When did being interested in hi-fi lose its cool? When did it become antisocial? One minute hi-fi was hanging with Hef center-stage in a groovy bachelor pad, and the next…
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"Blondy watched this proud, drum-tight personality fidget past him on the street and began projecting; he couldn't help it: an unfinished degree in journalism, concerned married sisters in New Jersey or Connecticut (but probably New Jersey), weights but no cardio, aggrieved blind dates, Cigar Aficionado and Stereophile, takeout menus, acres of porn."
—from "Lucky Alan," by Jonathan Lethem; The New Yorker, March 19, 2007
Stephen Mejias compared old and new versions of the CDP-8 in June 2011 (Vol.34 No.6):
When Wes Phillips reviewed the NuForce CDP-8 ($1450) in our November 2010 issue, he described it as "a remarkably good CD player" that combined solid bass impact with airy highs and a strong sense of momentum. On John Atkinson's test bench, however, the review sample exhibited very high levels of jitter and noise modulation. The team at NuForce was "embarrassed and chagrined" by the test results. In his "Manufacturer's Comment," NuForce's Jason Lim confessed: "We had felt that the basics of performance…
The August issue ships to press tomorrow. Somehow, despite nasty computer viruses, similarly nasty sinus infections, trips to Los Angeles, Denver, and Munich, and a terribly unforgiving production schedule, we managed to get the book out on time—miraculous!
Today, then, is a relatively quiet day in the office. And I like it. Editorial assistant Ariel Bitran has hit the road for a dusty, 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee, where he will enjoy (among other naughtier things) the eclectic sounds of Buffalo Springfield, My Morning Jacket, Dr. John, Explosions in the Sky,…
The July 2011 issue of Stereophile is now on newsstands. A quick look at the cover should tell you a lot about what the issue has to offer: New speakers from Sony, Thiel, Rethm, Audience, and Harbeth; integrated amplifiers from NAD, Micromega, and JoLida; digital file players from Decibel, Pure Music, and Amarra; a state-of-the-art preamplifier from Ypsilon; a new set of Robert Johnson 45rpm discs.
In order to put together an interesting and competitive issue, John Atkinson strives to create a magazine that he would want to read. Taking a look at this issue’s cover, I feel…
Do you own any warped records? I do, unfortunately. It’s always a major disappointment to find that a promising new record is warped. You could take it back to the store, of course, but who’s got time for that? Most often, I wind up keeping those sad, warped records, but I rarely play them. No fun, no fun.
I’ve often wondered about the Furutech Disc Flattener, recommended by Mikey Fremer, but $2000 is a lot of money to spend on what is, essentially, an accessory.
So, I’m anxious to learn more about the new Vinyl Flat Record Flattener ($129.95). From the website: “With Vinyl…
The Jazz Journalists Association held its annual awards party at the City Winery in New York City Saturday afternoon, June 10. Here is a partial list of the winners, followed in parentheses by the musicians I voted for. The awards covered the period from April 15, 2010 to April 15, 2011. (The full list of finalists and winners can be found here and here.
RECORDING OF THE YEAR:
Winner: Joe Lovano's Us Five, Bird Songs (Blue Note).
My Pick: Jason Moran, Ten (Blue Note). Lovano's Charlie Parker tribute is a good album, but Moran's is a masterpiece, the career highlight of the most…
The Southern California headquarters of cable manufacturer AudioQuest, which includes their offices, a listening room, conference rooms, a very very large warehouse, assembly rooms, a graphic design room, a few kitchens and various and sundry other more mundane but just as important places, is within a few-minutes’ drive from T.H.E. Show at Newport Beach. Shane Buettner, AudioQuest's Director of Education who you will most likely recognize as the former Editor-In-Chief of Home Theater magazine, Joe Harley VP of AudioQuest (Joe Harley is also a recording engineer/producer responsible for among…
James Tanner, VP of marketing at Bryston Ltd., was frustrated. He'd borrowed a Music Vault 4000 music server to play high-resolution digital music files at Bryston's exhibit at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show. Most of the time, the server delivered some of the best sound at that event. The rest of the time, there were dropouts and crashes. Tanner later experienced similar dropouts and crashes when he streamed hi-rez digital files over his home network to a Bryston BDA-1 digital-to-analog converter (see my review in the February 2010 issue).
I found a more relaxed Tanner at the 2010 CES…
Controls and Connections
The BDP-1 weighs only 12 lbs, and its outer dimensions of 17" wide by 2.75" high by 11" deep match those of Bryston's BCD-1 CD player and BDA-1 DAC. Its aluminum front panel features two USB (A) ports grouped at the left. Toward the center of the panel is an infrared (IR) sensor that can be used with Bryston's BR-2 remote control ($350). A two-row alphanumeric display sits at the center of the panel. Farther to the right is a diamond-shaped file/folder navigation keypad with which the user can find music files stored on user-supplied USB data devices. To the…
The BDP-1 weighs only 12 lbs, and its outer dimensions of 17" wide by 2.75" high by 11" deep match those of Bryston's BCD-1 CD player and BDA-1 DAC. Its aluminum front panel features two USB (A) ports grouped at the left. Toward the center of the panel is an infrared (IR) sensor that can be used with Bryston's BR-2 remote control ($350). A two-row alphanumeric display sits at the center of the panel. Farther to the right is a diamond-shaped file/folder navigation keypad with which the user can find music files stored on user-supplied USB data devices. To the…
First, I was directed to connect the BDP-1 to the Internet. I ran a CAT5 patch cable from the BDP-1 to my home network's router. Then I had to access the player's internal software from a networked PC. The manual explained how to display the BDP-1's network-assigned numeric IP address (192.168.1.7) by simultaneously pressing the Up and Left keys on the front panel. Plugging the IP address into my browser instantly brought up the BDP-1's internal home page; from there, I could pull up its settings menu for upgrading the player.
Then I was asked for the BDP-1's user name and password. I…