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Sennheiser Drops HDB 630 Wireless Headphones

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News

Blue Circle Audio Goes Green

Jason Victor Serinus Jul 12, 2009

<A HREF="http://www.bluecircle.com">Blue Circle Audio</A>, the Ontario-based company that has championed the use of "no frills" packaging and solar powered devices, recently issued the latest addition to its line of minimal cosmetics audiophile products. The <A HREF="http://www.bluecircle.com/index.php?page_id=9573">BC301FY preamplifier</A>, which looks nothing like other companies' products, dispenses with the standard aluminum or steel box, engraved logo, designer controls, and other cosmetic frills. Housed in nine ABS cansa type of heavy-duty plastic commonly encountered in drainage and sewer pipingits packaging is said to reduce consumer cost by over 40%.

Fred Kaplan

Steve Kuhn's Mostly Coltrane

Fred Kaplan Jul 10, 2009

Steve Kuhn’s new CD, Mostly Coltrane (on the ECM label), has no business working, but it does, for the most part really well.

Stephen Mejias

Sonic Youth: Madness and Ecstasy

Stephen Mejias Jul 08, 2009

Robert Baird

RIP MJ

Robert Baird Jul 07, 2009

If you like freak shows, then the current travails of the Republican Party are incredibly sweet. Marc Sanford’s “I’m gonna try and fall back in love with my wife” nonsense [need dental work? try repeating that one to your wife?], Palin’s rambling, basketballanddead fishladen resignation speech, and now the pride of Long Island, U. S. Rep. Peter King, calling Michael Jackson names on the day before he is buried. “Lowlife,” “pedophile,” “child molester,” oh yeah, King hit `em all. The run of bad news on Jackson is about to begin againhis toxicology report is gonna cause a circus, not to mention the end of several medical careersso I’m thinking King coulda waited a day or two before giving us another dose of some righteous Republican extolling the heroism of firefighters, cops and soldiers. The fact that all three of those professions are paying gigsno one is being drafted latelyis clearly beside the point for King. And okay, we all know Jackson had some unhealthy sides to his life, but couldn’t King have waited a day or so before becoming a new hero to the haters in the Republican Party. The appetites for hating and hypocrisy in the GOP are apparently insatiable. I loved it when one of King's colleagues questioned whether this outburst would help or hurt King by saying that it might help if has a lot of racists in his district.

Recording of the Month

Recording of July 2009: The Bright Mississippi

Robert Baird Jul 07, 2009

Allen Toussaint: The Bright Mississippi 
Nonesuch 480380-2 (CD). 2009. Joe Henry, prod.; Kevin Killen, eng.; Anthony Ruotolo, asst. eng. AAD? TT: 61:31 
Performance ****½ 
Sonics ****

As We See It

Whatever happened to 5.1-channel music?

Steve Guttenberg Jul 07, 2009

I love two-channel stereo. A great stereo recording can produce such a full-bodied, three-dimensional soundstage that surround sound seems superfluous. Multichannel is just peachy for home theater, but good ol' stereo suits music just fine, thanks very much.

Vote

Does a component's industrial design matter to you? How much?

Stereophile Jul 06, 2009

In a blog comment, reader Henry writes "I won't buy a component that does not look right . . . . It needs to have a look like someone cared deeply about the appearance of the thing as a function of performance." Does a component's industrial design matter to you? How much?

Stand Loudspeaker Reviews Budget Component Reviews

Monitor Audio Monitor 7 loudspeaker

Sam Tellig, John Atkinson Jul 06, 2009

And now for something completely different.

Solid State Preamp Reviews J. Gordon Holt Audacious Audio

Mark Levinson ML-7A preamplifier

J. Gordon Holt Jul 06, 2009

Before launching into Stereophile's first-ever report on a Mark Levinson product, an important point needs to be clarified. Although Mark Levinson products were originally made by Mark Levinson, they are no longer. Au contraire, Mark Levinson products are now being made by Madrigal, Ltd., which bought Mark Levinson Audio Systems' assets and trademark two years ago. Mark Levinson's products, as distinguished from Mark Levinson products, are now being manufactured by a company called Cello. But the subject of this report, the Mark Levinson ML-7A preamplifier, is a product of Madrigal, Ltd., not of Cello. Now that I've made that all perfectly clear, we may proceed.

As We See It Historical Audiophile Essentials

Who Are You?

John Atkinson Jul 06, 2009

In the four years since our last readership survey, Stereophile's circulation has grown by one third, from 45,000 to over 60,000 (footnote 1). We thought it time, therefore, to commission new numbers, from specialists Mediamark Research Inc. (footnote 2). Table 1 shows the demographic breakdown of the magazine's readers. While the launch of CD did bring more women into the audiophile fold almost 10 years ago, the proportion of Stereophile's female readers has not changed since 1988, at just over 1% (footnote 3). At one of the panel sessions at the 1992 High End Hi-Fi Show in Los Angeles, a man in the audience asked why high-end audio was so testosterone-bound when women were just as interested in music as men? The answers given by some of the many women at the show ranged from the fact that women only earn 47 cents on the dollar compared with men to conjecture that women are turned off by the hobby's tweak aspect. Certainly dealer Andrew Singer felt last October (footnote 4) that the high-end industry is hobbling itself by ignoring half the US's population.