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…
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Jason Victor Serinus wrote about the Alexia 2 in August 2018 (Vol.41 No.8):
Shiva Feshareki, Daphne Oram: Turning World
London Contemporary Orchestra, Shiva Feshareki, James Bulley, Kit Downes
NMC Recordings NMC D266 (CD, download). 2022. Jonathan Manners, Ellie Mant, prods., Gilly Chauhan, Andy Garratt, Ross Sanders, engs.
Performance *****
Sonics *****
London Contemporary Orchestra, Shiva Feshareki, James Bulley, Kit Downes
NMC Recordings NMC D266 (CD, download). 2022. Jonathan Manners, Ellie Mant, prods., Gilly Chauhan, Andy Garratt, Ross Sanders, engs.
Performance *****
Sonics *****
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…
In our December issue, I review Emotiva’s ERC-2 CD player and use Mark Hollis’s eponymous solo album as a reference. It’s a gorgeous disc, both sonically and musically—full of emotion, power, urgency, and lifelike detail. It was only earlier this year that I discovered Mark Hollis and his band, Talk Talk, through the kindness of Steve Cohen, salesman at In Living Stereo and friend of Other Music.
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…
Room 615: I always learn something when I chat with Gary Dews and I always enjoy listening to music in the Border Patrol room. I met Gary in Hove, England back in 1994. Even then he was a fully formed individualist and working on some very sophisticated projects. He was then and remains committed to some of my favorite amp-design strategies: transformer coupling, tube rectification and choke-filtered power supplies.
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…
The reemergence of Technics on the world audio scene is, I believe, the biggest audio news of 2015–2016. I reviewed their SB-C700 stand mounted monitor speakers in the January 2016 issue and they already feel like my 2016 nomination for Stereophile's Product of the Year; but obviously it is still way early. Nevertheless, Technics is back with two lines of stylish excellent sounding equipment: a Reference R1 Class Series which will be described by my associate Jason Victor Serinus; a Premium Class System that can be purchased with the SB-C700 speakers I reviewed, an integrated amp that I loved…
John Atkinson has asked me to share my impressions of MQA. Currently, the only retail outlet in the United States able to demonstrate Meridian's MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) encoding/decoding system is Audio High in Mountain View, CA. Auditioned, during a return visit to the Bay Area, on the very same pair of Meridian DSP8000SE loudspeakers that I reported on last April, MQA impressed anew with each track.
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…
Photos by Jason Victor Serinus
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…
Recently, my good friend Bryan invited himself over for a "critical listening session" at my place. This was out of character. Typically our listening sessions are not of the "critical" variety. They take place late at night after several cocktails, neat bourbon in hand. Volume knobs are torqued. The choice of recorded material tends toward early Lynyrd Skynyrd (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd), that one Hank Williams Jr. album that doesn't suck (The Almeria Club Recordings), and one of two Def Leppard albums (Pyromania or (Hysteria). A certain Jerry Jeff Walker album (Viva Terlingua) was…
Photo: John Atkinson
Location, location, location . . . and, from Richard Beers and Bob Levi, a generous helping of brilliant organizing acumen. That winning combination means that, in just its third year, T.H.E. Show Newport Beach has already laid claim to the title of the top consumer “fine audio” show in the U.S.
What exactly being No.1 means is another question entirely. While T.H.E. Show Newport Beach may have been spread over multiple floors in two adjacent hotels, as was T.H.E. Show Las Vegas of old, and offered, in addition to almost 140 exhibit rooms and an invaluable…
Jason Victor Serinus wrote about the DAC502 in October 2020 (Vol.43 No.10):
"Good morning Jason," began the email from Technical Editor John Atkinson. "I have just reviewed the $9850 Weiss DAC502 for the August issue of Stereophile. I thought this D/A processor sounded superb, ... and I wish I had been able to compare it with the dCS Rossini. "Would you therefore be willing to follow up my review with that comparison? [Editor-in-Chief] Jim is cool with that idea, and I can have the Weiss shipped to you. It has balanced outputs and a high-resolution volume control, so would be compatible…