Throughout the 1990s, Peter Madnick's reputation as a designer of modestly priced, reliable, and sonically superb audio products was etched in stone. (And Audio…
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On the day before RMAF 2016 began, German audio manufacturer Elac announced that they have entered an agreement to acquire Peter Madnick's American company, Audio Alchemy. When I heard this news, it felt good and right. Between them, Elac and Audio Alchemy are turning out a large portion of the best-sounding, highest-value audio equipment I have experienced in the 21st Century— and now they are officially a power couple!
As you can read elsewhere in our RMAF coverage, the incomplete remodeling of the Denver Tech Center Marriott mean that the CanJam exhibits had to be moved to a tent in the hotel parking lot and the seminars and Classic Album Sunday events were held in temporary housing "pods." I wandered into one of the latter to find Channel D's Rob Robinson (above) playing 24/192 rips of LPs on a system featuring a Lynx HiLo digital converter, a Jeff Rowland amplifier, Cardas cables, and Joseph Audio Pearl 3 speakers. When I sat down to listen, Rob was playing a 1953 Maria Callas recording of an aria from…
As I entered the Schiit/Salk room, someone from Schiit asked me, jokingly: "Isn't Schiit too cheap for Stereophile?"
I wish I could've channeled Stephen Mejias, who'd probably have said something more wise/cool/all-around-smooth-space-cowboy sounding. I think I probably just chuckled and said something like "no, of course not." Nothing is too cheap for Stereophile. Nothing is too cheap for audiophiles. Our reviewers share their thoughts on components through all price ranges for our readers who shop through all budget ranges.
That being said—I'm cheap. I'm a recent college…
Rad, man! Rad
as in Raidho. (Well, okay—maybe it's pronounced Rye-dough, but I trust you get my bleary-eyed, blogged-out drift.) Using the exact same equipment that delivered extremely enticing albeit ultimately unbalanced sound in a much larger, unquestionably problematic room in Munich, Raidho blew me away with the great depth, excellent highs, ideal depiction of guitar, and lovely midrange it shared via a recording of Suzanne Vega's "Luka."
The sound was exceptional. On my own Chesky CD of bassist Ron Carter and bossa nova great Rosa Passos—yes, you could actually play your own…
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…