Analog Sources: Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn turntable & Castellon stand; Kuzma 4Point, SAT tonearms; Lyra Atlas & Atlas SL & Etna & Etna SL, Ortofon Anna & A95, Miyajima Labs Zero (mono) & Madake cartridges.
Digital Sources: Audio Alchemy DDSPro CD transport; Simaudio Moon Evolution 780D, Brinkmann Nyquist DACs; Lynx Hilo A/D-D/A converter; Meridian Sooloos Digital Media System; Pure Vinyl & Vinyl Studio software.
Preamplification: Ypsilon MC-10L & MC-16L step-up transformers; CH Precision P1, TruLife Argo,…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 3: Measurements
Because this speaker's size and 452-lb weight made shipping one of them to me for measurement impossible, I drove my test gear to Michael Fremer's place. I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Wilson Audio Alexx's frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 for the nearfield and in-room responses.
The first dilemma was on what axis to examine the speaker's quasi-anechoic behavior. Wilson's Peter McGrath had adjusted the Alexx's tweeter and midrange modules so that their axes converged on the…
Saturday, April 29, from 1–5pm, Lavish Hi-Fi (1044 4th Street, Santa Rosa, CA 95404) is holding a vinyl lover's dream day, featuring The Last Record Store, and Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab.
Mobile Fidelity mastering engineers Shawn and Rob will play their fabulous LPs and discuss the challenges of making ultra-high quality vinyl records. Last Record Store owner and music buff Doug Jayne will talk about his 30+ years of seeing the public's reaction to changing audio formats, and his own feelings about what vinyl does that other mediums do not. And Lavish Hi-Fi's Craig Allison will recount…
The most astounding and baffling system I encountered at AXPONA—I'm not sure which of those descriptors should come first—was in the Raidho/Aavik room, which used Ansuz cabling to join Danish-made Raidho Acoustics D-1.1 Black speakers ($23,000/pair) with sister-company Aavik Acoustics' C-300 control amplifier (preamp) with two phono stages ($42,000) and brand new M-300 300W class-A mono power amplifier ($48,000). At first, I was completely wowed by the sound. Over and over, I scribbled the word "marvelous" to describe the ear-opening ambience, spatiality, height and warmth on an unfamiliar…
See the smiling woman in this photo? That's Liz Miller, Conference & Programming Director for AXPONA, and the fact that she's smiling at the end of the largest North American consumer-audio of 2017 (so far) is a miracle. She and her team at JDEvents—Mark Freed, Joel Davis, Lou Mancini, Dawn Jeffrey, Melissa Cercone, Joelle Coretti, and Jenabeth Ferguson—worked on the show for months. Liz, in fact, works on it year-round. Yet at the end of an expo that sold 6723 tickets—up 13% from 2016!—and welcomed 4726 unique visitors over three days—up from 4092 in 2016!—she was so together that she…
So why do it? Remix Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, 50 years after the album's original release? Giles Martin (above), son of Sir George and the man behind the new remix, said the answer is simple. Because the original tapes are in pristine condition we can.
And then there's the all-important context: record labels need something to sell. And after all we are talking about the Beatles here. If there is anything like a sure thing, a guaranteed hit, in the music business, it's John, Paul, Ringo and George.
Better face it now Beatles fans: we are all going to be buying "new"…
David Chesky's The Spanish Poems packs a lot of infectious, dance-like energy into a three-song, 24/48 (or 16/44.1) download. Available at a price commensurate with its 21:28 length, the short cycle sets "The Girl from Guatemala" by José Marti (1853–1895), Sonnet No.5 by Garcilaso De la Vega (1501–1536), and "The Romance of Love" by an unknown author. All dance away in a catchy style that makes ample use of bells, triangle, and other high-pitched percussion instruments. Played by Chesky's pick-up Orchestra of the 21st Century, they are sung in English by the versatile, technically triumphant…
Some say audiophiles have no sense of humor. One well-known writer for another magazine even lectured John Atkinson a while back that "there is no place for humor in audio!" So here is audiophile humor at its best, brought to you by Stereophile writers Herb Reichert (left) and Steve Guttenberg (right).
This is one of Shure's new generation of pickups with "trackability" that grew out of research on the Type II V-15 pickup.
At first glance, the V-15-II and the M75E are physically identical. They're the same size, the same shape, and almost the same weight (the M75E weighs 0.8 grams less); and both of them have the same neat little hinged cover that flips down to protect the stylus when the pickup's not in use.
Closer examination, though, shows that they aren't quite the same. The M75E is sided with plastic instead of aluminum, its stylus armature is much more rugged (and higher…
Kill 'Em and Leave: Searching for the Real James Brown and the American Soul
by James McBride. Spiegel & Grau, 2016. Hardbound, 232 pp., $28. Also available as paperback, eBook, and audiobook.
by James McBride. Spiegel & Grau, 2016. Hardbound, 232 pp., $28. Also available as paperback, eBook, and audiobook.
Comparing James McBride's search for James Brown with the quest depicted in the classic John Ford film The Searchers reveals some dramatic changes in American racial attitudes over the years, along with some consistencies. Ford's film begins in post–Civil War Texas; its white protagonist, a former Confederate soldier named Ethan Edwards (John Wayne), spends most of the film hunting for the…