The cute Gradient Helsinki lends itself to elegance and simplicity. But did Art enjoy his time spent living with it?
Some think yes, some think no. I would guess a bit of both. Art had an extremely tough time finding the places in his…
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The August 2010 issue of Stereophile is now on newsstands. The cover, with its mellow tones, is one of my favorites. To a greater degree than any other cover we’ve released, this one got a buzz going around the office. People would walk by and say nice things. I hope the cover works the same magic for people browsing the newsstands.
Phiaton, maker of sexy headphones for sexy people, has a nice new website filled with pictures of attractive young adults, set in clean, chic surroundings, looking very deeply engaged with what they’re doing, whether at work or at play or getting ready for a big date, while wearing Phiaton headphones. Check it out.
The woman seen here is deep into her listening experience with Phiaton’s PS210. You can read John Atkinson’s review of the PS200 here. Wes Phillips reviewed the MS400. And I compared the MS400 to the highly fashionable Beats by Dr. Dre.
Marantz has introduced four new, relatively affordable products: two integrated amplifiers and two disc players. All carry on the sleek, attractive design of the company’s reference components, featuring the classic Marantz star logo (cool), sculpted faceplates, and solid-looking build.
I’m most interested in the cheap stuff.
The CD5004 CD player uses a Cirrus Logic CS4392 D/A converter capable of handling high-resolution 24-bit/196kHz PCM signals. But the player can also read CD-R and CD-RW discs with MP3 and WMA files. Interestingly, there’s also a front panel…
Remember this rad video?
Best Coast's full-length debut, Crazy For You, will be released by the awesome Mexican Summer label on July 27th. (That's just a few days away!)
Maria Schneider’s Jazz Orchestra plays at Birdland in midtown Manhattan this week, an unusual season and setting (usually they play at the Jazz Standard around Thanksgiving). The occasion is the premiere of a new, commissioned composition, and at Wednesday’s early set, it sounded as lovely as anything she’s written: joyful, melancholic, adventurous, pensive, with a samba swing.
She devoted much of the rest of the set to very early pieces, including an upbeat number she wrote for the (now-defunct) Carnegie Hall Jazz Band and an arrangement of the ballad standard “My Ideal” that she said…
On Friday, John Atkinson and I visited the lovely home of WIRC Media’s Micah Sheveloff, press representative for Thiel and Bryston.
I first met Micah in January 2005 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. You can read about that experience here. It was my first time in Vegas, my first time attending a CES, and my first-ever press demo. Jim Thiel was discussing his CS3.7. All at once, and just off a plane, I was being introduced to Jim Thiel, Kathy Gornik, and the latest iteration of a classic loudspeaker design. Jim Thiel was vibrating with an incredible kind of…
Photo: David Black
Last Night, in Other Music, I held out my copy of Best Coast’s Crazy For You, and I smiled at Karen and, because I needed to say something, I said, “I’ve been looking forward to this one.”
She lit up like a firefly, like a summer moon, like a pretty girl in love with a song, and she said:
“Oh yeah…yeah. It’s so…it’s so…high.”
She raised one hand up to her head.
“It’s like way up here. But then…”
She lowered her hand to her waist.
“It’s down here, too.”
What the hell was she talking about? I had no idea. I…
Last night, after leaving Other Music, orange bag in my hand, I stopped in front of In Living Stereo and gazed dreamily at the window display: A pair of DeVore Fidelity Gibbon 3s (just like home!), a Rega P3 (just like home!), and a…
Leben CS300 integrated amplifier? What is this beautiful thing? It’s got big silver knobs and little black switches and a gold faceplate and wood side panels and green trim and it uses four EL84 tubes and it’s “A Motion Sound,” whatever that means, and its dimensions are entirely adorable and I want it! I want it now, I want it.
A…
Will you be in or around Baltimore tomorrow night? Will you be in the mood for music, hi-fi, and wine? If so, this looks fun:
Thursday, July 29, 6–8pm: Join musicians from the world-renowned Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at Gramophone’s Timonium Showroom for Music Matters: interludes of music and intimate conversation amid fine wine, hors d’oeuvres and state-of-the-art audio systems. Space is limited for this FREE event, so reserve today.
In addition, representatives from Meridian will be on hand for the US premier of two new products. The Gramophone Timonium Showroom…