Where Measurements and Performance Meet featuring Andrew Jones

High End Munich: Audio Reference "Most Exclusive System Ever" with Wilson and D'Agostino

LATEST ADDITIONS

Gramophone Dreams #57: Ferrum OOR headphone amplifier and HYPSOS power supply

Herb Reichert Feb 01, 2022

I'm deep into audio power amplifiers because they remind me of race car engines. Both power sources are wildly inefficient, converting only a small percentage of their stored energy into work while dissipating the rest as heat and vibration. Mainly though, I love how race car engines sound. How they shake the air. Just like amps and speakers.

Budget Component Reviews Solid State Preamp Reviews

Topping Pre90 line preamplifier

Kalman Rubinson Jan 28, 2022

There has not been a conventional preamplifier in my main audio system for quite a while, because no multichannel preamp is available that's of high enough quality. Instead, I use the high-precision digital volume controls in my players and DACs and choose sources with a relay-based multichannel analog switch. Plus, I tell myself that no preamp can be more accurate and transparent than no preamp.

Integrated Amp Reviews

Riviera Levante integrated amplifier

Herb Reichert Jan 27, 2022

I remember, around the time I started at Stereophile, telling Art Dudley that I wanted to review "a lot of power amplifiers" because amplifiers are the "blood-pumping heart machines" that "reanimate the artistry" of musicians: Horowitz, Björk, Bill Monroe. Whereupon he looked over his glasses and spied me with bare eyes like a stern parent and said, "Just be sure to not review any amplifiers that weigh more than 65 pounds."

Recording of the Month

Recording of February 2022: The Doors: L.A. Woman (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)

Tom Fine Jan 26, 2022

The Doors: L.A. Woman (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)
Elektra/Rhino R2 659055 (3CD/1LP). 2021. Bruce Botnick/Doors, prods.; Botnick, eng.
Performance *****
Sonics ****½

The Doors flew like a comet across the rock/pop universe, running only four and a half years and six studio albums with lead singer/poet/shaman Jim Morrison. L.A. Woman, their last album, marked a hard turn back to the rock and blues basics from whence they sprang in 1966 as a hot bar band on Sunset Strip. It is a masterpiece, a hit out of the gate that has grown in stature over time. Morrison took a sabbatical shortly before its release, decamped to Paris, and died there as this record climbed the charts.

Analog Corner

Analog Corner #318: Turntable setup is a diagnostic exercise

Michael Fremer Jan 25, 2022

As I watched WAM Engineering's J.R. Boisclair give an advanced turntable setup seminar at last November's Capitol Audiofest, a light went off. I'm being figurative, but the lights didliterallygo off, and then on again, as I flipped the switch for Boisclair's presentation (see the above photo), which featured both screen time and an in-person lecture.

Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

Monitor Audio Silver 500 7G loudspeaker

Robert Schryer Jan 20, 2022

When I learned that I was to review the new seventh generation of Monitor Audio's Silver 500 loudspeaker ($3200/pair), descendants of the original Silver-series products launched in 1999, I thought back on what I knew about the company and then refreshed my memory. Monitor Audio was founded, in 1972, in Teversham, England, a town bordered by farmland located some three miles from the epicenter of its more famous neighbor, Cambridge.

As We See It

Won't get fooled again

Jim Austin Jan 19, 2022

I'm excited about the return of live music to New York City. I've attended several classical concerts in the last few weeks, and in a week or so, I'll take in a show at the City Winery: Suzanne Vega. I haven't yet made it back to New York's amazing jazz clubsthe Vanguard, the Blue Note, Smallsbut I look forward to doing so soon, especially to dropping in on my jazz local, Smoke, when it reopens in a few weeks in new, larger digs.

Music and Recording Features Records To Die For

R2D4 2022: Death-Defying Tunes

Stereophile Staff Jan 18, 2022

So, what's this all about? Most of you already knowafter all, we've been doing it since 1991, and it's one of our most popular features. But if you're new to Stereophile, here it is: Originally, the light-hearted conceit was, these are the records you'd be willing to lay down your life for. (This foie gras is to die for!) But, let's be real: That ain't gonna happen, or so I hope.

Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

Orpheus 808 loudspeaker

John Atkinson Jan 14, 2022

So far, as part of my quest to find good affordable box loudspeakers, I have reviewed 20 models, in the August, October, and November 1987, and January and February 1988 issues of Stereophile (Vol.10 Nos.5, 7, & 8, Vol.11 Nos.1 & 2). Nearly all affordable loudspeakers have to be used with a pair of stands: as these have an important influence on the integrity of the sound and tend to cost upward of $100 a pair for good models, this makes such speakers less of a bargain. This month, therefore, I review loudspeakers designed from the outset to be floor-standing: three from the USADCM's Time Frame TF1000, the planar-magnetic Magnepan MG2.5/R, and the Orpheus 808and one from Sweden, the Rauna Balder. The prices are pretty closely grouped, with the DCM being the least expensive, at a hair under $1100/pair.

Miscellaneous

The Mod Squad Tiptoes

Anthony H. Cordesman Jan 13, 2022

Photo: "Still Life with Tiptoes"John Atkinson

Memorandum:
To: Steve McCormack, Chief Designer, The Mod Squad
Dear Steve:

I cannot question the general value of Tiptoes in many specific applications. There are a great many areas where I, many other audiophiles, and a number of leading manufacturers have found that Tiptoes can improve any audio system in which the components are subject to. mechanical or acoustic vibration from speaker soundthat is, virtually any audio system.