Stand Loudspeaker Reviews

Sidebar 1: Review System

Associated equipment used for this review included the SOTA Cosmos turntable and SME V tonearm, Krell KC-100, Clearaudio Gamma, and Benz-Micro MC-3 cartridges, California Audio Labs Aria II CD player, Klyne SK-5a preamplifier, and Mark Levinson No.23, Forté 1a, and VTL 90/90 power amplifiers.

Interconnects were the Monster M-1000 (CD to preamp) and AudioQuest Lapis (early version) (preamp to power amp). Speaker cables were AudioQuest Green (bass) and Green Hyperlitz (treble) (bi-wire mode) and Monster M-1 (intermittently, single wire mode).

Before any serious listening was done, the Panoramas (both pairs—as it later turned out, there would be a second pair, footnote 1) were broken in for at least 20 hours with FM music, interstation hiss, and video sound.—Thomas J. Norton

Footnote 1: Both pairs sounded essentially the same.