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As a life-long film-photo shooter with a darkroom since I was 12, I am particularly disturbed by an aesthetic trend I see in contemporary digital photography: excessive edge sharpening and amped-up contrast structures. These Photoshop/Lightroom tools render captured light into something as unsubtle and blatantly artificial as a Vegas show girl. (There's a real person under there somewhere, but she's hidden.)

Shadows are the connective tissue of our visual reality. The chief effect of artificial edge sharpening is to disrupt our perception of realness.

It seems that those…

Exhausted, I walked back into town and descended stairs into a conveniently located corner restaurant. I had to eat fast because my…

Setup
As I placed the amps on my Grand Prix Monza amp stands, I noted their special feet, from SuperSpikes, a Norwegian company owned by Norwegian speaker-driver manufacturer SEAS. "You are free to change these to whatever you are familiar with or keep the original ones," Danielsen emailed after our talk. When I listened to the same recording and switched between those spikes and Wilson Audio Pedestals, the latter supplied a bit more air without changing the amp's sonic signature. I went back and forth between these supports during the review period.

Electrocompaniet's well-…

Description: Solid state, fully balanced class-AB mono/stereo power amplifier. Input: 1 balanced (XLR) mono, 2 balanced (XLR) stereo. Output: 2 pair binding posts per channel, 3 balanced (XLR) links. Rated output power mono 800W into 8 ohms (29dBW), 1500W into 4 ohms (28.8dBW), 2200W into 2 ohms (27.4dBW). Rated output power stereo: 300Wpc into 8 ohms (24.8dBW), 600Wpc into 4 ohms (24.8dBW), 1000W into 2 ohms (24dBW). Frequency response 0.5Hz–220kHz, ±3dB. Input impedance: 330k ohms. Signal/noise ratio (ref. 1W into 8 ohms, A-weighted): 95dB. THD+N (mono, 300W,…

Digital sources: dCS Vivaldi Apex DAC, Vivaldi Upsampler Plus, Vivaldi Master Clock; Innuos Statement Next-Gen Music Server; Small Green Computer Sonore Deluxe opticalModule; Uptone Audio EtherRegen with SOtM sCLK-OCX10 Master Clock and sPS-500 power supply; Nordost QSource linear power supplies (2); HDPlex 300 linear power supply; Synology 5-bay 1019+ NAS powered by Ferrum Hypsos linear/switching hybrid power supply; Linksys mesh router and Arris modem; Apple 2017 iPad Pro and 2017 MacBook Pro laptop with 2.8GHz Intel i7, SSD, 16GB RAM.
Preamplifier:…

Because JVS auditioned the Electrocompaniet AW 800 M as a pair of monoblocks, I performed a complete set of measurements of the amplifier in that mode with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system. I confirmed the results with the higher-performance APx500, then repeated some tests with the amplifier operating in two-channel mode.

I preconditioned the AW 800 M by following the CEA's recommendation, running it at one-eighth the specified power into 8 ohms for 30 minutes. At the end of that time, the top panel above the internal heatsinks was hot, at 117°F (47.3°C…

It's hardly news that pop can be simultaneously intelligent and fun, or that a music single can be both fun entertainment and a significant cultural artefact. Smash is evidence, as if any more were needed, that the Pet Shop Boys are sublimely good at that particular synthesis.

Considering the large number of singles included in this set, the number of naff ones is surprisingly small. Arranged…

Dvořák's Quartet 13 in G major is only a third longer than the popular American, but its broader scale feels unwieldy. The first movement's hearty, open main theme and lighter second are both appealing once you get past a schizophrenic, Punch-and-Judy introduction. In the Adagio, sustained straight tones lead to a warmly harmonized chorale; later, a warmer, cautiously affirmative…

Audible Spirits is a collective trio with unusual, perhaps unprecedented instrumentation. Matt Moran, cofounder of Diskonife, conceives the label as a home for free thinkers like himself. In his liner note, he says, "as musicians push the boundaries, those that came before us are always ... in the room." This is a standards project—one of the strangest…

A few months ago, the hi-fi world learned that Audio Research, perhaps the most storied hi-fi brand in US history (McIntosh would be the other choice), had a new owner. The company had overextended itself, then filed for "Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors"—somewhat like Chapter 11 bankruptcy but different. The company was then acquired by a group led by a Canadian, Valerio Cora of Acora Acoustics. In the September issue's Industry Update, I wrote, "Audio Research, that great American hi-fi company, is now Canadian."

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