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With music servers that have USB outputs, like the Roon Nucleus + that I reviewed in August 2018 and the Innuos Statement that Jason Victor Serinus reviewed in April 2020, it's difficult to decide what measurements could be meaningful. However, as I had done with the Innuos server, I could use two D/A processors with USB inputs—an original Mytek Brooklyn and an AudioQuest DragonFly Red—with which I could compare the effect of sourcing data from the Wolf server instead of my MacBook Pro laptop.

Before I ran the JRiver Media Center 25 app on the Wolf and…

On January 11, the gifted 23-year-old violinist accompanied me to nine different rooms, each time with Neville Marriner and the entire Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in tow. Playing Brahms's Violin Concerto, sometimes Ms. Hahn was modestly draped in "Red Book" Standard, other times in Superbly Accessorized Couture Divine. But even when she wore the same outfit from room to room, she and her backup forces created nine distinctly different sonic impressions when they began to strut…

Might this recording be too "out there" for some? I spent hours mulling alternative recommendations, my favorites being accordionist Ksenija Sidorova's captivating Piazzolla Reflections and cellist Nicole Peña Comas and pianist Hugo Llanos Campos's…

As a singer and writer, Patricia Barber has never been easy to define. In the audiophile world, she's too often defined—and her brilliance obscured—by her ubiquity at audio shows and her regrettable membership in a…

When I first heard mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli in person some 29 years ago, at her West Coast debut in the "Cal Performances" series at Berkeley's Hertz Hall, she was just 24 years old. Along with the rest of the audience, I was astonished at her ability to ally phenomenal coloratura technique with an out-of-the-box range of expression—unheard…

From Afar seems on its face like a dream recording for audiophiles and music lovers. The 2-CD, 44-track project spotlights Víkingur Ólafsson, the sensitive, 38-year-old Icelandic pianist, performing a captivating program of short pieces twice on dissimilar pianos with very different sound: a concert grand and an upright. The very different performances are dictated by Ólafsson's…

Each listing-in alphabetical order within classes-is followed by a brief description of the product's sonic characteristics and a code indicating the Stereophile Volume and Issue in which that product's report appeared. Thus the May 2017 issue is indicated as "Vol.40 No.5."

Some products listed have not yet been reported on; these are…

Each listing-in alphabetical order within classes-is followed by a brief description of the product's sonic characteristics and a code indicating the Stereophile Volume and Issue in which that product's report appeared. Thus the May 2017 issue is indicated as "Vol.40 No.5."

Some products listed have not yet been reported on; these are…