Most of today's reproducing equipment is good enough that, while there will undoubtedly…
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While we will not pretend for a moment that the millennium of high fidelity has arrived, we are finally having to face up to a fact that has been staring us in the face and nudging us in the ribs increasingly rudely of late: The state of the art of sound reproduction has gotten to be pretty damned sophisticated. Perfection is just as unattainable as it was almost 100 years ago when Thomas Edison was diddling with different diaphragm materials on his phonograph because some sounded better than others.
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: Dual-channel, solid-state (!) power amplifier. Rated power: 100Wpc into 8 ohms (20dBW) at <0.2% THD and <0.05% IMD.
Dimensions: 19" W by 10¼" D by 5¼" H. Weight: 40 lbs.
Serial numbers of review samples: 16401045 and 16401055.
Price: $895 (1977); no longer available (2015).
Manufacturer: Audio Research Corporation, Minneapolis, MN 55406 (1977). Audio Research Corporation, 3900 Annapolis Lane N., Plymouth, MN 55447-5447 (2015). Tel: (763) 577-9700. Fax: (763) 577-0323. Web: www.audioresearch.com.
As soon as one arrives in the Munich airport, days before the start of High End 2015, posters announcing the event are visible. This is no marginal show, with expectations of appealing only to a fringe group of dying, gray-haired audiophile fanatics. Rather, it is a major event, with an appeal that extends far beyond a set age group, as well as national and geographic boundaries.
Extending for four days—the first day of the show, on Thursday, May 14, is open only to the trade, which means dealers and press from all seven continents of the world are here—the Munich High End Show takes…
Trumpeter Dave Douglas has two very different new albums out: Sound Prints: Live at Monterey Jazz Festival (Blue Note), featuring a Wayne Shorter tribute-band co-led by tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano; and High Risk, a collaborative excursion into electronica.
Sound Prints is also the name of the tribute band (a riff on Shorter's classic Footprints album), and, judging from the two times I've seen them play at the Village Vanguard, they're among the most vibrant, dizzying jazz bands around. Douglas and Lovano bounce off each other with an energy and virtuosity I've rarely seen either sustain…
The Blues Boy is gone. And with him the second generation of bluesmen; the guys who came north, most from Mississippi, after the original acoustic Delta blues cats like Son House, Skip James and Robert Johnson had seen their time in the spotlight fade. For this younger generation, electricity was the calling card. Microphones and electric guitars their weapons. As it must, time marches on and the crew that included Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and B.B. King, one that changed blues, rock ‘n’ roll and really all of popular music forever, has now gone into that good night as Riley…
José James: Yesterday I Had the Blues, The Music of Billie Holiday
Blue Note B002283102 (CD). 2015. Yoshihisa Saito, exec. prod.; Don Was, prod.; Chris Allen, eng., mix. DDD? TT: 49:33
Performance ****
Sonics *****
Blue Note B002283102 (CD). 2015. Yoshihisa Saito, exec. prod.; Don Was, prod.; Chris Allen, eng., mix. DDD? TT: 49:33
Performance ****
Sonics *****
Unlike the conundrum of today's country music, whose lyrics celebrate family and tradition even as the country-music community ignores and disrespects the giants of the music's past, jazz and rock have for the most part remembered and celebrated their musical pioneers and game changers, and the singular, monumental virtuosity of artists like Billie Holiday.
…
The day before I began writing this, John Atkinson posted on Stereophile's website a chart from Nielsen Soundscan showing the ski-jump–like path CD sales have been on since 2004. In 2004, total sales were 651 million units; in 2014, 141 million units. All that is lacking from that impactful visual to make the ski-jump analogy perfect is the little uptick at the end to launch the skier into free air. Those numbers look to me like a total decline in sales of 78%. Ouch.
My audio retailer friend Bob Saglio stopped by today. He had with him the first CD he'd bought in living memory: Shadows in…
Ready, set go. It may not look crowded at 9am on the first morning of High End 2015 in Munich, but we who were dashing in an hour early for the Devialet press conference soon found Atrium 4.1 (shown) filled with people. Attendees included, in addition to consumers, dealers from multiple continents, some of whom are now skipping January's CES in Las Vegas because they find the trip to Munich more productive and far more enjoyable. Also present were manufacturers and reps who prefer to make the rounds rather than display. All in all, it's fair to say that, for many in the industry, High 2015 is…
Clearaudio began making moving-coil cartridges in the 1970s, and only later got into the moving-magnet business. Moving-magnet cartridge designers must now be mindful that most of today's tonearms are of medium to high mass and that therefore, to be compatible, their MMs must be of low to medium compliance and of higher mass than those of the 1960s and '70s.
At $1200, the Maestro V2 is among the most expensive, if not the most expensive, MM cartridges you can buy today. Like all but one of the four other models in the V2 line, it features a resonance-optimized body of ebony. Clearaudio's…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: Moving-magnet phono cartridge. Weight: 8.4gm. Output voltage: 3.6mV at 1kHz. Channel separation: >30dB. Channel balance: <0.2dB. Coil impedance: 660 ohms at 1kHz.
Price: $1200.
Manufacturer: Clearaudio Electronic GmbH, Spardorfer Strasse 150, 91054 Erlangen, Germany. Tel: (49) (0)1805-05-95-95. Fax: (49) (0)9131-40-300-119. Web: www.clearaudio.de. US distributor: Musical Surroundings, 5662 Shattuck Avenue, Oakland, CA 94609. Tel: (510) 547-5006. Fax: (510) 547-5009. Web: www.musicalsurroundings.com