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If there's a word that describes the feeling, the vibe present throughout Jazz in the New Harmonic, it's trance. Pianist and session leader David Chesky even uses it without prompting when asked how, among all his music endeavors—an album of difficult non–Joplin-like New…

A generation gap is part of this…

Steve Guttenberg's "As We See It" in the September 2013 issue brings to mind John Philip Sousa's famous 1906 polemic, "The Menace of Mechanical Music," where the famed composer championed copyright reforms to shut down then-new recorded music industry. (Now in the public domain, and thus freely available through Google Books.) One of Sousa's main concerns was that the player piano (and recording technology in general) would destroy the culture of amateur musicianship that thrived in America in the 19th century. So it is particularly ironic to hear…

Editor: Regarding JA's March "As We See It," McLuhan's distinction between hot and cold media is less relevant to JA's argument than is the mind-set with which viewers/listeners approach the media experience. That is, audio is not intrinsically more involving than video—except to audiophiles and music lovers. Ask the same question of a videophile or a cinematographer and you'll find that she is absorbed in elements of the video production that pass the casual viewer by. The distinction is therefore more one of interest than of the character of the media…

Yet more good news comes in the form of Meridian Audio's Explorer ($299), a 4"-long USB digital-to-analog converter…

Description: Single-box, USB bus-powered digital/analog converter and headphone amplifier. Maximum word length: 24 bits. Maximum sampling rate: 192kHz. Input: mini USB-B. Line-level–S/PDIF output: 3.5mm mini-jack combining 2-channel analog and TosLink optical digital. Headphone output: 3.5mm mini-jack. Maximum line-level output voltage: 2V RMS. Headphone output impedance: 5.25 ohms measured. Maximum headphone output power: 130mW.
Dimensions: 4" (102mm) L by 1.25" (32mm) W by 0.7" (18mm) D. Weight: 1.76oz (50gm).
Serial number of unit reviewed: MA03BQ/…

Analog Sources: Garrard 301, Thorens TD 124 turntables; EMT 997, Ikeda IT-407 tonearms; EMT TSD 15 70th Anniversary pickup head; Miyabi 47, Miyajima Premium BE mono cartridges.
Digital Sources: AudioQuest DragonFly, Halide DAC HD, Wavelength Proton USB DACs; Apple iMac G5 computer running Apple iTunes v.11.0, Decibel v.1.2.11 playback software; Sony SCD-777ES SACD/CD player.
Preamplification: Auditorium 23 Standard (SPU version), Hommage T2 step-up transformers; Sutherland Insight phono preamplifier; Shindo Masseto preamplifier.
Power…

I examined the Meridian Explorer's electrical performance with Stereophile's loan sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and the January 2008 "As We See It.") For some tests, I also used my vintage Audio Precision System One. I used the supplied USB cable and played files with Bias Peak Pro running on my MacBook Pro, using Apple's AudioMIDI utility to make sure that the data output from the USB port had the correct sample rate and bit depth. I performed a complete set of measurements from both the line-level and headphone…

The first of these reasons: The three-way 804 Diamond takes up no more floor space than the two-way 805 while also having two 6.5" woofers,…

Lower-pitched male voices and cello, however, demanded greater scrutiny—speakers the size of the 804…