1 For the purpose of catching up: Krell has had a recall. It seems that some of the power amplifiers have had some problems with overheating. If you have a Krell amp, I’d contact them to see if yours is included in the safety recall. Better safe than sorry.

1 Green Mountain Audio has always made fine speakers, our coverage of their products started in the early days of the publication. Roy Johnson is a dedicated proponent of time alignment and phase correct 1st order crossovers, an approach from which he has never wavered. I’m with him regarding those design criteria. Well, Roy has come out with a new speaker that looks like it could be one of the better 2-ways ever built. It’s called the Rio and it is planned to retail for $2,500.

This design, like other Green Mountain designs before it utilizes a 1st order crossover with minimal hand-matched internal components. Furthermore, particular attention has been paid to lessening, and then quickly dissipating energy storage. Perfect time and phase response is severely compromised by the absorption and then incremental release of energy over a relatively long period of time. The culprit is oftentimes the cabinet, but that also goes for the drivers themselves and internal crossover parts. Roy already had the perfect 6" woofer in house for the task, a carbon-fibre/paper cone unit developed earlier for the Eos model. Now he’s found a laminated soft dome tweeter from SEAS that is much lighter than metal domes, while utilizing a larger critically damped suspension.

Unique to this speaker, and just about everything else Green Mountain makes, is the Q-Stone enclosure material, a rigid, non-resonant marble composite. I’ve heard speakers using the material, and unlike other super hard, ultra rigid enclosures it does not ring due to Roy’s damping techniques. The lack of ringing is not only due to the material’s formulation while in a pliable state, but due to the forms and shapes chosen by Roy. With this particular speaker, optimal woofer/port communication has been specifically designed into the enclosure via the use of an Optimal-Pointtm bass port.

The aerodynamic approach to internal construction has not been limited to the insides alone. The exterior enclosure is beveled and shaped to minimize surface reflections and edge diffraction. As you can see from the enclosed photo, the shape of the Rio sets it apart from other pedestal speakers now being made. Impedance is 4-8 Ohms, with a sensitivity of 90 dB. The speaker is 16" tall and has a "Lifetime Warranty" (see web site for details). www.greenmountainaudio.com

1 Back in issue #194 I spoke of the Imperial Preamp/DAC. I reported on the fact that I had heard the machine, liked it, but hadn’t heard from the manufacturer since I sent it back. Due to a computer crash here at the World Headquarters, I lost my contact information regarding the Imperial and didn’t know how to contact Don. Fortunately, Don Moore just happened to send me an e-mail a couple of weeks after #194 went out and I was able to re-establish communication with him. As it turns out, the Imperial project is full speed ahead.

Don told me that some delays were attributable to circuit changes and work done on a chassis that was affordable, but still pleasing to look at. He is apparently going with a wood front face with granite knobs and logo. Don says that the circuit refinements resulted in some notable improvements sonically, and that it’s ready for primetime. I don’t know if a line input has been added or not. Nonetheless, I’m looking forward to once again hearing this most promising product.

1 Bruce Brisson of MIT Cable has come out with a novel idea – DIY cable and interconnect kits. Based upon his designs for MIT Cable, these new kits are called "Giant Killer DIY Audio Kits." The idea is to provide to audiophiles affordable wire and cable kits that result in products superior to those produced by the Giants of the industry. I don’t have any more details, other than, isn’t MIT cables one of the giants in the wire and cable industry? To find out more about how MIT intends to flagellate themselves into submission, go to: www.diyaudiocable.com

1 Does anyone listen to Naim audio electronics? When I talk to readers it hasn’t been a brand which comes up often – or at all. However, I know that a good many BFS readers do have computer based sound systems, and this bit of information may be of interest to them. Their press release (Naim) states, "The Naim DAC is the world’s first Apple authenticated high-end DAC, which means it can connect digitally to any IPod or IPhone and take the output digitally of anything that would have been sent to the headphone output." I think it can also do USB and 8-tracks. Furthermore, Naim claims their newest DAC to have Zero S/PDIF jitter. The unit is manufactured in Salisbury England, right next to the chopped steak factory.

1 Techno-tomfoolery. Why is it that many reviewers feel it their obligation to impress readers by stating the obvious in terms of techno-wizardry. It’s like me trying to impress you in the course of a review by stating that I dropped a hammer, and wonder of wonders, it fell to the ground by reason of its superlative aerodynamic gravity enhancing design. It’s AMAZING!!!

"Progressive resistance" as applied to woofer surrounds seems to be one of the latest bits of tech-speak used by reviewers in an attempt to impress readers with the obvious. All woofer surrounds are capable of providing "progressive resistance," even the most basic. Acoustic suspension, or, sealed box designs, are quite effective at providing progressive resistance to woofer movement. It’s quite simple: As the woofer is moved inward it compresses the air inside the box and the compressed air resists further movement. When the woofer moves out, a partial vacuum is created inside the sealed box which resists further outward movement. Even ported enclosures accomplish the amazing feat of progressive resistance with properly designed surrounds and port tubes. Give the woofer in your speakers a gentle push… the more you push, the more resistance you will feel. Not only should you not be impressed by the use of such techno-tomfoolery by a reviewer, but you certainly should not pay extra for it in the speakers you purchase.

1 Let us know what you think of the double issue format. So far, the commentary from readers has been positive, but if you see ways that we can do this better we want your advice. Printing double issues means that the number of mailings per subscription will be cut in half, meaning of course that a 12 issue subscription will only have 6 double issue mailings. Naturally, those issues will have twice as many pages, maybe more. If we keep sending BFS in this fashion we’ll have to work out some new wording for the net order pages – a bridge we will cross in the future.