Vivid Audio Introduces Giya Cu Loudspeakers

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

Sennheiser Drops HDB 630 Wireless Headphones

Sponsored: Radiant Acoustics Clarity 6.2 | Technology Introduction

PSB BP7 Subwoofer Unveiled

Apple AirPods Pro 3: First Impressions

LATEST ADDITIONS

Solid State Power Amp Reviews

Anthem Statement M1 monoblock power amplifier

Kalman Rubinson Dec 07, 2012

When I first saw Anthem Statement's M1 at the 2011 CEDIA Expo, it was a bolt from the blue. Happening on this flat, black slab of an amplifier lying on a display table or bolted to a wall, reminded me of the appearance of the iconic monolith in Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey. The M1's dimensional ratios are not 1²:2²:3², and there are many other one-rack-unit ampsyet, like the monolith on the moon, the M1 was in such striking contrast to everything else in its environment that it demanded attention and reflection.

Ariel Bitran

Followup: The British Invasion Visits NYC at In Living Stereo

Ariel Bitran Dec 06, 2012

This past Wednesday (12/5/2012) at New York City’s In Living Stereo, a diverse crowd of music lovers and audiophiles congregated on the listening room’s floor for a chance to hear a few choice sides from the new Beatles LP remasters. Attendees overflowed from the listening room into the lobby where they waited in anticipation to sit on that floor and get a listen to the new LPs.

Stand Loudspeaker Reviews Budget Component Reviews The Entry Level

The Entry Level #24

Stephen Mejias Dec 06, 2012

There are two things that don't have to mean anything; one is music and the other is laughter.Immanuel Kant

We can dance until we die.Katy Perry

I'd always figured I'd wind up with a girl who loved the Mets, hated cats, and had grown up on Sonic Youth and the Pixiesa female version of me, more or less. What could be better?

Was my vision misguided? Maybe. Narcissistic? Probably. A symptom of low self-esteem?

Hmm . . .

Stand Loudspeaker Reviews

Bowers & Wilkins CM5 loudspeaker

Robert J. Reina Dec 06, 2012

With all the affordable loudspeakers I've written about in recent years, I couldn't remember the last time I reviewed one from the revered British firm Bowers & Wilkins. When I searched www.stereophile.com, I learned that the last time a B&W speaker had graced my listening room's carpet was more than seven years ago: the DM603 S3, reviewed in the August 2005 issue. I thought it was time to revisit the brand, and as the DM603 S3 was a floorstanding speaker, this time a bookshelf model seemed in order.

Fred Kaplan

Dave Brubeck, R.I.P.

Fred Kaplan Dec 05, 2012

Dave Brubeck died today, just short of 92 years old. He was a plodding pianist and a less inventive composer than many obits are suggesting. (It was his alto saxophonist Paul Desmond who wrote the biggest hit "Take Five" in 5/4 time, and while Brubeck wrote many pieces in more exotic times still, they didn't swing or flow like Desmond's.) Still, Brubeck was a colossal figure of modern jazz in many ways.

Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/96 loudspeaker

Art Dudley Dec 03, 2012

Loudspeakers have been commercially available for nearly a century, yet those whose drive-units are mounted to baffles of intentionally limited width didn't appear in significant numbers until the 1980s. That seems a bit strange, given that the technology to transform large boards into smaller boards has existed since the Neolithic era.

Stand Loudspeaker Reviews

KEF LS50 Anniversary Model loudspeaker

John Atkinson Dec 03, 2012

The tale's been told many times: Back in the early 1970s, the British Broadcasting Corporation needed a small nearfield monitor for use in remote-broadcast trucks. A team led by T. Sommerville and D.E. Shorter, both of the BBC's Research Department, developed the two-way, sealed-box LS3/5, based on a small monitor they'd designed for experiments in acoustic scaling. The speaker showed much promise, but problems with the drive-unitsa woofer with a doped Bextrene 5" cone and a 1" Mylar-dome tweeterled to a detailed redesign, the LS3/5a, carried out by Dudley Harwood, also of the Research Department (and later to found Harbeth), and Maurice E. Whatton and R.W. Mills, of the BBC's Designs Department.

Headphone Reviews InnerFidelity

The Very Adult Sennheiser Momentum

Tyll Hertsens Dec 01, 2012

This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com

The surge of rapper and celebrity headphones over the past five years or so has been annoying in the extreme to me. All the glam and glitter has been an enormous distraction from what the actual purpose of a headphone should be: to sound good. We're not going to be able to go backwards though, the fashionistas have raised the bar and a big, black, plastic blob on your head isn't going to cut it anymore. I just wish some company out there would be mature enough to make a headphone with tastefully balanced sound and sophisticated good looks.

With its new Momentum headphone, Sennheiser, it seems to me, is the adult in the room.

Sweepstakes

Sonos Play:3 and Bridge Wireless Music System Sweepstakes

Jon Iverson Nov 30, 2012

Register to win an Sonos Bridge and PLAY:3 system (MSRP $348) we are giving away.

Experience the Sonos Wireless HiFi System, this holiday season’s Ultimate Gift of Music – to give and to get. Unleash all the music on earth, in every room, wirelessly. Sonos is the only system that combines HiFi sound with high-performance wireless. Plus it’s simple to set-up, control and expand so you can easily fill your home with music.

[This Sweepstakes is now closed.]

Stephen Mejias

Headphone Commute's ...and darkness came: Music to benefit victims of Hurricane Sandy

Stephen Mejias Nov 30, 2012

On the morning of November 7, about a week after Sandy hit our area, the people behind Headphone Commute, a website devoted to the appreciation of music and high-quality sound, reached out to their favorite artists and asked if they’d like to donate tracks for a compilation, the entire proceeds of which would go to Doctors Without Borders and The Humane Society, in an effort to help those affected by Hurricane Sandy.

By midday, Headphone Commute had received confirmations from 10 artists, included among them acclaimed pianist Nils Frahm. Over the next several days, more artists eagerly offered contributions. Today, the roster of musicians reads like a “Who’s Who” in the worlds of modern classical, ambient electronic, and experimental music: Olafur Arnalds, Black Swan, Peter Broderick, Celer, Dakota Suite, Lawrence English, Hauschka, Ezekiel Honig, Johann Johannsson, Max Richter, Scanner, Valgeir Sigurdsson, and dozens more.