Within each category, products are listed by class; within each class, they're in alphabetical order, followed by their price, a review synopsis, and a note indicating the issues in which the review, and any subsequent follow-up reports, appeared. "Vol.47 No.7" indicates our July 2024 issue, for…
search
Every product listed here has been reviewed in Stereophile. Everything on the list, regardless of rating, is genuinely recommendable. Occasionally we get letters of complaint from manufacturers who object to being included in, say, Class B—but inclusion in Class B is a thing to be proud of.
Editors' Choice
MoFi Electronics Sourcepoint 10 Loudspeaker
I have had so many loudspeakers pass through my listening room in the past 40 years that it is rare for one to stick in my mind for more than a couple of months after it had been returned to the manufacturer or distributor. But my memories of this relatively affordable standmount—it costs $3699/pair, plus stands—which was designed by veteran speaker engineer Andrew Jones, have outlasted those of many much more expensive speakers. As I wrote in my review: "When you consider the clean, superbly well-defined low…
Kalman Rubinson
Grieg: Homeland: Piano Concerto In A Minor, Op.16
De Falla: Noches En Los Jardines De España
Judith Jáuregui (piano), Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, Kaspar Zehnder (cond.).
Eudora Records EUD-SACD-2405 SACD (auditioned via a 5.0 channel, 24/192 download from NativeDSD). 2023. Martin Rust, artistic prod.; Gonzalo Noqué, eng., prod.; Tom Caulfield, DSD mastering.
It has been decades since the Grieg Piano Concerto was a concert staple, but Jáuregui and Zehnder give it new life. The opening Allegro is brilliant but not blatant, the…
For the past decade or so, I haven't been using a preamplifier. The D/A processors I have been using all have volume controls, so I have been feeding their outputs directly to the power amplifiers. It would seem logical that having nothing in the signal path would have less of a degrading effect than a preamp's input and output sockets, switches, volume control, printed circuit-board traces, and active and passive parts, not to mention an additional pair of interconnects. However, with some of the preamplifiers I have auditioned in my system, there was no doubt that the sound quality improved…
Robert Schryer
Frank Zappa: Apostrophe (')
Zappa ZR 3851-1 (LP). 1974/2014. Frank Zappa, prod.; Steve Desper, Terry Dunavan, Barry Keene, Bob Hughes, Kerry McNabb, engs. Mastered directly from the original ½" analog master tapes. ADA. TT: 32:02
Evidence suggests that what Frank Zappa feared most was to create music that might be classified as easy listening. No surprise, then, that Apostrophe ('), a straight-ahead rock record by Zappa standards, became his biggest-selling US release. This doesn't mean it's watered-down Zappa; to quote his son Dweezil,…
When I entered the On A Higher Note room on the Marriott's mezzanine, Synergistic Research's Ted Denney was talking about the sonic benefits of his new Atmosphere ($1995, the vertical black tower between the equipment racks in the photograph). "RF pollution affects how we perceive sound," Ted said," explaining that that is why our systems unpredictably sound good or bad. The Atmosphere, he said, creates a binaural RF field that swamps external RF pollution, allowing our perception to operate correctly. It affects the listener, not the system. Synergistic offers modules for $495 each that,…
Photo: Jason Victor Serinus
During THE Show, the Woo Audio/MA Recordings room became my restful oasis. I am an extreme fan of MA Recordings and its most worldly proprietor, Todd Garfinkle (right above in Jason's photo). Todd makes perfect-sounding recordings of real in-the-world music. Not audiophile recordings of some faux chanteuse in clown makeup singing songs she doesn't understand for an audience that cares more about sonics than poetic expression. In contrast, Todd Garfinkle picks up gypsies in the Paris Metro and brings them home. He shares his best food and wine with them—and…
Like baking bread or watering my garden, playing records in my monk's cell is an expression of my devotion to living mindfully. It is part of my search for identity and comfort. It shows me how my thoughts, feelings, and poetic imagination fit in with yours, Keith Jarrett's, and everyone else's. The only problem: Often, the stereo components that most enhance my experiences of devotion and identity are not those that I can sincerely declare to be the most accurate or neutral.
Actually, there's another problem: I am an audiophile who only minimally comprehends what accurate and neutral…
In the 1960s, musical giants walked the earth. I vividly remember the first time I heard a song called "Expecting to Fly," in a UK record store. The vast, reverberation-drenched sound was extraordinary; the frail, shaky alto voice of the singer riveting.
"Who is that?" I asked the clerk.
"It's a new American band, Buffalo Springfield . . . but they've already broken up."
I bought all I could find of the Springfield, which wasn't much, and learned that the singer and composer of "Expecting to Fly" was a Canadian, Neil Young. Young's first solo album, released in 1969, had…
Robert Schryer
John Fogerty: Revival
Fantasy FCD-30001 (CD). 2007. John Fogerty, prod.; Robert Ludwig, Kevin Dean, Dave Colvin, engs. DDD.? TT: 40:41
This album's title works as both a nod to Creedence Clearwater Revival's legacy and to truth in advertising. Revival was a return to form for John Fogerty—to the sort of catchy, barroom-friendly tunes he became famous for but could no longer write. Add to its musical themes equal parts nostalgia and political outrage, and you've got a country-rock album to revitalize the troops. Revival reflects a comfortable…