SWALLOW ACOUSTICS: ASL1

A question for Howard please. Back in the Subjective Audio days in Palmers Green you stocked speakers from Swallow Acoustics Limited. I know because I bought a pair and used them for many years. What happened to them please? Thanks and regards, Colin Thatcher. Hello Colin. Indeed I did sell them. We had no failures […]

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HARBETH: 40.1 vs Spendor sp100r2 using 75 watt tube amps?

An ‘old’ thread but …. there are some observations still relevant today. ============= I have an older version of the Spendors—the SP-100—and I have never heard the Harbeth 40.1, so my comments are not exactly what you’re seeking. However, I wanted to say that Spendors have a reputation for being more compatible with tube amps […]

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TOM PETTY and THE HEARTBREAKERS: News

With his faithful band The Heartbreakers behind him, Tom Petty lit up stages across the world, and became an unlikely early star of MTV with some innovative video work. Subsequent releases saw him justifiably included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, alongside a stint in supergroup The Travelling Wilburys. This CD contains the […]

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CONVERSATIONS WITH COLIN: Sources used in product development?

Hello Colin What sources and speakers does you use in development and why please? Thanks. Mike Hi Mike, Now that is a tricky question I like my old Ruark Sabres, they are old friends made for me by my old friend. I also use Spendors, and borrow others makes depending on what I am designing.I […]

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CHRISTINE McVIE: Love across the airwaves

HELEN BROWN: When the news of Christine McVie’s death broke yesterday, radio stations around the world queued up her 1987 hit, “Everywhere”. The song’s sparkling synths will have shimmered from a thousand car radios and supermarket speakers, sending tiny, shiny bubbles of love and anticipation fizzing into the midweek mood. Paces will have picked up […]

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THE CURE: News

MALCOLM JACK: Electric shock of voluminously frazzled hair, baggily dressed in what else but black, the Cure’s singer, songwriter and guitarist Robert Smith is one of those rare rock stars whom you can recognise even in silhouette. His band’s shadowy yet anthemic music – comfortably the creepiest thing to crawl out of ….. Read more […]

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DVORAK: News

ERICA JEAL: I love this music and no-one seems to play it.” It’s only a slight exaggeration on Leif Ove Andsnes’s part to say that about Dvořák’s Poetic Tone Pictures; this beautifully recorded release is one of only a handful available, and he is the highest profile of today’s pianists to have recorded this baker’s […]

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FIDELITY RESEARCH: What happened?

Apparently … Made a well regarded line of arms to along with the cartridges that were their main line of business. The FR-64 series is probably the most common on the second hand market, the FR-64fx with a black anodised aluminium armtube and the FR-64s wich featured a Steel alloy tube are usually considered better […]

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COUNTER-INTUITIVE: Yes … I’ll take the battered, dodgy-looking preamp please

Not my first rodeo! I’ve been the industry for a while and been taken behind the scenes of quite a few makers. The backroom people and not always males either are generally fairly approachable with only the occasional massive egos you read about. And the point of this is, err what? Many of them use […]

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SPEAKER HEADROOM: Observations

Paul McGowan We’re pretty comfortable with the idea of headroom. More food on the table than needed, more horsepower than required, more amplifier wattage than necessary. But, what about speaker headroom? The one characteristic of music’s reproduction that stands out for me in speakers is a slight compression when the music gets loud. I hear it […]

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