Focal Chora 806 Loudspeakers

Details: Written by Diego Estan; Created: 15 February 2020

Note: Measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada's National Research Council can be found through this link.

Reviewers' Choice Lately, I’ve gotten a lot of exposure to Focal products. In the September edition of SoundStage! Hi-Fi I reviewed their expensive Spectral 40th floorstanding speaker ($9999 pair; all prices USD), and I’m not ashamed to say that I gushed over them, and strongly considered buying a pair for my reference system. That impulse was reined in only by my commitment to subwoofer-satellite combos. Now in my room is one pair each of two different two-way minimonitors from Focal: the Sopra No1 ($9990/pair), review forthcoming on SoundStage! Hi-Fi; and the less expensive Chora 806 ($990/pair), which better fits the SoundStage! Access brief of affordable audio gear.

Beck: "Hyperspace"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 15 February 2020

Capitol B003113602
Format: CD

Musical Performance

Sound Quality

Overall Enjoyment

Beck’s last album, Colors (2017), was frothy and bouncy. It wasn’t profound in any way, except in its attention to the musical details that make for fun pop music. Though the lyrics lacked the depth of Modern Guilt (2008), Morning Phase (2014), or even The Information (2006), they were more emotionally layered than the songs’ sunny exteriors at first led one to believe. The charms of Colors were its hummable melodies and the obvious enjoyment Beck took in playing and singing them. I liked it a lot.

My System's Most Important Component -- My Room

Details: Written by Diego Estan; Created: 01 February 2020

I vividly remember the first time I set up my two-channel system in a dedicated listening room. The year was 2000, I was 25, and I’d just bought my first home. Although I was already eight or nine years along on my audiophile journey, until then my systems had been set up in the living room of a two-bedroom apartment, and before that in my bedroom in my parents’ basement. I was excited to have a 15’L x 12’W room dedicated to my cherished stereo -- even if was still in the basement, it was my very own listening room. In fact, I’d chosen the house partly based on the minimum requirements of a space dedicated to serious listening.

SVS SB-2000 Pro Subwoofer

Details: Written by Diego Estan; Created: 01 February 2020

Reviewers' Choice SVS has a loyal following of audio enthusiasts who covet and value solid bass reproduction at reasonable prices. I’m one of that number -- my two-channel system includes two SVS SB-4000 subwoofers ($1499.99/each; all prices USD), and when I reviewed the SB-3000 ($999.99) for SoundStage! Access last June, I was so impressed that I bought the review sample and put it to work in my home theater.

Leonard Cohen: "Thanks for the Dance"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 01 February 2020

Columbia/Legacy 19075978662
Format: CD

Musical Performance

Sound Quality

Overall Enjoyment

When, after an eight-year pause, Leonard Cohen returned to the studio in 2012 with Old Ideas, he was 78, and mortality was already very much on his mind. That album and the ones that followed, Popular Problems (2014) and You Want It Darker (2016), looked at spirituality, past loves, joy, and pain -- life, in other words, in all its glory and awfulness, its redeeming moments and its agonies. Cohen’s health was failing when he worked on You Want It Darker, recorded in his home with the help of his son, Adam Cohen, a well-regarded singer-songwriter in his own right.

MartinLogan Motion 60XTi Loudspeakers

Details: Written by Diego Estan; Created: 15 January 2020

Note: Measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada's National Research Council can be found through this link.

Reviewers' Choice Q: What are those funny-looking speakers in Joey and Chandler’s apartment on Friends?

A: MartinLogans!

It’s fair to say that MartinLogan is at least partially responsible for popularizing the electrostatic speaker.

Gene Clark: "No Other"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 15 January 2020

4AD 0070 LDX
Format: 2 CDs

Musical Performance

Sound Quality

Overall Enjoyment

Singer-songwriter Gene Clark’s career was filled with the kinds of bad decisions, personal problems, and bad timing that lead to cult status for someone who should have been a star. As a founding member of the Byrds, Clark wrote or cowrote some of their most popular songs, including “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better” and “Eight Miles High.” He left the Byrds in 1966, after three albums, and over the next few years released two solo albums, Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers (1967) and White Light (1971), that were early examples of country rock and Americana.

Digitizing and Room-Correcting for Vinyl -- Taking Full Advantage of the Anthem STR Preamplifier's Phono Stage

Details: Written by Diego Estan; Created: 01 January 2020

In my December feature on SoundStage! Access, “Setting Up Speakers and Subwoofers Using Anthem’s STR Preamplifier with ARC Genesis,” I discussed my experience of using the sophisticated Anthem Room Correction Genesis software built into the STR Preamplifier. I explained the many benefits of ARC Genesis, outlined a shortcoming of using ARC Genesis in my own system, and wondered, given that the STR Preamplifier has a built-in phono stage, what it might be like to apply ARC Genesis to my record player’s output. Of course, that last would require digitizing my cartridge’s signal -- sacrilege to the analogophile.

Audiolab 6000CDT CD Transport

Details: Written by Diego Estan; Created: 01 January 2020

The UK company Audiolab has been around since the early 1980s. Some readers may know or remember them as TAG McLaren Audio -- the ownership and branding changed in 1997, but in 2003 TAG McLaren ceased production, and in 2004 Audiolab, once again under its original name, became part of the International Audio Group.