Sony G90 NAD T770 Audio-Video Receiver, Just the Basics, Done Well, Summing Up, I L G a D E R

Page 42

appears on the displays when the “surround” button is

pressed while playing an AC3-encoded source. Also useful

would be a last-source-selected memory. Now if you play a

disc and adjust one of the speaker level controls, then hit

“Play” to start the track again, you will discover you have to

press the relevant source button before regaining use of the

transport controls.

Summing Up

The Linn system offers advantages insofar as it is a turnkey

system, and anybody who buys one will be able to leave to the

dealer all the tedious installation details of running cable,

positioning loudspeakers, finding a home for the components,

and initializing the system controller to accept the source

components and direct their signals through the appropriate

processing functions to the related amplifiers and thence to

the speakers.

Linn also is known to have built its reputation on playing

the tune. This refers to its superimposition of one cardinal

rule upon all the flashing lights that surround audio: The

music comes first, and it don’t mean a thing if it don’t play the

tune. If your toes ain’t tapping and your hands ain’t clapping,

if your head ain’t bobbing and your guitar ain’t throbbing –

well, what’s the point?

This strikes at a schism between tonal quality and imaging

that divided the field of home music reproduction following

the advent of stereo. When you put two loudspeakers into a

room, you set up comb-filter effects that add and subtract

from the recorded sound in unpredictable ways. When you

put, as in this case, six sound sources into a room, you are far

better placed to control the room modes that render most

stereo a weak sister to mono – provided you are given the

tools for the job!

I hope Linn acquires a digital equalizer interface to refine

the tonal consequences of all that power (1,200 watts total),

power that should be even more nimbly

applied using the new generation of Linn

amplifiers as these incorporate switching

power supplies.

I asked Linn to supply a system of minimal

bulk, as I suspect this will be the choice of most people con-

templating the addition of such a system to a room of modest

dimensions that will probably have to serve multiple uses. As

a consequence, the smallest loudspeakers in the range, the

Tukans, were supplied. They did not betray any power han-

dling problems despite the use of live piano recital levels.

In the next installment, we’ll experience the full power of

the Linn illusion, applied to music and movies. And we’ll take

a much closer look at how it all works.

M a n u f a c t u r e r I n f o r m a t i o n

LINN INCORPORATED

4540 Southside Boulevard, Suite 402

Jacksonville, Florida 32216

Tel: (904) 645-5242

Source: Manufacturer loan

Prices:

5103 System Controller: $8,495

5150 Bass Reinforcement Loudspeaker:

$4,195 ($4,395 in cherry)

5105 amplifier for front left and right: $3,590 each

5105 amplifier for center: $3,590

5105 amplifier for rear left and right: $3,590 each

Aktiv 5120 Tukan loudspeaker: $2,490 each;

$2,590 each in cherry

Aktiv 5120: $1,220 ($1,440 in cherry)

Karik CD Player: $3,595

Numerik D-A Converter: $2,595

NAD T770 Audio-Video Receiver

Just the Basics, Done Well

n 1976 the NAD 3020 integrated amplifier hit the North

believe will not contribute to this experience or might sub-

American shores and changed performance expectations

tract from performance are canned. Like the High End audio

for less expensive audio forever. While competitors

market, NAD is taking the purist approach. Here’s an exam-

stretchedI

the limits of inanity with bells and whistles, NAD

ple: Many AVRs automatically take a stereo analog signal and

(New Acoustic Dimension) concentrated on the basics of

process it through an inferior analog-to-digital converter and

clean sound: short signal paths; bulletproof power supplies

back out through a D-to-A. NAD leaves the signal undisturbed

and conservative power ratings. NAD succeeded by appealing

in the analog domain. The simpler and purer path.

to what audiophiles like most – less. Though nearly 25 years

The Model T770 is a five-channel, 70 watts per channel

have passed since that first NAD arrived, the new $1,700 T770

into 8 ohms surround sound receiver that incorporates an

Audio-Video Receiver hasn’t turned its back on its roots.

integrated Dolby Digital decoder. It provides a 5.1 input for

If you are looking for adrenaline-pumped features like

the addition of an external decoder, allowing the user to

Cinema EQ or compression levels or 1,001 surround modes

expand to another surround sound format such as DTS. For

from the Sistine Chapel to Abbey Road Studios, then you’ll be

two-channel listening with surround enhancements, the T770

missing the point of the T770. NAD’s philosophy is to give you

1

provides EARS (Enhanced Ambient Recovery System). Three

what you need to listen to music or watch movies by provid-

digital inputs are provided, including RCA coaxial, TosLink

ing the best engineering and components

optical and an input with an integrated

at the price point. Features that they

RF demodulator for laserdisc players

N E I L G A D E R

Image 42
Contents Sony G90 Size Does Matter Experience before he finds a little of It Ingly just beyond reachThan ever we needed in strange, dark caves Sound and vision at the same time every timeKubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut HP Bergman’s The Seventh Seal DVDFollies & Frolics Barco Vision WatchII Janet’s Index Editors will respond next issueCan All That Counts Be Counted? a Forum Begins EditorProblem with DVD Digital Artifacts Targeting 14-Year-Old Boys?If The Perfect Vision is to push Down Primrose Path Toward Perfect Vision Forever? At all. So it doesn’t take Hdtv orAzine Widescreen Review perhaps? John Eargle Lossy Data Compression & DVD Sound What Not To See on DVDDigital Cinema The Good Bad of It TV Is TVI L L E R Series such as Star Trek The Next Generation . EachMovie Trivia DVDs Gaining MomentumE G S I C & M U L T I M E D I a E G S a N D O WPanasonic DVD-L50D PalmTheater ViaTV VC 105 VideophoneM M a R T I N R R Y R a W L I N S O N EncounteredInfocomm Significant New Products and Trends World of displaysReport Light projected on the screen. These considerations have To recreate the theater experience in the homeOgy near its limit and its days are numbered. The display Tunately, there are trade-offs for the small size of ultraAn Ideal Cinema? Moviemaking crew comes with its special privi Real movie where there was none before, or at leastOmetimes I think that every position on a Leges, its perks, as it were. If you’re the script superAssistant directors, service people, One way or another when it comes to working withIty between when they are and when FootageLikely to get you Certainly a serviceable way to editMovies Directors seem to trust me to use my Into any troubleIt’s a funny thing about matching in editing. Most lay Allowing for camera setups, lighting, and rigTakes and setups meaning the master Enjoy prelaps to pull the narrativeSion? In Understanding Media, McCluhan Lexicon MC-1 Controller Sonic Flavors To Slake Every ThirstR L E Y Logic 7 Digital Signal Processing for Movies and Music Lexicon’s Music Surround ModesListening to Movies Listening To Music Surround Conclusion Ing the Denon Anechoic Orchestral Music Recording CDControllers Two-Channel Bypass Mode Surround Decoding and Digital Signal Processing DSPDSP and the Future-Proof Controller THX-Certified Controllers Bass ManagementRadical new path to High-Resolution Digital Audio…the controller represents Future…After DSP Digital to Analog Conversion InterFacing the UserMeet My Enemy Revel Ultima Speakers From 2 to 7.1 ChannelsEpisode One The Ancient Enemy M M I I L L E RDeploying the Troops RPG Room Optimizer Software 59 byYou wanted to cross over your subwoofer at 40 Hz Revel Ultima Salon Noble WarriorStart and go get a beer, or two Tion coefficient for the surfaces that is comparable toEssary to achieve the Revel design team’s led by Kevin Our noble warrior against the ancient enemyLikewise for the 15-inch woofer in the Sub-15 Research effort to quantify in-room speaker behaviorNal processing in controllers hadn’t made subwoofer Direct radiator to bloated. The Salon’s soundstage comBy Keith Johnson for Reference Recordings Speaker? Removing the bottom octave from the Salon’sWoofer, when it is well integrated with your main speakers Cians often use emphasis in the intensityFormance. Orchestral music, for example, is performed Episode Two a War On Two Fronts Cy, phase, and time. It then develops adaptive filters thatBattle Summary Stand-off Get that the fight for the lowlands was far from overLINN-AV5103 Aktiv Multi-Channel System Search of the Mythical BeastCompany of the Beast Quest BeginsWorking the Environment Remote InterfaceSumming Up NAD T770 Audio-Video ReceiverJust the Basics, Done Well I L G a D E RDas Boot, The Director’s Cut Wolfgang Peterson, director Gaines’ Stormy Monday I’ve Got the T-Bone WalkerRPG Diffuser Systems Inc., Room Optimizer Steering in DD mode is precise and smoothManufacturer’s Corner Designs go, the NAD T770 is all steakWant My DVD Major Labels’ Plans for Classical Music on DVDI D I W a L E S O N Tan Opera Guide to Opera on Video and executive direc From the two main mikes and brought it to the rear ones Audience, he says. We fed that information to the rearTion from the main mikes as well as the spot mikes Have been considered typical indeed, good for aFall was so high. This was an elaborate joint See review, this issueQuering technology issues, Moorhead says. Most of our Computer and TV combinedMade for DVD Original, so they’re not going to fake it for DVDStars. God, was I skeptical To Turandot’s collection the Chinese nation, ruled by an Dramatic confrontation, in the second scene of Act TwoMust answer three riddles. If his answers are correct, she Ple either turning cynical, or lusting for more bloodTucks into a tiny corner of the staging. Hordes of Chinese Turandot. And why would there be? Yes, Puccini conscienPreoccupation like that made more sense, but Moon onstage we see a corps of Chinese dancers, wearingClassical DVD Sampler DVD-nessFull of pomp and circumstance, but much less lifelike Ment of that, and when I listened, I found I’d chooseWith the sound either way, or with the sound of the Scala PerformancesLike institutional persona, Herr Music Director of All Role mostly as a force of nature, powerful but blankStart of each one, there’s Karajan on screen, his face That’s simply ravishing This performance is broadJargon Roger Reynolds Watershed Mode 70, DVDSurrounded Experiment in a New MediumYes, theorists can find all sorts of relationships among Are so new that we all need orientationThough, is that Reynolds is way too impressed with Areas of music rhythm, loudness, and tone color, forBut in rhythms he himself creates. In practice, these, to Musical scoreMaybe, succeeded by metallic effects That, while Otto is allegedly creating syntax by movingMents of a Clockwork Orange What Ever Happened to Baby Pop With a TwistB G E N D R O N Performance we see on DVD begins with a filmSon’s Dead to the World. Nope Perfect timing and careful choreographyBelow-average vocal performance Horizon, probably to his death. It is a scene that demandsInsignificance of the media and with a DVD, with its digitally clear resolutionTabloid, because of its sensational pur Ly slurs the tune’s climactic line,WhatDent films Gods and Monsters, Cookie’s Fortune that Godzilla, Armageddon, Instrument is better thanWith 1991’s In on the Kill Close Encounter Voices of Light/The Passion of Joan of ArcD R E W Q U I N T Special presentation of Voices of Light/The Passion of Joan Each other. Seen together, they seemed inseparable yet Obvious. The movie is about as complete as it can be.Other instances, were not merely happy coincidences, nor By much of the sound reinforcement heard in BroadwayPhysics of Color An Introduction to Digital VideoPart 2 Video Color Concepts Human Color PerceptionLuminance ColorblindnessColor Concepts for Video Additive Color Hue and SaturationCIE Chromaticity Diagram Display Color Accuracy RGB Primaries The Color TriangleWhite Reference Color Temperature Grayscale Color TemperatureColor Measurement Color Bars Are used in some circumstances Other color signals will alsoColor errors. Instrument known as a color analyzer or a spectroAdjustments Color and HueAvia Guide to Home Theater pro Sony VPH-G90U Multiscan Projector PhysicalE G R O G E R S Scan Rates Installation and Set-upConnections Operating FunctionsPerformance SummarySpecifications Runco DTV-930 Multiscan ProjectorDescription Inputs/Outputs Convergence Labs Test Report Greg Rogers Formats can be selected directly from the remoteRange Horizontal and vertical scan frequencies and other sourceBe noticed Combination is about the reasonable limit to achieve anRemote Control IEV Turboscan 1500 Line DoublerLine Doubling = Deinterlacing Ics-grade front projector Video outputs. As a progressive video reference, I used aCreates progressive video without deinterlacing artifacts 3Dfusion do each in different ways. The TurboscanPioneer Elite DVL-91 Combination CD/LD/DVD Player Look and FeelL L C R U C E Up menus allow you to configure such things as onscreen lan Meaning clearLy, the remote of the DVL-91, like that DVD PerformanceLD Performance Wrong one in the darkDvdo iScan Plus Line Doubler Celebrate Film Classic Comedy’s Second Coming Roberto Benigni L M & M O V I E SThough a number of films in which Benigni Quently escape was Benigni’s first American and EnglishRoberto on the Internet Sound Cute cameo which perhaps hints at a sequelAspect ratio and running time incorrectly Original Pink Panther film go figure. Sad to sayNo thanks to Warner’s folks Small wonder Special Editions Kubrick and The Space MonstersFirst wave of anger and incredulity. The DVD set was Set consists of Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, 2001 aBoth Clockwork and Full Metal Jacket exhibited pinkish Special Editions Few Weird Thoughts What Dreams May ComeWorth a Look Relatively Recent Arrivals Navigator a Medieval Odyssey, the other is Map Human HeartTo say that the film is developing a cult following some How beautiful she was when she was married to RogerMovie would have had the solid foundation it needed Smooth as could be and given the importanceBiopics Three British Royals Love.1 AsOtranto Man in the Iron Mask 1939. But it is his Old Dark House 1932, The Invisible ManHP Comments Mon with The Shining than with any other Kubrick opus Ic in this context in cloud cuckooland, with theirYou have an idea of what’s really going on in the film Food-storage roomFrom Art to Cult N a T H a N V a L I NNot content to present us with an allegory of the eternal Only later goes on to give them human dimensions. EvenSuch blatant symbolism can sustain an entire movie Face the questions that vexed and hauntedIssues 111 Letters to the Editor Back Issues Website Change of AddressQuestions About Your Subscription Editorial SubmissionsA S S I F I E D a D O R D E R F O R M Name Company Address CITY, State , ZIPVision Watch