LATEST ADDITIONS

Budget Component Reviews Integrated Amp Reviews

Outlaw Audio RR2160 stereo receiver

Herb Reichert Nov 16, 2017

For audiophiles of a certain age, the mere mention of NAD Electronics' original 3020 integrated amplifier (1980, designed by Erik Edvardsen), or Adcom's GFA-555 stereo power amplifier (1985, designed by Nelson Pass), conjures up happy memories of audio's last Golden Agean idyllic time when working stiffs could luxuriate in the same audio arcadia as bankers and brokers. Since then, few, if any, audio components have achieved that level of iconic high value. Which caused me to wonder: What would it take, nowadays, to manufacture a genuinely high-value audiophile product: one that delivers exciting, satisfying sound at a price most audiophiles can afford?

NY Audio Show 2017

Day 1 at the NYAS: a Binaural Video Report

Jana Dagdagan Nov 16, 2017

In this video, we join Stereophile writer Herb Reichert as he explores the 2017 New York Audio Show that took place last weekend at the Park Lane Hotelthis is the first of three videos covering the show. We're particularly excited about this series of videos for two reasons: First, viewers have eagerly been asking us to hear systemsnot just see them. We've wanted to share that with viewers, but we wanted to do it right by creating a binaural recording, for playback over headphones.

As We See It

Why I Can't Stop Being an Audiophile

Robert Schryer Nov 14, 2017

"Why can't you stop being an audiophile?"

The question took me off-guard. It didn't come from one of the usual suspectsa hostile anti-audiophile, or a non-audiophile who simply can't fathom why we should care so much about something as nonessential as sound reproductionbut from Louis, a sharp dressed, goateed, middle-aged man who was known, among his audio repair shop's clientele, for not only his virtuosity as a classical solo violinist, but his expertisesome would say his preternatural abilityin setting up turntables to sound their very best.

Recording of the Month

Recording of December 2017: Bringin' It

Robert Baird Nov 14, 2017

Christian McBride Big Band: Bringin' It
Mack Avenue Mac 1115 (CD). 2017. Gretchen Valade, exec prod.; Christian McBride, prod.; Todd Whitelock, assoc. prod., eng.; Timothy Marchiafava, asst. eng. ADD? TT: 68:59
Performance ****½
Sonics *****

As musical movements go, rock and jazz seem to be running out of new ideas, most of the stylistic pathways in both genres having been explored to their logical conclusions. In rock in particular, every stream of inspiration has been followed past its headwaters, every droplet of inspiration wrung from established forms.

NY Audio Show 2017

Ken's Day Two at the New York Show

Ken Micallef Nov 14, 2017

Seeing as I'd recently been in contact with the good people at Cambridge Audio when hoping to repair a 25-year-old integrated amplifier, it was great to put faces with names in the Cambridge Audio room

News

The December Issue . . .

Stereophile Staff Nov 13, 2017

. . . is here, with Outlaw's $799 "retro receiver" on its cover. "A conspicuously good-sounding audiophile product at a ridiculously low price," declared Herb Reichert. At the other end of the price spectrum, Michael Fremer reviews the most-expensive Grado cartridge yet, John Atkinson and Herb Reichert audition cost-no-object headphones from Audeze and HiFiMan, and Jason Victor Serinus reviews the Network Bridge from dCS.

And for the 27th year in a row, the December Stereophile includes our choices for "Product of the Year."

NY Audio Show 2017

Saturday at the New York Show with Ken

Ken Micallef Nov 12, 2017

Luxman. Even the name puts me in mind of pushbuttons, brushed aluminum, and classic 1960s audio designs

Tube Power Amp Reviews

Jadis JA 200 monoblock power amplifier

Dick Olsher Nov 10, 2017

Ron Cox, Zen master and good friend from Zuni, New Mexico, gingerly navigated the crowded streets of Amp Citythe essentially all-tube amp collection sprawled on my listening-room floor between the speakers. Ron had no trouble spotting the four chrome-and-black chassis of the JA 200s. He pointed a tentative finger: "Are those the Jedi?"

Jason Victor Serinus

Philippe Jaroussky's Exquisite Handel

Jason Victor Serinus Nov 10, 2017

"Exquisite" is not a word to be invoked lightly. In the history of vocal music on record, there has been only one singer to earn that appellationsoprano Maggie Teyte, Debussy's second Melisande, whom the great Polish tenor Jean de Reszke dubbed "L'Exquise." To that exalted category must now be added countertenor Philippe Jaroussky, whose latest recording for Warner, The Handel Album, contains some of the most exquisite singing I have ever been privileged to hear.

Headphone Reviews InnerFidelity

Sennheiser Noise Canceling Headphones: PXC 550 Wireless; HD 4.5 BTNC; HD1 Wireless; and HD1 On-Ear Wireless

Tyll Hertsens Nov 10, 2017

This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com

About this time last year I reviewed the then new Sennheiser PXC 550 BTNC over-ear, noise canceling headphones in hopes that someone would manage to unseat the Bose Quiet Comfort 35. Didn't happen. The Sennheiser had some great features, but in the end it was just too bright for me.

Recently I got a few more Sennheiser wireless noise cancelers and I found they too seemed overly bright. Now I consider Sennheiser the world's best headphone manufacturer. They've got a lot of experience under their belt, so when I hear a batch of Sennheisers, from differing product lines, that all seem too bright and have a quite similar measured response, I've got to question myself. Maybe they know something that I don't.