KEF Debuts New Finishes for Blade One Meta and Blade Two Meta

Sennheiser Drops HDB 630 Wireless Headphones

LATEST ADDITIONS

Stephen Mejias

Lee Ranaldo: Between the Times and the Tides

Stephen Mejias Feb 22, 2012

I just saw a rainbow fall into the floor
Shattered into pieces, your eyes ask “What for?”
These days I’m all alone out in the middle of the world
These days I’m trying to tell myself you’re just some other girl
&#150"Off the Wall," Lee Ranaldo

It was around noon on Sunday, October 16th, 2011, and I was in the lobby of the Denver Marriott Tech Center. Jennifer Atocha broke the news. Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore had separated after 27 years of marriage and 16 awesome full-length albums with their band, Sonic Youth:

the
band
that
had
changed
my
life.

News

Debut of the Mårten Django at David Michael Audio

Ariel Bitran Feb 22, 2012

Saturday, March 17, Noon–7pm: David Michael Audio (4341 Delemere Court, Royal Oak, MI) will host the premiere of the Mårten Django floorstanding loudspeaker ($15,000/pair).

CD Player/Transport Reviews Budget Component Reviews The Entry Level

The Entry Level #14

Stephen Mejias Feb 21, 2012

Playing a Compact Disc is nothing like playing a live show.

Wild, right? This is just the latest of the profundities to explode into my mighty brain as I slouch on the orange couch, staring at stacks of CDs, contemplating life and stuff. It came to me on a lovely Sunday morning. The sun was shining, the birds were cheeping, and I was still high from my band's performance two nights earlier.

The Fifth Element

The Fifth Element #70

John Marks Feb 21, 2012

Here we go again! Come up with a list of classical pieces, and if your list is one of the skillfully crafted winners, you'll win your choice of a single CD from Stereophile's online store, and your list and all the other winning entries will be posted online for the admiration of all and sundry. This year's write-in contest will be somewhat more challenging than the last three, but I'm sure many of you will be up to it.

Art Dudley Listening Integrated Amp Reviews Phono Cartridge Reviews

Listening #110

Art Dudley Feb 21, 2012

Phono cartridgesalong with mothballs, hobnails, laundry bluing, hot-water bottles, lighter fluid, fur coats, and typewritersare among the most outdated of consumer goods: To most people who make their living in the world of consumer electronics, every new cartridge that hits the shelves is little more than a coughing spasm from the death-room down the hall. You can imagine, then, the welcome accorded new samples of the even more anachronistic pickup head, which combines phono cartridge, headshell, and barbell into a product one seldom sees outside the school librarian's junk drawer. New pickup heads, which tend to look the same as old pickup heads, are manufactured in pessimistically small quantities, and seldom get much attention.

Budget Component Reviews Computer Audio Reviews Digital Processor Reviews

Rega DAC D/A processor

Sam Tellig Feb 21, 2012

"We like to make things," Roy Gandy, Rega's founder and owner, once told me. "It's what we do." Or maybe it was Rega's chairman and chief engineering honcho, Terry Bateman. Rega products are designed and manufactured in the south of England. So far as I know, no one at the Rega facility, on the Temple Farm Industrial Estate, has committed suicide; the same cannot be said of workers at the factory in China where iPods are made. Al Gore is on the board of Apple. Al, what do you think?

Headphone Reviews News

Headphone Heaven at Audio High

Jason Victor Serinus Feb 21, 2012

Headphone enthusiasts had a field day at Mountain View, CA retailer Audio High on January 25, when both Sankar Thiagasamudram, President and co-founder of Audeze, and Lorr Kramer, VP of North American Operations for Smyth Research, presented their latest and greatest. In a refreshing change of pace, both men dispensed with the usual canned presentations followed by group listening. Instead, they welcomed anyone who wished to partake to a generous personal audition.

Robert Baird

Old Ideas

Robert Baird Feb 17, 2012

We should all be so lucky. To be alive, creative, and thoroughly (and wonderfully) corrupt as 77-year-old Leonard Cohen is on his new record, Old Ideas.

Headphone Reviews InnerFidelity

The Brilliant Sennheiser HD 800

Tyll Hertsens Feb 17, 2012

This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com

One look at the Sennheiser HD 800 and it's quite obvious that this headphone is in a class of one. Seemingly as much architecture and structural engineering as it is audio, this headphone is a technological marvel and delivers incredibly accurate audio fidelity.

It's nearly perfect ... nearly.

News

The Creation of the Universe: Lou Reed's 3D Sound Installation

Ariel Bitran Feb 16, 2012

Lou Reed and audience members immerse themselves in waves of sound.

Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Trio: The Creation of the Universe is an exhibition currently running from January 27 - April 15, 2012 at the University Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach (1250 Bellflower Boulevard, Long Beach, CA).