Stereophile review of XA 160

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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.

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Brian
 

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The one and only
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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.
 
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
 
russbryant said:
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
;)
 
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
 
I have the review here too and I think it was very positive.It was compared to the Halcro and MF KW and was found to be in the same class.The reviewer (Michael Fremer) thought it was very smooth sounding but he wrote that it had a slightly smaller soundstage compared to the Halcro .
I was also surprised at the test results with which the tester had some reservations particularly regarding output limiting.
Any comments on this Mr.Pass?
 
I thought the review was very positive overall. The only thing I questioned was the output power measurement. I suspect as someone else stated that it was a measurement error as both units gave the same 116 watt value.

Nelson, congrats on the sales, but what if it "could" have been 4 orders instead of the 2? ;^)


Russ
 
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