Here we go again---the usual <I>Stereophile</I> suspects rounding up some very <I>un</I>usual suspects of their own, and all collected in "Records To Die For," the highest annual concentration of surprising recommendations in the biz. Reviewers of wares soft and hard pick their absolute most favoritest recordings, each of which must be a) a topnotch performance in b) topnotch stereo sound. But be warned: some of us cheat (if we can get away with it).
<B>ZAPPA: <I>The Yellow Shark</I></B><BR> Ensemble Modern; Peter Rundel, Frank Zappa, conductors<BR> Barking Pumpkin R2 71600 (CD only). Frank Zappa, prod.; Spencer Chrislu, Harry Andronis, Dave Dondorf, engs.; Todd Yvega, Synclavier asst. DDD. TT: 72:00
Letters? Boy, did we get letters last year when we ran the very first "Records to Die For": subscription renewals, subscription cancellations, groveling gratitude, death threats, paeans, pans, madness, ecstasy, invitations to any number of sanity hearings (we sent our regrets)---and that was just from our own staff. How could we <I>not</I> do it again?
<I>Editor's note: When Jonathan Scull reviewed the Shun Mook devices back in 1994, he unleashed a hailstorm of controversy that continues to this day. Below is his original report along with some of the follow-up articles and fallout.</I>
That was the question asked by a reader who was perfectly happy with his CD-based system. He was using the gain control provided by the variable output of his CD player and was apparently in no need of phono playback or greater flexibility. He asked us to answer this question, ignoring for the moment the obvious functions of switching, volume and tone control, and phono preamplification. With those hardly trivial qualifiers—and bearing in mind the high output available from many of today's line sources, CD players in particular—do you really need the added expense and complexity of a preamplifier?
Two recent listening experiences of mine echoed the overblown praise Jon Landau lavished upon Bruce Springsteen after he heard <I>The Wild, the Innocent & the E-Street Shuffle</I>. But all hype aside, Landau was right: Springsteen <I>was</I> the future of rock'n'roll—or at least what passed for the future of traditional rock in those pre-MTV, pre-techno, pre-house, pre-gangsta, pre-rap, pre-hip-hop, pre-grunge, pre-Mariah Carey, pre-Garth Brooks, pre-sampling, pre-digital days. And I believe that, Landau-like, I too will be right. I have heard the future of audio, and it is digital—digital technology has finally surpassed the sound quality of analog.
On a number of occasions we have commented on the effects of an amplifier's output impedance on a system's performance. A high output impedance—such as is found in many tube amplifiers—will interact with the loudspeaker's impedance in a way which directly affects the <I>combination</I>'s frequency response. The <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/740/">Cary CAD-805</A>, for example, has a lower output impedance than most tube amplifiers, and should be less prone to such interaction. Some months back—before the CAD-805 arrived—I investigated this phenomenon in conjunction with measurements for a forthcoming review of the Melos 400 monoblock amplifier. Since the Melos 400 also had a relatively low output impedance for a tube amplifier (at 0.43 ohms at low and mid frequencies, rising to 1.2 ohms at 20kHz, from its 8 ohm tap), I took that opportunity to run some frequency-response measurements using an actual loudspeaker as the load for the amplifier.
By now you've no doubt realized that <I>Stereophile</I> has changed its size—from 5½" by 8 7/16" to 7½" by 10¼". (All right—maybe you didn't know the <I>exact</I> dimensions of the change, but that's what they are.) We have Edward Chen, Publisher of <I>Stereophile</I>'s Chinese edition, to thank for our new size. It is the same size as the Chinese <I>Stereophile</I> and a common size in the Far East. We've been admiring it in Chinese for the last two-and-a-half years, and we thought it would make sense in English as well.
<B>ANONYMOUS 4: <I>On Yoolis Night</I></B><BR> Medieval Christmas Carols and Motets<BR> Anonymous 4<BR> Harmonia Mundi 907099 (CD only). Robina G. Young, prod.; Brad Michel, eng. ADD? TT: 68:03
By the time you read this, I will have been fortunate enough to have attended a banquet put on by Harry Pearson in celebration of <I>The Abso!ute Sound</I>'s 20th anniversary. <I>Stereophile</I> and <I>TAS</I> may have had their disagreements from time to time, but I take this opportunity to congratulate Harry and his staff on 20 years of excellent high-end publishing. I believe it's not excessively immodest to report that high-end manufacturers frequently remind me of their gratitude for the healthy and vibrant high-end publishing community which exists in the United States—and does not in most other countries. Many publications make up this community, but <I>Stereophile</I> and <I>TAS</I> are certainly the most widely read.