Englishman Peter Belt came to attention in the mid-1980s, thanks mostly to a series of articles in HiFi Answers and other British audio magazines. He specialized in the design and manufacture of decidedly non-traditional audio accessories, the workings of which were regarded by many as anomalous. But May Belt steadfastly maintained that the products of the company she ran alongside her husband have less to do with…
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On March 13, May Belt of PWB Electronics announced via e-mail that Peter W. Belt, the company's founder and her husband of many years, passed away on February 17. He was 87.
The Metropolitan Opera: The Inaugural Season: Extraordinary Met Performances from 1966–67
Barber: Antony and Cleopatra (Price, Díaz, Thomas; Schippers). Britten: Peter Grimes (Vickers, Amara, Evans; Davis). Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor (Sutherland, Tucker, Colzani; Bonynge). Mozart: Die Zauberflöte (Raskin, Peters, Shirley, Uppman; Krips). Puccini: Madama Butterfly (Scotto, Casei, Shirley, Bottcher; Molinari-Pradelli); Turandot (Nilsson, Corelli, Freni, Giaiotti; Mehta). R. Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten (Rysanek, Ludwig, Dalis, King, Berry; Böhm). Verdi: Aida (Price, Bergonzi, Bumbry…
Barber: Antony and Cleopatra (Price, Díaz, Thomas; Schippers). Britten: Peter Grimes (Vickers, Amara, Evans; Davis). Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor (Sutherland, Tucker, Colzani; Bonynge). Mozart: Die Zauberflöte (Raskin, Peters, Shirley, Uppman; Krips). Puccini: Madama Butterfly (Scotto, Casei, Shirley, Bottcher; Molinari-Pradelli); Turandot (Nilsson, Corelli, Freni, Giaiotti; Mehta). R. Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten (Rysanek, Ludwig, Dalis, King, Berry; Böhm). Verdi: Aida (Price, Bergonzi, Bumbry…
Do you remember your very first record? I started with the Hollywood Argyles' "Alley Oop" in 1960, and played that silly 45 on repeat until my mother begged me to stop. My tastes quickly evolved, thanks to WWRL AM radio's steady diet of tunes by Jackie Wilson, Bobby Bland, Etta James, and Gary U.S. Bonds. It didn't take me long to gather a sizable collection of singles, but I switched to LPs with Meet the Beatles! in 1964, and since then the craving for new sounds has never let up.
Now it's 2017. I buy three to five albums a month, and download another eight to ten from Tidal to my iPhone…
Although I am now a veteran of 28 South by Southwest Music Conferences and have a long-time love affair with Austin, TX, I am not one of those who stands on 6th Street, deep in the melee, brows furrowed, and a snarl crossing my lips while I hiss about how Austin and SXSW have changed for the worst. Life goes on. Nothing stays the same. Welcome to the real world.
It's 11am on Tuesday morning and already the pints are being emptied at BD Riley's on 6th Street. Good friend and band wrangler extraordinaire Gretchen Barber is hawking CDs and talking up one of her bands, The Heart Collectors…
The recently-released Audirvana Plus 3 has become the first desktop music player for MacOS to include an integrated MQA Core decoder. To quote the press release, issued jointly by London-based MQA and Paris-based Audirvana, Audirvana's MQA Core decoder "enables the first origami 'unfold' and also authenticates the file using a blue or green light to confirm that the sound is identical to that of the source material."
In addition to optimizing sound quality and authenticating file provenance, Audirvana Plus 3 claims to include "a complete library management system with full metadata and…
Components listed here have been formally reviewed in Stereophile and have been found to be among the best available in each of four or five quality classes. Whether a component is listed in Class A or Class E, we highly recommend its purchase.
Each listing—in alphabetical order within classes—is followed by a brief description of the product's sonic characteristics and a code indicating the Stereophile Volume and Issue in which that product's report appeared. Thus the May 2016 issue is indicated as "Vol.39 No.5."
Some products listed have not yet been reported on; these are…
Sidebar: How to Use the Listings
The classes each cover a wide range of performance. Carefully read our descriptions here, the original reviews, and (heaven forbid) reviews in other magazines to put together a short list of components to choose from. Evaluate your room, your source material and front-end(s), your speakers, and your tastes. With luck, you may come up with a selection to audition at your favorite dealer(s). "Recommended Components" will not tell you what to buy any more than Consumer Reports would presume to tell you whom to marry!
Class A
Best attainable…
Turntables
Editor's Note: We strongly recommend those interested in LP playback visit our sister website, www.AnalogPlanet.com, which is edited by Michael Fremer.
A+
TechDAS Air Force One: $105,000 plus tonearm
"A visually stunning technological tour de force," the 174-lb Air Force One has a three-layer chassis of damped aluminum, a forge-processed stainless-steel platter, and a massive AC synchronous motor controlled by an outboard dual-50W amplifier. The platter uses an air bearing; LPs are held to the platter with vacuum suction. The review sample was equipped with…
SACD, DVD-A, & CD Players & Transports & Media Players
Editor's Note: SACD and DVD-A player ratings are based on how they sound with their respective hi-rez media, not CD.
A+
Antipodes DX Reference: $6700–$8725
What could tempt the frugal JA into forsaking his computer-based file-playing system for a high-quality dedicated music server? The latter must offer sound quality with which the former does not compete—and that's precisely what he found in the Kiwi-built Antipodes DX Reference. The DX Reference, which runs on the Linux operating system, runs…
Digital Processors
Editor's Note: The sound of any particular CD transport/digital processor combination will be dependent on the datalink used-see "Bits is Bits?" by Christopher Dunn and Malcolm Omar Hawksford, Stereophile, March 1996, Vol. 19 No.3 (WWW). Unless mentioned, processors are limited to 32/44.1/48kHz sample rates. To be included in Class A+, a digital processor must be capable of handling DSD or 24/96 LPCM data.
We strongly recommend those interested in using a computer as a true high-end digital audio source visit our sister website www.AudioStream.com, which is…