Here's how God makes audiophiles: He starts with several million blank brain cells, then programs each one, individually, to function as either a love for one single aspect of music reproduction or a hatred for another. There are over a thousand such cells—far too many to list here—but theologians and audio reviewers have worked together to compile this list of the Top 20, which, just like real life, contains a little more love than hate:
Naxos has taken a major step toward distributing higher-quality downloads of classical-music recordings. <A HREF="http://www.classicsonline.com">ClassicsOnline</A>, the label's impressive download site, now offers the world's largest collection of classical-music recordings free of digital rights management (DRM). All of the site's nearly 22,000 albums, from more than 100 independent labels, are available at 320kbps.
The year’s not quite over, but it’s a safe bet that Sonny Rollins’ <I>Road Shows Vol. 1</I> (on his own Doxy label) will be the best jazz album of 2008 and rank among the best of the decade.
It isn't enough to say that engineer <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/artdudleylistening/404listening">Denis N. Morecroft</A> is one of contemporary audio's few visionaries: He's one of a <I>very</I> few mature designers whose passion for doing things a certain way hasn't abandoned him in the least, and whose well-argued convictions seem stronger than ever. Thus, as others cave in to commerce—the tube-amp designer who offers a solid-state product just to help his dealers fill a price niche, the source-component manufacturer who rails against digital audio one day and starts cranking out CD players the next—DNM Design remains the likeliest of all modern companies to stay its course.
You know me. I'm not perzackly an audio slut, but I <I>am</I> easy. When Audio Advisor's Wayne Schuurman called me to pitch the Vincent KHV-1pre tube-transistor headphone amplifier, he pretty much had me at "tube" and "headphone." But I wasn't familiar with Vincent Audio.
Secondly, we listened to Bobby Womack's The Facts of Life. Actually, I didn't even listen to it. I had to get some guitar stuff prepared for band practice later that evening, but Alex chilled on my couch, listening to the LP.
After Side 1 was over, he screamed, "This guy is AMAZING."
You've become acquainted with The Daily Beast, but do you know <a href="http://www.dailyaudiophile.com/">The Daily Audiophile</a>? The two are kind of similar. On the former, you can read about nude New York City dinners, while on the latter, you can read about hi-fi reviews. See what I mean?
Then there's <a href="http://www.pbase.com/sid_presley/the_record_collection">this site</a> full of awesome Asian record covers from the 60s and 70s. (Thanks <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/project_sapphire_at_the_end_o…;.)
Oh, <a href="http://www.sleeveface.com/">Sleeveface</a>, how you do crack me up. (Thanks <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/1108awsi/">Ariel</a>.)
When Audio Advisor's Wayne Schuurman contacted me about reviewing the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/headphones/1108vincent">Vincent Audio KHV-1pre</A> headphone amplifier, I felt confident that I had everything I needed to handle the task, owning, as I do, both the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/headphones/806akg">AKG K701</A> and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/thefifthelement/605fifth/index1.html">Sennhe… HD-650</A> headphones, which have long been my references. <I>That oughta get 'er done</I>, I thought.