yraurb@hou2g.UUCP (G.DECKER) (04/04/84)
I picked up a copy of stStereophile the other day and found an article that listed some of the components used in the monitoring systems of some well known recording companies. I will summarize below: Angel uses the studio of Capitol Records speakers: TAD/Augsburger(two JBL 2235H 15 inch woofers and a horn loaded tweeter by Pioneer), crossover at 800hz power amps: Hafler 500's bridged table: Yamaha VX-3 linear tracker with Shure V15-V cartridge CBS thThey favor Altec and Urei speakers. M&K Realtime speakers: SS-1B satellites and two Volkswoofers ( They make these and sell them to the public) and LP-1 passive crossovers for biamping. power amps: Lots on hand but prefer slightly modified Bryston 4B. cartridge and tone arm: early sample of original Grado Signiature 2 mounted on M&K modified Rabco SL-8. Mobile Fidelity JVC QL-10 Lab series turnrtable with a Fidelity Research arm and cartridge, an Ortofon preamp (normally supplied with Ortofon's disc-cutting systems) an Electron Kinetics Eagle power amplifier, and Sony esprit APM-8 speakers. Main reference system: Robertson EK-1 pickup/preamp combination, Aanother Eagle amplifier, and Roger West Sound Labs' Renaissance speaker systems with sub- woofers designed by "some folks at Electrovoice". RCA RCA LC-1A speakers and a McIntosh tubed power amp. McIntosh 200 watt solid stae ampte amp and Infinity 4.5 speakers Reference Recordings Sony PS-LX5000 linear-tracking turntablre/arm, Dynavector ruby cartridge, Spectral DMC-10 preamp, BEL 2002 power amplifier, Acoustat Three speakers Tandberg TD-20AA-SE tape recorder. Interconnects are Monster Cable Inter- link Reference and unspecified custom speaker cables. Thorens TD-150 turntable with Audiocraft arm and Dynavector Ruby and Spectral DMC-10 preamp, modified Hafler DH-200 power amp, and Acoustat Two Speakers. Same cables as above. Keith Johnson has portable self-powered monitors of his own design for on location work. Entec Granite turntable, Breuer arm and Koetsu Rosewood cartridge,DMC-10 Spectral preamp, DMA-100 power amp by Spectral, and Entec coherent ribbon speaker. All three systems use Entec's powered subwoofer system. Sheffield Speakers designed by Sherwood Sax use (per channel) two Altec 15 inch woofers, one Altec 288-G horn loaded midrange crossing over at 600hz, and one hand selected Electro-Voice horn tweeter. The same tweeter that topped the old Patrician speaker system. The drivers are time aligned (the midrange horn sticks out in front) and crossovers are 6dB per octave. 70 watt tube amps designed by Sherwood Sax. Stanton 881 moving magnet cartridge and solid state preamp designed by Sherwood Sax. Doug Sax indicated that it is very important to be able to monitor recordings at realistic, meaning loud playback levels. Telarc ADS bi-amped L-1530 speakers and Threshold S/500 Stasis Power amps. Disc playback is just to check for quality of pressing, not recording. They use Audio-Technica LC-130 cartridge and A-T arm on Micro-Seiki DDX-1000 turntable. Varese Sarabande Denon DP-60 phono unit, Shure V15-V with normal hyperelliptical stylus, the preamp section of a Pioneer A-27, a Carver M-1.5 magnetic power amp, and Infinity 4.5 speakers. Sound concepts SD50R ambience device for personal listening. Wilson Audio Wilson Audio Modular Monitors Upper modules powered by Krell, low end by Brown Electronics Labs 2002. Van Den Hul EMT mounted in a Technics EPA-100 tone arm on an Oracle turntable. Also, Kiseki Agate with boron cantilever on Goldmund Studio turntable. Spectral DMC-10 preamp Modified Revox A77 recorder and John Curl custom tape recorder.(The Ultra- Master) Cables and interconnects by Monster. Note: "Most producers and chief engineers felt familiarity was more im- portant than "state-of-the-art"". I would be interested in any comments about these systems in general.