What am I hearing?

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Submitted by judicata on

The obvious answer to the question above is "I don't know, you tell me." Fair enough. I'll try to answer that, but I could use some help explaining it.

First, I have absolutely been loving my new Scout. I kept my Rega Exact cartridge and have been listening to it for about a week. I really dig it, but I was paranoid that my Exact is wearing out. I decided to get it retipped, but I wanted to try something else to see what I was missing; everyone has raved about the Dynavector 10x5/VPI Scout combo, so I thought, "why not?"

Lost + Found

Lost + Found

Jul 15, 2009

I've realized why the opening few moments of Tom Abbs & Frequency Response's "Lost" make me want to just stop and cry. I find those moments so painfully beautiful because they remind me of my grandmother (my mother's mother) singing to me when I was a child. At first, I thought it was "You Are My Sunshine," but now I realize that it's "All the Pretty Horses." Listening again, I wish now I had someone to sing it to, someone to play it for.

Music in the Round #37 Recordings In The Round

Music in the Round #37 Recordings In The Round

HDMI is the invention of the Devil. I grant that the Devil is very smart&#151;he has put on a single cable both hi-rez audio and video, and paid tribute to the gods of industry by incorporating obligatory content protection. However, he has confounded the rest of us by using a connector that, while it relies on friction to maintain physical contact, has so <I>little</I> friction that the cable connector can be easily displaced from or misaligned with the chassis connector. The traditional audiophile predilection for heavy cables is, in this case, actually counterproductive&#151;exerting just a bit of torque on a stiff HDMI cable can be enough to break the connection.

Music in the Round #37 Contacts

Music in the Round #37 Contacts

HDMI is the invention of the Devil. I grant that the Devil is very smart&#151;he has put on a single cable both hi-rez audio and video, and paid tribute to the gods of industry by incorporating obligatory content protection. However, he has confounded the rest of us by using a connector that, while it relies on friction to maintain physical contact, has so <I>little</I> friction that the cable connector can be easily displaced from or misaligned with the chassis connector. The traditional audiophile predilection for heavy cables is, in this case, actually counterproductive&#151;exerting just a bit of torque on a stiff HDMI cable can be enough to break the connection.

Music in the Round #37 Page 3

Music in the Round #37 Page 3

HDMI is the invention of the Devil. I grant that the Devil is very smart&#151;he has put on a single cable both hi-rez audio and video, and paid tribute to the gods of industry by incorporating obligatory content protection. However, he has confounded the rest of us by using a connector that, while it relies on friction to maintain physical contact, has so <I>little</I> friction that the cable connector can be easily displaced from or misaligned with the chassis connector. The traditional audiophile predilection for heavy cables is, in this case, actually counterproductive&#151;exerting just a bit of torque on a stiff HDMI cable can be enough to break the connection.

Music in the Round #37 Page 2

Music in the Round #37 Page 2

HDMI is the invention of the Devil. I grant that the Devil is very smart&#151;he has put on a single cable both hi-rez audio and video, and paid tribute to the gods of industry by incorporating obligatory content protection. However, he has confounded the rest of us by using a connector that, while it relies on friction to maintain physical contact, has so <I>little</I> friction that the cable connector can be easily displaced from or misaligned with the chassis connector. The traditional audiophile predilection for heavy cables is, in this case, actually counterproductive&#151;exerting just a bit of torque on a stiff HDMI cable can be enough to break the connection.

Music in the Round #37

Music in the Round #37

Jul 14, 2009

HDMI is the invention of the Devil. I grant that the Devil is very smart&#151;he has put on a single cable both hi-rez audio and video, and paid tribute to the gods of industry by incorporating obligatory content protection. However, he has confounded the rest of us by using a connector that, while it relies on friction to maintain physical contact, has so <I>little</I> friction that the cable connector can be easily displaced from or misaligned with the chassis connector. The traditional audiophile predilection for heavy cables is, in this case, actually counterproductive&#151;exerting just a bit of torque on a stiff HDMI cable can be enough to break the connection.

John Crabbe: Firebrand Page 5

John Crabbe: Firebrand Page 5

<B>Editor's Note: </B>John Crabbe was Editor of <I>Hi-Fi News &amp; Record Review</I> when I joined that magazine as a lowly editorial assistant in September 1976. At the end of 2007, I had asked Steve Harris to interview John for <I>Stereophile</I>, as part of an ongoing project to create an oral history of high-end audio (footnote 1). Sadly, John passed away in December 2008&#151;see "<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/communities">As We See It</A>" and "Industry Update," in our March issue. We are publishing Steve's interview as a tribute to a man from whom I learned my craft as an audio magazine editor.&#151;<B>John Atkinson</B>

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