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What is good music? What is a good recording? The music should awaken some emotion in you and bring your soul to life. The recording provides transportation for the music. It can be a Volkswagen or a Rolls-Royce, the difference being the comfort of the trip. Who left the window open? And who is eating Rice Krispies in the back seat?

Crackle is along for the ride on side one. (Pop and Snap decided to hang out at the used record store.) I even stopped at a car wash before the trip, but Crackle didn't seem to take the hint. Thank goodness he fell asleep before side…

I feel as if I know you all personally after reading your prose religiously for three and a half years. "Stereophile cutting an LP!" I thought, "This is going to be one heck of a recording!" My copy of Poem arrived on February 17th. Oh, boy! I was so excited, I could hardly wait for it to get dark outside so that I could begin some serious listening. Night fell, and Poem lay on my trusty Well-Tempered Record Player (footnote 1). I lowered the arm into the lead-in groove and the Grado brought forth the first notes of side one. I turned out the lights and settled into my…

Stereophile's initial effort to conceive and produce what it regards as an example of an audiophile LP of definitive quality has been a success from almost any technical perspective. The recording, entitled Poem, reproduces works for solo flute with piano accompaniment.

The sound of the record persuades a listener that it is possible to create a sonic impression of actuality. The superlative surfaces of the record provide such quiet as to approach that of a DDD compact disc. The soundstaging is dramatic, but happily constrained to dimensions commensurate with…

A Cause for Celebration

Editor: The cause for celebration is that I've now auditioned the "new" [190gm, one-step] Stereophile Poem album. I say "new" because I feel that it depicts clearly what you set out to do in the first place. That is, to clearly delineate the glorious sound of music in a real space at a given time. You have changed this record enormously—all for the better, but nonetheless it is not the same record as was delivered in December 1989.

I'll get right to the…

That news would come as a shock to the casual audiophile of only 20 years ago: Imagine going back in time and telling him that the LP will remain viable for decades to come. You might as well tell the car enthusiast of 1984 that Motor Trend will name the Morgan 4/4 Car of the Year for 2004, and…

The GFA-555 does everything well, and most things exceptionally…

After reading AHC's very positive review of the Adcom amplifier (Vol.8 No.5), I just had to audition it. Not just any old GFA-55, but the GFA-55 reviewed by AHC.

I was initially impressed, but not terribly. A half hour's listening, however, revealed a significantly better sound (by now I should know better than to listen to any amp during the first half hour), so I left it to cook overnight. (The Eagle 2 cooked too, just to make things fair; since then, I've found this…

My editor felt it was time to survey a handful of what might be called "entry-level" high-end amplifiers. These five amps, offering a glimpse of what high-end sound is all about, range in price from just under $400 to slightly less than $1200. Each, in its way, can serve as a vital link in a system which, with carefully chosen associated equipment, will reward the listener with a highly detailed, focused, emotionally involving musical experience. These amplifiers have proven popular with consumers and have received…

The only variable in these listening tests was the particular amplifier under evaluation. All other system components remained constant, with the exception of the loudspeaker: I wanted to listen to each of the amps on both electrostatic and dynamic speakers. My Acoustat Twos satisfied the former need; a pair of Spica TC-50s took care of the latter. My front-end consists of the VPI Mk.II with an ET-2 arm/Talisman S combination. Tracking force is set at 1.8 grams, and loading at the preamp is 100 ohms. Straight Wire Maestro interconnect links TT and preamp. My…