Fisher's clear writing style and insightful listening notes built trust among his readers, especially within the Canadian hi-fi community. Ernie's passion for music and audio gear is always evident in his writing. He will be missed.
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Ernie Fisher, the founder and longtime editor of Canada's The Inner Ear Magazine, passed away at age 89. Through The Inner Ear, Ernie provided audiophiles with hi-fi equipment reviews and commentary focused on achieving faithful musical reproduction. He was a regular fixture at audio shows for many years, always wearing his signature hat.
The marriage of little streaming computers to DACs was at first a shotgun thing, a way to add Swiss Army knife capabilities at a price point. That was back when it was cutting-edge to have a NAS server full of digital files on the home network, and when commercial streaming was new, primitive, and lossy. Remember Pandora? Cool idea, but who wants to sit through ads and not be able to skip over more than a handful of disliked tunes every hour. Then Spotify came along. Then Apple and Amazon jumped in, and that's all she wrote. Eventually, streaming even got around to us audiophiles who desired…
Yesterday, I had a brief conversation, by text message, with my 26-year-old son. He had just walked by the Devialet shop at the Shoppes at Columbus Circle here in Manhattan. Knowing my interest in such things, he sent me a photo. The Devialet boutique seems more a design exhibit than a shop, in a high-ceilinged open area.
The shops at the Shoppes at Columbus Circle include Hugo Boss, Eileen Fisher, and Floga, which sells furs, among less-exclusive brands, though even the less-exclusive stores look fancy. Upstairs from the Shoppes is the Mandarin Oriental New York Hotel, where rooms cost…
Synthesis: The String Quartet Sessions
Various composers and musicians
ArtistShare CD. 2024. Ryan Truesdell, prod.; Ryan Streber, eng. (footnote 1).
Performance ****½
Sonics ****
Various composers and musicians
ArtistShare CD. 2024. Ryan Truesdell, prod.; Ryan Streber, eng. (footnote 1).
Performance ****½
Sonics ****
Until now, Ryan Truesdell has been known for producing two of the most important jazz records of the second decade of the current millennium. Centennial, in 2012, and Lines of Color, in 2015, contained newly discovered works by the great composer/arranger Gil Evans. They were lavish productions with huge world-class New York orchestras. The many honors they received included a Grammy award and…
EISA, or the Expert Imaging and Sound Association, is an organisation representing 56 of the most respected special interest publications and websites from 27 countries that cover Hi-Fi, Home Theater Video, Home Theater Audio, Photography, Mobile Devices, and In-Car Electronics. Every year EISA's Expert Group members, including editors from this publication, test a very wide range of new products from their field of expertise before comparing results and voting to decide on the cream of every product category.
To win an EISA award all products undergo a comprehensive multi-step judging…
Modern turntables are a paradox. The ever-evolving technology beneath their sleek exteriors fascinates me. The high-end turntable market these days can feel less like a haven for music lovers and more like a brutalist arms race in pursuit of maximum audio extraction.
Yet, it's not all about performance. Many new 'tables are adorned with outlandish, purely cosmetic flourishes that cause me to chuckle. Some super-bling record players, with their jutting angles and industrial menace, evoke the chrome carcass of the Battlestar Galactica, a testament to mechanical might. Others are even more…
The EMT 928 II boasts a hefty, 49mm-thick stepped aluminum platter that slots precisely into the plinth's recessed well, rising an inch above its surface. (The platter is "stepped" in the sense that the radius is larger at the top; the part that fits into the plinth's recessed well is smaller.) The platter is topped with an inlaid, textured mat designed to mate well with vinyl records. Huber said, "The exact mixture is a secret, but it consists of a high-density material and vinyl."
A phenolic subplatter supports the main platter, powered by a DC motor hidden beneath the plinth.…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Belt-drive, three-speed, manual turntable with 20W DC motor and battery power source, 12.12lb (5.5kg), 12" (304.8mm) diameter stepped aluminum platter and aluminum plinth. Supplied with EMT 909-HI tonearm, EMT Pure Black phono cartridge. Output: one pair RCA jacks, ground terminal. Tonearm mounting distance: 215–245mm, prepared for EMT 9" tonearm. 12" tonearm can be used via an offboard adapter. Speeds: 33 1/3rpm, 45rpm, 78rpm. W&F: (IEC 386 weighted): ±0.07%, ±0.07%, ±0.10%. Rumble (IEC 98 weighted, at 33 1/3, 45, and 78rpm): –85dB, –80dB, –75dB…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog sources: VPI Avenger Direct turntable with VPI 12" FatBoy tonearm and Hana Umami Blue MC cartridge.
Preamplifiers: Line: Rogue Audio RP-7. Phono: Tavish Audio Design Adagio, Manley Chinook.
Integrated amplifier: Riviera Labs Levante.
Power amplifier: Rogue Audio Stereo 100.
Loudspeakers: Volti Audio Razz.
Cables: Interconnects: Agent Pur, AudioQuest Pegasus, Triode Wire Labs Spirit II (all RCA). Speaker: AudioQuest William Tell. AC: AudioQuest NRG Z, Triode Wire Labs Obsession NCF.
Accessories: Pro-Ject VC-S2 ALU, Humminguru…
In Serinusland, smooth sailing has never been guaranteed. Some months back, for reasons not yet determined, my Stromtank S 2500 Quantum MK II power regenerator (footnote 1) began to hum mechanically—sometimes steadily, sometimes with a pulse—whenever I turned on battery mode. Simultaneously, the Dan D'Agostino Master Systems Momentum HD preamp's power supply began to hum. I could listen through the hum—it wasn't that loud—but silence between tracks was a thing of the past, and rarely was the noise in the right key.
After Stromtank's remote diagnostic and repair procedure failed, Stromtank…