Paradigm Defiance V12 Subwoofer

Details: Written by Diego Estan; Created: 15 September 2019

Reviewers' Choice I recently reviewed Paradigm’s Premier 100B minimonitor loudspeaker, and came away very impressed by it for its price of $798/pair USD -- though I thought the little speaker’s 5.5” midrange-woofer could have used some help with the lower octaves. What should happen next, before I’d even packed up the Premier 100Bs to send them back, but Doug Schneider asking me to review Paradigm’s Defiance V12 subwoofer ($649) -- a happy coincidence.

Elephant9: “Psychedelic Backfire I”

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 15 September 2019

Rune Grammofon RCD2207
Format: CD

Musical Performance

Sound Quality

Overall Enjoyment

Even after listening to and collecting records for a few decades, I’m still on the lookout for new music worth hearing and telling others about. To that end, I read music publications and new-release announcements, looking for recommendations. The Norwegian trio Elephant9 isn’t really new -- they’ve been together since 2006 -- but when I read descriptions of their music that compared it to Soft Machine, a genre-crossing British prog-rock band of the late 1960s that’s among my favorites, I wanted to hear them.

Anthem's Peter and Mark Schuck on Subwoofer Integration and Room Correction

Details: Written by Diego Estan; Created: 01 September 2019

Anthem is as well known to enthusiasts of two-channel stereo as it is to fans of surround sound. Anthem was formerly a subbrand of Sonic Frontiers; Paradigm, a speaker manufacturer founded in Canada in 1982 and headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, just outside Toronto, acquired Sonic Frontiers and Anthem in the late 1990s. Many of Anthem’s electronics are now made in the same Mississauga factory in which Paradigm builds their speakers, but they’re designed in the Paradigm Advanced Research Centre (PARC), in Ottawa, Ontario, not far from where I live.

SensaSound TPO-7300 Multichannel Amplifier

Details: Written by Roger Kanno; Created: 01 September 2019

Reviewers' Choice SensaSound USA, which has been around for seven years or so, specializes in making THX-certified speakers and amplifiers. On their website, SensaSound says that their products, designed and engineered at their headquarters in Warren, New Jersey, and manufactured in China, are designed to provide best-in-class performance at affordable prices. Their two amplifier models are the five-channel TPO-5300 and the subject of this review, the seven-channel TPO-7300, each specified to deliver 200Wpc. I was surprised to learn that these amps are respectively priced at $3900 and $4900 USD -- not inexpensive, and well above the prices of entry-level multichannel amplifiers. In fact, those prices put the SensaSounds in the company of some excellent amplifiers from some long-established manufacturers, and makes their claim of best-in-class performance a bold statement.

Fluance RT85 Reference Turntable with Ortofon 2M Blue Cartridge

Details: Written by Thom Moon; Created: 01 September 2019

When I was a mere cub, I yearned for a mono “hi-fi” (on my budget, stereo was out of the question). I saved up my allowance and paper-route bucks, bought a 15W mono integrated amplifier and a basic FM tuner from RadioShack, and was given a 12” full-range speaker from a neighbor, a hi-fi fan. My final purchase was a Voice of Music (aka V-M) record changer. It came with a dopey ceramic cartridge that I, in all my teen wisdom, was determined to replace with a grown-up magnetic cartridge. At a local hi-fi emporium I found a used Empire 880P, which actually fit the arm’s headshell (though the vertical tracking angle must have been horrendous).

Various Artists: "Woodstock -- Back to the Garden: 50th Anniversary Experience"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 01 September 2019

Rhino R2 591470
Format: CD

Musical Performance

Sound Quality

Overall Enjoyment

Estimates vary, but it seems that some 400,000 people showed up in Bethel, New York, for the Woodstock Music & Art Fair: An Aquarian Exposition in White Lake, N.Y. -- 3 Days of Peace & Music, which ran from Friday, August 15, 1969, into the morning of Monday, August 18. Something close to that number were unable to attend at all, due to traffic jams caused by the festival. In 1969, there was no social media. Rolling Stone magazine had begun publication two summers before and was not yet widely distributed on newsstands. FM rock radio, which leaned toward playing unedited album cuts and even full albums, was only a couple of years old and broadcast in only a few markets.

KLH Kendall Loudspeakers

Details: Written by Hans Wetzel; Created: 15 August 2019

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

Reviewers' Choice American hi-fi brand KLH, best known for its electrostatic designs of the 1960s, was acquired in 2017 by longtime Klipsch executive David Kelley, who is now KLH’s president. Under Kelley’s brief stewardship, the company has set up shop in Noblesville, Indiana, just outside Indianapolis, and rolled out no fewer than 20 product models newly designed from scratch, ranging from a flagship electrostatic speaker to headphones, in-ear monitors, in-wall speakers -- even a tabletop digital radio that harks back to the original KLH Model Eight, of 1962. In an article about a promotional event for KLH’s new line of speakers that I attended last February, I wrote about those speakers and KLH’s rebirth. I’d come away impressed, but with questions. The new owners of many once-storied brands have hoped to exploit name recognition and an enduring legacy only for a quick buck. Is that the case here?

Philip Bailey: "Love Will Find a Way"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 15 August 2019

Verve B0030218-02
Format: CD

Musical Performance

Sound Quality

Overall Enjoyment

Love Will Find a Way, Philip Bailey’s 12th solo album, is his first since 2002, but in the intervening 17 years he hasn’t been coasting. He’s made four albums with Earth, Wind & Fire, the group he’s led since the late Maurice White retired from touring in 1996. Love Will Find a Way is his third straight album to lean strongly toward jazz, and this time around he’s enlisted the help of younger musicians, including arranger, composer, and keyboardist Robert Glasper, and saxophonist Kamasi Washington. He’s also helped out by older players, such as pianists Chick Corea and Kenny Barron, and bassist Christian McBride.

Integrating a Single Subwoofer into a Two-Channel System . . . for Those Unafraid to Take Measurements, Fiddle with Filters, and Apply EQ

Details: Written by Diego Estan; Created: 01 August 2019

Last month, in “Integrating a Single Subwoofer into a Two-Channel System for Beginners,” I wrote about the first steps of that process. This month I go deeper, into various ways of using a high-pass filter with your main speakers, and the advantages of taking more measurements and using equalization (EQ), aka room correction.

MartinLogan Dynamo 600X Subwoofer

Details: Written by Vince Hanada; Created: 01 August 2019

A subwoofer is a necessary part of any home-theater system -- when you’re watching a blockbuster movie, the impact a sub provides is undeniable. But if you were to ask anyone if they really like having a subwoofer in their home, I’d guess that most would say no. Who wants an extra box cluttering up the place? It takes up space, needs another power outlet and another interconnect, and can be difficult to set up.