Apple AirPods Pro 3: First Impressions

Hegel H150 Integrated Amplifier Officially Announced

Sonus faber Announces Amati Supreme Speaker

FiiO M27 Headphone DAC Amplifier Released

Audio Advice Acquires The Sound Room

LATEST ADDITIONS

Reference

Blind Listening at Harman International

Kalman Rubinson Jan 22, 2019

Revel began demonstrating prototypes of the Performa F228Be, reviewed elsewhere in this issue, at the Consumer Electronics Show and other audio events in 2015, though they had yet to settle on the model name. The most salient feature that distinguished the F228Be-to-be from the established Performa3 F208 was the new beryllium tweeter, and while it sounded more than okay under show conditions, I always heard a bit of brightness and harshness. I knew it was still a work in progress, but I wasn't very eager to want to take it home.

Solid State Power Amp Reviews

First Watt SIT-3 power amplifier

Herb Reichert Jan 22, 2019

I am obliged to begin this review of First Watt's new stereo power amplifier, the SIT-3, with an explanation of how I believe a power amplifier should be reviewed. Why? Because the 18Wpc SIT-3 is a unique and historically important design that can't be wired up to just any loudspeaker and then critiqued on the basis of its bass power, treble brightness, or midrange acuity.

Jason Victor Serinus

Groundbreaking Symphonies from Florence Beatrice Price

Jason Victor Serinus Jan 21, 2019

To celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the recent Women's March, we turn the spotlight on Symphonies Nos.1 & 4 of Florence Beatrice Price (18871953), the first African American woman to have her music performed by a major American orchestra. In doing so, I extend a big thank you to Naxos, whose invaluable American Classics series continues to record works by American composers both famous and relatively unknown.

News

Florida Retailer's Grand Opening Next Weekend

Stereophile Staff Jan 21, 2019

January 26 & 27: Florida retailer Bending Wave USA (10404 West State Road 84, Suite 101, Davie, FL 33324) is holding a Grand Opening celebration, featuring loudspeakers and cables from Göbel High-End in Germany and electronics from CH Precision.

Records To Die For

Records to Die For 2019

Stereophile Staff Jan 17, 2019

When we premiered this feature in 1991, we felt that, rather than a selection of all-time (or year's) best recorded performances or a list of audiophile reference albums, we should choose recordings that were, in then music editor Richard Lehnert's words, "both musically and sonically impeccablein other words, the best, the tops, to die for." As RL went on, "such a list also makes for some strange procrustean bedfellowsobscure recordings that would never make the proverbial 'desert island' list snuggling up next to towering classics of the concert hall and control room."

Integrated Amp Reviews

Ayre Acoustics EX-8 Integrated Hub integrated amplifier

John Atkinson Jan 17, 2019

It's a high-end audio truism: Successful companies are founded by a creative engineer or entrepreneur with a vision. So what happens when the founder is no longer around? While Mark Levinson is an example of a brand that not only survived the exit of its leader but thrived, speaker manufacturer Thiel dwindled after co-founder Jim Thiel died in 2009, and eventually closed up shop. Colorado company Ayre Acoustics was faced with this problem when founder Charley Hansen passed away in November 2017.

Jason Victor Serinus

Did Music's Bad Boy Ever Really Reform?

Jason Victor Serinus Jan 16, 2019

That's the question raised by Antheil: Orchestral Works (Chandos 10982), the latest anthology of symphonic music by composer/pianist George Antheil (19001959). This second Antheil title from John Storgårds and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra finds Storgårds exploring music written on both sides of Antheil's successful Symphony No.4, which can be found on Vol.1 of what looks to be an ongoing Antheil series.

Recording of the Month

Recording of February 2019: The Beatles—50th Anniversary Edition

Sasha Matson Jan 15, 2019

The Beatles: The Beatles50th Anniversary Edition
Apple B0028831-01 (2 LPs). 1968/2018. George Martin, orig. prod.; Geoff Emerick, orig. eng.; Giles Martin, reissue prod., remix; Sam Okell, reissue eng., remix; Miles Showell, mastering. ADA. TT: 93:27
Performance *****
Sonics *****

The Beatles, aka the "White Album," was first released on November 22, 1968. On November 9, 2018, in honor of that event, Apple Corps Limited issued the new 50th Anniversary Edition. My comments here refer to listening to the two-LP edition of the newly remixed The Beatles, pressed for Apple by Quality Record Pressings. Also included in three other varying editions are 27 of what are now known as the Esher Demos, 50 out-takes and alternate takes, and a 5.1-channel hi-rez surround mix on BD.

As We See It

Memories: Best of, Vol.1

Robert Schryer Jan 15, 2019

It happened 30 years ago, but I remember it as if it were yesterday: My best friend's brother's friend showed me his record playeran AR turntable equipped with an SME 3009 Mk.III tonearm and a Shure V15 Type V-MR cartridgeand offered to sell it to me at a price that, until that moment, I would never have considered spending for a complete system. "It's audiophile gear," he said with a knowing smile.

Audiophile? The word sounded exoticand grown-up.

News

An Issue 2 Die 4?

Stereophile Staff Jan 14, 2019

Hitting newsstands, mailboxes, and tablets today, the February Stereophile features its renowned "Records2Die4" feature, now in its 28th year! The magazine's editors and writers each recommend two recordings that they couldn't live withoutthe 46 albums reviewed this month would be the basis of a great audiophile music collection. Ayre's EX-8 "Integrated Hub" amplifier is featured on the cover and also reviewed in this issue are speakers from Revel and Audio Physic; amplifiers from Air Tight, CH Precision, and First Watt; and tonearms from Swedish Analog Technologies and Sorane. And don't miss Herb Reichert's account of his visit last fall to amplifier maven Nelson Pass.