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I mentioned in my CanJam NYC intro that CanJams offer more than just networking and headphone auditions. (You can read part 2 here.) They are also good places, I noted, to access the house sound of virtually every good DAC and amplifier that will fit on a tabletop.

In my realm, there are two main types of audiophile sound systems: floorstanding and desk-sitting. Because, in contrast to floor systems, the user is positioned at arm's reach, desktop systems have 3D aesthetic that turns amplifiers and digital converters into artfully crafted tabletop architecture. The Woo…

It took Apple years to get halfway serious about music reproduction. The $2 trillion giant didn't offer lossless files via its Apple Music streaming service until mid-2021. Its early wired earphones…

One reason I green-lighted Rogier van Bakel's review of the Apple AirPod Pro 2 is that, while Bluetooth audio has a somewhat dubious past, its future seems promising (footnote 1). Bluetooth is a protocol that enables wireless audio and much else. Operating within the Bluetooth standard, or riding on top of it, are codecs for coding audio including SBC (the basic, default Bluetooth audio codec), AAC (preferred by Apple and used by YouTube), LDAC (from Sony), and several varieties of aptX (standard, HD, Adaptive, Lossless, and so on).

Sony and Qualcomm have…

Description: Bluetooth wireless earbuds with noise cancellation. Model number MQD83AM/A. Volume swipe controls, active noise cancellation, adaptive transparency, personalized spatial audio.
Dimensions: For each bud: 1.22" (30.9mm) H × 0.86" (21.8mm) W × 0.94" (24.0mm) D. Weight 0.19oz (5.3gm). Charging case: 1.78" (45.2mm) H × 2.39" (60.6mm) W × 0.85" (21.7mm) D. Weight 1.79oz (50.8gm).
Price: $249. Warranty: One year.
Manufacturer: Apple, One Apple Park Way, Cupertino, CA 95014. Tel: (800) 692-7753. Web: apple.com.

Headphones and IEMs: First-generation AirPods Pro, Moondrop Aria, AKG N400, Etymotic ER4SR, HiFiMAN HE1000se, Audeze LCD-4, Sennheiser HD 600, Bose QuietComfort 25.

Headphone amplifiers: McIntosh MHA100, RME ADI-2 DAC FS. Sources iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPad Pro, Apple TV, Lenovo Think-Centre running Roon ROCK (Roon-Optimized Core Kit), Auralic Vega DAC.—Rogier van Bakel

"He showed me a tune he'd written, and I couldn't believe it," Price recalled. "We…

Artists with ambition must grow or their vision gets stale and repetitive. They also need something new to sell streams, concert tickets, and records. One sure way to change things up is a guest list that includes Mike Campbell, Sharon Van Etten, and Lucius. Another is to put your art in the hands of a new producer, in this case Jonathan Wilson, who has…

The best American conservatory players can match fully fledged professionals in musicality and polish, so it's no surprise that the Curtis Institute has launched its own label. Kicking off with a showpiece like Scheherazade might have been a gamble, but not with Osmo Vänskä, recently of the Minnesota Orchestra, at the helm.

Once past the self-conscious opening gestures, the conductor limns an unusually…

The Necks are an acoustic product of the digital age. The longstanding Australian piano trio has worked, with rare exception, in hour-long spans of gradual development that would make Miles Davis and Gil Evans green with envy. On stage or in studio, they execute their warm yet machine-like repetitions with great precision. In 2017, they broke with formula to meet the…