LATEST ADDITIONS

Robert Baird

Tapeheads

Robert Baird Feb 25, 2017

The latest brave adventurer to spend his evenings running off duplicate copies on half-inch or quarter-inch tape is singer/songwriter, producer John Vanderslice, in partnership with North Carolina-based Ramseur Records, has launched a new reel-to-reel tape venture. So far Ramseur is offering three records to be put on tape: Under Branch & Thorn & Tree (2015) and You Had Me at Goodbye (2017), both from buzzworthy singer/songwriter Samantha Crain, and Fences from the group Bombadil.

Budget Component Reviews Stand Loudspeaker Reviews

Wharfedale Diamond 225 loudspeaker

Herb Reichert Feb 23, 2017

In the United Kingdom, the first seeds of perfectionism in audio separates were sown by Goodmans Industries, founded in 1925. Then, in 1930, Garrard (est. 1722) produced its first commercial gramophone. Shortly thereafter, England experienced the Great Slump, the British name for the worldwide catastrophe known in the US as the Great Depression. Near the beginning of this economic downturn, in 1932, Gilbert Briggs founded Wharfedale Wireless Worksand the first British "high-fidelity" audio amplifiers began being manufactured by H.J. Leak & Co. Ltd., founded by Harold Joseph Leak in 1934.

Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

Larsen HiFi 8 loudspeaker

Art Dudley Feb 23, 2017

I wouldn't normally begin a review of an imported product with generalities about the culture from which it sprang, but this isn't just any imported product. It's a Scandinavian loudspeaker, and Scandinavian speakers are subject to a different and altogether more liberal set of rules.

For one thing, because they tend to be healthy and well educated, and because their governments are at peace and, for the most part, economically and politically sound, Scandinavians can take a joke. For another, Scandinavians are famous for not only having a loudspeaker industrysomething that has thus far eluded Spaniards, Corsicans, Ethiopians, and the Maltese, among othersbut also for the distinctiveness of the speakers they make. Like the Scandinavian people themselves, their speakers are intelligent, serene, uncompromising, outwardly serious and inwardly whimsical, outwardly tidy and inwardly complex, and a bit quirky.

News

Wilson Event in Florida Saturday

Stereophile Staff Feb 23, 2017

Saturday February 25, 125pm, Audible Images (161 Pineapple Avenue, Melbourne, FL 32935) is presenting Wilson Audio’s Alexx speaker. Guests will include Bill Peugh from Wilson Audio, Bill McKiegan from Dan D'Agostino Master Audio Systems, and Bob McConnell from Transparent Audio.

News

Dynaudio/Nordost Event in Chicagoland Thursday

Stereophile Staff Feb 22, 2017

Thursday, February 23, 4:308:30pm, F1 Audio (311 E Dundee Road, Palatine IL 60074) will be hosting an event featuring the new Dynaudio Contour 60 loudspeakers (above), Nordost cables, Octave tube electronics, and music from MoFi. Factory representatives will be on hand performing demonstrations and answering questions.

Stand Loudspeaker Reviews

Aerial Acoustics 5T loudspeaker

John Atkinson Feb 21, 2017

Long-lived loudspeaker models are rare. So it's surprising that the two-way, stand-mounted Model 5, the smallest speaker made by Massachusetts-based Aerial Acoustics, was revised just once between 2015 and April 1997, when Robert Harley favorably reviewed it and it cost $1800/pair. The revised 5B was equally favorably reviewed by John Marks in July 2009. This kept the original's 1" titanium-dome tweeter and sealed-box woofer loading but replaced the 7" polypropylene-cone woofer with a 7.1" laminated-fibercone woofer. Despite more than a decade's worth of inflation, the price rose only slightly, to $2400/pair.

Art Dudley Listening Phono Preamp Reviews

Listening #171: Bob's Devices Sky 40 transformer

Art Dudley Feb 21, 2017

In contrast with such line-level source components as DACs and CD players, record players generate a lower-voltage signal that requires extra gain from either a standalone phono preamplifier or the phono stage of another, more comprehensive component in one's systemtypically, a full-function preamplifier or an integrated amp.

But when the phono cartridge of choice is a moving-coil (MC) type, which generates even less voltage than its moving-magnet (MM) and moving-iron (MI) friends, even more gain is required. This presents the user with an additional choice: he or she can select from among the many standalone phono preamps that offer sufficient gain, or augment an existing phono or full-function preamp or integrated amplifier with a phono step-up transformer, which boosts gain passively, without using tubes or transistors.

News

Reference Recordings: New Website, Downloads, Recordings

Jason Victor Serinus Feb 20, 2017

For the first time in a decade, Grammy Award-winning audiophile label Reference Recordings (RR) has updated its website. Filled with new features, including new blog posts and an "Audiophile Corner," the website offers physical media and hi-rez downloads of a host of Reference Recordings made by legendary, Grammy-feted recording engineer/digital pioneer Keith O. Johnson, along with Sean Royce Martin, and other recordings on the RR Fresh! label recorded by the SoundMirror team.

Robert Baird

Arc Iris's Moon Saloon: Super Proggy

Robert Baird Feb 20, 2017

On Moon Saloon, Rhode Island's Arc Iris, led by singer Jocie Adams, has discarded any traces of the Americana that was present on the band’s self-titled debut. The sheer amount of textures present on Moon Saloon is wonderful, an attribute abetted by an atmospheric digital recording and a decent LP pressing.

Katz's Corner InnerFidelity

Katz’s Corner Episode 13 - The Big Shootout: Audeze LCD-4 vs. Focal Utopia

Bob Katz Feb 20, 2017

This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com

In my previous episode, I threw down the gauntlet: Can the world’s best headphones hold up to the world’s best loudspeakers in a perfectly-treated room? Of course we know that headphones image completely differently from loudspeakers. The transient impact of transducers lodged on your ears is distinctly different from loudspeakers at 9 foot distance. The loudness ratios of forward and distant elements, direct and reverberant sound are also different between phones and speakers. But we certainly can compare the tonal accuracy of the two presentations.