LATEST ADDITIONS

Rogier van Bakel  |  Dec 18, 2024
Taste is a funny thing. Love cilantro? Millions swear it tastes like soap. Similarly, design cognoscenti will gush over a minimalist Scandinavian sofa that others dismiss as just a pricey plank with delusions of grandeur.

There's no accounting for taste, or so the truism goes. But arguing over preferences is exactly what many audiophiles do. Similarly, Stereophile reviewers are all about parsing and evaluating sound, and how a product looks isn't usually a big part of the equation. But I'll buck that convention and say that the radically shaped Estelon X Diamond Mk IIs aren't just the most visually sublime speakers I've laid eyes on; they ought to be part of the Cooper Hewitt Museum's permanent collection. Or MOMA's.

Sasha Matson  |  Dec 17, 2024
Mari Kodama: Bruckner Piano Works
Mari Kodama, piano
Pentatone PTC 5187 224 (reviewed as 24/192 WAV, also CD). 2024. Erdo Groot, prod., eng.; Shunsuke Yokoyama, piano technician.
Performance *****
Sonics ****½

Music history, like all human history, is filled with nooks and crannies—digressions from the main course of events. Take Anton Bruckner for example. The global concert hall calendars are filled with performances of his symphonies and some of his choral works. New recordings of these pieces are frequently released. How many of you have ever heard a performance, or recording, of any piece for solo piano by Bruckner?

John Atkinson  |  Dec 16, 2024
After John Atkinson joined Hi-Fi News & Record Review magazine in 1976, he appeared on two covers, in January 1977 and January 1981.

As Jim Austin wrote in this space in the December 2024 issue, following a medical procedure that he had in mid-October, he needed to take several weeks' leave to recuperate. He delegated the magazine's production to Managing Editor Mark Henninger, AVTech Editorial Director Paul Miller, and myself. The three of us worked with copy editor Linda Felaco and longtime art director Jeremy Moyler to produce the issue you hold in your hands.

As readers probably know, I was Stereophile's editor for 33 years until my retirement at the end of March 2019. However, they probably don't know that for the 10 years prior to my joining this magazine in 1986, I was first an editorial assistant, then Deputy Editor, then, in 1982, Editor of British magazine Hi-Fi News. (In a twist of fate, Paul Miller is now Hi-Fi News's Editor.)

John Atkinson  |  Dec 13, 2024
While there haven't been any follow-up reviews in recent issues of Stereophile, the January 2025 issue features further coverage of two one-box solutions that were reviewed in 2024—the Hegel 400 streaming integrated amplifier and the T+A R 2500 R multi-source receiver. All the user needs to do to create a complete audio system is to couple one of these products with a pair of passive loudspeakers.
Ken Micallef  |  Dec 12, 2024
High-end audio product launches are often modest affairs. The unveiling, on December 5, 2024, of the Oneiros Audio loudspeaker ($650,000/pair) was an exception. A collaborative effort by Fidelis Distribution, Nexus Audio Technologies, and Sohmer Associates, the event, which occurred at the Power Station in NYC's Hell's Kitchen, apparently spared no expense.
Jim Austin, Jason Victor Serinus, Stephen Francis Vasta  |  Dec 12, 2024
Ives Denk: The Violin Sonatas; The Piano Sonatas; Mendelssohn: Piano Trios 1–2; Schoenberg: Pelleas und Melisande; Verklärte Nacht; Sibelius: Violin Concerto•Serenades•Humoresques•Earnest Melodies•Suite; Brian Baumbusch: Polytempo Music.
Thomas Conrad  |  Dec 12, 2024
Weird Of Mouth: Weird of Mouth; Andrew Hill Sextet Plus Ten: A Beautiful Day, Revisited; Ross McHenry: Waves.
Phil Brett, Ray Chelstowski  |  Dec 12, 2024
Rex Orange County: The Alexander Technique; Still House Plants: If I Don't Make It, I Love U; Hinds: Viva Hinds.
Mark Henninger  |  Dec 12, 2024
A new UK-manufactured turntable line has appeared and it is set to reach listeners in the United States through Sierra Sound. The product is known as the TT-Hub, developed by Connected Fidelity, a company led by industry figure Michael Osborn, who has experience in acoustic isolation and related products for high-fidelity audio.

According to Sierra Sound, this distribution agreement marks the arrival of a design the manufacturer characterizes as entirely original. Connected Fidelity—as stated on its website and in related materials—focuses its engineering on addressing various elements of resonance control and isolation in audio playback.

Mark Henninger  |  Dec 12, 2024
German high-end audio manufacturer T+A elektroakustik has introduced its Pulsar S 130 loudspeaker, which the company says is part of an ongoing modernization of its speaker offerings. According to T+A, this model integrates technologies and design concepts from its higher-level Solitaire and Criterion series speakers, and is priced at $7490/pair.

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