Apple AirPods Pro 3: First Impressions

Hegel H150 Integrated Amplifier Officially Announced

Sonus faber Announces Amati Supreme Speaker

FiiO M27 Headphone DAC Amplifier Released

Audio Advice Acquires The Sound Room

LATEST ADDITIONS

Jason Victor Serinus

Steve Reich Celebrated at 80

Jason Victor Serinus Sep 26, 2016

One of America's most vital living composersNew Yorker Steve Reichturns 80 on October 3. In celebration, Deutsche Grammophon and ECM, two companies that greatly helped build Reich's reputation by recording his initially uncategorizable forays into minimalism, have reissued their seminal efforts. From DG comes the 3-LP set, Steve Reich: Drumming, a reissue of its 1974 vinyl box that included Drumming (197071), Six Pianos, and Music for Mallet Instrument, Voices and Organ (both from 1973). From ECM, in turn, comes a 3-CD set, Steve Reich: The ECM Recordings.

News

Devialet Event in Cambridge MA Thursday

Stereophile Staff Sep 26, 2016

Devialet Event in Cambridge MA Thursday, September 29, 68pm, Blink High End (129 Franklin Street, Cambridge, MA 02139) is holding a special event. Amaury Guillement, Regional Manager for the French Devialet brand, will be demonstrating the Devialet Expert 1000 Pro, a $35,000, dual-mono, 1000Wpc integrated amplifier. This flagship amplifier from Devialet combines preamplifier, amplifier, DAC, streamer, and phono stage in a single, extremely thin slab.

Headphone Reviews InnerFidelity

A Survey of Foster 443742 Variants: Measurements

Tyll Hertsens Sep 26, 2016

This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com

I'm going to spend the week parsing the differences between a number of the variants of the Foster 443742 (seen on page H-4 of this .pdf). This survey will include: Fostex TH900, TH900mk2, and TH610; Massdrop THX00; Denon ADH-D5000; and the E-Mu Teak stock, and with optionally available Rosewood and Mahogany cups.

News

Two Shows for Southern California in 2017!

Jason Victor Serinus Sep 23, 2016

You read that correctly. 2017 will see the advent of two, potentially competing high-end audio shows, located just 35 miles and several congested freeways apart in Southern California. The first, the new Los Angeles Audio Show (LAAS), will take place June 24 in the Sheraton Gateway LAX, and is produced "in collaboration with the Los Angeles & Orange County Audio Society" (LAOCAS). The second, a continuation of T.H.E. Show Newport that was founded by the late Richard Beers and formerly supported by LAOCAS, will be held September 2124 (September 21 reserved for press) in the Hilton Anaheim, near Disneyland.

Headphone Reviews InnerFidelity

The Competent and Low-Cost Noontec Zoro II Wireless

Tyll Hertsens Sep 23, 2016

This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com

Wireless headphones are hot, hot, hot these days. I'm going to make a concerted effort to cover quite a few in coming months. Here's a start...

Robert Baird

Hollywood High

Robert Baird Sep 22, 2016

The problem for true believers is that there’s never been a proper Beatles live album.

Solid State Power Amp Reviews

SAE 2HP-D power amplifier

Michael Fremer Sep 22, 2016

In 1967, in Los Angeles, Morris Kessler, with Ted and Beth Winchester, founded Scientific Audio Electronics (SAE), which enjoyed a successful run of 21 years. In addition to Kessler, Sherwood Electronics cofounder Ed Miller, as well as the legendary James Bongiorno, contributed designs. (If you don't know Bongiorno's résumé, please do a web search.) Some SAE products, particularly their big-metered power amplifiers, became objects of desire for audiophiles on the West Coast and, especially, in Japan.

Recording of the Month

Recording of October 2016: Lovers

Robert Baird Sep 22, 2016

Nels Cline: Lovers
Nels Cline, electric & acoustic guitars, lap steel, effects; Charles Pillow, C & alto & bass flutes, oboe, English horn, B-flat clarinet, alto saxophone; Steven Bernstein, Taylor Haskins, others, trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone; Julian Lage, guitar; Yuka C. Honda, celeste, Juno 60; Devin Hoff, contrabass, bass guitar; Alex Cline, drums, percussion; Kenny Wolleson, vibraphone, marimba, percussion; Michael Leonhart, arr., conductor; many others.
Blue Note 8002505102 (2 CDs). 2016. David Breskin, prod.; Ron Saint Germain, eng. DDD? TT: 90:02
Performance ****½
Sonics ****½

There's an old saying about music written for films and the stage: It's so lush and tuneful that it's almost too schmaltzy to be heard without accompanying visuals. Add to that the suspicion that many so-called "out" jazz catsguys with outsize reputations as loud, atonal shredders of the brainiac variety, blinding talents who prefer endless effects and generally play unhinged and far away from the melodyare really, under all the noise, big softies. There you have the story of Lovers.

Fred Kaplan

Shirley Horn on Resonance Records

Fred Kaplan Sep 22, 2016

Resonance Records has put out some of the most vital, previously unreleased (in some cases, unknown) historical jazz sessions in recent years, and the latest is one of the sweetest: Shirley Horn, Live at the 4 Queens, recorded at a now-defunct Las Vegas hotel-casino of that name in 1988. It's Horn's best live album, and one of her top few albums, periodwhich says a lot.

As We See It

Don't Play It Again, Sam!

Jason Victor Serinus Sep 20, 2016

What do Prince, David Bowie, Merle Haggard, Gato Barbieri, Phife Dawg, Frank Sinatra Jr., Keith Emerson (Emerson Lake & Palmer), Dan Hicks (Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks), Maurice White (Earth, Wind & Fire), Paul Kantner and Signe Toly Anderson (Jefferson Airplane), Glenn Frey (Eagles), Dale Griffin (Mott the Hoople), pianist Paul Bley, bassist Rob Wasserman, sopranos Susan Chilcott, Phyllis Curtin, and Denise Duval, countertenor Brian Asawa, composers Steven Edward Stucky and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, and conductors Pierre Boulez, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Gilbert Kaplan, Gregg Smith, and Royston Nash have in common? Besides the fact that all were musicians who made multiple recordings and who died in 2016, their recorded legacies rarely, if ever, get airplay at dealerships or audio shows.