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In Reply to: RE: The Audio League Report Dec. 1954, Vol. 1 , No. 3 - WM4 & Flewelling Air Coupler posted by freddyi on October 15, 2009 at 14:24:22
Great bit of audio history!
It's interesting how things come and go, and then come back again sometime later. The Klipschorn is praised as one of the best speakers available in the mid 50's by the Audio League, but was largely forgotten during the heyday of Stereo Review where Julian Hirsch was a major player . I had a subscription for some ten years, from the late 70's into the late 80's, and the Klipschorn was never tested, and was only mentioned briefly a few times. This was the era where amps got bigger and speakers got smaller. The dispute between Consumer Union and the Audio League, over how things were measured and ranked, preceded a similar dispute some years later when Stereo Review took Consumer Reports to task in an editorial criticizing their use of response in an anechoic chamber as the main criteria for ranking speakers, and pointed out that speakers perform much differently in a room than what anechoic measurements would indicate. Bose later brought a law suit against Consumer Reports for a bad review of the 901, based largely on this issue as I recall, and I can imagine how the 901's did'nt fare too well in the anechoic chamber. Recently I learned that J. Gordon Holt quit the staff of Stereo Review over what he felt was an undeserved rave review of the 901, and went on to found his own magazine: Stereophile, which he later sold, and then later jumped ship over to The Absolute Sound. Speaking of TAS, has anyone read Jonathan Valins's review of the big Magico speakers in the recent issue? He starts out by saying that he does'nt like large speakers because of cabinet resonances and edge diffraction issues, but gives the Magicos a rave review in the event that the reader just had to have large speakers. Valin must save a lot of money by buying the cheapest seats when he attends symphonic concerts, if he believes that mini-monitors sound more like an orchestra than larger high efficiency speakers. Well, it all comes down to where you consider the best seats in the house to be. The designer of the Magicos is interviewed, and submits the revelation that closed box designs can go much lower in bass response than a comparable ported design can. He does'nt reveal how this magic trick is accomplished, but his speakers are called Magicos, and magicians are a secretive group.
Thanks Freddy!
Paul
Julian seemed fond of AR as reference from the inception of The Audio League and IIRC, later in Stereo Review testing Kiipsch La Scala , AR was mentioned as being lower in distortion of the two (probably at 30Hz sine wave)
Listen to John Karlson in 1964 lash against CONSUMER REPORTS
Fred
I forgot about Karlson's beef with Consumer Reports, which seemed to boil down to the experts vs. the dilettantes driving the market. T'was ever thus!
Paul
interviewer he thinks the CR reviewers that were sampling the liquor in the same magazine, must have reviewed the speakers after the liquor!!! Classic...
He sounding he was pretty miffed....
-chris
O.
Karlson was out of his depth on the cut-throat business end of things, but he did have the ability to peer into the future. Former hi-end reviewer Jonathan Scull used to mention the brand of cognac he was drinking while enjoying the equipment under review, and I wonder if the more perceptive manufacturers noted this. Who knows what could "fall offa truck". Even Art Dudley, who I like, described an ideal review session with the manufacturer's guy showing up at his house for a couple of days stay with the speakers and "...a nice bottle of wine...". I'd bring a bottle of Veuve Clicquot, with several in reserve on ice in the car if needed (don't want to be pushy). Just the stuff if someone' else is buying (or it's tax deductable). Capt. Renault and Maj. Strasser drank it in Casablanca.
Paul
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