RMAF: Everyone's Favorite Show Opens on Friday
Stereophile will be on hand to bring you live coverage as it happens.
TAVES 2012--That's a Wrap!
And speaking of audio shows: Stereophile's Bob Deutsch offers live reportage from the Toronto Audio Video Entertainment Show.
Fine Sounds to Acquire McIntosh
Breaking news this morning is the announcement that the Italian Investment Group Fine Sounds SpA is to acquire 100% of famed US tube-amplifier manufacturer McIntosh Laboratory from D&M Holdings. Fine Sounds already owns the Sonus Faber, Audio Research, and Wadia Digital brands and the Sumiko distribution company.
MSB Technology Platinum Data CD IV transport & Diamond DAC IV & D/A converter
The audiophile does not pursue music reproduction because it is useful; he pursues it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful. If music were not beautiful it would not be worth knowing, and if music were not worth knowing life would not be worth living.
Getting Back Into Hi-fi: Part IV
So where were we? Ah yes, I had just nailed loudspeaker positioning in my tiny bedroom by switching the left and right speakers placing the tweeters on the outside of my array. This change widened the soundstage and stabilized the central image but sacrificed some pinpoint high-end articulation I had with the tweeters inside the widths of the speakers.
The Entry Level #22
The Tannoy Mercury V1 loudspeakers ($320/pair; see last month's column) were already carefully packed in their box, pushed into a corner of my messy kitchen, ready to go to John Atkinson for a Follow-Up--but I couldn't stop thinking about them. Their delicate, graceful highs and tight, properly balanced bass had entranced me, and, now, as I listened over and over to a recent reissue of Bill Dixon's amazing Intents and Purposes (CD, International Phonograph LSP-3844), I felt a strange urge to unpack the Tannoys and return them to my listening room.
Clearaudio Ovation & Clarify turntable & tonearm
Like many audiophiles, I cohabit with someone who understands my audio obsession but has no desire to share it. That someone is my wife. Since I began writing for Stereophile, Ashley has helped me carry amplifiers, tape up boxes for shipping, and found room in our house for all the extra components and their boxes--which sometimes make the place look like a scene from an episode of Hoarders. She's a peach.
Listening #118
Until recently, my favorite shirt was one I'd found on a clearance table at Macy's: a red paisley thing with long sleeves and a button-down collar, not unlike the ones seen in photographs of Peter Holsapple or the young Syd Barrett. When I first found it, this shirt was dusty, and appeared to have been marked down at least a half-dozen times before bottoming out at a price that wouldn't buy a six-pack of Mountain Dew at the local stop-and-rob.
The 2012 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest Show Report
John Atkinson, Stephen Mejias, Jason Serinus and Art Dudley provide complete (over 175 entries w/photos!) show coverage from Denver.
More 2012 RMAF Show Reports:
Computer Audio: AudioStream.com
Turntables & Vinyl AnalogPlanet.com
Headphones & Related: InnerFidelity.com
Manley Labs SE/PP 300B Monoblock power amplifier
This should have been a recipe for disaster. It's no secret. David Manley has not been big on single-ended amplifiers. Not enough muscle. You're better off with push-pull. Still, with a growing market for single-ended stuff, I'm sure Manley saw a need to do something. Of all tube designers, Manley has always been among the most prolific.
dbx 14/10 graphic equalizer
J. Gordon Holt: Although most audio perfectionists look down with scorn on equalizers, there are times when the benefits of such devices can outweigh their disadvantages. I discussed the pros and cons in my review of the Accuphase G-18 in Vol.11 No.4, but a brief recap here won't be amiss.
Krell KRS-2 preamplifier
One of the most striking aspects of high-end audio is that you can never take any component for granted. Most of the radical change in audio at present takes place in new front-end and speaker technologies, but other components are changing as well--and with at least as much impact in making recorded music seem believable.
Book Review: The Chitlin' Circuit...
In December 1941, just after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and the U.S.'s declaration of war, the state of Indiana unwittingly endorsed a very different conflict by approving the incorporation of a talent agency headed by Denver Ferguson, an Indianapolis-based African-American entrepreneur.
EMI Remasters Its Classical Catalog for SACD
It's the first rule of being a stereophile: sound quality is serious business. Simon Gibson, one of the engineers at Abbey Road Studios who worked on EMI's new Signature Collection of hybrid SACD/CDs, knows the drill: remaster and change the sound of a much-loved classical recording from the label's glorious back catalog and you risk becoming a target of blogs and forums.
The Fifth Element #74
I've had Vivid Audio's Oval K1 loudspeaker here for several months. Over many years, the only other speaker brands I've written about as much as I have Vivid have been Wilson Benesch and Shahinian Acoustics, whose speakers I still revere and can recommend without reservation--to the right listener.
Tannoy Mercury V1 loudspeaker
The last few decades have seen dramatic improvements in the art (and science) of loudspeaker design. Tannoy's budget-priced Mercury series is now in its fifth iteration.
Source Stereophile
