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Robert Baird

Singer/Songwriters: The Formative Years

Robert Baird May 01, 2015

While the mass ogling was in full swing and the sickly sweet aroma of jittery, prepubescent testosterone hung heavy in the classroom, I was equally interested in Miss Wagner’s musical selections.

Audacious Audio Solid State Power Amp Reviews

Bricasti Design M28 monoblock power amplifier

Michael Fremer May 01, 2015

Google Bricasti and all that comes up are sites relating to Bricasti Design products. The name must be fancifulit sounds Italian, but cofounders Brian Zolner and Casey Dowdell most likely are not, and the company's headquarters are not in Milan or Turin but in Massachusetts.

While its name might be whimsical, nothing else about Bricasti is. As John Marks reported in his review of Bricasti's M1 DAC in the August 2011 issue, both founders previously worked at Lexicon: Dowdell as a DSP-software engineer, Zolner as international sales manager. Bricasti develops its products in conjunction with Aeyee Labs, formed by a group of ex-employees of Madrigal Audio Laboratories and based in New Haven, Connecticut.

Audio Streams

Audio Streams #6

Michael Lavorgna Apr 30, 2015

Back in the day, I owned a Sony Walkman cassette player. I loved it. I took it everywhere I went, listening to Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Neil Young (with and without Crosby, Stills & Nash), Miles, Coltrane, and more. Having music move around with me seemed a giant step into a more perfect future in which we could color our experiences with sound.

Music in the Round

Music in the Round #72

Kalman Rubinson Apr 30, 2015

I spent most of my time at the January 2015 Consumer Electronics Show exploring amps and preamps for Stereophile's on-line coverage of the show, but there were a few items of interest to fans of multichannel. There were demonstrations of Dolby Atmos, Auro3D, and dts:X, but these mostly focused on moviessave for Auro3D's thrilling demo of 2L's Magnificatan album of music by Arnesin, Gjeilo, and Kernis, with Anita Brevik conducting solo singers, chorus, and the Trondheim Soloists and recorded in a cathedral (Pure Audio Blu-ray, 2L-106-SABD). The ambience was more enveloping with Auro3D's added height dimension, compared to what I hear from 5.1 systems, but I'm not sure whether this will be enough to encourage music listeners to make the necessary investment.

AXPONA 2015

AXPONA/Audio Con Chicago 2015: A Major Success

Jason Victor Serinus Apr 29, 2015

How do you measure success? Some show promoters count the number of lanyards they've given out and call those "attendance figures." According to Liz Miller, AXPONA/Audio Con Content and Marketing Director, “We sold 5137 tickets, an 18% increase over 2014."

AXPONA 2015

Day 3: Countdown to the Finish

Jason Victor Serinus Apr 29, 2015

After happily discovering that there were only three rooms to blog on floor 2, first up was the huge exhibit from one of the most dedicated dealers in the business, Doug White of The Voice That Is. Doug showcased a not-too-shabby system that included several premieres...

AXPONA 2015

Sunday Dawns on AXPONA

Jason Victor Serinus Apr 29, 2015

As I was leaving the room shared by Daedalus Audio, ModWright Instruments, and WyWires, a couple sat down and said to Lou Hinkley, Dan Wright, and Alex Sventitsky, "This is one of the rooms we had to come back to hear again."

I can understand why...

AXPONA 2015

AXPONA's Day 2 Kept on Going

Jason Victor Serinus Apr 28, 2015

Using Vivid loudspeakers, Richard Rogers of Shunyata and Bruce Jacobs of Stillpoints conducted a very convincing demo in which they began with stock power cables and no room treatment. First, they switched from stock power cables to Shunyata's Venom digital power cable ($395) and Venom High Current power cable ($295). Next, they added Stillpoints Ultra 6 equipment supports under equipment where there had been no supports before.

Finally, they added at least six Stillpoints Aperture acoustic panels to the sidewalls and horribly reflective glass windows behind the speakers. Each change elicited more depth, air, believable timbres, midrange, bass, vibrancy and substantiality to the sound...

AXPONA 2015

Day 1 Ends and Day 2 Starts

Jason Victor Serinus Apr 26, 2015

What, Jason, you're still on the 5th floor? How are you ever going to get all the way down to sub-Lobby Level, let alone be able to make some "Best of Show" calls, when you're only doing 18 rooms per day? Get a move on, Serinus! Such thoughts crossed my mind as Day One was drawing to a close, and I still had a few rooms left on the second of AXPONA's seven, not six, floors. But what is there to do but simply go with the flow, even if there's little flow left to go with at day's end?

AXPONA 2015

Unraveling the Mysteries of the Westin O'Hare's Floor 5

Jason Victor Serinus Apr 25, 2015

People were going gaga over the Gibson Les Paul Reference Monitors, which debuted in the Gibson tent at CES before debuting at NAM and Frankfurt. In their US Consumer audio show premier, which celebrates the Les Paul Centenary, the GSLP 4" ($1198/pair), GSLP 6" ($1598/pair), and equally poetically-titled GSLP 8" ($1998/pair) displayed their pedigree as reference monitors suited for both home and studio. I found the balance a bit bright and sharp for my taste, but there was much to admire in the sound...