Apple AirPods Pro 3: First Impressions

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FiiO M27 Headphone DAC Amplifier Released

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Interviews MQA

Spencer Chrislu: Master Quality Authenticated

Jim Austin Aug 16, 2016

Most people who have heard music recordings encoded with Master Quality Authenticated agree that it sounds really goood (footnote 1)but even they recognize that at least one major challenge remains: ensuring that listeners can actually get, in MQA format, the music they most love. I spoke with Spencer Chrislu, MQA's director of content services, about the company's efforts to meet this challenge.

As We See It

The First Transducer

Steve Guttenberg Aug 16, 2016

A recording engineer's choices of microphones to record singers, guitars, horns, bass, drumsor an entire orchestraare absolutely crucial. Those very subjective choices are, in large part, what separate the best recordings from the also-rans. When I contacted some of the best engineers in the business to talk about mikes, I got an earful. I was told that mikes have a more profound impact on reproduced sound than does any other link in the recording chain. Yes, the acoustic of the recording venue also plays a huge role, and post-session mixing and mastering can of course improve or ruin the soundbut the choice of mikes is absolutely crucial.

Jana Dagdagan

She Lit Up a Candle and She Showed Me the Way

Jana Dagdagan Aug 15, 2016

It's a Sunday in suburbia. Sunny, 95°"sweltering," some would say. The kind of heat where, you grab that cold can of Guinness, and the moment it leaves the cold comforts of the fridge, it's dead on impact.

You invite your good ole non-audiophile pal Stan over. You use a ruse you know Stan will fall for, like "Let's flip some burgers and listen to the cool commercials on Spotify's free tier," or "I just mastered the piña colada and torrented David Bowie's entire discography" (as if the piña colada alone wouldn't be enough to lure that sucker Stan), or "You left your phone at my place, want to come pick it up?" (In this last scenario, you would have to steal his phone first.)

Jason Victor Serinus

Terry Riley's Music at its Most Sensational

Jason Victor Serinus Aug 14, 2016

It is more than fair to say that In C (1964), a repetitive composition of unpredictable length by California native Terry Riley (b. 1935), forever changed the course of modern music. If you want to have a fabulous time learning why, listen to In C on Four Four Three: The Music of Terry Riley. The new DSD-native recording from Channel Classics by the Ragazze String Quartet, percussion quartet Slagwerk Den Haag, and genre-redefining drumkit/French horn/guitar trio Kapok, can be purchased in either CD format or as a stereo or multichannel download in resolutions up to Quad DSD. This collective achievement is so superbly recorded by Jared Sacks, and so colorful, that it will likely send your head spinning into another dimension.

Robert Baird

Europe's Best Vinyl Shopping?

Robert Baird Aug 13, 2016

The vinyl LP shopping in Amsterdam is as good as anywhere I’ve ever been outside Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

News

September Song

Stereophile Staff Aug 13, 2016

"The days grow short when you reach September," sang Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett, but not so short that you won't have time to enjoy our September issue, which hits newsstands, mailboxes, and tablets this week. Technologies vintage and modern are featured, with Ken Micallef's review of the Music Hall MMF-7.3 turntable and Jim Austin's interview and MQA's Spencer Chrislu taking pride of place on the cover. And there is more on MQA inside, with John Atkinson writing about his listening comparisons between MQA-encoded files and the hi-rez PCM originals.

Robert Baird

Case/Lang/Veirs

Robert Baird Aug 12, 2016

This is easily the best thing any of the three have done in many years.

Features MQA Reference

MQA: Questions and Answers

J. Robert Stuart Aug 11, 2016

Author's Note: We are grateful to Stereophile for the opportunity to address some frequently repeated technical questions appearing in comments to articles. Recently this has included misunderstandings about noise calculation, dynamic range, resolution, definition, music spectra, channel capacity, lossless processing and temporal aspects of digital channels.

To simplify this document we have grouped the topics and set them as questions and answers either as response, tutorial or axiom. Some months ago we published a comprehensive Q&A for an online forum and to avoid repetition we occasionally refer to topics already discussed there (see [37] in the "References" sidebar).J. Robert Stuart

News

Grand Prix Turntable Debuts in Arizona Tomorrow, Saturday

Stereophile Staff Aug 11, 2016

At their monthly listening party Esoteric Audio (111 West Monroe Street, Suite 100, Phoenix, AZ) will be featuring the local premier of the Grand Prix Audio Monaco v2.0 table. The official listening party is on Saturday August 13 at 3:00pm, but the table will be demonstrated Friday afternoon, August 12, and all day Saturday. Grand Prix Audio's VP of Sales and Marketing, Jesse Luna, will be on hand Friday and Saturday to show off the Monaco table as well as discuss current and future product offerings. More information is available at www.esotericaudioaz.com/upcoming-events.html.

As We See It J. Gordon Holt

In Praise of Imported LPs

J. Gordon Holt Aug 09, 2016

By the time you read this in late 1963 (probably a month after it is written, judging by the speed with which the US mails speed second-class matter on its appointed rounds), Capitol Records will have announced the first bit of really good news for the high-fidelity perfectionist in years: the release of imported disc pressingstaped, cut, and stamped in Europe. London has been importing for yearsall the Londons you buy are pressed by Decca in England. But this will be the first opportunity we will have of sampling the products of some of London's overseas competitors.