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Budget Component Reviews Integrated Amp Reviews

NAD D 3020 integrated amplifier

Stephen Mejias Apr 10, 2015

In the mornings, just before I leave for work, I power up the system, turn the volume down low, and set the CD player to Repeat. I like to think that if I play calm, soothing music while Ms. Little and I are away, the cats will feel less alone and more relaxed. It's also nice, on returning home from work, to walk into a room filled with music. One evening a few weeks ago, I stepped into the apartment, dropped my bags to the floor, settled down into the couch with my iPhone, and began scrolling through text messages. I'd been seated for only a moment before I had to turn my attention entirely to the sound of the system, which, even at a very low volume, sounded warm, detailed, and unusually goodunbelievably, almost unbearably engaging.

Music and Recording Features

To Save a Soul Like Mine: the Blind Willie Johnson Project

Robert Baird Apr 10, 2015

He is easily among the most accomplished and influential slide-guitar players ever to put a ring of glass or metal around his finger. In 1977, on the golden record carried by the space probe Voyager, alongside the first movement of Beethoven's Symphony 5 and recordings of "footsteps, heartbeat, and laughter," his greatest song, "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" went off to represent humanity to the stars.

As We See It J. Gordon Holt

Who's Right? Accuracy or Musicality

J. Gordon Holt Apr 10, 2015

Many years ago, the now-defunct Life magazine ran a feature article about science and its sacred cows, in which a cartoon showed a huge inverted pyramid-shaped structure of great complexity, tapering downward to a single support at its base: a toothpick. The toothpick was labeled "basic premise," the inverted pyramid was the entire body of scientific knowledge.

Everything we do or think or know is based upon assumptions, some of which are rather more justified than others. When we set the alarm clock, we assume there will be a tomorrow. When we reach for the car's brake pedal without glancing at it, we assume it will be where it was yesterday, and that it will stop the car. When we scorn a phono cartridge because it is too bright, we assume the brightness is in the cartridge, not in the rest of our system. We have to trust our toothpicks or live in a world totally devoid of securitya world where 2+2 can equal anything from 3 to 11, all the laws change unannounced every few days, and Greenwich Mean Time is determined by a roulette wheel.

News

Computer Audio Seminars in Canada This Weekend

Stereophile Staff Apr 10, 2015

Saturday and Sunday, April 11 and 12: Fillion Électronique will host seminars on the fundamentals of computer audio, with specific focuses on digital-audio file formats and networking strategies. Saturday's seminar will begin at 10am and will be held at Fillion's Laval location (2323 Laurentides Highway), while Sunday's seminar will begin at noon and will be held at Fillion's Montréal location (5690 Sherbrooke East).

Interviews

Doug Sax: From Direct-Cut to Compact Disc

John Atkinson Apr 08, 2015

As reported by Michael Fremer on AnalogPlanet.com, legendary mastering engineer and co-founder of Sheffield Lab, Doug Sax, passed away on April 2. Doug had been suffering from cancer and would have been 79 on April 26.

Coincidentally, we had just posted J. Gordon Holt's October 1982 review of the Sheffield Track Record, which Doug had cut direct-to-disc. This reminded me that Robert Harley had interviewed Doug in the October 1989 issue of Stereophile; rereading that interview reminded me that in September 1984, I had published an interview with Doug in the magazine Hi-Fi News, which I edited at that time.

So, in tribute to Doug, here is my 1984 interview, reprinted with the kind permission of Hi-Fi News editor Paul Miller.John Atkinson

Katz's Corner InnerFidelity

Katz's Corner: The Great Headphone Shootout Part 2

Tyll Hertsens Apr 07, 2015

This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com

The Headphone Slutz group meeting was fast approaching, and the demo cans would soon arrive from the Cable Company. I was excited! In a few weeks I would be able to hear and compare four of the world's best headphones, in my own room with the finest associated gear and music sources, and share that experience with seven friends.

News

AVI's Grand Opening in Marin

Jason Victor Serinus Apr 06, 2015

Yet another Bay Area audio retailer has defied industry trends by moving from home-based business to a storefront and simultaneously revamping its product line. Audio Video Integration (aka AVI Marin) celebrated the Grand Opening of its new San Rafael 6000ft² retail store and 3000ft² warehouse on April 2, 2015 via a ribbon-cutting ceremony officiated by San Rafael Vice Mayor Andrew McCullough. Even before the ceremony got underway, and for several hours thereafter, a host of loyal customers, friends, and well-wishers began to ogle the store's capacious layout and multiple audio and AV installations, enjoy food and drink, and discover anew the glories of high-end sound.

News

Music Matters in Denver Tomorrow & Wednesday

Stereophile Staff Apr 06, 2015

High-end audio retailer Listen-Up is holding two evenings of music seminars and audio demonstrations at its Denver location (685 South Pearl Street) Tuesday April 7 and Wednesday April 8, from 5pm to 9pm. As well as Stereophile editor John Atkinson (above left) and Shawn Britton of Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs (above right), who will be talking about how recordings are made and how to make them sound the best in your home, presenters will include Sandy Gross (GoldenEar), Wendell Diller (Magnepan), Paul Barton (PSB Loudspeakers), Owen Kwon (Astell&Kern) Doug Henderson (Bowers & Wilkins), Dave Nauber (Classé), Costa Koulisakis (Simaudio Moon), Steve Silberman (AudioQuest), Matt Reilly (Devialet), and John Hunter (REL Acoustics).

Audacious Audio Tube Power Amp Reviews

Thöress 300B monoblock power amplifier

Art Dudley Apr 03, 2015

I was weak and easily led.

In 1978, after enduring four or five years of wretched music made by men with long hair and beards and tendencies toward eonic guitar solos, I suddenly discovered that the only music worth hearing was made by clean-shaven men of limited musical proficiency. I embraced the Clash, the Pistols, the New York Dolls, the Ramones, and the Buzzcocks. I cut my hair and gave away some of my old records. I even threw out my copy of Jethro Tull's A Passion Playwhich, now that I think about it, wasn't that bad an idea.

Then I woke up and remembered: I'd left the baby in the bathwater.

Room Treatment Reviews The Fifth Element

The Fifth Element #90

John Marks Apr 03, 2015

As a film title, Quantizing Hanson Hsu might not rank up there with Kissing Jessica Stein, but we work with what we have to work with. Hanson Hsu is the principal designer at Delta H Design, Inc., an acoustics and architecture firm based in Marina del Rey, California. Though he dabbles in some weird science, Hsu doesn't wear a white lab coat, literal or figurative. He's down-to-earth and personable, with a conversational style that evinces warm wit and a real love of music. At one point in our conversations, he exclaimed, "I get so much joy when things sound good."