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The last time my head turned when a recording received "Best of Month" notice from several magazines was in 2023, when Warner released Antonio Pappano's Turandot. The time before that was 26 years ago when Sony released pianist Murray Perahia's spiritually…

One hundred and fifty years after his birth, the music of visionary American composer Charles Ives has gained a degree of public and critical acceptance, but even that acceptance has seemed confined to orchestral works, especially The Unanswered Question and Three Places in New England. One of his thorniest compositions, the stunning…

Sometimes, great components enter our lives with little fanfare. Thus, by happenstance, did Lamm Industries' L2.1 Reference preamplifier ($22,790) end up in my reference system.

The story began at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas, when John Atkinson and I visited Lamm's oversize suite on a high floor of the Venetian Hotel. Our intentions were twofold: to report on what we heard and saw, and to sniff out products for me to review. We found one likely candidate—AQ…

After two-and-a-half years with Wilson Audio's Alexia serving as my reference loudspeaker ($52,000/pair), I was eager to hear the differences between it and its successor, the Alexia Series 2 ($57,900/pair). My first serious listen to the Alexia 2 speakers took place at Definitive Audio Bellevue, before my review samples arrived. That system's dCS Rossini DAC and clock, D'Agostino Progression stereo amp, and Transparent Audio cables and interconnects were sonic familiars, but Definitive's music collection was…

For her first proper full-length, British-born Iranian composer/performer Shiva Feshareki set her ambitions high, reaching up into the ether and backward into the early days of electronic music.

Feshareki has garnered acclaim for her live mixing of electronic and acoustic sounds. On the…

I had just met Steve. We sat across from one another at a table full of hi-fi enthusiasts, salesmen, writers, and family, where we enjoyed fine wine, pizza, and conversation. Steve…

The sound Gary was getting from the Border Patrol P21 push-pull 20W 300B amp ($12,750) driving the Living Voice Avatar loudspeakers ($11,850/pair) with Gary's own non…

Since Audio High had sent Meridian specific recordings of varying resolutions that it wished encoded, I mostly confined my auditioning to those tracks. Yevgeny (Eugene) Konnikov…

Octave Audio of Karlsbad, Germany, a longtime manufacturer of tube electronics, presented the North American debut of its new Octave Jubilee Class A mono amplifier ($85,000/pair; go here for more info) at Definitive Audio in Bellevue, Washington, (across the lake from Seattle) on January 29. The first stop in a three-city US tour by Andreas Hofmann, company president and designer, and John Quick, VP Sales & Marketing for Octave’s US distributor, Dynaudio North America, the multi-day event included two back-to-back sessions followed by open houses. Days…