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MQA: Questions and Answers

J. Robert Stuart Aug 11, 2016

Author's Note: We are grateful to Stereophile for the opportunity to address some frequently repeated technical questions appearing in comments to articles. Recently this has included misunderstandings about noise calculation, dynamic range, resolution, definition, music spectra, channel capacity, lossless processing and temporal aspects of digital channels.

To simplify this document we have grouped the topics and set them as questions and answers either as response, tutorial or axiom. Some months ago we published a comprehensive Q&A for an online forum and to avoid repetition we occasionally refer to topics already discussed there (see [37] in the "References" sidebar).J. Robert Stuart

News

Grand Prix Turntable Debuts in Arizona Tomorrow, Saturday

Stereophile Staff Aug 11, 2016

At their monthly listening party Esoteric Audio (111 West Monroe Street, Suite 100, Phoenix, AZ) will be featuring the local premier of the Grand Prix Audio Monaco v2.0 table. The official listening party is on Saturday August 13 at 3:00pm, but the table will be demonstrated Friday afternoon, August 12, and all day Saturday. Grand Prix Audio's VP of Sales and Marketing, Jesse Luna, will be on hand Friday and Saturday to show off the Monaco table as well as discuss current and future product offerings. More information is available at www.esotericaudioaz.com/upcoming-events.html.

As We See It J. Gordon Holt

In Praise of Imported LPs

J. Gordon Holt Aug 09, 2016

By the time you read this in late 1963 (probably a month after it is written, judging by the speed with which the US mails speed second-class matter on its appointed rounds), Capitol Records will have announced the first bit of really good news for the high-fidelity perfectionist in years: the release of imported disc pressingstaped, cut, and stamped in Europe. London has been importing for yearsall the Londons you buy are pressed by Decca in England. But this will be the first opportunity we will have of sampling the products of some of London's overseas competitors.

Jana Dagdagan

Same As It Ever Was

Jana Dagdagan Aug 08, 2016

The year was 2116, and the Earth was finally great again.

War, poverty, global warming, starvation, racial inequalitythese, among many others, were all trivial, long overcome matters of the past.

Generation ZZZZers glided around in auto-piloted, eco-friendly, space/time ships. They communicated with each other via holographic telekinetic mind messages. (Though there was always the occasional hippie, of course, who'd pull out a vintage, non-functioning wePhone 2000 or whatever technological dinosaur was making a comeback these days. Lame, if you ask me.)

Headphone Reviews InnerFidelity

World's Best Headphone: The Focal Utopia

Tyll Hertsens Aug 08, 2016

This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com

And then, at 21 second in, right after she sings, "When God gave out rhythm...", two chords are gently played on the piano. My goodness, I've never heard such sensitively percussive, harmonically rich, filled with weight and substance sound from a piano. Most astonishing is the interplay of tones, harmonics, and intermodulation making the whole of the chord a rich textured wave of sound. I was transfixed until track's end.

Solid State Power Amp Reviews

Hafler Transnova 9500 power amplifier

Thomas J. Norton Aug 04, 2016

Boy, do we ever get letters. From readers angry that we review too many expensive products. From readers depressed that we review too many affordable products. From readers bemoaning our digital coverage. From readers asking when we're going to get with the 21st century and stop gushing over analog. From readers wanting more coverage of tube products. From readers wanting more coverage of MOSFET amplifiers designed for high voltage gain on the output stage.

As We See It J. Gordon Holt

Outrageous Price?

J. Gordon Holt Aug 04, 2016

Editor's Note: Approaching its ninth year of publication in 1970, the advertisement-free Stereophile was failing as a business. There was just one issue published between December 1968 and June 1970, the date when J. Gordon Holt published this plea in response to the reaction to the increased subscription price: first to $4 for four issues, equivalent to $25 in 2016, then to $5 ($31). The response from subscribers to his plea was not positive enough to enable the magazine to continue publishingGordon could publish just two more issues in the next two years before Stereophile had to accept advertising, first from dealers in October 1972 and from manufacturers in December 1977.Ed.

Our recent price increase at the end of 1969 elicited numerous letters telling us the magazine was exhorbitant at $4 a subscription and is outrageous at $5, and supporting their contention with comparisons between the price per page of the Stereophile and one or another of the commercial hi-fi magazines. We will answer this once, here and now, and then let the matter drop.

Interviews

Bill Lloyd: Power Pop Icon

Robert Baird Aug 02, 2016

In writing for magazines, there's a basic rule: Don't become the subject. And in writing about the arts, it's best to remember that you aren't in the music business or the film business: you're in the publishing business. Despite this, there are arts writers who fancy they're a part of the world they write about. All famous musicians are their "friends." The music business values their opinions. They're caught up in the delusion that the Rolling Stones sang about so deliciously in "Star Star," the closing number on Goats Head Soup.

J. Gordon Holt Solid State Power Amp Reviews

SAE Mark II Power Amplifier

J. Gordon Holt Aug 02, 2016

It takes a lot of courage for a new company to launch an amplifier like this at time when most manufacturers are courting the mass market with budget-priced receivers, and Marantz is pretty firmly established as the Rolls Royce of audio electronics.

The SAE Mark II has, nominally, the same performance specs as the Dynaco Stereo 120, yet it costs twice as much as a factory-wired Stereo 120, and about 2½ times as much as a Stereo 120 kit. Is the SAE really worth the difference? And how does it compare with some other $400 amplifiers? Well, it all depends.

Interviews Jana Dagdagan

Nels Cline: His Upcoming Blue Note Debut and the Vinyl Trend

Jana Dagdagan Aug 01, 2016

Guitarist Nels Cline will make his Blue Note debut on August 5this coming Friday as a download, with CD following on August 19 and LP on September 2with his album Lovers. It's a beautiful, wide-ranging, 18-track, 23-person-ensemble look inside Nels's soul, and a project that's been in the making for 25 years. It contains a mix of Cline's originals as well as songs by Sonic Youth, Arto Lindsay, Jimmy Giuffre, and Great American Songbook Standards.