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In this video, we visit Michael Fremer, Senior Contributing Editor to Stereophile, Editor of AnalogPlanet.com, and an unparalleled guru of all things analog.
We got our wish. Phonograph ownership is once again depicted as commonplace, even hip, in popular films, TV shows, and ads for other products. Turntables and LP jackets show up in photos in Elle Decor and Vanity Fair. New LPs are sold in stores in nice neighborhoods, and in malls with Cinnabon franchises and J.Crew stores. A shockingly high percentage of new record releases in which normal people are interested, and a few in which they are not, are now available on vinyl. For the first time in decades, I receive occasional gifts of new LPs—presumably because they're once again easy for…
Previous experience with the brand tells me that VPI sees their record clamp more as a means of flattening warped records than of enhancing playback quality. If so, that's fine by me: The few times I tried it, the clamp was indeed a decent flattener. But in every case, I disliked the clamp's effect on the sound, which I heard as a fairly drastic decrease in spatial scale and an increase in that most difficult to describe of all sonic shortcomings: fussiness. (Someone else may hear those things as an increase in soundstaging accuracy. Each to his own.) Consequently, all of the listening I've…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-speed, belt-drive turntable with unipivot tonearm. Speeds: 331/3 & 45rpm. Wow & flutter: <0.02%. Rumble: <–78dB. Speed accuracy: within 1%. Platter runout: ±0.001". Tonearm pivot–spindle distance: 223mm. Effective tonearm length: 240.7mm. Effective tonearm mass: 10.2gm. Headshell offset angle: 22.85°. Overhang: 17.7mm.
Dimensions: 15" (380mm) W by 8.5" (215mm) H by 19" (480mm) D. Weight: 32 lbs (14.5kg) net, 54 lbs (24.5kg) shipping.
Serial number of unit reviewed: 5690.
Price: $2199. Approximate number of dealers: 90.…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Garrard 301 turntable; EMT 997 tonearm; EMT OFD 15 & TSD 15, Ortofon SPU #1S, Shindo Laboratory SPU pickup heads; Denon DL-103 cartridge, with & without MusiKraft body.
Digital Sources: AudioQuest DragonFly Red, Halide Design DAC HD USB D/A processors; Apple iMac computer (late 2015) running OS 10.12.1 & Roon v.1.2, Build 165; Sony SCD-777 SACD/CD player.
Preamplification: Auditorium 23 Hommage T1 & T2, EMIA Phono (copper) step-up transformers; Sentec EQ11 phono preamplifier; Shindo Laboratory Masseto & Monbrison…
Resonance Records is emerging as the most vital jazz reissue house around—or, rather, not "reissue," for the music they put out has never been issued before: the producer Zev Feldman (or someone who contacts him) has found it in an unexamined vault, back room, or collectors' cove. The material is top-flight, the sound very good to excellent, and he often releases the albums on CD and LP. So far he has delivered some of the best albums ever by Larry Young, Sarah Vaughan, Shirley Horn, and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, but Feldman holds a special regard for Bill Evans.
The final few…
In June, I visited headphone manufacturer Audeze's factory in Southern California (they've since moved) and capture an abridged version of the making of a pair of Audeze LCDi4 in-ear planar magnetic headphones ($2495). In the first part of this video, which is narrated by first Sankar Thiagasamudram, Audeze's founder and CEO, we begin with the making of the LCDi4, followed by the testing, burn-in, and packaging. This is followed by the unboxing and very first listening session, with John Atkinson, Stereophile's editor in chief. JA is in the process of reviewing the LCDi4s for Stereophile's…
"Looking back, my life's passions have mostly been sensual: food, females, fast cars, music, wine, sailing and skiing. My motivations, activities and work have stemmed from the need to fuel these passions rather than enjoyment of the process."
Who said this? John Atkinson? Art Dudley? Dr. Dre? These are the thoughts of Roy Gandy, innovator, venerable designer, and founder of Rega Research, quoted from his company's recent biography, A Vibration Measuring Machine, a hefty, 311-page, large-format hardcover co-written by Gandy, Bill Philpot, and Stereophile's Paul Messenger.
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Kudos must be paid to Gandy, Bateman, and the Rega Research team. When almost every contemporary hi-fi manufacturer outfits its integrated amplifiers with DACs, VU meters, Wi-Fi, video processing, Bluetooth capability, and myriad digital inputs—to some, the equivalent of sonic whammy bars—the Brio's skill set is simple and minimalist.
"lt's kind of Roy's philosophy," Bateman explained. "The Brio is the amplifier equivalent of a Planar 3 turntable, which is no-frills. Digital would get in the way. It's like the old amplifiers of 40 years ago: the Creek CAS4040, Arcam A60, or the Sugden…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Solid-state, class-AB integrated amplifier. Analog inputs (RCA): 4 unbalanced line, 1 unbalanced MM phono. Outputs: 1 pair speaker terminals, 1 pair unbalanced (RCA) "Record," 1 headphone ¼" jack. Output power (both channels driven): 50Wpc into 8 ohms (17dBW), 73Wpc into 4 ohms (15.9dBW). Headphone output: 32 ohms = 1.8V, 54 ohms = 2.6V, 300 ohms = 5.9V. Source impedance: 109 ohms. Frequency response: 12Hz–43kHz (line); 15Hz–40kHz, –3dB (phono); 27Hz–20.5kHz, –1dB (phono). Distortion: typically 0.03%, 1dB below clip, 22Hz–22kHz. Signal/noise ratio (…