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

Sennheiser Drops HDB 630 Wireless Headphones

LATEST ADDITIONS

Stephen Mejias

New Arrivals at PREX: Noise and Industrial Edition

Stephen Mejias Feb 16, 2012

D.o.A.: The Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle&#151I found this CD at a small shop in Paris, in April 2000, a few months before becoming Stereophile's editorial assistant.

Gah! I’m beginning to dread receiving these awesome updates from the mighty Princeton Record Exchange, simply because I can’t get down there fast enough! And, if I did get down to the store, the amount of money I’d wind up spending would make me sad.

But the records would make me so happy.

Ariel Bitran

Now on Newsstands: Stereophile, Vol.35 No.3

Ariel Bitran Feb 14, 2012

The March 2012 issue of Stereophile features the stunning Sonus Faber Amati Futura loudspeaker on the cover.

As we sent the March issue for delivery to the printing presses, the April issue sat in queue for multiple rounds of edits. At the same time, the editors, writers, and a lowly editorial assistant lay the building blocks for the May issue to be released two months away. With the constant influx of communication regarding dates present, future, and future’s future, it is hard to know what month we are ever really living in, and it is a time-bending wonder whenever the new issue of Stereophile shows up on our desks. So with great excitement, we announce to you Stereophile March 2012, Volume 35, Number 3.

Stephen Mejias

Eric Chenaux’s Guitar & Voice

Stephen Mejias Feb 13, 2012

I’m in love with Eric Chenaux’s Guitar & Voice, to be released on CD and LP by Constellation Records on March 6.

Subwoofer Reviews

Bowers & Wilkins DB1 subwoofer

Larry Greenhill Feb 13, 2012

Although many high-end audio products are described as revolutionary and as breakthroughs in design when new, most audiophile components now on the market have not changed our way of relating to such products in the way the iPad has done. Once in a while, a new audio product does move in that direction by enabling the audiophile to do install a product and optimize its performance in a different way.

Robert Baird

Whitney's Big Exit

Robert Baird Feb 13, 2012

Opening with a prayer for Whitney Houston, the Grammy Award had its usual smattering of worthwhile performances and utter idiocy.

Phono Preamp Reviews

Precision Transducer Engineering MMMC Phono Preamplifier

Michael Fremer Feb 13, 2012

The phono preamplifiers reviewed this month are both affordable ($400$1960) and highly accomplished, and the most expensive of them offers versatility that's unprecedented in my experience. Three of them are designed to be used only with moving-magnet, moving-iron, and high-output moving-coil cartridges, so I installed Shure's V15VxMR cartridge in VPI's Classic 3 turntable and listened in MM mode to all of them, beginning with the least expensive.

Headphone Reviews InnerFidelity

Philips Citiscape Downtown

Tyll Hertsens Feb 13, 2012

This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com

Generally speaking, my teenage daughter couldn't care less about headphones. But when I brought home a pair of purple Philips Citiscape Downtown headphones, she was almost breathless as she said, "Oh dad! Purple is my favorite color. Those are so cool!" Later, I peeked into her room; she was laying on her bed, knees up with legs crossed, one foot happily tapping the air.

It was with both pleasure and dismay that I realized I had just more fully enabled her connection to Justin Bieber.

Stephen Mejias

Floods on Bandcamp

Stephen Mejias Feb 10, 2012

I’ve mentioned my old band, The Multi-Purpose Solution: We play a type of hard, fast, guitar-driven rock and roll, inspired by all kinds of things, including: New Jersey, Sonic Youth, the Rolling Stones, the Ramones, pizza, beer, brotherhood, women, Tom Waits, Kurt Vonnegut, Jim Thompson, anger, desperation, the Cure, and Metallica.

But I also make music with my dear friend, Todd.

Room Treatment Reviews

Acoustic Geometry Curve System room treatments

Erick Lichte Feb 10, 2012

For a few weeks each year in the high summer of Minnesota, the corn sold from rickety roadside stands is so sweet and tender it is best eaten unadorned. For the wise and lucky nibbler willing to forgo condiments, the rewards of eating these naked kernels are the pure taste of Midwestern soil and sun transformed into a juicy, golden confection. I've begun to wonder if the yearly encounter with this magnificent and ephemeral sweet corn reminds Midwesterners of the joys of simplicity and plainness. Though my hypothesis is a stretch, it sure would explain a great deal about the Midwestern mentality. Perhaps Midwesterners subtly learn from this corn that if we get too fancy or try too hard, we can often screw up what nature has already made perfect. Conversely, we learn that no amount of fancy accoutrements will make a bad ear of bland, mealy corn come alive in the mouth.

Features

Book Review: KEF: 50 Years of Innovation in Sound

John Marks Feb 10, 2012

KEF: 50 Years of Innovation in Sound
By Ken Kessler and Dr. Andrew Watson. GP Acoustics International Limited, 2011. $89.99. Hardcover, 12" by 12" by 0.9", 216 pp. ISBN 978-988-15427-4-8. Available from selected KEF dealers and Amazon.com.

Ken Kessler's latest "coffee-tabler" (my favorite publishing-industry insider neologism) celebrates the 50th anniversary of the founding of KEF Electronics by documenting the history of the venerable loudspeaker manufacturer. While the book doesn't quite start with a bang, it does start with an evocative vignette. The year was 1979, the place the ballroom of Buckingham Palace. Her Majesty the Queen, about to present KEF's founder, Raymond Cooke, with the medal representing his having been made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE), inquired, perhaps formulaically, "This is for loudspeakers?"