Now on Newsstands: Stereophile, Vol.37 No.3

Here's a little something to warm your hearts: The March 2014 issue of Stereophile is now on newsstands, and it's a very special issue, indeed. Inside, you'll find that our editor, John Atkinson, has fallen in love with a new pair of headphones. Has the sexy Audeze LCD-X seduced him away from his old, beloved Sennheiser HD650?

Of course, there's more.

Are you interested in portable hi-fi, computer audio, and desktop products? These days, many of us are. For you, we have reviews of the Channel Islands Audio Transient Mk.II USB D/A processor, the Astell&Kern AK100 portable media player, the Arcam rBlink Bluetooth receiver, Sennheiser Momentum on-ear headphones, PSB SubSeries 100 desktop subwoofer, and the ASUS Xonar Essence One Muses Edition and AudioQuest DragonFly v1.2 USB DAC-headphone amplifiers. Wow!

Are you interested in LP playback? These days, many of us are. We also have reviews of the Abis SA-1 tonearm and Lyra Etna phono cartridge. Or are you interested in multi-channel sound? In "Music in the Round," Kal covers a versatile and powerful combo from Yamaha: the Aventage CX-A5000 preamplifier-processor and matching Aventage MX-A5000 11-channel power amp!

If all of this newfangled hi-fi is a bit out of your bailiwick, we also have something for the more traditional audiophile: Art Dudley reviews the Stirling Broadcast BBC LS3/6 loudspeaker and, in his "Listening" column, he restores a vintage Thorens turntable. (Art is always restoring something!)

Have you ever wondered what the audio hobby will look like in the not-so-distant future? In "Audio Engineering: The Next 40 Years," John La Grou, founder and CEO of Millennia Media, tells us all about it. It's a fascinating (and slightly frightening) piece.

And we're thrilled to have artist and longtime audiophile Herb Reichert open our issue with a thoughtful and compelling piece on the purpose of music. Herb writes, "When music is deeply felt, the artist is simply reminding us that we are not alone."

Speaking of music, our music editor, Robert Baird, sits down for a chat with legendary songwriter Guy Clark, whose new record, My Favorite Picture of You, is one of his best and most personal. Meanwhile, our music writers provide reviews of new releases from Keith Jarrett, Franco Fagioli, Gov't Mule, Marty Ehrlich, Jane Ira Bloom, and Wild Beasts. I wrote that last one, actually. It's a hell of an album, and perfect for love.

Happy Valentine's Day. Pick up a copy of Stereophile for yourself and buy a second for your sweetheart.

We hope you enjoy the issue. Care to talk about it? Head to the forum. Thanks for reading Stereophile!

COMMENTS
jimtavegia's picture

Can't wait to read about that. I would probably be reading it  right now if not for the storm that crippled Hotlanta. 

John Atkinson's picture

After the review had been set in stone, I bought the Audeze headphones. But I still have the Sennheisers.

John Atkinson

Editor, Stereophile

 

cgh's picture

This is a tremendous endorsement for Audeze.  They have enjoyed very good press since entering the market, but I am sure the champagne corks flew after this review. I bought my pair of LCDs very early on.  My purchase was direct if I recall, via a small Vegas operation, and my emails back and forth with the Audeze plankowners were prompt and informal.  I am primarily still a 2-way listener; but, for times when I don't have time to retreat to the listening room and fire up all my components, warm up the tubes and stylus and drivers, the cans are fantastic.  Congrats to Audeze on their success!!!!

So, there is an interesting aspect to John's review: the amp.  The defunct Headroom Blockhead amp is, to the best of my knowledge, well over 10 years old.  There is a review by Scull dating back to '02.  (The Prime I don't recall being mentioned in the review apart from the list of associated equipment.) So the bookends of John's playback chain are the state-of-the-art sources and headphones, the latter arguably a new-old market, and the technology in the middle is certainly old.  Some of the other audio reviewers that are not exclusively devoted to head-fi spend quite a bit of time on headphone amps (e.g., 6moons), but it would be really nice to see both the market develop more and Stereophile begin to review more in this space.  The top-of-the-line in head-fi space is much more financially attainable than the 2-way component driven analogue, so perhaps more technological innovations and reviews will avoid stoking this silly argument about covering the cost-no-object state-of-the-art versus the everyman system.  Maybe we can only argue about head-fi cables. I swear I can hear that 15th N!

SolidState's picture

Zinio has delivered this as the APRIL 2014 issue...... heart skipped a beat when i saw that thinking I'd missed my daughetsr birthday hahahhhaha 

Regadude's picture

Looks like a great issue! Well done. By the way, what happened to Ariel Bitran? There hasn't been a column by him for a while. 

Did he finally tame that bass bump problem with his speakers? Does he still have a cat? 

John Atkinson's picture

Regadude wrote:
Looks like a great issue! Well done.

Thank you.

Regadude wrote:
what happened to Ariel Bitran? There hasn't been a column by him for a while.

Sadly, Ariel resigned last month and left Stereophile after his work on the April issue was finished. He is currently taking a month-long vacation in Thailand and will be starting a career in marketing when he returns to the US. There will be an announcement in the May issue.

John Atkinson

Editor, Stereophile

jimtavegia's picture

I'm sure that magazine publishing is about 10% fun and 90% work, and then you have to write about it.  After a while all my punctuation, spelling, and capitalization errors would be too much.  Spell-check and Grammar-check only go so far.   

Regadude's picture

So Ariel the guitar playing rocker will become a suit and tie marketing man?!! Fascinating!

Well, best of luck to Ariel in his new job! yes

volvic's picture

I enjoyed his posts, thought he was a great addition to Stereophile.  I wish him all the best.  

Devil Doc's picture

And yet I'm a loyal subscriber and don't have mine yet. What's up with that?

volvic's picture

Don't have mine either and this is my last issue before my subscription runs out.  Renewing the electronic version that way will always get it and save a tree or two.  

John Atkinson's picture

Devil Doc wrote:
And yet I'm a loyal subscriber and don't have mine yet. What's up with that?

Copies intended for newsstand sales are shipped to local distributors while subscriber copies are dropshipped to local centers where they enter the USPS system. For reasons unknown (to me), the former system is more efficient. :-(

John Atkinson

Editor, Stereophile

remlab's picture

..looks amazingly similar to the Stax SR-009. I wonder if that is what they were shooting for..   http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/AudezeLCDXSN7454971.pdf

http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/StaxSR009SZ91278afterburnin.pdf

quadtodd's picture

Someone didn't do a correct conversion - I'm betting this is not an almost 2 1/2 lb headphone!

This should be about 19.3 oz., much easier on the old noggin.

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