Loudspeakers In Nz

Russian firebrand to lead NZSO for historic symphony

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra will play history's most defiant symphony under the leadership of a fiery Russian conducting star when it tours its Leningrad concert series in August.

Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony remains a symbol of heroic World War Two resistance. The composer finished the work while trapped in the city of Leningrad during the German Army's deadly siege, in which more than one and a half million people died.

The symphony was played over loudspeakers to the city's blockaded and starving people, becoming synonymous with their powerful instinct to endure disaster and survive.

The NZSO performances in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch will be led by the Chief Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Vasily Petrenko, on his debut tour of New Zealand.

The 34-year-old is credited with ushering in "a golden age" at the Liverpool orchestra. He was born in Leningrad (today's St Petersburg) and is acclaimed for his passionate interpretation of Russian repertoire.

In 2010 Petrenko was named Young Artist of the Year at the Classical BRIT Awards. He will lead the Oslo Philharmonic as their Chief Conductor in 2013.

Proudly supported by The Radio Network, the NZSO Leningrad tour also features New Zealand's leading concert pianist Michael Houstoun performing Rachmaninov's rarely-played Fourth Piano Concerto.

The Timaru-born pianist is among this country's most distinguished classical musicians and was conferred an Honorary Doctorate by Victoria University earlier this year.

The NZSO will perform in Christchurch as part of the Christchurch Arts Festival.

Attached imagery features Vasily Petrenko and Michael Houstoun.

Boston Acoustics VS 336 Floor-standing Loudspeakers Review

It was early days for home theatre – a time when the idea that you could have a great audio-visual experience in your own lounge was still somewhat new – and I had decided it was time for an upgrade of my embryonic system of modest components.

The Pioneer VSX606s gave way to a lusty Sony STR-DB930, and a Toshiba DVD player was brought in to supplant the venerable DV-505 – then a legend in its own time.

The biggest change was in the speaker area though, with a monster centre speaker from Boston Acoustics. It was the Lynnfield VR10, a hefty four-driver three-way box of Herculean proportions, and a stunningly good sounding speaker it turned out to be.

It was time to wave goodbye to the VR10 a few years back, with an upgrade to a Castle Acoustics system, but really, in performance stakes it had no reason at all to develop an inferiority complex.

Now, with Avalon Pacific Marketing having been appointed as the new distributors of the American company’s range of loudspeakers and other audio products, it was time to audition Boston Acoustics once more.

The Boston Acoustics flagship VS 336 speaker is a generously proportioned and unusually attractive three-way design utilising no less than five drivers. Recommended for use with amplifiers as powerful as 400wpc, the 8ohm VS 336 has a sensitivity of 87dB. A good 100w high current integrated amplifier such as Yamaha’s delicious A-S2000 would make a great partner for them, but these babies probably won’t sing with a low-rating amp.

Three 165mm bass drivers, a 114mm midrange and an unusual 25mm ‘dimpled’ tweeter adorn the mirror finish black piano gloss front baffle, while the five-way binding posts on the rear panel of each curved enclosure are heavy duty items. Each heavily braced cabinet is constructed using layers of different wood material, lessening the chance of any cabinet resonance. To further enhance sound quality and increase the stability of the slender VS 336, a spiked outrigger bar is connected to the rear of the speaker, broadening the footprint and coupling the speaker to the floor.

Looks are very subjective of course, but I was impressed with the aesthetic and finish of these imposing beauties. The speakers were cabled to a delicious set of Bryston electronics (BP26 Pre/ MPS-2 PSU/14BSST Power/BCD-1 cd player/BDA-1 d/a converter), and in this high-end system the VS 336’s proved to be worth more than the sum of their well-constructed parts.

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