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CES 2018
Dynaudio Sub 6 Subwoofer
Jon Iverson  |  Jan 09, 2018  |  4 comments
Just so happens the first room I entered this year featured the Wolf Cinema projector in a full-on home theater demo. Curiously, like a fish out of water, Wolf sets up their video equipment at the Venetian high-end audio stomping grounds year after year with an impressive big screen presentation. It must work for them! But as I looked around in the dark, I found Dynaudio's Brian Kjaer also present. This is Dynaudio's only CES showing this year, as the audio provider for the Wolf Cinema room.
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CES 2018
What If They Gave a Show . . .
Jon Iverson  |  Jan 09, 2018  |  11 comments
. . . and nobody came? If you look at the numbers for the high-end audio sector alone, it certainly looks like something went south. However the rest of CES is thriving: gadgets, AI and even self-driving cars have supplanted much of what used to dominate these shows (one of the Innovations Award winners this year is Kohler's "intelligent bathroom.")
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Katz's CornerInnerFidelity
Katz's Corner Episode 23: A Big Step Forward
Bob Katz  |  Jan 09, 2018  |  0 comments
This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com

I was planning on presenting the next episode in my "How Insensitive" series, but that'll have to wait till next time because a wonderful new toy has just arrived straight from the technical geniuses in Hong Kong. Today we're going to introduce you to a powerful new and affordable investigative tool: The MiniDSP EARS Headphone Jig, costing $179 USD. MiniDSP has been manufacturing audio-related DSP products since 2009. Led by charismatic Frenchman Tony Rouget, MiniDSP has made some innovative and affordable audio amplifiers, digital equalizers, DACs, calibrated measurement microphones and measurement tools.

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CES 2018News
Classé Audio Revived
Kalman Rubinson  |  Jan 08, 2018  |  First Published: Jan 09, 2018  |  11 comments
Today at the CES in Las Vegas, it was announced that Sound United (Denon, Marantz, Polk Audio, Definitive Technology, Polk BOOM, HEOS, and Boston Acoustics) had acquired Classé Audio and that operations would be resumed under the leadership of Dave Nauber.
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News
The February Issue Is Here!
Stereophile Staff  |  Jan 07, 2018  |  1 comments
MBL's mighty N31 CD player-DAC is featured on the new issue's cover and gets an in-depth review from John Atkinson inside, but February is also our annual "Records 2 Die 4" feature: Our team of writers put their heads together and came up with 61 albums that they will take with them when they go.
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As We See ItMQA
More on MQA
John Atkinson  |  Jan 06, 2018  |  72 comments
An economy of information transmitted . . . what was encoded was only what was needed, nothing more. (footnote 1)

As I wrote in the January issue's "As We See It," Master Quality Authenticated (MQA), the encoding/decoding system developed by J. Robert (Bob) Stuart and Peter Craven, has been widely criticized, despite reports in this magazine and others that MQA-encoded files tend to sound better than the PCM originals from which they were derived. Also in last month's issue, Jim Austin investigated the time-domain performance of the MQA reconstruction filter and I examined some of the more general aspects, ending with: "Other criticisms of MQA involve its implications for the recording industry, for manufacturers of audio products, and for consumers. I will examine those in next month's 'As We See It.'"

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FeaturesMQAReference
MQA Tested Part 2: Into the Fold
Jim Austin  |  Jan 06, 2018  |  28 comments
Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight.—Marcus Aurelius

Master Quality Authenticated (MQA), the audio codec from industry veterans Bob Stuart and Peter Craven, rests on two pillars: improved time-domain behavior, which is said to improve sound quality and what MQA Ltd. calls "audio origami," which yields reduced file size (for downloads) and data rate (for streaming). Last month I took a first peek at those time-domain issues, examining the impulse response of MQA's "upsampling renderer," the output side of this analog-to-analog system (footnote 1). This month I take a first look at the second pillar: MQA's approach to data-rate reduction. In particular, I'll consider critics' claims that MQA is a "lossy" codec.

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Robert Baird
The Crawfish Whisperer
Robert Baird  |  Jan 05, 2018  |  7 comments
Long Out-Of-Print Louisiana Music Compilation Reissued.
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Floor Loudspeaker Reviews
Alta Audio Hestia Titanium loudspeaker
Jim Austin  |  Jan 04, 2018  |  13 comments
Phrases like high fidelity and perfectionist audio suggest a central norm to which all things audio should aspire. Not a bad idea, in some ways, but if you look at the wide variety of loudspeakers out there that people love, from the old-school Auditorium 23s to the high-tech KEFs and Vivids, it can be hard to figure out what they all have in common.
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InterviewsMusic and Recording Features
Brooklyn Rider: Lucid Flight
Robert Baird  |  Jan 04, 2018  |  1 comments
Is classical music really on the ropes? Living in New York City, it's easy to think that is a myth cooked up in the provinces.

Recently, at a performance of the Metropolitan Opera's fabulous current production of Jacques Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann, directed by Bartlett Sher, I experienced Classical Music 2017 up close and personal. In the audience, multicolored sequined jackets and cheetah-print slip-on sneakers mixed with tuxedos. Merrell hiking shoes and Patagonia down jackets crossed with slim-fit outfits from Billy Reid and Hermes bags. Between bravura tenor Vittorio Grigolo in the title role and soprano Erin Morley's absolutely wonderful portrayal of the doll, Olympia (Bravo!!!), it was a performance for the ages. None of the recordings I've heard come close.

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