Writing A Novel
Threat, or menace? The BBC examines the question.
LATEST ADDITIONS
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Taking the Pressure Off
Nick Cave's vocals — searching, pleading, urgent and, normally, red-hot — sounded just <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/041607listening/">a bit soft and cool</a> through the PSB Alpha B1s. Ward wondered:
HE2007 Offers Free Concerts!
A ticket to Home Entertainment 2007—The High Performance Sound & Imaging Show,, to be held May 11-13, 2007 at the Grand Hyatt New York Hotel in New York City, offers attendees a chance to hear live musical performances from some of the great artists of classical music and jazz.
Faking It
Hugh Barker and Yuval Taylor have written <I>Faking It: the quest for authenticity in popular music</I>, a book that tackles the "pop paradox": the harder popular musicians try to "keep it real," the faker their music becomes.
Understatement of the Year
<I>Variety</I> headline: "Digital proves problematic." Oh who would have ever thunk it? Oh wait—maybe it was us audiophiles.
Bryston B100-DA SST DAC/integrated amplifier
Over the years, I have used and enjoyed in my audio system large, single-purpose components. Each of these chassis has had but one role: preamplifier, amplifier, digital-to-audio converter (DAC), etc. I guess I've been just a little suspicious of products with multiple functions crammed into a single small chassis; I've figured that the designer may have cut a corner that could affect the sound.
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Audience Adept Response power conditioner
I can't remember a time when I wasn't concerned about power quality. I grew up around finicky, home-brew ham-radio gear and labs full of instruments, and with both, power-conditioning gear was standard fare. When I moved into high-end audio, it seemed obvious that power quality was important. As a result, I've experimented with a wide range of power-conditioning equipment, from simple ferrite loops to huge isolation transformers, and even exotic laboratory power supplies that could vary the voltage, frequency spectrum, and shape of the AC signal.
JPS Labs Aluminata interconnect, speaker cable, AC cord
Taken together, these unusual interconnect, loudspeaker, and AC cables brought a new measure of spaciousness, scale, smoothness, heretofore unimagined detail, and overall musical ease and naturalness to my music system. And they did it while sounding neither dull nor bright—just right.
Kuzma Stabi XL turntable & Air Line tonearm
Almost immediately on entering the analog marketplace in 1982, Franc Kuzma, a mechanical engineer based in Slovenia, then part of the former Yugoslavia, established a reputation for manufacturing finely engineered, high-performance products that sold at reasonable prices. Kuzma's early industrial designs, however, while serviceable, looked less than distinguished.
Do you have some headphones, and if so, what type are they?
Whether for home or portable use, many audiophile like to have a good set of headphones, and perhaps special headphone amplification, lying around. Do you have decent headphones, and if so, what type are they?