Vivid Audio Introduces Giya Cu Loudspeakers

KEF Debuts New Finishes for Blade One Meta and Blade Two Meta

Sennheiser Drops HDB 630 Wireless Headphones

Sponsored: Radiant Acoustics Clarity 6.2 | Technology Introduction

PSB BP7 Subwoofer Unveiled

Apple AirPods Pro 3: First Impressions

LATEST ADDITIONS

Reference

Book Review: Designing Audio Power Amplifiers

John Atkinson May 27, 2020

Designing Audio Power Amplifiers, Second Edition, by Bob Cordell, Routledge/Focal Press, 2019. 776pp. $160.00, hard cover; $97.95, paperback.

I first met Bob Cordell at clinics he gave at the last audio show Stereophile organized, Home Entertainment 2007, in Manhattan. At those clinics, Bob shared his views on why amplifier measurements are not always good at predicting differences in sound quality. So when I was scheduled to host a seminar"Amplifiers: Do Measurements Matter?"at this year's now-canceled AXPONA, Cordell was on the short list of designers I felt would offer valuable insight.

My Back Pages

Will the Circle Be Unbroken?

John Swenson May 26, 2020

I loved New Orleans music before I even knew what it was.

In the mid-1960s, I went to high school in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which back then was a bleak, On the Waterfront landscape of dock workers and drifters hanging out in the pool halls along Bedford Avenue. We were warned to watch out on our way to track practice at nearby McCarren Park, because the pool halls were violent and confrontations often spilled out onto the street.

Solid State Power Amp Reviews

Parasound Halo JC 1+ monoblock power amplifier

John Atkinson May 22, 2020

Soon after I took over preparing Stereophile's biannual Recommended Components listing from the magazine's founder, J. Gordon Holt, in 1986, I ran into a problem. With so many products listed, the magazine was running out of the necessary pages to include them all. To solve this problem, I looked at how long a typical product remained on the market before being updated or replaced. The answer was 34 years. I therefore implemented a policy that unless one of the magazine's editors or reviewers had continued experience with a product, it would be dropped from Recommended Components after three years.

Budget Component Reviews Stand Loudspeaker Reviews

Totem Acoustic Skylight loudspeaker

Robert Schryer May 21, 2020

Reviewing a new loudspeaker from Totem feels like destinyas if a formative moment 30 years ago has come full circle. That's because the first genuine audiophile speaker I ever owned was Totem's now-iconic Model 1, a product whose arrival altered many audiophiles' expectations of how much greatand wide-rangesound a small speaker can deliver. It's still being made today, at least in spirit.

Revinylization

Revinylization #6: Acoustic Sounds Bach & Vivaldi Reissues

Art Dudley May 20, 2020

I'm not in perfect agreement with my colleagues and friends who believe that RCA's Living Stereo LPs from the late 1950s and '60s are the best-sounding commercial classical recordings ever made. To me, the Decca SXL catalog outshines them sonically, in addition to showcasing the talents of an even greater roster of artists. But that's not to say I'm immune to their charms.

The RCA catalog contains some real gems.

Integrated Amp Reviews

Aavik Acoustics U-380 integrated amplifier

Jason Victor Serinus May 19, 2020

Finallya way to get a handle on the sound of Aavik Acoustics electronics. I'd heard the Danish-made components many times at shows, but always in the context of Ansuz Acoustics cables and Børresen Acoustics loudspeakers. As much as the threesome was inevitableall three companies are owned by Michael Børresen, Lars Kristensen, and a third shareholderthere was no way to determine the unique sound of each component in the mix.

News

RMAF Nixes 2020

Jason Victor Serinus May 19, 2020

Denver’s Rocky Mountain Audio Fest (RMAF) has canceled its 2020 show.

Digital Processor Reviews Hi-Rez Disc Player/Transport Reviews Media Server Reviews

T+A MP 3100 HV SACD player/streaming DAC

Jim Austin May 15, 2020

At the 2019 AXPONA, I took part in one of my first official meetings, as editor of Stereophile, with members of the manufacturing community: the German company T+A. They were presenting in the room of Texas dealer Lone Star Audio, which was owned by the late Jim Hench. They had a corner hallway to themselves: two rooms and, at the time when I arrived, a hallway table brimming with coffee and pastries. Fortuitous timing.

News

No Show for T.H.E. Show

Jason Victor Serinus May 14, 2020

The Home Entertainment Show—aka T.H.E. Show—which was originally scheduled for June 12–14 in the Long Beach Hilton, has canceled for 2020. According to a May 13 announcement, T.H.E. Show team of President Maurice Jung and Director of Marketing Emiko Carlin had hoped to postpone the event until December 2020. Not happening.

Solid State Power Amp Reviews

Bel Canto e1X power amplifier

Tom Gibbs May 14, 2020

I own and enjoy loudspeakers from seemingly opposite ends of the audiophile spectrum: I'm a huge fan of minimally efficient yet otherwise overachieving flat-panel designs, such as my Magnepan LRS speakers. Yet I'm just as smitten with another, equally outside-the-norm alternative: high-sensitivity full-range loudspeakers, such as my Zu Omensespecially when driven by tube electronics. It's an ongoing yin and yang that keeps my home system in a constant state of flux: Alternating between loudspeakers that use such different technologies, while maintaining relatively optimal positioning for each, is a bit daunting.