Apple AirPods Pro 3: First Impressions

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

Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

GoldenEar Technology Triton Reference loudspeaker

John Atkinson Dec 19, 2017

Back in January 2010, in Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, I was prowling the corridors of the Venetian Hotel when I bumped into loudspeaker auteur Sandy Gross, cofounder first of Polk Audio and then of Definitive Technology. Knowing that Gross was no longer associated with Definitive, I asked him what he was getting up to in his retirement.

Retirement? He showed me a photo of a plain, cloth-covered, black tower speaker and promised to keep in touch. When next I heard from him, it was to announce that, along with his wife, Anne Conaway, and his former partner at DefTech, Don Givogue, he had started a new loudspeaker company, GoldenEar Technology, Inc., and that the plain black loudspeaker was the first in a line of models to be named Triton.

Audacious Audio Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

Vivid Audio Giya G1 Spirit loudspeaker

Jon Iverson Dec 19, 2017

It's been more than seven years since the late Wes Phillips reviewed Vivid Audio's top-of-the-line loudspeaker, the Giya G1, for Stereophile, and since then the speaker has been seriously revised. At first glance you still notice the sui generis form; closer inspection reveals fundamental changes that make it, in most respects, an entirely new speaker.

Katz's Corner InnerFidelity

Katz's Corner Episode 21: How Insensitive! Part 3

Bob Katz Dec 19, 2017

This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com

May I have a drumroll, please! Here is the expanded amplifier measurement chart, presenting the essential measurements in a way that consumers can actually use, without forcing them to become engineers. At first it appears to be a daunting looking chart, but consumers will be presented with only a few of these measurements.

Robert Baird

Happy Christmas: The Beatles Fan Club Singles

Robert Baird Dec 18, 2017

Connecting with your most loyal and engaged fans is not a marketing strategy that was born with the advent of Facebook and Twitter.

Sweepstakes

ELO Vinyl Set Sweepstakes

Stereophile Staff Dec 17, 2017

Register to win a copy of ELO's 2LP collector's picture disc edition of Out of the Blue we are giving away.

According to the company:

"One of the indisputable masterpieces--and most commercially successful titles--in the ELO canon, Out of the Blue, the group's seventh studio album, was originally released in October 1977."

[This Sweepstakes is now closed.]

Jason Victor Serinus

Seattle and Dausgaard Welcome Us to Nielsen's World

Jason Victor Serinus Dec 17, 2017

For those unfamiliar with the symphonies of Danish composer Carl Nielsen (18651931)that includes methe startling opening of his Third Symphony, "Sinfonia espansiva," will undoubtedly come as a shock. Its relentless pounding chords, played at an accelerating pace by the entire orchestra on the same pitch, may owe more than a little to Beethoven's Third Symphony, "Eroica," but their language is far more modern, and reflective of an era profoundly unsettled. Heard in high-resolution stereo (24/96 WAV) in the new live recording of Nielsen's Symphonies No. 3 and 4 from the Seattle Symphony, conducted by their Music Director Designate, Thomas Dausgaard, the symphony's opening volley seems calculated to catch us off guard, and convince us to listen with care to whatever may follow.

Fred Kaplan

My Top 10 Jazz Albums of 2017

Fred Kaplan Dec 16, 2017

It's that time of the year when I shift away from the world's calamities to some of its finest achievements (for a minute anyway), which is to say, here is my list of the best jazz albums of 2017. Elaborations, with sound clips (often links to entire tracks) can be found in the version that I've written of this for my main gig at Slate, though followers of this blog will noteand will be reminded in some of the links belowthat I've covered some of these albums in this space over the year.

Headphone Reviews InnerFidelity

Sennheiser HD 660 S Over-Ear Open Headphones

Tyll Hertsens Dec 16, 2017

This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com

For now it's sufficient to state that the Sennheiser HD 600 and HD 650 are probably the most highly regarded enthusiast headphone in the world, and I highly recommend both. The HD 650 is a bit too warm sounding for me (just a bit), and the HD 600 is my favorite of the two. Let's see if the HD 660 S can continue the legend!

Recording of the Month

Recording of August 1975: The Complete Firesign Theater Recordings

Paul Karagianis Dec 14, 2017

You have probably read speaker reports that suggested that you audition with natural sounds like clanking chains, storms, animals and other things that give an easy reference to live experience. The problem is that most sound-effects albums are a real bore, dominated by reject Walt Disney announcers with adenoid problems.

Tonearm Reviews Turntable Reviews

Kuzma Stabi turntable & Stogi tonearm

Guy Lemcoe Dec 14, 2017

I first learned of the Kuzma Stogi at the 1993 Winter CES in Las Vegas. In VPI's room at the Sahara, a portly, black tonearm was sitting proudly atop the new VPI TNT Series 3 turntable. Pointing straight at me from the center of its massive, exceptionally stout frame was a tapered armtube the diameter of a swollen thumb. The fact that this unknown (to me) tonearm was chosen to sit atop a turntable as respected as the TNT told me I was looking at a serious new product. VPI's Harry Weisfeld was standing nearby, beaming as usual, to answer the barrage of questions that sprang from my lips as I leaned over for a closer inspection. Who? What? Where? When? Why? How much?