A billboard from a wireless speaker company that will not be covered.
Before leaving for CE Week, a trade event showcasing a general representation of the consumer electronics market, JA cautioned, “I’m worried you may not find many things applicable to our readers.” I love a challenge.
Within these table-lined alleys littered with business cards and quesadillas, I aimed to uncover as much two-channel audio as possible. This would include headphones. This would also include an attempt to avoid Bluetooth, as Bluetooth is lossy and has been an unreliable connection for long-term…
Jonathan Scull: You say your YBA CD-1 Blue Laser CD player makes use of Stochastic Resonance, Yves-Bernard?
Yves-Bernard André: Yes, it is quite interesting that in adding some noise to the signal, we can actually get more information back.
Scull: How do you implement that in the CD 1?
André: We have a main diode that reads the information in the normal fashion. And a blue-laser diode that is giving atmosphere of light to the other laser, if you like.
Scull: The blue laser bathes the underside of the CD?
André: Yes.
Scull: Which adds a type of noise…
Zesto’s George Counnas gets excited about his tubed phono and line preamps
It was a first-time venture for Elite Audio Systems, San Francisco’s newest and unique fine-audio emporium. On June 29, 2013, proprietor Michael Woods opened his doors to an event, co-organized with Peter Truce of the Bay Area Audiophile Society’s Analog Committee, that drew close to 60 folks to two mainly analog listening sessions.
The event gave me another opportunity to visit what is likely America’s most innovative fine-audio/video emporium. At the entrance to Elite Audio Systems resides the Elite…
Who is this mysterious Sam character? He won't submit a photo. He won't tell me anything but his name. Samuel Thomas. Hmmm. Sounds patriotic. But it's not quite the Sam of which I'm thinking. The real Uncle Sam was Samuel Wilson, a meatpacker from Troy, New York. Sam Thomas is in Pullman, Washington.
Still, I can think of no better Fourth of July surprise than some French desktop speakers. Thomas is the winner of our Focal XS Book Music System Sweepstakes held earlier this year, and he received his prize just before the Fourth of July. Hopefully, he listened to the American classics like…
I've been enjoying Julia Holter's Loud City Song. Mark your calendars: The album, Holter's third, will be released by Domino Records on August 20th. Previously, we heard the delicate opener, "World."
Now here's the video for "In the Green Wild," directed by Yelena Zhelezov, who has also directed videos for Holter's "Goddess Eyes II" and "Moni Mon Amie."
My complete review of Loud City Song will appear in an upcoming issue of Stereophile—most likely October, but you should have the album by then.
When I lived entirely alone, with neither girlfriend nor pets, and had the luxury of a dedicated listening room, I felt no obligation to store away unused hi-fi equipment. Why should I? Life is so much simpler when everything one needs, or might potentially need, remains in plain sight, within arm's reach. Pairs of loudspeakers, then, took residence beside bookshelves, speaker cables found homes atop throw pillows, assorted electronics posed as coffee tables. And, if on a whim I decided it was time to swap my NAD C316 BEE integrated amplifier with my Exposure 2010S, I'd simply pull the…
I heard similar results through the Can Opener when using the Skullcandy Aviator and Grado SR60i headphones: greater overall control, improved detail retrieval, and a more accomplished sense of space and image delineation. Interestingly, the Can Opener seemed to tame the Aviator's sometimes too-hard highs, softening and smoothing them out, while, with the Grados, the Can Opener brought voices forward and enhanced stereo effects. But while the Can Opener's influence over the B&W, Skullcandy, and Grado 'phones was entirely positive, its effect on the Beats Solo HD was something else: The…
Sidebar: Contacts
AudioQuest, 2621 White Road, Irvine, CA 92614. Tel: (949) 585-0111. Web: www.audioquest.com.
PSB Speakers International, 633 Granite Court, Pickering, Ontario L1W 3K1, Canada. Tel: (905) 831-6555. Web: www.psbspeakers.com.
Vinyl Flat LLC, PO Box 524, Rose City, TX 75189. Tel: (469) 426-8554. Web: www.vinylflat.com.
I'm still using a Mac mini as a music server, using iTunes on this host server to stream music to my listening-room system via the Apple Airport Express WiFi hub. However, as the Airport Express is limited to CD-quality music, I tend to use them for nonserious listening, when I am involved in some other activity. One of those activities this past week or so was reading a new book from erstwhile Stereophile record reviewer Allen St. John: Clapton's Guitar: Watching Wayne Henderson Build the Perfect Instrument (hardcover, 288pp; Free Press, New York, $25).
Retired Virginia mailman Wayne…
Sometimes, things happen so fast it's almost unsettling. DSD is the high-resolution recording format used on SACDs and I closed my May column with the expressed hope that the exaSound e18 multichannel DAC would eventually be able to decode DSD data, that Oppo would implement DSD streaming in its universal players, and that I'd be able to get my hands on a working trio of Mytek DSD DACs. I didn't expect that, even before that issue went to press, I'd have to add a footnote (p.61) indicating that stereo DSD streaming was a reality for the exaSound e18, and that Oppo had made available "test"…
