I'm more than a little lazy, and I had long-delayed much-needed system updates because of all the dreaded effort and disruption. But slowly I began to realize that this was an…
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It has been a disrupted spring. Late last year, my wife and I committed ourselves to a long-needed renovation of our main living space: an apartment in Manhattan. Articles, books, and TV shows have illuminated the trials and triumphs of home renovation, but as far as I know, none has included a redo of the listening room of an obsessive audiophile, let alone one who is also an audio writer facing copy deadlines.
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: Moving-magnet stereo cartridge with spherical or 0.2 by 0.7 hyperelliptical stylus and viscous-damped dynamic stabilizer. Output level: 5mV out at 1kHz/5cm/s velocity. Frequency range: 10Hz–25kHz. Channel separation: 25dB at 1kHz.
Price: $150 (1979); no longer available (2015).
Manufacturer: Shure Bros, Inc., Evanston, IL 60294 (1979). Shure Incorporated, 5800 West Touhy Avenue Niles, IL 60714-4608 (2015). Tel: (847) 600-2000 & (800) 25-SHURE (US only). Fax: (847) 600-1212. Web: www.shure.com.
Unfortunately, AQ has eliminated the latching feature on these XLRs. This is not a problem with the power amps, which don't move around and to which I have easy access—but things are crowded at the other end, back at the rack, and the cables tend to pull out when I shift the preamp to make other connections. This is a disappointment in such a product, which is otherwise impressively designed and made (and priced), but the inclusion of latches likely would have required the use of base metals stronger than the silver and copper AQ prefers. Because Stephen brought the new cables before I…
Sidebar Contacts
AudioQuest, 2621 White Road, Irvine, CA 92614. Tel: (949) 585-0111. Web: www.audioquest.com
Baetis Audio, 428 Canyon Creek Road, Livingston, MT 59047. Tel: (514) 496-9933. Web: www.baetisaudio.com
exaSound Audio Design, 3219 Yonge Street, Suite 354, Toronto, Ontario M4N 3S1, Canada. Web: www.exasound.com
miniDSP Ltd., Unit 1204, Crown Industrial Building, 106 How Ming Street, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong. Tel: (852) 2358-2066. Web: www.minidsp.com
Salamander Designs Ltd., 811 Blue Hills Avenue, Bloomfield, CT 06002. Tel: (888) 650-5289, (860) 761-…
A great, if not the greatest Krautrock engineer recording Duke Ellington in 1970 at Rhenus Studios in Cologne Germany? Sounds implausible, some fevered dream if not outright fiction. And yet it briefly happened. Upon hearing the results, one enthusiastic Kraftwerk fan was heard to intone, “it’s like Chaucer and Galileo were in the same room.”
Conny Plank, who began his career in music working for Marlene Dietrich, became a master at multi-track recording and a Svengali at creating the soundscapes that were the bedrock of European electronic music. An advocate for electronic music, his…
Often copied, never equaled, Stereophile's 40-page "Recommended Components" listing is featured in our October issue, which will hit newsstands, mailboxes, iPads, and Android tablets this coming week.
The hot-running Line Magnetic LM518IA integrated amplifier takes pride of place on the cover, while inside, you can find reviews of: affordable phono amplifiers from Schiit, Blue Horizon, and Leema; a high-end monoblock amplifier from Krell; an even higher-end passive preamp from England’s Bespoke; super–high-end phono cartridges from Fuuga and AirTight; an update on Bel Canto's Black; the…
Thursday–Saturday, September 17–19: HiFi Buys (3157 Peachtree Road NE, Atlanta) will celebrate the Grand Opening of their new Buckhead store.
Thursday, September 17, 7–9pm: Michael Fremer of AnalogPlanet.com and Stereophile will be on hand to discuss all things analog. Other special guests include Alex Brinkman of Ayre Acoustics, discussing his company's new Twenty Series electronics; David Schultz of REL, sharing the new T/I Series subwoofers; and Steve Daniels from Rega, who will be on hand to play a full range of analog and digital products.
Friday, September 18, 7–9pm: Paul…
Register to win an Allnic Speednic universal turntable speed verification system (MSRP $399) we are giving away.
According to the company:
"Its price of $399 reflects its luxurious fit and finish. You'd lust to own one for it's handsome looks but Speednic's record player speed verification at any frequency during play with it's highly visible indicator makes this tool's ownership a must."
Click here for more info.
To enter the sweepstakes, all you need is an account on this website. If you don't already have one, click on the link labeled "register" at…
Imagine if you can a power amplifier with the bass richness, midrange liquidity, and high-end accuracy of the best tube amplifiers, and the inner detail, transient attack, and bass solidity and range of the best solid-state amplifiers. If you can imagine that, you can visualize what this amplifier sounds like.
There are some amplifier designs around in which transistors are used throughout until the output stages, which are tubes. This defies explanation, for among listeners who can recognize merit in the "tube sound," it is generally acknowledged that tubes do best in early stages and…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: Hybrid power amplifier utilizing both tubes and solid-state devices. Output power: 150Wpc into 8 ohms. Power consumption 800W.
Dimensions: 19" W by 20 D by 9 H, overall. Weight: 112 lbs.
Price: $4000 (1979); no longer available (2015).
Manufacturer: Infinity Systems, Canoga Park, CA 91304 (1979). Infinity Systems, 250 Crossways Park Drive, Woodbury, NY 11797 (2015). Tel: (800) 553-3332. Web: www.infinitysystems.com.