LATEST ADDITIONS

I was saddened to learn that Jack Renner, renowned recording engineer and cofounder with producer Robert Woods of Telarc Records, died on June 19, 2019, age 84, at his home in Rhode Island. Mr. Renner is survived by his wife, Barbara, three children, and six grandchildren.

One of the most firmly-established audio platitudes is the one which says "The specs don't tell the whole story." One reason for this, of course, is the fact that most manufacturers, preferring to sell their products on the basis of emotional appeals in ads rather than on hard, cold performance claims, do not attempt to make their specs tell the whole story.

It is not at all unusual these days to find manufacturers producing "matched" speakers and amplifiers that are designed specifically for one another. But it is very unusual to find this being done by an amplifier manufacturer who doesn't make loudspeakers. The Futterman H3-A is one of these rarities—an amplifier designed primarily to complement one of the best, and one of the hardest-to-drive loudspeakers on the market: the KLH Model Nine.

Magnepan founder Jim Winey could be considered the patriarch of planar loudspeakers. His innovative leadership of and commitment to the technology over the past 20 years have propelled Magnepan to a position of preeminence in the speaker business. You won't find any hybrids rolling off the production line at Magnepan's corporate headquarters in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. The entire Magnepan line is devoted strictly to planars that use ribbon tweeters and quasi-ribbon midranges and woofers—not a stray dynamic woofer in the lot!

Friday and Saturday, August 2 and 3, mark the opening of the Mountrose Music showroom, 7589 South Virginia Street, Suites A and B, in Reno, Nevada, and they are marking the occasion with demonstrations of two complete, end-to-end Gryphon Audio systems, including Gryphon loudspeakers, electronics, source components, and cables.

Early in 2019, three jazz CDs appeared on a new record label. They were Jason Palmer's Rhyme and Reason, Johnathan Blake's Trion (both double CDs), and Eric Alexander's Leap of Faith. The label was Giant Step Arts.

Given that hundreds of jazz records—many of them good— are released every month, and that new jazz labels pop up all the time, is the release of three new albums really news?

Apple may not have been the first to market with a portable digital audio player, but its original iPod defined the genre: a device small enough to fit into a shirt pocket. When companies like Acoustic Research, Astell&Kern, Fiio, HiFiMan, and Questyle introduced portable players that could play high-resolution files, they echoed the iPod's form factor. The exception was the Toblerone-shaped PonoPlayer, but even that was small. The subject of this review is another exception: The DMP-Z1, from Sony's Signature Series, is comparatively enormous—almost the size and weight of a regular preamplifier. At $8500, it's also considerably more expensive than other players.