each is slotted into the nearest sensitivity column, allotted a nominal gain of 25, 31 or 37dB, loaded at 3 times the DC resistance, and then R9,10 and LP gain are allocated values. But note the Kiseki, with a low impedance, yet a high output, partners R9 at

its minimum value, somewhat above the calculated value, which at 330R (to the nearest E24), was too low (R9 < 430R). Last on gain, table 28 gives the values of C4,5 for 4 range of usual R9,10 values. Just remem-ber that C5 is always around half the value of C4, to keep the time constant identical. To realise the m-c version's full potential,

good soldering is a must: in common with any other ultra low-level, low impedance electronics, poor joints aggravate thermo-couple effects. If you're unlucky, the result is a DC or very low frequency error voltage which fluctuates wildly with temperature, and shifts the signal envelope dramatically. DEQ has one special physical feature. A

strip of tinned, copper-clad PCB material is soldered on the topside at right angles to the PCB plane between channels to ward-off crosstalk between high impedance points. For a similar reason, you'll notice the RIAA capacitors are mounted at right angles. Another subtlety: the resistance of the input tracks are matched to within 1%.

Because the DEQ card bears 4 expensive ICs, triple check before testing - teabreak, check, wash dishes, 2nd check, coffee break, 3rd check! - and take special care when poking around with a test probe; the test points TP1-3 have been placed well away from supply rails with the bitter sinking feeling that dead 1037s entail, in mind. If there are any drastic faults at switch on, R31,32 will usually emit warning smoke signals and limit the fault current before they burn out. As a 20mm fuse costs around 22p, but resistors cost only 3p or so, this form of protection is doubly cost effective.

Like LP for external sources, DC nulling is compulsory on DEG. After a 30 minute warm-up, in a warm room free from draughts, and with your meter set initially to read several volts, hook up to TP2. Then

e

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1984 71

LATENT IMAGES Music's most important aspect, its emo-tional element, is said to lie up to 70db below the strongest signal pre-sent. To reproduce such low level information clearly requires the use of exceptional components.

Whether you plan to base your system on a quality mid-price turntable like the Michell Focus S/LV.X or the classic Pink Triangle/Zeta, .using an Audio Technico or a Goldbug Brier, a range of amplifiers including Audio Vois, DNM Supplies, Magnum and Ps Audio can be auditioned to suit both system and budget.

The Alphason and Helius tonearms can also provide audible improvements in many system combinations, and are compatible with a wide choice of cartridges, both moving magnet and coil, making future upgrades more straightforward.

In a system context, the A&R Arcom speakers in their active form and the well respected Meridian range provide an involving and balanced sound to be compared to conventional speaker systems like the Etude MP4 and the excellent Royston PI.

Finally, the installation of the system and the use of good cables and stands can benefit the performance to a surprising degree and is the one area of purchase most often overlooked.

PHONOGRAPH 60a Erpingham Road, Putne,

London SW15. Tel: (01) 789-2349

Mon.—Fri. 1 Oom- 1 pm, 3.30-8 pm. Sat. Oom-bpm

Demonstrations by appointment, please.

Systems delivered and installed free of charge

THE GARROTT MICRO-SCANNER DECCA " • . "Once you have experienced the stage opening

out in width and depth with such an illusion of three-dimensional reality you won't tolerate less from a stereo cartridge."

Chris Breunig HFN&RR, 1984

IPSO FACTO . . . . We will make you a no quibble money back offer that once you've put it into your system, you won't want to part with it.

QUOD ERAT DEMONSTRANDUM? If you're into top gear, ring us and we'll prove it to you. You've got nothing to lose — unless you miss the chance to experience it!

Price: £270 + £22 for GB mounting body.

THE PARABOLIC STYLUS CO P.O. Box 38 TORQUAY TQ1 1BW tel: 0803-26791

MUM= MEANS MUSIC

You'll be hearing more from us!

FOR DETAILS OF OUR SENSIBLY MODULAR PREAMP

AND MONO CONVERTIBLE POWER AMPLIFIER

PLEASE RING OR WRITE TO —

rrounr= ELECTRONICS (SOUND SYSTEMS)

36A BROUGHTON STREET, EDINBURGH EH1 3SB Telephone: 031-556 1707

72 I II-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBERIqs4

begin trimming PR1, progressively reducing the meter scale. You should be able to null to below 2mV. PR3 is similarly adjusted, but for best resolution you may wish to hook up the LP card to DEO, and null from the LP output. TP1 is needed solely when using PR2, so we can read IC1's output offset directly. Refer-ring to the PSU components list, the DEQ card is fairly swimming in extra decoupling, and in particular, both rails are decoupled with 100uF adjacent to IC1/2.

Casting back to the early stages of our journey in Part 5, do you recall tales of nasty bias currents being rammed up innocent coils and magnets? For best results, any coil

that's not fresh out the box should have its moving parts demagnetised (at least) or put to grass if the BH curve-shift is, alas, at all permanent (groan). I hope Martin Colloms will expand on this topic elsewhere. In the meantime, to demagnetise, hook up your signal generator to each of the cartridge's channels in turn, bringing up the level ( use a —45dBU sinewave, circa 10kHz), then slowly winding down the output to zero, over a minute or so. Readers sans l'equipment should seek the assistance of a friendely dealer. Voila! If it's an x£000 model, perhaps this is the 'dedicated backup' that the dealer magniloquently espouses to justify his price.

Tab 30 DEG spadficationi

RIAA reponse m-c input, balanced and unbalanced, driven with a BUF 03 via lOR + 10pH and 2 metres of low capacitance cable:

±0.1dB, 300Hz to 3kHz typically zero, — 0.05dB

≤ ± 0.15dB, 10Hz to 40kHz Noise Mean sensing RMS, unweighted, over specified — 3dB bandwidth, with RIAA ECI applied, m-c input, balanced mode, inputs open circuit, using OP37GP: 1Hz to 350Hz, ≤ —70dBU 10Hz to 100kHz, —80dBU refers to 2000 As above, but with 1037 ACN8: midband 1Hz to 350Hz, ≤ —74dBU sensitivity 10Hz to 100kHz, —82dBU mm input, Op37GP in unbalanced mode, with inputs shorted: 1Hz to 350Hz, ≤ —88dBU refers to 2mV midband 10Hz to 100kHz, E —87dBU sensitivity Note: These figures display the dominant Viand flicker

noise components, not normally measured. Crosstalk Measured under worst case conditions, with one input loaded with 2R2 via a 2m external cable, other one driven at + 20dBU (except 100kHz, = + 10dBU). 100Hz lkHz below noise

10kHz e —78dB 100kHz ≤ — 65dB MOO vs frequency Referred to DEQ output, headroom assumes fixed

—10dBU level at DEQ output, and can be read as input overload margin.

MOL headroom

50Hz to lkHz 10kHz 20kHz 100kHz

▪ +24dBU

+21dBU +15dBU

▪ OdBU

34dB

31dB 25dB 10dB

CMR m-c input, balanced mode, output referred, input driven common-mode via 2R2 + 2R2 and 2m cable from BUF-03, using specified 0.5% and 1% resistors and 1037ACN8: 100Hz e —40d lkHz ≤ — 50dB 10kHz ≤ — 50dB 50kHz ≤ —45dB

Internal Slew rate pre-RIAA EQ: > 60V/us post EQ0C3): 6V/ms155341, 3V/µs(0P27)

DC performance Standard version m-c./with IC3 AC coupled via C9, DC gain at maximum = 50dB: TP2 trimmable to ± .0161mV typical. DC version, with C9 linked: output offset trimmable to ± < 1mV, typical.

'MOL: Maximum Operating Level.

AMP-01 Ifelpline 0.5% metal film 'Holco' resistors (Values in text) £0.37 Eurofarad polyprop, 1% toler-ance, 68nF & 100nF £2.59 Wima polyester, selected to 1% tol., 68nF & 100nF £1.10 1037 ACN8 Op-Amp, Linear Technology Corp £10.99 Mainframe 3U Eurocardframe £39.95 Card guide— 2 required per card £0.39 LP PCB (suits all versions: LPS, LPD & SLP)

£12.99 Disc PCB, doublesided £12.99 D3AU, Audiophile disc kit, MC & MM unba-lanced £135.50 ALP/YL — Audiophile LP for disc kit, med. gain £74.00 CX7 card kit ( For AMP-01-M) £9.95 VDR, 10 Joule ( For APS) £0.69 AMP-01M enclosure, black aluminium £ 19.00 AMP-01-M & -01-X panels; per pair £27.10

All lists relating to the project should now be published, so patient W enquirers can expect to receive a brown envelope shortly. B & J Sound will also assemble customised units, and assistence is available to AMP-01 buil-ders who have found the gain tables etc. in Pts 4 & 5 perplexing, and need guidance in arriving at an equitable component selection for their particular circumstances. Send single SAE (Or 3 IRCs if overseas) for all our currently published lists. Additional SAEs/ IRCs ( International Reply Coupons*) will bring you the balance of our literature, just as soon as it's published. All prices include 15% VAT. Kit prices include carriage; other-wise allow 65p. B & J Sound, Kirby Lane, Tattershall, Lincoln. LN4 4PD. All enquiries (0526) 42869. In case of difficulty, send instead of banker's draft for f1.50 Sterling.

NAME THEM WIN THEM

Win a pair of the new Audiostatic loudspeakers, worth £1400

DESIGNING LOUDSPEAKERS is a hard enough task, but it would appear that naming them presents even greater problems. HFN/RR has carried favourable reviews of two of the Audiostatic electrostatic loudspeakers designed by

Dutchman Ben Peters — the 'Hybie' was reviewed by Ken Kessler in May while Martin Colloms listened to the 'Monolith 1'

in June — and a third model is being introduced at the Pente Show.

During development, it has carried the somewhat prosaic label of ' ES200', but both Ben and Audiostatic's UK agent Brian Smith

thought that a name would be preferable. And there lies the rub: both have admitted defeat. To give you an idea why, they were going to call it the ' Minilith', for example, as it

is smaller than the 'Monolith' models. Then they discovered that 'Minilith' is a brand of German contraceptive pill. They then chose

'Megalith' — except that it makes the speaker sound bigger than the Monolith.

So, it is up to the readers of HFN/RR. Come up with an appropriate name; answer the tiebreaker question; and a pair of the new

speakers could be yours.

The Speaker The 'ES200' is a full- range electrostatic design, and costs £ 1397 inc. VAT per pair. It has a similar unobtrusive flat panel as the Monolith,

but is shorter and a little wider, standing 51 inches high and 20 wide. The special acoustic cloth cover is available in cream, brown or

black, while the matching wooden base — housing Ben Peters' patented ' Mirror Drive' transformers — can be had in beech, walnut,

mahogany and black oak. Sensitivity is good for an electrostatic at 85dBNV, and any high quality, high current capability amplifier

should be able to drive them well. You can see the speakers at the Heathrow Penta Show.

The Rules 1. Every entry must be accompanied by the entry form printed on this page. 2. Entrants must not object to their names being made public in the event of winning, and must be prepared to pick the prize up in

person.

3. Employees of Presence Audio, their dealers, and Link House Magazines, and their relatives are not eligible to enter. 4. Entries must be sent to HFN/RR at the Croydon address, with the envelope marked 'Name Them — Win Them competition'.

5. Closing date is second post. Monday 1st October 1984. 6. The judges' decision is final and correspondence will not be entered into.

Entry Form

Name ( block caps please

Address*

My name for the ES200 is:

Tiebreaker question: describe three aspects of electrostatic loudspeakers.

COMPETITION

HI-FI NEWS /It RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1984 73

Can anyone ever resolve your doubts about cassette decks?

Gentlemen, our RS-B100 is about to answer them a.

Let's start with those fundamental doubts about recording fidelity.

True, all cassette decks have to suffer the sheer limitations of equalization circuitry for analog recordings.

But we've now developed our own phase compensation circuitry system that circumvents the problem entirely

Thus offering you, for the first time, real waveform fidelity comparable with open reel

performance. Now for that old chestnut about wow and

flutter. Again, it's an inherent problem of cassette

decks generally caused by unstable tape transport We've now cracked it by introducing a closed

loop system with dual capstans. The result being a reduction in wow and

flutter you have to hear to believe. (For the record, it's a mere 0.022% WRMS). And now for that vexed question about the

limitations of automatic tape bias adjustment. On the RS-B100 they simply don't exist. Instead, we give you the option of manual

bias adjustment to let you fine tune for particular tapes.

Finally, we've managed to overcome the compromise of a single record/playback head.

By giving you not one but three heads engineered to quite inhuman precision.

Such is their accuracy we can guarantee

record/playback gaps of 2.5 and 0.8 microns respectively.

All resulting in a frequency response rated at 15Hz-25,000Hz on metal.

Naturally our RS-B100 meets all the expec-tations you'd have of a top-class deck.

What it doesn't raise are the usual doubts.

Technics RS-B100

dbx, Quartz DD, 3-Head Cassette Deck.

300-318 Bath Road, Slough,Berks SL16JB.Tel: Slough 34522.

Turntable: Dual CS505 (imp), £85 inc. cartridge. No alternatives.

Amplifier: NAD 3120, £90.* Alternative: Rotel RA 820, £85.

Loudspeakers: Marantz LD20, £80. Alternatives: Rotel RL850, £80; KEF Chorale, £80.

ABUDGET RECORD PLAYING system at a package price of around £250 represents the bottom line for a real hi-fi system today. Any significant economies made below this level are likely to degrade the performance so much, in the

author's opinion, that the combination would fail to qualify as hi-fi. This magazine has attempted to identify a basic budget system on

more than one occasion in the past. In an early example from (March) 1968, Frank Jones set an £80 target and selected a Garrard semi-auto turntable, Rogers Cadet Ill ( valve) amplifier, and home-built or finished single driver loudspeakers. Bearing in mind that the value of money tends to halve every

seven years, our 1984 system is really a fair bit cheaper than the 1968 one, yet is fully finished and clearly superior — good evidence of the way consumer electronics products have consistently beaten inflation. The present day system starts with the latest Dual CS505, a

competent and good value product with an established pedigree — it was originally reviewed for HFN/RR by Noel Keywood in January'81. This is partnered by the new ' no-frills' NAD 3120 amplifier, and the Marantz LD20 loudspeakers, which were reviewed " See postscript

in full in November'83. A number of different combinations were, in fact, ried before

arriving at this particular selection, which I believe offers the best overall performance and sound quality for the money. Alternatives are, of course, possible and other loudspeakers or amplifiers may be substituted according to one's taste or local availability. However, there is little option for the turntable, given the price: Dual's less expensive models are fair value, but do not really compare with the 505, and substantially greater expenditure is necessary to obtain a significantly better sound. Indeed, this system is only really possible because of the 505! An improvement in turntable/cartridge performance could be

achieved for a slightly higher budget, and 'front-end' improvements would be more beneficial than upgrading amplifiers or loudspeakers at this stage. The inclusion of the new NAD amplifier is something of a scoop,

since we managed to obtain the first sample to arrive in the UK. Ostensibly an economy version of the renowned 3020, this new model seemed capable of scoring points off its predecessor despite a lower price. The objectives for our budget system were that it should at least

make an effort to establish a respectable sound. Upmarket systems enjoy a natural tonal balance, good frequency range, clarity and detail, a nice complement of bass and treble output, and a fair level of truthfulness. The budget system should not, therefore, sound obviously dull or bright, boomy or bass-shy, the stereo image should have good central focus with some stage width, and efforts should be made to establish some depth and perspective with appropriate recordings.

76 HI-FI NEWS & RECORD RI IEW OCI0131 R P)s-I

Irrespective of price, the budget system should conform broadly to these criteria, and the components were chosen accordingly. I must admit I was a little disappointed with the results obtained at first, but once I concentrated on the price and how much you got for the money, I really started to appreciate the performance. After all, the complete system costs less than a typical medium price high quality tonearm such as an Ittok, Alphason or Syrinx, or one good m-c cartridge, or even (may we be forgiven) 20m of 'audiophile' speaker cable! With speaker sensitivity in the 87-88dBAN range, and an amplifier

capable of around 45W peak program, the system was capable of generating sound levels of 100dBA— more if a little distortion is tolerable. This is more than enough to annoy the neighbours, and requires shouting for you to be heard by anyone else in the room! The system's ability to remain in control right up to full level was an important factor which we took into consideration: this combination of amplifier and loudspeakers worked well together, even at the power limit. The safest description of the sound quality is ' pretty good for the

money'. A catalogue of failings compared with upmarket equipment would be pointless, and probably give the unwarranted impression that the effort was not worthwhile. Comparison with a £250 music centre is much fairer, as many

purchasers opt for this simple solution. Music centres and rack systems may include cassette and/or radio, which our system lacks, but from the perspective of this magazine's historic stance the sound quality must be of overriding importance. From that hi-fi perspective, in most cases rack or music centre

sound is pretty awful. Low bass tends to be missing altogether, upper bass is generally a 'one-note' boom, and the midrange can be 'peaky', with serious ' box' and 'cardboard' colorations. Treble is all too often 'zitty', 'scratchy' and sibilant, and stereo depth notable in its absence, though there is usually a residual 'ping-pong' effect.

Basically we feel that the choice lies between an acceptable minimum hi-fi standard, and a superficially attractive system which is admittedly often easier to set up and use, but which offers little more than loud noise, and may even prematurely wear out your records.

The Turntable The Dual CS505 is a well finished product made in West Germany by a long established company. In the manner of countless older Garrard and BSR autochangers, the Dual chassis comprises a steel deckplate resting on four damped coil springs, which offer some isolation from external shock, shelf-coupled vibration and acoustic feedback. The modest platter now has an improved flat rubber mat, giving a

total mass of 0.85kg. This is belt driven at 33 and 45rpm by a heavy duty 16-pole synchronous motor via an ingenious multi- lobed pulley which may be varied in diameter to give fine speed adjustment. The tonearm is a rather lightweight affair, but has quite good low

friction bearings. Bias compensation and downforce are conveniently and quite accurately set via calibrated thumbwheels. The player is fitted with an Ortofon LM series cartridge: we favoured the elliptically tipped 0M10, but also got good results from the elliptical 15E, which is likely to be fitted to future production. On test, the 505 gave good speed stability, with low wow and

flutter and modest rumble levels. The chassis system provided fairly good isolation, and the arm performed well for the price.

The Amplifier The NAD 3120 is a straightforward amplifier in a dark satin-painted finish, derived from the 3020A. The conservative specification suggests 20+20W continuous output into 8ohm speaker loads over the full audio bandwidth. When recently tested, a 3020A of similar specification raised over 45W unclipped on typical stereo program.

Despite the modest price, the 3120 is as sturdily built as its more costly brethren, and is also surprisingly versatile. A headphone socket is fitted near the power switch and indicator, while six pushbuttons on the right are responsible for input selection from four sources ( aux/CD, tuner, disc ( LP), tape), mono/stereo and the dreaded 'loudness'. ' Loudness' is the only concession to tone controls, applying some bass boost at low volume settings in an attempt to counter the aurally 'thin' character of low level music reproduction. The large dual-concentric volume control also provides a balance facility. The rear panel has a horizontal shelf, conveniently allowing easy

connection and removal of cables. The input sockets are all phonos, duplicated by DIN for tape, and speaker connection is made by superior grade 4mm socket/binding posts. The 'soft clipping' option which smoothes the sound when the amplifier is overdriven has been retained from the 3020, but this would normally be switched off as it can impair definition. More interesting, perhaps, is the inclusion of a switch for m-c./m-m cartridges— room for later system upgrading here, maybe?

The technical performance was much like that of the established 3020A. Frequency responses were tailored to the audio bandwidth to exclude out-of-band 'rubbish', yet were respectably accurate and neutral within. A healthy output current of 13A peak means that it is not sensitive to loading, while a whole variety of distortion measurements gave figures of 0.012% (- 80dB or better), quite negligible in context. No matching or equalisation problems were encountered. The basic design of this amplifier is well established, performing confidently in auditioning and lab testing, while the 50W program power will produce decent sound levels with the chosen loudspeakers.

The Loudspeakers The Marantz LD20 speakers emanate from that company's Belgian division, having been designed by an experienced Japanese engineer using primarily Japanese drive units. His strength is a very European, even British, taste in sound quality and speaker balance, which has ensured that the LD20 is very acceptable, to my ears at least. This two-way bass reflex model has a good laminate finish which

extends to the baffle board beneath the grille — a relevant point, since the grilles spoil the sound of these and many other budget loudspeakers, and are best discarded. The port is generous enough to provide some decent bass power,

and the 170mm bass/mid driver has good power handling, proving difficult to overload or 'crack'. A well damped soft-fabric dome tweeter covers the treble range, separated via a high quality 6-element crossover network. Though it may be shelf-mounted, this loudspeaker gives fine

results with pleasing stereo when placed out in the room on rigid stands. Within the cost contraints of this system, a pair of breeze blocks make an effective, if inelegant, support; two thick wooden pcnels attached to each block would offer some refinement, making a pretty effective budget stand which could be sized to suit the LD20. The test sensitivity was a little above average at 87.5dBAN while

bass was extended down to 45Hz in the listening room. The response was mildly ' rich' with a downtilted treble response, but nevertheless met good ± 3dB limits from 70Hz to 20kHz, with similarly good off-axis responses. The system impedance was nearer 6 than 8ohms, but this presents no problem for the NAD amplifier.

Conclusions The various elements of the 'core' system were found to work well together, providing considerable sonic harmony despite their modest prices. Given the opportunity for comparative demonstrations, alternative choices of amplifiers and loudspeakers could be made from a surprisingly wide range of worthwhile, similarly priced models in both categories. For guidance, a selection of 'approved' options is given below.

Alternative options

Amplifiers under £100 QED A230 Rotel RA820 Onkyo A22 Yamaha A300

Loudspeakers under £ 100 Keesonic Kub Wharfedale Laser 90B KEF Chorale III Castle Clyde Mission 7011 Rotel RL850

The next system feature will examine the possibilities available at the £300 budget level.

Postscript Just as we were going to press, NAD, under heavy pressure from the falling pound, were forced into raising the price of the 3120 to £109.50, smashing our £250 budget. The value judgments in the report still stand, but the system will now cost £270.75. However, as we are also pretty keen on the established Rotel

RA820, that amplifier comfortably fits into the slot for the £250 system. The '820 was rated by me as a 'Best Buy' in a recent Hi-Fi Choice publication on amplifiers. It offers a highly competitive and well-controlled subjective performance. Well equipped, it has mild-acting tone controls and switching for two sets of speakers, but the disc input caters for moving-magnet cartridges only.

NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER PIS-I 77

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CHAUSSON. Concert for piano, violin and string quartet J.C. Pennetier, R. Pasquier - HM 901135

MENDELSSOHN. Motets. La Chapelle Royale, Collegium Vocale. Herreweghc - HM 901142

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SCARLATTI/MELANI. Arias for soprano and trumpet Nelson. Ferry - HM 905137

RENÉ CLEMENCIC AND HIS 21 RECORDERS HM 90384

ARABO-ANDALUSIAN MUSIC. Atrium Musicae. Paniagua HM 90389

MONTE VERDI. A Sacred Concert. Concerto Vocale HM 901032

oR(i)Lo STRAUSS. Wind Symphony. Sawallisch - C 004821

SCHUBERT. String Quartet No. 15. Brandis Quartet C 007821

SCHUMANN. Songs. Price. Lockhart - C 031821

FRENCH AND SPANISH SONGS. Price. Lockhart C 038831

MOZART. String Quartets Nos. 14 and 23. Brandis Quartet C 041831

STRAVINSKY. Firebirl Suite. Sawallisch. Naoumoff (piano) C 044831

MENDELSSOHN/SPOHR. Violin Concertos (flute versions) Adorjan. Shallon - C 046831

GRIEG. 3 Violin Sonatas. Sitkovetsky. Davidovich C 047831

VERDI. Alzira. Cotrubas. Araiza. Bruson. Gardelli C 057832

MILHAUD. Works for winds and piano. Nicolet. Holliger. Brunner. Maisennerg - C 060831

RAVEL. Songs. Fischer-Dieskau. HolI - C 061831

harmonia mundi

CS U.K.

19-21 Nile Street

LONDON N1 7LR Phone (01) 253.08.63

253.08.65

EDITA GRUBEROVA. Songs by Brahms, Dvorak, Strauss C 066831

BRAHMS. Clarinet Quintet. Leister. Vermeer Quartet C 068831

STRAVINSKY. Oedipus Rex. Norman. Moser. Davis C 071831

TOSTI. Selected Songs. Bergonzi - C 073831

LUCIA POPP. German Children's Songs and Lullabies C 078831

CHOPIN. Nocturnes. Perlemuter - NIM 5012

RAVEL. Piano Works, Vol. 2. Perlemuter - NIM 5011

NIMBUS NATURAL SOUND Sampler, Vol. 2 NIM 5015

I ACCENT

HAYDN. Six Trios. Kuijkens - ACC 47807D

TELEMANN. Suite. Sonatas. Oboe, Cello, Harpsichord ACC 48013D

MOZART. Flute Quartets. Kuijkens. Lucy van Dadl ACC 48225D

PARNASSUS ENSEMBLE. Telemann. Handel. Galuppi. Janitsch - ACC 47806D

Chandos DVORAK. Symphony No. 8. Nocturne. LPO. Handley CHAN 8323

DELIUS. Summer Night, etc... VAUGHAN WILLIAMS. The Wasps, etc... LPO. Handley - CHAN 8330

DVORAK. Piano Trio No. 3. Borodin Trio CHAN 8320

PAVANE u=oluciFeces . . . .•

BRAHMS. 21 Hungarian Dances. Crommelynck Duo ADW 7042-2

ELISABETH VERLOOY. Sings Catalani, Donizetti, Verdi ADW 7128-2

Meridian ELGAR. Quintet & Quartet. Bingham. Medici ECD 84082

MOZART. Piano Concertos K 449, K 456. Ambache ECD 84086

HAYDN. Settings of Scottish Folk Songs - ECD 84083

after auditionin • the new su • er-fi SME tonearm

ALTI-OUGH IT MIGHT APPEAR that SME have been lying low recently, quietly weathering the audio sales depression, they have ir. fact, been busy behind the scenes, working towards the objective of creeng a new standard which

would add new lustre to their temporarly shelves slogan, 'the best pickup arm in the world'. The new arm, provisionally entitled Series V, was first seen at the

Chicago CES in June '84, and was briefly descr'bed by Michael Sykes last month, but it will not actually go into production for some months yet. Howeve-, SME recently asked me to give an early opinion on the design, so I managed to borrow the sole prototype for a few days. This superbly built sample is in fact very close to production quality, and should be quite representative, so it is worthwhile giving my fi-st impressiors o4this most interesting product. Handsomely finished in satin black throughout, the Series V

appears uncompromisingly massive at first sight, due to the large diameter main tube, or beam. This is strongly tapered towards the cartridge, emulating the princ'ple of the tapering stylus or cantilever.

In order to maximise rigidity, the headshell, beam and counterweight geometry are precisior cast as a single component, using a superior grade of magnesium alloy which is chosen to give high stiffness, low mass and good self-damping properties. Consequently the assembly is probably the stiffest yet made, while the effective mass, w th mounting hardware, is not compromised, being around the median value at 11gm. Massive ball-race bearings are used in both planes, pre-loaded for

virtually zero play and with traditionally low friction values (c20mg). Mechanical energy generated by the cartridge flows via the bearings into the pillar as in no previous SME model. Downforce and bias compensation are both set by calibrated thumbwheels which control precision, low resonance springs. A moderate degree of viscous fluid damping is incorporated,

which may be finely tuned or easily disengaged. This damping is helpful with higher compliance cartridges and also acts as a mild shock absorber, rather than attempting to control the arm/cartridge resonance in the usual manner. Although dimensioned to fit the established SME mounting,

Series V has a new bedpiate design with a very strong clamping system. Adjustment of both arm height and overhang is very easy; this may be done during play, and locked when completed. Considerable attention has been paid to the nternal wiring, in terms of its sonic and mechanical properties. The sound quality is really good. This arm haa the ability to remind

one just how important a component the tonearm is— a point which was further emphasised when returning to my own arm. The Series V provides a remarkably substantiai dimensional improvement in the stereo staging. Improvements in stereo width, depth, ambience, and perspective are immediately obvious, and the complexities of the sound-stage are confidently unravelled, revealing both musical and spatial inner detail — a sort of Audio Research SP- 10 effect' The arm added very little coloration of its own, being 'dry' and highly controlled in character, with very fine musical dynamics. Based on this first look, I feel SME have succeeded in establishing

a new reference, and look forward to trying a production sample of this expensive ( est. £800) but impressive model in the near future. -iit-

Listen to what you've been missing Infinity Speakers

When you listen to your new pair of Infinity Speakers, you'll hear right away what you've been missing. Music pure and simple.

No boom, fuzz or fatigue — but a sound so clear and well defined you could easily think youi self in a concert hall.

And with Infinity it's not just our thirst for technological advances (see specifications below) that leaves our compet ttors' speakers standing.

Our prices will bring sweet music to your ears too — from as little as £95 per pair.

Infinity's unique EMIT tweeter is driven by magnets of rare-earth samarium cobalt, several times more powerful than ferrite — giving you utter transparency at the highest sound levels, near-perfect dispersion, exceptional power-handling and range.

EIVIIM, Infinity's exclusive Ejectro -Magnetic Induction Midrange drivez brings you a highly damped low-range diaphragm suspended in an enormous magnetic force- field — for new standards of clarity definition and accuracy

Polypropylene is without doubt the most advanced speaker cone material in the world. Accoustically inert, its superior self-damping properties prevent specious sounds degrading the purity of the music.

For full literature, and the address of your nearest Infinity stockist — please write to HW International at the address below. Or call on 01-607 2717

It\lHW International, 3-5 Eden Grove,

London N7 8EQ. Tel 01-607 2717

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW 0( 'TIMER 79

AWARD YOURSELF THE EAR"

See us at the

Heathrow Penta Show/

Stutiçp T

« c,

STUDIO T BY MUSICAL FIDELITY

A panel of tough judges appointed by the British Federation of Audio declared STUDIO T as co-winner, "Amplifier of the Year 1984:'

They heard STUDIO Ts twin power supplies pumping 150 watts per channel into 8 ohms. For effortless imaging, detail and transient response. They saw a circuit engineered for

unconditional stability. And, tough as they are, the judges agreed it delivers outstanding sound.

Now you can hear STUDIO T at the specialist audio dealers listed below. Go listen. You'll be rewarded.

MUSICAL FIDELITY OUTSTANDING SOUND

Musical Fidelity Ltd., Unit 208,16 Brune Street, London El 7NJ. Tel: 01-247 3066.

Aberdeen: Holborn Hin, 445 Holborn Street, 0224 25713. Birmingham: Perfect Electronics, 504-506 Alum Rock Road, 021 327 1497. Bolton: Cleartone HiFi, 156-158 Blackburn Road, 0204 31423. Bristol: Radford HiFi, 52-54 Gloucester Road, 0272 428248. Cambridge: Steve Boxshall Audio. 41 Victoria Road, 0223 68305. Cheshire: Aston Audio, 4 West Street. Alderley Edge, 0625 582704. Essex: Rayleigh HiF, 44A High Street, Rayleigh, 0268 779762. Exeter: Gulliford House, 28 Cowick Street, St. Thomas, 0392 218895. Gateshead: Lintone Audio. 9-11 Park Lane, 0632 774167. Hampshire: Hampshire Audio, 8 Hursley Road, Chandlers Ford, 04215 2827. Leeds: Audio Projects, 45 Heaoingley Lane, 0532 789115. Leicester: Audition HiFi, 147 Hinckley Rd, Leicester Forest East, 0533 393607. Liverpool: WA. Brady & Son, 401Smithdown Road, 051 733 6859.

London: Grahams HiFi, 88 Pentonville Road. N1, 01 837 4412. K.J. Leisuresounci, 48 Wigmore Street, W1, 01 486 8263. Phoenix Rooms,125 Stoke Newington High Street. N16. 01 249 8246. Spaldings, 352-354 Lower Addiscombe Roe Croydon. 01 654 1231 Unilet Products, 14 Bute Street, SW7, 01 589 2586. Unilet Products, 35 High Street, New Malden. 01 942 9567. Manchester: Cleartone HiFi, 62 King Street, 061 835 1156. Norwich: Basically Sound, The Old School, School Road, Bracon Ash, 0508 70829. Radlett: Radlett Audio, 141 Watling Street, 09276 6497. Reading: Reading HiFi, 6 Harris Arcade,.Friar Street 0734 585 463. Rotherham: Moorgate Acoustics, 2 Westgate, 0709 70666. Tonbridge: Standens, 92A High Street, 0732 353540. Warrington: Doug Brady HiFi, Kingsway Studios, Kingsway North, 0925 828009. Windsor: Radford HiFi, 43 King Edward Court, 07535 56931

AFFORDABLE

COMBOS Alvin Gold

REVIEWED HERE are matching amplifier/tuner combinations from four of the larger, better known Japanese producers. Combination prices range from £168 (for the Onkyo pair) to £483 (Akai), via £288 and £355 (for

the Yamaha and Sony, respectively). Broadly speaking, then, we're looking at the middle ground of mass-market integrated amplifier and tuner design, with the Akai pair pitched rather above that nebulous price area and the Onkyo below. The middle market for integrated full-feature amplifiers and tuners

has traditionally been neglected by both press and public alike. The most actively promoted mid-price products have been those made by the smaller UK-based concerns, whilst the Japanese have concentrated on the real mass-market — the lower price models exemplified here by the Onkyo items which, in line with many of their peers, are also sold as rack-system components. The volume of separates sold at over £100 a throw is a tiny fraction of those sold below that figure, and components like the Akai, Sony and Yamaha here tend to be used as flagships models, or something pretty close.

Nevertheless, they have a geniune appeal in their own right. They hold up the promise of good finish and built quality, integrated styling, a high level of performance and facilities for the price— all those virtues generally perceived, in fact, as being within the province of large, technologically orientated and globally involved companies like the Japanese multinationals.

Rather than give a lengthy description of the eight products in turn, it seems sensible to discuss them together in general terms, looking at what they share in common — which is quite a lot. The paragraphs devoted to the individual units therefore concentrate on the major differences between units, on sound quality and on the measurements. The latter were conducted by Jelgate, the independent laboratory operated by Stan Curtis.

Amplifiers All four amplifiers (and tuners) are full-size components of approximately 430-440mm width and conventional proportions. All, bar the cheaper Onkyo, are high power designs offering 60 watts output or more per channel, and without exception they are equipped with a comprehensive range of inputs which include a specifically identified input for Compact Disc or other digitial sources. The three more expensive designs are also fitted with moving-coil cartridge inputs in addition to the ubiquitous moving-magnet; and with slight variations between models all have a full range of tone controls and associated facilities. Other shared facilities include two pairs of loudspeaker outputs, independently switchable, and a socket broadly suitable for most commonly available types of headphones. Even the Onkyo has two tape circuits, with the possibility of cross-dubbing between them, though one of the tape inputs on this model aiso doubles for CD.

All the units also share the expected superb quality of finish and good control feel, and in each case they give every indication of being built for a long period of trouble-free service. Their useful lifetime, in fact, will probably be dictated by external factors such as the availability of parts and (on a more psychological level) by the obsolescence factor as they are superceeded in due course by newer models. They differ, though, very markedly in one area — their actual

perceived sound quality. Intriguingly, their ranking order on this basis cuts right across the price and technology barriers. I came to this review fresh from a lengthy period auditioning some of the most exotic and expensive pre- and power-amplifiers available, and was struck very forcefully by how thoroughly convincing and ' in control' some of these amps sounded; and, conversely, how lacking in that

magic ingredient some of the others turned out to be. As noted earlier, there was no discernable correlation here with price, complexity or power output — a vital factor of direct relevance to anyone contemplating the purchase of an amplifier of any kind. The other very striking point after using exotic animals from Audio

Research, Krell and so on, was just how messy the ergonomics of these very fully equipped amplifiers really are. My opinion is that tone controls, loudness/filter buttons and the rest are little more than pseudo-technological window dressing, if only because they're so poorly designed in practice. My criticism doesn't rest on this factor alone though; features like these can be used or ignored. What I object to strongly is the fact that not one of the manufacturers here shows any real understanding of what has come to be called 'human engineering'. You simply can't use these machines by touch alone because their layouts are generally messy and ill-conceived. The real harm this causes, in my opinion, is that a vast number of people are frightened away completely, simply because of the seeming difficulties of using the equipment. There are differences between models, of course: the Onkyo, being cheaper, has its KAB (knobs and buttons) count curtailed severely, which helps. More, though, on this and other matters later. For, this test, each amplifer was auditioned using the latest Gale and Mission 70Mk11 loudspeakers. A Linn Sondek/Ittok and van den Hul/EMT player was used to try the moving-coil inputs, and a ( more realistically priced) Rega Planar 3 with an Audio Technica AT130E cartridge was used as the moving-magnet source. In addition, each amplifier was fed with the signal from a Marantz CD-63 Compact Disc player to evaluate its performance in this area.

Tuners All the notes concerning the general physical construction of the amplifiers apply equally to the matching tuners, except that their ergonomics tended to be slightly more impressive. The tuners are all relatively slim-line in build, and this may constrain buyers to plonking the tuners on top of, rather than alongside, the amplifers for aesthetic reasons. I use the word 'matching' fairly loosely: they do match and are perfectly viable combinations in each case, of course, but none of the manufacturers restrict you to the tuners actually reviewed here. You may not want a very sophisticated up-market tuner like the Akai AT-S7/L although you may require the high power of the AM-U5 amplifier, for example. No problem — there are other models (and this applies to amplifiers as well as tuners, of course) to choose from without losing either aesthetic or functional compatibility. The Onkyo tuner is on its own in being 'scale and pointer' driven:

it's an analogue design. The others are variants of the quartz controlled digital synthesiser type, and offer comprehensive pre-setting facilities to make life easy. Broadly speaking, the performance advantage these three synthesiser tuners offer over cheaper models like the Onkyo are limited to this facility, and also to greater sensitivity and (more importantly) selectivity. In plain English, the more expensive models, in particular, are more suitable for fringe reception use, or for those who like exploring the joys of distant transmitters— with the help of a suitable aerial, of course. Each tuner was evaluated two ways in addition to the laboratory

measurements regime. It was inserted into a loop comprising a Compact Disc player (a Sony CDP-101), a Radiometer SMG1 laboratory FM generator, amplifier and loudspeakers ( both from A&R) to find what degradation the tuner imposed on the direct feed from the CD player. Finally, the tuners were auditioned off-air. The system used in this case comprised Gale loudspeakers and pre- and power-amplifiers from Counterpoint and Krell.

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW Ot 70131- R 1984 81

Akai AM-U5 amplifier Akai's current styling, reflected throughout their electronics range, makes heavy use of large square and rectangular controls, giving their facias an integrated, almost restrained but very hi-tech appearance. Ergonomics, though, remain clumsily executed. Most of the controls remain in physically identical positions regardless of how set and it's not, therefore, always easy to tell operating status at a glance. On the technology side, the Akai looks distinctly promising. It

sports a number of features, including a non-negative feedback power amplifier design ('NFB only cures voltage, not current distortion mechanisms' says Akai's technical information sheet) and a servo controlled output stage ('Zero Drive') to reduce crossover distortion effects. There is an apparent contradiction here: servo loops are, by definition, feedback loops, but the Zero Drive circuit operates locally around the output stage rather than throughout the power amplifier. A tone defeat switch is also provided, and proved well worthwhile on audition. Two pairs of loudspeakers can be used in normal parallel

connection mode. Inputs are standard, allowing dubbing between tape decks in one direction only, and moving-coil cartridges are accepted. Minor controls are hidden behind a flap, facia left. The AM-U5 was disappointing on audition. It had a hard, forward

presentation with a lumpy, ill-controlled bass and a relatively opaque treble. Most of all, it never seemed totally in control of whichever system it was used with. As a result, its musical presentation seemed 'enclosed' and unforthcoming. Results were substantially the same via m-m and m-c inputs, whilst CD reproduction was a little better, but still rather 'cold' and 'hard' in feel. Finally, noticable noise ( hiss) was present on the m-c input. Few clues to the perceived behaviour are revealed in the

measurements. Power output hovers around the 70watt per channel level (8ohms, and 90 watts/4ohms), with a reasonable tone burst performance (which stresses the output stage and not the power supply) but slightly limited peak current delivery (which does stress the psu). Distortion levels are higher than normal, especially at frequency extremes— an expected by-product of NFB-less working, and not in itself of great importance. Output impedance is high too, presumably for the same reason, and this may help explain some of the lack of control noted above. RIAA equalisation is marginally inaccurate, but not excessively so, and the tone control response shapes can be seen to affect midrange linearity severely, as usual. Phono input capacitance is higher than normal, which will tend to modify the response (downwards at HF) of high impedance m-m cartidges, whilst m-c resistive loading is low at 49Hz. But this input is in any case unsuitable for high quality m-c applications— a comment that applies also to the other m-c equipped amplifiers in this report.

AT-S7L tuner Akai's tuner proved much more satisfactory than the amplifier, though there were synthesiser-induced background tones in the few-hundred Hz area. The tuner offers 20 presets which can be allocated at will across the three wavebands — FM, MW & LW. Station

name labels can be inserted into each preset button. A complex and difficult-to-understand LED display gives less useful information than may seem apparent at first sight: a 'quality tuned' light merely acts as a crude single step signal strength meter, and the other readouts give frequency and tuning mode information. FM sound quality is a little heavy at LF, but clean and well defined

overall. The Akai was essentially free of level dependent effects, and gave stable, articulate stereo even from weak signals. AM sound quality was also well above average, apart from a somewhat sibilant top-end. The price of this performance is high, however, since/other cheaper tuners can match the Akai for sound. Where the Akai scores is in its range of pre-setting options, its unusually good AM performance, its incredibly low FM stereo distortion levels, and in its superb RF characteristics on the FM band. It is well able to cope with very poor signals that would defeat many other tuners, a fact backed up by some excellent measured sensitivity/selectivity and related parameters. The muting threshold is high, though, at 20µV, and it can only be defeated by switching to mono. Note, finally, the clean 1kHz spectrogram. There are just significant levels of 3rd and 5th harmonic distortion present on the trace, but little else to complain about.

Akai AT-S7L 1 kHz spectogram, linear scale

Onkyo A-22 amplifier Slightly narrower, and noticeably lighter than the other amplifiers in this report, the Onkyo A-22 is low in cost, reflecting this mainly in a power supply which is lacking in the beefiness apparent in the more expensive models. Phono ( m-m only), tuner and two tape circuits are provided, one of the latter doubling as a CD input. Two pairs of loudspeakers can be handled, but the ' both' option connects the speakers in series to protect the amplifier from the otherwise low combined parallel impedance. Apart from anything else, this does mean a reduction in power available for each loudspeaker pair. Facilities are otherwise bog standard, but the ergonomics are distinctly above average, due partly to the simplicity of the control layout. Capable of volume levels not substantially short of the other

models tested, the Onkyo sounded excellent by group standards. It displayed a very articulate, ' in control' kind of feel, albeit in a slightly band-limited way — bass and extreme treble were subjectively slightly reticent. But it does this limited job very nicely indeed; it manages to go loud without distress and remains relatively impervious to different loudspeakers whilst doing so. There were no obvious vices in fact. It doesn't have the almost magical coherence of designs like the NAD 3020A, or the crisp precision of the new Rotels, but it stands up to most other similiar priced competition and convincingly outperforms two of the more expensive amplifiers reviewed here. The numbers read well too. The limitations of the Onkyo's power

supply can be seen in the fall in LF power bandwidth with both channels operating into 4ohms, but a real 40 watts/8ohms, or 50 watts/4ohms, power yield is nothing to sniff at for a sub-£100 amplifier. Nor is the peak current ability, though there is some asymmetry here between positive- and negative-going halves of the waveform. Typical figures for similar priced amplifiers ( but not, again, the NAD or Rotel) are nearer 3 amps than the 11-15 amps pumped out here. The tone control response shape reflects the

EQUIPMENT REVIEW

84 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW Ci HIR 19s4

reduced boost available with high volume settings ( beyond 12 o'clock approx) — a sensible arrangement — and the RIAA accuracy is just fair.

T-22L tuner This is an analogue unit which covers FM, MW and LW and is tuned using a fairly free-running, weighted tuning knob which drives a well illuminated pointer over a long and clearly marked scale. This sound arrangement is let down by a sigrificant ( almost 500kHz) scale calibration error, the second sample I have seen with this fault. Tuning is aided by a 5-segment LED display, but no 'proper' tuning meter.

Onkyo T-22L, 1 kHz spectogram, linear scale

The tuner parallels Onkyo's amplifier in turning out a good, but somewhat limited performance. There were clear HF losses — obvious even on speech, especially of the close-miked BBC continuity announcer type. Despite this the sound was airy and spacious, with a natural overall feel. AM was similarly clean but slightly dull, tonally. The main limitations of the tuner concerned a lack of effective

sensitivity. It took a very strong signal indeed to overcome noise, even though the measured results show nothing remiss. The other sample I reviewed some time ago, elsewhere, gave no hint of the high frequency losses found here, implying a fault with the review machine or a rather gross level of sample variability. That sample did have the same lack of sensitivity though, and the unit can only be recommended, therefore, for local reception of strong signals in conjunction with a good aerial, on the assumption that the tuner normally gives a flat frequency response. The latter is not the be-all and end-all of sound quality, but it is an important prerequisite. The 1kHz spectrogram gives a good result, with some 19kHz pilot

tone visible but just moderate levels of mostly even — harmonic ( 2nd, 4th) distortion. The signal strength meter had a restricted dynamic range, but the tuner checked out well in other respects. Note the very fast limiting ( 1.2pV for — 1dB) and good distortion results. All RF characteristics are at least satisfactory when price is added into the equation.

Sony TA-AX500-amplifier An imposing and purposeful design, this. Although the AX500 is a normal integrated design, a graphic equaliser 'loop' is fitted which is, in effect, what used to be labelled 'preamp out' and 'power amp in' on similar, older designs. The allusion to days past is quite apt in fact: the Sony uses old style, chunky control knobs and buttons— and it's none the worse for that. Ergonomics are in the 'could do better' class, but for reasons that I cannot begin to guess Sony have disfigured the facia with an enormous legend that says 'Audio Current Transfer', followed by a semi-gobbledegook explanation of what the term stands for! Vague claims in the instruction manual suggests the application of

novel technology, but there's little provided to back this up. Sony have used this amplifier as a vehicle for the idea of 'digital ready' amplifier inputs. The amp sports a 'for digital' flag on the front panel, and a special 'CD Direct' switch removes unnecessary circuitry from the signal path. Phono ( m-m & m-c) tuner, CD and auxiliary inputs are fitted, and two pairs of loudspeakers are provided for, but again only in series mode (see Onkyo review above). More impressive than the Akai on audition, the Sony was

nevertheless disappointing. It sounded well enough on the whole, but was unresponsive to recorded dynamics and tonal shadings. It

<.0NY TA-AX 50( ,

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111-F1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1984 85

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arlICNESTER FlIDIELITY

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86 HI-FT NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1984

Hi-fi for the discerning

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NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER I9M 87

also displayed level-dependent effects, losing perceived grip on the loudspeakers at high volume levels and sounding rather ragged as a result. These effects were consistent between the two phono inputs, though m-c was noticeably less happy overall. Via the flat ('CD Direct') input, the Sony was thought to sound rather ' busy' and slightly lacking in control, especially at frequency extremes, but simple recordings (chamber recordings, etc) were reproduced quite well.

Current delivery was slightly restricted for an amplifier capable of 100 watts or more (8 and 4ohms), and effective power into the Gales (the only models used for high power tests) was little different from the Onkyo which has only one-third the rated power output! Output impedances were a little higher than usual, but not seriously so — the damping factor ( into 8ohms at 1kHz) is well over 60. Apart from a higher-than-usual channel imbalance, the other parameters were fine; note the superb noise measurement using the 'CD Direct' input.

ST/PC500L timer This synthesiser tuner has 10 presets which can be allocated to any sequence of frequencies on any combination of wavebands. The preset buttons can be labelled with station names à la Akai, and a number of other circuit features allow such things as to ' read' the presets sequentially for a few seconds each until instructed to stop, and even to program up to four different frequencies to be called up on successive power-ups — for time-switch control, for example. FM, MW and LW bands are covered. Signal strength metering is provided and covers — for once — a

wide dynamic range. Minor (as opposed to major!) switching is rather jumbled, but as the presets are labelled with station names and the memory includes specific mono/muting/stereo instructions for each, operation in that mode should cause few real headaches. Sound quality, though, was something of a disappointment. There

was little specifically wrong in the sense that music and speech alike sounded crisp and clean enough. That said, though, the reproduction had a rather artificial, relentless feel that always betrayed its electronic origins. There was little sense of light and dark, tonal colours being rather indistinct; the whole sound veered in the direction of being 'flavourless' and processed, with unexplicit stereo. AM sound tended to be a little dull tonally, but of quite good quality overall, interference levels being moderate.

Sony ST/JX500L 1kHz spectogram, linear scale

Limiting took place at a high 5.50/(-1dB), but all other RF and AF characteristics tested were satisfactory-to-good, though not as impressive on the RF side as the Akai. The 1kHz spectrogram shows significant low order harmonic products, some 19kHz pilot tone and a variety of low-level intermodulation products which could account for the relatively 'dirty' sound quality. Finally, the level of background whistles was high enough to be audible on some program material.

Yamaha A-500 amplifier After the butch masculinity of the Sony, the Yamaha A-500 looks smooth and sophisticated, though the control layout suffers from the faults noted earlier. There are inputs for m-m/m-c, phono, tuner, auxiliary, CD ( labelled DAD) and two tape circuits. Two pairs of loudspeakers can be used in conventional parallel mode. In addition to the usual range of facilities, the Yamaha offers a record-out selector— to feed any input through to the tape outputs whilst listening to any other source — and a variable loudness control about which the less said the better.

It sounds good though. Via its CD input the Yamaha has a quite tactile and involving quality with a good stereo sound-stage stability and excellent differentiation of depth images when the partnering system is properly set up. There is some deterioration into the phono inputs though: the amplifier can sound a little hard and glassy at times, but the sense of proper instruments of finite size, anchored in a believable acoustic, remains. The m-c input is a little noisy at times and displays mild aggressive tendencies and a slightly wooden, uncontrolled bass, but it sounded as good as the best in this group, all of which are best suited for use with medium price ancillaries and (usually) moving-magnet cartridges.

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Measured power output is in the 80watt/8 ohms or 100watt/4 ohms region, with good short-term power yields and a strong tone — burst performance, implying good transient behaviour in practice. Channel matching as measured via the disc input was a surprisingly poor 1.4dB in error, but other figures were at least 'class' average. Output impedance is low to the point of being negligible whilst both noise and distortion measurements were fine, Note, too, the almost ruler-flat RIAA response which, combined with moderate capactive input loading, should mean an accurate transfer of the inherent response of most cartridges.

T-500 tuner The T-500 is one of the more straightforward synthesiser designs. The usual three bands (FM, MW and LW) are covered, with 5 presets being available for FM, and a further 5 for the AM bands. Signal strength metering is fitted, but like the Onkyo it is near useless in practice as it gives a full-scale reading with just 500./ — hardly enough for quiet stereo. Ergonomics and control layout, though, are good— easily the best of the group in most respects. The T-500 proved to have a strong, distinctive sound quality. It

sounded unusually open and ambient compared with the other tuners in the group, and had a full, rich character that made it attractive to listen to — superficially at least. But there were mild thickening effects, also heard as losses of musical information, and occasional confusion during complex passages of music. Speech took on a chesty character which was also noticeable on AM,

88 HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBIR I 984

intriguingly enough. The AM bands were otherwise satisfactory in sound, although the Yamaha was poorer than average at controlling interference levels.

Despite not very inspiring sensitivity measurements, the Yamaha had the edge on the Onkyo (which measures better) and was capable of very low noise results, spoilt only on weak signals by the presence of some synthesiser-induced whistles and other spuriae. Selectivity measured very well indeed for a tuner at this price level, and most

Yamaha T-500, I kHz spectrogram, linear scale.

other parameters were in- line with the price. Pilot tone rejection is unexceptional however; it is clearly visible on the lkHz spectrogram at - 50dB. This plot also shows a string of intermodulation products between 1- 19kHz. It is quite likely that these products are related to perceived sound quality, as they include high levels of odd-order distortion products that don't figure explicitly in the straightforward total harmonic distortion figures.

Conclusions It only remains to put the findings from these tests in some sort of context. Overall, they tended to confirm some long-term prejudices and assumptions, the most important of which is that money buys you technology and features, but not necessarily sound quality. The two best-sounding amplifiers were the two less expensive ones, and the differences found where were far from being minor or subtle, so they're not easy to dismiss. Even the superior power delivery of the larger amplifiers was

reduced by various factors which tended to strangle short-term power delivery - the kind that determines the effective perceived power ouput of an amplifier. Most of all, it is not possible to escape the conclusion that none of the amplifiers reviewed here can teach the best £100 amplifiers from other sources anything useful, but the Onkyo and Yamaha models are generally impressive enough. With tuners, too, technology doesn't buy results. I was quite

pleased to note that the lkHz spectrogram gave results that correlated quite well with sound quality - something that frequency responses and harmonic distortion measurements have failed to achieve in the past. Work done using this test as a base has shown that the spurious distortion products tend to build up rapidly as the applied test signal gets more complex- ie, more like music. At the end of the day, I don't think any of the tuners tested here are

outstandingly good buys. Bearing fringe reception in mind, the Akai clearly works well and sounds good, and the cheaper Sony and Yamaha models are able to substitute adequately at their lower price levels. None of these tuners - even the Akai - gave particularly good sound quality for the price, though, and there are several alternative models in the £100-£120 area which sound better. The Onkyo suffered from too many faults to be recommendable as tested, but a properly working sample (I have had one previously that sounded very good) might have carried the trophy in this test. +

Ample« Akai AM4AS Onkyo A-22 Sony TA-AX500 Yemen A-5011 Power Output 20Hz/1kHz/20kHz (dBW1 8 ohms 18.3 18.5 18.3 16.8 17.2 16.9 20.3 20.4 20.2 20.0 20.2 10.3 8+8 ohms 18.1 18.3 18.0 16.3 16.8 16.5 20.0 20.2 20.1 19.3 19.6 18.6 4 ohms 17.4 17.5 17.2 15.2 15.6 15.3 18.8 18.9 18.7 18.4 18.6 17.7 4+4 ohms 16.4 16.4 16.0 13.3 14.5 14.3 17.4 17.8 17.5 17.0 17.5 16.7 2 ohms toneburst 14.3 15.8 14.7 11.0 13.1 13.0 14.5 14.5 14.3 15.3 15.5 15.0

Instantaneous Peak Current (A) Distortion 20Hz/1kHz/20kHz (dB)

+10, - 10 +15, - 11 +9, -9 +15, - 15

THD Rated Power -60 -73 -62 -76 -82 -70 -90 -91 - 86 -80 -86 -77 IMD 19/20kHz aux input -69 <-80 <-80 -76 IMD 1W20kHz disc input -75 -78 <-80 <-80

Output Impedance 20Hz/1kHz/20kHz (ohms) Noise (dB)

0.28 0.28 0.36 0.08 0.10 0.15 0.12 0.12 0.18 0.05 0.05 0.09

Disc m-m CCIFVARM -79 -77 -s4 -82 Disc m-c CCIR/ARM -73 - -75 -73 Aux/Tuner CCIR/ARM -80 -82 -103 -83 Residual; Vol @ min -73 -81 -76 -82

Stereo Separation 20Hz/1kHz/20kHz (dB) Aux/Tuner input 69 55 31 73 65 41 92 92 73 79 70 44 Disc input 68 54 30 71 64 40 92 91 70 78 67 42

Input Overload (disc) 20Hz/1kHz/20kHz (dB) 35 34 32 33 32 32 30 30 29 30 29 27 Channel Balance (disc) 1kHz (dB) Sensitivity for 1W (mV)

0.1 0.1 0.6 1.4

Disc m-m 0.26 0.43 0.26 0.26 Disc m-c 0.007 - 0.008 0.018 Aux

Disc Input Loading 19.0 25.0 18.9 16.3

m-m 47k//300pF 47k//210pF 43k//200pF 48k//190pF m-cm-c 490 - 1000 non Typical price inc VAT £187.43 £95.96 £189.95 £189.00

Tuner Alud AT-571- Onkyo T-221. Sony ST-M(500L Yamaha T-500 Sensitivity for 50dB S/N (0/1 Mono 1.8 2.0 2.5 3.0 Stereo

Ultimate SignaVNoise(CCIFVARM dB) 30.0 24.6 32.0 46.0

Mono 80 76 79 77 Stereo 74 72 74 73

Muting Threshold ( pV) 20.0 2.5 2.7 3.3 Pilot Tone Rejection ( 19kHz) (dB) 78 67 70 50 AM Rejection (dB) 69 68 73 56 Capture Ratio (dB) 1.2 1.4 0.9 1.6 Alternative Channel Selectivity (dB) 79 64 72 75 0/P level, 100% Mod 1kHz (mV) Total Harmonic Distortion 1%)

640 980 893 545

1kHz, 100% Mod Mono 0.03 0.04 0.06 0.14 Stereo 0.04 0.16 0.15 1.40 Stereo Separation 1/5/10kHz (dB) 50 44 42 42 43 29 52 37 30 40 34 30

Limiting - 1dB (pV) 1.3 1.2 5.5 2.2 Meter Threshold (pV) - 0.6, 6, 10, 55 -, 16, 45, 220, 800 11, 15, 50 Response - 1dB limits ref. 1kHz 42Hz - 10kHz 50Hz - 6.5kHz 26Hz - 14kHz 17Hz- 12kHz Typical price inc VAT £143.93 £88.23 £164.95 £129.00

EQUIPMENT REVIEW

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1984 89

NAD 3020A. The standard by which all other amplifiers are judged.

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"They dominate the budget amplifier market — and rightly so" Stereo The Magazine

October 1983

"Sets the standard for budget amplifiers to beat" Hi-Fi Wow

March 1984

The most acclaimed Hi-Fi in the World To: NAO Sales, Cousteau House, Greyczine Road, Watford WD2 4SB. Te: 0923 27737. Please send ne literature an the `uli NAD

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SONG Or DESTINY Chris Breuni . auditions the Linn Karma

WHEN LINN PRODUCTS were machining out Grace 707 headshells to accommodate the Asak, the question ' Is the tonearm oKay?' was asked so frequently that their own eventua; design coLld only have one name, I-T-T-0-

K. 'Karma' means destiny, or fate— sorry, nothing to dc with Karma Sutra— and the cartridge is a developmert of the successful Asak.I daresay that really stood for 'A Step in Anticipation of Karma'. The grey suede-boxed new cartridge s not quite as described in

May's 'Subjective Sounds' scoop review: unfortunately it's 23% dearer than the price quoted there, and the body is a metal casting, to which the magnet/coils assembly is csk-bolted. A cover plate provides a flat face to the unit, and this has a cut-out for the cantilever, which facilitates cueing, although under some daylight conditions the all-b ack front and reflections from the record surface make overhead cueing less certain than with the red-pipped Asak. As in the Asak-T a concealed stainless steei bolt holds the assembly together, running roughly parallel to the aluminium cantilever rake. Much smaller than the Asak, the Karma can be very rigidly mated to the tonearm, and the stylus guard is holed for fixing bolts to pass through. So with the cartridge geometrically aligned, and the soft plastic base cap replaced, these bolts can be tightened without the magnetic field around the stylus proving a fatal lure to the allen key! Although hard plastic is retained for the contemporary Supex 2000 model, with which :he Karma nas much in common, the metal body must be welcomed for its comparative invulnerability, and no doubt the ' build' of these units w.11 help longevity, as well as initial sound quality. I noted the !ow m crophony with the Karma secured to my Zeta arm, as PM did with his Ittok. However, I was rather surprised to read that he was worried oy the ' brightress' exhibited by his sample. My first reaction was that the Karma sounded rather bland, if anything.

Getting used to it Linn specify a track ng range o 1.5-1.7gm, and although the 300Hz + 18dB lateral modulation tesi band on HFS75 could be accommodated at '.75- 1.3g-n, 1.6 proved satisfactory for music reproduction, with bias setting at one and a half times this — as with previous Supex, or Supex der ved m-c cartridges. When the Karma mistracks, as for instance on the DG digital Gilels recording of Beethoven's ' Pathétique' Sonata, the sound is grainy, or messy, rather than crackling obtrusively like the Garrott Decca. The tracking ability is one of the most marked advances over the Asak-T. Not having used a moving-coil cartridge for several months I had

forgotten how susceptible the system can be to switching transients in the home, and to earthing interface problems between components: how noisy the preamp can be, relative to m-m input in use! With the Zeta arm cable eopropriatel dressed and re-earthed, I was able to begin to assess :he stereo performance of the Karma (alas, before I had access to one of the Torlyte turntable stands from Russ Andrews (see HFN/FeR August p.63): my LP12 was on a PROP slab, on spiked feet). I ran the stylus in a locked groove for about six hours before listen•ng. I was impressed by the natural kind of weight, and by the staging

(another improvement over the Asak), but this was not as transparent and informative as the Decca/Garrott-MicroScanner. The music was presented in a very lucid way, with each strand sharply defined, and detail immaculately clear The bass was ricely extended. The Gilels piano record was very articulate, with the relative pitching of low

notes never in doubt, and the attack/decay of rapid notes telling in reproduction. A 'tinkliness' wnich PM had noted was perhaps evident on brassy passages in the classic Decca Kingsway recording of La Fille mal Gardée. Just as collectors tend to ' refer' new musical interpretations to the

first disc they owned the piece, and find the subsequent versions tending to register as 'wrong', so I was referencing the Karma to my Decca/Garrott. Certainly, the Karma did not allow quite the full voyeuristic thrills— the window panes were 'dirtier', the depth perspectives were not as suggestively lit. With Arrau's recording of Liszt's Vallée d'Obermann for instance, one was drawn into the strangeness of the music, its pathos registered, without also feeling this was 'the sound of a piano'. In Michele Petri's Philips disc of Vivaldi's Op.10 Concertos the recorder was not as precise in its woody timbre, and the solo image was spread wider over the staging than with the Decca.

After some time this referencing habit faded, allowing a more sensible enjoyment of the music. For the first time I actually liked Decca's digital production of Pineapple Poll— I found my foot tapping. With Weather Report's 'Three views of a secret' (CBS 84597) the synthesised pulses at the beginning of the track were choreographed in space/time, emerging as a cohesive sonic pattern. The fiendish Karajan/DG digital Nielsen Fourth gave conclusive evidence of the Karma's ability to recreate contrasting levels within the stereo frame, ie the crescendi in the upper strings against weighty plucked basses(beginning side two). As in a concert the ear can follow this or that instrumental line, and take in other dependent parts simultaneously.

Terminological inexactitudes 'Presumptuous and pert in the lower-mid, with a distinctively spicey treble, somewhat recherché in the bass register'. We haven't quite adopted the wine-bibber's vocabulary; yet lumps of metal, plastic, and polished diamond are said to 'play in time', or ' in tune', and these concepts are not easy to grasp. Trying to perceive the design aims of the Linn Karma I did find on certain material the interpreters' eccentricities were alienating rather than compelling — for example, on the Seon/Leonhardt version of Brandenburg Concerto 2(ii), the lateral separation of the instruments was fine, but the sound was too 'comfortable', and the tempo seemed to plod, plod. Conversely in 6 (ii) the clear bass line gave a flowing movement. But Harnoncourt's eccentricities in Handel's Water Musick, lively and perky one minute, mannered and dragging the next, took on a certain predictability, and interest waned when the Karma veiled what I knew was available from this Telefunken DMM reissue. On the execrable transfer from acetates of Beethoven's Symohony in D (VPO/Furtwângler: 1948 RAH concert), one was very aware of crackle, the very narrow central image on this Italian EMI mono LP, and the conductor's slowings in the second movement were puzzling rather than clearly organic in derivation.

Horses for courses These reservations to one side, the Karma clearly does supersede the refined Asak-T, representing a logical and affordable upgrade — better value, I would suggest, than the Koetsu Black at £434, and far more worthy than the older Kiseki Blue model. Its looks inspire a confidence which is not dispelled on auditioning. Tracking is secure, the cartridge is well in control of dynamics, the 'tunes' are engagingly reproduced, and stereo staging and separation are markedly superior to those realisable with the Asak forerunners. Quite possibly the Karma has been deliberately tailored to provide the widest range of users with 'de luxe' results over the widest range of material. And that is not really a summary description applicable to the cartridge I like for record review purposes, the £300 Decca/Garrott with MicroScanner tip; a unit intolerant of approximate setting-up, susceptible to dust and stylus clogging (which rapidly degrades performance), and for many listeners all too revealing.

MANUFACTURER'S SPECIFICATIONS

Frequency Response ± 1dB, 20Flz-20kHz Separation at 1kHz better than 30(18 Tracking Weight 1.5 to 1.7g m. Channel Balance at 1kHz within idO Recommended Load 470 ohms. Tracking Angie 20° Retail Price £345 inc. VAT Made in Japan for Linn Products Ltd, 235 Drakemire Drive, Glasgow G45 9SZ.

NEWS & RECORD REVIEW ocroaER 19S-I 91

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John Atkinson auditions £600 systems from Marantz and A&R Cambridge

HAT DO YOU USE to clean your Koetsu stylus?' Kessler asked me one day. 'A matchbox, of course; why do you ask?' (One should always answer loaded questions with another question.) 'There,' said Ken,

turning to 'Chooch' Humphreys, who was deep in a pamphlet on group delay distortion in CD players, 'I told you that our erstwhile leader isn't playing with a full deck. Krell, Audio Research, Magneplanar, Koetsu, Randall Research and linear crystal cable, PCM-F1 — his constant exposure to Looney Tunes hardware is stripping him of street credibility. Rubbing matchboxes against diamonds that cost more than the average man's system is not what hi-fi is about; there are 53 million people out there who don't have spikes under their speakers. Why doesn't 'Pops' review the equipment that normal people buy?' That evening, contentedly sipping my first Calvados while waiting

for the SP- 10's valves to warm up to the point where I dare entrust them with the task of passing music through to the Krell, I mused upon what Kessler had said. Although he is an American of Russian extraction, and therefore a paranoid schizophrenic of the more interesting type — a sort of Krushchev meets Nixon, with Damon Runyon overtones — he does have the knack of penetrating to the heart of the matter in a peculiarly accurate manner. There must be some truth in his argument: if everyone had followed my example and spent their disposable income on tweeky hi-fi — in the Atkinson household, it's the woman who runs the car— the roads would be a lot less crowded. And, if the Amstrad philosophy of giving people exactly what they want — flashing lights and infra-red remote control, not audio quality — at a price 20% lower than they expected, is the only real success story in 1980s hi-fi marketing, it still doesn't ring true. The customer may always be right, but the end result of the Amstrad course for me is a total denial of all the things that make music worth listening to.

So, where is the middle ground between the total rejection of high fidelity in sound reproduction and the pursual of every small improvement without counting the cost? It is totally subjective: that decision when someone says 'Enough is enough!' is made at a different level by everyone. A purchase that is poor value-for-money for one enthusiast is embraced by another with different priorities. And to make hard-and-fast rules about the value of increasingly small and increasingly expensive improvements in sound quality — above this point no-one is entitled to more quality — effectively amounts to totalitarianism.

But ... it is true that the reviewsl have written in the last year or so have shown a bias to the high end that reveals a possibly unhealthy narrowing of my own outlook. To look for an opportunity to turn back from the brink of hi-fi elitism, therefore, and thus effect a widening of horizons became a priority. The SP- 10 was finally ready for action ... and the phone rang — the

phone is not in the same room as the hi-fi, of course ( it's actually in the bedroom, but you don't want to know that). ' Hi!' said Steve Harris of Marantz UK. ' Have you come to terms with CD yet?' Out of breath from my rush upstairs to answer the phone, I managed to stammer out a clumsy reiteration of my hopes and doubts concerning that tantalising medium. ' Look,' he said, 'enough of the social niceties. We're promoting a CD-only system that'll retail for £650. Why don't you review it?'. The next day I happened to be speaking to John Dawson of A&R

Cambridge. They'd put a system together around the A&R A60, the Revolver deck and their new £200 Arcam 2 speakers; why don't1 review it? The price? £600! It seemed an ideal concept: two totally different systems, one CD, the other LP-based, and neither costing more than the Koetsu cartridge, the stylus of which I keep clean with a matchbook. For that matter, £600 is what I tend to regard as the starting point for good all-round speakers— Celestion SL600s, Linn Saras, Spendor SP1s, old Quads, Magneplanar SMGs, etc. The boxes arrived (Why does hi-fi seem to involve a concomitant interest in cardboard sculpture?) and Iset to work.

Marantz 'Concert' System Outside of the USA, the name Marantz is associated with a company which has been a subsidiary of Philips for a couple of years. They are allowed a surprising degree of autonomy, however, and have their

own design teams in Belgium and Japan, and a manufacturing facility in Japan. Perhaps this is a deliberate policy, as Philips is a name much more familiar from televisions and 'white goods' such as washing machines. Allowing Marantz to take the lead in the marketing of Compact Disc in the ' real' hi-fi market effectively removes the onus on Philips to re-establish a beach-head in an area they appeared to have given up on many years ago. And take the lead Marantz certainly have done, the UK branch of

the company working hard to spread an understanding of CD. The 'Concert' system is how they see CD sales expanding ,n the near future: a second-generation player, the CD-84, is coupled with the PM54, a high dynamic range integrated amplifier, and Marantz' inexpensive L050 speakers, to make up a package capable of producing music with the minimum of fuss. The whole caboodle will sell for about £650, representing a saving over the list price of the separate components of around £50, which Marantz suggest should be spent on QED 79-strand cable and a good pair of speaker stands. In the system handbook, as well as their own LS4 stands Marantz recommend Wharfedale's RS450 stands, filled with lead shot, or the Foundation stands. The handbook also lists classical and rock CDs which they feel to offer sound quality worthy of the digital system's potential, and gives sensible advice on speaker positioning, system wiring, and, interestingly enough, speaker absolute phase.

Marantz LD50 Loudspeaker This Belgium-designed and assembled two-way speaker is the largest ( 231) and most expensive (£ 140) in a range of three budget models introduced last Winter, and was reviewed by Martin Colloms in November '83. A 200mm doped pulp cone woofe• is combinec via a 13-element crossover with a ferrofluid-damped 25mm polyester dome tweeter. The bass tuning is what Marantz term 'Dynamic Bass Reflex

Alignment', a large port on the front panel giving a rather over-damped bass response, which should be 'tighter' than a more traditional, higher Q, tuning. Although the impedance dips to around 4.5ohms in the presence region, sensitivity is high, at around 89dBAN/m, and the speaker shouldn't overtax amplifiers. The chipboard cabinet is covered in a walnut vinyl finish, and the

25mrn thick front baffle is sculpted so that the grille frame does not interrupt the smooth dispersion of the sound from the drivers.

Marantz PNI54 amplifier One of a range of new models, this £189 60Wpc integrated amplifier features multiple power supply voltage rails, which are switched according to the demands of the music. In this respect it is not unlike the Hitachi class-G 'Dynaharmony' amplifiers from 7 years ago. The purpose is to keep the efficiency of the otherwise class-NB output stage high, but to be able to switch to a higher voltage rail when the signal goes above a certain level, thus giving an increased dynamic range capability. In effect, the intention is to produce a ' music power' amplifer: it can deliver the necessary high output voltages implied by

NEWS & RECOI2D REVIEW ()( .-m[3ER 1954 93

.4

the nigh level music peaks preserved on CD, but as these last only for a short time it is not necessary to be able to deliver the high continuous powercorresponding to those voltages. Marantz use a signal monitoring circuit followed by a monostable

to prov'de the control signal to the rail switches. The changes in voltage raps therefore follow the long-term musical envelope, riot the music waveform, presumably so that only the minimum of switching takes place. (The more expensive models also use bias switching so that the cutput stages run in rea class-A up to a quarter of the rated power.) The PM54 is quite large, and is finished in Marantz' traditional

'Champagne Gold' anodised finish. Internal construction is based on two main pcbs each side of the largish heatsihk, one for the inputs and disc amp ( m-m and m-c), and the other for the psu and power amps, tne latter using what appear to be complementary thick film devices. Inputs are provided for Tuner, CD, and Aux, as well as black disc, and switching facilities are provided for two tape decks and two sets of speakers. Two more front panel-mounted pcbs carry the tone and volume

control circuitry. A 'D rect' switch enables the tone controls to be bypassed. The large volume control is marked in 3dB attenuation steps but the control itself lacks detents- how fashions change! A 'Loudness' control is fitted, of course. (There's a fashion which has never gone out of style, even though I have never met anyone who actually uses that equivalent to four spoonfuls of sugar in the audio cup of tea!)

Marantz CD-84 CD player Matching tre PM54's 416mm width and 'gold' finish, the drawer-loading £399 CD-84 possesses many of the features missing from Marantz' first-generation CD-63 and '73 machines. 24, rather than 15, tracks can be accessed and randomly programmed, as well as index points on those discs possessing them. A reai-time counter gives disc-playing time, total elapsed played so far, or total time remaining, and time selection is possible.

'Auto Mesic Scan' plays the first lOs of every track; ' Music

Standby' mode puts the machine into pause when the selected track is reached ( useful for tape recording); 'A-B Repeat' enables a selected section of the music to be repeated ad infinitum (or ad nauseum if it's Culture Club); and there is a headphone socket, rear-mounted presets controlling the level both for this and the main outputs, with 2.0V being the maximum available.

All the usual controls are present, and many are duplicated on an infra-red remote control. Socketry is also provided for the Marantz 'bus' remote control. The PM54, however, is not equipped with this.

Sound Quality The LD5Os were mounted on their spiked triangular LS4 stands (the aesthetics of which I find less than appealing, although the spikes don't leave permanent marks in the carpet) about 1m away from side walls with 6m of 79-strand linking them to the PM54. My first impression was of a natural tonal balance, a little lacking in both top sparkle and bass. Despite the vented design, the bass was reasonably tight, and ' played tunes', je bass lines were not disguised by any one- note bloom. Roll-off was around 50Hz in my room, which is respectable for a smallish box. Considering the relatively low price of the LD5Os there was a

refreshing freedom from HF ' sizzle'. While a mild treble forwardness caused voices to project forward a little, and lent rock bass drum a slight boxy 'quack' on the transient edge, no particular frequency band was accentuated with any degree of severity. This is surprisingly good, and when I carried out a 1/3-octave room-averaged response over the listening 'window', I was astonished to see less than ±3dB variation over the main audio band, with gentle rolloffs below 125Hz and above 8kHz. This is excellent indeed, and the LD5Os acquitted themselves well when, using Cliff Stone's £80 Foundation stands, I dropped them into my usual Krell/Audio Research system - a ridiculous price mismatch, but a good sound.

Replacing them with SL600s revealed what I was missing - the LD5Os lose a lot of fine detail, and stereo from the system was not as precise as I'm used to from SL600s, even though there was a reasonable depth for CD. (Try as I may, I still find CD throws a shallower image depth than the equivalent LP on a top-class player. More on the possible reasons for this in a forthcoming issue.) The faults of the LD50 are more those of omission than in doing anything wrong, and they must be considered a very good buy at the price.

In the end, despite the newer player's use of better parts, I couldn't decide if there was any sound quality difference between the CD-84 and my usual CD-63. Error correction seemed to be of the same degree of competence- ie, excellent - but the main noticeable difference was in the access time, which was very much shorter. The only negative aspect concerned the remote. The operation I most want to do when listening to CD is to backtrack slightly or to go forward. While these operations are possible with the front panel controls, they are not featured on the remote: back to the previous track; on to the next; repeat; AMS; stop; pause; play; music standby; but no equivalent to REW or FF. Most annoying - I even had to get up from my listening chair, and that is not an operation I like to do overmuch. The amplifier was competent rather than outstanding, but, if

lacking the sweetness from more expensive class-A models, it, like the LD50s, didn't do anything wrong. Certainly it had the dynamic range to suit the system's requirements in my largish room, and if there were any audible artefacts from the psu operation, they didn't intrude. The disc input, based around a simple low-noise op-amp circuit, didn't have the 'class' of the similarly priced Naim NAIT, but was good if unexceptional.

Conclusions The Marantz 'Concert' system gave a respectable sound quality at its price level. Given that the CD player takes the lion's share of the budget, this doesn't show up as audible cost-cutting on amplifier or loudspeakers. In fact, the LD5Os emerged as very good value for money. They may be a little dull if partnered with an LP front end

94 HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER I9S4

having similar HF response tailoring, but gave a musical balance with a source such as CD, which at best is flat and at worse is over- bright. For a music-lover wanting a no-fuss CD system, Marantz have put together a package with many virtues and no obvious vices. But do use it with good cables and stands: it is all too easy to degrade the sound quality of any system by careless setting up. Those who feel the remote control to be a needless luxury should note that the CD-74, to be introduced at the end of the year, is identical to the '84 apart from its lack of remote, and will cost £349.

Min Cambridge Arcam 2 system As I said some 2000 words ago, A&R Cambridge are promoting a £600 LP system based on their A60 amplifier and the new Arcam Two loudspeakers, with a turntable combination consisting of the Revolver deck, fitted with a Linn LVX tonearm and the A&R P77 m-m cartridge. The budget allocation for each component is interesting in that the loudspeakers cost £ 199, the amplifier costs £ 199, leaving £200 for the front end, which is a return to the accepted wisdom of the mid '70s regarding system building. The aim behind the system is to provide a balanced mix of components which will provide good sound quality from LPs without being compromised by the price.

A&R Arcata two loudspeaker A&R Cambridge made their name with electronics, so it came as a surprise when they produced an excellent loudspeaker design last year, the Arcam One. The brainchild of one Anthony Holden, a physicist who joined A&R because he preferred designing loudspeakers, it is a medium-sized ( 251) rigidly braced, two-way model with an active option, priced at £300. The Two came about as a result of a study of the market which revealed £200 to be the optimum price for a less expensive speaker than the One. A model cheaper than £200 would sell in no greater number, and the extra value in terms of components and build quality made possible by the chosen figure means a better loudspeaker. The Two is aimed at competing popular models such as the

Heybrook HB2, which is often sold as a package with A&R's A60 amplifier by dealers. Like the One it is a two-way, but in a 141 internally braced cabinet, veneered in either walnut or teak, with an acoustic foam grille. The front baffle is 19mm Medite; the tweeter is a 20mm soft-dome unit from Vifa, while the 61/2 in. bass unit is a smaller version of that used in the One, again reflex-loaded via a rear port which is resistively damped with a ( removable) foam plug. The speaker is balanced to sound best away from the wall on open, rigid stands, but A&R say it won't be upset too much by shelf mounting. A design brief right from the start was to make the Two as sensitive

as the One, despite its smaller cabinet, and at around 88dB/VV it is therefore a little more sensitive than its competition.

A&R Cambridge A60 amplifier The A60 needs no introduction. Introduced in 1979 at a price of £99, the current price of £199 is less than inflation in the intervening years would suggest. Its classic slim-line looks made it a natural successor to the then fading Cambridge (no relation) range. Interestingly, for a small UK company, A&R stuff and flow-solder all their boards in-house; testing is automated, using Hewlett-Packard intelligent test gear; and perhaps as a result the A60 has an enviable reputation for

reliability and consistency. A&R themselves have a test sheet on every A60 ever made — over 22,000! As with Quad, it reflects the apparently British trait for product longevity — if it works well, then don't replace it— which the Japanese could do worse than to follow. The A60 was subject to a major front end revamp two years ago and

in its Mark Il incarnation was reviewed by Martin Colloms for HFN/RR last September. Construction is to a high standard, one fibreglass pcb carrying all the components apart from the toroidal transformer, while the disc input can have small boards 'piggy backed' to give optional capacitive and resistive loads for m-m cartridges and an m-c headamp. Apart from disc, inputs are provided for tuner, one tape and Aux, while outputs are provided for one set of speakers, either direct, or via the headphone socket, which mutes the speakers when a set of cans is plugged in. Unusually in a British product, tone controls are provided, as is a

low-pass filter for hissy program. Output power is specified at 40W into 8ohms; in fact MC measured 50W into 8ohms, but power into loads below 4ohms is curtailed by electronic protection.

The disc front end This is based on the relatively new £105 Revolver turntable. Basically a solid plinth design, some degree of acoustic isolation is provided by the feet and by splitting the Medite plinth into two parts, the top plate on which the arm and platter/bearing are fitted being separated from the base by rubber strips. The periphery of the Medite platter is driven via a circular belt from a conventional twin-pulley 145/331/2 ) synchronous motor. Finish is in hammered pink or grey, and a good quality moulded lid is fitted. Standard of construction is good. The bearing consists of a ground, flat-ended spindle, running in a brass sleeve with oil lubrication. The Revolver is made by the oddly-named, Warrington-based, See

Corporation, whose first product was the ' Pig' record clamp. This is a simple rubber push-on accessory, and is supplied with the deck. It clamps the record centre label to the partially conductive felt mat, and works reasonable well, although the record edges are still free to

95 IIJFI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1984

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96 H1-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1984

4 lift away from the mat. Tonearm is the widely available £85 Linn LVX. Made in Japan to

Linn's design, the ' Black Basik' features a locking detachable headshell, and is a medium effective mass model, suitable for lower compliance cartridges. Long familiar, it is a safe recommendation to partner mid-priced decks and is only now starting to get competition from the similarly-priced Rega RB300. Completing the package is A&R Cambridge's P77 m-m pickup,

listed at £40 or so. A best-selling model, this is a medium compliance member of a family of four A&R cartridges, all cf which use the same Japanese-sourced body. The P77 uses an excellent grain-oriented British diamond with a line contact ' Profiled' . er, profile, and an aluminium cantilever.

Sound quality The turntable was set up on a wall-mounted ' Prop' shelf, and checked for level. The manufacturers recommended a 50—hour run-in period for the bearing, so, not sure if A&R, who supplied the review sample, had done this or not, I left it running for a while. Tracking force was set at the recommended 1.8gm. Interconnection proved no problem, the A60 using phono sockets for disc ( 5-pin DIN sockets are used for the other inputs), and QED 79-strand connected the amp to the speakers, the latter locked to their own STM2 Medite stands (which add an additional £37.50 to the system price) with Allen-headed bolts. The speakers were about 1m away from room boundaries. I have to admit that after playing a number of LPs, I was a little

disappointed with the sound quality. Treble was ' brash' with a slight emphasis of disc surface noise, 'ow bass extension seemed slight, although low frequencies were otherwise clean; stereo imagery lacked depth and was on the narrow side; and pitch definition was a little suspect. Of course, I have been living with a very much better sound for some time, so my expectations were perhaps unrealistically high, considering the system cost. This is not to say that the sound quality was unacceptable; indeed, it was much better than that available from 'yer' mass-market tower system or a mid-priced system from 6 years ago. But after the basically satisfying sound of the similarly priced Marantz CD-based system, I had been hoping for a tidier presentatior. Obviously the next thing was to insert the other components into

my regular system to get an idea of their ultimate performance. The Arcam Two speakers, hooked up to the Krell/Audio Research combination, proved to be capable of doing some things rather better than the cheaper Marantz speakers. Stereo imagery was both more precise and more detailed, and rendition of image depth was good, if not in the class of the SL600s or Speridor SP1s, the more expensive speakers being better at revealing the fine detail of perspective, and in showing up the differences in acoustic on multi-miked recordings ( particularly my own!). The Arcam Twos gave a more integrated image, which may be more satisying to some ears, but which is less accurate.

Tonally, they were less seamless than the LP50s, having a slightly 'detached' presence region, which projected cymbals a little more forward than the rest of the drum-kit, and accentuated sibilance slightly. Although they appeared more extended in the bass, the quality was just a little uncontrolled, there berg a slight warm 'follow-through' on LF transients and a ' roundness' to double-bass. This was with the foam plug in the reflex port; removing it brought up the bass level but at the expense of the definition. I hasten to add that this was not to a severe degree, but was noticeable when compared with the IB SL6 (which has more lower mid coloration, however). Replacing the A&R stands with the Foundation stands, increased

the apparent bass extension and definition, without any deleterious effects on the midband. 1/3-octave room-averaged analysis showed a gently rolled-off bass,

which surprisingly, coisidering the subjective bass extension, didn't

go any lower than the LD5Os or SL600s. A slight treble depression presumably aided the impression of depth, but left the presence a little isolated, as found in the listening tests. Sensitivity was almost identical to the LD50s, both requiring around 6dB less drive than the '600s, for the same subjective loudness.

Substituting the A60 amplifier gave a decrease in bass definition and extension, and emphasised the presence band somewhat. The piano sound became 'smaller' on some of my Soundfield piano recordings. The image also became shallower and narrower; nevertheless, if a little thin on CD and mastertape, the A60/Arcam Two combination gave an enjoyable sound from LP with my Linn/Koetsu, and I suspect the duller Asak would work better. Which brings me to the disc front end. The P77 was a reasonable

tracker, coping with the 70µm track on the Ortofon test disc at 1.9gm, but not coping with the 8011m ' killer' track. LF resonance was of low Q, placed around 12Hz, which shows a good match with the LVX. Plugging the Revolver combination into my regular system driving SL600s revealed low frequencies to be light but ill-defined, and there was a degree of midrange congestion and sibilant 'splash'. The stage narrowed and shallowed considerably. Pitch definition was a little uncertain, the turntable showing a little more wow & flutter than I would expect at this price level, piano recordings suffering in particular. This may have been a defect of the review sample, the pulley running slightly eccentrically, but other reviewers have noted a similar failing. With the Arcam Two/A60 combination, their subjective lessening of bass extension improved apparent definition, and the veiling introduced left the presence band less isolated. I have heard the cartridge/arm combination working better, so this Revolver sample seemed to be the weak link, mainly regarding the pitch instability.

Conclusions It is hard to sum up the Arcam Two system. While the combination gives a not unpleasant sound, and will probably be enjoyable to someone unwilling to embark on a long and expensive upgrading path, a little of what I, personally, like to hear from a hi-fi system has been left out. The A60 and the Arcam Twos are, perhaps, out of place in a system based on the Revolver; both have the potential for much better things when partnered with a costlier front end.

In a £600 system, it could be argued that one should spend less on amplifier and loudspeakers in order to spend more on the front end. I have always shied clear of emphasising this policy, due to the ridiculous overkill put about by the less-balanced 'flat earthers' eg 'Buy a Linn and play it through your transistor radio'. However, the Revolver, while working well at its £ 105 price level, is not up to the performance capabilities of the rest of the chain. It really belongs in cheaper starting point systems, I feel, but replacing it blows the £600 budget. Personally, I would choose one of two policies in order to free more of that budget for the turntable: 1) choose a good pair of speakers around the £ 100 level to partner the A60; or 2) go without the facilities offered by the A60 and drive the Arcam Twos with a less expensive basic amplifier such as the new Mission Cyrus.

It is possible that our Revolver sample was below par, and that the Arcam Two system you audition will not suffer to the same degree from pitch problems. In that case, the quality may well please. However, in my opinion, dividing the budget equally for the three major components of a disco playback system is still not the most synergistic way to optimise that system's sound quality.

Overall conclusion This was a fascinating project to work on. Living with hi-fi systems at this ' realistic' price level made me realise three things: One is the improvement in performance that has happened in

recent years with speakers costing £200 or less. I suspect that a model like the Marantz LD50 would blow away even expensive designs from the mid '70s. Unless you are prepared to spend £600 or more, or have particular needs such as an extended bass response to reproduce organ recordings, I would stick with a good, inexpensive pair of speakers, mounted on a good stand — the ' Foundation' seemed universally excellent value, even at its high price— and upgrade with better amplification, improving the LP player and/or investing in a CD player. The second point is that for the kind of budget discussed here, a

CD-based system for me gave a better overall sound quality, more easily achieved. There may be arguments over whether a pricey and well set-up LP player will deliver a more ' musical' sound than a CD player. There are no doubts in my mind, however, that the CD player offers a more reliable, more predictable performance in budget systems, and it may be this fact that establishes the medium.

Thirdly, reverting to my 'Looney Tunes' system, after 10 days of intensive listening to these two good systems, proved an intense pleasure. Linn, Koetsu, Krell, Audio Research, and all the rest offer me value for money. It's just a shame that excellence seems always to cost just that little bit more than one has available to spend.

111.11 NEWS & RECORD REVILW OCTOBER 1984 97

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the latest in interconnects — sin • le-cr stal cables

WHEN CONDUCTING the HFN/RR cable survey earlier this year, I little suspected that important developments relevant to the review were already in the pipeline. Some comments were made there on the crystalline properties

of metal conductors; in the case of copper, for example, an admixture of oxygen is the common impurity, and copper oxide barriers are formed between adjacent copper crystals. Red copper oxide (Cu2O) is a good rectifier, and on an empirical basis might be suspected of being a cause of sound quality differences in cables. Certainly the cable survey suggested that sound quality improved with increasing copper purity, particularly with the oxygen-free grades (OFC). Other factors such as insulation material, conductor spacing, and stranding were all influential, but the normal electrical properties, of which resistance seemed to be the most important, all appeared to have less of a subjective effect. The mutiple crystal boundary explanation for wire 'sound' seems

as logical as any other, but cannot be defined by any conventional tests for distortion, even with very high resolution analysis down to —100dB. Yet the fact remains that the main influential factor affecting cable sound is length; as a given cable link is progressively shortened, its own contribution becomes less and less audible. Consequently, the underlying criterion of the cable tests was simply how 'short' the cable sounded! In this way, 10m of good cable could sound better than 2m of bad. Given the possibility that this behaviour might be due to the crystal

properties, an investigation was made by Osao Komada (Chief Engineer of Hitachi Cable Ltd) in Japan, to identify those conductors which possess superior crystal properties, ie, those with the least crystals, or even those with none at all. ( In some respects this paralleled the work done in the UK by Peter Belt on lead and lead alloys.) A non-crystalline cable was produced by filling a polythene tube of 6mm inner diameter with mercury, a fair conductor which is liquid and hence non-crystalline at room temperature. Tests indicated that this mercury 'cable' gave an enhanced sound quality, though a sensible measurement confirming this behaviour has so far eluded them. The mercury experiment strongly suggested that crystals were the

critical factor, so the properties of various grades of copper were examined in some detail. While OFC did sound better than normal

Shows the long linear crystal structure of 'LC' cable (L) versus top quality OFC cable (R). Crystal length typically 50mm OFC crystal length ypically 0.05mm.

copper in general, microscopy showed that even annealed OFC has around 50,000 crystal boundaries or domains over a 1m length; bar-refined copper may have 150,000 or more.

Metallurgists were consulted to help develop a technique to minimise the crystal content, and a special process was evolved whereby still higher purity copper ingots with further reduced oxygen contamination are thermally 'zoned' at temperatures very close to the melting point. This technique encourages the growth of much larger crystals, typically 10 times the size of those in normal copper. Ideally one could wish for a process which produces a single crystal, much in the manner that large semiconductor crystals may be 'pulled' slowly from a batch of molten material. From a crystal diode theory perspective, such a single crystal would provide the shortest electrical path between two points.

Such 'whisker' production is impractical as yet, but a particular physical property of copper fortunately goes a long way towards making up for this deficiency. When pure, copper is extremely malleable and ductile, the very properties which make it so suited for drawing out into cable. When large crystal copper is drawn, the crystal stretches itself rather than breaking, so the process results in a cable strand composed of a bundle of elongated crystals, the so-called ' LC' ( linear crystal) structure, which contrasts with the 'grains of sand' structure exhibited by normal copper (see pics). The crystal elongation is so marked compared with wire drawn

from normal bar-refined copper (called TPC— Tough Pitch Copper — in Japan), that it is estimated that the number of crystals per unit length is reduced by a factor of between one and two thousand. This factor is somewhat smaller compared with OFC, but the ratio remains between 300 and 700 depending on the grade.

If crystal content is, in fact, responsible for the subjectively assessed length of an interconnect, then the new cable should sound very 'short'. Indeed, given my normal 10m cable test length, linear crystal ( LC) cable should compare with the performance of only 10cm of a good ordinary cable. The implications of this are fantastic. The effective disappearance

of cable ' length' in an audio system would mean that all the components— cartridge, preamp, power amp and speakers— would sound as if they were joined more closely together. Aside from the active electronics and mechanical transducers, the major remaining limitation would be imposed by the ordinary copper within the components themselves, like the printed circuit tracks, the crossover inductors, and the cartridge and loudspeaker coils. Audio systems could be arranged more flexibly with respect to cable length considerations, with components placed where convenient rather than to the dictates of short cable runs.

Hitachi LC OFC cable Hitachi Cable Ltd announced the availability of ' LC OFC' cable in Japan last September, and samples of three types have recently arrived for evaluation. Hitachi Cable is a major division of the giant industrial company Hitachi Ltd, and is not directly related to Hitachi Audio. Marubeni Corporation handle Hitachi Cable exports, and at present a UK distributor has yet to be appointed. The designer has attempted here to optimise the other parameters in addition to employing linear crystal technology, and I was supplied with three different cables, including a spiralled twin, a more advanced four-conductor cable in a quad arrangement, and a twisted pair for low-level interconnect purposes.

SSX-102P LC OFC This olive green speaker cable has two 1.25mm2 conductors of 54 x 0.18mm strands each. The bundles are wrapped with a tough, firmly shrunk helical tape, which holds the strands under compression and prevents vibration. This consideration was a factor noted in my recent cable report, and results from the force developed between parallelled current carrying conductors due to the interaction of their magnetic fields. A high molecular weight, electron beam cross-linked polyethylene insulated jacket encloses the helical wrap; polyethylene was also noted as a 'good sounding' insulator in the cable tests. The spiral pair are finally sealed in a heavy, rigid grade of PVC, again tough enough to resist motion between the conductor pair. The cable is claimed to have no directional qualities, loop resistance is 0.22 ohms for 10m return, and the parallel capacitance is quite low at 478pF for a 10m run. The twisted pair construction also gives a low inductance of 5.5µH for a 10m loop.

SSX-104 LC OFC The light brown SSX-104 LC OFC is identical to the 102P, except that it uses a balanced and twisted four-conductor set. When the opposite conductors are paired, the result is an improved twisted cable, with lower stray fields and half the resistance. Depending on crosstalk considerations, it could be used alternatively as a stereo pair.

SAX-102 LC OFC This turquoise/green interconnect cable comprised a twisted pair of polythene-insulated conductors. There are 50 x 0.08mm strands in each, providing a quite negligible loop resistance of 0.18 ohms for 1m. Indeed, it could be used as speaker cable over very short runs. The conductor pair is rigidly held in an inner polyethylene jacket,

and this is surrounded by a normal, braided copper coaxial shield. A PVC outer jacket brings the overall diameter to a substantial 6mm. The capacitance is low at 80pF/m between conductors, with the braid connected to signal ground. Loop Inductance was 0.601 for a 1m loop. The cable is marked as directional, and for the tests was used with a 'floating shield' — the balanced pair used for signal and ground respectively, with the braid connected only at the driving or sending end.

Test method The high quality listening chain comprised a Krell KSA50 power

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amplifier with a 10m cable run to the Magneplanar MG3, Celestion SL600 or Spendor SP1 loudspeakers. 1m runs were used between pre- to power amplifier and the PCM and tape auxiliaries. Preamps included the DNM and the Counterpoint, and the CD player was a Yamaha CD-X1. Highly regarded comparison cables included Monster Reference Interconnect and Powerline, Absolute Wire, Randall Interconnect, and vdH 'silver'.

Results The absolute reference remains the shortest link, and for me there could be no clearer proof of the audible qualities of copper crystals than the results of auditioning the LC OFC cable. Quite simply, the 'LC' cable consistently gave the impression of considerable shortening of the wire length. The substitution of LC wire for the speaker cable produced a significant opening up of the sound-stage. Greater 'sparkle', clarity and 'power' were evident despite the fact that the LC cable had the poorer loop resistance. The sound appeared to improve in many areas, such as bass clarity and 'tunefulness', midrange focus and depth, and treble detail. A Japanese critic has described the effect as akin to moving up to a

completely new level of loudspeaker quality. While this judgment depends on the 'fineness' of the ranking, I was certainly aware that LC cable had this kind of effect. On returning to normal cable, the sound appeared strangely 'veiled', 'shut in' and lacking in transparency. The interconnect cable proved to have an even greater effect,

presumably because the crystal boundary diodes have proportionately more influence on smaller signals. I find it hard to believe that even a 'cable sound' sceptic could fail to hear the insertion of an LC interconnect; it was rather like switching from a good cassette copy to the original source. The sound with LC was more open, alive, detailed, and transparent, as well as firmer and better focused throughout. The initial substitution was made between CD player and preamp, yet a similar improvement was experienced when a second section was put between pre- and power amplifier. The differences were still more clearly apparent when LC was used in the rest of the system. As testing proceeded, the high quality of the results led me to the

belief that the whole reproducing chain is limited at present by the effects of ordinary copper. If a few metres of LC had such a significant effect on a home replay system, then what might be the effect of substituting it for the long cables used in recording studios? The lowest level signals are clearly most at risk, so moving-coil cartridges and microphones are set to benefit most, and I hope to investigate this shortly, when supplies are freely available. At present neither retail sales arrangements or prices have been

fixed for LC cable, but the indications are that it will fit in at the top end of the ' realistic' price spectrum, well below the level of the true exotics. My estimate would be around £8/m for the basic speaker cable, rising to £20 for a pair of terminated interconnects, which are at present produced in 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5m lengths in Japan. A further speaker cable is also available there, the SSX-101, using low inductance coaxial construction. This has a much lower loop resistance at 0.068 ohms for a 10m loop, but a higher capacitance at 2,100pF for a 10m run. It is likely to cost rather more, an estimate being £20/m.

Conclusion The generalised result that linear crystal cable demonstrates is that an electrical component as simple as a piece of wire may actually affect sound quality, yet continue to defy discrimination under conventional audio lab test scrutiny. We have long suspected that conventional measurement cannot tell the whole story. For example, they have failed to define clearly the sonic differences between valve and transistor amplifiers. Most quality-conscious audio designers now accept that passive components such as capacitors and resistors can affect the sound quality, and with this confirmation of the importance of conductor crystal structure, related experiments begin to make sense. The work on lead and silver cables can be seen to be related to this, as can investigations into the diode- like boundaries or junctions that occur when dissimilar conductors are joined. The implications are far-ranging. For example, is the sound quality

of a valve power amplifier limited by the considerable length of copper wire used in its output transformer? Audio Note have used pure silver windings in an attempt to control this on an empirical basis. How important is the winding in a moving-magnet or moving-coil cartridge? Silver wire has often been promoted for this application. The internal wiring of a tonearm, followed by the external metre or so of cable to the amplifier; these too are likely to be critical areas, showing a highly cost-effective return owing to the small amount of LC copper wire that is needed.

In loudspeakers, one can think of the long wires used in some panel speakers such as Magneplanars or the electrodes of the Acoustat. The designer of the latter noted a sonic improvement when bar-refined copper wire was replaced by OFC. Motor coils and their lead-out wires are other considerations. Crossover network inductors contain considerable lengths of copper wire, and one might speculate whether the superior clarity of transformer core crossover inductors may be due in part to the much shorter length of wire needed for a given inductance.

Printed circuit board copper may also benefit from attention. The LC technique would not appear readily applicable here because copper foil production lacks the crystal elongation that is produced by wire drawing. An alternative method for producing foil is needed here, and Hitachi have just announced a rolling process for OFC.

It would seem that uncommonly long cable runs ought to be avoided in the studio, and the audio signal should ideally be processed or captured as close to the microphones as possible. For digital systems, the ND converters should be at the microphone position, which is already possible with the new Neve digital desk. The encoders for small digital recorders should also be near the microphones, with the tape machine remotely sited and connected via its uncritical RF cable. Digitally modulated audio signals should be immune from cable crystal effects, but microphone manufacturers should be encouraged to set a high gain at the capsule preamp so as to drive the cables hard. I now anticipate that a more serious and constructive approach will

be taken to the subjective qualities of cables and electrical components, as a result of the remarkable performance of the Linear Crystal cables. Further data are already becoming available, and will be reported as soon as possible. -‘-Note: The author wishes it to be known that he was commissioned to produce a private evaluation of 'LC' cable.

WHY NO BEETHOVEN by Humphrey Lyttelton. Hardback, 176pp with illustrations by HL. £7.50.

THE MUSIC OF JEAN SIBELIUS by Burnett James. Foreword by Raymond Bantock. 174pp, illustrated, with music examples. List of recommended recordings. Hard covers. Price £15.95. Published by Golden Cockerel Press Ltd, 23 Sicilian Avenue, London WC1A 20H.

Granville Bantock. Of course, the editorial brief, to convey the

sound specific to a composer by description is not one I support, and for £ 15.95 you could

lit ' lei i r -

141 \ '

Published by Dobson Books, Bolsover House, 5-6 Clipstone Street, London W1P 7EB.

With Humphrey L y t t I et o n ' s main

Poor old Sibelius! But it is not the sci-fi 'egg head' dust jacket depiction that put me off reviewing this book, so much as having to say my former colleague Burnett James has produced a lead balloon of a text, difficult to

still get an armful of Sibelius records (or one CD!) and experience the music proper. 'Sibe-lius ... appears often to leave out more than he puts in, especially in the matter of extended melody', or 'the structure . . . is

BOOKS media exposure these

days via the radio as a

relate to those lively free-hand columns he once contributed to this magazine. Even his

self-generated by ... its natural organic evolution — E-flat biased towards A, through

presenter, it is easy to forget that he was a discography just re-heats the old stew of C/c into G-flat and back to E-flat via the tonic

seminal British jazz influence and is still a views on the Sibelius cycles of Bernstein, minor' mean as little to someone unversed

fine trumpet player. This diary of tours of Beglund, Karajan, Maazel, etc. (Anthony Col- in the Sibelian idiom as I suspect would the

Poland and the Middle East he carried out lins' set disappeared as the book went to various printed music examples. Who, apart

with a small band between 1976 and 1982 on print, but at least Beecham's historic RCA from Pierre Boulez, still remembers his tonic

behalf of the British Council brings out the Sixth briefly became available here.) Get sol-fa? Yet, in his Brahms book earlier in this

flavour both of touring's vicissitudes and its past the contrivance of the opening sent- series, Bernard Jacobson did provide stimu-

rewards. From problems with hotel and ence, and the biographical outline is filled lating comment; somehow the reader did

visas to those with cloth-eared PA engineers out with magpie-like observations which come away with fresh insights. Contrast the

who ubiquitously fail to realise that a small elaborate the chapters of musical analysis. two respective paragraphs which describe

jazz ensemble, being internally balanced, Cross-references to Hemingway, Mahler, the deaths of each chosen composer. No,

needs reinforcement, not remixing via a Nietzschean philosophy, these at least give Burnett James really smacks of the 'commis-

multi-track desk, the lot of a travelling musi- us glimpses into the author's mind. More of sioned' book, rather than the Sibelius study I

cian is charmingly and wittily described. John Atkinson

Sibelius himself emerges from an all too brief personal recollection by the son of Sir

am sure he could have given us. Christopher Breunig

và

o o

111-11 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1984 101

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JS BACH - Organ Works. ( Denon A. (AMOK) 36C37-70041 Tocceta & Fugue in d etc. A IAMcKI 15,1110 ECD1180041 Suite 2 etc. (410 500-2) A (JA)

SAX Tone Poem., (Chandos e (AMOK) CHAN 8307) Symphony 4. (Chendoe A WA) CHAN 8312)

BEETHOVEN Violin Clo, . A(JA) 1Docce 400 04821 Piano Concerto 1, A (AMcK) (DG 410 511-2) Symphony S. A WA/ (Clecce 400 060-2) Symphony S. Berlin A IAARKI (Denon 38C37.7001I Symphony El. A (13P) (Dacca 410 003-2) Symphony 6, Berlin A (AMOK) (Denon 38C37-7040) Symphony 7. Berlin A IDPI (Denon 38C37.7032)

A IAM4K1 iSD.ymnpohno3n8yc 93.713.7e0r21i1n)

Piano sonata in C. 08.111 A. AK) etc. (DIO 410 520-2) Piano sonnet. MA* (AK) (Decca 410 260-2) Reverie. (OG 400 032-21 A (AK1 Five Overtures. A (AM4K) (Chendos CHAN 8316) Deinnetion of Faust. A (DPI (Dacca 410 181-2) To Deum. (DG 410 696-2) A/A• (DP)

ORAHMS: Piano Concerto 2, A MK) (Decce 410 199-21 Hungerien Dances. A (DPI (Philips 411 426.2)

Alto RImpsody. (IDPI 0rfeo CO25821 A)

Requie A IDP( m (Philips 411 436-21

BRUCKNER: Symphony 4, (CBS 380061 A/I1 IAMcK) Pe/A ( DPI Symphony 4

(sC evrnn po hn .3:8 637 7126) A./A OH)

(Orleo CO24821 A) CANTELOUBE Chants d'Auvergne. A (JA)

1Decca 410 004-2) CHOPIN Piano cto 2. A (AK)

IPhilips 410 042-21 Piano works A./A (JA) (Decca COPLAND A,p.,..4,1L122s,-2ning. (0,,

(Te(.« CD-80078) COUPERIN Pieces de Clcvecon, A° (AMcK)

(Denon 38C37.7070( . 1H)1 DEBUSSY Preludes Book 41

IDenon 38C37.7043) Tornite arrangements Ae/0 (JAI (RCA RD 84587)

9. A/II (AIWA) iSpyemccp.heo 04-21 ony DVORAK

Symphony 9. A (AMOK' (Denon 38C37.7002I Cello cto.1DeoCe 410 144-2/A (AK) TCHAIKOVSKY

ELGAR Ovenures, A/A. (AMOK) (Chandos CHAN 8309) Music for Strings A (JA( (Nimbus NIM500131

FALLA Three Cornered Hat. A 1AMcK1 (Dacca 410 008-2)

GERSHWINi American M %rise, A (JA) (RCA RCD 14551)

(EM) DC 7 47 9VC&8" .S0212t-../ A* (OP)

MING: Pear Gynthighlights. A (Able) (Philips 411 038-21

GROPE: Grand Canyon Suite. A (JA) )Decca 410 110-21

HANDEL: Water Music, ISM° ECG A OH) 88005) WaterWireworks Music, A. (AMOK) (Dec. 411 930-2) Horn Concerti A (CBI (Philips 411 122-2) Messiah )corne A (JA) AAM/1:0ireau-Lyre 4u 8582

HAYDN A. 11H1 Quartets 0876 4/2. (Philips 410 053-2( The Seasons A/ (AK) (Philip. 411 428-2)

KUMMEL : Trumpet concerti A 1A51410

JANACEK: (Erato ECD88007/ Sin Ionia» etc. A (DP) (Dacca 410 138-2)

KROMMER: Conceni. (Cleves CD 8203( A (DP) LEHAR WelNes. (EMI CDC 7 47020 A (DP)

2) MAHLER: Symphony 2. (Te(erc CD- 11./S (DP/

80081/21 Symphony 9 (DG 410 726. A (AMcK) 21

MENDELSSOHN Midsummer night's drearmA LAM410 IPhilips 411 106-2)

MOZART Syrns 38/39. (CBS 38()C41 A (AMOK) Violin Concertos, A/11) lingo 411 613.2) Piano Concertos 19/25. A OH) (DG 410 989-2) Piano concenos 9.11 (Archive 410 905-2) Fine Kleine ... etc (Erato ECD88014) Piano sonatas (Philips 411 136-21 Magic Flute highlights. (EM) CDC74700821 Concert Arias, (Decce 411 713-2) Requiem. (Philips 411 420-21 Coronation Mass. (Philips 411 139-2) Requiem. (Teldec 8.427561 Pelee. • . etc.

CD4300421 Symphony 2.031S CD-2471 Overtures, (DG 400 044-21 Gait. Parisienne. (Dacca 411 708-2) Mass, (Argo 410 149-2) Violin Nos 1/2, (DG 410 524-2) Alexander Nevsky (Dacca 410 164-2) Turandok (DG 410 096-2) Dido & Aeneas. (Chandos 8306) Symphony 3.

MUSSORGSKY:

NIELSEN: OFFENBACH:

PALESTRINA: PROKOFIEVi

PULC.1.41

PuRCELL

RACHIWANINOV

A (AMOK)

A ((H)

A (1H)

A• 11H)

A (FM)

A IFM1

A/A• (AK)

AMP) A (JA)

A/A. (DP/ A MK) A (AK)

A (JA) A (AK)

A (AMOK)

A (JA)

A (JA)

A 1JA)

(Decce 410 214-2) Peg. RhspeodY. A/A• ((H)

(PhiliPe 410 052-2) Suite 2 etc, A ((H) ¡Philip. 411 034.21

RAMEAU: Dardanus Suits A 11H1 (Ereto ECD88013/

RAVEL: Solaro etc. A (AM4K1 (Decai 410 0102/ Daphnis & Chloe. (Decca A (AMcK) 400 055-2) Cluertet A (JA) (Oslo. D/C0 3004)

RUMS& Pines erc. of Rome. IIH) 10.00. 410 14511 Pines, Fountains. Dade A. AMOK) (Philips 411 419-2) Church Windows. A/A• (AK) (Chandos CHAN 83171

IMASKY- Scheherende, A (JAI KORSAKOV: Mecca 410 253-2) ROOMS& Guitar Concertos. (Philips A (AMcK)

400 024-2/ ROSSINI: Barber of Seville, A/A. (AMOK)

(411 058-2) SAINT4AENS: 'Organ' SsraPhanY. ( 1.4141c )JM

CD-800511 'Organ' Symphony. Decca 410 201-2)

A SCARLATTI Concerti Grossi. (Philips 403 017.2)

SCHUSIJIT: Symphony B. (DG 410862-21 Piano Sonatas. (Philips 410 A 1(H) 605-21 Piano impromptus. A (JAI (Philips 411 040-21 Piano Trio in BO. A (Able) (Chandos CHAN 8308) Linder AI(U) (Philips 411 421.2)

SCHUMANN: Symphony 2.10G 410883' A. (AK) 21 Symphony 3. AI(H) (Philips 411 104-2) Linder. (Orleo C031821 AI A./A OH)

SHOSTAKOVICII: Symphony 5. A (AK) IDecce 410 017-21 Symphony 8. A IAK) (Decca 411616-2)

MEWS: Symphony 2, A/A• (JA) (Decca 410 206-2) Symphony 2. A (JA) (Chandos CHAN 8303)

!STRAUSS RadetAy Meech etc A IAMcK1 (DG 410 027-21

R STRAUSS Don Juan etc. (Decca 400 A MARK) 085-2) Ton& Verk(erung etc, A• (AK) (DG 410 518-21 Also . Don Juan. A/A. (AMOK) (DG 410 959-2) Four Last Songs, * 1(H) )Philips 411 052 21

STRAVINSKY rireberd. (Philips 400 07421A (JA) FirebirdiDecce 410 109-2) 11./A (DP) Symphony 2. A• (AMcK) (Chandos CHAN 8304) Symphony 4. A• (JA) (Telerc CD-80047( Symphony 5 A (DP) (Delos D/CD 3015) Piano cto 1. A WA) (Philips 411 057-2) Romeo Juliet etc, (AMOK) (Chandos CHAN 8310)11 Swan L ake extracts. A (AM4K) 1Decca 410 551-2(

TELEMANN: Sonatas A (AMcK) IDenon 38C37-7052)

VERDI: Overtures. A ( DPI (Dacca 410 141-2) Falstaff. (DG 410503-21 A IMO Neteucco.IDG 410 512-21 A/A• (DPI

VP/ALDI: G)ories, (Argo 410 018.21 A (AM411) Four Seasons. (E,.50 ECO A (JAI 13130031 Four Seasons. A (AMOK) IDenon 38C37.7013) Four Seasons. A IFM) (L'Closeeu.Lyre 410 126-21

WAGNER Tristan . . . highlights. A (DP) (Philips 411 036-2)

WALTON Symphony 1, A (AMcK) (Chandos CHAN 83131

WASSENAER Conceni Armonici. A )AINK) (Philips 410 205.2)

WEBER Clarinet oto. A (AMcK) (Chandos CHAN 83051

WEILL Songs. (Nonesuch 79019-21A. (DP/ VODOR Organ syms 5/10. A(DP)

(Philips 410 054-2/ WILLIAMS Film Music. A/A• (DPI

MCA RCD 136501 Film Music. A (DPI (RCA RCD 14748)

COLLECTIONS Works for percussion MIS A. (JA) CD- 232) Placido Domingo thla (DO A (AMcK) 400 030-21 Julien Bream Collection A (1H) (RCA RCD 14378) Famous Spanish Guitar. A (DPI (Philips 411 033-2) Salon Music (Harmonie A. IDPI Munch 38CT-9I 'Concert Royer, A )AM4K1 1Denon 38C37.7069) F61110o, Duets, A/A• IAK1 (Orleo CO28821 Al Hunting Music for Horns A* IDP) (Orfeo C034821 Al Hungerian Dances A 113P1 (Harmonie Munch HM 90.1003) Cantilena A (DPI (Chandos CHAN 8319) La FOIII (Harmon. A'/A Mond. 0141 HM 90.1050) Tarentule- Tarantel(e A'/A (Harmonia Mundi 1DP) HMC 903791 Sampler A (JAI (Chandos 001 8301/ Sampler (Denon TD- A (JA) 90011 Sampler (Nimbus A/C AMOK) HIM 5001-1) Edit. Gruber°. A (AMcKi IEMI/Toshiba CC38.3014) Great Film Music. A (JAI (Philips 411 037-2)

A IAMcK)

A (AM410

A ( DP)

u

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1984 103

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Kenneth Dommett paints an outline of that charmed period in European arts at the turn of the twentieth century

LA BELLE ÉPOQUE. The words have a leasing euphony, and the phrase

seems to carry within it the hint of a perfection that confirms the imperfection of all other epochs. When was this golden age? Opinions differ

as to its precise span but all are agreed that it came to an end, as did so much else, in August 1914. For convenience one might suggest that it began with the turn of the century, but it is well known that history has a nasty habit of resisting any attempt to package it in metric units, ana this era is no exception. It had its origins much earlier than that.

In socio-political terms, though, the first decade and a half of this century certainly seems to qualify. The high summer of Edwardian England, the confide-it arrogance of Wilhelmine Germany, the decadent humours of France, and the complaisant ennui eroding the structure of Russian and Austro-Hungarian society seemed to sug-gest that the Book of Revelation had got it all wrong, that Armageddon had somehow pas-sed us by and the New Jerusalem had already arrived.

Hindsight, the most perceptive of opinion makers, shows how badly that world mis-judged itself. Its glossy exterior was decep-tive: underneath the paintwork was

decidedly shoddy, and assuming one was looking for the obvious, the signs were obvious enough. Restless movements of Left and Right agitated, bombed and assassin-ated, while common folk quaffed their ale and enjoyed their Bank Holidays, sipped their bocks or absinthes, cheered their bet-ters or applauded the popular entertainers, and read newspapers which, in their several ways, peopled the world with one-dimen-sional villains and two-dimensional heroes, formulating public opinion on ill defined issues with windy rhetoric. Meanwhile the sub-cultures quietly fer-

mented. The last quarter of the 19th century, set in a flux by Darwinism, by lbsenism, by Nietzsche's atheism and Renan's catholic-ism, by Imagist poetry and Impressionist painting, fairly bubbled with iconoclastic notions of new societies, looking at the world through different eyes and discussing it in terms both novel and shocking. But as yet there was little new to be heard in music. Wagner still reclined heavily and sybariti-

cally on musical Europe. His spirit stifled revolt with the same scented, silken efficiency as his corporeal presence had stifled opposition to his plush-surrounded and perfumed, but unquestionable genius during his lifetime. Only in Italy, newly reunified by Cavour and clamorously cele-

brated by Verdi, did Wagner fail to get it all his own way.

France struggled with her usual single-minded brand of nationalism to preserve her musical identity from the rather feeble attacks of Chausson, d'Indy and Cesar Franck, in whose hands the Wagnerian ban-ner fluttered hesitantly before the ricketty barricades manned by Gounod and Mas-senet, and the hacks of the Schola Cantorum and the Opera. Rameau was long dead, the Clavecinistes forgotten, and Berlioz had been routed by Offenbach almost as effec-tively as the Prussians routed Napoleon Ill at Sedan. The French had little left to fight with by 1880, but they found plenty to squabble about.

Purists would confine La belle époque to France, but its ethos spread way beyond the suburbs of Paris and permeated the artistic capitals of the western world. It is a descrip-tion of a society, not the definition of an aesthetic, and as I have suggested, it mani-fested itself all over Europe, translating itself into terms that were seen to apply to the social structure of every country that reflected it.

Nevertheless, its architects were French, and it was French thought, French taste, and the French society of the Third Republic which created it. It is on France, therefore, that we must concentrate, hopefully to look at its foreign manifestations another time.

Musically this period, roughly 1880 to 1914, is dominated by one international figure around whom several minor but not unimportant national figures circulate and who make up the pattern of French music as it emerged into the twentieth century. Debussy, an isolated genius, is chronologi-

cally in the period but not of it. Like his great contemporary Marcel Proust he was aware of the diverse intellectual currents that flowed through French society and reacted to them, yet he remained aloof from the cultural cells in which critics would like to immure him. All the same one can see in his work reflections of most of the major aesthe-tic movements of his time. European ' isms' (mostly French) and the Orient, particularly the art of Japan and the music of Bali, influenced him profoundly. He was drawn to Baudelaire's pessimism and Poe's morbid fantasies, to Rosetti's pre-Raphaelitism and d'Annunzio's opulent romance as much as to the plein air freshness of the Impressionists he is said to imitate. The music of Debussy has already been

explored in these columns, but that of his contemporaries has not. His influence on them is less than might be expected; most either tried to ignore him or reacted against the novelty of his music and its disregard of accepted principles.

Art, like business and politics, can create bitter rivalries, and nowhere were these rivalries more assiduously fostered than in France. On one side the sensual, rather sentimental couple, Massenet and Gounod; on the other d'Indy, Cesar Franck and the short-lived Chausson. In the middle, belong-ing to neither party, disliked by each and despising each other are the aloof Debussy and the irascible Saint-Saëns. Each has his circle of friends and admirers, and these coteries eulogise and denigrate with a fury and vehemence quite unknown in England. Only Fauré appeared to arouse no enmity, just a kind of hero-worship that must owe more to the man than to his music.

The Conservatoire After a long period of neglect the music of the French Romantics looks set for reap-

111.FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW X-TOBER I9X4 105

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praisal. Gounod is likely to have a harder time of it than Massenet, for in this country at least, we still tend to deplore the strain of religiosity which is a feature of his music and which pins him remorselessly to the Victo-rian age. While the insouciance associated with the period finds scant expression in Mors et Vita or Ave Maria, there are moments of true grandeur in the Messe solennelle de St Cecilia and the Requiem. The improbable idea that Gounod could aspire to genuine humour is confirmed by the delicious Funeral March of a Marionette, once a great favourite, and his skill as a melodist is evident from his songs and the delightful and very Mozartian Petite Sym-phonie for wind instruments. This little gem stands near the end of

Gounod's career; his enduring masterpiece, Faust, close to its beginning. Between lies an unclimbed mountain of sacred and secular vocal music and several operas. One or two of these, like Romeo et Juliette and Mireille, come into view for a while only to be obscured again by invidious comparison with his one enduring success of which there are at present four recorded versions to choose from.

Massenet's career has been even more chequered than Gounod's. No universal favourite helped keep his name alive and it is only comparatively recently that his special kind of sentimental romance has found a new audience ready to respond to its easy melodiousness. Now the list of his recorded operas outstrips that of any other 19th century French composer by several lengths. Three versions of Werther currently attest

the potency of Massenet's Mills and Boone approach. And who would have thought ten years ago that we should be able to match this achievement with complete recordings of Cendrillon (the Cinderella story), Cid, Don Quichotte, Esclermonde, Jongleur de Notre Dame, Manon la syrupy version to set beside Puccini's), Le Roi de Lahore, and Sapho. It is of interest, too, that a number of Massenet's orchestral suites can hold a place in the catalogue, for they have a delicate and circumspect gaiety and charm. A stalwart and erstwhile popular member

of the Gounod-Massenet group, Ambroise Thomas, has not so far recovered his public. His one great operatic success, Mignon, is recorded complete, but of his other operas there are only excerpts from Hamlet and the Overture to Raymond to remind us that Thomas' insipid talent is less original than either Massenet's or Gounod's. More attractive, because more virile, is the

work of Delibes. He spent all his working life in the theatre, but it is his ballets, in particu-lar Coppelia, rather than his operas which sustain our interest in him, though Lakme, a lush essay in Massenet-style orientalism, with at least one great aria in it, maintains a tenacious hold on the record catalogues. So does his single famous song Les filles de Cadiz whose roulades have challenged the virtuosity of many an aspiring maiden the world over. Two lesser products of the Conservatoire,

where Gounod held sway, deserve mention, since they possibly represent the spirit of La belle époque better than their more serious and academic countrymen. Lecocq and Plan-quette, whose enduring successes are La fille de Madama An got and Les Cloches de Comeville, follow on from Offenbach as masters of popular theatre. Though less prolific and less famous, their music tends on the whole to be more subtle than his.

The Wagnerites Opposed to these talented purveyors of

romantic sentiment and light relief was the small band of dedicated French Wagnerites who, curiously enough, tended to eschew the opera house in favour of the organ loft and concert platform. Their leader was the Belgian- born Cesar Franck who, like Gounod, can scarcely be conceived of as a boulevardier. His portraits reveal a pro-nouncedly woolly-vested individual whose music, with few exceptions, is heavy with earnestness and devout solemnity. Franck applied the methods of Liszt to a

series of symphonic poems with consider-able success and in his one Symphony adapted and reapplied Berlioz's method of cyclic construction. He also cultivated cham-ber music, and his Piano Quintet, String Quartet and Violin Sonata are formidable examples of his ablity to confine his pas-sions within a framework of classical propor-tions. These passions could be rather 'pur-ple'. They well up through much of his organ music and threaten to surround his oratorio Les Beatitudes, Redemption and the still popular Panis Angelicus with a heavy coat-ing of spun sugar. Although Franck tried his hand at opera he

was not at home in the theatre. Neither were his associates d'Indy or Lalo, though each managed at least one popular success in the field of legendary romance, d'Indy with Fervaal, Lalo with Le Roi d'Ys. Both are better served by their orchestral music and each still maintains a hold on the repertoire with a hybrid form of concerto, d'Indy with the Symphony on a Mountaineer's Song and Lalo with the Symphonie Espagnole. More interesting and certainly less well known are d'Indy's impressive Second Symphony, Op.57, and Lab's full blooded Piano Con-certo in F-minor, once recorded on Turnab-out but not now listed. Lab's G-minor Sym-phony, once recorded by Beecham, is ambi-tious but indigestible. Chausson, the third founder-member of

French Wagnerism, died young but left behind at least three works representative of his fragile and individual talent, a Sym-phony, the Poeme for violin and orchestra and the Concerto for violin, piano and string quartet. A few songs and two pieces of recorded chamber music attest to his abili-ties but give little hint of what may have happened had he lived beyond his 44 years.

Paul Dukas also belongs in this circle. One of the most intellectual of musicians he was also highly self-critical and destroyed almost all his music. What is left offers a tantalising picture. The early opera Polyceute is unashamedly Wagnerian, but the Symphony in C belongs in the company of those by Bizet and Saint-Saëns. L'apprenti sorciére, the work by which he will always be known, seems on the other hand to acknowledge Richard Strauss, but speaks the language of Debussy, and the monumental Piano Sonata is a robust declaration of Romantic ideals expressed in the terms of Beethoven's last sonatas. Happily his Ariane et Barbe-bleu is available complete on record as is La Peri, which shares with Debussy's Jeux the title 'poeme dansé'. For reasons not entirely clear Dukas virtually ceased writing after the 1914-18 war though he lived on until 1935. Chabrier, a fringe member of the Wagne-

rian enclave, failed with Gwendoline in his attempt to compete with Bayreuth, but suc-ceeded magnificently with a series of short, highly coloured and decidedly non-Wagne-rian orchestral works and piano pieces. Espana was given real belle époque status when Waldteufel arranged it as a waltz and made it a smash hit of the ballroom, but the Marche Joyeuse enjoys almost as much

favour. As with Ravel, most of Chabrier's orchestral works started life as piano music. The originals can be heard played by Pierre Barbizet on a 3-record set from Erato. The comic opera, Le Roi malgré lui, has greater claim to our regard than the two available orchestral items suggest, and the Bouree Fantasque and Suite Pastorale give much pleasure.

The Non-aligned Between the opposing factions of conservat-ism and Wagnerism stood the non-aligned. These included Debussy of course, but chief of them in terms of longevity, productivity and influence is unquestionably Saint-Saëns. Like most prolific composers he wrote a lot of second-rate stuff. His idiom is generally conservative but he was aware of all the new currents in French music and was instrumental in furthering the careers of composers who were not especially sym-pathetic to his own ideas, Debussy, Franck and Dukas among them. As a co-founder of the Societé Nationale de Musique in 1871, a sort-of musical Salon des Refusés, Saint-Saëns secured performances of much new French music which could not get a hearing at the Conservatoire. Although he continued writing music until

his death in 1921, Saint-Saëns's reputation was established well before the Franco-Prussian War. His one operatic success, Samson et Delilah, however, appeared in 1877 and has kept going ever since, vying with Gounod for first place in the pantheon of French Romantic drama. Understandably, perhaps, Massenet, a bulwark of the Conser-vatoire and everything it stood for, loathed Saint-Saëns and all his works. The gram-ophone has been more forgiving, though, and at present Saint-Saëns is remarkably well represented.

It would be impossible to do without the popular pieces, Danse Macabre, Le Rouet d'Omphale, the Third Symphony, the Intro-duction and Rondo Capriccioso, and, of course, that little masterpiece of character-isation, the Carnival of Animals. But there are other deserving works from this prolific catalogue. The Second Symphony, the Second Piano Concerto and the curious Septet for trumpet, strings and piano repay attention, while a personal favourite, now scarcely ever heard, is the Overture to La Princesse Jaune, a one-act opera and the first of the composer's tally of 13. Chabrier was one of Saint-Saëns's admir-

ers, and the unfortunate Duparc ( 1848-1933) may be counted a follower. This wretched man was struck down by a neurological complaint and had to give up composing in 1885 leaving behind him a mere handful of 13 songs which are among the treasures of French mélodie. There is also one orchestral piece, a symphonic poem, Lenore, which survived Duparc's self-destructive urge. André Messager and Gabriel Fauré were

pupils of Saint-Saëns at the Niedermeyer School. The former was successfully laun-ched on his career as the composer of light operas which are of a kind now quite out of fashion, though full of delightful music. Vero-nique is a typical example. His most endur-ing work as far as records are concerned is the ballet Les Deux Pigeons. Messager remained grateful to his master, but the fastidious Fauré, whom Saint-Saëns treated almost as a son, was devoted to him.

Fauré's music presents something of a problem. Its delicate and unemphatic style make it very much a specialised taste which appeals greatly to Frenchmen but to only a select minority elsewhere. Its admirers make

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considerable claims for it, and Debussy, for one, was influenced by its harmonic adven-turousness and exquisite workmanship. Fauré's fame outside France rests on his songs and piano music, and he is widely regarded as the greatest of all French song writers. Anyone wishing to explore this territory should try the 5-record set by Ameling and Souzay. Those less adventur-ous might sample Le Bonne Chanson, one of Fauré's most effective song cycles, or the selection of songs recorded by Frederika von Stade on HMV. The chamber music has its devotees and is

currently well represented. The two Piano Quartets, the Violin Sonatas and the G-major Quartet make a useful introduction to this side of Fauré's output. The orchestral works are comparatively few, but are of the same elegant craftsmanship. There is scarcely any evidence of drama or strong emotional feel-ing about it though, even in the stage music. Shylock, Penelope, Pelleas et Melisande, Masques et Bergamasques and the Pavane are typical. The one work of Fauré's which most

typifies his unusual sensitivity is his Requiem, composed in 1887 in memory of his parents. Its quiet, almost ecstatic mood and simplicity of means make it unique among modern settings of the text. The 'Pie Jesu' and 'In Paradisum' in particular have established themselves as universal favourites and have been recorded separ-ately, though to savour their true flavour one really needs to hear them in context.

The Next Generation These are the principal original members of the cast of the musical belle époque in France. Some of their contemporaries, Delannoy, Guy-Ropartz, Roger-Ducasse and de Severac for instance, produced some delicate miniatures, especially the last. One of their number, Florent Schmitt, was more ambitious. A pupil of Massenet and an admirer of Debussy and Fauré, he was drawn to exotic subjects. Now largely forgot-ten, his big symphonic poem La tragédie de Salome ( 1907) is the one piece most likely to be heard. It has been recorded, but of the considerable quantity of piano and chamber music - much of it post- 1918 - we hear nothing.

Five figures stand out from the rest of the second generation. Koechlin, Ravel, Roussel, Satie and Varese. Each took French music out of the conservatories, helped break the Wagnerian stranglehold, and weakened the

influence of Debussy. But they all went in different directions. Any detailed examination of the music of

Ravel and the influence on 20th century music of Satie and Varese must wait on more than a paragraph. In any case Ravel's music demands an article to itself. [Andrew Keener covered the orchestral music in August 1980 - Dep Edi So does that of Satie, a genuine eccentric, who has fre-quently misled people into believing that his penchant for nonsensical titles and elaborate jokes betokens a frivolous mind. On the contrary: there is a limpid, classical quality about much of his work that recalls Gluck, and his stern refusal to succumb to easy sentiment or meretricious effect pro-foundly affected music after the War.

Satie's influence on Poulenc and ulti-mately John Cage is well known. So is that of the mathematical precision of Varese on the post- 1945 serialists. It seems incongrous that the composer of Ionisation, Hyperprism and Density 21.5 should have been a pupil of d'Indy's, though hints of that upbringing are to be heard in Ameriques and Arcana. The roles of Koechlin and Roussel are

harder to define. Both were eclectics and sui generis. Koechlin, 'discovered' for English readers by Calvocoressi, was a noted theor-ist but is still virtually unknown as a com-poser though two parts of his Jungle Book are recorded. So is the Seven Stars Sym-phony, a testament to the composer's unquenchable passion for the cinema and its early heroes and heroines. The biggest drawback to his acceptance is his eclecticism and the sheer quantity of his music.

Roussel, a late starter, served as a naval officer before taking up music as a career. Three of his ballets, Le festin de l'araignee, Bacchus et Ariane and Aeneas, the opera Padmavati, and the symphonies (only No.2 is currently listed) give an idea of his self-styled 'hermetic' idiom. His harmonic lan-guage, highly personal, like Rawsthorne's for instance, won the respect of Satie, Pro-kofiev and, most particularly Martinu, but like Rawsthorne Roussel's influence has been slight. This compendium of an age necessarily

leaves out much. The influence of the Café-concert and operetta, of the Music Hall and Ragtime, has had to be passed over, though their effects are evident in a great deal of the music mentioned. La belle époque may have produced few great oaks, but it certainly fertilised a border of very pretty flowers.

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GIDO1V KREMER TALKS TO EDWARD SECICERSON

TO WATCH GIDON KREMER in action is a mesmerising experience. Legs splayed, torso ever-mobile, the head

and shoulders hJnched introspectively over his instrument one minute, flung back in ecstasy the next. Never a tutti goes by that does not find him turned, back-to-audience, facing his orchestral colleagues as if momentarily to efface thmself from the proceedings, to draw trie listeners' focus away from the solo spot. Showmanship plays no part in Kremer's physical responses. That ne is quite simply corsumed by his music-making is patently evident from the moment he puts bow to strings. He is an original, and his individuality is born rot of affectation, of wijul eccentricity, as some would have it, but cf a personal and very deep-seated response to the music in hand. Like or hate the end result, it is impossible not to be drawn in by h.s musical thought processes. I doubt that there is a more imaginative, a more compelling, violinist before us today.

I first heard Kremer as far back as 1977 in the Beethoven Concerto under Eugen Jochum; not a performance that I am ever likely to forget. I half expected the next day's press headlines to reaa 'Celebrated Soviet violinist suffers brainstorm during Festival Hall performance'. Was this really a legitimate cadenza he was playing or had he simply taken wing on some retrospective flight of fancy through such landmarks in this century's repertoire as the Berg and Shostakovich concertos? The programme notes would have told me, of course, that this extraordinary cadenza was, in fact, the work of Alfred Schnittke, a composer of considerable talent, and fast emerging, then, as the most radical force in Soviet

contemporary music. Kremer— a fr'end and admirer of Schnittke— had taken instantly to the concept behind this 'alternative' cadenza. Others did not, and a storm quickly brewed.

'I really believed that Schnittke's cadenza was a challenging way of putting a whole new projection on to the idea of a cadenza — its purpose, its meaning. I should love to have composed such a cadenza myself but since I didn't have the ability, I was more than happy for my friend Alfred Schnittke to do the job for me. Of course it was controversial, provocative— after all, it was polystylistic, bringing together different times, different modes of expression — but for me it did not in any way destroy the concerto itself. What he had attempted to do, in all sincerity and with all due respect to

Beethoven, was put this concerto on stage, co not as a matter of history, but rather in the yo context of a modern framework. In his own alt compositions he does this in reverse, l'y projecting his own music in different styles. liv So, the same intention led him to construct in this cadenza and I think he did so brilliantly, ev taking us further and further from Beethoven the through the centuries until the whole thing wo collapsesi and Beethoven's second theme returns n all its beauty and power.'

to divert attention from the central issue —

Yes, but had not all the controversy and wh gai antagonism, Schnittke's daring, served only pro

and the Concerto itself? 'Yes, I must confess that Sch during the seven years I played it, it became and apparent to me that the cadenza itself was max becoming the central issue. That bothered they me; it was time to change. I had done it, I had acro even documented it on record (with Marriner Ri on Philips 6514 075), so enough'. Esto One can almost hear the sighs of relief who

from the unconverted. For Schnittke's other the f work, meanwhil e, the trend has been more Jarr

than encouraging of late, and a number of Sop important opuses are at last beginning to Sovi surface in the West. Kremer himself has new Offe

recordings of the Second Violin Concerto amo and Piano Quintet from Philips. More on the mod

concertos anon. But how does Sch ' k and b stand in Russia now? Does he really enjoy the w the artistic freedom he deserves? Kremer is Philh guarded. 'It is hard to ta lk about freedom seaso when sitting in a free country, because the nerve sense of freedom is so different in different sadde systems of the world. What I can say is that obstin even living in Russia I always felt that whilst of the there can be limitations on external freedom, he is r there can be none on internal freedom. And I trends think that Schnittke, in many ways, has, and encou always will have, this internal freedom. symph Otherwise his music wou ld have long since be a p lost its individua lity. He is by no means the have t

most recognised and supported composer in But Russia, but he is st ill accepted because of the lies the many beautiful things he has done. You 'Unfort simply cannot push work of such quality year fo under the table. It is st ill, after all, music we festival are talking about — not words which a, of south o course, so close to ideology. Music is still joyousl very much a symbo lic language. Also I think — a sem that audiences in Russia have been seen to of Krem accept and respect his work more and more willingl over the last 15 years or so. And that, too, is unpaid

significant and important. At least he is experim performed in Russia.

unfetter As I write, Kremer is deep in preparation a happy

for the World Premiere of Schnittke's Fourth Rathe

Violin Concerto — a big-orchestra piece spent in

specially commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic for the Berlin Festival in September. A full score had fina lly reached him on the day that we met, and in keeping with a character so thoroughly imbued with the spirit of adventure, he was more than eager to begin exploring. Each of the

Schnittke concertos has figured prominently in Kremer's repertoire over the yea rs: the Third with its cham ber orchestra of thirteen winds and four strings (di rectly inspired by, and originally twinned w ith, the Berg

Chamber Concerto, whose instrumentation and expressive language it shares) and the

aforementioned Second, newly recorded under Heinz Holliger. Again, an orchestra of

chamber proportions — twelve wind and twelve strings with a very prominent solo part for the double-bass which acts as a kind

of antagonist, an anti-soloist. Schnittke, it seems, deliberately conceived the concerto (in 1966) as an 'anti-virtuoso' piece, the solo part being cast predom inantly in cantabile and recitative style.

'It is a very intense work, but less ncerned with the polysty li stic elements u'll find in later Schnittke. It's an ogether more expressive, explosive piece, e played it a lot. I played it while I was still ing in Russia, and ten years ago included it

a series I did of 25 concerts in seven enings— a kind of historical perspective of

violin concerto starting with Corelli and rking right through to Schnittke.'

ome indication of the huge repertoire ich Kremer now commands can be ned by picking an average recital gramme at random. The likes of Krenek Kegel will be there amongst the ubert, Beethoven and Mozart. Progress discovery always remains the Kremer im. Composers queue up at his door; know a good thing w hen they come ss it.

ght now he speaks very highly of an nian composer, one Arvo Paert, on se music he recently collaborated with

ashionable pianist/composer, Keith ott (for ECM records). Then there is hia Gubaillina, a middle-generation et composer whose Vio lin Concerto, rtorium, ranks, in Kremer's opinion, ng 'the most interesting and beautiful ern pieces' he has ever played. Vienna

erlin have already hosted premieres of ork. Zubin Mehta and the New York armonic have requested it for next n. London? Oh dear, I had touched a . Our capital's box office politics clearly n and surprise Kremer. Why so ately conservative when the life-style city is anything but that, he asks. And ight, of course. Current play-safe — commercial trends— are far from raging. ' If there isn't a popular ony in the programme, there has to opular concerto. Goodness knows I red.'

what about the Proms? Surely there spirit of adventure? He agrees. unately, this is not a good time of the r me. You see, I run my own summer in the tiny village of Lochenhaus, just f Vienna on the Hungarian border.' A y spontaneous affair, by all accounts i-impromptu shindig to which many er's most distinguished colleagues y gravitate for a couple of weeks' music-making. It's a time for entation, a time to free the spirit, ed by the chains of commercialism — time for Kremer.

r less happy times, it seems, are the recording studios. Kremer still

'IWS& RECORD REVIEW Og:TOBER 19114 III

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finds it hard to reconcile himself to the conditions, to think himself into a concert mood whilst operating, as it were, 'in an empty space'. He refers in passing to Glenn Gould's mastery of the art, but thinks himself far too emotional and impulsive, at this time, to rationalise his approach to recording in that way. 'Try as I may to re-create what I would hope to do on stage, the results are still different. There is the work of editing the record, which isn't done by myself and can easily be an interference in my ideas. Then there is the question of imperfection. You can accept the odd imperfection in a concert because it really doesn't matter— the message of a performance, of the music that is performed, is much more important. On a record, though, such errors will slowly start to disturb the listener with each hearing, so that in the studio the pressure on you to achieve technical perfection is so great that, psychologically, it is almost as if you are striving for a kind of sterility'. But still the records come — some forty of

them to date. From Philips we can shortly expect the Berg Concerto (with the Bavarian RSO under Sir Colin Davis) and a disc of more traditional Viennese fare; namely, a selection of Strauss waltzes put together in London with a tiny group of hand-picked string players. Kremer speaks warmly of this, not least the music's own very special mood. Then from DG and CBS there is Mozart: the Sinfonía Concertante (with Kim Kashkashian, viola) and Concert No.1 with the VP0 under Nikolaus Harnoncourt ( DG) and the Divertimento in E for string trio, K563, with Kim Kashkashian again, and Yo-Yo Ma (CBS).

Meanwhile, Kremer remains first and last a live performer— a non-conformist for whom each successive performance is a journey of complete rediscovery. It isn't easy finding one's own way, cutting oneself off from traditions of performance, from well-established outside influences. 'You have to take time to deal with it. You have to learn to forget things. You have to learn still to be amazed when looking at something very familiar to you. I mean, there are many aspects of it. If you relate this whole issue to, say, social conventions, you realise that so many people repeat the opinions of others and feel very comfortable, like fishes in the water. Too often, if someone is presenting his own ideas, he's considered wierd; he's impossible, he's a difficult person, he's extreme, he's not comfortable. And it's the same for the creative artist. Artists with strong ideas of their own are not so comfortable for management, for record companies, for critics. But maybe, and let's hope so, they are more comfortable for music-making.'

DECCA dc DIGITAL RE. MASTERING As I said in my review of Rheingold (p.131), avid Ring collectors will have followed the progression of the famous Decca recording through domestic New Malden pressings to Dutch pressings of West Hampstead metalwork in later years. The real enthusiasts have even gone to the expense of importing Telefunken cut and pressed sets and latterly Teldec's direct metal mastered cycle. The reissue in question has been digitally remastered by Decca, who have cut the discs from a digitally copied tape. But the story doesn't end there. Decca's

original plan for digital technology within the company was nothing whatsoever to do with the advent of Compact Disc. Instead, it

HI-FI NEWS F.: RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1984

offered a means to capture and store th best from Decca's 75,000-tape analogue master library. Decca have always prod records from edited stereo master-tapes opposed to copy masters) in order to produce the best quality records, closest the original master-tape sound. This has them with a legacy of slowly degeneratin master-tapes as over the years the edits either stretch or fall apart. Digital editing quite unlike the razor-blade-and-cutting-block techniques used for analogue tape editing. Digitally the edit point can be rehearsed, the edit point shifted by an imperceptible fraction, to achieve the fine 'invisible' edit. This is the benefit to Decca remastering their analogue stereo master onto digital tape.

First, it is robust and secure, held for posterity, and it gives editors the possibili of achieving edits that were only imagined when the performances were originally cu up to form the stereo masters. Spurious noises can be removed which before woul have caused fear and trembling in the han with the razor, particularly with Decca's 'ed the master' policy. Any multi-track insert material (not necessarily relevant to the reissue of the 1958 Rheingold but of importance in later Ring recordings) can be digitally copied and re-mixed without the intermediate analogue tape duplication previously necessary. Tony Griffiths, Decca's head of R&D,

explained that Decca are being 'extremely careful with their analogue masters'. They wouldn't invest the considerable amount of time and money in equipment and skilled labour to go back through producers' notes, to check and re-check edits, if they weren't convinced they were producing the finest sound from the masters. Additionally, Griffiths pointed out that it takes considerable skill and effort to achieve the correct tape head alignment and equalisation to capture from an analogue master tape between six and thirty years old exactly what was laid down on it. If this process can be done just once to produce a digital master then there need never be worries, as in the past, that the copy masters were all different, some sounding decidedly better, others worse.

Decca's considerable post-production effort has paid off in Rheingold. Cutting experience from today's digital recordings has enabled them to put the widest dynamic range onto the disc without squash or distortion. Hiss levels, too, are remarkably low.

Decca plan to issue the Solti Ring cycle on CD starting with Rheingold [see 'CD Monitor'), followed by Siegfried. There will be no rush; all the time needed to produce the best possible sound will be taken, says Griffiths. The better quality sound and tidier edits (the exception being the snatched transition from the Prelude to Woglinde's call 'Weia!') is a beneficial spin-off of the remastering, and of the necessity to produce good masters for CD issue.

David Prakel

COVENT GARDEN RECORDS Regular London-based readers will need no introduction to Covent Garden Records, the excellent LP and, more recently, CD 'dive' at 20 St James Street, next to Covent Garden tube station. Many's the title unearthed there by aficionados in search of the unlikely or 'unobtainable'. The shop was opened five years ago by the present owner, Howard Woo, a recorded music enthusiast with a

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remarkable sense of direction for how this nowadays somewhat precarious business should be run.

Opened in July this year, the second branch of the company, at a prime site in Charing Cross Road, claims to be London's 'Largest Compact Disc Centre', with a base-ment department devoted exclusively to the new medium. In addition to well over 1500 titles (duplicates are kept, so the stocks exceed 3500 pieces) would-be purchasers can audition the software on a choice of some 15 CD players via Quad ESL-63s driven by 34/405-2 or Sony Esprit amplification, or on a modest (realistic?!) rack-type set-up. CGR have created a very comfortable listen-ing room with a remarkable calm, 'domestic' atmosphere. They have franchise arrange-ments with the manufacturers mentioned above, and for the CD players they stock. (They sold some 15 players in their first six weeks of business.) CGR supply their own version of the Gramophone CD catalogue free of charge, and operate a number of special offer schemes, including a month-based loan system for the players, costing £30, for those who wish to sample CD at home before finally committing themselves. Covent Garden Records, 84 Charing Cross Road, London WC1. Tel: 01-379 7427

HYPERION: NEW VINYLS AND SILVERS Ted Perry's enterprising little company, Hyperion, has been as busy as ever of late. On the way are Brahms Cello Sonatas with Steven Isserliss and Peter Evans, and a complete record of the music of Alan Bush. i News just in at the time of writing is that I Hyperion are about to enter the Compact Disc arena with the launch of six discs. Included in this first batch will be their famous 'Hildegard of Bingen' (a piece of Tony Faulkner recording magic), 'Monteverdi's Sacred Vocal Music', the Crusell and Weber Clarinet Concertos and, probably, Rutland Boughton's Immortal Hour.

FLUTTER It is still a long way off as yet, but news has broken that Philips are to follow up their highly successful Barber of Seville under Marriner with a brand new Figaro. The autumn of next year has provisionally been set aside for the sessions, and whilst I don't yet have full details of the casting, I can (or I hope I can) reveal that Barbara Hendricks, Agnes Baltsa and Lucia Popp have already been signed.

Paata Burchuladze, the impressive young Georgian bass who, as Ramphis in Covent Garden's lamentable new Aida, walked off more or less single-handed with all the plaudits, has completed his first recordings for Decca in the West. The single disc of scenes and arias by Mussorgsky and Verdi — Boris Godunov, Don Carlo, Emani, Simon Boccanegra, Macbeth, etc— also features the English Concert Orchestra and London Opera Chorus under Edward Downes.

To coincide with next month's tour of the UK by the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra under its chief conductor Mariss Jansons, Chandos are releasing their recording of Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony, the first in a complete cycle of the symphonies to be recorded in Oslo over the next two years.

113

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Abba Greatest Hits Vol. 2 Abbe Supertrooper Abba The Singles

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Pick Floyd Dark Side Of The Moon Pink Floyd Meddle

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EMI

Virgin Pink Floyd The Wall

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Miller, Steve Abracadabra

Phonogram Miller, Steve Circle of Love

EMI

Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here Plant, Robert Principle of Moments

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Phonogram Presley. Elvis The Legend Vol 1, 2, 3

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Phonogram Pretenders Learning To Crawl

Phonogram Prince 1999

Miller. Steve Greatest Hits Miller. Steve Live Mills. Frank Sunday Morning Suite Mitchell. Joel Wild Things Run Fast Mitchell, Joni Court and Spark Moody Blues The Present Morrison. Van mart. Speech Of The Heart Morrison, Van Into The Music

W E A

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Prince Controversy Quartedlish Take Another Picture

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CBS

Queen News Of The World

Phonogram Queen Greatest Hits

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Phonogram Rabbit, Eddie Step By Step

Phonogram Rainbow Best Of Rainbow

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EMI Morrison, Van Live At The Opera House (Belfast)

EMI

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Rosy Music Avalon

Rosy Musk Country Life

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Rosy Music Stranded Rush Grace Under Pressure Rush Moving Pictures Rush Signals

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Saga Heads Or Tails

Sakamoto. Ityuchi Thousand Knives Of

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Sayer, Lee Chrysalis Very Best Of Leo Sayer

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Scorpions EMI Love At First Sting

Seger, Rob EMI The Distance

Shadows, The Polydor Compact Shadows

Sliaatak Polydor Down On The Street Shakatak Polydor Driving Hard

Slikotok Polydor Invitiations

Slakaak Polydor Live iliekatok Polydor Night Birds

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Shorty Rogers Shorty Rogers & The West Coast Giants

Simon & Carl unkel Collection . .

EMI Simon & Garfunkel Greatest Hits

RCA Simon & Wankel Think Too Much

Simon & Gadunkel Bridge Over Troubled Water

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Van Halen 1984

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Status Quo Back To Back Status Quo 1982

CBS States Quo Never Too Late

Status Que Twelve Gold Bars Steely flen Gaucho

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Stewart. Al Year Of The Cat

Stewart, Red Greatest Hits Stewart. Red Body Wishes

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Shaun& Barbra Greatest Hits Vol 2

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Talking Heads Speaking In Tongues Talking Hoods Fear of Music Taylor. James Sweet Baby James

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WEA Ventures. The Surfin Deluxe

WEA Visage The Anvil

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Walsh, Joe You Bought It You Name It

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CBS Waters, Roper The Pros And Cons Of Hitchhiking

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Corso, Chick Return To Forever Corea. Chick & Gary Burton In Concert

Ceryell. Larry Bolero/Scheherazade

Cory,II, Larry L'Oiseau de Feu (Firebird)

Coryell. Larry Le Sacre du Printemps Count Basle Kid From Red Bank Count Basis & His Orchestra Lil' 01' Groovemaker Crusaders Get Blaster

Crusaders Rhapsody And Blue

Crusaders Standing Tall

Crusaders Street Life Belie. Jorge Rendevous

Davis. Miles AD About Miles Davis

Davis. Miles E.S.P. Davis. Mlles Four & More

Davis. Miles In A Silent Way

Doris. Mlles Kind Of Blue

Davis. Miles Miles In Berlin

Doris. Miles Miles In Tokyo

Davis. Miles My Funny Valentine

Davis. Miles Porgy & Bess

Doris. Mika Sketches Of Spain

Davis. Miles Someday My Prince Will Come

Doris, Miles Star People

Davis. Milos The Man With The Horn

Deodata The Best Of Deodata

Dimeola. Al Electric Rendezvous

Dimeola. McLaughlin & Delucre Friday Night In San Francisco

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Dollar 8 rand African Dawn

Dollar Brand Zimbabwe — —

Duke. George Dream On

Duke. George Guardian Of The Light

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Dutch Swing College Band Digital Dixie

Ella/Louis Porgy and Bess

WEA Ellington, Duke Ellington Jazz Party

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Ellington. Duke/Hodges, Johnny Back to Back

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Fitzgerald, Ella & Louis Armstrong Porgy and Bess (Gershwin)

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James, Bob BJ 4

James. Bob Foxie

Polydor James, Bob Hand Down

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Ford. Robber Loves A Heartache

Polydor Gerry Mulligan Quartet The Fabulous Pleyel Concert

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Getz. Stan Getz A-Go-Go

Getz. Stan & Bird, Charlie Jazz Samba

Gilberto 8, Getz Gilberto/Getz

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Griffith Park Collection Griffith Park Collection

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Dan

Night Lines

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Haden, Charlie Ballad Of The Fallen

Hall, Jim Concierto Hancock, Herbie Directstep

James. Bob The Swan James. Bob Three

James, Bob Two

Jams, Dinah Dinah Jams

Jarrett, Keith Changes

Jarrett, Keith Koln Concert

Polydor Janet. Keith My Song

Jurist The Jazztet

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Jones, Je Our Man, Papa Jo!

Klemmer. John Finesse Lee Konitz & West Coast Friends High Jingo

Lewis, Mel The Music Of Thad Jones

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WEA Marlene. Chuck Feels So Good

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Menton!. Pat 80/81

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IMS Metheny, Pat As Falls Wichita So Falls Wichita Falls

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Harper. Billy Soran Bushi Herb Ellis Trio Sweet And Lovely

Polydor Holiday. Billie Songs For Distingue Lovers

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Hubbard, Freddie Sweet Returns

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Paco di Lucia Solo Quiero Caminar

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Peterson. Oscar Night Train

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Roach, Max/Clifford Iron In Concert

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Scott, Tom Target

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SPYrdra Catching The Sun

SUMP Morning Dance

Steps Ahead Steps Ahead

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Stiff/Pepper Groovin High

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Polydor Terry. Clark Yes, The Blues

Thisleman, Toots Quiet Evenings

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_Soundtracks_ A Clockwork Orange

Adis O.S.T.

Breakdown 0.S.T.

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Echoes of Spain

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Violin Concerto

Violin Concertos

Violin Concertos BWV 1041-1043

Violin Concenos Nos. 1 8 2

lack J.E. & C. Pb. E. Trio Sonatas

lac1-811411 Prelude No. 10 in 8 Minor from Well-Tempered Clavier; Tchaikovsky: Con. No 1 in B Minor for Piano 8 Orch Adagio; Bernstein: Candide Overture; Copland: Appalachian Spring

lartsk

Bluebeard's Castle

Concerto for Orchestra/Dance Suite

Concerto for Orchestra/Deux Images, Op 10

Dance Suite 8 Other Piano Music

Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta Si 105:

Piano Concerto: Prokofiev Piano Concerto

Rumanian Folk Dances Sz- 68

Violin Concerto; Berg: Violin Concerto

Sax

Stern/Perlman/Zukerman/NYPO/ Mehta

Kenny/Lipovse/Equiluz/Chorus Concentus Musicus/

Harnoncourt

Billing

Mutter/English Cham Orch/ Accardo

Leonhardt Consort/Leonhardt/ Con Mus/Harnoncourt

Denon Artists

Gould Brendel

Lausanne Vocal 8 Orch Chamber Ens/Corboz

Paillard

Cologne Musica Antigua/Goebel

Murray

Rilling/Stuttgart

Koopman Alain

Nicolet/Kobayashi

LaurrieuNeyron-Lacroix

Chorzempa

Hurford

Chorzempa

Chorzempa

Alain

Bardon/Organ of St Maxime-en-Provence

Otto

Gould

Acad of Ancient Music

Kremer/ASMF

Standage/Wilcock/ Eng Conc Orch/Pinnock

Schroder/Acad of Ancient Music/Hogwood

Nicolet/Jaccottet/Holliger

Gilel/NYPO/Mehta

CBS

Teldec

EMI

Teldec

Denon

CBS PH

Erato

Archiv

Damn

DG

Erato

Denon

Obraztsova/Nesterenko/ Hungarian State Chorus 8 Orch/ Ferencsik

CSO/Solti

Concertgebouw/Dorati

Schiff

Tokyo Met SO/Atzmon

Ashkenazy/LPO/Solti/ LSO/Previn

Tokyo Met SO

Chung/CSO/Solti

Denon

PH

Argo

PH

Erato

P V

Denon

PH

Archly

L'Oise

Denon

DG

Hun

Decca

PH

Denon

Denon

Decca

Denon

Decca

4 Tone Poems

November Woods/Summer Music/The Garden of Fand/The Happy Forest

Sym No. 4, Tintagel

Inborn

Archduke Trio

Ulster Orchestra

Ulster Orch/Thomson

Ulster Orch/Thomson

Perlman/Harrell/Ashkenazy

Chandos

Chandos

Chandos

EMI

Cello Sonatas Nos. 3 & 5

Five Piano Concertos

Pathétique, Moonlight & Appassionata Sonatas

Piano Con. Na 1

Piano Con. Na 1 in C Major Op 15

Piano Con Nos. 2 & 4

Piano Con Nos. 2 & 4

Piano Con. No. 3

Piano Con No, 3

Piano Con. No. 4

Piano Con. Na 5

Piano Con. Na 5

Piano Con. Na 5

Piano Con. Na 5

Piano Con Na 5

Piano Sonatas Nos 12 & 13

Piano Sonatas Nos 8. 13 & 14

Piano Sonatas Nos 8, 14 & 23

Piano Sonatas Nos 8, 14 8 23 Piano Sonata No. 29 "Hammerklavier"

Piano Sonata Na 32; Schumann Symphonic Variations

Stg Guar Nos 1 8 5 Smetana Quartet

Stg Ouar Nos 2 8 4 Smetana Quartet

Stg (Mar No 3 in D Maj., St Ouar Na 6 in B Flat Mjr Smetana Quartet

Stg (Mar No. 7 / Rasumovsky Na 1

Stg Guar No. 8

Stg Quar No 11 in F

Sym No 1/Piano Con

Sym Nos 1 8 2

Sym Nos. 1 & 8 Sym No. 3 Eroica

Sym No. 3 Eroica

Sym No. 3 Eroica

Sym No. 3 Eroica

Sym No. 3 in E Flat Major, Op. 55 "Eroica"

Sym No. 4 in 8 Flat Major Op 60

Sym Nos. 4 & 9

Sym No. 5 C Minor. Schubert: Sym Na 8 B Minor " Unfinished"

Sym No. 5 Egmont Overture

Sym No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67

Sym No. 5 in C Minor, Op 67

Sym No 5/Overtures "Egmont" & "The Creatures of Prometheus"

Sym No 5/Sym Na 3 Leonora

Sym Nos 5 8 8 Sym No. 6 Pastoral

Sym No. 6 Pastoral

Sym No. 6 Pastoral

Sym No. 6 in F Major Op. 68 "Pastorale" Sym No. 7

Sym No 7 in A Major Ou 92

Sym No. 7/Coriolan Overture

Sym No 9 Choral

Sym No 9 Choral

Sym No. 9 in D Major

Two Violin Romances; Mendelssohn: Violin Con,

Violin Con. in D Major

Violin Con. in D Major

Violin Con. in D Major

Violin Con. in D Major

Violin Sonatas Nos. 5 & 9 Violin Sonatas Nos. 7 & 10

Wellington's Victory: Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture, Marche Slave

Wind Quintet Mozart: Wind Quintet

Minor "Serioso"

No. 1

lestbeyee-Uul Pastoral Sym (Piano Transcription)

Tsulumeurini

Brendel/CSO/Levine

Buchbinder

AshkenazyNPO/Mehta

PolliniNPO/Jochum

PolliniNPO/Jochum/Bohm

AshkenazyNPO/Mehta

PolliniNPO/Bohm

AshkenazyNPO/Mehta

Serkin/Boston SO/Ozawa

SerldréPhiladelphia Orch/Bernstein

Serkin/Boston SO/Ozawa

Lupia/Israeli Plut Orch/Mehta

PoiliniNPO/Bohm

AshkenazyNPO/Mehta

Gould

Gilets

Brendel Ashkenazy

Gilets

Pogorelich

Smetana Quartet

Smetana Quartet

Smetana Quartet

Verney/Hanover Band

Staatskapelle Berlin/Suitner

VPO/Maazel

Dohrdnyi Kegel

ASMF/Marriner

Berlin Staatskapelle/Suitner

Berlin Staatskapelle/Suitner

Dresden Phil/Kegel

VPO/Maazel

Boston SO/Ozawa

Berlin Staatskapelle/Suitner

LAPO/Giulini

The Hanover Band

Phil/Ashkenazy

Berlin Staatskapelle/Blomstedt

Ashkenazy/Phil

Berlin Staatskapelle/Suitner

Ashkenazy/Phil

Berlin Staatskapelle/Suitner

Maazel —

Price/Finnila/Concertgebouw/ Haitink

Staalskapelle Berlin/Suitner

Stern/Ozawa

Kremer/ASMF/Marriner

Stern/NYP/Barenboim

ChungNPO/Kondrashin Perlman/Phil/Giulini

Perlman/Ashkenazy

Perlman/Ashkenazy

Chorus Vienna State Opera/ VPO/Maazel

Winds of Berlin Phil/Kontarsky

Katsarias

PH

Teldec

Decca

DG

DG

Decca

DG

Decca

DG

Decca

DG PH

Decca

DG

DG

Nimbus

Cap

Denon

Erato

Cap

PH

Denon

Denon

Cap

CBS

Denon

DG

Nimbus

Decca

Cap

Cap

Decca

Denon

Decca

Denon

Cap

PH

Denon

PH

Decca

EMI

Decca

Decca

CBS

Denon

Teldec

PHILIPS PHILIPS

Violin Con., Bartok: Violin Con.

® IL/st

Cantu

Damnation of Faust (excerpts)

Les Nuits d'Ete Les Nuits d'Ete/Las Mort de Cleopatre

Overtures

Reveries et Caprice: Lab: Symphonie Espagnole Symphonie Fantastique

Symphonie Fantastique

Symphonie Fantastique

Symphonie Fantastique

Symphonie Fantastique

Symphonie Fantastique

Te Deum

bristles

Chung/CSO/Solti Decca

CSO/Solti

Behrens/TravisNSO

Te Kanawa/Norman/ Paris Orchestra/Barenboim

Scottish NO/Gibson

CSO

Cleveland SO/Maazel

CSO/Abbado

NYPO/Mehta

Concertgebotnv/Davis French NO/Conlon

_ Tokyo Met SO/Fournet

LS Chorus/European Comm Youth Orch/Abbado

Decca Decca

DG

Chandos

DG

DG

Decca

P;1

Erato

Denon DG

Candide Overture; Copland: Appalachian Spring; Barber: Adagio

Dances from Westside Story; Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue

Bizet

LAPO/Bernstein

Bruck

Violin Con. in E Minor, Mendelssohn: Violin Con. in G Minor

Violin Con; Mendelssohn: Violin Con.

Ireakoor

Sym No. 3

Sym Na 4:'Romantici

Sym No. 4 "Romantic"

Sym Na 6

Sym No, 8; Wagner Siegfried Idyll Sym Na 9

Calliope Dances/A Renaissance Revel

Caddell'

Songs of the Auvergene Vol. 1

Songs of the Auvergene Vol. 1

Mutter/BPO/Karajan

RCA

DG

Berlin PO/Karajan DG

CSO/Solti Decca

Berlin Staatskapelle/Blomstedt Denon

Bavarian State Orch/Sawallisch Orfeo

Concertgebouw/Haitink PH

Concertgeobouw/Haitink PH

Non

Te Kanawa/Eng Chamber Orch/ Tate Decca

Te Kanawa/Eng Chamber Orch/ Tate Decca

Chabrier

DG EsPana/Bourree Fantasque/Marche Joyeuse/ Suite Pastorale

LAPO/Bemstien DG

Carmen Johnson/Domingo/Rairnondi/ French NO/Maazel

Baltsa/CarrerasNan Dam/ Berlin PO/Karajan

Migenes/Domingo/Raimondi/ Esham/French NO/Maazel

LSO/Marriner

St Louis SO/Slatkin

Erato

Carmen

Carmen (excerpts)

Carmen Suites Nos. 1 8 2/L'Arlesienne Suites Carmen; Craig: Peer Gynt

loceborloi Violin/Cello Concerto in B Flat Major; Haydn: Violin/Cello Concerto in D Major Op. 101

hit, Mefistofele; Verdi,' Te Deum

Brahma

DG

Erato PH

Fupwara/Netherlands/CO/Inoue Denon

Atlanta SO/Shaw

21 Hungarian Dances_

4 Ballades; Schubert Piano Sonata in A Minor Alto Rhapsody/Begrabnisgesang/ Gesang der Parzen/Nanie

Ballades, Op 10, No. 1-4/Rhapsodies, Op. 79, No 1

Double Concerto

German Requiem Horn Trio; Franck: Violin Sonata

Hungarian Dances _

Liebeslieder Walze, Op. 52/ Noue Liebeslieder Walzer, Op. 65

Piano Con. No. 1

Piano Con. Na 1

Piano Con. Na 1

Piano Colt Na 2

Sonata No 3 in F Minor, Op. 5

Sonatas far Cello 8 Piano. Op. 38/0p.99

Sym No. 1

Sym Na 1

Sym Na 1

Sym No. 2 Sym No. 2/Academic Festival Overture Sym No. 3/Haydn Variations

Sym No. 4/Tragic Overture Violin Con.

Violin Con. kilt«

VPO/Abbado Michelangeli

DG

DG

Hodgson/Bavarian Radio SO Orfeo Chorus/Haitink

-2 Glenn Gould CBS

Mutter/Meneses/Berlin PO/ DG Karajan

Janowitz/KrauseNPO/Haitink PH

Ashkenazy/Perlmanauckwell Decca

Gewandhaus Orchestra/Masur _ PH

Los Angeles Vocal Arts Ens Non

Berman/Leinsdori

Ashkenazy/Concengebouw/ Decca Haitink

Zimerman/VPO/Bernstein DG

AshkenazyNPO/Haitink Decca

Kocsis

Rostropovich/Serkin

LPO/Tennstedt

LAPO/Giulini

VPO/Bemstein LAPO/Giulini

VPO/Bemstein VPO/Bernstein

VPO/Bemstern KremerNPO/Bernstein

Mutter/Berlin PO/Karajan Soloists/CBSO/Rattle

War Requiem EMI

Hun

DG _ EMI

DG DG DG

DG

DG

DG

DG

DG

French NO/Jordan Erato

Espana, Glinka: Jota Aragonesa; Tchaikovsky: Capriccio Italien; Ravel: Bolero

Ckerpeetler

Acteon

Lecons de Tenebres du Mercredy Sainct

Te Deum Magnificat

Chopin

Dresden Staatskapelle/Marriner PH

Les Arts Florissants/Christie HM

Nelson/Jacobs/Concerto Vocale HM

Devos Erato

10 Mazurkas/Prelude in C/Ballade Na 1/ Scherzo

14 Waltzes 19 Waltzes 4 Ballades/4 Impromptus

Ballade Na 4, Waltz in A Flat; Scarlatti: 6 Sonatas; Liszt: Ballade No. 2 in B Minor; Rachmaninov Prelude in G Minor

Chopin Recital

Etudes

Etudes (Complete)

Piano Con Na 2. Op. 14 " Krakowiak" Piano Con Na 2/Polonaise, Oa 44 Piano works, Vol. 8

Valse Brillante in A Flat Major, Op. 34, Na 1; Valse Brillante in A Minor, Oa 34. Na 2; Valse Brillante in F Major, Op. 34, No. 3; Liszt: Ballade No. 2 in D Minor/Liebestraume Na 3 in A Flat Major

Ceplud

Appalachian Spring; Barber: Adagio; Bemstien: Candide Overture Fanfare/Appalachian Spring

Corso-Gold& The Meeting: Improvisations on Two Pianos

Carob Christmas Concerto

Cupid.

Michelangeli

Arrau

Katsans Davidovich

Horowitz

Ashkenazy

Duchable

Ashkenazy Davidovich/LSO/Marriner

Pogorelich/CSO/Abbado

Ashkenazy Thibaudet

4

DG

PH

Teldec

PH

RCA

Decca

Erato Decca

PH

DG Decca

Denon

LAPO/Bernstine DG

Atlanta SO/Lane

Corea/Guida

Acad of Ancient Music/Hogwood

PH

L'Oise

Concert Royal No. 4; LaumeuNeyron-Lacroix Leclair, Sonata No. 8 in G Major for Flute 8 Harpsichord; Bach. Suite in C Minor for Flute 8 Harpsichord/Sonata in F Major for Flute 8 Harpsichord

Pieces de Clavecin

llabekels Cant di Prigiomia; Weill: Recordae

Debussy

Denon

Dreyfus Denon

Tanglewood Festival Chorus/Oliver Non

3 Nocturnes/Jeux Images, Estampes

Images; Prelude â L'après-Midi d'un Faune L'Enfant Prodigue

Concertgebouw/Haitink PH

Moravec Erato

LSO/Preven EMI Norman/Carreras/Fischer-Dieskau Orfeo

PHILIPS PHILIPS

_Titrs List Debussy Icouticued)

La Damoiselle Elue Cotrubas/Maurice/Stuttgart Radio SO/Bertini Orfeo

La Damoiselle Elue; Ameling/Taylor/SFSO/De Waart PH Duparc: Chanson Triste; Ravel: Sheherazade La Mer, Prelude St. Louis SO/Slatkin Preludes Deuxieme Livre Bouvier Denon Preludes, Book 1 Michelangeli DG Debussy-Raul String Quartets Doolzetti Don Pasquale (excerpts)

Orlando Quartet PH

Kalmar/Bandi/Gab/Gregor/Hungarian Radio & TV Hun Chorus/Hungarian State Orch/Fischer

Dukas Dallas SO/Mata Sorcerer's Apprentice; RCA Enesco: Roumanian Rhapsody; Mussorgsky: A Night on Bare Mountain; Tchaikovsky. Capriccio Italien Dupre Chanson Triste; Ravel: Sheherazade; Debussy: La Damoisell Elue Dvorak

Cello Con. B Minor, Op. 104/Waldesruhe Cello Con. in B Minor Serenades Serenade for Strings; Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings Sym No. 8 Sym No. 9 "New World" Sym No. 9 "New World" Sym No. 9 "New World" Sym No. 9 (from the "New World") Sym No. 9 (from the "New World") Sym No. 9 (from the "New World)/Camival Overture Sym No. 9 "New World" Sym No. 9 "New World"/Carnival Overture Trio No. 4 in E Minor Violin Con., Eller

Enigma Variations/Marches BBC SO/Bernstein DGG In the South/Froissart/Cockaigne: Scottish NO/Gibson Chandos Handel: Overture in D Minor Violin Con. in B Minor, Op. 61 Perlman/CSO/Barenboim DGG Works for String Orchestra English String Orch. Enesco Dallas SO/Mata Roumanian Rhapsody; Dukas: Sorcerer's Apprentice; Mussorgsky: A Night on Bare Mountain; Tchaikovsky: Capriccio Italien Falla Nights in The Gardens of Spain De Larrocha/LPO/De Burgos

Three Cornered Hat/El Amor Brujo Montreal SO/Dutoit Three Cornered Hat/Fire Dance from El Amor Brujo Von Stade/Pittsburg SO/Previn Fairs ASMF/Marriner Pelleas et Melisande/Pavane/Masques et Bergamasques Fatal Symphonic Winds Na 1 Cleveland SW/Fennell Symphonic Winds Na 2 Cleveland SW/Fennell Symphonic Winds No. 3 Cleveland SW/Fennell Fronk Sonata in A Major for Violin & Piano; Kantorow/Rouvier Ravel: Sonata for Violin & Piano Symphony in D Minor; FNO/Bemstine Saint-Saens: Le Rouet d'Omphale Violin Sonata; Ashkenazy/Perlman/Tuckwell Decca Brahms: Horn Trio Gershwie American in Paris/Cuban Overture/Porgy 8. Bess Dallas SO/Mata Gershwin Live Los Angeles Phil/Sarah Vaughan Porgy & Bess: Detroit SO/Dorati Grole: Grand Canyon Suite Porgy & Bess; Symphonic Picture; Second Rhapsody; Ortiz/LSO/Previn Cuban Overture Rhapsody in Blue LAPO/Bernstein

Ameling/Taylor/SFSO/De Waart PH

Helmerson/Gothenburg SO/Jaivi BIS Harrell/Ashkenazy/Phil Decca ASMF/Marriner PH Berlin PO/Karajan DGG

Berlin Staatskapelle/Suitner St. Louis SO/Slatkin CSO/Levine RCA Czech Phil/Neumann VPO/Kondrashm CSO/Solti VPO/Maazel Berlin Staatskapellen/Suitner LPO/Conlon Suk Trio Luca/St. Louis SO/Slatkin

Decca Decca De

Erato

Non

Nimbus

RCA

Decca Decca

PH

Decca

Denon

DG

RCA

Decca

EMI

DG

Rhapsody in Blue Cincinnati SO/Kunzel Rhapsody in Blue/American in Paris Rhapsody in Blue: Addinsell: Warsaw Concerto Rhapsody in Blue; Bernstein: Dances from West Side Story Giordano Andrea Chenier Glinka Jota Aragonsa; Tchaikovsky: Capriccio Italien: Ravel: Bolero; Chabrier: Espana Clock Orfeo ed Euridice (Highlights) Crusades

Dichter/Phil/Marriner Decca

PH

LAPO/Bernstein DG

Pavarotti/Caballe/Chailly Decca

Dresden Staatskapelle/Marriner

Hofmann/Conwell/Panzer/Cologne PO

PH

PH

Goyescas Spanish Dances, Op. 37; Albeniz: Suite Espanola, Op. 47 Greg

Holberg Suite; Berlin PO/Karajan DG Mozart: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik; Prokofiev: Symphonie Classique Peer Gynt — Incidental Music Popp/Ambrosian Singers/ASMF/Marriner

EMI Peer Gynt Op. 23 — Incidental Music Peer Gynt; Bizet: Carmen Suite Peer Gynt; Sibelius: Petleas & Melisande Peer Gynt; Sibelius: Pe'leas 8, Melisande Piano Con. in A Minor Na 16 Piano Con.; Schumann: Piano Con. Grote Grand Canyon Suite; Gershwin: Porgy & Bess GuIda-Coro The Meeting: Improvisations in Two Pianos Handel

De Larrocha Bream

Decca RCA

Concerti Grossi, Op. 6

Ameling/SFSO/De Waart PH

St. Louis SO/Slatkin

Berlin PO/Karajan DG

ASMF/Marriner Decca

Tokyo Phil/Nakamura Zimerman/Berlin PO/Karajan DGG

Detroit eI/Dorati

Gulda/Corea

Decca

PH

English Conc Orch/Pinnock Concerto for Treble Recorder & Strings in F; ASMF/Petri Sammartini: Concerto for Descant Recorder & Strings in F; Telemann: Concerto for Treble Recorder & Strings in E; Vivaldi: Concerto for Soprano Recorder 8, Strings Concerto a Due Cori Acad of Ancient Music/Hogwood L'Oise Coronation Anthems Preston/English Conc Orch/Pinnock

Archiv Dettingen Te Deum/Dettingen Anthem Preston/English Conc Orch/Pinnock

Archly Messiah Gardiner/English Baroque Soloists PH Messiah Acad of Ancient Music/Hogwood L'Oise Messiah "Highlights" Acad of Ancient Music/Hogwood L'Oise Messiah "Highlights" Blegen/Ciensinski/Aler/Cheek/Musica

Sac/Westenburg RCA Music for the Royal Fireworks Gardiner/English Baroque Soloists PH Music for the Royal Fireworks, etc. Philip Jones Brass Ensemble Decca Ode for St. Cecilia's Day Concentus Musicus/Harnoncourt Teldec Organ Concertos, Op. 4 Preston/English Conc Orch/Pinnock

Archiv Organ Concertos, Op. 7 Preston/English Conc Orch/Pinnock

Archiv Overture in D Minor; Scottish NO/Gibson Chandos Elgar: In the South; Froissart; Cockaigne Royal Fireworks & Water Music Suites Pittsburgh SO/Previn PH The Four Sonatas for Violin & Harpsichord Zuk/Ruzicova Trio Sonatas Holliger/Bourgue/Thunemann/Jaccottet/

Nagashima Denon Water Music — —EBS/G—ardiner Water Music Lucerne Fest Strings/Baumgartner

Target Water Music English Conc Orch/Pinnock Archiv Water Music English Baroque Soloists/Gardiner Erato Water Music Suite/Music for the Royal Fireworks Acad of Ancient Music/Hogwood L'Oise Water Music Concentus Musicus/Harnoncourt Teldec

Archiv PH

PHILIPS . , PHILIPS

-

J7tIs List Heyde

3 Quartets for 2 Violins, Viola & Phil Quartet Berlin Quart in F Major Op. 3 "Serenade"/Quart in D Minor Op. 76 "Quinten"; Quart in C Major, Op. 76 "Kaiser" Cantata Anas Creation

Denon

Berganza/Scottish CO/Leppard Erato Mathis/AraizaNan Dam Merlin PO/ Karajan DG Amadous Quartet DG "Emperor" Quartet;

Mozart: "The Hunt" Quartet London Trios & Divertissements Mass No. 12 in B Flat Major "Harmoniemesse"

Rampal/Stern/Rostropovitch Tokody/Takacs/Gulyas/Gregor/Sloyak Phil Chorus & Orch/Ferencsik Hun Bella Musica of Vienna/Dittrich HM Hansen Goebel/Cologne Musica Antiqua Archiv

Minuets & Landler from "The Seasons"/Dngarese Organ Concert at Holmens Church Orchestral Suite No. 2; Pachelbel: Canon & Gigue Piano Sonatas Nos. 48, 50 & 51 Strg Quar Nos. 4 & 6 Sym Nos. 6 "Le Matin", 7 "Le Midi" & 8 "Le Soir' Sym Nos. 94 "Surprise" & 101 "Clock" Sym No 96 "Miracle" & 100 "Military" Sym Nos. 100 "Military" & 104 "London" Sym Nos. 100 & 104 Sym Nos. 103 "Drum Roll" & 104 "London" Sym in F Minor "La Passione"/Sym in F Sharp Minor "Farewell" The Seasons Trumpet & Horn Concertos Violin/Cello Concerto in D Major Op. 101; Boccherini: Violin/Cello Concerto in B Flat Major

Heist The Planet French NO/Maazel The Planets The Planets

Humor Sym Nos. 3 & 5

Hummel trumpet Con.; Telemann: Trumpet Con., Neruda: Trumpet Con.

Janacek Idyll & Mladi (Youth) Sinfonietta/Taras Bulba

Kelley In a Persian Market/In a Monastery Garden Weald Simmers El No) De La Mare Kee Miller/Hungarian Radio & 1V Chorus/ The Choral Music of Kodaly Vol. 1 Ferencsik Hun Kidder The Philadelphia Orch/Ormandy ljebesfreud

Brendel PH Orlando Quartet PH ASMF/Marriner PH Berlin PO/Karajan DG Berlin PO/Karajan DG Concertgebouw/Davis PH Acad of Ancient Musicelogwood L'Oise Berlin PO/Karajan DG Liszt Ferenc Chamber Orch/Rolla Hun

Mathis/JerusalenVASMF/Marriner PH Wallace/Thompson/Phil Nimbus Fujiwara/Netherlands CO/Inoue Denon

CBS Scottish NO/Gibson Berlin PO/Karajan

Bavarian Radio SO/Dutoit

Chandos DG

Erato Pans Orch Ensemble

CBS

LosAngeles Chamber Orch/Sctnvarz Non VPO/Mackerras Decca

Faris/Dale/Reeves/London PO PH

Lido Symphonie Espanola; Berlioz: Reverie

Symphonie Espagnole; Berlioz: Reverie et Caprice Symphonie Espagnole; Sant-Saens: Violin Con. No. 1

Perlman/Pans Orch/Barenborm

Chung/Montreal SO/Dutoit

Les Preludes/Orpheus/Tasso Hungarian State Orch/Ferencsik Hun Liszt Piano Works Vol 1 Bolet Decca Organ Works de Zeeuw PY. Piano Con. Nos. 1 & 2/Fantasia on Hungarian Folk ThemesDuchable/LPO/Conlon Erato Piano Recital Bolet Decca Sonata in 13 Minor/Legendes Brendel PH Sonata in D Minor UM-Memel Piano Music leteskawsid Oboe & Harp Con; Strauss: Oboe Con. Molder

Holliger/Cincinnati SO/Gielen Erato

Das Lied Von Der Erde Sym No. 1 "The Titan" Sym No. 1 'The Titan" Sym No. 1 -The Titan" Sym No. 1 'The Titan" Sym No. 1 'The Titan" Sym No. 2 "The Resurrection" Sym No. 2 'The Resurrection" Sym No. 3 in D Minar Sym No. 4 in G Major Sym No. 4 in G Major Sym No. 4 in G Major Sym Nos. 5 & 6 Sym No. 7 in E Minor Sym No. 8 (Symphony of a Thousand) Sym No. 9 Sym No. 9 Hive recording) Berlin PO/Karajan Marlin Cello Sonata No. 1 Mendeluelt

Fassbaender/Araiza/Berlin PO/Giulini DG St. Louis SO/Slatkin The Philadelphia Orch/Muti EMI CSO/Abbado DG CSO/Softi Decca NYP/Mehta LPO/Tennstedt CSO/Solti NomunNPO/Abbado

PoPP/LPO/Tennstedt Von StadeNPO/Abbado Te Kanawa/CSO/Soiti VPO/Maazel Concertgebouw/Haitink BSO/Ozawa CSO

EMI Decca DG EMI

DG Decca

Fournier/Kobayashi

PH PH

Decca DG

A Midsummer Nights Dream Auger/Muiray/Ambrosian Singers/Phil/ Marriner PH

ASMF/Marriner Phil/Sinopoli

Sym Nos. 3 & 4 Sym No. 4 "Italian"; Schubert: Sym No. 8 "Unfinished" Violin Con; Beethoven: Two Violin Romances Violin Con. in G Minor, Bruch: Violin Con. in E Minor Violin Con. In E; Bruch: Violin Con. No. 1 Violin Con. in E; Bruch: Violin Con. No. 1 Violin Con. in E; Tchaikovsky: Violin Con. in D Modeluelurtlartehly Sym No. 4 in A Major "Italian"/Sym No 5 in D Major "Reformation"

Argo

DG

Stem/Ozawa

Mutter/BPO/Karagn

RCA

DG

Kantorow/Netherlands CO/ros Marba Denon

Chung/Montreal SO/Dutoit Decca

Hungarian State Orch/Fischer Hun

Monteverdi

Altri Canti — Madrigals from the 7th & 8th Books Les Arts Florissants/Christie HM

Ball) & Ballets Gardiner Erato Di Lamento d'Arianna Molinari/Jacobi/Concerto Vocale HM

Selva Morale Taverner/Parrott Éitl Decca Mead

Ladd, Sonata No. 8 in G Major for Flute and Harpsichord Bach: Suite in C Minor for Flute & Harpsichord/Sonata in F Major for Flute and Harpsichord; Couperin: Concert Royal No. 4 Leber Waltzes Liszt Ballade Na 2 in B Minor: Scarlatti: 6 Sonatas; Chopin: Ballade No. 4, Waltz in A Flat; Rachmaninov: Prelude in G Minor

Ballade Na 2 in D Minor/Liebestraume No. 3 in A FlatThibaudet Major; Chopin: Valse Brillante in A Flat Major, Op. 34, No. 1; Chopin: Valse Brillante in A Minor, Op. 34, No. 2', Chopin: Valse Brillante in F Major, Op. 34, No. 3 Dante Sonata/Funerailles/6 Chants Polonais Arrau

LaurrieNeyron-Lacroix

Boskovsky

Denon Arias

EMI

Horowitz RCA

Denon

2 Piano Sonatas KV.331/332/Fantasie KV.397 Uchida PH Popp/Munich Radio Orch/Slatkin EMI

Die Zauberflote — Highlights Popp/Jerusalem/Gruberova/Brendel/ Bracht/Lindner Bavarian Radio Chorus/ SO/Flaitink EMI

Clarinet Quartet Nos. 1 & 5 Clarinet Quintet in A Major KV 581 Clarinet Quintet in A Major/Clarinet Trio Coronation Mass Divertimenti Nos. 1 & 17 Divertimentos Nos. 1 & 2 Don Giovanni Double Concerto Eine Kleine Nachtmusik Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

Meyer/Berlin Phil Quartet Meyer/Berlin Phil Quartet non Portal/Les Musiciens HM Vienna Boys ChoirNSO/Harrer PH Berlin Phil Quartet CanEir-i Berlin Phil Octet

Glyndeboume/Haitink ErA-1 Guida/Corea/Hamoncourt Teldec Acad of Ancient Music/Hogwood L'Oise ASMF/Stuttgart Chamber Orch Decca Amadeus Quartet DG PH Ele Kleine Nachtrnusik/A Musical Joke

1BM

PHILIPS

List Mozart icontinuedj

Eme Kleine Nachtmusik/Les Petits Riens & 6 German Scottish Chamber Orch/Leppard Erato Dances Eine Kleine Nachtmusik/Posthom Serenade Eine Kleine Nachtmusik: Greig: Holberg Suite; Prokofiev: Symphonie Classique Exsultate Jubilate

VPO/Levine Berlin PO/Karajan

DG DG

Kirkby/Acad of Ancient Music/Hogwood L'Oise

Hendricks/Perry/Schreier/Berlin PO/ Karajan DG Tuckwell/English Chamber Orch Decca

Ramey/Allen/Popp/LPO/Solti Decca Talvela/Tappy/Donat/Cotrubas/Boesch VPONSO/Levine RCA Choir of Kings College, Cambridge Argo Te Kanawa/LSO/Davis PH ASMF/Marriner EM I English Cham Orch/Perahia

"Great Mass" in C Minor

Horn Concertos

Le Noue di Figaro Magic Flute "Highlights"

Masses (K.317 & K.337) Opera Arias Overtures Piano Con. K453 & K456 Piano Con. K467 & K491 Piano Con. Nos. 9 & 11 Bilson/Gardiner/English Baroque Soloists

Archiv Ashkenazy/Phil Serkin/LSO/Abbado Ashkenazy/Phil Brendel/ASMF/Marriner De LarrochaNSO/Fischer Haskil/Markevitch/Lamoureux CO Ashkenazy/Phil Serkin/LSO/Abbado Ashkenazy/Phil Decca

Serkin/LSO/Abbado DG Ashkenazy/phil Decca Serkin/LSO/Abbado DG

Peno Con. Nos. 12 & 13 Piano Con. Nos. 12 & 20 Piano Con. Nos. 15 & 16 Piano Con. Nos. 15 & 21 Piano Con. Nos. 19 & 22 Piano Con. Nos. 20 & 24 Piano Con. Nos. 21 & 17 Piano Con. Nos. 21 & 23 Piano Con. Nos. 23 & 27 Piano Con. Nos. 25 & 19 Piano Con. Nos. 25 & 26 Piano Con. Nos. 27 & 8 Piano Sonatas K.570 & K576/Adagio K.540 Quartet in F Majar KV 370/Adagio in C Major KV Quintet in C Minor KV 406 Quartets K168, 156, 157 & 173 Requiem K626 Requiem K626

Decca DG

Decca PH

Decca PH

Decca DG

Requiem 1(626

Serenade for 13 Wind Instruments Sinfonia Concertante in E Flat, K364/Oboe Con. Sinfonia Concertante in E Flat, K364/Violin Con.

Arrau PH 580a/Schellen-Berger/Berlin Phil Quartet

Denon Sequoia Quartet Non Acad of Ancient Music/Hogwood L'Oise Price/Schmidt/Araiza/Adam/Schreir/ Dresden Staats PH Yakar/Wenkel/Equiluz/Concentus Musicus/Hamoncourt Teldec Concentus Musicus/Harnoncourt Teldec Holliger/ASMF/Marriner PH

No. 1 Kremer/KashkashianNPO/Harnoncourt DG

Sinfonia Concertante in E Flat for Violin & Viola; Stern/Perlmangukerman/BYPO/Mehta Bach: Concerto in D Minor for 2 Violins & Orch; CBS Vivaldi: Con. in F Major for 3 Violins & Strings

Sonatas for Violin & Piano KV.301-304 Perlman/Barenboim Soprano Concert Arias Te Kanawa Strg Quarts in B Flat Major KV 498/"Hunting " in D MinorSmetana Quartet KV 421 Strg Quarts Nos. 17 & 19 Strg Quintets Nos. 3 á 4 Sym Nos. 31 & 33 Sym Nos. 31 & 34 Sym Nos. 34 & 35 Sym No 34 & 35 Sym Nos. 35 & 36 Sym No. 38 in D Mjr"Prague"; Sym No. 36 in CM "Linz" Sym Nos. 38 "Prague" & 39 Sym Nos. 38 & 39 Sym Nos. 38 & 39 Sym Nos. 39 & 41 "Jupiter" Sym Nos. 40 & 25 Sym Nos. 40 & 41 "Jupiter" Sym Nos. 40 & 41 "Jupiter" Sym Nos. 40 & 41 "Jupiter" Sym Nos. 41 & 34

DG Decca Denon

Alban Berg Quartet Suk/Smetana Concertgebouw/Hamoncourt SCA/Conlon Harnoncourt Concertgebouw/Hamoncourt Bavarian SO/Kubelik

r NHK SO/Suitner

Teldec

Teldec Erato Erato

Teldec

Denon

Berlin Staatskapelle/Blomstedt Denon Bavarian SO/Kubelik

Acad of Ancient Music/Hogwood L'Oise Dresden Staatskapelle/Davis PH Concertgebouw/Hamoncourt Teldec CSO/Levine RCA Staatskapelle Dresden/Blomstedd Denon Acad of Ancient Music/Hogwood L'Oise Schroder/Acad of Ancient Music/Hogwood

L'Oise Concertgebouw/Hamoncourt Teldec Thamos "Highlights"

'The Hunt" Quartet; — Haydn: "Emperor Quartet" The Magic Flute

Amadeus Quartet DG

Mathis/Ott/AraizaNan Dam/Berlin PO/Karajan DG Price,/Serra/Schreier/Moll/Dresden Staats/ Davis PH Mutter/Phil/Muti Suk/Brown/ASMF PerlmanNPO/Levine Zuckerman/St. Paul CO Grumiaux/LSO/Davis Shumsky/Scottish CO Nimbus Kontarsky/Winds of Berlin PO Denon

The Magic Flute

Violin Con. No. 2 in D 1(211 & No. 4 in D K218 Violin Con. No. 2 Violin Con. Nos. 3 & 5 Violin Con. Nos. 3 & 5 Violin Con. Nos. 3 & 5 Violin Con. Nos. 4 8, 5 Wind Quintet; Beethoven: Wind Quintet

EMI

Argo DG

PH

Maundy

A Night on Bare Mountain; Dukas: Sorcerer's Apprentice; Enesco: Roumanian Rhapsody; Tchaikovsky: Capriccio Italien Pictures at an Exhibition Pictures at an Exhibition Pictures at an Exhibition Pictures at an Exhibition Pictures at an Exhibition; Stravinsky: Petrushka Pictures at an Exhibition; Ravel: La Valse Mussorgsky-Raul Pictures at an Exhibition/etc.

Mends Trumpet Con.; Telemann: Trumpet Con.; Hummel: Trumpet Con. Nielase Sym No.. 2/Aladdin Suite Sym No. 4 Offenbach

Dallas SO/Mata RCA

Nakamura NYP/Mehta Cleveland SO/Maazel Yamashita Dichter

LSO/Abbado

RCA PH

DG

CSO/Solti

Paris Orch Ensemble

Decca

CBS

Gothenburg SO/Chung Berlin PO/Karajan

BIS DG

Gaite Parisienne (complete ballet) Gaite Parisienne/Arm Rosenthal Gaite Parisienne Overtures & Barcarole Olmo, Charlie The Organ Con. At Our Saviours Church

Ortf Carmina Burana

Carmina Burana

Pittsburgh SO/Previn French NO/Maazel Montreal SO/Dutoit Berlin PO/Karajan Olsen

PH

Decca DG

Greenberg/Bowman/Roberts/Berlin RSO/ Charily Decca Hendricks/Alerrilagegard/LSO/Mata

RCA Atlanta SO/Shaw Carmina Burana

Pachelbol

Canon & Gigue Canon & Gigue Albinoni: Adagio; Bach: Air on a G String Canon & Gigue Albinoni: Adagio & Works by Bonporti/Bach/Molter Canon & Gigue Bach: Orchestral Suite No. 2 Paganini Music For Cello

Palestrinu

Acad of Ancient Music/Hogwood L'Oise Berlin PO/Karajan DG

Paillard Chamber Orch Erato

Goebel/Cologne Musica Antigua Archiv

Yo-Yo Ma/Patricia Zander

Allegri Miserere & Other Works Westminster Cath. Choir/Stephen Cleobury Argo

Kings College Choir, Cambridge Decca

ASMF/Marriner Masses & MotetsNictoria Porgolosi Concerti Amonici

Poulenc

Argo

Chamber Music for Wind Inst. Chamber Music Soc of Lincoln Centre Erato

Atlanta SO/Shaw Gloria, Concerto For Organ Prokofiev

Alexander Nevsky Arkhipova/Cleveland Chorus 8, Orch/ Chailly Decca

PHILIPS

Tes List

UNRAVELS BOLERO

Considers concertos. Reviews the blues Discusses the discs. Highlights the hardware

Evaluates Evita. Deliberates on Debussy and straightens out Stravinsky Every month Hi-Fi News Et Record Review publishes a guide to the best-sounding Compact Discs, and

reviews the latest hard and software.

RECORD REVIEWS COMPACT DISC REVIEWS

MUSIC VIEWS PLAYER NEWS

t A LINK HOUSE PUBLICATION

Mission, QED, Rotel kardon

PHILIPS

. ---------- - ........... ,,,• ............. ,:,:;.„,,, SUite-of-the-Art DIY preamp ........ . ... ...... . . ... • Bessel to Zobel... Networks explained

_Tes List Prekeviev lamtimeedl

Piano Con.; Baitok: Piano Con. Piano Sonata No. 6; Ravel Gasparde de la Nuit Romeo & Juliet Suites Nos. 1 & 2 Romeo, & Juliet Suites Nos. 1 & 2 Romeo & Juliet/Sym No. 1 Sym No. 5 B Flat Major Symphonie Classique; Grieg: Holberg Suite; Mozart: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik Violin Con. Nos. 1 & 2 Violin Con. Nos. 1 & 2 Completed Orchestral Works Gianni Schicchi

Ashkenazy/ LS 0/ Prey' n / L PO /Sol ti Decca

Pogorelich DG

The Philadelphia Orc/Muti EMI National SO/Rostropovich DG CSO/Sotti Decca lsreael PO/Bernstein CBS

Berlin PO/Karajan DG

Perlman/BBC SO/Rozhdestvensky EMI Mintz/CSO/Abbado DG Berlin RSO/Chailly Decca Melis/Kalmar/Gulyas/Gati/Gregor/ Hungarian State Opera/Orch/Ferencsik

Hun

Carreras/Prey/Ambrosen Singers/Phil/ Scimone Erato Tokody/Hungarian State Opera Soloists, Chorus & Orch/Gardelli Hun Ricciarelli/DmongoNPO/Karajan DG

Messa de Gloria

Sue Angelica

Turandot

Purcell

Dido & Aeneas Kirkbyraverner Choir & Players/Parrott Chanclos

Deller Consort/The King's MusicWDeller HM

Deller HM Monteverdi Choir/English Baroque Soloists/Gardiner Erato

King Arthur (excerpts)

Music for a While/0 Solitude Ode to St. Cecilia

Rachmaninov

Etudes Tab, No. 1-4/78.9; Tchaikovsky: The Seasons Nos. 1, 5, 6 & 11 Wano Conc. No. 3 Prelude in G Minor; Scarlatti: Six Sonatas; Chopin: Ballade No. 4, Waltz in A Flat; Liszt Ballade No. 2 in B Minor Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini; Saint-Saens: Piano Con. No. 2 Suite No. 2 for Two pianos, Op. 17 Sym No. 1 Sym No. 2 Sym No. 3/Youth Symphony Symphonic Dances Nos. 1-3 Raman

Richter Target

Sgouros/Berlin PO/Simonov EMI Horowitz RCA

Davidovich/Concertgebouw/Jarvi

Argerich/Freire Ashkenazy/Concertgebouw Ashkenazy/Concertgebouw Ashkenazy/Concertgebouw Berlin PO/Maazel

PH

PH Decca Decca Decca

DG

Dardanus (Orchestral Suite) Les Indes Galantes/Orchestral Suite Pieces de Clavecin, 1724 The Great Motets

Ravel

English Baroque Soloists/Gardiner Erato La Chapelle Royale/Herreweghe HM Christie HM La Chapelle Royale/Herreweghe HM

Bolero Bolero Bolero and Other Works Bolero/La Valse/Pavane/Daphnis et Chloe Bolero/Rhapsodie Espagnole Bolero/Rhapsodie Espagnole/Alborada del Gracioso

Bolero/Daphnis & Chloe

Bolero; Chabrier: Espana; Glinka: Jota Aragonesa; Tchaikovsky: Capriccio Italien Complete Piano Works Vol 1 Daphnis et Chloe (Complete Ballet) Gaspard de la Nuit Gaspard de la Nuit; Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 6 La Valse; Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition Ma Mere L'Oye (Mother Goose) Ma Mere L'Oye; Saint-Saens: Carnival of the Animals Piano Con/Con. for Left Hand

Muti Dresden Staatskapelle/Menner PH Montreal SO/Dutoit Decca Paris Orch/Barenboim DG Montreal SO/Dutoit Decca Dells SO/Mata RCA

St. Louis SO/Slatkin

Dresden Staatskapelle/Marreer PH

Perlemuter Nirnbus Montreal SO/Dutoit Decca Ashkenazy Decca Pogorelich DG

LSO/Abbado DG

Montreal SO/Dutoit Pittsburg SO/Previo

Decca PH

Roge/Montreal SO/Dutoit Decca

Sheherazade; Debussy: La Damoiselle Elue; Duparc: Chanson Triste Sonata for Violin & Piano; Franck: Sonata in A Major for Violin & Piano Strg Quart; Debussy: Strg Quart Reap« Church Windows; Brazilian Impressions Pines of Rome/Fountains of Rome Pines of Rome/Gli Uccellifountains of Rome Ilimaky-Kersakev

Cappriccio Espagnol/Snow Maiden, etc. Capriccio Espagnol Scheherazade Scheherezade The Tale of the Tsar Saltan/Golden Cockerel Suite Madre

Concierto Madrigal/Concierto Andaluz Romero/ASMF/Marriner Concierto Para Uno Fiesta; Romero/ASMF/Marriner Romero-Torroba: Malaga Concierto de Aranjuez/Fantasia Bonell/Montreal SO/Dutoit Decca Concierto de Aranjuez/Fantasia Para Un Gentilhombre Los Romeros/ASMF/Marriner PH Romero-Torraba Romero/ASMF/Marriner Malaga; PH Rodrigo: Concierto Para Uno Fiesta

Rossini 7 Overtures Stabat Meter

Ameling/faylor/SFSO/De Waart PH

Kantorow/Rouvier Denon

Orlando Quartet PH

Phil/Simons Montreal SO/Dutoit SFSO/De Waart

Chanclos Decca

PH

Rotterdam POffinman PH

Dallas SO/Mata RCA Krebbers/Concertgebouw/Kondrashin PH The Philadelphia Orch/Muti EMI Rotterdam PO/Zinman PH

PH PH

The Barber of Seville

Rossini-Rested La Boutique Fantasque

Sale-Sums

National PO/Chailly Decca Ricciarelli/Terrani/Phil Orch & Chorus/ Giulini DG Baltsa/Allen/Araisa/ASMF/Marriner PH National PO/Bonynge Decca

Carnival of the Animals; Ravel: Ma Mere L'Oye Cello Con.; Schumann: Cello Con. Le Rouet d'OmPhale; Franck:.Symphony in D Minor Piano Con. Nos. 2 & 4 Piano Con. No. 2; Rachmaninov'. Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini Sym No. 3 'The Organ Symphony"

Sym No. 3 "The Organ Symphony" Sym No. 3 'The Organ Symphony" Violin Con. No. 1; Lalo: (Symphonie Espagnole) Violin Con. No 3; Wienewski: Violin Con. No. 2 Sammartini Concerto for Descant Recorder 8. Strings in F; Handel: Concerto for Treble Recorder 8. Strings in F; Telemann: Concerto for Treble Recorder 8. Strings in E; Vivaldi: Concerto for Soprano Recorder 8. Strings Sable Piano Works Piano Works Scarlatti 14 Sonatas 6 Sinfonie di Concerto Grosso

Pittsburg SO/Previn PH

Harrell/Cleveland SO/Marriner Decca

French NO/Bernstein DG

Duchable/Strasbourg PO/Lombard Erato Davidovich/Concertgebouw/Jaivi PH

Murray

Berlin PO/Karajan DG Hurford/Montreal SO/Dutoit Decca Chung/Montreal SO/Dutoit Decca

Perlman/Pans Orch/Barenborm DG

ASMF/Petri

De Leeuw Rage

PH Decca

Six Sonatas; Chopin: Ballade No. 4, Waltz in A Flat List: Ballade No. 2 in B Minor; Rachmaninov: Prelude in G Minor

Dreyfuss Bennett/Smith/Soustrot/Elhorst/ I Music'

Horowitz

Denon

PH RCA

Schoenberg Verklarte Nac'ht; Wagner: Siegfried Idyll

Schbert

Concertgebouw/Haitink PH

An Die Musk Arpeggione Sonata/String Trio D 581 "Death and the Maiden", Ouartet, Movement 0.703 "Death and the Maiden" Quarter & Quartettsatz Impromptus, Op. 90 & Op. 142

Ameling Les Musiciens Amadeus Quartet Vermeer Quartet Lupu

PH HM DG

Teledec Decca

PHILIPS PHILIPS,

_TitUs List Schaller' IconMud)

Impromptus, Op. 90 & Op. 142 Lieder Lieder Octet Piano Quintet 'The Trout" Piano Quintet "The Trout" Piano Quintet 'The Trout"

Brendel PH Price/Sawallisch Orfeo Ameling/Baldwin PH Boston Sym Chamber Players Non Schiff/Hagen Quartet Decca Richter/Borodin Quartet/Hortnagel EMI BrendelNan Demark/Cleveland Quartet

PH Piano Quintet "The Trout/String Quartet No. 12 Gilels/Zepperit/Amadeus Quartet DGG Piano Sonata in A Minor; Michelangeli DG Brahms: 4 Ballades Piano Sonatas in A Minor D.537 & in A D.664 Brendel PH Piano Trio No. 1 in B Flat, Op. 99 Piano Trio, Op. 100 Selected Songs Sonatas String Quarts. 12 & 14 String Quintet in C Sym Nos. 4 & 5 Sym Nos. 4 & 8 Sym No. 8 "Unfinished" Sym No. 8 "Unfiroshed"/Rosaunde Sym No. 8 "Unfinished"; Mendelssohn: Sym No. 4 'Italien" Sym No. 8 B Minor "Unfinished": Beethoven: Sym No. 5, C Minor Sym No. 9 "The Great" Sym No. 9 'The Great" Sym No. 9 "The Great" Sym No. 9 "The Great", D 944 Schuman

Cello Con.: Saint-Saens: Cello Con. Harrell/Cleveland SO/Marriner Decca Fantasiestucke, Op. 12, Fantasie in C, Op. 17 Brendel PH Kinderszenen/Kreisleriana Argerich DG

Lieder Price/Lockhart Orfeo Piano Con. in A Minor, Op. 54; Weber Konzertstuck Piano Con.; Grieg: Piano Con. Sym No. 2/Manfred Overture Sym No. 3 "Rhenish"/Manfred Overture Sym No. 3 'Rhenish"/Mantred Overture Symphonic Studies/Arabesque

Symphonic' Studies: Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 32 Schumann-Liszt Piano Music Schutz Sacred Concerts Shostakevich

The Borodin Trio Chando-i Les Musiciens HM Fischer/Dieskau/Brendel PH Brendel Tokyo Quartet MMG Schiff/Alban Berg Quartet EMI ASMF/Marriner PH Basle SO/Jordan Erai Dohnanyi Telarc Boston SO/Davis PH Phil/Sinopoli DG

VPO/Maazel CBS

Berlin Orch/Lergna VPO/Solti Decca CSO/Levine DG Berlin RSO/Rogner Denon

Brendel/LSO/Abbado PH

Zimerman/Berlin PO/Karajan 1)--0

DG Concertgebouw/Haitink PH LAPO/Giulini DG Pollini DG Pogorelich DG

Sym No. 5 D Minor Sym No. 5 D Minor Sym No. 5 D Minor Sym No. 8_ Sym No. 12 Sibelius

Hennig/Jacobs/Concerto Vocale HM

Concertgebouw/Haitink Decca National SO/Rostropovich DG BYPO/Bemstein CBS Concertgebouw/Flaitink Decca Berlin PO/Karajan DG

— - _ Finlandia and Other Works

Pelleas & Melisande: ASMF/Marriner Decca Grieg: Peer Gynt Pelleai-i-Melisande; ----- -- ieriïiiérill'àiïïi .-- ---ifd Grieg: Peer Gynt S—ym— fiO.-i----- -- - ---- -------- kirion Sym No. 1 E Minor. Op. 39/Finlandia, Op. 26:7 Gothenburg SO/Jarvi BIS

Sym No. 2 in D Major Berlin PO/Karajan Sym No. 2 in D Major Berliner SO/Sanderling Sym No. 2 in D Major Ashkenazy/Phil Decca Sym No. 2 in D Major, Op. 43 Scottish NO/Gibson Chandos Sym No. 2/Romance, Op. 42 Gothenburg SO/Jarvi BIS Sym No. 3 C Major, Op. 52/King Kristian II Gothenburg SO/Jarvi BIS

Sym No. 4/Luonnotar Ashkenazy/Phil Decca Sym No. 5, (Night Ride & Sunhse) Phil/Rattle EMI

Sym No. 5/En Saga

Sym No. 5/Karelia Overture/Andante Festivo Sym No. 6, Op. 104/Pelleas & Melisande, Op. 46 Sym No. 7 in C/Tapiola The Maiden in the Tower/Karelia Suite, Op. 11 Gothenburg SO/Jarvi Soler Berganza/Moreno PH 2 Arias/8 Son: Sor: Seguidillas/Andantino for Guitar

Sor Bergariza/Moreno Seguidillas/Andantino for Guitar; Solar: 2 Arias/8 Son Sousa

Ashkenazy/Phd Gothenburg SO/Jarvi Gothenburg SO/Jarvi Ashkenazy/Phd

Decca BIS BIS

Decca BIS

PH

Dance & Marches Marches

Cincinnati Pops/Kunzei MMG Philip Jones Brass Ensemble/Elgar Decca Gothenburg SO/Jaivi

Andre/ASMF/Marriner

Stenhammar Sym No. 2 G Minor, Op. 34/Excelsior! Op. 13 Motel Trumpet Con.: Telemann: Trumpet Con.; Vivaldi: Trumpet Con Strauss Family New Years Concert Strauss Oboe Con.; Lutoskawski: Oboe & Harp Con.

Shim J.

An der Schonen Blauen Donau At the Beautiful Blue Daube, inc. Persian March Blue Danube

Emperor Waltz inc. Chit-Chat Polka/Hunting Polka

BIS EMI

VPO/Boskovsky Decca

Holliger/Cincinnati SO/Gielen MMG

Hungarian State Orch/Ferencsik Hun Berlin PO/Karajan DG VPO/Boskovsky Decca Berlin PO/Karajan DG

Famous Waltzes inc. Emperor Waltz/The Blue Danube Vienna Volksoper Orch/Bauer-Theussl PH Radetzky March inc. Vienna Blood/Perpetuum Mobi Berlin PO/Karajan DG Schoenen Blauen VP0 DG Strauss R.

Alpine Symphony Also Sprach Zarathustra Also Sprach Zarathustra Also Sprach Zarathustra/Don Juan Also Sprach Zarathustra/Don Juan

Also Sprach Zarathustra/Macbeth Der Rosenkavaher

Berlin PO/Karajan Boston SO/Ozawa

DG PH

NYPO/Mehta CBS Berlin PO/Karajan DG Chicago SO/solti Decca Dorati Decca Sintow/Baltsa/Perry/MolINPO/Karajan

DG Cleveland Orchestra/Maazel CBS Don Juan/Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks/Death &

Transfiguration

Don Juan/Till Eulenspiegel Don Juan/Till Eulenspiegel/Tod und Verklarung Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40 Ein Heldenleden Four Last Songs/6 Orchestral Songs

Detroit SO/Dorati Decca LSO/Abbado Boston SO/Osawa PH Dicterow/NYPO/Mehta Norman/Gewandhaus Orch, Leipzig/Masur

PH Popp/LPO/Tennstedt EMI Concertgeboinvelaitink PH Berlin PO/Karajan

Four Last Last Songs; Death & Transfiguration Tod und Verklarung Tod und Verklarung/Metamorphosen Sturilsky

Petrushka LSO/Abbado DG Petrushka BYPO, Mehta Petrushka The Philadelphia Orch/Muti EMI

Petrushka: Dichter PH Mussorgksy: Pictures at an Exhibition

Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du Printemps) Israel SO/Bernstein DG Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du Printemps) Detroit SO/Dorati Decca The Firebird Ballet Detroit SO/Dorati Decca The Firebird (Complete Ballet) Concertgebouw/Davis PH The Firebird (Complete ballet) Boston SO/Ozawa EMI The Firebird Complete 1910 Version BYPO/Boulez

The Rite of Spring Cleveland SO, Maazel The Rite of Spring Moscow RSO/Fedoseev Target

Streicher Streicher/Honsho The Art of Ludwig Streicher

Sweelinck Jacques van Oortmerssen The Great Organ Works

PHILIPS

Titi s List

Choice Compact Discs With over 150 titles now available and more arriving monthly, Conifer's Choice Compact Discs offer the CD collector unrivalled variety of music, from mainstream classics to early and contemporary works

BIS SIBELIUS: THE MAIDEN IN THE TOWER

World premier recording KARELIA SUITE

Gothenburg SO., Neeme Jarvi Part of the BIS Silbelius series BIS CD 251

STENHAMMAR: SYMPHONY NO. 2 EXCELSIOR

Gothenburg SQ., Neeme Jarvi BIS CD 251

NORGARD: I CHING XENAKIS: PSAPPHA CARTER: PIECES FOR TIMPANI Gel Mortensen, percussion BIS CD 256

CAPRICCIO BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONIES NOS. 1-9 Dresden Philharmonic, Kegel 10 001-5 (issued separately) 10 006/7

ERATO HONEGGER: SYMPHONIES NOS. 3 & 5 Bavarian Radio S.0.. Charles Dutoit ECD 88045

MOZART: SYMPHONIES NOS. 31 & 41 Scottish Chamber Orchestra, James Conlon ECD 88029

PURCELL: HAIL, BRIGHT CECILIA! Soloists, Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, Gardiner ECD 88046

VIVALDI: MANDOLIN CONCERTOS I Solisti Veneti, Claudio Scimone ECD 88042

HUNGAROTON BARTOK: DUKE BLUEBEARD'S CASTLE Obraztsova, Nestorenko, Hungarian State Opera Chrous & Orchestra, Janos Ferencsik HCD 12254

PUCCINI: GIANNI SCHICCHI Gyorgy Melis, Magda Kalmar, Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, Janos Ferencsik (in Italian) HCD 12541-2

MMG THE ALL-STAR PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE Beethoven, Berlioz, Bizet, Pachelbel MCD 10007

R. STRAUSS: OBOE CONCERTO LUTOSLAWSKI: CONCERTO FOR OBOE & HARP Heinz Holliger, oboe: Ursula Holliger, harp, Cincinnati SO., Michael Gielen MCD 10006

NONESUCH J.S. BACH: B MINOR MASS Soloists, Bach Ensemble, Rifkin CD 79036

PIERRE VERANY VIERNE: ORGAN SYMPHONY NO. 3 Francois-Henry Houbart at the Cavaille-Coll organ of the Madeleine, Paris PV 784041

TELARC STAR TRACKS Music from Star Trek, Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, ET., Close Encounters, Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Erich Kunzel CD 80094

BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONY NO. 3 'EROICA' The Cleveland Orchestra Christoph von Dohnanyi CD 80090

TCHAIKOVSKY: '1812' OVERTURE, CAPRICCIO ITALIEN etc. Cincinnati SO., Erich Kunzel CD 80041

MUSSORGSKY: PICTURES FROM AN EXHIBITION NIGHT ON A BARE MOUNTAIN

The Cleveland Orchestra. Lorin Maazel CD 80042

TELDEC

BEETHOVEN/LISZT: SYMPHONY NO. 9 Cyprien Katsaris, piano ZK 8.42956

J.S. BACH: FAVOURITE CANTATAS Auf Christi Himmelfahrt, BVVV.128, Gelobet sel der Herr, BWV. 129. Herr Gott, dich loben aile wir, BWV.130 Leonhardt Consort, Gustav Leonhardt, Concentus musicus Wien, Nikolaus Harnoncourt ZK 8.43096

MOZART: SYMPHONIES NOS. 34 & 35 Concertgebouw Orchestra, Nikolaus Harnoncourt ZK 8.42703

GRANDMASTER FLASH & THE FURIOUS FIVE ZP 8.25644

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Conifer Records Please write to us for your complete list of Choice Compact Discs Marketed and distributed in the UK exclusively by CONIFER RECORDS Horton Road, West Drayton, Middx. UB7 8JL Phone 0895-447707 Telex 27492

PHILIPS 'PHILIPS'

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1812 Overture 1812 Overture/March Slave/Capriccio Italien CSO/Barenboim DG

1812 Overture/Marche Slave; Chorus of Vienna SONPO/Maazel CBS Beethoven: Wellington's Victory

1812 Overture/Romeo & Juliet Tanglerood Feet Chorus/Boston SO/Davis PH

Capriccio Italien; Dallas SO, Mata RCA Dukas: Sorcerers Apprentice; Enesco: Roumanian Rhapsody; Mussorgsky: A Night on Bare Mountain Capriccio Italien; Ravel: Bolero; Chabrier: Espana; Glinka: Jota Aragonesa Con. 1 B Minor for Piano & Orch; Gilels/NYPO/Mehta Bach-Siloti: Prelude No.10 in B Minor from Well Tempered Clavier

Piano Con. No. 1 in B Flat Minor (Live Recording) Argerich/Bavarian Radio SO/Kondrashin PH

Piano Con. Nos. 1 & 3 PostnikovaNSO/Rozhdestvensky Decca Rare Orchestral Music inc. "Hamlet" incidental music; LSO/Simon Chandos Romeo & Juliet Overture (Original Version); Festival Overture on the Danish National Hymn Romeo & Juliet/Nutcracker Suites Berlin PO/Karajan DG

Romeo & Juliet; Nutcracker Suite Cleveland SO/Maazel Serenades for Strings; Berlin PO/Karajan DG Dvorak: Serenades for Strings

Swan Lake (Highlights) Bolshoi Theatre Orch/Zhuraitis Swan Lake/Nutcracker Suite Swan Lake/Nutcracker Suite (Highlights) Sym No. 2 'Little Russian" (Original Version) Sym No. 4 Sym No. 4 Sym No. 5 E Minor Sym No. 5 E Minor Sym No. 5 E Minor Op. 64 Sym No. 6 "Pathetique" Sym No. 6 "Pathetique" Sym No. 6 "Pathetique" Sym No. 6 in B Minor, Op. 74 "Pathetique" The Seasons Nos. 1, 5, 6 & 11; Rachmaninov: Etudes Tab. No. 1-4/7 8, 9 The Three Great Ballets Violin Con. in D Major Violin Con./Serenade Melancolique Violin Con: Mendelssohn: Violin Con. Tiernan

Cincinnati SO/Kunzel

Dresden Staatskapelle/Marriner PH

CBS

Israel PO/Mehta

LSO/Simon Cleveland SO/Maazel Pittsburgh SO/Previn PH VPO/Chailly Decca Cleveland Orch/Maazel CBS Berlin SO/Sanderling Denon Moscow RSO/Fedoseev Target Ashkenazy/Phil Decca LAPO/Giulini DG Berlin SO/Sanderling Denon Richter Target

Target Decca Decca

Chandos

The Philadelphia Orch/Ormandy Stern/Rostropovitch

Kremer/Berlin PO/Maazel DG Chung/Montreal SO/Dutoit Decca

5 Violin Concertos Brown/ASMF

Concerto for Treble Recorder & Strings in E; ASMF/Petri Handel: Concerto for Treble Recorder & Strings in F: Sammartini: Concerto for Descant Recorder & Strings in F; Vivaldi: Concerto for Soprano Recorder & Strings

Double & Triple Concertos Soloists/Acad of Ancient Music/Hogwood l'Oise

Overtures, G Minor/D Minor Concentus Musicus/Hamoncourt Teldec Sonatas, Suites & Small Pieces from "Der Getreue Holliger/Thunemann/Jaccottet Denon Musik Meister"

Suite in A Minor for Recorder & Strings Petri/Bennett/thunemann/Brown/ASMF PH

Tafelmusik (extracts)

Trumpet Con.; Andre/ASMF/Marriner EMI Die Walkure Stolzel: Trumpet Con.; Vivaldi: Trumpet Con.

Twelve Fantasies for Oboe Solo

PH

Paillard Chamber Orch Erato

Holliger Denon

St. Louis SO/Slatkin heed'. Williams Fantasia Verdi

7 Overtures Aida

National PO/Chadly Decca Ricciaredi/Domingo/Nucci/La Scala Milan/ Abbado DG Sass/Lamberti/Miller/Kovats/Hunganan State Opera Chorus & Orch/Gardelli Hun Bruson/Ricciarelli/Nucci/LAPO/Giulini

Emard (excerpts)

Falstaff DG

Falstaff Taddei/Paneri/AraizaNPO/Karajan PH

II Trovatom (Highlights)

La Traviata

La Traviata (Highlights) Nabucco

Opera Choruses (Aida/I Lombardi, etc)

Overtures Abbado RCA Requiem Pavarotti/SutherlandNienna SO/Solti

Decca Simon Boccanegra (excerpts)

Ricciarelli/Carreras/Royal Opera House/ Davis PH Pavarotti/Sutherland/NPO/Bonynge

Decca Pavarotti/Sutherland/National PO Decca Cappuccilli/Dmongo/Deutschen Oper Berlin/Sinopoli DG La Scala Milan/Abbado DG

Te Deum; Boito: Mefistofele Un Ballo in Maschera

Kincses/Nagy/Milér/Gregor/Hungarian State Opera Chrous & Orch/Patane Hun Atlanta SO/Shaw

Pavarotti/Price/Brunson/NPO/Solti Decca

Vierne Carillon de Westminster: Widor: Sym No. 5 "Toccata" VivaldI

Preston DG

4 Organ Concertos 5 Cello Concertos 6 Concerti, Op. 8

6 Oboe Sonatas "Il Pastor Fido"

Barden/Munich Pro Arte Orch/Redel P.V. Schiff/Brown/ASM F PH Concentus Musicus/Harnoncourt Teldec Schellen-Berger/Krapp/Geringas/Stoll

Target 9 Concertos for Strings & Continuo I Musici At The Court of Frederick The Great

Concertos & Sonatas for 2 Violins Aston Magna

Concertos R.576 & R.582; Holliger/ASMF/Kremer Bach: Concerto for Violin, Oboe

Concertos for Trumpets/Homs/Lute/BassoonNiolins, etc.Solisti Veneti/Scimone Concerto for Soprano Recorder & Strings; ASMF/Petri Handel: Concerto for Treble Recorder & Strings in F: Sammartini: Concerto for Descant Recorder & Strings in F; Telemann: Concerto for Treble Recorder & Strings in E Concerto in F Maja for 3 Violins & Strings; Stem/Perlman/Zukerman/NYPO/Mehta Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante in E Flat for Violin & Viola; CBS Bach: Concerto in D Minor for 2 Violins & Orch Fair Concertos Samone Glorias

PH CBS Non PH

Erato

Choir of St. John's College, Cambridge Decca

I Solisti Veneti/Scimone Erato Boston SO/Silverstem/Osawa Larsens/Lucerne Fest String/Baumgartner

Denon Acad of Ancient Music/Hogwood Decca

Standage/The Eng Cono Orch/Pinnock Archly

Mandolin Concertos The Four Seasons The Four Seasons

The Four Seasons The Four Seasons

The Four Seasons Carmirelli/l. Musici The Four Seasons

The Four Seasons Trumpet Con.; Telemann: Trumpet Con.; Stolzel: Trumpet Con. Waller

Zukerman Solisti Veneti/Scimone Andre/ASMF/Marriner

PH CBS Erato EMI

Cabale Sings Wagner

Das Rheingold Soloists/Dresden Staatskapelle/Janowski Target

Das Rheingold London/Flagstad/SvanholmNPO/Solti Decca

NYPO/Mehta/Cabale

Soloists/Dresden Staatskapelle/Janowski Target

Die Walkure Nilsson/Hotter/CrespinNPO/Solti Decca Gotterdammerung Soloists/Dresden Staatskapelle/Janowski

Target Gotterdammening NdssoneAlindgassen/FrickNPO/Solti

Decca Music from the Ring Orchestral Excerpts Overtures Overtures Overtures Overtures — Tannhauser/Die Feen/ Flying Dutchman

Berlin PO/Tennstedt EMI CSO/Solti Concertrgebouw/Waart Phil Orch/Maazel

Basle SO/Jordan Erato Concertgebouw/De Waart PH

Decca

PHILIPS PHILIPS

Till sList Wagner ! continued]

Parsifal

Ring (Excerpts) Ring of the Niebulung Siegfried

Siegfried

Siegfried Idyll; Schoenberg: Verklarte Nacht Siegfried Idyll; Bruckner: Sym No. 8 The Ride of the Valkyries Tristan und Isolde

HofmannNetzovic/Moll/Berlin PO/Karajan DG

CSO/Solti Decca Berlin PO/Tennstedt Soloists/Dresden Staatskapelle/Janowsli"

Target Windgassen/Hotter/StolzeNPO/Solti

Decca

Ashkenazy/English Chamber Orch Decca

Waldteufel Famous Waltzes: Vol 3 Walton Sym No 1 Weber Clarinet Concertos Clarinet Concertos 1 8 2/Clarinet Concertino

Concertgebouw/Haitink Fi

NHK SO/Stern Hofmann/Behrens/Minton/Bavarian RSO/ Bernstein PH Vienna Volksoper Orch/Bauer-Theussel

PH Scottish NO/Gibson

Chandos

Konzertstuck: Schumann: Piano Conc. in A Minor Well Recordae; Dallapiccola: Canti di Prigiomia Silverlake

The Unknown Kurt Weill Wider Organ Symphonies Nos. 5 & 10 Sym No. 5 "Toccata"; Vierne: Carillon de Westminster

Wieulawski Violin Con. N. 2: Saint-Saens: Violin Con. No. 3

Bamberg SO/Caetani/Brunner Orfeo City of Birmingham SO/Jarvi/Hilton

Chandos Brendel/LSO/Abbabo PH

Tanglewccd Festival Chorus/Oliver Non

VARIOUS

American Music for Strings Ancient Dances of Hungary Art of the Trumpet Ave Maria - Popular Sacred Works Bachanales Equals Brass Quintet Best Loved Tenor Arias Bolero & Other Works Bouquet of Piano Music - Beethoven/Chopin/Mendelssohn. Debussy Cage/Cowen/Lundquist/Taira Kroumata Percussion Ens BIS Chamber Music for Oboe 8 String by Bach. Haydn, Mozart Holliger Denon Christmas Carols at King's College, Cambridge Choir of King's College, Cambridge Argo Classical Marches Philadelphia Orch/Ormandy Collection, including works by Albinoni. Mozart, Haydn I Musici PH Dance of the Hours - Favourite Ballet Music Decca

Dante Troubadours Martin Best Mediaeval Ensemble Nimbus

El Llibre Vermeil de Montserrat Groupe Vocale/Cillird-Hayward/Berry Hayward Cons Erato

Famous Choral Works. including Ode to Joy Various Choirs Decca Famous Operatic Ousts Bergonzi/Fischer-Dieskau/Bav RSO/

Lopez-Cobos Orfeo

Famous Spanish Dances for Two Guitars Romero PH Famous Spanish Guitar Music Romero PH Famous Waltzes - Vol I Vienna Volksoper Orch/Bauer-Theussi PH Famous Waltzes including works by Strauss & Tchaikovsky Decca Favourite Guitar Pieces Kikiuchirisbin

Favourite Piano Music Decca Folk Songs Vienna Boys Choir PH Gala Opera Concert LAPO/Domingo DG Gipsy Music from Hum Sandor Deki Lakatos & His Gipsy Band

Hun

Great Love Themes Decca Greenskeves & Other Works for Guitar Sollscher DG

Grey/Neill/Hynes/Bonazzi/Harolid/NY City Opera Chorus & Orch/Rudel Non Stratas Non

Chorzempa PH Preston DG

Perlman/Paris Orch/Barenboim DG

Los Angeles CO/Schwarz Non Clemenic Consort/Clemenic HM NY Trumpet Ensemble M MG

Decca Bac hanales Equale Brass Quintet Nimbus

— Pavarotti Decca Decca Denon

Gregorian Chant Hunting Music for Original Hunting Hems Immortal Classic Invitation to Baroque Music

Japanese Melodies - for Flute & Harp Jose Carreras 8 the Vienna Boys Choir Karajan - Encore La Folia De La Spawn

Lin in Tokyo 1980 Love is - Carreras Sings Popular Songs Mamma Melodies for Harp, including liebestraume Melody in F& Other Favourite Piano Pieces

Music of Ancient Greece Negro Spirituals Hendricks New Year's Day Concert 119801 Nimbus Natural Sound - 10 complete extracts intuiting Orchestral. Chamber and Vocal Items _ 0 Holy Night - Christmas Music —

0 Sole Mio Opera Gala Operatic Arias Operatic Duets

Choralschola der Wiener Hof burg PH Munich Horn Ensemble Orfeo

Decca

'Societas Musica. Cham Orch Copenhagen/ Hansen Denon Rampal/Laskine Denon Carreras/Vienna Boys Choir PH Berlin PO/Karajan DG Atrium Musicae de Madrid/Paniagua HM

Watts Carreras PH Pavarotti/Henry Mancini Orch Decca Shinozaki

Decca Atrium Musicae of Madnd/Paniagua HM

VPO/Maazel EMI

DG Nimbus

Pavarotti Pavarotti

Operatic Overtures & IntonneM Piano Works by Bolcom. Copland, Ilzewsld Plays Granados & Albeniz Pomp & Circumstance - Famous Marches Popular Huhn Folk Songs Popular Orchestral Works Popular Organ Works Popular Sacred Songs Portrait of John Williams Halm - the Young Gipsy Band Recorder Concertos Recorder Conceretos by Handel. Babel. etc.

Romance & Souvenir Chopin/Liszt/Pachebel. etc. Russian Spectacular Saxophone Concerti - Larsson/Glazunov/Panula

Decca Decca Decca

Te Kanawa/LPO/Pritchard Sutherland/Pavarotti/National PO/ Bonynge Decca

Jacobs Non Karajan

Bream RCA Decca

Carreras PH Philadelphia Orch/Omiandy Hurford Norman John Williams

Decca PH

Hun Petri/ASMF/Marriner PH Petri/ASMF/Sillito PH

Denon

St. Louis SO/Slatkin SaviMki/New Stockholm Chamber Orch/ Panula HIS

Martin Best Mediaeval Ensemble Nimbus

Atrium Musicae de Madrid/Paniagua HM Gruberova/Stuttgart RSO/Eichhorn Orfeo Janequin/Sermisy/Ensemble Clement Janequin HM

The Harmonious Blacksmith - Favourite Harpsichord Pinnock Archiv

The Odessa Balalaikas/The Art of the Balalaika The Organists of the Sun King _ _ _ _ Bardon The Special Sound of Chandos: Holi: Tchaikovsky: %Mar This is Tenon CD" Bruckner: Sym No. 7 Finale: Debussy: Feux D'Artifice: Strauss: Wiener Blut Act III: Wagner: Rheingold Scene III: Mozart: Clarinet Quintet Menuetto

Verismo Arias _ Vienna Bon-Bons (New Years Concert 1983) VPO/Maazel DG William Tell 8 Other Famous Overtures Decca

Works by Bach. Reger & Liszt Krapp/The Passau Cathedral Organ Target

Works by Bizet/Ileethown/Pachelbel/Borlioz The All Star Percussion Ens MMG World's Favourite Tenor Arias Pavarotti Decca Yes eorgio (Soundtrack) Pavarotti - Decca

Songs of Chivalry Sortileges de la Norge Indienne (5th American) Tarentule-Tarentelle The Art of the Coloratura The Cries of Pads

Non PV.

Chan-dos Denon

Trade Descriptions Act Products offered for sale may differ from those described in this catalogue due to later production changes in specifications, components or place of manufacture. The contents of this catalogue are therefore not to be treated as representations as to the current availability of products as described. Copyright The compact discs described in this catalogue, are protected by copyright and recordings available through retailers may be used only domestically. it in private houses. Recording and playback of material may require consent - see Copyright Act 1956 and the Performer's Protection Act 1958-1972.

PHILIPS PHILIPS:

Tes List

A Compact Announcement

W. H. Smith now stock a wide selection of compact discs ranging

from Shostakovich to Spandau Ballet. Look out for them in the branches listed below

Basingstoke, Bath, Bedford, Bexleyheath, Birmingham, Blackpool, Bolton Shop, Bradford Broadway. Bradford K irkgate, Brent Cross, Brighton, Bristol Broadmead, Bromley, Cambridge, Canterbury, Cardiff, Carlisle, Chatham, Cheltenham High St, Chester, Croydon, Ealing Broadway, East Ham, Exeter, Glasgow, Gloucester, Guildford, Hanley, Hammersmith, Hemel Hempstead, High Wycombe, Holbom Circus, Hull, Ilford, Ipswich, Kensington, Kingston, Leamington, Leicester, Lewisham, Lincoln, Liverpool, Maidenhead, Manchester, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northampton, Norwich, Nottingham Listergate, Oxford, Peterborough, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Preston, Putney, Reading, Redditch, Richmond, Rochdale, Sheffield, Sloane Square, Slough, Solihull, Southampton, Southend, Stafford, Staines, Stockport, Stratford East, Stratford-upon-Avon, Streatham, Sutton, Sutton Coldfield, Swansea, Swindon, Taunton, Uxbridge, Warrington, Watford, West Bromwich, Woking, Wolverhampton,

Wood Green, Worcester, Wrexham, Yeovil, York.

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PHILIPSI PHILIP! "fee,feeeled.11e,l'eatalisiiiessliissisalt -tstgalallk%ataat`,

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PHILIPS

....... 4 P.REY,OUS F.OGR,IFIEViEW HEX' I.

Philips compact Disc Are the other discs slipping?

Ever since we invented the compact disc system our compet-itors have struggled to keep up with us.

Our new generation player, the CD-104, could leave them even further down the track.

Its been developed with its own midi system, capable of handling the full audio response produced by the compact disc.

(Though of course the CD-104, like all our players, is still completely compatible with any hi-fi.)

Fully featured, the CD-104

allows tracks to be programmed in any order and repeated. A 6-digit display provides track

and time information. And, of course, the CD-104 has

one feature no other manufac-turer has been able to reproduce. The original Philips compact disc sound.

In fact, Philips compact disc players are widely regarded as having the best error correction and sound quality available.

Moreover, this unique Philips sound has been reproduced in our complete range of new generation

compact disc players that boast every conceivable feature from music scan to remote control. No wonder the other discs

seem to be slipping.

PHILIPS. Sounds like we've done it again.

PHILIPS FRG 4157

PHILIPS

TELLING GRANNY how to suck eggs isn't a popular pastime — popular with the recipients of the advice, that is —

but we've got to thank those low-fi minions (kids, teenagers, whatever you want to call them) who have awakened us to what just might be the finest source of software cur-rently available. ( Note: by low-fi minions' I don't mean to say that there are no people under the age of 30 with accurate systems; it's just that the Top of the Pops generation is more likely than most to be satisfied with the sound which emanates from a Ghetto Blas-ter, or 'Third World Briefcase', as Chooch Humphreys would have it.) While we've been arguing the merits and

demerits of the LP, the Compact Disc, half-speed mastering, direct-cutting, DMM, real-time cassettes, VHS and Beta Hi-Fi, and a dozen other sources, the disco-going, Radio 1-listening multitudes have been enjoying software that provides impact second to none. It's cheap — none of the material costs more than £2.49 — and it can be played on any system with the capability to extract the sound from a vinyl disc rotating at 45rpm.

It is the 12-inch single. Sharp intake of breath: sure, we know that

there is little classical music available in this format — EMI being the honourable excep-tion in the UK — and that the selection is limited when compared with LP or 7-inch single catalogues, What's out there, however — if you are the possessor of an open mind and wide-ranging tastes — deserves to be heard if you really want to know the capabili-ties of your sound system. Even 'Pops' Atkinson came down from his cloud and invested in a 45 adaptor for his Linn, having heard Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

12-inch singles are too proletarian, too 'popular', to have the credibility needed to make them appeal to hi-fi snobs, but this just cannot go on any longer. HFN/RR would like to thank certain individuals for impress-ing us with the need to popularise this format with the 'older' set. Harry Pearson of The Absolute Sound is credited with the acceptance of the 12-inch single; he's given it credibility by using two of the titles on the list below for his intensive listening tests. Thanks goes to Riccardo Franassovici of Absolute Sounds (the other one) for demon-strating time and again that no system — no matter how expensive — is too good for the lowly 12-inch. Finally, thanks goes to Phil Ritson of Canterbury Hi-Fi Centre who intro-duced me to the Human League 12-inch by playing it eight hours a day, every day, for at least a year. (I drew the line at The Damned.) You really should try at least one of the

discs listed, but if none of them appeals, buy any 12-inch rap or funk offering — to a man they all qualify. Alphabetically, here's our list of sure-fire sonic supremos:

The Cimarons: Big Geis Don't Cry (Safari SAFE LX49) Reggae, like rap or funk, is a natural for the 12-inch format, exploiting the superior low bass extension (due to widely spaced grooves and maximum vinyl) and the hot transients (due to the higher groove veloc-ity). As with all of the selections, we selected the entries for musical merit as well as sonics, and this cover version of the old Four Seasons hit, reggae style, is a delight. The bottom end is tight and fast, the rhythms are blatant enough to motivate a corpse, and the performance is strictly for fun.

Frardde Goes To Hollywood: Relax (Sex Mix) (ZZT 12 ZTAS 1) The author didn't want to include this, because he's got no time for a band with a lead vocalist whose only hook is the con-tinual mouthing of 'Oww, oww, owW. Addi-tionally, he thinks it's a musical desert in spite of the sonics. However, JA insisted, so here it is. The author notes with glee, though, that all of you who attended the Penta Show will have been jolly well sick of it

by the time you've visited three rooms. Still, enough people I hold in high esteem reckon that this is the audio statement of the decade because of its masterly production, so give it a shot.

Eddy Grant: Do You Feel My Love? (Ensign ENY4512) Don't worry, we have no intention of making this list primarily a reggae chart. It's just that this particular single is so thoroughly involv-ing that it acts like a drug. The bass — marvellously performed — adds new mean-ing to the term 'Stygian'. This is an extended version, and the instrumental portion that makes up the final quarter of the disc will teach you everything there is to know about image specificity, placement, ambience, height, and front-to-back depth. Additionally, you'll forget that hoary old fule about only playing a disc once during a 24-hour period, and you'll find yourself wishing you had an automatic with repeat facility.

Human League: Don't You Want Me? (Extended Dance Mix) (Virgin VS466-12) This is the one that started it all, and it's proof that even computers can make nice

STARS ON

Ken Kessler lists 11 sure-fire sonic ex . losions

noises. The extended dance mix is almost entirely instrumental, and there's a spot in the middle where a 'scratch' effect makes you leap for the turntable; then you realise that what you've heard is in the grooves and is the toughest test of transient response your likely to find for under £2. The music is infectious — just the stuff of which true pop hits are made — and you can turn it over for the vocal version if you start to feel lonely. 'Stunning' is too pale an adjective to describe this disc's brilliance, especially the way the sound is layered front-to-back. Say goodbye to your walls.

The Jacksons: State of Shock (Epic TA 4431) When one of the band members happens to have a higher annual income than the whole of Belgium, they can afford to use the very best. This super-slick production stands out among 12-inchers for the glorious deep fuzz bass and the gritty vocal hook. The music is — to be honest — repetitive, but it doesn't half make your woofers shake.

Alison Moyet: Love Resurrection (Love Version) (CBS TA4497) Be warned: there are two versions of this with the same catalogue number. The win-ner is the first version, the one without Ms Moyet's photo on the front. Ms Moyet (ex-Yazoo) possesses one of the finest voices in

the land, and because the song is magni-ficent — unlistenable on Version 2 — this enters the list on musical strength as much as on recording merit. Her voice stands out in front of a wall of sound, and all you can do is marvel at this lady's set of pipes. Play this to a Bessie Smith freak and watch for the lump in the throat; the dynamics of the female voice have rarely been better served.

Olivia Newton-John: Physical (EMI 1A062Z-64701) Another performer who doesn't have to worry about the cost of studio time, ON-J — for all of her alleged sickly-sweetness — has a wonderfully pure voice, and it juxtaposes nicely against the truly filthy intent of this song. The recording is glossy, and you can tell that the session men own villas in Cap Ferrat, but it's punchy and even exciting. The editor salivated all over the sleeve; the sound reinforces the song's genuine sexual-ity — but can you hi-fi handle it?

Robert Plant: Big Log (WEA B9848T) Plant is blessed with one of the most seduc-tive voices in rock, and he has a way of whining out a lyric that makes you sit up and take notice. Sinewy is the best way to describe the overall feel of this track, and it has a sonic cousin in Joe Walsh's Rocky Mountain Way. If you're susceptible to hypnotic music, the 12-incher of Big Log will render you powerless. Astounding use of the studio as a tool makes this wholly and utterly fascinating. This is what you play for friends who think that top quality hi-fi is a waste of money, because a poor system will squash the disc's openness and detail.

Diana Ross: Muscles (Capitol 12CL 268) If you've suffered the indignity of blowing your loudspeakers with either the Telarc Omnidisc or their 1812, you had better watch out. Muscles contains a bass thump that will call on all the reserves of power that your amplifier can muster. The sound is a wee bit hard, but very clean, and the impact of the percussion — not counting the dangerous explosions — gives this sparse work a lot of body. Ms Ross' voice is, as ever, delightful, and the 12-inch format lets every nuance shine through.

Wang Chung: Dance Hall Days (Geffen TA 3837) There are no apologies necessary for this song, a true studio exercise of an utterly synthetic nature. Wang Chung broke into the charts by sounding like nobody else, and this track epitomises their approach. Very tight, heavily engineered sound, brimming with little gimmicks, it's a stunner for detail. As with Big Log, there's an overwhelming wash of sound, with a lot going on around the basic melody. Though the ambience is wholly artificial, the illusion of space is undeniable, and it will make your system sound BIG.

Yes: Owner of a Lonely Heart (Red dg Blue Mix) (Atco B9817T) Another 'big guns' production, this Yes track stands out for both the quality and the quantity of the bass. The bass has a weight up there with the Eddy Grant recording, and this solid framework supports some incred-ibly delicate, light ' n' airy massed harmo-nies. What we've got here is a disc that does a wonderful job of juggling the frequency extremes, and it's remarkable that such energy at the poles can remain so coherent from top to bottom. Most of these records are readily available,

at least half of them being but a few months old. Don't phone us to ask where you can buy them; instead do what we did — let your fingers do the walking through the record racks. .,-

ROCK MUSIC

HI- Fl NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1984 115

Acoustic Arts, an exciting new company with a wealth of experience

We are the friendliest and most helpful shop you've ever visited where staff really care about your requirements. Although a new company we have a wealth of experience with the proprietor Jim Dovey enjoying 28 years as an enthusiast and manager in the business. Our aims are to make buying Hi-Fi a pleasant and informative experience.

Our newly refitted shop which measures over 3,000 square feet includes new demonstration facilities where listeners can evaluate equipment in comfortable surroundings akin to their own lounge.

Our specialist services include:- equipment professionally installed direct into your own home, a unique exchange plan for unsuitable equipment plus part exchange facilities. We also offer a large selection of video and audio cassettes plus a wide range of accessories from high quality cable to speaker stands and turntable platforms.

Among the equipment we stock includes:- AR, A & R, Aiwa, B.D.Q., B & W, Brier, Burmester, Castle, Celestion, Conrad-Johnson, D.N.M., Denon, Diesis, Dual, Epos, Gale, Grado, Heybrook, KEF, Koetsu, Logic, Magneplanar, Mark Levinson, Meridian, Mission, Monitor-Audio, Musical Fidelity, Nakamichi, Oracle, PS Audio, Quad, Revolver, Revox, Rogers, Rotel, SD Acoustics, Sondex, Spendor, Systemdek, Tannoy, Van den Hul, Yamaha, Yorkshire, Zeta.

The coming season promises to be one of the most interesting and exciting for some time and indeed has already kicked-off with the stunning new CD player from Meridian (on dem now), so please come along and pay us a visit and receive a standard of service you thought long ceased to exist.

Credit Facilities include Access, Barclaycard and Instant Credit.

We are located close to the M-1 and Watford Junction station, 20 minutes from Central London many buses including Green Line pass our door. Bus airport link to Heathrow.

Acoustic Arts Ltd., 101 St. Albans Road, Watford, Herts.

Tel: Watford 45250 Open Mon-Sat. 9.30-5.30.

From London's largest Compact Disc Centre Philips CD101 with £30 of Compact Discs £299 Philips CD104 with £30 of Compact Discs £329 Toshiba XRZ70 with £50 of Compact Discs

Marantz CD63 with £30 of Compact Discs Marantz CD73 with £30 of Compact Discs

Sony CDP501 with £50 of Compact Discs Meridian MCD Mission 4400+ £30 of Compact Discs Ferguson CD001+ £30 of Compact Discs Yamaha CDX1 + £30 of Compact Discs

ALL THE ABOVE CD PLAYERS ARE AVAILABLE FOR DEMONSTRATION IN OUR PURPOSE BUILT

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HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW 0(1( ) 1“

CAPRICCIO Beethoven: Symphony 7, Coriolan Overture, Dresden PO/Kegel (51m 19s) Beethoven's orchestral sound represents an awkward halfway-house between modest classical and big romantic, which can lead to dis-appointments in the concert hall. One needs to be fairly near the orchestra for a full-bodied impact, while a suitably reverberant hall generally has to be large and therefore soaks up the sound. I once heard it work really well when up-front in the Albert Hall (for the 'Eroica'), and this CD's combination of power and spaciousness reminds me of that occasion — although no details are given of recording mode or venue. Musically, I've never before been so impressed by record-ings of either work, to which Herbert Kegel brings some rare drama to complement the sonics. Beethoven would have loved the thrust and grandeur of this recording, includ-ing its occasional uninhibited ruggedness. A (:1*)

John Crabbe

CIIANDOS Elgar: Wand of Youth Suites 1 & Z Nursery Suite, Ulster 0/Thomson (CHAN 8318) (63m 27s) This pleasant gathering of child-orien-tated suites was welcomed in its black version by AK, who commended Chandos' 'characteristic blend of clarity and warmth' (9/83). There's certainly plenty of warmth here, with some splendid bass from an orchestra set well back in a very spacious reverberance. In no way 'analytical', there is nevertheless also all the instrumental detail and brilliance needed for this mostly fairly simple music, while digital dynamics allow Bryden Thomson's rumbustious climaxes to expand into quite grand affairs. One may doubt whether the Ulster Ha)t is really as vast as it sounds here, and wonder how any practically assembled orchestra could seem so wide at such an apparent distance; but these are purist quibbles which must not allow anything less than an A*/A rating.

John Crabbe

DECCA Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Op. 30/2 and 96, Perlman/Ashkenazy (411 948-2) (55m 09s) Recoupled from the acclaimed analogue cycle ( May '74, Nov '75), this loses some of the bloom and 'spread' of the vinyl transfers. Your knowledgeable friend will say 'Ah, copy masters!'. At the same levels, pounding keyboard fortes are less pleasing to the ear on CD — against this no surface noise, of course; more Kingsway underground. You also notice discrepancies in violin presence between, say, bands 1, 3 vs 4 in the C-minor sonata. Incidentally, Grumiaux/Arrau sur-pass these artists in depth of understanding here. A demanding CD, not easy to optimise in replay level but A for anyone drawn primarily to this medium.

Christopher Breunig

The Blue Danube — Strauss Festival, VPO/ Boskovsky (411 932-2) (58m 1s) These ana-logue tapings sounded marvellously fresh in the early-mid seventies, and they sound hardly less impressive now. The famous VP0 strings are silky smooth and the orches-tral image as a whole combines homogeneity with clarity. I'm marginally less happy about the choral balance in The Blue Danube, which somehow manages to sug-gest a large group of singers suspended above and slightly forward of the orchestra. No matter; the impression of nothing com-ing between listener and these decade-old tapes both excites and whets the appetite for more reissues like this. Tape hiss? Yes; it is faintly apparent, but not distractingly so. More important is that, unlike the Decca silver disc of the digital New Year Concert, there is no hint of HF tightness to mar enjoyment. A

Andrew Keener

MONITOR John Atkinson Ivor Humphreys

Christo her Breuni

John Crabbe Stephen Daw

Schubert: Piano Impromptus Op.90, D899 and Op.142, D935, Radu Lupu (411 711-2) (66m 32s) The full range of the piano's colour seems to have been captured by the German engineers, although I find its treble some-what worn, or perhaps it is that it is tuned too sharp to give the right bloom. There is also just a trace of that old enemy of piano-recording, the fractional distortion at the start of each note, whether it be played loudly or softly. It is a great shame that Radu Lupu, of all Schubertians the most marvel-lously sensitive to touch and colour, should suffer from this detailed fault, which must surely have to do with microphone place-ments and actual microphone choices. His cantabile is so unforced, his empathy with Schubert so absolute, that I soon forgot the problem; but it is still there. B

Stephen Daw

Sibelius: Finlandia, Swan of Tuonela, Valse Triste/Greig: Holberg Suite, Cowkeeper's Tune, etc, Peer Gynt Suite 1, New Phil/Kord, OSR/Stein, ASM/Marriner, Nat PO/Bos-kovsky, RPO/Weller (411 933-2) (61m 39s) Another misnamed package, all the items here being analogue originals despite a 'digitally mastered' label.* Garnered from five LPs spanning 1975-80, these popular Scandinavian classics offer as mixed a bag in sound quality as they do in performers. Finlandia has some impressive brass and is marred only by a touch of HF edge, Swan and Valse Triste are fine, Holberg suffers a nasty assertive brightness on fortissimo strings, and Peer Gynt is very satisfactory until the end, when ' Hall of the Mountain King' lets the listener down with a half-hearted crescendo which totally fails to use the silver disc's dynamic potential. A/B/C?

John Crabbe •'Mastered' is the key word here, as opposed to plain 'Digital' or 'Digital Recording', but we agree that the distinction is not clear enough. It's almost as though the companies are afraid to put the word analogue on their issues. Dep Ed.

Wagner: Flying Dutchman & Tannhäuser Overtures, Meistersinger Prelude, Tristan Prelude & Liebestod, CSO/Solti (411 951-2) (54m 50s) Decca's continuing use of the 'digitally mastered' tag for re-mastered ana-logue material really is disgraceful. [See footnote above.] All the items here appeared on black disc before any digitally originated material had been used on Decca LPs, and there's no avoiding the fact that nothing on this issue sounds as open or dynamically unrestricted as might now be reasonably expected. PB's 1/2 musical judgments must stand (9/78), but in CD terms I rate the somewhat claustrophobic sonics (especially the 1972 Meistersinger Prelude) a poor B, with C for the frequently edgy Tristan items.

John Crabbe

DELOS Dvorak: Serenade in e, Nocturne, Silent

Woods, Douglas Davis (yen/Los Angeles CO/Schwarz (C/CD 3011) (40m 5s) Very good, this Soundstream recording from Delos, if a touch raw when set beside the CD of Marriner's Philips account which I play for pleasure almost as much as Colin Davis' lovely deleted 1968 black disc from the same company (c/w Symphonic Variations; Sequenza reissue please). Delos' blurb boasts nothing more than a pair of Schoeps 221B omnis in a sympathetic acoustic; they are rightly proud, for the balance and rever-beration are credible and well judged. There is no 'pool of light' for the solo cello in Silent Woods. The right-hand placing of second violins is a welcome bonus. Only when the strings are vigorously attacked (as in the final cadence of ii or the coda of the last movement) does some of the bloom dis-appear in favour of edginess. I enjoyed the disc, both for its sound and its lively and fresh, if not unfailingly subtle, performances. A/B

Andrew Keener

Handel: Water Music (cpte), Los Angeles CO/Schwarz (D/CD 3010) (54m 9s) The sound of this tidy and imaginative modern-instruments reading is full and rich — poss-ibly a little close, but well-spread and involv-ing: this is 'surround-sound' rather than 'directional sound', but it suits the perform-ance, which has many interesting and imaginative touches. The spontaneity of the players is nicely caught as they play one after another of their conductor's added ornaments, and if some of these are a little odd (eg, those trills on track 1), others (flute on 15, oboe on 1, 2, 9 and 14, bassoon on 12) added considerably to my enjoyment because the recording makes one feel a part of the freshness of it all. A good one. A/A*

Stephen Daw

Mozart: Symphony 41 in C, K551, Symphony 40 in g, K550, Los Angeles CO/Schwarz (D/CD 3012) (53m 17s) The tone of the strings has been recorded in such a way as to imply that they lack projection and subst-ance, which is not so, as one can tell from the articulations and the balance, which is quite good. The orchestra sounds both wide and deep for a chamber-orchestra, with the Jupi-ter trumpets well back; however, the flute is in some way highlighted throughout both symphonies, and since it is well-played, this may attract a certain kind of flute-player to the record! These are detailed points, but since the performances (especially that of the Jupiter) are somewhat routine in charac-ter, should be noted in addition. B/C

Stephen Daw

'Water Music of the Impressionists': Piano works by Liszt, Griffes, Ravel, Debussy, Carol Rosenberger (D/CD 3006) (47m 13s) A most appealing 1979 collection, this suffers mainly from an over-wide piano image, due to engineer Stan Ricker's preferred miking of two B&K omnis, and a highish degree of background hiss from the Soundstream digital recorder. RB was not that impressed by the LP's sound quality back in April 1980 — rating C/D:3 — but I would beg to disagree, feeling that, precision of imagery apart, a good balance has been struck between direct sound and ambient. The frequency extremes, too, are well caught, and although my system doesn't dig down to the Bbsen-dorfer piano's 16Hz 'Tolling bell' Cs added by Miss Rosenberger to Debussy's La Cathéd-rale Engloutie, the bass definition and exten-sion are good. A

John Atkinson

'The World of the Harp': Works by Seized°, Albeniz, Debussy etc, Susann McDonald (D/CD 3005) (43m 59s) A Stan Ricker Sound-stream recording of the same vintage as the Rosenberger piano disc, this has long been a dem favourite, PT giving the original LP an A* rating. The same spaced omni miking renders the image over-wide and unstable, and again there is a highish level of back-

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1984 117

ground hiss revealed by the Sanyo CD transfer. The sound is excellent, however, with good clarity at frequency extremes and a delicate revealing of instrumental detail, so A would be fair.

DENON

John Atkinson

Mozart: Divertimenti No.17 (K334) and No.1 (K136), Philharmonia Quartet Berlin (38C37-7080) (57m 34s) A pleasing balance has been achieved for this recording though the 'inner' instruments of the septet of players can be a little too far forward. The sound is admirably clear, a little lightweight in the bass perhaps, but at times somewhat 'glar-ing' in the string tone. The horns are balanced well back and are at time etheral; they do not provide suffficient substance to the sound, their initial entry is surprisingly underplayed. The earlier Divertimento has a better balance for its five players. A/B

David Prákel

Mozart: Wind Quintet (K452)/Beethoven: Wind Quintet Op.16, Alfons Kontarsky, Winds of the BP() (38C37-7090) (49m 34s) The opening bars of the Mozart piano quintet betray a lack of impact in the recording brought about, judging from the piano balance, by too many microphones, too close. The piano, sadly, is largely dissociated from the acoustic in which the other players find themselves. Key noises are a little obtrusive at times and again betray the closeness of individual instrument mic-rophones. Enhanced 'clarity' is no substitute for a lack of stereo and dynamic integrity — this is something of a sonic patchwork. B

David Priikel

Telemann: Twelve Fantasies for Oboe Solo, Heinz Holliger (38C37-7089) (57m 31s) Key clatter and recorded ambience don't quite tie up in this hyper-detailed recording of virtuoso instrumental playing. Breathing is quite audible and the reverbera-tion clean and crisp. But there is something not quite 'pure' about the recorded balance between direct and reflected sound which puts the oboe closer than other acoustic cues would have it — the presence perhaps of both main and ambience mics? The effect, however, is not gross and one soon adjusts to the recorded balance. A/B

David Priikel

ERATO Chabrier: Joyeuse Marche, Danse Slave, Suite Pastorale, Gwendoline Overture, Bour-rée Fantasque, Espana, Orch Nat de France/ Jordan (ECD 88018) (53m 25s) This com-prises all Chabrier's extant orchestral music, which should receive authentic perform-ances from such Gallic forces. In fact it all seems competent enough if not particularly lively ( it needs a Beecham to get this sort of music going properly!), and the same may be said of the recorded sound, which is spatially stable, set in an apt acoustic, well balanced, but somehow dynamically unex-citing. This was a studio co-production shared between Erato and Radio France, which may explain the results. And the start is not helped when the opening chord's initial transient is partly lost — on my machine anyway. But it's very good at times, so B/A. John Crabbe

Mozart: Symphonies 31 & 41, SCO/Conlon (ECD 88029) (54m 19s) I like this Erato/Usher Hall recording which combines a welcome touch of brightness with the warmth and dryness I remember from long acquaintance with the hall in the '70s. The Scottish Cham-ber Orchestra need fear no competition from ensembles south of the border. If only the interpretations were more remarkable. KD may well enjoy them on black disc more than I did here, but I find that the impression of briskness precludes any real shaping of phrase; also — small point I know, but

indicative of the impression of haste — I soon became irritated by James Conlon's appa-rent unwillingness to count five full silent beats at bars 80 and 268 of the Jupiter first movement. A sentimental ritenuto before the finale code weakens a great structure. Good, but hardly competitive. A

Andrew Keener

IIARMONIA MUNDI Charpentier: Acteon, Les Arts Florissants/ Christie (90.1095) (46m 40s) Digitally remas-tered from an analogue original, of course — like all the French Harmonia Mundi CDs — this is another very fine aural snapshot (or rather movie), with beautifully clean pers-pectives on an obviously coherent instrumental and vocal panorama. The whole thing comes across complete with the hall's very ample contribution, yet generous as that is, it •doesn't mask any detail at all. One can hear into this recording to an extent rarely experienced even with direct-cut LPs (where, in any case, the performance factor, not to mention the repertoire available, is all too frequently a disappointment). Direct comparison with the LP equivalent reveals a marked 'thinning' to the sound off CD, but this sort of result is highly LP mastering/ cutting/replay front-end dependent. Oh, and what music-making! A*/A for my money.

Ivor Humphreys

L'OISEAU-LYRE Telemann: Double and Triple Concertos, AAM/Hogwood (411 949-2) (53m 30s) The tone is clear and full, and the recording gives a strong impression that one is, as it were, a participant in the performance ( rather than a member of an audience sitting in front of it all — a different kind of participation). This suits most of the Concertos (and the Quadro in B-flat — a chamber-music work) very well, but in the 3-trumpet Concerto in D the soloists — who play well — sound as if they're well away from 'us' and the rest of the instruments. Curiously, the transverse flute, well-balanced in the Concerto with Recorder in e is much more backward in the Triple Concerto in E; at times the mechanism of the harpsichord is somewhat obtrusive, also, although its tone is very agreeable and it is played with nice style and judgment. The instruments have all been accurately recorded tonally, and these small quibbles should not deter those who might be attracted by the notion of a Concerto Polo-noisy from acquiring it; the CD is marginally better as a recording than the LP, I think, although generally it's swings and roundab-outs. B

Stephen Daw

MING Beethoven, Berlioz, Bizet, Pachelbel: Arrangements for percussion (MCD 10007) (41m 07s) The big problem with any ensem-ble that departs from the conventional is repertoire; the skill of the arranger becomes very important. Such is the case here where Harold Farberman conducts The All-Star Percussion Ensemble — made up from per-cussionists from the leading US orchestras — in his own arrangements of such unlikely candidates for the honour as a selection from Carmen, the scherzo from Beethoven's 9th, Berlioz' March to the Scaffold', and the Pachelbel 'Canon'. Much reliance is made on the tuned instruments — xylophone, glock-enspiel, marimba, vibes, timps, and African 'thumb piano' — but an amazing variety of pitchless instruments is also used for quite astonishing sonic effect. Produced by Andrew Kazdin and engineered by Tom Lazarus and MacDonald Moore, the sound is unexaggerated but clear, along the lines of the classic Gale percussion record — you can hear the walls of the studio — and if the whole concept is akin to a cat walking on its hind legs, well, it certainly is a pedigree cat. Available through Conifer and rated A*. Poor value, though, time-wise.

John Atkinson

ORFEO French and Spanish songs, Margaret Price/ James Lockhart (C038831A) (54m 43s) This recital was recorded at the same venue (Henry Wood Hall, London) at the same group of sessions as the superb Schumann recital reviewed in CD Monitor in August (p83). I can only repeat the comments there which are pertinent to the sound quality: these are some of the 'most involving sounds I have heard off record, the voice and piano in a completely life- like relationship ... vocal placement is superb ... diction perfectly captured'. Unlike that issue, though, this has its index points before rather than on the first beats of music of each track (though only just; surely it's more natural to have a few seconds of run-in 'silence' after selecting a particular track), but just is just enough. I have no significant reservations concerning the performances. The French songs, in particular, seem to me utterly suited to Miss Price's voice (or I should say vice-versa!), and this is how I've always imagined Duparc's Chanson triste. A (1*)

Ivor Humphreys

Mozart: String Quartets 14, K387 & 23, K590, Brandis Quartet (C041831A) (59m 07s) Mar-vellously thought-out, lucid performances of the first of the 'Haydn' quartets and the last of the 'Prussian', these were recorded in Munich last year. Set in a good, open acoustic, the players are both extremely well differentiated and integrated. Fairly close-up miking lends plenty of bite to the violins, as one would expect, but this is not unduly worrying providing the replay level is selected appropriately. Good depth of image with plenty of room to breathe. In short, a recording of exceptional quality, and per-formances to put alongside the best that I've heard. Listen to the Andante Cantabile of K387 and you'll be hooked. A (1*)

Ivor Humphreys

PHILIPS Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue/Addinsell: 'Warsaw Concerto'/Litolff: Concerto sym-phonique (Scherzo)/Chopin: Fantasy on Pol-ish Airs/Liszt: Polonaise brillante, Mischa Dichter (pno), Philharmonia/Marriner (411 123-2) (54m 35s) This CD deserves generous replay levels to overcome a rather distant recording quality. The clarinet 'war-whoop' which opens Rhapsody in Blue is unusual in its being correctly balanced, the instrumentalist playing from his position in the orchestra and not, as it often sounds, as if he had stepped up to the mic to give his solo. The muted trumpets excite a large acoustic space. The piano is close but not overbearing and does interact with the recording venue acoustic, rather the acoustic impression is of a piano alone on an apron stage out in front of the orchestra. The 'Warsaw Concerto' score seems to bring out the cavernous quality of the acoustic which comes close to having the acoustic appeal of an aircraft hanger, however it must be underlined that it is the quality of the acous-tic and not the quantity to which I object. Even then 'object' is too strong a word. The Litolff and Liszt seem less troubled by the acoustic. With the natural perspectives and the spacious sound one can forgive this disc a lot, however do I hear the hand of an engineer assisting the orchestra at 3m 04s in the Rhapsody after the first piano solo? Overall an A is deserved.

David Prikel

Haydn: Symphonies 6-8, ASM/Marriner (411 441-2) (58m 21s) The black disappeared two years ago; I liked it for its forward image, its discreet, helpful reverberation and firm, unobtrusive bass line. Now, on silver, I'm not so sure. Many things are admirable: liber-ated from rustle, swish and pop, the soft conclusive of the Adagio from no.6 sounds breathtakingly beautiful, and perspectives are generally credible (though I was occa-

118 HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1984

sionally aware that the excellent harpsichor-dist — uncredited — had a microphone to himself). But as the Academy's recent Lon-don anniversary concerts have reminded us, their sound and style of string rlaying are sweeter than we are led to from the hint of a glint clearly audible here. B

Andrew Keener

Haydn: Symphonies 100 ('Military') and 104 ('London'), Concertgebouw/Davis (411 449-2) (52m 42s) This fine coupling of analogue originals was rated A by PB (3/79), who found the sound 'forward yet discreet', with-out congestion even in the Military sym-phony's noisiest parts. I would not regard the balance as 'forward' now, as the orches-tra seems nicely set back in the Concert-gebouw hall's ambience — while offering all the detail one may need. In theory the relatively limited dynamics of such music (soldierly percussion apart) are not particu-larly advantaged by CD, but what a delight it is to hear Haydn's lovely woodwind pas-sages coming across from a background of real silence after years of LP mush. Perhaps a trifle heavy in the bass and with a slight leftish bias, but otherwise splendid. A*/A

John Crabbe

Mozart: Symphonies 39 & 41, Dresden Staatskapelle/Davis (410 046-2) (66m 27s) A co-production with VEB Deutsche Schallplat-ten, Berlin, these are fine, open recordings of excellent dynamic width and good realism. Although quite clearly multi-miked, the sound-stage nevertheless integrates well in true Philips tradition, with a solid feel to the image and its surrounding acoustic. Critic-isms are confined really to the proximity of the upper strings, which as a consequence restricts the available playback level envelope; too high and the string edge tires, too low and the image collapses. That said, though, this is a first-rate release. Very splendid, crisp performances too. A

Ivor Humphreys

Rodrigo: Guitar Concerto 'para una fiesta' Caledonio/Romero orch. Torroba: Guitar Concerto 'di Màlaga', Pepe Romero/ASM/ Marriner (411 133-2) (50m 20s) These Span-ish concertos are none too easy to record realistically, since the guitar is mostly a quiet instrument, and the orchestra is not only louder, but has a more enveloping kind of sound. Philips have solved the problem well. The nimble soloist sounds pleasantly, but not obtrusively, close, rather as though he were playing solo music. The orchestra is behind, but it has been combined very effectively with the soloist ( probably by clever initial recording, rather than mixing and editing), with first-class results. This must be one of the best-recorded guitar CDs yet. A

Stephen Daw

Sor: Seguidillas, Andantino for guitar/Mar-tin Y Soler: Arias and Songs, Teresa Ber-ganza, Jose Moreno (411 030-2) (47m 45s) This is an enormously energetic recording with Berganza's voice shining with a laser like clarity and power. The London recording acoustic (unnamed) is allowed a fair say in proceedings though the singer and guitarist do not seem to share the same acoustic. Individually the recordings of guitar and voice would be of exceptional clarity and fidelity with the balance a matter of taste, however the guitar does not have the same perspective or dynamic range potential as the voice, suggesting a closer miking on the guitar and a careful distancing of the mic on the frighteningly powerful voice. Exceptional clarity but overall an unconvincing stereo picture. *A*/B

David Prákel

Vivaldi: 9 Concerti a quattro, I Musici (411 035-2) (37m 24s) The analogue version of this CD received a double star rating from KD back in December '83, and though I would not be as generous with my praise as he was, this is a good, competent recording about which I can find little to criticise. The

sparsely informative accompanying booklet to this CD shows I Musici arranged in a semi-circle, bows poised on strings with basso continuo and harpsichord seated behind, a seating plan which would appear to have been used for this performance, though now harpsichord and bass are placed front right with first violins prominent at stage left; perspectives are on the wide-angled side. Except for a slight hiss in some slow movements, the sound is clean and true, but there was a sense in which the sound was bland and lacked sparkle and life. However, despite my feelings of indiffer-ence, I feel compelled to award an A.

Felicity Mulgan

SUPRAPHON Dvorak: Symphony 7, Czech PO/Neumann (38C37-7067) (36m 54s) I admired Neumann's interpretation of the New World a year ago, and this 7th is just as good, for it offers a very natural orchestral sound with plenty of bloom and a wonderful sheen on the strings. Here and there woodwinds are slightly too close, but this is Dvorak as it should be played and recorded, and well deserves an A rating. Note the short playing time, though.

Angus McKenzie

TELARC JS Bach: Toccata/Fugue in d, Concerto 2 in a, Prelude/Fugue in b, Prelude/Fugue in D, Michael Murray (org) (CD 80088) (46m 31s) Fantasia/Fugue in g, Toccata in F, Passacag-lia/Fugue in c, Two Chorale Preludes, Michael Murray (org) (CD 80049) (39m 56s) These two recordings feature Telarc's 'house' organist, the talented Michael Mur-ray on two well-respected American organs; the Skinner-Schlicker in the First Congrega-tional Church, Los Angeles, and the Walcker-Methuen-Skinner-Andover in Methuen Memorial Hall, Methuen, Massachusetts. The 1979 Methuen recording is preferable regarding sound quality, as it has a firmer, better defined low end, with a more believ-able image. The Los Angeles pipework is apparently in two physically separated blocks, either side of the nave, and both sound and image on the 1983 recording are less consistent, some ranks of pipes being over-close, some being too far away, and there being less 'air' captured, overall. The earlier recording, however, has a higher level of background hiss, so an A rating would suffice for both.

John Atkinson

Beethoven: Piano Concerto 3, Choral Fan-tasy, Serkin/Tanglewood Chorus/Boston SO/Ozawa (CD-80063) (56m 51s) No denying this carries the stamp of a no longer young keyboard artist — Serkin adds ten per cent to his NY rondo timing (CBS) — but much detail preserves the magic (trills from the first-movement cadenza, or before the Fantasia's alla marcia). A natural concert-hall balance between piano and orchestra here, though tuttis are thick and murky in depth resolu-tion. A learner sound in the coupling, where the small choir sounds forward of the solo voice perspectives! B There is some beauti-fully tuned woodwind playing in the con-certo. Serkin's breathing is caught in the slow movement. Quite a nice homogeneous sound in this main work — the Telarc Fifth Symphony provided a clue to the best replay level. A/B

Christopher Breunig

Beethoven: Symphony 5, Egmont, Boston SO/Ozawa (CD-80060) (40m 03s) You are in a plush expensive seat, well back in Sym-phony Hall for Ozawa's comfortably expan-sive Fifth. Notwithstanding a fast tempo in ( i) — with repeat — this is more Brahms' C-minor than Beethoven's; double basses in the Trio are positively Stokowskian (sounding like about twenty-eight!). No repeat in ( iv), nor index point. A blended homogeneous sound. If you can afford this, relax and enjoy it. The playing is certainly beautiful. I suspect

for Ozawa it expunges his old RCA/Chicago Fifth. A

Christopher Breunig

Berlioz: Fantastic Symphony, Cleveland 0/ Maazel (CD-80076) (48m 34s) Digital dyna-mics clearly suit this ever-fascinating work, which is captured here with great sonic magnificence, offering enthusiasts some splendid dem pieces. Perhaps just a little more bass reverberance in the Severance Hall would have helped, but it would be churlish not to grant at least a qualified star for sound. The performance, however, lacks subtlety and is often rather hurried. The 'March to the Scaffold', for instance, is pursued at a pace which seems sprightly rather than doom-laden. The Ball's optional cornet part is included, but the expedient of using bells piped in from a nearby church for the last movement is negated by chimes whose dominant tones place the perceived pitch an octave high as usual — whatever may be happening at the fundamentals. Also, the booklet's supporting remarks don't make sense in terms of any known system of notation.* A*/A (: 2/3)

John Crabbe •See Hell's Bells & Hector Berlioz' (April '78) end Which Pitch? (Nov 68).

Brahms: German Requiem, Atlanta SO & Chorus/Shaw (CD-80092) (69m 46s) Mat-sushita pressed, Telarc CDs have just been reintroduced by Conifer at nearer £12 than £17. Sawallisch/Orfeo as yet unscheduled on CD, this 1983 Symphony Hall production must be weighed against VPO/Haitink, with the Schicksalslied on Philips. It boasts soloists Arleen Augér and Richard Stilwell — Karajan's choice to record Pelléas. Orches-tral playing is very 'sweet' here. Robert Shaw was chorus-master of the NBC, under Tosca-nini: his Atlanta singers show obvious warmth and enthusiasm, yet you do feel he nurses them. Fugal sections in ( iii) and (vi) evolve at comfortable tempi, 'Denn alles Fleisch' has no threat, or menace. The sop-rano solo (v) is delicate but bland in effect. In (vi) the choral singing does for once catch fire, but this movement brings a technical oddity: the first-bar strings' entry sounds truncated (whether cued or in continuous play). This band is also less full-bodied, brass punctuated tuttis thinly suggest 'digital vacuousness'. As to the general quality, this does sound much as the Requiem would in a modern concert hall. There's no pulling forward of chorus sopranos vs male singers left and right; the baritone solos have proper weight, but only if you set the level just so, CDs need attentive 'focusing' I find. We have become used to greater analysis of Brahms' textures, through multi-miking techniques, than here. So I can imagine some even finding it 'dim', and the comfortable uphol-stery does tend to underline as second-rate this conductor's realisation. ( See also DP's Carmina &mane review, p95 Jan '84.) A/B

Christopher Breunig

Debussy: La Mer, Prelude a l'apres..., Danses sacree et profane, St Louis SO/ Slatkin (CD-80071) (45m 00s) The cover print bodes well — Hokusai's 'The Giant Wave off Kanagawa', as reproduced on the original published score of La Mer. Schoeps SKM-52U mics and the Soundstream Digital Recorder form a mightily persuasive com-bination in these hands — the recording has a presence and weight rarely matched in big-label recordings — an effortless sense of the dynamic potential, which is never even threatened. Despite that, though, the image doesn't open out quite as convincingly as I would have hoped; I miss that sense of a truly living space around the orchestra in the louder music. But that really is nit-picking at the hi-fi 'tweak's' level, and in every other respect this is a first-rate sound. Perform-ance-wise I find Slatkin a little too facile, a little casual generally, and I miss the magical weaving of textural nuances, the beautifully graded rubatos that Haitink brings to all his Debussy recordings for Philips. Eminently

NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1984 119

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listenable, though, and certainly worth a 1. The recording, I think, is of A/B quality.

Ivor Humphreys Gershwin: Rhapsody In Blue/An American In Paris Eugene List/Cincinnati SO/Kunzel, Telarc CD-80058 (33m 5s) The Olympics really put the mockers on this classic, and Gershwin's never going to seem the same again after that sub-Busby Berkeley, 84-piano nonsense. Which is a shame: Rhap-sody In Blue deserves better. Still, try not to let the LA madness keep you from sampling this offering, which is most assuredly a traditional version of the work. Without quite veering towards a Boston Pops rendition — semi-soundtrack, as it were — the List/Kunzel performance is just exciting enough to make you forget that the piece has been milked more often than 'Air-on-a-C-String'. Purists will prefer the Tilson Thomas piano roll offering, or even the 1959 Bernstein version (super-hiss and all), but this one definitely earns a strong 'OK'. Sonically, it may prove a bit too ' hi-fi' for some, and there's a notice-ably squashed soundstage, but it remains tolerable. What hurts is paying so much money for under 34 minutes worth of music. A/B

Ken Kessler

Ravel: Bolero, Daphnis et Chloé — suite 2. Pavane pour une Infante défunte, St Louis SO & Ch/Slatkin (CD-80052) (38m 39s) Feel the floorboards vibrate beneath you with the bass drum stokes at the end of Bolero; savour the soft presence of the string bass line soon after the start of the Pavane and the smoothness of the muted violins a few bars later. Now, too, thanks to Conifer, those wonderful people who brought Sound-stream recordings to these shores are charg-ing realistic prices for their black and silver discs. So it won't cost an arm and a leg to sample the characteristically uninflated engineering. Sensitive and well played, though not distinguished, performances (a pity that there aren't more of them on this disc; the playing time is decidedly mean) enhance the product. I daresay that ears corrupted and imaginations coarsened by digital nasties from one or two other sources will find this sound a shade dull. I wonder when such folk last reminded themselves of how the real thing sounds from a good seat in a helpfully reverberant hall? A

Andrew Keener

Shostakovich: Symphony 5, Cleveland 0/ Maazel (CD-80067) (46m 43s) Not very highly regarded as a performance by ES in his review of the Telarc-DG black version (3/82), this Masonic Auditorium (Cleveland) record-ing has, as he said, a ' naturally placed image' and is ' impressive but not startling'. At least it seemed not to be especially startling until the symphony's final coda, when molto-fortissimo tuttis plus bass-drum have a mind-blowing digital field-day. ' Brilliantly smooth' would be a fair overall summary of the sound, which offers a solid image within the confines of Telarc's microphonin9 phi-losophy. Had the orchestra been set just a little further back, with correspondingly greater ambience, this would deserve a full star. A*/A

John Crabbe

Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture, Cappricio Ita-lian, Cossack dance from Mazeppa, Cincin-nati SO/Kunzel (CD 80041) (35m 16s) Short playing time, but I don't suppose that mat-ters as people will buy this CD just for the 'digital cannons'! The Soundstream editing computer was used to mix three separate digital recordings, the cannons and the caril-lon being added to the basic orchestra and brass band stereo tracks. The sleeve carries a warning about the high level of the cannons, and just as well, as it proved all too easy to bottom my Celestion SL600s. 'Impressive', though. Basic orchestral sound is good, if dryish, but with good fine detail captured. Some reviewers have complained about the second league orchestra, but I think they play well enough. After all, is anyone going

to buy an 1812 for its musical value and the finer points of performance? No, it is going to be bought to frighten the neighbours and this recording does that better than any I have heard. A*/B

John Atkinson

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons, Boston SO/ Joseph Silverstein (vin) (CD 80070) (40m 19s) Thankfully, the Boston forces were reduced for this recording, to three firsts, three second, three violas, cello, bass and harpsichord. The result is a modern 'Sea-sons' where the continuo is correctly balanced without artificial aids, the usual technique being either to close mic the harpsichord, or to leave it submerged. Engineer Jack Renner has used his custom-ary spaced Schoeps omnis here, and the result is an 'open' sound quality, with a natural rendition of string tone and good depth. My choice for a modern instruments version now that Conifer are importing Telarc discs at a sensible price and rated A. As with all the Telarc discs I've reviewed this month, a Technics pressing.

John Atkinson

TELDEC JS Bach: Brandenburg Concertos, Concen-tus Musicus Wien, 1, 2, 4 (8.42823) (48m 23s) 3, 5, 6 (8.42840) (51m 03s) I found the LP releases of this set to be a little too hard in tonal balance to be enjoyable: the Polygram-pressed CDs, however, though still forward and rather bright, are more acceptable. Could the dmm LP mastering be suspect? In any case, this third set of Brandenburgs to be' available on silver disc is the most consis-tently good. There is more internal com-munication between the players than on the disappointing 'modern' Philips set, and the sound is less closely-miked than on the Archiv Trevor Pinnock set, the balance being more natural. (I think I was too enthusiastic over my technical rating for the 4, 5, 6 set from The English Concert, 410 501-2, long-term repeated listening proving the hyped-up nature of the sound to be fatiguing, so that goes down to a straight B.) An A/B overall, though there patches of straight A, for this set; but my ideal Brandenburgs have still to be recorded, let alone find their way onto CD.

John Atkinson

Chopin: 19 Waltzes, Cyprien Katsaris (pno) (8.43056 ZK) (61m 3s) Whether it's the sound of Cyprien Katsaris's piano or Teldec's repre-sentation of it that gives me pause I'm not sure; a bit of both perhaps. Doubts set in with the hint of jangle on the repeated A-flats in the central section of Op.18 (nor does Katsaris play them with the kind of elegance and pianistic control we take for granted from, say, Lipatti or Zimerman). Elsewhere, there is a quality to the upper end of the keyboard that somehow contrives to be opaque and rather hard; I also missed a true feeling of depth and weight at the lower end. The image is close, but that, I suspect, is not the problem; there is sufficient air around the instrument. Not bad sound, in short, but not vintage Teldec either. I found the per-formances musical but ultimately uninspir-ing, occasionally mannered but rarely thought-provoking — but that is a story to be told on other pages ... B

Andrew Keener

Handel: Ode to St Cecilia's Day, Concentus Musicus Wien/Palmer/Rolfe-Johnson/ Stockholm Bach Choir/Harnoncourt (8.42349) (49m 29s) The ensemble clarity is excellent, and even problems such as that of blending Felicity Palmer's voice with Leopold Stasny's flute-playing are overcome without clutter or imbalance. The rests and phrasing sound so neat on CD ('Sharp violins, proclaim' is specially good, so is the rich cello introduction to 'What passion cannot music raise and quell!' — presumably played by Harnoncourt himself). Perhaps the recording is just too vivid; the attack became for me just a little wearisome towards the end: after all, Dryden's ode is pretty heavy-

going, and it is doubtful if Handel — who was interested in English literature — wanted to make too much of a meal of it. B

Stephen Daw

Handel: Water Music, Concentus Musicus Wien (8.42368) (44m 57s) This 1978 analogue recording excited me in LP form, but it now starts to sound a little frantic in its approach. Sample the exaggerated horn flutter ton-guing in the third movement of the first suite, for example. The Viennese players are trying a little too hard, and Pinnock on CD (Archly 410 525-2) is to be preferred, the English musicians remembering that this is dance-based music. The tonal balance is very middy, and lacks bass weight, Harnon-court using just one violone to underpin the expanded forces used. A Sanyo cut rather than a Polygram. B

John Atkinson

Mozart: Symphonies 34 & 35, Concert-gebouw/Harnoncourt (8.42703) (45m 16s) Rather a fierce edge to the upper strings mars an otherwise perfectly acceptable 'big-Mozart' approach. This was presumably made in the Concertgebouw itself — the acoustic certainly bears a familiar sonic signature and the hall is depicted on the front cover. A very large reverberant sound, then, whose decay factor tends to blur the faster music with this particular miking arrangement. ( Philips, on the other hand, more than have the measure of it.) Wonder-ful sounds in the slow movements and in the more intimately scored passagework of the allegros, but it crowds too much when it's both fast and loud. Marvellously crisp, responsive playing as one would expect, but I feel that Harnoncourt is giving 'authentic' sized readings here, and they don't always quite come off with forces of this size. B (2)

Ivor Humphreys Mozart: Thamos, King of Egypt, Soloists/ Netherlands Chamber Ch/Concertgebouw/ Harnoncourt (8.42702 ZK) (42m 44s) More unfamiliar repertoire on CD; that in itself is something to be pleased about. But I can't warm to the sound. The opening chorus brings a metallic edge to singers ( rather backwardly balanced), trumpets and drums which I associate neither with Harnoncourt's Mozart symphony recordings nor the many fine Volker Straus/Philips Concertgebouw productions. Soft music sounds beautifully transparent, but the overall impression, reverberant and prone to coloration in forte choral textures, is rather wearing. Harnon-court's dramatic, magnificently played per-formance nevertheless remains unmistak-able. C

Andrew Keener

Vivaldi: 6 concerti Op.8 Nos. 7-12, Concen-tus Musicus Wien (8.43094) (52m 25s) This 1977 analogue recording has the 'space' lacking from the all-digital Brandenburgs above, apart from the concerti with oboes, where the sound closes in a little. The tonal character is still somewhat 'thin', and there is less bass weight than I would have liked, but the playing is to a high standard. A, and highly recommended. Manufactured by Polygram.

John Atkinson

PIERRE VERA NAY Liszt: Organ Works, Chantal de Zeeuw (PV783041) (54m 07s) Liszt's three most famous organ works are stunningly played on this CD, recorded in the Cathedral of Aix en Provence. There are some shaking stops here in the pedals, and the inevitable ' motor-bike' pedal reeds ( like the ones in the RFH), but also much bubble and squeak, the latter being rather close-miked. The Cathedral atmosphere comes over well, and the sound is stunning at times but I noticed quite a few edits. For example, just after one edit the ambience seemed to change for a second, and this shows some poor engineering. Rated B, but nevertheless a fascinating experience, particularly when played very loud!

Angus McKenzie

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1984 121

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RECORD REVIEW

INDEX

CLASSICAL ADAM

124 Giselle ( Bonynge) 8 JS BACH

124 Various Concertos ( Leonhardt)

124 Sonatas for Violin/Harpsichord

(Huggett/Koopman) BALAKIREV

124 Symphony 1 ( Jarvil BARTOK

124 Concerto for Orchestra, etc ( Doran) 124 Violin Concerto 1 (Chung/Sand

BEETHOVEN 124 Symphony 3 (Kondrashin)

124 String Quartet Op. 132 ( Fitzwilliam)

125 Violin Sonatas 1-10 (Gruenberg/Wilde)

125 Cello Sonatas Opp. 69 & 102/2 ( Ma/Ax)

BERG

124 Violin Concerto (Chung/Solti)

BERKELEY

125 Or Shall We Die? (Hickox)

BRAHMS

125 Symphony 1 ( Kondrashin) 125 Hungarian Dances (Abbado) 8 125 Serenade, etc ( Haitink) 125 Clarinet Sonatas ( Leister/Oppitz)

125 Piano Sonata 3 (Cherkassky)

BURGON

126 Cathedral Music (Thurlow)

DEUUS 126 Song of Summer, etc ( Groves) 8 126 Requiem, etc ( Davies) 8 126 String Quartet ( Brodsky (3t)

DVORAK

126 Cello Concerto (Cohen/Macal)

ELGAR

126 Music for Wind Quintet (Athena Ens)

126 String Quartet ( Brodsky lat)

FRANCK

126 Three Chorales, etc (Hurford)

GADE

126 Violin Concerto, etc ( Kontra/Garaguly)

GROFÉ 127 Aviation Suite, etc (Stulen)

HANDEL

127 Fireworks Music, etc ( Gardiner)

HAYDN

127 Quartets Op. 74 ( Salomon Qt)

KODALY

127 Hey Janos Suite (Tennstedt)

127 Cello Sonata, etc (Turovsky)

UADOV 124 Polonaise (Jarvi)

USZT

127 Late chamber works (various) 127 Années de Pèlerinage ( Bolet)

MENDELSSOHN

127 Scottish Symphony, etc ( Davis)

MOZART

129 Symphonies 34/41 (Hogwood)8 129 Symphony 41, etc ( Barenboim)

129 Eme Kleine, etc ( Boskovsky)

129 Requiem (Hogwood)

129 Coronation Mass, etc (Cleobury)

129 Marriage of Figaro (Gui) 8 129 Operatic Arias ( 10 soloists) 8

MOZART/HEIDENREICH

129 Magic Flute ( arr. wind-band)

PROKOFIEV

130 Symphony 3, etc ( Chailly)

127 Lt. Kijé Suite (Tennstedt)

RAVEL

130 Mother Goose, etc ( Dutoit)

130 Concerto for Left-Hand, etc

(Wayenberg/Kondrasin)

130 Songs ( Souzay/Baldwin)

SAINT-SAENS

130 Symphony 3 )Banz)

SCARLATTI (Domenico)

130 Sonatas Vol. 18 (Rowland)

SCHUBERT

125 Sonata in A (Cherkassky) SIMPSON

130 String Quartets 7/8 ( Delmé Qt)

SOLER

131 Canzonette, etc (Berganza/Moreno)

SOR 131 Seguedillas, etc ( Berganza/Moreno)

TCHAIKOVSKY

126 Rocco Variations (Cohen/Macal) TELEMANN

131 Overtüren (Harnoncourt)

VERDI

131 Opera Choruses ( Franc)) 8 VICTORIA

131 Masses ( Hill) VIVALDI

131 Double Concertos ( Marriner)

131 La Cetra ( Brown) 8 WAGNER

131 Das Rheingold (Solti) C)

CLASSICAL COLLECTIONS 133 BEAUTIFUL MUSIC 14 (4 composers) 8 133 CHANDOS PREMIUM ISSUES(4 discs, 7

composers) 8 133 CONCERTS AT CASTLE HOWARD

(oboe/guitar) 133 CONTOUR RED LABEL (numerous

discs/composers) 8 134 DECCA VIVA ISSUES (3 discs, 11

composers) 8 134 PHIUPS SEQUENZA ( 13 discs, 10

composers) (R) 135 PURCELL'S LONDON (Restoration

music) 135 UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CARDIFF(4

composers)

NON-CLASSICAL (Rock::Pop."-lazz;:d1c)

BANJO EXPRESS 137 Banjo Express (CD)

JOHN BLAKE 137 Maiden Dance

BLUE RONDO 137 Bees' Knees and Chickens' elbows

THE BLUEBELLS 137 Sisters

ABDULLAH IBRAHIM DOLLAR BRAND 137 Autobiography

CELLOS OF THE BPO 143 The Beatles in Classic (CD)

KENNY CLARKE ETC 137 Pieces of time

MILES DAVIS 137 Decoy

BEST OF THE MONTH Balakirev ' bristling with Slavonic fire' 124 Richly expressive Beethoven sonatas from Ma/Ax 125 Elgar wind music — warm & vivid from Chandos 126

Rich & sensitive Franck from Hurford via Decca 126 Superbly Kodaly chamber-music from the Turovskys 127

Liszt's pianistic Swiss travels from Bolet 127 Double-starred Ravel orchestral from Dutoit 130 Authoritative Ravel from Souzay/Baldwin 130

Two tightly argued Simpson string quartets 130 Vigorous & sensitive Telemann from Harnoncourt 131 Double Vivaldi concertos from Marriner & Co 131 Vivaldi's ' La Cetra' from ASM/Brown on reissue Solti's ' Rheingold' remastered for reissue Praetorius & Tallis on superb Contour Red issues Dvorak/Gounod/Schubert wind pieces on Sequenza Brendel's Mozart concertos on Sequenza reissue Miles Davis showing us that yesterday is dead 137 Waylon Jennings in super-slick, laid back form 143

Andreas Vollenweider— a warm bath of familiarity 143

Peter Wolf taking the pain from the train 143

131 131 133 134 134

THE DREAM SYNDICATE 137 Medicine Show

DR JOHN 143 Such a night

DUTCH SWING COLLEGE BAND 138 Digital Dutch (CD)

BROADWAY CAST 138 42nd Street

GLENN GARRETT 138 Back where love begins

GREEN ON RED 137 Gravity Talks

GUS BAND 138 Spectrum

H20 138 Faith

JOE HUBBARD GROUP 138 Hubbard's Cupboard

KEN HYDER'S BIG TEAM 138 Under the Influence

JACKSONS 138 Victory

RONALD SHANNON JACKSON AND THE DECODING SOCIETY

137 Eye on you JAZZ' BEST

138 Jazz' Best WAYLON JENNINGS

143 Never could toe the mark NIGEL KENNEDY

139 Strad Jazz ADRIAN LEGG

143 Technopicker MR. MISTER

139 I wear the face ORCHESTRAL MANEOUVRES IN THE DARK

138 Junk Culture (CD) ORIENTAL WIND

139 Life Road PALLAS

139 The Sentinel PRINCE & THE REVOLUTION

139 Purple Rain RANK AND FILE

139 Long gone dead RISKY BUSINESS/VARIOUS

139 Soundtrack PETER ROWAN

141 With the Red Hot Pickers ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

141 Island in the Sun RUBBER RODEO

139 Scenic Views SADE

141 Diamond Life SAM AND DAVE

141 Can't stand up for falling down PONCHO SANCHEZ

141 Bien Sabroso SIBERIAN 4

141 Homo Liber SMOKEY ROBINSON AND THE MIRACLES

141 18 Greatest Hits ( CD) SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK

141 We all ... Everyone of us THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES

141 Compilation THE TIME

143 Ice Cream Castle TOMITA

143 Space Walk VIOLENT FEMMES

143 Hallowed Ground ANDREAS VOLLENWEIDER

143 Caverna Magica TED WEEMS ORCHESTRA

143 Marvellous PETER WOLF

143 Lights Out

INFORMATION

RECORD RATINGS Record ratings are designed to summarise our critics findings, but should be noted in conjunction with the full reports—and taken as a guide only.

Recording Performance A Very Good 1

Good 2 Moderate 3

D Poor 4 H Historical H ( or 1, 2, 3, 4

(pre-LP) as appropriate)

Occasionally a record may be worthy of special mention, taking it beyond the 'very good' bracket. In such superlative cases a star is added to the letter or figure as appropriate:

eg,B:1*,A*:2 or lexceptionarty) A*1*.

News& Record Review.

Any record reviewed in this magazine may be assumed to be stereophonic unless its number is accompanied by:emonophonicl or Gstereo transcription). e against an item in the index above indicates a UK reissue. dmm = direct metal mastering

RECORD FAULTS 'Recording' ratings should be taken to referto recorded quality, but do not take account of

individual pressing faults encountered with our test samples. Readers may assume that a certain proportion of such variable faults will occur among commercial pressings.

CASSETTE NUMBERS " For cassette users, we incorporate equiva-lent cassette numbers, where we can locate them, in the heading blurbs of our LP reviews. These numbers are shown in brack-ets in ordinary (non bold) type after the LP number. ( NC) indicates that no cassette is available.

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER I9M 123

ADAM: Giselle (complete) Monte Carlo Op Orch/Bonynge Decca 411 848-1 (2 recs) (411 848-4) Reissue from 1969

Working from the orchestral manuscript, Bonynge recorded Giselle uncut, with all repeats, even adding three numbers by Burgmüller and Minkus. This makes four very long transfers, and the somewhat abrupt turnover from 3-4 could not perhaps be relocated. To someone who has not seen the ballet the music would seem rather inconsequential, and though Bonynge's direction is sympathetic and lively, Karajan's arbitrary selection on JB14 — see Culshaw's memoir on this — will suffice. Conducting with great guile, Karajan has the Vienna Philharmonic in suave form, where Bonynge has this less than first-rate orchestra, with its rather thin fallible strings. JB14 also runs to a full hour, yet has a more powerful dynamic impact, while this complete production is unremarkable by Decca's best standards. [B:2]

Christopher Breunig

J.S. BACH: Concerto in a ( 13INV 1065) for four harpsichords and strings CI Concerto in a ( 1044) for flute, violin and harpsichord fl Concerto in d (reconstructed Leonhardt from BWV 1059) for harpsichord, oboe and strings r] Concerto in F (1057) for harpsichord with two recorders, violino concertante and chamber ensemble Gustav Leonhardt (hpd)/Eduard Muller, Anneke Uittenbosch, Janny von Wering (hpds)/Frans Brug-gen (bar flt/ bar rec)/Jeanette van Wingerden (reaSigiswald Kuijken (vIn)/Leonhardt-Consort Teldec 6.43032 (NC) (Conifer) Reissues from 1963, 69, 64, plus 1962 originals

A warm welcome is deserved for these fascinating — and still authoritative — selec-tions reissued from Leonhardt's 1960s Bach Concerto series. The sound is rather plain and dry by today's highest standards, but the performances are full of rhythmic spirit, beautifully judged balances (and even very pretty sounds) that are often missing from far more realistically recorded issues. It's particularly good to have the Brüggen/Kui-jken/Leonhardt 'Triple Concerto' back in the catalogue, now that doubts concerning Bach's authorship seem to have been finally laid to rest. Lovely playing, and sound that — given the mentioned limitations— is perfectly acceptable. [6:1•1

Stephen Dew

J.S. Bach: The Six Sonatas for violin with obbli-gato harpsichord BWV 1014-1019/1019a Monica Huggen (bar vIn)/Ton Koopman (hpd) Philips 410 401-1 digital (2 recs) (410 401-4)

The sound quality is realistic and immediate (although not of the crispness I associate with the very best digital recordings), with both instruments clearly captured in a pleasant, intimate setting. However, the per-formances have one serious drawback which led me to reach for alternative readings by Kuijken & Leonhardt, Alice Harnoncourt & Tachezi, and Goebel & Hill. It is simply that the participants here contrast too strongly in interpretative style. I can think of some Bach performances where such differences result in a special rapport through contrasting dialogue; but that does not happen here, at least for me. Monica Huggett seems to play with her

bow resting rather lightly on the strings, both as notes start and as they finish; the result is usually well-controlled, but there is a lack of singing resonance from the instru-ment. The result seems to me to be too reticent, and often the line ends bluntly. On the other hand, Ton Koopman plays with a very strongly contrasted range of attack and timbre (for these are, indeed, variable on a good harpsichord) and with a magnificently inventive sense of ornamentation. Miss Hug-gett is good at echoing some of his shaping,

but where she introduces a motif he usually answers with something a little more telling or colourful; most of all, in Koopman's hands the instrument sings. The records are usefully documented, and interesting as an example of accompanying techniques. The solo movement (Allegro) of BWV 1019 is very well played by Koopman. [A/A:21

Stephen Dew

BALAKIREV: Symphony No. 1/LIADOV:Polonaise CBSO/Jervi HMV EL 2700501 digital ITC-EL 2700504)

EMI have just about cornered the market in Balakirev No. is over the years, the most famous being Beecham's celebrated 1962 account ( presently deleted). Well, they've another clear winner in this dashing Járvi performance, which fair bristles with the kind of authentic Slavonic fire that Beecham's very Englishness never quite allowed him. It's a performance of tremen-dous flair and energy, every layer of the texture alive and singing — a tribute indeed to the Birmingham orchestra's cracking current form. Their brass are in especially fine fettle — a little over-zealous perhaps, but thrilling nonetheless. And there is some lovely work from the woodwinds; for instance, the clar-inet's shapely arabesques are most beguil-ing at the start of the long and exotic slow movement. Unquestionably, then, an exciting, warm-

spirited and immensly characterful reading of an immensly characterful score, and there's a swaggering Liadov Polonaise thrown in for curiosity and good measure. Full marks to EMI for so expertly taming the notorious Birmingham Town Hall reverber-ance without losing the ambience altogether. The end result — bright, ripe, immediate — is, like the performances, most exciting.[A:11

Edward Seckerson

BARTOK: Concerto for Orchestra Op.10 Concertgebouvv/Dorati Philips 411 132-1 (411 132-4)

Two Pictures

Dorati's view of the Concerto is more light-hearted than we have come to expect from other conductors, notably Solti, whose second Decca recording, splendidly engineered, incorporated revisions induced by the discovery that the published score does not entirely represent the composer's intentions. Dorati's reading seeks out Bar-tok's Hungarian folksong elements and emphasises them, giving the work an unex-pectedly dance-like character, fresh, even jolly at times. The central Elegia lacks the bleakness which Solti finds in it. Here it is replaced by something closer to a gently nostalgic sadness than the near- nihilism which links it to Bluebeard's Castle. However, the long finale, almost another Dance Suite, responds extremely well to Dorati's relaxed touch. Here he holds the reins more loosely than in his Mercury recording of about twenty years ago, which was equally exciting but more hard-driven. The Two Pictures, which date from 1910,

are a nicely contrasted pair of movements. The first, ' In Full Bloom', is rather opulent and, curiously, reminds one of some of Webern's pre-Schoenberg orchestral pieces; 'The Village Dance' is a bit staid perhaps, but Dorati allows it to make its point un-has-tened. The recording, like most of the Con-certgebouw products, has a long focus and one misses some details — the very quiet drum passages and the harps are often difficult to pick up for instance — but it has a more realistic concert ambience than Decca's excitingly analytical recording for Solti. [A:1]

Kenneth Dommett

BARTOK: Violin Concerto No.1/BERG: Violin Con-certo

Chung (vIn)/CSO/Solti Decca 411 804-1 digital (411 804-4)

Kyung Wah Chung recorded Bartok's mature Violin Concerto with the LPO in 1978, and Solti was the conductor on that occasion too. This earlier work, written in 1907 but unpub-lished until after the composer's death, is an intensely lyrical work which, like Berg's, calls for great eloquence on the part of the soloist. Both concertos are really declarations of love: Bartok's for Stefi Geyer, Berg's for the deceased Manon Gropius. The differing nature of their emotional content is evident in the music, and it comes out in these performances.

It is a pity, though, that the Chicago venue does not seem able to provide the clarity of recording texture that most other Decca sites do, for the instrumentation of the Berg is pretty congested and needs all the unravell-ing it can get. Solti and his orchestra do their best, but it remains as dense to the ear as does the score to the eye, with its interweav-ing lines denoting main and subsidiary themes. Notwithstanding this, the perform-ance has considerable power and builds up to a strong climax to which the Bach quota-tion near the end adds an overwhelming sadness. Bartok's concerto is much more restrained, but within these constraints its message of passionate intensity comes over very clearly. [A:1]

Kenneth Dommett

BEETHOVEN: Symphony No.3 'Eroica' Concertgebouw/Kondrashin Philips 412 064-1 (412 064-4)

It is a narrow line that divides the notable from the momentous, and Kondrashin's Eroica just lacks that last degree of tempera-ment and imagination to carry it over the threshold. Not that there is anything remotely bland or four-square about the musical characterisation — far from it. It's just that a little more expressive shading here and there, a higher-profile response to the visionary heroics of the first and second movements, would have gone a long way towards heightening the culminative impact and breaking free of all classical formality. That much is clear at moments where the spontaneity and unpredictability of a live performance does suddenly engender extra heat. The final measures of the first move-ment coda spring to mind for their sudden release of tremendous inner-energy. Like-wise the finale, which properly bristles and dances from first to last. Note how Kon-drashin's Slavonic roots surface here in his uninhibited projection of the clarinet's brac-ing gypsy tune. Would that there were many more such moments. The Concertgebouw, not least their reso-

lute lower strings, respond handsomely to his every calling, while the recording ( 1979 broadcast) is sturdy and generally well balanced. I should like to have heard a little more of the horns at times, the more so since their playing — laudably secure and well-focused in the trio of the scherzo — is generally beyond reproach. [B:1]

Edward Seckerson

BEETHOVEN: String Quartet in a, Op.132 Fitzwilliam Qt Decca 411 643-1 digital (411 643-4)

Disappointing. It would be unkind to observe that after the death of Shostakovich this group must have moved in under the cloak of Karajan, but there is a sleek reflection of the maestro's Berlin Philharmonic rendering of Beethoven's Grosse fuge here. Tech-nically very accomplished, too much on the surface: if you cannot find the joy in this music, something is awry. In the 'Thanksgiv-ing' movement the performance is too prot-racted and static; the music trips plumply at the demi-semiquaver episode before the cantabile espressivo, instead of dancing. If

124 NEWS& RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER I

you can't get a transfer of the 1930s' Busch (where you can actually feel your body reposing to the flow and spiritual calm of their playing), then the wooly over-separated Talich/Calliope must suffice. The Fitzwilliam have always apparently

favoured a bold sound, and I get superb results from their Maltings and St Barnabas analogue recordings, but find this coarsely overpowering. It's one of those discs requir-ing running- in and scrupulous stylus hygiene; even then the fortes are too ' big', such that the Andante passages in ( iii) sound gross. [B:2]

Christopher Breunig

BEETHOVEN: Violin Sonatas 1-10 Erich Gruenberg (vIn)/David Wilde (pno) CRD D115/9 digital (5 recs) (CRD CD4115f7, 3 available singly)

It was perhaps too suggestible to have promoted this cycle on the basis that the artists were British; yet I do find a very English 'feel' to the end results, not only in the church acoustic of St George's Holborn, where the Steinway is in danger of being devoured in clouds of reverberation. The balance is such that the image of the violin often merges with that of the keyboard, spread wide across the stereo field — but musically there is a disunity between the players reflected in both style and ensemble. To give one example, I don't feel Gruen-berg's tempo for the Spring scherzo is as fast as the pulse Wilde finds natural. At first I thought Gruenberg the more profound Beethoven interpreter, Wilde the superficial virtuoso; yet I came to find the violinist's 'doing his own thing' more selfish than anything else — as in the Kreutzer passage in

with minims leading to Adagio, two pages before the repeat ( not taken here), where Gruenberg is way ahead of the beat. There are so many shortcomings in char-

acterisation: take the ethereal Adagio sec-tion in the Op.96 finale, compare Menuhin/ Kempff, and then ask whether Gruenberg/ Wilde emerge into any new landscape as they resume Tempo I. Where in this new set is Arrau's dark colouring, the dotted rhythm against the violinist's quavers in No.7 ( i), the distinctive separation of triplet quavers from semiquavers, the reflected change in import-ance of the role of the violin as the cycle progresses? Why are classical sonata bounds breached so aggressively in Kreutzer (i), why does the introduction not 'lean' into the allegro proper, as it does with Grumiaux/ Haskil? Where is the joy of Szeryng/Rubin-stein here? With so many musical dis-appointments it seems hardly worth men-tioning the 0844" last side, where surely Op.47 should begin. Nos.2, 9 and 10 have side-turns here, where with Perlman/Ashke-nazy only Op.47 is broken. [13:3]

Christopher Breunig

BEETHOVEN: Cello Sonatas in A, Op.69, & D, Op.102/2 Yo-Vo Ma (vic)/Emmanuel Ax (pno) CBS IM39024 digital ( IMT39024)

A lyrical account of the opening movement of Beethoven's last cello sonata, with Ma's scale of dynamics always delicate and song-ful in concept. Ax sounds like a Serkin/ Marlboro influenced pianist, but his mor-dents and sforzandi could have been more abrasive. The cellist draws a quite lovely expressive line in the Adagio, and the final pages are especially eloquent, while Ax is warmly attentive. The awesome stillness or emptiness may be played down, but this 'distant romantic scene' is very wonderful. The finale, a bumpy fugue like those in piano sonatas Op.101 and 106, is gently delivered here, in contrast with the vigour of the deleted Du Pre/Bishop reading.

In Op.69 the richness of the music is reflected: the always impeccable internal balancing, the complete fidelity to the score confirm this as an enjoyable and satisfying

couplin9 (discount the comic sleeve). Is the expression too Brahmsian in scope? Ax omits the trill on the first crotchet of bar 7 in (ii), which creates an uncomfortable effect for me. Richter does so too — but no-one else I could find — and both pianists cut the pedal link ( ii)/(iii) in the Op.102 sonata. The recording sounds good at low levels,

but hardens at forte; both instruments seem to occupy centre-stage, ie the images over-lap. Vinyl noise has a slight masking or soiling effect, but this just makes the record-ing grade [A:1"].

Christopher Breunig

BERKELEY: Or Shall We Die? Heather Harper (sop)/David Wilson-Johnson (bar)/ LSO/Hickox HMV ASD 2700581 digital (2 recs) (TC-ASD 2700584)

Many may already know Michael Berkeley's Or Shall We Die? from its TV production, which combined a concert performance with visual dramatisation and comment. I find this version on record much more effective, unencumbered now by distracting images that deflated the depth of the musical expression. The words, written and selected by Ian McEwan, are allowed to create their own images here, and the onward argument of the music is not diverted. The subject and treatment invite immediate comparisons with Tippett's A Child of Our Time, but closer examination shows the two works to have very different emphases and balance. Or Shall We Die? is less subtle in its effect, purposefully so, and aims at a more immediately universal application. Where the piece falters, to my mind, is

when it attempts too much — Heather Harper sings with strong conviction and feeling the true narrative of an Hiroshima victim who has to watch the prolonged death of her infant daughter, but the personal enormity of this experience is too great for the musical setting to sound anything but insignificant and unnecessary. Richard Hickox approp-riately brings out the strong contrasts of timbre and dynamic inherent in the score, whilst maintaining clear, controlled playing and singing from the performers. The two soloists sustain the momentum of the narra-tive and clear characterisation while keeping intact the flow and musicality of the lines. The recording is spacious and balanced, with just a little smudging of the words of upper voices. All this results in an effective and recommendable production of the work. [A:1]

Doug Hammond

BRAHMS: Symphony No.1 Concertgebouw/Kondrashin Philips 412 065-1 (412 065-4)

A big, mellow Brahms sound is this: plushy, homogeneous, but never opaque, the ample Concertgebouw acoustic at its most accom-modating. From Kondrashin we've some-thing very fresh — a bright, keenly expressive reading lifted well clear of all routine, thanks to its open clear-headed way with solo lines and taut sense of rhythm and forward move-ment. The Concertgebouw's contribution is a

distinguished one, though the Dutch Radio microphones have not been at all kind to the rather nasal, flat-pitched first horn in the big last-movement solo. One other curious point: there is what I can only describe as a strange sensation of drop-out at the second note of the final coda's celebrated brass chorale. It doesn't sound to me like an editing hiccup, or indeed any kind of tech-nical hiccup, and I can only assume that the brass momentarily mis-read Kondrashin's beat, assuming that he was about to take a broader line with that particular phrase. A small blot only, though, on another other-wise enjoyable Kondrashin souvenir. [B:1/2]

Edward Seckerson

BRAHMS: 21 Hungarian Dances VPO/Abbado DG 410 615-1 digital (410 615-4) Reissue from 1983

Now at full price, this is shorn of its gatefold sleeve ( promoting DG's Brahms Edition), but action shots of Abbado are backed by notes on the music — omitted before. The matrices remain unchanged. Listening once more, and in conjunction with the Leipzig/Masur set, I still find the performances over-driven, and the recorded sound lacks the solid imaging of the Philips alternative. DG's reverberant Sofiensaal production has, as it were, two planes: with lateral separation in close-ups, rear information something of a jumble. Adequate in correspondence to the 'black' disc, the Masur (altogether more genial) is most tempting in CD format, ideal for safe track selection. Twenty-one items and no turnover! [BA]

Christopher Breunig

BRAHMS: Serenade, Op.16 El Academic Festival Overture Concertgebouw/Haitink Philips 412 002-1 (412 002-4) Reissue from 1972 (Overture)

Bargain release here of a superb account of the Serenade without violins ( if with a poor sleeve note of only six lines). There is a glorious impudence about the way the Dutch winds stride out in the finale, as delightful as those brief bars of syncopation in the scherzo. Here, Boult is swiftest of all, and one couldn't criticise his deleted recording; but Haitink's is so much more fun — and dark, grave rather than sensuous in the Adagio. Kertesz's pointed LSO Decca also remains very appealing. I had forgotten the dynam-ism of Haitink's Academic, its magnificent sweep towards the closing pages; but an 'older generation' recording this, almost with an edge. The Serenade is cut at a high level and divided across the sides; you feel it deserved even more room, and there is just a hint of compression there. [B/C/A:1*]

Christopher Breunig

BRAHMS: Clarinet Sonatas Op.120 Karl Leister (clt)/Gerhard Oppitz (pno) Orfeo 5086-841A digital dmm (MC 086-841A) (Harmonia Mundi)

Within a month of the Hanover launch of the 'Brahms Edition', which re-uses the 1969 Leister/Demus coupling, Karl Leister was in the Baumgartner Casino Vienna, re-record-ing these two late works for a label which, increasingly for me, excites the kind of anticipation once kindled by the yellow DGG in vintage days of Kempff, Fricsay and Mravinsky. Immaculately pressed by Teldec, and full in texture, these new 'in the room' recordings find Leister the master of long smooth lines — hardly surprising for a Berlin Philharmonic principal under Karajan for so many years. He is well enough partnered by Oppitz and, heard in isolation, this Orfeo with its beautifully cultivated surfaces is satisfying. But one has only to put on the 1968 HMV, with de Peyer/Barenboim, to hear almost anywhere greater penetration and a less 'easy' music-making. I am thinking in particular of de Peyer's phenomenal control of pianissimi dolce e legato in Brahms' poco Adagio from Op.120:1, the young Baren-boim's thoughtful weighting of chords, so idiomatic. Regrettably, that's a deletion, so for this [A:1].

Christopher Breunig

BRAHMS: Piano Sonata No.3 in f/SCHUBERT: Sonata in A, D.664 Shura Cherkassky (pno) ASV ALH 948 (NC) Recorded live Nov '68

The pros and cons of the ASV vs. 1969 ' Four

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1984 125

1 Front' transfers of these recital performanc-ces could be argued at length. The Philips, shallower, with its almost distracting lateral stereo information, did not convey the ambi-ence of the OE Hall at all; but the ASV, cut at a lower level, suggests a longer perspective to the instrument. The bass seems to have been filled out judiciously, but the piano tends to twang, and the ASV blurs some-thing of the Cherkassky sec touch - tone-colours in the Schubert lose that bright, boldly separated quality that prompts reviewers to write of 'translucent streams'. On the other hand, the Brahms sonata now has a less 'Schubertian' palette.

If, after Arrau's, Cherkassky's ' Little A-major' seems 'persistent in preoccupation with surface', to quote a respected critic, and is certainly not free of mannerisms in the finale, and if his Brahms lacks weight and a heroic scale, there is no denying the entran-cingly alive qualities here. The complete hush in Brahms' Intermezzo, the audience checked by the stillness of the playing, alone warrants purchase of this disc. [6:1*/2]

Christopher Breunig

BURGON: Cathedral Music Ch of Chichester Cathedral/Michael Laird (tpt)/ Jeremy Souter (org)/Alan Thurlow Hyperion A 66123 digital dmm (NC)

If you haven't heard of Geoffrey Burgon you have almost certainly heard some of his music - if, for example, you followed any of the TV serialisation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy or Brideshead Revisited. In fact, Burgon has been a prolific composer of church music of an original and attractive character: by no means always profound, but always well crafted, ingenious and new. This excel-lent selection of works from 1969 to 1983 allows one to savour his world, which, it seems to me, usefully enlarges the ecclesias-tical repertory. One can usually rely upon Hyperion for a

good sound, and this issue is no exception. DMM, whatever else, does seem to give quiet surfaces and silent backgrounds, which in themselves produce at least the illusion of greater clarity. As always with Hyperion, the perspective and acoustic are also well chosen and natural. I cannot recall a pre-vious recording from this cathedral, but it would seem to be a favourable location, or else Anthony Howell and the rest of Ted Perry's team successfully conceal the prob-lems. No hesitation, then, about the sound, while the content should at very least be given a hearing, which is likely to lead to many more - if only because Burgon is an exceptional melodist who can create haunt-ing harmonies and offer mysterious touches. [A:1]

Peter Turner

DELIUS: North Country Sketches LI Life's Dance El A Song of Summer RPO/Groves EMI ED 290026 1 (ED 290026 4) Reissue from 1975

DELIUS: Requiem O Idyll — Once I passed through a populous city Harper lsopt/Shirley-Quirk (bar)/Royal Choral Soc/ RPO/Davies EMI ED 290027 1 (ED 290027 4) Reissue from 1968

Two Greensleeve reissues calling for warm welcome but little comment. Don't be put off by the apparent austerity of the Requiem, long unperformed after its premiere in the 1920s; its spareness initially conceals a warmth and humanity surprising in so vehe-mently atheistic a message. Meredith Davies' performance of it - and the earlier Idyll - is excellent (and marginally better sung than Fenby's fine Unicorn-Kanchana account with the same orchestra), while the 1967 recording, if a little whiskery, is a model of good perspective and uninflated tone quality.

Even better, sonically, is Groves' disc, which also contains some of the most atmospheric and unaffected Delius he or anyone elso has given us. The bumpy edit before the perilous horn solo in Autumn remains, and is worthy of comment simply because it is a pity to be thus reminded both of the medium and of human frailty. [A/B:1]

Andrew Keener

DELIUS: String Quartet ( 1916)/ELGAR: String Quartet in e ( 1918) Brodsky at ASV DCA 526 digital (ZC DCA 526)

I am torn in two by this record. Its aims are admirable: to help gifted, recently estab-lished artists on their way by means of a recording, and there is no doubt about the Brodsky's gifts. But I cannot help feeling that all four will be dissatisfied with this record in a few years' time. It throws them into direct comparison with superb versions by the Music Group of London and the Fitzwilliam, and it has to be said that in matters of subtlety of colouring the older ensembles have the edge. The Brodsky are scrupulously observant of Elgar's characteristic short-term tempo markings, many lasting only a bar, yet I began to wonder whether they fully sense the expressive and architectural role of those markings. With that realisation comes true expressive freedom, and the listener forgets all about the markings them-selves.

All of which sounds pretty damning, I know, so it ought to be said that the players clearly love and respond to this music and that the Delius fares considerably better. The second movement is bracing rather than following the composer's suggested 'quick and lightly', but it works well and Late Swallows is kept on the move. As in the Elgar, there is some lovely soft playing, withdrawn and intense, I am surprised, though, at some of the poor intonation left to stand throughout the disc. Well worth hear-ing, however, as an example of exceptional gifts in the bud - especially since the record-ing is clean and immediate. [A:2/3]

Andrew Keener

DVORAK: Cello Concerto/TCHAIKOVSKY: Varia-tions on a Rococo Theme Robert Cohen (vIc)/LPO/Macal CFP 41 44681 (41 44684)

Robert Cohen is an unquestionably gifted player, although on this showing he has yet to get the measure of Dvorak 's concerto. Maybe it has something to do with the balance or because his tone is just not big enough, but for much of the time he seems to be both at odds with the orchestra and dominated by it. Macal's control of the score is masterful, and he shapes the music firmly, generally more firmly than the soloist whose response tends to be a piecemeal reaction to ideas or sections rather than to the sweep of a movement, let alone the work as a whole. This is a great pity, since there is much in Cohen's playing to admire, not least the sweetness of his tone. His technical facility is not in question either, though he tends to equate accelerando with crescendo, and the Adagio is at times so 'laid back' as to threaten to become soporific, giving conduc-tor and orchestra something of a challenge in the art of accompaniment. The Tchaikovsky seems to suit Cohen

better, as it did Harrell in his last recording, and here both his relationship with the orchestra and with the spirit of the music itself seems to be on a more equal footing. This is a much happier performance all round. The recording, straightforward old-fashioned analogue, is clear, and except for the possible caveat mentioned earlier, well focused and nicely detailed. [A:2]

Kenneth Dommett

ELGAR: Complete Music for Wind Quintet Athena Ens Chandos CBR 1014-5 dmm (2 recs) (CBT 1014-5) Reissue from 1978

I may be wrong, but I suspect that the beautifully warm and vivid sounds which come off these reissued records have more to do with the revealing powers of excellent dmm than Chandos's 'digital remastering'. In any event, the analogue originals were evidently made by the same fastidious team that has been responsible for the label's subsequent digital distinctions, and the per-formances are adept, alert and sympathetic (but is the set really complete? Jerrold Northrop Moore's new tome mentions a Peckham March not included here). What, then, of the music? Hand-on-heart Elgarian as I am, I cannot claim that much of it is either characteristic or particulary inspired. But there is plenty to charm and abundant evidence of fine craftsmanship. What Elgar would have thought of these polished accounts is anyone's guess. Feted yet lonely in later years, I suspect that the composer of Wand of Youth would have been rather moved. (A*:1]

Andrew Keener

FRANCK: The three chorales El Pastorale D Prelude Fugue & Variation Peter Hurford (org) Decca 411 710-1 digital (411 701-4)

It is typical of Hurford's attention to detail that he should have chosen a little-known Cavaillé-Coll organ in the church of St. Sernin, Toulouse. Built in 1889, only minor and mostly mechanical alterations were made in the 1930s, leaving its tonal character intact. Naturally it is the ideal medium for this music, which sits so comfortably on it - showing once more the importance of a proper choice of instrument. This is a rich and sensitive performance,

resisting any temptation to embroider upon the original either in texture or colour. It leaves the music to speak for itself, and to reveal the considerable depth of the com-poser's craft beneath the apparent simplicity of the text. An excellent recording, too, with very good clarity and balance, and a decent pedal contribution. The history of the instru-ment makes a certain amount of wind noise inevitable, but it isn't very audible, no doubt thanks to careful production. Hopefully Decca will produce the rest of this potential set! Comparison with Sanger on BIS is inevit-

able and interesting - both players give the music freedom and space, Hurford having the edge in clarity of expression. The BIS recording has a fuller, warmer ambience without loss of clarity, and Franck might have been happy with either insturment - one a serendipitously preserved original, the other a very individual tonal reincarnation. [A:19

Trevor Attewell

GADE: Violin Concerto D Capriccio for Violin & Orchestra Kontra (vIn)ifivoli SO/Frandsen/Garaguly EMI 1394931 (1394934)

Niels W. Gade's years in Leipzig, to say nothing of his fruitful association with Men-delssohn, colour page after page of these well-crafted, old-fashioned scores. In the Concerto we've cantilena following can-tilena, espressivo from the heart, and we've orchestral writing that clearly knows its place, which rarely if ever encroaches upon the soloist's supremacy. Small wonder the great Joachim was so enamoured. It is music to lull one pleasantly into a state of cosy complacency: unchallenging, inconsequen-tial, but enjoyable enough at the time.

Soloist Anton Kontra siezes both the spi-rited Capriccio and the melodically some-what fulsome solo part of the Concerto with

126 HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1 954

all due relish, while the 1983 Danish Radio recordings offer a pleasingly mellow image fully in keeping with the wholesome lyrical nature of the writing. [B/C:1]

Edward Seckerson

GROFÉ: Aviation Suite D Hudson River Suite D Mississippi Suite Promenade Orch/Stulen CBS IM 39293 digital (IMT 39293)

Ferde Grofé ( 1892-1972) is almost a 'one work' composer whose reputation rests on his Grand Canyon Suite and the fact that, as Paul Whiteman's chief arranger during the '20s, he orchestrated Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. This recording, made in Holland, is the result of a collaboration between Hans Vorhauer and the composer's son, and, of course, CBS's Dutch outlet. As the meeting between the first two took place at Schipol Airport the idea of a musical commemora-tion of the aeroplane seemed a good idea, hence the choice of the Aviation Suite and the centre-spread provided by KLM and Fokker. This and Hudson River Suite are receiving their recording premières.

Grofé's music is hard to categorise, but it is all much of a muchness. With few excep-tions the music gives the impression of well tailored anonymity. One would like to be able to say that the Mississippi Suite apos-trophised that great waterway with the same artistry as Virgil Thomson devoted to it in The River, or that Hudson River did for that stream what Smetana has done for the Vltava. Unfortunately neither of Grofé's river suites achieves that degree of characterisa-tion, being rather compendiums of genre sketches, attractive, slick, skilfully orches-trated, but ultimately shallow, like film music deprived of its pictures. It is played with proper seriousness, and Stulen makes all its points well. The recording is spacious and atmospheric, clear and well balanced. [A:11

Kenneth Dommett

HANDEL: Music for the Royal Fireworks D Con-certo a due cori 2 & 3 in F English Bar Soloists/Gardiner Philips 411 122-1 digital (411 122-4)

After the same performers' super-excellent Water Music (on Erato) I looked forward to their Fireworks Music with particular relish; and when this recording arrived with the two Concerti a due Cori my expectations ran higher still. I cannot say that my hopes were completely dashed or that there is anything seriously 'wrong' here ( although I personally do not like the way in which the music has been recorded), but I have to confess myself disappointed with the total effect.

First the recording itself. I think that the performers seem too far back in both works; if this were done so that the ensemble sounded less opaque and shallow, it would not matter so much, but to me it still sounds just that - and I have tried it on two sets of good equipment, with and without head-phones. The latter greatly improved the sound in the works a due cori, because they enhanced separation and gave the image a better sense of direction-with-depth. But in a smallish-scaled version (surely 'indoor'), the Fireworks Music still needs to sound festive and splendid, and this is missing because of all this. The performances also struck me as far less buoyant (no pun) than those of the Water Music. The Fireworks suite was designed to celebrate an important treaty, but there's little sense of Armistice Day or Summit Agreement here. There are nice moments, but in comparison with most of John Eliot Gardiner's Handel, which has been colourful and full of life, this record struck me as only a qualified success. [C:1/21

Stephen Daw

HAYDN: String Quartets Op.74, No.2 in F & No.3 in g

Salomon Ot Hyperion A 66124 dmm (NC/

In April of last year, and of this, I welcomed recordings from the Salomon String Quartet of the first four of Haydn's wonderful quar-tets of 1793, and with this issue of the last two in numerical order, the six quartets which make up Opp. 71 and 74 are available complete from this impressively equipped ensemble. I should remind readers that the Salomon play on period instruments, do not use vibrato, observe all repeats - indeed come satisfyingly close to what one imagines Haydn% audiences would have hoped for in contemporary performances. There is a feeling of freshness, but also of warmth, in which the vivid recording has a full part to play. Initially one may feel almost too much presence - as if one were seated very far forward in the Hanover Square Rooms; but these were conceived as public rather than chamber works, and very soon one grows used to the vibrancy and edge. The quartets are both generously con-structed; they are also nicely contrasted, with an endearing Andante grazioso to the major-key work and a gravely beautiful Largo assai to the minor-key one, to take perhaps the most obvious example. The players have the measure of every aspect of both works, and they bring them excitingly to life. Strongly recommended. (A:1)

Peter Branscombe

KODÁLY: Hey Janos — suite/PROKOFIEV: Lieute-nant Kijé — suite LPO/Tennstedt HMV EL 2700211 digital ITC-EL 2700214)

Tennstedt's Hey Janos begins in earnest as it means to go on: the ' Prelude' slow and portentous, heavily Germanic, no hint of a smile. Where, I ask, went all the fun and sparkle, the innate good humour? Even that folksy 'Intermezzo' replete with its jangling (and in this instance over-prominent) cimba-lm fails to warm the spirit. As for Napo-leon's humiliating retreat from the bat-tlefield, knees knocking, teeth chattering uncontrollably, Kodály's inspired saxophone caricature and balefully comic trombone slides emerge here in a manner that is all too po-faced. Tennstedt's boldly-drawn Kijé is cut of similarly coarse cloth, but here the heaviness, the touch of severity, the rough-hewn texturing, are at once more appropri-ate. There is a Troika whose pizzicato strings and percussion really scintillate, there are fat, characterful wind solos, earthily pro-jected throughout. Tennstedt might perhaps have gone a little easier on the ritenutos in the 'Wedding of Kijé', but that's a small point. Soundwise I am disappointed, given the

golden opportunities afforded by such showy material. Basically we are missing bloom and warmth here at all points of the tonal spectrum. Colours are bright, metallic, aggressive and, as always, the first casual-ties to emerge are the strings. [B/C:3/21

Edward Seckerson

KODALY: Solo Cello Sonata Op.8 D Duo Op.7 Eleonora Turovsky (vIn)/Yuli Turovsky (vIc) Chandos ABRD 1102 digital IABTD 11021

All Kodaly's chamber music dates from his early years, and the two pieces here, from 1914 and 1915 respectively, are ambitious examples of his art. The Sonata dominates the modern literature in a way that Bartok's Solo Violin Sonata, for instance, fails to do, and does so by refusing to ape Bach and by combining great technical demands with a high degree of melodiousness. The Hunga-rian influence is strong - stronger in the Duo - and the rhythmic vigour of both works is coloured with tender melancholy. The Duo, equally large-scale, is matched only by Ravel's Sonata in the way it exploits the two participants, offering a cruel but always

musical challenge to the skills of the players. The Turovskys are admirably equipped to meet this challenge; Yuli's performance of the Cello Sonata is quite exceptional in its richness and breadth of tone, and in its command of the virtuoso requirements of the work. The recording, made last year in St George

the Martyr, Bloomsbury, is full and gives the impression of close miking. However, there is no extraneous noise - gut-scraping and the like - to spoil one's enjoyment of these superb performances. The attractive Sisley-like painting on the sleeve is by Eleonora Turovsky. (A1.1

Kenneth Dommett

LISZT: Five late chamber works Reinbert de Leeuw (pno)/Vera Beths (yin & via)! Anner BijIsma (vIc)/Gera Ockers (hrp)/Bob Zimmer-man (hmn) Philips 411 117-1 (411 117-4)

Blackened, decaying, the prow of a part-submerged gondola makes the choice of sleeve picture one of rare acuity, not just for La lugubre gondola, but for the prevailing mood of withdrawal here, of detached observations. It is a record you could easily ignore, and thereby miss Liszt's penetrative reflection, prompted by funeral processions watched on the Venice lagoons. As Brendel says in his essay accompanying the Philips solo piano version, La lugubre gondola No.2 was composed first for cello/piano. And how much more effective it is in this form: the piano mirrors the rippling parted waters, the string voice grieving, an anguish of empti-ness. Derived from II penseroso, La Notte is as hauntingly spare, with piano/violin: dark fluttering bowing like the rustling of feath-ered wings on wood. The first of the two Elegies was for piano, cello, harp, and har-monium - these last reticently balanced, harmonium barely perceptible in this record-ing. Romance oubliée (viola/piano), forlorn, distant, is like some atmospheric forerunner to Sibelius' Valse Triste. These are spacious, cool readings, with

only the strenuous breathing of Anner BijIsma a slight irritant. Dynamic range is wide, but what is most striking is the uncanny silence of Philips' pressing, a match for any CD. [A:1] and a 'star' for this music!

Christopher Breunig

LISZT: Années de Pèlerinage — Suisse Jorge Bolet (pno) Decca 410 160-1 digital (410 160-41

Layraud's commanding sleeve portrait and the prospect of hearing Bolet in Vallée d'Obermann make this (the only current version of Book I apart from a Ciccolini/ Conifer import) especially compelling. Better to forget Arrau, exhaustive on Philips, and savour Bolet's less organic, quickish reading for its detachment, beauty of tone, and the arch and fall of his phrasing. The recitative is particularly effective, as are the harp imita-tions dolce armonioso and the bell-pealing octaves of the last pages. No.6 fits into the context of the nine pieces of the ' Première année' (Pastorale with its homage to Beeth-oven's Op.28) very well. Bolet% art at its most persuasive comes in the final nocturne: dissective again, as grace-notes and dotted semiquaver figures are chiselled in angular relief, but the pianist is very much 'at one' with Liszt's beautiful and perhaps unex-pectedly affecting cantabile. It would be difficult to imagine a surpassing account on records. A shame the final lifting of pedal brings a slight 'whine'. I give a qualified star for the superb cut of

this disc, with its extended dynamic range and tonal fidelity; depth of colour and attack are impressively conveyed, though image resolution is elusive. (A/A*:1*)

Christopher Breunig

MENDELSSOHN: Symphony No.3 'Scottish' Li

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1984 127

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Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream Bavarian RSO/Davis Orfeo S089-841A digital dmm (NC) (Harmonia Mundi)

The Bavarian Radio SO play well enough for Colin Davis in this coupling of two popular Mendelssohn works, but neither they nor their conductor bring enough that is special or innovative to these readings to single them out from the crowd. The Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream is taken trip-pingly through the sprightly sections and rests ruminatively on the punctuating series of wind chords and the more subdued, lyrical conclusions, yet there is nothing here that is not achieved in a number of other versions, and the recording quality is decidedly mediocre, with muffled fortissimi and a general air of detachment. Although the Scottish Symphony enjoys

improved sound quality at times, the playing is less winning than in the Overture. Worthy dexterity and good tuning are the norm in this performance, and there is nothing sub-stantially untoward from the technical point of view, but the sound is plump and stodgy with little light permeating the texture. Enough account does not seem to have been taken of the acoustic, so that although most of the rests are given their true value, a slight tendency to skimp them produces an almost continuously full sound. Without sprung rhythms, beautiful phrasing, and clear dyna-mic differentiation, the performance fails to grab the attention and force one to hear the work in a new way. Good in parts, then, but overall disappointing. [B/C:2/31

Doug Hammond

MOZART: Symphony No.34 D Symphony No.41 AAM/Hogwood L'Oiseau-Lyre 411 658-1 part-digital (411 658-4) Reissues from 1981, 83

These further excerpts from the Hogwood-Schroeder series of the Mozart symphonies are quite typical of the general run of their performances: fast, emotionally cool, all repeats observed, reasonably prominent winds and reticent harpsichord continuo. The earlier C-major symphony ( No.34), among the first to appear, is analogue. It has an unattractive resonance, rather muddy texture and, comparatively speaking, poor balance, confirming this reviewer's qualified response to its first appearance. The Jupiter is superior. It sounds better, is well balanced, and comes across with the dignity, authority and verve AAM discovered as the enterprise neared its conclusion. [A/C:1/2]

Kenneth Dommett

MOZART: Symphony No.41 U Eine kleine Nacht-musik Orch de Paris/Barenboim HMV EL 2700161 digital (EL 2700164)

Barenboim's earlier version of the Jupiter, made for EMI with the ECO in 1969, was quite an achievement - though spoiled a little by over-emphatic attempts at express-iveness in the slow movement. He has matured greatly since then, and this new version has a power and authority lacking in the previous performance. It is weightier in every respect, the orchestral sound is bigger, tempi more magisterial, but the control is more certain and the objectives more clearly discerned. In a field liberally dotted with fine performances this one takes its place among the first half-dozen. Eine kleine Nachtmusik is less seductive. This rather heavyweight interpretation is inimical to the work's essen-tial character, which rarely survives any but a true chamber-music style performance of which this is not one. Sound and balance acceptable but not outstanding. (A:1/21

Kenneth Dommett

MOZART: Eine kleine Nachtmusik D Serenata Notturna 'Haffner' Serenade 0 'Posthorn' Sere-

nade Wiener Mozart Ens/Boskovsky Decca 411 845-1 (2 recs) (411 845-4) Reissues from 1970, 73, 79

The Vienna Mozart Ensemble have for long been synonymous with stylish Mozart, and under Willi Boskovsky's direction have given us much pleasure. A new generation of collectors, possibly unacquainted with their work and with only reputation to guide them, now have the opportunity to hear the actual-ity in these reissues of two of the composer's greatest orchestral serenades and the two more familiar favourites. Not 'authentic' Mozart perhaps, but musicianly Mozart lovingly and enthusiastically performed. Despite the passing years the recordings still sound fine, and the surfaces now are a good deal better than they were in 1970 when this Eine kleine first saw the light of day. [A/B:1]

Kenneth Dommett

MOZART: Requiem Emma Kirkby/Carolyn Watkinson/Anthony Rolfe-Johnson/David Thomas/Westminster Cathedral Boys & AAM Ch/AAM/Hogwood L'Oiseau-Lyre 411 712-1 digital (411 712-4)

The problem of the Requiem just will not go away. Süssmayr may have got it wrong, but we like to think he was working to Mozart's instructions. Richard Maunder will have none of that; in fact he advances a pretty good musical case to reason Süssmayr out of the running for any honour whatsoever. I happen to think he is wrong about the relationship between the two men, and that there is a reasonable case for regarding Süssmayr as something more than a mere pupil. Anyway, the question is not closed, and it never will be unless further hard evidence comes to light in the way of an autograph. Meanwhile Maunder's edition, which is based almost wholly on Mozart's own work, is probably as close as we are likely to come to the unravelling of the mystery. Where neither finished score nor autograph sketches are available, recourse has been made to other Mozart works con-temporary with the Requiem to provide stylistic guidelines for the editor's emenda-tions. Has Maunder done for the Requiem what Deryck Cooke did for Mahler? Perhaps, but I doubt if he would claim as much.

If the edition claims most of our attention it should not obscure the excellent perform-ance. Emma Kirkby's voice is a trifle too 'white' for my taste, but she makes her mark in a finely balanced quartet of soloists. The boys' voices are strong and fresh too, and the orchestral detail comes through clearly in a recording which deals handsomely with this notoriously difficult work. [A:1]

Kenneth Dommett

MOZART: Coronation Mass K317 U Missa Solem-nis K337 Margaret Marshall/Ann Murray/Rogers Covey-Crump/David Wilson-Johnson/David Briggs (org)/ Kings College Ch/ECO/Cleobury Argo 411 904-1 digital (411 904-4)

The Missa Solemnis is something of a rarity. To my knowledge it has only been recorded once before, in pre-stereo days. In spite of its rather grandiose title it is actually a Missa Brevis lasting some 23 minutes, and was Mozart's last Salzburg Mass. Frankly, it is not one of his most inspired. Some of its per-functoriness may be explained by Collore-do's determination to keep his services short, but being Mozart it is never without interest; the Bendictus is unusually severe in style and there is a nice touch in ending the Dona Nobis with just the four solo voices. Nevertheless, compared with the Coronation Mass it is unadventurous. He put into the earlier work much of his frustrated talent for opera and produced a truly Rococo work full of ingenuity and long, lyric tunes. The most famous of them, the Agnus Dei, is a soprano solo which foreshadows the Countess's

Dove Sono in Figaro. The same section of K337, also a soprano solo, happens to resemble Porgi amor. The recording, made in Kings College, is

very atmospheric, reverberant but reason-ably clear. The echoes do not seriously impair the solo lines, though the choral passages- to which the boys' voices make a happy contribution - might have benefited from a drier studio atmosphere. Margaret Marshall has the lion's s:iare of the solo work and is excellent, but all four are well matched, and Stephen Cleobury's lively direction suits the style of the music extremely well. [A/B:11

Kenneth Dommett

MOZART: The Marriage of Figaro Sena Jurinac/Graziella Sciutti/Rise Stevens/Sesto Bruscantini/Franco Calabrese/Ian Wallace, etc./ Glyndebourne Fest Ch & Orch/Gui HMV EX 2900173 (3 recs) (EX 2900179) Reissue from 1955

Though not well received on the stage - it was apparently too ltalianate for Glynde-bourners nurtured on Ebert-Busch Mozart - Gui's is a great recorded Figaro. Illustrious names, fine singing, especially from the ladies. One may quibble a little at some of the men. Bruscantini's is surely too fruity a voice to convey Figaro's feline cunning with complete conviction, but there is Ian Wal-lace's Bartolo to remind us what a good singer he was (pace his present TV-radio persona), and Cuenod provides a typically witty Curzio. Gui controls the performance tightly and one can see how his dazzling virtuosity must have surprised his original audience. Those interested in such matters may care

to know that this recording is a rare example of the application of Blumlein stereo, using a single main mike. Newly recut, it comes up fresh and is well worth a hearing. [A/B:1]

Kenneth Dommett

MOZART: La Prima Donna in Mozart — Arias from La Clemenza di Tito, Cosi fan tutte, Don Giovanni, La Finta Giardiniera, Le Nozze di Figaro, Zaide Montserrat Caballe/Ileana Cotrubas/Helen Donath/ Mirella Freni/Kiri te Kanawa/Edith Mathis/Jessye Norman/Lucia Popp/Janet Baker/Frederica von Stade/Various orchs & conductors Philips 6527 219 (7311 219) Reissues from 1971 to 76

This is really an 'embarras de richesses', with no less than eight famous sopranos and two equally celebrated mezzos all showing off their various talents in display pieces from the operas of Mozart. They are all good and it is almost invidious to pick out any particular items, but Baker, Caballe, Freni, Te Kanawa and Norman are possibly the pick of the bunch on this occasion. All these record-ings are taken from the Philips catalogue of complete operas, and the sound is very acceptable in every case. [A:1*/1]

John Freestone

MOZART arr. HEIDENREICH: The Magic Flute Münchner Bláserakademie Orfeo S092-841A digital dmm (ML092-841A1 ( Har-mania Mundi)

By contrast with Triebensee, whose arrange-ment of Don Giovanni has also been released (see review next month), Joseph Heidenreich 11753-1821) sounds somewhat amateurish; though he seems to have been reasonably successful as a purveyor of wind-band arrangements. For Zauberflóte he cul-led 18 numbers from the score which he set for the same forces as Triebensee, though he fails to achieve the same depth of expression. He does not scruple to change the order

wherever he feels the need, and though there is no reason why he should have stuck to Mozart's, the way he hops about is rather disconcerting to anyone who knows the

HI-FI NEWS tez RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1954 129

opera well. So is the way he chops up the numbers. This he was bound to do for reasons of length as well as complexity - he does not attempt either of the Queen of the Night's arias for instance - yet to our more sophisticated ears the effect is often comical. The duet ' Kórinte jeder brave Mann' for one has been trimmed as if to emphasise its similarity to Schubert's Heidenráslein, though Heidenreich probably did not know that song. But not everything is on this level; much is reasonably successful and is gener-ally entertaining, which was the object after all. The performance is excellent and the recording first-class, though its impact is not quite as immediate as in Triebensee's Don Giovanni. [A:1]

Kenneth Dommett

PROKOFIEV: Symphony No.3 LI Love for Three Oranges — suite Junge Deutsche PO/Chal//y DG 410 988-1 digital (410 988-4)

One need have no doubts about the skill and assurance of the Young German Philharmo-nic. On the other hand, I did at times wonder to what extent Chailly's generally very mea-sured tempi might be regarded as gestures of concession to his youthful players. Cer-tainly Love for Three Oranges doesn't always come off the page as it might, the sharpness, the acidity of its wit sacrificed to a preponderance of over-emphatic, over-calculated detailing. Scène Infernale, for ins-tance, is by any stretch of the imagination impossibly slow. But the awesomely unsavoury Third Symhony can take such a broad treatment, and very effective much of it is too. Even so, the dark eroticism of the piece is a little beyond the reach of these youngsters, with too many of Prokofiev's weird and wonderful sonorities taken quite literally at face value. The hideous writhings of the scherzo, for instance, emerge far less potently than usual, and much the same goes for that seething finale: massive, but all too metronomical here. However, the playing per se achieves a

consistently high level, with extravert, con-fident woodwinds, uninhibited brass ( horns especially) and strings both unanimous and bulls-eye accurate in their stratospheric excursions above the stave. DG's recording is big, fat, immediate and well-proportioned between the front and the back of the orchestra, but they've fallen down over one unforgivably bad edit in the transition to the middle section of the finale. [A/C:2]

Edward Seckerson

RAVEL: Ma Mère l'Oye U Pavane pour une infante défunte LI Le Tombeau de Couperin U Valses nobles et sentimentales Montreal SO/Dutost Decca 410 254-1 digital (410 254-4)

Magic - and 66 minutes of it. Unlike most other current versions, this one offers Ma Mère l'Oye complete with interludes, and the resulting sense of continuity makes one reluctant to hear the work in any other form. That apart, it is becoming increasingly dif-ficult to say anything new about Dutoit's Ravel. The superlative orchestral refinement can be taken as read; more remarkable, it is used to confer a warmth, charm and tender-ness on music too often depicted as little more than coolly beautiful. The hushed opening of Le jardin féerique is more moving than I have ever heard it, and the movement as a whole - spaciously played - possesses real dignity. Lightness of touch and wide range of nuance characterise Valses nobles, there is wit in Le Tombeau (swift and rhythmically buoyant in all movements except the Prelude, which is swift and rhyth-mically edgy) and exquisite tenderness in the Pavane. Even by the exalted standards of previous

Decca/Montreal issues, this one offers exceptionally fine sound quality: warm, atmospheric, nicely distanced and abso-

lutely clean. You can hear the double-basses as a gentle, clearly defined presence. If I could award two double stars, I would, but [A*1*1 will have to do.

Andrew Keener

RAVEL: Piano Concerto in D for the left hand Rhapsodie Espagnole [ I Tzigane H La Valse Wayenberg (pno)/Krebbers (vIn)/Concertgebouw/ Kondrashm Philips 412 072-1 (412 072-4)

Not, I'm afraid, especially distinguished per-formances. The opening of the Concerto is well drawn, sepulchral sonorites evocatively sounded, Kondrashin's keen ear at once responsive to the ingenuity of Ravel's orchestral coloration. And so it is throughout the reading. Wayenberg, on the other hand, produces playing of more technical efficiency than character, somewhat under-mined, too, by an unduly recessed keyboard balance. Krebbers fairs better in Tzigane- a splendid account, his extended opening solo wonderfully idiomatic in feel, the sinewy G-string irresistibly exploited. Side 2 brings us the earliest of the record-

ings - Rhapsodie Espagnole (1971) - and it shows. Close woodwind balances rob the opening 'Prelude de la Nuit' of its hazy impressionistic sensuality, while the flamboyant tuttis of ' Feria' emerge some-what stridently: undernourished and con-stricted. La Valse too, of course, cries out for the optimum in tonal splendour from perfor-mers and recording engineers alike, and on both counts it falls short of the mark. Kon-drashin's reading is a curiously inconsistent, contradictory affair, plain, even prosaic at one moment, grossly over-characterised the next. Best forgotten, I think. [13/C:2/4]

Edward Seckerson

RAVEL: Cinq Mélodies populaires grecques Epigrammes de Clément Marot Histoires naturelles L] Chansons madécasses H Deux Mel-dies hébraïques El Don Quichotte à Dulcinée Gerard Souzay (bar)/Da/ton Baldwin (ono)/ Maxence Larrieu I'M/Pierre Degenne (v/c) Philips 6527 154 (7311 154) Reissues from 1969

These songs are equally demanding on the singer and the accompanist. They have always appealed to a minority rather than the general musical public, but their influence upon French song writing has been immense. Without a reasonable knowledge of the language they cannot really be appreciated, but they are fascinating when given such superlative performances as these by Gérard Souzay and Dalton Baldwin. The recording, dating from 1969, is really very good even by today's standards and these must now be considered the authorita-tive versions of these songs. Souzay, who is in the great line of French baritones, may not have had the most beautiful of voices, but his superb diction and his mastery of this difficult idiom show him as a worthy succes-sor to Panzéra and Bernac. [A:1*]

John Freestone

SAINT-SAËNS: Symphony No.3 in c 'Organ' LPO/Batiz/w. Noel Rawsthorne forgl ASV DCA 524 digital dmm (ZCDCA 524)

As his resounding Del Mar Enigma made plain some years ago, producer/engineer Brian Culverhouse knows how to tame the echoes of Guildford Cathedral without loss of atmosphere. Perspectives are well judged on this new Saint-Saëns 3, and the organ glows in the slow movement as impressively as it roars at the beginning of the finale. Yet I wish the violins in particular and the lower end in general sounded a shade warmer. Through no fault of their own, I suspect, the LPO strings rarely caress the ear as Dutoit's or Barenboim's do ( Montreal/Decca, Chi-cago/DG respectively), notably in the perva-sive 4-note pattern of the Adagio.

Interpretatively, there is much to enjoy but relatively little, it seems to me, to fire the imagination. Too often for my taste, Bátiz's energy either approaches the febrile (the Scherzo, already fast, pushes forward to unsettling effect towards the end) or becomes dispersed by a slackening of ten-sion (eg, the second subject of the first movement and the whole of the finale, spaciously unfolded). Some dicey rhythm and ensemble worried me more than similar failings on Decca, simply because Dutoit leaves no doubt as to where the interpreta-tion is going at any given point. Yet how pleased I should be on a sunny evening to sit in Guildford Cathedral and hear this per-formance. Terrible things, records. [9:2]

Andrew Keener

DOMENICO SCARLATTI: Sonatas, Vol.18 (Kk 268/ 69, 185/86, 550/51, 123, 302/03, 118, 426/27) Gilbert Rowland (hpd) Keyboard KGR 1018 (NC) (Gamut)

Gilbert Rowland's cycle proceeds once more with a well-contrasted programme of delicately poised music. There is an essential wistfulness, a deep but disguised sadness beneath the surface of much of this music, which leads us to wish that we knew more about its composer's personality. Here, the almost overwhelming relish of Kk 551 in B-flat (end of Side 1) brings to mind other super-virtuoso pieces: the great John Bull In Nomines, the Liszt Sonata, the Bach Chromatic Fugue. These are all so emotional and so full of effort that they are both tragic and aspiring, but I don't find them quite 'jovial' ( Gilbert Rowland's own word, in his otherwise characteristically informative notes). The recording continues to be very good

and realistic; I certainly wish that all harp-sichord records were as well-managed as this. To some, the uniformity of the sound through the series (the instrument is very pleasant, and is resourcefully played as well as being well reproduced by the studio engineers) may not be an attraction, but I cannot see how it would be better for Gilbert Rowland to have chosen to play a variety of instruments, and there is no real certainty concerning Scarlatti's preferences. Still exciting as a venture, deserving of more complete subscriptions than I estimate it has yet gained. (A:1/1*1

Stephen Daw

SIMPSON: String Quartets Nos. 7 & 8 Delmé Qt Hyperion A66117 ( NC)

The significance of the string quartet in the compositional output of Robert Simpson cannot be underestimated, so it is strange that no examples of his work in this genre feature in the present catalogue apart from these new, excellent recordings from Hype-rion. Simpson's music is generally tightly composed, with no frills or padding: every-thing relates to everything else in the piece and can be heard to do so. The seventh Quartet, constructed as one

movement in three major sections, takes this unity to the extreme with its argument moving inexorably to a conclusion at the work's end. This demands total concentra-tion from performers and listeners alike, and the composer is fortunate to have such a skilled and conscientious group of players as the Delmé Quartet to carry his message. They produce atmospheric performances of both works, in which the technical require-ments of each are easily accommodated and, I suspect, the emotional impact remains as vibrant as in the composer's mind. Super-ficially, Quartet 8 is a looser work than 7, in four movements, dedicated to the entomo-logist Professor David Gillett and with a Scherzo (second movement) subtitled Er-etmapodites gilletti after the mosquito given the name of the work's dedicatee. Some of the startling textures created do not,

130 ill— F1 NEWS & RLCORD REVIEW OCTOBU R I,e›,4

however, obscure the close-knit thinking here. Apart from a few background noises, the

recording is the epitome of smooth, absorb-ing sound production. The spacing of the instruments is not overdefined and the blend is ideal. Altogether a very impressive, worth-while issue. [A:1*1

Doug Hammond

SOR: Seguedillas CI Andantino Op.2/3/SOLER: Canzonette D Arias from 'Una cosa rara' Teresa Berganza (m-sop)/José Miguel Moreno (gtr)

Philips 411 030-1 digital (411 030-4)

Fernando Sor is better known for his guitar music than for his songs and these appear to be the first recordings of the Seguedillas. They are all short and the words are very repetitive, but they are full of attractive melodies. Many of them are love songs and one or two are highly amusing, as for example the 'Seguedillas of the Requiem Eternam'. By contrast the songs of fellow-Spaniard Vicente Martin y Soler ( not to be confused with the better known Antonio Soler) are typical of the Italian school of the late 18th century. The composer lived in Vienna for much of his active life, but these songs are set to Italian texts. The last two are from his opera Una cosa rara, first per-formed in Vienna in 1786, when it became a great popular success. Teresa Berganza's voice has apparently

lost some of its bloom, and in this recording it sounds hard and unsympathetic in timbre, particularly in the Spanish songs of Sor. She is well accompanied by José Miguel Moreno, who plays a short solo at the end of the first side — an Adantino by Sor. The recording is clean and the guitar sounds very natural, but the vocal quality is over-bright and edgy. [B/C:21

John Freestone

tion. The choruses vary from the popular ones in Aida, II Trovatore and Nabucco to less familiar ones from Attila and La Battag-lia di Legnano, but all are sung with distinc-tion. The first band includes the Grand March from Aida and the Ballet Music. The latter is certainly not Verdi at his most inspired and might well have been omitted, thus making room for another choral item, but all-in-all this is a very fine collection excitingly sung and well recorded. [B:11

John Freestone

TELEMANN: Overtures (suites) for orchestra in g (TWV 55: g4) and in d (55: d3) VCM/Harnoncourt Teldec 6.42986 dmm (NC) (Conifer)

These two Ouvertüren are drawn from the large collection of such works by Telemann which are today housed in Hessische Landes — und Hochschulbibliothek Darmstadt; they are of uncertain date and provenance. The Vienna Concentus Musicus play them with vigour and high sensitivity, and the sound of the ensemble — notably warmer in itself than it used to be in the 1960s — is very pleasantly captured. Particularly good is the players' attack, which skilful editing has preserved (through the much-vaunted Direct Metal Mastering process) in extremely lifelike fashion. The attack is never too fierce, but always precise and the impression well focused. The music is delightful, and sounds very

attractive in the hands of these established masters of period instruments. Those who feel that VCM never change their style of playing should compare these records with others made by them ten and twenty years ago; the freshness of the ripieno string sound is still there, but the wind instruments play in closer consorts, and the overall tone gains bloom as a result. Excellent docu-mentation, possibly just a little too distant in recorded focus. [A:11

Stephen Dew

VICTORIA: Misse O quam gloriosum U Misse Ave

Maris Stella Ch of Westminster Cath/David Hill Hyperion A66114 digital dmm (NC)

Victoria neither possessed the versatility nor matched the sheer output of his great con-temporaries Palestrina and Lassus; but his work has a lapidary perfection and depth of devotion which render it unique in the great tradition of post-Reformation polyphony. Victoria was wholly post-Tridentine in his outlook: a priest who regarded music and everything else as having the sole purpose of bringing the faithful closer to God. To me that purpose shines more clearly from his music than from any other after the period of so-called Gregorian chant. There is a fine tradition — which I first

heard exemplified under Terry — of polypho-nic singing at Westminster Cathedral. It is continued today, I am thankful to say, despite the ravages of the Cultural Revolu-tion after Vatican II. To my mind the impact is lessened by the 'Shouty' tone adopted by the boys, which tends to lower dynamic range and give a rather 'grainy' texture to the sound. It would be good to know what sound Victoria expected from his choir-boys! Such matters of taste aside, however, this is a recording worthy of a fine tradition. To judge from the sound, the Cathedral

seems to have presented more difficulty than Hyperion's own chosen locations; but the result is still very fine, with a natural rather than an over-close perspective, but detail fully preserved. I heard no trace of distortion on climaxes, and can thoroughly recommend this issue. [A:11

Peter Turner

VERDI CHORUSES: Excerpts from Aida, Attila, La Battaglia di Legnano, I Lombardi, Nabucco, Otello,

II Trovatore Ch & Orch of L'Accademia de Santa Cecilia,

Rome/Carlo Franci Decca 411 834-1 (411 834-4) Reissue from 1964

When this disc first appeared it was hailed as a brilliant recording achievement, and even today the sound is very acceptable with good stereo separation and excellent defini-

VIVALDI: La Cetra, Op.9 ASM/Iona Brown (On) Decca 411 851-1 (2 recs) (411 851-4) Reissue from 1978

Listening again to the two solo violins inter-twining in the slow movement from the ninth of these twelve concertos, I thought how lovely the analogue record can sound! These works, in fast/slow/fast form, were first released on six sides, and the powerful airy quality is barely compromised in this reduction to four; but it's a pity the various continuo instrumentalists, organ, cello, bass, bassoon, are no longer named — John Tolle is the spruce harpsichordist. There are many delights here, such as the strings' pizzicati, like the clopping of workhorses' hoofs, under the exquisite summer birdsong of the solo part in 10(ii), not too remote from Beeth-oven's own Larghetto. A logical 'next step' then from the Four Seasons in a basic collection; for the connoisseur, lona Brown's crisp playing and direction are equally treasurable. She is located marginally right of centre, but that should not be a worry. [A:19

Christopher Breunig

VIVALDI: 6 Double Concertos — RV 563 in D for 2 trumpets & violin CI RV 539 in F for two horns U RV 532 for two mandolins CI RV 533 in C for two flutes RV 536 in a for two oboes CI RV 545 in G for oboe

and bassoon — all with strings and continuo Iona Brown (vIn)/Michael Laird, William Houghton (tpts)/Timothy Brown, Nicholas Hill (horns)/James Tyler, Doublas Wootton (mdIns)/William Bennett, Lenore Smith (flts)/Celia Nicklin, Barry Davis (obos)/Graham Sheen (bsn)/ASM/Marriner Philips 6514 379 digital (7337 379)

The Academy of St Martins have produced some extremely attractive baroque records over the last year or so, and if this reviewer still prefers old instruments (especially in the hands of continental players), that does not mean that he is unaware of this latest batch of enterprising recordings. And never are the Academy better than when, as here, they are dealing with relatively unfamiliar music, and the soloists are effectively drawn from their own forces as a symphonic ensemble for other kinds of music. The whole issue sings with spirit. The

recording is excellent, with a fine feel of life and presence, an attractive sense of propor-tion, and an exemplary tonal quality throughout the wide range of pitch and dynamics called for by the ingenious Red Priest. The Academy have always luxuriated in melody, but here they seem to luxuriate in the rhythmic life within that melody. Where in the past I have felt that they have failed through an over-indulgence, here they are adding drama and zest to their interpretation through discipline and attentive preparation. Thoroughly recommended. [A*:1*/11

Stephen Dew

WAGNER: Das Rheingold Kirsten Flagstad (m-sop)/Claire Watson (sop)/Jean Madeira (con)/Oda Balsborg (sop)/Hetta Plumacher (sop)/Ira Malaniuk (con)/George London (bass-bar)! Eberhard Wâchter (bar)/Waldemar Kmentt (ten)/Set Svanholm (ten)/Gustav Neidlinger (bass/bar)/Paul Kuen (ten)/Walter Kreppel (bass-bar)/Kurt Beihme (bass)NPO/Solti Decca 414 101-1 (3 recs) digitally remastered (414 101-4) Reissue from 1958

It seems almost an impertinence to offer any critical comment either on the Decca Ring cycle as a whole or on this magnificent first venture of 1958. The strengths and weaknes-ses of the cast in this monumentally impor-tant project have been fought out among the critics over the years, but one could perhaps summarise as follows. The whole music-drama centres, as it should but rarely does, on the portrayal of Alberich, and Gustav Neidlinger's singing and characterisation remains unsurpassed. Producer John Cul-shaw in his book Ring Resounding wrote: 'When Neidlinger started we all but froze in the control room. You could touch the intensity .... The venom in the man's throat, his hysterical, animal, laugh. ..'. George London's Wotan is competent and strong, if not as full of understanding as Fischer-Dieskau's characterisation for Karajan or as convincing on the internal conflict as Donald McIntyre for Boulez. Flagstad gives Fricka a unique maturity and heads a very strong line-up of female voices, especially Watson's Freia and Malaniuk's Flosshilde. Solti con-ducts throughout with spontaneous energy and vigour. Avid collectors will have followed the

progression of the Decca recording through various domestic New Malden pressings to Dutch pressings made from West Hamp-stead metalwork in later years, real enthu-siasts going to the expense of importing Telefunken cut and pressed sets, and latterly Teldec's DMM Ring cycle. This reissue has been digitally remastered by Decca, who have cut the discs from a digitally copied tape. Initially sceptical about digital remastering, I have found the results here very encouraging. The sound of the test-pressings is more immediate; the difference between these and a commercial Dutch pressing from four years ago is like that between a master tape and a quality cassette copy. The Prelude is immediately more powerful, cleaner, and gives the listener the feeling of infinite headroom even from LP. Diction is clearer, while stage positions are more easily heard in an acoustic where the focus has been pulled into clarity. Any newcomer buying LPs would now be

even more strongly recommended to this e

HI-FI NEWS d: RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1954 131

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classic recording and performance. But my own appetite has been whetted for the CD issues, which may well encourage owners of any of the previous Culshaw/Solti Ring incarnations to 'upgrade' and rediscover the musical and technical riches anew. [A.VA:1*/ 1]

David Priikel

[Rheingold on CD to be reviewed in next CD Monitor. Also, refer to 'Notes p113 for details of how Decca's original tapes have been remastered and re-edited using digital techniques. Dep Ed)

CLASSICAL COLLECTIONS BEAUTIFUL MUSIC 14 RAVEL: Bolero/GINASTERA: Estancia Ballet Suite/ SHOSTAKOVICH: Festive Overture/WEINBERGER: Polka & Fugue from 'Schwanda' LSO/Gould ASV ABM 763R digital (ZC ABM 763R) Reissue from 1979

The performance of Bolero on this disc captures the feel of the dance admirably in its rhythmically unrelenting precision. But while the opening is as quiet as it could be, unfortunately there is some sharp tuning amongst the woodwind solos, and although the gradual crescendo is finely graded it eventually leads to a statement of the theme that seems contrived. But the changing timbres essential in establishing a convinc-ing performance are nevertheless well cap-tured. Ginastera's Estancia Suite fares less well, as it relies not so much on the presenta-tion of individual tone-colours as on a more consistently full orchestral sound. The woolly, enclosed recording that accompa-nies this hinders creation of the exciting impact that movement 3, in particular, requires. A festive spirit is better created in the

Shostakovich overture, although even here there is some poor string playing and the sound is again rather woolly. But perhaps most disappointing of all is the lack of swagger and zest that is the essence of the Polka and Fugue from Weinberger's Schwanda the Bagpiper. The LSO are usually so good in such virtuosic showpieces that their tameness here must be attributed to the conductor. Some HF restriction and dynamic capping only serve to exacerbate the situa-tion. [13:2/31 Barbara Jahn

CHANDOS 'PREMIUM' ISSUES

ENGLISH MUSIC FOR STRINGS ELGAR: Serenade/HOIST: St. Paul's Suite/IRE-LAND: Concertino Pastorale/WARLOCK: Capriol Suite Bournemouth Sin f/Hurst CBR 1020 (CBT 1020) Reissue from 1977

MUSIC OF PERCY GRAINGER: Works including Country Gardens 0 Shepherd's Hey, etc Bournemouth Sinf/Montgomery CBR 1022 (CBT 1022) Reissue from 1979

BENJAMIN BRITTEN: COMPLETE MUSIC FOR STRINGS: Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge 0 Simple Symphony El Prelude and Fugue Bournemouth Smf/Thomas CBR 1021 (CBT 1021) Reissue from 1977

RUBBRA: Symphony No.10 J Improvisations on Virginal Pieces by Giles Farnaby A Tribute Bournemouth Sinf/Schonzeler CBR 1023 (CBT 1023) Reissue from 1976

Four more digitally remastered RCA record-ings are reissued here by Chandos on their Premium label. All are in the Harveys of

Bristol English series, dating from the latter half of the 1970s, and feature the Bourne-mouth Sinfonietta with a variety of conduc-tors. The earliest piece on these discs is El9ar's

Serenade for string orchestra, given a light-weight but not unmoving reading by George Hurst, who manages to avoid the interpreta-tive clichés of the Elgarian tradition whilst retaining its sound and sentiment. Hoist's St. Paul's Suite benefits from very lively playing in the faster movements, with great preci-sion and outstanding dynamic range. As in Ireland's Concertino Pastorale, a good sense of the work's atmosphere is conveyed to the listener and the performance is well balanced. Playing is equally vigorous in Warlock's Capriol Suite, but here the rever-berant acoustic is at odds with the lightness of the textures. Loss of bass detail is com-mon to all four works, but the recording nevertheless offers a vivid yet untiring sound that retains all the dash of the performances. [A:1"/1] The Grainger disc has a good selection of

arrangements and original works, some well-known, others less so. The recording is more distant than on the preceding disc, to accommodate the full orchestra and various ensembles, but although the sound quality is not in itself inferior to that on the 'English Music for Strings' issue, Grainger's mode of orchestration is much more difficult to record, and inner textures that only just retain their clarity in live performance here become clogged and indistinct. The Sinfo-nietta cope well with much of the difficult writing, but at times tuning lapses a little and tone production and ensemble become inconsistent. Although a record to dip into rather than take at one sitting, this is still a worthwhile investment. [A/B:1/2] Under the direction of Ronald Thomas the

Bournemouth Sinfonietta produce a straight-forward reading of the Frank Bridge Varia-tions on the disc devoted to Britten's music for strings, but the peculiarly characteristic features of this work are to my mind rather underplayed. The Mahlerian elements of the 'Funeral March', for example, are there but glossed over, and the warmth of string tone needed to make the most of such features does not emerge. The Simple Symphony and Prelude and Fugue, however, fare much better, with great contrast of mood and appropriate zest in both works. The 'Sen-timental Sarabande' of Op.4, with its savour of both Mahler and early Bridge, acquires a richness not found on Side 1. The full, spacious sound of the recording helps here, which even when a little strident seems appropriate to Britten's writing for the medium. [A/B: 1/2] The reissue of music by Edmund Rubbra

shows the strong contrast between his more popular and personal styles of composition. The Farnaby Improvisations are arrange-ments and developments of great charm, exploiting an agreeable tonal and lyrical idiom, while the Tribute, composed in 1942 for Vaughan Williams' 70th birthday, is more introspective, contrasting a very beautiful, meditative introduction with a bitter-sweet little dance. Both works are conducted with obvious understanding and affection by Hans-Hubert Schitinzeler, and played with spirit and dedication by the Bournemouth orchestra. On Side 2 the Symphony No.10 shows Rubbra in his more personal yet public vein. Overtones of both Hindemith and Reger inhabit the constantly fluid texture of this continuous piece, and the players seem marginally less at home here, though the interpretation must still rank as very good. A good recording, limited only by some edge and overfullness at ff, shows these fine performances to advantage. As with the other three discs, this reissue is to be welcomed. [B:1*/1]

Doug Hammond

CONCERT AT CASTLE HOWARD: Music for oboe and guitar

John Anderson (obo, cor-an g)/Simon Wynberg (gtr) Chandos ABRD 1083 digital (ABTD 1083)

What connexion, if any, this music has with Castle Howard to cause it to be recorded there is not revealed; but the Long Gallery makes a pleasing studio. Music specifically written for guitar and oboe is hardly prolific, so that most of the pieces here are arranged by Simon Wynberg, whose catholic taste apparently ranges from Bach to Gershwin — whose Summertime is recorded last. Since most of the guitar's accompaniment work is of the tumty-tum type, there are also some solos for guitar. I did not find the music particularly inspir-

ing, but the playing is. John Anderson, perhaps best known for his nine years as principal oboist with the BBC SO, has a ravishing tone and ' invisible' technique. Simon Wynberg studied under Narciso Yepes, from whom one assumes he adopted the ten-string guitar. He plays it admirably here. The recorded acoustic is on the lively side,

but not distractingly so. It may be for that reason that the miking seems very close, allowing action-noises and wind to be audi-ble from the oboe, together with a fascinat-ing range of tiny sounds of players' move-ments: startlingly real. Digital techniques seem especially suited to individual instru-ments, and this is a very good example of presence. Perhaps a slightly more naturally-distant perspective would have been more satisfactory in musical terms; but if it's sounds you're after.... [A:1]

Peter Turner

CONTOUR RED LABEL

You would hardly expect to find a scholarly performance of Alle9ri's Miserere by the Pro Cantione Antigua displayed along with the plastic buckets and ' Pick-n- mix' sweets assortments at Woolworth's. Equally incon-gruous, one might say, to have so beautifully engineered a recording (Tony Faulkner) on a £2.25 label. It is one of the highlights of the Pickwick International 'Contour' catalogue, launched in 1981, comprising mainly reis-sues drawn from Polygram sources. The Contour Red label obviously com-

petes with Classics for Pleasure in providing basic repertoire at budget cost. But it also provides a source of reissues invaluable to the dedicated collector — such as the Pierre Monteux early vintage stereo recordings. The repertoire is masterminded by John Boyden, ex-CFP/LSO/Enigma. 'Pressed to classical recording standards' is the printed sleeve claim, and this was certainly borne out by a representative sampling sent to us: not necessarily the cream of the 95 discs released so far, as the detailed reviews show. To those supplied I added some choices of my own — but that still left out such bargains as Colin Davis's underesti-mated Beethoven Pastoral (CC7546), Igor Markevich's highly personal but compelling Tchaikovsky Fourth (CC7595), Bitehm's noble Brahms 1 with the BPO, and Alto Rhapsody etc with Christa LudwigNPO (CC7514, 7536), Schumann symphonies with BPO/Kubelik (CC7532, 7537, 7538), Peter and the Wolf, narrator Sean Connery (CC7519), Robert Tear singing Vaughan Williams (CC7577), John Eliot Gardiner's Monteverdi (CC7572), of Phase-4 recordings of the New World Symphony, Dorati, and the second of three Maazel versions of Pictures at an Exhibition (CC7579, 7576). Last June the ferric tape cassettes were completely replaced by BASF Chrome transfers: 71 titles retailing at £2.49, attractively packaged in silver blister-seal cards. Cassettes have CCTC prefix.

Pressings are now sleeved in paper liners, but of 18 tested only one proved at all noisy, and the standard of flatness was also extremely good. Artwork is excellent: sleeve notes are reproduced from the Decca, DG and Philips originals (or reissues), but some of the publication dates given were mislead-

geg

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1954 133

ing. In one case, ' Praetorius', the contents/ composer listings were inaccurate and inadequate, and the sleeve essay general-ised. A pity, as this is both technically and musically a 'super' bargain recoupling. A dealer will tell you that it is not always

the record getting a rave review which ultimately proves the best seller. And I found, listening to some of these Contour reissues for the first time, my reactions at variance with views long held. Take, for instance, two famous Ansermet/Suisse Romande recordings. Scheherazade (1961) has good hall perspectives and a widish dynamic range; but winds are 'fluttery', the brass waspish, and there's an obvious edit just before the first violin solo. After Beecham or Monteux, Ansermet is so unassuming, so placid in approach that this disappoints. Once acclaimed as placing the listener 'inside the orchestra' the sound is no longer remarkable (CC7501) (A/B:2/3]. Rather tight, fierce string tone in his Beethoven Choral - Sutherland graces the finale - but the Geneva Hall ambience shows through consistently. Wind playing 'parochial', but OSA strings bring warmth to ( iii); fast scherzo, analytical manner individual. This was our first bargain-label Ninth ( in 1960); no-one else much liked the performance then, yet Ansermet so clearly had something to say. Indeed, I'd opt for this in preference to Kempe/CFP (CC7592) (A/B:1]. Falla's Three Cornered Hat (CC7560* with La Vida Breve filler) [A/B:1] was fastidiously prepared by Ansermet: a spacious reading ( 1960) now displaced I feel by modern alternatives. Cut is low-level, sound full but ' soft' - some degrading pre-echoes. One suspects the master-tape had more presence.

Classic performances, like 'old soldiers' do fade away! (For every half-dozen Chailly releases, how many Van Beinum reissues are likely?) Monteux's 1957 Paris Rite of Spring (CC7582*) [C:1*/21 has high tape noise and is cut at a low level, but pressing quality is excellent. Orchestral discipline and intonation are below current standards, and some will find Monteux (who directed the uproarious 1913 premiere) too gentlemanly. There is real attack and impact when called for, and orchestra is set back in a warm ambience ( preferable to the Victrola recut). Unique and historic: not to be missed. With his last orchestra, LSO. Monteux accompa-nied his flautist son's 1964 debut in Bach Suite 2, Mozart's K314, and Gluck's 'Dance of the Blessed Spirits'. A big, old-fashioned sound. Not really recommendable - Claude Monteux later became a much finer Mozart stylist (CC7504*) [B:3). Monteux's Sibelius 2 with the LSO is another matter (CC7563*): now 'whiskery', hollow, but in places almost tangibly real - hence [A`/C:11. Vivid Decca engineering from 1960. Slight Gallic impati-ence with the ending of the work shows, but what counts is that every bar is fresh, alive. With the first-movement repeat (as in his less satisfying Philips/LSO version), Mon-teux's VPO Brahms 2 is so felicitously phrased that the disadvantages of a thin-toned, but serviceable, recording are soon forgotten. I'd happily forego the rest... (CC7578) [B/C:1*]. I have long treasured the Katchen/LSO/Monteux partnership in the D-minor Piano Concerto; the sweep of the orchestral playing puts this in a select class. The new transfer (CC7587) (A/B:11 has an increase in edge and attack over the original SXL, but at the expense of some channel separation and focus. I'll keep this alongside my noisy-Eurfaced 1960 copy.

Thin, wiry strings (typical Stuttgart Cham-ber/Decca sound) almost lead one to expect a historic piano in Mozart's K466/503 Concer-tos. Münchinger engages the furies in the D-minor, conveys the grandeur of the C-major exposition. Alas, Katchen keeps you at arm's length from the music; his own caden-zas suggest that he underestimated Mozart as a profound writer (CC7539*) [8:21. There was more body in the 1964 SXL than in Contour's transfer of Mozart's Clarinet Quin-tet ( CC7544*) (B/C:1]. Movements are unbanded, but it's mellow and still the most

enjoyable (Vienna Octet). Coupling is the Piano Quintet, 1957 recording with Panhoffer the fluent pianist. He is set far left of the winds (which sound 'pinched') yet the right channel suggests pedal thumps! A shade too relaxed overall [C:1/2]. Even odder instrumental disposition is found in Beeth-oven's Septet, Melos Ensemble 1960: bass saturated and boomy, too much right-side bias - even Emmanuel Hurwitz's violin over there! But a crisp performance, more enjoy-able than their EMI remake; nice edge to Neill Sanders' horn (CC7589*). (B timbres/D stereo:1)

All that remains of three Kempff Chopin recitals from Decca 1958-9 is (CC7543) C:1]. This backs Sonata 2 with five solos. Anything but Germanically heavy, character-istically sensitive in Berceuse, the playing is not severe enough really; eg. Kempff is dreamily romantic in the Funeral March. But a collector's item for those who love this great artist's work. In the Preludes Eschen-bach overpedals, and is unconvincing in his searching deliberation; unilluminating (CC7511). (B:3]

Neither of Yuri Ahronovitch's two LSO records ' Russian Spectacular' and 'Tchaikovsky Spectacular' (CC7557, 7551 digital) is recommendable. The range is narrow, with no real spread of strings in Sabre Dance; Glinka's Ruslan is ' hollow' - no substance to the sound. A poor record, readings not bad, but perfunctory (13/C:2/31, whereas in Marche Slave and 1812 Ahrono-vitch is self-aggrandising; playing is vulgar and brassy, with hot-headed speeding/slow-ing, the 'punch' not attractive even for an occasional turntable airing. On the other hand, or side, Romeo and Juliet is interest-ing, spacious in the introduction, sharply controlled in the 'fight'; but range is again narrow, the balancing distant (A/B:1/41. Kara-jan's classic 1961 Romeo/Strauss Don Juan VP0 coupling is now on Contour (CC7528) [A/B:1], cleanly transferred, but the bass less luminous, the sound not as open as on Decca's SPA label pressings. 'Dances from Terpsichore', from Archly

sources 1961-73, with Ulsamer Collegium etc (CC7565), has robust music from the N. German School, Praetorius and others. Soni-cally it is pick-of-Pickwick, sparklingly clear, cut at a high level with minimal background, impeccable imaging - and half the cost of 'Villancicos'! The 36 tracks are varied in orchestration (exotic original instruments); I would single out in particular the drumming in the Volte, Side 1/Band 5, or guitar with wood percussion, Side 2/10: irresistible [Al A*:1*]. Early music in austere contrast is Tallis's Spem in alium, a 40-part motet, with Jeremiah Lamentations and the Allegri psalm setting - did Mozart really memorize all this at age 14? In a wonderfully credible acoustic staging, Mark Brown's realisation differs markedly from the Kings Spem, which is underpinned with organ, warmly expressive with big dynamic extremes. Exemplary (CC7602). [A*:11

Let's see: I never caught up with Jochum's Great C major, and what about Karl Richter's Haydn? 'Just going to get some Square Deal Surf, darling, and they've got some nice house-plants at ...'

Christopher Breunig

•NC at present. For others, cassettes have CCTC prefix.

DECCA 'VIVA' ISSUES

GERSHWIN: Overtures — 'Oh Kay!' D Funny Face O Of Thee I sing LJ Wintergreen for President D 3 Preludes (orch Stone) D Rhapsody No.2 Ralph Votapek (pno)/Boston Pops/Fiedler Decca 411 835-1 (411 835-4) Reissue from 1979

GREAT FILM MUSIC SAX: Oliver Twist/BLISS: Things to come/ VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: 49th Parallel/WALTON: Henry V D Richard III D Escape me never D The First of the Few

London Fest Orch/Black/Nat PO/Herrmann Decca 411 837-1 (411837-4) Reissues from 1975, 76

VIRTUOSO PIANO SHOWPIECES: Chopin/Falla/ Gottschalk/Liszt/Rimsky-Korsakov/J. Strauss, etc Ivan Davis/Jorge Bolet/Shura Cherkassky/Ilana Vered, etc (pno) Decca 411 836-1 (411 836-4) Reissues from 1961-78

Finger-wagging disapproval of the musical content of Gershwin's Second Rhapsody, KD nevertheless wanted to clap after the 'deli-cious enthusiasm' of each of these otherwise arranged pieces. But for me Rhapsody is the best thing here - and the best done, by Votapek. If you have the Pennario recording of the Piano Prelude No.2 you will hear how Greg Stone's orchestration makes ruinously explicit the subtle moods of the original solo, and Fiedler's direction is almost too smooth and self-satisfied. I'd go for Tilson Thomas. A bloated sound-quality, with ' hi-fi' cymbals, all very Deccola: maybe these two concealed Phase-4 reissues should carry a health warn-ing. [A/C:1]

Stanley Black's account of the Spitfire Prelude & Fugue is like RAH Tournament night, though the fugue is nicely aerial - what a contrast to Walton's own, slower, pacing where the music seems to play itself! The British Film Music reissue should be considered for the three-minute VW study in orchestral crescendo, stirring indeed, or for the wholly unexpected Arnold Bax piece 'Fagin's Romp'. A cult figure, Bernard Herr-mann is impossibly heavy-handed in the Bliss Suite, or Escape me never. [B:2/3] What did happen to Ivan Davis? Flight of

the Bumblebee from his Decca debut recital, and Gottschalk's Souvenirs d'Andalousie, are the highlights of this collection, rather than, say, Bolet's account of the Godowsky-elaborated Chopin Etude Op.10:1. Miscella-nies are never predictable! Cherkassky is in dazzling form in Wine Women and Song (QEH live) also arranged Godowsky; Katchen is masterly in developing the Ritual Fire Dance, the oldest item on this disc. Well worth the 'Viva' budget price. [A/B:1*/3]

Christopher Breunig

PHILIPS SEOUENZA

BARTOK: Piano Concertos 1 & 3 Stephen Bishop-Kovacevich fpnol/LSO/Davis Philips 412 000-1 1412 000-4) Reissue from 1976

CHOPIN: 19 Waltzes Nikita Magaloff (pno) Philips 6527 198 (7311 198) Reissue from 1976

DVORAK: Wind Serenade, Op.44/GOUNOD: Petite Symphonie in 85/SCHUBERT: Minuet and finale in F Netherlands Wind Ens/de Waart Philips 412 004-1 1412 004-4)

HAYDN: Organ Concertos in C, Hob.XVIII ( 1, 5, 8) Daniel Chorzempa (org)/Deutsche Bachsolisten/ Winschermann Philips 6527 200 (7311 200) Reissue from 1972

HAYDN: Oboe Concerto in C/MOZART: Oboe Concerto K.314* Heinz Holliger lobl/Concertgebouw/Zinmanl*NPO/ de Waart Philips 6527 190 (7311 190) Reissues from 1979, 71*

MOZART: Piano Concerto in A, K.488 D in d, K.466 Alfred Brendel (pno)/ASM/Marriner Philips 412 009-1 (412 009-4) Reissues from 1972, 74

FtACHMANINOV: Piano Concerto 2 D Paganini Rhapsody Rafael Orozco (pno)/RPO/de Waart Philips 6527 208 17311 208) Reissue from 1973

134 HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 19K4

TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concerto in D D Serenade Melancolique CI Valse-Scherzo Salvatore Accardo (vIn)/BBC SO/Davis Philips 412 015-1 (412 015-4)

WAGNER: Lohengrin — highlights Silja/Vamay/Thomas/Bayreuth Orch & Ch/Savval-lisch Philips 412 022-1 (412 022-4) 1962 live recording

WAGNER: Tannhauser — highlights Silja/Bumbry/Windgassen/Waechter/Bayreuth Orch & Ch/Sawallisch Philips 412 023-1 (412 023-4) 1962 live recording

WAGNER: The Flying Dutchman — highlights Silja/Crass/Greindl/Bayreuth Orch & Ch/Savvallisch Philips 412 024-1 (412 024-4) 1961 live recording

WAGNER: Die Meistersinger — highlights Ridderbusch/Cox/Sotin/Bode/Bayreuth Orch & Ch/ Varviso Philips 412 025-1 (412 025-4) 1974 live recording

WAGNER: The Great Choruses The Flying Dutchman D Lohengrin El Tannhauser D Die Meistersinger LI Gatterdimmerung El Par-sifal Bayreuth Fest Ch etc/Báhm/Knappertsbusch/ SavvallischNarviso Philips 6527 108 (7311 108) Live recordings 1961-74

In this multi-miked production, colourful details in the finale of Bartok's First Concerto are in sharper focus than on the original transfer. In contrast with the Mandarin-like savagery of Pollini/Abbado, there's a hint of humour here. But if you — and your system — can take it, the DG with its more forward solo balance has more to offer interpretatively. In the Adagio religioso of the Third Concerto Davis brings a jaunty, quasi-comic character-isation to the insectivorous hammerings, and more quirky wind figures to the scherzo-section than did Anda/Fricsay: the classic realisation of Bartok's nature macro-imag-ery. Recommended for the persuasive seriousness of Bishop-Kovacevich's approach. [A/B:1] As a ' Universo' reissue from Magaloff's

comprehensive Chopin series, the Waltzes struck me then as very recommendable, yet coming to these readings again I find their attractions relatively superficial. Sloppy would be far too harsh an adjective to apply, yet the playing lacks jewel-like precision, in either rhythm or touch. If you want these works on record, far better Zimerman, better recorded on DG, or the Lipatti 1950 EMI mono set. Clear Philips engineering, with good dynamics; but the closely balanced image rather wide spread, and tape fizz is audible. [B:2/3] The Dutch winds are closely perspectived

too, but the full-throated sounds in the Dvorak Serenade are well 'ventilated' (pun assuredly subconscious!). Just a fraction clouded, this 'Sequenza' transfer loses a recording star. The Edison sticker is deserved: playing is superb, and the Gounod piece for nine instruments, with its hints of Beethoven's Archduke slow movement and Schubert's Octet finale, is irresistibly tuneful, charming, and civilised in the opening Ada-gio/Allegretto. [A:1*1 The tuneful trio of organ concertos (pub-

lished as for Klavier) seems to deny the penury of Haydn's adolescence, from which they date. They are recorded on three Eisen-stadt organs to which the composer had access. All three convey realistically open acoustics, but No.5 is rather glaring and tends to messiness. No.8 is even better than No.1 (spread over Side 1) which is brighter, thinner in quality. Enthusiastic performances under Winschermann: an enjoyable disc, though No.5 is a rather inferior piece. (A/B:1] The Oboe Concerto is unverified Haydn:

attractive music, lively and vigorously directed by Zinman. If you prefer Holliger's

Mozart with a less full orchestral sound than that of the NPO, theh there is the new ASM/Philips to consider (as well as the old Munich CO/DG). And yet de Waart's accom-paniment is beautifully precise. Solo play-ing? Just about flawless! [A*1*]. One hopes the NPO/Richard Strauss former coupling will not disappear for too long. The Concert-gebouw ambience is identifiable in the 'Haydn', and there is some depth; fortes, however, are too forward. 18:11 So, overall rating for the disc must be [A*/13:1*/1]. Brendel's original couplings, K491 and

459, remain at full price (or in a boxed set of eight); the 'Sequenza' makes an indispens-able addition to a more modest Mozart collection. Many will be entranced by Bren-del's Olympian calm in K488 ( i) — others will remain faithful to the older Haskil version on Philips. The Brendel/Marriner partnership is more open to criticism in the D-minor Con-certo: Perahia, for instance, is less mature but more poetic, and marrying these virtues is Curzon (with ECO/Britten). The recordings are notable for sharp clarity of detail. [A/ A*:1/1*) Taken from a complete Rachmaninov con-

certo cycle, the Orozco disc has undoubted technical brilliance, but the soloist fails to bring together the elements of these works in any specifically Rachmaninovian way. It is left to the RPO to bring touches of colour and expression that fire these performances. As ever, impressive in hi-fi terms, this is no musical challenge to Katchen/Decca. [A:2/3] Accardo's playing would be hard to fault

objectively. Yet a recent FT concert review spoke of the 'perfect dullness' of this violin-ist's work, and I do not feel he responds very positively to Tchaikovsky's music. Even so, the concerto is given without cuts. With this reissue there is a very considerable improve-ment in openness, the former opacity and glaring tuttis are banished. Winds are nearer than orchestral strings in balance, Accardo is even more forward! Davis's nicely pointed accompaniments earn this [A:1]. The German 'Querschnitt' has all too fore-

warning a resonance of the editors' scissors. In the Wagner highlights discs, excerpts are ruthlessly chopped short — especially wren-ching when you have a long extract such as the 'Summoning of the Vassals' ( Greindl a commanding Hagen) from Bitihm's Gátter-dámmerung. That comes on the 'Choruses' selection [A:1], which duplicates no fewer than seven items on the other LPs, but at least carries a reminder of the great Knap-pertsbusch Parsifal of 1962 ( happily still listed complete). Banding information is sparsely set out, in some cases only with artists' names on labels and with extracts/ timings confined to sleeves. I shall be keeping most of these Wagner

compilations: not Varviso's Mastersingers, where Jean Cox is too strained in the 'Prize Song'. In Act 1 he is in better voice, but the great Act 3 Quintet proves too inconsistent to give unalloyed pleasure. It is given a lovely introduction, and there are fair accounts of the Preludes to Acts 1 and 3; but sound is rather thin, with sibilant choruses. (Ridderbusch as Sachs is perhaps worth hearing.) [A:2/4]. Tannhauser starts with the Venusberg music, and two long extracts make up a half-hour Side 2, taking the 'Rome Narration' on to the end of the opera. But a boxy sound [B/C:1]. There are long excerpts too from the vitally conducted Dutchman — Crass good in his opening monologue, the 'Steersmans' Chorus' exciting. Wieland Wagner insisted that 'Senta's Ballad' should be transposed back to A-minor, as in the manuscript. Tape hiss is high, but orchestral sound is very vivid; transfer level high, with vocal transients quite demanding (A/B:11. Sawallisch's conducting is exhilarating in the Lohengrin Acts 1 & 3 Preludes and 'Wedding March (Bridal Chorus). In good sound, this is recommended as catching the electricity of a live performance: unaccountable that Wie-land Wagner withheld permission for its release for 14 years [A:11 All of these Bayreuth tapings have the voices well for-ward. Transfer quality is commendable, but

the reservations about editing cannot be underlined too strongly.

Christopher Breunig

PURCELL'S LONDON Parley of Instruments/Roy Goodman & Peter Holman Hyperion A 66108 dmm (NC)

With the Restoration, England became a centre of the arts, attracting composers from Europe who brought with them their own national styles to enrich the native ones. These influences are the subject of this attractive collection, which includes Keller, Matteis and Baltzar as well as English com-posers. Since Purcell's influence was particu-larly strong in theatre music, many of the items are of that genre. Purcell himself comes last, with the original Cibell (or Cebell) trumpet tune. On this occasion the Parley of Instruments

consists of eight musicians: strings, with trumpet and, for continuo, harpsichord or chamber organ; all the instruments are period or copies. The Parley belong to the current 9eneration of scholar-performers who continually apply the results of research to their actual playing. In this way, one hopes, performance gradually grows closer to what the Restoration courts heard. Whether in those days the players attained the standard of the modern Parley is some-thing one would love to know, but never will; we can, however, be thankful for the oppor-tunity to hear fine musicianship in the ser-vice of fine music. Hyperion rarely disappoint on the record-

ing front, and certainly not here. St. Jude-on-the- Hill, Hampstead, once again provides the acoustic: lively enough to be realistic but not too echoey; and I did not notice any traffic-noise — though I expect they had it even in Restoration London. The sound is detailed, accurate and highly intelligible, making this a thoroughly enjoyable issue. [A:11

Peter Turner

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CARDIFF: Centenary Album EVANS: Confremant Saecula Studentum (Cardiff College Song)/HODDINOTT: Quodlibet on Welsh Nursery Rhymes*/MENDELSSOHN: Capriccio Bril-lant/ORFF: Carmina Burana — Choruses and Dances Martin Jones (pno)/UCC CH Soc & SO/Bunford/ Hoddinott* Phoenix DGS 1040

Aficionados of the end-of-year concerts of schools and colleges will know that the standards can vary — to say the least. But to be fair, the structure of the institutions and available rehearsal time have to be taken into account when assessing the results. This record is of a typical end-of-term line-up for a large, if not the largest, University music department in Britain, that of Uni-versity College Cardiff, which celebrated its centenary last year. The result is surprisingly good: the chorus

is well-balanced and in tune, the orchestra rather less refined but still able to cope with most of the technical difficulties. Inevitably the performances do not sound fully profes-sional, but the innate musicianship and energetic drive of the splendidly clear-sighted conductor, Clifford Bunford, makes them worth listening to. Most of the works on the disc are not otherwise available in the catalogue in the form used here. The recording is not particularly smooth,

with the balance between chorus and orchestra strained at times, and upper fre-quencies not cleanly reproduced. The very individual acoustic of the Music Depart-ment's New Hall is not typically presented, and if you know it ' in the flesh' or from BBC broadcasts you might find it hard to recog-nise. Nevertheless, detail is well reproduced and the sound does not grate. [C:2/3/4]

Doug Hammond

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1984 135

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HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW °CrOBER 1984

Rock Pop. Jazz. &e

BANJO EXPRESS: BANJO EXPRESS Pierre Verany PV.710781 (33m49s)

It's getting harder to fight the CD juggernaut now that labels like Telarc and Pierre Verany have joined that camp. This CD, while lack-ing much of the 'air' and sense of ease of the vinyl version, doesn't cause cancer or sound like Mr Tiefenbrun's proverbial £39 record player. Banjo Express, a banjo/guitar quartet with decidedly un-hillbilly names, play pretty mean mountain music for a band whose idea of mountains is the Pyrenees, and the stuff is rousing and powerful. Don't touch this if you hate The Dukes of Hazzard. [A/B:11 Ken Kessler

JOHN BLAKE: MAIDEN DANCE Gramavision GT 8309

RONALD SHANNON JACKSON AND THE DECOD-ING SOCIIETY: EYE ON YOU About Time AT-1003

For a long time, jazz violinists tended to be French or American. There were hardly any British jazz violinists at all, until recently, and the way things are, few of them make it on record. And that's a shame, as several violinists

operating in Britain could easily give Blake, and Billy Bang, who appears on the Decod-ing Society album, a run for it. The British violinists are often using — in

Bang's case at least — superior technical ability, and certainly more imagination. But here we are with two Americans

whose work is on record. Blake is a member of McCoy Tyner's band, and Tyner, and another Tyner sideman, Wilby Fletcher also appear on this album. The album is surpri-singly safe. There is little of musical chal-lenge, and while Blake plays well enough, the atmosphere fails to sparkle. The music and its mood wouldn't be out of

place late at night on ratio two. [A:2/3] The Decoding Society is certainly not a

Radio Two band. The leader used to play with Orneste Coleman during his hectic earlier jazz/rock/punk/funlearmelodic days and Shannon Jackson has carried on the work. This is a powerful eight-piece band which moved from jerky punk/funk and tight arrangements to free-blowing passages of avant garde jazz. Some of the writing is attractive, but

there's a feeling of not knowing exactly what kind of band you are dealing with. The sharp contrast of style make the music interesting but slightly unsettling. But I think that that may be the intention,

for these players are not out to capture the easy listening market. The end result is fresh, exciting and gives

you something to think about. IA:1/21 Ken Hyder

BLUE RONDO: BEES KNEES AND CHICKEN'S ELBOWS Virgin V2311

Surprise, surprise, our one-time, so-boring past-blasters have come up with something that's part tasty, part terrific! Side one's the part that really steams, the

opening 'Samba No Pe' instrumental reviv-ing memories of both Mongo Santamaria and Jimmy McGriff — which can't be bad. And then from out of the rain forest mist emerges Slipping Into Daylight', which has one of irritatingly catchy pure-pop hooks so beloved by the likes of the Thompson Twins; 'Manifesto', a mambo-jam framed in brass; and, finally, 'Masked Moods', a Lady Day styled ballad that suffers a mite because

Chris Sullivan is not really the charismatic singer the song screams for. Elsewhere, there are other things into which it's worth tuning the cats-whisker — such as the total romp that is 'Hot Corner' and, not to be missed, the wonderfully abrasive trombone solo that tails off 'And Then The Rain Came'. So many things to hear and mull over. Yet, after all, it's only a dance record and aimed at the feet. Educated feet, I guess. [A:1]

Fred Dellar

THE BLUEBELLS: SISTERS London LONLP 1

Flowers of romance or merely weeds? Sis-ters doesn't really solve the problem. Side one of the album makes you grab for the Weedol. For it's formed from the Bells' greatest slop toppers — sides like 'Cath', with its Saturday morning cinema club lyric ('Cath you make me laff'); 'Young At Heart', cod-country and on the run from the sheriff; and 'I'm Falling', not so bad but a definite escapee from some '60s Cliff Richard movie; etc, etc, etc. No PG rating is necessary. Side two is more adventurous. At times

they almost sound like a rock band instead of the sons of the 2 l's skiffle kings. They even toss in a couple of anti-war songs in 'South Atlantic Way', as near to an Exocet as we're likely to get from Bobby Bluebell and Co, along with a version of Brendan Behan's 'The Patriot Game' that, to date, stands as The Bluebells' finest three minutes. I can visualist ex-Postcard collectors petal-pickin' over this one love it ... I love it not'. I tend towards the latter. 641:2/31

Fred Dellar

ABDULLAH IBRAHIM DOLLAR BRAND: AUTO-BIOGRAPHY Plainisphare PL 1267-6/7

This double album set goes a long way towards doing justice to a live, solo piano, Dollar Brand performance. The ingredients are all there. There are the Brand tunes. Brand plays

few tunes and a few of them sound the same in that they are often stately, folksy, churchy, African, spiritual and secular all at once. Then there are the tunes which are not

Brand's. And that usually means we're listening to Duke Ellington or Thelonious Monk. And finally, it's all held together by Brand's

individual style of rumbling, rolling waves of percussive piano. He seems to play all of the notes on the keyboard simultaneously, creat-ing some melody above the rumble that's only audible to open souls. And those with the gift to hear can be moved to experience something special, something a bit deeper than music. For Brand is not a musical player, but a spiritual player. Consequently — for me — Brand says more

than the hundreds of painists who insist on playing the piano, rather than their soul, their life, their spirit.

This is an extremely satisfying album, almost like being at the concert. [A:1]

Ken Hyder

KENNy, CLARKE, ANDREW CYRILLE, DON MOVE, MILFORD GRAVES: PIECES OF TIME Soul Note SN 1078

One of the developments over the past few years on the jazz scene has been to get a few players of the same instrument together to do an album. Sometimes it works, some-times it doesn't. When it has been down to drummers in the past, there has been a tendency towards drum battles. What is so refreshing about this album is

that there is no sense of musical competi-tiveness. These players are not out to upstage each other; they are there to make music.

It's hard enough doing this sort of thing with two drummers, say, but with four, it's

hard not to 9et in each other's way. They manage by listening and contributing only what's necessary at the moment. The pieces, by each drummer, are organised so that the music hangs together, but there's a lot of freedom of movement in there too. It is specialist stuff, though. A must for drum-mers and musicians who like playing with drummers, but an optional extra for the ordinary jazz fan. [A:1/21

Ken Hyder

MILES DAVIS: DECOY CBS 25951

Miles Davis is perhaps the top draw jazz artiste in the world, and the way he does it is extraordinary. Where other jazz stars of his age group tend to rely on nostalgia and recreating the music that originally made them famous, Davis says: 'Yesterday is dead'. Where most of the rest stick in the groove

they first established 20, 30 or 40 years ago, Davis is still creating. He has a knack for getting the best out of musicians and latterly out of new technology. Listen to what Herbie Hancock is currently making with new elec-tronic equipment and compare it to this new Davis album. Hancock's music in the main comes across as electronic gimmickry, where Davis uses synthesisers sparingly and straight to the point. The sythesisers come in and out adding

colour in the right places, creating a sound-scape for the main action. The main action is Davis's own trumpet playing, which as ever is the essence and no more. He wastes no time and energy on the frills. He plays what is necessary to say what needs to be said. This album can be enjoyed on several

levels, and the more you listen to it, the more you hear. Of the sidemen, guitarist John Scofield shines in particular. It can be seen as one in a series, following on from the previous two. But the music is different. More than before the music is integrated, the emphasis falling on the group sound rather than the soloist. Although, as always, it's difficult to take your ears off Davis. [A*:11

Ken Hyder

THE DREAM SYNDICATE: MEDICINE SHOW A&M AMLX 64990

GREEN ON RED: GRAVITY TALKS Slash/Rough Trade SR 207-B

Turn on, tune in ... the doctor prescribes some new psychedelic pills to drive away the lethargy of synth, a little sonic risk-taking to counteract the musical arthritis currently afflicting the new pop. For what we have here are a pair of groups featuring all-human line-ups, dealing in verses, choruses and slightly peculiar bridges, the like of which have never ceased to tickle the discerning fancy. They also go some considerable way towards rehabilitating the guitar as the single most versatile and exciting instrument in rock. To business. Dream Syndicate are prob-

ably the most sophisticated of this new breed of West Coast psychos on account of Medicine Show being their second full album (the first, Days Of Wine And Roses, is also well worth a listen) and the first of any of these bands to appear on a major label. It also happens to be produced by the very wonderful Sandy Pearlman, of Blue Oyster Cult fame. The Syndicate sound combines elements of a less self-conscious Lou Reed with the attack of early Television, but mostly revolves around the ability of lead Dream Steve Wynn to turn out a seemingly effortless stream of tough but graceful tunes. Green On Red represent a somewhat

gentler side of the new hedonism, varying their musical textures with acoustic, electric, 12-string and steel guitars. The songs of twin writers Dan Stuart and Chris Cacavas are remarkably assured on the debut album Gravity Talks (recorded midway through last

già

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HI-FI NEWS& RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1984 137

1 year, but only now released in the UK). Flush out your mind. [A:1, B:1 respectively]

Pete Clark

DUTCH SWING COLLEGE BAND: DIGITAL DUTCH Philips (814 068-2) (60m00s)

Philips have put an extra track on the CD version, which brings the playing time to one hour. The added final track includes a some-what spectacular drum break, which is very clean. This was recorded live at the North Sea Jazz Festival in the Hague and although the disc is great fun to listen to, it seems slightly edgy throughout and both the trom-bone and trumpet are a little bit too close, the sound also being generally rather over-wide. I found that listening to more than about 15 minutes' worth at a time was a little tiring, and whilst some tracks could achieve an A rating, the overall is B. Recommendable to Dixie enthusiasts, although perhaps not quite 'Dixie' enough. —

Angus McKenzie

ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST: 42ND STREET RCA Red Seal CBL 1-3891

The great Harry Warren (to the public, the Great Unknown) wrote songs for more than 60 films, but he never had his name in lights for a Broadway stage hit. He must, in spite of his riches, sometimes have reflected on the truth of the words Al Dubin wrote for one of his songs, the verse of 'Dames': 'Who writes the words and music for all the girlie shows? — no one cares and no one knows'. But happily he lived to see his best-known film, 42nd Street, turned into a super stage show, boosted by songs from four of his other films. It was still running on Broadway when he died in 1981 and has now opened in London with the sort of rave reviews that Drury Lane hasn't known for years. This record by the Broadway cast gives the full flavour of a show that clearly enriches a film which is nowadays described as ' legendary'. I can assure you that in 1933 it did seem outstanding, even in that movie heyday. And today, instead of Dick Powell, Bebe Daniels, Ruby Keeler and ( in a small part) Ginger Rogers, we have young Broadway stars who are frankly better singers, and this record does them proud. These is plenty of 'the beat of dancing feet', and the recording puts you right into the front row of the stalls. The extra songs, including 'About a Quarter to Nine', 'Dames' and 'We're in the Money' are per-fectly in keeping with the film's originals. There are also two songs whose origins I can't trace from the reference books, 'Sunny Side to Every Situation' and ' Getting out of Town', which equally remind us that Harry Warren has a good claim to be next in line for the songwriters' pantheon alongside the Big Five. What songs, what a show! [A:1]

Denis Argent

GLENN GARRETT: BACK WHERE LOVE BEGINS Zoe 1003

Gospel music has come a long way from Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Aretha Franklin. It now comes with the Mini-Moog and all the electronic trimmings, and on this record the words carry a more emphatically Christian message than the Biblical incantations that were, in call-and-response form, the main-stay of black church music. To call Glenn Garrett (who is white) the Cliff Richard of Alabama is a fair comparison; both have good voices which they do not wilfully distort in pop fashion, and they both know how to organise the kind of backing that widens their appeal beyond the Billy Graham fringe. Most of these tunes are Garrett's own, but none is particularly memorable. The title tune, which is a straight love ballad, is the weakest. Now that so much pop deals in depravity

('reflecting a violent society' and all that) it's not a bad idea to have a few idealistic

thoughts set to music — and musically, this record is expert stuff. Singing and backing group were recorded in Nashville and the Martin Ford string orchestra was recorded in London. The mixing is a satisfying job and helps to earn the record its star. [A*:21

Denis Argent

GUS BAND: SPECTRUM Kestrel KES 8202

Taking as its title the composer's famous test piece for brass bands, this is a tribute to Gilbert Vinter by the BBC's 'Band of the Year', and it is yet another record to prove ( if it still needs proving) that there is enough originality and sheer musicianship in the world of brass bands to make any lover of 'serious' music sit up and take notice. Some modern works for brass as aggressively fierce in effects, even daring to be atonal, but this record is pleasant to conservative ears. 'Lisbon Carnival', for example, is an easy lilting tune fit for the seafront bandstand at Eastbourne. But the record also includes some sterner stuff: part of 'Spectrum' is Wagnerian (with a touch of Stravinsky!), and there is also a Ravel-like waltz. And what about that masterly upward band Glissando near the end! The conductor is Keith Wilkin-son, and the uncredited sleeve tribute to Vinter reads as if that too is his. Recording in Corby Festival Hall sometimes has the sug-gestion of an echo, but the sound includes some impressively sonorous crescendos which come over well. Nobody throws words like 'genius' around when a name like Gilbert Vinter's comes up in musical circles. But what a progessional, what a dedicated toiler he was as conductor in the BBC studios for those years up to 1969, when he died aged 60. (A:1/2)

Denis Argent

H20: FAITH RCA P170107

The New Romantic scene of 1980/81 bred a fragmentary fashion for electronic music. But most of the bands that started out playing the po-faced, one-dimensional synth-rock that passed for dance music then have moved on to more ambitious things — think of Spandau Ballet, Depeche Mode, Soft Cell and Midge Ure's (as opposed to the earlier John Foxx-led) Ultravox. However, bands are still emerging to ape that early style — H20 among them. They reached the top twenty last year with the twee but rather pretty 'Dream To Sleep' but have not repe-ated that success and this album illustrates why, because while it's possible to create something substantial from simple electro-nic rhythms — as Ultravox's 'Vienna' proved — the few melodies evident on Faith evapo-rate the instant they're heard.

After ten tracks the only conclusion is that entering a fashion this late and this half-heartedly, H20 simply had nowhere better to go. [A:31

Martin Townsend

JOE HUBBARD GROUP: HUBBARD'S CUPBOARD Coda 5

Music for music lovers is the slogan of this label, and I had good words for Coda 1 last year as being modern without going to the extremes of free jazz; John Critchinson from Ronnie Scott's was featured. Hubbard's Cup-board is a jokey title for a much more modern group; much younger too, judging by their cartooned faces on the back of the sleeve, which also tells about the recording in that awful Damon Runyon parody style which journalists worked to death 48 years ago — has it come full circle again? The music is all original, however, by Joe Hubbard (guitar) and Richard Niles ( arranger/pro-ducer), and the inclusion of a track called 'Dolphy Dancin" indicates one source of inspiration. Although much is overpowering

synthesizer, there are also pleasant passages on real instruments, such as a slow and ingeniously constructed trumpet solo in 'Songs for the Heart of a Boy' by eminent session man Guy Barker. That's followed by a showy piano solo (Jess Bailey); one has the feeling that somewhere inside there's a good tune trying to get out. Most of the music is too jagged for my taste, though I agree that it's all thoughtful stuff. The recording offers typical modern studio sounds; very clever, but not exactly warm and heartfelt. [A/B:1/21

Denis Argent

KEN HYDER'S BIG TEAM: UNDER THE INFLUENCE Konnex ST 5001

A fine drummer our Ken, bless his paradid-dles. And here he's got himself a front line that bristles with equally able musicians — Elton Dean (saxello, wooden flute), Nick Evans (trombone) both Soft Machinists; Chris Biscoe (saxes and alto clarinet) ex-Ascend; trumpeter Ted Emmett; plus two bassists and an extra drummer. The music — part of a suite dedicated to Hyder's heroes — is free form and takes off from lightly constructed bases. After that, there are few restrictions and the sounds come as varied as Hyder's listed influences — Sean Ennis, Sonny Rollins, Max Roach, Lord Buckley, Keir Hardie, Charlie Mingus and, of course, James Brown, the latter also favouring the two drum syndrome. The titles are great — 'Hipsters, Flipsters And Soapy Soutar's Sis-ters', 'Joot's Oot', 'Owed To Philly Joe' etc, but, from the listeners point of view, what you put into it is what you get out of it. The many facets will probably catch you dif-ferently each time around. Stuck with a decision though, I think I'd opt for some of Ken Hyder's previous work with his other band, Talisker. *[A:2]

Fred Daher

JACKSONS: VICTORY Epic EPC 86303

An album aimed not so much to coincide with that much — publicised tour but one that seeks to prove that when Michael checks out and leaves his brothers to their own devices, the remaining Jacksons will still be able to handle the funkship. Unfortunately, it proves no such thing. Though Jackie gets a couple of shots at handling the controls and Randy, Marlon and Tito all produce something to put in the logbook, nothing really happens to convince you that, with Michael gone, the Jacksons would be able to even outman-oeuvre Windjammer, the band with whom Papa Joe Jackson is currently embroiled. Then again, not even the cuts that actually feature Kid Thriller add overmuch to the proceedings. And, presumably, Joe Public tends to agree with such a finding because 'State Of Shock', the Michael Jackson-Mick Jagger stomp that was selected as an open-ing gambit single, stayed in the UK charts abour as long as I can afford to stay at the London Hilton. In short, what we have here is a loser album that can be safely whittled down to just two worthwhile tracks — Ran-dy's attractive 'One More Chance', the most commercial song of the eight on display, and Tito's 'We Can Change The World', the only cut warranting the description 'dynamic'. Perhaps Papa Joe won't even mind that he's totally ignored among the album's dedica-tions while Mama Jackson, Teddy Pender-grass and Marvin Gaye all receive an approv-ing nod. [A:3]

Fred Dollar

JAZZ' BEST (with Stan Getz, Duke Ellington, Johnny Hodges, Louis Armstrong, Wes Montgom-ery, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, Jimmy Smith, Ben Webster, Billie Holiday) Verve 2367 406

This is a budget-priced 'sampler' from Import Music Service, suggesting the riches

138 111-1-1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCIORI R

to be culled from the Verve catalogue. The choice is good enough to make it a bargain buy; but mainly best sellers rather than best jazz. Most of the selections are famous hits — Armstrong's jazz fame would scarcely rest on 'Sweet Lorraine' alone, and Ella has recorded more worthy material than 'Misty'. Again, Jule Styne's 'People' is not the most memorable thing Peterson has done. The two Getz tracks are of course the Jobim pair, 'Desafinado' and 'Ipanema'. The real gem is the Ellington/Hodges 'St Louis Blues' because it well reveals, in an intro and 24 bars near the end, what a great and original pianist Duke was. He was so dedicated to his orchestra, and to composing for its soloists and its sound that he became too modest about showing his own genius at the keyboard. To me, that track, at nearly six minutes the longest, makes the whole record worth buying. And as well as Hodges, there is Harry Edison on trumpet, though some-times too riffy and not at his best. Recordings are so variable, made over

several years' range, that it's hard to give a rating, but the performers share a 1.

Denis Argent

NIGEL KENNEDY: STRAD JAZZ Chandos C-LBRD 011

A violinist who has recorded the Elgar concerto and appeared with Grappelli at Carnegie Hall is clearly in the big league twice over. This title, which certainly has nothing to do with trad (and less with Cremona), proves that a graduate of the Menuhin School and the Juilliard can move easily into the modern jazz world. Although Kennedy has been saluted by Grappelli as 'my musical grandson', there is nothing in his playing here to suggest any tendency to imitate — as can be heard in the way his version of the Reinhardt/Grappelli 'Swing '39' takes off into original paths. This record-ing was informal and therefore more genuinely improvised than most; it came after Kennedy's recording of the Elgar sonata with Peter Pettinger. Over drinks, they agreed to go back to the studio — and this is the swinging result. The seven tracks include new favourites as well as old ( Stevie Wonder and Jobim), and there is a nine-minute blues, Milt Jackson's ' Bags' Groove' theme. As well as Kennedy's technique, with more chordal bowing than most jazz fiddlers use, from Venuti to Stuff Smith, there are outstanding piano accompaniments. Solid left-hand work comes into its own when there is neither bass, drums nor guitar to help out. Pettinger plays some real stride piano, walking bass and all. The recording (digital; direct metal mastering) is kinder to him than to the violin, which sometimes sounds 'scrapey'. Things must have been more mellow in the slow movement of the Elgar concerto.

Nigel Kennedy's stage venture was called (with a nod in the direction of an old HFN writer) Crossover. That sums up the inten-tion of the music; like John Williams, he wants 'serious' listeners to pay attention to what's being played outside the realm of 'great' composers, and this record helps that aim considerably. [A:1]

Denis Argent

MR. MISTER: I WEAR THE FACE (RCA P184884)

It's difficult to imagine how anyone could derive any satisfaction from a band as completely bland, uninspired and lyrically, quite offensive, as Mr. Mister. The like of Big Country, U2 and The

Waterboys have taken guitar-based rock music into new areas of passion and power underlined by vulnerability and humanity. These bands challenge, with intensity and honesty, the sort of easy, sexist, pre-concep-tions rock has fostered since The Rolling Stones. Obviously to this change, Mr. Mister's

efforts are simply laughable: 'he's a lean and hungry hunter — she's in his sights' ('Hunters of the Night'); 'she always thought she was my world/but I know lots of other girls' ('Code of Love'). Track after track wraps the same old weary and irritating cliches round pedestrian harmonies and forgettable melo-dies, adding up to a rock LP that — while probably not the worst ever made — is certainly the worst I've ever heard. I suspect the fact that the guitarist lists his main hobby as 'duck hunting' is all the warning you'll need. [B:4]

Martin Townsend

ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK: JUNK CULTURE Virgin CDV 2310 (43m13s)

It took Virgin to make the first real steps toward popularising CD in terms of available material, and OMD (which someone told me they prefer to be called) is far removed from the Billy Joel/Sky/Abba type of CD we've come to accept as the limits of the labels' adventurousness. OMD isn't exactly Sun Ra or Silver Apples, but they are 'way out' enough to show that CD benefits from a widening of the catalogue. Their whole shtick is pure studio and I've got a sneaky feeling that they look toward Steven Spiel-berg for inspiration as far as special effects go, but it's pleasant nonetheless; sonically, though, it's unlikely to make you throw away your stylus cleaners. Best track is the familiar 'Talking Loud and Clear', which pretty much says it all. [A/B:21

Ken Kessler

ORIENTAL WIND: LIFE ROAD JA&RO 08-4113

Okay Temiz's Oriental Wind has been a consistent band, dealing with a jazz applica-tion to ethnic folk music. As a drummer, playing a unique kit of

Turkish hour-glass drums, Temiz has a lot to contribute. But it's also the way he blends folk music with improvisation which makes his music so attractive. More recently he has been branching out so to speak, concentrat-ing on exotic percussion and electronic enhancement. For example, he plays a bass berimbau (a musical bow twanged with a stick) and puts it though octave dividers and all sorts of things. He also close mikes West African talking drums, producing a lovely liquid drum sound. On this particular album there is a sensitive mixture of acoustic instruments and electric instruments. Much of the music has a strong Turkish feel to it — although most of the players are Swedish. Temiz is one of the more musically suc-

cessful and interesting of jazz players using folk influences and Life Road has a lot going for it. [A:1/2]

Ken Hyder

PALLAS: THE SENTINEL Harvest SHSP 2400121

Pallas obviously see themselves as being to Yes what Marillion are to Genesis. Accor-dingly, they've signed up one-time Yes pro-ducer Eddie Offord to shape their first EMI album and talked Patrick Woodroff into providing an admittedly remarkable sleeve painting in a style not a Windsor and Newton pot's throw from that which Roger Dean once used to enliven the affirmative-rockers' early covers. Basically though, Pallas are no more than just another heavy metal band with pretentions of grandeur. Their songs come dressed to kill but killers they're not. Not, that is, unless you fancy being bored to death. At least at Reading the punters throw beer-cans to break up the monotony. [A:3)

Fred Dellar

PRINCE & THE REVOLUTION: PURPLE RAIN WB 925 110-1

What can you say about an idea whose time has come? Prince is undoubtedly the next great pop star for the eighties; in fact the only thing impeding his progress is the inability to grow a proper moustache. Purple Rain marks the latest instalment in Prince's push for control of our minds, a further refinement of his manifesto 'Time is short, so let's thrash around'. The music veers ever more towards a perfect fusion of rock (just get a load of the guitar on this record) and funk (the inexorable rhythmic surge). It also retains the passion of his earlier records while jettisoning some of the more embar-rassing gaucheries. 'When Doves Cry' is here in all its knowing

majesty, but virtually everything else on the album stands comparison with it. The initial impact is created by the mix rather than the songs: robot intros suddenly swamped by pounding percussion, punctuated at unex-pected intervals by orgasmic vocal/guitar yowling. The tunes, when finally unearthed after a couple of listenings, become nag-gingly irresistible. This is the real excitable boy. [A:1]

Pete Clark

RANK AND FILE: LONG GONE DEAD Slash/London SLAP 2

RUBBER RODEO: SCENIC VIEWS Mercury 422-818477

Two examples of the way in which the soundtrack to crying in your beer ( aka C/W music) is being recycled to suit the purposes of whiteneck popsters. Rank & File are kept in line by the talents of brothers Chip and Tony Kinman, who used to be the black, beating heart of hardcore punk combo The Dils until they woke up one morning to find their old skins sloughed. Their sound bears no trace of what has been, except in the energy which they bring to it. An intoxicating mix of C/W ballads and rockers tumble out of the grooves of Long Gone Dead with never a hint of the mawkishness which can trans-form country music into a blubbering night-mare of slush. The brothers Kinman are ably assisted in this enterprise by the manly drumming of Stan Lynch (of Tom Petty fame), the muscular guitar of Jeff Ross and the virile fiddling of veteran Richard Greene. The Ozark Mountain Daredevils should have been this good! Rubber Rodeo are critters of an entirely

different stripe, art school types who con-ceived the crazed notion of grafting together Roxy Music flash, heroic western sound-tracks and C/W muzak as heard in elevators up and down the mid-west of America. Crazier still is the fact that they get away with it. Leading lights Bob Holmes and Trish Milliken drive the nine tracks along with their ol' man Ferry vocals, while the synthesisers and pedal steel guitar of Gary Leib and Mark Tomeo respectively land the tunes unearthly colourings. This is not the real thing but it's a hell of a lot of fun. [111:1, A:2 respectively]

Pete Clark

RISKY BUSINESS— SOUNDTRACK: Various Artists Virgin V2302

The film's fine. No Academy Award winner, I'll agree. But the storyline about a rich kid who becomes brothel king for a day is amusing enough, Paul Brickman's direction produces the odd gasp of admiration and the music, at least while you're watching the movie, will have you smiling in appreciation and vowing to lay your hands on the sound-track just as soon as the end credits have rolled. Trouble is, that away from the pop-corn-munching, Pearl and Dean beguiling tip-up seat aura of Cinema 3, Tangerine Dream's electronic dodder-alongs fail to work half as well and Muddy Waters' lurch into ' Mannish Boy' lacks the surprise and impact that it supplies when applied to an on-screen situation. Nevertheless, Risky Business is a reasonable enough soundtrack

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1984 139

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140 HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW SEPTEMBER 1984

4 offering and one that boasts not only half an album of cuts by the aforementioned Tangs plus the Waters classic, but also a mini-jukebox of items from Prince, Phil Collins, Bob Seger, Jeff Beck and Journey. A joint Geffen-Virgin enterprise, incidentally. Isn't it wonderful what millionaires can achieve! [A:2]

Fred Dollar

PETER ROWAN: WITH THE RED HOT PICKERS Spindrift SPIN 108

Love bluegrass. Always did. My favourite Monroes were Bill and Charlie rather than Marilyn. Which explains why this Rowan offering was laid out on a turntable mat marked *welcome' — because it is a bluegrass album. A good one too, compiled from two previous Japanese releases. The only reservation I have is that Rowan is only an average singer, not a great one. His voice lacks that certain choke-back-the-blues appeal possessed by the best Appalachian heroes. On the other hand, there's not much wrong with his guitar and mandolin picking and any record that features the playing of ace banjoist Tony Trischka (who, incidentally is also on this month's Violent Femmes release) and one-time Seatrain fiddle-player Richard Greene has to be worthwhile musi-cally. And so it proves, Rowan and his four-piece string band working their way lovingly through a collection of mainly tradi-tional songs and doing so in a manner that should appeal not only to country buffs but also to anyone who has a place in their heart and home for well-performed, folk-oriented, acoustic music. [A:1/2]

Fred Defier

ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA: ISLAND IN THE SUN Cherry Lane PIPLP 709 IZC PIP 7091

Nice music, nice recording, nice playing, nice arrangements of Lord Burgess songs by Larry Ashmore, who also conducts. But who are the likely buyers? It's all rather too bland to qualify as superior modern light music, lacking appeal through ingenious orchestra-tion, and it certainly pays no dues to pop. Is it for the black trade? Perhaps not every respectable family with Caribbean origins feels empathy with Bob Marley — that trouba-dour of the ghetto, as some TV commentator called him. Perhaps this music, recalling the handsome Harry Belafonte, bathing the West Indies in a golden glow, is the backlash against reggae. Still, leaving aside the music sociology of Brixton or Brent, let's just repeat that this is nice music — and there's plenty of the nasty kind around. [A/B:1/21

Denis Argent

SADE: DIAMOND LIFE Epic EPC 26044

I feared the worst when Sade Adu first arrived upon the scene. Yet another singer who saw Diana Ross playing Billie Holiday, I thought. Another legend in her own mind. Then someone played me a demo tape and I realised that I couldn't be more wrong. Sade was no fake. She really could sing. What's more, she seemed to care about what she was singing. She handled words in a way that's been largely forgotten in recent times and furthermore, she knew which way the rhythm section were heading. Diamond Life serves to reiterate all these things. The early-morning mood pieces like ' Frankie' and 'Sally' are handled coolly but with infinite care; 'Cherry Pie' bubbles effortlessly; 'Your Love Is King' — well, you know all you need to know about that piece of sophisticated chart action; finally, her rendition of 'Why Can't We Live Together', hip and hazy, shows that their are cover versions and cover versions. As for the accompaniments, they're mainly spare and more likely jazzy fills than true surround-sounds. Then, with Sade outfront,

who needs too much padding around the edges! An all-round smooth operation. [A*:1]

Fred Dollar (NOTE: The cassette version comes with two extra tracks — who do they do this to us LP-only types? — Asst. Ed)

SAM AND DAVE: Can't Stand Up For Falling Down Edsel ED133

Those of you who only know the title track by way of Elvis Costello, please raise your hands. Now high-tail it down to your local record shop and hear what it's supposed to sound like. Then, thank Edsel for packaging no less than 16 of Sam and Dave's rarest tracks into one smart LP. To my knowledge, no more than three of the cuts here have appeared on an LP before (a Japanese compilation if you must know), and they all deserve better. I said this stuff is rare; according to the sleeve some of the tracks had to be copied off disc as the master tapes have gone astray. Whatever, the sound is much better than you'd think, and there are some stereo cuts in spite of the label saying 'mono'. The selection shows the duo tackling a wide range of material, and one of the nicest surprises is hearing again their excel-lent version of ' Don't Pull Your Love Out', once a US hit for Hamilton, Joe Frank, and Reynolds. Oh, don't read the interviews on the back; they make the dialogue in Let It Be sound like vows of love. [A/H:11

Ken Kessler

PONCHO SANCHEZ: BIEN SABROSO! Concord Picante CJP-230

The way fads come and go, you are likely to get a lot of second or third-rate stuff churned out when a genre hits momentary fashion-able popularity. If you want to set a standard for the latin jazz revival which is going well in London at the moment, you could do far worse than use this album as the litmus test.

Sanchez' first bandleading album on the same label, Sonando, was strong enough, but this is even stronger. He insists on getting things tight. The crispness of the polyrhythms bursting out of this disc is very impressive. The music is at once toe-tapping and accessibly pleasant to listen to, while providing something more gritty for those who want to delve below the shimmering surface. The horn players who provide the jazz

flavour do the job well without being out-standing. It's the latin rhythm section who make the music really come alive. They do it so well, it all sounds so easy. But there's a lot of subtle playing and deft interweaving of rhythms going on, and all the time there's a confident drive and energy to the playing. Beware of imitations. [A*1/2]

Ken Hyder

SIBERIAN 4: HOMO LIBER Leo LR114

Although the Ganelin trio are the forerun-ners of new wave jazz to emerge from Russia, they are not the only contemporary jazz musicians on the Russian scene. It is after all a big country and we should not be surprised to find more than one group of players on this scene. That this quartet of Vladimir Tolkachev, alto and flute, Yuri Yukechev, piano and vibes, Servey Panasenko, bass and Servey Belichenko, drums should be playing free-jazz at all is still interesting in a country largely cut off from the main influences in this field. They play quite differently from the Gane-

lin trio whose approach to free playing is total control. The saxophone player plays with more passion and less historionics than his Ganelin trio counterpart. There is more warmth in this group's music. But fascinat-ing though it is, when they commit their music to record, they effectively put them-selves on the world jazz scene and if you

listen to this music with that in mind, you are led to the conclusion that they have some way to go towards fully developing their approach. Their isolation may account for them being behind, however if you do compare this music to contemporary jazz in Germany, Britain or Holland, you have to say it's nothing special. But give it time. We haven't heard the last from these curtain raisers. [B:3]

Ken Hyder

SMOKEY ROBINSON AND THE MIRACLES: 18 GREATEST HITS Tamla TCD06071TD 157m54s) In-car CD is not yet a commercial reality, despite Sony's claims, but the necessary motorway software is already appearing, as with this magnificent compilation. The Temptations and the Four Tops may have dominated '60s dance halls — who had heard of discotheques then? — but Smokey's band of men had the lyrical and harmonic edge over their co-labelees. Remember that glorious introspective monologue in 'Tracks Of My Tears' — 'People say I'm the life of the party, 'cos I tell a joke or two ...' — the sinuous twisting catch-as-catch-can of 'You've Really Got A Hold On Me'; the way the vocal line struggles to rise above the best disco riff ever in 'Going To A Go-Go'? They're all here on this CD-only compilation, as well as five solo Smokey tracks ( but why no 'Soul Responding'?). Sound quality is historic. I suspect that the original singles had more low-end punch, at the expense of midrange distortion; I'd have to search through the boxes in the attic to be sure, though. [H:19

John Atkinson

SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK: We All. . . Everyone Of Us Spindrift SPIN 106

If gospel music is an acquired taste, then start acquiring. This quintet, from Washing-ton DC, is purist gospel — straight a capella — with political overtones that would warm the heart of our erstwhile Production Editor. In essence, Sweet Honey In The Rock grabs you and makes you listen, and you leave the experience much better off than you were before. These women blend their voices with Moulinex completeness, and the effect is a wash of sound that sends shivers up the spine. Their treatment of the classic 'Study War No More' could turn Gadhafi into a pacifist, and the track ' Listen To The Rhythm' does for the human voice what Hendrix did for the electric guitar. If you're new to gospel, you might find it a wee bit over-powering, but then I felt overpowered the night I lost my innocence. We All... Every-one Of Us is something special [A:1[

Ken Kessler

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES Reader's Digest RDS 10021-8

This is another of those blockbuster boxed sets ( mail order from 7/10 Old Bailey, Lon-don EC99 1AB, £23.95) with the widest possible range and yet not enough appeal, one would fear, to hit every sector of the market — particularly our readership. But RD, marketing kings of the printed word, must know what they are doing in offering eight discs, all by eminent performers, categorised as Unforgettable Melodies, Golden Voices, Swinging with the Stars, Great Ballads, Instrumental Classics, Movie Memories, Sweet Harmonies and Showstoppers — 113 tracks in all. No expense spared; the box comes with a cover photo of a misty (steamy?) farewell between girl and boy on a station platform in front of what looks like a Schools class loco (courtesy of the Sussex Bluebell Line), and there are eight pages of illustrated notes in a sleeve-sized booklet. The range of music is absurdly wide, from Mozart to 'Mairzy Doats'. Of course there are

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142 1-11-F1 NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1,64

I gems: two from Kathleen Ferrier (Che faro and 'Blow the Wind Southerly') and Woody Herman's seminal ' Four Brothers'. But who, apart from a reviewer, would play this lucky dip right through? It's rather early for the Christmas trade, but it might be an invest-ment to aim at your favourite rich aunt. Or, considering how she might react to 'Four Brothers', why not earmark the box as a present for your musically retarded brother? Too varied, of course, for a rating to be

possible. Denis Argent

THE TIME: ICE CREAM CASTLE Warner Bros: 925-109-1

If there are similarities between The Time and Prince, it's hardly surprising. For The Time are Prince's proteges and currently appear in his Purple Rain movie. The band's lead singer, Morris Day, portrays Prince's rival in the film, a role he could easily be playing chartwise if The Time's talent 9ains the worldwide recognition it so richly deserves. Not that they're doing that badly. For The Time's two previous albums have gone gold in the States and, if all goes as it should, Ice Cream Castle will do even better. For the men from Minneapolis form the tightest funk outfit I've heard in ages, the heat geneated on 'Jungle Love' being awe-some. 'The Bird' is only fractionally less hot and ' If The Kid Can't Make You' an amiable street-trot, albeit a lascivious one. And if 'Chili Sauce' acts purely as a playlet in which Day can indulge in a kind of on-vinyl test for some forthcoming blue movie, then even this can be forgiven in view of the Time's other assets. [A:11

Fred Dellar

TOMITA: SPACE WALK RCA PL85037

Don't get me wrong: I have a lot of respect for what Tomita has tried to do with his electronic realisations. But yet another repackaging job to make up for his lack of fecundity is pushing the exploitation boat out a little too far, I feel. Excerpts from six of his albums — the only ones not to be plundered being Planets and Firebird — are inked by a Space Shuttle exploitation theme, with ingenuous, and anonymous, captions to tell the listener what he should be think-ing. Stand-out track is the superb transcrip-tion of Ives' The Unanswered Question from Kosmos, which competes with the original 'human' version for its sense of tao — if only one could forget the accompanying text: 'Will space always be a lonely conundrum? — is the ecstacy of freedom in space a curious anomaly? — don't look for answers — get the job done — get back to earth'. Recording quality is variable, some of the earlier tracks suffering from tape hiss and squash prob-lems. [A* /C: 1'1

John Atkinson

VIOLENT FEMMES: HALLOWED GROUND London/Slash SLAP 1

I first caught the Femmes act about a year ago. Straight over from Milwaukee, at that point they imagined the best way to make an impact was to strum mightily in the middle of Carnaby Street. I stuck my head out of the window, muttered something about skittle riding again and then resumed typing. I mean, they sounded harmless enough and nobody actually poured water over them. Frankly, I never expected to hear the Fem-mes again. However, this, their second album, suggests that we all might be hearing quite a bit from them in time to come. For the Beer City buskers have developed into an intriguing proposition, a kind of semi-stone country band in which mainman Gordon Gano adopts the guise of a Jonathan Rich-man perpetually searching for some distant Nashville skyline. The opening 'Country

Death Song' sets the scene. A banjo-prop-elled tale of mayhem down on the farm, it's not quite what you expect to hear. But soon you realise that the Femmes are pretty adept at providing the unexpected. Turn your back and they're into backporch gospel. Spin round once and they've moved on to some-thing like 'Black Girl', on which they jam with a free-form reed quartet known as the Horns Of Dilemma, countering the Horns' sax farts with jaws-harp licks and similar devices. Because I care for bands that are different, I care for Violent Femmes. Now they can play in Burlington Arcade, at least! [A:1]

Fred Dallar

ANDREAS VOLLENWEIDER: CAVERNA MAGICA /. . . UNDER THE TREE IN THE CAVE. . .1 CBS 25265)

Apart from an acoustic stage-setting sequ-ence at the beginning rather than the wood-land scene of his highly recommended Behind the gardens — behind the wall — under a tree . . . , the formula is the same as before. Electronically amplified and treated harp provides a generous bass and chordal riff foundation, with 'sweetening instru-ments and voices pointing up a highlight here, making a necessary emphasis there. Again, as with its predecessor, listenin9 to this record is aking to lowering oneself into warm bath of familiar tonality, where stress-ful activities like harmonic surprises are not allowed to ripple the smooth surface of one's mental state. It may not be rock ' n' roll, but it has a lot more to do with the human condition than, say, Tangerine Dream. The sound quality is layer-upon- layer stunning, the mix making full use of stage width and breadth. [A*1*1

John Atkinson

TED WEEMS AND HIS ORCHESTRA: MARVEL-LOUS ASV AJA 5029 (ZC AJA 5029)

Another 'forgotten' name resurrected in the Living Era series from Academy Sound and Vision — but well remembered by me, since one of the earliest ' hot' records I owned was Ted Weems' What a Day, which was on the back of Rudy Vallee's S'posin'. Brian Rust, whose sleeve here is a model in combining facts and enthusiasm, may not yet have heeded my plea in the May 1983 issue for a

reissue of that high spot in the output of a bandleader who was as popular in his day as Paul Whiteman or Ted Lewis. His day in fact began with a Victor recording contract as far back as 1923 and lasted right through Scott Fitzgerald's 'jazz age' right into the 1930s. This record spans 1926-31, and the 19 tracks include some corny comedy numbers as well as featuring musicianly arrangements and fluent soloists — none with notable names except Dudley Fosdick ( mellophone) who gets into the jazz histories for his work with Red Nichols. Don Watt (clarinet) was so good that he could well have held his own in any swing-era elite, and Parker Gibbs was a better singer than (say) Red McKenzie and others who got their names featured on record labels in the 1930s. This record, although stereo reprocessed ( not that you'd notice) must here rank as H. Perhaps Brian Rust's passion for these

past joys will bring us a later Weems selec-tion, up to the days when the band singer was Perry Como. Denis Argent

PETER WOLF: LIGHTS OUT EMI EJ 2401851

To hell with Jackson's Thriller— this LP really is chock full o' A-sides. Honestly, when's the last time you heard a new LP where every track is a gem? Peter Wolf touches all the bases with this one, and he's got enough funk, R'n'B, quasi-Motown super-pop, and straight-ahead rock-and-roll to guarantee that Lights Out is the party LP of the year. It's a constant source of energy from the title track through to the killer closing — with but one or two slight diversions, like the sleazy 'Gloomy Sunday'. Wolf has a track record that spans almost two decades, but you don't need to know about it; his first solo outing says it all. On top of having the best percussion sound I've heard since the Stones' Start Me Up', it's got lyrics that reinforce Wolf's role as the best paleface rapper around, the guitar work is sensa-tional, and Wolf's voice has gotten so good that I didn't pay any attention to a certain guest named Mick. Easily the best album I've heard since '72, it takes the pain out of the 6.52 to Victoria. My grandfather would have called it richtige ware; I call it ' perfect'. If it doesn't make you tap your feet, you'd better phone the mortician. [A:1

Ken Kessler

CAIPSIILIES CELLOS OF THE BERLIN PHILHARMONIC THE BEATLES IN CLASSIC Teldec 8.25579 (41m48s)

Denis Argent's review of the black version in our June 1984 issue says it all about the musical content: ' It's good music for almost any level of taste.' All we can add to his remarks must pertain to the sonics of the CD version; the slight congestion and steely edge change DA's [A/B:1/2] rating for the vinyl to [13:1/2] for the five-incher.

WAYLON JENNINGS: NEVER COULD TOE THE MARK RCA PL85017

'Gravel' is the best label to tag on to this LP, because it's a gritty, rumbly sound from first to last. If you thought that Dire Straits' original of ' Settin' Me Up' was laid back, wait until you hear Waylon's version. This disc lacks the fire we associated with earlier Jennings recordings, so file this one under 'Molasses'. Super-slick in the manner of all post- Bonanza cowboy attachments, the pro-duction and the inclusion of c&w stars like Tony Joe White and Jessi Colter can't keep the LP from proving its title. [B:2]

ADRIAN LEGG: TECHNOPICKER Spindrift SPIN 201

Fans of Messrs Cooder, Kottke, and Thomp-son, start saving your pennies. Legg is a guitarist that's going to shake up every plucker this side of Burl Ives, and you're going to wonder who makes his Methedrine. Guitar-only LPs usually induce yawns — this one induces fear, with blistering playing beyond Hendrix and his children. Legg makes sounds that defy description ( it's anyone's guess as to what tweaks his guitars have suffered) and the performance will challenge your ears and your hi-fi. Sonically, this ranks with Sheffield, musically — with a sledgehammer. (A*:1*1

DR JOHN: SUCH A NIGHT Spindrift SPIN 107

A live London recording from November '83, the good Doctor is in excellent form and is presented in a selection of classic rock ' ri' boogie — 'The Honeydripper', 'Georgia on my mind', 'Right place, wrong time' etc. Plenty of excitement, but a lot of post-concert overdubs — Hammond, brass, back-ing vocals — render the live aspect doubtful. Enjoyable, but maybe not honest. [C:1)

NEWS e: RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1984 143

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PIONEER X1000 SL 2x 25 watts TA110L LW/MW/FM tuner/amp.. PL110 belt-drive semi-automatic turntable, CT110 Dolby B one touch record cassette deck. CS161 2 waybass reflex loudspeakers and CB210 rack 229.89

XG 1 2 x 20 watts SA- 130 amplifier, TX- 130L tuner (LW/MW/FM stereo) PL- 130 belt-drive turntable inc. magnetic cartridge, CT330 Dolby cassette deck, CS363 speakers and CBG5 rack 249.90

XG7TL 2 x 70 watts SA-930 amp, TX930L tuner LW/MW/FM, PL-930 direct-drive turntable inc. moving coil cartridge, CT-730 Dolby cassette deck, CS767 speakers and CBG7 Tall rack 479.90

XG 11 2 x 32 watts, DC101Z cassette amplifier, TX101ZL LW/MW/FM tuner, PL201Z auto-return belt-drive turn-table, CS100 2-way loudspeakers and CBA11 rack 279.90

XG33 2 x 50 watts, DC201Z cassette amplifier, TX201 ZL LW/MW/FM digital PLL synthesiser tuner with 12 station pre-set, PL 201Z auto-return belt-drive turntable, CS585 3-way loudspeakers and CBA 55 rack 349.90

SANSUI DA-T500 2 x 33 watts LW/MW/FM

tuner, 12 preset stations 6AM/6FM. Dolby cassette deck with auto record level control, 2 way loudspeakers and rack 289.90

IS60 2 x 30 watts, A510 amplifier, T510L LW/MW/FM tuner, D69C Dolby B & C cassette deck, PD11B direct-drive turntable, GX53 rack and S311 2-way loudspeakers 389.90

SANYO 2220 2 x 20 watts JA 220 amplifier, JT 220 LW/MW/FM stereo tuner, TP 220 semi-automatic belt-drive turntable inc. magnetic cartridge, RD 220 Dolby cassette deck, inc. loudspeakers and rack 229.90

240W 2 x 25 watts JA 240 amplifier, JT 240L LW/MW/FM stereo tuner, TP 240 semi-automatic belt-drive turntable inc. magnetic cartridge, ROW 340 twin cassette deck with Dolby NR, inc. loudspeakers and rack 299.90

SONY SR2 2 x 20 watts STRVX1OL LW/MW/FM

tuner amplifier, TC210 Dolby cassette deck, PS210 direct-drive semi-automatic turntable, SSE26 2-way loudspeakers 379.90

All offers subject to availability.

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COMPACT DISC PLAYERS PHILIPS CD-101

From Philips, originators of the Compact Disc system, comes the smallest and most advanced player design; suitable for con-nection to any Hi-Fi system, and ideal as a midi component or free-standing unit. You get pure, perfect sound forever, thanks to the CD- 101's laser pick-up with non-polarising, interference-free beam, high stability digital-to-analogue converter, and digital audio signal filtering. Soft muting ensures increased concealment of drop-outs and smoother switching of operating controls, and single stage servo tracking keeps the laser exactly on track by automatic adjustment of

MARANTZ CD-73 "Price for price 1 don't think that as of now this player can be bettered. Strongly recommended".

HI-Fl FOR PLEASURE - July 1984

(Reviewed when the selling price was £379!) ". . . The treble register is finely detailed with a believable string tone, and great delicacy where appropriate; altogether superior to analogue disc". HI-Fl FOR PLEASURE - October 1982

(Reviewing the forerunner of the Marantz CD-73 Compact Disc Player)

The front drawer loading is convenient, and the competitively-priced CD-73 has many

SONY CDP-701ES "...Sony have managed to push forward the frontiers of CD sound quality... The lab performance was excellent and the sound quality was commensurate".

HI-FI NEWS - March 1984

The advanced circuit design of the CDP-701ES ensures a performance of reference standard. New standards are set in user-facilities too.. . with forward and reverse track skipping, fast and slow manual search, and a repeat function which memorises and repeat plays any track, part of a track, or the entire disc. The full-function infra-red remote control gives access to 8-track random

one single control variable. Maximum ease of operation, convenient multi-mode programming, direct access to any music track — the CD- 101 brings you all these, and the incredibly accurate Compact Disc sound quality.

COMET PRICE £294.90 inc. VAT

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other convenient features too. .. like 15-item programming, random access function, forward track skip and repeat. Pause, fast search forward or backward, music track indication and next track are other facilities offered by this superbly-engineered CD player. Digital filtering ensures outstanding sound quality, and an optional remote control unit is available for even greater operational convenience.

COMET PRICE £299.90 inc. VAT

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programming, facility for starting play at any point of the disc either by time or index number, and music scan for sampling the first 10 seconds of every track. Also included are full digital and analogue displays, timer play facility, and a headphone socket with volume control.

COMET PRICE £899.90 inc. VAT

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10 84

4 5 8

with cordless infra-

red remote control

Introducing the Sony SLHF 100UB

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COMET EXCLUSIVE' EVERIY BROTHERS

REUNION CONCERT TAPE Whilst stocks last!

BY FAR the best Stereo Hi- Fi Tape Recorder you can buy at only f599.90

..."Quite simply, marvellous" . .

. . ."a superior recorded sound to even the best conventional reel-to-reel (and certainly better than even the best audio cassettes . . .)" "What Video"Magazine, August, 1984

The Sony SLHF 100UB utilises a new system of FM modulated sound recording which ensures outstanding stereo and mono sound quality. It out-performs every audio cassette player you've ever heard and gives far superior sound to any reel-to-reel recorder available at a similar price. It is, quite simply, the best stereo Hi-Fi recorder commercially available.

Amongst its competitors only the compact disc player can compare for sound quality. Yet this amazing machine has the ability to record as well as play — and 'superb' is the only way to describe the results.

The SLHF 100 UB: • Has a built-in 7 day timer

• More than 3 hrs uninterrupted record/playback

• Integrates fully with your Hi-Fi system

• Has a distortion figure of less than 0.3%

• And an almost non-existent "Wow and Flutter"

But the only way to fully appreciate the Sony Beta Hi-Fi machine is to listen to it.

...AND it Records and plays back pictures too... perfectly!

Yet, at this price most Hi-Fi enthusiasts would consider this Beta Hi-Fi machine a bargain even without the video facility! In fact, it's the most advanced video machine available today . . . A total experience in sound and vision you'll never forget.

Its Video features include:

• Infra-red cordless remote control

• A perfect picture quality

• 'Simulcast' facility (which enables you to record in true high-fidelity stereo sound from your tuner whilst ‘-imultaneously synchronising TV picture recc clings)

• Immediate function access via front-mounted controls

• Front-loading video cassette mechanism

• Full compatibility with normally recorded Beta tapes

PLUS - Peepsearch' control, for fast and easy picture location (up to 30 x normal speed - forward and reverse). Pause/Still picture button. AND - Channel selection, Record/Play, Rewind, Fast-Forward, Power On/Off, Stop function. . . . All at the touch of a button! This is Beta Hi-Fi . . . and it's backed by an evergrowing range of new stereo software ranging from Michael Jackson's "Thriller" to many other titles including the latest James Bond films . . . All recorded in true high-fidelity stereo sound. As the above quote says . .. "Quite simply, i5 marvellous" and available inc. from Comet for only VAT 99.90

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DISCOUNT HI-FI AND VIDEO

ONKYO. Onkyo has an international reputation for producing high quality Hi-Fi at competitive prices, and has become one of the leading Japanese manufacturers in West Germany and the United States . . . two countries where audio standards are particularly high. And now. Onkyo and Comet combine to bring you a perfectly matched series of components — each one representing incredible value for money. The two amplifiers in the series offer a choice of either 35 or 50 watts RMS of power per channel, and both are equipped to cope with the stringent demands of digital audio sources. For your tuner you can choose from an analogue model with an easy-to-read dial, or a quartz synthesised tuner to give you the extra refinement of automatic or push-button selection and 16 station presets. No matter which amplifier/tuner combination you select, you'll find they integrate perfectly in styling, size, and above all — performance.

AMPLIFIERS -

A-22 INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER With its handsome black finish, and offering an outstanding cost/performance ratio, the popular A-22 produces 35 watts RMS of power per channel with less than 0.08% total harmonic distortion. One of the manufacturer's series of Soundstage' matched components, it incorporates Onkyo's unique Direct Tone Control Circuitry to ensure superb sound reproduction. Using only passive circuit elements to avoid the tonal coburations caused by the use of active elements, it enables you to adjust response with no worries about losing fidelity. What you hear is a much

clearer low range and a crisper high end compared with ordinary tone control systems. Two sets of tape play and record jacks and two sets of speaker terminals are included in the impressive specification, and large pictographic-type indicators confirm all major mode settings at a glance. Other features include a loudness control and a front panel keyboard input jack for those wishing to make their own music . . . while the low Comet price brings the A-22 well within the scope of even the most limited Hi-Fi budget.

COMET PRICE £84.90 inc. VAT

A-33 INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER Sharing the same appearance and general specification as the A-22, this new addition to the 'Soundstage' series is engineered to • provide more power ... its 50 watts RMS output per channel making it even more suitable for amplifying digital audio sources such as compact disc players. The Direct Tone Control Circuitry ensures higher fidelity throughout the entire sound spectrum, and a further refinement is a Hi-cue filter which is activated when the treble control is turned to minimum. Superbly equipped and superbly styled and finished, the A-33 will handle two pairs of

COMET PRICE £109.90 inc. VAT

speakers with ease — and also incorporates Tape-1/CD input terminals, loudness control and a front panel keyboard jack. The input selector settings are shown by large pictograph-type indicators that are clearly visible, even from a distance. This is an amplifier fully justifying Onkyo's international reputation for high quality design and workmanship, and its all-round performance compares favourably with that of many other amps costing a great deal more.

DISCOUNT HI-FI AND VIDEO

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ONKYO TUNERS

T-22L FM/MW/LW TUNER 44... this Onkyo offered a really creditable performance and in some ways bettered the capabilities of some more expensive tuners tested recently . . . . .. listeners found favour with the sound which compared favourably with more expensive but frequently recommended British tuners. "

HI-FI FOR PLEASURE — June 1984

Slim, elegant, and the perfect complement to either the A-22 or the A-33 amplifier, this competitively-priced analogue tuner features an extra-wide tuning dial and an illuminated pointer which makes tuning easy. Combined with the flywheel-assisted tuning knob, it's an effortless process. The performance of the T-22L lives up to its looks, with a PLL (phase-locked-loop) IC multiplex section guaranteeing sharp stereo separation and very

low distortion. A muting/mode switch is also incorporated for selecting the best reception mode for any broadcast. With features including: a 4-LED signal strength indicator, stereo beacon, a high-sensitivity AM loop antenna and an anti-birdie filter to deal with beat inteference from adjacent broadcasts, this tuner from the Soundstage' series fully earns its enthusiastic review. You'll be enthusiastic about the Comet price, too!

COMET PRICE £79.90 inc. VAT

T-33L FM/MW/LW QUARTZ SYNTHESISED TUNER With the superbly designed T-33L, Onkyo bring you all the advantages of push-button station recall ... thanks to a memory storage system which offers a selection of 8 FM and 8 AM (MW/LW) push-tuned presets. Once stored into the system, any one of 16 stations can be instantly recalled at the touch of a button. Affordably priced, and incorporating automatic-scan and manual tuning modes, together with an easy-to-read digital frequency number display, this tuner is the ideal match for the A-22 and A-33

amplifiers. Yet another major feature is the inclusion of auto hi-blend circuitry for improved reception quality of weak FM stereo broadcasts, and also included in its slimline design are: anti-birdie filter, two-pole MPX filter, 5-LED stepped signal strength meter and a combination FM muting on/off — stereo/mono mode selector. The T-33L is an outstanding tuner by any standards . . . and an outstanding buy at this Comet price!

COMET PRICE £99.90 inc. VAT

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10/84 4 3

PIONEER® AMPLIFIERS

SA-301STEREO AMPLIFIER Superb performance, superb value for money — with the Pioneer SA-301 you get both these advantages in one competitively-priced package! Delivering 25 watts RMS (32 watts DIN) per channel, this out-standingly-engineered amp incorporates a wide variety of features and facilities. These include: LED

SA-740 STEREO AMPLIFIER Designed to cope with digital sound sources. and featuring its own compact disc input, this comprehensively-equipped amplifier is the ideal unit for upgrading an existing system. Despite its even greater output of 40 watts RMS (54 watts DIN) per

input, input indicators, bass and treble controls, inputs for phono, tuner, tape and aux, and a headphone output jack for personal listening. An amplifier giving Pioneer quality at a budget price.

COMET PRICE £64.90 inc. VAT

channel, the total harmonic distortion is still an impressive 0.03%. High in performance, the SA-740 is available at Comet and is yet another example of Pioneer value for money.

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SA-940 STEREO AMPLIFIER With its compact disc input and its ability to meet the high standards of digital sound, the powerful SA-940 incorporates Pioneer's non-switching circuitry . . which enables it to respond with true fidelity and superb transient response even to dramatic input changes. Because these circuits substantially reduce

COMET PRICE £94.90 inc. VAT

internal noise and all forms of distortion, the amplifier is able to produce 70 watts RMS (87 watts DIN) per channel with a total harmonic distortion of only 0.009%. A full complement of inputs, outputs and controls completes the specification of this superb and competitively-priced amplifier.

COMET PRICE £129.90 inc.VAT

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10 84 396

PIONEER® TUNERS

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TX-540L FM/MW/LW ANALOGUE TUNER The slim, graceful styling of this 3-waveband tuner, with its extra-wide dial to make reading easier, is a classic example of Pioneer no-frills/no fuss design. With the TX-540L only the basics are provided, superbly engineered to ensure needle-sharp tuning in a matter of moments. Featuring thought-

TX-301L FM/MW/LW QUARTZ-PLL DIGITAL SYNTHESISER TUNER This super-slim quartz-PLL synthesiser tuner gives instant recall of up to 8 FM and 8 AM (MW/LW) station presets — a facility which means that, once tuned and stored, all selected stations can be instantly recalled at the touch of a button. And with its quartz-lock to eliminate drift. LED indicators for stereo and

ful touches like FM muting to cut out background noise when tuning between stations, and LED stereo and tuning indicators, this is a tuner combining high performance with maximum ease of operation. The value-for-money price brings this outstanding example of Pioneer technology well within the scope of any Hi-Fi budget. COMET PRICE £59.90 inc VAT

'tuned', feather-touch tuning, and clear digital frequency number display, the TX-301L is a combination of super audio performance and attractive styling you'll find hard to resist at this Comet price. This superb Pioneer component offers one of the most accurate and stable tuning systems available today.

COMET PRICE £89.90 inc. VAT

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48

AM-U1 AMPLIFIER

Incorporating micro-computerised controls and pro-ducing 45 watts RMS per channel with a total harmonic digtortion of only 0.02%, the superb AM-U3 represents Akai amplifier technology at its best. A major feature of the handsome silver front panel is Akai's exclusive electronic Direct Access Volume Control, which enables the user to jump immediately to any volume level without passing through intermediate stages. The lightest touch on the 'pressure sensitive' volume scale selector in the area of the scale corresponding to the volume required is instantly verified on the large FL display, with a built-in fader preventing a too-abrupt volume increase. Volume level is

AKA! AMPLIFIERS

Complete with a silver-coloured front panel, the AM-Ul is a basic amplifier offering superb music quality. Producing 22 watts RMS of power per channel with a total harmonic distortion of 0.3%, it incorporates an all-stage direct-coupled IC and is backed by a potent, well-regulated power supply to ensure high performance over a wide dynamic range. A low-noise, monolithic IC is used in the phono equaliser amplifier for high durability .and reliability.

Bass and treble are controlled by sensitive slide adjusters which can be overridden by a tone defeat switch, and a loudness control button is another feature. LED indicators on the tape monitor switch and the input selectors show the operational mode at a glance. This is a fine amplifier, engineered throughout to the highest Akai standards. COMET PRICE £59.90 inc. VAT

AM-U2 AMPLIFIER The elegant silver front panel of Akai's AM-U2 adds a distinctive touch to an amplifier with many advantages. Clear and dynamic sound reproduction is ensured by a DC Servo Amplifier in the power amplifier section, and the output of 30 watts RMS per channel is achieved with a total harmonic distortion of only 0.05%. Both phase characteristics and distortion, which are detrimental to sound quality, have been reduced by installing an Akai original DC Servo circuit in a négative feedback loop. In addition to the DC power amplifier section, the AM-U2

employs an equaliser amplifier with an exclusive, low noise IC that uses a positive/negative power supply. This simple, straightforward design ensures quality sound reproduction since signals travel the shortest distance, minimising distortion. With features including separate tone controls with defeat position, loudness, bright FL display and a convenient tape monitoring mechanism, the AM-U2 is outstanding in both performance and value for money.

COMET PRICE £79.90 inc. VAT

AM-U3 AMPLIFIER automatically returned to the last level set when the amplifier was switched on, except in the case of very high set levels when a more normal level is chosen by the micro-computer. A Dual Pole DC Servo circuit greatly improves the characteristics of the DC amplifier, and combines with a Zero Drive circuit that has theoretically zero distortion and zero output impedance to give more clearly realised music signals. Soft-touch controls are provided for balance, subsonic filter, phono, tuner, aux, tape 1 and tape 2 . . . and other features include A and B speaker switching.

COMET PRICE £124.90 inc. VAT

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AKA! TUNERS

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AT-K1 FM/MW/LW TUNER Incorporating manual tuning and an easy-to-read tuning scale for simple, yet spot-on station selection, the AT-K1 represents outstanding value for money. Behind its handsome silver-finish front panel is advanced internal circuitry incorporating all the latest Akai Hi-Fi technology. The superbly-engineered front end employs a junction FET in the RF amplifier stage, and uses a highly-precise 3-gang variable capacitor which serves to remove unwanted frequencies and suppresses IF interference from adjacent stations. Reception is stable and highly sensitive, cross-modulation distortion in the input section kept to an absolute minimum — and signal-to-noise characteristics greatly improved. The AT-K1 also includes an FM multiplex filter to remove unwanted FM stereo pilot tone signals, and a removable AM loop antenna.

COMET PRICE £59.90 inc. VAT

AT-S3L FM/MW/LW DIGITAL QUARTZ SYNTHESISER TUNER Offering precise tuning from its micro-computerised controls, this slimline tuner combines sophisticated design with high quality engineering to give ease of operation and superb performance. A random access 16 station preset facility is included which automatically selects the waveband and mode for the station chosen. Auto scan facility is also provided together with manual tuning facility. The all-electronic front end suppresses interference from neighbouring stations and a versatile, detachable AM loop antenna ensures excellent MW/LW reception. A large FL digital frequency display provides instant station reference.

COMET PRICE £89.913 inc. VAT

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AMPLIFIERS AND TUNERS

PM 230 AMPLIFIER

". . . On the whole, the PM 230 brings together an impressive blend of subjective properties for a budget design and this is its strength. ". . . If you want the last ounce of fidelity and have an appropriately good turntable and loudspeakers, the Sansui AUD 101 and Marantz PM 230 are most appro-priate. Both deliver fine sound quality and are technically beyond reproach.. ."

WHAT HI-FI - February 1984 "Technically beyond reproach" is an accurate description of the PM 230, engineered by Marantz to give performance far exceeding that of most other budget amplifiers in its class. Producing 30 watts RMS of power per channel, with total harmonic distortion as low as 0.005%. It delivers smooth, even sound and has an impressive bass performance. It will meet the demanding requirements of the Compact Disc Player . . . providing the correct amount of current to satisfy the power requirements as the speaker load varies, and reproducing the dynamic peaks without clipping. Sliding volume, bass and treble controls are fitted, and feather-touch selectors give silent mode switching for Tuner, Phono, CD/Aux, Tape 1/Video, Tape 2/EQ, loudness and low filter. An impressive specificàtion . . . and impressive value for money.

COMET PRICE £74.90 inc. VAT

ST 320L FM/MW/LW TUNER

". . . The treble performance of the Marantz was extended and clean in an area of performance that usually lets cheapo tuners down. Most impressive is the way that the tuner follows the dynamic content of the music without unnecessary compression . . . ". . . Buy the tuner for its excellent FM performance. It is a rare gem, and you won't be disappointed".

HI-FI TODAY - October 1983 This beautifully-styled analogue tuner earned an enthusiastic review, and its superb performance combined with a low Comet price places it firmly in a class of its own as Hi-Fi value for money. Ease of operation is yet another strongpoint, and there are 3 LED indicators for optimal tuning and 5 for signal strength display. Behind the attractive fascia is Marantz engineering at its best — including pilot frequency rejection and an anti-birdie filter to eliminate interference from other nearby stations. Fitted with a detachable loop antenna to help provide noise-free AM reception, the ST 320L is a classic example of a high quality tuner that is priced to fit into even the most modest Hi-Fi budget.

COMET PRICE £69.90 inc. VAT

PM 340 STEREO AMPLIFIER Designed to meet the stringent requirements of digital sound, this impressive amplifier is an outstanding example of Marantz Hi-Fi technology . . . its overall performance exceeding that of amps in a much higher price bracket. Fitted with a special compact disc input, it produces 50 watts RMS of power per channel with a total harmonic distortion of less than 0.05%. And that's not all! Amongst its other features are: bass and treble tone controls, subsonic filter, A and B speaker switching, tape 2 to tape 1 copy, tape monitor for one tape deck — plus mode indicators for tuner, phono, CD/aux and tape monitor. This is one of a new generation of high performance amplifiers from Marantz at a price that makes a system upgrade a practical proposition.

COMET PRICE £99.90 inc. VAT Also available: MARANTZ EQ20 Graphic Equaliser COMET PRICE £99.90 inc. VAT

ST 430L FM/MW/LW DIGITAL QUARTZ SYNTHESISED TUNER

". . . The small ST 430L was the only modern digital tuner to have truly capitalised on the potential for reducing case size with the new technology: further-more there was no degradation of sound that could be laid at the door of the technology involved. A neat package of convenience and sound quality, that may or may not please your own particular 'styling' eye. ". . . The Marantz ST 430L put aside all the problems of sound quality and turned in the best sonic performance of the synthesiser types and at £99 it should therefore take the synthesiser tuner value-for-money laurels..."

WHAT HI-FI - August 1983 A tuner that can earn a review of this quality, both on performance and value for money, is quite clearly a 'must' for the Hi-Fi enthusiast on a limited budget. Despite being one of the slimmest digitally-synthesised units available today, it offers 16 memory presets (8 FM and 8 AM) and both manual tuning and auto scan. The digital display window gives at-a-glance frequency information, and also incorporates a stereo beacon and a 3-stage LED signal strength meter. A loop antenna is fitted to ensure high quality AM reception. With other features inclu-ding a MOS FET front end with twin varactor tuning, multiplex pilot canceller, last station memory and stereo/mono button, the ST 430L by Marantz is an asset to any Hi-Fi system . . . whether top-of-the-range or in the budget bracket.

COMET PRICE £94.90 inc. VAT

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AM PLI FIERS AND TUNERS

TAAX 310B STEREO AMPLIFIER High performance, versatility, ease of operation ... these are the major benefits offered by this new Sony amplifier. Producing 32 watts RMS of power per channel with no more than 0.08% total harmonic distortion, the TAAX 310B is engineered to meet the demanding requirements of digital sound, and incorporates a special input socket specifically for connection to a compact disc player. Operation couldn't be simpler — thanks to the centrally-grouped major controls and an illuminated function display which gives at-a-glance indication of which part of the system is being used. Finished in attractive black to blend with the other components in this outstanding range, this superbly-designed amplifier offers a host of features, including: bass, treble and balance controls, loudness switch and a headphone socket. The price, combined with high quality Sony engineering, sets new standards in value for money.

COMET PRICE £89.90 inc. VAT

STJX 310B FM/MW/LW STJX 410B FM/MW/LW QUARTZ LOCK DIGITAL TUNER QUARTZ LOCK DIGITAL TUNER

Offering 15 station presets (5FM/5MW/5LW), this beautifully designed tuner also features a memory facility which scans all the preset stations at the touch of just one button. All the other advantages of quartz synthesiser tuning are here too... digital frequency number display, feather-touch tuning, and quartz lock to eliminate drift. Competitively priced, and built to the same high Sony standards as the matching TAAX series of amplifiers, the STJX 310B possesses many other attractive features too. These include: stereo/muting switch for eliminating hiss in poor reception areas, centralised controls, stereo indicator 'tuned' to station indicator, and a `Wave-catcher' medium wave aerial which can be wall-mounted for improved reception.

COMET PRICE £89.90 inc. VAT

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TAAX 360B STEREO AMPLIFIER With an output of 44 watts RMS of power per channel and with total harmonic distortion down to only 0.05", the TAAX 360B represents Sony Hi-Fi engineering at its very best. Its ability to produce superb sound at all levels, and its special CD input socket, make this the ideal amplifier for the compact disc player . . . while its centrally-grouped controls and illuminated function display ensure that operation is a pleasure. An impressive specification includes: bass, treble and balance controls, illuminated LED power meters, loudness switch, speaker switching A/B, and a full range of inputs and outputs. Another useful feature is an AUX/TAPE 2 input on the front panel for fast, easy recording from an external source such as a second tape deck. See the magnificent Sony TAAX 360B at Comet . . . at a price that brings the best well within your reach.

COMET PRICE £129.90 inc. VAT

Quartz locked to ensure spot-on tuning, and with an easy-to-read digital frequency number display, the magnificent STJX 410B gives a choice of 10 random station presets (covering 3 wavebands) together with a memory scan facility to give single-button recall. Sony have thought of everything . . . even including a set of labels for marking the preset stations! There's a stereo/muting switch, a 5-segment signal strength meter, detachable `Wave-catcher' MW aerial — and all the major controls are immediately to hand at the centre of the panel. All these features make this tuner the ideal complement for the TAAX 310B and 360B amps.

COMET PRICE £129.90 inc. VAT

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452 10 84

TURNTABLES AND CASSETTE DECKS

TT120 TURNTABLE

A stylish and distinctive belt-drive semi-automatic turntable giving a quality of performance to match its superb appear-ance. Dual suspension virtually eliminates vibration, and the front-mounted controls — including cueing — are designed for maximum simplicity and convenience. The low mass straight tonearm, created from high carbon content aluminium, is fitted with a matching high perfor-mance cartridge — completing a unit that is outstanding by any standard.

COMET PRICE £47.90 inc. VAT

SD 230 CASSETTE DECK

With the superbly styled SD 230, Marantz have produced a high quality cassette deck that brings superb sound reproduction and ease of operation well within the reach of most Hi-Fi budgets. The soft-touch tape transport mechanism responds to the lightest fingertip pressure — and Dolby 'B' noise reduction helps to ensure peak performance from Normal, Cr02 and metal-type tapes. There's a host of other features and facilities too, including: LED meters for level setting, sliding level control, line and mic selector switch, record mute and timer standby for use with an optionally-available unit. The SD 230 from Comet . . . at this price it just has to be a great Hi-Fi buy!

COMET PRICE £74.90 inc. VAT Also available: MARANTZ CP 230 Semi Professional stereo portable cassette deck with built-in monitor speaker. Dolby 13' (battery/mains) COMET PRICE £199.90 inc. VAT

TT240CT TURNTABLE All Marantz turntables use highly accurate DC motors. Add to this the TT240C's direct drive system and aluminium diecast platter and you have absolutely smooth rotation, plus a speed accuracy that's perfectly controlled by stroboscope. The turntable's low mass tonearm can be cued from the front panel controls, and is fitted with a matching high performance P-mounted cartridge which ensures exact cartridge alignment and reduces tracking errors. All this comes together in an attractive slim-line unit that's sure to bring out the best in your record collection.

COMET PRICE £69.90 inc. VAT

SD 340 CASSETTE DECK A stylish and sophisticated cassette deck with quick auto reverse playback facility, soft logic tape controls and Dolby B/C Noise Reduction circuitry to bring out the finest possible performance in normal, chrome and metal tapes. Accuracy and convenience in operation are assured by the presence of LED recording/playback meters and a comprehensive array of LED tape function indicators, while left and right microphone inputs and a stereo head-phone jack allow for maximum versatility of use. The SD 340; a cassette deck that's outstanding for performance and appearance — at a Comet price that makes it fantastic value for money.

COMET PRICE £119.90 inc. VAT

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SONY® TURNTABLES

SONY PSLX210B TURNTABLE Ar. attractive semi-automatic direct drive turntable designed to give that high standard of performance for which Sony is justly famous. The use of Sony bulk moulding compound in the casing ensures excellent acoustics, the straight low mass tonearm gives accurate tracking and thus reduces wear, and all major controls are mounted on the fascia to allow the operation of the deck to be controlled without raising the lid; a convenience which reduces the chance of scratching or damaging the record. Complete , with magnetic cartridge. COMET PRICE £79.90 inc. VAT

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SONY PSLX310B TURNTABLE A semi-automatic direct drive turntable with acousti-cally accurate casing and front-mounted controls. The straight low mass tonearm is fitted with an easily replaceable universal cartridge, and the turntable speed is controlled by a quartz lock; ensuring total accuracy and precision in the rotation speed. The combination of convenience, accuracy and top quality sound makes the 310B an outstanding unit ideal for any system.

COMET PRICE £89.90 inc. VAT

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SONY PSLX410B TURNTABLE The stylish 410B direct drive turntable boasts all the advantages of the 310B model — plus the following extra features: Operation is fully automatic, for greater convenience; the straight low mass tone-arm automatically starting the record at the beginning and returning after playing is complete. There's a repeat function too, enabling you to replay the record again and again. Add to all this the 4106's smart appearance, and the value-for-money price, and you've go: a turntable that's a really great buy.

COMET PRICE £99.90 inc. VAT

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DISCOUNT HI-FI AND VIDEO

454

PIONEER-RR TURNTABLES

PL-340 TURNTABLE Outstanding in both looks and performance, and quartz regulated for accurate record reproduction, the elegant PL-340 is belt driven by a DC servo motor to give an excellent wow-and-flutter rating. Another feature is Pioneer's exclusive Polymer Graphite (PG) tonearm, which is fitted with a Dynamic Resonance Absorber and which comes complete with a PC-230 magnetic cartridge.

COMET PRICE £59.90 inc. VAT

PL-640 TURNTABLE Engineered by Pioneer to give peak Hi-Fi performance, the impressive PL-640 is direct driven by a Quartz-PLL (phase-locked loop) coreless DC Servo Stable motor, with stable hanging rotor for smooth rotation and perfect stability. Other features include: static balanced straight Polymer Graphite tonearm, Dynamic Resonance Absorber, PC-5MC moving coil cartridge and automatic tonearm return.

COMET PRICE £94.90 inc. VAT

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PL- 740 TURNTABLE This fully-automatic quartz regulated turntable reflects Pioneer design and engineering at its very best — with a wow-and-flutter rating of only 0.025% and a signal-to-noise ratio of 78dB. With direct drive provided by a Quartz-PLL (phase-locked-loop) coreless DC Servo Stable motor, incorporating a stable hanging rotor, and a specification including static balanced straight Polymer Graphite tonearm, Dynamic Resonance Absorber and a PC-5MC moving coil cartridge . . . the PL-740 reaches new heights of record reproduction.

COMET PRICE £114.90 inc. VAT

UPI________ DISCOUNT HI-FI AND VIDEO

398

garrard TURNTABLES

Each Garrard turntable is the end-product of fifty years' experience in the audio field . . . a creation combining the expertise of the craftsman and the finest in modern high technology materials and components. It is this combination that has gained for Garrard its outstanding reputation, and which has brought the company honours ranging from the Queen's Award for continual outstanding exports to the Emile Berliner Award for outstanding contribution to the world of sound.

GARRARD B-200 TURNTABLE Belt-driven by an A.C. synchronous 4- pole motor, this handsome semi-automatic turn-table features a die-cast aluminium platter and a straight, low-mass tonearm. The tonearm incorporates an interchangeable headshell, complete with magnetic cartridge, and re-sonance is eliminated by a special rigid mounting. For maximum convenience, all the controls on this value- for-money Garrard product remain accessible — even when the dust cover is closed.

GARRARD D-200 TURNTABLE This stylish semi-automatic turntable is direct-driven by a coreless D.C. motor with velocity servo control, and the die-cast aluminium platter is stroboscope-synchronised to mains frequency. Mounted in a cabinet of low-resonant mineral-filled resin, this superbly-engineered unit also features: straight low-mass tonearm, interchangeable pick-up head complete with magnetic cartridge, viscous-damped cueing, and front-mounted controls for operational convenience.

COMET PRICE £44.90 inc. VAT COMET PRICE £59.90 inc. VAT

DISCOUNT HI-FI AND VIDEO

0 81 455

10 84 431

AKAI CASSETTE DECKS

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AKAI FIX-1 DOLBY B STEREO CASSETTE DECK

The HX-1 is yet another fine example of Akai's technological expertise — establishing once again that Akai cassette decks are truly 'state-of-the-art'. Dolby B noise reduction guarantees excellent performance, and a useful record balance control allows simple equalization of left and right channel record levels. The 12 segment FLD display adds new levels of ease and accuracy to your recording techniques, and a tape selector switch provides for normal, chrome or metal tape — with the HX-1 bringing out the best in each.

COMET PRICE £74.90 inc VAT

AKAI HX-R44 QUICK-REVERSE STEREO CASSETTE DECK

Since the early 1970's Akai have led the field with technological improvements that have established the 'state-of-the-art' in cassette decks — and the HX-R44 is an outstanding example of this Akai expertise. Dolby B/C noise reduction circuitry brings out the best in normal, chrome or metal tape, DC motors for the capstan drive and cam drive ensure low wow and flutter, and the quick-reverse mechanism almost eliminates the interruption of playback and recording whilst reversing. The FIX-R44 — unmatched for quality and performance, and available at a real value-for-money price at Comet.

COMET PRICE £149.90 inc. VAT

AKAI FIX-3 CASSETTE DECK DOLBY `13/C' NOISE REDUCTION 'An interesting, good performance and nice looking deck with a goodly bundle of advanced electronics':

HI-FI FOR PLEASURE Incorporating Dolby '13/C noise reduction — with the Dolby 'C' facility giving an additional 10dB of noise reduction above the level provided by Dolby B' — the elegant, front-loading HX-3 offers excellent value for money. Other features for ensuring superb sound recording and playback include an electronically speed controlled DC motor for stable capstan drive, and an HD record/playback head which brings out the full potential of metal. Cr02 and Normal tapes.

COMET PRICE £94.90 inc. VAT

AKAI GX-R55 QUICK-REVERSE

STEREO CASSETTE DECK

A host of advanced features make the GX-R55 an excellent addition to any hi-fi stereo system. The Akai Twin Field Super GX head has individual recording and playback gaps incorporated into one housing, to produce performance equal to that of 3-head systems, and the invaluable Quick Reverse System has a symmetrical BSP mechanism for stable transport characteristics in both directions. The Random Program Play System permits the most advanced cassette programming operations, with up to 30 pre-programmed settings. All this is combined in a slim and handsome unit that also features Auto Mute and Rec. Cancel for convenient recording operation, Inttoscan, Blank Skip and IPLS for convenient playback, auto-tape selector for normal, chrome or metal tape, large, concentrated FL display and timer facility. Impressive is the only word for it, and the price makes it fantastic value.

COMET PRICE £199.90 inc. VAT

DISCOUNT HI-FI AND VIDEO

10 84 44 I

garrard TURNTABLES

Each Garrard turntable is the end-product of fifty years' experience in the audio field . . . a creation combining the expertise of the craftsman and the finest in modern high technology materials and components. It is this combination that has gained for Garrard its outstanding reputation, and which has brought the company honours ranging from the Queen's Award for continual outstanding exports to the Emile Berliner Award for outstanding contribution to the world of sound.

GARRARD B-200 TURNTABLE Belt-driven by an A.C. synchronous 4- pole motor, this handsome semi-automatic turn-table features a die-cast aluminium platter and a straight, low-mass tonearm. The tonearm incorporates an interchangeable headshell, complete with magnetic cartridge, and re-sonance is eliminated by a special rigid mounting. For maximum convenience, all the controls on this value- for-money Garrard product remain accessible — even when the dust cover is closed.

COMET PRICE £44.90 inc. VAT

GARRARD D-200 TURNTABLE This stylish semi-automatic turntable is direct-driven by a coreless D.C. motor with velocity servo control, and the die-cast aluminium platter is stroboscope-synchronised to mains frequency. Mounted in a cabinet of low-resonant mineral- filled resin, this superbly-engineered unit also features: straight low- mass tonearm, interchangeable pick-up head complete with magnetic cartridge, viscous-damped cueing, and front-mounted controls for operational convenience.

COMET PRICE £59.90 inc. VAT

DISCOUNT HI-FI AND VIDEO

:1) 455

AKAI TURNTABLES

AP-B1C.Turntable A belt-driven auto-return turntable that combines easy operation with excellent musical quality. The aluminium die-cast platter is driven by a quiet, electronically controlled DC servo motor, resulting in stable performance. Wow and flutter are a mere 0.05% WRMS. The light, highly sensitive static balance type straight tone arm is accompanied by oil-damped arm lifter and an anti-skating

AP-D2C Turntable The super low profile and handsome silver front panel give the direct drive AP-D2C an appearance to match its impressive perfor-mance. The brushless, slotless, coreless type Akai Discolith Coil DC servo motor has a built-in generator for strict control of motor rotation speed, and a servo lock indicator to show when the appropriate speed has been reached. Good trackability and excellent

adjuster to eliminate this form of distortion, and is fitted with a high quality magnetic cartridge that ensures a wide range of sound reproduction. The low resonance cabinet damps harmful vibrations, offers convenient operation through front-mounted controls, and features an attractive silver finished front panel.

Comet Price £54.90 inc. VAT

playback are ensured by a straight, low-mass tone arm with dual magnet cartridge, anti-skating adjuster, electronically activated Quick Tone Arm Return mechanism and oil-damped arm lifter. Designed with the user in mind, the AP-D2C offers reliable operation and superior sound quality through simple yet sophisticated design.

Comet Price £69.90 inc. VAT

DISCOUNT HI-FI AND VIDEO

10,84 410

S 1 TD-885L TURNTABLE

FULLY-AUTOMATIC TURNTABLE WITH LINEAR-TRACKING TONEARM.

. . it's fully automatic and a daimant to the title of the cheapest linear turntable going . . .

44. . . the beauty of the linear tracking arm is in its ease of setting up . . .

... the arm seeks out the starting point with unfailing accuracy . . ." 'HI-FI NOW!' April 1984

A linear-tracking tonearm with a fully-automatic turntable, the TD-885L represents outstanding value for money at this low Comet price. Tensai have achieved their own revolution in the budget-priced turntable market with this slim, elegant unit that enables track selection to be carried out, even with the dustcover closed. The short, straight, low mass tonearm come complete with its own ADC magnetic cartridge, and is operated by soft-touch controls on the front of the plinth. A viscous-damped cueing device is incorporated, and as the above review states: "the arm seeks out the starting point with unfailing accuracy". Belt-driven by a DC electronic motor, and mounted on shock-absorbent suspension feet, this new Tensai turntable sounds as good as it looks . . . and brings all the advantages of linear-tracking well within the scope of even the most limited Hi-Fi budget.

COMET PRICE £59.90 inc. VAT

Irr DISCOUNT HI-FI AND VIDEO

4 3 1 10/84

AKAI CASSETTE DECKS

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AKA! FIX-1 DOLBY B STEREO CASSETTE DECK

The HX-1 is yet another fine example of Akai's technological expertise — establishing once again that Akai cassette decks are truly 'state-of-the-art'. Dolby B noise reduction guarantees excellent performance, and a useful record balance control allows simple equalization of left and right channel record levels. The 12 segment FLD display adds new levels of ease and accuracy to your recording techniques, and a tape selector switch provides for normal, chrome or metal tape — with the HX-1 bringing out the best in each.

COMET PRICE £74.90 inc VAT

ARA! HX-R44 QUICK-REVERSE STEREO CASSETTE DECK

Since the early 1970's Akai have led the field with technological improvements that have established the 'state-of-the-art' in cassette decks — and the HX-R44 is an outstanding example of this Akai expertise. Dolby B/C noise reduction circuitry brings out the best in normal, chrome or metal tape, DC motors for the capstan drive and cam drive ensure low wow and flutter, and the quick-reverse mechanism almost eliminates the interruption of playback and recording whilst reversing. The HX-R44 — unmatched for quality and performance, and available at a real value-for-money price at Comet.

COMET PRICE £149.90 inc. VAT

ARA! HX-3 CASSETTE DECK DOLBY `13/C' NOISE REDUCTION "An interesting, good performance and nice looking deck with a goodly bundle of advanced electronics':

HI-FI FOR PLEASURE Incorporating Dolby 'B/C' noise reduction — with the Dolby 'C' facility giving an additional 10dB of noise reduction above the level provided by Dolby 'B' — the elegant, front-loading HX-3 offers excellent value for money. Other features for ensuring superb sound recording and playback include an electronically speed controlled DC motor for stable capstan drive, and an HD record/playback head which brings out the full potential of metal, Cr02 and Normal tapes.

COMET PRICE £94.90 inc. VAT

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AKAI GX-R55 QUICK-REVERSE STEREO CASSETTE DECK

A host of advanced features make the GX-R55 an excellent addition to any hi-fi stereo system. The Akai Twin Field Super GX head has individual recording and playback gaps incorporated into one housing, to produce performance equal to that of 3-head systems, and the invaluable Quick Reverse System has a symmetrical BSP mechanism for stable transport characteristics in both directions. The Random Program Play System permits the most advanced cassette programming operations, with up to 30 pre-programmed settings. All this is combined in a slim and handsome unit that also features Auto Mute and Rec. Cancel for convenient recording operation, Introscan, Blank Skip and IPLS for convenient playback, auto-tape selector for normal, chrome or metal tape, large, concentrated FL display and timer facility. Impressive is the only word for it, and the price makes it fantastic value

COMET PRICE £199.90 inc. VAT

gr DISCOUNT HI-FI AND VIDEO

10 84 4 4 1

ONKYO. TURNTABLE AND CASSETTE DECK

CP-1022A AUTO-RETURN TURNTABLE Belt-driven by a 4-pole synchronous motor, this sleek, stylish auto-return turntable incorporates a straight-line low-mass tonearm for compatibility with high compliance cartridges. Tracking is outstanding ... and a direct readout counterweight eliminates the need for a tracking force meter. Despite its astonishingly-low price, Onkyo have spared no expense in achieving superlative Hi-Fi performance with the CP-1022A — particularly in the elimination of vibration and acoustic feedback. Specially constructed cabinet feet, a vibration absorbent

cabinet, and a floating base' which supports the tonearm and motor-platter system, combine in a unique Triple Stage Isolation system that shuts out both air- and structure-borne vibration at three different levels. A large 310cm aluminium die-cast platter is a further contribution to rotational stability. Finished in attractive black, to match the other components in the `Soundstage' series, and with front-mounted controls, the CP-1022A rates as one of the best buys yet in the budget turntable class.

COMET PRICE £64.90 inc. VAT

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TA-2022 CASSETTE DECK WITH DOLBY 'WC' NOISE REDUCTION . . . This deck gave unusually even and extended frequency responses with the IEC Primary Reference

Tapes . . . so well designed, built and adjusted in most areas for a budget deck that it can only be highly recommended ... "

With its microcomputer-controlled full logic operation and Dolby 'B' and 'C' noise reduction, the TA-2022 rates high in looks, design, performance . . . and value for money. At the heart of the deck is a record/playback head employing a hyper-bolic shape and special hard permalloy to guarantee optimum performance from metal, Cr02 and normal tapes ... while the Dolby 'C' facility gives an additional 10dB of noise reduction above the level provided by Dolby '13'. Easy-to-read horizontally aligned LED peak level meters simplify level settings, and illuminated indicators give at-a-glance confirmation of all the major operational modes and settings. Driven by a stable DC servo motor, this recent addition to Onkyo's `Soundstage'

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW - June 1984

series is the ideal choice for value-minded music lovers . . . an extra refinement being a timer standby facility for use with an optional timer. See the TA-2022 at Comet. You'll be impressed with both the specification and the price!

COMET PRICE £99.90 inc. VAT

DISCOUNT HI-FI AND VIDEO

10/84 440

SONY: CASSETTE DECKS

SONY TF-CX210B CASSETTE DECK

A cassette deck that comes with all the refinements to give you top performance and maximum ease and accuracy in recording. Dolby B' noise reduction circuitry ensures superb reproduction and the centralised feather touch logic controls give you swift and effortless operation. The LED peak level meter shows the recording output through left and right channels clearly, allowing perfect monitoring of recording levels. The rewind

auto-play facility automatically plays back after rewind, the auto record mute puts a four second gap between recordings — giving a more professional touch to your recordings — and the timer play/record facility enables you to record items such as favourite radio programmes while you're out. There are even microphone sockets for external recording, adding that extra touch of versatility. All this in a slim and stylish deck — at a sensible price.

COMET PRICE £99.90 inc. VAT

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SONY TC-FX310B CASSETTE DECK

A host of advanced features are combined in this attractive cassette to give you simple operation and superb sound performance. There's Dolby B/C noise reduction for minimal tape hiss, centrally-located feather touch logic controls for simple and positive operation, and a LED peak level meter to give accurate monitoring of the recording levels. The rewind auto-play facility gives automatic playback after rewind, auto record mute puts a

four second gap between recordings — giving that extra element of professionalism — and the timer play/record feature allows you to record in your absence. Add to this normal, chrome and metal tape capability, cue and review facility, headphone socket and soft eject feature — and you have a cassette deck that's really outstanding. A stylish black finish gives the unit an appropriately distinctive appearance, and the price makes it superb value for money.

COMET PRICE £119.90 inc. VAT

DISCOUNT HI-FI AND VIDEO

453

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SHARP CASSETTE DECKS

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SHARP RT-100E STEREO

CASSETTE DECK

A superb stereo cassette deck which represents outstanding value for money while at the same time offering substantial performance and operating convenience. Features include: metal compatibility, Dolby Noise Reduction circuitry for excellent sound quality, and LED peak level metering system which provides an accurate indication of recording levels. Smart and attractive in appearance, the RT-100E is a quality unit that offers real audio enjoyment — at a Comet price that's equally impressive.

COMET PRICE £59.90 inc. VAT

SHARP RT-1010HS) STEREO CASSETTE DECK

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Sharp, pioneer of the double cassPtte, offer this sophisticated unit to bring you the best in high quality performance and versatile musical entertainment. With metal tape capability, Dolby Noise Reduction circuitry and soft-touch controls, the RT-1010H (S) has all the requirements for easy and accurate operation — plus a range of features that make it a superb creative instrument. The High Speed Dubbing System cuts your tape-to-tape recording time in half, while achieving a recording quality possible only with a matched two-deck system. The Auto Program Search System searches your tape, finds the song you want to hear and plays it back to you, and the Synchronous Dubbing Start system enables both cassette compartments to start simultaneously and smoothly. There's a continuous play facility too, allowing playback of two cassettes one after the other to give you up to two hours of continuous music. All this comes in one stylish and distinctive unit and at a Comet price that offers great value for money.

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COMET PRICE £129.90 inc. VAT

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DISCOUNT HI-FI AND VIDEO

10/84

A I WA CASSETTE DECKS INTRODUCING THE DOLBY HX PROFESSIONAL

A revolutionary new approach to the problems of recording bias

Here are two cassette decks from Aiwa, each designed to meet the demands of all types of programme material, whether digital or analogue. This is achieved through the use of 'Dolby HX Professional', a newly-developed system which ensures that signals at all volume and frequency levels receive the ideal amount of bias during recording. Dolby HX (the HX stands for 'Headroom Extension') is nota noise reduction system, but a completely new type of circuit that prevents high frequency loss and greatly improves the dynamic range at the top end of the frequency response curve. It needs no decoder processing, which means that all recordings sound better — even when played back on non-Dolby decks or portables. And high performance is combined with economy .... because Dolby HX improves the sound of ordinary low noise tapes close to the standards of more expensive metal and Cr02 tapes. For those who plan to make tapes from digital programme sources, these Aiwa decks are designed to take optimum advantage of the increased recording headroom offered by Dolby 'C' noise reduction. The results are truly superb. With metal tape the signal-to-noise ratio is an outstanding 80dB (above 5kHz).

AD-F660 STEREO CASSETTE DECK With its Dolby HX Professional circuitry, this superbly-designed deck has the capability to handle even the most demanding digital programme material with flawless fidelity. Three heads offer off-tape monitoring, and the automatic de-magnetising system (ADMS) keeps the heads in a continually degaussed condition for optimum performance. Other features include: Dolby '13/C' noise reduction, metal tape capability, all-mode

COMET PRICE £249.90 inc. VAT

tape remaining time display, intro- play search facility, memory rewind and repeat, bias fine adjuster, auto rec-mute, auto tape selector, LED peak meter display and switchable MPX filter. The AD-F660 is also equipped with a timer stand-by recording/playback facility and a cordless remote control connection for use with optionally-available units.

AD-F770 STEREO CASSETTE DECK Incorporating all the features of the AD-F660, including Dolby HX and Dolby 13/C' noise reduction, this sophisticated 3-head deck also possesses Aiwa's unique digital automatic tape adaptation facility (DATA), to ensure ideal matching with every tape brand and formulation.

A built-in microcomputerised circuit " tests" each tape prior to recording and adjusts the deck's bias, equalisation and sensitivity to optimum levels. Performed automatically within 16 seconds, DATA ensures that virtually any brand of tape selected can deliver its best performance.

COMET PRICE £299.90 inc. VAT

DISCOUNT HI-FI AND VIDEO

10/84 3 8 4 A

PIONEER® CASSETTE DECKS

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CT-301 CASSETTE DECK Pioneer quality and attention to detail ensure outstanding performance from this stylish and comprehensively-equipped front-bader — and it's designed to give extra ease and convenience to the user too! There's power-assisted tape control for fingertip response, one-touch recording, and even a timer

standby facility for use with an optionally-available unit. Incorporating Dolby 'B' noise reduction to ensure cleaner sound reproduction, and 5-segment LED level meters to give optimum recording levels, the CT-301 is a magnificent example of Hi-Fi engineering . . . at an affordable price

COMET PRICE £84.90 inc. VAT

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CT-740 CASSETTE DECK Offering metal tape capability and settings for Cr02 and Normal LH tapes, this 2-motor Dolby 'B' cassette deck is equipped with full logic control of all tape transport. This enables direct mode change even when moving from reverse to fast forward. Elegantly

designed and incorporating the matchless Hi-Fi technology of Pioneer, the CT-740 possesses many other fine features including: Hard Permalloy record/playback head, Skip Search, Program-mable Music Selector and LED level indicators.

COMET PRICE £124.90 inc. VAT

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CT-940 CASSETTE DECK (WITH DOLBY 'WPC' NOISE REDUCTION) With its two motors, Hard Permalloy head, and Dolby 'B'/'C' noise reduction, the Pioneer CT-940 is designed to ensure peak performance from Normal, Cr02 and Metal-type tapes. Slim in design and stylish in appearance, it's a cassette deck that's simple to operate — yet incorporating a wide range of features and

facilities. These include IC full-logic tape control, one-touch recording, LED recording level meters and a record-mute function . . . not forgetting an air-damped casette loading/unloading mechanism and a timer standby facility for use with an optional unit. This is state-of-the-art engineering at its very best — a recorder worthy of a place in even the most demanding Hi-Fi enthusiast's system!

COMET PRICE £154.90 inc. VAT

fff. f ivy DISCOUNT HI-FI AND VIDEO

10 84 443

Goodmans SPEAKERS

QUARTET Q30 LOUDSPEAKER

Goodman have long been rencwned for providing audio enthusiasts with high quality speakers at affordable prices, and the Quartet range main-tains this great tradition. The smart and ultra-compact Q30 is an infinite baffle enclosure employing a 170mm bass speaker with specially treated surround, and a 50mm high frequency unit. Suitable for use with amplifiers from 7-30 watts RMS, the Q30 features an electronic overload indicating red LED, and is housed in a handsome walnut effect cabinet.

COMET PRICE £29.90 inc. VAT (per pair)

QUARTET Q40 LOUDSPEAKER

In common with the other models in the Quartet range, the Q40 has a rigid frame construction for minimal harmonic distortion, and contour controls to optimise performance in any listening environment. With 170mm bass speaker and 50mm high frequency unit, the Q40 is the ideal budget-price speaker for use with amplifiers from 7-40 watts RMS; enabling you to upgrade your music centre or budget hi-fi system instantly and economically.

The speaker features an electronic overload indicating LED, and is housed in a walnut effect cabinet

COMET PRICE £37.90 inc. VAT (per pair)

QUARTET Q70 LOUDSPEAKER

Infinite baffle enclosure, rigid frame construction to minimise harmonic distortion, contour controls to opti-mise performance, attractive cabinet acoustically loaded to prevent both excited and delayed cabinet reso-nances . . . Such features make the Q70 an outstanding speaker for the price, and one that will bring a dramatic improvement in sound quality to your system.

Incorporating a 200mm bass unit, 110mm mid range unit and 70mnn high frequency unit, the Q70 is ideal for use with amplifiers from 7-70 watts RMS.

COMET PRICE £64.90 inc. VAT (per pair)

DISCOUNT HI-FI AND VIDEO

450

Goodmans SPEAKERS

MEZZO ". . . the Mezzo acquitted itself well on the listening tests, comfortably achieving a score worthy of Hi-Fi Choice recommendation." ff. . . the Mezzo had a pleasant character not usually encountered at its price level." "This larger-than-average speaker is good value for money, offering a pleasant, uncritical 'big' sound." ff. . . at its realistic price level, it carries a firm Choice recommenda-tion."

HI-FI CHOICE 1983

The Mezzo's elegant cabinet houses speaker engineering at its best — a 3-way reflexed system that combines low distortion with maximum sensitivity to give optimum performance throughout the frequency band. Handling up to 75 watts RMS of power, the Mezzo is made in carefully matched pairs to give a crisp, clear stereo image that will add a new dimension to your listening pleasure. At the heart of the system are a 280mm bass driver, a 114mm mid-range unit and a 25mm dome tweeter — and an added refinement in the form of variable con-tour controls enables you to modify the output of both mid-range and high frequency drivers to tune the speakers to your own particular environment. An eye-catching 5-LED display gives you an at-a-glance peak power reading. Excep-tional value for money at Comet NOW.

COMET PRICE £ 137.90 inc. VAT (per pair)

MAGNUM Handling up to 90 watts RMS of power, and designed to the same superb specification as the Mezzo, the Magnum literally brings the concert hall into your listening room. Nearly sixty years of Good-mans' loudspeaker technology has resulted in a speaker that will enhance the sound of any worth-while Hi-Fi system — and add an elegance that will please the eye too. Even the drive units are manufactured by Goodmans . . . 330mm bass driver, 114mm mid-range unit and 25mm dome tweeter . . . and careful 'mirror imaging' of each pair of models gives a stereo balance that clearly locates in-struments and voices. Overall efficiency is as high as the price is low, and when you add for good measure contour controls and LED power indicators — you have a loudspeaker system that's definitely worth listening to.

COMET PRICE £ 157.90 inc. VAT (Per Pair) COMET PRICE £ 189.90

inc. VAT (per pair)

LS3 /5A 2-WAY MONITOR SPEAKERS

Designed by the BBC's research deparintent "The LS.3/5A is still the best mini-monitor money can buy". "It comes across as something of a freak in the world of hi-fi. It shouldn't be able to do what it does" "They image as precisely as any speaker rue ever heard, regardless of price". "I've never heard vocals reproduced as beautifully as ive heard from the LS3,15A". "They offer performance well out of keep-ing with either their price or their dimensions". HI-FI NEWS & RECORD, November 1983 "Orchestral sounds were 'open' in texture, with excellent breadth and depth, and plenty of fullness in the lower registers . . . Transients were handled cleanly, with no sign of hangover..." "There is no doubt that these loud-speakers do a job that is quite astonishing considering that they occupy less than ten litres of space each. Both aurally and physically they are very easy to live with, and with their natural, uncoloured res-ponse they must represent a great attraction to those who are unable - or unwilling - to find space for a large instal-lation . . . "they remain splendid value for money

HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW

With a power hand:ing of 50 watts*, the LS3 5A is produced by Goodmans under a special licence agreement with the BBC. The result is an outstanding product at a very competitive price ... backed by the Goodman's reputation for quality and care, and a 5-year guarantee. •11,,r w111, amplifier- r,ei r1,0 50 Kai?, 11 ,

DISCOUNT HI-FI AND VIDEO

3

unman SPEAKERS Here are two new loudspeaker systems from Tamon . . . both combining the best in European acoustic design with Japanese production quality. The DX-50 has been specially developed to meet the stringent demands of digital sound sources, while the smaller EX-40 is a versatile speaker system ideal for both bookshelf or stand-mounting. See these new Tamons at Comet at prices that place them among the soundest Hi-Fi buys around.

EX-40 2-WAY LOUDSPEAKER SYSTEM "There is no doubt that this is another competitive budget contender and it is encouraging to find such quality appearing in the main stream markets, capable of exerting some pressure on the specialists to keep ahead of the race. This is an example of the sort of product which helps update even the humblest state of the art."

PAUL MESSENGER 'Hi-Fi NEWS' July 1984

Exceptional sound — exceptional value for money — is the keynote of this versatile 2-way speaker system. The EX-40 is designed to reproduce superb Hi-Fi sound in most environments, unlike many speaker systems where placement is critical, arid handles 40 watts RMS of input power with ease. A soft-dome 1" diameter tweeter combines with a 61/2" diameter cone magnet-type woofer to give extended frequency range, high sensitivity and controlled dispersion characteristics. The overall sound quality, together with its low price. makes the EX-40 an attractive purchase . . . both to those considering their first Hi-Fi system, or enthusiasts wishing to upgrade their equipment. European acoustical standards are the design parameters throughout, and this loudspeaker system, enclosed in its handsome, dark walnut effect cabinet, is more than a match in performance, versatility and looks for many speakers in a far higher price bracket.

COMET PRICE £79.90 inc. VAT per pair

DX-50 LINEAR PHASE DIGITAL MONITOR LOUDSPEAKER SYSTEM

With an input power of 50 watts RMS, the DX-50 is an ideal speaker for the digital audio age. Thanks to its unique flat-diaphragm woofer and tweeter, and superb crossover network, its powerful yet controlled sound reproduction extends beyond the conventional limits right through the audible frequency range. Incorporating a honeycomb core sandwiched by glued aluminium for light weight and high rigidity, the woofer employs a 6" square shape design to give a diaphragm area about 1.3 times greater than that of a circular speaker of the same nominal size. Special voice control ensure high quality reproduction, even at high input power. The 2" through layer mica foam diaphragm of the tweeter, directly driven by the voice control assures excellent efficiency and transient response characteristics. Magnesium fluid in the tweeter's circuit enhances the power handling capability while improving the linearity at high input levels. Yet another major feature is the wide dynamic range of a crossover network specifically designed for reproduction of digital sound sources. Enclosed in a bass reflex-type low resonant cabinet,. elegantly finished in highly-polished dark walnut effect the linear-phased speakers significantly reduce the phase shifts between the signals from the driver units. The resuh is excellent localisation and directivity.

COMET PRICE £99.90 inc VAT per pair

DISCOUNT HI-FI AND VIDEO

II) 81 436

WHARFEDALE SPEAKERS DIAMOND SPEAKERS

"The Diamonds are so good they are going to set everyone, including Wharfedale, problems in trying to follow them". "It is difficult to tell you just how good these loud-speakers are. Their mid-range clarity, tonal evenness and coherence fully justifies the description monitors". "They reproduce vocals so naturally that there are few other speakers on the market substan-tially better in this respect - no matter how expensive". STEREO - January 1984

"It looks as though they will be a fantastically good buy and I suggest you keep your eyes peeled for them". WHAT HI-FI - November 1983

"I have to say that I was quite bowled over by the Diamond. Its sound was detailed, dynamic, integrated". "For such a small and inexpensive speaker to produce such a sound was quite unexpected".

HI-FI NOW - December 1983 • Suitable for amplifiers 15-75 watts • Dimensions: Less than 250mm high x 190mm deep

• Drive units: Bass/Midrange 110mm (43/4 "), Treble 20mm (3/4") • Walnut effect cabinet, black grille

COMET PRICE £67.90 inc. VAT (per pair) RS 450 STAND (for Diamond) For those who wish to ensure optimum performance from their speakers, Wharfedale offer :he RS 450 stand. COMET PRICE £ 9.90 inc. VAT (per pair)

LINTON GX LOUDSPEAKERS Ideal for amplifiers delivering from 15 to 60 watts RMS of power per channel, the Linton GX is a 2-Way loudspeaker system that easily outperforms many speakers in a much higher price bracket. The sound is smooth and natural — thanks to a 200mm paper bass/ midrange driver and an equally efficient 50mm paper cone treble drive unit housed in a cabinet that makes the Linton look as good as it sounds. Incorporated in the design is a 12dB 4-element crossover network that combines with the drive units to bring you a loud-speaker system with a sensitivity of 90dB, and a frequency range of 60Hz - 20KHz. Wharfedale is one of the top names in world speaker engineering, and the Linton GX is certainly one of the top systems in its class. In both performance and price it offers positive proof that Wharfedale speakers still lead the field in value for money.

COMET PRICE £44.90 inc. VAT (per pair)

DENTON GX LOUDSPEAKERS Handsomely finished, superb in performance ... this is the Denton GX, one of the most respected names in loudspeaker engineering. Suitable for amplifiers producing from 10 to 30 watts RMS of power per channel, its elegant cabinet houses a 2-way speaker system comprising a 170mm paper bass/midrange driver and a 50mm paper cone treble drive unit — linked by a 12dB 3-element crossover. With a sensitivity of 90dB, and a frequency range of 65Hz - 20 KHz ( DIN), this new Denton is a worthy successor to previous models ... and the low Comet price brings this outstanding performer well within the scope of most Hi-Fi budgets.

COMET PRICE £34.90 inc. VAT (per pair)

DISCOUNT HI-FI AND VIDEO

10 84 4266,

WHARFEDALE

SPEAKERS MACH 3 LOUDSPEAKERS With a power handling of 100 watts, the Wharfedale Mach 3 is a two-way computer optimised bass reflex system incorporating a 200mm low inertia bass/midrange driver and a 25mm horn loaded treble unit. Suitable for use with amplifiers from 15-100watts RMS. The Mach 3 is an extremely efficient speaker which delivers a 'loud', forward sound, with wide dynamic range which makes the Mach 3 ideally suited for use with Compact Disc Players and features an infinitely variable ambience control, for the adjustment of tonal balance over the 5kHz 22kHz band, and is protected by a rapid-action thermal overload circuit. The system is housed in hand finished real walnut veneer cabinets which come complete with detachable acoustically transparent grilles in black knitted yarn. Wharfedale have long been acknowledged as a world leader in acoustic engineering and indeed the Mach Series has won acclaim in the USA for its advanced design concept.

COMET PRICE £149.90 inc. VAT (per pair)

LASER 50 2-WAY SPEAKER SYSTEM

Using a 11.5 litre enclosure and finished in attractive wood grain vinyl, this compact loudspeaker is suitable for amplifiers ranging from 15-60 watts RMS per channel. Its 170mm bass unit has a cone of doped! fibrous' construction terminated in a PVC suspension to eliminate unwanted resonance and to minimise coloration. The treble unit is a high quality 19mm soft dome which produces a smooth, sweet sound.

COMET PRICE £67.90 inc. VAT (per pair)

LASER 90 2-WAY SPEAKER SYSTEM

The 20-litre enclosure houses a 200mm version of the laser 50 bass unit to give increased power handling to 75 watts, with a sophisticated crossover network dividing the spectrum between this driver and the 19mm soft dome tweeter. This is the speaker reviewed by 'PRACTICAL HI-FI' .. an ideal unit for use with amplifiers from 15-75 watts RMS per channel.

COMET PRICE £84.90 inc. VAT (per pair)

DISCOUNT HI-FI AND VIDEO

Ill 84 437

WHARFEDALE SPEAKERS

W30 SPEAKER SYSTEM

With their outstanding W-series of loudspeaker systems, Wharfedale have successfully combined high power handling and wide dynamics with a fantastic 94dB sensitivity. The W30 is a superb example of this British company's craftsmanship and quality . . . a 2-way, high sensitivity 3rd Order Butterworth design suitable for amplifiers pro-ducing from 15 to 100 watts RMS of power per channel. Within the stylish cabinet are twin 170mm bass/midrange units, equivalent in performance to a 304mm unit with a 50mm voice coil, but with the added advantage of being able to reproduce midrange frequencies. The 50mm treble unit is a very light cone with an integral dome for extended high frequencies. Incorporating an environmental control to allow compensation for adverse room conditions, the W30 is a system fully in keeping with Wharfedale's worldwide reputation . . that of producing high quality sound at prices that listeners can afford.

COMET PRICE £99.90 inc. VAT (per pair)

W40 SPEAKER SYSTEM Using laser technology to ensure distortion- free speaker diaphragms, and computer optimised bass alignment to achieve the best possible bass performance for cabinet size and efficiency, Wharfedale struck the perfect balance with the W-series . . . high quality sound and genuine value for money. This is reflected in the W40, a 3-way reflex design with twin ports to reduce turbulence. The bass unit uses a specially strengthened 250mm paper unit with a 50mm voice coil, and the mid-range is a 10Orrm unit with an ultra- light cone and a vented aluminium voice coil former to increase the power handling. Combined with a 50mm treble unit similar to that featured in the W30, and you have a loudspeaker system that can cope with amplifiers producing from 15 to 125 watts RMS of power per channel whilst boasting an amazing 93dB sensitivity. With its emironmental control to ensure optimum sound quality whatever the room conditions, and enclosed in a superbly styled cabinet, the W40 system represents British loudspeaker technology at its best. The price is unbeatable too!

COMET PRICE £134.90 inc. VAT (per pair)

DISCOUNT HI-FI AND VIDEO

10 84 2

CLAMM:r

SPEAKERS Fantastic quality, fantastic performance, fantastic value for money... this is the only way to describe the new range of Solavox HP speakers from Comet! They're manufactured exclusively for Comet by a company world famous for its high standards — yet their price brings them well into the budget class. They look good, they sound even better. See them today at Comet.The only thing you won't believe is the price!

"These speakers were given an initial appraisal using a Rotel RA-840 amplifier and they proved to be an interesting change from the usual class of £60 loudspeaker. Tonally the emphasis is on the mid-band, but the response does not seem particularly peaky, rather that there is a gradual but definite roll-off at low and high frequencies. As a result this speaker is surprisingly smooth and as a result will be very pleasant in the average budget system". Hi-Fi for Pleasure October 1 Reviewing HP170 loudspeakers

SOLAVOX HP140 LOUDSPEAKERS

With a power handling of 40 watts, the Solavox HP140 is a 12- litre 2-way acoustic suspension design with higher-than-average sensitivity. The 160mm bass/midrange driver em-ploys a light, rigid paper cone bonded to an outer roll suspension manufactured from a carefully matched damped PVC compound . . . while the voice coil is bonded with high temperature polyamide, and the aluminium coil former is vented for increased power handling. Ultra- light components are used in the construction of the 50mm paper cone treble unit. Together with its small diameter voice coil and care-fully designed dust dome, these provide high sensitivity coupled with excellent treble extension. Ideal as a bookshelf speaker, the HP140 is enclosed in a vinyl walnut finish cabinet with an attractive high impact polystyrene grille using low loss, opaque cloth.

COMET PRICE £34.88 inc. VAT

SOLAVOX HP170 LOUDSPEAKERS

Designed to serve as a stand-positioned or a bookshelf speaker, the 17- litre 2-way HP170 sets a new standard in its class. With a power handling of 70 watts, it will enhance programmes from inexpensive systems — yet also provide the high standard of musical accuracy demanded by compact disc digital sound sources. The 200mm bass/midrange driver incorporates a top quality rigid flared pulp cone, carefully matched to an outer suspension manufactured from a unique rubber/PVC compound. A higher than average power handling performance is achieved by use of a voice coil incorporating a vented aluminium former and high tem-perature adhesives. The linen dust dome is coated with a PVA damping material to reduce distortion and maintain a smooth frequency response beyond the créessover frequency without introducing any discon-tinuity. In the 19mm plastic dome treble unit, a high temperature voice coil and ferrofluid magnetic damping ensure excellent power handling. The 4-element crossover provides' superb integration and stereo imaging.

COMET PRICE £44.88 inc. VAT

ALL SPEAKERS ARE PRICED AS PAIRS

SOLAVOX HP180 LOUDSPEAKERS

The 20- litre 3-way HP180, with its acoustic suspension design and in- line drive unit mounting, has a 'power handling of 80 watts and provides excellent stereo imaging. It incorporates the same high quality 200mm bass/midrange driver as the HP170 system to maintain smooth frequency response and to achieve above average power handling. The 50mm midrange unit is constructed of a patented mineral-filled homopolymer of polypropylene, with an integral dust dome for improved high frequency response. The voice coil is constructed of high temperature materials, and ferro-fluid is used in the magnetic gap for increased power handling as well as providing magnetic resonance damping. Completing a superb speaker system is a 19mm plastic dome treble unit using a high quality lightweight assembly to give a smooth response beyond 20 kHz. The Solavox HP speaker range, exclusive to Comet. Setting new standards in value-for-money sound!

COMET PRICE £49.88 inc. VAT

DISCOUNT HI-FI AND VIDEO

10/84 400A

5 YEAR GUARANTEE You have the option to extend your guarantee to 5years including parts and labour for one single payment.

Just one single payment

brings you five years

protection against

rising costs!

HI-FI Complete Hi-Fi Systems £32.95 Music Centres £25.95 Digital Audio Disc Players £34.95 Amplifiers £12.95 Tuners £12.95 Turntables (excl. cartridge

and stylus) £12.95 Tuner/Amplifiers £14.95 Tape Decks (cassette) £13.95 Pair of Speakers £12.95 Separates bought together to

form a complete system £32.95

TELEVISIONS Black and White, up to and incl. 16" . £16.95 Black and White, over 16" £18.95 Colour, up to and including 16" £29.95 Colour, over 16" £38.95 Teletext Sets £46.95

The FIVE STAR OPTION is also available

VIDEO Video Disc Players (5 years) £84.95 Video Recorders

(2nd and 3rd year only) £49.95 Video Recorders (5 years) £89.95 Video Colour Cameras (5 years) £35.95

AUDIO *Citizens Band Radio £14.95 *Car Radio and In-Car Hi-Fi £15.95 • Excludes aerials.

Clock Radios £9.95 Transistor Radios £9.95 Cassette Players £10.95 Radio/Cassette Players £10.95 Stereo Radio/Cassette Players £19.95

PERSONAL COMPUTERS Home Computers (Console only) £29.95

on most other items stocked at Comet

IT'S WORTH TAKING THE OPTION This Insured Scheme is underwritten by the Prudential Assurance Co. Ltd.

In most cases Comet carry out service - without charge to you. However. should a manufacturer's service agent require payment, simply complete the insurance claim form for a full refund of the repair charge

INSTANT CREDIT UP TO £720 WITH NO DEPOSIT(A.P.R. 26.8 %) Apply at any Comet branch to open a Budget Account,

Instant Credit of 24 times your monthly payment (from £5), e.g. £10 a month gives you £240 purchasing power. Comet, Head Office: George House, George Street, Hull is a Credit Broker for this service.

£1,000 and OVER, 10% DEPOSIT, WITH UP TO 5 YEARS TO PAY, by equal monthly instalments. FLAT RATE 141/20/o A.P.R. 26.7°/o. Example: An assortment of items, Cash Price £1,099.00. Deposit £109.00 repayable by 60 monthly instalments of £28.47. TOTAL CREDIT PRICE £1,817.20.

Comet Radiovision Services Limited, George House, George Street, Hull.

Order by Mail or Telephone Leeds 0532 440551, using ACCESS, BARCLAYCARD or COMET CARD, or simply phone your nearest Comet branch and pay the driver on delivery.

All prices quoted in Comet's Advertisements are correct at time of going to press.

comIrr CREDIT CARD

MAIL ORDER Send your requirements to the Comet Warehouse listed, including the appropriate delivery charge in your cheque or postal order, made payable to "COMET". If buying on ACCESS, BARCLAYCARD or COMET CARD include your card number and mark your order "ACCESS/ BARCLAYCARD/COMET CARD". Goods purchased by mail order are origin marked in accordance with the Trade Descriptions (Origin Markings) Miscellaneous Goods Order, 1981, and are returnable within 14 days in accordance with the above Order.

Securicor Delivery: All stock items will be delivered by Securicor ( mainland UK only). Please add £5.75 to your order for this service. All goods are fully insured against loss or damage whilst in transit

Postage and Packing ( per item): Cartridges 70p, Styli 55p, Headphones £1.60, Microphones £1.30.

Blank tapes - per order, irrespective of quantity, Spool tapes 80p, Cassettes 55p, Video tapes 80p.

OPEN DAILY TO THE PUBLIC Monday to Friday 9 am until 8 pm (Saturday until 5.30 pm)

SCOTTISH BRANCHES ARE ALSO OPEN SUNDAY 10 am until 5 pm

(except Ayr, Dumfries and Greenock)

For the address of your nearest COMET branch, see your local Telephone Directory

or Ring Teledata 24-hour service on 01-200 0200

MAIL ORDER FORM: To Comet Discount Warehouses, 78 Armley Road, Leeds LS12 2EF

oty Manufacturer Model Description

Comet Discount Price

Securicor Delivery P + P*

I enclose my cheque/postal order for TOTAL £ made payable to Comet or debit my ACCESS* 0/BARCLAYCARD 0/COMET CREDIT CARD* D

nick appropriate box) CARD No.

Name

Address

Signature LHFN

DISCOUNT HI-FI AND VIDEO

10/84

686-2599 CLASSIFIED 686-2599 Advertisements for this section must be pre-paid. The rate is 25p per word (private), minimum £5.00 Box Nos. £2.50 extra. Trade rates 32p per word, minimum £8.00. Copy and remittance for advertisements in December issue must reach these offices by 15th October addressed to: The Advertisement Manager, Hi-Fi News & Record Review, Link House, Dingwall Avenue, Croydon, Surrey, CR9 2TA. Please include name and address. Cheques made payable to Link House Magazines (Croydon) PLC. NOTE: Advertisement copy must be clearly printed in block capitals or typewritten, illegible copy will be returned.

Replies to Box numbers should be addressed to the Advertisement Manager, Hi-Fi News & Record Review, Link House, Dingwall Avenue, Croydon CR9 2TA, and the Box No. quoted on the outside of the envelope. The district after Box No. indicates its locality.

Sex Discrimination Act 1975. No job advertisement which indicates or can reasonably be understood as indicating an intention to discriminate on grounds of sex (eg. by inviting applications only from males or only from females) may be accepted unless; (1) The job is for the purpose of a private householder or (2) It is in a business employing less than six persons or (3) It is otherwise excepted from the requirements of the Sex Discrimination Act. A statement must be made at the time the advertisement is placed saying which of the exceptions in the Act is considered to apply.

FOR SALE - Private

HITACHI CD PLAYER Perfect £ 195 Sansui R50 receiver £50 Tel: 01 455 6838 ( K)

CASTLE HOWARD II excellent condition £300. or p/ex LS3/5As. Grace F9E new unopened £75. Rega R200 arm factory recon-ditioned £25 ono. Tel: Biggin Hill 73056 evenings ( K)

ABSOLUTE wire - speaker cable 2 x 5 mtrs. £25 ono. Beam Box FM10 Aerial ( Prevents Multi-path distortion) £25 ono Tel: 01 941 5549 ( H); 01 572-7383 x + 291 B. Gowan (W). (K)

J.B.L. L.100A speakers Amcron Amplifiers. Technics deck. Entre Lentek Hadcock D.B.X. Offer Lots of Money. Ring loudly Greenhithe 845187 ( K)

IMF Studio Export speakers, Transmission line design giving extended low frequency response. £100 ono demonstration possible. A.B. Hunter 031-664 8666. ( K)

AUDIOJUMBLE (Euston) including CYCLE-JUMBLE. Once-only Secondhand Bazaar, Sunday 7th October, 1pm/5pm, Gandhi Hall, Fitzroy Square, W.1. (Tube: Warren Street). Sell-off your unwanted equipment - immedi-ate stallbookings half-price! s.a.e.67 Liver-pool Road, London N1 ORH (01-837 7811). ( K)

ARISTON RD115 Rega R200 Osawa 60L crimson 510-520 Celef Domestic 35. £450 will split. Sugden A48 £100. Tel Ilkeston 303423 ( K)

TANNOY YORK SPEAKERS (Pair) fitted 15" monitors. Buyer collects. £95. Box No. 0716 (K)

COLLOMS FANS! - Lux PD300 £295. PD 131 £145. Gyrodec £395. Technics SL7 £125. Arms FR 64S £195. AT 1010 £75. Helius £75. - 0444 85 444 ( K)

TVAI Valve amps (serviced) £395. Albarry M408(2) £295. Audiostatic ES240 electrosta-tics ( beauty and bass) £495. CILN1 £195. Cartridges - Karat 23R, FR2, MC201 (new) £95, EPC205 Ill £30 - 0444 85 444 ( K)

QUAD 33 & 405 (unused) £280. No offers. London collection. Evenings 01-994 4517 ( K)

VOIGHT HORNER HORN home built C.1938 can demonstrate. Buyer collects. Offers please. Tel Falfield 261022 (Evenings). ( K)

TANNOY Mansfields, Teak, 15" H.P.D. Mint £275, IMF TL50 Monitors, £75, Various stereo amplifiers, valve and transistor, Revox FM, Brenell Mk.5 Series 3, ( Mint), Mk.6 ST200, Full Track Stereo, Garrard 401/SME 2000 Plinth/12" Arm, £125. Too much to list, - Leeds 705965 (K)

PAIR Radford MA25 Ill valve amplifiers - overhauled sell £180 or exchange quality loudspeakers e.g. Yamaha, Spendor, Rogers, Mission, Kef. Peter Milton Keynes (0908-322730) (K)

QUALITY VALVES! Brimar ECC83-I2AX7 & ECC 81 £1.75ea; EL 506/£3.25; 6B4G/£8.75; Mullard EL84/£2.75; ECF82/£1.50; EF86/ £1.85; PL519/£6.35;. Postage £1. SAE Lists. Mail order only. N. Covington. 25, Ridge Road, Letchworth, Herts ( K)

TWO RADFORD FN 10 C/O UNITS Ex. B139/B110/T27 (60W.) £20 R.A. Morris, 32 Broadway Close Sutton Farm Shrewsbury SY2 6HY. Phone Evenings 0743 - 61653. ( K)

FOR SALE - Trade

RIMS COMPACT DISCS Sent on Approval

Prompt Post Free Service

Popular and Classical Catalogue NA rite for details and current lists to:

RO DIGITAL SUPPLIES 15 Mill Lane, Alwalton, Peterborough, Cambs.

glassic "A sonic knockout .. ." Ken Kessler

Hi-Fi News. . July 84

The musical valve moving-coil step-up device.

For details: N. Shed, 11 Deva Terrace, Chester. Tel: 0244 40575

VALUE TECHNOLOGY LIVES ON! GSI Musical Electronics offers parts modification manuals, and kits for the valve enthusiast. Preamps, power amp input circuits, electro-nic crossover networks. Please forward two IRC's for our latest catalogue; GS! Dept HFN 578 Nepperhan Avenue Yonkers, New York, 10701 USA.

QUAD 33 UPDATE

This versatile control unit was introduced in the 1900S. hut modern source material has demonstrated that the 33 adds a 'richness' or bloom' to all inputs. Our plug-in SBIOIA e) circuit boards replace two internal Quad boards, bypassing tone and balance controls giving an immediate improvement In disc. radio/CD. and tape treble clarity and bass tightness'.

SBIOIA C) pair - 1:24.50 with Instructions.

CD INPUT ATTENUATOR Our SB200 C) (5 pin DIN) and SB235 e (phonoplug) in- line attenuators match 2v-output CD players into typical 100mV Radio/Ass inputs ( like Quads') dramatically improving image transparency and eliminating overload distortion

SB200 C) - E9.80 S11235 02.25

SOUNDBOX, 35 FINCHES PARK ROAD, LINDFIELD,W.SUSSEX RH16 2DA

THORENS. We specialise. All available Geniune spares and accessories from TD124 & TD150 to current range. Servicing, Repairs, Refurbishing. Technical & General, 35 Mar-low Road, London SE20 7XX 01 778 3737. (K)

SHURE. We specialise and stock all available Geniune cartridges and styli including 78s and 'oldies'. Also specialist styli for early recordings. Technical & General, 35 Marlow Road, London SE20 7XX 01 778 3737 ( K)

ORTOFON.Comprehensive range stocked, including styli for older, deleted models. New ON1 range now in stock. Technical & General, 35 Marlow Road, London SE20 7XX 01 778 3737 ( K)

We specialise in the great classic turntables and P/Us. Connoisseur; Garrard; Goldring; Lenco; SME; Thorens; ADC; Ortofon; Shure; Pickering. All available items and spares stocked. Repairs and re-furbishing in our own workshops. Technical and General, 35 Marlow Road, London SE20 7XX 01 778 3737 (K)

COMPACT DISCS £7.95 on special introduc-tory offer. Free lists. Export prices. Overseas specialists. 1st class, no problems service. Europadisc, 91 North Street, Sudbury, Suf-folk. ( M)

SONY ELCASET CASSETTES. LC60 type 1 £1.00. LC90 type 1 £ 1.50. LC60 type 2 £1.50. LC60 type 2 £1.99. Callers welcome 11am-7.30pm 6 days. SHADOOS 162 Wilmslow Road, Rusholme, Manchester M14 5LQ. Tel: 061-224 4215. ( D)

176 HI-Fl NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 19114

686-2599 CLASSIFIE FOR SALE - Trade

QUALITY audio valves, inc. KT77, ECC83, ECC88. Data sheets, circuits available. 1000V polypropylene capacitors for signal cou-pling. SAE price list. New: 6AS7G for OTL amplifiers, £2.95. G.P. Ormiston, 6, Farthing Grove, Netherfield, Milton Keynes, M K6 4HH. (J)

SOCIETIES

BERLIOZ SOCIETY. Founded thirty years ago, this Society provides a meeting ground for people who love the music of Hector Berlioz and are interested in the highways and byways of his life and work. Monthly meetings in London, quarterly Bulletin. Send s.a.e. for details to: Hon Secretary, 2nd Floor Flat, 115 Harley Street, London W1 (X)

SERVICES

spendor For repairs to Spendor and other high quality loudspeakers.

Reconditioned and ex demonstration loudspeakers occasionally available for sale at a considerable discount.

Barnard Electronics Tel: 01 531 8705

SERVICES

DISC CUTTING. Master and demos. Press-ings Cassettes, mobile recording studio. Free brochure. TAM Studio. 13a Hamilton Way, London N3. Tel: 01-346 0033. ( X)

WANTED

WANTED caodmans .;xiom 80 pairs ( both old and new types) S.M.E. Pick up arms 3009 and 3012 ( nul improved versions) Canard Turntable: Model 301 Quad 22 pre-amplifier and Quad II power amplifiers FINIT players 928. 9:10ST and 927 Studer 862 Eurodvn C71233-Ab-A1 ( pair) TannoY 15. 12" and 10" Monitor Cold. Red and Sliver pairs Tannoy Autograph. (1RF and Rectangular York 6RE in enclosures ( pairs)

Please write to/or ring with price Miss T twonogo

HTS Japan, 96 George Street, London W1H 5R1 Tel: 01-487.5038

WANTED - VINTAGE VALVE HI-FI

Always required - quality salage valve related Hi-Fi equipment, such as Amplifiers: Quad Stereo & Mono systems, Lowther, Radford. Leak TL12,

Stereo 50 & Stereo 60, etc. Turntables: Garrard 301, Goldring 88, Thorens TD124. Pickup arms & heads: Decca FFSS, SME 3009 & 3012, EM L. etc. Loudspeakers: Tannoy, Goodmans, etc.

Full "Wanted List" with prices offered available upon request. Buyer can call within 250 miles radius of Bristol.

The Viatale Wireless Company, Tudor Houe, Coultas Street, Kuptelielid, Bristol, BS173EN. Telephone (0272) 565472 Anytime.

D 686-2599 PUBLICATIONS

CRABBE ON BEETHOVEN. Would you like to see 'a picture of the furniture of Beethoven's mind' ( Radio 3: Music Weekly), study a book with 'an exhilarating quality of sheer intellec-tual toughness' (Colin Wilson), or consider a great composer from a viewpoint 'refreshingly free of judgements based on long-standing inaccuracies' (Times Literary Supplement)? Then you should read Beeth-oven's Empire of the Mind, a biography-with-a-difference by John Crabbe, one-time editor of HFN/RR. Available from bookshops at £5.95, or post-free from the publisher: Lovell/Baines Print Ltd., Hollington Farm, Woolton Hill, Newbury, Berks RG15 9XN (X)

RECORDS FOR SALE

OLIVER CROMBE Records Import Compact Disc Catlogue now available. We have in stock many Classical, Jazz and Popular titles exclusive to us. UK residents please send 16p stamp, overseas please send sufficient International Reply Coupons to cover airmail postage. Permanent 10% discount off all CDs, plus post & packing free within UK. We are open seven days a week. Access & Visa accepted. 16 Golders Green Road. London NW11. Tel 01-455 0066. ( L)

NEW ORLEANS JAZZ - original and authen-tic recordings. Order soon for Christmas. Send long SAE for extensive list to: New Orleans Jazz Imports, 11, Ettrick Court, Cross St., Farnborough, Hants ( K)

Absolute Sounds 42 Acoustic Arts 116 Alternative Audio 142 Aston Audio Ltd 110, 140 Audio Excellence 38 Audio File 14 Audio Projects 142 Audio Tel 22 Audition Hi Fi Studio 142 Aurak 140 Avalon Hi Fi Studio 20, 142 Avon Hi Fi 86 B&W Loudspeakers 114 Bang & Olufsen Ltd 26 Barnard Electronics 177 Bartletts 54 Basically Sound 83 Bath Classical Records 140 Bauch Ltd, FWO 106 Beckenham Record Centre 140 Bedford Audio 140 Beechwood Audio 13, 140 Bespoke Audio 83 Billy Vee Sound 82 Bose IBC Bowers & Wilkins 142 Brady & Son, W. A. 38, 87, 142 Brighton Cassette & Hi Fi 140 Cam Audio 122 Chichester Hi Fi 82, 142 Chris Brooks Audio 83 Cloney, Noel 86 Comet 144 - 175 Compact Disc Library /0 Concordant Audio 120 Convent Garden Records 116 Eastern Audio 82 EU2 Musik 87 Exchange & Mart 120 Exposure Electronics 104 Five Ways High Fidelity 140 G.E. Manders 83

ADVERTISER'S INDEX Glassic Goldring Grado Products H.T.S. Japan H.W. International Haller Hampshire Audio Harmonia Mundi Harrow Audio Hayden Laboratories Ltd Hi Fi Corner Hi Fi Markets Hi Fi Surplus Store High Tech Antennae Hitachi JCV Organization Limited Jeffries Hi Fi K.J. Leisuresound KEF Electronics Ltd Kevin Edwards Laskys Marantz Audio ( UK) Ltd Maxell Merrow Sound Merseyside Developments Mission Electronics Monitor Sound Hi Fi Studio Moorgate Acoustics Munro Electronics Musical Fidelity NAD NAD Watford Nagaoka Nick Dakin Norman Audio/Hightown Audio O'Brien M. P.S. Audio Parabolic Stylus Co Peter Ellis Audio Phase 3 Hi Fi Phonograph Ltd Photocraft Hi Fi

176 44 60 177

68, 79 64 25 78 120

66, 92 98 - 11

12 51

IFC 18, 87

82, 116 86,96

108, 109 16

30, 32 62, 102, 103

58, 59 142 14

OBC 96 142 72 80 90 52 28 140 15

136 36 72 82 142 72 140

Practical Hi Fi Pure Gain QED Audio Products R & J Shopfitters R.O. Digital Supplies Radford Electronics Radlett Audio Rayleigh Hi Fi Reading Hi Fi Centre Rob Ritchie Hi Fi Ron Smith Aerials Russ Andrews Russ Andrews Turntable Rutter, L.J. S.M.E. Ltd Selective Audio Sevenoaks Hi Fi Sound Advice Soundbox Sounds Expensive Spaldings Electrical Ltd Sportscene Publishers Stanford Distribution Subjective Audio Swisstone Electronics Ltd Tannoy Products Technics Teledyne Acoustic Research The Audio Amateur The Audio Counsel The Music Room The Vintage Wireless Co Thomas Heinitz Tonbridge Hi Fi Consultants Top Tape Unilet Watts. Cecil West Midlands Audio Wharfedale Wiley, Eric Wilson Stereo Library, The

14E) 96 21 In

17n

13 112

86 48 140 16

142 20 142

46,47 83, 140, 142

176 120

17, 86 128 14 56 19

2/, 23 74, 75 40, 41

21 87 19

177 48 87 136 100 48 87

34,35 83,142

13

Fil-El NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 19114 177

THE COVER OF THIS ALBUM has never been much of a recommendation for its contents: Nils poses

unconvincingly in a haze of bluelit dry ice, with two pieces from the shirt he is actually wearing fluttering forlornly from the head of his guitar. The last turkey in town heads for the bargain birs, one might be forgiven for thinkirg. But wait just one guitar pickin' minute! Cry Tough (A&M AMLH64573) represents the full flowering of the rock/pop genius of a man who, despite being of mixed Swedish/Italian heritage, knew more about what constitutes a good song than a 100 Brit/Yank guitar abusers stacked butt to butt. Unfortunately, Cry Tough is also notable as Lofgren's last great LP (to date, at any rate), for his career since then ( 1976) has disappeared down a big hill accompanied by the screech of slipping standards and the slack-skinned percussion of a toy trampoline. What makes Cry Tough so special is that it

is one of the purest rock ' n' roll expressions of the soft-centred hardcase. This archetypal breed has proved irresistible to the popular music an, who, fcr the most part, has made a complete hash of coming on mean, moody and magnificently flawed by sentiment. Just consicer the mess most heavy metal merchants have made of their role model: the tough vagaoond, who calls nowbere home, with no man friend waiting for his wild tiger woman to come and take him to the cleaners, has degenerated into a gibbering monster hamstrung by ludicrous posturing and mindless misogyny. Elvis Presley, Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix and a handful of other (mostly dead) people carried it off effortlessly. And, of course, Nils Lofgren. The songs or this album are concerned

with love, spite. yearning and resignation in endless rotation, a speeded up newsreel of one man's affairs and catastrophes. There are no songs about life on the road. You may well be wondering quite what is so special about this, but that would be to overlook the type of musical framework within which Lofgren works: guitar oriented rock ( GOR!). Cry Tough is absolutely littered with solos, and anyone who has a passing acquaintance with mega-fret music will have observed that guitar solos are usually present in inverse proportion to the lyrical muse. Not so with Lofgren, however, whose guitar antics spring 'rom the foundations of a set of understated, yet melodic, tunes ( not riffs). The opening (title) track is a perfect example of the subtlety of technique employed throughout: quietly ominous synthesiser and table patterings introduce the enigmatic tale of a chap wIth a dancing date and no appetite for it— ' Doctor Feelgood, I promised this lady, if I car't dance, She's gonna break my nose', he explains to his ' physician'. Lightly strummed acoustic guitar takes up the rhythm, gradually joined by bass,

backing vocals, drums and finally Lofgren's precise slide guitar, until the song fires up into an electric blaze exactly mirroring Dr. Feelgood's advice that the boy just needed 'another shot of rock ' n' roll' (doubtless with apologies to Arthur Alexander). While we're on the subject of

instrumentation, the line-up of supporting musicians on Cry Tough is impressive. Three tracks feature one of the great '70s rhythm sections: Wornell Jones ( bass) and Aynsley Dunbar (drums). They had played throughout Lofgren's first solo album the previous year (Nils Lofgren), and the story was that their limited involvement on the follow-up revolved around Lofgren's inability to afford their rates! Their replacements were scarcely nonentities in Jim Gordon (drums) and Chuck Rainey, Paul Stallworth ( bass). They ensured a tight, uncluttered and swinging backdrop for Lofgren's cameos. Also involved in the proceedings was Al Kooper, legendary Dylan chum, who produced half the LP (the other half: David Briggs) and played keyboards on

BACK .5100a

Pete Clark dissects Nils Lofgren's

Cr Tou. h album

several tracks. Among the credited backing vocalists, the name of Buddy Miles appears and Mr. Lofgren deserves our thanks for restricting him to that role. Yet Cry Tough is basically the sum of

Lofgren's parts— songwriting, singing, guitar and keyboard pyrotechnics. The key to his strength in these areas ( greater in some than in others, it has to be admitted) lies in his phenomenal pedigree. At the age of 17, he walked off with a stack of credits for Neil Young's After The Goldrush and the following year ( 1971) contributed in no small part to the ( artistic) success of the debut Crazy Horse album. Thereafter he produced four albums with his own band, Grin, the first two of which are worth anybody's attention, before finally achieving solo status. Lofgren's first musical inspiration was Jimi Hendrix and although his style contains no trace of the Hendrix guitar anarchy, it is clearly influenced by his more mellifluous excursions. The resemblance does not end there: when Hendrix claimed he 'almost sang', he might as well have been speaking for Lofgren. By Cry Tough, Lofgren has lost the almost childlike tones of some of

his earlier work, but his voice retains a breathy fragility which is often entertainingly at odds with the vigorously muscular music. The songs on the LP deal with boys and

girls and the unending stream of problems which seem to be thrown up whenever the twain meet. Lofgren's particular talent is setting down these tales of love lost, found or thwarted, in a mildly oblique manner which successfully avoids the deadening taint of cliché. 'Incidentally ... It's Over' is ostensibly a story of the offhanded rejection of an unfortunate young lady, but Lofgren succeeds in sketching in just enough detail to suggest a just cause for his actions: 'I don't laugh out loud the way you do, baby you treat me like I'm back in school' hints at a history of minor, but cumulative, humiliations. 'Mud In Your Eye' is an extraordinary account of selective and callous misogyny, wherein a feckless female carouses her way through her sweetheart's cash and then ditches him for the narrator. He, in turn, arouses her interest and then discards her abruptly, explaining at the end of the song that the original sweetheart was, in fact, his brother. 'Mud In Your Eye' is also unusual in that it is the only fully acoustic number of the album, with Lofgren's piano and guitar superbly complemented by Scott Ball's moody upright bass figures and Holden Raphael's insistent percussive effects.

On 'Can't Get Closer' the tables are turned as our hero laments his hopeless love for his best friend's girl — ' I've tried everything and I ain't exactly plain'. Worse follows in 'You Lit A Fire' where Lofgren details his all-consuming passion for a worthless floozy: 'I worked late at nights, thinking you did the same, Instead you slept around and disgraced my good name, It hurts me to know you're not even ashamed'. Yet despite all this, the passion rages. It is only on the

last track of all, 'Jailbait', that true happiness (albeit with its own vicissitudes) is attained: in the arms of a fourteen-year-old who invites our boy to 'slip off your boots and share my father's gin'. Unfortunately, the girl's father comes home early, having been fired from his job, and the hero beats a hasty retreat through the window, promising to be back. Soaring guitars match his pulse rate throughout. The only non-original on Cry Tough is Graham Gouldman's 'For Your Love', lyrically in keeping with the overall tone of the record, but more notable for its instrumental work-outs. The song is delivered over a mutant reggae shuffle which suddenly halts as Lofgren takes off on a galloping double-time tangent to deliver a demonstration in the art of building a guitar solo. Because it so effortlessly marries songs

with instrumental flash, Cry Tough is an album for all seasons: play it soft and thrill to its nuances, play it loud and chew the furniture. Now that Nils has joined Bruce Springsteen's circus of overblown Americana, we may not see its like again. lit-

178 HI-FI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW OCTOBER 1984

IT'S THE ONLY COLOURATIONI YOU'LL GET

WITH THE NEW BOSE 301 RANGE.

Bose announce the 301 Series II bookshelf speaker

As you can see, it comes in five eye-catching colour combinations, as well as the more sober walnut and beige illustrated below.

More importantly perhaps, the new 301 boasts a crossover network specifically designed to avoid the irregularities in frequency response that can cause colouration.

We call it Dual Frequency crossover By precisely balancing the phase

and amplitude of the signal passing to each driver it allows both HF and bass drivers to operate together over nearly a full octave. Producing remark-able uniformity of response.

Like all Bose Direct/Reflecting Sound speakers, the 301 Series II recreates the clear spacious sound of a live performance.

It's done by a unique configuration of three high-performance drivers that reproduces true balanced stereo in every corner of the listening room.

And pumps a healthy 75 watts rms out of each 17 x 101/2 inch cabinet.

At a retail price of £225 a pair the Bose 301 Series II may not be exactly cheap.

But there again it's one of the most economical ways of buying a genuine Direct/Reflecting Sound speaker .174175E"

WAU. TO WALL SOUND

BOSE 301

Series II BOSE (UK) Ltd, Trinity Trading Estate, Unit 62, Sittingbourne, Kent Mt U) 'PD

LECTFIDElIC

because people like music

Mission Electronics Limited, Huntingdon PE18 6ED, England. Phone: ( 0480) 57477 Telex: 32333