Rewinding: Revox Bets Big on Tape's Comeback
On my way to the Revox room in Warsaw's Sobieski Hotel, my mind wandered/wondered: If a voracious reader is a bookworm, is a tape enthusiast a tapeworm?
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LATEST ADDITIONS
This man will sell you a house to go with your stereo
Earlier this year, it occurred to Robert Lucskai that he could combine his life-long love of high-end hi-fi with his expertise as a real estate agent. Thus his startup business Costa Soniqa ("Sound Coast") was born.
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The "Warsaw Show" Prepares to Open
It may look relatively quiet in the lobby of the Radisson Blu Sobieski, one of the three official sites of the Audio Video Warsaw show. But once the 27th edition of three-day show officially opens on Friday, October 24, at noon, the Radisson's lobby will be so packed that show registrants will snake through it, past soon-to-be-packed restaurants, and out the front door.
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Dynaudio Contour 20 Black Edition loudspeaker
Although I have very much appreciated how the best floorstanding loudspeakers have performed in my various listening rooms over the decades, I have always been most comfortable with relatively small two-way standmounts. Back in the early 1980s, I got musically moving sound from a pair of Rogers LS3/5a's, which I still own . . .
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T+A Symphonia streaming receiver
German aesthetes are fond of saying "Das Auge isst mit": "The eye feasts too." In audio terms, your ears do the listening, but your eyes want their share of pleasure. I thought of that expression after I opened the T+A Symphonia's double factory box.
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Re-Tales #59: Natural Sound's Half Century in Hi-Fi
Not many hi-fi dealerships can say they've survived half a century of history. Natural Sound, which is based in Framingham, Massachusetts, about 20 miles west of Boston, is one that can. Founded by Jim Lackey in 1975, Natural Sound turns 50 years old this November.
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Brilliant Corners #32: the Air Tight ATM-2Plus amplifier, Tube Rolling, and Joni Mitchell's Hejira
If you go to Tokyo, there's a good chance you'll develop a new appreciation for shopping malls. The Japanese know malls. They know just what to do with them. Inside a Tokyo mall, you can peruse the usual handbags and shoes in their unending variety. But you can also stare at Fuji apples as large as a baby's head swaddled in tissue paper, flip through the world's most exquisite stationery, stock up on fabric from the 1920s, and taste things that will haunt you well into retirement.
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Grado adds Signature S750 with new S2 driver and "B" cushion
Grado has announced the Signature S750 headphones, the third model in its Signature Line. At the heart of the S750 is an all-new S2 50mm driver paired with a newly developed "B" cushion, a combination designed to fine-tune the listening experience.
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In Defense of Sticker Shock
There are faster ways to start an online fight, but not many. Say "$10,000 DAC" and watch audio-forum commenters descend like pigeons on a dropped hot dog, flapping and furious. They'll tell you the designers are crooks, the buyers are dupes, and anyone not DIY-ing with AliExpress kits is a poseur. Building high-end hi-fi equipment costs serious coin, but you wouldn't know it from the Anger, Smugness, and Rigidity found on certain objectivist audio forums
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Recording of November 2025: Zack Lober: So We Could Live
Zack Lober: So We Could Live
Lober, bass; Jasper Blom, tenor saxophone; Suzan Veneman, trumpet; Sun-Mi Hong, drums
ZenneZ ZR2025015 (CD). 2025. Ben Van Gelder, prod.; Alessandro Mazzieri, eng.
Performance ****
Sonics ****½
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Lober, bass; Jasper Blom, tenor saxophone; Suzan Veneman, trumpet; Sun-Mi Hong, drums
ZenneZ ZR2025015 (CD). 2025. Ben Van Gelder, prod.; Alessandro Mazzieri, eng.
Performance ****
Sonics ****½