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

Recording of the Month

Recording of April 2016: Into the Silence

Thomas Conrad Mar 22, 2016

Avishai Cohen: Into the Silence
Avishai Cohen, trumpet; Bill McHenry, tenor saxophone; Yonathan Avishai, piano; Eric Revis, bass; Nasheet Waits, drums
ECM 2482 (CD). 2016. Manfred Eicher, prod.; Gérard de Haro, Nicolas Baillard, engs. DDD. TT: 53:08
Performance ****½
Sonics ****½

In the new millennium, no country other than Cuba has exported more important jazz musicians to the United States than has Israel. But even though the Israeli jazz phenomenon has been much discussed in the jazz press, critics have been late to recognize that Avishai Cohen is one of the best trumpet players alive. Cohen has two siblings who also play jazz, and his charismatic older sister, Anat, who has been winning major jazz polls on clarinet for several years, gets most of the attention in the family. And then there is Avishai's name problem: One of the best-known Israeli jazz musicians, a bassist of the same name, got to New York first.

SSI 2016

Montreal Salon Audio, Day Two, Part Two (and The End)

Art Dudley Mar 22, 2016

Although I'm not one of those people who dismisses Tom Cruisehe's a very capable actor, he works hard at his craft, he has a track record of choosing good material, and his personal beliefs are his own damn businessthere's no denying that the addition of Simon Pegg has transformed the Mission: Impossible franchise into mandatory viewing for fans of films that are fun. So it was at Montreal Salon Audio, in the room sponsored by the French company Devialet: the opening scene of MI: Rogue Nation on a surround-sound system using multiple Devialet Phantom powered loudspeakers (starting at $US1990 each) had this home-theater agnostic on the edge of his seat.

Robert Baird

Music at SXSW?

Robert Baird Mar 21, 2016

The man is virtuoso and is not to be missed.

Robert Baird

Hi-Res at SXSW

Robert Baird Mar 21, 2016

David Chesky fought the good fight for HDTracks and all of high resolution audio.

Robert Baird

Lost and Found

Robert Baird Mar 21, 2016

“Austin’s lost what made it cool.”

Robert Baird

Waterloo

Robert Baird Mar 21, 2016

Going, going...

Robert Baird

Fahgettaboudit

Robert Baird Mar 21, 2016

A distant relative to what folks in the rest of the United States sometimes call "pizza."

SSI 2016

Montreal Salon Audio, Day Two, Part One

Art Dudley Mar 20, 2016

I walked into the larger of Joseph Audio's two demonstration roomsthe one shared with Nagra and Kronosjust in time to hear Neil Young's "There's a World" and "Bad Fog of Loneliness," from the Live at Massey Hall LP. The performancesand Young's very funny between-song patterwere thoroughly convincing, and even in this large space, there was a sense of the Joseph Audio Pearl 3 floorstanders ($US31,500/pair) pressurizing the room to realistic good effect. I loved the Pearl 3sand so, apparently, did Nagra's Classic Amp ($US16,000), a 100Wpc stereo amp that runs in class-A for its first 10 watts.

SSI 2016

Montreal Salon Audio, Day One, Part Two

Art Dudley Mar 20, 2016

The room sponsored by Montreal dealer Audiophonie was like a treasure trove of interesting things/pairtubes! horns! turntables with tall platters!and when I first arrived, it was filled with nearly a dozen men speaking French in such animated tones that I felt as though I had stumbled upon a meeting of an especially enthusiastic audio society. I did not feel left out for long: the room's host, audio designer Robert Gaboury, made me feel welcome, and explained that his very good sounding Arteluthe Cadenza loudspeakers ($CDN24,000/pair) were a two-way design with a specified sensitivity of 97dB.

SSI 2016

Montreal Salon Audio, Day One, Part One Point Five

Art Dudley Mar 19, 2016

It will come as no surprise that audio journalists find their greatest professional pleasure in writing about thingsplayback gear, recordings, what-have-youwith which they are wildly impressed, and that their second-favorite topics are things that are genuinely and comically awful. But the fact of the matter is, at audio shows, most systems don't fall into either of those categories: most systems at shows range between "listenable" and "pretty darn good"and there's nothing wrong with that. So here's one of the pretty darn good systems: a combination, found in the room of Quebec dealer Audio D'occasion, of the Atoll CD200 CD player ($CDN2200), Atoll IN200 integrated amplifier ($CDN2200), and Dali Opticon 8 loudspeakers ($CDN5000/pair), all cabled-up with products from Nordost.