Audio Skies Michael Vamos - YG Acoustics, JMF Audio, Ideon at Capital Audiofest 2025

The Listening Room and Fidelity Imports - Diptyque DP-160 Mk.2 at Capital Audiofest 2025

Fidelity Imports Audia Flight and Perlisten System

Fidelity Imports Wilson Benesch and Audia Flight System at Capital Audiofest 2025

J Sikora Aspire, Innuos Stream 3, Aurender N50, Gryphon Antileon Revelation, Command Performance AV

Bella Sound Kalalau Preamplifier: Interview with Mike Vice

BorderPatrol Zola DAC – Gary Dews at Capital Audiofest 2025

Audio Note UK TT3 Reference Turntable Debut at Capital Audiofest 2025

Kevin Hayes of VAC at Capital Audiofest 2025

2WA Group debuts Aequo Ensium at Capital Audiofest 2025

Capital Audiofest 2025 lobby marketplace walk through day one

Lucca Chesky Introduces the LC2 Loudspeaker at Capital Audiofest 2025

Capital Audiofest 2025 Gary Gill interview

LATEST ADDITIONS

Recommended Components

Recommended Components: Fall 2018 Edition

Stereophile Staff Sep 13, 2018

Components listed here have been formally reviewed in Stereophile and have been found to be among the best available in each of four or five quality classes. Whether a component is listed in Class A or Class E, we highly recommend its purchase.

Each listing-in alphabetical order within classes-is followed by a brief description of the product's sonic characteristics and a code indicating the Stereophile Volume and Issue in which that product's report appeared. Thus the May 2017 issue is indicated as "Vol.40 No.5."

News

Siegfried Linkwitz RIP

Stereophile Staff Sep 12, 2018

We have received the sad news that loudspeaker maven Siegfried Linkwitz, co-inventor of the innovative Linkwitz-Riley crossover network, has died. He had been suffering from prostate cancer for some years and had been receiving hospice care at his home.

News

The 2018 Indianapolis Violin Competition

John Marks Sep 12, 2018

One of the most important international competitions for young (ages 1629) violinists takes place in the United States every four years. (The other top-tier classical-music competitions that include violinists, Moscow's International Tchaikovsky and Belgium's Queen Elizabeth, also run on four-year cycles.) While one might expect the US entry on that list to be hosted in California or New York, the venue is: Indianapolis, of 500-mile auto-race fame&#151land for excellent reasons.

As We See It

King Kong vs Spotify

Art Dudley Sep 11, 2018

"No one's buying music anymore: They're renting it."John Atkinson, keynote speech, AXPONA 2018

Streaming music isn't new. US companies have been doing it since the 1920s, when it was discovered that multiplexingthe then-new practice of combining multiple signals over a single conductorcould be used to send live or recorded music over public power lines. The first of those companies was Muzak LLC.

File that away.

Recording of the Month

Recording of October 2018: Berio, Boulez, Ravel: Orchestral Works

Jason Victor Serinus Sep 11, 2018

Berio, Boulez, Ravel: Sinfonia, Notations IIV, La Valse
Ludovic Morlot, Seattle Symphony Orchestra; Roomful of Teeth
Seattle Symphony Media SSM 1018 (CD, 2.0- and 5.1-channel downloads at 24/96). 2018. Rosalie Contreras, Elena Dubinets, exec. prods.; Dmitriy Lipay, prod., eng.; Alexander Lipay, eng. DDD. TT: 58:20
Performance ****½
Sonics *****

What ties Luciano Berio's boundary-breaking Sinfonia for Eight Voices and Orchestra (196869) to Pierre Boulez's out-there Notations IIV for Orchestra (1945/1978) to Maurice Ravel's progressively off-kilter La Valse (19061920)? The Seattle Symphony's about-to-depart music director, Ludovic Morlot, cites their "ingenious transformation of pre-existing musical material or styles." I'm also inclined to say that it's their descent into chaos, even madness, which these performances transcend with an impeccably controlled, highly refined aesthetic, which I auditioned in 24/96 2-channel.

News

KEF Event in Santa Rosa Thursday

Stereophile Staff Sep 10, 2018

Thursday, September 13, 4:307:30pm, Lavish HiFi (1044 4th Street, Santa Rosa, CA 95404) is presenting for a special evening of music and audio lore with KEF's Global Ambassador, Johan Coorg. Johan, who always puts on a good show, will give the inside scoop on KEF's loudspeakers.

Jason Victor Serinus

Other Minds' Modern Hits

Jason Victor Serinus Sep 09, 2018

Other Minds, the San Francisco-based organization that champions music so far ahead of its time that the 21st century is still catching up with what OM championed in the last millennium, has turned its ear to archival works by unsung electronic music pioneers from the Bay Area and beyond. In its latest offering of digital-only Modern Hits releases, two of which are hi-rez (24/44.1), OM champions the music of Philip Bimstein, Tom Djll, Jerry Hunt, and Alden Jenks.

News

It's Time 4 Recommended Components

Stereophile Staff Sep 08, 2018

Our October 2018 issue features the latest "Recommended Components" listing, updated and revised. Want to know what we thought about more than 500 audio products? You will find the answers to that question inside this 196-page issue.

News

Primephonic Launches Classical Streaming in the US and Europe

Jason Victor Serinus Sep 07, 2018

September 6 2018 marked the launch of Primephonic, which appears to be the world's most comprehensive classical music-streaming service. Currently available in the US, the UK, and its home base of the Netherlands via web and mobile applicationsiPhone/iPad users can access it now, and Android users in OctoberPrimephonic currently streams well over 1 million classical tracks from over 400 labels worldwide, including the three majors: Warner Classics (Erato, Virgin, Warner), Sony Classical (and Sony Masterworks), and Universal Music Group (including Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Verve, and Mercury).

Digital Processor Reviews Music in the Round

Music in the Round #93: miniDSP & Ripping SACDs

Kalman Rubinson Sep 06, 2018

As I took my valedictory lap around High End, the immense audio show held each May in Munich, Germany, it was clear that this year's event was an exuberant flowering of mature technology. I witnessed the dominance of hardware for LP playback, as well as analog amplifiers, many of them based on tubes, and passive loudspeakers with traditional cone-and-dome drive-units. And there was no shortage of excellent and impressive musical demonstrations. Still, I experienced no revelations, and heard no announcements of any new technology that might trigger a hopeful anticipation of the near future. It was as if HE2018 were reflecting on the past with reverence and commitment, rather than striving toward the future with innovation and adventure.