John E. Johnson, Jr.

Legacy Focus SE Floor-standing Speakers

John E. Johnson, Jr.

Legacy Audio is well-known in the A/V community. They market speakers of all sizes from bookshelf to huge floor-standers, and they have been around for more than two decades. Their speakers are made in the USA, and since the company was founded in a cabinet-making shop, the quality of the wood finish is a hallmark of their designs. The sound fits the looks, and I have wanted to test a pair for quite a while. Legacy sent me their Focus SE's, which are floor-standing speakers and are full-range. The SE stands for Silver Edition, and it celebrates Legacy's 30th anniversary.

Floor Standing Speakers

Pass Labs INT-30A Pure Class A Integrated Stereo Amplifier

John E. Johnson, Jr.

Recently, we reviewed the Pass Labs INT-150 integrated amplifier, which is biased into Class A at about 5 watts, and leaves Class A into Class AB at 10 watts peak. It is a superb integrated amplifier. The INT-150's brother, the INT-30A integrated amplifier, is Pure Class A throughout its 30 watt output (into 8 ohms) specification. Chris Eberle originally reviewed the INT-30A in 2012, and in this review, I compare the INT-30A with the INT-150, and add bench tests which were not in Chris' review.

Integrated Amplifiers

Musings of a Drummer

John Johnson

I have been a drummer for a very long time. I just turned 65 (August 21, 2010), and I started drumming in college when I was 20. At first, it was just four of us, one of my fraternity brothers played bass, I was on the drums, a singer...

Editor's DeskEditorial

Zildjian Cymbal Reviews

John Johnson

The ReZo line for Zildjian is relatively new, and there are about a half dozen models ranging from a 12" Splash up to a 21" Ride. They are beautiful cymbals to look at, and in my opinion, one of the best sounding models...

Cymbals

MartinLogan Stage X Electrostatic Hybrid Center Channel Speaker

John E. Johnson Jr. and Cynthia B. Johnson

MartinLogan is most famous for their electrostatic speakers (ESLs). I remember many years ago hearing their full-range model and was astonished at the transparency. Since that time, they have produced ESLs of varying sizes, and in "hybrid" form, meaning that a cone woofer takes care of the low frequencies, which smaller ELS panels cannot reproduce. When home theater became a prominent market, they released the Stage, which used a dome tweeter, ESL panel for the midrange, and cone woofers. The newest iteration of the Stage line is the Stage X, which has a thin film tweeter (called "Folded Motion" by MartinLogan). This type of tweeter is part of the flat panel family of speakers, which includes ESLs, Ribbons, and Planar Magnetic speakers. So, with the Stage X, the high frequencies and midrange are now handled by flat panel technology.

Center Channel Speakers

California Audio Show 4 – Millbrae, California – August 9-11, 2013

John Johnson and Ross Jones

The Fourth California Audio Show was held in the San Francisco Bay area (Westin Hotel in Millbrae which is south of San Francisco), August 9, 10, and 11, 2013. Constantine Soo, the CAS4 promoter, has moved the show to the Westin this year to better accommodate the exhibitors and guests.  Here is the coverage by the SECRETS team, John Johnson and Ross Jones.

Show Reports, Film Festivals and Concerts

Editorial: The Industry Learns a Lesson: The Death of 3D vs. Industry Predictions. Will this Change their Plans for Introducing 4K to the Public?

John E. Johnson, Jr.

The recent announcement that ESPN is eliminating its 3D channel on cable and satellite tells a sad story of overestimating the impact of 3D on selling more HDTVs. Although 3D movies continue to be released - for the time being - it appears that consumers are not interested in watching 3D at home. The "glasses" are claimed to be the scapegoat, but I think there is more to it than that.

Editor's DeskEditorial

How is bass divided among speakers?

John Johnson

How is the bass divided among speakers if there is no sub in the home theater system? If a 5.1 system has identical speakers all around with 15 inch woofers and all of the speakers are set to "large" on the processor, does the serious bass get evenly distributed to all speakers? Say, like an explosion or a dinosaur stomping? Is there much serious bass info sent to the surround speakers if they are set to "large"?

- Mitch D
Los Angeles

SECRETS Home Theater Q&A

Pass Labs INT-150 Integrated Stereo Amplifier

John E. Johnson, Jr.

Pass Labs is renown for their high end preamplifiers and power amplifiers, but they also have integrated amplifiers as well, which include the INT-30A and the INT-150. Here, we review the INT-150, which, as you can imagine from the model number, outputs 150 watts x 2 (into 8 ohms). It has the same massive build quality as the other Pass components I have reviewed, and also, its own distinctive sound, as I have found with the others.

Integrated Amplifiers

Bryston BP17 Stereo Preamplifier

John E. Johnson, Jr.

Bryston is the only high-end audio company I know of that offers a 20 year warranty on its products. They manufacture some very expensive preamps and power amps, but even the least expensive product carries that warranty. Why? Because they have massive build quality. The BP17 stereo preamplifier exemplifies that approach, and it is in the middle of their preamplifier line-up, which includes the BP6 and BP26.

Preamplifiers

Bryston BDA-2 DAC

John E. Johnson, Jr.

Following on the highly successful BDA-1 DAC, Bryston has raised the bar with the addition of an asynchronous USB input and reduced distortion in their new BDA-2 DAC. Take a look at what I found. The performance is quite a surprise.

DACs