January Already?

Yes, the January 2019 issue of Stereophile is hitting newsstands, mailboxes, and tablets this week. And to celebrate the 25th anniversary of our going from a digest-sized publication to a full-sized one, we have recreated the cover of the January 1994 issue, the "musicality vs accuracy" debate as strong today as it was a quarter-century ago. The 25th anniversary edition of the same Cary tube amplifier is featured on the cover and in this issue's review section, but instead of the solid-state Krell we had on the 1994 cover, we have the solid-state Cambridge Edge A integrated amplifier which is also reviewed in this issue.

Other reviews this month included high-performance English DACs from Chord and iFi, phono cartridges from Ikeda and Tedeska, and AC accessories from Nordost, while we take second looks at the Aqua Formula xHD DAC, the DeVore O/93 speaker, and the Rogers 65V-1 integrated amplifier. And we haven't forgotten the music: jazz pianist Bill Charlap is interviewed in this issue and we have more than 5 pages of record reviews!

An early Happy New Year!!!!

COMMENTS
ok's picture

..they both are terribly wrong.

tonykaz's picture

I'm contemplating an impoverished England and poor souls carrying Pitchforks. god bless em.

Brexit will create the Pound/Dollar parity that I enjoyed in the early 1980s which created the importation of all that affordable High End Audio Gear like the LS3/5s & Linn LP12s I was importing and selling like hot cakes. Phew.

I'm expecting Sugden Masterclass Integrated Amp for the Front Cover of Stereophile. ( or Mission ? )

Tony in Michigan

Bogolu Haranath's picture

We are glad JA did the 'Brexit' more than 30 years ago :-) ...........

JimAustin's picture

>>I'm expecting Sugden Masterclass Integrated Amp for the Front Cover of Stereophile. ( or Mission ? )<<

You should be expecting the preamp instead. ;-)

Bogolu Haranath's picture

Ha ha, a review is forthcoming? :-) ........

JimAustin's picture

>>Ha ha, a review is forthcoming? <<

Sorry, I am not at liberty to say. ;-)

Bogolu Haranath's picture

The 3 rules for secrecy and success are .........

"I don't know" ......
" I don't recall" ........
"I don't remember' ........

You will then be qualified to run for public office :-) ........

You can also neither confirm nor deny it :-) ..........

You could also say "that is not the standard operating procedure" :-) .............

tonykaz's picture

THE OTHER MUST BE WRONG" is wonderful Bait.

Who does Stereophile have thats capable of writing such a delightful conundrum? Expect 100+ Comments

Tony in Michigan

Ortofan's picture

... an extra large ladle to dish out the generous helpings of second harmonic sauce?
For about the same price, I'll have one of the limited edition McIntosh MC2152 70th Anniversary stereo tube amps.
Or, instead of the Cambridge Edge A, one could save $2K by choosing the Parasound Halo HINT 6.

Bogolu Haranath's picture

Parasound HINT 6 does not have Bluetooth capability ........... Also, Parasound headphone output impedance is somewhat high, not very suitable for low impedance headphones ........... You can check the specs of both, available on-line ..........

For $5,000, Cambridge Edge definitely got an 'edge' ........... JA says Brits are smart :-) ........

Ortofan's picture

... the lack of Bluetooth capability in the Parasound amp is a deal breaker for you.
The output impedance of the HINT 6 headphone amp is 10Ω - easily low enough to drive my Sennheiser headphones, which have a 300Ω load impedance.

Bogolu Haranath's picture

These days amp manufacturers can't afford to ignore Bluetooth and headphone drive capabilities ........ Yes, Parasound can drive high impedance headphones like Sennheiser, Focal and some others ......... Lot of planar-magnetic headphones like Audeze, Mr. Speaker, the new Meze Empyrean and many other popular dynamic transducer models like AQ, are low impedance headphones :-) ..........

Like the ad says ......... Cambridge can say ...... "we did not just raise the bar pal, we are the new bar" :-) ........

Ortofan's picture

... do you own?

Bogolu Haranath's picture

Audeze LCD-X, LCD-MX4 and LCD-4 ....... The LCD-4 is high impedance 200 Ohms ....... The rest are low impedance, between 20-30 Ohms ......... I'm thinking about purchasing Meze Empyrean planar-magnetic 'phones ..... They have an interesting, new kind of voice coil design ....... Their impedance is also low 31 Ohms ........ There is a lot of buzz about the Empyrean on the internet ....... You can check for the details on Meze website :-) .........

Ortofan's picture

... drive the Audeze headphones that have a low impedance?

Bogolu Haranath's picture

Chord Hugo2 and also, Rogue RH-5 .......... RH-5 (Stereophile Class-A) can drive almost any headphone .........

Bogolu Haranath's picture

If you are into vinyl, you could consider Cambridge Duo or VPI Nomad to drive the headphones :-) ........

Bogolu Haranath's picture

HR could review Cambridge Duo and/or VPI Nomad v2 :-) ...........

Bogolu Haranath's picture

I don't have Chord Hugo TT2 (yet) ........ Hugo TT2 can drive almost any impedance headphone and is self-powered and is 'kinda' portable ........ You can check Chord website for details ........ All we need is a lap-top and Hugo TT2 and ready to rock n' roll :-) ........

Bogolu Haranath's picture

Oh .... I almost forgot about that Bluetooth thing ........ When your children, grand children and their friends come to your house and having a party, they will be glad you have Bluetooth capable audio system ........ They can play their favorite music stored in their phones via Bluetooth :-) ........

Bogolu Haranath's picture

Cambridge Edge is a 'one box solution' for a reasonable price ......... integrated amp + headphone amp + Bluetooth device :-) .........

Bogolu Haranath's picture

Ortofan, you can save your money for the tube version, similar to the Cambridge Edge :-) ......

Sorry, just kidding Ortofan ...... could not resist :-) ........

ok's picture

..most low-impedance headphones come with high sensitivity characteristics (well, that's the idea in the first place) a decent 10Ω head amp can drive almost anything out there despite occasionally being somewhat cable-dependent.

Bogolu Haranath's picture

That 'Jaguar anthracite black chassis' is worth the money ........... It comes with adjustable feed-back control, BTW :-) ...........

It is like having 'Sex on the Beach' ........... Wonderful :-) .............

Bogolu Haranath's picture

For the same price of HINT 6, we could also consider the Auralic Polaris int. amp ......... It is wi-fi capable but has no headphone output ......... There are several very favorable reviews on-line for Polaris :-) .......

bertdw's picture

I'm a little sad that 5 pages of record reviews deserves an exclamation point.

rschryer's picture

...for many more record reviews in the February issue!!!

tonykaz's picture

Hmm, is that what you're suggesting?

Audiophiles in the USA are Gear Collectors, aren't we?

Give us a "Wall of Fame" for small Loudspeakers in the manner that Tyll gave us a "Wall of Fame" for headphones.

Give us a "Wall of Fame" for interconnects and wire.

Give us a "Wall of Fame" for Amplification. pleeeeeze

Stereophile should have a place for readership to submit their personal RRs.

Seems like AcousticSounds is doing a rather thourough job of Record Reviewing, i.e. if they don't have it, it ain't worth owning. ( or something like that )

Tony in Michigan

ps. I'm definately "staying tuned" ( despite my tin ears )

Bogolu Haranath's picture

Sorry Mr. Tony ....... Stereophile is not gonna build and pay for the 'wall' :-) .........

rschryer's picture

I was referring to R2D4 in Stereophile's Feb issue.

You want "Walls of Fame", Tony? Best speakers, interconnects, amps? You want a fry with that?

It's called Recommended Components! Accept no substitutes! :-)

(And I'm sure you don't have tin ears, Tony. I believe that once your brain knows how to listen critically to hi-fi, it's something it never forgets. Like riding a bicycle.)

tonykaz's picture

Records to Die for ?

do you mean to suggest : Records to Live for ?

or

Are you suggesting that Heaven will have these Recordings and we need to Pass-on to our next phase to enjoy them. Hmm.

Is that some sort of Necrotheology of Audiophilia? ( should I extrapolate further ? )

--------------------------------------==-----------------

Wall of Fame

Wall of Fame should be a Permanent Institution of Enshrinements like Baseball's Hall of Fame. I'd submit the LP12, Koetsu Red, Music Hose MH750, Magnapans and a few others.

A juried Hall of Fame would be a Wonderful Institution for our astute JA to inaugurate.

Why can't we have our own Superb Performing Products given a Lifetime Credit ? i.e. Quad 57, IRS, Krell KSA50, etc.

I can imagine John Curl being voted in for his JC Levinson Preamp.

People with Memories are aging, time is running out for a good clean start to this important Project.

I wonder if there is anyone that wouldn't want to make intellectual contributions to the validity of any given product submission.

It would be One-Hell-of-a-Project that every Audiophile will have a keen interest in participating. Sterophile Front Page top Line: New Hall of Fame Addition "ARC SP3" with commentary by Andrew Singer.

Tony in Michigan

ps. I'm hunting for a Loudspeaker System as Wonderful as my Sennheiser HD 580/600/650s

Bogolu Haranath's picture

R2D4 is 'neurotheology' :-) ..........

rschryer's picture

...publish a list of what its writers considered the 100 most important audio products sold between 1962 and 2002. Very subjective and not quite a Hall of Fame, but still an interesting read.

www.stereophile.com/historical/709/index.html

(And who knows, maybe a second parter will be added to that list to include products spanning 2003 to the present. Anything's possible at Christmas time if one just wishes hard enough.)

Bogolu Haranath's picture

Stereophile should definitely include that $45,000 CD player in the new list :-) .........

tonykaz's picture

I kinda agree on a few, some are silly mistakes like the 17D Dynavector and Spica TC50 of which I sold large quantities.

The Linn LP12 is No.1 4Sure.

I still ask for this Concept to be Institutionalized by Stereophile and Maintained by one of the Staff.

Title : Curator of Greatness!

There are some superb designs in that 20 year old List.

Maybe we could entice Tyll to implement it, or ask our Man in Canada ( Neutral Territory, which is better-yet )

There is no reason for a limit to the number of Awards, it could be something wonderful to have all the great designs and designers getting lifetime achievement recognition.

I'll nominate Art Ferris and Audible Illusions ( Modulus : A preamp to live for )

Tony in Michigan

Bogolu Haranath's picture

In that case, can they include the MQA capable LG phone in the list? :-) ..........

rschryer's picture

...it would be nice to be a Curator of Greatness.

Plus, I do like Art Ferris's L3A preamp.

tonykaz's picture

You would make a excellent President for such an Organization.

It would make a darn good addition to the Resume : President of an International Organization recognizing Excellence in Audio Engineering. Phew !!!

Go for it,

I'll say nice things about you and it.

You'll get a one-hour RMAF Seminar -- Select HR, Steve G, Tyll and a couple of Wild Cards like PS Audio's Paul McGowan & someone else like Chad Kassem. ( maybe even Mr. Krell or Ivor from Linn )
All for the purpose of keeping Audio's greatness great. Your RMAF 2019 Hour would seem over in a snap of the fingers. You'd pack the House!!!

and........

Everyone will Love You !!!

Tony in Michigan

ps. try not to forget the Pink Triangle Turntable

rschryer's picture

...thanks for your support, Tony.

But, as far as my relationship with audio is concerned, I'm more of a "toiling in the shadows" type of guy than a "spreading the gospel" orator like MF.

If you don't mind, however, I may still pad my resume with: "...was also voted (by Tony in Michigan) as being an excellent choice for President of an International Organization Recognizing Excellence in Audio Engineering."

And my ex said I wouldn't amount to anything. Ha! Who's laughing now, Jackie?

Thanks for being in my corner, Tony. Much love.

tonykaz's picture

didn't you intend to write/mean : "enhance"?

"pad" suggests some sort of artificial fattening-up.

Oh-well, I'll Hubristically chalk-up French language origins as the culprit and/or crux of this linguistic faux-pas.

Jean Martin Fortier is another fascinatingly brilliant Quebec guy reaching out to the wider ( waste size ) intellectual audiences.

Quebec, where would we be without you?

Tony in Michigan

ps. JA is writing about his early days at Stereophile, Kal Robinson is writing about his debut at RMAF ( which was an inspirationally brilliant summary of "Music in the Round" ideology )

JimAustin's picture

"If either is right, the other one must be wrong." That's a historical hi-fi reference if I'm not mistaken. Past Stereophile cover. Am I remembering right?

Kal Rubinson's picture

You remember correctly.

Bogolu Haranath's picture

It was January 1994 issue of Stereophile ....... DO did the review of Cary CAD-805 and TJN did the review of Krell KSA-300 ........... JA wrote the cover story .......... You and I were in high school in 1994 :-) .........

JimAustin's picture

no text. (irony, get it?)

Bogolu Haranath's picture

Actually I wrote that cover story as my 'term paper' while I was in high school, gave it to JA, and he published it .......... How did I do doc? :-) ..........

Bogolu Haranath's picture

White House 'sex scandal' 1.0 was in progress in 1994 :-) ........

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