Ruth Laredo, a classical pianist whose style combined passionate ferocity with refined elegance, died May 25 of ovarian cancer, which she had battled for four years. Her last performance was May 6 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in one of her long-running performance/lecture sessions known as "Concertos with Commentary," a format that was so popular that she had begun to offer it in other venues around the world.
The Home Entertainment 2005 Show, held April 28–May 1 at the New York Hilton in Manhattan, was a highly charged four-day event filled with live music, education, and the latest in convergence technologies combining the worlds of high-end audio, music, home theater, computing, and gaming.
The X-DAC v3 replaces Musical Fidelity's Tri-Vista 21 DAC, which is no longer in production, although you might find some on dealer's shelves. The Tri-Vista 21 used two pairs of subminiature 5703 WB military tubes in the analog output stage. MF's Antony Michaelson called this Cold War tube, which is no longer made, a <I>trivistor</I>. The Tri-Vista 21 was last seen selling for $2395.
With the price of high-end audio increasingly reaching for the stratosphere, audiophiles appear to becoming much more value-conscious. This trend is reflected in the recent popularity of CD players over separate transports and processors, and particularly in the sudden resurgence in integrated amplifiers. An integrated amplifier makes a lot of sense: the buyer saves the cost of two chassis, two power cords, two owner's manuals, and an extra pair of interconnects. You also get a simpler system.
Ever since I installed dedicated power lines for my multichannel system, I've been wrestling with the issues of surge protection, power conditioning, and voltage regulation. I start with a bias based on decades of happy listening without being concerned about any of these problems, and my belief that competent electronic components must be, and are, designed to perform in the real world. After all, whether the device's AC power supply is a traditional transformer-bridge-reservoir or a switching supply, its output should be a DC source that is sufficient to let the active circuitry meet its specifications. Many manufacturers, such as Bryston, recommend bypassing any line conditioners and plugging their components directly into the AC outlet.
With high-end audio dealers getting scarcer, audiophiles often turn to the Internet or mail-order for products. Would you buy something you hadn't yet heard?
According to a study published by anesthesiologists Chakib Ayoub, Laudi Rizk, Chadi Yaacoub, Dorothy Gaal, and Zeev Kain at the Yale School of Medicine, music reduces intraoperative sedative requirements in patients who received surgical procedures under anesthesia.
<I>May the Web be with you:</I> You'd think that forward-thinking tech-savvy companies such as those involved in high-end audio would be among the first to <I>get</I> how well the Internet works at spreading the word about their products. In nine cases out of ten, you'd be wrong. Companies introduce new products, upgrade old models, and venture into entirely new technologies without ever changing their websites.
In my report on Red Rose Music's HE2005 debut of the <A HREF="http://stereophile.com/news/050205red/">Burwen Bobcat</A>, I complained about the lack of before and after demonstrations of the technology, as well as the difficulty of extracting information about what the product actually did. In the last week, I have received correspondence that sheds light on both cavils.