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Music and Recording Features
What Kind of Music Do You Listen To? (Survey)
Stereophile Staff  |  Mar 01, 2024  |  0 comments
[The survey is now closed - thanks to all who participated!]

In order to better fulfill our readers' musical desires, we'd like to know what music you prefer to listen to. Please take our survey.

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Audacious AudioSolid State Power Amp Reviews
Krell KMA-i800 monoblock power amplifier
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Mar 01, 2024  |  17 comments
Ever since I raved about Krell's K-300i integrated amplifier after it was released in early 2019, I've wanted to review other Krell products. After spending more than a year and a half (since its prerelease announcement) awaiting the opportunity to review Krell's new flagship mono power amplifier, the KMA-i800 ($73,000/pair), the time has come. Both Krell models utilize the company's proprietary iBias technology, albeit in different iterations, and both were designed by longtime Krell engineer Dave Goodman.
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Florida Audio Expo 2024
Fidelity Imports: Diptyque, Audia Flight, Michell Audio, NEO, QED, Titan
Mark Henninger  |  Mar 01, 2024  |  First Published: Feb 29, 2024  |  2 comments

The French two-way Diptyque DP140 MKII loudspeaker ($17,000/pair) challenges the preconception that planar magnetic speakers struggle to put out deep bass: It's specified to reach down to 35Hz. Its 87dB/W/m sensitivity is merely average—it will benefit from some power—but its 6 ohm nominal impedance means it's not too heavy a load.

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Cable ReviewsGramophone DreamsHeadphone Reviews
Gramophone Dreams #82: IKIGAI Kangai-level cables, dCS Lina headphone amplifier
Herb Reichert  |  Feb 29, 2024  |  149 comments
Decades ago, when I was peddling million-dollar sound systems, an astute potential customer asked me: "If I buy your very expensive system, what will I get that I'm not getting with my less expensive system?" Smiling my best fatherly smile, I whispered to his ear, "Goosebumps, tears, and laughter."

With a slightly worried look, he asked, "How much did you say those silver cables cost?"

Thirty years later
Changing audio cables always changes the sound of my system, sometimes a lot but usually just a little. Typically, the sonic effects of cable changes are modest shifts in focus, tone, or transparency. But sometimes during blue moons I've seen a new set of cables turn a blah, dull, fuzzy system into a macrodynamic, microdetailed one. Or turn a cool, mechanical-sounding system into something fierce and mammalian.

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Phono Preamp Reviews
Spin Doctor #10: Tone Controls, Vinyl EQ Curves, and the Mola Mola Lupe
Michael Trei  |  Feb 28, 2024  |  0 comments
Twice in the last month I have been at someone's house, servicing their turntable, when they asked whether they should be considering a new phono preamp that offers additional playback equalization curves besides the standard RIAA. My usual reaction is to thumb through their record collection, where, more often than not, I find that they don't own a single record that was cut using a curve other than RIAA.

Phono playback EQ is one of those audiophile topics that stokes some people's passions, with plenty of disagreements about how important it is. I have seen grown men get into heated discussions about the history of record EQ curves, but in truth, the subject is only likely to matter if you listen to a lot of 78s or original mono LPs pressed between the late 1940s and the mid-1950s.

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Florida Audio Expo 2024
Room 806 and Just Audio: Mission, Audiolab, Cyrus, Spendor, Dual
Ken Micallef  |  Feb 28, 2024  |  0 comments

Just Audio's Lenny Florentine presented two rooms at the show, one jammed with components at all price points (including Luxman, inspiring that company's VP of Sales John Pravel and myself to reminisce about 1970s hi-fi sales), the second with more affordable but no less listenable alternatives. Room 806 offered two systems in one.

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Florida Audio Expo 2024
UniQue Home Audio
Ken Micallef  |  Feb 28, 2024  |  0 comments

The room of Tampa-area dealer, UniQue Home Audio was hosted by Michael Swek and offered unique gear and interesting sounds. Their products included the MoFi Ultradeck turntable ($2499) with an Ultragold MC cartridge ($1495) feeding a Coda 06X FET phono preamplifier ($6000). Digital audio was handled with a HiFi Rose RS-130 Network Transport ($5195).

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Florida Audio Expo 2024
Room 1004, Playback Distribution: Vienna Acoustics, Esoteric, Quadraspire, Esprit
Ken Micallef  |  Feb 27, 2024  |  0 comments

Another heavy hitter, showing in five rooms with multiple product lines, was Rob Standley’s Playback Distribution, featuring equipment from TEAC, the new-to-me company Advance Paris, PMC, Amphion, Vienna Acoustics, and a heaping helping of Esoteric.

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Florida Audio Expo 2024
FLAX Room 1114: Aurender, Joseph, Doshi, Cardas
Ken Micallef  |  Feb 27, 2024  |  0 comments

In the usual preshow rush to coax product lists out of exhibitors, I asked Jeff for his list, and make it fast! One day passed, then another. Finally, Jeff acquiesced, writing "Ken, we just got the room!"

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Rabbit Holes
Rabbit Holes #8: Art Pepper Lives! Or, Long Live the CD!
Thomas Conrad  |  Feb 27, 2024  |  0 comments
Art Pepper Photo by Laurie Pepper

That title must have gotten your attention. Not the part about Art Pepper but the part about the CD. Nobody has anything good to say about the compact disc anymore. CD sales suck. Streaming and downloads rule the world. Vinyl (an album format that warps, scratches, and has to be flipped every 22 minutes) now outsells CDs.

But the CD still deserves a place in your heart. One reason: box sets. Many of them are worthy of coveting. For example, there is an amazing new project on the Omnivore label, Art Pepper's The Complete Maiden Voyage Recordings. It contains eight hours and 20 minutes of music on seven CDs. Collections that large do not lend themselves to LPs.

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