2nd Edition
Recording of March 2015: Amar en Paz
What makes a great singer great is a magical combination of virtuosic physical skills with mental and emotional powers of interpretation that allow you to hear and feel a lyric's subtext: the emotions the songwriter hoped to evoke by a turn in the melody.
To Play or Not to Play
To put it mildly, Jack Vad (second row in photo, orange shirt) was dismayed. The Grammy Award–winning media producer and chief engineer for the San Francisco Symphony had just returned from the 2014 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, and was trying to make sense of his experiences there.
From the Holt Archives: Recording of October 1982: The Sheffield Track Record
What, a recording of rock backup tracks? Who could care less? Me, is who. Quibble over the program if you will (actually, it isn't all that dull, and two of the numbers are fun to listen to), but this wasn't released for the program material.
The Mavs in Mono
The Mavericks, perhaps the greatest non-country act to ever come out of Nashville (via Miami) and a band that writes terrific tunes, gives a powerhouse live show and has one of the most compelling voices in all of pop music today as a front man, decided, according to their latest official biography, to mix their second record since a 2011 comeback in mono.
From the Holt Archives: Keith O. Johnson: Reference Recordings
A Note from JGH: After a couple of scheduling foul-ups, I managed to corner Reference Recordings' Keith O. Johnson at the 1984 Winter CES in Las Vegas for an interview.
The March Issue Has Arrived
The March issue has arrived. And it’s an issue of contrasts. Featured on the cover is Theta’s Prometheus monoblock, a class-D tower of power offering 320W into 8 ohms.
The Fifth Element #89
I have to eat crow. I must retract a Record to Die For I handed out this time last year. [sigh] This has never happened before.
Listening #146
During last September's Brooklyn Audio Show, a thoughtful and amiable hobbyist explained to me his views on the purpose of an audio system.
Revel Ultima Rhythm2 powered subwoofer
Powerful, massive, and expensive, Revel's Ultima Rhythm2 subwoofer ($10,000) swept me off my feet when I first saw it in Harman International's suite at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show.
Vijay Iyer, Break Stuff
With Break Stuff, his third trio album and his first on the ECM label, Vijay Iyer comes into his own as a master pianist, composer, and conceptualizer--one of the truly great jazz musicians of our time.
Joe Grado (1925–2015)
Hats off and heads down. Let Joe Grado's passing fill our collective hearts with enduring feelings of gratitude (for what Joe brought to the quality and character of the audio industry over six decades) and respect (for his myriad inventions and human fortitude that delivered musical joy and aural insights to countless listeners and audio professionals throughout the world).
1st Edition
2015 Records to Die For
Are you trying to decide between high-resolution downloads and LP reissues? In the market for a hi-rez portable audio player? A zealot bravely fighting back in the Loudness Wars? Change is inevitable, and in the audiophile world it's the spice that keeps things interesting--there's always a new remastering or idea product just around the corner.
Joe Grado (1925–2015)
Hats off and heads down. Let Joe Grado's passing fill our collective hearts with enduring feelings of gratitude (for what Joe brought to the quality and character of the audio industry over six decades) and respect (for his myriad inventions and human fortitude that delivered musical joy and aural insights to countless listeners and audio professionals throughout the world).
Cambridge Azur 851A integrated amplifier
The more integrated amps I review, the more I want to tell manufacturers: Please, skip the DAC, omit the phono stage, lose the Bluetooth--just give me the best sound quality, and the most vivid, most transparent line stage and control center (with pre-out) you can design.
Surrounded by Benson
Call me stuck in the 1970s, or stuck in two-channel audio, but for me surround sound still conjures the idea of quadraphonic sound, which if I’m not mistaken was kind of like LaserDisc, or DVD-A: ideas whose time never came.
GoldenEar Technology Triton One loudspeaker
I reviewed GoldenEar Technology's first speaker, the Triton Two ($2999.98; all prices per pair), in February 2012. It was and is an outstandingly good speaker, but I thought then that if GoldenEar would apply the same expertise to the design of a speaker with fewer cost constraints, the results could be better still.
VPI Nomad LP player
I wish I'd had a VPI Nomad when I was in college. I was in a fraternity, and for most of my time there I had to rely on others' sound systems to play my music. My sophomore and junior years, some freshmen were rotated through my room, and several of them had nice sound systems and were accommodating about letting me play my music.
Bryston Middle T loudspeaker
Readers of Stereophile need no introduction to Bryston, a venerable Canadian electronics manufacturer known for the quality and reliability of its amplifiers and preamplifiers, and for its unique 20-year warranty.
A Tribute in Jazz
It’s always been easy to bash the record business because, let’s face it, they deserve it. Too many broken dreams. Too many people cheated out of money.
The Wild Geese
If you want to complain that young rock bands have no sense of the past; no melodies; no hooks; no hope then what do you call a young band with the sense and taste to take a freaky masterpiece like Zep III as a model for their debut? Weak? Lazy? Unworthy of a listen?
Jackson Browne: Enter The Natural
For famously civilized and jaded New York City, the crowd at the resplendent Beacon Theatre is uncommonly involved. Loud requests, many in tangled liquor dialects, boom from the balcony: "'REDNECK FRIEND'!"
Source Stereophile
