Denis Stevens

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Do Musicophiles Enjoy Audio?
As We See ItThink PiecesAudiophile Essentials
Denis Stevens  |  Dec 24, 2008  |  First Published: Apr 03, 1990  |  0 comments
Paul Gowan's letter in the October 1989 Stereophile hinted that, whether or not audiophiles enjoy music, it should be true that the emotional experience we derive from music is what really matters. There, barefaced, lies the problem: who are "we"? A well-known Latin epigram affirms that in matters of taste there is no point in discussion. And a Greek epigram (coined in fact by Max Beerbohm in his Oxford novel Zuleika Dobson) suggests that "for people who like that kind of thing, that is the kind of thing they like."
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Elgar's Enigma
Music and Recording Features
Denis Stevens  |  Feb 28, 1990  |  0 comments
The hidden theme of Elgar's Enigma Variations has been sufficiently investigated over the past 90 years to deter all but the most intrepid researcher from tackling the problem yet again. I would not venture to do so unless I were convinced that a well-argued attempt to solve the mystery once and for all had not been unfairly brushed aside, even ignored, a dozen or so years ago.
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Poem: Stereophile Cuts an LP
Music and Recording FeaturesInterviews
John Atkinson, Richard Lehnert, Denis Stevens  |  Sep 03, 1989  |  0 comments
Why had a high-end hi-fi magazine felt the need to produce a classical LP when the thrust of real record companies in 1989 is almost exclusively toward CD and cassette? Why did the magazine's editors think they had a better chance than most experienced professional engineers in making a record with audiophile sound quality? Were they guilty of hubris in thinking that the many years between them spent practicing the profession of critic would qualify them as record producers?
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