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The Everything is New Project

The Light of Love Children's Home in Tuni, Andhra Pradesh, India is a refuge for orphaned children—children of parents with HIV, parents who committed suicide, or who were murdered for their property, amongst other calamities. In The Everything is New Project, Scotland-based arts collective Transgressive North and charity organization Scottish Love in Action have developed three albums of music around recordings of these children as the Light of Love Children's Choir.

Transgressive North invited artists to use the choir recordings for samples within their own work. They were…

French Fries from AudioVision San Francisco

The idea was as cute as the chapeaux that Antonio Long, Randy Johnson, and Marlen Kirby (from left to right in photo above) invariably sport at AudioVision SF. Schedule a public demo on November 14 with two French manufacturers, Triangle Loudspeakers and Devialet, and call it "French Fries." Then, however, reality intervened, and an evening that included debuts of two products, Triangle's Signature line Alpha loudspeakers and Nordost's Sort Füt Premium Kit, morphed into a Franco-American feast complete with Norwegian-American trimmings.

For starters, the distinctly American Long gave…

The New Old Face of Spendor

Jay Rein of Bluebird Music, the North American distributor for Spendor loudspeakers, has a cool, new idea. Collaborating with designers at Spendor, Rein developed retro-inspired grill for speakers in their Classic line up as well as for the Spendor S3/5R2. Rein visited In Living Stereo in NYC last week for an evening of music and brie to show off the grills.

Rein sent his idea for the grills to Spendor one year ago. Designers sent him back swatches of fabric from which to make his choice. The result was on display: a dirt-brown cloth with interwoven, pale-yellow, vertical dashes. From…

Death to the Loudness Wars?

Photo: The Quietus

Over at The Quietus, Nick Southall speaks with mastering engineer Bob Katz about how iTunes Radio may soon put an end to The Loudness Wars. I direct your attention to the article partly because it's a good read and partly because, in hi-fi circles, we tend to think that young people don't care enough about sound quality; this article is a small bit of proof that there are in fact young people who know how to listen. Nick Southall, clearly as obsessed with music and sound as anyone, is two years younger than me. (And, in hi-fi years, I'm a child.)

Here's an…

Snob Appeal

It began innocently enough. In June, Slate.com published a sampling from an exhibit by the photographer Kai Schaefer, in which classic LPs of different eras were partnered with the similarly classic record players on which they might have been played: Tea for the Tillerman on a Dual 1219, Kind of Blue on a Rek-O-Kut Rondine, Sgt. Pepper's on a Thorens TD 124—you get the idea. The photos worked as cultural documents, as good-natured kitsch, as surprisingly beautiful and compelling industrial art. I was thoroughly charmed.

Schaefer's own website, www.worldrecords.me, has as its epigraph a…

Recording of December 2013: <I>The Grateful Dead's Original 13 Studio Albums</I>

The Grateful Dead: Original 13 Studio Albums
Grateful Dead Productions/HDtracks Hi-Rez Downloads, 24-bit/96kHz or 24-bit/192kHz, 2013. David Glasser, remastering eng.
Perfomance ****½
Sonics ****½

Deadlines and the Dead don't mix. Let me explain . . .

Back when I was a cub reporter, green as ivy, I was, in retrospect, suckered into volunteering to review a Grateful Dead concert. I dutifully drove to the venue for the 8pm show, abstained from intoxicating substances, and was on track—until I realized that, after two hours, the band was still on just the third song.…

Wilson Audio Specialties Alexia loudspeaker

With the help of 20:20 hindsight, it looks as if I made a decision when I joined Stereophile: to review a loudspeaker from Wilson Audio Specialties every 11 years. In June 1991, I reported on Wilson's WATT 3/Puppy 2 combination, which cost $12,740/pair in an automotive gloss-paint finish. This was followed in July 2002 by my review of the Wilson Sophia ($11,700/pair). And now, in December 2013, I am writing about the Wilson Alexia, which costs a not-inconsiderable $48,500/pair.

I first heard the Alexia at the 2012 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, but didn't decide that I needed to get a pair…

Wilson Audio Specialties Alexia loudspeaker Page 2

The 1/3-octave bass-warble tones on Editor's Choice (CD, Stereophile STPH016-2) sounded powerful down to the 25Hz band, with the 40Hz warble slightly down in level, the 32Hz warble exaggerated by the lowest mode in my room, and with the 20Hz warble still faintly audible. The half-step–spaced tonebursts on Editor's Choice spoke cleanly and evenly throughout the bass and midrange regions. When I listened to the woofer cabinet with a stethoscope, all surfaces were impressively inert. The midrange enclosure was also well damped, though the rear panel above the terminals was slightly lively…

Wilson Audio Specialties Alexia loudspeaker Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Three-way, four-driver, reflex-loaded, floorstanding loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" (25mm) silk-dome tweeter, 7" (178mm) cellulose-fiber/carbon composite-cone midrange unit, 8" (203mm) paper-cone woofer, 10" (254mm) paper-cone woofer. Crossover frequencies: not given. Frequency response: 20Hz–32kHz, ±3dB. Sensitivity: 90dB/W/m. Impedance: 4 ohms nominal, 2 ohms minimal at 80Hz. Minimum amplifier power: 20Wpc.
Dimensions: 53.25" (1353mm) H by 15.25" (387.4mm) W by 21.125" (537mm) D. Weight: 256 lbs (116.1kg).
Finish: Multiple automotive paint…

Wilson Audio Specialties Alexia loudspeaker Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Analog Sources: Linn Sondek LP12 turntable with Lingo power supply, Linn Ekos tonearm, Linn Arkiv B cartridge.
Digital Sources: Marantz NA-11S1 media server; Astell&Kern AK100 media player; Parasound Halo CD 1 CD player; Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP universal player; Apple 2.7GHz i7 Mac mini running OS10.7, iTunes 10, Pure Music 1.89; MSB Diamond DAC IV D/A processor with Diamond Power Base; dCS Vivaldi SACD player–D/A system; Electrocompaniet ECD2, NAD M51, Arcam FMJ D33 D/A converters; Ayre Acoustics QA-9 USB A/D converter.
Preamplification: Linn…