KEF Debuts New Finishes for Blade One Meta and Blade Two Meta

Sennheiser Drops HDB 630 Wireless Headphones

LATEST ADDITIONS

Budget Component Reviews Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

JBL Stage A170 loudspeaker

Herb Reichert Oct 16, 2019

In the realm of loudspeaker reviews, John Atkinson's measurements and my empirical observations have one important equivalency: Both are meaningless abstractions until confirmed by your listening experience.

Both are contingent on factors that are necessarily obtuse and not especially controllable.

As We See It

An Ending That's Also a Beginning

Jim Austin Oct 15, 2019

One of my biggest surprises since I became the editor of Stereophileand so started focusing more on all things audiophileis how often I find myself thinking about the ethics of this hobby. This is unusual for me: I dislike moralism and prefer aesthetics to ethics.

Digital Processor Reviews Music in the Round

Music in the Round #100: Multichannel & Merging Anubis

Kalman Rubinson Oct 15, 2019

This is the 100th andsurprise!final edition of Music in the Round. MitR began in mid-2003, shortly after SACD and DVD-A discs made high-quality multichannel music convenient and widely available. At the time, I was convinced that multichannel reproduction was superior to stereo because it was able to reproduce the full sound of the performancenot just the performers. Stereophile's founder, J. Gordon Holt, had promoted this idea many times, but the appearance of the new media finally brought it to a wider audience.

Gramophone Dreams

Gramophone Dreams #30: Skyfi Audio

Herb Reichert Oct 11, 2019

Let's talk about management styles. If you want to run a successful small business, you must first be happy. If your personal goals are to learn and to discover, and you combine those with an intrinsic need to share your achievements and connect with people in your chosen field, you are likely to succeed. Given those qualities, if your business goal is to provide desirable goods and needed services, you will not fail.

News

Must-Hear Music TV: Country Music and Now Hear This

Jon Iverson Oct 11, 2019

Under the category of "abundance of musical riches," there are two fantastic series about music airing on PBS right now. You probably already know about one of them, but another, which many readers will like even better, is getting far less press.

News

Vandersteen KĒNTO Carbon Loudspeaker at Audio Advice in Raleigh, NC

Stereophile Staff Oct 11, 2019

On Wednesday, October 16, 2019, from 5:00 to 9:00pm, Raleigh, NC, specialty audio retailer Audio Advice (8621-117 Glenwood Ave, Raleigh) will present Music Matters, showcasing the new Vandersteen KĒNTO Carbon loudspeaker.

Features Reference

Harmonic Convergence: the Effect of Component Tweaking

Ben Duncan Oct 10, 2019

Power amplifiers fascinate me. In the past 15 years I've helped design and build over a dozen advanced models, with output powers ranging from 50 to 2500W, for a number of the UK's professional equipment manufacturers. To learn from others' ideas and mistakes, I've also repaired, measured, used, and reviewed hundreds of makes of amplifier. My experiences have led me to regard the power amplifier as one of the messiest, most imperfect pieces of electronic equipment in the record/replay path.

Interviews Music and Recording Features

Chick Corea: Pioneering Jazz Pianist

Ken Micallef Oct 09, 2019

Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea belongs to that elite cadre of pianists that includes Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, and Mccoy Tyner, pioneers who reshaped the jazz or- der starting in the early 1960s and continued to make strides into the present day.

The now-78-year-old Corea's attainments are many: composer of the standards "la fiesta," "Spain," "500 Miles High," "Matrix," and "Windows"; winner of 22 Grammy Awards (and 64 nods); founder of at least six colossal improvising units (Return to Forever I and II, Circle, the Three Quartets quartet, the Chick Corea Elektric Band, the Vigil Quintet); popularizer of early monophonic synthesizers, and recipient, in 2006, of an NEA Jazz Masters award.

Features Miscellaneous

Book Review: 99% True: Almost a National Bestseller

John Atkinson Oct 08, 2019

99% True: Almost a National Bestseller, by Paul McGowan. Lioncrest Publishing, 2019. 364pp. $25.00, hard cover; $15.99, paperback; $9.99, Kindle e-book.

To many audiophiles, high-end audio manufacturers must seem like monolithic entities, enduring for what seems like forever, like cliffs beside a familiar path. But as Paul McGowan explains in this unputdownable autobiography (footnote 1), behind the facade of stability things can be in financial turmoil, with success equally as risky as failure.

News

PS Audio Goes Direct in the US

Jim Austin Oct 07, 2019

In a late-August newsletter, PS Audio announced a major change in how it does business. In the United States, its home market, the company stopped selling its products through dealers and opted for a direct, online-only sales model. Outside the US, it will continue to sell through authorized dealers.