Remarkably, I set out to audition the Hyperion HT-88 amplifier ($2800/pair) over two years ago, only to be confounded by shipping errors, miscommunications, and, in the end, a stealthily defective tube. I almost gave up.
Be careful, the old saw has it, what you wish for. For a long time now, many of us boomers have wished that the mainstream record companies would rediscover the glories of the vinyl LP. Now, a few of them are doing just that. Sony has released new 33-1/3 rpm slabs of vinyl from Columbia’s classic jazz catalogue—Charles Mingus’ <I>Ah Um</I> and a bonus LP as part of the deluxe box commemorating the 50th anniversary of Miles Davis’ <I>Kind of Blue</I>. Blue Note has gone further still, reissuing a dozen of its old titles in vinyl, packing both a CD <I>and</I> an LP inside the 12” record jackets, presumably so you can hear a comparison.
In the spirit of doing our part for the audio economy, if you had $1000 to spend on audio equipment right now, what would you use it for?
In a world of me-too products, NuForce distinguishes itself from all those other components whose names begin with i by actually using a capital <I>I</I>. Actually, that statement is unkind, even unfair—unlike the myriads of products designed to capitalize on the Apple iPod's current sexiness, the NuForce Icon isn't designed to be portable (although NuForce does offer an Icon Mobile). What the Icon unquestionably <I>is</I> is a fine little piece of audio engineering, which most of those other i components are not.
Time thins the ranks of specialist industries. Trends, products, and companies come and go. High-end audio is a poster child for this reality, and most veteran audiophiles have evidence of the casualties—literature or orphaned products, stashed away somewhere. But a small number of true believers remain true to their visions, and persevere to help advance the state of the art.
I got a call a while back from Stephen Mejias (<I>Stereophile(</I>'s Sancho Panza to John Atkinson's Don Quixote), who informed me that Aperion Audio had redesigned their entire line of loudspeakers, and suggested that I check them out. I had responded very favorably to Aperion's Intimus 533-T, which I <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/407ape">reviewed</A> in the April 2007 issue. I loved the speaker's sound, the sexy appearance, and felt it was good value at $750/pair. And I thought Aperion's 30-day free trial with free shipping each way was a deal that few could resist. So when this factory-direct, Oregon-based company informed me that they'd updated the drivers and crossovers across their entire speaker line, I decided to give a listen to their new flagship, the Intimus 6T ($1390/pair).
It's always fun to visit the Burmester Audio suite at the annual Consumer Electronic Show. Founder Dieter Burmester and CEO Udo Besser are upbeat, fun-loving personalities who enjoy demonstrating their latest home audio gear—that is, when they're not working on the latest updates to their sound system for the $2.1 million Bugatti Veyron 16.4 supercar. This past year they introduced their new B25 loudspeaker, an 88-lb floorstander. This "baby" Burmester's suggested retail price of $12,000/pair is only one-sixth that of Burmester's flagship speaker, the B100, only one-fourth its weight, and half its height. The design goals for the B25 were a less expensive, lighter speaker that was easier to set up, while retaining Burmester products' high-quality sound and good looks. Playing my own CDs through the B25s at the 2008 CES, I found them notably smooth and detailed; they also imaged well, and were particularly good at reproducing male voices.
As <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/121308oyaide/">reported on this website</A> on December 9, Joseph Cohen of the <A HREF="http://www.lotusgroupusa.com/">Lotus Group</A>, exclusive distributor of Oyaide products in North America, discovered that Chris Johnson of Parts ConneXion was selling counterfeit Oyaide AC plugs at regular Oyaide prices. Given that Johnson had previously signed a contract with the Lotus Group to distribute genuine Oyaide plugs, Cohen immediately attempted to reach Johnson to resolve the matter.
The February 2009 issue of <i>Stereophile</i> is now on newsstands. On the cover, we feature the first CD player to come from Canadian manufacturer, Bryston.
John Atkinson: