LATEST ADDITIONS

Audacious AudioCD Player/Transport ReviewsHi-Rez Disc Player/Transport Reviews
CH Precision D1.5 SACD/CD player/transport
Jim Austin  |  Feb 16, 2022  |  26 comments
There's a school of thought that maintains that among all hi-fi components, the D/A converter is easiest to perfect or come close to perfecting. Just make sure that every sample is converted accurately, that there's little rolloff in the audioband, that aliased images are suppressed almost completely, and that background noise is extremely low, and you have a top-quality D/A processor. Use of a high-quality DAC chip is assumed.
Continue Reading »
As We See It
Thoughts on reviewing
Jim Austin  |  Feb 15, 2022  |  42 comments
Evidence is nothing without judgments.—The Lord Leto Atreides II in God Emperor Of Dune, by Frank Herbert

In college, I majored in physics, but I took a lot of theater courses. Not acting—I never had any affinity for that—but all the other aspects of theater: set design, directing, theory of performance, playwriting. One professor, a playwright himself, offered some advice to his students that has served me well ever since: To learn the craft, observe your response first, then look to the text to figure out what about it caused you to respond the way you did.

Continue Reading »
Music and Recording Features
Keb' Mo': "Music Was Mine To Experience"
Rogier van Bakel  |  Feb 11, 2022  |  3 comments
For all its ghastliness and heartbreak, the COVID-19 pandemic has been good to Keb' Mo'. When the virus hit the US, it forced the cancelation of a string of his concerts. "I was getting a little burned out on touring," he confesses.
Continue Reading »
Music and Recording Reviews
February 2022 Classical Record Reviews
Jason Victor Serinus, Stephen Francis Vasta  |  Feb 11, 2022  |  7 comments
Cecilia Bartoli: Unreleased, Hindemith: Symphony "Mathis der Maler," Nusch-Nuschi-Tänze, Sancta Susanna and Métamorphoses: Nocturnes.
Continue Reading »
Music and Recording Reviews
February 2022 Jazz Record Reviews
Thomas Conrad, Fred Kaplan  |  Feb 11, 2022  |  2 comments
Edward Simon: Solo Live, The Wonderful World Of Louis Armstrong All Stars: A Gift to Pops and Fred Hersch: Breath by Breath.
Continue Reading »
Music and Recording Reviews
February 2022 Rock/Pop Record Reviews
Phil Brett, Tom Fine, Kurt Gottschalk  |  Feb 11, 2022  |  2 comments
Ben Lamar Gay: Open Arms to Open Us, Pretenders: Pretenders and Pretenders II (40th Anniversary Deluxe Editions) and Damon Albarn: The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows.
Continue Reading »
My Back Pages
Forget about the sound of the recording
Jim Anderson  |  Feb 10, 2022  |  16 comments
Hello, and Happy New Year! I'm greeting you in October 2021—just before Halloween, in anticipation of Stereophile's publication deadline—but by the time this magazine arrives in your mailbox, it'll be after the holidays.
Continue Reading »
Re-Tales
Re-Tales #17: Going where the music lovers are
Julie Mullins  |  Feb 09, 2022  |  18 comments
Is combining a record store with a hi-fi dealership a radical idea? Maybe not: It could be a way to reel in new, music-loving hi-fi customers where they're most comfortable, in record stores searching for music.
Continue Reading »
Analog CornerPhono Cartridge Reviews
Analog Corner #272: Kuzma CAR, Miyajima Madake Snakewood, TechDAS TDC01 Ti phono cartridges
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 08, 2022  |  First Published: Apr 01, 2018  |  4 comments
At Stereophile, we don't generally allow Mulligans—review do-overs. Usually, we take a second look at a product we've reviewed only when the first sample turns out to have been defective, especially if it was damaged in shipping—and we rarely do even that.
Continue Reading »
Budget Component ReviewsDigital Processor ReviewsHeadphone Reviews
Questyle Audio M12 portable USB D/A headphone amplifier
John Atkinson  |  Feb 04, 2022  |  19 comments
There are words that, for reasons I can't fathom, I cannot stand. One such is "dongle." So when Bluebird Music's PR rep emailed me to ask if I would be interested in reviewing a new dongle from Chinese company Questyle Audio, I shuddered. But I must admit that "dongle" rolls off the tongue a lot more readily than "portable USB D/A headphone amplifier." I put aside my grammatical quibble and agreed to a review.
Continue Reading »

Pages

X