Hegel H150 Integrated Amplifier Officially Announced

Sonus faber Announces Amati Supreme Speaker

FiiO M27 Headphone DAC Amplifier Released

Audio Advice Acquires The Sound Room

LATEST ADDITIONS

Wilson WATT loudspeaker

Martin Colloms Apr 08, 2020

Landmarks in speaker design have been few and far between. There are a few certain contenders: in the UK, the original Quad Electrostatic and the ESL-63 qualify, while the Celestion SL600 scored a big point for all small monitors; the Spendor BC1 changed forever the notion that cone speakers were always colored and that big boxes were essential for good sound. In the States, Apogee has taught us much with their surprising mid-treble ribbon-based designs. Other technologies have shown promise but have not achieved real commercial success.

News

Gray Forecast or Silver Lining?

Julie Mullins Apr 07, 2020

Social distancing. Flattening the curve. These expressions are embedded in our collective psyche as we to try to keep COVID-19 and the novel coronavirus that causes it at bay. Few of us who live through this will ever forget them.

But life and work must somehow go on, if at a slower pace than before.

Music and Recording Features

Being There: Reflections on Ways of Experiencing Jazz

Thomas Conrad Apr 07, 2020

I remember the only time i ever saw Chet Baker. It was at Parnell's, a jazz club in Pioneer Square in Seattle, long since defunct. It was a few years before Baker died under mysterious circumstances, in Amsterdam in 1988, after a life of creativity, notorious dissipation, and addiction.

Emaciated, with a caved-in face, he already looked near death. He played like an angel. I remember something that happened to me toward the end of the night. Sometimes last sets in jazz clubs, when the crowd has thinned, seem to exist outside of time.

Media Server Reviews

Innuos Statement music server

Jason Victor Serinus Apr 03, 2020

We carry within us the wonders we seek outside us.Rumi

There are plenty of difficult obstacles in your path. Don't allow yourself to become one of them.Ralph Marston, The Daily Motivator

Put these two quotes together, shake vigorously, and you've got the essence of a music server. Unless your container isn't tightly sealed, in which case you've got a mess.

Gramophone Dreams Headphone Reviews

Gramophone Dreams #35: ZMF & Hagerman headphone amplifiers & ZMF headphones

Herb Reichert Apr 02, 2020

Almost a year ago, a headphone pal loaned me the Zach Mehrbachdesigned ZMF Auteur LTD headphones. He said, "Herb, see if you like these." I took them home and right away thought, Wow, these headphones really disappear!

Nothing about their sound attracted my attention. The only thing I noticed, casually, was how relaxed and unbelievably transparent they were.

Art Dudley Listening Stand Loudspeaker Reviews

Listening #208: Rogers LS3/5a

Art Dudley Apr 01, 2020

In my January 2020 Listening column, I wrote about a place where three things overlap: the joys (and benefits) of being a record collector, the natural tendency to grow and challenge ourselves as listeners, and the need to forgive ourselves for the shortcomings of our youth. The hook was the story of how I started out disliking the music of guitarist John Fahey (19392001) and ended up loving it. But it could just as easily have been about cooking or hiking or Jethro Tull or any of a number of other things.

Stand Loudspeaker Reviews

ProAc Response D2R loudspeaker

Ken Micallef Mar 31, 2020

Between the mid-1980s and late 2000s, Stereophile published 14 reviews of loudspeakers from England's ProAc Limited. First came Dick Olsher's review of the ProAc Tablette in 1984. The latestuntil nowwas in 2010, when John Marks wrote about the ProAc Response D Two.

News

How to Help Musicians--Updated

Stereophile Staff Mar 27, 2020

You probably heard the news: record claims for unemployment benefits, indeed, five times the previous record from 1982. Our economy has never been shut down quite so completely and suddenly. Those most affected are service workers: cooks, waiters, retail clerks—and the people who make the music we love.

My Back Pages

From 78 to 24/384

Jason Victor Serinus Mar 27, 2020

When I was 11, my father brought home the voice of tenor Enrico Caruso (18731921) in a three-LP box set whose faux leather cover and sepia-tinted photos I admired over and over. When he put on the Sextet from Lucia di Lammermoor, I exclaimed, "Daddy, I've heard that before!"

"Yeah, you broke it when you were 2," he replied.

Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

Vimberg Mino loudspeaker

John Atkinson Mar 26, 2020

The priciest loudspeaker ever to have taken up residence in my listening room was the Akira from German company Tidal Audio (footnote 1), which I reviewed in the November 2018 issue of Stereophile. Designed by Tidal founder and CEO Jörn Janczak, the Akiras cost $215,000/pair! "The sheer resolution of the Akiras continued to astonish me throughout my auditioning," I wrote in my review, concluding that "The Akiras are the best-looking, best-built, best-sounding speakers I have had in my listening roomas they should be at the price."