Where Measurements and Performance Meet featuring Andrew Jones

High End Munich: Audio Reference "Most Exclusive System Ever" with Wilson and D'Agostino

LATEST ADDITIONS

As We See It

The Sound of the Human Heart

Jason Victor Serinus Dec 13, 2016

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.William Bruce Cameron, Informal Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking (1963)

I hear not the volumes of sound merely, I am moved by the exquisite meanings.Walt Whitman, "That Music Always Round Me," from Leaves of Grass

These two statements, to me, express the core perspective shared by Stereophile's contributors. When I encountered both of them within a span of 30 days, they spoke so strongly that I felt impelled to hook up the biggest, baddest loudspeakers I could find and broadcast them to the world, without distortion. Failing in that quest, and having not yet attained the status of the Edward R. Murrows and Walter Cronkites of eras past, I share them here.

News

Dan D'Agostino Events in Utah Wednesday and Arizona Saturday

Stereophile Staff Dec 12, 2016

Wednesday December 14, starting at 4pm, Utah Audio (77 East 10600 South, Sandy, UT) will be demonstrating a complete Dan D'Agostino system. And Saturday December 17, from 1pm4pm, at Esoteric Audio (111 West Monroe Street, Suite 100, Phoenix, AZ), Dan D'Agostino and Bill McKiegan will be on hand for listening and discussion of the company's latest products.

Interviews Jana Dagdagan

Industry Profile: Ken Ishiwata—Brand Ambassador, Marantz

Jana Dagdagan Dec 12, 2016

At the end of November, I spent a couple days in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, getting a first look at Marantz's New Reference series audio components. During my brief visit to D+M's European HQ, I was fortunate enough to spend 40 minutes of one-on-one chat time with Ken Ishiwata, Marantz's famed Brand Ambassador, and a key component to Marantz's success for nearly 40 years. I was originally only scheduled to have 10 minutes with him, but thankfully, due to a last-minute adjustment, we were able to talk for longer.

Headphone Reviews InnerFidelity

MrSpeakers Ether C Flow Sealed Planar Magnetic Headphone

Tyll Hertsens Dec 12, 2016

This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com

In my mind, Mr. Speakers had become a world-class enthusiast headphone maker.

And it was with that mind-set, biasing that it might be, that I eagerly awaited the coming Ether C Flow. My feelings are mixed.

Robert Baird

Greg Lake and The True Meaning of Prog Rock

Robert Baird Dec 11, 2016

Lake’s death, followed by the fact that I had three new 140 gram ELP LP reissues...

Jason Victor Serinus

Harmonia Mundi's Requiem for Matthew Shepard

Jason Victor Serinus Dec 10, 2016

Eighteen years after 21-year old Matthew Shepard was robbed and beaten by two men who lured him to their truck, tied him to a fence in a field outside Laramie, WY, and left him to die, Harmonia Mundi has released a two-hybrid SACD set of Craig Hella Johnson's touching requiem, Considering Matthew Shepard. Johnson's sweet tribute, an apt reminder of the consequences of homophobia, is lovingly performed by Johnson's excellent, Grammy-winning Austin-based choir, Conspirare, and an occasionally augmented group of eight acoustic instrumentalists.

Robert Baird

Norah Returns

Robert Baird Dec 09, 2016

Perhaps there’s a little nostalgia talking here...

Sweepstakes

AudioStream.com's Wireworld Starlight Cat8 Ethernet Cable Sweepstakes

Stereophile Staff Dec 08, 2016

Register to win a Wireworld Starlight Cat8 Ethernet Cable ($210.00 Retail Value) we are giving away at AudioStream.com.

According to the company:

"Wireworld Starlight Cat8 Ethernet cable provides breathtaking improvements in sound quality with a radical flat design that exceeds the new Category 8 performance standards."

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment at AudioStream.com. Click here for details on how to enter.

Robert Baird

Afro-Funk Rediscovered

Robert Baird Dec 08, 2016

One of the few '70s funk/soul holy grails that’s actually worth digging for.

Features Reference

CD Tweaks & Listening Tests

John Atkinson, Will Hammond Dec 08, 2016

In "Music and Fractals" in the November 1990 issue, I discuss how digital audio's quantization of amplitude information in what was originally a continuous waveform represents a fundamental difference between analog and digital representations of music. In a letter published in the English magazine Hi-Fi Review in January 1990, John Lambshead conjectured that naturally originating sounds were pseudo-fractal in character; that is, their waveforms have a wealth of fine detail, and that detail itself has an even finer-structured wealth of fine detail, and so on, until the crinkliness of the waveform is finally enveloped in the analog noise that accompanies every sound we hear.