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Headphone Reviews InnerFidelity

Sennheiser PXC 550 Noise Canceling Bluetooth Headphones

Tyll Hertsens Nov 02, 2016

This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com

Shots fired!

Sennheiser's new PXC 550 ($399) Bluetooth noise canceling headphone is a direct shot across the bow of Bose's battleship Quiet Comfort 35 ($349) dominance of noise canceling headphones, which I reviewed very positively. Not only do Bose own a big chunk of that market, they consistently, in my opinion, have the best isolation and sound quality performance. Let's see if Sennheiser can put a dent in that armored hull.

Audacious Audio Headphone Reviews

Shure KSE1500 electrostatic in-ear headphone system

John Atkinson Nov 01, 2016

I wrote several issues back that my first high-end headphones were Koss Pro4AAs, which I bought in 1972 following a positive review in the British magazine Hi-Fi News. Although that review didn't mention that the Pro4AAs were relatively fragile (footnote 1), I nonetheless loved their sound. They were the best headphones I'd hearduntil, a couple years later, I was playing bass on some sessions for record producer Tony Cox. Tony had a pair of signal-energized electrostatic headphones, Koss ESP-6es, which were heavy and clunkybut they opened my ears to the sound quality that could be obtained from "cans." I didn't hear better until after I'd moved to Santa Fe, in 1986, and J. Gordon Holt loaned me his review samples of the Stax SR-Lambda Pros.

Music in the Round

Music in the Round #81: Classé Sigma Mono amplifier, Sony UHP-H1 universal player

Kalman Rubinson Nov 01, 2016

Last spring, when I was listening to Bowers & Wilkins's 802 D3 Diamond loudspeakers, Classé Audio offered a pair of their new Sigma Mono amps for the review. They claimed a synergyB&W's D3 series had been developed using Classé amps. I declined, only because using unfamiliar amplifiers would add to my assessment an uncontrolled variable. Now that the B&Ws have settled inthree 802 D3 Diamonds across the front, two 804 D3s at the backit seemed time to hear what they could do when driven by the Classés.

TAVES 2016

TAVES 2016: Day 2

Robert Deutsch Oct 31, 2016

The Muraudio PX2 ($US79,500/pair) was introduced at TAVES 2016, and sounded very impressive indeed

Jana Dagdagan

A Visit to YG Acoustics

Jana Dagdagan Oct 31, 2016

When Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2016 (RMAF)the hot hi-fi rager of the Wild Westcame to its close, I had one more official stop to make: YG Acoustics.

Located just 30 minutes from Denver in the city of Arvada, is the YG Acoustics facilityincluding the factory, showroom, and offices. Much like most factories, the exterior is an unassuming vanilla casing, with no evidence of the flavorful, no-compromise, high-tech, high-end speakers living (and being brought to life) inside.

News NY Audio Show 2016

The New York Audio Show Returns to NY this Weekend

Jason Victor Serinus Oct 31, 2016

Now in its fifth year, the UK-based Chester Group's New York Audio Show opens to the public this Friday, November 4, at 1pm in the Park Lane Hotel overlooking Central Park. (Friday hours are until 7pm.) The three-day show, a smaller version of what has come before, promises 30 exhibit rooms, half of which are "oversized," two ballroom-sized exhibits, and two more ballrooms filled with exhibits and vendors selling merchandise. All-in-all, the event, whose one-day visitor pass costs $30 ($26 in advance, with significant savings for multi-day passes) promises almost 110 brands.

TAVES 2016

TAVES Takes Toronto: Day 1

Robert Deutsch Oct 30, 2016

Does marketing work? You betcha!

Jason Victor Serinus

Enough Mozart for a Lifetime In a Single Box

Jason Victor Serinus Oct 30, 2016

In honor of the 225th anniversary of Mozart's death at the age of 35, Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, and the Salzburg Mozarteum Foundation have together issued a whopping 24-lb box of recordings and commentary called Mozart 225. Billed as the most complete and authoritative edition of Mozart recordings ever assembled, the $480 box, in an edition limited to 15,000 copies worldwide, includes 200 CDs with 240 hours of music.

News

MQA and Warner: the Real Scoop

Jim Austin Oct 29, 2016

Photo: Jason Victor Serinus

Exactly what did Bob Stuart (above) say at that press event earlier this month at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest (RMAF)? StuartCEO of the company MQA, short for Master Quality Authenticatedmade an announcement about the Warner Music Group's (WMG's) transcoding of their catalog into MQA format, a project announced last May. But what exactly did he say?

Eager for answers, I arranged a conference call. Over the course of about half an hour, Stuart (with an occasional assist from Lisa Sullivan, MQA's Director of Marketing) answered all my questions and more.

Art Dudley Listening Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

Listening #167: Auditorium 23 Hommage Cinema loudspeaker

Art Dudley Oct 28, 2016

Keith Aschenbrenner, proprietor of Auditorium 23, based in Frankfurt, Germany, has long been associated with the people and products of Shindo Laboratory: From the early 1990s until the EU's 2006 implementation of the RoHS 1 regulation, which banned the sale of various old-style electrolytic materialsand thus most of Shindo's productsAuditorium 23 was the brand's European distributor and, arguably, one of its most empathetic and enthusiastic retailers worldwide. Throughout that time, and continuing through to today, Aschenbrenner has also worked as a designer and manufacturer of Shindo-friendly ancillaries and loudspeakers.