Photo of Art Dudley, Robin Wyatt, and Michael Lavorgna: John Atkinson. All other photos: Jana Dagdagan.NYAS 2015. Rye Brook, NY.—Then, a lone capsule filled with liquid anxiety, outfitted in wobbly heels and a blanket of sweat aimlessly wandered through the halls of hotel hi-fi. She had recently interviewed for her dream job at her dream publication, Stereophile, but had not heard back yet. She desperately hoped to meet Sirs Art Dudley and Michael Lavorgna for the first time, and luckily succeeded in doing so at the 'Zen and the Art of Audio Reviewing' seminar.
NYAS 2016. Central…
Tonight (Tuesday, November 8), at the Jazz Standard in New York City (116 East 27th Street), the 7:30 set, along with Brooke Gladstone (co-host & managing editor of public radio's On the Media and, as it happens, my wife), I'll be announcing election updates and analyzing results between tunes (by Ted Nash's Presidential Suite big band).
Brooke and I did this on Election Night 2008. Hope this will be just as much fun.
Seeing as it's smack dab in the middle of the New York Marathon route, finding a way into The Park Lane Hotel presented its share of challenges, even on Saturday: though the race wouldn't begin until Sunday, gangs of scantily clad runners of all shapes and sizes dominated the sidewalks of Central Park South, forcing pedestrians to hit the concrete and scream, Ratso Rizzo style, "Hey! I'm walkin' here!"
Ahhh—I made it. Peace. Serenity. It's day two of the New York Audio Show!
Back on the seventh floor, my first stop was a room that remained jammed from first day to last. Linear…
Wednesday November 9, 5–8pm, Dallas dealer Audio Concepts welcomes Dan D'Agostino, Wilson Audio's Peter McGrath, and John Quick from dCS to an open house, while in Maryland, Wednesday November 9 and Thursday November 10, 6–9pm, Gramophone celebrates its 40th Anniversary with a special two-day event at its Timonium and Columbia locations. Thursday November 10, 5–8pm, Southern California dealer Wilshire Media Systems hosts its Annual Fall Expo, Northern California dealer AudioVision San Francisco presents the "US Premier from Dynaudio New Contour Loudspeakers," 7:30–10 pm, and Ontario's Audio…
I hit the ground running on Sunday, the final day of the show, joining audio pals from far and wide and enjoying the company of inspired product reps and dealers—and their beautiful audio systems. I'm grateful for this year's New York Audio Show: an oasis of friends, music-loving family, and mostly good sound.
The Axiss Audio/Soulution/Critical Mass Systems room featured a wealth of electronics unknown to me, as well as Magico's S1 Mk II speakers ($16,500/pair). Also on tap: Accuphase DP720 CD player ($27,000), Soulution 725 preamplifier ($5500), Soulution 560 D/A converter ($3500), and…
Note: As our coverage of the 2016 New York Audio Show has just been posted, I thought it would be interesting to post our report from the 1965 show, in particular to see which brands are still around 50 years later.—John Atkinson
The 1965 New York hi-fi show was, to these observers, most notable for the marked increase in the number of exhibits which featured good—ie, classical—music for demonstration purposes. In the past, only about a half dozen of the exhibitors played anything of musical worth, the rest of them evidently figuring they could make more noise with wild brass-and-…
Like every sensible publication, The Stereophile keeps track of the questions raised by readers who write to us, so we can get some idea of what most of you would like to see in future issues of the magazine. To date, the list looks like this, in order of diminishing interest: transistor amps and preamps, loudspeakers, pickups, tape equipment, tuners and, way at the bottom of the list, recordings. We are devoting most of the August 1964 issue to a discussion of commercial recording practices.
This is not because we are just naturally perverse. It is because we have the unusual (in…
Like its Prism I predecessor, which I reviewed in May 1988, the Mod Squad Prism II is based on a Philips player: the same 16-bit, 4x-oversampling converter, the same general control layout. But The Mod Squad does their own extensive remanufacture, both on the internal circuitry and on the cosmetics—the latter involving a handsomely sculptured case and metal front trim-panel surrounding Philips's command center.
Despite its front trim-panel and upgraded case, the Mod Squad Prism II has all of the ergonomic strengths and weaknesses of a relatively modestly priced Philips machine. The front…
Sidebar 1: Reference System
All of the players were auditioned in a system which consisted of the Jeff Rowland Design Group Consonance preamp, Threshold SA/12e monoblock power amplifiers, and Apogee Stage loudspeakers (on their optional stands). The connection from preamp to all players was via 1.5m lengths of AudioQuest Lapis. Balanced Cardas Hexlink cable was used from preamp to amplifiers. The Stages were bi-wired with Symo cable.
Playback levels were adjusted to compensate for the different outputs of the various players when comparison listening was done—a particularly easy…
Sidebar 2: Measurements
I checked the AC voltage from chassis ground to main (house) ground to determine the correct line-cord orientation (footnote 1). The Prism II measured 11.5V with the correct orientation (12.5V the other way—an insignificant difference). I checked the player's tracking with the dropout tests on the Pierre Verany Digital Test CD. The Prism II mistracked when the dropout reached 3.0mm, though with a slight glitch at 2.5mm. The CD standard only requires tracking of a 0.2mm gap, although theoretically the error-correction codes make regeneration of gaps of up to 2.47mm…
