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The most expensive audio system at TAVES 2012 was in the main ballroom. With components from Burmester's Reference line, the total cost of the system was $500,000. That's according to the advance write-up in Canada HiFi magazine. At the show, I heard $600,000 mentioned as the price. But I guess that when you're at that level, what's an extra $100,000? The system was playing during the show and served as PA system for the concert by Cindy Gomez. How did it sound? On its own, not at the concert, it sounded very good indeed, especially considering the size of the room (huge) and the lack of…
Last year's TAVES involved a partnership of Suave Kajko and Simon Au, both from the Toronto area, as well as Michel Plante and Sarah Tremblay, organizers of the well-established Montreal Salon Son & Image (SSI). Michel and Sarah also brought with them most of their staff from SSI. Suave and Simon were new to "show" business, so when it was announced that Michel and Sarah were not going to be involved in this year's show, there was some concern. Would these Torontonians have the élan, the savoir faire, the je ne sais quoi needed to run a show like TAVES.
Mais oui! It was a great show!…
Naxos stands poised to release its first 24-bit/96 kHz high-definition audio download. On October 2, one of the label's most important orchestral recordings for the fall quarter, conductor, arranger and composer Peter Breiner's new orchestrations of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, Songs and Dances of Death, and The Nursery, will become available, not as a physical CD, but rather as high-resolution and MP3 downloads. Expect the link to appear on iTrax, eclassical, classicsonline, HDTracks, hiresaudio.com, theclassicalshop, and Ariama, with Linn and Onkyo coming on board soon thereafter…
In this video, Stereophile columnist and Analog Planet Editor Michael Fremer and Gary Dell'Abate (aka Baba Booey), producer of the Howard Stern Show, compare the virtues of analog playback to MP3, discuss the release of Nirvana's Nevermind on the spinning black circle, and Mikey coins the phrase 'the viral spread of vinyl.'
Last night at top floor of the Trump Soho Hotel (New York, NY), the design-oriented firm B&O announced the release of the BeoPlay A9 as part of their new B&O PLAY lineup of products. The BeoPlay A9 is a single active speaker system designed for seamless integration into home environments. The A9 streams music wirelessly from the customers iPhone, iPad or Android device using AirPlay or your DLNA network.
During their presentation to the press, B&O suggested that this product was not necessarily made for the audiophile but instead those interested in design and feeling…
Until recently, my favorite shirt was one I'd found on a clearance table at Macy's: a red paisley thing with long sleeves and a button-down collar, not unlike the ones seen in photographs of Peter Holsapple or the young Syd Barrett. When I first found it, this shirt was dusty, and appeared to have been marked down at least a half-dozen times before bottoming out at a price that wouldn't buy a six-pack of Mountain Dew at the local stop-and-rob. Maybe it was on the verge of being discarded, but I suspect that the people at Macy's had simply forgotten it was there.
There are approximately 30…
Minutes later, the armboard was drilled—a 20mm hole to accommodate the tonearm's bearing pillar, and three 2mm holes for the collet-fixing woodscrews—and the Ortofon was in place, ready to make music.
Surprises
Count me among the hobbyists who think that 12" tonearms and old-fashioned, low-compliance pickup heads such as the EMT OFD series and Ortofon's own SPU series go together like cucumbers and Hendrick's gin. True enough—but that's where the surprises come in.
Fig.1: Starting out with a freshly made board, fixable to the plinth with sturdy bolts and…
Sidebar 1: List of the Month
The land that time forgot: a dozen audio products that have been continuously available for over 30 years
Klipsch Klipschorn loudspeaker (66 years)
Ortofon SPU pickup head (53 years)
EMT OFD 25 pickup head (53 years)
Lowther PM4 drive-unit (52 years)
Denon DL-103 phono cartridge (50 years)
Klipsch La Scala loudspeaker (49 years)
EMT TSD 15 pickup head (47 years)
Linn Sondek LP12 turntable (39 years)
Naim NAP 250 amplifier (37 years)
Shahinian Acoustics Obelisk loudspeaker (35 years)
Shindo Laboratory Western…
Sidebar 2: Contacts
Ortofon A/S, Stavangervej 9, DK-4900, Nakskov, Denmark. Tel: (45) 54-91-19-15. Fax: (45) 54-91-19-11. Web: www.ortofon.com. US distributor: Ortofon Inc., 500 Executive Boulevard, Suite 102, Ossining, NY 10562. Tel: (914) 762-8646. Fax: (914) 762-8649. Web: www.ortofon.us.
Like many audiophiles, I cohabit with someone who understands my audio obsession but has no desire to share it. That someone is my wife. Since I began writing for Stereophile, Ashley has helped me carry amplifiers, tape up boxes for shipping, and found room in our house for all the extra components and their boxes—which sometimes make the place look like a scene from an episode of Hoarders. She's a peach. Every time new gear comes to the house or to my studio, my wife has calmly helped me move stuff around while I dance around like a six-year-old on Christmas morning.
Occasionally, as a…