LATEST ADDITIONS

Recording of November 2019: The Soft Parade (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)

John Swenson Oct 24, 2019

The Doors: The Soft Parade (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)
Rhino Records R2-596001 (3CDs, 1LP). 19692019. Paul A. Rothchild, prod.; Bruce Botnick, eng. ADD. TT: 146:47
Performance ****
Sonics ****

The Soft Parade has long been the Doors' most under-valued album. After the revolutionary impact of the band's first two LPs, The Doors and Strange Days, and the commercial consolidation of the band's popularity on the third, Waiting for the Sun, Soft Parade was perceived as a fall from grace. The charismatic Jim Morrison, famously dubbed "The Lizard King" by Crawdaddy! guru Paul Williams, had transitioned from perhaps the most sexually powerful rock'n'roll figure since Elvis Presley into a troubled frontman bent on self-destruction.

News

U.K.’s Hi-Fi Show Live Opens Saturday

Stereophile Staff Oct 23, 2019

The Hi-Fi Show Live 2019, U.K’s largest specialty high-end audio event, will take place this Saturday and Sunday at the Ascot Racecourse Grandstand in Ascot, England.

Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

Monitor Audio Gold 300 loudspeaker

Thomas J. Norton Oct 23, 2019

About a year after settling into my new house, I decided to buy a pair of Monitor Audio Silver 10 floorstanding loudspeakers, which I had reviewed in 2014 for our sister publication Sound & Vision. I wound up buying three of them, with the intention of cannibalizing the drivers and crossover from one to make my own three-way center-channel speaker. But that project was long delayed, and I never got around to doing anything with the third Silver 10: It now sits in a closet as a spare.

Art Dudley Listening

Listening #203

Art Dudley Oct 22, 2019

"Let's get real, real gone for a change."Elvis

I.
As Plato mentioned in The Sophist and thousands of art historians have noted in the years since, Greek sculptors distorted the human figure by enlarging the head and shoulders. They did it on purpose. If they didn't, when viewed from below, it would look wrong. Poetsreal ones, I meandistort smaller truths in order to create larger ones.

Toronto Audiofest 2019

Looking Back on Toronto Audiofest 2019

Robert Schryer Oct 21, 2019

I'll say this, unequivocally: The Toronto Westin Airport Hotel is a fantastic venue for an audio event, better than the Montreal show's near-fabled Bonaventure Hotel, where it counts most: in the exhibitors' rooms. For whatever reason, and this was the consensus among those I spoke with, the rooms at the Westin seem to have acoustic properties that made most systems being demoed sound better than expected by anyone who's ever been at an audio show. It's worth the trip to Toronto just to hear what that's like.

Toronto Audiofest 2019

VPI Turntable, Audio-Technica Cartridge, Krell Integrated Amp, Gershman Speakers, Nordost Cables

Robert Schryer Oct 21, 2019

Another room where the sound warmed the cockles of my heart was hosted by Gershman Acoustics, Krell, and VPI. There, I re-met Gershman Acoustics' Ofrah and Eli Gershman (in the photo above), whom I see regularly at the Montreal Audio Festis there a harder working husband-and-wife team working the audio show circuit?and had the pleasure to meet for the first time Krell's congenial COO Walter Schofield. The gang (minus VPI's Mat Weisfeld, who's often in the picture but wasn't this time) was demoing a system that was another of my show highlights.

Toronto Audiofest 2019

Metronome CD/SACD Player, Goldmund Integrated Amplifier, Vimberg Loudspeakers, Crystal Cable Cabling, Entreq and Critical Mass Accessories

Robert Schryer Oct 21, 2019

Imagine an audiophile system assembled by the UN and you might end up with something that looks a lot like what I discovered in the Wynn Audio room. Among the countries being represented there were: France, with the Metronome AQWO CD/SACD player ($CAD22,000), with tubed output stage and USB input; Switzerland, with the 215Wpc Goldmund Telos 590 NextGen integrated amp ($CAD33,800); Germany, with the Vimberg Mino speakers ($CAD41,900/pair), built in the same factory as its sister company Tidal Audio (not to be confused with the streaming service); Sweden, with the Entreq Olympus Infinity ground boxes ($CAD5800 each); the Netherlands, with Crystal Cable cabling and rack; and the US, with Critical Mass Systems footers.

Toronto Audiofest 2019

Kii Audio Powered Speakers, Oracle Turntable, Benz Micro Cartridge, Nordost Cables

Robert Schryer Oct 21, 2019

As noted in the spec sheet being handed out in Executive Stereo's room, each Kii Three loudspeaker ($CAD23,000/pair), which stands all of a foot high (the bottom portion of the speaker in the photo is a subwoofer, which was not being used during my visit), is stuffed with six drivers, six amps that generate a total of 3000W, and six DACs.

Toronto Audiofest 2019

MBL DAC-CD Player, Integrated Amplifier, and Loudspeakers, Plus Wireworld Cables

Robert Schryer Oct 20, 2019

Gobsmacked is a word I never use, but I will in this report. That's because I'm at a loss to find a better term to convey how I felt when I heard the system MBL had set up in their roomwhich, by MBL standards, was small (other qualities that came to mind about the system's look were tidy, clean, and really, really white). The all-MBL system consisted of a total of three components: The three-way omnidirectional Radialstrahler 120 speakers with integral stands ($CAD30,150/pair), the 300Wpc C51 integrated amp ($CAD14,600), and the C31 DAC-CD player ($12,000), with Wireworld cabling throughout.

Toronto Audiofest 2019

A Lifetime Achievement Award for Robert Deutsch

Robert Schryer Oct 20, 2019

Earlier this year at the Montreal Audiofest, the organization that presents that show presented a lifetime achievement award to longtime Stereophile editor John Atkinson. Yesterday, the same organizers, who also present the Toronto Audiofest—gave the same award to another Stereophile contributor: Mr. Robert Deutsch.