With high-end audio dealers becoming scarcer and with more Internet dealers popping up every week, are you finding that you make more of your audio equipment purchases online?
You'd think I'd be used to <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/610">Charlie Hansen</A> by now. After all, I've been speaking to Ayre Acoustics' renaissance man for a decade, having first encountered him when I was trying to arrange the review of Ayre's 100Wpc V-3 power amplifier that was published in the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/amplificationreviews/412">August 1996 <I>Stereophile</I></A> (Vol.19 No.8). I thought the V-3 was impressive.
Here we are, back to the Arcam I know and love: a company that not only invents good products, but good product <I>categories</I> as well. Like the Arcam Black Box of the 1980s, which gave so many people fits at the time—yet which, once you heard it, made good musical sense. It made good marketing sense, too: With that one stroke, teensy, weird, nestled-away-in-the-English-countryside Arcam did nothing less than create the domestic market for outboard digital-to-analog converters.
Back in 2003, while auditioning the Burmester 001 CD player ($14,000, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/digitalsourcereviews/1203burmester">reviewed…; in the December 2003 <I>Stereophile</I>, Vol.26 No.12), I discovered that my system sounded much better if I bypassed my preamplifier and ran the 001 directly into the power amps. I concluded by suggesting that potential customers consider building a system around the 001 itself and forgo a preamp altogether. The response from Burmester fans was immediate and unambiguous: As good as the 001 was on its own, it sounded even better run through its stablemate, Burmester's 011 preamplifier ($15,999). The pair had, they claimed, a significant synergy that I absolutely had to hear. It's hard to argue with determined German logic, and I'd begun shopping for a new preamp anyway. So here we are.
At HE2005 last April, Daniel Khesin's brawny $3000 150Wpc DK Designs VS-1 MK2 hybrid integrated amplifier had the crowd buzzing with its expansive sound driving Von Schweikert speakers—and bang-for-the-buck pricing. We spoke with Khesin and he was passionate about breaking into the high-end big leagues. Therefore, it came as a surprise to receive notice on July 8 that DK Design had been purchased by LSA Group LLC of Louisville, KY.
Back in June, we reported on the <A HREF="http://stereophile.com/news/060605BBC/"> BBC's "The Beethoven Experience"</A>, described as "a bold experiment in whether or not free music stimulates legitimate music sales or suppresses them." Last week, <I>The Independent</I> published a terse 200-word article, reporting that the Beeb had downloaded one million files during the Experience, and stating "The initiative has infuriated the bosses of leading classical record companies, who argue the offer undermines the value of music and that any further offers would be unfair competition."
We were saddened to learn (via <A HREF="http:// http://boingboing.net/">the website Boing-boing</A>) that Dr. Robert A. Moog, inventor of the world's first real-time reconfigurable music synthesizer, is being treated for a brain tumor (glioblastoma multiforme or GBM), for which he is receiving radiation treatment and chemotherapy.
Exploring the details about the reproduction of music in the home is what we're all about. Periodically, however, it's a good idea to get back to basics, which leads us to this week's question: Why are you an audiophile?
Canadian company Paradigm has made a name for itself over the past 20 years with affordably priced, high-performance loudspeakers. Its Reference Series designs have garnered much praise from this magazine—I was <I>well</I> impressed by the floorstanding Series 3 Reference Studio/100 ($2300/pair) <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/loudspeakerreviews/105paradigm">last January</A>, my review following hard on the heels of Kalman Rubinson's enthusiastic recommendation of the smaller Studio/60 v.3 ($1600/pair) in <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/loudspeakerreviews/1204paradigm">December 2004</A>, while the bookshelf Reference Studio/20 ($800/pair) has been a resident of <I>Stereophile</I>'s "Recommended Components" listing ever since Bob Reina's original review in <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/loudspeakerreviews/628">February 1998</A>.