UmixIt? U Bet!
Convinced that your favorite music would have sounded even better if <I>you'd</I> been the mixing engineer? UmixIt Technologies is going to let you put your money where your mouth is.
LATEST ADDITIONS
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CEA Declares Independence
Audio equipment manufacturers want as few restrictions as possible when designing new products. Audio content providers, on the other hand, seem hell-bent on locking down any music you buy tighter than Fort Knox.
Brussels Hi Fi Show Announced
Audiophiles know there is no better reason to travel abroad than to attend a hi fi show in a foreign city. I'm only half kidding. With dozens of shows, most open to the public and scattered across every continent, what better way to see the world?
What has been your favorite of all the components you've ever owned? Why?
Some components simply endear themselves to audiophiles
Listening #27
Our December 2004 issue honored 56 contemporary audio products that <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/features/1204poty">stood out from the pack</A> during the course of the year. Of those 56, fully nine were phonograph components (footnote 1), including one—the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/analogsourcereviews/1103linn">Linn Sondek LP12</A> turntable—that's been on the market for something like a hundred years.
Ensemble Dirondo CD player
I've encountered a number of audio products over the years whose thoughtful design and intricate craftsmanship brought to mind the expression "built like a Swiss watch." As often as I'd thought or even written that phrase, however, I don't think I'd ever stopped to seriously consider what an audio component might be like if actually built by the nation that produces Rolex and Breitling wristwatches.
Verity Audio Sarastro loudspeaker
Over the past year or so, a parade of expensive loudspeakers has passed through my listening room (footnote 1), each claimed by its manufacturer to deliver the real musical deal. Like the people who designed them, these speakers have come in all shapes, sizes, and personalities. While the designer of every one of these speakers has claimed "accuracy" and "transparency" as his goal, the truth is, <I>any</I> concoction of pulsing cones, ribbons, sheets of Mylar, or whatever that's bolted into or on top of a box makes music because it is a musical instrument. How could it be otherwise, when all of these accomplished and expensive loudspeakers have sounded very different from one another, and made me <I> feel</I> different while listening to them?
Triangle Magellan Concerto loudspeaker
I don't know whether Sam Tellig or I first discovered the delights of some slightly idiosyncratic loudspeakers made by Triangle—<I>Tree-ON-gle</I>, if you add the relevant accent—in the northeastern corner of France. I do recall feeling quite relieved to find that I wasn't the only hi-fi writer who liked and wrote about them.
Recommended Components Addendum
FM Antennae
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Stereovox's Totally Tubular Cables
<A HREF="http://www.stereovox.com">Stereovox</A> has introduced a more affordable Studio series of cables to complement its extravagant Reference products. (John Marks raved about them <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/thefifthelement/742/index2.html">here</A>.) The new Studio HDSE (high-definition single-ended) interconnects are thin and flexible, but each cable is constructed from a single high-purity 0.008" thick copper <I>tube</I>, clad in a silver-plated copper woven shield, with pure tape-wrapped full-density PTFE Teflon dielectric and an FEP jacket. The Studio cables employ a new chrome-plated Xhadow™ Reference precision-machined RCA connector.