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I performed the measurements of the Rogue Audio Pharaoh II with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system. As the Rogue's output stages operate in class-D, all the measurements other than frequency and RIAA responses were taken with Audio Precision's auxiliary AUX-0025 passive low-pass filter, which reduces the level of noise above 80kHz and eliminates noise above 200kHz. Without the filter, 376mV of ultrasonic noise was present at the loudspeaker terminals, with a center frequency of 428kHz.

Looking first at the line-level inputs, the Rogue Pharaoh II preserved…

Queen's 13th studio album, May 1989's The Miracle, has been long overdue for a proper reassessment, and a new eight-disc box set from Hollywood Records dubbed The Miracle Collector's Edition enables our finely attuned ears to do just that. Content supervisors Kris Fredriksson and Justin Shirley-Smith, along with their Miracle Sessions co-producer Joshua J. Macrae, recently all got on the line with me from across…

8-disc box set (1LP/5CD/1DVD/1BD)
Hollywood Records
OVERALL RATING: 4½ out of 5 stars

Queen was still on fire as the 1980s came to a close. After taking a three-year break following the crest of their Live Aid/A Kind of Magic combo carpet ride, Queen dropped album No. 13, May 1989's The Miracle—a vibrant 10-track collection that fused the best of the four-piece British band's inherently anthemic nature ("I Want It All") alongside of-era production elements, albeit sometimes with a feisty twist ("Scandal"). And now, a new 13…

I'd heard many times over the years that the Warsaw Show—officially called Audio Video Show 2022—was a "great" show. But that gives barely a hint of the special nature of this show, the second largest audio show in Europe.

Did you know that there are at least 50 and perhaps 100 Polish manufacturers of audiophile hi-fi equipment? It isn't just components: At the show, I encountered many Polish companies that make fantastic cables, room treatments, and power conditioners. Throw in headphone amplifiers and home theater, neither of which…

Bay Area-based Parasound, known for reasonably priced audio components, especially those designed by John Curl, is under new ownership. The new owner, David Sheriff, an entrepreneur who specializes in product growth and supply chain management, has pledged to maintain Parasound's reputation for excellence while shepherding the company to "take the next step."

In a conversation with Stereophile, Sheriff, previous Parasound owner Richard Schram, and Jeanie Schram, Richard's life partner, discussed the reasons for the shift and Sheriff's plans for the company.

"At 76, it's…

What good was…

However, the darTZeel's sonic purity and transparency have made it my reference preamplifier, especially when its signals are routed via its Zeel BNC 50-ohm, transmission-line BNC jacks to my darTZeel NHB-458 monoblocks. Today there are many great choices in electronics, and I've reviewed quite a few…

Jeff Tweedy is an artist who transcends time. Wait—let me clarify that. Tweedy, the multi-hyphenate singer, songwriter, guitarist, and co-producer for the midwestern-bred alt-rocking Americana band Wilco, has spent the bulk of his career creating music that crosses the divides between past, present, and future.

If I told you Wilco's 21-song, genre-straddling double album Cruel Country, which was released in August, could easily be a contemporary of the Band's Music From Big Pink from the summer of 1968—as much…

Tweedy: Oh, I think there was a conversation about the two approaches, but it would have been very frustrating to try to make a really meticulously studio-crafted album at the same time we were dissecting Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I think that's maybe one of the things that contributed to the joy of just going through all those tracks with a…

The works of the greatest jazz composers are often neglected today because most current jazz musicians are obsessed with writing their own stuff. Enter Ethan Philion, a Chicago bassist who reveres Charles Mingus and believes, correctly, that Mingus's music is underperformed.

Meditations on Mingus is rich with rewards that only come from accessing a genre's strongest repertoire. It contains 50- and 60-year-old…