LATEST ADDITIONS

Recording of the Month
Bonus Recording of October 1993: Out to Hunch
Corey Greenberg  |  Feb 13, 2005  |  First Published: Oct 13, 1993  |  0 comments
Hasil Adkins: Out to Hunch
Norton Records (no catalog # whatso-a-ever) LP, no CD. No producer, no engineer, no studio, no stereo, no mikes that weren't carbon police dispatcher models, no other people at all in fact—just Hasil Adkins, vocals and guitars and one-man drums and some weird rhythmic screeching that may or may not be LP surface noise. TT: infinite, as I can't stop hearing it in my head hours after I raised the needle off it.
To order, send $10 to Norton Records, Box 646, Cooper Station, New York, NY 10003. If you don't, you shall burn in hellfire eternal. Hasil Adkins Fan Club; Hasil Adkins Headquarters.
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Recording of the Month
Recording of February 2005: How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
Robert Baird  |  Feb 13, 2005  |  1 comments
U2: How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
Interscope B0003613-02 (CD). 2004. Steve Lillywhite, prod.; Carl Glanville, eng.; Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Chris Heaney, others, asst. engs. AAD? TT: 49:08
Performance ****½
Sonics ****
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News
Analog Anxiety
Jon Iverson  |  Feb 07, 2005  |  0 comments
Within the confines of the cozy analog audiophile kingdom, things couldn't be better: Turntables, cartridges and phono preamps can be found in abundance, while mounds of new and used vinyl can be scored by the truckload.
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News
RIAA Ups & Downs
Wes Phillips  |  Feb 07, 2005  |  0 comments
As 2004 wound down, the Los Angeles sheriff's department successfully conducted five simultaneous raids on illegal CD replication plants in southern California on December 15. Dubbed "Operation Final Release," the joint operation between the Southern California High Tech Task Force and the LA sheriff's department put 65 officers into action, closing down five optical disc replication facilities in LA and Orange counties suspected of churning out millions of pirated CDs, which were sold throughout the United States.
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News
Hearing Loss and You
Wes Phillips  |  Feb 07, 2005  |  0 comments
If you're an audiophile, the words "hearing loss" are bound to strike terror into your heart. Of course, many of us aren't preternaturally acute—and all of us lose some high-frequency sensitivity as we age—but there's no excuse for not taking care of what you've got. When it comes to hearing, more is always better.
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News
HE2005: The Great Debate
Stereophile Staff  |  Feb 07, 2005  |  0 comments
Some say it dates back 50 years, to when the late David Hafler introduced a tube amplifier with a "better-sounding" ultralinear output stage. Others claim it goes back to the introduction of electrical recording and playback in 1927, when Gramophone magazine's founder and editor, author Sir Compton McKenzie, thundered that electrical reproduction was a step backward in sound quality. But whenever it started, the "Great Debate" between "subjectivists," who hear differences between audio components, and "objectivists," who tend to ascribe such differences to the listeners' over-heated imaginations, rages just as strongly in the 21st century as it did in the 20th.
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News
High-End Faces
John Marks  |  Feb 07, 2005  |  0 comments
Medford, Long Island–based manufacturer Shahinian Acoustics has announced a recapitalization and a manufacturing-facilities expansion to meet demand for its quasi-omnidirectional loudspeakers. In a related development, Vasken Shahinian has succeeded his father as president and managing director.
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Vote
Have you upgraded any of your stock equipment power cords with after-market power cords?
Stereophile  |  Feb 06, 2005  |  84 comments

Can the power cord make or break a particular component? Some say it does and others say it doesn't. Have you upgraded the power cords on any of your equipment?

Have you upgraded any of your stock equipment power cords with after-market power cords?
Yes, made a big difference
25% (57 votes)
Yes, slight improvement
23% (53 votes)
Yes, but no difference
6% (14 votes)
No, but plan to
10% (22 votes)
No, not interested
18% (42 votes)
Don't insult me with snake oil!
18% (41 votes)
Total votes: 229
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Interviews
A Glorious Time: AR's Edgar Villchur and Roy Allison
David Lander  |  Feb 06, 2005  |  First Published: Jan 06, 2005  |  0 comments
Editor's Note: In 1954, a New York writer and teacher reinvented the world of audio with the modest-looking Acoustic Research AR-1 loudspeaker. A small fraction of the size of the behemoths that were then de rigeur for the reproduction of bass frequencies, Edgar Villchur's loudspeaker went as low with less distortion. Perhaps more importantly, the AR-1 pioneered both the science of speaker design and the idea that a low-frequency drive-unit could not be successfully engineered without the properties of the enclosure being taken into account.
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Floor Loudspeaker Reviews
Paradigm Reference Studio/100 v.3 loudspeaker
John Atkinson  |  Feb 06, 2005  |  First Published: Jan 06, 2005  |  0 comments
Like the Reference Studio/60, which was enthusiastically reviewed in the December 2004 issue by Kalman Rubinson, Paradigm's floorstanding Reference Studio/100 is now available in a v.3 version. The '100 is the flagship model in the Canadian manufacturer's Reference line. Its earlier incarnations, the original Studio/100 and the Studio/100 v.2, were reviewed by Tom Norton and Robert Deutsch in the August 1997 and June 2000 issues of Stereophile, respectively, and both writers were well impressed at how much sound quality could be wrought from this competitively priced speaker design. Bob Deutsch, in particular, referred to the v.2 as a "a serious high-end contender, and a formidable one for just about any speaker in its price range and even well above."
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