Paradigm Premieres a Trio of Premier Series Speakers at Audio Advice Live 2026

Bowers & Wilkins Stands Tall at Audio Advice Live 2026

Steinway Lyngdorf Mounts Up at Audio Advice Live 2026

Playback Distribution Presents a Grand North American Vienna Acoustics Loudspeaker Debut at Audio Advice Live 2026

Focal Attains Utopia at Audio Advice Live 2026

The Top Turntables, Tonearms, and Cartridges of SouthWest Audio Fest 2026

Rega's Royal Analog Experience at Audio Advice Live 2026

See How the Degritter Mark II Ultrasonic RCM Cleans an LP!

Cambridge Audio Rocks and Rules in a Fidelity Imports Room at Audio Advice Live 2026

Fyne Audio and Harmonia Distribution are in Fine Harmony at Audio Advice Live 2026

LATEST ADDITIONS

Headphone Reviews InnerFidelity

DIY Headphone Measurement Contest Winners!

Tyll Hertsens Apr 07, 2012

This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com

Having printed out the measurements for all 41 Do-It-Yourself modified headphones sent to me over the past year, I spread them out over my kitchen table and set to work picking the best and worst measuring of the bunch. I also picked what I thought were the coolest looking headphones. And I scrounged around my lab looking for all the headphones I might give away as prizes.

Let's see who got what ...

Floor Loudspeaker Reviews Audacious Audio

MBL Radialstrahler 101E Mk.II loudspeaker

Michael Fremer Apr 06, 2012

Take a casual look at the Mk.II edition of MBL's Reference 101E Radialstrahler loudspeaker, and you won't immediately see what's new compared with the original version, which I reviewed in October 2004. But the Mk.II has a shorter, sleeker bass cabinet, designed to, among other things, slightly lower the stack of omnidirectional drivers it supports. While the many other major revisions to this familiar and fascinating loudspeaker can't be seen, it's fair to say that, from the ground up, the Reference 101E Mk.II is a new loudspeaker in design, if not in concept.

Solid State Power Amp Reviews Audacious Audio

Lamm M1.2 Reference monoblock power amplifier

John Atkinson Apr 06, 2012

There is always a conflict between the needs of reviewers and the realities of the marketplace. Once a reviewer has invested his time and energy in a review, he would like that product to remain in production for all time, which would allow it to be used as a reliable recommendation forever. But whatever the product and whatever the category, sales of a product almost always follow the same triangular curve: a sharp rise at the product's introduction, a maximum reached sometime thereafter, and then a steady decline to a sustained but low plateau. Marketing-minded manufacturers therefore introduce a new model every three or four years, in hopes of turning that single triangle into a continuous sawtooth wave.

News Ariel Bitran

The Springtime in New York Sale at Stereo Exchange

Ariel Bitran Apr 05, 2012

Friday–Sunday, April 13–15, 10am–8pm: Stereo Exchange (627 Broadway, New York, NY) will host a weekend-long series of demonstrations from key players in the hi-fi industry including but not limited to an Einstein-haired speaker designer, young gun salesman, and the king of kables.

Stephen Mejias

Video: Benga’s “I Will Never Change”

Stephen Mejias Apr 05, 2012

Nine hundred sixty individually cut LPs were used to create the video for Benga’s “I Will Never Change.”

Stephen Mejias

Classic Album Sundays: Kraftwerk's Autobahn

Stephen Mejias Apr 05, 2012

The April NYC edition of Classic Album Sundays will take place on Sunday, April 8, 58pm, at Bellwether (594 Union Avenue, Brooklyn). As a bit of solace to fans that couldn’t get tickets to the upcoming Kraftwerk performances at the Museum of Modern Art, Classic Album Sundays will present Kraftwerk’s Autobahn in its entirety. Cool.

News

2L's Final Frontier: Vinyl

Jason Victor Serinus Apr 05, 2012

2L, the Norwegian label that made audiophile history in 2006 when one their early high-resolution SACDs, Immortal NYSTEDT, received Grammy Award nominations for "Best Surround Sound Album" and "Best Choral Performance," has taken a big step back to the future. After releasing a number of recordings packages that feature both hybrid SACD and hi-resolution Blu-ray discs, as well as making their DXD (352.8kHz/24-bit) recordings available for download, 2L has just ventured into the black hole known as vinyl.

As We See It

The 2012 Consumer Electronics Show: A Better Way?

Stephen Mejias Apr 04, 2012

Every time I stepped from the slow elevator onto the casino floor at Harrah's, where Stereophile's editors spent their sleepless nights, my hatred for Las Vegas was revitalized. It felt like some kind of bad joke: Oh god, I'm still here. I would turn right and see the same flashing lights, the same low ceilings, the same peoplestill sitting, still smoking, still hoping, still staring blank-faced into spinning screens of cherries, spades, and jokersand I would wonder why.

Recording of the Month

Recording of April 2012: The Well

Richard Lehnert Apr 04, 2012

Tord Gustavsen Quartet: The Well
Tord Gustavsen, piano; Tore Brunborg, tenor saxophone; Mats Eilertsen, bass; Jarle Vespestad, drums
ECM 2237 (CD). 2012. Manfred Eicher, prod.; Jan Erik Kongshaug, eng. DDD. TT: 53:19
Performance *****
Sonics *****

The first time I heard J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Klavier, I heard an endless sameness, lovely but undifferentiated. Only over many hearings did each pairing of prelude and fugue begin to emerge from the background, as what Bach did in each iteration of the same received form began to be revealed as an inexhaustible richness of difference. Gradually, I was learning Bach's musical language; only then did I begin to get an idea of what he might be saying.

Stephen Mejias

Kendrick Lamar’s “The Recipe”

Stephen Mejias Apr 02, 2012

In recent conversations with myself and with others, I’ve been trying to explain my addiction&#151and I truly do believe it’s an addiction&#151to music, new and old. A lot of times, when I’ve got an unfamiliar album in my hand, I feel like I just need to hear it. I just need to know what it sounds like. Why? I think I’m searching for connections between different times, places, and musical styles and artists. Why? I don’t know, exactly. I imagine there’s some magnificent story to be told through music, that all recorded music is somehow connected, and, if I can just trace those connections, I’ll learn something deep and special about myself and the world.

Searching for odd connections in music: It’s a game that I play.