The July 2010 issue of
Stereophile is now on newsstands. It had been far too long since we received a letter complaining about our love of reviewing insanely expensive products, so we decided to make this our “Special Aspirations Issue,” featuring, almost exclusively, products you’d have to be CEO of BP to afford.
I’m kidding. Sort of. “Special Aspirations” does not only reflect the price of the components we review, but also refers to their quality. And
we like quality. The loudspeakers from Vivid, Wilson, and Focal, as well as the phono preamps from Boulder, AMR, and Vitus strive to reach new levels of performance. High quality sometimes comes with a high price. As Mikey Fremer’s mom liked to say, “You pay, you get.”
With these blog entries, I try to give some insight into the making of a monthly issue. The July issue was unusually tough because our production cycle was wedged in between a trip to Florida for
AXPONA and another to Montreal for
Salon Son et Image. What winds up on the printed page is only a small part of what was necessary to complete a review. The Vivid G1Giya review, for instance, required much more work than what you’ll find in its seven pages.
It involved surgery! And the Wilson Sasha review? The Wilson Sasha reviewed required
a night spent with bunnies.
But it was worth it. We do it for your love.
And though the Boulder, AMR, and massive Vitus phono preamps were subjects of “Analog Corner”—a column, and columns usually aren’t accompanied by John Atkinson’s technical measurements—JA felt that full check-ups were in order. “At these rarified price levels,” he said, “the user is entitled to not only superb sound but superb engineering as well.” And so JA has endeavored to run a complete set of measurements on these impressive phono pres, starting with the Boulder. The Vitus is at JA’s home now, awaiting the test bench. I know because I shoved its stupid power supply across JA's dining room floor.
Also in the July 2010 issue, you’ll find Mikey Fremer’s review of the Marantz Reference SA-KI-Pearl SACD player, the complementary piece to the
PM-KI-Pearl integrated amplifier. In “Sam’s Space,” Sam Tellig falls in love with a sexy Italian, the Unison Research S9 tube integrated. In “Listening,” Art Dudley reviews the extraordinary Fi 2b tubed preamplifier. I got to see this thing up close at Art’s home, and I can tell you it’s way cooler than any picture can do justice. In “Music In The Round,” Kal Rubinson enjoys time with the Cambridge 650BD universal Blu-ray player and Classe CT-SSP surround-sound processor.
In addition, there are Follow-Up reviews on the
Thiel CS3.7 loudspeaker,
Playback Designs MPS-5 SACD/CD player,
Aesthetix Audio Saturn Calypso Signature preamplifier,
PSB Image T6 loudspeaker, Boulder 1008 phono preamplifier, ProAc Response D Two loudspeaker, and
Bel Canto e.One REF1000 Mk.2 monoblock.
Robert Baird offers the latest Serge Gainsbourg fever, including a new biopic and several sexy reissues; a review of
The Complete Reprise Recordings collaborations between Francis Albert Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim; and an interview with the happily married couple, pianists Bill Charlap and Renee Rosnes. In Record Reviews, we listen to new performances of Chopin and Mozart, and new releases from Tuung,
The Tallest Man On Earth, Stanton Moore, and Mike Fahie.
And, opening our July issue, Jason Victor Serinus argues that live music isn’t inherently better than reproduced. “Forget declarations that high-end audio is
always inferior to live acoustic sound,” he writes. “There are times when high-end audio can actually sound better, and move us more, than the in-person experience.”
Has this ever been true for you? Have there been times when a live performance failed to match the experience of listening to the same piece of work at home?
