Center Stage: Guitarist Albert Lee in surround sound
Humble, unprepossessing, modest are not words normally associated with lead guitarists, or lead singers, or lead anything. But Albert Lee, the Fender Telecaster devotee, has, by all accounts, always been refreshingly down to earth. The other unusual quality about Lee is that he's an English guitarist who, in country music, can hold his own against any American player.
Chord Launches the DSX1000 Network Player
Rather than debut its new $13,000 DSX1000 Network Music Player in the UK, where the company is based, Chord founder and chief scientist, John Franks (above), traveled to Mountain View, CA on November 8 for the unveiling. The site was the spacious, extremely attractive Northern California showroom of Audio High, one of the high-end dealers in the US that display Chord's top-end Reference products.
Burning Amp Sizzles in San Francisco
It was no accident that residential architect Mark Cronander, aka Variac, scheduled the Sixth Burning Amp DIY Fest for October 28, on the same weekend that the AES Convention (Audio Engineering Society) took place in San Francisco. Not only did Cronander attract a fair number of new folks who came into town for the convention, but he also scored, as a speaker, class-D amplification expert Bruno Putzeys of Belgium's Hypex Electronics.
Audio Research Reference 5 SE line preamplifier I've heard a lot of great audio components over the years, but even in that steady stream of excellence, a few have stood out as something special. These are the products that, in their day, set a new standard for performance, and many of them are ones I wish I'd hung on to. Among these products are three preamps from Audio Research: the SP3A, the SP6B, and the SP10. I know I'm not alone in viewing these models as classics.
Rogers High Fidelity EHF-100 integrated amplifier
I can imagine the gaiety and mirth that filled the halls of the electronics industry in the 1950s, as engineer after bespectacled engineer realized that the transistor would soon consign to the outposts of oblivion those ancient technologies that had preceded it. Before long--surely no more than a decade--the hated vacuum tube would vanish from the Earth, along with the tube socket, the tube tester, the tag board, the high-voltage rail, and that lowest rascal of them all, the output transformer. What a jubilant time!
Definitive Technology StudioMonitor 55 loudspeaker
Recently, I thought about all the audio shows I've attended over the last 27 years, looking for any pattern that all of them might have shared. I came up with a handful of audio manufacturers that have earned at shows a reputation for getting, year after year, consistently good sound--rooms in which I could reliably depend on being able to chill out and enjoy music in good, involving sound.
The British Invasion v.2: The Beatles Tour the US--on LP
Over at AnalogPlanet, Michael Fremer has kept us up to date on the highly anticipated remastered Beatles LPs. While the reemergence of the Beatles catalog on vinyl is exciting news for many music lovers, audiophiles are most curious about how these new editions will sound. Get ready to find out.
Stereophile's Products of 2012
Each December since 1992, Stereophile has named a few special components its "Products of the Year." These are products that not only define the present audio landscape, but that we hope will someday be seen as classics--products you'll want to pass on to future generations of audiophiles and music lovers.
Winning the Loudness Wars
At the 133rd Audio Engineering Society (AES) Convention at San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center, a full house flocked to aptly numbered Room 133 on October 27 to hear Stereophile's John Atkinson and four other major audio professionals deliver a two-hour presentation, Loudness Wars: The Wrong Drug?
Petition for Better Sound
Well audiophiles, this is your opportunity to make a change. Valiant Stereophile forum poster sometimesuk2012 started a petition on Change.org to “Stop the Loudness Wars and Release High Definition Music Downloads”. You can find out more about the petition and sign your name here.
Music in the Round #57
I'm writing this in the dog days of a hot August. Over the past few months, a couple of interesting devices have accumulated, but were bumped from the column in favor of bigger things, as it should be. So this column is an end-of-season close-out.
Listening #119
Apart from a 2004 column in which I made cruel fun of the angriest (footnote 1) complaints I'd received to that point--an entertaining if lazy template I hope to re-use before long--I've done little to acknowledge the mail I receive every week, most of it thoughtful and positive. I'm especially grateful for the nice letters I get every time I write about vintage audio, as I did in Stereophile's August issue ("Five vintage loudspeakers you should hear before you die"): The art of music is best served by an open-minded approach to playback gear, and I'm encouraged to think that some Stereophile readers actually understand that.
Jadis JPL line preamplifier
In its comparatively few years in the marketplace, the line-level preamplifier appears to have established commercial parity with its full-function big brother. That this was inevitable was clear as far back as the mid-'80s. The advent of the CD and the proliferation of digital sources argued for a modular approach to preamp design. In such an environment, line-level sources (eg, DAT, CD, even analog tape) deserve special attention.
From InnerFidelity.com: 2012 Holiday Headphone Gift Guide
There's a gazillion headphones out there, sorting through them is a chore. So the InnerFidelity writers came together with their top picks for cool headphone gifts this holiday season to make your gift giving a little easier.
From Home Theater: Top Picks iPad App Now Available
Home Theater's new Top Picks app for your iPad is now available for free at the iTunes App Store. The app provides instant access to our list of Top Picks recommended products across 12 categories. Each pick has a short blurb explaining why our reviewer's liked the product and includes a link to the full review.
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