2nd Edition
A Musical Inheritance
When I was a child, my father was a dealer in black-market records. We lived on what was then the outskirts of Moscow, in what was then the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. It was the 1970s, and our nation's record stores only sold discs of domestic manufacture, most of them wooly-sounding classical recordings on the Melodiya label.
Revinylization #10: Bill Evans's Live at Montreux
The late pianist Bill Evans may be the most reissued jazz musician in the catalogs of audiophile record labels. There are reasons for that: He played standards, mainly ballads (many audiophiles shun the avantgarde), almost never in groups larger than trios (stereo systems often do best with small-scale ensembles).
Gobel High End Divin Marquis loudspeaker
Although it was founded by ex-Siemens loudspeaker engineer Oliver Gobel in 2003, I am embarrassed to admit that I had never heard of Gobel High End until I visited the room hosted by Florida retailer Bending Wave at the 2019 AXPONA.
Recording of October 2020: Rough and Rowdy Ways
The stats alone are impressive--or, as we at Stereophile like to say, the measurements. 79-year-old Bob Dylan's 39th studio album is his first album of original material since 2012. Rough and Rowdy Ways times out at more than 70 minutes of music, due in part to the inclusion of Dylan's lengthiest studio song to date, "Murder Most Foul," which runs 16 minutes, 54 seconds.
Mikey Bats 302
Issue 54 of The Absolute Sound, cover-dated July/August 1988, had arrived in my mailbox. I had been warned that this issue contained a report from Stereophile's third hi-fi show, which had been held in Santa Monica the previous April.
Analog Corner #302: 25 Years and Counting
I was planning to ignore the big three oh oh--my 300th Analog Corner column--and go about my normal business of covering an assortment of new analog gear and accessories. There's an abundance of those today, 25 years after the publication of my first column.
1st Edition
Rudresh Mahanthappa: The Time Is Now
An outburst of saxophone flurries sits you straight up in your chair. The tone is rich but with a cutting edge. It has to be Rudresh Mahanthappa. The riveting cry of his alto saxophone is one of the most recognizable sounds in jazz.
Andover Model-One turntable music system
Apart from the Beatles and Hendrix I heard in my audiophile father's basement, one of my earliest rock'n'roll memories involved a multipurpose record player at school. In third grade, six of us were moved as a separate group to a round table to watch a filmstrip in a darker part of a large, open-plan classroom.
HoloAudio May (Level 3) D/A processor
The email from Herb Reichert was intriguing. "I am, with great difficulty writing about HoloAudio's new two-chassis May DAC," he wrote. "It is death quiet and very natural. It makes every recording sound non-digital."
Yamaha A-S3200 integrated amplifier
Yamaha: The name evokes memories of my youth when those much-coveted receivers were out of financial reach, leading me to rely upon entry-level Kenwoods and Pioneers and others that sounded worse.
Manger s1 active loudspeaker
My first exposure to Manger Audio loudspeakers, which are based on the "bending-wave" technology invented years ago by the company, was to the Manger p2, their passive flagship speaker, at the 2019 AXPONA.
Gramophone Dreams #40: Denafrips Terminator & Ares II
I am fascinated by DACs and the shifting sands of today's digital-audio marketplace. This month, I am reporting on two more DACs, both made by Denafrips: the $4498 Terminator, until recently their flagship DAC, and the $768 Ares II, the company's least expensive model.
Source Stereophile
