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I walked into the larger of Joseph Audio's two demonstration rooms—the one shared with Nagra and Kronos—just in time to hear Neil Young's "There's a World" and "Bad Fog of Loneliness," from the Live at Massey Hall LP. The performances—and Young's very funny between-song patter—were thoroughly convincing, and even in this large space, there was a sense of the Joseph Audio Pearl 3 floorstanders ($US31,500/pair) pressurizing the room to realistic good effect. I loved the Pearl 3s—and so, apparently, did Nagra's Classic Amp ($US16,000), a 100Wpc stereo amp that runs in class-A for its first 10…
One oft-heard comment is that South By Southwest, has grown too expensive for attendees. The hotel rooms, all controlled by the South By Southwest Housing Bureau, are ridiculously, exorbitantly overpriced. And keep in mind that Austin, during the rest of the year, is not an especially expensive place to live. More evidence of absurd SXSW inflation could be found in the convention center where this piece of cold, half-baked-to-start-with muck that looks like what folks in the rest of the United States sometimes call "pizza," could be had for a mere $8.25. People have been hung, drawn and…
One of the great joys about visiting Austin, at least for those attached to collecting physical media, is Waterloo Records, which even now, still maintains a small but fairly vital classical music section.
How to define progress? Ask longtime locals about the state of their hometown and the moaning starts: “Whole Foods is corrupt.” “Austin’s lost what made it cool.” “South Congress is too crazy.” “The traffic here is nuts.” “My ex-girlfriend used to bartend there.” “They’re not using locally sourced Tomatillos.” Here, the historic building on Red River Street just north of Waller Creek that once held impromptu jam sessions during many SXSW’s long past—and should be saved but is now ominously boarded up—stands in very stark contrast to the non-descript, mirror and steel Fairmont Hotel being…
There were a pair of High Resolution Audio Panels at South By Southwest this year, Hi-Res Audio in Every Earbud and the one shown here, Listening in High Definition: Future Music Consumption where David Chesky (pictured here), of Chesky Records, fought boredom with this panel as well as the good fight for HDTracks and all of high resolution audio. His comments on how streaming devalues music and musicians had a lot of heads in the room nodding in the affirmative. His explanation of what makes for high end audio were the best information given during this entire panel. He know'd of what he…
Oh yeah, along with all the tech gadgets and panels on how VR (virtual reality) is going to save not only the music and film industries but also civilization as we know it (and perhaps even lower the price of bad pizza in the Austin Convention Center!),there was some actual music in Austin at South By Southwest 2016. Here African blues guitarist and singer Bombino from Agadez, Niger and his band perform at the Radio Day Stage. Another variation on the sub-Saharan African blues/groove guitar genre, the man is virtuoso and is not to be missed.
Although I'm not one of those people who dismisses Tom Cruise—he's a very capable actor, he works hard at his craft, he has a track record of choosing good material, and his personal beliefs are his own damn business—there's no denying that the addition of Simon Pegg has transformed the Mission: Impossible franchise into mandatory viewing for fans of films that are fun. So it was at Montreal Salon Audio, in the room sponsored by the French company Devialet: the opening scene of MI: Rogue Nation on a surround-sound system using multiple Devialet Phantom powered loudspeakers (starting at $…
Avishai Cohen: Into the Silence
Avishai Cohen, trumpet; Bill McHenry, tenor saxophone; Yonathan Avishai, piano; Eric Revis, bass; Nasheet Waits, drums
ECM 2482 (CD). 2016. Manfred Eicher, prod.; Gérard de Haro, Nicolas Baillard, engs. DDD. TT: 53:08
Performance ****½
Sonics ****½
Avishai Cohen, trumpet; Bill McHenry, tenor saxophone; Yonathan Avishai, piano; Eric Revis, bass; Nasheet Waits, drums
ECM 2482 (CD). 2016. Manfred Eicher, prod.; Gérard de Haro, Nicolas Baillard, engs. DDD. TT: 53:08
Performance ****½
Sonics ****½
In the new millennium, no country other than Cuba has exported more important jazz musicians to the United States than has Israel. But even though the Israeli jazz phenomenon has been much discussed in the jazz press, critics have been late to recognize that Avishai Cohen is one of the best…
It's one of audiophiledom's eternal questions: What can we do to draw more music lovers into the audiophile fold?
Of the proposals bandied about on audio forums, two seem predominant: a) sell stuff more people can afford, and b) sit your neighbor or the cable guy in front of your stereo, cross your fingers, and let 'er rip—the theory behind b) being that the experience will be so epic as to transform the reluctant participant into an audiophile butterfly. As if.
These ideas aren't wrong, but their aim is all over the map. Actual human beings have a ton of other things—and not just…
Components listed here have been formally reviewed in Stereophile and have been found to be among the best available in each of four or five quality classes. Whether a component is listed in Class A or Class E, we highly recommend its purchase.
Each listing—in alphabetical order within classes—is followed by a brief description of the product's sonic characteristics and a code indicating the Stereophile Volume and Issue in which that product's report appeared. Thus the May 2015 issue is indicated as "Vol.38 No.5."
Some products listed have not yet been reported on; these are…