LATEST ADDITIONS

2012 Records To Die For

Stereophile Staff Jan 26, 2013

At a time in history when the music business seems less interested in making anything of lasting value than in churning out disposable musichits intended to be consumed for a few days via iPod, then left behindthe notion of cherishing the masterpieces, the records to die for, seems a lost art. Yet it's exactly that state of beingas when Lady Gaga's latest outfit commands a bigger spotlight than the recent Pink Floyd reissuesthat makes our annual "Records To Die For" feature that much more essential.

CD Player/Transport Reviews Audacious Audio

YBA CD 1 Blue Laser CD player

Jonathan Scull Jan 26, 2013

I'm about to out YYves-Bernard André as one of the great unknown tweakers of high-end audio. (My own predilection for stepping into uncharted tweakwaters is well known.) Yves-Bernard, his wife and partner Ariane Moran, and importer/distributor Daniel Jacques of Audio Plus Services seemed perfectly sanguine about letting the cat out of the bag. And why not? In a singular way, the YBA audio solution encompasses both the supertweak and the more-casual-about-equipment music lover.

The YBA CD 1 Blue Laser (or Lecteur CD 1, as it's known at home in France) breaks new ground. It is very French in that it's individualistic in the extreme, and perfectly embodies current thinking chez YBA regarding music playback in the home. Its design dates back to 1991, a point Yves-Bernard takes pains to point out in the manual.

Stephen Mejias

Relax, Listen, and Learn

Stephen Mejias Jan 25, 2013

Because it's rad.

I found this over at Mark Betcher's "Unearthed in the Atomic Attic" blog, where you can actually hear the album's entire second side. Fun stuff.

Stephen Mejias

Long Live High-End Audio

Stephen Mejias Jan 24, 2013

While we contemplate high-end audio’s long, slow, and stinking death, Magico, manufacturer of high-performance, high-priced loudspeakers, is in the mainstream press: USA Today ran an article earlier this week, which asked, “How much would you pay to bring music to life?”

Stephen Mejias

Buy Music, Get Hi-fi at In Living Stereo

Stephen Mejias Jan 24, 2013

From now until the end of time, 15% of all record purchases made at In Living Stereo will be credited toward stereo equipment and accessories.

Features

R.I.P High-End Audio?

Jack English Jan 23, 2013

Slowly, painfully, high-end audio seems to be dying. We all know it but we're apparently unable to resuscitate the patient. US dealers are closing at alarming ratesit must be the economy. Women continue to avoid the High Endit must be the technobabble combined with male equipment fetishism. Younger people aren't hopping aboardit must be all those other things competing for their money. (Then again, it might be the High End's abhorrence of rock'n'roll.)

Music and Recording Features

Bruckner: Symphony 9 (with Finale)

Richard Lehnert Jan 23, 2013

This reconstruction of the Ninth's Finale is the result of 30 years' work by Bruckner scholars Nicola Samale, John A. Phillips, Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs, and Giuseppe Mazzuca (SPCM). (See March 2010 feature story.) For this new "Conclusive Revised Edition 2012," SPCM shortened by 18 bars the coda, of which little of Bruckner's writing survives, and reworked it to include, based on Bruckner's description, a development of the trumpets' "Alleluia" in bar five of the Adagio. This works well, though the coda now seems a bit short. A further "final" edition is in the works.

Sweepstakes

Scott and Pat, Bound by Ink

Ariel Bitran Jan 22, 2013

Congratulations to Scott Leslie of Portland, Connecticut winner of the Pat Metheny The Orchestrion Project Blu-ray Sweepstakes. Robert Baird named the original recording our February 2010 Recording of the Month. Scott's copy of this Blu-ray was signed by Pat himself. Everyone give a big hand for Scott! Now who wants some Fela Kuti?

Sweepstakes

Fela Kuti Box Set Compiled by Ginger Baker from Turntable Lab Sweepstakes

Jon Iverson Jan 21, 2013

"The second curated box set of long-awaited reissues from Fela Kuti is finally here! This time around, Knitting Factory Records has enlisted frequent Fela collaborator Ginger Baker to take the honors in selecting 6 classic LPs from the godfather of afrobeat's illustrious catalog. Baker's selections for this set include his own collaboration record, Live with Ginger Baker from '71, Roforofo Fight from '72, Confusion and Alagbon Close from '74, He Miss Road from '75, and Na Poi from '76."

[This Sweepstakes is now closed.]

CES 2013

Another Year, Another CES

Jason Victor Serinus Jan 17, 2013

Photograph: John Atkinson

Las Vegas? Why bother to fly across the country or around the world when you can visit New York City, Venice’s Grand Canal, and Egypt’s Great Pyramid in one easy, smoke-filled, retail therapy-rich, constantly stimulating stop? Why search out music on the net when, in Las Vegas, it constantly bombards you in elevators, from outdoor loudspeakers, and at your free lunch at T.H.E. Show?

Ah, Las Vegas. In his wrap to CES 2012, Stephen Mejias did a beautiful job of asking the simple but profound question, “Why?” Why, of all the god-forsaken places on Planet Earth, has the Consumer Electronics Association chosen this compulsion-driven, ecologically devastating, one-stop tourist and gambling destination as the site for the largest industry trade show in the US?