Back in the winter of 1999, just a few months before I started working for <i>Stereophile</i>, I took a month-long train trip. One of my first stops was in Montreal. I could not have spent more than three or four days there, but they were a very fulfilling and memorable three or four days.
I've been enthusiastically tracking the development of Bel Canto's class-D amplifiers, from their original <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/amplificationreviews/442">TriPath-based models</A> to their <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/musicintheround/1106mitr">more recent designs</A> based on Bang & Olufsen's ICEpower modules. With each step, Bel Canto has improved their amps' sound quality and reliability.
In your opinion, who has been the most influential person in the history of high-end audio? Was it an engineer or inventor? An audio retailer? How about a reviewer or public relations person?
Last Friday was an interesting day in the office. No one was here, but Ariel. Robert Baird was whooping it up at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, and John Atkinson and I would soon be on the road. It was the first day of spring, and snow was falling like mad.
Mikey fremers with some connections while the imposing Wilson MAXX 3 loudspeaker looks on, darth-vaderishly. Better not screw up, Mikey.
The Musical Fidelity Titan power amplifier: 1000W into 8 ohms and heavy as hell.
The <a href="http://forum.stereophile.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=53228&an=0…; Furutech deMag provided an obvious and immediate improvement to a new vinyl LP.
Another South by Southwest is in the books. My 21st out of a possible 23 festivals. Let me start with three acts that were among the most prominent participants there in terms of appearances. It seemed like every time I turned around—day, night, those sunny, warm Austin spring afternoons when the free drinks flow freely and the good times roll—there would be Raul Malo, the Heartless Bastards and/or M. Ward playing yet another gig.
Beginning with this issue, <I>Stereophile</I> readers will notice that more of the subjective equipment reviews are augmented with technical reports describing certain aspects of the component's measured performance. Although test data have lately been increasingly included in reviews, <I>Stereophile</I> has recently made a major commitment to providing readers with relevant measurements of products under review. We have just finished building an audio test laboratory featuring the Audio Precision System One, a sophisticated, computer-based audio test measurement system.