“Sound Designer is the credit Steve receives on this film, and it is a technical and artistic activity, one that has interested AM since he first started making voice recordings on a Philips mono recorder in the late 50s. In the production of a film Steve Munro both makes original recordings (usually 6-track) and takes those already done and creates a context and meaning for them in the film…”

“Definitely designed to be a full range reproducer with very high dynamic capability, the Studio 100 uses a pair of 8″ polypropylene woofers with very large cast baskets, a 6 1/2″ woven Kevlar midrange, and for this second iteration of the Studio 100, a new aluminum dome tweeter identical to that used in the Active 40. All drivers are designed and made in-house, Paradigm, like API, a very vertically integrated company…”

“Perhaps it’s unfair to characterize the Totem Arro as the Kate Moss of speakers, but it is a thin little waif of a thing, with a 4 1/2″ woofer/midrange and a 1/2″ dome midrange. It’s also cute, nicely finished in rosewood, with just about the smallest footprint I’ve seen. It sits on a 7 3/4″ by 8 5/8″ base that fits spikes, and is rather tippy; I’m inclined to want to use some Bluetac to secure it to the base. The Arro should not go into houses with rambunctious children or dogs, not to forget exploratory cats…”

“Verity Audio is a Quebec City manufacturer that bases its claims to high quality loudspeakers on very fast, accurate drivers and extremely inert and solid cabinets. The Fidelio is quite heavy at close to 60 pounds. Though a single unit structure, the cabinet is in two parts joined by alternating layers of rigid and absorptive materials to keep bass energy away from the mid/treble unit on top…”

“This small monitor has been an unusual project for Mirage in that most of their flagship products are large, like the M-1si. But chief designer Ian Paisley took it upon himself to design and build a small monitor that was neither bipolar nor Omnipolar, and recruited young engineer Andrew Welker to work with him to complete the project. Both of their names are on the gold-plated plaque underneath the binding posts on the rear of each speaker…..”

AIG Music Reviewer Marshall Butler digs deep into the ties that bind Canada, its politics, its marketing trends, and its rock and roll darlings, The Tragically Hip.

“An infinite number of marketing consultants working on an infinite number of advertising campaigns may eventually discover all that is Canada but, they would have been better off simply asking the Tragically Hip…”

“Now something of a pioneer in consumer active speakers, Paradigm is becoming very good at it, as the listening tests showed. Engineering a speaker from a line-level input onward gives the designers control of much more of the ultimate performance than when designing a speaker to work from an amplifier output. Of course, the amplifier(s) employed must be very good, or the design will be compromised…”

“These monitor/subwoofer matched pairs come in a configuration that, as the width measurements suggest, stacks very neatly. And the neatness is augmented by the very nice veneered finish of the boxes, with their rounded corners and black front baffle. The subwoofer contains a high-pass filter, with an extra set of gold-plated 5-way posts to send it to the CHS-2. The speakers can also be bi-wired or amped…”

“The Oracle speaker project goes back quite a few years, and the Mentor Studio system is the culmination of that project, and its sleek finish reflects (quite literally) the tradition of craftsmanship associated with Oracle. Our review pair were finished in a shiny burgundy lacquer that looked as if it had been lovingly rubbed and polished by skilled hands…”

“A year ago the Mammoth subwoofer dominated the cover of our first A/V Almanac, and now we have son of, a smaller powered version that attempts to put essentially the same performance into a smaller package. The essence of the original design was an 18″ electromagnetic driver in an enclosure designed to fully vent the backwave and really move air…”

“This is our first PSB review in a few years, though AIG contributors have been aware of the Canadian brand’s growth and success. For example, contributing editor and columnist Gordon Brockhouse has been proud owner for years of Stratus Gold speakers, and has just upgraded to the newest iteration of these. The Century 300i comes at the other end of the price and size scale, a budget bookshelf model that is a 2-way rear-ported reflex design that uses a 6 1/2″ woofer/midrange and dome tweeter, both appearing to be made or polyproplylene….”

“You might think that this is the least expensive speaker model in the Paradigm Performance basic range, but, no it isn’t. The Atom ($199 pr) and the Micro ($169 pr) are below it in price. The last time we auditioned the Titan was in the Summer 93 issue, and then it was an all-wood box. The last time we auditioned the Titan was in the Summer 93 issue, and then it was an all-wood box. But Paradigm has had in-house injection moulding facilities…”

“I first heard these speakers at the Festival d Son et de L’Image in March after a recommendation from AAM; he’d been very impressed at what he heard from this particular model. Our review samples of the e:XL-25 came in the same attractive Northern Light Birch vinyl that graced the Sound Dynamics RTS-P100, much less of it covering this smaller, less expensive speaker…”

“Many single-ended amplifier fans don’t really want to know that the phrase “harmonic richness” is just a euphemism for harmonic distortion. And if you think that prejudices my thinking about the amplifiers here reviewed, read on. Too many reviewers confuse this over-articulated harmonic structure with increased detail, when, in fact, the truth lies in the opposite direction: the increased harmonics actually cover up real detail…”

“Until now, this Canadian company has relied on its several stereo models, its 4-channel (8B/$3500), and 3-channel (5B/$3050) amplifiers to feed the growing home theatre market. But with the powered subwoofer now a fixture, and discrete 5-channel surround sound coming on fast, Bryston decided it had to provide a matching power amplifier…”

“As speakers, the 4 identical towers share a diminutive footprint and very narrow baffle, and all share the same drivers, a fabric dome tweeter, and 3 3 1/2″ cones for bass and midrange; the centre speaker is similarly slim laterally, with 4 of the 3 1/2″ drivers flanking the same tweeter. All of these are designed to operate down to a lower limit of 80 Hz. They are front-ported, but the real bass is reproduced by the subwoofer….”

“Power conditioners are one of those products which teeter on the edge of mainstream audio acceptability these days. While they probably have a better reputation than carbon fiber shelves or ebony pucks many audiophiles would lump them in the same shady category, labeling them as the foolish toys of misguided, obsessive compulsive and moderately paranoid audio freaks….”

“Those close to me (who have fathomed my innermost secrets) know that I dislike THX, which in my view simply adds distortion to the system, particularly in the surrounds, and I also dislike the reason for this so-called “decorrelation”, the mono nature of the Dolby Pro Logic surround channel. These guys (Dolby and THX) learned nothing from the research of CBS Labs, Jim Fosgate and others into matrix surround systems. Sorry, Tom Holman, I didn’t get the gospel…”

“There is no question that high end audio is usually a labour of love for the designer, this being a given where technology and art meet. What kind of love is another question altogether: sometimes love is blind, sometimes it’s tough, and as often as not, simply perverse. I guess that’s what makes for the remarkable diversity we find in components with such an emotional content. It is perhaps useful to view this pair from Blue Circle Audio in this light…”

I first discovered these acoustic absorbers at the Montreal Festival du Son more than a year ago, as demonstrated by genial Yves Boudreau, about whom I have a brief anecdote: at this year’s show I ran into Yves for the third show in a row, his display in the main ballroom just over the way from ours for AIG Imagers, recordings, etc. He greeted me warmly, saying, “Ah, Mr. Marshall, how are you?” My reply was, “Fine, but please call me Andrew…”