Hi-Fi Retailing: The Avid Audiophile's Advisory
I hate hi-fi stores.
LATEST ADDITIONS
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Audio, Precision, & Measurement: Richard Cabot
Dr. Richard Cabot is one of today's foremost authorities on audio measurement and testing. Formerly an instrumentation designer at Tektronix, Dr. Cabot is now Vice President and Principle Engineer at <A HREF="http://audioprecision.com/">Audio Precision</A>. The company's System One, a computerized audio test set (used by <I>Stereophile</I>), has revolutionized the way the world measures audio equipment.
Working in the Front Line
A committed audio equipment reviewer operates at the front line of audio subjectivity. Working on behalf of a readership made up of consumers thirsting for independent, informed opinion and advice, a reviewer is commissioned by the editor of a magazine to produce reports with a technical and subjective content on a wide range of available audio products. These reviews must be both fair and completed at short notice on a relatively small budget.
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The Non-tweaker's Guide To Tweaks
Tweaks have acquired a bad reputation in certain sectors of the audio world, probably with some justification. Warming the cartridge to exactly the right temperature, suspending cables from the ceiling (but not with cotton string; it sounds grainy and dry), stroking CD cases with a "magic" brush, drinking "polarized" (or is it <I>de</I>-polarized?) water before a listening session---gimme a break!
Music & Fractals
<I>"Why do rhythms and melodies, which are composed of sound, resemble the feelings; while this is not the case for tastes, colors, or smells?"</I>---Aristotle
Survival Tips For Living With An Audioholic
PO/SSSLQs (footnote 1), SOs (footnote 2), & Spouses of audiophiles: Linda Tasker (aka Mrs. Kevin Conklin) has some advice for you!
Frozen CDs?
Just when you thought it was safe to put green paint around the edges of your CDs without ridicule, there's yet another CD tweak that's sure to bring howls of laughter from the skeptics: cryogenically freezing CDs. They won't be laughing for long, however, when they hear for themselves the sonic results of this process.
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A Question of Scale
I've been wondering whether we who write about audio will ever agree on a sensible way to express the scale of the differences we hear. If magazines like <I>Stereophile</I> and <I>The Abso!ute Sound</I> lack credibility among the broader audience of music lovers and hi-fi shoppers—and we do—one important reason may be our habit of greatly exaggerating the importance of differences that in fact are very small. A subtle improvement, one that most people wouldn't notice except in a carefully arranged comparison, is often described by audiophile reviewers in language that makes it seem like the contrast between a whisper and a thunderclap.
Deeper Meanings
As a card-carrying member of the Audio Engineering Society and an avid audiophile, I was particularly disturbed by the ideas expressed at the 1990 AES Conference entitled "The Sound of Audio." (A report on the papers presented appears in this month's "Industry Update" column.) The tone of the three-day session in May was set during the Conference Chairman's opening remarks. He said that an AES conference on the sound of audio was "unusual" and "out of the mainstream." Further, he expressed a common underlying attitude among the AES that "audiophile claims" (of musical differences between components) have been "nagging us" and are "an annoyance."
Tannhäuser: Wagner's "problem" opera
When I suggested to editor John Atkinson that the subject of my first "Building A Library" be Wagner's <I>Tannhäuser</I>, furrows ploughed his boyish brow. "Why such <I>minor</I> Wagner? Why not the <I>Ring</I>?"
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