Beyond that reality, caused as much by the economic downtown's lingering affect as the shell shock overload of three major consumer audio shows in the course of…
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Visitors to Montreal's annual Salon Son et Image (SSI) high performance audio show will notice some changes when the three-day event opens to the public on Friday March 22 in its customary location, Hotel Hilton Bonaventure. For starters, instead of the approximately 100 exhibit rooms encountered in 2011, and the approximately 85 last year, visitors will discover 70, including two dedicated to home theater, as well as 370 brands.
On February 1st, Stereophile posted the Audience aR2p Adept Response Power Conditioner Sweepstakes that yielded a total of 213 entries. There was only one lucky winner. Here Stereophile.com member rlabarre shares his thoughts on his fortuitous prize.
rlabarre writes:
I recently completed a painstaking listen to my system, both with and without the Audience aR2p Adept Response power conditioner. This may be a little soon to be delivering listening impressions. I have less than 25 hours of use so far, and Audience recommends a good 75 more for adequate burn-in. In addition, I am…
How Music Works
by David Byrne. 352 pages. San Francisco: McSweeney's, 2012. Hardcover, $32.
by David Byrne. 352 pages. San Francisco: McSweeney's, 2012. Hardcover, $32.
Measuring 7.1" by 1.6" by 9.1" and with an attractive paper-over-board cover, [Talking Heads founder] David Byrne's boldly titled new book resembles the textbooks often found in public-school classrooms. If not for the author's brief lapses into street talk—he uses the word shit just a bit too freely for the youngest readers—one gets the impression that Byrne wouldn't mind having his book taught in elementary school. He quotes from Oliver Sacks's brilliant Musicophilia: "For the vast majority…
Growing up as an audiophile in the 1950s, I always aspired to owning Marantz equipment, and finally attained that status when, late one night in 1974 in Greenwich Village, a friend found a Model 8 amp sitting on a pile of discards on a curb. He quickly ran for his car, and scarfed up the amp and a pair of Acoustic Research AR1 speakers. All turned out to be in perfect working order, though their appearance reflected their history of ill-use. The speakers went into his machine shop—but I got the Model 8! Few products have ever given me so much pleasure and pride; Marantz will always occupy a…
So, after a week without EQ, I dragged out my trusty tripod, affixed to it the provided Audyssey mike, and proceeded with the now-familiar Audyssey MultEQ XT32 process (footnote 2). First, Audyssey's Sub EQ HT prompted me to set the output of each of my two Paradigm subwoofers to 75dB, though they were off by only 1dB or so, and even that varied as I walked between subs to make the adjustments. Beginning the main measurement sequence, Audyssey correctly detected the speakers present and accounted for their levels and distance from my main listening position. A total of eight mike positions…
Our sweepstakes for the Benchmark DAC2 HGC Digital-to-Analog Converter was one of our most popular contests yet receiving a total of 685 entries! You’re telling me that 637 more people wanted Benchmark’s new DAC than were begging for the Fela Kuti LP boxset? Stereophile.com members, your priorities are skewed.
Speaking of priorities, the first question Orson Cheong asked when he heard he won was, “What color?” You audiophiles are incorrigible. Regardless, based on Orson’s subtle smirk, he seems happy to be running his Sennheiser cans through this silver Benchmark DAC2 HGC. It matches your…
While visiting KEF in England (see last month's column), I received an e-mail from the proprietor of HeadphoneCommute.com, a website devoted to electronic, experimental, and instrumental music. My correspondent, who prefers to remain anonymous, described a plan to release a compilation album called . . . and darkness came, all proceeds from which to be donated, for Hurricane Sandy relief, to two charitable organizations: Doctors Without Borders and the Humane Society.
Today, less than a month later, the album is complete and includes work from many of my favorite artists and composers—…
The first thing I noticed about the CLs' sound was that it was big—full-bodied and present in the best possible way. Halle Berry! It had all the low-end impact of the Solo HDs, but added transparency and detail. About 25 seconds into "Money Trees," one of my favorite tracks on Kendrick Lamar's awesome new album, good kid, m.A.A.d. city (CD, Top Dawg/Aftermath Entertainment 1753602), the bass enters. Hard. It's supposed to make you move, screw up your face, squint your eyes, sway your head. It's funky, exaggerated, raw. The Harman/Kardon CLs got this right, and did so without muddying the…
Sidebar: Contacts
Harman/Kardon, Inc., 250 Crossways Park Drive, Woodbury, NY 11797; 8500 Balboa Boulevard, Northridge, CA 91329. Tel: (800) 422-8027 Web: www.harmankardon.com.
Jade Design, Inc., 131 SE Parkway Court, Franklin, TN 37064. Tel: (615) 791-6254. Web: www.jadedesign.com
Advertising Manager Ed DiBenedetto models the Viper Head.
JA tapped my shoulder: “Do you like headphones?”
“You know I do!” I enthused.
“OK. Give me just a second.”
John Atkinson is never this mysterious. It must be something awesome.
He returned with four boxes and plopped them on my desk, “Here you go!” and walked away with an evil smirk. What the dickens?
A British colleague of JA’s had just sent him various samples of Quarkie’s new in-ear headphone collection. These in-ears rest gently inside your ears with fun animals and objects that poke…