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Bob Harley's review of the REL Stratus II subwoofer. Read the review on a Thursday, bought one on Friday, and have loved it ever since.
We'll get to your least favorite next week, but this week, we want to know what your all-time favorite equipment review in <I>Stereophile</I> has been
It is hard to remember "all time," but my favorite at the moment is Art Dudley's December review of the Reference 3A MM De Capo i. The reason: Art has been my favorite reviewer, since The Listener days, and I'm thinking of buying the De Capos.
Several years ago there was a review of the VTL "Wotan" amplifier. It's my favorite review because it had an example of every type of failure subjective reviewing is heir to. Everything was wrong with that review that could have been wrong.
1) The first review of the JA eraI think it was John's review of his own Krell KSA50 ampthat included instrumented testing. This ongoing pursuit of the technical reasons for good sound is what sets Stereophile apart from its competition and is the reason why I still subcribe.
Tube sounds more realistic and lively on mid and high tone areas. But for deep bass zone, a good solid state amps will outperforms the tubed amps. Chamber, choir and any classical based musics will be heard like "having more sweetness & finesse'. But for 70's I feel the serious solid state will sound better than tube amps.
I really like the review of the CLS statement system by Jonathan Valin with the Kinergetics woofer columns. I thought it was very thorough and brutally honest about both the strengths and weakenesses of this combination. Although I never added the Kinergetics woofers to my CLS's, I really enjoyed reading about it.
A tie for two, for two reasons: one because I purchased the product reviewed pretty much because of the review (of course I listened to it) -Corey Greenberg's review of the Conrad-Johnson Sonographe CD-22 CD player. The other, because it made me laugh so hard, Wes Phillips' review of the Martin-Logan SL3 (as I already had a factory-modified pair of Aeriuses, I didn't buy that product but wish I had before it was discontinued. To this day, these two guys have been my favorite reviewers. First, because we have the same tastes and priorities in equipment and second, they are so entertaining to read with their "gonzo" style and all.
Kal Rubinson's first review of the original Bel Canto eVo2 amp. In it he described the issue of finding the right volume for any system, and how the playback system abetted in defining this volume level. More than just a review of gear, I learned something new about listening and playback.
Audio Artistry Dvorak Loudspeaker System by Shannon Dickson, 4/96. Unusually insightful and illuminating, this article managed to attain a significant fraction of the sophistication of an AES paper, but without the dry writing style typical of such technical dissertations.
There have been many fine reviews, a recent one that made an impression(and the manufacturer's response) went beyond "good" and inadvertantly hit on more universal themes of our varying levels of undertanding, open-mindedness, and justified suspicion. It was Art Dudley's review of Audioquest's battery-charged dielectric cables. I thought both sides made some excellent points, but I would have liked to have read that Art rereviewed the cables with Audioquest's response in mind. I wonder if he had experimented with the cables differently if he would have heard more things to report on.
Corey Greenberg on the Eminent Technology LFT-VIII speakers, because I actually owned them and as a result could conclude his review was pretty accurate. I did kind of wonder why he swore a bit less in that one, though. Perhaps he was angling for a job at The New York Times or something.