Have you ever helped someone buy their first audio system? How did it go?
Audiophiles often find themselves the go-to person for audio advice and shopping assistance. Have you ever helped someone buy their first audio system? How did it go?
LATEST ADDITIONS
Continue Reading »
Keith Jarrett Trio at Carnegie Hall (plus: Jazz Festival!)
Keith Jarrett’s “Standards Trio” played Carnegie Hall Thursday night, to predictable glories.
An Elaborate Nest
To woo a mate, the male bowerbird builds <a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/07/bowerbirds/laman-photography"… elaborate nest</a>.
Stories for the Ages, Too
<i>Tris McCall has some trouble getting a hold of Joanna Newsom. Apparently, he’s not the only one. Photo: Annabel Mehran</i>
These Are Pretty, She Wrote
“These are pretty,” she wrote. Attached to the e-mail was a picture of the new Davone Ray loudspeaker. Pretty, indeed.
Some [Expletive] Cassette Shelves
I took her advice and went for a walk, but didn’t get more than half a block from the office before spotting two large, green dumpsters filled to their brims with paperwork, notebooks, and other office supplies. As I approached, something else caught my eye. Atop the pile of stuff were two fully-stocked, wooden cassette shelves in very good condition.
Spiral Groove Centroid tonearm
Spiral Groove's new Centroid tonearm ($6000) arrived just a few days before press time, so it would be risky to say anything definitive about it. But I will take that risk: using the system described in <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/turntables/spiral_groove_sg2_turntable/">my review</A> of the SG2 turntable, this may be the best tonearm I've heard. Its sound is different in ways that will open people's ears, and I predict that it will affect the design of every tonearm from now on. The Centroid's design deserves and will await full coverage in its own review, but here are the basics: It's a fluid-damped unipivot design unlike any other that gives the user fine adjustment of all relevant parameters.
Now On Newsstands: Stereophile, Vol.33 No.7
The July 2010 issue of <i>Stereophile</i> is now on newsstands. It had been far too long since we received a letter complaining about our love of reviewing insanely expensive products, so we decided to make this our “Special Aspirations Issue,” featuring, almost exclusively, products you’d have to be CEO of BP to afford.
Jazz Awards, 2009-10
The Jazz Journalists Association held its 2010 awards bash at City Winery, a warm, spacious eatery (with an excellent wine list) in the SoHo section of New York this evening. Below are most of the winners, followed by the musicians for whom I cast my ballot. The awards covered the period from April 15, 2009, to April 15, 2010.
CEntrance DACport USB headphone amplifier
I have built up a large collection of CDs since the medium's launch more than a quarter century ago, along with a modest number of SACDs and a small number of DVD-As. But I find these days that, unless I'm getting down to some serious listening and can give the music my uninterrupted attention, I use iTunes to feed computer files to my high-end rig (footnote 1). I've mostly been using the superb-sounding combination of <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/hirezplayers/dcs_puccini_sacd_playback_syste… Puccini U-Clock and Puccini</A> player/DAC that I reviewed last December to take a USB feed from a Mac mini, but I've also been using the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/bel_canto_usb_link_2496_us… Canto USB Link 24/96</A> and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/lindemann_amp_stello_usb-s… U2</A> USB-S/PDIF converters, particularly for headphone listening, when I use one of those two format converters with a <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/886">Benchmark DAC1</A> D/A headphone amplifier.