For three years, until the dCS Rossini DAC came on the scene, my reference source for digital playback was its predecessor, a dCS Puccini SACD/CD player connected to a dCS Scarlatti clock. As soon as I connected the Rossini DAC ($23,999) to the rest of my reference system (footnote 1), I knew there was no turning back.
Other than not having a CD transport mechanism, the Rossini DAC is identical to the Rossini Player that John Atkinson reviewed in the December 2016…
Ken's chic green robe and delicate patterned scarf intrigued me from the…
Saturday December 17, from 1pm–4pm, at Esoteric Audio (111 West Monroe Street, Suite 100, Phoenix, AZ), Dan D'Agostino and Bill McKiegan will be on hand for listening and discussion of the company's latest products, including the Momentum and…
I hear not the volumes of sound merely, I am moved by the exquisite meanings.—Walt Whitman, "That Music Always Round Me," from Leaves of Grass
These two statements, to me, express the core perspective shared by Stereophile's contributors. When I encountered both of them within a span of 30 days, they spoke so strongly that I felt impelled to hook up the biggest, baddest loudspeakers I could find…
Auditorium 23's floorstanding Hommage Cinema comprises a bass bin with twin powered woofers—a 7" mounted above a 12"—atop which sits an elegant folded…
Editor: We would like to thank John Atkinson for his efforts and his extensive measurements, which correspond with ours. We fully understand his objection regarding the measurement of the tweeter from today's perspective of speaker designs. However, I'd like to recall that the concept of the Hommage Cinema comes from a different time, with a different approach to speaker building and listening.
The decision to design such a complex speaker with remakes of drivers from one of the most famous manufacturers of the US, Western Electric, includes the awareness…
Description: Three-way, floor-standing loudspeaker with powered woofers. Drive-units: recreations by Line Magnetic of Western Electric's 555 compression driver (midrange) and Western Electric's 597A compression driver (treble), plus 12" and 7" cone woofers. Crossover filters: 7kHz high-pass filter for the treble horn, 300Hz high-pass for the woofer amplifiers, both 6dB/octave. Sensitivity: 105dB/W/m. Impedance: 15 ohms. Woofer amplifier power: 50Wx2.
Dimensions: 45" (645mm) high by 18" (457mm) wide by 16.5" (419mm) deep (Hommage Cinema); 8" (203mm) wide by 7…
In the best of Keith Jarrett's long-form Concert recordings—Bremen Lausanne, Köln, and most of all Bregenz München and the monumental Sun Bear—one hears the evolution, over unbroken spans of as long as 45 minutes, of a beginning musical germ. A mere rhythm or broken chord or simple cadence or single note, sometimes a full melody exquisitely arranged, opens what seems an…
Sasha Matson: More than most, you've been involved in both sides of the High End: gear and music, or what some now call…
JH: Producing means that you determine the artist, agree on the repertoire, choose the studio and engineer, book the dates, hire the musicians, book any rehearsals needed, supervise the actual recording and mix sessions, book the mastering sessions, and supervise those.
SM: Producing also consists of very practical matters—it's like managing a sports team!
JH: Some sessions require very active involvement in the musical process, right down to the…