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

Analog Corner Phono Cartridge Reviews

Analog Corner #236: Clearaudio Maestro V2 phono cartridge

Michael Fremer May 21, 2015

Clearaudio began making moving-coil cartridges in the 1970s, and only later got into the moving-magnet business. Moving-magnet cartridge designers must now be mindful that most of today's tonearms are of medium to high mass and that therefore, to be compatible, their MMs must be of low to medium compliance and of higher mass than those of the 1960s and '70s.

Munich 2015

Trade Day at High End 2015

Jason Victor Serinus May 21, 2015

Ready, set go. It may not look crowded at 9am on the first morning of High End 2015 in Munich, but we who were dashing in an hour early for the Devialet press conference soon found Atrium 4.1 (shown) filled with people. Attendees included, in addition to consumers, dealers from multiple continents, some of whom are now skipping January's CES in Las Vegas because they find the trip to Munich more productive and far more enjoyable. Also present were manufacturers and reps who prefer to make the rounds rather than display. All in all, it's fair to say that, for many in the industry, High 2015 is as much a trade show as it is a consumer showcase.

As We See It

Abandon Folly, Not Hope

John Marks May 21, 2015

The day before I began writing this, John Atkinson posted on Stereophile's website a chart from Nielsen Soundscan showing the ski-jumplike path CD sales have been on since 2004. In 2004, total sales were 651 million units; in 2014, 141 million units. All that is lacking from that impactful visual to make the ski-jump analogy perfect is the little uptick at the end to launch the skier into free air. Those numbers look to me like a total decline in sales of 78%. Ouch.

Recording of the Month

Recording of June 2015: Yesterday I Had the Blues

Robert Baird May 21, 2015

José James: Yesterday I Had the Blues, The Music of Billie Holiday
Blue Note B002283102 (CD). 2015. Yoshihisa Saito, exec. prod.; Don Was, prod.; Chris Allen, eng., mix. DDD? TT: 49:33
Performance ****
Sonics *****

Unlike the conundrum of today's country music, whose lyrics celebrate family and tradition even as the country-music community ignores and disrespects the giants of the music's past, jazz and rock have for the most part remembered and celebrated their musical pioneers and game changers, and the singular, monumental virtuosity of artists like Billie Holiday.

Robert Baird

The Thrill Has Gone

Robert Baird May 15, 2015

His long, single note leads gave new meaning to the word “stinging,”

Fred Kaplan

Dave Douglas: Sound Prints & High Risk

Fred Kaplan May 15, 2015

Trumpeter Dave Douglas has two very different new albums out: Sound Prints: Live at Monterey Jazz Festival (Blue Note), featuring a Wayne Shorter tribute-band co-led by tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano; and High Risk, a collaborative excursion into electronica.

Sound Prints is also the name of the tribute band (a riff on Shorter's classic Footprints album), and, judging from the two times I've seen them play at the Village Vanguard, they're among the most vibrant, dizzying jazz bands around...

Munich 2015

Munich High End Beckons

Jason Victor Serinus May 15, 2015

As soon as one arrives in the Munich airport, days before the start of High End 2015, posters announcing the event are visible. This is no marginal show, with expectations of appealing only to a fringe group of dying, gray-haired audiophile fanatics. Rather, it is a major event, with an appeal that extends far beyond a set age group, as well as national and geographic boundaries. Extending for four daysthe first day of the show, on Thursday, May 14, is open only to the trade, which means dealers and press from all seven continents of the world are here...

Headphone Reviews InnerFidelity

The Oppo PM-3 A Competent Comfortable Mobile Headphone

Tyll Hertsens May 15, 2015

This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com

Third in a series of planar magnetic headphone releases from Oppo Digital, and at $399 their lowest cost entrant to date, the PM-3 is intended as a planar magnetic headphone for portable use...and it delivers.

As We See It J. Gordon Holt

The Weakest Link

J. Gordon Holt May 14, 2015

While we will not pretend for a moment that the millennium of high fidelity has arrived, we are finally having to face up to a fact that has been staring us in the face and nudging us in the ribs increasingly rudely of late: The state of the art of sound reproduction has gotten to be pretty damned sophisticated. Perfection is just as unattainable as it was almost 100 years ago when Thomas Edison was diddling with different diaphragm materials on his phonograph because some sounded better than others.

J. Gordon Holt Solid State Power Amp Reviews

Audio Research D-100 power amplifier

J. Gordon Holt May 14, 2015

We cannot recall when any new products have generated as much of a stir among perfectionists as the new solid-state equipment from Audio Research. Preceded by rumors of "a new kind of amplifying devicea cross between a tube and a transistor"the announcement of ARC's new power amp and SP-4 preamplifier elicited very mixed reactions from loyal ARC customers, some of whom gleefully anticipated a virtual revolution in audio electronics, others of whom felt betrayed by the company which, having originally convinced them that "Tubes Are Better," suddenly seemed to be doing an about-face and espousing the views of the Enemythe "Soiled-State"forces.