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Records to Die For 2017 Page 4

Jon Iverson

Yello: Toy
Polydor 4782160 (24/48 PCM download). 2016. Yello, prods.; Boris Blank, eng. DDD. TT: 61:04

This is the thick, frosty chocolate milkshake of your sonic dreams. Toy will light up any audiophile system (and your earbuds) with an aural sweetness and luxuriant flavor that push out the soundstage walls for miles and reach as deep down into dark-chocolate depths as recordings can go. All of which would be a terrible waste if there weren't so much rich, creamy songwriting at the heart of these frothily arranged tunes. And yes, there are…

Apple AirPods Pro 2 noise-canceling, wireless, in-ear headphones

You won't see many Apple products in these pages, and for good reason. As Stereophile Editor Jim Austin wrote to me recently in an email, "Apple may have the best acoustic-design facilities in the world, but its products are designed by engineers who don't seem to respect perfectionist sound—which is appropriate for a company that aims for the vast middle of the bell curve." Has that changed?

It took Apple years to get halfway serious about music reproduction. The $2 trillion giant didn't offer lossless files via its Apple Music streaming service until mid-2021. Its early wired earphones…

Infinity Composition Prelude P-FR loudspeaker

I can't think of two products at further ends of the audio spectrum than a single-ended triode tubed amplifier and a mass-market Home Theater loudspeaker. Single-ended tubed amplifiers are about reproducing subtlety, delicacy, nuance, and communicating the music's inner essence. Conversely, a Home Theater loudspeaker system—particularly one made by a mass-market manufacturer—would appear to put the emphasis on booming bass and reproducing shotgun blasts, with little regard for musical refinement.

What a bizarre marriage it was, then, to pair the new Infinity Composition Prelude P-FR…

Sennheiser HD-580 headphones

Drum me out of the High End if you must, but I have a shameful confession to make: I love headphones. I know, I know, I'm supposed to preface my comment with a lofty disclaimer, such as, "Of course, given my refined sensibilities, I could never derive satisfaction from such a compromised listening apparatus, but many of you seem to enjoy them." Well, pardon me for saying so, but pfffftttt!

Headphones offered me my first chance to experience musical details that never came through my primitive, early stereo systems. They allowed me to listen to whatever I wanted to at any loudness I chose…

Spin Doctor #30: The Belleson Radiance & EBI Audio Khumar

As the Spin Doctor, I tend to lead an analog life. I'm not just talking about my preferred ways of listening to music, but also my approach to other everyday technology. For decades, there has been a push to turn everything we use into a connected, "smart" device. We now have technology that allows us to change the color temperature of the lights in our living room while we sit on the sofa, or to answer our front doorbell from the other side of the world. I prefer an older-school approach. For one thing, I drive a very analog car, a 33-year-old Mercedes-Benz diesel, which, once started, could…

Conrad-Johnson Premier 17LS line-stage preamplifier Sam Tellig on the 17LS2

Sam Tellig wrote about the Premier 17LS2 in October 2004 (Vol.27 No.10):

If you own a mediocre preamplifier, it will compromise the sound of your entire system. If you substitute a great preamp, it will likely transform the sound of your entire system—making a much bigger difference, say, than upgrading your power amp or buying a better CD player.

You can also give your entire system what Antony Michaelson, of Musical Fidelity, describes as "the ineffable magic of tubes." Just put a tubed preamp in the equipment chain. That's what Bill Conrad and Lew Johnson, of Conrad-Johnson,…

2003 Records To Die For Page 4

Jon Iverson
BUZZCOCKS: A Different Kind of Tension
Nettwerk 30247 (CD). 1979/2001. Martin Rushant, prod., eng.; Martin Hannett, prod. AAD. TT: 40:18 There was a time when bands could create concise punk-pop tunes that poked at society's excesses without sounding as though the music had been contrived to reach a target market of "rebel youth." This disc is from that era (1979) and perhaps sounds a bit bright, but what a great batch of catchy, well-crafted songs full of caustic wit. For example, the title track takes aim at the mixed messages we're bombarded with in the media, coupling…

Brilliant Corners #36: A New Listening Space, Jean-Marie Reynaud BLISS Jubilé loudspeaker, Stein Acoustic Discs

It's difficult to put a positive spin on moving. A recent survey ranked it as life's most stressful event, ahead of divorce, losing a job, or becoming a parent. Forty-two percent of respondents said it brought them to tears. Thirteen percent said it was worse than a week in jail.

There's no point in listing the well-documented hassles, humiliations, and expenses involved in changing homes, or point out the ample opportunities for things to go from predictably stressful to memorably horrific. It's the less obvious aspects that strike me as interesting. At the risk of sounding maudlin, I…

Brilliant Corners #32: the Air Tight ATM-2Plus amplifier, Tube Rolling, and Joni Mitchell's <I>Hejira</I>

If you go to Tokyo, there's a good chance you'll develop a new appreciation for shopping malls. The Japanese know malls. They know just what to do with them. Inside a Tokyo mall, you can peruse the usual handbags and shoes in their unending variety. But you can also stare at Fuji apples as large as a baby's head swaddled in tissue paper, flip through the world's most exquisite stationery, stock up on fabric from the 1920s, and taste things that will haunt you well into retirement.

I remember having my first serious sushi in Tokyo on the top floor of a Ginza mall. My partner and I were led…

Recommended Components: 2019 Edition Integrated Amps & Receivers

Integrated Amplifiers & Receivers

Anthem STR: $4499 $$$
Anthem's solid-state STR integrated amp offers 200Wpc (into 8 ohms) of class-AB power, along with seven analog inputs—one balanced, four single-ended, and two phono (one MM, one MC). It also offers a 32-bit/192kHz D/A processor with six digital inputs—four S/PDIF (two RCA, two TosLink), one AES/EBU (XLR), and one USB. A subwoofer output is provided, but, curiously, there's no headphone output. Of interest to users with problematic listening rooms is the STR's built-in Anthem Room Correction (ARC) processor: using…