LATEST ADDITIONS

News
Jonathan Scull new full-time senior editor at Stereophile
John Atkinson  |  Apr 11, 1999  |  0 comments
Stereophile magazine is pleased to announce that senior contributing editor Jonathan Scull has joined its full-time staff as senior editor. As of April 19, 1999, he will be based at parent company Emap Petersen's office on lower Fifth Avenue in Manhattan's Flatiron district.
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Tube Power Amp Reviews
Nagra VPA monoblock power amplifier
Jonathan Scull  |  Apr 08, 1999  |  0 comments
Nagra's VPA amplification system consists of two slim, handsome monoblock amplifiers intended for vertical placement. They look good adjacent to the speakers. However, two 845 tubes put out a lot of heat, so the amplifier should be at least a foot away from your speakers...unless you're looking for a nice crackle finish.
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Fine Tunes
Fine Tunes #10
Jonathan Scull  |  Apr 06, 1999  |  0 comments
Last month (click here for previous Fine Tunes) I tipped you on how to check the AC plug orientation for transformer current leakage—the best sound is often found at the lowest voltmeter reading. Roger Skoff of XLO suggests another technique that's worth passing on to you, if only because the imagery is so . . . piquant: Leave the speaker cables hooked up and pull the interconnects from the power amplifier. Turn it on and "stick your head in the speaker," as Roger puts it, checking for the level of hum. (Imagine a pair of bony audiophile legs waving crazily out of the bell of an Avantgarde Acoustics horn speaker.)
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Vote
What amplifier(s) are you using?
Stereophile  |  Apr 04, 1999  |  305 comments

We got a record number of responses last week when we asked readers to share their loudspeaker preferences. Now tell us what <I>drives</I> those speakers.

What amplifier(s) are you using?
And the answer is . . .
96% (298 votes)
Don't like what I have, but do like . . .
4% (11 votes)
Total votes: 309
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News
DiAural Demo Converts Skeptic
Barry Willis  |  Apr 04, 1999  |  0 comments
Advances in audio reproduction typically proceed with tiny steps that, in time, add up to major systemic improvements. In this industry, quantum leaps in basic technology rarely happen. DiAural Doppler decoding may be one of them.
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News
A Busy Week for the Online Radio Biz
Jon Iverson  |  Apr 04, 1999  |  0 comments
Last week saw a flurry of announcements in the online audio and video streaming business, capped off by Yahoo!'s acquisition of Broadcast.com. Yahoo! says it has signed a definitive agreement with Broadcast.com whereby Yahoo! will issue 0.7722 of a share of Yahoo! common stock for each share of Broadcast.com common stock. In addition, all outstanding options of Broadcast.com will be converted into Yahoo! options. The acquisition is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 1999 and is valued at around $5.7 billion, including $4.8 billion in Broadcast.com common stock and $900 million in stock options.
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News
Magic Thrives at PWB Electronics
Barry Willis  |  Apr 04, 1999  |  0 comments
Forget about tuning dots, mystical poker chips, and clocks with programmed electrons. They're all hopelessly out of date.
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News
Added to the Archives This Week
Stereophile Staff  |  Apr 04, 1999  |  0 comments
Any audiophile who stumbles onto one of the more cantankerous audio newsgroups ("wreck audio opinion," anyone?) may wonder what has happened to the modern breed of audiophiles. One suspects that religious wars pale when compared to how some audio pundits jostle against each other! But over the years, there has always been a wide variety of opinion. For a perspective written decades ago that still holds true today, we present J. Gordon Holt's classic "Why Hi-Fi Experts Disagree."
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CD Player/Transport ReviewsDigital Processor Reviews
Wadia 27ix & Wadia 270 transport
John Atkinson  |  Apr 02, 1999  |  First Published: Apr 03, 1999  |  0 comments
History teaches us that the full flowering of any social phenomenon takes place after the seeds of its destruction have been sown. That tourist magnet, London's Buckingham Palace, for example, was built decades after the English Revolution and the Restoration had redefined the role of the British monarchy as being merely titular, and made the elected Parliament the real seat of power.
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Fine Tunes
Fine Tunes #9
Jonathan Scull  |  Mar 30, 1999  |  0 comments
Okay, let's return to the power grid. In the February installment of "Fine Tunes", we learned that typical domestic 110V AC supplies are derived from that 220V transformer out on the pole. The center-tap 110V supply is unbalanced, but if you take 220V service, you're getting balanced power. One thing you can do is take 220V down to 110V with a step-down transformer. George Cardas swears by it. He's also experimenting with a Statpower Technologies Prosine 1000 Full Square Wave Converter hooked to a big mutha battery to power his front-end components.
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