My buddy Jeff Wong and I were talking about the collector's mentality on one of our bike rides recently. Jeff observed that there are two major strategies for collectors who have it bad: Try to collect <I>everything</I> and the other is mine a tightly defined subgenre.
Last week we asked which <I>Stereophile</I> writer you would like to have come visit. Reader Jay Valancy suggests that a more interesting question is which writer would <I>you</I> like to visit?
Ultimate Ears, the headphone company that specializes in in-ear monitors such as the <A HREF="http://stereophile.com/headphones/1204ultimate/">UE-5c</A>, is developing a new model slated to join the <A HREF="http://www.ultimateears.com/superfi/superfi.htm">super.fi</A> family of products. During the prototyping period, the design crew referred to the new model as "XXX" (triple X).
Slim Devices, the company best known for the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/images/newsletter/306Bstph.html">Squeezebox<…;, has announced what it is billing as "the most advanced networked audio system available." At <I>Stereophile</I>, we hear this claim all the time, and it usually means that a computer peripheral company has added another USB port to a product aimed at the MP3 crowd.
The audio diaspora is split on the subject of bass. Some audiophiles—surely the majority—consider the reproduction of low frequencies purely in terms of the weight and drama it adds to sounds with significant bass content. Others—the generalists—take a much wider view of the significance of extended bass response, noting that an audio system's ubiquitous high-pass filters are unusual in Nature and suggesting that this is one of the factors that separate, at the fundamental level, live sound from its poorer reproduced cousin. When John Atkinson wrote on this subject more than 10 years ago (<I>Stereophile</I>, November 1995, "<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/75">As We See It</A>"), he quoted a memorable line by Kal Rubinson that encapsulates this latter view: "Something in Nature abhors a capacitor."
It seems these days that everybody and his brother is doing something about room equalization. Sure, we had the old-time graphic and parametric EQs—now we're seeing much more sophisticated and dedicated devices, from the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/roomtreatments/437">TacT</A> and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/solidpreamps/278">Z-Systems</A> standalone products to the auto-setup and EQ systems found in many A/V receivers. I was impressed with the Audyssey MultEQxt in the Denon AV-4806 receiver—see my "<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/musicintheround/306mitr">Music in the Round</A>" column in March, p.50—and a standalone AudysseyPro unit was demonstrated at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show.
As it did for so many other designers and manufacturers of specialty audio gear, the current occupation of Basis owner/designer A.J. Conti began as a hobby and personal quest. A longtime audiophile and home-based dealer of brands like Krell and Quicksilver, Conti decided to build his own "killer" turntable using a fluid-damped suspension.
I first heard the Canadian-made Waveform Research Mach 17 loudspeaker system in New York City at HI-FI '96, <I>Stereophile</I>'s Home Theater & Specialty Audio Show. Another Ontario native, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/996russell">Chris Russell</A> of Bryston Ltd., had raved to me about their sound. His recommendation sent me outside my assigned reporting area and down to the sixth floor of the Waldorf=Astoria, to dimly lit room 602—full of <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/roomtreatments/215">ASC Tube Traps</A>, amplifiers, cables, and the twin truncated pyramids of the Mach 17s.
Drenched in sweat thanks to the charming weather here in New York—Oh wait, I forgot, I promised only to bitch about one season which would be winter so let me say I love summer and begin again.
I've been working on the <i>Buyer's Guide</i>. Again, I find myself getting all tangled up in the content. Goodness me. My focus shifts away from the cold cells. I lose sight of borders, completely forget about column width. And find myself wondering: