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CH Precision's P1 phono preamplifier, which I wrote about in the April 2017 issue, is not going back to its manufacturer. The longer I used it, the more obvious it became that I couldn't part with it, even though I said I couldn't afford it. The cost was stiff even at the accommodation price (at retail, the CH Precision P1 and its optional X1 power supply are $31,000 and $17,000, respectively, footnote 1), but I decided I could afford it, and bought it for myself as a 70th-birthday present. No, I can't hear as well as I did 30 years ago, but my listening is better than ever.
With no loss of any of the original NHB-18NS's tube-like richness and generous flow, the Mk.2 seemed to better grip the music, which brought the rhythmic pulse closer to if hardly equaling that of Boulder Amplifiers' 2110 line preamplifier ($55,000), which I reviewed in the March 2015 issue.
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 photos by Whitten Sabbatini / Wilco photos by Peter Crosby
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…
Mettler: You probably had to be of two brains at that point, because you had to be technically reverent to Yankee based on the way you wanted to perform it but still be completely wide open while recording Cruel Country. Was it easy to do it that way?
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…
Ethan Philion: Meditations on Mingus
Philion, bass; nine others
Sunnyside SSC 1666 (CD). 2022. Philion, prod.; Nick Broste, eng.
Performance ****
Sonics ****
Philion, bass; nine others
Sunnyside SSC 1666 (CD). 2022. Philion, prod.; Nick Broste, eng.
Performance ****
Sonics ****
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…
Tchaikovsky: Symphony 5, Rimsky-Korsakov: Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh—Suite
London Symphony Orchestra. Gianandrea Noseda, cond.
LSO Live LSO0858 (CD). Nicholas Parker, prod.; Neil Hutchinson and Jonathan Stokes, engs.
Performance ****½
Sonics *****
London Symphony Orchestra. Gianandrea Noseda, cond.
LSO Live LSO0858 (CD). Nicholas Parker, prod.; Neil Hutchinson and Jonathan Stokes, engs.
Performance ****½
Sonics *****
Noseda's Tchaikovsky 5 offers a more distinctive sound than the customary generic polish. The LSO strings' soft-edged attack produces a nice, cushiony backdrop for expressive woodwinds and crisp, focused brass. There's no tonal bloat—those midrange horn chords don't carry an ounce of extra fat—and balances are…
What do New York's Lincoln Center and the typical Stereophile reader have in common? Both have recently made large investments to achieve sonic excellence.
I doubt that very many Stereophile readers have spent as much as Lincoln Center did on the renovation of Geffen Hall: $550 million. But then few audiophiles' systems are supported by the likes of David Geffen, a $100 million contributor to the Geffen Hall project, or Joseph and Clara Wu Tsai, who gave $50 million.
Geffen made his contribution several years ago, setting the stage, as it were, for the renovation. Tsai's late-…
Here It Is: A Tribute To Leonard Cohen
Norah Jones, Peter Gabriel, Gregory Porter, Sarah McLachlan, Luciana Souza, James Taylor, Iggy Pop, Mavis Staples, David Gray, Nathaniel Rateliff, vocals; Bill Frisell, guitar; Immanuel Wilkins, alto saxophone; Kevin Hays, piano, Estey; Scott Colley, bass; Nate Smith, drums; Gregory Leisz, pedal steel guitar; Larry Goldings, Hammond organ
Blue Note B003552102 (CD, available as download, LP). 2022. Larry Klein, prod.; Adam Greenspan, eng.; other engineers for seven vocal tracks.
Performance ****½
Sonics ****
Norah Jones, Peter Gabriel, Gregory Porter, Sarah McLachlan, Luciana Souza, James Taylor, Iggy Pop, Mavis Staples, David Gray, Nathaniel Rateliff, vocals; Bill Frisell, guitar; Immanuel Wilkins, alto saxophone; Kevin Hays, piano, Estey; Scott Colley, bass; Nate Smith, drums; Gregory Leisz, pedal steel guitar; Larry Goldings, Hammond organ
Blue Note B003552102 (CD, available as download, LP). 2022. Larry Klein, prod.; Adam Greenspan, eng.; other engineers for seven vocal tracks.
Performance ****½
Sonics ****
This is not just another…
In the very first copy of Stereophile I encountered, back when issues were digest size, one review infuriated me. The writer went on at inordinate length about the fine wines he'd consumed during the review period. On and on he went, gushing about the costly drinks, until I exclaimed (in a sentence laced with expletives), "What in the world does any of this have to do with audio?!"
Lifetimes later, I think I understand. Although to my recollection the connection was never made explicit, the writer was attempting to reinforce his credentials as a connoisseur in all matters.
An…
Readers familiar with the Alexia Series 2 will note several differences in size and shape. The width of the woofer enclosure—hence of the speaker itself—was increased by about ¼", depth by 1¼". The internal volume of the woofer enclosure is about 9% larger, that of the midrange enclosure 6.4% larger. Daryl says this allows for "a little more low-frequency extension and alacrity in the bass and a bit more midrange bloom." Not visible from the outside are more elaborate diffusers used inside the midrange enclosure. Sensitivity is claimed to have increased by 1dB, from 89 to 90, and crossover…