KEF Debuts New Finishes for Blade One Meta and Blade Two Meta

Sennheiser Drops HDB 630 Wireless Headphones

LATEST ADDITIONS

Does music help you get to sleep? Bedphones will work just fine!

Tyll Hertsens May 20, 2016

This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com

One of the things that, it seems to me, separates headphone enthusiasts from traditional audiophiles is an interest in good inexpensive stuff, or devices with unusual utility. Think Koss Porta Pros or the Riva Turbo X. The Porta Pro has been delivering excellent sound quality for its very low $49 price for decades and for decades headphone enthusiasts have been praising their worth. And when the Riva Turbo X Bluetooth speaker showed up at CanJam a year or so ago, headphone hobbyists embraced it immediately as a great sounding portable speaker. These are cool little gadgets, and it seems to me headphone enthusiasts are more than willing to have a good hard look at them....no matter the cost.

Computer Audio Reviews Features MQA Reference

Inside MQA

John Atkinson May 19, 2016

Jim Austin briefly discusses MQA in his review of the Explorer² in this issue, but a more complete description of MQA can be found in an article posted on Stereophile's website at the end of 2014.

MQA involves two fundamental concepts, discussed in a paper presented to the Audio Engineering Society in October 2014, the first responsible for a potential improvement in sound quality, the second responsible for a large reduction in the bandwidth required for storage and streaming of high-resolution files...

Budget Component Reviews Digital Processor Reviews Headphone Reviews

Meridian Explorer2 D/A headphone amplifier

Jim Austin May 19, 2016

I was lying on a mattress on the floor of an empty apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Not as grim as it soundsit's a nice apartment, and the mattress was new, and had just been deliveredbut it was hot (no air-conditioning), and my family and my furniture were still in my condo up in Maine, and I was lonely. I needed some cheering up. Which is how I rationalized the decision to buy an Explorer², Meridian Audio's tiny, inexpensive ($299) digital-to-analog converter.

News

Dan D'Agostino Dems in Dallas Saturday

Stereophile Staff May 19, 2016

May 21, 26pm, Bill McKiegan, President of Sales at Dan D'Agostino Master Audio Systems, will be presenting a day of listening at Audio Concepts (11661 Preston Rd #280, Dallas, TX 75230) in Dallas, Texas. The featured system will include the new Momentum M400 mono amplifiers, Momentum Preamplifier, and Momentum Phonostage (above), driving Wilson Alexx loudspeaker and using the AMG Viella 12 turntable.

News

VPI–AudioQuest Event in New Jersey Friday

Stereophile Staff May 19, 2016

Friday May 20, from 2-10pm, Hi-Fi Sales (1732 Route 70 East, Cherry Hill, NJ 08003) is hosting an event in which audiophiles can get their first look at VPI's brand new ADS (Analog Drive System) speed controller

Robert Baird

Let Him Roll

Robert Baird May 18, 2016

If songwriting is a lost art, then Guy Clark will always be one of its greatest old masters.

Recording of the Month

Recording of June 2016: Emily's D+Evolution

Robert Baird May 17, 2016

Esperanza Spalding: Emily's D+Evolution
Concord 7238281 (LP, 24/96 FLAC from PonoMusic). 2016. Esperanza Spalding, Tony Visconti, prods.; Kyle Hoffman, Tim Price, engs.; Martin Cooke, Kyle McAulay, Erin Tonkon, asst. engs.; Paul Blakemore, mastering; Rich Costey, mix. Mario Borgatta, mix assist. DDA? TT: 43:41
Performance ****½
Sonics ****½

It may have started back in 2011, when the crowd at the Grammy Awards let out a collective "Who?" as Esperanza Spalding was named Best New Artist, an award almost everyone had thought would go straight to Justin Bieber. Spalding was the first jazz artist ever to win that award.

The resulting notoriety took the jazz bassist and singer, who'd lived almost entirely in the rather insular world of jazz, by surprise. A child prodigy who played violin at five, and soon after learned oboe and clarinet, Spalding sings in Portuguese, Spanish, and English, and became one of the youngest teachers in the history of her alma mater, Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music.

As We See It

The Goodness of Your Heart: A Tragedy in One Act

Art Dudley May 17, 2016

Note: All dialogue quoted verbatim from e-mail exchanges to which I am privy; the stage directions are imaginary.

Dramatis Personae:

bill, director of marketing for PS Audio

randy, amateur reviewer for a commercial audiophile website

dick, professional reviewer for an established audio magazine (not Stereophile)

Fred Kaplan

Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith, A Cosmic Rhythm with Each Stroke

Fred Kaplan May 16, 2016

I've listened to this album several times now, and it's growing on me with each play. A duet session with pianist Vijay Iyer, 44, and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, 74, both master musicians, immersed in avant-garde composition but comfortable with basking in lyrical ballads too, A Cosmic Rhythm with Each Stroke (on the ECM label) is spacey without devolving into New Age goo, intense (sometimes simmering, sometimes bursting to a boil) without losing the theme or pulse of a piece.

Jana Dagdagan

Last Trip To Other Music

Jana Dagdagan May 16, 2016

Photos: Brian Li

It's half past seven on a drizzly Friday night in New York City. I'm a little bit of a mess; soggy from the sporadic downpour, weakened by a full day's work, and still regretting the sub-par pork and chive dumplings I wolfed down earlier. All day long I've been fighting off the urge to inject myself with cold beers (preferably Guinness) and binge watch Wong Kar Wai films. It's one of those days.