2nd Edition
California Audio Show 2014 Show Report
Jason Victor Serinus reports live from the Westin SFO in Millbrae California. Glorious photos and incisive commentary await.
Roddy Frame
Whether or not they vote to be independent next month from the UK, Scotland has always been independent musically. When I spent time there in the '80s, no one was bigger than New Wave band Aztec Camera and Roddy Frame.
From The Archives: VTL Compact 160 monoblock power amplifier
When I reviewed VTL's 25W Tiny Triodes in April 1991, I found them to be incredibly fun little suckers to play with, but got frustrated with their inability to drive my Spica Angeluses to reasonable levels with most of my recordings.
From The Archives: Gale GS402 loudspeaker
The Gale loudspeaker dates back to the early 1970s. As I understand it, the basic design resulted from a collaboration of Ira Gale (footnote 1) and Sao Win, who were college classmates at the time. Their speaker proved very popular in England and was subsequently imported to the USA during the mid-1970s by Audio Technica.
From The Archives: Acoustat Spectra 11 loudspeaker
I wish I could be enthusiastic about the Acoustat Spectra 11--an electrostatic/dynamic hybrid selling for $999/pair. At first glance, the Acoustat Spectra 11 looks like a good deal.
From The Archives: Sumo Athena preamplifier
Sumo is one of a handful of American audio manufacturers dedicated to producing moderately priced products aiming for high-end sound; their most expensive product is the Nine Plus, at $1199 (although a more expensive Andromeda II is imminent).
From The Archives: JBL XPL-160 loudspeaker
A visiting manufacturer recently told us here at Stereophile of an ongoing informal "survey" he was conducting. He would ask strangers to name three brands of loudspeakers.
From The Archives: PS Audio 4.6 preamplifier
Choosing a moderately priced preamp has traditionally presented the audiophile with a host of serious problems. Most attempt to be all things to all listeners, expending resources on bells and whistles which would have been better expended on basic performance.
1st Edition
Matt Boynton and Vacation Island
Call it the Robert Louis Stevenson Syndrome. In the June issue of Stereophile in my feature on the band Hospitality, I made the fairly grievous error of calling Matt Boynton’s studio in Brooklyn, Treasure Island not Vacation Island.
Get On Up
It’s clearly time for a complete rethink of the music biopic format. When a cherubic, large eyed child appears early on in Get On Up, I let out an involuntary groan.
Lamm Industries LL1 Signature line preamplifier
I've long been impressed by the design, construction, and sound of the tubed electronics produced by Vladimir Lamm, but I'd never had a Lamm Industries product in my house.
Rogue Audio Sphinx integrated amplifier
Once, on a cold, dank, soundless day deep in the Eastern bloc, I watched a man spend over a million dollars on an audio system: a turntable, a fancy horn tweeter, a few wires, and some amplification for his modified Klipschorns.
The Fifth Element #86
The CD-200 is the new CD-only player from TASCAM, the professional-audio division of TEAC. It has unbalanced analog outputs, and RCA and optical digital outputs.
Listening #140
Has it really been 30 years since an engineer named William H. Firebaugh unleashed on the audio world his radical and decidedly affordable Well Tempered Arm?
2014 Capital Audio Fest Show Report
Herb Reichert offers his unique take on the 2014 Capital Audio Fest at the Sheraton Hotel in Silver Spring, MD.
Dan D'Agostino Master Audio Systems Momentum line preamplifier
A preamplifier is the port of entry through which you gain access to the sources you've so carefully assembled.
Octave Audio V 40 SE integrated amplifier
They spoiled all my fun. When I receive a product sample for review, I look forward to taking photos while I unpack the thing, as a guide to repacking for later on.
Know Thyself: Audio Existentialism
Playing recorded music in the home is a complex, coded, cultural experience: We sit, we listen, we think and dream--and, when it feels just right, we admire.
Recording of August 2014: Turn Blue
Black Keys eighth studio record is so smooth and downright dreamy in spots, white-soul music crossed with psychedelic rock and tinted slightly blue, and all so slick--there, I said it--that it's downright scary.
Johnny Winter
Nearly cross-eyed and impossibly skinny even as a kid, the man with what he called "albinoism" from Beaumont, Texas, was a guitar virtuoso, particularly on his beloved Gibson Firebird, who loved playing the electric blues.
Source Stereophile
