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Jason Victor Serinus reviewed this non-oversampling (NOS) digital-to-analog converter from AQ Technologies, aka Aqua Acoustic Quality, in June 2018. The Formula xHD, which costs $17,000, has no chips or digital filters, instead using a 24-bit, four-branch, resistor-to-resistor (R2R) ladder based on field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). When JVS listened to a recording of Vadim Gluzman performing the Brahms Violin Concerto, with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra under James Gaffigan (SACD/CD, BIS 2172), he found…

Select Recording Device: Select a microphone and load its correction file. Any USB measurement mike will do as long as it comes with a correction curve file, preferably for a vertical (90°)…

J.S. Bach: Trios
Chris Thile, mandolin, guitar; Yo-Yo Ma, cello; Edgar Meyer, double bass.
Nonesuch 558933 (2 LPs; CD; 24/96 AIFF files available from HDTracks and Presto Music; 24/48k MQA-encoded FLAC file available as a Tidal stream that unfolds to 24/96k). 2017. Ruth E. DeSarno, exec. prod.; Steven Epstein, prod.; Richard King, eng.

With the exception of the Brandenburg Concertos, which were written with specific solo instruments in mind, the instrumental music of Johann Sebastian Bach seems to exist on a separate plane from the actual scoring…

Following an auspicious start, hi-fi in the '60s got complicated. It went backward by going forward. Hi-fi expanded to reach a larger audience. But it did so partly by going mid-fi, with a focus on style, convenience, and broad appeal.…

I put on CD8, two concertos by Joaquín Rodrigo recorded with the San Antonio Symphony in 1967. Concierto andaluz was commissioned by the Romeros' guitar quartet (the three sons plus father Celedonio). The guitars sit dead center in the stereo image, with prominent double basses to the right and first-seat violins to the left. Spread behind the front array, from left to right, are woodwinds and brass. As I heard while making the 3-to-2 channel mix of this recording, every note and its source is clearly located on the soundstage, and the four guitars are distinctly detailed. The 801 D4…

At Stereophile, every reviewer takes a different approach to reviewing, and so they inevitably reach varied conclusions. Our work, though, is partly based on shared principles. As in reviewing wine, for example, our own tastes matter—a lot—but certain universal (though subjective) principles matter, too. This fact becomes especially interesting in follow-up reviews, in which shared principles hold even as personal preferences collide.

As long as it's done by a different reviewer, a follow-up review always…

When my wife and I got engaged, we each bought each other a "bubble-back" Rolex watch from an antique shop in San Francisco. Mine was a 1939, hers was a 1940; both watches still run fine, though I am not sure for how much longer, as Rolex no longer services watches that old. My respect for Swiss engineering is based in part on my experience with the Rolexes. So I readily agreed when Editor-in-Chief Jim Austin proposed that I spend some time with the current version of the I1 Universal integrated…

Freddie Hubbard: On Fire: Live from the Blue Morocco
Freddie Hubbard, trumpet; Bennie Maupin, tenor saxophone; Kenny Barron, piano; Herbie Lewis, bass; Freddie Waits, drums
Resonance HCD 2073 (2 CDs; also available as 3 LPs…

One of those was Bob Hodas' room. Shown in part with recording, mixing, and mastering engineer Piper Payne, who also works with the…

In almost 40 years of attending audio press events, only rarely have I come away feeling that I was present at the birth of a new world. In March 1979, I visited the Philips Research Center in Eindhoven, Holland and heard a prototype of what was to be later called the Compact Disc. In the summer of 1982, I visited Ron Genereux and Bob Berkovitz at Acoustic Research's lab near Boston and heard a very early example of the application of DSP to the…