search

Many music lovers associate Stravinsky's music for Diaghilev's ballet Pulcinella as a defining composition in the post-WWI neo-classical movement. Few know that Diaghilev initially chose De Falla as the score's composer. Diaghilev turned to Stravinsky after the…

Judged by none other than Bob Dylan to be "Pure Proustian existentialism, Midwestern mindtrips to the nth degree," the late, great Prine's enduring debut remains a landmark of musical Americana and one of the finest collections of original folk songs in popular music. Fresh from the Chicago folk scene, where he befriended Steve Goodman, who plays on two of the tracks, Prine's tales are filled with unforgettable…

With a piano/bass duo recording, it is natural to think the piano player will dominate the proceedings, even when the bassist is the leader. The temptation is even stronger when the pianist is one of the hottest young stars in jazz: Sullivan Fortner placed fourth on piano in the 2023 DownBeat Critics Poll, ahead of Brad Mehldau.

Here, such an assumption is wrong. Rufus Reid,…

Among many other honors, Johnston was selected to present the Richard Heyser Memorial Lecture at the 2012 AES convention—an honor shared by our…

Concert arrangements of operatic themes for piano, like Liszt's famous concert paraphrases, obviously provide an opportunity to display one's virtuosic keyboard technique. As Denis Morrier's program note for Harmonia Mundi indicates, however, transcriptions of Wagner served a second important purpose: spreading awareness of the composer's operas when they only played in a limited number of…

This is all standard procedure for Dirac Live and has been for a while. What's new is ART—Active Room Treatment (footnote 7). ART is the long-awaited fruition of Dirac Unison, which Dirac tantalized me with way back in 2011. It has been described as a "patented MIMO mixed-phase impulse response correction technology," which implements bass management with co-optimization of the subwoofer(s) using a single all-pass filter for the redirected bass with individual all-pass filters for the full-range channels, individually or in groups. In practice, ART utilizes the low-frequency output of…

Description: Network-connected, multichannel home theater preamp/processor. Post-processed outputs: Up to 32 channels, 48kHz. HDMI video inputs/outputs: 6/2. Audio inputs: 1 stereo XLR analog, 4 stereo RCA analog, 3 S/PDIF (RCA), 3 S/PDIF (Optical TosLink). Audio output: one S/PDIF (Optical TosLink) for Zone 2. Network Audio I/O: Ravenna/AES67 via 2 RJ45. 12V trigger I/O: 2/4.1 LAN (RJ45) connector for 100Mbps Ethernet network communications and two USB for USB microphone or for service. Voltage (AC): 100V–240V.
Dimensions: (with rack ears) 18.86" (479mm) W…

Digital sources: Oppo Digital UDP-103 universal disc player, Custom Intel/Win11 music server running JRiver Media Center v31 and Roon, Merging Hapi II, exaSound s88 Mark II, and Okto DAC8 Pro D/A processors. QNAP TVS-873 NAS.
Preamplifier: Coleman Audio 7.1SW for balanced DAC-to-amp switching.
Power amplifiers: Benchmark AHB2, NAD C 298.
Loudspeakers: KEF Blade 2 Meta (L/C/R) with IsoAcoustics Gaia II feet, Revel Performa3 f206 (SL/SR). 2 JL Audio e110 and 1 SVS SB-3000 subwoofers.
Cables: Digital cables: AudioQuest Coffee (USB). Analog…

Within each category, products are listed by class; within each class, they're in alphabetical order, followed by their price, a review synopsis, and a note indicating the issues in which the review, and any subsequent follow-up reports, appeared. "Vol.46 No.7" indicates our July 2023 issue, for example. "WWW" means the review is also posted online.

Stereophile's Recommended Components list is concerned mainly with products available in the US…