Thomas J. Norton

As one of the founders of Threshold Corporation, its present chairman, and its longtime technical head, Nelson Pass has had a hand in the design and implementation of the products to come out of that company since its inception. His <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/solidpoweramps/16threshold">SA-1</A&gt; power amplifier and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/solidpreamps/987fet10">FET 10</A> preamplifier have been long-term favorites of <I>Stereophile</I> founder J. Gordon Holt and I reviewed the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/solidpoweramps/1290thresh">Threshold SA-12/e</A> power amplifier a year ago (Vol.13 No.12). I cornered him on a visit to Santa Fe...

I only found out <I>after</I> beginning my auditioning of Mirage's M-1si loudspeakers that the film <I>2001, A Space Odyssey</I> was, at practically the same instant, undergoing a brief theatrical revival in major cities around the US. I might have known. Perhaps it was the persistent Strauss melodies that rattled around in my head as I set them up. Perhaps it was the <I>two</I> 5'-tall monoliths that subsequently stared at me as I sat in my listening chair. For whatever reason, the M-1sis were an imposing sight, and the association with out-of-this-world events was not a difficult one to make.

It was eight years ago that I first met Aalt Jouk van den Hul. I was visiting Ortofon in Denmark, and, with a group of hi-fi journalists from all over Europe, was traveling by bus to visit the cartridge-production facility in the far south of that country. Bus journeys are not my ideal way of passing time; naturally I gravitated to the rear of the bus, where bottles of Tuborg were making their presence felt. One journalist, however&mdash;a pixieish fellow hailing from The Low Countries&mdash;resisted the blandishments of the opened bottles. Producing a sheath of black-and-white glossies from his briefcase, he announced that he had just developed the ultimate stylus profile!

"Tomorrow we'll go over to <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/593">Larry Archibald</A>'s house and pick up the Threshold amplifiers."

It may surprise some readers to learn that all of the contributors to <I>Stereophile</I> do not get the chance to hear, at our leisure and in familiar circumstances, everything that passes through the magazine's portals. Not that we wouldn't like to, but there just isn't time. Nor are the logistics always right. I was therefore probably as intrigued as the average reader by LA's <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/689mirage">glowing report</A> on the $5000/pair Mirage M-1 in the June 1989 issue. The M-1s had been on the market long enough for me to have heard them on several occasions, of course, but generally at shows and not under the best of conditions. I did get to hear them briefly at LA's later that same summer, but the hustle and bustle of a <I>Stereophile</I> Writers' Conference party isn't the optimum place for value judgments.

Audiophiles have long had a love-hate relationship with dipolar loudspeakers. These devices are nearly always a pain to position properly, they tend to dominate a room, and more often than not they're fussy about amplification. But when it all comes together, the best of them can make magic.

The concept of a loudspeaker with its own built-in amplification is an idea whose time should long since have come. Technically it makes a lot of sense, and in some parts of the world&mdash;not to mention professional circles&mdash;it's quite popular. But commercially, the idea has never really taken off in this country. And while the loudspeaker manufacturer <I>should</I> be in a better position to make the best amplifier choice, American audiophiles seem wedded to the idea of making their own amplifier/loudspeaker match.