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Solid State Preamp Reviews
Halcro dm10 preamplifier
Paul Bolin  |  Apr 23, 2004  |  First Published: Apr 01, 2004  |  0 comments
My last visit to Planet Halcro transformed my audio life. All but the newest readers will recall that the Australian dm58 power amplifier was Stereophile's Amplification Component of the Year and overall Component of the Year for 2002. To this day, I have yet to hear any amplifier that equals the dm58's combination of complete neutrality, harmonic generosity, lightning reflexes, and a sense of boundless power that is difficult to describe. Though some others have come close, the dm58 shines as a singular beacon of excellence among power amplifiers.
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News
Higher Performance from TI, Intel
Stereophile Staff  |  Apr 19, 2004  |  0 comments
In mid-April, Texas Instruments and Intel announced developments likely to improve the experience for many music fans in the near future. TI announced the industry's highest performance four-channel audio digital–analog converter (DAC), and Intel released the final v1.0 specification for "Intel High Definition Audio."
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News
Satellite Radio Irks NAB
Barry Willis  |  Apr 19, 2004  |  0 comments
Once upon a time, business competitors relied on the quality of their products and services to hang onto their shares of the market. That's the myth, at least. Increasingly, it seems they rely on regulatory and judicial intervention to stay afloat.
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News
iPod Makes Apple Shine
Barry Willis  |  Apr 19, 2004  |  0 comments
The iPod is making sweet music for Apple Computer, Inc.
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News
Perreaux Hooks Up With Sanibel
Jon Iverson  |  Apr 19, 2004  |  0 comments
New Zealand's Perreaux Industries began creating audio products 30 years ago, starting with the GS 2002 integrated transistor amplifier in 1974, and landed in the US in 1980 with the PMF 2150 amplifier. Dozens of new audio products have been developed since then, many of them groundbreaking, and the latest designs are again available in the American market.
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News
Free Trip to HE2004 NY
Stereophile Staff  |  Apr 19, 2004  |  0 comments
Québec Audio & Video, Canada's premier home entertainment magazine, is hosting its fourth annual contest held in conjunction with the Home Entertainment 2004 Show, scheduled to take place May 20–23, 2004 in New York City.
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Art Dudley ListeningInterviews
Listening #16
Art Dudley  |  Apr 18, 2004  |  First Published: Apr 01, 2004  |  0 comments
Consider the fate of Giordano Bruno, a 16th-century astronomer who challenged Ptolemy's notion of Earth being the center of a finite universe—and in doing so went head to head with the church of Rome. Bruno's scholarly diligence and fearlessness were rewarded not with fame, riches, or accolades from his colleagues, but with a hot-lead enema, after which he was burned at the stake. Next heretic in line, step right up, please.
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Stand Loudspeaker ReviewsBudget Component Reviews
Infinity Primus 150 loudspeaker
Robert J. Reina  |  Apr 18, 2004  |  First Published: Apr 01, 2004  |  0 comments
It was 20 years ago that I began audio reviewing as a second career. It was also 20 years ago that I made my first very expensive audio purchase: a pair of Infinity RS-1b speakers. The RS-1b was a landmark speaker in its day, and very costly for the time at $5500/pair. (I think my dentist has just spent more than that on a TV.) In retrospect, the RS-1b was an extraordinary value. With four large towers, more than 30 drivers, and a servo network and a passive crossover, the Infinity RS-1b resolved a significant amount of detail, was capable of large dynamic swings, had pinpoint image specificity on a wide, deep soundstage, and was capable of reproducing a convincing bottom octave in the right room when paired with the right associated equipment. Its main weaknesses were a relative lack of coherence due to its use of three different types of drivers to cover the various frequency ranges, and both the midrange/tweeter towers and woofer columns were picky about amplifier matching.
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Floor Loudspeaker Reviews
Isophon Europa II loudspeaker
Larry Greenhill  |  Apr 18, 2004  |  First Published: Apr 01, 2004  |  0 comments
Unless you've been on active duty in the Middle East, you're aware that Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab is back in business. During Stereophile's Home Entertainment 2003 show in San Francisco last June, Kal Rubinson and I played hookey to visit MoFi mastering engineer Paul Stubblebine's recording studio, at 1340 Mission Street. As we sat spellbound, Paul played the original four-track, ½", 1-mil master tape of Stanislaw Skrowaczewski and the Minnesota Orchestra's legendary 1974 recording of Ravel's Boléro and Daphnis et Chloé (footnote 1). Stubblebine fed the four discrete channels from the specially modified ReVox reel-to-reel deck to a modern surround system. The master tape produced the cleanest, purest sound I had heard in a long time.
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Floor Loudspeaker Reviews
Aerial Acoustics Model 20T loudspeaker
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 18, 2004  |  First Published: Apr 01, 2004  |  0 comments
Loudspeaker design is an art and a science. Anyone who tells you it's only one or the other is probably building or listening to some awful-sounding speakers. Design a speaker in an anechoic chamber for the "theoretical" world, and there's no guarantee it will sound good in the real one. Even building a speaker that excels at "real-room" measurements doesn't guarantee that it will sound all that convincing when reproducing music. We can't measure everything, and what we can measure can't be reliably ranked in terms of what's important to most listeners.
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