Audio Skies Michael Vamos - YG Acoustics, JMF Audio, Ideon at Capital Audiofest 2025

The Listening Room and Fidelity Imports - Diptyque DP-160 Mk.2 at Capital Audiofest 2025

Fidelity Imports Audia Flight and Perlisten System

Fidelity Imports Wilson Benesch and Audia Flight System at Capital Audiofest 2025

J Sikora Aspire, Innuos Stream 3, Aurender N50, Gryphon Antileon Revelation, Command Performance AV

Bella Sound Kalalau Preamplifier: Interview with Mike Vice

BorderPatrol Zola DAC – Gary Dews at Capital Audiofest 2025

Audio Note UK TT3 Reference Turntable Debut at Capital Audiofest 2025

Kevin Hayes of VAC at Capital Audiofest 2025

2WA Group debuts Aequo Ensium at Capital Audiofest 2025

Capital Audiofest 2025 lobby marketplace walk through day one

Lucca Chesky Introduces the LC2 Loudspeaker at Capital Audiofest 2025

Capital Audiofest 2025 Gary Gill interview

LATEST ADDITIONS

Jana Dagdagan

David Binney: On Bowie and Not Being an Audiophile but Subscribing to Stereophile

Jana Dagdagan May 09, 2016

"Are you an audiophile?" I find myself yelling into my semi-functional smart phone, sitting in my dimly lit cubicle in Stereophile's New York office.

On the other end of the line is my close friend and long-time mentor, David Binney. We're FaceTiming in slow, fragmented motions as he eats his dinner in a lively restaurant before a gig in central Belgrade.

"No, definitely not." He says quite matter-of-factly. "I subscribe to Stereophile but I don't consider myself an audiophile. I wish I was, but it's too expensive.

Munich 2016

On the Move at Munich High End

Jason Victor Serinus May 08, 2016

I don't know about you, but I have a hard time wrapping my head around the computational power required to accurately and consistently upsample to DSDx16 (DSD1024)

Munich 2016 News

Warner Music Group Goes with MQA

Jason Victor Serinus May 07, 2016

MQA's game-changing breakthrough has arrived. On 9am UK time on May 6, 2016, Warner Music Group (WMG), whose vast catalog includes everything from the Beatles to Maria Callas, announced a long-term licensing deal with MQA (Master Quality Authenticated). The agreement makes it possible to digitize the entire WMG catalogue in the superior MQA-encoded format of various resolutions, and disseminate the files via download and streaming services in a far more efficient and user-friendly manner.

News

WoM presents Pro-Ject Audio Systems in New York City

Ken Micallef May 06, 2016

Pro-Ject Audio System's founder and President Heinz Lichtenegger debuted three products in Manhattan this past April 28. Among the upbeat Austrian's new wares were the Vertical turntable (above), the Classic turntable, and the DAC Box DS2 Ultra. Presented at World of McIntosh's SoHo townhouse, visitors were given a tour of the 1890s-built former New York City power substation, now beautifully renovated and stuffed floor to ceiling with audio gear from Sonus Faber, McIntosh, and of course, Pro-Ject.

Headphone Reviews InnerFidelity

Sennheiser HD 202: Inexpensive Headphones Done Really Well

Tyll Hertsens May 06, 2016

This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com

First, how in the hell do you make a pair of headphones, distribute it to retailers, and have it shipped overnight to your house for $20!? I shake my head; how can this be? Well, the answer, of course, is economies of scale. And with 312,000,000 headphones sold world-wide annually, there's plenty of scale in that economy.

Munich 2016

Trade Day Begins at Munich High End

Jason Victor Serinus May 05, 2016

To get an idea of how many press and industry members attend Munich High End, just take a look at this "opening bell" shot of people queuing on the ground level and on one of the spiral stairways up to the atrium level of the MOC Convention Center

Art Dudley Listening

Listening #161

Art Dudley May 05, 2016

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.Robert Frost

Perhaps it was different for other audio hobbyists in other parts of the world, but to this American, the Naim Audio of the late 1970s and early '80s seemed a bit prickly. It wasn't just their road-less-traveled-by attitude toward amplifier designscorning class-A output architecture, preferring DIN connectors to RCA jacks, routing preamp output signals and power-supply voltages through the same cablebut also the British company's perspectives on selling and setting up and even listening to hi-fi gear that seemed combative: Shopping for amplifiers based on output power is foolish. Using short speaker cables and long interconnects is the wrong way to go about it. And why do you Americans bother with all that "soundstaging" nonsense?

Music in the Round

Music in the Round #78

Kalman Rubinson May 05, 2016

The number of devices that can constitute a home-audio streaming system ranges from onea laptop computer running a music program to play internally stored filesto x the unknown. These days we have storage devices, servers, streamers, renderers, bridges, controllers, players, and DACs, at least one of which is hoped to have a volume control. Any combination of these elements can be put in a single box and described by one of many new hyphenated product categoriesor can be given a name along the lines of exaSound's PlayPoint Network Audio Player: a model designation that at least hints at this product's ability to play music. Let's see what else it can do . . .

Fred Kaplan

Murray, Allen & Carrington Power Trio, Perfection

Fred Kaplan May 05, 2016

Perfection (on the Motema Music label) shows David Murray in his finest form, and playing in his most simpatico band, in a decade, maybe longer. The bandmates are Geri Allen on piano, Terri Lyne Carrington on drums, and that's itno bass: odd, and possibly unprecedented for a Murray trio, but Allen's left hand and Carrington's foot pedal are so deft and strong, you scarcely notice its absence.

Interviews Music and Recording Features

Peter Wolf: A Hard Drivin' Man

Robert Baird May 03, 2016

Don't get me wrongit was a nice surprise. It's always good to find another member of the cult, someone else interested in music and sound, and proud to be called an audiophile. But . . . Peter Wolf?

"What's John Atkinson like?"

"Here's the $64,000 question: What's in your system?"