Where would you go for the ultimate audiophile vacation and why?
It could be a foreign country or a big city. Where would you go for the ultimate audiophile vacation and why?
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Monster Magnet
You know there are days and then there are DAYS. Yesterday I had one of the latter, but music in the end was what saved me.
Real Sound for Real People
<i>A happy family. The all-new PSB Image Series (from left to right): The B4, B5, and B6 monitors; the T6 and T5 towers; the C4 (top) and C5 center channels; the S5 surround.</i>
Lost + Found
I've realized why the opening few moments of Tom Abbs & Frequency Response's "Lost" make me want to just stop and cry. I find those moments so painfully beautiful because they remind me of my grandmother (my mother's mother) singing to me when I was a child. At first, I thought it was "You Are My Sunshine," but now I realize that it's "All the Pretty Horses." Listening again, I wish now I had someone to sing it to, someone to play it for.
Music in the Round #37
HDMI is the invention of the Devil. I grant that the Devil is very smart—he has put on a single cable both hi-rez audio and video, and paid tribute to the gods of industry by incorporating obligatory content protection. However, he has confounded the rest of us by using a connector that, while it relies on friction to maintain physical contact, has so <I>little</I> friction that the cable connector can be easily displaced from or misaligned with the chassis connector. The traditional audiophile predilection for heavy cables is, in this case, actually counterproductive—exerting just a bit of torque on a stiff HDMI cable can be enough to break the connection.
Book Review: Get Better Sound
<B><I>Get Better Sound</I></B><BR>
By Jim Smith. Quarter Note Press (Cumming, GA), 2008. Paperback, 293 pages. ISBN 978-0-9820807-0-2. $44.50. <BR>Web: <A HREF="http://www.getbettersound.com">www.getbettersound.com</A>.
John Crabbe: Firebrand
Editor's Note: John Crabbe was Editor of Hi-Fi News & Record Review when I joined that magazine as a lowly editorial assistant in September 1976. At the end of 2007, I had asked Steve Harris to interview John for Stereophile, as part of an ongoing project to create an oral history of high-end audio (footnote 1). Sadly, John passed away in December 2008see "As We See It" and "Industry Update," in our March issue. We are publishing Steve's interview as a tribute to a man from whom I learned my craft as an audio magazine editor.John Atkinson
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Sennheiser HD800 headphones
Sennheiser's long-awaited (seven years) HD800 sure isn't subtle—at least, not in appearance. The HD800's large earpieces are made from a combination of absorbing composites and functional metal accents, and are <I>huge</I>. Of course, they have to be to house the 56mm ring-radiator transducers—and to mount them so they're firing "back" to your ears from the front. Also not subtle is the price: $1399.95.
Blackman
Special surprise guest at a recent Monkeyhaus: Blackman. Photo by Michael Lavorgna. (The camera had been drinking.)
Flash
<i>Photo: Michael Lavorgna</i>