search

Show Reports

Montreal Audio Fest
Held each spring in Montreal, Canada, the Montreal Audio Fest (previously Salon Son & Image) show is a combination audio and video event where we focus on the audio. It was also known as the Festival Son & Image through 2008.

Montreal Audio Fest 2023 Show Report Montreal Audio Fest 2022 Show Report Montreal Audio Fest 2019 Show Report Montreal Audio Fest 2018 Show Report Montreal Audio Fest 2017 Show Report SSI 2016 Show Report SSI 2016 Show Report SSI 2016 Show Report SSI 2015 Show Report SSI 2014 Show Report SSI 2013 Show Report…

About Us

About

According to editor Jim Austin, “Whatever the medium via which audiophiles choose to enjoy their music — be it two-channel or surround-sound,CD, SACD, DVD-A, MP3, LP or whatever — you will be able to read about it and how to get the best from it in Stereophile."

Thousands of equipment reports going back over 40 years are available on the web site, sorted by product category. The home page is also updated daily with blog posts, music opinion, show reports, news, and other features of interest to audiophiles.

Past eNewsletters

December 8, 2006
• Chinese Whispers Are Now Shouts, by Ken Kessler
• Tower Records R.I.P., by Wes Phillips

November 7, 2006
• New from Nagra, by Ken Kessler
• You Shall Knows Us By Our Trail of Unfiled Discs, by Wes Phillips
• This Month's Audio URL, from Wes Phillips

October 10, 2006
• Compared to What? by Wes Phillips
• Acoustic Energy WiFi Internet Radio, by Wes Phillips
• Soundmatters FULLstage Hd, by Wes Phillips
• Audica MPS-1 Personal Audio System, by Wes Phillips
• This Month's Audio URL, from Wes Phillips

September 28…

Email:

Audiophile Societies

Attention all Audiophile Societies, have your society or club information posted here. To do so, e-mail Chris Vogel at vgl@cfl.rr.com and request an info-pack.

Chris Vogel suggests that if there is no Audio Society in your area, just take the initiative: "A simple monthly or bi-monthly meeting for listening and auditioning should do just fine. You can specify a theme such as CD players and have members bring one for auditioning. E-mail is invaluable for posting, updating, and sending reminders. Some type of food, snack, and/or refreshment is appropriate and it is worthwhile to give an…

Warsaw Day Two: Exotica

The GMG power conditioner from Czechoslovakia, produced by Peter and Pavel Geryer.

"Focus on the unusual, the exotic," editor Jim Austin counseled by email. I didn't have to look very far. If Day One of the Audio Video Show 2022 in the huge Stadium was dominated by major brands, Day Two in the Radisson Sobieski Blu Hotel was filled with unusual speakers and electronics from small companies based in Poland and other European companies. Hardly any have a US presence, and many are searching for the right distributor to get them beyond the Polish border.

Which is not to say…

Re-Tales #26: Building an audiophile community

Audiophilia often leads the afflicted on a long journey, but no one need take that journey alone: Many audiophiles seek the company of like-minded people, on-line or in person, to exchange tips and advice, buy and sell gear, and share skills, fun, and musical experiences. And those who don't seek audiophile companionship? Perhaps they should.

Audiophilia is not congenital. Most audiophiles can trace their obsessions back to a particular event, a stirring experience hearing music they love on a high-quality hi-fi system. A vibrant community helps all of us while providing rich…

Warsaw Day Three: Goodness in All Sizes

Most US shows experience a big drop in attendance on Sunday. Not at Audio Video 2022. Over 90% of Poland's residents may identify as Catholic, but that didn't stop thousands of them from visiting the Warsaw Show's three sites on the last day of the show. I still had to play musical chairs in many rooms before finally landing in or close to the sweet spot, and there were a few rooms that felt too crowded for comfort.

Accustomed to US shows that close down at 4pm on Sunday, I paced myself to visit the well-over 30 rooms not yet seen in the Sobieski hotel, and then head diagonally across…

Analog Corner #263: Zesto Andros Téssera phono preamp & Acoustic Signature Ascona turntable and TA-9000 tonearm

Maybe you've seen the widely circulated New Yorker cartoon: Two guys stand in front of a nicely drawn, tubed audio system, under which are shelves full of LPs. One guy says, "The two things that really drew me to vinyl were the expense and the inconvenience."

If you can't laugh at that, you've lost your sense of humor—even acknowledging that, oddly, convenience is the raison d'être of some recent phono preamplifiers—including Dan D'Agostino Audio's Momentum and the CH Precision P1, both of which offer multiple, switchable, configurable inputs saved in memory. Today's well-heeled vinyl…

Analog Corner #263: Zesto Andros Téssera phono preamp & Acoustic Signature Ascona turntable and TA-9000 tonearm Page 2

I'd played test pressings of Bloodlines, a boxed set comprising the first four albums by Blood, Sweat & Tears (8 45rpm LPs, Columbia/Legacy/Analogue Productions APP BSTBOX-45), through both the Ypsilon VPS-100/MC-16L and CH Precision P1/X1 that I wrote about in the April and June issues, and had gotten a good handle on the sound of Ryan K. Smith's remastering, at Sterling Sound, from the original tapes: ultra-transparent, superdetailed, forceful, fully extended on bottom, and a bit forward in the presence region (as are most Smith remasterings).

Despite the cackling and…