The HiFiMAN RE-400s come with four sets of eartips, flanged and unflanged, and a rubber dongle for wrapping your headphones up safely.
The HiFiMAN RE-400s Waterline cost $99. By definition, waterline is the point where a boat meets the water. According to HiFiMAN representative Peter Hoagland, “waterline” implies these headphones are “reference for its class”. Is HiFiMAN trying to say these headphones float above the rest? Maybe.
Burnished aluminum casework houses the 8.5mm drivers. The encasements were slightly heavy and cold to touch. The small flanged eartips slipped into my…
For better or worse, some musical careers are defined by a single searing moment in time and for Richie Havens, who died on April 22; his career will forever be linked to his appearance as the opener for the Woodstock Festival in 1969. Because the band Sweetwater, who were supposed to open, was caught in traffic, it was Havens, percussionist Daniel Ben Zebulon and guitarist Paul "Deano" Williams who went on at Max Yasgur’s farm near Bethel, New York, at 5 pm on Friday, August 15th 1969. It was Haven’s improvised number, “Freedom,” which he interspersed with bits from the tune “Motherless…
Country music is almost extinct. Patsy Cline, the most dominant female voice in country music history has been gone since 1963, and now the most storied male voice has been silenced. George Jones died this morning in Nashville at the age of 81. If Hank Williams was the King of Country Music, then Jones, because of his sterling voice and reckless lifestyle, was an equally powerful titan. His death, preceded by those of Lefty Frizzell, Johnny Cash and Buck Owens leaves Merle Haggard as the final voice of real country music left alive.
I last saw Jones sing in June of last year when he was…
Whenever I post one of these entries, there are at least a couple of readers who ask for reviews of the albums I’ve listed. And while such requests are quite reasonable, they take for granted that I’ve actually listened to all of these albums. Sadly, I have not.
Even sadder, I still haven’t listened to the albums I bought last payday.
Still, I have purchased these albums. Which means that, for one reason or another, I found them interesting enough to spend money on them, and I do intend to listen to them at some point down the line. Whenever possible, I’ve included links to…
Heads up! Not long after the sellout of both Decca Classics' First Collector's Edition box set of 50 Mercury Living Presence CD reissues, and their box set of six 180gm LP reissues, both drawn from the famed Mercury Living Presence catalog, Collector's Edition 2 arrives on May 14. The CD box's 55 titles include two first-CD issue rarities: Antal Dorati's 1953 Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra mono recording of Stravinsky's groundbreaking ballet, The Rite of Spring, and one of the final Mercury Living Presence recordings, John Corigliano's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. The Corigliano…
Update: Though John Atkinson will be recording the concert, Attention Screen welcomes audience members who also want to record it, provided they use battery-powered recorders.
On Sunday, May 19, at 1:30pm, Stereophile readers are invited to attend a very special recording concert. Over the last six years, my quartet, Attention Screen has released three CDs of improvised collaborative jazz on the Stereophile Recordings label. This particular concert will be unique in a number of ways. First, rather than playing grand piano, I'll be performing on the magnificent Ralph and Alice Greenlaw…
Doug MacLeod: There's a Time
Reference RR-130 (HDCD). 2013. Doug MacLeod, Janice Mancuso, prods.; Keith O. Johnson, Sean Royce Martin, engs. DDD? TT: 58:00
Performance ****½
Sonics ****½
Like a lot of other once-pure forms of American music, the blues today has become a swirl of influences, mixing folk, rock, rhythm & blues, and even Latin flavors into a music that its aficionados—that fervent contingent known as "blues nuts"—have grudgingly accepted as being a part of the music they adore. But if blues fans thought Hendrix or Stevie Ray Vaughan muddied the wellsprings of…
Few topics ignite more heated arguments among audiophiles than the price of audio equipment. How much do you have to spend to get really good sound? Are people who buy expensive gear wasting their money, or is it simply a matter of getting what you pay for? There are many such issues, most of which have been discussed at length in Stereophile and various online forums; here are a few I haven't seen addressed except in passing.
Real vs Perceived Value
The real value of an audio component is defined by its sound quality and the convenience it offers, characteristics that may not become…
It wasn't very long ago that I boasted, in my casual, self-effacing way, that I didn't really like headphones—that I didn't need headphones. Because most people in the New York metropolitan area would rather die than communicate with each other, they use headphones as a sort of fortress of solitude, shielding themselves not only from their physical environment but from all other living creatures. I, however, claimed to enjoy listening to the sounds of the world around me—even screeching tires, blaring sirens, and the drone of air ducts could be musical. La-di-da. Besides, I argued, in my…
Some audiophiles will insist that appearances are largely insignificant; that when considering any audio component, what matters most is sound. Other audiophiles will go even further and say that sound is the only thing that matters. But this handsome and more rational audiophile believes that today's portable headphones must succeed in several competing areas: In addition to providing good sound, they must also be durable, comfortable, and attractive. After all, the things are going to be worn on your own lovely head.
In terms of look and feel, the Aviators hold their own against B…
