Munich High End 2014: Day 1 Continued
How good does it get? I think I’m closer to having an answer to that one.
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LATEST ADDITIONS
Munich High End 2014: Day 1
The first bit of music I heard at the Munich showofficially known High End 2014was utterly lacking in soundstage depth, imaging precision, and transparency: It was actual music, courtesy of the Bavarian brass/accordion ensemble Unterbiberger Hofmusik, who performed just inside the main entranceway of the Munich MOC. (To the surprise of everyone, the morning dawned too cold for an outdoors performance.) It was a big, colorful beginning to this uniquely big, colorful show.
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Analog Corner #226: VPI Classic Direct Drive Signature turntable
VPI Industries' Harry Weisfeld has tried, built, and marketed almost every known way of spinning a platter. He began in the early 1980s, before many recent turntable enthusiasts were born, with the belt-driven HW-19, and since then has produced rim-driven models, and 'tables with motors outboard or inboard, one or three pulleys, one or three belts, and platters of acrylic or aluminum alloy. But while Weisfeld has owned quite a few direct-drive 'tables, he'd never come up with his ownuntil now.
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Analog Corner #227: VPI JMW Classic 3D 12" tonearm
In 1995, Harry Weisfeld's son Jonathan was killed in an automobile accident. Jonathan was a charismatic young man whom I had come to knowa genuinely gifted artist and musician who, at the time of his death, was helping his father develop the tonearm that would be named for him: the JMW Memorial Arm. The design of the original JMW Memorial Arm focused on providing easily adjustable and repeatable VTA and SRA via a massive threaded tower that bolted to the plinth. The bearing point, on the other hand, sat near the end of a relatively long and not particularly rigid metal platform cantilevered off the VTA/SRA tower.
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Now on Newsstands: Stereophile Vol.37 No.6
Our June 2014 issue is now on newsstands, with MBL's cool-running, hot-sounding Corona C15 amplifier on its cover. The C15 combines a class-D output stage with a hefty linear power supply to produce performance that finally convinced John Atkinson that class-D designs need not produce compromised sound quality. JA also outs his hearing ability on the line by reviewing EnigmAcoustics' cost-no-object electrostatic supertweeter. The bulk of the Sopranino's output lies above the venerable JA's hearing limit, so did he hear any improvement? Read the review to find out...
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Jimmy Page Drops Some Clues About New HD Led Zeppelin Releases
Poor Jimmy Page. After listening to eight tracks from the newly remastered Led Zeppelin studio albums from Atlantic/Swan Song/Rhino, the first three of which, I, II, III, will be released on June 3, the guitar great graciously opened himself to questions. Were the alternate takes, that are the meat of the “companion audio” disc that accompanies each original album, pieced together from a number of alternate takes?
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Goodbye & Hello
It was the summer of 2000. We had closed Stereophile's office in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the City Different in the Land of Enchantment, where the magazine had been headquartered since 1978, and moved lock, stock, and audio systems to New York City. Once I got to New York, I needed an editorial assistant. Stephen Mejias became that assistant in August 2000, at the age of 21.
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Coming Next Week: Munich High End 2014
Bill Parrish of GTT Audio calls it "the best." Jonathan Halpern of Tone Imports describes it as "the most well-organized, well-attended show, with the greatest number of products I've never heard or seen before." Peter McGrath of Wilson Audio says "It has risen to be the most significant showcase of high-end technologies: a major, major show." And our own Michael Fremer says it's "where you go to confirm that audio is a serious, healthy, and growing business."
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The object of their praise is the Munich High End show, which runs from May 15 through May 18. . .
Billion Dollar Babies
So audiophiles are all effete snobs right?
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Phase Technology PC-60 loudspeaker
It has been my experience that $400 or thereabouts is about the least one can pay for a pair of speakers with the expectation of audiophile-calibre sound.
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