2nd Edition
Aesthetix Audio Mimas integrated amplifier
I love listening to new audio products and discovering how they make me feel. I do my best to open my mind, ears, and pores, to trust the process and see where it leads me.
Notes to a New Audiophile
Dear Newbie: Welcome to the wonderful world of hi-fi! If you're besotted with a desire for audio gear that can make your recorded music sound better than you've ever heard it, you've come to the right place.
Magnepan LRS loudspeaker
A visitor to stereophile.com named billmilosz commented: "Compared to these, everything else sounded like it was coming out of a cereal box." When I read that, I laughed out loud.
Recording of August 2019: Henry Brant: Ice Field
Even though Henry Brant's mind-boggling Ice Field for orchestra and organ won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2002--the year after its premiere--and years later was revisited by the San Francisco Symphony, for which it was commissioned, no recording format has succeeded at capturing its musical and spatial wonders. Until now.
Munich!
By the time you read this, Munich's High End 2019 will be a distant memory (footnote 1). Yet as I write this, having just returned from Munich, the experience is fresh in my mind. It's the most compelling audio topic I can think of, crying out for commentary.
Klipsch Forte III loudspeaker
I'm fortunate to have reviewed in recent years not one but three different pairs of horn-loaded loudspeakers. My jaw dropped when I reviewed what would prove the finest loudspeaker to ever grace my home, the Volti Audio Rival.
Keith Jarrett's Live Well-Tempered Clavier Resurrected
Thirty-two years after it was recorded, pianist Keith Jarrett's live reading of J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, has seen the light of day. Performed in the fabled acoustic of the Troy Saving Bank Music Hall in Troy, New York...
From The Archives: Thorens TD-150AB turntable and tonearm
This is an integrated arm-and-turntable unit using single-belt drive from a stepped motor pulley to an inside platter (under the main one), and having a three-point suspension similar to that in the AR turntable for isolation from acoustic feedback and floorborne vibrations.
From The Archives: Exposure XV integrated amplifier
American audiophiles have long had a love-hate relationship with British integrated amplifiers. On one hand, they often provide superb musicality, sell for a moderate price, and don't take up much room.
1st Edition
From The Archives: Weathers PS-11 Professional Stereo Pickup System
Editor's Note: This is the very first equipment report that was written by J. Gordon Holt for Stereophile, then called The Stereophile. The venerable JGH appended the following warning: The writer of this report was employed by Weathers Industries during the time when the product in question was undergoing development...
From The Archives: Dynaco Stereo 120 transistor power amplifier
One by one, the major amplifier manufacturers have acceded to the pressures of the marketplace and introduced "solid-state" models, whether or not these happened to sound as good as their previous tube-type units. Dynaco was one of the last of the hold outs to wait until they could produce a solid-state unit that was at least as good as their best tube types.
AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt Portable USB DAC Sweepstakes
Register to win an AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt Portable USB DAC (Total value $299.95) we are giving away!
Listening to the Wilson WAMM Master Chronosonic
Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to spend a couple of afternoons listening to a system built around the late David Wilson's magnum opus, the Wilson Audio WAMM Master Chronosonic loudspeaker ($685,000/pair), which Jason Victor Serinus reported on in December 2016.
Verve Gets Vital
Back when the vinyl resurgence was only a gleam in Michael Fremer's eye, most major record labels just couldn't be bothered with the LP. Fans of such masterpieces as Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet, John Coltrane's Blue Train, and Charles Mingus's Blues & Roots had to make do with poor-quality vinyl reissues from small EU-based labels.
John Adams
American composer John Adams and I first met in the late 1970s, when I became one of his composition students at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. My recollections from those days endure as near-cinematic images...
Music in the Round #98: Trinnov Altitude 32 & Essence Evolve II-4K
As I wrote before in these pages, I have long been acquainted with French electronics manufacturer Trinnov. Years ago, at an Audio Engineering Society convention in New York, a Trinnov rep used a mastering console equipped with their processor to move, at will, the sounds of instruments around the 3D soundstage and left me thoroughly impressed.
Listening #199: Falcon & Graham LS3/5A
It all started when I moved my playback system from my 11' by 16' living room to my 12' by 17' family room: The latter has proven the better-sounding setting, and it's also sunnier and more accessible--and the floor is more level and stable. (The family room is a circa-2005 addition on a 1936 house.)
Source Stereophile
