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There’s nothing quite like an insanely memorable, outta-left- field debut record to give people the permanent impression that you’re a genius. And that everything you subsequently do is worth seeking out and discussing. Trouble is once you’re a genius where do you and your art go? Justin Vernon seems to be on everyone’s lips right now since the release of 22, A Million. Buy a slice a pizza, admittedly in the hipster environs of Brooklyn, and it’s playing in the background of a place that’s usually slavishly committed to a classic rock Pandora channel. Wives hear it at the gym (thumbs down).…
Has any band ever put out less music and yet been discussed and dissected more than Big Star? The endless discussion over the years about Alex Chilton, Big Star and the supposed magic that lies in those 50 or so hallowed tracks has sent more than one Stereophile Contributing Music Editor into sputtering denunciations of how ridiculous it is that rock critics of a certain generation—those who came of age in the infancy of indie rock—fawn and coo over Big Star with seemingly bottomless adoration. And how, of course, their supposed influence on everything that came after is all pretentious…
The last room I visited before the Wes Phillips Memorial, which was hosted in the PS Audio room Friday night of the show, was conveniently, PS Audio's. In my photo, the company's cofounder, fitness freak Paul McGowan, whom his daily email newsletter has revealed to be a talented writer, poses beside the humongous collection of PS Audio gear that was used to drive the Scaena La Maitresse Ultime speakers ($125,000/pair). These combine line arrays of ribbon tweeters and cone midrange units with two subwoofer towers.
The Scaena speakers were bi-amped with four of PS Audio's BHK Signature 300…
Perhaps the most significant premiere at RMAF was the unveiling of the Wilson Audio Yvette three-way loudspeaker ($25,500/pair). Another design from Wilson Audio heir apparent, Daryl Wilson, it replaces the recently retired Sophia 3.
At an hour-long Saturday-afternoon press event, jointly sponsored by Wilson and VTL, John Atkinson and I joined others to hear Wilson Audio's Peter McGrath introduce Yvette. "We want to differentiate it from the Sophia because there are so many changes," he explained. The 175 lb loudspeaker has an sensitivity of 86-87dB. This may be lower than many other…
In the room with the most beautiful speakers, they played Norah Jones. Not Nina Simone, Kirsten Flagstad, or Iris DeMent. Norah (f-ing) Jones! (Jason, can you hear me?) But it was pretty good
for Norah Jones. It was Norah singing Hank Williams and Lucinda Williams, and I survived. But only because they also played the Wailin' Jennys, which was a beautiful discovery that sounded extremely free-running and tuneful.
Speaking of running, my RMAF runnin' buddy Jana Dagdagan asked them to play Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" (she likes Elton like I like Elvis), but what's up with…
It's higher up we go. The day is Sunday, October 9, and show attendance is light. John Atkinson has flown to California, and Stereophile's three remaining bees are buzzing between rooms and seminars, searching for the Nectar of the Gods while skillfully avoiding the occasional spray of Roundup.
Happily, this bee's last two floors included three exceptional rooms at altitudes rarer than before. In the biggest end-of-hall space on floor 10 of the Marriott Tower, the men of Nagra have made a major statement with a setup that began with two Nagra ClassicAmps ($16,000/each), a ClassicPreamp…
Holy Bagel: It's Sunday afternoon, and I've got at least five more rooms to cover. Lunch, schmunch—it's on with the show.
Although I wrote about a static display of Synergistic Research's latest iteration of their Tranquility Base, it wasn't until slow, slow Sunday that I could get into one of their packed listening rooms. The wait was worth it, and the system was one of the best I encountered at RMAF 2016. Ted Denney and Scott Walker may have a penchant for big, big, barely manageable rooms that are valiantly wrestled into submission—but in a much, much, much smaller space, everything…
Perhaps a show that begins its 13th year on a Friday in a hotel still undergoing renovation, with an entire Atrium wing, once available for exhibits and large convocations, now declared off-limits, is not destined to break either exhibit or attendance records. But for a show operating under such a severe handicap, RMAF 2016 maintained its warm vibe and reputation as the most friendly and communal audio show in the US.
All good things must come to an end. Even as these men were busy taking down signs from doors and walls on every single floor of Marriott Denver Tech Center's lobby…
Horn speakers, with their often ridiculously high sensitivity and ear-shocking "jump factor," fascinate many audiophiles. But their sonic flaws can be as big as their musical and technical virtues. The November Stereophile features on its cover, and in an extended version of Art Dudley's "Listening" column, the Hommage Cinema speaker from German company Auditorium 23, which features remanufactured versions of classic Western Electric compression drivers.
A full set of measurements for this speaker will be published in our January 2017 issue, but as a sneak peek, we'll tell you that the…
Peter Wolter, owner of a hi-fi shop in the town of Orangeville, Ontario—about an hour's drive from Toronto—in another life worked in marketing for a major pharmaceutical company. This marketing experience undoubtedly informs Wolter's approach to audio retailing, and, while his approach could not be further from hard sell, Wolter has a knack for attracting the attention of audio journalists. I first wrote about the opening of his store, then named Aardvark Boutique Audio, and the evening of vinyl playback that Wolter presented to mark this event in July 2015. Six months later, Wolter announced…