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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

J. Gordon Holt Recording of the Month

Recording of November 1981: Citadels of Mystery

J. Gordon Holt Jul 06, 2017

Bernie Krause: Citadels of Mystery
Mobile Fidelity MFSL 1-505 (LP).

This is a very hyped, contrived recording, but then nobody ever pretended that this kind of musical construction was supposed to approximate the sound of a live performance. The strings are quite steely on this but, in all other respects, the recording is is stupendousunctuously rich, smooth and limpidly clear, with some awesomely taut low end and cuttingly crisp percussion sounds.

Think Pieces

Cables & the Case for Solder

Peter W. Mitchell Jul 05, 2017

When you graduate from mass-market hi-fi to high-end audio, one of the first things you notice is that audiophile gear dispenses with the gadgets and gimmicks that clutter up the front panels of most stereo receivers and integrated amplifiers. The dominant philosophy in mass-market design is that features sell products: the more functions a product has, the more desirable it will seem in the store. High-end designers, on the other hand, prefer the KISS approach: Keep It Simple, Stupid!

Tube Preamp Reviews

TARA Labs Space & Time Passage preamplifier

Dick Olsher Jul 05, 2017

Better known for their speaker cables and interconnects, The Absolute Reference Audio Labs (TARA Labs) has quietly branched out into electronics and loudspeakers. Their Passage is a line-levelonly preamp. I actually favor such a modular approach to preamp design. Standing as we are at the dawn of the digital audio age, the breakup of the traditional preamp into separate phono and line-level stages represents a more flexible, cost-effective design approach.

J. Gordon Holt Phono Cartridge Reviews

Three Pickups: Which is the Best?

J. Gordon Holt Jul 05, 2017

If you have read my reviews of the Ortofon M-15, the Shure V15-III, and the Decca Mark V, you have probably formed a pretty firm impression of which of the three contenders for the title "Best Pickup" is the winner. In case you haven't, though, here's a capsule wrap-up of our reactions to the three phono cartridges reviewed in May 1974.

Robert Baird

Sousa, Fiedler, and the Fourth

Robert Baird Jul 04, 2017

I tend to gravitate towards Stephen Foster and Scott Joplin.

As We See It Historical J. Gordon Holt

Don't Tell Your Friends!

J. Gordon Holt Jul 03, 2017

Stereophile's founder, J. Gordon Holt, photographed toward the end of his life by Steven Stone.

Editor's Note: The forthcoming August 2017 issue of Stereophile is No.451, but 55 years ago this summer, J. Gordon Holt was putting together the first issue of what initially was to be called The Stereophile. Here is Gordon's editorial leader from that issue, published in November 1962.

Jason Victor Serinus

The Los Angeles Percussion Quartet Moves Beyond

Jason Victor Serinus Jul 02, 2017

Imagine almost 86 minutes of superbly recorded percussion in which the traditional notions of steady beat, driving rhythms, and attention-catching melody rarely take center stage. Welcome to Beyond, a mind-bending /time-distorting three-disc percussion tour de force from Sono Luminus on which the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet plays a dazzling array of percussion as it explores the eloquence and beauty of color, texture, sustain and decay. Recorded in DXD (24/352.8k), Beyond is available as either a hi-rez download in multiple formats, including DSD, or as a three-disc album that includes two Red Book CDs and a Pure Audio Blu-ray disc.

Jana Dagdagan

A Video Tour of AudioQuest

Jana Dagdagan Jul 01, 2017

Before the Los Angeles Audio Show, I spent a few days in southern California, and was able to schedule a visit to AudioQuest's massive facility in Irvine. In this video, Bryan Long (VP Operations), accompanied by Joe Harley's dog Pumpkin, gives a condensed version of his usual tour, which is normally well over an hour.

Headphone Reviews InnerFidelity

MrSpeakers Aeon Over-Ear Sealed Planar Magnetic Headphones

Tyll Hertsens Jun 30, 2017

This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com

Oh baby...don't read this if you've got $800 bucks in your wallet and a yen for some good sealed headphones.

Computer Audio Reviews Digital Processor Reviews Media Server Reviews Music and Recording Features Music in the Round

Music in the Round #85: Nimitra, exaSound, Baetis, Roon

Kalman Rubinson Jun 29, 2017

It's been going on for a while now: Despite support for multichannel in audio/video receivers and A/V processors priced from as little as $200 to $30,000, there are still very few offerings that cater to the music listener. They may offer stereo-only streaming features through their USB or Ethernet inputs, but these inputs don't see your multichannel files. To handle such files, they would require you to add a music server with HDMI output. However, I know of no turnkey music servers that will output multichannel audio via HDMI.