Stereophile review of XA 160

[Brian Donaldson]

The November Stereophile came today and they gave a very positive review of the XA 160.

Congrats Nelson. Hope this gives you another good month.( better yet, a good year)

[Nelson Pass]

I haven't seen it yet, but I guess I'm about to.

Did I mention that the Rushmore got the cover of Stereo Sound
in Japan (the equivalent of the "cover of Rolling Stone") recently
and was given top listing.

[BrianGT]

found a small pic on the web

Nelson, did you recently add a grill on the ribbon tweeter on rushmore? I noticed here that it had a grill, and on your picture on the website here that it didn't. If I guessed from the low res picture, the one on the cover of the below picture doesn't seem to have a grill on it.

--
Brian

[Nelson Pass]

The minimal grill is a screen which keeps metallic objects
from being snapped up a foot away and going through
the ribbon.

The distributor in Japan, meanwhile has requested a "cloth
grill" option, but we have yet to see a sample of what they
might desire.

[cowanrg]

i too just saw the review in stereophile. although he seemed to enjoy the amps immensely, for some reason he had some reservations about it... it was odd. he kept talking very favorably about it, but had a tone as if he were expecting more?

he did comment on how gorgeous it looked though, which makes me feel better about MY never-ending project

[russbryant]

One thing they stated in the measurement section was that on both units the max output power was 116 watts (I think) vs Nelson's 160 watts. Maybe that's why the reviewer was hedging. Though I think the measurements are done after the written review, so who knows.

Russ

[Mark A. Gulbrandsen]

Measurements should always be done after the written review is turned in to the publisher although I doubt that everyone follows this more subjective path.

The power measurement is odd as I once owned an S-300 that only did about 90 watts per side. I often wondered it it had been mistakenly wired for 220 Volts AC, but it ran at a seemingly normal quite warm temperature for a high bias AB amp. I didn't own it that long and it sounded fine to me at the time.

My measurements were made into 250 watt Dale 8 ohm 1% non inductive load resistors with the line voltage at 120 volts.
Mark

[grataku]

Originally posted by russbryant
One thing they stated in the measurement section was that on both units the max output power was 116 watts (I think) vs Nelson's 160 watts. Maybe that's why the reviewer was hedging. Though I think the measurements are done after the written review, so who knows.

Russ

Maybe MrPass forgot to adjust the AC current gain (unlikely) or the reviewer used a SE probe and is off by a factor of two

[Nelson Pass]

We still have not received a copy of the review, so who
knows? Did they spell my name right? We never comment
on reviews, good or bad, anyway.

[Mark A. Gulbrandsen]

I rarely buy Stereofool Mag and certainly don't subscribe to it, but I had to see what they said about the X-160 so I picked one up last night at Barnes & Noble.
They did spell your name correctly! The review is actually one of the better written reviews I've seen in that mag, but then they had something pretty amazing to write about too. Desmond also received high praise for his design work on the chassis.

Mark