1st Edition
Keith Johnson, Pflash Pflaumer, Michael Ritter
High Definition Compatible Digital (HDCD), the proprietary process for improving the sound of 16-bit digital audio, has finally arrived. More than a dozen digital processors using the technology are on the market, and the professional encoder used to master HDCD discs is following closely behind.
July 4 Weekend Special: John Williams at the Movies
The first thing you'll hear is that the team of Keith O. Johnson and Sean Royce Martin has pulled no punches with this effort. Set down two years ago in the maximally wet acoustic of Myerson Symphony Center in Dallas, the recording makes no apologies for the brightness of brass, the clatter of 24" Sabian Artisan cymbals, or the pounding of timpani and even larger percussion.
Carver Research Lightstar Reference power amplifier
When it comes to amplifiers, ya gotcher tubes, yer solid-states, and yer hybrids. Although amplifier manufacturers would have you believe otherwise, the majority of designs within each category are variations on a few fairly-well-known themes. Everyone agrees that the power supply is extremely important.
Recording of April 1967: An Audio Obstacle Course
Shure's new "Supertrack" V-15 Type II pickup was designed as an answer to all those high-powered discs whose excessive modulations make them shatter all over the place on lesser pickups, But just in case anyone didn't happen to own any of these difficult discs, Shure decided to issue one of these, too.
The Stereo Image
For most people the terms hi-fi and stereo are synonymous, and yet it is clear that there is still a great deal of confusion over what the word "stereo" actually means. There isn't even a consensus of opinion amongst producers of records, designers of hi-fi equipment, audio critics and music lovers as to the purpose of stereo.
Prokofiev For Two and a Half
Why the title, "Prokofiev for Two and a Half," for a Deutsche Grammophon recording on which Martha Argerich and Sergei Babayan play Babayan's two-piano transcriptions of music from Prokofiev's ballet Romeo & Juliet and four of his operas?
Audible Illusions Modulus preamplifier
Once upon a time, all audio equipment used vacuum tubes. In recent years, however, tubes have become the exclusive province of super high-end audio. It is more expensive to accomplish any particular task with tubes than with transistors, and few manufacturers seemed willing until now to refine their techniques and pare back their budgets to make tube components more affordable.
Recording of February 1968: Chopin; Nocturnes
If these Nocturnes are never played better than this, we couldn't care less. These are exquisite performances! The recording, via RCA Victor's Dynagroove process is a far cry from the earlier excesses that gave Dynagroove its horrid reputation among perfectionists.
Source Stereophile
