Kalman Rubinson looks past the odd knobs to discover what's at the heart of the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/929/">Blue Circle BC21 preamplifier & BC22 power amplifier</A>. KR reveals, "In the past, I've found components with small drawbacks that made them unacceptable, but the Blue Circle BC21 and BC22 triumphed over their flaws."
Sirius Satellite Radio is concerned about The Bottom Line. Not the company's profitability, but the venerable Greenwich Village music cabaret, which has suffered since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
For <I>Deep River</I>, his third recording of Minnesotan male-voice choir <A HREF="http://www.cantusonline.org">Cantus</A>, <I>Stereophile</I> editor John Atkinson traveled to Sioux Falls, SD, where the city has spent millions of dollars to transform the downtown high school into a gloriously warm-sounding, state-of-the-art performing arts center.
Let's start with some music—three discs I recently have been using to evaluate equipment as well as listen to for enjoyment. They are as contrasting in style as one could hope for, but all on an enviably high musical plane. (Space considerations compel brevity approaching that necessary to sell screenplays to producers at cocktail parties, footnote 1)
One of the biggest challenges in setting up any new listening room is getting the room to work with your equipment rather than against it. I faced this challenge in spades when Trish and I moved into our dream house in the California hills. What would serve as my listening room was a wonderful, open space with panoramic views of the surrounding hills—a space that bore no resemblance at all to a traditional, rectangular, dedicated listening room. Instead, there was a wall of glass, a huge marble-and-glass fireplace, a 20' ceiling—and did I mention that it isn't actually a "room," but one arm of a continuous flowing space?
We've been told that younger audiophiles don't like to sit in the "sweet spot" when listening to music, while older audiophiles can't listen any other way. Leaving age to side for the moment, what's your preference?
The major record labels and the RIAA have invested much time and effort in sabotaging the MP3 file-trading revolution and its supporters. But the appeal of the compressed music format for a large segment of music fans is undeniable, and many critics of the RIAA have suggested that the petite and portable audio files should be embraced, not resisted.
Is retailing headed up or down? North America's two largest electronics retailers have reported vastly different results for the second quarter.
With two new high-rez audio formats on deck, is a CD-only player still relevant? John Atkinson listens to, and then measures, the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/924/">Classé CDP-10 CD player</A> to discover why it sometimes takes 20 years to perfect a format.
Two years ago, music business insiders were predicting that the industry's "Big Five" would eventually become the "Big Four," or possibly the "Big Three."