And for the 27th year in a row, the December Stereophile includes our choices for "Product of the Year," with some surprises, some bargains, and something for every…
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. . . is here, with Outlaw's $799 "retro receiver" on its cover. "A conspicuously good-sounding audiophile product at a ridiculously low price," declared Herb Reichert. At the other end of the price spectrum, Michael Fremer reviews the most-expensive Grado cartridge yet, John Atkinson and Herb Reichert audition cost-no-object headphones from Audeze and HiFiMan, and Jason Victor Serinus reviews the Network Bridge from dCS.
Seeing as I'd recently been in contact with the good people at Cambridge Audio when hoping to repair a 25-year-old integrated amplifier, it was great to put faces with names in the Cambridge Audio room. Presentation of their current line was well assembled and regarded, I thought. The room was often jammed to where I couldn't nab a photo, much less a seat.
Playing what I believe was a hi-rez file of "All Blues" from Miles Davis's Kind of Blue, the Cambridge Audio rig did the best-selling-jazz-album-of-all-time proud, the overall sound one of cleanness, depth, and flow.
Hinting at…
Christian McBride Big Band: Bringin' It
Mack Avenue Mac 1115 (CD). 2017. Gretchen Valade, exec prod.; Christian McBride, prod.; Todd Whitelock, assoc. prod., eng.; Timothy Marchiafava, asst. eng. ADD? TT: 68:59
Performance ****½
Sonics *****
Mack Avenue Mac 1115 (CD). 2017. Gretchen Valade, exec prod.; Christian McBride, prod.; Todd Whitelock, assoc. prod., eng.; Timothy Marchiafava, asst. eng. ADD? TT: 68:59
Performance ****½
Sonics *****
As musical movements go, rock and jazz seem to be running out of new ideas, most of the stylistic pathways in both genres having been explored to their logical conclusions. In rock in particular, every stream of inspiration has been followed past its headwaters, every droplet of inspiration wrung from established forms.
Jazz,…
"Why can't you stop being an audiophile?"
The question took me off-guard. It didn't come from one of the usual suspects—a hostile anti-audiophile, or a non-audiophile who simply can't fathom why we should care so much about something as nonessential as sound reproduction—but from Louis, a sharp dressed, goateed, middle-aged man who was known, among his audio repair shop's clientele, for not only his virtuosity as a classical solo violinist, but his expertise—some would say his preternatural ability—in setting up turntables to sound their very best.
Which explains why, on the day…
In this video, we join Stereophile writer Herb Reichert (above right) as he explores the 2017 New York Audio Show that took place last weekend at the Park Lane Hotel—this is the first of three videos covering the show. (If you haven't already read Ken Micallef's written show coverage, you can do so here and here.)
We're particularly excited about this series of videos for two reasons: First, viewers have eagerly been asking us to hear systems—not just see them. We've wanted to share that with viewers, but we wanted to do it right. In our opinion, the absolute best way to remotely convey…
For audiophiles of a certain age, the mere mention of NAD Electronics' original 3020 integrated amplifier (1980, designed by Erik Edvardsen), or Adcom's GFA-555 stereo power amplifier (1985, designed by Nelson Pass), conjures up happy memories of audio's last Golden Age—an idyllic time when working stiffs could luxuriate in the same audio arcadia as bankers and brokers. Since then, few, if any, audio components have achieved that level of iconic high value. Which caused me to wonder: What would it take, nowadays, to manufacture a genuinely high-value audiophile product: one that delivers…
I was still meditating on the subject of woofer control when my aging but unusually sturdy Russian neighbor knocked at my door. Vladimir, who speaks very little English, was clutching a Ball jar of home-distilled vodka and a sack of ribs he'd smoked. He wanted to show me the new axe he'd forged. I was down with that.
As I studied the axe, I let Vladimir slip under the hypnotic spell of Puente Celeste. For a long time he rocked his head, chewed ribs, listened, didn't speak. Then he pointed at my system, smiled broadly, and raised both thumbs. I drew sketches of the Outlaw and the Stirling…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Solid-state stereo receiver with phono, HD Radio/FM/AM tuner, moving-magnet/moving-coil phono stage, subwoofer outputs, bass management, speaker equalization, tone controls, headphone amplifier with independent volume control. Inputs: 4 line-level (RCA), 1 phono (RCA), 24-bit/192kHz digital, 2 optical, 2 coaxial, 2 USB, 1 Ethernet. Outputs: 2 loudspeaker; ¼" headphone; pre-out variable (RCA); 2 subwoofer. Power output (20Hz–20kHz, <0.05% THD): 110Wpc into 8 ohms, 160Wpc into 4 ohms. Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz, +0/–0.5dB. Signal/noise: 96dB,…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: AMG Giro G9 turntable & 9W2 tonearm; AMG Teatro, EMT TSD 75 cartridges. Linn Sondek LP12 (Valhalla), SME M2-9 tonearm, Hana EL cartridge.
Digital Sources: Mytek HiFi Manhattan II, Schiit Audio Yggdrasil DACs; Integra DPS-7.2 DVD-A/CD player.
Preamplification: Auditorium 23 EMT, Bob's Devices CineMag 1131, Lounge Audio Copla step-up transformers; Lounge Audio LCR Mk.III, Parasound Halo JC 3+, Tavish Design Adagio phono preamplifiers; HiFiMan EF1000, Linear Tube Audio MZ2, Pass Laboratories HPA-1, Rogue Audio RH-5, Sony TA-ZH1ES…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Outlaw Audio RR2160 using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"). After I'd run the amplifier for an hour with both channels driving 1kHz at one-third power into 8 ohms, its top panel above the internal heatsinks was very hot, at 122°F (50°C). The maximum voltage gain at 1kHz from the speaker terminals into 8 ohms measured 42.1dB for the line inputs. The line inputs preserved absolute polarity (ie, were non-inverting), as did the phono input set to both MM and MC and all the digital inputs. The line-input impedance…