LATEST ADDITIONS

Recording of October 1979: The Telarc 1812 Overture

Margaret Graham, J. Gordon Holt Aug 29, 2017

Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture (Op.49), Capriccio Italien (Op.45 ), "Cossack Dance" from Mazeppa (LP), plus Marche slav, Op.31, Polonaise and Waltz from Eugene Onegin , Op.24, Festival Coronation March (CD).
Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Kiev Symphony Chorus; Children's Choir of Greater Cincinnati, Erich Kunzel cond.
Telarc Digital DG-10041 (LP, CD-80041 (CD). 1979 (LP), 1984 (CD). Edited at Soundstream, Inc. Robert Woods, prod.; Jack Renner, eng. DAA (LP), DDD (CD). TT: 35:19 (LP), 60:23 (CD).

I must say I'm getting a bit bored with the 1812 Overture, but as long as there are audiophiles, it will be recorded due to the stringent demands it can make upon one's playback system. This version produced by Telarc is going to be hard to beat. The cannon fire is unbelievable.

Jana Dagdagan

A Tour of Steve Guttenberg's System

Jana Dagdagan Aug 28, 2017

In this video, Steve Guttenberg, "The Audiophiliac" and a regular contributor to Stereophile's "As We See It" column, gives us a tour of his system in Brooklyn, NY.

Headphone Reviews InnerFidelity

Sennheiser HD 471 Affordable Sealed Over Ear Headphones

Tyll Hertsens Aug 27, 2017

This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com

Right off the top I'm going to encourage any budding social media and music producers in need of their first pair of "real" headphones to take a good hard look and listen to the Sennheiser HD 471. This is a terrific headphone at a terrific price. Sennheiser's website shows the price as $109, but they're commonly available for around $70. Read on for the full scoop!

Jason Victor Serinus

Heavenly Singing—Heavenly Bach

Jason Victor Serinus Aug 26, 2017

Harmonia Mundi's recent hi-rez release, Bach Cantatas for Soprano with the Freiburger Barockorchester under Petra Müllejans, demonstrates why Carolyn Sampson has succeeded the divine Emma Kirkby as the leading British early music soprano of our time. Tuneful beyond belief, the recording delivers joy upon joy.

Robert Baird

John Abercrombie 1944–2017

Robert Baird Aug 24, 2017

It's the dates as a leader on ECM that remain the most well-recorded part of John Abercrombie's legacy. The players he filled his ECM records with is a long and distinguished list, but he and his final quartet of Marc Copland on piano, Drew Gress on double bass (far left and left above), and Joey Baron on drums (far right) seemed to have special energy when they played together.

Integrated Amp Reviews

Octave Audio V 80 SE integrated amplifier

Ken Micallef Aug 24, 2017

As a salt-and-pepperhaired bachelor living in present-day Manhattan, I admit to participating in mating rituals that have included electronic divining tools and computer-aided pleasure machines. In a phrase: online dating.

From various sites whose names begin with O or M, and which can lead to S or M with a stranger who may or may not be who or what she claims to be, I've had private zones tickled silly, and as often have found the process to be confusing, depressing, or both. I've been happily hijacked by a flexible Broadway singer, met a she who was really a he, and even found employment, all through online dating.

Art Dudley Listening Tube Preamp Reviews

Listening #177: Shindo Monbrison preamplifier

Art Dudley Aug 24, 2017

In January of 2014, some of us wondered if the sudden death of designer Ken Shindo would spell the end of the company he founded in 1977: It was hard to imagine Shindo Laboratory being led by anyone but its founder, a former Matsushita engineer who made it his life's work to study not only the designs of audio's golden age, but to learn the sound of every vacuum tube, every passive part, every circuit variation that he might reasonably press into service.

News

Sandy Gross to Present Triton References in New Jersey Saturday

Stereophile Staff Aug 23, 2017

Saturday August 26, from 15pm, Sandy Gross, President of GoldenEar Technology, will be presenting GoldenEar's new flagship Triton Reference loudspeaker at New Jersey retailer Electronics Expo (491 US 46 West, Wayne NJ). Stereophile reviewer Robert Deutsch wrote after hearing the Triton Reference at their debut at last January's CES, "The Triton Reference presents a serious challenge to speakers in the multi-$10k range. . ." Saturday's event will be a good opportunity for New Jersey audiophiles to hear the T Refs, judge the speakers for themselves, and discuss the speakers with Sandy.

Digital Processor Reviews

Ayre Acoustics QX-5 Twenty D/A processor

John Atkinson Aug 22, 2017

Throughout the summer and fall of 2016, I worked on a project with Stereophile contributor Sasha Matson, recording, editing, mixing, and masteringfor release on 180gm LP, CD, and high-resolution downloadan album of works that Sasha had composed for various chamber ensembles: Tight Lines. As you can read in the article we published about this project, for the vinyl release we decided not to master the discs directly from the hi-rez files, but to create an intermediate analog tape master. Feeling that audiophiles would want an LP that at some stage was "analog," we therefore needed to choose a D/A processor to drive the Studer open-reel tape recorder we were going to use.

Phono Preamp Reviews

Sutherland Engineering Duo phono preamplifier

Brian Damkroger Aug 22, 2017

"Saying that Sutherland Engineering builds a nice line of phono stages is like saying that the Porsche 911 Carrera is a nice line of sports cars." So began my review of Sutherland's PhonoBlock in the January 2012 issue. I went on to note that similar philosophies underpin both product lines, and to link the cost-no-object PhonoBlock ($10,000/pair) with the GT2 RS ($245,000), then the pinnacle of Porsche's 911 family. It's now 2017, and though Sutherland and Porsche have both gone through a complete development cycle and replaced their flagship models, the analogy still holds true.